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Comment by devwastaken | Hacker News Reader

Watch one "conservative news" video and it will do a complete 180. Ads for "rations", "preparing for the end of the world", "how to be self sustainable", tons of PragerU propaganda, and some of the most low quality l BS you'll ever see from political ads.

YouTube delivers content based on what you've watched.

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Yeah I watched some 'forgotten weapons' and 'demolition ranch' videos, and it was wild how quickly my feed changed from science and history stuff to conservative talking points. I spent a rather long time marking videos as 'do not recommend this channel, I dislike this video' etc, before things returned to normal.

Another simple way to address this is to remove uninteresting videos from history, then recommendations go back to normal. We have to do it on our kids account periodically.

I just fully revoked Google from keeping any data on my viewing habits and for some time now my YouTube main page has been a rehash of popular videos from my subscribed channels (and the occasional cat video). I sure don't miss the craziness desperately trying to get me to watch as much as possible.

Man, I had a similar problem

I watched something right wing, I can't remember what, and for years YouTube was bombarding me with crazy half-truths and memes. I tuned them out just like most of the other bullshit I get bombarded with all day, but I wonder how many people have been radicalized this way..

I watch a lot of lefty "news" and infotainment. I still get ads for the conservative propaganda, survival rations, prepping, etc. I think it's because I also watch a lot of firearms hobby content.

Kinda silly, but it does make me chuckle that people like Ben Shapiro, PragerU, and 4Patriots are subsidizing my lefty youtube subscriptions.

I mostly consume guitar technique & music theory videos, yet I still see ads suggesting I might want to buy & bury a plastic tote full of MREs out in the wilderness just in case. Maybe it's because I live in Nebraska? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

That's probably part of it, but you can tell YouTube to stop showing you those videos. The algorithm does work it's just kind of like a 7-year-old.

Same here, 95% of my YT consumption is related to advanced music theory. The (constant) ads that drive me up a wall are the "learn to play guitar" services that feature children practicing their first guitar notes. Ive heard this from other musicians too - the algorithm thinks everyone is a novice.

What’s particularly fascinating is how there is an almost complete absence of a leftist equivalent on YT. There are some leftist channels here and there, but you’re not going to get bombarded with communist ads after watching one video like you might on the right.

It's strictly a function of funding and the economic power of the interested parties. Rich capitalists are, naturally, invested in promoting policies, ideologies, and politicians that will 1) keep them being rich capitalists and 2) make them richer capitalists. I don't know, but am fairly confident in stating, that there are not rich communists waging a communistic propaganda campaign in order to keep them being rich communists and making them richer communists. Certainly not in the Anglosphere, anyway.

You’re not wrong, but leftists also tend to spend an inordinate amount of energy and resources fighting internecine battles rather than trying to convert others. This does make it rather hard to do things like run self-reinforcing YT campaigns, assuming YT would tolerate them.

I like to tell myself that's because real lefties adhere to the doctrine of Gil Scott Heron, The Revolution Will Not be Televised, even though they won't understand 99% of the cultural references

I’m split between two causes myself.

1) The utter lack of support from monied interests.

2) The fact that leftists love nothing more than fighting slightly different types of other leftists.

"I like to tell myself" isn't a strong indication of something that I actually believe. So, here goes

3) the radical left is a bogeyman and the reason you don't see many of them is that they're exceptionally rare.

4) radical leftists have better opsec after generations of actual persecution and censorship, and don't do youtube

5) I think tiktok is more popular with the left?

In my country we still have a old school communist party, and despite their radical ideas like saying north Korea is a democracy or support maduro in Venezuela, when you hear their political campaign is all about raising minimum wage and a restricted House market. In the other way, when we look at the far right party, it's all about how the immigrants are eating tax money or defending a small government with a total control for one leader.

So it's not that radical left doesn't exist, it's just that they drop their guns and what's left it's not that loud.

My apologies, that was written from a purely anglocentric perspective.

No apologies needed, I was just trying to add a new perspective :)

Late night show Zondag met Lubach put this to the test: https://youtu.be/FLoR2Spftwg (English CC available. Skip to 11:48 if you just want to see this bit.)

They created a fresh account using a fresh browser, clicked the top result for “PCR test reliable”, then some recommended videos. Just three clicks in they get to 9/11 and qanon conspiracy videos. By then their home feed too is full of that stuff.

Calling PragerU propaganda is like calling an Western history book written by a religious person contraband. What exact points do you take umbrage with or is this just a signal to your political preference?

Here's a counterpoint for you, regarding the 'war on cars': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z8Tb7OA_F4

Meh, I'm still not seeing what make it propaganda, instead of just a terrible argument.

Nobody is as blind as he who does not want to see.

PragerU is the one funding advertisements with wild, baseless, and often scientifically dishonest "research". I don't recall traditional universities doing this. They firmly market themselves as "conservative intellectuals", telling you the "real truth" liberals won't recognize. I'd call that propaganda by definition.

Propaganda, according to Wikipedia:

> Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence an audience and further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded language to produce an emotional rather than a rational response to the information that is being presented.[1]

PragerU's "About Us" Page:

> Prager University is the world's leading conservative nonprofit that is focused on changing minds through the creative use of digital media. Taking full advantage of today's technology and social media, we educate millions of Americans and young people about the values that make America great.[2]

I'd also encourage you to check out their "What is PragerU"[3] brochure (PDF) which goes into more detail.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda

[2]https://www.prageru.com/about

[3]https://assets.ctfassets.net/qnesrjodfi80/UfBbMy7KkcxxjzVTlR...

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