We’re in the 21st century, and the vast majority of us still believe in an utterly and obviously fictional creator deity. Plenty of people, even in developed countries with decent educational systems, still believe in ghosts or magic (e.g. voodoo). And I–an atheist and a skeptic–am told I need to respect these patently false beliefs as cultural traditions.
Fuck that. They’re bad cultural traditions, undeserving of respect. Child-proofing society for these intellectually stunted people doesn’t help them; it is in fact a disservice to them to pretend it’s okay to go through life believing these things. We should demand that people contend with reality on a factual basis by the time they reach adulthood (even earlier, if I’m being completely honest). We shouldn’t be coddling people who profess beliefs that are demonstrably false, simply because their feelings might get hurt.
It’s an umbrella term. Different versions of atheism exist. They’re all atheism because they’re all about not believing in god(s).
Each can still have their own emphasis or extras. You’re obviously still an atheist if you don’t believe in god(s), and think that this would be an extremely stupid thing to do. For example, consider this venn diagram:
Explanation here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_and_positive_atheism
This implies that there are forms of atheism which are no belief, and other forms of atheism which are a belief.
I agree about your general observation, and am myself guilty of that. Many comments of our crowd lack the intellectual depth and honesty they would need to be in a position to make such statements. One should also ponder over the question wether this approach works as intended, and even if, wether it’s a good thing to do so.