The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 6.3 Steven Crowder vs Carlos Maza, Oreo Toothpaste Prank, & More

Starting point is 00:00:00 Sup you beautiful bastards, hope you had a fantastic Monday. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show, and let's just jump into it. And the first thing we're gonna talk about today is a story that involves karma, justice, although maybe not as much as some people would hope for, or think based off of their reactions and the sharing of just headlines.

Starting point is 00:00:16 Or I don't know your life, maybe you think it's too much. And at the center of this story, you have 21-year-old Kangwha Ren. And Ren is a 21-year-old YouTuber known by his 1.2 million subscribers as Reset. And while it's very likely that most of you watching are not part of that 1.2 million subscribers, Ren may look familiar to you. And that's because back in 2017 he made the now notorious video where he pranked a homeless man, which even saying that just makes me feel dirty.

Starting point is 00:00:37 But he did. He pranked a homeless man by replacing the cream inside of Oreos with toothpaste. And he gave those Oreos to this unsuspecting homeless man, seemingly with 20 euros, maybe to make it seem like he was a trustworthy, decent person. The homeless man then ate the Oreo, and reportedly he got sick and threw up soon after. And reportedly that man told a Spanish newspaper that he had never been treated so poorly

Starting point is 00:00:57 while living on the street. And as far as if Ren felt guilty in the moment, in that now-removed video from YouTube, he notes that he may have gone a bit far, but then also added, look at the positive side. This will help him clean his teeth. I think he hasn't cleaned them since he became poor. Now following this video being released,

Starting point is 00:01:12 of course it was a massive reaction. There was a lot of backlash. So reportedly Ren and a friend returned to the homeless man to record another video, at that time then offering the man another 20 euros. According to reports, the two had the intention of filming a video with the man where they spent the night with him,

Starting point is 00:01:23 but a witness called the police on them. In that video, Ren said, people exaggerate over jokes in the street on a beggar, and surely if it's done to a normal person, they wouldn't say anything. Also, according to Spanish police, Ren offered the man's daughter 300 euros in an attempt to get her to not pursue legal action against him, which actually, on that note, we fast forward now to last Friday. Ren was found guilty of violating the moral integrity of the homeless man, and with this, he was sentenced to 15 months. He was also ordered to pay €22,000 to the man he filmed. And on top of that, Ren was ordered to shut down his YouTube channel for five years.

Starting point is 00:01:54 With local reports even saying that he was ordered to delete his channel during this period and is forbidden from creating a new account. Now, a big note around this sentence, because some places have kind of glossed over this. According to some local reports, it's actually unlikely that Wren is going to be serving time behind bars. And the reason for that is Spanish law normally allows sentences under two years for first-time offenders in nonviolent crimes to be suspended. One of the key words there is normally because seemingly with the judge this is not a normal situation. With the judge reportedly saying this was not an isolated act and going on to say that Wren had engaged in cruel behavior towards other easy or vulnerable victims. For instance, according to Spanish media, the YouTuber once offered sandwiches with cat feces in them to children and elderly people in a park.

Starting point is 00:02:30 But that's also not where this story ends because Wren actually uploaded a video to his channel on Sunday. And there he warned his followers not to believe everything the media has reported. Writing in the video description, and this is a translation, Do not believe everything the newspapers say. They are not completely false, but they make up words to make people look bad, in this case, me, and I have to upload a video explaining what happened. So that could happen later today, it could also happen tomorrow.

Starting point is 00:02:50 And in the comments section of that video, Wren confirmed that the sentence was true, but he says that he will appeal. Also reportedly in the court, as far as what Wren had to say for himself, he said, quote, I do things to put on a show. People like sick things.

Starting point is 00:03:01 And as far as my reaction to this story, not shocking. I think the whole situation's disgusting. I'd love to see harsher penalties and much harsher fines, especially if that money goes to the victims of pranks. It's just harassment. It's just you being a disgusting fuck boy to not just a stranger, but a hyper vulnerable person.

