At the risk of having people possibly dislike me I'm just gonna vent it:
I am so sick and tired of the media constantly picking apart every single thing Pewdiepie does.
Yeah, I'm fully aware of what he said on stream. He slipped up, he literally admitted he slipped up and quickly said sorry almost immediately after, and continued playing, as far as I'm aware. I definitely think he should formally apologize because that is an unacceptable word and he knows it, especially since most of his audience is from the US.
HOWEVER, that doesn't excuse the fact that every single news outlet has been out to destroy this man over and over again in a desperate attempt to make themselves relevant.
People act like this never happens. I understand that toxicity is an ongoing problem in gaming, especially online gaming, but Pewdiepie is not reinforcing ANYTHING by accidentally saying something like that. I guarantee you a lot of people have typically slipped up like that, no matter what the context is. I have before(not that particular word, mind you, but still).
He is NOT racist, He is NOT homophobic, and he is NOT anti-sem.
If this was literally anyone else on the platform, they would get nothing for it. But Pewdiepie has to get all this hate because he's the biggest YouTuber and "oh man gotta get those clicks on my news story because hes the biggest man on the internet and destroy this man's career" and "I hate pewdiepie his audience is a bunch of 12 year olds he's such a loser" bandwagon.
And this sure as **** doesn't excuse the Firewatch developers striking his videos.
Whether you're with Felix or not, that DOES NOT give that developer the right to falsely take down his videos. They're fair use. They may not like Pewds after this little stunt, but that does not give them the right to abuse a system that people started whole movements on last year to get fixed. They're quite literally abusing the system now just because they don't like somebody. This is the equivalent of the Fine Bros taking down reaction videos. But "it's pewds it's cool to hate on him" so apparently that makes this okay. It's not. They're openly abusing the system. It's wrong.
And I have seen a lot of people on other platforms using slurs and curses of their own at Felix for this. Wow, way to be against what he said, people.
IDubbbz probably said it best himself
(spoiled because there is strong language in this video):
You can't be calling out Felix for what he said and then go back and use words like that yourself. It's hypocritical.
He's not a bad person for saying one remark. It would make him a bad person if he did this on a regular basis and was intentionally trying to demean people every single time. It would make him a bad person if he constantly tried to justify his actions, at least without considering the other side. It would make him a bad person if he constantly saw his own audience- not the media, his own audience- as the enemy for criticizing him for something that he should rightfully be criticized for.
But he doesn't. When he was getting all this hate at the beginning of the year, he understood why he was getting it and apologized for some of the jokes he made. He has made multiple videos assuring people this image that people have put on him is not who he is. But at the same time he was firm with it and rightfully has criticisms of his own for the way people put out this image of him.
And it's not like this is the worst thing he's ever said. Remember years ago when he was just getting popular and made rape jokes all the time? No one called him out on that. You know why? Because he wasn't successful enough yet. There's nothing to be made there. But now that he's arguably the biggest internet personality, they'll pick apart every little thing he says and use it against him.
Look at YouTubers like Jake Paul, FouseyTube, or Drama Alert. They have done all kinds of things that weren't acceptable and would make the public think of them as bad people. They still do it. But they get nothing. Every once in a while you have something like the DaddyOFive situation because it goes viral, but that doesn't happen often, or at least not often enough. YouTubers like Jake Paul are not big enough to cause an outcry from the public unless they do something that goes viral. But Pewdiepie is because he's famous enough. No matter what he does, people are going to turn it around on him and make him the enemy.
This is not me trying to defend Felix for uttering that word while on stream. Hell, that's irrelevant to what I'm arguing here. This is me criticizing literally everyone who's at his throat trying to destroy him.
If you don't care for Pewdiepie or hate him after seeing this stunt, fine. I don't really give a ****. There are legitimate reasons for not liking him or his content that I won't argue with because I know his content is not for everyone. You have a legitimate reason for not liking him after the livestream.
But DO NOT think that because Pewdiepie said this on stream that it's suddenly okay to:
-use slurs of your own to call him out on it
-publicly shame the man as an objectively awful human being when the actual fact is that he said it accidentally
-use this to demean him and his success
-Overall just use this stunt as a means to disrespect him and de-humanize him.
I'm gonna leave this with a video Markiplier did last February amidst all the controversy Pewds got back then, because it's still relevant even now:
TL: DR- You can dislike Pewdiepie for what he said on stream, but don't think that should be seen as an excuse to de-humanize him and call him an awful person like the media has been doing.
I know this is a bit disorganized, might go back to adjust some stuff. I just really needed to get this off my chest because it's been eating at me all day.