Somerton Suicide Note Reignites Concern Over YouTuber’s Wellbeing
Content Warning: Suicide Mention, Full Text of Suicide Note
Note: I will be putting some bias in here.
James Somerton: a former YouTuber who was recently exposed for multiple instances of plagiarism and misogyny, posted a text-based image onto his private Twitter account that was subsequently leaked on March 5th 2024 which ostensibly outlined his intentions to commit suicide. His first now-deleted “apology” video revealed that in the immediate aftermath of the two exposé videos (by HBomberguy and Todd in the Shadows respectively) he had indeed made an attempt on his life, characterizing it as “something really stupid” in that video while later admitting in his also-now-deleted second “apology” video that he had swallowed a number of pills. It was thought, after the positive and hopeful note of the second video Somerton released, that he was successfully moving forward from the mistakes of his past, but with the release of this note, it is uncertain as to the state of his welfare.
The note reads as follows:
If this message is live it means I scheduled it before ending things. I have videos scheduled to go out over the next couple of days. Nothing new. I just wanted Nick's portfolio of work to be available. I've left directions that any money from those videos be donated to The Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention. They've tried very hard to pull me back but there's simply no life for me anymore. I've lost everything... My only friend, my livelihood, my name...
And it's all my own fault. The world will be a little bit better off now. Goodbye.
While most normal and rational human beings are simply concerned for the sake of Somerton and hopeful that his family has again intervened to prevent any harm befalling him, some on Twitter are skeptical as Somerton has been known to be overly dramatic about situations in the past though most still do harbor hope that he will come to the decision that there is still life after this. Some have decided to create a sort of “righteous crusade” which is, of course, very typical of Twitter’s users, laying blame for Somerton’s decline in mental health and subsequent suicidal ideation at the feet of those who made the well-researched and factual exposés. Twitter right-wing bigot and radical, user zulways, tweets: “Hbomb is a Millionaire who, in trying to defend his income streams, potentially cyber bullied a man into suicide. Leftists are ghouls and monsters.” [sic] and Peter Coffin, known AI-Bro and self-proclaimed “Marxist-Leninist” (red-flag right here, folks) can’t stop spam-tweeting his pseudo-intellectual takes about cancellation in order to build clout off the potential death of another human being. It is safe to say that “hot takes” that blame another person for someone’s individual and independent actions are relatively unpopular in the wider Twittersphere, but remember everyone, these are the types of people who likely believe that they can manipulate their loved one to stay with them by…threatening suicide. (Conjecture, but I’m not sorry.)
It is very commonly considered to be false that anyone else’s actions have led to Somerton’s suicidal ideation despite that he claimed in his videos that his life has been turned upside-down due to the truths that have been revealed about his work in the past. In his second video and his suicide note, he makes a point to state that all of what has occurred has occurred as a direct result of his own lies, manipulations, and deceit—Somerton was very aware, at least within that second video, that everything that had happened was not set upon anyone’s shoulders but his own. On another note: he claims that some rather dangerous individual(s) had actually shown up at his home in real life when he was in the hospital and that the authorities had to be called for his own safety. While also an unfortunate aspect of being Diet-Famous™, these actions are neither Hbomberguy’s fault nor Somerton’s, this blame falling squarely upon the shoulders of the absolutely unhinged weirdo(s) who showed up at his house like complete creep-o douchenozzles. Hbomberguy was explicit in his statements regarding the harassment of Somerton, stating exactly what he thought of those who did those kinds of things in no uncertain terms—they are the worst.
It has become clear that the situation is still quite grim with plenty of folks online voicing their concern, their skepticism, and their vitriol. Meanwhile, other YouTubers are discovering that facsimiles are really not that uncommon among the commentary channels and video essayists. VangelinaSkov, a popular commentary channel who was featured in the background of HBomberguy’s video in a segment where he rags on the hashed-up bullshit of drama-scroungers, has found herself also caught up in a “plagiarism” scandal, having very likely sourced a bit of her video on Lily_Orchard (Lily Peet) from a series done by Essence of Thought, a channel run in part by Ethel Thurston who, predictably, sent her an email that sounds like a mob boss’ attempt at extortion. VangelinaSkov has since released a response to this allegation. Ever since the realization that plagiarism or at least the sharing of information and the rehashing of drama is somewhat commonplace among YouTube and other content-farm environments, it seems that everyone would like to get a piece of the drama pie—especially if they can monetize that drama, and if they can’t monetize the drama, they’ll extort their competitors with the threat of turning them into the next James Somerton. With dozens of accounts following the fall of illuminaughtii, the disaster of Ruby Franke’s conviction, the saga of “Janet” Braun, and multiple other chronically online train wrecks, it really is inevitable that some information, screenshots, images, and even some verbiage is going to end up being remarkably similar if not exactly the same. Some of it will be intentional, some of it will be unintentional, but not all of it will have the scope and depth of those highlighted in HBomberguy’s plagiarism video—and almost none of it is ever going to be serious enough to warrant the kind of accountability asked of Somerton.
All we can really hope for is that Somerton turns up alive and well, getting the help he needs to move beyond all of this negative experience. It really is imperative that he moves on from YouTube and from a career in the spotlight of the internet. Continuing after such a public and humiliating fall from grace is ill-advised as the general online public is simply not going to let up on the expectations made for “accountability.” As we all well know, nobody actually knows what “accountability” looks like, but in Somerton’s case, it certainly doesn’t look like suicide…at least, not to normal, rational, sane human beings. No matter how shitty you are at your job, it’s never worth your life.
It’s important to retain perspective. Let’s all try our best.