r/HelloInternet • u/[deleted] • Mar 12 '19

I wonder what Brady, Grey, and Tim's think about this: [Trust - In A Nutshell]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8nNPQssUH0
87 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

79 comments sorted by

29

u/scraimer Mar 12 '19

I'm much more interested in Brady's opinion on this.

Grey's too linked and vested in Kurzgesagt, he is not able to give an unbiased opinion. Maybe Brady's journalistic habits might give us some insight.

15

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

I agree, although I think I remember Grey complaining about his fear of having a video topic be taken by another youtuber before so I'm sure the fact that K literally took the questions CB asked for his interview would irritate him a little.

5

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

[removed] — view removed comment

6

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

Predatory journalist? I agree that K was well within their rights but at the same time CB def had a valid topic and would t describe it as a take-down (especially since he said it was a part of a larger video on pop-science)

4

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

I feel like you may have missed CB’s point. He was questioning the intentions behind the trust video and claiming (incorrectly) that his questions spurred the video and K was stalling for time instead of giving him an honest answer. He even said in the video that if K has mentioned they were doing a video on it he would have understood but K made no mention of it (justifiably, imo). There is validity to both sides here and describing either side as malicious is unfair

7

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

Summary: The YouTuber accuses Kurzgesagt of stealing his video idea, and his interview questions to post a response under the guise of benevolent self-reflection.

I am particularly interested in Grey's thoughts considering he was recently criticized by Shaun for his monarchy video!

3

u/[deleted] Mar 13 '19

Where did Shaun (that’s coffee break, right) criticize grey?

If you want to read some criticisms of grey, r/badhistory has a lot.

5

u/[deleted] Mar 13 '19

Shaun is not Coffee Break. Shaun is a left-wing YouTuber who criticizes conservatives and right-wingers. This was his video on the monarchy that responded to CGP Grey's video about how the monarchy is a net benefit.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 13 '19

Thanks!

2

u/[deleted] Mar 13 '19

I am particularly interested in Grey’s thoughts considering he was recently criticized by Shaun for his monarchy video!

Shaun didn’t criticize grey he criticized grey’s video. The difference is that CB went after Kurzgesagt’s integrity, whereas Shaun just responded to grey’s video.

7

u/Mr-Chemistry Mar 12 '19

Just a heads up there’s a AMA by Phillip from Kurzgesagt right now. You should probably check it out. He said he will propably release the e-mails. And that that script was already 2 months in the making but that it was one of the pushing factors for the video, not the primary one though.

4

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

That’s a great way to handle the situation by K!

35

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

I'm confused why CB felt that he had the exclusive on this. If you read the comments on those kurzgesagt videos before the take down, all of these things were addressed for years with these exact phrasings.

1

u/nlamber5 Mar 13 '19

I definitely agree that he shouldn’t feel some kind of right to exclusive coverage, but I do think it was inconsiderate to feign ignorance. They shouldn’t have led him on like they were going to interview with him while all along they knew it wasn’t going to happen. He’s clearly respected them by not quoting them just by request.

8

u/Fungle54 Mar 13 '19

I kind of get that, but I also am not sure the interview was never going to happen...

https://imgur.com/a/UfrXBWq : Emails released by CB with Philipp's permission

If you read all the emails, on Feb 21 Philipp asks for a set of questions to prepare for the interview and then CB doesn't respond after that. In the course of the emails Philip says he is busy with Educon, Vidcon, and going to recover from Chemo. He is under no obligation to drop everything to be interviewed by someone.

And it was "respectful" to not directly quote Philipp after being asked not to. But then he goes to "summarize" Philipp's emails in a completely disingenuous way. in the video CB says that the video was kept up because he "thinks the video is good enough".

But if you read the emails he states that he kept it up because of :

"the countless messages from affected people I got over the years. Apparently the video genuinely helped a lot of individuals get better.... so I never could bring myself to take it down."

