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The brilliance of All Gas No Brakes
- erulabs 6y agoAll Gas No Brakes is fantastic - strongly recommend to anyone remotely interested in journalism. This article sort of suggests he’s not a journalist - which I have to take issue with... He asks as few questions as possible and intentionally doesn’t steer the conversation - which is maybe not the kind of investigative drilling were used to in modern times - but is exactly what journalism needs. Every video provides enough context that you don’t feel silly commenting on it - you aren’t nagged by that “what did they say right after that clever edit back to the studio...” feeling. Extremely happy AGNB got signed to AbsoLutley. I want Tim & Eric to do to news what they did to comedy.
- AndrewOMartin 6y agoThis was the interviewing technique that impressed me most when I listened to Joe Rogan (the few times that I have). Shutting the fuck up means that you allow the interviewee to steer the conversation, and if you'll allow me to torture the metaphor, you quickly learn whether they're able to confidently navigate the conceptual terrain or promptly drive into a ravine. I've even tried it myself a few times in social situations and the quality of the conversation often shoots up.
- Barrin92 6y agoThe style works for All Gas no Brakes because he wants to give people an insight into a niche subculture and often it is humorous, so that's no problem. But Joe Rogan fails horribly to actually call guests out on their bullshit given the amount of crazy people he invites. He simply let's them talk because 99% of the time Rogan doesn't know what they're talking about in the first place. Guests on Rogan frequently opine on serious questions as if they're speaking from a position of authority, and Rogan doesn't live up to the task of keeping them honest or contextualising what's going on, which is the basic function of an interviewer in such a situation.
- amscanne 6y ago> Rogan doesn't live up to the task of keeping them honest or contextualising what's going on, which is the basic function of an interviewer in such a situation. You’re begging the question. Who’s to say Rogan’s intent isn’t “to give people an insight” into some crazy person’s ideas? I don’t think the role of an interviewer is to unilaterally keep people “honest” or contextualize. Sometimes it’s simply to steer the conversation through different arenas and keep it interesting. I like to read a lot of articles by people all over the political spectrum. They don’t need “contextualizing” in order for me to evaluate them critically, and neither do interviews.
- Barrin92 6y agoIt's fine if you can do it, but not everyone can. When he had Alex Jones on his podcast I actually had this debate with someone else, and I went to Facebook, I searched for discussions or posts of the video (you can do this right now too I guess), and the amount of people who actually believed Alex Jones is crazy, in some comment sections it probably was the majority of users. You had people repeating everything from Jews running the world, to Sandy hook victims being actors, to pizzagate, and so on. Joe Rogan has 30 million listeners, he has a responsibility when it comes to what he puts out into the world. As it stands it basically a clearinghouse for bad ideas and conspiracy theories.
- nemothekid 6y agoMy distaste for Joe Rogan is the same as the parents in this thread - may times he is in over his head while his guest plainly states bullshit that goes unchallenged. Joe has shown he can push back but his style of interview isn't a debate. However, the idea that Joe has a responsibility is something I heard and don't understand. Who bestow'd on Joe this responsibility? How has the responsibility changed from when he had 30,000 viewers? And why is he supposed to change his format? I ask this question for two reasons. One, the very idea of saying "you can no longer talk about X because you have Y million viewers" is an odd sort of censorship. Does my Freedom of Speech end when I gain Y amount of followers? Two, when did the World become so helpless that Joe "Wow look at the size of that Gorilla" Rogan has become the Messiah of the people?
- sukilot 6y agoIs it good to have a show where the guest can lie about whatever they want unchallenged? That just selects for good bullshitters. Fox's Wallace and Axios's Jonathan had great Trump interviews where Trump where they let him drive himself into a ravine by asking tough questions.
- moneytide1 6y agoI see it as beneficial spreading agro for the room. The camera man plays a major role in this immediate-proximity-social-attention-fluctuation. Before cameras were palm sized, and after they were a novelty (before mass produced television), they were large and bright lights were needed. This meant that the camera direction is what we're all supposed to be paying attention to. Holding the microphone also delivers this same cue (directing any flow once others ping to join this sudden "focus" since the guys with the mic and camera with large light have now shown up to the gathering). In all of "All Gas No Brakes" videos, the context is a crowd assembly. Since the interviewer is mostly holding the microphone in front of a crowd member, both in the middle of the event and off to the side for personal interviews, there is opportunity for "anyone who wants to broadcast." But it is not a news network van pulling up. It is a similar format, but without restrictions. People are comfortable with parody and satire in his presence - anything goes because you have the audience of a neutral observer. He does have a duty to guide the conversation with the occasional steering prompt you refer to, and it has a rhythm to it. Much of the content is edited monologue footage, and that is the opportunity he grants them with unconditional attentiveness.
