Latest / Brett Keane and Eve Show / The Story of TJ Kirk TheAmazingAtheist | The Relic of a Forgotten Age

Transcript

The Story of TJ Kirk TheAmazingAtheist | The Relic of a Forgotten Age · Brett Keane and Eve Show

• 0:06
  Races to you. Again.
• 0:37
  It's the 2000s, Linkin Park was the hot thing, the 6th
• 0:41
  generation of consuls was in full swing, and SpongeBob was
• 0:44
  what all the kids were watching. Consumer media side.
• 0:47
  Very early on in the decade, America was hit with a national
• 0:50
  tragedy that shook the world and in its wake spawned a war and a
• 0:54
  huge spike of American pride and Christian fundamentalism.
• 0:57
  We weren't going to take this sitting down.
• 0:59
  We were American and we were God's country.
• 1:02
  We were a Christian nation. That was the status quo for
• 1:06
  America, and they let the whole world know.
• 1:09
  It was on the news all the time in every country.
• 1:12
  But when suddenly becomes the norm in the foundation for our
• 1:14
  culture, that was going to open the door for counterculture.
• 1:18
  Some people didn't like this new status quo and were going to be
• 1:21
  vocal about it. There was a market for people
• 1:24
  heavily pushing back against this and it would reach ahead in
• 1:27
  2006 when the little book called The God Delusion came out.
• 1:32
  The God Delusion Friend by evolution biologist Richard
• 1:35
  Dawkins was a book that set out to make the argument that not
• 1:38
  only did God not exist, but also any person that believed he did
• 1:41
  was delusional. There have been plenty of books
• 1:44
  critical of religion and the concept of God in the past for
• 1:46
  sure, but not to this extent and never got the attention this
• 1:49
  book did. It became a New York Times
• 1:51
  bestseller and was a hot button topic for a while.
• 1:54
  It spawned many debates, many books made to counter it.
• 1:57
  But the most important thing it spawned it opened the door for
• 2:00
  many new atheist to have their voices heard.
• 2:02
  It was still the 2000 said options were limited.
• 2:05
  That's why I art rented this new thing website called YouTube.
• 2:10
  In 2006 the Internet was still a relatively niche place for only
• 2:15
  small circles of people all hovering around a few topics,
• 2:18
  and one of those topics was atheism.
• 2:20
  A ton of non believers started popping up on YouTube to express
• 2:23
  the religious trauma. The lack of belief or videos
• 2:25
  just made to get a reaction out of people.
• 2:27
  Just people cutting a webcam on talking about religion into it
• 2:30
  in glorious 240 P. You could find these in all
• 2:33
  corners of YouTube. It was a way to connect with
• 2:35
  other non believers who felt the same way.
• 2:37
  It was this little community of atheists that were always
• 2:39
  connected. This group didn't have a leader
• 2:42
  or any sort of organization, but there was one guy who was
• 2:45
  probably the most well known in this community.
• 2:51
  This is TJ Kirk, most well known as the Amazing Atheist.
• 2:57
  TJ was probably the most famous and controversial figure in the
• 3:00
  atheist community on the Internet.
• 3:02
  And his impact was felt at all corners of the web.
• 3:05
  And he still talked about to this day, but probably not in
• 3:08
  the way he would like. And we're going to discuss why
• 3:11
  that is. This is the story of TJ Kirk.
• 3:32
  TJ created his account on November 20th, 2006, very early
• 3:37
  on in the website's history. His first video uploaded has
• 3:39
  since been removed, but archives of it still exist.
• 3:42
  In this 10 minute video of TJ trying to eat the camera, every
• 3:46
  aspect of what his conduct will focus on and his personality are
• 3:49
  shown off in this. I've been I've been coming
• 3:52
  around for a while looking at everyone else's and kind of
• 3:55
  mocking them as I'm sure most of you are mocking me now.
• 3:58
  Oh, I'm just sick of you know, I don't know what I'm sick of
• 4:06
  everything, I guess. My name is TL Kincaid.
• 4:09
  I'm 21 years of age. I know I look a little older.
• 4:18
  I'm basically your average everyday person, I guess, you
• 4:24
  know, aside from the, you know, insanity and actual IQ and the
• 4:30
  triple digits, I guess I even seen a few people that are more
• 4:33
  arrogant and and, you know, just all around bastards than I am.
• 4:36
  So I figure if these people can actually get halfway liked on
• 4:41
  YouTube, maybe I have a chance to.
• 4:44
  Probably not. But, you know, because I'm sure
• 4:46
  I'm more arrogant than I even realize I am.
• 4:49
  Is laid back, not caring attitude, his sarcastic and
• 4:53
  quippy humor filled with edgy jokes, his acknowledgement he's
• 4:56
  not exactly the most likeable guy.
• 4:58
  This video shows us why exactly TJ got the reputation he did.
• 5:01
  He had no problem saying what was on his mind, consequences be
• 5:05
  damned. In a time where religion was
• 5:07
  everywhere all the time and some didn't like that, a man who just
• 5:10
  wanted to talk crap about and everyone involved was appealing
• 5:12
  to a lot of atheists. I don't believe in your little
• 5:15
  fairy tale about a guy I got nailed to a tree and died for
• 5:18
  our sins. So he didn't pull a movie Bob.
• 5:20
  He didn't start out as an innocent channel that slowly got
• 5:23
  completely overtaken and warped into being political.
• 5:25
  TJ from the very start was already very politically driven.
• 5:29
  He would talk about a ton of mainstream topics from tragedies
• 5:32
  to fads. Always find a way to express how
• 5:34
  we feel about someone or something.
• 5:36
  Bash religion in the process in his own TJ way.
• 5:39
  You little nitpickers out there who want to jump on every
• 5:44
  instance of me saying Jesus Christ or God damn and saying
• 5:47
  you're not an atheist, ha ha ha ha, you're a moron.
• 5:50
  Go shoot yourself. Thank you very much.
• 5:53
  That's all you really needed to grow an audience around the
• 5:55
  time. Agree with the audience's
• 5:57
  opinions, mock the people they don't like, and that's all it
• 6:00
  really takes. Some people didn't want in depth
• 6:02
  documentaries or high budget videos.
• 6:04
  A lot are just fine with having their opinions validated.
