It began, as these things often do, as a mild, nebulous tingling in the back of my mind. For about a year now, in private conversations with friends and colleagues, I’ve been grumbling about the problems surrounding digital media purchases and the ‘access’ model they employ, which boils down to this- you don’t actually own any of these digital purchases, you’re just renting access to them. The moment you do or say something the ‘sellers’ don’t like or agree with, they’ll terminate your account and strip you of that access, and your money is forfeit. We see this a lot with video games especially, with Blizzard Entertainment being one of the most frequent violators of the trust between customer and product producer.
I was annoyed and disturbed by this, enough so to have written and submitted an article for publication to The Howard Bloom Institute. They were kind enough to feature the piece on their website, along with a handful of other pieces I’ve written up for their consideration. The piece received a modest amount of appreciation for highlighting the problem, which unfortunately remains ever-present and actually actively expanding. That’s part of the reason that I sit here and once more have to point to it as a contributing factor for this tingling in the back of my mind. Something is wrong here, and it is getting steadily worse.
Like most folks nowadays in the United States, I spend rather a considerable amount of time watching YouTube and, more recently, Rumble videos and livestreams, opting to turn to independent content creators and commentators for my news of the day, pop culture observations, and general chatter about those subjects with which I find myself fascinated and enthusiastic about. When one considers how many hours of subject matter are available for viewing/listening on just these sorts of platforms, it almost becomes questionable why one would remain lashed to services like Netflix, Hulu and the like. There are amateur animators making indie cartoons, political analysts, news of the day commentary, philosophy lectures and psychoanalytical talks, and all available ostensibly without charge on YouTube, Rumble, and the free levels on various podcasting applications.
Like most users on these platforms, I have a handful of favorite channels that I routinely check in on, either via subscription or by searching for their channels and going through their video lists. This second method I employ for those creators whose material I only occasionally indulge in, rather than subscribing, because I don’t want my feed clogged up with every single thing that they do. As one might expect, there’s a handful of very popular, successful channels that I keep subscriptions to since they routinely create material and upload, and they touch upon subjects that I like to stay abreast of.
Here’s a few of those bigger channels: The Quartering, Timcast IRL, DDayCobra, Nerdrotic, Doomcock, The Volgun, Savage Books, Shady Doorags, Rekeita Law, and Geeks and Gamers, The Exploring Series, SCP Animated, Stories of Old, Max Derrat, Ben Shapiro, Jimmy Dore, Jordan Peterson, and The Young Turks. Sort of a scattershot look at who I tend to follow, yes, but buried within that small sample of channels that I subscribe to and routinely watch or listen in on, there are a few with whom I find myself more and more annoyed as time goes on. Why? Let’s examine that.
Like, Share and Subscribe!
If you’ve been watching YouTube or Rumble for any stretch of time, you are undoubtedly familiar with what has become a pseudo-religious mantra spouted off by nearly every channel that has 100k or more subscribers- “Remember to hit the Like button, share the video/show, and become a subscriber today! Also, don’t forget to hit that bell icon for notifications!” The precise wording may change from channel to channel, but this is the boilerplate example that they all operate off of. A few will explain precisely why they continue to hammer this over their audience’s head repeatedly, stating that doing these things helps with the YouTube/Rumble algorithm (though this is far more often brought up regarding YouTube, since Google’s video sharing platform has long documented problems when it comes to its automated systems).
We mostly understand and appreciate why this gets repeated ad nauseum, but for long-standing members of the subscriber base, this has become so rote and tiresome to listen to, some of us would rather let a bullet ant bite us on the back of the hand than hear it another dozen times or more this week. Just, please, we get it, you want people to keep coming back for your content. In the attention economy, he or she who is able to lash the most eyeballs/ear sockets to their channel or ‘brand’ is going to command the greatest ongoing audience, at least until such time as we become so collectively numb to all of you covering the same topics as one another that we finally wise up and track down someone who’s doing the same damned thing without trying to sell us something on top of the subject matter.
You Can Become a Member….
Here’s where we come to the first facet that I identified this morning, contemplating this growing whisper in the back of my mind, of the greater overall problem I’m having with these bigger channels and networks. Perhaps I should have written down the exact thoughts I had when I first watched the Jeremy’s Razors commercial produced by The Daily Wire so that I could recall them here more accurately. Well, maybe not the exact first thoughts, because those were along the lines of “That was pretty funny, and when are flamethrowers NOT cool to see in action?” But shortly after that line of thinking came something along these lines- “Do they think people are that gullible?”