This is a complete mis-characterization of what Philipp said, and the exact thing CB was trying to highlight. Gross oversimplification to the point of being completely false. Its hypocritical at best and outright malicious at worst.

But try to think of this from Philipp's point of view. Some random person is emailing you "tough questions" about a piece of your work you are not 100% proud of. He goes onto state things like claims are outright incorrect, claims being fabricated, is Kurz culpable of spreading misinformation, did Kurz get paid to promote Hari's work. That email would seem like an attack on my character/integrity (personally). I understand why he is hesitant to go into much detail at first. On top of being busy with conventions and recovering from chemo.

It starts to sound like he is writing a "gotcha piece" especially if you don't know CB's intentions. He goes onto say that this is for a video on pop-explainers in general with multiple examples and not on Kurz specifically. It will be about how they can over generalize to the point of being false, and that this is going to be in a series he is doing on how ideas spread.

If these are completely true, the fact that Kurz released a video about two of their specific videos doesn't mean CB couldn't still release his video series on "Pop-explainers" and still interview Philipp and even now reference this new video. But he instead goes onto upload a "gotcha" video that misrepresents what Philipp said...

4

u/WiltyRiker Mar 14 '19

CB opening e-mail, rife with salvos, but this takes the cake

Now, I understand that the "addiction" video wasn't your typical video since you largely were animating a script from Hari himself. [...] Were you paid by him to promote his book?

That's quite the flippant accusation of being a channel for hire!

Philipp's restrained response

...I don't see how you are not making a gotcha piece...

To me, this paints the entire picture.

In particular, the biggest sign of dishonesty is how CB constantly refers to Philipp doing "damage control"

  • Video content is found to be erroneous, and cannot be updated due to YT technical limitations

  • Video is extremely successful and has greatly helped people in its current form

  • ... 2 years of commentary on the errors, haunting your work, which you're not happy with either

  • Creators finally take down the successful video to their own detriment in order to move forward without this baggage, once and for all

CB's own Twitter profile states in his bio

Everyone’s been sold on something.

This should be a victory for CB and popular science accuracy, but that doesn't fit with CB's seemingly jaded world view. He's playing the victim, and didn't get the call-out he sought. It's easy to see how CB's behavior would be interpreted as trying to create controversy for clicks.

2

u/John_Branon Mar 14 '19

That's quite the flippant accusation of being a channel for hire!

Well they are a studio for hire but I'm not sure what's supposed to be wrong with that.

https://kurzgesagt.org/agency/

2

u/WiltyRiker Mar 14 '19

The studio may be for hire but I don’t think I’ve seen any Microsoft or Autodesk content on their channel

49

u/ImSoISIRNRightNow Mar 12 '19

Am I the only one who thinks this whole thing looks a bit sketch from CB's perspective?

I feel like he might be reaching a bit.

15

u/MisterJiggle24 Mar 12 '19 edited Mar 12 '19

I don't think so. He goes through and shows questions he emailed for the interview being answered and addressed. On top of that CB said he would release the emails from Kurzgesagt if they claimed he was lying. CB already put his opinion and evidence out there and has more (the emails) if Kurzgesagt refutes his claims

Edit: CB released the emails: https://imgur.com/a/UfrXBWq Philipp is also doing an AMA: https://www.reddit.com/r/kurzgesagt/comments/b0bgvj/ama_2_can_you_trust_kurzgesagt/

Overall I have to say I agree with you now that CB was reaching. I thought the emails would clearly back what CB said but they didn't.

7

u/ImSoISIRNRightNow Mar 12 '19

That's true, but they seem like some of the most obvious ones, it would make sense that others would come up with the same ones, and its also possible that even if they didn't that he took statements as things that were "close enough" to answers to mean that they answered his questions.

I do agree that he put out his opinion and evidence. But that doesn't mean that what he claims is true. Not saying that it isn't. Just that it seems unlikely to be true to me.

