#anyone see the hbomberguy video | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

talaricula · 5 months

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Things I've seen tumblr memeing about James Somerton doing à la "How did no one see how bigoted he was!" as if those things haven't been a significant part of tumblr culture for over a decade :

Presenting untrue and bordering on conspiratorial versions of (queer or otherwise marginalised) history without any sources

Completely disregarding and disrespecting any expertise on socio-cultural topics/humanities and distrusting academics and historians (incl. acting as if no academics or historians could be queer or marginalised)

Downplaying the role misogyny played in the historical oppression of queer women and concluding that queer men must have been more oppressed than queer women

Bi women are, at best, not as queer as "real" queer ppl, and at worst, simply equivalent to straight women

Despite nominal trans inclusivity, transmasculine ppl are functionally women when convenient (combined with the above, bi transmascs are functionally straight women)

Despite nominal trans inclusivity (bis), shamelessly attacking, threatening and actively endangering any trans woman who questions them or smth they find important (often by unfairly presenting her as violent or as a threat)

Having absolutely fucking wild and reductive takes about ace ppl, the oppression they face and their place in the queer community

Stating that marriage equality is an assimilationist fight while completely ignoring its direct roots in the horrifying consequences of the AIDS crisis for partners of ppl who died of AIDS

Praising western media creators from the past for queer coding even under censure and in the same breath condemning current non western media creators for being homophobic bc their representation isn't explicit enough

Blaming China for all existing homophobic censoring in western media

Assuming all queer media would be better told by western creators and by western standards

Only out queer ppl get to tell queer stories

Heavily criticising almost all queer media created by women or ppl they see as such (see above points about trans ppl) or involving/starring a significant amount of women for any perceived or real amount of "problematicness", but fawning over and praising and negating criticism of queer media created by and starring mostly or even functionally exclusively men (even when it could be argued that, you know, not involving/seriously sidelining women is a pretty clear example of misogyny which should probably be considered "problematic")

And I'm probably forgetting stuff or there's stuff I have internalised myself and don't recognise as an issue

Like idk but I feel like the takeaway from Hbomberguy and Toddintheshadow's videos should maybe be "be aware of such patterns in your communities bc they definitely exist" and not "this guy is uniquely awful" and I feel like a lot of the discussion I've seen surrounding this has been severely failing at that. Most ppl who've spent any significant amount of time on tumblr prob either have internalised at least one of those thought patterns, have had to de-internalise them, or have had to be extremely vigilant to not internalise them (which is done by, you know, seeking out other sources, which also seemed like an important takeaway from the videos)

#Also I'm saying this as someone who actually watched quite a few of Somerton's videos #And noticed those patterns and stopped watching bc I recognised them from here #and had already learned to unlearn them after being so exposed to them here #And tbh I think anyone who hasn't had the luck or made the conscious choice to seek out ppl who pushed against those narratives #Would absolutely have fallen for this man's bullshit. Like let's not kid ourselves we see takes like this every day on this hellsite #2014 me would have. For sure.#This is next to the plagiarism issue which as Harris points out is an Internet wide issue and this includes tumblr #James Somerton #hbomberguy #todd in the shadows #This brought to you by a conversation with my wife yesterday #So many ppl on here don't deserve to meme or be this self absolvingly critical of this man #The call is coming from inside the house #The man has a tumblr it would legit not surprise me if some of the things he supposedly made up himself he did actually get from somewhere #And that somewhere was a tumblr post

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kingcriccket · 5 months

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some people seem way too happy abt the creators "TAKEN DOWN" in the hbomb video. people gleefully talking about Somerton's upcoming veer to the right. just always looking for someone they can feel guiltless and happy about tearing to shreds. and bloodletting wasn't the main point of that video. why is that the main takeaway.

#very very odd #idk online culture is so.... gleeful when it finds an acceptable victim #really enjoyed the video but all the discussion im seeing about it is leaving a really bad taste in my mouth #hbomberguy #not trying to defend anyone who plagiarized it's theft and I hope this puts a stop to it #it just. it's offputting. it's cop shit justice served i hope he gets whats coming to him #yk #sorry for the weird spacing my phone is busted

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kermiethefroog · 5 months

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I understand that a lot of people are focusing in on who Hbomberguy was talking about in his new video, which I understand. I watched a couple of those channels and some of this news was in fact news to me as well! Especially with James Somerton, who I put on occasionally in the background and generally found interesting. It can be shocking to learn these things (as mentioned in the video).

