A few weeks ago, I was trying to see if I could fix my YouTube suggestion algorithm to see if it could start recommending videos I might actually like instead of constantly trying to force-feed me right wing garbage. As it had been frequently observed to do. I deleted fifteen years of viewing history, deleted nearly all the accumulated interest keywords I just hadn’t been paying attention to, and finally consciously curated my at that moment kind of massive follow list. A lot of experimental, noise and witch house musicians that had pivoted to right-wing culture war content while I wasn’t looking. A lot of hack-a-day, circuit-bending and retro-gaming channels that had pivoted to right-wing culture war content while I wasn’t looking. A lot of movie summary and review channels that had… you get the idea.
And then I noticed I was following an old Alex Jones-associated Youtube channel, that I probably clicked follow on somewhere in the mid-00s. And you might be thinking ”what, why?” So let me get this out of the way.