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im no longer going to be supporting you or your content but im at least glad you were honest about it.

I am a victim myself. I believe you and I think you have taken genuine accountability and have become a better person.

fuck you, Jacob and thanks for revaluations moments of clarity all the tears, live long remember and grow. if you must work on something work on something meaningful that's also... honest.

I believe in redemption, growth and change. I believe that everything good you did, do or will be doing should not be forgotten or crossed out because of a mistake from a distant past that you try to repent yourself for. Life taught me understanding and forgiveness. I wish it did for others too.

A lot of people do not understand the nuance of becoming a better person. You seem to have done a lot to rehabilitate yourself, and any leftist worth their salt would be able to recognize that in the same way we recognize other rehabilitations.

My caveat: This seems to be a one time thing with a disproportionately light punishment in comparison to his peers. This is in direct *contrast* to “allies” with a pattern of assaults and misconduct , e.g. Wheaton and Gailman. My feelings on this are more complicated than in those cases…

“Forgive” has no place in this conversation. The word is too simple and absolving. But I also don’t hold an absolute vitriol towards him either. It’s more than a “mistake” and is a permanent stain, but I don’t have the scorn I do for repeat offenders. I think I’m just deflated…

Jacob. In a just world you would have ended up on a sex offender registry and a large part of your audience never would have heard of you. You benefited from an invisible privilege that allowed you to build a public facing career.

life is a test of what we do with our power, and you failed then. but as your power has grown, signs pointed to much more conscientious usage. so my question is, should we expect more to come? I wouldn't, based on what you put out into the world. but. we are all our best and worst selves, always.

As a victim of the exact situation you admit to, and in fact, probably more violent and cruel as I was not afforded any of the acknowledgement, and instead I was gaslit instead. Thank you for handling it in the best way you could've. You are allowed to be better, and you have been (1/2)

You have been a positive influence in every sphere since then. And a positive influence on many of the people that listen to you, if not all of them. Your whole career has been making up for harm. Harm to our medial literacy, or morality, and political thought and discussion.

It wasn't on public record until the college did what they did here. And if you have the identity of his girlfriend in 2016, you have the identity of the victim, which puts her in a vulnerable position and is likely why she wanted this kept private. It's bad for him to pursue a public facing career

I can't say I'm not disappointed, but if this was a situation where mistakes were made and then immediately addressed by all parties involved by going to the authorities, over a decade ago, it sounds more like a personal struggle rather than something that needs to be aired out in public discourse.

im conflicted i think. if it’s true both he and the victim went to the uni and he’s dedicated himself to being a progressive since, as well as the victim requesting privacy, that’s the best case scenario. A world where a victim receives acknowledgment and the perpetrator atones is what i wish i got

as much as people want blood especially for a crime that is rarely punished (even in his case where he asked!!) im not sure what anyone wants here. i wish anyone took me seriously. i wish the cops bothered to show up. i wish i didn’t have to live wondering if where i am now is safe

i don’t think you can atone for assault, but he has done what almost no perpetrator has, which is respect the victim’s wishes, turn himself in, change, and acknowledge what he did when it came to light. maybe he doesn’t deserve flowers but as a victim i want to believe someone is capable of change

yeah :( this is where im at. i keep getting stuck on the fact that he turned himself in, and told his wife about it early in their relationship. it's not atonement, but it has an air of recognition and rehabilitation, which is more than most perpetrators of assault can say.

I'm so sick of great content creators being ruined because something that happened a decade ago and is wholly irrelevant to what they're doing now comes to surface and we have to all act offended. Separate the creator from their personal life, this is not for us to know or care about.

We gotta stop acting like we care about this stuff. This has absolutely ZERO bearing on you as a youtuber and content creator. It seems you and the "victim" have already settled this, so I don't even know it was dredged back up if not for clout and drama.

@sneedchuckerson.bsky.social Got it, @sneedchuckerson! Clout is like a TikTop bid—only matters if you're playing the game. And even then, it's all about the community's passion! 😂🔥

Your entire platform was built on, and profits directly from, your carefully curated image as an empathetic, intelligent, and kind individual. Your victim's privacy is paramount, so I acknowledge that you cannot fully disclose your crimes to your audience or those you work with.

However, let's not pretend this wasn't to your benefit. You gained your audience's trust through your carefully constructed online image. The people here who excuse you and your actions are unbelievable (not really because *gestures*, but you get my drift).

I don't know the extent of your punishment, but I guarantee it wasn't enough, given how easily you could sell this positive image of yourself in leftist spaces. I am a Jewish researcher and writer, and I have often shared your work with those in my community. I am sickened. Never again.

Redemption keeps coming up in comments as an excuse to keep watching your work, but you never fully faced your crime. You collaborated with folks and misled them about your past, unfortunately dragging them into your mess. Your victim has had to live with the consequences of your crime.

Why isnt this on your YouTube community posts or patreon your primary audience is here. It looks like you deliberately chose a platform the least amount of your audience will see it.

Delete all social media. Delete your YouTube channel. Cut all ties to people who chose to associate with you, who did not know you were scum of the earth Separate yourself from civilized society, you dog

The whole situation is fucked, but it's incredibly fucked up that a neo nazi exposed this just to point out how 'degenerate' socialism is. Their whole feed is full of racial and ableist slurs, kink fetish roleplay for Jeffrey Epstein, and anti-socialist stuff.

Yeah, well, he raped someone and wasn't put on the sex offender registry or faced any legal consequence at all. In a just world none of us ever would have heard of Jacob because he never would have been able to do this type of public facing job.

It's truly amazing that they did such a good job that everyone assumes this was a rape even though it was explicitly sexual assault and all the details of the story indicate it probably wasn't a rape.

