An Open Letter to The Amazing Atheist and Scotty of the Drunken Peasants Podcast

Hello Amazing Atheist and Scotty (I don’t know if you have a cool little nickname, I’ve never heard of you before this, so forgive me for using your first name if that’s not what you normally go by). I’m Buckley.

Recently, your podcast featured a segment where you dissected a video of mine, my 4/20 video from 2013. This resulted in a bunch of people from your audience tweeting me and asking me to watch it, and although I generally don’t watch other things on YouTube (I’ve been aware of the Amazing Atheist for some time but I’ve never actually watched any of your videos), being the narcissist that I am (it’s a video about me!), I suffered through the 15 or 20 minutes of you guys stopping and starting my video to call me an idiot and to make disparaging remarks about my success, with the Amazing Atheist going so far as to tell his audience that they have to choose between himself or me because he doesn’t want subscribers who are also subscribed to me. Considering you are partnered and you make money off of your channel, I would consider this a bad idea from a business standpoint, but I assume this statement was made a) in the heat of the moment, and b) to make you seem like you “don’t care” (edgy = cool!), so I won’t dwell on it further. Since your video was posted, I’ve had a few requests (which my audience should know I don’t take) to come onto your show and debate you, with you referencing these requests in your most recent podcast.

I have no interest in coming on your show or debating you anywhere for a number of reasons:

1. Any intelligent person should know better than to fight someone on their own turf. The deck is stacked right from the beginning. As I told some guy who has tweeted me pretty much every day since you discussed me on your show, the challenger to the President doesn’t go debate him at the White House with his own people as moderators.
2. I have no interest in some sort of petty Internet “feud” (for me, this ends at the end of this letter)
3. I have no interest appearing on a show where you will profit from my appearance. Your “Drunken Peasants” podcast appears to have no fewer than 5 ads in a 2 hour period, as well as a persistent ad throughout for things such as Audible. For me to come on the show, and presumably tell my audience about it so they’ll watch, in order for you to make extra money off my appearance, is not something I’m interested in
4. There is no actual reason to debate (either on your show or anywhere). What we have is a difference of opinion, and neither of us repeating ourselves over and over will change those opinions

Let’s focus on #4, since it’s really the most important reason. In my 420 video, the part that you seem to have the biggest issue with is that I refer to “addicts” as “pieces of shit”. This isn’t a “debatable” topic, this is my opinion based on knowing addicts and being around substance abusers in the past. Alcoholics, people who smoke weed, did coke, I knew a guy who fucking loved Special K (and I’m not talking about the breakfast cereal), my opinions don’t come from living a sheltered life. I will defend you from my fans or the “trolls” or whoever it is you said claimed that you didn’t understand me… you understood me alright. I believe that addicts are weak and pathetic, and that people who smoke weed and celebrate the fact that they are addicted to a substance are no exception, regardless of how harmless you believe it to be. If I knew someone who couldn’t make it through the day without putting rainbow stickers all over their body and then barking at a parking meter, I would feel the same way, despite the fact that it doesn’t harm them or anyone else and is easier to quit than other activities. And just as you have the right to do what you want, I have the right to speak that opinion. That’s what’s great about living in North America. Land of the free, home of the entitled.

I believe that people who enjoy the odd joint or a glass of wine every now and then are fine, but if a person feels the need to smoke weed or drink alcohol or take any sort of substance in order to enjoy themselves more or to get through a day, that they are pathetic. I worked with a guy who literally could not go through a day without getting high while at work. He had no medicinal reason for this, he was suffering from no afflictions, he simply felt that he couldn’t make it through a day without smoking weed. It’s my opinion that this person is a pathetic loser. You don’t feel this way, and made that very clear. You feel that a person shouldn’t be judged if they feel the need to get drunk or high on a daily or perhaps even hourly basis. I feel differently. What’s left to debate? Why we feel the way we do? Neither of us are psychologists (unless Scotty has a PhD, again I don’t know who he is), so that is pointless. There are numerous potential reasons including values taught in the home, values taught at school, the people we grew up around, the choices we’ve made as adults, the choices other influential adults made while we were children, and we aren’t going to sort that out in between ads for whatever bullshit YouTube is trying to sell so you can make a few extra dollars while I appear on your show as you both take turns attempting to make me look foolish in front of your audience.

If it makes you feel better, since one of your issues is that I attack people using narcotics and alcohol at home by themselves, I think it’s equally pathetic for people to go out with friends and get high or wasted every night. It may also make you feel better to know that I think weed should be legalized and taxed the same way that cigarettes and alcohol are. As a Canadian who enjoys government health care, more tax dollars means more Doctors which means less time waiting for appointments. And since marijuana supposedly has no health risks (and is believed to be some sort of miracle cure by some misguided individuals), those tax dollars won’t be utilized by the weed smokers who are just in their homes not bothering anyone, being all healthy and whatnot. Your weakness is my next free physical!

I’m actually not even sure why you’re offended by me calling junkies pathetic (or by me calling substance abusers, which you both freely admitted to being, “junkies”). Why do you care? Who am I? My opinion is meaningless, right? According to you guys I’m some guy who shouldn’t even have the subscribers I have, so what difference does it make? Some nobody called you pathetic. Here’s an example: I like to read comics. I bet that somewhere today, someone called someone else who reads comics “pathetic”. You know what I didn’t do? Spend 20 minutes on the Internet crying about it, and then try and goad them into a debate about why they feel my hobby is “pathetic”. That’s their opinion and they’re welcome to it. I’m still going to read comics, and they’re still going to be judgmental about it, and we’ll both continue living our lives, meaningless as they are, until we’re dead and ascend to the kingdom of heaven or descend to the pits of hell (hah, no I’m kidding, we rot in the ground or get burned and stuffed in a jar. Hooray for common ground, right?)

Oh, and Scotty (I feel like I’m leaving you out a little here), since you ummed and awwed about my point about marijuana not actually being natural and compared it to vegetables not being “natural” anymore (GMOs, pesticides, whatever), I thought I’d take a moment to tell you that I’m very well aware of that and don’t give a shit. It’s things like that that make people say you were “strawmanning” me. “Man, I’ve totally got him!” (now I’m doing it…) “all those vegetables he eats, he probably thinks they’re natural, so he’s just a fucking hypocrite!” Yep! You got me! Man! I see things so clearly now! I honestly don’t know what you meant to accomplish there, but I regret to inform you that whatever result you intended didn’t come to fruition.

So, there will be no debate. It would be pointless; no one’s minds will be changed, nothing will be learned, and nothing will be gained (besides revenue for you). Our opinions on the subject of substance abuse are what they are, and nothing will change them.

I wish you continued success with your YouTube channel(s).

Buckley