Rebecca Watson has recently blogged about the outrageous abuse and misogyny directed at a 15 year old atheist on Reddit saying it makes her hate atheists.

But this shouldn’t surprise any of us. After all just because someone’s an atheist doesn’t necessarily mean they are pro-equality, anti-war, socialist, secularist, and so on.

I mean how many times have we been betrayed by the Left, feminists, progressives, humanists or atheists siding with Islamists, sharia law, the veil – you name it – for a variety of reasons (some of which even seem rational and moral on the surface).

Just because someone’s a woman doesn’t mean she will side with welfare mothers and oppose stoning. And just because someone’s an ex-Muslim doesn’t mean they are automatically secularists or rationalists. In the same way that being male or having religious beliefs doesn’t automatically mean that one is anti-woman.

I’ve spent a large part of my life opposing this sort of ‘community’ based on race or nationality or gender or belief, which is largely thanks to multi-culturalism and moral or cultural relativism. What it has done is box people into ‘communities’ often out of no choice of their own and at the individual’s expense. It holds the dominant culture as the community’s culture and norm. And it exerts unbelievable pressure on those like Rebecca Watson who dissent and refuse to conform.

Of course, ‘communities’ are not necessarily bad things. We all want to belong but communities can’t be built on one characteristic or belief as we each have innumerable characteristics and beliefs that define us. And when we only focus on atheism or ex-Muslim or Muslim or … we miss the class, political and social dimensions that are most crucial in determining our allies and our enemies.

(Via other bloggers on freethoughtblogs)