CuriousCat Archive Page 118 of 202

  2. "Racism is a white people problem! Don't burden POC when you should be doing the work!"

    "White people shouldn't talk about racism! You should be listening to POC!"

    Isn't this a bit contradictory?

    in response to As someone who has followed the backlash to the White Fragility book, I feel like there's some conflating of different arguments going on in this first ask Sure you do have dirtbag left types who are going to misuse "well it's liberal therefore it's all bad" to avoid doing anti-racist work at all But there's also been a legit critique that maybe a corporate training manual written by a white person shouldn't be the first on every list of "book for white allies to read about racism" ahead of work by actual black people? And ones that interrogate racism on a deeper level, too, but the fact that a white author is being treated as an expert is really the most troubling part

  3. Considering the past troubles with youtube, are you going to be crossposting on vimeo more? I'd be more than happy to point people to that channel; Is crossposting/migration to vimeo viable?

    Vimeo is not a viable platform. I use it to host professional work and mirrors of things YouTube takes down, but it's never going to get even a 100th the audience I get on YouTube so it's not worth the effort of crossposting everything there.

  5. Speaking of, due to the lack of cross play, my PS4-lovin ass is unable to truly appreciate the apparent Multiplayer renaissance occurring on PC.

    in response to Favorite games with mech fighting?

    Please, I only played the campaign.

  6. Huell or Skinny Pete?

    Huell, but Pete's still up there

  7. Honest question not trying to start shit: would you have a non-aggressive conversation with Vaush? I feel like the two of you would get along, given that both of you seem to share many of the same criticisms of the left (and ofc the same dislike of the right)

    in response to Would you debate Vaush?

    please stop asking questions about Vaush

  8. Favorite games with mech fighting?

    I think the only one I've played is Titanfall 2 but that game is good! (Though the mech parts are the weakest.)

  9. What crimes would you didn’t have to could you?

    are you having a stroke?

  10. As someone who has followed the backlash to the White Fragility book, I feel like there's some conflating of different arguments going on in this first ask
    Sure you do have dirtbag left types who are going to misuse "well it's liberal therefore it's all bad" to avoid doing anti-racist work at all
    But there's also been a legit critique that maybe a corporate training manual written by a white person shouldn't be the first on every list of "book for white allies to read about racism" ahead of work by actual black people? And ones that interrogate racism on a deeper level, too, but the fact that a white author is being treated as an expert is really the most troubling part

    in response to Have you read the White Fragility book by Robin Diangelo and do you have any thoughts on it? I found the book and the concept of "white fragility" pretty useful, but I see some online leftists (most of them are white, as far as i'm concerned) people dismissing it as a "feel good book for liberals who think corporate training solve everything", a sentiment that I don't fully believe.

    valid

  11. how bigs the ween

    I think it's still just those two guys

  12. Thoughts on the Irishman?

    enh

  13. If power is abolished how do you defeat Nazis?

    you don't abolish it, you distribute it

    then you defeat Nazis by working together

    this isn't actually a hard concept

  14. Is there a kink you're willing to shame, as a treat

    raceplay

  16. Would you rather be itchy or sticky for the rest of your life?

    maybe if I'm sticky enough no one will ever leave me

  17. how can *power* be equally shared? I mean the word alone is connotative of one's strength at the expense of another

    in response to What's the most power you feel you could be individually trusted to wield?

    no it isn't. you're thinking only of power OVER and not power TO. the landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars was one of the greatest feats of technical and logistic power in human history, and for everyone's benefit and at no one's expense.

  18. That Ghandi Trap thing sounds effed up - they seriously didn't have the slightest, insincere gesture at a justification?

    in response to Can you repeal the age-restriction on YouTube? I saw Contrapoints do it to a few of her videos (most recent one is Shame), so it might work in your case.

    It shows police violence, so the argument was that it's too severe. I countered that people under 18 are being beaten and arrested by police so they should be able to see footage of same. They didn't care.

  19. I'm curious how often you see someone use one of your alt right playbook videos to make an argument you don't agree with ? (I saw someone use your 'i hate mondays' video to argue for incrementalism)

    Yeah, people tried to use my arguments to cancel Contrapoints and recently I saw someone try to make this bioessentialist argument about how conservatives are just cognitively different from the rest of us using Always a Bigger Fish.

