The Recurring Theme of Mob Hatred in the YouTube Social Justice Community

I have previously talked about how the YouTube Social Justice Community and other online SJWs (Social Justice Warriors) harassed Laci Green with all the spite and venom they could muster, just for wanting to converse with online anti-feminists. This happened even though they were supposed to be her friends/allies and even though her needing a break from the feminist perspective after 6-9 years should be pretty understandable.

But there’s one reprehensible aspect of this incident that I haven’t mentioned yet – That this happens regularly in the YouTube Social Justice Community. I was part of that community from mid 2014 to mid 2015 and I saw this happened several times. Overly-enthusiastic  Social Justice Advocates get riled up over a perceived wrongdoing, then proceed to harass, insult and ostracize the purveyor of that perceived wrongdoing, while refusing to listen to their apologies or explanations.

When the Laci Green harassment started, I felt distressed to see that they were doing this AGAIN! This community really doesn’t seem to have the conscience to regret these incidents and learn from them.

The aim of this blog is to characterize various incidents of SJW mob mentality as accurately as I can. I will  then finish by discussing my own culpability in these incidents. The angry pwnage style in my old videos helped create hatred of the out-group, which I’m sure enabled the single-minded mob mentality described below.

In particular I will be discussing how vicious the SJW mob was towards Sequester Zone back in 2015. Sequester Zone was a YouTuber who had made more videos criticizing anti-SJW content than anyone else in the YouTube Social Justice Community. Beginning in mid-2015, he was harassed for an extended period of time, due to accusations that had been made against him by three women. The accusations were as follows.

1.       He harassed radical feminist YouTuber Extremely Boring in a way that was controlling and abusive.

2.       He deadnamed the transgender YouTuber known as The Archduchess, with deliberate intent to inflict mental scars. (Deadnaming is when you call a trans person by the name they were born with, as opposed to the new name they gave themselves when they transitioned to their new gender identity. It can mess the trans person up mentally.)

3.       He physically abused his ex-girlfriend (Benchmonkee) by dragging her by her hair.

There was also an accusation that he sexually harassed JJTalkz in an online hangout, but that accusation didn’t stick in people’s minds, because JJ Talkz emphatically denied it herself. According to JJTalkz, several feminists had tried to convince her that she had been sexually harassed by Sequester Zone. She had to insist that she wasn’t.

Just to be clear, I know that I can’t know for certain whether these accusations against Sequester Zone are true or not. In my opinion Sequester Zone was innocent, but I also know that it’s impossible to prove for certain that someone isn’t secretly an evil bastard. Because of this, I have second-guessed myself about his innocence a lot. Especially when the hate against him wouldn’t die off after several months, I started to think ‘Jesus Christ, if he didn’t do anything why don’t people just calm down?’ I would also get doubts due to the fact that comments in screen shots could be open to interpretation. For example, it can be unclear whether a person’s anger stems from needless aggression, or from an understandable reaction to extreme stress. Both Sequester Zone and Extremely Boring claimed the other was exhibiting needless aggression.

It’s frustrating that I can’t know for certain whether my opinion is right, but that’s just the nature of the circumstance.

What I can and do know though, is that the evidence for the accusations against him were definitely short of being smoking gun evidence. I also know that Sequester Zone was as much a part of the Social Justice Community as his accusers. Despite this, the mob displayed absolute sadistic relish for the concept of ostracizing him, by relentlessly attacking him and calling him things like ‘a worthless sack of garbage.’ It wasn’t just the alleged accusers saying this. It was people who just chose to believe the alleged accusers in the face of he-said she-said evidence.

My Thoughts on the Accusations Regarding Extremely Boring

The one provable accusation of harassment against Extremely Boring was this - Sequester Zone provided needlessly personal details of Extremely Boring’s life while defending himself against Extremely Boring’s original accusation of harassment. Sequester Zone agreed with this accusation and apologized.

The rest of the accusations (and the optimal place to view them was Scagcowboy’s YouTube channel) entirely consisted of he-said she-said evidence which ignored Sequester Zone’s version of events. Sometimes Sequester Zone’s version of events wasn’t included in Scagcowboy’s video at all. Other times it was included, but was dismissed on a whim.

