I just think many people are judgmental of him for some reason, maybe because of his popularity and growth? Either way some people just don't seem to look into this or have the proper judgement.. like, at all. It's sad really, this should feel like a bigger outrage than it is right now considering all the people who sponsored it, if even the biggest youtuber covers it honestly.
To be fair, I don't think many adults know much about current Felix beyond his scarecam days, myself included. So from my perspective, before reading this thread, I still thought PewDiePie was still shrieking about barrels and plowing through shitty horror games. If I didn't know from this thread, I probably wouldn't have cared about his latest antics. To have the world's biggest Let's Player telling you that the internet Jon Stewart is running a scam isn't exactly something you'd stop for. Even then, the "biggest YouTuber" doesn't mean much to the average person who doesn't give a shit about YouTube.
I still stand by a lot of these people not knowing what actual therapy is, and BetterHelp doesn't show as a red flag even before combing through the magical shrinking TOS.
As someone who's only become a fan of Felix's in the last 2 years I think I can answer that pretty clearly. When you hear about "the biggest Youtube channel" you kind of assume he'll be another Jake Paul. You see the old clips of Felix when he was getting popular, it's just him screaming. Or using the Nword.
What I found out though was that he's super honest and upfront at this point. Sure some of his content is stupid, but it's just stupid fun (All the meme episodes) and he knows that and just has fun.
But when something for real is going on, or it's a subject he wants to tackle, he's honest, serious, and quite thoughtful at times.
It surprised the hell out of me last year when I started watching him and liked it.
To be fair, I don't think many adults know much about current Felix beyond his scarecam days, myself included. So from my perspective, before reading this thread, I still thought PewDiePie was still shrieking about barrels and plowing through shitty horror games. If I didn't know from this thread, I probably wouldn't have cared about his latest antics. To have the world's biggest Let's Player telling you that the internet Jon Stewart is running a scam isn't exactly something you'd stop for. Even then, the "biggest YouTuber" doesn't mean much to the average person who doesn't give a shit about YouTube.
I still stand by a lot of these people not knowing what actual therapy is, and BetterHelp doesn't show as a red flag even before combing through the magical shrinking TOS.
As someone who's only become a fan of Felix's in the last 2 years I think I can answer that pretty clearly. When you hear about "the biggest Youtube channel" you kind of assume he'll be another Jake Paul. You see the old clips of Felix when he was getting popular, it's just him screaming. Or using the Nword.
What I found out though was that he's super honest and upfront at this point. Sure some of his content is stupid, but it's just stupid fun (All the meme episodes) and he knows that and just has fun.
But when something for real is going on, or it's a subject he wants to tackle, he's honest, serious, and quite thoughtful at times.
It surprised the hell out of me last year when I started watching him and liked it.
It is funny how Felix in his video brought up the whole I got 10% of an Amazon sponsore, and how he got shit over that. How is it possible that all of these youtubers went into this, said wait a moment I get more then 50% of the money somebody pays and just went along with it without looking into it? GarenFUCKINGty it that a shit ton of them are gonna go back on this and just say: "Hey, I knew nothing about this. It was somebody else, I don't look up who you sponsore, you can't expect me to look up everyone I sponsore." I don't think there are so many idiots on youtubed to go with this. This was equivelent to it coming out that most of them were dealing heroine to teenagers and nobody fucking said to the person who was about to sponsore them: "Bitch, go fuck yourself. No way I'll earn that kind of money for a shout out. Get bent."
It's no surprise that Pewds' content improved once he no longer had to be advertiser/kid-friendly, but the fact it's a result of dropping an n-bomb is fucking hilarious.
Looked into the financial side of Teladoc at large and found some potentially interesting bits of information.
I looked at Teledoc's stock, and coincidentally, it seems to have nosedived right around Memology's videos gaining traction. Not the best archive, but that steep drop happens in the very beginning of October. I recommend checking it out yourself to get a better idea.
