Update

After writing this, and what follows after the 'End Update', I've learned some more about AtheismPlus. Without getting into details, I want to send a message to them. This is my message to AtheismPlus.





I am sympathetic with your cause. It's a noble cause and any reasonable person would embrace it. However, I feel you should reconsider your strategy. If you want to add (+) something to atheism you should listen to... atheists that want to add (+) something to your movement. The ball in your park.





Your strategic mistake has been, in my opinion, being overly aggressive. You have alienated possible allies by telling them they are rape apologists, or stupid, or … whatever. I'm sure all these people have tried to communicate with you, but it's very hard to do that when you're insulted.





You have misused the expression 'rape apologist' and you've stripped it of all meaning! Words have meaning, and rape apologist is explained in the rationalwiki . Saying that somebody who questions you is a rape apologist is a big mistake because you are trivializing the word. It also causes an immediate communication breakdown.





Insulting people is an indication of lack of arguments.





If you alienate reasonable people, you will be left with unreasonable people. Is that your goal?





I beg you to reconsider. A rape apologist is a bastard, and the people that have tried to communicate with you are not. Disagreement is not evil but enriching... if you give it a try.





Somebody who denies a rape can be a bastard, or can be a reasonable person. How can you tell, if you call him a rape apologist and label him a bastard from the start?





I have spend a great amount of time trying to communicate with you (well, actually, I tried to prevent communicating with you because you were overly aggressive towards my twitter pals), and you have called me 'stupid', 'rape apologist', 'despicable', 'transphobe', 'piece of shit'... and I call myself lucky.





You claim that somebody that denies rape is a rape apologist... that's not in the wiki and it's not how the expression is used in the world. Then you explain that this actually 'depends' on how you interpret the words of the denial... Reflect on that for a moment!





The whole world uses the expression rape apologist as it's described in the wiki. Only a small group of specialized persons interprets the denial of rape as you do. The inclusion is not automatic, but 'depends' on the judgment of over-sensitive persons. A recipe for disaster.





You alienate even more people by being rigid on border cases. I'm talking about statutory rape. A boy can, legally, make love to his underage girlfriend on the eve of his 18th birthday, but on the following morning, if the couple decide to start the day with a quicky, he's, legally speaking, raping her. That is daft! At which point, every reasonable person on earth, becomes a rape apologist!!!





You have successfully stripped the expression, an insult for the vilest bastards, of its meaning. Congratulations on trivializing 'rape' and 'rape apology'.





I insist you should reconsider your strategy. Use the correct words, ask before you insult and don't be a rigid cunt about statutory rape, for fucks sake.





End Update





For those of you that don't know me, I'm a vocal atheist on Twitter . Important for this post is that I'm a feminist; I believe in equal rights and obligations for males and females of both sexes.