Simu Liu’s Alleged Old Reddit Account Is Why You Should Never Post

Marvel’s Shang-Chi star Simu Liu has develop into one of many newest examples of why you must periodically delete old social media posts. Last week, followers started sharing screenshots of Reddit feedback the actor allegedly made years earlier than he was well-known. To say they have been “not great” could be an understatement.

Though the “NippedInTheBud” profile—which has been credibly linked to Liu by way of a searchable GitHub tool that archives Reddit accounts—has since been deleted, a number of screengrabs of posts tied to the account have been making the rounds on-line and inflicting a sure diploma of backlash due to their content material and the place they have been initially written. In addition to creating casually sexist remarks about girls being inferior athletes to males, and inelegantly expressing disdain for extremism in a method that carried Islamophobic overtones, NippedInTheBud (and by extension, Liu) got here below fireplace for collaborating in r/AZNidentity, a subreddit that’s often known as a hub for an Asian-identified subset of the Men’s Rights Activist neighborhood.

Though r/AZNidentity purports to be an area that’s “against all forms of anti-Asianism (anti-Asian racism)” the subreddit has a well-documented history of being a gathering place for aggrieved males who launch coordinated assaults sometimes in opposition to girls—a few of whom are Asian themselves—that they’ve recognized as being “race traitors” indirectly or one other. While not one of the screenshots making the rounds have instantly linked NippedInTheBud to any of the group’s extra vicious habits, the account being in any respect current related to r/AZNidentity raised eyebrows due to what sort of place it’s.

Somewhat extra regarding than the digital firm NippedInTheBud stored, although, have been concepts expressed in a publish likening pedophiles to gay people. In a remark posted again in 2015 (when Liu would have been 26), NippedInTheBud described how they’d accomplished “a significant amount of research” for a present through which they portrayed a pedophile, and the way the expertise made them “much more sympathetic to anyone who is born with those urges.” The deleted publish learn: “From a biological standpoint, it’s no different than being gay – a small mutation in the genome that defines our sexual preferences. Depending on what area of the world you were born and what time, it also may have been a perfectly acceptable thing to act on those urges.” The publish additionally made clear that the individual writing it felt that folks preying upon youngsters was improper, as is the historical past of queer individuals’s sexualities being pathologized by each the medical and felony justice techniques.

Though NippedInTheBud didn’t point out particularly which function they have been describing, as a result of the account appears to be Liu, it stands to motive that it was speaking concerning the actor’s stint on Blood and Water, a trilingual Canadian crime drama that started working in 2015. In the sequence, Liu portrayed Paul Xie, the eldest son of a robust actual property magnate, who turns into one of many suspects after his youthful brother Charlie (Osric Chau) dies below mysterious circumstances. Over the course of the primary season, you learn the way, as youngsters, Paul molested Charlie, and the abuse finally drove Charlie to substance abuse within the following years. When Charlie in the end threatens to inform everybody what Paul did to him, the elder brother kills his youthful sibling in a panicked rage, and the majority of Blood and Water focuses on detective Josephine Bradley (Steph Song) piecing the thriller collectively.

What’s notably galling about NippedInTheBud’s outdated feedback when you think about them within the context of the story Blood and Water was really telling is that Paul Xie was not only a man affected by an unlucky affliction he had no management over. Throughout the sequence’ first season, Paul’s proven to be a manipulative liar who tries to make use of the facility that comes from being an editor at an area newspaper to get the authorities off his again. When Paul’s father Li-Rong (Oscar Hsu) confronts him, he tells his son that he’s all the time had some inkling of what was happening, and struggled with the disgrace of it. The “help” Paul claims he’s acquired to cope with his compulsions is contrasted by his willingness to deceive others inside his household concerning the circumstances of his brother’s dying, and all of it creates an image of a tormented, however in the end monstrous man who solely feels regret as soon as his secret is uncovered.

To its credit score, Blood and Water thoughtfully explores concepts about how familial disgrace and secrecy typically find yourself changing into sources of trauma in and of themselves. But it was, and continues to be past irresponsible and deeply homophobic to liken queerness to pedophilia as NippedInTheBud did after the mountains of analysis they purportedly put into getting ready for the function. Unsurprisingly, Liu’s made no direct assertion in response to a few of the questions concerning the NippedInTheBudAccount. However, because the screenshots circulated and gained extra consideration, the actor added a tweet to a thread from 2019 reiterating that he’s solely desirous about advocating for “positive cultural pride.”

io9 reached out to Disney in addition to Liu’s administration and representatives a number of occasions and didn’t hear again by time of publishing. This total scenario actually appears to be the type of factor that Liu’s staff would wish to handle concretely with a correct assertion, however because it stands now, that is yet one more instance of why, in the long run, it’s in all probability higher to simply save these types of posts for the drafts. Or higher but, simply log out.

Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is now in theaters. Liu is anticipated to reprise the function in different MCU productions sooner or later.

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