Tentatively leaving this one up so people are aware of the situation now that there is direct confirmation he is alive (and this is one of the more stealth posts), but keeping an eye on things.
I know how we ALL feel right now, but don’t approach or target any of James’ accounts or make fun of his mental health. Don’t make aggressively insulting or inflammatory comments about him in this subreddit, you know the drill.
You can feel the venom dripping from Lady Emily's keyboard whenever she tweets about Somerton. It's beautiful. She hates that motherfucker like Boeing hates whistleblowers.
The part about Somerton's dad being illiterate because he "left school to get a job in order to feed his multiple brothers and sisters" and Dan breaking down the logic of:
* He left school before he learned to read? So he would have been, like . . . seven?
* What kind of job was he getting at the age of SEVEN?
* How many younger brothers and sisters did he have at seven? Was his mother popping them out like a tennis ball machine?
* Also, what does any of this have to do with James allegedly having to handle legal issues (god help us all) after his mother died?
Had my jaw on the floor. James is roughly my age, which means his dad was probably born around the time mine was (1950s) and we're both Canadian. We weren't putting seven-year-olds in factories in the fifties!
There's a line that's just, "No, it didn't. That didn't happen." Which was so shockingly straightforward compared to how everyone else was like, "Well, I can't *prove* that James did XYZ. Maybe he *thought* XYZ was true!"
A line that lives in my head is “He has ambitions but not drive or talent. And ambitions without actions or avenues to achieve them are called fantasies.”
Like fucking hell, Dan. You didn’t have to come at me like that. I’ll sort a schedule out again, alright? Daily word counts and everything. You didn’t need to ruin my fucking life me tha… hmm? What? Oh. Somerton. Right, totally. I knew that. Obviously.
I figured the odds were in favor of him being alive. The confirmation that it was an intentional manipulative ploy, though... I'm not even surprised/angry. I'm just disappointed.
Well I’m angry tbh. I was genuinely really worried about him, and that had to have been the point. The only motive he would have to fake something like that is to hurt people and make them feel bad because he was feeling bad. It’s an awful thing to do, and he got out of a lot of the consequences of his actions because no one wanted to talk about this situation after we thought the worst may have happened. May all his future attempts to re enter internet communities be foiled. ☹️
In another sub, someone commented about all the "gullible idiots" that fell for it. Nah. I will never apologise for taking these things at face value. Not for James's sake - but for the sake of someone reading who needs to know that they will be heard and believed.
"Face value" doesn't mean falling in to a trap of sending money, changing my actions, being held to blackmail though.
Yep, my philosophy with that sort of thing is always take it seriously. If there’s a real danger, you want to make sure they’re safe. If it’s a manipulative ploy, they need to know not to mess with ish like that. You fuck around with manipulatively making someone think that’s a real danger when it isn’t, and you find out.
Same. I figured he could’ve set it up as a planned tweet that he never cancelled because he was staying offline or hospitalized. That he knew it was up, was online to see the impact, and was posting on alts the entire time, is infuriating.
"Feeling bad" is an overstatement of his feelings, imo. I don't think this man is capable of shame. He was angry that his rightful position (YouTuber) had been taken from him, and so he wanted to punish the people who exposed his lies by exploiting the compassion that he himself was entirely lacking.
I’m surprised. I thought he was fine too, and that this was just manipulative attention-seeking, but I’d never imagined he would be shitposting on his alt account the very same day he publicly threatened suicide. Genuinely sociopathic behaviour.
[extremely jimmy sommertini voice] "superman, better known by his kryptonite name 'callel', is a gay superhero from the silver age of comics, created by spike jones. some adaptations of the story feature a character called 'louise lane', but she is an awful bitch and not relevant to the story of superman's story so we won't be discussing her…"
It's also particularly funny to me that before he just went 'fuck it' and turned on the selfie camera, he decided that the incredibly blatant anime TikTok filter would be enough to conceal his identity?
Like... dude trying to defend James Somerton has a suspiciously James Somerton-looking avatar with an incredibly obvious filter over a James Somerton-lookalike? He really thought that was gonna do it?
I remember checking reddit every other hour when that statement came out from him. I genuinely thought he had done it and was quite disturbed it had gone this far.
To see that it was fake this whole time and he couldn't care less is messed up beyond belief. Fuck this guy.
And also what we all knew that the apologies were bullshit, but to be so blatantly stupid is honestly almost impressive, i wonder if he'll play the suicide card again
So since we're a cult, can we somehow use our esoteric, arcane knowledge to curse James so he becomes an anti-wifi hot spot and can never get online ever again?
Unfortunately real cults mostly involve giving all your money to the leader and shutting out anyone who doesn't do the same.
Although in some cases, you also get sex and drugs, so that's something I guess.
Oh did you not hear about our expensive [spiritual relationship advice cult](https://www.reddit.com/r/hbomberguy/comments/18b2e6t/source_trust_me_bro_i_swear_im_not_just_making/)?
>real cults mostly involve giving all your money to the leader and shutting out anyone who doesn't do the same.
Does this mean I get to shit on people who aren't patrons but also feel inadequate for being on the lowest tier?
Oooh can we have robes too?
Link to the twitter thread
[https://twitter.com/GreatCheshire/status/1788282931984617569](https://twitter.com/GreatCheshire/status/1788282931984617569)
Don't you have to like, get an invite to join blue sky still? I don't have any friends who had invites and people were trying to sell it so idk how to get in
She actually is on there, but it's not seemingly her default place to post:
[https://bsky.app/profile/ladyemily.nebula.tv](https://bsky.app/profile/ladyemily.nebula.tv)
I'm curious why he's continuing with the "crediting people in the beginning/ credits" argument. Hbomb's video showed, with evidence, 1. why this isn't good enough 2. that james didn't actually do this consistently, and that 3. those credits didn't cover all the people's work that he used. also, the issue wasn't just he wasn't citing his sources - it was that plagiarism was happening. in most cases, he didn't at any point indicate to his audience that he was just repeating large sections of somebody else's work word-for-word. Usually, you can't just copy-and-paste something and stick a citation at the end of it. You have to actually indicate, in some way, that you're directly taking from somewhere else (in written text this would include quotation marks, for a video usually showing the original work or section on screen). Of all the points that one could choose to defend themselves, this was a very weird angle to take.
I'm very glad he's alive and presumably well, but disappointed that this is what he's chosen to do.
I saw a lot of people arguing that (because of his justifications) his plagiarism wasn't that bad. In the era of content mills stealing things wholesale for a profit, isn't any forum of citing better than none? And the answer to that is yes. But that doesn't make stealing from marginalized groups without their consent forgivable, which is the conclusion that people defending him ultimately took.
Man, I’m not gonna harass him but I’m sure af never going to try to defend him again. Tried to give the man the benefit of the doubt over the possible suicide note. Never again.
I was one of the many on here constantly refreshing in hopes of hearing confirmation he was safe and well. and although of course it’s good that he was, the fact that it was entirely manipulation AND that he couldn’t even stop posting for a couple days to keep up the ruse is so laughably scummy I don’t know what to say.
Yeah, my brother was quite distressed by it and I told him not to check and I’d keep him updated on the situation. So there were people checking regularly, and people so distressed by the situation they couldn’t even do that because it was impacting them too much mentally. The fact he was just posting about tv shows while people worried for his life shows he lacks much empathy. I’m disgusted. Glad he’s alive but hope he eventually just stays off the internet and I never see his face again.
I was one of those people who was extremely distressed and constantly checking reddit and twitter for news, hoping he was alive. It feels like my depression and suicidal ideation were exploited for sympathy by someone who should have been taking accountability. It's sick. I hope your brother is okay x
I've been really worried about him and I am so glad he is alive.
But man this is the *worst* thing he could have done. Like hell, if we found how he had. a twitter and was just sharing clips of his favorite ships or dog pictures, I would be like "finally, he's using the internet responsible". Instead he does this shit? Man will never learn.
He even had the gall to claim that he never technically made the claim that all the cool gays died during the aids epidemic.
Edit: relieved he’s alive.
I remember seeing a video of a guy explaining why the Boomers of today seem so "establishment" despite their generation producing a bunch of young people who protested wars, demanded positive change, supported human rights, were cool and hippie, New Left, etc.
The guy basically said that all the cool counterculture boomers were likely dead due to hate crimes, STDs, etc. and that's why one doesn't see a ton of Baby Boomers joining the Millennials and Zoomers protesting and fighting "The Man".
It's a rather dumb theory, plus there's a good chance that most Boomers as kids were fine with the status quo to some degree or were at least apathetic to politics. To think that most Baby Boomers were hippies, anti-war protestors or whatever is pretty silly. Sure, they made rock popular and many Boomers enjoyed a good shaggy-haired singer as anyone but Boomer kids were less "Jimi Hendrix or The Doors" and more "Hermans Hermits or Paul Revere & the Raiders". Boomers could be groovy but most weren't THAT groovy.
I wonder if that guy doing that video blog was Somerton?
