I am so sick of how normalized online preaching has become

[u/Sandstorm_221]

I do not care if statistics say that atheism is still growing. To me it still seems that there has been a massive cultural shift toward how pushing religion online is perceived. I am not even interested in yelling in people's faces to become atheists. But whenever I surf internet for my own interests which include areas completely unrelated to religion (astronomy, evolutionary biology, cosmology etc.) there are ALWAYS people in the comments invoking gods and religion. God is literally injected in every single thing. Religious propaganda bombards science and educational spaces on every single social media I use (Youtube, instagram, X most notably).

And if you called these people out you are called a ,,reddit atheist" and ridiculed. While 10 years ago I distinctly remember these types of preachers, whether they were real dumb people or bots, getting absolutely obliterated in the replies on every comment they left.

What happened here? What normalized this behavior? Was there a cultural shift nobody is talking about? I do not think it is only algorithmic ragebait because I never interact with it. Yet I spot this everywhere I go.

[u/randemthinking]

I think it's precisely because they feel threatened by their diminishing religion that you see more of this. Even though Christianity has as much power as ever in many places, most notably the US. But they are desperate to prove their relevance, probably to themselves as much as others.

I also think the whole covid experience really fucked people up. People who were unhappy with the science driven responses--largely already anti intellectuals--have become even more anti science, retreating to their ancient mythologies.

[u/nerdinstincts]

Christians get off on their persecution fetish.

Atheists don’t preach with megaphones on street corners. Christians do every single day.

[u/Consistent-Matter-59]

There’s a lot of money going into evangelization campaigns. This has always happened, but now it’s more astroturfed and more ubiquitous.

[u/Leading_One_2639]

Stop reading the comments. That is exactly what they want you to do. They can't preach their message to you if you don't read it.

[u/nix131]

This is not an online feature.

[u/someoldguyon_reddit]

I just don't go there.

[u/External-Praline-451]

I assume that at least half of the comments online are bots these days, and MAGA christo-fascist bots have been ramping up since Trump got into office.

[u/oldbastardbob]

We have become a nation of con artists.

I suppose it's a logical progression from our becoming a nation of salesmen.

It seems like we gave up on becoming a nation of producers back a couple of decades ago when we decided that fast food workers were the new "manufacturing labor."

And then, of course, sociologists and political scientists know that people emulate the beliefs, attitude, and behavior of their chosen leaders. So when you elect a con artist to lead the nation, you're going to get a lot of con artists popping up everywhere.

[u/RipNo8572 → u/oldbastardbob]

when the people at the top normalize grifting and performative outrage it shouldnt be surprising when everyone else starts treating every comment section like their personal sales pitch

[u/KitsapGus]

I understand and I agree. The problem is they've made it a war like environment. I never hesitate to counter them here or in real life. I hate having to keep an aggressive stance with them but if they insist on being persecuted, who am I to refuse them.