When I see conspiracy stuff - unsubstantiated without sources, I lose respect for a channel. I won't be subscribing. He has an idea, he knows what he intends to say - and he pretends it'll all be off the top of his head. If he respected the intelligence of his viewers, he would organize his ideas transparently, and stay on topic.
I can see the anti-capitalist angle on a lot of conspiracy stuff, especially anti pharmaceutical company stuff, and I can see how he can go from pet stores to cancer, in a weird, roundabout way. But while the man may be suffering from terrible things happening in his family, he still needs to back up his ideas if he decides to go public. Tavern ranters have been around forever, and just because we offer a platform, it's still ranting and conspiratorial talk. It's lazy.
My old man rant is that the aquarium industry at its largest levels doesn't care if new hobbyists live or die. It doesn't care what they need, and it doesn't build a hobby. It needs to pay off its shareholders. They make their money from fish this week, and from shoes next week. Their money goes where it keep them wealthy. We're naive if we expect anything else.
These aren't family owned businesses if they have shareholders. They extract wealth, without passion. We can argue with the business model, but we support it. I know Mom and Pop style stores that work hard to build a hobby and to help newcomers, but they have direct contact with the people they need to survive. A giant chain with stadiums named after it probably has a CEO and upper hierarchy who don't even know where half their stores are, or who the local people are who run their franchises. Customers? They're just dollars.
I used to talk with some corporate fish distributors - fish farm guys. They wouldn't say "fish". They only said "units".
It destroys the hobby, and it does create failure. As long as the profits are there, that's what matters to it. If "the hobby" vanishes, investment will go elsewhere.
There are smaller operations that do understand their clientele as something other than numbers. There are companies who try to build the hobby. They operate differently, and may be as frustrated by the monopoly type competition as hobbyists are. You have to look at products, chains, stores, sellers and opinions like mine case by case...
There was a guy who found an elixir that grows legs and they say you can do glofish that will dance the can can. But they won't sell it because the churches don't like the dancing.
