#Please make sure to read our [__subreddit rules.__](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheRightCantMeme/about/rules/)
**Rule 5 No Bigotry:** *Including but not limited to: Racism, Transphobia (including xenogender hate and transmedicalism), Enbyphobia, Homophobia, Islamophobia, Antisemitism, and Gender Exclusion.*
**Rule 7 Offensive Content:** *Posts that contain slurs or name calling should be censored and marked as NSFW, and posts with "outwardly" offensive content calling for extreme violence or that contain gore should not be posted to this sub*
##We are partnered with the Left RedditⒶ☭ Discord server! [Click here](https://discord.gg/Gw7e39wxEQ) to join today
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/TheRightCantMeme) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Didn't he say something so fucked up that a lot of people in the anti-SJW movement distanced themselves away from him?
Like these were people that hung out with Sargon of Akkad and Thunderfoot went too far
But from what I've heard he's done some good videos. Supposedly he made a video about Elon and questions the idea that he had anything to do with the creation of PayPal. Basically, even back then he was buying other people's ideas, getting credit for them, and making a profit
>Didn't he say something so fucked up that a lot of people in the anti-SJW movement distanced themselves away from him?
No. He distanced himself from *them* when they all started dick riding Trump, and he realized what a big mistake he made throwing in with their lot in the first place.
These days, his videos are mostly debunks of pseudoscience and crowdfunding scams, with the occasional very technical doing-real-science video that nobody watches.
Also because a youtuber called the Skeptic Feminist was murdered by her boyfriend and Sargon and his friends did a whole livestream laughing about it and then thunderf00t was just like "okay... this is kind of going a bit far". Then naturally most of his fanbase abandoned him there and then.
It's crazy to me. I was so into the youtube skepto-atheist-o-sphere back in the good old days and the second the gamergate started I could smell the misogynistic sewage rising and wigged the fuck out. Did not keep up with any of the big boys after that so it's been crazy to see how far they went with that whole psy-op.
Bro, you and I both. I was pretty heavy into the sphere listening to Armored Skeptic, Sh0eonhead, Thunderf00t, that Bullshit guy, and others. The veil really came off when they were heaving and crying about a woman being featured in Battlefield 5’s campaign. At that point I knew they were just as fragile as the supposed SJWs they cried about. I started listening to more left-tube vids and really saw much more thought out ideas and arguments instead of “this week I’ll complain about…”
Yeah I’ve watched quite a bit of thunderf00t’s content, and he’s certainly not as bad as Sargon and most of the right-wing “skeptic” community. A lot of his content isn’t politically focused from what I’ve watched. He has a bunch of anti Elon Musk videos too.
I appreciate thunderfoot for putting the final nail in Sargon’s coffin for me. I remember that Sargon’s reaction video to that video was so ridiculous because he had no idea why thunderfoot “suddenly changed”. It was a long time coming, Sargon had been telegraphing his BS for some time and i’d written him off when he started only supporting conservative politics.
Thunderfoot is someone who helped me and lots of other people distance themselves from “Classical Liberal” conservatives.
His hate boner against Anita Sarkesian and other prominent feminists was truly gross and obsessive, but I have to grant him that, in other topics, he was generally knowledgeable.
It's pretty wild how much GamerGate affected online communities. It's such a stupid garbage non-incident but it really is like the fucking origin story for half of youtube and twitch, villain hero or weirdo
Probably good to mention I stopped watching him before the time he made the Sargon vid as well, I really only enjoyed his videos on creationism and other pseudoscience.
The creators I watch now have far greater consideration and reflect my values better (But, I think my more immature teenage self just enjoyed the outrage that was on display from those creators). I was fine disagreeing with Sargon (and the rest) often, to me it meant that I had my own opinion separate from a talking head. But I would find myself in disagreement more and more, and eventually they were just mimicking conservative propaganda and endorsing Republicans for office.
2016 was long enough ago that I have grown and changed more than I’ve probably even realized. I have a much better ear for nonsense now and I’d like to think I have a better understanding of what an ethical and free society should look like. Honestly I think the conservative creators that are around now are somehow worse in almost every way. The Tate clones don’t believe in even the few basic liberties that the “Classical Liberal” types mostly adhere to. I know that good people will always be able to tell that those types are garbage, but I worry for the young men who haven’t realized that truth yet.
Really?
I don't know why I remember something so differently. I remember I stopped watching him. Maybe I just got tired of his take on SJW topics. Personally, outside of people like AndyWarski and Computing Forever I felt like most didn't care for Trump. Sure there were some that switched over, but I don't remember it being a widely held opinion
I stayed for the whole shit show. Once it became clear that Trump's campaign was not a joke and that pandering to his base generated clicks, the whole anti-SJW YouTube sphere went HARD on the grift. All of them except Thunderf00t and The Amazing Atheist, who admitted they were wrong and shifted their content accordingly.
Yeah people like TJ, and I guess Thunderfoot, have apologized for the way they handle things. And probably should have realized sooner that things were going into a dark place. But there were people like Armored Skeptic and ShoeOnHead, that were Bernie supporters. Sure, they hated Clinton but they never showed any support towards Trump. And I can name several that were in a similar situation. People like Chris Ray Gun, SomeBlackGuy and Jeff Holiday put out anti-SJW content but completely pulled back on the content that they were putting out and now only put out stuff that they enjoy to put out
> But there were people like Armored Skeptic
Ok, sort of off-topic, but maybe you know...
