Maybe not that interesting for everyone here, but I found no better community for this.

    • Blisterexe@lemmy.zip
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      5 months ago

      When did they shill for fossil fuel? Not saying it didn’t happen, just wondering

        • blakemiller@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          That’s really embarrassing that we as a community have chosen, of all possible creators, to deride Kurzgesagt for taking money from The Gates Foundation. It’s 0.05% of their holdings. ZERO POINT ZERO FIVE. Which, by the way, is down from 6% in the past after public concern — yes, a whopping 6%. Scourge of the earth, locked out of heaven: The Gates Foundation. Those computer nerds strike again. And we choose to punish a great content contributor for that. Shameful display of purity politics.

          • Randomgal@lemmy.ca
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            5 months ago

            Yeah. It seems like a ridiculous accusation to make. Bro couldn’t even answer the question about example of shilling so they had to pivot into the crime of taking money from a foundation to produce high quality educational content.

            How dare they?

              • JoshuaFalken@lemmy.world
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                5 months ago

                I did a few searches and while I didn’t find that quote from Kurzgesagt’s CEO, I did find the contribution listed from a decade ago on the Gates foundation website. $570,000 paid out over four years. They also gave NPR $2,000,000 the next year.

                Since I didn’t find the CEOs quote you’ve mentioned, I can only question the context around it. Would those videos not have been made because the Gates foundation specifically tied the funding to those videos being created? Or would they not have been made because Kurzgesagt didn’t have the money to do so otherwise?

                Regardless, Kurzgesagt is a private company and if they wanted to conceal hidden agendas by corporate contributors, they would just keep quiet - not openly acknowledge that they made content with money given to them by some larger organisation.

                If we’re going to denounce any group of people that are connected via Bacon’s Law to a disastrous corporate industry, the moral high ground will be unachievable for the entirety of our species.

              • blakemiller@lemmy.world
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                5 months ago

                I just think we need to be criticizing more important things than this. Kurz is not the organization we should be spending our outrage on.

                  • blakemiller@lemmy.world
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                    5 months ago

                    I don’t really do online fights anymore. I check in on Lemmy twice a week max for a maybe a few minutes tops. I’d suggest getting involved with your local community as a great way to channel your energy rather than reply 5m after I posted a new comment. Take care ✌🏻

              • xthexder@l.sw0.com
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                5 months ago

                the CEO of Kurzgesagt word that they would not have made the videos if they hadn’t been paid to

                This on its own proves nothing bad. Some videos just require a bigger budget to make and can’t be made on their otherwise limited budget. Or the topic is just lower priority due to writer interests. If they were forced into covering specific topics then that’s a different story, but I haven’t seen any evidence that was the case.

          • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            5 months ago

            The problem is when the contributors influence what the videos say, in contradiction to data.

            Kurzgesagt’s video on +2° / +3° / +4° over the global mean isn’t going to be so bad video was conspicuous to me, and is in fact, based on fossil-fuel industry rhetoric, rather than climatology estimations (which tell us over +1.5° is going to fuck us, and is).

                • CybranM@feddit.nu
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                  5 months ago

                  “I’m going to watch half the movie then complain about it not making sense and having a bad ending”

                  • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                    5 months ago

                    It’s allegedly a documentary, not fiction. It should make sense from beginning to end.

                    Sounds like you feel the need to defend Kurzgesagt for sentimental reasons, and since they’re presenting themselves as a source for accurate information, that just won’t do.

            • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
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              5 months ago

              even people who needs to use petrolatum(aka protroleum) comes from it, for thier dry skin, plus it used in many topical medications. topical ointment medication is more potent than the cream forms.

          • Ganbat@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            5 months ago

            $11 billion

            0.05%

            “A small loan of a million dollars.”

            Does any of that matter in this situation, anyway? Exaggerating their content in exchange for money already places question on their reliability as an educational content creator.

              • Ganbat@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                5 months ago

                Hint: the investment of $11 billion refers to investment of Gates Foundation in fossil fuels.

                Well, considering these exact words were used:

                That foundation owns over $11 billion in investments in the fossil fuel industry, including coal-burning utility companies.

                What can I say but duh. If I misunderstood anything, it was the comment I replied to, which was unclear about the “0.05% down from 6%” detail, and seemed to be associating that with the $11 billion figure by context.

                But hey, nice deflection, and super cool of you to be that rude about it, too.

        • JoshuaFalken@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          They accepted, and continue to accept a great amount of money from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

          It’s interesting how any false narrative starts with a granule of truth.