- donkeyd 6y agoI think I first saw them when they'd just uploaded their 3rd episode and instantly subscribed. I'm really amazed at how much they've grown already!
- crocodiletears 6y agoBy my estimate, he's probably one of the few people worth calling a journalist anymore. Watered-down as the term has become with bloggers, hacks who spend all their time on Twitter railing against the immaturities of our present administration in hot-takes devoid of original investigation or thought, and self-important ideologues who think they exist to intellectually shepherd the unwashed masses to whatever promised land their politics would have them believe in. All Gas No Breaks provides an impressively sweeping look at anyone and everyone you might encounter wherever he chooses to visit. He presents the fanatics and the well reasoned in pretty much even measure. If he does anyone editorial favors, it's hard to see where. It's a refreshing change from the staged shots and selective presentation we've become accustomed to seeing from the likes of Fox, the NYT, MSNBC, Breitbart, WaPo, and CNN.
- agildehaus 6y agoReally? No selective presentation? AGNB is almost entirely selective presentation.
- crocodiletears 6y agoI didn't allege no selectiveness, I alleged that he presents a comparably larger intersection than other outlets. Certainly he's selecting footage for entertainment, and his selection in no way proportional to the events he cover's participants. Looking back on my comment, I overemphasized his even-handedness in terms of screen-time, but that's beside the thrust of my point. He casts a wide net, and the content of his videos reflect that.
- sukilot 6y agoThis is called "both sides ism" where you give equal time to the sane view and the insane fringe view and call it "fairness"
- crocodiletears 6y agoBoth sides-ism is a snappy accusation used by partisans to suppress access to information and context, predicated on the idea that coverage is equivelant to either an endorsement or proportional to the significance of a viewpoint or group relative to the broader population. If there are N perspectives about something I'm considering, or N significant actions undertaken by an individual or groups during an event I'm trying to understand, sanding off the ugly bits to fit a given moral narrative is a disservice to the audience. I personally look to journalism for knowledge, and to help inform my understanding of the world. Not moral guidance.
- Taek 6y agoI was at Area 51, which he covered. And while his video was very entertaining, it did not represent at all what it was like to be there. AGNB is exceptional at finding the crazy people and encouraging them to be themselves on camera. 98% of the people at area 51 (admittedly a lower percentage than most events) were completely normal, non-conspiracy individuals, mostly from the midwest.
- crocodiletears 6y agoInteresting that they were mostly from the midwest.
- ethanbond 6y agoBut... they were at Area 51... It seems that alone would indicate that they are not non-conspiracy individuals.
- Apocryphon 6y agoThe Area 51 thing was a viral meme on social media. It hit the mainstream. It was a little like a flash mob. Even its origin was comedic.
- ethanbond 6y agoYeah but most ordinary people don’t travel hundreds of miles into the middle of a desert to a classified military installation to “flash mob.”
- themacguffinman 6y agoBut is it informative? I've watched a few of his videos now and they feel unrepresentative of the topic or group he's covering. It feels like he cherry picks the zaniest people in the room, which is great for comedy and entertainment value but leaves me thinking: ok these people have some interesting things to say, but are they representative of any group or movement or anything important? I end the video questioning if I've actually learnt anything meaningful about the world and its problems, or if I've just watched a modern-day freak show.
- fiblye 6y agoThe newest videos about the recent protests offer a slice of every viewpoint. They show the people who just want to make a mess, the people who think there should be peaceful change, the people who think there should be violent change, and the people who just don’t care. Of course, the wildest people stand out, but they’re all given pretty fair time to explain why they’re doing what they are. And I think the point is to clearly avoid the polished and prepared representatives who have a quote perfectly prepared for the media. The point is to find the people who aren’t polished and show what they’re doing.
- pedrogpimenta 6y agoThe last videos and the most political ones are clearly showing the effort to portray a little bit of everything.
- pedrogpimenta 6y agoThat's exactly what it is. And it's why it is "important". He's not pretending to give a message about the issue he's "covering". He's covering the event and showing some part of that.
- sukilot 6y agoBut he is inviting the reader to form an impression, and doing so in an intentionally misleading way of selecting his subjects.