    It's depressing.

  20. Are you on Nebula? You don't really do sponsored content in your stuff like your familiars

    in response to Can you repeal the age-restriction on YouTube? I saw Contrapoints do it to a few of her videos (most recent one is Shame), so it might work in your case.

    I've been offered a sponsorship a small handful of times but it's always with these crappy stipulations, like the video has to hit a certain number of views or they cut my pay in half, and it can't be about controversial subjects, and the plug has to be in the middle of the video, etc. etc. And it's not even that much money.

  21. What's something you always wanted that's felt missing from your favorite game genre

    I want someone to make an adventure game with good game feel

  22. Has there been an up tick of a certain C word in your menchies

    cyborg?

  23. Can you repeal the age-restriction on YouTube? I saw Contrapoints do it to a few of her videos (most recent one is Shame), so it might work in your case.

    I contested it on the Gandhi Trap video, and YouTube immediately wrote back to say "okay this doesn't violate our guidelines but we're restricting it anyway." Given the new one says it talks about porn in the first seconds, I don't think I'll have better luck.

  24. Thoughts on Training Day?

    enh

  25. Can't your "Gandhi trap" argument be utilized to justify other more morally reprehensible protest groups? If the people who wanted to break quarantine or a KKK riot started burning buildings or turning cop cars, would you be ok with it?
    I'm asking this in earnest btw, i agree with you but if someone asked me what i'm asking you now i'd only be able to respond "if the protest is morally justifiable" and i hope you see why that's a bad answer.

    I disagree that that's a bad answer.

  26. Watching the two of you dunking on Liberals would certainly be great fun

    in response to Would you debate Vaush?

    sport fishing liberals isn't really my thing. misanthropy - even justified misanthropy - isn't praxis.

  28. What's the most power you feel you could be individually trusted to wield?

    I think I'd be *fairly* trustworthy with a lot of power (though so does every untrustworthy person) but the level power I couldn't be trusted with is way, way more than I seek.

    I'm a Leftist. I want to *share* power, not accumulate it.

  29. Do you have any plans for the channel? After the alt-right playbook is finished (if it could ever finish, that is).

    Alt-Right Playbook has a planned endpoint and I was hoping to wrap it this year before The Plague hit and scuppered all my plans.

    I have at least one series of fairly involved videos I would want to tackle once ARP is done, but it's true that, beyond that handful of videos, I kinda don't know what the channel is up to afterwards! TARPB has been the focus for so long, I haven't thought up many other topics. Granted, CO-VIDs was all about giving myself room to explore bits and pieces I haven't found places for and the number of ideas instantly exploded, so I'll probably be fine.

    But it does make me think about when I'll want to do something other than YouTube...

  30. Have you truly, nonperformatively, debated someone on many occasions, or, only a few times at the most?

    yeahhh, I did it a lot for a while, back when I thought it was a good idea. it wasn't fun.

  31. Aside, not necessarily about you but: I think bi people are the only marginalized group I know of that I've seen non-members look at and go "shit, why can't I be one of them?"

    in response to I was talking to my friend about different LGBTQ creators we really like and I talked a bit about you but I don't know if you actually identify as part of the community! Are you bi or am I just remembering that wrong? (If this is too personal I understand, don't feel at all obliged to disclose this if you don't want to!)

    the trade-off is their fellow queers regularly go "you're not one of us"

  32. Any advice for people with insecurities over not finishing college in the time they were "supposed to"/thought they would?

