Let's talk about asexuality.

This is a topic dear to me, and one I struggle to write about. For years I identified as asexual. To this day, I am still trying to make sense of why I did so, and what my feelings were at the time. It was not a farce - I genuinely believed I lacked any source of sexual attraction.

I think part of it is just having a low libido. That is to say, my interest in s*x is low, but not non-existent. Secondly, Being asexual is the less painful route. To be a heterosexual male is to expose yourself to a world of rejection and of finding common ground with women. I don't think most women understand how terrifying they are, and how crippling the thought of talking to them is. It feels like a life or death situation, especially if you have social anxiety to top things off.

Lastly, I do believe that sexuality is fluid and can change over one's lifetime. I think some may disagree with me on this one. What I am arguing is that, for example, a lesbian woman might find herself developing an attraction to men in her thirties, either due to changing neurochemistry or improved self-knowledge. For others, it may be a case of sexuality influenced by trauma which, once overcome, reveals a different sexuality.

Might environment play a role? We've all heard of the concept of being prison gay? Personally, I don't believe that environment plays a significant role in sexuality, at least not outside of the womb. I think youngsters might try on different sexualities in their teens and twenties, but this does not represent their true biological sexuality. For example, a woman might experiment with another woman during her first year of university because she's in an environment where the LGBT kids seem to be the cool ones, but she never experiences true sexual attraction to women. Remember, actions are not the same as attraction.

With that out the way, I think we can begin this discussion. It's going to be a long one, but when have my posts ever been short?

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What is asexuality?

One of the earliest mentions of the term “asexual” can be found in Lisa Orlandos's Asexual Manifesto written in 1972. This is a feminist text in which women declare that they want relationships in which s*x is not a factor. As the text explains:

Consequently, the feminist roots of the sexuality cannot be denied. Though the sexuality may have existed before 1972, the way we understand it today is almost entirely forged by feminist discourse and of course the concept of "political asexuality" where one chooses to be asexual. This concept sits alongside "political lesbianism". I reject both concepts and assert that one cannot choose their sexuality and that reducing sexuality to the theoretical political realm is to foolishly ignore the material biological realm.

Asexuality is not celibacy. One chooses to be celibate but one does not choose to be asexual and therefore is essentially asexual. Of course, as I did, one can mistakenly believe they are asexual. This is also true of women who are unable to engage in penetrative heterosexual s*x due to chronic pain, and of disabled people.

In many ways, asexuality shares commonalities with the various members of the LGBT community. Roughly 1.05% of the population claim they have never felt sexual attraction to anyone at all. Some, though not all, studies suggest that more women than men are asexual.

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So Are Asexuals Sick?

When research was done, it was found that asexual men had higher rates of mood disorders than heterosexual men; asexual women and men had higher rates of anxiety than heterosexual men and women. These researchers also provided evidence suggesting that asexuality can be conceptualized as or akin to Schizoid personality type from the Diagnostic Statistical Manual, 4th Edition (DSM-IV). Specifically, asexual people endorsed greater social inhibition, and coldness/social distance with vindictive and exploitable personality styles. To explain this finding, researchers postulate that asexual people have avoidant attachment styles as children that may have led to relationship issues as adults.

Thus, researchers concluded that asexuality may not be the cause of these factors but may be a product of social functioning. Specifically, “increased mental health problems may be a consequence of discrimination or a consequence of lacking sexual attraction in an environment that is arguably centered on sexuality”. Taken together, these studies demonstrate that asexual individuals may also experience psychological distress as a consequence of their marginalization.

It has been suggested that those who lack sexual attraction but have yet to find community may experience more isolation, distress, and confusion. In other words, individuals who have yet to “come out” as asexual, may be in greater distress than those who have reached an integrated asexual identity.

With that being said, Several papers have shown connections between the presence of the asexual phenotype and traits that are found in mental illness patients, specifically those with Asperger's syndrome or Schizoid personality disorder.

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The Sexual Assumption

I know those who dare to even open this post will already be sneeding, ready to assert that asexuality isn't real. This is something asexual people are used to. It is known as the sexual assumption. Humans are considered to be creatures with innate sexual desires. Consequently, one of the most pervasive social assumptions is that all humans have sexual desires. This sexual assumption manifests in various fields of knowledge such as psychology and medicine where sexuality is seen as a natural, healthy, and essential aspect of the human. Tell your doctor you're asexual, they'll probably think you're sick. The same goes for your psychiatrist. One of the people you can blame for this is Sigmund Freud who had a huge influence on psychology but assigned a sexual basis to basically every aspect of human psychology.

According to research, these are the common assumptions about asexuals:

individuals who identify as asexual cannot fall in love, do not have s*x, have been the victim of sexual abuse, have chosen to be celibate or abstinent, are not attracted to anyone, just need to find the right person, are sociopaths or nonfeeling, are sexually deviant, are sexually frustrated, are denying their feelings, do not masturbate, do not enjoy any sexual activity, will be/live single/alone forever, or that the asexual orientation is just not real

The consequences of this should not be ignored or taken. Research by Cara MacInnes et al reveals that “sexual desire is considered a key component of human nature, and those lacking it are viewed as relatively deficient, less human, and disliked”. In a questionnaire distributed among undergraduate students, “asexuals were attributed significantly lower uniquely human traits than any other sexual orientation group”. Yes, if you're asexual, you're seen as less human than others.

Thanks to folks like Freud, furthermore, asexuality is often pathologized and seen as a detrimental deviation from a normative mode of being which can cause mental health issues. Some asexuals are led to believe they are sick and have hypoactive sexual desire disorder.

As I'm sure you know, underlying the sexual assumption is the concept of compulsory heterosexuality. Compulsory heterosexuality can be defined as the assumption that heterosexuality is the default sexuality. This idea permeates society due to the manifold ways it is enforced both subtly and overtly. The assumption that all people are innately heterosexual is fraught with problems as it results in all other sexual orientations being erased, pathologized, or seen as deviancies which must be corrected.

In the next few sections, we'll have a look at whether asexuals are discriminated against. Is anyone being oppressed for not fricking?!

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The Weirdness of Asexuality

I would argue that asexuality challenges society's construction of humans as inherently sexual and hence can be thought of as anarchic. While asexual marriages have never been specifically outlawed, definitions of marriage typically assume sexual activity between spouses. In some US states, for example, nonconsummation of a marriage is a ground for voiding the marriage. Fortunately, it has never been illegal to have asexual inclinations. Thus, while asexuals may face problems in their personal lives, they have never had to counter any legally enforced oppression.

