From Austin Cline,
Your Guide to Agnosticism / Atheism.
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Which is better for the political and social health of a community: to tell people what they want to hear and reinforce their prejudices about themselves, or to dissent from common prejudices and reveal uncomfortable truths? Many seem to prefer the former, saying that dissenters and critics are traitors; ultimately, however, dissent is critical and necessary. One of the reasons why atheists are so unpopular is, perhaps, because they are not afraid to tell uncomfortable truths about religion.

This is not a role which atheists should shy away from. On the contrary, by standing outside all theological traditions, they can play a unique role in pointing out the foibles and flaws around them. Religious Privilege is the only unjust privilege which continues with little or no criticism, but irreligious atheists can most effectively challenge it because they are the ones who stand most apart from it.

In Mencken: The American Iconoclast, Marion Elizabeth Rodgers writes:

“There may be good reasons why a prophet is without honour in his own country,” observed the Sydney (Australia) Triad. “Prophets are uncomfortable people to live with. They shatter the complacencies. Mr. Mencken is a staunch at heart American so anxious about her future, that he has courage to tell her the truth about her goings-on. In an American, courage can run no higher than that.”

Mencken probably would have been unhappy with the climate of fear and timidity which has been created by some on the far-right in America today; he would have been outraged by the way in which so many have succumbed to this fear and timidity, allowing themselves to be silenced in order not to be attacked. He certainly would have been upset with how people have been afraid to even criticize religion, never mind launch direct attacks against some of the more nonsensical or dangerous doctrines.

It is in precisely such an environment where he might have been able to do some of his best work with pointed, uncompromising criticisms of the self-righteous and self-involved politicians, pundits, and panjandrums. We need more Menckens in America today, but his sort of satirical wit is hard to come by and takes a long time to hone properly. It's not unusual, though, for biting satire to reach people in ways that sober reason and arguments cannot.

It’s a shame when people actually need courage to tell the truth and point out problems which should be obvious to all. Citizens should not only feel that they have the freedom and support to speak out, but should in fact feel obliged to talk out of turn when serious problems or contradictions are noticed. Instead, they are being told that any dissent from or criticism of America’s foreign policy are helping the terrorists.

How can it be helping terrorists if people exercise the freedoms which, according to the defenders of the status quo, the terrorists would like to eliminate? No sensible person should believe such a thing, but it's a convenient belief among religious and cultural conservatives who seek many of the same social changes desired by Muslim extremists and terrorists. Suppression of women's rights, gay rights, religious liberty, and free speech is a goal of all opponents of modernity, secularism, and Enlightenment.

Acquiescing to the status quo, popular prejudices, or comforting beliefs will not preserve those rights nor move them forward at all. Only by challenging the status quo and challenging people to defend those comfortable beliefs they take for granted is it possible to preserve, much less expand, popular liberty and equality. This is not something which only atheists can or should do, but it's something which atheists in particular need to do.