• 6:06
  When you really get down to it, the vast, vast majority of T JS
• 6:10
  videos were just him talking into a camera.
• 6:13
  That's it. Just talking about a current
• 6:15
  topic with some jokes and potshots thrown in.
• 6:17
  Maybe it's strange to get here and there.
• 6:26
  And repeat this ad nauseam for 18 years.
• 6:29
  They are very low cost production value wise.
• 6:32
  But people weren't coming here for that.
• 6:34
  The main pool of T JS videos was his personality.
• 6:37
  The way he expressed himself in his opinions.
• 6:39
  He always had this way to break things down to a conceivable way
• 6:41
  for his audience who are no doubt watching him in a way to
• 6:44
  connect with other non believers and share their thoughts and
• 6:46
  opinions on these subject matters.
• 6:47
  And Speaking of which, I need to go ahead and get this out the
• 6:50
  way. I am not here to try and debate
• 6:52
  TJ, I am not here to debunk him as I am no way qualified to do
• 6:56
  so. The existence of God and the
• 6:58
  impact religion has had on society has been up for debate
• 7:01
  for centuries, eons even. Hundreds.
• 7:04
  Thousands of arguments have been made and you're not going to be
• 7:06
  hearing any new ones in this random YouTube video.
• 7:08
  I'm not here to challenge anyone's views on religion or
• 7:11
  anything like that. I'm sure everyone has the reason
• 7:14
  to believe what they want to believe, be it trauma or just
• 7:16
  growing out of something. I'm not here to question that.
• 7:19
  There are dozens upon dozens of people who are probably itching
• 7:22
  to do that and are probably way more qualified than I am, so
• 7:25
  I'll leave that up to them. I am simply here to focus on TJ,
• 7:28
  his history and his impact on the Internet.
• 7:31
  And his impact on the Internet, at least in the religion
• 7:33
  politics scene, cannot be underestimated.
• 7:36
  While Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens were the
• 7:39
  idols for the atheism scene in general at the time, TJ was
• 7:42
  basically the face of Internet atheism for the longest time.
• 7:45
  His reach in the atheist community was undeniable.
• 7:48
  A ton of people were watching them.
• 7:49
  A ton of people looked up to him.
• 7:51
  He was the self-proclaimed God of the godless in this
• 7:55
  incredibly small minority of people online.
• 7:57
  If you were a part of it, it was next to impossible to not at
• 8:00
  least heard about him. I think probably the most
• 8:02
  appealing aspect of his persona was he wasn't like Dawkins or
• 8:05
  Hitchens. He didn't have dozens of degrees
• 8:07
  in different fields, he wasn't some intellectual had written
• 8:10
  multiple books over decades. That's for later.
• 8:12
  He was just some guy. He was a guy that just talked
• 8:15
  into the camera about current topics, cracking jokes and
• 8:18
  making fun of people. He showed up on CNN one time and
• 8:20
  you can tell he seems somewhat out of place.
• 8:23
  The other guys are dressed somewhat professionally, but TJ
• 8:25
  here has his chest exposed. Even Dark Side Phil knew when to
• 8:28
  get dressed professionally. This made TJ somewhat relatable
• 8:31
  to a lot of people, specifically to young teenagers who were
• 8:35
  growing up in conservative Christian households and wanted
• 8:37
  someone to say what they wanted to say.
• 8:39
  If there's anything teenagers love to do, it's to rebel
• 8:42
  against their stuck up parents. It's all just meaningless.
• 8:45
  Mind wash Babble. Trying to get you to put money
• 8:49
  in the fucking collection place disposedly.
• 8:52
  Used for good shit. Since TJ has been on YouTube for
• 8:54
  going on almost 18 years now, he has covered every single topic
• 8:59
  and trend that happened at the time.
• 9:00
  His channel is almost a time capsule of YouTube.
• 9:03
  Everything was covered, people would use him as a new source to
• 9:07
  get all their info. They like the way he would
• 9:08
  present topics and the humor he added to them.
• 9:11
  One of my favorite little pastimes while doing research
• 9:13
  for this is just clicking on a random video from him from a
• 9:15
  random year and see what he looks like during that era.
• 9:17
  Because TJ has changed his physical appearance more times
• 9:20
  than YouTube has changed its UI. He can go from new metal lead
• 9:23
  singer to Captain Tidy to living proof of Sasquatch.
• 9:27
  It's quite fun to see all the changes he went through, all
• 9:29
  those rages against society. I can sit here and repeat how
• 9:35
  much of A reach TJ had and how much of an influence he had on a
• 9:38
  lot of people for like another 10 minutes, but I think you get
• 9:40
  the point. So he quickly gained the
• 9:42
  following line for his content personnel and overall
• 9:44
  presentation. Being part of a very vocal
• 9:46
  minority probably helped. So what's the problem?
• 9:49
  Well the problem was TJTJ was kind of an asshole due to all
• 9:58
  the extremely loaded topics covered in this video.
• 10:01
  I'm pretty certain YouTube is not going to be very kind to it.
• 10:04
  That's why I felt the need to get a sponsor.
• 10:07
  Sorry monkey man, got to eat. That's why I would like to say
• 10:10
  that this video, it's sponsored by Private Internet Access.
• 10:14
  We live in the Internet age. Everyone wants your data to
• 10:17
  spread around and to wring as much out of you as possible.
• 10:21
  That's why it's best to get AVPN like private Internet access.
• 10:24
  AVPN hides your personal info and data and keeps them in an
• 10:27
  encrypted tunnel. It'll prevent those pesky
• 10:29
  corporations and hackers from stealing your data.
• 10:32
  You can change your IP address to whatever country you want
• 10:35
  from all over the globe from 91 countries in all 50 U.S. states.
• 10:39
  There are. There doesn't seem to be a Congo
• 10:41
  Bongo island, probably because it doesn't exist.
• 10:44
  What's the next best option? And now we just cut it on and
• 10:50
  we're all set. It'll also block restrictions
• 10:53
  such as Geo blocking, allowing you to access content not
• 10:57
  available in your region across multiple services.
• 10:59
  Did you know that The Office is currently not available on US
• 11:03
  Netflix? But over in the UK it is.
• 11:06
  So just switch your IP to the UK and watch away.
