One fewer stupid idea

Chris Hallquist proves that sometimes an atheist is someone with just one fewer stupid idea than a theist. Hallquist weighs in with a stunning display of mindless irony, faulty reasoning and an utter lack of concern with notions of factual truth more typically associated with Christian fundamentalists and neoconservative fascists. (We know he isn't a fundamentalist, so that kind of narrows it down.)

PZ posted a link to [Geert Wilder's film Fitna], and after some angry comments, declared he didn’t really endorse the video, and called Wilders a racist. This sort of overblown rhetoric, directed at people with different political perspectives than he [sic], is something we’ve seen from PZ before. The idea that the film itself is racist is a lie of Orwellian proportions, a sign the speaker is trying to bully the truth into submission, or is at best thoughtlessly passing the Kool Aid served by someone of the first type. Islam isn’t a race, it’s a religion, a belief system, and deserves to be judged as any other belief system would be. (Or, as As Jihad Watch puts it, “He’s a racist, but not toward a race. Got it.”) Sure, people are in some sense born into it, but the fact that a belief system relies mainly on people unthinkingly adopting the beliefs of their parents is reason for embarrassment, not grounds for respect.

First, let's look at PZ Myers actual comment, which prompts Hallquist's own overblown rhetoric (e.g. "a lie of Orwellian proportions") directed at someone with a different (i.e. sane) political perspective. Sayeth PZ:

I think Wilders is a flaming nutcase; I deplore his racist angle and his desire to exclude and oppress rather than educate.

Let's examine Hallquist's stupidity point by point.

First, where is Myers' overblown rhetoric? "Flaming nutcase" and deploring a "racist angle" seems like rather mild rhetoric to me. If Hallquist believes this to be overblown rhetoric, I hope he doesn't ever read PhysioProf or The Rude Pundit; his poor little Republican head will probably explode.

Second, note how abruptly Hallquist transforms "PZ... called Wilders a racist" to "The idea that the film itself is racist..." without even a segue. Then Hallquist develops actual telepathy to determine that Myers calls Wilders racist because Myers disagrees with Wilders' politics.

Hallquist maintains that the "idea that the film itself is racist is a lie of Orwellian proportions." Why? Because "Islam isn’t a race, it’s a religion," don'tcha know. This is a non sequitur fallacy, and a particularly retarded one. Yes, Islam is a religion, a religion practiced mostly by brown people, Arabs and South Asians. If Wilders were to denounce the "dirty and smelly" immigrants, I'm sure Hallquist would call a charge of racism a lie of Orwellian proportions: the comment is about hygiene, innit, not about race.

Third, the notion that PZ Myers would even indirectly or peripherally demand respect for any religion on any grounds is so monumentally retarded that I'm tempted to call 911: I suspect a screwdriver has become deeply lodged in Hallquist's frontal cortex.

Yes folks, all you have to do to be an atheist is not believe in God. As Hallquist shows, we have no standards on intelligence, honesty, and character.