I thought this general sentiment in response to Jeremy Boering’s question, “Why give your money to a company who hates you?” Well, sorry, Mr. ‘God-King of the Daily Wire’, but I don’t think you exactly give a tin shit about your own audience members, so long as they’re buying your products or paying for a membership to your website/service. Sure, maybe you want to cater to a particular breed of customer base, and that’s been pretty publicly known, you make no bones about it. I can appreciate that kind of balls-to-the-wall transparency and honesty in your marketing and branding. You make content for conservatives, by conservatives, fine, great. Do that, because those folks deserve to have products and services just as much as anybody else.
But I find it just a little disingenuous that you would, as a corporation, try to say with a smile on your face that you’re ‘in it for the little guy’, or ‘in it for the people who share our values’, because no, you’re not. You’re ‘in it’ to turn a buck, to make a profit, and identifying (accurately so) that there’s a market there that isn’t being appropriately catered to doesn’t make you some charitable or noble spirit, fellah. It just makes you a shrewd businessman, and nothing more. Spotting that element of ‘demand’ in the ‘supply and demand’ baseline economic structure that we partially operate upon here in the United States does not bestow upon you some spirit of nobility or righteousness.
Nor is it a guarantee of any actual quality regarding whatever product you’re offering. If I actually enjoy what you’re making and find it of high quality, I’ll use it, and promote it to friends and family. If it sucks, I will also pass along that information.
But it doesn’t end there, folks, not by a long shot. There’s the constant calls from people like Tim Pool to head over to his website and “become a member, so that you can get access to all of our behind-the-scenes footage, exclusive members-only content”, and blah blah blah. I mention him specifically because he’s one of the worst examples of this nonsense that has infected YouTube like a shifting parasite that you just can’t seem to remove from the body. Don’t misread me or attempt to reframe that, by the way, it isn’t a call to censor or get rid of him; it’s merely a fervent appeal to readers to be aware that this disingenuous, duplicitous little beanie-wearing cretin will do anything and everything to separate you from your money in his endeavors to supplant the very same media networks that he endlessly complains about so that he can lord over them his new station as their replacement in the culture. As I said to my friend Cortex (username) recently on a YouTube livestream, I’d find myself entertained if Pool were launched out of a catapult at high speed directly into a brick wall.
Between the habit of only addressing commentary when it’s paid in the form of Superchats on YouTube, requiring people pay for access to a Discord server, hocking his own brand of coffee, and trying to sell middling-level prog rock music tracks wherever he can outside of Bandcamp, who terminated his account (a shitty move on Bandcamp’s part, your job is not to side with a musician’s/bands politics, it’s to distribute music), all outside of the website spiel, Pool utilizes ad revenue on not only his YouTube videos, but on Stitcher, where his program is released in podcast format. This guy is maximizing his potential passive revenue streams in every way conceivable, and again, that isn’t what I find egregious about him. That’s what you have to do in order to make a profit nowadays; I’m not naïve enough to think that quality of product alone is going to make it happen for anyone.
But there’s a point at which it becomes gratuitous. I have a personal dig to make too, but I’ll save that for later, when I’ve finished aiming my current source of scorn elsewhere.
Jeremy Hambly, aka The Quartering, is another big channel who has crept right up to the line of tolerable and proceeds to slide first one foot, then the other, right past it into the territory of ‘Please shut up’. Between a Guilded server he set up and then effectively abandoned, promising to personally interact on occasion with members and then completely flaking on said promise for months (I still have yet to see any actual interaction from him with other server members), his ‘apolitical Coffee Brand Coffee’, and now his very own ‘news focused website, The Publica’, it would seem that Weirdo Beardo here is trying to emulate Pool in his own way. Truth be told, there’s a bit of an exchange of tactics between these two; Hambly started his coffee company some little while ago, while Pool has had his journalist endeavor going for a couple of years in earnest. Now, it seems, they’re delving into one another’s initial territories, perhaps with an unspoken understanding that what each has succeeded with so far can be emulated on their own.
