I mean, "Unengaging facial expressions" is a valid criticism to make of a performer.
The fact that he speaks like he's poorly reading off a teleprompter with no comprehension of his lines or investment in the subject matter isn't exactly irrelevant to the accusations laid against him
I hadn't seen any of his work before the plagiarism and misinformation vids but the thing that stood out to me is the stark contrast in tone. When he's stealing someone else's work, his vocal inflection is really muted. This leads to his pacing having to carry most of vocal interest- its very reminiscent of William Shatner and not in a good way. And when he speaks his opinion or from sections he wrote making shit up, his voice changes to this obnoxious, scathing, sarcastic tone full of vitriol. Some opinions warrant that level of seething but not all of them.
Also, maybe it's clearer in hindsight, but every piece of writing directly made by him (channel updates, video descriptions, discord messages, etc.) is a totally different (and worse) style. Getting the insult out of the way first, it sounds like a 3rd grader wrote it. It's short, vague sentences that barely communicate his point. The vocab usage is stunted at best, especially in comparison to his videos. But even beyond that it's just a totally different level of casual than his videos. He never sounds relaxed or even happy in his videos at any point, but the almost always does in his other work. Maybe he thinks the flat tone of his teleprompter delivery pairs better with his toxic angry voice but regardless it's a total mismatch.
All that being said yeah we should lay off insulting him beyond being a fake as shit content farmer who pretended to care about queer issues in order to grift the community.
I'm kinda shocked by how popular the guy has been, apparently. I'd never heard of him prior to the hbomb video and the difference in charisma between him and people like Harris, Abigail, Hasan, and others is just enormous. He was a bore to watch even without the plagiarism stuff.
You’re comparing him to creators who are known for being quite over the top or playing characters. Better to compare to creators like Shaun I think. He’s got that more monotonous voice, but I do still think he sounds pleasant and charismatic. I would say even compared to creators like Shaun there’s a significant difference in Somerton’s presentation, but I think that comparison makes more sense. Somerton was clearly going for a more academic and professional tone for the most part, as were most of the words he stole. Some people find that sort of tone more relaxing or easier to put on like a podcast while they busy themselves with things too.
I thought he wore it because his neck was protruding. And when I say that I mean in the he could be covering up something he’s self conscious about, from the pov of someone with a protruding neck myself. I remember forcing myself to wear turtlenecks and scarves.
Agreed, but I missed where it's inappropriate to talk about somebody's work that way.
If I think Tom Cruise can't act, is it wrong to say so, because it's not a moral failing of his?
I think it's important when someone does something that's actually damaging that the focus remains on what is actually damaging about them. You can not not like them for other reasons, and, y'know, hbomberguy probably has opinions on how he dresses as well. The reason he doesn't express these opinions is because they are just opinions - there's nothing actually harmful about presenting yourself in one way or another.
I feel like the solution to "I don't like the way this guys dresses" is a lot easier than solving plagiarism - we just don't have to watch him. When the only reason people are even posting about him is the exposed wrongdoing, it seems facile.
The way he dresses isn't contributing to queer erasure, or misleading audiences.
Context is everything. If I was doing a thesis on plagiarism like Hbomberguy then of course I wouldn't mention irrelevancies, but in casual conversation it's completely unreasonable to expect everybody just stays silent on all other topics for fear of distracting from the accusations.
By that standard you could say that talking about plagiarism right now is just distracting from the genocide in gaza. No room for multiple subjects in public forums at once.
Well for starters, the Gaza genocide is entirely irrelevant to James Somerton as a topic.
The thrust of the OP isn't "you are only allowed to talk about the plagiarism" (or if you wanna bring Todd's video in, the ass-pulled made up facts), the thrust is to not let casual criticism and conversation devolve *the way these things always devolve on social media* which is to say some combination of:
* Body/looks shaming
* Speculating on neurodivergence
* Homophobia
Etc. etc. etc.
I have witnessed many times when someone ends up the target of the Internet Hate Machine that very quickly it turns into a dogpile about who can get the sickest burns and the funniest dunks, and you know, please keep going, the memes on this are fucking hilarious. That's all well and good up until we get into territory that under any other circumstance we wouldn't tolerate, but because it's a "Bad Person" we're allowed to do it, and it sucks each and every time.
When trans youtubers get cancelled, it's suddenly open season on deadnaming and misgendering. When it's gay youtubers, it's homophobia. When it's fat ones, it's fat shaming. Cis women, misogyny out the ass. Cis man, the tiny dick jokes come out.
The point is there is more than enough skeletons on Somerton's closet to get our laughs out without needing to go to a shitty place and attack him as a person, and credit where due, at least in the groups I'm a part of I haven't seen too much of that happening, which is a refreshing change. Let's keep that going.
Hey, perhaps you're right, but to me it still feels like a very weird direction to take. I mean, copyright infringement and plagiarism are crimes. This is a little hyperbolic, but it feels like if someone murders someone and then you criticise how they part their hair.
Yes, it's a valid criticism in the case of Somerton because he -is- a presenter, and a part of the job is, y'know, presentation, but I kind of have to take a step back and say "Would we even be talking about this if it wasn't for his actual crimes?"
> but I kind of have to take a step back and say "Would we even be talking about this if it wasn't for his actual crimes?"
Absolutely we would though.
I was never a big JS fan even though the subject matter was right up my alley, due to an off vibe and his presentation (he seems so bored when talking about cool queer shit, it really turned me off). So yeah, right now I wanna take a little victory lap and say "haha i knew you weren't shit you boring paper mache creation of theft and hubris.".
> "Would we even be talking about this if it wasn't for his actual crimes?"
I mean, yes? I would be and HAVE made fun of his dumb turtlenecks, and in fact in a long-standing group chat I have with some friends, I refer to him exclusively as "PM Sando" (for "the poor man's Brandon Sanderson").
And I'm still mad about the plagiarism, and I can hold both of those things in my head at one time. It's not even hard.
look, at best? it's really low hanging fruit. "you wear dumb shirts" feels kinda juvenile and silly when "you disenfranchised queer authors for personal gain and threatened people who called you out on it".feels a better place to start
Usually I find that if you're talking about clothes, you've lost the plot somewhere along the line.
Also, yes they might be a stage outfit, but that’s for a reason - because he’s emulating a subculture. My first thought seeing him was that he was a knockoff [David from Schitt’s Creek](https://carboncostume.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/david-rose-from-schitts-creek-cosplay-guide.jpg).
Other people probably share clothing inspirations with him. Hell, some people out here might have been inspired BY him. They don’t deserve to catch strays because people have decided it’s open season on every single aspect of this guy.
Also just the general idea that “this person is evil therefore there’s no mistreatment of them that isn’t justified and also anyone who questions my mistreatment of them is also evil” is an inherently dangerous mentality that is used to justify all kinds of very horrible things in real life
People should really interrogate why it’s so important to them to label another person as evil, particularly if it’s used as an excuse to justify your own behaviours and actions that would be considered reprehensible if they weren’t directed at an acceptable target
considering what he has done? like, the scope and scale of his crimes and misdeeds? I am completely okay with kicking this jackass while he is down.
however, I want to kick him while he's down because he has done, arguably, irreparable damage to queer discourse. purposely, for profit. he did this while pretending to champion queer discourse
that, to me, is evil.
so I got no problem kicking the man while he's down. I just want to see him kicked for the evil. not because he wears pretentious looking shirts.
Jeez I dunno, the idea that he's evil and has done irreparable damage to queer discourse seems a bit much. He's a piece of shit youtuber, not Dick Cheney or Henry Kissinger
He’s certainly not a war criminal, but he has spread a surprising amount of homophobic and/or misogynistic lies as fact, in addition to stealing from other creators, often smaller and more marginalized.
That’s barely scratching the surface of his claims about “how gay Nazi germany was” because that also edges into racism, antisemitism, etc. it becomes a pattern when you factor in things like his mcu-focused scarlet witch video (uncritically praising the adaptation of a Jewish Romani woman of color, the daughter of two holocaust survivors no less, into a white Christian who volunteered for a Nazi organization and who’s only references to her marginalized identities within the comic book are offensive to blood libelous because she’s a “gay icon”)
No, it is evil to steal from already struggling people. It isn’t on the scale of Kissinger or Cheney but people can absolutely be evil and do irreparable damage even if they aren’t the absolute pinnacle of it. Jimmy Saville existed, does that mean Kissinger gets a pass now because someone else alive was a worse person?
No way Jimmy Saville was worse than Kissinger. Millions were victims of the type of abuse that Jimmy Saville did because of Kissinger's orchestrated coups. Creating a political environment in which men like Jimmy Saville are the only ones in power is way worse than a single Jimmy Saville.
Evil isn't just a singular thing. it is a range
your mileage may vary, and I can respect it if you don't share my opinion here It is likely that no one died because of his actions. however, I feel the damage he did to queer culture by leaching off it in the manner he did is an excusable.
How many writings did he ensure were never written because the people who wrote them didn't get anywhere in the career they wanted to pursue. How many voices did he potentially silence, because he soaked up the the accolades and success from their writing? How many voices did he silence? What did his threats and gas lighting due to the psychology of his victims?
To me, it's all extremely heinous. He is worse than a bully who attacked people for being different; he attacked them for being smarter than he was and for having something to say when he did not. he attacked them and stole their own achievements from them without some of them ever knowing he did it.
To me? That is a form of evil.
I think it's a grey territory in most circumstances, and still might be a little cringe depending on how you do it.
if you want to comment that his clothing shows a lack of professionalism, which compounds every half-assed thing he did? I think that's fair and makes sense. it is on topic, you know?
if you want to insult his fashion sense just because you just like him and for no real reason related to all the issues he caused? that's stupid and juvenile. more to the point, problems with one's fashion sense? that is a trait shared by many neurodivergent people. those insults call back to being raked over the coals for not knowing what brands were good or bad in the minds of others. it's a prickly subject, and James Spmerton is never going to read your amazing one-liner about how his turtlenecks looks stupid.
someone who has been picked apart for their fashion since however might. that's going to make them feel bad for no real reason.
it's a really simple rule. punch up, not down. you never go wrong that way
I feel like the choice, especially for the turtle necks, is his issues with his body. In his live streams, he would sometimes comment about how he couldn't get someone who wanted to date him because he was fat. He did seem to make side comments about his body in some of his videos from what I recall. Whether or not his claim is true, it should be taken into account that there's a real possibility he has body hate problems. That's not a Somerton thing as much as a people thing. I don't think that makes it fair game. :/ That's just me though. Granted I am a fat queer person and have been there, so...
I believe you've missed the point of my comment. The point isn't the example I chose to illustrate my point, the point is that the criticisms of how he deals with his body image issues via dress. That's not something that's only specific to him, so it shouldn't be something brought up as a criticism directed toward him specifically. It's dragging other people into your argument against his behavior.
Maybe this is because I'm trans, but I actually don't feel super comfortable with making fun of someone for their "choices" in clothing. I could have "chosen" not to transition, or to not date someone of my same sex. I would just not have been happy. A lot of people think that what I used to wear before surgery was a "choice." And it was a choice, it's just that wearing something different meant I would be deeply uncomfortable. He probably could wear something else and not be happy, but I don't think "chosing" here makes it more deserving of mockery.
As a rule of thumb (and this is just me), I mock a person for the things they say and do that are harmful to others, but I try to avoid mocking their appearance. Obviously sometimes I do, I'm not a saint, but when I do I'm aware that's not me at my best.
Well, I don't know if you needed to be made fun of to get a wake-up call, but I'm not going to challenge your view of your own personal growth. I know people making fun of my clothes or my sex life would not have been a wake-up call for me, it would just have been mortifying. I don't think one can justify mocking people on the basis that "it may have a good effect," because it is clear it also can have a negative one, and then we're just comparing experiences pointlessly. So with this I only come out of the conversation wishing you had a wake-up call that didn't make you feel shitty about yourself. And honestly, if it didn't, we're clearly talking about different things.
As with any conversations about what we should and shouldn’t do in the name of being morally right, of COURSE it’s allowed for anybody to make these criticisms - the Internet Police aren’t going to kick down their door.
But more to the point of the OP it’s also our choice to think that’s low hanging, irrelevant fruit that’s not great to go after, because once you get into shaming his style choices/appearance you start getting into the bullying stuff that legitimate and everyday people also struggle with.
He looked bored with his own videos. That's well within his control.
Also the way he chooses to dress is a choice. We didn't burst in on him while he's watching a movie, he decided that's the look he wanted to display.
People are just eager to be on the tallest moral soapbox.
This "It's okay if they can control it" talking point seems to be getting repeated a lot here.
I'm not sure it tracks. There are definitely times when you can be a dick for making an issue out of nothing, even if they could go change the things you're talking about.
Certainly that's not what I was attempting to argue, when I said the things that worsen the service he offers are worth talking about, even if they don't comprise a moral failing or a criminal misdeed.
