Guess which one of these videos contained harsh criticism of the modern media and mild implied criticism of YouTube itself?
Yes. The one in the middle with all the views stripped away from it.
All things being equal, a Yellowstone video with an erupting geyser in the thumbnail should have done at least as well as the more random road trip videos posted the day before and the day after.
But things are not equal.
Things are rigged
… via algorithmic fuckery, against any opinion, any content, that might get in the way of corporate profits. It’s the same on all the behemoth platforms, including X. Shadowbanning and suppression are built seamlessly into their systems.
The thoughts I shared in the Limitations of the YouTube Platform before the trip are the same and just a little more intense after it.
The intensity is sharpening the strategies I will use in the future. For example, I’m not going to post on YT itself anything further that directly or indirectly challenges Google’s business model and ethos of capitalist and democratic exceptionalism. I will instead contingently engage in … self-censorship of some crafty sort, by editing out any such heresy for the YT versions of my work, and only alluding to the fact that uncensored versions of it can be found at my Patreon site (my alt-choice for the time being), and/or here at the Spill.
If Patreon falters I’ll engage in further tactical retreat to Substack or Rumble or Odysee or beyond, but so far they’ve been even more generous and cool than they initially committed to being.
May it go on being so.
You can help by becoming a member at Patreon dot com slash vairtere (there is a completely free version of membership that gets you 99.9% of everything for zero dollars, cents, or commitment of any sort), and watching my full vids routinely from there.
As always, thank you for the spirit of your support, for the time you invest, and for the attention you pay whether or not you pay literally. Being read, heard, and seen is a large part of what makes this worthwhile to me, and as for money I am ever more inclined to trust that the lord will provide so long as his prophet remains faithful to The Truth and not the oh so very profitable lies.