Logan Paul started off the year by vlogging a dead body hanging from a tree in Japan’s so-called “Suicide Forest,” a decision that turned him from a person who people who know about YouTubers love to hate into a guy that people who know nothing about YouTube also love to hate. And with good reason. The dead-body video was, in addition to being beyond classless, a problem for Paul, whose business is himself. YouTube pulled him from his roles in several original projects, put a hold on any new ones, and blocked him from the Google Preferred advertising program. (No ads, if you’re a YouTuber, means no money.)
For Paul, that meant leaning harder than ever into his merchandise. “As you know, YouTube cut my AdSense in half — thanks YouTube, love you — so I am going to need you guys to buy all my merch so I don’t lose my house,” Paul said in his first video back in February following the Japan scandal. (In April, he announced he was done with daily vlogging entirely.) It also meant leaning into his infamy. (If you don’t think Paul knew exactly what he was doing when he vlogged that body, I am here to tell you otherwise.) It seems that’s what he was doing with an appearance over the weekend at the second annual Flat Earth Conference in Denver, Colorado. Paul, as noted by Daily Beast reporter Kelly Weill who spoke with him privately at the event, does not appear to actually believe the world is flat … but his speech indicated otherwise to those in attendance. “I have a very good feeling he’s genuine,” one attendee told Weill about Paul.
From the Daily Beast:
“I consider myself a man of truth, someone who hates being ignorant,” Paul tells the crowd, spouting off some stats about the moon landing. “I guess I’m not ashamed to say my name is Logan Paul and I think I’m coming out of the Flat Earth closet.” He ends his address with a mic drop.
Flat Earthers’ beliefs are perpetuated by their notion that almost everything is a conspiracy. Tech companies suppress videos and content created to shed light on the truth of the world’s shape. Science isn’t real. The list goes on and on, and it’s full of things that, while they sound funny in the abstract, can be dangerous in the real world. These are the people and the ideas Logan Paul is backing, even if he doesn’t actually believe in what they believe. Glad to see he’s making good use of that “second chance” he asked for.
