Sword and Scale - Episode 148

Episode Date: October 13, 2019

We’re taking a deep dive into the world of YouTube rant channels in the early 2000s. Tony48219 loved to sit in his computer chair and shout at the camera about evolution, geocentrism, women, and atheists. Most of his abrasive opinions were met with expected opposition online.  As unpopular as his opinions could be, nothing is as unpopular and unbelievable as what happened when he took his online anger and acted upon it in the real world.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised. I see her get shot in the back and fall relatively limp, still having enough energy to let go of a breath to try to scream or call for help. Hello and welcome to Sword and Scale Season 6 episode 148, a show that reveals that the worst monsters are real. Ah, social media. What a wonderful invention. Away from everyone in the world to connect, share ideas, learn from new cultures and new experiences.

It just brings the whole world closer together, doesn't it? Of course it doesn't. When you connect 7 billion assholes to each other, you get 7 billion angry assholes, yelling at each other, about nothing, and everything. Mass narcissism combined with mass voyeurism all neatly wrapped up into an app that fits in your pocket and you take everywhere you go. One of the biggest and most popular forms for this sort of collective insanity is YouTube. The OG of so-called hate speech. Many forget that just a few years ago,

a comment section on YouTube was littered with more racist profanity than even the darkest of the dark memes on 4chan. However, unlike 4chan, 8chan, and any other chans out there, YouTube is a colossal company that seems to be expanding each and every year. It was the brainchild of three guys who worked for PayPal before they came up with a platform idea and launched it back in 2005. Isn't it crazy to realize how long self-important people standing on their soapbox

have been uploading their opinions and video format on the internet for the world to see? We still see a lot of that today. Intermingled with gamers, beauty influencers, mom vlogs, and other things. Back in the first five years of its existence, however, YouTube was full of tutorials, music videos, and in the further reaching corners of the site, strange communities of vloggers, speaking to each other back and forth via the comments section, the toxic comments section. And by uploading videos aimed at one another via the feature that allowed uploaders to directly

make a video response to another YouTuber's content, this feature has since been removed from YouTube. Probably a good move. So some of you youngsters may not even remember it existed, but its faint memory still lives on through the uploaded titles of videos created in the early 2000s. Today we're going to take a deep dive into the world of soapbox YouTubers during the first decade of the 21st century. And you'll hear what happened when one YouTuber took things

from the internet to 2007 through 2009. If you trace certain corners of the website, along with several other accounts run by the same person, many of which were quickly taken down, Tony 48219 was 28 year old Anthony Powell's main account. He was not someone who used the platform for uploading tutorials, music videos, or comedy skits. Instead, he plopped himself down in his computer chair in his bedroom for dozens of videos containing his rants on controversial topics.

These profanity-laced diatribes were not your run of the mill political rant or informational video about why we should all go vegan. 248219's videos contains his extremely unpopular opinions. Opinions that today would get you blacklisted by a large portion of society and probably even fired from your job. Look yo, we gotta be gotta come together man. He said this is on that dumb shit again I'm pretty sure that's some some of these fucking fangin ass 80s So gonna come on this video talking their bullshit cuz you know they're coming after me They like to send me emails stuff like that. They're gonna come this video some of them have even subscribed to my video

But I'm look my fellow Christians if you get this video we must defend them vang ex I have another fucking um another guy that's with me right now and um, he's pretty much talking about getting that amazing atheist off YouTube. And we work together, we can get him off, you know, but then again see, I don't like saying that in this video because Venom atheist might gang up and then they all might come and get him, my all my videos are bad to get me kicked off of something. But look man, we gotta get to come together. Because if you see on these boards, they come on these boards,

you can see how they just, they taking get a bar all the messages are messed up and they're a mark them all that spam or whatever and that do that thing where they all got negative responses and stuff like that. So at least eight things for the play hard bar I think we need to go ahead and do the same thing to them though. Any Christians? Any back with friend requests send me some emails man and I got another guy and I can't think of what his name is. It's faith something. You know, I'm saying he's done, you know, they're trying to climb on Vendor thing X.

