Support NeoGAF

[Relativ9]

I'll let his video explaining the situation do most of the talking, but if you don't want to watch all 27 minutes (it explains it really in the first 5) here's a summation:

Linus Tech Tips is a very popular youtube channel where they cover a wide variety of tech news, gadgets, events and computer hardware. In the video this "controversy" is referring to Linus and his crew were doing a story about Amazon's new cashier-less grocery store where they constructed what they thought would be a humors "setup" where a guy has to buy his girlfriend some tampons because of a "feminine hygiene emergency". In the video they pick up a pack of menstrual pads (and a bunch of other stuff) all the while talking about the cool technology that makes it possible for the store to work the way it does. They titled the video "We Stole Tampons from the Cashier-less Amazon Go Store", queue twitter reactions that range from calling Linus a pathetic virgin, a chauvinist, a terrible boyfriend, a terrible father and even emblematic of everything "wrong" with the tech industry.

PS: It should noted that Linus actually did know the difference, it's just that it doesn't make for a snappy a title to say "We Stole Pads (or menstural pads) from the Cahsier-less Amazon Go Store".

Edit: Here's the video that started this whole thing:

Edit2: Some of the twitter reactions:

 

[TTOOLL]

I really like Linus, genuine good guy. His channel is really fun.

About this whole "controversy"... god, if you are upset about this video/situation you need to take a hard look at what you are doing with your life, or you need to get one.

The video is FUCKING NOTHING and I don't know why people give so much credit to idiots who do nothing in life but trying to cause stir with supposed controversies.

Also, the Amazon store is really cool!!


Edit: thankfully he says in the video he didn't and will not apologize.

 

[Grinchy]

This is the kind of controversy that would have blown up here just a few months ago. And you'd have to be on the side against Linus.

 

[Mohonky]

Some people have too mucb spare time

 

[black_13]

haha just shows people are actively looking for people to shit on.

 

[grumpyGamer]

Stupid people who have to much time and not very much brain.
I truly believe these people will ruin society, get a fucking life.

Linus was just trying to make a funny video, tired of this shit already

 

[Vicetrailia]

So in the video the guy grabs a tampon box, and in order to test how good the system is at picking up misplaced items he places the box on a wine rack, and then takes it off again. After that he left the store (with other items), and checked how accurate the system is. It was all casual, there was no acted out medical emergency scenario.

His video title isn't exactly true, but I don't see why any side should be whinning about this video. I guess some people are mad at the vid title.

 

[Relativ9]

So in the video the guy grabs a tampon box and in order to test how good the system is at picking up misplaced items by placing the box on a wine rack and then taking it off again. After that he left the store (with other items), and checked how accurate the system is. It was all casual, there was no emergency scenario.

His video title isn't exactly true, but I don't see why any side should be whinning about this video. I guess some people are mad at the vid title.

Well that's the storytelling of the video, they set up a hypothetical scenario to add a bit of levity to the video. It's clearly not meant to be taken seriously, he's not vlogging about his trip to the store. But even if it was, and even if he didn't know the difference, it would be an innocent mistake. And in the live stream response to the twitter "firestorm" he actually explains his reasoning for choosing that title for the video.

This is just another example (in my opinion) of people being far to sensitive and blowing things way out of proportions by taking a kind of weird delight at being mad about something ("rage boner").

 

[Harlock]

This is another level of lack of real problems to care.

 

[cubicle47b]

Twitter outrage isn’t worth paying attention to. I wish they’d actually talked to an Amazon employee about how the store works, but it was still a pretty good video.

 

[goldenpp72]

Honestly his explanation video does him worse than the original one. It's bizarre someone who is an adult by now wouldn't know the difference but really, who cares? This isn't exactly an important subject to dwell on.

 

[Shifty]

PS: It should noted that Linus actually did know the difference, it's just that it doesn't make for a snappy a title to say "We Stole Pads (or menstural pads) from the Cahsier-less Amazon Go Store".

Seems par for the course. They've talked about the clickbait titles and thumbnails they use multiple times in the past, and it always comes down to "yo it makes money".

Linus and co are a well-informed lot, even if the way they present themselves in the youtube feed makes it look otherwise.

