Destiny (person)

Steven Kenneth Bonnell II (1988–), better known by his online nickname Destiny, is a Twitch streamer and YouTuber. Though primarily a gaming channel, his YouTube channel has become better known for his centrist and liberal political content, initially taking down conservatives and reactionaries but then going after socialist content creators.

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Not to be confused with the video game of the same name. If you were looking for the religious concept of destiny, see fate.

His moment of glory came in 2017 when he exposed JonTron’s white nationalist sympathies via a debate.

General positions

Below are a few examples of Destiny's progressive neoliberal views:

  • Throughout his debates, he consistently summarizes his philosophy as "rules-based utilitarianism".[1]
  • He supports neoliberal, capitalist,[2] and free trade policies.
  • Bonnell believes that voter ID laws are inherently racist.[3]
  • He holds a generally favorable view of Black Lives Matter,[4] but he also believes the use of police force can sometimes be justified.[5]
  • Destiny’s YouTube content seems to be pro-trans, especially since he strongly argued against Ben Shapiro’s conflation of sex and gender.[6] However, he has defended well-known transgender trans-activists like ContraPoints and, far less understandably, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, against accusations of transphobia and argued that the latter is probably more ignorant than outright hateful.[7]
  • He used to have a problem with not using ableist slurs,[8] but has since claimed he is trying to phase these words out of his vocabulary because he does not like the idea of using a group of people to mean something “bad”, comparing it to using derogatory terms for non-heterosexual people.[9]
  • He supports the European Union.[10]
  • He does not believe in the existence of natural rights. Instead, he suggests rights only exist insomuch a government will grant and protect them.[11]
  • He has a somewhat conservative view regarding increasing the national minimum wage to $15, saying that increasing it quickly could hurt small businesses who are not equipped to pay this much. He has argued that tying minimum wage to inflation would be positive, however.[12]

Debates and other shenanigans

The good

Destiny has debated many alt-right or adjacent personalities, including JonTron,[13] Lauren Southern,[14] Nick Fuentes,[15][16] and Sargon of Akkad.[17][18][1]

Former alt-right sympathizers, most notably Caleb Cain (Faraday Speaks, currently a leftist YouTube content creator), credit Destiny and ContraPoints, among others, for their de-radicalization.[19][20]

In an attempt to balance out debating far-rightists and far-leftists, he has also debated some BreadTubers/LefTubers, including Ben Burgis,[21] Caleb Maupin,[22] Mike from PA,[23] NonCompete,[24] Peter Coffin,[25] and his former friend[26] Vaush.

In November and December of 2020, Destiny led a canvassing operation to help Democrats win the Senate race in Georgia.[27] However, he did not have any voter data and was unprepared for the event. When asked to pay for staff time and management with an organization that could help, he refused.[28]

After the success in Georgia, he decided to canvass for Mark Gudgel, a Democratic candidate for mayor in Omaha (which is Destiny's hometown). However, Destiny's past came to bite him, and Gudgel disowned Destiny's support due to his controversial past comments, especially his incitement to violence against BLM activists.[29]

Destiny is a proponent of Social justice. Focusing primarily on the rights of minority groups, including trans people.[30]

The bad

NonCompete: If they're hungry, why not just give them food? Why not just-

Destiny: Because this fantasy world where we can have maximum production to get everybody houses, food, clothing, it doesn't exist. It's not possible.

NonCompete: Six times more empty houses in the United States than there are homeless people. We throw away-

Destiny: Wait, how do those two numbers connect at all? What does that have to do with anything at all?

NonCompete: Why should anybody be homeless when we have empty house-

Destiny: I don't know what an empty house has to do with a homeless person. Are you going to steal those houses from people who own them, or what?

NonCompete: Yes, why not?

Destiny: Okay, I mean I'm not... it's strange that as an anarcho-communist, you're telling me that the state needs to seize property from other people. I don't understand! [laughs for 5s][31]

Expectably for someone who spends so much of their time criticizing notable right-wingers and anti-SJWs, Destiny has garnered a sizable leftist fanbase. He openly detests the communist portion of his fanbase for not fully agreeing with his politics, though, and even went as far as to say:

What God do I have to pray to to get rid of my lefty following? I'd almost rather have fashies at this point, ugh.[32]

Oh sorry also by "lefty" I meant commies and shit, not just people who are progressive/lean left.[33]

In December 2020, he had a feud with @RespectableLaw on Twitter, and took a section of an LSAT practice test to prove that it was easy to become a lawyer. He even changed his Twitter profile picture and description to claim that he earned a score of 184 on the test despite the highest possible score being 180 (although this was likely as a joke).[34] He was subsequently suspended from Twitter for evading his permanent ban on the website.[35]

Destiny stated that the CIA had nothing to do with Pinochet's ascension to power in Chile.[36] However, the CIA itself has explicitly discussed its role in the coup.[37]

The ugly

In September 2020, Destiny's partnership with Twitch.tv was cancelled for encouragement of violence after defending the Kenosha shooter,File:Wikipedia's W.svg and encouraging the use of lethal violence against BLM protesters:[38]

The rioting needs to fucking stop. If that means white redneck militia dudes mowing down dipshit protesters that think they can torch buildings at 10 PM, at this point they have my fucking blessing. Holy shit, this shit needs to stop. It needed to stop a long time ago.[39]

A particularly embarrassing blunder was during his debate with YouTube show NonCompete, where he trivialized the atrocities committed by the US in Vietnam in the presence of a Vietnamese co host.

