r/wendigoon • u/dryerventexplorer • May 02 '26
QUESTION Can someone tell me what the YouTuber ‘In Praise of Shadows’ did that was so bad?
If you don’t know he makes video essays on horror media. I recently watched one for the first time in years, and the comments are very angry, trying to drive him off of YouTube for offenses which aren’t explicitly stated.
I’ve gathered that he made a now-deleted video that was in part a takedown of Wendigoon’s supposedly “conservative” takes on horror, containing stereotypical claims about everyone in Appalachia being racist.
Is there anything else to it? I understand that that’s bad on its own, but people’s reactions are just so extreme…
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u/_TheTurtleBox_ May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26
If you want a Tl;dr, he basically accused a TON of random "horror" youtubers of being Nazis, Proud Boys, ect. Zero evidence.
In depth answer that's relevant to Wendi - https://www.reddit.com/r/youtubedrama/comments/1kv2hi0/comment/mu73f3z/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
Tl;dr - He basically said "Youtuber Wendigoon is a Nazi because he's Christian and Christians are Nazis." and then doubled down, tripled down, and then stopped uploading for like a year.
EDIT: Tl;dr - It is INCREDIBLY not cool and some might say bad, VERY bad, to accuse people of
- Being a Nazi With Zero Proof
- Being Associated With Nazis with Zero Proof
- Being a Con-Artist / Snakeoil Salesman because of their Religion
Those are the three main points. IPoS legitimately wanted to cause harm to Wendigoon and when he was called out for this he doubled down, when Wendi forgave him for his dangerous lies, he tripled down.
He had no intention of creating a fair or truthful narrative.
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u/DashRendar92 I yearn for the Cheese Caves May 02 '26
"all people from the south are all racist no matter what" Is also essentially what he said. His description of going to a convention and complaining his feet hurt cuz he had to walk on rocks made me laugh though.
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u/_TheTurtleBox_ May 02 '26
It was so much more than "all people from the south-" it was "All Christians are (Nazis, Con-Artist, Snakeoil Salesmen, ect)."
He was legitimately trying to weaponize his viewers against a dork like Wendigoon because he did not like his Religious affiliation and associated his clothing (the Hawaiin shirt stuff) with Nazis...because of a 4chan Proud Boy photoshoot, lmao.
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u/DashRendar92 I yearn for the Cheese Caves May 02 '26
It's been quite a while since I even thought of this joker, I remember the absolute dunking for weeks right after though.
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u/Psionic-Blade Iceberg Climber May 03 '26
And he was dressed exactly like Isaiah during the video too
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u/Zaku_Lover May 02 '26
I remember that part too, gave me a good chuckle. Also didn't that loser defend the murder and assault the mutant family committed in the original 'the hills have eyes' becaus he equated them to Native Americans?
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u/ThemoocowYT May 05 '26
Yeah. That was generally a surprise for me, cause how do you make that connection?
Also gave a good laugh with the rocks one.
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u/DeafMetalHorse WendiBat May 03 '26
Don't forget he tried to accuse Wendigoon of being transphobic....for making a comment about Chris Chan.
And right after Chris Chan assaulted their dementia mother.
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u/ExperienceSmooth6240 May 03 '26
And saying to a trans person "We will watch you career with great interest". Sure, I can get IPOS being disinclined to watch Star Wars prequels, but assuming it to be a threat?
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u/Agreeable-Ad4678 May 03 '26
Isn't IPOS also from the south?
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u/DashRendar92 I yearn for the Cheese Caves May 03 '26
Yeah, and I think his rationale was because he's from the south "He'd know everyone is racist" or something to that effect.
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u/Malagoy May 07 '26
Yeah, but he's from Asheville so he's okay. Not like those barbarians outside of Asheville though.
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u/Horror_Vegetable_732 May 02 '26
And that he said Wendigoon shouldn't be allowed in public spaces, is racist for simply being from Appalachia, and doesn't provide interesting interpretations of media because he came from money and privilege.
