For those of you who don't know, Pewdiepie is the most popular creator on YouTube. And for a good reason.
About a week ago, he made a video of his Arena gameplay. It got about 4 million views.
And recently, he got to the Mythic rank.
He also gives amazing names to his decks.

Heated Moment
Instant
Until end of turn, whenever a creature you control is dealt damage, it deals damage equal to its power to target opponent.

as someone whose job is youtube, can I just say that I really wish he wasn't?

Didn't he lose #1 status? He does seem like a rather unpleasant fellow.
That's unimportant though. He's bringing attention to the game, so I won't complain.

Um, the sort of "attention" he brings, in the context of gaming, is...
It isn't always positive.


Oh yeah, I saw your Aqualung video in my recommendations a while back. You're pretty good at that stuff.
And yeah, I can see how he might have made your platform a bit less palatable for advertisers.

I'm only vaguely aware of the Pewdepie thing, so what exactly is the deal? I got the impression that he's a racist or fascist or something, and not just foul-mouthed and aggressive, but I don't really know.

He keeps accidentally doing racist and similar things, like promoting an alt-right channel, saying the n-word on stream, paying someone to display "Kill All Jews", etc. Most incidents I would say may be understandable as a mistake, but if it keeps happening, it becomes questionable.

I don't think saying the n-word is understandable as a mistake though; it is not a word you just say accidentally.

I only heard about the guy like a week ago due to spammed "subscribe to..." messages.

The very context of my gaining awareness of his existence inclined me against him. This thread is not doing anything to improve that perception.

Pewdiepie is provocative and crude, I think that much is true. He can be pretty unpleasant.
And he is DEFINITELY OVERRATED. Not the best youtuber, by far. (The very best youtuber I've seen is Vihart, imo.)

But I still kinda like him. Again, there are good reasons why he is so overrated. He is rather funny (sometimes), he is good at what he does, and he isn't afraid of being himself - rather, he exaggerates it.
Many youtubers are trying to be nice all the time. And that is all well when it works, but unless you are a naturally extraordinarily nice person, or is extraordinarly good at emotional control or acting, you will sometimes seem insincere, repressed, and bland. Pewdiepie is none of those things.
On the topic of what Pewdiepie isn't - he isn't a nazi or alt-right or whatever. I'd say he just doesn't care about those matters in any way. He isn't a kind of guy who will make ties to people because they are alt-right or who will make bad jokes for the sake of racism. He ALSO isn't a kind of guy who will naturally break ties with people who are apparently alt-right or will naturally refrain from making bad jokes because they can be seen as racist. I think he just doesn't care about this stuff. Well, now he is all but forced to care, by YouTube and popular opinion, so now he does, if not without some ridicule. And that's good, imho.

Here's a good in-depth analysis of one of PewDiePie's big controversies (it's long but good):

If someone does not care about racism, they are racist.

He can choose to not care about racism and it is his life; few people can force millionaires do anything. But a person cannot move in the world and actively not care about racism and not be racist. If you are not doing anything, you are helping to maintain the status quo—which is that racism is alive and well. If you are a millionaire and have a massive audience, I would say the burden is higher on you than others.

Eh... I really, really don't know about this logic...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/You%27re_either_with_us,_or_against_us
How many people, by that defenition, are racist? Around 95% of the Earth's population? Maybe.
How many people don't care about [subject X] because they either passively accept it or don't encounter it enough or have too much other things to do to worry about?

If those who don't care support "the status quo", will their position automatically shift when the status quo shifts? Which they likely won't even notice, because they don't care?

If I live in a city which status quo is, say, liberal, but in a country which status quo is, say, conservative, and I don't care about politics... who am I implied to be by inaction - liberal or conservative?

the status quo shifts slower when people don't do anything to shift it. so yes, if some day the status quo shifts to a position where there is no systemic racism then people who just go with whatever that status quo is will no longer be tacitly supporting systemic racism, but in the meantime their apathy perpetuates an unjust system.

but this is all a smokescreen anyway: Pewdiepie doesn't "not care" about racism. Pewdiepie has been actively, repeatedly racist. dropping the N word isn't a "bad joke [that] can be seen as racist", it's just actually racist. the "Death To All Jews" thing is a bit more arguable, but in the end there were numerous absurd things he could've put on that sign and he went with antisemitism. that's a choice he made, and the fact that he thought it was the funniest option says a lot about his character.

I thought he was just unfunny. Now i have to question even more all the people that are subbing him to beat T-series

I guess I don't know tons about earth population but here in the US, way more than 5% of people care about racism because they have been on the receiving end of it.


If you have close ties with racists and you don't care they are racist, it doesn't matter whether or not you are geographically near liberals.

He plays MTG?

I DON'T CARE!

*Proceeds to toss Happy Wheels kids off the bike while dogging spears coming from everywhere*