COMMENTARY

Godless grifters: How the New Atheists merged with the far right

What in one case seemed like a bracing intellectual motion has degenerated into a pack of calumniating, minor-minded bigots

By Phil Torres

Published June 5, 2021 12:00PM (EDT)

Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins and Steven Pinker (Photograph illustration by Salon/Getty Images)

It was inspiring — really inspiring . I recall watching prune later clip of Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens debating Christians, Muslims and "purveyors of woo," exposing the fatuity of their faith-based beliefs in superstitious nonsense unsupported by empirical testify, often delivered to self-proclaimed prophets by supernatural beings via the epistemically suspicious channel of individual revelation. Not that Harris, Dawkins and Hitchens were saying anything particularly novel — the inconsistencies and contradictions of religious dogma are apparent even to minor children. Why did God have to sacrifice his son for our sins? Does Satan have gratuitous volition? And how tin can the Male parent, Son and Holy Spirit be completely separate entities just also 1 and the same?

The " New Atheist " motility, which emerged from the bestselling books of the aforementioned authors, was the intellectual customs that many of usa xv or so years agone were desperately looking for — especially after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which seemed to confirm Samuel P. Huntington's infamous " clash of civilizations " thesis. As Harris in one case put information technology , with many of the states naively agreeing, "We are at war with Islam." (Annotation: This was a dangerous and xenophobic prevarication that helped get Donald Trump elected. As Harris said in 2006 , anticipating how his make of Islamophobia would enable Trump's rise, "the people who speak near sensibly almost the threat that Islam poses to Europe are actually fascists.")

New Atheism appeared to offering moral clarity, it emphasized intellectual honesty and information technology embraced scientific truths about the nature and workings of reality. It gave me immense hope to know that in a world alluvion with irrationality, there were clear-thinking individuals with sizable public platforms willing to stand for what's right and truthful — to stand upwardly for sanity in the face of stupidity.

Fast-forward to the present: What a grift that was! Many of the most prominent New Atheists turned out to exist nil more than than self-aggrandizing, dogmatic, irascible, censorious, morally compromised people who, at every opportunity, have propped upwardly the powerful over the powerless, the privileged over the marginalized. This may sound hyperbolic, only it'southward non when, well, you look at the testify. So I thought information technology might be illuminating to take a look at where some of the heavy hitters in the atheist and "skeptic" communities are today. What do their legacies wait like? In what direction have they taken their cultural quest to secularize the globe?

Let'southward see if y'all tin spot a pattern:

Sam Harris: Arguably the progenitor of New Atheism, Harris was for me one of the more entertaining atheists. More recently, though, he has expended a biggy amount of fourth dimension and energy vigorously defending the scientific racism of Charles Murray. He believes that IQ is a skilful measure of intelligence. He argued to Josh Zepps during a podcast interview not only that black people are less intelligent than white people, but that this is because of genetic evolution. He has consistently given white nationalists a pass while arguing that Blackness Lives Matter is overly contentious, and has stubbornly advocated profiling "Muslims, or anyone who looks like he or she could conceivably be Muslim," at airports. (When Harris believes he's correct about something, it becomes nearly incommunicable to talk him out of information technology, no matter how many good arguments, proficient opinions or difficult information are presented to him. Like Donald Trump, he'southward pretty much unteachable.) Harris has also partly blamed the election loss of Hilary Clinton on "safe spaces, trigger warnings, [and] new gender pronouns," released a private email exchange with Ezra Klein without Klein's permission, and once suggested that New Atheism is male-dominated because it lacks an "extra estrogen vibe."

His primary focus these days is boosting the moral panic over "social justice warriors" (SJWs), "political correctness" and " wokeism ," which he manifestly believes pose a dire threat to "Western civilization" (a word that has a lot of meaning for white nationalists). Consequently, Harris has become popular amid right-wingers, and the sentiment of solidarity appears to be mutual. For case, he'due south described Ben Shapiro equally being " committed to the … rules of intellectual honesty and to the aforementioned principles of charity with regard to other people's positions," which is odd given that Shapiro is a pathological liar who routinely misconstrues his opponents in service of a racist, misogynistic, climate-denying calendar.

