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Hedges makes the classic mistake of assuming atheists have some sort of organized faith-based belief structure that is similar to Fundamentalism. Nothing can be further from the truth. The defining characteristic of atheism is the lack of belief in a deity, with the substitution of a naturalistic, evidence-based philosophy in its place.
Anything that is outside of that particular definition is not atheism. It might be politics or polemics, but it's not atheism.
Then to prove his "point" he picks three prominent atheists, one of whom he ignores because "he's British," the second he calls "shallow" and the third, "amoral," offering no evidence to back any of this up.
The main reason why atheists are speaking up is that they are tired of:
- having religion forced down their throat
- having societies' decisions being made, or budgets spent, on faith-based (as opposed to evidence-based) fiascos.
- having religion as a litmus test for almost any public endeavor
Most atheists don't give a crap what other people believe; if you want to believe in fairies or unicorns or deities, that's fine. Just don't try to legislate your beliefs or ram them into public schools, or fly planes into our buildings.
