The farms have been on my radar for a while, occasionally lurked here and there over the years, but this Racketts thing has had me firmly hooked the past few days and I've finally made an account. I've read the past 500+ or so pages in recent days.
First started watching Nick during Rittenhouse jury deliberations. Watched him regularly for a few months, then occasionally for a few months, then not at all. After the first couple evening streams I watched during Rittenhouse, I could tell he was a dick and had a lot of bad traits. After the trial was over and it went back to regular programing, it became more apparent and I liked him less and less. At the time, watching back through a lot of his older content, even then I noticed a marked change in him as a person. I figured he'd eventually have a big blowup, but I never anticipated it'd be just this spectacular. Was absolutely astonished to see how incredibly terrible he looked when I checked his channel after the arrest. Horrifying.
A few thoughts on some of the involved parties-
Barnes
When it comes to this guy, what people need to understand (IMO) is that Barnes is first and foremost a political operative. Then he's a grifter and egomaniac, then finally, he's a lawyer. Everything he says and does needs to be filtered through these lenses. I can't stand the dude and to me he's no different then any of the Trumpist/MAGA/Populist shitheads on twitter.
Viva
I largely agree with a poster some number of pages back. Viva strikes me as a guy who was a liberal/centrist, pretty milquetoast dude, then came to the realization that conspiracies are real and do indeed happen, then over corrected and basically views everything as a conspiracy and see's everyone but a select few as perpetrators of a conspiracy. This has been exacerbated by positive reinforcement from fans and other online talking heads, and further reinforced by the monetary gains it's provided. It's frustrating to see him vacillate between rational, reasonable dude, and unhinged conspiracy lunatic when I check out his videos/streams, or read his twitter feed.
Mindset
Personally find this dude to be something of an enigma. He's great in his own lane (RE/Disney stuff, etc), sometimes passable in other stuff, at minimum brings up some interesting views/takes despite being out of his depth. Overall I think he's a smart dude, but I also put a fairly large margin of error on a lot of his takes for political/cultural war reasons. Also can't help but get a shady feeling from him, like he's running from shit and has a lot of skeletons in his closest. Gives me used car salesman + door to door salesman + Saul Goodman vibes.
Kayla & April
Not really much to say here. Was aware of Kayla, but never saw her on stream or heard Nick or anyone else talk about her other then the odd mention. Never heard of April before this. No thoughts on April (other then I can fix her), and for Kayla, she absolutely has fucked up a lot, but I also know how manipulative/emotionally abusive Nick can be, so I can see her being broken by that. Not to say she's innocent, I just don't know enough about her to say she's as uniquely evil as Nick is.
Kurt
Man, where to even start. No one can convince me that Kurt isn't seriously autistic. He also clearly suffers from major depression, at a minimum. He's incredibly academically smart (and IMO has the strongest knowledge of the law), I'd even go so far as saying he's at/near genius territory. However, he's emotionally and socially retarded. That's the autism lol. I tend to give Kurt a little more leadway on things, especially when there's a personal and/or emotional factor in the analysis, because it takes him a lot longer to process and work through that stuff. As such, his initial takes are generally horrendous with those factors involved. While I could absolutely see him snapping one day and doing something terrible, or having a girl locked up in his basement as we speak, I think Kurt has a good soul in there. I hope the dude eventually decides he wants to be well, much like an addict they have to make that decision, and while Kurt pines for normalcy and love and human connection, he hasn't committed to that path. He just wishcasts for it.
Branca
Interesting cat. Strong knowledge of his field, but often driven by political/cultural/monetary concerns and should have those things factored in more then the general lawltuber. For those reasons, plus the fact that he's an older dude who's got his already and is in his glory years fully embracing his new found hobby of twitter shit poster, I don't pay much attention to him or put much weight into anything he says. Can be entertaining when one's in the mood for him, though.
Nate
Seems like a solid dude, more often then not has the most reasonable takes, and probably offers the best legal analysis on youtube. Has a varied legal background that informs his analysis, plus a rational head on his shoulders. Also helps that unlike the majority in lawltube or reasonably adjacent circles to lawltube, he's not terminally online and actually lives in the real world.