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I keep thinking I should look into this MrBeast drama, then I remember I just do not give a single fuck.
I went through a h3h3 phase when I was like 20, then realised that any YT drama is just toxic and it’s best to avoid it entirely.
I miss Tom Scott, just made quality videos with none of the BS. Nothing over the top, just interesting content from a genuine guy who cares about his audience.
Technology Connections is a nice breath of fresh air in the YouTube space if you want something tech related
He's GREAT! I just wish he had more content... but then it probably wouldn't be as good. I guess I really wish I hadn't already binged his whole channel!
Cathod Ray Dude.
EDIT: There is also
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Calum - dude does weird deep dives on niche topics like secret bunkers from WWII, snow mobiles or camper planes.
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Our Own Devices - mostly 10min videos on old military devices.
I love Cathode Ray Dude and found him through TC. I absolutely love that kind of fact-based educational video that's just deep diving a single specific facet of technology.
There is also Our Own Devices channel. It is like a Micro CRD/TC but on military stuff.
I also love CRD. That guy can talk about a single scanner for over an hour.
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Just wait for Low Effort November
Have a look at Bobby Fingers.
Seconded. Incredible videos. True unfiltered art.
Bobby Duke's good too. Fairly talented, but also just a dad making sculptures while fuckin with cinematography.
I also like Tech ingredients, thought emporium. Though more on the practical here's what I did rather than informational/educational
This Old Tony (amazingly creative machining and engineering videos), look mum no computer, big Clive (quite technical electronics tho), hand tool rescue, and diresta are all good work/texhnical/engineering/craft based channels. Aging Wheels has evolved to much EV content, and has worked with technology connections. Our Own Devices has some interesting content too, but I’ve only seen a few of his videos.
This Old Tony is not a machinist channel.
It's a dad jokes channel that happens in a machinist's shop
Fair point. Even the edits are dad jokes, but I am a dad (even though I enjoyed the videos per dad hood).
His videos are so well researched and shot, if he's doing it all himself he's doing well to put out as much as he does
Same honestly 😂
Did you hear about Technology Connection’s beef with xQc?
Lol I would love that.
Lol is that a real thing? Why does anyone who's not 12 care what xQc thinks
Tom Scott was a good YouTuber because his ego was able to handle him voluntarily stepping down.
Destin at Smarter Every Day and Steven Mould seem like solid guys, and content similar to Tom Scott if you haven't seen them.
Destin's religion is a turnoff for me along with the inclusion of children. His reactions are way too over the top, too. Used to watch it a bunch but have slowly drifted away.
Same with Mark Rober
His content is good but why does he HAVE TO SHOUT ALL THE TIME. Just talk like a normal person ffs.
I definitely hate religion but I haven’t noticed any on Smarter Every Day. Does he talk about god? Recently I watched him talking to a researcher about the proton motors that power bacterial flagella and he kept saying he was getting emotional from noticing design features he’s had to implement himself on machines. But he didn’t say a word about god while doing that. It makes me emotional too just in wonder at the complexity of life.
EDIT: as I was shown by another member, he absolutely talks directly about god at the end of the video - I hadn’t watched far enough.
Actually, that was the video that really gave me a bad feeling about him after watching his videos for a long time. The way he ends the video saying "there is an active discussion on how something so complex could have developed because of its irreducible complexity" just seem like religious, creationist dog whistling and sowing doubt about evolution. He seems to be implying that such a structure could not have been produced by evolution and that there must be an intelligent designer. The book he recommends is also written by an religious, creationist philosopher.
Okay here’s my full transcript of what he said on this.
“This is fascinating stuff. It also opens up a huge debate. People say ‘how can something this complex come to be out of nothing?’ Well, the logic goes like this. If this motor system is composed of complex individual parts and al these parts work together to perform the overall function of rotating, then how did the individual parts come to be?”
“Did it all have to happen at the same time? Or is there some evolutionary advantage to the cell for every intermediate stage of development? Is 15% of this motor advantageous to the cell? What function would 50% of the structure perform? What were the steps these components took to assemble into such a complex molecular machine in the first place?”
“Scientists are trying to figure this out, and I encourage you to read their papers. Many seem to be focusing on the type 3 secretion system which works like a hypodermic needle that a cell can use to inject other things. This device looks similar but it’s quite different in its protein structure. The complexity and origin of the bacterial flagellar motor is a really interesting conundrum.”