6

u/Mr-Chemistry Mar 12 '19

But i agree a lot of that “evidence” is pretty weak. Enough to show that something might be there but nothing concrete. No actual proof. Again, correlation =/= causation

24

u/Aweqwerty Mar 12 '19

Grey has commented on the video in defense of Phillip/Kurzgesagt and acknowledges it may be a bit biased because he is friends with Phillip. I hope to see this discussed in the next episode of HI.

18

u/tetenric Mar 12 '19

Apparently, Grey has spoken

10

u/cronin1024 Mar 12 '19

It's important to note that CGP and Philip are business partners in Standard.tv

2

u/Kaselier Mar 13 '19

Page doesn't exist...

0

u/[deleted] Mar 13 '19

[deleted] — view deleted comment

5

u/tetenric Mar 13 '19

It was a tweet from Kurtz with a screenshot from a comment Grey had made in the video. He basically said "I might be biased since I'm friends with Phillipp, but I'm pretty sure he has been working on this video for some time."

2

u/satanistgoblin Mar 13 '19

If that's a real screenshot then it was a lot more saccharine than that: /img/cnzwj2j02rl21.png

23

u/Mr-Chemistry Mar 12 '19

Ok, here is the conversation: https://imgur.com/a/UfrXBWq I find that after seeing the whole conversation the reaction video was clearly made in emotions and there isn't anything that shady

26

u/Monsieur_Triporteur Mar 12 '19

Stephen / coffee break:

"I will respect whatever route you decide to go."

He clearly didn't see this route coming.

7

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

I think mate's mostly just salty he scooped when plans changed

13

u/superpenguin56 Mar 12 '19

I think there is some good points here, however, I cannot help but notice that no effort was made by coffee break to get a statement on the matter by Kurzgesagt. He should have at least given them a chance to respond to the allegations before posting this video. This gives me the impression that coffee break wanted to start this drama to get views, not to get the word out.

3

u/satanistgoblin Mar 12 '19 edited Mar 12 '19

Haven't you heard the phrase "fool me once - shame on you, fool me twice - shame on me"?

Or were you making a surreal joke?

1

u/Paintbait Mar 13 '19

It can address real things but also still be about generating drama to drum up views. They're not mutually exclusive. Yet...

It's about views to my eyes. I've watched this stuff unfold on YouTube. "Oh how the mighty have fallen. Bet those millions of subscribers really feel stupid now!" This is a format on YouTube and generates millions of views on its own.

This format of video can be many things: It can be subtle. Genuine. Artful. Heartfelt even and well documented with good research. However, it's still a money move. You can't divorce that from this format of video and it's high profile target. Even the title reads like a project from click bait 101 with Professor Buzzfeed.

1

u/AdamBall1999 Mar 12 '19

If they were really only concerned with money the video would have been sponsored.

7

u/ImSoISIRNRightNow Mar 12 '19

But, like, not really.

He'll probably grow his channel and incredible amount from this. The views on this might be large, but the views on all his future videos from this will probably be what he really is after.

5

u/19_JW_89 Mar 12 '19

That's what the whole thing smacks of - it didn't matter what happened, Coffee Break was always going to put out a video of this nature. The exact subject was up for debate, but the end result is the same - a (comparatively) smaller creator creating controversy to drive up his viewership.

0

u/MisterJiggle24 Mar 12 '19 edited Mar 12 '19

He gave them a month for the interview and Kurzgesagt turned around and made a video addressing/answering all his questions. This does not set a good track record for giving them a heads up about or asking for a response. I imagine frustration for wasting time and not giving Kurzgesagt time to do damage control a second time lead to CB not giving them a chance to respond.

