Are you telling me if you got offered $700k+ for something that wouldn't even set off a single alarm bell to maybe investigate who the person is given the proxy war currently going on with Russia? This isn't $1000 or anything like that which is going to be chump change to a big organisation, it's a significant sum with inevitable strings attached.
The Lotus Eaters are making similar points looking through their segment on it all and even they're pointing out that despite being friends with people like Lauren Chen they are looking incredibly dumb for taking that money and not doing due diligence. With that much money that's involved? Yeah, bet your arse you hire some professionals to check everything is above board.
Some people here really need to get a grip on what's actually being written here about a situation instead of knee-jerking but that's the internet for you. Respect to the Lotus Eaters at least as well for Harry especially coming out and saying they don't take foreign money lol.
Unfortunately youtubers get caught doing this all the fucking time, it's very common, more common than people might think. From the detail I'm getting they're not going to be coming out of this looking good because at best they did not do their due diligence on the money they were receiving.
It doesn't seem to matter to anyone how many times I stress I don't think this should be considered anything illegal to begin with, I'm just pointing out what is likely going on and I personally don't like youtubers who turn themselves into glowie assets.
I just think it discredits us all if you have a bunch of people coming down on the side of grifters who larp as dissidents that are quietly taking money from a foreign government on the side to push certain types of videos.
Oh I'm devoting my time right now to playtesting and bugfixing, I'm just finding the fanboism over these people baffling. People don't realise that even though I'm terminally online I'm always writing code and multi-tasking generally while I shitpost here.
This was followed by people telling me I was ugly and someone asking me to be their mummy.
If Sky News didn't understand that this was a joke and typical gamer banter then they need to be banned from being able to use the internet. It's amazing there are people like this who don't understand anything about internet culture, even Asmongold fucking gets it and had to make points about this explaining to people.
Even if they're not officially with a government agency or organisation they still could be taking government money. I don't understand why people on this site are being such blatant fanbois over this particular issue when not five seconds ago they were attacking Dustborn devs for doing exactly the same thing.
. The DOJ could be being the DOJ and going after them over bullshit charges
. The youtubers in question could have taken money from suspicious sources they should have done due diligence on
Both points can be true
But if the lump sump reported in seed money was 10 million. And Pool and Rubin were each promised ~ 5 mil/yr. I saw another report that Chen and her husband were paid around 760k.
You see I didn't even know that they were earning these kinds of numbers, 760k is on the lower end but it's still a fuck ton and this is why I'm doubling down. People are just not liking the fact that I'm pointing out the potential legal liability here. You can't just flail your arms about and go "But they paid me a huge sum of money!" and accept such a large amount from an unknown source you know nothing about, holy fuck.
I do believe that they have fucked up on the legal liability front here and this is likely going to turn into an ongoing drama.
These are not average people, that's what you guys aren't getting, Tim Pool for example earns fucking millions, yes I know Lauren Chen for example is not the same and it would be unfair to compare her but this is why it all seems ridiculous to me. Even if she doesn't earn a massive amount it's still likely a fair chunk of change compared to most people.
They should as professionals be capable of doing some kind of audit and if they can't they shouldn't trust them and know when to walk away. This is where I respect TheQuartering and Count Dankula's business acumen because have you noticed they've had no drama as of yet? For the record, I'm not taking the DOJ at face value, however if they were able to nab them on something it likely means that their financials are not exactly above board unless the whole thing turns out to be completely bogus which is something I find unlikely.
Why do I find it unlikely? You don't spend that level of resources on a wild goose chase just to send a message because it would make them look ludicrous even to leftists who would get extremely squeamish themselves over it. Do I think they've done anything malicious? No probably not, however I do think they've probably been morons.
It will be interesting seeing them chat on TheIncredibleSaltMine about this because I bet they'll have some interesting takes. Count Dankula and TheQuartering have both said they've walked away from certain sponsorships and TheQuartering mentioned he walked away from $10,000 once. That's a fucking lot of money, which is why I respect him for that and I suspect this is likely a situation where they got greedy and now their financials have bit them in the arse.
You have to remember even reasonably successful youtubers are full on business operations these days with more than one employee, so yes they should be doing due dilligence on their finances constantly especially in this day and age because that's how they always get you.
Wow didn't know Calvin was doing that, yeah I'm not surprised, it's something I have planned myself, not necessarily the US because I'm waiting to see the results of the election first. I've mentioned it before but weighing up the options.
I hate physical stores more and more these days, they don't stock them properly so you have to go to multiple stores and see what's there, employees are often low IQ retards and you end up having to go online anyway to get anything close to what you want because the big warehouses are where they keep their main stock anyway. The online stock checkers if they do have them barely work because most 'tech' that these stores use are poorly coded databases from the 90's that never get updated and have their bugs fixed.
I'm not 'fully condemning' them, I think though they're not going to come out of this looking good if it turns out they did take money in any capacity from a government source. If they took money from a government source of any kind, they're not independent at all.
