Vaush

Ian Kochinski, known online as Vaush, is an American Twitch streamer and YouTuber who advocates for libertarian market socialism and anarchism. Throughout his career, he has debated numerous figures on the right and far right.

History
Vaush was born in California on February 14, 1994. He is of Polish and Irish descent.

Prior to starting his own YouTube channel, he was known as IrishLaddie and was a long time member of Destiny's community. IrishLaddie would occasionally go on Destiny's streams to debate him on numerous topics including political violence, communism, SJWs, etc.

In 2019, Destiny was given leaked Discord messages showing IrishLaddie sexually harassing another member of his community. Following this, Destiny exiled IrishLaddie from his spaces and banned him for a month (which later became a permanent ban).

IrishLaddie would later apologize for his actions on his newly-created YT channel. He also changed his pseudonym to "Vaush" and began making a community of his own.

In the latter parts of 2019, he began his streaming career and made multiple videos advocating for socialism/anarchism (the latter in spite of strong authoritarian statements). He'd also go on to debate many figures on both the right and far-right, including Actual Justice Warrior, Blaire White, Hunter Avallone and Sargon of Akkad.

Views
Vaush is supportive of market socialism, libertarian socialism, anarchism and other left-wing political theories. He's also an advocate for LGBTQ+ and minority rights, though he's been accused of bigotry in the past.

One of his more controversial takes was his anti-Bernie or Bust stance. He argued that even if Bernie Sanders were to lose the primary, the left should still support the Democratic nominee to get Trump out of office.

Trivia

 * Vaush currently lives in Seattle, WA with his ex-partner highyena and fellow streamer conure.
 * During one of his debates with a race realist, Vaush asked his opponent if he knew what "Alden's Number" was. The opponent said "I'm not sure, I may have heard the term" despite Alden's Number being a completely made-up term. Alden's Number later turned into a popular meme among BreadTube.
 * His gender is male and his sexuality is pansexual/bisexual.
 * In May of 2021, Vaush raised close to $300,000 for the Palestine Children's Relief Fund (PCRF), an organization aimed at helping displaced and traumatized children in war-town Gaza.
 * His only (self-admitted) losses in a debate where one time against Sargon of Akkad and two times against Contrapoints.
 * Following Texas' September 2021 abortion ban, Vaush raised over $135,000 to Planned Parenthood via a video game charity stream.