this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2023
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Personally, I find his Linux and privacy-related endeavors commendable, but I widely disregard of his political stances.

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[–] Fuckfuckmyfuckingass 104 points 8 months ago

I think he's a good source of knowledge, but definitely has his biases. I especially think it's funny when he laments corpo bullshit, but then defends their right to do the bullshit. As with most libertarians, he gets close to the point and then nose dives off the bad takes cliff.

As with most things, learn what you can, lionize no one.

[–] [email protected] 67 points 8 months ago (5 children)

He's very edgy, I don't like his content. If I want someone to talk about tech, I'd rather they just talk about tech and not make wojack thumbnails and constantly making fun of politics.

[–] [email protected] 48 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

If he only knew anything about politics, it wouldn't be so bad. He seriously applauded Elon Musk for "fighting" against media bias by "the far-left democrats". 🫠

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It's because he just regurgitates all his takes from /g/ on 4chan.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

For people on 4chan that is as close to developing an own personality as possible. I feel pity for them.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago

I agree, but the thumbnails are nice.

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[–] alvvayson 62 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Good on privacy and monero. I wish he would do more hands-on I2P and Monero stuff.

Dislike the politics. But alt-right sympathizers have been part of the scene ever since I can remember.

I prefer the European cyperpunk scene. Less guns and bootlicking, more sticking it to the man. Sadly, we aren't really producing much English language content, so Americans still have an edge online.

[–] UnfortunateShort 15 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I love how you casually ignored the existence of English speaking countries in Europe. I think at least Ireland deserves better lol

[–] alvvayson 7 points 8 months ago

For sure, but population wise they are also just smaller. Not that many British/Irish content creators relative to the Americans.

The USA dominates the anglosphere.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

How can I get into this "European cyberpunk scene"? I am bilingual. Do you mind linking some channels or online communities you like?

[–] [email protected] 40 points 8 months ago

I spent so much of my time in the Gentoo community fixing things that have gone wrong through newbies taking his advice as gospel. I'd be happy if he never made another video, and that's outside of, well, everything else.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I disagree with his right-wing libertarianism, as many have said. I found him when i was getting into tech privacy stuff and watched it, then youtube started giving me more of the harder weirdos who were a little more fashy. I dont think Mental Outlaw is a facist, dont get me wrong - but the youtube algorithm may send you that direction.

I think his older stuff was better and just had more content in each video. More recent videos (last 6-12 months?) it seems like he's got two news articles he reads but then he just goes on big tangents to fill space.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Same as Luke smith, good linux content but they both cryptofascists. Also its funny that they both turned into grifters, one with monero and one with a shitty dropshipping merch.

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[–] Caboose12000 32 points 8 months ago

as an American who just recently got into Linux, I genuinely thought he was a parody channel when I first found him. everything from his mannerisms to his motivations seems perfectly in line with the less than pleasant stereotypes of Linux dweebs, and I think if he was my only source of Linux content I probably wouldn't have gotten into Linux when I did.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 8 months ago

His political stance is garbage but has some usefull videos llike degoogling lineageos

[–] [email protected] 30 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Anything with pepe the frog or anime in the thumbnails or anybody that says "based" is not worth it in my opinion.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Well he's kinda ironic about that

[–] [email protected] 21 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

Yeah, nah, I don't think that's true my dude. I've heard his opinions on the gay agenda, 5g, trans people, and 'cultural marxism' being taught in our schools. I think it's just as serious as the place he gets alot of his views, the image boards we all know. It's the same irony you see on 4chan

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

When did he ever talk about those things? Did I miss something?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

You can watch the podcast, or longer form political videos, that lukesmith does where he goes onbut he also peppers it into his videos every so often. I haven't watched in a while, so maybe he's calmed down a bit, but he seems to do this more frequently around major events

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[–] shotgun_crab 26 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I'd prefer not to associate linux content with politics of any kind, but he's enjoyable sometimes

[–] [email protected] 25 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Tech content is passable, wish he'd stick to that. Been losing points with politics, cheap merch and lazying out with what basically amounts to reaction videos.

Any other recommendations for tech content? Seytonic and The new oil are nice.

[–] turbowafflz 16 points 8 months ago

Brodie Robertson and The Linux Experiment are probably my favorites for non-vintage tech content

[–] [email protected] 24 points 8 months ago

Love his content, he is quite entertaining, even when just doing a cooking video, has some good takes and some bad takes but who doesnt at this point.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I like his content, he covers open source tech pretty well imo. I don't agree with his opinions on guns, but I live in a country where any sort of weapons are pretty hard to get and violent crimes are very low. I won't understand the fear/anxiety of Americans living in open carry states, so take this opinion how you will. I don't really have any opinion on anyone's political opinions, including his. I do think it's cool how he has a chicken farm, a step towards self sustaining ig.

