Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Strange kind of YouTube Christian

I have had several lengthy conversations in the comment section of several Christian apologetic videos with Christians, pointing out the problems in biblical morality and infallibility, as well as the overt hypocrisy of many of those videos (eg. videos that critique Muslims for behavior that the very same Christians engage in, when the subject is the Bible and their god rather than the Muslim equivalents.)

In these conversations I have noticed a rather peculiar kind of "Christian" that often participates in the discussion. These seem rather prevalent at least on YouTube. While it's possible that at least some of them are poes, I believe that at least some, if not most of them are not.

These "Christians" seem to take a "I don't take s**t from anybody" thug attitude. Their method of operation seems to include:
  • Assume things about the critic (usually that he's an atheist) and use obnoxiously belittling and derogatory names and expressions to address him and his arguments based on those assumptions. Resort to mockery as much as possible.
  • Don't be afraid of using swearwords (like the f-word etc.), insults ("moron", "idiot", etc) and mockery.
  • Constantly stress how the critic doesn't know anything about Christianity and the Bible, no matter how detailed his arguments and knowledge seem to be time and again about those very subjects.
  • At the same time emphasize how you follow Jesus' teachings (completely ignoring what Jesus said about being kind to other people.)
  • When the critic points out the hypocrisy of your behavior in light of the holy scriptures you are claiming to obey, besides using the normal insults and derogatory terms, argue that Christians are not supposed to be wimps and pussies, that Jesus took a thug attitude towards pharisees.
  • Likewise point out that your critic doesn't believe in anything nor has any morals, and thus is in no position to preach about morality. (Ignore the point about hypocrisy.)
  • Remember to be as smug as possible.
One would think that this would be a small minority, and that other Christians would intervene with a more sane tone which is more in line with their own Christian and biblical principles, but they seem to be surprisingly absent. (Perhaps they are driven away by all the swearing, insults and mockery they see at the beginning of the comment thread and decide to skip it.) Of course this probably only bolsters these thugs because nobody of their own camp challenges or critiques their behavior.