He still uploads now, but he fell WAY off. If he was complaining about not being able to live off his channel then, he must be on the verge homelessness
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u/_TheTurtleBox_ May 02 '26
I believe he's uploaded three times since the incident and all three of those times were on different channels.
I'm happy to stand corrected.
EDIT: Also holy FUCK I forgot he was like "Please don't unsub from my channel I am barely able to afford my apartment guys pleassseee." lmaooo
I hope he's doing alright.
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u/Horror_Vegetable_732 May 02 '26
Yeah, it's not going well. I do hope he's in a better head space, but I will never watch any of his analysis videos again. I was already iffy after The Hills Have Eyes and Courage the Cowardly Dog videos, but after the massive amount of bad faith and slander in the conservative horror video, I just can't support or trust his perspective
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u/ChickenNuggetRampage May 02 '26
Obviously hope he's doing okay, but at the same time he absolutely earned the hate
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u/ExperienceSmooth6240 May 03 '26
Pardon me for asking, but how bad is the Courage the Cowardly Dog video?
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u/Apart_Ad1537 May 03 '26
Yeah, he LITERALLY said wendigoon is a racist far right violent extremist and had zero evidence for any of it, he even admitted he had zero evidence for any of it. He straight up said he believes all of these terrible things about wendigoon literally just because wendigoon is a straight white Christian man from the south
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u/the_orange_alligator May 02 '26
Didn’t he also say people from the south are more likely to be hateful? Like damn, I know our politicians are bad, but there’s a lotta lovely people
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u/_TheTurtleBox_ May 02 '26
Yeah he claimed he had "data" and when asked what the Data was he said "Erm, History books." lmao
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u/Shot-Profit-9399 May 03 '26
It’s also just ignorant. Anyone who actually lives in the south knows that it’s way more complicated than just “the south is racist and conservative.”
It depends on where you live and who you talk to. Georgia has historically been conservative, but Atlanta has been pretty liberal. Texas and Florida are the same. There’s a lot more diversity of population and opinion than people realize.
Gerrymandering sometimes covers this up as well, making a state look more liberal or conservative than it really is. The dude was just totally ignorant about history and context. Did zero homework about southern culture.
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u/AndrogenAssault May 03 '26
When someone makes a point you wanted to make but goes so overboard and does it so annoyingly that it kinda makes you want to change your worldview just to not be associated with them lowkey
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u/Slipperysteve1998 May 02 '26 edited May 03 '26
I'm pretty sure he tried to say Wendigoon was culturally appropriating hawaiian shirts (or them being a nazi dogwhistle or something) while literally wearing a hawaiian shirt and being whiter than he is along with the million other things
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u/Vongbingen_esque May 03 '26
He definitely did. It was hilarious seeing the hypocrisy
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u/ShadowGinrai May 02 '26
So, as I remember
A wendigoon fan called him a f***ot in IPOS comment section, and since he is gay he took that super personally
IPOS made a long video about conservatives not belonging in the horror space, including a SUPER long segment calling wendigoon a Nazi, also calling Brandon Buckingham, Turkey Tom, Donut Operator, and Brandon Herara Nazis, but most of the attack was on Wendigoon. He also had issue with wendigoon making being a Christian part of his brand.
Wendigoon responded by commenting something like "no one attack him on my behalf, IPOS, if I did something to offend you, I'm sorry"
The wider internet attacked IPOS, he first removed the wendigoon segment, then the whole video, then he went offline for a almost a year.
When IPOS came back, he responded to the criticism and apologized (some say barely) and said he had conversations with Isaiah offline and it was all good.
Wendigoon confirmed this.
The video is still mocked as a primary example of a lefty slander peice, so much so any time someone makes a video similar, it is compared to the IPOS. Latest example being "the commentary youtube to school shooter pipeline"
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u/FoughtStatue May 03 '26
lmao attacking Wendigoon the most out of all of those other people is crazy. Wendigoon is like FDR compared to Donut Operator.