Similar religious prohibitions of asexual marriage can be found in faith systems such as Christianity where, in 1 Corinthians 7, it is written that “each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband”. The verse goes on to instruct married couples to only abstain temporarily, and for the sake of prayer, after which they should return to their marriage duties lest they be tempted by Satan.

Such laws and religious doctrines assume sexual activity as an integral part of marriage and consequently make asexual marriages anarchic.

The anarchic qualities of asexuality are not limited to State laws and their religious appendages, however. Broadly speaking, anarchy can be defined as a movement that attempts to, as Noam Chomsky writes, “dismantle […] forms of authority and oppression”. One of the forms of oppression anarchy hopes to dismantle is representation. While many view anarchism as a movement that opposes the representation of democracy, as Cohn explains, “anarchism extends its opposition to ‘any form of representation'”. Asexuality, by defying the sexual assumption, has the potential to be an identity that opposes prevailing human representations.

So how does one wield this anarchic power? We can learn from Judith Butler. She tells a story of once walking the streets and having someone, in a derogatory tone, ask her if she's a lesbian. Butler's response? Why yes I am! Don't fear to embrace your uniqueness!

In a way, asexuals are the ultimate rebels. They refuse to create new life, or even to reproduce the social and cultural continuity in the form of a heterosexual monogamous marriage. By not producing future consumers and producers of economic goods, asexuals partake in social non-productivity and take economic advantage of the well-adjusted elements of society, and this is based in my books. Anyone still reading?

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Asexuality and Race

I am a black man, which made it harder for me to identify as asexual. Historically, black men have been hypersexualized (think https://BLACKED.com), thus the asexual label is seen as incongruent. Associations of black males with hypersexuality can be traced back to early colonial discourse where blackness was associated with savagery and primitivity. Hence, the hypersexuality of the black male was simply another way of framing the black male as bestial, crude, and less civilized than the white colonisers. This strong association of black males with hypersexuality poses a problem for black males who are asexual, as it represents a contradiction. They are rendered illegible, as language has not created a non-contradictory means for such individuals to describe themselves.

Fortunately, as a 5 foot 1 male, I am seldom sexualized, so when I identified as asexual, it was not questioned all too much regardless of my race.

It should be noted that hypersexuality is inflicted upon all men to some degree. Hence, being an asexual male invites prejudice regardless of your race. masculinity and sexuality are so inextricably knotted together that when men face sexual problems such as erectile dysfunction, they see it as a loss of manhood. Consequently, asexuality in men is much more pathologized than in women. My research reveals that "identifying as asexual (or more precisely, their disinterest in attracting a sexual partner) meant they felt they did not have to conform to particular gendered standards of appearance". As a male who wears a LOT of pink and paints his nails, yes being asexual freed me of the notion of having to look masculine.

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Asexuality and Media

As you can imagine, asexuality is seldom represented in our hypersexualized media landscape. Due to the limited awareness of asexuality, relatively few asexual characters can be found in literature and even less can be found which could be considered as examples of positive representation. The absence of positive asexual characters can have an alienating effect on those who identify as asexual and find themselves in a culture that promotes sexuality as a normal part of human existence.

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AVEN

I'd like to end off by discussing AVEN. No, not the creator of this site. I'm talking about the Asexuality Visibility and Education Network which has been pivotal in the asexuality movement. There is currently underway a small social movement, perhaps akin to the gay rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s, which has brought together people who identify as asexual.

It was founded in 2001 by David Jay as a place for asexuals to interact, and for people to share resources regarding asexuality. AVEN facilitates not only asexual identities but also conveys the importance of ‘legitimizing' asexuality as a biological or innate characteristic, not as a choice like celibacy. For many asexual individuals, the internet has facilitated the discovery, not only of a language by which to describe themselves and a community that offers support and acceptance but also a way of thinking about their asexuality as an essential characteristic of themselves. No, this doesn't mean the internet is turning people ace.

According to David Jay, sexual people who identify as highly s*x-positive, after overcoming their initial skepticism about asexuality, often end up the strongest allies and supporters of asexuals, and those who are asexual find the site to be a place of solace.

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Conclusion

I deeply miss being asexual. It was safe. Women weren't scary to me. Since dropping the label, I have felt this intense pressure to fulfill heterosexual obligations such as finding a partner and having s*x. However, as a truecel, it could be the case that it'll never happen. I heard my neighbors have s*x this evening. It felt like a gut punch.

I did try to tell a girl I like her but it failed. The worst part is that we're still friends and she constantly talks about the love we share for each other and how special our friendship is. It hurts so bad. I don't want to be your friend, I want to be your boyfriend. Why do women do this? You know I have a crush on you, I literally told you and you turned me down, yet you talk about how much you love me. Do you know what that does to my emotions?!

Anyway, that's all I wanted to say. Sorry for the longpost. It was either this or harm myself with something in the house. My thoughts aren't racing so much anymore and the self-harm compulsions have quietened a bit. I only slept for about an hour and a half. On Wednesday, my psychologist suspected I'm entering hypomania and it seems so. She said it's dangerous because it's followed by depression so I have to be careful and that it's exacerbated by a lack of sleep but I don't feel like I need sleep.

If you read this whole thing, I'm impressed.

You might have heard of xoxohth, aka AutoAdmit, a couple of years ago when it cropped up in the news after a writer for Tucker Carlson was forced to resign after someone doxxed his posts on the site, which included bangers such as replying to a 2 year old thread titled “Would u let a JET BLACK congo n****er do lasik eye surgery on u for 50% off?” with the thought provoking answer, "I wouldn't get LASIK from an Asian for free, so no." As CNN graciously explains in their article: "The subject line was not censored on the forum."

But what, you may ask, is xoxohth? Well, to get the answer to that, we need to go way, way back, to a week in March of 2004, when, while listening to Green Day on his Motorola Razr and buying tickets to Harold and Kumar go to White Castle, a 19 year old member of the Princeton Review test prep forum named Jared "rachmiel" Cohen, got together with an MIT student, alias Boondocks, and a UPenn Law student named Anthony Ciolli to start https://xoxohth.com, a simple PHP-based forum for law students. Xoxo experienced rapid growth, and quickly became one of the more popular forums for law students on the internet, fueled in part by its pseudo-anonymous posting and lax moderating standards.

Like many online-communities, AutoAdmit over time developed its own vocabulary (some of which can still be found sometimes on current law school forums, such as https://Top-Law-Schools.com). The slang had the added benefit of making xoxo borderline unreadable to someone out of the loop. Fear not, dear reader, for I shall loop you in:

• 180 - A perfect score on the LSAT and used by users much in the same as "based" is today.

• CR - "Credited/Correct Response" - Self explanatory.

• Ding - Being rejected.

