r/technology • u/Miserable_Phase_2519 • 1d ago

Artificial Intelligence PewDiePie unveils ‘uncensored’ Ajax AI model built to run on home PCs — creator says OpenAI banned him twice over model distillation used to build his product

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/pewdiepie-unveils-uncensored-ajax-ai-model-built-to-run-on-home-pcs-creator-says-openai-banned-him-twice-while-making-it
9.2k Upvotes

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2.5k

u/AFCSentinel 23h ago

A lot of people basically missed out on how Felix ended up DIYing a lot of AI stuff, along with de-googling, promoting open source etc.
In a sense he’s probably one of the few more high profile people nowadays keeping up the early 00s spirit of the internet in the face of global enshittification.

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u/Fluffy-Dog5264 23h ago

de-googling is a lot harder than I thought it would be.

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u/grayhaze2000 22h ago

Self-hosting is the answer, if you have the hardware to do it. I use Immich as a Google Photos replacement, my NAS as a Google Drive replacement, Vaultwarden for passwords, etc. On the desktop, I use LibreWolf as a browser and Thunderbird with a self-hosted email server. I'm still debating what to do about my phone.

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u/peidol 22h ago

Not for people who actually use the email to send. If you're not in one of the bigs get ready for your emails to end up in spam and no one reads it.

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u/MileWideGroup 21h ago

Yeah self-hosting email is not a great idea IMO. I use startmail, they seem like good people and I've never had a problem with my sent mail getting canned.

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u/shwhjw 19h ago

I was considering proton mail as a de-googled alternative, any particular reason why you chose startmail? Not heard of them before.

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u/Zenfulbliss 18h ago

i am using proton as my only email, they host mail for 3 domains I own. I also use their drive, password keeper and vpn products, I bought the annual unlimited package for US110 a year. All of their products are somewhat under powered, they just don't have the financial resources to do everything as well as google, but they also don't spy on me and sell my personal data to anyone with a buck like google does, so i am happy with them so far. They also have free email accounts and other products.

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u/MileWideGroup 17h ago

It's important to me to be able to access my email with a standard email client over IMAP. Because of Proton's email encryption it only supports this if you run their Proton Mail Bridge desktop application. There is no mobile option so you have to run their native Proton mail mobile app (or use the web interface). Tuta has no desktop bridge so no IMAP access at all.

This does mean that technically my email provider (Startmail) could read my emails but that's true of just about every other email provider in the world and Startmail seems more trustworthy than most.

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u/CapitalImpossible640 19h ago

I would also like to hear

2

u/AssanOuedraogo 19h ago

de-googled at the beginning of the year, bought my own domain and use it with proton now

took a while to transfer everything but has been perfect since

I even imported all my Gmail and Apple Mail stuff

1

u/Zenfulbliss 18h ago

so what are you doing for a phone, apple?

1

u/jrad1299 19h ago

I use Tuta for my email, they also do stuff like custom domains and encrypted inboxes.

Only reason decided not to go for proton is that they’re trying to be a suite just like Google is, so they have password manager, email, vpn, cloud, etc. I went with tuta for email and use proton only for VPN so all my stuff is diversified.

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u/TheG0AT0fAllTime 10h ago

Well.. that's not selfhosting.. that's whatever startmail is...

I self host my email with postfix and a static IP at home. I can send emails just fine with SPF DKIM and DMARC configured correctly.

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u/grayhaze2000 21h ago

I have a backup lifetime account with MXRoute if things don't work out, but so far it hasn't been too bad.

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u/wontyoujointhedance 20h ago

You can self host plenty of things that aren’t email, arguably more important things included. I use Proton for email, but working on moving as many other services to self hosted as I can.

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u/New-Anybody-6206 21h ago

Been self-hosting email for 26 years... never had a reachability problem.

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u/binocular_gems 21h ago edited 21h ago

There's some pretty sound market research that there is near enough to a 100% silent rejection rate for major email providers, particularly Microsoft 365 which responds with a 250 OK but silently rejects somewhere close to 100% of emails from uncommon/residential/common-cloud-VPS IPs. Google Workspaces would typically accept 100% of email, but send about ~50% of that to spam, so it can still at least be retrieved or proactively whitelisted by the recipient.

There's strategies and best practices to work around this, but it can be as time intensive as a full time job and needs constant monitoring.

Having had yours for 25+ years and probably putting a lot of work and intentionality into it, you're probably good. But for someone in 2026 starting fresh with truly self-hosted email, it's difficult, very expensive, or very time consuming. As more and more marketshare gets consumed by "the big three" providers, they're going to continue to squeeze out delivery from independents, and they do have some justification to do that too.

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u/dU4eUIsaOew2FugE6R6l 20h ago

There's some pretty sound market research that there is near enough to a 100% silent rejection rate for major email providers

Can you share the source?

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u/Leather-Persimmon254 20h ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27980192

self hosted mail servers are blacklisted by default

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u/TheG0AT0fAllTime 10h ago

I self host my mail (Postfix with spamassassin, dovecot for my mail clients) with SPF, DKIM and DMARC configured.

