CuriousCat Archive Page 105 of 202

  1. If you were forced to write, record, and post an unplanned video in the next 24 hours, what would it be about?

    Oh, you know, I have some notes saved where I did three-act-structure analyses of Brick and Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang that I could turn into a rough video without much stress. If I had all day and was feeling ambitious, I'd do a third breakdown of Chinatown and compare all three.

  2. Do ya like jazz?

    I've liked some hipster jazz, can't tell if that's a yes or a no.

  4. Couldn't unions also exist in a worker-run economy? They don't seem mutually exclusive

    in response to <cough> Unions are corporations <cough>

    Hm. Maybe. How do you think they would work?

  6. Are gun-control and defunding/abolishing the police mutually exclusive? I ask more in 'how will people be defended?' than 'who will confiscate the guns?' obviously, but also both.

    Police. Don't. Defend. People.

  8. Whenever there's controversy on left wing twitter, how do you gage whether its cancel culture or not?

    Sometimes you don't! Like... sometimes something is far enough removed from you and the amount of research it will take to determine who's plausibly telling the truth and who's potentially overreacting is so great that you just... don't. There are too many of these things going on to keep up with all of them. I still don't know who's at fault between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, and the amount of rooting around in two famous strangers' personal life it would take to form a confident opinion is just way bigger than my investment in them warrants.

    Most of the time I can confidently say that someone is being unfairly cancelled, it's people I've been following enough to have context. And, since I'm not sharing my platform with people I don't have context for, I don't really have cause to follow their misadventures. Like... why cancel someone you weren't paying attention to in the first place?

  9. Why doesn't Russophobia ever seem to enter the antiracism dialogue in the US?

    because "Russian" isn't a race

  10. What's a game you abandoned but keep telling yourself you really should give another chance?

    Tron 2.0
    else heart.break()
    Mirror's Edge
    Lisa: The Painful
    Gabriel Knight 3
    Uplink
    Overgrowth
    Super Time Force

  11. I sure there's a point where a friend provides so much value to your life that you overlook their politics

    in response to Hello! o/ I really like all the work you put out, you do a great job at showing the way different issues and topics integrate and work as a system (eg fascism, white supremacy, and capitalism). I had a quick question (hard for me to word it though). How do you/does one deal with having conservative friends or friends who have political views that you consider unethical? Do you stay friends? I've had a lot of people like this because of conservative environments and I've largely distanced myself from them. I have a hard time with this for a lot of reasons. E.g. 1) I don't understand how someone can be so kind to some people and so cruel to others. 2) I feel like I'm part of the problem when I'm friends with someone who's racist, sexist, transphobic, shows a lack of empathy for people that are homeless, etc. Sorry for the ramble-y question. Ty for your time!

    shockingly, no conservative has ever crossed that threshold

    people whose conception of society is "me and mine deserve rights and everyone else can suck it" don't make the best of friends

  12. How did peter coffin turn into such a dirtbag leftist without anyone noticing?

    dunno about you but a lot of us noticed a long time ago and were hinting as much

  13. Maybe they need help and they're convinced no one cares, or even that people hate them for it.

    in response to Hello! o/ I really like all the work you put out, you do a great job at showing the way different issues and topics integrate and work as a system (eg fascism, white supremacy, and capitalism). I had a quick question (hard for me to word it though). How do you/does one deal with having conservative friends or friends who have political views that you consider unethical? Do you stay friends? I've had a lot of people like this because of conservative environments and I've largely distanced myself from them. I have a hard time with this for a lot of reasons. E.g. 1) I don't understand how someone can be so kind to some people and so cruel to others. 2) I feel like I'm part of the problem when I'm friends with someone who's racist, sexist, transphobic, shows a lack of empathy for people that are homeless, etc. Sorry for the ramble-y question. Ty for your time!

    there are only so many years of my life I am willing to spend trying to help people who refuse to accept my help, and I take issue with the implication that it is my failure for not devoting even more time on people who never asked for it

  14. How does your ordinary run-of-the-mill conservative actually think that racism no longer meaningfully affects society?

    it is necessary for their belief that their party is not racist to believe it. the justifications they come up with are irrelevant and largely interchangeable.

  15. Thoughts on various foodbased tubes coming together to all form a sandwich tube? Surely breadtube would have a place!

