James Somerton, White Qu33rness, and the Commodification of Leftism
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- Опубликовано: 12 сен 2024
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"Homophobic erasure - the cull of LGBTQ presence from history" by Stephen Spinks:
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"Please Stop Asking Me To Sue James Somerton" by Gita Jackson: aftermath.site...
"Standing in Defiance: The Legacy of Lucy Hicks Anderson" by Damon J. Shearer: www.sdblackcoa...
"Behind the Mask: The Tale of Kevin Conroy" by Skylar Alley: theoucampus.or...
"Leonardo da Vinci’s sexuality: Why historians believe the famed Italian artist was gay" by Louis Chilton: www.independen...
"Osh-Tisch--Making Queer History" by Harper-Hugo Darling: www.makingquee...
"Historical Two Spirits" from Native Out: web.archive.or...
"“I Can’t Be Racist, I’m Gay”: Exploring Queer White Men’s Views on Race and Racism" by Nicholas F. Havey: www.jstor.org/...
"More Fats, More Femmes, and No Whites: A Critical Examination of Fatphobia, Femmephobia and Racism on Grindr" by Matthew Conte
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I always say that being a leftist IS DIFFICULT AS SHIT. Its a constant process of reflecting and change. Its looking at everything you think and feel, not letting the base emotions take over even when you have a right to. Im a black woman but being a leftist means that I want EVERYONE to have a dignified life, including racists, including the people who have hurt me through SA etc. Its not condoning their behavior or trivializing my pain but still seeing their humanity and understanding that a lot of the bad in society comes from the lack or solidarity and care for one and another and living under hierarchies and economic systems that make us less human, worth less in the eyes of the powerful in society. Its the result of being creatures born from chaos flung into life and all lifes unpredictable nature, while longing for everything to make sense and be predictable...
Living is hard not only to me or people like me, to a certain extent even the most privilige people are humans. Even the rich are humans that live in their own society with their own rules and I need to also understand their perspective if I want to do good in the world.
Being a leftist is constant work. Work on yourself before others. I feel that thats the reason I get tired from most people who claim the left. I say very little and try to mind my business most of the time. Its a lot of outward pointing and grandstanding with little nuance. Its often just judgment of others or dunking on the opposition. Its still using power to dominate and humiliate others. I reckognize that it works somewhat but it just feels like it contridicts part of our politics. It may be for a better cause but thats not what we should want.. Being a leftist is exactly what he said, its practice not innate.. We arent special. We probably wont " win". But we still have to try
Exactly! Very well said.
Hear hear! A wonderful comment to read. I agree 100%.
This is exactly what has driven me away from more people who classify themselves as leftists than anything else. Being someone who isn't always great at it, but very much values education, I try with my small reach to help people see beyond their own perspective, because that is a core facet of us building a better tomorrow, and try to listen and see past my own, and it is disappointing and saddening how often that approach from people who have a platform, gets them punished by the algorithm, and quite often their audience too. Thank you to everyone out there who is doing the work, it's often thankless, but it's worth doing nonetheless.
So being forgiving of those who oppress you is done out of fear of not being able to be free of oppression without doing this?
@@erdood3235thats a very uncharitable way to read that, i think. Obviously we have to think about how cycles of hate perpetuate, and sometimes the best thing to do is to make peace (not forgive, thats different) just to end the cycle of violence and move forward to something better for everyone.
But its even more than that, at least to me and many other leftists. Its about recognizing that all people, every person, is worthy of dignity and life. What we want is a society where everyone flourishes, not revenge for the harm caused to those who have been oppressed. Otherwise what the hell are we doin other than just flipping the hierarchy?
I’d be so rich if I just grifted for attention with no moral fiber. Unfortunately, a superego that pleases St. Peter and Santa Claus is terrible for business.
We would all be able to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps like James somerton if it wasn't for the crushing weight of Catholic guilt
Hmm would love to see @tayzonday on the Waving the Red Flag podcast if that’s a thing you’re open to
Tay! You have the best taste! (As ever!) Great to see you here!
I'm starting to feel like my algorithm is specifically recommending me videos Tay Zonday has commented on. They're all excellent videos so fingers crossed that keeps happening.
Blugh, catholism
So, I never commented on a James Somerton video, but I did watch him basically religiously until the Hbomerguy situation happened. It really sucks and makes me feel a lot worse that A, I didn't recognize the grift for what it was, and B, I basically caught almost none of his blatant misogyny even to a point where I can't actually remember anything he said being misogynistic, and that's the part that really irks me. I feel like I should've been able to recognize this level of misogyny, and I couldn't, and I don't think I'm the only one who feels like this.
Certainly not. This is my experience, along with his questionable takes on asexuality.
I’m always confused by people who used to be James Somerton stans, I remember watching “The Queer Dystopia of the LGB Movement” and how it just right off the bat immediately dismissed all reactionary queer people as people merely trying to pander to mainstream society in the attempt to be excluded from persecution, rather than view them as genuinely reactionary ideologues or grifters, or his video on Yuri on Ice where he was just waffling about “how much representation is True Representation™️” even though Yuri on Ice is the gayest thing to ever exist. I still watched his videos to get an alternative perspective, but never to agree with his dismissive ramblings.
Honestly, it took me a bit to pick up on it, too. Some of it confronted me with my *own* misogyny I'd been unaware of. For example, I caught myself nodding along with one of his videos where he was talking about women fetishizing gay men, which I cringe to think about now. When I went to look for more info, I realized he was running on vibes rather than substance, so I guess I can thank him for confronting me with internal work I needed to do. It was catching it in myself that made me start looking for it more in his content.
@@computergamescritical6917 when people like Somberton bring a light to LGBTQ content, it’s easy to get swept up in the community solidarity and can easily overlook the red flags because we want to believe they have good intentions. Their content makes us feel seen, acknowledged.