Starting point is 00:03:17 And then after you're like, ah, it's a joke, or because I gave him 20 euros, it's not that big of a deal. And stuff like this, it has made me hate the prank genre in general. I mean, there are a number of reasons, but this is one of them. In large, it is a whole genre that either monetizes based off of just fake planned bullshit,

Starting point is 00:03:32 whether it be just to get clicks or push a false narrative, or people doing dangerous or harassing bullshit. But that is where I'll leave it for now. And of course, pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts around this? And then we should talk about this health scare that we've been seeing over the past year. And this is actually not about the measles,

Starting point is 00:03:46 although regarding the measles, this has actually become the worst year for the measles since 1992. But yeah, according to reports, as of May 31st, in 26 US states, there have been 981 cases of measles. As you can tell by this handy dandy Axios chart, hasn't been the biggest deal for a long time.

Starting point is 00:04:02 So you know, fun, get vaccinated. But like I said, the main focus here wasn't on that today. Right now, and you may not have been aware, there has been a massive Ebola outbreak. It's currently happening in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the DRC. Since August 8th of last year, there have been 1,954 cases. And from that, there have been 1,218 confirmed deaths,

Starting point is 00:04:20 with 342 cases still under investigation. Of course, this is scary and horrible to see for them locally, right? The number is still increasing. But of course, the big fear is that this has been happening for such a long time and it's still continuing and it's growing. And as experts and reports have pointed out,

Starting point is 00:04:34 that the longer that this continues, the likelihood of it going international increases. And as far as why this has continued to spread, according to Axios, several experts have called this the perfect storm of a highly lethal and contagious virus in an area of the DRC that has a hub for poverty and neglect, insurgent activity, distrust of government and international organizations,

Starting point is 00:04:51 and a mobile population with many refugees. And in that quote, when they say that there is distrust, I mean, we're talking there has been violence. There have been healthcare workers who have been attacked and injured. In fact, there was a doctor who was killed. In fact, it's so scary, according to the AP, doctors and nurses had a march demanding more security.

Starting point is 00:05:07 Some believe that the Ebola spread is just fake news so that outsiders, foreigners, can come take valuable minerals. Also, some think that it's not fake news, but that these outsiders are actually giving people Ebola so that they can justify coming in. But threats of violence aren't the only risk. According to a report back in mid-May,

Starting point is 00:05:21 102 people, or 6% of the total cases at the time, per WHO, were healthcare workers who got infected. And the reason we're talking about this today isn't just to go, hey, this is bad right now. It's because right now, it seems primed to get even worse. Because it's not just the total spread, it's the rate of spread. As The Guardian pointed out,

Starting point is 00:05:37 aid workers are concerned by the accelerating spread of the disease. It took 224 days for the landmark figure of 1,000 confirmed and probable cases to be reached. But it has taken only 71 days to reach almost 2,000 such cases in the outbreak. Now, it should be noted that last week there was a decline in the total number of new cases. But you've had experts pointing out it is not as simple as that. With experts noting the complex operating environment and fragility of the security situation,

Starting point is 00:06:02 and the World Health Organization noting in their report, operations are still regularly hampered by security issues and the risk of national and regional spread remains very high. But for now, that's where we are. We of course hope to see the spread calm down, but given how chaotic the situation is, I mean, anything's possible, but it's hard to be optimistic. But with that said, of course,

Starting point is 00:06:18 like with everything we talk about, I'd love to know your thoughts here. And then let's talk about this story that just blew up over the weekend. I had so many people linking me while I was out. And look at the timing all of this It was kind of the the perfect storm. Obviously, it's Pride Month There's a lot of LGBTQ awareness, stories, experiences being shared as well as one of the big points of conversation online other than people saying

Starting point is 00:06:35 Maybe we should just quit social media, think about it every day. But aside from that there's this big conversation about harassment versus censorship What companies should do. And of course to add fuel to that fire and debate, a lot of this involves political figures. What we're talking about today involves the platform of YouTube and the individuals that are commentator and comedian Steven Crowder, Carlos Maza, who is a writer for Vox and host of Strike Through,

Starting point is 00:06:56 which is a series Vox airs on YouTube. And in the Twitter thread, the Vox host claims that Crowder has been attacking him on his channel for years, saying, "'Since I started working at Vox, "'Steven Crowder has been making video after video, "'quote debunking strikethrough. "'Every single video has included repeated overt attacks

Starting point is 00:07:09 "'on my sexual orientation and ethnicity. "'Here's a sample and he posts a montage.'" Before we get to the video with our favorite, favorite lispy strike from Vox. It's ridiculous, it's bonkers. You're being given a free pass as a crappy writer because you're gay. Chip, chip, chip, chip, bet you can eat just one.

