Whatifalthist

Rudyard William Lynch, better known online as Whatifalthist, is an American-Canadian YouTuber who produces videos based around history, geo-politics and political and philosophical Commentary, as well as formerly Alternate History. He used to upload twice a week and livestream once a month, but is now unscheduled. (Presumably to produce higher quality content)
==History==
Rudyard created his channel on September 16, 2013, while he was in middle school. Videos since channel's inception to July 18, 2014, were all deleted or private for unknown reasons (though some were clarified by him as being private due to being surpassed by later revamps of said videos).
His first video still publicly available was uploaded on July 19, 2014, titled "What if the Dinosaurs never went Extinct?". For the first seven years of the channel's existence, the channel would have an exclusive focus on Alternate History, with videos regarding topics such as "What if Columbus was right about Geography?" or what if the Huguenot Colonies Survived? His Alternate History videos largely focused on social, economic, cultural, and sometimes military effects, and he criticized other Alternate History YouTubers that focused solely on military effects. (Notably: Zvallid). His channel would grow over its duration, accumulating 50 thousand subscribers by mid 2019. 
At this time, Lynch took a hiatus resulting from his decision to hike the Appalachian Trail, returning in September with a video on what if the Atlantic Slave Trade never occurred. 
A major shift occurred on August 14, 2020, when Lynch would upload a video titled "Why is the World Crazy Now?" This was the first video of his that was not related to Alternate History in anyway, but was instead a socioeconomic and geopolitical analysis of the current global order. For a time, it was by far his most successful video following his 2019 hiatus. The video was followed by other geopolitical videos, such as "Wars of the 2020s and 2030s" and "What would WW3 be like?" This era of his channel was marked by a shift away from Alternate History content towards videos relating the geopolitics, philosophy, economics, and general history. His final Alternate History Video was released on September 30, 2022, titled 'What if the Scramble for Africa Never Happened?" He clarified in a February 2022 Instagram livestream that he had grown out of Alternate History once he began uploading his other videos as they were more popular and also bore more personal meaning to him, dubbing Alternate History as a high school phase that he had moved past from. He has stated that he can make another video if the fanbase crowdfunds for $4 thousand.
He reached 100,000 subscribers in October, 2020 and reached 400 thousand in the Summer of 2020.
==Personal Life==
===Personality===
Rudyard is very open and outgoing in his live streams. He's revealed a lot about himself personally, and formerly identified as a stoic. Rudyard participates in discussion with his fans occasionally, mostly on Twitter, his livestreams, and his Discord server.
===Nationality===
Ruydard's father is an American, and his mother, a Canadian. He was born in the United States, and currently resides there, but was raised in Ontario, Canada. He identifies as both a Canadian and an American, implying that he has dual citizenship.
===Religious beliefs ===
Rudyard's father is Catholic, and his mother is a Protestant. They both raised him as a Quaker Protestant. Early in life, he become a self-described "non-conforming Protestant".
===Political beliefs===
Rudyard politically identifies as a center-right Libertarian, but he is known for embracing some liberal ideas out of pragmatism. An example of this would be "Universal Healthcare". His ideas are often shared and cited by self-described Radical Centrists in the United States.
=== Appalachian trail===
Rudyard, in July 2019, hiked the Appalachian Trail and finished roughly half of it before deciding to return home. He claims that while the path was hard, he gained much joy out of it, and claimed that nature as a whole is something humanity doesn't get enough of.
==Relations with other YouTubers==
Rudyard has made multiple collaboration videos in the past, including one with Al Muqaddimah, an Islamic history channel, titled: "What if Tamerlane Never Existed(ft. Al Muqahddimah)?" and another one titled: "What if Germany was Divided after WW2?" with AlternateHistoryHub.
Rudyard had also started a collaborative series with other Alternate History YouTubers, including: Monsieur Z, Phrenomythic and Planet Althistory, titled "Alternate History League". However, they only completed one public episode. (There is a second video in the playlist, listed as private) The reason for the termination of the series was due to a lack of interest from both Whatifalthist and Monsieur Z. He's surprisingly polite to Monsieur Z on his channel, but when he speaks of other alt-historians on YouTube "drinking the neo-Nazi cool-aid" and being unable to come up with an alternative history that doesn't end in a "white ethno-state," it's pretty obvious who he's talking about. Whatifalthist makes a point of not associated with Neo-nazis, so it can be concluded that an additional future collaboration with Monsieur Z is currently rendered unlikely. 
== Controversy and Incidents ==
Whatifalthist has faced criticism for his often times controversial statements regarding history, philosophy, and politics. Many of his alternate history and geopolitical scenarios and predictions have been lambasted as implausible and skewed, while his general history, philosophy, and economic videos have been chastised as overgeneralizing and politically biased towards the right. This has taken in the form of criticism from other YouTubers and a slew of negative posts on Reddit critiquing his points. An early example was his video "What if the Japanese Invdaded Australia?" This video received sizable criticism at the time for its implausibility and perceived bias against Australians.
On March 19, 2021, Whatifalthist uploaded a video dubbed "Another 11 Historical Misconceptions",https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mrd796w6FEs a follow up to his 2020 video covering historically inaccurate presumptions that are commonly held. The host of the History of Africa Podcast who was another YouTuber, responded in a long Reddit Essayhttps://www.reddit.com/r/badhistory/comments/ma9sus/whatifalthist_claims_precolonial_africa_had_no/ deconstructing his statements regarding pre-Colonial Africa on the r/badhistory subreddit. The post gains significant traction in the community and Whatifalthist ultimately issued a Twitter apologyhttps://twitter.com/whatifalthist/status/1373972779477835784 as well as a correction in the video description. A series of other posts have been made on Reddit since critiquing him, most notably on r/badhistory, and r/badphilosophy.
On February 7, 2022, Whatifalthist published a video titled "Understanding Social Justice".https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J10_2natxys The video was a critique and analysis of the Social Justice Movement from a right-wing perspective. This prompted a response by the BreadTuber Vaush, who challenged Whatifalthist to a debate, to which Rudyard accepted. After being delayed due to the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, the debate was held in May. The debate was widely received as a fiasco, with many lambasting both parties. Whatifalthist was seen as being ready more for a speech than a debate.
A video uploaded in late July of 2022 titled "Understanding Southeast Asian Civilization" was taken down by YouTube. Although the reasoning hasn't been disclosed, evidence suggests a deliberate mass-flagging by Southeast Asian nationalists in response to controversial statements made by Whatifalthist in the video, most notably a claim that stated that the tropical climate of the region negatively affected its intellectual output. The video was later re-uploaded by Whatifalthist in October of the same yearhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC0se4VWPVY, which hasn't been taken down sincehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC0se4VWPVY.
==Trivia==
*Rudyard was a history buff in high school, competing in a Quiz bowl Tournament.
*Rudyard has been interviewed by many journalists.
*Despite the name of his channel, Rudyard's content primarily focuses on geo-politics and political commentary, rather than purely alternate history.
==References==
Category:Commentary YouTubers
Category:Educational YouTubers
Category:American YouTubers
Category:Canadian YouTubers
Category:Users who joined in 2013