Logan Paul has done it again.
His latest incident occurred just a year after his Aokigahara suicide forest scandal when he filmed and exploited a dead body and mocked the mentally ill. Based off of his past behavior, his latest scandal is not surprising at all. The 23-year-old YouTube phenomenon remains controversial after his most recent statement made in his “Impaulsive” podcast.
“It’s ‘Male-only March,’” he explained, “we’re going to attempt to ‘go gay’ for just one month.”
The influencer reaches a large audience with just over 18 million subscribers on YouTube. In his statement, he implies that sexuality is a choice—that one can simply “go gay.” This message is ignorant, as well as detrimental to his massive young audience.
His statement has sparked outrage among many, provoking many furious tweets:
That’s not how it works, @LoganPaul. https://t.co/G0DbsQjdxf
— GLAAD (@glaad) January 11, 2019
Dear Logan Paul and any ignorant, hurtful fool,
You can’t “go gay for a month”. Being gay is not a choice.
This is an insult to the LGBTQ+ community.
Stop this nonsense and stop supporting problematic people.
— Luke W (@lukewaltham) January 11, 2019
https://twitter.com/posiesalvarez/status/1083877474323320832
https://twitter.com/MisterPreda/status/1083863219221889024
One user even tweeted, “He’s not exploring his sexuality. He’s mocking gay men and using the LGBT community as a publicity stunt for views, and on top of that, is promoting the false belief that being gay is a choice to his young and impressionable audience.”
While he claims to learn from his mistakes, Paul clearly makes no effort to do so, as he continues to show poor taste in his words.
Last year, the influencer announced that he would make an explanatory video in response to the Aokigahara forest controversy, in which he cried and feigned ignorance. Once again, he has tweeted a brief apology and promises to touch on the issue in his next podcast. Paul seemingly uses his controversy for views—gaining attention from both the original and the anticipated follow-up podcast.
very poor choice of words… my fault. let’s get together and talk about it on my podcast next week? https://t.co/Ki8RKgMJOO
— Logan Paul (@LoganPaul) January 12, 2019
While he claims to learn from his past mistakes, the controversy continues to follow Logan Paul. Whether he does it for views or is simply just arrogant, he nonetheless continues to harm and offend many with his words and actions.
If we continue viewing his follow-up videos and accepting his pitiful excuses for apology tweets, he will continue to use his widespread platform to broadcast his ignorance. This ignorance has proven to harm many in the past, whether it be the mentally ill or the LGBT+ community. With his apparent lack of character development and his endless controversy, he has proven that he is incapable of change.
It seems like Paul stirs up trouble to stay relevant. Most of the internet, besides the mentally ill and maybe just everyone else, had forgotten about his last major scandal. Even though his channel continues to grow, his name was no longer in the public’s mouth. That changed over the last week, as he’s now under fire in every headline. But even those who are angry are fueling him just by clicking on the video. It’s exactly what he wants.
Photo / Logan Paul via Youtube
He not only succeeded in enraging the LGBT+ community, but he got their views, too. That’s how he gains popularity—by being controversial. He has been ridiculed enough in the past to know what is acceptable and what is not. No one besides Logan Paul finds a dead body and immediately decides to film it. No one besides Logan Paul makes a comment that ignorant without it being strategic. We, the angry people, enable him by being angry. We, the offended, allow him to reach 18 million subscribers and allow him to keep offending us on such a large platform.
The truth is, Logan Paul does not want to learn from his mistakes because they’re not mistakes. They’re his successful attempts at becoming relevant. He is using his insensitivity as a marketing strategy. And the more we tweet and the more we click, the more views and money he gains. If relevancy means going to the extent of insulting depressed people or “going gay,” Logan Paul is willing to do so.
Photo / Logan Paul via YouTube