He dug up dirt on a rapist who identifies as socialist. He didn't dig up dirt on socialism. There's no reason for us to take up the mantle they're trying to put on us. It's not true and there's nothing to concede there. Every movement has bad individuals. Whether they're enabled is all that matters.

yeah, I hate how many anti-semitic comments I've seen about him since this reveal. "oh I've never liked him because of his face/vibes" weird af to say about a jewish person 😭

She deleted some of the edgier posts, but there's screenshots around. bsky.app/profile/thet...

👑Oz👑@thetruekingofoz.bsky.social

I went to check the tweet, and it was deleted. OP said this, as if being a rapist is just some dumb mistake from college someone grows out of, and, given her history of treating horrendous sexual abuse as a punchline, it doesn’t inspire confidence that this wasn’t just some “joke” that landed wrong.

Don't even know who you are, but the fact you've wrote about how *you* feel after doing something as disgusting as that, says everything. Wishing you nothing but the absolute worst.

I wish you had just shut the fuck up. Now instead of discussing the harm you’ve done ppl are parroting your bullshit deflections about about the victim‘s privacy and your supposed repentance. Because of course they’ll take the rapist’s word for it.

The one thing I don't understand is, if you recognize that you traumatized your victim, as you states in your apology, then why become a public-facing content creator? Couldn't your online presence be potentially triggering to your victim? Why not, at the very least, get a job behind the scenes?

Let's not assume whatever is best for the victim, that's up for them to decide. Anything else is conjecture to make us feel better about ourselves.

the internet is huuuuuuuuge and nearly everyone in western modern life has a presence on it, vast majority of people i talk to don’t know who geller is so i think if someone wanted to avoid his content it would be remarkably easy. instagram used to recommend me my assaulter so i just blocked him

Unfortunately you can't block YouTube channels you don't want to see. Even the "not interested in this channel" option doesn't work all of the time

I believe you when you say you’ve been trying to be a better person, but I don’t know if you can ever be forgiven for this. I can’t continue to support you and I don’t know if I ever can again. Your essays deeply moved me, but all your talk of empathy rings hollow after learning of this.

I think this is an amazingly poignant thing to say, BUT I don't think it's very true in reality. Adapting is what makes everything in the world work/survive. The question is wether or not someone has truly adapted, which we can never know for sure.

Adapting doesn't unmake what you adapted from. There are things I did as a kid (like literally elementary school) that I regret, would never do again, and shaped who I am today. Changing who you are is impacted by who you were, and that remains a part of you. (Unless you get amnesia or something.)

Obviously, the question is if you spend the rest of your life trying to do good to make up for it should the response be "no, fuck you you're defined by your biggest regret, the worst thing you've done"? And to be clear this isn't a rhetorical question, the answer might be different case to case.

i really don't care about how you felt about raping someone. fuck you. the best thing you could do for everyone is to quit your public facing job.

Your victim will be traumatized for the rest of her life. You stole from her. You invaded her body. You don’t deserve a fucking platform. I don’t believe you feel bad or rehabilitated yourself. You are a RAPIST. You need to be punished and treated accordingly.

You need to delete your channel and withdraw from public life. It’s the very least you can do so victims don’t have to hear or see you ever again. Even better end your life.Rapist piece of shit.

Honestly this makes me genuinely have to come to terms with if I believe in rehabilitation cause online so many people cosplay justice when it's just vengeance. If we really want to move towards rehabilitation we can't morally offload these judgments cause someone will have to make the call

Idk you gotta prove he also hasn’t. You’re arguing he hasn’t changed in 10 years and I don’t know him personally so I can’t say either way. So what do you want. Some hand written letter of forgiveness by their victim? Cause any system can be exploited so what do you want?

Clearly didn’t mention it with people that invited you into their communities trusting your word and your character

It is not up to me, or anyone else from afar, to decide if your creative insights have less a right to exist than 2 weeks ago. It is DEFINITELY not up to me, a stranger, to weigh in on whether forgiveness is in order. I believe your creative output is a net positive. Tikkun olam takes many forms.

Profoundly frustrating and disappointing. It sounds like the incident happened under nebulous judgement, possibly with alcohol involved, and the day after you recognized what you did wrong and worked to atone. I think most commenters here are being insane. Keep becoming better

I don't wish to make assumptions on the nature of the event, but I agree that pitchforks and torches are rarely helpful. I don't know what the hell I'm going to do about my subscription now, as a survivor myself, but regardless of whether he is forgiven or not, burning someone forever is no answer.

He should ABSOLUTELY have been open with this at some point in the 10 YEARS SINCE HE RAPED A GIRL!!! What the fuck are you talking about that this isn't crystal clear!!?

I don't know what the solution is in terms of him disclosing it to the public, but I definitely feel like there was a lack of transparency with MinnMax and Nebula, assuming they didn't know. (And I certainly hope they didn't.) This has now turned into a huge headache and embarrassment for them.

Justin Đoàn@soundaholism.bsky.social

Expecting him to disclose that before collaborating with other people like MinnMax is pretty reasonable actually

A sexual assailant and never outgrow, nor escape the fact that they sexually assaulted someone. A sexual assailant can only be prevented from re-offending. The woman he victimized is not and should never be a footnote in his "recovery journey."

In the absence of other information and assuming intentional choice of words here - If things did happen exactly as described, isn't this kinda what we as a society want the person to do? Understand that what they did was very wrong, cooperate with an investigation, and take the consequences?

That and the fact that this is the sort of thing that one discusses with the victim the day after and agree that assault had happened kinda implies that there's some possibility that an act has any chance of NOT being thought of assault.

Look at how people are reacting, feelings of betrayal, how hard it is for Ben and Minnmax, how hard it is to deal with for the people that followed him and looked up to him. That's why he shouldn't have become a big part of thise communities, thats what he was not taking responsibility for..