    I took 15 years to finish college and I'm apparently important enough to you that you're paying attention to me

  34. Why is incrementalism as popular as it is?

    incrementalism says change is possible, but a) only when those in power are comfortable with it, and b) only when the party in favor of incrementalism stays in power for long, long stretches of time

    it's kind of an ideal political strategy for liberals; change is always promised and it's always the other side's fault that it never arrives

  35. What is the most uncapitalist thing you have ever witnessed?

    like 3/4 of the internet is collaborative work done for no profit

  36. Best class you ever took?

    in response to is forgoing college a viable option? for a while ive told myself like, "ahh you dont NEED to go to college but i probably will" and then its just slipped further in both directions where im like, im not gonna go to college but i need to, and i dont know anymore. of course its a loaded question and like im not basing this "decision" solely on youtube boys but i am curious as to your thoughts, considering you are "well-educated" or whatever and do lots of research on your own, in the sense of not being within academia. ive become very cynical towards the us education system idk

    Ooh, tough question! I mean, my weirdo department at MassArt had this class you were supposed to take every semester called Major Studio, and it was just 5 hours, once a week, of people presenting and critiquing work. It was very communal and you saw A LOT of different kinds of art and heard so many different perspectives - painters thoughts on photography, performance artists' thoughts on music, filmmakers' thoughts on sculpture - that I don't think anything's gonna beat that. But also my two semester of Production and California College of the Arts was the single most artistically formative class I took. And I love how much nuts-and-bolts stuff I learned in my Editing and Cinematography classes at City College of San Francisco. Oh, and I took a great Poetry class as CCA, and my Film and Ideology class seriously shaped my ability to analyze media. Oh, and I felt like I first found my creative voice in a 3D Visual Dynamics class, of all things. And, back and MassArt, right before I graduated, I took a class on The Female Gaze in Film, which laid the foundation for both my Handmaiden and Fury Road videos.

    ...I kinda dig college. :D

  37. Are there any elections where you didn't vote?

    I don't think I started voting in Midterms until my mid-20's, but I've never sat out a Presidential election.

  38. Looking for more people to promote that are running for office? Consider Jess Scarane in Delaware, running for Senate! I wish that more people understood how fundamentally critical it is for Dems to win the senate this year, because even if Joe loses, then there's a shot for a second impeachment. What do you think?

    successfully impeaching Trump requires a 2/3 majority vote in the Senate, which means, no matter what, we'd have to get A LOT of Republicans to sign on. a few more Dems in Congress would help, but there are way bigger things that would have to change to pull it off. Trump would have to become POISON to the degree that Republicans are TERRIFIED of defending him.

  39. is forgoing college a viable option? for a while ive told myself like, "ahh you dont NEED to go to college but i probably will" and then its just slipped further in both directions where im like, im not gonna go to college but i need to, and i dont know anymore. of course its a loaded question and like im not basing this "decision" solely on youtube boys but i am curious as to your thoughts, considering you are "well-educated" or whatever and do lots of research on your own, in the sense of not being within academia. ive become very cynical towards the us education system idk

    I mean... I dropped out of college during the recession and spent 5 years in the work force with no degree during an economic crisis. I didn't finish my degree until my thirties. It's a bit hard to gauge whether the degree itself has helped me because, by the time I graduated, I had my channel already going, and it's not like I need a resume for YouTube. But I can vouch that being in the work force with no degree made it EXTREMELY hard to get decent pay.

    The way the math works right now, comparing the average cost of tuition to the average difference in pay between people with and without degrees, college *is* still a worthwhile investment, though, as tuition soars and wages stagnate, the margins get worse every year. But going to college in my thirties was kind of great? Because I had a really solid idea of what I wanted to study, way more than I did in my twenties, and so took classes that were incredibly specific to my interests. I can vouch that the education I got in school made my channel possible, and I probably wouldn't be a YouTuber if I hadn't spent so damn long in art school.

  40. Would you ever participate in a public debate about social issues/politics/economics?

    I would have a debate with someone also on the Left about what to *do* about issues/politics/economics. Debates with your opposition are performative and rarely productive.

  41. Just noticed that "Lady Eboshi is Wrong" has been copyright struck on youtube. Any chance of this being undone or is it forever confined to google-jail?

    It's not just struck, YouTube legit *deleted* it. So I can't get it unblocked, I'd have to reupload with all the footage from the movie removed, which... seems kinda hard.

    You can still watch it on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/357117766

  42. Is it okay to say: "Polyamory is valid, but it's not for everyone."?

    if you can say the same about monogamy, absolutely!

