#122: Is the Atheist Movement the Sensible Middle

Cellar Door Skeptics begins the episode this week talking about the media corporations, specifically Sinclair, and what it means to have one corporation own 70% of the media networks. The discussion surrounds printed newspapers and if the country would move back to printed media if we started to have to pay for online articles.

The duo also look at Bill “Shootee” new proposal to help children read. Essentially his idea was to have a public place and demand kids read. This sounds like an authoritarian version of a library. Funny how in the last 5 years that the GOP has controlled Michigan we are only now trying to deal with our education problem.

Lastly Chris Squared decided to talk about a recent article in Vice about how the Atheist movement looks like it is veering toward an alt right political position. They tackle the dialog between the Vice article and a Friendly Atheist article. As they flesh out these two articles, an earnest discussion started with a look at a prominent Atheist whose political beliefs have veered toward a Neo-con mentality. They deconstruct whether the “Sensible Middle” is where the Atheist movement has always been or if it is leaving and heading more conservative.

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Links
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https://www.meetup.com/MichiganAtheists/events/246696872/
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/michigan-atheists-30th-annual-state-convention-tickets-42926217472
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvtNyOzGogc
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/04/02/598794433/video-reveals-power-of-sinclair-as-local-news-anchors-recite-script-in-unison
https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/totals.php?id=D000029062&cycle=2016
https://www.opensecrets.org/
https://www.shri2018.com/education/
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2018/03/15/schuette-education/32958893/
http://www.eclectablog.com/2018/03/apparently-unfamiliar-with-libraries-gop-gov-candidate-bill-schuette-proposes-radical-idea-of-dedicated-reading-centers-to-solve-illiteracy-crisis-in-michigan.html
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https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/3k7jx8/too-many-atheists-are-veering-dangerously-toward-the-alt-right?utm_source=dmfb
https://www.splicetoday.com/politics-and-media/the-atheist-movement-s-future
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2018/04/03/no-most-atheists-are-not-veering-dangerously-toward-the-alt-right/#AL267EVSiqFB3HGJ.01
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2017/01/22/white-nationalist-richard-spencer-says-hes-an-atheist/
https://altright.com/2017/01/23/the-alt-right-and-secular-humanism/
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-17/dunlop-the-myth-of-the-uncontested-middle/5603876
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/adam-hamdy/the-destruction-of-the-se_b_13005304.html