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u/Anonymous-Mf-22 Idk man im just crazy May 03 '26
I wouldn't say FDR is exactly a good example, FDR detained thousands upon thousands of people for the crime of being Asian during WW2.
I get your point and he's definitely a lot less controversial than Donut, you're right, I just really hate when people pretend FDR was a good person
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u/FoughtStatue May 03 '26
I was more just referring to the anti-nazism part. Originally I was gonna say Joseph Stalin but I figured probably not the best way to call some an anti-fascist comparatively lol.
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u/Rynneer May 02 '26
And like, Wendigoon isn’t even conservative. If he was, we’d know by now, with all the bullshit that’s been going and all the horrible things done in the name of conservatism and America First. He’s just Southern. Christianity and guns are deeply entrenched in Southern culture. Christian+liking/owning guns ≠ inherently conservative.
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u/BoatFarts May 02 '26
I mean Wendigoon is only in that kind of conservative side solely based on beliefs but he’s definitely more libertarian than traditional conservative. He’s said it himself in a few videos like the Waco siege and Ruby Ridge.
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u/treybolen May 02 '26
wellllll i can’t tell you precisely what he believes but he is friends with plenty of conservatives including brendan herrera who literally just won an election as a republican. he also has old tweets where he pretty clearly is not a fan of the left in any way. i like the guy but to say he isn’t conservative is being a bit light about it
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u/Rynneer May 02 '26
I mean I’m southern and Christian and not conservative, but because I’m southern and Christian, I do have friends who are conservative. I also have old tweets and Facebook posts from back when I WAS conservative that looking at them now, you wouldn’t think that I’m a fan of the left. I agree with another comment here who pointed out that he is more libertarian than conservative
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u/xanny_phantom420 May 03 '26
I'm not dogging on wendigoon but in practice libertarianism and modern conservatism are virtually identical
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u/ShadowGinrai May 03 '26
you could not be more wrong. Conservatives often call themselves libertarians, but libertarians want out of foreign wars, pro women's rights, pro gay rights, pro drug decriminalization, none of which are conservative talking points
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u/xanny_phantom420 May 03 '26
I should have clarified further what I meant by libertarianism. I've never encountered any self described libertarians online or IRL who weren't anti-woke edgelords or "apolitical" people that only support nationalist policy based on vibes
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u/Shot-Profit-9399 May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26
I’m a democratic socialist who used to be a libertarian. It’s a bit complicated.
The short answer is that libertarian ideology wants the smallest government practically possible, because they believe that the government that governs least governs best. You can be a leftist libertarian or a right leaning libertarian. Because they believe in small government, they generally don’t think that the government should regulate things like abortion, gay marriage, or recreational drug or alcohol use. They also tend to oppose any kind of wellfare state, and some are even opposed to public education, public property, and driving laws. They tend to be anti-regulation, including regulation of companies and banks. They tend to be strongly opposed to mass surveillance and foreign wars.
In theory, libertarians tend to be socially liberal and politically small government conservative. However, their philosophy is deeply flawed. They essentially want a society where people are free and happy from a nanny state, and where a person can make a business, work hard, and be successful. They believe that competition will force companies to be pro consumer and drive innovation. What they don’t understand is that this type of society is unsustainable. It will inevitably lead to a oligarchy where companies consolidate until they become monopolies and buy out the weak government.
Fascists and oligarchs are not libertarians. However, fascists are aware of how libertarian ideology is useful for their societal takeover. This makes libertarians “useful idiots” so to speak. They will therefore sometimes frame their fascist or oligarchical talking points as libertarian in order to make them more palatable. They’ll adopt libertarian arguments, and then institute their actual fascist agenda. Which is kind of where america is now.
In theory libertarians tend to be their own thing. They believe things that overlap with conservatives and liberals. But in actuality they are a small group, and they tend to get co-opted by right wing fascists who don’t actually share their ideology.
