PewDiePie fan unleashes ransomware that encrypts hard drives until he gets 100M subscribers

And if people think of him in those terms, they really need to evaluate their life choices…

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  • Pewds has used “ironic” racism as the delivery mechanism of jokes

  • He doesn’t have a problem platforming white supremacists or hardcore misogynist regressives.

  • Pewds used racial slurs during “heated gaming moment”

  • Pewds produces “apolitical”, “meme-centruc content”

Pewds may think himself not a racist. I mean, it’s not like he’s actively lynching people or advocating for disenfranchisement.

But he is OK with the status quo, which is highly white supremacist. He is OK with pronoting people who engage in sexist and white supremacist rhetoric (Teperson, Sharipo).

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You don’t seem to have a problem figuring out what I should do based on a few comments I made in a thread. I’m on at least equal footing when I form my opinion of pewdiepie based on articles I’ve read about their channel. You haven’t even considered the possibility that what I write that appears to be judgement of pewdiepie is really sound poetry.

ETA: I realize I’ve descended into being snippy about this. I just can’t stand the idea that I am somehow supposed to put more care into my thoughts about a popular youtube streamer than someone who likes him is supposed to put into their thoughts about me. Rich people with big platforms deserve less of our empathy than everyday people we interact with, not more.

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No, there isn’t; not to me.

And not to literal millions of other people like me.

If you support, enable or in any way normalize fascism and systemic hatred, then you are just as bad as the fascists and haters. It doesn’t matter if you “really mean it” or not; the irreparable damage from your actions remains the same.

No one cares why you did it.

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And a reminder for anyone who thinks that doesn’t mean he is bad

Until PewDiePie takes an active role in combating the far right he will be seen as condoning it, because of his history. It’s far too late to wipe the slate clean with an apology.

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Just a little bit more on defending pewdiepie. I guess I wonder what’s the point in the defense? If people aren’t responsible for their fans, if saying words doesn’t spur actions, why not just like pewdiepie continue doing what they do and we can continue finding it unsavory and life goes on?

I put myself in the position of someone who likes pewdiepie’s content. As that person I don’t want to think the pewdiepie is somehow implicated in the Christchurch mass murders. Why not? Because if I thought pewdiepie was responsible for those mass murders then I wouldn’t want to watch the channel anymore, and I don’t want to not want to watch the channel or to feel bad about watching the channel. I wouldn’t want to be part of something that was part of those murders.

I really believe that @Awkward_Frank and @xnxx and anyone else who comes to defend the channel (and not just to trolls us) understand that being affiliated with murder is a bad thing. Not from a PR perspective, but from a personal perspective. If you found out your favourite coffee shop was run by a murderer you might have second thoughts about going there.

And what if pewdiepie was convinced that the murders were connected to the channel? If we think that they are a reasonable, moral person, I think we’d expect them to shut the channel down. Not because of some philosophical reasoning, but just because the idea of making content for the channel would be forever soured. Mass murder isn’t bad because of an argument someone can make, it’s horrific, it stays with us.

But I want to draw a big distinction between me judging others and others judging themselves. Pewdiepie will never shut down their channel because I think they are in some part responsible for the Christchurch shootings, they would only shut it down if they think they are in some part responsible for the Christchurch shootings. The only threat of my words is that someone will listen to them.

Which is exactly the threat of pewdiepie’s words as well.

If it doesn’t matter that pewdiepie made antisemitic or racist jokes because they are just jokes, then it doesn’t matter what my opinion is because it’s just my opinion. I don’t think that individualistic view of the world stands up to scrutiny, and I think taking the time to argue with opinion proves that the people arguing with me agree.

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True. And I wasnt trying to boss you around or anything earlier. I was just speaking about the general community that denounce him based off articles. I wasnt trying to apply that you yourself do the same and apologize if I offended you. All this really is just argument over opinion and musunderstandings. I was trying to civil in this comments section and thought I did a really good job at it, but my comments were flagged regardless and my account was disabled for a period of time. I guess that’ll be the last time I try to defend Pewds on internet media sites (I hope this comment doesn’t produce the same result as earlier).

Way too many people see discussions and go aw, heck no, we shouldn’t discuss things - that would make it political. But um, everything is political. It’s imperative for us as a society to examine society’s structures, members, and public figures.

Pewds is a great example of how not to improve society. I want to highlight a guy who IS fighting to improve society. I give you… Tim Schafer!

It’s really not fucking hard to take a moral stance. Pewds has consistently refused to take an active stance against systemic injustice. Indeed, he has consistently platformed, retweeted, and amplified voices that want to preserve or strengthen the existing (white) power structures in America.

It’s not that Pewds hates people of colour, Jewish folks, and women.

Pewds just doesn’t care enough to try to help people of colour, Jewish folks, and women. For Pewds, it all comes down to money… and he thinks he’d make less money if he took an active stance against injustice.

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Schafer’s done a LOT for getting up and saying the simple stuff that ought to be said - it seems like he’s come to view GDC as a bully pulpit for getting up GaMeRs’s noses.

And I am HERE for that. Kudos to him.

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The fans have been brigading everywhere for the last few days. We’ve actually had it easy so far.

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I think it’s a fairly important distinction yes.

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Actually I applaud Awkward_Frank for engaging in a real conversation rather than trolling. That seems rare these days with hot button topics… Boingboing seems pretty good for honest debate though, which is why I hang out here.

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@Marki

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He doesn’t even care enough to say “No” to the people who do wish to cause those groups (and more) harm.

Don’t want to be political? Then don’t give platform space to the likes of BS and Professor Lobster. Don’t want to be confused with a Nazi supporter of white supremacist? Say “sorry, we don’t have a slot for you” and fill that time with other content.

No one is required to give anyone else airspace (yet. Despite where things are going). All it would have taken is one simple word.

And he clearly didn’t say it.

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+1 Insightful, AAA+ would favorite again.

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Cool, thanks for sharing!

(Just to sort of nudge the discussion back to the topic at hand, I brought up Ruyi Jingu Bang because it and Monkey symbolize the intellect. The idea being that the intellect cannot be contained or controlled or defeated by trying to beat it into submission. So, I have a persistent image of Monkey showing up at some big white nationalist rally and doing what he does best: create mayhem, while at the same time demolishing the white nationalists’ philisophical underpinnings in the process.)

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The sad thing about this (well one of many) is that all this effort being put toward something where the stakes just couldn’t be lower.

image

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