I think I have "Dillahunty Syndrome"

[Napoléon]

I've been feeling like this for a while now, but this guy who I've subscribed to seems to hit the nail on the head for me.

He puts it into words the way I can't, and I know he probably isn't the most exciting youtuber, but I recommend people who have been atheists for a while watch this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13u36vjUe...re=g-all-u

Anyone else feeling like this when it comes to dealing with the same old tired shit?

[Skepsis]

"Compassion fatigue", huh?
...Yeah, I definately have it.
I tend to give people a fighting chance to show that they genuinely want to learn, but I seem to be having more and more trouble trying to give a shit when people say things that I find to be unforgivably ignorant.

[Napoléon]

I guess it's just that when you debate with theists all the time it's easy to forget that many of them may be new to arguments you think are so old, tired and frankly obvious.

I haven't got the same buzz I used to get when debating like when I first joined here if I'm honest. Mainly due to the fact that it just seems a pointless endeavour, and the people you argue against never offer anything new. You find yourself talking about the same old shit as well.

I'm gonna try and take a break from giving a shit if I can for a while. I doubt I will be able to resist though.

[Paul the Human]

This is the primary reason that I don't post much anymore. I get sick of typing the same things over and over again as each new believer comes along thinking they have the perfect 'gotcha' argument for us poor lost atheists. The worst are the ones that redefine everything to fit their agenda and flat out refuse to listen to reason. I guess I sort of understand that, since 'reason' is the enemy of superstition.

[Skepsis]

I love it when they say you can't "prove" logic and/or reason, as if you have to prove a method rather than prove its efficacy.
I have so much fun with believers and only rarely get really caustic and belligerent; I can only hope that they are capable of more than redefining reality, Pascal's Wager, and the painted-over versions of old apologetics that everyone has heard hundreds of times.

[Simon Moon]

I guess it's just that when you debate with theists all the time it's easy to forget that many of them may be new to arguments you think are so old, tired and frankly obvious.

I haven't got the same buzz I used to get when debating like when I first joined here if I'm honest. Mainly due to the fact that it just seems a pointless endeavour, and the people you argue against never offer anything new. You find yourself talking about the same old shit as well.

I'm gonna try and take a break from giving a shit if I can for a while. I doubt I will be able to resist though.

The way I look at it, the debates aren't just for the theist being debated. It is for those lurking, or sitting on the sidelines that still have a sliver of their mind still open to critical thinking.

I used to debate quite a bit on atheist vids on YT. I have several PM's in my inbox, from people that hardly ever contributed to the debate, thanking me (and several other atheists) for helping them deconvert.

[Napoléon]

The way I look at it, the debates aren't just for the theist being debated. It is for those lurking, or sitting on the sidelines that still have a sliver of their mind still open to critical thinking.

That is very true, but like it touched on in the video I linked, after you yourself get quite bored of debating, it turns into more ridicule and tauntish arrogant behaviour, of which I am guilty of myself. You start to lose interest in actually taking the time to present your arguments in a cool, calm and constructed manner, because you know the person you're arguing against won't pay a blind bit of notice anyway. So then it gives you more immediate satisfaction to just say "haha you're such a fucking idiot". The result of this though is a contribution to the 'arrogant atheist' stereotype, which doesn't help anyone, especially not the cause you're trying to put across. But you can't (or at least I can't) help doing it anyway.

I guess it is the casual observer who will actually reap the most rewards from any debates we have on sites such as this. So I think from now on I'm going to leave it to those who still have the mindset to get stuck into those such debates. Obviously I'll still pass comment on things, wouldn't be much point being here otherwise, but frankly debating the same old shit has just about worn itself out with me.

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

@Napoléon


Great video,thanks.

From personal experience, I can attest that also happens working in welfare,in which I spent 25 years. I knew it was time to retire when I watched my next appointment walk in,and thought " Ah,fuck,here's another one, both brain cells slowly ticking over"

I've been on various atheist forums for over 5 years. I'm pretty sure that I did not always suffer from what a new member recently observed as 'toxic disinhibition',at least not to the same degree.


These days I have no patience at all with theist apologists who insist on infesting atheist forums with the same drivel I've heard literally dozens of times. I really truly am not interested in what I see as their personal superstitions. I find their strident insistence arrogant and deeply annoying. On one level,it bothers me that I can be so vicious to people I don't know. I can only hope I don't actually harm anyone with my vitriol,that is not my intention..

The core concept of the Online Disinhibition Effect refers to a loosening (or complete abandonment) of social restrictions and inhibitions that would otherwise be present in normal face-to-face interaction during interactions with others on the Internet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_disi...ion_effect

[Annik]

Thanks for sharing. He might not have been the most exciting, but he was very informative and calm, which I prize more.

I'm pretty new here. I know you all know that, haha. Sometimes I rush into an argument and notice that the more self-actualized members won't go into it (even though I'm sure they could hold their positions more firmly than I). I was just talking about this on the way home with Hovik. I feel like you guys have seen it all before and know better, but I'm too bone-headed to just let it be. However, I'm starting to get twinges of what's described in the video about certain subjects. :/

[Cyberman]

For me it's seeing the same tired 'arguments' being trotted out again and again and recognising the hand of a Hovind or a Ham. It's like Groundhog Day. In fact it's got to the point where I know what they're going to say while the're still saying it, though that could be my powers of prophecy exercising themselves again.