- lm28469 6y ago> He asks as few questions as possible and intentionally doesn’t steer the conversation Do you have videos of the whole process? I've only seen his YouTube videos and it couldn't be further from what you said. There are so many cuts that there is no way to tell what questions the people are answering In the rocket launch video for example we don't even get to hear most questions, we mostly hear people talking, they're obviously answering something the interviewer said but we don't know what it is. The entire video is making fun of the worst people he could find there, it's very funny for sure but I wouldn't call it journalism. It's clearly more of a comedy than pure journalism to me, a bit like "Joe goes", funny but not very informative
- briga 6y agoThe brilliance is how Andrew never mocks or judges his interview subjects, no matter how outwardly insane or ridiculous they might be. Obviously the videos are edited for comic effect, but I don't think he could have gotten half his material if he didn't just allow people be their raw unfiltered selves. The results are pretty fascinating and funny, you could probably write whole anthropological dissertations on some of these videos.
- UncleOxidant 6y agoI just found out about AGNB here. Watched a couple. It's clear from his facial expressions that he's reacting to some of the crazy.
- fixmycode 6y agohe was asked about this in the H3 podcast, and said that really, if he really started with the intention of making humor or of the situation, he's been steering it more into creating a platform for this people to be themselves. he doesn't want that the people feel that he's making fun of them, or he will lose his own content. I think it's brilliant.
- anticsapp 6y agoJeff Krulik pioneered this approach in the 80s. Not to diminish what AGNB is doing, but it's almost like The Office to his Spinal Tap. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_Metal_Parking_Lot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_Metal_Parking_Lot
- pgrote 6y agoLily Hanson did this in the early to mid 2010s. Her videos were incredible for capturing culture, though she did participate in many of activities. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lily_Hanson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lily_Hanson https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfR7gRIYmZbGjhhrRJCwpmw https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfR7gRIYmZbGjhhrRJCwpmw
- sukilot 6y agoI doubt it was invented in the 1980s PT Barnum was doing it 100 years ago.
- WarOnPrivacy 6y agoI'd totally watch PT Barnum's live videos from 1920.
- anticsapp 6y agoShoot me the YouTube link.
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- KKKKkkkk1 6y agoIn a visit to the Portland protests, for instance, Callaghan shows that the attendees don't neatly fit into the narrative you see on TV. Fox News' Tucker Carlson, for example, calls the protestors "Biden voters," yet many on the streets disdain Biden. There's something to what he's doing. I don't know if Tucker Carlson is the gold standard of journalism that you want to exceed.
- tjr225 6y agoThat’s exactly the point of what he is doing. I would guess most people who watch Fox News consider Tucker Carlson to be a reliable source. That’s a problem because he obviously isn’t.
- sukilot 6y agoYou don't need AGNB to tell you Ticket Carlsen is a lying demagogue. Everyone who isn't a fan sees that when they watch Tucker Carlsen himself -- his lies aren't exactly subtle.
- trynewideas 6y agoMost of AGNB is great, but I wish the protest videos at least included resources from local jouranlists alongside it for context. Especially the Minneapolis and Portland protest ones recently put up — they showed a narrow slice of what was happening to drive home some really salient points, but if you watch them and think "THAT'S what's it's like in there", it's off base by quite a bit compared to the less entertaining local journalists (or even just streamers with a camera on a pole) who've been out there livestreaming, interviewing, and documenting for months instead of weeks or days. Context is important; I can't speak for Minneapolis, but the Portland protests weren't just (and aren't just, and for most of the nearly 70 straight days of them haven't ever been) about the federal courthouse or the federal officers. The BLM-led Justice Center protests weren't the chaotic courthouse protests, and the 2-3k who came out for a week of feds has been less than 500 for most of the other 2 months and change. The west-side downtown protests in a 4-block zone around the center and courthouse aren't the east-side precinct and police union HQ marches with local police chasing protesters and beating media into residential neighborhoods. Or maybe I'm still just pissed about AGNB showing mayor Ted Wheeler in a sympathetic context, complete with his theatric tear gassing the one time he came out to a protest, without the other context of how the PPB he runs as police commissioner beats and gasses media and protesters as soon as cameras like AGNB's left the fed protest stage - literally, PPB went out threatening to gas the same crowd he stood with within 45 minutes of Wheeler leaving the protest. I guess my feeling is, some things aren't simple or clear enough to be accurately served by pithy but entertaining 5- or 10-minute videos. It's one lens, and a good one, but I get real nervous when people say AGNB is the model for news. Very few links of people on the ground: https://twitter.com/MrOlmos https://twitter.com/MrOlmos https://twitter.com/TheRealCoryElia https://twitter.com/TheRealCoryElia https://twitter.com/PDocumentarians https://twitter.com/PDocumentarians https://twitter.com/Clypian https://twitter.com/Clypian https://twitter.com/IwriteOK https://twitter.com/IwriteOK https://twitter.com/hungrybowtie https://twitter.com/hungrybowtie
- frakkingcylons 6y agoHonestly, I think this is taking AGNB too seriously. It’s a hilarious channel where a guy finds the weirdest people possible and lets them spew insane stuff on camera. I love it, but I don’t get the sense that he’s doing it for journalistic purposes (which is obviously fine!).
