Is YouTube no longer neutral in the war between Reason and Faith?

There were a couple of videos put out recently that brought into light something that has been going on for a little bit of time right now.  The first was a video by the vlogger Thunderf00t, talking about how several of his videos had been removed for going against YouTube’s Terms of Service.  To anybody who has ever read them closely, it is pretty clear that any and all videos on their site violate their Terms of Service.  These rules basically are a carpet for them to do whatever they want on their site.  They can remove any video they please at any time.

But now, as was pointed out by Thunderf00t and The Amazing Atheist, who also did a video about how this is going on, YouTube has started to censor videos that are promoting the ideals of reason and rationality, as opposed to faith and servitude.

The premise for this censorship is that it is “hate speech.”  That criticizing religion is a form of attack.  The two vloggers above both pointed out how the videos that got removed weren’t attacking, they were just observing, supporting one cause or another, but also critical.  And that is the new form of “hate speech” on YouTube.

This isn’t a good thing for the battle between rationality and faith, if in fact, YouTube is censoring atheist videos.  It sends a very clear message to vloggers like myself, and to all the other big-time vloggers that there is now a conscious effort on the part of those who support religion to silence the opposition.

Of course, this is nothing new on the part of religion and religious people.  Silencing dissent has been a Modus Operandi from the beginning of the Catholic church.  If they don’t like your opinion, they will simply shut you down.  It’s been effective.  Way back in the day, shutting you down meant killing you.  Nowadays, it means removing your videos, and hoping that nobody saw it.

The reason the church hates dissent is obvious – because they have no genuine position.  The difference between their set of beliefs and mine is that mine are based on logic and reason.  On science and evidence.  I am always skeptical of what I see.  I question everything.  I believe what there is evidence for.  There is no evidence for the Christian, Muslim, Jewish, or any other God or gods.  The position of the atheist is that we simply demand evidence.  Not one Christian has presented a piece of evidence that holds up to scrutiny.

YouTube is choosing to take a side in the battle of the holy books that these religions have, that teach absolutely horrendous values, like being able to kill people for the most arbitrary and ridiculous of reasons, like the fact that they don’t believe in your God.  Or that women shouldn’t be allowed to talk, vote, have any positions of authority over men, and not have rights to their bodies.  The idea that homosexuality is a sin, and that the people who are of that sexual stance should be put to death.  YouTube has taken a side, and this side is that of the belief that a 2,00o year old book of desert fairytales is the absolute truth, and it is all you should believe.

As TJ pointed out, YouTube has taken the side of an opinion.  The opinion that God is real, created this world and all the things in it, and left no evidence of his existence.  However, it is a fact that God is not real.  Now, as a person of an open mind, I am willing to be proven wrong, but until I see evidence to the contrary, I am going to keep my position that there is no God.  Like any good scientist, I am willing to be proven wrong, but as somebody once said -

I am a man of science, where’s the proof?

So, as a man of science, I can say, without any form of doubt, that the Christian God, the God of Islam, actually, wait, those are the same guy.  But I can say that all of them are not real, beyond any doubt.  The books that talk about them are rife with logical failings, inaccurate history, and a lack of scientific understanding of any kind.  Plus, the only evidence (and that’s being nice) of their existence is those books.  So that doesn’t help their cause.

And YouTube is looking to take the side of the religious.  They are looking to call anything that holds the BS of the various faiths feet to the fire “hate speech.”  They are totally legitimizing people who say that Earth is only 6,000 to 10,000 years old (something science knows isn’t true), and that it was created in seven days by a guy who is one guy, but in three forms (that makes sense), and he is also all-loving while watching the world suffer, all-knowing while giving us free will (again, that makes sense), all-powerful while allowing evil to exist, and a whole bunch of other stupid crap.  But if you fire up your camera and say that these position are suspect, and that there are holes in the logic, you can be removed for “hate speech.”

You can also fire up your camera and say that God or Allah wants you to hurt people.  You can organized into mobs, like the people of Rhode Island after Jessica Ahlquist got the prayer banner removed, and organize harassment in the name of your God.  But if an atheist like me, TJ, Thunderf00t, or any others advocate for something else, we can be flagged for “hate speech.”  Just for advocating for rationality, dissent, and intelligence.  Religious people must be having a field day.

