atheists are clearly the dominant demographic right now, but we're apathetic by nature and tend not to really care much about religion one way or the other. most of us don't even see at as worth being afraid of - it's too irrelevant to even fear.
i'm not representative of anybody; i'm always twenty years ahead of everybody, and what i'm trying to do is wake atheists up a little and get them to realize the threat that's in front of them - and know they won't unless pushed. and, that's probably the actual truth, that you're going to have to really push people hard to get them to react, and even the pandemic restrictions have only created a muted reaction because they really aren't enough to have people feel as though their rights are being taken from them, yet.
if you just take it on face value, if you eliminate the obvious symbolism that is going right over your average atheist's head, then wearing a mask is a triviality, right? i mean, who cares - it's just a stupid mask. what's the big deal?
it's when you take it to the next step that you're going to get people going "heeyyyyyy. wait a minute. you said i had to wear a mask to protect from diseases, but now you want me to lie on my face and mumble this nonsense facing...which way? why that way? this is lame. and weird. so, fuck off."
the premise of incrementally converting people relies on the assumption that they understand what's going on and will submit to it; if they don't even understand what the fuck is happening, you're just going to get a delayed reaction.
so, every time i go to google news it's something else. now, the who wants to ban alcohol. right. well, that's the kind of thing that'll get people out of their seats.
it could be a good thing in the long run if it wakes us up and convince us to be more politically aware. a cohesive atheist voting bloc might seem like a pipe dream, but it just might save the world if it's coerced into existence by the "liberals" organizing on the religious right.