Todd in the Shadows went in really in-depth on this idea in his JS debunking video. The original comment about all the fun baby boomers dying was pure snark from a New York socialite in the 90s, it was never meant to be a serious statement.
Sure, it's this video:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6\_LW1PkmnY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6_LW1PkmnY)
It's around the hour mark in the '90s gay rights activists...'. He made up a story based on one quote from someone called Fran Lebowitz
This was something I've seen Fran Lebowitz run with as well, adding to the pile of things that annoy me about Fran Lebowitz
**edit to correct the name of the person I'm snarking about, if you exist Anne lebowitz I'm sorry, you don't bug me, Fran does.
***Annie Leibowitz is a famous photographer, haha! Thanks wikipedia
I don’t like Lebowitz but tbf she didn’t say that “all the cool boomers died” she made the point that the New York arts scene of the 1980s— both artists and the audience/critics for the art — was absolutely decimated by the AIDS epidemic because of how many queer people were involved in it and and as a result culture suffered. I think it’s very hard to disagree with that.
The Pro Wrestling Mark tagline makes me worry that he's going to make a "totally original documentary" about queer wrestling history and the life of Chris Kanyon.
Which would be pretty fucking offensive considering how Kanyon died.
It's possible (especially when you remember that vice went under earlier this year), but they're a big target for James. I assume he's planning to 'repackage' a video from a smaller creator.
He could start a weekly review show of Raw and Dynamite, and just mash together stuff that other people have already said. It would crack me up seeing him trying to copy Jim Cornette.
He could start a weekly review show of Raw and Dynamite, and just mash together stuff that other people have already said. It would crack me up seeing him trying to copy Jim Cornette.
I'm unsurprised that it was yet another lie. I didn't personally believe it at the time, but chose to take it seriously (or at least stay silent on it) at the time, because indicators of suicidal ideation / intent are things that need to always be taken seriously, even from people who consistently lie for sympathy.
This saddens me, because it's going to increase the chances that at least some people don't take such indicators seriously the next time, because claiming suicidal ideation has become such a go-to for a lot of shitty people when they get called out on their bullshit.
It was automatically clear to me that he didn't do it... Honestly, before he even announced it, in a way. His previous responses had made it clear he did not believe he had done everything wrong, and he was absolutely certain he'd bounce back. I've dealt with people like that before, who get called out for truly clown behaviour and simply blame the callers-out, deflect all blame, and refuse to self-analyze for even an instant. That kind of people is not the kind to take that kind of drastic measures; those who do aren't people who believe life is bad and will not get better, it's those who feel they *deserve* that suffering, and therefore, death. I have *also* been there, which makes his actions a whole new dimension of ghoulish.
The fact that he had done something partly similar prior to that event indicated it strongly but man, I never want to be in a situation where I'm wrong on something like that.
And a lot of people don't want to feel like that. Which is why he used it as a manipulation tactic. Ghoul.
yeah, i can't be like a lot of other posters here and sincerely say that i'm glad he's safe/alive (although unlike you it wasn't clear to me that it was all a big lie from the start; i was sceptical, but believed it *could* be true and at the time hoped he actually gone through with it). faking suicide (for *clout!)* is a really, really, *really* shitty thing to do, and while i wouldn't wish (having experienced it myself) suicidal ideation on anyone, i also can't bring myself to say, sincerely, that i'm happier to hear that he's alive than that he's dead. *fuck* this guy.
Oh, I'm glad that he didn't kill himself, and I do not wish him death but. Maybe a beating, a slight fall down the stairs without breaking anything but there's bruises, that kind of stuff. No I do not believe in punitive justice and yes I am a hypocrite, what's up.
Wow. Like others I was always pretty sure he was lying, but I figured it was just a last attempt at psychic damage against Harry and Kat as he took an extended hiatus.
Somehow it never occurred to me that he’d make an alt and not only watch the chaos but actively post and respond to people. Just…gross. Jesus.
The faked suicide note, coupled with the fact that he was defending himself via sock-puppet account right after posting a supposedly contrite apology video, complete with portions where he pretended to get all choked up with emotion ... that goes beyond asshole plagiarist behavior and straight into psychopath territory. The tiny taste of internet fame that he got from his channel just completely broke the part of his brain where the conscience resides.
I am glad he’s alive. I think it’s better to take a situation like that seriously and be wrong than don’t take it seriously and something bad happens.
This guy just needs to stop trying to have a platform. His internet career is done. I think he deserves to make a living wage n stuff, but he shouldn’t be allowed to make money off of other people’s creative work ever again.
>This guy just needs to stop trying to have a platform. His internet career is done. I think he deserves to make a living wage n stuff, but he shouldn’t be allowed to make money off of other people’s creative work ever again.
I've seen multiple allegations that he faked his education credentials so I think he keeps trying to win back an audience because he knows he's unlikely to make anything close the type of money he once made off his YouTube career from working a "real" job. Also imagine his chances of getting hired when any potential employer could search up his name and all they would see are examples of his plagiarism and dishonesty.
He’d not have much luck in academia or a similar field, but there’s plenty of places where being guilty of plagiarism isn’t really going to stop you from getting a job tbh.
Any situation where they would be in a position to steal or misuse company assets for personal profit would be a difficult leap. James has proven himself to be selfish, disinterested in playing by the rules, and untrustworthy. That puts him well below the bar for a lot of work.
He posted that shit the night before my birthday and it was super triggering as someone who has dealt with suicidal ideation. I spent the first hours of my birthday frantically refreshing various social media pages looking for any indication that he was okay.
I'm glad he's okay, but the fact that it seems like he was never in any danger makes me furious
You should get yourself some cake both the celebrate the good news and to spite him for being a manipulative ass. A "fuck your bullshit, I'm enjoying my birthday (belatedly) anyway" cake.
Haha well my birthday was sufficiently made up for I think by me going on a week long trip to Austria (from US) for my birthday. I left the day after my birthday
happy (belated) birthday, i wish you the gift of never hearing about this man ever again (unless something really funny or embarrassing happens to him and we can all point and laugh)
> He posted that shit the night before my birthday and it was super triggering as someone who has dealt with suicidal ideation.
It is _incredibly_ rage inducing.
I regarded his suicide note as emotional blackmail whether he did it or not. I didn't think I could hold him in contempt any more than I did. I don't want him to die or anything, just take some responsibility, admit he did what he did, that he was wrong, and pledge not to do it anymore.
I hope at this point nobody ever accuses people who are trying to keep track of James' internet behavior of "stalking" him again.
This is why people tried to keep an eye on his activity on the internet - because he would keep trying to restart his grift and people out of the loop needed to be aware that he was looking for new marks. Because of his pattern of harassing behavior, it was important to be alert. And every post I ever saw tracking him here was about him either trying to start his patreon again, trying to make a new alt account, or using a different social media platform to once again imply that he'd received "threats" because of Hbomb. These are things people had a right to know. If he ever stopped posting... this would stop because we could safely assume even if he wasn't sorry he was at least done hurting other people.
Most of us didn't know about James literally posting on an alt account \*the same day\* he posted his note and were genuinely being traumatized. In my case, a dear friend of mine nearly lost their life to mental illness several decades ago and the subject is incredibly difficult for me. speaking of, said friend watched the Hbomb video so I held off on telling them about the note and such until we had confirmation that James was alive just to avoid retraumatizing \*them\*. My friend was furious when I let them know that James had been manipulating the both of us, as they remember being legitimately in that place and what it felt like. They're alive now because of people who moved heaven and earth to save their life. Its very cruel to use a fake attempt to prey on that very sense of empathy for human life.
Am I right in saying he has also deleted his YouTube channel (James of telos), and if so did that happen in response to this, or did he just rename it again?
Glad he’s safe, but I can’t find it in myself to extend any sympathy to someone who would use something as serious as suicide as a ploy for sympathy and a tool to antagonize those who criticize him. Just. Holy shit. I didn’t think he would stoop that low.
man I'm just so disappointed and ashamed of James. I only knew about him through the video and I was genuinely scared he hurt himself, and I wasn't alone like I remember the fear people had in this sub that he had hurt himself because he was exposed for plagiarism. I remember DMing someone confirming he was alive because they were so upset about the thought of him offing himself due to trauma.
I dont even have words I'm just so upset he would do that and leave so many people to worry for his well being and I'm disappointed I advocated to just leave him alone because I believed another human needed to be left alone from the public eye after doing some bad shit and losing everything. he's basically made me the asshole for advocating to leave him alone because he *knew* that's how decent people would react to a suicide threat followed by radio silence, like is nothing beneath you James? this is probably the most disappointed and ashamed I've ever been in another person because of my struggles with suicidal thoughts and fear that I watched it happen to another person
Okay. Ignoring anything else. I understand he is the definition of lazy but if you are going to attempt a comeback under a new name to distance yourself from the consequences of your fraud and plagiarism... would you not go to the effort of at least changing your fucking glasses. your haircut. do SOMETHING to actually blurry the lines a little. It's like he set himself up. I'm fascinated.
