He also said that he would consider Linus Media Group unionizing a “personal failure,” which is about as good as you could typically expect from a business owner but still not great.
Giving him the benefit of the doubt, he probably meant that if a business owner treats his employees well, there shouldnt be a need to unionize. But that would mean he fundamentally misunderstands what a union is and why you want one. I dont know which is worse.
Your benefit of the doubt assumption is correct. He has explained it in detail a couple of times. Like you I find it unfortunate and frustrating.
Still, based on some of the numbers they have talked about their employee retention is very good and considering how talented many of the people who work for him are, if it were a shitty place to work that could likely easily find work elsewhere. I have a number of criticisms of Linus and his ADHD snap judgments or out of touch privileged takes, but he still strikes me as someone that does genuinely want to do the right thing that got insanely lucky and had to adapt to a crazy situation no random person off thee street would ever be that prepared before.
His POV on that from what I could tell was that he didn’t want a union to be necessary. He wasn’t opposed to the benefits one would provide, he just wanted to have a workplace where people didn’t need to unionize just to get those benefits.
He also admits to pirating games and media. So like I think I agree, adblockers are a way to access things without “paying”. Think people thought he was saying piracy like it was a bad thing. But I think he was just being literal.
In essence what he said was “know what you’re doing” from what I can tell. No major judgement of the behavior, but instead just a notice that one should be aware of their actions.
Personally I’d love if more sites just added a ko-fi link or similar. You made good stuff? Here’s some money I can spare, and if I get even more use out of your content in the future, I’ll pay you a little more then.
I don’t support ltt but that’s the weakest (most cope least knowledgeable) argument there is honestly
like that makes sense because by adblocking you are basically receiving “paid” content for “free” (i put quotes bc the site isn’t getting paid unless you click but whatever)
he elaborates to say that he isn’t criticising it, just drawing an analogue, and that he uses one himself iirc
ublock origin+sponsorblock <3 btw
btw my reason for not liking ltt is just that i don’t like the consolidation of media and info sources, and that there’s just higher quality content to watch
Not to be an Internet pedant, but technically most definitions of Internet piracy describe it as illegally copying and distributing copyrighted content. Adblockers aren’t doing either, they’re just hiding UI elements and letting you access content your browser has already fetched, right from the original source
They also started to favor quantity of content over quality.
While true before a year ago, at the same time the SMM thing happened, they did some content mistakes, owned up to them and started doing the exact opposite of what you’re saying
I certainly hope so. I stopped caring about them years ago for other reasons. I simply saw that story over the news when it happened.
But I could argue that it still took them the departure of their social media manager to realize what they were doing. If she just left without talking about her experience, who knows how they would be today.
the leaving of her and the change in content production were actually seperate issues. iirc she spoke up once the content issues came up. Her problem wasn’t even “just” toxic work schedules/loads, but actual harrasment from someone, which aparently wasn’t properly dealt with at the time
Just the most average fence-sitter. But he’s said in one of his videos that he loves capitalism (probably the one in which he bought a gaming PC from China? Or was that the Arm/RISC-V video?). And as expected, he hates having unions and stuff.
Speaking of which, what happened about the ex-employee sexual misconduct? No investigation details out?
Linus never said he hates unions, he said he’d feel that he failed as the owner if his employees felt so underrepresented that they needed a union.
He has historically expressed support of unions in other companies and hasn’t been against one in his own, he just doesn’t want his company to need one.
There were a series of accusations about our company last August from a former employee. Immediately following these accusations, LMG hired Roper Greyell - a large Vancouver-based law firm specializing in labor and employment law, to conduct a third-party investigation. Their website describes them as “one of the largest employment and labour law firms in Western Canada.” They work with both private and public sector employers.
To ensure a fair investigation, LMG did not comment or publicly release any data and asked our team members to do the same. Now that the investigation is complete, we’re able to provide a summary of the findings.
The investigation found that:
Claims of bullying and harassment were not substantiated.
Allegations that sexual harassment were ignored or not addressed were false.
Any concerns that were raised were investigated. Furthermore, from reviewing our history, the investigator is confident that if any other concerns had been raised, we would have investigated them.
There was no evidence of “abuse of power” or retaliation. The individual involved may not have agreed with our decisions or performance feedback, but our actions were for legitimate work-related purposes, and our business reasons were valid.
Allegations of process errors and miscommunication while onboarding this individual were partially substantiated, but the investigator found ample documentary evidence of LMG working to rectify the errors and the individual being treated generously and respectfully. When they had questions, they were responded to and addressed.
In summary, as confirmed by the investigation, the allegations made against the team were largely unfounded, misleading, and unfair.
With all of that said, in the spirit of ongoing improvement, the investigator shared their general recommendation that fast-growing workplaces should invest in continuing professional development. The investigator encouraged us to provide further training to our team about how to raise concerns to reinforce our existing workplace policies.
Prior to receiving this report, LMG solicited anonymous feedback from the team in an effort to ensure there was no unreported bullying and harassment and hosted a training session which reiterated our workplace policies and reinforced our reporting structure. LMG will continue to assess ongoing continuing education for our team.
