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So, I've been wanting to talk about this for a while now. I just kind of want to address people who hold this massive sometimes irrational hatred for The Amazing Atheist for whatever reason. So, if you do hate him, go ahead and say why here.

I just find it kind of annoying how people just dismiss him and everything he has to say for some pretty dumb reasons. Some people have good reasons, but a lot of them are just petty. Take for example, him always being mad and flinging curse words everywhere. Loads of YouTubers do that. It's for entertainment. TAA is just a character, just like The Nostalgia Critic or AVGN. They get mad at everything in over-the-top fashions too, it's just he does it with sensitive real world issues so people think it's rude when it's the same thing. If you hear him talk as himself he's actually calm, collected, and not rude at all really. For those of you who think he's sexist, that's just a myth. He bashes feminism and is a major source of all the feminist hate out there, but he just likes making fun of the hardcore feminists who don't really want equality. If you actually heard him out you'd know he supports women's rights.

If you hate him for the rape jokes he made all those years ago, get over it, that was years ago. He's changed significantly since then. He's practically had an entire make-over of his character. He apologized for those comments long ago and said he was pretty arrogant and dumb back then and regrets it. He made a whole video on it recently explaining that whole escapade. He also said that jokes should be allowed and not suppressed because they're just that: jokes. Like George Carlin said, people should feel free to joke about anything, even if it is offensive which TAA admitted and apologized for.

If you hate him for the banana thing, that's the pettiest reason of all. He does whatever the hell he wants personally.

Well, that's about all I have to say about it for now. Am I a butthurt fanboy defending some big popular person who doesn't need defense? Well, yeah, I admit that. Don't ignore what I said because of it though. Well, one more thing, if you hate him for being an outspoken anti-theist, I don't really have anything to say to that. Go ahead. It's no reason to hate him though. That's pretty petty hating someone for having a world-view different than yours. You're offended by what he says, so what? Don't watch him, but don't hate him and try to silence him either. Also, I don't get why he gets all the hate specifically. There are loads of other YouTube atheists, some worse than him. CultOfDusty is even louder and more obnoxious than TAA. His entire shtick is trying to be louder than who he's arguing against. He hardly presents arguments and just yells everything. MrRepzion is a sleazy dirtbag who abuses YouTube's system to silence people he doesn't like by flagging their videos and glorifies suicide like it's something beautiful. Even other YouTube atheists hate him.

Anyways, thoughts? Sorry for the wall if you bothered to read it.

TAA is just a character, just like The Nostalgia Critic or AVGN.

But they suck too.

Well, if you think they all suck then that's fine. It's just when people hypocritically criticize people for doing the same thing others do yet get little flack for it.

People say they hate him because he's an asshole. I enjoy him partially because he knows he's an asshole, acknowledges that he's an asshole, and jokes about how he's an asshole. That's something that I've only seen before with a few great stand-up comedians, like Patton Oswalt, and it's the kind of thing that fits in well with my personal worldview. I also happen to agree with most of his arguments- well, no shit, who the hell would watch a vlogger who constantly says things that they believe to be wrong?

I just didn't think he was funny

I follow The Amazing Atheist's blog on Tumblr. Contrary to what his username suggests, he's actually more of an anti-feminist blogger (but not an MRA) than an atheist blogger. I like to get a range of viewpoints, so I followed him to balance out the feminists and SJW that I'm following.

Sam, those things you've mentioned (such as the banana incident and his swearing): his detractors use them to attack him because he's easy to attack from that angle. I doubt all that many people hate him solely because of such incidents; I suspect the reason why they hate him in the first place is for the same reason why most people on the internet hate one another – different opinions. He's both an anti-theist and an anti-feminist (not a good combo); both a married man and a libertine (not a good combo); both an anti-Republican and a capitalist (not a good combo). He also frequently trashes both Political Correctness (Liberals) and Family Values (Conservatives).

The result is that he is a free radical who has very few major allies, if any at all – in other words, he doesn't have a 'camp' to defend him, which makes him easy to hate via "he's the Fred Phelps of atheism" circlejerks.

He's just a massive dick.

He is just a dick, but when he's actually serious, he makes good points.

Please elaborate. Also, I explained why he's a dick. It's a character. He can be serious and often is.

The "he's a character" defense isn't always going to cut it. Just like saying "it was just a joke" isn't going to make people feel less insulted by an off color statement. He may be totally different in real life, he could be fucking Jesus in real life, but if the way he presents himself to the audience is through the character of a complete asshole and some people don't like it, well, that's a completely legitimate reason to not like his videos or the points he makes.

Personally, I find TAA to be the Anita Sarkeesian of the anti-feminist/atheism vlogging world. There are some good points he makes, and I can occasionally agree with what he says, but just like Anita sometimes his arguments lack a complete understanding of the subject matter or even purposefully leaves out information for the sake of strengthening their argument. Not to mention the tendency to use logical fallacies among other poor argument tactics.

