Disability does not make you plagiarise - An Epileptic Response

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2024 03 06 - I made the video public again. I needed a good minute to think about, whether to keep the video up or not. I am still not sure what to do with this. I think the discussion and commentary about disability and how we perceive and react to it is important and warranted. I stand by what I said in the video.
I however feel not equipped to moderate possible discussions of (possible) suicide and self-harm in the comment section. I ask you to not discuss this in a RU-vid comments section, nothing will be accomplished by doing so, a RU-vid video's comments section is not the place to discuss the complexity of the situation.
I will delete comments that lead into speculation or further talk about suicide, Somerton's current status, etc. until further notice. Maybe I end up privating or deleting the video all together in the end, I don't know yet.
I already feel disheartened that this is statistically the best performing video I have ever made so far, I am struggling to figure out the ethicality of leaving it online. I know online numbers don't represent the quality of a piece of work. Just feels odd. I am happy about all the new subscribers, but I hope you stick around for art and animation, rather than internet discourse.
Again, I find the comments section so far is incredibly nuanced and is full of people telling their disability and discrimination experiences, which is great! I would like to keep it that way.
-
2024 03 05 - unlisting the video until further notice. thanks for understanding. 2024 03 05
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2024 03 02 - I got angry when watching James Somerton's "A Measured Response". The Responses to the Response also made me think about how people jump at the chance to question a disabled person's symptoms and conditions, in order to score a point.
TLDR:
1. We do not need to doubt his disability or severity of symptoms, in order to criticise Somerton's Response and Past Actions.
2. Disability does not make you plagiarise other people's work.
3. People can be assholes AND be disabled, but one does not cause the other.
4. Learn Seizure First Aid.
Sources from the video:
(1) Somerton, J. (2024): “A Measured Response”. Video
(2) Somerton, J. (2022): “Podreon Ep. 6 - BURN OUT! (Patreon)” archive.org/details/james-som...
(3) Somerton, J. (2022): “Podreon Ep.8 - Memories of Me”. Note: labelled in Archive as Episode 9 archive.org/details/james-som...
(4) Somerton, J. (2022): Transcript.github.com/tustin2121/James_S...
(5) Somerton, J. (2022): Transcript. github.com/tustin2121/James_S...
(6) Epilepsy foundation. (n.d.): “Types of Seizures”. www.epilepsy.com/what-is-epil...
(7) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (n.d.): “Seizure First Aid” www.cdc.gov/epilepsy/about/fi...
(8) Lindsay, S.; Fuentes, K. (2022): “It Is Time to Address Ableism in Academia: A Systematic Review of the Experiences and Impact of Ableism among Faculty and Staff”. www.mdpi.com/2673-7272/2/2/14
(9) Cahn, L. (2023): “Lil Wayne's History With Epilepsy Explained”. www.healthdigest.com/437712/l...
(10) Epilepsia, 44 (2003): The History and Stigma of Epilepsy onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/p...
Thanks to Tustin2121 and the excellent archiving of Somerton's output for providing me with (2)-(5)
Additional links and resources:
pastebin.com/SbbNBCGL
Proofreaders
- your friendly neighborhood disabled axolotl
- Mack - / brainbuffering
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1 мар 2024

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@SirisLayer 4 месяца назад

EDIT 2024/03/06 - I will delete comments that debate the current situation in relation to Suicide. I don't think a video's comment section is the right place to discuss suicide and the circumstances around it. We do not know what is going on right now, I would ask you to focus on the subject of disability, the concept and questions proposed to the video or engaging in existing comment exchange. If comments get out of hand (I am low-key hoping unlisting has stopped the video from rotating in the algorithm), I will reconsider unlisting/privatising or deleting the video. More info in video description. EDIT 2024/03/05 I've unlisted the video for now. I don't know how comfortable I am with this being completely public when it's unclear wether Somerton is alive. 2024/03/02 - When you go play DnD for a few hours and return to find s o m e more comments. Oops. Love the comment section so far, a lot of interesting insight, perspective and info! I can't really blame people for not believing anything Somerton claims, but can't bring myself to join them, and that is a me problem, I suppose. Please don't mistake my relatively calm voice for a lack of anger or scepticism. I am constantly unlearning a lot of ableism and ableistic presumptions myself, disability advocacy is often very nuanced and complex. This is just kind of the conclusion that makes me sleep at night. Anyways thanks for staying civil so far. In case anyone plans on staying around, I don't have release schedules, I don't have a plan on what comes next. If you like animation, it'd be nice if you check out my original animation (anything without TAZ in front). I want to make more of that again eventually. If you find the time, please watch my animated short "Carry On - About Domestic Violence and Abuse against Men". I know it's a heavy topic, (don't watch it if you're in a v bad mental head space, it does end with survival though!) but it's my last long-term project I brought to a close and it'd be nice if it was seen by a wider audience. Cheers! EDIT: I also need to add it is fantastically refreshing seeing so many voices and experiences from people with epilepsy, memory issues, adhd and disabilitiesin general! (including caretakers and people in caretaker roles)

@Romanticoutlaw 4 месяца назад

I'm going to go out on a limb and take a wild guess that epilepsy does not make you look at a chunk of text in a completely different style, where the writer relates their trans experience to the subject, and say "I, a cis person, probably wrote that part". And then change all the mentions of "trans" to "queer", like a coward.

@SirisLayer 4 месяца назад

You know, so far I don't think this set of symptoms is listed on the typical epilepsy awareness pages (epilepsy foundation, epilepsy action, etc). So Somerton would be exhibiting very special unique set of symptoms, indeed.

@bethanybrookes8479 4 месяца назад

@SirisLayer it's also not anywhere in the ADHD symptoms. What do ya know: disability doesn't make someone an asshole, they are just assholes who happen to be disabled and then hide behind it as an excuse when they get called out. I wish there weren't people like that in such prominent places, but unfortunately that is the case. And it sucks.

@Idkpleasejustletmechangeit 4 месяца назад

@@bethanybrookes8479 speak for yourself! *_I_* have ADHD and I always get the urge to take someone elses writing claim it to be my own! I just write it down, get distracted and marvelously forget that I actually wanted to quote the page I have open next to the writing propgram, and instead think I wrote it myself and that the other guy stole my unpublished writing from me. Then I shake my head in disapproval. That's what ADHD is. It actually stands for "Asshole Dplagerism Hliar Disorder".

@idontwantahandlethough 4 месяца назад

@@Idkpleasejustletmechangeit I must say, you have a knack for acronyms :D

@danielbroome5690 3 месяца назад

@@bethanybrookes8479 Yeah, as someone with ADHD, I'd definitely recognize that there are a range of symptoms, but obviously that isn't one of them and in general you could tell he was outright lying at that part. I frankly don't even believe he ever even talked to a doctor about ADHD because every thing he said about it was on the level of a layman's understanding of OCD and thinking it means you like being neat and tidy. All of his ADHD points were basically just based on stereotypes.

@EurydiXe 4 месяца назад

Somerton’s list of excuses for plagiarism: - Head injury - Memory issues - Epilepsy - Not taking notes - ADHD - His editor, Nick - He literally forgor

@kittycatcrunchie 4 месяца назад

Not sorry :( i forgor

@costelinha1867 4 месяца назад

Don't forget the "I didn't plagiarize, I literally gave credit to the author in the description of my video..... (after he complained that I plagiarized from him...)"

