Richard Dawkins' loss of influence

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The Elevatorgate controversy and Richard Dawkins' commentary about Muslims has generated bad press and public relations problems for Dawkins.

Richard Dawkins is one of the principle founders of the New Atheism movement which is a form of militant atheism in terms of its rhetoric. In recent years, the prominence of the New Atheism movement has greatly waned (see: Decline of New Atheism).

The Elevatorgate controversy and Richard Dawkins' commentary about women and about Muslims have generated a significant amount of bad press and public relations problems for Dawkins (See also: Elevatorgate news stories and Richard Dawkins and women and Richard Dawkins and Islamophobia accusations).

Martin Robbins at New Statesman: Dawkins grasping for attention and relevance

See also: Elevatorgate news stories

In 2013, Martin Robbins wrote in the New Statesman concerning the public persona of Dawkins: "Increasingly though, his public output resembles that of a man desperately grasping for attention and relevance..."[1]

Recently, Richard Dawkins has been reduced to Tweeting provocative Twitter post in order to gain attention. After the predictable ensuing uproar, Dawkins half-heartedly apologizes for the provocative Tweets.[2]

Following of Richard Dawkins has markedly diminished

A 2011 portrait of Rebecca Watson. Watson was a central figure in the Elevatorgate scandal.

See also: Elevatorgate news stories and Blog posts on Elevatorgate

Although his following of Dawkian atheist has significantly waned post Elevatorgate and due to his generally abrasive manner, as noted above, he does retain a small cult following (See: Richard Dawkins' cult of personality and Atheist cults). In addition, Dawkins frequently faces accusations of engaging in Islamophobia (see: Richard Dawkins and Islamophobia accusations).

As noted above, Dawkins is a leading figure in the New Atheism movement. The movement was called a cult by the agnostic, journalist Bryan Appleyard in a 2012 article in the New Statesman in which he describes the abusive behavior of New Atheists.[3] See also: Atheist cults

Decline of New Atheism

See also: Decline of New Atheism

On November 6, 2015, the New Republic published an article entitled, Is the New Atheism dead?[4]

In 2015, the atheist author Joshua Kelly wrote:

...since the death of Hitchens: angry atheism lost its most charismatic champion. Call it what you like: New Atheism, fire-brand atheism, etc., had a surge with the Four Horsemen in the middle of the last decade and in the last four years has generally peetered out to a kind that is more docile, politically correct, and even apologetic.[5]

In addition, New Atheism's abrasiveness/aggressiveness caused it to wore thin over time in terms of its public relations (see also: Atheism and public relations).

Google trends data on monthly searches for the term "Richard Dawkins"

Google Trends shows how often a particular search-term is entered relative to the total search-volume. It provides Google search volume data across various regions of the world, and in various languages.

Below is a Google trends data graph related to monthly Google searches for the term "Richard Dawkins".

Google trends data graph related to monthly Google searches for the term "Richard Dawkins".

Initial loss of web traffic to Richard Dawkins's website post Elevatorgate

According to the web traffic tracking company Quantcast, the web traffic of Richard Dawkins' website fell in 2012.[6] By October 2014, the web traffic for his website fell to a lower level according to Quantcast.[7]

In October of 2012, Rebecca Watson published a story about Elevatorgate and its aftermath in Slate entitled, It Stands to Reason, Skeptics Can Be Sexist Too: I spoke out about sexual harassment among atheists and scientists. Then came the rape threats.[8]

The web traffic was measured via Quantcast which directly measured Dawkins' website traffic via embedded code on his website.[9]

Web traffic of Richard Dawkins' website has seen a dramatic drop

The above graph shows the monthly website traffic to Richard Dawkins' website as of June 22, 2015 in terms of unique monthly web visitors.[10] As you can see above, in 2012, Richard Dawkins saw a very large decrease in web traffic.

The website traffic is measured via Quantcast which directly measures Dawkins' website traffic via embedded code on his website.[9]

Alexa ranking of Richard Dawkins' website

See also: Alexa rankings of Richard Dawkins' website

According to Alexa, Richard Dawkins website lost a large amount of its global market share during to period between 2010 and the beginning portion of 2012.
In 2016, Richard Dawkins' website lost a considerable amount of global market share according to the web traffic tracking company Alexa.
In 2015, Richard Dawkins' website fell in terms of its Alexa ranking.
In the latter half of 2016, Richard Dawkins' website saw a significant decline in its Alexa ranking.
In 2016 and the in the beginning portion of 2017, the global internet market share of of Richard Dawkins' website has been falling according to the web traffic tracking company Alexa.
In March of 2017, according to Alexa, Richard Dawkins' website was experiencing a steep decline in terms of its global market share.
In April of 2017, according to Alexa, Richard Dawkins' website continued to experience a steep decline in terms of its global market share.
In June of 2017, Richard Dawkins' website continued its trend of a declining Alexa ranking. As of June 23, 2017, Richard Dawkins' website was the 138,009th most popular website in the world according to Alexa.
On September 4, 2017, according to Alexa, Richard Dawkins' website was the 133,104th most popular website in the world.
On November 27, 2017, Richard Dawkins' website was the 158,206th most popular website in the world.

