Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/06/30/top-youtube-influencers-cancel.html
…
5 Likes
Why is everyone suddenly surprised by Star’s bullshit? He had a reputation for being a raging racist asshole when he was performing on the Warped Tour many years ago.
10 Likes
It’s an example of context collapse on a geological scale because of the pandemic, the policing crisis and BLM being embraced by white people.
Suddenly “Old YouTube” isn’t a noisy mess ignored by all. It’s a permanent record, as immanent as anything said today on twitter.
13 Likes
It simply never struck them that anyone might care what they were doing a few years ago or look it up.
Either that or it’s the same level of privilege-driven arrogance that makes them think they won’t face consequences from the powers-that-be. It’s the same sense of invulnerability that arsehole couple in St Louis feel gives them the ability to brandish semi-automatic weapons at peaceful protesters on a public thoroughfare outside their house. Up until very recently it wasn’t a particularly dumb approach, given the number of free passes for antisocial behaviour that affluent white people were and are given by the police and by the corporations.
21 Likes
This is what I am going to start shouting at kids instead of “get off my lawn!”
17 Likes
The deplorable behaviour is deliberate. In a poorly regulated market, bad people act in bad faith to drive out moral competitors. It’s not a side-effect, it’s the main event.
14 Likes
It’s fascinating to see all of these reckonings, and the associated discussion around them elsewhere on the internet. How it seems to fall into these binary “why are people still platforming this person” vs “let’s all just move on” bins of opinion. Great to see people being held somewhat, and that’s a very weak somewhat, accountable for their shitty behavior and terrible opinions.
At the same time, no one really gets “cancelled”. Even many of the people who have been accused of some heinous, illegal actions are still pretty rich, free, and active in whatever circles they were before. I definitely think that’s something we need to examine as a culture. When this has come up in conversation, people complaining of our “too PC culture” or whatever, a fun challenge is to try to have them name someone who has been accused - and not gone to court - who is actually cancelled entirely from their industry, profession, or life. It’s really quite hard, considering how big this accountability movement has been viewed as.
Highly recommend Some More New’s video on the subject:
Exactly. It’s not a bug; it’s a feature.
9 Likes
THe mob alredy had figuratively the head of rms, and almost Linus. esr could be an easy target too due its public position on firearms.
On the commercial side there’s the attack on Bill Gates, have to say more?
On the other hand the mailing list, Usenet, and BBS is pretty non-commercial when youtube and other over the top are based on commercial issues, so they weren’t made to harves user data and resell them, making them more discreet.
Thanks for the “Some More News” link. One of the good things that came out of the Cracked™ meltdown from a couple years back.
…
…
… I still miss After Hours though.
1 Like
Remember when we though the internet was the great leveler, that it would open up dictatorships and expose lies and myths? Instead it monetized everything and helped the nouveau Reich spread hatred.
11 Likes
Support act?
The Likes!
RMS was ousted for for publicly endorsing sexism. I never met him or was involved in the free software cultural scene outside of just the software, but even I knew that he was at least “sexually non-conformist” which is a weird thing to know about someone who writes software halfway across the country. And he still wouldn’t have been “cancelled” if he wasn’t also dumb enough to start publicly talking sexist nonsense in the midst of the #metoo movement.
Linus was in trouble for being verbally abusive and hostile but he appears to understand the problems he causes and tried to improve.
I don’t see how ESR’s position on guns, which AFAIK is “I like guns” is going to get him in trouble. Despite what you may hear on fox news, that isn’t how things work. Just liking guns and thinking they should be legal is definitely something I disagree with, but its when people start shouting racist and sexist nonsense is when they get in trouble. There just seems to be a large overlap between people who like guns and people who like to use guns to threaten Black people. His comments on women in tech, gay rights, and police brutality on the other hand definitely could get him in trouble, but at least he isn’t tweeting racists statements at BLM activists, so even if he believes that he is apparently at least smarter than RMS.
But the real point is, it is possible for someone to have outstanding technical accomplishments but still be an offensive asshole. That doesn’t negate the value of their technical accomplishments, but their technical accomplishments do not excuse their offensive behavior. And at the very least, that means they should not be in leadership positions whether official or unofficial. Because to be an effective leader you need to be able to trust and be trusted by the people you lead even when they are Black, women, gay, trans, etc. If you can’t do that, you are a bad leader regardless of your technical skills.
Another inconvenient fact that is often hidden in these discussions. If you go into any company or organization you will find that there are people who are technically brilliant but are abusive arrogant assholes – just not necessarily on a racial or sexist basis. And when they get put into leadership positions it causes lots of problems. But because these problems are felt by white men as well as women and people of color, they get fixed (at least in halfway competent organizations). The asshole is reorganized to not have that kind of direct authority, closely monitored by their superiors or HR, fired, or encouraged to leave or retire. Even founders are often relegated to advisory roles if they can’t effectively lead white men. But when they only target women and minorities, it gets overlooked or swept under the rug because “that’s just his way, but he is so smart” Until it gets made public, and then there is an outcry about cancel culture.
6 Likes
We really, REALLY need to stop equate holding people accountable for their actions and statements to actual mobs, where actual human beings are actually killed. It’s not remotely the same thing.
No one killed and hung and burned RMS for an accusation of rape that did not happen. He said gross shit here and is incredibly influential in the FOSS community. Why is it so horrible to try and make a world where women are treated like god damn human beings instead of objects of desire with no agency of our own? Why is it a bridge too far to hold people in positions of real power and authority in our world to account for the things that they actually say and do?
19 Likes
My naive enthusiasm at the time is so bittersweet in retrospect.
7 Likes
10 Likes
On a side note, I heard that Shane Dawson and Jefree Star started their own Little Caesar’s Pizza franchise. I wonder how that’s going? (edit) Oh, not so well.
6 Likes
Word.
There does seem to be a purge going on with these streaming services evicting the absolute rotten core of influencers (how i hate that term) but what gets me is it took this long? Another high profile arsehole got the boot from twitch recently but they were bringing in the juicy ad bucks see, so the PTB were all like… 
Reality has caught up with them and i hope the Gen Z influencers aren’t, y’know, awful excuses for human beings.
Getting rid of this lot though…
5 Likes
I’m a Boomer. If I had a lawn instead of a balcony they could get off it. (I have climbed down from the balcony, once when the door latched itself behind me, but I don’t recommend that.)
Usenet? DejaNews kept most of it, and got absorbed into Google. I think the oldest thing of mine online is a flame from 1981. (Useful stuff I posted back then? Nah, mostly gone 
)
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