I'd like some specific examples of the fallacies and stuff, but I guess your hate is warranted if it's for that. Seriously, though, could I have an example or two of him being heavily fallacious recently? I'm sure he's made some mistakes on facts and things, but is he really at the level of Anita?

Crimson Locks wrote:

There are some good points he makes, and I can occasionally agree with what he says

You sound like you've actually watched some of his content, which puts you above most people who dislike him. But yeah, like Sam, I'd like a few examples of these fallacies you claim he commits.

One of the reasons why I find TAA to be an engaging person is that fact that he constantly responds to critics on his Tumblr; amongst his responses are constant requests for his critics to back up their accusations with actual evidence from his videos. Such accusations are worth little otherwise.

I have no problem with actual atheism advocates Bertrand Russell, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, etc (though modern ones like Dawkins and Hitchens can be dicks sometimes) but this guy is an idiot and a total douche bag. read this article on rationalwiki about some of the stuff he's done:

>Pedophile
>claims vegans do it to show off
>says rape survivors aren't "survivors" because they weren't close to death
>people who commit suicide are weak
>"Men's rights"
> "being a bully doesn't make you a monster, and being bullied doesn't make you a victim"
>stole thousands in donated funds from a website and documentary he said he was going to make but never did

@Starscream

Holy hell, yeah, I've heard about the fundraiser extortion thing. If what I've heard about it is true, he certainly is an asshole. (I'll probably still watch his stuff anyways because I still like the content. No reason not to)

As for him being a pedophile, so what? In my opinion, as long as you don't act on it it's fine. Being attracted to younger people is just like any other sexual attraction/fetish. You can't really choose it. I doubt he ever really is going to have sex with a kid.

On the vegan thing, yeah, I guess that's pretty ignorant but I can get over it. Lots of them actually do though. Not the majority at all but many do. Also, plenty of vegans like to act like they're morally superior to everyone who eats meat which leads to that stereotype.

People who commit suicide are mentally weak since they couldn't handle life, but strong since they had the guts to go through with it so he is partially right.

What's your deal with men's rights? Men's problems exist. There are plenty out there to handle. It's not like he's an MRA. In fact, he thinks being an MRA is sort of a stupid position.

Also, I don't really think a bias-hell like Rational Wiki is a very good source. Some of your points aren't very good, but I can see why you hate him for a few of them. I guess your reasoning is all right.

Looks like Sam ninja'd me, but I'm going to submit what I've typed up anyway.

@Lord Starscream

RationalWiki? That's a hit-and-miss website with far too much of a soft spot for feminism for its own good. Read their article on Elevatorgate and take note of the bias. The site's take on gender issues is essentially the polar opposite of TAA's take, so of course his article is not terribly flattering. If your entire source of information on him is from there, then you are being misled.

Pedophile

This was back in his pre-Youtube days, when he was an anarcho-capitalist (he admits to having once idolized Ayn Rand) and undeniably a douchebag. He has since recanted his previous position on the age of consent, alongside the vast majority of his anarchist beliefs following his shift towards liberalism. People can change, shockingly.

claims vegans do it to show off

The exact quote from the article: "He has gone as far as to accuse most vegans of feigning their ideology in order to appear unique and holier-than-thou."
If you take a look at most of the vegans who criticize him, and the examples which he highlights in his counter-criticisms, many of the vegans who he runs into absolutely do have a holier-than-thou attitude towards non-vegans.

says rape survivors aren’t “survivors” because they weren’t close to death

Once again, those statements were from years ago. Please watch the above video (released a few days ago) where he defends himself from the most common criticisms levied against him in a (relative to his usual style) respectable way. The person who he defends himself from, Greta Christina (atheist and feminist), is now banning anyone who posts the video as a reply to her article.

people who commit suicide are weak

“being a bully doesn’t make you a monster, and being bullied doesn’t make you a victim”

He has something resembling a point if you watch that specific video, but this is one of many areas where I disagree with him, so I'm not going to defend him here.

As for Amanda Todd, many of the users of this very site had the same point of view in our article for her.

"Men's rights"

What about 'em?

stole thousands in donated funds from a website and documentary he said he was going to make but never did

Link to the IMDb page for the documentary
Link to Not Productive, which is currently hosted on Youtube

TL;DR: the RationalWiki page on him consists of outdated information and misrepresentations of his beliefs.

@Sam

I don't hate him, I just think hes a douche. Hate is an extremely strong word and I think it gets used way too much. Don't assume I hate a man because I disagree with what he does. Also, Rationalwiki gives sources for all their statements, so you can see the stuff for yourself or use it as a jumping off point for further research into that poopy-poop-head.

