Lynch is [[Right-wing politics|right-wing]], describing himself as [[Christians|Christian]], and being influenced by thinkers such as [[Oswald Spengler]].
Lynch is [[Right-wing politics|right-wing]], describing himself as [[Christians|Christian]], and being influenced by thinkers such as [[Oswald Spengler]].
In 2024, Lynch came out as an advanced [[Mysticism|mystic]], saying that after taking [[Ayahuasca]] he has been in communication with the [[Spirit world (Spiritualism)|spirit world]], and speaks with figures such as [[Odin]], [[Hermes Trismegistus]], and [[Mother Nature]].
In 2024, Lynch came out as an advanced [[Mysticism|mystic]], saying that after taking [[Ayahuasca]] he has been in communication with the [[Spirit world (Spiritualism)|spirit world]], and speaks with figures such as [[Odin]], [[Hermes Trismegistus]], and [[Mother Nature]].
Despite the name of his channel, Lynch’s content primarily focuses on [[geopolitics]] and [[political commentary]], rather than purely alternate history. He is very open and outgoing in his livestreams. He has revealed a lot about himself personally and formerly identified as a [[stoicism|stoic]]. He participates in discussions with his fans occasionally, mostly on [[Twitter]], his livestreams, and his [[Discord (service)|Discord]] server.
Despite the name of his channel, Lynch’s content primarily focuses on [[geopolitics]] and [[political commentary]], rather than purely alternate history. He is very open and outgoing in his livestreams. He has revealed a lot about himself personally and formerly identified as a [[stoicism|stoic]]. He participates in discussions with his fans occasionally, mostly on [[Twitter]], his livestreams, and his [[Discord (service)|Discord]] server.
| Whatifalthist | |
|---|---|
 The USS Essex, used as Lynch’s profile picture from 2014 to 2024. A white outline of a ship on a blue background has been used since then.
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| Born |
Rudyard William Lynch (2001-06-23) June 23, 2001 |
| Origin | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Nationality | American-Canadian |
| Occupation | Youtuber |
| Location | Austin, Texas, United States |
| Years active | 2014–present |
| Genres |
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| Subscribers | 715,000 |
Rudyard William Lynch (Born June 23, 2001), better known as Whatifalthist is an American-Canadian YouTuber. Lynch began his YouTube in career in 2013, producing videos covering alternate history. His content covers topics including: anthropology, politics, predictions, esotericism,[‡ 1] demography, and psychology.
Lynch is right-wing, describing himself as Christian, and being influenced by thinkers such as Oswald Spengler.
In December 2024, Lynch came out as an advanced mystic, saying that after taking Ayahuasca he has been in communication with the spirit world, and speaks with figures such as Odin, Hermes Trismegistus, and Mother Nature.
Despite the name of his channel, Lynch’s content primarily focuses on geopolitics and political commentary, rather than purely alternate history. He is very open and outgoing in his livestreams. He has revealed a lot about himself personally and formerly identified as a stoic. He participates in discussions with his fans occasionally, mostly on Twitter, his livestreams, and his Discord server.
Early life
Rudyard William Lynch was born on June 23, 2001, in the Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts. His father is Catholic, and his mother is a Protestant. They both raised him as a Quaker Protestant. Early in life, he became a self-described “non-conforming Protestant”.
Career
Lynch created his channel on September 16, 2013, whilst he was in middle school. His earliest videos have been made private or deleted.
His first video still publicly available was uploaded on July 19, 2014, titled What if the Dinosaurs never went Extinct?.[‡ 2] For the first five years of the channel it had less than 500 subscribers. For the first seven years of the channel’s existence, the channel would have an exclusive focus on alternate history, with videos ranging from topics such as What if Columbus was right about Geography? or What if the Huguenot Colonies Survived? His alternate history videos largely focused on social, economic, cultural, and sometimes military factors, and he criticized other alternate history YouTubers that focused solely on the military. His channel grew to 50,000 subscribers by mid-2019.
At this time, Lynch took a hiatus resulting from his decision to hike the Appalachian Trail, returning in September with a video on what if the Atlantic Slave Trade never occurred.
A major shift occurred on August 14, 2020, when Lynch uploaded a video titled Why is the World Crazy Now?.[‡ 3] This was the first video of his that was not related to alternate history in any way but was instead a socioeconomic and geopolitical analysis of the current global order. For a time, it was by far his most successful video following his 2019 hiatus. The video was followed by other geopolitical videos, such as Wars of the 2020s and 2030s and What would WW3 be like? This era of his channel was marked by a shift away from alternate history content towards videos relating to geopolitics, philosophy, economics, and general history. His final alternate history video was released on September 30, 2022, titled What if the Scramble for Africa Never Happened?. He clarified in a February 2022 Instagram livestream that he had grown out of alternate history once he began uploading his other videos, as they were more popular and also bore more personal meaning to him; he regarded his interest in alternate history as a high school phase that he had moved past from. He has stated that he can make another video if he raises $4,000 on a crowdfunding campaign.
