William(s Street) · @2D2Will
14th Apr 2018 from TwitLonger
My first and final thoughts on #changethechannel, Channel Awesome, and JewWario.
*NOTE* This is the last time I’m ever talking about Channel Awesome and JewWario. I will be not be taking questions
A lot of info has come to light about Channel Awesome and JewWario recently that left people shocked and appalled. To me however, much of it is not very surprising. I’m just surprised it finally came out in a way people believe.
Just give a background; I’ve been following Channel Awesome since the first year of the site’s existence. I was a huge fan when this first started. I used to watch all the new videos every day, I bought the Geekfight trading cards, I subscribed to their premium section, and I even gave over $300 to charity in order to get a copy of Final Fantasy VIII autographed by Spoony. Man, I really regret that last one. I ended up giving that thing away to a friend who just wanted to play the game. I also was involved in a group skype chat where I hung out and chatted with other fans and even a handful of CA producers. The list of producers did include Justin. We’ll get back to him later.
In the early days, Channel Awesome (known as ThatGuyWithTheGlasses at the time) seemed like an exciting group project where everyone made these funny videos and had a grand old time. I felt like there was a real sense of community back then. I also watched the website and the community of channel producers fall apart. I admit that I have a tendency to follow drama from a distance; probably a little too much. The Not So Awesome document was not very surprising to me because most of the details are stuff that I’ve heard about before. And some of that info was originally revealed by former contributors who were attacked by the CA community. Over the past decade I witnessed fighting among producers, producers not honoring Patreon goals, false rape accusations, harassment, virtue signaling, and bunch of other fucked up shit. Between CA management and the former video producers, a lot of bad things were done. Channel Awesome has since experienced a mass exodus of producers and a mass revolt of fans as backlash. Honestly, it’s a little refreshing to see.
Now let’s talk about Justin Carmical, aka JewWario.
I was a fan of Justin before he even joined CA. I thought his videos were entertaining and informative and I always looked forward to whatever he uploaded next. He was the main reason I got into import gaming. Like I said, I even had a few skype conversations with him. He was very nice to me. I was so happy for him when he got picked up by CA. In 2013 he fired from the site for unknown reasons and 2014 Justin committed suicide. I still remember where I was when I found out. I just remember a feeling of shock. I also remember a different feeling of shock the very next day. You see, what a lot of people don’t know is that the accusations of sexual assault are not new. They actually started when Justin was still alive. One of his victims even came forward years ago, but all accusations were shut down by his rabid fans. I discovered these accusations 1 day after he died and believed them. Why would anyone make this stuff up? There was nothing to gain from them. So for 4 years, things were a bit awkward for me. I watched as other channels I watched memorialized Justin. They all talked about how great of a friend he was and how much he meant to them. And of course, all those yellow hats were awkward to look at. With the exception of the Channel Awesome produced memorial (because they knew the truth) I don’t hold any ill will against any of these people for honoring Justin. They simply didn’t know.
For years I wanted to say something but I had no proof. All I had was rumors and most of the original accusations have disappeared. And I knew no one would believe me anyway. There was nothing I could do. Then the Not So Awesome document happened and one of the stories is from a Jane Doe who described a video producer grooming her for sex. I immediately knew it was Justin, especially because the document kind of gave it away by saying the groomer was a male video producer who fired and then proceeded to detail why every other male producer who got fired was fired. I tried to convince Lupa to reveal the name of the attacker but Channel Awesome managed to spill the beans. In an attempt to defend themselves, CA released chat logs that were dated and poorly censored that revealed that Justin was the sexual abuser. A second woman has come out and there is believed to have been a third victim as well. There may be more. Now everyone knows the truth and while I wish none of this happened, I’m glad the truth is finally out.
I wish the people who knew went public with the info sooner. I wish someone reported him to the authorities when he was still alive. Most importantly, I wish Justin wasn’t a monster. I feel bad for the victims. I hope they get the help they need. I feel bad for the people who didn’t know and spent years honoring him. I know some of them didn’t take the news well and I hope they can move past it. Personally, I don’t care how much I enjoyed his videos; I hope Justin is rotting in hell.
There are a few things I’ve learned from Channel Awesome and its video producers over the years. I’ve learned that these collab sites simply don’t work long term. I learned to never accept exposure as a form of payment over actual money. I learned that if you’re going to run a Patreon or IndieGoGO campaign you should always follow through on your promised goals. And possibly the most important thing I learned is that no matter how many videos you watch from a particular video producer, you will never truly know who they really are. The videos you watch are only a small part of their life. There have been so many times I learned that a person I watched online was actually an asshole, or an abuser, or an exploiter, or a murderer, or even a fucking rapist. It never stops being shocking and it never stops being awful.
I once had aspirations of being a member of Channel Awesome and I’m honestly glad that never happened. There was a lot of good times early on but looking back, I wish I never discovered the site. This shit wasn’t worth it. None of it was. If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading this and I apologize if this blog ended up being a mess. I wanted to write more but I’m so done with this. I feel like I can finally put this bullshit behind me. Everything Channel Awesome related is burning down and no one on either side is coming out unscathed. And now that I look at the ashes of a website I once believe in, all I can say is goodbye and good riddance.