Sad fall? That’s an understatement. Gargamel was a guru and had just lost everything

I don’t watch a lot of YouTube videos, but I did watch Gargamel. Much younger than me, intelligent and, as they say recently, “on point”. His private life would normally never interest me. He recorded films about other hypocrites, made points, argued, showed the sources precisely, enumerated and summarized – it mattered. Who he is with, what he does, what he likes – that matters less, because that’s not what his films were about.

, this fall of a man who was a complete stranger to me, but whom I respected and listened to, hurts. It hurts twice as much because in his recordings Kuba Chuptyś accounted for all the evil of Polish YouTube. He himself turned out to be one of the elements of this evil – just one that does not boast about his exploits. To paraphrase Gargamel himself from the episode about the worst pranksters who make the lives of ordinary people miserable at work – thanks to the confessions of his former partner, I entered “a world where no viewer has ever been before”, because Gargamel had long been separating what was private and protected from what was what it shows in the recordings.

Gargamel scores others

And although I have no connection with the violence he committed against his former partner, I feel as if I had a hand in it. With each of my displays, each time I gave him courage and Internet glory, I recommended his recording to someone else – as well as the texts I wrote about his recordings when he was running over Filip Chajzer with his morality roller – all this I indirectly contributed to what he did in life private. If he didn’t have this Internet fame, would all this not have happened? I’ll never know. There remains only a deep dissonance between the content of his materials – full of pro-feminist approach, equality, rational and anti-violence – and his private life, in which he turned out to be the opposite of everything he published.

Does his work cease to be valid due to the private nature of the creator? Of course not – his recordings, thanks to which we now have the term “chajzerowanie”, are still valid and true. And at the same time, they took on a rotten appearance when we already know that the moralizing video, ridiculing other YouTubers explaining what they don’t like in women (e.g. that they have periods – yes, Polish YouTube is at a quite low level), was just a prelude to this what Chuptyś did later in his private life. Gargamel mockingly “explains” the thinking of another creator that (note, this is a quote with a large dose of sarcasm): “a woman should know when to shut up, because a man doesn’t want to listen to it. First of all – it’s the man who decides when it’s OK and when “You can’t talk. Secondly, shut your mouth, woman.” What was supposed to be an exaggerated paraphrase of a much more delicate (though still utterly stupid) statement from another man, sounds terrifying today – especially since Gargamel’s former partner directly talks about controlling her and deciding for her about various aspects of her life, and has recordings and written notes to prove it. conversations. In the video about “youtubers” doing an idiotic challenge of ordering tons of food from fast food chains, Gargamel also allows himself to sum up “to the point” how not only a prankster-idiot works, but also – as it turns out – a creator-abuser:

He always tries to rationalize what he does by saying, “They were smiling!”

“Jutuber” not important? Underestimating them is a mistake

It may seem like a small thing – just “another YouTuber fell off his bike”. But for a Polish commentary it was a fall from a really high horse, because Gargamel was considered a guru and a master of his craft. His recordings had millions of views, and thanks to his work, Chuptyś got additional platforms to spread his thoughts – podcasts, radio programs, meetings, he was even a guest of Kuba Wojewódzki (yes, Caroline Derpienski was also there, and you may not believe it, but this the episode broke viewing records). If you have never found him on the Internet, it only means that you are over 35 years old. What’s more, so many people watch him (I can’t believe that over four million views of a significant portion of his videos were made only by a handful of his friends) that if only Gargamel had such a fantasy, they would become a real force, e.g. in the parliamentary elections. This is a force that cannot be underestimated – whether we like it or not.

Light in the tunnel

However, the fall of Gargamel is a kind of light at the end of the tunnel. The way his fans have reacted now, when faced with evidence that cannot be denied, gives hope that other crypto-bullies among the “famous” will also notice their problem and will seek help before irreversible acts occur. “Gargamel is over party” is also a signal to the victims of other creators, for example those from the patostream community watched by kids – don’t be afraid to speak up, because even those with gigantic reach should not go unpunished. This can be a kind of lesson for young viewers – the violence will eventually come to light and you may lose everything you have been working for for years. Because we are finally starting to believe more in people who survived violence from their tormentors than in creators hidden behind millions of views who divide private and public by walls.

The “Gargamel Effect” can also be seen in pro-women groups. For the first time, the girls write publicly, although often anonymously, about what they experienced in the privacy of their homes. They write that the confession of Laura, Chuptyś’s ex-girlfriend, opened their eyes or brought back memories that had been poisoning them from the inside for years. They are not as “lucky” as Laura – they often did not record their torturers, they do not have recorded conversations, they have no evidence. But their lives are ruined, which they often talk about out loud for the first time. And they can count on support – someone will send them details of a great psychologist, someone will give them a hand and help, someone will say that they BELIEVE in their story, someone else will say that they have been in this situation and are no longer afraid. Perhaps in some time we will talk about the “Laura effect” that had the courage.

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Are you experiencing violence? Are you looking for help? You can, for example, contact the National Emergency Service for Victims of Domestic Violence “Blue Line”. The free hotline is open 24 hours a day at 800 12 00 02. More information can be found on this website: []

If there is a threat to life – call the emergency number 112.