The fact that PewDiePie might have a right-leaning following, that he acquired by himself leaning right, which he now exposes to Freedom, using Libre Software, might actually be a good thing. Since exposing yourself to the philosophy of Free Software eventually leads to human rights and thus to the left, in a way. If PewDiePie course-correcting to the left like this, taking his enormous subscriber-base with him, IMO it is very good.
this post was submitted on 28 Jun 2025
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There's plenty of neo-nazis in the Free Software movement. It's "Free Software", not "Free People"
Nazis are everywhere, not just OSS. Never seen one though
i feel like you missed the time between 1990 and 2005 when american libertarians caused a schism in the free software movement by popularising open source.
There is evidence already in that video that suggests that he is starting to lean more left. Like he pointed out the ecological issues with AI. Even though he did say "I don't like to be that guy" before saying that.
It seems like he is already doing some doubts and thinking that are signs of moving the left direction.
I'm trying to be the optimist here. If we want not just PewDiePie, but his subscribe-base to change sides, we need him to be extra careful and extra soft with this sort of change. He seem to know how to form good streams of thoughts and convincing narratives. This would take some serious carefulness on his part. And it seems like he is already taking small steps to do that.
What in the UX war crime is this for me to read an article. It’s like the polar opposite of for-profit media trying so hard that it’s just looped around on itself
Oh you even got the iWarning lol
Yes, your user agent detector is certainly working
I did too, so, thanks, now I'm cackling at this racist bullshit:
...racist? ive read that description in the screenshot twice. what part is specifically racist?
It's a Librem5 phone with cringe name and 100% markup, but it's their own product nonetheless. I.e. it is not a generic Android with a custom skin and preinstalled apps like Trump Phone, Freedom Phone, or Quantum Internet box.
You can buy pretty much the same Librem5 assembled in China for ~$700. Take a look at Liberux Nexx Linux phone too (they are just staring out)
(Not sure what you're calling racist here, appeal to "patriots"?)
The implication that Chinese-made goods are less private. Also I'm pretty sure most people speculate that the Trump phone is just a rebranded one of these? Guess we'll just have to wait and see.
But did you sign the petition!? It's hard not too, literally.
So glad that one of the largest youtubers is promoting Linux, FOSS and privacy :D
No.
Anyone with a platform can do that.
(And from the little bits I've seen, mostly over memes & various news bits, the quality is questionable. Just don't follow the whims of influencers, it's not the correct way forward imho, it just spreads enshitification.)
Wait until he discovers the Fediverse....
Great blog post! The mastodon outrage was a highlight as I see it again and again. Dunking on bridgy-fed, opt-out telemetry and donation pop-ups.
As I have tried to put myself in the shoes of a typical person I can see how they can view FOSS as crazy people in tinfoil hats creating templeOS.
A lot of the times when people hear of Richard Stallman, or other people, who correctly state that all proprietary software is absolutely inexcusable, they feel pressured. Which makes them recoil and distance themselves from those types of ideas. If you need to suddenly re-learn the entire way you are using the computer, and you may have certain habits, or certain things you rely on, or enjoy very much, either games, or software, or in case of PewDiePie, the platform he is on. You will automatically feel like whatever these Stallmans are asking from you is so absurdly hard for you to do, that you don't even consider it. More than that, to protect yourself from that hard work, you come up with a bunch of reasons, to not even engage in that idea. Which creates an opposition. And it is not something that we want.
It's not just that, the overbearing FOSS mentality, from Stallmans corner of that world, is that you need to take a damn political position on software to be able to interact with other people that use it.
Which in itself is not actually true, but if you approach it like this with non-technical types then they will rightly and instinctively balk at both the software and you.
Bringing people to FOSS should be the same as bringing them to any other software, and if the ideology behind it is so self-evidently true then - by its own standard - it won't need significant petitioning to convince them they should use more of it for ethical reasons as well as to meet their needs. This is software, not Amway. They're trying to write a word document, not to join a cult.
Politics is what happens whenever more than 2 people make a decision
Maybe "adopt an ideology" is fairer than "take a political position"
It’s not just that, the overbearing FOSS mentality, from Stallmans corner of that world, is that you need to take a damn political position on software to be able to interact with other people that use it.
