Devccoon

You're not being realistic if you think we can't beat car dependency, or we have to completely eliminate cars from society. We need to eliminate the system that ensures that cars are the only option, something everyone is forced to own because they make everything else far less safe and convenient. That is a choice that is repeatedly and consistently made in favor of car dominance over humans, and it shouldn't be.

Yeah, the framing is cutting off/hiding most of the bird.

Lately there's been this weird undertone of discomfort in Linus' videos, and I think I now understand why. He does a great job appearing to be a decent and relatable guy who's just being mean for a gag, but it's becoming more clear that's not a bit. His relationship with the people he appears with on camera only seems to work because there's a back and forth in their quips and insults. Whenever he's on with someone who's not a staple of the channel, there's this sense that he's untouchable, that he can dish it out but grounds for pushback are shaky at best. Communication overall seems to suck, and there's never not a Disappointed Linus moment when he's involved in a project. You can really feel the unnecessary stress he's piling onto the situation, and if it's that obvious on-camera, how bad is it when nobody else is around? Or for the employees who feel like a bit of a squeaky wheel? It's been clear for a long time that Linus is a cheapskate (he openly complains about relatively acceptable prices for the silly stuff he's doing in videos pretty often) but for some reason in the back of my mind I thought maybe he wasn't so stingy as a boss, where it counts. Wouldn't bet on it now.

For someone who's even a little bit out of place at LMG, I can 100% see how Linus has built a toxic work culture. It should speak volumes that nearly everyone, when given a chance to speak without Linus' final say on the video, expresses much the same criticism toward his hustle culture. They don't have the time they need to do good work, I don't get the sense that they have a supportive and creative environment conducive to enjoying the process, and the output is clearly suffering.

Linus' initial response dropped the ball harder than anything he's dropped in his storied career of dropping things. But even if his response was heartening, the further reports of toxic culture and fanbase are enough for me to keep my distance. I'm going to miss their flavor of "tech nerd fun" videos, but the "Linus is a bad guy" Pandora's box is open, and it's going to take a lot of goodwill before I can just enjoy their videos again. Sad to see another titan of Youtube let it all go to his head, but this just goes to show that success doesn't make a man better, it just makes him more powerful.

That one took me a sec

I'd rather people be communists with ideals I find fundamentally flawed and unrealistic, than libertarian or capitalist types of a similar nature.

We're never going to go down the communist route, at least in the USA. But libertarianism and capitalism go hand in hand. The absolute free market ideals they'll merrily skip along in lock-step toward would doom (and are actively dooming) us all.

And realistically, what's this guy going to do? Someone with libertarian principles might support politicians that cause real harm. Someone with fascist principles might carry out their extreme ideas in a violent manner. A communist might... what, give all his money to the government? Support a politician who will never see real power? I don't see the threat.