Vaush

{{significantly problematic}}[[File:Vaush.jpg|thumb|165px|His avatar.]][[File:Vaush holding bin-boy Artemy.jpg|thumb|165px|His person, along with his cat Artemy.]]{{Youtubenav}}

'''Vaush''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|v|ɑː|ʃ}}) (or '''VaushVidya''') (real name '''Ian Kochinski''') {{lived|1994}} is an [[United States|American]] [[Socialism|socialist]]<ref>[https://twitter.com/VaushV Vaush's Twitter account]</ref> [[YouTube|YouTuber]] and [[Inverse stopped clock|occasional troll]]<ref>[https://twitter.com/VaushV/status/1215058504379027456 When I put a typo in my tweet it is to troll you specifically]</ref> who advocates for [[socialism#Market socialism|"pro-markets"]] [[libertarianism#Left-libertarianism|libertarian socialism]] to replace capitalism as an economic system in the near future. He's gained a modest amount of fame online for his videos criticizing and debating [[reactionary|reactionaries]] such as [[Sargon of Akkad]], [[Blaire White]], [[Stefan Molyneux]], {{wpl|Mark Meechan|Count Dankula|,}} and [[Jesse Lee Peterson]], but also for controversial sexual harassment incidents under his previous moniker.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200924073710/https://twitter.com/VaushV/status/1137946205470597121 I sexually harassed a girl two years ago, there's a video about it on my channel] by Vaush (9:54 PM - 9 Jun 2019) ''Twitter'' (archived from September 24, 2020).</ref> Before making his own channel, he went by '''IrishLaddie''' and was predominantly known for his appearances on [[Destiny (person)|Destiny]]’s streams. He is far edgier than the majority of BreadTubers, which is something that gained him considerable controversy, like when he joked about [[Genocide|genociding]] [[transgender]] people ("The Trans Question", which is a reference to the [[Jewish Question]] and how it led to the [[Holocaust|mass extermination of Jews in Europe]]).<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM8LS7k4uyw Vaush "canceled" after "jokes" about the extermination of Trans people! (CODcast 44)]</ref> In May of 2021, Vaush held a charity livestream which raised over $250,000 for the Palestine Children's Relief Fund.<ref> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPMm61DW468 24 HOUR CHARITY LIVESTREAM for Palestine Children's Relief Fund | PART 3 of 3]</ref><ref> [https://twitter.com/Stevesosebee/status/1395174475801534464 Steve Sosebee, founder of the PCRF, responding to the Vaush | PART 3 of 3]</ref>

His YouTube channel has over 363 million views and over 473,000 subscribers.

