• NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    32
    arrow-down
    10
    ·
    14 hours ago

    I have asked a few times why PDP deserves all the hate. The best answer I got is “look it up yourself”. I did, and the only things I found were many years old, and in each instance (of which there aren’t that many) he apologized publicly and acknowledged that things got out of hand. To me, his apologies seem sincere and genuine - none of that “I’m sorry I got caught” bullshit that actual scumbags are known for.

    I don’t watch PewDiePie but he’s alright best I can tell. If I’ve missed something, please let me know what that is, and be specific because I genuinely can’t find it.

    • Kras Mazov@lemmygrad.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      5 hours ago

      I used to watch him years ago. He has a very young and impressionable audience which he constantly feeds memes with right-wing rethoric.

      To list a few of the stuff I remember:

      • He said the N word hard R;
      • He paid people on Fiverr to show a sign saying “Death to all Jews” or something like that, where he laughed at the reveal. He said it was to prove a point that you could do harmful shit with that type of online service, but all it ended up doing was getting the guys banned from the platform and served to signal to Nazis that he would host such content;
      • He allowed right-wingers to fester in his community, 4chan specially really liked the guy;
      • The Christchurch shooter mentioned him in a video;
      • He hosted both Ben Shapiro and Elon Musk in his channel for a “meme review”;
      • He has stated multiple times that his favorite author is Mishima, a Japanese fascist.
      • He used to stream on some crypto bullshit site, which I don’t remember the name;
      • His whole campaign against the Indian conglomerate T-Series lead not only to racist comments but also to a very racist music video he did.

      There’s probably much more that I either don’t remember or don’t know about, but this is more than enough to understand where he stands politically and the harm he causes.

      I also recommend the video: The PewDiePipeline.

      • Majestic@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        edit-2
        1 hour ago
        • He used to follow (probably still does) open white supremacists and Nazis of the Richard Spencer/Lauren Southern type and got called out for it and privated his follows on twitter. That was many years ago but given he’s never done a u-turn and say started attacking gamergate and other reactionary gamer politics or loudly supporting broad coalition progressive politics I think we can assume he still holds those politics and more importantly he dog whistles and is part of a pipeline of radicalizing young men, specifically gamers into hate.
      • jsomae@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        5 hours ago

        You could accuse that “he inspired the Christchurch shooter,” but c’mon just being mentioned by a bad guy isn’t in and of itself a bad thing.

        • Kras Mazov@lemmygrad.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          5 hours ago

          If you can’t see how he hosting Shapiro and Musk, using right wing memes and rethoric, endorsing a fascist author, and allowing Nazis and other right-wingers to fester in his community is directly related with why that POS shooter mentioned him, that is precisely the problem.

          That’s a common excuse used to defend the guy over and over again like it is just some isolated incident and not connected to the content he produces and the community he fosters.

          • Bongles@lemmy.zip
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            4 hours ago

            allowing Nazis and other right-wingers to fester in his community

            Would you mind elaborating on that? Is it that these people are in his YouTube comments, maybe on a subreddit? I never followed this guy, I’ve only seen probably less than 5 videos he’s made (likely only 2), one of which was this open source video.

            Originally I avoided the guy because he was just a “loud is funny” let’s player, then I heard he said the N word, and i had heard people trying to get him to be the #1 YouTube channel over some music conglomerate.

            In any case, while you can do things to attract certain people, I’m not sure how much control you have over your community, which is why I’m asking.

            • Kras Mazov@lemmygrad.ml
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              3 hours ago

              Sure thing. These people were both on his YouTube comments and on his subreddit. Tho I remember it being worse at the subreddit.

              The issue is not that Nazis will watch his content, that’s outside of anyone’s control, but that his content funnels people into right-wing ideologies, which attracts these types of people.

              The video “The PewDiePipeline” that I linked talks about this better than I could.

          • jsomae@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            3 hours ago

            I didn’t say that. I said you did not push the accusation. Instead you weaseled out by saying he was “mentioned.”

            • Kras Mazov@lemmygrad.ml
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              3 hours ago

              Yes because in this case it’s relevant. You are right that being mentioned by a bad person is not necessarily proof of anything. But like I said, in this case it is connected to the content and community that PewDiePie has.

      • NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        2 hours ago

        Yeah that wasn’t a great moment, but if you look at the context for that you’ll see that it wasn’t even talking about a black person. It was just an expletive, like saying “motherfucker” or “son of a bitch” etc.

        Keep in mind that outside of USA the N word is not nearly as charged politically and racially as it is within the USA. And PDP is Swedish IIRC, not American.

        Edit: my point is that his usage of that word - which AFAIK only happened once - is not indicative of his character. It’s just indicative that he was really angry at that moment and human brains for some reason use expletives in those cases.

        • Kras Mazov@lemmygrad.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          58 minutes ago

          Nah, you’re excusing his behavior. He could have cursed in Swedish instead of using a racially charged word. The fact that he knew the word, knew it was bad, it came to his mind and used it is too much to be a “heated” moment.

          And even if it was, there’s literally no excuses. His content is in English and his main audience is USians.

