Is Ben Finegold as big a jerk as he seems in his videos?

i bet he can hide alotta stuff in his belly button.

At the time stamp that you put in there's nothing what you were talking about earlier. Wrong timestamp? Wrong video?

That's the middle where he started insulting his viewers.  His slurp is somewhere in the video I think.

Again, the timestamp that you put in is nothing like that. He is talking about what if Magnus blundered a rook every game. And "Somewhere in the video" is a bit vague for me, sorry.

GM Finegold is blunt (and sarcastic but I doubt you are asking due to the sarcasm). The fact is people have their thoughts whether they share them or tell a white lie or "lie by omission", saying nothing. Some people find a person speaking what they view as the truth to be a nice change of pace over everyone walking on eggshells or even straight up saying things they consider untrue. In a perfect world, people wouldn't obsess over their ego to a point where they grow upset about having been wrong or about people having differing views. There's a nice simplicity to knowing what he's saying is what he actually believes, and when he's right, knowing what he's saying is right. In the latter case, constructive criticism and reality checks are hard to hate. For example, it takes thousands of hours of chess to become good, so what's the big deal if he acknowledges most people are bad at chess? It'd be like someone getting offended at not being an expert pilot or a good hedge fund manager when their life choices have had nothing to do with those roles.

The areas where he gets the most complaints are when he speaks about politics, religion, or GM Nakamura. Naturally, people take all three of these very personally. I really don't know why though, because it's much like what I wrote above. Knowing how to manage a nation of 350 million people takes a lifetime of studying to comprehend, and we have thousands of years of philosophical debates when it comes to metaphysics. To me, someone getting upset over a different idea about these two things is much how it would come off if a medical doctor got offended at how a hedge fund manager decided to invest his money or if a hedge fund manager critiqued modern medicine. As for GM Nakamura, Twitch creates parasocial relationships, so if someone is a fan of someone on there, it's almost like you're insulting their IRL best friend if you say something negative about their idol.

One thing that seems true is he doesn't come off as evil, which is important in this discussion. It's not like he's constantly immoral. On the contrary, I'd guess he's a stand up person when it comes to loyalty to friends and family. I'm guessing that, because he seems to have a large family and many friends. When someone is evil, they tend not to have as many friends and tend to have a bad reputation like rumors of them being abusive and whatnot. Since I don't know him personally, this is just speculation based on how it appears he has a strong family and numerous friends. 

Ultimately, I would say he's not a big jerk. He just speaks his mind and otherwise is a regular person.

Ironically, many people in this thread seem to be actual jerks as their first instinct is to create groups, glorifying their own group and dehumanizing the other group. It's shameful behavior that people are talking about his looks, which is a schoolyard tactic. It's time some people grew up, transitioning from a jerk to an adult. It's this very instinct in human nature that makes him simply speaking his mind somehow turn into some people attempting to crucify him brutally. "He said something that indicates he's part of that group, so it's time we started hating him just like we and the other kids like to pick on this person or that person. He doesn't subscribe to the exact same philosophy as me. Worse, he believes in the opposite philosophy! Oh no... and it's about extremely complex topics that 99% of people are not well-versed in in this modern, specialized society."

Yes

Well damn, this thread's still up. I wonder when it'll be shutdown if ever.

He does seem to have the charisma of a gumboil.

OK maybe I am in the minority but I find him hilarious, growing up as a new york jew he reminds me of a bunch of people I know. I find his takes to generally be more even-handed and measured than many other streamers probably since he's considerably older - either way he seems pretty upfront about the fact that he's a streamer and in it for the views/clicks, which I also appreciate.

How many of you are Ben Finegold's alt accounts defending him?  😂

Ben Finegold ain't no jerk - He's done no end of charity streams on Twitch, and once you warm to him you can see he's honestly really nice.

In my opinion, he just has a sense of humour that is very dry and dead pan. He's not insulting the audience to be horrible, he just mocks everything. You either get his humour, or not. 

Go Ben! Truth Hurts.

Great post @smallestdinosaur!

It's all fun and games until it's your ox getting gored!

He started a chess club in Roswell, GA. (Which he has now sold.) That benefited him, chess, and a lot of people in the Atlanta area. Ben and I would disagree on a whole lot of things, but I think he is sincere and bluntly honest. I dislike political correctness in the extreme. Good for him.

Bro, you just provided the definition of a jerk...

It's about jerk awareness. You should always own it, and you should never lean into it. I know I am, and I think it's a fault. He seems to know he is, and think of it as a virtue. That's the big red flag.

I have no problem with his humor and I appreciate his wisdom. I just wish he'd eat his lunch off screen and not subject us to watching him try to talk and eat at the same time. 

Dude doesn't give a shat (change a to i) on top of being one of the biggest jerks around.

"Dude doesn't give i shat"?

i heard he luvz tropical mentos