About

The Spittoon is a blog venue for the views and ideas of a group of writers and activists who oppose religious supremacism and clerical fascism in all its various stripes and denominations. It aims to contribute ideas to that intellectual tradition, now losing ground to power structures and religious “orthodoxies”. Ideas which respect ‘a willingness to dialogue, a spirit of criticism, moderation of judgment, philological scruple, a sense of the complexity of things’.

By taking on issues related to politics and religious identity, the Spittoon takes a strong line against politicised religious extremism and restrictions on free speech in our society today. The Spittoon recognises the need to address rising levels of racism, antisemitism and anti-Muslim bigotry without resorting to unhelpful and trivialising accusations of “Islamophobia”.

The Spittoon is committed to the principles of liberal democracy, a pluralist, non-sectarian society and the protection of universal Enlightenment values, human rights and secularism. The Spittoon champions the work of activists, writers and intellectuals striving against the proponents of grossly simplifying ideas which advocate the use of extremism and violence to achieve their aims. These reductivist offshoots of belief systems, rooted in patriarchial and primitive tendencies, which are now resurgent political ideologies will be challenged here on the Spittoon.

By doing so, we hope to contribute to a renewal of the politics of democratic radicalism by providing a forum for serious analysis and debate.

Comments Policy

“Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.” – Thomas Paine

The Spittoon is a privately run blog and the editors reserve the right to remove any comment without entering into correspondence over their decisions. Free and frank discussion is always encouraged at the Spittoon, and we expect  commenters to principally moderate themselves. We fully appreciate that discussions can often often result in heated exchanges replete with colourful language and ask you to respect others at all times especially when passions are aroused.

Disclaimer

The fact that a comment appears, or has not been deleted, in no way implies an endorsement by The Spittoon of that comment or its author’s views. Quite simply, we do not have the time or resources to police the comments section in the way newspapers or professional content providers do. Comments submitted are owned by the person who made them and are not the views of the site’s editors, contributors, guest posters or other commentators.