Destery Smith "responds" a month later 

Isn't that the guy who had a segment on Shane Dawson's channel for years? Involved in a scandal with minors? I'm shocked, I tell you.

"I've made lovers" was a poor choice of words

The amount of youtubers I adored as a 13 year old that have turned out to be creeps is 🤢🤢🤢

He never even mentioned anything about the accusations of him being a groomer.. He only says “i was a bad person I’ve made mistakes but i changed” that speaks volumes to me.

“I’m not that person anymore” doesn’t apply when the topic of discussion is something as immoral and illegal as grooming and sexting minors

I hated that he said his brand was cringy sexual humor. It felt like a bullshit excuse and swing at blurring the lines between his humor style and what happened with minors. Like no.

"TwO sIDes tO eVeRy stORy"- Irrelevant, he's a grown ass man, they were children.

"My brand is sexual jokes" um. Boi jokes ain't the same as what you're being accused of

His apology sounded very much like a Shane Dawson apology. “I’m not that person anymore” “I was a huge piece of shit” “I’ve tried to distance myself from my past self”. Blah blah blah.

Can you imagine using ‘I’m not that person anymore’ as their defense in court?

Giulia... you're right. It feels like he didn't even acknowledge or apologize for what he was even accused of. What does him being a bad friend have to do with this? He is giving me "poor me, I'm nice now" incel vibes

That one dislike must be Destrey himself

Turning off the comments is a classic "I know i fucked up, people are mad, but I'm not gonna deal with it" move. Loving the Shego vibes!

It also lowkey sounds manipulative af, he keeps saying “cause you guys watched me for this humor the in the first place”... hmm sounds a lot like shane dawson....

This apology just screams “I’m sorry you think that” energy.

He took forever to say nothing of substance...this dude makes me so mad.

There are no "two sides of every story" when that story involves grooming minors.

Him saying "Im not going to drag someones name through the mud" is the same thing as Jeffery Star saying James Charles is a piece of shit I have reciepts and then he doesnt proceed show the reciepts.

Victims are not your lovers dude- Long story short “I’m a diet Shane Dawson with a thick scoop of Dahvie/Onionboy/insert any g r o o m e r that people grew up watching here”

This just goes to show not to idolize people you have never met. The disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.

Basically a "Sorry, not sorry" video.

at one point when he said that his weirdly sexual humor was "presumably the reason you even watched me in the first place" and if he ever crosses a line to just communicate that with him, it sounds very much like victim blaming to me it sounds like "well you watched me for my sexual humor so you should've just expected this from me"

When you said "we're a step away from grey hoodie/no makeup vibes" when describing destery's apology, you couldn't be more accurate 😭🤣

Did anyone else cringe when he said "lovers"? From the pit of my stomach, to the porcelain of the bowl...

The way he talks about his "mistakes" is so defensive. Sounds like he's asking for his viewers pity by starting off with " I am a terrible person", and distancing himself from his crime by using the past tense and talking about his personal growth journey "I worked on myself, I have great values now". ANd then he puts the responsability on his victims by saying "If I make you unconfortable or I cross the line, please communicate it to me. YOU tell me"

It’s disgusting -why are so many people on RU-vid and TikTok such creeps? ‘Oh, I have young fans -let’s have some fun with that.’

It sounds like what he's addressing is what that "ex-best friend" was talking about, what with the cheating and the lying about girlfriends and stuff. Not any of the grooming accusations or what ever. Which like, cool, I guess? lol

"I'm not that person anymore" = Having no one else to blame and acting as if their past self is a separate entity, so as not to take accountability.

Not only has he privated everything, but people literally have been trying to tell him what he's been doing wrong but he's acting like no one's giving him criticism.

I love how you connected your hair colour to the shirt character (Shego from Kim Possible)

Extremely disappointed in Destery. I can't support him anymore.

The moment Destery started talking in this video, I felt immediately sick to my stomach. I used to look up to Destery because he made me smile and laugh when I had some very dark times in my life. The fact that I was watching this person and idolizing him makes me feel so shitty about myself, especially knowing that some of the things that he did to these kids were happening to me at some point as well. I just wish that he would have owned up to anything he was accused of and properly apologized. It makes me feel ill.

Him: “I’m not the same person I was years ago” Victims/survivors from just a couple weeks ago: 🤨🤨🤨 ????