@christinescreativitycabine280 4 месяца назад

Here's some more: -The RU-vid algorithm made me crank out videos real fast in order to make a living -My mom died of cancer -My dad is illiterate -Nick made me move to Toronto, and it's SO EXPENSIVE to live there! -I had to make videos I didn't want to make because you guys requested them -I thought adding "Based on (one of my sources)" to my opening credits made copying and pasting OK. Sorry, I know better than that now, but I didn't back then. -I had to move twice in a 2-month period, but I won't tell you why -I emailed one of my sources after posting one of my videos and asked if it was OK with him and he said it was. So, see? Sometimes I got PERMISSION! And here's some excuses for the misinformation: -Stuff just "got put into" the videos. Seriously, creators, you need to be really careful with your scripts, or bits of misinformation that you NEVER INTENDED to be there will just sneak into them on their own. -I trusted people that I thought were experts -Nick is asexual so I took his word for it on anything about asexuality. -Nick wrote most of the videos. But I'm not trying to throw him under the bus, really! -I wanted my channel to be a safe place where all LBGTQIA+ people felt welcome, but I didn't realize that putting down members of that community that aren't cis-gender gay men was counter to that goal. Sorry, I know better than that now, but I didn't back then. -Did I mention Nick? Nick wrote everything! Nick forced me to copy and paste! Nick forgot to spray the scripts with misinformationcide. But I'm not throwing him under the bus, really, truly!

@luisf2793 4 месяца назад

@@christinescreativitycabine280 Now here’s his reasoning for his failed movie career 1. You guys didn’t trust me when I said 3k is totally good enough to make a short film 2. Had to move, couldn’t possibly film where I already planned everything to film in and also move my home somewhere else, no filmmaker works outside his home. 3. Can’t find the right location, even though I already had a plan location to film in since I moved I of course also had to move film location and this new place doesn’t have anywhere to film in, totally nothing I can but delay the project to February 31st 4. After spending all that time not filming anything I decided to spent time writing something else I am not going to film in the end either. 5. I was busy casting for the movie I haven’t written the script for 6. It turns out 3k is not enough to film a movie, if only someone told me 7. I got a producer that apparently never had before despite claims of other people investing in my productions, but the Hbomberguy decided to be a tattletale and I am too busy defending myself from being called a scammer to make my fan funded movie I promised people

@user-su3eo8kn8l 3 месяца назад

Also Nick, Nick, his co-writer Nick, Nick, his friend Nick, his ex-friend Nick and MOST IMPORTANTLY, Nick

@neverneverland5836 4 месяца назад

This is such a refreshing perspective. I've watched several videos where the creator ridicules the idea that James could have possibly been let go from a job due to ableist employers, and the idea that epilepsy could affect someone's life further than doctor's visits and meds - just because they're in "criticise excuses" mode. The way he handled his disability and it's effects on his work were inexcusable, especially because he has known about his issues since childhood, and it could never get rid of the harm he has done, but people forget that making fun of one person's disability doesn't only affect that one person.

@vsm6847 4 месяца назад

The problem is that James is a habitual liar, and at this point, no one can or should believe anything he says. I don’t believe he was fired from a job because he had epilepsy. I don’t believe he has epilepsy. I don’t believe anything at all he’s saying, not because I’m making fun of a disability, but because he’s a liar. I don’t believe he’s capable of telling the truth.

@river_brook 4 месяца назад

@@vsm6847 that said, given the epilepsy's relevance to plagiarism, I still figure we can dunk on him without making "lying about disability" load-bearing

@inkypunk 4 месяца назад

My main issue was he's doing the "I'm so disabled it stopped me writing any scripts, feel sorry for me" but he also moved across the country and was claiming to run a whole film production company (which he never finished a script for) while taking people's money. James, my dude, priorities?? Like Siri says in the video, he should have hired someone to help if he was aware of his problems.

@eliscanfield3913 4 месяца назад

yep. I could be a terrible person *and also* be fired simply for being disabled.

@fool4343 4 месяца назад

honestly. its not hard to keep the stance against him w/o being ableist fired for disability? that sucks, disabled people deserve better forgot to put sources? you could think a bit and come to the conclusion, that you can forget such things. i dont have severe memory issues, my memory may be even perfect but im constantly doubting it so i would ask people around me for help with that, maybe even fine

@bigbadgammagnome 4 месяца назад

As someone with epilepsy and memory issues, James Somerton blaming his plagiarism on his epilepsy makes me irate. Full rabid dog, frothing at the mouth, unbridled rage. I have memory issues but I have never - never - had issues citing my sources. Instead, people have thought I was uncaring for forgetting their names or birthdays, when in truth I really cared but these details had just vanished in my brain, without my want. I have to write things down or repeat them over and over to commit them to memory, and it doesn't always work. It's like I don't have a choice in what my brain retains. If he truly suffers from this feeling, I can relate, and it sucks. However, while memory issues manifest in different ways, I am certain that conveniently forgetting to cite your sources every time you write a script is not one of them. Especially when James LIED and covered his tracks once his plagiarism was first pointed out to him. Only after Hbomb's video did he finally, finally, admit he plagiarised, and still doesn't fully admit what he did. Fuck this dude, seriously. I'm glad this video exists that shares my frustrations. Thank you for making it, I'm gonna go de-stress and try and force my brain to forget this man exists because his weaponinsing of mental illness makes me so mad.

@SirisLayer 4 месяца назад

I think you worded pretty well how i felt upon watching Somerton's video ("full rabid dog, frothing at the mouth, unbridled rage"). So - this video response is quite filtered in all the things I could say. I hope you have a great sunday and a good start into the week! Let's focus on the positive things in our lives.

@bigbadgammagnome 4 месяца назад

@@SirisLayerYou're absolutely right. Same to you, also your art in this video was amazing as usual. I was so distracted by Somerton making me mad that I forgot to mention I really liked it.

@nightmarehound 4 месяца назад

Re: memory issues, which I tend to suffer from as well, along with having had a hobby that required a lot of crediting. I could definitely believe he'd forget the sources, because keeping track of multiple sources for multiple citations is definitely taxing especially if you have a flow going and are moving from source to source quickly.... But the thing is, if you then still *choose* to use those quotes while being aware you don't remember where you got them, THAT is an issue. (Doubly so due all the pure mistakes pointed out by ToddInTheShadows, because if he weren't so complacent of not citing his info, some of those could have been avoided) I can't believe that he'd look at a script, large portions of it quoted and go "I sure thought up and wrote all that myself", because that isn't "memory problems" anymore.

@krh6239 4 месяца назад

I know many people who share his health issues. I could understand the occasional mess-up. But this? This was a deliberate, consistent choice.

@shining_valoka 4 месяца назад

@@nightmarehound honest question here: can't you just google it and find where it came from?

@phangkuanhoong7967 4 месяца назад

i have ADHD and i;m a writer for food websites, and my ADHD has never once made me "accidentally" plagiarized anyone. Neutral divergence/diversity is not an excuse for terrible behaviour and practices.

@larissabrglum3856 4 месяца назад

My ADHD might make me, at worst, forget to cite something here and there.

@SomeOne-vf1rs 4 месяца назад

So I have ADD (I’ve been told it doesn’t exist anymore and it’s all just ADHD but I don’t feel like the H fits me damnit), my dad has it, my whole family is hugely disorganized. All throughout highschool I could not stop myself from writing on and on and on, word limits were always harder to deal with than word minimums. I know that other people will experience it differently but James blaming his laziness and not being able to write one damn thing himself on ADHD is just insane to me.

@saratoga6663 3 месяца назад

@@SomeOne-vf1rsit’s all adhd because there’s three different skill trees; inattentive, hyperactive, and combination. So you’d be an ADHD specing Inattentive by current definition (as it dissolved ADD) I am too. (I wouldn’t say ADD is defunct as a descriptor anyway as it clearly communicates an experience, it was redundant in the medical field due to its similarities with ADHD which doesn’t really affect everyday people)

@saratoga6663 3 месяца назад

@@SomeOne-vf1rsalso I had the complete opposite problem, I could never write the the word limit once it went above 700/800 cause I’d never be organised enough to have the time for it

@StuckInProgrammers 4 месяца назад

"A justification attempt disguised as a partial apology" is the best/most succinct description of Somerton's video that I've heard. I'm glad you shared your perspective!