Their September 2018 Investor presentation (archive, though the presentation did not archive) talks about their plans to go global, but nothing that I could see as particularly noteworthy. The comments do mention the BetterHelp scandal.
What I found particularly humorous is that Teladoc has very vague relations to Newt Gingrich, of all people.
Teladoc was co-founded by George Byron Burns (archive failed). Archive.is couldn't capture it, so here's their blurb for him in full, emphasis mine:
Dr. George Byron Brooks, BS EE, MD Cofounded TelaDoc, Inc. (known as Teladoc Medical Services Inc.), in 2002. As an engineer, Dr. Brooks managed US government classified tasks for the Strategic Defense Initiative and served as technical advisor for the Strategic Defense Project Office. Dr. Brooks also served as the Chief Operations Officer for Internet Global Services during the construction of the Telares VOIP network. After medical school, Dr. Brooks was a flight surgeon and General Medical Officer for the United States Air Force. He has patents pending in the area of diagnostic grade medical data collection over the net. He has served as Medical Director for the Texas Department of Corrections and Justice Managed Care Unit. Dr. Brooks is an Air Force Flight Surgeon with years of service to NASA, started TelaDoc to apply modern telecommunications technology to the problem of patient access to care. He served as a Member of the Advisory Board at TelaDoc, Inc. Dr. Brooks studied electrical engineering at the Air Force Academy and the University of Tennessee.
I tried to find out about the Telares VOIP network, and came across a 2008 document proposing medical care via telephone, penned by George Byron Burns (credited as Byron Burns), Richard Boxer, and Newt Gingrich. I tried to archive it and pull the PDF any way I could, but it showed up as a 404 to any website I tried, and being on mobile severely limits me. At the least, I've attached the cover page showing their names. I didn't find anything directly tying Gingrich to BetterHelp, however.
I don't know if this is reaching into ice cream doxing territory, but I thought it was worth a mention.
teencounseling.com is another arm of BetterHelp, confirmed (archive) by Jeff Williams, Business Development at BetterHelp, on his Twitter with the awfully on-point username @securecounselor (archive). His Twitter is cat pictures and BetterHelp shilling.
I definitely don't think they're equals, I had seen someone else refer to him as the internet version of him because they both talk about current events. My sincerest apologies to Mr. Stewart and anyone who thought I was comparing the two quality-wise.
It is also really funny to see the uber wolf on stream talking about betterhelp. It was just a sponsorship, my guy told me about it and I gave them a shout out, no biggy. Everybody that was caught is trying to sell it off as just a sponsorship, nothing else. The fact is, it isn't just a sponsorship, it was THE sponsorship. Nobody who got a "good" therapy session said that this is good and all, but I don't like this predatory vibe of getting money per customer who signs up for online therapy.
The best for them thing right now is to just keep silence and let people shit on you, but Phillip won't let that happen. H3H3, who managed to avoid a shit bomb back in september, won't let this shit go. They will go on, trying to defend their actions and people will continue attacking them until they say that they were either so retarded as to not even look into a Nigerian prince sort of scam, or they just don't give a fuck about who they sponsor, as long as they get the dollas.
Btw, did somebody watch H3H3 attacking Pewdiepie over the fact that he had Ethan in his betterhelp video talking about his depression. At this point how can anybody believe his I have a bad head space, when it is clear as day he is just dumb.
It's no surprise that Pewds' content improved once he no longer had to be advertiser/kid-friendly, but the fact it's a result of dropping an n-bomb is fucking hilarious.
Im by far no Pewds expert, but his content already shifted around 2015, way before all the incidents. He started to be way more mature but also edgy and went more into the commentary genre, collabing with h3h3 and even FilthyFrank. This was a smart move, since the aforementioned channels were at the time, favored by his then older demographic, over his LP content.
Looked into the financial side of Teladoc at large and found some potentially interesting bits of information.
I looked at Teledoc's stock, and coincidentally, it seems to have nosedived right around Memology's videos gaining traction. Not the best archive, but that steep drop happens in the very beginning of October. I recommend checking it out yourself to get a better idea.
