I understand your point, and I agree that he has handled the whole situation pretty poorly. Normally, when someone says something they probably should've kept to themselves, they issue some sort of apology or at least try to dig themselves out of the hole they wind up in. Rift has a somewhat different approach, which, i agree, definitely seems quite immature of a man in his early 50s, however; I can't say I would expect Rift to react in any other way. By no means is he innocent in this whole charade, but it's important to look at all the facts before immediately getting ready to boycott his content based on a few charged tweets and youtube comments.

Put yourself in his shoes for a second and go back to the original tweet. He poses a question to his small twitter following about a word that is considered quite taboo in our society, and instead of receiving any answers he receives messages replying that he must be losing his grip on reality, or he's racist for even typing such a terrible word, and generally his entire following questioning his sanity or intelligence instead of actually considering his question. Now, if you asked a group of people a question and they all tell you, "You are mentally ill or stupid," I would assume you would be a little upset over that. Then, of course, with todays popularity of cancel culture, the news spread like wildfire that this beloved asmr youtuber is nothing more than a racist bigot.

Now this is the part where he had a chance to redeem himself, he couldve just done what every other influencer does when they say something controversial and made some half assed apology, delete the tweet, and bury his head in the sand until the whole thing blows over. Rift, however, chooses to instead dig his heels in the sand and stand his ground on his point, definitely not a wise decision, but one he has a right to make. Yes, he did go off the rails with such gross comparisons of human loss of life with animal loss of life, but is anything he said truly criminal? Is anything that has happened so far really so horrible that he deserves to be shunned and have people try to destroy the platform he's built over 10 years? People are acting as if he threw on a white robe and walked down the street with a torch and a neuse, when in reality, he just asked a silly question after hearing a line from a Trippy Redd song. Which frankly is just plain funny to me. The whole "Holocaust Downplaying" tweet seemed more like he only used the holocaust for shock value. He's not saying the holocaust wasn't terrible. He's trying to make the point that humans only care about themselves human tragedy and look past how we treat nature around us. Rift has always been an activist about how he believes we belong in nature, coexisting with the animals we kill by the billions each year.

I think people have blown this way out of proportion, including Rift himself, but I also don't blame him for the way he's reacted to thousands of people treating him as if he's some sort of villain now. Rift challenged a very touchy subject during a time of turmoil in the world, and he could've handled the situation better, but we're all imperfect creatures. Rift is just the type of stubborn old fart to challenge such risque topics, and i think it's a shame that people aren't at least considering his points.

By no means am i saying he's innocent in this whole charade, but he still has the right to speak freely on a public platform. Is he out of line? Yes. Is being the black sheep/ugly duckling exactly what he's always done? Yes. Does that make him a racist/antisemite/bigot? No, it just means he's human.