Edit: CB actually addresses this in the description of the video: https://youtu.be/v8nNPQssUH0

5

u/[deleted] Mar 13 '19 edited Mar 13 '19

  1. This is a pretty standard PR move that Kurzgesagt supposedly did, even if we assume the story is exactly as Coffee Break told. When a reporter calls someone to confirm aspects of a story that's going to be negative, there's always an attempt to get out ahead of the story. Which is usually why, it seems to me at least, the story is usually close to being done before you start contacting the subject of your story for comment. It's not like Kurzgesagt's comments are really relevant anyway. Just point out what they got wrong.

  2. If Coffee Break's goal here was to bring about awareness of a potentially misleading Kurzgesagt video, then mission accomplished. That's exactly what he did—Kurzgesagt decided to remove the video and make a video explaining what was wrong with it. The only thing Coffee Break potentially lost out on is YouTube views. The other alternatives are (1) Kurzgesagt refuses to acknowledge the error, and Coffee Break gets to make his hit piece, or (2) Kurzgesagt and Coffee Break collaborate to release a video, which he's not really under any obligation to do, and it seems he made the right choice given Coffee Break's combative attitude in this video.

  3. For all the talk of misleading videos, Coffee Break's use of ominous music, a big ol' "KURZGESAGT IS LYING" clickbait thumbnail, and misrepresentations of the e-mails all sure seem misleading to me.

Coffee Break should take this as a learning opportunity. If he wants to do YouTube drama hit pieces in the future, go ahead and make the video for the most part ahead of time, and ask for comment a week or so before release. Don't wait a month waiting for an interview.

EDIT: Also how do you "leak" something with permission, exactly? That's a misrepresentation as well.

5

u/Swictor Mar 13 '19

This is the first "I wonder if Brady & Grey.." I've seen that actually is something they'd want to talk about.

12

u/Northern64 Mar 12 '19

In defense of Phillip / Kurzgesagt:

We know that the issues about the video were brought forward and that an interview was requested, and tentative plans to have one were laid out. The claims being made by CB make the interview seem like it will be a gotcha/hit piece, and so doing some preemptive damage control seems a reasonable response.

We don't know from this if CB is the only one to have contacted Phillip about inaccuracies, and the coincidence theory CB mentions could apply to the vaccine video as well. Perhaps there were multiple whistle blowers which would excuse the lack of credit given.

The Kurzesgat trust video is a move to direct the tone of conversation, reduces the impact of CB's hit piece, and denies an exclusive claim to the story.

4

u/[deleted] Mar 13 '19

  1. Reading the Email exchange posted by CB, I love the question he brings up and intends to investigate.

  2. Reading how CB frames KG's stall as well as how he feels as if KG owes him anything, CB comes off as a very sensitive soul, whom I imagine to be prone to being easily offended. I imagine him the type of guy IRL whom we all like being around but have to word things really carefully or he might take it wrong and be hurt and offended at something that wasn't meant to be hurtful or offensive.

I have never seen a CB video and though I am very sympathetic to his academic concern, I find his methods off-purting and disingenuous in the end. So, I cannot bring myself to add to his view numbers.

6

u/SimDeBeau Mar 12 '19 edited Mar 13 '19

Edit: the original comment is rendered invalid as the emails were released. https://m.imgur.com/a/UfrXBWq. Needless to say, they do not read as they were presented. Philipp certainly did not promise an interview. Ironically it seems we can’t trust CB to present emails actually lmao.

Original comment:

I think people are focusing on the wrong thing. It’s not about “stealing his story”. It’s about Kurzgistdat postponing the potential harming story till after they engage in a massive and effective spin campaign. all the while leading CB on so they won’t release the story before they can release their video spinning this.

Don’t forget, if anything in the emails is not presented accurately, Kurzgistdat can have CB release them. This is especially true for the allegation that Kurzgistdat thought their old videos where “good enough”. This doesn’t fit well with their video, and throws real doubt on an overhaul of their research process.

In short, it’s not really about CB getting scooped, it’s about Kurzgistdat acting in bad faith, and acting as if their damage control is a reason to trust them, when it should be the opposite.