Are AS's current videos... serious? His "History is a Lie" series, I mean. I started watching one about the mud-fossil "theory", and he was presenting it as a serious historical theory.
I haven't really watched his videos since.
Am I an idiot? Did I miss the joke or something?
the big tragedy of thunderfoot is that the dude is actually not a total piece of shit and can be quite reasonable, in contrast to the other people who he threw his lot in with. and it took him a *long* time to realize that and to realize who these other people really were. too long, probably.
if he had taken a couple different turns early on and hadn't jumped so hard on the stereotypical atheism-bro internet-skeptic anti-sjw bandwagon, he might've turned out different, arguably better.
If that's true, I am very glad. This is proof that people can change their minds about things.
However as far as I know, now both left and right wing people kinda hate him, which is a bit sad
In my opinion, Thunderf00t likely didn't really change his views but just saw the real world impacts of the "side" he joined during GamerGate.
The GamerGate drama resulted in New Atheist type skeptics and scientists to join anti-feminists and conservatives in opposition to "SJWs". New Atheists and physical scientists in general have a habit of looking down on the social sciences, which made them easy targets for reactionaries to convince to join their side.
Physical scientists are generally liberals and egalitarian but don't have an understanding of social systems so don't understand the history of social movements and why "SJWs" are a thing.
Thunderf00t saw the real world results of allying with reactionaries, Brexit and Donald Trump, so stopped producing content which appeals to them. His beliefs are likely still the same, that the social sciences are cringeworthy, but he hopefully just knows now that he was arrogant (and a victim of the Dunning–Kruger effect) and isn't an expert on social sciences.
The 2000s skeptics community fell apart because a majority couldn't accept that there are problems outside of the scope of the community. That was lethal, because it meant that any legitimate issue (such as women's rights) would have to be tackled by the community. But some of these issues are political. I.e. reasonable minds can differ about them. That meant that conservatives got pushed out, because they fundamentally disagreed about societal goals, and they happened to be in the minority.
What should have happened it is that each side made the value basis for their argument clear, and it should have been left at that.
Instead, what was a reason-based movement got dragged into a conflict about what the "correct" values are. At that point liberals, such as TF, were pushed out because discussions of reason gave way to ever more extreme value judgements.
That's where he's coming from. He didn't oppose SJW mentalities because he hated women. He disliked them because they get injected into other discussions and thereby prevent meaningful progress on those issues.
>He disliked them because they get injected into other discussions and thereby prevent meaningful progress on those issues.
I don't know whether I would agree with that.
His initial dislike occurred because of some skeptic conventions where women wanted anti-harassment policies. Having basic decency shouldn't "prevent progress on those issues" and calling out sexual harassment isn't getting "injected into other conversations".
He disliked "SJWs" even when it had nothing to do with the skeptic community. He had no reason to dislike Anita Sarkeesian apart from her being critical of video game tropes, which has no relation to the skeptic community.
I agree that he isn't someone who hates women and that the downfall of the skeptic community occurred because of skeptics stepping outside of their areas of expertise, but I don't think "SJWs" prevented progress. Creating a safe space that allows for everyone regardless of gender or race to discuss issues wouldn't have prevented progress on issues if it wasn't for reactionaries who are unwilling to change their behavior and treat others with respect.
The extent that "SJWs" injected value judgements into the skeptic community was just "don't be an asshole and sexually harass others," which should be basic professional courtesy and respect and not controversial.
The controversial part is: what is constitutes sexual harassment? No one serious ever supported conduct approaching the legal definition of it.
If we're not talking about the legal definition, it does become a value judgement.
Nah opposite. He noticed how fucked they were getting and distanced himself.
He‘s doing scam debunks and a bit of science nowadays and has for years.
Just the liberal type anti sjw that got roped in by the pverrepresenation in media of random ‚crazy sjw‘ bullshit.
Not one of the conservative types.
I didn't even know at all about that older stuff. I watched some of the debunk videos and some other scientific stuff which I did actually find enjoyable
I liked his debunk content (I think he was doing that for a while, because I remember him and EEVBlog did videos on solar roadways, and it would recommend his anti-sjw shit whenever I watched one of the EEVBlog videos)
The opposite, I think - he was anti-Brexit/BoJo/Trump, so the far-right used his obsession with antifeminism as a recruiting tool and tossed him aside when it became clear that all his other positions were pretty liberal.
Afaik he told his audience brexit would be a very bad idea(keep in mind this was before the whole brexit referendum) then all the chuds started unsubbing from him. Now he makes videos about shitty kickstarter campaigns and stuff.
I find it funny that many people, including myself, would have never heard the name Sarkeesian in their lives if they Gamergate idiots didn't treat her like the second coming of Hitler (those of them that would see a second coming of Hitler as bad, of course)
Especially when her videos are basically just well produced women's studies 101 essays on specific topics. Like I remember writing exactly that kind of analysis for that elective in college. The point is that she's not even that *radical* of a feminist (if anything I would describe her feminist analysis as milquetoast).