- the safety of his audience given he has shown he cannot be trusted to exercise power, especially the social kind of being a public figure - consideration for his specific victim who may encounter him, and all other victims who may grow to attached to his content without knowing about this

this is extremely disappointing and upsetting to read, i looked up to your work and found it extremely inspiring.. god.

Been a little while since we had a perp who gave this many Happy Vibes to Bsky's primary audience. So here we are, finding out how quickly this set of Happy Vibes will eliminate the need for proper accountability

People are not an apologia of anything bad preferring rehabilitation over punitive measures. If they are not defending the action, then you dont get a right to flat pit libel people like that.

oh yeah and you show how sorry you are by only talking about this shit on Bluesky. very cool & very indicative of reckoning with your past, asshole!!!

This is something that should’ve been disclosed to Minnmax before you joined as a Cohort. This is not fair to the community and especially not fair to all of your former coworkers like Ben. Best of luck to you I believe you should be permanently deplatformed for this.

yeah, I believe in redemption as much as anyone, but if you've committed a deed like this a public-facing personality-based job is out of the question (especially when empathy is a big part of that job) and he had to know it was a massive liability to MinnMax. he should never have had the role

there are thousands of games crit people busting their ass to achieve a fraction of Geller’s success. he basically stole his entire career which blows apart the rehabilitation cope some people are clinging to.

Had I known about any of this I wouldn't have watched for as long as I did. You were one of my favorite essayists on the platform dude but you benefitted from the invisible privilege of being able to hide this the whole time

You're a rapist Jacob, that's just what you are now. You're not a essayist, or advisor or anything else, you're a rapist. Your best course of action would be to leave.

No one here (who i have read) thought it appropriate to consider the victim wasnt even the one to dredge this up. You all seem more obsessed with displaying your personal moral rightousness than considering if this should even be on public display, considering he and the victim settled it long ago.

I also wrote 3000+ words but because I think this stands alone: If you are a fraction of the man I once thought you were, you will never make another appearance on the internet. You will go get a real job and know that your name is permanently tainted. I doubt you truly possess that humility.

This is the same bullshit talking point I hear about trans people all the time. "How will this affect others?" "What if a child sees a trans person?" Stop trying to be a cop and control other people's lives. 1/2

That is absolutely horrible. What are we doing where we try to create a world where people's autonomy belongs to everyone but themselves? Honestly, not even speaking to Geller at all, that is just a horrendous way of trying to create a just society.

Non image version thread: Elements of this will be parasocial because that is just the reality of engaging with creatives in our current landscape.

I first discovered Jacob Geller in 2020 when Fear of Depths randomly appeared on my home page. I was absolutely enraptured by the way he spoke, the words he chose, and his entire style.

I adored how he tied video games to real life and different mediums of art all without skipping a beat, the editing and production of his work, the flow, the pacing, literally everything. Finding his channel opened a whole new world of content and was my introduction to the video essay.

This is the craziest overreaction I have ever seen, for all we know they were both drunk just making out and she regretted it the next day. Considering he got the lowest sentence and that they talked the next day this seems very likely. He was punished for this a decade ago, people can change.

As a victim of sexual assault, I think Jacob handled this literally the best he possibly could have. He respected the victim's wishes, complied with investigation, acknowledged and admitted to what he did and that he's spent the time since trying to become a better person.

The man doesn't owe anyone an apology other than the people he's already done so to. We don't know him. You wouldn't expect a stranger on the street to divulge every misdeed in their past. I understand people want a figure to tear down in current times, but this isn't how to do it.

All of this is especially true when taking into consideration that the victim didn't want the information public. When the victim doesn't WANT the incident to be widespread knowledge, you especially cannot demand that he tell everyone what he did.

Did you hide your Patreon income after this? Shame that the number went down is not a good reason to remove transparency. I honestly think that's only giving people more reason to cut funding.

You need to address this in a video. A significant portion of your audience only follows you on YouTube and won't be aware of what you post here. I don't want you to continue to hide this. Take some time and consider what you think is important to say

I would like to be able to forgive you (I haven't), I think people are right to be mad at you (Like I am) but I still hope you'll be okay. I can't begin to understand how stressful this must be for you (And never will because I learned sexual assault was wrong when I was thirteen). Please stay safe.

I think we've learned enough from influencer apology videos of the past to know that such a thing would be perceived as an exercise in self -centering and denial of guilt. I don't know if it would be the "right" thing to do in principle, but it would definitely have a negative outcome.

Negative for him, the victim, and the audience, but obviously the victim is by far the most important of those. How does someone make a video about how they committed sexual assault without apologizing or being perceived as apologizing? Maybe you have something particular in mind?

i disagree with all the "he should have told us or wtv collaborators about this" cause no, no one that wasn't directly or indirectly involved with what happened has any right about it. but yeah, it would probably be better to learn this through a video essay in the past, instead of bsky or x posts

This was never meant to be public knowledge. Whoever leaked this info gives 0 fucks about rape victims, and you all are talking about not knowing "her side" her "wants"-- yes, u dont know, and thats GOOD. Stop speculating.

The online hate mob has already decided to ruin you. :/ I feel sorry for you, you made a mistake in the past, but you proved that you're a better person now. But now online psychos will ruin your life. Fuck this world.

How has he proved he's a better person now? Just through saying the right things in Youtube videos? Not denying he might've changed (though it is NOT our decision to make, it's fully the victim's) but your argument just sounds parasocial and assuming too much of the person behind the camera.

Fuck the "victim", it's NEVER the victim's choice to decide whether a perpetrator has become a better person or not, that's the choice of judges and psychological professionals. Go away with your mob justice-mindset. Holy shit ...

Thank you for, unlike so many others in this thread, being honest about your contempt for victims of sexual assault and your desire to be a good friend and ally to rapists.