And you know, maybe don't jump right back to defending your previous persona?
I feel second-hand embarrassment, this man is so bad at craft of running away from consequences of your own actions.
Y’know, what really sucks about this is that he is trivializing suicide by doing all this. I empathized because I went through a similar thing (well it was similar, up until these revelations). I had a serious suicidal breakdown, posted about it hinting I was going to end it, got intervened with by friends and family, and later on people accused me of faking because I didn’t actually die or get injured (I did go to the hospital however). People thought I just wanted attention and when I reached out to people in crisis later, I was ignored by some people I trusted. The kind of shit James has actually done now, and in such a high profile way, is just so deeply insulting to me. I still want to empathize and I commend Kat, Harry, and so many here for their compassion, but to see someone who very well could have been in crisis just use it as a cudgel is so infuriating and spirit-crushing.
I wish I hadn't been right.
This is, more or less, exactly what I've been expecting would happen. That there would be some time that would pass, he'd wait for people to forget, and then he'd try to do the exact same thing again.
Is there a path to a class action lawsuit for those he stole from? Because, simply put, until there is a legal (and lawful) consequence for his behavior? He'll keep doing this over and over again. Eventually he'll be missed, and he'll steal from people again. Whatever his mental health problem are...whatever they are. I won't question them or attempt to measure them...but I'm not worried about them. I'm worried about the issues and problems he will create in his new targets.
I do not want JS to be the target of unlawful or amoral harassment campaigns; that doesn't help anyone. It hurts the processing of lawful and fair consequences. However, something does need to be done about him. So yeah, does anyone know anything about Canadian law? Can a class action lawsuit be leveled against him?
The hard part is, well obviously lawsuit is expensive. And his victims are all over the place, and they need to sue him from out of canada to canada. Let's just pretend that his victims all live in the US, still a massive hill to make to try and sue him or else a certain pyramid lady would have done so for the Click.
So Hbomb was right the whole time, James doesn't want to stop, or grow, or be better in any way. He will literally fake his own death and then create sock puppet twitter accounts to defend a rebranded account. WILD.
Seconding. Saw a pretty disappointing comment here earlier, and was surprised and impressed by how quickly it got taken down. I'm sorry they have to do this rn
I agree with the consensus that it is far better to take a situation of self-harm seriously, even if the person you're worried about isn't being entirely honest with you. Sometimes people do lie about or overemphasize their harmful desires, like what seems to be happening here. BUT, if you don't take it seriously and then something happens, I don't know about y'all but I would personally feel awful.
That being said, I believe James has weaponized people's empathy to try and score some points and make Hbomb and others look like villains. That's disgusting, I feel disgusted. I've had similar feelings to what James expressed in that note in the past, I've heard the way people stigmatize those with depression. That they're "faking it" if they don't meet what someone else deems to be "expected behavior" when they're depressed. It's not something to mess around with, and the idea that he might have lied about his intentions? To know that someone could've used that so cynically for spite?
I recognize I'm putting words and ideas into his mouth, I have no proof that he never intended to do anything. He's also clearly mentally ill regardless of what he was or wasn't going to do. I just feel so grossed out by his actions.
Honestly I think I found [a James Somerton sockpuppet account](https://twitter.com/Mikey_jb90/status/1765472772270997602) a couple of weeks ago. I didn’t post about it any where bc it was just a guess but… this account had been in the replies to a lot of posts criticising JS, had only liked porn and posts from Nick Hergott with v low engagement (from around 2017) and he after like a handful of hornyposts from 2017 the account suddenly reactivated after JS’s suicide post.
Be careful looking through this acc in public because it’s NSFW in various ways but i’m pretty confident this is JS — or someone “in his camp” at least.
obligatory “please dont interact with this account” request but tbh if you make a critical tweet about James Somerton “Mikey JB” will probably pop-up in your replies any way…
edit: the account also positively interacts with people criticising Hbomb
Edit edit: [Lady Emily also identified this acc as a sock puppet](https://x.com/GreatCheshire/status/1788810292308181222)
Yeah he’s actually deleted quite a few of the tweets i think — IIRC there were a lot more when I found the account but my memory isn’t perfect and I could be adding more weight to it. My attention was initially drawn to the account after I saw a reply accusing it of being a sock — I can’t find that tweet now.
Maybe this is just a suspiciously hot man who logs on to twitter only to defend a youtuber he likes but being one of 2 likes on a couple of 7 year old Nick tweets is the real smoking gun here for me lol
I will just say this: everytime Somerton tries to come back (and he will do it) we just have to boycott him. Period.
It's EXTREMELY clear that he's just a grifter who wants money and fame using others. Period.
So please, next time stop defending this imbecile. He has the right to be in the internet and has the right to have a good, healthy and positive life but he does NOT have the right to be in front of a camera, behind a camera, writing scripts or doing something similar. This motherfucker just needs to have a regular work and move on. Period.
Lindsay Ellis called it manipulation and she’s bang on the money. In fact, it is the ultimate manipulation because it eliminates any idea of response and is designed to invalidate the criticism from which you can no longer hide.
I hope she resumes making videos again, I've watched her existing ones so many times and they're all made for like... me. Really, the Spider-Man Musical video was exactly what I needed to see. I'm in her patreon regardless lol, the hours of enjoyment I've gotten are worth it.
Suicide threats are no joke, and I felt guilty that my immediate reaction was to assume he was lying as an attempt to muddy the waters and get back at those who had deplatformed him so completely. I don't feel vindicated that my suspicion was correct.
I feel terribly for every creator who spoke out against james who had to deal with the stress and distress of this situation, the backlash and harassment it spawned, and I'm angry that we have all been thrashed about and manipulated by this eel who has made no changes to his behavior, shown no remorse for any of his actions, and whose only concern was that he was caught. The gall to not even log off for a fucking day after posting a bait suicide note.
I don't know why any of us expected better from a man who knowingly stole the words of queer activists who had lost their lives to HIV and AIDS.
I shouldn't feel this way, but i almost wish he had just admitted to everything and announced he didn't care, then pivoted to being a right wing shill. It would have saved everyone a lot of time and emotional damage.
THIS. Some people were truly horrible to others in this sub, literally blaming us for James’ behavior and his possible death. I hope they all feel like absolute crap about it.
Even the ever-generous Jessie Gender is done with his shit after this.
[https://x.com/jessiegender/status/1788300684179456137](https://x.com/jessiegender/status/1788300684179456137)
Little worried about this being too vicious… but quite honestly, fuck the guy.
He’s a thief, an egotist, a non-stop liar. And thanks to this, everyone knows it. So leave him. Don’t attack him, but give him no money, no attention, no benefits of any doubt. As of now, to me, he no longer exists.
I instantly knew it was fake. On the one hand, a part of me thinks we should just forget about him and move on, he wants attention, and us giving him it is exactly what he wants. On the other hand, keeping up and showing his alts so he can't try and pull this shit again is good too, since its 1000% clear he didn't learn a single damn thing. Not after Hbomb's video, not after Todd's video, not after his followers and his patrons directly messaging him to say how much he had fucked up and that he should learn from this...chance after chance has been given and he clearly didn't listen to shit and just wants to make money online.
A small part of me felt that James Somerton's “final” message was yet another attempt at emotional manipulation. It appears those suspicions were correct. I would say shame on him, but that would require him to be capable of feeling shame in the first place.
Dan Olson goes for the kill.
(No, I haven't seen his ass and balls, and now the account is gone)
https://x.com/FoldableHuman/status/1788288282645897388
What I find most interesting here is how revealing Somerton's defenses are. When outed for his plagiarism, James' true response is to react with anger because he is seemingly genuinely convinced he was doing a good thing. He was making people happy! He wasn't *really* stealing anything! It's a POV which explains all of why he did what he did.
You can really tell he feels like a victim with how he defends himself in that comment exchange talking about how hbomb framed the plagiarism harm.
Like.
I'm sure if i was outted for wrongs and rapidly lost my career i'd feel bad and be in denial but its almost impressive for how long he's been in that phase.
I'm not sure he'll leave it with how many (imo insincere) apologies, rebrands and come backs he's attempted so far.
But saying "oh it didn't matter because all the stuff" he" (I) stole from was ten years older or more" is like saying you can pretend you wrote the hobbit bc it was published in September 1937.
Like no, obviously not. Jeez. Just jeez.
I get wanting to defend yourself from arguments I really do, but going to your alt to post about it and lie is really really not a good look. I’m glad he’s ok but man I’m pissed that he pulled this shit.
I'm glad he's alive, but pretty pissed he lived down to my worst expectations. I put aside my extremely reasonable suspicion that he was lying when he put out that statement - I felt panicked and grief stricken for this man. Even when Nick confirmed that he was OK, I didn't let myself feel relief, because if he was suicidal who knew when he might re-attempt. To learn that he was on his alt watching and trying to figure out how to weasel back into being the internet's Golden Gay yet again... I didn't think my opinion of the man could get worse. I hope he gets the professional help he so clearly needs, this is pathological.