      • Sorrow3527@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        24
        ·
        14 hours ago

        Ppl hate for the sake of hating. Pewds fell into a nichè and made millions and naturally people are jealous. Others just hate how loud he is.

        I don’t really care, I saw his transformation over the years and while I didn’t like most his content he is a nice guy. And being along for the ride was sort of like every time something happened you basically were part of (yt) history books xD

        • GlacialTurtle@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          16
          arrow-down
          17
          ·
          14 hours ago

          I don’t really care, I saw his transformation over the years and while I didn’t like most his content he is a nice guy. And being along for the ride was sort of like every time something happened you basically were part of (yt) history books xD

          You sound like an insanely parasocial 15 year old, grow up and stop getting mad at people not liking your favourite youtuber.

            • GlacialTurtle@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              14
              arrow-down
              5
              ·
              13 hours ago

              “He’s a nice guy” “being along for the ride” “I saw his transformation over the years” “People hate for the sake of hating”.

      • NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        7
        ·
        14 hours ago

        That’s not a claim to make without some evidence. There is a thing he did a long time ago on fiverr, and from my POV that does not reflect on his views at all. I can explain my reasoning if you want. Other than that incident, is there any other reason to suspect he’s a Nazi?

        • GlacialTurtle@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          22
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          13 hours ago

          https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/2/17/14613234/pewdiepie-nazi-satire-alt-right

          He has repeatedly and overtly used Nazi imagery, made a multitude of “jokes” like this:

          Mr. Kjellberg says the material is portrayed in jest. He showed a clip from a Hitler speech in a Sept. 24 video criticizing a YouTube policy, posted swastikas drawn by his fans on Oct. 15 and watched a Hitler video in a brown military uniform to conclude a Dec. 8 video. He also played the Nazi Party anthem before bowing to a swastika in a mock resurrection ritual on Jan. 14, and included a very brief Nazi salute with a Hitler voice-over saying “Sieg Heil” and the text “Nazi Confirmed” near the beginning of a Feb. 5 video.

          […]

          In addition to more overt Nazi symbolism, Kjellberg makes references to the alt-right that are veiled but obvious if you know where to look. In one video from late August, he makes an extended racist joke comparing Harambe the gorilla to Saturday Night Live and Ghostbusters actress and comedian Leslie Jones, echoing the widespread politically tinged, racist harassment that Jones endured last summer, largely from the alt-right.

          And in another video from November, Kjellberg overlays a swastika, along with audio of a speech from Hitler, over unrelated commentary about clickbait YouTube channels. He then goes on to refer to BuzzFeed as “a bunch of cucks” — “cuck” being an alt-right buzzword.

          • Microw@piefed.zip
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            8
            ·
            12 hours ago

            Absolutely true for the time the article was written (2017). He changed his ways after the Christchurch attacks which happened in 2019.

            • GlacialTurtle@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              14
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              edit-2
              19 minutes ago

              He has stated his favourite author is a Japanese fascist who wanted to restore the emperor, Yukio Mishima, who tried to do a coup and killed himself when he failed.

              But I’m sure he just likes the guy for his prose, and has no particular fixation or interest in Nazi and fascist imagery and politics.

                • GlacialTurtle@lemmy.ml
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  8
                  arrow-down
                  2
                  ·
                  9 hours ago

                  Mate, are you really just gonna keep moving the goalposts and doing this subpar jordan peterson fan shit?

                  Imagine being this pathetically tied to a youtuber, holy shit.

                  • zymagoras777@lemmy.world
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    arrow-down
                    4
                    ·
                    2 hours ago

                    Mate, did “the left” eat your brain that much that you blame completely different person for things they didn’t do?

                  • Microw@piefed.zip
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    2
                    arrow-down
                    3
                    ·
                    4 hours ago

                    “Keep moving the goalposts”? Mate this is my first comment in this comment chain. And it does make a difference to me personally if someone said something before a very public turnaround 5 years ago, or recently after this change

              • srecko@lemm.ee
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                4
                arrow-down
                5
                ·
                11 hours ago

                I agree with the other things people mentioned, and I don’t care that he did it for the money, attention of if he has nazi views (the point that he did it is important). But Mishima is really stretching it. He is really popular outside Japan and has a good prose. Much much nore non nazis like his writing so I wouldn’t call it a dog whistle.

                • IttihadChe@lemmy.ml
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  6
                  arrow-down
                  1
                  ·
                  9 hours ago

                  If it acts like a Nazi, Likes Nazi reading, And insists it’s not a Nazi.

                  It’s a Nazi.

                  • srecko@lemm.ee
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    arrow-down
                    2
                    ·
                    6 hours ago

                    I agree about that part, just that it shouldn’t be used against other people who like Mishima (he is not my cup of tea but some people I know who like him are definitrly not nazis)

    • catloaf@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      11 hours ago

      Being a YouTube personality is enough justification for me.

      • NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        6
        ·
        14 hours ago

        I’ve skimmed the introduction, and it only seems to cite the same Fiverr incident from 2017. I think it only uses PDP to illustrate some point and attract readers, but I’d have to read the whole thing to be sure.