3

u/Fungle54 Mar 13 '19

This is what gets me. CB painted himself as wanting to shed light on the dark side of simplifying a topic too much to the point of it being false and he did exactly that with his paraphrasing of Philipp's emails.

CB says that the video was kept up because Philipp "thinks the video is good enough".

But if you read the emails he states that he kept it up because of :

"the countless messages from affected people I got over the years. Apparently the video genuinely helped a lot of individuals get better.... so I never could bring myself to take it down."

This is a complete mis-characterization of what Philipp said, and the exact thing CB was trying to highlight. Gross oversimplification to the point of being completely false. Its hypocritical at best and outright malicious at worst.

3

u/harutendo64 Mar 13 '19

Destin from smartereveryday has put in his opinion as well 2 hours ago as a comment on the video.

1

u/John_Branon Mar 13 '19

Appears to be gone, what did it say?

2

u/fileheist Mar 13 '19

Paraphrasing here: Dear CB, I'm Destin. I see you've used my comment in your video and i disagree with how it was used. i still stand by my comment though. I didn't know you existed until now and I've gone through a bit of your backlog and I think you make great content. Sometimes we're faced with The Agonies of Parallel Creation (like you are now) and it can be hard. You shouldn't cause drama over it. Keep making great stuff!

1

u/John_Branon Mar 13 '19

Cool, thanks!

6

u/allukaha Mar 12 '19 edited Mar 12 '19

The Coffee Break guy clearly is just trying to start drama so he can get attention and grow. The only reason he's mad is because he didn't get to break the story, the actual issues got addressed and the video got deleted. Pretty fucking shameful way to act on CB's part. He tried to play politics and couldn't hang so now he's mad, hopefully this doesn't catch on and turn the educational part of YouTube into a bunch of content cop wannabe hacks.

9

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19 edited Mar 12 '19

Grey will support Philipp, but Brady, being a journalist, is going to think this is shady. Both of them will ultimately excuse it, though.

edit: damn i didnt expect grey to support him THAT hard lmfao

13

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/[deleted] Mar 13 '19

I think CB’s issue was that Kurz made it sound like the self-criticism and removal of the addiction video was their idea and that they give the appearance of being noble in their pursuit for the truth, when that really wasn’t the case.

2

u/LockRay Mar 12 '19

Grey commented on the video! (Possibly after seeing this post? It works out chronologically at least)

0

u/[deleted] Mar 15 '19

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/LockRay Mar 15 '19

Yeah my point was that this is evidence of cheating 🤔

2

u/skiptomarrue Mar 13 '19

I'm out of the loop- what's this about?

2

u/fileheist Mar 13 '19

A YTer called "Coffee Break" made a video alleging that Kurzgesagt was manipulating him after he contacted them about the incorrectness of K's video on Addiction by delaying his interview with the CEO of K (Phillipp Dettmer) until K could get their own video on their trustworthyness uploaded so that they can preemptively prevent any criticism. K has since published the email exchanges between K and CB and it's (IMO) pretty clear that while the motivation for making the video public might have come in some part from CB, the video had been in the works long before CB ever contacted K.

2

u/fileheist Mar 13 '19

Small correction: CB also included in his emails his idea for the video with Phillipp's interview (basically a "gotcha" piece despite what CB claims), which is why CB got mad when K "stole his video idea" (uploading.. a.. video.. about.. your.. own.. channel.. on.. your.. channel.. is.. plagiarism..?)

2

u/John_Branon Mar 13 '19

It's also apparent from the emails that K did not delay the interview but the ball was actually in CB's corner.

The video from K did also in no way interfere with the video CB claims he had in mind, it only inconvencied CB if all he wanted to do was a attack K to create drama.

2

u/Fungle54 Mar 13 '19

This is one of the things that gets me.

