CuriousCat Archive Page 145 of 202

  1. Are you tired of people asking you questions about Elizabeth Warren?

    I'm tired of people yelling at me about my answers.

  2. How the fuck do we ever get back from a point where "Should we prevent bald-faced (often bigoted) lies from being spread?" is an actual fucking question people ask?

    Even if we legislate and FORCE it, I feel like this broken mindset - that truth and facts are essentially meaningless or immaterial - will takes generations to fix.

    in response to Should Facebook restrict "untruthful" ads from politicians?

    what a time to be alive

  3. Do you know any good books that analyze the noir genre, talking about conventions and themes?

    Unfortunately no. Much of what I learned about noir came from a class I took in college. We got a lot of very interesting readings photocopied from various books, but I don't remember any of the titles and have no idea where the readings are anymore. Paul Schrader's essay "Notes on Film Noir" is one of the most-cited texts on noir, though a lot of people will cite it to disagree with it. And the Wikipedia page for noir actually has a really extensive Further Reading list ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_noir#Further_reading ).

    Sorry I can't be more helpful! Might be worth taking a noir class at your local community college to get a proper overview. Should be cheap and enjoyable.

  4. are you a nintendo aficionado or just happened to own mostly nintendo systems?

    in response to Your favorite controller for games

    I'm not an aficionado of any console. I was a Sega kid growing up, but post-Dreamcast every console I owned was at least two generations out of date. I got a GameCube during the WiiU gen, got a PS2 during the PS4 gen, etc. The Switch is the first current-gen console I've owned since I was a teenager, and it was a gift.

    Consoles are expensive.

  5. Should Facebook restrict "untruthful" ads from politicians?

    absolutely

  6. What's the newest album you've listened to? Give it a review!

    I haven't listened to much recently-released so I'll talk about an album from 12 years ago I recently got into.

    PORTISHEAD - THIRD
    It is perhaps sacrilegious to feel the best album by the standard bearers of trip-hop is the one that isn't trip-hop.

    Trip-hop is a genre defined more by sound than songwriting. A simple formula: write what could be a 1950's film noir soundtrack, slow it down ~20%, put hip-hop beats underneath, and have a breathy female vocalist sing overtop. This is the ethos behind everything from Sneaker Pimps' Becoming X to Lana del Rey's Born to Die. Portishead's 1994 album Dummy remains perhaps the best distillation of this sound, and the sound on the album is impeccable, but - and, again, this is sacrilege - only about half the songs are well-written. Beth Gibbons' voice is a perfect compliment to the soundscapes but her melodies tend to span a narrow range; Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley find perfect pairings of tones and beats, but, even on album-best Roads, don't do much with it but play it several times through, adding first wah guitar and then strings.

    Their self-titled album three years later solidified the sound further, textured for a smoky bar in a bombed out wartime bistro waiting for The Big One to drop, but can you remember how any of the songs on it went? I remember the sound, the feeling, but not the notes.

    Third, in stark contrast, throws nearly all curveballs. I'd argue the band has never had a sequence of songs as perfect as Deep Water -> Machine Gun -> Small -> Magic Doors. Deep Water is a tiny, incongruously optimistic ukulele number that sounds like a doo-wop commercial jingle played at the wrong RPM; Machine Gun experiments with how long aggressive drum samples and Beth Gibbons' despairing voice can carry a song before the Vangelis synths come in (quite a while, as it happens); Small has three distinct moods - relaxed, discordant, confrontational - and shuffles between them recklessly; and Magic Doors feels a pack of noises barely held together and yet, somehow, just right, until the chorus - the piano - comes in and reminds you what "just right" sounds like.

    This isn't even to mention the acoustic guitar-driven The Rip, or the canted rhythms and jagged ending of Silence.

    The stated aim of the album was to sound like Portishead without sounding like trip-hop. That goal is met easily. What is more compelling is that it redefines what Portishead is. For literal decades they have been a band about sounds; but, with this, they became a band about songs.

  7. Opinions on Kojima at all?

    in response to Have you played Death Stranding?

    I've only played Snatcher, which was sort of neat I guess.

