I think guns are neat, and Ian’s channel is a gun oriented one without the reactionary politics. I wouldn’t say his quality went down, but he (this was a few years ago) did a series on Rhodesian guns he got from a collector. I thought it was gross, but not necessarily bad. Lots of people are interested in Nazi stuff without being into the politics.
But then, in the middle of the George Floyd protests, he covers a grenade launcher (Like the one from Terminator2) that shoots rubber bullets and a bean-bag firing shotgun in the same week. Weird time to cover riot police gear. I haven’t watched since.
Rhodesia was an ultra-racist regime back during the Cold War which fought a desperate war to avoid giving black people rights. Note - they were a country in Africa ruled by a tiny white minority of Anglo-Dutch settlers. Because their well-funded army performed relatively well against Zimbabwean militias and a newly formed national Zimbabwean army and had some domestic industrial capacity, far-right goons slaver all over anything Rhodesian and peddle “TEN MILLION ZIMBABWEANS < ONE RHODESIAN OPERATOR” style stuff.
Me, given Ian’s tendency to stay away from politics in general, his interest in a very wide variety of guns, and having given considerable pushback to Rhodesian fans and ‘white genocide’ loons in the past, as well as speaking against corporate and systemic racism issues in passing, I’m inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Weird, since most people I’ve heard speculate Ian is actually on the left, minus, of course, gun control. But go far enough left and the standard position on gun control becomes much more loose.
Ian has never really come off to me as a secret right winger. His politics are something I’ve never seen or heard expressed in anyway. He comes off to me more of an apolitical academic interested only in firearms. He’s even written books about them. His favorite guns are French Army rifles which are not Nazi or Rhodesian. His book about them is very detailed.
I work in IT support, and I have for longer than I’d like to admit. I’m on the very early edge of millennial. I was born a few years after the generation “started”. My older brother was on the transition between millennial and gen X and my oldest sibling was very gen X. My parents were part of the prior two generations (boomers etc), and I tend to work along side and for all sorts of people from all of these generations.
Earlier than gen X, eg boomers and older, are usually technology adverse, they don’t like change. I find many are kind of “set in their ways”. Of course there are exceptions to the rule, but they seem to be fairly rare. They like to do things using methods that are tried and true, but often reluctantly agree to use computers instead of paper because that’s what others are doing. Even so, they’re fairly adverse to updates and changes that modify how things get done. They have money, and you can’t have any of it. Often, they have little understanding of the problems faced with current generations, likely because they did not have the same challenges, and despite their stories of “back in my day” about how hard things were for them, they actually had it rather easy in terms of cashflow and buying power. They made less, sure, but when they were able to buy a mid sized, single family, fully detached home for the same dollar value as a “cheap” car costs now, their money went much farther (around $20k).
Gen X is kind of lost. What I mean is that they don’t really have too many traits that stand out. As far as I can see, they’re hyper independent, mostly riding the coat tails of the bombers economically, so, while they didn’t have it quite as easy as boomers did (despite what boomers might think/say), it also wasn’t significantly harder for them. They were mostly able to follow a fairly typical life path, get an education (HS/college/uni), get a career, buy a house, have a family (if desired). Politically, from what I’ve seen, gen X is the most diverse group and they’re usually following along with whatever is regionally popular. Not because it’s popular, but because they’re surrounded by it. From what I’ve seen this group is the most adaptable to their neighboring community, mostly just trying to fit in and not be bothered. Right now they’re a large part of working professionals.
