Well, I don't know what to say except I'm not one of those people, I don't think you're crazy, and all along I've agreed with 90% of what you've said above. I guess I've made the mistake of thinking that when you post something to your blog, it's with the intent of sparking discourse/debate like when my sister blogs (http://closetpuritan.livejournal.com/), as opposed to venting, which seems to be the case here. There's nothing wrong with the former or the latter; it may be an cultural assumption of mine due to living in the debate/argument happy New England, where if you say something that people can Have Opinions About, Hey! It's Time for A Debate! With people often taking devil's advocate-type positions. When I read the post, full of things that people Have Opinions About, I took it as an invitation to critically examine opinions and spark argument/debate. Apparently that wasn't your intent, for which I apologize.
I have never thought that you didn't deserve to be taken seriously. I never thought that people "shouldn't have to listen to you", and if you thought for some reason that was what I was trying say, I'm sorry. It wasn't. I still don't believe what I said could be fairly construed as condescending or ignorant. To say so belies the fact that I often have to put up with explaining myself to people as well (http://atheism.about.com/od/atheistbigotryprejudice/a/AtheitsHated.htm), though I'm not about to say that being an atheist sucks as much as having CF or an auto immune disorder. Have a chronic disease scores pretty high on the minority suck ladder, since you have to deal with misunderstanding as well as your disease. (Being a racial minority usually sucks more too, since you start off in socio-economically disadvantaged positions and your minority status is visual.)
The thing is, when I read this blog post, I though the purpose of it was to *change people's minds.* If that is not the purpose of the blog post, I have culturally misread your intention as one of discourse instead of one of venting. In the process of doing so, I've caused you to think I am questioning whether you have a right to be upset about something.
I've never thought that's in question--of course you have a right to be upset. My argument here was based only on what I have found from personal experience has helped me out when trying to get other people to understand my being atheist. In those situations, being a Richard Dawkins (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dawkins#Atheism_and_rationalism) tends not to help, whereas taking a more patient approach (no matter how much I wanted to smack some fundy upside the head) did. Of course, I don't have spoons to worry about. Aforementioned friend with Lyme's disease once spoke pretty eloquently about annoyance of "Needing to speak up for yourself but being too tired to speak up for yourself." (Which is why I always speak up for people who have physical ailments when someone else complains they're just crazy/want a free ride.)
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2010-07-23 12:51 pm (UTC)I have never thought that you didn't deserve to be taken seriously. I never thought that people "shouldn't have to listen to you", and if you thought for some reason that was what I was trying say, I'm sorry. It wasn't. I still don't believe what I said could be fairly construed as condescending or ignorant. To say so belies the fact that I often have to put up with explaining myself to people as well (http://atheism.about.com/od/atheistbigotryprejudice/a/AtheitsHated.htm), though I'm not about to say that being an atheist sucks as much as having CF or an auto immune disorder. Have a chronic disease scores pretty high on the minority suck ladder, since you have to deal with misunderstanding as well as your disease. (Being a racial minority usually sucks more too, since you start off in socio-economically disadvantaged positions and your minority status is visual.)
The thing is, when I read this blog post, I though the purpose of it was to *change people's minds.* If that is not the purpose of the blog post, I have culturally misread your intention as one of discourse instead of one of venting. In the process of doing so, I've caused you to think I am questioning whether you have a right to be upset about something.
I've never thought that's in question--of course you have a right to be upset. My argument here was based only on what I have found from personal experience has helped me out when trying to get other people to understand my being atheist. In those situations, being a Richard Dawkins (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dawkins#Atheism_and_rationalism) tends not to help, whereas taking a more patient approach (no matter how much I wanted to smack some fundy upside the head) did. Of course, I don't have spoons to worry about. Aforementioned friend with Lyme's disease once spoke pretty eloquently about annoyance of "Needing to speak up for yourself but being too tired to speak up for yourself." (Which is why I always speak up for people who have physical ailments when someone else complains they're just crazy/want a free ride.)