To be p'd off by patronising online censorship?

[purpleplatypus2022]

So my teenage nephew is learning about WW2 at school. He is struggling to understand how someone like Hitler could could come to power. I tried explaining but wasn't really getting through so I thought I'd just show him some videos of Hitler speaking at one of those huge rallies to give an idea at how he was able to mesmerise a crowd.

So, on to YouTube I go and.... nothing. A handful of very short videos of AH speaking fairly normally (no subtitles). Nothing that really shows what I mean.

I did some research and it turns out YT has taken it upon itself to delete pretty much all videos of Hitler speaking because... I don't know. My nephew will turn into a card-carrying member of the NF? Documented historical fact offends some people?

So now I'm going to dig out my old World at War DVDs, or worse, trawl the sewers of the internet trying to find whichever far right website probably hosts such videos (well done YT - how many others have now been funnelled in this direction I wonder?)

Really it's just infuriating. I'm just fed up of this endless internet censorship, fed up of being treated like a little child by some woke prats in California. And now they're erasing history they don't like.

AIBU?

While I can understand your frustration there are unfortunately groups who still idolise Hitler and yes recruit young people like your nephew! While the videos themselves may not be recruitment videos comments and in video links may contain sites that are actually very dangerous!

The best bet is to direct to to documentaries on Hitler, even try BBC bite size website. A very quick google brought this up www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z3bp82p/revision/1 .

You don't need to go back in history to see how right wing dictators come to power. Just read the news.

That said YANBU. However we have to "think of the children".

(Personally I prefer classification over censorship. But who the fuck am I ?)

Surely you understand that most people who seek out that sort of thing are not doing it with an educated, balanced view.

Well, if a teen is interest in far right material, they will get find of it. And not on some vanilla site like YT where at least there may be some context or links to factual documentaries, but on the actual real deal on neo-nazi websites where they will be exposed to a hell of lot more besides.

Banning anything just gives it the allure of forbidden fruit and is completely counter-productive.

You tube is not a vanilla site. There’s plenty of damaging stuff on there believe me I only wish they removed more

Get some good quality documentaries, the bbc have done a lot over the years.
Youtube is not an educational resource (per se before anyone starts quibbling that its got nothing educational on it)

@purpleplatypus2022

Well, if a teen is interest in far right material, they will get find of it. And not on some vanilla site like YT where at least there may be some context or links to factual documentaries, but on the actual real deal on neo-nazi websites where they will be exposed to a hell of lot more besides.

Banning anything just gives it the allure of forbidden fruit and is completely counter-productive.

Actually thinking about it from your reply… it’s actually far more likely the clips you were looking for were clips from documentaries in which case it’s probable that they were removed for copyright reasons rather than censorship.

@purpleplatypus2022

If he can get over to London and the Imperial War Museum I’ll highly recommend the Holocaust gallery — (It gets emotional though)

www.iwm.org.uk/events/the-holocaust-galleries

I went there last year. A stand out point of contrast was it was around the time of the fall of Afghanistan.
The early parts of the gallery covered the 1930s with the Evian conference. Reading the quotes back then about countries comparing the amounts of ‘Jewish refugees’, ‘why should we take them’, ‘they’re taking our jobs’ etc …. All matched the comments about Afghan refugees

The Holocaust gallery takes you through the journey of how Hitlers narrative used the Jews from a ‘minor’ bit of scapegoat rhetoric to dehumanising and ultimately to industrial scale extermination

The BBC made a three part series called Rise of the Nazis. I watched it fairly recently so it might still be available on iPlayer.

"Triumph of the will" because it is a pretty propaganda film, might serve if your purpose. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_of_the_Will
I haven't seen it, but I remember my brother who is a World War II history fanatic, talking about it. Leni Riefenstahl was supposed to be a very skilled filmmaker.

Some bits of it are available on YouTube. The whole is available on a site which can be easily found by searching the title. I don't want to give a link as it may well be breaching copyright.

Have you had a look at the History Channel? It is a free to watch channel. There has been loads of stuff about Hitler on there.

How do you know that?

We live in a world of censorship pandering to the permanently offended believing nobody can evidence gather and decide for themselves. It's rather sad really.

YANBU

It’s vile and it’s just the beginning, the UK is piloting the dystopian CCP export of Social Credit Score. You know how it works in China? It connects to your social media so you can’t post anything that ‘damages moral (the party moral but they claim the population’s) or some such poppycock.

When we have no platforming in universities, how are people ment to study and show why x speaker is wrong in their views ?

Plenty of archive footage around OP, go to a more credible site, where swivel-eyed loons and fans of AH aren't looking for videos to support their views. Or even, eyebrow raiser, try a library. I'm more than happy for You Tube to remove AH and fans, it's one of the most damaging inventions ever imo.

‘The Dark Charisma of Adolf Hitler’ is an excellent documentary series on BBC iPlayer showing exactly how Hitler rose to power.

Thanks I'll check out some of these docs and suggestions.

I've really grown heartily sick of YT and their censorship in recent years. I've dipped some of the copycat sites (Rumble, Odysee etc.) and there's still not much content on them, so sadly I still rely on YT for a fair bit.

As someone who remembers the wild west days of the internet it's sad to see everything now controlled by a handful of corporations, with the effect this has had on free speech and the free flow of information.

I just had a quick look on Freeview and a number of documentary programmes are available on Catch Up - just put 'Hitler' into the search box:

www.freeview.co.uk/tv-guide

It’s not erasing history though - pre YouTube you would only ever have seen those speeches contextualised in documentaries, exhibits or in photographs. It’s not been ‘banned’ it’s just not being ‘promoted’.

I did the same topic at the same age but before YouTube - so had to read about his speeches and how effective an orator he was. It’s incredibly unusual that young people today have the degree of access they have to video footage - it’s never happened before. I think it’s a good decision from YouTube here tbh.

also OP, if you’re into free speech on the internet maybe you’ll be behind Elon Musk’s Twitter take over 😉

Go onto Netflix and look for a serialised documentary called Hitlers Circle of Evil. It's excellent and explains just how hitler came to power.

Youtube had to remove quite a few far right channels a couple of years ago because there was some seriously offensive and damaging stuff on there.

I think what we’re balancing up is ‘inconvenience of having to find and watch a documentary’ vs ‘potential harm of highly offensive material being easily shared/edited/copied’ so I don’t think it’s too bad really.

You're not being unreasonable. Unfortunately there are a lot of weak people out there that can't bear the truth of how things came to be through history. If it hurts their feelings or it makes them feel guilty, it must be erased. And it's this stupidity that ultimately leads to mistakes in history being repeated because nobody ever learns about it.

I agree with you about large corporations and censorship in a way OP. Violence and material about self -harm remains a lot longer than the sight of a woman breastfeeding, for example.

Netflix (if you have it) were doing a whole thing on WWII in colour. Not sure if Hilter's speeches were included.