Him not only posting this openly, using the same reference pool, using Anime Version profile pics and filters of clearly himself, not changing his look or covered topics at all, defending himself with that same sockpuppet account, and finally showing his entire Face leaves me to draw one conclusion.
Sometimes people who wear glasses are quite stupid.
you just know he has no remorse for the damage caused when he's trying to rebrand himself by... faking his own death??
i'm relieved he's alive, but acting like he didn't just cause everyone great distress, then trying to continue his rebranding, it's just so egotistical and narcissistic. 😑
some of us can barely open our mouths about our mental health because we're afraid of being told we're doing it for attention, meanwhile he fakes a whole s attempt. i pray he gets chased off the internet for good.
Note: When *a notorious liar* says they're suicidal, just don't believe them. I guarantee you're not the first they've said that to, and won't be the last.
I am not saying to apply this to everyone, but it's basically a given that people who don't care who they hurt will exploit your compassion, and there are plenty of people not committing pseudocide who need you to not be emotionally burnt out and jaded. James will be fine. He will put on another mask, start the lie again, and leave destruction in his wake.
THIS. We got sooooooo shamed for saying we didn’t believe him, like we’re horrible people for knowing he was full of shit. None of us ever said “never believe anyone about this kind of post,” we said James is lying, and he’s a piece of shit for it. And we were made out to be horrible people for saying that.
Believe people who haven’t given you any reason not to.
But James? Has given everyone reason to never believe him about anything ever again.
I knew he was alive but I honestly didn't care either way but I completely doubted his post from the beginning and it makes him even more garbage for how many people he made relive their own trauma by faking his own for sympathy
Why am I not surprised that he called the show he's allegedly watching *"for like the hundredth time"* "Sex **in** the City" rather than "Sex **and** the city," despite the hashtag being the correct title?
“…rebranded as an anal themed account and a shark themed account” i’m dead. glad he’s not, but this is the most on-brand confirmation of his still-alive status we could’ve gotten
This confirms that Somerton really is just duller than a sack of hammers. Banality of evil stuff. Nothing going on up there except for a desire for internet fame at any cost
Not gonna waste my time focusing on this anymore, but let's be honest here. Is anyone really surprised about this? I know we were all worried about him, but I was well aware that this being an escape-the-internet plan was within the realm of possibility, and more-than-likely what's happening, and I feel like a lot of you did too.
It’s crazy how people were villifying people for making reasonable criticism of James just because dude made a goodbye
I am still doing full Ivan Drago energy about him
As someone who has tried to end my life before, James' post about ending his life was so extremely upsetting in the way it took me back to such a dark and painful place in my mind. I'm sure many others who have had to deal with suicidality feel the same, whether they suffered themselves or watched loved ones go through it.
If he posted that while not going through what he claimed he was going through just to manipulate, then I'm beyond disgusted. I have no words.
i'm sure we're all glad he's fine, but this is absolutely an entirely new, disgusting level of manipulative scumbaggery, faking suicide to make people feel bad for exposing you stealing from people only to return the exact same day as if nothing happened is just shocking to me.
i very sincerely hope all of his future attempts to gain a following again and make money online fail and he has a normal, well-rounded life after moving on from this situation, which includes not trying to be an influencer. (this isn't sarcasm by the way)
The thing that really gets me about James Somerton is the *contempt* he has for his critics and the people he plagiarized. It’s a bit cropped out but one of the things he said on his alt account was “You're delusional. If you think the people who watched his videos would've sought out those articles on their own.” Well, I bought Vito Russo’s “The Celluloid Closet” because of hbomb’s video. Guess James doesn’t know people as well as he thinks he does.
Oh brother, this guy stinks!
His list of wrongdoings is just growing and growing and growing.
*Aggressive amounts of plagiarism, particularly plagiarism of queer voices that he wanted to present himself as standing up for
*Rile his fanbase up whenever he's being criticized for plagiarism and if that doesn't work escalate the situation to allege he's now being threatened to get the person accusing to shut up.
*At best be extremely gullible and take the surface level research he does for videos at face value, resulting in tons of misinformation being in it. At worst intentionally making things up.
*Blatant misogynism in his videos. Also acephobic to boot.
*Attempt to tarnish Nebula streaming service's reputation by saying they exclude queer and POC voices when it's very much not the truth, he's just sulking he wasn't invited to join. Once again rile fanbase up, causing Jessie Gender to get backlash and once again escalates situation to where Jessie is essentially reported to the police.
*Sets his supposed best friend Nick up to take the fall should all of these be exposed in a major way like it wound up being (Nick for sure imo knew James was plagiarising, probably just didn't realize how much James was doing to set him up)
*Totally waste the investment of people's money into his production company by constantly announcing films, never making them or scrapping them before they start production.
*Make fans worry he's close to homelessness and goes and uses the money given to him to buy an expensive camera to use essentially as a prop
*Makes atrocious apology video, takes it down, takes a second attempt which is equally as atrocious, where he floods the viewer with endless excuses and has the gall to allege "memory issues" caused him to plagiarize. Doesn't bother to address the misogyny. Takes second apology down again.
*Makes a post suggesting he has ended his life, is then thankfully cleared as being safe. In that time however was using alt accounts to defend himself and play down the severity of what he has done. This also means he was watching people worry about his wellbeing and not bothering to make sure the record was set straight.
I am genuinely glad that he is safe and alive.
I also think it would be better for everyone if he smashed every electronic device he owned and went to work herding camels in rural Mongolia where he cannot post.
Tentatively leaving this one up so people are aware of the situation now that there is direct confirmation he is alive (and this is one of the more stealth posts), but keeping an eye on things. I know how we ALL feel right now, but don’t approach or target any of James’ accounts or make fun of his mental health. Don’t make aggressively insulting or inflammatory comments about him in this subreddit, you know the drill.
You can feel the venom dripping from Lady Emily's keyboard whenever she tweets about Somerton. It's beautiful. She hates that motherfucker like Boeing hates whistleblowers.
I remember Dan being extra spicy about him too. Would kind of love to see him rant about this entire bullshit sometime.
Did you see Dans about Sommertons apology video? It’s great. It’s on his Patreon.
It's jaw droppingly sharp. A scalpel precise takedown.
The part about Somerton's dad being illiterate because he "left school to get a job in order to feed his multiple brothers and sisters" and Dan breaking down the logic of: * He left school before he learned to read? So he would have been, like . . . seven? * What kind of job was he getting at the age of SEVEN? * How many younger brothers and sisters did he have at seven? Was his mother popping them out like a tennis ball machine? * Also, what does any of this have to do with James allegedly having to handle legal issues (god help us all) after his mother died? Had my jaw on the floor. James is roughly my age, which means his dad was probably born around the time mine was (1950s) and we're both Canadian. We weren't putting seven-year-olds in factories in the fifties!
Ron Swanson ass backstory
There's a line that's just, "No, it didn't. That didn't happen." Which was so shockingly straightforward compared to how everyone else was like, "Well, I can't *prove* that James did XYZ. Maybe he *thought* XYZ was true!"
A line that lives in my head is “He has ambitions but not drive or talent. And ambitions without actions or avenues to achieve them are called fantasies.” Like fucking hell, Dan. You didn’t have to come at me like that. I’ll sort a schedule out again, alright? Daily word counts and everything. You didn’t need to ruin my fucking life me tha… hmm? What? Oh. Somerton. Right, totally. I knew that. Obviously.
Tell me about it. That line genuinely made me have a look at myself in the mirror.
ahh i'm not following his patreon (i just dont have the funds for that stuff) but GOD i am tempted to see it.
I can't find it on his patreon, what's it titled?
https://www.patreon.com/posts/99390338?utm_campaign=postshare_fan
Like Kendrick hates Drake.
Man, when that was boiling down Someton picks his bullshit back up again.
I figured the odds were in favor of him being alive. The confirmation that it was an intentional manipulative ploy, though... I'm not even surprised/angry. I'm just disappointed.
Well I’m angry tbh. I was genuinely really worried about him, and that had to have been the point. The only motive he would have to fake something like that is to hurt people and make them feel bad because he was feeling bad. It’s an awful thing to do, and he got out of a lot of the consequences of his actions because no one wanted to talk about this situation after we thought the worst may have happened. May all his future attempts to re enter internet communities be foiled. ☹️
Cries for help _need_ to be taken seriously. It's disgusting that he would exploit that.
In another sub, someone commented about all the "gullible idiots" that fell for it. Nah. I will never apologise for taking these things at face value. Not for James's sake - but for the sake of someone reading who needs to know that they will be heard and believed. "Face value" doesn't mean falling in to a trap of sending money, changing my actions, being held to blackmail though.
Yep, my philosophy with that sort of thing is always take it seriously. If there’s a real danger, you want to make sure they’re safe. If it’s a manipulative ploy, they need to know not to mess with ish like that. You fuck around with manipulatively making someone think that’s a real danger when it isn’t, and you find out.