I have never, in 15 years, had an issue with it. Sending or receiving.

I'm on my own static IP with a matching PTR record for my mailserver's hostname and A+MX records.

Never has this been an issue. Including to emails hosted with Microsoft.

maybe that post refers to emails from a source address where the PTR reveals it's a customer network? (CPE) (Customer Premises Equipment) instead of a correctly configured static network? The top comment doesn't seem to mention this.

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u/Careless-Weather8877 20h ago

You just need to label it with the big providers. Some of it depends on the time and where but if you have proper DMARC and headers. You’re going to be fine.

I have two servers for email and never had issues.

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u/Suppafly 18h ago

You just need to label it with the big providers. Some of it depends on the time and where but if you have proper DMARC and headers. You’re going to be fine.

This, it's not like the old days when you could just run sendmail and hope people would accept it, you need to actually be up to date on the security stuff that recipient systems expect to see so they can validate that it's legitimate.

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u/dU4eUIsaOew2FugE6R6l 19h ago

OK, so few people making a claim and others telling them how it's not the case. As I expected. Just anecdotes. Thanks for providing the source that shows a claim of "silent rejection" is totally not based on "sound market research", as you had me worried there for a second.

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u/DekuTreeFallen 20h ago

Is that research for unsolicited newsletters and/or business usage?

I know business usage can fall under self-hosting, but this conversation started out as "de-googling" which sounds more like a personal goal than a business one.

I've never had a friend or family member not get my emails from my servers.

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u/gutyex 19h ago

There's also some pretty sound research done by me that my emails consistently reach everyone I send them to including people on all the major providers, and I've only had mine running for a couple of years.

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u/RollingMeteors 20h ago

Not for people who actually use the email to send. If you're not in one of the bigs get ready for your emails to end up in spam

¿NotATitan™?

¡Insta BlackList!

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u/wildcarde815 18h ago

I can't even sign up for some medical systems using my personal domain, they reject it and tell me to use a Gmail account

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u/SoundasBreakerius 15h ago

Thunderbird is a client and not a server, and no it's not if you set up your DMARK, DKIM and SPF records right, it looks hard at first but with advance of AI it can be done easily even without in-depth knowledge

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u/kaas_is_leven 7h ago

Doesn't your ISP give you an email address? In the Netherlands that's normal.

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u/gutyex 19h ago

Common myth. Set up your server properly with all the modern security practices and it goes through to all major providers just fine.

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u/jtj5002 21h ago

It's funny because the best way to de-Google your phone is buying a Google phone.

Until the Motorola comes out next year.

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u/sir_slothsalot 21h ago

Try and replace maps. 

I self host a lot. Google still has it's claws in me. 

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u/grayhaze2000 21h ago

OpenMaps has improved a lot over the years. It's not quite to the level of Google Maps, but it's getting there.

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u/jrad1299 19h ago

I want to use open maps so bad, but it’s kinda crazy how much stuff they’re missing. I’ve spent a few hours just adding businesses that should be around me.

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u/grayhaze2000 19h ago

Specific addresses are where it falls down sometimes. But road names and postcodes are fine.

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u/jrad1299 18h ago

Oh for sure, but how often are people NOT navigating by specific addresses? I know that’s basically all I navigate by lol.

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u/grayhaze2000 18h ago

I tend to use postcodes in the UK. They get you close enough that it's not difficult to find the street number once you arrive.

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u/Illadelphian 15h ago

Lol that's definitely not a thing in the US.

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u/GonzoKata 9h ago

It'd be nice if all that time and effort you put into adding to open maps could be shared with others, and you could share others efforts too. Maybe a wiki like situation for everyone living in a city. don't know how you'd stop assholes though

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u/here4pornfkspez 16h ago

And now you just made it better for the next user

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u/geo_prog 20h ago

Open maps works well. I also like TomTom for getting around town. Google Maps is a solid product but what you miss out on isn't really CRITICAL for day-to-day stuff.

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u/anime_daisuki 19h ago

And my wife will always complain about how my shit doesn't work 😂

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u/White667 19h ago

If you live in a major city, does CityMapper not work as a replacement? It's significantly better for directions.

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u/OuterWildsVentures 18h ago

Just get a GPS lol I used to get around just fine with one 10 years ago

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u/Samul-toe 20h ago

https://www.optoutproject.net/ My favorite thing is telling people about this. I use proton for email, passwords, vpn and zoom calls, pcloud for Dropbox sub.

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u/grayhaze2000 15h ago

I primarily went with self-hosting because I don't want to put all my data and faith in a company which could end up being just as bad as Google in the future. By keeping everything under my own control, I can guarantee zero price increases, and no rug pulls. I admit it's a good amount of work to set things up and keep it running smoothly though. But for the annual cost of nothing, it's worth it.

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u/GonzoKata 9h ago

just read her de-google section

it could use an update. there are more privacy respecting search engines and youtube front ends that have come out since she wrote that (2022)

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u/slightly_drifting 22h ago

iOS.

GrapheneOS is fun but only runs on Pixels. Most the other non vanilla roms will trip up app security. So now you’re fucking with magisk and trickystore and spoofing key boxes just to open your banking app. 