BUT

I think that we have a tendency to run away with ideas of scandal and center the outrage and frustration over the other messages at play. I am definitely not the first person to bring this up or mention it, but I wanted to list some of my favorite takeaways from the video.

Plagiarism is ever present and downright COMMON on the internet, especially on a social platform like youtube, but this goes for any form of social media INCLUDING sites like tumblr (I don't think he mentions tumblr specifically, but I think it is fair to loop in most social networks in this case). Harris is highlighting that these things are hard to check and people are (sometimes) good at hiding their wrongdoings.

We can do our part by supporting creatives and people who properly research or speak deeply from their own experiences. Going back to talking about James, that section of the video hit very close to home. Queer solidarity and supporting queer creators is something that is very important to me. I really appreciate Harris highlighting exactly who was wronged, list new people to watch and engage with, and specifying who he will be compensating for creating his video. I really do encourage people to check out the other creatives mentioned AND looking for smaller creators to become connected to. Hell, I recommend reading articles and books by queer authors if you have the time and the means to do so.

The last big takeaway I have is the discussion of the creative process and the struggle of making original material. Creating anything with a semblance of analysis or personal thought in a thorough way is really challenging. Many creators regardless of medium or space have a sort of imposter syndrome about their work. Imposter syndrome is a double edged sword, and in many cases has led people to do the things discussed in the video either out of desperation, but also as a shortcut to success that they desire. Harris breaks down this feeling of being an imposter and highlights is universality. Despite this sense of imposter syndrome, creative and artistic people continue to try and make something novel or something new out of synthesizing the ideas of others. Creative work should ideally be transformative in some way and is why this kind of work can be so compelling AND inspire other people.

#hbomberguy #on the recent video #support queer artists where and when you can #engage in history and form your own opinions #check your sources and facts where you can #hell I know I need to get better at that #not sure if anyone will see this at all #but I hope maybe it counts as something

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arolesbianism · 5 months

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So. Sit with me everyone. We agree that we need to stop worshipping a person or media on the sole grounds of being gay right. Can we finally agree that it's not homophobic to criticize gay ppl with large platforms. Can we finally actually learn to think critically abt how these ppl talk abt ppl outside of their immediate identities and to recognize that just because they say they aren't bigoted doesn't mean they aren't. Please.

#rat rambles #like seeing ppl dunk on james is vibdicating and all but also. yall do realize that even without the plagerism hed still be a piece of shit #and that another white man shouldnt have to spell out to you what misogyny is #<- directed at ppl who watched mr misogyny before hand #Im not saying anyone is a bad person for not realizing. Im just saying to be more careful and attentive in the future #dont be scared to criticize the ppl you watch even if you dont think theyre a bad person #hell Ive been watching hbomberguy for years and he is certainly not perfect #like in a lot of his old videos you can rly see some unconcious ableism #and I could go on and on with nitpicks and gripes Ive had with him over the past several years but thats not the point of this post #the point is that you need to get yourself comfortable with digging deeper into the things you consume #a lot of ppl will say things like 'oh this person gave me a bad vibe but I didnt think it was this bad'#and I want to just say if you get that sort of bad vibe then fucking dig deeper!! interrogate that feeling and where its coming from!#this also applies to situations where you might dislike someone for bigoted reasons of your own #I think ppl try way too hard to train themselves to not interrogate their discomfort and it's so not good for your critical thinking skills #and in fact interrogate your comforts too #just in general thinking abt why certain things make you feel certain ways is good practice and will help you see red flags sooner #is this gay guy focusing more on gay men than gay women? why might this be? is it really the topic like he says it is?#if you think well Im also more interested in gay men that gay women in history so hes not doing anything bad #then question why you think that. idc how uncomfortable it makes you to question your views on minorities fucking do it #cause imagining you arent misogynist or racist or whatever the fuck doesnt make you less bigoted #if you want to be the ally you think you are you need to suck it up theres not rly a kinder way I can manage to put it

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jesskasb · 5 months

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reminder

[Video description: A clip of Hbomberguy against a green screen. He looks at the camera and says: "I want to clarify right now that if anyone harasses Somerton on my behalf, they are worse than him and will not see the light of Heaven." End ID]

#hbomberguy #james somerton #alexchanting

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tarriecat · 5 months

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(image ID: a series of screencaps of hbomberguy, a white bearded man with a torn lab coat, addressing the camera, with the subtitles "I want to clarify right now that if anyone harasses Somerton on my behalf, they are worse than him and will not see the light of Heaven.")

