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The Making of a YouTube Radical

nytimes.com

101–110 of 169 posts

Re: The Making of a YouTube Radical

#101
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be interested in seeing you make a case for him being literally a white supremacist. A convincing case would be: 1. a specific, authoritative definition of white supremacy 2. an example of a video demonstrating these specific (not approximate) beliefs Is downvoting a request for evidence for an extraordinary claim (to be clear: this is not an assertion, so you "downvoting to express disagreement" is not valid…

Stefan Molyneux? Are you serious? Here's a video from him where he says he can't "argue with the facts" about white nationalism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWYFU7OMw58&feature=youtu.be... Here are choice quotes with sources: “The whole breeding arena of the species needs to be cleaned the fuck up!” —Podcast FDR2740, “Conformity and the Cult of ‘Friendship’,” Wednesday call-in show July 2, 2014 "Screaming 'racism…

> Are you serious?

Yes I am. Are you serious? If so, accept my challenge, starting with an authoritative definition of white supremacy.

What you've done instead, you've skipped that and proceeded directly to cherry-picked, out of context and misleading sound bytes. For example, in "The whole breeding arena of the species needs to be cleaned the fuck up!", he is referring to "crazy" people, not non-white people. Or, implying that the noting of a statistical fact is not only attribution to an underlying cause, but the assertion of a valid motive to proceed with sinister actions (in the form of a "dog whistle" I imagine, conveniently avoiding the complicated difficulty of having actual facts to back up a claim).

This is certainly an effective and persuasive approach, but it is also an intellectually dishonest approach to discussion.

If you have the facts on your side, you should be able to mop the floor with me. (But, most likely I will be throttled for "posting too fast", which is also a very effective but intellectually dishonest (in that posting speed isn't all that the algorithm considers) behavior. But as I said earlier, all's fair in love and meme wars.)

edit: And, right on cue, no more commenting permissions for me.

Edit #2, reply to the below because I am no longer allowed to post....

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> I'm not playing your game because it's not going to go anywhere.

It never ceases to amaze me how common (and apparently effective) characterizing legitimate disagreement as "game playing" has become. I suspect it's not that it's not going anywhere that bothers you, it's that you are unable to provide evidence for your claim.

> I gave you what you asked for.

This statement is false. I asked for an authoritative definition of your slur. You even explicitly admit that you didn't provide this.

> because you're not actually interested in that

You have no way of knowing what I am interested in. This is another commonly used evasive tactic to avoid substantiating claims, very common on both ends of the political spectrum.

> I gave you a list of quotes, I gave you a video like you asked.

This statement is false. I didn't just ask for "a" video, I asked for "an example of a video demonstrating these specific (not approximate) beliefs". You did not provide this. Are you able to?

> Stefan molyneux has argued in interviews IQ differences are innate. If you check one of the six sources on the wikipedia article attesting to his white supremacist views you'd see the quotes about it.

Do I have to do the footwork to track down evidence that supports your claims? I suspect this is another untrue statement, but would be happy to have you prove me wrong.

> "White supremacy or white supremacism is the racist belief that white people are superior to people of other races and therefore should be dominant over them."

Is this the definition your are comfortable with? Seems acceptable to me, and I look forward to seeing evidence that he holds these specific (not approximate; "dog whistling" doesn't count) beliefs.

> You're being completely disingenuous.

By asking for actual evidence for your genuine (presumably) assertions?

> You can just once again complain about 2 sources provided and ignore the rest.

None support your assertion. Change your claims to something more along the lines of "he's a complete dick" and I will no longer as for evidence, because I would not disagree.

> You can pretend you don't know the meanings of basic terms.

This is an estimation, based on heuristics. It is also false. I want the terms stated explicitly because I enjoy dissecting non-fact-based memes. By pedantically and stubbornly demonstrating how some ideas and behavior (the manner and specific, slippery language people use in discussions) are non-factual (just as many racist assertions are not based on objective facts), I believe some progress might be made towards improving the quality of public discourse on these matters. This is my actual motive - are you interested in that?