One example of this was when Scagcowboy showed footage of a Sequester Zone video in which he tells Extremely Boring (to paraphrase) ‘There is no point privating your message Extremely Boring because there are people who will bring it to me. I have spies everywhere.’ This was interpreted by Scagcowboy as evidence that Sequester Zone was an abusive, controlling misogynist Gamergate-esque harasser of (Extremely Boring) an innocent woman on the internet.

This comment certainly is controlling, but according to Sequester Zone, Extremely Boring was using private messages to spread malicious lies about him, in order to increase the harassment against him. And this version of events is somewhat compatible with what I saw. I did indeed see many people vitriolically accuse Sequester Zone of being scum, and those accusations may well have been based on lies.

Furthermore, according to Sequester Zone’s version of events, he had especially little reason to sympathise with any discomfort that his control might cause.

Sequester Zone claimed he’d been ostracized from the YouTube social justice community because of Extremely Boring’s baseless harassment claim. The Archduchess had helped with that. Sequester Zone claimed that this was especially hurtful because he loved both of these individuals and felt betrayed. In fact, he had been planning to move in with Extremely Boring, and had taken a higher paying job that he didn’t really want to make this happen. Now those plans had been totally upset by Extremely Boring getting him ostracized, and he was stuck with a bigger workload that he didn’t really want. Sequester Zone claimed he’d been crying all day because of this.

So was Sequester Zone being controlling to be an arsehole? Or was he using controlling tactics to stop someone who he understandably hated from fomenting more hatred against him? If the latter is the case, then (at the very least) I don’t think Sequester Zone deserves to be hated.

Yet Scagcowboy’s video didn’t even try to make a distinction between the former and latter version of events. It just assumed that Sequester Zone was the bad guy.

As weak as Scagcowboy’s accusation is here, the rest of his evidence was even weaker. It was him jumping to any conclusion he wanted based on whatever evidence he chose to believe – except it was even more obvious than in this example. His whole series of videos would have had just as much evidence if it was footage of him shutting his eyes, sticking his fingers in his ears and yelling ‘SEQUESTER ZONE IS A GUILTY LIAR!’

The Accusation of Deadnaming

Captain Andy found a message of Sequester Zone contacting The Archduchess and addressing her by her deadname. He then announced that he would leave the online Facebook group Progressive Alliance unless Sequester Zone was kicked out. Sequester Zone had not had a chance to defend himself yet, so Captain Andy had clearly decided that Sequester Zone should be kicked out before all relevant information was available.

As his defence, Sequester Zone claimed that he didn’t know he wasn’t supposed to use the deadname. He pointed to the fact that The Archduchess went by her deadname at her workplace, and that she had a fake YouTube account where she went by her deadname. If the trans person themself encourages people to use their deadname, then it certainly seems on it’s face like it’s okay to use it. So even if it wasn’t appropriate for some reason, Sequester Zone can hardly be accused of being malicious.

Sequester Zone apparently decided that he was wrong to use the Archduchess’s deadname in that context, so he apologised. However, the mob’s general consensus was that Sequester Zone was STILL a transphobe because his apology did not include the words ‘I’m sorry.’ Instead they said something to the effect of ‘I was wrong.’ So Sequester Zone made another video saying ‘I’m sorry.’ It still didn’t defuse the mob’s anger.

Captain Andy then made a video preaching the important moral values of intersectional feminism. It was done with the implication that transphobic sympathies for deadnaming were motivating the people who opposed kicking Sequester Zone out of the community. In the video Andy referenced having seen Sequester Zone’s claim of innocent intent. Despite being unable to refute this claim, he insisted that his assertion of malicious transphobia was still legitimate.

Even though it clearly wasn’t and he sounded crazy.

Several months later when this was brought back up again, both Scagcowboy and Extremely Boring told me that the deadnaming accusation was still considered legitimate because Sequester Zone had given a written confession (in a screenshot) where he admitted to deadnaming the Archduchess with malicious intent.

I’m 99.9% sure Captain Andy never mentioned this as an excuse to dismiss Sequester Zone’s claim of innocent intent. If he did he definitely didn’t show any evidence.

Extremely Boring claimed to have a screenshot of this confession, but did not send it to me, despite (via Facebook)sending me three other screenshots of things Sequester Zone said. I do not know why this was the case. I did not make further requests for the screenshot of the confession as I did not want to discuss this volatile topic any longer than I was obligated to. I was worried that I would stir up a lot of emotional resentment for nothing, and end up being the next to be lynched.