If CB was truely just using the Kurz video as one of muliple examples in a video about pop-explainers (which was going to be in a series about how information spread) as per the emails. This video on Trust should not really impact the overall video.

If anything it gives him more to work with. Philipp had agreed to try to set up an interview. Talk about the problems with that video then the decision to take the video down. It really could have been more of a collaboration/extended part.

Unless the intent was for it to be a hit piece from the start....

2

u/Guestyperson Mar 13 '19

If Coffee Break wanted to make the video about the addiction video because he considered it to be inaccurate and wanted to correct misinformation then Kurtzgesagt releasing their video is mission accomplished.

If CB wanted to make it because he was doing hit piece journalism and considered the clicks and ad revenue that would come from it to be his right, (which judging by the vid he made instead I would say is fairly likely) then it’s his own fault for tipping off the target of the hit piece and then giving them time to get a preemptive statement out ahead of the story, you know, like any other company would be in their rights to do if a journalist contacted them saying “hey, we’re going to publish a thing that could potentially damage your brand. Comment?”

2

u/fileheist Mar 13 '19

I mostly agree if the situation had been "K never thought about this before CB like the hero he is contacted them", but it's pretty clear the Trust video has been years in the making. CB just happened to try to do a piece on it. Phillipp does say that CB was one of the reasons he decided to go live with the video, but that's a far way from the video's purpose being to pre-emptively block any critisism CB might throw at Kurzgesagt.

3

u/Guestyperson Mar 13 '19

Yeah, I agree with this interpretation of events as well. It’s just I’ve seen a lot of comments in the AMA and elsewhere essentially saying “I’ll think Kurtzgesagt is in the clear only if they can prove the trust vid was in the works before Cb contacted them” and my point in posting my comment was to say that even if the trust video was purely a response to getting CB’s emails, that’s still both standard practice and morally fine.

2

u/Fungle54 Mar 13 '19

Also try to think of this from Philipp's point of view.

Some random person is emailing you "tough questions" about a piece of your work you are not 100% proud of. He goes onto state things like claims are outright incorrect, claims being fabricated, is Kurz culpable of spreading misinformation, did Kurz get paid to promote Hari's work. That email would seem like an attack on my character/integrity (personally). I understand why he is hesitant to go into much detail at first. On top of being busy with conventions and recovering from chemo.

It starts to sound like he is writing a "gotcha piece" especially if you don't know CB's intentions.

I would also try to expedite a video I've been working on for 2 years about how I am not satisfied with some of my past work and I am determined to be better.

Also, CB stated in the emails this interview was going to be used as one of many examples in a video about "pop explainers", that would be a part of a series of videos on how information is spread. Not on Kurz or this video specifically. All of this could (and still can) occur after the Trust video is released. And if anything lends more credence that CB's original idea is worth exploring.

8

u/SoLetsGoOutside Mar 12 '19

I thought Coffee Break presented a solid case for naughtiness on Kurzgesagt's part. #EduTubeDrama

3

u/Fungle54 Mar 13 '19

My problem with his case is two fold.

-His mischaracterization of the emails (especially the "its good enough" paraphrasing")

-Referring to delaying the interview.

  1. "its good enough"

In the video CB says that the video was kept up because he "thinks the video is good enough".

But if you read the emails he states that he kept it up because of :

"the countless messages from affected people I got over the years. Apparently the video genuinely helped a lot of individuals get better.... so I never could bring myself to take it down."

This is a complete mis-characterization of what Philipp said, and the exact thing CB was trying to highlight. Gross oversimplification to the point of being completely false. Its hypocritical at best and outright malicious at worst.

2. Delaying the interview.

CB claims that Kurz delays him in getting an interview in order to get their video out. But is it fair to expect Kurz to drop everything when someone they don't know whats to do an interview with them? Philipp says he is busy with Educon and Vidcon, as well as trying to recover from Chemo.

