About 12 or 13 years ago (as of writing this blog post), when far-leftist "social justice" intersectional feminism was invading the atheist skeptic community in full force, a portion of said community came up with the idea of creating what they called the "Atheism+" movement. They wanted the atheist skeptic movement to be more than just about religion and religious beliefs, which is where that "plus" came into play. It would be "atheism plus feminism, atheism plus social justice, atheism plus equality" and so on and so forth. In other words, and more succinctly, atheism plus radical far-leftist activism.
The main "Atheism+" group of the time created an independent blogging website (as blogs were still somewhat popular in the early 2010's) to coordinate their activities and give a platform for their members to express their views and opinions. They called it FreeThoughtBlogs.
The primary "Atheism+" movement and, especially, FreeThoughtBlogs was (I suppose unofficially) headed by one PZ Myers, some kind of professor of biology at some university. PZ Myers was, and still is, one of the most vile and toxic extreme far-leftist social justice warrior that you could ever imagine. Just imagine the most toxic, vile, hate-spewing radical far-leftist social justice warrior, oozing pure hatred towards everybody who even slightly deviates from his opinions, and you have imagined PZ Myers.
PZ Myers was (and probably still is) also really arrogant, and thought of himself as "the fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse", trying to forcefully insert himself into the same group as the famous four, ie. Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and Daniel Dennett. (The fact that PZ Myers considered himself to be even close to the intellectual level of those four is just astonishing arrogance.) For the most part he was largely dismissed and never considered to be an important figure in the New Atheism movement by most people (except, of course, his most rabid fans.)
Anyway, back to FreeThoughtBlogs. They envisioned it to become this huge platform, with thousands and thousands of users from all across the world. To be the central hub of the entire movement. And not just the "Atheism+" movement, but the entirety of the atheist/skeptic community.
There was one small problem with that, though. And that problem had a name: PZ Myers.
Remember when I wrote above that he is the most toxic and vile social justice warrior zealot that you can imagine, who absolutely cannot tolerate even slight deviations from his opinions? Well, that was the major problem with FreeThoughtBlogs trying to become a huge platform.
Mostly because of PZ Myers, and to some extent because of his most sycophantic followers, the platform almost immediately became extremely totalitarian, not allowing the slightest of dissent, or the slightest of infractions, real or perceived. Indeed, quite quickly they started to ban people left and right for the most minor of things. And not only outright dissenters and "right-wingers", but even people fully on their side, if they made even the most minor of infractions, and not just within the blog itself, but anywhere.
Indeed, for a time it became a running joke: Who would next be the "witch of the week" of PZ Myers? As, indeed, usually not a week went by without yet someone being permanently banned for the most minor of infractions. Oftentimes the people banned had been extremely strong supporters of Atheism+ and everything it stood for, and even PZ Myers himself. But that didn't help: If you made even the slightest of infractions, you were out, unceremoniously and permanently, with PZ Myers posting long rants about you.
One of the most notorious and prominent "witches of the week" was the entirety of The Atheist Community of Austin, one of the earliest atheist groups with a significant media presence in the world, who had their own TV show and, later, regular online streams. And who were (and are) very notoriously extreme leftists, espousing the entire far-leftist ideology as-is.
They joined FreeThoughtBlogs relatively quickly, moving their entire online presence there, and stayed there for a couple of years until, inevitably, someone of their staff said something rather innocuous somewhere online, which angered PZ Myers, who unceremoniously proceeded to ban all of them from the platform for life (and, of course, writing long rants about it). These were people who were fully on his side, had fully embraced the far-leftist social justice doctrine, and were fully supportive of the "Atheism+" movement (so much so that they had moved their entire online activity to FreeThoughtBlogs, which they didn't have to do, as they originally had their own website, including a blog of their own.) Didn't help: For the most minor of infractions (I can't remember what it was, but it was indeed extremely minor) they got immediately and permanently banned.
The entire FreeThoughtBlogs became quite quickly a laughing stock. However, quite incredibly, the site still exists today, over 12 years later, and sees some regular activity.
Unsurprisingly, the amount of activity is absolutely abysmal. They envisioned the site to have thousands and thousands of members. I checked how many members they have today, and the total count appears to be 32 members. That's it. And from those only 12 have posted anything during the last two years.
So only 12 people are in any way active in the site nowadays. Which is just ridiculous abysmal.
Unsurprisingly, PZ Myers is by far the most active, and is still spouting his oozing vile toxic rhetoric. Probably to an audience of a few dozens of people at most.
The entire site, and the movement, is nothing but a huge joke.
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