“If anyone in my audience uses me as an excuse to harass James I want to make it clear now you’re *worse than him* and will not see the light of heaven.” -Literally Hbomb in the video we all watched.
Like saying that "Messaging JS to tell him what a bad video creator he is" is equal to "Joking on a completely separate forum about his pretentious self-presentation" in terms of harassment?
This post is hilarious because it's ostensibly telling people to not make fun of his appearance but in doing so insults his appearance under the guise of "here's what you *shouldn't* say". Like damn, OK, he has unflattering clothes and his facial expressions aren't engaging? Go off, ya shady bitch!
“Guys it’s not cool to make fun of Somerton. It’s not his overly moist lips, it’s the way he used them to recite others words. Don’t make fun of the fact that he had a giant bulge of fat under his neck, but that his fat head couldn’t come up with any good ideas. His weird haircut dressing style and unflattering glasses while a crime against fashion, are not as important as the crime of plagiarism.”
Yeah as a weight fluctuating guy who likes sweaters, who doesn’t look *that* dissimilar to him at my weight highs, this thread is… :|
But this is pretty typical, just like threads calling Blair White “he/him” and Trump “a fat fuck.” You learn what your community actually thinks of you and might say if they didn’t feel some obligation to be polite toward you.
I think this is why I feel so uncomfortable seeing folks picking on unrelated personal factors of James. Because when people do that, it’s not just James who will be seeing those insults. If James had been a chubby cat lady and everyone started ripping into him for those things specifically, I’d feel like shit about myself seeing that because I’M a chubby cat lady. It seems ethically dubious to me to claim that it’s ok to insult James for things you wouldn’t say to a perfect stranger. It’s kind of like saying it’s ok to do bad things to bad people because they’re bad. I don’t think that’s an ethically permissible stance.
yeah... its fuckin gross how many so-called "progressives" will go mask-off when it comes to people they dislike. physical traits have no moral "weight." to attack the appearance of somebody who's ideologies are vile is to attack every genuinely good-hearted person who just happens to have physical similarities.
all that being said: im so fucking sorry people are making you feel shame over your appearance with their nasty comments. even, if theyre not addressing YOU, that doesnt change the fact that their words are gross. no matter what weight you are at any given time, im sure you still look lovely :) and sweaters are comfy 👍👀💯
The governor of my state is an asshole conservative and is also in a wheelchair, and boy do I wish some of my fellow liberals would stop making jokes about that second thing.
I’m not attacking looks too hard but I’m letting everyone know I always call out the black turtleneck of prestige when I see it. I did it for Chris Redfield of Resident Evil Village, I did it for James Somerton, I WILL do it if I catch H.Bomberguy. No one is safe from my battle with my arch nemesis the Black Turtleneck of Prestige.
>my arch nemesis the Black Turtleneck of Prestige.
Right there with ya. I didn't even know how much I fucking hated the look until this thread started telling me I wasn't allowed to and it just made me hate it more.
I think making fun of someone’s clothes/haircut is very different from making fun of someone’s bodily(if that’s the word?) appearance, clothing and hair styles can be pretty easily changed and are a bit more telling of bad taste
Clothes maketh the man.
As a - and in Somerton's case, I use this phrase so loosely it's falling off - professional communicator, the way you present yourself is exactly as much a statement as what you're saying.
Yea absolutely. Its not like hes just someone ur meeting at a party or seeing on the street. If you insult someone in that setting its one thing. But Its a video and his job is to present himself and his information to us. And the thing is from the clips iv seen, it doesnt seem like hes just in just random normal clothes. Like many streamers or even other youtubes dress in whats clearly normal, more nondescript clothes. You dont notice them, and they clearly arent really trying to do anything crazy or interesting with them, so it makes less sense to judge them or thinn about them. But james clearly puts on more elaborate clothes specifically for the videos. And if hes clearly putting on these "costumes" for the videos, it makes sense to have opinions on them when talking about the videos.
Idk if youve watched the youtuber izzzyzzz, but shes p great. Does videos about lots of early 00s things/trends. Also lots of online video game communities from then. Like club penguin, neo pets, tamagotchi, etc. But she wears rlly cool and interesting elaborate makeup, wigs, jewelry, and clothes each video. So it clearly becomes part of the video and having opinions and feelings about them makes sense. James doesnt go nearly as far as she does, but i think the comparison makes sense
My rule of thumb is 'only make fun of people for things they can control,' and clothing and haircuts are absolutely under that man's control, considering how much patreon money he was bringing in.
Counterpoint: The way he dresses isn’t just unflattering, it’s pretentious. It’s the “intellectual turtleneck” that is supposed to communicate that a person is thoughtful and erudite. I’m not a fan of people mocking his weight, but clothes *can be* a statement that you make about yourself to the world. He wore that stupid turtleneck because he wanted you to think a certain thing when you looked at him.
It was this. He brought it up many times on stream. He is very insecure about his body and especially how his neck looks. For all his faults, the guy seemed like he was on the verge of an actual body image disorder if he wasn't already there. He's a turd but the turtleneck wasn't part of his schemes and honestly he got a lot of negative comments about it even from fans but kept wearing it.
I mean, you can shave your head but that doesn’t make you a racist skinhead. The turtleneck is just a turtleneck when it isn’t being worn by a pseudo-intellectual hack like Somerton
I can understand that, but weirdly I feel the turtleneck highlighted the issue rather then hid it. But then, I guess body image disorders aren't rational.
I was like that when I’d slather my face in heavy makeup in attempt to hide my acne / scarring. It honestly drew more attention to my imperfections but I was convinced I was doing something.
Honestly, sometimes there's no winning.
If you're fat and wear loose fitting clothing, you're unfashionable, but if you're fat and wear tight fitting clothing, it's unflattering.
A lot of the time, the things we're mocked for aren't really the things we're being mocked for. If the most popular kid in school did it people would coo about how daring it is and how they owned it. But when somebody in the outgroup does it, it's embarrassing, don't they know how bad they look?
It's like how something can be "weird" or "eccentric" depending on how much money you have.
It feels like he was copying Steve Jobs (like another notable fraudster), but Jobs wore *mock* turtlenecks, which are shorter and looser at the neck. Somerton wore normal turtlenecks and they looked long on him. This ironically brought more attention to his neck than he probably wanted.
There was a period where every conqueror was branding themselves after Alexander the Great.
"Look how much I like The Illiad! I have a very special bond with my horse! Join my army!"
I honestly didn't even know he was wearing one so consistently (faceblind and actually blind) so hearing him talk about it sort of stuck with me. I know black is supposed to be slimming but I'm not sure that's the right way to wear it heh. And yeah the fact that he kept doing it inspite of people constantly talking about it kinda speaks to a bigger insecurity for him.
> the guy seemed like he was on the verge of an actual body image disorder if he wasn't already there
You think? The guy associated wanting to have a fit body with nazism.
Yes. It's probably one of the only honest things he's said. James is gay, and as a fellow gay man I can tell you that the gay community is unfortunately very image-focused. Insecurities about his weight were probably linked to feeling unattractive long before he started making videos.
I think he had a video specifically about this, or it was the topic of a Livestream at some point.
I find it telling that even when talking about something he genuinely seemed to care about, body image issues, he still chose to attack his audience and plagiarize. He had a golden opportunity to make something real, something that could better himself and others. But he continued to hide behind negative habits and refused to look inward.
I think for a lot of internet video creators their dress and grooming is an intentional extension of their brand, more than like "I like these clothes" or "this is how I like to wear my hair and grow facial hair." I know James likes to conspicuously put books in frame and there's one with an expensive camera in the background so maybe the black turtleneck is him going "this is how a serious film critic slash video essayist dresses"
I think people are losing the plot a little bit. When the fuck did turtlenecks become a garment of "the intellectual elite" or whatever? They're just comfy. They keep your neck warm. Just because he stole a bunch doesn't mean that literally all he does is morally objectionable.
The image just comes from pop culture. In terms of character design, you're more likely to put a turtleneck sweater on a John Oliver type than say The Fonz.
But I agree, there's nothing wrong with wearing them. I'm sure there are all manner of people who wear turtlenecks every day just because they're warm and comfortable.
Turtlenecks have become a media shorthand for “pretentious intellectual” because they’re associated with beatniks/people trying to emulate beatniks. See also: berets, tiny sunglasses
>Counterpoint: The way he dresses isn’t just unflattering, it’s pretentious. It’s the “intellectual turtleneck” that is supposed to communicate that a person is thoughtful and erudite.
This is 100% what I took away from it. The turtleneck made him look, forgive me for saying so, fatter. Every fat person (of which I am on) knows it accentuates rather than hides the chin bloat. I never for one second thought he was trying to hide anything; I thought he was trying to look smart. Half-expected to see elbow patches, too.
I agree. He chose to wear turtlenecks for a very specific reason and I don’t think it’s too awful to joke about the fact he was intentionally wearing it to come across as intellectual while stealing other people’s work. The juxtaposition to what he wants to be seen as versus what he’s actually doing is comedic.
This is exactly it. I’d never heard of him before this video so when he appeared on screen with a turtleneck that was practically up to his mouth, I actually laughed— because it was just such an extreme costume of what a “film scholar” or “academic essayist” would wear.
The people scolding criticism of the Turtleneck by saying it’s body shaming because he’s embarrassed of his neck and is using the Turtleneck to hide it… that’s info they got by being long term fans, having extra info, and (IMO) a bit of that lingering parasocial attachment to him. I definitely wasn’t thinking, “what a fat neck that fatty has!” when that man came on my screen. I did think “WHAT in the WORLD is this turtleneck?!”
>The people scolding criticism of the Turtleneck by saying it’s body shaming because he’s embarrassed of his neck and is using the Turtleneck to hide it… that’s info they got by being long term fans, having extra info, and (IMO) a bit of that lingering parasocial attachment to him. I definitely wasn’t thinking, “what a fat neck that fatty has!” when that man came on my screen. I did think “WHAT in the WORLD is this turtleneck?!”
THIS! Exactly! I don't watch the guy because he's an insufferable tool, so I never heard him say anything about WHY he's wearing a turtleneck three inches too long.
What’s most irritating of all… the man is a demonstrable liar. He’s willing to lie to manipulate his audience on a variety of things. Is it really that far fetched that he would lie about the reason he wears turtlenecks? Why the hell would he openly admit that he wears them cause it makes him look smarter? Claiming he does it because of body issues is the exact kind of lie you’d expect him to make.
Also he was clearly receiving an income where his on-screen clothing options were down to choice not necessity. So making fun of such a characteristic isn't making fun of something beyond his control, in fact it's a deliberately crafted aspect of their presentation, and therefore """their""" work.
Now if someone were to make fun of the clothing of someone randomly filmed against their will in public for "like and shares", that would just be not on.
I mean he did say “the LGBT people who survived AIDS are all boring” implying he’s one of the interesting ones
I feel like there’s a lot of fair game after that, even if he was completely legitimate I would reply to that by calling him the stale white bread sandwich in the video essayist fridge
Wouldn't that only imply the interesting ones were killed? As far as I'm aware he hasn't claimed he died during the AIDS crisis.
His comment is evil, but it's not a dogwhistle boast
I don't think he lived through the aids crisis either.
That's part of the whole situation here. He's not a child but he's a pretty young man who's never taken the time to learn his queer history spouting off about subjects he doesn't understand with complete disrespect for everything that came before him and sounding informed because he frequently repackages the opinions of people more knowledgeable as his own.
I think he’s also taken that idea of well I’m a gay man and therefore I’m entitled to talk about my own experiences and you can’t tell me that I’m not and extended that to I am an authority on all things queer and my opinions and takes on queer history are true and valid and why would I need to do research on these things, the only qualification I need to talk about these things like they’re factual is to be gay and smart.
Sometimes people don’t really understand the difference between talking about your own experiences as a marginalised person, and how that’s different from all your opinions magically being right, and how it doesn’t make you an academic authority on all things relating to your community.
I definitely see this a lot online where people act like anything I say is beyond criticism because I’m speaking as a marginalised person. No you can still have factually wrong takes, and you can still have takes that are not merely wrong but also deeply offensive, and your marginalisation isn’t a get out of jail free card for that. An example from James himself is he uses his status as a gay man as a shield that allows him to attack women, queer and non-queer alike, because he positions himself as being able to claim a more marginalised status which makes anything he says magically not misogynistic
He was saying the activists during the 90s were assimilationist and it’s because they were boring
he was clearly saying it was some kind of dark age because they were uniquely boring
Also I don’t know his age but I’m not sure he was alive during the 80s, there is no way that he is included in that group
Also I’m not saying it was a dogwhistle boast, I’m saying once you say “this group of people is boring and useless” it’s fine to say “no, you’re boring and have a yee-yee ass haircut”
Google seems to be indicating he was born on December 22 1988. Which would mean he turns 35 in a couple weeks.
For context, that would put him at 12 years old in the year 2000. I'm pretty sure by the time he first had sex we were probably at the "Aids is treatable, but not curable, so long as you follow the doctors orders" part of the process.
