People on Lemmy sure are just pissed off all the time huh? This is an interesting project at the very least and highlights just how difficult it is to truly make something in America, and does a decent job of explaining why it's bad that it's that difficult. Y'all need to just chill.
this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2025
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Constant purity testing, and invalidating everything someone says because you disagree on a couple issues 💀
There are six components to this grill scrubber and at least two are from foreign source. The chain mail is from China and the top knob is from Costa Rica. He also said the handle string is of unknown source. I'm bit disappointed that he just slapped a Made in USA label on it and called it good. For 75 dollars I expect a bit better.
I wish Destine broke down the cost of every component of the scrubber and how he ended up with the $75 price tag at the end. He did that with the chain mail but didn't discuss the cost associated with any other part of the process. That leads me to believe this video was more leaning towards making money rather actually trying to get to the bottom of problem with manufacturing a product in the US. Sadly I'm left disappointed.
I think thats a kinda dumb purity test when they clearly did put a lot of effort into actually trying, and I don't see why its better if they threw away the supply they already mistakenly bought.
No I'm not suggesting that he throw away perfectly good materials. I disagree that he put a lot of effort into really trying. There was little to no follow up after discovering the parts weren't from US. There was no attempt to contact the American chain mail supplier about limited capacity. Why is it that they can only supply so little amount? What would it take to increase capacity? Is it lack of people, machinery or investment? We don't know because it wasn't in the video. Same thing with the knobs that came from Costa Rica. There was no follow up. He didn't even try to source knobs made locally. He just said he will later. He started out the video sounding like he was determined to figure out a way to complete the task of trying to make a product made locally but he kinda just gave up and decided to just ship the product as is. The video was suppose to be an education focused but it slowly turned into a marketing video. I find that disappointing.
What a load of MAGA propaganda. Saying American made products are good quality. Ehm. No, they aren't. They are usually shit quality and aren't allowed in Europe because they are dangerous / toxic. It's overpriced junk.
Also his product looks shit. It's a combination of hard and soft materials. That means there are several weak points. The metal handle is connected with a single screw in plastic. The plastic will break and the sponge will wear really fast.
American producers need to cut costs, otherwise their already overpriced product will be insanely expensive. In China they have cheap labor, in the US they can only cut costs with cheaper materials and importing from China. When they don't import, they will have to be creative by using less material and cheaper stuff. Poorly regulated, toxic material for example. Softer metals / plastics. While in China they don't have to import most of their material, or it comes from neighboring countries. Chinese products are actually of better quality than American ones these days.
I remember buying my first Leatherman, a long time ago. The blade is made of extra hardened steel, it's impossible to dent it. I recently bought the new flagship Leatherman, for 300 euros. The blade got dented while cutting cardboard. The multitool I bought on aliexpress for 20 euros has a hardened steel blade and doesn't dent at all.
Now Trump is angry becssue the EU won't take poor quality American products. Like chicken for example, in Europe American chicken is concidered toxic.
Chinese EV's have surpassed American EV's by a long shot now.
The time of Chinese products being shit has passed. It's a struggle for European companies to compete. The time of American products being shit is now.
The smarter everyday videos do not fit their YouTube name anymore. I used to love his videos but for several years already it has become propaganda junk. He's just a MAGA hillbilly who thinks he's super smart.
I think you're missing the point of the video.
The video looks like it's meant to highlight the US being reliant on other countries when that used to not be the case.
Die and tooling jobs were once more prevalent in the US, now it's very hard to come by which makes us much more reliant on foreign countries like China.
Yeah, it's called trade. Trade is good for the economy. Every economist will tell you that. But feel free to follow Trump, who says the economy will be better when everything is made in the US.
We all rely on each other. International trade has never been on a larger scale as it is right now. You can't have a complete production line in a single country. Like Nintendo said, it would cost billions to set up their entire production line of the swith 2 in the US, and even when they would try it would be impossible to do it a 100%. Resources come from all over the world. Rare earth metals are being imported into Taiwan, chips are being produced which are being imported into Japan. The chip machines are made in the Netherlands, which buys its resources from other European countries, the US, Asian countries like China. This is the entire process just to produce a chip. There's an entire different international production line for just the screens, as well as all the other parts.
