Amanda Marcotte:
Aren't all the "us" and "we"s in the second paragraph assuming the same kind of tribalism that Marcotte claims she wants to escape? Although I am a committed atheist, I don't feel any connection at all with Craig Hicks. We are not on the same team because we happen to disbelieve the same thing as each other. I am not interested in being on any team based on religious beliefs, or lack thereof.
One of the reasons that I was attracted to movement atheism was I believed that, by rejecting the gods-and-masters idea, it was inoculated against that knee-jerk tribalism that characterizes so many religions.
[snip]
But the fact that it’s even a possibility that the killer of Deah Shaddy Barakat, Yusor Mohammad, and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha was inspired by atheist antagonism against Muslims should give us pause. If it’s just as easy to imagine a big Bill Maher fan going after Muslims as it is to imagine a Fox News fan, then we have a serious discussion on our hands about whether or not we really are rising above the cheap tribal politics we abhor in the believers
Aren't all the "us" and "we"s in the second paragraph assuming the same kind of tribalism that Marcotte claims she wants to escape? Although I am a committed atheist, I don't feel any connection at all with Craig Hicks. We are not on the same team because we happen to disbelieve the same thing as each other. I am not interested in being on any team based on religious beliefs, or lack thereof.
