CuriousCat Archive Page 103 of 202

  1. Is the new ARPB gonna be the Pineapple On Pizza part of the food trilogy?

    My radical opinion on pineapple is it should not be considered a traditional topping, like olives or sundried tomatoes, but a transformative ingredient, like pesto or white sauce. It fundamentally changes a pizza from a savory experience to a sweet one with a savory component. You can like or dislike this, but you can't suggest pineapple like it's just another topping.

    This is not substantive enough for a video.

  2. He wasn’t particularly smart or competent, but you could definitely argue he was a bit more politically savvy than trump

    in response to Lots of people are saying that we are lucky that Trump is so incompetent and that the "next Trump" might be smarter and more destructive to democracy. But is it possible that Trump has only been as destructive as he has been *because* he's so incompetent? I'm not trying to say "it can't happen here" but it seems to me that the parallel to a more competent Trump is more Nixon than Hitler or any other fascist leader.

    how?

  4. If you have an idea for something cool to make, and then find out someone is doing literally the same idea, is it better to just keep going so that you can gain the experience of doing or should you stop making the project due to competing with that other person

    depends on the thing!

  5. Should one who knows not much Bean Dad seek to Educate Self about Bean Dad?

    in response to I am conflicted about Bean Dad? A lot of my enjoyment from puzzle and adventure games comes from the cycle of frustration and realization, yet I feel like there is no good language for sharing that joy? How do we describe puzzles in the real world without using obnoxious language of grit or Socratic learning or independent responsibility?

    probably not

  6. Should leftists frame egalitarian policies as making things more meritocratic or reject meritocracy entirely?

    the second thing

  7. What's the next video gonna be buckaroo

    one last CO-VID before I return to Alt-Right Playbook and Protagony

  8. Do you agree with the idea that one of the unspoken qualifications for US president over at least the last 40 years is being outwardly religious?

    last 40 years? Washington's farewell speech expressly said "you can't trust a President who isn't religious." that's ALWAYS been the unspoken qualification. like... Kennedy being CATHOLIC was a scandal.

    honestly, Trump is the least religious Prez we've ever had, so it's arguably less true now than ever.

  9. Like the Vietnam protests, which have been forgotten and no one knows about

    in response to Which major 00s cultural event will never show up in a feature film

    the fact that the only leftist protest movement that gets depicted on the silver screen happened 60 years ago is not the slam dunk counterargument you think it is

  10. I am conflicted about Bean Dad? A lot of my enjoyment from puzzle and adventure games comes from the cycle of frustration and realization, yet I feel like there is no good language for sharing that joy? How do we describe puzzles in the real world without using obnoxious language of grit or Socratic learning or independent responsibility?

    fam you CONSENT to being frustrated when you play adventure games, nobody starves you for 6 hours until you solve the Broken Sword goat puzzle

  11. Is it uncool to like uniforms in a socialist movement

    I've heard the argument that protesters wearing uniforms would be way more effective than the "just show up in whatever" thing we're doing now. Showing that we're capable of actual organization has a certain power.

    Dunno if that's The One Right Way, but it's def not uncool to like it.

  12. Lots of people are saying that we are lucky that Trump is so incompetent and that the "next Trump" might be smarter and more destructive to democracy. But is it possible that Trump has only been as destructive as he has been *because* he's so incompetent? I'm not trying to say "it can't happen here" but it seems to me that the parallel to a more competent Trump is more Nixon than Hitler or any other fascist leader.

    This accepts the notion pushed by Nazi propaganda that Hitler was smart or competent.

  13. Do you have any thoughts about the ethical quandaries of the monsters in Monsters Inc gathering energy by exploiting the emotions of children?