Back in the days you needed copper for wiring and plastics to mold, and you basically had a rotary phone. Easy to produce in a single country. Not comparable to phones these days. Trading was expensive back then. These days trading is cheap. Beleving everything needs to be made in the US using US raw resources is completely dillusional. Like Trump.
Even for simple products like a grill scraper, the most economically efficient way is to use the international market. It might not feel nice to be reliant on other countries, especially when you start trade wars with everyone and make everyone your enemy. Look at Russia, and the European reliance on them with gass, oil and rare earth metals. Even now we buy Russian stuff, even though we don't want to. The alternative is to destroy our economy, like the US is doing right now. It isn't fun, but it's the reality. We slowly need to find substitutes. For that we can't just say we will do it ourselves, we need to look for new sources elsewhere.
The world isn't as simple as it was the 19th and early 20th century. You can't compare it to our current economy, products and lifestyles.
Trade is good, being completely reliant on another country to deliver the things you need is bad. Especially if you have no idea how to make the things you need. What's doubly bad is relying on a country that says they want to be ready to go to war with you in three years.
Trade is good, but we need to know how to make the stuff we rely on daily. If WW3 were to start, and we were to get cut off from our trading partners, we need to know how to make the things we require to continue to exist. I don't think the video is trying to convince us to never buy another foreign product. I think it's telling us we need to retain the knowledge that is required to make things in the US, so the country doesn't grind to a halt in the event of an emergency.
Agreed with this, but I don't think it was entirely the point of Destin's video, as more of his focus was about keeping jobs local to the United States. Unfortunately his bit at the end about companies spending more money for local manufacturing is not how Wall Street works, and that's all corporations care about. If from a national standpoint, retaining this knowledge is vital to the security of the country, the government should be investing in keeping that production in the countries via tax subsidies or other incentives. Corporations won't do it on their own if it means less profit for them, and imposing tariffs will just be passed to the citizens with no industrial gain.
I'm not saying make all things here, I didn't even say that in my last comment... Nor do I agree with Trump overall, basically nothing.
Do you ever make your own food at home? By your reasoning, commerce and trade is good, never make food at home again. Never learn a skill, call an electrician, HVAC, or plumber. Never learn to fix your own things or solve your own problems if there is someone out there who can do it instead.
Youre just as delusional as MAGA people, just the other direction. Please don't exaggerate and portray someone as way more political than they are, that's what got us into the Trump mess. Try some empathy
Are you aware he's a creationist, a republican and a Trump supporter? And this video about producing locally, the thing Trump tries to do with his tariff wars, isn't political? What got us into this Trump mess is people not seeing the political views in the content they see, believing anything they see and becoming pro Trump as they are constantly being fed MAGA propaganda. You not being able to see what this channel is trying to do is the issue with why fake news is having such an insane success rate.
But who am I, really. I'm only an OSINT analyst specialized in fact checking and analyzing fake news narrative in media and it's effects on the targeted crowd. See this article I was the leading researcher.
Damn, you really hate anyone and everything conservative. Yes I was aware of all of that. But please tell me you understand the difference between supporting something and being a wild fanatic, or did your OSINT training skip that part. Also, what part of the video was fake? Regardless if you agree with it's premise or not, Destin was extremely clear and up front with the struggles of this project. I really get the feeling you are just building your own narrative off his video.
I just see through the "innocent facade" and judge the underlying bias. Propaganda these days can be hard to recognize for most people. Some are obvious AF, like Fox News, although loads of people are unable to even see that. Other sources, like Smarter Every Day, have a finesse and innocence built into it making it hard to recognize it has a strong bias foundation, even making you defend it even though I doubt you are MAGA yourself. Fox is for dumb people. Propaganda like Smarter Every Day is to trick people who won't fall for Fox.