Millennials are usually post college, debt laden individuals that are just tired. They were trying to kick-start their lives in some of the craziest times imaginable. Many early millennials who were able to quickly move through the education system, and immediately get into a career and the housing market follow more along the lines of gen X. If you were held back for any reason or you were caught up in a situation that held you back, you shared fate with many of the later millennials. The majority of millennials were caught up in every economic crisis short of a complete collapse of the money system during the years that they should have been starting their careers. Homes rose in price swiftly and vehicles didn’t lag far behind. Driven by sheer determination to succeed, many accrued significant debt that they just want to balance out. This group is the most technically malleable and can adapt to most technology changes in the shortest time. Growing up on landlines and home PC’s/consoles/electronics that all significantly changed their designs, capabilities and interfaces every 4-5 years. Many seem to be problem solvers and want to be helpful/useful. Many have, and some still do, hold onto the ideal that their contribution should be impactful. Most just want to be acknowledged and told they’re doing well, while making enough to pay their bills and debts. For many the dream of owning a home is dying or dead. Renters, car owners, debt holders. They’re growing rather jaded about it as they get older.
Gen Z have their own language. Millennials did too but mostly in cultural memes, with the zoomers, it’s less cultural reference and more of a short hand derived from cultural references. Things that on their own, don’t make any sense and are not even full sentences in any way shape or form. They follow in the aftermath of the economic crisises of millennials and have many of the same economic challenges. Many of those challenges are simply more severe. Prices are higher than ever, buying power is at an all time low. Surrounded by toxic “hustle” culture and many seem to want nothing to do with that. Many find humor in randomness and unexpected happenstance rather than traditional subversion of expectation as humor. They’re quickly becoming the most socially aware and active generation, and want change. Technologically growing up on iPhones and Androids rather than home PC’s, many are not very adaptable to changes in technology though zoomers are one of the highest use groups for the technology. They use it, they don’t really understand it very well, so when things break, even if they’re only non fictional in their current state, things are replaced rather than fixed. Eg, if their iPhone is too slow, rather than trying to find out why or trying to fix the issue, better to simply upgrade to whatever apple is currently pushing. Due to this, they needlessly spend more money than their older generation counterparts. This is by design by the actions of corporations, fostering a single use, replace, not repair mentality. They’re not lazy or lacking in motivation at all, despite appearances that may show a lack of success, instead the lack of success is driven by an inability to find adequate employment that will pay enough to allow them to prosper. The majority will be “held back” from the “typical” life path of education > career > home ownership > family, because of their inability to prosper due to high prices and low wages.
Overall, through the generations there has been a decline in community as a function of geography, and an increase in community as a function of shared interest, mainly due to the growing and universal access to the internet. The internet has allowed both good and bad to be accessible at a moment’s notice. This has shortened the tolerance to delays and given a sense of urgency to even the most trivial and mundane of requests. With the immediate response available from growing internet connectivity, demand for more frequent, more detailed updates from everything has grown significantly, eroding confidence in others to fulfill their obligations unless they communicate that “we’re doing things” (so to speak). Even something as simple as ordering take out or having things shipped, if there is no tracking and reporting, then it might as well not be happening.
Over all, IMO, the problems faced by the current generations tend to be more centered around artificial issues created by corporations. They want to pay less, earn more, and overall turn a larger and larger profit. This is neither surprising, nor helpful to most. It does however explain the single use, replace rather than fix, nature of things that has been growing. The rise in rental vs ownership has increased the cost of living and is on track to build a service-based lifestyle where personal ownership doesn’t happen. Everything is provided for a “low” recurring fee, which has so significantly outpaced any rise in wage that most will be unable to accrue any amount of savings.
For me, all of this has made it very clear what future we’re in store for, and bluntly, it’s not very pleasant. Perpetual home rental, no personal ownership of vehicles (you simply tap a button on your phone and if one is available, it will arrive for you to use, little more than a taxi service), video, audio and other media will be rental only, streaming over the internet, which is a monthly service fee. This leads to near zero ability for customization of your lifestyle. You have no choice in terms of the appliances and devices you use, the car you drive, your home’s design… The list goes on. So if you want or need something different, you’re completely out of luck. Conform or die.
I tend to agree with your summary of the generations, but my experience in life sounds largely similar to yours, so some obvious bias there. The future you paint feels almost inevitable, and I hate every bit of it. Yet I can’t find any reasonably effective way to change it.
