Should we stop supporting them with our eyes for taking sponsorships from shady companies?
Edit: I took my first step and unsubscribed from the channel and I will continue to withhold my viewership to those that don’t take better care of the viewers.
Likely doesn’t matter, but I’m on a roll of not giving my money to companies that are immoral so why not do the same with my eyes.
Google got rid of the dislike count on videos for a reason, holding content creators accountable is absolutely what should be done. It’s horseshit to think that content creators shouldn’t be accountable for the sponsorships they take.
Mark Rober was a big disappointment too. he made a pretty weird video about autism, using the fact that his son is autistic as like qualification for him to talk about it. autistic folks tried to talk to him about the problematic nature of the video in the comments, and he just blocked them. plus, he partnered with NXT for Autism, which does work with Autism Speaks, which is genuinely a hate group that’s trying to exterminate autism, and, last I checked, had no autistic people on the board.
As a parent of a child with Level 1 autism I would never dare speak as an authority on the subject. There’s just so much nuance to it. I could give people a surface level introduction but that’s it. Being a parent does not make people by default into expert psychotherapists.
That being said, don’t discount your expertise in your lived experience. The importance of theoretical and experiential expertise is equal in my eyes.
Maybe not directly correlated, but I would hire someone with 10 years experience over someone who studied the subject for 10 years.
There are different kinds of experience. For instance there’s the experience of having a child with autism. There’s also the experience of being autistic.
Thanks. Well, we’re in our first year since the diagnosis. There’s still a lot I don’t understand.
You’ve been gathering experience from before the diagnosis. You don’t have a year of experience you have the age of your child of experience.
The more you understand the better you can help. You’ve made the first and most important step. I’m extremely passionate about this and you will find many around you are also passionate. I’m a grown ass dude and 46 and could cry.
Talk to their teachers as they get older. The best thing you can ever do is diagnose. There are so many kids in the school system parents bury their heads and it hurts everyone.
If you ever want to talk I’m almost a decade into my autism journey. Started at 3 and my son is now 11.
I disagree. It’s not as simple as that.
I wasn’t diagnosed until age 30, and I am thankful I went through my childhood without the label.
If you were not diagnosed until 30 and you’re here on Lemmy you’re validating my challenge with all the people like you being the exception to the rule. The fact that you are here and can communicate puts you ahead of what I would define as the silent majority of those with autism.
Thanks for the kind words stranger! We are fortunate that we moved to Italy (from US) and they have a -relatively- good integration with the schools. He will need an aid next year in the class for some time so the teachers ‘get it’ (sort of).
Yes, I will save your contact info. I may actually reach out. There are a lot of things I’m still struggling with (he has a loud projection when he expresses himself and it’s almost all the time). I think we sort of adjusted to it over time but it gets heavy at times. I’ll stop here.
Thanks again!
Both my boys stim verbally with my youngest being “worse” at is. The balance is teaching them awareness and also time and place.
As a parent of two kids on the spectrum my messaging has been just this with a resounding “there are legions of autistic people that are NOT represented. Ever.”
Every representation of autistic people you see in the media, or chatting with online are the exception and the fact that they collectively shit on the fact that there are many isolated and struggling is goddamn frustrating.
If you’re autistic and on Lemmy I’m proud of you. My youngest son can’t manage his own diabetes, can’t wipe his ass, needs help showering, has worsening anxiety and ADHD. I could go on.
As a parent I’m supposed to defer to that representation in the media or on Lemmy because “they’re autistic bro.” disgusts me.
My final takeaway. Fuck the DSM V for making Asperger’s the same as Autism. It isn’t. It hurts both parties but I’d argue it hurts Autistic people far more than Asperger’s people.
Thanks for raising this, I get attacked here if I ever point out autism is a disability. I can only assume these people have literally never met anyone with anything but the mildest of Aspergers cases.
Thanks for sharing your experience. It sounds like you have your hands full and as a parent I can only empathize. I totally hear you about media representation missing the mark. We have some roadway to make. I’m surprised how many parent friends we have that are relatively clueless (even though I must admit, until this January when we got the diagnosis I was too).
My little one started group therapy about two months ago and I’m super grateful even though the journey ahead is still quite long.
On the Asperger’s topic: I was under the impression Asperger’s is no longer in use as a diagnosis and was folded into the ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder). At least that’s what we learned this year throughout the diagnosis process.
Stay strong brother (or sister)!
As part of your research are you speaking with autistic adults?
I have not yet. I would like to though
From a diagnosis and classification, Autism = Asperger’s.
From a lived experience, Autism != Asperger’s.
