James Charles Dickinson Apology Analysis | The Limits of Apology Video Tactics

hello this is dr grande today's question is can i analyze the apology video titled holding myself accountable from james charles dickinson which was published on april 1 2021. just a reminder i'm not diagnosing anybody in this video only speculating about could be happening a situation like this if you enjoy this video please like it subscribe to my channel and consider supporting me on patreon i'll put the link to patreon in the description for this video first i'll go through the background of james charles dickinson i'll talk about his apology video and i'll offer my analysis james charles dickinson was born in bethlehem new york on may 23 1999. he graduated high school in 2017. two years before he started posting makeup tutorials on his youtube channel he was also active on other social media a tweet of him retaking his senior portrait became extremely popular in 2016. after this he was hired to be the spokes model for covergirl a company that makes cosmetics in 2018 he launched his own makeup collection in conjunction with another brand named morphe cosmetics as this fame continued to grow dickinson was involved in a number of controversies many of them related to insensitive or offensive social media posts that he made his situation kind of reminds me of the character sideshow bob and the simpsons there was i think a few episodes where he was like walking around in a yard and stepping on rakes so every time he would step on a rake the handle will come up and hit him in the face and then he would just start to walk another direction and he would step on another rake that's kind of what happened to dickinson it was like every time he left one controversy he just walked right into another one in may of 19 another controversy saga would begin with another beauty youtube content creator named toddy westbrook i'm summing up a lot here in a few words this was a big adventure that involved a lot of different moving parts westbrook released a video titled by sister she made a number of accusations against dickinson including suggesting that dickinson tried to deceive a romantic partner dickinson replied with a video titled toddy in which he apologized to his audience and to her that video didn't go over too well shortly after this he uploaded another video titled no more lies where he defended himself against westbrook many would argue he mounted a successful defense a little over a year later westbrook uploaded another video where she appears to blame jeffrey starr and shane dawson suggesting they manipulated her into making the video by sister this brings us to february of 2021 and the topic of controversy related to the video that dickinson would release on april 1. there were a few allegations made against dickinson including those from two 16 year old males one accuser said that dickinson had sent sexually oriented text messages including some that contained unsolicited photos that let's just say weren't rated pg some of this activity allegedly occurred even after dickinson was made aware of the accuser's age dickinson said that the male had identified himself as 18 later admitting he was 16. after that dickinson stopped communicating so he thought he was 18 but then it turns out he was 16 at that point dickenson again is making the statement that he walked away the second accuser came forward in march of 2021 and said something fairly similar for example dickinson allegedly kept having contact with him even after he knew the correct age this brings us to the apology video released on april 1. i will sum up this video much of this will be paraphrased dickenson starts by noting the accusations that have been made he said to record this video he was only using notes it wasn't scripted like the no more lies video was two years before so this is really suggesting that the video will be rough around the edges compared to that other video he apologized and noted that this was embarrassing he said he was wrong and there were no excuses he also acknowledged that it was april fool's day which could be confusing but the video was serious he released it on that day simply because he wanted to get it out there as soon as possible he also issued a trigger warning he talked about how he flirted online with two people who were 16. he initially thought they were 18. once he found out about their ages he blocked them immediately so i talked about this before once he saw what they posted on social media he wanted to defend himself he had all the evidence which he refers to as receipts and this evidence and theory would prove his innocence but he realized that all this was his fault he said he didn't conduct the research necessary to find out their true ages even though this research would have been easy to do he was being reckless then he stays with that idea of being reckless he ponders the idea that he is careful in so many areas of his life like in his business but he's reckless in relationships he tried to explain this by saying he was desperate he went on to talk about how frustrating it has been to find romantic interests he's looking for someone to make him laugh but he's not very experienced he is getting a lot of attention due to his fame almost like he was overwhelmed by fame and did not know how to adjust he talked about how he started to realize that people manifest unusual behaviors when confronted with a celebrity being famous is normal for him so it would never have occurred to him that it was not normal for other people he now needs to be aware of this and be more responsible he talked about how when influencers make mistakes they upload apology videos where they just repeatedly say they're sorry an accurate observation he said this is not helpful only making changes is helpful and that is what he is committing to do in the future he will be more careful now he completely understands the circumstances that led to his behavior he will be taking an indeterminate amount of time off to reflect and further educate himself on this topic now moving to my analysis first i'll break down the general strategy this apology video is vastly superior to the typical one that we see on youtube when this type of situation occurs i don't know if he had any help with this or not but in some ways it was really genius i would categorize this apology video as set the bar low subtle defense awareness over apology vulnerability and reform with a low specificity modifier i'll explain what i mean by this category he starts by essentially saying that this won't be a good apology video not as good as other videos he has done he sets the bar low he keeps the expectations to a minimum under promise and over deliver he continues by saying he can prove he's innocent he has those so-called receipts this is the subtle defense it's like offering a convincing defense without actually having to produce evidence pretty smart moving on with this in mind he's not going to offer this