TJ Kirk
TJ Kirk | ||||||||||
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Personal information | ||||||||||
Born | Thomas James Kirk III February 20, 1985 Pasadena, California, U.S. | |||||||||
Nationality | American | |||||||||
Occupation | ||||||||||
YouTube information | ||||||||||
Also known as | Amazing Atheist, Terroja Lee Kincaid, Thomas Kirk | |||||||||
Channel | ||||||||||
Years active | 2006–present (YouTuber) | |||||||||
Genre | Social criticism Political criticism Criticism of religion Black comedy | |||||||||
Subscribers |
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Total views | 445,000,000+ (combined) | |||||||||
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Updated January 4, 2019 |
Thomas James Kirk III (born February 20, 1985),[citation needed] previously known by the pseudonym Terroja Lee Kincaid, is an American YouTube personality and podcast host. His channel, known as Amazing Atheist, rose to prominence through Kirk's criticism of religion. Kirk has since expanded his focus to other political and social issues.
Kirk previously had over 1 million subscribers on his main channel and has more than 445 million views in total. From 2014 until 2017, he was one of the hosts of Drunken Peasants, a YouTube news podcast focused on current events and interviews.[1][2]
Early life[edit]
Kirk was born in Pasadena, California, though he was primarily raised in Mandeville, Louisiana.[3] His father was Thomas James Kirk Jr. (July 1, 1946 – January 3, 2008), who operated several fraudulent higher education organizations and served three years in U.S. federal prison following a plea deal.[4] At the age of sixteen, Kirk dropped out of high school with aspirations of being an author.[5]
Kirk began posting videos on YouTube in November 2006.[5]
History[edit]
In 2007, Kirk posted a video which included a warning about the mental instability of 18-year-old Pekka-Eric Auvinen, who would later perpetrate the Jokela school shooting.[6][7]
In 2012, Kirk was widely criticized for incendiary comments made on Reddit before he deleted his account. In their argument about trigger warnings, Kirk repeatedly stated that one of the participants, a self-described rape victim, should be raped again.[8] Science blogger PZ Myers condemned these posts and went on to debate many of Kirk's past claims about feminism, writing that "this kind of thing has always been part of his YouTube schtick."[9] After the incident, Kirk apologized to the Reddit user in a private message and later made a public apology.[8] Kirk addressed the issue further in a 2014 video entitled, "Rape, Feminism, and The Amazing Atheist," in which he again apologized for the incident and explained the context in which it happened: his remarks were meant to be satirical commentary on trigger warnings.[10]
In 2013, Kirk was a guest on a CNN panel, where he discussed the rise of atheism in America with Christian theologian William Lane Craig.[11]
Kirk has made two appearances on The Joe Rogan Experience, one in January 2016 and another in March 2017.[12] Kirk interviewed Milo Yiannopoulos for a Drunken Peasants podcast in 2016. In 2017 Breitbart, CPAC and Simon & Schuster severed their ties with Yiannopoulos based on comments from the episode where Yiannopoulos spoke positively of sexual relationships between boys and adult men.[13][14] Kirk left Drunken Peasants at the end of 2017 with co-hosts Scotty Kirk and Paul Parkey Jr. and together they started their own podcast in early 2018, known as Deep Fat Fried.[citation needed]
In 2018, Kirk was criticized for a controversial tweet in which he claimed that Alicia Vikander's breasts were too small for her to play the video game character Lara Croft in the 2018 film Tomb Raider, and for later posting a video to his YouTube channel on the subject called "Lara Croft's b00bz - The Issue Of The Century".[15][16][17]
Politics[edit]
Although Kirk has become well known for his liberal politics, he espoused libertarian views earlier on the Amazing Atheist channel and later deleted these videos.[18] In multiple videos, he displayed support for 2016/2020 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.
References[edit]
- ↑ Rogan, Joe (March 15, 2017). "Joe Rogan and T.J. Kirk on Milo Yiannopoulos". Joe Rogan Experience. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
- ↑ Taylor, Jeff (March 17, 2017). "Joe Rogan, TJ Kirk discuss how their podcasts led to Milo Yiannopoulos' downfall". LGBTQ Nation. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
- ↑ Kirk, T.J. (November 9, 2016). "I have lived there. I was born there, in fact. But I don't need to live there to simply go look at the numbers". Twitter. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
- ↑ Associated Press (September 25, 1996). Minister indicted on fraud charges involving church-run university. Dallas Morning News
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Cody Weber (2011). "Amazing - Special Edition". Amazing Atheist. Archived from the original on 2017-04-08. Retrieved 29 March 2017. Unknown parameter
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ignored (help) - ↑ Singel, Ryan (November 8, 2007). "YouTuber Warned of Finnish Gunman in June, But No One Listened". Wired. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
- ↑ SPIEGEL ONLINE, Hamburg, Germany (10 November 2007). "Schulmassaker in Finnland: Warnung vor Amoklufer schon im Juni". SPIEGEL ONLINE. Retrieved 17 March 2017.CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Eördögh, Fruzsina (2012-02-09). "The Amazing Atheist quits Reddit after rape comments". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 2017-03-26.
- ↑ Myers, PZ (2012-02-08). "The not-so-Amazing Atheist self-immolates". Free Thought Blogs. Retrieved 2017-03-26.
- ↑ Kirk, TJ (2014-07-29). "Rape, Feminism, and The Amazing Atheist". YouTube. Retrieved 2017-03-27.
- ↑ "CNN Newsroom Transcript". CNN. 2013-02-11. Retrieved 2018-08-13.
- ↑ Rogan, Joe (March 15, 2017). "Joe Rogan Experience #932 - TJ Kirk". Joe Rogan Experience. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
- ↑ Pakman, David (February 22, 2017). "Milo Yiannopoulos Caught Defending Pedophilia, Career Implodes". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
- ↑ Hensley, Nicole (February 20, 2017). "Video shared ahead of CPAC shows Milo Yiannopoulos appearing to speak fondly of relationships between men and 'young boys'". New York Daily News. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
- ↑ Kooser, Amanda (March 5, 2018). "'Tomb Raider' star Alicia Vikander's bust size under fire". CNET. Retrieved 2021-10-14. Unknown parameter
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ignored (help) - ↑ Schager, Nick (March 15, 2018). "Alicia Vikander is body-shamed over 'Tomb Raider' — and the internet is fighting back". Yahoo Entertainment. Retrieved 2021-10-14. Unknown parameter
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ignored (help) - ↑ Parker, Ryan; Kilkenny, Katie (2018-03-14). "'Tomb Raider': Fans Slam Criticism of Alicia Vikander's Body". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2021-10-14. Unknown parameter
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ignored (help) - ↑ "Reptilian Alex Jones - Guy thinks Age = Intelligence - AND MORE! - Drunken Peasants #262 (time stamp: 1:17:07)". Unknown parameter
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ignored (help)
External links[edit]
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- 1985 births
- 21st-century atheists
- American atheists
- American atheism activists
- American men podcasters
- American podcasters
- American YouTubers
- Critics of creationism
- Male critics of feminism
- People from Mandeville, Louisiana
- People from Pasadena, California
- Video bloggers
- YouTube channels launched in 2006
- Male YouTubers
- American critics of Islam
- Critics of Christianity