Stop Giving Debate Bros Your Money
A Rant
I really don’t know where to begin with this one. In fact, I fear this will be a true blue ran, truly all over the place. Bear with me as I set this horrendous scene for you.
Picture this, you’re a content creator on TikTok. You’re young, white (this is important to the story), and relatively left leaning. Most of your posts are take-downs of people who have revealed themselves to be racist or conservative in some way and you’re name has become recognizable as a result. As your following grows, you are presented with opportunities you could have never dreamed of. One of those opportunities seems too good to be true. A purported leftist no one has ever heard of has created a tour in which you’ll follow right-wing pundit and big-headed fiend Charlie Kirk around. He’s currently on tour and the plan is to disrupt his speaking events and “debunk” his talking points. You get to “own him in the marketplace of ideas” (catch the eyeroll) and you’ll get paid A LOT of money to do so. Allegedly, money taken directly from donations but that’s neither here nor there. There’s only one problem (other than the alleged fraud of using donos as payment). The creators of the tour have purposely sidelined black creators that occupy the same online space you do. They didn’t invite any until they were called out on it and those creators have experienced secondhand treatment as a result. Furthermore, that unknown leftist when questioned about this fact, was racist and insulting to an entire panel of black creators in an ill-fated livestream. What do you do? Do you hold her to task? Pull out of the tour? Well I’m embarrassed but not surprised to report that the creators in this position did neither, opting instead to make the situation a whole lot worse.
A creator by the name of Peyton, out of all of the white creators involved in the tour, edgily named the “Unfuck America” tour, was the only one to speak out. In response, all of the other white creators involved proceeded to threaten him, lie about him, lie about the core issue namely the racist running the show, and deny knowledge of most of the racist events that took place. Unfortunately for them, this Peyton guy seems to be very well-liked, not only by their shared community but also by someone who still had access to their signal chat.
I don’t know what to laugh at first. First, how the hell do y’all keep getting caught up on signal? Isn’t the point of signal to have a place where you don’t get caught up in? Pathetic. Second, there’s something about “I’ve been working in PR crisis management for 7 years so I know what to do” that’s absolutely frying me. You knew so much about what to do that you laid out the entire plan in an unsecured chat. Hilarious. Plus, this is essentially a very old playbook that anyone who has ever organized knows about. Namely, if your group is doing something unethical and you speak out about it, they will demonize you and make it seem like you were removed from the group due to bad behavior unrelated to the whistleblowing. No expertise needed to figure that out (and see right through it). Third, one of the first things you should learn if you’re organizing is the value of your name. You all spent years building yourselves up online. I cannot for the life of me understand why you’d attach yourselves so quickly to something that was so clearly doomed form the start. What part of “unfucking” America is amplifying Charlie Kirk for a check? You aren’t “debunking” anything, your entire bag is predicated on him booking new engagements and speaking for as long as possible. For you to make money and continue growing your brand, you need him to be just as successful. This all feels like one big sports league if you ask me complete with fixed matches and fake rivalries.
But that is really my entire issue with our fixation on “debates”. You cannot debate Charlie Kirk or any right-wing pundit to any meaningful conclusion. These are people who fundamentally believe that there are people in this country that should have less rights than them. That shouldn’t exist. You are not going to “own” someone into changing their minds about that. There is also no middle ground you can get to without conceding to some of their bigoted ass points i.e. doing the bigotry. And we’ve gone through so many iterations of these debate bros are y’all not tired? How many of these people have revealed themselves to be self-interested gooners willing to platform war criminals if it means they get their names out there. I know so many slimy public figures not because I’ve sought them out, but because the loser debate bros that used to clog up my YouTube recs have platformed them. Most annoyingly, everyone comes away from these debates thinking they’re owned the other and nothing changes as a result. I never feel better having watched one of these and the usual subjects of these debates are never made safer because of it.
But what really bothers me about this is that… this is it. This is the young leftist movement in this country. At least, it’s the people with the resources necessary to do anything of substance. The attention needed to capture a large audience. And they’re already doing gaslighting, fraud, and self-enrichment. Before this, you had to get photographed at protests wearing a blue vest FOR YEARS before you could start lining your pockets. Not to mention that’s it’s always disconcerting seeing young people be as racist and dismissive as their parents. Not that it isn’t possible, just makes me feel like no generation will ever figure it out. Even more disconcerting are these nameless, faceless bipoc creators they keep alluding to in their responses. The ones who “believe in the mission” and see no problem with the organizer of the tour. Again, there are certain things I hate to see the youth repeat, allowing yourself to be used as a shield for racists is one of them. Let’s all work harder to stand the hell up.
At the end of all of this, the only question I have is where is the damn money? Give everyone who donated back their coin and do it expeditiously and lets put our money and care behind the real organizers. Not the problematic pale posse doing embezzlement right in everyone’s face.
Loser abound. Losers all around. Losers in the air. Losers on the ground. Stop giving your money to Losers.