Destiny (streamer)

Steven Kenneth Bonnell II was born in Omaha, Nebraska, to a Cuban-American mother and a White American father.^[5] He was raised in a conservative Catholic home,^[5] and he attended Creighton Preparatory School, a private Jesuit high school for boys.^[6] When he was a pre-teen, his mother's home day care business collapsed, and his family's home was foreclosed.^[6] A few years later his parents moved to take care of an aging relative, after which he lived with his grandmother until he was 18.^[5]

In 2007, Bonnell enrolled at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, where he studied music while working night shifts as a restaurant manager at a casino. Ultimately unable to juggle both his education and full-time work, Bonnell dropped out of college in 2010. Soon after, he was fired from his restaurant position, and found work as a carpet cleaner.^[5][6]

In 2011, Bonnell quit his job as a carpet cleaner to stream video games full-time. Streaming his Starcraft II matches on livestream.com and ustream.tv,^[7] then Justin.tv (now Twitch), he was immediately financially successful.^[4][6][8] In October of that year, Bonnell joined professional team Quantic Gaming and placed 4th in the 2011 MLG Global North American invitational.^[9]During his years as a Starcraft II streamer, Bonnell was known for his abrasive and confrontational style, including use of "acerbic and often offensive" comments against other players for shock humor.^[4] Bonnell identified as a libertarian during this era, but his politics began shifting toward liberalism after an incident in which he heard another streamer call a gay person a "fucking faggot".^[5][6]

Starting in 2016, Bonnell has gained attention for live-streaming political debates with other internet personalities. Subsequent journalistic and academic coverage of right-wing YouTube commentary has credited Bonnell as an early and effective opposition to it, particularly owing to his provocative, combative debate style which appeals to right-wing gaming audiences.^[5][2] Bonnell himself has stated that his intention is not to persuade their opponents, but to persuade the audience; although he has expressed that airing his opinions often feels "like screaming into the void", he estimates he has received hundreds of emails from former members of the alt-right crediting him for their conversion to left-wing politics.^[5][6] In 2019, Bonnell began debating in favor of capitalism against socialists and communists.^[5]

Bonnell debated popular YouTuber Jon Jafari, better known as JonTron, on immigration and assimilation in March 2017, after Jafari tweeted in support of anti-immigration statements by Republican congressman Steve King. In his debate with Bonnell, Jafari's statements concerning race, crime, and immigration were seen as controversial by viewers, and the subsequent backlash garnered media attention.^{[10][11][12][13]}

In November 2018, Bonnell and fellow streamer Trihex (Mychal Ramon Jefferson) premiered a political commentary collaboration, The DT Podcast. The podcast streamed its final episode in October 2019, during which Jefferson confronted Bonnell regarding statements the latter had made defending his use of offensive humor—including racial slurs—in private.^[6][14]

Bonnell was notified in September 2020 that his Twitch partnership agreement would be terminated the following month for "encouragement of violence". The termination came as a result of comments made on-stream after the Kenosha unrest shooting, in which Bonnell expressed opposition to riots at the George Floyd protests. Bonnell said that "the rioting needs to fucking stop, and if that means like white redneck fucking militia dudes out there mowing down dipshit protesters that think that they can torch buildings at ten p.m., then at this point they have my fucking blessing..."^{[15][16][better source needed]} Bonnell later said that Kyle Rittenhouse was clearly misguided but that his frustration was with rioters who Bonnell believed would scare people into voting for Donald Trump again.^[17]

Bonnell has argued against both far-right politics and far-left politics.^[5][6] In 2021, Bonnell debated Marxian economist Richard D. Wolff, with Bonnell defending capitalism. In that debate, Bonnell described the label of "socialism" as poorly defined, and noted a history of famine and abuses in countries like the Soviet Union and China, while Wolff responded by attempting to correct perceived misrepresentations from Bonnell of his views on socialism throughout the debate.^[18] Bonnell has cited his poverty during his teenage and college-aged years as an influence on his views, and says that he prefers to argue based on empirical data rather than moral suasion.^[6]

In March 2022, Bonnell was indefinitely banned from Twitch due to "hateful conduct".^[19][20] Dot Esports speculates that this may have been due to Bonnell streaming with white nationalist Nick Fuentes, who had previously been banned from the platform.^[19][20][21] Bonnell speculated that the ban reason may have been linked to his expressing the view that "transwomen shouldn't compete with ciswomen in women's athletics".^[20]

In September 2023, Bonnell, alongside other political streamers such as Vaush, Emma Vigeland (co-host of The Majority Report with Sam Seder), and Keffals, interviewed U.S. Representative Ro Khanna about various topics, including the importance of youth political participation and ways to push progressive political sentiment, as well as asking questions about Khanna himself.^[22][23][24]

Following the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, Bonnell has expressed interest in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. He has shown sympathy for Israel, stating, "The Palestinians are oppressed by all the Arab countries, and no country from them, which is supposed to be on 'their' side, has bothered to offer them a real solution – and yet, their anger is directed fully at Israel, and unjustifiably in my opinion." Bonnell was scheduled to debate political scientist Norman Finkelstein on the matter, but it was postponed.^[25] The following March, he appeared on the Lex Fridman Podcast in a debate with Finkelstein, historian Benny Morris, and political analyst Mouin Rabbani.^[26]

In 2020, Bonnell supported the general election campaign of Joe Biden.^{[27][non-primary source needed]} Following Biden's victory, Bonnell led a canvassing campaign in support of Democratic candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in the 2020–21 Georgia Senate runoffs.^[28] With the help of approximately 140 volunteers mobilized from Bonnell's online audience, the campaign knocked on an estimated 17,500–20,000 doors in Columbus, Georgia, making it one of the larger campaigns of the election.^[29] Bonnell led another canvassing operation in support of Mark Gudgel for the 2021 Omaha mayoral election.^[30] On March 3, 2021, Gudgel officially cut ties with Bonnell over the latter's statements regarding riots at the George Floyd protests.^[31]

In February 2024, Bonnell spearheaded canvassing efforts by political activist group Progressive Victory in Cincinnati.^[32]

Bonnell has lived in Nebraska before relocating to the Los Angeles area in December 2018.^[6][5] In late 2021, he moved to Miami, Florida.^[33]

Bonnell has been married twice and has a son.^[34] He is openly bisexual and his second marriage was an open marriage with Swedish streamer Melina Göransson.^[6][35][36] Bonnell and Göransson married in December 2021.^[37] They separated and filed for divorce in December 2023.^[38]

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