He wrote a 10,000-word manifesto justifying the use of the n-word in-private among people who were not black.[40]

gollark: They're not *terribly* expensive except land/housing.
gollark: "From each according to ability" sounds like... forcing people to work as much as possible.
gollark: Probably. But there's lots of cheaper places.
gollark: * do
gollark: somewhat, like unemployment benefit and stuff might so anyway.

See also

References
  1. Your positions are COMPLETELY unfounded ft. Sargon of Akkad from the YouTube channel Destiny 2 March 2019
  2. The capitalist arc of my streaming career from the Youtube channel Destiny 28 May 2019
  3. Voter ID Law Debate with Fan from the YouTube channel Destiny 17 September 2017
  4. Police Brutality & Black Lives Matter - Debate with Twitter User from the YouTube channel Destiny 27 January 2018
  5. Was shooting him justified? from the YouTube channel Destiny 24 April 2019
  6. Are Sex & Gender the Same Thing - Ben Shapiro Video Review from the YouTube channel Destiny 2 January 2018
  7. IS JK ROWLING A TERF? from the YouTube channel Destiny 2 January 2020
  8. Talking About JonTron, Sargon, My Emotional Well-being and More from the YouTube channel Destiny 22 May 2017
  9. Twitch Streamers talk about Ableist and Homophobic Slurs from the YouTube channel “Sabor” 18 August 2019
  10. Why I support the EU from the YouTube channel Destiny 6 February 2019
  11. You can't keep begging the question with that statement... - Destiny Debates Adam Kokesh from the YouTube channel Destiny 4 August 2019
  12. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd8Lm2owIJQ
  13. Debating JonTron from the YouTube channel Destiny 13 March 2017
  14. Debating Lauren Southern on immigration from the YouTube channel Destiny 16 January 2017
  15. Debating Immigration with Nick Fuentes from the YouTube channel Destiny 9 November 2017
  16. Immigration Debate with Nicholas J. Fuentes from the Youtube channel Destiny 26 September 2017
  17. Debating @Sargon_of_Akkad from the YouTube channel Destiny 2 December 2016
  18. Discussions with Sargon of Akkad, Take 2 from the Youtube channel Destiny 19 March 2017
  19. The Making of a YouTube Radical The New York Times 8 June 2019
  20. My Descent into the Alt-Right Pipeline from the YouTube channel Faraday Speaks 21 March 2019
  21. This is not a healthy positive direction to head in... - Destiny Debate on Socialism ft. Ben Burgis from the YouTube channel Destiny 16 July 2019
  22. This isn't strengthening your arguments... - Destiny Debates Socialism ft. Caleb Maupin from the YouTube channel Destiny 3 September 2019
  23. This is the dumbest thing I've ever heard... - Destiny Debates Mike from PA from the YouTube channel Destiny 19 August 2019
  24. This feels so idealized… - Destiny Debates NonCompete from the YouTube channel Destiny 14 August 2019
  25. "You ran away from every SINGLE point" - Destiny Debates Peter Coffin ft. The Serfs from the YouTube channel Destiny
  26. Why I Burned the Vaush Bridge - Debate w/ Xanderhal from the YouTube channel Destiny 15 September 2020
  27. I'm Getting Involved in Politics and Heading to Atlanta from the Youtube channel 'Destiny' 16 November 2020
  28. https://twitter.com/zei_squirrel/status/1336133078130044933
  29. Chris Bowling, After Cutting Ties with Controversial Streamer, Gudgel Staying in Mayoral Race The Reader, 5 Mar. 2021
  30. I think that social justice is a real thing. We have made a ton of progress so far... From Destiny's website
  31. https://twitter.com/biggestjoel/status/1348513667155963906?s=20
  32. Destiny-chan on Twitter[a w] 1 April 2019
  33. Destiny-chan on Twitter[a w] 2 April 2019
  34. https://twitter.com/RespectableLaw/status/1336513127769403392
  35. https://twitter.com/JordanUhl/status/1336723956129259520
  36. https://www.reddit.com/r/uncensorstiny/comments/kdrezg/curb_your_wiki_destiny_on_pinochet_and_the_cia/
  37. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu//news/20000919/01-13.htm
  38. Daniel Park, Twitch Legal Department Unpartners Destiny After 'Encouragement of Violence'. gamerant.com, 12 September 2020.
  39. Twitch streamer Destiny loses partnership for "encouraging violence" GINX Esports TV 12 September 2020
  40. https://www.reddit.com/r/Destiny/comments/dmjb18/clarifying_some_previous_events/
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