 

[luxsol]

Cool video.
May check him out for other shit

Also, it's fucking nothing (didn't bother to watch the drama video though).

 

[demon]

Just because you stand under the banner of progressivism doesn't mean you're not a fucking idiot. What an absolute nothing controversy.

 

[Vicetrailia]

Well that's the storytelling of the video, they set up a hypothetical scenario to add a bit of levity to the video. It's clearly not meant to be taken seriously, he's not vlogging about his trip to the store. But even if it was, and even if he didn't know the difference, it would be an innocent mistake. And in the live stream response to the twitter "firestorm" he actually explains his reasoning for choosing that title for the video.

I didn't watch his long video, but I read the OP description. Then I watched the amazon video, and I did see a disconnect between the description/title and video itself. But you know it's having its 5 minute explosion. The amazon video is worth watching on its own, and he should be happy that 1000 people on twitter were super upset by it, because it brings money and no one actually cares.

 

[njean777]

This is the internet now.... nothing about this is offensive in any shape or form.

 

[Sàmban]

This encapsulates everything I hate about social media. From the pretentious "woke" 20-somethings taking some random youtube video as emblematic of "x-movement" to this being called a "firestorm" when no one really gives a shit now nor will they give a shit in a month from now.

EDIT: fyi, I'm a 20-something

 

[Breakage]

Yup, outrage over nothing. It's a sign of affluence - doubtless those taking to Twitter aren't struggling in life. If they were, they wouldn't have time to get angry over something so trivial.

When I see stuff like this, it reminds me that my decision to never be on Twitter, Facebook etc was a good one.

 

[Krug]

This is the kind of controversy that would have blown up here just a few months ago. And you'd have to be on the side against Linus.

Yep! Its sad but true. The fake outrage over everything was out of control. If you even thought about siding with Linus here you would have been called out for buzzing too far from the hive, ganged up on and banned for "not a good fit for Neogaf". This site needed a purge of the crazies and is a much better place now to have a open conversation with level headed people. Im left on most things social and political but how far left it had got here was scary.

 

[Sàmban]

This is the kind of controversy that would have blown up here just a few months ago. And you'd have to be on the side against Linus.

Yep! Its sad but true. The fake outrage over everything was out of control. If you even thought about siding with Linus here you would have been called out for buzzing too far from the hive, ganged up on and banned for "not a good fit for Neogaf". This site needed a purge of the crazies and is a much better place now to have a open conversation with level headed people. Im left on most things social and political but how far left it had got here was scary.

Bullshit. Stop with this revisionist history. What would have happened is most would have sided with Linus and some wouldn't. There'd be a discussion around that and then some irrational actors would say something outlandishly sexist or racist, derailing the thread. The mods would then ban them, then they'd complain somewhere else about the mods being sjws and/or evilore being gay. I've been on GAF for a very long time and it really hasn't changed all that much. The only difference is that the moderation is a little less strict which seems ok now because there is less volume. Once GAF picks up, there will be more shitpost within the discussion.

 

[demon]

Yep! Its sad but true. The fake outrage over everything was out of control. If you even thought about siding with Linus here you would have been called out for buzzing too far from the hive, ganged up on and banned for "not a good fit for Neogaf". This site needed a purge of the crazies and is a much better place now to have a open conversation with level headed people. Im left on most things social and political but how far left it had got here was scary.

Absolutely true. Oh yeah, and #metoo!! ....Except when it involves something Hillary did...hey did you know the NYT is a right-wing rag? The new place is almost just as nuts.

Bullshit. Stop with this revisionist history. What would have happened is most would have sided with Linus and some wouldn't. There'd be a discussion around that and then some irrational actors would say something outlandishly sexist or racist, derailing the thread. The mods would then ban them, then they complain somewhere else about the mods being sjws and/or evilore being gay. I've been on GAF for a very long time and it really hasn't changed all that much. The only difference is that the moderation is a little less strict which seems ok now because there is less volume. Once GAF picks up, there will be more shitpost within the discussion.

It's hyperbole to say this board would have hive-minded against Linus in this situation, but it's absolutely emblematic of the kind of "progressive" faux-outrage that was a huge problem on this board.