• TTT - "Third Tier Potty" - The bottom ranking group law schools on USNWR, which is the definitive ranking of law schools. Means something that is bad.

• WGWAG" - "White Guys with Asian Girls"

• NOWAG - "No One with Asian Guys"

• reptiles - Conservatives

• shitlibs - Liberals

• pumos - after creating an account, you could change your monikor at will, and many users who didn't want a post associated with their other posts would change to it a random collections of punctuation marks (i.e. .,./,./.,/.,/.,/,/.,). Such users were pumos (punctuation marks).

• shitlaw - Any area of law outside of BigLaw (and possibly government).

• Poasting - Participating on the site.

A more complete (but non-exhaustive) list can be found on the EncylopediaDramatica entry on xoxo.

Now, you might be thinking to yourself, "but these are law students, right? Productive members of society (), who shall soon be respected professionals. These forums must surely be be full of interesting, intellectual discussion, advice on how to get into law school, how to do well, maybe how to find jobs, right?" And in a way it was all those things. But, my dear reader, you mustn't forget that in those days the internet had not yet acquired the feminine touch for which it is so known today. Xoxo was, like anything, a product of its time, as evidenced by a random sampling of some posts between 2004-2006:

• Got a F in class (in which the author gets informed by multiple users that he deserved it, as its "an F", not "a F")

• Rank the Asian Herarchy (consensus seems to be Japan > Korea > China)

• Lehigh University has some hot bitches (which has no comments, as users are too in awe at this sage wisdom to say anything).

But, you see, unlike a peer website such as 4chan, where the fingers behind the screen belong to an unemployed IT admin living in his parents basement, users behind posts such as the below masterpiece are written by a 22 year old, who, more likely than not, will be wearing a suit and making $200,000 within 2 or 3 years:

And so, a strange dynamic was formed, where this anonymous shitposting that could rival even the most debased /pol/ posting was read by a large enough portion of the already tightly knit law community that it lead, for example, to a Harvard Law grad not being able to find a law firm job after becoming a meme on the site because somebody posted about her without her knoweldge. Another strange part of this dynamic is that today, there is a good number of law firm partners, making millions or tens of millions of dollars a year, who started their career 2 decades ago with posts such as Autodinging chicks who've dated/fricked a black...racist? And, also, one must not forget that all of these posts were sandwiched between posts actually related to law school, such as advice on which school to choose and name the best cities to begin a career in.

As xoxo became more popular, it did not go unnoticed by the larger legal community. As one can imagine, such a community is prone to posting and the forum slowly made its way into the Real World™. Articles such as Pestilence, War, Famine, Death…and Unemployment?: An Analysis of the Internet Message Boards' Impact on Law Firm Recruitment, Why are Message Boards So Mean, and Oh My God, You Guys, Lawyers Are Actually Totally Mean! started cropping up all over the place. This marked the beginning of the end for good old xoxo.

Things boiled over in 2007. As taken from wiki (because I'm lazy):

On 12 June 2007, two Yale Law School students filed a lawsuit against Anthony Ciolli and a number of AutoAdmit's anonymous posters, claiming their "character, intelligence, appearance, and sexual lives have been thoroughly trashed by the defendants". Filed in the District Court of Connecticut, the case, Doe v. Ciolli, 307CV00909 CFD, cited violation of privacy, defamation, infliction of undue emotional distress, and copyright infringement against Ciolli and several anonymous posters. The two plaintiffs were represented pro bono by the litigation boutique Keker & Van Nest LLP, David N. Rosen, a Yale Law School professor, and Mark Lemley, a professor at Stanford Law School who specializes in computer and internet law. It was said at the time that while AutoAdmit's reported lack of IP logging might prevent the plaintiffs from learning the defendants' true identities, the case could prove significant within computer and internet law if it came to trial. The plaintiffs subsequently dropped Ciolli's name from the list of defendants, and successfully obtained Doe subpoenas of Internet service providers (ISPs) in hopes of identifying the anonymous defendants. As of August 2008 the attorneys had discovered the names of some, but not all, of the offending posters.

The lawsuit exposed the site to a level of fame it had not previously had, and it became an archetype of the "bad internet," going so far as being mentioned in the same sentence as /b/ by the Newspaper of Record. With the fame came real life consequences for those caught associating with the site and Anthony Ciolli, one of the co-founders gets his job offer rescined and quits the forum.

Still, the forum remained popular. So popular, in fact, that a WSJ article about the law suit started with "For all you AutoAdmit junkies..." And, because this was the in prehistoric times, when we weren't all as civilized as we are now, the forum even had its share of high-profile defenders, who exalted the (now widely understood to be evil) notion of free speech. The Dean of Penn Law, for example, posted a letter on the site stating that, "while debates should be encouraged, 'we all have a moral and professional obligation to engage in that debate in a responsible manner.'" Imagine that.

But still, death comes for us all, and, with time, the infamy and controversy caused students to move away from xoxo to greener pastures. And yet, the site still exists, now full of a few remaining original users, now in their 40s, who mostly posts such things as "Which escort with HUGE TITS should I frick in VEGAS" (not a shitpost btw, reviews of hookers have become a staple on nu-xoxo.) And, after the Tucker fiasco, rachmiel, who still manages the site, randomized all monikers, making reading the site even harder than it already was. On top of this, signing up for the site still requires putting in a law firm or law school username, which no one in their right mind would do. And so, it persists as a zombie version of itself, with a few sad lawyers (or, mostly, ex-lawyers), boomer posting about Trump and giving tips on how to cheat on your wife.

There is much more to say on the topic, and perhaps if this gains traction I will make a Part 2 talking about some of the better posts on the site and some of its more interesting characters. But, for the moment, I had a sudden flash of clarity and realized I have just spent over an hour writing a summary of a 20 year old shitposting forum for https://rDrama.net, and will now go reflect deeply on the choices that have brought me here.

Introduction

Q: What is Happy Tree Friends?

A: You should have watched it as a kid. If you haven't, you can watch this:

Q: who the frick like this show?

A: autists , and no, this is unironic.

---

The Subreddit

I watched Happy Tree Friends as a kid and think it is pretty funny, and found out they made a new episode recently, so I read something about happy tree friends, and found the subreddit:

https://old.reddit.com/r/happytreefriends/

It is filled with autists obsessing over their stupid fan-made characters:

https://old.reddit.com/r/happytreefriends/comments/1c3mrx1/my_first_animation/?sort=controversial

https://old.reddit.com/r/happytreefriends/comments/1c31s79/hi_im_new_to_this_community_htf_persona/?sort=controversial

https://old.reddit.com/r/happytreefriends/comments/1c0qcwk/millie_rabbit_feel_free_to_draw_her_anyway_you/?sort=controversial

https://old.reddit.com/r/happytreefriends/comments/1c0bnyz/help/?sort=controversial

It is not even that interesting until you look into the stickied post of the subreddit.

