The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 9.11 PewDiePie Conspiracy Theories Spread After Announcement, Flavored E-Cig Ban Coming, & More

Starting point is 00:00:00 Sup you beautiful bastards, hope you have a fantastic Wednesday. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. And a quick note before we get started, if you want to jump into the special limited pre-order for the Filthy Mouth Wife shirt, that pre-order will only be available for a little over the next date, so snag that while you can, or it's just gonna go away forever. I don't know why I said it like the shirt was breaking up with you, but there it is. Hey, strap in, hit that like button, and let's just jump into it.

Starting point is 00:00:21 And the first thing we're gonna talk about today is the situation around Felix, aka PewDiePie, aka the largest person on YouTube. And in general, I thought that this week for PewDiePie was going to be kind of a celebration. On Twitter, YouTube had kind of made this big show about the 100 million subscriber award that they were giving to T-Series and PewDiePie. And that public acknowledgement from YouTube is massive. And it's not because it's like Felix needs it, but because, you know, back in 2017, YouTube cut ties with the YouTube Red series that they were doing with him after the controversies. Also the fact that Felix had actually hit that goal

Starting point is 00:00:49 was massive for the audience and the community that had been rooting him on. And so yesterday as kind of part of the victory lap for Felix, he uploaded a video where he unboxed the 100 million subscriber award. End of note with this video is that it was sponsored and at the end of the sponsor spot, he says, as an additional celebration,

Starting point is 00:01:05 I'm donating $50,000 to Anti-Defamation League, which is an organization that fights bigotry and prejudice in all its forms. And that announcement appeared to catch a lot of fans and people in the community by surprise. Because yeah, some people know the ADL as a group saying that they're devoted to fighting hate, bigotry and antisemitism,

Starting point is 00:01:20 but also many people attribute that group as being part of YouTube's initiative to remove content that includes hate speech. with some calling it just outright biased censorship and others pointing out that the ADL was actually in favor of Disney cutting ties with PewDiePie back in 2017 with a number of people sharing a screenshot from Jonathan Greenblatt Who's the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League saying thank you Disney for severing ties with PewDiePie with a larger comment reading ADL commends Disney's decision to sever ties with PewDiePie following his posting of videos on YouTube containing swastikas and other antisemitic content, including an image of two men holding a sign saying death to all Jews. They added that this crosses a line and closed

Starting point is 00:01:54 PewDiePie is entitled to his brand of humor, but neither Disney nor any other company has any obligation to support his wide dissemination of hate speech. Which a number of you who have been with me a while you remember that story. I still stand by the fact that I think that Felix was grossly misrepresented. Right, but the main point here is a lot of people viewed the ADL as a member of that witch hunt. So you had a ton of people, including in the comments section, curious about the donation.

Starting point is 00:02:15 One reading, wow, did the king of YouTube just cave to those who wish to destroy him? Others engaging in conspiracies that he was forced into the donation, that he was being blackmailed. Some accusing Felix of quote, "'Selling out to rehabilitate his image.'" You also had a number of people making accusations that comments on the video were being deleted,

Starting point is 00:02:31 but I mean, it's hard to 100% confirm that. YouTube's comment system is weird, and also, I mean, when I looked at the video, it had over 268,000 comments, and a large number of them that also got a lot of support made accusations, so I'm not sure what was getting deleted. But a thing I wanna note there are those are just some theories. And Felix has since addressed the situation on Twitter saying, mainstream media was manipulated as a tool for destruction. I'm not okay with this situation any longer and I felt responsibility to make changes.

