First of all, I am posting while drunk. Second, I remember some people at Hexbear saying that Sterling screwed their assistants by not paying them. So, could I get some more details, please, before I remove Sterling from my life?!
They paid their editor shite wages, asked him to do more work than he was hired for, made him their chauffer, unloaded a lot of personal grievancs on them like he was a therapist even after he said it made him uncomfortable, and eventually move to a more expensive city with hardly much of a raise. Steph's friend Conrad then slandered Justin by saying they embezzled money. Justin had borrowed, without asking to be fair, a grand for emergency medical stuff which they couldn't afford with the money they were making working for Steph. Steph then claimed Justin was emotionally abusive, but the abuse seems to be them just getting mad they couldn't afford to live while Steph was blowing money on arcade cabinets and other tat.
All of this is extremely ironic considering the abuses of the gaming industry Steph calls out, a lot of their behavior has mirrored any scummy CEO in my opinion.
It hurts personally for me, Steph was the last person I had any kind of parasocial relationship with. There were times in my life where I thought "I want to just kill myself but then I'll miss Mondays show..." But after seeing all that and the way Steph and their friends handled it by firing Justin and throwing him under the bus made me stop watching their YouTube and podcasts. I even threw out all the merch I bought from them. Though I already stopped listening to the main podcast because they kept insisting on invoking Tencent as this yellow scare Chinese menace.
Damn...I see your point. We should, as leftist nerds, hold them accountable.
I think for me it's just made me learn to only have problematic favs, that way I can't form a parasocial relationship or get worked up when they do something I disagree with. Like, what am I gonna get mad if someone tells me Nick Mullen said a slur or had an opinion I disagree with?
Lay the necks of your heroes on the altar (quilltotine) for a better tomorrow unfortunately also includes Sterling.
That's pretty fucking awful, way worse than the discord drama or whatever hbomberguy was involved in :yikes:
I have to say, one of the things I like RLM for is that unlike most other online personalities who've been around a long time there's basically no stink cloud of messy drama, breakups or asshole behaviour wafting around them. It also helps that they maintain a pretty hard separation between their online personas and their personal lives.
Steph also has a habit of getting into relationships with people that already have kids and complaining about the kids because they don't want to be a parent. Like, why date someone with kids then? That hits home, honestly.
Oh. I remember years and years ago them being married and sounding like a perfectly normal happy step parent
That's a different person to who they're with now. I didn't look too much into it then but occasionally they'd make a comment on their older podcasts about how they didn't see themselves as a parent which kinda gave me bad vibes. According to Justin, Steph would complain a lot about the kids of whoever they're with now which would make Justin uncomfortable.
I've been watching RLM for years and was always kind of dreading a reactionary right-wing turn from their content but I'm glad that hasn't happened.
There have been dumb cringe moments over the years and Mike and Jay aren't based epic leftists but I still love my hack frauds
In my head cannon Jack is emphatically trying to explain agitprop to a drunk Mike who keeps saying "oh, kind of like in that TNG episode "Cost of Living" where Worf makes his son sign a homework contract but then Troi's mother comes in and convinces him it's a bad deal..."
Stephanie Sterling has been a big influence on my gaming critiques. Hearing they aren’t being cool about compensation saddening. The co-op of Structure I think I’m general works best for most organizations, I think work’s particularly well for smaller outfits.
I would imagine Stephanie’s YouTube channel and website is a team effort and I would think everyone gets a fair share in the real sense of the word.
true, though the argument could be made that the ""talent" (the one in front of the camera) would still have the majority of the power
editors can be swapped out without most people noticing, but if Steph Sterling was suddenly replaced people would spot thatI see your point. So Sterling is a boss! I have to search for more information about them screwing their friend...
i will say that steph doesn't run ads on their content
so if the possible small business tyrant behavior is a dealbreaker, unless you are paying into their patreon, you aren't financially backing them anyway
that's why i made the distinction of having employees specifically
that question is not one i'm particularly qualified to answer tbh
for me it would be if you are making a profit from their labour, as that would be their surplus value that you would be stealing
I don't even feel disappointment when people I watch online turn out to not live up to the values they espouse anymore, I just feel numb. Are we all just hypocrites who haven't been tested yet?
