Debbie Schlussel Defends Anti-Atheist Bigotry and Comments

Yesterday I wrote about how Karen Hunter, one of the guests on the now-infamous atheist-bashing segment of the Paula Zahn Now show, tried to excuse and defend the anti-atheist bigotry she expressed. She didn't do a very good job even though her sentiments were arguably the least bigoted (except for Stephen Smith, who wasn't bigoted at all). What about Debbie Schlussel? She was more aggressively bigoted in her anti-atheist statements, so she should have an even harder time coming up with a defense or justification.

Debbie Schlussel writes:

It's hard to believe their letters because they were all attacking me for my appearance on CNN's "Paula Zahn Now," a week ago, because each letter claims the sender just watched me on CNN. First of all, the video of that segment appears nowhere on the net. Believe me, if it did, I'd link to it.

[emphasis added]

Is Debbie Schlussel the last person on the planet who doesn't know about YouTube? It sounds that way, but that might actually be a bit too generous. I don't want to get into personal attacks, but it's hard to explain this in a kind and polite way: someone in comments explained that the video could be found on YouTube with a simple search for "Paula Zhan atheists." Schlussel didn't express surprise at the existence of YouTube; instead, she said:

A SIMPLE SEARCH OF MY NAME DOES NOT YIELD THE VIDEO. MY NAME IS NOT IN THE KEY WORDS, SO BASICALLY YOU ARE SAYING I CANNOT BE TRUSTED TO FIND A VIDEO OF ME THAT IS NOT UNDER MY NAME. THANKS FOR CONFIRMING THAT MANY ATHEISTS ARE ALSO IDIOTS...

So it sounds like she does know about YouTube and perhaps even tried to search for the clip in places like YouTube, but she didn't find it because she expected it to have her name as one of the key words. When searching to figure out whether atheists were seeing this online, it didn't occur to her to search for "Paula Zahn atheists." Other combinations that would have worked include "Paula Zahn atheism" and even just "Paula Zahn." A commenter describes this attitude as "narcissistic."

I'm surprised these atheists would be so obedient to a higher power that told them to e-mail me since, after all, the one thing they're supposed to have in common is a lack of belief in a higher power. Well, no-one ever said atheists are consistent or immune from hypocrisy.

[emphasis added]

Wait... what? Higher power? Debbie Schlussel seems to be saying that atheists have only been writing to her to complain about her anti-atheist bigotry because they have been ordered to do so by a "higher power" and, moreover, that this reveals their inconsistency and hypocrisy since they supposedly claim to lack a belief in any higher power. That can't be what she's really saying, though, because that makes no sense, right?

Evidently not, because she elaborates in the comments (I apologize for the all-caps, but that's how she writes):

THE ONLY REASON THESE PEOPLE ARE E-MAILING IS BECAUSE A PROMINENT ATHEIST WEBSITE TOLD THEM TO. THE VIDEO WAS POSTED ON 2/4/07. THAT I'M JUST GETTING THE E-MAILS LAST NIGHT AND TODAY AFTER AN ATHEIST BLOG POSTED ABOUT IT, TELLS ME THE REAL STORY. ESPECIALLY SINCE EVERY SINGLE E-MAIL SAYS THE SAME THING. MONKEYS DOING WHAT THEY'RE TOLD AND PARROTS PARROTING WHAT THEY'RE ASKED TO REPEAT DOESN'T MAKE THEM SMART OR TRUTHFUL.

So, yes, it's Debbie Schlussel's position — repeated more than once — is that atheists wouldn't have written to her to complain unless they had been told to do so. Apparently, there's nothing about atheists which would cause them to object to hearing someone say that they should "shut up," saying that they are discriminating against Christians, or saying that it's good that atheists "are not strong" in America. Or, if they do object, there's no reason why any atheists would independently think it appropriate to express their objections by writing to the source of such comments to complain and/or correct their errors. Atheists aren't capable of thinking and acting on their own — they are just "monkeys doing what they're told."

As an aside, I wish I could take credit for being the "prominent atheist web site" but I don't think I can. Except for one other site, I believe I was the first to post about this (back on February 1, the morning after the show), but the popular reaction to the show started to grow several days later. The negative responses to the anti-atheist bigotry to the show have grown well beyond not only anything I've written, but also beyond anything written on any one web site.

This only serves to demonstrate that Debbie Schlussel is wrong: the emails she's getting are due to atheists' objecting to what she has said, not due to orders from any one site. If so many of the messages sound alike, it may be because these atheists are all reacting to the same few comments of hers and that the writers are all able to clearly see both the bigotry she expressed and the errors she made.

As bizarre as all this is, though, Schlussel has saved the best for last: atheists are all just future Muslim extremists.

I don't mind receiving the atheist hate mail, since I know that in a few years, these same people will either be Muslim extremists (redundant) or helping the country fall further in its fight against the creep of Islamic imposition on America . . . or both.

Look at famous atheists and what happened to them. Adam Gadahn a/k/a Azzam Al-Amriki--now a top Al-Qaeda video "personality"--was raised by his hippie Jewish father and equally bizarre gentile mother as an atheist. And look how he turned out. Ditto for hippie-spawn John Walker Lindh. ...So to you hate-filled atheists a/k/a future Muslim extremists (redundant), your e-mails have no effect on me.

[emphasis added]

I think that this is supposed to connect to her comments on the Paula Zahn Now show where she claimed that the combination of strong atheism and weak Christianity in Europe have led to a growth of Islam (evidently immigration and high fecundity among immigrants play little or no role). At the time she didn't state that atheists are generally just future Muslim extremists (not merely future Muslims, but Muslim extremists), so I don't know if this is a new opinion or just one she didn't feel like expressing at the time.

I've written about a myriad of opinions, but I don't think that I've ever encountered one so bizarre and absurd. How does one respond to such a thing? When a person tells you that the sky is lavender rather than blue, or that orange is a measure of distance rather than a color, what do you say? I can point out that the lives of two atheists hardly qualify as a basis for making claims about all atheists, but what else?

Debbie Schlussel says that atheists' emails have no effect on her, but does reality has any effect on what she writes?

These people are enemies of America, and many of those who think like them are of equally weak mind. If you don't believe in anything, you'll fall for virtually nothing.

In the end, Debbie Schlussel doesn't offer any defense, justification, or explanation for her anti-atheist bigotry. All she does is repeat that bigotry as if it were self-evident in its reasonableness: atheists are enemies of America; atheists are weak-minded; people who think like atheists are weak-minded; atheists will believe virtually anything (a myth I rebut here).

Many of the people commenting on this show have expressed the opinion that they felt Debbie Schlussel was far more bigoted and nasty than Karen Hunter; I don't think that Schlussel's response to atheists' reactions does anything to disabuse people of that impression.

 

Update: PZ Myers also addresses Debbie Schlussel's post, writing:

Debbie Schlussel doesn't mind that there are hordes of atheist fifth columnists lurking in her country, waiting a few years to jump up, shout "ALLAH AKBAR!" and pull the detonation cord on their explosive vests? Why, Debbie, why? Why do you hate America? You should be very upset! If I believed that, I would be!

Myers also wonders about the existence of God's atheist blog, which I am happy to provide a link for here: Blog of the Gods.