James Somerton & Community Solidarity
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- čas přidán 5. 12. 2023
- Lets talk about James Somerton and community solidarity.
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He doesn't plagiarize, he Somerizes
Ha! Good pun.
@@jessiegenderafterdark5287 - I second that, good pun.
they do no steal, she jameszes.
😂😂 good one 🎉
.... Damn that's good
When Nick (James's co-writer) said in Discord that they don't watch or even talk to other queer CZcamsrs, my jaw dropped. It was such a "you don't even realize you're telling on yourself" moment.
Damn, I like how Hbomerguy really didn't want to hurt Nick ... But the more I learn about him I don't think he's really that much better than James. He's James but without the stealing.
(Todd showing recipes of him not fact checking and standing with the BS info, now this... Gives me the ick)
Are we sure James is gay or is he plagiarizing that too/j
@@theshinypuppy3083 god damn it Nick we gave you the benefit of the doubt-
Also you can change recipes to receipts if you want, but imo recipes is fully functional as like, a concocted plan of executed behavior. Also I like it
Same energy as illuminaughty claiming to not watch other Videos on MLM.
Funny enough Illuminaughtti who also showed up in that video infamously tried to claim she didn't even know there was an anitmlm community
To be fair to somerton, he did a really great job of getting the words of queer creators out there. Nearly the exact words, in fact.
this comment should be more popular lmao
then he got buttloads of money for it
Lmao
@@madelinemcmillan4020And that's the bit that any defenders will conveniently forget. That money should have gone to the original creators, but instead it landed in his pocket....
😂
A big issue with James is that when he talks about "the queer community", he really just means gay (and maybe bisexual) cisgender men. To him, THAT is his community. He has no intention of find solidarity with women or with people he perceives as women, regardless of how queer they are.
I kinda get the feeling he feels alienated from queer men as well, but that he focuses his rage for whatever reason on women, who he feels particularly victimised by, regardless of any truth of the current interaction. Maybe he has some trauma that feeds into his narcissism but it's sad that he doesn't seek therapy he just shits on others, particularly women.
@@Deutschebahn The reason some gay men are particularly misogynistic is because being gay is, in the opinion of the patriarchy, emasculating. It makes you less of a man to be gay so in order to reclaim their masculinity they can always join the boys club of being misogynistic. A gay man being misogynistic is just them trying to reclaim their masculinity from our patriarchy.
That’s actually a great point 🙌🏻 he clearly doesn’t regard trans-women as part of his community, so huge creators like Abigail Thorn don’t “count” as queer creators because he hates women SO MUCH 🙄 he even hates women who have spent some time on this earth in male bodies and may have experienced discrimination that was similar to his own.
There’s just something about femininity that is offensive to him 😬 I would guess there is some pain that causes that for him 😢 I’m not sure if he was bullied for being feminine, or if he felt like women have an easier time in this world than gay men, or he had sh*tty female friends… but his misogyny issues are intense.
He's also historically been an aspec exclusionist.
@@OpalLeigh
Can we please stop trying to make cis gay men's misogyny a symptom of their sexuality/oppression or ,even worse, the fault of a woman ?!
It happens every single time it's as if people refuse to admit a cis gay man is still a cis man in a misogynistic patriarchal society and that he can gain power from being misogynistic.
I'm so tired of this rethoric.
Yes, trauma can push people into believing or reinforcing pre-existing belief in bigoted concepts but this fact shouldn't be used to push some kind of victimhood unto people who harm others especially when we don't even know them !
James Somerton can be a misogynist and not have any trauma related to femininity or women in general. And even if he did, he doesn't deserve the sympathy that should be given to the people he victimized.
I'm reading a lot of comments here about people who put aside his weird comments about women precisely because they thought it was due to bad experiences or that he may have had a point as gay man. People should have been able to call him out for being misogynistic the moment they heard his comments but they didn't because he weaponized his identity. But he couldn't have done this if misogyny wasn't so normalized in the gay community.
The first video of James's I saw was his JK Rowling one, where he discussed her transphobia and the effects it had on HP fans etc. I thought it was brilliant and subbed immeditately etc. So, to hear him claim Nebula has no LGTBQ+ creators - openly disregarding the trans creators like Jessie and like Abigail Thorne - is beyond ridiculous. It's the cherry on top of this whole shit cake.
I think that's the only video of his I finished as it felt personal. Everything else I tried just felt clinical and detached. Turns out, he edited out all the personal connections to hide the plagerism.
That was the first video I saw as well
The first video of his that I saw was basically Vito Russo's book, The Celluloid Closet, with very little added and nothing credited as nearly as I could tell. Nevertheless, I subscribed. I do find he brings a bit more of LGBTQ history into most essays than most queer essayists do, which I appreciate as an old guy, as I find it useful to bring current events into perspective with a past that I've tried to forget. He has also been one of the few cis yet identifiably queer youtubers making serious content.
Does anyone know of a content creator who makes similar material, but does it more ethically?
Also Sarah Z is openly bisexual and a nebula creator.
He's a misogynist and a transphobe, which is very ironic considering those are like the two things he was not supposed to be
I liked James' videos because at times, as in, in the videos I watched, I found it amazing how he, as a cis-gay man, was able to talk with consideration of gender within the queer community. "He must really talk with people" I thought. Never had I considered that he was just repeating the work of non-cis authors
I really don't think language like "quereer" should be used. You are either queer or you're not. While frustration with James is understandable, implying that there is a hierarchy to queerness is dangerous in a number of ways. Bisexual people are still fighting for full inclusion in queer spaces because of that exact mindset. Think of James what you want, I sure do, but he still is fully queer and I would like to believe that we wont take away others queerness just because they are not the best of people.
@@hahu9088 Yeah, his sexuality is possibly the only valid thing about him
@hahu9088 I'm sorry, I agree with you and misspoke there. I was trying to talk about representing queerness in gender as a cis person and reached for a bad short hand after a couple attempts. I edited it now to reflect what I meant better
thats gonna be the really different part to wrap our minds around
when someone whos work you liked
turns out to plagiarize almsot all his work
that means the work you liked wasn't theirs
and doesn't actaully tell you much about them
Yeah, he stole the experiences of a trans writer who was writing with intimate knowledge of the trans experience, and passed it off as if he was the one with the intimate understanding. That's the grossest part to me. Steal my art, ok you're a pos, but steal my experience and co-opt the experience of another marginalized group? That's just super gross to me. Like another deep form of depravity, queer erasure, and arrogance.
James Somerton gives big "I'm the only gay in the village" energy. It's so sad because I wouldn't have found creators like you if it wasn't for members of the creator community promoting other folk that they like.
rather than trying to seek solidarity with other queer folk in the wake of his trauma, he used it to perpetually make himself the victim and attempt to profit from that as much as possible under the guise of potential entitlement. truly another moment of being white before queer.
Probably hoped people wouldn't find where he waz plagiarizing from
Oh, perfect reference. Exactly right.
I'm relieved that someone else made that reference because I really didn't want to, but... yeah, he's definitely the guy who likes being Our Resident Gay.
I'd be shocked if he doesn't end up lurching to the right, because you know they're going to lovebomb the shit out of him.
Somerton reminds me of the kind of person to "other" me even though we're both gay; I'm just not his definition of gay, and therefore am nothing. I feel it coming off him in waves
H Bomb pointed it out, and it's something I never heard, which is that James identifies himself as a "marketing expert" before "gay." And BOY HOWDY does it show!! The "there can be only one" corporate mindset is strong with him.
Also, the sheer fucking laziness of him: making the most amount of money possible by exerting the least amount of effort possible.
"I identify as capitalosexual."
@@dinosaysrawr-rich white gay men right before they pull the ladder up
THIS
@@dinosaysrawrLMAOOOOOO
probably the most disgusting thing james said was when he called survivors of the AIDS crisis "thr boring ones" who "didn't know anyone" and talked about the fight for marriage equality as if it were frivolous.
I'm really curious if that bit was original or plagiarized.
@@clev7989It's bitter and stupid enough that it was probably from him
@@ArcAngle1117You never know. If it was, it may have been "edited" a bit.
he “borrowed” that phrasing from a [self-hating gay homophobe] character from Tony Kushner’s play “Angels in America.” dude even plagiarizes his own bigotry
there’s a really great comment going into more detail on that line and its context (the character was a fictionalized version of a real and very terrible dude) on the todd in the shadows video
On a brighter note, now that Somerton is gone, the LGBT+ viewership will be spread out among more creators that actually deserve it.