The latter has been validated by every expert I have talked over the years from doctors to therapists to education.
Ok. Interesting. I’ll take your word at it.
Please don’t but pay attention to your support group as you move forward. You will learn there are a lot of people that genuinely care about your child and their future. The irony of course is the vast majority of these people make little to no money and are doing what they do because they love it.
lol all that just to finish with a definitive statement about autism. Asperger’s has always been an aspect of autism. Dr. Asperger was a Nazi scientist, responsible for deciding who among the neurodivergent would go to the gas chambers. the patients that he deemed to have “mild enough” autism to be used for labor, were called “Asperger’s”.
It ain’t much but I’ll take it
made a pretty weird video about autism, using the fact that his son has it as like qualification for him to talk about it. folks with autism tried to talk to him about the problematic nature of the video in the comments, and he just blocked them.
So typical Autism Parent™ then lol it’s like they can’t help but make it about themselves… 🙄
As a parent of 2 children on the spectrum I need to give you a well thought out “fuck you” in response.
My experience online is a lot of you “champions” for autism are only speaking for yourselves and those like you, which is to say the ones that have some means of independence be it verbally, physically or emotionally. I have one son like that. He’s Asperger’s. He will have challenges, but he will live a long and productive life with all the proper tools. My other son is your “traditional” autistic. He is thankfully verbal but at this point there is no plan for him to be independent ever. As parents we hope for the best and take every day at a time.
To assume that our opinions and decisions are derived as “making about ourselves” is part of the problem. Everything I have done since his birth has been to NOT make it about myself.
The last thing I need is people like you punching down because you can’t look past your own goddamn nose.
he’s not talking about parents of autistic children. he’s talking about parents of autistic children who make that their main personality trait, walking around referring to themselves as “autistic moms”, intentionally using confusing language so you can’t tell if they’re autistic, or if their child is autistic. sort of like Munchausen by Proxy but you don’t have to fake it
Oh yeah those parents who make it their identity are weird AF.
Have you considered working memory training as a method for helping your son become more functional?
We’ve just started him on strattera and seeing some success. The problem isn’t so much the autism but how the ADHD manifests. If this makes sense it’s like about working memory and more about modeling activities. Because he has issues with muscle tone he lacks a lot of the core abilities many of us take for granted like being able to do something as simple as a thumbs up. Thumbs up took a year.
Try to understand that influencers and content creators are human beings and not infallible. I don’t think Mark or Derek are the greatest people in the world, but they are trying to put educational and entertaining content out into the world, and don’t seem to be malicious in intent.
Give them a break and see where they land down the road. If they turn out to be trash, judge em all you want. As someone that doesn’t spend the time and effort to pass my experience on to others, I’ll give them a bit of wiggle room on the politics associated with operating in the public attention economy.
lol no. he had a chance, when we tried to have a reasonable conversation with him. his views on autism suck, he partnered with a bad actor, and he muted people who tried to talk to him about it. that’s three different problems.
Yes, they’re not infallible. That’s why they should be held to account for their actions. You’re the one saying to treat them like they make no mistakes.
Haha. That would be too sensible.
that advert is terrifying, what the hell
Rober is just a con man that pretends to be science to sell stuff to people.
He also ripped off KiwiCo IIRC.
Psst hey kid. Over here. It’s me Science. Got any questions?
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
A channel absolutely should be held accountable for the sponsors they accept. Advertisements from YouTube are mostly outside channel owners control, but sponsors are not.
I don’t support channels with unethical sponsors. It can be tough sometimes.
Am I just old, even by internet standards? Because we’ve been here before. Better Help was blasted on the internet several years ago for their shady business practices. Several major YouTubers published “make good” videos about it, because of how bad the service was. Better Help was giving YouTubers and podcasters a shitload of money to promote their product, and in their terms they explicitly stated that they did not verify the credentials of their “therapists” and that it was on you to do that.
We have been here before. I don’t remember who made it but there’s a really good video on YouTube explaining why better help started another massive ad campaign on YouTube. Better help was involved with a fraudulent doctor finder website that was directing people to better help. That website got shutdown by the FTC just before better help increased YouTube funding so the hypothesis is they are trying to recoup that lost income because it was a significant revenue source.
Well, that does make some sense. I swear some of the channels who have these sponsorships are the same channels that had them last time around too.
I feel like this wasn’t even that long ago? I was quite surprised when my content suddenly started being sponsored by them again.
I had that same reaction. It actually happened around 2018 (where does the time go?)
https://www.polygon.com/2018/10/4/17932862/betterhelp-app-youtube-sponsorship-controversy-explained
We’ve definitely been here before. One of the interesting things about this article is that a lot of the videos they embedded are gone now.
