Kind of a trend, the amount of youtubers who i had loved but their content became generic after gaining popularity is quite a bit, most drastic one being mrwhosetheboss, his uniqueness went down faster than MH27 MH17
Forgotten Weapons.
I think guns are neat, and Ian’s channel is a gun oriented one without the reactionary politics. I wouldn’t say his quality went down, but he (this was a few years ago) did a series on Rhodesian guns he got from a collector. I thought it was gross, but not necessarily bad. Lots of people are interested in Nazi stuff without being into the politics.
But then, in the middle of the George Floyd protests, he covers a grenade launcher (Like the one from Terminator2) that shoots rubber bullets and a bean-bag firing shotgun in the same week. Weird time to cover riot police gear. I haven’t watched since.
Ian has never really come off to me as a secret right winger. His politics are something I’ve never seen or heard expressed in anyway. He comes off to me more of an apolitical academic interested only in firearms. He’s even written books about them. His favorite guns are French Army rifles which are not Nazi or Rhodesian. His book about them is very detailed.
Can you elaborate on what the issue is with the Rhodesian guns part? I’m unfamiliar with it.
Rhodesia was an ultra-racist regime back during the Cold War which fought a desperate war to avoid giving black people rights. Note - they were a country in Africa ruled by a tiny white minority of Anglo-Dutch settlers. Because their well-funded army performed relatively well against Zimbabwean militias and a newly formed national Zimbabwean army and had some domestic industrial capacity, far-right goons slaver all over anything Rhodesian and peddle “TEN MILLION ZIMBABWEANS < ONE RHODESIAN OPERATOR” style stuff.
Me, given Ian’s tendency to stay away from politics in general, his interest in a very wide variety of guns, and having given considerable pushback to Rhodesian fans and ‘white genocide’ loons in the past, as well as speaking against corporate and systemic racism issues in passing, I’m inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.
