Rest In Piss

just really irresponsible and often unethical handling of wildlife for very little purpose other than to get views. he doesn't really have any background in wildlife biology (mario does, mark and coyote do not) and gets things wrong. a lot. there are also several of his videos that i think are almost certainly staged, like the baby ocelot video.

i was a big fan back before i knew any better and the video that first made me pause was when he caught a desert iguana. he did this by flooding its burrow with water and flushing it out. he points out that this is no different from when the burrow floods with rainwater and i GUESS that's not wrong? but it's still stressing out an animal for no reason other than to get it on camera

i don't agree with EVERYTHING he does (i think some of his mammal stuff is questionable and i cannot vouch for his wife's bird stuff because i know nothing about birds) but he knows his shit when it comes to crocodilians and is brutally honest about how these animals work. he has another series with his wife where they comment on various animal trends on the internet (usually involving crocodilians) which is also very interesting

but he's not quite as showy as coyote or the yoink guy so he doesn't really get as much attention

things like

the desert as a lifeless wasteland where ‘life is crushed underneath the shifting sands and blazing sun’ blah blah blah. deserts are full of life and they are beautiful and people have lived and prospered in them for eons. please read a book

the desert as an ugly or barren terrain where everything is harsh and threatening

the desert as something scary

the inhabitants as backwards religious zealots

the men as overly violent and oppressive

the inhabitants in need of outside instruction/intervention, i.e. “civilizing the savage”

the “harem” and women as exotic, sensual, mysterious

writing tribalism with no knowledge of how tribes actually function

djinn (or for the westerners, genies)

Islam Lite (the aesthetics or spiritual practices appropriated and stripped of meaning)

sprinkling random arabic words for ✨flavor✨instead of expanding your worldbuilding to include language as well

clothing as oppressive or mysterious, instead of serving its actual purpose (protecting you from the elements, which should be obvious but i guess it isn’t. covering your skin keeps you cooler and safer in most deserts)

people who live in deserts as ignorant, superstitious, uneducated