15 votes

Topic deleted by author

6 comments

  1. [5]
    davidb
    Link
    Something I didn't see discussed in the previous discussion that still bothers me is the fact that Destin is a US Department of Defense (US Army) employee. I think he can still be honest, but the...

    Something I didn't see discussed in the previous discussion that still bothers me is the fact that Destin is a US Department of Defense (US Army) employee. I think he can still be honest, but the video that kicked off this entire series was commissioned by a US Army Four Star General while Destin was employed under him. Destin even says in that video, "this video is a weapon." In the Twitter video we're discussing in this thread, he mentions being contacted by NATO's Strategic Communications Center of Excellence and interviews Sebastian Bay on the topic of the social media black market.

    The reason this bothers me - this whole series is disguised propaganda by a state actor calling out disguised propaganda by state actors. Even more ironic, Destin uses all the FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) that he stirs up to plug his VPN advertiser. Even funnier, as he determined in the previous video - most of these bot-based/fake accounts on YouTube and Twitter weren't actually state actors trying to manipulate platforms for political benefit and were instead clever folks trying to exploit the platforms for economic benefit (getting ad clicks). That's exactly what he's doing (manipulate you with fear-mongering video content so you want to secure yourself by signing up for this VPN service that paid for this series).

    I don't doubt that both economic and politically-motivated fraud are very real problems for these platforms, but I feel the impact is being overstated for political reasons, which is why I think it is important to discuss Destin's employment by DoD.

    All that said, I do agree with one of Destin's conclusions - that the way to combat this problem is by people developing better skepticism skills to assist their evaluation of accuracy, credibility, perspective, and relevance of potential propaganda.

    9 votes
    1. [2]
      Comment deleted by author
      Link Parent
      1. davidb
        Link Parent
        Absolutely! I will add that "fearmongering the fearmongering" wasn't my goal, but concede it's a fair critique. I didn't and don't really have a strong conclusion, which might be why it came off...

        It's skepticism all the way down!

        Absolutely!

        I will add that "fearmongering the fearmongering" wasn't my goal, but concede it's a fair critique. I didn't and don't really have a strong conclusion, which might be why it came off as fearmongering. My primary claim is simply that it feels icky to me that the DoD + this VPN advertiser paid him to make this series. That doesn't contradict that there could be (and I will say that there is) some good information discussed in the video. All my claim does is provide motive and perspective (the series is US-military sponsored propaganda - we know because Destin says so in the video I linked).

        As for why the US DoD would pay for this series? I really don't know. My top guess would be to lobby public opinion and government for more funding for military multi-domain operations (particularly cyber and "human"). I would also think it is a useful recruiting tool - I'm sure plenty of tech-minded folks that watch Destin's channel have more of an interest in US national security jobs as a result of seeing that video. But, I can't make very strong claims for either, which is why I ended up more or less rambling around such claims in my first comment.

        We can debate whether or not the VPN advertiser influenced Destin (and can't really know for sure whether it did or not unless Destin says that it did), but I still think my claim of irony (which is the point I was trying to make by calling out the VPN ad) is valid.

        7 votes
    2. [3]
      yellow
      Link Parent
      Is it really disguised if the video that was almost a "part 0" in the series featured a general saying it was a weapon? That video was outright naked propaganda and this is closely tied to it.

      disguised propaganda

      Is it really disguised if the video that was almost a "part 0" in the series featured a general saying it was a weapon? That video was outright naked propaganda and this is closely tied to it.

      2 votes
      1. [2]
        davidb
        Link Parent
        Ya, I debated whether or not to call it "disguised" because I agree - he calls it out pretty clearly, but calling it "disguised" went along too well with the flow to not use it. Poetic license?

        Ya, I debated whether or not to call it "disguised" because I agree - he calls it out pretty clearly, but calling it "disguised" went along too well with the flow to not use it. Poetic license?

        1 vote
        1. yellow
          Link Parent
          Well sure, the video I mentioned also gives a good example of undisguised propaganda and this series is more disguised. So I guess it isn't entirely unfair.

          Well sure, the video I mentioned also gives a good example of undisguised propaganda and this series is more disguised. So I guess it isn't entirely unfair.

          2 votes
  2. yellow
    Link
    At almost the very end of the video Destin mentions possibly doing a fourth episode on Reddit. Now THAT could be interesting. This series has been pretty fluffy so far, because it is an...

    At almost the very end of the video Destin mentions possibly doing a fourth episode on Reddit. Now THAT could be interesting. This series has been pretty fluffy so far, because it is an engineering channel and the interesting solutions are secret (and the known ones are fairly well known, like the video affects used to dodge detection). If he does do one Reddit, it would at least be interesting to see someone cover it even if it doesn't have much content.

    3 votes