Meme Context, Rabia, Aaron and the end of Wondery’s relationship with Mike.

It was International Women’s day when Mike posted this. This sparked outrage, understandably. 

This “meme” was the straw that broke the camels back. Wondery finally decided that the risk of having him as part of their network was a lot greater than whatever money he was bringing in.

To my knowledge, they washed their hands completely of Mike and S&S

Wondery decided to part ways with Sword and Scale. 

Mike decides to shut down his podcast for good. No more free episodes... At least according to him. This changes later on when he hires someone to host the free episodes. 

 "I just got off the phone with Wondery, and I am very sad to announce that we are no longer a Wondery show. 

In fact, without advertising, we're no longer a show at all. After this recording, I have a call with my staff to let most of them know they are being laid off today. That means no season 2 of Monstruo, no more This Is War, no more Sword and Scale Rewind, and, as it stands right now, no more Sword and Scale. That's it. Censorship actually works. You get a mob to rally against you, intimidate those around you, anyone who associates with you, because you've been deemed "a bad person" who says "bad words." The mob can censor you through intimidation, through boycotts, and other tactics just because they don't like what you say, how you said it, what tone you used, what words you used. 

I've been saying that for years. There is a culture war going on right now in the United States, and pretty much all over the world. It's not enough for this particular group of people to scroll past something they don't like, to unsubscribe from it. No, that's not the point at all. It's not about controlling what they hear as individuals. It's about controlling what YOU hear. What all of you, all of us, hear, or see, or say, or think. Your words are no longer your words, whether you think they are or not. They're the words of the mob, of the state. Your individual liberties have been given up for the sake of pretending that you're more virtuous than you are, for the sake of appearances. 

Right now, as it stands, this is the end. We will keep putting out PLUS episodes on Patreon until we move to our own platform, and then continue putting out episodes behind that paywall. But Sword and Scale, the free show, and all of the other Incongruity Media shows, are coming to an end. Anything that was ad supported is over now. Because of Aaron Mahnke from Lore, and Rabia Chaudry from Undisclosed, who led this boycott against me and my company 'cause they didn't like certain things I said. There have been many accusations against me over the years, because I believe in independent thought and independent speech. I don't talk like them. I don't say things in the pre-approved way they want me to say it. And when someone tries to tell me what to say, I tell them to fuck off. Well they don't like that. They don't like having their power challenged, so they attack your character. They use things that are out of context, especially screenshots, to prove what a misogynist pig you are. Never mind context, nevermind telling the actual series of events or circumstances behind these screenshots. No. Just collect 'em all and put 'em in a place where you can point people to. A public forum, such as Reddit, for example, where you can show people that "it's on the internet, it must be true!" That's what they do, and they do it to public figure after public figure, that doesn't toe their line. So they went after my advertisers and scared enough of them to drop me. But that wasn't enough. Then they went after Wondery, not just the company as a whole, but individuals IN that company. And guess what? It worked. And I don't blame them. There's only so much you can take, so much pressure you can take. I know other podcasters that have been attacked just because they're friends with me. They've been personally attacked just because of their association to me as an individual because I've been deemed a bad person. 

I don't fall in line with their bullshit. I make inappropriate jokes sometimes. I repost memes that some people might find offensive. Everyone takes everything SO seriously and loves to virtue-signal about it online. Even a fucking joke meme that I didn't even create. It takes a particularly special individual to try to get a podcaster fired because they didn't like a reposted joke meme, but that's what people like Aaron Mahnke and Rabia Chaudry are all about: virtue signaling online. Pretending they're better than everyone else, acting like they're more moral, more enlightened. Well there you go, maybe they are. Maybe I am an asshole. And I'm an asshole that you will no longer be able to hear because of these virtuous people. 

Now right now I don't know what's going to happen. I wanted to come on here and tell you why we're not going to be putting out shows anymore and also to let you know that there's still a way for you to support us. Again right now it's still on Patreon, we're moving off that platform because of this very reason. We don't want someone pressuring Patreon somehow to drop us because they've been offended by something. And that can very well happen. It could very well happen that we're dropped off of Patreon, kicked off of Twitter, kicked off of every platform out there, Facebook, YouTube, you name it. Because again, we don't fall in line with this common, modern day thinking that you have to say things a certain way, that you have to keep repeating the party line. That's just how I am. I don't let anyone else control my words. And so here we are, where my words have now been silenced. Censorship works. You go after someone online, you get a mob behind you, you can take 'em down. Just like Aaron Mahnke and Rabia Chaudry did to 

me. So that's it. Congratulations. You've silenced another free thinker. Good job. Now you can go get offended by someone else and silence them too. Your work is never done, is it? Enjoy your little battle. I'll see everyone else on Patreon, and thank you to those of you still listening."

