I've spent the last day thinking a lot about this situation with Stephanie and Justin. I've been pretty active in that other post, reading all the new comments as they come in, and trying to gain some perspective. It's become clear to me that any way you look at it, Steph is in the wrong here.

At best, they dragged their former employee's name through the mud because they complained, privately, to a friend, that they felt they weren't being paid as well as they should have.

At worst, they underpaid and gaslit their former employee, and took advantage of their personal relationship in order to directly benefit their own brand.

In either case, Stephanie then used a trauma dump to incite an emotional reaction in their fans, and used it to frame their professional relationship as one where Justin, the employee who depended on them for a living, is somehow the toxic abuser. And don't even get me started on their claim Justin was only a part-time employee.

I don't know Steph. I don't know Justin. I don't know the exact nature of their situation, and I probably never will. But when I look at the things Steph admitted to, and when I look at the things Justin accused them of that they've yet to refute, it leads me to believe Steph does not actually believe in the values that they repeatedly bang on about, week after week. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I can no longer give my support to a person like that, or call myself their fan.

I wrote this post because as I said, I've been a big fan of Steph's for 15 years now. And beyond them, I never really had any other internet personalities that I've "followed". I've always tried to be a little less Online than other people I knew, and I found them early on during my discovery of my love of gaming, and that was good enough for me. For the better part of a decade, I looked forward to Mondays not only because of the content of The Jimquisition, but also because it was reassuring to know Steph was still there, doing their thing. I never idolized them, never formed any parasocial ideas about them. But for ten years, I listened them angrily go off about better pay for workers, better working conditions, better economic models, better transparency for those in the gaming space and beyond. It turns out those values are something Stephanie can only Say, and not Do. It's disappointing, to say the least.

If you think I got something wrong here, let me know, just please try to do it in a nice way.
If you think I'm a self-righteous ass, let me know, just please try to do it in a funny way.

Edit: Conrad Zimmerman has chimed in, notably mentioning embezzlement on a "a former employee's" part.