Honestly, and I might struggle a bit to explicate this, but I don’t necessarily think that places like r/atheism are without value. I am an atheist, but I’m not “interested” in atheism – one day in adulthood I realized I don’t even think about religion at all anymore. Unless there’s some zealot freak on the news, I forget religion or religious people exists day-to-day, and my general course in life does not bring me into contact with religious people anymore. This is a luxury not shared by all, of course. I was an angry atheist who liked to use words like Christofascism and smirk about the sky daddy. Later in life I went to a Richard Dawkins rally to hear Tim Minchin play and it didn’t have the same resonance for me because my lack of religion was a given.

But when I was in high school? When there was actual social pressure for religion coming down on me? The hostility I took from religious people was remarkable. It could have ruined me. I was angry, then, and at that time in my life I had to be rude and mean and hostile and throw back every insult and strawman I could get to get that freedom from religion. The smirking, fedora atheist with a bad attitude is annoying, and a community of them is not the type of place I want to spend time, but I think it’s so important that they have that community to develop that anger and language when it’s a weapon they need to fight.