While David's Vlog started as a friend group led by a charismatic and intelligent leader, true colors and the bounds of their content caught up with them as the need to create entertaining content came at odds with their ethics. This can be at large attributed to the structure of the company that David's vlog essentially became, with invisible structure and essentially absolute authority. While I do believe David is not some monster, he is a product of his situation and he is not the golden boy that his image conjures. Though smart and charismatic in his portrayed interactions on camera, at his root he uses the people around him without guidelines of what he gives them in return. Although the idea of fame is enticing to many, the reality is it is temporary unless you are born/marry into elite status, are extremely good looking, or have some top level talent. But the reality of becoming famous for being good looking only is that most of the followers you are getting are from super young audiences. True adults are not mesmerized by the pretty face if there is nothing truly special about the core of the person inside. While I do believe David holds true talent in his ability and work ethic which has been showcased by the empire he has built, along the way his true colors have shown. He expects you to not believe that he never understood the power structure at play within his operation, though he would entice his workers/friends with the spotlight of airtime on his show, of which he played director, editor, and producer without any oversight. He has had complete control and to believe he was just blissfully aware of the situations of all of his "Friends" / employees is foolish. Not only that, but its the messages of the content that the Vlog became. What is truly evil is the lack of depth in how those brought into the Vlog were portrayed. Humans are dynamic individuals but through the lens of David's camera, their only use and thus their only personality was the role they played in the Vlog. Heath and Zane were wild and reckless. Jason was the old man (and a slightly above average comedy writer that became David's b*tch). Todd is the hot man-who*r*. Scott is the jacked and hot but somehow sad guy (lmao). Jeff is the pretty boy "criminal". Corinna was the IG Girl Wh*r* . Nick Antonian was the fat loser. Matt King is the super nice wholesome guy. Carly and Erin are just the two random girls on the side that will go along with anything. Big Nik was the midget. Alex was the angry wildcard. To David, that is all these people were, because in his mind he only values you for the content you provide him that he considers "entertaining".
David created an environment where the lines between what was genuine and what was ingenuine was made invisible. This continued as time passed without it being addressed, and the ingenuine only grew larger in proportion. Now all of these individuals are much more than that. Im not talking about their profession, Im talking about their humanity, which was never shown to us by David. Im not saying that these people each deserve much more in life, as connection to the success of David's Vlog has given them more opportunity than most people in the world receive. What I am saying is they were oversimplified and reduced to the one image that David characterized them as, and once David had labeled them as that, that's all they were.
As time progresses and these "friends" continue to depart from the vlog, you see through some of their own content part of how genuine they are. What is sad is that some of them long for the same spotlight as David, instead of creating their own truly original content. I think the podcasts that have started by the members are interesting, but when their content is continually related to the Vlog Squad and David, they are not trying to make content of their own, they're trying to soak up some of David's spotlight. Not that they are not entitled to their share of this spotlight, but if their is more to them as individuals than the vlog, they have a better chance than most to show that and by keeping their content on the Vlog Squad, they are only limiting themselves. The true victims of this were the outliers like Nick Antonian, Corinna, Alex, Big Nik, Seth, all of whom were at the peripheral in David's operations. Used only for the one thing David saw each of them for, they were quickly brushed aside without focus on their character depth. To them I wish luck in their future ventures.
