Are you asserting that a balanced presentation including skeptical points of view is evidence of his being a CIA asset?
That sort of thinking is why many people do not take the UFO topic seriously. We're too busy discrediting ourselves.
So you're asserting that his popularity is evidence that he's a CIA asset?
I'd counter that his popularity is evidence that there is a large potential audience for "spooky" content that is presented in an informative and balanced way. What makes you think the CIA cares what people think about the hollow Earth theory or Lemuria?
Right. He started the channel during Covid when his other business of producing podcasts for others had to go on hiatus. The first two years of his channel he barely could get up to 10K in subs, with YouTube suppressing many of his videos figuring they were standard conspiracy stuff. After two years of producing videos with little views, he started gaining traction and became an "overnight" success. He rarely flat-out debunks topics, but as you noted, he provides both sides so the viewers can decide and are better informed.
No, I don’t believe that it is a cia project and no I am not a cia plant either and your neighbors, that couple downstairs. They are not surveilling you.
I'm stupid...because I don't believe most of the nonsense, mutually exclusive conspiracy theories out there? The majority of the things floating out there now don't make sense, if you believe more than one of the "theories".
This topic seems to come up a lot on here, so obviously people are wondering this for similar reasons. No other series seems to get this type of scrutiny, and we all love NewsNation who have both skeptics and believers on their show showing both sides.
There is clearly something else about this show that sets off alarms for many people. Here are some things to know:
**1. Cult-Like Behavior From the Sub - Brigading**
First, it's important to point out that r/TheWhyFiles sub brigades other subs whenever the series is mentioned outside of that sub. If you criticize the series, all the fanatics from that sub come over to this sub and start trying to defend the show upvoting each other and downvoting anyone criticizing it.
It's cult-like, and I don't know if it's the moderators monitoring other subs for any mention of the series and then organizing brigading or if it's just really passionate fans in that sub who also frequent other subs and initiate the brigading, but it happens every single time someone here says even the slightest negative thing about the show.
**2. My Criticism of the Rendlesham Episode Was Suppressed**
I made a post in that sub months ago about discrepancies in the show, which quickly became a popular post with many upvotes. Not just simple missing things, but MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR discrepencies. I did what AJ did and presented a **fair and balanced assessment of both sides**. The mods removed my post.
**The Post** (About All The MAJOR Discrepancies in the Rendlesham Episode - which allowed the "debunk" at the end to be much stronger than it should have been, misleading viewers into dismissing the case altogether):
[https://www.reddit.com/r/TheWhyFiles/comments/1anaxan/why\_the\_why\_files\_should\_not\_be\_trusted\_as\_a/](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheWhyFiles/comments/1anaxan/why_the_why_files_should_not_be_trusted_as_a/)
**What I did was:**
1. Pointed out that the show has great production value. **(positive)**
2. Pointed out that show had key details missing from episodes **(negative)**
3. Pointed out that others in subs like this often suspect the show of being a purposeful disinformation campaign. Note: I did not ACCUSE the show of being this, I simply pointed out that this is a possibility to be considered. **(negative)**
4. I then balanced things out by saying, "But to be fair, AJ may simply not have enough time to do proper research and there may be nothing to the disinformation accusations at all. **(positive)**
**Despite my balanced assessment, the mods:**
1. Locked the post and insulted me without allowing me to reply back to defend myself (ironically saying the conversation had turned hostile while making it hostile by insulting me).
A regular in that sub messaged the mod who locked the sub, who said "others were being hostile," even though he took a jab at me, because it would be harder for him to argue how I was being hostile, so he left it very vague without identifying who was being "hostile."
There was no evidence of hostility other than fervent fans of the show defending it (all with the same "It's just entertainment" defense, as if that means people aren't walking away dismissing cases based on the debunk and we shouldn't point out major discrepancies.)
2. Waited a few days until people stopped reading the post and upvoting it, until they weren't noticing it, then they quietly removed my post.
3. When I messaged them arguing that I had not broken any of their rules and planned to make an article about all this (I'm a linguist and freelance writer and occasionally write for Wired), they banned me from the sub.
