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?

1. A good day to bury bad news

After the Hamas attack on Israeli party-goers and other innocents, I was reminded of the moment that Labour Party aide Jo Moore was found to have sent an email just after 9/11 in which she wrote: 'It's a good day to bury bad news'. She was roundly condemned for showing how the sausage is made in politics; the spin and manipulation comes first, even compared to the Twin Towers. 

But I was left wondering last week who may have actually benefited from the attacks in Israel. For example, Russell Brand was front-page news for his infamous antics...but that's gone totally quiet. The last I heard was the police were investigating. I heard similar things about Dan Wootton, but there's nothing yet. It seems almost trivial to even talk about those accusations now. That's not to negate the horrific experiences of the accusers; it's just that there is a more geopolitical story in the papers right now. 

Who else has benefitted? 

2. Never apologise

In a recent clip from my discussion with Andrew Lownie about the Royals, I mentioned rumours about Prince William having an affair. I noticed a couple of comments saying that this was actually just a rumour spread by The Times columnist Giles Coren - a man who often seeks controversy for controversy's sake! Watch the clip here:

As such, I thought I'd post a little apology. It was a half-hearted apology because I have heard those rumours from others outside of Giles. They're all over the internet if you just search. But I've always respected people who have apologised when they didn't have to. 

The vitriol I received in the responses to those comments was as bad as anything I got from the Israel-Gaza videos. I think it might be a natural human response to want to kick someone who supplicates. What do you think? Do they simply not believe the apology? Or is it an urge to destroy the apologiser? Either way, it makes an apology itself rather pointless. No wonder politicians never do it. 

Interestingly, studies suggest that Brits apologize—or at least say 'sorry'—1.5 times more often than Americans. And there are various studies online that show just how pointless apologising is.

I'm just sorry that I apologised. 

3. Is Time Going Faster?

Well this one is a bit depressing. But are any of you finding time moving even quicker than usual?

Writing this weekly newsletter is my most alarming reminder of the quickening speed of time. How is this the ninth week already? It seems mad.

I did some digging, and found that time really does seem to accelerate as you get older. A 2019 research paper suggests our ability to process visual information slows with age; we perceive fewer mental images, and time feels like it’s speeding up.

Researchers split up 138 people evenly into three age groups: 4 to 5, 9 to 10, and adults 18 or older. Each person watched two 1-minute videos. The videos looked and sounded similar but had a significant difference: One had more action (a police officer rescuing animals and arresting a thief), while the other was monotonous (prisoners escaping in a rowboat). 

The scientists asked the people in the study two questions: "Which one was longer?" and "Can you show the durations with your arms?" 

Their answers “revealed a striking age effect,” the study found. While the youngest group perceived the eventful video as longer, most 9- and 10-year-olds – and the vast majority of adults – identified the uneventful video as longer. 

Basically, when you're a kid, the more eventful and exciting something is, the more time it seems to take. The opposite happens to adults, so that our most thrilling moments just flash by. 

So how can we make it all last a little longer? Take time to reflect on your favourite memories. Live parallel lives by listening to what your friends and family tell you about theirs. And be engaged in the present moment.

1. People are Curious

18 months ago, my channel had 3,000 subscribers, and around 500 views per day. It had been running for 18 months by that point, and was growing a little too slowly for my liking. Today, it has 257k subscribers, and 100,000-500,000 views per day. These last 18 months have been a whirlwind, and the growth has almost come too quickly. I've had to adapt quickly to accommodate this rapid growth. I even had to ask my sister to stop watching my videos after some of the comments upset her. Also, I had to stop talking about the part of the UK where I live, because I don't want Scientology - or any other malignant forces - knowing too much.

During that growth spurt, I tried to do two things with which I wasn't entirely comfortable. 

1. I realised that hammering the same popular topic over and over would be a route to success. For a long time, almost every video was about Scientology. Many were also about Meghan Markle.
2. Videos performed better when they resonated with popular opinion. It got more likes that way, and that was especially true when it was framed in a very sensationalist manner. I didn't like offending people, so played it safe. This was also because the comments really upset me when I felt I'd been misunderstood. 

Now that the channel has grown to a significant size, I have been experimenting with a more subtle approach. Very slowly - while still doing videos on favourites like Meghan, Scientology and pop culture - I'm introducing ideas that fascinate me in a different way. Recently, there was the episode about rape culture with Luke Gittos, the one about population collapse, and the other episode about how to deradicalise people. These deal not with people, but ideas. 

They've brought a more dynamic and intellectual flavour to the channel, and a lot of viewers are really appreciating it. And I'm really enjoying engaging with you guys about it all.

2. People don't hate Jews

I mean, they absolutely do. But - after seeing the loudest, most horrible online users say disgusting things about me and my family because we were Jewish, I began to feel as though a large portion of the world harbored animosity towards us. After the ISIS-like Hamas attack in Israel, where the death toll is at 1,200, my family were devastated. There were lots of tears, hugs, and phone calls checking on family members out there. Friends of distant family have died, unfortunately. Nobody close to me - and my aunt and uncle finally got out of Israel after countless flights were cancelled. 

In the melee of sadness, my first thought was that there was no way I was going to do anything about the situation on YouTube. Whenever I'd mentioned anti-Semitism - such as a thoughtless remark Joe Rogan made about Jews and money - I'd lost hundreds of subscribers. Don't get me wrong, it's not all about the subs and views...but it's not a nice feeling to know that many have left because they realised you're Jewish or whatever. 

But after certain family members confessed that they felt cowardly and useless to help...and upon seeing uninformed friends of ours responding to the attacks with glee...we decided I should do some livestreams about it. My aim was to stay neutral while acknowledging my Zionist bias...and importantly, to explain my understanding of the situation in simplistic terms. 

I've never been so nervous and emotional to talk about something on YouTube. Yet, when the first one was over, I was pleasantly surprised to find that most of the comments were extremely positive and supportive. I've been flabbergasted, and have come to realise a beautiful truth: most people really don't care about your race, belief or whatever.

3. Organ Trafficking Is Real 

I used to believe that concepts like organ trafficking were mere conspiracies. While some may still argue this, after speaking with my interviewee, Enver Bughda, I'm convinced of its reality. He recounted chilling tales of half-executed men, still resisting, from whom he was ordered to remove organs. I can't think of a more disgusting thing. But it goes on in China apparently. I wanted it to sound and look good, especially since Bughda can be a little hard to understand (his English is much better than my Chinese!). So we used subtitles, a new video AI software to make the video HD, and AI sound repair, so it all sounds great.

What do you think?