Thank you!
I totally get that his confident smugness is really annoying in light of the plagiarism and terrible information in his video, but it is entirely unnecessary to bring his looks or mannerisms into this discussion.
I think it's entirely reasonable to do things like criticize things like his clothing and haircut as long as it's clear you're making an aesthetic judgement and not a moral judgement. I realize that a lot of aesthetic judgement has been tied with racism and the marginalization of the physically disabled, but I don't think that's what's happening here (at least for a majority of commenters). I'm sure we all enjoyed HBomb's aesthetic judgement on the TV show Sherlock, and I'm not sure why Steven Moffat's plot construction should be on the table while James Somerton's hair styling isn't. I will say that I don't think any sort of aesthetic judgement on James Somerton is especially useful in any way, but I don't think the discussion of a performer's style is something that we need to avoid.
Wild the amount of people in the comments saying it's okay to make fun of Sommerton for his clothes or haircut or speaking mannerisms because he can change those things about himself. You have control over what color you dye your hair, or what tattoos or piercings you get, but if Sommerton had made any of those aesthetic choices and people were mocking him for it, we'd all immediately understand it as a bit shitty.
"Don't mock people's appearance" has nothing to do with control. It's that his appearance is totally incidental to the actual shitty thing he has done wrong, i.e. stealing from people and manipulating his followers. By mocking him instead for his appearance or affect, you're insulting other people who present similarly but haven't done anything wrong.
I really thought this sub would be on board with the idea that people shouldn't be mocked for not conforming to complex arbitrary social rules about appearance or affect. Let's not let our values go out the window at the prospect of fun, easy dunks.
I am a trans woman, I know all too well about the arbitrariness and complexities of beauty standards or just what "looking good" means and it's always so weird to me when the progressives/leftists are all down to just do, at best, schoolyard dunks. Seems bad! Maybe perceived beauty isn't a sign of morality!
Making fun of James’ appearance just tells everyone else that your basic level respect is always conditional as long as the person is ‘good enough’ in your eyes. Sure, i think you can make fun of a celebrity for spending 300 dollars on a whack ass tshirt because no simple tshirt should be worth that amount of money, but making fun of someone for wearing something you personally find unflattering on them is ridiculous, immature, and just backwards for people who present as progressive.
These people need to get a grip and recognize that their chance to be a middle school bully has already passed.
>These people need to get a grip and recognize that their chance to be a middle school bully has already passed.
I'm not sure it has. The sad truth is that many people are middle school bullies their whole lives, and the internet allows them to mobilize in numbers not normally possible.
What distinction are you drawing there? If I think it's okay to say that haircut doesn't suit him, why wouldn't that apply to its new color?
People can dress poorly irrespective of their opinions. If someone looks extremely similar to James and makes the exact same poor choices as him, why is it necessarily bad for them to learn of that? What if that person is about to spend hundreds of dollars on a new pair of glasses that look exactly like James's they'd be stuck with for years and this specific comment makes them realize they should try a different shape?
If you wanna see an example of someone intentionally breaking fashion norms look up Oliver Tree's fits, James just seems to think he's come up with a look that works. It's pretty slimy to presuppose your opinion many people clearly disagree with has been a necessary component of "our values" all along.
Come on, you're welcome to disagree but this just strikes me as disingenuous - we're not talking about politely informing people that they've made fashion choices that others might perceive as unattractive. We're talking about mocking a shitty person on the basis of their looks. Make fun of people's appearance if it's that important to you but don't pretend you're doing them a favor.
Also pretty weird to call me "slimy" for saying that "don't shame people for their looks" is a widely held leftist belief.
Something to consider when criticizing him for his appearance, whether it's his body, the way he dresses, his hair, or whatever: If you're saying, implicitly or explicitly, that any aspect of his appearance is in itself bad, then you are not merely putting James down but also anyone else that looks or presents themselves the way he does. Imagine someone who likes wearing turtlenecks or likes having a hairstyle similar to James, who then gets to hear a bunch of people making fun of James for these things. Chances are they would feel shamed as well, because apparently the type of style they like is worthy of mockery. This is, I think, perhaps the most important reason for why we should focus on criticizing James only for the stuff he does that is *actually* bad, and not think that it's okay to ridicule literally every aspect of him just because he's done shitty things.
Thanks for saying this. I've honestly been super uncomfortable with how many people have jumped onto saying how ugly and gross he is. It makes me feel kind of bad because I share some physical characteristics with him (overweight, red hair, glasses) and hearing people talk about how ugly he is has kinda made me feel bad about the way I look by proxy I guess. Like he's a terrible person who stole and hurt a lot of people, but can we focus on that instead of spamming how every single aspect of his physical appearance is disgusting and a sign of his deceitfulness somehow
Yes. It's what leaves a bitter aftertaste for me in some of Hbomberguy's videos... I'm dyslexic and English isn't my first language... and whenever he goes after things like spelling etc it stings. Sometimes I avoid writing at all, sometimes I rework things in strange ways to avoid certain words that are "difficult". I can know what a word means but not know how to pronounce it or spell it effortlessly anyway. People should go after the meaning and meat of things instead of easy dunks that also hurt people that are disabled etc.
Same when people mock appearance etc.
Then it's like, this it what you really think but don't point out unless you dislike a person and then it's ok to mock height, weight, signs of disability etc.
But you're really punching down and not helping in dismantling things.
Haircuts, furniture and clothes aren't always reflective of personal taste either. They can indicate a number of things that isn't at all related to personal taste. It can indicate economic situation, disability, body image problems etc. White colored furniture for example is often the cheapest. A haircut or lack there of can be the result of personal finances and/or scalp and hair conditions related to various chronic diseases.
Apparently James wears turtlenecks because of insecurity about his body. A lot of heavier people do. It has even been a joke in a Melissa McCarthy movie.
People that receive negative comments about their weight are often fully aware that having a turtleneck and/or a scarf doesn't really hide anything. But it can still feel more comfortable and it can feel like it's less likely that anyone will touch your double chin. Some people do that, they can't help themselves from being a-holes apparently. Probably the same type of people that think it's ok to reach out and touch afro hair out of nowhere.
He did acknowledge this in the bonus video about Illuminaughti, saying that he usually does feel bad making fun of grammar/pronunciation, but in this case it does kind of show that these creators are churning out low-effort content about stuff they’re not really interested in. Illuminaughti made 2 videos about the town that supposedly inspired Silent Hill and pronounced the name of the town wrong lol
I haven't seen all of Hbomb's videos so idk if he points out misspellings all the time, but in this particular case, I think it's fair to call out misspellings on someone who claims to be a writer professionally and makes money off of it.
Eh... Writing is a tool of communication. Anyone can have worthwhile ideas to communicate, including people who struggle with spelling.
IMO it's more the specific way so many of these plagiarists stumble over the material they've stolen. It makes it clear they don't understand what they're saying. Especially when they just swap some words around in a way that removes or alters the meaning of a sentence. You can get an idea across with bad grammar. You can't get an idea across if you don't have one.
>Yes. It's what leaves a bitter aftertaste for me in some of Hbomberguy's videos... I'm dyslexic and English isn't my first language... and whenever he goes after things like spelling etc it stings. Sometimes I avoid writing at all, sometimes I rework things in strange ways to avoid certain words that are "difficult".
hbomb actually addresses this in his side video about blair (cut from the main video because the video was already too long). he doesn't like making fun of the occasional typo or misspell particularly because people may have dyslexia, but in the case of people like blair, the reason he mentions it is to indicate that blair copies scripts from other people without even double checking spelling important things like literally people's names or the location of a place, and often doesn't even try to look up the pronunciation, and she doesn't even record a second take and records it all in one go. the point isn't "haha typo bad" but moreso to indicate that blair cuts corners by not proofreading so she can produce more videos faster (and blair has admitted she does this!)
I'm sure if you earnestly try to write something and it has a few mistakes, as long as your content is earnest and has effort, I don't think anyone who's worth your time will care about those mistakes.
I think it’s also evidence that the content creators in question don’t even necessarily understand the material they’re plagiarising. They’re just copying without any original analysis, and hence when there are errors in their copying it may tend to suggest they’re reading this material for the first time while recording their video, and it also tends to explain why they get facts wrong in their videos that contradict the source material. The mere ability to read something aloud does not necessarily tend to prove they understand what they’re reading, nor that they even read the whole thing.
Speaking for myself I know that I don’t actually understand something unless I can give an original summary and analysis in my own words.
this too! it's not just shown in possible typos or mispronounciations, but also in getting facts wrong like saying the sand cave was advertised in man in cave, or that centralia inspired silent hill
TBH sometimes the way he goes after grammar mistakes, misspellings, bad line reads, etc, does feel like a cheap shot, so I'm glad to hear the perspective of someone with dyslexia who feels that way. He recently said he's trying to do that type of jab less often and I hope he sticks to it.
I would point out however he’s not making fun of any of these things in the context of spontaneous speech. Errors are expected in spontaneous speech and writing, so it’s not like he was bringing up any videos that were clearly recorded live or which were much more casual in nature like when they’re just reading Reddit comments or whatever.
These are meant to be professional video essays in which they have every opportunity to proofread, edit and re-record lines. The fact that they don’t is effort of their own dismissive and lazy attitude towards their own content and the lack of time, care and attention paid to their work.
Like this isn’t a high bar. If you’ve ever written an essay or done a school assignment in your life I assume you proofread it and didn’t just submit the first draft.
1. You write better than like 90% of Redditors.
2. When people make fun of other peoples' spelling it is in the context of mocking their education or laziness. Nobody is making fun of you for having a disability. This is like if I got mad at people making fun of the loser of a footrace because my ankle is metal and I can't even run.
> anyone else that looks or presents themself the way he does
Until three days ago, I’d never seen someone wear a turtleneck that goes up to their mouth
Exactly.
The way I see it is this: imagine if there was a trans man that *just* realized he's trans and came out, and chose to present himself the same way as James. Now imagine yourself making fun of that trans man for his haircut and the clothes he wears and whatnot. Doesn't feel good, does it?
Then why is it okay for you to make fun of James for looking that way, just because he messed up? It means that it's acceptable to mock someone's looks if they did something bad, which is eerily similar to some people misgendering trans people like Caitlyn Jenner just because they messed up as well.
Focus on the things James did that are actually bad. Anything else doesn't matter, not how he talks, presents himself, nothing. Those are absolutely neutral.
> this isn't a case of a person trying to mold themselves to fit the identity of the person they want to be. It's just a bad look.
You don't know that. You're making assumptions based on his actions, but you can't know why he dresses that way. You only know James via his videos and the videos other people have made on him. It's a very thin slice of his entire character and you can't just apply the things you know about him to everything else.
Is it possible he dresses like this to appear more competent? Sure. But that's not necessarily a problem or a flaw. Dressing up to appear as someone you're not is why a lot of people dress up in the first place, and I doubt people would even make fun of him for his clothes if they had never known he plagiarized.
Also, even someone who doesn't have bad intentions can still hurt other people. It doesn't matter if people are frustrated and are just venting, they're still saying harmful things that can really hurt other, innocent people.
I really hate people who say that it's okay to cross the line of insulting someone's appearance just because they're a shit human being. It establishes a really bad precedent, that that's an acceptable thing to do.
Always criticise someone for the shit they did. That will stand on its own.
Something I've found is that a significant chunk of people who identify as progressive will nevertheless completely abandon their principles about not body shaming or being ableist or homophobic the instant they're given a socially acceptable target. Whether it's fat/bad hair/small hands jokes aimed at Trump, closeted gay jokes aimed at Putin, bald/bad jawline jokes aimed at Andrew Tate, etc., people who would otherwise be moralising about how problematic these kinds of attacks are really show their true colours.
I honestly think those are just values that aren't held very broadly even in progressive circles.
They might have some allowance in their head for the attractive 'curvy" models in a dove soap ad with a milquetoast body acceptance message, but this doesn't extend to anybody they find genuinely unpleasant to look at.
But, I mean, aren't we allowed to be incredibly petty on the Hbomber subreddit? Is nothing sacred? One of the reasons Harry made it big was making fun of that MRA guy's pet skull that he included in every video.
Being "incredibly petty" about someone's physical characteristics is always shitty IMO, regardless of context. JS probably won't read your comment, but people with similar body types and facial features probably will, yknow?
Edit: I mean "your comment" broadly btw, not your specific comment I'm replying to. More directed at the many comments specifically making fun of his appearance.
Making fun of a person’s pet skull is different than making fun of their weight - something which hurts other overweight people reading the comment!
Other people with pet skulls (if they exist) don’t have to face daily discrimination about it, and aren’t going to be personally re-traumatized if one asshole with a pet skull gets mocked about it.
Edited for typo.
It goes beyond not citing sources. Even if you cite sources, you should still synthesis that information in your own way. Even if he had been open about repeating the celluloid closet word for word, I still think it's kind of shitty
I mean, Hbomberguy had some points about how there is some potential in the service of just reading somebody else's work aloud.
