Tbh. Ateez and TXT's biggest flex is that fact they have Cyberpunk and Anti Romantic as their B-Sides. I just imagine them nonchalantly walking into a bar and throwing their B-sides on the table like it's no big deal, then twirling their hair like Elle Woods, "A good kpop song? What? Like it's hard?"
Actually the funniest part of the entire James Somerton debacle is the response his cowriter Nick gave. For context, Hbomberguy talks a bit about Nick as a cowriter, and there is not any strong evidence implicating Nick of also plagiarizing, so Hbomberguy takes the angle of "Nick is probably not (also) responsible for the plagiarism".
Nick's response?
To claim he could not be part of the plagiarism, because he does not read. And does not do research...
SOURCE: I Fact-Checked The Worst Video Essayist On YouTube - YouTube, video essay by Todd in the Shadows.
The second screen cap is maybe a tongue-in-cheek joke... but bold choice when everyone's eyes are on you to respond to serious allegations. And this screencap doesn't include the other wishy-washy statements, pre-video, from Nick saying to the effect of "I write based on vibes. I come up with an idea and ruminate on it." For research videos. For educational videos about queer history and queer media culture.
Adds flavor to the Todd video, which goes through two-dozen examples of Somerton videos which just claim... provably factually incorrect bullshit.
This guy is a writer. An author. You could not waterboard "I don't read" out of me if I were aiming to launch a writing career.
Beating the plagiarism allegations by confidently asserting you suck too bad to ever get that far.