“As I was a younger man and I would read things on the internet and find people saying ‘hey, you gotta believe all this over here.’ People say ‘hey, you gotta believe all this over here.’ There’s a big war going on between science and faith and you’re either in one camp or the other. Get your flag and figure out where you’re going to put your flag.”
“And the more I have matured and started to not really care about defending where my flag is, the more I’ve been able to learn from people no matter where they are. I’m still working on this.”
“There’s a really interesting book I’m reading. I can’t speak for everything in the book, I’m not done with it. It’s called Where the Conflict Reall Lies. And it talks about this interplay between science, religion, naturalism. It’s very interesting. It goes into more into the areas of philosophy and I love it because it challenges me and it’s fantastic. And this is what I would encourage you. If you have your flag in a camp somewhere, I would encourage you not to defend your flag. I would encourage you to look at a flagellar motor and just think about it. Think about how it is and what it be. It’s a fantastic thing to think about. How did this get here? You have intelligence and you get to make up your mind. And I love that about consciousness and I love that about life.”
“And so for me, the flagellar motor makes me happy. I feel joy. You know how when you go outside at night and you look up at the stars and you see all these stars and you feel small and you feel wonder. Thats what this makes me feel like, even though it is small. I feel awe and reverence toward this thing.”
(Okay so far so good, really. I mean it depends a lot on if that book really is just a defense of creationism. But there’s nothing here I can disagree with. And then…)
“And as a Christian, this makes me want to thank God that it exists. I feel compelled with gratitude that this thing is so awesome. So that’s just where I’m at. But what I would encourage you to do is just think critically. You have a brain. Don’t defend a flag. Just think about how things are. And I hope you are happy and experience the same joy I feel about this no matter what you think about it. So anyway, enough about that.”
Okay you’re right. He absolutely turns it to god at the end. It was a really intricately balanced little speech he was making there, and for 90% of it I thought he might be talking to Christians and helping them open their minds to possibilities. He talked about not getting dogmatic. And then he proclaimed “I’m a Christian and I thank god for this!” Which was a pretty idiotic 180 after everything he had just said about not planting flags. And that made me flip and think he was talking to atheists and trying to tickle us into being open to possibilities.
It makes me sad because he’s clearly very intelligent, but if you’re raised on religion it can be extremely hard to ever shed. It’s like getting someone to forget the language they used until they were 10. You can teach them any number of new languages but it’s unlikely they will forget that one.
Ah well. The book frankly does look like a fuck toy for Christians. One of those long winded philosophy gasbags that aims to make religion sound epistemologically exactly like science. Whatever.
Yeah, I also recently unsubscribed when I recognized the creationist bullshit seeping in. Glad I'm not the only one who noticed it.
@SPAUZPiMP @scarabic Oh wow, did he literally say "irreducible complexity?" That is SO blatant lol.
Not sure if he used the actual words but he was definitely making the point that it is extremely complex and any less complex version of it could not function. Which is exactly the concept of irreducible complexity
Edit: see @scarabic 's comment for a transcript of that part of the video
He asked if the complexity could be reduced or not, so he raised the topic. But he didn’t imply that the thing is too complex and can’t be reduced therefore god. He stopped short of that.
And it is a fair topic for anyone to think about. I’m an “atoms bouncing around” guy and I too want to know if the complexity can be reduced because if not, that means we must have waited a long long time for some of these assemblies to appear.
Maybe I am too paranoid from people "just asking questions" all the time but actually pushing something they are too afraid to say out loud, but to me it seemed like exactly that behaviour. If he was actually interested in providing information on that "debate" he could have talked about it with the actual experts in his video but he just leaves it as an open question. To my understanding this openness is a strong misrepresentation of the scientific consensus because this exact motor has been used by creationist for a while and their arguments have been debunked by scientist for years.
I think you’re right to be skeptical. And I think he’s at least a half step more honestly curious than most of the “just asking questions” douchebags. But there is a lot more to talk about on this subject that’s more interesting than whether or not “god did it.”
Ultimately I think of him as an engineer, and not a scientist. I think engineering is much more compatible with religion, because they cover orthogonal material. Engineering is all about “how” and religion is “why.” And the image of the great-engineer-in-the-sky is tempting to them, I think.
don't forget the whole "designed weapons" thing
Ah I didn’t catch that part. I’m going to go watch again.