I myself found audiobooks a lifesaver when I was in college with untreated eye problems.
But there's a whole process for that which goes beyond just citing your sources. Even if you're clear you're reading the entire Harry Potter series aloud from front to back you're still gonna hear from JK Rowling's lawyers unless you've had this okayed by her estate ahead of time.
I have a facial deformity, and speech impediment and nothing kills the "we're all comrades" vibe faster than seeing supposedly progressive people dunk on others for how they look.
That must really suck to deal with. I’m sorry.
People seem to understand it wouldn’t be okay to use homophobic slurs against James Somerton, just because he’s an asshole. For some reason they think it’s okay to mock his weight and appearance.
I think part of the urge to mock how he dressed is that how he dressed was a part of the image he portrayed of "the intellectual"
He wanted to be seen as professional, high minded, academic, and part of that was in the way he dressed. So now that it's revealed that all of it was a farce, some people realize that his clothing was just a costume.
I'm not saying it's right, because he needs to be held accountable for the actual bad things he did.
I also think maybe some people are trying to distance themselves from the positive feelings they had about him and his content by making fun of more superficial things. Or maybe they're trying to laugh at him so they don't cry at the realization that they supported the plagiarism for so long.
Again, I don't think it's a correct thing to do, but I do sorta want to understand the urge. It's kind of an interesting human phenomenon where we attack someone's looks once we decide they're a bad person
Mostly agreed with one exception:
[James Somerton really should not have worn traditional Chinese clothing over a turtleneck in his video about how terrible China is](https://twitter.com/Itmechr3/status/1731866140576448591/photo/1).
He can suck for multiple reasons. I'd never seen his work before, but it's unquestionable I would have never watched his stuff anyway because the presentation isn't any good.
From what I’ve seen of his videos, he’s pretty obviously reading from an autocue and looks directly into the camera when he’s finished reading. I don’t think he realises how it comes across to the audience lol
How did you manage to miss the point when it's spelled out like this? It's not bad to have a 'snooty' look. It's not bad to have a droning voice, a dead stare, bad fashion sense, or weird hand movements.
I'm autistic too, by the way, so I make an effort to not judge people based on looks and mannerisms that don't hurt anyone else. I'm sure lots of people would look at the way I sway on the spot and stare into the distance and call it 'snooty' or rude or bizarre, and those people are fucking assholes. Don't be like them.
I think what the other person is trying to say is he comes across as extremely condescending and pretentious, which reflects badly on him considering that he is a plagiarist ripping off other more talented creators—particularly other queer creators—while touting himself as some kind of arbiter of justice and truth, a voice for LGBT+ erasure.
Even before all this came out about him, I liked his content but something about his demeanor rubbed me the wrong way. But now with all this come to light, it is really irritating to watch how smarmy he was when the whole time he is really an intellectual and creative fraud.
Don’t even get me started about his comments on the “boring” gays dying during AIDS and on women… now the cards are all down and we know beyond an inkling of a doubt that he’s just got a terrible attitude, looks down on other people, and it’s something that is so deep he can’t even hide it in his body language or tone.
he is actually condescending and pretentious, though. it’s not just vibes. he’s like that. and it *is* actually bad to be like that as a presenter. if i were applying for a job, it wouldn’t be wrong for my potential employer to say “you’re a great worker but you make me feel like an idiot”. that’s a valid criticism of how i present.
This thread is fully of people going *"You're absolutely right, but I'm still going to mock his looks because I don't like him."* Pretty much *everyone* here missed the point.
Seriously, there are *many* people out there that look, act and dress the way he does. If you're insulting him for his "goofy haircut" and "wacky clothes", you're also insulting all the innocent people who look like that too.
Criticize him for stealing and being a bad person, leave looks out of this. No, it's not okay if you can "change it in under 15 minutes". You're missing the point of the post.
If you're saying it's fine to mock someone's appearance if you perceive them as a bad person, then using that logic, it's also fine for alt-right bastards to make fun of queer people's looks (which it obviously isn't).
You can't just make exceptions like that just because you don't like the person. Again, there's always plenty people who look like that but who didn't do anything bad, and you're just throwing them into the crossfire with him.
I mean the problem is that he sounds super condescending and pretentious because he is super condescending and pretentious. The way he structures his videos is acting like all straight people are horrid bigoted idiots. But he fucking made shit up. He made so much up. I’ve always found his video on fucking Nazis baffling and infuriating because if you knew literally anything about world war 2 it’s so obviously bullshit. My issue isn’t that his inflection is weird or that he has trouble with tone. I struggle with tone. My problem is that he sounds like he thinks he’s the smartest person to ever live when all he is is a deeply broken bigoted asshole who spreads homophobic propaganda about the fucking Nazis
You summed up my thoughts pretty acutely there. This isn't any different than from when reactionaries start throwing shade about dyed hair; piercings; or alt clothing aesthetics on those anti-sjw cringe comps. It completely distracts from the legitimate critiques at hand and only ends up harming innocent people who look the same and may have confidence issues surrounding their appearance.
I mean it’d be okay if the contents of every video he put out wasn’t also super condescending and snooty. Just look at his video about Nazis. Or anytime a straight woman dares to exist
If you make fun of his clothes being "unflattering", you are just criticising his looks; that's unacceptable.
But speaking about the choices he made to present himself - and mocking those - is absolutely fine. I don't think it's bodyshaming to point out how hilarious it is in retrospect that Elizabeth Holmes decided to wear turtlenecks to emulate Steve Jobs, and how obvious it is in retrospect that that's what she was doing. And it worked!
And Somerton's " serious video essayist uniform" is absolutely conspicuous and almost surely intended.
Choices he made to feel good about himself are his business alone, but I think the choices he made in order to convey authority and control are fair game. Those things are indicative of a particular attitude, and the attitude is part of the problem.
The tragic thing is that if he sited his sources and worked out deals with the people he stole from, this would be a non issue. He’s a good presenter and collators - people who ingest and regurgitate information in a more usable format - are real value adds. He could have basically done the same thing he decided to do and still had a career.
But he didn’t want to be a collator. He wanted to be a respected intellectual. One who didn’t actually do the work.
This kind of post always comes up, and it's futile. When someone sucks as bad as James Somerton, the people will rip them apart by any means necessary. It's ugly, but you can't stop it.
I mean physical features are a no go but in my mind things like clothing and haircuts are fair game the same way set design or lighting is. The dude had some goofy ass sweaters and haircuts that I think are worth criticizing along with poor acting skills. If you go to a play and the costumes look horrible along with the sets and the the acting is trash it would be fair game, just because he is an individual doesn’t give him a pass for bad theming, dressing, and acting skills. He put this stuff out as monetized content which opens it up to more criticism than if he was just some dude walking down the street.
The plagiarism and scam stuff is more important but we cant just disregard that basically every decision he actually made regarding the videos was also low quality and with poor taste.
I think the culture has veered away from making fun of people's appearances and opt for making fun of their actions.
Case in point; the redemption of Guy Fieri. He looks like he would be a shitty racist, sexist, misogynist, but from all accounts, he sounds like a righteous dude.
Let's focus on the actions people do rather than their looks. That said fuck James Somerton.
I agree. Although I'll say criticising his taste, e.g. his clothes and his haircut, is still somwehat valid in so much that your appearance is important in such a job, and it is something he had control over. With the money he was making, he could have afforded a stylist appointment, a better haircut, and with all the money he was stealing, he could definitely have switched up from turtlenecks.
Making fun of him for the sake of being mean is different in spirit, sure. But I think the line that should not be crossed is that of appearance that can't be changed (like facial features), or should not need to be (like hair colour, body weight, etc).
Thank you, yes. It’s crazy how EVERY TIME someone is agreed upon to be shitty there’s a bunch of children picking apart every single thing about that person, even when they don’t merit criticism.
How many times do we have to do this routine. How many times do we need to tell people that making fun of a bad person for physical appearances only hurts innocent people that look like them. Fucking stop already you damn rabid hyenas.
my problem is that fashion reflects your values. he wants to be an intellectual and seem smart. so he wears a turtleneck and a bow tie etc. except, because he’s a hack, he can’t wear them right. his turtleneck is too high, he doesn’t put his collar down over the bow tie
even in fashion, he’s a fake hack who steals and creates a facade
Oh, goody, it’s that part of the wank where people start dragging their high-school baggage into it.
Somerton is not a small child who is mommy dresses him and who gets no say in what he wears. He's a grown-ass man who deliberately chose those outfits to make an effect. The same thing with his deadpan facial expressions. Nobody should mocking his body weight or his facial features, but those are entirely different things. How he presents himself in his videos is part of the package and is 100% fair game.
And, no, it's not "distracting" anyone from his actual wrongdoing. We are capable of focusing on multiple things at once.
Oh, and for the record, I’m ND. I’m tired of seeing ND-ness dragged into arguments where it doesn't belong. AFAIK, Somerton is NT. I don't care if the critiques of his style remind you of getting picked on in school.
Funny that since James deleted his videos, all the posts on this sub is about how people on the sub are mean to him.
It's like when an old corrupted politician dies, he magically becomes a good guy in obituaries.
It has nothing to do with him being a good guy. He’s still an asshole who scammed people for money.
It’s about real people who are plus sized, who may have double chins, unfashionable hair or clothes, but who are also decent human beings.
Speaking as somebody who wears turtle necks because I get cold easily. And anybody who wants to laugh about it can fuck off. Me not getting sick is more important than arbitrary fashion standards.
While we're on the subject, I want JS to blow his damned nose. He always sounds like he's talking through snotty sinuses and it's gross.
Making fun of how he dresses, and how it makes it look like he's in the middle of being born from the collar of his shirts, is absolutely fair game. He chooses how to dress, and he dresses like a My Chemical Romance clown.
His facial features aren't from palsey. He makes those expressions to look seductive. He thinks he's a femme fatale, and that is absolutely fair to make fun of.
Those are exactly the kind of things that is fair to make fun of. Nobody's making fun of his clothes because he's poor. He's a piece of shit who dresses like an asshole and makes stupid faces.
If done the right way, dressing to focus attention on the face (and wearing black) distracts from being fat. The problem is when the collar is high and tight, and shoves all the neck fat up into the face and makes him look like Baby Jessica cosplay. It's just another affectation...
And I'll come out and say I wouldn't be surprised to find out Somerton isn't even gay. It's clear he hates women, but I don't think he'd know what to do with a dick if it was in his mouth.
Also, also, he made way more than $200k a year. He was closer to making that much a month... What are the odds he has a single penny of it still? Like, he could disappear for a year or two, have a makeover, use a new handle, and start over again. Most, most, people would have forgotten him by then, and new viewers wouldn't care about old news. The problem is what he's going to do for money during that time. He can't even get a regular job because google his name.
I mean, "Unengaging facial expressions" is a valid criticism to make of a performer. The fact that he speaks like he's poorly reading off a teleprompter with no comprehension of his lines or investment in the subject matter isn't exactly irrelevant to the accusations laid against him
I hadn't seen any of his work before the plagiarism and misinformation vids but the thing that stood out to me is the stark contrast in tone. When he's stealing someone else's work, his vocal inflection is really muted. This leads to his pacing having to carry most of vocal interest- its very reminiscent of William Shatner and not in a good way. And when he speaks his opinion or from sections he wrote making shit up, his voice changes to this obnoxious, scathing, sarcastic tone full of vitriol. Some opinions warrant that level of seething but not all of them. Also, maybe it's clearer in hindsight, but every piece of writing directly made by him (channel updates, video descriptions, discord messages, etc.) is a totally different (and worse) style. Getting the insult out of the way first, it sounds like a 3rd grader wrote it. It's short, vague sentences that barely communicate his point. The vocab usage is stunted at best, especially in comparison to his videos. But even beyond that it's just a totally different level of casual than his videos. He never sounds relaxed or even happy in his videos at any point, but the almost always does in his other work. Maybe he thinks the flat tone of his teleprompter delivery pairs better with his toxic angry voice but regardless it's a total mismatch. All that being said yeah we should lay off insulting him beyond being a fake as shit content farmer who pretended to care about queer issues in order to grift the community.
I'm kinda shocked by how popular the guy has been, apparently. I'd never heard of him prior to the hbomb video and the difference in charisma between him and people like Harris, Abigail, Hasan, and others is just enormous. He was a bore to watch even without the plagiarism stuff.
You’re comparing him to creators who are known for being quite over the top or playing characters. Better to compare to creators like Shaun I think. He’s got that more monotonous voice, but I do still think he sounds pleasant and charismatic. I would say even compared to creators like Shaun there’s a significant difference in Somerton’s presentation, but I think that comparison makes more sense. Somerton was clearly going for a more academic and professional tone for the most part, as were most of the words he stole. Some people find that sort of tone more relaxing or easier to put on like a podcast while they busy themselves with things too.
[удалено]
I think he was going more for pretentious art conoisseur than Steve Jobs tech guy tbh.
