On December 31st while everyone else was preparing to bring in hope and positivity into the New Years, Logan Paul decided to bring in 2018 by being a complete and utter jackass. In his Youtube vlog of his adventures in Japan, where he countlessly showed disrespect to the Japanese culture. He recorded himself, and friends in the Aokigahara forest, known as a common suicide area. Recording in the forest is illegal, and there are multiple signs in English and Japanese telling people not to record once entering the forest.
He was in hot water once people realized he recorded not only his reaction but his friends reactions (who were seen smiling and laughing) to a dead body still swinging from a tree. Not only did he announce to the camera that there was a real dead body swinging from the tree… But he then proceeded to record the body, and use it as click bait in the thumbnail of the video. He gave a warning advisory in words before the video started (did not even put a hotline number like rapper Logic did not dedicate an entire song title to the number) and at the beginning of the video he spoke into the camera explaining how the video was not click bait and that is why he did not monetize the video.
On January 2nd he uploaded an apology video, filled with ads (I did not know apologetic people were allowed to profit off of their apologizes or at least not donate that money to a suicide charity). On January 3rd he tweeted that he was “taking time to reflect”. Since both social media activities he has not uploaded another video to Youtube.
His apology meant absolutely nothing and it never will. He does not deserve forgiveness and will never receive it from me. Paul’s actions need to be dissected and the main piece that needs review because it ties this all together is his privilege as a young white male in the world. White people literally have a history of taking pictures with strung up dead bodies in this country, the Jim Crow era.
Credit: Atlanta Black Star
But now this is being taken to foreign places. I am not surprised he felt comfortable doing any type of photography with a dead body. White people have literally never faced justice when it comes to the public disrespect of other non-white bodies, even if they are dead. The people who defend him are entirely worse and disgusting. Saying things like “Well the man shouldn’t have killed himself,” or “The man should’ve done it in private,” instead of addressing the bigger issue of suicide itself.
It is horrific and horrible that Japan has a physical place that people can casually go to and take their own lives. Instead of addressing the continuous allowance of people to commit suicide because the culture deems it as “honorable” and the possible human rights violations Japan must be committing because they have a high suicide rate caused by being overworked. We would rather make constant excuses as to why it is not Paul’s fault. How would Paul like it if a fan came to a funeral of a close person to him and tried to take selfies and record meeting Paul on snapchat?
Paul knew exactly what he was doing because he is 22 years old, he has his own money, house, cars and a career. At this point in his life he can be deemed a functioning adult who knows right from wrong. Only young white males in American can be grown men and still deemed as children or not fully understanding their actions. If Paul does not face some type of charges against him from Japanese law enforcement it just goes to show how far his privilege extends.
The bigger problem with Logan Paul and his brother Jake is how they represent the new generation of people using the internet. They both show how gaining clout is like the new crack/cocaine. People will literally do anything and everything, even if they don’t make a profit, to have thousands to millions of followers for no reason. People are constantly throwing out any content *cough, cough* some Odyssey writers *cough, cough* with no substance just to promote their social media or make a potential profit. Users of the internet need to be careful and review that Black Mirror episode, “Hated in the Nation” and hope they wouldn’t be on the receiving end of an artificial bee’s sting.
