 So I think I speak for pretty much everyone when I say I am more than ready to move on from this issue I've spent pretty much the entire week arguing with people about this on Twitter and I'm just I'm done with it But with that being said I want to make one last video giving you my two cents about this whole situation involving Carlos Mazza of Vox and Steven Crowder and Let's just let's lay it all out because there's a lot of moving parts to this story And there's a lot of people with some really good takes and there's a lot of people with some really bad takes and I'm Incredibly disappointed with some of the takes that I have seen from people who purport to be on the left People who purport to be allies to members of the LGBTQ community. So to get you caught up basically Carlos Mazza claimed that Steven Crowder for years now has been responding to all of the videos that he's producing for Vox By debunking them now It's not just that he's debunking Carlos's videos that he deems bad, but he's also adding into these videos Homophobic slurs and when I say homophobic slurs a lot of homophobic slurs before we get to the video With our favorite favorite and list be right here, baby It's ridiculous. It's bonkers. You're being given a free pass as a crappy writer because you're gay That's set her line on his little queer graph there What is well now the graph is queer violence Phil? Okay, so the little queer could eat his chips all nonchalantly. It's code for rape. Mr.. Queer eating chips on the Vox channel You can eat just one like dex Yeah Now Carlos has been made a target by Steven Crowder Steven Crowder has been attacking him on the basis of his sexual orientation. It's incredibly bigoted and Steven Crowder is unquestionably Prejudiced he doesn't like gay people. He's criticizing someone on the basis of His sexual orientation and that is completely unacceptable on top of that He sells a shirt with a literal homophobic slur on it And I know you're gonna say but Mike it says socialism is for figs. I mean Really? Are we going to buy into that? What do you think he wants you to imagine when he puts a picture of Che with you know a limp wrist and The a or I bleeped out he wants you to think socialism is for fags So it's a thinly veiled bigoted shirt and on top of that he advocates against LGBTQ rights He makes fun of trans people He Parodies trans people by dressing up as a trans person and pretending to be a trans person in order to convey an anti-trans Message so this is an individual who's a bad person and as a direct result of his repeated harassment of Carlos Mazza He made him a target and his viewers ended up harassing Carlos and doxing Carlos Now is that Steven Crowder's fault per se? No, I don't think it's his fault because I don't believe you really can control what your audience does with that being said as a Very large youtuber with what more than four million subscribers you have a responsibility You have to understand that your actions sometimes have consequences and you need to be able to realize that hey if I Constantly target this gay dude and call call him a lispy queer for years Maybe some of my more unhinged viewers will take action and that's exactly what they did so you need to be more responsible and What Carlos did was he called for Steven Crowder to be deplatformed as a result? Because he contends that what Crowder is doing clearly violates YouTube's own terms of use This is harassment. This is harmful. It's targeted towards someone because of their sexual orientation quite explicitly So he called for Steven Crowder to be deplatformed now personally I don't know that I would agree with something like that because one I don't know enough about Steven Crowder So I don't know that that would be warranted but I also Don't necessarily agree with that because if you're approaching this issue then you need to be able to realize The way that the right will respond and it's always that they're gonna play the victim and that's exactly What Steven Crowder did He made it about himself. He turned it into him being the victim and he said hey Vox is trying to crush me the little guy and he literally even said this is David versus Goliath Well, this isn't Vox trying to crush the little guy This is Carlos who happens to work for Vox who's saying Can you maybe stop harassing me because I'm gay? I Mean, would you say that Taco Bell is coming after you if the night manager was mean to you? Of course, you wouldn't say that so what he's trying to do is make this about oh This is the mainstream media trying to crush YouTube There's actually reason to believe that that is the case because we all know that the original adpocalypse happened when the Wall Street Journal I believe published an article saying hey Coca-Cola your ads are being played before these racist videos So we know that mainstream media is already out to get YouTube and independent content creators So knowing that people would be sympathetic towards that message. That's exactly how Steven Crowder Presented this situation. This is about Vox a large corporation Owned by NBC Universal coming after me the little guy so understand the way he brilliantly I think flipped it So the original person who's being targeted for harassment and doxxed is no longer the victim all of a sudden It's Steven Crowder. Who's the victim? He was punching down in the first place, but all of a sudden Steven Crowder is the victim Wow, right-wingers are so good at retaking the narrative This is why they're so good at winning elections because they monopolize discourse so quickly that the left doesn't even know how to respond But with that being said he's absolutely right to call out Steven Crowder's harassment And I think that some recourse needed to be taken you like you have to be able to have some way to voice your grievances and Expose people who are who are harassing you you can even agree that YouTube is a public utility and Still understand that you know targeted harassment wouldn't fly. I believe in freedom of speech, but there are limits to free speech You know if we're in a public square, I can't constantly harass someone and call them gay and gay and gay They're gonna call the police on me, right? So I mean you have to have some type of way to punish people who are bad actors on the platform So Carlos even though I don't necessarily know that