    When they're harvesting screams, sure. But there's an interesting parallel to be made when they're harvesting laughter to the argument that there is no altruism and all kindness is, in fact, selfishness. Like, when you make a child laugh, you get a bunch of endorphins, so isn't it kind of a selfish act? It's one of those nihilist/stoner arguments you here if you hang out around bonfires in California (I speak from experience). I've always come down on the side that "making others happy also makes you happy" is a *good* thing, especially seeing as it did *need* to be that way. Like, when people say "love is just a chemical reaction that exists to get you to pass your genes on," I'm like, "yeah, and that's FUCKING AWESOME! Do you know how bedbugs mate?! Read about it sometime and tell me our way isn't WAY better! It didn't HAVE to be this way, and we are SO LUCKY it is! Of all the TRILLIONS of ways to pass on our genes, we get to fall in love! We get to take joy in making children laugh! It's like we're getting away with something!"

    So, in answer to your question: the fact that Monstropolis benefits from making children happy does not negate that happiness, and is, in fact, a good thing.

  14. Y’all got some of that upper-middle-class guilt absolver?

    bro I'm in collections

  15. Was Chomsky right in saying the modern Republican Party resembles a fascist insurgency party than a conservative parliamentary party if this is what they may or may not be planning down the road?

    in response to What kinds of questions do you want to be asked in 2021

    I would have to read the whole quote to respond, but a fascist insurgency party is the logical extension of a conservative parliamentary party

  16. Also with transparency any and all manipulations done (for profit, politics, or personal preference, but I repeat myself) would stand out like a sore thumb.

    in response to How do you think YouTube’s algorithm should work? Do you think there should be a marketplace of algorithms to choose from?

    well, what I was suggesting wouldn't mean showing you everything, just showing you the parts relevant to you and letting you tweak them. though revealing the actual CODE would be pretty sweet, so that coders could look it over and explain it to laypeople, offer up custom scripts to make it recommend unexpected things...

    heck, open-source YouTube sounds awesome

  19. Hi Ian, I want to know that do you have a problem with like having 3 or more different story ideas in your head that you just need to put out but seemingly struggle because you're unsure on which to finish first? I'm having troubles like these and I was wondering is there a way to remedy this

    I don't have too much trouble with "what to do next" because, usually, there's an idea that is tugging at my mind more than the others in any given moment. I also have the freedom to switch tracks when one of the others pops up to say "do me now," though most often I get pretty singleminded once I pick something.

    My problem is having 3+ story ideas in my head and not having time to write down ANY of them because the channel keeps me too busy.

  20. I think there was plenty to like about, aside from that scene I mentioned. It was funny, and self-referential in quite a british way, if it wasn’t so nationalistic and lowkey supportive of bond even as it tries to pretend to criticise him it might have been ok. Tbf tho casino royale has some BS in it too

    in response to Skyfall is good but it’s hard to ignore the completely pointless rape scene followed by murder of the victim

    Skyfall's crimes include:

    - deciding the Bond we just saw get his license two movies ago is the same bond from the 60's despite clearly being way too young to have driven an Aston Martin
    - mythologizing all the elements Casino Royale had just stripped out
    - killing Judy Dench to make M a man again
    - introducing Moneypenny as a skilled and competent spy and then plopping her at a desk job in the end
    - sneaking a single line implying Bond is bisexual as a cheap coverup for the villain being a sexually-aggressive gay camp stereotype
    - having the same plot as The Dark Knight but with more contrivances

    this is on top of casually and dispassionately killing off a damsel right after she was sexually coerced by Bond

  23. You've mentioned in the past that you believe YouTube should be nationalized. Do you think that doing so would make the platform more consumer friendly (in the ways you've outlined here or others)?

    in response to How do you think YouTube’s algorithm should work? Do you think there should be a marketplace of algorithms to choose from?

    If it's nationalized, I'm not sure users would properly by "consumers." In our current system, a lot of nationalized services are shitty to the people they're meant to serve (cops, obviously), so nationalizing it is a crapshoot. But it'd still probably be better than it being corporatized.

    Obvs the solution is to end capitalism, but I repeat myself.