The Autist

Here is the stickied post:

https://old.reddit.com/r/happytreefriends/comments/198sto6/since_yall_wont_learn/?sort=controversial

I don't care if I left the fandom! If you mention brunynhoalves, you're getting a 5 day ban! Just frick off already! I said to stop talking about him! I saw another post today!

Even the mods talk like an autist.

But who is /u/brunynhoalves?

So basically he spams the subreddits with posts to tell people to subscribe to him or whatever:

https://old.reddit.com/r/happytreefriends/comments/15q2uet/do_you_wanna_subscribe_me_on_my_youtube_account/?sort=controversial

https://old.reddit.com/r/happytreefriends/comments/15vgrx5/add_me_on_groomercordbrunynhofernandes_99185/?sort=controversial (Trigger Warning: Groomcord )

Since he spams the subreddit non-stop, he is eventually banned from it

And he appeals to the subreddit mods :

https://old.reddit.com/r/happytreefriends/comments/17il0f4/the_entirety_of_my_convo_with_burnynhoalves_a/?sort=controversial#lightbox

So this is apparantly Flippy x Fliqpy ship:

https://old.reddit.com/r/happytreefriends/comments/16q0ach/brought_back_this_shit/?sort=controversial

It gets even worse:

https://old.reddit.com/r/happytreefriends/comments/17w6j17/the_entirety_of_my_convo_with_brunynhoalves_the/?sort=controversial

In case you can't see the screenshot in the last screenshot:

Can you rub your breasts on my peepee?

Hey

Can you rub your breasts on my peepee?

I said can you rub your breasts on my peepee?

He apparantly shit up the subreddit so much that there are many complain posts about him:

https://old.reddit.com/r/happytreefriends/comments/17vc4k7/i_dont_tend_to_be_an_empathetic_person_but/?sort=controversial

What the frick is even illegal shit? These are all fricking anthropomorphic animals and these zoophilic autist do be like "no only the yellow rabbit and the pink female one not the same character but two personality"

https://old.reddit.com/r/happytreefriends/comments/17vj3sb/brunynhoalves_meme/?sort=controversial

When the autists noootices

And from the above post, I found his twitter:

https://twitter.com/BrunoFe62752625

💚🐻Flippy HTF🐻💚 (DO NOT UNFOLLOW ME)

DO NOT UNFOLLOW

Gives off DO NOT REDEEM energy

13🎂| Neurodivergent🧩| Male | (he,) I'm a good artist, I'm obsessed with #happytreefriends, follow me if you want.

Neurodivergent

quite apparant

Look at this beautiful retweet:

https://twitter.com/ADONIS_577/status/1705743589676843332

And here's his YouTube Channel:

Made on Alight Motion

How To Make G Major 74 in Alight Motion:

1st go to up tempo and pitches:

-10

+9

+14

2nd: go to alight motion and create a project what you want

3rd: tap + on Bottom Right

4th: click Klasky Csupo

5th: go to homogenization and opacity and click Luminosity

6th: go to effects and search Stretch Axis:

Scale: 0,85

Angle: 0,0°

7th: go to effects and search Circular Ripple:

Centralize: X Axis: 0 Y Axis: 0 Frequency: 1,00

Intensity: -0,140

Phase: 0,00

Radius: 0,30

Feather: 1,000

8th: go to effects and Search Stretch Axis: (again)

Stretch: 1,22

Angle: 0,0°

The autism is strong

https://youtube.com/@brunofernandes7072/videos

And this is legitimately disturbing.

And of course it is easy to find his DeviantArt too:

https://www.deviantart.com/brunynhofernandes101

https://www.deviantart.com/brunynhofernandes101/art/Rubbing-your-breasts-on-my-peepee-981966251

Rubbing your breasts on my peepee

---

So, how neurodivergent do you think he is?

Evening all.

I don't know how I feel about inhabiting this place. But I do know I can use it to draft.

Shiri's Slippers

Long time readers will know of my grudge with Scott Alexander, high priest of the SFBA Rationalist Cult. Previously it was suggested that we begin a bombing run of their spaces but I called a 'hold.' Honestly there's no time like the present.

Ultimately my problem with these people is that the demand the status of seriousness without being willing to do the work to be serious. In forums like /r/theschism or themotte, the topics of the day have been, bizarrely, subtracted out of the conversation.

The most important political conversation happening today is about the Supreme Court ruling on the immunity which a President enjoys.

You won't see this talked about.

See I used to think that Scott Alexander's "You Are Still Calling Wolf" was the most damaging piece Scott ever wrote. For his own reputation. For the political damage it did to the brains of his followers.

Scott Alexander doesn't think of himself as a cult leader of course, even though his followers do, and have regular struggle sessions about this fact. See this hilarious exchange in which a twitter thread praises Scott Alexander for not being a prophet.

Now I can't assume everyone has familiarity with the spiritual mechanisms Scott Alexander has engaged with. To recap: Scott Alexander self-consciously wrote Unsong to imitate schizophrenic individuals attempting to write a holy text. Scott Alexander copied the prophet motion without, apparently, understanding what it meant that he did this for his followers.

Then his followers didn't do this either.

The other very very funny recurrence at work here is the SFBA Rationalist Cult's founder, whose work included a number of overtly spiritual calls, led to an early incident in the cult history where they linked hands and sang "We are not a cult." To this day SFBA Rationalist Cultists, when they gather, engage in praise of the founder under an ambiguous amount of irony. And as you all know at this point: in a post-ironic world, all expression is genuine. (I'm referring here to the Valentine's Day musical that some postrats put on as a dating show.)

So these people all have this habitual denial of their spiritual connection. They Think They're Atheists, and atheists can't be in a cult. And if it is a cult, they think it's a benign one, a harmless one, if they're pressed. But secretly, they believe they are an elevated specimen of human thinker, and this was accomplished with Shiri's Slippers.

I thought they were a harmless cult when I first encountered them. The most devastating review of the founder's work was always: what's novel in it isn't good, and what's good in it isn't novel. The SFBA Rationalist Cult literally bricked a bunch of minds in the 2010s and we're only still figuring this out.

Because the consequences of Scott Alexander's foray into politics were that he was one of the foremost beacons of fascism denialism. These people all had a grudge against the academy. They think they're better than schooling. But then they create their own forms and fall down dead wrong.

It turns out that the fools at the academy are better equipped.

