He has a video on the CPUSA channel iirc on the war, calling it a proxy war and all that. I think since his channels are more directed at libs it took a very "centrist" stance trying to avoid controversy. For socdems/radlibs, admitting Ukraine is the vassal it is is a hard pill to swallow (especially in the US where I presume most the viewers are, where the war had pretty much no downsides). Nevertheless, in 2024 we have multiple statements and articles from the most fervent NATOist and pro-western sources spelling out that the war IS fought for the US' benefit, and the 2014 coup WAS a US effort.

That said, I think it's incorrect for JT to still be portraying the war in such a way on his channels. The war should be seen for what it is, before it inevitably disappears from libs' memory and people can get away with saying stupid shit and get away with it. It's not a secret that he's a "tankie", too. I don't think the people supporting his channel are oblivious to that, so I wouldn't say it's a money problem. But then again, I'm not him.

I think they missed a huge opportunity to talk about what this war is truly about and where it originated, this could have been a great video to educate others on the deep rooted context that informs this conflict but I guess we couldn’t get that… maybe next time.

That's just the thing... In what way are you better than the liberals if you talk about this very important stuff after the conflict has ended, not while it's still ongoing? To paraphrase, "Liberals are always against every war except the current one". You educating people on the matter makes a difference - it stirs people in a direction different from the common Western propaganda narrative, which helps bring down this bubble. When it is over and they come out and say "hey, you know what? what actually happened in Ukraine was this and that and this and that...", it would be 10 times less impactful.

I guess if they had a communist from Ukraine they would at least be more knowledgeable

Even that is not a guarantee. Because they did have a Russian "communist" on their program at one point and they learned absolutely nothing. Because the "communist" they chose to invite was some kind of ancom or Trot with a vendetta against the KPRF who basically did nothing but repeat western talking points about the Russian government.

It was as if they purposely picked a Russian "communist" who would just come on to validate every prejudice that western leftists have about Russia. I imagine it wouldn't be hard to find a Ukrainian "communist" to do the same.

Because unfortunately, most of the actual communists in Ukraine are now in prison, dead, or have long since defected to the LDPR. So if they were to actually find a real Ukrainian communist they would run the risk of being accused of platforming a pro-Russian "traitor" to Ukraine.

It is the single worst video any of the Deprogram trio have ever put out. It misses the mark completely. I am not kidding but this was so bad that i may just unsubscribe from all of them, because there is something seriously wrong with people who call themselves communists and put out a video about the Ukraine conflict that comes across as if its only sources of information for the past ten (because this goes back to 2014) years have been the western media's propaganda about the conflict.

It's effectively peddling a pro-Ukraine narrative and outright lies on several instances, and the fact that they refuse to even talk about how much of a Nazi state Ukraine is basically edges into borderline Nazi apologetics territory.

Sorry but this video was an irredeemable clusterfuck and if they want to salvage any shred of their reputation they should immediately take it down and post an apology.

I only just pressed play, and the intro text seems to have some relevant caveats.

For the sake of brevity, this video will focus solely on the state of war and not the internal politics of the involved parties, such as the influence of far-right elements in Ukraine or the reception of mass mobilization in Russia.

Thank you for linking this, I had no idea they made a video about it! I will watch it as soon as I can.

Edit: so the comments on that video are really bad, holy shit…

I get frustrated generally when people who should know better revert to christian-brain and make a faction's moral correctness or incorrectness the be-all end-all of a conversation. Like dude, JT, you're a communist, you know that all states unavoidably traffic in morally bad actions because of what they are, that material concerns of security and survival overrule conversations about good or bad, right or wrong. You know this, stop being naive. Or if you're playing to your liberal viewers, stop coddling their naivete, they need to learn what anti-imperial struggle looks like.

“I don’t have final say over decisions”.

Is that not a blatant admission of selling out? He’s just straight admitted that he’s just a face for the camera and doesn’t have the authority to make content decisions on his own channel. He only has 2 employees that work as editors for him, so who’s making the decisions if not him?

That seems like a damning nail in the coffin for all the accusations of deprogram and JT selling out.

I remember getting downvoted to hell several months ago for saying that JT was selling out and the liberal aesthetics were becoming undeniable. Guess I wasn’t wrong.

I definitely encourage everyone here to comment, if they’d like, as the comments so far are just sort of meh. It would be nice to add important context the he omitted.