==General positions==
*Vaush supports libertarian socialism in the short term and anarcho-syndicalism further into the future. Vaush believes that while market economies have their downsides, they are necessary for technological development.
*As a socialist, he is generally pro-union and pro-workplace democracy (worker co-ops). However, he believes that [[Blue Lives Matter|police unions]] shouldn't have as much power as others, since the police already have a position of authority by being police.
*As an extension of the above, he is pro-[[Black Lives Matter]], and believes the American police are a tool for white supremacists and capitalists to organize systemic oppression.
*He is [[pansexuality|pansexual]] and a vocal [[LGBT rights]] advocate. More specifically, many of his videos debunk [[transphobia|transphobic]] fearmongering;<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnJTF_jtPnU Tearing Apart Every Single Word of JK Rowling's TERF Manifesto]</ref> he's a [[gender abolition]]ist and believes gender is not innate but that sex is changeable.<ref>Vaush (March 4, 2023). [https://web.archive.org/web/20230305114708/https://twitter.com/VaushV/status/1632162103615422465 "I’m a gender abolitionist, and I absolutely do not believe gender is an innate anything. It’s a shifting, ambiguous, incoherent, culturally-determined set of norms and values we associate with sex. I’d rather we just got rid of the norms and values, long term"]. ''Twitter'', via the Wayback Machine.</ref>
*Vaush believes that despite calling themselves Jewish nationalists, [[Zionism|Zionists]] have a very strong tendency to be [[anti-Semitism|anti-Semitic]] and racists themselves. [[Christian Zionism|Christian Zionists]], in particular, believe all Jews must return to Israel for the Rapture to happen.
*Based on his video about Slovenian philosopher [[Slavoj Žižek]], he believes it is okay to criticize [[political correctness]] as long as the criticism isn’t being used as a [[dog whistle politics|dog whistle]] for a [[conservatism|conservative]]/[[fascism|fascist]] agenda.
*Despite his general opposition to more “anti-SJW” types, he is good friends with June Lapine ([[Shoe0nHead]]) and is amicable towards [[The Amazing Atheist]] and [[Chris Ray Gun]]. He is also on friendly terms with former conservative-turned-centrist YouTuber [[Hunter Avallone]].
*He loathes neoliberal [[identity politics]] and "pop [[feminism]]", and strongly advocates for [[free speech]] while also not supporting state-controlled [[hate speech]] laws.
*He really hates [[Tankies]], and unsuprisingly they hate him too.
*He supported [[Bernie Sanders]]' 2020 campaign for President of the United States, and like most Sanders supporters, he voted for [[Joe Biden]] in the general election since Sanders dropped out of the primary race.<ref>[https://twitter.com/VaushV/status/1247942030216462336 Tweet of Vaush buying Joe Biden merch]</ref> He later defended his position with the use of revolutionary theory he claimed he'd read recently, reaching the "definitive conclusion" that Marx and Lenin would align with that.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5U222woWR0 Would Marx, Engels, Lenin, etc. Have Supported Biden? I Read Theory to Find Out!]</ref> According to some critics, Vaush [[Quote mining|quote-mined]] and read summaries of works instead of reading from the works he referenced, arriving at a misreading of the theoretical works.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX9_kXYMSck Hakim, "Vaush Is So F***ing Wrong About, Well, Everything But Specifically Marx & Lenin"]</ref><ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUnMxS-ps9Q BadEmpanada, "Vaush Is Wrong About Marxist Theory on Electoral Politics"]</ref> However, in a recent stream, Vaush reviews his criticisms and claims that they misunderstood his use of theory and his arguments. For example, analyzing the critique by Hakim, Vaush claims that they misunderstood his thesis ("voting for [[Joe Biden]] is better than [[Donald Trump]], and how that's supported in socialist thinking") as support for centrist [[neoliberal]] corporatism rather than as a tool to spread libertarian socialism in [[direct democracy]], and that the critiques presented are overly pedantic and not worth discourse over, with little grounding in the theory that he was quote-mining.<ref>[https://youtu.be/bxn2aNbqa6w Vaush, “GOING OVER VIDEOS CRITICIZING ME | CHILL STREAM”]</ref> He has made a video talking with one of these detractors, Hakim, and they have largely made up their differences.<ref>[https://youtu.be/8_wpcmpPhZ4 Vaush, "Reform and Revolution | Talking w/ Hakim"]</ref>
* He is pro-[[Ukraine]], and (somewhat more controversially among the left) pro-NATO.

==Debates==
Vaush has debated fascists, neo-Nazis, social democrats, Stalinists, conservatives, right-wing libertarians, and neoliberals. His debating style could be considered a more aggressive version of Destiny's conservative arc debates. While he occasionally [[inverse stopped clock| does rather poorly]] (his first debate with Sargon wasn't his most impressive moment), he is arguably the best person at debating extreme right-wingers at the moment (exemplified through his second debate with Sargon and his debate with Stefan Molyneux). Here's a list of the most prominent people he has debated:

*{{wpl|Gonzalo Lira||,}} also known as Coach Red Pill<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6A-l5YzEio Debating Coach Red Pill]</ref>
*[[Destiny (person)|Destiny]]<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoDfthL2w-Y Surprise Debate w/ DESTINY]</ref><ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4g2CKvn4Us REMATCH with Destiny - Classism, Anti-Left Bias & Market Socialism]</ref><ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ek8S40KQTA Debating Destiny LIVE in Los Angeles]</ref><ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6V2WUZS2fzk Destiny Attacks me on Climate Change; Whether He's a "White Moderate"]</ref><ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRJcR6V81Ik Debating Destiny After He Defends the Kenosha Shooter]</ref><ref>[https://youtu.be/4W3q5fs_97k Three Hours Of Pain & Suffering | Debating Destiny]</ref>
*[[Nazis]] [[James Allsup]] and Eric Striker (teamed with Destiny)<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgTI6p1_B3k Vaush & Destiny Vs Striker & Allsup | Race & Police Brutality DEBATE]</ref>
*Conservative-at-the-time [[Hunter Avallone]]<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-kQGo2rA0U DEBATE w/ Hunter Avallone]</ref>
*I,Hypocrite<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQuurPLrcFg SPICY DEBATE w/ I,Hypocrite, Who TRIED HIS BEST]</ref>
*{{wpl|Mark Meechan|Count Dankula}}<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVqDT_wNZcc Debating White Supremacy w/ Count Dankula]</ref>
*Tankie, vatnik, and [[cult]] leader [[Caleb Maupin]],<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86U0KYEbzK0 Are Tankies Comrades? Debating Caleb Maupin]</ref> who [[Caleb Maupin#BreadTube beef|wrote an entire anti-BreadTube book afterwards]]
*[[Sargon of Akkad]]<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MDfFLC6nMs Debating Sargon of Akkad]</ref><ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZZ7FvaFzbQ Debating SARGON OF AKKAD and EXPOSING him as a White Nationalist]</ref>
*[[Second-wave feminist]] and [[men's rights activist]] {{wpl|Warren Farrell}}<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTN4QLuhf8k Is Feminism Harmful? Debating the Legendary Warren Farrell]</ref>
*[[Jesse Lee Peterson]]<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUoEWKBuXGk  ANT*FA Mega-Fan VAUSH Joins Jesse! (#149)]</ref>
*[[Stefan Molyneux]]<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_m-snVrJsk Debating Stefan Molyneux and OBLITERATING him with Facts, Logic, & Arguments]</ref>
*2020 Libertarian presidential candidate [[Adam Kokesh]]<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TXK9gv3ppE Debating AnCap (and Libertarian Presidential Candidate) Adam Kokesh]</ref>
*[[Vegan Gains]]<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51H2QtxUdmA Debating Vegan Gains on Intersectionality, Veganism, & Capitalism]</ref>
*Russia-Ukraine war conspiracist {{wpl|Michael Tracey (journalist)|Michael Tracey}}<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO2b93O3GIs Should We Support the BLM Protests? Debating Michael Tracey]</ref><ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Xo_457Jtlk The Most Painful "Debate" I've Had All Year]</ref>
*[[Climate change]] and [[9/11]] conspiracist {{wpl|Oliver Janich}}<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8E12KFNP5Y "I CAN'T STOP LAUGHING...!!" Debating Crazy Climate Change Denier]</ref>
*2022 Libertarian New York gubernatorial candidate {{wpl|Larry Sharpe (politician)|Larry Sharpe}}<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UkfqJ9qNAE Debating libertarian Larry Sharpe on Socialism vs Capitalism]</ref>
*Chairman of the Ayn Rand Institute {{wpl|Yaron Brook}}<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70w1XFEIFnI Is Income Inequality Good? Debating Objectivist Yaron Brook]</ref>
*{{wpl|Briahna Joy Gray}}<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHhg7DQrbnM DEBATE: Is Briahna a Fascist Enabler? (w/ Vaush)]</ref>
*[[Assad]] war crime denier [[Jackson Hinkle]]<ref>[https://youtu.be/ilUJi6v3pZc Debating The SLIPPERIEST CONSPIRACY THEORIST I Have Ever Met]</ref>
*2024 Libertarian presidential candidate {{wpl|Mike ter Maat}}<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsPeEF7x_UQ Libertarian Presidential Candidate Tortures Me For Over 2 Hours (HEATED DEBATE)]</ref>
*[[Charlie Kirk]]<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL995iGCGEU Timcast IRL - Charlie Kirk And Vaush Join To Discuss And Debate]</ref>
*[[Tim Pool]]<ref>[https://youtu.be/VNnMFHSdZBY Timcast IRL - Trump's Campaign Website HACKED, Anti-Fascist Socialist Vaush Joins]</ref> — Notably, the Tim Pool debate led to some backlash against Tim within online conservative circles for, ironically, "[[No platform|platforming]]" him.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeSRLP_cJhY Conservatives OUTRAGED at Tim Pool for "Platforming me"]</ref>

Vaush has also made appearances on the [[Drunken Peasants]] Podcast, where he has debated Vee,<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1tYhP8u7lo VAUSH VS. VEE! - DRUNKEN PEASANTS DEBATE NIGHT! | DP #602]</ref> [[Ethan Ralph]],<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2wHnIpfwkw Ethan Ralph & Vaush in a Free-form Conversation - Is There ANY Common Ground? | DP #699]</ref> and {{wpl|Doug TenNapel|Doug TenNapel|.}}<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iluhxv27MHk “Views Like Yours are DESTROYING This Country...” Debating Doug TenNapel on the DPP]</ref>

==Controversies==
===Sexual harassment===
In March 2019, several direct messages were leaked in which Vaush (previously known as IrishLaddie) was acting creepily towards members of Destiny's Discord server, such as sending sexually explicit pictures to people after they asked him not to.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEDxCZlOMQ4</ref> Before logs were leaked of the event and discussed by Destiny,<ref>[https://mega.nz/file/7noyjYbC#4pwVBBeOg6Yuuy_vJ3XvAJbXCNBW9suW8KojL8pyGaM Mega.nz mirror]</ref> he considered confronting one of the victims, as shown in a photo of his Discord.<ref>https://i.redd.it/yie3ik47sxo21.png</ref> And his accusers claim that he considered doxxing them.{{cn}} In response to the leaked image of the former, Vaush has claimed that the reason he considered it was because he had reason to believe they were going to spread false information about him. He adds that he changed his mind in the same conversation after his Discord expressed a negative reaction to his plan.<ref>https://www.reddit.com/r/VaushV/comments/d1x0qx/a_retrospective_on_the_sexual_harassment_drama/</ref> After this drama occurred, Vaush and his admins/mods, White Nervosa and Rodriguez, commented that he was trying to dissociate from his old moniker IrishLaddie in favor of VaushVidya, which he had already been using for some time, in order to deflect some backlash.<ref>https://i.redd.it/x7ydtu72zyo21.png</ref> Since the event, Vaush has released all the logs from the event, apologized extensively for his behavior, and has promised to do better in the future.{{cn}}

===Allegations of transphobia===
In June 2019, Vaush received pushback among several Twitter users, {{citation needed}} ranging from some of his own fanbase to the compilation account HotCisTakes, for posting a tweet that starts with “Honestly fuck trans people” that many interpreted to be dismissive of trans people offended by misgendering. Vaush insisted it was a joke intended to mock transphobes and that he meant no ill will towards trans people (his YouTube content is remarkably pro-trans, especially by the standards of the site, and he has supported trans content creators ranging from [[ContraPoints]] to Comrade Cora).<ref>[https://www.reddit.com/r/VaushV/comments/mos7lb/vaush_is_a_transphobeopposes_trans_rights/ "Vaush is a transphobe/opposes trans rights"]</ref>

This was further compounded with a video resurfacing in December 2019 where he went on a rant against leftists on Twitter that some people called queer- and transphobic. In looking back on the video, he defended everything about his remarks except the idea that these are reactionary statements.<ref>[https://youtu.be/KsKYC6zQrhY?t=1164 Video of Vaush's rant and his defense of it]</ref>

However, Vaush has repeatedly defended transgender people and debated and debunked transphobes on several occasions.<ref>https://www.reddit.com/r/VaushV/comments/mos7lb/vaush_is_a_transphobeopposes_trans_rights/</ref>

===Slurs===
Vaush sometimes uses slurs for [[irony]] value and shock provocation, supposedly to break the stereotype of BreadTube as a bunch of "easily triggered SJWs", a characterization usually only adopted by the far-right, and also as a way to attract and potentially de-radicalize far-righters. He has also said the [[nigger|n-word]] on his stream.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slirSgbYBAA Am I a Jew? Arguing with Nazis on THE KILLSTREAM], Vaush on Youtube, 14 May 2019.</ref> This has been done in the context of the Killstream (the specific timestamp is 1:33:20), where he was debating multiple neo-Nazis who, after having already said several unfiltered homophobic slurs, jumped around saying the phrase “The N-word”, to which he then boldly responds by asking “Dude, you can just say 'nigger'.” to prove that he wasn’t afraid of their kind of speech. Inevitably, this caught them off guard and silenced them promptly; he has gone on to say that while he believes the use of the word is harmful and inadvisable and he will not use it again, he stands by his use of it in this context. Later, in a newer video, he said that he no longer stands by the use of the word in that context.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVGwuTv9bIw Addressing The Tactical Controversy], Vaush on YouTube </ref>

