Why I Hate Youtubers

[unspeakablehorror]

So as I mentioned in my previous post, I deeply dislike YouTube commentators.

To be clear, my issue with YouTube commentators* isn't that they're ordinary** people expressing their opinions online. I'm an ordinary person expressing my opinion online, for better or worse. And I actually think it's good that it's not just a few people who have wealth or connections who can find a platform to opine on.  Most people could use exposure to a wider variety of perspectives, in my opinion.

No, my issue with linking (and thus promoting) YouTube commentators is that I feel it's become part of the cursed celebrity culture that gives weight to certain opinions because of who those opinions come from rather than how well thought out they are or whether they have any basis in reality whatsoever. I take issue with people treating their parasocial relationships with these creators as if they grant those creators some greater legitimacy than the average person on the street who wouldn't know the first thing about how to be charismatic on YouTube or is just too principled to sell out to ghouls like Better Help. To make it worse, there's the rampant astroturfing. Because these people often present themselves as 'just some regular guy'*** they obscure the vast amount of workers who support and are at times exploited by them. Because the truth is that the vast majority of YouTubers with fairly polished videos are supported by considerable $$$ and an impressive production studio that most regular guys do not and will never have. And even when that is not the case (which it often is), they often present their deeply status quo or marginally left-of-far-right opinions as somehow revolutionary. And even when this is not the case, they are often unapologetic edgelords.

So even beyond YouTubers with reprehensible behavior and opinions, I think the culture of promoting YouTubers is a problem in and of itself. That said, I do think some of them say worthwhile things at times, so I'm thinking of sharing more of them occasionally, but I can't help but think of coming up with and adding some sort of copy-paste blurb to each one to express my distaste of the monster that late-stage capitalism has turned the 'YouTube commentator' into.

* that is, some individual expressing their political or philosophical opinions on YouTube. This does NOT describe news outlets or other orgs or people affiliated with said outlets or orgs. This is not to lend special legitimacy to news outlets or other orgs purely by their existence as a group--I can certainly have issues with them, too, of course, but that's a different dynamic.

**with sometimes extraordinary $$$, especially when they have a high tolerance for selling out.

***and many of them are men, though being an exploitive sellout is a choice that certainly cannot be  excused by being from an oppressed gender, either.