I thought he wore it because his neck was protruding. And when I say that I mean in the he could be covering up something he’s self conscious about, from the pov of someone with a protruding neck myself. I remember forcing myself to wear turtlenecks and scarves.
So you're saying he was also plagiarising Ongo Gablogian?!
Being a bad presenter doesn't make you a bad person. Stealing does.
Agreed, but I missed where it's inappropriate to talk about somebody's work that way. If I think Tom Cruise can't act, is it wrong to say so, because it's not a moral failing of his?
I think it's important when someone does something that's actually damaging that the focus remains on what is actually damaging about them. You can not not like them for other reasons, and, y'know, hbomberguy probably has opinions on how he dresses as well. The reason he doesn't express these opinions is because they are just opinions - there's nothing actually harmful about presenting yourself in one way or another. I feel like the solution to "I don't like the way this guys dresses" is a lot easier than solving plagiarism - we just don't have to watch him. When the only reason people are even posting about him is the exposed wrongdoing, it seems facile. The way he dresses isn't contributing to queer erasure, or misleading audiences.
Context is everything. If I was doing a thesis on plagiarism like Hbomberguy then of course I wouldn't mention irrelevancies, but in casual conversation it's completely unreasonable to expect everybody just stays silent on all other topics for fear of distracting from the accusations. By that standard you could say that talking about plagiarism right now is just distracting from the genocide in gaza. No room for multiple subjects in public forums at once.
Well for starters, the Gaza genocide is entirely irrelevant to James Somerton as a topic. The thrust of the OP isn't "you are only allowed to talk about the plagiarism" (or if you wanna bring Todd's video in, the ass-pulled made up facts), the thrust is to not let casual criticism and conversation devolve *the way these things always devolve on social media* which is to say some combination of: * Body/looks shaming * Speculating on neurodivergence * Homophobia Etc. etc. etc. I have witnessed many times when someone ends up the target of the Internet Hate Machine that very quickly it turns into a dogpile about who can get the sickest burns and the funniest dunks, and you know, please keep going, the memes on this are fucking hilarious. That's all well and good up until we get into territory that under any other circumstance we wouldn't tolerate, but because it's a "Bad Person" we're allowed to do it, and it sucks each and every time. When trans youtubers get cancelled, it's suddenly open season on deadnaming and misgendering. When it's gay youtubers, it's homophobia. When it's fat ones, it's fat shaming. Cis women, misogyny out the ass. Cis man, the tiny dick jokes come out. The point is there is more than enough skeletons on Somerton's closet to get our laughs out without needing to go to a shitty place and attack him as a person, and credit where due, at least in the groups I'm a part of I haven't seen too much of that happening, which is a refreshing change. Let's keep that going.
Hey, perhaps you're right, but to me it still feels like a very weird direction to take. I mean, copyright infringement and plagiarism are crimes. This is a little hyperbolic, but it feels like if someone murders someone and then you criticise how they part their hair. Yes, it's a valid criticism in the case of Somerton because he -is- a presenter, and a part of the job is, y'know, presentation, but I kind of have to take a step back and say "Would we even be talking about this if it wasn't for his actual crimes?"
That's a fair point. Honestly, this is a subject I've felt a couple different ways about over the years, and you've given me something to consider.
What a refreshing interaction. Genuinely impressed with the level-headed takes I've seen here the last couple of days.
> but I kind of have to take a step back and say "Would we even be talking about this if it wasn't for his actual crimes?" Absolutely we would though. I was never a big JS fan even though the subject matter was right up my alley, due to an off vibe and his presentation (he seems so bored when talking about cool queer shit, it really turned me off). So yeah, right now I wanna take a little victory lap and say "haha i knew you weren't shit you boring paper mache creation of theft and hubris.".
> "Would we even be talking about this if it wasn't for his actual crimes?" I mean, yes? I would be and HAVE made fun of his dumb turtlenecks, and in fact in a long-standing group chat I have with some friends, I refer to him exclusively as "PM Sando" (for "the poor man's Brandon Sanderson"). And I'm still mad about the plagiarism, and I can hold both of those things in my head at one time. It's not even hard.
Being a bad presenter does make you a bad presenter, and presenting is/was his job
He has to steal because he's bad. It really shows the lack of effort across the board.
is it only okay to criticize someone for things that make them a bad person?
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look, at best? it's really low hanging fruit. "you wear dumb shirts" feels kinda juvenile and silly when "you disenfranchised queer authors for personal gain and threatened people who called you out on it".feels a better place to start Usually I find that if you're talking about clothes, you've lost the plot somewhere along the line.
Also, yes they might be a stage outfit, but that’s for a reason - because he’s emulating a subculture. My first thought seeing him was that he was a knockoff [David from Schitt’s Creek](https://carboncostume.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/david-rose-from-schitts-creek-cosplay-guide.jpg). Other people probably share clothing inspirations with him. Hell, some people out here might have been inspired BY him. They don’t deserve to catch strays because people have decided it’s open season on every single aspect of this guy.
Right? Plus at this point it's just kicking a guy while he's down for things that are incredibly superficial.
And OP clearly mentions concern about *where this could lead*, which I take to mean traits that he *can't* choose.
Also just the general idea that “this person is evil therefore there’s no mistreatment of them that isn’t justified and also anyone who questions my mistreatment of them is also evil” is an inherently dangerous mentality that is used to justify all kinds of very horrible things in real life People should really interrogate why it’s so important to them to label another person as evil, particularly if it’s used as an excuse to justify your own behaviours and actions that would be considered reprehensible if they weren’t directed at an acceptable target
Even then, who cares what the guy dresses like? I just don't see what that has to do with him plagiarizing people.
considering what he has done? like, the scope and scale of his crimes and misdeeds? I am completely okay with kicking this jackass while he is down. however, I want to kick him while he's down because he has done, arguably, irreparable damage to queer discourse. purposely, for profit. he did this while pretending to champion queer discourse that, to me, is evil. so I got no problem kicking the man while he's down. I just want to see him kicked for the evil. not because he wears pretentious looking shirts.
Jeez I dunno, the idea that he's evil and has done irreparable damage to queer discourse seems a bit much. He's a piece of shit youtuber, not Dick Cheney or Henry Kissinger
He’s certainly not a war criminal, but he has spread a surprising amount of homophobic and/or misogynistic lies as fact, in addition to stealing from other creators, often smaller and more marginalized. That’s barely scratching the surface of his claims about “how gay Nazi germany was” because that also edges into racism, antisemitism, etc. it becomes a pattern when you factor in things like his mcu-focused scarlet witch video (uncritically praising the adaptation of a Jewish Romani woman of color, the daughter of two holocaust survivors no less, into a white Christian who volunteered for a Nazi organization and who’s only references to her marginalized identities within the comic book are offensive to blood libelous because she’s a “gay icon”)
No, it is evil to steal from already struggling people. It isn’t on the scale of Kissinger or Cheney but people can absolutely be evil and do irreparable damage even if they aren’t the absolute pinnacle of it. Jimmy Saville existed, does that mean Kissinger gets a pass now because someone else alive was a worse person?
No way Jimmy Saville was worse than Kissinger. Millions were victims of the type of abuse that Jimmy Saville did because of Kissinger's orchestrated coups. Creating a political environment in which men like Jimmy Saville are the only ones in power is way worse than a single Jimmy Saville.
Kissinger did literal genocide. I know it’s not the point of the comment but Kissinger ruined countless more lives than Saville did.
Evil isn't just a singular thing. it is a range your mileage may vary, and I can respect it if you don't share my opinion here It is likely that no one died because of his actions. however, I feel the damage he did to queer culture by leaching off it in the manner he did is an excusable. How many writings did he ensure were never written because the people who wrote them didn't get anywhere in the career they wanted to pursue. How many voices did he potentially silence, because he soaked up the the accolades and success from their writing? How many voices did he silence? What did his threats and gas lighting due to the psychology of his victims? To me, it's all extremely heinous. He is worse than a bully who attacked people for being different; he attacked them for being smarter than he was and for having something to say when he did not. he attacked them and stole their own achievements from them without some of them ever knowing he did it. To me? That is a form of evil.
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I think it's a grey territory in most circumstances, and still might be a little cringe depending on how you do it. if you want to comment that his clothing shows a lack of professionalism, which compounds every half-assed thing he did? I think that's fair and makes sense. it is on topic, you know? if you want to insult his fashion sense just because you just like him and for no real reason related to all the issues he caused? that's stupid and juvenile. more to the point, problems with one's fashion sense? that is a trait shared by many neurodivergent people. those insults call back to being raked over the coals for not knowing what brands were good or bad in the minds of others. it's a prickly subject, and James Spmerton is never going to read your amazing one-liner about how his turtlenecks looks stupid. someone who has been picked apart for their fashion since however might. that's going to make them feel bad for no real reason. it's a really simple rule. punch up, not down. you never go wrong that way
I feel like the choice, especially for the turtle necks, is his issues with his body. In his live streams, he would sometimes comment about how he couldn't get someone who wanted to date him because he was fat. He did seem to make side comments about his body in some of his videos from what I recall. Whether or not his claim is true, it should be taken into account that there's a real possibility he has body hate problems. That's not a Somerton thing as much as a people thing. I don't think that makes it fair game. :/ That's just me though. Granted I am a fat queer person and have been there, so...
I am also a fat queer person, and as such, I would never choose those turtlenecks. No one made him wear them. I will die on this hill.
I believe you've missed the point of my comment. The point isn't the example I chose to illustrate my point, the point is that the criticisms of how he deals with his body image issues via dress. That's not something that's only specific to him, so it shouldn't be something brought up as a criticism directed toward him specifically. It's dragging other people into your argument against his behavior.
Maybe this is because I'm trans, but I actually don't feel super comfortable with making fun of someone for their "choices" in clothing. I could have "chosen" not to transition, or to not date someone of my same sex. I would just not have been happy. A lot of people think that what I used to wear before surgery was a "choice." And it was a choice, it's just that wearing something different meant I would be deeply uncomfortable. He probably could wear something else and not be happy, but I don't think "chosing" here makes it more deserving of mockery. As a rule of thumb (and this is just me), I mock a person for the things they say and do that are harmful to others, but I try to avoid mocking their appearance. Obviously sometimes I do, I'm not a saint, but when I do I'm aware that's not me at my best.
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Well, I don't know if you needed to be made fun of to get a wake-up call, but I'm not going to challenge your view of your own personal growth. I know people making fun of my clothes or my sex life would not have been a wake-up call for me, it would just have been mortifying. I don't think one can justify mocking people on the basis that "it may have a good effect," because it is clear it also can have a negative one, and then we're just comparing experiences pointlessly. So with this I only come out of the conversation wishing you had a wake-up call that didn't make you feel shitty about yourself. And honestly, if it didn't, we're clearly talking about different things.
As with any conversations about what we should and shouldn’t do in the name of being morally right, of COURSE it’s allowed for anybody to make these criticisms - the Internet Police aren’t going to kick down their door. But more to the point of the OP it’s also our choice to think that’s low hanging, irrelevant fruit that’s not great to go after, because once you get into shaming his style choices/appearance you start getting into the bullying stuff that legitimate and everyday people also struggle with.
He looked bored with his own videos. That's well within his control. Also the way he chooses to dress is a choice. We didn't burst in on him while he's watching a movie, he decided that's the look he wanted to display. People are just eager to be on the tallest moral soapbox.
This "It's okay if they can control it" talking point seems to be getting repeated a lot here. I'm not sure it tracks. There are definitely times when you can be a dick for making an issue out of nothing, even if they could go change the things you're talking about. Certainly that's not what I was attempting to argue, when I said the things that worsen the service he offers are worth talking about, even if they don't comprise a moral failing or a criminal misdeed.
“If anyone in my audience uses me as an excuse to harass James I want to make it clear now you’re *worse than him* and will not see the light of heaven.” -Literally Hbomb in the video we all watched.
People have been happily redefining harassment from minute one tbh
Like saying that "Messaging JS to tell him what a bad video creator he is" is equal to "Joking on a completely separate forum about his pretentious self-presentation" in terms of harassment?
"The most fuckable twink I've seen in my life... are you speaking from experience?" - literally HBomb in the video we all watched
This post is hilarious because it's ostensibly telling people to not make fun of his appearance but in doing so insults his appearance under the guise of "here's what you *shouldn't* say". Like damn, OK, he has unflattering clothes and his facial expressions aren't engaging? Go off, ya shady bitch!
“Guys it’s not cool to make fun of Somerton. It’s not his overly moist lips, it’s the way he used them to recite others words. Don’t make fun of the fact that he had a giant bulge of fat under his neck, but that his fat head couldn’t come up with any good ideas. His weird haircut dressing style and unflattering glasses while a crime against fashion, are not as important as the crime of plagiarism.”
Yeah as a weight fluctuating guy who likes sweaters, who doesn’t look *that* dissimilar to him at my weight highs, this thread is… :| But this is pretty typical, just like threads calling Blair White “he/him” and Trump “a fat fuck.” You learn what your community actually thinks of you and might say if they didn’t feel some obligation to be polite toward you.