FOSS is literally a political and ideological set of positions. The entire thing that makes Free Software and Open Source differentiated from just "normal" software development and distribution are a set of political and organisational positions, which are in limited fashion codified and expressed in software licenses, and also through e.g. structure of organisations around projects and why they're structured that way.
Without that, you just get companies making money from pawning off a portion of their development and infrastructure costs to volunteers and other organisations (non-profits, other companies, governments).
Bringing people to FOSS should be the same as bringing them to any other software,
FOSS isn't about fandom of a particular piece of software.
and if the ideology behind it is so self-evidently true then - by its own standard - it won’t need significant petitioning to convince them they should use more of it for ethical reasons as well as to meet their needs. This is software, not Amway. They’re trying to write a word document, not to join a cult.
This is absurdly politcally and socially naive. Also can we please ban stemlords from ascribing every aspect of politics and political advocacy to always being a cult.
I have asked a few times why PDP deserves all the hate. The best answer I got is "look it up yourself". I did, and the only things I found were many years old, and in each instance (of which there aren't that many) he apologized publicly and acknowledged that things got out of hand. To me, his apologies seem sincere and genuine - none of that "I'm sorry I got caught" bullshit that actual scumbags are known for.
I don't watch PewDiePie but he's alright best I can tell. If I've missed something, please let me know what that is, and be specific because I genuinely can't find it.
he said the N-word, hard R and all
I heard he's Hated cause he's a Nazi apparently.
That's not a claim to make without some evidence. There is a thing he did a long time ago on fiverr, and from my POV that does not reflect on his views at all. I can explain my reasoning if you want. Other than that incident, is there any other reason to suspect he's a Nazi?
https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/2/17/14613234/pewdiepie-nazi-satire-alt-right
He has repeatedly and overtly used Nazi imagery, made a multitude of "jokes" like this:
Mr. Kjellberg says the material is portrayed in jest. He showed a clip from a Hitler speech in a Sept. 24 video criticizing a YouTube policy, posted swastikas drawn by his fans on Oct. 15 and watched a Hitler video in a brown military uniform to conclude a Dec. 8 video. He also played the Nazi Party anthem before bowing to a swastika in a mock resurrection ritual on Jan. 14, and included a very brief Nazi salute with a Hitler voice-over saying “Sieg Heil” and the text “Nazi Confirmed” near the beginning of a Feb. 5 video.
[...]
In addition to more overt Nazi symbolism, Kjellberg makes references to the alt-right that are veiled but obvious if you know where to look. In one video from late August, he makes an extended racist joke comparing Harambe the gorilla to Saturday Night Live and Ghostbusters actress and comedian Leslie Jones, echoing the widespread politically tinged, racist harassment that Jones endured last summer, largely from the alt-right.
And in another video from November, Kjellberg overlays a swastika, along with audio of a speech from Hitler, over unrelated commentary about clickbait YouTube channels. He then goes on to refer to BuzzFeed as “a bunch of cucks” — “cuck” being an alt-right buzzword.
Absolutely true for the time the article was written (2017). He changed his ways after the Christchurch attacks which happened in 2019.
He has stated his favourite author is a Japanse fascist who wanted to restore the emperor, Yukio Mishima, who tried to do a coup and killed himself when he failed.
But I'm sure he just likes the guy for his prose, and has no particular fixation or interest in Nazi and fascist imagery and politics.
When did he state this? Recently?
Mate, are you really just gonna keep moving the goalposts and doing this subpar jordan peterson fan shit?
Imagine being this pathetically tied to a youtuber, holy shit.
I agree with the other things people mentioned, and I don't care that he did it for the money, attention of if he has nazi views (the point that he did it is important). But Mishima is really stretching it. He is really popular outside Japan and has a good prose. Much much nore non nazis like his writing so I wouldn't call it a dog whistle.
If it acts like a Nazi, Likes Nazi reading, And insists it's not a Nazi.
It's a Nazi.
Has nothing new has come up since 2017-2018?
If you want specific, I found this: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1354856520938602
I've skimmed the introduction, and it only seems to cite the same Fiverr incident from 2017. I think it only uses PDP to illustrate some point and attract readers, but I'd have to read the whole thing to be sure.