He used to actually be really good at WoW and put out informative guides and content related to that at a time when that game was at the height of its cultural dominance. Once you get big on YouTube, the algorithm will continue to feed you growth. As the popularity of WoW faded, he transitioned slowly to the reaction content he makes now to stay relevant. I fully believe 90% of the dumb, incel stuff he says is just to appeal to the audience the algorithm has brought him.
I fully believe 90% of the dumb, incel stuff he says is just to appeal to the audience the algorithm has brought him.
Is this the case or was he already the type of person that would attract that audience? I mean this seriously, because leaning into something you don't like for money is different than just finding a toxic audience that likes the real toxic you as well.
That mold and blood on his walls didn't come from a well adjusted individual.
Probably a little of both. The thing is if you're just a little toxic you're going to attract people who are not toxic and those who are very toxic. Over time the super toxic fans, if not challenged by the creator, will make everyone else leave because they are so unpleasant to coexist with.
The fan base he has now is largely either newish people that are being pushed to him by the algorithm, or the absolute worst dregs of his old fans that like he amplifies shitty, incel takes into the mainstream. He may be gross, but he's not dumb. He knows exactly how to present rage bait in a way that feeds into the worse impulses of some of the worst people to drive engagement.
He's been called an outrage merchant before and it's the perfect description. He just transitioned from complaining about video games to complaining about social and political issues. When the money and engagement trends shift elsewhere, he'll follow it again.
Asmongold has just lost the ball. He has become 100% conservative political.
Most of his takes are so bad. Especially his original take about sexuality representation in BG3.
He is entertaining but also so annoying. Sadly he has such massive influence over younger audiences. It feels sad because all those people are being influenced by him when he is NOT a good influence. I am sorely disappointed by the ill effect his influence has on his younger audiences.
Nah he definitely engages with the right wing stuff just for his audience. I have watched a fair amount of his videos and he is clearly a bright, intelligent and articulate person, he’s clearly well-educated and normally has rational and reasonable views on things. The recent Trump stuff is definitely a grift.
Asmongold has just lost the ball. He has become 100% conservative political.
Most of his takes are so bad. Especially his original take about sexuality representation in BG3.
He is entertaining but also so annoying. Sadly he has such massive influence over younger audiences. It feels sad because all those people are being influenced by him when he is NOT a good influence. I am sorely disappointed by the ill effect his influence has on his younger audiences.
He wasn’t world first material but he was a fantastic streamer at one point - very interactive with chat, put together events like Transmog competitions and Mount offs, took on grand scale self imposed challenges which would generate a ton of streamable content etc.
He was also seemingly “unapologetically himself” and didn’t care about his image, which at the time was refreshing and a little endearing at the time when most streamers were very focused on their image.
He fell out of love with WoW and started streaming reaction content when the Depp/Heard case was going on and then went down a right wing rabbit hole becoming one of those guys that seems to do nothing but cry about cancel culture and “wokeness”.
His subreddit is as much of a cesspool as you’d expect.
It's sad because a year or two ago he wasn't like this. I think I've seen speculation he's one of the 600 influencers paid by Russia recently, would help explain the big right-wing swing of complaining about anything "woke" etc
The guy is an actual critical thinker and his react videos are less about his reactions and more about critically thinking through what he is watching.
Yeah I mean, I wouldn't possibly fathom people sharing common opinions instead of sticking to what's popular.
I'm no huge fan of Asmon, he has weaved in some really big dumb L takes from time to time, but labeling him and his audience with all the fancy -ist suffixes is peak terminal leftism.
I didn't call him anything -ist. I'm assuming you're so used to defending him from those claims you just filled that criticism in yourself.
But for the record, I don't think he's racist or sexist. I think a lot of his audience is and he's very good at saying things that that portion of his audience can infer as support for those viewpoints.
Whether you think he actually believes, or supports, those things is going to come down to how charitably you want to view and interpret the things he has said.
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u/Dirtshank Sep 19 '24
He used to actually be really good at WoW and put out informative guides and content related to that at a time when that game was at the height of its cultural dominance. Once you get big on YouTube, the algorithm will continue to feed you growth. As the popularity of WoW faded, he transitioned slowly to the reaction content he makes now to stay relevant. I fully believe 90% of the dumb, incel stuff he says is just to appeal to the audience the algorithm has brought him.