I made this Twitter rant after I streamed last night. I don't know if I want this big wall of text on my Twitter for that long, especially something that people could easily misconstrue in tweet form. So I'm moving it here and then deleting it from Twitter.
What made me think about this enough to tweet about it is this; someone I follow is an artist who makes cool YouTube videos too. She was friends with and inspired by some popular asshole that I don't know much about but a lot of people liked this fucker who was recently outed.
Hey! Present-tense me again! Since we're not on Twitter anymore, I can address this without fanning a fire. The artist is Thumin. She makes really cool stuff. The "popular asshole", as I so eloquently put it, was Creepshow Art. I don't even know much about that one. I never followed her because everytime I hear about her it's just drama on top of drama. Turns out she has recently outdone herself in 2021. Thumin has been publicly linked with Creepshow so fans are lobbing questions and hatred at Thumin left and right instead of... y'know, the person actually being transphobic. Even beyond the transphobia and outing her own fucking sibling while they were in the ICU, I can't even follow the Degrassi bullshit she's been known for prior. So like, if you don't already know about it, feel free to look for Creepshow drama on your own. I don't even want to put out a source because I feel like anything I find could be misinformation. I have no idea what's up with this dummy. Thumin, however, I recommend following.
People are DMing and freaking out about this creator I follow that... isn't a freak by any means? They're yelling at her and sending racist shit to her trying to get her to address this other channel. They have cut off ties with their channel and the freak's channel anyway.
So here's the kicker of that story.
The event happened recently and this creator HAS addressed it on at least two different platforms, INCLUDING fucking YouTube where it would be the most publicly relevant.
To clarify because this seems so stupid that you might be thinking "no, I clearly read something wrong here". I would be. Thumin tweeted about this and put out one of those YouTube messagey thingies. Not a video. You know. That text thing you can do on YouTube so all your subscribers can see it.
The response was so prompt that it was how I found out about it happening
Unfortunately, that wasn't good enough for fans. At least up until yesterday, people have still been pestering her about the situation. I read her take on the whole thing. It isn't like 9 pages long or anything but I felt it was thorough enough. To loop back into the point of this whole blog post, I thought Thumin's post was more than what should have been expected.
Another reason I've been thinking about this kind of sensationalism recently, other than personal drama that doesn't need to be unleashed onto you guys, is that I've been pretty into Continue? recently.
If it isn't obvious, I have no connection to any of the channels or creators I am talking about here. My "personal drama" is what it sounds like and should be taken as such.
Continue? seems like a group of decent dudes. As far as white, cishet bros on the internet go, I feel pretty comfortable with them as an audience member and on a moral level.
But you probably know where I'm going with this:
n*rmalb**ts
"Normalboots".
For those of you too young to know about N*rmalb**ts; good. Half of the fuckers involved with it were shady at best. Two very popular ones are still going strong, one of them on Twitch as well. One is a white supremacist and the other sexually manipulates women and followers.
This is referencing "JonTron" or Jon Jafari who argued pretty strongly for strongly enforced immigration laws for the US and/or ethnic cleansing. When he caught flack for trying laughably to back up a lot of racist ideology, he made an "apology" video where he basically still tried to reinforce his points and said he would "stay out of politics". Idiot. The other idiot I'm referring to is ProJared or Jared Knabenbauer. That guy cheated on his wife with another YouTube creator who was, at the time, married to yet another YouTube creator, so the drama really splattered on all the walls that month. His wife partially found out about the events regarding the cheating because Jared also likes using his influence to solicit nudes from fans, some of which are under the age of 18. Back in the day, they all had this network called "Normalboots". JonTron, ProJared, and Continue? were all a part of this network. Normalboots basically kicked JonTron out by wording it in the most professional (i.m.o. pussy) way possible. Years later, people finally caught on to Jared's stink en masse. This caused Normalboots to disband entirely. Now you're up to speed on that. You can look up more details on your own but I think that was pretty comprehensive if I do say so myself.
Unfortunately, there are still videos with those people on Continue?. However, they have been increasingly making jokes against big conservative/centrist talking points for years, including all of the things those people and their current fans do.