  8. Your favorite controller for games

    gamecube

  9. Do you have any inclinations for who Sanders and Warren should pick for VP

    I've said elsewhere it should be a person of color, but beyond that I have no predictions

  10. How likely will the race wind up being between Sanders and Warren

    unless Biden's numbers take a dive or he blows one of the major caucuses, I don't see him being out of the race til the end

  11. Hey Ian, just got back on twitter and saw your thread about Bernie supporters being insufferable and people reacted badly to that.

    What happened? May I kindly ask why you muted that thread?

    Reading that thread, people said they did not expect that from you. Was that a bad day?

    pointing out that Sanders has a weak platform on LGBT rights and hearing a dozen arguments for why economic reform is more important is the kind of anti-intersectional dreck for which I have declining patience

  12. Do you think we can take back the Senate? The more I look into it the more unlikely it seems. And not taking the Senate would hinder almost all big proposals if we win the presidency.

    I don't predict the future.

  13. Do you think the US should adopt a multi-party system of some sort?

    technically the US has a multi-party system, but first-past-the-post elections inevitably trend towards two parties. so we don't need a new party system, we need a new election system, i.e. runoffs or single-transferable votes.

  14. I don't know any specific examples, but I mean more like, do you think it's a good idea to pair the attention a YouTuber can bring you with selling nudes/other sex work. Like, is that something you think poses significant risks, or do you think it's fine as long as you separate them sufficiently?

    in response to What do you think of YouTubers who do nudes on the side?

    That's not something I need to pass a judgment on. Anyone old enough to post nudes can decide for themselves what kind of attention they are comfortable receiving. I can't think of any argument for saying YouTubers shouldn't share nudes that isn't slut-shaming.

  15. If a poll is claiming to have surveyed 'black people' but has only survyed African Americans isnt it misrepresenting the results?

    I mean, depends on context I guess. Like, if it's a poll of which way people are leaning in the US election, the -American is implied. But if it's talking about how Black people worldwide feel about South Africa, yeah, that would be biased.

    Not sure why my white opinion is valuable on this, though.

  16. That store have better called itself Video Beer, because that would have been an awesome name for a store.

    in response to What did you do for work before youtube?

    naw, it was just [Town Name] Beverage & Video

  17. woah you're polyam? Polyam gang!!

    yeah, it's not exactly a secret, and I've mentioned it here and there, but I don't talk about it much

  18. What do you think of YouTubers who do nudes on the side?

    like who?

    (I'm assuming by "do nudes" you mean people with, like, OnlyFans pages, not people who DM dick pics to their fans)

  19. Did you like Fez?

    ya

  20. Have you played Death Stranding?

    nay

  21. What did you do for work before youtube?

    this 'n' that

    when I released my first video essay, I was working part time at MIT, working with this database trying to map all the neurons in the human retina. it was a program that had a public-facing, gamified version so we could crowdsource from people on the internet, though those of us in the lab had a more advanced version. but that's why non-scientists like me could use it. I was juggling that with school and a little freelancing.

    before that I was doing direct care attending to an sixty-something autistic man in exchange for a room in his house, and also freelancing.

    freelancing during this time was mostly podcast editing and some animation work. most of it paid pretty crap. I also worked as a part-time assistant to a friend of mine who ran a flash magazine.

    before that I was in after school education, first for the Providence Children's Museum as part of AmeriCorps, then for the Boys & Girls Club, and then as a tutor, all with kids of low-income families.

    before that was a few months of data-entry through a temp agency.

    going any earlier and it's just a bunch of low-wage service jobs: a gelateria in Berkeley, selling bread at farmer's markets, working in a video store that was also a liquor store

    I've had an odd career

  22. How did Buttigieg get so popular

    I wouldn't call polling at 4% "popular," but he's the centrism of Biden with a veneer of progressivism that people cling to when they don't wanna pull the trigger on Warren or Sanders

  23. Do you like math

    math roxx

  24. What if you were in a biker gang

    I was invited to launch the Boston chapter of The Degenderettes, actually, but I didn't really have the time to manage a biker girl gang.