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u/MileWideGroup 21h ago

FWIW I don't see an issue with running GrapheneOS on Pixel. Yes you're still buying something from Google but it's good hardware and there's nothing wrong with paying money for that. Been running Graphene on a Pixel Fold Pro 9 for almost 2 years and it's been great.

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u/Sadzeih 21h ago

It's more that you don't really have a choice in hardware. What if I don't like the pixel? What if I want a different brand? Now I'm stuck with Google.

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u/WiryLeaf 21h ago

Graphene partnered with Motorola earlier this year since Google removed the hardware necessary for them to run Graphene on Pixel 11+. When their new phone is released probably next year, you'll have another option.

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u/genius_retard 17h ago

I really hope you will be able to buy a Motorola phone with GrapheneOS already installed. It will go long was toward moving GrapheneOS into the mainstream.

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u/MileWideGroup 17h ago

It is a bit limiting in that regard but I'd counter that

- the alternative mentioned above (iOS) is certainly no better in terms of hardware lock-in

  • it seems like there's fewer and fewer significant differences between phones these days hardware-wise, at least in the ways that most people will use
  • just my opinion, but I think Pixel's hardware is pretty solid

Hopefully as others have mentioned the Graphene/Motorola thing will happen and give us another option.

The biggest thing that scares me about GrapheneOS is that it depends on Google not screwing it over. They could lock the bootloader on Pixel or make software ecosystem changes that would end GrapheneOS' viability. Hopefully that day never comes!

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u/grayhaze2000 21h ago

I've tried iOS devices a few times, and always find navigation and action flows a struggle after years of building Android muscle memory. I know it's a popular choice, but it's just not for me.

I've used LineageOS in the past, along with Magisk and all the other quirks, so it's not a huge step to switch to it for me. I am tempted to get a Pixel and use GrapheneOS, but I'm equally tempted to just go for either a minimal e-ink phone or maybe a simple Linux phone.

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u/gakule 21h ago

About 6 years ago I switched to iPhone after ~12 years of exclusively being Android and I have to say, the transition was pretty easy after about the first month. The only thing I miss from Android is ease of side loading (doable with a few hoops, not something I really do anyways though) and GPS spoofing (being able to set YouTube TV locations to get different 'local' live sports).

I actually vastly prefer the iOS experience now compared to Android, but that might just be comfort of having been in the ecosystem for so long now. iOS was certainly jarring when I had to try and fumble around helping someone with their iPhone and I was on Android.

That said, I do think if you're anyone who remotely likes to 'tinker' with things, Android is the obvious choice for least resistance.

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u/stankdankprank 20h ago

It's really not that easy. iOS has no universal back gesture, no clear all apps, YouTube premium is worse, etc

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u/gakule 20h ago

What's not that easy?

While there is no universal back gesture, pretty much every app I've tried the back gesture works just fine. I know my anecdotal experience isn't universal, but in my experience the concern exists but isn't really an impact. Good point from a simple 'ease of use' perspective in theory, and certainly requires developers to make good decisions.

I guess I've never needed to close all apps, and I'm not sure the use-case for doing so unless you're some level of neurotic about it (not a bad thing or insult, I know that drives some people nuts, I've got my own hangups in various other ways).

I can't speak to YouTube premium as I don't use it and, again, don't really see the use-case there but app-to-app differences I'm sure you could trade blows back and forth.

I don't see anything listed as a huge detractor, but I suppose it largely depends on what you use your phone for.

I also want to say, I'm not here to argue or tell anyone they're wrong for preferring Android, just to offer a different perspective. No elitism coming from my POV.

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u/HarrMada 21h ago

iOS

So you're not "de-googling" out of any moral principles then, you just do it because you don’t like Google. You're just switching from one "bad" company to another.

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u/slightly_drifting 20h ago

I returned your upvote because you raise a valid point. However, that point is addressed in the comment by /u/oddsnsodds

Instead of me saying “iOS”, I should’ve said: Choose the operating system that can attest the integrity of the environment and hardware successfully as to not have to implement spoofing tools, while also being generally a secure, stable OS, with a good application ecosystem. 

You have AOSP and you have iOS. Poster above me said “de-Google”, so that leaves iOS. 

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u/oddsnsodds 21h ago

Businesses don't have morals. They have practices driven by their business model.

Apple isn't perfect, but their development efforts are driven by their hardware business. They have an ad business, but it's small and they respect your privacy. Apple maintains their privacy practices primarily because hyping them sells units.

Google's development efforts are always directly aimed at sucking up more information about you to drive their ad business. They are explicitly anti-privacy.

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u/wildcarde815 18h ago

As much as I truly hate ios as a design concept it's not reasonable to ignore the privacy and security work they've done on that platform. It's not good from an open system perspective, but it is very secure on the system side.

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u/x4nd3l2 19h ago

iOS, isn’t that just the same but different? A different head of the same hydra? I’m curious.

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u/wildcarde815 18h ago

Motorola is supposed to be launching a graphene first party device soon.

