Forums / Discussion / Serious Debate

When I search up "anime localization controversy" on YouTube, all the videos that come up have "woke" in the title. And these channels don't seem to really care about the poor state of localization and how translators insert their own politics into the media they're supposed to be faithfully adapting. They only care about profiting off controversies and pandering to their audiences. In turn, this works in the localizers' favor, by making many people (mostly on Twitter) support them out of spite.
The same exact thing happened during the Godot Engine drama, which caught me off guard, because I never saw Godot as something mainstream. However, during the Godot drama, smaller channels who had some familiarity with Godot also spoke up, disappointed with the engine's focus on politics.
The Skullgirls update controversy in 2023 (which is kind of what got me into this site and its community) had the same kind of people speaking up about it, but accompanying those people, like with the Godot controversy, were smaller channels disappointed with the direction taken by the studio. The inclusion of these smaller channels relieves me a bit, but in most controversies, they are absent.
This worries me. How come most of the people that speak up about political agendas nowadays are the kinds who call everything "woke" and get called "fascists" in return?

I wouldn't be surprised if it's because they can just hammer out the same talking points without thinking, and they don't have to put effort into it because the algorithm serves it to its intended audience.
I haven't really watched any such channels recently, but from what I remember, what the grifter was ranting about usually sounded like what they ranted about in any other video they put out.
Meanwhile, actual criticism (the constructive kind) and nuanced takes require time and effort, which many small channels likely don't have, even if they're intensely passionate about something. Hence, the saturation of content from mindless grifting and the scarcity of not-that-sort of content.

Source: The ether and my biases.

I hate it as well, bro.

Nuance is also punished by algorithms with low views. Provocative titles and thumbnails are what brings eyes to stuff.

Still wish it wasn't this way.

I get you dude. Sometimes I want to go and see what's up with this or that, but I gotta go to KYM instead because every part of the average video – the actual video, the comment section, the recommended videos – is all people repeating the same bullshit, the same points, the same buzzwords – woke, DEI, whatever – just going at it.
And of course you run the risk of people saying the exact opposite and probably doing the same as them, whether or not for profit, just because they want to naysay them.

It takes about a year for me to find a video with any nuance, when something is already irrelevant, because it took that long for the sewer filth spewed by those producers of assorted, utter garbage to finally stop trending and getting views non-stop.

Even with it being on a work I have no interest in, the grifters with their thumbnails make me roll my eyes. I don't even care much for the newest Dragon Age game but a guy making his thumbnail use pride colors and "woke" pop up on the suggested videos to watch was enough to make me cringe. Even more so seeing the channel name when I remembered Turkey Tom cover these sort of people that threw out these kinds of buzzwords.

For the ones talking about political agendas and all, a couple others here already said it. Provocative titles and thumbnails catch the eye, actual criticism takes time. For these grifters, beyond actually airing out their dumb takes and all such just complaining about DEI being why Concord failed is easier than just noting how it came in late to a genre that isn't even as strong as it is now, making low quality rage bait will just bring them more clicks and patreon subs and the like than doing any kind of nuanced look that doesn't boil down to screeching at the group they don't like in the end.

I wont lie that is partially our fault, this website and all of us really prop up gamergate and anti-gamergate back in its hayday and both groupa came together to collectively ruin the internet forever. I am pretty sure if know your meme didnt exist gamergate and by extension the resistance against gamergate would had been a smaller event and that would had been good for the entire world

Now sadly there is no way back but whatever no use crying over spilled milk

I feel like what the OP is describing is mostly the fault of ad revenue being a thing on Youtube.
Sad there's no place that fits the niche of old Youtube it's either Tim Pool and Holocaust denial or gore

Gamergate as far as I know mostly took place on Reddit, Twitter and 4chan and this place was doing what it's supposed to and documenting it. This site mostly sucks cuz it's a reflection of the internet as it is today which mostly sucks