when TRAUMA for CLOUT doesn’t work anymore, so you FIND a new GRIFT - okuntakinte

About six or seven months ago, I made three videos about Joseph Nana Kwame Awuah Darko, who most people online know as Okomfour Kwabena Takyi. At the time, I thought I was just covering something weird and unsettling. I did not realize that I was stepping into one of the most confusing and emotionally draining situations I have ever put my energy into online. Those videos took a toll out of me. I was deep in timelines, screenshots, testimonies, deleted posts, things that contradicted each other over and over again. The plot thickens like my uterus lining every month, but instead of bleeding from my womb, I bleed for the drama that surrounds Okomfour Kwabena Takyi, aka Joseph Nana Awuah Darko. This is indeed a Netflix documentary that we are living in real time. I was trying to understand how someone could talk openly about people for that while actively selling intimacy, grief, and vulnerability in real time. I'm just tired. I I just I'm tired. I think the chemical imbalance in my brain and living with bipolar disorder, it's not easy. That's me at one of my lowest depressive episodes. Hi. I'm Joseph. I'm bipolar. And I moved to the Netherlands to legally end my life. [Music] I am exploring assisted euthanasia where it's legal in the Netherlands because I was diagnosed with chronic bipolar disorder when I was 16. >> So, is part of this process of you making it so public and putting yourself out there and sharing your message with the world and and seeking validation? No. I don't know if I'm interested in continuing to exist as a human being. I spoke about his euthanasia claims. I spoke about the last supper project. I spoke about artists who said that they were scammed. I spoke about his sudden best friend in one world, whose story never quite like it belongs to a real person. And it genuinely started to mess with my head. I got to a point where I was even dreaming about it, and I think I said it in my last video. And that's when I knew that I had gone too far in. So much of it didn't add up. Too many people were being emotionally bolding, and there was this constant feeling that something very dark was being packaged nicely and sold as that. So, I stopped. I stopped not because the story was done, but because at that time I was done. After my last video, Joseph responded to me publicly on Substack, and I responded back on Medium. And then after that, I stepped away fully. I stopped watching his Instagram totally. I stopped checking his posts. I told people in my DMs not to talk to me about him. I told people in my DMs that messaged me, and also people who sent email, the same thing every time. I was like, "I can't do this right now. I need space. I need to be in the right headspace to even look at this again." But people never stopped messaging me. Every week it was something new. New videos, new storylines, new versions of himself, the move to Poland, the art, the podcast, the constant closeness to death, suicide, and other people's grief. And every single time, my answer was the same. "Not yet. Not yet. Not yet." But you know what? Now it's yes, because the last message that came in was January 3rd, 2026, and I was like, "Not yet. I don't want to speak about him now." But what another person messaged me, and I was like, "This is a close friend of mine." She messaged me, and I was like, "You know what? Let me speak about this guy because somehow, and I mean this genuinely, everything got worse." This is not just picking up where I left off. This is coming back and laying everything out cleanly because the patterns are no longer subtle. We're going to talk about what happened after I stopped watching. We're going to talk about how death turned into content and how suicide turned into branding, how empathy got trashed until it's not, and how someone who claims to hate performativity builds an entire presence around it. This is not about being cruel. It isn't about piling on, and it definitely isn't about wishing harm on anyone. This is about accountability. This is about behavior that impacts real people, especially vulnerable people, being brushed off because the words sound pretty. So, let's take a deep breath. You know what? Sit on the floor, on the chair, tuck your legs in, and let's take a deep breath in three, two, one. Because yeah, it gets worse. Okay, but before I do that, let me quickly introduce myself. Hi guys, my name is Drew. Welcome to my channel. On this channel, I speak about whatever I want to speak about. I do deep dives, social commentary, literally whatever piques my interest, I speak about it. So, yeah, that being said, let's get into this video. Before we get into the book, sorry, can you like, share, subscribe if you can? Okay, thank you so much. Before we get into this video, you'll be a point where my position may change. That is because I'm leaving the house in literally 15 minutes soon. So, I need to leave. I'm going to I'm sure when I'm back, like I would look somehow different. Orion, stop. Stop. I'll look somehow different. So, yeah, in case my camera moves or something. I'm going to leave my cat alone at home. So, um hopefully it does not push down my camera. But anyways, that being said, let's just get straight into this video. Recap the first three videos and that's all. Orion, don't purr. Oh my god, I have like a very purring cat. I don't know if you guys can see him. Can you guys I don't think you guys can see him. We'll see him now. Literally. Okay guys, let's go to the first three videos and that's all. Let's go back to where I left off six or seven months ago because that context matters. I had just released three videos about Okomfour Kwabena Takyi, whose real name is Joseph Nana Awuah Darko. And by the end of that video, I was mentally exhausted, like I said in the introduction of his video. I did not stop because