  24. Really? It was used a lot in 'torn from the headlines' shows at the time, and was obviously the analogy The Dark Knight Rises was going for. I don't think it'll ever be the focus of a feature, but it seems like an easy way of characterization and it might play as a minor part in a biopic of somebody who isn't yet famous.

    in response to Which major 2010s cultural events do you think will never show up in a feature film?

    Just seems like society as a whole has forgotten Occupy ever happened.

  25. Are you getting a lot of people taking you up on the offer to fight over that? I may just have missed it all but I thought consensus was with you here.

    in response to Thoughts on Skyfall?

    At the time, consensus was that Skyfall was the best Bond film of all time. Preferring Casino Royale would be heresy, though I dunno where The Discourse is now.

  26. Skyfall is good but it’s hard to ignore the completely pointless rape scene followed by murder of the victim

    in response to Thoughts on Skyfall?

    Skyfall basically ruined the franchise. They had just rebooted it with Casino Royale, and Skyfall was where they said "now that we've got your attention, let's put back in all the BS we just stripped out," and, because it was fairly well-made, they thought it was free reign to keep going, and they're right back to Brosnan-era bloat.

  28. What kinds of questions do you want to be asked in 2021

    It is clearly a matter of time until a Democrat wins the Presidency and a Republican-controlled Congress refuses to validate it, and I want to know what Democrats are planning to do when that happens.

  29. can of beans

    ::nods sagely::

  30. Thoughts on Skyfall?

    Casino Royale is still the only actually great Daniel Craig Bond movie (fite me), but Skyfall is the prettiest.

  31. Been waking up 4/5pm everyday the last 2 weeks no matter what time I go to bed 😣.

    In terms of complacency prevention, any tips to get up early without falling asleep?

    your circadian rhythm sounds jacked, are you getting much sunlight?

  32. How do you think YouTube’s algorithm should work? Do you think there should be a marketplace of algorithms to choose from?

    Remember several years ago on Facebook when you could tune your feed? Like, it would show you "here's the people you seem to interact with most, so we've prioritized them," and you could manually say "I want more of this person, stop showing me this person, don't unfollow this person but show them a bit less," etc.? You know, before they determined that they could increase engagement by deciding what you see themselves?

    The Algorithm will never be perfect, so just make it transparent. Here are the keywords we've logged for you; do you want to add or remove any? Here are the channels we recommend most; would you like to move any up or down in priority? Would you like more channels you haven't seen? Would you like more videos from newer, smaller creators? How far afield from your interests would you like them to be? How long do you like videos of different subjects? How often do you want to see things from outside your specifications?

    It is, of course, better for YouTube to make these decisions for you, because what you WANT and what you ENGAGE WITH MOST aren't the same. But making it better than it is would be pretty straightforward.

  33. Which major 2010s cultural events do you think will never show up in a feature film?

    Occupy

  34. Seems to me that the impulse to categorize everything as political is a totalitarian one, as it seeks to completely eliminate the private realm.

    in response to Like... is lying down in bed, washing and drying my clothes political? Watching a movie itself (not talking about the movie but just me an ordinary person watching a movie alone) or going out on a date political? Like can you all clarify further what is the rationale behind everything in life as political??

    the people who say "the personal is political" have far less overlap with fascists than the people who insist the opposite

  35. Is Politics Political?

    no, it's like multiplying two negative numbers

  36. The belief that true Socialism will take hold in America (and somehow bring about the end of capitalism) is nothing less than a faith-based movement at this point. You say you're "doing the work", and that great strides are being made in *other* countries, but tell that to the millions of people who's loved ones have died in this country during a pandemic due to our lack of universal health care or social safety nets; policies that have existed for decades throughout the rest of the industrialized world. Policies that are no closer to happening in this country than they were 80 years ago no matter how many progressives stan Bernie or AOC. All because of a ruling class that has spent decades if not *centuries* conditioning the people into seeing any policy that affects their economic status quo as a form of tyranny.
    How do you tell *them* not to be pessimistic?

    in response to That is all true, and we are seeing all of those movements continue to create progress in all of those other countries (Chile, Sweden, Poland, France etc) to this day, but I believe there is cause for pessimism because there is no precedence for equivalent uprisings creating change in THIS country (the USA)

    honestly, you don't even have to believe in a socialist revolution. if we bust our asses for socialism and all we get is another labor movement that makes things better for workers, improves our healthcare, and builds stronger communities, I won't consider the time wasted. be pessimistic if you want. just do the work. or don't. but stop telling others they're wasting their time by not giving up, ffs.