  25. Hey did you see the video Sargon of akkad did about you? I have never seen a more openly jealous man in my life! How's it feel? I personally feel very validated as i've been saying you're hot on here for ages so

    I saw that it exists and that Destiny did a nearly hour-long response to it, which is a lot more bearded white guys hypothesizing about my sex life than I was prepared for.

    Carl did a 3 1/2 hour livestream hypothesizing about my sex life back when Why Are You So Angry came out, so that boi has nearly 4 hours of monetized content full of his fantasies about what I do in bed and with whom.

    can't just solicit nudes like a normal person

  27. Which political candidate of the Democrat party do you like more based on policy?

    this is a trap

  28. Do you think it's ethical to engage in online harassment if said harassment is directed at actually bad/harmful people?

    I'm one of these people who thinks most political acts - not all, but most - are morally neutral, and whether they are unethical depends on what ends they are put to. But I am not particularly convinced that harassment accomplishes anything, even if the target is "bad." I don't see that harassment stops their ideas from spreading or changes people's minds about their legitimacy, I don't see that it makes a no-platforming policy stronger, I don't see that isolating a person from their loved ones makes your own community safer. So, no, I think it's just cruelty for cruelty's sake, and I don't think that's justified.

  29. Have you read "Better Angels of our Nature"? Do you agree with Pinker's thesis?

    I haven't read it, but I've yet to agree with anything Steven Pinker says.

  30. What would you name yourself if you were an indie game designer

    I think I would still be named Ian.

  31. What is the best George Orwell quote?

    "The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude."

  32. that's probably a much healthier way of thinking about things than i do tbh

    in response to (inspired by Australian bushfire question) Do you ever find it difficult to strike a balance between choosing topics and examples that you feel you can speak authoratively on, and on covering a wide and diverse range of topics? For example, I'm pretty hestient to talk about international politics without a lot of disclaimers, especially when its about a country with a culture and language that i'm ignorant about. BUT I think it's still important to try to raise awareness of international issues and there isn't always someone with more knowledgeable available

    im a healthy ass mofo

  33. Two questions.

    1, Do you do this research because you're committed to making the highest quality of work you can make, or because you feel some sense of obligation or responsibility to your audience to give the most informed perspective possible?

    2, Many YouTubers don't bother with a lot of research or attempt to do minimal research/make their research as fast as they reasonably can, so as to continue churning out content for the YouTube machine and grow their channels. If the latter to question 1, then do you think these YouTubers are somehow betraying this responsibility to their audiences by not taking the time to give the most accurate possible information and perspectives?

    in response to (inspired by Australian bushfire question) Do you ever find it difficult to strike a balance between choosing topics and examples that you feel you can speak authoratively on, and on covering a wide and diverse range of topics? For example, I'm pretty hestient to talk about international politics without a lot of disclaimers, especially when its about a country with a culture and language that i'm ignorant about. BUT I think it's still important to try to raise awareness of international issues and there isn't always someone with more knowledgeable available

    1. Both.

    2. If you have an audience of any size you have a responsibility not to misinform them.

  34. (inspired by Australian bushfire question)

    Do you ever find it difficult to strike a balance between choosing topics and examples that you feel you can speak authoratively on, and on covering a wide and diverse range of topics?

    For example, I'm pretty hestient to talk about international politics without a lot of disclaimers, especially when its about a country with a culture and language that i'm ignorant about. BUT I think it's still important to try to raise awareness of international issues and there isn't always someone with more knowledgeable available

    I don't really think about my work that way. I speak on a subject when I feel I have something to say, and, when I've picked a subject, I research it until I understand it well enough to speak.

  35. In terms of making your youtube debut, what made you make your first video? Were you planning on doing youtube for a while and just chose Phil Fish as your first subject, or were you just so perplexed by the hatred for the guy and just thought; "This needs to be said."?

    I had a bunch of subjects kicking around my head, yeah. Phil Fish was just the one I felt most enthused about at the moment.

  36. Why don't BreadTubers ever make videos about issues of importance that are taking place outside the US and Canada and sometimes the UK? I understand that's where most of them are based, but I've seen hardly any of leftist YouTube make videos covering the Austrailia bushfires (with the exception of Gutian), which are of huge significance to the entire world, and it's not like researching that story takes more than a few google searches.

