Has anyone watched the new episode from First Thought/JT?
The “…this doesn’t justify the Russian invasion…” crap is pathetic. Of course it does, it’s literally what was used to justify it?! It’s such a shit framing.
I was quite let down by this video, I know that they said there would be no coverage of the internal politics for brevity, but avoiding that makes this video essentially useless. The internal politics are some of, if not the most important aspect of this war and not talking about it just makes the topic lose any sort of substance. Without the internal politics you are just parroting what everyone already pretty much knows and it makes it seem like this war came out of nowhere.
Have the Deprogram boys ever talked at length about the Ukraine-Russia proxy war? I know they’ve mentioned it here and there but nothing super deep, just little comments.
I think they missed a huge opportunity to talk about what this war is truly about and where it originated, this could have been a great video to educate others on the deep rooted context that informs this conflict but I guess we couldn’t get that… maybe next time.
He has a video on the CPUSA channel iirc on the war, calling it a proxy war and all that. I think since his channels are more directed at libs it took a very “centrist” stance trying to avoid controversy. For socdems/radlibs, admitting Ukraine is the vassal it is is a hard pill to swallow (especially in the US where I presume most the viewers are, where the war had pretty much no downsides). Nevertheless, in 2024 we have multiple statements and articles from the most fervent NATOist and pro-western sources spelling out that the war IS fought for the US’ benefit, and the 2014 coup WAS a US effort.
That said, I think it’s incorrect for JT to still be portraying the war in such a way on his channels. The war should be seen for what it is, before it inevitably disappears from libs’ memory and people can get away with saying stupid shit and get away with it. It’s not a secret that he’s a “tankie”, too. I don’t think the people supporting his channel are oblivious to that, so I wouldn’t say it’s a money problem. But then again, I’m not him.
This is an excuse that people have made for the deprogram guys for over 2 years now. I know because I myself was under the same impression. But this is proven to be completely bullshit and irrelevant for quite a while now. The whole “they are appealing to libs and want to take a centrist approach to sensitive topics” crap completely went out the window the moment they decided to comment in support of Gaza in the wake of the genocide since last October. All their channels got blacklisted from advertisers and they decided to throw caution to the wind and drop any pretense in their revolutionary messaging, since they have nothing to lose anymore. Just look at any of JT’s videos since October, and this is most evident.
If the goal was to cultivate a following of liberals and western moderates then start to slowly get them radicalized, it has failed or rather the plan has been long derailed. They ended up attracting a load of ultras and weirdos, which they’ll never convince of anything regardless. I think even they know this at some level because their messaging has shifted.
If they’re ready to tell the truth about Gaza, then they should do the same for Ukraine, simple as that. From here on, any milquetoast or weak spirited commentary should be rightfully called out, we should expect better from them.
This is hands down the worst video i have ever seen from these guys. It is so ignorant and so steeped in western mainstream media propaganda on this conflict it could have been made by Vox or the Daily Beast and you would not notice the difference.
Someone just asked him on his server and he replied as to why he didn’t want to go into the politics of the conflict
“I don’t have final say over decisions”.
Is that not a blatant admission of selling out? He’s just straight admitted that he’s just a face for the camera and doesn’t have the authority to make content decisions on his own channel. He only has 2 employees that work as editors for him, so who’s making the decisions if not him?
That seems like a damning nail in the coffin for all the accusations of deprogram and JT selling out.
I remember getting downvoted to hell several months ago for saying that JT was selling out and the liberal aesthetics were becoming undeniable. Guess I wasn’t wrong.
Is that not a blatant admission of selling out?
If he’s “sold out” he’d give a far less “gun to my head” answer. It’s obvious he’s saying that the decision was not his. Who do you think he’s sold out to exactly? Can you elaborate on the conspiracy theory?
Corporate sponsors. But more importantly, a wider liberal audience.
There is a lot of money to be made from the milquetoast “leftists” who dominate the western world and essentially want to pretend to be leftists while just being liberals. Look at his and the deprograms videos on Russia as other people have mentioned, it is just regurgitated state department lines. Or the other content they make, which rarely looks at interesting communist topics and instead at random things like “poking fun at and listing all the bad and weird things X US President has done with minimal analysis” for multiple episodes; something that would primarily cater to an American audience. Compare that to their content before, with bringing on Vietnamese comrades, doing hardcore analysis while still being goofy, and doing in depth introspections on news topics. But genuinely, what has their recent content been? Bringing on liberals. Random tech YouTubers. Pop history.
If you can draw in that audience and establish yourself as a “centrist” leftist with “unbiased” facts. Then you can farm a lot of money off of that crowd.
Why is he doing this? I noticed things deteriorating rapidly on deprogram and his channels roughly around the time following the birth of his child. Which would be a good motivator to try and make as much money as possible.
I noticed things deteriorating rapidly on deprogram and his channels roughly around the time following the birth of his child.
Let this be a lesson about making your family’s livelihood dependent on a corporate controlled platform and always living with the fear of putting your family in financial straits if you offend your western audience’s liberal sensibilities.
They would do much more good if they still had regular jobs and only occasionally put out videos rather than becoming full time YouTubers but compromising their integrity in the process.
At the point when it becomes a business, it stops being a revolutionary act. And like what happened with Hasan, their material interests and lived experience are diverging more and more from those of the working class as they become more petit bourgeois.
They would do much more good if they still had regular jobs and only occasionally put out videos rather than becoming full time YouTubers but compromising their integrity in the process.
Honestly this is why I believe that Hakim’s personal channel is still holding relatively strong compared to JT and Yugo. He is a doctor. Not a content creator. This is a hobby and a pastime for him, not how he makes his bread and butter. In turn, that means he has little to no incentive to try and squeeze as much money as possible from a corporate algorithm that pays his salary.
Ironically, this is the identical critique that Lenin had for the careerist and electoralist socialist and socdem politicians, and why he still practiced as a paralegal and lawyer while being a revolutionary. If one stakes their financial well being on something guaranteed to them by the capitalist system, they will become increasingly separated from the material interests of the working class, and “sell out” in order to secure their financial well being.
Indeed. Hakim seems to be the least affected by the decline that is happening to the Deprogram.
He is also the only one that is well read.
Fuckin’ Boy Boy had a better video then this on the Russia-Ukraine War only 2 months after it started, they were actually willing to explain such things as the conditions that lead to it being inevitable and the USA’s major role in instigating it, it has some pitfalls with both-sideing a bit and missing a few core details. But despite that, it’s overall more informative and one of the better videos that I saw during the initial months of the war.
Last I checked, they’re doing fine.
Thank you for linking this, I had no idea they made a video about it! I will watch it as soon as I can.
Edit: so the comments on that video are really bad, holy shit…
Most westerners are as brainwashed as they believe north koreans to be.
The amount of comments just missing the point and saying “Well, Putin didn’t have to invade,” is astounding to me. Did they not watch the video? This war has been dumbed down so much that people just have automatic responses to any sort of explanation because they can’t conceive of anything outside “Putin is Hitler, Russia is evil.”
