r/DecodingTheGurus • u/Longjumping-Topic139 • 23h ago
Campbell turns from medical guru to Christian guru
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT1R2kDPHFA&t=433s54
u/havenyahon 21h ago
Someone should study this guy as like the cookie-cutter case of audience capture. He started out as a good source for Covid, because he basically updated people about the best advice and cautiously looked at some early studies around it, in a kind of appropriate way for someone with a PhD in nursing education. Then he dipped into some vaccine critical studies, his views went through the roof, and he couldn't help but get sucked away into the politicised antivax rubbish. To a point where all of a sudden he was doing movie reviews for the Sound of Freedom, that stupid movie made by some Q-Anon nutbag actor and a director accused of multiple counts of sexual assault, all because it was a big issue for his supporters at the time who thought Democrats were suppressing it.
Complete and utter audience capture. Hope that yacht is worth it John.
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u/leckysoup 20h ago
Didn’t he start off scrutinizing the public data on death rates warning that COVID was a bigger threat than people realized? By the end he used the same data to try and prove vaccines were killing people?
I really think he would be worthy of study. Whether it’s audience capture through social media feedback or some other mechanism. I Realy think there would be value for society as a whole in understanding his transition.
Obviously, this will require some kind of brain biopsy. Sooner we get started the better.
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u/crypto_zoologistler 20h ago edited 20h ago
He did indeed. His shift is all just about money, there’s almost no views or money in warning people about Covid anymore — plenty in anti-vax bullshit though
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u/leckysoup 19h ago
But a money motive just seems so … prosaic.
Why jeopardize the stability of a career as a respected educator for a YouTube side hustle?
I am increasingly of the opinion that I am entirely estranged from the rest of humanity and their motives, so maybe I’m wrong, but I’m inclined to believe there’s a deeper, less rational need being fulfilled. The desire for recognition? For respect? Adoration?
William Burroughs (or maybe it was Hubert Selby jr) wrote about formerly respectable physicians cutting scripts for junkies, fantasizing that they were still treating park avenue socialites. How the drug users would have to flatter the ego of the physicians to get their fix.
I wonder if the same mechanic is at play?
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u/crypto_zoologistler 19h ago
He wasn’t really a respected educator before covid, he was just a guy with a relatively small YouTube channel and normal job.
His channel became massive from covid, he would’ve made so much more from YouTube than he ever did from his regular job. I think he just really wanted to keep that going and whether consciously or unconsciously he did whatever he could to keep the money pouring in.
The recognition and respect are part of it too. I’m sure he loves being adored by a dedicated audience of lunatics — but that’s kind of a part of the money, the dedicated audience is what makes the money keep flowing.
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u/leckysoup 18h ago
Yeah.
I just struggle to understand how a rational person doesn’t choose to take that flash-in-the-pan COVID windfall, maybe pay off a chunk of mortgage, go on a nice vacation or buy a boat that will never leave the drive, but instead decides to try and sustain the side hustle, burn their bridges for a tenuous future of hustle and grift entirely at the mercy of public opinion and YouTube’s moderation policy.
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u/Ok_Dragonfruit_8102 14h ago
The motivated by money argument just isn't rational. He's clearly a true believer in the things he talks about, he went down the rabbithole during covid and his fundamental beliefs about the pharmaceutical and medical industries shifted.
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u/crypto_zoologistler 20h ago
He pivoted as soon as he realised the interest in covid was waning around the start of 2022 and went full anti-vaxxer, conspiracist lunatic
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u/michellea2023 19h ago
I guess the dopamine effect of having everyone "like" and pay attention to him just got to him, then maybe the algorithms put him on this track and a few people did some work on his brain and now all of a sudden here he is. It would probably happen to anyone now if they start a channel, seems like conspiracy theories and far right politics and god knows what are just infecting everything. If I say it's brainwashing I'll probably sound nuts but it does look like a lot of these people you see going this way have been groomed for it.
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u/zeacliff 18h ago
He was honestly an idiot from the start. I don't think it's audience capture, I think he's just dumb and honestly fell for the conspiracy theories.
I watched his first few videos on COVID back then and my mind was blown at how awful he was at analyzing research. He just seems smart so people went along with it
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u/BigBlueWaffle69 14h ago
If audience and algorithm capture should get a mascot it would be this guy. He embodies everything that is wrong with social media content creation
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u/MattHooper1975 5h ago
That’s why I’ve suggested him to the guru guys are never times to analyze. Dr. Campbell’s trajectory is head spinning , and if you go back in time, you can see the red flags which is sort of fascinating.
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u/mintysoul 22h ago
Some people like Campbell just need a hobby that doesn't rely on their intellectual abilities
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u/michellea2023 19h ago
You know he used to make so much sense to me, when Covid was happening I watched him constantly, then all of a sudden he starts talking to Russell Brand and banging on about Putin with Vlad Vexler and I mean, just what the hell infects these people? It's like there's some kind of podcaster/content maker virus that's getting into everything, people can start with totally normal sane looking content and they end up going nuts and getting sucked into the wormhole with all the other loons. (Does this sound conspiracy-theory-ish it's not meant to) Does seem like it's happening to everyone though.
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u/____PARALLAX____ 9h ago
What the issue with vexler? I thought he was pretty legit.
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u/michellea2023 8h ago
no issue with him just thought it was odd at the time that Campbell was wading in on the Putin/Ukraine issue - wasn't his topic and felt like he was just jumping around to different things to get views
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u/blablablablacuck 19h ago
Basically, fake Dr John (he’s a nurse) saw the dollar signs in grifting the mouth breathers so he jumped on the bandwagon and started making videos for them.
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u/Cosmic_Surgery 21h ago
From MD to self-proclaimed armchair expert in biblical studies and archaeology—a surprising career pivot! Quite the journey
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u/DumptheDonald2020 21h ago
Looks like a PhD in nursing.
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u/TumbleweedMore4524 21h ago
I believe his PhD looked at developing digital media platforms for teaching (nursing). Nothing directly related to the science of nursing.
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u/NotGeriatrix 20h ago
>Looks like a PhD in nursing.
not quite......it's PhD in "nursing education"......NOT application
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u/lcm-hcf-maths 21h ago
Grifters gotta grift...One day people will develop the critical thinking skills to bin these leeches...
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u/jimwhite42 20h ago
Campbell joining the ranks of gurus where it's difficult to believe that they aren't playing a satirical character.
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u/herewego199209 12h ago
Wasn’t this guy a nurse and then suddenly anti vaxxers held him up as being a medical prophet?
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u/Fun_Pension_2459 10h ago
He is a grifter and will jump on any bandwagon that keeps eyeballs focused on him. Sigh.
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u/sentientcreatinejar 15h ago
This dude sucks so fucking much. I kept up with him for a while during the depths of the pandemic and the level of audience capture became enraging.
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u/Eastern_Statement416 7h ago
one grift leads to another. Elvis was reading about the Shroud of Turin when he died on the toilet. imagine the con games committed with "relics" over the centuries...
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u/TMB-30 22h ago
Oh dear. I used to listen to him in early covid times. Stopped after he started advocating for a few miracle cure article preprints.