Michael Shermer: The founding publisher of Skeptic magazine, which once published a favorable review of Milo Yiannopoulos' book "Dangerous" and a defense of child-rapist Jerry Sandusky, Shermer made a name for himself as a "skeptic." Nevertheless, his legacy has been overshadowed past, among other things, a protracted history of sexual harassment and assault allegations, with James Randi once calling him "a bad boy" whom numerous people at atheism conferences had complained about. In 2014, he was defendant of rape, which he subsequently flippantly joked about on Twitter. Since then, he has dedicated an impressive corporeality of time analytical "SJWs" and "the woke," often hurling advertizing hominem attacks and middle-school insults towards those with whom he disagrees. For instance, Shermer has referred to "SJWs" as "mealy-mouthed, whiney, sniveling, and obsequious," and "a bunch of weak-kneed namby-pamby bedwetters." He one time tweeted, in Trumpian way: "Know this Regressive Lefters/SJWs — you lot volition lose. Those of u.s. who believe in truth & justice volition prevail. Yours is a failed ideology. Losers." After I wrote a critique of Steven Pinker'southward recent book "Enlightenment Now!", which contains many serious errors, Shermer took to Twitter to phone call me a "cockroach." None of this should be that surprising, since he describes himself as an anti-woke, anti-reparations libertarian who thinks Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" is "a remarkable book."

But exist conscientious: Shermer has also best-selling, in writing, that he'southward fantasized almost murdering people. "Or, if not actually killing the particular bounder," he reports, "at the very to the lowest degree I imagine dislocating his jaw with a  crushing roundhouse knuckle sandwich that sent him reeling to the pavement." This comes from his book  " The Moral Arc ," which received an extended, glowing blurb from Steven Pinker.

Lawrence Krauss: A globe-renowned cosmologist who authored "A Universe From Nada" and ran the Origins Projection formerly at Arizona State University, Krauss was among the nearly academically accomplished of the New Atheists. In 2018, though, he was dismissed from his chore equally managing director of the Origins Project after an investigation plant that he had violated the sexual harassment policy of the academy "by groping a adult female'south breast while on an ASU-funded trip in late 2016." He has also repeatedly and vigorously defended his onetime friend Jeffrey Epstein, the child sex activity trafficker, who "donated $250,000 to the Origins Project over a 7-year span." Co-ordinate to a 2011 Daily Beast commodity, Krauss claimed, "I don't experience tarnished in any fashion by my relationship with Jeffrey; I feel raised by it," adding that he didn't believe the "beautiful women and young women" surrounding Epstein were underage. (Enough of other people have said information technology was impossible not to realize that, and Krauss himself has acknowledged that Epstein favored "women ages 19 to 23," which surely should have been a ruby-red flag.) Afterward a 2018 BuzzFeed article detailing some of the sexual harassment allegations against Krauss was published, a overflowing of further accusations emerged online, some of which I catalogued here.

Richard Dawkins: Once a heavyweight within the earth of evolutionary biology, Dawkins energized atheists the world over with his book "The God Mirage." Over fourth dimension, though, information technology became increasingly clear that he's neither an adult-in-the-room nor a peculiarly nice guy. For some baroque reason, he obsessively targeted a Muslim teenager in Texas, who was arrested later a homemade clock he brought to school was wrongly idea to be a bomb. He also flipped out over what came to be chosen "Elevatorgate," which began with Rebecca Watson calmly asking men to exist thoughtful and considerate almost how they make women feel at conferences — for instance, in the enclosed space of an elevator. This resulted in a alluvion of rape and death threats directed toward Watson, while Dawkins mocked the state of affairs by writing a shocking alphabetic character addressed "Dear Muslima," in which the first line was "End whining, volition you." More recently, he's made it clear that he isn't bothered by the allegations confronting Krauss, and posted seemingly anti-trans comments on Twitter. When asked why Twitter has acquired him and then much trouble, he claimed: "I dearest truth too much." (For Dawkins' troubling views on aborting fetuses with Down's syndrome, see this.)

James Lindsay: Once a promising young atheist, Lindsay published "Everybody Is Incorrect About God" in 2015 and, three years afterward, "How to Accept Incommunicable Conversations," co-authored with Peter Boghossian (beneath). Referring to himself as "apolitical" but boasting a profile folio on the correct-wing, anti-free-speech organization Turning Bespeak USA, he is at present one of the near unhinged crusaders confronting "critical race theory" (CRT), an idea about which he seems to take very footling actual cognition. (This is unsurprising, given that Lindsay has literally argued that he doesn't need to understand "gender studies" to telephone call for the entire field to be canceled. See #10 hither.) Over the past few years, he has teamed upward with Christian nationalist and COVID conspiracist Michael O'Fallon, and at present rakes in plenty of greenbacks via Patreon — proof that grifting nigh "free speech" and "CRT" pays. Known for his social media presence, Lindsay has called women he disagrees with "bitches," while — seriously — hurling "your mom" insults at intellectual opponents who point out his mendacities. He recently argued that antisemitism is caused by woke Jews (i.eastward., they're doing it to themselves), spread COVID conspiracy theories, and claimed in 2020 that people should vote for Donald Trump (every bit he did) because Joe Biden is a neo-Marxist, or will succumb to the influence of scary neo-Marxists similar Black Lives Thing.