I remember Nebula recently being taken off of a TV app store for “queer content”.
The “Nabula has no queer creators” thing is _really_ funny in that context.
Wait, really? I can't find news of it. Do you remember the app or source?
What tv store
@@clev7989 @MaticTheProto LG TV. The source is a tweet by Dave Wiskus, which I originally saw second hand through a youtube video and reddit post.
I wanna know too
@@clev7989 I found a tweet by CEO (@dwiskus), saying:
- The app store team at @LGUS has informed us that the inclusion of "LGBTQ+ content" is a violation of their policy, and we need to remove the Nebula app in 46 countries.
I'd add to this that Todd in the Shadows had a great related video on the sheer number of lies and bull in Somerton's videos.
Todd in the Shadows’s video was basically a part 2 to hbomberguy’s vid. I’d suggest anyone that hasn’t watched that vid to go check it out!
@@Naveen-tx8be As someone who's seen both videos, I can sign off on this.
...never thought I'd see Todd in the Shadows deliver a DEATH BLOW to someone's fucking career.
Right I actually found out about all this from his video
I made the mistake to watch Todd's video first, so I treated it as an Amuse Bouche to HBomberguy's main course ❤
Those two videos truly were James's 9/11 lmao
I remember seeing a clip of him saying Nebula wouldn’t work with him and thinking "huh. They have a lot of queer video essayists. I wonder what hes not saying" and now I know 😂
That comment was why I stopped watching him. It was just this realization that he didn’t know what he was talking about.
The way he tried to pretend it's not the case and he would have been "the only gay" on the platform, implying some sort of prejudice... More than a little suspicious, considering how many queer creators are actually on Nebula.
BY GOD HERE COMES JESSIE GENDER WITH A STEEL CHAIR
Stop, stop, he's already dead!
It's like those videos of mortal kombat where reptile is subjected to every fatality, but it's every queer creator (and some non-queer ones too) lining up for a finisher on James.
AS GOD IS MY WITNESS HE IS BROKEN IN HALF
4h well spent.
Hbomb may not post many videos, but when he does, he is the personification of quality over quantity
I loved Jenny Nicholson's cheeky nod to that.
I cannot find it again among all the comments but it was something like "Harry, how do you manage to release so many high quality videos in such a short amount of time?"
You could say his content is “The Bomb”
he is the guy the bomb, the bomb guy!!!!!
and
THE GOOOOOOAAAAATTTTTT!!!
@@alastorcorvusJenny is the best person to make that joke because she does the same damn thing 😂 and damned if we don’t love her for it.
Tangent- Illuminaughti had this same energy about the anti-MLM community that she was ripping off, “Oh I didn’t know there was an anti-MLM community” when she was clearly farming all of their work for her content. I guess it’s hard to have community and be collaborative when you’re only thinking about yourself!
Is this multi-level marketing or men loving men
@@columbus8myhw the first one
@@columbus8myhw multi level marketing
Anti-MLM? Wass that?
@@Friendylalanine-98 anti multilevel marketing, so bascially people who critise or debunk scams like pyramidal schemes I think?
I'll be honest, I'm in shock over this drama. I was unaware of your Twitter drama with him, as I don't do Twitter or most social media. I just listen to queer CZcams while playing video games during my rest times. James was a soothing voice, but yeah, some of his stuff seemed angry towards cis women. But it wasn't always noticeable with the hundreds of hours of what I thought was well researched video essays and opinions. He was the only non trans female Patreon I had. His $5 now goes to "Council of geeks."
Same I did not know any of this
@@Aveoncore sorry CZcams put me replying to you not the person I wanted to reply to,
Yeah I'm not on Twitter, and I too listened to this guy every now and again. I thought some things he said would rub me the wrong way like his beef with women but I would brush it off and not think much about it.
I didn't realize how much worse it really was and after watching both videos by Hbomber and Todd now I realize there was definitely a pattern of behavior going on.
I feel so embarrassed for being so fooled
I've only just discovered Council of Geeks myself, what a find.
@@pmcKANE oh yeah, she's great, LOVE ❤️ their content.
I always thought it was odd that he's never collaborated with other queer CZcamsrs, considering his size as a queer creator, you would think he would be open to that sort of thing. Now I know why he never has.
yeah. Like he wouldn't even try working with other cis gay men on youtube, even though they seem to be the only people in the queer community he doesn't hate.
Yeah, I can't help but compare Mr Somerton to similar content creators. The person who springs to mind is Matt Baume. He also creates videos detailing historical gay presentation in media. However, his work is clearly coming from a position of passion about the subject matter. He is never openly hostile to other groups, even when disagreeing with their views/behaviours (no hatred directed at teenage girls for existing or anything like that). Also, he often interviews the people he is discussing (or co-stars, show runners and writers). He has a bunch of additional content on his patreon and cites his sources. His videos are a joy to watch, entertaining while being informative.
@@hazardsignsI was about to throw hands that ya mentioned Matt Baume, bcuz if you look at his early work he collabed quite a ton when he was doin all that StopProp8 stuff
@@SylviaRustyFae Ah no, I meant he does work with others, especially people in the film and TV industry. He is also a treasure! It was past midnight when I wrote my comment, so it's not the most succinct 🙈
@@hazardsigns You are so right. I've been watching Matt Baume's videos for years but these past few days have had me appreciating his work more than ever.
I wasn’t aware about James Somerton until I watched that Hbomberguy video on plagiarism. Him complaining that there’s “no queer representation” on a streaming platform like Nebula where there’s plenty of queer representation is petty AF, especially coming from someone who steals from other queer content creators.
And part of his scheme, right? "I'm the only game in town, invest in me" is a good marketing tactic. It just has to be true.
@@dante6985 He definitely reminds me of Daffyd Thomas who was a character on Little Britain. He’ll act sad and say things like “Oh, I’m the only gay in the village!” And then when more gay/queer folk start showing up, he acts like they’re stealing attention away from him. So then he’ll just try so hard to push them out of the spotlight to stay on top. I think that’s a fair comparison. 😅
What he probably means is that he's the only good queer, and all the other queers are a lesser form of queerness and therefore irrelevant.
You know, queer erasure based on ego.
@@Starbush69 Hahaha that's an apt comparison. I'd call him an evil Daffyd.
...Daffyd had better style though. James wears bond villain esque black turtlenecks.
Gays tend to know better than that (check out Matt Baume and Matt Bernstein, /there's/ your style.)
Maybe he didn't think there were enough thieves on the platform?
That part on hbombs video where he replaced the word “trans people” with “lgbtq people” twice was very telling to me, especially since it wasn’t the first time he rewrote non-binary and trans experiences to be inclusive to HIM. He really couldn’t not insert himself into the discussion.
The Somerton situation really affected me. I'm someone who came to their queerness late. And without getting too into it, that was a really long journey of deconstruction, unlearning bad things, and coming to embrace and explore the very things I was always taught were literally evil. I'm not proud of a lot of the things I once stood for. So when I decided to learn about queer history, James Somerton came up a lot on CZcams. This might sound ridiculous, but what he did feels violating to me as a viewer who turned to his content as a means of learning and healing. Not the only one, but enough of one that I'd of called him one of the main voices I was hearing. To find out that he was stealing the whole time and that the only things he actually contributed was bitterness towards women and plain falsehoods, I'm still processing it honestly. The worst one for me was finding out that his video about Rowling was one of the ones he plagerized. This big performance of allyship with trans people was stolen.
i feel the same way. i was just a random gay trying to learn more about queer history. "violated" is definitely the word i'd use to describe this as well.
James was disingenuous but the ideas he shared (apart from the things he completely made up - another creator made a video fact checking him), originated from people who are credible. People who have experienced, researched, studied and documented what it is to be LGTBQIA+ Hbomberguy cited a lot of the sources James used, so go to the source - the books, films, research papers that he plagiarised.
Where was the info about the Rowling video being plagiarized? (Look, there's been a lot of videos coming out, lol)
I'm super curious about that one in particular since it seemed so personal. Was he plagiarizing the stuff about his personal life too??
