Who doesn’t enjoy a good shit show, right? I remember the days when we tuned into Jerry Springer for a good laugh. Sure, the laugh was at the expense of other people, but these people and their drama was an absolute dumpster fire.
I miss those days.
So, when Internet Blood Sports became a thing and various YouTubers with various levels of notoriety starting going at each other’s throats for entertianment, you bet your ass I tuned in. That’s how I discovered a little show called The Killstream, a very popular nightly stream that frequently trended at the top of the charts. The Killstream, hosted by Ethan Ralph and co-hosts Zidan and Gator, was as free speech absolutist as one can get on YouTube, and because of that they offered unfiltered conversations on interesting topics such as YouTube drama, current events, politics, and even geo politics.
No other show than the Killstream allows for open discussion on the current happenings in South Africa, where land owners are being forced to give up land because of government intervention. Callers from South Africa discussed the intense and violent situation with guest of various political ideologies.
No other show delves deep into YouTube scams like BetterHealth. While PewDiePie talked about the scam, it was on the Killstream that Boogie2988 spilled the beans about what was happening and his affiliation with Philip DeFranco.
No other show allows debates and discussions between the far left and the, dare I say it, the alt-right. It was on the Killstream that Carl Benjamin (A.K.A Sargon of Akkad), the leader of the failed Liberalist movement, debated against Richard Spensor.
Say what you will about their politics, no other show really digs into YouTube drama like the Killstream. Ethan Ralph, Zidan, and Gator are three versions of Jerry Springer, offering a good cop, bad cop routine with various lol cows such as Mundanematt and some pedo freak named Ross.
Because of this, the show become increasingly more popular. The success eventually lead to Ethan to do something charitable.
On September 29th, the Killstream hosted the Healstream, a live charity event where people could donate money through YouTube’s SuperChat for Good service and the money would go to charity.
The show had an amazing panel of guests such as Keemstar, Dick Masterson, and Mister Metokur. The show was wild and unfiltered, hosting a debate where some drunk argued about technicalities of the Holocaust, YouTube drama, and a drunk singing of Ram Ranch. Through all this, the Healstream raised $26,000 for St Jude Children’s Research Hospital and was seen as a huge success.
But that success was short lived.
On November 1st, a journalist from the Wall Street Journal contacted Ethan inquiring about a story she’s working on about how YouTube Super Chats are being used be the alt-right. Ethan didn’t respond and was going to talk about the WSJ contact on the Killstream, but YouTube wasn’t going to have it.
On the same day, YouTube shut down the live stream and eventually deleted not just The Killstream, but the co-hosts channels as well. That’s right, on the same day the WSJ inquired, YouTube did a complete shutdown on everything related to The Killstream.
Coincidence? Oh, the coincidence goes deeper.
Not only did YouTube shutdown everything Killstream, people who donated during the Healstream noticed their donations were being refunded. St Jude claims they’ve decided to refund on their own, but the timing is just too perfect. Isn’t it?
On the same day WSJ contacts Ethan, YouTube shuts down the Killstream and all related channels and donations to St Jude get refunded. It’s like WSJ kick started the whole thing.
Now, as someone that frequently watchs the Killstream, I know the content can be raunchy and controversial, but the show does not advocate for violence. It’s a platform the hosts discussions you won’t find anywhere else. As someone that publishes horror, a genre that is loaded with murders, serial killers, rapists, cannibals, and far worse, none of the topics on the Killstream are anywhere more extreme than what one could find in a given Deadman’s Tome anthology. Would there be a problem if Deadman’s Tome donated to St Jude? So what’s the problem?
WSJ had a problem with the SuperChat system ever since YouTube unveiled it as an alternative for content creators. The way SuperChat works is people donate money with a comment attached. Think of it as someone offering a tip with a note or request attached. So, the audience donates money and because the performers are painted with certain brush their money is no good.
I find that to be complete bullshit.
WSJ painted the Killstream as alt right, because they’ve had controversial guests and it’s much easier to make the host guilty by association than it is to have nuance.
I’ve had many guests on the Deadman’s Tome podcast, one of which is a prisoner serving time for a crime he committed, but I’m not a murderer, am I a murderer apologist? It would be too easy and lazy to say yes.
The point is WSJ comes after the Killstream and in response YouTube shuts them down and St Jude refunded the money. 26k taken out of cancer research all because the WSJ had a bone to pick with the Killstream.
Pathetic.
But you can’t abort the retort!
The Killstream is still around and doing well on an alternative platform called DLive where they learned that it’s not the platform that makes the streamer, it’s the streamer that makes the platform.