the story had reached a natural end. I stopped because covering it was starting to affect me. Those first three videos were heavy work. I was deep in timelines, screenshots, deleted posts, testimonies, contradictions that kept stacking on top of each other, like I said in my introduction. And the story just refused to stay still. Every time that I thought that I understood it, something new would surface and shift the entire narrative. I spent so much time immersed in it that I started to dream about it. That was my warning sign. This issue was no longer contained to research hours. It was following me into my sleep. Each new post from Joseph felt very draining. There was a constant sense of unease, like a cloud hanging over my head. I could not fully articulate why, but something about the story just felt wrong. I listened to that feeling, and I stepped away because I had to protect my mental health, and my mental health had to come first. In the first video, I covered Joseph's announcement in late 2024. He claimed that after three years of living with severe treatment-resistant bipolar disorder, he had been approved for assisted euthanasia in the Netherlands. He gave a specific date, which was July 3rd, 2025. He said that the approval process had taken four years. The reaction was immediate and intense. People Orion, stop. People were heartbroken. There were major media outlets that picked up the story. His audience grew rapidly as sympathy just poured in from around the world. Shortly after, he launched what he called the last supper project. He framed it as a farewell journey across Europe where he would share one final meal with people before his death. He would share meals with strangers, supporters, and friends. And all these people were invited to host him. Two days ago, I announced my decision to legally end my life due to my struggles with treatment-resistant bipolar disorder. And now my fiance has left me. And I don't blame him. We're still friends, but the pain is still quite real. I often find that romantic love and the pressures that come with it can sometimes be all too consuming. I'm healing, and I'm trying to connect in a different way even as I pursue my path with assisted euthanasia. The idea I have is called the last supper project. Basically, for the next few months, I'd like anyone who is willing to invite me over to prepare their favorite meal for dinner. We'll break bread with friends and loved ones, and I'll bring post-its, board games, origami, and we'll fellowship with no judgment. I want to find meaning again with people while I have time still left on Earth. Anyone interested in inviting me can find available slots in my bio in the Calendly app. So many people volunteered. Thousands volunteered. On the surface, it was presented as an intimate exploration of connection, mortality, and goodbye rituals. Very quickly, the cracks started to show. Joseph charged 200 euros for an in-person supper and 25 euros for a virtual conversation. Hosts were also expected to cover travel costs. What had been framed as a deeply human experience now looks like a paid service. The presentation felt highly curated. The lighting, the captions, the emotional beats, and the repeated emphasis on vulnerability, they all felt very deliberate. I remember saying clearly that something did not feel right, and that instinct never left me. The second video focused on that instinct. By then, people on Reddit had started like compiling evidence. They pulled deleted posts. They compared timelines, and they highlighted contradictions. They noticed patterns that were being ignored elsewhere. And the conclusion many of them reached was blunt. This was not about preparing for that. This was about rebranding. As I said in the video, he was not mourning, he was marketing. And that conclusion made more sense when placed next to what had happened earlier in 2024. Joseph in 2024 had been accused of fraud connected to his Ghana-based art initiative, which is called No Door Artist Residency. Multiple artists they came forward saying that they had not been paid and the amounts owed was reported to be over $350,000. There was a public petition, there were detailed accounts of delayed payments, repeated excuses, and broken promises. There were also claims that information about these allegations were being quietly removed from public records. And the timing raised serious questions. Only weeks after being publicly called out for owing artists large sums of money, Joseph announced his euthanasia plan. The conversation just shifted overnight and due to this the criticisms disappeared and sympathy replaced scrutiny. Anyone who questioned him was framed as cruel or heartless. People began asking an uncomfortable question. Was his mental health being used as protection from accountability? Was the language of vulnerability being used to silence criticism? Was pain being positioned in a way that made challenge socially unacceptable? These are not small questions. They are not questions to ask lightly. But the more the inconsistencies appeared, the harder they were to ignore. And that is where I stopped. Not because the story was resolved, but because any type distance at that point continuing would have meant me ignoring my own limits. And that brings us to the Emmanuel mystery. The Emmanuel storyline just sat at the center of the third video and it was easily the strangest part of the entire saga. Halfway through the last of our journey on Joseph introduced someone that he called his best friend who is called Emmanuel. Emmanuel was described as a young Dutch man who had Basically, he was seeking euthanasia because of unbearable suffering. At first, Emmanuel never appeared directly. There were no photos of his face, there were no posts from him. Everything we knew about Emmanuel came through Joseph's writings and Joseph's voice. The story that Joseph told