@greyghoulclub 4 месяца назад

I am livid about him blaming his misdeeds on adhd. Also there is absolutely no way he didn’t know about academic plagiarism. He has a degree, he knows how to cite source correctly. Even a STEM student like myself has to take a course on what plagiarism is and how to cite correctly in academic spaces. And as you said yourself, when you have any issues that affect academic performance/progress you learn how to compensate for it. There is no way, even if James was undiagnosed, that he didn’t have his systems to help himself through his studies.

@theviewer6889 4 месяца назад

I'm doing art in college (not art college, just regular college) and we've had the "This is what counts as plagiarism" talk a few times, as well as a printed worksheet that explains it. He should know better.

@cassieisnothere 4 месяца назад

Exactly this!

@PunishedFelix 4 месяца назад

What's crazy is that he's not even the only STEM who should know better. E.D.G.E. on dinosaur-tube just got outed as a serial plagiarizer a few weeks ago.

@asmrtpop2676 4 месяца назад

James also reminds me of my epileptic ex who on my birthday claimed to be having a seizure all day but I later found out they were ghosting me to cheat on me. Both definitely have epilepsy. And both definitely are liars.

@CainXVII 4 месяца назад

I am autistic and always got very nervous about not citing sources correctly in school. I also always had trouble remebering where something came from. So what I did was I always wrote the source in at the same time as I wrote the text. Because when you have problems like this you tend to find ways to compensate for them. If I didn't add the source at the same time I would end up having to erase what I wrote because I couldn't find my source again, so I quickly learned. But I guess me in school and him making his living had different standards for plagiarizing.

@sophiamcdougall5908 4 месяца назад

The thing I keep coming back to is, even if you hadn't done that -- say your compensation tactics just weren't that well refined or you were too swamped by life circumstances or other symptoms to deploy them properly -- you _wouldn't have been passing off other people's work as your own._ You might not have remembered where something came from, but you'd remember damn well it wasn't yours. I mean, if he'd started every video with "here's a bunch of interesting quotes about queer cinema I found. Can't remember where I got them from, sorry" ... that wouldn't have been _good_, because the writers wouldn't have been getting their due, but I wouldn't call it plagiarism because he wouldn't be pretending it was his own work. But he didn't do that, because then he wouldn't have had a career, because, as he knows perfectly well, that wasn't what anyone came to his channel for. Presenting himself as an original thinker and scholar was his entire raison d'etre. And he built that illusion, knowingly, entirely at other people's expense.

@PartanBree 4 месяца назад

Same here, not autistic (I think) but I've always had memory problems and a lot of anxiety about forgetting things, so I have so many little habits and strategies and ways of checking things to make sure that nothing really important relies on me remembering it. I feel like most people with chronic memory problems are similar. It can actually act as such as effective mitigation that those people end up better at "remembering things" than those who have never had to doubt their memory and so are more slapdash. I used to see this when I was teaching, students who wouldn't take any notes or do any practice because they just assumed they would remember things when they needed to. That works, until suddenly it doesn't!

@ratune_wav 4 месяца назад

As an epileptic who has grand mal & focal seizures, thank you for mentioning it! Not enough people outside the medical feild acknowledge or understand that there are multible. Seeing James Somerton excuse his plagierism with epilepsy and adhd (whitch i also have) is sickening. Memory issues and disability doesn't make someone systimaticly change words, and continue to do so after being called out by fans in the past.

@mythcat1273 3 месяца назад

"Your honor, I have ADHD. Therefore, there was nothing I could do to stop myself from robbing that bank."

@torenchao 4 месяца назад

my issue is- if he's AWARE that his 'memory issues' might cause him to 'forget' he had used someone else's words as a placeholder... WHY WOULDN'T HE JUST WRITE IT DOWN IN THE SCRIPT ALONGSIDE IT??? his arguments are absolutely transparent if you think about it for more than half a second

@helenross3037 4 месяца назад

i find it so frustrating when people use disability or mental health issues as an excuse. they might be an explanation, but not an excuse. i still acted in that way, even if it was not 100% my choice.

@kas5564 4 месяца назад

Fellow epileptic creator here, who currently isn't able to work. I wanted to thank you for sharing both your unique and emotional art and essay.

@SirisLayer 4 месяца назад

Do you have an account or plattform where I can check out your work? :D

@BlindZubat 4 месяца назад

That pissed me off as well. My favorite Aunt has epilepsy. She didn’t get her first job til she was 30. That was after she was on meds to control the seizures. She had a seizure at work one day and the first thing out of her mouth was “Please don’t fire me. I need to provide for my son.” She never blames her mistakes on her condition. I developed a medical condition at 16 that affected my sight and ability to remember short term things. It’s not my fault my memory is affected. It is my responsibility to take that into account and make contingency plans to account for it. Seriously, make an in house code to flag the thing you need to go back and add citation to. Then hit control f. Not that hard.

@TissuDemon 4 месяца назад

I can only hope he didn't make his mothers cancer all about him while she was still alive. He didn't say anything about how she felt, what she was going through, he made her suffering and death all about him.

@larissabrglum3856 4 месяца назад

Yeah, I honestly feel terrible for her

@laural.53 4 месяца назад

I also have epilepsy and that part of Somerton's video bothered me so much, but I couldn't clearly put my finger on why, outside of feeling like he's weaponizing an invisible, poorly understood disability. Your observation that he's reinforcing the bias that disabled people can't be trusted with work is *exactly* it. I was diagnosed in my early 20s and the one thing I kept hearing from family was 'Don't tell anyone you have epilepsy or you won't be able to keep a job', which can do a lot of damage to your self-worth. To be totally honest, I struggle with giving Somerton the benefit of the doubt or a good-faith reading of his apology because there are people who are only now hearing about epilepsy through his video and the first thing they learn is that it’s a contributing factor to intellectual theft. But I do appreciate that you spoke on this without questioning his disability, even though he’s constantly lied about pretty much everything. This is an actual measured response.

@wingedmayhem 4 месяца назад

I have memory issues and im trying to gather the courage to get tested for ADHD, and i didnt doubt his diagnosis but his use of it greatly annoyed me when i watched his video. Id rather have someone faking these things than harass someone who actually has them by accident, but man, i know for a fact that if i forgot i pasted something in and forgot i did so, id also be able to recognize as much. But theres even more ways you could prevent this from happening too! If you have such a hard telling as much, paste the stuff that you didnt write into its own separate section and then pull from there when citing or trying to remember what point you wanted to make. If you know you struggle with this theres an infinite number of ways you can literally male it easier for yourself

@PITTcms27 4 месяца назад

I think this annoyed me so much because - the copy/paste error happening once, maybe? But consistently over several years! Plus, to know you have this "issue" but to fight back so viciously when anyone brought up potential plagiarism? Then he ends the 'apology' saying he removed portions of the videos that were plagiarized so they could be reposted or that only included Nick's writing - how can we trust him to do that?! How do you remember, James?

@Runix1 4 месяца назад

2:20 ctrl+shift+T should re-open all lost tabs. Can also open any that you may've closed by accident :D

@SirisLayer 4 месяца назад

That's possible, but I had it in the past (with worse PCs than now) that I had so many tabs, that reopening and recovering the sessions would automatically crash my browsers. It was a nightmare. So I just lost all of it and had to manually climb my history to find sources again... I really like things like TabHamster etc that just save specific sessions of tabs.