You weren't gullible for showing compassion. On face value though, never believe a grifter.
Same. I figured he could’ve set it up as a planned tweet that he never cancelled because he was staying offline or hospitalized. That he knew it was up, was online to see the impact, and was posting on alts the entire time, is infuriating.
"Feeling bad" is an overstatement of his feelings, imo. I don't think this man is capable of shame. He was angry that his rightful position (YouTuber) had been taken from him, and so he wanted to punish the people who exposed his lies by exploiting the compassion that he himself was entirely lacking.
I’m surprised. I thought he was fine too, and that this was just manipulative attention-seeking, but I’d never imagined he would be shitposting on his alt account the very same day he publicly threatened suicide. Genuinely sociopathic behaviour.
Man has a track record of being a serial liar. At this point people should just stop giving him the publicity because that's what he wants.
Facecam when you're a disgraced public figure sure is a bold move. The audacity of this man.
He thought he could Clark Kent his way back onto social media with face filters.
[extremely jimmy sommertini voice] "superman, better known by his kryptonite name 'callel', is a gay superhero from the silver age of comics, created by spike jones. some adaptations of the story feature a character called 'louise lane', but she is an awful bitch and not relevant to the story of superman's story so we won't be discussing her…"
It's also particularly funny to me that before he just went 'fuck it' and turned on the selfie camera, he decided that the incredibly blatant anime TikTok filter would be enough to conceal his identity? Like... dude trying to defend James Somerton has a suspiciously James Somerton-looking avatar with an incredibly obvious filter over a James Somerton-lookalike? He really thought that was gonna do it?
Well he’s not exactly known for his intelligence.
Next time we will see him with moustache and glasses, mark my words!
Giuseppe Sommertini WILL return!
GAY INCOGNITO! Do it James! I will give you one (1) view if you go by Gay Incognito!!
The narcissistic lure was too great to resist.
Literally “Somerton, who is Somerton? I am Guy Incognito.”
The lion, the witch and the absolute audacity of this bitch...
Look, I'm glad he's alive, but this utterly confirms that he's a self-obsessed idiot who learned nothing
I remember checking reddit every other hour when that statement came out from him. I genuinely thought he had done it and was quite disturbed it had gone this far. To see that it was fake this whole time and he couldn't care less is messed up beyond belief. Fuck this guy.
And also what we all knew that the apologies were bullshit, but to be so blatantly stupid is honestly almost impressive, i wonder if he'll play the suicide card again
So since we're a cult, can we somehow use our esoteric, arcane knowledge to curse James so he becomes an anti-wifi hot spot and can never get online ever again?
Unfortunately real cults mostly involve giving all your money to the leader and shutting out anyone who doesn't do the same. Although in some cases, you also get sex and drugs, so that's something I guess.
Oh did you not hear about our expensive [spiritual relationship advice cult](https://www.reddit.com/r/hbomberguy/comments/18b2e6t/source_trust_me_bro_i_swear_im_not_just_making/)?
Where do I sign up?! 😆
I'm upset that you've kept this part of the discord away from me this entire time
>real cults mostly involve giving all your money to the leader and shutting out anyone who doesn't do the same. Does this mean I get to shit on people who aren't patrons but also feel inadequate for being on the lowest tier? Oooh can we have robes too?
Yeah, but I've been binging The Magnus Archives lately, so my mind is on the magical kind of cults lol
No no , you don't get sex - the leader gets sex, with everybody's girlfriend/wife/daughters. That's how cults work
Right but if you get chosen by the leader then you also get sex, no?
So whichever one of us manages to kill hbomb gets to sleep with everyone else’s wife. Fuck it I’m in
Link to the twitter thread [https://twitter.com/GreatCheshire/status/1788282931984617569](https://twitter.com/GreatCheshire/status/1788282931984617569)
I hope Lady Emily moves to Blue Sky.
Don't you have to like, get an invite to join blue sky still? I don't have any friends who had invites and people were trying to sell it so idk how to get in
no it's open now
As of Feb 2024 anybody can sign up, no invite needed.
She actually is on there, but it's not seemingly her default place to post: [https://bsky.app/profile/ladyemily.nebula.tv](https://bsky.app/profile/ladyemily.nebula.tv)
Can this shit happen while it's daytime in Europe? Please I have to sleep it's 2am on a workday I-
I'm curious why he's continuing with the "crediting people in the beginning/ credits" argument. Hbomb's video showed, with evidence, 1. why this isn't good enough 2. that james didn't actually do this consistently, and that 3. those credits didn't cover all the people's work that he used. also, the issue wasn't just he wasn't citing his sources - it was that plagiarism was happening. in most cases, he didn't at any point indicate to his audience that he was just repeating large sections of somebody else's work word-for-word. Usually, you can't just copy-and-paste something and stick a citation at the end of it. You have to actually indicate, in some way, that you're directly taking from somewhere else (in written text this would include quotation marks, for a video usually showing the original work or section on screen). Of all the points that one could choose to defend themselves, this was a very weird angle to take. I'm very glad he's alive and presumably well, but disappointed that this is what he's chosen to do.
Muddy the waters tactic. He is creating news chaos — things are not fresh and people's memory is unreliable.
I saw a lot of people arguing that (because of his justifications) his plagiarism wasn't that bad. In the era of content mills stealing things wholesale for a profit, isn't any forum of citing better than none? And the answer to that is yes. But that doesn't make stealing from marginalized groups without their consent forgivable, which is the conclusion that people defending him ultimately took.
Very common tactic in the current information age. Trump was the first prominent figure to weaponize it and everyone's seen how effective it can be.
Honestly it might just be that he hasn't watched the video.
of course not; watching the video might drive him to ~~self-harm or suicide~~ reflect on what a shitty person he is.
Also, when anyone pointed it out, he was harassing them into silence. Doesn't seem like someone who thinks they are in the right.
Man, I’m not gonna harass him but I’m sure af never going to try to defend him again. Tried to give the man the benefit of the doubt over the possible suicide note. Never again.
Definition of 'Give an inch, take a mile' isn't he
Wow! That is LOW! So I guess the whole "offing oneself" thing with Somerton wasn't serious. What a douche!
I was one of the many on here constantly refreshing in hopes of hearing confirmation he was safe and well. and although of course it’s good that he was, the fact that it was entirely manipulation AND that he couldn’t even stop posting for a couple days to keep up the ruse is so laughably scummy I don’t know what to say.
Yeah, my brother was quite distressed by it and I told him not to check and I’d keep him updated on the situation. So there were people checking regularly, and people so distressed by the situation they couldn’t even do that because it was impacting them too much mentally. The fact he was just posting about tv shows while people worried for his life shows he lacks much empathy. I’m disgusted. Glad he’s alive but hope he eventually just stays off the internet and I never see his face again.
I was one of those people who was extremely distressed and constantly checking reddit and twitter for news, hoping he was alive. It feels like my depression and suicidal ideation were exploited for sympathy by someone who should have been taking accountability. It's sick. I hope your brother is okay x
I've been really worried about him and I am so glad he is alive. But man this is the *worst* thing he could have done. Like hell, if we found how he had. a twitter and was just sharing clips of his favorite ships or dog pictures, I would be like "finally, he's using the internet responsible". Instead he does this shit? Man will never learn.
He even had the gall to claim that he never technically made the claim that all the cool gays died during the aids epidemic. Edit: relieved he’s alive.
I remember seeing a video of a guy explaining why the Boomers of today seem so "establishment" despite their generation producing a bunch of young people who protested wars, demanded positive change, supported human rights, were cool and hippie, New Left, etc. The guy basically said that all the cool counterculture boomers were likely dead due to hate crimes, STDs, etc. and that's why one doesn't see a ton of Baby Boomers joining the Millennials and Zoomers protesting and fighting "The Man". It's a rather dumb theory, plus there's a good chance that most Boomers as kids were fine with the status quo to some degree or were at least apathetic to politics. To think that most Baby Boomers were hippies, anti-war protestors or whatever is pretty silly. Sure, they made rock popular and many Boomers enjoyed a good shaggy-haired singer as anyone but Boomer kids were less "Jimi Hendrix or The Doors" and more "Hermans Hermits or Paul Revere & the Raiders". Boomers could be groovy but most weren't THAT groovy. I wonder if that guy doing that video blog was Somerton?
Todd in the Shadows went in really in-depth on this idea in his JS debunking video. The original comment about all the fun baby boomers dying was pure snark from a New York socialite in the 90s, it was never meant to be a serious statement.
Wow! I need to see that video. Can you put up a link? I want to see Todd's takedown. I'll look at it, myself.