I'm adoring the dunkfest but with the knowledge that a lot of people are learning about the hbomb video from posts without necessarily watching it, I wanted to make sure this particular bit got shared.

#hbomberguy

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genderkoolaid · 5 months

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okay so rewatching hbomberguy's new video, James Somerton has:

Called ND Stevenson and Rebecca Sugar women so he can make a point about how queer women have it easier

stolen an Asian transmasc person's very personal essay on Mulan and queer Asian identity

stolen from Alexander Avila, the One somewhat well known transmasc video essayist

Lied about English courts letting Radclyffe Hall "live her happy life" because perceived-female queerness wasn't legally persecuted, when in actuality, they were charged with obscenity and had their work destroyed

clearly a man whose very normal and chill about transmascs and anyone he sees as a woman i think

#making this post because ive seen a lot of people calling him a lesbophobe and misogynist but for some reason not a transphobe #hes all three baby! and they overlap (like w Radclyffe Hall!)#hes ALSO biphobic lest we forget #m.#james somerton

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fruitsofhell · 5 months

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My other fun addition to the Hbomberguy video stuff is not just that you need to start checking everyone's sources just to make sure you aren't being duped, but to not use them as a stand in for media consumption/experiences either. Like I'm not gonna lecture you on reading sources cause I am the first one to not and that's my laziness, but like sometimes more important than checking the original analysis of something is just to... see tge thing being analyzed yourself. That's not even about misinformation or lying, sometimes people's opinions just SUCK ASS.

Like there are youtube video essayists I overall kinda respect but they have dogshit opinions on things. I used to love Jack Saint's bad faith overly critical analyses of throwaway kids films, until I realized he also saw films that in my opinion had a lot of merit, and it turned me off from him. Big Joel is cool as hell, but anytime he gives his opinion on animation save like a few points, I completely glaze over and find him annoying. The other day I watched a video essay about the "Magical Negro" trope, and the first movie sourced interested me, so I watched it and I hardly understand why they put that in, it framed the movie as something it wasn't.

Just in general, it's good practice to make sure your opinions on media are your own and experience it yourself. MY biggest takeaway from the Hbomn video wasn't to throw rocks at Somerton or start obsessively fact-checking every essayist I watch, but to make sure I have a baseline of what they talking about myself and not letting anyone throw around media examples without reckless abandon. The Celluloid Closet and Tinkerbelles and Evil Queens is on my watxh/read list now, but the first thing I did from the words he stole from Celluoid Closet was watch Rebels Without A Cause out of curiosity of this gay subtext in a 50s blockbuster. And it was a super interesting experience that has given me my own unrelated opinions. Not to discount whatever important queer reading and historical importance the film has, but I'm happy I also have more than just that cause I Watched It Myself, not someone's specific and unavoidably biased reading of it.

The video isn't about cultivating suspicion but cultivating appreciation for the skills of analytical/informative/opinion writing. So even when people aren't being lying grifters, it's just good to be your own critic and media analyst. Maybe you'll even contribute to that world yourself, or maybe you'll keep all your cool opinions in your heart and die, who cares. The point is that unlike some people, your opinions and words are your own. It's a beautiful thing to have your own creative voice.

#shut the heck up #video essays #hbomberguy #james somerton #media analysis #art mush #<- for when i get cheesy about the beauty of art and creative processes

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conocula · 5 months

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It seems incredibly weird to me that I'm seeing a lot of ppl making posts with the tone of "James Somerton's videos are all garbage bullshit because of xyz false thing he said. Anyone who watched him is an idiot and I (who never heard of him before today) would NEVER fall for such a thing" considering the whole point of Hbomberguy's video was how 90% of James' work was ripped wholesale from good, well-researched actual queer academics and writers that made great points. And also how YOU TOO could be lied to by your favorite content creators because their primary goal is always to make money, so here are some tools to better be able to identify sketchy things. Saying that anyone is a dumbass for thinking the insights he made were any good seems really discrediting to all the people he you know, stole most of his insights from.