The Quartering is a bit more tolerable, for me, than Pool, largely because when it comes to livestream presentations, he does do a fair job in attempting to interact with his chat in more ways than simply compiling and then responding only to paid Superchats. He actually will talk to points brought up by regular Joe Shmoe in the standard chat, which has to be challenging, given how swiftly the chat tends to scroll by. He’s also not nearly as self-aggrandizing and full of himself as Tim Pool, possessed of a bit of that ‘Aw-shucks’y charm that is characteristic of guys born and raised in the Midwest on a steady diet of ‘Treat everyone with up front decency’ and ‘Try to give the other side the chance to explain themselves’. This is a good diet, one I’d recommend more people indulge in; might make the Internet a more pleasant place to be.
Where I think we have a bit of an ongoing problem with both channels is something I’ve brought up before- Tim and Jeremy are ‘Star Fuckers’. They don’t have any interest in working with someone or bringing somebody on board unless they’ve already got an established and sizable audience of their own, and they (Pool or Hambly) can find an angle from which to personally profit and grow their own support base by associating with said third party. When Jeremy talks about his forthcoming Publica, who’s the first name he mentions as a journalist working with his outfit? Savannah Hernandez, who already brings to the table name recognition and her own audience, from which he will now benefit. Can we get the names of any other reporters who will be bringing their talents to bear on your project, Jeremy?
Likely not. As he has mentioned on several occasions, Mr. Hambly has a Master’s Degree in Marketing, and probably assumes that it would be a waste of time to try highlighting or boosting up the profile of any contributor of his who has not yet made a splash or an impact to highlight as proof of concept. It’s elitist thinking, really, and takes away from some of that ‘everyman’ vibe that he so clearly wants to continue to capitalize upon, but it hasn’t escaped everybody’s notice, sir; I’ve been watching your content long enough to know better.
Not that you would know; I don’t pay to make commentary to you.
On the beanie side of things, have you ever heard Tim Pool mention or bring on guests who are of an artistic persuasion who didn’t already command their own legions of fans? He isn’t interested in the slightest in actually promoting the creation of culture, as he prattles on about; his interest is clearly in only doing so if he can personally profit from it.
Lead By Example
One of the biggest online personalities, Mr. Beast, speaks to the concept of charity and performing good works for our fellow man. While I find myself avoiding his content in the same way I avoid the romance section in a bookstore (as a result of genuine disinterest, not because I have anything against either those books or Mr. Beast personally), it is my understanding that he doesn’t just talk the talk, but that he walks the walk, using his wealth and personal influence to affect genuinely positive change in people’s lives. He is actively charitable, and promotes his own ‘brand’ on the back of trying to do good for people at random in the world. That’s admirable.
It’s also known as leading by example, a concept that seems to have fallen by the wayside for several of the other big content creators on YouTube and elsewhere online. Once again, I turn my ire upon Mr. Pool, a guy who drones on endlessly about how vital it is societally and culturally to get married and start families, when he is himself so over-committed to growing his expanding media empire that he remains unmarried and childless while approaching 40 years of age. Granted, he doesn’t have the same tick-tock, running clock issue as any potential female partner (I will not type his significant other’s name here, because she is not the source of my irritation and does not deserve to come under the scrutiny put forth herein), but unless he wants to be the awkward ‘Old Dad’ showing up at his kid’s PTA meetings, he’d better get cracking on it himself, rather than just lecturing his viewers/listeners to do it. Frankly, I have to wonder how many potential partners would recognize that his only sense of commitment is to himself, and turn away with a great big ‘Nope’ on their lips.
To the lady whose name I won’t type here, a brief favor to ask: give that question some serious consideration. Do you think Tim Pool will ever put you and your happiness or well-being above his own ego, his own drive to expand his ‘empire’, his own business concerns and expanding cult of personality? Do you for a minute think that this middling musical talent will ever possess the self-awareness to identify within himself the Shadow and do the hard work of incorporating it into himself, as recommended by Carl Jung? There’s a reason Tim gets pissy with fringe lefties who show up on his broadcast- they tend to exhibit habits or personality traits that he doesn’t like about himself, and rather than sitting down and doing some serious self-analysis to figure out what this reveals about himself in order to improve as a human being, he just cusses them out, talks over them, and insists that they are ‘in a cult’ or ‘a bubble’. Sometimes, yes, they actually are, but rather than doing the hand-waving thing that you so hate when they do it to you, Mr. Pool, why not put in the non-profit work on yourself to improve?
