I'm coming out of my 2+2 retirement to comment on the above post, because I have a few things to add.
First off, DrSayre, great analysis. This is the best explanation I've seen thus far regarding Sven's departure, and I think you're close to 100% correct.
My only doubt is that this is related to any CRTV cutbacks. The interns don't get paid too much anyway, and this matter looks more like a single employer-to-employee pay dispute, where the employee decided to get revenge by clowning the employer on a live broadcast.
While Crowder has indeed perpetrated "firing" hoaxes before, all the signs point to this being real. I also believe the assumed translation of #SCIAL(&DPHE) is correct.
There's also
this odd column written on Jully 24, by Courtney Kirchoff and "Brodigan", two mostly-behind-the-scenes website writers. The column rails about work ethic and people feeling entitled, and it's clearly aimed at some particular individual and incident. Sven's supposed firing took place on July 20.
And yes, as you pointed out, Crowder also referenced the "employee" who wanted a 60% raise and only got 15%, in that day's monologue.
Finally, Sven recently tweeted out a video of himself looking normal, without his trademark cardboard "computer" over his head. So he was out of character. Which I assumed he would never do as long as he was associated with the show.
So what happened? Sven came over from Germany to take this job. I'm assuming that, at some point, Crowder mentioned that Sven could elevate above "intern" status, which would come with a 60% pay raise. Sven probably felt it was time for the promotion and 60% raise, especially given his recent popularity on the show. Crowder probably said it wasn't time, and offered him a 15% raise instead. Sven was probably really mad, quietly grew increasingly resentful, and then passive-aggressively lashed out with the hashtag on the live Thursday show.
A word about Crowder: I don't know him personally, but I've been watching him for years, and I've gotten a good idea of the guy's personality -- especially from some of his non-show appearances and behind -the-scenes views we've gotten. I believe he's an honest guy who isn't likely to lie to employees or intentionally screw him. I do feel that he's probably a perfectionist and a hard-ass to work for. They showed one behind-the-scenes clip where the point was to show the viewer something really funny that happened. However, near the beginning of the clip, Crowder is complaining out loud about how his shirt is wrinkled, how he hates these type of shirts, and seemed really agitated about the matter -- all while the shirt looked completely fine. So I bet a lot of that type of stuff goes on at Louder with Crowder, and he probably has a lot of pride in both the show itself and his status as the business owner. So when one of the interns attempted to clown him on the live broadcast over an ongoing pay dispute, he abruptly canned the guy, especially given that he felt he was already being generous to the guy.
Unless Sven presents evidence that Crowder promised him a 60% raise by 7/20/18 and didn't give it, I'm on Crowder's side here.
Sounds like an intern allowed his head to swell because people on the internet liked him, and that resulted in a self-overvaluation of his own worth to the company.
BTW, there was another weird "firing" from the show which I think might have been real but rescinded. In August 2017, "Not Gay Jared" (basically second highest ranked person on the show, behind Crowder) put out a video on Crowder's channel talking about how he just got fired. The video was yanked within minutes of being posted. Then there was silence for many hours about it. Then, after a lot of pressure on Twitter, Crowder and Jared claimed it was a joke/hoax while they were simply testing new equipment.
I didn't know what to believe, but it didn't have many aspects of a hoax. The video was up for such a short time that almost no one saw it. They did not attempt to play off the hoax at all. They yanked the video after minutes, sat silent, quickly dismissed it as a joke/hoax on Twitter when pressured, and never talked about it on the show. If it was a hoax, there was absolutely no purpose to it. My theory was that Crowder and Jared had some kind of big argument, resulting in Crowder firing him. Then Jared quickly made a video telling everyone why he wouldn't be seen on the channel anymore. Then Crowder found the video minutes later and deleted it. Then hours went by, the two guys (who also have become real life friends) kissed and made up, and they pretended the whole thing was a joke. That's what I believe.