was extreme. Emmanuel was said to be only 25 years old, yet he had lived through a level of trauma that sounded almost unreal. According to Joseph, Emmanuel had been a tree surgeon since he was 17. He supposedly lived with complex PTSD, liver failure, kidney damage, and alcoholism that started in early adolescence. Joseph claimed that Emmanuel had caused a car accident at 15 that killed his pregnant girlfriend. He also said that Emmanuel had served in the military and worked in trauma care before the age of 25. On top of that, Joseph said that Emmanuel had been approved for euthanasia with a fixed death date of July 30th, 2025. The same date that Joseph allegedly gave himself or the same date that Joseph himself had given for his own euthanasia, allegedly. He even added the detail that the doctor who delivered Emmanuel at birth would be the same doctor to administer the lethal injection. That was the moment that many people stopped believing the story because the tragedy was so dense and so perfectly stacked that it felt implausible. As I said clearly in that video that this was someone who had supposedly lived several lifetimes by 25. Medical professionals also started questioning the details. The idea that the same doctor who delivered a baby decades earlier and then later carried out euthanasia raised practical questions that were never answered. More importantly, there was no proof that Emmanuel even existed. There were no clear photos, no statement from family or independent confirmation. Every detail came from Joseph alone. The only images we saw were partial shots, a tattooed arm, a cigarette, a body turned away from the camera, even a Pinterest photo of a man climbing a tree. Joseph said that this was about protecting Emmanuel's privacy and to many people watching it looked like a convenient way to just prevent verification. As the months passed on, the question became unavoidable. Was Emmanuel real at all? People on Reddit started digging harder. I was asking the same question. Emmanuel entered the story at a very specific moment, right when people had started questioning Joseph's euthanasia claim more aggressively. Suddenly, attention shifted to someone even more tragic. It felt like misdirection. Then everything flipped because in August 2025, moderators from the slacks of Reddit announced that they had identified a real person who matched Emmanuel's description. He was a real 25-year-old Dutch man. He had private social media accounts and most importantly, he was alive. He had recently posted a photo of himself on a fishing trip. And this was weeks after the date that Joseph had claimed that Emmanuel would have died. Seeing that image was jarring. After months of posts being framed around grief and impending death, there was undeniable proof that Emmanuel existed and had not been euthanized euthanized That discovery did not bring clarity. It just made everything messier. Some parts of Emmanuel's story were real. He had spoken publicly in the past about PTSD and suicide. He had also It's very possible that he explored assisted dying at some point since it is legal, though very rare in the Netherlands for mental illness. He was not a fictional invention. However, there was a major part of his life that Joseph never mentioned. Emmanuel had appeared on Dutch television in 2024 in a program about fraud. There was footage of him being evicted due to unpaid debt. He had scammed people, he owed money, authorities had been involved. He also had a wife and two children. Some people began to suspect that Emmanuel may have exaggerated or fabricated his own euthanasia plans as a way to disappear from his problems. The idea that someone might fake their death to escape that. The idea that someone might fake their death Okay. Oh. Oh my god. Okay, guys, that's my cue to leave. But let me just finish this Emmanuel's part before I forget what I wanted to say. But anyways, the idea that someone might fake their death to escape that and consequences is very disturbing. But I learned that with what later came out, Joseph never shared any of this. He described Emmanuel as a gentle, tragic figure, someone born with pain and nothing else. The reality was far more complicated. I'm not here to say that what Joseph should have outed Emmanuel for Emmanuel's past, that's not what I'm saying. He has every right to keep that part of Emmanuel's life short. Emmanuel had trauma and addiction, but he had also harmed other people financially. Again, promoting Emmanuel be for being this nice person or whatever and omitting that the fact that he's hurt other people, you can see why it matters. The next question was unavoidable because I remember in my third video I asked, did Joseph know? Because the evidence suggests that he likely did. Joseph met Emmanuel in person. They traveled together. The partial images that Joseph posted matched the tattoos visible in the fishing photo. That confirmed that Joseph was not lying about meeting the man. But Joseph kept Emmanuel just anonymous enough that no one could identify him. No face, no name, no trail to follow. And if Emmanuel's identity had been revealed earlier, the fraud issue or the fraud history would have surfaced immediately and the story would have collapsed. In hindsight, it looks less like Joseph was protecting Emmanuel's privacy and more like he was protecting the narrative that he had built. In that third video, I laid out the possible explanations. Joseph could have taken a real person and embellished his story with other tragedies and cinematic details. Emmanuel could have lied to Joseph and Joseph could have repeated it without checking. Or both men could have knowingly played along with a story that served them in different ways. What stood out was that both had a history of bending the truth. Joseph regularly contradicted himself and carefully curated his image. Emmanuel had a documented pattern