So it’s common for someone to fall for these grifts because we don’t want to see the bad, it usually takes being swindled to recognize it in the future. Most who were taken in by Somberton (myself included) are now a little wiser for it.
A lesson hard learned is well learned.
@@ShadowProject01 Yeah I agree that it’s nice seeing someone stand up for you. I do actually understand why people were fans of James Somerton, they simply agreed with his arguments. When I said that I “don’t understand” that was merely rhetorical, I get it, I just saw through the paper thin stuff almost immediately (not the plagiarism, just the bad arguments) whereas others unfortunately didn’t.
I do hope that people are wiser because of this, Bulverism doesn’t belong in intellectual spaces, period.
Sometimes I wonder if I should start a YT channel just because trans men are so underrepresented. But it would probably just be me explaining proper laboratory technique, so it would be pretty boring.
"Trans Man Explains Positive Displacement Micropipetting."
I mean, RUclips can be a lot of thankless work, so please take care of yourself and your energy, but I'd be over the moon if we had more trans people just doing nerdy things, crafts, sharing art--alla that stuff.
I mean, I'd watch. There are so many people who love consuming information because it's good to know things even if you may personally never have a chance to use it. All the better if the instructor is someone in the community.
That sounds like amazing content tbh, but don't push yourself to make videos if that's not something you feel drawn to. There's other ways to make a difference, and making youtube videos can easily turn into a second job that burns you out if you really try to feed the algorithm
Yeah, I'll keep things to hobby writing and such. I have no desire to devote even my spare time to the algorithm gods. Even if my outline and experiment design showcasing the medical science implications of the Saw films is pretty cool.
As a trans guy who's special interest is (psycho)pharmacology, PLEASE explain proper lab technique
“shoutout to women, femmes, and aces of all genders” okay I know what you actually meant here but “women of all genders” is such a great phrase, idek what I’d use it for but I love it
I think he did mean aces - the previous statement was about the fact that James promised representation for minority communities and then reinforced bigoted views. He did that both through misogyny and claiming that ace people don't experience forced conversion therapy, which is absolutely untrue. (Also, he not only failed to apologize for that misstep but also went after ace people for trying to call him out out on the error.) The Ace Couple went into this in more detail in a talk they uploaded to their channel.
@@ChelseaLinaeve Lmao I hadn't even considered it sounding that way, I kinda love it too, ngl.
@@ChelseaLinaeve yup that's what I was referring to when I said I know what he meant. I watched the ace couple's video awhile ago, he treated them atrociously
as a bigender person, i too love "women of all genders" when it's actually referring to women
@@jawnvaljawnapropos of nothing, your username is fantastic, I’m from Philadelphia and jawn is embedded in my vocabulary. 😂😂😂
Ok but the intro of you copying James Somerton's speech pattern while (obviously) plagiarising someones work is just...
💕iconic💕
I nearly clicked off the video at first until I realized what he was doing. That speech pattern just makes my skin crawl and it's why I could never get into somerton's videos.
Don’t forget the pretentious film school lighting effects too. Perfect setup.
The bisexual lighting!!
I fucking lost it at that
Also it’s bee movie which is a huge meme 😂
The classic misogyny truly disgusted me. He may be gay but the whole cis white man thing of “if a woman is t useful or attractive to me, she doesn’t matter” is nothing new, just even more sickening from someone that uses their supposed oppression and marginalization as the main point of their channel and then using the same marginalization and oppression to their benefit all while knowing what it’s like to be on that other side is just extra gross.
Haaaaaard agree. It's so sad how much misogyny persists among queer men--many of whom seem to wrongfully believe they're immune to it.
As a enby woman, who didn't watch *every* video he made, what he said didn't seem misogynistic to me.
White cis women *do* oppress those lower on the social ladder than them.
Many cis women *do* take out their hatred of men on men less powerful than them.
There's a real frustration to the fact that there is a nugget of truth to what James said, right, in that there was and possibly continues to be a complex dynamic to cishet white women's use of queerness, specifically cis gay men's queerness, as a form of social cache ala rainbow capitalism and passive progressive marketing, similar to Starbucks using RuPaul contestants to sell mid overpriced coffee. There is something to that. James almost said something about it, too. But now that conversation has to work uphill because he instead led with boring sexism and that poisons the well of any possible real conversation to be had, leaving us with "a lot of gay men are sexist," with a special side of "you may be [marginalized group], but you're still X% [non-marginalized groups]."
@@FinntasticMrFoxwe want to benefit from the same systems that oppress us.
@manwhoismissingtwotoenails411 Well put, but now I wanna know what happened to your missing toenails 😅
I wouldn't be surprised at all if he tried to come back fully leaning into a "why I left the left" strategy. That's what a "marketing expert" would do.
Oh mylanta, I really hope not.
Don't give him ideas!
I’m starting to retranslate “marketing expert” to “opportunist” in my head these days, so that wouldn’t shock me.
@Direwolf1771 Think the word you're looking for there is "grifter".
Basically because in spite of his flashy degree, he his not that intelligent. No street smarts either.
I was in the lesbian community for 20 years before I transitioned almost 10 years ago. I get so angry when young, cis, white, gay men talk about queer history as if it is exclusively about them and do it with such authority. It was frustrating when I was younger in the 90s but there was less visibility, more stigma, and no social media. Now it just feels like they are intentionally ignoring a flood of voices and stories. For those who don't align with leftist values, in order to take advantage of their proximity to power they need to separate themselves from the rest of community and that's easier to do if they see themselves as the 'OG queer'.