His website was losing global market share in the latter quarter of 2017.
On November 9, 2018, Richard Dawkins' website was the 190,708th most popular website in the world according to Alexa.

Compared to 2017, Richard Dawkins' website lost global market share according to Alexa.
On November 1, 2020, Richard Dawkins' website was the 194,776th most popular website in the world according to Alexa.

On November 1, 2020, the daily time on his website for an average web visitor to his website was 1 minute and 36 seconds according to Alexa.

2021 Alexa rankings of Richard Dawkins' website

On November 26, 2021, Richard Dawkins' website was the 428,287th most popular website in the world according to Alexa.

Coverage of Richard Dawkins speaking tour

In 2016, the Shadow To Light blog wrote in article entitled Fading Dawkins:

Dawkins has been on a speaking tour recently in the United States. On Nov 1 and 2, he had a “public conversation” with Sam Harris.

In the golden years of Gnu, there would have been a couple of news reports about this talk filled with some click-bait quote and I’d probably be blogging about something they said. But despite Dawkins’ return to the speaker circuit, and despite him teaming up with Sam Harris for two days, I can’t find a single report. No one outside that theater is interested in what two of the Four Horsemen had to say.

Look, Dawkins and Harris will always have their place among the Madalyn Murray O’Hair crowd. But as far as breaking out into the mainstream is concerned, the fad has run its course.[11]

Compete.com web traffic data for Richard Dawkins website

According to the web traffic tracking Compete.com, Richard Dawkins website saw a loss of web traffic during the period between 4/2011 to 4/2012.

Elevatorgate news stories

See also: Elevatorgate news stories

Below is a list of news stories about the Elevatorgate scandal which involved Richard Dawkins and Rebecca Watson.

Rebecca Watson's article appearing in a news outlet

Subsequent articles mentioning Elevatorgate incident

Richard Dawkins and Twitter

See also: Richard Dawkins and Twitter

Despite the medical advice of his doctors, Richard Dawkins had a very active Twitter presence before his minor stroke (with a number of Twitter controversies) and numerous public controversies.[12]

Dawkins has accumulated over 30,000 Twitter tweets.[13] The Independent reported, "Dawkins also admitted he wasn't very good at managing Twitter and the strong reactions his posts tend to provoke. 'Twitter is very difficult medium to handle,' he said. 'I’m not much of a diplomat.'"[14] However, after his stroke, in May 2016, Dawkins gave up posting on Twitter and the tweets that appear in his name are done by his staff.[15]

Diminishing meme of Richard Dawkins and the rising memes of Jesus Christ and global creationism

See also: Global Christianity and Global creationism

Richard Dawkins coined the term and the concept of a meme. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a meme as "an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture."

Professor Eric Kaufmann told a secular audience in Australia: "The trends that are happening worldwide inevitably in an age of globalization are going to affect us."[16] See: Decline of global atheism

Johns Hopkins University Press reported in 2014 about global creationism: "Over the past forty years, creationism has spread swiftly among European Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Hindus, and Muslims, even as anti-creationists sought to smother its flames."[17] See also: Evolutionary indoctrination

Atheists declaring that Richard Dawkins is now a liability to the atheist movement

See also: Atheism and public relations

Post Elevatorgate and subsequent to his various embarrassing/inflammatory Twitter posts, many atheists are now asking if he is a liability to the atheist movement.[18]

See also:

Google search results reflecting Richard Dawkins' loss of public influence

Screen cap about Richard Dawkins loss of influence.PNG

See also

Essays:

External links

References

  1. Atheism is maturing, and it will leave Richard Dawkins behind
  2. The 12-Stage 'Evolution' Of A Richard Dawkins Twitter Scandal, By Paul Vale, The Huffington Post UK, Posted: 22/08/2014 02:06 BST
  3. The God wars by Bryan Appleyard, New Statesman
  4. Is the New Atheism dead? by Elizabeth Bruenig, New Republic, November 6, 2015
  5. Uproar Against Dawkins Is Sign of New Atheism Retrogression by Joshua Kelly
  6. 2012 has been a very BAD year for Richard Dawkins's website according to Quantcast
  7. Richard Dawkins' loss of influence
  8. It Stands to Reason, Skeptics Can Be Sexist Too: I spoke out about sexual harassment among atheists and scientists. Then came the rape threats by Rebecca Watson, Slate, October 2012
  9. 9.0 9.1 Quantcast - Quantcast Measure
  10. Web traffic of Richard Dawkins' main website
  11. Fading Dawkins
  12. Richard Dawkins Twitter
  13. Richard Dawkins defends Ahmed Mohamed comments and dismisses Islamophobia as a 'non-word'
  14. Dawkins: I’ve Given Up Twitter.
  15. Shall the religious inherit the earth - Festival of Dangerous Ideas - Eric Kaufmann
  16. Creationism spreading in Europe