Without a doubt, Youtube is having a huge impact on the way we receive information. People watch 1 billion hours of Youtube videos every day, according to a recent report. That’s 10 times the amount they watched five years ago. With notable exceptions, one can find just about any worldview or topic on the site.
A decade ago, like most, I was living in Plato’s cave. Since I am visual and trust my senses and intuition, Youtube was instrumental in bringing me out the Plato’s cave of mainstream broadcast media. I can’t tell you how liberating that has been. Also, since I am pretty much retired, I have time on my hands and enough curiosity to look around outside the cave to see what I’ve been missing my entire life and to fill in some blanks.
My view of Youtube is still a qualified positive, but only because its algos do a reasonable job of providing viewing material according to my interest patterns. The New Nationalist (TNN) uses Youtube videos liberally in order to enhance our articles. We also have a growing library of recommended videos that is Youtube-based.
That said, there are also attempts to censor critical topics of the day. And there are signs this will get worse. In the realm of staged deceptions and false flags there is an effort to remove very important truth material. Second, there is effort to hide, suppress and manipulate history, especially as it relates to the period of 1917 to 1945 and especially in the EU, where Youtube complies with censorship laws. Youtube also selectively enforces copywrite violations with unfavored sites. Will the U.S. now fall under this action? VPN is available to skirt around this.
The concern going forward is that the usual suspects are going to tamper with or control Youtube’s algos. In fact, that may already be happening. If you dwell on more serious or “controversial” subject matter, you need to be alert and aware of that.
Over the weekend, an interview emerged from NPR that goes into my takes-the-cake file. We have the transcript of a show on NPR called “How Youtube is Changing Our Viewing Habits.” In my Plato’s cave days, I went to NPR for information because I sensed other media was basically full of shit. I had ol’ trusty bro’ Scott Simon who I could count upon for the real deal. But then I figured it out soon after crawling out of the cave: NPR is a controlled hangout operation.
In the NPR interview, there is Zeynep Tufekci (Turkish) who is a regular contributor to Crime Syndicate rags such as The Atlantic and currently is a monthly contributor for The New York Times op-ed page on topics related to technology’s social impact.
As you can see in the transcript, the narrative is that Youtube needs to alter or suppress the algos even more. Probably this is shadow banning, which I think is what Twitter does. That way people such as regular TNN readers are confined to a smaller echo chamber.
The interview is also sickeningly dishonest. Note the following from ol’ bro’ (((Simon))), who mentions watching a 9/11 Youtube video:
SIMON: “I mean, after seeing that video, I got a lot of stuff saying 9/11 never happened.”
This is similar to the “fake news” campaign around Pizzagate/pedogate in which the fraudulent, lying media claim the “conspiracy nuts” think Hillary was personally attending child-rape functions at Comet Ping Pong and Pizza. I have viewed about as much Youtube material on 9/11 and pedogate as anybody and not once have any that I accessed even remotely suggested that “9/11 never happened” — nor that HRC abused little children at Comet for that matter.
Next, Tufecki agrees wholeheartedly with Simon as they disingenuously shifts the discussion to boogeymen “threats.” I get very livid over this sophistry.
TUFEKCI: “Right, that’s exactly right. So if you look at it from ISIS to white supremacists, it’s the key platform that they put their stuff on.”
Speaking of Youtube and the subject of sophistry, here is an excellent video from Joe Atwill and Jan Irvin on critical thinking that everyone should incorporate and understand. Tatoo its message on your forehead.
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