At this time, we feel our case for a defamation suit would be very strong; however, our deepest wish is to simply put all of this behind us. We hope that will be the case, given the investigator’s clear findings that the allegations made online were misrepresentations of what actually occurred. We will continue to assess if there is persistent reputational damage or further defamation.
This doesn’t mean our company is perfect and our journey is over. We are continuously learning and trying to do better. Thank you all for being part of our community.
I don’t know of a specific example, but it’s not hard to imagine that the owner of one of the biggest content creator companies on YouTube loves capitalism.
Well they do disclose their investment but I dont think it is what they were referencing. It makes sense for them to cover as they have a stake in the company doing well.
Is the youtuber Investor Linus (tech tips)? If so, what are his controversial politics?
Calling adblockers piracy is one i remember
He also said that he would consider Linus Media Group unionizing a “personal failure,” which is about as good as you could typically expect from a business owner but still not great.
Giving him the benefit of the doubt, he probably meant that if a business owner treats his employees well, there shouldnt be a need to unionize. But that would mean he fundamentally misunderstands what a union is and why you want one. I dont know which is worse.
Your benefit of the doubt assumption is correct. He has explained it in detail a couple of times. Like you I find it unfortunate and frustrating.
Still, based on some of the numbers they have talked about their employee retention is very good and considering how talented many of the people who work for him are, if it were a shitty place to work that could likely easily find work elsewhere. I have a number of criticisms of Linus and his ADHD snap judgments or out of touch privileged takes, but he still strikes me as someone that does genuinely want to do the right thing that got insanely lucky and had to adapt to a crazy situation no random person off thee street would ever be that prepared before.
His POV on that from what I could tell was that he didn’t want a union to be necessary. He wasn’t opposed to the benefits one would provide, he just wanted to have a workplace where people didn’t need to unionize just to get those benefits.
Although he admits to using one. Still a stupid take but he’s not like, adamantly anti-adblocker.
Broke: adblockers are like piracy, which is bad.
Woke: adblockers are like piracy, which is based.
He also admits to pirating games and media. So like I think I agree, adblockers are a way to access things without “paying”. Think people thought he was saying piracy like it was a bad thing. But I think he was just being literal.
In essence what he said was “know what you’re doing” from what I can tell. No major judgement of the behavior, but instead just a notice that one should be aware of their actions. Personally I’d love if more sites just added a ko-fi link or similar. You made good stuff? Here’s some money I can spare, and if I get even more use out of your content in the future, I’ll pay you a little more then.
He regularly talks about how much he pirates on the wan show. He’s very pro piracy
I don’t support ltt but that’s the weakest (most cope least knowledgeable) argument there is honestly
like that makes sense because by adblocking you are basically receiving “paid” content for “free” (i put quotes bc the site isn’t getting paid unless you click but whatever)
he elaborates to say that he isn’t criticising it, just drawing an analogue, and that he uses one himself iirc
ublock origin+sponsorblock <3 btw
btw my reason for not liking ltt is just that i don’t like the consolidation of media and info sources, and that there’s just higher quality content to watch
I wish more places had the resources to make an equivalent to ltt labs. There’s still rtings which is pretty darn good though.
Ad lockers are piracy though. Calling something piracy isn’t making any moral judgements
Not to be an Internet pedant, but technically most definitions of Internet piracy describe it as illegally copying and distributing copyrighted content. Adblockers aren’t doing either, they’re just hiding UI elements and letting you access content your browser has already fetched, right from the original source
Last year, the social media manager left and accused LTT of being a toxic workplace with sexual harassment. They also started to favor quantity of content over quality.
While true before a year ago, at the same time the SMM thing happened, they did some content mistakes, owned up to them and started doing the exact opposite of what you’re saying
I certainly hope so. I stopped caring about them years ago for other reasons. I simply saw that story over the news when it happened. But I could argue that it still took them the departure of their social media manager to realize what they were doing. If she just left without talking about her experience, who knows how they would be today.
the leaving of her and the change in content production were actually seperate issues. iirc she spoke up once the content issues came up. Her problem wasn’t even “just” toxic work schedules/loads, but actual harrasment from someone, which aparently wasn’t properly dealt with at the time
Just the most average fence-sitter. But he’s said in one of his videos that he loves capitalism (probably the one in which he bought a gaming PC from China? Or was that the Arm/RISC-V video?). And as expected, he hates having unions and stuff.
Speaking of which, what happened about the ex-employee sexual misconduct? No investigation details out?
Linus never said he hates unions, he said he’d feel that he failed as the owner if his employees felt so underrepresented that they needed a union.
He has historically expressed support of unions in other companies and hasn’t been against one in his own, he just doesn’t want his company to need one.
In regards to the misconduct…
Announcement on the WAN show of the 3rd party results
Post that matches the one on Twitter
And the actual contents of the post:
Can’t speak to the rest, the independent investigation came out a month or so back and didn’t find any wrong doing. 🤷
I can’t help but feel that if someone like Linus said he “loves capitalism” in a video then it was probably a joke. Would you mind providing a link?
I don’t know of a specific example, but it’s not hard to imagine that the owner of one of the biggest content creator companies on YouTube loves capitalism.
I guess the generous amount of coverage and media attention Framework gets from their videos
Well they do disclose their investment but I dont think it is what they were referencing. It makes sense for them to cover as they have a stake in the company doing well.