There's this crackpot tinge of resentment against the fools at the academy for rejecting their founder's bad writing as bad writing. This is one of the things that make them less a harmless cult and more a destructive torment nexus of incompetence. It's not a coincidence that these people developed idiot confidence and SBF is now under arrest for Big Fraud. They're all frauds. They can't even function as a cult because of their bizarre denial complex around their cultishness.

The consequentialist argument against the utility of the SFBA Rationalist Cult goes something like:

The consequences of Scott Alexander's writing is an island of people separated from mainstream intellectual politics. They're really alone out there.

Fascism

At this point I think it's more important than ever to drag Scott Alexander's flock kicking and screaming into accepting that they were wrong about the fascism. That doesn't mean that I need them to immediately endorse the use of the term 'fascism.'

If there's one thing that I wish they understood, it's that whatever it is that Trumpism represented, the people who were warning of the danger Trump faced were not overreacting. The wolf was real. This incompetence and waste of energy in our politics is an authoritarian bound now by legal processes. They seemed to think that Trump could never succeed at instituting a fascistic purge, and that therefore the people who were warning of Trump's desire to implement a fascist purge were overreacting.

Whether or not the wolf can succeed is somewhat independent of whether or not the wolf exists.

But the real bad wrong turn that Scott Alexander took was writing "Shiri's Scissors."

Shiri's Scissors

Scott postulated a class of controversial statement that caused irrational behavior in people, dividing them from one another. And I was confused by this at first because I was at this point understanding that these people coin phrases as if by instinct. What Scott Alexander was pointing to with "Shiri's Scissors" was the mere word

CONTROVERSIAL.

This is what made Shiri's Scissors an unnecessary concept and bad writing. Controversial topics have always existed.

And I tried to take this up with someone in Scott Alexander's circle and they resisted my notion that it was a pointless concept.

Only now do I understand that there's an alchemical process at work in Shiri's Scissors: it allows people to view controversy as enabling irrational behavior and therefore discarding them.

Instead of controversy being an invitation to dispute, a marker around discourse's present topics of conversation, Shiri's Scissor allowed these cultists to subtract themselves from discourse.

Controversial topics have always existed. Concepts which justified disregarding people who reacted to controversial topics have not.

With Shiri's Scissors

Scott Alexander Cut The Cord

TETHERING

His Cult

To Political Reality

Whether or not you want to use the term fascist, the gathering of physical forces armed with actual weapons to assault the Capitol on 1/6 was an act of war which is exactly the kind of thing the leftists have been warning about. But Scott Alexander and his flock aren't tuned into the Supreme Court hearing today on the most important subject of most thinking minds.

They put Shiri's Slippers on and just walked away. Right off of the map (IN POLITICS THE TERRITORY IS THE MAP IS THE TERRITORY) into a domain of their own making, still bitter at the fact that other people dared find their intellectual contribution bad.

See Shiri's Scissors/Slippers, as a concept, create a reality in which there's just these bizarre artifacts in discourse which are incomprehensible. It makes discourse not just unnecessary but impossible because it contains within it the assumption of the unreasonable (AND THEREFORE, TO THESE BRICKED CULTISTS, INCOMPREHENSIBLE) nature of those with which they interacted with politically.

---

Postscripts

Cult Takes on Christian Nationalism

An interesting sampling of the topics du jour of these spaces. Both TheMotte and TheSchism platformed this curious bit of "rationality" around the decrease in Christian Nationalism by raw percent. I don't think it's a stretch to say that this is motivated reasoning: these people want to believe that fears of a Christian theocracy are overstated. TheMotte, and TheSchism.

It's not within their capacity to understand that a threatened minority might resort to fascism, the fascism might drive people away from the church, and that Christian Nationalism can still be a very real threat. These are the people who have said nothing about the Trump Supreme Court case.

Cult Takes on Lab Leak Origins for Coronavirus

Now I will admit that I'm more willing to believe that COVID came from zoonosis than I was before engaging this material. But I want to share some reading I've done in Blood Money, a book about Chinese mindsets and tactics in dealing with the US as an adversary.

Roughly, the Wuhan lab was built with the help of French scientists. Then the Chinese government kicked the French scientists out.

It was always a possible black site.

Scott Alexander's coverage of his cult's perfect thinking about perfect thinking about viruses is one of the worst things Scott Alexander wrote, but not the most damaging.

As mentioned earlier, the DEFUSE grant was rejected. Further, the grant said that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was responsible for finding the viruses, and the University of North Carolina would do all the gain-of-function research. This was a reasonable division of labor, since UNC was actually good at gain-of-function research, and WIV mostly wasn't. They had done a few very simple gain-of-function projects before, but weren't really set up for this particular proposal and were happy to leave it for their American colleagues.

Even if WIV did try to create COVID, they couldn't have. As Yuri said, COVID looks like BANAL-52 plus a furin cleavage site. But WIV didn't have BANAL-52. It wasn't discovered until after the COVID pandemic started, when scientists scoured the area for potential COVID relatives. WIV had a more distant COVID relative, RATG-13. But you can't create COVID from RATG-13; they're too different. You would need BANAL-52, or some as-yet-undiscovered extremely close relative. WIV had neither.

Are we sure they had neither? Yes. Remember, WIV's whole job was looking for new coronaviruses. They published lists of which ones they had found pretty regularly. They published their last list in mid-2019, just a few months before the pandemic. Although lab leak proponents claimed these lists showed weird discrepancies, this was just their inability to keep names consistent, and all the lists showed basically the same viruses (plus a few extra on the later ones, as they kept discovering more). The lists didn't include BANAL-52 or any other suitable COVID relatives - only RATG-13, which isn't close enough to work.

Could they have been keeping their discovery of BANAL-52 secret? No. Pre-pandemic, there was nothing interesting about it; our understanding of virology wasn't good enough to point this out as a potential pandemic candidate. WIV did its gain-of-function research openly and proudly (before the pandemic, gain-of-function wasn't as unpopular as it is now) so it's not like they wanted to keep it secret because they might gain-of-function it later. Their lists very clearly showed they had no virus they could create COVID from, and they had no reason to hide it if they did.

If there's one thing I want you to understand, it's this:

These people have almost no ability to understand deception.

The notion that China lies about the purposes of the lab just doesn't enter the picture.

Are you sure the Chinese would not use US science to create a virus that then escaped?

And then lie about it?

We're not going to know the truth. China may never reveal what it knows. But these people are not very good at finding the truth because they're not very good at understanding lies.

And these are the people who believe that AI can be 'aligned.'

They fundamentally don't understand humans. They don't understand deception.

They refuse to see the wolf of the present political era. They have deliberately chosen to walk away from mainstream politics with their Magic Stupid Slippers.

This is what a truly dangerous cult looks like. Most dangerous cults self-destruct. The bad ones are those that get big enough to confuse a large enough number of people.