The fall of sommerton really made me confront my own internalized misogyny. I had fallen into some of the thinking that Sommerton pushed, i.e theres a bunch of queer content that is made by straight women and theres a bunch of straight women fetishizing gay men. With HB and Todd laying bare how much of his misogyny had nothing but "just trust me" behind it made me realize i had only been reaffirming my feelings with no actual root fact. I have come to realize that my issue was that as a queer dude i wasn't seeing content produced in queer spaces that catered to the kind of queerness that spoke to me and my interests. And very important to not try to diminish other froms of queer art and representation that don't speak to me because it speaks to someone else and we all deserve to have that
I think that was a huge factor in how he was able to get away with it for so long, how he can have ex-fans who didn't even register the sexism. As an afab person, honestly, I got pulled in by his talking points too. Part internalized sexism, part feeling like it was only "fair" for my own "privilege" there to get torn down. It's really frustrating to look back on that and see how blind I was. That by supporting him (though never monetarily, thankfully) I was still helping tear down other afab people
Can you explain to me how a 🏳️🌈 dude can understand internalized m^sogn^y. It's not like girls go through internalized m!sandry 😑
Tbh I think I nodded along to some of his claims about fetishization by straight women bc I'd been in a lot of yaoi/BL spaces which is where you'll find the highest concentration of women who are actually like that (treat mlm like a fetish in a super dehumanizing creepy way), so a lot of his claims seemed similar to actual ppl I'd interacted w, but I'm rlly dissapointed in myself that i didnt lend a critical eye when he started making shit up about it. I already knew that some anti-fujoshi ppl used the existence of women who fetishize mlm to be mysoginistic and sometimes transphobic, thats smthn i was already aware of and pissed off by, but it never occured to me that he could be doing that too.
theres even a part of a vid of his that i watched where he specifies straight women on smthn thats actually more specific to straight men, and somehow i didnt pick up on that? usually the little mysoginy sensors built into my brain work quite well.
That todd in the shadows vid knocked my socks off, i cant believe i just listened to james tell such blatant, often kind of ridiculous, often super harmful, lies, and i didnt even question any of it. hope we all take this as a lesson to be less trustworthy of creators we like, and more critical in general. I tend to have believe best intentions from ppl which is fine, but i cant let that get in the way of being critical.
@@idonotresidehere.5709I grew up (middle school+) reading slash and yaoi, which yea at least at that time was primarily cis straight women probably (I'm in my late 30s now for time context -- I started when fanfiction webrings was still a thing to keep between fan sites). It would be interesting to see demographics data over time of writers and readers , as at the time I'd have been labeled as a straight cis woma, and I suspect that's the case for many others, but I'm not sure what % that'd be vs how many are actually straight, cis women.
Not sure how best to phrase it, but I feel that slash/yaoi did not set me up well for queer relationships/knowing queer people in real life. They were often (at least back then) a take in queerness that wasn't really based on knowing queer people in most cases, and perhaps instead portraying straight fantasies but using male characters. I have trouble consuming that media now for those reasons (as well as watching a lot of anime, for a similar reason that they way women are portrayed in many often does not ...feel right at least to my experience of knowing women). Back when I was consuming that media, I was more isolated/had limited experience with a diverse set of people.
So, I get "both sides", or at least an issue James was lying and overblowing but is rooted in something. To rephrase, him lying and bs doesn't mean there isn't something there to discuss.
Like, I've seen that dynamic also in person, where cis women interaction with gay guys does come off as tokenizing, and queer people feel like their spaces are being taken over/used like a zoo by straight women. But also seen queer people be mystognic to women, and assume straightness when there is not. And some situations both happen at the same time. Life and queerness is complicated AF.n
While I'm sad for all of us facing these same feelings, I'm so freaking glad to see my exact thoughts expressed by so many other people. Or, if not the exact same, being a cis lesbian myself, but all these shades of mistaken queer solidarity many of which I recognized in myself during the rise of the conversation. It's just comforting to realize I wasn't the only one swept up in his nonsense and having to face a kind of shame about it.
"I'm Sorry, by James Sommerton (probably, but who knows?)"
SIR, I AM DECEASED
so am i
@@intellectually_lazy omg a ghost :0
yeah i was gonna comment about that too!! lmaooooo
As a Trans Woman in TX who fears for my life on a regular basis. Your voice is a strong healing voice to us all. Kept wondering what happened. Now I understand school can take over everything. Love u Finn
Girl, I hope you're okay. When I see comments like this I like to drop a note to say that New Jersey is here if shit really goes sideways and you gotta leave NOW. We're a trans (and non-conforming in general) sanctuary state. We need to live in a country where it doesn't matter where you live, but while we're doing this shitshow the are places you can flee to. And don't believe the propaganda, NJ is fucking awesome. I left for a year and came running back from Florida because whoo boy that place is a nightmare.
I adore the level of empathy you show while still holding Somerton accountable for his actions against our community. I personally think stripping people of their humanity takes away from the conversation instead of adding to it.
what did he do? mess up a citation? so did the prez of harvard, but no one seemed to notice until speaking against genocide. i really never found it if this matters or if all the pearls were clutched in service of keeping gates
@@intellectually_lazy he literally plagiarised 90% of his videos and the few things he added himself tended to be misremembered or entirely made up.
@intellectually_lazy For me, it's not just messing up citation. Plagarizing in the LGBT community is erasing the hard work of an already vastly outnumbered group. It also paints a person as an expert who simply isn't... any follow up questions or requests for clarification aren't going to be met with the same quality of answer as you would get if you went to the source. There are already so many lies out there that it can be extra damaging if a member of the community is disingenuous. That's my take, anyway.
@@intellectually_lazy Passing off the contents of multiple full articles as his own writing is just literal theft of labor. "Messing up a citation" would be something like using a single sentence from and article and not having the source of the quote on screen or anywhere in the video description, which I'm sure most youtubers have done accidentally at some point.
@@intellectually_lazyBy the way, Dr. Claudine Gay was targeted by the neofascist propagandist Christoper Rufo (instigator of disinformation campaigns against critical race theory, "wokeness", and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives) and a bigoted billionaire whose wife is a plagiarist.
As a queer person, the darkest part of my heart is reserved for traitors. As you said, they should know better, and are willing to sell the rest of us out.
