Good Youtube channels on politics, society etc.?

[Dice]

Perun (@perunau) is one of my favs. A deep dive into the war going on right now and the effects of it.

Beau of the fifth column, he's playing a character (The accent is fake) but he's often on point. Do keep in mind he's very very biased and has reinvented himself at least once.

Tldr. These guys are sometimes irritating, but often on point.

Folding Ideas. I love this channel, watch his flat earth vid for a wild diversion into Qanon that sadly makes all too much sense.

iiluminaughtii. Deep dives into some really sadly screwed up shit. She will warn you when not to watch some videos. If she's giving you a warning, she means it.

Shaun. Updates infrequently, always fantastic. Has the best breakdown on how Harry Potter was always a bad series I ever saw.

Adam Savage's tested. It's Adam, he makes stuff, nuf said.

CGP Grey. Tiffany. Just Tiffany. If that doesn't hook you I can't see what will.

Half as interesting. Deep dives into weird.

My little thought tree. Therapist who breaks down movies

... I'll stop here with the YT.

One podcast I suggest is Opening Arguments. It's a podcast that looks into the odd legal crap caused by nut jobs in the US and its a laugh. Once a week they make a comedian take bar exam questions.

[Keelan]

Beau of the fifth column, he's playing a character (The accent is fake) but he's often on point. Do keep in mind he's very very biased and has reinvented himself at least once.

Somewhat off topic, but as it's a bit of a sore spot for me: I'm going to have to ask for proof on this one.

Because of the negative associations that the southern accents have re: racism and being otherwise unintelligent, many people with a southern accent have been raised to - or otherwise learned to - adjust their speaking when speaking to non-southerners or for professional purposes. Beau has claimed before that this is his real accent, and in fact that the Beau channel was spawned because coworkers suggested he do work in his natural accent. Previously as a journalist, he spoke with a more 'acceptable' manner of speech in order to be taken seriously, something I am intimately familiar with as someone who grew up amongst SC's particular brand of Appalachian English.

[Beorning]

Somewhat off topic, but as it's a bit of a sore spot for me: I'm going to have to ask for proof on this one.

Question seconded. As someone who grew to be deeply impressed by Beau, I'd really like to see more info / proof on whether he fakes his accent, plays a characters and reinvents himself. What does this mean, exactly? Was he a Trump supporter at some point?

Also, specific examples of his bias would be much appreciated.

[Dice]

Ok. On the accent I knew of his older channel and saw that first, then saw his recreated image and came to the concussion because of the order that I had seen them in. If I am wrong here I apologise.

As for the rest: The man has a felony(1) on his record for fraud and is known to be an open anarchist(2). Writers on his old (now passworded) website were known to hold Terf views (Not suggesting King himself held them, but he did host them.)(3)

On the matter of the Felony, it was to do with the smuggling of humans. The details are as such: (4)

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Labor trafficking is not confined to Florida’s
agricultural sector, but is increasingly found in Florida’s hospitality and tourism industries as
well. The Florida Panhandle was the location of a criminal investigation that culminated in the
2008 conviction of both U.S. citizen Justin King and a number of Russian nationals for smuggling
aliens to work in Florida resorts.
The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office had for several years been scrutinizing patterns of labor
trafficking in the area of Destin and Fort Walton Beach. Beginning as early as 1999, Russian
nationals Anna Czerwien, Aleksander Berman, and Stan Finkel began supplying young Eastern
European men and women to Panhandle resorts for janitorial and maid services. Operating
under the name of Eurohouse Holding Corporation, they brought the Eastern European workers
to the Florida Panhandle for short term work on temporary J-1 or H-2B visas. The vast majority
of the workers were females between the ages of 19 and 23. Moreover, most were also
students who were intent upon returning after several months to their homes in Eastern
Europe to continue their studies.