There are news sites with relatively normal news articles. Not much opinions in them, not radical. On the surface it looks like a regular news site. Comparing it's articles to other news sources and it isn't much different. Trustworthy news site right?
But when you look at the web address, you see it is registered in Saint Petersburg. There are no ads on the website and there's no paid subscription plan. What is their source of income? When you check the articles on the website, they are almost all about something negative in the US. The same articles as on US respectable news sites. But only the news pertraying the US in a negative way. All the other articles you see on US news sites which aren't negativity tinted are missing on this website. But the articles there are rather solid.
This is an example of very subtle propaganda. It's not in the extreme form like with Fox News. It's in the absence of anything unfavorable to their naritive, which gives a certain view on the US in general.
It's like the review system on Amazon. When a product has 100 reviews, with 95 five star reviews and 5 is one star reviews. Pretty decent product, right? But when you only show the 5 one star reviews, the product looks like shit.
With Smarter Every Day it works somewhat similar. He scetches a scenario which is favorable to the Trump naritive, but leaves out a lot of other factors which are unfavorable, yet very real. With in the end the effect of people like you defending him and his naritive he tries to push.
Not all propaganda is obvious AF and focused on conspiracy loonies. There's all different kinds of propaganda tailored for everyone.
I mean one of the first lines is "manufacturing locally guarantees your freedom"
That just rubs me the wrong way. Isolationism at any cost guarantees "freedom"?
This is one, quite simple product we're talking about, and they still haven't achieved the goals before bringing product to market. I don't hear him saying "nothing should be produced in China anymore" but rather " we mustn't forget how to do shit ourselves".
And how much trouble are we Europeans in because of our reliance on American software and computing services?
You missed the point. Isolation isn't what guarantees freedom, it's self sufficiency. The ability to rely on yourself makes you resilient to change. It doesn't mean cutting off friends.
What's the line of self sufficient? I remember a story about a guy who made a BLT sandwich from scratch, it took him 6 months and thousands of dollars. Sure he was self sufficient, but it's not sustainable to produce 100% of everything yourself. In the Smarter Everyday video, almost everything was supplied from another vendor, and there was no mention on where the raw materials came from to make the parts made in the America. If anything, being able to supply the chain mail from China (via India) allowed the production to be resilient to change.
lol ok
I haven't forgotten Destin trying to push his creationist agenda using his YouTube platform. He makes a lot of good content, but after that I don't want to watch his stuff anymore. Fuck him for doing something like that.
He is also a staunch Republican, and a Trump supporter. I like some of his videos, but most of them are cringe if you're actually knowledgeable about the topic he is covering. He researches a topic just enough to come across as the smartest person in the room, while dumbing down concepts and talking down to the audience like we're infants. You can tell his target audience are poorly educated and easily impressed people from rural America.
I watched this video in its entirety and it made me profoundly uncomfortable.
There was a lot of subtext that seems edited out. Yes he’s “humble” in some respects but he’s also willfully ignorant in others, or at least presents as such.
I would not be surprised if in a few years he goes off the deep end.
I also watched the whole thing, and have to imagine that a lot of xenophobic stuff was edited out when they found out their chainmail from India was actually from China. That section was so cringe, they had someone on earlier who spoke Chinese, why not ask him what it meant or research some more, than make assumptions and air that lightly filtered.
I get he's making a point to invest in local manufacturing, but then knowingly having the excess supply of chainmail come from India defeats the point he's trying to make. Considering the handle for the first 2000 are from costa rica and the excess chainmail after the 2000 units was at least thought to be from India, it seems rare anything being sold is 100% Made in America, yet has a price tag 4x as much.
Yea I watched it too and had the exact same response to the Indian chainmail.
He wants to make his product completely in America. Ok sure. He can’t. Ok sucks. Decides he’s actually just trying not to buy any Chinese components instead.. ok what?
The other bit I thought that was kinda weird was that if he’s so interested in bringing back this manufacturing capacity to Americans, then, do that.
