Shane Dawson's latest docuseries has sparked a discussion about whether or
not Jake and Logan Paul or sociopaths, and if it's a good idea for a vlogger to
be making such judgments. You're watching What's Trending, I'm Martine Beerman.
Make sure to subscribe for more social media and news stories daily. You're
probably aware that Shane Dawson has spent the last few months making lengthy
videos about YouTubers with the intention of showing who they really are
behind their structured persona. His new series is about Jake Paul and four
episodes have so far been released. But the controversy was already brewing
after just the first two. That's what YouTubers love; controversy. Now needless
to say, there's a lot that happens in this series, so if you got a few hours,
check the whole thing out for yourself on Shane's channel. We're gonna focus
right now on some of the mental health issues discussed in the series and what
has some advocates so upset. In episode 2, "The Dark Side of Jake Paul", Shane
speaks to therapist Kati Morton in an attempt to psychoanalyze Jake Paul and
why he does what he does. So they always just think they're better, bigger, more
important than everybody else. Like, for instance, failure to conform to
social norms with respect to lawful behaviors, so they're usually like...
getting into fights. Now, it's important here to note that their conversation is
about the characteristics of those who display antisocial personality disorder.
At this point, they're not talking about Jake Paul, specifically, which is good
because no psychologist or psychotherapist should ever be
diagnosing someone without actually meeting them. But Shane does an
interesting thing here which is to cut two clips of other YouTubers exhibiting
the behavior being described, including that of the Paul brothers. The main two things that
they usually want is power and money. And I'm gonna be the biggest entertainer on
the planet. I want to be the first social media billionaire. So with fans comes
power and money. Buy that merch, buy that merch. So they'd probably be actually really nice to their fans.
So even though Shane's asking Kati about the personality traits associated
with someone who has APD, his intentions seem really obvious. In that he's talking
about Jake Paul because that's what this whole series is about. Before this
segment in the documentary, a card appears that reads
"All clips shown of YouTubers, actors, and even myself are just being used for
context." Okay, but that kind of sounds like him trying to have it both ways.
He's like telling the audience, "Hey, guys. Don't jump to conclusions, but also Jake
Paul's a sociopath". And shocker, this has left a bad taste in many people's mouths,
including Shane Dawson's own fans. Jesse St. John wrote: "ok I stan @shanedawson
but this new series creates a dangerous dynamic of unqualified people wrongly
diagnosing mental disorders & dehumanizing & stigmatizing people
with mental disorders. Take this as entertainment & nothing more". And @peter
coffin tweeted: "I need to voice a concern, @shane dawson. This isn't a call out, but
how much thought was put into the idea that after a video like your latest, that
any awkward kid (including ones with disabilities) could be labeled a
"sociopath," due to your audience's youthful inexperience?" For sure. I know
kids, I was in middle school once upon a time. Name-calling is a thing that
happens. This isn't an unlikely thing that might actually occur among them. And
the term sociopath is somewhat problematic. It's an outdated way of
referring to someone with antisocial personality disorder. Presumably, Shane
Dawson expected that there would be some backlash from this situation, maybe not
as much as he's actually getting, but he has defended himself on Twitter and Snapchat.
He tweeted: "people with severe antisocial personality disorders don't
have empathy and don't care. at all. so for anyone to be offended is so
confusing to me considering they actually literally don't care. like. at
all. and it's something that is rarely even discussed and it can affect lives."
Number one: You can't offend them. That's not a thing.
They don't care. Like... and no they're not all like evil serial killer whatever.
They just don't care. During a Snapchat story, he talks about how he's used what
he's learned to distance himself from people with APD and believes that that's
the key value in presenting the information the way he did. I understand.
I was nervous about it, but the reason I made it scary and creepy was so people
would watch it. Because if I made it like a standard video where I just sat there
and was like, "Oh interesting. They don't feel. Okay, next topic" people wouldn't
care. And if people don't care, they don't watch it. And if they don't watch it, they don't
know the warning signs and lets people know what to look for. He does ultimately
apologize for offending people and assures viewers that that was not his
intention. My main thing I want to get across was number one I'm sorry if I
offended anybody. If you are offended for someone who has this or thinks they have
this, I am sorry. And the two episodes that have been posted since then now
come with a disclaimer at the top. "This video contains discussion of personality
disorders and is meant for entertainment purposes only.
Please do not self diagnose or diagnose others." Dawson includes another brief
apology at the top of the third episode, "The Family of Jake Paul", where he seems
to more effectively understand why people were offended. I think I got
carried away with the whole like "ooh I can make this scary." I love editing
scary stuff and like and I didn't completely think it through and like
to treat a person like a scary monster it's like not cool and I shouldn't have
done that so I apologize for that genuinely. I shouldn't be pointing a
finger and being like you might be a sociopath because that's f*cked up and I was wrong
for doing that. But I'm really f*cking excited about this new chapter because
like this is the sh*t I'm interested in. Both Paul brothers have since responded. Logan
calls out Shane for some of the more theatrical elements of his series. I f*cking
love you, but this is a classic case of dramatics on YouTube. Yo, Logan. I left
your car keys on the counter.
And Jake commented in a couple tweets. He wrote: "I guess the only thing im
concerned about is that you still haven't made it clear that you're
DETERMINING wether or not I'm a sociopath... The way it comes off (at least
to me & my family) is that you're already labeling me a "sociopath" (this
tweet also comes off that way)". "I love Shane & am trusting him 2
carry out the rest of the series.. I hope he can actually make it clear WHO I AM
& WHY I've done certain things & SHOW the side of me that no one has ever
seen.. That's why I agreed to do this series.. the "sociopath" STUFF doesn't
interest me". My hope is that we'll get a better understanding of Jake Paul once
Shane shows the footage of where he sat down with Jake Paul and actually spoke
to him. It is kind of sucky to think that maybe Jake Paul signed on to do this
thinking that Shane was gonna go in one direction when really Shane took the
footage and decided to go the more controversial route. I do like the fact
that both of these guys do seem to like each other and want to work together,
which makes me think that maybe, on some level, Shane and Jake, who are masterminds
and have literally dominated YouTube, have come out with a way to kind of
manipulate this situation from us on our end and get more views. Because
ultimately maybe at the end he just gives Jake a big pat on the back and is
like "oh Jake's amazing and I love him and all this stuff was clearly not true".
And in that way he's brought us along for the ride and made mega dollars off
of us. What do you guys think? Did Shane Dawson make a mistake in the first
couple episodes of the Jake Paul series? Let us know in the comments and for more
trends head to whatstrending.com.