@kaworunagisa4009 4 месяца назад

Different people have different operating systems and different browsers, which have different shortcuts and different functionality. Bottom line is, find whatever works for you but don't assume it works for everyone else.

@SirisLayer 4 месяца назад

@@kaworunagisa4009 pretty much, I think Runix1's comment was very polite and helpful though! nothing bad, I hope I was not rude in my response either.

@Runix1 4 месяца назад

@@SirisLayer Not rude in the slightest! Something more robust like TabHamster is absolutely a great idea, especially when you're doing something as critical as researching for a script. My advice was admittedly pretty situational, though I'm certain there's equivelant shortcuts for most browsers. With how many tabs I've got open in four different browsers, it's probably about time for me to look for a solution like that as well 😅

@Sootielove 4 месяца назад

The ableist backlash against Somerton suck and I fully believe that he's struggled with ADHD, epilepsy, and grief, but in the same way he's talked about his impulsivity and lack of emotional regulation, he seems self-aware enough to know that he needs to find coping mechanisms and avoid youtube like the plague until he has them. I have neurodivergencies that made university break me in half, but I refused to get accommodations until it was too late because I was terrified of coming off like I was using them as excuses. Since then I have used every accommodation and trick to save me in the workforce and it's been great. I no longer make as many mistakes or cave under the same pressure. I hope Somerton can recognise he might need the same help and find a more suitable field

@Terrorkittens 4 месяца назад

Yeah, at someone with severe memory issues due to ADHD, and chronic pain leading to brain fog, and recurring migraines, I often need to paste in sometimes huge pieces of text that I'm commenting on/working with, because even just tabbing out to seeing an article in another window and back is enough for me to entirely forget what I was doing. And yet I have never had isues with plagiarism, because I know of this issue of mine, so I add links to the beginning of the document, COLOUR CODE THEM WITH A HIGHLIGTER, AND THEN COLOUR EVERY BLOCK OF PASTED TEXT ACCORDINGLY. If this happened once and he went: "Oh shit, that was bad, I need to set up a system to help me manage this!" and he had, I would have been much more understanding.

@wendyheatherwood 4 месяца назад

I'd be more inclined to believe the excuse of memory issues if it only happened a few times. Like, if there was a script written over the course of a few weeks on and off while also working on other videos, and there was stuff added in during week one that got mistaken for original work in week three... I can believe that as a thing that occasionally happens and maybe the person responsible doesn't realise it's happened because they've never caught it, but he's had his plagiarism brought up directly to him multiple times. Even if every single time he did it was an accident, he's been made aware of it. Once he knew he had the potential to do that, it was on him to put measures in place to make sure he was less likely to do it again.

@elenanojkovic2554 4 месяца назад

I actually did the "directly copy-past" thing while writing my master thesis. You know, something when, if plagiarism is discovered, you can get kicked out of school. However, the unedited blocks of text were in red and I'd put a reference next to whatever I was writing (I used symbols such as %, &, €, etc. before I sorted trough my referenced and numerated them by order of appearance). Bc yeah, I probably have misdagnosed ADHD, I was also battling burnout-caused depressive episode (so bad I felt no joy when I received my medical licence) and migraines, which cause brain fog which, when combined with the rest and chronic lack of sleep, can make your memory foggy. So I tagged things. Because I knew I had these issues. Because that as not the first thing I've ever written.

@birdenthusiast5421 4 месяца назад

I hate that people like James Somerton will take advantage of empathy and faith in the truthfulness of others for personal gain. I despise the tendency of people to be treated like liars from the get-go online when discussing problems like invisible disabilities or trauma, and people like James clearly do not care about encouraging that rhetoric with his blatant excuses. It's impossible to believe him given the sheer magnitude of his lies, and total lack of willingness to ACTUALLY engage with what he did wrong. I still feel embarrassed that I actually choked up feeling bad for him when he was crying at the beginning of that first deleted apology- there will always exist people who will use your empathy against you. But I still want to choose empathy and believe in people until they give me good reason not to. It's just so deeply painful to listen to someone use the struggles you've experienced as a (failed) defense for behaving reprehensibly and knowing that whether or not they're lying about that experience really being theirs, it's done damage to the image people will have of you and everyone else like you.

@ShadowKeaton2 4 месяца назад

Thank you for making this response! I’m a caregiver and have clients with epilepsy. They are still amazing individuals! One of them has complex focal seizures, she holds down a job at a Subway that she loves. They are wonderful with working with her around her disabilities. Another one he gets absent, tonic focal seizures. It’s difficult for him as his can be very rapid, lasting just seconds at a time one right after another. He’s one that requires a lot more support and cannot work a regular job. I have adhd with memory issues, chronic migraines, multiple scoliosis and fibromyalgia. I never use any of my health problems to excuse anything. I know what my limits are, my bosses, coworkers and staff understand and work with me on it as well. It doesn’t feel genuine what James Somerton has said. It’s only a bs apology. “I’m sorry, but…” is a total non-apology and everything after the but discounts everything he is sorry for.

@saganrak 4 месяца назад

This comment is awesome; thank you for writing it!

@MrUppertorso 4 месяца назад

I also really don’t want to doubt that Somerton is lying about this, and it’s true that’s it’s not my place to judge the facts on that… however, it also has to be said that a big part of Somerton’s plagiarism was taking the experiences of others and either making it his own, or dulling it down to an “every man” perspective. I understand why people might be skeptical.

@forestine_ 4 месяца назад

thank you for this perspective. as someone with ADHD, i am just so tired of people blaming their bad behaviour on ADHD. ADHD does not make people plagiarize, over and over, for years.

@TJtheBee 4 месяца назад

I am disabled (autism, ADHD) and have experienced trauma both in coincidence and as a result of said disabilities. There are days - many days - where I feel like I could be a total asshole and justify it with my experiences. I could let the vitriol that was taught to me and passed down to me rule the way I run my life. I could be an unrepentant jerk. I know I have that in me. And every time that happens, I swallow it back, and I choose to be as good as I can be. I have learned to be awful, I have learned to be abusive, I have learned to be mean. That *doesn't mean* I let that excuse my behavior in any way, shape, or form. If I am a jerk, I am a jerk. It doesn't matter who or what taught me to be a jerk, what matters is that I Have Been A Jerk. The things I do, I have to be responsible for, regardless of why. So yeah, I could be an irredeemable asshole who doesn't cite sources and lies to their audience, too. But I don't. I make the conscious choice to be better. Because - surprise surprise - regardless of my disabilities and experiences, I can still be good. Somerton does a massive disservice to EVERYBODY. I'm sorry that he is facing such challenging disabilities. But I am *furious* that he has used them as a crutch for a piss-poor work ethic.

@vhs3760 4 месяца назад

It was so hypnotic to watch you draw! I don't have epilepsy but I do struggle with a chronic condition (trigeminal neuralgia) and I can confirm: it's never turned me into a plagiarist! The way Somerton used elements of his personal life as excuses, just stacking one after another, made this apology almost as bad as his last one.

@jennak.5530 4 месяца назад

what memory issues might make you do: “oh man, i forgot what source this part was from, lemme comb through my search history/tabs to see which one it is” what memory issues don’t make you do: “oh man, i forgot which source this is from, lemme just neglect to mention that it came from somewhere else” like i have adhd and suck at remembering things but you can’t just,,, not cite things??? also amazing video and art :) i’ve seen things about james somerton in the past few days but didn’t really know what was going on so this has added some needed context & perspective. subscribed

@SemiIocon 4 месяца назад

The thing with the disability and employment, it's true that a lot of people get fired for dubious reasons and that the real reason often is their disability or the employer being uncomfortable with that diagnosis. I'm not out as autistic at my workplace because most employers think people like me can only work for sheltered workshops. But the whole insurance thing makes no sense, that is something Dan Olson, as someone who literally did marketing for a restaurant and filmed in kitchens, pointed out in a patreon bonus video. So, him getting fired over his disability might be true, it's not unlikely at least, the story about how they couldn't insure him and that being due to his disability certainly wasn't true.