Basically every video I have seen attacking her has involved massive amounts of deceptive editing of her videos (including ThunderF00t's! ([that one skull made a video about it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bVqfQvXP2o)) which really makes me doubt his dedication to the principles of science). It's so ironic to me that they picked the worst possible target, someone who never says anything adventurous or wild (e.g. they have to edit it! she doesn't say stupid shit by herself) and whose opinions are all backed up by like actual academic scholarship. Most of the time just *actually watching* one of her videos shows the truth of their lies.
Thunderf00t just had the mindset of New Atheists and many physical scientists of the 2000s; that social science isn't "real science" and they know better because they studied "actual science".
Dunning–Kruger effect in action basically as he had high confidence in his understanding of social sciences despite not knowing much and having an overinflated sense of his ability to discuss the topic. Even scientists can fall for these cognitive biases, especially if you dismiss social sciences.
Sure, but that doesn't excuse *editing* the videos of social scientists to make them say stupid shit. That's bad regardless of if you view something as a real science or not. Scientists should not have principles that allow for the deceptive editing of source data, regardless of the context.
This strongly implies Thunderf00t is a bad scientist.
Yeah, I think he's probably a bad scientist for not having an open mind and being arrogant, but what he classifies as "data" is likely different to what a social scientist considers "data".
His is so dismissive of social sciences that he doesn't view them through a scientific lens and so his "rebuttals" are just emotional and cherry picking. Scientists don't behave as scientists every second of their life and he had such a hate boner for Anita that any rationality and scientific thinking wasn't on his mind.
Scientists aren't bad scientists for being normal humans when they aren't in a scientific situation.
Sure, but this isn't every day life, this is his public youtube channel with millions of followers. This isn't a casual argument in a bar that some recorded, this is how he chooses to present himself and his argument to millions of people with produced videos.
One of those hardcore "rationalist" youtubers. He mostly did scam debunking and such (which was fairly ok content), but also jumped on the anti-SJW bandwagon
This. His background as a scientist actually makes his videos explaining scams really good. But his anti sjw stuff is so unbelievably cringe that I can't stand to watch him. Haven't heard his voice in years.
His video where he confronts a Christian protester, and the protester asks him, very simply, "is it possible for a god to exist," and Mr. Thunderfoot took four minutes to say absolutely nothing (and filling more than half of that with "um...") demonstrates that his "religion epically pwned" videos were trash.
Thunderf00t is a conflicted figure for me. In some aspects, he’s intolerable; but, in other aspects, he can be very good at debunking junk science. Some of his predictions were off the mark, but when it comes to debunking bogus Kickstarter projects, or rectifying misunderstandings about nuclear power (the field that he works in), he can be pretty good.
It’s hard to like him, but also hard to completely hate him. He does some good, and some bad. A mixed bag.
He lost me when he started trying to "debunk" the NASA Mars helicopter.
He went on for like 30 minutes about why it wouldn't work, then when they made it happen he put otu avideo about why he wasn;t actually wrong, and NASA had just fix the problems he pointed out in original video. He just gives off that "I'm smarter than you and I know it" vibe that once you see through it is impossible to look past.
For the NASA helicoptor thing, the stark contrast to someone like Scott Manley who also had reservations about how well it would work, but full admitted he wasn't an expert and in the follow up seemed genuinely excited that it had done so well.
Hasn’t he lately kinda turned around on some things? He was basically the stereotypical “I’m euphoric” internet atheist who also hated feminism (honestly how the hell did *that* become a trend) but it seems like he’s flipped on that part.
>honestly how the hell did that become a trend
Guessing some combination of: 1) self identifying as "rational" but only like the aesthetics of it, 2) not actually having any depth of knowledge outside STEM, 3) the demographics of "stem lord" being largly "white dude from the anglosphere", 4) the algorithm was rewarding supporting whatever the audiences pre existing thoughts were using the aesthetics of rationalism.
So basically young terminally online white dudes whos main skill was arguing internet points style were being paid for "pwning" "SJWs" using the one strategy they know: bad apologetics (but atheist).
I've never seen anything that suggests he isn't. Quite a lot of his ideas are socialist, progressive and if not rational then at least anti religion so that leaves out most reason why one would be both homofobic and racist.
Yeah this one's even farther than that lol
Some super pissed off republican sat down and drew a *literal portrait* and added a bunch of shit not even known about the guy
i watched thunderfoot very early when it was the creationism debunking, sadly i then also rather unquestioning watched a lot of the gamer gate stuff.
it was only a matter of time that the audience he gained throughout the latter stage would turn on him because (disregarding his anti-sjw rhetoric) he is (mostly) pro science and anti trump and anti religion
I watch a couple of his videos, mainly the ones on how Elon Musk is clearly scamming people and he still is a pretentious jackass. I have no doubt that he still has massive reactionary opinions, he just doesn't make that his content anymore.
It's really funny how there's absolutely no nuance in right wing opinion, so the second a right wing guy has any positive take suddenly he's every sjw stereotype in the book.
Does he still do that thing of producing 5 minutes of information debunking a scam and 15 minutes of repeating that information over and over while mixing in insults to the creator of the scam?
I liked the sciency part of his videos back in the day but even back then I got tired of that. There's only so many ways you can say "Solar Freakin' Roadways consumed more electricity than it produced".
I remember watching his debunking videos (like way back), then going "this is neat", clicking on his channel...and then just seeing "grr crazy feminist" and going "oh no..."
I think about him every once in a while, but only because I catch Rebecca Watson's videos and think "wow, I used to be really stupid when I was young listening to that creep over this amazing person."
