So I am part of the team that runs the YouTube channel SiIvaGunner. If you don't know what that is, it's a really odd niche sort of channel that requires a lot of explanation so I'm not going to go into the details. Suffice it to say, last year we had a fun channel event presented under the guise of a fake fighting game, and this year we are doing it again.
Last year, Etika was one of the "fighters" in this "fighting game". EDIT: Here's something really fun and wholesome, related to that:
https://twitter.com/PinkieOats/status/1143591493946544128
This year, we made the decision to remove Etika out of respect for his ongoing mental health issues and a want to avoid calling further attention to him and contributing to the way his fanbase has enabled his behavior. I remember that when we announced the decision and our rationale behind it, there was a distinct group of responses that were, like...
"wtf he's doing fine now lmao taking him out is dumb".
That made me mad two weeks ago. It makes me double mad today. That isn't how mental health FUCKING works.
I'm despondent over the frivolity with which people treat mental health issues like this. Such a wide swath of the internet enabled and exacerbated his issues for """entertainment""". Social media culture is fucking sick. It's sick! And Etika will not be the last "influencer" that loses their battle with mental illness. As long as the culture surrounding these people doesn't change to treat them more as real people than as spectacle, this will keep happening.
I didn't know Etika, and, I have to mention here that as a queer person, I was obviously incredibly uncomfortable with his use of a certain homophobic slur. Still, from the people I knew that knew him -- which includes other queer people -- I get a sense that he was a fundamentally decent dude with an infectious and vibrant spirit, and my heart aches that he didn't get the chance to get better.
This is on our society and our damned internet culture for trivializing bipolar disorder and mental illness in general.
A final note: there was an image of a moderator making a callous, nasty response to a previous thread about Etika's mental health. It had been posted earlier in this thread, but has been removed by mods for being "a personal callout". Regardless of that, that mod should be removed from duty immediately and given whatever punishment a normal user would get for making that post. Mental illness should not be trivialized. If ResetERA wants to not be part of the problem, that action should be taken immediately. And, if ResetERA does NOT want to not be part of the problem, consider me out of this community for good.