this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2026
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Technology

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[–] tesseract@beehaw.org 4 points 6 days ago

I deeply hate YouTube, and I hate that I have to depend on them for some content. Their enormous resources and a huge cache of useful videos make them a monopoly. And they leverage that advantage in truly aggressive and extortionist ways, after killing off all potential competition by initially offering their services for free.

Every platform has to have some form of moderation to protect their users from harm including bullying, nudity and violence. But YouTube's censorship algorithms are biased political bullies themselves. They kill heated, but necessary discussions and even entire topics. It's also very biased in some social topics that they essentially define the narrative and culture in seriously damaging ways.

Examples include the topics of rapes and porn. Sure, they're distressing or disturbing topics for many. But how do you solve them if the discussion around them is completely shutdown? How do you avoid those words in videos raising awareness, crime videos, etc? And how ridiculous is it that grapes 🍇and corn 🌽 should take the fall for Google's narcissistic stubbornness? The future generations are going to be baffled by this idiocy that they inflicted on us!

At this point they're too big to fail and they consider it beneath them to address the grievances of the creators or the audience. No company should have so much power over the society. Google should have been splintered into thousands of little pieces and sprinkled all over the planet a long time ago.

It's high time that we leave YouTube behind and migrate elsewhere, wherever that be. Continuing to depend on them will be willful and irresponsible submission of our society to the abuses of a very toxic, greedy and unscrupulous conglomerate.

[–] hperrin@lemmy.ca 26 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That’s right. Kurzgesagt may be slop, but it’s man-made slop. Slop delicately crafted by real human hands.

[–] NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de 18 points 1 week ago (2 children)

How is it slop? I occasionally watch it, and my bullshit detector never went off. They do a good enough job simplifying complex topics into very approachable and fun-to-watch animations.

I really don't see anything bad about what they make. I'm not a huge fan, but that's only because it's not precisely my jam. But I get the impression that it's well researched and, obviously, very well produced. No slop in sight.

[–] hperrin@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 week ago (4 children)

It’s sensationalist. It is well researched, so it’s generally technically accurate, and they admit when they make a mistake. But, it’s also generally focused on things that are either very hypothetical, or just not helpful. Basically, it’s high quality clickbait.

[–] kevinsky@feddit.nl 16 points 1 week ago

You and I have a very different ideas about what clickbait is.

[–] NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Right, I guess that's what turns me off from it, somehow you put it into words better than I ever could. But it's still nowhere near "slop", and I don't like it being slandered. It's entertaining (for those who enjoy it), it's harmless, and the smoothness of the animations can even scratch a "competence porn" itch. I really think they're going for an ASMR kind of thing, and it's working. And I see absolutely nothing wrong with that.

I can also guess that that's why they're going for those kinds of subjects in most of their videos. Anything that is even a little bit controversial or political can turn people away, so it's safer to stick with things that are a bit detached from the world. ... Or something like that.

Not to mention that any topic that doesn't call for cool animations is immediately out of the running. The coolest animations come from the exact kinds of topics you described. Something on the cusp of science and science fiction.

[–] hperrin@lemmy.ca -1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I’m not trying to slander them. It’s just my opinion. They put time and effort into their videos; they’re just, like, lowest common denominator videos. To me, that makes them slop. A million times better than AI slop, but still slop, in the same way that History Channel videos are slop.

[–] InevitableList@beehaw.org 1 points 4 days ago

If this is slop then what word would you use for someone like Simon Whistler who just cold reads a Wikipedia inspired script that's handed to him?

[–] fyzzlefry@retrolemmy.com 2 points 1 week ago

First time on the internet?

[–] anon137@piefed.social 1 points 1 week ago

you might be brain dead

[–] p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)
[–] phlaym@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 6 days ago

are they? Neither the transcript, nor their linked sources say anything about kurzgesagt. And I'm not watching the whole thing of they can't even be bothered to write a list somewhere.

Kurzgesagt started as a design agency, but I think they're doing only youtube (+ merch and their video game); I couldn't find anything about them being owned by someone else than their founder

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Lots of things are, decent and not.

[–] p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Not typically in the world of YouTube. That's kind of the point.

[–] SocialistVibes01@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

You're on beehaw man, that won't get through their liberal skulls

[–] p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 6 days ago

Not sure how that statement is right-leaning.

[–] artyom@piefed.social 14 points 1 week ago

Yeah this is happening on every major platform now, and only getting worse. As usual, the YT review process is useless and the humans are nowhere to be found.

[–] magnetosphere@fedia.io 12 points 1 week ago

The platform later removed or emptied major AI channels and clarified that repetitive or “unsatisfying or off-putting” videos could be demonetized.

“Unsatisfying or off-putting” is a bit too vague for my tastes.

[–] absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz 11 points 1 week ago

Kurzgesagt is great, I watch it with my kids (5, 7 and 10). Awesome kid level science, mostly fun and engaging.

[–] Powderhorn@beehaw.org 8 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Stated briefly: Kurzgesagt isn't what it once was.

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Yeah, but when Brian McManus from Real Engineering made a video which somewhat defends Kurzgesagt in their issue with YouTube, it shows that the filter issue isn't just a problem with Kurzgesagt.

[–] definitemaybe@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 week ago

Really? I was just watching some of their newest videos with my son and we thought they were great. I haven't noticed a drop in quality.

[–] p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 week ago

That's what happens after a buyout.