@perrisavallon5170 In Hbomberguy's video there's a part where he highlights which of Somerton's videos were plagiarized in red. The Rowling one was one of those videos. He didn't show specific examples for it though so I couldn't tell you which parts specifically are plagiarized.
I think Rowling’s video might have been taken from TalistheIntrovert’s analysis, as well as the ones comparing Heartstopper and Only Friends and a couple others. Talis has far fewer subscribers and is an asexual biromantic AFAB which puts her exactly in the demographic that the plagiarist would think beneath himself and thus easy to take from.
I’m proud to put my faith in you as a creator, Jessie. I’m a cishet dude so I’m only ever able to approach this all as an ally, but your perspective always broadens my horizons and my ability to love my queer friends and family more completely.
As an aside, that’s the cutest friggin hoodie I’ve ever seen.
As a queer trans man, happy to have you here! ☺️
We need more outsiders willing to be there. I'm glad to see people like you show their support.
I know it's the least consequential thing about this video, but honestly I can't stop thinking about that hoodie! 😁
Don't put your faith in any creators ever. Jessie still liked tweets of black creators calling another black creator a racial slur that starts with "C" because they didn't like how he made leftist content via streaming. I think her content still has merit, but never make a content creator your friend or hero.
It really is an adorable hoodie
I see so many people uplifting other queer voices and creators, which is the most silvery lining that could come out of this, and I wanted to add Vivian Strange to that list; her essays are incredibly thoughtful and nuanced, and I always come away from her videos with a lot to think about.
One upside to this story is learning the names of LGBT+ writers that actually did write the analyses James stole. Especially, the queer horror movie video, which I really liked at the time, and I’m glad to have a list of people to check out. Sadly, a lot of writers James stole from will likely remain unknown.
Seconded. Vivian Strange is a-fucking-mazing
This is literally the only good thing to come out of this mess. I'm grateful for knowing about queer content creators I had missed before and those I already follow like Princess Weeks and also Verily Bitchie.
So cool. I recommend Amethyst-szs. She doesn’t make trans-related videos, but she’s an awesome funny video game modder and I love how she just pushes video games to their extreme
Vivian Strange is amazing. And so is Style is Substance, and Hazel.
Hbomberguy changed CZcams, the internet and possibly culture with his video. Kind of incredible to see the impact of his video in just under a week. Love your videos Jessie :)
Hbomberguy is definitely what I'd call "your favorite youtuber's favorite youtuber". Seeing J. Kenji Lopez-Alt in the comments was WILD.
It's just a lib, noticing a bigger lib. Calm down lol it's not as world changing as you think jfc...
If nothing else, I have to respect the fact that, when he found out that Illuminaughti plagiarised Brian Deere's documentary... he appears to have just kind of sat on that information for a couple of years, just so he could reveal it at the worst possible time for her (i.e. when she was accusing someone else of stealing from her).
That is impressively petty and I love him for it.
I hope something more comes of this
I always loved Hbomberguy videos, way back to the Anita Sarkeesian debacle, but, often they are too long for me to be able to sit through one. I did for this one... and it was pretty shocking. While the reasons why I stopped creating for the gay community were several, one of which was precisely the fact that I was doing original content that took months or even years to develop (and all for free), just to see others monetize their crappy videos, made with my creations, behind paywalls like Patreon. It's like a punch in the stomach.
This has been a disheartening time for me, not because I was a fan of James Somerton (I watched some of his stuff probably less critically than I should've, given I noticed a couple things that seemed off, but didn't think deeper) but because it feels like a blow and a major insult and so much more to an already marginalized community and especially writers/creators. I don't pay much attention to social media (especially that of creators I like, I think it might help with the parasocial stuff) so I didn't know about this aspect until I saw references in the videos about James, which does make me feel guilty about not being more in touch with communities, I just don't feel like I have the bandwidth. This video really does touch upon a somewhat overlooked aspect of what happened and part of why, so thsnk you for opening up and talking about this.
Same here. I had a sense that something was off, because the way he reads his script seems a lot like something meant to be written for an article, not for a video. But I often neglect that and focused more on the points that he made (or ya know, the points that other creators made and he stole from). Disappointing...
An insult to one liar has nothing to do with a marginalized community at all, that's like saying if the Creator was black it was racism. No offense, this is the mindset I think we need to overcome.
@@carpo719 I think you misunderstand. I did not mean the insult to the community is because Somerton is queer but rather based on what he evidently did: plagiarize queer writers, failing to properly credit them, essentially depriving these people who actually had the thoughts and feelings of the exposure they deserve for those very things, and he benefitted off of it in the process.
This was me, too. I watched some of his stuff, considered myself a fan, but didn't think too critically about some things I know that I'd heard him say.
He got me in with the gay panic video, which had me in tears, but I missed stuff Todd in the Shadows picked up.
I know I'd watched the one on body image, and some how didn't go "wait, what" to the Nazi stuff.
And then to find that he stole a lot - except the lies (and including some of those).
Blech.
My favorite videos from him are the ones on Young Royals, Helluva Boss (Bad Gays are Good), and Black Swan (Queer Perfection).
These vids are not flagged for plagiarism in hbomber's video (yet), but could anyone find any evidence for that?
The thing I noticed about James' criticisms of others in his videos are that he doesn't discuss the problems with peoples beliefs or political views or any changable factor in a human, he criticized people for... being a white woman. Or for being a teen girl. And so on. He was angry at people for being what they are, not *how* they were.
I only watched a handful of his videos, ended up being put off on I think Killing Stalking or a similar one where he really started to sound like a doom scroller, relating the woes of a dark romance to real life and saying how EVERY queer in the real world WILL be abused and assaulted, likely by their partners. It sat really weird with me at the time, and now I realise it's probably because it had the same underlying 'incel' vibes that came from many of his videos, where he attacked and criticised, rather than inserted positivity, hope, and self reflection. Yes, life can be shit, especially for minorities, but as a community we should be trying to uplift one another, not dump doom on teen viewers. Huge difference imo between Jessie's method of "here are the facts, queers are more likely to be assaulted,, but here are ways to look out for each other and spot issues" than "you WILL be assaulted".
I don't use social media so I missed all of his twitter drama in the past, so it's nice to hear some info on it now tbh. Appreciate you, Jessie!
I found that video upsetting for much the same reason.
@@notshardain It's nice to see I'm not the only one! Of all the criticisms being raised about him, I've not seen any mention of that section yet, and it's really those few lines that stopped me ever watching his stuff again. Really swivelled me from "this guy is kinda bland but ok background noise" to "his words are making me uncomfortable, and not just in a truth-is-tough kinda way".
Sorry you had to the same experence tho. It sat with me for a while.
"he doesn't discuss the problems with peoples beliefs or political views or any changable factor in a human," because he has no depth of character beyond being a fucking heartless monster. abusing the ones he "loves" and stealing from his "community"
He's always been misogynistic. Gotta feed that hate boner for JK Rowling as a white woman defending women's rights. How dare she.
Dude that was the exact same video that also turned me off from him. I felt SO uncomfortable and even attacked watching that vid and I dont even read Killing Stalking . I think you put it into words well. People like him really helped spread the idea of bashing on women for being icky.
I was honestly unaware of the Twitter drama. The algorithm led me to James Somerton and I was conned by his slick production value. This drama has definitely shown the power of community and the importance of accountability.
For those watching this video and reading this comment: Please remember to leave this world better than how you found it. Nuff said.
Honestly his intros and transitions look like he spent a year studying FilmJoy's. They're *incredibly* similar in almost every way, and Mikey has been doing it much longer, so I'm kinda drawing my own conclusions there.
Same here, and cheers to that sentiment.
It's really something you have to relearn, especially in very individualist cultures, that other people's success is a good thing. Like, it's wonderful that so many queer artists get to be featured in Nebula, and even if you can be envious of it or feel excluded from, it's still something to celebrate. I hope in the wake of this plagarism the writers and artists that were stolen from get their share of support for their work, even if it's in unfortunate circumstances
Hbomb is going to donating any revenue from his video to as many of the writers that were plagiarized as he can
@@elephantshell3617 It's wonderful :D And I've seen lots of people seek out their other writing as well
I remember when I was growing up, every movie or piece of media aimed towards women and girls was about competition. Usually competing for a man, and often competeing against another woman at work/school too. I grew up thinking we should do that, and even participated in work place misogyny, beating other women down because I thought that's just how it was. Took me decades to unlearn that, and I still beat myself up for taking that long to realise it. In my vague defence, youtube wasn't around back then and I didn't really have anyone around me to show me another way. I feel like James is old enough, and has enough access to these sort of discussions that he *should* know better. Shame he doesn't. I hope this is a learning experience for him, but I worry he's going to get overly defensive and solely frame it as being attacked without taking anything else away from the experience. It's what he's done in the past.