We need to come back. You know, I'm saying that fast slide amazing. Eight this. He's going to give us come to him, you know, and we need to make some videos. You know what I'm saying? I come back at these sons of bitches, man, because they're not going to quit. You know, I'm saying they want to play hardball. And I'm just looking through the message word right now you know they talk

about VenomPanx and I hate him because he proved them wrong you know what I'm saying so that's pretty much what it's all about if you know VenomPanx you already know his videos a lot of his videos are the truth he tells the truth he speaks the world of God like he's supposed to and we have these these fucking Muslims these athe, these Jehovah witnesses, these troopers of Satan, these monks, these demons, these subhuman monkeys. He's trying to destroy the Christian religion, they're trying to do the G-Gone against God, they're going against Jesus. We have to take a stand.

We have to stand up for what Jesus did. He died on the fucking cross. He was tortured, beaten, spit on, made fun of, mocked. Like we are getting mocked. We have to stand together. These fucking Muslims are gonna stride by my side of our bodies. They're gonna come at us. They're gonna kinda blow us up.

These fucking atheists are gonna sit back and insult us, call us insane. And we got these Jehovah witnesses. They call us evil. We gotta stand together, my Christian brothers. I said this, we have to. If we don't, then we're all going to just fall out as simple as that. These Muslims, these atheists, these other religions,

any of these people, these homosexuals, are enemies. There are enemies that we have to stand against them and take them down. Anthony Powell claimed to be a Christian, and many of his uploads discussed evolution, geocentricism, and the war atheists swaged against Christianity, all with a bit of colorful language sprinkled throughout, along with creepy bouts of cackling. Powell speaks almost as though he truly believes the Christians and followers of all opposing religions are at war with each other in a very real way, and he is trying to rally the troops in preparation for a battle. You'll hear that he references two other

YouTubers, Venom Fang X, and someone else he refers to as that fat slob amazing atheist, who currently has over 1 million subscribers. Venomfang X is an important username to remember. He was a major influence for Powell, and he is referenced many times in the YouTubers uploads. In fact, he was a major influence in the atheism versus Christianity debate on YouTube in general. Venom Fang X was known for his rants on creationism and occasionally pops in and out of the internet space today. Even making an appearance back in 2014 to attack well-known YouTuber and host of Millionaire Matchmaker, Jacqueline Glenn. As a young man in seminary school,

Venom Fang X prided himself on his knowledge of the Bible and ability to prove scientists and all those who opposed his opinions to be wrong. One of his most controversial statements is in regard to amputees. In a video titled 10 Questions Every Intelligent Christian Must Answer, he states, quote, amputees don't deserve their arms. We deserve to die.

That's what the Bible teaches. Sorry if you don't like that. In order, question number one, why won't God heal amputees? Where on the Bible does say God will heal amputees? Where on the Bible does it say God will heal amputees? End of story, right? God never said he would, he doesn't. That aligns perfectly with my definition of God. My definition of God does not say God will heal me if I cut off my arm. Yes, because the majority of amputees cut off their own limbs, right?

Let's take that through to its logical conclusion. If I break a toe now, I have to be like God, heal this thing. majority of amputees cut off their own limbs, right? So here's the real question. Why do people lose their arms? Well the Bible answers that in the first three pages. Mankind was created in connection with God. Everything was perfect. There was no pain, no death, no sickness, it was great. It was good. However, God gave mankind a choice. Love and obey God, or hate and disobey God. The reason God did that.

Forced love is basically rape, and God loves us too much to force us to love him. So he says, choose. So mankind said, hmm, okay, and they chose to disobey God. So we have been separated from God, and that's where death and pain and the loss of your arms came in. So does God have a moral obligation to heal someone who has sinned against him? Absolutely not. So why doesn't God heal amputees? Because they don't deserve their arms, we deserve to die.

That's what the Bible teaches. Sorry if you don't like that. Venom Fang X is somewhat of a fundamental Christian. An Anthony Powell, someone who already had a history of mental illness, took these concepts and ran with them. Posting to YouTube and seeing people comment on his opinion whether in a griance or a puzzle made him feel somewhat important, made him feel smart. So he kept uploading again and again. The fairy tales of evolution is in Dutani, in a Sakai or in this common is the funniest common ever. What the hell dude?

