The Young Turks is a long-time YouTube channel run by a relatively well-funded organization, with relatively high production values, that concentrates on sociopolitical commentary and discussion, usually with regards to what's happening in the United States, but also the world in general. A talk show, essentially, that discusses sociopolitical topics and current events.
Years ago I used to watch many of their videos. While they have always been a bit left-leaning, they seldom were overtly and obnoxiously so, and on the contrary seemed to have quite a healthy approach at their sociopolitical commentary, when dealing with stories, in that most of the time they seemed to always see both (or all) sides of the issue, if there were different opinions. If, for example, there were two parties involved in some story, with differing views, The Young Turks would discuss both views and give them consideration, even if one of the sides was more clearly in the wrong. They would nevertheless explain and acknowledge both sides, and give them due credit. Usually, if there was any ambiguity in which side was true, they would acknowledge the valid points of both sides, even if they would give their personal opinion on which side they thought was on the right side.
In other words, they used to have journalistic integrity and intellectual honesty, and often engaged in the most charitable interpretation of events and claims. Not always, even back then, but most of the time. The reason why this channel was so good, among the myriads of other similar channels, was that they usually presented these stories and events very clearly and understandably, and in an interesting manner.
Then Donald Trump was elected the president of the United States, and the Trump Derangement Syndrome hit The Young Turks really, really hard. At least one of the presenters could pretty much be described as having suffered a complete emotional breakdown, as she went completely crazy in many of their episodes, lashing out against people, especially women, who voted for Trump, and declaring how much better she is than them, and raving almost like a lunatic.
None of the other hosts of the show have fared much better. They are all in the same anti-Trump bandwagon.
During the last year-and-half that the Trump presidency has lasted, the channel has only become worse and worse, and the channel has literally become an outright anti-Trump propaganda channel.
Yes, literally. I'm not exaggerating, or using that term figuratively or in a derogatory manner.
The channel is currently publishing pure propaganda pieces against the Trump administration, and riling people up against it, calling for action, very concretely. These propaganda pieces are extremely deceitful, taking small snippets of news stories, videos and quotes out of context and making all kinds of distorted and outright false claims about them. They are literally, directly and extremely explicitly comparing the Trump administration and its actions to Nazi Germany. They are not just alluding it, or making vague insinuating comparisons, but very direct and open comparisons. And they are literally and directly calling people to action, to engage in activism. One particular such video was so direct and blatant about this that it could very well have been an antifa recruitment video (and given the manner in which the presenter was speaking, I wouldn't actually be surprised if he were an antifa member and active in their protest campaigns.)
As an example of this deceitful propaganda, they have taken small snippets of videos of detention centers, where illegal immigrants are waiting for their paperwork to be processed, and claimed that children are being held in "cages", because many of these detention centers have wire fences separating different sections, and children who are waiting for their parents (or alleged parents) have been filmed through these fences, giving the impression that they are "caged". Then they took a snippet of a Fox news anchor saying that these children are taken to centers that are like "summer camps". The Young Turks video gives the impression that the Fox news anchor is referring to these "cages" as "summer camps".
What's actually happening is that these children are kept in the detention centers for just a few hours, until their parents (or alleged parents) are processed, and if these parents are detained for longer, eg. days, or there's reason to believe that these people aren't the children's actual parents, the children are then moved to facilities that are indeed more like "summer camps", or daycare centers, with clean rooms with beds, kitchens, dining halls, medical facilities, and so on.
And the thing is, this isn't anything new in the United States. This exact same thing has been going on for decades. During the Obama administration hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants were deported, and this exact same procedure was done then. The same is pretty much true for previous presidents as well. The immigration officers aren't doing nowadays anything different than what they did under Obama and previous presidents.
But the Young Turks video deliberately and very deceitfully, by taking small snippets out of context and making really bold claims, is giving the picture that the Trump administration is separating immigrant children from their parents and keeping them in cages. It even goes so far as to play some sound clips of crying children (completely removed from context, of course), to pull on the heartstrings of the viewers.
And this is by far not the only such propaganda video that The Young Turks has recently released. They have all kinds of videos directly comparing Trump to Hitler, in complete and absolute seriousness. They are seriously painting a picture where the United States is becoming Nazi Germany. In one of these videos they even quoted Trump out of context making it look like he's referring to all immigrants as "animals" (when even the most leftist media in the United States quickly stopped that, as it was completely unambiguous that he was not talking about immigrants, but about the MS-13 criminal gang, which is one of the most vicious and brutal criminal organizations on the planet.)
And these propaganda videos are really effective. People in the comment sections of these videos are believing them wholesale, without the slightest sign of healthy skepticism or independent research and verification of the claims being made.
The Young Turks is, possibly, the worst case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that I have seen so far. They have gone deeper down that rabbit hole than the most infamous news networks like CNN and MSNBC (who are pretty bad in this respect, but not this bad.)
The Young Turks has, in fact, become a pretty dangerous channel. They have become propagandists, activists, and de facto antifa and other similar group recruiters. They are riling up people to action, and they are doing it via distortions, fabrications and lies.
