PewDiePie explains why online cancel culture is “ridiculous”

[jwplayer h3XPfMqQ]During his July 2 upload, YouTube king Felix ‘PewDiePie’ Kjellberg weighed in on the ‘cancel culture’ debate. The Swedish star explained how canceling someone can sometimes be “ridiculous” and dangerous.

For many, PewDiePie has been the face of online entertainment over the last decade. The Swedish personality has over 105 million subscribers on YouTube, and is one of the most watched channels on the platform.

While most know him for his gaming and reaction content, the star sometimes tackles current events. During his latest video, he opened up about his views on cancel culture, and explained how it can be problematic.

PewDiePie on the nature of cancel culture

For his latest upload, the YouTuber reacted to a group having a debate about cancel culture. While watching the conversation, the Swedish personality gave his own take on personalities such as Jenna Marbles being canceled for older content she made years ago.

“With Jenna, that was actually nine or ten years ago. To me, that changes things a lot, especially if I know that person has grown out of that. That doesn’t make it okay, what they did, but at the same time I don’t see a reason to drag them through the dirt because of it,” he said.

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The Swede brought up the James Charles drama from 2019 to demonstrate how canceling someone can become problematic. “Remember when James Charles was canceled, and the entire world was so sure that he was a predator? The amount of people that spread that message around, causing him to almost be suicidal. Did we learn anything from that? … This is just ridiculous.”

He then followed that up by stating that nothing has changed since the makeup mogul had been attacked without evidence. “No one learned anything. If anything this is worse now. Did we learn that maybe we shouldn’t point fingers before we know the truth? No. Those days are over,” he said.

Pewds also said that while he believed cancel culture started out with good intentions, no one is held accountable when they get it wrong. “That’s the problem. No one holds the people who are a part of the hate mob accountable. I think the James Charles thing is such a good example,” he continued, before revealing how being canceled himself has impacted him.

“I have definitely become so much more aware of not just what I say, but how what I say can be perceived. Because it’s not just what you meant. It’s if you can take a portion of what you said, and it seems like something else. That’s enough. That’s how careful you have to be,” he said.

(Topic starts at 3:33.)

While the content creator was critical of cancel culture, he went out of his way to give a balanced take on the subject. The star said it was a good thing for us to be able “draw a line” at what is no longer acceptable today.

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Despite PewDiePie tackling the current issue, the 30-year old joked that he’s become “too old” to dive into YouTube drama, and has told his viewers that he has no plans to bring back his PewNews segment.