    I can't speak for any other YouTubers. We don't, like, have meetings on what to cover. Personally, my videos take a long time and a lot of preplanning, so it's near-impossible to cover breaking news. When disasters happen I try to promote the most effective ways to help on social media.

    I also don't know what of value I can say about the fires. Saying "this is horrible and we need to deal with climate change" is true and lets you know where I stand, but it doesn't add anything to the conversation. It's been said twenty thousand ways since Katrina. It's the same issue with every climate crisis, every mass shooting, every newly-elected fascist: I care, but I don't have anything useful to say.

  37. Where did you get your dry sense of humor from? not trying to be a jerk, i really like it. (^u^)

    My in-person humor is more moist, but whenever I'm silly on mic it either sounds forced or incongruous with the tone of the video, so I stick to dry.

  38. Would you ever consider going to vidcon? Why or why not??

    I went to VidCon 2019.

  39. Based on your personal experience, what are the main symptoms of depression? is it related to boredom? Lack of productivity?

    I don't think I can answer this question, not in enough detail to be useful, without sharing more personal information than I am comfortable with.

  40. Man goes to doctor. Says he's depressed. Says life seems harsh and cruel. Says he feels all alone and lacks confidence in his prospects on leftube.

    Doctor says, "Treatment is simple. Great Youtuber Thought Slime is in town tonight. He'll feature your channel. That should pick you up."

    Man bursts into tears. "But doctor...I am Thought Slime."

    in response to Thought Slime also solicits requests for this, so I'm not sure it's comparable. Source: I am Thought Slime.

  41. Thought Slime also solicits requests for this, so I'm not sure it's comparable.
    Source: I am Thought Slime.

    in response to not sure if you'll be open to posting this Ian but Thought Slime has the Eyeball Corner where he shares leftist YouTube content creators' work. to the original asker, watch to the end of one of his videos and you'll see both how to suggest your video, and other small leftist YouTubers! as someone who was featured on TS' channel, it meant a lot to me, and his Eyeball Corners regularly put me in touch with other small YouTubers to make new friends, rather than soliciting one of the larger ones (and asking for unpaid labour)

    oh shiiiii

  42. not sure if you'll be open to posting this Ian but Thought Slime has the Eyeball Corner where he shares leftist YouTube content creators' work. to the original asker, watch to the end of one of his videos and you'll see both how to suggest your video, and other small leftist YouTubers! as someone who was featured on TS' channel, it meant a lot to me, and his Eyeball Corners regularly put me in touch with other small YouTubers to make new friends, rather than soliciting one of the larger ones (and asking for unpaid labour)

    in response to Is it okay to email you a video essay I made to ask for a plug and/or constructive criticism? I can include a brief summary of the essay in the email, so you can decide at a glance if it interests you to watch the whole thing.

  43. I just really admire you and your work and was seeking some acknowledgement like all the rest of the parasocial suckers

    in response to No, I just wanted to know if you thought of the... y'know what, never mind.

    I don't wanna drive this point too hard, because I get where you're coming from and I'm not upset or anything, but what you were asking for wasn't acknowledgement, it was unpaid labor

  45. If time could be stolen, who would you steal it from?

    you

  46. Is it okay to email you a video essay I made to ask for a plug and/or constructive criticism? I can include a brief summary of the essay in the email, so you can decide at a glance if it interests you to watch the whole thing.

    you mean you want to hire me as a consultant?

  47. Would you consider the word 'hysteria' to be inherently misogynistic? Not only because of its etymology, but I also noticed that it's often used in anti-left rhetoric ('climate hysteria'), but doesn't seem to get applied to other side ('migrant hysteria' doesn't sound right)

    yeah, I mean, that's why I don't use it

  48. Can we please stop talking about ContraPoints? I've muted several (variations of) terms related to her and she still keeps appearing in my timeline.

    I don't know how you expect me to answer this question without talking further about ContraPoints.

  49. I bought Alt America as an e-book. Quick question; does the author cite the studies and points he makes as he goes along? I'm not sure if citations appear in e books.

    no, he has an endnotes section that cites everything by page number. not the best system, honestly, but it should be in the ebook.

