#james somerton aftermath

[craftyandy]

Lots Of Mistakes T-Shirt and Plagiarism video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZKi73_vKzM HbomberGuy's Plagiarism Video Hit My Brain Like A Brick thanks #plagiarism #jamessomerton #iluminaughtii

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[s-che]

catching up on stuff ive been meaning to read now that im mostly done with the semester & loved this piece on how we move forward from the james somerton situation by @its-gita-time in Aftermath.

three sentences i’m going to be thinking about for a while:

“The sad but unavoidable truth is that there is very little justice in cases like these. James Somerton has already stolen my work — the damage has already been done, and it cannot be undone. I have to move throughout the world knowing that an injustice has been done to me; that is just an unfortunate reality of being alive.”

anyway pls go read the full article. its a good one (gita’s stuff always is):

[cherryblossomshadow]

[Image 1-2 ID: Screenshots of the Aftermath blog post, "Please Stop Asking Me To Sue James Somerton," by Gita Jackson, reading:

That said, what should happen to Somerton? He has been exposed as a fraud in an extremely public way. He has deleted his Patreon, where people were donating enormous sums for money for his bad videos; he has all but disappeared from the Internet and is a massive laughingstock. His name is now synonymous with plagiarism and fraud. That sounds like punishment enough for a lifetime. I think the real issue is that people mistake the collective punishment they desire for justice.

These are issues that cannot be solved by continuing to punish James Somerton. When I was the union rep for Kotaku, we often talked about the difference between cathartic actions and strategic actions. It is cathartic to point and laugh at Somerton, and cathartic release has its place. But as we move forward, we have to think about how we can change the material conditions that led to a James Somerton existing, or else it will happen over and over again.

/end ID]

really like these two excerpts from the article Gita Jackson just published. i find myself worrying about what’ll happen going forward both on the likely harassment of Somerton (dont do it, did you even watch the video? Hbomberguy literally said not to do it). They’re right, the social repercussions are and likely will be plenty enough punishment. getting mad at that dude forever wont be truly productive, much fun as it may be in this moment. the bigger issue is the environment that let him and others thrive.

[salamanderinspace]

The James Somerton thing is one of those rare cases where the amount of force applied by a viral video exposee / public shaming is probably the exact amount that was necessary to stop a bad actor from acting badly. However. The aftermath of public violence is often fear. So I would caution people against taking the "live your life in a way that avoids hbomberguy making videos about you" atmosphere too seriously. Remix is ok. Pastiche is ok. Transformative works are ok. Citing sources in a way that isn't perfectly consistent with MLA and APA standards is generally fine. The problem with a vibes-based crime is that there are always going to be grey areas. Somerton went way past the grey and over the line, but don't let the fact that one person did crimes in the shittiest possible way scare you off of crimes entirely. Push the envelope.

[shinobicyrus]

It's been almost a year since Hbomb's Plagiarism and You(Tube) video dropped, exposing James Somerton as a serial plagiarist, toxic liar, grifter, and misogynist who stole the work of dozens of queer writers and creators, then manipulated his fanbase to attack any critics who tried to speak up about it.

I'd been a follower of Somerton back in the day, having stumbled onto his channel and latching onto "his" earlier content about queer cinema and horror movies. I remember being quite upset, angry, betrayed, and feeling like a fool for being duped by him. For not spotting the - in retrospect - obvious signs that something was very, very wrong.

With a year of distance, one good thing I can say that came out of the whole debacle is while Somerton himself was a charlatan and thief of other, better peoples' words, his videos did awaken me to queer horror. It's an interest that I still have long after Somerton nuked his channel and fled into parts unknown.

Today, I enjoy horror movies a lot more than I did as a nervous, easily frightened kid. Friends who saw how animated and excited I was when I talked about it got me books about the subject; essays about horror movies from queer people who saw themselves in the monsters. I still have movie nights with friends where we dig up the oldest, weirdest horror movies. We watch them, discuss themes, how it made us feel, or just laugh at the ridiculousness of it. Rarely, no matter how "bad" the film is, do they ever feel like wasted nights.

It helps, even though Somerton was rightfully chased off Youtube and his channel full of stolen content reduced to a husk, all that content still exists. Thanks to Hbomb, I can still enjoy everything that excited me about queer history, video games, and horror because since the work wasn't Somerton's, it wasn't spoiled or tainted by his misdeeds. Unlike the situation like JK Rowling, who has very much poisoned the well for many a queer Harry Potter fan, James being excised from the work changes nothing, because none of it was ever his to begin with.

