Are Internet Atheists assholes?

I've been an atheist on the internet almost as long as there has been an internet.  I have written, literally, hundreds of thousands of words on the subject of religion, god, and morality.  Online discussion forums, chat rooms, private messages, Facebook.  Hell, I was arguing about religion on AOL, back when that was the only way I could get internet access at home.

One thing that I noticed almost from the beginning:  Internet atheists are assholes.

Before anyone gets all self-righteously annoyed, let's define some terms and I'll explain.  By 'internet atheist' I mean someone who spends their time (free or otherwise) arguing and/or having the discussion about religion with others on the internet.  The people who care enough about truth to try and explain to other people why religion isn't true.  The atheist zealots.  Me.

When I say 'Internet atheists are assholes' please understand this is not the value judgement I am making.  This is the value judgement the religious are making.  Spend enough time publicly speaking out about the fact that religion is false and you'll get called an asshole.  (Or a rough equivalent.)

It doesn't matter what you say or how you say it:  just pointing out that there is no good rational justification for religious belief makes you an asshole - to the believer.

The internet atheist has long had a reputation for being rude, snarky, insulting, etc.  And some are, without a doubt.  But there are many out there who take great pains to be polite, not use value heavy language, not insult, not belittle or be condescending.  And it doesn't matter - believers will still call them assholes.  (Or some other milder term that is a less vulgar way of calling them an asshole.)

The simple fact that an online atheist has to learn to live with - you will be called horrible names by the religious if you have the gall to voice your opinion.

SO, as an outspoken atheist, you are caught in a trap:  if you express yourself, you will be told, repeatedly, that YOU are the person with the problem, and you are the person who needs to change they attitude, tone, language, etc.  (Usually while at the same time being threatened with eternal torture, threatened with imminent physical harm, told you have no capacity for morality, etc.)

It gets old, fast.  Especially if you are trying very hard to be polite and kind to the believers you are engaging.

But the question comes up; why are there some internet atheists who truly ARE (or seem to be) assholes.  They literally do meet every comment, question, or religious meme with a venom and invective much more suited to responding to some vile villain in a mid-day melodrama.

There's a few things everyone needs to understand about the online atheist phenomena:

1:  This isn't small groups anymore, isolated, alone and in hiding.  There are literally hundreds of websites devoted to hosting the argument being had.  The single largets and most used is probably reddit's r/atheism discussion forum.  With just over 2 million subscribed readers it covers every topic imaginable, nearly daily.  The subreddit devoted exclusively to arguing about religion r/DebateReligion has over 25,000 members, and generates over 300K pageviews each month.  (With the unique pageviews being in the low 50K range monthly.)

2:  It isn't just that I refuted this argument 6 years ago. I have refuted it at least once a week, every week, for the last several years.  What I mean is that every single argument in favor of gods has been decisively dealt with, repeatedly.  Internet atheists have written voluminous amounts on EVERY SINGLE argument religious believers make.  And that has created permanent archives, widely available.  But the believers keep presenting the same (bad) arguments every day.  Referring again to reddit:  Pascal's wager is posted nearly once a day as a challenge that atheists can't answer.  (Obviously, it's been answered repeatedly.)

3:  I would wager that your average preacher does not deal with the as much adversarial discussion of these ideas during their career as the average internet atheist does in a year.  Yes, I am SERIOUS about this claim, even though I have no data I can present to back it up besides my own anecdotal experience.  The average religious person will NEVER have to defend their faith in a rational, logical manner.  The average internet atheist defends their position damn near daily.

4:  I think Tim Minchin said it best "I think the trouble with being a critical thinker or an atheist, or a humanist is that you’re right. And it’s quite hard being right in the face of people who are wrong without sounding like a fuckwit. People go “do you think the vast majority of the world is wrong”, well yes. I don’t know how to say that nicely, but yes."  Atheists get accused of being arrogant, self-righteous, and know-it-alls, to name but a few.  And this is the root of it:  EVERY piece of evidence, every valid argument, every single experience of every human's life confirms the non-existence of god.

Atheists ARE right.  And no one is a bigger asshole than the guy who is right, and knows it.