What the hell? What the hell dude? I'm the smash you with ease, man, it's not there. It's clear in every single one of his videos that he's passionate about his own viewpoints, it's also clear he may be a bit unhinged. His face twists into dramatic expressions as he yells and pauses, often to think of new words he can use to insult people with opposing views. When he laughs maniacally, he throws his entire body back forcefully, and he almost resembles a cartoon character in this particular upload. Little they accept him, God, I'm sure you'll tell you something I'm fading and ignorant and stupid these atheists are.

My God, this is beautiful. They're angry. They have so much rage and anger. Look at this. This is so fucking pathetic. I swear to God. Look, 24-29 is back. I'm coming back.

I'm calling all these atheists from now on. I'm preaching the word of God. Christian is all that. It's over with now. back. I'm coming back. I'm calling on these eight years from now on. I'm preaching to God. Christ is on it. It is over with now. And yet another episode, we have someone who speaks in the third person about themselves. Everyone has either their opinions about religion, whether you actively follow one, or you disagree with religion altogether. It's healthy for society to have differences in culture and religious beliefs.

The problem for Tony48219 and Venom Fang X is that it was never really about their Christian values to begin with. For both men, it was more about their sense of self-importance. Having an extreme opinion may have in some way bolstered their egos. Having a huge platform to present these opinions to a larger audience made them feel even more powerful. I mean, I'm looking at Venomfang's exes videos and I wonder why no atheist is disproven what he's saying Lord like the devil's Supers, okay

Atheist are the fallen angels of the devil you can call them that you can call them demons They're tools of the devil that they deceived and since these atheists have been deceived by the devil then they are not I don't even want to consider only be human, but we can't we can not call them human right? I don't even want to consider only be human, but we can't we can't not call them human right the tools of Satan They're evil their hate mongers. They're disgusting. They're filthy animals. You atheists are so fucking pathetic as stupid You want me to look at video? I know I know what I'm wasting my time But can any of your videos is totally pointless Oh, God this guy is so true for everything he says the truth. That's why he ate the asshade him so much. They make videos about him, mocking him, talking about him, and he's just telling the truth.

Simple as that. He's speaking about Venom fang ex. Notice the way he talks about him. Like every video he makes is law and cannot be refuted. Powell seems to idolize this YouTuber and feels it necessary to consistently upload videos defending him. I agree with everything he's saying. He's correct. He's right.

This order is to it. I don't need to know nothing else. Meanwhile, Venomfang X's videos were beginning to make it clear that he may also be a bit disturbed. He uploaded a response video to another YouTuber around the year 2008. He didn't jump on camera as his normal intellectual perfectly quaffed self. Now, he done his makeup to make himself look like the Joker from Batman and took on the voice of the Joker as well. The whole video is disturbing, to say the least. Threats in you offered me an ultimatum you said well, I'll press charges against you unless you leave YouTube for a year You know, I really appreciate that but there's a problem

You guys want to see a magic trick? I'm going to make an atheist just up here I thought maybe I could make a video explaining what's going on with me Starting tonight people will see that Thunderfoot is a joke. I'm a man of my word. You see, Thunderfoot, he's a bad joke. At the top of our... No drop in the back.

This was the man, Anthony Powell, so deeply respected and valiantly defended day in and day out. From an outsider's perspective, it seemed like the only people deeply involved in this so-called war between Christians and atheists were those with extreme opinions and nothing better to do. It was a weird little niche in the YouTube world filled with computer chair soapbox ranchers. Anthony Powell's opinions didn't stop at religion. He had strong beliefs about women,

mentioning in one video that he believed they should be submissive and subservient to their husbands. Now removed from the platform, Tony48219 uploaded a video titled, Black Women Don't Deserve Respect. It was met with opposition, obviously. loaded a video titled, Black Women Don't Deserve Respect. It was met with opposition, obviously. Because according to recounts of those who saw the video

when it was still online, he went into detail about the alleged sexual promiscuity of Black women. He also claimed that they killed over 1,500 babies per day by means of abortion. Another less vicious upload resembles those common in the in-cell community. Powell seems angry that black women won't take interest in him, and instead seem to go for deadbeat guys in his own words. He uploads this later video as a response to someone who commented on his original video.

