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NYT: For the New Far Right, YouTube Has Become the New Talk Radio

M

Makonero

Member
Like its fellow mega-platforms Twitter and Facebook, YouTube is an enormous engine of cultural production and a host for wildly diverse communities. But like the much smaller Tumblr (which has long been dominated by lively and combative left-wing politics) or 4chan (which has become a virulent and effective hard-right meme factory) YouTube is host to just one dominant native political community: the YouTube right. This community takes the form of a loosely associated group of channels and personalities, connected mostly by shared political instincts and aesthetic sensibilities. They are monologuists, essayists, performers and vloggers who publish frequent dispatches from their living rooms, their studios or the field, inveighing vigorously against the political left and mocking the “mainstream media,” against which they are defined and empowered. They deplore “social justice warriors,” whom they credit with ruining popular culture, conspiring against the populace and helping to undermine “the West.” They are fixated on the subjects of immigration, Islam and political correctness. They seem at times more animated by President Trump’s opponents than by the man himself, with whom they share many priorities, if not a style. Some of their leading figures are associated with larger media companies, like Alex Jones’s Infowars or Ezra Levant’s Rebel Media. Others are independent operators who found their voices in the medium.
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The radio comparison is a useful one. Talk radio’s growth followed decades of deregulation and disruptive opportunity: the rise of FM radio during the late 1960s and ’70s, the abandonment by music stations of the low-fidelity AM band and the 1987 revocation of the Fairness Doctrine, a rule through which the Federal Communications Commission attempted to regulate a sort of balance into content produced by licensed broadcasters. The subsequent rise of conservative talk radio, typified by superstars like Rush Limbaugh, had enormous influence and continues to attract millions of listeners a day, well into the internet era. Its style, once novel, is now familiar. There’s the casual, knowing rapport with listeners; the baggy, multihour shows, which double as news digests; the moralizing monologues that transition seamlessly into jokey rants and asides. But something about the medium seems to favor the right. Repeated, strenuous attempts by liberal broadcasters to replicate conservative talk radio formats have not fared well. Air America, which was launched in 2004 and shuttered in 2010, helped propel talent into other venues — Rachel Maddow to television, Al Franken to the Senate — but failed as a sustainable answer to combative conservative talk radio. AM opened a space for reaction, but seemed to have no room for the counterreaction.

YouTube’s political context is similar in some notable ways: the value it places on personalities; its reliance on monologue and repetition; its isolation and immunity from direct challenge; its promise to let listeners in on the real, secret story. Both are obsessed with persuasion and conversion, combined with a giddy disbelief at the sheer stupidity of liberals, who — and this is part of the fun — aren’t listening. Comparing YouTube to talk radio is also a useful reminder of how potent a medium can become while still appearing marginal to those who don’t care for it or know much about it. For listeners of conservative talk radio — where right-wing populist rhetoric has flourished for decades, and where hosts can get away with authoritarian flirtations and xenophobic rhetoric that mainstream politicians can’t — the rise of Donald Trump was somewhat less of a surprise than it was for many others.
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More here: https://nytimes.com/2017/08/03/maga...io.html?referer=https://t.co/rJDjXNCbXJ?amp=1


This isn't surprising. Young kids today aren't listening to talk radio, but they're getting the same content (or worse) from YouTube.
 
B

Beartruck

Member
Its super insidious too. Jontron was my favorite youtuber for a long while, and then he came out with that interview where he said black people are genetically predisposed to crime. I was like "What the fuck? Who was I watching this whole time? Was he always like this?"
 
S

Squire

Banned
The complimentary tone in this piece is weird to say the very least. Southern, Carlgon, PDP, etc. These people are idiots and propagandists that are regularly and easily dismantled by the opposition every week on the same site. This article makes it seem like these people are talented, but anyone can get a YT account, anyone can access the site, and a sucker is born every minute. Do the math.

A ton of them aren't even really right-wing, if they have any really values at all. There's just good money in spoiuting this garbage, as this video lays out.

https://youtu.be/3ZZIx3X_-VI
 
S

SchrodingerC

Member
I believe it. Who needs fancy radio broadcasting equipment when any far/alt right jackass just needs a camera, basic editing program, internet, and a hatred for everything.
 
U

uncelestial

Member
I wonder if this is what got my mom to vote Trump.