@SirisLayer 4 месяца назад

The best faith Interpretation about the insurance would be Somerton misremembering the reasoning or the employer having Lied to him and told him this to be the reason. I agree that this is something that can be looked up however and as good of a support of his Story. It's frustrating there is so much to unwrap in just these few minutes, it really just distracts from the plagiarism and that was a strategy shown and explained by hbomberguy in his video. Idk eyes on the prize or something ? (the prize being "let's focus on the plagiarism and not on his disability claims")

@doubtsalmon 4 месяца назад

6:13 I'm sorry, but he lies about EVERYTHING. Doubt or skepticism of ANY claim he makes is warranted. Scrutiny regarding his bizarre stories and pathetic excuses is especially warranted. What is actually appalling; the fact that he tried to use disability (regardless of the honesty of his claims) as a copout for the purposes of absolving himself of responsibility for his abhorrent and inexcusable behavior. As a severely (invisibly) disabled person, I have never grifted my way through life or stolen the work of others for the purposes of trying to pass it off as my own. And I completely agree with you on everything else, apart from the above point. Seriously; he lies, manipulates, gaslights, and deceives nonstop. About everything. All of the time. He never stops. Giving him the benefit of doubt here, for what might seem like all the right empathy/advocacy reasons, is a mistake; it is what he is counting on. Just another manipulative tactic he is trying to get you to fall for.

@theEndermanMGS 4 месяца назад

I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt on his claim of being epileptic and ADHD, but I won’t believe for a second that he genuinely forgot what he wrote and what he copied. He plagiarized on too large of a scale for too long and bullied too many people into silence for it to be an accident. Disability or not, he knew full well what he was doing.

@KSignalEingang 3 месяца назад

This is where I land as well. His initial response to every accusation up til now was to cover up the evidence, rewrite history, deflect blame, and make up wild claims about harassment and death threats. He's shown himself more than willing to lie and play the victim at every turn. I wouldn't put it past him to be lying about all this as well. I agree with the video that if it was all true, it would be no excuse for what he's done. But at this point I don't really think we owe James the benefit of the doubt any more.

@bethanybrookes8479 4 месяца назад

I used to do girl guides, and the leader of our unit liked to make sure we all knew how to handle at least tonic-clonic and absence seizures, because that knowlage saved the life of one of the girls in the unit that aged out just a few weeks after I joined. Learning this stuff is important and can save a life.

@naturalegion 4 месяца назад

This is the best James Somerton response I’ve seen since HBomberguy’s. I especially appreciate your point about how James’ behavior can reinforce ableist biases about whether people with disability can be relied upon to produce good work. That’s such an important point and I think you’re the first person I’ve seen say it so clearly. Thank you!

@dragontears 4 месяца назад

As a person also with epilepsy, it pissed me off. I've got JME and progressive Chiari II. I still got through high school and college without plagiarism. I taught (edit: spelling) university students about plagiarism. And I now write reports that cite my sources. Edit: his problem wasn't bad memory, it was not having his own thoughts.

@dragontears 4 месяца назад

Also thanks for this video! I'm glad someone did an epilepsy response!

@markharrisllb 4 месяца назад

I’m on massive levels of medication including fentanyl, Gabapentin, amitriptyline and 19 others. They significantly impact on my memory. I was also the lead advisor at a disabled people’s organisation and I’ve met many people with epilepsy. I've had clients suddenly stand up and walk out half way through a form being completed, that was typical of his absences. Everyone I know with memory issues, including early onset dementia, double checks previous activities, hence my client returned the next day to ask if he’d turned up. I then finished his form. As an aside, before leaving the trade to do a law degree I was a chef for 24 years, when I was a commis the first head chef I worked under had epilepsy. This was 1976, and a lot of things have changed since then. In the late 40s early 50s my late mother did her mental health nursing qualifications at a place called Langho Colony, it was a specialist 'residential hospital' for people with epilepsy.

@PartanBree 4 месяца назад

I think it's fair to say that there's no need to doubt what Somerton says about his disabilities, while also being fair to say that talking about them in this specific context was both irrelevant and manipulative. The tricky part of this is that to some extent you have to doubt literally everything that comes out of his mouth, as he is clearly a very habitual liar. But in the case of his disabilities it really makes no difference whether he's telling the truth or not, it's still manipulation. The only thing that really does bother me is his statement that "because I'm epileptic I can't do any manual jobs because nobody can insure me." The most charitable interpretation is that he just believed what the discriminating employer told him without actually fact-checking it, but now he's put it out in the world as a statement of fact, which just contributes to stigma and discrimination against people with epilepsy in the workplace.

@saganrak 4 месяца назад

Came here from the HBomberguy subreddit; great video! Would love to watch/listen to more essays from you!

@fimbles4211 4 месяца назад

Howdy! I'm also epileptic and I was so angry with that segment. So glad to see another epileptic cover this 💜💜💜 Edit: the way you speak about memory issues is so validating. We live in a world that constantly paints a "poor memory" as some sort of moral failing. Like if you forget someone's name it's"rude". it was so nice to hear someone talk about really distressing it is.

@chappieindahaus2509 4 месяца назад

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this; I was skeptical about James weaponizing his disabilities for sympathies. I myself suffer from chronic depression, migraines and adhd which cause my short term memory to be faulty at times, but I would never use it as am excuse the way he did in his video. Thanks again and wishing you a good day

@CainXVII 4 месяца назад

Thanks for talking about different types of epilepsy. I have a kind that doesn't show on the outside at all. Thankfully after many years of suffering I found a type of medicine that works for me. But if you have a disability you usually develop strategies. Like NOT PUTTING YOUR COPY-PASTED TEXT IN THE FINAL DOCUMENT.

@TricksterModeEngaged 4 месяца назад

i've got ADHD and some autoimmune stuff going on that *also* impacts focus and concentration and memory (and having the energy to do any work at all). It sucks, but I'm aware that i have those problems and I make sure I have ways of dealing with it. I keep my blocks of reference text in a google docs tab that I kind of just keep open and is separate from the main document. I paste the text there and add the URL so I have it available for reference, but can't accidentally use it directly. I also do things like colour coding text based on how "finished" it is, so if i'm too tired/foggy on a particular day to turn out polished writing a certain day, then I know that i can juat write to the level i can manage, then highlight it as a passage that will need extra polish later. I do this in both my creative writing and my day job(which is very writing-intensive and involves a lot more citing of references or background information and summarizing previous writings), and the system works pretty well for me. Because i, you know, cared enough about my work standards to MAKE a system

@RedJadeArt 4 месяца назад

I had some really bad memory issues in my life relating to a long period of depression and dissociation I had. I still managed to get through my life without plagiarising anything. I struggled in work and with friendships but I wasn’t maliciously copy pasting content and then slightly altering it to evade notice.

@LynIsALilADHD 4 месяца назад

Thank you for your video.... a very measured response to a "measured response".....

@chevrentus 4 месяца назад

As a heavily disabled person with a poor memory as well, I appreciate your actually balanced and relevant take. Sounds like James has some internalized bigotry to work through Also, your art is absolutely beautiful, thank you for sharing

@jenniferbailey1580 4 месяца назад

I have several chronic illnesses, a physical disability (neuromuscular condition affecting my lower body), AuDHD, dyscalculia, and I am likely missing something. And my mother had a major stroke during my college years (single digit survival chances they told us later) and was already a paraplegic (same gene I currently use a cane for). Everyone here will not be surprised that I could keep my quotations and my original text straight in 1997-2004

@JadeReloaded 4 месяца назад

I he can't remember if he copied a paragraph or not, he can just do what hbomb did in the video: google the first sentense and if an article pops up, it was copied! What a load of bollocks. What condition made him edit another youtuber's video into his?

