The class analysis of this is very potent, but I still think there’s a lot to be said for the fact that Arielle might’ve not have gone into the queer positive movement with the best of intentions in the first place. If other YouTube queers can pull it off, Arielle definitely could’ve.

I think this is more an indictment of the information economy, and how Arielle expected herself to become a permanent item of media attention, such as becoming “conservative” was the best way to keep her name in circulation still. The early boom of queer content on YouTube had many casualties, and there was bound to be an outlier who’d perform the most basic version of a cost-benefit analysis and conclude that they must become a right-wing figure to still be relevant.