---

POV: You're Scott Alexander and you're tired at people yelling at you about the fascism your side missed.

There's also a pattern I want to discourage, where one side will come up with some new trivial finding, or re-dredge up and re-package something that everyone already everyone else had already considered, then release it as THE SMOKING GUN! Then they release another SMOKING GUN!, and another, and after five or six SMOKING GUNS, they say their opponents are stubborn and refuse to yield to evidence, since they've obstinately ignored every single SMOKING GUN! without changing their probability even a little bit.

---

I've saved the chaser. This is how Scott chose to close his coverage.

But fifth, if the coronavirus' story is a comedy, all of this - Rootclaim, the debate, the $100K - is a tragedy. Saar got $100 million, decided to devote a big part of his life to improving human reasoning, and came up with a really elegant system. He was so confident in his system, and in the power of open discussion, that he risked his money and reputation on an accept-all-comers debate offer . Then some rando who nobody had ever heard of accepted the challenge, turned out to be some kind of weird debate savant, and won, turning what should have been Rootclaim's moment of triumph into a bitter defeat. Totally new kind of human suffering, worthy of Shakespeare.

I look forward to the movie, especially seeing who plays the dashing young blogger who helped the participants meet.

POV: You're the high priest of a cult of reason, worshiping a false god of perfect information, perfectly understood. These people don't just believe that salvation is possible through brainthinking alone, they believe that they have achieved salvation and are enlightened by their own intelligence.

Even as they stand in proud ignorance of contemporary politics.

---

INTRODUCTION- Who is Dan Andrews and why was he important?

Dan Andrews was until a couple of months ago the premier (think governor in burgerstan) of the state of Victoria, the little blue state in Australia's south.

Think of Victoria like New York- what it lacks in relative size it makes up for in population (the second highest of all the states, the capital Melbourne just passed Sydney as the largest city by population) and as a cultural and sporting capital. The Aus Open, Formula One, the most important cricket matches and so on are all held in Melbourne just to give an example.

Anyway, back to Dan. He led the state between 2014 and 2023 (quite a long time for state premiers, they tend to burn out after a term or two), and in that time turned from a no-name technocrat into the most loved and hated figure in Australian politics. I'm going to tell his story chronologically but the drama really starts hitting when the coof hits, so skip to that section if you're strapped for time.

EARLY YEARS- Road slapfights and Lobster Man

Dan got elected in 2014 as a young Labor (centre-left party) leader after the outgoing Liberal government of what's-his-name did approximately frick all. As a sign of what's to come, Dan's first move was to axe the proposed East-West link, which was a proposed road connecting the two sides of Melbourne. The Liberals had on their way out of the door negotiated with the contractor a massive cancel fee to frick with Dan. He essentially decided to barrel on with axing it anyway, and whether you reckon that was a or move shoes what side of politics you're on.

Dan is famously a fan of the Chinx. He signed up Victoria onto the Belt and Road initiative which I didn't even know states could do, and it took the federal government to slap it down for that to go away.

He came up for re-election in 2018, and the state Liberals fronted Matthew Guy as their leader. Matthew Guy is at this point pretty much only known for being photographed having a nice fancy dinner with a mafia don, which pretty much torpedoes the election. Don't worry, Lobster Man will come back later.

One other thing we should note about the early years is his Big Build which starts at around this time. It's essentially just a massive infrastructure project, achieves good results but is also an endless money pit which will also come back up later.

THE COOF- A "dictator" is born

Now, because most of Rdrama is full of rightoid spergs, you probably heard all sorts of things about Australia during the coof. Some things I see posted are just outright untrue, some are true but about NZ not us, but most of the true things come from Victoria, and specifically from the mind of Dan Andrews.

The rules changed a lot around the edges depending on the time and place, but this is the greatest extent of a full lockdown-

• one family member is allowed to go shopping for essentials, once a day

• all people are allowed out to exercise for up to two hours a day, only within 5km of your house.

• Melbourne had a curfew, I think it was 8PM-6AM but idk I'm from regional Vic.

• Melbournians cannot go to regional Vic and the other way around. This was enforced by a police/military checkpoint in a "ring of steel" around Melbourne. This was keyed actually, because it meant I could move freely around most of Victoria and only encounter normal people as opposed to Melbournians ()

• State borders were closed, but that was essentially the case around the country at one time or another. Fun fact, I was holidaying in NSW when that came into affect and I only just got back across the border in time.

• masks mandatory (duh)

• probably a bunch of other shit too that I've forgotten.

This would be the case in various combinations for months at a time.

Now I know this is all sounding very China-y, so I need to make one clarification- most of these rules went completely and utterly unenforced, at least where I lived. I was swept along by the COVID hysteria at first so I went along with it, but by 2021 whichever rules were in place could pretty safely be ignored with no chance to be charged or anything.

Anyway, this is where the idea of Dictator Dan was born. Other states such as NSW's Gladys Berijikian liked to make a big deal about how much lighter their restrictions were, which led to much progressive smugness when she ended up having to do the same thing . This also sparked protests, which frequently got violent- there was a time in I think September of 2021 when the public was just getting sick of it all and protesters were starting to show up in their thousands, but then they decided to take their protest to Melbourne's Shrine of Remembrance and treated it pretty badly, so goodwill towards the protestors pretty much vanished overnight. This all spooked Dan and co however, who pretty much dropped all restrictions over the next month or so.

Btw, if you find an Aussie rightoid who hates Dan with a burning passion, all this shit is generally where it comes from. Similarly for Aussie progressives who love the man, and if you look online for five seconds you'll find both in spades (and they'll probably show up in this thread too)

DAN V THE MEDIA- journos are scum

Anyway, this brings us nearing 2022 and the lead up to the beginning of his second re-election bid, because we don't have term limits here. Now the thing is, while the state broadcaster the ABC and the Guardian are progressive and lean towards being pro-Dan, the rest of the media fricking hated him and wanted him to lose the next election.

One of the funnier things they did was apparently his wife hit a cyclist () ten years ago. They found the guy who was hit (who was fine btw) and made that the week's headlines. There was also a guy who had his restaurant shut down over health code violations who claimed Dan planted the evidence to get him shut down without a lot of proof. He then ran against Dan in his own electorate and the chud paper released an internal poll saying him and Dan were neck and neck. Dan ended up winning like 70% of the votes in that seat. Dan also went into hospital for a time in 2021 because he tripped over some steps and the chud news channel (Sky News) ripped into him for initially claiming they were stairs, not steps. I remember watching that program btw, it ended with the host interviewing herself for like ten minutes.

