Respect... It's something that I feel has been lost, lately. I-I even feel like the definition of respect has been muddied a bit. Because people have a tendency to apply it only to accomplishments that they feel are worthy of praise and admiration. But, I'm talking about respect on... A basic level. Even if you just boil it down to common human decency; It's being lost. The Golden Rule still applies. You still need to treat people the way you want to be treated. And you're seeing it less and less these days. Because people have an automatic tendency to assume that if someone is disagreeing with someone, they are their enemy, and they are inherently bad, and they should be fought. But, you can disagree with someone and still respect them. You can even hate someone! You can hate and abhor their actions. They doing- they're doing terrible things and they need to be hated. But you still need to treat them with respect. And that's hard. And you may even be thinking like "How can you do that? That's not possible. If they're a terrible person they deserve to be treated unfairly." And that's not the way... That I want to live. We're all humans. And either we're all humans that are equal, and deserve to be treated as equals, or we're not. And I know people are probably going to think that I'm speaking too generally about this, so I wanna get specific. I'm talking about this because of the frenzy that's surrounding Felix. Not "PewDiePie," Felix. And I wanna be very clear about something: Felix is not an anti-Semite. And Felix does not advocate hate. And I'm not even defending the jokes that he made, because even he has apologized for some of the jokes that he did. But he as a person... As an inherent human being... He's not these labels. Because it's so easy to label someone. It's so easy to do. It's so easy to boil someone down to a single word or a phrase, and that's all they are. Even if you're praising them - I mean, normally it's when you're demonizing them - but even if you're praising them; even if you're putting someone on a pedestal. Or if you're calling them "human scum," and "trash" and "garbage," you're inherently dehumanizing them in both aspects. And that's something that I will never stand for. Never. 'Cause I've said it a million times, over and over, I repeat this all the time: We, as YouTubers, are the exact same as you. We're humans, we're people wandering this world trying to figure out who we are just the same as you. And even though someone like Felix is being attacked and he's a lightning rod for hate. Whether or not that's a fault of his own actions or the society that we live in, that doesn't matter to me. Because what I'm talking about is the most basic human element, the one rule that I know very deep down: is that we are all equal, and deserve to be treated with respect. We're more than our labels. I don't give a ♥♥♥♥ what the color of your skin is, I don't care what religion you believe in, I don't care where you come from or where you are now, all I care about is who you are. And whether or not you're free to discover that. And I'm not even just talking about Felix now, I'm talking generally. 'Cause if we're ever going to be more than we are right now, as a society, as people, as a species, as planet Earth. If we're ever going to be more than that, we need to, at the most basic level, respect each other. And it's hard. It's hard to take the high road. It's a lonely road. No one wants to go that way. 'Cause it's so easy to seek vengeance, or apply the other rule: "An eye for an eye." Or label someone as a simple word or phrase, just to dismiss them. And I know people are even gonna twist my words. People are gonna say that I'm "defending the wrong people," or I'm "defending bad people," or I'm- I'm- I'm "spreading hate indirectly" because I support other people. That's not the way I see the world. I see each and every one of us. Not defined by our race or our creed, but each and every one of us a new opportunity to fine ourselves. And in order to defend that, I have to advocate the treatment of everyone as an equal. 'Cause if you don't have that, what's gonna become of us? What's gonna happen in 50 years when the generations that follow us look back and see that their forefathers were too afraid to treat each other with the most basic level of respect? I believe, I believe very firmly, that every single person in the world has the ability to do something amazing or terrible. To spread love, or hate. And whether or not they do one or the other depends on us. Depends on us being strong enough to take the high road in the face of the worst adversity. I have so much hope for people. I have so much hope for this world, and I have so much hope for what we can do to make it a better place, and that's something that I will defend to the death. When it comes... To dehumanizing someone, or anyone... I won't stand for that. Because at the end of the day, there's going to be people that follow us. And it's up to you and me to show them what respect really means.