de-platforming is the right answer here. He just was expressing Hey, help me out and you don't have to agree with him But what people have done is they've jumped so far to the opposite side to where they've essentially minimized The homophobia and they're defending Crowder now to the detriment of Carlos and LGBTQ people and The overall implication the overall takeaway that I got is if I'm ever harassed or doxxed in the way that Carlos Mazel was I Need to shut the fuck up about it because people aren't gonna take my side if this could have broader implications if somebody gets punished for it and You have to understand that this is a multifaceted issue right on one hand. We need to acknowledge That YouTube doesn't know how to handle these situations and in the event Carlos calling out Steven Crowder leads to an ad poc ellipse You can't blame Carlos Mazel for that personally and this Tim pool tweet basically highlights my exact fear as to what would happen Send a special. Thank you to Vox and Carlos Mazel The purge has just begun and legit journalists are getting stripped. So it's not hey YouTube maybe you should handle this better and not punish everyone else for what Steven Crowder did It's this gay dude. He decided to speak up and thanks now. We're all gonna get demonetized Okay, you need to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time if you disagree with Carlos Mazel's call for de-platforming You can disagree with him there, but to minimize the homophobia to say you're responsible for this. I Take issue with that. I absolutely take issue with that and you could also blame Crowder for this and in fact, I put a lot of blame on him because understand this as Gigantic content creators on this platform. They should know that They make us all susceptible when they do things like this like Steven Crowder He was selling this socialism is for fags shirt He produces content that is riddled with conspiracies misinformation and just bogus information and he is openly bigoted against vulnerable and marginalized communities So as a big creator You should know that you're making us all susceptible because it's only a matter of time Before an organization like the Wall Street Journal or the Washington Post who wants to take down YouTube Uses you as an example. I Mean look at what happened after the Logan Paul Suicide forest situation because of the actions of one dipshit. How many people were demonetized after that? So Steven Crowder should know better that he's making us all susceptible here because YouTube doesn't know how to differentiate between Hateful content and content that is not hateful So if you want to blame anyone don't blame the victim blame the asshole who is not the victim who started all of this He's the one who harassed Carlos Mazza. Carlos Mazza didn't ask to be harassed by Steven Crowder for two years Crowder did that. This is his fault and also blame YouTube because they don't know What to do both that being said with him being demonetized is that the right answer? Of course, it's the right answer. Of course, I'm not gonna cry for that Look at this tweet from David Dole all of these videos from David Dole were demonetized So I'm not gonna cry for Steven Crowder because he was demonetized for spreading hatred and bigotry that video that I did On Monday where I called out Steven Crowder's hatred and bigotry that was demonetized immediately and confirmed by YouTube That was not monetizable. So why should he be able to monetize? bigotry But those of us who try to monetize, you know us pushing back against his bigotry we get demonetized Him getting demonetized is just leveling the playing field in my opinion. I'm sorry But that's what that is because if we have a disincentive To push back as creators against this type of hate speech Then he should have a disincentive to not post it in the first place now with that being said a lot of people Don't get why you can do two things simultaneously. You can also be against e-platforming I'm fine with you if you take that position. I think Kyle Kalinsky laid out his views really well on this I don't agree with everything he said, but he didn't minimize the homophobia but what people did is they tried to rationalize and justify Steven Crowder's homophobia because they don't necessarily agree with the premise that Carlos Claim, you know, we should be de-platforming people like Steven Crowder And let me show you an example of what I mean by that You're gonna demonetize his entire channel which I presume is what his livelihood is based on Because this whining adult adult not a child an adult professional journalist who gets paid To make provocative political statements online, you're gonna say, oh, you're you poor little boy We'll help you out and we'll get rid of this mean guy who's been so Who's been you know, I taunting you on the playground like we're in you we're in you know middle school It's just pathetic and it does get me a little riled up Harassment is not it is a harassment is a malleable concept. Okay This guy was claiming he's being harassed for being gay. Okay, maybe so maybe he's being mocked on the grounds of being gay Get over it. I'm sorry So that was an absolutely horrible take it's not surprising because Michael Tracy is a bad-take machine But here is another very bad take that's where it's like, okay, what is he doing? He's kind of mocking him right and he's mocking him by saying he's queer, but he says he's queer or he says he's gay Yeah, but that's like saying I mean listen just because the n-word is in rap songs It doesn't mean that any that it's defined to go right, but the n-word is not in like it's not like then LBGTN, you know I'm saying it's not like a part of their their organ I think the principle though is you're suggesting that because a certain word is sometimes used Self-referentially by members of a group that any use of it from the outside is By definition not problematic, and I'm just saying it's more complicated and you've got a certainly more complicated You do have to look at specifics I'm going I'm going from memory, but wasn't Steven Crowder also wearing a shirt that said fags with the a with an asterisk Wink wink nudge nudge it said Socialism is for figs. Okay. He's calling a gay guy. He is a fig and Instead of an eye as he's calling a gay guy a queer in Mexico. Yeah. Yes, I have seen other takes