Viewers are flocking to “independent” media that serves up a never-ending stream of anti-Trump content. But this stuff is intellectual poison and may even help the right.

  • prole
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    18 hours ago

    You people whine that the left doesn’t do the shit the right does.

    This is what that is. You can’t have it both ways.

    • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      5 hours ago

      Liberals are right-wing.

      I would never “whine” that they’re not doing the same thing as the right-wing, because they’re constantly doing the exact same stuff. Working together in the state. Supporting capitalism/imperialism. Promoting genocide. Etc.

      Their collaboration is literally how fascism retains power.

  • elucubra@sopuli.xyz
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    1 day ago

    I’ve been watching these a bit lately, and have come to realize they are FOX for the left

    • imvii@lemmy.ca
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      5 hours ago

      I used to watch some of their videos maybe a year or more ago? They were a bit more low key and the video title matched what they were talking about.

      The last few videos I watched I turned off a few minutes in. It just seemed like they all had a basic script and the stories they were reporting weren’t really stories.

    • 60d@lemmy.ca
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      23 hours ago

      I felt the same way! I actually felt stupider for having watched one, and didn’t want to waste any more time to figure out exactly why.

  • Asafum@feddit.nl
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    2 days ago

    Admittedly I’ve never watched their content and was already calling them mierdas touch simply because I cannot stand the absurdly clickbait cope titles they choose.

    “Trump DESTROYED by cat on the street.”

    “Republicans plan SMASHED by old lady’s cookies.”

    “GOP lawsuit MELTDOWN, it’s OVER

    “Trump gets DEVASTATING news from The Onion!”

    Blah blah blah blah blah… And then like EVERY other video/article nothing happens. No one was stopped. No one was devastated. Nothing was gained by us. “They” got away with “it” as usual…

    • Whateley@lemm.ee
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      1 day ago

      They’re just trying to do a Democratic version of every bog standard right-wing brain rot podcast.

    • Nightwingdragon@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Admittedly I’ve never watched their content and was already calling them mierdas touch simply because I cannot stand the absurdly clickbait cope titles they choose.

      A lot of the independent left-wing reporters out there have been doing this for a while as well. Bryan Tyler Cohen, David Pakman, all of the Meidas Touch, and Jesse Dollemore are also absurdly guilty of this. It actually takes away from their content because I often agree with their content, but their absurd hyperbolic clickbait just smacks of desperation and is a huge turn-off.

      I stopped watching them right after the election, because a lot of people were in their channels discussing the impact of Trump winning the election and every single one of them were putting out videos begging subscribers not to leave because their subscriber numbers were dropping. Yeah. Trump just returned to power and you’re worried about your subscriber numbers. Way to show how out of touch the fucking lot of you are. All of you have resources, money, and a subscriber base that regular people could only dream of and I’m supposed to be worried about your subscriber numbers? Fuck all the way off, the lot of you.

      • Soulg@ani.social
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        5 hours ago

        Blame the YouTube algorithm lmao they want people to click on their videos and giving titles and thumbnails like that are proven over and over to increase traffic to content.

      • Ledericas@lemm.ee
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        16 hours ago

        they are what you called resistance grifters, on reddit thats what they call them. seen alot of jojo, jef tiedrich being reposted on there, those are the resistance grifters. basically its just like the right wing grifters, but adding “hey were reporting this politics did X and X on this date”.

      • Madison420@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        They do it specifically because they is what right leaning folks tend to click on… Shit that makes fun of them and calls then pussies. Get them angry then redirect to trump taking from them personally.

        I don’t like that it’s effective but it is.

      • SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        I liked bryan because be always puts the relevant clip that he’s reacting to up front and uninterrupted, but the clickbait is so awful I can’t even click his stuff anymore. Guess I’ll have to keep listening to Sam “pause it pause it pause it” seder.

      • BlueÆther@no.lastname.nz
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        2 days ago

        I had not seen much of MeidasToucg before this election, as as a ‘rest of world member’ the first couple of videos I watched were OK, then it seemed to be more of the same and as you say “Newsreader DAZED & BEFUDDLED by hyperbole!

  • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 days ago

    I listened to one episode of Meidas out of curiosity and… how would anyone even listen to that? It’s just an hourlong stream of soundbyte after soundbyte of Trump cronies followed by two or three guys mocking whatever the cronies said without any substance. Straight up waste of my time and phone storage space.

  • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    To some extent we can also blame TYT’s inward collapse and rightwing pivot. They were the clearing house of all things resistance and progressive. Their rightwing/ MAGA pivot has to be one of the greatest betrayals in all media. To quote Mondale Robinson: “They took too damn much from the ethos!!”

    Its not Meidas Touch, whom were never themselves progressives or even contending to be anything other than center right neoliberals and neoconservatives, its not their fault there is no media space to support progressive policies/ progressive news reporting.

    The Majority Report (Sam Seder/ Emma) is great, but its not a “pure news” show in the way that TYT or Meidas Touch is. Its too wonky, too ‘pure politics’ in the traditional sense of political reporting. Its a politics show for people are deep into it. TYT was a daily show for people to take in, after the events of the day, but they’ve jumped the shark.

    Because of this there is a void, and despite them being maybe not the right size/ shape, people are starving for honest reporting, or anything that seems to be representing it.

    I’d love to see the whole “grab bag” of leftist political shows bundle up into one show, and produce an evening news show. Its too much “political hot takes” and not enough “news of the day”. Of course, make your political hot-takes, but mostly, just tell me what happened.

    • Hoimo@ani.social
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      1 day ago

      I really like Some More News. They’re kinda like Last Week Tonight in style: in-depth reporting on bigger issues, with some jokes thrown in. They also make two episodes of Even More News a week, but those are more hype-of-the-day with less analysis behind them. Honestly feels like it’s just their brainstorm sessions recorded and released as a podcast.

      • CarbonBasedNPU@lemm.ee
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        9 hours ago

        I love SMN but had to stop watching EMN because it felt like every episode Katy was definding her MAGA neighbors because they were nice to her.

        I understand that this is a simplification of her position to some extent but it was a little infuriating.

        • Hoimo@ani.social
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          3 hours ago

          She’s now at the point where she’s defending her defending of them, so clearly she’s getting pushback. I really don’t mind it though. Most people are normal people with no desire to cause harm. Most people are misinformed about politics. So yes, a bunch of R voters don’t support current events, once you explain to them what’s actually happening. They’ll still vote R next time, of course, because they don’t care enough to inform themselves.

          • CarbonBasedNPU@lemm.ee
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            2 hours ago

            I guess it just affects me so personally I can’t really look past the fact that they have harmed me. I know my granddad doesn’t want anyone hurt buts its hard to look past the fact that he still votes for the party that wants to harm people like me.

    • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
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      1 day ago

      As a Canadian I thank God every day for Steve Boots. But unfortunately for you guys he keeps his content very much focused on our political sphere.

  • Lasherz@lemmy.worldM
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    2 days ago

    As cringe as liberals are, I don’t know if it’s politically savvy for a progressive writer to do a long format hitpiece on an alternative to Joe Rogan and other much worse podcasts. Clickbait in general is an accepted necessary evil on YouTube and while Meidas is potent example of how bad it looks for an outsider looking in, I don’t think that should have been the crux of the article.

    The author’s criticism of Palestine coverage is valid, but making that the entire personality of the left does risk chasing away people who are already heavily biased against it from Fox, for example. It’s not great to avoid it completely, but from the sound of it, they haven’t entirely removed it from their coverage. Also, they criticize the Trump focus, but that is probably what political refugees from the right are thinking when they search for new shores.

    I personally prefer Humanist Report, Vaush, and Hasan’s politics, but if Meidas is more successful, it’s easier to pull liberals than fascists to the left.

  • ptyghem@lemmy.myserv.one
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    2 days ago

    It’s just the left’s response to the propaganda arm of the right. Click bait? Yes. Untruthful? No. Slop? By definition.

    • Dadd Volante@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      The population is full of morons. This is how you steer them away from maga.

      We tried rational discussion and reasonable, educated debates

      This is how you get the turnips to turnip in a better direction