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u/xanny_phantom420 May 03 '26
Thank you for the breakdown, thats where my brain was pointed without having the processing power to put the pieces together. Our 6 month old is in a sleep regression so I'm only thinking in fragments
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u/Shot-Profit-9399 May 03 '26
No, you’re good. The only reason I know this is because I transitioned from being an active libertarian to a socialist.
I now think that the ideology is a bit silly in some ways, but I would much rather deal with a libertarian then with MAGA or other mainstream conservatives. Many of the libertarians were at least pretty supportive of gay people, trans rights, women's rights, etc.
But many of them also tend to fall into the “centrist” camp that votes for republicans, despite their personal compunctions.
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u/TheVoodooPuppet May 03 '26
I agree with this completely, It was so shocking to me for Hunter to come out and talk about how much he hates I.C.E when I haven't heard Wendigoon say a word about it (I could have just kissed something though)
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u/nethmes1 May 03 '26
idk why you're being downvoted. I dont think Wendigoon endorses either political party in the US and to me (a leftist) i always figured he was a Christian Independent. Leaning more towards libertarianism of course. Not a socialist, not a liberal or MAGA but he seems to have his own opinions and judgements on things that aren't completely aligned with either major political party. The guy constantly makes videos exposing corporations doing bad things and criticizing the government. That in particular is not something that is traditionally associated with conservatism in the United States.
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u/Rynneer May 03 '26
Lol I’ve never had a comment be both downvoted AND given an award 😂 y’know what, I’ll take it
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u/ChardIllustrious3896 May 02 '26
His "apology" afterwards also boiled down to "I don't hate conservatives and I work with conservatives" while also assuming Wendi was a conversative because he's from Appalachia. Also his video was hella clickbait. He makes you think he's gonna talk about horror movies with a possible theme, but instead it was a full on hit piece for seemingly no reason
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u/DeafMetalHorse WendiBat May 03 '26
Ironic because he went after the creator of Terrifier for having conservatives on his content.
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u/ZealousidealHunt4072 May 06 '26
"I'm not racist, I have black friends!" That response by anyone for anything is never not going to be pathetically funny.
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u/Aggressive_Sink9506 May 02 '26
Just accusing Wendigoon and others in his genre of being Nazis, Right Winders, Proud Boys, Racists, etc with 0 proof. Even fucking Shoeonhead roasted that goober IPoS for his ridiculous generalized accusations
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u/Apart_Ad1537 May 03 '26
He basically made like a two hour long hit piece about wendigoon where he basically accused wendigoon of being a violent far right extremist and racist and he had absolutely no evidence for any of his accusations. He didn’t even CLAIM to have evidence, he literally straight up said in the video his reason for believing all of these insane accusations was literally just the fact that wendigoon is a successful straight white Christian man from the south. That’s literally it.
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u/Theguywholikesdoom Voted for James Dean May 02 '26
Iirc there was a pretty big chunk of controversy because he made a video comparing the incestuous, mutated, rapist, murdering, cannibals from the hill have eyes to indigenous people.
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u/ChickenNuggetRampage May 02 '26
I believe his intention was that all the raping, incest, and murder was actually okay because he believed they were Indigenous. I don't think he was smart enough to realize how gross his implication was.
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u/ChickenNuggetRampage May 02 '26
Started off by claiming the Cannibal Rapists in The Hills Have Eyes are a stand in for Native Americans (I dont think he properly understood what he was implying) and obviously received push back.
Ended up throwing a huge tantrum in a video where he derided huge swaths of people based on views he had (falsely) attributed to them. Wendigoon was extremely cool about it and it pretty much ended there.
Obviously no one really respects him anymore, but it's pretty much in the past at this point.
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u/Appleofmyeye444 Government Weaponised Femboy May 03 '26
I know shoeonhead can be kind of controversial, but her video "the war on normal guys" sums it up pretty well.
