- 'Sup you Beautiful Bastards,
hope you're having a fantastic Monday.
Welcome back
to the Philip DeFranco show.
And actually a quick note:
I was going to threaten you with
a good old-fashioned throat punch
if you didn't hit that like button,
but some Beautiful Bastards that have said
that I should switch up
my threats of violence,
some saying I should switch
to emotional threats, so uh...
Make sure you hit that like button
and that subscribe button.
Otherwise, I'm gonna text you
late at night to remind you
that your parents actually are worried
about the life choices
that you're making,
and they're worried that you're
gonna be a total, complete failure,
but not because they're worried
about your well-being,
but because it poorly reflects on them.
But yeah, we're gonna have fun today.
With all of that said,
let's, of course, just jump into it.
And the first thing we're to talk about today
is this kind of feel-good story of the day.
And in addition to being a feel-good story,
I also think that it's gonna be fascinating
to follow for the next 10 to 20 years
as far as the effect of what
we're about to talk about,
which I'm getting ahead of myself.
What we're talking about today
involves Robert F. Smith.
He's a billionaire tech investor
and philanthropist
who is speaking to the graduates
of Morehouse College's class of 2019.
And while speaking to them,
he made this announcement:
- On behalf of the eight
generations of my family
who have been in this country,
we're gonna put a little fuel in your bus.
Now I've got the alumni over there,
and this is the challenge to you alumni.
This is my class, 2019.
And my family is making a grant
to eliminate their student loans.
- He's going to pay off the student loan
debt for the nearly 400 graduates.
And it's both amazing and depressing,
considering how much
money that actually is.
The school, who reportedly
didn't even know
that he was going to make
this announcement
before he made it in front
of the entire group,
their low-end estimate of how much
money is involved with Smith's grant
would be around 10 million with
the upper end being around 40 million.
And remember we're talking about
a graduating class of almost 400.
If you think that numbers big,
looking into it further,
According to recent Federal Reserve data,
student loan debt in the United States
has soared to roughly 1.5 trillion dollars.
When you really look at these several
generations now in the United States
that have been really
impacted by student debt,
I'm part of one.
I know we're telling young people
to shoot for the stars,
but we give them the cement shoes
that is predatory student loans and rates.
It's easy to understand
Morehouse President David A. Thomas,
calling this gesture a quote,
"Liberation gift."
Adding, "When you have to service debt,
"the choices about what you can
do in the world are constrained.
"Smith's gift gives them the liberty
to follow their dreams, their passions."
And hearing from the graduating students,
you can just see what kind of impact
this is going to have on their lives.
One graduating student by the name of Aaron Mitchom
told The Associated Press that
he'd drawn up a spreadsheet
to calculate how long it was
going to take him to pay off his
two hundred thousand dollars
in student debt,
saying, according to his math, it was
gonna take him about twenty five years.
But now he says,
"I can delete that spreadsheet.
"I don't have to live off of
peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
"I was shocked. My heart dropped.
We all cried.
"In the moment It was like a burden
had been taken off."
So obviously a huge impact
on the lives of these students here.
But one of the reasons I think that it's going
to be interesting to follow these kids,
it's going to give us an interesting,
I'll be it, unorthodox,
look as to what student debt forgiveness
does to the lives of those impacted.
What will their lives be like?
What will their output, productivity,
insert whatever unit of measurement,
be compared to those that
still have this weight on them.
And I'll say personally,
in addition to being excited
to see what actually happens,
what's the comparison here,
I love seeing this.
You know, watching that clip,
it made me think back to my student debt,
which, by the way, I'm a
multi-year college dropout,
so I didn't get the good part of college,
you know, you gonna get that degree,
but I got the student debt.
And that debt made my life
miserable on a day to day
"Do I even want to wake up tomorrow?"
sort of level.
And sure, finally being able
to pay off that debt
was it was a point of pride
for me in my early 20s.
But I'm not gonna romanticize it
like maybe in the past I would have.
I didn't pay off my debt
and accomplished the things I did
because of the fire, that you know,
all that debt then put under me.
Sure, I appreciate what
I have even more because of it,
but I got to where I am in spite
of the daily harassment
from debt collectors,
and just how horrible I felt.
I could barely afford to even eat.
And it also makes me appreciate
in an even greater fashion
like the sense of universal relief
these kids had.
And if anything, that makes me wonder
if I could have accomplished
what I ended up accomplishing
even faster.
You know, this is a big situation
for a small number of people,
but it makes me think
of the bigger picture.
