#VidCon 2011

[merlions]

Yesterday my anat & phys teacher called me, personally, a Nerdfighter, during lecture, in front of the entire class. And today I held a real brain from a deceased creature in my hands. I poked a stick into one of its many tubes and found a beautiful plexus there.. Thus was loosed forth some Gunk, which dripped onto my drawing of it - does the mind contaminate itself? What homogenized muscarinic tissues might we find in the spinal cord? What vital arboreal geodes comprise the cerebellum!

Prenursing school is getting . Good

[thisdayindnphistory]

This Day in Dan & Phil History - July 25

2011 - packing for the phanchester era

2013 - no bunk

Ariana what are you doing here

uh oh

2014 - hehe

2015 - besties enjoy their final day at vidcon :)

2016 - DISS TRACK

2018 - i guess the answer was bus bunk all along

2022 - Asking an AI to turn straight things gay

[phregnancy]

How do you go from Joey Graceffa to Dan and Phil? 😭😭

can’t speak for what his content/personality was like after 2013 because i had completely dropped him by then for associating with people who made me really uncomfortable (and were later proved to be the worst) but from 2011-2012 he was also a closeted emo nerd who liked studio ghibli and video games so it wasn’t the furthest leap from one to the other. in 2012 joey was a daily vlogger and in one of his vidcon vlogs he went out to lunch with dan, phil, and cat since joey and cat were friends and dan, phil, and cat were friends and that was my initial introduction to them. then a year later i came across a phan edit on youtube that made my heart warm so i looked into their channels and have been watching consistently ever since.

[vlogbrothershistory]

August 09 in Vlogbrothers History

2011: Hackers, Cyber crime, and a New Kind of War.

2013: What I Learned at VidCon

2016: Why I Didn't Vote (And Six Reasons You Might Not)

2019: Decluttering the Somewhat Embarrassing Nightstand of a 39 Year-Old Best-Selling Author

2022: How to Cook Beans and Resist Dread

[sylvestiessss]

Dan's footsteps are soft against the thinly carpeted hotel room floor, and Phil burrows under the covers just a bit more to hide himself from the sound. He'll have to get up soon, he knows, but for a few minutes he wants to let himself sit and wallow in just how terrible the previous day had been.

-

New R&D fic set during VidCon 2011.

[smoshgoshbefosh]

june 21 for uploaded videos pls 🥰🥰🥰

I think?? This is the first one I've done in June. Potentially.

But also. Your birthday in 2006? ICONIC BRO. And your birthday in 2023 was one day after the announcement.

What Smosh Videos were Posted on Your Birthday?

2006:

Boxman- Smosh Main

2007:

No videos uploaded June 21

2008:

No videos uploaded June 21

2009:

No videos uploaded June 21

2010:

MILFs Like Terrorists?!- Smosh Pit

2011:

No videos uploaded June 21

2012:

I Lick Turtles- Smosh Pit

2013:

My Friends Hot Sister- Smosh Main

Top 5 Games That Need to be a Web Series- Smosh Games

Shooting Balls in the Hoops (Game Bang)- Smosh Games

2014:

Bishes Better Werk, Bish- Smosh Pit

Portal (Honest Game Trailers)- Smosh Games (All Honest Game Trailers were recently deleted)

Top 5 Anti Heroes in Games- Smosh Games

2015:

Best E3 Ever (Bonus)- Smosh Games

2016:

Uncharted 4 (Honest Game Trailers)- Smosh Games (All Honest Game Trailers were recently deleted)

2017:

Secret Hitler (Smosh Games Live)- Smosh Games

2018:

The Worst Product Jingles (Squad Vlogs)- Smosh Pit

2019:

Mario Kart Drinking Game w/The Try Guys (Gaming with A Twist)- Smosh Games

Olivia's Bald Spot and How Defy Forced us To Be Friends (Smoshcast #18)- Smoshcast

2020:

No videos uploaded June 21

2021:

Every yearbook ever- Smosh Main

2022:

Try Not to Laugh Challenge #97 (Blind Pairs)- Smosh Pit

Can You Guess the A.I. Generated Image?- Smosh Games

2023:

Smosh Merch is Available at the Youtube Drop Shop @ Vidcon- Smosh Main

The WRONG Way to Play Zelda...- Smosh Games

[loislane-ana]

SAY HI at VIDCON 2011 - Vlog University #14 | iJustine

[road2nf]

I am lucky to have found them, knowing that they’d try their best to put our interests first.