Their September 2018 Investor presentation (archive, though the presentation did not archive) talks about their plans to go global, but nothing that I could see as particularly noteworthy. The comments do mention the BetterHelp scandal.
What I found particularly humorous is that Teladoc has very vague relations to Newt Gingrich, of all people.
Teladoc was co-founded by George Byron Burns (archive failed). Archive.is couldn't capture it, so here's their blurb for him in full, emphasis mine:
Dr. George Byron Brooks, BS EE, MD Cofounded TelaDoc, Inc. (known as Teladoc Medical Services Inc.), in 2002. As an engineer, Dr. Brooks managed US government classified tasks for the Strategic Defense Initiative and served as technical advisor for the Strategic Defense Project Office. Dr. Brooks also served as the Chief Operations Officer for Internet Global Services during the construction of the Telares VOIP network. After medical school, Dr. Brooks was a flight surgeon and General Medical Officer for the United States Air Force. He has patents pending in the area of diagnostic grade medical data collection over the net. He has served as Medical Director for the Texas Department of Corrections and Justice Managed Care Unit. Dr. Brooks is an Air Force Flight Surgeon with years of service to NASA, started TelaDoc to apply modern telecommunications technology to the problem of patient access to care. He served as a Member of the Advisory Board at TelaDoc, Inc. Dr. Brooks studied electrical engineering at the Air Force Academy and the University of Tennessee.
I tried to find out about the Telares VOIP network, and came across a 2008 document proposing medical care via telephone, penned by George Byron Burns (credited as Byron Burns), Richard Boxer, and Newt Gingrich. I tried to archive it and pull the PDF any way I could, but it showed up as a 404 to any website I tried, and being on mobile severely limits me. At the least, I've attached the cover page showing their names. I didn't find anything directly tying Gingrich to BetterHelp, however.
I don't know if this is reaching into ice cream doxing territory, but I thought it was worth a mention.
teencounseling.com is another arm of BetterHelp, confirmed (archive) by Jeff Williams, Business Development at BetterHelp, on his Twitter with the awfully on-point username @securecounselor (archive). His Twitter is cat pictures and BetterHelp shilling.
EDIT:
I definitely don't think they're equals, I had seen someone else refer to him as the internet version of him because they both talk about current events. My sincerest apologies to Mr. Stewart and anyone who thought I was comparing the two quality-wise.
Excellent digging. This drop in the stock will kill their projections of 360million this year. I wouldn't be surprised if more investors drop this like a hot potato, especially after Shill DeFraudo drops his PR 'BetterHelp is the good guys' investigation video.
I doubt that this is a massive conspiracy in terms of the YTers involved. There’s just so many who are roped into this who’s content have nothing to do with each other, the network is too big to make sense and it keeps growing.
My guess is maybe ten or less people have their fingers in the pie, probably with Philly at the top considering how vehemently he’s defending BH. Shane Dawson is probably somewhere up there too. But the small fries all received the same canned email sent out to likely thousands of monetized users, promising a hefty payment in return for a plug for the service (and then weren’t paid properly anyways). A lot of these YTers are just normal people trying to make a living, which, isn’t an excuse, but I don’t think most of them promoted BH out of malice. Pewdiepie is at the top so he’s probably has received hundreds of promotion offers over his career, so he knew a rat when he saw one.
Felix Shell Berg is a pretty cool guy, and doesn't afraid of anything.
I too, only started viewing his content a year or so ago, and was surprised that he wasn't an annoying prick with content aimed at kids only. When he deals with srs bznz (sorry about all these 10yo meme references) he shows a great deal of common sense and maturity.
tl;dr Stunning blonde blue eyed swede makes me question my heterosexuality
These videos aren’t directly linked to the Better Help stuff. They’re about Kati Morton. The first is about the ethics of being an “undercover counselor.” The second deals with her misunderstanding of sociopathy. Dr. Todd Grande made the videos, and he has his own channel. He has a Ph. D in psychology and is a professor at the University of Wilmington (I think).