• 11:08
  Maybe now I can finally find something good to watch on
• 11:11
  Netflix. If you're worried about having
• 11:13
  your data taken by these guys, it's already been proven in
• 11:16
  court that their no logs policy is legit.
• 11:18
  With over 30 million downloads and available for all platforms.
• 11:21
  You can go to the link in the description and get 83% off in
• 11:24
  four months for completely free from yours truly one more time.
• 11:28
  Thank you, Private Internet Access for sponsoring this
• 11:30
  video. You will surely not regret
• 11:32
  choosing to have this video represent you.
• 11:42
  Being that his entire channel was based around being an
• 11:45
  outspoken atheist in a time of religion being all over the
• 11:47
  place in times of panic and terror, TJ, by his mere nature,
• 11:51
  was always going to spark controversy no matter the case.
• 11:54
  TJ was fully aware of this. He said it in his first video.
• 11:57
  He wasn't trying to change anyone's minds, he wasn't trying
• 11:59
  to make anyone come over to his side.
• 12:01
  He just wanted to make fun of people.
• 12:03
  Unlike most atheists, I have no, not even the faintest ambition
• 12:09
  of changing anyone's mind. I'm not interested in trying to
• 12:13
  convert Christians or try to make people see reason.
• 12:19
  They're always going to find some reason why what you're
• 12:21
  saying is wrong. Why God can still exist no
• 12:26
  matter what evidence we have that he doesn't.
• 12:29
  TJ very consistently in almost all of his videos was a massive
• 12:34
  douche. But not only that, he knew he
• 12:36
  was, and he actively wallowed in that fact.
• 12:39
  He encouraged it. He went out of his way to say
• 12:41
  whatever he could to get under as many people's skins as
• 12:43
  possible. He would make some good points
• 12:45
  and arguments one minute, and in the next he would throw out
• 12:48
  slurs, swears, and blasphemies any chance he got.
• 12:51
  He would defend stuff seen as taboo just because he wanted to
• 12:53
  piss off people watching. Let's defend these three things
• 12:57
  that you have decried, OK? Basically incest, polygamy,
• 13:02
  cannibalism. Yes, I'm going to defend all
• 13:05
  three. It wasn't just Christianity,
• 13:07
  religious people either. He would go after touchy
• 13:09
  subjects, celebrities and anything he didn't like with his
• 13:13
  cynicism and snark. Everyone and everything was on
• 13:16
  the chopping block. He didn't care.
• 13:18
  If he went to my school looking like this, we wouldn't have
• 13:22
  called him JB, we'd have called him PB for punching bag.
• 13:27
  For those wondering why someone who is openly a Dick gained a
• 13:30
  following like he did, you were either too young or trying to
• 13:33
  block out memories. You have to understand something
• 13:35
  here. Internet culture around the late
• 13:37
  2000s was a very different place.
• 13:40
  Everything these days is squeaky clean and made as safe as
• 13:43
  possible to ensure you get those advertiser dollars.
• 13:46
  They were a non factor during the late 2000s.
• 13:49
  It was all about being edgy and counterculture.
• 13:51
  It was a way smaller place and it was really just entertainment
• 13:54
  for you and your pals. Atheism was very prevalent in
• 13:57
  late 2000s online. It was so prevalent that it used
• 14:00
  to be one of the default. Separates are written in its
• 14:02
  early days and I will give TJ this.
• 14:05
  He was a master at controversy, he knew how to bait people and
• 14:10
  he did. Look at this video.
• 14:12
  I hate religion and Jesus too. Almost 3 million views.
• 14:18
  Look at that dislike bar. Look at it 66,000 dislikes over
• 14:24
  100,000 comments. All of which is people arguing
• 14:28
  about religion. All that mattered on YouTube
• 14:30
  back in the day was views. If you're an unlockable heifer
• 14:33
  today, nobody will watch you and the algorithm will spit you out.
• 14:36
  Back then all that was needed was to click on the video in the
• 14:39
  video maker 1. Nothing else mattered.
• 14:42
  TJ was a master at this boy. Because religion was also one of
• 14:47
  the touchiest and most debated topics on the planet.
• 14:49
  My conversation is going to look like a trash fire. 100,000
• 14:51
  comments. I cannot get over that.
• 14:54
  I've seen music videos with over a billion views have close to
• 14:58
  that many. He had a ton of ongoing series
• 15:00
  like banned from talking about very obvious fictional stories
• 15:03
  that got him for different places, and a series called
• 15:06
  Ponged, a series entirely dedicated to making fun of a
• 15:09
  certain person or group. Oh Lord that that that name.
• 15:12
  I I haven't seen anyone use Poned in years.
• 15:15
  I felt my hairline received back a whole inch just saying that
• 15:18
  out loud. Farming controversy was a very
• 15:20
  easy way to gain traction back in the day.
• 15:22
  Do you remember the Amanda Todd story?
• 15:24
  The girl who was stalked, dachshund harassed until she
• 15:26
  took her own life. The whole country was up in arms
• 15:28
  and a ton of people held memorials for her.
• 15:30
  You want to know what TJ resposter was?
• 15:32
  This. A bunch of other Youtubers were
• 15:35
  making response videos calling TJ out, but TJ had an army of
• 15:38
  teenagers ready to defend him no matter the case.
• 15:41
  Hell, there was a time when Boogie went after TJ.
• 15:44
  Number one, I call him an asshole #2 I said that his
• 15:47
  YouTube channel was built out of anger and hatred and #3 I said
• 15:51
  that the things that he says tend to be very unpopular, but
• 15:54
  it has nothing to do with his atheism.
• 15:56
  TJ has made many enemies over the years because of his
• 15:59
  channel, and he doesn't really care because his videos are
• 16:02
  incredibly exaggerated from the point of humor.
• 16:04
  Edgy humor, yes, but he's really only out to rumble feathers.
• 16:07
  He's essentially a character, but that argument can only get
• 16:11
  you so far when you're exaggerating for the sake of
• 16:14
  comedy. I think it's important to let
• 16:15
  people know how much is exaggerated.
• 16:17
  TJ didn't really have a filter on some of the stuff he said,
• 16:19
  and thus his actual thoughts and beliefs sort of melded together
• 16:22
  with this exaggerated persona that was created just to get
• 16:25
  under peoples skins. Hi little boy, would you like
• 16:28
  some candy? I have a bunch in my van.
