Godsmacked! Atheist billboard blocked in Hasidic Williamsburg

[rug]

March 6, 2012 / Brooklyn news / Williamsburg
By Aaron Short
The Brooklyn Paper

This time atheists found themselves answering to a higher power — a picky landlord.

A Southside loft owner refused to allow a billboard questioning Judaism to be installed atop his S. Fifth Street building on Tuesday amid outrage in Williamsburg’s Hasidic community.

National atheist leaders tried to take out a month-long ad adjacent to Williamsburg’s Orthodox Jewish stronghold with text in English and Hebrew reading: “You know it’s a myth … and you have a choice.”

But at the last minute, landlord Kenny Stier refused to allow workers from the advertising company Clear Channel into his building, according to American Atheists president David Silverman.

http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/35/10/dtg_atheistsign_2012_03_09_bk.html

They've found a new site nearby overlloking the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.

[dmallind]

1. Assuming his contract with the billboard company allows review/approval, no biggy

Individuals have the right to be exclusionary on private property.

[RevStPatrick]

2. There's a lot going on in the Hasidic community...

...lately here in Brooklyn.

There's a big controversy regarding a woman who left the Satmar sect and wrote a book about her experiences. You think the war on women is bad out there in "America," the things they are saying about this young woman are horrendous.

Here's the book in question. Be sure to look through the comments, to see what the Satmar community has to say about this woman. Or better yet, don't.

http://www.amazon.com/Unorthodox-Scandalous-Rejection-Hasidic-Roots/dp/1439187002/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331142836&sr=8-1

[rug]

3. The most recent comments are positive.

Looks like a real shitstorm further back.

What do you think? Are the Satmars more restrictive than the Lubavitch?

[RevStPatrick]

8. That's always been my impression.

But then, what do I know?

The residents of Kiryas Joel are Satmars.
It's a very strange place...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiryas_Joel

[ProgressiveProfessor]

4. Been watching this...

It is a decent read. I would give it 3.5 to 4 stars

[humblebum]

5. Oh great. Now they're targeting Jews. Some great PR there.

MAJOR SARCASM

[Goblinmonger]

6. Wow, way to spin that one.

"Targeting Jews." Nice way to make it seem like this is antisemitism.

[humblebum]

13. Well, Hmmmm. nt

[dmallind]

7. "targeting" how?

Since a lot of Jews are largely secular already (more so than Christians in ratio certainly), trying to encorage more to become so is hardly a leap of...erm.. faith.

[cbayer]

9. Not so sure that the degree of secularism you describe is true of the Hasidic population in

Williamsburg, though.

[Goblinmonger]

10. True, but "targeting Jews" seems to be a way

for some to cast atheists in a negative light.

[humblebum]

11. That particular group of atheists initiated the action. No one

cast them "in a negative light" but themselves.

[humblebum]

12. Atheists trying to advertise in such a way, using specific wording, in a Jewish neighborhood.

The targeted market is pretty obvious.

[Dorian Gray]

28. Most of the Jewish

in the Williamsburg area are NOT secular. They are Lubavitch and other sects that are strongly religious.

[edhopper]

15. But Jews for Jesus targeting Jews is okay?

Evangelicals targeting Jews to make them "perfect" is okay?
Daily TV and radio ads about finding God and Coming to Jesus, let alone those by Mormons and Scientologist are okay?
But those horrible atheist, serves them right for asking a question.

Right?

[humblebum]

16. Last I knew Jews for Jesus is a Christian group, and I doubt very much

whether they have put up any billboards in Jewish neighborhoods calling their beliefs a myth, in which case they would be denying their own beliefs. And these types of incidents are becoming all too common against religious groups.

[edhopper]

18. You don't live in New York

where they hand out flyers in Jewish neighborhoods.

So, it's calling their beliefs a myth that bothers you. Saying that you follow the wrong religion is fine. as long as they believe as well.

[laconicsax]

14. Out of deference to the Hasidic community, you should edit your title.

It should read "G-dsmacked!" rather than "Godsmacked!"

[rug]

17. It's not my title, it's the paper's.

The Brooklyn Paper has never been known to be deferential.

[laconicsax]

19. And you're powerless over what you post, I take it. n/t

[rug]

20. You said it was my title.

Were you unable to click the link? It's really not hard.

[laconicsax]

21. Ah, so you really are unable to control what you post.

And here I thought you, like everyone else, were responsible for the content of your posts.

[rug]

22. Apparently you just can't help yourself.

So ends another bizarre subthread.

[laconicsax]

23. Look, if you're unwilling to change the title of your post, that's one thing.

It's another entirely to pretend that you're unable to do so.

[rug]

24. And it's another thing entirely to pretend you have any deference to Hasidic sensitivities.

There's a word for that.

[laconicsax]

25. Are you questioning my motives?

Last I checked, you regard doing so as a TOS violation.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12181451#post50
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12181451#post83

[rug]

26. I'm identifying them.

From your entry into this sad little subthread you've done nothing but pose as a guardian of religious sensibility despite your prolific record to the contrary.

[laconicsax]

29. Prolific record to the contrary? That's a false allegation if I've ever seen one.

I should give you some credit for making a subthread about your unwillingness to take a group's religious sensibilities into account into a platform for you to lie about me.

Well executed, rug.

[rug]

30. See, here's your posting technique:

You assert "your unwillingness to take a group's religious sensibilities into account" - an obvious lie - and then attempt to transform that lie into "a platform for you to lie about me".

Creepy, twisted and dishonest, bordering on a weird type of passive-aggressive stalking.

Truly bizarre.

[laconicsax]

31. Yes, what you're saying is truly bizarre.

You realize that the entirety of this subthread is available for everyone to see, right?

That includes:
-The parts where I suggested that you edit your post out of deference to a group's religious sensibilities.
-The parts where you refused to do so for a ridiculous array of reasons.
And,
-The parts where you made the thread about me.

Remember, I'm laconicsax (the one with the red, horned "A" and a 3-line signature) and you're rug (the one with the picture of Marx and a 1-line signature).

[rug]

32. I doubt anyone reading this subthread you started will fail to see the why and how of your attempt.

And you never told me if your gnu is facing forward or backward.

[laconicsax]

33. It isn't a real gnu. It's the letter A with horns meand to represent a gnu.

[rhett o rick]

34. Apparently he doesnt choose to change. Why are you going on and on? nm

[laconicsax]

35. I'm an eternal optimist. n/t

[ellisonz]

27. Good for the landlord. n/t