1. Private Eye's Short-Sightedness
In the UK, we have a famous satirical magazine called Private Eye. Although not hugely mainstream, it's done a great job for decades of poking fun at those who rule the country. Its founder Ian Hislop, known for his role on satirical comedy show Have I Got News For You, is apparently Britain's most sued man, and good on him. I've long been a fan; but I wonder if being 'on point' is not a permanent quality, but a feeling that ebbs and flows with the times.
What I'm getting at is: he's lost his touch. First, they printed an edition that took aim at Jewish people.
The joke here is that Jews are too sensitive to any criticism, despite Jews being well known for being satirists and humorists. It's easy to write something like that when you've not had family who died in the Holocaust. The suggestion that Jews are killing everyone is also an echo of the wrong labels of genocide in Gaza, whose population has grown five-fold in the past few decades. When Hitler committed genocide against the Jews, he wiped out two thirds of their population. This over-use of words like genocide and aparthead undermine the genuine struggles faced by Palestinians.
This week, Private Eye wrote a hit piece on the podcast Triggernometry. I'm going on their podcast next month. And Francis Foster is a guest on my channel very soon. The article is bizarre. It attacks Triggernometry by painting it as Right-Wing despite having to admit that they interview people on both sides. Then, it criticises how their interview with women-hater Pearl Davis came across. This was an interview where they disagreed with everything she said. But even this is lampooned by Private Eye, who mock the idea of the Triggernometry guys being told what to do by their wives. They can't win.
Having remained centrist for years, it looks like Hislop is beginning to take sides, and I wonder if it comes from fear. After all, his magazine has been around for decades, and Triggernometry - just a few years old - is already dwarfing it's figures.
2. I've changed my tune
When I first started my YouTube channel, I had a lot of talks and debates with centrist intellectuals about some of the most talked-about topics of the day, including the culture wars, politics and the future (AI, tech etc). YouTube - with its audience capture - rewarded me for the episodes about cults, and so I went that way. Now that I have a larger subscriber base, I am hoping to occasionally go back to my roots, and mess around in the intellectual sphere. I'll still do a fair bit on cults and scientology and crazy true crime stories...but I want to do a bit less of the wackier conspiracy stuff, and a bit more real content...especially when I get the chance to do so in person.
As such, I am changing the look of my thumbnails to give them a slightly more sophisticated and less sensationalist look (thoughts?). It's a big risk...but I hope you'll stick around.
3. Pedophile Hunters
The episode I did on Locals the other day with pedophile hunter Courtney Elizxbeth blew my mind. I can't believe she does that as a job. Most of her content can't make any revenue because of YouTube's censorship and demonetization of controversial topics. So she does this out of passion. Still, when I watch some of her episodes, I do feel sorry for some of these guys who seem to have learning difficulties. That said, it's much better she got to them before they got to any children. What do you think?