12 November

The Department of Defence produced a training package for firefighters dealing with EVs. Lots of great information in there for people who mistake clickbait for facts. Clickbait is how self-declared ‘experts’ like John here, on social media, make a fortune. They put up clickbait headlines like ‘rescuers and the public are unprepared against the risks’, thousands or even millions of gullible numpties click it, and ka-ching, John gets rich through the YouTube monetisation program. These experts often use conspiratorial style, like ‘this is what they’re not telling you’ (‘they’ is never defined). In reality they’re like the drunk guys in pubs who corner you and offload some fantasy theory of the world they’ve been pickling in beer for decades. None of the tools behind ‘John’ here look like they’ve even been used. It’s social theatre, playing to prejudices about ‘experts’ vs the apparently sensible home guy in his shed. I sat through one of his videos, there wasn’t a single fact in it, just lots of sneering nudge-nudge, wink-wink.