Hypothetically though, if I had been shown a screenshot of Sequester Zone confessing to deadnaming the Archduchess with malicious intent, I doubt whether I would be able to tell the difference between a message conveying  genuine sincerity and a message conveying frustrated sarcasm. (The latter seems more likely based on what I’ve seen.)

But even if a screenshot confessing malicious intent which absolutely can’t be interpreted as anything other than genuine sincerity does exist somewhere, it’s still clear enough that Sequester Zone’s accusers were going to hate him no matter what the evidence said.

The Domestic Violence Accusation

Some time after these accusations had been put forth, Jenny McDermott suddenly became convinced that they were all true. So she posted a YouTube video called ‘The Lie’ which intimated through incredibly creepy narration and imagery that Sequester Zone was an abusive beater and harasser of women who had been lying to everyone. Therefore, everyone who still gave Sequester Zone the benefit of the doubt had been duped by him.  This included me, Jenny, Bewildered Ape, and everyone else in the Facebook group Sequester Zone had started called YouTubers Who Won’t Stab You In The Back.

By making that video, Jenny had decided to stab Sequester Zone in the back anyway. She also posted Benchmonkee’s graphic accusations of being terrorized and dragged by her hair, right on the YouTubers Who Won’t Stab You In The Back Facebook page, in the hopes of shocking people into turning on Sequester Zone.

It started to work. People started leaving the group because they were worried Benchmonkee’s accusations might be true and couldn’t handle the drama anymore. Bewildered Ape decided that he agreed with Jenny that Sequester Zone was guilty, and they both got kicked out of the group. At this point, I had to leave the internet for four days, and couldn’t come back until I’d seen a psychologist and talked things through. When I came back I decided to stay in YouTubers Who Won’t Stab You In The Back. I didn’t think that Sequester Zone should lose whatever moral support my presence provided.

Jenny had absolutely no additional evidence of Sequester Zone’s guilt, apart from Benchmonkee’s word. Even Extremely Boring and Scagcowboy who thought that Sequester Zone was guilty of domestic violence, admitted that the only evidence was Benchmonkee’s word. The accusation had not even gone to court.

And Benchmonkee’s accusations had been available for weeks. Jenny hadn’t found them convincing enough to turn on Sequester Zone in the weeks beforehand. I can only conclude that Jenny betrayed Sequester Zone because she is a massive drama whore with serious emotional issues. She definitely didn’t do it based on the evidence.

Several months later, Jenny made another video accusing Sequester Zone of all the behaviours outlined above. I explained in her YouTube comment section all the reasons I didn’t find them convincing. Scagcowboy was very upset with me for this, even though he was outraged that Sequester Zone called Extremely Boring a sociopath. But asserting without evidence that Sequester Zone is a lying, manipulating, sociopathic domestic abuser was totally fine with him.

Other People Who Got Lynched

Although the viciousness with which people turned on Sequester Zone was the most haunting and traumatic example of an SJW lynch mob, it wasn’t the only example.

The first time I saw this happen, the victim of the harassment was the YouTuber Bewildered Ape. Bewildered Ape had been (rightly) taking issue with Men’s Rights Activist Karen Straughan for refusing to believe Anita Sarkeesian’s claims of relentless and widespread harassment and threats. Bewildered Ape took a shot at Karen by saying ‘fuck you stupid bitch. I’m going to do everything to you that Thunderf00t’s fans threatened to do to Anita Sarkeesian.’

It was a joke. It wasn’t a real threat. The joke was that since Karen Straughan doesn’t believe Sarkeesian receives threats, she shouldn’t find Bewildered Ape’s comment objectionable. Karen Straughan even admitted to knowing that it wasn’t a real threat when Bewildered Ape asked her if it was taken the wrong way. Despite this there was a call for Bewildered Ape to be thrown out of the community for writing the comment. These demands for Bewildered Ape to be ostracized didn’t die down until Sequester Zone made a frustrated video demanding to know why the issue hadn’t been dropped. It was so clear that there wasn’t anything to keep going on about.

Though I don’t remember seeing much of the flak Bewildered Ape copped, I recall that he claimed to have been ‘pillared’ by the YouTube Social Justice Community and told a commenter ‘you people are not the angels you think you are.’ Based on the reactions of Bewildered Ape and Sequester Zone I am more than happy to assume that Bewildered Ape was harassed here.

