New York magazine hates PewDiePie and democracy

In a new article in New York Magazine called “Why YouTube’s Biggest Star Can’t Be Canceled,” writer and woke bro Max Read laments the fact that PewDiePie is still popular despite the best efforts of the mainstream press to whack him. This is part of what seems to be a ongoing, coordinated effort from establishment media to smear PewDiePie who is YouTube’s most popular content creator. The Wall Street Journal, Vox, The Verge have all previously labeled him “alt right” and anti-Semitic. While he is known for his edgy humour, there is no evidence to suggest that PewDiePie is anti-Semitic or racist. In fact, he has explained over and over again that he is not. As the man himself says, “just because you interact with someone online, doesn’t mean you endorse all of their views.”It doesn’t matter to New York magazine though, as Read tells us, “it’s important to keep in mind that the company has both the practical and the formal power to remove Kjellberg from its site, or find other ways to punish or limit him, the way a movie studio or television network might distance themselves from an anti-Semitic movie star.”What Read is getting at is that he wants what many in the mainstream want. They want PewDiePie erased from YouTube. New York magazine is basically saying: “We want to force YouTube to deplatform PewDiePie to show everyone how strong we are. And we are frustrated that we can’t get what we want.”Read also cites the junk science of so-called “academic” Becca Lewis, an individual who claims that people like Jordan Peterson and Joe Rogan are gateways to the “alt right.” The article ends on an ominous yet familiar note: “Until we find a way to change the culture of mega-platforms, that’s probably not going to go away. And neither will PewDiePie.”Like most progressivist hucksters, Read is obsessed with “changing the culture.” It sounds all well and good and progressive, but here’s the thing. “Changing the culture” is progressive-speak for censorship. And that’s what the war on alternative or new media is all about.The truth is that PewDiePie’s edgy humour is actually far tamer than, say, Sarah Silverman, Louis CK, or even the legendary Mel Brooks. But we’ve lost perspective in 2018, and lamentably, we have allowed social justice crusaders to "woke off" all over the culture we love. So why is it that all of these mainstream journalists and outlets want to end PewDiePie? It’s not because he’s a hateful or problematic figure. It’s way simpler than that. It’s that he’s more popular. What the popularity of people like PewDiePie, Sargon of Akkad, Jordan Peterson, Dave Rubin, et al, shows us is that the traditional media companies no longer exclusively control the narrative. That drives them crazy. And that’s why they continually pump our moral panic-inspired clickbait. And that’s why they are trying to erase people. They’ve succeeded in some cases, on some platforms. But there is hope. You see, ordinary people hate this kind of thing. New York magazine is undemocratic and alternative media is all about democracy. I’ve quipped before that the only democracy is online in the form of the Twitter ratio (that is when the comments on a tweet far outweigh the likes) or the up and down-voting on YouTube. When content is bad, there is a means by which Twitter users can let you know. This is also the case when a YouTube video sucks. YouTube attempted to mainstream and progressivize their annual Rewind video. The down-votes on this year’s video are over 13 million. When they try to cancel our content and the people we care about, we continue to make our voices heard. The Streisand effect kicks in. And that’s how we win. To paraphrase a certain galactic princess, the more they tighten their grip, the more cultural consumers will slip through their fingers.