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ChristianU2uber is a Youtube phenomenon who has generated hundreds of thousands of views with his videos- but not because they were good. It’s hard to imagine the hateful vitriol that has been thrown at him unless you see them for yourself. Christianu2ubers account was hacked, he made a second account and that got was hacked. Multiple people said “f*gs should die”, “homo”, “I hate you”, “die”.

He is a twelve year old boy.

The videos make me think he needs counseling, but also I wonder how it is that he managed to do all this without his parents knowing. My feeling is that this boy is struggling with sexuality but still loves his faith. Conflict between religious beliefs and physical impulses is common at that age.

Several Youtubers expressed incredulity that this kid’s parents would allow him online, at least one posted a video begging his parents to step in.

Recently, police identified the boy and asked him to stop making videos, but the videos have been copied and now fake ChristianU2ubers are using them.

These Youtube phenoms are a part of Web 2.0 culture, but this is a real person, not just a character. He picked just about the worst subjects ever to make videos about- anything controversial is bound to stir things up and ChristianU2uber decided to tackle sex and religion in one video. Since Youtube is anonymous, you can post whatever you want with impunity and people often choose to express their views with venom.

It’s a brilliant marketplace of ideas- but everything comes at a price.

If you post a video for black history month, the white supremacists might find something to say. If you post a video about Obama, extreme right wingers will find something to say. If you post a video about feminism, misogynists will post graphic descriptions of rape fantasies.

It’s better for the young to use Google video.

World Net Daily did a story on this wherein they basically called ChristianU2uber a Christian martyr standing against the forces of darkness.This is accurate to an extent.

If he had said he was for gay marriage, they would have still teased him. I have noticed that many of these users are teens or kids his own age. They sensed his weakness. Chris Crocker’s videos provide a good example of this- they tear him up, too.

Also, ChristianU2uber does get angry and lash out at his tormentors by swearing and threatening them. I engaged one of the tormentors in conversation and asked him if he realized he was making his beliefs look bad- that people would point to atheism as a form of perversion when they saw what was going on. The youtuber replied:

guess what? im not atheist im a christian….get your facts straight before you even THINK about placing a label on me of any sort

So, this isn’t a war of ideologies as World Net Daily Implied. It’s good old fashioned playground bullying- with a twist.

However, there were plenty of atheists blasting him for his religious videos.They were completely out of control, prompting one atheist youtuber named gormanilius to make this video defending him:

His other defenders include a professed atheist named TommyFromTheBronx and a user named Emmaline, but for the most part, the comments look like this:

Jacobdog97 

wow your a gay h**o… get a life fatty

Ballers52034

i hate this kid but god is real

The1337Juice 
WOW WHAT A F*G! GO SUCK A C**K!

Noz0r 
your an epic fail, your gay, hahah

Sampson6149 u swallow hard u dumb s**t h**o f****

Bolzmann13  h**o
h**o
h**o
h**o
h**o
h**o
h**o

This last one is extremely popular. It is copied and pasted all over his videos. These people do not seem to care about gays, so I don’t think they’re simply reacting to his gay marriage comment. No one seems to have standards here. Some of the so-called Christian posters basically said “I go to church, but you’re a h**o”. There were others who egged him on, telling the boy to keep it up and how important it was for him to stand against “liberal democrats”.

It would have been better to tell this child to stop making videos and go read a book- maybe take a break from the book of Revelations.People take advantage of the anonymity of the Internet to engage in bad behavior. They don’t seem to think of it as “real.”

This kid was bashed for his sexuality, his religion, his looks. Perhaps if people thought that there was a way of tracing their words back to them, they would stop what they are doing.Unfortunately, he is now one of the most recognizable faces on the web. There are even “I hate ChristianU2uber” Myspace layouts.

A youtube video is an exercise in free speech itself. By harassing someone and hacking into their account, these violent Internet junkies are taking away someone else’s free speech.In light of the death of 11 year old Jaheem Hererra and other instances of bullying, we all need to be aware of this and stick up for those people where necessary.

Even in virtual reality.