“If I ever slip up or you feel like I failed, communicate that with me” What he *REALLY* means is, “if you find out I’m attempting to groom a minor or being inappropriate, please let me know so I can hide from social media again”

oh boy, this should be a real trip and a half

Ugh this whole thing has been such a big disappointment to me. I used to watch him non stop :( Thank you so much for covering this

Him disabling comments and disabling the like and dislike bar tells me that he is more concerned about his ego than his actions.

How could he have sat and edited this and said to himself "Yes. This is the perfect apology."

"communicate with me" *has comments turned off, privated all social media and like/dislike ratio turned off* He really fits right in with Shane Dawson. I wonder if THAT is who he doesn't want to "drag through the mud' (as if Shane hasn't seen the bottomless pit of mud since last year)

as someone that used to be a fan of destery this just makes me so sad :(

Do I know who this guys is? No. Am I gonna watch anyway? Definitely because Giulia is a queen and deserves my support

The word "lover" is already weird and gross by itself, but him saying, "I've made lovers and I've lost lovers," referring to the underaged girls he would cheat on ex-girlfriend's with, is SUPER CREEPY and DISGUSTING! 🤮 Please don't EVER refer to ANYONE as your "lover!"

one of my friends told me his apology was good and genuine and that he was 100% innocent. it’s so sad to see his manipulation actually working.

At this point so many videos have been created discussing apology vids. You'd think people would figure that accountability is the main key in a decent apology video and anything short of that is just digging the hole deeper. love your makeup here!!!

“What I can and will admit to...” What can’t you admit to?

Him : talks about communication Also him : disables comments Also I'm not trying to disrespect the victims

His apology was trash af. Him turning off the comments means he’s straight up scared of how ppl will chastise him for his poor response lol. Plus him adding in that little self promo at the end of his video makes me believe he’s still actively talking to underage girls

My heart truly goes out to anyone negatively impacted by this situation. I never watched him too much, but I really heavily sympathize with the survivors’ stories I’ve heard. I wish people in power never abused it. On another note, I’m digging the aesthetic of this video!

He’s acting like it’s not his fault and he’s a victim. That’s ick.

Trying to make himself sound like a saint/martyr for "not exonerating himself" to save other people names from being brought up.

The “apology” sounds like a shit boyfriend trying to gaslight/convince you to stay, even though they have nothing positive to offer. And considering the situation and way he manipulated women and girls, that might be all he knows, and why he thought that video would work 🤬

Have a good day everyone :)

"I made lovers, I lost lovers..." YOU MEAN CHILDREN??

It's so tiring to see people "non-respond" like this

It's really annoying that he can't just own up to what he did and apologize, show that he's trying to do better and going to therapy or SOMETHING genuine. His video just seems hollow and staged because it's what's expected of him. The fact that he waited so long and doesn't show any evidence makes him look guilty.

I think he absolutely is talking about one of the victims when he says he "doesn't want to drag anyone's name through the mud". He implying there's some context to the situation that would make them out to be the bad one. He'd probably say something like they came onto him or they manipulated him. Hes the one trying to manipulate people and he's pretty bad at it. Like onision levels of bad

it’s really telling that he never actually says what he “allegedly” did. it keeps his fans that haven’t heard in the dark. some of them will just trust him and not look for the allegations. he also says something like “if you’ve watched me for a while you’ve seen me grow as a person” which preys on the parasocial relationship he has with some of his fans. his whole video is a big yikes.

You look so healthy today in this video, just glowing and pretty. I wanted to let you know. xo

I loved the Shego t-shirt, this video has two goth, green-themed queens XD

“I am still human” umm are you sure about that🤨

he really said “i may be a pedo & rapist but i’m not anymore🥺”

Summary ‘what I do is okay, because my humor is creepy and sexual-‘

"communicate with me" & has comments turned off- tells me EVERYTHING I need to know tbh Twitter and insta privated too? Yeahhhhh

“This isn’t someone making a shitty makeup palette,”... somewhere Jaclyn Hill is watching and felt the smack ✋🏽

equally excited and ready for disappointment

People gotta learn that "Sorry you got upset at what i did" Isn't an apology

Interesting how at the end he randomly brings up some of his accounts being hacked and having impersonators online so when people hear about the grooming allegations they can be like "oh that probably wasn't him cause there's creeps pretending to be him on the internet" Also, the fact that admits to being a terrible person and says he's changed but doesn't say he's sorry for what he did? Sus

I’m starting to think the beauty community is better just because all their problems are out in the open... And their problems don’t seem as extreme as this

I mean, it's not like I was expecting anything, but still My expectations were set below zero and he still managed to fall lower than that

his “apology” reminds me of that video jojas made about every youtuber apology

If you're past a certain point of behavior, "tell me if making you uncomfortable" just sounds like blaming the victim ( aka "it's your fault if you don't tell me you don't like something").

