 James Charles just dropped the new designs for his sister's merch line. And almost immediately he was called out by Ethan Klein from H3H3 Productions for ripping off his wife E-List designs for Teddy Fresh. Today, we're not going to be asking the simple question, did James Charles steal the Teddy Fresh design. We're going to ask, is James Charles really that dumb? It's undeniable that these designs are similar, but was this done out of malice or something else. While many people are going to take the easy road and jump to the conclusion that James Charles flat out stole these designs, you and I are going to use this opportunity to add a couple critical thinking skills to our critical thinking toolbox. In a world of headline readers, it doesn't take effort to come up with the easy answer, but our goal is to pause and think a bit deeper about situations going on in the world. So what happened? Last night, it started when Ethan Klein tweeted at James Charles accusing him of stealing the Teddy Fresh designs. I know we didn't invent color blocking, but I'm having a hard time with the new James Charles merch. It's his same exact design as E-List, combined with the fact that his audience is so huge, many people will assume he designed it and started accusing us of plagiarism. What do you think? It's possible it's all a totally cosmic coincidence, but he used pretty much the identical colors here too. He at least moved him around a little bit. James Charles replied by saying, when you DM'd me yesterday, I sent you the original photo that inspired my collection, explained I've never seen your brand, but also asked what you wanted me to do. You didn't reply. After last year, I vowed to keep conversations private and create solutions, not drama. And James also followed up by offering to sort this out in DMs. If you'd like to continue our conversation and find a solution, my DMs are still open. The conversation ended publicly when Ethan replied with this, I give you permission to share our convo. You told me you were going to sell them anyways. You also admitted that the similarity wasn't a coincidence. I DM'd you because I wanted to keep this private, but I found your response combative and dismissive. We all know that James Charles is dumb enough to go to Paris Hilton's maskless party after already being called out multiple times for partying during the pandemic. But is he dumb enough to steal the Teddy Fresh design? To try and get closer to the truth, we're going to use two powerful critical thinking tools that are also extremely useful in our daily lives. But before we jump into those, if you're new to the Rewired Soul, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. Here we use critical thinking and practice skepticism to improve our emotional intelligence and overall well-being. And if you're a reader like I am, I usually link some books down in the description that are relevant to the topics that we discuss in each video. In order to get closer to the truth, we're going to turn to the number one critical thinking skill that we all need. This is a great tool whether you're debunking conspiracy theories or just trying to filter out suspect news stories. This first tool is simply asking ourselves the question, if this is true, what else would have to be true? For example, if we're confronted with the conspiracy theory that the earth is flat, we can ask, if this is true, what else would have to be true? In order for this to be covered up, think about the sheer number of people that would have to be involved in this cover up. Not only that, but we'd also have to assume that a secret global organization is able to keep quiet anyone who gets close to the truth, but that can't be true since there are actually flat earth conventions. So, if James Charles did steal the Teddy Fresh design from Eli Klein, what else would have to be true? Here are a few things that we'd have to assume. James Charles was consciously aware of the design. And with over 20 million subscribers on YouTube, James Charles would have to think nobody would notice. And even if he didn't think anyone would notice, he'd have to think he could get away with it. Also, with the endless possibilities of creative ways to design merch, James Charles would have to have decided to take the chance on getting away with stealing this one. And after everything that happened in 2019, James would have to think he's now invincible and can weather any storm. Again, there's no debate that these designs are similar, but we're trying to look at this through the lens of critical thinking and skepticism. These are just some of the points I came up with, but pause this video for a second and let me know in the comments what you think would also have to be true in this situation. Now, we're going to turn to one of my favorite critical thinking tools, and I promise you, if you start applying this to your daily life, it'll strengthen your emotional intelligence. This tool is what's known as Handlin's Razor, and I first learned about it from the amazing book, The Great Mental Models, volume one, General Thinking Concepts by Shane Parrish. Handlin's Razor states, never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. Handlin's Razor is an absolute necessity because by design, we humans think that there are much stronger social implications of acts than there usually are. While it's true that this world is filled with shady people, the reality is that most people just do really dumb things. For example, when someone cuts us off on the road, we immediately take it personally and think the person did this on purpose. The reality of the situation is that they probably weren't paying attention and just did something really stupid. So, did James Charles intentionally steal the teddy fresh design for his merch? It's definitely possible, but I think Handlin's Razor is a much better explanation. In the next few days, you're going to see a bunch of people saying James Charles was malicious with his actions, and I'm sure Ethan will discuss this on his H3 podcast. But you and I are going to take this opportunity to think a little bit deeper because the actual explanation is probably that James Charles simply acted out of stupidity and not pure evil. All right, everybody, thanks for watching this quick video essay. And yeah, James Charles is probably dumb, but I wanted to take a minute just to say, I'm dumb and you're dumb. And don't take offense to this, okay? Like, one of my favorite things to do is to read books about how dumb I am. All right, this is why I love talking about critical thinking skills and tools and everything. We have so many cognitive biases. We have so many thinking traps that we fall into and we just go through the motions and we don't even acknowledge them. So I feel that it's good to take situations going on in the world and just like, stop and check in, especially, especially with so much misinformation that gets spread around and everything like that, it's easy to just read headlines. Like they've done studies where the majority of people just retweet or share things on Facebook without even looking into the situation for themselves and something that I'm going to be covering more and more on this channel is just when people share misinformation. For example, recently, Joe Rogan spread the misinformation that protesters were lighting fires in Oregon. And that's not true, it's been debunked. And I made a video the other day of Blair White sharing misinformation. So we have to do our own research, we have to stop, we have to think, because the thing is, even if it comes from a credible source, we have to remember that all sources have their own biases as well. Even scientific studies, so we always have to be skeptical, we always have to be on our toes, practicing critical thinking. But like I said, Hamlin's razor is probably the best tool you can use for your own emotional intelligence. Personally, one of the things that I struggled with for a very long time, especially in my act of addiction, was anger issues, all right? I assumed everybody was just out there to screw me and I took things so personally. But Hamlin's razor helps remind me that this probably wasn't out of malice. This person was probably just being dumb. And I know that because I do a lot of really dumb things. You know what I mean? So anyways, again, check down in the description below. I've linked some books. One of them is that book by Shane Parrish about the great mental models. Another book that I just finished that was amazing. It's called The Art of Thinking Clearly. It's a real easy read. I'll link some other books. Like a lot of these books, like they're really easy reads where you can just read like a section or two a day. And I like just kind of learning and reminding myself of different thinking flaws that I have like as I go throughout my day. You know what I mean? It helps me when I'm interacting with people at work or online or friends and family or whatever the case may be, all right? But anyways, that's all I got for this video. If you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up. If you're new, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And a huge, huge thank you to everybody who supports the channel over on Patreon, as well as everybody who supports the channel by getting my books at the rewiresoul.com or getting the books that I recommend because those are affiliate links or a little bit comes back and supports the channel or if you support the channel by getting merch from the merch store, you're all awesome, all right? Thanks again for watching. I'll see you next time.