12:45 "Those using leftism as a Trojan horse" is definitely a growing frustration lately. Good talk, Finn. 💖👍
the its always been meme is appropriate here( lol). Perhaps being able to notice the trojan horses is a positive consequence of mass media nor perhaps not.
I commented on a video by Jesse Gender when his apology first drop and this made me think of that comment again: he's the worst kind of grifter, the kind that genuinely agrees with the ideas he is stealing and repackaging, but sees these ideas as ripe for picking when propping himself up. He cares about the LGBTQIA+ community, the ideas and art the arises from it, but only so far as to be able to claim it as his own and use it as a way to personally secure his own rights through wealth and status. He is the kind of person "crabs in a bucket" describe: constantly pulling down other away from liberation so he can hopefully stack enough members of the community under himself
didnt realize how much i was starving for a trans guy's voice in my youtube diet until i found your channel! cheers from another tboy and thank you for your work my guy
I subscribed as well! Very soft, kind voice. (Also, JammiDodger is another great trans man on RUclips.)
I'd recommend Noah Fiance too.
This bee libel must stop! When people were trying to formulate the laws of physics involving flight, they couldn’t quite figure how everything that flew, flew.
I just love how awkward bumblebees look about it, they give me life.
So basically bees fly more like helicopters than birds! Which was very confusing for people that didn't know what a helicopter was, and assumed bees had to be flapping their wings like birds instead of buzzing around like lil helicopters!
update on bees (copy pasting from article in live science) as we now do understand how they fly
"Using a combination of high-speed digital photography and a robotic model of a bee wing, researchers figured out the flight mechanisms of honeybees."
"Turns out bee flight mechanisms are more exotic than thought.
"The honeybees have a rapid wing beat," Altshuler told LiveScience. "In contrast to the fruit fly that has one eightieth the body size and flaps its wings 200 times each second, the much larger honeybee flaps its wings 230 times every second."
(bees are so freaking fascinating and we should all talk about them more)
Yeah they used a model built on bird flight patterns, but bees literally fly different, with a far more effective method of generating lift
I wasn't gonna click because I'm emotionally burnt out, but the preview of the bee intro hooked me and I clicked
🐝❤
The Telos stuff pretty much evaporated any sympathy I had. Also, the OOF sound - well done.
i love how energised you get and yet it still feels like you're speaking in all lowercase. the composure! i hope that makes sense
@@enid4030 um, yeah, class was abolished in america (except where $ and race and other factors we all know but don't talk about is concerned). next tell me about nobility or something
@@intellectually_lazyclass means to be polite. Let me use it in a sentence to help you: “this RUclipsr is so generous and kind - so much class!”
This may be a foreign concept to you, but the word “class” has more than one meaning.
You truly are lazy. Go read a dictionary, they are free. And how dare you insult this creator. You suck.
I can’t believe I never knew you wrote the bee movie
I am a man of many beecrets. 😌
loved your breakdown. im an ally for lack of a better word. my 3 kids are queer. my heart broke when somerton was exposed, i referred his channel to my eldest child as a way marker. he was so well researched - yea.... thats easy when you steal the content
i want my queer children to feel safe when looking up online references... somerton wasnt it
As another mom navigating this space I wanted to share a word I heard last week As an alternative to ally that I want to lean into: “advocate.” Like this video, it leans into the idea that we need to be active in living out our values. To cite my sources to the best of my Swiss cheese brain’s ability, I heard this from a trans writer for the TV show Quantum Leap in an interview on Jessie Gender’s second channel last week.
YESSSS I CANT WAIT FOR TRANSMASC PLAYLIST thank u finn for being the best!!!!!
I'll take A LOT away from this, "Base-model human being" is a concept that says so much more than the words themselves. Thanks for that, Finn.
Technically a "base model human being" is a black cis straight woman, because the default gender is actually female (fetuses begin female and can potentially become male early on if the SRY Gene is activated) and humanity originated from southeast Africa, which has a mostly black population.
Being trans is technically not SUPPOSTED to happen because in an ideal world trans women would be born as cis girls and trans men would be born as cis men. It's not a disorder since it's not caused by anything, it's just that some people are LITERALLY born in the wrong body and we need to accommodate that need and help them be comfortable and safe. In the near future sex changes will likely become far easier and near-instant thanks to nanomachine therapy, making all this BS about chromozones and "biological gender" irrelevant due to removing the risk involved. Therefore, while trans people are 100% valid, being cis is technically the "default."
Straight people are multiple times more common than gay people, and while gay people are a nessessary part of nature to take care of orphans and help manage population growth, straight people are needed to reproduce and therefore are far more common. Therefore, straight is still the "default", even though there is nothing wrong with being gay and that being gay is natural and a part of nature and the circle of life.
So, all in all, the "default human" is a black cis straight woman, no questions asked. Doesn't make anyone who ISN'T the default any less valid. It's pointless to argue with the "default human" is anyways since every person is unique and what really matters is someone's character, not any superficial traits they can't control
I am glad that this conversation around James Somerton is happening. It feels me with relief, because every time his misogyny showed, I was like,
“He is targeting cis straight white women, and despite them not being a terribly unprivileged group, I feel like this is unfair and regressive. I feel like he is using them as a punching bag for what is probably overall misogyny.”
And I was hoping I wasn’t crazy, but it seems many people noticed and have called him out. Then, I saw his regressive ideas about lesbians and I was like “yep, there it is”.
A lot of progressive misogynists will hide their misogyny under the guise of some kind of racial/ class/ sexual critique. They will invoke that kind of language , and say things like "white/straight/rich women" but they really just mean women
One of the first times I ever watched one of his videos, he went off about straight white women writing fan fic, and I nearly peed myself I was laughing so hard at his ignorance. That man hates women so much, he could almost pass for hetero.
