My Opinions Story

It's starting to seem like the platform known as YouTube is a witchhunt at this point. For those who aren't in the know, the most subscribed YouTube channel of all time, Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg (better known by his username, PewDiePie), recently got his channel temporarily banned and lost a lot of deals with big companies due to a controversial statement his made, as exposed by the Wall Street Journal. What are my opinions on this? Well, I have a lot of things to say.

First of all, I'm not the biggest fan of PewDiePie's channel. I have a load of respect for him, though. He's very loyal to his fans and seems like an all-around respectable person. A few months ago, one of his videos popped up in my recommended videos section on YouTube. The title of the video was "I'VE DISCOVERED THE GREATEST THING ONLINE YET...". With such a hyperbole of a title, it caught my attention. I decided to sit down and watch it. In the video, he discussed a website called Fiverr, in which people submit ads where you can pay them to do something. It's mainly meant for making advertisements. It's a very odd website, with content raging from a channel in which you can pay someone to write anything on a chalkboard, a man dressed up as Jesus who will say whatever you want him to, and a pair of kids in the jungle who act out a skit and then hold up a sign with whatever text you want.

PewDiePie decided to go around the site and goof off. It was a pretty funny video. However, at one point, he did something that caught my attention in a negative way. You're able to make people write or say WHATEVER you want, and he used this in a not-so-wise way. He paid the aforementioned kids in the jungle to hold up a sign that read "DEATH TO ALL JEWS". He didn't expect them to actually do it, so he was shocked. It was in bad taste, but it was clearly a joke, and didn't reflect any of his views.

A few weeks later, I found a story on the Wall Street Journal accusing Felix of being a Nazi. As a result, he lost his deals with Disney, YouTubeRed, and even had his channel shut down for 3 days. I was confused until I saw what exactly the accusations were from. I realized that they mentioned the video that I had seen, and I was shocked. It was then that I realized that they were going out of their way to falsely accuse him by taking a tasteless joke out of context.

Now, I do NOT support anti-semitism in any way, shape, or form. I don't stand for prejudice, and I'd go out of my way to stand against it. But if a well-trusted newspaper is writing articles falsely accusing an innocent YouTube channel of being a Nazi, I personally think that's BS. Not only did they take a joke out of context, but they took screenshots from his other videos and used them as further "evidence". They took a picture of him putting his hand in the air, and they pretended it was a Nazi salute. After the accusations, Felix dressed up in a Hitler outfit and acted like a stereotypical Nazi just to make fun of how ridiculous the accusations were. Of course, WSJ used this as well.

Maybe it was a tasteless joke. Maybe he was immature for saying that kind of stuff. But if PewDiePie is getting in so much hot water for a joke that doesn't represent his views in any way, then explain why Filthy Frank isn't getting any slander. FilthyFrankTV is an uber-controversial YouTube channel created by Joji Miller, which involves a character by the name of Filthy Frank, who goes on various rants, tangents, and adventures. His videos are EXTREMELY controversial due to Joji's vulgar sense of humor and some of the incredibly edgy things he says. However, his channel is clearly a joke, and his statements are meant to make fun of people who actually have those prejudiced views. His entire channel is dedicated to what PewDiePie did, so explain why he's not in any trouble. I'll tell you why: attention.

Wall Street Journal knew that if they targeted a popular channel it would get far more buzz. Filthy Frank has about 5,000,000 subscribers at the moment. Meanwhile, PewDiePie has about 54,000,000. They aimed for the bigger target to cause more of a stir. This simply proves that YouTube is turning into one big witchhunt where you can't live without being accused of the most ridiculous things, because drama is what's popular nowadays.

Sports Portfolio Evaluation

1. a. Alyssa Schukar
b. Unclear
c. The concept wasn't clear, some shots were extremely blurry, and some shots were just plain unnecessary.
d. The angles were good, and the better photographs were good.
e. I agree with the judges. There were a few highlights, but some pictures were just poorly shot or uninteresting.