Concluding yr, Lindsay co-authored the commercially successful book " Contemptuous Theories,"  which received a glowing endorsement from Steven Pinker merely repeatedly misrepresents the ideas of those it hysterically, and incorrectly, claims are fierce down "Western civilization." And permit'southward not get into his wildly delusional conspiracy theories most the " Groovy Reset ," which apparently, every bit someone Lindsay retweeted put it , "aims to introduce a new global planetary diet"! If you want to understand Lindsay's worldview, I advise reading Jason Stanley 'south excellent book " How Fascism Works ," which captures the anti-intellectual, anti-academic, anti-social justice spirit of Lindsay's activism perfectly.

Peter Boghossian : A "philosopher" at Portland State Academy and " longtime collaborator of Stefan Molyneux" (a white supremacist demagogue who in one case declared , "I don't view humanity as a single species …"), Boghossian wrote "A Manual for Creating Atheists" in 2013. A year later, he tweeted : "I've never understood how someone could be proud of being gay. How can one be proud of something one didn't work for?" This was followed past a defense force of Nazis (no one outside Hitler'southward Germany should always be called a "Nazi"), and a stern rejection of the historically accurate claim that "slavery … was not but an unfortunate matter that happened to black people. It was an … American establishment, created by and for the benefit of the elites."

In 2017, Boghossian and Lindsay attempted to "hoax" gender studies by publishing a fake article in a peer-reviewed gender studies journal (annotation: the journal had nothing to do with gender studies). Simply it turned out this was based on a demonstrable prevarication , which they of form never admitted. Their paper ultimately ended up in a pay-to-publish periodical. That was followed by an even more elaborate and even more than bad-religion "hoax," which resulted in a response from Portland Country University professors alleging that "basic spite and a perverse interest in public humiliation seem to have overridden whatever bodily scholarly goals." Indeed, Boghossian and his crew failed to get institutional review board  blessing for this experiment, resulting in serious accusations of unethical actions. "I believe the results of this function'southward view of your enquiry behavior," wrote the vice president  for "research and graduate studies" at Boghossian'southward university, "raises concerns regarding a lack of bookish integrity, questionable upstanding behavior, and employee breach of rules." On May 6 of this year, Boghossian — a vocal critic of "cancel culture" — chosen for "the defunding of Portland State Academy," which he incorrectly described as promoting "illiberal ideologies." (See here for more.)

David Silverman: Silverman made a name for himself as a "firebrand" atheist, even appearing on Bill O'Reilly's Play tricks News evidence several times to take on "Papa Deport" himself. But "explosive … allegations of sexual assault and undisclosed conflicts of interest" got Silverman fired from American Atheists, where he was president. In the years since, he has given vox to a stream of grievances about feminism, social justice and the like, referring to social justice every bit "a cancerous social move" that "has to be undone," adding: "I take a lot of regrets for being in your whiney culty immitation [sic] of feminism." The same twenty-four hour period, he spoke with Sargon of Akkad (aka Carl Benjamin, a member of Great britain'due south far-correct party UKIP) about "Feminist Tyranny." (More than here, here and here.)

Steven Pinker: To many of us early, Pinker seemed to genuinely care well-nigh maintaining his intellectual integrity. But, again, loftier expectations just meant a harder crash. Consider that Pinker has claimed that rape is oftentimes "over-reported." To support this, he cites correct-wingers like Christina Hoff Sommers and Heather MacDonald as master sources. Over the past few years, he has get unhealthily fixated on "political correctness," social justice and "wokeness," and participated in the 2017 "Unsafe Space Tour" of college campuses, organized by the right-libertarian magazine Spiked. It also came out, much to Pinker's chagrin, that he'd assisted the legal defence of sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, even appearing in photographs with Epstein taken afterwards the latter was convicted of sexual practice crimes in 2008. Here'southward a film of Pinker with Dawkins (and fellow New Atheist Daniel Dennett) flying to a TED Conference with Epstein. Pinker's response? It'due south hard to make this up: despite being a vociferous "opponent" of censorship — bad ideas must be exposed to the light! Free speech must never be hindered! — Pinker blocked half of Twitter to stop people from mentioning his past links to this rapist and pedophile. Of course this backfired, drawing even more than attention to the effect, a phenomenon that I call the "Pinker-Epstein Effect" (which is nearly identical to the Streisand Effect but specific to, well, Pinker and Epstein). Although Pinker was never as prominently connected to "New Atheism" as the others, his influence within the movement, partly because of his advocacy for secularism, is undeniable. (See here for more.)