 

[Sàmban]

Absolutely true. Oh yeah, and #metoo!! ....Except when it involves something Hillary did...hey did you know the NYT is a right-wing rag? The new place is almost just as nuts.


It's hyperbole to say this board would have hive-minded against Linus in this situation, but it's absolutely emblematic of the kind of "progressive" faux-outrage that was a huge problem on this board.

Actually, I'm glad you brought up the Hillary NYT piece on Era (can we stop with this tiptoeing bullshit please? What happened, happened. It has a name and GAF is also still here. The two can coexist so let's move on). It illustrates exactly the revisionist history that I'm talking about. If you go in and actually read through that thread, you'll see that the discussion is actually way more nuanced than the...frankly...garbage reductionist hot-take you just posted. There are some people shitting on NYT for posting it, questioning the timing given that it was right after a major anti-trump story. There are some people calling those people out as hypocrites, saying that the story deserves to be posted regardless of the timing, especially in context of the #metoo movement. All in all, there is a discussion with contrasting viewpoints with heavy moderation, just like old GAF (surprise!!). It's not some left-wing free-for all echochamber like you are suggesting. Neither was old GAF.

Anyway, I don't really want to keep this going as this is probably something that should be discussed in its own thread.

 

[goldenpp72]

Yep! Its sad but true. The fake outrage over everything was out of control. If you even thought about siding with Linus here you would have been called out for buzzing too far from the hive, ganged up on and banned for "not a good fit for Neogaf". This site needed a purge of the crazies and is a much better place now to have a open conversation with level headed people. Im left on most things social and political but how far left it had got here was scary.

While this happened a lot, I don't think this particular topic would have generated such a response. Most people would realize it for what it is and move along.

 

[DarkestHour]

You can tell how good people's lives are because their biggest problem in life is Linus buying pads as an example of how Amazon's store works.

 

[Agent_Carnage]

The original setup was to get extra small condoms but the store dident have it so they had to go with Tampons.

Why are people so upset I dont get it.

 

[caffeware]

The real news here is that amazon made a cashier less store.

Where tf are people going to work at?

 

[deadscreensky]

Bullshit. Stop with this revisionist history. What would have happened is most would have sided with Linus and some wouldn't. There'd be a discussion around that and then some irrational actors would say something outlandishly sexist or racist, derailing the thread. The mods would then ban them, then they'd complain somewhere else about the mods being sjws and/or evilore being gay. I've been on GAF for a very long time and it really hasn't changed all that much. The only difference is that the moderation is a little less strict which seems ok now because there is less volume. Once GAF picks up, there will be more shitpost within the discussion.

Yep. It's a shame some people were apparently so frightened of others disagreeing with them that they wouldn't post, but we saw plenty of debate on all sorts of 'liberal' things. (Source: I was posting on GAF, and sometimes presented a different perspective from the majority and was fine.) You always see a bunch of knee jerk reactions agreeing with an OP -- see that weirdo Blizzard thread in GD right now -- and it has very little to do with politics.

Speaking of which: is this actually some huge controversial "firestorm" or just a couple hundred people having fun arguing about stupid shit? Because looking at Twitter that's all I see. (I'm sure there's some very nasty trolls in there too, of course.) I'm watching the video and he opens with an obvious joke tweet, for example. Then two more smarmy joke tweets follow, then maybe somebody confused, and then I think I'm done wasting my time on this nothing.

 

[WaterAstro]

lol holy shit the internet

Well, the Amazon Go video is pretty interesting. Linus is always great. People are just going to be toxic.

 

[pipedream]

Unfortunately, the design of Social Media actively encourages and supports these kinds of situations. Social Media is built around the idea of spreading and sharing information, and most importantly, being seen doing that. This is a pretty dangerous and potentially damaging behavior, depending what is being targeted. This is why Social Media is such an incredible platform for dis-information. People just read headlines, which typically are written to have the biggest emotional impact, which causes a reaction in people to instantly think, well yeah, this sounds like a bad thing! Of course, I don't like bad things! Like! Share! And all of this goes on and on, and very few people actually use the art of critical thinking to OPEN and READ whatever issue is being presented fully- if they did, they would see that a lot of times the issue that is being claimed in outrage, isn't quite equal to what actually happened, or maybe they might find that sources actually don't exist or don't corroborate the subject in the way that is congruent with the outrage. All you have to do is use major emotional trigger words in these things, and people's thinking stops, and their clicking just goes. Social Media is one of the worst things that's been implemented in modern society, at least in the way it currently works, and the way most humans interact with it.