@@FunkyLittlePoptart His rage definitely sounds more and more incel-y if you like, forget the context of whatever he's ranting about and just listen to it from the bottom of your heart
"Women only have feelings for criminals and killers"
"Books written by women are all superfluous and self gratifying, they'll never understand what a man goes through"
"Teenage girls are ignorant and have bad taste in media"
"Women only see you as an accessory on their purses and want you to keep your sex life a secret because they don't care about you so deeply"
Like Jesus Christ, James, are you going to tell me you were friends with a Stacy back in high school too?
09:51 - I can't help but be reminded of the literary quote which introduced that concept to me: 'Just because someone's a member of an ethnic minority doesn't mean they're not a nasty small-minded little jerk'
"All skin folk ain't kin folk."
13:24 only slightly off topic but there’s a website called Queering the Map where people can put pins in locations and write something about their experiences there. It’s… idk it’s just this beautiful thing I can never fully say how it makes me feel??
To anyone checking the comments, I just wanna back up that retraining the algorithm really does work. I've noticed that since I've been willing to watch more videos with ~100-200 views, I now get at least one suggestion a day on that level - and they're really good! Genuinely I've started subscribing to more people because of it.
And if you need a more selfish reason (I won't judge), I'd speculate that it helped me as well. My most recent video has mostly comments saying it hit the algorithm despite having low views/subscribers.
It really has made my feed better since I'm seeing topics I wouldn't normally see but that I at least have a slight curiosity about.
How do you even find those low vi32 videos in the first place? I have had a problem where if I search for a topic yt shows me the big videos... And then just recommends me random crap (I mostly use mobile, is that the problem?)
@@cozygoblin personally, there was this one day, some time before Xmas IIRC, when I found around six videos in my main stream of recommendations with 921 views each. Exactly 921, every one of them. That felt eerie. And three or four of them were genuinely interesting. Similar days when it seems that the Algo is stuck on X views or Y subs have since occurred.
My guess is that they have tweaked the algorithm again.
You're not wrong, problem is I refresh my cookies constantly for all the RUclips ads I'm totally, 100% watching like a good Christian boy, so unfortunately the algorithm doesn't pander to me for long. Makes it hard to find new voices.
@@cozygoblin i recommend starting by checking other websites where people are allowed to self promo! I always post links to Tumblr with #small youtuber or #video essay, and I believe there's a subreddit for people to post their stuff. If you watch a few you like while logged in I think it'll work
The idea that gay men are the original or default queer people is parodied by Brandon Rodgers in a sketch where his character Bryce Tankthrust tries to pander to queer people during Pride Month but she thinks that queer people are all gay men.
Yeah cuz LGB spaces have been and are male centered
@@henazz2561I think you’re forgetting that a lot of LGBTQ+ spaces are mostly *cis white* male focused, as plenty of gay/queer men of color and trans gay/queer men have reported that they don’t feel represented or wanted in their community either. Race plays a HUGE factor into this as well.
@@henazz2561ahhh yes all those L spaces that are male focused... wait what?
thank you a million times for not armchair diagnosing as a form of villification. the sheer prevalence of people doing that regularly is incredibly distressing as someone whose friends are often in the target groups. and thank you for making such a thoughtful video on this
I think I know what diagnoses and words you omitted, and as somebody with that diagnosis? Thanks. It's hard reading tirades in comments sections against trauma I didn't ask for. Means a lot.
Mental illness stigma and sanism are horribly widespread, I'm sorry you have to navigate people spouting such harmful ignorance like that.
glad the algorithm is giving me more transmasc creators, caribbean transmasc person here saying hi to you all
Ayyy! Half Bahamian here, always exciting to meet Caribbean transmasc people. 💙
There's a lot of sneaky misogynistic and sex negative talking points in online leftist conversations. When I initially checked out a couple of James' videos way back in the day, it's what ended up turning me off from his stuff. I hope that this conversation leads to more people reflecting on these pernicious ideas and trying to combat them
somerton even plagiarized being a white queer guy declaring himself the authority on queerness from vaush :3
💀
Ik some ppl have some empathy for James and recognize what he did was still wrong but man as a lesbian in a fandom space, James really contributed to a lot of younger ppl misogyny and how they treat older queer women. James certainly didn’t start/invent misogyny against women but he sure promoted it and it’s going to take so much for people to unlearn that
I gotta admit, the scarily realistic possibility of James Somerton coming back as an Alt-Right ("why I left The Left") grifter had not occurred to me before watching this but all I can imagine now is one of his most dedicated patrons finding a monkey's paw and wishing for his return without being precise enough in their wording.
I love the point about leftism being a thing you do, not a thing you are. In the same vein as "he may be versed in leftist theory but does he do the dishes?" you have to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.
Once again, rather than letting anger cloud the issue, you have channeled it into zeroing in on the central Wrong Thing That Was Done And Why. Very appreciated 💜
And you turned a really interesting phrase in the process... Dunno if you're the first to say "putting your mouth where the money is," but it's my first time hearing it. Fantastic 😃
Great shoutouts too. Don't know Bluebird yet, but if they're anything like the rest of these people then they're great 😊
Oh my, I really needed this video. Thank you for the clarity! I'm a white queer guy(cis, gay), and I'm also a therapist working exclusively with trans youth. In my free time, I volunteer at a GBTQ men's community near me, providing workshops for queer men from many walks of life and trying to heal the trauma of our community together.
I'm also currently in a class for counseling LGBT Adults. While I love the course content and professor, there is another white queer person in the class who recently came out and has to be morally correct on all things in that they were born into doing this and so obviously they understand liberatory ideas. They come for me in class without listen to what I'm saying, and they often speak for queer PoC while spouting the kind of stuff you can hear on any leftist tumblr post. What frustrates me most is... this person grew up in an accepting area, has an accepting family, and is getting helped through their graduate program from said family. I am a poor queer man who is estranged from family and whose only community is the queer community. I don't doubt this individual has struggles of their own, but they are using their queerness to not observe and check their whiteness and classism. Not so surprisingly, this person also talks about not having many connections to other queer people.
