#meetup groups

4 promote your meet up group

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Do you feel similarly or are they fairly safe?

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One of the many hats that I wear is that of Atheist Social Organizer. I belong to both the local humanist group and the organized atheist group on Meetup. The humanist group did manage (barely) to stay afloat on Zoom through all of 2020 with duct tape & bailing wire. The Atheist Meetup went into deep freeze during the COVID-19 lock downs and has yet to thaw out. Even before the pandemic, interest had begun to wane and attendance numbers dropped. On a few pathetic occasions it would be just me and one other member who RSVP'd. It was a far cry from our heyday in the early 20-teens...and attendance was highest during the GWB years in the early aughts, with the dawn of early atheist podcasting to boot. Many great shows I followed with interest have long since pod-faded and are lost to history. I still listen to CogDiss and Scathing Atheist because they're hilarious, and Eiynah's Polite Conversations because I like her outlook on things and her sharp critique of the IDW, most notably Sam Harris, whom both of us used to admire in what feels like a lifetime ago now. I remember with great fondness the best Meetups being with like-minded godless friends who, like me, were basically humanistic and left-of-center politically. We actually didn't talk politics all of the time, just acknowledged the latest GOP outrage in the headlines then diverted discussion to how our week went, movies & tv, books we were reading, etc, or if newcomers turned up, let them speak about their road to freethought and their path out of religion. The worst Meetups, by contrasts, were the ones when one or more Libertarians would show up...such smug assholes. I've detested Libertarianism ever since rubbing shoulders with them in grad school in the 1990s. That one Meetup I mentioned earlier, where just one person turned out....he was a Libertarian too. Seemed like some rich privileged asshole trust fund baby whose primary "job" was real-estate investing...buying and flipping houses; he lamented having been (unjustly, of course!) jailed in NJ for a brief time (probably for some shady financial shit, I surmised). I literally had NOTHING in common with this guy beyond our godlessness and it was a pretty awkward conversation that eventually petered out and I regretted even coming out that evening at all. Since under the current rules I'm not allowed to exclude Libertarians from either the Atheist Meetup OR the Humanist one (not for lack of trying) I really would rather just stay home and watch anime than organize a social Meetup where I have to make nice with selfish assholes. I think Libertarianism is not a respectable world view and I think they should pay a very high social cost for their odious, noxious views and socio-political stances, and that includes being shunned from polite society. I will NOT break bread with them anymore. I'm basically forced to go back to the drawing board and do what I did in Denton, Texas. Namely, start my own Meetup, because the existing groups (UNT Atheist & Agnostic Student Alliance then, Houston Atheists & Humanists of Houston now) weren't/aren't meeting my social needs. I freely admit that this move is purely for myself, first and foremost. I know with whom I want to hang out and with whom I definitely do not. By starting my own group, I can establish my own rules. Maybe it will fail, or never get off the ground. The only thing lost is the Meetup fees, which are kinda steep these days, but it's also paying to fend off loneliness and try to reconnect with people I like best and fend off jerks I don't. Since I was told I could not ban Libertarians from HA or HOH, I decided to make my own group where I can, and I can vet who is allowed to join in the first place. I'm not down with being told I have to make nice with assholes. Nope, no I don't.