I mean, I am myself an atheist, but absolutely I agree that a large number of vocal internet atheists are basically just smug assholes who get off on intellectual masturbation as a sign of moral superiority.

Perhaps ironically, I think this actually comes from them not fully deconsctructing their likely Christian extremist indoctrinated worldview enough… they still at their core have that deep seeded framework of ‘everyone who does not see things exactly my way is damned to hell!’

If you can find an atheist youtube personality or something like that, who just raised atheist/agnostic, or at least not in an extremist form of Christianity… well, they are often much less traumatized and thus much less bitter.

There are tons of religious people who… actually are generally kind and accepting, have problems with a hateful and exclusionary and enemy-driven version of their, or any other religion.

While I may not agree with their worldviews on a more… academic, intellectual level, I try always to remain as objective as I can, and realize that to varying extents, pretty much everything is a mixed bag, with pros and cons, and an absolute pro of many non hateful versions of religion is a sense of community responsibility, a collective empathy.

Its just that on the intarwebz, you are much more likely to get asocial or antisocial basically recluses.