Noah Hugbox is yet another content creator to thrive off of a platform criticizing internet culture while remaining firmly inside that culture itself. Although Hugbox has made videos commenting on video games in the past, his more recent efforts on YouTube are largely opinion pieces recorded podcast-style that criticize fan cultures and warn against the "hugbox," a bubble of safety where people only talk about topics everyone already agrees on. Hugbox's latest videos are directed at popular Minecraft YouTuber Dream and the actions of his fanbase.
Dream has over 20 million subscribers to his YouTube channel and a fanbase that has been criticized on the platform. Many feel a vast amount of Dream's fans fall into the "stan" category, or fans that have an unhealthy obsession with him and some of his fellow Minecraft content creators such as Tommy Innit, Karl Jacobs, and GeorgeNotFound. Certain sects of Dream fans have become notorious for explicit fan art and hate messaging toward others who disagree with Dream's opinions, and Dream has been hesitant to openly call out these members of his fanbase.
Hugbox recently interviewed Dream about his fanbase and content creation process and has uploaded about an hour-long recording of the conversation to his YouTube channel. However, before uploading the conversation, Hugbox released a video on his channel called "Dream Stans" in which he criticizes Dream's handling of his fanbase and claims "[Dream] sounded, and again simply my opinion, afraid of his audience." Hugbox goes on to say that Dream has a "sort of self delusion" when it comes to the sheer number of his fans with extreme ideas and that his community supports a sort of "commercialized friendship."
Hugbox isn't shy about his thoughts on Dream and his video contains some harsh language concerning the YouTuber along with several examples of some the offensive and somewhat graphic tweets from Dream "stans." Whether it was the backlash from Dream fans concerning the video or the video's content itself, the Dream Stans video is now age restricted. Dream's fanbase has proven to be a powerful voice in the past and have initiated a few different trending topics on Twitter including the "he's real" hashtag when Dream posted a video of himself not as a cartoon character.
At this point Dream has not responded to Hugbox's criticism, but considering his apprehension to publicly address issues in his fanbase, it's likely he won't immediately respond to the remarks. Dream has written short statements discouraging explicit fan art of minors in the past, but as he says in his interview with Hugbox, he mostly avoids addressing these issues because "it'll just make it worse."
Dream's notorious fanbase and his large following are likely the reason that Hugbox has targeted him for criticism, but the two creators do share one interesting similarity. Early in Hugbox's YouTube creation career, he was following the same path as Dream and intended to be a faceless YouTuber, but his face and name were leaked by a third party.
Source: Dream Stans, A Conversation With Dream