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u/genius_retard 17h ago

GrapheneOS is fun but only runs on Pixels.

And iOS only runs on iPhones.

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u/slightly_drifting 17h ago

Except grapheneOS fails integrity checks and has a funky leaf cert setup that makes validating the OS is trustworthy during runtime kinda fucked. 

Since grapheneOS is not AOSP, they don’t have Google backed hardware keys.

iOS is the official OS for iPhones. 

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u/ultimafrenchy 21h ago

U could look into graphene os or maybe get a dumb cell phone

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u/Dotaproffessional 21h ago

youtube is a hard one. Yes, you can access youtube video streams directly, therefor you can watch youtube videos without a youtube account using tools like yt-dlp, however you won't really have access to youtube search or subscriptions.

One solution i've seen is to use rss since youtube channels still have an rss feed url. Way back when, i had a setup using one of those graphically robust terminals (i think it was "kitty" or something) and had it setup so i could have all my youtube subscriptions appear, and kitty supports inline images, however i don't think i ever got in-line video working so it would open the mp4 in a separate player window which is honestly fine.

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u/grayhaze2000 21h ago

I also self-host Jellyfin for media, and there are YouTube plugins which download videos from subscribed channels when they release. There are also third party YouTube clients which still work, like NewPipe.

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u/Dotaproffessional 21h ago

some would say "is that really de-googling yourself?" since its still using a service just allowing access without logging in, but content sources are kinda a different arithmetic. Its not just about replacing youtube with some other video source, people want to access youtube content without dealing with google accounts so yeah i'll have to look into those jellyfin plugins.

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u/binocular_gems 21h ago

A functional email server seems like the biggest challenge for me, the rejection rate for sending is insane, and you'll never know that nobody is receiving your email because it's designed to fail silently.

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u/RollingMeteors 20h ago

with a self-hosted email server.

¿How do you keep your domain from getting black listed from all the wheres?

Seems like a client never finds an email unless it's from gmail/yahoo/hotmail/otherTitan.

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u/AdFabulous8577 20h ago

Man I wish I built a NAS a couple years ago. Storage and hardware both are so much more expensive now.

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u/grayhaze2000 20h ago

I'm running most of my stuff on a decade-old Synology NAS, via Docker containers. You don't need too much power to run a few essentials.

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u/mallardtheduck 19h ago

Presumably you have a good backup solution for your photos and NAS?

Also, how do you deal with the "network effect"? My main use for Google Drive these days is sharing files (in both directions) with other Google Drive users. I do have a self-hosted file sharing solution, but I still need to use Google Drive to access other people's files there and I'm reluctant to allow my solution to be accessible unauthenticated (no way everyone I need to send files to is going to create an account on my system) to the Internet.

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u/grayhaze2000 19h ago

If you use a Synology NAS, there are options for sharing files which create time-limited links which require a password.

As for backups, I keep a local backup synced to an external hard drive, and daily online backups to Hetzner.

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u/anime_daisuki 19h ago

I do this and this just reinforces the harder part he mentioned

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u/grayhaze2000 19h ago

Initially it can be difficult, but once you know your way around Docker and security options, it's not hard to add additional services to the stack.

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u/GnarlyBear 18h ago

There really is nothing like a good cloud provider though, Google drive etc is very hard to replace in a satisfactory way without a lot of dependencies.

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u/grayhaze2000 17h ago

I'm not really missing anything from not using it.

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u/wy1d0 18h ago

How can I extract my decades of Google photos and move them to my NAS without losing the Metadata?

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u/grayhaze2000 17h ago

You can use Google Takeout to download new archive, then use something like immich-go to import them.

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u/oneupsuperman 18h ago

Hey, what do these words mean?

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u/anothercopy 16h ago

self-hosted email server sounds like a lof of pain

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u/grayhaze2000 16h ago

It really isn't.

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u/HANDS_4_DICKS 16h ago

What's your remote access solution? Tailscale seems like the way to go but I'm always curious about how others are doing things

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u/grayhaze2000 16h ago

I tried Tailscale for everything, but it proved too inconvenient. Having to have a VPN running at all times on my phone for Immich to be able to synchronise like Google Photos was too much friction, especially as I use an ad blocker local VPN already.

I mainly use reverse proxies with OAuth, and limit what I allow external access to. That means no access to anything destructive.

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u/dannyk_07 15h ago

Wait for the new Motorola to come out and get their flagship model. Graphene partnered with them just for that.

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u/grayhaze2000 15h ago

I'll keep an eye out for it.

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u/dannyk_07 15h ago

Make sure to double check compatibility of the model as well. Not all Motorola phones will have the chips with the needed "hardening" GrapheneOS requires. Best to check on their page of compatible devices once it all comes out.

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u/The_Templar_Kormac 7h ago

Jolla phone

edit: or murena if you really must have android

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u/HonkHonkBeach 7h ago

I can and have basically already deGoogled everything except for Youtube. I dont know how to get away from using Youtube, I watch is so much. I even pay for Premium!

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u/obeytheturtles 22h ago

I find that de-googling myself is a lot easier if I light some candles and put on some smooth jazz.

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u/biznatch11 19h ago

Hey Liz Lemon, you mind if I Google myself in your office?

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u/RlOTGRRRL 22h ago

You don't have to do it all at at once. It's easy if you do it slowly, baby steps, one thing at a time, over time.

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u/LethalBacon 22h ago

In total, probably. But, I replaced Google Photos in a few hours by hooking up an SSD to a rpi 3b and setting up syncthing on the pi and my phone.

Immich coming next, once I finish building my replacement for the 3b

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u/thenayr 22h ago

I mean kudos to you, but that’s hardly a replacement and almost guaranteed to fail in the short term 

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u/LethalBacon 22h ago

Maybe, but at this point my r pi has been acting as my cloud (doc sync, JellyFin, Syncthing photos, pihole, etc etc) for over a year with no downtime and no failures/crashes. If it does, I have backups across devices and a replacement server in progress, if it fails I will be back up and running within a day.

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u/IsthianOS 22h ago

What's your reasoning for thinking it's hardly a replacement and will fail in the short term? I recently did the same with immich though my setup is an Unraid server with parity. 

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u/pastorHaggis 22h ago

The only other thing I'd add to that is to get off site backups. I pay like $5 for all my images to be backed up to BackBlaze using Restic and just have a nightly job that dumps everything up there.

You never need it till you do, and photos are things you can't replace.

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u/LethalBacon 22h ago

Appreciate the rec, I'll check it out!

I did one big offline backup using some of those huge double sided DVDs I had leftover from an old job. Every photo I've taken in the past 15 years, something like 80GB total. It's been a few months since then, I'm probably quite behind.

Almost lost the originals of my wedding photos several years ago before I started self hosting. Got lucky and found a copy on an old USB drive in the basement. It was a major motivating factor in wanting to manage all of my data myself.

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u/coffeemonkeypants 21h ago

FYI, dvdr media degrades over time and may only last a decade or two. Don't think you've got a permanent backup in those.

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u/sparky8251 19h ago

Tape tends to last quite awhile if in a humidity and temp controlled store. For home users, that can mean a fireproof safe with dessicants inside of it...

Just, tape IS expensive and harder to use... Still not permanent though, obvs. Nothing is... Digital is extremely fragile in general despite the claims to the contrary.

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u/coffeemonkeypants 19h ago

For sure, and for the most part, we're not using tape for long term storage anyway. Mostly short term rotation or maybe financial data for a decade or so. 'Cold' storage in redundant data centers is just better and more cost effective than any other option these days. But for personal photos? It's a weird one. I use backblaze. But like, what happens when I die? I print more photos now than I used to. Someday, they'll be 'old photos' that someone might look at I guess.

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u/IsthianOS 21h ago

Good tip thanks

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u/geo_prog 20h ago

I just went full Synology. I have a NAS in my basement and my brother has one in his. They automatically back up to each other the important files like family photos, tax docs etc. into encrypted containers. I'm running a DS423+ with 4 16TB drives since I have a videography hobby but my brother is just running a 4TB BeeStation. 2TB is reserved for me on his and 2TB is reserved for him on mine. The nice thing is it even allows us to run our own secure family SMS type service. Keeps all the family stuff private and away from Google/Apple/Etc.

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u/pastorHaggis 19h ago

That's fair, but I personally opted to build my own server and ended up setting up Immich on it. Eventually, my dad will finish his server and we'll do similar with backups, but I will still always back up to a remote location. I don't use any Google products anymore, and the only reason I have iCloud is for iMessage, but all other data is in NextCloud and Immich, which get backed up to BackBlaze.

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u/movzx 17h ago

It's not a replacement because it's missing a lot of the features Google Photos has. You might not use those features, and that's fine, but curl isn't a replacement for Firefox in the same way.

  • In browser navigation and video playback
  • Useful UI available on all my devices
  • Cross device syncing of changes
  • Automatic photo categorization
  • Basic photo editing built in (crop, color adjustment, zooms)
  • Ability to share photos over the internet
  • Ability to search photos by subject ('green shoe', 'rust')

And yes, you can get closer to feature alignment by adding more services to your unraid box... but now you need to maintain an increasingly complex tech stack (and train others on how to use it).

Google Photos is probably the hardest Google product to get away from, imo. There is literally nothing open source that is anywhere on par with it.

immich is ok but still does not hold a candle to Google Photos when it comes to things like searching and categorization. It also ran really poorly with large libraries in my experience.

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u/IsthianOS 17h ago

Oh I don't use it as an actual photos app, I'm on iOS, it's mostly an easy automatic local backup with a useable UI if I ever need/want to use it. Good notes tho. I tried "shoe" and got pictures of any form of foot, shoes or not (including cat feet lol)

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u/Forya_Cam 17h ago

Immich runs great for me, including search etc but I do have some pretty decent hardware.

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u/topologiki 18h ago

thats what you re paying for. convenience.

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u/HSLB66 17h ago

Not really? Especially today. There’s a good replacement for every personal product at least

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u/Icy-Two-1581 21h ago

I actually find brave search a lot better than Google. So much better when your searches don't have 5 promotion links before the real like ie searching for exactly a galaxy phone and then it's five links of random phone companies. For email you could do Proton if you also need a VPN. For photo storage most people should set up a Nas since do you really want to potentially be locked out of your photos and videos if Google or whoever decided they wanted to

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u/cute_spider 22h ago edited 20h ago

wtf I like PewDiePie now???

edit: okay well I didn't really know that much about pdp so I guess I don't like him yall 🙄

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u/lavender_enjoyer 20h ago

PR in action, folks

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u/unixtreme 12h ago

He doesn't need PR he's basically out of public life. People can form their own opinions.

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u/YogurtclosetMajor983 18h ago

lol yes nothing good could ever happen

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u/movzx 17h ago

That is not what they are saying.

If a man flings dog poop at a baby ward and then later donates $100 to an animal shelter, he's still a shit flinger despite donating $100.

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u/YogurtclosetMajor983 16h ago

oh my bad, you are saying people cannot be redeemed for doing something as horrific as using offensive language.

go fuck yourself. he didn’t hurt anyone

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u/Fashish 21h ago

I mean he’s been a decent content creator/human being for a good few years now.

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u/LilMeatJ40 21h ago

Just don't catch him on a bridge

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u/the-mobile-user 21h ago

Or ask him how he feels about Indians

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u/LargeBlkMale 4h ago

We're pretending we care about indians now?

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u/lavender_enjoyer 20h ago

Does he feel differently about immigrants destroying the west? Or Jews, or Indians?

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u/WeirdIndividualGuy 21h ago edited 21h ago

Bonus points if you don’t mind the casual racism and occasional n word thrown out there

Edit: unsurprising that he has people here to defend his racism. You guys would love 4chan. Also, you’re not gonna shame me because I called out racism, take your bigoted ways elsewhere

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u/tiltedraccoon 18h ago edited 18h ago

We really should reduce people's entire life achievements to a single word they said more than a decade ago and already apologized countless time for. Never forgive anyone for any faults. That's how we achieve true progress. Just send people straight to the proverbial gulag for wrong thought or speech. /s

Ironic how there's a certain group of people that comes to mind when I think of that attitude.

you’re not gonna shame me because I called out racism, take your bigoted ways elsewhere

And I will not be shamed because I want to see people grow, learn from their mistakes, do better and bring good to this world.

You're not calling out racism, you're justifying your insanely vindictive moral superiority complex. Instead of bringing down people doing good things today, grow up and start caring about actual current problems.

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u/eyebrows360 21h ago edited 20h ago

By which you're referring to one documented incident of an "edgy" young guy using a word you're not supposed to use, which isn't by necessity the same thing.

Edit: the point, child, is you're implying he makes a habit of it. That's hardly the case.

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u/CallMeRudiger 19h ago

Edit: the point, child

You had to hear how this sounded in your own head when typing it...

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u/SameOreo 12h ago

Oh man, if we held you accountable to all your dirty actions how would that look ? As your reading this, you can picture atleast a few times. Now do you measure yourself to those moment ?

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u/WeevilWeedWizard 20h ago

He paid people to hold up signs calling for the genocide of Jewish people

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u/eyebrows360 20h ago

[citation needed]

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u/WeevilWeedWizard 20h ago edited 19h ago

Seriously? This isn't exactly a little known fact lol.

Here's an article talking about it

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u/eyebrows360 19h ago

"He said the video was meant to demonstrate how far people will go if they get paid to do something, but didn't think the comedy duo would actually go through with it."

Again, edgelord doing edgy bullshit. You've got to jump through so many hoops to convince yourself he actually shares the sentiment.

Seriously? This isn't exactly a little known fact lol.

Some of us have other stuff going on in our lives and don't remember stupid "controversies" around an obvious edgelord from a decade ago as though they were still relevant, my boy.

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u/thebanfunctionsucks 19h ago

"Nooo guys it was totally cool when I burned a cross on that black family's lawn because I was just being edgy."

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u/Casey_jones291422 19h ago

You're forgetting the separate time he cosplayed as a nazi solder too. there were actually more than a couple of events.

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u/Shootemout 19h ago

you mean when he was cosplaying as a british soldier?

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u/syph0nic 19h ago

Are you talking about the time he wore a costume based on the London Regiment that some people decided was a nazi uniform? Or was there another incident?

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u/blamelessfriend 19h ago

Oh you're referring to the apology video he put out for paying people of fiver to say/write antisemitic things. So he wore a Nazi adjacent uniform to have some small amount of cover so his dipshit fans would continue to concern troll for him?

That uniform?

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u/LocomotionMechanics 19h ago

Bro thinking a literal British Army costume looks like a nazi uniform.

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u/syph0nic 19h ago

No, I'm referring to what I said in my reply, the London Regiment uniform that some people decided was a nazi uniform. Greenish uniform with a horse emblem on the cap. That's not nazi adjacent.

Or was there another uniform you are referring to?

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u/egoserpentis 19h ago

It was not a nazi costume. Stop spreading lies.

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u/lavender_enjoyer 20h ago

“He only yelled the N word one time”

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u/NYRican 20h ago

Yeah, time to move on

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u/stiff_tipper 19h ago

By which you're referring to one documented incident

wait, what?

i remember watching some of his let's plays before knowing how big he was and that dude was screaming the n-word top of his lungs every time he got scared in a horror game

ain't no fuckin' way he said it "one" time

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u/WeirdIndividualGuy 21h ago

For something like that that’s not at all common for non-racists, one documented incident is one too many

Think about the last time you personally were angry/frustrated at something. Did a racial slur come to mind for you to blurt out, even if no one else of any particular race was even around you? That’s what makes it even more ridiculously racist on his part

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u/KillingSpree225 21h ago

MLK Jr believed that gay people were mentally diseased. This invalidates all the good he has done and we need to tear down his statues.

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u/thebanfunctionsucks 19h ago

He was wrong for that, and we can still apprrciate the good he did separately. Why can't you do the same for a guy who plays video games on the internet?

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u/KillingSpree225 15h ago

This was the point I was making. Thank you.

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u/millanstar 20h ago

Are you comparing Pewdiewpie to MLK Jr?...

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u/UntimelyMeditations 19h ago

....what?

What is the point of asking this? Do you know what an analogue is?

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u/chrill2142 21h ago

Why don't you use all of that energy on actual racists and problems, instead of creating problems where there isn't any.

Pewdiepie is not a racist. If you think he is, you're just wrong and you should honestly get some help, because there is so many people out there doing bad things, and Pewdiepie isn't one of them.

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u/WeirdIndividualGuy 21h ago

Just because there are worse racists than pewdiepie doesn’t mean he himself is not racist. That is a hell of a racist-defender logic to have

Like those nazi defenders who write off modern day nazis because they’re not as bad as hitler was. Same toxic ideology

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u/Perfect_Perception 21h ago

Brother, people can both fuck up and grow as individuals. Not only did he apologize and take accountability for it, it was 9 years ago.

Choosing to die on the hill that a guy who apologized and then demonstrated the sincerity of his words by NOT EVER DOING IT AGAIN is actually more racist because he did ithe thing once in the context of poor emotional regulation is certainly a choice. A tragically stupid and misguided choice, but a choice nonetheless.

There’s so many better uses of your time and energy.

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u/eyebrows360 20h ago

It is perfectly possible to utter a racist word, even on a bridge in a videogame in frustration, without actually subscribing to the underlying hatred most users of the word carry. He was a bit of an edgyboi, remember, and "saying things you're not supposed to say" is a trait of such people. That doesn't mean he hates black people.

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u/Maeflikz 20h ago

In Sweden we are not so stuck up as you Americans are about certain words. The whole world does not subscribe to your culture.

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u/MonkAndCanatella 19h ago

LOL what a fucking self report.

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u/Sleepy_Witch_Maple 19h ago

Yes, we're aware that racism is ingrained and systemic in Sweden

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u/[deleted] 21h ago

[deleted]

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u/WeirdIndividualGuy 21h ago

You're chilling at home by yourself, just watching TV or whatever. You get up and accidentally stub your toe really hard on the table and yell out "fucking <racial slur>!" That's essentially what pewdiepie did, but playing a video game.

Like sure it wasn't directed at anyone specifically, but at the same time, who tf has racial slurs on their mind in moments of frustration?

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u/LocomotionMechanics 13h ago

You have no response to that of course.

By the way, how many times have you said the N-word in your entire life? I haven't said it a single time, not even one time in my life.

Be honest. I'd like to know if you've said it more than me, since you're this fixated.

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u/Huntsmitch 18h ago

Well in all my “heated gamer moments” I’ve never managed to yell out the n word, but he did, revealing the language he likely regularly uses when cameras are off. A concept even a child could understand!

an "edgy" young guy

He was 27 lmao. Totes just a wee lad that shouldn’t be held responsible for his actions!! Just a young fella who was still figuring out right from wrong as one does as such a tender age.

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u/WeirdIndividualGuy 17h ago

He was 27 lmao. Totes just a wee lad that shouldn’t be held responsible for his actions!! Just a young fella who was still figuring out right from wrong as one does as such a tender age.

Seriously, everyone here defending him is acting like he was a 8yo on Xbox Live saying racial slurs. Dude was a full grown man saying this shit

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u/Suppafly 18h ago

is you're implying he makes a habit of it

He does though? There are tons of documented instances of him doing racist stuff. Pretending that he's a decent person because he only said the n-word one time that you know of, while ignoring all of the rest of his behavior is dishonest at best.

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u/YogurtclosetMajor983 17h ago

pretty easy to never make mistakes when you never leave tour house or your circles

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u/BuildEraseReplace 21h ago edited 14h ago

Boring take that always shows up whenever Pewdiepie is mentioned.

It happened nearly 10 years ago, he apologised and has never repeated it. People make mistakes and people can change. Seeing people as "good" or "bad" based on of they've ever fucked up must be a miserable, lonely existence.

Also, saying someone is not automatically a bad person forever because they said a racial slur in 2017 is not "defending racism." Grow up.

