These things are to be expected when you get bought by private equity,
Excuse me, what?
Comment on kurzgesagt – AI Slop Is Killing Our Channel
_cryptagion@anarchist.nexus 1 day ago
Their quality going down is probably what’s killing their channel. Every video is a merch ad, and the occasional shilling for the fossil fuel industry probably doesn’t help any.
These things are to be expected when you get bought by private equity, but let’s not be dishonest and say it’s all AI slop that’s killing them.
AceBonobo@lemmy.world 1 day ago
_cryptagion@anarchist.nexus 1 day ago
They are owned by private equity? It’s pretty common these days for the more popular YT channels. Veritasium, Astrum, Fireship, fern., and Hoog are some other examples. Basically, if it’s a popular YT channel, it’s either owned by PE, in negotiations to be acquired by PE, or pursued by a PE firm in the hopes that they can acquire it. Private equity is accelerating their acquisitions, actually, and they want to control everything that captures the attention of viewers.
Here’s a video that talks about it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ-rRXWhElIhikaru755@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
Do you have actual evidence for Kurzgesagt being among PE-owned channels, or are you just extrapolating? Because the video you linked doesn’t mention them, and a quick search didn’t turn up anything about that.
bitjunkie@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
extrapolating
Interesting way to say “making shit up”
AceBonobo@lemmy.world 21 hours ago
I don’t see any evidence of that, as well.
_cryptagion@anarchist.nexus 17 hours ago
if most of your money comes from billionaires and you admit to making propaganda videos for them, you’re owned by private equity. it doesn’t matter how much you or they argue about how that isn’t technically true because it’s not officially on paper.
SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone 21 hours ago
No wonder veritasium has felt “off” for me for a good while as well. A few years ago I deliberately stopped watching that channel, seems there was a deeper reason behind my superficial reasons and gut feelings
minimum@mander.xyz 16 hours ago
The content is higher-quality, more like a TV product. But it’s still pretty solid. Good analogies and intuitive explanations.
socsa@piefed.social 9 hours ago
He basically only makes “why everyone except me is wrong about X” content now, and it’s super smug and obnoxious.
RisingSwell@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
There’s an incredible amount of money in those offers. Years ago Linus Tech Tips got an offer of 100m, so I get why people take the money.
_cryptagion@anarchist.nexus 1 day ago
I mean, I would probably sell the channel myself. That’s a lifechanging amount of money. I would buy some land deep in the backcountry, build a little walled village, and invite my family and friends to come live there. Grow our own food, set up some solar panels and wind turbines, buy up plenty of guns and ammo, and see if we couldn’t hunker down and live out the ever more likely downfall of the American economy in relative peace.
circuscritic@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
Anyone down voting this should be ashamed of themselves.
Like deeply and personally ashamed.
The type of shame that follows them for the rest their lives, because that’s how scummy you’d have to be in order downvote someone shining a light on how private equity is buying out major YouTube channels.
Something that I was entirely unaware of, and appreciate your comment regarding.
_cryptagion@anarchist.nexus 1 day ago
I get it. They like the channel, and don’t want to think that a channel they love could do something they don’t love. Or maybe some of them don’t see it as a bad thing in the first place.
Me, I’m the opposite. I want to know who owns the media I consume, because I want to know who might be influencing the things I see. It’s always better to have the whole truth, even if that truth hurts. It doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the channel still, it just means you’re better prepared to understand the context of anything that that channel might say. Even cold hard facts with empirical evidence can be propaganda, depending on how it’s presented.
hikaru755@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
Bringing this general issue up in a thread about Kurzgesagt, without also providing evidence that Kurzgesagt specifically is actually part of that issue, is at best irrelevant and at worst misleading though
toynbee@lemmy.world 1 day ago
What are Astrum, Fireship and Hoog?
_cryptagion@anarchist.nexus 1 day ago
Other YouTube channels? I said that.
umbraroze@slrpnk.net 20 hours ago
Astrum makes space stuff videos? I dunno, been a while.
Fireship makes videos about programming. Has series about “(Programming language/Framework) explained in 100 seconds”, for example. I think people are complaining that the channel is slipping into AI dudebroery.
Hoog is a history/explainer type channel, I think.
Blisterexe@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
When did they shill for fossil fuel? Not saying it didn’t happen, just wondering
Jankatarch@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Idk about fossil fuels but they been directly being sponsored by big companies and in return making propoganda for them for a few years now.
youtu.be/HjHMoNGqQTI
Gloomy@mander.xyz 8 hours ago
As much as i regret linking to reddit here, i feel it is fair to also post the channels answer to the video.
reddit.com/…/kurzgesagt_statement_to_the_conflict…
nuko147@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
I watch that channel for years and i had no idea. I post his answer over the channels answer. Although that is 3 years old, i wonder what is now happening.
www.reddit.com/r/…/my_response_to_kurzgesagt/
_cryptagion@anarchist.nexus 1 day ago
They accepted, and continue to accept a great amount of money from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. That foundation owns over $11 billion in investments in the fossil fuel industry, including coal-burning utility companies.
In return, there were quite a few videos that Kurzgesagt admits were funded directly by the Foundation, that exaggerate the positive influence corporations owned by the foundation have had. Videos which the CEO of Kurzgesagt has admitted they probably would not have made if the Foundation had not paid for them.
blakemiller@lemmy.world 1 day ago
That’s really embarrassing that we as a community have chosen, of all possible creators, to deride Kurzgesagt for taking money from The Gates Foundation. It’s 0.05% of their holdings. ZERO POINT ZERO FIVE. Which, by the way, is down from 6% in the past after public concern — yes, a whopping 6%. Scourge of the earth, locked out of heaven: The Gates Foundation. Those computer nerds strike again. And we choose to punish a great content contributor for that. Shameful display of purity politics.
Randomgal@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
Yeah. It seems like a ridiculous accusation to make. Bro couldn’t even answer the question about example of shilling so they had to pivot into the crime of taking money from a foundation to produce high quality educational content.
How dare they?
uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 23 hours ago
The problem is when the contributors influence what the videos say, in contradiction to data.
Kurzgesagt’s video on +2° / +3° / +4° over the global mean isn’t going to be so bad video was conspicuous to me, and is in fact, based on fossil-fuel industry rhetoric, rather than climatology estimations (which tell us over +1.5° is going to fuck us, and is).
_cryptagion@anarchist.nexus 17 hours ago
I don’t care if it’s 80% or 0.8%. if you take money from billionaires to produce specific videos for them as propaganda, then that is shilling for them. there isn’t any way you can spin that to make it not true, but I’m sure you’ll do your very liberal best.
null@lemmy.nullspace.lol 17 hours ago
It’s not we, just notorious loser, cryptagion.
Ganbat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
“A small loan of a million dollars.”
Does any of that matter in this situation, anyway? Exaggerating their content in exchange for money already places question on their reliability as an educational content creator.
TheBat@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I’m trying to think of their ‘fossil fuel shilling’ video and only videos that come to mind are where they say we’re too entrenched in the fossil fuel industry to make a switch to renewable overnight. It’s just not realistic.
And other than fuel, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of products made from petroleum. Approximately 85% of petroleum is made into fuel. Rest is used to make things like pharma products, paint, pesticides, polymers etc.
umbrella@lemmy.ml 13 hours ago
spreading corporate propaganda is not exactly virtuous.
for only a small fraction of their revenue in return?
JoshuaFalken@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
It’s interesting how any false narrative starts with a granule of truth.
Kurzgesagt was indeed provided $570,000 in 2015. That money was paid out across the following four years.
They have not continued to accept any amount of money from the Gates foundation.
umbrella@lemmy.ml 13 hours ago
you basically confirmed the narrative isn’t false.