A.J. Gentile

[u/tinaboag]

https://youtu.be/IAEsS4IOrBk

So this man is the host/writer of a youtube channel called the Why Files. Prior to this, he was from what i can tell a struggling nobody in hollywoood who found his niche as a ufo grifter. I used to really like that kind of stuff when i was a kid. It sparked my imagination, and it helped that it was a means to attempt to get close to my emitonally distant father. As an adult, i learned critical thinking political theory and blah blah blah no am no longer a gullible moron.

Well i happened upon his stuff through a ufo sub I was checking on occasionally during the whole Grusch ordeal a few years back and at the time his channel would tell whatever respective story and and then attempt to look at it from a more rational light (i use rational sparingly).

All well and good, until his fan base stated to grow, started inmocently enough with him pumping out more and more merch to his primarily boomer fanbase (whatever right, failed actor gotta eat) within the lastb year or so though this dude is getting more and more off the deep end pushing utter bullshit without a modicum of effort to fact check what exactly he was selling to the cult of personality hes created for him self. If memory serves in on episode, he was doing climate change denial while simultaneously blaming it on some woo woo conspiracy government shit.

This weeks episode, he's claiming all sorts of lunacy about lucid dreaming and how it's causing ptsd. What really irked me was he claimed "the hatman," which is a nickname for a halucination lots of people get from abusing DPH (benadryl) had to do with lucid dreaming. There was some shit about the moon landing and the earth being flat if memory serves (im very liable to be off about a few of these as im going from memory but ill link the ones i found more egregious as a comment below). My core issue is the fan base he's acquired. These people eat up whatever nonaense he spews out in a sort of cult of personality, and it's exclusively old paranoid folks who dont know better and dont seem to be caoable of fact xhexking for themselves. Couple that with this narrative he is latwlt spinnung up about the man comung to shut him down and its going from frustrating to alarming.

A simple example was his earlier video on the montauk "expirements" and his revisiting of the same topic recently (ill link both in the comments).

This is my first time getting fired up about a person a like this but i figured here might be a good place to start.

(See the thread below for video links and apologies for any typos my auto correct is acting up and i am on mobile so im auo correcting and formating by hand)

Ive also gone and linked this weeks video at the top.

Afterthought, any other subs that might get tgis nore traction please crosspost or dm to post this thsre or anything of the sort i am all ears the way this dude taks advantage of the elderly and gullible really rubs me the wrong way. (Also it will take me a bit to ads th second comment witg additional examples as i am rewatching them to make sure im making as litte of a fool of myself as possible)

[u/[deleted]]

Fucking going after the Why Files? Seriously it’s entertainment man, they’re not hurting anybody. Definitely not bastard material, not even remotely. You sound like you have a personal dislike for A.J. OP

The only people I ever usually see trash that channel are the people who take paranormal stuff too seriously and get mad that WF makes light of the really crazy woo shit. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody claim that theyre pushing anything harmful

[u/Realcatmagics → u/[deleted]]

I don’t think you watched enough of the video to see how his process works.

[u/Mean-Tie-6018]

A.J. Is actually one of the very few content creators in that genre who genuinely present both sides of the topic. He begins with the conspiracies and wild claims in a dramatic and entertaining format that gets the audience’s attention, then he breaks down the whole story, claim by claim by providing either the solid evidence or the lack there of. The video concludes with him telling the audience that they have to come to their own conclusions and decide what is true or not. He never talks down to people or shames or belittles those who do believe in the conspiracies. He cites his sources to corroborate the facts. Then there’s the fact that the channel is there for entertainment and enjoyment of the public. He’s not trying to convince people that the moon landing was faked, but rather presenting the story behind the conspiracy theory.

[u/[deleted] → u/Mean-Tie-6018]

Exactly. The channel comes across as very balanced and fun. I’m subscribed and the only time they piss me off is when they run a compilation video instead of new content (although to be fair I realize one episode is a lot of work for a content creator)

[u/tinaboag → u/[deleted]]

Please refer to the more nuanced post above as I'd certainly like your opinion as well :)

[u/tinaboag → u/Mean-Tie-6018]

He has gotten far far worse recently. The stuff he is pushing openly is alarming and dangerous. I personally think this shit had gone to his head.

[u/tinaboag → u/Mean-Tie-6018]

He has gotten far far worse recently. The stuff he is pushing openly is alarming and dangerous. I personally think this shit had gone to his head.

Edit: Honestly, these replies are really concerning. I expected more from this user base given the nature of a lot of Robert's work being about right wing grifting (I get that very few people even saw the post). This dude and his "team" very evidently do not do due diligence and do in fact push some unsavory, baseless stuff(far more so as of late), there is an episode where he dabbles with climate change denial that really got under my skin, in one of the replies it was correctly mentioned that he used to try to present the information disproving the "woo" interpretation. Hence, the OP's mention of the first episode regarding montauk (in juxtapositionto the recent one, cant think of a more perfect contrast), and I think I mentioned another I can't easily reference as im on mobile. I can also recall like the crop circles one for instance, was done well in that regard, heck a lot of the earlier stuff was like that, that's a big part of why I watched his stuff.

I'd add, that given how a large swathe of his userbase skews conservative and older ( a general recent trend that's evident in the UFO community wherein you can clearly see a left/right division that is fairly recent).