    I just realized a hot dog is a meat tube inside a breadtube

  17. Hello! o/ I really like all the work you put out, you do a great job at showing the way different issues and topics integrate and work as a system (eg fascism, white supremacy, and capitalism). I had a quick question (hard for me to word it though).

    How do you/does one deal with having conservative friends or friends who have political views that you consider unethical? Do you stay friends? I've had a lot of people like this because of conservative environments and I've largely distanced myself from them.

    I have a hard time with this for a lot of reasons. E.g. 1) I don't understand how someone can be so kind to some people and so cruel to others. 2) I feel like I'm part of the problem when I'm friends with someone who's racist, sexist, transphobic, shows a lack of empathy for people that are homeless, etc.

    Sorry for the ramble-y question. Ty for your time!

    Yeah, I've slowly let all those relationships die out as well. There were years of discussing and arguing with them that just never bore fruit, and eventually, as the world got worse and they celebrated it, I just couldn't enjoy their company anymore.

  18. What's your ranking of Shane Black-written movies, NOT including the ones he's directed?

    Last Boy Scout
    Long Kiss Goodnight
    Lethal Weapon
    Last Action Hero

    haven't seen Monster Squad

  19. A criticism of police abolition is that, since the police serve a "purpose" (defending capital and private property with violence) removing them would not remove the "need" for those services. Landlords still "need" someone to make their tenants homeless if they don't pay, grocery stores still "need" someone to keep hungry people from taking their food under threat of violence, the state and capital still "need" someone to put down working class movements. The fear seems to be that removing the police while leaving capitalism intact will simply leave a vacuum that will be filled by something else. Something somehow even less accountable to the public. Do you think that police abolition could work under capitalism? Must police abolition take place in parallel with other revolutionary anti-capitalist changes to society? Would capital seek to replace the police with some other violent institution if the police were abolished under capitalism?

    in response to Do you think defunding the police is actually the right thing to do? Not in the abstract of, like, the police are a real fucking problem (which they are), but in the literal sense of how do we fix the problem? It's certainly true that many poorer communities of color are against the idea of "removing all police budgets". How would you compare the practical aspects of something like "Defund the Police" (or Police Abolition) to something like the 8 Can't Wait police reform project? Additionally, how do you feel about these issues outside of America? Police forces in European countries are substantially larger per capita, and receive much higher per service officer budgets, but are substantially less likely to be the cause of violence? Obviously European police forces are not a 1 to 1 correlation, they have a smaller minority population and the police in general are bad towards those minority populations, but I still am curious where you fall on these issues.

    I agree that you can't really solve the problem of policing without solving the problems of capitalism, patriarchy, and white supremacy, but I'm also not down with the idea that we need to wait for all of these to be address before dealing with any one individually. Obviously police abolition is a pie-in-the-sky idea in the current climate, and that's why so many are putting efforts into at least *starting* with defunding. But, if we have the opportunity to abolish the police before we can abolish capitalism, yeah, I think we should do it. If landlords still "need" to forcibly evict people, they can pay for private security out of pocket instead of using our tax dollars. The security firms still have to follow the law.

  20. Do you think defunding the police is actually the right thing to do? Not in the abstract of, like, the police are a real fucking problem (which they are), but in the literal sense of how do we fix the problem? It's certainly true that many poorer communities of color are against the idea of "removing all police budgets".

    How would you compare the practical aspects of something like "Defund the Police" (or Police Abolition) to something like the 8 Can't Wait police reform project?

    Additionally, how do you feel about these issues outside of America? Police forces in European countries are substantially larger per capita, and receive much higher per service officer budgets, but are substantially less likely to be the cause of violence? Obviously European police forces are not a 1 to 1 correlation, they have a smaller minority population and the police in general are bad towards those minority populations, but I still am curious where you fall on these issues.

    So "Defund the Police" doesn't mean "removing all police budgets," it means *reducing* police funding and putting the money into social programs that treat crime like a public health issue, which demonstrably makes communities safer than just pumping money into law enforcement.

    Defund the Police is, to me, a compromise position. I am, increasingly, siding with police abolitionists, who feel *all* crime should be treated as public health issues and that armed police are never the solution. The things cops do that is actually useful - giving out speeding tickets, guarding public events, responding to noise disturbances - can be done better by other organizations; there's really no reason the person who pulls you over for having a broken tail light should be authorized to shoot you.