What would the day-to-day life
of the millions of kids
that are graduating college,
what would they be like if they
didn't have these extra hurdles?
You know, I think it's obvious.
There's no student debt relief
program that is perfect,
but I think that there
has to be something better
than the predatory and crippling
situation that we have now.
But yeah, that's a story then a little bit
of my personal take away.
And of course I pass
the question off to you:
What are your thoughts on this?
Then in spoiler-free
Game of Thrones news.
Of course last night was the series finale.
And surprisingly, while
it was airing and also after,
no one really had any strong opinions
about it on social media.
Kind of crazy when you think–
I'm kidding, obviously.
You've been on the internet:
people have very strong feelings.
But also this conclusion then,
by that I mean the fan reaction,
not that surprising.
On Rotten Tomatoes so far, season 8
is the lowest rated season with 70%
compared to every other
season which is more than 90%.
Right now, last night's
episode has a score of 58%,
which is actually not
the lowest rated of this season.
Instead, that honor is reserved
for last week's episode, "The Bells."
Also, going into he finale,
there was a change.org petition
signed by more than 1 million people
petitioning to redo this season
with competent writers.
Which also probably explains why
the main two writers, the showrunner
said they were gonna
spend the finale quote,
"drunk and far away from the internet."
Also, for those hoping that
George RR Martin's ending to his books
is going to be different than the TV show,
it should be noted, reportedly,
he told the showrunners
the intended conclusion
to his unfinished novels years ago,
but, since then, the HBO version
has made several narrative detours.
But also in an interview
with 60 Minutes last month,
George RR Martin said,
"I don't think Dan and Dave's ending
"is gonna be that different
from my ending."
However, those two writers did make
some changes to Martin source material,
so it is still possible that
the books will have
a different enough ending
to satisfy some fans.
Yeah, ultimately, we're going to have
to wait to see what happens.
I think if anything the the finale gave me
a good excuse to actually start the books.
But, with all that said, for the
Game of Thrones fans last night,
what were your thoughts?
You love this season,
you hated the season.
You loved the finale,
you hated the finale.
And for those that hated it,
did you hate it because of
where it ended up?
Or did you hate it because
of part of the journey
of the kind of last two
of this final season?
But from that, I want to share
some stuff I love today,
and today in awesome,
brought to you by Postmates
and PostDeFranco.com.
And Postmates, if you don't know, is
the fantastic delivery on demand service.
You want something from the store,
your favorite restaurant.
You want to snag some drinks because
you forgot them, or maybe you ran out.
Boom! Just open up the app,
they'll deliver it to where you live,
where you work, wherever.
It is one of the ultimate
conveniences in my life.
It has saved me countless hours.
And best of all, for you beautiful bastards
Whether you click the link down below
you go to PostDeFranco.com,
you download the app,
if you make sure you
enter in promo code PhillyD,
Postmates will give you $100
in free delivery fee credits.
So yeah. PostDeFranco.com,
go enjoy.
And the first bit of
awesome today is a reminder.
If you didn't see it on
Friday, Saturday, Sunday,
we put out three new videos.
We talked about a modern-day
illegal gold rush,
aliens, and a water problem.
All unrelated separate videos,
or is that what the aliens
want you to think?
Seth Everman gave us Old Town Road
but played on a synth.
We got the official trailer for
The Art of Racing in the Rain
in case you just needed a good cry.
We had inventor of Dothraki
explaining how to create a language.
Infographic Show gave us
You vs Slenderman.
We got the official trailer
for The Chef Show,
which I will say, I'm very excited about
because I love the movie Chef.
There was three weeks after that movie,
and I don't feel like
this is a unique situation.
But there were three weeks after
I watched that movie that I was like,
"Yeah, I should definitely 100%
open up a food truck
"with my no experience,
but I really like making grilled cheeses."
We also got the final trailer for Brightburn.
We got the new trailer
for season 3 of Westworld.
We had Desus and Mero
taking a lie detector test.
Then we had our Chrono.gg/Phil
partner game of the day today, Crea.
It's well reviewed sandbox RPG
that you can play by yourself
or with friends.
And if you snag it using our link
before 9 a.m. tomorrow,
instead of getting it for around $15,
you can get it for just $7.
If you want to see the full versions
of everything I just shared,
the secret link of the day,
really anything at all,
links, as always, are in
the description down below.
And then for the sake of closing this out,
we should talk about what
appears to be the final updates
around the now historic
Jeffree Star, Tati Westbrook,
James Charles situation.
