At what point does someone who is mostly reasonable, with a few bad takes become someone not worth listening to? Also, can we separate the art from the artist? For example with Badempanada, he has a couple bad China takes and is kind of toxic online, but he’s well researched, so it really depends whether ML’s I’ve met listen to him. Do you listen to Maoists who are good 95% of the time, but might have a bad Gonzalo take from time to time? Or is there enough agreeable content on the internet that you can just listen to those you agree with? Are certain bad takes just too bad? Will you stop listening to someone after they say something transphobic, even if they’re good the rest of the time like Paul Cockshott? Or if someone is willing to talk with someone like a Larouchite, are they automatically a right deviationist with nothing worthwhile to say, or are the just forming a United front on a specific issue?
Don’t feel too bad. We’re conditioned to think like that. Due to that conditioning, I refused to read Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, etc. It was all far too seditious. I had to let others tell me what they were about. Good job my liberal education was filled with such rigorous textbooks and summaries. (Sarcasm voice.)
As Kwame Ture advises, revolutionaries must read everything. Pick up Mein Kampf if you can stomach such shit writing. And don’t feel bad about it (unless it leaves you feeling inspired – unlikely, I admit).
I know this still isn’t quite what you’re asking. To that end, don’t feel bad about listening to YouTubers or podcasters for one or two bad takes. Once they tip over into mostly-reactionary, you could still listen, but at that point, while it’s not a matter of cancelling them, it’s just more fruitful to spend your time on something else. Until then, take what you can, grow, and keep listening.
It’s not just Engels on the odd bit of outdated science. Search for ‘Irish’ in The Condition of the Working Class in England or read the final part of Marx’s ‘On the Jewish Question’. And whatever you do, don’t quote those passages in polite company (or at all, maybe). They both, erm, dropped the ball a bit there.