> This leads the platform to publish dodgy stories from the right, with the appearance that they are just as valid as high-fact reporting from the left or the center.
Sadly, this is downstream of mainstream news itself. I think if Ground News attempted to truly solve this problem, the right would condemn Ground News as "fake news" or controlled by Soros like they do Wikipedia.
I'm looking to be skeptical of Ground News, because almost all YouTube sponsors are scams, and we remember Honey was recently exposed as a scam, but this isn't enough to convince me.
Ground News makes all news be about left versus right. It teaches its users to approach everything as a political battle.
We have enough "left-leaning skeptics" and "right-leaning skeptics", even some "neutral skeptics", but barely any skeptics.
The word "skeptic" is poisoned by I will continue to use it. That's intentional.
this NYT opinion piece from a few years back was impactful to my understanding about the destructive nature of such a false dichotomy - as it pertains to Lebanon
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/09/opinion/trump-beirut-poli...
Essentially that in a state of sectarian politics, everything is political.
> ..."During the course of the dinner, someone mentioned the unusual hailstorms that had pelted Beirut the previous two nights. Everyone offered an explanation for this extreme weather event, before Malcolm, tongue in cheek, asked his guests, “Do you think the Syrians did it?”...
Honey, Established Titles, BetterHelp, 7CupsofTea, RAID Shadow Legends, FTX, OperaGX, AG1, Factor, HelloFresh, AirUp. How many am I missing? How much more do we need to see to be convinced?
I won’t use Ground News or Brilliant (I tried it in 2019 and was unimpressed) because they market so aggressively, something doesn’t smell right!
Don't forget Incogni, I was tempted to subscribe but as you point out, when you see the other kind of services/products youtubers tend to peddle, it gives me pause.
Look at its owners. You have good reason to be skeptical about incogni.
They’re never services that the YouTuber vets.
NordVPN, they're the most aggressive.
Is it a good product? Genuine question
Works ok. Friend shared their account. Proven useful few times.
Their app wants persistence and they had sister who sells residential proxies, if you catch my drift.
There's also ExpressVPN
To be a bit pedantic, I think that YouTube sponsors aren't necessarily scams, but are definitely not generally good products or deals. It's a spectrum.
> because almost all YouTube sponsors are scams
Anything advertising on youtube or podcasts is a negative indicator for me as these platforms have followed the path of talk radio in having a very high ratio of the products that advertise on them being dodgy if not outright scams.
I'm sure there are exceptions that are totally fine, but the pattern follows often enough that if I don't have a pre-existing relationship with a brand before seeing/hearing a youtube or podcast ad for it, it goes into the scam bucket in my head just through the negative advertising platform connection.
I saw something a while back about how to start a watch company. Essentially source some junk, use highly targeted social media ads to look like a real brand, then profit.
https://imgur.com/a/how-to-create-unique-successful-minimali...