Btw, did somebody watch H3H3 attacking Pewdiepie over the fact that he had Ethan in his betterhelp video talking about his depression. At this point how can anybody believe his I have a bad head space, when it is clear as day he is just dumb.
Ethan didn't say he was in a bad head space. he actually was honest and said he didn't know much about the company before advertising it. Ethan didn't mention his depression in the sponsored video. Ethan is fucking dumb, but i don't think he's at fault here. he seemed to be upset at felix for trying to make it look like he played a bigger part then he did.
Using JADX, I was able to decompile the BetterHelp Android app.
For obvious reasons I can't post the code, or link it here. It's super easy to decompile it yourself, though, look on Google for online services.
Google ads (Not sure if implemented or just future-proofing).
Facebook connect (To fill out all your personal details on the sign-up page - Common practice)
(As well as a Google auto-fill contact details on sign-up process too.)
It's using OpenTOK for its video calls, which uses WebRTC connectivity: Either straight up from end-user to therapist (Potential IP leaks to your counselor), or through connecting to a BetterHelp centralized server and then to the therapist.
Tl;Dr: All this is probably not relevant, but might as well list off third parties that may, or may not, get the data you disclose in the BetterHelp android application.
Ethan didn't say he was in a bad head space. he actually was honest and said he didn't know much about the company before advertising it. Ethan didn't mention his depression in the sponsored video. Ethan is fucking dumb, but i don't think he's at fault here. he seemed to be upset at felix for trying to make it look like he played a bigger part then he did.
Ethan didn't say he was in a bad head space. he actually was honest and said he didn't know much about the company before advertising it. Ethan didn't mention his depression in the sponsored video. Ethan is fucking dumb, but i don't think he's at fault here. he seemed to be upset at felix for trying to make it look like he played a bigger part then he did
I mean bad head space as in depression. I don't believe that Ethans psychy will be at the best spot with his Hilas pregnancy and shit coming up. All I am saying is, I don't think depression will be the worst thing that he gets. I wish I was wrong, but only time will tell.
One argument that comes up really often is that a lot of youtubers are faking their inner demons, just to shill out for betterhelp. I personally believe Ethan just got a bit greedy, and was forced to make a video that essentially is a pity party. He is paying the price for bringing up his mental illness at that moment, and after that advertising a better company. In my opinion he is just dumb, but attacking the guy who came to burn down the house, because he "implied" you had a good part in the whole thing. That is a fantastic way to let this pass you by.
As for not knowing anything about advertising Betterhelp. The only defence a lot of youtubers like Ethan have right now is to come out with the deal they took for advertising. If it came out that a lot of them were offered a small sum of money, then they would be in the clear. They made a bit of money off of peoples problems, but at the same point they wanted to help them solve said problems. If Ethan did take 200 big ones per person who signed up and paid 350$, I don't think he could claim stupidity. I can't believe someone would just go along with this deal of a life time just like that without looking into it a bit more.
Ethan didn't say he was in a bad head space. he actually was honest and said he didn't know much about the company before advertising it. Ethan didn't mention his depression in the sponsored video. Ethan is fucking dumb, but i don't think he's at fault here. he seemed to be upset at felix for trying to make it look like he played a bigger part then he did.
I'd agree they weren't too far in the wrong for the initial advertisement, at least compared to some other people, but some of the shit he said on that podcast was disgusting. The same guy who's bitched for years about YouTube's lack of transparency acting like reading the fucking TOS of the things they advertise was way too hard just comes off as insanely disingenuous.
Then he claims anyone who sees something wrong with YouTubers getting a $200 bounty from this mess is a cynical troll contributing to the toxicity of YouTube, and says they deserve that bounty by comparing themselves to people who work with cancer nonprofits (because they're shilling a shady as hell mental health service without doing any homework).
