Lee, who will no longer be watching Jafari’s videos, said, “Once you start publicly discussing those beliefs, and in the case of Jon, spread them from the official JonTron Twitter, it starts to become activism. …. I absolutely won’t have those beliefs be spread and supported by my viewership of his content, giving him ad revenue and views.”

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But even the fans that are disappointed in Jafari and don’t plan on watching his videos anymore haven’t quite given up hope on him. One fan, Sam, described himself as a “former edgelord,” and frequent poster on notorious subreddit the_donald, as well as a reader of /pol/, 4chan’s “politically incorrect” subforum. He’s since shifted away from the hard right politics found in those places, describing himself as a “center-leaning libertarian.”

About a month ago, Sam said that he found himself at a crossroads between the “alt lite,” a wading pool of hard right opinion typified by people like Gavin McInnes and Milo Yiannopoulos, and the alt right, which Sam described as, “actual white nationalism.”

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Referring to Jafari’s debate with Bonnell, Sam said, “Jon basically parroted white nationalist talking points the whole time. Going on and on about how discrimination no longer exists and blatantly ignoring the socio-economic factors behind black crime. ... I’ve talked to numerous white nationalists, Jon was almost word for word. I was absolutely floored afterward.”

But Sam has faith that Jafari can change his views. “I think for Jon to come back from where he is now, he needs to take a break from basically any sort of politics, like I did,” he said. “’Cause he’s clearly out of his depth.”

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Indeed, in a Tweet after the debate, even JonTron himself said, “I don’t feel like I articulated myself particularly well, never been on the spot like that before.”

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Will, another JonTron fan, also said that the thinks Jafari can change. Like Sam, he points to his own life experience for reference.

“For about eight years, I was very pro-life and would go to protests in front of Planned Parenthood buildings. But as time went on I began to do research and realize both the benefits and importance of abortions as well as Planned Parenthood as a whole,” he said over email. “If you only look at one view and are too stubborn to listen to the view of the other side (which is what I think Jon did), of course your side is going to make more sense. … I believe researching and discussing with an open mind really is the key to changing stances.”

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Despite their hopes, neither Sam nor Will will be watching JonTron’s videos until he disavows his current political stance.

“I think that might be easy for some people, but how is a black person supposed to watch Jon and pretend like doesn’t hold disparaging views about them?” Sam said. “And where does it end? As long as they make you giggle every once in a while everything is cool? If Richard Spencer decided to go on a stand up tour I sure as fuck wouldn’t support him.”

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DeVaun watched Jafari’s debate with Bonnell, during which Jafari claimed that wealthy black Americans commit more crimes than wealthy white Americans. He was floored. “Why would I support someone with views such as his when I’m a black man living in the US and know very well the shit we have to go through as a community?” he said over email. “To hear him dismiss it as fantasy and to say discrimination doesn’t exist completely trivializes the hardships many people have to go through.

“It’s just really saddening to hear the things he said and I will not reward that by giving him my viewership so he can continue his career and voice his bigotry to his very large and impressionable fanbase.”

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DeVaun said that, in the debate, JonTron seemed like a completely different person than the one in the videos he has watched and loved.

“It just disappointed the hell out of me to see this guy whose content I loved just being completely unreasonable to sound arguments and facts so he could hold onto his very bigoted views,” he said. “I guess this is why they say you should never meet your heroes.”