AvE - got introduced him just before he decided to start talking positively about MAGA and the similar Canadian trucker protests. Plenty of other people out there doing teardown my videos, so I bailed.
Rose Anvil - loved his work boot teardowns, but he gradually started promoting his own collabs and seemed to favor certain brands even if they were doing things he called shoddy in other brands. Then he started doing a lot with Jim Green boots in South Africa and making a lot of comments that felt pro-Rhodesia to me and started giving me the ick for watching.
Forgotten Weapons I still watch if there is something of particular interest to me. I used to watch every one, but as the country got more MAGA invested and gun culture felt like it was becoming more toxic than usual, I wasn’t happy with Ian staying neutral. If he’s worried about losing viewers and connections with gun manufacturers, I get that, but I also don’t have to like it or support it.
I agree with you on Forgotten Weapons. Also got kinda skeezed out with all the giveaways that required to to buy ridiculous and overpriced crap for an entry into the raffle.
You might like InRangeTV then, it hits all the stuff. Pro LGBT, Anti Maga, Anti Racist, while producing excellent videos about guns, history, etc.
I was going to mention Karl at InRange as a good example. As a lefty gun owner, it is so rare to find someone in the gun community willing to speak up if they want to have any kind of standing.
C&arsenal I still kinda like, because they seem to steer more clear of any politics in a way better than Ian does, though I don’t think I’ve ever watched their Q&A videos, kinda out of fear at being disappointed after getting meh on Ian. Their videos, while great, are just so dang long! I can’t watch 90+ minutes of details on every iteration of rare guns, so I stick to the ones I’m more familiar with.
ave was a huge disappointment. watched him for years and then he started dropping his political beliefs. I get it, people have opinions, and they’re entitled to those opinions. hell, feel free to share your opinions on your platform you spent years building. but when you share your political opinions on your nonpolitical platform don’t get angry when people leave.
dude was straight dumb as shit for throwing it all away.
Sometimes I question if it’s hypocritical to get mad at AvE for sharing opinions I don’t like while also being disappointed at someone like Ian at Forgotten Weapons for not bringing up his opinions to try and stay neutral. But at the same time, not addressing a worldwide wave of discrimination and prejudice still feels like taking a stance. Like, is there an acceptable degree of nuance I am missing? Is there some degree of religious intolerance or racism or gender discrimination that should be seen as tolerable? Most things do have some gray area to the conversation, but I just am not feeling that with all the comfort a lot of people now seem to have with treating fellow humans and our planet like crap.
I’m not expecting everyone to draw a line in the sand or anything. I think conversation has lost a lot of nuance. Even just saying something like “I didn’t know enough about this topic to have an opinion” is much better than either changing ahead while being ignorant or just rejecting anything you can’t currently understand. Refusing to say anything though feels like “I support the thing that is going to make you mad, I’m just afraid to say it.”
AvE, for better or worse, at least made it clear who he was. I can respect that to some degree. He at least has conviction. With Ian, I would guess he is something like a conservative libertarian that would support more old school Republicans, but the thing is we’ll never know, so while he may support shitty policy to further his personal interests and career, that is still kinda a shitty position when we’re talking people’s rights and safety being the price for that. And that’s the best case scenario. If he’s harder right wing than that, it only gets worse.
Talking guns/wati/history I feel it’s much harder to dodge taking some stance, because no matter what, every part of that learning ties in with politics. AvE tearing apart stuff and doing shop things rarely needs to lean into politics, so him leaning into it was all on him. I didn’t notice anyone calling on him in comments for his political insights.
Yeah, I got no time for anyone who finds any entertainment in anything trump related. My extended family is about 80% Trump lovers, and since I can’t get rid of them, I can sure as heck choose to ignore anyone I’m not related to.
Finding out AvE was really dumb as fuck was a gut punch. I really enjoyed his content and it sucked to walk away. But I dropped it cold turkey when the first video supporting the trucker convoy came out.