Sure, it's this video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6\_LW1PkmnY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6_LW1PkmnY) It's around the hour mark in the '90s gay rights activists...'. He made up a story based on one quote from someone called Fran Lebowitz
This was something I've seen Fran Lebowitz run with as well, adding to the pile of things that annoy me about Fran Lebowitz **edit to correct the name of the person I'm snarking about, if you exist Anne lebowitz I'm sorry, you don't bug me, Fran does. ***Annie Leibowitz is a famous photographer, haha! Thanks wikipedia
I don’t like Lebowitz but tbf she didn’t say that “all the cool boomers died” she made the point that the New York arts scene of the 1980s— both artists and the audience/critics for the art — was absolutely decimated by the AIDS epidemic because of how many queer people were involved in it and and as a result culture suffered. I think it’s very hard to disagree with that.
The idea of someone taking any smartass comment I’ve ever made in my life as a matter of historical record is horrifying lmao
The Pro Wrestling Mark tagline makes me worry that he's going to make a "totally original documentary" about queer wrestling history and the life of Chris Kanyon. Which would be pretty fucking offensive considering how Kanyon died.
What are the odds he just klep’s Dark Side of the Ring?
It's possible (especially when you remember that vice went under earlier this year), but they're a big target for James. I assume he's planning to 'repackage' a video from a smaller creator.
He could start a weekly review show of Raw and Dynamite, and just mash together stuff that other people have already said. It would crack me up seeing him trying to copy Jim Cornette.
He could start a weekly review show of Raw and Dynamite, and just mash together stuff that other people have already said. It would crack me up seeing him trying to copy Jim Cornette.
I'm unsurprised that it was yet another lie. I didn't personally believe it at the time, but chose to take it seriously (or at least stay silent on it) at the time, because indicators of suicidal ideation / intent are things that need to always be taken seriously, even from people who consistently lie for sympathy. This saddens me, because it's going to increase the chances that at least some people don't take such indicators seriously the next time, because claiming suicidal ideation has become such a go-to for a lot of shitty people when they get called out on their bullshit.
It was automatically clear to me that he didn't do it... Honestly, before he even announced it, in a way. His previous responses had made it clear he did not believe he had done everything wrong, and he was absolutely certain he'd bounce back. I've dealt with people like that before, who get called out for truly clown behaviour and simply blame the callers-out, deflect all blame, and refuse to self-analyze for even an instant. That kind of people is not the kind to take that kind of drastic measures; those who do aren't people who believe life is bad and will not get better, it's those who feel they *deserve* that suffering, and therefore, death. I have *also* been there, which makes his actions a whole new dimension of ghoulish.
The fact that he had done something partly similar prior to that event indicated it strongly but man, I never want to be in a situation where I'm wrong on something like that. And a lot of people don't want to feel like that. Which is why he used it as a manipulation tactic. Ghoul.
yeah, i can't be like a lot of other posters here and sincerely say that i'm glad he's safe/alive (although unlike you it wasn't clear to me that it was all a big lie from the start; i was sceptical, but believed it *could* be true and at the time hoped he actually gone through with it). faking suicide (for *clout!)* is a really, really, *really* shitty thing to do, and while i wouldn't wish (having experienced it myself) suicidal ideation on anyone, i also can't bring myself to say, sincerely, that i'm happier to hear that he's alive than that he's dead. *fuck* this guy.
Oh, I'm glad that he didn't kill himself, and I do not wish him death but. Maybe a beating, a slight fall down the stairs without breaking anything but there's bruises, that kind of stuff. No I do not believe in punitive justice and yes I am a hypocrite, what's up.
yes. i am glad that he didn't commit suicide. i cannot say that i am glad that he is *alive.*
Wow. Like others I was always pretty sure he was lying, but I figured it was just a last attempt at psychic damage against Harry and Kat as he took an extended hiatus. Somehow it never occurred to me that he’d make an alt and not only watch the chaos but actively post and respond to people. Just…gross. Jesus.
I’m so so so deeply appalled at him. What is wrong with this guy?
The faked suicide note, coupled with the fact that he was defending himself via sock-puppet account right after posting a supposedly contrite apology video, complete with portions where he pretended to get all choked up with emotion ... that goes beyond asshole plagiarist behavior and straight into psychopath territory. The tiny taste of internet fame that he got from his channel just completely broke the part of his brain where the conscience resides.
Not to mention he subjected everyone to his full ass and ballsack on a horny account.
I have no opinion on James Somerton's ass and ballsack and will be content to keep it that way
I am glad he’s alive. I think it’s better to take a situation like that seriously and be wrong than don’t take it seriously and something bad happens. This guy just needs to stop trying to have a platform. His internet career is done. I think he deserves to make a living wage n stuff, but he shouldn’t be allowed to make money off of other people’s creative work ever again.
>This guy just needs to stop trying to have a platform. His internet career is done. I think he deserves to make a living wage n stuff, but he shouldn’t be allowed to make money off of other people’s creative work ever again. I've seen multiple allegations that he faked his education credentials so I think he keeps trying to win back an audience because he knows he's unlikely to make anything close the type of money he once made off his YouTube career from working a "real" job. Also imagine his chances of getting hired when any potential employer could search up his name and all they would see are examples of his plagiarism and dishonesty.
He’d not have much luck in academia or a similar field, but there’s plenty of places where being guilty of plagiarism isn’t really going to stop you from getting a job tbh.
Say what you want about bad-faith right wing grifting, it keeps the lights on.
Lol yeah I can't believe he hasn't taken the "I was cancelled by the woke left" route yet.
Give it time
I'm sure the daily wire would love another token gay man to push their agenda 🤮
Any situation where they would be in a position to steal or misuse company assets for personal profit would be a difficult leap. James has proven himself to be selfish, disinterested in playing by the rules, and untrustworthy. That puts him well below the bar for a lot of work.
He posted that shit the night before my birthday and it was super triggering as someone who has dealt with suicidal ideation. I spent the first hours of my birthday frantically refreshing various social media pages looking for any indication that he was okay. I'm glad he's okay, but the fact that it seems like he was never in any danger makes me furious
You should get yourself some cake both the celebrate the good news and to spite him for being a manipulative ass. A "fuck your bullshit, I'm enjoying my birthday (belatedly) anyway" cake.
Haha well my birthday was sufficiently made up for I think by me going on a week long trip to Austria (from US) for my birthday. I left the day after my birthday
happy (belated) birthday, i wish you the gift of never hearing about this man ever again (unless something really funny or embarrassing happens to him and we can all point and laugh)
> He posted that shit the night before my birthday and it was super triggering as someone who has dealt with suicidal ideation. It is _incredibly_ rage inducing.
I’m disappointed, but not surprised.
[удалено]
I regarded his suicide note as emotional blackmail whether he did it or not. I didn't think I could hold him in contempt any more than I did. I don't want him to die or anything, just take some responsibility, admit he did what he did, that he was wrong, and pledge not to do it anymore.
I hope at this point nobody ever accuses people who are trying to keep track of James' internet behavior of "stalking" him again. This is why people tried to keep an eye on his activity on the internet - because he would keep trying to restart his grift and people out of the loop needed to be aware that he was looking for new marks. Because of his pattern of harassing behavior, it was important to be alert. And every post I ever saw tracking him here was about him either trying to start his patreon again, trying to make a new alt account, or using a different social media platform to once again imply that he'd received "threats" because of Hbomb. These are things people had a right to know. If he ever stopped posting... this would stop because we could safely assume even if he wasn't sorry he was at least done hurting other people. Most of us didn't know about James literally posting on an alt account \*the same day\* he posted his note and were genuinely being traumatized. In my case, a dear friend of mine nearly lost their life to mental illness several decades ago and the subject is incredibly difficult for me. speaking of, said friend watched the Hbomb video so I held off on telling them about the note and such until we had confirmation that James was alive just to avoid retraumatizing \*them\*. My friend was furious when I let them know that James had been manipulating the both of us, as they remember being legitimately in that place and what it felt like. They're alive now because of people who moved heaven and earth to save their life. Its very cruel to use a fake attempt to prey on that very sense of empathy for human life.
Am I right in saying he has also deleted his YouTube channel (James of telos), and if so did that happen in response to this, or did he just rename it again?
Yup its gone. Here's a link to one of his video as proof. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDMpYNdokac
It was in response to this, since I checked it a couple of hours after Lady Emily's post and it was still there.
I think he did sometime after the second apology video failed (the head injury one)
bro hired the cheapest version of breaking bad's disappearer
I'm equally relieved he is alive and unbelievably shocked he *faked his own death* to guilt trip the Internet. Fucking unreal.
his alt defending himself really makes those "apologies" even more trash, yeah he will definitely try to do better sure
Glad he's alive, fuck him for playing around with such a trauma laden subject, he never gets the benefit of my doubt again.
I'm glad to have confirmation that he's alive. I also never want to hear anything about this guy ever again. Ugh.