• 16:32
  To this very day, people cannot make sense of parody or when
• 16:35
  someone is clearly joking. That's not to say he didn't have
• 16:38
  a few good deeds here and there, putting out videos for charity
• 16:40
  and such, even putting out videos criticizing other edgy
• 16:43
  atheists, some of which would go on to do terrible things.
• 16:47
  And we shouldn't turn them into a monster, and we shouldn't turn
• 16:49
  them into a hero. We need to think of him as
• 16:52
  exactly what he was, a pathetic fucking teenager who didn't know
• 16:58
  that that what he was doing was wrong.
• 17:01
  The Amazing Atheist was a big channel.
• 17:03
  He was definitely getting a ton of publicity, good and bad.
• 17:06
  But he was smart. He knew he needed a branch out
• 17:09
  from just talking in a camera, and branching out is exactly
• 17:12
  what he did. So far I've been sort of very
• 17:24
  neutral on everything regarding TJ, despite the fact the guy was
• 17:27
  purposely going out of his way to make people upset.
• 17:30
  I was just setting the mood in tone of how things were back
• 17:33
  then and how TJ got the reputation audience he did
• 17:35
  because now this video is about to take a shift in tone.
• 17:38
  Now is when we shoot over to other things TJ did as he was
• 17:41
  quite the Jack of all trades. He did a ton of other things
• 17:44
  besides YouTube and we're going to talk about those now.
• 17:48
  You might be wondering what is my relation with TJ?
• 17:51
  Was I an old fan? Was I one of his critics?
• 17:53
  Was I one of the people he made fun of?
• 17:55
  Well, actually my first exposure to TJ was his work on that time
• 17:59
  with the glasses. Yes, TJ was on Doug Walker's
• 18:02
  website for a time, but he wasn't known as the Amazing
• 18:04
  Atheist. He was known as the distressed
• 18:07
  watcher. Instead of videos him talking
• 18:08
  about current topics and making fun of religion and various
• 18:10
  people, his videos over here were different.
• 18:13
  He instead reviewed movies and trailers.
• 18:16
  He had a whole series called Trailer Failure entirely
• 18:19
  dedicated to making fun of and criticizing movie trailers.
• 18:21
  Hello, I'm the distressed watcher.
• 18:23
  I review the previews and let you know which trailers are
• 18:25
  failures. This was my first exposure to
• 18:28
  him, I had no clue about his Amazing Atheist persona until
• 18:31
  way after the fact and I like the videos for what they were.
• 18:34
  I I still probably prefer the other content creators on the
• 18:36
  website, but but they were fine. The thing I will always remember
• 18:40
  from his brief stint as the distressed watcher was his top
• 18:43
  10 video game bosses list he made where he lists off a bunch
• 18:46
  of really cool video game bosses.
• 18:48
  I mostly agreed. And then what is #1?
• 18:51
  Number one, the clock. You're playing Tetris.
• 18:55
  It's easy. The blocks drop nice and slow,
• 18:59
  giving you ample time to think. Then they get faster.
• 19:04
  What the the clock? What?
• 19:07
  What kind of contrarian bullshit is this?
• 19:10
  Who has ever called a clock in a video game a boss fight?
• 19:14
  Games constantly make you race against a bullshit clock.
• 19:18
  Oh God here it is. Watch out for the clock.
• 19:21
  That is the dumbest number one spot for a top ten I've seen
• 19:24
  since Gerard the completionist put in the YouTube algorithm as
• 19:27
  number one in a top ten worst games list because YouTube
• 19:29
  wasn't paying him enough. That actually happened by the he
• 19:32
  wasn't on that guy with the glasses for too long, only about
• 19:35
  two years before he left because I think he realized the site was
• 19:38
  putting other creators as priorities before him.
• 19:40
  They didn't really vibe with his very specific sense of humor.
• 19:44
  Anyone who enjoys this movie should be rounded up into a
• 19:47
  concentration camp and killed. But fret not as TJ was a man of
• 19:52
  many talents as he is also a writer.
• 19:55
  He wrote a couple of books over the years and eventually we
• 19:57
  could pile them into a book called The Douchebag Bible.
• 20:00
  Now I already have PTSD of another Youtubers book I already
• 20:03
  read so I only really skimped through this one and well how
• 20:06
  could I put this? Imagine taking T JS religion
• 20:09
  videos and putting them in text form.
• 20:11
  It's pretty one to one. You're not really missing out on
• 20:13
  much if you haven't read this. But TJ is also a songwriter.
• 20:16
  Yeah that's breakfast time. He wrote lyrics for a band that
• 20:23
  was made by Adam from. Your movie sucks.
• 20:26
  OK, I didn't expect him to come up.
• 20:29
  I guess Adam just asked TD to write some lyrics for him and TJ
• 20:31
  provided. Let's let's see what fire TJ has
• 20:34
  written for us The. World is dark, but I'm the spark
• 20:37
  that lights the path. I can save you, or I can damn
• 20:44
  your soul. Well, the singing is good, but
• 20:48
  the lyrics definitely much to be desired.
• 20:51
  Tide me to the chain link fence and beat me down.
• 20:56
  I've known a fence. I always know I'd.
• 21:01
  I always know I'd. God it's like everything TJ
• 21:06
  makes has to be overtly edgy for no reason.
• 21:09
  You don't have to keep the persona of 24/7 TJ Jesus while
• 21:13
  also talking about his other ventures.
• 21:15
  I should bring up probably one of the most infamous aspects
• 21:18
  about T JS time on the Internet. His constant E begging.
• 21:21
  TJ was asking for money and donations all the time.
• 21:26
  When I mean all the time, I mean non-stop.
• 21:29
  Basically, I need to come up with $220 before the day is
• 21:36
  through or they're going to shut the power off in here.
• 21:38
  Books. How can you say I'm wrong to ask
• 21:41
  for books, especially on my birthday?
• 21:43
  If. You, you wanted to, there are
• 21:47
  some things I'd like send me some fucking money because I
• 21:53
  need it and no, I'm not shameful about it.
• 21:56
  I if I didn't have this medium, I'd probably just put dirt in my
• 21:59
  face and go big on the fucking streets.
