I note that in your description of atheists, “quiet and nonhostile” go hand in hand, as do “vocal and hostile”.
Daniel Dennett is a very vocal atheist, yet I find it ridiculous to consider him a hostile person. Further, one might compare the hostility that atheists show theists to the hostility that theists show atheists for some needed perspective on “hostile atheists”.
I was specifically thinking of the worst group of all, the atheists of r/atheism who are both very vocal and very hostile. For an issue like this, there’s hostile people on either end of the spectrum and being vocal helps makes them more so. A quiet and hostile person isn’t particularly threatening and neither is a vocal and nonhostile person. I was not trying to suggest that being vocal alone makes someone hostile.
It would have been helpful to note up front that your reference population was the “worst group of all”, as it otherwise looked like you were making a very broad generalization.
I note that in your description of atheists, “quiet and nonhostile” go hand in hand, as do “vocal and hostile”.
Daniel Dennett is a very vocal atheist, yet I find it ridiculous to consider him a hostile person. Further, one might compare the hostility that atheists show theists to the hostility that theists show atheists for some needed perspective on “hostile atheists”.
I was specifically thinking of the worst group of all, the atheists of r/atheism who are both very vocal and very hostile. For an issue like this, there’s hostile people on either end of the spectrum and being vocal helps makes them more so. A quiet and hostile person isn’t particularly threatening and neither is a vocal and nonhostile person. I was not trying to suggest that being vocal alone makes someone hostile.
It would have been helpful to note up front that your reference population was the “worst group of all”, as it otherwise looked like you were making a very broad generalization.