Starting point is 00:03:06 Making a donation to ADL doesn't make sense to everyone, especially since they've outright spoken against me. I wanted to show publicly that I can move past it and move on. I think that it's important. This just isn't my fight anymore. But still, even after that, you saw a number of people responding with criticism

Starting point is 00:03:20 and also skepticism. And ultimately, that's where the story is right now. And I mean, as far as my opinion, I feel like there are going to be people out there that really hate this move no matter what. Right, like for example, you have people like Tim Pool who tweeted, PewDiePie is not being a bigger man. He's taking a payday on a milestone he reached

Starting point is 00:03:34 thanks to the YouTube community. He then funds an organization that will get people in that community banned. Right, and I think that everyone can have whatever opinion they have regarding the actual donation itself and if it was a good or a bad thing. But as far as the conspiracy theory

Starting point is 00:03:46 that Felix is being blackmailed, I personally in no way believe that. I think that was either started by trolls or fans who disagree with the action and don't wanna think that he would do that. And so what I would say is, one, try and put yourself in Felix's shoes. Yes, everything that happened back in 2017 happened,

Starting point is 00:04:02 and even when they talk about you now in a positive light, they mention your past controversies. Right, but then we fast forward to 2019, specifically after March 15th, 2019, right? The Christchurch shootings. Right, 49 people injured, 51 killed. How would you react? How would your brain process a lunatic

Starting point is 00:04:19 who went on a mass murdering spree, invoking your name, trying to co-opt your name and your meme and everything around you for more notoriety, would you maybe do a big show and gesture to distance yourself from that lunatic? To show that you're not wink, wink, nudge, nudge, cosigning that fucking crazy bullshit? I know that's not as fun or sexy

Starting point is 00:04:39 as some blackmail conspiracy theory. Yeah, I'm kind of just taking Felix at his word here that I think he's just trying to show that he's past this and distancing himself. But hey, that's the story, a few of my words on it, and of course, I pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts on this? Then, some other quick updates.

Starting point is 00:04:53 Yesterday we talked about the Fair Play Bill in California. Right, a bill that would allow student athletes to make money from endorsements, right, a use of their name, their image. We talked about the bill being on its way to California Governor Gavin Newsom's desk, and the update is now as expected. The NCAA Board of Governors is asking Newsom to not sign the bill being on its way to California Governor Gavin Newsom's desk and the update is now as expected the NCAA Board of Governors is asking Newsom to not sign the bill arguing that it would quote erase the critical distinction between college and professional

Starting point is 00:05:13 Athletics as well as saying it will give these schools in California quote unfair recruiting advantages Which you know is part of the reason why the NCAA is saying that they would then make those schools ineligible to compete Although on the other side of that if the NCAA made those schools ineligible to compete. Although on the other side of that, if the NCAA made those schools ineligible, they would somewhat be shooting themselves in the foot. They make a god awful amount of money from allowing those athletes and those schools to compete. So you know, it'll be interesting to see, one, what Newsom does, and two, if he does sign it,

Starting point is 00:05:36 what happens from here? In my opinion, it truly feels like the NCAA should get with the program. This is kind of the smallest give. Right, to reiterate something I said yesterday, it's not like this bill is making the colleges pay the students. This is something that simply allows an athlete, you can put student in front of it as much as you want, this is something that allows an athlete to not be completely 100% owned and removes the ceiling from above their head.

Starting point is 00:05:58 They even put things into this to make sure that the endorsement deals can't conflict with something that's going on with the school. But yeah, main point, there was that update. Then we had an update regarding John Bolton's resignation, or resignation depending on what you believe. According to Donald Trump's tweet, the now former National Security Advisor was essentially fired, Trump saying that he asked for Bolton to resign, whereas John Bolton's version of events was, I offered to resign last night and President Trump said, let's talk about it tomorrow. But today in the Oval Office, Trump doubled down on his version of events. And he sat right in that chair.

Starting point is 00:06:27 And I told him, John, you have too many people, you're not getting along with people. And a lot of us, including me, disagree with some of your tactics and some of your ideas. And I wish you well, but I'd like you to submit your resignation. And he did that. He also seemingly used it as an opportunity

Starting point is 00:06:43 to somewhat take jabs at Bolton. Regarding Bolton and North Korea, he said, He made some very big mistakes when he talked about the Libyan model for Kim Jong-un. That was not a good statement to make. You just take a look at what happened with Gaddafi. That was not a good statement to make and it set us back. He then also said this. He wanted to do things not necessarily tougher than me.

