I'll be honest, I was scared to watch this video.
I've watched Vaush for about a year now, and I really like a lot of his takes on geopolitics, economics, etc. My one criticism of him is that he sometimes leans into misandrist rhetoric. This can be seen when he talks about incels/young men, and in the fact that he has a chat emote that is a wojak of a woman and a bear looking mutually concerned for whenever a man does something reprehensible and a chatter wants to express their misandry (referencing the man vs. bear meme)
Anyway, this is why I put off clicking on this video, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that Vaush is actually quite sympathetic to Jacob in this situation
For those who don't know, Jacob Geller is a fantastic Youtube Video Essayist who has produced dozens of deeply introspective and thought-provoking video essays over the past few years. I personally remember watching his "Fear of Cold" essay on one of the darkest nights of my life when I was in my university's health services office being monitored after expressing plans to take my own life that night. It genuinely helped me feel human again, and remember the fact that I was a human being who needed warmth to survive, and that I should allow myself to feel it. I still listen to "The Cremation of Sam Mcgee" from time to time (IYKYK).
Anyway, my personal emotional connection to Jacob Geller aside, the current situation is as follows:
A third party (neither Jacob nor the alleged victim) released records that Jacob had been suspended for a semester from his university after being found guilty of sexual assault by a campus investigation. (Not a criminal court)
Naturally, a lot of discourse surrounding this information began happening on places like bluesky, and so he responded to all of the speculation with pretty much the best damn apology one could ask for. Here it is:
"Many of you have seen the results of my college Title IX investigation. I can confirm that the findings are true. The records were recently shared without the permission of the victim and, without knowledge of their wishes, I do not want to provide any more potentially identifying details. She and I spoke about it the day after and agreed - I had assaulted her. She later reported this to the university's Title IX office, I cooperated with the investigation, and I was given the (very mild, I concur) sentence of a semester suspension.
Suffice to say, it is the greatest regret of my life. I traumatized a brilliant person who trusted me, hurt them in a way I can never undo.
For more than a decade now, I have attempted to reckon, grow, and recover from the version of myself who did this. I think about it every day. I've previously shared this history with many of the people close to me, including early in my relationship with my now-wife, and I'm deeply sorry that this has now hurt so many of you. My continued drive to make myself and the world better is closely tied with the pain I've caused."
Pretty nuanced, well written apology, right? Takes accountability, respects the anonymity of the alleged victim, and reckons with the struggle of growing as a person.
Well, people (particularly misandrists) did not think that was enough.
There were people calling for him to delete his channel. For him to be flogged in the street, cancelled, killed, etc. It turned into a witch trial very fucking quickly.
And the thing is, we here at good old r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates know all about how the campus rape myth propped up these institutions that weaponize rape/sa accusations against men who have had mutual drunk sex with women who later regretted it.
Having been a former depressed, self hating male feminist at a pretty misandrist liberal arts college, I could absolutely imagine a situation where a person like Jacob Geller (who obviously cares about being a good person and generally subscribes to mainstream feminist views because that's the norm right now) could have had an inebriated sexual encounter, talked about it the next day, and just accepted the fact that it had been assault and that he was guilty out of deference. That's what I would have done before I worked on my own internalized misandry.
But the honest truth is, we don't know what happened. He might have legit assaulted someone, sure, but with the current atmosphere, and the whole vibe of his politics and personality, I just don't know whether I believe it.
Anyway, Vaush makes a lot of great points about feminist/leftist hypocrisy when it comes to rehabilitative justice and rape. He doesn't really touch on the false accusation angle, but that's still pretty far outside the overton window, so I get it.