I’m an early gen Z, I’m 25 right now, and have been on the job market for 8 years so far.
I’m tired, I’m overworked, I’m stressed, I’m looking for upward mobility in my domain but every company is making cutbacks, withholding bonuses and holding pay increases.
I’m a software developer. I’m working a main job and freelancing on the side to make ends meet, and it’s still not enough.
I invest in my future with things like RRSP and FHSAs, I have some luxuries (small car, a dog because what is life if it’s completely miserable?), and it hurts every time I get a necessity because everything goes to rent, food, clothing, etc. and grocery bills are always close to $200 for 2 people, even at the cheaper grocery stores.
Everything’s down on quality, nothing lasts, so we either have to buy things over and over, or save up a ton of money to pay luxury prices for a decent product that won’t break the very fucking second the warranty expires.
We’re getting gouged as much as possible. My group is particular because we started our careers slightly before or during the 2020 pandemic, where companies learned that they could gouge the fuck out of everyone on necessities, and people starting out fresh are hit the hardest as they don’t have savings or mature investments.
I promise you, I have no savings nor investments, mature or otherwise.
I completely understand where you’re coming from. I’ve long considered that the next generation is going to be royalty screwed. Millennials are not doing great. I know many that are struggling, but gen z didn’t even get a chance.
Give your dog some pets for me and I hope things get better soon… Or the government collapses under the insurmountable weight of all the bribery that’s going on.
They have had so many issues back to back that I don’t enjoy them anymore. From Ryan coming out to fucking fans when he has a wife, to the underpaid and crunch heavy work they put staff to, and then firing Matt who was one of the most beloved members.
When they sold their company to WB they sold their ethics at the same time.
This is definitely not true. Rooster Teeth has been producing some of their all-time best content since covid (speaking as fan since 2012). They just pivoted to primarily making podcasts, and most of their podcasts are awesome and high-production quality without feeling inauthentic. F**KFACE and ANMA are especially good for old fans.
Roosterteeth started circling the drain for me when they were shilling those bullshit sugar pills that were supposed to make you a better gamer. Alpha Brain i think it was called?
And I completely fucked off of them when they shilled perscription pill mills to their young/underage audience, then Geoff…the massive piece of shit that he is, tried to deflect all the criticism away by claiming he has ED and twisting all the criticism into attacks against his supposed medical issue.
Then, years later, you found out about how abusive and miserable it was to work there for anyone that wasnt a face, how they exploited their fanbase for unpaid work, and how everyone behind the scenes was either a racist piece of shit to the non-white staff (Which really makes you look back at some of the on screen interaction with ray differently), or were A-OK with all the racist shit being said (which makes you a racist too, dipshit).
I dont know how the fuck it hasnt collapsed as a company yet.
My partner got me into AH right before the Ryan controversy. Gotta say, it was weird watching it all fall apart afterwards since I wasn’t as invested as she was. Thankfully some of my favs from the bunch do solo stuff so thats cool.
With RT, I watched RvB and RWBY. RT doesnt know when to end a show or let it close, I dropped off both after their peaks.
AH lost its sheen to me when they basically forced out Ray. A whole bunch of downhill slides in content quality, and by the time the Ryan stuff happened that was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me.
It’s a shame, because I have fond memories of some of the peak Lads vs Gents era but the whole network is just ruined for me now.
First gen AH was great. I came to love second gen just as much. The reason I stopped watching was fairly pragmatic. I typically had RT/AH content running in a side window while I worked. However, I found myself unable to continue when they added Ky to the regular staff. She was funny, and fit the vibe check; but she had no compressor for her audio setup and it would literally hurt when she screamed or overreacted. As they increased her presence in content, I was left with less and less that I could watch. And when the community desperately tried to let RT know the volume spikes were an issue, it was very aggressively written off as the usual rabid ‘fanbase’ misogyny and racism.
Also Funhaus. They used to be funny, then the shtick got old, then they all started making announcements they were leaving Funhaus for greener pastures…and now they’re all back at Funhaus doing the same old thing. Ehhhhh.
