Another thing that is really getting on my nerves when it comes to the whole PewDiePie mess is that people insist in writing off context as irrelevant, yet again.Â
âWell, the people who donât know who Keemstar is will not get that he was calling him out!âÂ
Iâm sorry but how is that even a valid point? This is Charlie Hebdo all over again in spirit. PewDiePie didnât broadcast his video for the whole world to see via newly invented telepathic messaging, he posted a video on his YouTube channel. A channel which was and still is intended for his audience; an audience who is plenty aware of who Keemstar is and of what kind of beliefs he holds, and who therefore will have understood what he was getting at from the start. Other Youtubers understood, (including Jewish Youtubers; see here, but also Casey Neistat who extensively tweeted for instance) because they are all part of this community and are all well informed on the issue.
PewDiePie never intended for his video to go beyond this audience, he never intended for it to be decontextualised, the press did that, not him. Look, I canât stress enough the fact that it is fair to feel hurt, but I also think that it is possible to feel hurt, it is possible to voice it, to argue why it wasnât very smart of him to do that, and why itâs unhelpful and only normalise something which shouldnât exist (I think we can all agree on that) without resorting to libels. How does slandering someone helps a cause in any way? It doesnât, because when you end up caught in a lie (and yes, saying that PewDiePie endorses the use of the Swatsika, for instance, IS a lie, because he never did that, he did the opposite), you will only succeed in demeaning what you are trying to accomplish and end up looking like the boy crying wolf when we all know that antisemitism is real and in need of being fought.Â
It is not PewDiePieâs fault if he was decontextualised, he never asked nor intended for that to happen. And to the people who say that he should have known that it could happen, that there was a chance that his video could reach an audience bigger than just his own and therefore that this context doesnât matter, I ask: is this also valid for cultures and countries other than your own? For instance, are French people not allowed to mercilessly mock and joke about what a huge asshole DieudonnĂŠ is because, since he is black, then in the instance that it might cross our borders, it could be seen as racist? Is it the same thing about the FN, are we not allowed to ironise about them? Because Charlie Hebdo did that, and... we all know how that story ended when it did inadvertently end up crossing our borders, and ergo went beyond our national community of people who understood at first glance, because they had the needed context in mind.Â
Context and intent matter, it is important to acknowledge that they exist and that they inform oneâs behaviours and beliefs. If you think PewDiePie deserves to be called out  - and I think he does deserve to be for having been completely stupid and perpetuated a phrasing that is hurtful and, indeed, antisemitic - then please do it for something that he actually did and is, and I donât think it is possible to do that without acknowledging the importance of contextualisation, without acknowledging the fact that somebody joking about another personâs prejudices is not the same as actively endorsing them. There is no need for slanders to enter the equation, unless of course someone can explain to me how are lies helpful, but I donât think thatâs for tomorrow.Â
