Posted on 03/26/2017 9:03:33 AM PDT by Lorianne
"Twitter is a tiny echo chamber. I'm not sure the left understand the monumental ass-whupping being dished out to them on YouTube."
Thus reads a tweet posted this Tuesday by InfoWars editor Paul Joseph Watson, who you may remember best as the right-wing vlogger who inadvertently promised every journalist in the world a free holiday to Sweden.
As with most things PJW does nowadays, the tweet was immediately and widely mocked. But however fun mocking Watson might be, there was a curious hollowness to the whole affair.
PJW's tweet offers a sketch of the social media terrain that seems spot-on. Twitter isn't wholly dominated by the left, but – Donald Trump and anyone with an egg avatar aside – left-wing views are certainly better-represented there than on any other major social network. However, left-wing Twitter has failed to translate into real-world influence. Twitter conversations aren't very accessible to outsiders.
The "echo chamber" trope is lazy and inaccurate – I've personally learnt a huge amount from people on Twitter, and often this has led to my political views changing as well. Nevertheless, Twitter lends itself best to the refinement of people's views in conversation with people they already share some sympathy with. It's an effective tool for dragging young Labour voters further left, perhaps, but not turning Trump voters into Black Lives Matter activists.
The videos these people produce are a lot of things – "amateurish" and "mind-numblingly tedious" are among the main descriptors I'd use. But somehow, they're incredibly effective. Let's face it: anyone who can get hundreds of thousands of views for a one-hour rant about Owen Jones is worthy of at least our anthropological interest, if not quite our respect.
The most famous instance of far-right views being disseminated on YouTube is PewDiePie – the site's biggest star, commanding an audience of literally millions of impressionable teenage boys, who for some reason want to watch him play computer games. He was dropped by Disney after it emerged that his videos included antisemitic jokes and Nazi imagery. PewDiePie wrote a blog post declaring: "I am in no way supporting any kind of hateful attitudes... Though this was not my intention, I understand that these jokes were ultimately offensive."
What PewDiePie does is very different from the likes of PJW, but this ironic racism can offer us a good example of what happens when these views, prominent in YouTube's ecosystem as they are, become normalised. Such videos are – at least anecdotally – having a measurable effect on how these kids talk about Jews, or the Nazis.
OK, ENOUGH, SNIP
Here is Paul Joseph Watson's reaction. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bnQrajRfTM
Here is Paul Joseph Watson’s reaction. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bnQrajRfTM
Interesting and encouraging!
The right dominates every forum where people are free to say what they think. The socialists can only prevail where they can repress views against their own.
The right dominates every forum where people are free to say what they think. The socialists can only prevail where they can repress views against their own.
The right dominates every forum where people are free to say what they think. The socialists can only prevail where they can repress views against their own.
The right dominates every forum where people are free to say what they think. The socialists can only prevail where they can repress views against their own.
The right dominates every forum where people are free to say what they think. The socialists can only prevail where they can repress views against their own.
Is PewDiePie is a extreme right-wingers then every other person on planet Earth is a right winger.
the left basically can’t stand anyone not leftishhly inclined having any margin of success at all.
they needed to destroy us because they can’t compete with us.
The left can never appropriate the solo rant to camera – it's an inherently authoritarian method of communication. But if the future is video then the left desperately need to find a way to use it. The question is whether the medium can be used in an open, diverse, participatory way.
Stalin and Castro were masters of the "solo rant". Weren't they far enough left for this author?
Interesting. I do sometimes get into watching solo rants to camera on youtube, and it’s just like he says, find one and then you’re off to the races. I just always assumed the left had their own youtube demagogues, and that I just didn’t know who they were.
“...The right dominates every forum where people are free to say what they think. The socialists can only prevail where they can repress views against their own...”
You can say that again!!!!!(LOL)
You can say that again!!!!!(LOL)
You can say that again!!!!!(LOL)
You can say that again!!!!!(LOL)
You can say that again!!!!!(LOL)
I just asked my 7-year old son if he knew who PewDiePie was.
FR seems to be acting funny right now.
Infowars is not right or conservative.
I’ve noticed this too. Youtube is far more enlightening than watching “the news”. Traditional media, along with anything in print/text, is far more “processed”, it is carefully presented after being thought through and carefully messaged - and is, therefore, just propaganda.
The “amateurish” Youtube videos posted by the average Joe have no such filtering. They’re raw. They’re real. They leave YOU to come to your OWN conclusion.
Just search for “Islam” or “Sweden” or combination, you’ll see so much that NEVER makes it into the broadcast of the MSM. One I found, after searching “Poland march Islam”, shows hundreds of thousands protesting against Islam. It could not be fake. Or try “Norway Islam convention” if you want Muslims to say it from their own mouth - our “extremism” is their normal.
I’ve learned a lot from Youtube.
It’s easy to report the truth and facts.
It’s hard to make shit up and have it fit in an ever changing narrative like Islam is the religion of peace and some girls have penises.
Strawman.
There is a lot of content on YouTube that is not Infowars.
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