@@SpamhardSo what? He can be as mad as he wants. There’s a second video that is about 2 hours long by Todd In The Shadows just covering Somerton’s lies. He can’t hide what he did anymore.
All of James’s fans have come together into a new discord server, where there’s several channels dedicated to documenting all of Somerton’s plagiarism in an effort to give back to those who got ripped off. We’re kind of also collaborating with the hbomb discord server for this too, so hbomb has as complete a list as possible.
There is a massive difference between trying to be "a voice" and trying to be "the voice" for any marginalized community. The only time you can justifiably be "the voice" is when your are speaking about yourself as an individual.
I never heard of James until HBomberguy's video, and I was absolutely shocked. HBomberguy has said he is donating the ad revenue to the people who were plagarised by James, and that just made me cry so hard. Also what a joke to say there is no queer content on Nebula 😤😤
Nebula not having queer content? I guess there was no one who actually knew what they were talking about Somerton could plagiarize for "his" opinion.
Wasn't that a wild claim for him to make? Like, aren't *MOST* of the creators on Nebula queer? Did I imagine that?😆
Saying Nebula has no queer creators is like saying Tyler Perry never hires Black actors.
Well, Somerton DOES have a history of claiming certain queer creators are cis-het just to fit his narrative about the things they said.
If you apply James's definition of queer there are certainly less. He's called a trans man a cis woman, a afab non binary person a cis woman, and a bi woman a straight woman.
This line reminded me of something Hannah Gadsby said in one of her specials, about someone complaining to her that her shows didn't contain enough lesbian content. Her response was, "I was on the stage the entire time."
I appreciate you sharing your feelings.
I stopped watching James a long time ago. I didn't catch on his plagiarism, but his judgmental and misogynic moments rubbed me the wrong way. Now it all makes sense. He has no sense of community, he sees other creators, queer or not, as competitors, every minute you spend watching someone else is better spent watching him. He doesn't collaborate with anyone because it is beneath him. I just can't believe how many of my favorite youtubers collaborate even on the smallest ways possible, with something as little as a voiceover or a comment. But for him other voices only steal from his.
loved the way you put this in words
I genuinely thought I was going crazy and that I was wrong and overly sensitive that he had so much negative things to say about women.
Thanks for sharing your story. I shared one of his videos with a female friend of mine before I had watched it all the way through. At the mid-point of the video he started going off on this argument about how terrible women are and how women were wrongfully appropriating the stories of gay men. Which just... romance is the only genre that is dominated by female authors. The only one. He seemed to have a real disdain for women, especially straight women, but even queer women never seemed to be queer enough. It was honestly super hurtful and I felt really bad for sharing the video with her. Neither of us commented on the video, but it kinda sucked to see his channel grow and keep getting his videos recommended. I think you're absolutely right about him not considering himself part of a community and I think he hurt the community by spreading his gatekeeping mentality.
wow you just gave me a flashback, my first his video I watched was about yaoi, I was impressed someone made an essey talking seriously and without mocking my favorite genre. Yet in that video he mentioned this women appropriating gay stuff and fetishizing and I am not sure that's what happening in those stories. I am queer and most people I knew that read similar stuff.
I felt similarly when I watched 10hour long video from Lily Simpson about Harry Potter and she listed all instances of JKR fatphobia. In that moment I vividly remember being 11 and reading those words while being fat, getting hurt, yet not noticing the issue until much later someone pointed out
I had watched some of his videos and liked them, but then had been really jarred by that! His saying that slashfic was dominated by straight women fetishizing queer experiences gave me this really weird feeling of not lining up with my lived experience of fandom spaces, where that kind of behaviour exists, but is way in the minority, and where queer women are WAY more represented than in the world at large. I remember consciously thinking "maybe I should give him the benefit of the doubt, maybe he's been soured by a couple bad experiences, or maybe the particular fandom spaces he's in have a different vibe. Well, maybe my first instinct was right and that jarring feeling was because he _wasn't_ in community with fandom spaces at all.
@@TomOmnomJames just hates when AFAB people engage with "his" media... But also he hates even more when we do NOT engage with it in the way he wants us to (by writing porn that is) BUT ALSO he DESPISES when anyone but gay cis men write gay porn and to him it's all "appropriative", cheap diet cola kawaiified idea of what gay sexuality is, because of course, queer, GNC women, transmasc, and transmen experiences are moot and his experience as a cis gay, his and only, is the only one valid and worth being told, anything else is just made up uwufied fetishized garbage in his eyes made for those disgusting, ugly, straight women (derogatory)
Thanks for putting into words some of the stuff I've been struggling to vocalise for a few years now about fem consumption and creation of romance as a genre. I know that James viewpoint of mlm & yaoi as approprative and fetishistic is a really common view point (and arguably, for valid reasons at times, I've seen some of the not good comments on bl series written by some younger readers, it happens, sometimes some folks povs are v dehumanising and not good to underexaggerate) but it does feel overly simplistic to boil essentially another branch of romance into girls playing with Ken dolls. (Not to mention being reductive towards folksxwho aren't fem enjoying this media, for all its faults and all)
Every aspect of a story is someone exploring something deeply personal to them (for better or for worse) , and in a society like Japan for romance manga specifically, one of the few times you get to see a romance be equal in some ways, is if both characters are the same gender. Though that could be anecdotal on my part, I notice that a lot of m x f series have issues with sexism, even completely unintended sexism, that often escalates into violence, intimidation, blackmail and microaggressions at its least while still portrwying the male lead participating in them as a good person orcforgivable in some ways. In the r18 m x f series its....fairly rare to find series with actual consent and love interests that don't harm the fem lead or harbour really antiquated or sexist view points towards them. That entire aspect of the sexism is often stripped away in mxm stories (unless it's omegaverse or similar, though that often is an avenue for exploring reproductive based descrimination applied to people who still identify as masc). Though often the violence remains, unfortunately, in my experience at least its still less...prone to it compared to the het alternative which is honestly kind of depressing considering the stereotypes around yaoi and associated fiction.
I don't know if I'm entirely making sense there I just ...it makes me feel sad to see these series all called exploitative or bad simply for existing when some of the most thoughtful and gentle series I've ever read have been in this category and ive later learned their authors exclusively specialise in that and it wasn't a fluke, it was completely intentional to their creative identities and the worlds they wanted to craft and the people they wanted to connect and save in them. ....I really hope I got my pov over without minimising anyone's view point btw I do still think the genre has plenty of valid crits aimed at it, ts just one based on so much assumptions of the readers and authors feels needlessly gatekeepy.
@@zljmbo
I have read/watchdd Yaoi (and any similar genres) in years. But back in the day (at least a decade now) it was super fetishized. To the point where you can find Japanese feminists academics writing about it (assuming you can either read Japanese or find an English translation).
That kinda reminds me of something that really got under my skin back when I was in college. At the time, I (a junior in Electrical Engineering) was president of the "Robotics and Automation Club" at my university. Then one day I got notice that some freshman in the math department was trying to apply for charter (ie: school approval for funding) for a new "Robotics Club." I immediately reached out to him and explained why it's such a big problem for him to charter duplicate student orgs at our small school because it forces us to compete for a limited pool of funding. And he got back to me with this stupid excuse that he and his friends can't join our club because it's all engineering students. I tried to explain to him that 1) that's not even true and 2) restricting club membership based on major is against school policy. But the more I talked to him, the more he showed he was all BS. Really, he didn't give a damn about robotics at all, he just wanted to be able to tell people he founded a club that he really wasn't supposed to.
James reminds me of that snot nosed kid. He didn't want to improve the community and meet like minded people. He just wanted to be center of attention, even if it meant walling himself off from every else. And good riddance! So happy for the community to have that parasite removed
I feel so used. I was taken in by James and was one of his patrons. You and James were the only people I supported financially. I feel betrayed and stupid. I had no idea the two of you had an issue a year ago. I never get involved in CZcams drama, so I guess I have to take more care in the future. I'm so glad I know I can count on you, Jessie. What a mess!
