Statement regarding Dan Gheesling

This is my formal statement regarding the recent controversy revolving around Dan Gheesling. I've made a few comments on the r/northernlion subreddit to quickly put my stance out there, however, I thought it best to have something a little more thorough and centralized that I could easily refer people to. If you're out-of-the-loop, let me explain.

What happened?

Last week, Dan took part in an IRL stream event sponsored by the U.S. Army. This sponsorship was a three stream ordeal over a three day period. Dan and three other streamers competed in various military-themed events until a winner was crowned (Dan won).

What really happened?

While the above may not sound all that bad, the reality is that Dan was sponsored to stream his participation in military propaganda aimed to influence individuals in his community to join the U.S. Army. The stream featured a shared chat and many of the individuals that were critical of the sponsorship had their messages deleted or were outright banned. Despite the strong negative feedback after the first day of the sponsorship, Dan continued on to complete it.

Afterwards, Dan was able to take in all the negative feedback and setup a special livestream to clarify things and apologize. Unfortunately, the stream can be boiled down to "I'm sorry you felt that way." You can watch it here.

Why is this problematic?

Dan has had a longstanding rule in his community to not discuss current events, including anything political. The hypocrisy to then take money from the military and force your pro-military beliefs on a chat that's been conditioned to keep their political beliefs to themselves is highly disappointing. To make matters worse, the U.S. military is currently participating in the genocide in Gaza, so the involvement in attempted recruitment of young individuals in such an immoral war is disgusting.

The other very concerning issue with all of this is that Dan said he didn't know this sponsorship was political. I find it extremely troubling that someone could be 40+ years old and not understand that the military is political. That level of disassociation with reality is otherworldly.

Why does it matter what I think?

Maybe you don't care what I think, and that's totally fine. However, I spent many years collaborating with a group, known as Team Unity, that recorded and streamed our weekly gaming sessions, with Dan being one of the four of us. Because of this, there's a stronger association between him and I to some in the community-at-large and they may feel I share the same beliefs as him. I do not.

For the record, I'm very anti-war, I'm anti-Trump, I'm an LGBTQ+ ally, and I have no problem saying Free Palestine. I firmly believe that we should do unto others as we would have them do unto us, and I sure as heck don't want a bomb dropped on me while trying to learn long division.

I do not condone Dan's sponsorship in any way, shape, or form and I truly feel awful for the community around him that's been torn apart by his decision.

Why didn't you speak out sooner?

Truth be told, I unfollowed Dan on Twitch at least a couple of years ago. Over the years of collaborating with him, I just found that he often didn't respect the boundaries I or others set. Constantly poking and prodding before attempting to play innocent over what he asked or said. I ultimately decided he was a person I wasn't compatible to have a healthy working relationship with and quietly distanced myself.

Despite spending all that time together over the years, politics were never something we discussed, in detail or otherwise. If you had ever asked me which way I thought Dan leaned politically, I'd probably say conservative, but there was never a point in time when I recall him outright saying what his alignment was.

Lastly, Dan and I only ever talked on stream or around others, so anything he said had to be taken with a grain of salt. At times, it was very difficult to know if what he said was something he truly believed or just some made-up or exaggerated bit for the purposes of entertainment. After so long, you sort of get desensitized to it and brush it off.

This is all to say, hindsight is 20/20. While I found myself disagreeing with Dan's approach to content creation or often crossing clearly set boundaries, there was nothing he ever said to or around me that would make me think he would do something like this sponsorship. I feel like such a fool.

What now?

For me, not much will change. As I said above, I had already distanced myself from Dan informally, so now it's thoroughly formal -- I won't produce any content with or involving him. I'll continue streaming and harbour a welcoming community of my own that stands up for what's right and speaks out against wrongdoers.

While I'm not a political streamer, I will always share my stance when I feel it's important. We live in a world that's actively in a death spiral and complacency is complicity. The only way to mend things is with education and awareness, not burying our heads under six feet of sand.

Conclusion

I know this post will ruffle some feathers. Some will say it's overly dramatic or embarrassing and cringe. Some people will say I'm trying to steal viewers and who knows what else. This isn't a game to me and I have no ulterior motive.

I'm just trying to make my position on this all painfully clear. I'm a human and not without flaw, but I try to be an honest person. I understand we're all just trying to make a living, but we need to know where to draw the line. Streamers have far more influence on their audience than they realize. We have a responsibility to consider how the content we put out there will be perceived and interpreted by anyone, but especially the young and still developing minds often lurking in chat.