• 22:01
  That's how shameless I am. I have a buck Amazon gift card
• 22:04
  more if you want because you know you send me like 10,000
• 22:08
  dollars and Amazon that. 'D be good.
• 22:10
  I know times are hard. Times were especially hard
• 22:13
  during the recession of the late 2000s.
• 22:15
  But TJ never stopped asking for money.
• 22:18
  The reasons for needing money? Some are understandable, some
• 22:21
  are way more questionable and will make you raise an eyebrow.
• 22:24
  And that means I need new cameras, I need new lenses, I
• 22:28
  need new lighting and video equipment, I need new sound
• 22:31
  equipment. What's wrong with the setup you
• 22:33
  have now? You have a decent camera, decent
• 22:36
  set, decent everything, but why do you need more?
• 22:38
  Even the comments were fed up with TJ's begging around the
• 22:40
  time. Many have accused TJ of just
• 22:43
  flat out scamming his audience for stuff he didn't need.
• 22:45
  And I'm not going to say definitively that's what's
• 22:47
  happening here, but a lot of the things he asked for are just.
• 22:51
  Why does your audience need to finance this?
• 22:54
  He asked his audience to fund a road trip to film stuff and also
• 22:57
  to get laid. I have a girl coming over.
• 22:59
  I want to impress her, so I need money.
• 23:02
  He'd make a video asking for money and then shortly
• 23:05
  afterwards do stuff like this. You guys like my new jacket?
• 23:09
  It's lambskin. He was almost certainly making
• 23:12
  new skeptics around the time. Not just a religion though of
• 23:15
  himself. But we can definitely go
• 23:17
  further. TJ being the guy, he is trying
• 23:20
  to push the envelope as far as you could go on what you could
• 23:22
  say on YouTube. YouTube started cracking down on
• 23:25
  TJ after a certain point, which he was absolutely against.
• 23:28
  You haven't been allowed to access my YouTube account for
• 23:31
  nearly two weeks now because YouTube decided that two of my
• 23:34
  videos were so very offensive that my account needed to be
• 23:37
  suspended for two weeks and no matter how much I tried to argue
• 23:41
  and reason with them, they wouldn't let me back on.
• 23:45
  After a while he had had enough. He decided he was going to make
• 23:49
  his own website with. Blackjack and hookers.
• 23:54
  In 2009 the first temp was made. It was called free speech Vids
• 24:00
  I. I wonder what the purpose of
• 24:02
  this site could be now. This website has surprisingly
• 24:06
  very little documentation online.
• 24:08
  It was very short lived and only a couple snapshots exist on the
• 24:10
  wayback machine. It basically seems to be another
• 24:13
  That Guy with a Glasses Life website with a few creators
• 24:14
  making videos here, all of which were TJS pounds.
• 24:17
  While the website is not very documented, how they got the
• 24:20
  money for the website very much is.
• 24:22
  A lot of the videos I took down will be reappearing on my new
• 24:26
  website freespeechvids.com under construction right now.
• 24:31
  He got on the stream with a bunch of euphoric friends, one
• 24:33
  of them being a prototype Cyrax, also known as Fake Sagan.
• 24:37
  Now TJ didn't do much here, but his friend Fake Sagan here made
• 24:42
  the stream incredibly hard to get through.
• 24:44
  As the night went on, they all slowly got more and more
• 24:47
  intoxicated and started throwing out slur after slur and tons of
• 24:50
  insults. There's more in bombs dropped
• 24:52
  here than an episode of The Boondocks.
• 24:54
  They started making fun of the people donating, even
• 24:56
  threatening to start banning people for not donating enough.
• 24:59
  And then Fake Sagan went off the deep end.
• 25:02
  He brought out a knife and threatened to hurt people and
• 25:04
  himself. And then he brought out a
• 25:06
  firearm. Did he put one in the chamber?
• 25:09
  Why me? I didn't have to use it.
• 25:10
  There is one in the fucking chamber.
• 25:12
  I. Didn't do anything.
• 25:13
  I just had it in my. That's the way you.
• 25:15
  Gave it to me so now they have a drunk guy with a loaded gun
• 25:18
  pointing it at everyone and himself.
• 25:20
  The string quickly turned to shit.
• 25:22
  Donate $150.00. Right.
• 25:25
  Now. Or you will watch me die.
• 25:30
  You can see TJ and the others trying to take the firearm away
• 25:32
  multiple times but he wasn't having it.
• 25:34
  Do not let a drunk man have a gun.
• 25:38
  He later on also cuts himself on string to be edgy and eventually
• 25:40
  starts becoming groggy due to blood loss.
• 25:42
  And then they had to shut the stream down to go get him to the
• 25:44
  hospital. Spoiler alert, nobody died
• 25:47
  except for the website itself. It barely lasted a year, if even
• 25:51
  that, since there is little to no documentation of it.
• 25:54
  Nobody cared and nobody went to it, so it was just a failure on
• 25:57
  T JS part with that donation stream.
• 26:00
  Can you really wonder why? But TJ is not one to give up
• 26:03
  because later on he would try his hands yet again at another
• 26:07
  that guy with the glasses like website, this time with more
• 26:10
  content creators. It was called Not Productive and
• 26:14
  they started an Indiegogo Ford asking for $20,000 and fell just
• 26:17
  short of it only making 17,000. But they still got close.
• 26:21
  So the website was made, and this time they got content
• 26:24
  creators actually worth a damn, like the Investig Gamer and the
• 26:29
  Ranting Robots. Two guys and robot costumes that
• 26:32
  review games and bash religion. We are the ranting robots, we
• 26:36
  are atheists, and the human Bible is complete and other
• 26:40
  nonsense. Somehow I don't feel so bad
• 26:43
  about watching people in that kind of the glasses anymore.
• 26:46
  And that's what our concept, not productive is.
• 26:49
  It's a place for high quality content.
• 26:54
  God convincing you that you were born an evil Sinner as a cute
• 26:58
  adorable baby and that no matter how much good you do in life
• 27:02
  that unless you believe in this mass delusional cult sky daddy
• 27:06
  that you will burn forever and hot burny hot flame burn burn.
