Liers and fires and guns oh my.

[Brian37]

It is also not in the guidelines of other websites, atheist or not, so it amounts to the owners comfort level. Like if you smoke or don't smoke in your house.

Now, if you want to call it an internet meme many people buy into, that is a better case. But it is no different than someone liking South Park vs someone else who does not.

Bullshit. I was on staff here for quite a while. I know the rules.

From the guidelines:

Similarly, typing in all capital letters is associated with shouting. IF YOU TYPE LIKE THIS, PEOPLE WILL FEEL LIKE YOU'RE SHOUTING AND IT WILL ALSO MAKE IT HARDER TO READ BECAUSE PEOPLE THEN READ IT WORD FOR WORD INSTEAD OF AS A FLOWING SENTENCE. If you want to convey shouting, that's fine, and it can be appropriate in some cases. If I'm making a sarcastic comment, I sometimes use the caps lock button myself. However, typing in all caps is not necessary and nobody really likes it.

Ok, since you posted your objection to my caps, I have observed others using caps too. Now, I seriously DO get it. But ultimately it amounts to a comfort level.

If I type "fuck" vs "FUCK" there are still going to be people who don't like cussing. Just like with many theists, you don't even have to say(for example) "fuck jesus, or fuck Allah), in many cases all we have to do is say "Jesus wasn't real" or "Allah wasn't real" and to many(not all) but many it still reads to them as "FUCK YOU".

Now, it can only be a comfort level, because both you and I know as atheists there will always be people, no matter how you explain yourself will not be satisfied with the words you chose or the way you act. So it still ends up being that we can only be ourselves.

Now without cussing lets take caps as an example.

If I type only one word "CAPS", and even today I have seen caps used by others, then the issue becomes amount. Where do you say, "this amount is ok, but after that it is too much?"

One word, two words 50?

Now I DO understand comfort level. I have been online since 01. In all that time there has been only 1 person that pissed me off to the point of wanting him banned. Someone else rightfully to their credit, pulled me over and told me to let it go. This guy had insulted my x wife who was Japanese by saying Japan's Tsunami was our(America's warning) to find god.

But the guy who pulled me over and said "let it go" was in line with the the thinking I have had long before that asshole insulted me. "Let the reader decide".

It is true that anyone with who owns something should have control over it, and set the rules. But, if we are to as atheists and pluralists who do not silence dissent, I do not think it serves anyone here well to simply make rules that suit our own comfort levels. This is why I am glad I am not a mod on that board, or even own that board when he made that vile comment. Because I could not do as well as the founders of America in allowing even the most offensive things.

Think long term, don't think about me. I am one person. I get that we do not think alike on all things, and most certainly I get that you are not fond of some of what I do. But if we are to convey the very thing we think the theists and fascists lack, this very conflict you and I are having should strictly be relegated to letting the reader decide, not you, not me.

Otherwise we only serve to project ourselves on each other the very same way we rightfully accuse others of doing.