- 1propionyl 6y agoHe said himself in an interview that up until the Minneapolis and Portland videos, he was doing it purely for entertainment value, and didn't consider it any form of journalism. His strategy was just to get the weirdest weirdos on camera and let them talk. With the Minneapolis/Portland videos you can see a significant shift towards a more journalistic disposition.
- frakkingcylons 6y agoSure, I give him kudos for showing real activists in the protest videos alongside the usual AGNB characters.
- sukilot 6y agoWhat is "journalist purpose"? Journaling weirdos is still journalism. It's just important to realize that are rare people on the fringe, not the mainstream personalities.
- frakkingcylons 6y ago> Journaling weirdos is still journalism. No disagreement there. But the stuff you see in his videos has been selected and edited to be as funny/absurd as possible (which is the point).
- anm89 6y agoI think the narrative of people using these subcultures as a way or fill the void left by the lack of traditional societal structures that people used to find meaning in life is spot on. It's interesting how half of the people in these subcultures seem to be in on the absurdity of it and the other half aren't but it doesn't really seem to matter to a lot of them.
- 0134340 6y ago>fill the void left by the lack of traditional societal structures that people used to find meaning in life Or maybe they're finding meaning in the void that traditional structures couldn't fill.
- bobthechef 6y agoReminds me of a quote from Chesterton: “When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.” The quote is deeper than it might appear and presupposes that you understand that institutions are not the _sources_ of meaning as the article suggests, but, when legitimate, guard some of the things that _are_ meaningful. Not a projection of fiction on a dead existence, but actually meaningful and intelligibly so (i.e., not some kind of mere passing feeling). Ideologies have attempted to create simulated meaning time and again, silly beliefs that drive people into madness, great and small. They have always failed because the "meaning" they provided was bogus, a deception that might animate people for some time, but is ultimately a fiction that ceases to maintain a lasting grip precisely because it is false. Only someone crippled by nihilism, stupidity, or opportunistic vice could latch onto something like that. The trouble is that we have been sliding into nihilism for some time. Nietzsche observed this slide during his era. He did not believe in God himself, but he saw atheism as a dreadful, horrible thing. In his parable of the madman, the madman frantically asks the people in town where God is. They are amused at the spectacle, suggesting in jest that perhaps God is hiding beneath something over here, or other there. The townsfolk represent the people of his day, the atheists of the 19th century. The madman, of course, realizes the consequences of God's "death" the horror of which the townsfolk have not yet come to understand. They are still dwelling in that twilight of the idols, fragmented and perverted pieces of the whole that was once held together by God before the earth was unchained from the sun and lost its orientation (Nietzsche gave the cult of Science some noteworthy attention as an example of one of these idols). The twilight does, sooner or later, come to an end, of course, and that's when even the idols can no longer pacify our fears. I think most people are like those townsfolk. True nihilism is unbearable. Anyone who claims otherwise is like the foolish teenager who is merely spiting his parents in an act of rebellion. Some of us sense the nihilism festering in our souls and begin to attach ourselves to various causes, fads, fashions, distractions. Anything to avert our gaze from the horrific void within us and before us. And America has always been a land of heretics (to borrow a characterization from Douthat), so perhaps the diversity of bizarre superstitions should be greater in the US than elsewhere. At the same time The "mainstream" pop culture is also vacuous, commercial, ideological, and stupid, itself dripping with hedonistic escapism from nihilism as much as any fringe movement (you should also expect a ascetic reaction for every hedonistic indulgence; each excess breeds its corresponding deficiency). Actually, we are in the throes of a kind of new gnosticism, a new Albigensian movement wherein the "true meaning" of the world, the "true self", is beyond the world of facts and can in fact contradict the facts. The facts are an illusion, not the "really real". They're "socially constructed" much like the material world is the deceptive construction of the evil creator god of the Old Testament, at least according to the gnostics. It is a dangerous, noxious amalgamation of pride and delusion, a slide into self-destruction, something Man has always excelled at. It is not unreasonable to think that gnosticism is, for many, an attempt to escape their nihilism into a world of pure imagination, giving their perverted appetites an inviolable infallibility and sanctity. We don't need AI and robots to create the Matrix. Many of us are in it now.