• 27:12
  Hey Adam from your movie Sucks is back, so if we're fans of
• 27:15
  him, you're in luck yet again. Nobody really used this site if
• 27:20
  you couldn't tell since this is probably your first time hearing
• 27:22
  about it. If you go to it now, it just
• 27:23
  redirects you to the YouTube channel which hasn't been
• 27:26
  updated in nine years. And free speech Vince is now a
• 27:29
  geoscience laboratory website. Well, it sort of fits with all
• 27:33
  the science talking most atheist videos.
• 27:35
  And that's the end of T JS attempts to make his own.
• 27:37
  That guy with the glasses. Many would accuse TJ of just
• 27:40
  putting all half assed clones of Doug Walker's website and just
• 27:42
  pocketing the money $17,000 definitely did not get you
• 27:46
  quality here. Now this of course was also not
• 27:49
  the end of T JS multiple endeavors.
• 27:51
  There is also a Let's Play channel, a bunch of podcasts
• 27:53
  among other things. But the fact of the matter is TJ
• 27:57
  was only really good when he was doing as usual, talking into a
• 28:00
  camera on YouTube. Most of these have either been
• 28:03
  forgotten or buried by TJ because, well, they were
• 28:06
  failures. So really TJ was just better off
• 28:09
  sticking to his bread and butter.
• 28:10
  Speaking of which. Yes, it is true.
• 28:21
  In the late 2000s atheism was all over the Internet.
• 28:25
  It was where all the intellectuals were and converse
• 28:27
  about their superior knowledge over those religious sheeples.
• 28:31
  Well, unbeknownst to them, there was trouble in paradise on its
• 28:34
  way. As I said at the start of the
• 28:35
  video, the Internet was this niche little thing for what was
• 28:38
  seen as nerds in the 2000s. But in the 20 tens, with the
• 28:42
  introduction of smartphones and everything now integrated to the
• 28:44
  Internet, the masses were now becoming more accustomed to it.
• 28:47
  And now tons of people from all sorts of religious backgrounds
• 28:50
  and political ideologies, we're now using it.
• 28:52
  The Internet was niche no more of course, the other thing that
• 28:56
  also erupted in the early 20 tens here it is rearing its ugly
• 29:00
  head again goobrigate yes, we're back here again for for those of
• 29:05
  you who don't know I went into slightly more detail about it on
• 29:08
  movie Bob video, but it's not really as relevant here.
• 29:10
  I I just need to top it to OK leave me alone.
• 29:13
  Goobrigate being brought up here is a representation of what
• 29:16
  Internet culture was like during the early and mid twenty 10s.
• 29:18
  There was a huge push for feminism, and not only gaming
• 29:21
  culture, but every little group that had formed online over the
• 29:24
  years. When this push for the feminism
• 29:26
  in the atheist community happened, the ones who had
• 29:27
  already been in that niche subgroup for years were not
• 29:30
  having it. People have dubbed it Atheism
• 29:33
  Plus, a movement that pushed for social political change under
• 29:36
  the veil of atheism. So basically just feminism with
• 29:39
  a tiny fedora. There was a huge push back
• 29:42
  towards this feminism way from that community, for the big ones
• 29:44
  at least. A ton of atheist channels start
• 29:46
  moving the content from bashing religion to bashing feminism.
• 29:49
  TJ was one of those who made the shift in content.
• 29:52
  He had already made comments on it in the past, but they were a
• 29:55
  huge focus for him now. T JS feminism videos are some of
• 29:59
  his most famous. In fact, I think his feminism
• 30:02
  videos were actually more controversial than his religious
• 30:04
  videos, mostly because he arguably went even harder on
• 30:07
  feminists than he did religion. If you're a man and you do
• 30:10
  something to a woman, you are an abomination.
• 30:13
  If you're a woman and you do something to a man, you go
• 30:17
  girlfriend. Feminism was now Public Enemy
• 30:21
  number one on the Internet at least.
• 30:23
  Yeah, he was still gone after religion once in a while, but
• 30:25
  his feminism videos were doing rounds.
• 30:27
  He attracted a whole new audience of people with these
• 30:29
  videos, which he would later regret.
• 30:31
  We'll get back to that later. He would make all sorts of
• 30:34
  videos talking about double standards and the absurdity of
• 30:36
  some feminist claims and his of course, TJ way.
• 30:39
  Everyday feminism fixing to connect them dots y'all?
• 30:43
  Oh look, all them dots and you connect them and you see
• 30:47
  patriarchy. It's the patriarchy and coming
• 30:50
  for you. The same way he attracted all
• 30:53
  those atheists from the 2000s he was now doing for all those anti
• 30:56
  SJW types in the 20 tens. He was also making many new
• 31:00
  enemies, but for TJ that was nothing new.
• 31:03
  This is an article called Feminist Frequencies.
• 31:06
  Ordinary women campaign keeps kicking ass despite harassment.
• 31:10
  Then it it starts to mention yours truly.
• 31:12
  Not by name, of course, because you know she's not going to put
• 31:15
  me in the spotlight. This dislocking of feminism and
• 31:18
  all the new enemies he made would lead to probably the worst
• 31:21
  thing TJ's ever done. I avoid talking about it because
• 31:25
  it really isn't relevant to anything but TJ's claimed.
• 31:28
  Well, I'll let him explain it. I was molested as a child.
• 31:34
  All right, I said it, as were many other people, and it was
• 31:38
  only a one time thing and I don't feel as though it's
• 31:43
  psychologically damaged me. But the reason I want to talk
• 31:46
  about it is because now everyone else is going to think that that
• 31:51
  is the the the case. That is something that is made
• 31:56
  me more what I am or whatever. Now I can only say that will
• 32:00
  screw someone up for the rest of their life.
• 32:02
  It's a heartbreaking matter. He was able to move past it and
• 32:05
  put his demons behind him. It had no effect on the content
• 32:08
  he made or who he was today. I don't believe in the victim
• 32:12
  mentality and I don't like when people try to say, oh, you're a
• 32:18
  victim because this happened. No, I'm not a victim.
• 32:22
  You know, I don't lay the blame for any of my problems today on
• 32:25
  that shit because that shit is gone.
• 32:27
  It has passed. Now I'm bringing this up because
• 32:30
  I want you to keep this in mind for what I'm about to tell you.