  38. That is all true, and we are seeing all of those movements continue to create progress in all of those other countries (Chile, Sweden, Poland, France etc) to this day, but I believe there is cause for pessimism because there is no precedence for equivalent uprisings creating change in THIS country (the USA)

    in response to Our attitudes are immaterial. Optimistic, nihilistic, pessimistic, wholistic - whatever. What matters is the facts of reality: they have all the money, all the guns, all the resources. They can organize easily and effectively and we can't even agree on the definitions of terms. The youths seem to love the idea of socialism but the powerful will do what they did back in the '30's when communism looked imminent - give up the least amount of wealth necessary to keep from losing their heads and keep capitalism going. And we'll eat it up as we did before.

    "there was a socialist groundswell 80 years ago that failed, so I have extrapolated from this data point of one that it can never happen in this country"

  39. How do you handle online negativity? My channel is still relatively small and I have trouble with any significant amount of negative attention. Like a handful of people were mean at me on Twitter last week and I deleted the thing they were mad about and blocked all of them. How do you handle it? I feel like I can't look at my phone without worrying that this might be the time someone is screaming at me, and I can't put it down because someone might be screaming at me.

    I block early and often, I don't read comments on my political videos past the first 6ish hours when assholes haven't found it yet, I hit "mute conversation" on anything I've said or been tagged in that's getting a lot of negativity, I have people on deck to monitor potential harassment vectors so I don't have to wade into my own 4chan threads or whatever.

    Basically, most people yelling at you don't matter and you should cut off their access to you as early as possible. Trust that constructive criticism will find its way to you by decent people who want to share a valid critique. Never undervalue your own attention. If you're particularly anxious, use blocklists, set up appblockers to keep you from doomscrolling, and, if all else fails, give a friend your social media passwords and have them serve as a filter.

    Stay safe, and take care of yourself.

  40. Are you a fan of any magical girls series?

    Haruhi, which is pretty meta about it

  41. Our attitudes are immaterial. Optimistic, nihilistic, pessimistic, wholistic - whatever. What matters is the facts of reality: they have all the money, all the guns, all the resources. They can organize easily and effectively and we can't even agree on the definitions of terms. The youths seem to love the idea of socialism but the powerful will do what they did back in the '30's when communism looked imminent - give up the least amount of wealth necessary to keep from losing their heads and keep capitalism going. And we'll eat it up as we did before.

    in response to I'm saying that it's titanically difficult not to be pessimistic when American politics is effectively rigged to ensure nothing ever *really* changes. The fact that universal healthcare and social safety nets are treated as a pipe dream in this country when these policies have been a reality for the rest of the western world for a century is a bad joke. How is nihilism not an appropriate response to that?

    yeah, um... the 30's were the birth of the labor movement which ended child labor and gave you the weekend and the 8-hour workday. there was also the anarcho-socialist uprisings in Spain against Franco and the creation of the Swedish socialist government. stop erasing progress made by socialists to justify your pessimism.

  44. Will the Alt-Right Playbook ever touch more on how conspiracy theories function in the Alt-Right or is that just too deep a rabbit hole?

    I try not to say things I've heard other people say when I can just link to them saying it

    https://youtu.be/JTfhYyTuT44

  45. Does it hurt your feelings when a friend of yours didn't tag you in a photo you're in with on social media?

    I don't show up in photos, I'm a vampire

  46. No question, I just want to say I appreciate the thoroughness and patience of how you respond to all these questions and that I am drunk while writing this does not lessen that appreciation

    in response to Like... is lying down in bed, washing and drying my clothes political? Watching a movie itself (not talking about the movie but just me an ordinary person watching a movie alone) or going out on a date political? Like can you all clarify further what is the rationale behind everything in life as political??

