Dream's 5 most controversial moments of 2022 so far
Clay "Dream" has been trending on social media for quite some time, especially after the much-anticipated face reveal. The extremely popular Minecraft content creator and streamer has recently crossed the 31 million-subscriber mark on YouTube, marking another milestone in his career.
Since blowing up on the internet between 2019-20, the streamer has enjoyed a meteoric rise to fame. But the road to success has had quite a few bumps and controversies, such as the infamous speedrun scandal known by almost everyone in the gaming community.
With Dream once again trending after a highly successful TwitchCon meet and greet, here are some of the biggest controversies he's been part of in 2022 alone.
Five of Dream's biggest controversies in 2022
5) Out of context doxxing comment
In April 2022 a clip of Dream's rant about Doxxer's gained traction on the internet after people misconstrued it for the YouTuber downplaying the victimhood of smaller content creators who get doxxed or threatened online. In the clip, the Minecraft streamer can be heard stating:
"If you are a person on Twitter, and you have seven followers, you get doxxed on Twitter. Um, the odds of having something happen to you in your life is so astronomically small that it's not even worth worrying about."Understandably, the comments did not sit well with the majority of viewers. Many opined that a creator with millions of subscribers shouldn't be bullying smaller users on the internet, knowing full well that the former's massive fanbase can and may end up harassing the latter.
To his credit, Dream did address this on a livestream where he defended himself by stating that his words were taken out of context and that he doesn't endorse doxxing in any way.
4) Past political views
After becoming widely known in the gaming community, many people following Dream found out that the streamer had in the past subscribed to some socio-political policies of former US President Donald Trump. The incident had already culminated in a doxing incident last year but was brought up again this year.
This tweet from July shows the content creator trying to distance himself from the opinions and views he's held in the past. He emphasized how dumb he was as a kid and presented a childhood memory as an analogy.
Calling on people to forget him, he posted a tweet saying:
"I was an IDIOT when I was a kid, please forget I even existed if you knew of me back then, let alone OPINIONS I had."3) Selling baby pictures as merch
Last month, the Minecraft legend faced a lot of backlash on social media after certain people objected to how he was handling his merch. For a highly popular streamer like him, it is only natural for the fans to show their support by buying a lot of his merchandise. But a bracelet containing Dream's pictures from when he was a toddler left many people disgusted.
The product in question was a bracelet with its symbol on it and an added perk was that it contained a USB flash drive in a compartment embedded into it. The contents of the flash drive were described as:
"Contents include Baby pictures, some chapters from Dream's old books, childhood emails, old gaming screenshots, pictures/memes from Dream's camera roll and more!"Many didn't feel right that he would commercialize his own pictures from when he was a baby and felt it was quite distasteful to be selling it to fans for almost $41.
2) Alleged homophobia
The highly popular streamer was caught up in yet another controversy after a tweet of his was seen as homophobic by many on Twitter. The post in question was in response to a thread about HasanAbi getting restricted on YouTube. The streamer later took to his stream to address these serious allegations.
The streamer took to his main account to clarify his stance on the LGBTQ+ community. Clay stated that he is not homophobic and that people were misconstruing his sarcastic post, making fun of homophobes for actual homophobia:
"Only Twitter can confuse mocking homophobia in clear support of gay people."For more about the whole controversy, read this.
1) #Dreamisafreak: Allegations of grooming
Perhaps the most egregious of controversies to do with the streamer happened on October 14 as a result of which the hastag #Dreamisafreak started trending on Twitter. Twitter user Anastasia "oxeclean" came forward and shared many DMs, accusing the popular Minecrafter of grooming her when she was 17.
According to Anastasia, she was underage at the time and was made to feel highly uncomfortable by the streamer's overtures. After privating her account, another user by the name "burner" uploaded a bunch of screenshots and one of them reads:
"None of it is appropriate for a 'fan' and influencer to be this close, especially since I was still 17 and in school and he knew that. It crosses the line when he's sending me his huge house/inviting me. The worst of flirt that I recall was on Snapchat and obviously those delete."Dream has yet to defend himself and it is still unclear whether or not proceedings will take the form of legal action. Read this for a more in-depth look at the allegations and analysis of more of Anastasia's tweets.