The one titled, Black Women Don't Deserve Respect. a lot of lines of lay off the black women because he says something about persecuting the fucking persecuting black men or whatever so we've already established in my last video that I said that women make the choice choose who they would they want to be with right but let's get to the point now you fucking black women are getting on my mother fucking nerves you see why there's so many videos on YouTube about your bitches all right you want us to talk about black men and I'm gonna make my fucking video next. Black men are fucking worthless. I'm making that video next, man. Don't worry. I'm gonna go off on that one. I've already been persecuted black

men for the shit that they're doing, but I don't blame them. I blame you. You want to know why? Because you choose. You make the choice. You choose these types of men. You're attracted to these types of men. You're attracted to these no good motherfuckers that ain't going to shit that you ask because you want some kind of a fucking challenge. You want some kind of a soap opera lifestyle. You want some goddamn motherfucking bank robber. I've robbing banks and killing motherfuckers and shit because you need some excitement in your fucking life. You know he ain't shit, or you don't know, you're just too stupid to know, and you have been babies with these motherfuckers, I think that you're gonna get some kind of a serious relationship out of them, like you're gonna change him into being a respite

of man. The most peculiar part of his opinion is that Powell himself is a black man, both of his opinion is that Powell himself is a black man. Both of his parents are black, and it's almost as if he has some deep-seated self-hatred that he projects onto other black men and women. In some cases, this kind of behavior is a result of something called internalized racism. Give the term a quick Google if you want. In the time between his uploads, 24821219 liked to jump into the comment section of his rivals YouTube videos and spent a lot of time in forums arguing with everyone.

One woman he took particular interest in harassing was fellow YouTuber, Asia McGowan. Asia was 20 years old at the time and attended school at Henry Ford Community College in Dearborn, Michigan. She loved the platform and uploaded funny skits and dance routines. She hoped to one day become a professional dancer. Many of Asia's uploads include comedy improv. In this particular video dated December 2007, the description states, quote, She also uploaded videos where she pretends to be a news reporter interviewing crack heads in her words, and she had a few casual videos illustrating her bubbly and upbeat personality as she sang along to music and dance in her bedroom. Like this one. Hey, we about to take you to another group. Mm-hmm. Where'd you end up in my music video?

Asia was pretty and petite. She danced with full circle dance company at her college in Dearborn and took theater classes. These were the creative outlets that excited her. These were the things people knew her for. She was an aspiring actress, getting a few small roles as an extra in several movies with well-known stars. These experiences were so thrilling for her. She made sure to capture photos and video footage of her time on set meeting celebrities like

Sigurny Weaver, for example, during the filming of the movie Prayers for Bobby. She often posted updates to Facebook about her experiences dipping her toe into the world of acting. Asia was an outspoken advocate for women's rights, love to express herself through fashion and dance, was known to be an atheist, occasionally sharing this viewpoint in her YouTube videos. Tony48219 took an interest in Asia's channel and began frequenting her comments section. As you can imagine, he was leaving nasty, provoking comments on every single one of her upbeat lighthearted videos.

He didn't just use his main account. He created many other accounts with no content on them at all, presumably, just so that he could flood her comment section with a barrage of hateful messages. Asia wasn't religious, and Powell's mind this made her an atheist, the mortal enemy of Christians. She was also a beautiful black woman, someone who on all fronts deserved no respect in Powell's mind. Powell's comments on Asia's videos were relentless, driving her to finally post a video response onto her channel on April 7, 2009, directed at her quote haters. The description of her video reads, for all the people that felt like they wanted to constantly send me

hating messages, this is for you, sweeties. is just why he was some hater. So the people that they felt like they had come on my page and hate and think that they were going to get some comments back from me where you thought wrong and I just feel like it's still picked to leave messages on people's pages when you don't even have any videos on your pages and your pages blank and you think that you just hate online. So yeah, I just want to take you to school a bit hair When you hate you fill it if you hear and The other person is down here and when you hate this what you do Bring the other person up and you bring yourself down because you hate and then you make it that person

It's famous and you get it you you bring a lot of sparks to them. So that'll make any sense. That is go against logic for real though. So anyway, it's all on my page. And it's so like you have to say, oh, not everybody, people just check on my page out and it's grow down. You must see good messages because you know, you got some remember those people out there just like watching people have a fun on videos.