#hbomberguy #james somerton

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lights-in-the-distance · 5 months

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the hbomberguy video was really good, i was a fan of james somerton for quite a while and supported him on patreon (up until last month) so i do feel pretty betrayed, i hadn't really watched his content in a while because i was finding it increasingly cynical and boring, but i had really loved his videos and they helped get me into queer theory and film theory in general. it's really a shame to find out they were largely plagiarized, but at least now i know that there's plenty of authors out there writing original work on queer studies and i can check out their work instead. i really appreciate all the work hbomber did on his video.

it looks like somerton disabled comments on youtube community posts and made a post a few hours ago titled "Raised Concerns" on his patreon, only available to paying patreon members though because jesus fucking christ. i'll try to find someway around it, i'm not giving him any more money. he has a discord server too, it's pretty calm, just people being disappointed basically, not really excusing his actions. his co-writer nick runs the server and is trying to grapple with it. nick wasn't involved in any of the plagiarizing as far as we can tell. he hasn't watched the video yet.

anyway, don't harass anyone about this obviously, spread awareness but don't be a dick. probably no one will see this but i just needed to get my thoughts out.

#hbomberguy #james somerton

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atanx · 2 months

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James Somerton's "A Measured Response": A Measured Response

so I watched a reupload of the video because idk i like to torture myself. and i took a bunch of notes:

“I tried to be a voice for every member of the queer community, but that was a failed endeavour before it even started.”

what a strange way to say ‘I tried making it seem like I’m the only queer creator and stole from and actively harmed people in the queer community. knowingly. purposefully. and when I was called out in the past I tried to hide it.'

“I'm a cis, white, gay man. No matter how much I try to be a good spokesperson, I can never really, truly, understand the life experiences of other, far more put upon, members of the queer community.”

so of course I stole and hid work from the people I can't understand, gutting it of their personal experiences and refused to redirect my audience to those people so that they can enrich themselves and hear about issues pertaining them from someone who actually does understand.

“...one of the reasons I used their own words. But I should have made it clear that that was what I was doing.”

BITCH YOU STOLE. YOU GUTTED THEIR STORIES OF MEANINGFUL PERSONAL EXPERIENCES. YOU WEREN'T USING THEIR WORDS TO BE ABLE TO TALK ABOUT THINGS YOU CAN'T ENTIRELY UNDERSTAND YOU WERE MILKING THEM FOR CONTENT AND DEPRIVING PEOPLE OF ACTUAL, SOULFUL, MEANINGFUL ARTICLES AND BOOKS AND DOCUMENTARIES AND VIDEOS THEY COULD HAVE BEEN WATCHING INSTEAD.

“Being a cis white man I thought I might win over some people who otherwise wouldn't listen.”

Yeah sure. Because racist transphobes are going to be watching your badly plagiarised gay film analysis.

“I would also like to apologise to Jessie Gender, who is one of the kindest people I ever met. Through my hot-headedness, I drew her into this anger spiral.”

‘through my hotheadedness.’. shirking responsibility onto an ‘ingrained personality trait of yours’ I see.

if you are so honestly sorry for being an asshole to Jessie why don't you fucking apologise to her directly? privately? not as a way to boost your own fucking image??

he's trying to earn good will by complimenting Jessie Gender “oh he knows to compliment an awesome person we have that in common I guess he can't be so bad after all” fuck you I recognise your strategies and it's gross to drag Jessie into this like that, she spoke out against you and you are trying to imply some sort of friendship or something between you. okay I cannot UNDERSTATE the way he tries to make it seem like they are close in some way and sort of drag her onto his side that's so fucking despicable. as far as I know Jessie Gender does not have a relationship with him of any kind?