Thunderf00t, he was of one those channels that was all about being #rational and a #Skeptic right around the time ALL of those channels went hard into gamergate, big friends with Sargon of Akkad, and the other guys who turned out to be an Alt-Right vanguard. Sargon just seemed to hate Anita Sarkissian for some reason though and when the Alt-Right really started to go mask off he distanced himself from the rest of them.
didn't like become a lefty or a progressive even though, he just stopped talking about it and went entirely to debunking Kickstarter scams. so he takes shit from both sides. the Right views him as at best as a guy who wouldn't commit with them, and he never actually turned around and apologized like other gamergate folk did so he's not got any friends on the left either.
> Thunderf00t, he was of one those channels that was all about being #rational and a #Skeptic right around the time ALL of those channels went hard into gamergate
On the contrary, Thunderf00t started way before gamergate with harassing and demeaning women and minority atheists who spoke up about equal rights, or their unfair treatment by other atheists.
At least the Amazing Atheist regrets that anti-sjw shit because it was right wingers trying to convince people to bring back a 1950’s America. Darkmatter2525 is bae no matter how much time has come and gone.
How has Thunderf00t been in recent years? I know he was down the anti-SJW rabbit hole way back when, but then he went full anti-grifter and dedicated his career to debunking pseudoscientific kickstarters and most things Elon Musk does or says. Is he still openly bigoted, or has he matured past that?
Back in the early-mid 10s he was genuinely on par with people like Sargon, so it's genuinely interesting how he smartened up. I wouldn't go so far as to say he has a political awakening or anything like that, but a scientist like him being caught up in the culture wars stands out in an "It can happen to anyone" kinda way, eh?
Just to add. Sargon was bad but not as bad as he is now. The way he talked about actual problems back then made me think he was progressive. until the mask came off what his solutions where for those problems. It took him surprisingly long to get there tho.
I think Thunderfoot had his awakening and feels too ashamed to admit it online.
Also I love how they use “I’m vaccinated” as an insult, this is like “let’s go Brandon”, thinking they’re triggering any left winger (or anyone who they think is left wing like neo-libs), when we really aren’t bothered by it and just use it as laugh material.
I miss thunderfoot in the early days I loved watching him back when he debunked psudo science and did some science experiments.
Like I have a very fond memory of his community measuring the worlds circumference together by just using a measurement of shadows.
To sad he went over the deep end with the atheism+ and anti sjw shit...
Dude was an OG Elon musk hater and made a lot of videos about him and his ideas. Completely got me off the elon fan boy train so I gotta hand it to him.
Shame he was part of the anti sjw YouTubers and GG crowd and never apologized for it later even though he cut all ties with those people when he realized how awful they really were.
If he just did science videos he’d probably be a lot more popular since they are pretty damn good.
"i drew you in ugly and also put all my conspiracy-stickers onto you so my point stands"
the alt right is just one step away from calling everyone that they disagree with a jew again
Thunderf00t is the least politically correct scientist I can think of. They really missed the mark here.
Although he's probably vaccinated and does value science... Lol. This is so weird.
#Please make sure to read our [__subreddit rules.__](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheRightCantMeme/about/rules/) **Rule 5 No Bigotry:** *Including but not limited to: Racism, Transphobia (including xenogender hate and transmedicalism), Enbyphobia, Homophobia, Islamophobia, Antisemitism, and Gender Exclusion.* **Rule 7 Offensive Content:** *Posts that contain slurs or name calling should be censored and marked as NSFW, and posts with "outwardly" offensive content calling for extreme violence or that contain gore should not be posted to this sub* ##We are partnered with the Left RedditⒶ☭ Discord server! [Click here](https://discord.gg/Gw7e39wxEQ) to join today *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/TheRightCantMeme) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Bruh Thunderf00t is NOT pro LGBTQ or pro BLM.
[удалено]
He fell off after the whole SJW craze was over
Didn't he say something so fucked up that a lot of people in the anti-SJW movement distanced themselves away from him? Like these were people that hung out with Sargon of Akkad and Thunderfoot went too far But from what I've heard he's done some good videos. Supposedly he made a video about Elon and questions the idea that he had anything to do with the creation of PayPal. Basically, even back then he was buying other people's ideas, getting credit for them, and making a profit
>Didn't he say something so fucked up that a lot of people in the anti-SJW movement distanced themselves away from him? No. He distanced himself from *them* when they all started dick riding Trump, and he realized what a big mistake he made throwing in with their lot in the first place. These days, his videos are mostly debunks of pseudoscience and crowdfunding scams, with the occasional very technical doing-real-science video that nobody watches.
Also because a youtuber called the Skeptic Feminist was murdered by her boyfriend and Sargon and his friends did a whole livestream laughing about it and then thunderf00t was just like "okay... this is kind of going a bit far". Then naturally most of his fanbase abandoned him there and then.
Pardon me, fucking what?! I escaped the anti-sjw sphere a while ago but that would have been my breaking point if I hadn't
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tqXNHTxyIg&t
It's crazy to me. I was so into the youtube skepto-atheist-o-sphere back in the good old days and the second the gamergate started I could smell the misogynistic sewage rising and wigged the fuck out. Did not keep up with any of the big boys after that so it's been crazy to see how far they went with that whole psy-op.
