The soapbox YouTubers I like

[Jusenkyo no Pikachu]

Since the general opinion on here seems to be that I should do this thread, so here it is.

First up, it's one who shouldn't need much of an introduction, because I've posted two threads about his videos: Shaun. For whatever reason you guys seem to think he's Ranty McRanterson or something, but he's usually incredibly calm and collected, and while he may give dudebros inadvertent exposure, it's perfectly okay to not click the links he cites (he does encourage it so we can be sure he's not misrepresenting an argument, but he usually has enough of the argument in question as part of his own videos and the other links are usually to whatever he's had to Google to make the video).

Sample video: Outrage News, which takes aim at Breitbart, Sargon, Christopher Cantwell (of "Crying Nazi" fame) and a bunch of other only slightly more obscure right wing media types (for those who pay attention to RW media) for deliberately misreporting the news.

Other sample: The Truth About "The Truth About Star Wars: The Force Awakens", where Stefan Molyneux only succeeds in making us wonder what movie he was watching.

Now onto one you may have heard of elsewhere: hbomberguy. He's more comedic in his approach (to the point that his videos take forever to come out), but he also Googles what he can. That said, he is a radical leftist outside of YouTube.

Sample Video: Antifeminism VS FACTS, an extensive look at one of Sargon's videos (specifically one where he "debunks" the 1 in 5 claim).

And the one that introduced me to him: The Sarkeesian Effect: A Measured Response, where two sexist weirdoes screw up on the funding of a documentary that they completely failed at making.

Another one I checked out recently: ContraPoints. This time around, we have a trans woman (although she initially presented as genderqueer), who actually has debated with right-wing types (although she is also ideologically aligned with Shaun and hbomb). I won't link to these as the only one I've found is on Sargon's other channel ("The Thinkery"). Also, she has a masters in philosophy.

Sample video: Decrypting the Alt-Right: How to Recognize a F@scist, where she talks about how the Alt-Right will attempt to now work fascism in subtly.

I'm sure there are more, but I haven't seen them.

[Jusenkyo no Pikachu]

Decided this was too good not to share:

The Snowflake Generation: A Response to Thoughty2

(Warning: contains flashing images and depictions of Alex Jones as a “millennial snowflake”)

[Mouse]

I have mixed feelings about this thread. While I know Some Guy with a Website shouldn’t be considered a journalist on level with someone at the New York Times, at the same time, YouTube is serving as a major hub and influence in modern politics. The sad truth is that a good chunk of the mobilization that led to the alt-Right, got its start in the raging, festering cesspool known as GamerGate. The truth is that the ideas and memes circulating on the Right, are being created and sown on places like Reddit, YouTube, and 4chan, so it’s not a platform we can ignore.

Now that I’ve said all that, I’ll contribute some links to the pile.

Some More News was once a series associated with Cracked, but now it’s doing its on thing.

Steve Shives may be the only White Male Atheist YouTuber who isn’t an MRA-supporting Brotheist. He talks a lot about social justice issues and is more than willing to take the New Atheist Movement to task for looking the other way when it comes to abuse of Women and PoC in the movement. I’m a Christian, but I still find him to be such a breath of fresh air.

I’ve always wondered if why so many YouTube atheists are Brotheists. I can understand having one or two jerks who, unfortunately, fight under a similar banner, but the fact it keeps happening again and again with these guys, makes me wonder if it’s something related to the medium they use.

[Jusenkyo no Pikachu]

Originally Posted by Mouse

While I know Some Guy with a Website shouldn’t be considered a journalist on level with someone at the New York Times…

The weird thing is, none of the people I linked above actually consider themselves journalists. They’re all just people with computers, microphones, cameras, decent editing software and opinions that are backed up by actual research. Seriously, Shaun’s video on Charlottesville contains video from multiple livestreams of the event, other news sources and at least one vlog. And it’s an hour long.

[Mouse]

Did you read the rest of my post? I didn’t say that there wasn’t any value in YouTubers.

Though from the looks of things, we may be in a situation akin to The Daily Show, Last Week Tonight, and Full Frontal, where despite being humor shows, they are doing better journalism than many actual news networks.

Some of it is because of the nature of 24 hour news. There isn’t enough news, so they wind up endlessly rehashing the same points over and over. Plus they believe that balance means “reporting what all sides say, without giving any indication that one side has more of a leg to stand on, truth-wise.” They’re like a soccer commentator where they are so obsessed with following the ball, that they are incapable of giving us a wider view of the field, leaving us at a loss when it comes to overall strategy.

These YouTubers are doing something similar from what I can tell. Even if they aren’t obvious with the humor and are working on a lower budget, like the humor shows mentioned, they’re doing better journalism than most.

Oh and I have seen Shaun’s video on Charlottesville. The sad part is were it not for the death of Heather Heyer, the media might have continued acting like the Alt-Right are just cheeky provocateurs and don’t actually mean anything about all the Nazi talk/worship.

[thorny locust]

Originally Posted by Mouse

Some of it is because of the nature of 24 hour news. There isn’t enough news, so they wind up endlessly rehashing the same points over and over.

There's lots of news, almost all of which never makes it on to the main channels. It's not possible to cover, in 24 hours, everything that happens in a given day someplace in the world. The problem isn't that there's not enough news, it's that they think (possibly accurately, for all I know) that most of their audience isn't interested in most of it.

[GenYus234]

In some cases the 24 hours news channels aren't repeating news because they have no other news, they repeat it because the viewers are only watching for short periods of time and may not have seen it the first time.