[–] shinnoodles 15 points 8 months ago (3 children)

As an American who has to hear about shootings pretty consistently, I'd like to say the fear can be pretty justified. I don't really know what it's like to live in a world without guns and their presence, so it's hard to imagine life without the necessity of them to protect yourself. It's just one of those things that's hard to understand unless you've lived in it I guess.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I suspect the whole geographic thing also plays into it.

Where I live, you're never more than 15 minutes from a police station. Maybe half an hour if you live in the middle of nowhere. There are also more than enough cops to go around. I can imagine if you live 4 hours from a police station in the middle of nowhere, or somewhere with 24hr response times, you would want a gun for protection. I certainly would.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I'm clueless european now living in a country where guns are generally available to trained and vetted to some degree public and I was always puzzled by US self-defense culture, some parts of it simply do not compute to me.

Like how does it work? Are gun owners in America spending reasonable amount of time at the range? Any gun is as good as your training. Safe handling should be muscle memory at the very least to promote an individual from a danger to themselves and people around (not necessarily to an attacker) to someone who is able to hold a gun. Then comes actual shooting practice, which will improve chances of achieving intended things with this gun.

Also strange obsession with high-power calibers, even knowledgeable gun bloggers mentioning things like .357 magnum in self-defense context. Did people really try to shoot them indoors without hearing protection? Do they really mind what's behind their target, i.e your kid sleeping in the room next door. High-powered round is a responsibility, however a lot of people talk about them like they are toys.

I really hope I'm missing something or maybe gun handling culture is really common knowledge over there not worth mentioning, because looking at the general public pretty much everywhere I've been - there's no way I'd trust them with a gun. It takes some dedication to learn, even if it seems simple.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

If you want to purchase a firearm in the US, there will be a background check at time of purchase. To check if your a felon or have done serious crimes. After purchase of firearms you can do anything with them on private property as long as it is legal (no homicide or hunting). However you can protect land with the newly acquired firearm depending on your states statues on protecting property. For example where I live there's a statue for protecting livestock (cows, pigs, horses, lamas and allpacas) if any animal tries to harm or kill anything that falls into the catorgory of livestock. Which gives you the right to shoot it under circumstance.

Aswell as If you want to conceal Carry (having a firearm on you in public in places that don't explicitly say no firearms) You need to take a class where they teach you, don't shoot at something your not willing to part with. Treat ever gun as if it is loaded. Know whats beyond your target Etc.

I think there should be more training on firearms. And when to and not use them.

Its not that guns are bad, people are bad aswell as stupid. I also must add that this is my opinion and your are welcome to your own. And please be civil if you do replie.

Also people need to stop generalizing (left wants this) (right wants this) Its stupid not everybody is an extremist. So not everybody in a certain party or race agrees with outlandish stuff.

There's my 2 cents Everybody have a nice day/night!! Cheers,

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Informative tech content. I'm right leaning but more towards the center so I don't agree with everything he says politically speaking, but I have no issues viewing his content since at the end of the day he's still libertarian and anti-establishment. I also have no problems holding conversations with the anarcho socialists on lemmy, because at the end of the day they're also not advocating for more control over my life, we just have disagreements on the technical details of how society should work.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago

Holy shit as a socialist this is the most grounded and respectable take I have ever seen.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago

Very much agreed, his tech stuff and farming is good content, but the rest I do not agree with in any shape or form.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I agree, come of as an american libertarian, but at least he's not on the weirder side of the political ideology with age of consent (from my limited knowledge of him)

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I see everyone talk about his politics but what do you expect the man to do. Not stand up for his ideological support for FOSS technology and not talk about radical new technology such as the 3D printing of guns?

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I actually haven't found much value in his videos lately. I followed him during the time that he was covering more informational topics like android ROMs and a smattering of how to walkthroughs. Haven't seen anything like that in awhile. The few I have watched have basically been news bites about some event in the tech world. I guess those are OK, but still not super helpful in discovering new tech or services.

Now that I think back, he did do a video on how to switch from sudo to doas in Linux, which was awesome. One or two videos like that are enough to keep me monitoring the channel.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Is that supposed to be the name of a person?

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

He tends to just read a few articles and that's boring to me. I like how schizo anti government he is.

I'm curious what political stances you disagree with because he only seems to talk about online privacy and guns.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (4 children)

What are his political stances?

[–] rtxn 19 points 8 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (8 children)

Right wing libertarian, to be a bit more precise.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I'd agree on the problem with the political stances. He often gets is right but then somehow jumps to the wrong conclusions.

[–] endhits 7 points 8 months ago

Disagree with his politics, but otherwise based.

[–] woelkchen 7 points 8 months ago

Can't remember ever hearing that name.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

The next Terry Davis. Starting with the open source chicken farm of course.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

I used to like his content and his videos got me into linux but i feel that his newer videos have a lot more politics compared to the older ones and i very much disagree with most of his political views i don't realy watch him anymore

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

I really liked watching him at my beginnings with privacy and Linux, but now all things he talk about I already know earlier from Lemmy and Mastodon.

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