More or less. Feels like he's paying people in troll shielding, which for as long as Dicks been on the internet he should know is a bad idea. He also started kicking people out of the pay Discord who shit on furries too hard. The shows gone down hill in quality, it feels like he wants to have a show similar to the Killstream format with callers... except with the Killstream it works because it's open to anyone. For TDS it's a $20 + pay barrier that is wittled down to people who do the most free shit for Dick getting preferential treatment.
How big a stink Dick made over defending Riley and Mint is like nothing before. Don't get me wrong he's stuck up for show people before, but usually he leaves it at "Yeah, well I like em." and let people keep doing what they want to shit on them. Dick is now blocking people and rushing in to comments that don't mention Dick at all to defend them, and has wasted 3 shows already doing nothing but talking about these people refusing to accept people find them annoying and trying to spin it into "everyone is just jealous and is a hater." Now he's sperging and willfully ignoring the streisand effect he's causing.
My guess is Dick feels somewhat untouchable or is phoning it in and wants to do as little as possible for the show while still raking in the cash he's raking in and feels he can shield the people who enable it. All people who run anything trolling or controvesy related have a financial dependancy on NewProject2, and even if they aren't 100% willing to kiss Dicks ass when he fucks up that gets a lot of good will. Dick has a personal army of directionless dudes who are all internet e-bros in their own internet e-bro economy of tons of dumb podcasts and music, and they get to feel like they are some sort of winners and like they are part of a cool kids club which Dick validates in "exposure" and preferential treatment. Most drama streams he can ask to be a guest on and cover things the way he wants and Dick understands marketing.
Of course, not all of this falls on Dick. Hazencruz has been a lolcow for a while and him stabbing Dick in the back is pretty stupid. Miss phase is a furry which is lulzy, but she is getting spun into some money grubbing bitch when in reality she was addressing issues Dick has already admitted to (shitty at communication, sucks at payments, etc.), and a handful of artists revolting on him now seems strange when what's being learned isn't that it just started being this shitty, but it's ALWAYS been this shitty.
What we're seeing is what happens when you give people special treatment. In the early days, no one was protected other than "Yeah, I disagree." Furries and autists offer free services for positions of authority and recognition. You can't be that surprised when the normies check out, the autists stab you in the back, and the furries get dramatic weird and demand safe spaces when they get shit on. You can do this with regular businesses (to an extent) because people IRL are expected to act with a certain amount of professionalism, people do a little extra for free in hopes of promotions and oportunity that has monitary exchange.
Online, you are trading free labor for the person doing it wanting to co-opt certain parts of what you do to be a little bit more of what they wish it was. You trade free labor to have a coat tail rider use your brand for clout. You give up a little less of you to make it a little more like them, and if you turn on them they will stab you in the back and have clout to their claims because you let them have it. Even paying for it is no guarentee they won't feel entitled.