It sucks, tbh, that none of that previous drama was mentioned on youtube before. Many of us don't use platforms like twitter so have no context for things like this as they happen. I know it might have seemed like something 'small' to folk like Jessie and not worth creating a big drama over, but if I'd known about that last year I'd have instantly unsubbed from him. I imagine some others would have done the same, and a few patreons may have saved some money.
Not blaming Jessie, i just think it's a shame that some of this stuff spreads over so many platforms, so avid yotube watchers who avoid social media, like myself, don't see the early warning signs.
I've been sort of chewing on a half formed thought for the last couple of days. Being in community can be protective, obviously. Hbomb saw this thing happening and made a whole research project out of it and as a result the people that he's in community with who were harmed are being recognized and uplifted. I think that's what is supposed to happen when a bad actor enters a community. But it wasn't the first time somebody said something. In fact Alexander Avila didn't make a stink because he was a small creator and would have been eaten alive by James' fans. There's something there to consider and talk about more, I think. Something about the difference between community and solidarity and fandom?
Hit the nail on the head, Jessie. I wondered why he set up a production company instead of joining a community like Nebula but with this context it really explains a lot.
Queer people's strength has always been in community so yeah the Telos thing was a red flag for me.
Also queer CZcamsrs shout out each other/leave comments on each others vids a lot. It was super weird that he claimed CZcams didn't give them enough attention and then didn't use his platform to fix that.
CZcams kept recommending him to me, and it seemed he popped in out of nowhere. I only know about him from CZcams recommends
Also it's much more difficult to run a scam where you make money through donations while never delivering on any promises through Nebula, so it's probably why he prefered his "film production company".
That's is a wonderful thought,and we are slowly working toward it , but to be honest this community excludes more people than it includes, in more ways then one.
I thought it was great for him to start a production company that specializes in LGBTQ movies/shows... that was until I found out that it was all just a scam. Smh
I think you hit the nail on the head with the whole Special Boy, "I alone can fix it" mentality. Saying there's no queer content/creators on Nebula is so patently absurd. It has the same vibes as when he started his own movie production company because there's never ever been a quality queer movie produced before, and never before have queer people produced a movie (boy is that section of hbomberguy's video something, I feel bad for all the people who contributed to those efforts).
I was talking a video art class when I first found James and sent one of his videos to my professor who is an older queer person. That professor ripped James a new one as everything was taken from the Celluloid closet a film I had never heard of. I was just starting to learn more about queer media as it wasn't something that outside of fan fiction and anime I had a lot of experience with. To find out that it was stolen pissed me off at the time. To learn that this was an ongoing thing that he and his cowriter were doing to the point that todd in the shadows did a video debunking what little wasn't stolen and was just made up really pissed me off.
I think the best thing to come out of hbomberguy's video is the conversations people are having. Just saw another taking the opportunity to teach when and how to do citations. Hope we learn to do better
Yup. You've nailed it.
Unsubscribed from his channel when he started that noise about Nebula & tried to go after you. That exposed to me a sense of separation & resentful entitlement that made me suspicious of his motivations. Now here we are.
I've watched a number of his videos, and even when I felt discomforted by his seemingly "icky females" remarks in his videos, I tried to give him some benefit of doubt. Now I feel dumb for doing that. He seems to regard himself as superior to every other video presenter on any medium, and I missed that.
Heigh ho, when someone shows their true self, I guess you have to pay attention. You can still try to respectfully give them opportunity to improve, but you shouldn't push it out of your brain, the way I did.
Hey you're not alone, I feel the same way.
I'd brush it off too, not realizing this was a pattern of behavior with this guy. I feel dumb it took two videos from other channels to finally realize how bad it really was
I recently heard somewhere that most humans are just wired to assume good faith. I think something similar can be said here. Don't be ashamed, and don't let it tear down that faith you have in people.
Same hat tbh. At least the fallout means I get to find new LGBTQ creators.
It hurts, and yeah it hurt me too. I feel grossly embarrassed having supported his "work" passively watching. That said the tack I take is a fewfold. One, I know I listen to video essayists, especially queer ones, while I am doing something else. Probably working, but otherwise worrying about myself and my individual situation. It is edutainment, doesn't make it less important to pay attention, but we would exhaust ourselves trying to root out or follow up on sources or verifying. It's important but feeding clothing and housing myself is moreso. Or at least I am comfortable with curating my feed not to include overtly racist, fascist or bigoted garbage ( prager U tries to show up a lot in my feed whenever I watch people talking about them issues, it can ultimately fuck off.)
I didnt catch the misogyny because I read it as tongue in cheek, it wasn't overt because it was buried under... Number 2: other queer creator's words. I try to give grace to people that say something gnarly or offbeat cause unless it is people in my immediate vicinity, I'm not going to give a lecture to someone i dont effin know. That said why I think James got away with it ( especially the video on how to deal with fandom alla terf queen shit head), is because the words of the creators, their thoughts and feelings, shone through brightly. The video was affecting because the essays they were taken from are affecting.
You aren't stupid, your values and beliefs are not solely arbitrated by what you watch or consume. He did us a dirty one, the consequences for him are now figuring out how to feed and house himself outside of the grand illusion he built for himself. And I think that is horrible enough of an existential crisis. The true creators are actively being sought out, by far the best thing out of this horrible sack of crap.
Extend a little grace to yourself, going hypervigilent isn't going to be sustainable. And I know you didn't specifically say that, but I feel like chastising ourselves can lead to that. The best things we can honestly do right now, in light of this specific betrayal? Learn the names of the creators that had been stolen from.
Honestly, and in my own opinion, I think this fiasco points to a niche that exists to be fulfilled. Queer history, both media and life experiences, in a video digestible format. Not that James is the sole arbiter of that, clearly there are people out there-- or rather on here doing that work. The work James stole was and will remain potent. The celluloid closet, the text essay on how to deal with living with media we adore because it was affecting to us who's creator is shitting in our collective kitchen. Hell the man in cave situation.
We know better now and can seek out that amazing delicious brain food. Mourn the break in trust, but do not despair. One sad angry dude, who did not learn how to cooperate, cannot destroy our ability to seek out and trust other content creators. Fuck him, I hope he learns and grows and gets better. But that on his time dime now, not ours.
Personally, I've grown very suspicious of small red flags. There are just so many people on the internet that it seems impossible to sift through them all.
My heart goes out to the people he ripped off. There's just something extra scummy about preying on others who face similar discrimination than you.
On the bright side, hbomb is giving the money he makes from the plagiarism video to those that James stole from.
I am so grateful to have found Jessie's channel. Her compassionate and honest approach to tough issues really helps me to think about tough problems without falling into an anger vortex. Thanks for all you do, Jessie.
I remember when he announced his Kickstarter for Telos (his supposed movie production studio he wanted to start). He acted like it would be the only movie studio to produce content "by gay men, for gay men", as if studios like Here! TV, Wolf Productions, Strand Releasing, and such didn't exist (while not necessarily gay men only, they produce a large amount of queer content). I made a comment about it on his video at the time.
True! At the time I was like ok well, he's overstating things a bit but you know, he's passionate, all artists are a little self delusional, and it's not like I don't think there should be more queer created art out there. But the fact that he was getting all this money from ordinary people with no guarantee of delivering a product at all, let alone any kind of return on investment, all based on the notion that there aren't any gay movies made by gay men out there, and he is the only hope against the evil straight women appropriating their stories, definitely rubbed me the wrong way.
@@gh0st_b0yfriend Yeah, and then to blame his lack of ability to produce anything on not being to find actors in his local area, move to a new one, and then still not produce anything is very... concerning.
I've learned about more queer CZcamsrs as a result of the fallout of James's plagiarism than I ever did from him as a CZcamsr.
Yeah, it's weird to think about and maybe should have been a little telling to me, but I actually don't think I've digested anything long-term from his videos on their own. Not one quote, plagiarized or otherwise, I can recall hearing before despite having watched some of his content myself. Everything I remember about him, even the smarmy holier-than-thou cadence, I recall secondhand from the people who cover him.
No amount of production value or bisexual lighting can cover up how uniquely forgettable he was to me at the end of the day. He put all that effort into editing and the like, but somehow it just completely slipped his mind to have a personality, too. You know, aside from the misogyny.