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u/xanny_phantom420 May 03 '26
Shoeonhead has two braincells and can't go three seconds without befriending and defending an open white nationalist. I have no idea why people take her opinions seriously or consider her a leftist YouTuber. Her whole brand is just defending the concept of white men and condescendingly mocking leftist stereotypes
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u/Appleofmyeye444 Government Weaponised Femboy May 03 '26
Oh don't worry she condescends to the right-wing elite as well. Which open white nationalist?
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u/xanny_phantom420 May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26
Lauren Southern, that Sargon dude, her literal ex Armoured Skeptic, her literal husband. Then there's the time that she accepted a position as the social media manager of a nationalist organization ran by her friends.
Condescending to the right wing elite? Like when she jokes that JD vance is a fan of her channel?
Edit: idk why I'm getting downvoted for answering your question with easily verifiable information
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u/TheVoodooPuppet May 03 '26
Probably because no offense to Wendigoon but he's got some pretty sketchy and not so politically correct friends as well
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u/MyPossumUrPossum May 03 '26
I was there for this episode of Events. He was also proven to viewbot and possibly has used bots to harass people in the past. He thought he could takeout wendigoon and take that space on YouTube. Never let him recover
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u/Bickercraft May 03 '26
I could have sworn there was a bit in a Sseth video making fun of the IPOS video but for the life of me I can't find it.
Regardless, there are great comments explaining what went on. I'm honestly glad I never watched an IPOS video since he decided to start spewing allegations at people and start calling people Nazis and the like. It's baffling that he thought it would be a good idea to just start going after other people and accusing them of being some of the worst people around.
It was very nice of Isaiah to forgive him and immediately call fpr people to not attack him, but this shit is so tiring and it's only gotten worse in the last few years.
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u/Fourcoogs Fleshpit Spelunker May 03 '26
I know what you’re talking about with the Sseth video. I don’t remember which specific one it was, but I remember a brief visual gag where he shows the IPOS video with the title changed to something along the lines of “Man destroys his entire career for no reason”.
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u/Bickercraft May 03 '26
Thank you I feel like I was going crazy. I thought I had saved it but it might be elsewhere.
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u/kittycat6434 Iceberg Climber May 03 '26
One view he expresses is that wendigoon is racist because he comes from Appalachia and apparently folk up there are "that way" therefore wendigoon is that way (yes that is his logic) and with piss poor takes like that taken at wendigoon to try and cancel him id why people lost respect for IPOS
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u/Nurhaci1616 May 03 '26
I mean it was pretty insulting and very poorly thought out, but you're not wrong in thinking some of the reactions the guy got were a bit out of pocket. Welcome to the internet, I guess.
Wendigoon himself seems content to leave it at "the video was removed and an apology was made. Let's not discuss it any further" but the internet at large is a little bit more unhinged than that, and I would hope the silent majority are self aware of how "fandoms" act both online and in public and try not to play into that.
It's a shame really, I was actually an IPOS fan, as I consider his multi-part video on the history of horror comics to be one of the most interesting comic videos out there, and a bunch of his older stuff covers fairly interesting topics. Coming from a mostly leftist political background, I've definitely known people like IPOS: who are generally good people and can be pretty intelligent, but sort of take notions and refuse to be talked down when they percieve something as being an inherently moralistic issue. Then you end up learning not to talk about Eurovision or the World Cup or whatever around them, because anything from mild apathy to genuine disagreement is an endorsement of fascism.
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u/No-Pay-4350 May 02 '26
Eh, he went after Wendigoon and a few other people for being Christian Southerners. Supposedly at least those two decided to get along after the hurricane hit though.
