Destiny (person)

Steven Kenneth Bonnell II , better known by his online nickname Destiny, is an American Twitch streamer and YouTuber. Though primarily a gaming channel, his YouTube channel has become better known for his centrist and neoliberal political content, initially debunking and criticizing Youtube conservatives and reactionaries, but then quickly began denouncing socialists and left-wing content creators in general. His moment of glory came in 2017 when he exposed JonTron’s white nationalist sympathies in a online debate, but since then has made a habit of occasionally engaging in apologetics for far-right personalities.
==General positions==
Below are a few examples of Destiny's centrist and neoliberal views:
* Throughout his debates, he consistently summarizes his philosophy as "rules-based utilitarianism".Your positions are COMPLETELY unfounded ft. Sargon of Akkad from the YouTube channel Destiny 2 
March 2019
* He supports neoliberal, capitalist,The capitalist arc of my streaming career from the YouTube channel Destiny 28 May 2019 and free trade policies.
* Bonnell believes that voter ID laws are inherently racist.Voter ID Law Debate with Fan from the YouTube channel Destiny 17 September 2017
* He used to hold a generally favorable view of Black Lives Matter,Police Brutality & Black Lives Matter - Debate with Twitter User from the YouTube channel Destiny 27 January 2018 but later switched his position during the George Floyd protests, and claimed that police brutality can sometimes be justified, and has outright actively incited violent crackdowns and massacres against Black Lives Matter activists.Was shooting him justified? from the YouTube channel Destiny 24 April 2019Daniel Park, Twitch Legal Department Unpartners Destiny After 'Encouragement of Violence'. gamerant.com, 12 September 2020.Twitch streamer Destiny loses partnership for "encouraging violence" GINX Esports TV 12 September 2020
* Destiny’s YouTube content was initially pro-trans, especially since he strongly argued against Ben Shapiro’s conflation of sex and gender.Are Sex & Gender the Same Thing - Ben Shapiro Video Review from the YouTube channel Destiny 2 January 2018 However, he has repeatedly defended TERF activists such as Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling against accusations of transphobia, and argued that Rowling's comments are likely caused by ignorance instead of genuine hatred.IS JK ROWLING A TERF? from the YouTube channel Destiny 2 January 2020
* He used to frequently use ableist slurs in his videos,Talking About JonTron, Sargon, My Emotional Well-being and More from the YouTube channel Destiny 22 May 2017 but has since claimed he is trying to phase these words out of his vocabulary because he does not like the idea of using a group of people to mean something “bad”, comparing it to using derogatory terms for non-heterosexual people.Twitch Streamers talk about Ableist and Homophobic Slurs from the YouTube channel “Sabor” 18 August 2019
* He supports the European Union and its federalization into a superstate as part of globalization.Why I support the EU from the YouTube channel Destiny 6 February 2019
* He does not believe in the existence of natural human rights, and he instead claims that the only rights that exist are the ones that a government will grant and protect.You can't keep begging the question with that statement… - Destiny Debates Adam Kokesh from the YouTube channel Destiny 4 August 2019
* He has a generally hostile and conservative view regarding increasing the national minimum wage to US$15 and beyond, claiming that rapidly increasing it would invariably hurt small businesses who may not be equipped to pay such a high amount. He has argued that tying minimum wage to inflation would be positive, however.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd8Lm2owIJQ
* He has a favorable view of a 2-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and stated that in his mind the Palestinians should negotiate lasting peace instead of choosing violence, that Israel must make concessions and pursue peace instead of fighting to maintain an untenable status-quo that is only benefiting its side, and that he has a negative view of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank.Destiny vs Simcha Rothman on Israel-Hamas War | Palestine, Hamas & Gaza from the YouTube channel Eli Hassel 6 March 2024Israel-Palestine Debate: Finkelstein, Destiny, M. Rabbani & Benny Morris | Lex Fridman Podcast #418 from the YouTube channel Lex Fridman 14 March 2024
==Debates and other shenanigans==
===The good===
Destiny has debated many alt-right personalities and their useful idiots, including JonTron,Debating JonTron from the YouTube channel Destiny 13 March 2017 Lauren Southern,Debating Lauren Southern on immigration from the YouTube channel Destiny 16 January 2017 Nick Fuentes,Debating Immigration with Nick Fuentes from the YouTube channel Destiny 9 November 2017Immigration Debate with Nicholas J. Fuentes from the YouTube channel Destiny 26 September 2017 and Sargon of Akkad.Debating @Sargon_of_Akkad from the YouTube channel Destiny 2 December 2016Discussions with Sargon of Akkad, Take 2 from the YouTube channel Destiny 19 March 2017 Former alt-right sympathizers, most notably Caleb Cain (Faraday Speaks, currently a leftist YouTube content creator), credit Destiny and ContraPoints, among others, for their de-radicalization and shift away from conservative extremism.The Making of a YouTube Radical The New York Times 8 June 2019My Descent into the Alt-Right Pipeline from the YouTube channel Faraday Speaks 21 March 2019 However, in an attempt to balance out debating far-rightists and far-leftists, he has also debated some /LeftTubers, including Ben Burgis,This is not a healthy positive direction to head in... - Destiny Debate on Socialism ft. Ben Burgis from the YouTube channel Destiny 16 July 2019 
Mike from PA,This is the dumbest thing I've ever heard... - Destiny Debates Mike from PA from the YouTube channel Destiny 19 August 2019 NonCompete,This feels so idealized… - Destiny Debates NonCompete from the YouTube channel Destiny 14 August 2019 and his former friendWhy I Burned the Vaush Bridge - Debate w/ Xanderhal from the YouTube channel Destiny 15 September 2020 Vaush. Finally, he has debated Marxist/"patriotic socialist" Caleb MaupinThis isn't strengthening your arguments… - Destiny Debates Socialism ft. Caleb Maupin from the YouTube channel Destiny 3 September 2019 and Peter Coffin,"You ran away from every SINGLE point" - Destiny Debates Peter Coffin ft. The Serfs from the YouTube channel Destiny.
