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'skeptic' YouTubers


Sakamoto

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There's been a surge in 'skeptic' YouTubers in the past 2 years or so, many of which are 'alt-right', and spread misinformation to a large audience. The videos mostly consist of 'fuck sjws', and blatant lies. What do you think about these channels? Should YouTube regulate them, or should they be allowed to run freely?

 

Some examples: 

  • Naked Ape
  • Sargon of Akkad
  • The Satiratician
  • Infowars?
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I ignore them entirely, don't have a problem with them being there though.  for the most part, if you end up on one of those channels/videos, I feel like you should've already known what you're getting into though so at that point it's just each person choosing to view the content they actually want to view

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I ignore them entirely, don't have a problem with them being there though.  for the most part, if you end up on one of those channels/videos, I feel like you should've already known what you're getting into though so at that point it's just each person choosing to view the content they actually want to view

I feel as just like Breitbart and Infowars did, these channels also brought Trump to the presidency by spreading false information, perhaps not as much though.

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I feel as just like Breitbart and Infowars did, these channels also brought Trump to the presidency by spreading false information, perhaps not as much though.

do you have any statistics or something to back that up?

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So basically right leaning propaganda channels?

 

I've heard of Alex Jones, and from what i saw, he's that one guy in the apocalypse that shouts "the end is near" in a megaphone while the population runs amok.

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I've not heard of these guys but I've heard of the thing you're describing, and yeah, it's cringy. But CNN is guilty of a lot of extrapolating eing plain mean-spirited(not as crazy as these guys, but there are some messed up things I've seen, like the woman laughing at the Chicago torture video when she thought she was out of the shot) and sometimes straight up lying, and they're a major news network. Media lies, people lies. Nobody's entirely truthful. That's just politics, really.

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Did Sargon really get that bad over 6 months? I don't watch him that often now 

Yeah, I used to watch him before 'alt-right' was even a term. He came out in support of Donald Trump and Putinism, and a majority of his fan base is far-right. Yet, he still calls himself a liberal.

 

do you have any statistics or something to back that up?

https://web.stanford.edu/~gentzkow/research/fakenews.pdf(skip to page 26 for the info)

 

It doesn't really discuss Youtubers, but I think of them similar to these news organizations.

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I believe your issue is that you're acting as if these "news" sources are exactly that- news sources. They aren't, and it's very easy to see the videos posted here are opinion pieces. Just a cursory scroll through the videos of your first example, Naked Ape, clearly shows videos with titles that are either disclaiming they are opinions or are worded in such a way any other interpretation would be absurd.

 

If you look to CNN, NYTimes, or Huffington Post you'll see the same polarizing opinions that are present on sources like Fox News.

 

People do look to them for information, although they do state that the information is their opinion, they back it up with false evidence.

 

Ignoring Huffington Post, CNN and NYTimes have a much higher accuracy to reporting whole stories than Fox News does.

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There's been a surge in 'skeptic' YouTubers in the past 2 years or so, many of which are 'alt-right', and spread misinformation to a large audience. The videos mostly consist of 'fuck sjws', and blatant lies. What do you think about these channels? Should YouTube regulate them, or should they be allowed to run freely?

 

Some examples: 

 

  • Naked Ape
  • Sargon of Akkad
  • The Satiratician
  • Infowars?
Sargon of Akkad has decent social commentary, he just doesn't know much about politics and economics (which he admits). I don't know of The Satiratician but none of the others listed are alt right. I'll post more commentary tomorrow.
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I largely agree with the other posters that although skeptic channels misinform and delude viewers, they're not illegal and shouldn't be censored just for lying. However, this belief kind of falls apart when the content stops being harmless. The man who held Comet Ping Pong under hostage with a gun had been previously watching and reading all sorts of Pizzagate conspiracy theories, and he decided to take matters into his own hands and created a dangerous situation. After the internet conspiracies turned into legitimate threats, Reddit and Twitter barring Pizzagate discussion seems much more justified.

 

So yeah, that's my biggest worry with these internet conspiracy theories, especially as they get more popular and numerous (maybe coinciding with the rise of the alt-right, who seem to care about emotions over logic and facts). I fear that as they get pushed into the mainstream, these 'skeptics' will create real harm.

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-snip-

http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/tv/cnn/

 

http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/tv/fox/

 

I don't have info for NYTimes, but I will look for it. FYI, I hate CNN, and how they were clearly very biased towards Hillary Clinton, how they lie. I'm just saying that Fox News is complete and utter bullshit.

 

 

Just to be clear, the question of whether these channels should be allowed or not does not reflect my opinion, it was just a question.