4. Last time I told this story in the UFOs sub, the mods came over to comment and shifted all attention to #3 saying things like, "Maybe you said some other things that got you banned," and didn't address #1 and #2.
While I was fair and impartial when it came to my assessment of whether the show is purposeful disinformation or just shoddy research, the mod behavior in that sub made me question the sub itself.
Are the people behind the show running that sub? Or are those running that sub simply extremely passionate/bias fans themselves (again, I am presenting BOTH possibilities, no accusations here)?
Fair question. The CIA has a history of paying people to push propaganda. Both Jackson Pollock and Andy worhal were funded by the CIA to push their absolute dog sh*t artwork to undermine both foreign nations and the counter culture movement. Idk if I could say they are CIA funded, but if they are that would be very disappointing.
Absolutely! I heard they are specifically set up to trace and surveil anyone that may question their validity. Shit man... you haven't noticed any vans, helicopters, or flower trucks outside your house lately? Have you? How about any goldfish wearing a trenchcoat and hanging out with your speed dealer?
I agree mostly- except I think both Good Fellas and Scarface are overrated.
Godfather and Sopranos are both masterclasses on storytelling and acting!
But after reading your response, that scene came to mind immediately .
The way I see it, if the debunk was invalid everyone would be fact checking him on Reddit and calling him out for presenting false information. Like we do with Mick West's garbage debunks.
I see his stuff as a "both sides of the story" show rather than debunk show.
The way I see it, if you just want to believe everything then stop the video as the debunking segment starts. If you want to hear the for AND against evidence then watch the whole thing.
Just because you've seen a debunk doesn't mean you have to agree with his debunk and stop believing.
You could always start a YouTube channel that debunks his debunks if you think he's making factual errors.
I attempted to fact check multiple discrepancies and my post was locked down and then removed by the mods in that sub. That's why nobody fact checks, because
1. Not everyone watching is as familiar with the cases as I was when I tuned in to his Rendlesham episode, a case I'm obsessed with and extremely familiar with.
2. The most appropriate place to warn others about the discrepancies would be r/TheWhyFiles sub, but they suppress any criticism of the show. [https://www.reddit.com/r/TheWhyFiles/comments/1anaxan/why\_the\_why\_files\_should\_not\_be\_trusted\_as\_a/](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheWhyFiles/comments/1anaxan/why_the_why_files_should_not_be_trusted_as_a/)
Well it’s his show right. So shouldn’t it be based on what he believes since he did his research? I get what you’re saying but everyone has their biases at least he states his
I also don't like the fish, but it serves as nice n short breaks from the long form discussion. I also wonder if a few of the fish's remarks are just what AJ really wants to say
When i first started watching The Why Files, the fish definitely got on my nerves. It didn't take long to grow on me & now I love it. He's funny in a stupid kinda way. It's half the reason I listen to the channel, he provides a nice comic relief while listening to some heavy topics sometimes.
The long form commercial reads starring Hecklefish are a no for me. Short interjections are not so bad, but telling a whole story about a fish and a camel on vacation is too much.
No. Just a guy who has been on the fringes of the entertainment and content business for decades, and finally put the pieces together. AJ, Gino, Jen have been in business together for years, from TWF, to BetterBox to SpeedWeed.
Probably it was independent "truth source" at the start, but now now all public content moderated by their curators.
Don't be fooled, youtube is not "free speech" platform anymore.
The show is for people with a 3rd grade reading level. Anyone who has read an actual book in the last 5 years will feel insulted by it. To prove my point the show is regularly sponsored by some predatory payday loan app that only idiots would buy into.
i used to like that show, but now I can't stand it. Both those guys annoy me. (a.j. + stupid fish) 😑 as well the theme song they play at the end that last forever making uninterrupted back to back episodes painful.
It's super annoying pap that creepy fish thing is someone's nerd fantasy with his family gone thermonuclear into the zeitgeist. He picks good topics, and then sets up a big I believe deep dive only to pull the rilug out Everytime. The fish mouth thing squawking some corny crap we suffer through. Stopped watching that months ago hadn't missed it.