Do you get it yet? This is why I'm doubling down, it's a very simple point, it's like how you get organisations like PBS and the BBC pretending they're independent yet it's right their in the fine print that they take government money.
Do I think it's a trap? Yes it absolutely could be, you guys aren't paying attention to what I post because you're going full fanboi. Even if everything everyone is saying is true about the situation, at the end of the day, they took money from glowies and got greedy.
That's my problem with them, this is less to do with the DOJ supposedly entrapping them with a fake honeypot for me, it's more to do with the fact that they agreed to such a shady deal in the first place. I think as well people should also potentially take note of how all the other paranoid and likely slightly autistic youtubers who do talk about glowies all the time probably never even looked at that crap because it seemed shady.
You guys might find me annoying and retarded now but I promise you that none of them are going to come out of this looking good especially it turns out they were taking money from more than one government source. It's like with the whole Hawk Tuah girl being mysteriously astroturfed, it all fucking glows like Chernobyl and I've already done my ranting about red pill podcasters.
Here's to hoping it turns into nothing, I mean that sincerely, but eh, it's not going to be a good look for them if they're getting taken down.
I didn't claim they were Russian agents, just involved with glowies generally, you can be a glowie asset without being directly involved, if this turns into a thing it's easy to see they got duped at best which doesn't make them look good in this situation even if they weren't malicious. Fyi, to be clear, I think this is an issue because it shouldn't be 'illegal' to simply take money for certain videos. However from a personal perspective I really dislike it when there's a lack of transparency from these people about who they take money from and for what reason because they're attempting to deceive me.
This is why I largely stopped watching most political commentators, especially given that they're not really saying anything that revolutionary either. They either turn out to be some form of glowie shill or they're open shills where their sponsor reads take up half their video before they get to the point and you realise any random internet commenter could have made the exact same point for free anyway.
Edit: Honestly surprised with the usual paranoia on this site about glowies that you guys are going out of your way to stick up for them, they are not looking good if they got greedy and took money under the table for videos, this does reek of fanboism and I'll call it out regardless.
Look, I get it, no one wants to see their favourite youtubers or political commentators get outed for doing something potentially shady or stupid. I'd feel the same way if it happened to Count Dankula or the Lotus Eaters crowd who I think are quite chill. Do I know who they are really? No, I don't so I'm not going to get that attached about it despite having seen both of them live and spoken to Sargon and Dankula RL even though they probably wouldn't remember me.
It's entirely possible they could have just been idiots like with Jack Murphy and did zero background checks on the people they were taking money from but that's all the more reason they should be maybe a teensy little bit paranoid about who they receive money from or who they let on their shows.
If they fell for a Russian honeypot that makes them even more stupid and untrustworthy because they saw the $$$ and got greedy. Some people on this site were trying to argue on their behalf but this is just making me think worse of them.
Don't take money from glowies
This is why if you have any sense gtfo from 'civilisation', better to live in a poor but stable and peaceful country that doesn't make the news and quietly wait that shit out if you have the option. John Cleese had the right idea fucking off to an island, he clearly saw what was coming in the UK.
It's good to take away views from youtube but it's worth pointing out most of these arseholes use Rumble and Odysee purely as a backup channel which they mirror to. Lotus Eaters and TheQuartering sort of do it to their credit and mainly focus on Rumble, but other than that most of them ignore the alternatives because the bulk of their audience is on youtube. Or they stick with youtube because they want to get that fat ad money, then proceed to constantly whine and do their victim larp when youtube inevitably clamps down on them as if it isn't a corporation filled with people that hate them.
It's something I've been finding pretty pathetic about the youtube commentator crowd these days especially when it come to the political side of things, I don't watch a lot of their content anymore and I've grown to really dislike the ones who larp as edgy freedom fighters while farming youtube for money.
Even the deeply Christian ones have a reputation for being cheaters even if they aren't outright sluts unfortunately, of course this will depend on the type of community they grew up in and what values they have. Tomboys? Maybe, I've known some introvert-ish girls and as one would expect they've got their own issues that sometimes end up rearing their heads in an unpleasant way even if you're just hanging out with them as friends in a group.
I'm so fucking blackpilled on western women lol.
I hope you're right, I just pay attention to my instinct, I do think the normies are slowly turning on the elites purely for self-preservation because they've realised how deadly virtue signalling really is. However there's still a significant chunk of the population that simply hates Trump and will do anything to get rid of him. It's not necessarily about ideology for them, they just hate him and are willing to literally burn down the west over it.
You'll never convince everyone to turn away from this crap, but I at least want to see fractures happening in the deep leftist circles over all of this nonsense. I'm not seeing that though at least in the UK and other places so I'm wary about what's going to happen in America. Even if Trump wins legit and most people go oh well that's that I could easily see some violent sperging happening and the elites will definitely nudge retards into it as they often like to.
As long as they keep getting money from giant financials like Blackrock, they don't have to give two shits what gamers think and will never make anything worthwhile again or kill successful competition via cash buyouts. This is a big part of why so many game devs are anti-gamer these days to a ridiculous degree, they get money from governments so they can behave that way as much as they like.