Friendly tip: we’re not the “socially autistic” ones, here

Everywhere, in every way short of literal

If there’s one epithet that anti-atheist cranks really ought to stop using when referring to atheists, it’s “social autism”. First, it makes no sense on a grammatical or logical level as the wording itself is pure redundancy. Autism is all about impaired social development, so calling someone a “social autist” is in the same league as calling someone a “mental schizophrenic” or a “culinary chef”. Same damn thing. Second and foremost, though, said anti-atheist cranks should also stop using it simply because of the great amusement it gives us godless folks when those who use such slurs against us almost invariably turn out to be far more socially incompetent than those they so gleefully try and debase. Case in point: here’s Vox Day (who else?), giving us his ever-knowledgeable take on the (misleading and sensationalistic) report from the Times Online about how Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens have teamed up to try and have a legal case built against Pope Ratzi, in the hopes of having him arrested when he travels to Britain in September for his scheduled state visit:

Since, ironically enough, it is Richard Dawkins who has openly minimized the damage to children from sexual abuse, it is obviously the Pope's Catholicism that he wishes to prosecute, not the Pope's suboptimal human resources management 25 years ago. The fact that Dawkins is targeting the Pope, who is not even accused of committing any abuse, rather than the hundreds of English school teachers - including one of his own teachers - who have actually done so is conclusive evidence that this is nothing more than the world's most famous atheist demonstrating the Argument from Social Autism. It's a remarkably stupid PR stunt, even by the low standards of the Clowns of Reason[.]

This is a perfect illustration of what I meant by anti-atheist cranks being far more immune to reality than those they accuse of being just that. It’s no more than a complete and gigantic red herring to claim that Dawkins (and Hitchens) are after Ratzi even if he didn’t engage in any sexual abuse, himself. (At least, that we know of, yet; frankly, it wouldn’t be the most surprising news ever at this point.) The reason they – and most other moral people (thereby excluding Vox, of course) – are going after the head of the Catholic Church is because however bad and reprehensible the clergymen who committed these vile acts against children may be, the Church’s decades-old (if not centuries-old) policy of actively, secretly and systematically covering up these hundreds and thousands of cases, silencing the helpless victims, and casually moving the offending child-molesting priests around from parish to parish without punishment, assuring that they then have access to a fresh batch of new victims each time, has arguably led to far more long-term and large-scale harm and suffering in the world for anyone directly or indirectly victimized by these crimes against children and humanity.

The Pope, currently Ratzi, is at the head of this revolting organization and, therefore, is not only all too aware of this policy, but he ostensibly upholds it, ensuring that more and more victims are being hurt, and will be in the future. As if that wasn’t enough, though, we also now have concrete evidence directly linking Ratzi himself to the sweeping cover-up, in the form of the aforementioned 1985 letter in which he knowingly and deliberately resisted the defrocking of a priest caught molesting numerous children. This goes beyond guilt by association; this is directly aiding and abetting these child molesters, protecting them from scrutiny and prosecution, and ensuring that they will be around – elsewhere – to molest again.

That is why Pope Ratzi absolutely deserves his time behind bars – lots of it. And that is why I, along with most moral people (again, thereby excluding morally bankrupt sleazeballs such as Vox Day), am absolutely behind Dawkins and Hitchens’ attempt to see this horrendous Pope walk the Path of Shame all the way to prison. And may he rot there for the rest of his life.

I’m almost done with this nonsense, but I figured I had to mention this last bit, too:

The sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic church is the direct result of allowing homosexuals to enter the priesthood.

The evolution of Vox Day’s arguments: from “atheists are assholes” to “BLAME TEH GAYZ!”. ’Nuff said.

Edit: (04/13/10 12:30 PM) – Fixed a couple of little errors.