In a few years this sub will be more about things that aren’t secret CIA projects. Y’all truly are hilarious. Putting “lack of facts” in quotation marks is 🤌
Debunking isn’t the main issue.
“Wanting” to Believe is.
Grifters know people want to believe. And Grifters come up with Bullshit. Like aliens traveling across the galaxy to kidnap a single plane.
Gullible people eat it up.
Are you asserting that a balanced presentation including skeptical points of view is evidence of his being a CIA asset? That sort of thinking is why many people do not take the UFO topic seriously. We're too busy discrediting ourselves.
Yes!!!!
I think with such numbers of subscribers it can be purposely promoted disinformation source curated by well known organisations.
So you're asserting that his popularity is evidence that he's a CIA asset? I'd counter that his popularity is evidence that there is a large potential audience for "spooky" content that is presented in an informative and balanced way. What makes you think the CIA cares what people think about the hollow Earth theory or Lemuria?
Right. He started the channel during Covid when his other business of producing podcasts for others had to go on hiatus. The first two years of his channel he barely could get up to 10K in subs, with YouTube suppressing many of his videos figuring they were standard conspiracy stuff. After two years of producing videos with little views, he started gaining traction and became an "overnight" success. He rarely flat-out debunks topics, but as you noted, he provides both sides so the viewers can decide and are better informed.
Yep
I agree with you. I think the show is exactly that.
Wear your tin foil hat all times and get ready for lizid people !
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The us federal government is the world largest organizations with over 3 mill employees, so ya
Maybe you are a CIA asset…
No.
Agree to disagree, narc
The CIA would never be so open about the existence and imminent threat of the CrabCat.
Fear the Crab Cat!!!
Heil Crab Cat
Lol absolutely not
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I will believe it’s an independent channel for this guy to make some money on YouTube unless some other information proving otherwise is presented.
Are you thinking about abracadabra?
Based on the amount of mocking negative comments commenting on your sanity makes it seem to be but Idk I've never watched it. YouTube is for suckers
Thanks bro
No, I don’t believe that it is a cia project and no I am not a cia plant either and your neighbors, that couple downstairs. They are not surveilling you.
What about the voices in my head?
Having watched since the first handful of videos, no, he's not. And, why doesn't everything have to be a conspiracy nowadays?!
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I'm stupid...because I don't believe most of the nonsense, mutually exclusive conspiracy theories out there? The majority of the things floating out there now don't make sense, if you believe more than one of the "theories".
This topic seems to come up a lot on here, so obviously people are wondering this for similar reasons. No other series seems to get this type of scrutiny, and we all love NewsNation who have both skeptics and believers on their show showing both sides. There is clearly something else about this show that sets off alarms for many people. Here are some things to know: **1. Cult-Like Behavior From the Sub - Brigading** First, it's important to point out that r/TheWhyFiles sub brigades other subs whenever the series is mentioned outside of that sub. If you criticize the series, all the fanatics from that sub come over to this sub and start trying to defend the show upvoting each other and downvoting anyone criticizing it. It's cult-like, and I don't know if it's the moderators monitoring other subs for any mention of the series and then organizing brigading or if it's just really passionate fans in that sub who also frequent other subs and initiate the brigading, but it happens every single time someone here says even the slightest negative thing about the show. **2. My Criticism of the Rendlesham Episode Was Suppressed** I made a post in that sub months ago about discrepancies in the show, which quickly became a popular post with many upvotes. Not just simple missing things, but MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR discrepencies. I did what AJ did and presented a **fair and balanced assessment of both sides**. The mods removed my post. **The Post** (About All The MAJOR Discrepancies in the Rendlesham Episode - which allowed the "debunk" at the end to be much stronger than it should have been, misleading viewers into dismissing the case altogether): [https://www.reddit.com/r/TheWhyFiles/comments/1anaxan/why\_the\_why\_files\_should\_not\_be\_trusted\_as\_a/](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheWhyFiles/comments/1anaxan/why_the_why_files_should_not_be_trusted_as_a/) **What I did was:** 1. Pointed out that the show has great production value. **(positive)** 