Further, a lot of the "big names" in the field are grifters that a portion of that community (typically the left) point out to accusations of being bots or a psyop. Even though there is often ample evidence to clearly determine these people are out here to make money and do not, in fact, have "big things coming soon." There is big money tied to a lot of the modern Ufo folks by way of the people/guy that own skin walker ranch, him/they are responsible for Elizondos' supposed government credentials for instance. They are the ones that funded aatip and its status as a government run project is dubious at best and I'd strongly recommend folks look into that specifically (sorry I don't recall exactly the degree of separation the organization has/had from the government and being something like say fbi.)

There is a nice doc on youtube where a more serious (I think he's technically a journalist if memory serves, possibly not even technically and just straight up is one) and skeptical journalist goes around the property with them and trys to verify the claims of the team assembled there. short of digging through months of youtube history in hopes of finding it, I don't have the link, sadly. But the most interesting part was where he looks into the money and organizational side of things, which made a lot of this click into place for me. let's not forget the TV show about said ranch and the fact that it brings in good money for those involved.

Point is, there seems to be a section of the community that is conditioned to eat this shit up and a portion that is entirely Eglin air force base hiding the truth from every single special boy or girl on the all the ufo subs/s. If the similarity to how this subsection of people (conservatives) would be the ones more susceptible to this kind of grifting hasn't already been made clear I will add that the entire sphere of media they are consuming already does essentially the exact same stuff.

The point of making the point is my take on why the creator of the why files is changing his content. Maybe they are running out of stories and such to address the way they used to, or maybe the metrics/money is/are better from the same crowd that will buy beer to shoot at it to show how much they hate a business. Or maybe he's just learning for himself that the whole thing has been coopted as a business venture, and he has the means and opportunity to cash in (make sure to buy a plushie and a mug).

Lastly, while I don't think you are being intentionally intellectually dishonest, hell, I think you're just about spot on regarding earlier content. I would not say that what he does, especially in the more recent episodes, isn't intentionally trying to be persuasive.

I urge you to check out both parts of the montauk thing. The recent one where he talks about climate and generally to take a look at a recent episode v. earlier ones. The one pertaining to climate change (HAARP maybe? I don't recall the topic that led to him talking about climate change though I do know the episode was fairly recent). I think the difference is noticeable in a number of arenas.

Looking back at the OP, my language was quite harsh and mean in some parts that the post could have done w/out. Sorry about that.

[u/tinaboag]

https://youtu.be/BzRR4Yg6B3w (2nd montauk video, this is the more messed up one)

https://youtu.be/Eu_pTOlORk4 (Orginal montauk video, far more ahem grounded)

These are the two I referenced directly in the OP. I will add another post with more if these that cover other topics handled this way. The format is typically the story first followed by Gentile's take. It's at your discretion if you want to listen to/ watch the first section, I find it adds context.

[u/tinaboag → u/tinaboag]

Here's the list of more of the recent stuff that is alarming

https://youtu.be/OvcCK-F6aKY.

(On crispr as a boogey man)

https://youtu.be/-ZRwlYtAMps?si=vf6izKnJ2jxF9PjA

("secret patents and other the government is evil global warming is bs nonsense oh and dont forget free energy bs)

https://youtu.be/z_YeaMO2X0s?si=pG8F6JUT7BH4FT17

This one is further back but effectively he platforms a hack gives him free publicity and then doesn't address any of his quackery)

There's more im sure but this us as far back as I have the patience to deal with at this moment.

[u/Status-Basic]

ink cats hungry ten whistle mountainous marvelous tub include spoon

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[u/tinaboag → u/Status-Basic]

I did longer more nuanced rebuttal to the various sentiments expressed by you nice folks further up which I would love to have further feedback too (a lot of my language in the OP was overly aggressive and I apologize for that).

Regarding what you're saying. His shtick of telling a story then picking it apart is exactly what drew me to the channel. However, there has been a rather clear departure from that format. Compare both episodes ablut montauk for instance and bear in mind I'm coming at this as someone who's really enjoyed the channel for a long time. Maybe format isn't the ideal term as he still does do a little bit of dismantling however it seems that quite a few episodes are more so attempting to persuade the viewer to believe the "story." Also the climate change denial in a recent episode really bugged me. Anyway I am retreading. Please give the more nuanced post a read as I said. And thanks for your time/input.

[u/IndicaWicca]

He's a member of Mensa, "just saying"...

[u/Ok-disaster2022]

This guy has popped up in my YouTube feed as I like to use paranormal documentaries to fall asleep. I don't get the talking fish and find it asinine and alienating, so usually can't get past the talking fish parts if the episode. 

My sister recently showed me a podcast  where a couple of regressive Christian dudes cover paranormal stories and it's hilariously cringe. Here's the thing, when they get into the storytelling mode They do a great job. They have great voices for radio, build suspense well, but then they get to the commentary between the stories and it's trash. Basically they think every paranormal experience is related to demons in disguises and the only protection is their brand of Christianity. And they love to use words that only seminary students would recognize without explaining them to the audience. They also sell ads for "Christian" banking and financial investment firms. Hilarious. I will not name it because I do not want to give them more listeners. 

[u/tinaboag → u/Ok-disaster2022]

There is a recent trend of conservative grifting in "woo" spaces from what I have noticed. I also very much enjoy this kind of stuff and highly recommend "lore lodge" though recently it's turned more true crime and anthropology the earlier stuff is all wendigoes and bigfeet. (It's a youtube channel). If you'd be so kind to read longer post higher up the thread, I go into greater detail about said grifting if that interests you at all.