of deception. You may never know who lied or what became clear is that the line between reality and performance had been blurred beyond recognition. By the end of that video, it was almost impossible to separate what was real from what had been constructed. Side notes, Emmanuel reached out to me after my third video. I think he did it two after my third video. And we spoke at length. I had been asked by researchers of this case not to disclose my discussion with Emmanuel and his relationship with Joseph just yet, but time will tell, okay? But guys, this is where I'm going to leave you guys off. Yeah. Okay, guys, we're back. So now let's continue. Let's talk about the Substack letter and the Medium response. Because the fallout from the Emmanuel revelation was immediate and very intense and Joseph responded in August 2025 with a Substack open letter titled, "Maybe I Didn't Know Emmanuel, But I Don't Judge Him Either." An honest final letter. It was defensive in tone and at times openly patronizing. He addressed me directly because by that point I had become one of the most visible people covering the story. I was actually the first person, apart from Reddit, I was the first person to cover this story in its entirety before other people covered after me, basically. So very quick, first, he accused me of exposing Emmanuel's full face, implying that I had violated Emmanuel's privacy or acted unethically. And that was not true. I only shared images and information that Joseph himself had already made public. I made that clear immediately. Secondly, he framed my research as invasive and unfair. And that accusation do not hold up. Every single detail I included came from public sources. Nothing private was accessed. Nothing illegal was used. The work involved reading, cross-checking, and asking questions based on what was already put out there. Thirdly, Joseph leaned heavily into the idea that he does not judge Emmanuel while subtly positioning me as someone who did judge Emmanuel. The latter tried to recast the situation so that I appeared cruel or opportunistic while he presented himself as morally above scrutiny. The result was an attempt to judge his focus away from the inconsistencies in his own story and towards my character instead. Of course, I did not let it stand because after 2 years away from Medium, I published a direct response the same day titled My Reply to Joseph Awuah Awuah aka Okunzuwa Okinte. In that piece, I addressed his claims one by one and stood firmly by my reporting. I explained why questioning the Emmanuel story was reasonable and very necessary. I wrote that there was every reason to believe that Emmanuel might not have been a real because the version of his life that Joseph presented to the world do not hold up to basic logic. I also made something else very clear. When new information came out, I corrected myself publicly. When Emmanuel was confirmed to be a real person, I acknowledged that immediately. I did not hide it. I did not spin it. I raised my hands and I said so. And obviously, that mattered. What I asked of Joseph was so simple. If he had evidence that disproved my conclusions, he was very free to present it. Instead, he chose to frame scrutiny itself as harm. I stated plainly that my coverage was never personal. I wrote that it could be inconvenient, but it was not inaccurate. I brought that out a reality that many people avoid. When someone builds a public persona around their suffering and that persona brings attention, brings money, and opportunity, scrutiny is inevitable. Empathy does not require blind belief. I ended my response by drawing a very clear line between our positions. Joseph said he does not judge Emmanuel. That is his choice. My choice was to document what could be verified, highlight what could not, and allowed audience to decide what they believe. And that difference mattered. By the time the third video was out and the Substack and Medium exchanges had already played out, the emotional toll was heavy. I had lived inside the story for months even before I decided to speak about it. I was replaying timelines in my head at night. I felt grief for people who had believed in Joseph and Joseph's betrayed. I felt anger for artists who said that they had been scammed. I felt concerned for viewers who may have been deeply affected by the way suicide and death were being framed. And honestly, I don't know why I did that because naturally, I'm someone who doesn't give a [ __ ] And that was when I decided to step away. Again, not because the story was finished, but because I just uh needed the distance. I just needed my mind back. Now, enough time has passed and looking back matters because the story did not end there. What followed or what has followed is very strange. Stranger is messier and it's [ __ ] hard to ignore. And yet, we are going back in. So, that brings us to act two, new developments since my last video. So, here I'm going to speak about how Joseph went from euthanasia to Eastern Europe and I'm going to particularly talk about his Poland move. One major change since I last stepped away is that Joseph has relocated. I said in my last video that he relocated. He moved to Poland sometime after last summer. And there was just a whole debacle about that. I spoke about it in my last video on Okunzuwa Okinte. I have a playlist on him. So, basically, he moved to Poland sometime last summer once the backlash reached its peak. When I first covered this, I assumed that being exposed might lead him to pull back or get real help. Thing is, I was wrong. I underestimated how far this could go. And instead of disappearing, he doubled down, but just in a different country. Why Poland is still unclear, uh it could be about starting over. It could be personal. His fiance is European and I will get to that. It could also be very strategic. Poland is far removed from Ghana and the UK where his