And a lot has happened
since we first covered this,
and I'll link to that coverage down below
because I don't want to rehash everything.
But I will say, right here at the beginning,
that it feels like a very weird ending
for a situation that started so large
and with serious accusations.
Right, because it started
with Tati Westbrook's
kind of setting up the framework
of this situation,
essentially calling James Charles
an unappreciative, backstabbing snake
who allegedly sold out his morals
to exploit his young audience
and try to get them to buy vitamins.
And then, of course, the largest accusation,
that he was trying to use his fame
and wealth to once again
to trick and manipulate a straight man
into doing stuff with him.
Essentially an accusation that he was
manipulating the vulnerable
for what he wanted.
A sentiment that was given
back up and a bullhorn
thanks to likes of Jeffrey star,
who tweeted
that James Charles was a predator,
a danger to society.
You also have people like singer
Zara Larsson adding to this saying,
"Oh yeah, James was DMing my boyfriend."
There are also all these additional,
unsubstantiated claims
of even worse abuse.
And I say all of that to kind of remind us
where this story started
because it is so interesting now
where it is ending.
Tati Westbrook posted a new video on Thursday.
In that video, she says she never
expected this big of a reaction.
She thought she was gonna be the one
on the receiving end of hate.
She then talks about she
doesn't want people to be mean
or hate James Charles.
- I want you guys to know
I don't hate James Charles.
I don't want you guys hating on him.
I can't even go online right now.
It's painful to watch someone
that you have cared about
be dragged.
And if I could give
all of the new success back
and the new subscribers back
I would.
- [Phil] Then, on Saturday, James Charles
uploads a forty minute video.
And in this video, unlike
his apology video to Tati,
he goes point by point
based on all of the accusations
and things that have happened.
Regarding the backstabbing
via the vitamin situation:
In Tati's original video,
she says that James Charles
didn't give her a heads up
about a sponsored post.
And it seems like she thought
that the SugarBearHair deal
happened during weekend
one of Coachella.
But in this video,
James Charles makes it clear
that the deal happened
during weekend two
and that the ad was posted
the Monday after.
But in the video, James shows
a screenshot of where it appears
he did send her a heads up,
along with an apology and an explanation.
Adding that after he saw Tati's
Instagram story where she was crying
about feeling isolated
in the YouTube world,
he sent more texts.
This time, not only to Tati,
but also her husband James,
saying he called him on
several phone numbers
throughout the course of a week.
Also regarding Tati's claim that
James Charles said, you know,
I can't really promote your stuff
because kids watch me.
James Charles responded by saying one,
that conversation never happened,
but two, went on to show several times
where he promoted her product.
He  then went on to address
Tati's allegations
that he was manipulating straight men.
- I have never
and would never and will never
use my fame money or power
to manipulate or get any sexual actions
from a guy.
- Regarding the quote-unquote
"straight waiter"
that Tati said that James Charles
was being creepy about,
he talks about that waiter,
showing screenshots
where Sam told him that he was bi.
Which, a note here, wasn't
James Charles outing this young kid.
In Sam's own video, he even says that,
at this time, he was bicurious.
Adding that it was the waiter
who slid in to James's DMs,
which we already knew prior.
Adding he told Sam's
there was no pressure,
that everything was consensual.
But adding it started getting rocky
because he thought Sam
was still figuring out his sexuality.
Also regarding the screenshots
where James Charles said,
you are not straight,
James shows a screenshot
where Sam used a friend's phone
to tell James that he was actually gay.
But allegedly, he only did that so
James Charles would respond
so he could record the FaceTime,
which we talked about on the show.
So essentially, it appears
that James Charles is saying,
I wrote that because at this point,
it seemed like Sam
was just jerking him around.
Regarding James Charles
contacting straight men, right,
sliding into their DMs,
he said he did but whenever
he learned they were not interested,
he would just stop.
He also brought up Zara Larson's tweet
where she said that he had
DMed her boyfriend multiple times,
knowing that he was straight.
Based on screenshots,
that appears that was not true
as he only DMed him once
and had no clue he had a girlfriend.
Also bringing up that Zara actually met
that boyfriend by sending this tweet.
James use this to discuss
the stereotypes
and the villain-ization that
surrounds gay men.
- Why is it okay for Zara Larsson,
a woman with a public platform
to tweet these photos
of a shirtless man and say,
"Who are you? Where do you live?
How old are you? Why are you so fine?
"How do you like your eggs
cooked in the morning?"
But for me as a gay man
to DM the same person
in private with a simple compliment,
is predatory.
