I’ve always thought that Thorne was insufferable - so much like “that guy” in philosophy who never stops mansplaining. So, Thorne has always wanted to be an actor ... sorry, actress , and he did a philosophy masters cos he got rejected from acting school ( I am of course relaying the story from when he still was a dude, hence the male pronouns.) His videos are very poor quality - I would never recommend my students watch them.
Anyway, Thorne did some pretty funny interviews over the years. I really enjoyed the one where he said that philosophy was male, pale and stale and his philosophy channel was changing all that. Wow a white posh dude talking about philosophy? So different! He has no teaching experience, of course. His most popular video was about being a victim of domestic abuse as a male.
Thorne also wrote this hilarious letter to the royal association of philosophers huffing and puffing that they had the audacity to let Kathleen stock do a key note speech at their conference! He pointed out that he has sooooo many YouTube viewers, so they really should listen to him and ban that nasty woman from talking!
Here’s my view. When Abigail was a middle class white male, they were boring. Let’s face it - being a dude in philosophy is not exactly innovative. And when they talked about nasty feminists it was ... well... a bit gross coming from a guy. But now Abigail is the most oppressed brand of women and can happily unleash excessive amounts of invective at “non trans women” who are oppressing them by rolling around in hrt pills and laughing. They also have magically transformed their YouTube channel into something fresh and exciting. It’s no longer a posh guy droning on about philosophy but a woman! It really is a fantastically canny career move - how fortuitous that Thorne was always a woman all along! Oh and if you want a laugh - the Wikipedia page says that Abigail went to an all boys school, a truly remarkable feat.