Starting point is 00:07:26 Like dicks. What were you holding, Gay Latino from Vox? Even his hand movement in fast motion is gay. Now we're here with the short-haired, angry lesbian on Sky. Oh, okay, so you really are just an angry little queer. Alright, can't deal with this sprite anymore. Okay, he just sashays across without a- like just- Ah!

Starting point is 00:07:41 The Gay Vox sprite is wrong! Now he could be a tranny, your honor! You way the gay Mexican guy the gay Latino v-neck gay Mexican Mexican gay guy used to work Mexican gay Latino there at Vox and he goes on to say I've been called an anchor baby a lispy queer a Mexican etc these videos get millions of views on YouTube every time one gets posted I wake up to a wall of homophobic slash racist abuse on Instagram and Twitter last year I got doxxed and it scared the fuck out of me. My phone was bombarded with hundreds of texts at the exact same time.

Starting point is 00:08:09 The messages? Then showing a screenshot with all the messages reading debate Steven Crowder. He then goes on to add that it's not just Crowder, saying that being said I'm not mad at Crowder. There will always be monsters in the world. I'm pissed at YouTube which claims to support its LGBT creators and his explicit policies against harassment and bullying. This has been going on for years and I've tried to flag this shit on several occasions But YouTube is never going to actually enforce its policies because Crowder has 3 million YouTube subscribers and enforcing their rules would get them accused on anti-conservative bias Which is all to say I work my fucking ass off to create smart thorough engaging content for YouTube a company that claims to give a

Starting point is 00:08:41 Shit about LGBT creators and it's miserable to have that same company helping facilitate a truly mind-melting amount of direct harassment. And among other things, he goes on to say that his mission is not to silence conservative voices, but rather to get YouTube to stop empowering bullying. But he also goes on to say he doesn't think anything is actually going to happen, saying YouTube does not

Starting point is 00:08:57 give a fuck about queer creators. It cares about engagement, and homophobic slash racist harassment is very engaging. Adding again, the problem isn't Crowder, there will always be fucking assholes trying to get attention by being bigots. The problem is that YouTube is designed to give those assholes a megaphone, push new followers in their directions, and keep them listening. It's a weapon. Mazza also pointing out a shirt that Crowder wears. A lot of people have been pointing out that Crowder is wearing a socialism is for homophobic slur shirt in several of his videos. Turns out he sells that shirt to his YouTube fans and proudly displays it

Starting point is 00:09:23 in his Twitter cover photo. And then towards the end of his thread he says, "'If Crowder loses his channel, "'I'm going to get hit with another avalanche of abuse "'and we'll likely get doxxed again.' "'That's what's so fucked up about these platforms. "'They create wildly powerful monsters "'and then ask the targets of abuse "'to draw further attention to themselves.'"

Starting point is 00:09:37 And this thread and that video just blew up on social media, with it even getting the attention of the team YouTube Twitter account, who responded, "'Thanks so much for outlining all of this. "''re looking into it further, sending you a DM now. And following this, we also saw reports that YouTube was investigating Crowder's channel. And after that, Crowder ends up posting a video in response to all of this called Vox is trying to ban this channel, which he opens up by saying this, this is corporate censorship. And this is yet another giant company trying to lean on this channel, your channel, and the

Starting point is 00:10:03 content that you've created. And this is a war. I want to make sure that everyone understands we will fight to the absolute bitter end, both legally and publicly. He then goes on to address the people doxing Maza. I have always condemned and continue to condemn, discourage any and all forms of doxing or targeted harassment. And he also addressed the accusations of bullying and harassment, saying that he doesn't consider what he has said to be bullying and did not think that it would upset Mazza. Have I ever called you, Carlos, the gay Latino host at Fox? Yes, of course. But that's friendly ribbing. And you know, I genuinely wouldn't, I wouldn't consider you being that upset about