NeverKnowsBestFor very in depth game essays. He has a 2:44:46 in depth look into the history of MMO’s. 2:03:15 Elder Scrolls analysis. And he has an absolutely comforting voice that sweeps you along so easily that you don’t even feel the time pass.
MortismalHe reviews games after he 100% them, makes guides, game lore, builds. His favorite genre is tactical rpg’s but he’ll to do others of people ask him to. The man is a consummate professional, and work horse. Puts out a video 5 days a week. He went from foster care, to being homeless to making a living doing what he loves. Used to put up posters offering to make game guides for money when he was a kid.
Lex FridmanHe did long form interviews of really brilliant people. Novel prize winning scientists, mathematicians, biologists, philosophers, politicians, tech moguls, artists. The list goes on. He’s not funny, but he is refreshingly sincere in his wanting to try and understand the topics, people, and life. He’s a Russian-American computer scientist and research scientist at the MIT Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems.I don’t always agree with him, but I love getting to listen to the people he interviews.
Quinn’s IdeasA wonderful fan of sci-fi that reviews and explore the worlds of great sci-fi novels, turning over the abstract concepts inside those universes. He has an extensive playlist on the world of Dune, Lovecraft, authors I’ve never heard of, and he also covers other nerdy things too. He has a wonderful voice that brings you down into the world he’s describing. You can tell her really gets into the books he reads, the more mysterious or awe inducing the better.
Wes RothI recently found this guy. He reports on current news on AI. He does a great job at explaining things you would be too afraid to ask about for fear of sounding stupid. He’s not an AI expert he’s just discovering AI advancements with you, for you. Calm, nothing flashy, and curious to see where this is headed. If you wish you had time to look up and read about what’s new in AI, this is your guy.
The Big Lez ShowAn all knowing multidimensional immortal Aussie Sasquatch doing a bunch of drugs, also some humans and some aliens.
The Royal InstituteLike TED talks but in Great Britain, much longer, more in depth and very scientific. The intended audience are scientists, but some talks are just too fascinating to miss out on.
Luetin09Warhammer 40k everything. Really great lore videos that are darkly beautiful to watch. He is a veritable font of WH40K knowledge.
dslyecxiIt’s like watching a team of military professionals conduct missions in ARMA 3, and with all of the hilarious fuckery that ensues. ARMA 3 is a realistic military sim, nothing like the arcadey Call of Duty or Modern Warfare. Really great footage.
Edit: Mr Sunday MoviesMovies, comic, and TV shows, shooting up your butthole. They’re Australian, but they make up for it.
Im in Oklahoma. It was cold, with a day of powdery dry snow that we normally don’t get. Might have had 3"-4" of coverage. The schools were closed until today. We never lost any utilities, just stayed at home, got high, and did some baking.
It was above freezing today and yesterday, so we have some fun icy patches that haven’t cleared.
’ Steve mould - does cool little kiddie explanations of physical phenomenons.
Foureyes furniture - a bit asmr, but a woodworking channel. Guy makes neat stuff and talks about life while doing it.
Wristwatch revival - alsp kinda ASMR, but guy takes apart and repairs mechanical watches. Very repetitive after the first few watches, but I keep watching anyway.
AI-generated spam. They fill the website with (potentially malicious) ads and try to profit off people that accidentally click the link thinking it’s a real website. It’s the main reason search engines have been terrible to use lately.
Fake ad clicks or views. I would guess it loads some ads in a tiny IFrame then redirects you to google so Google doesn’t get suspicious by one site loading a tonne of ads every few seconds
Just because it’s tinned doesn’t mean it’s not nutritional… Most things in a can aren’t changed or added to in any way other than pasteurization after being sealed to kill anything on the food in the can.
At worst, canned soups and meats and sometimes vegetables with added salt have too much salt and canned fruits have added sugar when they are packed in “syrup” instead of water or their own juice.
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