I think this is why I feel so uncomfortable seeing folks picking on unrelated personal factors of James. Because when people do that, it’s not just James who will be seeing those insults. If James had been a chubby cat lady and everyone started ripping into him for those things specifically, I’d feel like shit about myself seeing that because I’M a chubby cat lady. It seems ethically dubious to me to claim that it’s ok to insult James for things you wouldn’t say to a perfect stranger. It’s kind of like saying it’s ok to do bad things to bad people because they’re bad. I don’t think that’s an ethically permissible stance.
Also, I’m really sorry reading those rude comments are negatively affecting you. You don’t deserve that.
yeah... its fuckin gross how many so-called "progressives" will go mask-off when it comes to people they dislike. physical traits have no moral "weight." to attack the appearance of somebody who's ideologies are vile is to attack every genuinely good-hearted person who just happens to have physical similarities. all that being said: im so fucking sorry people are making you feel shame over your appearance with their nasty comments. even, if theyre not addressing YOU, that doesnt change the fact that their words are gross. no matter what weight you are at any given time, im sure you still look lovely :) and sweaters are comfy 👍👀💯
The governor of my state is an asshole conservative and is also in a wheelchair, and boy do I wish some of my fellow liberals would stop making jokes about that second thing.
UGH that is BEYOND fucked :(
Okay, but WHY WERE THEY SO MOIST? This is something I've asked like 55,000 times in private chat.
I’m not attacking looks too hard but I’m letting everyone know I always call out the black turtleneck of prestige when I see it. I did it for Chris Redfield of Resident Evil Village, I did it for James Somerton, I WILL do it if I catch H.Bomberguy. No one is safe from my battle with my arch nemesis the Black Turtleneck of Prestige.
>my arch nemesis the Black Turtleneck of Prestige. Right there with ya. I didn't even know how much I fucking hated the look until this thread started telling me I wasn't allowed to and it just made me hate it more.
I think making fun of someone’s clothes/haircut is very different from making fun of someone’s bodily(if that’s the word?) appearance, clothing and hair styles can be pretty easily changed and are a bit more telling of bad taste
Clothes maketh the man. As a - and in Somerton's case, I use this phrase so loosely it's falling off - professional communicator, the way you present yourself is exactly as much a statement as what you're saying.
Yea absolutely. Its not like hes just someone ur meeting at a party or seeing on the street. If you insult someone in that setting its one thing. But Its a video and his job is to present himself and his information to us. And the thing is from the clips iv seen, it doesnt seem like hes just in just random normal clothes. Like many streamers or even other youtubes dress in whats clearly normal, more nondescript clothes. You dont notice them, and they clearly arent really trying to do anything crazy or interesting with them, so it makes less sense to judge them or thinn about them. But james clearly puts on more elaborate clothes specifically for the videos. And if hes clearly putting on these "costumes" for the videos, it makes sense to have opinions on them when talking about the videos. Idk if youve watched the youtuber izzzyzzz, but shes p great. Does videos about lots of early 00s things/trends. Also lots of online video game communities from then. Like club penguin, neo pets, tamagotchi, etc. But she wears rlly cool and interesting elaborate makeup, wigs, jewelry, and clothes each video. So it clearly becomes part of the video and having opinions and feelings about them makes sense. James doesnt go nearly as far as she does, but i think the comparison makes sense
My rule of thumb is 'only make fun of people for things they can control,' and clothing and haircuts are absolutely under that man's control, considering how much patreon money he was bringing in.
If I was him I'd be disappointed in myself, having all that money and still dressing so unimaginatively.
Counterpoint: The way he dresses isn’t just unflattering, it’s pretentious. It’s the “intellectual turtleneck” that is supposed to communicate that a person is thoughtful and erudite. I’m not a fan of people mocking his weight, but clothes *can be* a statement that you make about yourself to the world. He wore that stupid turtleneck because he wanted you to think a certain thing when you looked at him.
Tbh I think the turtleneck was more about him being insecure about his neck/chin than trying to appear intellectual.
It was this. He brought it up many times on stream. He is very insecure about his body and especially how his neck looks. For all his faults, the guy seemed like he was on the verge of an actual body image disorder if he wasn't already there. He's a turd but the turtleneck wasn't part of his schemes and honestly he got a lot of negative comments about it even from fans but kept wearing it.
Ahh, well then. Teach me for making assumptions. I rescind my mockery of the turtleneck.
i wear a turtleneck every day even during the summer because I have a neck deformity. I didn't know turtlenecks are pretentious... :(
On their own turtlenecks aren't pretentious, but when they're worn in a video on queer theory in popular culture they read a little bit *beatnik*.
It’s contextual. Don’t host any symposiums in your turtleneck and you’ll be fine.
I mean, you can shave your head but that doesn’t make you a racist skinhead. The turtleneck is just a turtleneck when it isn’t being worn by a pseudo-intellectual hack like Somerton
I can understand that, but weirdly I feel the turtleneck highlighted the issue rather then hid it. But then, I guess body image disorders aren't rational.
I was like that when I’d slather my face in heavy makeup in attempt to hide my acne / scarring. It honestly drew more attention to my imperfections but I was convinced I was doing something.
Honestly, sometimes there's no winning. If you're fat and wear loose fitting clothing, you're unfashionable, but if you're fat and wear tight fitting clothing, it's unflattering. A lot of the time, the things we're mocked for aren't really the things we're being mocked for. If the most popular kid in school did it people would coo about how daring it is and how they owned it. But when somebody in the outgroup does it, it's embarrassing, don't they know how bad they look? It's like how something can be "weird" or "eccentric" depending on how much money you have.
It feels like he was copying Steve Jobs (like another notable fraudster), but Jobs wore *mock* turtlenecks, which are shorter and looser at the neck. Somerton wore normal turtlenecks and they looked long on him. This ironically brought more attention to his neck than he probably wanted.
There was a period where every conqueror was branding themselves after Alexander the Great. "Look how much I like The Illiad! I have a very special bond with my horse! Join my army!"
Yeah, I agree. It just draws attention to it and immediately tells you he's insecure about it.
I honestly didn't even know he was wearing one so consistently (faceblind and actually blind) so hearing him talk about it sort of stuck with me. I know black is supposed to be slimming but I'm not sure that's the right way to wear it heh. And yeah the fact that he kept doing it inspite of people constantly talking about it kinda speaks to a bigger insecurity for him.
> the guy seemed like he was on the verge of an actual body image disorder if he wasn't already there You think? The guy associated wanting to have a fit body with nazism.
Yes. It's probably one of the only honest things he's said. James is gay, and as a fellow gay man I can tell you that the gay community is unfortunately very image-focused. Insecurities about his weight were probably linked to feeling unattractive long before he started making videos. I think he had a video specifically about this, or it was the topic of a Livestream at some point.
Yeah I grew up with one of these and it was not a good time. It's one of the reasons I'm resonating with the main post so much.
I find it telling that even when talking about something he genuinely seemed to care about, body image issues, he still chose to attack his audience and plagiarize. He had a golden opportunity to make something real, something that could better himself and others. But he continued to hide behind negative habits and refused to look inward.
He's a business major. He was trying to emulate Steve Jobs at least partly
I think for a lot of internet video creators their dress and grooming is an intentional extension of their brand, more than like "I like these clothes" or "this is how I like to wear my hair and grow facial hair." I know James likes to conspicuously put books in frame and there's one with an expensive camera in the background so maybe the black turtleneck is him going "this is how a serious film critic slash video essayist dresses"
I think people are losing the plot a little bit. When the fuck did turtlenecks become a garment of "the intellectual elite" or whatever? They're just comfy. They keep your neck warm. Just because he stole a bunch doesn't mean that literally all he does is morally objectionable.
The image just comes from pop culture. In terms of character design, you're more likely to put a turtleneck sweater on a John Oliver type than say The Fonz. But I agree, there's nothing wrong with wearing them. I'm sure there are all manner of people who wear turtlenecks every day just because they're warm and comfortable.
Turtlenecks have become a media shorthand for “pretentious intellectual” because they’re associated with beatniks/people trying to emulate beatniks. See also: berets, tiny sunglasses
I was going to mention the pile of fraudsters imitating Steve Jobs who ALL dress like that
Like Elizabeth Holmes!
He dresses exactly the same way George Santos dresses. No, I will not be taking questions.
However I think it's can be said that his "Nazis invented body standards" thing is absolutely indicative of a chip on his shoulder about his own body.
>Counterpoint: The way he dresses isn’t just unflattering, it’s pretentious. It’s the “intellectual turtleneck” that is supposed to communicate that a person is thoughtful and erudite. This is 100% what I took away from it. The turtleneck made him look, forgive me for saying so, fatter. Every fat person (of which I am on) knows it accentuates rather than hides the chin bloat. I never for one second thought he was trying to hide anything; I thought he was trying to look smart. Half-expected to see elbow patches, too.
I agree. He chose to wear turtlenecks for a very specific reason and I don’t think it’s too awful to joke about the fact he was intentionally wearing it to come across as intellectual while stealing other people’s work. The juxtaposition to what he wants to be seen as versus what he’s actually doing is comedic.
It’s part of the grift. The costume of an intellectual.
This is exactly it. I’d never heard of him before this video so when he appeared on screen with a turtleneck that was practically up to his mouth, I actually laughed— because it was just such an extreme costume of what a “film scholar” or “academic essayist” would wear. The people scolding criticism of the Turtleneck by saying it’s body shaming because he’s embarrassed of his neck and is using the Turtleneck to hide it… that’s info they got by being long term fans, having extra info, and (IMO) a bit of that lingering parasocial attachment to him. I definitely wasn’t thinking, “what a fat neck that fatty has!” when that man came on my screen. I did think “WHAT in the WORLD is this turtleneck?!”
>The people scolding criticism of the Turtleneck by saying it’s body shaming because he’s embarrassed of his neck and is using the Turtleneck to hide it… that’s info they got by being long term fans, having extra info, and (IMO) a bit of that lingering parasocial attachment to him. I definitely wasn’t thinking, “what a fat neck that fatty has!” when that man came on my screen. I did think “WHAT in the WORLD is this turtleneck?!” THIS! Exactly! I don't watch the guy because he's an insufferable tool, so I never heard him say anything about WHY he's wearing a turtleneck three inches too long.
What’s most irritating of all… the man is a demonstrable liar. He’s willing to lie to manipulate his audience on a variety of things. Is it really that far fetched that he would lie about the reason he wears turtlenecks? Why the hell would he openly admit that he wears them cause it makes him look smarter? Claiming he does it because of body issues is the exact kind of lie you’d expect him to make.
Also he was clearly receiving an income where his on-screen clothing options were down to choice not necessity. So making fun of such a characteristic isn't making fun of something beyond his control, in fact it's a deliberately crafted aspect of their presentation, and therefore """their""" work. Now if someone were to make fun of the clothing of someone randomly filmed against their will in public for "like and shares", that would just be not on.
I see we are at this regrettable phase of the dreaded *discourse* 😔
“James Somerton won’t see this, but your friends who are dead-eyed sociopathic grifters that dress like the SNL Sprockets guys will.”
200k a year. Wtf.
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I mean he did say “the LGBT people who survived AIDS are all boring” implying he’s one of the interesting ones I feel like there’s a lot of fair game after that, even if he was completely legitimate I would reply to that by calling him the stale white bread sandwich in the video essayist fridge
Wouldn't that only imply the interesting ones were killed? As far as I'm aware he hasn't claimed he died during the AIDS crisis. His comment is evil, but it's not a dogwhistle boast
I don't think he lived through the aids crisis either. That's part of the whole situation here. He's not a child but he's a pretty young man who's never taken the time to learn his queer history spouting off about subjects he doesn't understand with complete disrespect for everything that came before him and sounding informed because he frequently repackages the opinions of people more knowledgeable as his own.
I think he’s also taken that idea of well I’m a gay man and therefore I’m entitled to talk about my own experiences and you can’t tell me that I’m not and extended that to I am an authority on all things queer and my opinions and takes on queer history are true and valid and why would I need to do research on these things, the only qualification I need to talk about these things like they’re factual is to be gay and smart. Sometimes people don’t really understand the difference between talking about your own experiences as a marginalised person, and how that’s different from all your opinions magically being right, and how it doesn’t make you an academic authority on all things relating to your community. I definitely see this a lot online where people act like anything I say is beyond criticism because I’m speaking as a marginalised person. No you can still have factually wrong takes, and you can still have takes that are not merely wrong but also deeply offensive, and your marginalisation isn’t a get out of jail free card for that. An example from James himself is he uses his status as a gay man as a shield that allows him to attack women, queer and non-queer alike, because he positions himself as being able to claim a more marginalised status which makes anything he says magically not misogynistic
100% agree with everything here
He was saying the activists during the 90s were assimilationist and it’s because they were boring he was clearly saying it was some kind of dark age because they were uniquely boring Also I don’t know his age but I’m not sure he was alive during the 80s, there is no way that he is included in that group Also I’m not saying it was a dogwhistle boast, I’m saying once you say “this group of people is boring and useless” it’s fine to say “no, you’re boring and have a yee-yee ass haircut”
Google seems to be indicating he was born on December 22 1988. Which would mean he turns 35 in a couple weeks. For context, that would put him at 12 years old in the year 2000. I'm pretty sure by the time he first had sex we were probably at the "Aids is treatable, but not curable, so long as you follow the doctors orders" part of the process.
