What do you all think of Mental Outlaw

wtry@lemm.ee to Linux@lemmy.ml – 155 points –

Personally, I find his Linux and privacy-related endeavors commendable, but I widely disregard of his political stances.

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I think he's a good source of knowledge, but definitely has his biases. I especially think it's funny when he laments corpo bullshit, but then defends their right to do the bullshit. As with most libertarians, he gets close to the point and then nose dives off the bad takes cliff.

As with most things, learn what you can, lionize no one.

He's very edgy, I don't like his content. If I want someone to talk about tech, I'd rather they just talk about tech and not make wojack thumbnails and constantly making fun of politics.

If he only knew anything about politics, it wouldn't be so bad. He seriously applauded Elon Musk for "fighting" against media bias by "the far-left democrats". 🫠

It's because he just regurgitates all his takes from /g/ on 4chan.

For people on 4chan that is as close to developing an own personality as possible. I feel pity for them.

This, never liked his content TBH. Luke Smith is similar but Luke's Linux content is good.

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Good on privacy and monero. I wish he would do more hands-on I2P and Monero stuff.

Dislike the politics. But alt-right sympathizers have been part of the scene ever since I can remember.

I prefer the European cyperpunk scene. Less guns and bootlicking, more sticking it to the man. Sadly, we aren't really producing much English language content, so Americans still have an edge online.

I love how you casually ignored the existence of English speaking countries in Europe. I think at least Ireland deserves better lol

For sure, but population wise they are also just smaller. Not that many British/Irish content creators relative to the Americans.

The USA dominates the anglosphere.

I've been to Ireland many times but didn't know they can speak english over there.

How can I get into this "European cyberpunk scene"? I am bilingual. Do you mind linking some channels or online communities you like?

I spent so much of my time in the Gentoo community fixing things that have gone wrong through newbies taking his advice as gospel. I'd be happy if he never made another video, and that's outside of, well, everything else.

I disagree with his right-wing libertarianism, as many have said. I found him when i was getting into tech privacy stuff and watched it, then youtube started giving me more of the harder weirdos who were a little more fashy. I dont think Mental Outlaw is a facist, dont get me wrong - but the youtube algorithm may send you that direction.

I think his older stuff was better and just had more content in each video. More recent videos (last 6-12 months?) it seems like he's got two news articles he reads but then he just goes on big tangents to fill space.

as an American who just recently got into Linux, I genuinely thought he was a parody channel when I first found him. everything from his mannerisms to his motivations seems perfectly in line with the less than pleasant stereotypes of Linux dweebs, and I think if he was my only source of Linux content I probably wouldn't have gotten into Linux when I did.

Anything with pepe the frog or anime in the thumbnails or anybody that says "based" is not worth it in my opinion.

Well he's kinda ironic about that

Yeah, nah, I don't think that's true my dude. I've heard his opinions on the gay agenda, 5g, trans people, and 'cultural marxism' being taught in our schools. I think it's just as serious as the place he gets alot of his views, the image boards we all know. It's the same irony you see on 4chan

When did he ever talk about those things? Did I miss something?

You can watch the podcast, or longer form political videos, that lukesmith does where he goes onbut he also peppers it into his videos every so often. I haven't watched in a while, so maybe he's calmed down a bit, but he seems to do this more frequently around major events

I don't know since i've never visited 4chan

I'd prefer not to associate linux content with politics of any kind, but he's enjoyable sometimes

Tech content is passable, wish he'd stick to that. Been losing points with politics, cheap merch and lazying out with what basically amounts to reaction videos.

Any other recommendations for tech content? Seytonic and The new oil are nice.

Brodie Robertson and The Linux Experiment are probably my favorites for non-vintage tech content

Love his content, he is quite entertaining, even when just doing a cooking video, has some good takes and some bad takes but who doesnt at this point.

I like his content, he covers open source tech pretty well imo. I don't agree with his opinions on guns, but I live in a country where any sort of weapons are pretty hard to get and violent crimes are very low. I won't understand the fear/anxiety of Americans living in open carry states, so take this opinion how you will. I don't really have any opinion on anyone's political opinions, including his. I do think it's cool how he has a chicken farm, a step towards self sustaining ig.