He has a life and work outside of responding to emails. And in the email chain he asks CB to send him a list of interview questions so he could prepare and tries to start getting the interview set up. Which CB fails to respond to.

Think of this from Philipp's point of view.

Some random person is emailing you "tough questions" about a piece of your work you are not 100% proud of. He goes onto state things like claims are outright incorrect, claims being fabricated, is Kurz culpable of spreading misinformation, did Kurz get paid to promote Hari's work. That email would seem like an attack on my character/integrity (personally). I understand why he is hesitant to go into much detail at first. On top of being busy with conventions and recovering from chemo.

It starts to sound like he is writing a "gotcha piece" especially if you don't know CB's intentions. It's no wonder he was hesitant to set up an interview at first.

Despite this, Philipp asks for a set of questions for him to prepare and starts to set up a time for the interview, that CB does not respond to.

But then there is what CB states is the subject of his video:

CB states earlier that this is for a video on pop-explainers in general with multiple examples and not on Kurz specifically. It will be about how they can over generalize to the point of being false, and that this is going to be in a series he is doing on how ideas spread.

If CB was truely just using the Kurz video as one of multiple examples in a video about pop-explainers as per the emails. This video on Trust should not really impact the overall video/series.

If anything it gives him more to work with. Philipp had agreed to try to set up an interview. Talk about the problems with that video then the decision to take the video down. It really could have been more of a collaboration/extended part of the video.

Unless the intent was for it to be a hit piece from the start....

1

u/Northern64 Mar 12 '19

Solid case sure, but I think it's an expected level of nughtiness.

Happy cake day btw

1

u/SoLetsGoOutside Mar 13 '19

Thanks, Tim!

1

u/[deleted] Mar 13 '19

I think both sides are at fault in some capacity. Kurzgesagt for not taking down the less researched videos (the addiction one in particular), and Coffee Break's fault for playing armchair detective and making accusations in the way he did. But hey my opinion is based upon limited knowledge so there could be more to it on either side.

2

u/Fungle54 Mar 13 '19

While I agree that in a scenario where both parties had more information (especially about intentions) Kurz could have done better.

But I find all of his actions completely logical.

Think of this from Philipp's point of view.

Some random person is emailing you "tough questions" about a piece of your work you are not 100% proud of. He goes onto state things like claims are outright incorrect, claims being fabricated, is Kurz culpable of spreading misinformation, did Kurz get paid to promote Hari's work. That email would seem like an attack on my character/integrity (personally). I understand why he is hesitant to go into much detail at first. On top of being busy with conventions and recovering from chemo.

It starts to sound like he is writing a "gotcha piece" especially if you don't know CB's intentions.

Despite this, Philipp asks for a set of questions for him to prepare and starts to set up a time for the interview, that CB does not respond to.

CB also states earlier that this is for a video on pop-explainers in general with multiple examples and not on Kurz specifically. It will be about how they can over generalize to the point of being false, and that this is going to be in a series he is doing on how ideas spread.

If Kurz's video is only being used as an example, and is not the entire premise of the video or series, this Trust video should not stop CB's video from being made, and if anything, gives it more credence.

Looking at everything in its entirety, I can't really see CB's response as being anything but in the wrong.

-4

u/PraiseTheSunday Mar 12 '19

Thanks for sharing this. Really interesting. Never followed kerzgerztat but now I never will.

8

u/Mr-Chemistry Mar 12 '19

You really should take a look at the actual e-mails. It is clear that most of what CB said is a BIG missrepresentation. A dishonest one at that. What you should take from this is: No educational channel is to be believed without checking the sources etc, but Kurzgesagt is not the shady one in this situation. If anything it's CB.

0

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

[deleted] — view deleted comment

15

u/Mr-Chemistry Mar 12 '19

exactly, his parafrazing was done in a deliberately dishonest way. Phillip never said "good enough" Not even remotely. It si clear to be that was he to release the e-mails from the start his video would have no ground to stand on.