TJ Kirk

TJ Kirk
Kirk at a Drunken Peasants fan meetup in Toledo, Ohio, in July 2016
Personal information
Born Thomas James Kirk III
(1985-02-20) February 20, 1985
Pasadena, California, U.S.
Nationality American
Residence Louisiana, U.S.
Occupation
Height 6 ft 6 in (198 cm)
YouTube information
Also known as The Amazing Atheist, Terroja Lee Kincaid, Thomas Kirk
Channel
Years active 2006–present (YouTuber)
Genre Social criticism
Political criticism
Criticism of religion
Black comedy
Subscribers
  • 1 million (TJ Kirk)
  • 83 thousand (TJdoeslife)
  • 29 thousand (DEEP FAT FRIED)
Total views 445,000,000+ (combined)
100,000 subscribers 2010
1,000,000 subscribers 2016
Subscriber and view counts updated as of June 5, 2018.

Thomas James "TJ" Kirk III (born February 20, 1985), previously known by the pseudonym Terroja Lee Kincaid, is an American YouTube personality and podcast host. His channel, known as The Amazing Atheist, rose to prominence through Kirk's criticism of religion. Kirk then expanded his focus to other political and social issues, and he temporarily dropped the "Amazing Atheist" label from April 2017 to June 2018.

Kirk has more than 1 million subscribers on his main channel, and more than 364 million views in total. From 2014 until 2017, he was one of the hosts of The Drunken Peasants, a YouTube news podcast focused on current events and interviews.[1][2] He has been described as one of the "most controversial YouTubers" by WatchMojo.com.[3]

Early life

Kirk was born in Pasadena, California, though he was primarily raised in Mandeville, Louisiana.[4] 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.[5] At the age of sixteen, Kirk dropped out of high school with aspirations of being an author.[6]

Kirk began posting videos on YouTube in November 2006.[6]

History

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.[7][8]

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.[9] 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."[10] After the incident, Kirk apologized to the Reddit user in a private message and later made a public apology.[9] 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 vicious remarks were meant to be satirical commentary on trigger warnings.[11]

The perpetrator of the 2015 Trollhättan school attack was found to be a fan of Kirk and other similar YouTubers.[12]

Kirk interviewed Milo Yiannopoulos for The 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 The Drunken Peasants at the end of 2017 In 2018, he was briefly banned from Twitter for making a post that satirized rhetoric formerly used by New York Times journalist Sarah Jeong.[15]

References

  1. ↑ Rogan, Joe (March 15, 2017). "Joe Rogan and T.J. Kirk on Milo Yiannopoulos". Joe Rogan Experience. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
  2. ↑ Taylor, Jeff (March 17, 2017). "Joe Rogan, TJ Kirk discuss how their podcasts led to Milo Yiannopoulos' downfall". LGBTQ Nation. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
  3. ↑ "Top 10 Controversial YouTube Channels - TopX". WatchMojo.com. December 3, 2015. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
  4. ↑ 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.
  5. ↑ Associated Press (September 25, 1996). Minister indicted on fraud charges involving church-run university. Dallas Morning News
  6. 1 2 Cody Weber (2011). ""Amazing - Special Edition"". The Amazing Atheist. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  7. ↑ Singel, Ryan (November 8, 2007). "YouTuber Warned of Finnish Gunman in June, But No One Listened". Wired. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
  8. ↑ SPIEGEL ONLINE, Hamburg, Germany (10 November 2007). "Schulmassaker in Finnland: Warnung vor Amoklufer schon im Juni". SPIEGEL ONLINE. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
  9. 1 2 Eördögh, Fruzsina (2012-02-09). "The Amazing Atheist quits Reddit after rape comments". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 2017-03-26.
  10. ↑ Myers, PZ (2012-02-08). "The not-so-Amazing Atheist self-immolates". Free Thought Blogs. Retrieved 2017-03-26.
  11. ↑ Kirk, TJ (2014-07-29). "Rape, Feminism, and The Amazing Atheist". YouTube. Retrieved 2017-03-27.
  12. ↑ Farrel, Paul (March 15, 2017). "Anton Lundin Pettersson: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
  13. ↑ Pakman, David (February 22, 2017). "Milo Yiannopoulos Caught Defending Pedophilia, Career Implodes". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
  14. ↑ 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.
  15. ↑ Kulinski, Kyle (2018-08-13). "Prominent YouTuber banned from Twitter over obvious joke". YouTube. Retrieved 2018-08-13.
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