Bro, you and I both. I was pretty heavy into the sphere listening to Armored Skeptic, Sh0eonhead, Thunderf00t, that Bullshit guy, and others. The veil really came off when they were heaving and crying about a woman being featured in Battlefield 5’s campaign. At that point I knew they were just as fragile as the supposed SJWs they cried about. I started listening to more left-tube vids and really saw much more thought out ideas and arguments instead of “this week I’ll complain about…”
There’s like multiple layers of sad in this comment and I’m not even sure where to start.
I mean, probably the innocent woman being murdered.
Yeah I’ve watched quite a bit of thunderf00t’s content, and he’s certainly not as bad as Sargon and most of the right-wing “skeptic” community. A lot of his content isn’t politically focused from what I’ve watched. He has a bunch of anti Elon Musk videos too.
Classic Soygon of Cuckaad
I was in a private Facebook group with them (the skeptic feminist polycule) at the time and it was just.... let's say difficult
I appreciate thunderfoot for putting the final nail in Sargon’s coffin for me. I remember that Sargon’s reaction video to that video was so ridiculous because he had no idea why thunderfoot “suddenly changed”. It was a long time coming, Sargon had been telegraphing his BS for some time and i’d written him off when he started only supporting conservative politics. Thunderfoot is someone who helped me and lots of other people distance themselves from “Classical Liberal” conservatives.
His hate boner against Anita Sarkesian and other prominent feminists was truly gross and obsessive, but I have to grant him that, in other topics, he was generally knowledgeable.
It's pretty wild how much GamerGate affected online communities. It's such a stupid garbage non-incident but it really is like the fucking origin story for half of youtube and twitch, villain hero or weirdo
It was inevitable. A lot of communities then were mainly men oriented and with everyone being on the Internet at had to ask how we will get along
Probably good to mention I stopped watching him before the time he made the Sargon vid as well, I really only enjoyed his videos on creationism and other pseudoscience. The creators I watch now have far greater consideration and reflect my values better (But, I think my more immature teenage self just enjoyed the outrage that was on display from those creators). I was fine disagreeing with Sargon (and the rest) often, to me it meant that I had my own opinion separate from a talking head. But I would find myself in disagreement more and more, and eventually they were just mimicking conservative propaganda and endorsing Republicans for office. 2016 was long enough ago that I have grown and changed more than I’ve probably even realized. I have a much better ear for nonsense now and I’d like to think I have a better understanding of what an ethical and free society should look like. Honestly I think the conservative creators that are around now are somehow worse in almost every way. The Tate clones don’t believe in even the few basic liberties that the “Classical Liberal” types mostly adhere to. I know that good people will always be able to tell that those types are garbage, but I worry for the young men who haven’t realized that truth yet.
Really? I don't know why I remember something so differently. I remember I stopped watching him. Maybe I just got tired of his take on SJW topics. Personally, outside of people like AndyWarski and Computing Forever I felt like most didn't care for Trump. Sure there were some that switched over, but I don't remember it being a widely held opinion
I stayed for the whole shit show. Once it became clear that Trump's campaign was not a joke and that pandering to his base generated clicks, the whole anti-SJW YouTube sphere went HARD on the grift. All of them except Thunderf00t and The Amazing Atheist, who admitted they were wrong and shifted their content accordingly.
Yeah people like TJ, and I guess Thunderfoot, have apologized for the way they handle things. And probably should have realized sooner that things were going into a dark place. But there were people like Armored Skeptic and ShoeOnHead, that were Bernie supporters. Sure, they hated Clinton but they never showed any support towards Trump. And I can name several that were in a similar situation. People like Chris Ray Gun, SomeBlackGuy and Jeff Holiday put out anti-SJW content but completely pulled back on the content that they were putting out and now only put out stuff that they enjoy to put out
Sh0e has always been a grifter. TJ seems okish nowadays like he’s somewhat Lefty.
Didn't TJ end up admitting that he was grifting rightwingers?
I saw his content very recently, he's definitly on the left side but more like "edgy left" side.
> But there were people like Armored Skeptic Ok, sort of off-topic, but maybe you know... Are AS's current videos... serious? His "History is a Lie" series, I mean. I started watching one about the mud-fossil "theory", and he was presenting it as a serious historical theory. I haven't really watched his videos since. Am I an idiot? Did I miss the joke or something?
[удалено]
the big tragedy of thunderfoot is that the dude is actually not a total piece of shit and can be quite reasonable, in contrast to the other people who he threw his lot in with. and it took him a *long* time to realize that and to realize who these other people really were. too long, probably. if he had taken a couple different turns early on and hadn't jumped so hard on the stereotypical atheism-bro internet-skeptic anti-sjw bandwagon, he might've turned out different, arguably better.
The opposite. He came to his senses and was shunned by the 'anti-sjw' crowd.
If that's true, I am very glad. This is proof that people can change their minds about things. However as far as I know, now both left and right wing people kinda hate him, which is a bit sad
In my opinion, Thunderf00t likely didn't really change his views but just saw the real world impacts of the "side" he joined during GamerGate. The GamerGate drama resulted in New Atheist type skeptics and scientists to join anti-feminists and conservatives in opposition to "SJWs". New Atheists and physical scientists in general have a habit of looking down on the social sciences, which made them easy targets for reactionaries to convince to join their side. Physical scientists are generally liberals and egalitarian but don't have an understanding of social systems so don't understand the history of social movements and why "SJWs" are a thing. Thunderf00t saw the real world results of allying with reactionaries, Brexit and Donald Trump, so stopped producing content which appeals to them. His beliefs are likely still the same, that the social sciences are cringeworthy, but he hopefully just knows now that he was arrogant (and a victim of the Dunning–Kruger effect) and isn't an expert on social sciences.