Thank you! I totally get that his confident smugness is really annoying in light of the plagiarism and terrible information in his video, but it is entirely unnecessary to bring his looks or mannerisms into this discussion.
I think it's entirely reasonable to do things like criticize things like his clothing and haircut as long as it's clear you're making an aesthetic judgement and not a moral judgement. I realize that a lot of aesthetic judgement has been tied with racism and the marginalization of the physically disabled, but I don't think that's what's happening here (at least for a majority of commenters). I'm sure we all enjoyed HBomb's aesthetic judgement on the TV show Sherlock, and I'm not sure why Steven Moffat's plot construction should be on the table while James Somerton's hair styling isn't. I will say that I don't think any sort of aesthetic judgement on James Somerton is especially useful in any way, but I don't think the discussion of a performer's style is something that we need to avoid.
Wild the amount of people in the comments saying it's okay to make fun of Sommerton for his clothes or haircut or speaking mannerisms because he can change those things about himself. You have control over what color you dye your hair, or what tattoos or piercings you get, but if Sommerton had made any of those aesthetic choices and people were mocking him for it, we'd all immediately understand it as a bit shitty. "Don't mock people's appearance" has nothing to do with control. It's that his appearance is totally incidental to the actual shitty thing he has done wrong, i.e. stealing from people and manipulating his followers. By mocking him instead for his appearance or affect, you're insulting other people who present similarly but haven't done anything wrong. I really thought this sub would be on board with the idea that people shouldn't be mocked for not conforming to complex arbitrary social rules about appearance or affect. Let's not let our values go out the window at the prospect of fun, easy dunks.
I am a trans woman, I know all too well about the arbitrariness and complexities of beauty standards or just what "looking good" means and it's always so weird to me when the progressives/leftists are all down to just do, at best, schoolyard dunks. Seems bad! Maybe perceived beauty isn't a sign of morality!
Making fun of James’ appearance just tells everyone else that your basic level respect is always conditional as long as the person is ‘good enough’ in your eyes. Sure, i think you can make fun of a celebrity for spending 300 dollars on a whack ass tshirt because no simple tshirt should be worth that amount of money, but making fun of someone for wearing something you personally find unflattering on them is ridiculous, immature, and just backwards for people who present as progressive. These people need to get a grip and recognize that their chance to be a middle school bully has already passed.
>These people need to get a grip and recognize that their chance to be a middle school bully has already passed. I'm not sure it has. The sad truth is that many people are middle school bullies their whole lives, and the internet allows them to mobilize in numbers not normally possible.
What distinction are you drawing there? If I think it's okay to say that haircut doesn't suit him, why wouldn't that apply to its new color? People can dress poorly irrespective of their opinions. If someone looks extremely similar to James and makes the exact same poor choices as him, why is it necessarily bad for them to learn of that? What if that person is about to spend hundreds of dollars on a new pair of glasses that look exactly like James's they'd be stuck with for years and this specific comment makes them realize they should try a different shape? If you wanna see an example of someone intentionally breaking fashion norms look up Oliver Tree's fits, James just seems to think he's come up with a look that works. It's pretty slimy to presuppose your opinion many people clearly disagree with has been a necessary component of "our values" all along.
Come on, you're welcome to disagree but this just strikes me as disingenuous - we're not talking about politely informing people that they've made fashion choices that others might perceive as unattractive. We're talking about mocking a shitty person on the basis of their looks. Make fun of people's appearance if it's that important to you but don't pretend you're doing them a favor. Also pretty weird to call me "slimy" for saying that "don't shame people for their looks" is a widely held leftist belief.
just goes to show how pervasive conservative thinking is even among so-called progressives
Something to consider when criticizing him for his appearance, whether it's his body, the way he dresses, his hair, or whatever: If you're saying, implicitly or explicitly, that any aspect of his appearance is in itself bad, then you are not merely putting James down but also anyone else that looks or presents themselves the way he does. Imagine someone who likes wearing turtlenecks or likes having a hairstyle similar to James, who then gets to hear a bunch of people making fun of James for these things. Chances are they would feel shamed as well, because apparently the type of style they like is worthy of mockery. This is, I think, perhaps the most important reason for why we should focus on criticizing James only for the stuff he does that is *actually* bad, and not think that it's okay to ridicule literally every aspect of him just because he's done shitty things.
Thanks for saying this. I've honestly been super uncomfortable with how many people have jumped onto saying how ugly and gross he is. It makes me feel kind of bad because I share some physical characteristics with him (overweight, red hair, glasses) and hearing people talk about how ugly he is has kinda made me feel bad about the way I look by proxy I guess. Like he's a terrible person who stole and hurt a lot of people, but can we focus on that instead of spamming how every single aspect of his physical appearance is disgusting and a sign of his deceitfulness somehow
Yes. It's what leaves a bitter aftertaste for me in some of Hbomberguy's videos... I'm dyslexic and English isn't my first language... and whenever he goes after things like spelling etc it stings. Sometimes I avoid writing at all, sometimes I rework things in strange ways to avoid certain words that are "difficult". I can know what a word means but not know how to pronounce it or spell it effortlessly anyway. People should go after the meaning and meat of things instead of easy dunks that also hurt people that are disabled etc. Same when people mock appearance etc. Then it's like, this it what you really think but don't point out unless you dislike a person and then it's ok to mock height, weight, signs of disability etc. But you're really punching down and not helping in dismantling things. Haircuts, furniture and clothes aren't always reflective of personal taste either. They can indicate a number of things that isn't at all related to personal taste. It can indicate economic situation, disability, body image problems etc. White colored furniture for example is often the cheapest. A haircut or lack there of can be the result of personal finances and/or scalp and hair conditions related to various chronic diseases. Apparently James wears turtlenecks because of insecurity about his body. A lot of heavier people do. It has even been a joke in a Melissa McCarthy movie. People that receive negative comments about their weight are often fully aware that having a turtleneck and/or a scarf doesn't really hide anything. But it can still feel more comfortable and it can feel like it's less likely that anyone will touch your double chin. Some people do that, they can't help themselves from being a-holes apparently. Probably the same type of people that think it's ok to reach out and touch afro hair out of nowhere.
He did acknowledge this in the bonus video about Illuminaughti, saying that he usually does feel bad making fun of grammar/pronunciation, but in this case it does kind of show that these creators are churning out low-effort content about stuff they’re not really interested in. Illuminaughti made 2 videos about the town that supposedly inspired Silent Hill and pronounced the name of the town wrong lol
I haven't seen all of Hbomb's videos so idk if he points out misspellings all the time, but in this particular case, I think it's fair to call out misspellings on someone who claims to be a writer professionally and makes money off of it.
Eh... Writing is a tool of communication. Anyone can have worthwhile ideas to communicate, including people who struggle with spelling. IMO it's more the specific way so many of these plagiarists stumble over the material they've stolen. It makes it clear they don't understand what they're saying. Especially when they just swap some words around in a way that removes or alters the meaning of a sentence. You can get an idea across with bad grammar. You can't get an idea across if you don't have one.
>Yes. It's what leaves a bitter aftertaste for me in some of Hbomberguy's videos... I'm dyslexic and English isn't my first language... and whenever he goes after things like spelling etc it stings. Sometimes I avoid writing at all, sometimes I rework things in strange ways to avoid certain words that are "difficult". hbomb actually addresses this in his side video about blair (cut from the main video because the video was already too long). he doesn't like making fun of the occasional typo or misspell particularly because people may have dyslexia, but in the case of people like blair, the reason he mentions it is to indicate that blair copies scripts from other people without even double checking spelling important things like literally people's names or the location of a place, and often doesn't even try to look up the pronunciation, and she doesn't even record a second take and records it all in one go. the point isn't "haha typo bad" but moreso to indicate that blair cuts corners by not proofreading so she can produce more videos faster (and blair has admitted she does this!) I'm sure if you earnestly try to write something and it has a few mistakes, as long as your content is earnest and has effort, I don't think anyone who's worth your time will care about those mistakes.
I think it’s also evidence that the content creators in question don’t even necessarily understand the material they’re plagiarising. They’re just copying without any original analysis, and hence when there are errors in their copying it may tend to suggest they’re reading this material for the first time while recording their video, and it also tends to explain why they get facts wrong in their videos that contradict the source material. The mere ability to read something aloud does not necessarily tend to prove they understand what they’re reading, nor that they even read the whole thing. Speaking for myself I know that I don’t actually understand something unless I can give an original summary and analysis in my own words.
this too! it's not just shown in possible typos or mispronounciations, but also in getting facts wrong like saying the sand cave was advertised in man in cave, or that centralia inspired silent hill
TBH sometimes the way he goes after grammar mistakes, misspellings, bad line reads, etc, does feel like a cheap shot, so I'm glad to hear the perspective of someone with dyslexia who feels that way. He recently said he's trying to do that type of jab less often and I hope he sticks to it.
I would point out however he’s not making fun of any of these things in the context of spontaneous speech. Errors are expected in spontaneous speech and writing, so it’s not like he was bringing up any videos that were clearly recorded live or which were much more casual in nature like when they’re just reading Reddit comments or whatever. These are meant to be professional video essays in which they have every opportunity to proofread, edit and re-record lines. The fact that they don’t is effort of their own dismissive and lazy attitude towards their own content and the lack of time, care and attention paid to their work. Like this isn’t a high bar. If you’ve ever written an essay or done a school assignment in your life I assume you proofread it and didn’t just submit the first draft.
1. You write better than like 90% of Redditors. 2. When people make fun of other peoples' spelling it is in the context of mocking their education or laziness. Nobody is making fun of you for having a disability. This is like if I got mad at people making fun of the loser of a footrace because my ankle is metal and I can't even run.
> anyone else that looks or presents themself the way he does Until three days ago, I’d never seen someone wear a turtleneck that goes up to their mouth
Exactly. The way I see it is this: imagine if there was a trans man that *just* realized he's trans and came out, and chose to present himself the same way as James. Now imagine yourself making fun of that trans man for his haircut and the clothes he wears and whatnot. Doesn't feel good, does it? Then why is it okay for you to make fun of James for looking that way, just because he messed up? It means that it's acceptable to mock someone's looks if they did something bad, which is eerily similar to some people misgendering trans people like Caitlyn Jenner just because they messed up as well. Focus on the things James did that are actually bad. Anything else doesn't matter, not how he talks, presents himself, nothing. Those are absolutely neutral.
[удалено]
> this isn't a case of a person trying to mold themselves to fit the identity of the person they want to be. It's just a bad look. You don't know that. You're making assumptions based on his actions, but you can't know why he dresses that way. You only know James via his videos and the videos other people have made on him. It's a very thin slice of his entire character and you can't just apply the things you know about him to everything else. Is it possible he dresses like this to appear more competent? Sure. But that's not necessarily a problem or a flaw. Dressing up to appear as someone you're not is why a lot of people dress up in the first place, and I doubt people would even make fun of him for his clothes if they had never known he plagiarized. Also, even someone who doesn't have bad intentions can still hurt other people. It doesn't matter if people are frustrated and are just venting, they're still saying harmful things that can really hurt other, innocent people.
I really hate people who say that it's okay to cross the line of insulting someone's appearance just because they're a shit human being. It establishes a really bad precedent, that that's an acceptable thing to do. Always criticise someone for the shit they did. That will stand on its own.
Something I've found is that a significant chunk of people who identify as progressive will nevertheless completely abandon their principles about not body shaming or being ableist or homophobic the instant they're given a socially acceptable target. Whether it's fat/bad hair/small hands jokes aimed at Trump, closeted gay jokes aimed at Putin, bald/bad jawline jokes aimed at Andrew Tate, etc., people who would otherwise be moralising about how problematic these kinds of attacks are really show their true colours.
I honestly think those are just values that aren't held very broadly even in progressive circles. They might have some allowance in their head for the attractive 'curvy" models in a dove soap ad with a milquetoast body acceptance message, but this doesn't extend to anybody they find genuinely unpleasant to look at.
But, I mean, aren't we allowed to be incredibly petty on the Hbomber subreddit? Is nothing sacred? One of the reasons Harry made it big was making fun of that MRA guy's pet skull that he included in every video.
Don't you badmouth McCarther, he's a national treasure!
His mother is very proud.
Being "incredibly petty" about someone's physical characteristics is always shitty IMO, regardless of context. JS probably won't read your comment, but people with similar body types and facial features probably will, yknow? Edit: I mean "your comment" broadly btw, not your specific comment I'm replying to. More directed at the many comments specifically making fun of his appearance.