Every single video ends on a black screen with a silhouette of a mouse wielding a sword with a Bible verse (just the book and number, not the actual text) on it.
Elsewhere, he does talk about it https://youtu.be/WDu2ldAxHyc
Edit: this is more of a how did you miss it than he's religious, it's in every single video, rather that an exhaustive list of where it leaks into the main parts of his videos. I stopped watching him, I'm not going to go combing back through to find examples.
Okay thanks. I’m not compelling you to find examples. How I missed it is I probably have never or almost never watched any of his videos to the final frame and then sat there examining what I saw. It’s YT and when the “thanks to my friends at xyz like and subscribe” talk begins I tend to move on.
I guess I don’t object to someone being christian and exhibiting some outward signs of their cultural membership in it, any more than I object to someone being Jewish and wearing a Star of David or someone having a Disney tattoo because that’s what they are into. as long as they aren’t pushing it or using it to judge others, I can live and let live, especially for someone who is doing a lot of other valuable things. But that’s just me. You do you.
I did absolutely stop watching Samurai Carpenter when he took an entire video to talk about how Jesus saved him from his alcoholism and porn addiction and saved his marriage, and he said it all in a very preachy way like all of you guys listening should find it in yourselves to do the same while you still have time. The guy is clearly a miserable SOB too so it just rang hypocritical as hell. THAT’s where my line is drawn.
Destin at Smarter Every Day
I enjoy his content and like him and his style but I still have a bitter taste in my mouth from him being a former missile guidance engineer at Redstone and making this low-key military ad series. I mean he has been pretty upfront about his past career and such but he also knows that his channel is probably watched by a lot of children.
I don't know, something feels off about it.
Destin is so American and military power it creeps me out.
Mould is great. Matt Parker too.
Matt Parker has the best theme music on YouTube.
Channels with absolutely zero drama that are still active and I would describe as " interesting content made by someone who cares about it" :
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cracking the cryptic: solving sudoku puzzles twice daily
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chessnetwork: explaining famous chess matches and occasionally playing online chess, but with none of the bro culture that has grown up around chess recently
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Folding ideas: great video essays about film or modern phenomena like NFTs
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Technology connections: already reccommended, but in depth explanations about how electronics work
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Language Jones: videos about linguistics and learning new languages
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Numberphile/StandUpMaths- interesting math videos
If you like gaming YouTubers, there are plenty who try their best to stay drama-free.
RTGame, Spiffing Brit, AmbiguousAmphibian, Dunkey, Game Grumps, General Sam just to name a few.
i would add tomatoanus for speedruns. really appreciate that he makes a point to remind people to be kind to themselves.
I prefer EazySpeezy for speedruns, personally. He's no-nonsense, straight to the point.
Add Computerphile to the list too! Great stuff.
How Dare you not mention dougdoug!
Doesnt he(technically, as a joke) have drama?
We don't speak ill of the master..
r/wehatedougdoug does, but thats on reddit
There should be a c/WeHatedOugDoug
I've seen a lot more chessnetwork drama than you'd believe
Really! That does surprise me
Actually I mixed them up with a different channel. Hard to differentiate them by name when half of them are "Chess" plus some other word lol
Vsauce2 has some amazing ones, the videos about problems with the justice system are well worth a watch
I'd like to add to the list a few entries on history and physics channels:
-The Histocrat: in depth video essays regarding the history of many neolithic to bronze age cultures around the world as well as the history of several mythological creatures.
-Fall of Civilizations: podcast describing a detailed picture of many ancient cultures around the world, from their beginings to their golden ages to their fall.
-North02: EXTREMELY detailed videos (sometimes bordering on documentaries) about many stone age cultures and topics, I loved his essay on neanderthals and just how long it was.
-Trey the Explainer: great YouTube channel talking about many topics that often dive into history. I recommend watching his video on the first joke in history.
-Angela Collier: AMAZING channel regarding physics with the great Angela Collier, if I remember correctly she has a PhD and has explained many physics topics history of physics and physics as an academic field.
-PBS SpaceTime: I think this one is WAY more recognized but in case it is not, this channel is physics oriented and also provided very detailed explanations of many topics of the field.
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Primitive Technology: Just a guy out in the forest making stuff by hand, absolutely no talking, no drama. It's somehow relaxing to watch. He may have even built the camera itself out of sticks and stones.
I think it's awesome that the silent vibes were an accident. He just didn't want to have to explain everything while he was doing it and found it easier to summarize in the closed captions afterward. People fell in love with the vibe, so he kept it up.