Simple- there’s no money to be made. Tim Pool is the epitome of a transactional human being. Tim Pool does what Tim Pool does for Tim Pool, and he’s even made a point of letting us know exactly that on numerous occasions. If he actually gave a damn about his ladyfriend or the members of his audience, he wouldn’t be so quick to mention his bug-out van and going to live in a van down by the river. Stand and fight? No, not unless he’s fiscally threatened.
This guy will abandon you in the blink of an eye. Just ask Adam Crigler….
Just Own Up To It
I’ve already droned on for quite a while here, and I hadn’t intended to spend so much time on this piece. Initially, I was planning on doing two or three really short pieces, and letting the whole thing go, largely unseen and unremarked-upon. After all, who the hell am I? Just a small-timer with no major influence, no massive audience, and no sponsors.
‘No time for fruits and veggies? Just mix some of this Field of Greens in a 12 ounce bottle of water and….’
Yeah, no, they’re not a sponsor, I have no sponsors, so I have no reason to obfuscate or dissemble with you about any of this, folks. I have nothing to really lose, have I? But do you know why I know that line above so well? Because I hear it from Dan Bongino, and Viva Frei, and Rekeita Law, and about half a dozen other self-proclaimed centrist or libertarian or conservative content creators, all over the damn place. You guys and gals need to branch out, seek some different sponsorships, because it’s getting sort of repetitive.
I, like many everyday ‘normies’ as we are collectively referred to (I suspect this simply means average, everyday working people most of the time, though it has the aura sometimes of being reductive and insulting), wouldn’t really mind all of this self-promotion and these efforts to do little more than gain access to our credit/debit card information so that you can bilk us for another month, if you would just be honest with us about what you’re all about. Are you a painting supplies company? Okay, then tell us why your supplies are better than your competitors, but don’t try to also imply that you actually give a damn how our home improvement projects turn out, please. Nowadays, even we ‘normies’ have become collectively aware that, as companies, your objective is to maximize your profits in any way possible, so long as it is legal. Never mind if it’s ethical, because I don’t see how ethical it is to rent people access temporarily to your collection of videos, essays and articles without providing some means of making a permanent, non-revocable sale of said materials to your audience (analog is superior to digital for the customer, and I think you all know it).
I’ve never heard any of these modern day Newsies even bring that concept up in passing, come to think of it. Someone should give this some consideration, especially since Pool and Hambly like to complain about paywalls while implementing paywalls.
Look, we get it. Most of us accept it, even coining such banal phrases as “I respect the hustle”, a phrase that needs to march up to and crawl inside an incinerator and pull the door shut behind itself. I for one will not accept it, not unless there’s at least a modicum of self-awareness expressed by the personality in question. To make use of another old adage, one that I actually enjoy, don’t piss on my head and tell me it’s raining.
Just admit that what you’re doing is for the sake of making a buck. I’m not so naïve as to think anybody putting in as many hours as these big channels do can do it without expecting some sort of compensation, and in some cases, deserving that compensation (I’m looking at you, ClownfishTV, you two are great people and should get every penny your work can bring in).
Last Word (For Now)
Before I made the final decision to go ahead and put this piece out there, I curled up in a protective little ball like a rabbit that has caught the scent of a fox near my burrow. ‘What possible good can it do for such a small-time, unheard-of genre fiction wonk like yourself to try and speak ill of these giants in the online space, Josh? Do you not recognize that not only will hardly anybody read these words, but that if fans of these people should happen to read them, they will dogpile you into oblivion? Why invite their inevitable invective? It’s like walking up to the barbican gates of a castle armed with a thousand soldiers in full plate armor while wearing none of your own and launching a single poorly aimed arrow up over the outer wall; you likely won’t hit anything, and will be plowed under for your troubles. Just let it go.’
Thankfully, I have some truly tremendous friends. Not many, but the ones I have are quick to point out that not even trying to make an impact is the path of a coward. To paraphrase my friend Galen, ‘Nobody thought David could beat Goliath either. Have faith.’
Additionally, this piece has been cut down considerably from its original sprawl of around 6200 words. Sure, it’s still longer perhaps than it needs to be, but there’s a lot of territory to cover here. That, and I have a bad habit of going on at length unless someone gives me the ‘wrap it up, Wordsworth’ signal.