- nraynaud 6y agoThere was this incredible TV show in the French speaking world called “Strip-tease” it was like a documentary, but with no narrator nor journalist. You would just see the people live and talk. It was a lot of rural and small town stuff.
- pedrogpimenta 6y agoOf course, the act of being filmed is already a transformation on people's "real life". You're affecting it somehow, even without a person, there's a microphone and a camera, they're the "journalist".
- nraynaud 6y agoThe trick is staying a very long time to re-normalize somewhat the behaviors. They stayed 8 days in a laundraumat to film people there.
- lm28469 6y ago"Paris dernière" also is insane: https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Dernière https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Dernière
- m3kw9 6y agoI have a feeling that AGNB has a biased towards more sensational content. But people saying normal things aren’t that entertaining, just imagine all 10 min of a episode with people making sense and what you already sort of know.
- GaryNumanVevo 6y agoHe definitely “growth hacked” his channel to grow his audience. I’m glad to see him make the pivot to serious content after his Patreon could support him and his crew full time.
- forinti 6y agoIt is like low budget Louis Theroux. Very entertaining though.
- solarkraft 6y agoI'm not sure about that reading. Andrew clearly lets people be themselves, but the people themselves and the format obviously select for the crazier ones. I found the h3h3 interview quite interesting: https://youtube.com/watch?v=lxt6virxkio https://youtube.com/watch?v=lxt6virxkio
- d33lio 6y agoI absolutely love All Gas No Brakes (no pun intended) however I was a bit troubled by some of Andrew's comments speaking with Ethan and Hila on the H3H3 podcast. We need to remember that this is entertainment, plain and simple. This is meant to be raw, groundbreaking and "fresh" which is why myself and many others love the cut and dry nature of his content - however his comments regarding the protests in Portland and Minneapolis were troubling. Specifically, how he articulated looting, destruction of businesses (including immigrant and minority owned businesses) as a "logical response to the death of George Floyd". AGNB will have a great future, but I think it's critical to remember that this IS ENTERTAINMENT and not in the slightest form meant to be informative. That said, godspeed Andrew lets take AGNB to the next level!
- sukilot 6y agoWhy is it troubling for Andrew to give his opinion? Is it troubling when you post your opinion on HN? Or only troubling when people you disagree with share their opinion?
- rllin 6y agoAGNB is the spiritual successor to Louis Theroux it's what Vice tried to capture but failed. parachute journalism works, only if you inject very little of yourself into it and have minimal framework.
- daveleebbc 6y agoOh please, AGNB isn't in the same league as Louis Theroux. It's a great YouTube channel and they do a good job of making fools look foolish, but to compare it to Theroux's work is absurd.
- rllin 6y agospiritual successor AGNB needs some time to grow into longer format they're literally 3 dudes in an RV without a working toilet if they had BBC money they would live up to Theroux 100%
- JMTQp8lwXL 6y agoI wouldn't characterize the protestors in Portland as a fringe community, as the author refers to the topics of 'All Gas No Breaks' reporting. Ideas like racial justice and economic justice aren't fringe ideas. There is absolutely nothing fringe about treating all people equal, regardless of the color of their skin.
- jariel 6y ago"There is absolutely nothing fringe about treating all people equal, regardless of the color of their skin." Probably most people support the notion, fewer people would protest (I wouldn't say 'fringe' but nevertheless if you tally up the % of Washington state that 'did a protest' it's a very, very small number). And then of course, the burning of police stations, and the eviction of security forces towards taking over a chunk of the city by violent force ... this is absolutely 'fringe' and should be not be compared to the nominal ideals they are supposed to represented. From the Area 51 video, it seems a lot of these 'crazy folk' are not 'really crazy', they almost seem like attention seekers, hamming come crazy up for the camera.
- WarOnPrivacy 6y ago> if you tally up the % of Washington state that 'did a protest' it's a very, very small number That seems to describe every non-local protest - or gathering, for that matter.
- NotThe1Pct 6y agoThat's religion
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- GhostOfLelandJr 6y agoBetter than hitting the pookie
- pouta 6y agoHis patreon exclusive content is definitely worth the $5. Sausage castle videos are insane. He also has a porn video as an extra on pornhub.