Starting point is 00:07:09 You know, John's known as a tough guy. He's so tough, he got us into Iraq. And so, of course, we'll see what happens next. But this could be another big fallout. And then, once again, we had vaping and e-cigarettes in the news. If you didn't see our previous coverage from earlier in the week, I highly recommend you check it out. But the reason we're talking about this today, the big news today is reportedly the Trump administration plans ban

Starting point is 00:07:28 of most flavored e-cigarettes. And in a statement from the Health and Human Services Secretary, they wrote, "'The Trump administration is making it clear "'that we intend to clear the market "'of flavored e-cigarettes to reverse "'the deeply concerning epidemic of youth e-cigarette use "'that is impacting children.

Starting point is 00:07:41 "'We will not stand idly by as these products "'become an on-ramp to combustible cigarettes or nicotine addiction for a generation of youth. We also saw a video today of Donald Trump addressing this situation. But we can't allow people to get sick and we can't have our youth be so affected. And I'm hearing it and that's how

Starting point is 00:07:58 the first lady got involved. She's got a son together that is a beautiful young man and she feels very, very strongly about it. She's seen it, we're both reading it, a lot of people are reading it, but people are dying with vaping. So we're looking at it very closely. So it appears that, I think that he was talking about Barron Trump, unless there's another kid we don't know about. It's a nod way to talk about your son. But then after he says, you know, at the very least, you know, this is raising awareness. And that clip then adding that

Starting point is 00:08:27 strong recommendations are coming. And I will say, one, I'd love to know your thoughts in general on the idea of this ban. At least on Twitter, it appeared that a growing and a trending reaction to this were a number of people comparing kind of the crackdown of vaping to any sort of gun control. For example, you have people like Trish Zornio tweeting,

Starting point is 00:08:43 "'So we can ban vaping products after a handful of deaths, "'but all we get is, quote, thoughts and prayers "'for the 100 Americans killed per day by gun violence?' Apparently the vaping industry hasn't paid enough to the GOP this year." And you have the likes of Andy Lassner, executive producer for The Ellen Show, tweeting, "'Mr. President, I'll give you my vape

Starting point is 00:08:58 "'when you take it from my cold, dead hands. "'I just started the NVA, National Vaping Association. "'Venmo me donation.'" So there was that, but then also too, let's say they do this ban, do you think that it would be effective? Right, a concern that we've mentioned that people had is, you know, if we add more restrictions like this,

Starting point is 00:09:13 are you actually just pushing more people to the black market? Which is a market that could be far more dangerous, you have bootleg product. Also something I see every time we talk about a story like this, especially regarding flavor, are a number of adult cigarette smokers saying one of the reasons it was so easy to quit

Starting point is 00:09:26 and to kind of transfer and then eventually stop was the flavors. Right, but then, you know, those are individual's experiences. Does it negate maybe what the data shows? I don't know, it's gonna be really interesting to see what they actually do here, but like I said, passing the question off to you.

Starting point is 00:09:40 And that's where I'm going to end today's show. And hey, if you liked this video, let us know. Hit that like button. Also, if you're new here, you want more of these dives into the news, be going to end today's show. And hey, if you liked this video, let us know. Hit that like button. Also, if you're new here, you want more of these dives into the news, be sure to hit that subscribe button. Definitely click that bell to turn on notifications. Also, if you're not 100% filled in,

Starting point is 00:09:52 you can check out our 9-11 mini doc, or maybe you just missed yesterday's show, you wanna catch up, you can click or tap right there to watch that. But with that said, of course, as always, my name's 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 9.11 PewDiePie Conspiracy Theories Spread After Announcement, Flavored E-Cig Ban Coming, & More

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