This Influencer Got Caught in a MASSIVE Lie..

Hey guys, it's Malibu. I wanted to talk to you directly about the claim that I made taking an IED blast to the face. >> Guys, today we are talking about an influencer who has been caught in a lie that I honestly think might be the biggest lie I've ever seen any sort of content creator get themselves tied up with. Usually when we talk about influencers apologizing for things, it's like things that are very specific to the internet. This completely transcends that and I don't think people really know how to react. If you haven't heard of this yet, Malibu FitMax is a fitness influencer who over the last few days has found himself in the middle of a pretty serious controversy. For some context, if you've never heard of this guy, basically over the last year or so, this guy has amassed a pretty crazy following for the time period. He has well over a million followers on Tik Tok, well over a million followers on Instagram. And a big factor as to how he was able to amass such a following in such a short time is because of his appearance. and you hear fitness influencer and you're like, "Yeah, well, no shit." But what I'm talking about is not his physique. What I'm talking about is his face. When this guy first started uploading onto social media, apparently he was catching a lot of flack for the way he looked because he has a bit of a unique face. And in response to all this to the people that were making fun of the way he looked, he said that the reason his face appears the way it does is because he's the survivor of an IED. Now, if you don't know what IED means, it means improvised explosive device, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Basically, all you need to know is that it's a bomb. That's all that really matters for what we're talking about. And Malibu claimed to be the victim of one. Now, obviously, once people started to hear about this, there was a pretty significant amount of people that kind of started to rally around him. You know, I feel like it's a pretty universally agreed upon thing, then making fun of the appearance of somebody who was disfigured as a result of a bombing is a pretty shitty thing to do. So, naturally, people started to sort of rally around him. And that is kind of what helped catapult him into social media fame, which would be fine. That is if it was the truth. Recently, to make a long story short, another influencer named John Dorsey or goob_you2 on Instagram got into Malibu's military medical records and found out that he was never the victim of an IED. He just got drunk on base and fell on his face and that led to him having to get some facial reconstruction surgery and that's it. He did serve and from what I can tell, he was actively deployed, but he was never the victim of an IED. He literally just fell while he was drunk. And from that spawned a gigantic lie that has lasted for over 10 years. While this guy is just now blown up on social media, he's been telling people that this happened for over 10 years at this point. And it's just kind of crazy. What's even more crazy to me though is that it seems like the entire internet is just cool with it. Like I said, this guy exposed all this and obviously this led to Malibu addressing it and he admitted that everything that was found was true, but I mean like what other option did he really have? and people are just kind of surprisingly cool with it. Now, like look, don't get me wrong, this is not something that I'm going to be losing any sleep over, but I do think that this is a pretty gross thing to lie about. It seems extremely disrespectful to anybody who has been the victim of an IED, and it just seems like a pretty bizarre thing to latch on to. Now, the reasoning that he gives in his apology video, which we're going to look at here in a second, is that it was cuz he was like new to the public eye and people were giving him a lot of for it. So, he just said that as a defense, but like I said, he's been lying about this for 10 years. So, I don't know if that really like makes sense. Also, given something that we're going to look at later, it's pretty ironic that this guy's defense is I was being bullied, but we'll get to that after we watch the apology video. So, here we go. >> Please subscribe. Hey guys, it's Malibu. I wanted to talk to you directly about the claim that I made taking an IED blast to the face. Before anything else, I want to be clear. I did serve between 2005 and 2010. That part of my life is something that I've always been proud of. I've always had deep respect for the men and women who served alongside me, especially those who suffered more than I ever have. >> Okay, so this is something that I feel like is really easy to say once you've been called out for something, but I find this really hard to believe. I feel like a person who truly has a lot of respect for IED survivors would probably not be parading as one on the internet. just seems a little bit contradictory. You know, this is like saying you have deep respect for cancer survivors after you've been pretending to abate cancer for 10 years. It's like, do you really? >> I've always got comments about my face and appearance. Some of them were harsh and to be honest, I didn't handle it well. I was new to being in the public eye and I didn't know how to handle the criticism. Instead of facing that right away, I made a bad decision and put IED survivor in my bio. That was not true and it was wrong. Okay, so again, I'm kind of confused as to like what this public eye part is about. From what I can tell, this guy has been an influencer or like a known influencer for maybe a year. I think he used to be like a public speaker, so I'm going to assume that's what he means by this, but it really does seem like he was referring to the internet, but like I mentioned earlier, there is a news article from 10 years ago, and he was claiming this even back then. He told this news outlet that was doing a story after they interviewed him that he was an IED survivor. So, I mean, like, is this a thing about you being in the public eye, or have you just always been lying about this since you got your surgery? Is this the full truth? Cuz it doesn't really seem like it. >> Truly, I'm sorry from the bottom of my heart. I have always tried to promote positivity and support for others, especially veterans. But I understand that my actions here contradict that. I take full responsibility