This is a nice change of pace from the more recent status quo of attack anyone who disagrees with me as stupid…. I like this.
My position has always been that this is all good. I have never endeavored to tell other people what to do with their own activism. If Penn and Teller want to have a skeptical/libertarian show, that’s their right. They can do what they want. The Skepchicks combine feminism and skepticism, and PZ combines (by his own account) skepticism, atheism, and liberal politics. My view – let a thousand lights shine. At the end of the day, we are all skeptics. Let’s celebrate that, and we can still argue about our differences but let’s not pretend that any skepticism-plus is the one-true-skepticism just because it’s our own.
My momma always said there are three things you don’t talk about in polite conversation; sex, politics and religion. The lesson isn’t that you shouldn’t talk about these things, it’s just that people are rarely polite about these sorts of things.