This is for anyone let down by Boyinaband’s collab with Pewdiepie. It also happened to be the most painful personal betrayal I’ve ever experienced.
I’m calling out Boyinaband for prioritising his subscriber growth over doing what’s right.
The fact that the racism in “Congratulations” is insidious, rather than blatant, and the platforming of a vocal transphobe is legitimised simply by omission, may make it difficult to immediately see what is so wrong with it. In my opinion, that makes its potential for harm far greater.
More detail below.
~Beat from YouTube library
~Videography by Envelope Generator
~ Sound effects by samijoslapaho, qubodup, and lematt
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I don’t know who this will reach, if anyone. I imagine those likely to listen will already have ditched Boyinaband and won’t go within a mile of Pewdiepie. But after seeing those videos, this response came up near-uncontrollably. Like vomit. I’ll be damned if I’m not going to throw it out there in the hope that the sheer grossness of it gets through to one or two.
It does seem iffy to write an entire song slagging off India with someone who platformed Ben Shapiro and not mention a single line of it to the brown trans person you’re supposedly dating. (When his video dropped the relationship officially ended.)
Context as to how a degenerate leftist and “edgy” fuckegg became friends: prior to meeting David I knew next to nothing about YouTube. By the time I really understood what was going on, he'd disappeared out of contact, citing depression as the cause, making it difficult to talk to him at all, let alone address my concerns. That and, ya know, he’s a big old YouTuber with millions of followers and I’m some no-one he happened to be into.
Since I wrote this, Dan Bull put his parody song out. While it's clear the blanking treatment isn’t just reserved for people like me, the power difference between plebeians in relationships with rich influential fuckos, with the responsibility lying with the latter to be conscious and considerate of that dynamic, remains an issue worth raising in its own right.
There may have been no malicious intent in the making of “Congratulations”. That doesn’t excuse gross negligence and irresponsibility.
Onto the video.
The “caste system,” line is the one that stands out as A. Irrelevant, B. Arrogant, and C. No different in many ways to the UK. I actually LIKE some boundary pushing when it comes to humour - trouble is, this isn’t humorous. It’s a genuine criticism of a historically oppressed country coming from a white man at the top of his own privilege pyramid. With no context for it in the video itself, the line is totally out of place - not to mention othering, condescending, and by extension, low-key actually racist.
Newsflash: Stating self-awareness in a separate disclaimer video doesn’t somehow make it ok. Even with the explanation provided for those who do see it, the irrelevance of the line being deliberate, it’s still… irrelevant? What’s their point?
I tried to find one and couldn’t: the only explanation is that they’re simply using the fact that it’s an Indian channel to shit on the country. Might not be the most serious racism in the world, but that’s undeniably what it is - and what IS serious is the knock-on effect that it has by opening the doors for allowing the more harmful stuff to flourish.
I get the point about individual vs. corporation, though I have zero interest since it’s clear the motivation here was just to get views/fling shit in the pan.
I’d add that this is a weird example of an underdog. Pewdiepie is a powerful white man who virtually represents the dominance of patriarchy, white supremacy, and western 'culture’. Never had one of those running the joint before! But sure, let’s resent the rising influence and power of the global south - specifically a country that used to be a British colony.
Also just - PEWDIEPIE. Even now he keeps bleating “I’m not racist,” while uh, being racist, signalling to fascists, giving the alt-right a free pass on his channel, and going “it got out of control” in response to what’s happening - like his own repeated misconduct has had nothing to do with it.
Even if we assume he isn’t an alt-right sympathiser just for arguments’ sake, he remains someone who, granted, sometimes admits to his mistakes - then carries on making them. Then asks other people to stop what he started, like it's their fault instead of his. This is not what being a decent person is; it’s just inching back from being a blatantly shitty one.
The Overton window is a lot further to the right than I ever could have imagined, if most people can’t see that.
Including David Brown. To me, it does seem that he used to have a moral compass, but has been steadily breaking it along the way in favour of anything that will get him more attention. Perhaps there’s still hope that he’ll turn around. That or next he’ll start up an incel protection society.
I guess we’ll see.
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