YouTube falls all over itself recommending "SJW Owned" videos every time I watch something political. There is a huge amount of this crap on YouTube and it's scary.
 
kunonabi

kunonabi

Member
With the left firmly in control of Hollywood it shouldn't really be a surprise that the far right would flock to YouTube.
 
A

AmayaPapaya

Banned
LOL they are not talking about Pewdiepie. There are real right-wing extremists "news shows" on youtube, like Alex Jones, they are referring to. I think this article is a little unfair, though. There is a huge left-wing presence on YouTube as well, and this just reflects people moving online. Nothing special about the right -wing moving. Young Turks are huge, and they are left-wing. I think they have 3mil+ subs? Much more than the Alex Jones of the world.
 
C

Chasm Skulker

Banned
It's worth remembering that while the right can flourish and dominate in avenues like radio and youtube, they persist there precisely because the left has so much more soft power in entertainment and popular culture.

These right wing talk-radio shows and youtube channels are entirely political in their content, making a very direct thrust at promoting their ideas and criticizing their opponents. Meanwhile, left wing values are much more subtly promoted through TV and Hollywood where they reach a far larger, receptive audience. Because while a lot of people care about politics, most are more interested in TV and movies.
 
H

Herr Schwarz

Banned
It does apply to Pewdiepie, he's dog whistling your ass all the way to Alex Jones.

All of the YouTubers I've seen that aren't part of professional groups outside of me and my 400subs are pure scum.

The non scum YouTubers are too boring and aren't trying to illicit rage or clicks from you.
 
kunonabi

kunonabi

Member
Chasm Skulker said:
It's worth remembering that while the right can flourish and dominate in avenues like radio and youtube, they persist there precisely because the left has so much more soft power in entertainment and popular culture.

These right wing talk-radio shows and youtube channels are entirely political in their content, making a very direct thrust at promoting their ideas and criticizing their opponents. Meanwhile, left wing values are much more subtly promoted through TV and Hollywood where they reach a far larger, receptive audience. Because while a lot of people care about politics, most are more interested in TV and movies.
Click to expand...

lol, TV/Hollywood hasn't been subtle about these things for a long time.
 
F

Funky Papa

FUNK-Y-PPA-4
I'm not shocked by YouTube become a harbor for far right and young reactionaries. The way their message spreads all over the internet makes it an incredible tool.

I'm shocked by how fucking shit YouTube is at filtering the stuff. The related content is like "So you like politics, right? You may be interested in this shit"

TRANSDUDES ARE RUINING MARVEL
CIS atheists are being opressed by the lesbian agenda
Why The Handmaid's Tale is a cautionary tale (for straight white men)
The scary secrets Hollywood (((globalists))) don't want you to know
How I stopped wearing a fedora and learned to love the undercut

And so on. Goddamn, all I wanted was to learn some Fallout lore, FFS.
 
S

Slayven

Member
uncelestial said:
I wonder if this is what got my mom to vote Trump.

YouTube falls all over itself recommending "SJW Owned" videos every time I watch something political. There is a huge amount of this crap on YouTube and it's scary.
Click to expand...

That is a big crux of the problem, one click and you get railroaded with fuckery
 
S

Samara

Member
Squire said:
The complimentary tone in this piece is weird to say the very least. Southern, Carlgon, PDP, etc. These people are idiots and propagandists that are regularly and easily dismantled by the opposition every week on the same site. This article makes it seem like these people are talented, but anyone can get a YT account, anyone can access the site, and a sucker is born every minute. Do the math.

A ton of them aren't even really right-wing, if they have any really values at all. There's just good money in spoiuting this garbage, as this video lays out.

https://youtu.be/3ZZIx3X_-VI
Click to expand...

Glad I watched this video. I was pretty dissapointed when I saw the thumbnail a couple of weeks ago. And she's right whenever I want to see feminist video its either Tldeer or Pigeon. I like Franchesca Ramsey and boy, the recommendation are terrible. Youtube is a cesspool
 
R

Random Human

They were trying to grab your prize. They work for the mercenary. The masked man.
YouTube absolutely needs to do something about its recommendation algorithm. I watched ONE political video (Obama's DNC speech) and started getting bombarded with "similar" videos that are stuff like "Watch anakin666 destroy a feminist live!" or some rancid shit about how Anita Sarkisia controls the banking industry through BLM.
 
E

Enduin

No bald cap? Lies!
YouTube needs to get their shit together. The number of videos "exposing" or "critiquing" anything moderately progressive is nuts. I first noticed it with the GG bullshit and the Tropes series by Anita Sarkeesian. But it pretty much has spread to every possible corner.

You watch one of those videos and all of a sudden YouTube is recommending you half a dozen or more angry guys, and maybe a couple gals, "rebuttals" to her videos. Accidentally watch just one of those videos and now every recommended video is a bunch of assholes looking to show up Feminism and give you the real truth.
 
B

bangbang i'm a timpani

Banned
AmayaPapaya said:
LOL they are not talking about Pewdiepie. There are real right-wing extremists "news shows" on youtube, like Alex Jones, they are referring to. I think this article is a little unfair, though. There is a huge left-wing presence on YouTube as well, and this just reflects people moving online. Nothing special about the right -wing moving. Young Turks are huge, and they are left-wing. I think they have 3mil+ subs? Much more than the Alex Jones of the world.
Click to expand...

these people have direct lines to the white house and are all trump supporters. thats the problem.
 
kunonabi

kunonabi

Member
Enduin said:
YouTube needs to get their shit together. The number of videos "exposing" or "critiquing" anything moderately progressive is nuts. I first noticed it with the GG bullshit and the Tropes series by Anita Sarkeesian. But it pretty much has spread to every possible corner.

You watch one of those videos and all of a sudden YouTube is recommending you half a dozen or more angry guys, and maybe a couple gals, "rebuttals" to her videos. Accidentally watch just one of those videos and now every recommended video is a bunch of assholes looking to show up Feminism and give you the real truth.
Click to expand...

yeah, I clicked on one video about the current state of Marvel comics and yikes. I'm never clicking on comic book videos again.
 
C

Cheezus

Member
Some kids I used to babysit when they were 8 and 10 years old (now college age) whose parents are the most liberal people I know have started posting Paul Joseph Watson videos on their facebook and it's probably the saddest thing (on a personal note) I've witnessed since the 2016 election.

Watson is a real sack of shit, all he does is mug to the camera complaining about liberals and SJW's and how they're ruining society with their "equality" and "feminism." I tried to tell them he's a conspiracy theorist who selectively points at liberals whenever something "embarassing" is said or done by a liberal and paints them with a wide brush, they got all defensive about how he's against "identity politics" and "mainstream media" and it just makes me sick that this is what passes for "skepticism" these days. I almost feel like it's the new generation's attempt at being independent from the millenial generation by going as far in the opposite direction of progressivism as they can simply because it's "edgy."

I used to think each new generation would be more liberal than the last, but it feels like the opposite is happening.
 
T

tokkun

Member
Enduin said:
YouTube needs to get their shit together. The number of videos "exposing" or "critiquing" anything moderately progressive is nuts. I first noticed it with the GG bullshit and the Tropes series by Anita Sarkeesian. But it pretty much has spread to every possible corner.

You watch one of those videos and all of a sudden YouTube is recommending you half a dozen or more angry guys, and maybe a couple gals, "rebuttals" to her videos. Accidentally watch just one of those videos and now every recommended video is a bunch of assholes looking to show up Feminism and give you the real truth.
Click to expand...

There is a really easy solution to this:
https://www.youtube.com/feed/history

You can delete individual views and searches from your history that are used to make recommendations.
 
G

Gordon Shumway

Banned
uncelestial said:
I wonder if this is what got my mom to vote Trump.

YouTube falls all over itself recommending "SJW Owned" videos every time I watch something political. There is a huge amount of this crap on YouTube and it's scary.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's been getting annoying as of late. I don't watch any of that kind of shit, yet it keeps being recommended on a daily basis..
 
T

Trago

Member
I remember watching a video about the FDR presidency and I look to the side to see a bunch of Paul Joseph Watson videos recommended. Fuck that dude.
 
E

Earthbound64

Banned
Funky Papa said:
I'm not shocked by YouTube become a harbor for far right and young reactionaries. The way their message spreads all over the internet makes it an incredible tool.

I'm shocked by how fucking shit YouTube is at filtering the stuff. The related content is like "So you like politics, right? You may be interested in this shit"

TRANSDUDES ARE RUINING MARVEL
CIS atheists are being opressed by the lesbian agenda
Why The Handmaid's Tale is a cautionary tale (for straight white men)
The scary secrets Hollywood (((globalists))) don't want you to know
How I stopped wearing a fedora and learned to love the undercut

And so on. Goddamn, all I wanted was to learn some Fallout lore, FFS.
Click to expand...

Funky Papa
How I stopped wearing a fedora and learned to love the undercut
 
S

Snarky(HEART)

Banned
Beartruck said:
Its super insidious too. Jontron was my favorite youtuber for a long while, and then he came out with that interview where he said black people are genetically predisposed to crime. I was like "What the fuck? Who was I watching this whole time? Was he always like this?"
Click to expand...

Same but it actually made me go back and think about some of the things he said on game grumps and made me realize it was always there
 
stuminus3

stuminus3

Member
It's whatever algorithm Youtube has to recommend videos that's the problem. "Oh you like video games? Here's a mountain of hateful shit just for you!". Facebook has the same issue.
 
R

Random Human

They were trying to grab your prize. They work for the mercenary. The masked man.
Cheezus said:
Some kids I used to babysit when they were 8 and 10 years old (now college age) whose parents are the most liberal people I know have started posting Paul Joseph Watson videos on their facebook and it's probably the saddest thing (on a personal note) I've witnessed since the 2016 election.

Watson is a real sack of shit, all he does is mug to the camera complaining about liberals and SJW's and how they're ruining society with their "equality" and "feminism." I tried to tell them he's a conspiracy theorist who selectively points at liberals whenever something "embarassing" is said or done by a liberal and paints them with a wide brush, they got all defensive about how he's against "identity politics" and "mainstream media" and it just makes me sick that this is what passes for "skepticism" these days. I almost feel like it's the new generation's attempt at being independent from the millenial generation by going as far in the opposite direction of progressivism as they can simply because it's "edgy."

I used to think each new generation would be more liberal than the last, but it feels like the opposite is happening.
Click to expand...
The scary part is I don't think most parents have any sense what their kids are watching on there. They just assume it couldn't possibly bad.
 
K

KernelPanic

Member
My kid is only 6 but I will lose my shit if he gets into this. He only watches Minecraft videos so I hope there's no alt-right douchebag channel there
 
M

Mesoian

Member
KernelPanic said:
My kid is only 6 but I will lose my shit if he gets into this. He only watches Minecraft videos so I hope there's no alt-right douchebag channel there
Click to expand...

There are.

stuminus3 said:
It's whatever algorithm Youtube has to recommend videos that's the problem. "Oh you like video games? Here's a mountain of hateful shit just for you!". Facebook has the same issue.
Click to expand...

Yup. "You watched an Anita Sarkeesian video. Would you like to have 50 recommendations of hateful trash trying to poorly refute her topic while struggling, tot he point of blood coming from their noise, to not call her a bitch?"
 
O

Omegasquash

Member
KernelPanic said:
My kid is only 6 but I will lose my shit if he gets into this. He only watches Minecraft videos so I hope there's no alt-right douchebag channel there
Click to expand...

My 7 y/o goes on YT just to get a question to an answer to something he's solving in a game, like how to beat Skeletron Prime or how to solve a shrine in BotW. No subscriptions, and when he begins to discover more (inevitable), I'll monitor the channel.

But there are alt-right fuckers everywhere. Gotta teach kids how to deal with them. Just not at that age.
 
P

Palette Swap

Member
If there's one thing I hate, it's when someone posts a video of an asshole like Sargon in the middle of a thread and just leaves a courageous comment like "he makes some good points". Video really favors that kind of "watch it for yourself" behavior.

uncelestial said:
I wonder if this is what got my mom to vote Trump.

YouTube falls all over itself recommending "SJW Owned" videos every time I watch something political. There is a huge amount of this crap on YouTube and it's scary.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I don't know if it's incompetence or by design, but YouTube's recommandations are fucking awful.
 
C

Cheezus

Member
Random Human said:
The scary part is I don't think most parents have any sense what their kids are watching on there. They just assume it couldn't possibly bad.
Click to expand...

And it's basically inevitable that they stumble upon alt-right garbage when YouTube seems to automatically assume you're into SJW and feminism rants if you're into minecraft videos and let's plays. Which kids overhwelmingly are.
 
Hari Seldon

Hari Seldon

Member
I don't buy the premise that youtube only has the "youtube right". The problem with talk radio was always that only conservatives were on it. Youtube has literally everything, including prominent left wing channels such as the Young Turks, Vice, and John Oliver.
 
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