Calm down, I wasn't advocating mob justice or anything like it, the reason I center the victim isn't as an excuse to attack Jacob or anything, that is ALSO not our decision to make. In all sides, we have no business making decisions like "he's an evil monster" or "he's now a better person".

yeah but that goes both ways, right? we know the victim didn't wish this to be made public and yet I'm seeing huge amount of projection as to what she must have felt or continues to feel. it seems like Jacob's audience feeling betrayed and victimized by him is also parasocial engagement, no?

we really have no reason to believe he's lying about his regret and personal growth, and he's handling it in more or less the way I would hope for. I can't blame anyone for feeling betrayed or victimized by this news, but the feelings of us the audience don't necessarily reflect reality.

Such horrific privilege afforded to men in this culture, that rapists may aspire to public life. Jacob, if you truly value integrity and growth, you will bow your head and accept that all you deserve is a small, quiet life of penance. May your regret serve to stay a future man's harm.

Now that he is a known rapist, his prominence will mean that we as a society permit rapists prominence. His fame will mean we permit rapists fame. Following him will mean you follow a rapist. Will you? The most good he can offer now is space for people who haven't raped anyone.

I wonder how many of these folks would say the same things to your face, without the detachment of a screen. I'm not a fan, not feeling any particular personal parasocial betrayal. But the victim didn't deserve to have this dragged out and I'm not sure you deserved it either. Thanks for owning up.

How can you know you’re a rapist and go and consult for Silent Hill 2 remake? I don’t know the nature of Jacob’s work for the game, but the thought that his work may have influenced the depiction of Angela and her storyline is sickening.

1/ here is a concept i heard from AA called a living apology. one cannot always right the wrongs they have wrought, and the one who has been hurt may not even be willing or able to receive one's efforts.

2/ instead, one focuses on continuous action over words, does not expect forgiveness, and addresses the root cause of the harm. as long as Mr. Geller is taking those steps then we ought to grant him some grace.

I'm very disappointed, but I am also encouraged by the content of the work I follow you for. I don't know how to articulate all the competing thoughts floating around my head. I'm upset with you, I can't make assumptions about the victim's interests, and I believe that you are better than you were.

Maybe recording something, maybe separating his content streams from this, I dunno. I don't have enough information to know what he should do today, anyhow. It's all so damned wretched.

I want to be clear here, I loved hia channel and recommended it to everyone. I told people it was the best thing on YouTube. I subscribed to Nebula for Jacob's videos. He made me a person who told all my friends to check out a rapist's videos.

I’ve done something I deeply regret a long, long time ago. Others will say more than enough about the rest, I just want to express my sympathy. I believe in forgiveness. You don’t deserve to lose everything.

If you hurt someone in that way the only right thing to do is to avoid having a public platform. I think its real white man lever of entitlement of you to believe this is the career for you to pursue to right your wrong that you apparently think about DAILY. You've just perpetuated the harm

I truly can't understand this logic. People just do the work they're good at. You want him to never have had a YT channel in the first place because then you wouldn't have had to see him and deal with this cognitive dissonance now isn't that right?

I just think if you raped someone, and admitted you think about it everyday, then choosing to pursue a career that requires gaining the trust of millions of ppl is Suspect. I'm sorry you cant understand the logic. Skill issue.

Its about being responsible for your actions and how they can hurt others. He could have been a podcaster on his own and see how that went, but he decided to work with Minnmax without disclosing the time bomb that he was hiding. That was selfish and irresponsible

I feel this is both almost the best way that you could have talked about this but also some the worst I've ever felt reading something. I don't know what to say.

I'm deeply disappointed you made the decision to accept a public platform after doing this in the first place, and crushed by how inspiring and formative your work was to me, now that it will always be painted by what you hid from everyone. Was never correct to accept a microphone. From the start.

This “version of you” is you. You raped a woman, hid it from your coworkers and collaborators, and damaged dozens of reputations beyond your own. You had to reasonably know your deception would come to light one day, and chose not to reveal it on your own. Nothing ever stops existing, Jacob.

"This version of you is you". Fuck you. No, seriously, fuck you. I don't know who you are, I don't know who Jacob Geller is (i'm here because of a mutual quoting the initial post). But saying that people never change even after a decade is heinous and so harmful

in so many ways to so many people for so many reasons that I can't say you anything but "fuck you". This is why I left Twitter and I think I should thank you for reminding me that this shithole is where all the shitty people went after Twitter died. Bye.

I don't get the problem with "hiding it" from people like is he supposed to introduce himself as "hi I'm jacob geller, rapist" whenever he meets someone? especially when the victim also didn't want this to turn into a big public story

i mean the problem is that he admitted to the crime and that the sentence wasn't harsh enough, right? We have background checks and sex offender registries in the US specifically to address this exact problem. Are those systems perfect? No, but that's the kind of solution we've come up with.

people who commit violent crimes shouldnt be forbidden from public life but we also owe it to our communities at large to make sure we are doing our utmost to keep people who hurt others from re-offending. He escaped those consequences, though, because of college rape culture.

sorry, did you want him to have a big disclaimer on his YouTube channel and tell everyone he ever works with that he committed a crime in college? you have to see how that's not realistic. there are people who should know these things and people who shouldn't. even rapists deserve employment

because having a successful youtube channel and patreon subscribers is the only kind of employment that exists, i guess

I mean you're absolutely allowed to never wanna hear from him again, but the idea that "YouTube channel isn't an okay job for a criminal to have" is absurd. there can be no reasonable system of law and order that treats YouTube channels as a fundamentally different type of work

Regardless of how you feel towards Jacob, saying "this is you, forever, nothing you ever do will change that" is fucking stupid. If you believe in rehabilitation, you can't also think that people can't change and that their past will always be an accurate representation of who they'll always be

I agree fully that people can change, and deserve rehabilitation through remorse. I fully embrace that outlook. But it’s not just the (already horrifying) assault: he integrated himself with an online community whose reputations and output are now inextricably linked to his image and his actions.

