Thunderf00t has lost last of his marbles and remaining bits of credibility

[EEVblog]

Talking about political opinions is one thing. Posting Schadenfreude videos, while the other party is practically winning is a whole other topic. I was also on and off following LegalEagle. Then he went on a series of videos where he was highly politicized. I just checked the channel and 7 of the latest videos are like that.

I just watched the first 10 seconds of his latest video "All the Crazy Stuff Trump is Going to Do" and right off the bat he took sarcastic joke tweets as fact 

The thing is, when you do that, you come off as a jerk. It's in the tone of your voice. When you keep posting about it constantly, you come off as either a paid shill, or someone who has paralogical fixation on the issue at hand. None of which is fun to watch, unless you want to join in the dissing.

Frequency matters.
No one would have had a poblem with Thunderf00t or CSS or others doing the occasional video on Musk. But when it it's half a dozen videos in a row, that's when you start to get people saying you've lost your mind.
I remember watching a recent TF busted video, "New Video shows how the Titan failed!", totally unrleated to Musk and SpaceX, yet a good chuck of the video was on Musk and Starship, why?
Similar for the Reflect Orbital busted video, he couldn't help but include a rant on Starship.

[Andy Chee]

That said, as conspiracy & fringe theories penetrate and gain a foothold in mainstream discourse

what can you expect from mainstream media living or dying by the clickbait?

When I refer to mainstream, I am not talking about media (traditional TV/radio broadcast, internet streaming, or otherwise). 

When I refer to mainstream, I am talking about primary/secondary school education.

For example, in the movie "Interstellar" (which has a few critics on these forums), one of the opening scenes is a parent-teacher discussion, which reveals that as part of the school science curriculum, the moon landings are now understood to be a hoax.

And twenty years ago, a school district in Dover, Pennsylvania attempted to teach religion (i.e. intelligent design) in science class.

As more people learn stuff online (conspiracy theories or otherwise), mainstream education loses its influence on the overton window.  The overton window becomes unstable, which isn't good for a stable society.

[RJSV]

   You cannot, BTW, legitimately utter the phrases so loved,  by the censors and their backers.
   'Conspiracy Theories' is a toothless summary judgement,  efficiently issued (you don't have to prove nuthin),  and understood to be a subtle put-down, or even a kind and helpful redirect, of one's own perception.

   Usually delivered snarky, if verbal and has a wink wink, code, essentially negating the other speaker.   Also often delivered in a style that I like to term 'Drive by' (as in a hasty retreat, after a shooting is committed.)
In the 'drive-by' settings,  the recipient of 'conspiracy theorist' label doesn't have any real chance, of giving any real response,  as in a crowded market or other busy venue.

   Schmear away !

[EEVblog]

The latest one I've seen was Jeri Ellsworth who has moved to Bluesky after Trump won and she deleted her X account. Now she has stated she wants nothing to do anyone who voted for Trump.

Wow, what a what a pity. I really don't understand really smart people completely rejecting others (in this case 1/4 of the country) over some political views.

It's even in her bio 
https://bsky.app/profile/jeriellsworth.bsky.social

Not that I use Bluesky, but I just noticed that Jeri blocked me 

[magic]

Must be lurking in this thread, or just blocks everybody who still hasn't deleted his Elonitter account

[EEVblog]

Must be lurking in this thread, or just blocks everybody who still hasn't deleted his Elonitter account

Quite possible. Or just downloaded a block list perhaps, not sure if that's a thing on Bluesky yet, but was common on Twitter. Wasn't unusual to find you'd been blocked by people who you'd never heard of or interacted with.
In my case I've been accidently blocked by several well known electronics people over the year because of such lists that I'm on for *insert reason here*.

[tom66]

Yeah, because the way to heal political divisions in the USA is pretend a good 50% of the voting public are morons.  I may not like Trump (in fact, I think he's an awful person), but he won because the alternative was that much more unappealing.  That needs to be fixed, rather than just rejecting the opinion of that 50%. /politics

[nctnico]

The latest one I've seen was Jeri Ellsworth who has moved to Bluesky after Trump won and she deleted her X account. Now she has stated she wants nothing to do anyone who voted for Trump.

Wow, what a what a pity. I really don't understand really smart people completely rejecting others (in this case 1/4 of the country) over some political views.