reputation took the biggest hit. Whatever the reason, the move did not slow anything down. The content did not stop. It just shifted into something even stranger. Once Joseph was no longer locked into the narrative of dying in July 2025, he started building a new version of himself. The earlier persona was a tragic poet preparing for death. The new one, I'm not going to lie, it's harder to describe. It looks like an artist who survived, but now fits of darkness as a creative identity. His Instagram bio now reads, "Bipolar and not afraid to be seen as performative." And his Twitter bio, when I was doing my research like 6 months ago, 7 months ago, it was, "I am not a good person." And him now saying that he's not afraid to be seen as performative, that in my own opinion is not subtle. That is him taking the main criticism that people had and wearing it openly. Before unpacking that, it is worth looking at what he has actually been posting. A lot of his recent content leans heavily on other people's tragedies. One recurring fixation is Anthony Bourdain. Joseph regularly quotes him, references him, and writes open letters addressed to him. He has even teased a memoir titled All My Rich Friends Are on Drugs. 94 letters to Bourdain. He has posted captions reflecting on Bourdain's death including statements about suicide framed as intellectual curiosity rather than responsibility. To some people, it might look like contemplation. To others, it feels deeply uncomfortable. He is repeatedly invoking the names of people who died by suicide like Anthony Bourdain and Robin Williams. And he's folding their death into his own narrative. It gives the impression that these tragedies are being used as emotional prop. One example stood out. Um Joseph shared a Bourdain quote about indulgence, expensive food, cocktails, and travels as something that helped him cope with depression. People pointed out how disconnected that was from the reality that most depressed people uh live in. When someone commented that they could not afford oysters and Negronis as a coping mechanism, Joseph's fiance replied and invited them to the paid virtual dinner with Joseph for $21. The response was almost unbelievable. If someone cannot afford luxury dining, suggesting they pay to watch you eat on Zoom only proves the point. It showed that monetization is still baked into every layer of this project. He has also inserted himself into tragedies that have nothing to do with him. In January 2026, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, she lost her young son, one of her twins, to an illness and it was an intensely private and devastating loss. Joseph posted public condolences and reflective commentary about grief. Many people thought he crossed the line. It was not his story to frame or interpret. The situation had nothing to do with mental health advocacy or suicide. It felt like grief chasing just for relevance. Virtually, his content has become more extreme. There are videos of naked people kissing with Joseph just typing dramatic monologues on top of it on interplays. So, literally, he's just typing while other people in the background just kissing. [Music] Some people are literally naked. There's one where he was like naked on somebody. [Music] Again, it reads as shock for shock's sake. It is presented as art, but it looks like someone trying very hard to be provocative and profound at the same time. And that brings us back to the bio, "Bipolar and not afraid to be seen as performative." I understand that bipolar people, they collect beings in lots. Like today they could do things, they could wake up one morning and decide to go to school. Like I I was mistakenly diagnosed for not bipolar, but um borderline personality. And there is this thin line between bipolar and borderline personality. And I can understand why I was diagnosed for that. So, I can see it. But Joseph has long said that he has bipolar disorder, specifically type two. I have never disputed that he struggles with mental illness. That is one of the reasons that many people initially approached him with compassion. But choosing to frame yourself as proudly performative is a very deliberate move. It functions as a shield. It tells people that our concerns no longer matter because he has already absorbed them into his brand. There is a generous interpretation. Some might argue that he's pushing back against the way mentally ill people are often dismissed as dramatic. That would be a fair conversation in another context. But given his history, this feels more strategic than reflective. He spent months insisting that everything was authentic. The tears were real, the photos were real, the narrative was sincere. Now only he is saying that he is performative and does not care. That contradiction matters. Mental illness explains emotional intensity. It does not excuse manipulation. It does not justify building elaborate narratives that involve other people's suffering and then profiting from the attention. By turning performa- -tivity into a slogan, Joseph blurs the line between advocacy and self-indulgence. It takes a serious criticism and turns it into branding. And that, more than anything, is what makes this new phase very unsettling. I want to be very clear because it just occurred to me to say this and I want to talk about something before anyone twists this. I am not anti-nude art at all. I love art in all its forms, including art that explores the body, sexual intimacy, sexuality, and vulnerability. Nude art has existed forever. It's very powerful. It's very It can be very political. It can be tender. It To me, I see nude art as something that's very confrontational and deeply human when it is very genuine. My issue is not nudity. My issue is context and intent. With Joseph Orion, with Joseph, the nude imagery does not exist in a vacuum. It is not just about bodies or expression. It sits inside