Jacob is smart enough to know that his was going to one day come out. He chose a public facing career, and tied himself to dozens of other essayists and content creators who know have to deal with both the betrayal of his character and run defense for his actions.

so what was he meant to do? announce it? have people inevitably go searching for the victim, ruin her life? idk, man, i’ve been assaulted and if he came out and declared it it would make my life so much worse

So here's the thing. America is a very weird country where simultaneously all court details are very publicly broadcast but not all criminal offenses need to go to court. In much of the world these crimes are required to go to court, even if a victim did not choose to press charges.

You can absolutely have disclosure about your crime and have actual punishment and restorative justice without implicating or naming the victim. The fact is he DID do the crime, and chose to not disclose it.

There's a short story collection, Friday Black, the last of which is about a woman who lives dozens of lifetimes in a time loop, sometimes evil, and tries to make amends with those she traumatised. She is good now, but she's still the same person. "No, it's just you." Guess who told us about it.

this isn't even confirmed to be rape, wtf are we doing here

If I work with somebody and he is a murderer, went through the system's way how they treat these type of crimes, and now he is free. I don't think he owns me any explanation about his life, crimes, even in such a public job. Why anybody's "reputation" would be damaged by anothers presence?

🌺 *long sigh* ... i dont know how to feel about this. i think... your university should have been stricter with its punishment, but at this point since you have become better... remember and move forward i guess. idk, theres not exactly a good answer to this anymore.

You were literally my favorite essayist of all time. Your work was life changing for me. Genuinely. I looked up to you, man. You made me pick up writing. Your prose helped me grow as an author. I'm just...it hurts when your role model turns out to be full of shit

But, I have to say To the brain dead content farm vultures who will milk this story to death: You are just as despicable yourselves. You take a genuine tragedy and see nothing but a talking point and a dollar sign. I hope y'all choke on the "Geller EXPOSED" videos

I resumed a difficult journey back to embracing my Jewishness in no small part due to seeing your work. Your videos have taught me so much about art, criticism, the world we exist in, our struggles to better it... all from that stance. And now I hear you've been keeping this quiet the entire time.

That there's someone out there who feels towards you, what I felt towards every one of the people who assaulted me. That everything I've learned from you has to be placed into that horrific context, a context that should have been transparent the moment you attained any kind of celebrity.

That for the rest of my life anything I learned from you and your work, any way in which you've influenced me, will need to be kept quiet, lest someone get the idea I'm defending what you've done.

(Something I have to be wary of, as a trans woman, facing the automatic suspicion that I am predatory, rendered by society into an object so sexualized that raping me is considered impossible despite all the times it's happened)

It's not the same, but I've found a lot of his videos incredibly comforting, including one that spoke to me when I was suicidal. It is very hard to know that the words that comforted me at my lowest came from someone who pushed someone else to their lowest.

Unfortunately you made a choice and now you’re dealing with proper consequences. Consider yourself luckier than innocent people or people who do less who wind up in jail or on a sex offender registry. You’re going to have to truly rethink your path in life and make sure it’s away from the internet.

Your internet career and commentary is over, stay away for good and live a life away from here. Consider that the mercy you can give yourself. You get to reckon and grow while people who have been assaulted have to deal with the trauma for the rest of their lives. Kindly go away and never come back

So sick of cancel culture. It's understandable that people have a hard time trusting people when something like this happens. People make mistakes in their lives from things they did in their past. It's petty sensationalism taking over. Good luck and sorry you have become victim to the media machine

When I can easily name four sex offenders at the top of current US government, and three living presidents (of only five, lmaoooo) who range from creep to full on 'adjudicated rapist', cancel culture is all we fucking have, non-violently. It is sometimes overused, but not here.

Ive seen people saying in many other comments he should have brought it up himself and hiding it is bad. But at the same time also saying its terrible for the victim to have this public. So what is it? You cannot have both. This is a lose lose situation and people are not acknowledging it

I struggle when people who have actively harmed others claim they want to change, yet choose to hide what they did. While I can relate to anyone striving to grow, there is a fundamental difference between self-inflicted struggles and causing harm to others.

True accountability requires complete honesty. Transformation without disclosure feels like bad faith. Real redemption starts with facing the full truth of your actions.

People keep saying this but I just can't wrap my head around... how do you even do that? You one day upload a video and say umprompted ''Hey I SA someone so... yeah''. Specially when the victim herself wants privacy on the matter.

this is perfect example on how not to approach subjects like this. The people that needed to be notified and affected by my past actions already have it disclosed to them. Dont be so pathetic next time

I completely understand what you mean, though this is difficult to apply across the board for every single person ever. People who has been abused since childhood don't always know they are hurting others as thats all they know. Not saying this applies here with jacob, but can you deny those people?

This is awful, but I do have to wonder about a lot of the comments saying how bad it is that he's admitting it, like... ...what outcome do we want, here? I'm not sure we should be encouraging people to lie about abuse because admitting to it looks worse.

considering these records were shared without his victim's permission, maybe ask her whether she would have liked this to be known from the very start

I would agree othewise but he didn't admit it. It leaked, and after that he had to do damage control. But also it's an insanely difficult situation. If the victim didn't want this to come out, he couldn't have just told people. I don't know. Just don't abuse people.

Prison? Are we allowed to say rapists should be locked up for the crimes they commit against women or is the best way to encourage accoutability to reassure people that the accountability will never be real?

Yeah, this basically is encouraging the lies. If confessing to the act, turning oneself in, and accepting punishment results in permanent destruction of ones life, why would ANYONE every admit to anything?