Starting point is 00:10:39 it, considering your handle is at Gaywonk. Yeah. Did I ever offhandedly use the term lispy queer? I really don't remember it, but it sounds like me. Why? Because you speak with the lisp and you refer to yourself as a queer. That along with the LGBTQ moniker has genuinely made me think that queer is one of the more suitable terms. If not, I don't understand the rule book. Please, please correct me. If using your words taken directly from the acronym you regularly tout is now hate speech, no one can understand the rules. And as far as the socialism shirt, he said that it's actually a socialism is for figs

Starting point is 00:11:17 shirt. Also in this video, we see him continuing to say that he is being attacked by a big company as NBC has invested heavily in Vox. He also adds that he has reached out to YouTube. He doesn't know how this is gonna play out. Because I really don't know what's going to happen. I hope, I'm hoping that Vox doesn't succeed. I'm hoping that this channel doesn't get banned. I don't think we will, but most importantly, I'm really hoping that YouTube is not communicating back and forth with Vox, NBC to soft ban us through tactics

Starting point is 00:11:43 like restricting more of our videos. We've also seen really big reactions of support for both Mazza and Crowder. We saw AOC sharing one of Carlos' tweets saying, The holy grail of many social platforms is engagement. Bigotry and disinformation campaigns are often the most engaging and rewarded due to their inflammatory nature. Some, like Pinterest and Reddit, at least try to address this. Others decide profit is worth a social erosion. We saw a Media Matters editor saying that it would be one thing to criticize Mazza, but what Crowder has been doing

Starting point is 00:12:07 crossed a line. On the other side of this, we had the likes of Glenn Beck framing this as Vox, NBC, Universal trying to de-platform Crowder, saying what are they so afraid of? We must stand together and refuse to sit down. Some saying this is an attack on someone just trying to exercise their freedom of speech. And you also have the likes of Tim Pool, a YouTuber and

Starting point is 00:12:21 journalist tweeting out, Carlos Mazza of Vox has called for the physical assault of people in order to humiliate them. He then is outraged that someone makes fun of him online, a YouTuber and journalist, tweeting out, Carlos Maza of Vox has called for the physical assault of people in order to humiliate them. He then is outraged that someone makes fun of him online, resulting in his humiliation. Maza insinuates then that an authority or principle-like figure needs to enforce rules. And with this, he shared one of Maza's tweets

Starting point is 00:12:35 where he responded to an article about people dumping milkshakes on far-right leaders, saying, quote, milkshake them all, humiliate them at every turn, make them dread public organizing. And as far as any movement from YouTube, according to the Vox host, there has been none. Mazza tweeted,

Starting point is 00:12:47 it has been three full days without a response from team YouTube. In the meantime, Crowder and his allies have uploaded multiple videos targeting me for additional harassment. Nothing will happen to him because YouTube doesn't give a fuck about queer creators. And today, as of recording this video,

Starting point is 00:12:59 he has really doubled down on the targeting of YouTube. To give you some of his highlights, he wrote, Steven Crowder isn't an outlier or anomaly. He's YouTube's ideal creator. And YouTube isn't a platform being hijacked by monsters. YouTube is a platform for monsters. But ultimately, that is where we are right now as far as what happens next.

Starting point is 00:13:15 We're gonna have to wait to see. So I pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts around this whole thing? Do you think for the things that were being highlighted that Crowder and his channel should be removed? I know there are a lot of different angles and defenses and ways things are being framed. Yeah, I'd really love to know what do you think should happen and also what do you think will happen? Let me know in those comments down below.

Starting point is 00:13:31 And that's where we're going to end today's show. If you liked this video, we'd love if you took a second to like this video, share, share, share. Also, if you're new here, maybe some family, some friends shared this video with you. If you'd like more, be sure to hit subscribe. Also, for those maybe not 100% filled in right now, if you missed the last Philip DeFranco show, the last extra bonus video, you can click or tap right there to watch that. But with that said of course as always my name is Philip DeFranco, you've just been filled in, I love yo faces and I'll see you tomorrow.

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The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 6.3 Steven Crowder vs Carlos Maza, Oreo Toothpaste Prank, & More

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