It was true. But then just you scroll down, you just scroll down, you tap, and you just see all these B-I-T-C-A's and I try to cut them out for the femoral. It's sent all this crazy stuff. So yeah, don't hate congratulate, because I'm like a nominator. I'm here to save and you can pop me in.

Nominator, I'm always gonna be here. Atleast, that that was your little freestyle. But anyways, hey, you're just busting some constructive time and critique something that needs to be critique, not me, okay? So anyways, yeah, in my videos I accidentally, I do a sketch and everything, but I recently uploaded a lot of videos because I don't really have time.

And when I do get time, I try to play as much as I can. So I do have two dance videos that I just put out me and some dancers, the actors, the craze, the silly. And then I have this video. So I have this. Give a shout out to the haters. Now the haters, this is what you're going can do. The haters, this you, you on my screen. Bowls out the screen and bows out for my page. And for the people that like what I'm doing, stay right here. We all cool. That's why I'm talking about it.

So yeah, people find something better to do. It's not good on my page. Right stupid messages. Okay. Is ghetto, is tack ghetto, this is tag each, and you need to find for better time. So yes, have a lovely day and for all the people that like my videos, I love you, and I'm gonna keep you guys open. So yeah, no, 12-year-old Christian Planca was on his way to Henry Ford Community

College for a meeting with the college's radio station. The theatre department was preparing to perform the Odyssey, and Henry Ford's radio station wanted to interview select cast members to advertise the upcoming show. He didn't attend the school, he was too young, but the community college often needed younger talents for shows like this one, so they pulled kids from the community to fill these roles. This would be Christian's second year performing with the Henry Ford's Theatre Department. It wasn't until about 11-0-5, which was late for the interview, that I realized something was weird. I found the rest of the group in the theater itself.

The cast was told to meet in the hallway of the building, but they must have decided there would be more space to do interviews in the stage area. So after walking around the building for a while, searching for everyone, Christian finally joined the group and began filming. And things seemed normal for a bit. At the doorway to the theater, we heard some screams for help, about 10 minutes after I found the group. The group seemed to be numb to it. They said that students had played tricks on them, similar to that. I found that weird.

Christians fellow cast members assured him that there was nothing to worry about. Kids had played tricks on them before, and it wasn't common to hear someone practicing their lines singing loudly or being dramatic in the arts and theater building. About ten minutes after the screens, we heard the first shot. It resounded through the building, and I went into autopilot. I left the area, I knew where the gunshot was coming from. I left the area to go see what was happening. And if you go up a certain hallway, you can see through glass doors, the area where these gunshots were coming from. And I see the victim Asia running out of the classroom, screaming,

I see her get shot in the back and fall relatively limp, still having enough energy to let go of a breath that tried to scream her call for help. She gets dragged back into the room and I hear the shot that was her kill shot. Twelve-year-old Christian, in one of the most formative years of his adolescence, had just witnessed something that would stay with him forever. According to his memory, he was only about 30 feet away from the event and watched it unfold. I go back to warn the others. By the time I get back into the theater, I heard at least one more shot.

There's a door in the back of most stages which we were lucky enough to have. And from that point, I led the group out of that back door and to the neighboring campus parking lot to wait out the coming storm. We were just out the door maybe about 20 feet when we heard the final shot and it was from just over the hill into the next parking lot that we saw the fields of SWAT teams seemed like 80 to 100 SWAT, all kinds of police cars, and that's when the interviews started with the police. Two students are dead after what police believe was a murder suicide at a community college in Dearborn, Michigan. Police got the call just afternoon and quickly responded to the scene. Police and SWAT began to swarm the campus as crowds of students and staff started to