The fact is that the war against religion continues, and now YouTube is allowing the religious to gain ground in the battle against science, evidence, skepticism, and reason.  They are aiding them.  They are mafia wives, who  are whoring themselves out for ignorance.

It’s a sad day indeed, for those of us who simply want to be able to post our thoughts, in a forum that used to stand for something.  YouTube is quickly becoming a joke.  It’s truly a pity.  And it hurts us all, by giving those who would hold progress back more power that they don’t need.

Until next time, a quote,

“But if an atheist like me, or thunderf00t, or anyone else gets on camera and says ‘no, that’s fucking stupid,’ we can be flagged for ‘hate speech?’  Flagged for hate speech for standing up for what’s true, what’s real, what’s verifiable?  For standing up for rationality, and science, and empirical evidence?  And skepticism?  Does that make any sense to anyone?”  -TJ Kincaid, YouTube vs. Atheism?

Peace out,

Maverick

Faith and Medicine, not a good mix

This is something that we all get to hear about.  It is amazing how little respect the medical profession gets in this country.  Every time a mother wants to sound smart, she will go on Internet.  After five minutes of looking something up, these idiots think that they have a medical degree.  But we aren’t going to go after those idiots.  There will be an entirely different post about stupid helicopter mothers who think they know everything, and why they should shut the fuck up and let the teachers and doctors do their job.  No, this is about something a whole step up more insidious, and why it needs to go.  NOW!  We are going to talk about how faith is harmful in medicine.

You hear about it every now and again.  There are stories about how some idiot Jehovah’s Witness died because they refused to get a blood transplant.  They believe that it is a sin.  Yeah, that’s powerful stupid for you.  That’s stupid on a scale that you don’t see much of.

Oh wait, you do see a lot of that these day.  Anybody remember Benny Hinn?  He was that douchebag who would have these huge rallies and everybody would go to them.  He would touch people and they would all fall over like their bones suddenly were removed.  It made for a big spectacle.  All sorts people said that he had the powers of Jesus himself.  Never did it talk about how his faith healings were jokes, and the people who were “chosen at random” were plants.  This guy is a grade-A con artist.  Of course, faith healers always are.

But those people are just a small part of the population, really.  They are like psychics.  They make people all these promises, then quickly get out of dodge before they have to deliver.  No, the real ugly truth is the faith has a detrimental effect on medicine.

First off, stem cell research.  This country should be at the fore-front of this kind of medical work.  It isn’t going to be the miracle cure that a lot of people think, but it has a lot of potential to do a lot of good.  And here in this country, they banned it outright.  And why?  Because some Christian soccer mom somewhere thought that a microscopic bit off goo was a baby.  I like how Bill Maher put it -

Stem cells aren’t even cells.  Being against stem cell research is very close to thinking that life begins when you’re just thinking about fucking somebody.

It’s so stupid.  But this is just one of the many ways that religion and medicine don’t mix.  Did you know that in the state of Boston, the hospitals there can choose not to give the morning after pill to women who are raped?  For real, a woman at a hospital, who is unconscious and dying, can be given the option not to be given this pill.  It’s part of a “morality clause.”  Yes, because the moral thing to force women to carry a reminder of that rape for the rest of their lives.

And speaking of reproduction, have you noticed the hypocrisy of the Christian-right in this country when it comes to things like the morning-after pill?  What’s interesting is that medication like that doesn’t abort a fetus.  In fact, it stops the sperm from impregnating the female egg.  It stops the reproductive process from even happening.  The really ironic part of the growth of medicine in this country is that the more options that women have to not have an abortion, the louder the opposition becomes!  It’s the weirdest thing.  It’s also hypocritical too, but that’s beside the point.

It’s becoming more and more clear that these “pro-life” people aren’t pro-life.  For one thing, they often endorse the war, and capital punishment.  But to not endorse things like the morning-after pill, they are openly acknowledging that they aren’t pro-life.  They are anti-choice.  They are against women, and the rights of women.  They don’t want women to be given the right to control their own bodies.  They just want them to obey the rules of the Christians.

