There’s a YouTuber I used to watch, CinnamonToastKen. It was pretty good, family friendly fun of him and his buddy just making fun of reality shows and stuff. One of those shows was this TLC thing called “G*psy Brides”, which is about Romani people acting like rednecks and that being funny for some reason. It was at this point, that I began to realize that neither Ken nor any of the commenters realized that the G word is a genuine slur. That wasn’t the dealbreaker though, that came later when he said in an aside during a video that he was told by someone that it was, indeed, an ethnic slur.
So Ken’s response to this was bewilderment and his immediate assumption was that this wasn’t a real thing and just another instance of “people being offended for others.” So he decided to ask his community if it was really a slur and to leave an explanation in the comments. Because, y’know, that’s somehow easier than just googling it. He ended up hearting a comment that gave a childish oversimplification of the issue that ultimately said “Some people feel that way but most don’t care”
To this day I feel disgusted that instead of taking the L about his accidental racism, he just assumed it was a made up issue and then chose the one comment that protrayed it as some trivial thing. I guess I should’ve known he wasn’t on the up and up when half his videos were collabs with Pewdiepie.
Paper Will had some really interesting videos about niche topics, then just had to ride the anti-DPRK propaganda wave hitting YouTube and made a disgusting, poorly-researched culturally insensitive video about DPRK performance arts, especially from children. Accusing the government of forcing these people to be on stage, comments full of hyper-scrutinizing the “fear in their eyes”, etc. Super disappointing and I left him a comment saying so, he just “hearted” it.
Illuminaughti, who often brings corporate sins to the spotlight, also rode this wave and made a similarly disgusting video.
Nick Crowley, horror and true crime YouTuber, has been on this weird spree of presenting national liberation movements as “scary cults” and parroting shit about the DPRK and China.
I feel you. I’m sick of seeing YouTubers I like fall like that.