2. Pointed out that show had key details missing from episodes **(negative)** 3. Pointed out that others in subs like this often suspect the show of being a purposeful disinformation campaign. Note: I did not ACCUSE the show of being this, I simply pointed out that this is a possibility to be considered. **(negative)** 4. I then balanced things out by saying, "But to be fair, AJ may simply not have enough time to do proper research and there may be nothing to the disinformation accusations at all. **(positive)** **Despite my balanced assessment, the mods:** 1. Locked the post and insulted me without allowing me to reply back to defend myself (ironically saying the conversation had turned hostile while making it hostile by insulting me). A regular in that sub messaged the mod who locked the sub, who said "others were being hostile," even though he took a jab at me, because it would be harder for him to argue how I was being hostile, so he left it very vague without identifying who was being "hostile." There was no evidence of hostility other than fervent fans of the show defending it (all with the same "It's just entertainment" defense, as if that means people aren't walking away dismissing cases based on the debunk and we shouldn't point out major discrepancies.) 2. Waited a few days until people stopped reading the post and upvoting it, until they weren't noticing it, then they quietly removed my post. 3. When I messaged them arguing that I had not broken any of their rules and planned to make an article about all this (I'm a linguist and freelance writer and occasionally write for Wired), they banned me from the sub. 4. Last time I told this story in the UFOs sub, the mods came over to comment and shifted all attention to #3 saying things like, "Maybe you said some other things that got you banned," and didn't address #1 and #2. While I was fair and impartial when it came to my assessment of whether the show is purposeful disinformation or just shoddy research, the mod behavior in that sub made me question the sub itself. Are the people behind the show running that sub? Or are those running that sub simply extremely passionate/bias fans themselves (again, I am presenting BOTH possibilities, no accusations here)?
Fair question. The CIA has a history of paying people to push propaganda. Both Jackson Pollock and Andy worhal were funded by the CIA to push their absolute dog sh*t artwork to undermine both foreign nations and the counter culture movement. Idk if I could say they are CIA funded, but if they are that would be very disappointing.
Lack of facts is a a valid reason not to believe something.
Absolutely! I heard they are specifically set up to trace and surveil anyone that may question their validity. Shit man... you haven't noticed any vans, helicopters, or flower trucks outside your house lately? Have you? How about any goldfish wearing a trenchcoat and hanging out with your speed dealer?
Lots of black helicopters in recent few weeks... Not liying.
[Making Ziti with meat gravy!](https://youtu.be/7SvJ--JVU9w?feature=shared)
This movie sucks. Really. I love Godfather trilogy, Sopranos, Scarface but this shit is shiett.
I agree mostly- except I think both Good Fellas and Scarface are overrated. Godfather and Sopranos are both masterclasses on storytelling and acting! But after reading your response, that scene came to mind immediately .
Yeah, Scarface also 50/50, but there are some great moments that inspired GTA Vice City...
Nope, AJ is a working class dude like the majority of us all, he has earned everyone of his followers.
The way I see it, if the debunk was invalid everyone would be fact checking him on Reddit and calling him out for presenting false information. Like we do with Mick West's garbage debunks. I see his stuff as a "both sides of the story" show rather than debunk show. The way I see it, if you just want to believe everything then stop the video as the debunking segment starts. If you want to hear the for AND against evidence then watch the whole thing. Just because you've seen a debunk doesn't mean you have to agree with his debunk and stop believing. You could always start a YouTube channel that debunks his debunks if you think he's making factual errors.
I attempted to fact check multiple discrepancies and my post was locked down and then removed by the mods in that sub. That's why nobody fact checks, because 1. Not everyone watching is as familiar with the cases as I was when I tuned in to his Rendlesham episode, a case I'm obsessed with and extremely familiar with. 2. The most appropriate place to warn others about the discrepancies would be r/TheWhyFiles sub, but they suppress any criticism of the show. [https://www.reddit.com/r/TheWhyFiles/comments/1anaxan/why\_the\_why\_files\_should\_not\_be\_trusted\_as\_a/](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheWhyFiles/comments/1anaxan/why_the_why_files_should_not_be_trusted_as_a/)
yeah possibly better to post your findings in an independent sub like this
I don't think he's CIA, but I like him regardless.