As an American who has to hear about shootings pretty consistently, I'd like to say the fear can be pretty justified. I don't really know what it's like to live in a world without guns and their presence, so it's hard to imagine life without the necessity of them to protect yourself. It's just one of those things that's hard to understand unless you've lived in it I guess.

I suspect the whole geographic thing also plays into it.

Where I live, you're never more than 15 minutes from a police station. Maybe half an hour if you live in the middle of nowhere. There are also more than enough cops to go around. I can imagine if you live 4 hours from a police station in the middle of nowhere, or somewhere with 24hr response times, you would want a gun for protection. I certainly would.

I'm clueless european now living in a country where guns are generally available to trained and vetted to some degree public and I was always puzzled by US self-defense culture, some parts of it simply do not compute to me.

Like how does it work? Are gun owners in America spending reasonable amount of time at the range? Any gun is as good as your training. Safe handling should be muscle memory at the very least to promote an individual from a danger to themselves and people around (not necessarily to an attacker) to someone who is able to hold a gun. Then comes actual shooting practice, which will improve chances of achieving intended things with this gun.

Also strange obsession with high-power calibers, even knowledgeable gun bloggers mentioning things like .357 magnum in self-defense context. Did people really try to shoot them indoors without hearing protection? Do they really mind what's behind their target, i.e your kid sleeping in the room next door. High-powered round is a responsibility, however a lot of people talk about them like they are toys.

I really hope I'm missing something or maybe gun handling culture is really common knowledge over there not worth mentioning, because looking at the general public pretty much everywhere I've been - there's no way I'd trust them with a gun. It takes some dedication to learn, even if it seems simple.

If you want to purchase a firearm in the US, there will be a background check at time of purchase. To check if your a felon or have done serious crimes. After purchase of firearms you can do anything with them on private property as long as it is legal (no homicide or hunting). However you can protect land with the newly acquired firearm depending on your states statues on protecting property. For example where I live there's a statue for protecting livestock (cows, pigs, horses, lamas and allpacas) if any animal tries to harm or kill anything that falls into the catorgory of livestock. Which gives you the right to shoot it under circumstance.

Aswell as If you want to conceal Carry (having a firearm on you in public in places that don't explicitly say no firearms) You need to take a class where they teach you, don't shoot at something your not willing to part with. Treat ever gun as if it is loaded. Know whats beyond your target Etc.

I think there should be more training on firearms. And when to and not use them.

Its not that guns are bad, people are bad aswell as stupid. I also must add that this is my opinion and your are welcome to your own. And please be civil if you do replie.

Also people need to stop generalizing (left wants this) (right wants this) Its stupid not everybody is an extremist. So not everybody in a certain party or race agrees with outlandish stuff.

There's my 2 cents Everybody have a nice day/night!! Cheers,

I totally get qhat you're saying, but I can't help but feel bad about what you're saying too, because this isn't how it's supposed to be.. You're not supposed to have to live with constant fear. I wish it was different 😔

Informative tech content. I'm right leaning but more towards the center so I don't agree with everything he says politically speaking, but I have no issues viewing his content since at the end of the day he's still libertarian and anti-establishment. I also have no problems holding conversations with the anarcho socialists on lemmy, because at the end of the day they're also not advocating for more control over my life, we just have disagreements on the technical details of how society should work.

Holy shit as a socialist this is the most grounded and respectable take I have ever seen.

Very much agreed, his tech stuff and farming is good content, but the rest I do not agree with in any shape or form.

I agree, come of as an american libertarian, but at least he's not on the weirder side of the political ideology with age of consent (from my limited knowledge of him)

I see everyone talk about his politics but what do you expect the man to do. Not stand up for his ideological support for FOSS technology and not talk about radical new technology such as the 3D printing of guns?

It feel's like being a genuine human being is enough to throw people off nowadays. It's not like he's a grifter, he has given critique on right wing social media, the "freedomphone" and republican legislation regarding tech.