Many had been promised non-existent jobs when they were recruited in their home countries.
Upon their arrival in the Florida Panhandle, they were instead employed for substandard wages
by Eurohouse and assigned to work in local hotels and resorts. Eurohouse operated as a labor
subcontractor, providing services to hotels such as the Sandestin Hilton. Eurohouse was able to
offer the “low bid” on labor contracts precisely because they did not pay federal minimum
wages to their employees. They further charged the students between $1500 and $2500 each
for visa processing, job placement, and transportation fees. In addition, the young workers
were charged to stay 15 to 20 persons per condominium throughout a variety of locations
throughout the Panhandle. Enforcement was carried out by verbal abuse, threats of violence,
and threats of fines or non-payment of wages. Almost all the young workers had a plane ticket
allowing them to return to their home countries at the end of the summer tourism season, but
they would have incurred substantial costs were they to try to fly home at an earlier date. The
labor trafficking conspiracy overall proved lucrative and seemingly insulated from law
enforcement oversight: because the victims were exploited on a temporary basis, they most
often simply chose to return home at the end of the summer without reporting the exploitation
or participating in an investigation.
This pattern finally changed in 2003 with the exploitation of a group of foreign nationals
predominantly from Bulgaria and Rumania. With their assistance, the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s
Office discovered a further criminal conspiracy that involved even more extensive visa fraud
and alien smuggling on the part of Eurohouse officials. The ensuing investigation also revealed
that U.S. citizen Justin King was employed as the front man for Eurohouse, negotiating new
contracts with hotel owners and communicating with state and federal agencies to further the
conspiracy. As part of his role in the criminal operation, King submitted over a thousand
fraudulent visa applications. King and his co-conspirators were found to have brought in over
200 foreign nationals to work as hotel housekeepers through the use of these illegally-obtained
visas.

Evidence presented at trial showed that King and his co-conspirators had used forged hotel
letterheads to further their scam. Most of the foreign national workers brought in through the
fraudulent visa scheme were eventually contracted out to hotels and resorts other than those
who had supposedly sponsored them for their visa. Finally, it was revealed that when the
federal government had become suspicious and stopped issuing visas to Eurohouse, King and
the other defendants had continued their fraudulent activity under the guise of a new labor
contracting company called Woland. King was convicted on seven counts of visa fraud and alien
smuggling and sentenced to 41 months in prison. Czerwien, Berman, and Finkel received
respective sentences of 18, 23, and 12 months in prison. The defendants were also found to be
liable for joint forfeiture of $1 million.
Curiously, human trafficking charges were not a part of the prosecution. The U.S. Attorney for
the Northern District of Florida would later note that the criminal behavior had in fact included
all the elements that would have established forced labor under Title 18 Section 1589 (in
particular, the use of labor obtained through false promises, through threats of serious harm,
or through abuse of law or of legal process—i.e., threats of deportation).
The King labor trafficking case is a very clear indicator of the degree to which forced labor and
abusive labor practices may have permeated the Florida hotel and tourism industries in recent
years. The Eurohouse investigation furthermore revealed that numerous companies acting as
“temp labor” staffing agencies are operating throughout Florida and the nation. Many of these
agencies are owned and operated by people from Eastern Europe (Poland, and the Czech
Republic) or states of the former Soviet Union (Estonia, Russia, and Uzbekistan). There appears
to be a high degree of interconnectivity between the companies, strong indicators of organized
crime, and similar patterns of exploitation practiced by the suspect companies.

Please note the line "The Florida Panhandle was the location of a criminal investigation that culminated in the 2008 conviction of both U.S. citizen Justin King and a number of Russian nationals for smuggling aliens to work in Florida resorts." does suggest his views on Russia's actions of late extend more to recent political situations and less to an old moral standing.

Perhaps the comment about him playing a character is personal opinion, but seeing as to his past, it is a view I feel I am justified in holding.

(1) https://www.justice.gov/archive/opa/pr/2008/February/08_crm_145.html

(2) https://justinking.org/how-to-make-the-state-obsolete/


(3) https://web.archive.org/web/20190724225102/https://thefifthcolumnnews.com/2017/04/birth-of-a-radical-feminist/
(3) https://web.archive.org/web/20190724222529/https://thefifthcolumnnews.com/tag/transgender/

(4) https://www.dcjs.virginia.gov/sites/dcjs.virginia.gov/files/publications/victims/florida-strategic-plan-human-trafficking.pdf

[Beorning]

Okay, I'm kind of stunned... :(

I mean, I don't consider "anarchist" to be something inherently negative (depends on what kind of anarchist he is). The TERFist views sound more iffy. But a felony record for human trafficking? WTF, Beau?

[Oniya]

So, since Beau is based out of Florida, it's a simple matter to Google information on the court case.  Got this with a search of 'Beau fifth column trafficking', and I'd say a DOJ site is going to be reliable:

https://www.justice.gov/archive/opa/pr/2007/December/07_crm_967.html

From what sense I can make of it, there were more visa applications filed than the hotels needed to fill the positions.