@matthiashickman5321 3 месяца назад

Finally! A youtuber critique video essay that covers the topics I need! As someone with epilepsy, ADHD, autism, and much more, I am so happy you helped to bring this around. This being that disabilities are hard to live through, but not impossible. -A gay trans male

@deadlined825 3 месяца назад

I'm riddled with ADHD symptoms and I also have memory issues because of my ADHD! I know this, so when I write papers for my undergraduate degree, as soon as I think I MIGHT use a source, I copy-paste the link into a citation machine window I have open all the time. What kills me about all this is that James very well could have just called his content "reviews of existing literature" and then analyzed other people's properly-cited content, no problem!!

@DreamOf944 4 месяца назад

Thank you for this perspective. I don't doubt that he struggled/struggles with the things he has mentioned, life is like that and full of hurdles. But it's obvious that none of it would have prevented him from doing proper writing work. And it's important that someone who can identify with part of his purported perspective clarifies this. Not everyone will think far enough to realise that seizures and memory loss wouldn't prevent you from making annotations or copying source links along with your material. He contradicted himself a couple of time and tried a barrage of excuses. It made me mad and I'm still mad. He needs to get a grip.

@tumsantacid1315 4 месяца назад

really like this take on the situation. hbomberguy also confirmed that james never contacted him or his team :D lovely art by the way i really like your process

@sassycassyg 4 месяца назад

ALL OF MY TABS ARE RELEVANT. Even the tabs with articles I’ve decided I don’t need because what if I change my mind later?

@Draikinator 4 месяца назад

As a fellow epileptic, thank you for the video. I've been saying the exact same things.

@milkteamachine 4 месяца назад

I don’t have epilepsy, but I have ADHD. I write papers and essays in a very unstructured way, copying and pasting different information, writing notes in different places, etc. I regularly find things in my folders that I have zero memory writing. I’ve never plagiarised once, even accidentally. Even before I knew what was going on with me I knew that I had issues keeping track of things so everything that I need to cite or completely rewrite is annotated, color coded or kept in a separate document. A mistake would be if it happened once, this is intentional.

@fools-tarot6895 4 месяца назад

thank you for this video! you gave a really amazing perspective on things. I'd seen a fairly large youtube claim that James' story of workplace discrimination was false because if it were true he'd have easily been able to sue them and that didn't really sit right with me. many instances of workplace discrimination don't end in courtrooms and it's not out of the question that James just believed his employers, or was unable to pursue legal action. Regardless, this doesn't excuse his plagiarism.

@PunishedFelix 4 месяца назад

yeah those people really don't know how rough it is out there. Not even just firing, there's also a lot of harassment and abuse that can occur from it too. A lot of time they just try to make you feel so much like crap about yourself that you quit so they don't have to pay unemployment, at least in the US.

@animeluchia5405 4 месяца назад

So… my baby brother had seizures that were supposed to go away at 6yo. We were always worried for him until that year came… then he had a seizure when he was a bit older… he hasn’t had one since, thank goodness, but he was the first ever person I knew who had seizures. I never really did research outside of worrying my own children might suffer from them, they run in the family on my mom’s side, and actually one of my mom’s cousins lost children to them, and had to fight to put her surviving girl on seizure medication at a very young age to keep her alive… I worry about that, and apparently, seizures might cause… SIDS… so I plan to do things to prevent that possibility. I’m going to treat my babies, when I have them in the future, as if they’re already diagnosed with seizures just so I don’t lose them. I also learned that a colic baby might actually be suffering from migraines, and that mothers that suffer from migraines tend to have colicky babies. I don’t suffer it, but my brother and mom do, so if my babies do, I’ll treat them like they have a migraine and turn down the lights, maybe put on some baby sunglasses, and rock them slowly to calm them… All that aside… my brothers are my whole world, and I’m constantly worried about my baby brother in particular… he seemed to get the short end of the stick with medical problems… my mom thinks it’s because he wasn’t breastfed, but I’m not sure… still, I plan to do that for my own children, even if it requires me to be off my meds… I’ll probably have a doula just to help me because of my disorders so that they can help me through post-partum disorders, and also my normal disorders. Also, screening for autism and ADHD before looking into any mood disorders, as I was misdiagnosed with a mood disorder and put on medication for it, and now I actually suffer from them bc I was on medication for something I didn’t have at a young age… Sorry, I got off topic… my AuDHD is strong rn bc I don’t wanna do homework… ^^;

@charli8815 4 месяца назад

Thank you for sharing this. It's incredibly valuable I think to hear this perspective from someone with epilepsy. James is clearly trying to use his condition as a shield. He's grasping at everything and anything he can to try and excuse away his actions while simultaneously claiming to hold himself accountable. And it's disgusting that he would be willing to do damage to people with epilepsy in the name of that. It's good of you to come forward and denounce him like this. Thank you again. Your perspective is valuable, and it's a perspective that I believe we need more of.

@bignephewwood 4 месяца назад

I would copy and paste text from sources, sometimes without references but I'd make the text red because you can't mess up like that when your essay is going through plagiarism detection software

@rachelsmith3592 4 месяца назад

Thanks for this. I’m a writer with ADHD and chronic migraine, both of which negatively impact my memory. Poor memory doesn’t make you a plagiarist. If anything, I’m *extra* careful to cite sources where applicable, because I know my memory sucks! There are so many tools available to help writers keep track of notes and sources with proper attribution. James didn’t bother to use any of them because he clearly just doesn’t care.

@khatmandont 3 месяца назад

As an artist with epilepsy, I'm really heartened to see I'm part of such an amazing community of people who have not only had seizures, but have also not stolen others' work and portrayed it as their own. I'm very glad to have found your channel, it's an easy subscribe.

@the.time.crystal 4 месяца назад

thank you so much for sharing!! i find this topic really... oversatured, so hearing someone who has a different point of view was really good. also your art is gorgeous :3

@KeeliaSilvis 4 месяца назад

THANK YOU for this!! I don't have epilepsy, but I am disabled due to serious mental illness. You capture all the anger & hurt & resentment I was feeling from his ableist excuses.

@NoirRaven 3 месяца назад

I lovethis video and how fair you are about everything. It also helps me feel seen as I'm also disabled with ADHD that does come with memory issues. I often make similar mistakes when writing fanfiction. Something i thought was mine was actually from a movie or show 20-30 years ago. However, the thing that makes me doubt all of Somerton's excuses was the fact he changed the reason why his mother's life insurance got denied: for months during videos and streams it had been undeclared depression, then it was suddenly diabetes for that particular video. Out of all the things to lie about/alter, that never should've been one of them.

@SaskatoonBerryPie 4 месяца назад

Thank you so much for saying this because "this is really albelist right?" was going through my mind like crazy when I watched the "apology". I don't have the same disabilities so didn't feel like I could confirm this so it just festered in my mind and made me really angry. Obviously I'm still angry at him but with a bit more closure, haha.

