The best heuristic is if there is money to be made then assume some bad agent will find a way to exploit it, always.

Fake videos are just one corollary of this.

That is how I was raised to approach the internet approx. 20 years ago, still seems like good advice today.

This has been my attitude for a while, although my use of TikTok really ramped up my disillusion. The amount of cringe-worthy fakery on that app makes YouTube look sane by comparison.

Frankly, you have to be pretty stupid if you thought it was possible for 2 dudes to build a waterpark in the jungle out of mud with a couple of rocks.

I'd say most of the time the split between legit or not is fairly obvious:

- legit: focuses on "simple" builds that they usually work on for months. They also cover many topics and techniques relative to primitive life

- fake: build a "primitive" house with pool every few weeks

when have we ever not been at that point?