flood the parking lots. The original call was some type of assault while the officers were in route. A second call came in that we had shots fired in the building. An entry team entered the south hallway off of the main lobby, and as they entered they heard another gunshot. The final gunshot was the sound of Anthony Powell shooting himself. This terminal, explosive sound, came after Powell's shot and killed fellow YouTuber, Asia McGowan. The total elapsed time between Asia's first cries for help and Powell's final suicidal

shot was approximately 13 minutes. You may be wondering, how did he find her? Did he stalk her so closely through the internet that he learned where she lived and went to school and crept into an empty classroom behind her before launching a sneak attack with a shotgun? No. behind her before launching a sneak attack with a shotgun. No, Anthony Powell and Asia McGowan knew each other outside the YouTube world.

They had both attended Henry Ford Community College and were in a theater class together that had met earlier that day. Both students were well known in the arts department. Asia frequently participated in theater and dance and Powell being someone who helped build the sets for performances. It is speculated that Asia and her killer may have been partnered up for an acting assignment and met after class ended to practice their lines together in an empty classroom. Maybe Powell was so angry with her for uploading that video directed to her haters three days

earlier. Maybe he was infatuated by her, stalking her online presence, but upset to find out she was an atheist. The most frustrating part of this story is not the part where we try to figure out why on our Anthony Powell came to the conclusion that this murder suicide was the answer. The most infuriating part of all of this is that the whole thing could have probably been avoided. That's right, Anthony Powell made direct suicidal threats on YouTube shortly before he did take his own life and brought someone down with him. He talks about how he no longer has his 9mm, but still has his shotgun.

He says quote, that's going to be pretty man. This very shotgun was the one used when he decided to take down who he perceived to be a religious rival to him, before using it on himself. Aside from this obvious red flag, there's evidence that one fellow YouTuber that regularly perused Tony48219's many rant videos reached out to the Detroit police to report the disturbing content of Powell's uploads. This YouTuber claims Detroit officers didn't get back to him until days after the murder suicide.

Anthony Powell's parents knew that he struggled with depression. They tried to distance themselves from their son's extreme opinions and what he'd begun preaching to the online world, but they claimed they never could have imagined that this would all end up with Anthony taking the life of someone else as well. I don't know what happened. I wish I knew. I wish I knew it was his last thoughts. We were totally surprised about this. He's dead. He's gone. It's nothing we can do. We didn't know anything about him doing anything at the end of my condolences to that family.

I did that to you. Once the word started getting around, the online community that Tony 48219 had killed another YouTuber. Dozens of people began making reaction videos, response videos, and commentary videos explaining their thoughts on the situation. Many vloggers began pointing fingers in one direction at Venom Fang X. A large portion of the community felt that Venomfang X exacerbated Anthony Powell's extreme ideations and essentially handed him the building blocks that then combined with his mental

illness hatched an evil plan he carried out on April 10th. A few days after the news broke of the tragedy, Venom Fang X uploaded a video to address the situation and to metaphorically separate himself from the biggest former supporter with a 10-foot pole. Notice how he seems to redo his polished intro, but awkwardly doesn't cut out his first take. Hi there, everyone out there on YouTube. This video is... Hi there, everyone out there on YouTube. his first take. tragedy. This is horrific and if the families of either parties is watching this in whatever

event, I want to express my sympathy for what has happened as well as a few words of comfort. God loves you and God loved Tony and God loved the young lady who was killed. Throughout this entire video, Venom Fangex chooses to address Anthony Powell by name, but omits any mention of Asia McGowan's name. You know, we all wonder why why do bad things happen and we sometimes shake our fists at God and blame him. The fact is we are responsible for the choices that we make and Tony made a very areness and a wrong choice. The word this self-proclaimed, erudite religious scholar is looking for here is actually erroneous. I didn't know Tony.