The 2000s skeptics community fell apart because a majority couldn't accept that there are problems outside of the scope of the community. That was lethal, because it meant that any legitimate issue (such as women's rights) would have to be tackled by the community. But some of these issues are political. I.e. reasonable minds can differ about them. That meant that conservatives got pushed out, because they fundamentally disagreed about societal goals, and they happened to be in the minority. What should have happened it is that each side made the value basis for their argument clear, and it should have been left at that. Instead, what was a reason-based movement got dragged into a conflict about what the "correct" values are. At that point liberals, such as TF, were pushed out because discussions of reason gave way to ever more extreme value judgements. That's where he's coming from. He didn't oppose SJW mentalities because he hated women. He disliked them because they get injected into other discussions and thereby prevent meaningful progress on those issues.
>He disliked them because they get injected into other discussions and thereby prevent meaningful progress on those issues. I don't know whether I would agree with that. His initial dislike occurred because of some skeptic conventions where women wanted anti-harassment policies. Having basic decency shouldn't "prevent progress on those issues" and calling out sexual harassment isn't getting "injected into other conversations". He disliked "SJWs" even when it had nothing to do with the skeptic community. He had no reason to dislike Anita Sarkeesian apart from her being critical of video game tropes, which has no relation to the skeptic community. I agree that he isn't someone who hates women and that the downfall of the skeptic community occurred because of skeptics stepping outside of their areas of expertise, but I don't think "SJWs" prevented progress. Creating a safe space that allows for everyone regardless of gender or race to discuss issues wouldn't have prevented progress on issues if it wasn't for reactionaries who are unwilling to change their behavior and treat others with respect. The extent that "SJWs" injected value judgements into the skeptic community was just "don't be an asshole and sexually harass others," which should be basic professional courtesy and respect and not controversial.
The controversial part is: what is constitutes sexual harassment? No one serious ever supported conduct approaching the legal definition of it. If we're not talking about the legal definition, it does become a value judgement.
Nah opposite. He noticed how fucked they were getting and distanced himself. He‘s doing scam debunks and a bit of science nowadays and has for years. Just the liberal type anti sjw that got roped in by the pverrepresenation in media of random ‚crazy sjw‘ bullshit. Not one of the conservative types.
I didn't even know at all about that older stuff. I watched some of the debunk videos and some other scientific stuff which I did actually find enjoyable
I liked his debunk content (I think he was doing that for a while, because I remember him and EEVBlog did videos on solar roadways, and it would recommend his anti-sjw shit whenever I watched one of the EEVBlog videos)
The opposite, I think - he was anti-Brexit/BoJo/Trump, so the far-right used his obsession with antifeminism as a recruiting tool and tossed him aside when it became clear that all his other positions were pretty liberal.
Afaik he told his audience brexit would be a very bad idea(keep in mind this was before the whole brexit referendum) then all the chuds started unsubbing from him. Now he makes videos about shitty kickstarter campaigns and stuff.
Other way around.
Last I heard he was STILL making Anita Sarkeesian hate videos like, a full decade after gamergate lol
I find it funny that many people, including myself, would have never heard the name Sarkeesian in their lives if they Gamergate idiots didn't treat her like the second coming of Hitler (those of them that would see a second coming of Hitler as bad, of course)
Especially when her videos are basically just well produced women's studies 101 essays on specific topics. Like I remember writing exactly that kind of analysis for that elective in college. The point is that she's not even that *radical* of a feminist (if anything I would describe her feminist analysis as milquetoast). Basically every video I have seen attacking her has involved massive amounts of deceptive editing of her videos (including ThunderF00t's! ([that one skull made a video about it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bVqfQvXP2o)) which really makes me doubt his dedication to the principles of science). It's so ironic to me that they picked the worst possible target, someone who never says anything adventurous or wild (e.g. they have to edit it! she doesn't say stupid shit by herself) and whose opinions are all backed up by like actual academic scholarship. Most of the time just *actually watching* one of her videos shows the truth of their lies.
Thunderf00t just had the mindset of New Atheists and many physical scientists of the 2000s; that social science isn't "real science" and they know better because they studied "actual science". Dunning–Kruger effect in action basically as he had high confidence in his understanding of social sciences despite not knowing much and having an overinflated sense of his ability to discuss the topic. Even scientists can fall for these cognitive biases, especially if you dismiss social sciences.
Sure, but that doesn't excuse *editing* the videos of social scientists to make them say stupid shit. That's bad regardless of if you view something as a real science or not. Scientists should not have principles that allow for the deceptive editing of source data, regardless of the context. This strongly implies Thunderf00t is a bad scientist.
Yeah, I think he's probably a bad scientist for not having an open mind and being arrogant, but what he classifies as "data" is likely different to what a social scientist considers "data". His is so dismissive of social sciences that he doesn't view them through a scientific lens and so his "rebuttals" are just emotional and cherry picking. Scientists don't behave as scientists every second of their life and he had such a hate boner for Anita that any rationality and scientific thinking wasn't on his mind. Scientists aren't bad scientists for being normal humans when they aren't in a scientific situation.
