Pewdiepie and the Myth of Media: How can we trust the Media if it can’t even get its Facts straight?
Before I begin, to clarify: Wanting or wishing anyone to be hurt or killed is objectively wrong.
Soon after Trump’s victory 4 months ago (ikr) the mainstream media’s smugness shattered in a millions pieces. You could literally see the disbelief in the demeanour, the rapid descent into various stages of grief. But by the time they reached the stage of bargaining, something really, really horrifying happened: while many people had begun to enter the final stage of acceptance, many in mainstream media had begun to congregate around the suddenly all important problem of fake news (amongst other things), and they promoted it with the fierceness of an injured feral animal, unwilling to accept the obvious; that it had made a YUUUUUGE miscalculation… and lost the Narrative together with the White House.
But I say it was all the Media’s own fault and they proved to be their own best liar in all of this; they peddled to us the story that Hillary would win, and it turned out to be false, fake, no-truth. They printed and broadcast the that the biggest fake candidate ever was undoubtedly going to win hands down, and they BELIEVED their own poison. And so did many others who mistakenly thought that CNN represents Truth, BBC represents Authority, that Al Jazeera represents the Vanguard of Humanity (I too once upon a time). No, no and no. Modern Media represents partially informed OPINIONS packaged as NEWS, topped with a delectable thimbleful of CLICKBAIT. From Trump to Russia, from the so called Arab Spring to Syria, all media corporations act like giant filter bubble mechanisms adorned with a company logo that help amplify the echo chambers for their own ideologies, whatever they may be. They are no better than Facebook and vice versa. Because of this, they should be treated like all corporate entities; with great care and healthy scepticism. Full stop. You want rigorous truth? Try this on for size.
This week’s latest from the Media which I dub the “Pewdiepie Saga” is only the latest manifestation of this “opinionated news”.
If you haven’t heard about Pewdiepie aka Felix Kjellberg, then long story short, he’s the most subscribed self-made comedian and gamer on Youtube with a fanbase that outnumbers the population of South Korea (it’s 53,276,842 as of today). I’ve googled the rest for you about him. The gist of the Saga: Wall Street Journal posts an article (paywalled, sorry) saying Disney has severed ties with the aforementioned Youtuber because some of his videos featured apparently anti-Semitic content. So, according to the logic of PC thought, because discriminatory language was used by a “rich white dude” in an attempt to illustrate a joke, then this guy must be an asshole and needs to be dragged out, shamed and punished for “normalizing hatred”.
Now I must point out that I am unabashedly amongst his fanbase; I have been watching his videos as they come out almost everyday since 2011. He probably is one reason amongst many others why I’ve stopped watching TV completely (I like to think I’ve liberated myself of that idiot box) so I know his style of comedy quite well. Is it crude? Absolutely, it’s why people like it perhaps. Do his jokes offend? I’d be surprised if they didn’t.
Does he take his jokes seriously (that is, does he make frequent anti-Semitic jokes AND truly believe that all Jews should be killed)?
No. I am sorry but he’s actually a nice guy. And he’s been reminding people not to confuse his cynicism, sarcasm and crude jokes with who he really is after another media outlet failed to get the context of some of his jokes in a similar incident sometime ago (and there are many similar past episodes, except this time around some big corporate names got involved). But it seems some lessons on context are never learned by Media. Hence the present Saga.
Is he sorry that his last few video caused people distress? Yes, he is (in all fairness, the one at the centre of the current fracas did strike me as pushing the boundaries a little but again, that’s Pewdiepie for you) but I believe it is completely ludicrous to say that:
a) Because you joke around by using discriminatory language and
b) Because some amongst your fanbase and supporters happens to be misguided white supremacists and neo-Nazis, then you must be a flipping fascist and (insert all manner of labels in vogue amongst PC folks). ( BTW, Pewdiepie had something to say about this too).
And before you get on your high horse, take a look at my profile pic (up there 👆🏼), do I look like a white (insert label here) to you? Yeah, I thought so. (I know some PC trolls are going to accuse me of being an anti-semite simply because I watch Pewdiepie’s videos. Sorry to disappoint you lot 😊).
This is non-news, period. No, that’s not right. This is FAKE OUTRAGE. This is the story of corporate entities who bought into the Media’s fake news out of fear of hurting their image (or desiring to send a message to Pewdiepie, idk) and profits. They did what they thought was right but they based it all on FAKE OUTRAGE peddled by WALL STREET JOURNAL, a supposedly respectable media outlet. Meanwhile, there are a SHIT TON of real hate crimes with real victims being perpetrated by other people around the world but for one reason or another, the Media doesn’t give as much attention to that as they would a “fallen Youtube star” ( ¯\_(ツ)_/¯).
I can’t believe even someone as intelligent as JK Rowling has taken the bait hook, line and sinker.
Look folks, break out of this filter mechanism. Take the red pill and go see Pewdiepie for yourself. You don’t need to like his jokes to appreciate what he does. Go see the outstanding charity episode he made for stopping HIV/AIDS, backed by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This guy is a THOUSAND TIMES BETTER than what the media would like you to believe. He’s no crook, he’s not greedy and he is certainly not F**KING ANTI-SEMITE. The myth of the Media as the vanguard of Truth is dead. But the truth is still out there for you to find.
Go get it.
Note: I could not find the original video at the centre of this Saga and I won’t play into the media’s hands by linking to clipped versions of that video because, again, it’s all about context folks. Sorry.