    I can't speak to why Europe's police are less violent than the US's. From a cursory glance, I'll note that many of the countries with unarmed police forces are in Europe, and it seems like several with armed forces are much more rigorous (and public) about scrutinizing use of force. But I'm sure there are way more complex factors in play.

    And 8 Can't Wait is bullshit. It reduces violence by 72% only in cities that currently employ 0 of the 8. Many of the most violent police forces in the country already employ several - Chicago employs 7 and still kills Black people TWENTY-SEVEN TIMES as much as whites. https://harvardcrcl.org/why-8-wont-work/

    This is precisely why reform doesn't impress me. The problem isn't *how* we police, it's policing itself.

  21. How many unanswered questions do you have at the very moment of reading this very question?

    1711

  22. I am making my own adventure game and your videos helped me a lot. Wish me luck!

    what's it called and what's it about?!?!

  23. Do you think there is a contingency of Baking Channels fully disgruntled they didn't corner the name BreadTube

    Paul Hollywood is furious

  24. Don’t you think it’s bad praxis for contingents of the left to be so hyperfocused on wanting a shoehorn, the kind with teeth?

    Would you vote for a candidate who expressed a desire to stop the ones who want a rock to wind a string around?

    in response to Do you believe that people should be allowed to glue their poster, and that they should generally be allowed to think?

    I'm a simple man, and, when it comes to politics, I want a guy made of dots and lines

  25. Do you believe that people should be allowed to glue their poster, and that they should generally be allowed to think?

  26. Out of curiosity, are there any people who have directly critiqued your work in a way that you found fruitful or enjoyed engaging with?

    in response to different anon but in the very last replay you said: "I mean, there are valid critiques of people who fall under the banner of "BreadTube," but I kind of reject the premise that "BreadTube" can be critiqued as a body?" So is it really an "extrapolation" to feel as though you've rejected critiques of BreadTube out of hand? I kind of agree with the poster above though, what exactly does saying "BreadTube is a made up label invented by consumers not creators" every time criticisms of BreadTube come up accomplish? Like, that being true (which it is) doesn't make the problems within BreadTube not real

    There are conversations about my work that have expanded on themes and taught me new things, but wouldn't call those "critiques." And there are critiques that have discussed flaws that I didn't see and have taught me new things to consider which I am grateful for, but I wouldn't say I "enjoyed" them.

  27. Is it ageist to think there should be upper age-limits for certain positions in government?

    yes

  28. I think the insular critique is a bit different; it's natural to associate people together who associate together, in a way that it isn't to exclude POC or more explicitly leftist creators. I don't think it's really any of our business, as an audience, if you end up making friends with people who create in the same medium as you do, though

    in response to Are there any critiques of "Breadtube," from Coffin or others, that you find to be valid? Like, Coffin is an asshole, but have they, or anyone else, ever made an argument that made you think: "ok yeah, this loosely connected group of creators could probably improve in this way?"

    Sure! And, if you're being lackadaisical with labels, "BreadTube" can contain both "these people are leftists" and "these people are sociologically-minded media critics who know each other" and not care that these are separate-though-intersecting definitions. But when you start criticizing people-who-know-each-other for not being leftist enough, or people-who-are-leftists for being too chummy, we're going to run into problems.

    Like, you can see it as a small, narrowly-defined group with a specific purpose, or a loose collection of people encompassing many purposes, but you can't flip back and forth between them and expect things to make sense.

  29. Isn't this true of most labels that aren't self-applied? Not your reply, which is pretty specific, but the fact that you wouldn't want to be associated with a label you didn't choose and which people have come to only use derisively is pretty normal.

    in response to One thing I've noticed is that a lot of people who get associated with the "breadtube" label seem to not like being associated with it. Have you noticed this as well?

    "BreadTube" isn't used derisively, primarily, and I don't think it's a problem that the term exists. I just want people to reflect on what the term is supposed to do and what its limits are.