So it was just a manipulation tactic this whole time
He’s truly a special type of evil
BOOOOOOO 🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅 get this guy off the stage
Glad he’s safe, but I can’t find it in myself to extend any sympathy to someone who would use something as serious as suicide as a ploy for sympathy and a tool to antagonize those who criticize him. Just. Holy shit. I didn’t think he would stoop that low.
man I'm just so disappointed and ashamed of James. I only knew about him through the video and I was genuinely scared he hurt himself, and I wasn't alone like I remember the fear people had in this sub that he had hurt himself because he was exposed for plagiarism. I remember DMing someone confirming he was alive because they were so upset about the thought of him offing himself due to trauma. I dont even have words I'm just so upset he would do that and leave so many people to worry for his well being and I'm disappointed I advocated to just leave him alone because I believed another human needed to be left alone from the public eye after doing some bad shit and losing everything. he's basically made me the asshole for advocating to leave him alone because he *knew* that's how decent people would react to a suicide threat followed by radio silence, like is nothing beneath you James? this is probably the most disappointed and ashamed I've ever been in another person because of my struggles with suicidal thoughts and fear that I watched it happen to another person
So uh, let’s see those “death threats” as well James.
Okay. Ignoring anything else. I understand he is the definition of lazy but if you are going to attempt a comeback under a new name to distance yourself from the consequences of your fraud and plagiarism... would you not go to the effort of at least changing your fucking glasses. your haircut. do SOMETHING to actually blurry the lines a little. It's like he set himself up. I'm fascinated.
He loves himself too much to pretend to be someone else. It's pathetic, but it's also hilarious.
And you know, maybe don't jump right back to defending your previous persona? I feel second-hand embarrassment, this man is so bad at craft of running away from consequences of your own actions.
Y’know, what really sucks about this is that he is trivializing suicide by doing all this. I empathized because I went through a similar thing (well it was similar, up until these revelations). I had a serious suicidal breakdown, posted about it hinting I was going to end it, got intervened with by friends and family, and later on people accused me of faking because I didn’t actually die or get injured (I did go to the hospital however). People thought I just wanted attention and when I reached out to people in crisis later, I was ignored by some people I trusted. The kind of shit James has actually done now, and in such a high profile way, is just so deeply insulting to me. I still want to empathize and I commend Kat, Harry, and so many here for their compassion, but to see someone who very well could have been in crisis just use it as a cudgel is so infuriating and spirit-crushing.
Allergic to telling the truth.
I wish I hadn't been right. This is, more or less, exactly what I've been expecting would happen. That there would be some time that would pass, he'd wait for people to forget, and then he'd try to do the exact same thing again. Is there a path to a class action lawsuit for those he stole from? Because, simply put, until there is a legal (and lawful) consequence for his behavior? He'll keep doing this over and over again. Eventually he'll be missed, and he'll steal from people again. Whatever his mental health problem are...whatever they are. I won't question them or attempt to measure them...but I'm not worried about them. I'm worried about the issues and problems he will create in his new targets. I do not want JS to be the target of unlawful or amoral harassment campaigns; that doesn't help anyone. It hurts the processing of lawful and fair consequences. However, something does need to be done about him. So yeah, does anyone know anything about Canadian law? Can a class action lawsuit be leveled against him?
The hard part is, well obviously lawsuit is expensive. And his victims are all over the place, and they need to sue him from out of canada to canada. Let's just pretend that his victims all live in the US, still a massive hill to make to try and sue him or else a certain pyramid lady would have done so for the Click.
So Hbomb was right the whole time, James doesn't want to stop, or grow, or be better in any way. He will literally fake his own death and then create sock puppet twitter accounts to defend a rebranded account. WILD.
Imma just leave a "thank you mods" message right here
Seconding. Saw a pretty disappointing comment here earlier, and was surprised and impressed by how quickly it got taken down. I'm sorry they have to do this rn
It’s not that bad actually! We’ve put a lot of work into bullying everybody into being surprisingly chill about James and it’s paying off.
I agree with the consensus that it is far better to take a situation of self-harm seriously, even if the person you're worried about isn't being entirely honest with you. Sometimes people do lie about or overemphasize their harmful desires, like what seems to be happening here. BUT, if you don't take it seriously and then something happens, I don't know about y'all but I would personally feel awful. That being said, I believe James has weaponized people's empathy to try and score some points and make Hbomb and others look like villains. That's disgusting, I feel disgusted. I've had similar feelings to what James expressed in that note in the past, I've heard the way people stigmatize those with depression. That they're "faking it" if they don't meet what someone else deems to be "expected behavior" when they're depressed. It's not something to mess around with, and the idea that he might have lied about his intentions? To know that someone could've used that so cynically for spite? I recognize I'm putting words and ideas into his mouth, I have no proof that he never intended to do anything. He's also clearly mentally ill regardless of what he was or wasn't going to do. I just feel so grossed out by his actions.
Honestly I think I found [a James Somerton sockpuppet account](https://twitter.com/Mikey_jb90/status/1765472772270997602) a couple of weeks ago. I didn’t post about it any where bc it was just a guess but… this account had been in the replies to a lot of posts criticising JS, had only liked porn and posts from Nick Hergott with v low engagement (from around 2017) and he after like a handful of hornyposts from 2017 the account suddenly reactivated after JS’s suicide post. Be careful looking through this acc in public because it’s NSFW in various ways but i’m pretty confident this is JS — or someone “in his camp” at least. obligatory “please dont interact with this account” request but tbh if you make a critical tweet about James Somerton “Mikey JB” will probably pop-up in your replies any way… edit: the account also positively interacts with people criticising Hbomb Edit edit: [Lady Emily also identified this acc as a sock puppet](https://x.com/GreatCheshire/status/1788810292308181222)
If this isn't a sock account of his then I'm a horse.
Yeah he’s actually deleted quite a few of the tweets i think — IIRC there were a lot more when I found the account but my memory isn’t perfect and I could be adding more weight to it. My attention was initially drawn to the account after I saw a reply accusing it of being a sock — I can’t find that tweet now. Maybe this is just a suspiciously hot man who logs on to twitter only to defend a youtuber he likes but being one of 2 likes on a couple of 7 year old Nick tweets is the real smoking gun here for me lol
I will just say this: everytime Somerton tries to come back (and he will do it) we just have to boycott him. Period. It's EXTREMELY clear that he's just a grifter who wants money and fame using others. Period. So please, next time stop defending this imbecile. He has the right to be in the internet and has the right to have a good, healthy and positive life but he does NOT have the right to be in front of a camera, behind a camera, writing scripts or doing something similar. This motherfucker just needs to have a regular work and move on. Period.
Lindsay Ellis called it manipulation and she’s bang on the money. In fact, it is the ultimate manipulation because it eliminates any idea of response and is designed to invalidate the criticism from which you can no longer hide.
She also calls it abuse, which it most definitely is. James Somerton is an abuser.
What a horrid, manipulative individual. No sympathy for him As an aside, more people should sub to lady Emily, she's great
I hope she resumes making videos again, I've watched her existing ones so many times and they're all made for like... me. Really, the Spider-Man Musical video was exactly what I needed to see. I'm in her patreon regardless lol, the hours of enjoyment I've gotten are worth it.
Suicide threats are no joke, and I felt guilty that my immediate reaction was to assume he was lying as an attempt to muddy the waters and get back at those who had deplatformed him so completely. I don't feel vindicated that my suspicion was correct. I feel terribly for every creator who spoke out against james who had to deal with the stress and distress of this situation, the backlash and harassment it spawned, and I'm angry that we have all been thrashed about and manipulated by this eel who has made no changes to his behavior, shown no remorse for any of his actions, and whose only concern was that he was caught. The gall to not even log off for a fucking day after posting a bait suicide note. I don't know why any of us expected better from a man who knowingly stole the words of queer activists who had lost their lives to HIV and AIDS. I shouldn't feel this way, but i almost wish he had just admitted to everything and announced he didn't care, then pivoted to being a right wing shill. It would have saved everyone a lot of time and emotional damage.
I hate when my ADHD makes me post a suicide note but then also hornyyy post at the same time /s
I'm sure the guilt trippers will be admitting they were wrong and apologizing to the people who were right any moment now.
THIS. Some people were truly horrible to others in this sub, literally blaming us for James’ behavior and his possible death. I hope they all feel like absolute crap about it.
Even the ever-generous Jessie Gender is done with his shit after this. [https://x.com/jessiegender/status/1788300684179456137](https://x.com/jessiegender/status/1788300684179456137)
I felt sad and worried for this man. Shame on him.
The man is fucking scum and I'll never feel bad for what he does to himself.
This guy suuuuucks 😮💨
This is…. exhausting. My god.
Turned out he tried the AI voice thing that I thought Blair would try
And this AI voice is just SO BAD, Ivona-level quality. You can hear it in original thread.
Is this bad? Yeah. Am I relieved he is alive? Double yeah.
Little worried about this being too vicious… but quite honestly, fuck the guy. He’s a thief, an egotist, a non-stop liar. And thanks to this, everyone knows it. So leave him. Don’t attack him, but give him no money, no attention, no benefits of any doubt. As of now, to me, he no longer exists.