 

[Dimefan3]

Another day in the life of Generation Offended, I see...

 

[lenovox1]

Yep! Its sad but true. The fake outrage over everything was out of control. If you even thought about siding with Linus here you would have been called out for buzzing too far from the hive, ganged up on and banned for "not a good fit for Neogaf". This site needed a purge of the crazies and is a much better place now to have a open conversation with level headed people. Im left on most things social and political but how far left it had got here was scary.

*Thinks to self, "Well, this is quantifiable"*

*Searching "Linus Tech Tips" on the new site*

Results:

1. GPD Series |OT| A "Switch" To PC Gaming
2. PostGPD Series |OT| A "Switch" To PC Gaming
3. PostAMD Ryzen |OT| Affordable Core Act
4. PostNintendo reiterates it's not interested in 4K or VR
5. Wow... Current ram and GPU prices ruined everything. Terrible time to build a pc.

Hmm.

*Searches Vice's Waypoint and SL&ENT.*

Fucking nothing.

Hmm.

 

[Sorcerer]

So in the video the guy grabs a tampon box, and in order to test how good the system is at picking up misplaced items he places the box on a wine rack, and then takes it off again. After that he left the store (with other items), and checked how accurate the system is. It was all casual, there was no acted out medical emergency scenario.

His video title isn't exactly true, but I don't see why any side should be whinning about this video. I guess some people are mad at the vid title.

He says he stole the item because at the end of the trip he refunds the item from his phone, with no way to actually return the item.

 

[ilfait]

*Thinks to self, "Well, this is quantifiable"*

*Searching "Linus Tech Tips" on the new site*

Results:

1. GPD Series |OT| A "Switch" To PC Gaming
2. PostGPD Series |OT| A "Switch" To PC Gaming
3. PostAMD Ryzen |OT| Affordable Core Act
4. PostNintendo reiterates it's not interested in 4K or VR
5. Wow... Current ram and GPU prices ruined everything. Terrible time to build a pc.

Hmm.

*Searches Vice's Waypoint and SL&ENT.*

Fucking nothing.

Hmm.

What exactly are you "quantifying" here? The guy was speculating on what the thread would be like if it had existed on Resetera. But since there hasn't been a thread there on this topic, isn't it actually your strange reply that is "fucking nothing"?

Am I missing something? If so, *thinks to self "I should apologize in advance"*, *apologizes in advance* .

 

[llien]

...apparently so frightened of others disagreeing with them that they wouldn't post.

I believe, focus is on "being banned".
And while some discourse is still possible in such setting, it still strictly narrows the possible POVs.
There were things to discuss in USSR times too, you know.

In the example of diverse opinions cited by S Sàmban above, "not an issue at all" is missing, you'd probably see similar pattern with James Franco's alleged misdoings thread, I doubt many would dare to say that described events do not look like an assault.

 

[Sakura]

Cashier-less grocery store?
As a cashier, I'm not sure I like this.

 

[Relativ9]

Cashier-less grocery store?
As a cashier, I'm not sure I like this.

Oh! I'd actually be really interested to hear more about your feelings on this. I realize it's a bit of a deep/personal question. But what would you do/where would you be if all cashier jobs were to be confirmed to disappear in two years?

Sorry if this comes off as an asshole question to ask, it's just on this forum we so often talk around the topic of what's going to happen to all those jobs, without ever (mostly) getting the perspective of someone who actually holds one of them.

 

[Blam]

This is actually stupid. Are people seriously up in arms over this? It's a video come on.

 

[WorriedCitizen]

What happend to simply enlighten someone about their misconception and moving on?