You talking about people punching laterally really resonates with me, because I was absolutely that white queer person in my younger years. (that's probably why this person in my class irks me so much) So many times, white queer folks will use our queerness as a shield from working on what we need to in these situations. "I was born into this" is the exact sentiment, and until you shed that sentiment its impossible to be humble and of service to queer people as a whole. This mentality also leads to the huge amounts of energy people put into "being right" and "saying the right things", because to say the wrong thing challenges their sense of who they are.
You're the perfect example of the mentality of how leftists are in a constant state of fighting over who is the biggest victim and shaming eachother for not falling perfectly in line with whatever the current trivial social justice issue of the time is. It's exhausting and leads to nothing. You'd be shocked how many LGBT people are not in support of the current "queer" identity and movement being pushed everywhere that's aggravating regular, decent people. "Queer" activists like to cite Stonewall nonstop like we're being rounded up and thrown in gulags, when the fact is we got our rights, and what's being fought for now is not equality. I'd say that people forget that it wasn't just activism that gave us our rights, but the social contract of integrating into society as equals and assimilating like every single other group of people has done, but the fact of the matter is that the people screaming the loudest aren't even old enough to remember what real oppression and living as a second class citizen is like. I stopped being a leftist when I realized that most supposed issues are just manufactured outrage, and if you step outside and talk to people, the USA isn't full of racism, misogyny, homophobia, etc. It's full of all kinds of regular people working together to make ends meet and most of them don't think twice about the fake boogeyman issues that leftists screech about. The more you cry about non-issues and ignore the things that 99% of Americans actually care about, the less support the left will have (not that it has much anyways).
You're the perfect example of the mentality of how leftists are in a constant state of fighting over who is the biggest victim and shaming eachother for not falling perfectly in line with whatever the current trivial social justice issue of the time is. It's exhausting and leads to nothing. You'd be shocked how many LGBT people are not in support of the current queer identity and movement being pushed everywhere that's aggravating regular, decent people. Queer activists like to cite Stonewall nonstop like we're being rounded up and thrown in prison, when the fact is we got our rights, and what's being fought for now is not equality. I'd say that people forget that it wasn't just activism that gave us our rights, but the social contract of integrating into society as equals and assimilating like every single other group of people has done, but the fact of the matter is that the people screaming the loudest aren't even old enough to remember what real oppression and living as a second class citizen is like. I stopped being a leftist when I realized that most supposed issues are just manufactured outrage, and if you step outside and talk to people, the USA isn't full of racism, misogyny, homophobia, etc. It's full of all kinds of regular people working together to make ends meet and most of them don't think twice about the fake boogeyman issues that leftists screech about. The more you cry about non-issues and ignore the things that 99% of Americans actually care about, the less support the left will have (not that it has much anyways).
Can you add a TL;DC part in your comment because I am not reading all that
@@FireGlitch it's just a leftist sniffing their own farts comment, you're not missing anything.
@@Scar-jg4bnbro shut the hell up i’m not reading your “essay”
This Somerton individual is also conducting themselves like a liberal. They gesture towards progress, but don’t actually want to do anything to change themselves. This should be a lesson that “shutting the eff up and listening” isn’t enough if you’re not willing to change. Bill Clinton famously said, “I feel your pain” to an elderly woman, but would go to pass legislation that harmed millions of people. It’s a kind of liberalism that requires unlearning and changing your behavior.
1000%
So glad to have you back. As an... I'm going to say "social majority," your videos are always so welcoming and helpful easing me into these topics and getting me thinking.
I never even heard of this Sommerton person until Hbomberguy made that video. Lucky me.
Small queer and/or POC creators I love:
- Oakwyrm (queer & disabled)
- Soulbunni (Black and I think queer/trans)
- The Artisan Geek (Black, multilingual, wide range of book recs!)
I think a lot of people have this sort of mentality where they think that being a minority, a victim of some form of abuse or having had any hardship automatically makes them a good person, or a better person than those they perceive as not having suffered as harshly as they have. They find moral superiority in traits that are beyond our control, or unfortunate circumstances of our lives that lead to us being hurt. Despite all forms of hurt and suffering being valid, even if it doesn't seem "as bad". That's not what goodness comes from though. Being a good person comes from someone's actions. It comes from someone's choices. And part of good choices is treating others with respect. This attitude of finding an other to denigrate based on things they had no control over is inherently wrong and cruel. And it is also wrong and cruel to try to hide behind a marginalized group to cover your mistakes. People like James who hide behind their sexuality and blame homophobia for people pointing out their wrongdoings are actively harming other people who share that sexuality. Not to mention how being gay certainly didn't make him immune to being a misogynist. Anyone can be a good person, and anyone can also be a terrible person. A terrible selfish person who entirely lacks empathy and self awareness.
Typing this with tears in my eyes, holy shit.
I am so, so thankful this came up on my feed. It's exactly the video I needed.
I love your compassionate approach to this whole thing.
And from the bottom of my heart, thank you so, so much for acknowledging that armchair diagnosing isn't helpful. I am pretty sure I know what term you were thinking of, and I can't thank you enough for not using it. I don't want to distract from the message by going off on an unrelated rant, but as someone who's been personally hurt by the psych terms that get misused, sensationalized, and distorted, thank you so much for not feeding into that.
On a similar note, thank you for acknowledging that fatphobia exists, and saying it by name. I subscribed instantly after that. It's so rare to find non-fat creators even acknowledging it exists, let alone that it's its a form of oppression.
(Also I know I'm using the word 'acknowledging' a lot. ^^;)
But going back to my main point: thank you for this video. I've been learning about Radical Kindness over the past several months, and I've been trying to implement it into every facet of my life, advocacy, and activism. Finding content creators who are using their platform to do the same, to push for compassion over punitive justice, well, it really helps cement that I'm on the right path there.
And I agree completely that leftism is something you do. I've actually recently stopped calling myself a leftist as much, coincidentally enough. Instead I've started naming what I believe or what I support directly. To paraphrase a tweet I saw: "Am I really leftist? Or do I just get called a commie for saying that people shouldn't starve". Which made me realize that the label doesn't matter; the actions do. And you covered that perfectly.
