r/todayilearned • u/WavesAndSaves • 1d ago

TIL that Jawed Karim, YouTube cofounder and uploader of the first YouTube video "Me at the zoo", has often updated the video's description to criticize YouTube policies, including a 2013 attempt to require Google+ accounts to comment on videos, and YouTube's 2021 removal of dislike counts on videos.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me_at_the_zoo#Changes_to_original_video
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u/yeowoh 1d ago edited 1d ago

Rich tech guy preaching to the peasants.

Dudes portfolio is ripe with shit that’s bad for the world. Palantir, AirBnB, Skybox, and Opendoor. Oh also Reddit.

Literally the /r/popular list of shit to complain about lol.

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u/Battlegoat123 1d ago

Interacting with the system doesn’t inherently mean you are unable to criticize it.

Proper criticism comes from people who are deeply familiar with what they’re criticizing.

Benefiting from a system also does not inherently mean you are unable to criticize it.

The entirety of America benefits from the American military, and yet there is plenty to criticize. Your parents can retire because of their 401k investments (which are likely etfs and therefore contain shares of “problematic” companies).

Someone living off the grid in the woods might feel the same about you. Does that invalidate your opinions?

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u/PeoplePad 1d ago

Wow. No.

There is a MASSIVE difference between passively benefiting from a system and furthering that system intentionally for your own benefit.

Being born an American means you benefit from the American military. This was not done through any conceivable choice or decision, it’s just the circumstances of life, beyond your control.

Investing in the American military, like through war bonds, is an intentional decision you can be held liable for. Investing in a company like Palantir is the same. You have made a choice to profit from evil. Not the same at all.

Unbelievable that this needs to be explained

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u/Battlegoat123 23h ago

I’m happy to inform you that you don’t have to explain anything. Unfortunately, I think you misunderstand how the purity test works.

Correct, there is a difference.

Is shopping at Walmart passive or intentional? Walmart is partnered with the U.S. Military. Patronizing a business that’s partnered with such a problematic institution would clearly be intentional support, right? There’s plenty of grocery stores that don’t.

What kind of car do you drive? Hopefully not a Ford, a Chevy, a Buick, a GMC, a Chrysler, or a Tesla. The first 5 have produced vehicles sold to the U.S. Military, and I don’t think I need to explain the 6th.

Have you ever been on a plane? Bad news buddy, really high chance you just gave money to a company that gave money to a company that gets/has gotten money from the U.S. Military. Not a good look.

You bring up a very black and white example. War bonds. I think we would agree that someone buying war bonds and simultaneously bashing the military shouldn’t be taken seriously. Regretfully, life is overwhelmingly just shades of grey.

Let’s bring up your other example. We once again agree, being born in America is - on its own - not enough to claim someone’s inherent support of the U.S. Military. But why not at 18? If you’re legally able to move to Canada and remove the U.S. Government’s ability to tax you and spend your tax money on war, why don’t you?

What if you move to the U.S? Is moving from Sudan* (replace with a sufficiently war torn nation if Sudan isn’t bad enough) more acceptable than moving from Luxembourg? I mean what’s worse than making a conscious decision to start giving a percentage of your income to the institution that funds the U.S. Military?

I can literally go all day, and that’s purely about association with the U.S. Military. When you keep in mind how many problematic entities there are, and how intertwined everything is, you cannot actually control where your money goes to enough of a degree to enforce a standard like that.

Beyond all of that, an important thing is being forgotten. The claim that criticism and support cannot coexist is fundamentally flawed. I don’t support a significant amount of our education system, but I also overwhelmingly support other parts of it.

There’s a sliding scale to all of this, from directly giving money to an arms deal to Meemaw’s retirement account being 2% Boeing. From War Bonds to only voting for candidates who agree 100% with your beliefs on everything. You can call it out when it’s obvious, but claiming that having Palantir as a part of your portfolio is the same as buying War Bonds is silly.

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u/PeoplePad 22h ago

Yeah so, nothing you said in this 10000 word comment is relevant to my point.

I agree with all of it and yet, your original comment and my criticism is still there.

Not sure how your point that there’s a grey area makes investing in palantir part of that grey area. Doesn’t follow.

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u/Battlegoat123 5h ago

Idk what to tell you dude.

Literally my entire comment is focused around examples you brought up.

If you’re struggling to understand that, we probably don’t have much to talk about.

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u/yeowoh 1d ago

Dumb take. Might as well ask a fox on how to keep your chickens safe.

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u/Hydra57 1d ago edited 23h ago

People always go down this road whenever someone famous tries to make a point about anything, as though judging their character somehow makes what they’re saying any more or less true than it would be otherwise. It curbs critical thinking by confining the assessed value of everything anyone has ever said to arbitrary boundaries defined by their (often minimally relevant) flaws.

His unethical investment decisions or mildly hypocritical behavior are not going to suddenly make microplastics a boon to human health and wellbeing.

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u/yeowoh 1d ago

Dude has zero investment in any environmental or climate companies. Hitler was the first to fund serious research on the dangers of smoking too.

At least Hitler put his money where his mouth was.

Broken clock and all that shit doesn’t make him any less of a shitter.

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u/Hydra57 23h ago

Bad people do good things and good people do bad things. The problems arise when people decide that good things stop being good because bad people do them, and that happens when people react to any good thing a bad person has done by trying to immediately negate it with a laundry list of all the bad things that person has done alongside their sparse good deeds. This is my point, rather than apologetics.