• 32:33
  In 2012, TJ got into an argument with a feminist over on Reddit.
• 32:37
  But for some reason, this feminist really got under TJ
• 32:42
  skin, like more than usual. The thing about this feminist
• 32:46
  though, she was said to be a victim of something that is
• 32:55
  incredibly traumatic and will probably haunt her for the rest
• 32:57
  of her life. Well when TJ found out what he
• 33:02
  told this woman, it is so vile that I I don't even think I can
• 33:05
  show it in this video. It would get the video age
• 33:08
  restricted. It's that bad.
• 33:10
  The only details I can really give you is he told her to
• 33:13
  relive it and that the one who did it deserved a gold medal.
• 33:17
  He then started threatening to do the deed himself.
• 33:20
  Now obviously today this is absurd.
• 33:23
  No content career today could say this and get away with it.
• 33:26
  But you have to realize something.
• 33:28
  Like I said earlier, this is just how some people were back
• 33:31
  then. Say the most edgy, offensive
• 33:33
  stuff humanly possible to get under someone's skin, no matter
• 33:37
  the case. You bunch of lying, no good
• 33:40
  punks and I know who it's coming from because I back traced it
• 33:44
  and I know who's emailing and who's doing it.
• 33:47
  And you'll be reported to the cyber police and the state
• 33:51
  police. Consequences will never be the
• 33:55
  same. TJ wanted this feminist to hurt.
• 33:58
  He want her to suffer mentally and emotionally and this is what
• 34:01
  he did to do that. Let me remind you, his reaction
• 34:04
  to Amanda Todd was this. You think he's above something
• 34:07
  like this now? You think he wouldn't take the
• 34:09
  opportunity if it was given to him?
• 34:11
  And people all over the web would do stuff like this all the
• 34:14
  time, not just TJ. But The thing is, TJ and this
• 34:18
  feminist were both victims of having something awful happen to
• 34:20
  them at different points in their lives.
• 34:22
  They're obviously 2 completely different atrocious scenarios.
• 34:25
  One could argue they're not comparable, but the end result
• 34:27
  is both are traumatic and will stick with you for life.
• 34:30
  You would think TJ would be able to empathize some way, but
• 34:33
  because she disagreed with him, no, he flat out says to her it
• 34:37
  should happen again. He did end up apologizing after
• 34:41
  the incident, the only time I can ever recall him ever
• 34:43
  apologizing for anything. But the damage was done.
• 34:46
  TJ just seemed to like empathy in a lot of places.
• 34:49
  The only things that matter to him are what he considered his
• 34:52
  own goals. He puts numero Uno before
• 34:54
  everyone else. That's not to say he didn't try
• 34:57
  to connect with others. In fact, multiple times he tried
• 35:00
  impressing the ladies, which he would sorely regret.
• 35:13
  So after that very serious topic, we're back to being
• 35:15
  comedic. What fun am I right?
• 35:18
  Despite T JS very abrasive attitude and as your humor, it
• 35:21
  turns out love can bloom on the atheist battlefield.
• 35:25
  TJ has had many partners over the years.
• 35:28
  It's taken many tries to see who he was compatible with, but he
• 35:30
  tried his hardest in that field. I admire the hustle.
• 35:33
  He's had many ups and downs and has even resorted to tactics to
• 35:38
  get the ladies in the mood. I imagine he must have gotten
• 35:42
  into an argument with one of his lady friends of revolution and
• 35:45
  to prove once and for all we all evolved from some form of
• 35:48
  primate, he sent them a video. This was a private video, but
• 35:52
  one of his friends thought it would be very funny and this
• 35:55
  video got to be seen by the whole world.
• 35:57
  What was in this video you may ask?
• 35:59
  Bananas. Bananas.
• 36:06
  Those mellow yellows? I I don't even know why I try to
• 36:09
  build it up because you probably already know about it.
• 36:11
  But yes, a video laked of TJ in 2011 putting a banana in places
• 36:17
  where it didn't belong. I obviously cannot show any of
• 36:21
  the video, but I can try and visualize it for you.
• 36:24
  Imagine that scene from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
• 36:27
  when Augustus Glute falls into the chocolate river, but instead
• 36:30
  of a fat German kid, he's a banana.
• 36:33
  Now on one hand, this private video made just for a few
• 36:36
  friends being leaked is kind of a scummy thing to do.
• 36:39
  The masses were not meant to see it.
• 36:41
  On the other hand, this is beyond hilarious.
• 36:45
  When these leaked, TJ was now the butt of the joke.
• 36:48
  Literally. Banana and atheist jokes were
• 36:50
  now everywhere. Evolution jokes abound because
• 36:53
  how could they not? Once when I was seven years old,
• 36:56
  I sat on the banana and of course that changed my life.
• 37:00
  There seemed to be a fan of controversial YouTube atheist
• 37:02
  being obsessed with bananas around this time.
• 37:06
  OK, he's not controversial, he's a criminal.
• 37:07
  One would imagine that TJ would try to ignore this and hopefully
• 37:11
  it would go away, but actually no.
• 37:14
  Believe it or not, TJ made a video in response to it getting
• 37:17
  leaked and addressed it in a very, I guess professional way.
• 37:22
  I sent it to a few other girls that I talked to on the side,
• 37:26
  and apparently one of them decided to share it with the
• 37:29
  world. I don't know who it was, nor do
• 37:31
  I really care. The things that I did, I did
• 37:34
  because I enjoy them. I wasn't ashamed of them when I
• 37:37
  was doing them in private. I see no reason to be ashamed of
• 37:40
  them now that they've been made public.
• 37:42
  I have to give it to the man to have some feeling like that leak
• 37:45
  and then fully dress and O up to without any regrets.
• 37:48
  That takes a lot of balls. He didn't hide or delete
• 37:51
  anything. He says it without any
• 37:53
  embarrassment or remorse. I have to give him big props for
• 37:56
  this. The big props don't mean shit
• 37:58
  here. My fans are pretty cool.
• 38:01
  They'll know what's up. They're not going to judge me
• 38:04
  for this shit. Over the years he has played
• 38:07
  into the whole banana incident so he's self aware and in on the
• 38:10
  joke, but that that doesn't actually matter.