for it. I know words alone will not fix this. Trust is earned. It's not owed. All I can do is be honest with you guys going forward and let my actions speak for myself over time. >> Okay, so that's the entire video and I'm not really here to like pick apart this apology. It's fine. It's whatever. If you like this guy and you want to support him after this, that's fine. Like I'm not here to say this guy should be cancelled. This is not that kind of video. But I honestly do think it's a little strange how he's sort of being rallied around again. I mean, if you go to any of his Tik Toks or any Tik Toks talking about this, people are defending this guy tooth and nail. And I mean, look, I understand liking a content creator and wanting to have their back, but this is a pretty serious thing to lie about. And again, it's not like he just wanted to set the record straight on his own accord. He got exposed. He had to do this. And like, look, don't get me wrong, I can empathize with where this guy is coming from. I have a lot of friends in the military and stuff like this is really not all that uncommon. Guys get deployed and they get injured in a way that they don't really think is cool. and they feel emasculated and they feel like they have to make something up because falling on a military base is not very heroic. Obviously, that doesn't mean that lying about this is okay and I think it's actually very harmful, but I can understand the mindset this guy was probably in. But I bring that up because I feel like a lot of people are taking that and they're being like, "Oh, well, the emotional reasoning is understandable, so you have to be okay with this." And you don't. Now, look, it's fine if you are. I'm not saying that this guy should lose his platform or be cancelled or anything. It's your prerogative to accept an apology, but it's also people's prerogative to not. And I feel like a lot of people who are coming to this guy's defense are forgetting that. It is perfectly acceptable to be like, you know what, I'm not really okay with a person claiming to be an IED survivor for over a decade and then using that to build a platform. That's a pretty offensive, egregious lie, and it's okay to not be like, "That's fine with me." And real quick, if you're wondering where this 10-year claim is coming from, like I said, he was interviewed by a news outlet 10 years ago because he wanted to get a book banned from his kid's school. Apparently, his child was read a book called Morris Mikkel White and the Tangerine Dress and it's a book where a boy is wearing a dress and Malibu or Lee Markham, which is his real name, contacted the school trying to get the book removed from the library. And in this news article, there is a line that says Lee Markham is a 35-year-old Army veteran who says he was discharged in 2010 after an IED blew up in his face in Afghanistan, forcing him to get dental reconstruction. So, I mean, this is a lie that is not new. So, I don't really understand where the whole like public eye aspect of this is coming from. Also, it's a bit ironic to me that this guy was trying to get a book about how kids shouldn't bully other kids banned from his kid school. Yet, his reasoning for lying about getting his face blown off by an IED was because he was being bullied and didn't know how to deal with it. I mean, come on. It's almost a little too on the nose. Anyways, I really just wanted to make this video because I'm kind of curious to see what you guys think. Like I said, the reaction to all of this has been very split. And it's been split in a way that is honestly kind of surprising to me. Like I really do think a lot of people who are defending this super hard may not know that he was exposed by a YouTuber because the way people are talking about this I see so many comments being like he made a mistake. He took accountability. He owned up for it and it's like sure but would he have if this didn't come out? That kind of seems unlikely given the fact that he's been lying about this for 10 years. Like I really do think that most people aren't aware that he made that video not just because he was ready to set the record straight but because somebody forced him to. Also, I highly doubt that most people have seen that article from 10 years ago, which seems to sort of point towards this not being a lie that was spawned because of Tik Tok, but rather just a lie that he's been telling forever. And like again, if all that is fine with you, it's your prerogative to accept the apology and move forward. But I feel like it's important that people know the entire story because I don't think it's really being told. Well guys, what are your thoughts? Like I haven't been saying, if all this is cool with you, I'm not saying that that should not be the case. All I'm saying is that I think you should really look at all the information because I think that most people just haven't because it's not really out there yet. You know the difference between somebody lying about something for like 6 months to a year and then deciding that they want to come clean so they tell their audience and somebody lying about something for at least 10 years being exposed and having to tell their audience are two completely different things. So I mean just kind of keep that in mind. Not everybody has to be cool with this. It seems like the general sentiment right now is that if you aren't cool with this, you're like a hater or you're not letting a person grow. And I don't really think that's fair. A 40-year-old man was lying for 10 years about being an IED victim and only told his audience that it was a lie after somebody exposed him for it. I don't really know how much growth we can really attribute to that if we're being honest with ourselves. Just saying. See you. >> Hey. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,

Malibufitmax is a fitness influencer who has recently admitted to lying about being an IED victim, and the internet seems to be split on how to react to this. previous video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqy1IitM5_E follow me on instagram!: https://www.instagram.com/oohgust/ follow me on twitter!: https://twitter.com/oohgust my gaming channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ducktheaugust subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/user/augusttheduck/?sub_confirmation=1 outro song creds: https://www.youtube.com/@prodgoostavo https://www.youtube.com/@dadood3652