  43. so on the scale of "if you tag me into the replies at least don't embarrass me" and "George Bailey returns home to discover that the town has come through for him" how do you feel about the top comment on "the Louisville shuffle" official vid being people who came there from your latest video because the credits slapped? apologies if the question comes in late, I know you have a backlog

    hehe, check the comments on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfT0QuHyeNk

  44. Can we take a moment to acknowledge that "Capitalism" and "exchanging goods/services for mutual benefit" are very different things?

    in response to People never blame capitalism, because even though states have failed horribly over the years, they capitalism remains the only possible means of achieving prosperity. The entire developed world, some latin America and asian countries. So the big examples of sucess of socialism are dictatorships like Cuba and China? Socialists always ignores this simple historical fact, and the way they always get excited for the next revolution in Venezuela, or Nicaragua, while the results of those are poverty, and death on imense scale.

    yup

  45. I was talking to my friend about different LGBTQ creators we really like and I talked a bit about you but I don't know if you actually identify as part of the community! Are you bi or am I just remembering that wrong? (If this is too personal I understand, don't feel at all obliged to disclose this if you don't want to!)

    As it happens, I am tragically straight. Straight culture is kinda like male culture in that I don't really understand it and it doesn't seem very accepting of me, so few of my friends are straight, and even fewer are cis men. I tend to be the only cishet white dude in my various circles.

    But, yeah, straight. I'm as confused by this as you are.

  46. Any thoughts on Parks and Rec? Never seen it, but I remembered seeing gifs and memes of Ron Swanson and thinking: "this is the guy white nerds worshiped while ignoring the point of the show completely."

    I mean, I adore Parks & Rec, while acknowledging it's basically liberal propaganda.

  47. Is Christopher Nolan capable of directing a music video?

    Nolan's tendency towards overplotting might actually be remedied by having to work purely in visuals. Unfortunately, he's not much of a stylist.

  48. Thank you for talking about Polyamory during your most recent video. I don't see a lot of positive/non-fetishy Real Person examples of it (anywhere, but especially on youtube dot gov), and it was genuinely kinda validating to see someone I respect discuss polyamory as a long-term lived experience as opposed to a hypothetical Thing That Others May Do.

    So uh, yeah. Thanks.

    Oh shit, I should probably ask a question. Uh, how do you feel about French Toast?

    Thanks!

    As a vegan, I don't often get to have French toast, but Veggie Galaxy in Cambridge has a vegan French toast stuffed with non-dairy cream cheese and it's AMAZING.

  50. So, in the debate about whether Dark Knight Returns is satirically or genuinely fashy, you'd tend toward the latter end of the scale?

    in response to You like to talk about noir, then what are your thoughts on Frank Miller's Sin City series and Robert Rodriguez's film adaptations?

    It's definitely not satirically anything. I'd hesitate to argue it's fashy on purpose, I think it's more just a nonsensical mix of contradicting ideas of which fashiness is among the most consistent.

  51. What's a standout, great movie by a director you'd otherwise consider kinda mediocre?

    Apollo 13

  52. You like to talk about noir, then what are your thoughts on Frank Miller's Sin City series and Robert Rodriguez's film adaptations?

    haven't read the comics, don't really like the films, Rodriguez is kind of a hack these days and Miller is a bit fashy

  53. I want to read a book in the vein of A Song of Ice of Fire: a sci-fi/fantasy with a large cast, extensive world building, and memorable characters. Any recommendations?

    Broken Earth trilogy. It's nowhere near as huge a cast as ASOIAF, but it certainly builds a world and its characters are damn memorable. It's also just... fucking phenomenal.

  54. You tweeted some of your playthroughs of Bioshock - did you ever finish? I would love to hear your thoughts about the overall arc of the game and its successes and failures at critiquing Randian Libertarianism.

    I've been pulling long editing days recently and haven't touched it since Wednesday. I'll probably finish it off this week once I get the video online.

  55. Is there a bit of trivia that's so fascinating you always want to tell other people?

    I mean, I hold back rather often from ranting about how we landed the Curiosity Rover.

    IT'S SO COOL

  56. Do corporations have a fiduciary obligation to get rid of any laws that cause them to make less money?

    In a sense, yes. "Obligation" implies that they are forced to, which is not exactly the case. It's more that they are incentivized to, and those that don't will be out-competed by those that do, such that there will, over time, be no one left in the market who doesn't.