I actually haven't found much value in his videos lately. I followed him during the time that he was covering more informational topics like android ROMs and a smattering of how to walkthroughs. Haven't seen anything like that in awhile. The few I have watched have basically been news bites about some event in the tech world. I guess those are OK, but still not super helpful in discovering new tech or services.

Now that I think back, he did do a video on how to switch from sudo to doas in Linux, which was awesome. One or two videos like that are enough to keep me monitoring the channel.

What are his political stances?

Pretty right-leaning.

Right wing libertarian, to be a bit more precise.

There is no such thing. Libertarian means centrist, and right wing means, well, right wing.

Libertarians can be left or right. What they have in common is that the government should have limited powers, but what they disagree with is what type of limited powers it should have. Rightist libertarians believe in laissez faire capitalism (their main name in economics is Ludwig von Mises), while leftist libertarians believe that corporations should be put at more scrutiny by the government.

Small correction: Leftist libertarians is usually another term for anarchism. I.e. There shouldn't be neither governments nor corporations, but rather decentralized, self-governed communities and worker-owned cooperatives.

The way I learned it is that anarcho-socialism is the extremist version of leftist libertarianism. A moderate libertarian doesn't mind the existence of a government, as long as it is limited. As for the anarchists, I know that they exist and I know that there are both on the left and the right, but I don't have interest in reading their literature (it might be a cool theory to read, but the fact that it is so far from practice makes my interest in it practically vanish).

I've never heard any libertarians be referred to as "moderate". As far as I understand it, "libertarianism" already includes a radical worldview. Wanting less government an simultaneously more government control IMHO sound a bit oxymoronic.

As an anarchist myself, of course I disagree with your stance on the practicability on anarchism. ;)

I've never heard

Well, looks like conversation is impossible then. Unless you have better sources, those two words are not 100% the same. Anarchism is a specific word, coming from the greek anarkhia, meaning "without a ruler". Libertarianism, on the contrary, is a more broad word, since liberta is latin for "freedom".

This is not about the dictionary, but about historical movements/strains of thought. The french "socialisme libertaire" is the term they used in 18th century France. And libertarian socialism aims for the freedom of all people from rulers.

Edit: Found a source

You're confusing liberal with libertarian.

And I'm curious: What is "right wing" in your opinion?

I don't know about Mental Outlaw specifically, but there's a vein of FOSS YouTube influencers who are very American libertarian in nature. And the important thing to understand abour american libertarians is they are largely fascists. They fly don't tread on me and pro cop flags together. Its not that theyre anti authority. They're pro authority beating up minorities. Does that make sense?

And the important thing to understand about american libertarians is they are largely fascists.

So let me get this straight, the people that are always complaining that the government should have less power and interference into people's lives and want guns for regular people in case the government starts oppressing them are aligned with... checks wikipedia "a far-right, authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy."?

I don't agree with the libertarian view and think it's way too ignorant of the nature of Man and society, but I think that in your ramble of buzzwords you just created a very cute incoherent contradiction.

Means to an end. It's don't tread on me, not don't tread on anyone.

This is abjectly wrong. I was, for a brief period of time, a delegate in the part for California. To simplify, it would be closer to a sort of anarchy light. With the minimalist amount of government allowed to exist.

He tends to just read a few articles and that's boring to me. I like how schizo anti government he is.

I'm curious what political stances you disagree with because he only seems to talk about online privacy and guns.

He really seems to be into guns

Disagree with his politics, but otherwise based.

I'd agree on the problem with the political stances. He often gets is right but then somehow jumps to the wrong conclusions.

The next Terry Davis. Starting with the open source chicken farm of course.

Why does his political stance on anything matter? Is your mental skip button broken?

Mental outlaw wears his political stance , in doing so its very in your face, I'm aligned with European libertarianism and communism so for me to watch an unboxing channel would be uncomfortable as the idear are juxtaposed to mine so I can see how some may find it difficult. To me he's a wholesome dude

I used to like his content and his videos got me into linux but i feel that his newer videos have a lot more politics compared to the older ones and i very much disagree with most of his political views i don't realy watch him anymore

I liked his privacy content when I came across his videos. I do not look at political affiliations in tech.

Super glad to hear from him. Leftist here, in love with politics. Don't mind hearing about anyone's political views.