fabulous defense that he has just waiting outside of the shot it's all ready to go but no he's not going to use it because he has gained insight this is the awareness piece again an intelligent move he now realizes that he was responsible therefore he's really sorry to everybody everywhere in the universe right so we see this over apology he's apologizing for everything to everyone this is like an unconditional surrender except apology version he's making no excuses he's sorry and that's it full ownership this technique doesn't allow critics any room to criticize he's rushed ahead and self-criticized to a maximum degree it's like you can't call me bad because i'm already worse then we see he moves to vulnerability he offers a plausible excuse for his behavior without really framing it as an excuse again he was saying that he was desperate he was confused about his position and how it changed in light of fame this vulnerability stage humanizes dickinson and of course we move to reform this is where he's going to reflect and grow as an individual now he has this newfound insight that has changed his life for the better this stage will ensure he does not reoffend so that takes us to the low specificity modifier dickenson was careful not to give too much information he didn't admit to specific items contained in the allegation that could get him in trouble like sending photos even though he gave out little information dickinson may still have hurt himself by limiting his defensive options i'll talk about that in a moment looking at the execution of this apology video it was excellent this wasn't just an apology video in one sense it was a tactical masterpiece even though this apology video is quite impressive it is not without its flaws i'll cover three here one dickinson implied that he was not actively searching for younger people to be in a relationship with yet we see in 2020 when he was on logan paul's podcast he said he was not attracted to older guys so here we see he just didn't do his research he didn't ensure consistency between this apology and past statements if one is going to choose to be deceptive at least show some pride in the work two the recording level for this video was set way too low this may have been a consequence of a hurried production process here in my studio i have fairly substantial speakers and if i had forgotten to turn the volume back down after watching this video i would have alarmed the entire neighborhood with the sound so it's one of those videos that really makes you keep the recording level in mind because you want to make sure that after watching it you turn it back down before you play something else moving to the third mistake i mentioned before that dickinson appeared to have limited his options even though he didn't provide a lot of information dickinson admitted to flirting with individuals who were under 18. he didn't get specific about exactly what that means but if this ever becomes an issue like in court he has limited his options by making those statements now some people have said okay dickinson made a few mistakes but he's covered under the romeo and juliet law depending on the state this law allows romantic interaction of different types between minors within a specified age range and others if the age difference is within something like three or four years so first it's important to keep in mind that 16 and 21 are five years apart so already he would not be covered under this law but there's actually more to it than that if one were to assume if some case came up the jurisdiction would be in california where dickinson lives well that's not how the romeo and juliet laws work in california rather it works by saying that if there were fewer than three years between the perpetrator and the victim the offense would be considered a misdemeanor instead of a felony most romeo and juliet laws involve a crime or no crime in california is the degree of the crime that is determined by the law now some might say okay fine but the laws only apply to sexual activity actually no the laws apply to a variety of behavior including sending and receiving explicit images or attempting to seduce a victim dickinson again did not admit to this but it is contained in the allegations now of course dickinson can mount a defense if anything should ever happen for example he didn't know the victims were underage this could help him and even though this defense is not allowed in many states it is permitted in california either way dickinson locked himself into a story with this video for example now he can't deny ever having communicated with the alleged victims and he cannot deny flirtatious behavior so he's kind of moved himself down the road toward trouble if he had not made this video he would have all his options still available he could just not say anything not saying anything is often the best move what's good for an apology video is rarely what's good for a legal defense continuing with my analysis there seems to be little doubt that there will be an emphasis placed on dickinson's use of the word desperate it's hard to defend his behavior but i do think it's worth considering that dickinson finds himself in an unusual position he's exceedingly young and yet has been catapulted to fame there is no procedure for handling this no one expects that type of outcome if he was truly desperate before being famous there's no reason to believe that the desperation level would change afterward in some ways celebrity status increases whatever person already has for example if they have a lot of talent those skills get refined if they have empathy they might be involved in charities and affect a lot of people so they could help a few people before but now they can help a wider number but the increase can also apply to negative characteristics for example if there is a tendency toward drug use that tends to be easier to act on when somebody is famous could it be that dickinson was desperate and that desperation was only magnified because he became a celebrity being a celebrity can be exceedingly lonely the case of james charles dickinson may simply be another situation of too much fame too much power and too much money too quickly there is good news for dickinson however if things don't work out with being a beauty influencer he can always make a living writing apology videos as internet influencers grow in number and popularity and their impulsivity is now broadcast to a wider audience the demand for apology video writing will be increasing for the foreseeable future those are my thoughts on the james charles dickinson controversy please put any opinions and thoughts in the comments section they always generate an interesting dialogue as always i hope you found my analysis of this topic to be enlightening thanks for watching

Channel: Dr. Todd Grande

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Id: suCr_DhO_hA

Length: 15min 8sec (908 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 04 2021