me_irl

There's a browser extension to replace click bait by user-generated descriptive titles. I always forget the name tho. It also works with Freetube.

I think h3 is kind of a hidden nexus of fringe->main stream internet culture throughout the last like 15 years. Every wave Ethan has ridden has never been the main thing, it's always right on the periphery of mainstream internet culture. That way he has cultivated a tiny amount of fans from every wave but never enough to get him into the public eye, and as a result everyone who knows him thinks they know someone "under ground" and he doesn't shy away from that branding.

I don't think it's Machiavellian. I think it's more just that Ethan has always held incoherent views (like everyone in the world) and his brand is to be unapologetically opinionated, so now that he's dug his heels in on Gaza there's no moving him until he has fully crashed and burned.

I mean he's Jewish and his wife is from Israel, they have family members or at least know people personally who are in Israel and have their whole life, so the propaganda they've been fed is ingrained in their family identity.

It's not an excuse, it's sad to see, but as you pointed out he's always declared himself a "capitalist" and has taken some pretty right wing positions. It's just to say it's not intentional, just a stupid dude who doesn't work to hard to form opinions about stuff. I wouldn't say this about every grifter, it's just that H3 started out much more innocently and I don't think they spent a decade keeping up a ruse like that I think it was genuine. I mean you really think he was doing Vape Nashe videos concocting how he was going to infiltrate internet culture to push right wing propaganda?

Para social relationships are hard. You think you get to know someone over the years watching their videos. I would even watch the videos he would put on his daughter's channel. The videos of him just cooking.

I thought he was a smart guy even with some of his gruff persona.

Oddly enough, one of the first cracks in that facade was a BOLTR video taking apart a Hitachi wand or knockoff. He was so weirdly prudish about the idea of a woman actually using one in a way that didn't feel like a joke. But I convinced myself it was probably a joke, because...why would he be weird about that?

But the trucker protest videos hit me like a cement truck. It actually really bummed me out. I texted my dad and he said something to the effect of, "Oh well, his videos have been shit anyway."

The mice are in their pants!