  57. okay then, best and worst Guy Ritchie movies?

    in response to Thoughts on Guy Ritchie?

    God, it's been ages since I watched it, but it's probably Lock Stock? I remember preferring it to Snatch. But, of the things I can properly remember, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was shockingly enjoyable.

    I haven't seen Revolver or Swept Away, but I've seen the Brows Held High on the former and the Todd in the Shadows on the latter, and they both sound atrocious. To keep it to ones I've seen, I guess Sherlock Holmes? Very forgettable, very pleased with itself, extremely cheap looking, involves basically no deduction until the finale. Some decent banter and lead actor chemistry, at least.

  58. Thoughts on Spike Jonze

    He's pretty good. Quality of his movies depends on his scripts, and it feels like he's been trending in a less inventive, more sentimental direction. Not necessarily a bad thing, but less to my tastes.

  59. Most pretentious film director whose entire catalogue you like

    Shane Carruth, but that's easy cuz he's only made two movies.

  60. Are petitions effective?

    I hear they work on college campuses.

  61. Do you think much neo-noir was made with the intention of subverting classic's problems? Maybe it's just a failure of memory on my part but most neo-noir seems like an attempt to recapture an aesthetic/narrative style while at best omitting or superficially addressing the more dated aspects.

    in response to Neo or classic?

    I mean, hooo, I could go ON about this, but neo-noir - especially the first wave of neo-noir in the 70's - is often in conversation with classic noir, using the added freedom of post-Code cinema to explore, complicate, and comment on the themes of noir. So it's fertile ground for addressing some of the flaws in classic noir, and many neo-noirs do address the things I want addressed: Bound queering the noir and telling it from the perspective of the femmes fatale, Klute fleshing out the Hooker with a Heart of Gold trope, Night Moves deconstructing the psyche of the hard-boiled detective as a man obsessed with finding answers as if they'll add meaning to a chaotic existence.

    So it's a bummer when so many are picking apart the genre from some directions while letting a lot of misogyny and minority stereotyping persist in others.

  62. If polyamory is a blanket term, is there a more specific term which only refers to people who are looking for multiple, concurrent serious relationships?

    the blanket term is nonmonogamy; polyamory is more specifically the thing you're talking about, as opposed to, like, swinging or consensual sidepieces

  63. Any date for the next CO-VID

    I'm aiming for Monday but we'll see if I make it

  64. Best non-Nintendo N64 game?

    let's say Blast Corps

  65. Thoughts on Guy Ritchie?

    Ritchie is not a director who provokes "thoughts"

  66. How do you talk to teenagers about radicalization techniques of the alt-right, specifically their recruitment tactics that target teenage boys, their infiltration in gaming culture and using tools like Discord? Most things I find online are geared toward residents in Europe and/or Muslim radicalization and that’s not the conversation I’m trying to have. Would it be possible to have this convo over DM/Signal/etc?

    are these teenagers you know/work with, or just, like... teenagers broadly?

  67. Considering the people making the accusations are democratic socialist members who worked on his campaign, it seems unlikely to be false accusations trying to undermine the left.

    in response to Do you have any thoughts about the case going on with Shahid Buttar, and do you think we should ever be wary of the possibility that political opposition to the left may be exploiting the fact that we generally believe accusers so as to create confusion and stymie leftists trying to gain political power?

    [s] shocker [/s]

  69. What does being a man mean to you? (If you consider yourself a man)

    part of the privilege of being an unmarginalized gender is I don't really have to think about it much

    there's not a lot about traditional masculinity I like, nor does traditional masculinity seem to have much place for me, but I've never felt like that makes me "not a man," you know? I think masculinity is broad enough to encompass me, even if other men disagree.

    so, I dunno. I'm just me, and happen to be a man.

  71. https://www.patreon.com/posts/vision-of-they-32361380

    What do you think of Berlatsky’s take that They Live is antisemitic?

    "unwittingly recycle antisemitic tropes" would be a more accurate description of Noah's piece, and I'd say he makes a fair point

  75. You Oughta Know v.s. Criminal who wins song v song

    Criminal, it's not even a contest

Anon commented:
Ian replied: