The many layers of Logan Paul’s disrespect
So as I’m sure we’re all painfully aware by now, Youtube juggernaut Logan Paul went on holiday in Japan, took a camera, and filmed his encounter with the body of someone who had recently passed in Japan’s aokigahara, or suicide forest.
This garbage person did something that is so disrespectful on so many levels, from trivializing the very real issue of mental health and suicide, as well as prancing around an Asian country like it’s a human zoo.
All of these combine to show the complete and utter entitlement and ignorance Paul operates on, which I’m guess is from having his ears padded with all that money and privilege, but of course I can’t be sure. Anyone in possession of those things feel free to hit me up to confirm.
In case I’m not preaching to the choir, let’s walk through exactly how messed up his actions were, and why his “apology” will not cut it.
Suicide insensitivity
Mental health, mental illness and suicide are heavy subjects. They are to be treated and talked about with the utmost care. Waltzing into a forest known as a place where people go to commit suicide and trivializing it by treating an actual person, with hopes, dreams, and people who loved them like a prop for your vlog is the absolute worst thing he could’ve done. It doesn’t conceptualize suicide in a healthy, productive way; it sensationalizes it.
Paul insisted on filming the body as a means to spread awareness, but there’s a very big difference between genuine awareness raising, and exploiting or taking part in the tragedy itself. Wheeling back to the original Youtube garbage person, Sam Pepper, grabbing women’s asses doesn’t count as sexual harassment awareness, just as filming dead bodies the same way you would an interesting dog isn’t an adequate way to raise awareness for suicide prevention.
But now we’re all aware of just how skewed your moral compass is, so you achieved something, I guess.
Cultural Insensitivity
Of course, the larger issue in this shit show is that of trivializing mental health and suicide, but the cultural implications of Paul’s actions are not insignificant. Suicide is something of an epidemic in Japan. People are literally working themselves to death, so much so that a suicide forest exists in the first place. It’s a place imbued with history and culture, as so expertly explained in this twitter thread by @flavourdays; it warrants respect by virtue of its existence. But apparently, Paul was too busy vlogging his life to do a quick google and educate himself.
Many Japanese Youtubers including Reina Scully and The Anime Man took to Youtube to break down the cultural sensitivities Paul trampled over not just in his aokigahara vlog, but across all his vlogs in Japan. He acted as the epitome of the white man waltzing in like he owned the place, as if Japan is a mysterious land full of “caricatures” manufactured just for him to run around and yell Pokemon references at.
I don’t think I will ever understand the propensity of white people to pop into Asian countries and have the pure gall to feel no reservations in exclaiming about how weird and wacky everything is. To Paul, aokigahara was a theme park; a crazy tourist trap with dead bodies as the treasure hunt. And the victim, who was very recently driven to the point of ending their own life, who has family and people who care for him, was nothing more than a prop to garner shock value. A means to an end.
I guess when everything in one’s life is reduced to numbers, views and subscribers, humans cease to be people altogether.
And perhaps the saddest thing about this whole situation is that Paul is unlikely to suffer any real consequences. He has his money, his empire, his white skin, his legions of obedient fans (all of whom are children, which just adds another dimension to how disturbing his actions were) and Youtube by the balls; that 20 second allowance in Youtube Rewind doesn’t lie. Very little seems to be able to touch him, so he’s free to go onwards and upwards to the next disregard for human decency.
The best we can really hope for is that Paul’s second apology was genuine, and he will actually take steps to not sensationalize sensitive topics in the future.
If you were affected by anything in this article please seek help at: https://www.samaritans.org/ or call 116 123