I know I just wrote a mini essay, but I'm going to follow your lead and not apologize. Instead, I'm going to thank you a final time.
So yes, thank you. You really made my night.
The part where you said "we are not competitors" reminds me of Cait Corraine, the queer white author who review bombed other debut authors but particularly racial minorities.
Also hi im transmasculine and i agree that i dont see a lot of trans masc youtubers. I'd make a channel but if I had any ideas but I don't think I would try touching commentary.
I am an aspiring author though and I feel like I do struggle with jealousy of other writers, especially published ones
Do I know you from Signifier or Foreign? Remember your face - great content, and you've got yourself a new subscriber.
Yes indeed, and thanks so much! 💙
I recommend Caelan Conrad and The Leftist Cooks for more queer creators to check out!
Agreed 100%, especially Caelan. They’re fantastic and extremely funny
All wonderful creators and wonderful people. 💙 (Caelan's recent fundie movie reaction series has been killing me too omfg)
@@FinntasticMrFoxkeep walking basic 💅
Khadija Mbowe and CJ the X are treasures!
Sorry to say, that I've subscribed to your channel ages ago and YT burried it for me totally. I'm sorry. Glad that Fat Culture Critic shouted you out. Happy to be back.
The fact that some of the only original content he released was weird contemptuous ranting about women that didn't even exist is... something. I wish I could say he was the first queer man I've seen that had this strange resentment towards women (or anyone they perceive as as a woman).
Your Call-Outs are a whos-who of the best creators making videos today.
Normally I would never give a channel with the word swole in its name a chance but this one seems cool, not at all like other “swole” channels
This channel is about getting strong enough to lift each other up.
@@FinntasticMrFoxthat's pretty swolesome of you
Honestly, it gave me pause as well.
The “something more than money” I think was that he wanted soooooo badly to be in the “cool kids club.” He tried so hard to get invited to the top breadtube essayists group chat, and got indignant when they wouldn’t immediately accept him or befriend him. It felt very “male entitlement” to me. “I want this, so I must have it”, stepping on the heads of others to obtain it.
I think you’re spot on here. I wish he would examine that entitlement.
this is some of the best most thoughtful analysis of this situation ive seen, most people focus on somerton's actions as an individual problem when really its a symptom of a lot of greater problems both on youtube and in general
my boys back with another banger!
"If any of those terms made you feel like your soul might drop out your butt hole... you might want to sit this one out" 🤣
Great vid thanks!
Given he was a shameful con man, I think those feelings of insecurity might have just been his conscience.
Thank you for this video. I've worked in activist and political spaces for 18 years and the intersectionality of oppression and privilege trips up organizations more than one would expect. And leadership is often terrible about confronting an obviously gay white man who may be harming those less privileged than them because few understand intersectionality.
More videos and essays like this are needed to truly make spaces and movements welcoming and productive for ALL.
2:11 I loved his content so much I always left comments, rewatched, like it really helped me look at different things and such. When I heard about it I was just…. Heartbroken. Heartbroken that he did this, heartbroken that I probably won’t be able to find everyone he ever ripped off… idk how else to describe it.
it's interesting that you say "It's not just a personal betrayal." Because, see, I've had a LOT of thoughts about this. See, I was talking to Vaspider awhile back (you may know him for being cited by Todd In the Shadows as one of the only doods that publicly pushed back against Somerton's lies and bullshit) and he said (I paraphrase):
"Both [Todd and Hbomberguy's videos on] those separate aspects of his shittiness deserve attention. Which video you find more value in will reflect which thing you found more harmful."
I've thought a lot on that, and I think in the end Todd's video is the one I found more value in despite feeling like Hbomberguy's video had better flow as an _essay._ If Somerton had _just_ plagiarized, and _just_ been a content farming source of white noise, then I'd.... still hate him, don't get me wrong, he _did_ steal from and erase queer creators. But it hurts more, somehow, by knowing that not only did he steal his platform, but he used it to cause harm. Like you said, James made a choice.
Happy to see you back and to listen to your analysis of things.
glad to see you back! I wish it could've been a more positive occasion, but your commentary is always well thought out and helpful.
the commodification of leftism has certainly always been a problem and certainly was anticipated by early theorists... but i don't think anyone could have guessed at how bad it would get
how many people would start getting whiplash from World of Tank midroll ads in the midst of deep systemic critiques, or how there would form an entire cultural movement that really, genuinely thinks that the best way to deliver emancipation is by turning it into a business. the raw quantity of 'leftists' that would eschew the work of organizing in favor of sharing lefty-vibes on a platform that literally will not even let them use the language or grammar of revolution - being cowed by that censorship and encouraging others to bow to it instead of resisting it
Thank you for sharing queer creators. It’s difficult to find smaller creators on RUclips, and I genuinely appreciate when people recommend their channels.
James Somerton is a classic example of an opportunist, one who puts their own interests ahead of the interests of the working class, and all groups, especially those who are oppressed because of immutable traits they may have, in them. We on the left have dealt with opportunists like this in the past, people like Eduard Bernstein and Karl Kautsky. Knowing the tactics of the opportunists and how leftists in the past dealt with them, whether successful or not, is important. Bes D. Marx's three-part series "The Betrayal of the German Revolution" is a very long watch, but I highly recommend it if you want to see a particularly important example of how opportunists can fracture the left and prevent us from ever being able to achieve our goals.
Your voice is really soothing ngl
Thanks for posting that playlist, and big shout-outs for awesome Q creators like Aranock and MahBluebird!
that thumbnail omg I love it so much
Dog bless you, Finn
awesome video
I love how many people are using the opportunity since the hbomb dropped as a chance to shout out the queer creators that they enjoy... though the list of channels I'm subscribed to is now almost overwhelming,!
