If you have been following internet drama for the past few years, there is no doubt that you have heard the names James Charles and Shane Dawson. Every year it seems, new drama comes out about these two, leading many to question why they still have a platform. However, in 2020, Shane Dawson had enough past and present actions come to light that changed the publics perception on him, seemingly once and for all.
For context, in 2019, a popular Youtuber named, Tati Westbrook, posted a video to Youtube that insinuated that James Charles was a predator to straight men. This video, titled Bye Sister, got millions of views before it was eventually deleted, and led to Charles losing more than 3 million subscribers. Charles posted an apology video showing some evidence that these claims were not true, and he was able to redeem himself and gained more popularity than ever. The scandal was never forgotten, but people stopped believing that it was true. Fast forward a year later, and Westbrook uploads another video. In this one, she states that the allegations that she spoke of in the first video were simply lies that were fed to her by Shane Dawson and another popular Youtuber, Jeffree Starr. Though some people believed her and chose to stop supporting them from this alone, what followed is what really cemented the fact that the internet no longer supported Shane Dawson. Video and audio clips of Shane started resurfacing, where he made racist jokes, pedophiliac jokes, and bestiality jokes. These were disgusting and many felt like they crossed the line of jokes. Shane uploaded an apology, but it was not good enough to change the opinions of many of his viewers. He then went quiet on the internet, only posting the occasional Instagram story asking people to buy his merch. Then, in early 2021, his best friend of over 10 years, Trisha Paytas, came out and started talking about how bad of a friend Shane was behind the scenes. Anyone who excused Shane's past behavior as just being distasteful "jokes" now began to see that he truly was not a good person. Trisha also hinting that Shane was planning a comeback, but this surely pushed that back, if not ended it completely.
Now, within the past few weeks, underage fans of James Charles have started coming out with proof that James had been communicating with them in a sexual manner. As of today, the number of young boys that have spoken up is in the double digits. James Charles made an apology video on this, however only admitted to two of the accusations. Many people did not feel like that apology was genuine, however for many others, the apology did not matter. James Charles had openly admitted to committing a crime, and no apology was going to change that. These accusations had also followed a year long issue with Charles, where he was constantly going out to party and see his friends during a pandemic. Though James still has a massive following, the tide is starting to turn, and people are angry.
Now that James Charles' name is back in the media for negative reasons once again, people are starting to wonder if this gives the green light for Shane Dawson to come back. Many feel like "he was right" in the James Charles situation of 2019 and 2020. However, this completely ignores the clips that resurfaced following the Bye Sister scandal. Whether he was right about James Charles or not, that does not change fact that the content he had been putting out for years was extremely problematic and hurtful. Had he had a clean record besides the Bye Sister scandal, it is very possible that Shane Dawson would still be seen positively in the eyes of the public. James Charles is not the problem with Shane Dawson. He, himself is the reason for why people no longer support him. So, now that James Charles is cancelled, can Shane Dawson come back?
Absolutely not. Being in the right on this one situation in no way redeems himself for everything else. If one person runs a red light, their guilt does not go away just because another person runs a red light. They both pay the fine. So, now both James Charles and Shane Dawson are facing the consequences of their actions. There has always been a desire to find a good guy and a bad guy in a situation, however it is very possible that both Dawson and Charles are the bad guys. Two people can be cancelled at once. I have often heard people say things like "cancel culture has only ever worked on Shane Dawson". However, if he is automatically forgive just because someone else is in trouble, then "cancel culture" does not work at all. If we are going to hold people accountable for their actions, then we actually have to do it.
This also presents a problem that makes it seem like people can forgive racism, pedophilia, and bestiality, however manipulating someone to make an expose video on someone else is what crosses the line. In a perfect world, any one of them alone is enough to cross the line. People are quick to get mad but forgive too easily. Shane Dawson has done nothing to redeem himself. The internet is big and has plenty of people on it that do not have a career built on controversy, there is no need for James Charles or Shane Dawson.
However, do I think Shane Dawson will try to come back? Of course he will. He is already showing signs that he wants to, and Trisha confirmed it. And when he does come back, he will have millions of people who will continue watching his videos, so at the end of the day, "cancel culture" does not really work at all. James Charles is still on the internet, acting as if nothing happened. So really the opinion of other does not really matter when they still have a core following, but we will see how they keep their success in the long run.
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