Arin's come a long way since then, and has shown in public how he feels about being more inclusive. He also apologized in a Grumps episode for his role in "Fat Refund" (although for the life of me I can't remember which episode it was). People are allowed to change, despite what the average internet troglodyte will have you believe, and Arin has done enough since those early days to make me think that he's a better person now compared to back then.I saw something that bothered me a lot and wanted to see what the community here thought.
There was a video in my recommended feed called "Arin is a hypocrite" or something to the effect. The video opens with Arin saying that he doesn't think it's cool to drop the n-word as a white man and immediately cuts into various footage of his cartoons and him joking with Jontron or his then gf and impersonating raps or just "tough black dudes" and casually dropping the n-word.
I had mixed feelings about it.
It was shitty to hear how loosely he used to use it (Jon did a lot too) and it's jarring to hear it from a creator that you respect in any circumstance.
On the other hand, all the footage was from 2010-2012, which doesn't make it cool but suggests that maybe he's not a "hypocrite" but a person who has matured and grown over time.
I felt pretty foolish when I saw the description and the comments, which was basically people complaining that "PC Arin is what we're stuck with now" and "funny Arin died when Jon left" and a ton of people actually complaining that "it's like he stopped using the n-word when Jon left."
Obviously the video and community around it put it together in bad faith but it was still really unsettling to hear. I respect him a lot and hearing his views on the world now makes me think he's come a long way from the person he was ten years ago.
Any thoughts on this?
Basically, if people are lamenting the Jontron days, then you can feel free to ignore them.
EDIT: Semi-unrelated, but speaking of Jontron I caught myself slipping and was thinking about watching some older episodes like the Goof Troop series. But then I remember all of the awful things Jon said about people like me (I'm part Mexican), and I just refuse to give those older videos a watch unless necessary (I recently linked the Grant Kirkhope video in a thread a month or so back because it was relevant to Goldeneye, for example).