I like what George Carlin had to say about these kinds of people -

Boy these conservatives are really something, aren’t they?  They’re all in favor of the unborn.  They will do anything for the unborn.  But once you’re born, your on your own!  Pro-life conservatives are obsessed with the fetus from conception to nine months.  After that, they don’t want to know about you.  They don’t want to hear from you!  No nothing!  No neo-natal care, no daycare, no head-start, no school lunch, no foodstamps, no welfare, no nothing!  If you’re pre-born, you’re fine.  If you’re preschool, you’re fucked!

Well said, George.  But that’s the truth of it.  These people are nothing but bleeding hypocrites, who say that they are in favor of the unborn, but when there are now a multitude of options that stop women from getting pregnant without having to go through an abortion, they get even louder.  Fucking hypocrites.

But finally, there is a story that I wanted to share with you.  It is the story of a girl in Tennessee.  Her name was Jessica Crank.  She had a tumor on her shoulder.  It was perfectly treatable, she could have been fine.  What stood in her way?  Her mother.  Yeah, I knew I would get back to stupid mothers.  This was another mother who thought she knew best.  And in Tennessee, there is a seperate law that says that faith healing is just fine, and not getting medicine is totally cool.  This tumor grew on her shoulder until it was, and I’m not kidding you here, the size of a basketball.  This girl suffered pain like you can’t believe, day in and day out.  She died from that tumor.  She could have been treated, but instead, “faith” told her parents that she would be just fine.

And Tennessee isn’t the only state.  38 states have similar policies.  They call it “faith healing.”  But guess what, that’s not what it is.  I think I’ll let Sean Faircloth say what this really is -

But it’s not faith healing.  It’s faith harming, and often, it’s faith killing.  And hundreds of children have died in this way.

When I read shit like this, I remember why I get so angry when people say stuff to me like – it’s just their belief, it doesn’t do any harm.  Let them believe what they want to believe.  No!  Wrong!  This does real harm, to real people, and all for no good reason.  Not one of these cases that I have shown you is for a good reason.  This wasn’t from statstics and reason.  It was from a 2,000 year old book of fairy tales that we have to suffer because these people are too stupid to grow up.

That’s the truth of it.  That’s the absolute reality.  There is no other way to look at it, unless, of course, you are one of these groups of people.  Then, well, there are plenty of ways to look at it.  Too bad all of them are really, really stupid.

Until next time, a quote,

“We heard the former governor of Alaska talk about, so-called, ’death panels,’ but this was a real death panel, where one person decided the death of another human being and the torture of them first.”  -Sean Faircloth, The Attack of the THEOCRATS!

Peace out,

Maverick

Obama Haters

I have been seeing a great deal of very interesting stuff about our President, lately.  There is a very interesting trend that I have noticed in the people who have a problem with how President Obama has run things in this country over the last few years.  There are those who have genuine disagreements with Obama and the job he has done as the President of the United States (like me, a very liberal man, so don’t start thinking I am part of the second group), and then there are the haters.  These are people who just find reason to hate this guy because they hate this guy, or because of what he is involved with.  Let me explain.

I saw a video today from my bigots that I never tire of making fun of on a daily basis on Real Catholic TV.  They talked about the “Notre Dame 88,” a group of 18 people (Let’s remember that sensationalizing news is what religious people do) who were protesting the President speaking at Notre Dame graduation back in 2009, and receiving an honorary degree from them.  Some of the responses that happened because of the “ND 88″ being arrested were just plain sad.

Check out this post from a blog -

Remember when our abortion extremist president spoke at Notre Dame’s (ND) graduation while cops arrested pro-lifers outside? When was that? …Let’s see…May 2009…have you forgotten already? Well, the 88 pro-lifers arrested haven’t. They are still in the midst of the persecution (oops…) prosecution.