Relations with other YouTubers
Rudyard has made multiple collaboration videos in the past, including one with Al Muqaddimah, an Islamic history channel, titled What if Tamerlane Never Existed (ft. Al Muqahddimah)?[‡ 4] and another one titled What if Germany was Divided after WW2? with AlternateHistoryHub.[‡ 5]
Rudyard had also started a collaborative series with other Alternate History YouTubers, including: Monsieur Z, Phrenomythic, and Planet Althistory, titled Alternate History League. However, they only completed one public episode.[a] The series was terminated because of a lack of interest from both Whatifalthist and Monsieur Z. He has been polite regarding Monsieur Z on his channel, but when he criticizes other alternate history YouTubers for “drinking the neo-Nazi cool-aid” and being unable to come up with alternative history stories that do not involve the formation of a “white ethno-state” in the end, it is pretty obvious who he is talking about. Whatifalthist makes a point of not associating with Neo-nazis, so it can be concluded that an additional future collaboration with Monsieur Z is currently rendered unlikely.
Controversy and incidents
Whatifalthist has faced criticism for his often-controversial statements regarding history, philosophy, and politics. Many of his alternate history and geopolitical scenarios and predictions have been lambasted as implausible and skewed, while his general history, philosophy, and economic videos have been chastised as overgeneralizing and politically biased towards the right. This has taken in the form of criticism from other YouTubers and a slew of negative posts on Reddit critiquing his points. An early example was his video What if the Japanese Invdaded Australia? which received sizable criticism at the time for its implausibility and perceived bias against Australians.
On March 19, 2021, Whatifalthist uploaded a video titled Another 11 Historical Misconceptions,[‡ 6] a follow up to his 2020 video covering historically inaccurate presumptions that are commonly held. Another YouTuber, who hosts the History of Africa Podcast, responded in a long essay deconstructing his statements regarding pre-Colonial Africa on the r/badhistory subreddit.[‡ 7] The post gained significant traction in the community and Whatifalthist ultimately issued an apology on Twitter[‡ 8] as well as a correction in the video description. A series of other posts have been made on Reddit since critiquing him, most notably on r/badhistory, and r/badphilosophy.
On February 7, 2022, Whatifalthist published a video titled Understanding Social Justice, which critiqued and analyzed the social justice movement from a right-wing perspective.[‡ 9] This prompted a response by the BreadTuber Vaush, who challenged Whatifalthist to a debate, which Rudyard accepted. After being delayed due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the debate was held in May. The debate was widely received as a fiasco, with many lambasting both parties. Whatifalthist was seen as being ready more for a speech than a debate.
A video uploaded in late July of 2022 titled Understanding Southeast Asian Civilization was taken down by YouTube. Although the reasoning has not been disclosed, evidence suggests a deliberate mass-flagging by Southeast Asian nationalists in response to controversial statements made by Whatifalthist in the video, most notably a claim that stated that the tropical climate of the region negatively affected its intellectual output.
Other incidents
During his time on the Appalachian Trail, his first Discord server was created as a method of maintaining contact with his fanbase while he was on the trail. However, controversy ensued as one of the moderators on said server was a Neo-Nazi. After stripping him of his moderator status, the former moderator entered through “an obscure backdoor that [Whatifalthist] didn’t understand” and destroyed the server in retribution. Due to the quick form of communication offered by Discord (which Rudyard stated did not bond well with his need to devote time to thinking about questions), the server was never officially resurrected, however, a fan-made server was made in 2020 that Rudyard ultimately joined.
In February of 2022, Whatifalthist announced the creation of a WIAH community on the website Pearl, founded by one of his best friends, Matthew DiMarcantonio. Although generally received positively by the community, some members have criticized him for over-promoting the site, such as supposedly sabotaging his own YouTube livestreams to incentivize people to move to Pearl to view said livestreams.
Personal life
In July 2019, Lynch hiked the Appalachian Trail and finished roughly half of it before deciding to return home. He claims that while the path was hard, he gained much joy out of it and claimed that nature as a whole is something humanity doesn’t get enough of.
Political views
Rudyard politically identifies as a center-right Libertarian, but he is known for embracing some liberal ideas out of pragmatism. An example of this would be for universal healthcare. His ideas are often shared and cited by self-described Radical Centrists in the United States.
Notes
- ^ There is a second video in the playlist, listed as private.
References
Primary sources
In the text, these references are preceded by a double dagger (‡):