It's even in her bio 
https://bsky.app/profile/jeriellsworth.bsky.social

Not that I use Bluesky, but I just noticed that Jeri blocked me 

Send her an email asking what you can do to un-offend her if it bothers you.  Blocking users on social media is kind of like going in reverse; anti-social media. Personally I stay clear of all that crap.

[EEVblog]

Send her an email asking what you can do to un-offend her if it bothers you.

Doesn't bother me at all, I'd still call her my friend, it was just interesting to note as I'd mentioend she's deleted X.

Blocking users on social media is kind of like going in reverse; anti-social media.

Yes, at some point you are better off just having a private chat group or something.
The only time I block someone on X is if they continually attack me, and even then I often let it slide for years if it's not too often.

[Zero999]

Yeah, because the way to heal political divisions in the USA is pretend a good 50% of the voting public are morons.  I may not like Trump (in fact, I think he's an awful person), but he won because the alternative was that much more unappealing.  That needs to be fixed, rather than just rejecting the opinion of that 50%. /politics

Most politicians are awful people. What's different about Trump is he doesn't try to hide it.

I hope either the Democrats form a sensible opposition, or the Trump an co. make the US very successful, otherwise the US will head down a similar path to us. At the moment I'm not convinced either are great. We'll have to wait and see. Yes I know foreigners shouldn't really comment on the US, but if they're strong, it boosts the rest of the world.

[magic]

Yeah, because the way to heal political divisions in the USA is pretend a good 50% of the voting public are morons.

It's in nobody's interest.
The rich are too greedy, the poor watch too much TV.
Foreigners find it hilarious after years of suffering sanctimonious yankee know-it-alls.
Everybody wins.

[Bud]

I never understood fascination with Elisworth. She is just an average maker, even got fired for her ego.

[wilfred]

I never understood fascination with Elisworth. She is just an average maker, even got fired for her ego.

My first reaction to hearing she blocked Dave on Bluesky was that even without knowing what the reason was, there would be some who would take sides. Which ironically might be somewhat related to the reasons.

I admired her in the past and thought she did some impressive stuff. I haven't followed what she is doing for at least 7 years. I definitely do not agree with characterising her as average.  That seems wrong by any measure.  Lots of people get fired and ego probably wasn't the actual reason. But I don't know, or have forgotten what it was. 

[rsjsouza]

Well, she did an incredible design with the Commodore 64 on-a-chip, but that was 15~20 years ago. My recollection is that not many individuals had the engineering and entrepenurial balance to pull that off.

Sadly the mental breakdown is real. Hopefully she and many others wake up from this weird cultist behaviour and get back to a more level approach to life.

[EEVblog]

My first reaction to hearing she blocked Dave on Bluesky was that even without knowing what the reason was, there would be some who would take sides. Which ironically might be somewhat related to the reasons.

Many people use blocking as a form of controlling what shows up their timeline. Sometimes just not following someone isn't enough, as others who they do follow might retweet you and it shows up on thier timeline.
Often it's not personal. She might just be aggresively controlling her new Bluesky timeline. She didn't block me on X.

Not that I post on Bluesky, but based on my one and only post on there, and some of the responses it seems that people didn't quit understand that I have absolutley no intention of posting there. The only reason I'm there is to secure my handle so no one impersonates me.

[SiliconWizard]

Well, she did an incredible design with the Commodore 64 on-a-chip, but that was 15~20 years ago. My recollection is that not many individuals had the engineering and entrepenurial balance to pull that off.

Sadly the mental breakdown is real. Hopefully she and many others wake up from this weird cultist behaviour and get back to a more level approach to life.

She's done a lot of stuff in her life and has pretty advanced engineering skills, while having no formal education. So in that respect, that's impressive and an example of a "self-made woman".
But you never really know someone until life circumstances make some behaviors emerge.

[Bud]

You said the keyword.

[mikeselectricstuff]

I never understood fascination with Elisworth. She is just an average maker, even got fired for her ego.

Definitely not true - I've spent several hours with her in person and she's one of the smartest people I've met. There's a lot of stuff she's worked on that she can't talk about in public.

[tom66]

I don't know of many people who can go from no formal education to spinning their own ASIC to implement a C64, and have it work on the first silicon revision (albeit with one minor bug if I recall correctly - but not a critical one!)  That's very impressive.

