Articles

YouTube's biggest stars keep turning to be massive racists

by Judah Weinerman | 11/20/2018

 In the swirling vortex of unhinged toxicity and rampant moronic behavior that was 2014-era YouTube, one content team stood out as being somewhat watchable and personable. That braintrust was h3h3 productions, comprised of  husband and wife team Ethan and Hila Klein. In the channel’s halcyon days, Ethan specialized in goofy reviews of bizzare internet videos, which he reacted to with a mix of disgust and outsized enthusiasm. If you desperately needed someone to make fun of DJ Khaled hitting on women in an abandoned pier on a jetski at 3 a.m., or laugh at a fake prank video involving a group of grown men calling themselves “The Salad Boys,” h3h3 was just the ticket. The combination of the overenthusiastic, loudmouthed Ethan and the shy, sardonic Hila was a winning one. 

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Conservative Democrats reach a new zenith of uselessness

by Judah Weinerman | 11/13/2018

  After a brutally long primary election cycle and a head-spinning run-up to the general election, the 2018 midterm elections are finally behind us. Sure, the heralded “blue wave” was more of a blue splash, but Democrats took back the House of Representatives and evened the score in governor’s mansions across the country. A new wave of exciting progressive politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) represent the likely future of the Democratic party, marking the first time the Democratic Party has bothered to actually care about people since 1967.   

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Meet incels, the internet's resident anti-women hate brigades

by Judah Weinerman | 10/30/2018

 For those of you lucky enough not to know, the term incel is a contracted version of the phrase “involuntary celibate” and describes a person who defines themselves as unable to find a romantic or sexual partner despite desiring one. In its current use, self-described incels are overwhelmingly white and male, and their behavior centers around a seething resentment towards women, girls and conventionally successful men. 

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Prager University's slick production masks deep-seated hatred

by Judah Weinerman | 10/23/2018

 Between the untold amount of Fortnite streamers that secretly love Hitler and “Top 10 Drops of Sweat That Rolled Down LeBron’s Face” YouTube videos, you might encounter advertisements put out by a group called Prager University. Calling them ads is a bit of a stretch, because most of them run in the four minute range. In fact, these ads are the channel’s uncut content, stuck in front of the actual video you were trying to watch. These videos are slickly produced lectures that claim to be short, information-dense overviews of contemporary historical and political issues. As their slogan goes, “Short Videos: Big Ideas.” What’s so terrible about that, you may ask?  

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It's well past time: Get rid of Columbus Day once and for all

by Judah Weinerman | 10/16/2018

 If you believe the federal government, the Monday respite that we receive in early October is known as Columbus Day, named for the Italian explorer and inexplicable American cultural icon. According to old horrible textbooks written by dead white people, brave hero Christopher Columbus risked everything  and discovered America. Leaving a decrepit Europe where simpletons thought the Earth was flat and that the edge of the world was hanging out somewhere in the Atlantic, Columbus and his steadfast crew found the New World and ushered in a new era of history.  

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70th Emmys descend further into white mediocrity

by Judah Weinerman | 09/25/2018

If you watched the Emmy Awards last weekend, congratulations! You probably don’t exist. The award show — perennially denied the coveted “least relevant” spot by the god-awful Grammys — limped into its 70th showing in typical fashion and was rewarded with the lowest Nielsen ratings in its history. Questionable choices abounded in hosting, nominations and award selection. 

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What in the world is going on with Elon Musk?

by Judah Weinerman | 09/18/2018

 At one point in time, no name generated quite as much enthusiasm and reverence in business or engineering as Elon Musk’s. The sharp-witted and eccentric founder and CEO of Paypal, Tesla, SpaceX and the Boring Company was the rock star of Silicon Valley, a spark of excitement amid a wave of Harvard dropouts in matching gray hoodies. Musk’s promised innovations were straight out of the Isaac Asimov novels that he once quoted regularly. 

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Acknowledge growing need for Israel-Palestine peace talks

by Judah Weinerman | 05/15/2018

Persistently bedeviling world leaders since 1948 and contributing to a great deal of misery in the region itself, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict appears to be going nowhere.  

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Shed no tears over the departure of Paul Ryan

by Judah Weinerman | 04/17/2018

 To the departing Ryan, I can only offer one piece of advice: Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. While one would hope that Ryan would manage to summon the barest amount of a backbone now that he’s no longer reliant on voter appeal, I suspect that he’ll remain just as craven as ever and enable President Donald Trump’s worst behaviors right until the very end. 

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Condemn Facebook’s lax attitude toward user information theft

by Judah Weinerman | 03/27/2018

  If you want an example of how Facebook has failed its users, look no further than Cambridge Analytica. Founded in part by Steve Bannon, this conservative political consulting firm has found itself at the center of a recent debacle for Facebook. A March 17 New York Times article revealed that Cambridge Analytica had accessed the personal information of millions of American Facebook users without their permission. 

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