    Something about the holiday season makes me try to be extra patient with people.

  47. This kinda feels like asking how to steal your job but, as far as you can tell, is there any kind of training or education or insight that has made you more successful as a Youtuber? Or has it mostly been a roll of the dice from start to finish?

    I've kind of spent my whole career saying "can I ignore all the best practices and just make the stuff I wanna make?" So I'm not sure I'm much of a role model. At one point, maintaining a consistent schedule was the thing to do. Now, it's apparently better to make videos with high engagement, regularity be damned, and if you release regularly but some videos underperform your whole channel gets penalized. At least, that's what I hear? YouTube is a black box, anything you've heard about how to be successful there is an educated guess.

    Art school taught me video editing software, and gave me a broad range of interests that gave me (I think/hope) interesting perspectives on things. I took bits and pieces of advice from a few other YouTubers. But... yeah, mostly I decided I would do what I wanted to do and, if it didn't make money, it would just stay a hobby. I don't think you can count on people connecting with your work unless you care pretty deeply about it yourself, and if people care there's a better chance they'll share your work.

    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  50. Like... is lying down in bed, washing and drying my clothes political? Watching a movie itself (not talking about the movie but just me an ordinary person watching a movie alone) or going out on a date political?

    Like can you all clarify further what is the rationale behind everything in life as political??

    in response to I don't know but I'm struggling to find a rationale on why life is political

    Well, it seems like you're hearing "everything is political" as "washing my clothes is the same as joining a labor uprising," which, no. But we live in a world where politics shape our lives, and so everything we do contains SOME politics.

    Washing your clothes in a washing machine uses more water than washing them by hand, and often sends chemicals into the ocean. This affects the environment. How we as a society deal with the environment is political. Choosing to wash your clothes one way or another, therefore, has a political component.

    Going on a date means being in public with a romantic interest. If you're straight, that doesn't feel political. But a queer couple doing the same thing in a public setting can get them treated differently. There are places where they will be denied service. There are parts of the world where they can get arrested for it. What a date looks like is shaped by politics, and society saying YOUR date is safe but someone ELSE'S is not is political. Therefore, your date has a political component.

    You acknowledge that a movie may have politics, but ask how you watching it is political. Well, you paid money to see that movie, so you have financially endorsed that movie's politics. And the media you consume does not DICTATE your politics, but it does INFLUENCE them; this is why the military offers millions of dollars of funding to movies provided they get script approval, because they want to shape people's politics in a certain way. So watching media has a political component.

    Even lying in bed has a political component: where did you buy the bed? How did you afford the bed? Did you just walk into IKEA and pick one, or did you have to get it used on Craig's List? Did some retail employee follow you around the store because you were the wrong color? Did some strapping guy offer to help you move it into your car as a pretext for flirting with you? All these things contain politics.

    Don't go thinking this means "I am a bad person if I wash my clothes the wrong way" or whatever. It's more like... we live in a political world, and you can never really go "off the grid" with politics. Most things aren't VERY political, but everything's A LITTLE political, so it's important to think about what those politics are and ask if they align with what we believe.

  51. What's a word that is offensive that you wish was not?

    what an obvious trap

  53. I'm saying that it's titanically difficult not to be pessimistic when American politics is effectively rigged to ensure nothing ever *really* changes. The fact that universal healthcare and social safety nets are treated as a pipe dream in this country when these policies have been a reality for the rest of the western world for a century is a bad joke. How is nihilism not an appropriate response to that?

    in response to It is when your "work" is a sisyphean task that will generations to accomplish, if it can be accomplished at all; while the people you're supposedly trying to help continue to suffer.

    It is a perfectly reasonable response. But, make no mistake, the people keeping those good things from happening *want you to be nihilistic*.

