Steve Shives is a YouTube vlogger and atheist I subscribed to a few months ago. He has a very good channel discussing religion, having a book club on religious books from a non-believers perspective, talking about issues many in the atheist community are concerned with, and generally being a pleasant person to watch and listen to. He did not go to a fancy Ivy League school, he doesn’t have any initialisms behind his name, his videos don’t carry high production quality, he’s just a regular guy talking about topics those who follow him enjoy. He’s great, and makes some really good points and has some very good ideas.

I remember one video of him talking about how he’s a feminist. I didn’t care; he could present his ideas in a non-confrontational way. He sounded more equal rights than just feminist, but to each their own. He seemed like the type of person who you could go out to a bar or get coffee with and have conversation about anything; we could have two different POV’s and while we wouldn’t change the others mind, we could still talk and walk away looking forward to the next meeting and pick up where we left off or begin a new topic of conversation. One could be a democrat and the other a republican (during this election cycle) and we could still openly talk about how one is better than the other without anyone getting their feelings hurt. And yes, I did enjoy his take on being a male feminist while I’m a male MRA. He could speak my language and I appreciated his voice.

Armoured Skeptic – who I just found and so far enjoy – posted this video a while back discussing feminism. To my surprise, it featured Steve and his stance on feminism. I was intrigued and thought it would just be a general video, or YouTube Drama, about how two people have differing opinions, but I could still enjoy both channels without a problem. Armoured Skeptic started out with the normal Steve, discussing why he thinks feminism is good; I don’t have any issues with his perspective and enjoyed hearing his stance on an issue I’m interested in, but then it took a turn. Armored Skeptic cuts to Steve going full Red Hair on people in MRA, straight screaming into the camera. I was shocked. This was not the cool, calm, chill, easy going personality I thought I had subscribed to, not the person I would want to get a beer with or want to explore differing ideas with and come back again knowing we’d explore more ideas. Steve just isn’t a person whose words and ideas I cherish anymore, and I’m a little peeved.

Was anyone else a fan of Steve Shives until they saw his rant about how MRA is evil, or are you still a fan? Were you ever a fan of someone until they took a militant stance on an issue, not necessarily feminism, you either agree with or disagree with?

Thanks y’all