1. Where can I get that hoodie?
2. Until the HBomberguy video, I never heard about Somerton despite watching queer content in CZcams for more than 8 years. I'm feeling very proud about that.
3. To everyone: be critical of what you watch, challenge the media you consume and take the time to read and inform yourself, now more than ever.
4. Queer people are valid, no gatekeeping.
Looks like the "Ahsoka Tano Pullover Hoodie for Women" in the Disney Shop
re: 2. I'm noticing a lot of people saying this.
I'm not someone who actively seeks out LGBT creators, but because I watch some, I tend to get recommended others, or encounter them because they collaborate with each other. But Somerton somehow never showed up in my Recommends.
I thought that was a little odd when I saw hbomberguy's video. But when I saw Todd In The Shadows' video on Somerton, it kinda made sense.
See, as well as plagiarising people, Somerton also likes to just make stuff up. And while the plagiarised stuff might go unnoticed by an LGBT audience who hadn't read the same books that he was stealing from... the stuff he makes up would *definitely* raise eyebrows, and *definitely* put off most LGBT viewers.
Like... just weird amounts of bitter resentment towards women, and way wayyyy more drooling over buff shirtless Nazis than you'd expect.
So yeah, I don't think this could be intentional, but he might be a case of serious survivorship bias - where he just somehow avoided getting noticed by anyone who would have the knowledge and investment in LGBT history to call his bullshit out sooner. Cuz, like... as soon as he got any gay eyes on his work at all, he was on borrowed time.
I'm not the best at finding more niche stuff, and James Somerton videos were always being recommended to me. He was the only queer creator whose content regularly showed up, and when I went to search for other things, his videos flooded the results. So... I watched a lot of his videos, until the misogyny drove me away. And even then, it was hard to get out of the sea of Somerton.
The only other people I could really find covering queer issues were Jesse Gender and Contrapoints, so on some level I kind of figured there weren't a lot of creators making content about queer issues at all. I guess it's fine to be proud of finding better stuff. I'm happy for you. But realize that the algorithm will decide to lock people out of a lot of content. If you don't know the right things to search for, you won't find it.
@@FTZPLTCSame here, I even recognised most of the queer content creators that Hbomberguy showcased at the end of that video, but I had never encountered Somerton before watching the expose’. I don’t even consider myself particularly knowledgeable about queer history in the slightest but even I found it remarkable that Somerton was apparently able to pass off something as influential as the celluloid closet as his own work without a significant portion of his target audience immediately recognising where the plagiarised material came from.
The vast amount of people I've seen within the community admitting to consume this kind of content as an afterthought, as in, they just use it as white noise without really paying too much attention to what is actually been said, suddenly makes James' millions of uncritical notoriety until now make sense??
Of course no one thought nothing about his blatant misogyny, his bullshit mumblings and his projection about what "agood gay should do", people were literally not listening after leaving that like and uncritically adding another of his videos to their sleepytime playlist
I love your perspective, Jessie! I agree so much. We are all here together, we need to help each other up.
This, so much!❤
My personal wake up call around this case (hate talking about ”drama” when there’s substanse to the discussion and not just personal relations being litigated online) was something roughly related to this. I definitely don’t claim it to be a universal experience, again, it was personal, but I feel like it’s worth problematizing collectively. I don’t know about you guys here, but it do be easy to guilt me into overlooking my own queer fem perspective. Internalized everything and so forth. While I do think there’s probably gaps in my understanding around gay man and mask queer people in general, I never would have realized to identify the negativity towards cis women and fem queers as misogyny. I didn’t question it when I listened to him talking about how overexaggerated lesbian visibility in media is and how gay men’s stories are allegedly told from a cis women’s lense. I absolutely did think the fault’s in me for not getting how much better we have it.
What the hell? Based on what? Why would I need to think like that? Why is minimizing queer fems’ hardship the condition for recognizing gay men’s perspectives? That’s straight out of the phobes handbook, right? To claim one marginalized group’s visibility is taking away from the _valid_ issues of the ”real” victims of discrimination and marginalization. That’s precisely what terfs still argue! That’s liberation on cost of someone else’s oppression. I don’t know, this could still be a me issue, but nontheless, I need to pay attention to it. And I doubt I’m the only one who felt like this and who now feels like they need to work on their internalized oppression. To be more mindful about being talked down to and taking it. And knowing it really is misogyny even if it’s a fellow gay doing it.
It took a 4 hour video essay to wake up to this, a bi cis man telling me there’s cause for concern. That’s honestly scary. I wish to take away from this (among the apparent issues of fair use and respecting authorship AND being critical about what I’m being served online) that empathy should not exclude standing up for your own rights and value. I still probably have more than I can imagine to learn about LGBTQ+ people outside my own lables, obviously. But I also should trust my gut more when it comes to misogynistic undertones, if not just plain at your face anti-fem speech. That’s the standard I want to hold myself up to, so I should feel okay with treating others with the same scrutiny as well. Without abandoning kindness and space to grow for myself as I would for others.
Even wheen I disagree with you about some media stuff I always respect your grace when interacting with others, and your ability to find nuance. Your creativity and voice shine through with everything you do.
It is such a shame. I saw some of his early stuff and actually had signed up to Nebula, and suggested he should try to get on there :( I am sorry Jessie that he caused that kind of drama, which is so totally uncalled for.
I remember the Nebula thing going down and being angry that the people on Nebula were being exclusionary to him. I remember being conflicted too because I liked a lot of the people on Nebula…
Turns out he was actually invited to talk with some Nebula folks, which was basically step one to getting in, but he didn’t show up because apparently he just wanted to be perceived as the victim. It’s like he was *trying* to turn people against other queer creators or something…
@@Tustin2121 I guess that is the downside of actively keeping out of social media, you don't see these things go down unless someone does a video about them.
@@Tustin2121 wonder if he played up the victim so people would 1. stop giving Nebula their money so they could 2. donate to *his* production company instead!
@@Tustin2121 he also probably didn't reach out and show up because of all of his plagiarism and he knew it would be found out.
@@Tustin2121 "It’s like he was trying to turn people against other queer creators or something"
He was. "Turn against" might be a little harsh (is it?), but he definitely was trying to turn people *away* from other creators. He really pushed the narrative that we are alone, no one cares about the community, he is THE queer creator, the one who cares. So support him, donate to him. I think he was both playing the victim to get support and quite purposefully trying to give Nebula a bad rep, because it was a "competitor".
The drama with you two is what made me cautious of him. I was suprised as I think you're awesome so in a weird way thank you for that 'drama' as it made me think wait a sec maybe watch out for that one, but I still believed his work😠 luckily I didn't sign up as a patron because of it.
Right on, Jessie. Honoured to be in community with you, Aranock and all the lovelies.
I was one of the queer people who had his videos on watch later for doing my own research into special interests- but I got that thing Harris talked about where nothing he said felt... right. I think the dissonance I was getting was from his sources bringing up valid queer media analysis, but his sections absolutely fumbling the bag, creating a confusing centrist adjacent mess.
The way he’s incredibly eager to disrespect in particular trans people and (teenage) girls (seriously the bit where he blames teenage girls for the fetishization of Dahmer as if they made the Netflix show and chose to cast Evian Peters like. First of all ur 30 unless you’re talking about things that actually affect teenage girls why are you talking about what kids still conceptualizing the human experience not being able to process what a serial killer is I HATE)
His Harry Potter stuff- ESPECIALLY as videos from Shaun, Natalie, and literally Jessie were coming out talking about how she was openly brunching with _literal nazis_ who had somehow convinced themselves that because they’re women, they can’t be fascists- was weirdly like, friendly and in a good faith that came off like he was more upset at losing a media property than that a billionaire was advocating for trans genocide. Also, Harry Potter didn’t start being disgusting when Joanne targeted us. Her hyperfixation on toeing the line with how much eugenics is “too much” before it destabilizes her “utopia” includes a fully unquestioned enslaved race of thinking and feeling equally magical beings, but draws the line once it begins affecting people like her.
The child abuse and misinformation about *_everything about how abuse cycles, trauma, personality disorders, and disabilities_* and her tangible ableist disgust is CONSTANT in Harry Potter. When jkr was exposed as advocating for genocide a part of me celebrated because people finally started to be more aware that she had always been like this. The way she talks about abuse and its systems of power has had a tangibly negative effect on me as a survivor of abuse before I even knew I was trans. James’ fondness for the creators over the art is rampant in Disney as well, Bob Iger might as well start watering him for how much of a plant he’s acting like.