[Nominal Animal]

The older I get, the more respect I have for my late dad's ability to discuss anything with anyone, regardless of opinions he held, in a mutually useful and interesting manner.

I believe that approach is fundamentally healthy, and the current tribalization and polarization fundamentally unhealthy, for both individuals and the society in general.

When one discusses things –– instead of simply labeling/grouping others into types like is now the standard ––, it doesn't matter if anyone agrees, because it is the only way we can examine complex questions and issues from multiple viewpoints.  It does require moving away from "X is bad! You are Y if you support X!" into "X is bad, because Z and W", which is rare nowadays, because humans don't want to focus on things that long anymore, and instead want the instant dopamine kick and then move on to the next thing and the next dopamine kick.

Even being able to describe ones own opinions in ones own words, rather than in political platitudes, is becoming rare.  I do see it here when discussions veer towards politics, and I do see thing-oriented people state specific political goals, yes.  However, the majority, being human-oriented humans, on all sides of the political spectrum, including political pundits and reporters, seem to be just chanting the tribal songs with little understanding.

I'm not sure if my memory is playing tricks on me, but it seems to me that political debates, and debates in general, used to be much more common.  Nowadays it is typical to see people refusing to debate others with opposing viewpoints.  This is a huge loss, and in my opinion, a huge societal risk (of division and loss of social cohesion, leading to all sorts of trouble, including violence).  It is like a society or tribe intentionally pulling itself apart!

[Bud]

I don't know of many people who can go from no formal education to spinning their own ASIC to implement a C64, and have it work on the first silicon revision (albeit with one minor bug if I recall correctly - but not a critical one!)  That's very impressive.

I do not know of many people who bastardized their Commodore 64 making an ugly guitar out of it. If she is so smart why she has become an old woman yelling at cloud.

[mikeselectricstuff]

I don't know of many people who can go from no formal education to spinning their own ASIC to implement a C64, and have it work on the first silicon revision (albeit with one minor bug if I recall correctly - but not a critical one!)  That's very impressive.

Not to mention doing the optics design for an AR headset, and in the process teaching the optics manufacturers a thing or two about their own products...

[magic]

If she is so smart why she has become an old woman yelling at cloud.

Happens to many otherwise intelligent people.

Making decisions is not only intelligence, but also knowledge, and as you can't learn everything yourself or it may be too late by the time you do, you rely on others. Sometimes simply being at a wrong place and time can send anyone on a SOL trajectory. I would say that the US is a bad place, and the 20th century is a bad time, and she got hit by both, and possibly more that we don't know about. And it's bad precisely because they stopped giving a damn about any objective reality and regard communication purely as means of influencing people. It's difficult to stay sane in this kind of environment.

There is certainly a "woman passionate about electronics" factor to her, but I have stumbled upon some of her stuff and dumb she is not.

Many people use blocking as a form of controlling what shows up their timeline. Sometimes just not following someone isn't enough, as others who they do follow might retweet you and it shows up on thier timeline.
Often it's not personal. She might just be aggresively controlling her new Bluesky timeline. She didn't block me on X.

I dunno. I recall you saying in this thread that she wants nothing to do with any Orange Man supporters, and I recall you talking favorably (or is my sarcasm meter out of cal?) about Musk's takeover of Twitter, and everybody knows that Musk basically dropped $44B to have his private president in 2024.

So maybe there is something to it.

[PlainName]

Musk basically dropped $44B to have his private president in 2024

That's blatant rewriting of history. Musk never wanted Twitter but was forced to put his money where his mouth was. Once he'd been lumbered with it, then he started using it for political purposes (amongst other not so nice things).

[tom66]

Musk basically dropped $44B to have his private president in 2024

That's blatant rewriting of history. Musk never wanted Twitter but was forced to put his money where his mouth was. Once he'd been lumbered with it, then he started using it for political purposes (amongst other not so nice things).

Err, he definitely did want it, because he made the first move.  He then changed his mind *after* he had made a binding offer, and was forced by a court to either complete the purchase or pay a massive forfeiture penalty.  This could have been up to 50% of the value of Twitter, IIRC, though the exact penalty would have been up to the judge and would be subject to appeals over the loss of value to shareholders, etc.  Faced with that possibility, he bought the company -- but it was an entirely avoidable purchase on his part.  Don't commit to buy something and then get upset when people sue you for backing out.