this post was submitted on 30 May 2024
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Should we stop supporting them with our eyes for taking sponsorships from shady companies?

Edit: I took my first step and unsubscribed from the channel and I will continue to withhold my viewership to those that don’t take better care of the viewers.

Likely doesn’t matter, but I’m on a roll of not giving my money to companies that are immoral so why not do the same with my eyes.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I don't watch any video that's sponsored by Ground News, and I complain in the comments

[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago (5 children)

What's wrong with ground news?

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 11 months ago

Don't let anybody tell you you can't consume or not consume whatever content you feel like. Theres an uptick in this weird attitude of "you're an asshole/fascist/whatever trying to cancel everyone" if you decide to stop watching someone or buying a product. Its bullshit, you don't owe anybody jack.

You're one person. Either you bailing won't matter, or a bunch of people bail and they learn their lesson. Either way you don't have to put up with a damn thing you don't want to. 🤷

[–] [email protected] 93 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (13 children)

Mark Rober was a big disappointment too. he made a pretty weird video about autism, using the fact that his son is autistic as like qualification for him to talk about it. autistic folks tried to talk to him about the problematic nature of the video in the comments, and he just blocked them. plus, he partnered with NXT for Autism, which does work with Autism Speaks, which is genuinely a hate group that's trying to exterminate autism, and, last I checked, had no autistic people on the board.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 11 months ago (19 children)

As a parent of a child with Level 1 autism I would never dare speak as an authority on the subject. There's just so much nuance to it. I could give people a surface level introduction but that's it. Being a parent does not make people by default into expert psychotherapists.

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 11 months ago

After that video with a military defense company, I stopped following his videos

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Try to understand that influencers and content creators are human beings and not infallible. I don’t think Mark or Derek are the greatest people in the world, but they are trying to put educational and entertaining content out into the world, and don’t seem to be malicious in intent.

Give them a break and see where they land down the road. If they turn out to be trash, judge em all you want. As someone that doesn’t spend the time and effort to pass my experience on to others, I’ll give them a bit of wiggle room on the politics associated with operating in the public attention economy.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 11 months ago

Yes, they're not infallible. That's why they should be held to account for their actions. You're the one saying to treat them like they make no mistakes.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 11 months ago

lol no. he had a chance, when we tried to have a reasonable conversation with him. his views on autism suck, he partnered with a bad actor, and he muted people who tried to talk to him about it. that's three different problems.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 11 months ago

Haha. That would be too sensible.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

hate group

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 11 months ago (1 children)

pretty sure his video about Charmin flushable wipes being the only actually flushable wipes on the planet was bullshit

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Dr becky (atrology channel) also did a few sponsorships with them and got lots of unhappy comments under those videos. Not sure if she still sticks with them or no. Aaaaaaaand I just checked her last video from 7 hours ago and she still gets sponsorships from them. Top comments are asking her to stop accepting those sponsorships pointing out their doings.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Dr

astrology channel

One of these things does not add up...

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (6 children)

I had to look up the term to notice what I did. I will leave it be I guess. Haha

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

I do that kind of thing, yes. Although I usually find it so distasteful, that I lose interest in watching other videos anyways.

But yeah, especially when it's a channel making educational content, there's a chance that some viewers take the sponsored section as general educational content (no matter, whether that's because they're gullible, young or did not pay attention when the sponsor segway happened).

There's also various tech channels which recommend products that are objectively worse than the alternatives, or even exert malware-like behaviour. Those also immediately lose any and all respect from me.

Obviously, if it was a genuinely good product, it wouldn't need the sponsorship deal for people to make videos about it. So, I do understand the struggle.
But everyone wanting to make a living off of media has that struggle. If I artificially inflate the view numbers of one media creator, the others receive less sponsorship money.

[–] [email protected] 58 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Veritasium is YouTube propaganda. It's well documented - Derek takes sponsor money and gets people killed in the process. I blocked Derek on all platforms the day Tom put this documentary video out.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

Veritasium is YouTube propaganda

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Philip de Franco did a better help sponsor and his community went up in arms about it. now he doesn't touch it with a 10 foot pole. surprised more communities don't care about it

[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago (5 children)

most people don't know anything about it. they skip sponsors and watch the videos. it's not complicated.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (3 children)

most people.

Meaning not all people, meaning some people can get screwed over. By a content creator they’re supporting.

You’re right it’s not complicate. Just unsubscribe from people that don’t respect the viewers. Or keep watching and only think about yourself and how it affects you.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago

It's likely they signed a contract with them before the (second) controversy, I feel like a better way to do this is to see if they continue with the shitty sponsors

But they should be held accountable for this kind of stuff

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

I watch basically any channel with 100,000+ subscribers through Piped so that my views or retention or engagement don't get counted by YouTube.

[–] [email protected] 48 points 11 months ago (4 children)

I’m out of the loop, what did Better Help do?

[–] [email protected] 126 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Sharing users' mental health information with advertisers and connecting LGBT users with Christian faith-based therapists are the two big issues I'm aware of

[–] [email protected] 26 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Yikes! Yeah, that’s messed up. Thanks for the info!

[–] [email protected] 46 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Better Help is also awful for the therapists, it basically turns them into contracted gig workers and they're less invested in their clients' success. It's also awful for the clients, because going to therapy is hard and requires hard work and facing some difficult things. The platform makes it overly easy to switch therapists whenever, and a sizeable chunk of people will jump shark when challenged, continuing to throw money down the Better Help hole with no progress to show for it

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago

Wow 😲 I'm so surprised that a therapy app with shortened appointments and suspicious pricing is bad for anyone! There's no possible way to have anticipated such a thing would fail in such a harmful way.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 11 months ago

I think part of it is selling mental health data to companies such as meta. I dont know if it was anonymised but either way it's horrible

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Wow, those comments are a dumpster fire.

Not sure what Derek 's best response might be. I'm thinking that this video will likely be taken down and replaced by one without a sponsor.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 11 months ago

That seems unlikely considering contracts and legal stuff

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago

Right. You have to scroll quite a way to see something other than him being called out.

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