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http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/tv/cnn/

 

http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/tv/fox/

 

I don't have info for NYTimes, but I will look for it. FYI, I hate CNN, and how they were clearly very biased towards Hillary Clinton, how they lie. I'm just saying that Fox News is complete and utter bullshit.

 

Not only is politifact a tad on the biased side in both its collection methods, but to quote the old adage, "You're comparing apples and oranges"

 

While indeed those are both "news" sources, Fox has a much, much higher concentration of opinion segments than CNN. A better comparison would be Fox and MSNBC, which coincidentally shows significantly more equal statistics. The issue of a severe lack of conservative news channels like CNN is a topic for another time.

 

EDIT: I should note I did not make this clarification beforehand, and I apologize for that

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Sorry no offense to anyone, but using YouTube as a source for eg.

political infos etc seems like a bad idea in the first place.

The bias is even worse than on TV/Newspaper, as there is noone who controlls what they say.

If a YouTuber does not give out reliable sources for his info you can dump him in the trash rightaway.

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Youtube does not really seem like a reliable source for political information to be honest. Everybody has speech of freedom but if they spread nonsense, just ignore them. 

 

Also, this is not just youtube. There's a lot of fake news on Facebook as well. This goes for both sides. I see a lot of dumb conspiracy stuff about Clinton but also many useless and out of context articles about Trump, even on bigger media sites.

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Not only is politifact a tad on the biased side in both its collection methods, but to quote the old adage, "You're comparing apples and oranges"

 

While indeed those are both "news" sources, Fox has a much, much higher concentration of opinion segments than CNN. A better comparison would be Fox and MSNBC, which coincidentally shows significantly more equal statistics. The issue of a severe lack of conservative news channels like CNN is a topic for another time.

 

EDIT: I should note I did not make this clarification beforehand, and I apologize for that

But, you weren't unclear, just incorrect that CNN and NYTimes have polarizing arguments just like Fox. It is true that Fox is mostly opiniated, but people like Donald Trump and his voters take what they say as fact.

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but people like Donald Trump and his voters take what they say as fact.

 

^ this. Together with

 

Sorry no offense to anyone, but using YouTube as a source for eg.political infos etc seems like a bad idea in the first place.

-- Alberny

 
the big problem that just because it's a bad idea, doesn't mean people aren't doing it ....
 
 
At the OP problem - while pure regulation might be a bit of an issue, maybe the solution would be to create a clasification (if such a thing is feasable). If biased oppinion piece channels don't get the badge "news" - perhaps people will be will be lss confused. Likewise, channels that get the "news" badge would have to watch out not to lose their way, and thus lose the badge.
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But, you weren't unclear, just incorrect that CNN and NYTimes have polarizing arguments just like Fox. It is true that Fox is mostly opiniated, but people like Donald Trump and his voters take what they say as fact.

Are you implying that people don't listen to CNN and NYTimes? Because I think it's a commonly known fact that the left is largely in control of American media, given there's only one major network that leans right.

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Are you implying that people don't listen to CNN and NYTimes? Because I think it's a commonly known fact that the left is largely in control of American media, given there's only one major network that leans right.

The difference is that CNN reports news, and fox doesn't. It is left leaning, but not nearly as opinionated.

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.

The difference is that CNN reports news, and fox doesn't. It is left leaning, but not nearly as opinionated.

 

Huh, me and Donald must not be the only ones who think it's fake news, because the country of Venezuela has apparently dropped the network after yesterday?

http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/venezuela-cnn-1201989623/

 

And I can tell that they have at least a FEW interesting opinions regarding comedy and such.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vKPfkRZLOo

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Huh, me and Donald must not be the only ones who think it's fake news, because the country of Venezuela has apparently dropped the network after yesterday?

http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/venezuela-cnn-1201989623/

You, a Trump supporter, are backing a socialist country's censorship of media? You sure?

 

Now, I am going to say I'm not the biggest fan of CNN, especially their television network. I am honestly not surprised if one of their stupid guests were laughing at a hate crime.

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You, a Trump supporter, are backing a socialist country's censorship of media? You sure?

 

Now, I am going to say I'm not the biggest fan of CNN, especially their television network. I am honestly not surprised if one of their stupid guests were laughing at a hate crime.

That's not a guest, that's a reporter. I'm not backing it, I just find it funny that there are other places in agreement in terms of the quality of news. Wouldn't it make more sense in a governmental way for the socialist country to drop FOX as a network?

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CNN is biased

FOX is biased

 

To be very honest, I believe that every media outlet has their own political agenda. Whether they're paid/forced or not. 

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