So... Creepy is his brand? Dear Lord, someone needs to introduce RU-vidrs to publicists or a PR firm or something this is getting ridiculous.

Does anyone else remember when he did a WTF News and he would brag about being one of the OG youtubers who had not had a scandal?

cant wait for this absolute train-wreck

I love the comment about how this is his BRAND and how that goes into how this "behavior" is what his viewers are there for. He's like, listen guys, I, Destery, may act like a bad person but really its your fault because you want me to act this way....Innocent until proven guilty my behind.

Reminds me of when a drunk guy was creeping on me in front of my fiance and when the drunk dudes friends asked him to apologize to me his apology was something along the lines of "I'm sorry for whatever I am supposed to be sorry for." Like just don't apologize you pos.

I love how people think something this serious can just be thrown under the rug by saying, "That was the past me, I'm not that person anymore." -_- IT WAS A CRIME!

He straight up acted like it all happened years ago but it was so much more recent like there's your WTF News

His ex best friend , the person who knows him the most even spoke against him. I rolled my eyes so hard when you started playing his video.

I feel like him saying “if I cross a boundary or a line please let me know” is his way of removing responsibility off of himself and onto his audience. Shouldn’t he be the one making sure he isn’t over stepping? I feel like if he made an inappropriate joke and people were to call him out, he would shift it to “well no one told me it was bad”

I think he’s trying to insinuate that the last few years it wasn’t “him” on Snapchat and other social media doing those things but his “hackers” did. 🙄

“We weren’t far from the grey hoody no makeup” - no, we were exactly there tbh

Love your takes, you help me feel sane

he really said "i didn't do anything bad. source? just trust me >:("

He's pulling the Shia defense where it's supposed to be enough to say he's a huge piece of shit but not own anything he's actually done.

Instead of asking fans to tell him if any accusations are proven to be true or if he "goes too far" in the future, why can't he be an adult and own up to the accusations that are true and work on himself in private

_"I'm sorry I got caught for being a groomer."_ Fixed his apology for him. P.s heh heeeeh iss Shegooooo! XD

It’s that “reach out to me. Tho I disabled comments.” For me

"My brand is weird creepy sexual humour" its 2021 can't it just,, not be?? Like way to tell on yourself

This is so scary to me because the time when my friends and I were underaged they definitely had massive crushes on this guy and many other types of youtubers who eventually were busted as creeps. Like they would seriously watch them religiously for the emo/scene/skater alt band boy types. Same girls who were in love with All Time Low, Sleeping With Sirens etc. I always thought it was weird how they had an obsession for these mild looking unfunny cringey guys but I digress.

damn i clicked so fast

In the far off I can hear Yvie Oddly scream: "WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHIIIIIING" (for the potential drag race fans around here lol)

i’m early for once 😭

I definitely need some Holy Water mist after that!!✨💧✨ 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️💯🤣🤣

FIRST

Wowwww just listening to him.... So much vagueness and distancing, placing blame on this other person who is his past self. Such a manipulative, gaslight-y move

Man this is the first youtuber I actually have watched for a while that she's done a video on and I have no idea how to feel I haven't watched him since all this broke

“Communicate with me, tell me how I’m hurting you... just don’t leave 😉 “

It really disturbs me how often they like to minimize the power imbalance that occurs even when just talking casually and friendly. It's basic psychology, they have literal influence over a mass of people who you share common interest, who are your online and sometimes real-life community, and if you were to be demonized by the influencer or youtuber you'd be shut out from all of that. Versus if the fan breaks up and at the worst tried to trash him online, they wouldn't have nearly the effect of the influencer. Its inappropriate for them to chat with minors completely. Besides, why would you need to talk to them in the first place? Do it on a public platform at least if you want to get personal with fans, similarly to how people meet up in public places rather than private. Shows you have nothing to hide.

I feel so fucking let down by this "apology" holy shit. I was a fan of his for YEARS. He was one of the first people I ever subscribed to back in the day, never thought I'd see him be accused of being a groomer. This truly is the worst timeline (╥﹏╥)