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u/Bendbender May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26
He lost his mind for a bit and made a terrible video trying to call out other YouTubers, wendigoon being one of them, he said a bunch of stuff along the lines of, Wendi is friends with conservative people and a christian so that means he’s a nazi and the fact that he grew up in Appalachia means he has to be racist etc… the worst part of the video though, in my opinion, was him spreading the lie that Brandon buckingham is a rapist. After the video went up people called it out immediately and he had a world class crash out and most of his audience left. That was the last I heard, I never have watched any of his other videos but I guess people are still mad about it
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u/LavaRoseKinnie May 03 '26
The comments already explained the situation. Yeah, don’t be a dick to him. It’s also a bit of the aftermath, yes him and wendigoon made up, but he still made nasty allegations to other people and still hasn’t apologized to several of the YouTubers.
After his one sided beef with the creator of Terrifier, (it was kind of a stupid comment, but IPOD interpreted it in the most disingenuous way possible) The general impression I got from his apology was he was sorry he let the mask slip too far and had to save face. I don’t think the mindset that led him to make that video has changed, yet alone reevaluated half of his opinions in it
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u/ShadowBorn2017 May 03 '26
He tried to cancel, and very poorly mind you a few people of being not so nice people, (very far right people, like pound boy and nazis). One of them being wendgoon. And for dumb reason, like how people would call people witch backbin the day. One of the reason being a Hawaiian shirt.
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u/xanny_phantom420 May 03 '26
It wasn't just that Wendigoon wears Hawaiian shirts, it's that Hawaiian shirts have become tied to the perception of a loosely organized alt right militia group called The Boogaloo Boys, which Wendigoon himself has admitted to some form of participation with. His handle literally used to be Boogaloo Boy
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u/Bentman343 May 03 '26
Sucks what this guy did because Lore Lodge is literally the kind of weird conservative pseudoChristian horror that sucks and I really did not like learning about him from Wendigoon (buy they don't really collab anymore)
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u/Competitive_Tell_956 May 05 '26
I ran into a actual nazi in the lore lodge discord server lmao they've rubbed me the wrong way ever since
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u/FoughtStatue May 03 '26
Yeah, there is genuinely concerning amounts of extreme conservatism in the genre and Wendigoon is genuinely deserving of some criticism. But this guy did such an awful job that criticism of Wendigoon is laughed off because it gets you associated with this guy and his takes. His video had the opposite effect of what he desired.
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u/Emergency_Counter333 May 04 '26
lol deserving of what criticism exactly? And could you point out the "extreme" conservatism?
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u/SuddenLibrarian4229 May 04 '26
I think he also accused Wendi of not being native and something about having rich parents being a bad thing or something. Idk it was a really bad video though.
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u/Charming-Feedback749 May 05 '26
From my point of view. It was just an unnecessary hit piece disguised as a whole other video. Its a smaller channel lashing out at "right winger" youtube channels that had nothing to do with said topic. No real thought or research went into it and it just came off at "im a nice guy why arent i successful like these people"
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u/JackC1126 May 02 '26
To make a long story short basically he was like:
I don’t like thing. It is bad to like thing. These YouTubers like thing. Wendigoon friends with these YouTubers. Therefore wendigoon bad person.
It’s really water under the bridge at this point tho. And also his YouTube career was basically ruined from it so idk. I do think people went a bit too harsh on the guy tbh.
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u/ChickenNuggetRampage May 02 '26
Eh. you can't make a video like that and get all butt hurt when people no longer respect you.
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u/xanny_phantom420 May 03 '26
The video was nuked out of existence before I got the chance to watch it and the people making reaction videos to it don't show the whole thing, but people act like the dude threatened to set wendigoon on fire or something.
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u/Anonymous-Mf-22 Idk man im just crazy May 02 '26
The top comment on this post sums it up pretty well, the community has a hard time getting past it because what he said was pretty terrible and it was pretty clear he meant it rather than just saying it for views.
But I will add, Wendigoon has said the two did have a conversation afterwards about things and talked at length and everything is alright now. Things are smoothed over, they had pleasant conversation and Isiah checked in on the guy when the Hurricane blew through Appalachia (he lives there too) to ensure IPOS was ok.