where they said You know, well Carlos is a pussy. He just needs to grow a pair and stop being so sensitive I mean, is it really that easy though? Do you really think it's that easy because he got doxxed so it's like you can't just turn off Twitter or turn off YouTube and then walk away like it He was text to his personal phone So you this bleeds into your real life and the harassment from Steven Crowder became So prevalent that it started to bleed into Carlos Mazos personal life, which is why he felt compelled to take action So if you're blaming Carlos here and saying he needs to get over it and saying that he's being too emotional here. I Need you to understand you are minimizing Homophobia you're giving Steven Crowder a pass for being openly bigoted and You're essentially victim blaming again if you disagree with him on the platforming disagree with him on the platforming Disagree on that basis, but to try to minimize the suffering and harassment of someone That's fucked up and if you did that then I hope you really reflect on How this affects the LGBTQ community and not just Carlos Mazos how a young person will see the response People need to realize and it's difficult if you're not gay, but gay people They are a target on YouTube and it's not just gay people. It's especially trans people trans people of color in particular It is minority people women on YouTube They are targeted They're targeted and some people, you know, I I'm I posed this hypothetical I said well look you're a fan of me Maybe you don't like Carlos Mazos, but what if this was happening to me and the response that I saw was yeah But Mike Carlos kind of asks for this He makes himself a target because he has gay wonk in his name He calls himself a queer and you know, he's just overly flamboyant You Mike you don't get to deal with you don't have to deal with that because you know You're not talking about your sexuality every five minutes, right? You're not acting overly gay. You're not going out of your way to be effeminate and I need you to realize that that is incredibly Incredibly harmful to members of the LGBTQ community Incredibly harmful. What a lot of gay people do I'm assuming I certainly in this way as well is we mute the most stereotypical aspects of our personalities while we're on camera in order to shield ourselves from criticism in order to Accommodate more heteronormative Feelings of people not necessarily heteronormative in the sense that most people are straight Heteronormative in the sense that if you break that social norm of not being straight and not acting straight and living up to what a man should be and Acting masculine and expressing himself in a masculine way. You're gonna be a target. You're gonna be called a lispy queer So for anyone to suggest that Carlos Mazza is Being you know a little baby about this or that you know, he's just he's asking for he's making himself a target Think about how you sound and how problematic that is He's making himself a target. Oh But he's acting gay Mike and you don't act that gay so you're cool you hide Your gayness enough to where I don't feel Inclined to make fun of you so it's cool, but him it's it's a little bit too much. I Mean you need to realize that that's harmful and The message that you are sending to people who are young and they see this LGBTQ youth It's really harmful and they're especially vulnerable Anyone who's gay can talk about certainly millennials right the newer generation I hope that it's better for them But when I was very young whenever I would see this type of gay bashing and whatnot and people saying fag and using queer in a derogatory way It really made me feel Like I hated myself right and this was before I even came out But certainly it made me repress those feelings even more So you just have to understand that there's no such thing as someone who acts gay or act straight We are what we are and another argument is well look gay people, you know, they call themselves queers So Why does that matter? Well, I'll tell you why that matters, you know And why it's different than when someone like Steven Crowder says it So if a gay person or a straight ally says queer and they're referring to us as a descriptor I understand that there's no Daggers in that word right there's no negative connotations. They're not using the word queer to belittle me But Steven Crowder does not like gay people. He is pushing for our rights to be taken away and for us to not have further rights He believes that a business owner Who bakes cakes for example should be able to deny the same service to gays that he offers to straights So he actually is bigoted. So when he uses the word queer, he's not saying it in a loving way He's not saying it as a descriptor. He's saying it To basically say fuck you You're a queer. There's more negative connotations to it and he says, oh, it's just playful ribbing But it's not playful ribbing. There actually is Reason to be offended by that because he actually doesn't like gay people and trans people Like you've got to understand this type of shit. It really does affect gay people and harm the community But after this week what I've seen Because people are really worried about the prospect of demonetization or the creators that they love getting demonetized The sense that I got was I'll just shut the fuck up Carlos don't ruin it for all of us Can we not disaggregate different areas of agreement and disagreement? Can you not be sympathetic towards Carlos being harassed for two years? We can do better we can all do better we can we can do everything in our power to Protect vulnerable communities From bigots like Steven Crowder and when it comes to YouTube again, I I don't know what the right answer is I think demonetization is Certainly fine. I'm okay with that. I'm not gonna shed a tear for him when leftist youtubers are being demonetized all the time He's not a victim The oppressor is pretending to be the oppressed When that's not the case So I don't know what else to say about this Let me go over my notes Yeah, my thoughts are scattered on this because this is a really complex topic, but Maybe, you know, I Don't know. I don't know what else to say I just thought that You know the left would be a little bit better at defending a gay person against a right-wingers homophobia, but Many people shit the bed on this and that's sad