once again bringing up death threats I see. obviously death threats are shite and anyone who threatens the dude in seriousness or harasses him will not see the light of heaven as Hbomberguy said but IN AN APOLOGY YOU DO NOT MAKE IT ABOUT YOU THAT'S MANIPULATION

also blaming the police for not clarifying a situation in a timely manner - the police are a flaming pile of garbage and I hope the institution explodes but NOT SAYING ANYTHING WAS YOUR CHOICE. THE POLICE DIDN'T MAKE YOU DO SHIT THERE

the problem isn't that you tried to “create a channel where all queer people could be safe”, the problem is that 1) you are a misogynist 2) you yourself engaged in transphobic behaviour and 3) you also actively supressed queer people's voices. The problem isn't that you supposedly wanted a space for all queer people, the problem is that you tried to MONOPOLISE queer literature analysis. fuck, queer doesn't look like a word anymore I've written it too many times now

(paraphrased) “I should have been helping with making queer people's voices discoverable” this makes it seem like he just didn't do anything and not like the reality that he was actively trying to rewrite history and bury LQBTQIA+ voices under his steaming pile of garbage

also BLAMING YOUTUBE AND THE ALGORITHM FOR ‘PUSHING HIM’ because he's cis and white, like maybe they did, I certainly wouldn't be surprised, but that is not why other creators suffered, a large part of that can be attributed to James Somerton stealing their work without any acknowledgement whatsoever apart maybe if they are lucky, a “based on” in the credits or their name flashing on screen for half a second.

“I should have done more to share the voices of other queer people” THAT IMPLIES YOU DID SOMETHING. YOU WERE ACTIVELY WORKING AGAINST THAT YOU STUPID PIECE OF SHIT-

“it was just my dweam to be a youtubew and when my videos gained twaction i felt pwessuwed to make mowe vewy quickly and that's why they wewe so shit uwu” fuck off you weren't pressured into shit you just wanted to make money and that's why you were a content mill

“early on I thought that crediting authors in the opening credits alone was enough” what about the times YOU DIDN'T EVEN DO THAT??? YOU'RE MAKING THIS SEEM LIKE THE DRAMA IS ABOUT YOU CREDITING PEOPLE WRONG WHEN ITS ABOUT YOUR SYSTEMATIC THEFT AND OPPRESSION OF THOSE YOU CLAIM TO MAKE VIDEOS FOR AND ABOUT AND THOSE YOU CLAIM TO MAKE A SAFE SPACE FOR. WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK WATCHES YOUR VIDEOS?? WE KNOW WHAT YOU DID YOU CAN'T JUST PLAY IT DOWN

not him using Hbomberguy's example of the DEEP CUTS: SOCIETY AND QUEER HORROR video and claiming he credited all people in the opening scene when Hbomberguy highlighted he DIDNT EVEN CREDIT MOST OF THEM FUCK OFF ARE YOU DELUSIONAL HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH THIS

I think I'm going insane this all seems so blatantly fake. he brings up the evil queens video and how he asked Sean Griffin, retroactively, permission to include his work in the video. and he shows a ‘screenshot’ of an email Griffin allegedly wrote to thank him for putting him in the title-card and that he thinks it is ‘a very thoughtful video’. only the text of the email header, such as Griffin's name, the RE:, and the To: is a lot smaller than the ‘text’ in the email, which leads me to believe that the below text is edited in some way. And with how hard James is trying to rewrite history, it wouldn't surprise me if he literally rewrote the email or cut things out to present himself in a more positive light. obviously I can't prove that the email is fake but I'll just say that I think the likelihood is very high that it is.

the way he says this also implies that he asked for permission after he made the video but hadn't published it yet. which is also blatantly false.

again trying to waltz off responsibility on nick, saying he was much more interested in production and implying that nick did all the writing .

“nick and I had both grown up poor so when I lost my job in 2021 (approx.) we of course were desperate and turned to producing videos even quicker and plagiarising the fuck out of all of them! but we can't help it we were both poor as kids!” fuck off, you weren't poor when plagiarising every-fucking-thing, this was in “the second year of COVID”. obviously if they really did grow up poor that sucks, and that's why we should eat the rich and redistribute their money. not plagiarise people who partly are poor or not financially cushy and manipulate thousands of people into believing you are the only queer creator.

also milking his mom's cancer. if you were really that worried about your financial situation, one would think that you would get an actual job for security and not put everything into your youtube career that is unstable, especially considering you've already done a lot of plagiarism and have no intention of stopping. “oh I plagiarised because my mom had cancer QAQ” that is so digusting to use a person's medical condition like that.