> You can pretend that no one can imply anything

a) I have not done this (actually, it's what I'm complaining about)

b) I do not accept "dog whistling" as evidence

> and only if someone blatantly says "I am a white supremacist and I believe whites are the superior race and all other races are lesser" do they qualify as a white supremacist.

Well, that's the essence of your charge, isn't it? It's ok to accuse someone of that, but asking for substantive evidence is improper? I wonder if your beliefs oon this are consistent, say if we changed the subject to black people or Jews.

> I don't need a lecture from you about being intellectually dishonest.

It's not so much a lecture, as a disagreement and pointing out of objectively false statements. If you believe my words are misplaced or invalid, feel free to point out failures in my logic. I don't believe subscribe to the "I'm right until proven otherwise" mentality, I have no issues with being asked to defend my assertions.

> Post limits aren't intellectually dishonest also? Not sure what you're going with that.

My point is, by having ~4 downvotes (gross, not net) be enough to disable one's ability to post, it creates an echo chamber, which removes the opportunity for people to improve their arguments when they are objectively challenged, as I am doing here.

Re: The Making of a YouTube Radical

#102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see whats wrong about suggesting videos to users that they like to watch.

Well, it catches people in thought-bubbles.

But the idea with this algorithm was to expand peoples interestes. That should work against locking people into bubbles.

Re: The Making of a YouTube Radical

#105
post #44

While there are lots of "far right" channels out there, the majority of of the channels shown as screenshots have nothing to do with the "far right" or conspiracy theories. Looks like their main crime is being conservative.

I agree, ordinary bigotry is conservative.

Oh, the irony. Saying "bigotry is conservative" - while paying billions of people (a vast right half of the political spectrum) as bigots.

And taking for granted that of course progressives can't be bigots.

There weren't for example any massive pogroms against Jews under Stalin, or the destroying of thousands of years of historical treasures (not to mention millions of people) under Mao. Progressives never call whole swaths of people "white trash" or "deplorables". Leftist students never prevent people who doesn't share their views from speaking, and so on...

Re: The Making of a YouTube Radical

#106
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there is a fundamental difference though. At some point the far right will start to promote really hateful messages such as anti-gay, anti-jew, anti-woman, etc. At the far left end, on the other hand, the hate is stared at the capitalist system and public figures benefiting from it.

At the far-left end: A. Millions murdered based on class: independent farmers [0], intellectuals, defined as anyone wearing glasses [1], entrepreneurs, professionals. Generally anyone perceived as better off than their neighbor was at risk of being labeled 'enemy of the people' by said neighbour and deported overnight into the Gulag [2]. Or executed on the spot. B. Millions deported based on ethnicity. Entire populat…

This is off topic since I (and parents) was specifically talking about youtube creators. But sure, lets change the subject for a minute and talk about the general ramification of far left and far right policies.

I could go hat for hat and mention all the murders and genocieds far right regimes have conducted, regimes like Franco in Spain, Pinochet in Chile, etc.

But I could also go through all the disasters caused by capitalism like the Bhopal disaster in 1984, or—the elephant in the room—global warming.

My third option would be to list all the social issues caused by unhindered capitalism, issues like the housing crisis, or the worker conditions in the late 19th to early 20th century.

But all this is conflating the fact that I would be blaming bad policies enacted by ignorant, greedy, or even malicious people in the name of a political or economical ideology, which is to say (at least in the case of Franco and Pinochet) I’m confusing capitalism with fascism, something I see quite a lot in the above comment. My point is that none of these (with the notable exception of global warming) are the necessary consequences of far left or far right policies.

Sure you could take me on this and claim that both far right and far left people are capable of performing horrible things, and you would not be wrong. And then again, I must point out that this is off topic, we are specifically talking about youtube creators, of which you can find numerous example of far right creators spreading hate towards a large generalized public while on the far left you at worst find this hate spread towards public figures that represent far-right ideologies.

Re: The Making of a YouTube Radical

#107
post #97
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't watched Stefan Molyneux or thunderf00t, so can't tell. I've watched a few Paul Joseph Watson videos. I've also watched Shapiro, Milo, and Peterson, recognized from the screenshots shown. You can agree or disagree with the positions they take (e.g. Milo plays the extravagant provocateur for laughs and money), but where are those "conspiracy theories"? Of course in these days, everything is labeled a "conspir…

Paul Joseph Watson was an employee of Info Wars. Like, the whole thing of that site is conspiracy theories? I can't help but feel you're being disingenuous when you question Info Wars members being conspiracy theorists.

And I feel people are being disingenuous when they say Paul Joseph Watson is a conspiracy theorist by association.

I've watched several of his own videos on his YouTube channel. Where are the conspiracy theories?

Re: The Making of a YouTube Radical

#108
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A far cry from the conservatives of my time, hence the "alt" label. As the article mentions, how much discussion of a balanced budget is there in any of these videos? Do you think someone like former Senator McCain or Romney would be watching these? It's all about race and sex and identity issues.

Here in Sweden we had the national election last year. I saw exactly zero news articles which covered the budget. Not a single one. Almost every single topic that bubbled up on national news, in debates, and on social media involved identity politics. Immigration, gender, religion, and then some climate on the side. The only political party in Sweden that still talk a bit about taxes is the one furthest on the left,…

Budget and tax policy can easily be changed, but demographic changes from immigration are irreversible, so it is understandable they draw more attention.

Re: The Making of a YouTube Radical

#109
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the far-left end: A. Millions murdered based on class: independent farmers [0], intellectuals, defined as anyone wearing glasses [1], entrepreneurs, professionals. Generally anyone perceived as better off than their neighbor was at risk of being labeled 'enemy of the people' by said neighbour and deported overnight into the Gulag [2]. Or executed on the spot. B. Millions deported based on ethnicity. Entire populat…

This is off topic since I (and parents) was specifically talking about youtube creators. But sure, lets change the subject for a minute and talk about the general ramification of far left and far right policies. I could go hat for hat and mention all the murders and genocieds far right regimes have conducted, regimes like Franco in Spain, Pinochet in Chile, etc. But I could also go through all the disasters caused by…

[deleted]

Re: The Making of a YouTube Radical

#110
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stefan Molyneux? Are you serious? Here's a video from him where he says he can't "argue with the facts" about white nationalism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWYFU7OMw58&feature=youtu.be... Here are choice quotes with sources: “The whole breeding arena of the species needs to be cleaned the fuck up!” —Podcast FDR2740, “Conformity and the Cult of ‘Friendship’,” Wednesday call-in show July 2, 2014 "Screaming 'racism…

> Are you serious? Yes I am. Are you serious? If so, accept my challenge, starting with an authoritative definition of white supremacy. What you've done instead, you've skipped that and proceeded directly to cherry-picked, out of context and misleading sound bytes. For example, in "The whole breeding arena of the species needs to be cleaned the fuck up!", he is referring to "crazy" people, not non-white people. Or, i…

I'm not playing your game because it's not going to go anywhere. I gave you what you asked for. I'm not defining words you can look up within a few seconds yourself because you're not actually interested in that. I gave you a list of quotes, I gave you a video like you asked.

Stefan molyneux has argued in interviews IQ differences are innate. If you check one of the six sources on the wikipedia article attesting to his white supremacist views you'd see the quotes about it. Clicking on the words "white supremacist" there brings you to a wikipedia article that also gives you the definition that you are begging for for some reason:

"White supremacy or white supremacism is the racist belief that white people are superior to people of other races and therefore should be dominant over them."

You're being completely disingenuous. Facts don't let you mop the floor with people as you put it. You can just once again complain about 2 sources provided and ignore the rest. You can pretend you don't know the meanings of basic terms. You can pretend that no one can imply anything and only if someone blatantly says "I am a white supremacist and I believe whites are the superior race and all other races are lesser" do they qualify as a white supremacist.

I don't need a lecture from you about being intellectually dishonest.

Post limits aren't intellectually dishonest also? Not sure what you're going with that.

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