Rusty Corgi<p>The entire Linus Tech Tips apology rings pretty hollow to me. I'm tired of them reiterating, "oh we'll be transparent about this." Yes, transparency is good, but having outside people read your dogshit homework isn't better than putting the effort into doing your homework right in the first place. They offload a lot of things to the community that benefit them to do so, while actively hiding things from the community that might harm their brand.</p><p>Which brings me to Madison Reeve. Are <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/16/23834190/linus-tech-tips-gamersnexus-madison-reeves-controversy" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the allegations</a> really shocking to anyone at this point? There have been numerous reports in the past that Linus Media Group cultivates an incredibly misogynistic "boy's club" that's hostile towards women. Linus saying, "They aren’t consistent with my recollections" is completely horseshit. <em>Of course</em> they're not consistent with your recollections. When you treat your company like a frat house, I'd imagine harassing women probably doesn't seem so bad. It's like a bunch of white people at a country club trying to figure out what a microaggression is. The lack of diversity at LMG should be the biggest red flag ever. While Madison's allegations are new, similar allegations are not, so where was the transparency then?</p><p>Also speaking to transparency, what about the wage theft? What about the burn out? What about the illegal practice of forbidding employees from discussing their pay? Where's the transparency there? Linus and LMG have never addressed the criticisms whatsoever. The egregiously illegal employee handbook was leaked, yet they didn't feel like <em>that</em> criticism was worth addressing, as it doesn't benefit them to do so.</p><p>Seeing people look at their apology video and soften on their stance about LMG is driving me insane. Fixing some of their testing errors is not the issue. Their entire corporation is the issue. Until they agree to diversity-inclusive hiring practices (the channels desperately need more women presenting the content), more rights for their workers with equitable pay and a healthy work/life balance, warranties for their products, all in addition to the quality-related issues with their videos, I really don't see how anyone can have an interest in LMG's content.</p><p>The standard rebuttal is, "that's just capitalism", but if you've predicated your brand on not being a greedy capitalist, then your brand really falls apart when you treat your employees and consumers the same way that any other greedy capitalist does.</p><p><a href="https://cubhub.social/tags/LTT" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LTT</span></a> <a href="https://cubhub.social/tags/LinusTechTips" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LinusTechTips</span></a> <a href="https://cubhub.social/tags/LinusMediaGroup" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LinusMediaGroup</span></a></p>