2. a. Sam Adams

b. Action
c. A few of the shots could have been done better, some shots had a bit too much unnecessary details, and the angles could have been worked on.
d. A lot of the ideas behind the photographs were very creative, and the photographer did a great job at capturing perfect moments.
e. I did not notice any flaws in particular. Most of what I saw was fantastic.

3. a. Travis Haughton

b. Unclear
c. One shot in particular had a judge respond simply with "...No.", some shots had very odd angles, and other shots felt pretentious at times.
d. There were some major highlights, and the angles were good for the most part.
e. I agree with the judges when they say some shots felt extremely pretentious and over-confident. Also, the photoshop was a bit too much. Still, the ideas behind each shot were very good in my opinion. A diamond in the rough, if you will.


a. In the shot with the female players sitting on the bench, I agree with the judges mentioning that everyone in the shot is doing something.
b. The first shot with the smiling guy in the bowtie was extremely awkward and silly in my opinion. I think he could have left that one out.

SLO

1. C
2. A
3. C
4. C
5. B
6. C


Prince Nelson walks along the red carpet with his new wife, Michelle Jackson. The town of Belgium is incredibly excited for the new royal couple.

Architecture Preview #1

1. The Turning Torso

1. Santiago Calatrava
2. 2001-2005
3. Sweden
4. Only open for events
5. Estimated amount is 2,120,000,000 kronor, or 303,759,748 USD
6. It is the first twisting building in history.
7. When I saw the name, I thought it sounded pretty interesting. I looked up pictures, and I got exactly what I was expecting: a skyscraper with a "twist" (pun entirely indented). It's also the tallest building in Scandinavia as of now.

2. The Nautilus House

1. Javier Senosiain
2. 2006
3. Naucalpan, Mexico
4. Open
5. I cannot find any info on the budget.
6. It was inspired by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, and based off the sea creature known as the nautilus.
7. The nautilus is a very interesting creature in my opinion. For those who don't know, a nautilus is a squid-like creature that lives inside of a snail-like shell. When I saw the name of the house, I expected something interesting, but I wasn't expecting it to be so literal to the point where the actual house in based off the design of a nautilus. The colorful tinted windows add a ton of pizazz to the house as well.

3. The Sanzhi UFO Houses

1. Unknown designer
2. 1978-1980 (Construction was abandoned)
3. Sanzhi District, New Taipei City (Taiwan)
4. Converted into a resort
5. No info found
6. Intended as a vacation resort, but infamously abandoned in 1980 due to mysterious deaths and suicides of the workers. Some conspiracy theories suggest that it was built upon a graveyard for Dutch soldiers.
7. The image I posted looks like a screenshot taken straight out of an Oscar-winning dystopian sci-fi movie, but it's real. The design of these buildings is beyond weird, and the creepy stories surrounding the place make it even more disturbing. It's the true definition of a ghost town.

4. Habitat 67

1. Moshe Safdie
2. Opened in 1967
3. Montreal, Quebec (Canada)
4. Open
5. About 13.5 million USD.
6. Moshe Safdie had the idea during his enrollment at McGill University.7. This place is giving me some SERIOUS flashbacks to the city of Ga-Zair from Dr. Seuss's "Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?" The strange name of the building got my attention, and my knowledge of the CN Tower (one of the tallest buildings in the world) lets me know that Canada has a good taste in architecture. 

5. The Burj Al Arab

1. Tom Wright
2. 1994-1999
3. Dubai, UAE
4. Open, hotel
5. 1 billion USD
6. This building is supposed to resemble a mast on a sailboat.
7. The Burj Khalifa (formerly known as the Burj Dubai) in Dubai, UAE currently holds the title of the tallest building in the world. It's clear that Dubai has plenty of money to spend on architecture, and the Burj Al Arab is no exception. I love the shape of the building and how it resembles a giant sailboat. It's just another example of how talented Dubai is when it comes to buildings.