As you can see, no evidence, no argument, no genuine contention of any kind, just a stupid pointless rant that signified nothing but the fact that they don’t like him for nothing more than how he thinks.  Never mind that if you are pro-life, you are a fundamentalist moron, but let’s not split hairs over this.  But there are a lot of responses like that.  Back to Real Catholic TV and their local bigot, Mike Voris, talked about “ND 88″ and their fight against Notre Dame, which was so stupid.  In one quote, he said -

No school truly committed to the Catholic faith would have invited this baby-killing President to come to their campus in the first place!

And that is the opinion of Mike Voris, another of the stupid people who just hates Obama because of how he thinks.  Hating a person because of their beliefs alone is pretty stupid.  I am not just pointing a finger at the religious people, but the non-religious as well.  Pat Condell seems to hate Muslims just because they are Muslim.  Thunderf00t also appears to be of the same mindset.  This is a really stupid reason to hate somebody.  And the sad fact is that people like Mike and the blog writer above aren’t the only ones who hate the President for no reason or for a really bad reason.

Fox News is also guilty of the same crime.  It never seems to be enough.  No matter Obama does, ever, they have to have a go at how he is doing wrong.  Remember the famous interview with Bill O’Reilly that Obama did?  Well, Fox News did a story on their website about how Obama was committing a sin because he…wasn’t wearing a tie!  The horror of it all!  The President didn’t participate in part of an outdated way of dressing that so few places adhere to in the modern world!  The humanity of it all…okay, I couldn’t keep up with that facade, because it was so stupid.  He didn’t wear a tie, so what?  So fucking what?!

They did an equally stupid article about how he was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit coat on.  They said that Bush never took his suit coat off!  Well, like Bill Maher said, “That’s no surprise.  Taking your coat off is something you do when you’re working!”  Some part of me thinks that the purpose of Fox News is just to attack Obama, no matter what he does.  When he endorsed our continued military action in the Middle East, they got on his case about not being in support of it enough.  When he came out in support of keeping the Patriot Act (a real threat to freedom, you libertarian hypocrites) going, they got on his case about not being in support of it enough.

The fact is that Fox News’ sole purpose is to attack President Obama, no matter what he does, no matter what the reason, ever.  Remember that little bit where the White House Christmas tree was going to be decorated by ornaments sent in from all over the country by kids?  They also attacked the tree because of the fact that there were ornaments with Mao on them, and ones with a drag queen, it is just anything!  These people, these ridiculously stupid people who are so hopelessly bored that they have to ceaselessly attack the democratically elected President of this country, are nothing more than people who just want to endorse the haters, no matter what.

But then there are those who are open about why they hate Obama, like Mike Delaney, from Prothink.org.  Him and his bigoted ilk hate Obama because he’s black.  At least they are honest, which is more than I can say for most people.  And then there are the Tea Party, a group of people who are so desperate not to look like bigots (even though that is exactly what they are) doing everything that they possibly can to not call the President the word that is sticking in the back of their throats’.  They call him a “socialist” or “communist” (idiots like Glenn Beck actually think those words are the same), but the fact is that they just hate the fact that the black guy is in office.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I have plenty of problems with the President right now.  But my problems are not based on his skin color, his thoughts, or the fact that he is not part of my way of thinking.  My problems are with his actions.  He capitulated on the Bush Tax Cuts.  He didn’t fight particularly hard for Healthcare Reform or for Financial Reform (I’ll give credit that he got something done, but in my opinion, not enough).  I have a problem with the fact that he was in support of the Patriot Act, which I genuinely loathe with all of my might.  I have a problem that he decided to have military action going on in Libya.  I have a lot of problems with the actions of our President.

But people like Mike Voris, Mike Delaney, Glenn Beck, and all the other conservative or anarchistic (I’m talking to you, Prothink,org) people are just bitter bigots who don’t want to admit that they are bigots.  Don’t hate a person for a stupid reason.  Don’t hate a person at all!  I don’t hate Obama.  I don’t know him.  I cannot hate somebody I don’t know.  I have disagreements with Obama, but that is it.

Grow up, America.

Until next time, a quote,

“This word is sticking in the back of their throats!  It starts with ‘N’ and ends with ‘R’ and it’s not ‘nation-builder.’”  -Bill Maher, But I’m Not Wrong

Peace out,

Maverick