This is hardly an exhaustive list. But it's enough to make articulate the epistemic and moral turpitude of this crowd. There is nothing ad hominem in proverb this, by the way: The point is simply that the company ane keeps matters. What's distressing is that the New Atheist motility could have made a divergence — a positive difference — in the globe. Instead, it gradually merged with factions of the alt-correct to go what former New York Times contributing editor Bari Weiss calls the " Intellectual Dark Spider web " (IDW), a motley crew of pseudo-intellectuals whose luminaries include Jordan Peterson, Eric and Bret Weinstein, Douglas Murray , Dave Rubin  and Ben Shapiro, in addition to those mentioned in a higher place.

At the centre of this merger was the creation of a new religious move of sorts centered around the felt loss of power amid white men due to the empowerment of other people . When it was in one case acceptable, according to cultural norms, for men to sexually harass women with impunity, or make harmful racist and sexist comments without worrying most losing a speaking opportunity, existence held answerable can feel similar an injustice, even though the exact reverse is the case. Pinker, Shermer and some of the others like to preach about "moral progress," only in fighting social justice under the misleading banner of "free speech," they not only embolden fascists simply impede farther moral progress for the marginalized.

Another mode to understand the situation goes similar this: Some of these people acted desperately in the past. Others don't desire to worry nearly accusations of acting badly in the future. Notwithstanding others are able to bear themselves only worry that their friends could arrive trouble for past or future bad behavior. Consequently, the virtually immediate, pressing threat to their "well-being" has shifted from scary Muslim immigrants, evangelical Christians and violent terrorists to xix-year-old kids on college campuses and BLM activists motivated by "wokeness." This is why Lindsay has teamed up with a Christian nationalist and why Boghossian talks about the "Cracking Realignment" in which anti-woke alarmists, like him, end up joining easily with "bourgeois Christians" in "Culture War ii.0."

What ties these people together is an aggrieved sense of perpetual victimhood . Christians, of course, believe that they are relentlessly persecuted (note: they aren't). The IDWs similarly believe that they are the poor helpless victims of "CRT," " standpoint theory " and other bogeymen of woke academia. Only really, if " Grievance Studies " studies annihilation, it should be how this grouping of extremely privileged white men came to believe that they are the existent casualties of systemic oppression.

An excellent example of this delusion comes from an inadvertently hilarious interview with Boghossian for t he Epoch Times , a media visitor associated with the Falun Gong movement that is " fueling the far-right in Europe " and has spread COVID conspiracy theories . In it, Boghossian warns that "woke ideology" has produced "a recipe for cultural suicide." This has led him — the co-author of " How to Have Incommunicable Conversations" — to spout extremist rhetoric like this:

I'1000 done playing. … I am waging total-scale ideological warfare confronting the enemies of Western Civilization. … We must broker absolutely nil tolerance with this ideology, and the merely way forward at this betoken is full-scale ideological war, and I will accept no prisoners, … . I seek the complete eradication and extirpation of the ideology from every facet of life.

That's scary, intolerant and even fascistic. And information technology's exactly where the New Disbelief motion has concluded up, to the exasperation of those who withal care nigh secularism.

To conclude, let me bring things total circle: At least some studies have shown that, to quote Phil Zuckerman, secular people are "markedly less nationalistic, less prejudiced, less anti-Semitic, less racist, less dogmatic, less ethnocentric, less shut-minded, and less disciplinarian" than religious people. It'south a real shame that New Atheism, at present swallowed upward by the IDW and the far right, turned out to be simply as prejudiced, racist, dogmatic, ethnocentric, closed-minded and authoritarian as many of the religious groups they initially deplored.


Phil Torres

Phil Torres is a philosopher and writer whose work focuses on existential risks to civilisation and humanity. He has published on a wide range of topics, including auto superintelligence, emerging technologies and religious eschatology, likewise equally the history and ideals of human being extinction. His forthcoming book is "Human Extinction: A History of Thinking About the End of the World." For more, visit his website and follow him on Twitter.

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