          Kurzgesagt was indeed provided $570,000 in 2015. That money was paid out across the following four years.

          They have not continued to accept any amount of money from the Gates foundation.

            • JoshuaFalken@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              Sorry, I didn’t think the word ‘continued’ would have needed underlining for anyone that could read what I wrote.

              Using a piece of factual information to prop up false information within the same sentence is how false narratives take hold.

                • JoshuaFalken@lemmy.world
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                  5 months ago

                  I’m unsure we are talking about the same comment. The misinformation is the claim the Gates foundation is continuing to fund Kurzgesagt, when that clearly isn’t the case. This incorrect information is veiled by beginning the statement with the truth of the 2015 grant.

                  Insofar as the reputational damage Kurzgesagt has incurred, I’m not sure there’s much meat on that bone. Sure, you might believe they have fallen from grace or some such, but as I pointed out in another comment here, we can’t just connect everything under the sun and say ‘group A is bad because groups B through Y are all next to one another and with group Z doing all those injustices, group A is complicit in those crimes’.

                  To me, the question of whether Kurzgesagt is a Gates mouthpiece is pretty cut and dry. A few reasons for this, but the most glaring is simply that the money didn’t keep coming, and it wasn’t much money to begin with. I wouldn’t be going out of my way to talk up my employer to clients if my last bonus was a decade ago and didn’t even cover my rent for the month I got it.

    • AceBonobo@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      These things are to be expected when you get bought by private equity,

      Excuse me, what?

        • SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          5 months ago

          No wonder veritasium has felt “off” for me for a good while as well. A few years ago I deliberately stopped watching that channel, seems there was a deeper reason behind my superficial reasons and gut feelings

          • minimum@mander.xyz
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            5 months ago

            The content is higher-quality, more like a TV production. But it’s still pretty solid. Good analogies and intuitive explanations.

          • socsa@piefed.social
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            5 months ago

            He basically only makes “why everyone except me is wrong about X” content now, and it’s super smug and obnoxious.

            • Iceman@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              They seem to use the “shotgun” future in Youtube for titles and Thumbnails. Having the a bunch of different titles and and thumbnails and eventually sticking with the combo that drives the most engagement.

        • hikaru755@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Do you have actual evidence for Kurzgesagt being among PE-owned channels, or are you just extrapolating? Because the video you linked doesn’t mention them, and a quick search didn’t turn up anything about that.

        • RisingSwell@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          5 months ago

          There’s an incredible amount of money in those offers. Years ago Linus Tech Tips got an offer of 100m, so I get why people take the money.

          • Rose@slrpnk.net
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            5 months ago

            Astrum makes space stuff videos? I dunno, been a while.

            Fireship makes videos about programming. Has series about “(Programming language/Framework) explained in 100 seconds”, for example. I think people are complaining that the channel is slipping into AI dudebroery.

            Hoog is a history/explainer type channel, I think.

        • circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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          5 months ago

          Anyone down voting this should be ashamed of themselves.

          Like deeply and personally ashamed.

          The type of shame that follows them for the rest their lives, because that’s how scummy you’d have to be in order downvote someone shining a light on how private equity is buying out major YouTube channels.

          Something that I was entirely unaware of, and appreciate your comment regarding.

          • hikaru755@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Bringing this general issue up in a thread about Kurzgesagt, without also providing evidence that Kurzgesagt specifically is actually part of that issue, is at best irrelevant and at worst misleading though

          • Damage@feddit.it
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            5 months ago

            You wrote all that shit and forgot that accusations like that need proof.

            • circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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              5 months ago

              The video which made the accusations, not me, provided sources for all of the claims.

              Did you even look?

              Sorry, that was rhetorical, obviously you did not look.

                • circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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                  5 months ago

                  I didn’t single out any particular YouTube channel for individual scorn. My comment was in reference to that very well sourced video about private equity buying up / investing many YouTube channels, of which they provided sources for in the description of the video.

                  • Damage@feddit.it
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                    5 months ago

                    Look, I’m sorry you got invested in Youtube channels and now feel betrayed, but that’s something everyone else already understood: don’t blindly trust anyone or any organisation, they can be bought, and will when it’s advantageous to do so.

                    In the meantime, don’t shit on people’s work without a good reason, or you’re doing the work for those who mean to control you.

    • obazdaa@feddit.org
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      5 months ago

      I just looked at the public company records and they are not owned by private equity. What are you talking about?