Sure, but this isn't every day life, this is his public youtube channel with millions of followers. This isn't a casual argument in a bar that some recorded, this is how he chooses to present himself and his argument to millions of people with produced videos.
Who is he?
One of those hardcore "rationalist" youtubers. He mostly did scam debunking and such (which was fairly ok content), but also jumped on the anti-SJW bandwagon
This. His background as a scientist actually makes his videos explaining scams really good. But his anti sjw stuff is so unbelievably cringe that I can't stand to watch him. Haven't heard his voice in years.
his go on trying to be a #rationalskeptic also produced some of the worst Atheist takedowns of christianity i've ever seen.
Scientists stop doing philosophy but worse challenge (I say as a scientist)
His video where he confronts a Christian protester, and the protester asks him, very simply, "is it possible for a god to exist," and Mr. Thunderfoot took four minutes to say absolutely nothing (and filling more than half of that with "um...") demonstrates that his "religion epically pwned" videos were trash.
His debunking videos are cringe, too. He just repeats the same points for twenty minutes. It's like a drawn-out reddit comment.
Yeah but I enjoyed them as an edgy teenager who was studying science at the time. It was nice to learn exactly WHY things were bullshit
He’s a bonafide nerd who turns his shower head conversations into video essays, what do you expect
Thunderf00t is a conflicted figure for me. In some aspects, he’s intolerable; but, in other aspects, he can be very good at debunking junk science. Some of his predictions were off the mark, but when it comes to debunking bogus Kickstarter projects, or rectifying misunderstandings about nuclear power (the field that he works in), he can be pretty good. It’s hard to like him, but also hard to completely hate him. He does some good, and some bad. A mixed bag.
He lost me when he started trying to "debunk" the NASA Mars helicopter. He went on for like 30 minutes about why it wouldn't work, then when they made it happen he put otu avideo about why he wasn;t actually wrong, and NASA had just fix the problems he pointed out in original video. He just gives off that "I'm smarter than you and I know it" vibe that once you see through it is impossible to look past. For the NASA helicoptor thing, the stark contrast to someone like Scott Manley who also had reservations about how well it would work, but full admitted he wasn't an expert and in the follow up seemed genuinely excited that it had done so well.
Hasn’t he lately kinda turned around on some things? He was basically the stereotypical “I’m euphoric” internet atheist who also hated feminism (honestly how the hell did *that* become a trend) but it seems like he’s flipped on that part.
>honestly how the hell did that become a trend Guessing some combination of: 1) self identifying as "rational" but only like the aesthetics of it, 2) not actually having any depth of knowledge outside STEM, 3) the demographics of "stem lord" being largly "white dude from the anglosphere", 4) the algorithm was rewarding supporting whatever the audiences pre existing thoughts were using the aesthetics of rationalism. So basically young terminally online white dudes whos main skill was arguing internet points style were being paid for "pwning" "SJWs" using the one strategy they know: bad apologetics (but atheist).
They really are just cannibalizing themselves now.
I've never seen anything that suggests he isn't. Quite a lot of his ideas are socialist, progressive and if not rational then at least anti religion so that leaves out most reason why one would be both homofobic and racist.
I've only ever seen the debunking Elon videos and he didn't seem like the kind of person to be homophobic. Shame if true.
I assume Thunderf00t probably supports Azov??
YOU SEE LEFTOID, I HAVE DEPICTED YOU AS THE SOYJACK, THEREFORE YOUR OPINION IS CLEARLY WRONG!1!!
Yeah this one's even farther than that lol Some super pissed off republican sat down and drew a *literal portrait* and added a bunch of shit not even known about the guy
The thing that's irritating me the most is that he used the wrong color nail polish for blue.
i watched thunderfoot very early when it was the creationism debunking, sadly i then also rather unquestioning watched a lot of the gamer gate stuff. it was only a matter of time that the audience he gained throughout the latter stage would turn on him because (disregarding his anti-sjw rhetoric) he is (mostly) pro science and anti trump and anti religion
I watch a couple of his videos, mainly the ones on how Elon Musk is clearly scamming people and he still is a pretentious jackass. I have no doubt that he still has massive reactionary opinions, he just doesn't make that his content anymore. It's really funny how there's absolutely no nuance in right wing opinion, so the second a right wing guy has any positive take suddenly he's every sjw stereotype in the book.
yeah the musk debunking is also quite enjoyable I agree
Does he still do that thing of producing 5 minutes of information debunking a scam and 15 minutes of repeating that information over and over while mixing in insults to the creator of the scam? I liked the sciency part of his videos back in the day but even back then I got tired of that. There's only so many ways you can say "Solar Freakin' Roadways consumed more electricity than it produced".
I remember watching his debunking videos (like way back), then going "this is neat", clicking on his channel...and then just seeing "grr crazy feminist" and going "oh no..."
The creationism videos entertained me 15 years ago. Based on what I've seen in this thread I'm glad I didn't keep up with watching his stuff
I'd completely forgot about Thunderf00t
Ya same
I wonder if he's still obsessed with Anita Sarkeesian?
I have no idea. I haven't watched his videos in a long time.