@cw2010 4 месяца назад

So glad for discovering this video! I relate to your perspective very much

@kodiakbricks5821 3 месяца назад

This was very illuminating, thank you for the information. Videos like this help me to see the world through new lenses, and I endeavor to make life a little easier for anyone I might meet who suffers from epilepsy. Cheers boss, keep up the incredible work 🐻

@RMDragon3 4 месяца назад

Thank you for your perspective! As a forgetful person myself (nothing diagnosed, to be clear), I know that if I don't add a citation when I copy text over, I will forget where I got it from and have to spend an hour trying to find it again. I just can't believe that someone diagnosed with memory issues wouldn't realize the same. I could believe he forgot if it happened a couple of times, but I just can't imagine it being the norm, as it was. Especially when he implies he was aware there was plagiarized text in the script at the time of publishing the videos, and did nothing to fix that (3:50 in this video). There's also the fact that he was copying over multiple paragraphs. You can cite them directly or paraphrase them, but you need a citation for both (and paraphrasing that much sounds quite difficult). You could argue that you don't need a citation if you write about the same thing but in an entirely original way. However, you really shouldn't copy the text over then, because that's very hard to do when you have a text saying exactly what you want to say staring at you, but you cannot use any of it. I don't know how honest he is being about his disabilities, since he seems to lie about everything, but I don't think anything would justify what he did, and I believe he was fully aware of what he was doing.

@tacticstories7159 4 месяца назад

Thank you for sharing this. This is so important.

@costelinha1867 4 месяца назад

"When James uses his disabilities to justify his plagiarism, he's implying that disabled people are just inherently bad, and cannot help themselves from being bad, that they cannot be trusted with their work..." This.... just this, as an autistic person who also has a history of seizures this boils my blood so much, not only is he actively hurting the LGBT community that he pretends to advocate for with his plagiarism by taking credit away from actual queer voices, but now he's hurting DISABLED communities as well, and feeding into ablelist stereotypes, and for what? for clout, so he can pretend to be this LGBT activist hero while refusing to do any actual work? So he can avoid taking responsibiliy from his actions? Hbomberguy's video already made Somerton look very bad, but this made me hate him even more.

@jack-wulf 3 месяца назад

Another thing that makes that forgetting excuse so stupid is that as a person who writes a lot, you tend to develop a spesific style. So even if you might not remember exactly what you wrote, you'd still know *you* wrote it. Not recognizing your own text is like not being able to tell apart your own handwriting. I do have memory problems, and sometimes when I read my own writing I feel like I'm experiencing it for the first time. But I'll always be able to recognize my little personal quirks and stylistic choices -- as would most people who actually produce writing. That's the thing about Somerton -- he simply doesn't make anything, and therefore doesn't even know how to imitate a person who does.

@Caesina 3 месяца назад

off topic but I was completely amazed watching the detail work of the white bony part of your art. felt like watching magic being performed

@JeweloftheWorld2000 3 месяца назад

I had a couple of seizures back in middle school. The doctors never found anything. I haven't had any since. For about a year tho, I was considered possibly epileptic. Apparently, the school got very concerned when my mom warned them about the possibility. "What are we supposed to do if she has a seizure?!?" One of my teachers at the time had epilepsy (tho I didn't learn that until later). Surely they already had procedures in place? Luckily they never talked to me about it but that reaction struck my mother and I as so odd. (Doctors were pretty awful too but I suspect that had more to do with my age. When they couldn't find any results they started questioning my recollection.) I haven't thought about all that in a while. (I'm gonna leave a separate comment about Somerton to keep things coherent.)

@gemcorker3982 4 месяца назад

Just added this to the "Watch Later" playlist so I can watch it when I'm not so exhausted & can engage better!

@Theresa-uj4le 4 месяца назад

Your artwork is amazing! And your essay was fantastic

@user-rz3nu3lm5r 4 месяца назад

Thank you for this thoughtful video, people have def been making ableist comments in response to his video. I don’t think they realize they’re doing it most of the time but that doesn’t make it okay, and I’m happy to see a video criticizing that behavior from a disabled perspective. I don’t think it’s anyone’s place to question whether he’s “actually”epileptic, as like you said whether he is or isn’t doesn’t explain or excuse his vast amounts of plagiarism, and it would be extremely ableist to demand proof of someone’s disability. All that being said, I do doubt some details about James’s story when it comes to being fired. I don’t doubt that an employer would fire someone illegally based on ableist discrimination, unfortunately that happens all the time. But I find it very hard to believe they would state that’s exactly what they’re doing so directly to the person they are discriminating against. An employer willing to commit such acts of discrimination would also likely have no qualms about lying about the reason why someone is being fired. I find it deeply strange that they told James point blank that his epilepsy was the reason why they were firing him. I think that something like this did happen to James, but he is altering the details in order to justify his plan to continue RU-vid, he’s trying to argue that his epilepsy makes it necessary for him to be a youtuber, because no employer would hire him. This is very manipulative of him as he’s using the very real problem of discriminatory hiring practices as a shield.

@digestivecookie7026 3 месяца назад

I feel like it bears mentioning too, the “my therapist says it’s probably due to my recent diagnosis of ADHD, but I don’t know if I want to come out and say that” feels very much like he wanted to put the excuse out there but at the same time remove his culpability for suggesting it. “I’m not saying this, guys, my therapist is!”

@digestivecookie7026 3 месяца назад

I also don’t doubt that he has ADHD, it’s just the way this was presented rubbed me the wrong way. It feels more appropriate to say to your friend rather than to your large audience about your plagiarism. I dunno, I feel like some people can use the idea they’re going to therapy as an excuse, padded with the idea that they’re echoing the words of an authority rather than trying to justify their own action.

@asmith6006 3 месяца назад

I believe he lives in the same province as I do. Both federal and provincial human rights and employment legislation specifically prohibit firing someone because of epilepsy. The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board cannot deny insurance to a company for having an employee with epilepsy. Legislation specifically says if an employee is injured due to having a seizure, both the employee and employer are covered if the employer is aware of the condition.

@tikimillie 3 месяца назад

I went to a school for people with ADHD but it was in the same building as an epilepsy hospital. And some of the kids were nice and all. But this one time, there was a kid who was violent and attacked me, kicked me right in the cooch after i had curled up protectively on the ground and and also almost killed me when i was hopping out from the playground tower with a blanket around my neck like a cape, and he purposely stepped on it, keeping his foot on it. And the adults? They said he couldn’t help it due to him being braindamaged from seizures. In hindsight, i feel like that was ableist towards the guy in a sense, letting him fuck up like that without consequences due to his issues. That’s only gonna hurt him in the long run. Like when you spoil (not accomodate, accomodating is different) autistic kids and they grow up rotten.

@CalibanL 3 месяца назад

As an epileptic with daily memory issues, you learn, by necessity, to adapt to this disability. The fact that he'd always had these issues, and they were getting worse should have meant he would have worked on them. I have note pads EVERYWHERE. I partially record some conversations im in. Lots of other tech based help for basic stuff. I'm not even responsible for major works like he was and i take more responsibility for my actions. It's so frustrating that this made people discount epilepsy because they (rightfully) disbelieved James.

@antoBN 4 месяца назад

what pissed me off the most is how he tells us about his health issue at very opportune moments and the pretends he didn’t just try to use it as an excuse. like « oh my therapist thinks that’s why, but i don’t know, i don’t feel confident saying it, you be the judge uwu » it’s soooo manipulative. he is heing so vague on purpose so that we imagine the worst and then uses it to his advantage. it’s so manipulative.

@JeweloftheWorld2000 3 месяца назад

I'm glad you kept bringing us back to the fact that this was a consistent and systemic issue. I tend to be overly sympathetic and give people the benefit of the doubt. Somerton does not deserve that. I could understand if this only happened a couple of times. I could probably even understand if he had slip-ups every couple of videos, if they were small. But consistently plagiarizing entire videos is inexcusable. Literally inexcusable. And his reactions to being called out in the past show no sign of remorse. Explanations can be nice when they're honest. Even if someone is unrepentant, it can still be a good learning opportunity. I've been watching speed run cheating videos lately. Hearing about the slippery slopes and temptations these people experience is genuinely interesting. It helps provide closure for the communities as well. Fake apology videos and excuses are harmful but staying silent is too. Unfortunately, when it comes to RU-vid and influencers, silence is usually their best option. Plenty of people avoid controversy by ignoring it.