Destiny is a formal proponent of social justice, primarily focusing on the rights of minority groups, including trans people.I think that social justice is a real thing. We have made a ton of progress so far... From Destiny's website
===The not-so-good===
In November and December of 2020, Destiny led a canvassing operation to help and win their important Senate races in Georgia,I'm Getting Involved in Politics and Heading to Atlanta from the YouTube channel 'Destiny' 16 November 2020 but upon arrival, he realized that he did not have any reliable voter data and campaign infrastructure, and was left completely unprepared for the event. When asked to pay for staff time and management with an organization that could help, he stubbornly refused any assistance.https://twitter.com/zei_squirrel/status/1336133078130044933 After the Democrats swept both Senate seats in Georgia, he decided to canvass for Mark Gudgel, a Democratic Party candidate for the Mayor of Omaha, Nebraska, which is Destiny's hometown. However, Destiny's past quickly damaged his legitimacy, and Gudgel promptly rejected Destiny's support due to his controversial past comments and actions, especially his incitement of violence against Black Lives Matter protesters and activists.Chris Bowling, After Cutting Ties with Controversial Streamer, Gudgel Staying in Mayoral Race The Reader, 5 Mar. 2021
===The bad===
Expectably for someone who spends so much of their time criticizing notable right-wingers and anti-SJWs, Destiny has garnered a sizable leftist fanbase, but in spite of that fact, he openly hates the leftist portion of his fanbase for not fully agreeing with his neoliberal politics, and even went as far as to say: 
In December 2020, he had a acrimonious barfight with @RespectableLaw on Twitter, taking a section of an LSAT practice test to prove that it was extremely easy to become a lawyer, and he even changed his Twitter profile picture and description to claim that he earned an implausibly high score of 184 on the test despite the highest possible score being 180, although this was likely done as a joke.https://twitter.com/RespectableLaw/status/1336513127769403392 He was subsequently suspended from Twitter for evading his permanent ban on the website.https://twitter.com/JordanUhl/status/1336723956129259520 In addition, Destiny repeatedly claimed that the CIA had nothing to do with Pinochet's coup against Salvador Allende in Chile,https://www.reddit.com/r/uncensorstiny/comments/kdrezg/curb_your_wiki_destiny_on_pinochet_and_the_cia/ despite the CIA itself explicitly admitting its main role in triggering the coup and sabotaging Chile's economy.https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu//news/20000919/01-13.htm In April 2021, Destiny engaged in a live online debate with Marxist economist and professor Richard D. Wolff, where he was absolutely trounced by Wolff, having demonstrated his absolute cluelessness about the basics of Marxist economics and socialism, and demanded that Wolff must explain basic terms for him, much to his embarassment.Destiny Vs. Richard Wolff: Capitalism Vs. Socialism
===The ugly===
Destiny has an unfathomably long record of everything ranging from bad takes to bad jokes, to borderline inexcusable behavior. It would be near impossible to make a complete list of everything ugly he's ever done. Here are just a few of his most-well known worst moments.
In September 2020, Destiny's long-standing partnership with Twitch.tv was terminated for inciting violence and illegal conduct after defending the far-right Kyle Rittenhouse and he openly called for Black Lives Matter protesters to be shot to death by far-right militias:Daniel Park, Twitch Legal Department Unpartners Destiny After 'Encouragement of Violence'. Game Rant, 12 September 2020.
Destiny made a particularly embarrassing blunder during a debate with anarcho-communist Emerican 'NonCompete' Johnson, where he trivialized and outright denied the atrocities and war crimes committed by American soldiers in Vietnam in the direct presence of his Vietnamese co-host and current wife, Luna Oi.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJqmSw2S31w In addition, despite its well-known history as a racist slur, Destiny wrote a 10,000-word manifesto claiming that the use of the N-word in private among people who are not black is justified.https://www.reddit.com/r/Destiny/comments/dmjb18/clarifying_some_previous_events/
In relation to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in the months before the in 2023 he has made the heinous and ignorant comment while talking to friends saying "honestly, I'm pro-genocide..." while giggling when asked about the conflict.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG7-rwT2Z6M Later, after talking to his friend that actually had some background knowledge, he demonstrated that he knew nothing about the conflict and took everything back.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG7-rwT2Z6M After the 7th of October, while the war was going on, he has stated that "if October 7th would've happened to the settlers, I wouldn't give a fuck, ..., I wouldn't feel bad for any of them".https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQhdeQ1PPnM&t=29m30s
Destiny also mocked the death of Corey Comperatore, a man who was killed during the failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump in July 2024.Kick bans streamer Destiny for “hate speech” after Trump shooting backlash Dexerto, 17 July 2024 This led to streaming platform Kick temporarily suspending his account.Kick Has Banned Destiny Game Rant, 17 July 2024
==See also==
*Vaush
==External links==
*His website
*"Destiny and the Liberal Mind Prison", Thought Slime
==References==
Category:Agnostics
Category:Denialists
Category:Internet
Category:Internet kooks
Category:LGBTQ people
Category:Liberals
Category:Living people
Category:Political pundits
Category:Video games
Category:YouTube