With the pedophilia thing he actually has acted on it. He admitted to dating a 14 year when he was 23 mark on the video, age of consent in the US is 18) and stated that he thinks the age of consent should be lowered to 12 or 13.

People who commit suicide are not weak, suicide is a moment of temporary insanity.

I'm not denying the existence of men's rights issues, but the majority of "issues" are blown out of proportion. As for whether or not he's a MRA, why would he have been scheduled to speak at a men's rights rally?

@particle mare

so basically he is claiming it was all a joke? But posting several violent comments telling a rape victim to relive her experience and the he should beat her and rape her doesn't seem like a "rape joke" now does it? Like the murder joke example he gave in the video wasn't directed at someone who saw their family killed and it didn't sound like "relive that night Clarice Imagine him slicing your mom's head off!" or "I should fucking kill you!" it was "my wife has the body of a 16 year old, its in the freezer."

Also, I couldn't find that still movie and a youtube page is not a website, and he still stole funds.

Wikipedia: "In law enforcement circles, the term pedophile is sometimes used in a broad manner to encompass a person who commits one or more sexually-based crimes that relate to legally underage victims."

About half of every video on feminism mentions at some point that he thinks considering yourself a "Men's Rights Activist" is just as stupid, and for the same reasons. Also, I'd be avoiding RationalWiki when it comes to anything internet-related. They may give sources for the facts that they state, but if you'll take the time to examine it you'd notice that it's also full of emotionally-charged, opinionated conclusions that do not belong on an encyclopedia, let alone one that specifically professes to be "rational"
In general, the things people try to use to insult TAA's… "morality" (I guess) are out of date. As just one example, in the following video he specifically states that in the three years since he made his points on vegetarians, vegans and the like his views have evolved, and that he felt awkward defending his old self who he didn't necessarily agree with anymore.

People like to harp on this over and over again ad nauseum, despite the fact that TJ admitted he went too far in his comments towards her and tried to apologize. I challenge anyone here to admit that they've never said anything they later regretted.

@Sam and Particle:
I'll admit it's been a couple years since I've seen any of his videos and I'm frankly too lazy to actually search for an instance where he uses a fallacy. It's not like he used them all the time, I just remember recognizing it happening one or two times even though I don't remember what exactly it was. Whatever.

And yes, I do think he's "as bad" as Anita. Keep in mind I don't find Anita's videos all that bad either, but I find a lot of similarities in the way they argue (although TAA is obviously much crasser).

Way to ignore everything that happened here on this thread and how that happened years and years ago.

@Particle Mare

You sure do have better arguments than me and you're taking charge here. It isn't the first time. Cool! Keep going. This is entertaining.

@ Crimson Locks

Sure, I didn't really expect you to look anything up. It's a silly internet debate about a YouTuber. I was just hoping maybe you'd remember something.

I'd like to step in to clear up a misconception. The website "Not Productive" was not a scam and he did not swindle his fans out of their money. He addressed this in responding to a user who had the same complaints; this was during an episode of his podcast, The Drunken Peasants.

THE PART IN QUESTION BEGINS AT 2:00:45

TL;DW: Not Productive was just the result of unfortunate circumstances.

As he says in the video, the remarks were made in the middle of a several hour-long flamewar which included both sides hurling equally potent amounts of abuse at each other. Were his remarks vile and horrible? Yes, but he was in vile and horrible company. The point is, there were no "bullies" or "victims" when the incident occurred, only two sides trying their best to piss the other off as much as possible.

Also, keep in mind that he has disowned those comments. In the video which I provided, he states that he almost immediately regretted making them, and has apologized several times to no fruition.

Here's a link to the leaked documentary.
He has asked his fans to buy it in several of his earlier videos, though I'm not sure about its availability at the moment. Many people have pirated it (as well as all of his books), but the little bit of anarchism left inside of him has lead him to outright endorse the pirating on several occasions on his Tumblr, stating that getting his message out is more important than money.

We don't know if they actually had sex or not. He mentioned "briefly" dating her. Also, it's not even clear whether he was being serious or just trying to stir his friends up.

Truthfully, I don't know much about the guy except for his titled videos and some debacle some time ago with a libertarian known as HowtheWorldWorks, a debacle of his crazed. . .'fans'. . .going into the guy's videos for blind down voting. Don't remember the details, but from this thread, the amazing atheist doesn't sound all that amazing.

As a republican christian myself, my opinion of him from outlooks is obvious enough.

Youtube atheism however. . . .oh boy, that is a rant all on it's own from experience for a completely different thread. Lets just say, Reddit wasn't the birth place of the arrogant 'Euphoric' atheist.

I heard that most people hate him for eBegging, but i'm not quite sure how to think of that.