Apparently he was someone who had watched some of my videos, and I'd only found out who Tony was a day ago when I had heard this controversy and that my name had been brought up. Had I the ability to speak to Tony today, or if I was able to speak to him before he had done this, I most certainly would have told him that suicide and murder is not the answer, and as a Bible-believing Christian, I believe that we should not murder. Killing is indeed wrong. Was Tony a Christian? Some people said that he was a supporter of my videos and that he supported Christian theology, although watching some of his videos now that he's been brought to my attention, I cannot

see, and again, I'm not the judge of this man's heart and soul, but again from, you know, the amount of vulgarity that he used. He was obviously a very angry person. He didn't a very angry person. He didn't seem to want to follow what Jesus said, which is, let no profane communication proceed for your mouth, and it's not what goes into your mouth, but what comes out of your mouth that makes you unclean. Truly, this video was uploaded not to offer condolences

to both families and provide any valuable insight. But for the sole purpose of making sure no one could logically blame him for cultivating dangerous and extreme thought on his YouTube channel. Tony exhibited his parents, and again, if they're watching this, this is not in any way meant to slander Tony. I'm simply being honest and defending myself. Because a lot of people have been saying that as a Christian and obviously someone who seems to have in some way influenced Tony's thinking to blame Christianity or to blame me for what Tony has done, and that is simply

not, you can't do that. The people who do things like this are obviously imbalanced, and the parents of Tony said that this guy had a medical history that went back many years I've only been on YouTube for two years Tony had a medical history going back years and years and years the man refused to take medication and I'm not trying to put blame on anyone and I certainly don't think it's fair if the amount of people have been saying that I'm Responsible for this person's murder. I didn't even know who Tony was and if you watch my videos I'm upholding Christian values

and saying, follow what the Bible says, don't kill people. I don't know how much more clear I could be. Among the many response videos, this event garnered, some in the religious section of the YouTube niche came to the defense of Venom Fang X, one notably being someone by the name of Jesus Freak 777. I want to talk about Tony 4129. Tony 4129 was a YouTube user that was banned from YouTube so many times. He would basically bash atheist and Christians and women and he was racist. He was a very interesting character.

I had limited interaction with him. I noticed that a couple people were pretending to be Christians and they were manipulating him and guiding him wrong. I tried to warn him, he did not believe me, and he became an enemy of mine. I was okay. So I left him alone. I realized that he was not a very reasonable person. Since then I have had the person that the person that was manipulating him contact me and tell me, yep I was kind of tricking people. I'm not really a Christian and you know I feel good because at least I knew I saw do that guys facade.

Too bad Tony 4209 did not see through it. Tony 4209 ended up killing himself and a young woman. Everyone knew that he wasn't necessarily the most balanced guy in the world. But some people have made the argument that we should have seen it coming, or that this is what fundamental Christians are like. This is what fundamental Christianity leads us to, this type of behavior. I think that's very unfair. It would be very unfair if I said, hey, you know, you know, yeah, that's what happens when you're an atheist, you become a murderer, you know.

Atheist would be an uproar, and I think it's unfair for either party to start looking at this situation, saying, ah, we should have known this was going to happen because there were a lot of atheists on YouTube that if they were to kill someone tomorrow I would think yep that doesn't surprise me. And there are Christians that I think that also and there are some Muslims and some you know all types of groups of people we have crazy back

to other mind people that you kind of you wouldn't be surprised if actually wouldn't hurt someone. Yes it was clear that Anthony Powell was an unbalanced man. And many were not surprised to hear what he'd done. Jesus, freak777 argues that it's unfair to claim that anyone should have seen this coming. Anthony Powell himself told the world that it was coming. He spoke directly about suicide. He didn't mention bringing anyone down

with him, but when a suicidal, mentally unstable, angry person makes a plan, we can't assume that we know everything it'll entail. This has little to do with whether or not Anthony Powell was a real Christian. This has everything to do with the fact that a community of people watched a mentally unstable man spiral downward and most of them did nothing. Those who claimed they reached out to Detroit police were ignored. As time passed over several days following the murder, YouTubers began to create response video after response video, offering their insight on the situation. Some pointed fingers at Venom Fang X. Some were trying to defend Christianity. Some were wondering why no one took Anthony Powell's suicidal threats seriously. So if you've been on YouTube at all in the past few days, you've probably seen the tragedy between Tony 4A219 and

AJ McGown. I just wanted to add some observations that I hope are useful and add to the conversation about this. The crazy Tony guy, Tony 48219, killed some girl and then himself. It's fucking insane. My mind is completely blown. How's it going, YouTube? Spikesmith here.