  54. How would you feel about creating a second patreon, or a kickstarter for a unique project? For example, I'd really, really like to see you focus on this and would be happy to pay accordingly.

    in response to If/when you do “Children of Doom for adventure games”, would you do Riven or The Last Express for ‘97?

    Yeah, if I do it it'll probably be a separate Patreon and working with an editor. We'd split the Patreon 50/50, I'd write and record and capture game footage and they'd do the edit and upload. That way, while I'd probably have to slow down, I wouldn't have to stop my own channel.

    I wanna finish Alt-Right Playbook before attempting this but it's high on my list of next projects.

  55. If/when you do “Children of Doom for adventure games”, would you do Riven or The Last Express for ‘97?

    Oh, I have the whole of 1984 to 2019 mapped out already, though I tweak it here and there. '97 would be about how all the blockbuster adventure games are actually really experimental, and would talk about Riven, The Last Express, AND Blade Runner.

  56. How about outer wilds?

    in response to At which point, when gaming, do you succumb to looking up the answer?

    I got stumped a few times in Outer Wilds. I let myself stay stumped a good amount of time before looking up the solution. One I was mad at myself for not thinking, another was something I'd solved once but couldn't remember how, and one was, I think, actually a bad puzzle. Oh, and I think I looked up a clue for something that wasn't actually a puzzle, just not realizing something was interactable because the icon doesn't appear unless you're *really* close to it and I thought I was missing something. So that one doesn't count!

  58. "Ah yes, maybe THIS time the socialist revolution won't be violently crushed, turn into a hellish dictatorship, or get blockaded and isolated for 50+ years" Do you know the definition of insanity?

    in response to Pessimist defeatism is just honest progressivism. Anyone saying otherwise is selling something/hawking their Patreon.

    bro nobody brought up revolution, we're literally talking about a bill written by members of congress

  60. I don't know but I'm struggling to find a rationale on why life is political

    in response to Why is everything in life political?

    Tell me more?

  62. Who is the most conflicting figure in modern pop culture, according to you?

    the legacy of Michael Jackson

  64. At which point, when gaming, do you succumb to looking up the answer?

    depends on the game, depends on whether or not being stumped is fun, depends on whether the solutions thus far have been enjoyable to solve myself, depends on how much there is to do while stumped. I solved all the puzzles in Braid myself and looked up several in Thimbleweed Park, even though Braid's puzzles are much harder, because Braid's were satisfying to solve and Thimbleweed's weren't.

  66. Is romantic love between two individuals political?

    we have laws saying who can and can't get married, I don't know how you can even ask this question with a straight face

  67. Why is everything in life political?

    why wouldn't it be?

  68. Yeah, so I called my landlord and they said they don't take payments in Overton Windows, left or otherwise.

    in response to Holy shit hat is pretty incredible! Thank you for sharing this information! I'm anxious to see how many of these bills that have been introduced (or even passed in the house) by dems will succeed under Biden and which will quietly fade into the night. I really hope that this one makes it, but boy do I have a feeling it won't.

    I feel that, but "the bills that can pass don't offer enough, the bills that offer enough won't pass, and even trying to pass a better bill is pointless" is pretty defeatist. Your landlord doesn't take pessimism, either.

  69. Any thoughts on Pixar's "Soul"?

    I don't have Disney+

  71. is a love of old vending machines and automats hauntology or do i just hate people?

  72. What's your favorite and least favorite Godzilla movie and if you can elaborate why? (the Emmerich one doesn't count)

    I watched a ton of them as a kid but don't remember which was my favorite. I liked Shin Godzilla pretty well.

  73. What is something Wikipedia's wrong about?

    Wikipedia used to have a page for the Flash series Bunnykill and then deleted it because it was deemed "irrelevant." In the talk page, someone argued there shouldn't be a Wiki page for it because they'd "never heard of it." THAT'S PRECISELY WHY IT NEEDS A WIKI PAGE!

Anon commented:
Ian replied: