Serious question : WTF is wrong with there fans? I can’t stand it anymore. Losing weight and eating healthy!! When? I don’t think I’ve seen them eat healthy anything let alone a healthy meal. What are these people watching and /or smoking? This tells me everything I need to know about what kind of people watch them, ones who are looking for a thank you or some recognition from the “celebs”. I can’t with these people anymore.
Serious answer, and buckle in because this got long as fuck:
The leghumpers have been (poorly) radicalized.
And I mean that in the actual sense of the word.
I know I've been really circumspect about myself in general here, but...
I'm an online propaganda & disinfo specialist, and my job involves journalism in that realm. College degree, thesis, the whole nine yards. I study and write about how people are radicalized via the internet/social media and the group dynamics involved through all stages. While my particular focus is on hate groups, I understand how people fall into cult-like situations, how they're kept in the fold, and why they act and believe they way that they do regarding their particular flavor of extremism.
When most people think
radicalization or
cult, they generally think of larger political and/or religious situations. That's true, of course, but the same basic rules apply in other spaces. A common factor is humanity's natural desire to
belong, to be an integral part of a group.
We all want to belong. We're tattlers here. We may also be workout junkies, Trekkies, sports team fans, K-Pop stans, whatever - people naturally gather in groups and enjoy socializing in those groups. Sometimes people take that sense of belonging really far. I'm sure we all know that one friend of a friend who owns 443 pieces of sports team branded clothing, watches every game with plenty of emotion, has a house full of sports team branded tchotchkes, and who otherwise seems to have a lot of their life invested in that sports team. It's kinda weird and maybe a little dysfunctional but they're just
that guy, ya know?
Now imagine
that guy, but instead of the sports team it's a Youtuber. The fan population is smaller so they're interacting with the same general group in the comments section or on Twitter/Insta/FB, and the savvy Youtuber will be making sure to interact personally with some of the fans in these spaces as well. That's how you create loyal fans who will buy merch, watch every video, sub to the Patreon, and otherwise make sure to keep the income streams flowing.
That's normal. That's all normal and acceptable and just human nature.
But.
That's also how you set the stage for a literal cult. That's modern-day Jim Jones. If the People's Temple had the internet and social media, this is how it would have started.
Intentionally or not, the Maass family started a very small scale cult. They have a core group of radicalized believers - the leghumpers - and a wider group of hangers-on.
So you want to know
why leghumpers are the way that they are?
A radicalized person didn't start that way. They started out bored, lonely, separate from broader society in some way, probably having failed (or
been failed) in key aspects of their life such as job or family or health, and generally feeling
lost. The feeling of being
lost is extremely common. So is feeling less-than. They may look at other people in their social cohort and see people who are happier, healthier, more financially comfortable, whatever, and they feel that they've somehow failed (or have
been failed) in their own life.
People like this seek out places where they no longer feel lost or less-than. They look for places where they can belong.
Then they find a space like Fathering Autism.
Here's this relatable, cool, interesting person/family. They're confident, they overcome difficulties with apparent strength and grace, they seem to work hard and are well-rewarded with upgraded cars, home,
stuff...and attention, adoration, love. The vulnerable viewer sees a person/family who is achieving everything that viewer wants. That person knows how to get those things. If the viewer gets on FA's "good side," then the viewer may be able to learn how to achieve these things as well.
They're primed for radicalization.
And it's here where the influencer can use their "power" for good or for evil.
Does the influencer continue to simply make content and interact?
Or do they start to develop external issues? Enemies?
Haters? Is there an
other - a person or group working against the influencer, trying to take them down, trying to hurt them and, by extension, also the fans of said influencer?
Because once an influencer has followers to influence, the next step in radicalizing is to make sure that followers have an
other to fight against.
And I think Asa started down this path inadvertently. There are actual barriers in the way of special needs people and their families. Asa would speak against school districts that are shit for autistic kids, or against people who are rude/discriminatory towards disabled people, or against cops who don't know how to handle autistic people other than with violence. These are actual, real issues.
The fans responded, offering tons of support and praise towards FA, sending money and gifts, writing to news stations and organizations in support of the Maass family. They banded together.
And it worked. They became the Maass Squad.
It worked so well that when critics showed up, it was trivial to turn the fans against the critics. When the facade Asa & gang built up started to crumble, it was trivial to frame the problems as originating from some external source, some
other evil group hellbent on destroying not only the Maass family, but the Maass squad - the social group created and nurtured first to siphon money, then to be an online army.
And I stress the term
other here. It's intentional that I'm italicizing it.
Othering is key to radicalization. In order for a person or group to be radicalized, they have to have an enemy. There has to be something to be radicalized against. In this case, you've got the Maass Squad on the "good" side and the haters/critics/DCP/whatever as the
other on the "bad" side.
Once there was an enemy, an
other, radicalization set in. You were either 100% with FA on all the things, or you were an enemy. You were not part of the group. If you even hinted that there might be some issues, you were publicly eviscerated and no longer welcome in the social group - for many of these leghumpers, the only real social group they have. After evisceration, you're then summarily banned (ostracized) from the group. Hell, you didn't even have to hint at anything being wrong; if you phrase a comment slightly oddly, if you make the wrong typo, it could be assumed that you were saying something negative about Priscilla's weight or Abbie's treatment and you'd be torn to shreds and banned.
So it's best to only,
only express heaping praise and near-religious idolization in any comments made. Anything less runs the very real risk of public shaming and banishment from your group.
Besides, if you heap that praise on, you may be lucky enough to get a like or a comment from one of
them - and that increases your relative status in the group. If
they reply to you, not only do you get that hit of dopamine but others in the squad will be envious. You're good enough that you got that elusive notice. You humped that leg hard enough to move up the micro-social ladder.
And, again, the Maass Squad is the only, or the primary, social group for some of these people. They view the whole of the FA universe as their family. They cry tears of joy when Abbie learns the sign for donut. They freak out if vlogs are late. They go without so they can buy merch or Limelife crap or overpriced shitty spices. Getting banished from the group would literally be like getting disowned from a real-world family.
And Asa encourages it. He loves it. He's clumsy about it - fortunately - but he does what he can to foster that blind adherence, that cult mentality.
With any luck what we see now is the extent of the leghumpers' blind adherence.
But, and I feel that I need to stress this, these type of groups can and do turn violent sometimes.
Asa's walking a fine line with his fans.
*************
So anyway, that's a thing I just wrote.
And now it's probably pretty obvious why I've hardly been around here the last week, and won't be as active in coming weeks.
*gestures broadly* The culmination of my thesis is happening in real time and I'm none too pleased about it. I've got work to do, though. My goal is to take most of this evening off so I may be around to answer questions if anyone has any.
And, y'all?
Be careful in the real world over the next month or so. Like, continue the pandemic sheltering in place, have a few days of supplies on hand, etc, especially if you live in or near a big city. Cuz there's...stuff. That doesn't look good. I'm hunkered down.
Hope you guys are enjoying your day as well. 