I don’t blame anyone who didn’t see any flags until the shit hit the fan, that’s happened to me before with people like Blair, Matt, Ryan.
I avoided his content because it felt centrist and too sympathetic to corporations who he should know as a gay man don’t care about us, but was asking us again, again, again to give corporations our good faith instead of relying on each other. He’s purposely erased and muddied queer history for profit, and he’s acting like he IS queer history, and he’s fucking stolen from people martyred by the AIDS epidemic who had real thoughts and did real media analysis about a queer genocide culture they were having hold back with their bare hands. They were not important enough to him to have names.
It’s not just that he stole. Who he stole from and how makes this unforgivable.
Also Jessie your hoodie is fantastic. Little space age shoulder windows
As a young queer girl, i found James through his JK video and was moved by his words in a time when i was still reeling over what happened with her (i don’t have twitter so i wasn’t aware of anything she said beforehand) and he brought me comfort. I quickly subscribed to him and watched most of his videos, and religiously watched each new one, in that time i also found more queer creators like you, Abigail, and many others while i was (and still am) exploring by sexuality. To me he was a comfort creator i trusted and that made me feel connected to the community. Recently i watched philosophy-tube’s plagiarism video and saw in the comments that other creators had covered the topic as well. That’s when i watched hbomberguy’s video and some of the creators he mentioned i had already heard of the controversy, others were complete unknown to me and i was fairly chill watching all the ways these creators failed. Then he said james’ name and my heart literally dropped. I had to quit the video for a while before watching it again days later. I was still shaken so i ignored the subject for a while until today i saw a video titled something like “James somerton apology”. I looked it up on CZcams so i cold see what he had to say for himself and only found a reupload. I am still heartbroken over the whole thing and the irony that he became so comforting after another person i greatly admired ‘came out’ as a horrible person that hurt marginalized communities while claiming to be an activist and to have friends that belonged to those communities is not lost on me.
Anyway i just needed to vent sorry if something doesn’t make sense but English is not my first language.
Bye
"To help you learn, but also call you out when you fuck up, and then also you having to realize that they're not there for you to learn from..."
That last part is especially exhausting. And good on you for calling it out.
Too many times do people demand that the aggrieved person be the aggressor's "racism sherpa" (or whatever is the inciting issue).
The Nebula drama was the thing that kept me from watching more of Somerton's stuff. I was already starting to feel...weird... about his implying that he was the "voice of the queers" and that "no one else cares". The world is rough enough as a queer person without piling needless hopelessness onto everything.
I'm glad to finally hear your side more fully, thank you.
I was flabbergasted by this whole thing. I'd only casually watched a couple of his videos and thought there were a lot of really articulate points--in hindsight I realize it was because he probably copy and pasted them out of an academic article! The whole thing is so wild.
Community is so important
There's a false dichotomy that shows community and individualization on opposite sides, when the truth is you need one for the other.
Without individuals knowing who they are, you can't build a healthy community; and without the support of others, your sense of self cannot get built well.
I loved how you showed that you need community to get individuals perspectives. That's the way we should all be talking about these concepts
Hope you're doing well Jessie!
Came to the video because of the title. Subscribed because of the DOPE Ahsoka hoodie (and also the history of interesting content I now want to watch)
Very fascinating commentary on personal experience with Somerton and observations. Narcissists only know how to speak, not listen, and most of growing is listening more than you speak.
That's why I'm down with you, Jessie. Doing it the right way x
Love the hoodie! ❤
It's almost as adorable as the person who is wearing it.
Hopefully her shoulders don't get cold though.
I owe you and the others an apology Jessie. I had seen that shit go down on twitter, I saw him make those accusations, and how he was reacting to you. I hadn't taken his side, but I had excused it as some miscommunication that got out of hand. I didn't see it for the red flag it was; I just kept giving him rope, despite other instances that should've given me pause. I'm sorry, I aim to be more discerning going forward.
I don't think anyone ever need apologise for giving someone the benefit of the doubt. I'd much rather that than the reverse - where people leap to conclusions based on incomplete information.
@@scaredyfish Eh, I'd rather not have people blindly defend scumbags like rapists and pdfiles just out of "the benefit of the doubt" that sounds like a horrible world to live in
@@GazpachoKing-jv7nu I guess it's a good thing no one's suggested blindly defending people then.
Defending people is not the benefit of the doubt, that's reaching a conclusion.@@GazpachoKing-jv7nu
@@GazpachoKing-jv7nu This is a pretty bad-faith take. You know damn well that's not what Doug was implying anyone do. Be better.
Unrelated, but your hoodie is awesome
I'll know its true equality when iif I do something bad, but me being queer won't be attached to that misdeed. He's just a bad person.
In James' case, him being gay is kind of important to some of his misdeeds. He used his sexuality as a shield from people who called him out and he also used his sexuality as if he could still be a progressive despite being a misogynist and transphobe. It adds an extra layer to it that wouldn't have been there if he was just another cis/het guy lying and stealing and having these sentiments. He lied and stole and acted like a bigot and thought it was okay *because* he is gay.
I will say this, James being gay has really only come up in terms of his content, and not merely that he is queer and being a bad member of the community. To be fair, it's probably because there are FAR BETTER QUEER CREATORS, so him being a cis gay man becomes a moot point, but it doesn't seem to really be part of discourse beyond the content of his videos. Step in the right direction?
First of all: I am living for that hoodie you’re sporting in this video!
Now that the random thought is out of the way…
After all this drama, I almost feel sorry for Somerton. He tore down and stole from so many people in his quest to get to the top. People he could’ve built community and solidarity with. People who could’ve helped him find a calling that gave him happiness and fulfillment. And he completely trashed it and took it all for granted. And because of what he’s done, he’s burned any chances he had of building bridges with the LGBTQ+ community online. Make no mistake though, I do not feel sorry for him. He made those choices, and now he has to live with the consequences.
On a more positive note, after the videos from both HBomerguy and Todd in the Shadows, I’ve come to appreciate more how much work goes into making art and content. That content creators become content creators because they love the work and they care about creating something that leaves a positive impact on others. I don’t know that it’ll happen, but I hope other people come to appreciate content creators more as well.
I feel similarly, HHbomber’s video reminded me of how much work and effort goes into creating something that you’re passionate about and finding the right words and footage to illustrate it. James’ laziness and disrespect made me appreciate just how much work good creators put in.
He always did seem to me to be one of those "GLBT" gays. Like, instead of just saying lgbt, to make a very pointed point to correct that and place the G first because blah blah blah.
Interesting idea. You make a good point.
I often wonder why people don't rearrange the letters more often for a bit of funsies but now I see the issue..
Bit of a shame; I'd hoped that somedy 'LQABIGT+' or 'QILTBAG+' would catch on 😕
Also, as a BI(T), find people struggle to see me..
y'kno
..they keep forgetting their 'I's 🤪
@@TheYahmez I really dont care for the entire acronym to be honest. "The Queer Community" is enough for me. But I have been in situations where it felt like some gay man was pissing on the acronym tree trying to claim dominance which i find odd and somewhat amusing like " why, bitch WWWWHY!?" lol
@@afekasi79 Yh, I hear you :3
I always appreciate creators highlighting other people's voices. It's helping each other to be heard and presenting issues from multiple angles. I often see you do that Jessie, thanks for that!
I’m not familiar with James, but I appreciate this channel’s efforts to be inclusive and to build community, even if I don’t participate in comments all that much.
It's sweet how you feel the need to state loudly your compassion, fairness and inclusivity when it's so apparent in your words and deeds. ❤
Maybe I'm old and stuffy, but I think referring to this as 'drama' is reductive. Not a dig on you, personally, for using it, because it is a trend, but I don't think it's a **good** trend. I've noticed in online communities, especially younger and more queer ones, that controversy, misconduct, and scandals get lumped together under 'drama' like it's some catch-all term, but it's not, and using it as one feels like softening the blow, or that the act of exposing something like this is itself attention-seeking. 'Drama' should be referred to more personal disputes, not a exposing a guy making +100k annually off of his content to be a plagiarist who fabricated drama in which he was the victim to dodge accusations of his wrongdoings. Hbomberguy did a full-ass exposé and I think referring to investigative journalism as 'drama' is insulting to the amount of work he did.
