Of fucking course you should stop watching Vaush (no. 3)
Goodbye horses, but actually.
Welcome back to Rent’s Due! If you follow my Instagram, you probably noticed that this clearly isn’t a Sunday issue lol. My apologies for that. My day job caught up with me like a tidal wave the past few days, but it’s nothing crazy that’ll disrupt the flow of this newsletter. This edition’s center story dives into some heavy topics, so if you want something considerably lighter, read to the next section down below. Thanks and gracias.
Again big disclaimer: This story contains references to sexual harassment, explicit material, and CSEM/CSAM. Feel free to skip this if that makes you uncomfortable.
If you’re not the type of person to follow YouTube drama or online politics, you probably didn’t know about the time a Twitch streamer exposed himself with having loli porn on his hard drive. Heavy as shit to open this on, I know, but it’s true.
Ian Kochinski, better known online as “Vaush”, is one of the more prominent left-wing political commentators on the platform. While some may remember him from his earlier debate appearances on Steven “Destiny” Bonnell’s streams, he broke off1 to form a following of his own that would be comparable to other notable streamers like Bonnell and Hasan Piker. He’s also a guy who’s almost too open about his dreams of fucking people as a horse. Not much I can say there, again I’m just stating the facts here. For some people, he’s also known for being a modern staple of a Debate Bro: a person who will argue about any point regardless of their own stance in order to win an argument. It’s a personality that opens you up to not just criticism, but also plenty of opportunities to be taken out of context and be seen as someone with deplorable views. It’s a common thing to expect when you’re a notable person on the internet, but so long as you have the virtual receipts to back yourself up or ignore it completely, you usually end up fine until you’re hit with a new controversy.
That is unless, as I’ve said before, you open up your saved documents in front of thousands of people and expose yourself for having fucking loli porn.
If you were blissfully unaware about what lolicon images were before reading this article, I truly envy you. But to provide context, it’s a controversial genre derived from anime media where characters, depicted as young children, are placed in sexually suggestive and erotic situations. You might be asking yourself “wow that’s really weird and fucked up!” If so, congrats on being a functional human being! But if there’s one thing I’ve learned from suffering from Chronic Onlineness, it’s that anybody (and I do mean anybody) will be hilariously defensive to anything instead of accepting the possibility that they could be wrong. I’ve seen this with gaming YouTubers committing CHARITY FRAUD, and I’ve seen this with grifters who exploit people in the guise of catching a vampire sexual predator, so this rabid defense for Vaush in the wake of his incident isn’t new to me. A defense for a guy who, in his own response video to this and other claims about his strange history online, describes himself as a complete fucking idiot.
And I have to ask myself: why even try defending somebody when the truth is screaming at your face?
A Confederacy of Saddled Dunces
I want to make this explicitly clear: this is not an article saying that Vaush is a pedophile. Despite the heinous shit that was *insert checks notes trope here* saved in his streaming computer, I don’t think having digital loli art is enough evidence to prove he’s a pedophile. Regarding this drama, it’s the only thing I can agree with Ian on. However, what this article’s really saying is that Vaush has now more than ever proven to be embarrassingly inept as a political figure, and should never be taken seriously again.
The dude holds a platform with over 400K subscribers, and to be so careless to reveal whatever fucked up kink you have to an audience of thousands is enough cause to lose your credibility as a commentator. I’m not saying that it’s bad to listen to streamers talk about politics, but when you have one who is this stupid to leave his ethically-sus porn next to his TAXES, you should have no problem disowning them and move on with your life.
And that’s what makes me so angry about all this: fans of Vaush will be willing to die on loli hill for him because they like him, and I don’t get why. We live in a time where information needs to be consistently questioned, because it’s often presented in ways that are buried in falsehoods and further biased methodologies. We shouldn’t be open to every voice that’s out there, and more importantly make the choice to find credible sources (plural) and form our own informed opinions about what’s going on in the world. It’s very possible that Vaush will recover from this thanks to his braindead stans, and there’s nothing that can be done about that. But it doesn’t hide the fact that he held immense ignorance towards his status as a source for information. We, unironically as a society, should remember that and choose to flip the channel to something else.
And now for something way different…
Fuck. Thanks for sticking around after that story. It’s been a week since I launched this, and the support I’ve gotten from friends and people I don’t even know has been really appreciated. Each week I want to add a recurring section where I’ll talk about things going on that I think you’ll like. Some of these might be the topic for a future Rent’s Due, and some of these might be clips from The Weird Al Show. It’s dealer’s choice here, and I’m the guy with the name for the guy who holds the cards!
In preparation for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, I went out and watched Advent Children in theaters for the first time last week. I’ll have more to say about that in another RD (yes I’m saying that from now on), but this has to be one of the most ridiculous films I’ve ever seen. Terribly confusing as a narrative feature, but the perfect thing to have running on a PSP and showing off to randos in line at 2006 RadioShack.
The second issue of the new Ultimate Spider-Man reboot came out last week, and it’s easily the most excited I’ve been for costumed capeshit in awhile. I mean capeshit in a good way, though. Jonathan Hickman and Marco Checchetto are creating a world that feels fresh for Peter Parker, and so far has left me in a state where I have no clue what the fuck’s going to happen next. My theory right now is that Peter’s new abilities is going to get someone really hurt Invincible style, and I cynically hope I’m right about that.
Undead Media is making a new VHS tape of AEW’s Continental Classic tournament from last year. Despite my love for wrestling waning recently, the C2 was a great distraction for me in a post-CM Punk AEW landscape. It also gave my boy Eddie Kingston a huge push, so I can’t complain about that. Undead makes other custom tapes for movies and shows you can’t easily find right now, so give him some love if you’re interested.
At the time you’re reading this, the Criterion Collection’s having a 50% off flash sale that ends at noon EST tomorrow. I’m considering getting the Chantal Ackerman and John Cassavetes box sets, but I also need to pay for the dent in my car that a cat made while falling from my palm tree. Decisions!