And Whatnot

The video’s description made me think Pewds was going to condemn those hate groups. He was going to maturely accept fault and acknowledge that losing his show and connection to Disney’s Maker Studios came as a consequence of his actions, and that would be that. Instead, what I made myself sit through was less of an apology or understanding of what he did wrong, and more of an instance of “sorry you were offended,” and condemning of the media.

Funnily enough, the video came on the same day our “fake news”-hating president tried to assure the press that he was the least anti-Semitic and least racist person he knew. 

Election night for me, like for many others, felt like the shock ending of a movie: dramatic and emotional, but, by all accounts, the results made no sense. In an effort to find comfort in a situation that led many to fear for the livelihoods of themselves and their loved ones, many of us flocked to social media, particularly Twitter, to express our disdain for what had just happened. What was this going to mean for journalists, who scramble to gather and distribute the truth in a time where the new leader of the country attacked them and their industry at every turn? What about women, people of color, LGBTQIA+ people, people who weren’t rich, people of different religions, people who fit into more than one of these identities? We were openly devastated, not because the person we voted for lost, but because someone unqualified and backed by groups like the actual KKK was elected as the face of the country. 

While most of us were on the same page - angry, terrified, desperate for someone to say “just kidding!” - there, of course, were those who didn’t share the same sentiment. I’m mature enough to know that not everyone shares the same political opinion; to paraphrase a quote from Obama from his farewell speech, we may disagree on our plan of action, but we can agree on what needs to be done for the good of everyone. But this was a different thing altogether; we weren’t just disagreeing on taxes, we were arguing about whether someone who talked about grabbing women by the genitals should be at the head of the discussions on reproductive rights; whether the guy who filed for four different bankruptcies should be in charge of the country’s finances; whether the guy backed by - I repeat - the very real KKK would listen to groups like BLM or condemn hateful acts by dangerous people like D*lann Roof.

But what really blew me away was the response from a YouTuber, who I used to consider a favorite of mine. In a (what appears to be deleted) series of tweets, he made comments on how those opposing the election results were just as intolerable as those people who supported the new president. In a rare move, I replied to one of his tweets, asking why we were expected to be okay with the results and the president’s supporters’ hateful actions surrounding the situation. I was extremely disappointed when he replied that “people hate on [him] all the time,” and that it didn’t stop him from persisting in his career because he didn’t “hate” them back. This was a grown man with a child, so I wasn’t going to explain to him that the “hate” he gets on YouTube is vastly different from the hate of discriminatory groups of people with political and systemic power to hold back and even harm the people that they hate. 

I had an idea of what he was doing - I know that maintaining a large fan base on such public platforms as YouTube comes with being careful not to alienate your fans by taking “extreme” stances on certain issues. I get it. But I expected someone whose “thing” is being nice and accepting of people would be more sympathetic to the fears of his followers.

Imagine my lack of surprise when I saw that this same YouTuber was speaking out in support of PewDiePie, laughing at headlines that he claimed pushed an “agenda” and telling publications to “learn humor.” It really made me wonder why they were so convinced that “the media” as a whole had it out for him. What would established publications have to gain from trying to tear him down? 

“I do strongly believe that you can joke about anything,” PDP says in his video. And I think this is part of the problem; you absolutely can not joke about everything. Everything is not a joke. It has nothing to do with differing senses of humor; some things are not okay to make light of. Period. Even in, for example, reclaiming slurs used against marginalized groups, that is only for marginalized groups to do; it’s the same concept that says non-black people are not allowed to say the “N-word.” These are not his jokes to make.

To carelessly say and display a phrase like “Death to all Jews” and say it’s just a joke is irresponsible, especially when you have a following as large as he does that contains young, impressionable kids, who can easily go to school the next day saying the same thing, joke or not. Both kids and adults who joke about things like that (remember fried chicken and watermelon jokes?) are normalizing hateful stereotypes and ideologies. But for some reason, he doesn’t seem to believe that this is something that happens.