  50. What's the alternate ending you're hinting about? That those rich bastards don't explode??

    in response to Since we're talking movies - have you seen Ready or Not, and if so, what'd you think? It's definitely more Snowpiercer than Parasite. But fun!

    well, ok, SPOILERS:

    at the end, it looks, for a minute, like the whole "curse" that drove the family to violence was, in fact, a bunch of hooey, and they'd been murdering people for generations for no reason because they thought it would maintain their wealth. and then the elderly matriarch is like "I don't care if it's superstition, I'm gonna kill her anyway JUST TO BE SAFE." I think that absolutely demonstrates the mentality of the wealthy, that they would be willing to murder people if there was even a slight chance that an old wives' tale was true, and that they'd stick to that narrative even when it's proven unequivocally false because they can't bear to admit they're just ignorant killers and because they actually kinda like killing poor people.

    but then their heads explode because - psych! - the curse was totally real. WAY more cathartic ending watching all these assholes blow up! but the 45ish seconds where it seemed to be going the other way actually made a better point and the theme would've been stronger had they not blown up.

  51. I really liked it, too, but the way the three female servants were treated - by the movie, not the characters - bugged me a bit? Um, spoilers - I hope CC keeps multiple line skips...

    Like, as much as the accidental deaths of the first two demonstrate how awful, insane and/or moronic the family is, the movie is very clearly* treating the deaths themselves as funny. And the last one gets crushed to death - again, with the movie aiming, at least in part, for gory comedy* - after admittedly being given at least one somewhat unsympathetic, but understandable, action first. And it's implied that they're not even involved in the craziness - at least the dumbwaiter-maid explicitly says she has no idea what's going on.

    Like, in a movie about how rich white people are fucking monsters feeding on the death and pain of others, using the staff as disposable comedy death props seems a little off? (except the actively complicit, collaborating butler - fuck that guy)

    *All this assuming that I can objectively claim the movie is intending for the audience to find it funny, and it's not just me who's fucked up. I laughed at the time - just felt weird about it later.

    in response to Since we're talking movies - have you seen Ready or Not, and if so, what'd you think? It's definitely more Snowpiercer than Parasite. But fun!

    the author is dead, so your perception of the author's intentions are all you have to go on, and if the movie failed to accurately communicate said intentions that's the author's fault

    your point is well-taken

  52. Since we're talking movies - have you seen Ready or Not, and if so, what'd you think?

    It's definitely more Snowpiercer than Parasite. But fun!

    I enjoyed it. Though... I thought the ending, while cathartic, slightly undermined its own themes, and the ending it *almost* had actually drove its point home better, but would've been less emotionally satisfying.

  53. How would you integrate Dennis Prager into the MCU?

    Dennis Prager is already in the MCU. Every time you see a building blow up? That was Dennis Prager's house.

  54. whats your reasoning behind making a video an Endnote vs a regular ep of TARP?

    Mainline episodes are all structured the same:

    "say for the sake of argument" -> example that establishes progressive frame -> titles -> explain conservative strategy -> tease out conservative worldview -> reassert progressive worldview and offer suggestions if I have any

    I do Endnotes when I need to break with format. It's hard to fit a history lesson into this format, or add supplemental information to an argument that's already been made. Endnotes are also the place where I'll name names, which I rarely do in proper eps.

  55. hello!
    was curious what you thought of SpiderVerse, and also Lord/Miller more broadly?

    I loved Spider-verse. Lord/Miller are generally fun but nothing I'd fallen in love with til Spider-verse.

    (Also, for the record: Lord co-wrote the screenplay but did not direct. Miller and Lord both co-produced but Miller had no direct creative input. Let's not attribute to them the work of the actual directors!)

  56. Which is worse for you: A bad, annoying movie; or a bad, boring movie?

    bad boring

  57. How do we explain to anyone what neoliberalism is in layman terms? And how it relates to capitalism?

    start here

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlLgvSduugI

  59. Different anon: socialism is an idea that I can get behind for ethical and personal reasons, but the greatest argument against it seems to be its failure in other places. China exists but uh... Its kind of a dystopia run by their own Trump that just secured unlimited power but gets outraged over Winnie the Pooh comparisons. Fascism took its hold there too.