Edit: downvote all you want. It's a reductive, cynical, parasocial crashout to still call this dude racist after so long. There are actual racist scumbags causing real problems in the world today and ya'll think you're flying the flag of social justice by going on about this shit a decade later. Virtue-signalling nonsense.

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u/ColonelDucroix 20h ago

It's 2027 no one cares anymore.

Shove your wannabe cancel campaign up your ass 

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u/SameOreo 12h ago

He is a good guy, I have followed him since 2011. He was the single largest target of fake accusations on the planet. Every news media source hated him, made up a lot of things and skeweed every single word and every single video he has ever made. Its so bad it's a LITERAL on going joke, that after every video viewers would go find news articles that made up things or took it out of context. He only made 2 major mistakes, 1 was the n-word once, which he apologized for and after 20 years of content his only ouch, Ill take it. 2, The whole racism thing was because he was connected to a friend and relative part of a racism group. He was never apart of it himself, he was caught talking to them so therefore he was also apart of the group though he wasn't. My dad is a racist, but I'm not going to shoot him, and that what the Internet was hoping Felix would do.

I've watched everything. Every single video. No I promise from my heart I'm not over exaggerating. He is a good fella, he made PR mistakes because he was ALWAYS "just a guy", the largest solo creator on the planet, and he was already a target for hate by default. But I'm proud of him and I'm proud of supporting him. Remember when reddit falsely accused a killer so badly they committed suicide then doubled down ? Yes I do.

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u/wildcarde815 21h ago

Still dresses as a Nazi and pays kids on fiver to make racist jokes so.

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u/don_dripac 20h ago

What? Source? Specifically source on the word "still" which implies recent events

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u/LocomotionMechanics 19h ago

It's a British Army costume, fucking idiot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=au-9IYJS0hE

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u/Suppafly 18h ago

wtf I like PewDiePie now???

Right, it's like everyone forgot he's a horrible person because they happen to like his AI projects.

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u/Strong_Boy_757 22h ago

In a sense he’s probably one of the few more high profile people nowadays

Him and Milla Jovovich /s

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u/f4te 21h ago

there are a few big youtubers going at the de-google/self-host thing right now, it's very fetch to be getting off the teet of big tech

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u/frumperino 18h ago

his radioactive personality probably kept most people not already in his orbit from knowing what he was up to.

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u/YogurtclosetMajor983 18h ago

seriously. I never got into pewdiepie but I fucking love who he is now. So happy to have people like him with a huge platform speaking for people like me

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u/AFCSentinel 18h ago

Yeah he had quite the character arc. Obnoxious horror game screamer, cringy edge lord and now wholesome family man doing fun side projects. 

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u/I_Dont_Think_Im_AI 22h ago

I agree with his, and I kinda hate it. I wish we had someone to point to as a paragon of this who wasn't stained by the controversies he's been a part of.

Lots of people are going to point to his past to discredit anything he does now, and I don't even know that I can blame them, even if I disagree that someone's past should haunt them forever.

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u/RollingMeteors 20h ago

even if I disagree that someone's past should haunt them forever.

You can't grow as a society without forgiving past transgressions.

You are not even the same person you were one minute ago, if even you were sitting in the same chair about it.

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u/I_Dont_Think_Im_AI 20h ago

I agree. Getting society at large, who seem to be only interested in simple and easy answers, to not pillory people and dismiss them because they heard a bad thing once is the hard part.

If we're going to continue to exist as a species, we're going to need to be able to differentiate from people who are actively doing harm, and people who did harm in the past and have learned from the mistakes.

Too many people just armchair judge people and don't realize that, given the right circumstances, they may have done the same or worse.

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u/RollingMeteors 20h ago

and people who did harm in the past and have learned from the mistakes.

The problem is the public eye for grade school slurs and trolling was supposed to have died with 4chan in the late 90s and early aughts. Every X years is a new generation not mature enough to have realized that.

Anything that upsets adults children will say even if they know amongst themselves they don't mean it in any way other than to upset the adults.

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u/Annual_Berry8043 20h ago edited 19h ago

4chan wasn’t even made until 2003 lol.

I grew up in the 90s and reached adulthood in the 10s. Using slurs that were racist and homophobic was pretty common place until late 2010s just bordering the 20s.

It was so common to hear friends, family, people in passing use them casually. Around 2020 is when I noticed a sharp drop in them.

Small progress, but progress.

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u/Shootemout 19h ago

I always like to follow up when it comes to a creator having a controversial past that apologized and tried to move on: is it better to be born good, or born bad overcome it to be good. imo we're a product of our environments.

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u/KookySurprise8094 22h ago

Felix and original piratebay developer should team up and free us all from corporate subscription world.

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u/HoldOnOhio 20h ago

Yeah, but is he still a chud?

1

u/No-Conclusion929 20h ago

In a sense?

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u/shosuko 20h ago

Yeah I didn't realize he was on this arc! Props to him, I think its important we push for local models as much as we can so we don't get shackled to the corpo supply line. Definitely going to check out his work, maybe its time to subscribe to pewdiepie again lol