- [Phil] Zara Larsson has
actually now apologized.
He also added that other people
were just making up stories
about James harassing men.
He then went on to address what
Jeffree Star had been saying publicly
as well as text messages
he had been sending James.
It appears that in addition
to publicly calling
James Charles a predator,
a danger to society,
he's also directly texting people
who knew James Charles
things like this, writing,
"How do you sleep at night knowing that
"you enable and support
a predator and a pedophile?
"Hopefully you seek help very soon
and get away from that monster.
"When he trapped that boy in his hotel room in Seattle
"and you didn't care about it,
"I knew you didn't have a soul either."
Following this, we saw
Tati Westbrook tweet,
"My family made me aware
of what was just posted
"and I'm disappointed to see it littered
with so many lies and half-truths.
"I stand by my videos -
"Do not twist my words into what they are not.
"Hear the message."
We also saw Jeffree Star call
James's video pure calculation.
- You're gonna know what to believe
when I really show you
the facts, okay?
There's screenshots.
There's a lot of things that
were not presented correctly.
- [Phil] Also having tweeted,
"I have so much to say
"and some really sad, disgusting things
to show you guys.
"James Charles tried to
mass manipulate you all today.
"When I show you the proof
"and why I tweeted that tweet about him,
"you will all finally understand."
And then what we see happen
is that on Sunday,
Jeffree Star uploads a video.
But unexpectedly, there are no
voice memos or text messages.
Instead, it's actually Jeffree Star
doing a lot of apologizing.
- There were things being told
to me that were never proven.
There was a lot of rumors,
and, sadly, I let that get to me.
So James, I want to let you know that
I should have never sent
you those messages.
I should have
been a
better friend.
I know that now.
This has to stop.
I'm embarrassed by my own actions.
- [Phil] He also apologized
to James's brother Ian.
- So Ian, I just want to let you know
I am so sorry for ever sending that tweet.
If I could take it back, I would.
- And he closed it by saying that he doesn't
want to talk about the situation anymore
and that everyone involved
needs to take time to heal.
And based off of a number of
Twitter statements and Twitter responses,
it appears that they're going to try
and work things out or take a break.
So right now, it appears that
that's where this story ends.
Tati Westbrook, who has been losing
hundreds of thousands of subscribers
but is still immensely more positive
than where she started.
You have James Charles who
has gained back more than 1 million
of the 3 million that he lost,
and he's still gaining.
The impact for Jeffree Star appears
to be somewhat minimal.
And it's really interesting
seeing it end like this,
especially when once again you consider
how intense the accusations
at the beginning were.
There were very real
and severe accusations
being broadcasted by people
with access to millions,
broadcasted to tens of millions
of sexual abuse, sexual exploitation.
Behind the scenes, apparently
people were trying to say
that James Charles was a pedophile.
And then James Charles
once he makes a video
after that weird,
jet-lagged apology video,
he essentially just says, "Actually, no."
Then essentially it's done.
And understand, this is not me
wanting more blood.
This reaction is based off of
the severity and seriousness
of the initial accusations
that were being thrown out there.
And then once they were contested,
reaction is "Actually, you know what?
Let's just drop the drama."
The vitamin part, the friend part,
sure, that's drama.
but there were serious accusations made.
And the net result of it appears to be
that James Charles lost a lot
is gaining back,
will probably be whole sometime soon.
Tati Westbrook could lose another
800,000 subscribers
and she'd still be 3 million positive.
And that's also without considering
something that FaZe Banks mentioned.
How many vitamins did she end up selling?
How much money did she make
since her first video?
The whole situation and how everything
started and has transpired,
it feels off of center.
I personally don't know how to react to it.
All I am at this point is
skeptical and confused.
But ultimately, that's where
we are with the story.
And of course, I pass a question off to you.
What are your thoughts
around this whole mess,
whether you're someone that's
a part of the beauty community,
part of the YouTube community
or you've been viewing
this situation as an outsider.
And that's where we're
going to end today's show.
And remember, if you'd like this video,
if you want to support the channel
we'd love for you took a second
to just hit that like button.
And if you want to take the extra step,
you can go to RogueRocket.com/support.
You can support us
with a paid subscription
or just supporting our sponsors there
who of course support us.
Also, if you're not 100% filled in,
if you missed some of
the last videos we put out,
you can click or tap right there to watch those.
But, with that said, of course as always,
my name is Philip DeFranco,
you've just been phill'd in,
I love your faces,
and I'll see you tomorrow.