Hey I'm a first time watcher and hope to become one returning Swolemate (Is that how you write it?) over time. I found you while watching Big Body Foreign's videos and was happy to find another trans masc creator on RUclips, since I barely know any so far. So I'm looking forward to that list you want to compile and thanks in advance for the other queer creators you recommended. Except Aranoc, all of them were new names for me and after I had been fooled by Somerton, I really want to find more creators from marginalized communities to learn and broaden my own view.
I don't know if I can manage to avoid all the grifters like him, or if will fall for someone elses lies. But at least I learned to watch more closely if someone is connected (within their community) and invites guests to talk on topics they know more about or give a unique perspective. Or who give shoutouts to other creators. Cause while Somerton was not my sole queer video essayist I watched, I did not realize how the others uplift each other, while he... he upliftet himself and maybe a little bit his co-writer Nick.
I hope that if he attempts a comeback, that it fails and crashes, but I'm not so sure about that. I have seen comments of people trying to cheer him on, to just get up again an do better this time. But I don't know if the can make it right, when he doesn't believe in the values he plagiarized and profited on. Maybe in 10 years or so I could hope that he learned his lesson, but not like in a few weeks or months.
Those values you talked about, are something that you have to learn, build up and continue to care about and not fall into some trap where you think that you are so left, that you can't still be discriminating someone. The amount of information and time he had to internalize those values, was more than enough and he did not do it. He won't be able to do it in such a short time no matter how actually sorry he feels.
And even more important, before he plans a comeback he should address his own psychological problems and get time to work on them. If he doesn't improve his mental health, he is prone to fall into the same patterns of using his queerness as a shield again and again, at least that's what I think would happen.
In the end I wanna thank you for this video and your delivery of it.
That is indeed how you write it, and thank you so much for this comment. It's important not to blame ourselves when we're lied to, of course, but I think you've described a good approach here. People actively building community and showing those values are a much safer bet. I too hope James grows as a person, but agree that's gonna take a lot of time given how far he is into certain thinking.
i can't wait to see the transmasc list!! i've been looking for a wider range of different kinds of transmasc creators. tryna find role models
Im glad the algorithm pointed me here at least! Educational , informative content delivered with one of the most pleasant speaking voices.
Cheers
I really appreciate your take on all this! ❤
Thank you for using your platform to uplift fellow creatives.
hi! i found your channel after the somerton fallout because it was in a list of recommended queer youtubers to follow. and i'm so glad i found you, because you seem like a damn thoughtful person
Oh god...
Not the BEE-sexual lighting!!
What an exceptionally thoughtful essay. Thank you.
10:08 THIS! Well, the entire video, but this point needs to be noted and reminded regularly. Thank you!
fantastic video! i'm so glad yt did good and recommended your channel to me
This was wonderful! Thank you very much for speaking on this, and know that your voice is appreciated always.
As a enby Jew who's parents are Jews from Ukraine:
When people spew anticapitalist and anti colonialist and anti imperialist
rhetoric to justify the Russian war against Ukraine, it makes these ideologies seem like grifts
Maybe that's the real reason why mid-level management is so irritating and why any form of Socialism hits a dead end in America. People are all too willing to accept being stepped on as long as they know they will one day be able to step on someone else.
America was built on an obsession with stepping on others. That’s what causes the consistent roadblocks. The idea of equal and ethical treatment of all people is antithetical to the very nature of the country.
Thank you for the wonderful work you do 💜
I really appreciate this breakdown of the bigger picture. Very fair and thoughtful take on what happened. Definitely am pissed to have financial support him, like so many others. It’s not like our community already has trust issues and financial limitations so for me, THAT is what is unforgivable. Not only did he prey on his own kind but that community is already preyed upon by everyone else too. To treat your community like garbage…
this was really nice, thank you. It is so hard to know who to trust and watch online and sommerton made that worse for me. I have been searching for more creators, Thanks again.
I like how you pushed the conversation forward. I learned a valuable lesson or two from the Somerton man fiasco. One thing ive heard said is "...how could anyone fall for such an obvious grifter...?" And the answer for me is that he had stolen the work of brilliant queer writers, and he was savvy enough to fool me when he mimed their words with such conviction. From now on I gotta check the sources and practice diligence when casually viewing RUclips. Thank you for the vid and also the suggestions at the end!
Great takes, great call to action on what it means to do leftist work, thanks Finn
Also I’m super looking forward to the transmasc highlight reel video you have planned
your james somerton impression was spot on lmfaooo
i can already tell this is gonna be a banger
One of the few videos on this topic I could actually get through . Sometimes the internet can get pitch-forky in a way that isn't helpful. This was an actual measured response.
Thank you for this! You're far kinder to James Somerton than I would have been, but it's genuinely lovely to see such a thoughtful, nuanced perspective. And I can't wait to see your work with other transmasc creatives - we are so sadly invisible and it's a bit thrilling to get to hear from men like me.
First time seeing you and it's a real good first expression. I also feel bad for Somerton (and felt bad for feeling bad) and you explained those feelings very well. I am so angry with him but I can't help pitying someone being met with such hatred.
I love how you explained how this is a cultural betrayal. That hit the nail on the head for me.
Honestly that intro went off so hard. Another great job Swolesome!!!
Hi! new to the channel here. Thanks for bringing me attention to the queer erasure issue and how it is even worse in algorithm-based platforms like RUclips. I wish you could elaborate more on how to fight against it and train the algorithm better in future videos (or point me to older videos that you or others might have around in case i havent checked those) thanks and cheers, love from Brazil
I will definitely talk about it more going forward! One really great thing to do is make sure you engage with smaller channels when you subscribe. The algorithm notes your viewing habits more so than subscription patterns. I hope this helps, but I’ll definitely be including more recommendations in future videos, too. 💙
Found you from a video by Matriarchetype. Excellent video (yours, I mean), and thanks for the playlist and tumblr post -- always looking for new queer content!
great video!
Great video with some fantastically well made points 👍