Have personally concluded that the Internet (or is 'web' a more accurate term?) is populated with an overabundance of small 'l' libertarians and Atheists. This opinion--while just an opinion--is based on a considerable amount of evidence.
For instance, have you heard of Ron Paul? If you have researched the American elections on the web, you almost definitely have read a piece about the Republican politician running for the Presidency. Judging by the man's presence on the Internet, you would still be rational if you happened to conclude that Ron Paul was a major candidate who might actually have a chance of becoming President in this electoral cycle. Note for foreigners who only learn about American election news on the Internet: Ron Paul is not a major candidate. He did win a few delegates, primarily from the libertarian-oriented Mountain states (such as Montana), but so did Mitt Romney, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Mike Huckabee, and even Rudy Giuliani who foolishly chose to invest in campaigning in Florida at the expense of reaching out to the earlier, but smaller, states.
At least they had the sense to concede defeat. You can be safely confident that Ron Paul will not win the Republican nomination for the Presidency at the Republican National Convention.
Then there is the Atheist part. A slight majority of the world is either nominally Christian, Muslim, or Jewish, with around a billion more being Hindu. However, based solely on Internet ramblings over religion, there seems to be a rampant anti-'religion' streak among Internet readers and posters. ('Religion' in quotes because Atheism is also a religion, a belief system reliant on faith--the closest thing to being areligious would be Agnosticism, which neither supports nor dismisses the existence of God).
An instance of this is on the BBC News website, one of the most popular websites on the Internet which is not a search engine. On the Have Your Say forum, almost anything that can be blamed on 'religion' is, such as in this case. That and the fact that there is a prevalence of overpopulationists, people who believe that there are too many people in the world, and that is why there is starvation, global warming, etc.--they often advocate sterilizing people in the 'third world' as a way to curb what they view as population growth gone haywire. A major point of libertarianism is the freedom to do what you want--but not being necessarily bailed out when what you do bites you in the butt. You can see why libertarianism is so big in the rough-and-tumble states of the old Wild West.
Firefly combines libertarian values with Atheist ones. (Episode courtesy of hulu.com).
Beyond that, you have the fact that all of Joss Whedon's television shows on hulu.com often make it among the most popular television shows on the site. His shows, such as Firefly, merge both libertarianism and Atheism--a verifiable treat for these Internet denizens. Meanwhile, while all the shows were fairly successful on television they were nowhere near as popular as their hulu rankings suggest. (Note: The feature film Serenity was decent--largely because the movie excised the Atheist part of the series).
So why is this? Why are libertarian Atheists (who also happen to be overpopulationist and anti-[Iraq]-war) so over-represented on the Internet? Guessing that those types of people don't have much to do.
--------
Found this article interesting? Check out:
The Vegetarian Diaries.
Or:
History: The Roadmap to the Future.
History: The Roadmap to the Future--Africa.
History: The Roadmap to the Future--Asia.
History: The Roadmap to the Future--Europe.
History: The Roadmap to the Future--Latin America.
| Tag this post with: | |||||||
 Delicious |
 Digg |
 Technorati |
 reddit |
 Facebook |
 StumbleUpon |
 Furl |
 blinklist |
Found this article interesting? Check out:
History: The Roadmap to the Future.
History: The Roadmap to the Future--Africa.
History: The Roadmap to the Future--Asia.
History: The Roadmap to the Future--Europe.
History: The Roadmap to the Future--Latin America.
Or:
The Science Fiction Channel + Technorium.
The Vegetarian Diaries + Biologeel.
1 comment:
"So why is this? Why are libertarian Atheists (who also happen to be overpopulationist and anti-[Iraq]-war) so over-represented on the Internet? Guessing that those types of people don't have much to do".
Well...er...I can't speak for the rest of those "people", but I for one have plenty to do.
But you ask a very interesting question. This atheistic tendency is nothing that I had particularly noticed in the past, but I could see how it might have arised. First of all, its going to be a primary function of the sites you visit. My guess is that the 'Beeb' (BBC) is going to lean atheist -- primarily because the UK and Western Europe are atheistic. Their candlestick blew out years ago - and they are now just coasting on the remaining ruins of a once great Christian civilization. So, I'm not surprised to find atheistic remarks on the BBC (Libertarian -- yes, that is surprising; Atheistic -- no).
But regarding internet users in general -- I can see how the internet would tend to attract more young folks than older, and the sad truth is that even in the United States, the younger generations drift away from the old landmarks. They probably were not instructed well when they were young. And Lord knows that they are subjected to non-stop brainwashing from television and the government schools, so that 'religion' will have been beaten out of all but the hardiest of them by the time they reach College ... That which was once known as being Truth, and of ultimate value, is now treated as myth and mush... But that being said, the internet is a good tool - and there are many resources for the religious bent, or for those that fear the God of the Bible...So go towards the good sites, and pray for those whom the 'god of this world has blinded the minds of them so that they are unable to see the light'.
Post a Comment