 

[lenovox1]

What exactly are you "quantifying" here? The guy was speculating on what the thread would be like if it had existed on Resetera. But since there hasn't been a thread there on this topic, isn't it actually your strange reply that is "fucking nothing"?

Am I missing something? If so, *thinks to self "I should apologize in advance"*, *apologizes in advance* .

Oh, please.

The vast majority of the Internet doesn't actually care if a man accidentally calls a pad a tampon. In fact, the only thing people here are reacting to is Twitter outrage from some very bored individuals.

 

[ilfait]

Oh, please.

The vast majority of the Internet doesn't actually care if a man accidentally calls a pad a tampon. In fact, the only thing people here are reacting to is Twitter outrage from some very bored individuals.

Okay. I wasn't talking about the likelihood of the speculation being accurate; only the fact that it was speculation.

 

[Sakura]

Oh! I'd actually be really interested to hear more about your feelings on this. I realize it's a bit of a deep/personal question. But what would you do/where would you be if all cashier jobs were to be confirmed to disappear in two years?

Sorry if this comes off as an asshole question to ask, it's just on this forum we so often talk around the topic of what's going to happen to all those jobs, without ever (mostly) getting the perspective of someone who actually holds one of them.

To be honest, were it to happen, I wouldn't be too worried.
I can't speak for every place, but the reality is that cashiers don't only run the register where I work. You're stocking shelves, cleaning the store, etc.
There would definitely be cut backs in staff though because you don't need as many people if registers don't have to be run.
In my case I'm not making a career out of it, just something to pay for school.

 

[Renna Hazel]

Where is the actual outrage? I'm kind of curious to see how that video could be seen as offensive to people.

 

[deadscreensky]

I believe, focus is on "being banned".
And while some discourse is still possible in such setting, it still strictly narrows the possible POVs.
There were things to discuss in USSR times too, you know.

In the example of diverse opinions cited by S Sàmban above, "not an issue at all" is missing, you'd probably see similar pattern with James Franco's alleged misdoings thread, I doubt many would dare to say that described events do not look like an assault.

I've been banned for criticizing conservative positions on Old-GAF. (Because I was rude, which is basically what always gets you banned.) So I'm going to stick with my idea that certain people were just overly afraid to get into debate. It's a lot like those people you see complaining they can't say certain things because the culture is too PC now, ignoring the fact that these anti-PC things are routinely said. It's paranoid artificial outrage, gets that holy self-righteousness going.

Their fear is real, I'm not suggesting they are lying, it's just not worth taking seriously.

I recognize there were historically some unfairly overzealous mods. And as always you have certain posters who deliberately try to get other people angry so they mess up following the rules, but not much you can do there except use the ignore list. (Learned that the hard way...) Nothing's perfect, but this idea that you couldn't defend Linus here on Old-GAF without being banned is patently untrue. It's ridiculous to even suggest that.

 

[llien]

Their fear is real, I'm not suggesting they are lying, it's just not worth taking seriously.

Should I go to "the other forum" and dig bans for politely saying stuff admins disliked? Would that change your mind?

 

[joshcryer]

Oh Linus, you don't ever feed the commidified identities of the social media space...

 

[lenovox1]

Should I go to "the other forum" and dig bans for politely saying stuff admins disliked? Would that change your mind?

Go right ahead.

 

[llien]

Go right ahead.

Ok, here you go. Let me know, if you need more, google search is working quite well with the site.

 

[Relativ9]

Where is the actual outrage? I'm kind of curious to see how that video could be seen as offensive to people.

Sorry I guess I should have included some examples in the OP, I'll edit it to include them. Here are some of the ones I found just on the first page of one of the twitter reactions and its comments:

 

[Renna Hazel]

lol what a strange thing to get offended over. Life must be difficult to navigate for some of these people.

 

[Relativ9]

lol what a strange thing to get offended over. Life must be difficult to navigate for some of these people.

Well to be fair I don't think most of it is an actual outrage or people being offended. Just people being really toxic and judgemental of something so incredibly small and insignificant, compounded by the fact that they've been able to tangentially relate it to some sort vague gender war. The "firestorm" in my thread title I just took from his video on the issue, should've put quotes around it.