this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2023
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Don't know anything about him other than right to repair. What are his other views?
He does a lot of videos shitting on New York and thus has brought in a lot of right-wing people who hate the "liberal elites" who live there. I don't find his views too bad tbh but his comments sections are always a complete shit show. I wouldn't be surprised if he has changed for the worst due to audience capture.
The thing about Rossman is that yes, he echoes some right-wing talking points. Unlike most of us, he actually is a small business owner who was been repeatedly harassed and mishandled by regional authorities in New York city.
He's a soldier on the front lines of the over-regulation and regulatory capture crisis. And I think folks on the right and left can agree that big companies working hand-in-hand with government to suppress new business hurts poor people. Whether he's talking about John Deere's or Apple's anti-repair stance, Amazon's over-reach when banning accounts for frivolous reasons, or New York's labyrinthine rules, he's really talking about the same fundamental problem: big organizations using rules and regulations to hurt poor folks.
With that said, I think his opinions on those matters are pretty narrowly confined to the details of running a business. I've watched quite a few of his YT videos and I never see him going "out of his lane" to express opinions on broader social trends. He's not opining on abortion or trans people or any of the other cultural touchstones on the right. He's no Qanon nutjob.
With that said, he's not a general interest tech presenter, and he probably doesn't have much to offer the OP. He's pretty narrowly focused on repair and government/corporate abuse.
So you’re saying commenters are jerks - which is out of his control - then you speculate that you “wouldn’t be surprised if he has changed for the worst”
This is how a bad reputation spreads - through speculation and low effort commentary. You’ve said nothing valid but insulted the guy without any basis.
Not attacking you here - we all get lazy, but cite a personal interaction or observation of him specifically. Because otherwise you could just be besmirching a genuinely decent guy who’s trying his best.
Personally, I think he’s doing extraordinarily good things for the consumer world without a shred of reward for his efforts. Every gigantic company that enjoys screwing over consumers for extra profits hates him and tries to derail his work at every turn. He certainly doesn’t need to be shit on by someone who’s going purely on conjecture. So please don’t. :)
i don't have a horse in this race but he absolutely has the power to moderate his comment section and his community's vibes generally, and he is responsible for that (or delegating another person to do so) whether he thinks he should be/takes responsibility for that or not. the audience a creator has is ultimately a reflection of the creator's priorities, and if he isn't proactive in removing shitters from his community then you really can't blame other people for assuming he's in with or agrees with the shitters.
Why should a creator be responsible for the voiced opinions of their fans? That standard makes no sense no matter how you slice it. A creator's job isn't to police their audience, it's to provide information/entertainment.
Just because he has the power to censor people you don't like doesn't mean he should, or that it's a reasonable ask. Instead of passively alienating you by not acting, censoring those people would actively alienate them. He's much better off letting individuals take responsibility for their own comments, rather than joining any given side's thought-police.
As soon as you create the standard that you are responsible for what your fans say and do, you've lost. You can immediately be held accountable for the speech of the worst of them, and good luck regulating that.
this is the kind of thing you say if you are a person who benefits from not being moderated and, unsurprisingly, your comment history has shit like "Parents should have a say what is being taught to their kids. LGBT values are an invasive culture change that is being pushed on kids without the interests of the parents in mind." go away.
Glad they're gone. Gross beliefs fr.
You ever moderate a YouTube comments section? It’s nearly a full-time job. And it would be one thing if he were just a YouTuber, but the guy does a ton of good in the real world, for real people.
i literally co-administrate this site seven days a week, often for hours a day. yes, i do know that. if you don't want to do it, turn off comments. otherwise, assume the responsibility and cultivate a good community, or make peace with the assumptions people will make of you for not removing Respectable_Centrist's comments about how Wokeness is destroying tech and how much they want queer people to shut up and not exist.
What can I say; I don’t read what random strangers say when my purpose of watching his videos is his videos. And I don’t hold him accountable for what those strangers say. I’m just focused like that. To each their own.
“Since I have no life and spend nearly every waking hour on the internet, I expect others to do the same.”
Not who you're responding to, but despite it being "out of his control", it still greatly diminishes my desire to watch the videos, to chat in live streams, or otherwise engage.
To each their own.
The slate star codex effect is real.
Besides the mentioned hating on NY, during last two elections he supported trump and republicans, bashed democrats and just leaned into that that whole saying something conspiracy related by saying “I dunno” which has been an almost dog whistle of support while trying to act open minded. I don’t believe he’s republican but his move to Texas and being anti government kinda points him in a certain direction.
Obviously that’s all fine of him to have those views. I just don’t like hearing it during a board repair or right to repair video.
Do you have a citation on Rossman supporting Trump?
I can’t say I’ve heard him express any political opinions outside of the fairly narrow lanes of right-to-repair and regulatory abuse.
https://youtu.be/JH8izpJknq0?t=5619
Now I know someone is going to say oh thats just one comment out of hours and he said he doesn't like blah blah... his 2016 videos had lots of joking about trump, anti hillary, pepe etc.
That is a huge stretch to call him a trump supporter for that comment.