  30. different anon but in the very last replay you said: "I mean, there are valid critiques of people who fall under the banner of "BreadTube," but I kind of reject the premise that "BreadTube" can be critiqued as a body?" So is it really an "extrapolation" to feel as though you've rejected critiques of BreadTube out of hand? I kind of agree with the poster above though, what exactly does saying "BreadTube is a made up label invented by consumers not creators" every time criticisms of BreadTube come up accomplish? Like, that being true (which it is) doesn't make the problems within BreadTube not real

    in response to just to clear things up, I was the first person who sent you a link to the video and this question is from a different person who just had the same idea, so it's a second independent person, not the same person sending you this over and over I don't think the space commune folks are trying to advertise here; I'm pretty sure they don't even have CC accounts If you're curious, the TLDR of the video in question is that even though individual BreadTube creators may not intend to become a brand, that is what has happened, and said creators have been unavoidably co-opted and recuperated by the structure of YouTube and neoliberal market forces turning people into brands (the New York Times writeup on BreadTube is a key point in proving their argument) Anyway, I did also want to say per your recent answer; while no creator consented to being called breadtube (at least most didn't) wasn't it a term invented because these people were similar and we needed something to call those similarities by? So maybe we should talk about why it came to use in the first place and how it has affected the creators and their audiences, and what we can do about the negative consequences going forward, instead of constantly saying "we're not breadtube, please stop calling us breadtube, breadtube isn't real" Like, I get that you didn't *want* to be seen as an organization with a brand, but it's kind of the thing that's happened regardless as a result of the way youtube is structured to turn people into brands and it's not helpful to just deny that and reject these critiques out of hand

    y'all keep talking in abstracts, saying "the problems within BreadTube" without naming any, because all the examples I've heard - it's too white, it's too liberal, it's too insular - can only be answered by acknowledging they are that way because that's who fans applied the label to

    if you have a critique of BreadTube that is actually the fault of BreadTube - not attributable primarily to the biases of the audience that wields the label or only to individual BreadTubers - I will happily respond to it

    but I can't respond to the *idea* of a critique

  31. One thing I've noticed is that a lot of people who get associated with the "breadtube" label seem to not like being associated with it. Have you noticed this as well?

    in response to Are there any critiques of "Breadtube," from Coffin or others, that you find to be valid? Like, Coffin is an asshole, but have they, or anyone else, ever made an argument that made you think: "ok yeah, this loosely connected group of creators could probably improve in this way?"

    I liked being associated with it until people started inventing things they felt "BreadTube" was obligated to do and screaming at me for not doing them, and also associating me with people whose politics are, I feel, very different from mine.

  32. just to clear things up, I was the first person who sent you a link to the video and this question is from a different person who just had the same idea, so it's a second independent person, not the same person sending you this over and over
    I don't think the space commune folks are trying to advertise here; I'm pretty sure they don't even have CC accounts

    If you're curious, the TLDR of the video in question is that even though individual BreadTube creators may not intend to become a brand, that is what has happened, and said creators have been unavoidably co-opted and recuperated by the structure of YouTube and neoliberal market forces turning people into brands (the New York Times writeup on BreadTube is a key point in proving their argument)

    Anyway, I did also want to say per your recent answer; while no creator consented to being called breadtube (at least most didn't) wasn't it a term invented because these people were similar and we needed something to call those similarities by? So maybe we should talk about why it came to use in the first place and how it has affected the creators and their audiences, and what we can do about the negative consequences going forward, instead of constantly saying "we're not breadtube, please stop calling us breadtube, breadtube isn't real"

    Like, I get that you didn't *want* to be seen as an organization with a brand, but it's kind of the thing that's happened regardless as a result of the way youtube is structured to turn people into brands and it's not helpful to just deny that and reject these critiques out of hand

    in response to Any thoughts on Space Communes video on breadtube, "WTF is breadtube"? Or even on Space Commune himself? If not I think you should

    It seems like you're stubbornly misinterpreting my position because you have a thing you want to talk about that you can kinda-sorta use my words as a springboard for even thought it's clearly not what I'm saying?

    I'm not saying "BreadTube isn't real," I'm pretty clearly saying "BreadTube is a fan-made label, so if you're critiquing it as too white, you should ask why so many POC leftists who make leftist content on YouTube are routinely ignored by the fans who applied the label." That is pretty obviously not saying you can't have a term for a bunch of people doing similar work? And I don't know how you extrapolated that I've ever rejected a critique out of hand or that I haven't talked about the complexities of fan-created brands in the context of "BreadTube" because I've done so, repeatedly, on this very website.

    Not saying you should assume I have, but you probably shouldn't also assume I haven't just because it's a complaint you apparently have about other "BreadTubers." Because that's exactly the kind of thing we're talking about.

    I am fully aware that, whether I chose to be associated with other "BreadTubers" or not, I am, and that confers on me some attention and some responsibility, and that makes me more valuable to the capitalist machine.

