Some of you may have seen this video floating around lately.
I wanted to ask the guy in the video Cole Carrigan for more information, so I contacted
him on Twitter.
I asked him if he could give me more information, and he refused.
I told him that I was just trying to clarify a couple of things, and he told me.
“There’s literally nothing to talk about.
Just know that if you use my footage, I will take down your video for copyright.”
So yeah, it was a pretty short conversation.
And then Twitter was like: “You can’t send messages to this person.”
At first I was thinking “It’s because I have an Android isn’t it”.
But no, he just blocked me.
Like, I could not believe what I was seeing, I could not believe it.
And you shouldn’t either because I made it up just now and the screenshots are fake.
//roll intro Today I’m talking about how influencers
use drama to manipulate millions of people, inflate their bank accounts, and 9 times out
of 10, completely get away with it.
You know, Kind of like Cole Carrigan and the Ace Family.
But first, I have to preface with two very important things.
One: the Ace Family is disgusting, and I’m not, not planning to, or ever have been supporting
or defending them in any way.
And two: I’m not here to prove or debunk the allegations that were recently brought
up against Austin of the ACE Family.
Because, both of those things are very serious topics and there’s no way I could make a
video about it so quickly.
So instead, I’m here to talk about why that video should never have been made in the first
place.
It all started when makeup vlogger Cole Carrigan tweeted out that Austin McBroom of the ACE
Family, a family vlogging channel with over 17 million subscribers, allegedly cheated
on his YouTube wife with many of Cole’s friends, and in addition to that was a criminal,
who actually assaulted one of Cole’s friends, and that he paid off one of the largest drama
channels $500,000 to keep the story quiet.
This information came out of literally nowhere and everybody was asking Cole to make a video
about it.
So make a video he did.
He started by addressing the fact that after his tweet started going viral, someone from
Austin’s team allegedly contacted the victim and warned her that she should stop Cole from
making the video before they face consequences.
Someone from Austin McBroom’s team actually texted my friend that this happened to, I’ll
put the screenshot right here.
And I proceeded to tell her, they’re just trying to scare you, I just went through this
exact same thing so I’m not scared.
What needs to be said is going to be said regardless, and if I need to say it, I’ll
do it.
So this was already a weird start to the video for me, because Cole just admits that he was
the one who decided to come forward with the story . . . in fact, she wouldn’t have even
gotten those threatening texts if he hadn’t been Tweeting about her situation in the first
place.
Anyway, then Keemstar from DramaAlert, the big channel who allegedly took the payoff,
contacted Cole and asked if he could speak to the alleged victim.
She said no.
I talked to her and I just told her really how much she would be helping other girls,
and not only herself and getting justice for herself, but helping other people in the future
from this happening.
I kind of convinced her to talk to him.
So here he pressures her into giving her story to Keemstar when she didn’t want to.
So according Cole, Keemstar wound up backing out because of the payoff.
So I texted him, saying "how much did they pay you to keep quiet" and he responded with
this, and I was completely shocked.
I immediately called my friend and told her that he was paid off $500,000 to keep quiet
about the situation, and that I needed to come forward.
Okay so, he just said point blank, that he decided to come forward again.
And he even explains that she did not want to because she felt unsafe.
Obviously she was really hesitant about this because that would lead to more information
about her being put out there.
If she didn't want to do this, she didn't have to, and I wanted to make her feel as
comfortable as possible.
If she didn’t want to do it, she didn’t have to.
But she didn't want to do it.
Cole said that this was his idea.
The more times I watched this video, the more concerning it got as I realized he's just
explaining how manipulated and forced his friend to kind of "give him permission" to
go forward with her story.
Now, the rest of the video is what you would have to watch for yourself to decide how you
feel about it.
It's just him going through the timeline of events, then he decides to call, not the friend,
but one of his other friends who was also there at the time apparently.
And all of a sudden, I hear her yelling "no" and screaming and crying.
So this other friend heard it going on but wasn't in the room, or something.
I don't know, It was kind of hard to follow.
But after that, Cole concludes the call and that’s it.
Okay, so now that you literally have the point of view from someone who was actually there,
that is enough proof and I really don't need to provide anything else.
That's not really how that works.
After all, he showed a couple of photos, a lot of screenshots, and one anonymous person
talking through a voice changer.
Now, just because those things aren't evidence does not mean that's what happening in the
video isn't true, but at the same time, that's nowhere near enough for everyone to just blindly
believe everything he's saying in-- oh, nevermind, they did.
Nothing in this video really proves or disproves what happened, it's just bringing allegations
to light, which is much different.
But, as stated multiple times by Cole himself, the victim didn't want to do that.
So why did he make the video?
It's just not something that I as a person can stay quiet on, it's just against my morals
and it's something I absolutely won't do.
This is literally just to bring awareness to people who are in a similar situation that
it's okay and it happens and you're not alone.
So I hope you guys take something from this, that not everything is what it seems to be
online.
You know.
That’s the only thing he said in this video so far that I’m positive about.
I really don't think this video is what it seems, because I'm pretty sure he's lying
about the entire reason he made it.
See, if there’s one thing Cole's good at, it’s getting people to talk about his videos.
The society that I was raised around in Texas was so different than how things are today.
People normalized saying those words around each other like it was normal.
That’s crazy because we’re the exact same age and I grew up in Texas too, and I just--
don’t remember people saying things like
"Johnny, can I have a God Damn [...] Pencil?
Sorry Ms Grayson, I didn't do my [...] homework"
when I was 12, but . . . yeah, I don’t know, that seems like something I would remember.
But honestly, saying that kind of stuff when you're 12 is literally harmless, It’s just
the fact that the behavior continued up all the way up through 2017 that led many people
to question his apology video.
But you know, having a "dark past" wasn't enough to propel him into the spotlight, unlike
some people.
So, he looked for other opportunities.
He tried joining, and subsequently leaving Team 10.
That got him a couple million views, but it didn't really do anything for his career.
He tried starting a very one-sided beef with Cameron Dallas and again, that didn't do much.
See, for someone who tried to get into the limelight so frequently, his friend coming
and confiding in him with her story of assault was a business opportunity.
There's a reason we don't pressure people into talking about things that they're not
ready to yet, because the day that video went up, people immediately found the girls he
was talking about within the same day.
He said he made the video because of his morals, but he knew about this story for four months
before saying anything, and he only went public with it once one of his tweets about the Ace
Family got nearly 100,000 likes.
He’s an opportunist.
Well, if all this wasn't weird enough, he tried to extort $100,000 from the ACE family.
100,000.
See, when Keemstar told him that he got paid off $500,000 dollars, which was a joke by
the way, but Cole conveniently left that out, Cole initally believed it.
So Cole thought "I can get at least a hundred thousand dollars out of it."
He told his friends that they would split the 100k.
And see, I wouldn’t believe this screenshot was real either, except the YouTube channel
Tea Spill asked Cole himself if these were real, and Cole himself said they were.
After realizing that they weren't going to get the money they went forward with the video
anyway, and all chaos ensued.
Some people are saying that she should have gone to the police if it really happened,
some people are saying that Austin McBroom is a saint and he would never do this, other
people are saying we should just believe everything that's in that vidoe, and honestly those are
all pretty ignorant and dangerous ways of looking at a situation.
So unlike most videos I've seen about the topic, I’m not here to try to lead you to
believe one thing or the other.
What I truly believe is that we shouldn't be talking about this.
Misconduct allegations, life-threatening issues, criminal activity; these are the kinds of
things that don't get fixed by talking about them on the internet, but definitely get worse.
It's not like some old tweets here and there.
The reason this doesn't work online is because the internet doesn't have respect for victims;
it puts all its energy into bringing down the accused.
People don’t care about how the people who have been hurt feel, they just want to see
somebody get taken down.
And so with all that knowledge, I can completely understand why Cole's friend did not want
to bring this to everyone's attention just four months after it happened.
But Cole still pressured her into doing that anyway.
People think that drama is a game and we’re all the players, but the issue is these influencers
see us as the pieces.
They don’t even have to have a straight story anymore, as long as you're talking about
it, they're profiting.
So if they can manipulate us into having these conversations that we should never have had
in the first place, it's free "entertainment" for us, free money for them, and it's only
at the expense of the actual victim.
And in this case, the victim herself never wanted to come forward in the first place.
In conclusion, I made this video because I feel like everyone was looking at this as
a very black or white situation.
But it was never our situation, in the same way that it was never Cole’s to begin with.
We had this whole dialogue where everyone got to speak except the victim.
Or that's my perspective anyway.
Anyway, leave a like, tell me what you think, and subscribe if you haven’t already.
Thank you for watching and a big thank you to my 215,000 subscribers.