Logan Paul is a pariah and unworthy of attention.
Paul, a 22-year-old Youtube star, after a two-month break, has made a return. At the very end of December he posted a few videos from his trip to Japan. Titled in order of upload:
Kicked out of Japan! (I’m sorry)
We fought in the middle of Tokyo!
Real life Pokémon Go in Tokyo! (catching strangers)
We found a dead body in the Japanese Suicide Forest…
In the video about the suicide forest, right before entering , Paul smiles at the camera while saying, “The Suicide Forest”. He knew what he was getting into. There is one video exploiting a victim of suicide, and the others include culture appropriating, mocking, and causing a ruckus in the country. However, this is about the Suicide Forest.
To be technical, it’s the Aokigahara Forest (Sea of Trees), which is known for suicide. There are signs throughout the forest that suggest to turn around and stop. Many families go there to look for loved ones. Paul waltzed in, walked around, found a victim hanging from a tree, and exploited and laughed at them. He continued to go back, edit the film, and upload it without seeing an issue.
It isn’t until the word gets around on social media that Paul deletes the video. Youtube suspended his account as well. After his account was suspended he felt the need to apologize. He posts a video apologizing with puffy eyes and posted a note on Twitter.
“I didn’t do it for the views. I get views. I did it because I thought I could made a positive ripple on the internet.”
Nowhere in the video or the note did he mention the victim or the victim’s family. The entire note includes subjects, “I” or “Me”.
To date father back to grow more understanding of what type of person Paul is, here is bits and pieces of his history. Paul attended the MTV VMA’s in 2017, the same place in which Logic performed 1-800-273-8255, a song about suicide prevention and mental health. The title of the song is the phone number of the suicide hotline.
Or when he playfully pranked his death. That vieo was uploaded March 19th, 2017 and has 24 million views. According to Forbes his net worth is $15 million.
This is not the first time that Paul has made bad commentary on mental health. He also has had bade commentary on women, and people of color. He copyrighted the Flobot’s song, “Handlebars”. Changing the lyrics from “I can ride my bike with no handlebars,” to “I can ride your girl with no handlebars,”. Or in 2014 when he posted a picture of Youtube star Daniel Trung Nghia Nguyen with chopsticks in his back pocket.
“Confirming Asian stereotypes one day at a time,” Paul wrote.
Just a few days ago he came back to social media by posting a video all about suicide prevention and donating around $1 million to charity.
Billboard reported on January 25th that Paul thinks he, “deserves a second chance, bro.”
I say otherwise.
Logan Paul is problematic and maintains a fanbase of younger who don’t know their wrong’s from their right’s. He has repeatedly proven himself problematic and fake. He isn’t actually sorry, it was solely a career move done on purpose. The fact that he isn’t banned from Youtube or that he is able to get away with this action does to show that he is just a rich white-cis male who hasn’t checked his privilege. By having a reoccurring history of being sexist, racist, or thinking that mental health is a laughing matter, doesn’t mean you deserve forgiveness.
Larry Nassar wrote a six page letter to Judge Rosemarie Aquilina about how ‘hard it is for him to listen to testimonies of his victims’. Paul wrote a brief letter and donated one million out of his several he has and expects forgiveness. We haven’t forgave Nassar for assault, Hogan for being racist, Allen for incest, and Trump for being a fascist. There is no way we are going to forgive Paul.
It is time to wake up and support those that aren’t problematic.