a pattern. A pattern where grief, trauma, and mental illness, and now sexuality, are repeatedly aestheticized and layered together for maximum emotional impact. The naked bodies, the dim lighting, the tapping monologues, the suffering framed as art, none of this feels incidental. When nudity is used thoughtfully, it adds meaning. When it is used here, it feels like another tool to provoke, to blur boundaries, and to keep attention fixed on him. It is less about the art itself and more about maintaining an image, an image of being edgy, deep, tortured, and misunderstood. I know what that distinction matters. There is a difference between nude art that invites reflection and nude imagery that functions as spectacle. There's a difference between vulnerability and performance. With Joseph, the thing is layered on top of everything else. Trauma plus sexuality plus melancholy plus intellectual posturing, it creates a mood, not a message. And when you place that kind of content in the very same ecosystem as suicide discourse and a vulnerable audience, it becomes very irresponsible. Not because bodies are shameful, but because the emotional framing is very manipulative. It pulls people in through intensity rather than charity. So no, my criticism is not prudish. It is not about being uncomfortable with sex or the human body. Trust me, I love sex. I love the human body. I Ask my friends. Ask my friends. But in this case, it is about watching art be used as a camouflage. It's about watching intimacy become another aesthetic choice rather than something honest. I respect nude art when it is real, when it is intentional, when it stands on its own. But with Joseph, it feels like one more costume in a long line of personas, one to keep the spotlight exactly where he wants it, and that is his soul. But now, let's talk about the Reddit saga. And here I'm going to talk about how his fiance fought back. And yeah, let's talk about the Reddit because the Reddit side of this story took a turn that nobody expected. So like I said, the snark community on Reddit was actively pulling up passages of his claims and documenting contradiction. His fiance showed up. His name is Alexander, also known as Z. And instead of lurking and denying involvement, he entered the subreddit openly. He did not use a burner account. He made it clear who he was and invited people to question him directly. That alone was very surprising because most people in Joseph's position would never let their partner walk into a hostile space like that. Alexander did it anyway. What followed felt less like a comment thread and more like a deposition. Z answered an enormous number of questions. I personally read over 800 of those exchanges. He spoke about how he and Joseph met, the pace of their relationship, accusations of love bombing, the euthanasia claims, the money concerns, and the Emmanuel situation. He did not insult or dismiss everything outright. He acknowledged some issues. He softened others. On the more serious points, his answers were careful. They weren't vague or elliptically worded in a way that avoided accountability. It was very strange to watch. On one level, it was the closest glimpse that anyone had into Joseph's private life. And this was someone who lived with him, defended him, and clearly believed in him. On another level, it felt coordinated. Joseph and Alexander, they appeared completely aligned. It was very hard to believe that this was spontaneous. It felt like damage control that was dressed up as transparency. What stood out most was the contradiction. Joseph had repeatedly asked for privacy, grace, and understanding. Yet here was his partner engaging in a public interrogation on Reddit asking questions about deeply personal matters. Privacy seemed flexible when reputation was on the line. As I said at the time, Joseph never does anything quietly. He cannot just exist in a moment. Everything has to be narrated, expanded, and performed. The Reddit appearance became another chapter in that pattern. Did it work? Not really. Some of them found Alexander sympathetic. Most were not convinced and the answers did not resolve the inconsistencies. Um they mostly confirmed that Joseph's inner circle knew how serious the criticism was and felt threatened by it. Not long after Alexander's Reddit appearance, the snark subreddit was shut down entirely because Reddit removed it. Yeah. Many people believe that the community was reported for harassment or privacy violations and it is believed that it was Alexander that reported it because he said, allegedly, even though I've seen the paper, allegedly he said he would blocked from a subreddit that spoke about him. Yeah. And by that point, the subreddit had become a large archive of timelines, screenshots, and analysis. When it disappeared, years of collective work vanished with it. And again, people did not stop talking. They just moved. Posts started appearing in other subreddits, including regional ones, where people explained that the original community had been taken down and that they were continuing updates elsewhere. The conversations scattered, but it did not die. There are also like personal rumors that followed. So basically, let me just say this. So there's another subreddit that is called Autistic Vibes Snark. Uh it is believed that it is Joseph's fiance, Z or Alexander, that created it. And I am so confused because there are only six members there. But why would a subreddit snark about yourself? So they want to hear what people have to say about you. Like I don't make I don't understand. Like make it make sense. The thing is, I cannot confirm that he's the one that created it. It remains a speculation. But the fact that people find it plausible says a lot about how much trustful this whole situation has become. When criticism leads to partners stepping in and communities being removed and legal language being