Quick Links
More from Sportskeeda
" modalPopup.closeOnEsc = false; modalPopup.setHeader("Why did you not like this content?"); modalPopup.setContentText(modalText); modalPopup.addCancelOkButton("Submit", resetRatingAndFeedbackForm, sendRating); modalPopup.removeCloseModalIcon(); modalPopup.disableDismissPopup(); modalPopup.open(); } else { sendRating(index); } } function sendRating() { var requestPayload = { "post_id": 1259916, "rating_value": ratingValue } if (ratingValue > 3) { requestPayload.rating_feedback_type = null; requestPayload.rating_feedback = null; } else { if (!$('input[name="drone"]:checked') || !$('input[name="drone"]:checked').value) { showErrorMessage('option'); return; } if (!$(".post-rating-feedback-note textarea") || !$(".post-rating-feedback-note textarea").value) { showErrorMessage('note'); return; } var selectedOption = $('input[name="drone"]:checked').value; var feedbackNote = $(".post-rating-feedback-note textarea").value; requestPayload.rating_feedback_type = selectedOption; requestPayload.rating_feedback = feedbackNote; } pureJSAjaxPost(addratingAPI, requestPayload, onsaveRatingSuccess, onsaveRatingFail, function() {}, true); } function resetRatingAndFeedbackForm() { var activeStars = Array.from($all('.rating span.rating-star.active')); for (var i=0; i < activeStars.length; i++) { activeStars[i].classList.remove("active"); } if ($('input[name="drone"]:checked')) { $('input[name="drone"]:checked').checked = false; } var userNote = document.querySelector(".post-rating-feedback-note textarea"); userNote.value = ''; modalPopup.close(); } function onsaveRatingSuccess() { modalPopup.close(); savePostIdInUserRatedPostsCookie(); $("#post-rating-layout").classList.add("hidden"); $("#post-rating-message").classList.remove("hidden"); window.setInterval(function showMessage() { $("#post-rating-widget").classList.add("hidden"); }, 3000); } function onsaveRatingFail() { console.error('Saving post rating failed!'); modalPopup.close(); } function savePostIdInUserRatedPostsCookie() { userRatedPostIds.push(1259916); var expiryTime = new Date(); expiryTime.setMonth(expiryTime.getMonth() + 12); // Expiry after 1 year setCookie("user_rated_post_ids", JSON.stringify(userRatedPostIds), expiryTime); } function isPostRatedByUser() { var userRatedPostIds = getCookie('user_rated_post_ids'); if (userRatedPostIds) { try { userRatedPostIds = JSON.parse(userRatedPostIds); } catch (err) { console.error(err); return false; } } else { return false; } if(userRatedPostIds.indexOf(1259916) >= 0) { return true; } else { return false; } } function getRatingCountByPostId(postId) { return new Promise(function(resolve, reject) { pureJSAjaxGet( getRatingCountBaseURL + postId + '/rating/count', function(data) { try { data = JSON.parse(data); if (data.meta_value) { resolve(data.meta_value); } reject("Failed to fetch rating count for the post:" + postId); } catch (err) { reject("Failed to fetch rating count for the post:" + postId); } }, function(err) { reject("Failed to fetch rating count for the post:" + postId); }, true); }); } function showErrorMessage(messageType) { var messageContainerId = '#' + messageType + '-error'; $(messageContainerId).classList.remove('hidden'); window.setInterval(function () { $(messageContainerId).classList.add("hidden"); }, 5000); } (function() { var callFired = false; function lazyLoadPostRating() { if (callFired) return; callFired = true; if (!isPostRatedByUser()) { getRatingCountByPostId(1259916) .then(function(ratingCount) { if (ratingCount < 10) { $("#post-rating-widget").classList.remove("hidden"); } }) .catch(function(err){ console.error(err); }); } } document.addEventListener("scroll", lazyLoadPostRating, { passive: true, once: true }); document.addEventListener("mousemove", lazyLoadPostRating, { passive: true, once: true }); document.addEventListener("touchmove", lazyLoadPostRating, { passive: true, once: true }); })();ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tLzOq6uso5WasaJ6wqikaJ2jpbyzwNJom6udkaJ6tHmUZpqopqSnvLex0aygmqRdoryusc2tqmZqYGd%2FbrLAqw%3D%3D