  33. Are there any critiques of "Breadtube," from Coffin or others, that you find to be valid? Like, Coffin is an asshole, but have they, or anyone else, ever made an argument that made you think: "ok yeah, this loosely connected group of creators could probably improve in this way?"

    in response to Any insight as to why there's been an "anti-breadtube leftist" push lately?

    I mean, there are valid critiques of people who fall under the banner of "BreadTube," but I kind of reject the premise that "BreadTube" can be critiqued as a body? It's a label applied by fans. The critique that BreadTube is too white is a valid critique, but it's a critique of the audience: why did y'all mostly apply that label to white people? Ditto the critique that it's too insular: why did y'all mostly apply the label to people who knew each other? Too liberal: why did y'all apply the label to so many liberals?

    If you diagree with my takes, disagree with my takes, but don't hold other people responsible for them just because we fall under an umbrella term we didn't invent and didn't consent to using.

  34. Have you read "The Tyranny of Structureless" by Jo Freeman? What do you say to it?

    TL;DR
    Lack of a formal structure does not abolish power. Instead we need to formulate a democratic power structure.

    I've heard of it and believe I have it bookmarked somewhere, but I haven't dug into it.

  35. Hi! I'm a big fan. Three? questions -
    1. How do you feel about leftists who aren't vegan?
    2. I hear leftists complain about liberals and I feel like I've never not had to deal with that feeling my entire life (raised vegetarian, went vegan). If your answer to q1 says that you still care about them... I don't even know what I'm trying to ask here. I've rewritten this question like fifteen times. How do you get people to ally against a common opponent even if their beliefs don't align?
    3. Got any vegan media you like?

    1. Veganism is a kind of passive activism, if not just a dietary preference/weight loss strategy. If a person volunteers one hour a month with an animal rights group, they probably do more to move the needle than simply not participating in the meat industry. So the broader question, for me, is: how do I feel about the fact that animal rights aren't widely considered leftist principles? And, like a lot of things, it bothers me, but I deal with it. A lot of straight-up HUMAN rights are still ignored among leftists - there isn't nearly as strong a push against ageism or ableism as there's been against misogyny, racism, and transphobia, and even those are hotly contested in some circles. So I have a kind of weary, disgruntled, "one fight at a time" attitude. Meat reduction is at least slowly mainstreaming itself in the US, and what efforts exist ARE coming from the Left, so that's something.

    2. I dunno, people have their egos wrapped up around meat to a degree that I don't think they CAN support the cause unless they agree with it. So I think you'd have to do the harder work of actually working with people and slowly bringing them around.

    3. Nah, I don't really consume a lot of "vegan media." For me, veganism isn't really an identity, it's just a fact about me. I don't really run in atheist circles, either, though I am an atheist, you know?

  36. Do you believe that transitioning from Capitalism into another system successfully is a matter of having the technological means to do so, or is it about something else?

    Most leftists cite the Paris Commune as the most successful transition from capitalism, and they had significantly less technology than we do.

    But what does it take to do it successfully? I don't know. I'm working on it.

  37. How would you respond to someone saying leftists should tone-back the “Defund the Police” language because they think it alienates moderates and prevents its policies from gathering enough popular support to actually be implemented?

    How would you disentangle the “optics are important” and the “ask more politely” arguments and address both of them? That’s what I’m stuck at.

    1) I would say it's empirically untrue. The surge in support for Black Lives Matter met with a simultaneous surge in people registering to vote as Democrats, the biggest surge of the year. The time when "Defund the Police" was trending was THE BIGGEST BOOST to the Dems of the entire election.

    2) I would say placating the center rarely works, and every four years we see Republicans push radical positions that, within weeks, just become the norm. All through 2016 we said Trump was going to lose people with "Muslim ban" and "build the wall" and "Mexicans are rapists and thieves" and then he won, and all of those ideas just became part of normal life. Democrats think rhetoric should follow public opinion, where Republicans know rhetoric DETERMINES public opinion.

    3) I would say we shouldn't give a shit if we lose people, there are a lot more people to gain and I don't know why cagey white people are the ones we need to prioritize. And, even if it DID lose more people than it gained, we can still win without them because the Right's positions are, in fact, wildly unpopular, and it's clear most Dems don't vote FOR policy but AGAINST Republicans.

    4) And, forgetting all of that for a moment: defunding the police is the right thing to do, and we should say so.

