sigh White guy thinks it's edgy and eye-catching to emulate racism, gets surprised when he gets treated like an offensive racist.
Someone will be more than happy to split hairs about the exact nature of the offensive actions here, and will carefully explain that it's not racist, it's opportunistic self-promotion employing racism. Sponsors don't care, most of the general public don't care and, most importantly, victims of racism don't care about a distinction that has precious little practical difference.
PewDiePie made a video in December lampooning how he's represented in the media (with a nazi uniform watching a Hitler speech). WSJ used that joke segment without context as evidence that he's anti-semitic. That's not an argument about what's racist, it's a complete and total lie.
It's no different than me pulling a clip of Alec Baldwin impersonating Trump on SNL, and saying "Alec Baldwin is a lunatic, and for some reason thinks he's the President."
The stunt wasn't actually anti-sematic. It was just trying to show how ridiculous the world has come to where you can pay a guy on Fiverr $5 to do pretty much anything (while it was in poor taste).
To me, it just shows me how ridiculous our politically correct world has come to.
If I'm not allowed to talk about tragedies without getting fired from my job or having my life ruined, then I guess I will say that they never happened. Anything I'm not allowed to talk about eventually gets silenced. If someone asks, we should just say it never happened.
Why not use something like, "Death to all puppies" or "Death to all kittens"? That's a ridiculous thing to have someone hold up. The statement he chose was not ridiculous.
> If I'm not allowed to talk about tragedies
The sign didn't say, "The Holocaust was bad". The sign said, "Death to all Jews". That's not a tragedy, that's a hateful statement.
Hysterical nonsense about political correctness (hahaha jew jokes... Wait guys, why aren't you laughing?) aside, live by the advertising, die by the advertising.
Brand advertisers do not want to appear within a mile of people making jew jokes. If your living is through advertising, you better figure that out with a quickness.
protip: maybe don't crack jokes about jews or black people, then whine that they seemed not to find it funny.
Also, fyi, freedom of speech doesn't equal people have to have the reactions to my or others' speech that I prefer.
Can you reframe your first sentence based on the fact that a sign with "Death to All Jews" was used? I don't understand the word "actually", is it to clarify that he only holds artistic feelings relating to this content he made? I don't see how his post-mortem intent negates the actuality, which is that people took offense to the poor taste, as you've noted, of the stunt.
The companies have no obligation (Aside from contractual) to work with him. He made content that they deemed to be bad enough to end their relationship, that's on him, no matter the intention.
Thanks YouTube for making the Internet a safespace, because censorship is the best choice of dealing with opinions. Luckily your ministry of truth tactics are backclashing already.
He should have experimented with signs that said "Death to all Christians" and "Death to All Muslims" "Death to all whites" "Death to all blacks" and see which one would have gathered the most hostility or backlash.
When you've said every curse word under the sun, what's left in edginess but to make jokes about the protected classes of society. Nobody on here seems to be coming to Pewdiepie's defense even though, it's quite easy to compare his jokes here to the ones made by Sarah Silverman Jim Jefferies Louis CK, etc etc. And if Disney would have cancelled a Louis CK show because of a tasteless Jew joke (which he's done many) my bet is we'd see more people come to his defense on here.
Comedy is the delivery and recognition of the absurd. Jokes work best when the audience knows that the comedian says something they would never do that brings a shock.
The biggest danger here is that's it's now becoming impossible to satirize Nazism, lest someone get offended. Satire is probably the most powerful weapon against it.
And why is no one worried about the racism inherent in Judaism, God's chosen people, etc? This is a message we force on kids.
what to learn from this? unpopular speech needs protection. google is a private company making money from popular speech. private companies don't care about free speech.
He's still on Youtube, he can continue to speak. Google only ended a partnership with him and is no longer going out of their way to promote him. Google doesn't have an obligation to tie their brand to one that's engaging in unpopular speech, as that would defeat the purpose of a promotional relationship.
Google owes a fiduciary responsibility to its investors. Maintaining relations with a fool like that is bad for business, and could expose them to shareholder suit. There is even more than speech, not that Google wields coercive power to prevent speech in the first place.
So an employee who makes offensive, unpopular speech or content should be protected from his bosses firing him, especially when he represents the company? Like it or not, Pewdiepie represents Youtube in a large way and the things he says represents, in many respects, how others see Youtube. Is it an overreaction from Youtube and Maker? Maybe, there are arguments that support it. But it is their right to essentially fire him (his show was canceled, he was removed from his network, and he can't use the same advertisements as some other content creators can) if they don't like his speech (as long as the contract allows it). Just because he's allowed to say whatever he wants and justifies it as a joke doesn't mean he doesn't have consequences for those actions, and I strongly think that he chose to use Nazi and anti-Semetical symbolism for the shock value when he could have conveyed the same message with something less offensive.
[+] [-] moomin|9 years ago|reply
Someone will be more than happy to split hairs about the exact nature of the offensive actions here, and will carefully explain that it's not racist, it's opportunistic self-promotion employing racism. Sponsors don't care, most of the general public don't care and, most importantly, victims of racism don't care about a distinction that has precious little practical difference.
[+] [-] snow_god|9 years ago|reply
It's no different than me pulling a clip of Alec Baldwin impersonating Trump on SNL, and saying "Alec Baldwin is a lunatic, and for some reason thinks he's the President."
[+] [-] clickbait|9 years ago|reply
Kinda ironic considering your comment is about racism.
[+] [-] senior_james|9 years ago|reply
To me, it just shows me how ridiculous our politically correct world has come to.
If I'm not allowed to talk about tragedies without getting fired from my job or having my life ruined, then I guess I will say that they never happened. Anything I'm not allowed to talk about eventually gets silenced. If someone asks, we should just say it never happened.
[+] [-] shepardrtc|9 years ago|reply
> If I'm not allowed to talk about tragedies
The sign didn't say, "The Holocaust was bad". The sign said, "Death to all Jews". That's not a tragedy, that's a hateful statement.
[+] [-] x0x0|9 years ago|reply
Brand advertisers do not want to appear within a mile of people making jew jokes. If your living is through advertising, you better figure that out with a quickness.
protip: maybe don't crack jokes about jews or black people, then whine that they seemed not to find it funny.
Also, fyi, freedom of speech doesn't equal people have to have the reactions to my or others' speech that I prefer.
[+] [-] alextheparrot|9 years ago|reply
The companies have no obligation (Aside from contractual) to work with him. He made content that they deemed to be bad enough to end their relationship, that's on him, no matter the intention.
[+] [-] aanm1988|9 years ago|reply
How is that not anti-semitic?
[+] [-] tdkl|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|9 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] popobobo|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] michaelbuddy|9 years ago|reply
When you've said every curse word under the sun, what's left in edginess but to make jokes about the protected classes of society. Nobody on here seems to be coming to Pewdiepie's defense even though, it's quite easy to compare his jokes here to the ones made by Sarah Silverman Jim Jefferies Louis CK, etc etc. And if Disney would have cancelled a Louis CK show because of a tasteless Jew joke (which he's done many) my bet is we'd see more people come to his defense on here.
Comedy is the delivery and recognition of the absurd. Jokes work best when the audience knows that the comedian says something they would never do that brings a shock.
[+] [-] flukus|9 years ago|reply
And why is no one worried about the racism inherent in Judaism, God's chosen people, etc? This is a message we force on kids.
[+] [-] conrs|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] toomuchtodo|9 years ago|reply
His message is almost entirely abhorrent, but he has his right to do so in a free society. Checks and balances.
[+] [-] 345218435|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gdulli|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Analemma_|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] John23832|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] spacemanmatt|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yladiz|9 years ago|reply