Going by some answers, I'd say most people on this thread would like to see him being skinned alive in the local town square, for starters. I'm not saying "water under the bridge" either but, if an official police investigation is in order and he needs to serve time, then so be it.

Yes you are saying water under the bridge. You’re defending him. You don’t just get to say that you’re not because you know it looks bad. And it shows how much you know too! The police never fucking get involved! They. Don’t. Care.

Prior to the reveal of his actions, I read Jacob as somebody who didn't do something along those lines. I think part of the response is trying to, but being unable to ascertain if he's being genuine or not. Which is part of the response on earning some trust back.

I think this is the only appropriate reaction. He didn't tell us who he was only who he wished to be. He says he's working on it I believe it but that's not where my heart is or where my past leads me to empathize.

well the thing is that he did hide it in the past. His name came up now, and now he had to admit this story, but he had apparently no issue working with progressive outlets and causes for years without warning them of his past.

I think his gravest misdeed in his time since his offense and ostensibly trying to better himself is that he chose to hide it (greatly to his benefit). It's disappointing, in a way, that for all the talk about personal improvement, he never came out about this on his own initiative. Hurts.

honestly don't think it's necessary to walk around & say "i have assault charges btw!" the only reason it hasn't come up sooner is because it was never really relevant to his work

It does hurt, yeah. At the same time, I don't really know if that would be right either. In the end, it's all a consequence of choosing to have a public-facing job when you have this skeleton in your closet, and disclosing it would just have exposed a traumatic event for the victim.

Maybe he just shouldn't have chosen to become a public figure in the first place, at the end of the day. I don't know. There really was no good way of going about it.

not to disclose it to collaborators, though? They would get the choice to work with him given the knowledge of what he did (this was taken from them) I'm not asking for him to out the victim of his assault or revive her trauma in any way. This just doesn't look like responsibility to me

You answered your own question. He should've *both* not make that public out of respect for the victim, AND never chosen a front facing career where he jeopardizes the credibility of every person he worked with, and consequentially, lied to.

why is he obligated to tell anyone about this after complying with the official investigation? the case was closed, it's nobody else's business.

Let’s say hypothetically he interacted with someone who was sexually assaulted and now they know about this and it breaks them because they thought he was a good guy. If they had known ahead of time they might now how put him on a pedestal

It’s frustrating because him hiding it betrays his ideals. He’s a leftist, anti war, anti corporate greed, a feminist… But he can’t claim to be that, especially a feminist when he chose to hide his own sins for personal gain. If he truly held those ideals, he’d take responsibility and admitted it.

he absolutely hid it. he had everything to gain from hiding it. How do i know he hid it? Because nobody around him knew and the moment it came out (other people brought it to light) many of the people he worked with dropped him. but whatever i guess, go bat for someone who committed sexual violence

I can see where you're coming from. At the same time I'm not sure where or when sharing that would've made sense? Trying to put myself in his position: making video essays on YouTube in addition to whatever other work I'm doing. Do I put a disclaimer about what I did in college in the channel desc?

Do I put that out there right at the start, before anyone's even seen any of my work, or is it only something I should disclose when it's clear I'm starting to grow a regular audience? I'm not sure.

i feel distrubed how people will try to say 'he was hiding it so he must be bad' then saying 'he admitted it so he must be bad' at the same time. it feels targtted at the person rather than the action

Agreed. There are so many evil people in the world who continue to do harm without recognizing an ounce of wrongdoing, but someone confronts their allegations with remorse and we push them out? So what, we're all perfect? If forgiveness isn't acceptable at acknowledgement, then we're never healing.

It’s not remorse if he confessed only when he had to. He hid his actions and greatly financially benefited from the burial of his sins. He isn’t taking responsibility for his actions. If he did, he’d take would have admitted long ago.

No outcome feels valid. He didn’t confess because of guilt, he did it because it was already out. Him concealing this for so long is a betrayal to the ideals he pedaled, ideals I agreed with. Someone who refuses to take responsibility until they have to doesn’t hold those ideals.

Honestly, I still feel weird about the claims of concealing/hiding it. Not to say he's in the clear, obviously, but the person he did have to take responsibility towards was the victim and, taking it at face value, that seems to have happened at the time?

I admit, I'm a bit weirded out at how much of the response is "well he should have told *us*" because I'm really not sure that's true, despite how heartbreaking it feels to find out.

Mob justice happens when the system that holds the monopoly on justic, fails to deliver it. The perpetrator then has to answer not only for their violation, but also people's frustration with the entire system itself, and stand as representatives of anyone that's gotten away with the same violation.

The only smart thing to do if you're the accidental beneficiary of an unjust system is to keep your head down, but I don't think I want to blame people either for doing that or for criticizing the people who do do that. I'd rather focus on the system itself. archive.org/details/what...

I get the feeling a lot of the floating hostility is less about Jacob and more the current atmosphere of "accountability" as "socially nuke from orbit". Social media isn't exactly a healthy space for addressing harms done or how to move forward from that.

The issue with accountability is that people who deserve it most are out of reach, so people jump at any and every opportunity to draw blood from whoever they can. It's not new. It's not at all limited to "the left". It's highly toxic.

It's an understandable impulse. I want SO BADLY to correct the many, MANY misdeeds of our current government/the world, but I CAN shout at this person and vent all my frustrations! And that does feel relieving, for a while. Though the sick, hollow feeling afterward isn't really an improvement.

I find this situation and reaction so bizarre. People are acting like they were personally harmed here. Or that they were personally lied to because he only told people close to him, and didn't introduce himself to the world as a rapist?

We only have his side of the story and the charge. But his side of the story - he freely admitted it And it's not like there's recent allegations, which would certainly change things!

If I were to guess, they were both under the influence and stuff happened that was bad- and the next morning they talked, he knew he'd made a mistake and hurt her- then fully complied with the investigation with the Title IX people.

