Adam Ellis Thinks He’s Not a Degenerate
He Drew Sonic Fucking Pikachu, You Do the Math
April 7th, 2023, a tweet was made by Twitter user PandasAndVidya which read “It’s so funny to me that the ‘let people enjoy things’ guy retracted it a while back because people he didn’t intend to enjoy things were enjoying things he doesn’t like.” Ellis, who was known for his prolific comics he made while working for Buzzfeed, quote tweeted it to claim: “I killed it because pedophiles were using it.” Unfortunately, due to the internet’s convolution of the word “pedophile,” this led to threads of conversations wondering if Ellis meant real pedophiles or simply people who had a favorite anime with a “loli” type character in it. According to Ellis: it was the former, but he couldn’t leave well enough alone so he made a statement on the latter.
That there is somehow simultaneously a state of being in which someone is a pedophile for their enjoyment of loli hentai and is not a pedophile for their lack of sexual attraction to real life human children is a little bit of a head-scratcher in today’s internet. As Mr. Ellis has a rather large portfolio under his belt and his work has featured furry art and indeed, porn of canonically underaged characters (notably Sonic who is allegedly 15, and Pikachu, a Pokemon), it becomes difficult to wrap one’s head around the idea that he might be able to point a finger at anyone else and call them a “Diet Pedophile” when his own work would make him a “Diet Zoophile” or whatever the hell a “Diet Pokephile” might be (I just made that up but it’s probably a thing). Even the argument that the “intention” was different when drawing does not exactly work as his own drawn fursona features a prominent sexual aspect on his Patreon—clearly drawn for the sexual gratification of furries (the aforementioned ‘Diet Zoophiles.’)
Beyond the logical difficulties one probably has with Mr. Ellis’ statement, a simple look at the second tweet in the series betrays an even more worrying trend: the proliferation of the word “degenerate” among leftist spaces. Popular YouTube “Tea” Channels such as HopelessPeaches, Lanza, and the “late” CreepShowArt have stooped to using right-wing terminology such as “degenerate” and “immoral” to describe basic run-of-the-mill transgressive artworks or even just small internet faux pas, leading many to follow along on righteous moral crusades against wrongthink or impurities in their online communities. That a somewhat popular (as one bitter Twitter user called him, “Diet Famous”) online artist is now popularizing a term often used by staunch conservatives by using it against artists that simply create differently than he does is disheartening in the same way it was disheartening to find out YouTube sex educator Laci Green ended up dating a neo Nazi.
Ellis, a gay man, should likely know better than to be calling other artists “degenerates.” Even the term’s etymology betrays it as racist and eugenicist in nature, having derived from the concept that through poor breeding, a familial line may have “degenerated.” Twitter user blow_me_a_kis replied: “Adam, you do know ppl refer to queer folks as ‘degenerates’, and using that language to throw other artist under the bus simply because their work makes you uncomfy is contributing to the same conservatism that oppresses us, right?” [sic] Gay men, famously branded as pedophiles by activists such as Anita Bryant and politicians such as Charley Johns have always been among the very first targeted by those who campaign on “protecting” children—a theme we’re seeing now in real time as Drag Queens (often gay men) are being targeted with violence for effectively having taken over for clowns at birthday parties and library story times. In fact, Ellis himself talked about this very thing when he was facing backlash over his own statements in regards to his horror work “Dear David.”
Twitter user iamlunasol tweeted at Ellis: “[…] did you pick one niche genre to single out so you could virtue signal that you are a ‘good queer artist?’” posing the question most of us would have to ask: is this legitimate opinion that is backed up consistently with care and focus placed upon victims of child sexual assault? When it comes to Adam Ellis: that answer is a resounding “no.” When confronted with a Child Sexual Assault victim who came forward to beg that Ellis not conflate fictional drawings to real life abuse, his response was to post a rolling-eyes gif of Gina from Brooklyn 99 and when someone else later posited that victims become predators (the vast majority do not and studies on this subject are relatively narrow in scope), Ellis replied: “ding ding ding” further degrading CSA survivors by suggesting that it was inevitable that they would become predators. The insanely unhelpful and offensive belief that CSA victims deserve no help, compassion, or friendship because they’re doomed to become child predators is certainly not something I would look for as a trait in any Diet Famous internet personality I would want to follow, that’s for certain.
The disturbing trend of queer artists and consumers loudly proclaiming that others are “degenerates” or “morally corrupt” for simply watching anime is not something likely to help them in the long run with the rising tides of conservatism seen across the western world. Those who consistently have to have an “enemy” in order to maintain their power will never stop seeking someone to place before the squads and before you know it: you’re next. Twitter user brooklynexists stated: “the difference is that queer people are not degenerates. people who jerk off to anime kids are.” and my QRT of this statement truly sums up my thoughts: “Who do you think gets to draw that line? Where in the pyre would you like to burn? The top or the bottom?”