In the aftermath of this year, I still feel enriched.

Anyway thanks for coming to my Tedtalk please stay tuned for 'How Watching Jennifer's Body on Gummies is a Pseudo-Religious Experience.'

[larkle00]

i was barely ever aware of james somerton but in the aftermath of The James Somerton Downfall Of 2023 ive just thought about this one person i encountered who was fighting tooth and nail to argue that mlm are more oppressed than wlw and wlw have it easy. and im like "ohhhh so THATS where they got it from!"

[mihotose]

obviously im glad james somerton didnt make his disco elysium video but i also think its aftermath would have been extremely funny

[craftyandy]

Faith T Shirt Design and Plagiarism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZKi73_vKzM HbomberGuy's Plagiarism Video Hit My Brain Like A Brick thanks to  #plagiarism #jamessomerton #iluminaughtii

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[communist-shark]

As it was the first story many people have been glossing over it in the aftermath but there's good reason hbomb included the Filip Miucin story (apart from him being a bad liar). Filip Miucin got a full time game journalist job. This is a niche job venture that has dwindling prospects and opportunities every year, but is still a desired job by many. Miucin took a full time job that could have gone to an honest journalist but he got instead, and with the exposure of his plagiarism not only killed his career in the industry (as it rightfully should), but, as hbomb says, risks the reputation of everyone at IGN, who themselves worked hard for their positions. Nick, the co-writer of James Somerton's videos, could very well not have known about his bosses plagiarism, and given how hard everyone is coming down on Somerton, no one is going to want to work with Nick purely because of bad association, even if he himself did no plagiarism and was never aware of it. That risks his whole writing career, and he doesn't have a public audience that he may try and fall back on when the dust settles. A lot of these people got big from youtube as individual channels, so these specific problems are not as obvious, but grifters rob jobs and opportunities that other people deserve, just because they found an easy way in, and coast on that as long as the money keeps rolling. Thats why hbomb is giving all that ad rev to the people Somerton stole from, thats why he recommended all those other channels to follow and possibly support yourself.

"internet historian's alt-right anyways" "great day to have never liked james somerton" "never even heard of illuminaughtii before this lol"

that's great buddy but don't go around thinking you're immune to this. if you're not looking for plagiarism, you likely won't notice it unless its egregiously obvious. hell, you've probably consumed plagiarized content without even realizing it. even hbomb pointed out that these people disguised what they presented pretty well as long as you didn't try and dig deeper. don't come away just thinking of this as a callout piece, take this as an important lesson about vetting your sources. if googling scripts in quotes was enough to expose the original, we should all start doing that shit!!

[craftyandy]

Hbomber Guy Hit My Brain Like BRICK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZKi73_vKzM HbomberGuy's Plagiarism Video Hit My Brain Like A Brick thanks to  #plagiarism #jamessomerton #iluminaughtii

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[agaywalrus]

Video essayist Hbomberguy made a recent video about plagiarism on YouTube, in it he went through a couple of known examples of plagiarism on YouTube the ways those creators did it and how they responded to allegations. All of the examples he goes through build up to him revealing an airtight case for James Somerton being a plagiarist to the extreme. The video is nearly 4 hours long and about half of it is dedicated solely to proving these accusations. Hbomberguy was the larger of the two creators to make a video about him recently with Todd in the Shadows also making an hour and a half long video but with a focus on James' inaccuracies and misogyny.

If you aren't familiar with his work Somerton "wrote" long form video essays primarily about gay/queer issues and media. He'd amassed a ton of subscribers on YouTube and supporters though Patreon which have both been nuked by him in the aftermath.

I'd recommend watching both videos if you don't mind long form content on youtube.

[roadhogsbigbelly]

james somerton was actually like. cited by actual important activists (deray mckesson cited him on a podcast when talking about how modern day body standards are influenced by nazi germany, because german soldiers were really buff which isn't really true because james somerton makes shit up) lily orchard on the other hand is just really obnoxious, and has no where near the reach and influence james somerton has and even then i feel like some people went a bit to far when to like. the aftermath of the plagarism video to a point that become dangeriously close to lolcow culture.

for the record the reason i made that post is because i've seen more than one tweet going "hbomberguy needs to make a video about lily orchard now! and it's like he really doesn't, james somerton was like an actual important person was not only actively plagiarizing actual youtubers but was giving out like misinformation about like. the holocaust and shit that actually matters, lily orchard is just a really a cringy youtuber (and every video about the more serious allegations has already been made) and at that point it would actually just be punching down.