implied, people stop assuming good faith. They start assuming strategy. Anyways, it is worth pausing on what a snark forum actually is. These spaces that exist for many internet figures, they're often populated by former supporters. They are blunt, sarcastic, and sometimes cruel. They're not always kind. I do not endorse harassment. But in Joseph's case, the snark community functioned as something else. It became a crowdsourced investigation. It raised questions that meant that mainstream coverage did not. It documented behavior that people found troubling. And that distinction matters. Even New York Times did a publication on Joseph, which they were absolutely sucking his ass for licking up every liquid of [ __ ] that was coming out of his [ __ ] like you licking it. And people were like, "Yo, stop lying." And they even deleted comments and limited their comments or something like that. But anyways, when Joseph frames all criticism as bullying or a snark campaign, it ignores why the scrutiny started in the first place. He filmed in hostile spaces. He monetized grief. He romanticized suicide. Mental health organizations publicly raised concerns about the impact of his content on vulnerable viewers. That is not a snark. That is accountability. The subreddit may be gone, but the questions it raised are still unanswered. If anything, the attempt to silence that space made more people pay attention. Now let's talk about Not Today Suicide. It is the rebrand as a savior because the latest shift in Joseph's online identity is what I think needs serious attention. He has launched a podcast on a platform called Not Today Suicide, often shortened to NTS. And there is an Instagram page and also a YouTube channel, both launched towards the end of 2025. On paper, this looks like a pivot into suicide prevention. He's now positioning himself as someone encouraging people to choose life. The framing sounds gentle and hopeful. The branding suggests that staying in bed, resting, and surviving another day can be an act of care. The episodes so far mostly involve I think he has three episodes now. They mostly involve Joseph just reading letter and reflecting on depression, trauma, and despair. [Music] [Music] Hi. Um welcome to episode two of NTS. Um I just wanted to say that I'm so grateful to all of you who tuned in for our first episode. Um I've been wanting to do this for a long time. And I really hope that you all know that our DMs are always open. Um for any of you who might be just having a hard time. Even if it's just to vent. And I appreciate all the contributions that you're all making anonymously. I think we're all helping each other. And I'm looking forward to reading more of your DMs today. So let's get right into it, shall we? The delivery is familiar. It is poetic. It is slow, melancholic. It is deeply centered on him. At times, I'm not going to lie, it feels sincere. At other times, it slips back into the same stylized performance that he has always relied on. I want to be clear about something. I support suicide prevention. I care deeply about mental health. That is why I engaged with Joseph during the first place. But intention is not enough here. The way this platform is being run just raises serious ethical concerns. There is one incident in particular that matters. A vulnerable follower reached out to Joseph directly. She was struggling badly, and she said that she was suicidal. She explained that she was moved by his story and was looking to him for hope. That was not a casual message. It was literally crying for help. According to her accounts, Joseph did not respond for a long time. When he finally did, the response was brief and generic. There were no resources shared. There was no encouragement to contact professional support. There was no urgency, just a short surface level reply. She said the wait made things worse. She said she felt dismissed. That should never happen. Again, no one is saying that Joseph is responsible for saving people. He is not a therapist. He is not a crisis worker. But he has chosen to create a platform explicitly about suicide prevention. That choice carries responsibility. At the very least, it requires clear boundaries and proper signposting. If someone reaches out in crisis, the ethical response is to direct them to immediate help, hotlines, or mental health services, or even trusted professionals. You cannot position yourself as a beacon for suicidal people and then treat those people like fan mail. This incident has circulated quietly among people still watching Joseph's work. It matters because it exposes the gap between branding and readiness. Creating a mental health platform does not automatically make someone equipped to support vulnerable people. When you look at Not Today Suicide as a whole, a pattern appears. The project is framed as prevention, but the focus remains Joseph. His voice, his face, his reflections. The visuals are still moody and stylized, dim lighting, long pauses, typing on a typewriter. Sometimes chuckles under an eraser. It is very consistent with his brand, but consistency is not the same as safety. Mental health organizations have clear guidelines about how to talk about suicide publicly. One of the most important is avoiding romanticization. Joseph's style has always been dramatic and poetic. That approach can feel validating to some people, but it can be dangerous for others, especially for viewers who are already vulnerable and inclined to idolize him. When despair is being framed beautifully, it can blur the line between survival and spectacle. This was the exact concern raised earlier by mental health professionals. The one that this euthanasia narrative risk confusing and harming vulnerable followers. And that risk has not disappeared. If anything, it is heightened now that he's actively inviting a suicidal audience into his space. It is very possible that Joseph believes