“i have memory issues because of a head injury i suffered as a child and that's why I plagiarise badly. see, I copy pasted the text with the intention to rephrase it later but forgot.” that would still be fucking plagiarism if he'd done that, also, if he's so aware of his memory issues and how they lead to him plagiarising, why didn't he try to work around that? leave himself notes? or tell nick to remind him to integrate actual proper credit and citations before uploading a video? mark the plagiarised stuff in the document with like highlighter or so when you're pasting it in?? oh but he didn't do all of that because he has ADHD. now, ADHD can be debilitating, but he says it's recently diagnosed so it must not have caused a lot of problems for him so far, so it's probably not severe and even if it is, it doesn't excuse him not crediting people properly. stop fucking hiding behind things ‘you can’t change' because if you truly can't you probably shouldn't be doing this in the first place.

“my mom really wanted me to make a movie with her life insurance but that wasn't paid out so I decided to crowdfund it. i planned to underpay the actors so hard it was under union wages. we got more money than we were expecting and upgraded to wanting to film a feature (final girl) but i didn't want to start working on it until the campaign was over for some reason that totally isn't me just wanting to exploit people for money!”

I'm not gonna go into the Telos stuff but he tries to explain it by claiming it was very unorganised and that's why they constantly ran into issues and that's why nothing ever got done and they were JUST about to start doing stuff when the Hbomberguy video released. You know what, I can believe it, although I am very doubtful considering all James ever does is lie. Idk.

once again trying to excuse his plagiarism with needing to pay two rents and thus needing to make more videos for more sponsors and not having the time to not plagiarise like please. i don't believe that they were in that dire need of money and if they were - just get a fucking stable job and put youtube on the backburner.

also once again trying to make it all about him by once again talking about his suicide attempt and death threats. like. no one should suffer through that kind of mental anguish but honestly I cannot bring myself to feel sympathy for this man. and i see this as an attempt to gather pity points.

“nick worked very hard on these videos other three years and it's unfair to [them] (james says that they're non-binary but doesn't indicate their pronouns anywhere? and in the beginning he uses they/them but later only he/him so idk what their pronouns are but it seems like they/them is at least part of their pronouns so i'm just going to use that) that they all got taken down” well y'all shouldn't have fucking plagiarised then. let this be a lesson maybe and don't fucking show your face on youtube again!

he is fucking relaunching his channel. like james. this isn't something you come back from. no one will ever be able to trust you ever again and you don't deserve an audience. he claims all the revenue will go to Hbomberguy's fund but we have no way to verify this. we have no way to know just how much he makes and how much of that is actually going to the fund. i don't trust him with any money. which is why i watched a reupload rather than the original. he's also releasing a new video he claims is entirely by him. like?????? don't???????

he also might not relaunch his existing patreon but he's still making a new one.

he claims he will “work his ass off” to make non-plagiarised videos. like that isn't “working your ass off” that's the bare fucking minimum. I really want to trust him. and I want to believe he'll actually try to do better. and maybe he will. and i believe in second chances, even for someone as despicable as him. but throughout this video he has continuously tried to play down what he did. tried to make excuses for everything. and that's why i am not going to give him a second chance. if he can't even admit what he did i don't trust him to not do it again. and i also just plainly don't want to endorse a person making such arguments.

also, he plugs his fucking new patreon right after this.

“this video is not about me promoting myself. it's about me apologising.” the only fucking person you actually ‘apologised’ to is Jessie Gender.

James Somerton: makes a billion fucking excuses. Also James Somerton: “These are not excuses. There is no excuse for what I did.”

this entire video was just a publicity stunt. he tries to humanise himself and repair his image. this is just a tool to be able to continue on and continue making money.

he also still claims the disney video was based on the Celluloid Closet and he credited the author and ignores that this wasn't the only author he fucking plagiarised in that video. he is trying to reduce his plagiarsm to incorrect crediting and mistakes and that is disgusting.

the least he could have done was mention by name out loud every author he plagiarised and what work he plagiarised. not just say “uuuh i'm sorry to everyone I plagiarised QAQ”

#james somerton #hbomberguy #james somerton a measured response #atanx.txt

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