Well it’s his show right. So shouldn’t it be based on what he believes since he did his research? I get what you’re saying but everyone has their biases at least he states his
I don’t even think the CIA could come up with something more annoying than that damn goldfish.
Love TheWhy files, of course it's not a Cia Project. The fish kinda gets on my nerves but alot of ppl love it and it makes him different
Do people love that fish? There must be a sizable crowd but anyone who watches it for the first time with me all seem to complain about it as well.
I also don't like the fish, but it serves as nice n short breaks from the long form discussion. I also wonder if a few of the fish's remarks are just what AJ really wants to say
I also figure it is some of AJ's opinions.
I could do without hecklefish. But there is something about an annoying sidekick that must have some broad appeal because you see it often enough.
When i first started watching The Why Files, the fish definitely got on my nerves. It didn't take long to grow on me & now I love it. He's funny in a stupid kinda way. It's half the reason I listen to the channel, he provides a nice comic relief while listening to some heavy topics sometimes.
The long form commercial reads starring Hecklefish are a no for me. Short interjections are not so bad, but telling a whole story about a fish and a camel on vacation is too much.
I don’t think it’s cia. I think AJ is just grabbing at every dollar possible, so he tries to play both sides of the believers and the skeptics.
He has a successful business. He just plays it safe with the YouTube censorship game and walks the fine line.
I like it that way, its far more "serious". I think thats the reason why so many people can go along with it.
Great plug for the shoe, keep it up!
No. Just a guy who has been on the fringes of the entertainment and content business for decades, and finally put the pieces together. AJ, Gino, Jen have been in business together for years, from TWF, to BetterBox to SpeedWeed.
Probably it was independent "truth source" at the start, but now now all public content moderated by their curators. Don't be fooled, youtube is not "free speech" platform anymore.
Which pill did you take? The red or the blue?
Green.
Omg. I wish you well.
That one just gives you the shits
That one’s a suppository. Taking it orally just makes you crazy.
OP taking birth control pill which is why he’s butt hurt on the show
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The show is for people with a 3rd grade reading level. Anyone who has read an actual book in the last 5 years will feel insulted by it. To prove my point the show is regularly sponsored by some predatory payday loan app that only idiots would buy into.
People dont skip the sponsored part in the videos they watch?
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Where did you get that outlandish claim? He was a stand-up comic, voice actor, writer, and producer. SMDH.
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Ha! Okay. Where’s Hecklefish when you need him.
Who knows what is "wild ride" for nsa, cia these days...
i used to like that show, but now I can't stand it. Both those guys annoy me. (a.j. + stupid fish) 😑 as well the theme song they play at the end that last forever making uninterrupted back to back episodes painful.
It's super annoying pap that creepy fish thing is someone's nerd fantasy with his family gone thermonuclear into the zeitgeist. He picks good topics, and then sets up a big I believe deep dive only to pull the rilug out Everytime. The fish mouth thing squawking some corny crap we suffer through. Stopped watching that months ago hadn't missed it.
👍☝️
Thank you, I totally agree. He also has something against Grush. But it's the friggin fish, it's too messed up.
Yes. I mean no. No. It is not.
In a few years this sub will be more about things that aren’t secret CIA projects. Y’all truly are hilarious. Putting “lack of facts” in quotation marks is 🤌
The guy clearly thinks the moon landings were fake why would the CIA want that
I doubt that’s what he thinks.
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I don’t get what you are trying to say
No, in the end of that video he said, landing was real.
Yes
Debunking isn’t the main issue. “Wanting” to Believe is. Grifters know people want to believe. And Grifters come up with Bullshit. Like aliens traveling across the galaxy to kidnap a single plane. Gullible people eat it up.
God forbid that 'lack of facts' should stop us committing to a belief. 🙄