[Azy]

Okay, so it looks like he was smuggling people out of Russia.  Given how the Russian government has been when it comes to human rights, and it's never been a secret, I don't see anything morally wrong with this.  It's technically against the law, but if you watch his videos he's pretty consistent with the view that the spirit of the law is more important than the letter of the law.  He also has never shown much love to the federal government. 

In a world where many people flip flop to suit what the majority of the public thinks, I respect consistency.   

[Beorning]

I don't know. It really looks like he was simply smuggling in people for work... No mentions of these people having been persecuted LGBT activists or something like that.

I'd really like to know more, because I've long thought that Beau is one of the sanest and respectable Internet personalities I've seen. But with this new information... I don't know. I can't reconcile what he says with the idea of him trafficking people...

I want to believe that he's a good person now, but I don't know. Some people believe that Tucker Carlson is respectable, so maybe I'm just being naive...

Drat :(

[Humble Scribe]

Some people believe that Tucker Carlson is respectable

The best deconstruction/demolition of Carlson I've seen is John Oliver's.

[Azy]

I don't know. It really looks like he was simply smuggling in people for work... No mentions of these people having been persecuted LGBT activists or something like that.

I'd really like to know more, because I've long thought that Beau is one of the sanest and respectable Internet personalities I've seen. But with this new information... I don't know. I can't reconcile what he says with the idea of him trafficking people...

I want to believe that he's a good person now, but I don't know. Some people believe that Tucker Carlson is respectable, so maybe I'm just being naive...

Drat :(

I understand that the idea of human trafficking brings up an emotional response, but it's not all the same.  Human sex trafficking is a vile disgusting thing, and those who do it.... well... 

The only way bringing in immigrants in a less than legal way comes even close is if there is indentured servitude involved, which I don't see any mention of that either.  It isn't only LGTBQ people who have it rough in Russia, thought that's what gets the most international attention. 

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/russians-flee-to-neighboring-countries-to-avoid-fighting-in-putins-war-against-ukraine

I know this all went down before the Ukraine war, but I can see Russians wanting to come here just as much as people from other nations who just want a better life.  Hell, Melania married Trump to get out of whatever country she's originally from.  I don't remember right now.  I don't know the guy personally, I'm just saying providing a way for desperate immigrants to escape any country meshes with the way he presents himself on his channel. 

[Dice]

"Curiously, human trafficking charges were not a part of the prosecution. The U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida would later note that the criminal behavior had in fact included all the elements that would have established forced labor under Title 18 Section 1589 (in particular, the use of labor obtained through false promises, through threats of serious harm, or through abuse of law or of legal process—i.e., threats of deportation).

The King labor trafficking case is a very clear indicator of the degree to which forced labor and abusive labor practices may have permeated the Florida hotel and tourism industries in recent years. The Eurohouse investigation furthermore revealed that numerous companies acting as “temp labor” staffing agencies are operating throughout Florida and the nation. Many of these agencies are owned and operated by people from Eastern Europe (Poland, and the Czech Republic) or states of the former Soviet Union (Estonia, Russia, and Uzbekistan). There appears to be a high degree of interconnectivity between the companies, strong indicators of organized crime, and similar patterns of exploitation practiced by the suspect companies."

https://www.dcjs.virginia.gov/sites/dcjs.virginia.gov/files/publications/victims/florida-strategic-plan-human-trafficking.pdf

[Twisted Crow]

The funny thing about the "comedy news" channels is that, while there is exaggeration (because that's what makes comedy what it is), there is a more genuine energy (I'd argue, anyway) there than in most other news sources.

I'd generally trust Jon Stewart and John Oliver over the Tucker Carlsons and Rachel Maddows of the news medium these days. It may sound stanger than fiction, but it's ironically (in ways) less sensationalized and politically targeted than actual news is. And part of what helps is the filter of comedy, itself, provinding some genuine energy to the given matter at hand. I feel that Comedy can be a wonderful tool in transcending a problem, exaggerating it to better understand the gravitas of a given matter. At least, when it is executed responsibly.

The reversal that I would have to the 'John Oliver vs Tucker Carlson' argument is that I'd argue that sometimes a broken clock is (at least, partially) correct -- twice a day. And that is part of the problem with public figures like Tucker Carlson and many others in today's "journalism". They are not going to make a habit of selling you outright lies unless they feel that the public is informed well enough to understand that their message is complete horseshit. These big wigs in corperate media, especially, are almost always going to deal with half-truths and appeals to fear. Plenty of people that watch Fox News (for example) and conspiracy theory documentary "journalism" (such "Died Suddenly") already do so because they already searching for information to merely confirm their own confirmation bias and fears. That's why, on some level, I occasionally actually agree with some points that go against the "echo-chamber bubble" grain made on the PROC threads here and there. Afterall... You have to know and attempt to understand each side of an argument from an honest place before attempting to contest it. It's one of the cardinal sins that's commited daily on Twitter because lazy expedience requires less effort than being earnest in changing the status quo. There is no progress to be had on any conversation surrounding such subjects when it is not discussed from an honest place.


In one example, I have a number of people in my social circle that treat COVID-19 vaccines as malicious government devices in a grand control conspiracy. These people are the prey of such media that is constructed to affirm someone's already biased perceptions and fears. This kind of shit has been my war for years now. It's not about politicians for me, as much. It's about the News trying to sell me and everyone on some bullshit. Dirtbag politicians are still dirtbag politicians. That hasn't changed, even going back to the times of our founding fathers. Even Donald Trump has said a few things that were technically correct (albeit, self-serviing for him to say at the time). As much is it sucks to give him a shred of credibility, it's worse to not acknowledge those moments (out of spite for him) because it does a disservice to future conversations about the bigger picture and further muddies up the waters.

Another example, if you'll humor me?

Rachel Maddows's goofy ass saying this: "While he was president, President Trump never encouraged Americans to get vaccinated."

When in fact, Donald Trump did encourage Americans to get vaccinated (over a Tweet, as funny as that is given his Twitter reputation).

While we can argue that Trump downplayed COVID (which I would argue that he did), asserting a lie that he never encouraged vaccinations only serves to provide ammunition for Trump loyalists that distracts from the original conversation of 'Did Trump downplay the COVID-19 pandemic?" Now we're not having a conversation about that, now we're splitting hairs on stupid fact-check shit that the JOURNALISTS should have already done well before such stupid statements ever come to the surface.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk, this was longer than it I thought it was gonna be. But, hey, I like to try encourage critical thinking on PROC whenever I can...

[Twisted Crow]

For more on why I think Tucker Carlson's "people are outraged by this or that" takes that are frequent on his Fox News segments, I refer that people look at my thread about media "culture war" farming. Because, it is my opinion that a lot of the shit he does is precisely this sorta stuff.

[Twisted Crow]

And that is part of the problem with public figures like Tucker Carlson and many others in today's "journalism". They are not going to make a habit of selling you outright lies unless they feel that the public is informed well enough to understand that their message is complete horseshit.

Minor Correction: They are not going to make a habit of selling you outright lies while they feel that the public is informed well enough to understand that their message is complete horseshit.

[Chulanowa]

As in, actual and serious Communism? Not sure I want to watch that, Chula...

Well NonCompete is more Anarcho-Communism so I dunno how "serious" one might consider that... 

Wondering about the political orientation of this channel? I guess you could consider Tucker Carlson "social commentary", too :)

Well, Milo hasn't stated a solid political orientation, but his stated opinions are strongly anti-fascist, trend at least towards progressive if not fully left-wing, and revisionist (in the technical sense)

Questions about three things that keep popping up for me:

• John Oliver
• Stephen Colbert
• The Majority Report with Sam Seder

Opinions on reliability of these?

Not sure about Sam Seder.

John Oliver does deep-dive segments into an array of topics and is generally pretty entertaining about it. Though the comedy does get repetitious, if you watch him at length.

Stephen Colbert is just tiresome, IMO. He brings a real heavy "please laugh" energy with his act and it just doesn't work for me. At least not when paired with his extremely bland variety of Democratic Party-approved humor.

Both are trying hard to recreate the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and both fail to do that. Oliver almost gets there, but I think still fails mostly due to the entire schtick having lost any subversive edge it used to have. Kinda like how Saturday Night Live has floundered for the last... uhm... twenty-five years at least.

[Oniya]

John Oliver does deep-dive segments into an array of topics and is generally pretty entertaining about it. Though the comedy does get repetitious, if you watch him at length.

Stephen Colbert is just tiresome, IMO. He brings a real heavy "please laugh" energy with his act and it just doesn't work for me. At least not when paired with his extremely bland variety of Democratic Party-approved humor.

Of the two, I find John Oliver more appealing and memorable.  *nods*

[TheGlyphstone]

John got his start as a writer for Stewart, IIRC. So it doesn't surprise me that he adopted a similar style for himself.

[Dice]

Steven's style is abrasive. That's fine when your playing a character role like he was. It suited him. But now he has actually on air alienated guests. I remember one telling him live he was never coming in again. John on the other hand covers deep dives into matters that are not cheap shots at the right. Now don't get me wrong, cheap shots are easy because they make themselves easy targets, but it makes him a one trick pony.

[TheGlyphstone]

To be fair, John isn't above taking cheap shots from time to time either.

[Dice]

Yea, but a touch of dirt thrown now and then beats watching a guy constantly mud bathe.

[TheGlyphstone]

Can't argue with that. Colbert spent so long doing his satirical parody of Bill O'Reilly on the Colbert Report, I guess it just baked itself into his routine a little.

[Annaamarth]

I don't know. It really looks like he was simply smuggling in people for work... No mentions of these people having been persecuted LGBT activists or something like that.

I'd really like to know more, because I've long thought that Beau is one of the sanest and respectable Internet personalities I've seen. But with this new information... I don't know. I can't reconcile what he says with the idea of him trafficking people...

I want to believe that he's a good person now, but I don't know. Some people believe that Tucker Carlson is respectable, so maybe I'm just being naive...

Drat :(

Go back and watch the video of the world Beau dreams of - it's a stateless society where everyone gets along and where borders are a thing of the past.  Then remember that any smuggling of illegal immigrants is 'trafficking.'  We aren't just talking about sex traffickers here.

Consider how often he doesn't like nationalism or how often he wants to stick up for the little people.

Now, consider a hypothetical younger Beau - Justin King, firebrand anarchist, trying to smash the statist system to give rise to a better world.  I could absolutely imagine a younger Beau smuggling people into the US in order to get them work, whether from Russia or elsewhere.  In private, I could imagine the Beau of today saying "yeah, I did my time... but I don't really regret it.  It brought me to where I am."

Beau's rhetoric has cooled over the years, and I think he's tempered.  Anyone who brings up his past in a way to discredit him I think misses the point - the channel isn't about Beau, it's about ideas.  I think his ideas stand on their own merit.

That's my take, because I've done that dive before.  In fact, I alluded to his history back in Jan of 2021.

On the concept of Beau being a TERF: I find this highly unlikely.  Beau has done videos on the topics of trans rights.

This is just my perspective, Beorning.  I've got my own sins in my past - maybe I just want to believe that someone can, in fact, reinvent themselves.

[Elayne]

Are we still doing channel mentions?

If so, can I toss in Maggie Mae Fish and Lindsay Ellis?

I’ve found both to have funny and insightful commentaries on pop culture that I’ve enjoyed :)

I’m not sure if they have criminal backgrounds, but I’m sure they do, pretty much everyone on YouTube seems to!

[Keelan]

Are we still doing channel mentions?

If so, can I toss in Maggie Mae Fish and Lindsay Ellis?

I’ve found both to have funny and insightful commentaries on pop culture that I’ve enjoyed :)

I’m not sure if they have criminal backgrounds, but I’m sure they do, pretty much everyone on YouTube seems to!

Is this the same Lindsay Ellis who in 2021 stated she was quitting Youtube and content creation because of repeated Progressive-Twitter backlash after saying that that there needed to be a genre for Avatar: the Last Airbender reduxes because Raya and the Last Dragon was basically the same show or something? I vaguely recall that Progressive Twitter and her friends/fans said that she was being racist against Asians or something because of that statement, then started going after he friends for not denouncing her and dogpiling her fast enough.

To this day her segment of her "Mask Off" (that's the name of the video) video about "the beast" is something I remember rather clearly.

[Elayne]

Is this the same Lindsay Ellis who in 2021 stated she was quitting Youtube and content creation because of repeated Progressive-Twitter backlash after saying that that there needed to be a genre for Avatar: the Last Airbender reduxes because Raya and the Last Dragon was basically the same show or something? I vaguely recall that Progressive Twitter and her friends/fans said that she was being racist against Asians or something because of that statement, then started going after he friends for not denouncing her and dogpiling her fast enough.

To this day her segment of her "Mask Off" (that's the name of the video) video about "the beast" is something I remember rather clearly.

See, I knew she’d have a criminal background!