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this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2023
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Atheist Memes
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Do you need to have been raised in Clearwater, FL in order to criticize Scientologists or Salt Lake City, UT to criticize Mormons?
The atheists who go after Mormon beliefs do tend to be ex-mormon. Jimmy Snow immediately comes to mind, for example.
Most of the latest wave of atheists, (Jimmy Snow, Holy Koolaid, Forrest Valkai, Shannon Q) specifically research the religions or sects that affect them.
And that makes their content more authentic and enjoyable. Because they aren't just finding things to hate about a religion they haven't lived with. They are deconstructing their own past and showing their audience what it feels like to be part of that faith and what it looks like to grow past it. It's authenticity makes it higher quality content.
And it is okay to complain about low quality, low effort content.
Also, modern atheist YouTubers do express solidarity with their ex-Muslim brethren living in such places as Egypt and Saudi Arabia. But the research they do in that case pertains to how the ex Muslims are treated. By the government there. Saying, "they have to endure religious persecution. That's wrong."
It's NOT some reductive, "hahaha, let's put an obviously evil caption on the Islamic Rage Boy meme template. Let's have him advocating for genocide or something!"
I agree with you that the ex-[insert religion here] content tends to be better informed on that specific group and brings a valuable perspective due to their experiences. Bryce Blankenagel is one example for Mormonism that comes to mind for me, I enjoy hearing what he has to say on their history and practices. At the same time, I don't think it's necessary to have been part of those groups or to know every facet of their belief system to post about them, particularly in a meme community such as this. It certainly helps when you know the subject material but growing up in a different community and environment does not disqualify you from being able to criticize it.
As it relates to this chain of replies, someone raised around mostly Christian influences who gets on here to poke fun at Islam or Judaism is less likely to be speaking from complete ignorance since they share common origins. You have to go further back to find it than when Catholics and Protestants are trading barbs but, as Pons_Aelius points out, they're Abrahamic religions and have no shortage of common features worthy of ridicule.