I've watched most of the anti-feminists youtube channels at some point before. It's a scale. Youtubers like Sargon of Akkad are the worst when it comes to these kinds of people. On one end there is some legitimate criticism if some of the fringe elements of feminism and on the other it's a misrepresentation of the entire movement based on those few fringe. As a side note I'd say I've never noticed anything with Dawkins that was anti-feminist. As far as the wage gap goes I've seen so much back and forth on it there might be a point or not. It seems to hinge on how the data is determined which in of itself is a valid question but I honestly never bothered to figure it out.
I'd say basically most criticisms of Sarkeesian and internet personalities like Steve Shives are mostly true (honestly Shives is the worst I've ever seen) but that other than that it's really just grasping for straws. In the world of millions there are bound to be bad apples but that doesn't mean feminism as a whole is bad. As a side note, while Sarkessian might be a good scammer, the harassment campaigns against her were mostly inherently sexist. So I'm not defending or justifying that; criticism is different than harassment.
I think there are actually 2 or 3 distinct factions that don't really cross-associate in this mess and are often rivals. There are the 'skeptics' who went from debunking Christianity to getting into social issues and are more-so misinformed than overtly sexist, and there are the true misogynists like the Red Pill movement and then there is a spattering of MRA types who can fall anywhere on that spectrum with a very few perhaps being truly concerned with men's issues like suicide rates and paternity rights (but it seems to me those are more used as ammunition). A fourth faction is what I'd call "internet feminism" which is mostly internet personalities who just say stuff online often times outrageous or actually unfair things which fuel those 3 factions. Then also the 'skeptics' see the Red Pills as actual sexists and the Red Pills see some of them as (hilariously) SJW's.
As a side note, most of those 'skeptic' types are decidedly anti-Trump, just to point out a problem with what
@Kuzcotopia said.
I used to watch The Amazing Atheist (now TJ Kirk) some and interestingly at one he point he actually started a fundraiser for women's rights and healthcare with some international women's organization I now forget, saying he wanted to do good work for "real feminism" but then apparently Sarkeesian started an opposing fundraiser and there was no proof or indication of where the money actually went. I posted about it over a year ago? when I still watched him. I'm bringing it up now to contrast the fact that it is a degree of scales and sometimes they themselves even move along them. No idea where he is now on it.
However I don't watch him anymore, last I heard he was hoping to focus on making fun of Trump and conservatives instead since they are now the ones 'in power'. Supposedly the 'skeptics' types were all going to gravitate towards that too, but considering internet and market trends I don't know how they will without loosing a sizable chunk of their demographics. Many of them do this for a living now or have for a good while.
It's basically true that Atheism+ is where the divide came from. But I do know 1 or 2 youtubers that do associate with people like The Amazing Atheist who say they just don't care for the topic and don't want to get involved. To me it almost seems like a rationalization to compartmentalize it but I can't be in their heads, but they do admit they don't like to talk about it or get involved. They seem to take everyone as individuals and don't generalize a lot.
They are about the only atheist youtubers I actually watch anymore except for Cosmic Skeptic who's really good and seems by all indications to not be anti-feminist at all. He focuses a lot on apologists and philosophical arguments. He's not actually touched social issues except where it concerns the direct involvement of religion.
I used to identify more with the atheism side of things but not really anymore. That's a bit also why I stopped watching most of those people but before that I stopped watching quite a few due to the anti-feminism. I could tolerate it when there was legitimize points about internet personalities or whatever, and often with say the Drunken Peasants (oh which TJ Kirk is in) they also made fun of right wing nutjobs and religious wackos a lot too. But for a while there it focused way too much on the left side, although with the Drunken Peasants they focused on the GOP more than others during the primaries leading up to Trump.
So uh, ya, I know it too well. It's insane. It's also why I stop watching anything that involves youtube personality drama. At a certain point I was like "wait... this isn't content... okay before when it was some form of video to video debate sure... but it's just...
drama now". Plus, I couldn't really stand a lot of them anymore because I finally came to a point of being too feminist, basically. There might be some feminists or supposed feminists who did truly ****ty things but after exploring the "debate" I kinda decided where I stand on various things.
And that's basically where the entire internet is at this point. We are so divided even with people we might agree with on 95% of issues if we actually talked about it reasonably. It's like everyone feels marginalized and that's made everyone more incoherent.
That, or maybe this is the first time I've seen this kind of social struggle in my lifetime. I'm only in my mids 20's or something and I didn't live through other turbulent times. So maybe someone much older could pitch in their viewpoint. I'd love to see someone who lived through the civil rights movement offer their opinion on today's political climate.
