Armoured Skeptic



Gregory Fluhrer, better known as Armoured Skeptic (also Sir Skeptalot or AJ), is an atheist YouTuber who considers himself a critic of religion, conspiracy theories, feminism / "SJWs" and ideological posturing in general. Many "skeptics" like the first two; somewhat fewer like the last two. His channel has supported an increasing amount of anti-SJW content. At different points in his YouTube career, he considered himself a centrist, a liberal, and a leftist.

As of January 2019, Fluhrer's main YouTube channel had over 492 thousand subscribers and 46 million views. According to Patreon, he makes over $600 per video.

Life
As a child, Fluhrer was a member of a Messianic Jewish cult. Fluhrer describes the members as very nice people but highly deluded. After watching videos from thunderf00t, TheAmazingAtheist, and CultOfDusty, he questioned his beliefs and became an atheist.

The first atheist group that Fluhrer joined was an "Atheism+" group which promoted societal equality. For questioning their ideas, said group doxxed him and told his boss that he was a rapist, which nearly got him fired. Exact words: "I personally was called a rape apologist because I denied there was a rape culture and I was called a rapist because I denied that consensual drunk sex was in any way a form of rape." As a result, he considered Atheism+ almost a cult and created the Armoured Skeptic channel to combat Atheism+, but he says that he has ultimately gone towards a more generally anti-bullshit channel.

Views
I'm no political activist. I do not belong to any movements or groups. I merely like to share my opinions on those who do. [....] I am not a conservative. The reason I am so hard on the left is because I'm a member of the left. I like to make fun of the right and creationists, but I take my skepticism of the left very seriously. I'm not Anti-Religion, Anti-Feminist or an Anti-SJW, I am Anti-Authoritarian. It just so happens that religious people and feminists tend to be authoritarian.

Antifeminism
Regardless of the organization they have infiltrated, everything regarding female representation is always wrong, no matter what. Every complaint, when met with a fix, is simply just flipped into a complaint about the fix. When trying to appease a feminist, one will find himself/herself in a no-win scenario where everything is problematic because... feelings. If it FEELS wrong to a feminist it is wrong. This is the logic we're up against. There is literally no winning, there is no appeasing, there is only the victim and the oppressor. Is this the world we want to live in? Fluhrer claims not to mind feminism but thinks it needs "evidence" to support its claims.


 * Fluhrer believes that Anita Sarkeesian is a "mouthpiece" for "extreme left nonsense" and that Christina Hoff Sommers is a second-wave feminist trying to "reconcile third wave feminists with reality."
 * Fluhrer doesn't believe the gender wage gap exists as a result of discrimination and thus isn't worth addressing:


 * His reply video to one of Steve Shives' (where Shives argues that "Atheism and feminism are complementary to one another") is titled "Feminism is My God Now" and argues, in part, that "the only people I hear en masse perpetuating the concept that women are not equal to men are third wave feminists". PZ Myers heavily criticized this video, to which Fluhrer released a response arguing against Myers' criticism. In his response, Fluhrer states that Myers didn't properly criticize his work, which is justifiable as Myers neglected to address and debunk Fluhrer's points properly in his criticism. In a tweet, he claimed that Myers "[called] me misogynist and anti-feminist for disagreeing with a feminist". Myers' accusation of antifeminism, at least, is also justifiable as Fluhrer used the same arguments as many anti-feminists: a prime example being his claim that the gender pay gap should be questioned.

Anti-religion
Fluhrer's main body of work consists of rebuttals to creationist Christian arguments videos by his character (a guy in a modern suit and a knight helmet).

Notable videos:
 * (Discusses the cosmological argument.)
 * and
 * (On the burden of proof of atheism.)
 * (On the burden of proof of atheism.)
 * (On the burden of proof of atheism.)
 * (On the burden of proof of atheism.)

Atheism+
Fluhrer believes skeptics fail to apply skepticism towards feminism. Fluhrer heavily opposes "identity politics" in atheism, which here largely means feminism. For example, he writes:

Anti-bullshit
Before Fluhrer went fully off the deep end, he did create some generally anti-bullshit videos:


 * (On evolutionism and evolution and morality.)
 * and follow-ups, ,
 * (Maybe the moon is artificial, as Spirit Science says. Or not.)

Pseudohistory
In 2019, amidst his typical schtick, Fluhrer uploaded a video called "History is a Lie?" where he claims that a global flood was covered up and history before about 200 years ago is distorted. He continued this into a series, referring to it briefly as "The Armoured Conspiracy Files" and later "Tinfoil Helmet". There are four videos in this series:


 * "History is a Lie?"
 * "Free Energy is Real?"
 * "Alien Skulls are Real?"
 * "History is a Lie - Atlantis"

These videos are almost entirely unsourced and cover a wide range of topics, including but not limited to conehead skulls, Nikola Tesla, Tartaria, free energy, geopolymers, the Giza pyramids, Rapa Nui, and, of course, Atlantis.

Fluhrer synthesizes all this into his pseudohistorical theory: in ancient history, humans were ruled by a race of cone-headed albino giants, the Denisovans. Atlantis was a global society of these giants, and they utilized the advanced technology found in architecture around the world. All this was either forgotten or covered up after a global mud flood in the early 1800s.

There was uncertainty about whether these videos were intended as a joke; however, after 3 years of promoting more and more bullshit, it doesn’t seem like he’s joking.

General problems
Fluhrer does not post any sources on his videos, which would be useful for proving that he's right or wrong on scientific issues. While he sometimes highlights sections of web pages or videos that he thinks help prove this point, this is vastly less useful than the relevant links. In this way, he often relies on snark and assertion to make his points.

Fluhrer has been criticized for his overinflated ego and tendency to act as if he is an expert on many topics, although, among entertainers, this is a common enough failing. A notable example is Fluhrer's video about free speech in Canada. He made numerous factual errors, making it evident that he was either deliberately lying or had done barely any research. A pair of videos by YouTuber Logicked highlighted the factual inaccuracies      in Fluhrer's video. Possibly his most egregious error was when he said, " is a Bill that prohibits people from misgendering or using the wrong pronouns when addressing people who identify as trans." The Bill said nothing about misgendering but was instead about adding gender identity to the list of prohibited grounds of discrimination in the Canadian Human Rights Act. In essence, it makes it illegal to deny services, employment, or accommodation to individuals based on their gender identity.

RationalWiki
You should never use Rational Wiki as a source for anything... ever... Fluhrer is pissed at RationalWiki and questioned its name. (At the time, RationalWiki's entry on him described him as a Gamergater and conspiracist. )

Fluhrer responded to Steve Shives's claim that he (Fluhrer) had cultivated a following "by making content that panders to racists, rape apologists, and misogynists", which Shives backed up with a link to this page. Fluhrer correctly noted that this page doesn't include the words "race, white, black, [or] supremacist" and didn't support any of these claims. He says: