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A growing number of americans don't read newspapers. They get their news from online influencers. The right dominates the online ecosystem. (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/mildlyinteresting@lemmy.world
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[–] 16 points 1 year ago (9 children)

Seeing TYT "left-leaning" saddens me. If they were left-leaning, they are not anymore.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (7 children)

    I must be missing something. I have been watching TYT recently after being impressed with Cenk's arguments in his appearance on Jubilee. Regarding American politics, he is certainly left. Maybe people on Lemmy think otherwise because we have so many literal Communists, but in their videos they take every opportunity to rant against the "donor class" while criticising Republicans for obvious reasons and Democrats for being pro-Israel, their election shenanigans, or for generally not being radical enough.

    The only politicians I've seen get much praise when I watch are Bernie and Zohran Mamdani, so that's about where I would put them. If you don't consider Social Democrats / Democratic Socialists to be left, I am curious where you think the centrist "origin point" of the political compass should be. I would think their policies would be left of the governments of almost any country on Earth.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    I think you may indeed miss something. It's not the "people on Lemmy". A few YouTubers on the left have noticed and made videos about TYT's downfall. They now have ex employees like Hasan Piker and Francesca Fiorentini openly talking about how people are treated at TYT.

    There's also the whole thing about Ana getting "agitated" about some non-issues like "birth giving person" or some bullshit like that, and saying that she is done with the Democrats.

    Another point that comes up often about them is how much they are willing to be friends with people of the right. They go on right wing shows to criticize the left. They also attack other YouTubers on the left like The Majority Report.

    Beyond their sometimes seemingly balanced speeches, they are rapidly shifting on the right. They are becoming grifters.

    I don't want to link to a bunch of AI articles and/or long YouTube videos but this contains a bit of juice: https://novapsyche.substack.com/p/the-young-turks-daniel-penny-and

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    Thank you for the link and context. I'm not familiar with most of what you brought up, but I'll check it out.

    Hasan Piker is a socialist as far as I can tell so I guess they would be to the right of him. I hadn't heard of Francesca Fiorentini.

    I think I remember them talking briefly about a "birth giving person" label but they didn't seem to treat it like a big issue at the time. They may have focussed on it more some other time and I just didn't see.

    One thing I do remember is when Cenk caused a stir as a guest at a TPUSA conference a few years back and focussed on common ground ideas like oppression from elites and disdain for legacy media and certain politicians, some on the left but also a lot for Mitch McConnell. If that's what friendship means then I don't have a problem with it I guess. He seemed consistent then with what he's been saying now.

    I guess another thing recently was praising Marjorie Taylor Greene for proposing cutting back on funding for Israeli missiles. Regardless of the background of the person launching it, the bill was a step in the right direction for them so they gave credit. Again, I would say it's consistent with their values rather than it being a partisan thing. They are definitely not fans of hers.

    A big part of avoiding echo chambers is holding people on your side accountable and examining perspectives from people who disagree with you. The criticism I've seen so far focuses on the actions that violate their stances and acknowledges counterarguments so I consider it generally fair.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    The effect Cenk had on the people at that conference backfired. Kirk played him like a fiddle and they only talked about common ground issues. To their audience it came off as "we're so right that even this leftist agrees with us".

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    jubilee seems very right leaning channel to me.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I don't think they understand politics enough to discern ideology, so they take political labels at face value. That's how you get 1 liberal (sam seder) vs 20 conservatives, and it turns out to be 1 jew vs 20 weird nazis.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago*

    They could be intentionally obtuse. Surely they're intentionally provocative, the question is whether this is because of ignorance or malice. My guess is it's something in between, where they're smart enough to know what they're doing but care more about the money. I mean they surely vetted the fascists they got on with Mehdi Hasan because most of those people are creators with content out there for all to see, so they knew exactly what views they were platforming and normalizing to a wide audience.

    I don't think they're ideologically fascist, but I do think they're evil, in the same way capitalists are evil: they always consciously choose their self-interest over accountability for the consequences of their actions (which they are well aware of). And if push comes to shove, they'd fight dirty (e.g. aligning with fascists and fascist narratives) to protect themselves from said accountability.

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