From the Beginning
When I initially started looking at the Vietnamese community and its online community, I was fascinated. The Vietnamese people are a diverse culture combining the traditions of the old with the new openness of Đổi Mới. The latter allowing for an open economy and new opportunities. However, everything comes with a price. In 2022, Vietnam’s GDP topped 8%, but along with this rise came an increase in corruption and human rights violations. As Vietnam embraced the economic opportunities of the west, so did it’s rise with YouTube and an ever increasing population of online YouTube creators.
The Political Unrest of YouTube Creators
Because of the Vietnam war, the political unrest within Vietnam to this day remains high. Pro-West factions continue to collide with the communist leadership of Vietnam. Many people in Vietnam, especially those in the north, remain loyal to the government ideals established by Hồ Chí Minh, while those in the south embrace pro-western ideals including free trade and political democracy. These ideals can be found in the various Vietnamese YouTube communities.
When Ambition Turns Into Greed
For some time now this publication has been following the events and circumstances related to the Tinh That Bong Lai Temple. We found several YouTuber’s that were reporting on the subject. There were groups that supported the temple practitioners while others supported the findings of the government’s guilty verdict. These two groups would go on to create one of the most greed driven opportunities for themselves that has forever divided the Vietnamese community. Let’s discuss the groups sympathetic to the temple. These YouTube creators would actively support the temple by receiving donations from it’s members and then send them to the temple. However, in several occasions, it was found that the donations were never received by the temple, and instead pocketed by the YouTube creator. And the schemes were quite elaborate. Many of these creators would have guests on to tell of the deplorable conditions of the temple, and to pull at the emotions of the followers. Also, many of these creators would setup telethon style phone banks where people could call in and donate live on-stream. To this day we don’t know how much money actually made it to the temple, but FIA does know that many of the donations were never sent to the temple. What’s more is that the groups supporting the temple would soon turn on each other, with each reporting the the other was a scam. In fact, the infighting became so bad that nobody really knew who they could trust as being truly legitimate. Of course the groups that were against the followers loved this because they didn’t have to do much. They could sit back and watch as the infighting tore apart the pro temple followers.
The Lawsuit Begins
In the midst of the in fighting, a lawsuit was filed in Harris County Texas Docket # 2024-09338 entitled TU, LE THANH MINH (A/K/A TU, MINH) VS. DUNG, NGUYEN TIEN (A/K/A TRAN, DANIEL) AND (A/K/A TRAN, TIEN DUNG). I won’t go into the specifics, (you can read about HERE) but this action caused an even further divide within the community. People began questioning the motives and ethics of the pro temple creators. Keep in mind that the money to get this lawsuit started and filed was not cheap. A $50,000.00 retainer was established to get the lawsuit filed, and followers of these creators started asking questions, like “Where exactly is the money going?”, “Who is in charge of the Trust Fund?”. “Who allows for the spending of the money in the trust fund?”. These are all legitimate questions for anyone who donated to the lawsuit fund, and should be answered to provide complete transparency.
Friends, Enemies and Betrayal
As the lawsuit winds its way through the legal system, the Vietnamese community began taking sides, and questions began surfacing. Not only this, but completely fabricated (made up) stories began to surface. Many people began accusing others of ripping people off, stealing, and changing stories to make themself seem more credible than what they truly were. Gifts and money began pouring in to many of the YouTube creators. These gifts were basically “bribes” to keep on the good side of the creators. The story became more about who did what, who gave to who, who did what to who and who said what to who. The story was no longer about justice for the temple and its practitioners but was more about who could trust who on YouTube. Many people close to one side began to switch to the other and vice versa. Friends became enemies, enemies became friends, and nobody knew who was telling the truth.
Optics Are Everything
Many times, we know what the truth is, however we fail to realize how other people will perceive that truth. If I’m a YouTube creator, and I ask for donations to help a certain person or cause, and then all of a sudden you see me driving around in a new Mercedes, your first thought is that I probably used the donations to buy a new car. The truth could very well be that a rich relative died and left me some money, I hit the lottery, or I financed the car with no money down. But here is the problem with that… It’s all about the “optics”. Or in other words, it’s “how it appears to everyone else”. In my mind I have done nothing wrong, but to everyone else, I look like someone who scammed my followers. This is what happens daily on YouTube. Not only that, many YouTube creators are quick to point out their new gifts or contributions from followers. These creators seem to have lost the sensibility of “discretion”. There is a right time and place for such platitudes and adulation.
We Could All Use A Little Humility
Becoming a popular YouTube creator is not easy. It takes time, and patience. 99% of those who create a YouTube channel will fail to get a significant following. Those who do gain a significant following will only keep that following by adhering to principles grounded in morality. Being humble is the best way to do this. Every creator should remember that it’s their followers that garner their success. Many creators let their status go to their heads and thus begins the certain “death” of their channel. Another reason YouTubers fail is because they lose site of their message. They get too caught up in the politics of their members and other creators. They begin spending more of their time reacting to what another YouTuber said instead of keeping their own channel on course and their followers informed.
In Conclusion...
I wrote this article based on my own observations on what has been happening to the Vietnamese YouTube community. This article is 100% my opinion, and does not represent the thoughts, discussions, or ideas of anyone else. But as is the case with most things, you can get more done “together” than you can “alone”. If your life consists of just watching the drama unfolds on YouTube, then I encourage you to get outside. Touch the grass. There are far more important things in life than who likes you on YouTube, or any social media for that matter. Family, spouse, kids, grandkids, time with friends and relatives… These are the things that truly matter. Don’t let the negativity of social media bring you down. Always smile, and if that person you care about so much didn’t send you a Christmas card, then does it really matter what they say or think?