@katie8099 4 месяца назад

The amount of source tabs I had open during grad school was funny. I had all the links in a document, but I think having them open helped with the anxiety I had about not citing things correctly

@rebelmage6929 4 месяца назад

The only experience I have with epilepsy is... a number of years ago, maybe even a decade, I was working in a shop. And a customer started having a seizure. I wasn't sure of what to do but they actually reassured me things were fine (they had a service dog who probably warned them about things, so they were prepared, I imagine) and I didn't need to do anything, so I was just. There, waiting until the seizure was over. I wasn't panicking or anything, because the person having the seizure probably knew best what to do, so who was I to question their judgement? It was just a bit awkward.

@SirisLayer 4 месяца назад

I'd say you did everything right, especially since the person had a service dog! The one thing to make sure of is, if the seizure lasts longer than 5 minutes, you need to call an ambulance regardless because this is the seizure activity time, that becomes dangerous to lethal -> can lead to permanent brain damage or death. But as long as the person with a seizure can't hit themselves falling down, or has sharp objects, tight scarfs etc, it is pretty much "wait it out, maybe time it, and give them space".

@cory.doras69 3 месяца назад

(disabled but not epileptic) absolutely fabulous video full of very correct takes. Thanks so much for sharing!

@sugarmamasota_ 4 месяца назад

Great video, thank you!

@bananaspliitz9136 3 месяца назад

Was diagnosed epileptic at 15. Managed to get through hs and college w/o plagiarizing. Would b more likely to forget I had an assignment than try to pass someone else’s work off as my own. Can’t get a regular job because of it but when ur seizures r stress induced jobs just exacerbate that. Everything out of his mouth just screams excuses. He got caught being shitty and is now trying to pull the sympathy card.

@thaddeushamlet 4 месяца назад

I want to start with saying what a beautiful piece of art, and a fantastic script and script reading! Obviously you had some trouble with some parts but none of them took away from the video, and thanks in part to the editing even added to it. My compliments to all involved! Somerton proved himself a liar and while that throws doubt into everything he says, you did an excellent job explaining how that doesn't mean we should or even need to assume everything is a lie. This is an unfortunate way to discover an artistic channel like this, but hopefully a few new viewers here can be a little bit of good to come from this situation 😁.

@mythcat1273 3 месяца назад

I have anxiety issues, depression, autism, and probably ADHD but you don't see me deleting the works cited slides from all of my school projects lmao

@kittycatcrunchie 4 месяца назад

Even as an ADHD person with most probably less severe memory issues, there is no way I believe this "copy pasted and forgotten" excuse. This person (i have never heard of them before this video so i may be unqualified to talk) knows their symptoms and knows their memory issues and definitely has ways to cope and maintain a working order of things. Copy pasting blocks to work from is v normal to me, I do that too and then i copy the citations as a comment. Then IMMEDIATELY i rework the info into what I already have because I KNOW my issues and I KNOW forgetting is a possibility. They KNEW what their memory issues are, so forgetting is not valid.

@Imxlnt2 3 месяца назад

as someone who has had 2 epileptic seizures in the past, i can say its different for anyone who has theirs. mine was affected probably because of medications I DECIDED i should take. but ive had a friend who passed away many years ago that was handicapped, in wheelchair having epileptic seizures plus his son who was not handicapped, but had a problem with his foot (or his mom did) had seizures but his could have been brought on by stress and the world around him. he did have medication though so it could have been that as well but that was when i was much much younger. another way is sometimes we see things and think "wow, that sucks... i wonder how they felt after" and later some how adopt it as own. god works in mysterious ways, if you really want to know something GOD will show you, but please dont adopt having seizures. the first time i woke up from one i remembered only that my eyes rolled to the back of my skull and that everything went black. woke up crying the first time because it was traumatizing. the 2nd time i was all "it happened again, didnt it?" cute nurse next to me said yeah, it did!

@janicechristiedenton0451 3 месяца назад

I'm not epileptic but I am dyspraxic - this primarily means issues with the hands, but one particular point is that it restults in issues with organization, most espcially personal organization. However I managed to complete a degree in history and am soon to publish my first academic work despite all the issues it presents. Have I accidentally plagirized before? Yes. However, this is usually small parts, rather than entire chunks of my works. I'm aware of my own limitations and work around them as a result, and have found most recently I have stopped such accidental plagirism by developing other methods. It's possible that Somerton'e spilepsy could have caused it.. but I'm less inclined to believe it with such large amounts of text often outright copied. If it's smaller sections that are later corrected, fine. But the amount of evidence makes me doubt it, due to how much of a crutch he is using it as. If he had been instances that were corrected when found out, I'd be less troubled. But the amount is so much more than accidental, and it becomes more than coincidence at this rate.

@sugarfrosted2005 4 месяца назад

The best thing about that forgetting excuse is that he had a video that he ripped off footage from on his timeline, he had someone else's video open clearly labeled with the title. That's past scripting. He couldn't've forgotten he was doing that while he was doing that.

@face_nemesis 4 месяца назад

thanks i felt weird when i saw someone laugh and say “that’s illegal” about insurance. maybe he isn’t telling the truth but saying “it’s illegal” doesn’t stop discrimination.

@PrixyPurple 4 месяца назад

Thank you! You are right, any disability he has does not excuse his clear malpractice it’s all completely irrelevant to his bs

@user-wb4mf1de2h 4 месяца назад

I hope you get monetized very soon if that’s what you want. This is such an insightful, thoughtful video. Instant subscribe!

@SirisLayer 4 месяца назад

I apologise if I have raised false expectations within you. :D I am notoriously unable to create a niché or focus for my art/content and that is something I have been struggling with my whole career. So to promise consistency or a specific type of video would be a false sales pitch on my end. That said, I'd be more than happy if you take the time to watch my animated short (Carry On), or other original animation. So thank you so much for the kind words! :) Tbh I don't even know if I would want to monetize my content, unless the numbers justify it being a valid passive income, I don't think it'd suit my idea of having the account. But also I don't want to exclude the possibility completely, because I don't know where I am headed with this. I chucked the mention in, mostly to add on that I have a limited understanding of the inner workings of YT sponsorships and adsense and thus rely on common sense in my business assessment. Cheers to that! Thx for the sub ;)

@saganrak 4 месяца назад

@@SirisLayer I'm def going to watch some of your other content, including your short! I will say that if you ever decide to do more video essays, I'm definitely down to watch/listen, because this one was really good!

@SirisLayer 4 месяца назад

@@saganrakThat's super nice of you to say. (also thanks for checking out my other work!) I keep starting scripts but I often intimidate myself into not working on them because I keep thinking my text is too shallow, as if it would add anything of value. In fact I felt as if I was repeating things others probably said better and more precise than I did, while writing this one, but also I was annoyed enough (and egged on by some of my friends) to go through with this. For now I am glad I did :D

@plursocks 4 месяца назад

Listen. I'm ADHD and have memory issues on top of it. I tell myself I'm going to respond to a message and then for some reason believe I already responded to it because I thought about responding to it once. I would find his excuse valid if it this accidental plagiarism occurred sporadically and if he didn't respond the way he did when being called out. When someone tells me I forgot something, my response is "I did? Lemme check...omg you're right! I'm sorry! Let me fix that right away!" If he responded in this way, I don't think he would have gotten this kind of backlash. We have the internet where he could easily find guides about citations too. But that wasn't his response. He got defensive and angry and declared himself the victim. So nah, don't buy it

@cassieisnothere 4 месяца назад

Such a beautiful painting!!