Honestly he got a ton of people into ASMR that didn't even know such a thing existed.
you can just make up two stupid names in your head and get all the benefit of youtube drama - here:
did you hear than Zzzamboney copied a video from Mr457? Turns out that the latest in ZB's "I'm a chicken" series is actually 457's "Birdalike" vid but with the turkeys swapped for chickens.
10/10 would be outraged again
You might like Anton Petrov. He’s a science youtuber that does a different video every day. He mostly focuses on space science but he's pretty uncontroversial. I like his videos a lot.
Anton is the GOAT if you're into space. He basically spends all his time reading recent scientific papers and then summarizes them for a general audience without exaggerating or editorializing like you see with most other science reporting.
He's perfect for anyone with a deep love of science who wants to keep up with the very latest developments but doesn't have the time to keep up with the 'literature'.
If you’re into space youtubers i also recommend Dr Becky. She’s an astrophysicist who specializes in black hole research.
Doctor Becky is awesome as well!
Also PBS Spacetime if you're looking for something with a higher production value and that dips more into the theoretical side of things.
I like Anton's content. The forced smile at the end always kind of weirds me out a bit. I'm sure there's a story behind it or something. But that's not a comment on the content he produces. It's definitely watchable
I keep thinking I should look into this MrBeast drama, then I remember I just do not give a single fuck.
You represent me
Check out Camping with Steve. It's the antithesis of drama. Dude just wants to sleep weird places and have a quiet beer, as far as I can tell.
Steve is a good man and he deserves all the success he finds. Him losing people close to him so close together must've been incredibly tough and I'm happy he hasn't hung it up yet.
RIP Beautiful Wife and Crazy Neighbor. They'll be waiting for him in the hereafter with a trusty Step 2
I think Atomic Frontier is the closest channel we have to Tom right now, though I would never say that on his comment section. He might get too pressured lol
SmarterEveryDay is nice too, though that's more focused on engineering stuff.
I like his enthusiasm and energy, but he also gives me weird vibes. Might be normal for redneck Americans, but I find it strange that his kids address him with "Sir".
If you like "car stuff," Sleeperdude is top of the charts, and I've got a list of other channels too many to list here. Language? RobWords. Math? Numberphile and Stand-up Maths. General interesting stuff? Joe Scott (unrelated).
I like Aging Wheels.
And SuperfastMatt! He shows the messy process of backyard engineering, doesn’t waste your time or yell at you, and there’s a little dry humor in there
I'm desperate for drama-free car stuff. I was excited that Pumphrey stepped away from everything to start his own channel, then his first video was him emotionally talking into the camera for 45 minutes.
Some of the old Donut crew, especially including Jeremy, have formed BigTime which is so far very good.
And since you're desperate, I'll throw down a bunch for you here:
Aging Wheels bart Bart's Car Stories driving 4 answers Ed's Auto Reviews FortNine Junkyard Digs Mortske Repair Moto Control (motorcycle riding advice) Robot Cantina (doesn't get nearly enough love) SuperfastMatt The Bearded Mechanic
I'm working on starting up my own channel for motorcycle revivals, I think there's room for one more, but I am not ready to advertise it yet.
Vice Grip Garage is also a good vintage car rescue channel like Digs.
Have you tried Driving 4 Answers? He goes more into the engineering side of things, but he's got a great presentation style. He's kind of like the Technology Connections of automotive information.
You are so cool for not caring about exploitation of vulnerable people by one of their peers.
You're not going to win over people with condescension. You do see the irony of being a dick while trying to defend people, right?
haha wait till you see the generation of fuckups that growing up on youtube will produce. The Elsagate generation will be a special and wholly new kind of damaged.
You can feel free to not give a fuck but you will still have to deal with the consequences as they age into society with all the moral framework of a spiky haired n-bomb dropping shock streamer.
The older generation survived 4chan and worse. We'll be fine.
Right lmao.
Younger folk, all the content you think about being on the "darkweb?" That was just the web. 🤣
I remember a time when seeing a gif of someone getting their head blown off was basically restricted to sites like rotten.com and the more edgy forums.
Now they're used on 9gag like punctuation to a joke...
And people tell me not to take it so seriously, it's only a gif...
When 4channers came of age they started live streaming shooting up churches, I wonder what gen alpha will choose to do with their careless meme violence.
