Perpetual Thursday: The "F**K Catholicism" Facebook Group

Perpetual Thursday Ramblings, Rantings, Nonsense, and Bunk

The "F**K Catholicism" Facebook Group
Saturday, July 11, 2009

Heads up: The following post concerns, partly, a group that has chosen a name containing the "F-bomb," and, as such, the word in question appears several times throughout the post, as I have chosen not to censor it here. This is simply an advance apology and warning, so you are not too shocked when and if you read on.

This afternoon, I noticed that several of my friends joined a Facebook called "PETITION FACEBOOK TO TERMINATE GROUP CALLED 'F**K CATHOLICISM.'" Normally I ignore this sort of thing, because I firmly believe that using Facebook for anything even remotely serious (other than viral marketing) is a waste of time, but for some reason I decided to take a look at the group anyway. Of course, this shortly led me to take a look at the other group in question: namely, "Fuck Catholicism."

Fuck Catholicism is one of a series of group collectively known as the "Fuck X Series," all of which are related to the larger group "Religion is NOT above Criticism!" As you can probably guess, this is a group populated primarily by atheists who have determined that the best way to demonstrate their supposed superiority above non-atheists is by insulting them and tossing about swear-words, all while waving about their little free speech banners and insisting that being immature on the internet is a their right and privilege.

Of course, the mere fact that anyone would dare suggest that Facebook remove their group for ANY reason - despite the fact that Facebook is a privately owned website - immediately makes those in question guilty of "hate." It doesn't matter if they are offended because of their religious affiliations, are standing up against offences in general, or are simply standing up for cleaner language - they are all bunched together as "haters" who are against "free speech." Of course, Facebook, while open to the public, isn't the property of the public, and as such Facebook's owners, administrators, and moderators have the right to control what appears on their site - but that's not the point here, is it?

Before I go on, I want to make one thing clear: I did not, and have no plans to join the Petition group to shut down "Fuck Catholicism." Now, I will say that I don't think groups that contain the word "fuck" in the title should be allowed a Facebook - but as there are many groups outside of the "Fuck X Series" that feature the word in their respective titles, I don't think that "Fuck Catholicism" or any of the other groups from the series can be banned solely on that criteria, unless all groups with "fuck" in the title go with them, which is rather unlikely.

Moving past the vulgarity used in the title, however, I simply don't see any reason to lobby for the group's removal from Facebook. Is the group offensive? Obviously. Does it qualify as a "hate" group? Probably. Are the majority of concerned parties in favour of the groups removal? Well, given that, at the time of this writing, "Fuck Catholicism" has only 471 members, while "PETITION FACEBOOK TO TERMINATE GROUP CALLED 'F**K CATHOLICISM.'" has 9087 members, I'd say absolutely.

But will the group actually get removed? Probably not. Even if it is removed, will that have any positive effect on it's members? Almost certainly not. Will other groups spring up to takes it's place? Most likely. Will the sentiment and the immaturity remain? Of course.

No, Free Speech does not apply to starting Facebook groups - again, Facebook is privately owned - so Facebook doesn't have to let them stay, but they don't have to shut them down either. If a group decides that the best way to express themselves is to act immature and swear, then let them! I'm not offended, and no once else should be either, because there isn't any reason to care about what a group of people who are obviously extremely childish think.

There are always going to be immature, mean, nasty, and "hateful," people around - the world has no shortage of jackasses. Furthermore, these people are always going to find ways of getting together to whine, complain, and try and piss off others. The best thing to do, more often than not, is to just ignore them. For example, had the Petition group not existed, I would never have even found the "Fuck Catholicism" group - after all, it has less than 500 members.

Sure, spreading knowledge is often good - but, conversely, no publicity is bad publicity, and "Fuck Catholicism" is getting a large part of it's publicity from the very people who are trying to shut them down.

Which brings me back to the point: "Fuck Catholicism" is a group populated by people who have decided that the best way to express their atheism is to be immature. They are school yard bullies - the best thing to do is to just ignore them. Let them be immature in their own little clubs, and occupy your own time with greater things: the entire world is out there, so don't focus on a small group of people who would rather try and piss you off then take full advantage of it themselves. Go out and make and find something more important to focus on - like, oh, pretty much anything.

May all your Thursdays be Perpetual...

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=79531134869 - Petition Group
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7823348626 - Fuck Catholicism

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Comments:
I'll be honest here - though I quite understand your reasoning now, I jumped at the opportunity to join the anti-"F**k Catholicism" group before I even finished reading this blog post. My reasons, perhaps, were rather immature themselves. (I have never pretended to be a particularly mature person, to be honest.)

See, I have a habit of responding in a rash, knee-jerk manner to anything that really pisses me off on the Internet. And if anything pisses me off, it's hostility toward religion or conservatism, due to the fact that the sheer amount of it I've seen on the Internet, and the evident pervasiveness of the mindset, has nullified my patience. My joining of an anti-group was more of a "F*** you, radical secularist morons" than anything.

I honestly never considered that I'd be giving them more attention, and that without this attention they'd just look retarded without any need for assistance. Maybe I wouldn't be such a drama-fueler on the Internet in general if I realized stuff like this more often.
Posted by

Grant at 12:06 AM

Interesting insights, Pat. I must agree with Grant, here. Perhaps I too did not realize that joining the group to remove them only gives them more attention, which is their obvious intention...to be heard and to cause an immature fuss.

It seems that the facebook "f**k catholicism" is a hate group in itself, and the anti-group that wantsa to ban it is a hate group as well. I never realized that by joining the anti group I would be acting the same immature way that the other group is acting.

I understand the right of free speech, and believe that those who want to utilize this right have full authority to do so...and yes, since facebook is a private site that allows its users access, then it is up to them to make an appropriate decision as to what to do. They must have encountered this situation before, and have handled it appropriately.

Thanks for the insights Pat. I think I'll see if I can cancel my joining of the group, as a "slap on the face" to them!
Posted by

Anonymous at 12:27 AM

I acknowledge the point you give about ignoring the bad behaviour of the F**k Catholicism group and agree that this is a very effective strategy for dealing with immature and childish behaviour in many circumstances. I do, however, believe that the comparative membership numbers you quote for the two groups send out a very clear message to these people and many others (esp young people), and possibly give others the courage to also defend their beliefs in all sorts of situations.
Posted by

Genevieve at 6:25 PM

Choose carefully what you call "hate speech" or "hate groups." Criticizing religion, now matter how crudely, is a world away from criticizing its adherents. Personally, I HATE religion. I truly depise it. However, I live, work and socialize with hundreds of religious people, and I get along with them fine. I also will defend any person's right to believe in anything they want, wishing only to restrict those beliefs when they cause undo harm others. So, yeah, f**k Catholicism, but judgeCatholics - and anyone else - by their deeds.
Posted by

Unknown at 10:27 PM

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