Ya’ll ready to dissect a few choice parts of this?

Let’s do this. 

Aaron and Rabia merely called him out, both are very, very busy individuals and don’t have the time to lead any boycotts or mass take down of Mike Boudet, they just called it as they saw it. 

The reason why he was deemed a “bad person” who says “bad words” is because he is. I’ve never seen him once take a step back and think “Well fuck, I sure fucked up. I’ll try and do better”

As for firing his staff. Let me let you in on a secret. Let’s say that his 15k supporters on Patreon give him the *lowest* donation a month... That’s $75k a month. He still has plenty of money to throw around. He didn’t end up firing anyone. 

He got deplatformed, and he still doesn’t get why he is the problem. 

He did bring in a new host, Tricia Griffith owner of Websleuths and her story is a whole new blog post. She reads for the “free episodes” and Mike reads for the “paid episodes”

From reddit, An anonymous source sent this in.

A lot has happened in the last few days. I will do a full write up soon. For now, there's this.

Mike just can't leave Mahnke alone.

He could also just donate without calling a more successful podcaster a bitch. 🤷‍♂️

Free speech means that the government can't prosecute you for voicing an opinion.

It does not mean that private companies have to let you spew hate on their platform.

For some, making rape jokes about the disabled and making fun of human trafficking is okay.. This is not acceptable. This is disgusting

Wondery media thinks this is OK. This is not OK.

People's rights are being taken away, children are being separated from their parents and kept in camps, but yes voting for podcasts in a shitty podcast competition is more important

Mike is considering archiving his group. This is fine. A lot of podcasts do that once they reach a certain amount of members due to liability stuff.

However Mike himself is his biggest liability. Now he's sending his fans after people that were unlucky enough to be in a screenshot, his fans are now sending threats to us which tbh shows exactly why Mike isn't the victim he makes himself out to be.

Most of the dirt on him is on twitter and insta anyway 🤷‍♂️

People's rights are being taken away, children are being separated from their parents and kept in camps, but yes voting for podcasts in a shitty podcast competition is more important

...

Mike Boudet, Sliding into DMs since... well forever. 

He does this a lot. No other podcaster does this. 

#tbt patreon exit surveys

I can't express how happy I am that talk space pulled their ad money .

First ss is the original patreon exit survey.

Second is the newer patreon after people started leaving. He has no idea about mental health or how it works and is not willing to learn.

Talkspace listened, and pulled their funding. Thank you for listening Talkspace, you gained so many new subscribers after this.

Yesterday, Official Sword and Scale Facebook group.

First ss: that is literally not how autism works. Not at all. Making fun of autism is frankly disgusting. Using autism as an insult is vile.

Second ss: noone is sitting and waiting for him to talk. You don't have to. You can just follow his stuff and he'll say something gross eventually.

Third ss: pretty sure he's making fun of that time her got banned from the mfm group for creeping on fans.

He's not active on the s&s twitter rn, one of his employees is manning the official s&s twitter, but he's still on the fb.

He'll never get it.

This whole pronoun, white cis male bs he's using as an excuse for why he's hated is bullshit.

He's not even white, he's Cuban iirc

The fact that he talks like this about people is gross. Especially people that have preferred pronouns. It's not that hard to show respect to your fellow human. It costs NOTHING to try and understand and be kind.

Mike could have any color hair or any pronoun and still act this way and I'd still fight him.

Being an asshole has no hair color, or pronoun.

He's upset that he's being called out and instead of self-reflection he's doubling down.

There's a lot of podcasts that I love that have white cis males as hosts, but they're kind and tolerant. They're not disgusting anti-women, homophobic, transphobic assholes.

Not Mike Boudet, but SWT is one of the hosts for S&S rewind. Yup.

Rabia hosted a podcast about Adnan and is working on his case. Mike is upset because Rabia called him out. So ofc she's a murderer.