I really didn't want to, but I saw this video I have to respond to. I did not want to make a video about Tony, 48-21-9. I didn't want to because fuck that motherfucker. He's a piece of shit who was a fucking murder suicide motherfucker dude and that's a piece of shit. Fuck that, I don't care what anybody says. Fuck that, seriously. This is a video response to Crossesburg,

248219 Old Clip. This is about the guy that committed murder suicide. And I feel so bad for his parents. I just watched a video and he seemed like he had very lowly parents. Gelae, right here. Tonight I want to tell you something really sad. A YouTuber shot and killed another YouTuber and then he committed suicide by killing himself. His name was Anthony Pow and his YouTube name was Tony 48219. He shot and killed a lady called Aja McGowan and her YouTube name is Aja McGowan. You, Tony was suffering a lot from depression and it was the depression that

eventually got him. Unfortunately, he killed someone in the process. So, if you feel depressed, please seek help. And if you know someone who is depressed, please help them. While those on YouTube who didn't know Asia or her killer in real life were trying to pick apart the crime and figure out what went wrong, friends and family of both deceased students were trying to be, I believe it was on, she was set to be on one of those dance shows. Asia intended to try for the popular dance show called, so you think you can dance before her life was cut short. Christian Planka remembers just how talented and friendly she was, and he had an opportunity to spend plenty of time with her, soaking up her gregarious personality and unique sense of humor.

Being 12 years old and witnessing something so traumatic has left someone of a stain on those good memories with the Henry Ford Theater Department. I saw the action. It was hard for me to completely see who was on either side of it. I didn't know it was Asia until I was told by my classmates that Asia was in that classroom when they saw her earlier that morning. I saw the colors of both of their outfits, and that's the main detail that sticks out as my mind replays that. And in the aftermath of this incident, it was all of Metro Detroit. The theaters, if you look through to their seasons, the theaters were lighter in their seasons.

There were less shows going on. Henry Ford, everything in the theater building at least, had to get moved to another location to continue. There was a remodel, the class that had happened and was bricked shut. And there was a pretty big tension in town that just slowly but surely was chipped away at with time. The members of the theater department sat together at Asia's funeral.

Even some members of Anthony Powell's family decided to give their condolences. Part of the town blamed Powell's family for not doing enough to help him. And part of the town blamed the police. Some saw the situation very simply, feeling that no one but Anthony was responsible for Anthony's actions. Everyone in life seems to find their area where they learn that life can

be scary and it's important to appreciate those people around you. For Christian, this lesson was learned on April 10th, 2009, when he was 12 years old. As he reflects back, he distinctly remembers the way the community came together and offered each other support. Is a YouTuber or content creator responsible when their extreme opinions are internalized by an unhinged, mentally unstable individual intent on taking action in the real world?

Is someone who tells their 100,000 followers to go get them? Or you know what to do? Responsible when 1% of that audience takes this call to action literally? You know a few days ago I posted a poll on our Twitter account asking how many of you out there had fantasized about killing someone. Over 30% of you said yes. A few minutes later I decided to append the poll and ask, if you could kill Mike Bude and get away with it, would you?

Probably a dumb idea to put that out there, I know. But is it surprising to you that 10% of you said yes? If you've taken a basic statistics class, when you realize that the numbers dictate that a little over 1% of the population has serious mental illness, that math adds up to scary. Should we ban or cancel speech and thought of those we don't agree with, even the most extreme amongst us? No, I don't think that's the answer at all.

In fact, it gives us as a community less safety, because we lose eyesight into the window of the souls of those that may be the next threat. But we should keep a closer eye on those close to us, monitor their online behavior, take their threats seriously, and report when someone seems to be slipping into darkness to the proper authorities. Events such as this unfortunate one over the last few years have made law enforcement agencies take threats like this much more seriously. And finally, as content creators, we have to realize the power of our words, and how fucking stupidly dangerous and irresponsible it is to try to sick your mob on someone else, just because you don't like them. That's going to do it for this episode of Sword and Scale. Thank you so much for joining us.

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