This whole Jawsh stuff is stupid. Jawsh it right, he has a very good point here. Stan culture is born out of an increased need for interaction in an ever digitizing world. His take isn't just "stans are mentally unwell," it's that stanning can be, and often is,

quite harmful to creators. Jawsh, Carson, Schlatt, every other SMPLive member experienced this stan culture to some extent, and Jawsh is coming out in rebuke of such culture, because he finds it harmful. Something Carson and others have pushed is the need for

eradication of the widely accepted parasocial relationships born from stan culture. It creates idolization, and can often lead to problems within creators, those being idolized, including impostor syndrome, a struggle many creators face, which is only made worse by idolization

through stan culture. Stan culture is built on a foundation that is overall harmful, because, though it does bring people of similar interests together, it also causes problems in various places, and becomes more harmful than beneficial overall. Reminder, this literally comes

from someone who used to be a fan account of a youtube channel, and still carries that branding. Stan culture (including the clique I found myself in) were more or less toxic by the end of it,

and the people were obviously not okay with it, but had more authority to say no to it (which they did, it was explicitly said fan accounts went too far), and that notably, Jawsh rightfully pointed out, which is reflected in my personal experiences, that most of the people who

partook in these fan accounts, in stanning, are teenagers, likely who don't know their place in the world, and likely unknowingly cause harm because of the parasocial relationships they pretend to exist. To a lot of these accounts, people like Dream, Wilbur, Tommy, and others

stop becoming people, and become idols, immune from criticism, but also separated from their humanity, shipped relentlessly with their platonic friends, which in the past, not necessarily on dreamtwt, has created problems within those friendships. I'm going to go ahead and trust

that someone who was big in SMPLive knows about stan culture, and has interacted with it a lot, and provided it isn't hyperbole, if every experience he's had has been negative, can you blame him for hating the whole of it? If you go to KFC 20 times at different locations and

every single time you see them spit in your food, are you still inclined to go to KFC?
Jawsh highlights the warped worldview of those who have grown up on the internet, and thus idolize people and become toxic because of it. It isn't a coincidence that toxic and stan are so

heavily found together. These stans are typically exhibit behavior that is harmful overall, but, as Jawsh said, their moral framework is warped so that those harmful actions are seen as okay, because it is for their idol. The takeaway for me is that stan culture is harmful (which

it is), and that people who have dealt with stan culture, Jawsh here, but others like Carson have mentioned it in the past, often dislike it strongly, and view it as harmful, which it often can be. Jawsh's wording was charged, but stans are attacking the message, not the wording,

so I'm left to assume they take problem with being called toxic, which just makes them toxic, because just look at the critical most like replies, it would be silly to suggest anything other than stans are defending themselves by being toxic, which notably, is objectively harmful