Thread by @EthelThurston

I just want to respond to a common assertion I see whenever I criticise someone, and that's the idea that I'm doing so for the views/subs/money, because I don't think a lot of you actually understand how the (neurotypical) human mind works.

Starting with views and the most recent case to draw this accusation. Whilst mentioning Rachel Oates whilst criticising Rose of Dawn did help the video do relatively well compared to my usual trans videos, they've been absolutely blown out of the water by my religious one.

The difference is also very start in regards to earnings, with the video on Christianity and Abuse Culture earning twice what I'm used to the channel earning in a month since I made the switch to trans topics. The Oates videos? Not so much.

As for subscribers? Yeah, part of me doesn't even want to dignify that with a response. When I criticise someone popular, I lose subscribers, without fail.

Meanwhile, criticising religion just once brings in almost half a thousand new subscribers.

And that matches the general trend of the channel since I've made the shift from secularism to trans topics. Save for March 2020, the month I raised money to fight Graham Linehan's SLAPP suit, the last time I earned this much via adsense was January of 2019.

In fact, looking closer at 2019, we can see a rapid dropoff in income during the transphobia outbreak in the secular community, get this, before Rachel Oates weaponised self harm, making about a 1/3rd of my usual.

If I'm doing this for money, I was already losing by that point.

So, all this begs the question, why switch from secular topics to trans topics if it brings in less money, and why criticise popular creators if it stunts our subscriber growth?

Well, starting with the first, simply put, trauma. The way I used to find content to respond to was to search 'Atheist', sort by date, and click on anything that interested me. In the immediate fall out of what happened in September, I could no longer do that.

Why?

Well, because every time I did, I saw the faces of the people who fought tooth and nail to uphold transphobia as respectable, abandoning the trans community to the violence of fascism in both the US and the UK: Suris, Telltale, Jimmy, Shannon Q, Westbrook, Woodford, Oates…

And I just couldn't, it felt like I was a child being forced to attend a Catholic convention. Any time I tried, I'd ultimately see their faces, be reminded of the damage each and every one of them caused not just me personally, but the trans community at large, and break down.

So I stuck to LGBT+ topics, which, sadly, wasn't a perfect solution due to how many of these people engage in rainbow capitalism and similar forms of hollow allyship. But it was at least manageable on a personal level.

As for why I criticise such people whenever I can, because it's the right thing to do. These people are actively exploiting my community, patching up their brands with disgusting clichés they don't even live by.

The next video will contain a particularly explosive example.

They're draining us of as much money as they can, passing around a plate hastily painted rainbow colours. We talk about rainbow capitalism at Pride each year and how terrible it is. Well, these people are doing the same, all year round.

But it gets worse.

Because not only are they exploiting the LGBT+ community for money, but they're presenting themselves as a safe place for LGBT+ folk, including trans people. This is in spite of the fact that people like Oates have a documented history of abusing trans audience members.

I missed the fact that Oates published @CalledLevi's private emails trying to get her to take transphobia in her audience seriously since when I blocked her, I stayed away. I mean, had I seen it, could you really see me refusing to publish a video absolutely roasting her for it?

I sadly only found out months after she weaponised self harm to silence trans voices and uphold transphobic violence by her and her friends as unquestionable.

But she did it.

She also doxxed a member of a trans focussed mental health support group, admitted to knowing about it, and then kept said dox up until she finally deleted her Twitter account in late 2020.

[Black bar added to image by me.]

More recently Oates forced her way into trans Reddit spaces and began attacking trans people sharing my work with other trans people. Because Oates can't process the fact that she doesn't have the right to treat trans people/spaces however she wants.

https://twitter.com/EthelThurston/status/1513083997844557833

Returning to subscribers, I only managed to break the number I'd had at the start of September 2019 at the start of this year, all the way in 2022. Now, part of that stunted growth is the fact that I crticise other popular YouTubers for diplaying/defending abusive behaviours.

"But I thought criticising popular people led to explosive growth!"

Sure, if you're a reactionary asshole. Otherwise it only ends up hurting you due to the toxic nature of parasocial relationships people like Oates rely on to ensure anyone who calls them out is drowned out.

Drowned out, or worse.

Targeted.

Which, again, is a behavior Oates trains in her audience. That's what she was doing when she published Levi's emails, teaching her fans to attack her marginalized critics on sight, like hunters throwing fox kits to the hounds to blood them.

The way you build a community is by collaborating with people inside it. Which is fine in itself, but when it comes to (mostly neurotypical) people, said collaborations come with a whole lot of strings attached.

Sure, they'll help you grow your audience, so long as you don't 'rock the boat'.

I remember when I gave Woodford a month to sort his transphobic shit out, my god, I'd never been pinged by so many invites to partake in things. It was a little overwhelming at times.

Yet the moment Woodord doubled down, attacked the trans community in his 'apology', and remade his videos with newer transphobic dog whistles, leading me to call him out on it, whoosh! All of that interest vanished as I became enemy #1.

So, yeah. If you think what I do A, makes me much money or B, makes me popular, you have a very warped perception of human nature. People hate being told the person they look up to is an abusive monster, so much that they'll attack the person warning them.

Thank you for reading this thread (I didn't expect it to get so long). I just really needed to get this off my chest.

We're still dealing with Google in the background, it's just taking a lot longer than expected and our solicitor advises me not to share details currently.