None of this did anything to help btw, he got re-elected with an even bigger majority than before. This may have had something to do with the fact the Liberals were running Matthew Guy against him. Again. That's the mafia guy from earlier. There's so much Victorian Liberals drama I'm skipping over here but it's all a story for another post.

LATER YEARS- culture warrin' and pissing money away

Dan's re-election was based on a big-spending platform. To be fair to him, his mafioso opponent was also running a big-spending platform so it was really a matter of how you wanted your money to be spent. Anyway, all this spending and the lockdowns were starting to bite him in the arse when everyone started to realise the state was in a large amount of debt. To be fair, this isn't really like Greece levels of debt or anything and Australian governments are generally really cautious about debt, but still debt started to become an issue. This led the government to save money by pissing more money away, by cancelling the Commonwealth Games in Victoria. For non-empirecels, the Commonwealth Games is pretty much the Olympics for subjects of the King. It's not very important but it is very expensive, and it also had a high cancellation fee.

Dan also started to play culture warrior from this time. A small group of Nazi r-slurs sieg heiled in front of what I think was a cute and valid protest, to which Dan responded by banning the gesture and comparing the r-slurs to "the worst of the Floridian Republican Party" . Then, a month or so ago he just up and resigned with a solid day's notice and kind of fell off the face of the earth.

Anyway, how's your day? !strayans

General info:

/r/illnessfakers (IF) follows "subjects" (almost exclusively young women, there are a few older ones, currently no men) who are suspected of faking illness and having Munchausen's. They are referred to as "munchies".

The sub is heavily moderated, with it's 2 most important rules being

1. All posts / comments must be on topic (about illness faking, no random things)

2. No blogging (talking about yourself or your diseases/ conditions)

The heavy handed modding of the sub, combined with how annoying their mods are, has resulted in several very dramatic moments. Here are some of my favorites.

---

Notable meta dramas

---

ASH IS NO LONGER AN APPROVED SUBJECT, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY

The main mod of illnessfakers determined that there was too much BEC (b-word eating crackers) content about Ashley Carnduff. Ashley's real issue is Crohn's disease (which she does have). Her made up complaints are Chronic Lyme acquired from a spider bite, other Lyme associated bacteria, and others. She is thought to be lying about having hEDS and POTS. She also went on an arc of being really obsessed with her period.

From the OP:

Hey, everyone. We are removing Ash as a subject, effective immediately. The content being posted is 99% irrelevant to her medical narrative, and the pure hate and bullying that goes on in threads about her is unacceptable and intolerable. The vibe on this sub needs to shift, fam. We are running the risk of losing this sub from all the cruelty happening here. EVERY other sub has been banned and if we go hardcore snarky like other places, we're next. PLEASE, stop with the body shaming, fat shaming, slut shaming, critiquing someone's posing, critiquing someone's eyebrows, and stop posting BEC content that has zero relevance in a subreddit that is dedicated to discussing behavior consistent with MBI and related medical deception.

This post has 1,000 comments. There are some people who don't care, and many who get very mad. IMO this had less to do with the actual content being disallowed, and more to do with the fact that everybody hates the mods.

Shutting down posting about Ashley lead to the creation of several private subreddits and a larger public one /r/Ashleycarnduff which is pretty active and contains even more drama.

There are some mentions of this incident on kiwifarms Munchausen's by Internet thread as well here

The mods later change their minds and issue this follow up post.

FOLLOW-UP DISCUSSION RE: Pausing Ash Thread; TOS Concerns; Update & Highlights. THANK YOU to everyone who contributed over the past 3 days! I've put together some highlights and responses based on feedback and discussion with you all...please come continue discussing with us here!

Here the main mod apologizes and announces they are reverting the rule after many days of deliberation. People are happy, but the damage is done, and many users appear to leave the sub after this.

This also led to the creation of /r/IFModsExposed, a sub only for pooping on IF mods, and where posting or commenting got an instant perma-ban from IF. That sub was banned by Reddit pretty quickly.

---

Posts locked

For several months, IF had all posts and comments on manual approval, despite only having 1 active mod for a sub of 150K. After the manual removal was lifted, mods started locking all posts related to one specific person - Dani Marina.

Dani Marina is an almost 40 year old woman who until recently lived with her parents. She had anorexia when she was younger, and shortly after started seeking attention and medical procedures for GI issues. She recently admitted she actually has been diagnosed with Munchausen's, and has admitted to intentionally injuring herself in the past (by doing things like breaking her bones with baseball bats).

Like before, the crackdown from IF mods leads to the creation of a new specific sub /r/DaniMarina. This sub has also had many of it's own dramas, which would be another post.

It is important to note that these subs focused on only one person are way more unhinged.

---

POLL: Should we allow a RECOVERED FD Patient to do a Q&A Here?

The main mod (again) suggests an AMA from a recovered Factitious Disorder patient

Hey all,

Over the course of this sub's history, questions like this have come up a few times, but this is an unique circumstance and I think this particular issue should be put to the community for a vote. Historically, our policy has been not to allow any sort of Q&A with people who admit having FD/MBI or who are 'trying to stop' because it is giving attention to them and that feeds the issue. We have, however, heard from someone who is now recovered and they have offered to share about their experiences, so I agreed to put it to you all for a vote.

People in this thread basically scold the mod for this terrible idea, and the mods backtrack again.

---

Let me know if I should make another post! This is only a portion of the total drama.

---

Edit: I almost forgot one of the best things to come from the Ashley Carnduff drama - this literal manifesto about the IF mods.

And semi-relevant to recent events, from a post linked in the manifesto, is mod work real work? (Deleted account is mod /u/CatAteRoger 's old account)

Some or all of this might be wrong, was listening to this while eating :marseynerd:

Adriannah, 22, Austin TX

Could you fix her !straggots ? I think this one's beyond me

Self-rated: very bad, worst of her life maybe

Is our student loan debt being forgiven or no?

No

For real?

Yeah for real

Okay yeah, because I have 9'000 of that and I don't know how to pay it

Personal Life:

• Cut off while she was 17, :marseythinkorino: had to work two jobs in highschool

• Went to college full time (lived there)

  • 3 jobs in college, part time wedding videographer, streamed on twitch and took a lot of addies (perscribed)

• Had addictions at some point, claims to be over them

• Trying to save to move (thinking about doing a payment plan with the IRS)

• A family friend told offered to be her financial advisor and put her in life insurance ($100 a month)

  • Kvetching about customer service mansplaining and not letting her open a Roth IRA :marseywomanmoment:

• In therapy "One time I had a really bad incident where I thought the world was ending and I spent $500 at HEB"

  • :marseywomanmoment:

• "A lot of my financial things are from travelling since my parents are far away"

Career:

"Content Creator"

• Tiktok, Twitch, Instagram

  • 109k Tiktok, 112k Insta, 15k Youtube, 100 paid subs Twitch

• Trying to expand presence on youtube

Income:

• $6 a month from Youtube

• $4-6k average income across all platforms

Expenses/Debt:

• Total minimum monthly payments $983, a quarter of her income

• Wanted to consolidate credit card debt but hadn't done her taxes for two years?