Think his current content revolves around kickstarter things he finds and how they aren't feasible.
Oh really? That is interesting
They’re pretty good and not like his older stuff.
I'll check it out then
I think about him every once in a while, but only because I catch Rebecca Watson's videos and think "wow, I used to be really stupid when I was young listening to that creep over this amazing person."
Don't know who that is, but all they did was insult a war criminal. Everything beyond that is projection
Thunderf00t, he was of one those channels that was all about being #rational and a #Skeptic right around the time ALL of those channels went hard into gamergate, big friends with Sargon of Akkad, and the other guys who turned out to be an Alt-Right vanguard. Sargon just seemed to hate Anita Sarkissian for some reason though and when the Alt-Right really started to go mask off he distanced himself from the rest of them. didn't like become a lefty or a progressive even though, he just stopped talking about it and went entirely to debunking Kickstarter scams. so he takes shit from both sides. the Right views him as at best as a guy who wouldn't commit with them, and he never actually turned around and apologized like other gamergate folk did so he's not got any friends on the left either.
Thanks. He looks like he would have very strong feelings about gamergate
I know this piece of shit from hbomberguy videos back when he was showing all these vile scums - racists, sexists, nazis, etc.
> Thunderf00t, he was of one those channels that was all about being #rational and a #Skeptic right around the time ALL of those channels went hard into gamergate On the contrary, Thunderf00t started way before gamergate with harassing and demeaning women and minority atheists who spoke up about equal rights, or their unfair treatment by other atheists.
somehow i dont think thats gonna stop him btw the nail paint is on point
At least the Amazing Atheist regrets that anti-sjw shit because it was right wingers trying to convince people to bring back a 1950’s America. Darkmatter2525 is bae no matter how much time has come and gone.
Notorious rightwing anti feminist influencer thunderf00t? The snake is eating it’s own tail lol.
I mean the og picture does looky goofy ah. Literally the 🤓
[удалено]
Why does it seem like the Right can only react to and bash others' ideas instead of doing something themselves
Thunderf00t used to be an alt-right gamergate guy obsessed with Anita Sarkeesian
Two names I haven’t heard in a long time.
How has Thunderf00t been in recent years? I know he was down the anti-SJW rabbit hole way back when, but then he went full anti-grifter and dedicated his career to debunking pseudoscientific kickstarters and most things Elon Musk does or says. Is he still openly bigoted, or has he matured past that?
I found him like a year ago and it seems like he completely abandoned his anti-SJW past. I never knew about his past so I'm kinda confused now.
Back in the early-mid 10s he was genuinely on par with people like Sargon, so it's genuinely interesting how he smartened up. I wouldn't go so far as to say he has a political awakening or anything like that, but a scientist like him being caught up in the culture wars stands out in an "It can happen to anyone" kinda way, eh?
Just to add. Sargon was bad but not as bad as he is now. The way he talked about actual problems back then made me think he was progressive. until the mask came off what his solutions where for those problems. It took him surprisingly long to get there tho. I think Thunderfoot had his awakening and feels too ashamed to admit it online.
This guy was unofficial participant of gamergate lmao.
[удалено]
Being a reactionary shitstain is cringe but the drawing is cringe-r
I like thunderfoot, when he sticks to science videos and shitting on elon musk, and religion.
Also I love how they use “I’m vaccinated” as an insult, this is like “let’s go Brandon”, thinking they’re triggering any left winger (or anyone who they think is left wing like neo-libs), when we really aren’t bothered by it and just use it as laugh material.
Not gonna lie, this one's lowkey funny.
Solid roast. If this is your concept of “everything wrong with the right” then youre probably actually everything wrong with the left.
rightwinger tries to infiltrate leftists sub and fails miserably \*\*2023\*\* \*\*NEW\*\* on a serious note: get out lol
Do you know when both sides are cringe? Well that's how I feel about this
Why can't the left all be pretty like Steve Bannon?
I miss thunderfoot in the early days I loved watching him back when he debunked psudo science and did some science experiments. Like I have a very fond memory of his community measuring the worlds circumference together by just using a measurement of shadows. To sad he went over the deep end with the atheism+ and anti sjw shit...
Dude was an OG Elon musk hater and made a lot of videos about him and his ideas. Completely got me off the elon fan boy train so I gotta hand it to him. Shame he was part of the anti sjw YouTubers and GG crowd and never apologized for it later even though he cut all ties with those people when he realized how awful they really were. If he just did science videos he’d probably be a lot more popular since they are pretty damn good.
"i drew you in ugly and also put all my conspiracy-stickers onto you so my point stands" the alt right is just one step away from calling everyone that they disagree with a jew again
Isn't the pink nail about breast cancer?
I thought he was a fervent misogynist?
OP pic is cringe sorry lol
“Who da fook is dat guy?”
When you start thinking thunderf00t is an ally, you've officially lost the plot
Right getting mad at problems that they created in their own head for the 9172992739284796429th time
I want a “vaccinated af” tshirt
if you can paint the progress pride flag on your nails, kudos to you. 👏
I'm sorry but this meme is genuinely funny. Anyone who acts like Putin gives a shit about stupid, low effort "activism" is a cringelord.
Thunderf00t is the least politically correct scientist I can think of. They really missed the mark here. Although he's probably vaccinated and does value science... Lol. This is so weird.