that he is doing good. It is very possible that this is attempt to redirect attention towards something positive. Maybe he sees this as proof. If so, I genuinely hope that people are helped by it. But hope is not a strategy. Advocacy requires accountability. It requires knowing your limits. It requires stepping back when you are not qualified to hold that weight. If someone cannot respond appropriately to a single person in crisis, that raises serious questions about what happens when dozens or hundreds of vulnerable people show up expecting support. That question cannot be ignored. Conclusion. The legacy of a cautionary tale. Stepping back, the Opentalking Death story is one of the most chaotic internet sagas I have ever watched unfold. It began with empathy and a lot of it. Hundreds of thousands of people were emotionally preparing to mourn a young man that they believed was dying. People were bracing themselves to witness his final moments and honor what they thought was a sincere goodbye. Over time, that empathy just shifted into doubt and anger. And now for many, it has settled into exhaustion mixed with disbelief and dark humor. Revisiting this has uh been a lot. There were moments of genuine shock, like finding out that Emmanuel was alive and had his own history of fraud. There were moments of anger, especially seeing artists left unpaid and vulnerable followers emotionally mishandled. And yes, there were moments where the only possible reaction was laughter. Not because it was funny, but because the audacity was unreal. At certain point, the lies were so brazen that laughter was just easier than sitting with how grim it all was. There are lessons here, and they do matter. The internet is a very powerful tool, but it cuts both ways. It can amplify important conversations around mental health, but it also allows people to construct narratives that are very difficult to verify in real time. Joseph tapped into real pain, depression, suicide, trauma, grief. These are all serious topics that deserve care. People leaned in because those experiences resonated with them. But the evidence suggests those same themes were also manipulated for personal gain. Whether that gain was money, attention, reputation, or ego, it is what it is. When inconsistencies were pointed out, the response was rarely clarity. It was more performance. It was more content or the decision to send his partner into the line of fire instead of addressing things directly. This is also a story about accountability or the lack of it. There were countless opportunities for Joseph to be honest or at least slow things down. When journalists raised concerns, when mental health organizations expressed discomfort, asked directly whether the euthanasia plan was still happening. Instead of addressing those moments of need, the narrative quickly or quietly shifted. The euthanasia story line was abandoned without acknowledgement. Only when something was probably false did he respond. And even then, the response was defensive. Online, every consequence was framed as cruelty. Every criticism became a smear campaign. And that pattern is worth paying attention to. When someone is always the victim and never capable of being wrong, critical thinking becomes very essential. There is also a larger point here about mental health advocacy. If you're going to step into that space, you have to do it responsibly. People who are suicidal or struggling are not content. They're not engagement tools. They are real people who need care, boundaries, and proper support. Joseph's audience included people who saw him as brave for talking about suicide openly. That comes with responsibility. You cannot romanticize death. You cannot monetize despair. You cannot invite vulnerable people into your orbit and then fail them when they reach out. Right now, Joseph's approach still feels dangerously performative. He even acknowledges the performativity while relying on the legitimacy of his bipolar diagnosis to maintain credibility. That is a confusing and very risky message. Mental health is real, but it does not excuse manipulation or dishonesty. And as I close this out, I feel two things at once. Sadness and relief. Sadness that something which could have been rooted in genuine healing just ended up tangled in deception. Relief that some truth did surface. Emmanuel is alive. Joseph is alive. And that part matters. But instead of a grounded ending, we are left with a strange sequel. A rebrand from Matter to Savior without real reckoning for the damage left behind. This story is a cautionary tale for the internet age. Not everything that pulls at your heart is what it claims to be. Empathy matters, but it cannot replace honesty. Asking questions is not cruelty, even when the subject is suicide. In fact, it is very necessary because real lives are affected. The people who believe, the people who follow, and even the person telling the [ __ ] story. As always, if you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, please reach out to professional help. Contact suicide hotlines, mental health services, or trusted medical professionals. Mental illness is real, and nothing here changes that. What this story shows is how easily conversations around mental health can derail when authenticity is lost. I hope the sub fights and waiting is his creativity and intensity without the lies and spectacle. Until then, I may be watching. I don't know. I may be asking questions. I don't know. But I would keep staying grounded in the facts. But above all, protecting I had something. But above all, protecting my peace and my mental health is my top number one priority. Thank you for staying with me through this. Thank you so much. Kindly like, share, subscribe if you made it to the end, and drop a brown emoji, and take care of yourselves. See you all later. Bye.

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