AvE - got introduced him just before he decided to start talking positively about MAGA and the similar Canadian trucker protests. Plenty of other people out there doing teardown my videos, so I bailed.
Rose Anvil - loved his work boot teardowns, but he gradually started promoting his own collabs and seemed to favor certain brands even if they were doing things he called shoddy in other brands. Then he started doing a lot with Jim Green boots in South Africa and making a lot of comments that felt pro-Rhodesia to me and started giving me the ick for watching.
Forgotten Weapons I still watch if there is something of particular interest to me. I used to watch every one, but as the country got more MAGA invested and gun culture felt like it was becoming more toxic than usual, I wasn’t happy with Ian staying neutral. If he’s worried about losing viewers and connections with gun manufacturers, I get that, but I also don’t have to like it or support it.
I agree with you on Forgotten Weapons. Also got kinda skeezed out with all the giveaways that required to to buy ridiculous and overpriced crap for an entry into the raffle.
You might like InRangeTV then, it hits all the stuff. Pro LGBT, Anti Maga, Anti Racist, while producing excellent videos about guns, history, etc.
I sound like i paid shill dont I :\
I was going to mention Karl at InRange as a good example. As a lefty gun owner, it is so rare to find someone in the gun community willing to speak up if they want to have any kind of standing.
C&arsenal I still kinda like, because they seem to steer more clear of any politics in a way better than Ian does, though I don’t think I’ve ever watched their Q&A videos, kinda out of fear at being disappointed after getting meh on Ian. Their videos, while great, are just so dang long! I can’t watch 90+ minutes of details on every iteration of rare guns, so I stick to the ones I’m more familiar with.
ave was a huge disappointment. watched him for years and then he started dropping his political beliefs. I get it, people have opinions, and they’re entitled to those opinions. hell, feel free to share your opinions on your platform you spent years building. but when you share your political opinions on your nonpolitical platform don’t get angry when people leave.
dude was straight dumb as shit for throwing it all away.
Sometimes I question if it’s hypocritical to get mad at AvE for sharing opinions I don’t like while also being disappointed at someone like Ian at Forgotten Weapons for not bringing up his opinions to try and stay neutral. But at the same time, not addressing a worldwide wave of discrimination and prejudice still feels like taking a stance. Like, is there an acceptable degree of nuance I am missing? Is there some degree of religious intolerance or racism or gender discrimination that should be seen as tolerable? Most things do have some gray area to the conversation, but I just am not feeling that with all the comfort a lot of people now seem to have with treating fellow humans and our planet like crap.
I’m not expecting everyone to draw a line in the sand or anything. I think conversation has lost a lot of nuance. Even just saying something like “I didn’t know enough about this topic to have an opinion” is much better than either changing ahead while being ignorant or just rejecting anything you can’t currently understand. Refusing to say anything though feels like “I support the thing that is going to make you mad, I’m just afraid to say it.”
AvE, for better or worse, at least made it clear who he was. I can respect that to some degree. He at least has conviction. With Ian, I would guess he is something like a conservative libertarian that would support more old school Republicans, but the thing is we’ll never know, so while he may support shitty policy to further his personal interests and career, that is still kinda a shitty position when we’re talking people’s rights and safety being the price for that. And that’s the best case scenario. If he’s harder right wing than that, it only gets worse.
Talking guns/wati/history I feel it’s much harder to dodge taking some stance, because no matter what, every part of that learning ties in with politics. AvE tearing apart stuff and doing shop things rarely needs to lean into politics, so him leaning into it was all on him. I didn’t notice anyone calling on him in comments for his political insights.
I miss AvE sometimes. Last video I watched he something about at least trump isn’t boring, or something to that effect. No thank you.
Yeah, I got no time for anyone who finds any entertainment in anything trump related. My extended family is about 80% Trump lovers, and since I can’t get rid of them, I can sure as heck choose to ignore anyone I’m not related to.
Finding out AvE was really dumb as fuck was a gut punch. I really enjoyed his content and it sucked to walk away. But I dropped it cold turkey when the first video supporting the trucker convoy came out.