I actually find it a bit incredible how much they have changed. As mentioned at the beginning, they used to have an unusual amount of journalistic integrity and intellectual honesty. Now they have become the worst fake news of all. It's amazing, and in a sense a bit scary.
Years ago I used to watch many of their videos. While they have always been a bit left-leaning, they seldom were overtly and obnoxiously so, and on the contrary seemed to have quite a healthy approach at their sociopolitical commentary, when dealing with stories, in that most of the time they seemed to always see both (or all) sides of the issue, if there were different opinions. If, for example, there were two parties involved in some story, with differing views, The Young Turks would discuss both views and give them consideration, even if one of the sides was more clearly in the wrong. They would nevertheless explain and acknowledge both sides, and give them due credit. Usually, if there was any ambiguity in which side was true, they would acknowledge the valid points of both sides, even if they would give their personal opinion on which side they thought was on the right side.
In other words, they used to have journalistic integrity and intellectual honesty, and often engaged in the most charitable interpretation of events and claims. Not always, even back then, but most of the time. The reason why this channel was so good, among the myriads of other similar channels, was that they usually presented these stories and events very clearly and understandably, and in an interesting manner.
Then Donald Trump was elected the president of the United States, and the Trump Derangement Syndrome hit The Young Turks really, really hard. At least one of the presenters could pretty much be described as having suffered a complete emotional breakdown, as she went completely crazy in many of their episodes, lashing out against people, especially women, who voted for Trump, and declaring how much better she is than them, and raving almost like a lunatic.
None of the other hosts of the show have fared much better. They are all in the same anti-Trump bandwagon.
During the last year-and-half that the Trump presidency has lasted, the channel has only become worse and worse, and the channel has literally become an outright anti-Trump propaganda channel.
Yes, literally. I'm not exaggerating, or using that term figuratively or in a derogatory manner.
The channel is currently publishing pure propaganda pieces against the Trump administration, and riling people up against it, calling for action, very concretely. These propaganda pieces are extremely deceitful, taking small snippets of news stories, videos and quotes out of context and making all kinds of distorted and outright false claims about them. They are literally, directly and extremely explicitly comparing the Trump administration and its actions to Nazi Germany. They are not just alluding it, or making vague insinuating comparisons, but very direct and open comparisons. And they are literally and directly calling people to action, to engage in activism. One particular such video was so direct and blatant about this that it could very well have been an antifa recruitment video (and given the manner in which the presenter was speaking, I wouldn't actually be surprised if he were an antifa member and active in their protest campaigns.)
As an example of this deceitful propaganda, they have taken small snippets of videos of detention centers, where illegal immigrants are waiting for their paperwork to be processed, and claimed that children are being held in "cages", because many of these detention centers have wire fences separating different sections, and children who are waiting for their parents (or alleged parents) have been filmed through these fences, giving the impression that they are "caged". Then they took a snippet of a Fox news anchor saying that these children are taken to centers that are like "summer camps". The Young Turks video gives the impression that the Fox news anchor is referring to these "cages" as "summer camps".
What's actually happening is that these children are kept in the detention centers for just a few hours, until their parents (or alleged parents) are processed, and if these parents are detained for longer, eg. days, or there's reason to believe that these people aren't the children's actual parents, the children are then moved to facilities that are indeed more like "summer camps", or daycare centers, with clean rooms with beds, kitchens, dining halls, medical facilities, and so on.
And the thing is, this isn't anything new in the United States. This exact same thing has been going on for decades. During the Obama administration hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants were deported, and this exact same procedure was done then. The same is pretty much true for previous presidents as well. The immigration officers aren't doing nowadays anything different than what they did under Obama and previous presidents.
But the Young Turks video deliberately and very deceitfully, by taking small snippets out of context and making really bold claims, is giving the picture that the Trump administration is separating immigrant children from their parents and keeping them in cages. It even goes so far as to play some sound clips of crying children (completely removed from context, of course), to pull on the heartstrings of the viewers.
And this is by far not the only such propaganda video that The Young Turks has recently released. They have all kinds of videos directly comparing Trump to Hitler, in complete and absolute seriousness. They are seriously painting a picture where the United States is becoming Nazi Germany. In one of these videos they even quoted Trump out of context making it look like he's referring to all immigrants as "animals" (when even the most leftist media in the United States quickly stopped that, as it was completely unambiguous that he was not talking about immigrants, but about the MS-13 criminal gang, which is one of the most vicious and brutal criminal organizations on the planet.)
And these propaganda videos are really effective. People in the comment sections of these videos are believing them wholesale, without the slightest sign of healthy skepticism or independent research and verification of the claims being made.
The Young Turks is, possibly, the worst case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that I have seen so far. They have gone deeper down that rabbit hole than the most infamous news networks like CNN and MSNBC (who are pretty bad in this respect, but not this bad.)
The Young Turks has, in fact, become a pretty dangerous channel. They have become propagandists, activists, and de facto antifa and other similar group recruiters. They are riling up people to action, and they are doing it via distortions, fabrications and lies.
I actually find it a bit incredible how much they have changed. As mentioned at the beginning, they used to have an unusual amount of journalistic integrity and intellectual honesty. Now they have become the worst fake news of all. It's amazing, and in a sense a bit scary.
Comments
Post a Comment