This stands at the doorway of a very interesting exploration of how and whether we value certain words in our language. The word "drama" has several common usages--A genre or style of literature, naturally. Also, "an exciting, emotional, or unexpected series of events or set of circumstances," according to the dictionary. The etymology, for the record, traces back to mean to "do, or act," which is interesting imo. A very old term, and frequently used with a sense of veneration. It is often regarded as a very elevated art form.
There's is also a newer usage of the term that arose in the last half century or so (seemingly the one you're discussing) which is relatively derogatory--with an implication that a given conflict is exaggerated or unnecessary. How many girls and women trying to express themselves against the weight of a culture that abuses them have being written off with the label "dramatic," I wonder.
This usage is actually kind of newfangled so I don't know if your assessment is particularly old and stuffy, but perhaps it could be worth considering whether it is, in fact, rather patriarchal.
I don't think I even knew who this person was before now, and maybe that speaks to my own lack of community, but yes, the modern world can feel so very isolating and especially in the US, none of that is helped persistent myth of rugged individuality.
I hate that so much, partly in the general sense that there are people who use it as a shield for being assholes... but on a deeply more personal, level because it makes me feel so much more guilty for my own feelings of loneliness. As if the singular catch-all solution for every problem in my life is just to be a stronger more self-reliant person. I wasted most of my youth trying to be that kind of independent person who stood on my own, and failed miserably at it. I've only ever been my best self when I have others, be they family or friends, that I can fallback and rely on to cover for my weaknesses and shortcomings.
...and the worst part is that being open about such things just makes me into a target of mockery and ridicule from all those still buying into the individualist myth and who will take every opportunity to call me out as a pathetic waste of skin. If there is one thing I don't need help with, it's being made to feel inadequate and useless, that's the one thing I'm actually good at doing all by myself.
As a queer creator myself, I really get saddened when the solidarity breaks, when more people who could be respected instead fall to the grift.
Being in community has always been something I've sought as when voices aren't heard, we fail ourselves as much as the voice goes unheard.
I do have some issues with Nebula (like it feels kinda exclusionary to small names) but other than that I respect the hell out of most creators that I know that ARE on it.
Also, for a random gush moment, Jesse you are my favorite person on CZcams, so thanks again for everything you do. If I could afford to support on the Pat I would but I'm a poor poor creator just getting by on fixed military retirement income 😅
oh, cool, al parecer jessie tiene "pegue" con gente que sirvió en ejércitos, jajaja
So glad you made a video about this. The situation with Nebula was the first time I thought there was something up with James, and now so much more is out in the open. His actions as a whole come across as so narcissistic. If he’s not talking, there’s no queer voice at all apparently 🙄
OMG... that's where I'd seen his name before! I was watching Hbomb's video going "where do I know that James guy?" I think I'd been recommended his videos once or twice, I think I watched one a while back, but the Twitter "beef" with Jessie was where I knew him from. It all connects now!
Thanks Jessie, listening is key❣️✌🏼Hope you’re well❣️
I’ve been thinking about you during all this, I saw his weird comments toward you on Twitter (most recently as this summer) -and I’m glad that you’re sharing your heart here. I hope you’re doing well and feeling appreciated by us/your fans.
Thank you for being you ❤️
Ever since Lindsey Ellis left CZcams, I've been trying to find other people that fits that niche of being a media analysis. I found some and one of them was James unfortunately. And as a bi person who likes to joke that I am every single pronoun out there because I really just don't care about what I'm called unless you're being a jerk about it, obviously.
I believe it was his queerbaiting in media that I found first and it was all right I guess. And then there was another. I think it was the Dahmer one. And he sounded extremely misogynistic. This turned me away from him. But after a while I just didn't think too much about it because sometimes you're just going to find misogyny on CZcams and I've learned to accept that. I shouldn't, but... you know.
Yesterday I finished the plagiarism video and Todd In The Shadow's video and my God!!!!
Edit: speech to text spelled buy instead of bi. Whoops
These are such important topics and I’m glad you took the time to explore them! I think the pressure to be perfectly morally correct at all times really interferes with our ability to react to highly nuanced issues with, well… nuance. A lot of the time people are so focused on being “good” that then can’t make space for any sort of human fallacy they might stumble into. Normalize mistakes and normalize learning from them. Because as long as humans exist we’ll never be able to escape making them!
It reminds me when someone will give to charity or someone in crisis, and then not only does that absolve them of being bigoted towards those same people but it’s ammunition they use when called out. “How dare you gently use non-dehumanizing terms for these people when I just described them horribly, *I gave them money what have you done, you’re just posturing to look good* “ just full 100% defense mode to any perceived criticism and instant rationalization about why the person must just be “attacking them for doing something good” . No recognition of their own negative feelings of guilt or whatever, the cognitive dissonance between “I did something I perceived as nice, and I’m not getting the expected praise” sends people straight into DARVO mode
I think a lot of people have trouble accepting that even with good intentions they can still cause harm. For me, the worst part of that realization was wondering what I've said or done that has hurt someone that I will never be aware of, what pattern of behavior I'm doing right now that is causing harm that I could change if I was aware of it. I can only spend so much time researching stuff and listening to others' perspectives, but I'll never be aware of everything I could do better, and even if I was, I doubt I could make every change I should. I just have to pick something to work on, then when that gets easier, pick something else.
Thank you for putting all of this into words and sharing! I've been mulling around the "hero complex" and hadn't connected it to a lack of community engagement in this way. Thank you!
This is so well-said! And I think a lot of people have trouble really explaining the phenomenon that we're seeing where people take criticism so personally instead of swallowing their pride and doing better.
This was really good! I like the focus on being constructive, staying together with people in the community and having each others' backs.
In a way, it's an interesting sight to see the "community" that this James Somerton Discussion has led to. That people of all different CZcams backgrounds are discussing it.. Media analysts, Music Review CZcams, Longform and Short Form opinion pieces..
Him lying about Nebula is extra messed up.
I am honored and to be in community with you and people like you. You do such an amazing job of being open and understanding.
Your perspective is always so refreshing and I'm so glad you have a platform to say it!! The keystone of any leftism worth subscribing to imo is solidarity, and to have true solidarity you must have empathy and community, and to have that you must lead with love, vulnerability, compassion and all sorts of non-cynical, uncool feelings and principles. Your dedication to that is present in all of your work even when "allies, " let alone bigots try to take advantage of that. Lots of love, Jessie! You are appreciated.
I missed the interactions because I left Twitter a year ago. I would have left a long time ago.
Jessie, thank you for just being a lovely person and someone who looks to build bridges instead of burning them.
It's awful that James stole from queer creators while refusing to collaborate with them. The best part of the Hbomberguy video was people promoting other queer CZcamsrs, which is how I found you! You have excellent points and articulate them so well. I can't wait to watch more of your content.
Thanks for sharing this! Community is so so important and people forget it way too often. I'm also not as good at just listening and learning as I would like to be, but I'm trying.
Also I love your sweater!!
Just commenting to thank you (and F.D. Signifier) for pointing me towards Nebula, it's got so many of my favorite creators, queer and otherwise, and I am happy to be able to support folk through that platform.
Also because comments boost engagement blah blah blah, so, yeah.
Why are you so god damn awesome? Good video Jessie. Sometimes im in a bad mood and you just say stuff that i need to hear and it helps me. Thank you
I did watch Todd in the shadows is video on debunking all the claims of James, and his suspicious lack of resources. And also the context around what it meant for him to do this, and how much more it hurts in that regard.
I appreciate you always trying to approach any conflict from a place of empathy and understanding
ive gotta say im so endlessly grateful for hbomberguy's video in particular because since it dropped, ive been getting tons of really awesome queer creators on my recommended page when before i felt like every time i refreshed it was just to a bunch of content-mill-esque videos that i didn't care about. so glad to have found your channel!!
I cant believe Somerton tried to play the "Im the only gay in the Internet village" card lol
I live under a rock so hbomb's video is the first I heard of James Somerton. Lucky me, I guess. Great breakdown Jessie.
You have very helpful insight into community building and sustaining. Thank you so much for this.
Thsnk you for covering this!
(Also this is the first video of yours I've seen and I want to day I LOVE your backgrounds ans sweatshirt)