Pop science and informational YouTube channels...full of misinformation. - When the fact checking is worse than Buzzfeed

[Michael Jacks0n]

I think the most notorious is Weird History, which is an agenda-driven daily facts YouTube channel whose videos are full of tons of errors from wrong dates, incorrect photos of famous people, and misuse of terms. In almost every video I've seen from them, they always get dates wrong, such as videos about celebrities who died but they'll show a clip from one of their movies/concerts and put a year on it that was 10 years before/after they died. Here's a video on a lost Pink Floyd album where they confuse two different band members, and the comments keep pointing it out.

Next is Today I Find Out with Simon Whistler whose channel is very similar: quick daily facts and quirky snippets of history, often with more misinformation that lacks thorough fact checking, not to mention they have an agenda. I used to binge this channel a long time ago when bored, but stopped when they kept getting their facts wrong.

Then there's The Infographics Show who does After Effects vector animations similar to Kurzgesagt, only dumber and filled with more errors. Notably they made a video about Marvin Heemeyer's glorious Killdozer Rampage, albeit their "facts" were so bad that the video had a staggering dislike ratio and negative comments, so the video was eventually pulled (they removed it a while back before I could archive it).

What are some other facts/history channels you can think of which are notorious for misinformation? I blame the whole "I Fucking Love Science!" crowd of autists for this mess.

 

[Smug Chuckler]

Extra Credits

 

[I'm Not Racist Anymore]

Adam Ruins Everything is worth mentioning if the youtube clips count. That Columbus episode spawned so many videos debunking it that it had to have set some sort of record.

 

[Michael Jacks0n]

Extra Credits

Yep...You're a Nazi!

 

[AnimeGirlConnoisseur]

I didn't know much about weird history and I don't watch much of TIFO, so I didn't know about any bias. I used to watch a lot of Whistler's other channel, where he makes it clear that he's a neo-liberal. Also post a pic of Whistler's face. It's a low blow, but I think you should take a look at it; he's literally a bug-man/soyface wojak.

Now, the infographics show I know those guys are full of shit, especially whenever they talk about military stuff. I think that you should watch any video where they ask "can X country invade Y country" and compare it to someone who knows what they are talking about, like Binkov's Battlegrounds. Also there was one particularly stupid instance where they were comparing modern US soldiers with Whermacht soldiers and they claimed that the Beretta M9 was a better pistol than the Walther P38 partially because it had a slightly longer range. I think they were just quoting Wikipedia entries, because I know that both pistols fire 9mm, so any difference in range should be considered negligible.

Extra Credits

Shorter wait times for fascists when?

 

[Furina]

Next is Today I Find Out with Simon Whistler whose channel is very similar: quick daily facts and quirky snippets of history, often with more misinformation that lacks thorough fact checking, not to mention an agenda. I used to binge this channel a long time ago when bored, but stopped when they kept getting their facts wrong.

I've noticed a lot of the channels he's involved with have a certain agenda. I can't vouch for what he gets wrong because I'm pretty uneducated on most of it, but in several of his videos where I'm actually fairly familiar with the subject I do notice he tends to leave out important bits of information, or frames things in a very specific way. He delivers his videos in a very direct, matter-of-fact way which gives the impression of cool objectivity, when really he's fairly biased.

 

[Milkis]

I think they were just quoting Wikipedia entries, because I know that both pistols fire 9mm, so any difference in range should be considered negligible.

Probably a very, very small number of these channels are NOT just quoting Wikipedia. GIGO.

 

[Mockynwa]

Yep...You're a Nazi!

There you are; browsing the KiwiFarms on the World Wide Web and all of the sudden, you're watching an Extra Credits video. You didn't ask for this, you didn't choose this, yet there it is, and it's treated no differently than watching literally anything else.

 

[Michael Jacks0n]

I can't vouch for what he gets wrong because I'm pretty uneducated on most of it,

It's really basic stuff like incorrect dates or measurements. Two in particular that I recall off the top of my head was his video about the book Die Hard was based off, and he gets the dates mixed up like saying it was written in the 60's when it was written in the 70's or something (I forget where exactly he fumbled, but I remember being puzzled by it and people in the comments pointed it out). He also did a biography about Napoleon Bonaparte where he perpetuated the myth of him being short and gave his incorrect height.

 

[DumbDude42]

he tends to leave out important bits of information, or frames things in a very specific way. He delivers his videos in a very direct, matter-of-fact way which gives the impression of cool objectivity, when really he's fairly biased.

this is textbook media propaganda techniques. TV news and documentaries use this exact same pattern for their indoctrination.

 

[Forgetful Gynn]

Game Theorists.

 

[Marissa Moira]

Any type of Dinosaur channel run by a fucking furry.

They're sooooo fuucking salty about their big feathered dinos being BTFO by Science.

T-REX AND TRICERATOPS DID NOT HAVE FEATHERS YOU PUSHED THIS FEATHERED SHIT FOR DECADES AND IT AMOUNTED TO NOTHING

 

[Lone MacReady]

No different than wikipedia or most modern globohomo outlets set on revisionism duty. It's the flavor of the century.

 

[From The Uncanny Valley]

Just found out about Weird History, that really sucks.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

Extra Credits

I watched Extra Credits history some years ago and I remember that it just felt manipulative to the modern liberal bias. Something along the lines of "This dude raped and killed half the continent, but he's black so we should view him as an inspirational figure".

 

[Notgoodwithusernames]

Game theory

 

[Kill All Kiwis]

Knowing Better. At least with his recent video.

Here’s Actual Justice Warrior’s response to the video

Shame, since Knowing Better shat on Adam Ruins Everything with that Columbus Video

 

[Pokemonquistador2]

Knowing Better. At least with his recent video.

Here’s Actual Justice Warrior’s response to the video

Shame, since Knowing Better shat on Adam Ruins Everything with that Columbus Video

It's hard not to find a pop culture history channel without a liberal bias, since creative content makers are more likely to be left wing. (Right wing people go out and work actual jobs for a living.)

Plainly Difficult covers a lot of disasters with his video channel and sometimes he goes into depth about them quite a bit, but I've caught him skimming wikipedia once in awhile.

 

[Strange Wilderness]

Crash Course

John Green talks about history from a Eurocentric view while shitting on white people and praising all other cultures. He tries to make History "cool" and down with the kids while ignoring crucial events that might make interfere with the narrative. His video on the Haitian Revolution is something to behold.

 

[frozenrunner]

If anyone says Vsauce, I will cut them