Don't know why I worded this how I did. Probably just because I was in physical pain, it was late at night, and I was in full rant mode. Continue? had this thing back in the day called "Drunkstravaganza" where they would try to do their normal video game shtick but with guests. The first one was with JonTron. That's still on the channel. The second one was with a bunch of people, some shittier than others. If I remember correctly, JonTron was in that too but really all I remember is Satchell Drakes being there, a dildo on the wall, and Will Stamper's ass. Though it might be cool to see Continue? condemn Jon Jafari in a more specific way or see them at least remove the videos they are all in together, the points that make Jon Jafari's entire existence controversial are made fun of pretty frequently on Continue? They have progressively been harping on bigoted bullshit. I feel like if you know their heart is in the right place or at least they publicly condemn that behavior regularly, the argument of whether they should or shouldn't do something with their channel seems trivial to me. Vaguely irresponsible at worst.
Although I don't think Jared was ever in any of their videos, they mention him in a supportive fashion once or twice. I'm not sure if they still have those videos up. I wouldn't be surprised if they even remember mentioning him. However, after Jared's specific controversy, they make fun of him extensively for the specific bullshit he did in an episode not long after the public dust settled.
When the two were outed, they unfollowed the accounts and didn't say much. They don't directly talk about it (I'm unaware if they have) but they also don't condone the behavior actively. Unlike most big sketchy YouTubers, they make fun of similar idiots.
Is that not enough?
If you are actually a fan of the person or people, do you actually want accountability or do you want drama because you are on the internet and stirring the pot is something to do?
This is why I bring up Continue? In relativity, they are accountable for any remote association???
I won't bring up the one person I follow because that discourse is still burning. It is still current because people are perpetrating it. I don't see a logical reason why because again; they already addressed the fucking issue point-blank.
This is just bringing it all full-circle. I'm reiterating that Thumin was in the crosshairs of this sort of stupidity even after doing everything she could have done with the situation. What more do people want? Is it a video? Because that seems like you really want the spectacle more than you want some ambiguous sense of accountability.
In the case of Continue?, there is a greyer discussion. Although (to my knowledge) they didn't directly acknowledge everything, they still did most of what the end result would have been and try to culminate a diverse community that hates right-wing bigots.
For me, that's obviously enough or else I probably wouldn't still be watching and smmmmashing that liek buttin on Continue? videos.
They didn't "talk about it" but the end result is the same if they kinda do that all the time.
Even if you're going to argue "when it happened they shouldn't have stayed silent", they were still a part of Normalboots when both major controversies started actively buzzing. They helped come to the conclusion that action should be taken against them or at least stood by those actions. You wouldn't be wrong though. They could have done more. Still, unlike politically and morally ambiguous channels with a big following, Continue? have made their stances on a lot of issues pretty well known in their regular content. This is why I thought they were such a good example to illustrate what I'm talking about.
I dunno. Just something I've been mulling over.
I truly don't believe there's a concrete right or wrong answer to any of this.
On the other hand, I feel like some people are just not satisfied with what strangers online do in reaction to other strangers online.
Some are irresponsible (like p*wd**piss). I get that.
Just mathematically, I bet a lot of you went through a shitty fucking Pewdiepie, Markiplier, Jacksepticeye, Cryaotic or however you spell that, CinnamonToastKen phase. People don't fucking call Markiplier or Jacksepticeye nazis for not calling Pewdiepie anti-semitic, even though Felix is definitely anti-semitic. So either we're all flawed and this whole "guilty by association" mentality is pretty fucking toxic and pointless or you are the god of morality and I deserve to burn eternally for even going down this line of thought.
That's my soapbox for the night. I can't think of any more points to add that aren't kind of redundant. Hopefully, you got something out of this spiel. Something to think about.
Yeah, that sums it up. I figured it would be easier to clear some of my points up on almost anything other than Twitter. I'm going to go delete those tweets now. Stay safe and healthy out there. I mean on the internet but I guess that goes for your life not spent on the internet as well.
