On Twitter –
This is a public information announcement: If you self-identify as a “freethinker” or a “progressive” it can seem just a tad conceited.
So does that mean it’s conceited to write for The Freethinker? Probably. Oh well.
(The truth is I don’t self-identify as either of those, because it’s true, it does sound conceited. I don’t like self-flattering labels, and I do avoid them. I prefer neutral, factual ones, when I can find them. That’s part of why I found Shermer’s jeers about “self-declared secular feminists” bizarre, when surely both words are factual more than they are self-flattering. But not calling oneself a freethinker doesn’t preserve one from doing things like writing for The Freethinker. What is one supposed to do? Ask them to change the name? But it’s a good name, and it’s been that name since the 19th century.
Anyway patrolling other people’s vanity can seem just a tad conceited, too. “Just saying.”)