There's a movement among secular humanists to call themselves "The Brights," a cynical attempt to rebrand themselves as a minority with a positive-sounding name. Richard Dawkins compares this to the appropriation of the word "gays" by the homosexual community. Can a persecuted minority force the opposition to use this term, associating secularists with brightness in all its connotations? So far, the answer seems to be no; how many right-wing groups have you heard use the term?

The movement itself immediately divided the secular humanists: some thought it was a great idea, others considered it arrogant and condescending. I'm with the latter. To see why this is potentially a huge, backfiring PR disaster, I'll examine the analogy to "gays" more closely. Like everything else, these names are not created equal. They exist on a spectrum from good to horrible, like this:

|----------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------|
"The Happys"......."The Gays".................................................."The Brights"..... "The Insufferable Assholes"

It really speaks for itself.  ¶ 10:50 AM