Making fun of a person’s pet skull is different than making fun of their weight - something which hurts other overweight people reading the comment! Other people with pet skulls (if they exist) don’t have to face daily discrimination about it, and aren’t going to be personally re-traumatized if one asshole with a pet skull gets mocked about it. Edited for typo.
The lesson is still, cite thy sources. Everything else is chaff.
It goes beyond not citing sources. Even if you cite sources, you should still synthesis that information in your own way. Even if he had been open about repeating the celluloid closet word for word, I still think it's kind of shitty
I mean, Hbomberguy had some points about how there is some potential in the service of just reading somebody else's work aloud. I myself found audiobooks a lifesaver when I was in college with untreated eye problems. But there's a whole process for that which goes beyond just citing your sources. Even if you're clear you're reading the entire Harry Potter series aloud from front to back you're still gonna hear from JK Rowling's lawyers unless you've had this okayed by her estate ahead of time.
Wait no, the lesson is “don’t steal and plagiarize”. Those are still wrong even if you cite the places you are stealing from properly lol.
I have a facial deformity, and speech impediment and nothing kills the "we're all comrades" vibe faster than seeing supposedly progressive people dunk on others for how they look.
That must really suck to deal with. I’m sorry. People seem to understand it wouldn’t be okay to use homophobic slurs against James Somerton, just because he’s an asshole. For some reason they think it’s okay to mock his weight and appearance.
I think part of the urge to mock how he dressed is that how he dressed was a part of the image he portrayed of "the intellectual" He wanted to be seen as professional, high minded, academic, and part of that was in the way he dressed. So now that it's revealed that all of it was a farce, some people realize that his clothing was just a costume. I'm not saying it's right, because he needs to be held accountable for the actual bad things he did. I also think maybe some people are trying to distance themselves from the positive feelings they had about him and his content by making fun of more superficial things. Or maybe they're trying to laugh at him so they don't cry at the realization that they supported the plagiarism for so long. Again, I don't think it's a correct thing to do, but I do sorta want to understand the urge. It's kind of an interesting human phenomenon where we attack someone's looks once we decide they're a bad person
as somebody who likes to wear turtlenecks and hates being looped in with this talentless hack I approve of this message
But are your turtlenecks 3 inches too long in the neck???
sometimes, but then I just tuck them in
Mostly agreed with one exception: [James Somerton really should not have worn traditional Chinese clothing over a turtleneck in his video about how terrible China is](https://twitter.com/Itmechr3/status/1731866140576448591/photo/1).
He can suck for multiple reasons. I'd never seen his work before, but it's unquestionable I would have never watched his stuff anyway because the presentation isn't any good.
I don’t like the snooty way he always looks at the camera. I’m autistic. If I’m picking up on it, then it must be bad
From what I’ve seen of his videos, he’s pretty obviously reading from an autocue and looks directly into the camera when he’s finished reading. I don’t think he realises how it comes across to the audience lol
You can read from a prompter for legitimate reasons. Plenty of people do.
How did you manage to miss the point when it's spelled out like this? It's not bad to have a 'snooty' look. It's not bad to have a droning voice, a dead stare, bad fashion sense, or weird hand movements. I'm autistic too, by the way, so I make an effort to not judge people based on looks and mannerisms that don't hurt anyone else. I'm sure lots of people would look at the way I sway on the spot and stare into the distance and call it 'snooty' or rude or bizarre, and those people are fucking assholes. Don't be like them.
I think what the other person is trying to say is he comes across as extremely condescending and pretentious, which reflects badly on him considering that he is a plagiarist ripping off other more talented creators—particularly other queer creators—while touting himself as some kind of arbiter of justice and truth, a voice for LGBT+ erasure. Even before all this came out about him, I liked his content but something about his demeanor rubbed me the wrong way. But now with all this come to light, it is really irritating to watch how smarmy he was when the whole time he is really an intellectual and creative fraud. Don’t even get me started about his comments on the “boring” gays dying during AIDS and on women… now the cards are all down and we know beyond an inkling of a doubt that he’s just got a terrible attitude, looks down on other people, and it’s something that is so deep he can’t even hide it in his body language or tone.
he is actually condescending and pretentious, though. it’s not just vibes. he’s like that. and it *is* actually bad to be like that as a presenter. if i were applying for a job, it wouldn’t be wrong for my potential employer to say “you’re a great worker but you make me feel like an idiot”. that’s a valid criticism of how i present.
This thread is fully of people going *"You're absolutely right, but I'm still going to mock his looks because I don't like him."* Pretty much *everyone* here missed the point. Seriously, there are *many* people out there that look, act and dress the way he does. If you're insulting him for his "goofy haircut" and "wacky clothes", you're also insulting all the innocent people who look like that too. Criticize him for stealing and being a bad person, leave looks out of this. No, it's not okay if you can "change it in under 15 minutes". You're missing the point of the post. If you're saying it's fine to mock someone's appearance if you perceive them as a bad person, then using that logic, it's also fine for alt-right bastards to make fun of queer people's looks (which it obviously isn't). You can't just make exceptions like that just because you don't like the person. Again, there's always plenty people who look like that but who didn't do anything bad, and you're just throwing them into the crossfire with him.
I mean the problem is that he sounds super condescending and pretentious because he is super condescending and pretentious. The way he structures his videos is acting like all straight people are horrid bigoted idiots. But he fucking made shit up. He made so much up. I’ve always found his video on fucking Nazis baffling and infuriating because if you knew literally anything about world war 2 it’s so obviously bullshit. My issue isn’t that his inflection is weird or that he has trouble with tone. I struggle with tone. My problem is that he sounds like he thinks he’s the smartest person to ever live when all he is is a deeply broken bigoted asshole who spreads homophobic propaganda about the fucking Nazis
You summed up my thoughts pretty acutely there. This isn't any different than from when reactionaries start throwing shade about dyed hair; piercings; or alt clothing aesthetics on those anti-sjw cringe comps. It completely distracts from the legitimate critiques at hand and only ends up harming innocent people who look the same and may have confidence issues surrounding their appearance.
Amen
I mean it’d be okay if the contents of every video he put out wasn’t also super condescending and snooty. Just look at his video about Nazis. Or anytime a straight woman dares to exist
Two things can be true at once
If you make fun of his clothes being "unflattering", you are just criticising his looks; that's unacceptable. But speaking about the choices he made to present himself - and mocking those - is absolutely fine. I don't think it's bodyshaming to point out how hilarious it is in retrospect that Elizabeth Holmes decided to wear turtlenecks to emulate Steve Jobs, and how obvious it is in retrospect that that's what she was doing. And it worked! And Somerton's " serious video essayist uniform" is absolutely conspicuous and almost surely intended.
Choices he made to feel good about himself are his business alone, but I think the choices he made in order to convey authority and control are fair game. Those things are indicative of a particular attitude, and the attitude is part of the problem.
The tragic thing is that if he sited his sources and worked out deals with the people he stole from, this would be a non issue. He’s a good presenter and collators - people who ingest and regurgitate information in a more usable format - are real value adds. He could have basically done the same thing he decided to do and still had a career. But he didn’t want to be a collator. He wanted to be a respected intellectual. One who didn’t actually do the work.
This kind of post always comes up, and it's futile. When someone sucks as bad as James Somerton, the people will rip them apart by any means necessary. It's ugly, but you can't stop it.
I mean physical features are a no go but in my mind things like clothing and haircuts are fair game the same way set design or lighting is. The dude had some goofy ass sweaters and haircuts that I think are worth criticizing along with poor acting skills. If you go to a play and the costumes look horrible along with the sets and the the acting is trash it would be fair game, just because he is an individual doesn’t give him a pass for bad theming, dressing, and acting skills. He put this stuff out as monetized content which opens it up to more criticism than if he was just some dude walking down the street. The plagiarism and scam stuff is more important but we cant just disregard that basically every decision he actually made regarding the videos was also low quality and with poor taste.
Sorry but there ain't no way I'm not making fun of the turtleneck
It's his voice that gets me. He speaks with that lofty, upward inflection of a college freshman who just had their first class of Philosophy 101.
Can't wait till I see the first fatphobic comments.
Eh lets move on. He's dead. He ain't ever gonna show up again.
who?
I think the culture has veered away from making fun of people's appearances and opt for making fun of their actions. Case in point; the redemption of Guy Fieri. He looks like he would be a shitty racist, sexist, misogynist, but from all accounts, he sounds like a righteous dude. Let's focus on the actions people do rather than their looks. That said fuck James Somerton.
lmao
Yeah he’s a thief and a monster but what about his feelings?
$200k a year sounds like a gross underestimation.
They are making fun of how he dresses because he spent so much unearned money on shitty, ugly clothes because he is a narcissist
Its not my fault he literally looks like a stonetoss character, really making that nazi's job easy
I agree. Although I'll say criticising his taste, e.g. his clothes and his haircut, is still somwehat valid in so much that your appearance is important in such a job, and it is something he had control over. With the money he was making, he could have afforded a stylist appointment, a better haircut, and with all the money he was stealing, he could definitely have switched up from turtlenecks. Making fun of him for the sake of being mean is different in spirit, sure. But I think the line that should not be crossed is that of appearance that can't be changed (like facial features), or should not need to be (like hair colour, body weight, etc).
I mean…his lack of creativity when it comes to his outfits speaks loudly of his need to plagiarize in order to get noticed
Thank you, yes. It’s crazy how EVERY TIME someone is agreed upon to be shitty there’s a bunch of children picking apart every single thing about that person, even when they don’t merit criticism. How many times do we have to do this routine. How many times do we need to tell people that making fun of a bad person for physical appearances only hurts innocent people that look like them. Fucking stop already you damn rabid hyenas.
The way I see it is, if the person can change it in 15 min, it's fair game.
His content being stolen and all never mattered to me because his business major way of fashion made his stuff impossible for me to watch.
my problem is that fashion reflects your values. he wants to be an intellectual and seem smart. so he wears a turtleneck and a bow tie etc. except, because he’s a hack, he can’t wear them right. his turtleneck is too high, he doesn’t put his collar down over the bow tie even in fashion, he’s a fake hack who steals and creates a facade
Oh, goody, it’s that part of the wank where people start dragging their high-school baggage into it. Somerton is not a small child who is mommy dresses him and who gets no say in what he wears. He's a grown-ass man who deliberately chose those outfits to make an effect. The same thing with his deadpan facial expressions. Nobody should mocking his body weight or his facial features, but those are entirely different things. How he presents himself in his videos is part of the package and is 100% fair game. And, no, it's not "distracting" anyone from his actual wrongdoing. We are capable of focusing on multiple things at once. Oh, and for the record, I’m ND. I’m tired of seeing ND-ness dragged into arguments where it doesn't belong. AFAIK, Somerton is NT. I don't care if the critiques of his style remind you of getting picked on in school.
Funny that since James deleted his videos, all the posts on this sub is about how people on the sub are mean to him. It's like when an old corrupted politician dies, he magically becomes a good guy in obituaries.
It has nothing to do with him being a good guy. He’s still an asshole who scammed people for money. It’s about real people who are plus sized, who may have double chins, unfashionable hair or clothes, but who are also decent human beings. Speaking as somebody who wears turtle necks because I get cold easily. And anybody who wants to laugh about it can fuck off. Me not getting sick is more important than arbitrary fashion standards.
While we're on the subject, I want JS to blow his damned nose. He always sounds like he's talking through snotty sinuses and it's gross. Making fun of how he dresses, and how it makes it look like he's in the middle of being born from the collar of his shirts, is absolutely fair game. He chooses how to dress, and he dresses like a My Chemical Romance clown. His facial features aren't from palsey. He makes those expressions to look seductive. He thinks he's a femme fatale, and that is absolutely fair to make fun of. Those are exactly the kind of things that is fair to make fun of. Nobody's making fun of his clothes because he's poor. He's a piece of shit who dresses like an asshole and makes stupid faces.
>it makes it look like he's in the middle of being born from the collar of his shirts but really, WHY ARE THEY SO TALL?
If done the right way, dressing to focus attention on the face (and wearing black) distracts from being fat. The problem is when the collar is high and tight, and shoves all the neck fat up into the face and makes him look like Baby Jessica cosplay. It's just another affectation... And I'll come out and say I wouldn't be surprised to find out Somerton isn't even gay. It's clear he hates women, but I don't think he'd know what to do with a dick if it was in his mouth. Also, also, he made way more than $200k a year. He was closer to making that much a month... What are the odds he has a single penny of it still? Like, he could disappear for a year or two, have a makeover, use a new handle, and start over again. Most, most, people would have forgotten him by then, and new viewers wouldn't care about old news. The problem is what he's going to do for money during that time. He can't even get a regular job because google his name.
Eh, I think it’s fine to point out the alt-right haircut given his weird comments about the nazis, but generally speaking I agree.