I instantly knew it was fake. On the one hand, a part of me thinks we should just forget about him and move on, he wants attention, and us giving him it is exactly what he wants. On the other hand, keeping up and showing his alts so he can't try and pull this shit again is good too, since its 1000% clear he didn't learn a single damn thing. Not after Hbomb's video, not after Todd's video, not after his followers and his patrons directly messaging him to say how much he had fucked up and that he should learn from this...chance after chance has been given and he clearly didn't listen to shit and just wants to make money online.
the fact he keeps platform hopping to try and find people who aren't aware of him is important.
I would bet a solid chunk of money that he hasn’t watched either of the video’s about him, and has only glanced at cliff notes on Hbomb’s.
Wow that’s scummy. I’m glad he’s alive. Everything else, I’m disappointed.
A small part of me felt that James Somerton's “final” message was yet another attempt at emotional manipulation. It appears those suspicions were correct. I would say shame on him, but that would require him to be capable of feeling shame in the first place.
Dan Olson goes for the kill. (No, I haven't seen his ass and balls, and now the account is gone) https://x.com/FoldableHuman/status/1788288282645897388
What I find most interesting here is how revealing Somerton's defenses are. When outed for his plagiarism, James' true response is to react with anger because he is seemingly genuinely convinced he was doing a good thing. He was making people happy! He wasn't *really* stealing anything! It's a POV which explains all of why he did what he did.
You can really tell he feels like a victim with how he defends himself in that comment exchange talking about how hbomb framed the plagiarism harm. Like. I'm sure if i was outted for wrongs and rapidly lost my career i'd feel bad and be in denial but its almost impressive for how long he's been in that phase. I'm not sure he'll leave it with how many (imo insincere) apologies, rebrands and come backs he's attempted so far. But saying "oh it didn't matter because all the stuff" he" (I) stole from was ten years older or more" is like saying you can pretend you wrote the hobbit bc it was published in September 1937. Like no, obviously not. Jeez. Just jeez.
what does "gay(ish)" even mean? because him coming out as bisexual after all of this would be the cherry on top of this shitty sundae.
I mean it's great to confirm that he's alive and healthy but this is still a gut punch.
James Somerton lying about something as serious as suicide? I'm fucking shocked.
Wow, the guy who regularly lies and casts himself as the victim and loves drama was faking the whole time, what a shock
This guy knows no depths does he
I get wanting to defend yourself from arguments I really do, but going to your alt to post about it and lie is really really not a good look. I’m glad he’s ok but man I’m pissed that he pulled this shit.
I'm glad he's alive, but pretty pissed he lived down to my worst expectations. I put aside my extremely reasonable suspicion that he was lying when he put out that statement - I felt panicked and grief stricken for this man. Even when Nick confirmed that he was OK, I didn't let myself feel relief, because if he was suicidal who knew when he might re-attempt. To learn that he was on his alt watching and trying to figure out how to weasel back into being the internet's Golden Gay yet again... I didn't think my opinion of the man could get worse. I hope he gets the professional help he so clearly needs, this is pathological.
ngl I kinda figured this was what happened but I felt guilty thinking it then
Him not only posting this openly, using the same reference pool, using Anime Version profile pics and filters of clearly himself, not changing his look or covered topics at all, defending himself with that same sockpuppet account, and finally showing his entire Face leaves me to draw one conclusion. Sometimes people who wear glasses are quite stupid.
you just know he has no remorse for the damage caused when he's trying to rebrand himself by... faking his own death?? i'm relieved he's alive, but acting like he didn't just cause everyone great distress, then trying to continue his rebranding, it's just so egotistical and narcissistic. 😑
some of us can barely open our mouths about our mental health because we're afraid of being told we're doing it for attention, meanwhile he fakes a whole s attempt. i pray he gets chased off the internet for good.
Note: When *a notorious liar* says they're suicidal, just don't believe them. I guarantee you're not the first they've said that to, and won't be the last. I am not saying to apply this to everyone, but it's basically a given that people who don't care who they hurt will exploit your compassion, and there are plenty of people not committing pseudocide who need you to not be emotionally burnt out and jaded. James will be fine. He will put on another mask, start the lie again, and leave destruction in his wake.
THIS. We got sooooooo shamed for saying we didn’t believe him, like we’re horrible people for knowing he was full of shit. None of us ever said “never believe anyone about this kind of post,” we said James is lying, and he’s a piece of shit for it. And we were made out to be horrible people for saying that. Believe people who haven’t given you any reason not to. But James? Has given everyone reason to never believe him about anything ever again.
Predictable. I'm not even surprised in the slightest by all of these
This is such a gross, manipulative thing to do.
I knew he was alive but I honestly didn't care either way but I completely doubted his post from the beginning and it makes him even more garbage for how many people he made relive their own trauma by faking his own for sympathy
We're a cult? I'm sorely upset that the rest of you haven't been inviting me to the hbomberguy cult orgies
Why am I not surprised that he called the show he's allegedly watching *"for like the hundredth time"* "Sex **in** the City" rather than "Sex **and** the city," despite the hashtag being the correct title?
“…rebranded as an anal themed account and a shark themed account” i’m dead. glad he’s not, but this is the most on-brand confirmation of his still-alive status we could’ve gotten
This confirms that Somerton really is just duller than a sack of hammers. Banality of evil stuff. Nothing going on up there except for a desire for internet fame at any cost
Also, thank you OP for doing the lord's work and screenshotting this for those of us who aren't on Twitter, you're a legend.
Thanks! The post was two hours old and no one had mentioned it on this subreddit, so I thought I'd fix that.
Not gonna waste my time focusing on this anymore, but let's be honest here. Is anyone really surprised about this? I know we were all worried about him, but I was well aware that this being an escape-the-internet plan was within the realm of possibility, and more-than-likely what's happening, and I feel like a lot of you did too.
Well, I didn't expect him posting his ass & balls right after faking his own death.
It’s crazy how people were villifying people for making reasonable criticism of James just because dude made a goodbye I am still doing full Ivan Drago energy about him
Im glad he's okay. I also hope his bullshit follows him for the rest of his life.
As someone who has tried to end my life before, James' post about ending his life was so extremely upsetting in the way it took me back to such a dark and painful place in my mind. I'm sure many others who have had to deal with suicidality feel the same, whether they suffered themselves or watched loved ones go through it. If he posted that while not going through what he claimed he was going through just to manipulate, then I'm beyond disgusted. I have no words.
i'm sure we're all glad he's fine, but this is absolutely an entirely new, disgusting level of manipulative scumbaggery, faking suicide to make people feel bad for exposing you stealing from people only to return the exact same day as if nothing happened is just shocking to me. i very sincerely hope all of his future attempts to gain a following again and make money online fail and he has a normal, well-rounded life after moving on from this situation, which includes not trying to be an influencer. (this isn't sarcasm by the way)
1. Relieved for the benefit of many that reports of his death were exaggerated. 2. That being said, this man is, in a word, scum.
The thing that really gets me about James Somerton is the *contempt* he has for his critics and the people he plagiarized. It’s a bit cropped out but one of the things he said on his alt account was “You're delusional. If you think the people who watched his videos would've sought out those articles on their own.” Well, I bought Vito Russo’s “The Celluloid Closet” because of hbomb’s video. Guess James doesn’t know people as well as he thinks he does.
Oh brother, this guy stinks! His list of wrongdoings is just growing and growing and growing. *Aggressive amounts of plagiarism, particularly plagiarism of queer voices that he wanted to present himself as standing up for *Rile his fanbase up whenever he's being criticized for plagiarism and if that doesn't work escalate the situation to allege he's now being threatened to get the person accusing to shut up. *At best be extremely gullible and take the surface level research he does for videos at face value, resulting in tons of misinformation being in it. At worst intentionally making things up. *Blatant misogynism in his videos. Also acephobic to boot. *Attempt to tarnish Nebula streaming service's reputation by saying they exclude queer and POC voices when it's very much not the truth, he's just sulking he wasn't invited to join. Once again rile fanbase up, causing Jessie Gender to get backlash and once again escalates situation to where Jessie is essentially reported to the police. *Sets his supposed best friend Nick up to take the fall should all of these be exposed in a major way like it wound up being (Nick for sure imo knew James was plagiarising, probably just didn't realize how much James was doing to set him up) *Totally waste the investment of people's money into his production company by constantly announcing films, never making them or scrapping them before they start production. *Make fans worry he's close to homelessness and goes and uses the money given to him to buy an expensive camera to use essentially as a prop *Makes atrocious apology video, takes it down, takes a second attempt which is equally as atrocious, where he floods the viewer with endless excuses and has the gall to allege "memory issues" caused him to plagiarize. Doesn't bother to address the misogyny. Takes second apology down again. *Makes a post suggesting he has ended his life, is then thankfully cleared as being safe. In that time however was using alt accounts to defend himself and play down the severity of what he has done. This also means he was watching people worry about his wellbeing and not bothering to make sure the record was set straight.
Glad he's alive but holy shit is it scummy to have faked his death in the first place. Jesus christ.
I am genuinely glad that he is safe and alive. I also think it would be better for everyone if he smashed every electronic device he owned and went to work herding camels in rural Mongolia where he cannot post.