It’s an entire video about him trying to manufacture something without manufacturing it. Outsourcing every single component to a vendor as long as it’s an American vendor.
You want more people that know how to make tools and dies, hire some dude to do that, make it economically feasible for people to do that by having good stable jobs that do that at your brush factory.
I found the whole video kinda offputting in this way. It sure would be great if he could just magically find this manufacturing capacity sitting idle in America and exploit it to make his brush.
In the video where he's shooting antique guns (or something) with his son, his son always calls him "sir". Is that a regional thing? It seemed super weird to me.
I noticed the same thing, and you could see it a bit in this (OP) video too.
I think this one is partly regional and partly traditional.
Destin probably always called his father sir, and he probably has the same expectation of his children.
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His point about investing in the pricier, good quality product instead of periodically paying for the cheaper, bad quality product, only makes sense if you have a guarantee the pricier product actually have a good quality. And that's not the only thing that matters. Companies like Malus claim to have better quality and we can debate that all day, but what's undeniable is their anti-repair stance. That means you can have a problem with their product and have to buy a new one anyway because it can't be repaired.
That and there have been companies that had good product, but then got bought out. Only afterwards, they reduce product quality to the point of being some of the worst on the market.
These vulture capitalists are hoping that the brand recognition of what was once a good product keeps the company afloat long enough for them to rot away and consume the company from the inside.
Prime example: Craftsman hand tools.
When I was a kid, everyone had them. Worked well, lifetime warranty, yet much less expensive than professional tools
Last decade: cheap crap, work poorly, fall apart, essentially no warranty. Poor reputation: do not buy regardless of any sale. Yet more expensive after inflation
Fucking A. Printers back in the days used to just print and had refillable ink cartridges. Some expensive ones are still chugging. My dad has one from the 90s that still fucking works. The new one we got cries about colour missing when trying to print a black n white page 😩
The printer I had in the 90s wouldn't print black and white without color ink either.
I actually agree, it was one small problem I had with the video, he portrays the Boots theory of socio-economic unfairness as a basic "buy once cry once" thing, when really it's about how being poor is expensive. It doesn't matter if over the course of 5 years it makes sense to pay 4 times the cost for a product that lasts 5 times longer, it's that poor people can't afford a 4x cost product. Most people understand that quality stuff lasts longer, but it doesn't matter if you can't pay it and you need boots.
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Hey it's me a tool and die maker.
I can say at least that my company and the larger manufacturers in my town are spending enormous sums of cash getting students in to the trades. It's not just tool and die that's suffering, most of the "skilled" trades are bordering on geriatric.
A lot of the kids entering the trades are farm kids, which is another problem entirely. The average age of farmers in the US is close to retirement too.
That makes me so happy to hear! I kept thinking that during this video, that he’s putting the cart before the horse. Made in America is important sure but the cost is significantly more which is problematic when you’re an working class person who literally doesn’t have the cash to buy American made, we need to be sending our young people back to trades not say everyone needs college! I’m a 2004 Graduate and so many people in my class went into so much debt and for what? A barely above minimum wage desk job? I was a pariah for not going to college but going to a tech school.
If we don’t have young people in these trades, making fair wages, we have no middle class and if we have no middle class he’s going to run out of $75 scrub brush buyers sooner rather than later.
The video got really close to being a dog whistle to me a few times he did mention he wanted to talk about unions, then didn’t, I just felt like there was so much focus on “manufacturing is actually good for the US” - and it is, I’m a leftie but I agree we do want some manufacturing jobs, especially the high skilled ones, but almost no focus on how we keep these industries alive, and grow them, and how important it is that young people can access this training and why it’s important to bring education into the conversations about “made in America” - high skill manufacturing isn’t going to sprout up over night, it’s why he struggled so hard to source parts, and the video very much framed this industry as something that is an organic industry that will just be there if we buy it… which feels dishonest if we look at the bigger picture and all the lack of both knowledge and experience that will really make this industry struggle
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