Recently I saw a video (When Your Hero Is A Monster) talking about the general response people have any time a celebrity is revealed to have been doing sex crimes. A common response is to claim you always knew something was up, as a way to process your grief at having been misled into believing they were a good person. They suggested that this impulse is harmful because it signals to others that they aren’t “good enough” because they didn’t see it coming. But this is usually post-fact rationalization, not a belief that was held before the reveal.
It made me think about how Honey blew up recently (How Honey Scammed Everyone on YouTube). I never installed it because it seemed suspicious1, but I never called it out, so now me saying so is exactly the same knee-jerk response. It doesn’t actually help, whether or not it’s true that I felt there was something wrong, because now it’s too late to have warned anyone. It made me realize that I should be more forthright in saying when I think something bad is going on. At the very least, I can point to proof and say “yes, I did actually suspect” and know that I’m not making false memories, but it also is helpful to talk about misgivings because that’s how you can work out whether or not your concerns are justified, and maybe even help others.
This also made me think about COVID. In March or April 2019, I correctly predicted exactly (within a few months) how long it would take for vaccines to arrive, and how people would pretend it stopped being a problem despite becoming endemic. But I didn’t say anything publicly. I told close friends and family what to do to be safe, and what to expect. I made my dad take precautions and took over riskier interactions to help keep him safe. I should’ve told more people. It’s my only regret from all of 2019. I could’ve helped more people, but I didn’t.
When you are unsure of something, or you feel that is something wrong, talk about it. Markiplier called out Honey’s suspicious activity years ago. Through dialogue, you learn whether or not your fears are misplaced, you help others remember to stay vigilant, or even help others recognize something is wrong long before it becomes popular or common knowledge. This is a mistake I keep making, but I’m trying to improve. When I see something important to discuss, I should call out. It’s not about being correct, it’s about communication.
Linus Media Group pulled their Honey sponsorships over suspicions a long time ago, but didn’t talk much about it. One could easily argue they are partially to blame for not speaking up, but it’s also easy to argue that it was a private business decision, and they didn’t know how important it would be to say something. (Hell, they could’ve even been under contract requiring them to keep the secret2. We would never know.) They did post a response to the Honey situation. That’s also a class-action lawsuit underway, spearheaded by LegalEagle.
Footnotes
Is it still footnotes if you’re just posting semi-related thoughts?
- Ironically, I was suspicious of it primarily because of privacy violations (tracking any shopping you do, but possibly also just everywhere) and because I assumed it worked through backroom deals with sellers to give out discounts in exchange for customer information – allowing a company to keep its image clean because it wasn’t the one who stole your private information, it just bought that information. As we now know, that’s not at all what was happening.
- Being under a secretive contract is always bad. You don’t get to know what secrets you’re required to keep secret without signing the contract. Because of this, it’s hard to blame someone for being required to keep a secret. Obviously, there are many secrets that are highly unethical.. but it’s understandable to value your life more than revealing such secrets.
As always, I endeavor to make sure my blog posts are archived.