In the UK we have a saying about a food product known as Marmite. It’s a brown, yeasty thing you spread on your sandwiches, and the known advertisement for it is that “you either love it or you hate it.” PewDiePie is, and has been for a while, the Marmite of the internet, but enough might finally be enough.
PewDiePie has been hitting the headlines over the past day or so for all the wrong reasons, as usual, but it’s honestly pretty baffling.
The story unfolded during PDP’s unboxing of his 100 million subscribers YouTube play button, a video which was sponsored by Honey with $50,000 of the money being donated by Pewds to an organisation called The ADL, otherwise known as The Anti-Defamation League.
The ADL is – in its own words – “an international Jewish non-governmental organization based in the United States,” and Pewds was planning to donate the money to this organisation to close the book on the whole “PewDiePie is an anti-semite” thing that floats around the internet every few months.
Interestingly, the ADL has condemned Pewds in the past, making it a pretty poignant decision for him to choose to donate to them.
However, the announcement was met with a lot of criticism – let’s call the first of these the Twitter Sh*tstorm Number One, or TS1 to keep it simple.
During TS1, lots of people reached out to PDP alleging that the ADL is a less-than-savoury organisation with a somewhat shady past. People were incredibly incensed at his announcement to donate, with lots of people condemning the decision.
There was also the outrage from fans who didn’t want Pewds to donate money to an organisation that’s been very anti-PDP in the past.
In response to the backlash, PewDiePie decided to withdraw his offer to donate the 50k, and instead give it to another charity. And thus began Twitter Sh*tstorm Number Two, where PewDiePie came under near-constant and incessant fire, this time for the withdrawal.
From people calling him out for “bending the knee” and not sticking to his guns, to saying he “hates charities,” the two sh*tstorms were close to creating the perfect storm…
Enter TS3: PewDiePie is criticised of white supremacy yet again for wearing clothes featuring the “Iron Cross” in his most-recent video (yes, the one in which he explains his decision to no longer donate to the ADL).
The thing here is that Pewds isn’t actually wearing an Iron Cross, which is essentially a Nazi war medal: he’s wearing designer gear by Demna Gvasalia, a.k.a the creative director of Balenciaga.
However, this is the internet, and with Pewds already trending worldwide, this “Iron Cross” tale was the last nail in the coffin. The three Twitter Sh*tstorms merged and Felix is now, once again, public enemy number one.
Regardless of where you stand on PewDiePie, it’s incredibly disheartening to see someone getting absolutely obliterated online from every possible side of each and every one of the issues.
In a world where a tear-filled apology video on YouTube is considered a clean slate, this is borderline nonsensical. Even when trying to do something as simple as make a donation, PewDiePie simply can’t win.
The situation was summed up pretty nicely on Twitter, where one user wrote: “I’m over seeing Sh*t about pewdiepie, he donates to charity, he gets backlash, he retracts his donation, (to donate somewhere else) he gets back lash. I 100% think people are looking for to into everything and it’s giving me a f*cking headache just seeing it on my timeline.”
Same, tbh. Can we stop demonising an act of charity and instead just all enjoy some Minecraft Let’s Plays? Please?!
Featured Image Credit: Instagram/pewdiepie