Someone on Freecycle gave me a nice tv, pretty old, but comelete with
owners manual and remote control.

The remote works fine except for the buttons used the most, volume up
and down, channel up and down, power, and muting.

I took it apart and expected to find oxidized contact points, but no.
Instead those buttons, on the circuit board and on the buttons, are
shiny and a little bit sticky. I forced myself to taste it, but I don't
taste anything.

3 other buttons have a little of those, but no more than 4% of any
button.

What is this, how does it get in there, and [what do I do about it}?

I have DeoxitIT, what I've read is the best, but I guess I've never used
it before, and it didn't remove the stickiness. Not only that, these
contacts aren't copper-colored, and as the name impplied, it's really to
remove and prevent oxidization, so I switched to isopropyl alcohol and
that did a good job.

So I know what to do about it, but what is that stuff? Finger oil?