The next example of this I remember was when word got around that the YouTuber Dick Coughlan had made a transphobic joke on Twitter several years previous. I forget exactly how the joke went, but the punch-line alluded to the fact that it might be unpleasant if a woman you were dating turned out to have a penis. Coughlan reported on Facebook at the time that people had sent him images of transgender individuals who had committed suicide, with the intended message that he was to blame for this. Another person asked Coughlan if he’d ever heard of ‘punching up.’ This question was meant to imply Coughlan liked to attack and bully individuals with the least status. Coughlan had made numerous videos in the past condemning British political parties for Islamophobia and Homophobia. So obviously he had at least ‘heard’ of punching up.

In fairness to the YouTube Social Justice Community, the only one of them I know of who engaged in this was the transgender YouTuber Thomas Hobbes. He made a video telling Coughlan ‘fuck you Coughlan! That joke wasn’t funny! Stay the hell away from my channel!’ Coughlan, who had been admitting fault in making the joke since almost the very start of the issue, was sick of taking hatred by this point. He responded by making a video called ‘Sit Down, Shut Up and Then Fuck Off Forever!’

 It’s odd that Coughlan was one of the people who kept harassing Laci Green, since he knows what it’s like to be harassed by an SJW lynch mob himself. You’d think that his human empathy would have prevented him from acting that way.

I’ve gotten the strong impression that this community has bullied other people who didn’t deserve it too, but my knowledge of those incidents is more second hand.

How My Videos Made things Worse

I think that I should reflect on my own actions in relation to the formation of these mobs. My style of pwnage video used to rile people up against the ‘other.’ Meanwhile, the community I was a part of viciously attacked people that they dubiously identified as the ‘other.’

There’s got to be a connection between those two things. I shouldn’t be able to just wash my hands of the end result.

This becomes even clearer when I consider some of the detail. For example, the title of one of my deleted videos referred to MrRepzion as a misogynist, completely unnecessarily. I wasn’t calling him that because it was necessary to explain why he was wrong. I was doing it to be a malicious dick. Everyone could see that was why I did it.

Of course words like misogynist, racist, transphobe etc are buzzwords that the SJW mobs use to trigger outrage, when they get into their witch-hunting frenzy. By using that word as a stick to beat somebody with I set a bad precedent, and helped create an environment where a witch-hunting frenzy could exist. And my videos contained a lot of jabs like that. For that I am sorry.

Of course this was something which occurred to me as a possibility before I made my videos in this style. There are regularly discussions online about YouTubers needing to conduct themselves better so that their subscribers don’t bully, harass and threaten people. I rationalized needlessly inflammatory rhetoric in a few different ways. One of those rationalizations was this - Surely people with the intelligence and conviction to envision far-left social change and whose core philosophy was ‘don’t be a bigoted arsehole’ would be more careful and principled about who they went after.

The proof is in the pudding as to how embarrassingly wrong this assumption was.

Inflammatory conduct also tends to be viewed more negatively if you have a bigger audience. I had less than 200 subscribers during each of these incidents of SJW mob harassment. Again, in hindsight this doesn’t seem good enough. It is still impossible to know that those subscribers aren’t all crazy, stupid, amoral fuckwits. Which a many of them obviously were.

The last reason I chose to make videos like that was that I viewed the Antis much more negatively than I do now, so I honestly did want to say stuff like that and thought it was funny. That was because I hadn’t dealt with far-left social justice ideas very long, and I didn’t know how skull-splittingly painful feminist and social justice ideas could be. So a lot of the hostility from the Antis seemed a lot more like baseless jackarse behaviour than it does now. Not that it’s good now, but I think I get why a person would be that upset.

I am so glad that I cut ties with the YouTube Social Justice Community and took down most of my YouTube videos. I do not want to contribute one iota to the mob mentality. My original main points about sexism in video games are available here (1), under the headings ‘Sexist Video Game Tropes’ and ‘Appendix 2.’ But there’s no way in hell I want the same messages on my YouTube channel in a way which aims frustrated resentment at anti-feminists.

Jesus Christ. What a bunch of fucking nutcases!

Reference List

(1)    Most of my previous points about Anita Sarkeesian’s work are mentioned in this blog under the headings ‘Sexist Video Game Tropes’ and Appendix 2. http://samisventing.blogspot.com.au/2018/01/why-are-certain-types-of-social-justice.html