  • Just got a CPA, doing all her taxes now

• Someone else is using her credit card?

  • I missed a chunk, not sure what's going on here

• Restore "Monthly Payment"

  • Her IVs? !biofoids please explain, what is an IV?

  • "I get IVs because I had problem with my hair falling out and when I drink I can't throw up so umm usually I'll get an IV so it restores me"

• Tons of eating out, fast food places

• $418 on a Salon :marseyfoid:

  • "I wanted to look good because there was a chance I would get signed and get a literal salary to this thing that I was literally led on since August to get signed to and they were like 'Come to LA you`ll have a better chance if you come to LA' so I'm like I need to look my best I need to be my best self before I come to LA. So I got my hair I got extensions but they weren't mine they're my mom's so I didn't have to pay for them I just had her put them in and then, those extensions ruined my life. So this is me getting my extensions out and my hair redone because I could show you my bald spot right now but I'm not going to, my extensions literally ripped my hair out and it was like a mess."

• $213 on an outfit

• Stopped doordashing since she started watching Caleb's channel

• Car

  • "Before you say anything I will not be selling it... but I am going to be refinancing it. But listen-"

  • Couldn't refinance because she let her out of state license expire and now has to retake the entire test

    • Apparently this is an insurmountable process for this egirl as by the time she got her license to refinance she was deep in debt

  • Land Rover LR4 2011

  • 400 minimum monthly, 9% interest rate, 72 months, got it at 19

• Student loans

  • $900 Federal

    • $150 minimum maybe?

    • Didn't graduate, year and a half going to school for film

      • "It was a waste of my time because I talked to the lady, I said what, how can I reasonably get a job with this degree after and she said 'you can do wedding videography for a company' and I said 'I already do that' so I dropped out"

Credit Cards

• All basically maxxed out

• Apple store $6996.24

  • "When I signed up for an apple card I thought it was just for the Apple Store and I wanted a macbook beacuse I was like I'm buckling in and I'm editing"

  • Minimum payment- 280.74 (will be paying 20k over 21 years if only doing minimums )

  • 3 things financed on this card

    • Macbook, iPad, Apple Pen

  • Wanted a macbook

  • Still spending on it, bunch of apple bills for buying app subscriptions? "I don't know what they are" "I don't really look at my things"

• American Express $10'831 - 27% interest

  • She loves this one because it sometimes gives her 'free' first class upgrades

  • "It wasn't my choice to have that limit"

    • Customer service told her they love her so she went with it

  • "I started a show, it's called 'Drinking with Dree' where I invite 3 creators on, and I would like to invite you on' and we [words words words basically a podcast]"

    • Was going to use it to prove herself to that company she thought was going to sign her

  • I think this succubus is trying to get her claws into 's $$$$ and clout

  • Interesting contrast between how they approached the eceleb game Timestamp

  • $50 minimum payment but pays more than that (and spends even more than that purchasing with it)

• Mastercard $3356.44/$3500

  • First card

  • minimum monthly payment around $40?

  • 24% interest maybe?

  • Paying it off but spending way more than she's putting on it

• Target

  • "because my other cards were maxed out and I didn't have money for a while I had to use my Target card even though I just paid it off because I needed to buy groceries... And I could this right now if I wanted to"

  • $153 previous balance now $374 "well because I bought groceries"

• Paypal Credit Card?

  • Used only for stream stuff and editors

  • 646.94/650

  • normal minimum is 40?

  • not sure interest rate

Savings:

• 2000 in a savings

• 1450 in a checking but 900 of that came out to pay the CPA to deal with the taxes

• 3000 in a Robin Hood

  • Never pulled anything out of Robin Hood besides Doge

  • "I like that it's in Robin Hood because I am impulsive and crazy"

  • Gets stock advice from some guy on Twitch

  • Over a year 2900 => 2230 => 3100

As a enthusiast of shane dawson scandals, I believe it's time to try and explain every problematic thing Shane Dawson has done. Let's begin

background

Shane Dawson is a very popular american youtuber who mainly makes videos about conspiracy theories and petty youtube drama. He has over 18 million subscribers on his main channel and is notorious for his many, many, many, many, many controversies. From cumming on his cat to doing blackface.

racism

Shane dawson has a LONG history of racism. In his early youtube days he made many racist jokes. But atleast he had the excuse of it being "years ago"

but now heres a more recent example

and heres some instances of shane's past racism:

He has also done blackface many times as seen in the previous videos.

(this will haunt your dreams)

And those videos are just the tip of the iceburg While shane dawson has hours of racist content, most of them are just old edgy jokes. His racism is probaly the most boring kind of scandals that he has had. So thats why I decided to touch on it very briefly here.

Only one more notable thing will go into this category

while most of his racist jokes were made many years ago, which he uses as an excuse, the following video is extremely recent making it quite unique.

This video was made by shane to make fun of a singer he didnt like. He basically tried to own said singer by being blatantly racist in song form. So here is the video:

This song is sexual assault to my ears

pedophilia

While in his podcast "Shane and friends" he said some fricked up shit, not only is this fairly recent but he said this completely unironically too

I will just let the video speak for itself

After getting tons of backlash over this, shane dawson made a video defending himself

I, shane yaw, my real name

Holy shit he's using his real name so that means hes dead serious im pooping my pants

shane has also had numerous clips of him kissing with underage fans

not exactly bad on its own, but considering his other statements it makes these incidents alot worse

zoophilia

In his podcast, shane dawson told a story about how he came on his cat cheeto. He never once stated it was a joke in the podcast

after three years, this clip resurfaced and people flipped out, causing shane dawson to reply with this imfamous tweet

then this old clip was dug up

if shane dawson made out with his dog, whats saying he couldnt have came on his cat. But we wont know for sure if he came on his cat or not

his apology

in 2020, many people started digging up all his old controversies and a hate mob formed on twitter. Shane dawson was cancelled.

Shane tried to bounce back with a pathetic apology

Nobody accepted his apology and shane dawson's apology

shane later went live on instagram and had a complete meltdown over tati westbrooke's exposing video on him. Thustly ruining his career

shane completely went off the internet and went silent until 2022, where he would start uploading videos again. But by this point everyone forgot about him and he was irrelevant

and there it is, shane dawson's controversies explained. Holy shit this was hard.