  38. But it's a building management... consisting of different departments with the sole purpose of maintaining a building which is the shopping mall, besides collecting rent from tenants (Which consists of branded shops like Longchamp, Tag Heur, Louis Vuitton etc.)

    in response to Does the hate applied to a corporation which is a building management managing a shopping mall, where the mall management is the landlord and all your favorite branded shops within the mall as the tenants?

    if that's all it does, it would work better as a co-op

  39. Most jobs? Meaning not all?

    So what are the jobs where both position and the positioned that's deemed ok and not fallen prey to capitalism?

    in response to Are there a lotta jobs like that, hate the position not the positioned?

    You misunderstand: there are some jobs where both the position and the positioned are hateable.

  40. How important is it that Biden's prospective cabinet have racial and gender diversity?

    This is hard to answer. There's the liberal, diluted version of identity politics that thinks representation not only matters, it is the thing that matters MOST; that it doesn't really matter what the cabinet's politics are so long as it's got a decent spread of Black and brown faces. Then there's the leftist backlash against that which tries to act like representation doesn't matter AT ALL, which, intentionally or otherwise, tends to place primacy on their economic policies and ignore the fact that, yeah, women and POC are likely to govern somewhat differently from white men with otherwise similar politics. But I don't want to overcorrect into acting like the diversity means less than it does, because there are people on the Left desperate to reject all forms of identity politics as inherently liberal...

    So I can only go with "it means something, but not nearly as much as Biden wants us to believe."

  41. That makes you the exception, since I get the feeling most leftists would gladly guillotine every landlord (or cop or soldier or person who corrected them on Twitter or...) they could if given the chance.

    in response to I'm a landlord and I think it's hilarious that you hate me

    how exactly did you "get the feeling"?

  42. Do you think capitalism at its most ideal and perfect would be a good system?

    obviously not

  43. can you believe this is the same year CHAZ existed

    fucking hell I forgot CHAZ

  47. Do you think wobbleing shoulda been banned? Or do you think it has its place?

    I haven't been following Melee since before the ban, so I dunno how it's changed the meta. Maybe it's had a positive effect? Tough call.

  50. hi ian, I know we can't send you gifts, but can we paypal you enough money to pay for a gift we want to give you with a note saying that that's what the money is for?

    I used to have a PayPal for one-time donations and then someone was able to work out my private email address from it, so I shut it down. So, as it stands... no.

    But thank you.

  52. If you wrote an article on the theme "Why adventure games are leftist praxis" what would be the clickbait headline?

    that WOULD be the clickbait headline

  53. Does the hate applied to a corporation which is a building management managing a shopping mall, where the mall management is the landlord and all your favorite branded shops within the mall as the tenants?

    in response to I'm a landlord and I think it's hilarious that you hate me

    "how does an anticapitalist feel about corporations" *strokes chin*

  55. I'm a landlord and I think it's hilarious that you hate me

    I don't hate you, I hate your job. *You* in specific aren't the problem.

  56. Do you have a Christmas-related message to everyone here?

    Gaude, gaude, Emmanuel
    nascetur pro te, Israel

  57. Do you think some sort of "anti-BreadTube leftists" genre of YouTubers will materialize, given enough time?

    Petey and the Pallbearers are trying to be exactly that.

  59. Do you have any cyberpunk story (in any medium) you would recommend that innovates on the genre?

    I'm not familiar enough with classic cyberpunk to know which cyberpunk is innovative. I liked some of the ways Blade Runner 2049 iterated on the ideas of the original, but I suspect those ideas weren't new to the genre.

  60. Do you have any insight into why somebody would think you were a tankie? Or is being a public figure of whatever size in leftist internet spaces just an endless succession of accusations of being either a tankie or a lib?

    in response to Are you a tankie?

    I think someone was trying to set up a larger conversation.

  61. What sort of language do you imagine a law would need to be facially race-neutral while restricting gun rights for white people? We've had decades of practice on how to write laws to restrict the rights of minorities without specifying; do you think the legal profession will be up for the challenge immediately or need a while to catch up?

    in response to If nothing else, it'd be salient to dig into the history of gun control initiatives in the US and how it's tied to white supremacy (example: open carry was abolished in California primarily because of the Black Panther copwatches)

    it was a joke mate

  62. More for dinner or less?

    in response to 20 dollar breakfast or 20 dollar dinner?

    I'm assuming a $20 breakfast is probably somewhat gourmet, at least in Boston, whereas there's a wide range of quality on a $20 dinner. Not to say a $20 breakfast is never overpriced but I think the average quality is a little higher.