I entered YouTube just like any other, to watch viral videos or music related videos. Slowly I heard more and more YouTubers that I watched talk about the Vlogbrothers and how awesome they were. I finally relented after a few months to watch them, this was right after VidCon 2010.

I was captivated by what they did. I immediately knew I wanted to be a Nerdfighter too. I started watching many of their videos and went through all of Brotherhood 2.0

I tried to participate in spamming YouTube with awesome every p4a and I’d spread the word on the Vlogbrothers with all my friends and even my mum.

It was around mid 2011 when I finally got my hands on my first John Green book, Looking for Alaska.

I was in awe of his writing, I encouraged all my friends to read it, I even left Nerdfighter notes in the bookstore.

I’ve never felt bullied or extremely out of place as I’ve been lucky enough to have a bunch of similar interest friends growing up, and they could also totally understand my “obsession” with the Vlogbrothers.

I’ve certainly tried to spread the awesome among my circle but none of them are as into it as me, but that’s alright, because I know that they’re with me and that’s enough.

The Vlogbrothers are always there to guide the community when impactful things online or “IRL” happens and I really appreciate that.

I know John and Hank are also just mere humans but they are pretty awesome ones in my opinion and I am lucky to have found them, knowing that they’d try their best to put our interests first.

John and Hank have both enlightened me about the world, and it helps me not give up on humanity when things seem bleak. I’m reminded constantly by them that awesome people still exist and we could all try to spread it.

-Caryn (ilovebritishaccents.tumblr)

[elliesgaymachete]

I just saw a thread on Twitter that was like “Vidcon Tips” but it was ALL about meeting your favorite content creators and man I’m glad I stopped going to vidcon. I used to go back in 2012-2016ish when it was more about the community of online video and panels about content creation and celebrating the things that people have created but around when I stopped going it just turned into a fan fest of meet and greets and who the most popular YouTubers are. I was even part of the VidCon volunteers just bc I loved the convention so much

I miss going to VidCon and I’m proud of how successful they are now as someone who supported it in the early days, but I miss what it used to be when it was more community/learning centric and less fan centric

[conarcoin]

VidCon 2022 - Featured Creator Hour: Dream SMP

“What’s your favorite thing about being a streamer?”

(Transcript below cut)

Eret: One of my favorite parts of streaming is, of course, the community, but...

(Crowd cheers)

Jack: Don’t believe ‘em. They’re sucking up to you.

Eret: More specifically, I absolutely adore the fanart which comes from the community. It is so creative, um, you get to see your character, how you visualize it in your mind, doing so many really cool things and it’s absolutely phenomenal, the sheer amounts of fanart that comes out of this community, so thank you.

Connor: Yeah, I mean, for me, what I love about streaming is, there’s just a rhythm when I’m having a good stream where like, I see the chat reacting well and the whole reason I do it is I like to make people laugh, I like to make people have a good time. And to see that spread online is really cool, because when I was in high school and dealt with a lot of stuff that kept me inside, not at school and stuff, uh, that was where I escaped to, was Twitch and YouTube, stuff like that. And so to see uh, stuff that I do bring that to other people is really, really cool.

Hannah: I think my favorite thing is definitely planning like, fun streams with you guys... I like streaming with you guys, it’s so fun, um, stuff with friends, like, not even on just the Dream SMP but like, Jackbox streams or Bedwars, or y’know, things like that. I love that, so...

Purpled: Yeah, I think the best part of streaming like, I mean, obviously I’ve gotten into the rhythm where, um... When I first started Twitch, I was already on YouTube for a bit but when I started Twitch, um, that was pretty much right when I joined the Dream SMP, and that was my rhythm for a while, but over the last, y’know, however long... Year or two, I’ve kind of found my own rhythm, and then from there, I do my regular thing, and then... Like you said, like those streams where just like, the unexpected... Like, I remember one time, you were like playing Fortnite and Tubbo joined out of nowhere.

Tubbo: Yeah.

Purpled: Just like, stuff like that, where we’re just hanging out, we’re literally just friends playing games or friends hanging out... Um, it makes you forget you’re even streaming, and then everyone else... If you’re just having fun with your friends, everyone else is having fun watching it, you know?

Tommy: I’m gonna be a bit serious. I’m gonna answer on behalf of Wilbur. Wilbur’s favorite bit of streaming is streaming with me. He told me. I’m sort of like your hero in many ways. Uh... He can... You can answer on behalf of me.

Wilbur: I hate you.

Philza: My favorite thing about streaming is probably just being able to hit “start streaming”, like, the “go live” button, and then immediately make people’s day like, better. And that, that’s why I always try to have the schedule, so I’m just always there at that time.

Tubbo: My favorite thing about streaming is probably... I like, really like looking at the individual chat messages, because it feels very special to me to see that people have taken time out of their day to send a single message, like... Because behind every message is a person. You can imagine someone either typing on a phone or a keyboard, and that just blows my mind completely.

Puffy: Mine’s somewhat similar to Philza’s... It’s like, when I go live and I see regulars in the chat every single day, it’s like having a consistent group of friends, and also, I mean, getting the chance to meet all of you. I mean, you guys have been so wonderful and some of you have become lifelong friends, so I’m just very thankful for all of you guys, and the opportunity. And I’ve been doing it now for like... Ten years? Since 2011?

Jack: You’ve been doing it for a long time.

Connor: I wanna add on to that too, that what’s really cool about all this is that everybody really is friends, the entire server. And when it comes to streaming especially, I think when you’re just a YouTuber, you can kind of manipulate how you’re viewed, but streaming is very much like... It’s hard to fake like, being a cool person, or like, a likeable person. And so, what you see is what you get with most people, um, and that’s something I’ve noticed around all of Twitch and streaming but especially here with these people.

Boomer: I think the thing that I like the most about streaming is probably all the messages that I get about people finding out who they are, about themselves, or just finding out who they are in general. Uh, people like coming out in my chat, or just being a part of the community in general just means a lot to me, and that’s probably one of my very favorite things about it, is just helping people out like that.

Seapeekay: Uh, yeah, I think for me... Especially streaming and the Dream SMP side... I went from being like, someone who watched the Dream SMP lore streams, to someone who now gets to be in some of them, which is very cool. And also, he’s not here, but I get on so well with Ponk, like... So, uh, the big thing is me and Ponk stream at really similar times, but he would like essentially exclusively stream the Dream SMP, so... Now... I can actually play games with my friends! So it’s so cool!

Jack: It’s... It’s amazing to have a... Every single day, I can wake up and I have full creative freedom over whatever I choose to do that day, uh, and people sit there and enjoy it, and it’s so nice to do stuff and people enjoy it just because it’s you. Like, people come to see you, and it’s so rewarding and it makes you feel so valued, um, just seeing people show up to the most obscure stuff. Like, if I do an obscure stream and people show up, that’s more rewarding than like, anything else, so... It really is something I’m greatful for.

[merlions]

The mundane everyday reality that never fails to totally fucking floor me is how much the world has changed over the last ~15 years, specifically re: the bleed of (formerly) niche internet into irl culture.

Like it's so fucking weird seeing these obscure and unpopular little interests I had during middle and high school - ones I couldn't talk about to my irl friends because I was weird for even knowing they existed, much less acknowledge that they were all I interacted with during any moment I wasn't at school - become so well known in the years since that they're just thoroughly and casually embedded in everyday culture now.

Like to the point where NOW it would be weird to talk about how into them I used to be, in the same way it would come across really weird to say "I used to be obsessed with textbooks, I would spend at least 8 hours a day reading them, I met the guy who owns MacMillan, I used to be caught up with literally everything they published."

(I know that doesn't come across as THAT strange of a statement on the AuDHD website, but trust me that if I said any of this to a classmate they wouldn't even be able to respond out of fear my weird freak nerd behavior might be contagious. In retrospect that's pretty specifically ironic given the rest of this. I guess we really didn't DFTBA huh)

Anyways my old grumpy terminally-not-online bio professor posts a link on Canvas to a supplemental video on DNA and genetic inheritance in advance of our next class. I click on it, not really paying attention, expecting a boring grainy 00's video with the worst CGI youve ever seen, narrated by someone with a Jersey accent so thick you can barely understand it. Like usual. Instead, Hank fucking Green's voice (circa 2012!) starts blasting out of my computer saying, "So, I have this brother John. You may have heard of him."

Honestly it fucking jumpscared me, I forgot is Crash Course like the new Bill Nye for teachers now. Because that information won't put itself into my brain. Because "Nerdfighteria Island" still occasionally pops into my head when I'm not paying attention.

Tbh I'm just thinking about how I'm gonna sit quietly in class while he talks about this video and pretend that this is a totally neutral medium of information transfer to me, one which illicits no emotional reaction whatsoever. As if one of the top three best days of my little nerd 16yo self's life wasn't freaking it silly style to Hank playing nerd songs on his acoustic ukulele to a dance floor of like 40 people at midnight when I went to vidcon. TWICE.

Plus, like, I probably watched this video the day it was posted. And it's extra weird that THAT would be extra weird to my classmates, most of whom were around 7 years old at that time. Christ

It's not that weird but it's WEIRD to me. Like if I was saying earlier that to everyone else, telling them how crazy I was about the vlogbrothers in 2011 would be like saying I was obsessed with textbooks; then to ME, casually discussing a 2012 Crash Course video with my bio classmates is like traveling halfway across the world and running into someone who has a picture of your favorite stuffed animal from your childhood, taken from inside your personal house, as their phone background. Haha why do you have that photo? You ask. How do have that? And they're like what do you mean this is the standard phone background that comes with all phones now

[thisdayindnphistory]

This Day in Dan & Phil History - July 24

2011 - slay

2012 - dan does a liveshow from bryony’s house as they didn’t have internet in their new london flat yet!

the best followers <3

2014 - :(

2015 - day 2 of vidcon :)

2016 - LMFAO this is such a parallel to the throwing his bf in an uber to the hospital incdient incident why is he like this

2017 - dan's cameo in Tomska's vlog

2017 - PSA: Stop Emo Shaming

2018 - Interactive Introverts in Detroit, MI!

[cloysterbell]

Heyyy, hope you're having a good one! Your DW rewatch has promted one of my own. I just finished season 5, which means I suddenly have chameleon circuit songs dredged out of my memory and I feel 16 again in the strangest way. I forgot how attached I was/am to that arc and just wanted to thank you for the walk down memory lane.

Chameleon Circuit always reminds me of staying up until 4am watching them perform live at Vidcon 2011 while waiting for Pottermore to release the quills so I could try to get early access to the site, so I get it. But yeah dude S5 fucks and is the best season of the whole show and I still stand by that

[gaymooshroom-archive]

is this making anyone else having flashbacks to their like 2011-2017 peak vlogger phandom etc era. like it’s been so long since i rlly paid attention to vidcon but there something so oddly nostalgic abt scrambling for updates and photos from the like 2 ppl u know of who went and having ur dash/tl flooded with like Omg these two ccs met

[vlogbrothershistory]

June 24 in Vlogbrothers History

2009: LOLCat with a Ball Bat

2010: GOOOOOOOL!!!!

2011: On Religion (Redux)

2014: In Pursuit of Quiet

2016: Questions (and Announcements) from VidCon

[phandom-against-onision]

You have probably already informed yourself, but here is a masterlist anyway.

MAJOR CONTENT WARNINGS: BLACKFACE, SLURS, RACIST COMMENTS, CHILD PREDATORY COMMENTS, NSFW CONTENT, BEASTIALITY, TRANSPHOBIA, MISHANDLING OF MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES, OUTING AND MORE! PLEASE PROCEED WITH CAUTION.

Shane Dawson has been shown to mock black people on several occasions, saying the n word, doing blackface and creating stereotypical recurring characters.

When beginning on YouTube, Shane had a character called “Shanaynay” who was supposed to be a “ghetto-white girl”. When playing her, Shane often used ghetto stereotypes. She was a recurring character from 2008-2011. Although he has long stopped playing this character, he was continuing to sell the merch and profit off his racism as recently as last year!

He has also done blackface in his character skits, and said the n word as Shanaynay. On one of these occasions, he called an actual black woman a “n*gga bitch monkey woman”. Watch the full video for all occasions.

Here are some additional comments on this matter.

-

Shane Dawson has acted inappropriately with and around minors for a long time.

He has probably done this even more than his blackface, and that’s saying something.

This clip, which went around last year, contains him calling a 6-year-old child sexy and admitting to googling CP. This is from his Shane and Friends podcast, which contains a lot of explicit clips.

He has also asked his teenage fan to “show herself” and “shut up and twerk”. This is from 3:55 - 4:29 in this video.

One of the instances really going around on Twitter at the moment is him pretending to jerk off to a picture of the then-11 year old Willow Smith.

A reminder that her family has not forgiven him, so neither should you!

Honestly, there are way too many occasions of this. Please check out this Twitter thread which lists a lot of times he has made inappropriate comments and did inappropriate things.

Another very distasteful thing he has done is claim to solve the murder of an actual six-year-old child, profiting off “speaking” to her spirit.

-

Shane Dawson has joked about bestiality on camera multiple times.

This is just straight-up weird. It went around a lot last year, but in case you’ve forgotten, here is a playlist of a few clips. He also rubbed his face in his dog’s crotch but I can’t find a direct video of that by itself.

-

Shane Dawson is transphobic as hell.

Watch this full video for the details where he uses trans as an insult and says tr*nny while knowing it is a derogatory term.

-

Shane Dawson has promoted and supported terrible people and channels.

This has been a long-time criticism of his viral documentary series, but it is still important to remember.

Let’s start with the problems with this in chronological order. 

His first viral documentary series was The Truth about Tanacon.

Tanacon, to begin with, had several issues. Despite big dreams, it failed spectacularly due to lack of organisation and preparation before the event. There were many last minute changes and it generally lacked several necessities in events. Some issues were disorganised registrations, reserved meet and greets that didn’t go through the system, clashings with VidCon (a bigger event), inappropriate content creators, adversied content creators that didn’t appear, condoms in the goodie bag, lies about free tickets, no food, no room for anything, one hallway, lack of regulation in wristbands, underestimation of guests, overly expensive merch, no cooling system, no fire solutions (meaning they kicked everyone out) and it goes on. 

Despite actual people suffering due to the incompetency of Tana, Shane made her out to be an innocent martyr. This gets even worse as you realise than Tana has been exposed for several racist comments throughout her YouTube career.

Shane is clearly shown to be a terrible interviewer, presenting more as a friend than someone who is willing to find the “truth” of Tanacon. Instead of learning about Tanacon from an unbiased journalist, we get an obscured version of what happened, engineered to sympathise with Tana instead of her admitting to her mistakes.

Yet, this somehow was only the beginning of the problems with the documentary series, as the next one was with Jeffree Starr.

I don’t even know where to begin with the problems with this.

Firstly, Jeffree is perhaps the most problematic YouTuber who is still popular on the website. He has been exposed as racist, sexist, supporting of rapists, terrible to fans, transphobic, ableist, fatphobic, homophobic, insensitive to suicidal people, sexualising of minors, fascist and violent. Check out this thread here for the full details and proof of these claims.

Shane is not stupid. He is aware of these controversies, but has continued to support Jeffree. When a fan called him out, he was extremely rude and was very mad, and supporting all the hate the fan was getting.

The entire documentary series is about him befriending Jeffree, and making him out to be a good person. 

Jeffree should NOT be given a positive platform like this, and he should NOT be continuing to get away with being “cancelled”. So many other YouTubers have been “cancelled” for lesser things, yet Jeffree manages to always get away with it.

The next documentary series was the Jake Paul series. This is perhaps his most controversial documentary series.

Shane is not a therapist, a psychiatrist or a mental health professional. Even though he did consult some people, they are not allowed to diagnose people based on suspicions and videos. Yet, throughout the entire series, he calls Jake Paul a sociopath, and using that label to justify everything he has done.

Jake and Logan have both stirred up some of the biggest controversies on the platform, yet Shane gave them the ability to thrive. Like he did with Tana and Jeffree, he humanised him and edited it to the audience would sympathise with Jake. He has been exposed to scam his young fans, been rude to his neighbours and cast members, made light of serious disorders like anxiety, saying the n word and doing several things for clout, such as “marrying” Tana Mongeau.

As addressed in the documentary series, Alissa Violet, Jake’s ex-girlfriend, has shared her stories of physical abuse in the Team 10 mansion in private life, yet Shane did not fully address this or even mention this to Jake in the episode after. This further proves that Shane is incapable of running a documentary series with such deep themes as he will gloss over them or not address them properly.

This issue is further seen in his documentary with Eugenia Cooney.

A warning that I have not actually seen this as I have heard it contains triggering subject material which I do not wish to subject myself to in interests for my personal mental health - I am only going off the statements of experts and viewers.

In theory, this documentary could have been brilliant. After all, it is two people who have gone/is going through eating disorders and discussing it. However, experts have said that this could be harmful and it is easy to see why.

As much as I do not like Shane, I, and experts, do believe that he had good intentions behind this documentary. However, it probably would have been better if they consulted an expert regularly throughout the documentary when handling a touchy subject. After all, many of Shane’s viewers are young and/or influential, and a correct portrayal of a subject which is terrifying and real to many people watching is very important.

Here is an excerpt from this article about how he handled this:

Other fans were concerned with Cooney's safety, given that she referred to having an eating disorder in the past tense, signaling that she may not be considering further treatment.

"She certainly looks like she is physically healthier, but mentally she still seems like she's struggling a lot and she tries to cover it with her overwhelming positivity," another comment on the video says.

Experts who spoke with INSIDER — and who have not personally treated Cooney — are wary of considering Cooney's treatment a success story.

"When we are in the midst of our eating disorder we are very, very good at wearing masks. We're very good at playing a role that is very convincing and wants to let people know that we're okay," Chevese Turner, the Chief Strategy & Policy Officer for the National Eating Disorders Association, told INSIDER."A month of treatment is just barely scratching the surface of the road to recovery. While she put on a good face and was very chipper and cheerful, I'm not convinced that's what's going on inside. How do any of us know for sure?"

While both experts told INSIDER they believe Dawson had good intentions, they also expressed numerous concerns with the way the video presented the reality of eating disorders, and Cooney's recovery in particular. Turner says having Cooney share her story could be very cathartic, but she worries how much of her appearance was intended to resurrect or preserve her career."What's essentially happening is that people are bullying her online for her looks and her body and that does have an impact, it impacts all of us when that happens. For someone with an eating disorder, the impact can be devastating. I think [Dawson is] trying to help in his own way, but probably the thing that would help the most is her having more time in recovery," Turner said.

"I don't want to speculate, but obviously her success on YouTube is a driving factor to get back to work. None of us know if she's fully capable for that work and I would want to believe that the people around her who care about her most are confident that she can handle it," she continued. "I hope that they'll encourage her to take a break."

Overall, it has been shown that Shane is unfit to handle a documentary series with his evidently extremely biased views, and he should consult more professionals when editing. Although many people would argue that he has good intentions, it is possible to have good intentions while being irresponsible. Shane is aware of his large audience, and his influence over people around the globe. He should be more careful when creating a video with strong themes which many viewers may be suffering through or offended by. 

Either than his documentary series, Shane is also friends with other problematic people outside it - most infamously, Trisha Paytas. 

Trisha Paytas’ brand has become being extremely controversial. However, this doesn’t excuse that she has done and should not normalise her behaviours. She has been proved to be very transphobic and homophobic, as well as racist, ableist, abusive and insensitive to people with mental illnesses and disorders, notably DID. She lives to stir up drama on YouTube and more recently, TikTok. Despite being aware of this, Shane has continued to be close friends with her and excusing what she does because she’s just Trisha.

He has also openly supported far-right people on Twitter, giving harmful conspiracies a platform on his channel.