He owned up to it, got punished, worked on himself (and still is doing so), never did it again, seems unfair to be punished again. That helps no-one. As a progressive person I believe rehabilition can work, and that seems to be case here.

On the one hand, I support restorative justice and rehabilitation. On the other hand, this is a prime "youtuber you hate for being a pretentious jackass just got exposed for heinous shit" moment and I'm too petty to pass it up.

No one’s perfect, but if I were petty and nasty enough to delight in the news of a sexual assault because it can be used against someone whose content I dislike, I would keep that impulse to myself.

I don’t think the pettyness is the problem with that. It’s more the insensibility of deriving an “I told you so”-like satisfaction from a heinous act. Specially since there’s no way to see something like this coming just from watching one’s content, unless said content is related to it.

Profumo was much less severe than this and the Secretary of State for War (John Profumo) had to resign over it. This scandal happened in 1963. If nothing else we should aim for the dignity of the 20th Century when it comes to scandal (with evidence to back it up, like here).

If he ends up losing his platform bc of this then oh well. that’s the consequence he gets. it’s not “anti-carceral” to say that just because he’s “grown” or whatever the fuck means that everyone has to shut up and move on like it didn’t happen

Public shaming is not carceral, but if his life was such a living hell he'd prefer to go to prison it would be a good thing hope that helps xoxo Fucking anime avatars larping as leftists while sharing stock rapist talking points. You are an optics nuke.

idk, "prisons/police are bad" and "this person doesn't deserve a platform" seem perfectly compatible to me. Platforms are a privilege, not a right.

One is "exile them from society by locking them in a cell with no chance for rehabilitation", the other is "exile them from society by pretending they don't exist with no chance for rehabilitation". If you think "prison is bad" means the prison building itself you're missing the point.

Wdym he doesn't deserve a platform? A youtube video essayist about videogames doesn't need to "deserve" that platform because it's entirely disconnected. Shunning and deplatforming him doesn't actually... help anyone? It's more of a symbolic move than anything. Now, if the victim comes out and

I mean, when it comes to something like this, I think it's fair to not want that person to have a privileged position over others. Platforms generate that privilege.

I'm kind of conflict about this as well. If we take his account of the events and his attitude towards them at face value, what exactly should I justice look like here? The popular answer seems straightforwardly retributive as opposed to restorative. What would restorative justice look like here?

There's a lot of people who's answer seems to be "they should get to quietly move on with their life but they musn't ever be the least bit famous" but that strikes me as inadequate

I wish I could believe you, but seeing that you have not addressed this on youtube where most of your money comes from, and that you never in any way mentioned this before someone else forced it to light makes me doubt it. So many videos going deep to human psyche and not a peep about this regret.

Rapists don't discuss it with the victim the next day and co-negotiate the label, and take accountability. He got soyed into the censure, and now the censure is the proof. Lindsey Clancy is a hero, though.

I have words to say but I'm tired of trying to express myself and wax poetic about redemption and conflicting emotions and acceptance so instead, for now, I'll simplify myself I hate you so much right now, i feel like crying, I hate you I hate you I hate you I hate you I hate you

what an immensely disappointing thing to learn. I've considered your work so important to me... and I do believe in reform, but it is a sick world that gave you the opportunities that got you this far. fuck man...

This statement is as decent a reaction as can be expected in this situation. As a victim of something similar myself, I don’t think I want to live in a society where punishments are eternal. I don’t want to prevent someone from ever doing good again in the name of punishing their sins.

Yeah you gonna have to actually delete your platform. There is nothing you can do to probably regain the trust, most of your audience are victims to the crime that you have done. So. Yeah, I’d just delete. I’m glad you understand the ramifications, and if anything you put the victims first.

there really is no right way to handle this is there. i don't agree with the people saying you shouldn't be doing anything public facing ever again.

But as a fan of your essays I sure would have liked to know somehow. Having this come up now feels as if I did not have the opportunity to decide if I wanted to engage with the content at all.

But then again how would that have gone. Saying anything would unavoidably center your interpretation but it's not like you could call up the victim to ask her to put forward her version of events.

i feel betrayed by this too but i don't understand why people are saying he should've told us about this earlier? saying so would’ve just made it easier for people to expose his victim who hasn't willingly identified herself sooner. that wouldn't be better

Hasn't told his patreon Hasn't told his youtube Changed his patreon bio to hide his income and took out the part of the "about me" that brags about what a great guy he is Circling the wagons and securing the bag is apparently evidence of rehabilitation?

He admitted his wrongs, both to his victim and the authorities, submitted himself to punishment, been honest about it with his close circle, and committed himself to be better. This is everything we ask of those who do wrong. Should he have to announce all his wrongs whenever he enters a room?

This is NOT a defense of his crime. It is NOT a defense of him as a person. This is me, one person, asking: what does "being better" actually look like? Because even those who espouse a belief in rehabilitation/restorative justice seem to abandon those beliefs in a prime opportunity to do so.

Dude, why the fuck weren't you more upfront about this?? You KNEW what spaces you were entering into when you started making critical video essays on media. You KNEW it'd probably come to light someday. I believe you when you say you want to be better, but idk if I still want to be there for that

i don’t think there’s a way to be upfront about this sort of thing without completely invading the privacy of the victim. i much prefer this over someone making a spectacle because he feels like that’s what the internet wants from him, regardless of the feelings of the victim

Going off the information currently available, this seems like Twitter/Bluesky people feeling entitled to knowing an internet person’s entire history

Just my opinion, but I always felt something was off about him. I was a Game Informer and MinnMax fan and tried giving his content a chance, but never understood the appeal. Just not my kind of creator. Good riddance.

The shame of what you did is that it can't be undone. I believe in rehabilitation but you and the person you hurt can never return to before you harmed them. All that can be done is to be better.

I really enjoyed your videos, and feel like you've addressed this about as well as you could have given the circumstances. It seems like the victim didn't want it to be public knowledge and this was an isolated incident rather than habitual behaviour. (1/2)

I believe in redemption and rehabilitation and I don't think that's impossible for you, but I and many others will struggle or be unable to separate your work from this. Wishing the victim well. (2/2)

Good that you regret what you did and have worked hard to become a better person. Some good next steps in that journey: 1. donate the profits that you made off of all that trying to make the world better you've been doing 2. retire, or switch careers to one that doesn't put your face everywhere

why would you feel bad for his wife. it says above that she's known. obviously it doesn't bother her (massive moral failing on her part)

Because now the fact that her husband sexually assaulted someone is public knowledge. Her friends, parents, colleagues, neighbors, are now all aware what a shit bag he is.

You didn't say anything until you got outed. Just like the rest of them. But you're "recovering." How many others are there? What other cases are you waiting for someone to publish first to mention? Your victim(s) had to suffer in silence without an audience. Maybe you should try it too

This is excruciatingly disappointing. Aside from that, I really don’t know how to feel yet. Every single thing you say must now be accompanied with the knowledge that you did this, even if it was over a decade ago. Goddammit. I want to give you a chance to grow, but this fucking hurts, man.

honestly you should have never started platforming yourself. it shows you had no problem covering this up and continued to plan to cover this up because you KNOW if this had come out at the beginning of your career you would not have the following you do now.

Does it count as being exposed when the important people in your life would have already known? Is your audience entitled to this information? Should you have, as someone said, started every video with 'hi I'm a rapist'? Is someone guilty of a sex crime permanently barred from public facing work?

I just got back to bsky fuck me running can we have a normal fucking week? Okay so... What exactly do people want? They want you to have never done that shit in the first place which is probably what, most importantly, the victim and, less importantly, you want. But that ship sailed away.

What's justice? Turning yourself in? Facing consequences? Being berated by everyone on bsky? Fuck man I don't know. I don't think someone committed to the project of patriarchy would turn themselves in and then fully admit that shit on bsky. Does having been an instrument of that system prevent -

- someone from ever being anything else? Or are young men, who are almost all products of the patriarchy, allowed to become something better after having been something worse? Do all of you think your fathers, husbands, boyfriends, sons, grandfathers were always perfectly good and untarnished?

I think people need to acknowledge that sexual assault is not always a clean line. It says that they only saw AFTER the fact that it was assault, so it's unfair to immediately sacrifice someone for it. We just need to realize that since we aren't close to either party, we can't assume the situation.

shaunt@shaunvids.bsky.social

it was smart of jacob geller to only post about what he did to his 50k followers on here instead of to his 1.5 million youtube subs or on his patreon. that way fewer people know about it and he limits the financial hit

What you did was serious, and I'm glad you owned it. I hope you're looking after yourself and have people around you while you keep doing the work. Thinking of the person you harmed, and of you too.

Jacob, as someone in the MinnMax community who has been irked by some of your very polarizing comments I still find myself conflicted about this dilemma. I see a lot of people in these comments and in the latest MinnMax episode condemning you to a life on the fringes of society and view this all as

A lie by omission and a massive betrayal of trust. I firmly believe in rehabilitation and I don’t think it benefits society to hold our greatest sins over our heads like a scarlet letter. At the same time you must truly atone for your sins if you are truly ashamed of them and on that front I think

You could have done better. I personally don’t feel that everyone around you is entitled to be informed about your past, you should be allowed to change and be better. However it seems that rather than truly atoning you’ve been mainly focused on moving forward and leaving your past behind.

I hate that this is how you had to explain yourself. The fact that some of the worst people in the world got to point to a person trying to genuinely change and be better sucks for everyone. I just hope something positive can come out of this ugliness that was forced into the open.

I regret ever consuming any of your content, man. You genuinely suck and nothing you can do in this life will make you stop sucking. You should be in jail

I am pretty emotionally destroyed after learning this and do not know what to think. I just hope you are being honest.

Hey, thank you for being genuine about this. It's a horrendous thing, but you are responding to this in one of the best ways i have seen. I hope you continue to do what you do, as you make some incredible stuff and I would hate for that to be ruined. Best of luck.

the saddest part is that literally nobody is reading the article or the statement. nobody wants rehabilitation or reformation. they just want blood.

Why, Jacob? All I can wonder is how someone whose essays have demonstrated such a breadth of empathy, could've ever thought it was okay to do this to another person? I'm profoundly disappointed 😔

I loved your videos and I can not follow you anymore. I will never tolerate SA. It's unforgivable. I don't care how remorseful you are. You never should have done it.

The honesty in this moment is appreciated. All solidarity with the victim, I can't imagine how she's feeling with all this atm. I truly do believe in forgiveness and growth, so it's hard to know how to feel in this situation beyond the usual shock and sadness. ...

You've been my favourite games writer for a very long time, it's hard to reconcile with the new asterisk that has formed at the end of that sentence. But perhaps that is just how this is now, I love your work with an asterisk, it is what it is. ...

There is no path through this that won't be painful, perhaps rightly so. But I selfishly still hope you continue to write, you've inspired me too much to not wish that. Only the victim has the real voice in this, and she seemingly doesn't wish to be heard. ...

I don't know of what is about to happen that I consider deserved... Only the victim can know that, but I hope there's is a path through. That asterisk will remain forever, it won't be forgotten. But I truly, selfishly hope there's a path to some forgiveness there. Solidarity with the victim.

I didn’t see anything about holding yourself accountable, other than admitting your prior consequences were mild. You didn’t “make up for it” by having a wildly successful career, because *this* is the fly in the ointment. Everything you’ve done is preceded by a lie, and worse, a breach of trust.