  64. Is there something to the idea that there are times when counter protestors shouldn't show up? Insofar as the other side is looking for libs to own?

    I ask because especially in DC there are rallies constantly for all sorts of reasons so does it actually make sense to go? These last two 'million maga march' rallies don't seem worth meeting them in the streets over.

    The next MAGA rally after Charlottesville was in my city, Boston. We showed up in protest, to the tune of tens of thousands. Almost every major Alt-Right figure dropped out. Once they cancelled, almost all the attendees followed suit. In the end, only fifty Alt-Righters came, they held the demonstration several hours earlier than originally scheduled in the hopes of dodging the counter-protest, and they hecked off after about an hour. One or two waded into the crowd to try and start shit, and they were flocked with trained de-escalators to prevent violence. (The de-escalation crew, in the end, had to contend with the police AND the fash, but I repeat myself.) Not a single punch was thrown because the MAGA-heads knew they'd get their asses handed to them.

    Counter-protests have functionally ended Milo Yiannopoulos' career because he can't do speaking engagements without massive amounts of security, and that made booking him too expensive. It's made Richard Spencer stop giving talks, according to him because the protestors sucked the fun out of it, but probably also because of the cost of security and how often he's been punched in the head.

    The solution is never staying home; the solution is protesting IN GREATER NUMBERS.

  65. If you could decide how future history books used in elementary schools summarize 2020, what would you have them say?

    it would definitely open with "lot to unpack here"

  66. In honor of Contrapoints winning her first streamy (we have no choice but to stan), I'd like to start calling breadtubers "gorges" from now on Is it ok if I call you gorge, gorge? Or would you prefer Dan?

    you may call me sir

  67. Are you a tankie?

    fuck tankies

  68. I feel a sudden inexplicable need to ask you for thoughts on baby driver

    in response to What's something you have considered?

    helluva a scene, right?!

  69. 20 dollar breakfast or 20 dollar dinner?

    breakfast

  70. If nothing else, it'd be salient to dig into the history of gun control initiatives in the US and how it's tied to white supremacy (example: open carry was abolished in California primarily because of the Black Panther copwatches)

    in response to Have you found any leftist arguments for gun ownership convincing at all? In particular, doesn't it make sense for black and brown people and communities to arm themselves? Or for protesters to legally carry? Is there a model of community defense a la the Black Panthers that you might be in favor for?

    I'd be down with a law that says white people can't own guns

  71. Have you found any leftist arguments for gun ownership convincing at all? In particular, doesn't it make sense for black and brown people and communities to arm themselves? Or for protesters to legally carry? Is there a model of community defense a la the Black Panthers that you might be in favor for?

    in response to What do you think of essentially making private ownership illegal, but having high-security public gun ranges with almost every weapon you can think of, so that people like myself, who think that guns look and sound cool but still know and want extreme gun control, can still have our weird little fun, and as a sort of compromise between gun haters and gun control

    Potentially! It's something I wanna dig into. I've got a lot of articles and a few books that dig into the power and liimits of strategic nonviolence and the history of guns in the Civil Rights movement. But, at least in our current world, I haven't seen much effort to do that kind of community policing, in no small part because the government militarized the police, and you can't protect your community if you're bringing a gun to a tank fight. Meanwhile, rather a lot of Black and brown comrades are getting murdered by white people with guns, and it's pretty clear it is always be easier for white people to get guns as long as white supremacy exists, so it's hard to see the argument for keeping them around. But, as I said, there's a lot I'd want to dig into before making a more concrete declaration than "I, personally, do not like guns and think we'd be safer without them."

    Just because most of the arguments I've heard are bad doesn't mean there aren't better arguments out there, and it's not like I expect the most nuanced stuff to come to me through Twitter.

  72. Lol, sorry I'm not actually space commune! I just thought the vid had better faith arguments against "breadtube" and thought you'd be interested

    it's just the second time someone has asked me to comment on this hourlong video that hasn't been seen by that many people

  73. Thoughts on the co-founder of the Lincoln Project trying to reach out to AOC to form some kind of coalition to protect democracy?

    lol get fucked lincoln project

  74. Coward, try hectohexecontadihedron

    in response to What's the best cookie shape?

    if you're not making hypercubic christmas cookies you need to GET ON MY LEVEL

Anon commented:
Ian replied: