As some of you may have noticed, I am no longer an admin. And I'm not just no longer retired, I'm leaving entirely. I made this choice for a bunch of reasons, which amount to the fact that this place is not fun anymore. Some of my reasons mesh with EvF's reasons for stepping down. I never have liked busy forums, I can't keep up with the all the posts, and I'm sick of repeating myself and having the same arguments over and over again. It was fun for a while, now it's just aggravating.

Furthermore, being an admin was draining for personal reasons, which I'm not going to go into detail.

With that said, I'm sure some of you are happy to hear this. However, I'm not leaving because of the recent rule drama. This was actually something that has been brewing before that ever happened.

As you all know I posted a controversial article about white, male, straight, cisgendered privilege and how it's present in the atheist community. Tavarish of course has posted his complaints here, and most of you have reacted as I expected, and no, I am not going to argue the point here, but simply point out some examples in the article were taken directly from here. Obviously, these problematic attitudes exist here in various forms, and I'm no longer okay pretending it doesn't bother me or fooling myself into thinking those of you who display these attitudes might actually listen to reason after I've explained it ten times.

Not everyone here is guilty of throwing around their privilege and failing to get the point when it comes to minority issues and discrimination. However, there's enough and I'm done with it. I have no particular interest in participating in a community where ignoring minority views, and in fact encouraging discriminatory attitudes is permissible. This isn't just about the victim blaming thread, it's something that I constantly see. When a member can proudly call himself a homophobic misogynist and everyone seems to accepts it as a joke, well, that's not okay, and I don't want to be a part of it.

Of course I doubt most of you will care. In fact you've already displayed the problematic attitudes I've been objecting to in the thread Tavarish posted, or deciding to use a swastika in your avatar is an okay joke when someone like existentialist disagrees with you.

Too often I see you all gang up on anyone with a minority view. You pat each other on the back, give each other kudos, and take turns waving around the fact that you're the majority, and if that person insist on disagreeing, well obviously he/she's the troll, because a bunch of men on the internet have decided rape victims are responsible for their rape, or that cash for a vasectomy is a great idea without considering the social implications.

I know the people who need to hear this the most will mock me and demonize me for this, but I'm past the point of caring, of trying to engage in intellectual conversation when I all I get is shut down with classic derailing arguments like "You're being too emotional". My tone doesn't change what I'm saying, and I'm not going to accept that as a valid counter point to anything I say. There's a mob mentality here, and when someone disagrees with a certain group of active posters, they're dogpiled, called a troll, and driven out. Well you've finally done it to me, you should only be so proud.

To those who have engaged me honestly here, whether we agreed or disagreed on many issues, thank you. To those who insist on never seeing past their own privilege, maybe one day you'll get it, but for now, fuck off. I'm done. Enjoy what you will perceive as a victory and continue missing the point. Tear apartment my argument here all you like, I won't be responding.

I'm sorry to anyone who will genuinely miss me that I had to leave on such terms. I'll still be on the internet, just not here.

Good luck in your future endeavors, Jackie. Keep a light heart and a strong chin, the world can be a rough place.

I think you're taking some of this too seriously, but in the end it's your choice.

If you care, my reply to that article topic: http://atheistforums.org/thread-5129-pos...#pid101250

So long and thanks for all the fish.
So sad that it had to come to this.

It is too bad and saddening to me you chosed to be leaving, and chose to do it this way

More than saddening its that really you dissapoint me terribly, like Saerules did, I thought you were better than this Ely! Over the past months I've noticed that you were getting incredibly obsessive on your positions (some I agree, others I do not), that really gave pause to your whole arguments, you print too much emotion, making others respond in emotion too, thus the argument goes down the drain. Finally, I didn't like that "playing the victim" card you just pulled, it angers me greatly, you are trying to feel others guilty! And unnamed people! When one has has something to say, he says it and calls the 'bulls' by their names, you just dont get here, drop a bomb and watch them blow...

Tough I wished you to reconsider, I really don't think you will, pride is a dificult one to swallow.

So you're leaving because people hold different opinions than you? Well, peace out!

Ely,

It's not that being emotional itself makes the argument invalid, it's just that when you get to appealing to emotion rather than logic in an argument you're not getting anywhere.

Good luck with everything Ely.

good bye and good luck.

Although I don't necessarily agree that it's a good reason for leaving, I can see where you're coming from. Minority positions do tend to get shouted down here, and not always in a rational and measured way. Sometimes, we can be overly cynical and/or rude. Me included. So I wish you well, although I think it's a shame that such a prominent and articulate member of the community should leave.

Farewell.

As I've already said in the staff forum, All the best with whatever you will do next E, I'm sorry to see you leave. You probably won't read it here anymore either but for what it's worth that's how I feel about it.

You didn't go into much detail there but given the post on your blog and the thread here it seems obvious why you felt you needed to leave. If I had felt the same way as you do then I probably would have left as well. I disagree with most of your blog entry but enough people have commented on that similar to my thoughts about it so I won't get into details here. Suffusive to say that despite the grievance you have with certain members of this community (or as you put it the atheist community in general) please know that there will always be a chance to come back here if you have a change of heart and/or want to discuss things openly. There is no demonizing going on, people here express their disagreement with you, and they are entitled to do that just as you are to disagree with them.