Veritasium is YouTube propaganda. It’s well documented - Derek takes sponsor money and gets people killed in the process. I blocked Derek on all platforms the day Tom put this documentary video out.
Funnily enough the person that made this video had a little controversy on the vape-o-nomics video when he was talking about how subscription services were bad but then immediately pivoted towards an ad read for a subscription service.
Eventually it was removed (without a comment talking about, it happened silently) but still this stuff reaches everyone eventually.
I’ve hated him for so long. Glad to see it’s getting some light
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Veritasium is YouTube propaganda
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
I made sure to dislike the moment this sponsorship came up and closed the video. With analytics they should see the connection.
i like ur optimism. we need more ppl to do this.
I’m out of the loop, what did Better Help do?
Sharing users’ mental health information with advertisers and connecting LGBT users with Christian faith-based therapists are the two big issues I’m aware of
Is there a source for this? I’m generally very positive on therapy and helping people get access to it, but fuck them if that’s the case (and fuck the US healthcare system in general. Although I will say that where I’m at now, Japan, is even worse with mental healthcare not being covered by insurance (only psychiatry is covered; some psychologists having sliding fee scales but sometimes it’s students and, if you don’t speak Japanese well enough to articulate your issues in the language, then the premium for foreign language support is real)).
Just as an FYI: although laws are strict about US-based therapists practicing only in states where they are licensed, there are no laws regulating international practice of psychotherapy. If the people you’re talking about have a hard time in Japanese, they may be able to to find a telehealth therapist in their country of origin who speaks their native language and is embedded in their native culture. You have to deal with timezone shenanigans, but it beats going without. Something to consider.
Yeah, I fully agree. The yen being super weak right now has put some people off of such (it was about 110-115 yen: 1 dollar when I came, now it’s 160 T_T)
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
The “BetterHelp” YouTube Virus is BACK
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Veratasium had some similar issue a few years ago too, didn’t he?
There was a video he did on a startup taxi service using self driving cars. Basically the entire thing was an advertisement for that company.
Then another Youtuber, Tom Nicholas, released a video about that a few months later and how it’s an issue. I’ll have to watch it again as I don’t remember what he specifically talks about.Yeeep I remember the saga bc of the Tom Nicholas video
I recall Tom Nichols making a video on them and also perhaps an incorrect video about electricity so probably.
The electricity one wasn’t so much him being wrong as it was him being really bad at communicating that one point
I’m curious, what would happen if I, as a creator, had been contacted by a sponsor and then if the sponsor was shady, decided to not only say no to the contract, but also rag on them in the video where the sponsor would have been shilled?
Tim Dillon used to do that all the time.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
pretty sure his video about Charmin flushable wipes being the only actually flushable wipes on the planet was bullshit
Yeah
Don’t let anybody tell you you can’t consume or not consume whatever content you feel like. Theres an uptick in this weird attitude of “you’re an asshole/fascist/whatever trying to cancel everyone” if you decide to stop watching someone or buying a product. Its bullshit, you don’t owe anybody jack.
You’re one person. Either you bailing won’t matter, or a bunch of people bail and they learn their lesson. Either way you don’t have to put up with a damn thing you don’t want to. 🤷
To some degree, certainly! If at some point it comes out that a certain sponsor is just total shit, a content creator can be made aware of that. Although, with all these things, it is not always as easy to just drop a sponsor i suppose, there is always contracts involved and all of that. So not expecting a creator to be able to drop a sponsor all of a sudden.
At least consider it. It will make shady sponsors less valuable and more genuine sponsors more valuable.
They absolutely deserve to be blasted in the comments for a bad sponsor. It will make people reconsider their viewing decisions. If the video itself also wasn’t great, don’t be afraid to give it a big fat dislike, especially if you have the return YouTube dislike extension.
Additionally, if there are too many ads and sponsors, make your voice heard in the comments, and the creator might be sympathetic. I certainly am when I’m on the receiving end of a comment like that on my channel.
Veritasium endorsed a known racketeer and as a consequence some portion of their audience is now going to be defrauded in an economy where there’s not a lot of room for that especially among those in need of therapy. Watching Veritasium videos causes the channel to have greater exposure, increasing the risk to the general population if engaged with by anyone. Therefore, engaging with this channel in any way is harmful to others.
Wow, those comments are a dumpster fire.
Not sure what Derek 's best response might be. I’m thinking that this video will likely be taken down and replaced by one without a sponsor.
Right. You have to scroll quite a way to see something other than him being called out.
