On New Year’s Eve 2017, Logan Paul published a video onYouTubein which he and his friends filmed their visit to a Japanese forest known as a common location for suicides, during which they filmed a suicide victim’s dead body. A massive controversy followed both for Logan Paul and forYouTube, due to the platform’s lax response to the sensitive subject. Paul ultimately stepped away from YouTube briefly and apologized multiple times. In a new interview, Paul characterizes the entire event as the “biggest blessing” of his life.
As a guest on the YouTube video podcast MMA Hour, Paul was candid about how the controversy surrounding his video helped him reevaluate his life and become a better person. Paul explains that, looking back on the person that he was “unfortunately becoming” at the time, theJapan videowas the “biggest blessing of my life.” He goes on, saying that he needed a reset and for life to check him, which it did.
RELATED:Logan Paul Addresses Game Boy Color Table Controversy
Due to thecontroversy surrounding the YouTube videoand the reflection it led in Paul, he says that he’s become someone that he “ended up loving” instead of “becoming a jackass.” The video, according to Paul, was made in part because the person he was found validation in “clout, money, fame, wealth” and other superficial things. That approach to life, he now says, “doesn’t make a person great.”
Paul says that he’s since revisited his values and rediscovered himself. To do that, he says that he’s started listening more to the people around him, as well as ensuring that he has the right people in place around him.Logan Paulacknowledges that he’s still learning and listening, and that he’s endeavoring to continue to do good – notably through getting involved in positive conversation and positive change throughout the world.
Paul is then asked if watches any of his older video and he admits that he can’t. Paul had said that he’s not sure if loved himself back then, but that the controversy forced him to change into someone that he loves. He even goes so far as saying he’s considered removing all of his videos pre-2018. Instead, he wants to acknowledge his mistakes, be accountable and authentic, learn, and move forward.Paul even wants to run for presidentwhen he’s in his 40s.
Obviously, Logan Paul remains a controversial figure online, for many of the same reasons he and manyYouTubeinfluencers have always been controversial. Yet one thing that can’t be denied isLogan Paul’s success, despite the controversy in 2018. Whether he’s meaningfully changed hasn’t changed that, and will otherwise be impossible to ascertain. Paul appears to truly believe he has, though, for what that’s worth.
MORE:Jimmy Kimmel and Logan Paul Conflict Explained
