this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2023
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Recently watched a documentary called 'the YouTube effect' by Alex Winter (bill of bill and ted) which goes into how YouTube was essential in the current global state of radicalized individuals.
In the earlyish days of the internet (late 1990s / early 00s) I fell deep down the rabbit hole of right wing hate and conspiracy theories..
One subject of the doc explains his descent. It is almost exactly mine. Only these days it is hyper stimulated, laser targeted, data driven, psychological warfare, wrapped in polished, billionaire backed campaigns.
It comes at you from wherever you are.
Crypto bros. Health/hydro bros. incel bros. Christian bros. Muslim bros. Rogan bros. Peterson bros. Elon bros. Tech bros. Anon bros. etc.
By the time a lot of people realize what's happened, if ever, they're already in too deep.
Hmm I'm sensing a theme here...
Leftists aren’t immune. My YouTube has a lot of Vaush, Hasan, Sam Seder, etc.
Though I do also get Patrick Bet David and PragerU thrown in too, I think because I can’t help but watch for a window into their line of thinking.
It is not quite the same. It recommends things you watch. If you watch Hasan you tend to get more Hasan stuff but only on rare occasions do you get Vaush stuff.
Back in the day you could watch one non political thunderfoot about some scam and the recommendations would be a rouges gallery of anti-sjws with no other recommendations.
Now you can get radicalized because you want to be and it's a nice saunter down the hill. Then it was a sheer cliff you could accidentally fall into. If you didn't experience it you can't really imagine how stupid it was.