• 38:14
  You might be wondering why did this get its own section and
• 38:17
  it's just a harmless little funny thing compared to when he
• 38:19
  was insulting a victim of something horrible.
• 38:21
  Well that will be because this incident will haunt TJ until the
• 38:26
  day he dies. He can joke about it, make
• 38:30
  references to it all he wants. The fact of the matter is, this
• 38:34
  will be his legacy. This is what he will be
• 38:36
  remembered for. Whenever the Amazing Atheist has
• 38:39
  brought up a casual discussion, the banana will almost always
• 38:42
  come up in one way or another. To this very day, I can go on
• 38:45
  Twitter and still see jokes referencing him and his yellow
• 38:47
  companion all the time. I will be watching random
• 38:51
  YouTube videos completely removed from religious or
• 38:53
  atheist discussion or anything that would relate to TJ and
• 38:55
  there will be just a random potshot thrown at him.
• 38:58
  All I have now is a computer to upload my videos on atheism.
• 39:02
  The kitchen for bananas to shop off Miami.
• 39:04
  He can remove the banana from himself, but he can't remove the
• 39:08
  banana from his public perception.
• 39:10
  Many people still bring the banana up, but nobody ever talks
• 39:13
  about his unfair sequel in 2013 involving hot bubbling.
• 39:16
  Oh oh God TJ, did you learn nothing?
• 39:19
  Oh God oh God, how do I visualize this?
• 39:21
  Imagine the 2010 BP oil spill, but instead of the ocean, it's a
• 39:26
  Yeti. Last year, JK Rowling was doing
• 39:29
  her typical rounds of arguing about gender on Twitter when TJ
• 39:32
  was suddenly brought up on her timeline and somebody told her
• 39:35
  about the banana. The creator of Harry Potter
• 39:38
  knows about the banana incident. Bananas.
• 39:44
  Rectomus. TJ has done many heinous things
• 39:52
  in the past. Yes he was very edgy and said a
• 39:55
  bunch of stuff to piss people off, but none of that matters
• 39:57
  compared to this. As time marches on, all the
• 40:01
  stuff involving T JS controversial past fades out of
• 40:03
  memory. People get older, younger people
• 40:06
  replace the old, and only the most well known tales of the
• 40:08
  past will be remembered, like the atheist and his banana.
• 40:22
  Well, we're not in the 2000s or the 20 tens anymore.
• 40:26
  We're in 2024 and T JS grasp on the Internet is a long distant
• 40:30
  memory. Well, not really just TJ atheism
• 40:33
  as a whole. It used to be all over the place
• 40:36
  on the web, but now people just don't care anymore.
• 40:39
  The whole concept of atheism being your entire personality is
• 40:43
  just seen as obnoxious now. But they still exist, trust me.
• 40:47
  You can go on Twitter, type in atheist and still see people
• 40:50
  stuck in 2009. They're very easy to find, but
• 40:54
  is anyone actually listening to them these days?
• 40:57
  You see just as many people making fun of cocky atheists as
• 41:00
  you do kooky religious fanatics. Like look at this dude we need
• 41:03
  to remove and God we trust off the dollar barrel.
• 41:06
  Like why? Why do we need to do that?
• 41:09
  What does that accomplish? People like this gave the label
• 41:13
  atheist A stench that will probably never truly go away.
• 41:17
  TJ himself 18 years later is still online and his YouTube
• 41:21
  channel now basically is a side gig.
• 41:25
  He looks like a hermit now. He streams all the time now
• 41:28
  about current topics and political stuff.
• 41:31
  Almost 2500 videos and counting. There's a good chance he will
• 41:34
  probably see this video and respond to it in that case.
• 41:38
  Hi TJ, hope you enjoyed the video.
• 41:40
  No hard feelings, your story was just too good not to tell.
• 41:44
  Banana slam. He still has that abrasive edgy
• 41:48
  personality somewhere in him, but he is definitely mellowed
• 41:51
  out over the years. I guess either because of him
• 41:53
  pushing 40 or just because he's been doing this shit for 18
• 41:57
  years. That'll take a toll on a man.
• 41:59
  His politics have taken a slight shift into the liberal side of
• 42:02
  things but that's fine. He has since stated ever since
• 42:06
  making those anti feminism videos he attracted a lot of bad
• 42:09
  faith actors and people he didn't want to associate with,
• 42:11
  which is understandable. There were nefarious characters,
• 42:17
  nefarious actors within the sort of genre that I created that
• 42:24
  were trying to subvert it for extremist political positioning.
• 42:30
  But then you realize, hey, this is doing more than I thought.
• 42:36
  This is having consequences that not only do I not intend, but I
• 42:41
  can't control. I still, I still feel like I
• 42:45
  have an awful lot to learn, but maybe that's a good thing
• 42:48
  because back then I felt like I had nothing to learn.
• 42:50
  I felt like I already knew it all.
• 42:52
  I didn't make this because political or religious reasons.
• 42:54
  I didn't make this to air out his dirty laundry or cancel him.
• 42:57
  I made this for pure entertainment.
• 42:59
  It's been a long road, a lot of twists and turns, and here we
• 43:03
  are at the end of our journey. I'd definitely say TJ is in the
• 43:07
  post credits phase of his career.
• 43:09
  Like yeah, he's still trucking along, but nobody really talks
• 43:12
  about him as much anymore except when the bananas brought back.
• 43:15
  He still has a small but very dedicated following on stream
• 43:18
  and on YouTube. So many of the diehards out
• 43:21
  there who watched him many years ago are still probably watching
• 43:23
  him, but right now he just exists and maybe that's how he
• 43:28
  prefers it. God bless, like and subscribe
• 43:32
  and goodnight. Always believe in what you think
• 43:34
  is best for you. Ladies and gentlemen of YouTube,
• 43:47
  I would like to make an announcement.
• 43:50
  Blueberry pie, Blueberry pie. Blueberry pie.
• 43:55
  Blueberry pie. Blueberry pie.
• 43:58
  Blueberry pie. Blueberry pie.
• 44:01
  Blueberry pie. Blueberry pie.
• 44:04
  Blueberry pie. Blueberry pie.
• 44:07
  Blueberry pie. Blueberry pie.
• 44:12
  Blueberry pie. Everybody loved a blueberry pie,
• 44:17
  alright?