-

Shane Dawson has contributed to destroying growing/popular channels.

When 20-year-old growing YouTuber Bobby Burns released a video giving valid criticism to Shane Dawson, Shane featured him on his channel and pushed him as a heater.

This was not a thing which only happened once. Shane decided to continue to feature him on his channel, branding him as a hater. However, Shane’s dedicated fanbase did not like this and began to send hate to Bobby. Due to the lack of popularity, Shane stopped interacting with Bobby and didn’t feature him in any more videos without attempting to “save his career” like he has done with so many other people.

That is not to say that Bobby is faultless. I am not that familiar with his content, but I have heard that he did contribute to his channel’s demise, which makes sense. However, as a huge content creator, it was irresponsible of Shane to take a growing channel and brand him as a negative hater. He is aware of his audience, and that is important to remember. When he has such a large fanbase, he needs to be more careful with the videos he is showing them, and the characterisations of YouTubers.

However, what Shane is going under fire most recently is his involvement in the James Charles scandal last year.

Despite denial, Shane has been proved to play an important role in the “cancelling” of James last year, encouraging Tati to upload the video and making false accusations of predatory behaviour. This was highly likely done to degrade a competitor’s palette so his collaboration with Jeffree would be more successful.

Recently, he posted these screenshots on Twitter and then deleted the Tweet.

This proves his blatant immaturity. Somehow, James, the youngest of the four YouTubers involved in the scandal, has grown up the most. Shane was a part of the downfall of James, causing him to debate suicide. His defence for this was saying that he “needed to be served a slice of humble pie the size of the fucking Empire State Building”.

James Charles is not faultless, and he should not be made out to be an angel or a martyr in this situation. However, no one deserves to have suicidal thoughts, and anyone who defends this by saying that it was the humbling he needed is disgusting.

-

Shane Dawson attempted to out Dan and Phil for views and clout.

As a bisexual man who has opened up about his fear of being outed when he was closeted, he should be ashamed of everything he did to Dan and Phil.

Like many YouTubers at the time, Shane used the Phandom to get views and subscribers. In doing this, he objectified and sexualised Dan to his young and influential audience. Check out this video where he said that he wanted to facefuck Dan in an orgy while watching a video where he just turned 18. In that clip, he also split up Dan and Phil into “cute” and “not cute”. 

It even went to the point where he asked the Psychic Twins about the sexuality of Dan and Phil. In this clip, he accuses them of queerbaiting as well as supporting the Psychic Twins’ invasive and insensitive comments about them not dressing gay enough, diss of them refusing to go on their podcast and outing and stereotyping them. This was as recent as 2017.

-

There are actually a lot of other reasons why Shane is under a lot of controversy at the moment. Here were my sources, and some further reading for anyone interested:

THE PROBLEM WITH SHANE DAWSON: a thread

shane dawson sexualizing young children: a thread

One of YouTube's biggest stars made a viral 'documentary' about another YouTuber's eating disorder. Experts say it could be harmful for its subject and audience.

Jake Paul tried to use looting for YouTube views, and is facing charges. These are all the ways the controversial star has stirred up outrage in the past.

Trisha Paytas’ racism

THE PROBLEM WITH JEFFREE STAR: a thread

EVERYTHING WRONG WITH TANACON: an ongoing thread

So what from here? Shane has released an apology video, but words don’t mean anything without action. Here are some suggestions for what he could do to actually show further improvement.

He could stop doing conspiracy videos in the harmful and biased style he is known for, and delete his videos despite the views.

He could stop being friends with such toxic and controversial people.

He could donate his money and time to helping out the #BlackLivesMatter movement, and to black charities/organisations in general. It does not negate what he has done, and it is not in my place to forgive him if he does do that, but it would represent his improvement.

He could formally apologise to the parents and the family of the children he has sexualised.

But he will probably not do that. However, as a hater of cancel culture, I hope that he does improve as a person. It is not my goal to send hate, but to inform people. Sending Shane death threats or insensitive comments are the last things we need. To criticise him for doing that, then doing it yourself is hypocritical and harmful. Instead, we’ll just have to inform ourselves and wait for the future.