Washington Area Secular Humanists Meetup Group

For all new people – Only vetted secular people will receive the meeting links with a separate email. Please see the instructions at the end of this post. Our meetings are much more pleasurable without Christian trolls zoom booming our discussions. The vetting is worth the effort.

Those who treasure free speech have to love the restart of the Jimmy Kimmel show after being indefinitely suspended. The over 6 million viewers watching the first night back was dwarfed by the over 20 million viewers just on youtube. The 23% of stations that did not carry the show the first night were forced to reverse their decision because of the overwhelming demand. Total views are now over 30 million and climbing. Of course, this administration continues to be dedicated to punishing speech that skewers their obscene cruelties, and scientific absurdities. Our laughter at the absurdities does a lot to make things more bearable.

We should have compassion for the pregnant women who in some cases now have to fear taking Tylenol - acetaminophen. It has a record as the safest medication for pain or fever. There is no evidence of any causal connection with that medication and autism. Careful medical science is now being replaced with “gut feelings” inspired by conspiracy theories.

I was positively impressed by Kevin Bolling. He gave us an excellent overview of the on-going attack on education on Sept. 20. I was happy to talk with him afterward and hear about the 450 chapters of the Secular Student Alliance and the excellent success they are having with area universities. However, the over 2,000 chapters of Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA (in over 3,500 schools) makes it clear that our side is massively outgunned in terms of resources and committed activists. The five hour service in remembrance of Kirk filled two stadiums. It was a rather explicit religious revival with fireworks and rock concert intensity. They claimed to have over 10,000 requests to have new chapters created.

Obviously there are many dozens of other mind boggling insanities available for our next community meeting and discussions. Let us not to forget to have fun in spite of all of this. Our community is here to both acknowledge the chaos and somehow remain sane in spite of insanity. We can connect and share our thoughts on how to remain positive.

Please see directions below for new members who would like to receive the zoom link to attend.

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Our meetings have become a target for organized zoom bombing. Our major topic of discussion has been Christian nationalism and its hideous impacts across America. They have good reason to try to force us to stop our meetings. This requires us to work to preclude militant religious extremists from wrecking our meetings.

We will not post the zoom link for our meeting. The zoom link information will be delivered by email or direct personal messaging to trusted attendees only. I am now comfortable that this procedure works well enough so that a zoom waiting room will not be required.

I have a Google Voice phone number, (202) 643-4366. I do not answer calls to that number. But it does an excellent job of transcribing messages. People can use this number to verbally describe items requested in a possible email below.
I use the email: don1wharton (at) outlook (dot) com for social media, including Meetup. Please email the following:

Name:
Zoom ID if different than name:
your email to receive zoom info:
Specify that you are RSVPing for this meeting only if you
do not want to receive future zoom invites.
--People can UNSUBSCRIBE by replying to a future zoom invite with UNSUB in the subject line.

If you are a first time attendee, please share prior secular activities or cite your prior secular meetup attendance (making sure it is visible for us to confirm it) or arrange for a brief phone or zoom interview at a time of your convenience. This should insure enjoyable meetings.
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