===Accusations of support for pedophilia===
Vaush has been accused of supporting the usage of child pornography, particularly through a viral clipped segment from an early 2019 ''Dead Cells'' stream.<ref>https://twitter.com/beigegoat45/status/1325705005886746624</ref> In reality, he is openly against it and has compared the production of child pornography to the production of goods involving child slavery (e.g., coltan/lithium in smartphones and mica in beauty products), as both involve the exploitation of children.<ref>[https://youtu.be/HRGamlCBoqI?t=11034 DRAMA UH-OH], Vaush on Youtube, 8 Nov. 2020.</ref><ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-Q2NTYM3SM&t=2m45s Does Vaush Want to LEGALIZE CP? Debate with a Viewer], Timestamped at 2m45s</ref> 

Context aside, and despite his insistence at the time, it is still ''really'' not a good look (by framing it initially as not having heard any convincing moral/legal arguments as to why the possession of CP should be illegal, the differences between labor exploitation and sexual exploitation, etc.). He has since admitted he "phrased [his] arguments terribly in that... discussion."<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-Q2NTYM3SM&t=186s Does Vaush Want to LEGALIZE CP? Debate with a Viewer]</ref>

He has also argued that in a stateless and classless anarchist society, the age of consent should be lowered to 15 or 16 as he viewed some of the power imbalances older people have over younger people to be addressed in such a society.<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20210706211513/https://i.redd.it/im21dawq8kl51.jpg</ref> He claimed in September 2020 to have reversed his previous position on this and now advocates to increase it instead.<ref>https://twitter.com/VaushV/status/1303388786886279168</ref>

On February 7, 2024, he accidentally opened a folder containing adult material, including alleged lolicon and drawn bestiality imagery depicting horses.<ref>https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/vaush-opens-porn-folder-on-stream</ref> Vaush responded to this controversy with a 2-hour-long video entitled "The Context Video", in which he explains the existence of the folder, its contents, and many other rehashed controversies.<ref>[https://youtu.be/yXZw9vrsAgA The Context Video]</ref>

===Accusations of Nazism/antisemitism===
In January 2022, in a debate video,<ref>https://youtu.be/5lR1FdFefcA</ref> Vaush was accused of antisemitism.<ref>https://www.reddit.com/r/DankLeft/comments/s1zzgq/no_criticism_allowed/</ref><ref>https://www.reddit.com/r/Enough_VDS_Spam/comments/s1m8y7/oh_wow_he_talked_about_bankers_in_germany_and_how/</ref> This accusation was alleged to be out of context.<ref>https://twitter.com/highprogressive/status/1480823950540169222</ref>

NonCompete, the guest Vaush was debating with, had argued that the Nazis were not justified in believing that Jews controlled banks "because Jews don't actually control banks in the world", to which Vaush replied: "there were a disproportionate amount of Jewish control of banks in Germany during the Weimar Republic". NonCompete promptly left the debate, and the accusations of antisemitism began. The point that Vaush was attempting to illustrate was that the Nazis' actions weren't justified regardless of whether the bankers were [[Judaism|Jewish]] or not.

Though this is a fair point, YouTuber BadEmpanada debunked the premise, citing historian {{wpl|Jonathan C. Friedman||:}} individuals of Jewish descent controlled less than 1 percent of Germany's most powerful banking and credit institutions, and were significantly overrepresented only in {{wpl|private banking}} (personal banking for rich individuals).<ref>BadEmpanada (January 15, 2022). [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mX3VWNNX8UE "Jews DID NOT 'Control the Banks' in Weimar Germany - Refuting Vaush's Nazi Lies"]. ''YouTube''.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Friedman |first=Jonathan C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Sp8eBgAAQBAJ |title=The Lion and the Star: Gentile-Jewish Relations in Three Hessian Towns, 1919-1945 |date=2014 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |pages=42}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Destiny (person) | Destiny]]
*[[ContraPoints | ContraPoints]]
*[[Hunter Avallone | Hunter Avallone]]
*[[Shoe0nHead | Shoe0nHead]]

==External links==
*[https://www.vaush.gg/ His website]
*[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1E-JS8L0j1Ei70D9VEFrPQ His YouTube channel]
**[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmgvP1a5H32FE_yCyYGedEg Fan channel with clips]
*[https://twitter.com/vaushv His Twitter]
*[https://www.reddit.com/r/VaushV/ r/VaushV] on [[Reddit]]

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

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Categories: Agnostics, Anarchism, California, Feminists, Left-wing activists, LGBTQ people, Libertarians, Living people, Political pundits, Socialists, Social justice, Sociologists, YouTube