    It seems Finland to me is a better example of a socialist country, but I will admit I don't know the particulars of China or Finland. It might be that my understanding of Finland as a full out socialist country is way off, all I know is that it has and is known for several socialist policies.

    I guess what I'm really asking is why socialism fails and under what conditions it can succeed.

    Also, I just want to say I'm asking these questions in good faith. Idk if that counts for much, but I see your getting some hostile responses here, so I'm hoping getting a more intellectually honest queries makes you feel better about having to deal with all the trolls. There is a legit discussion to be had here.

    in response to How can you say capitalism doesn't work when it's been going strong for 200 years+ and socialism has failed in every case it was tried. From the Soviet Union collapsing in 70 years to North Korea devolving into a nightmarish dystopia to China being forced to adopt capitalism to get itself running again. Socialism always fails!

    Do keep in mind that a lot of socialist countries "failed" because capitalist countries - often the US - overthrew them. It is very hard to see how effective socialism is when the wealthiest nations on Earth fund counter-revolutionaries or just invade every single socialist nation that doesn't have an enormous army. It's little wonder only the most militaristic ones survive.

  60. How can you say capitalism doesn't work when it's been going strong for 200 years+ and socialism has failed in every case it was tried. From the Soviet Union collapsing in 70 years to North Korea devolving into a nightmarish dystopia to China being forced to adopt capitalism to get itself running again. Socialism always fails!

    in response to Does the left need the right for balance? or should it be abandoned? Like is there aspects/ideas held by right-wingers/conservatives that are good that the left does not have?

    We are edging closer and closer to going extinct from climate catastrophe despite having all the knowledge and technology required to prevent it because the wealthy have financial investment in the industries destroying the environment.

    Capitalism failed long ago.

    EDIT: I'm also getting tired of jabronies saying "socialism always fails" while China exists

  61. If liberal/progressive economic and social policies do so well, why do we see companies like Toyota NA from California and Liberty Mutual from Massachusetts in a mass exodus to Texas?

    because corporations don't care what's good for society, they care about profit

  62. Different anon but I saw someone joke the other day that they were a centrist: Anarchism AND Communism have good points, and i wondered if that is ironically a better form of political balance? Both acknowledging that peoples freedoms and individual will are paramount but with strongly differing views on how best to get that and what it means for the democratic process. This is assuming that tankies (in the original British sense) can get in the bin as well.

    in response to Does the left need the right for balance? or should it be abandoned? Like is there aspects/ideas held by right-wingers/conservatives that are good that the left does not have?

    In general, there's enough plurality of ideas on the Left pushing and pulling against each other that there will be balance points without the Right.

  63. Does the left need the right for balance? or should it be abandoned? Like is there aspects/ideas held by right-wingers/conservatives that are good that the left does not have?

    no, get it out of your head that the Right is some kind of valid political theory needed to keep the Left in check; as I have argued pretty thoroughly at this point, conservatism is fundamentally hegemonic and anti-democratic, it persists because powerful people don't want their power distributed, most of its rhetoric is rationalization, its political systems are draconian, its economic policies don't work except to make the wealthy wealthier, and it is the foothold that fascists always find when looking to take over and start a genocide

    toss the whole goddamn thing in the bin

  64. Is the femme fatale considered a feminist icon, and if so, why? I don’t see much feminism in using a man as a tool, and abusing their love and devotion for personal gain at their expense. In fact, I see the latter as a particularly heinous act anyone of any gender can commit.
    I am however, a huge fan of Ed Brubaker’s Fatale, mostly because the allure was supernatural, the titular fatale is an unwitting one who feels great remorse for ruining the lives of those around her; and I just like Eldritch fiction.

    Like a lot of mid-century characters, the femme fatale is a mix. Images of women with that much independence and power were novel at the time, and feminist scholars took note. The fact that that independence was of interest to male screenwriters largely because it was threatening to them, and it was framed as conniving and dangerous, and the femme fatale was almost universally in jail or dead at the end of the movie, was also noted by feminists. It's similar to how early queer representation almost always showed gay men as tragic and pitiable, but also showed them as fun and caring and sympathetic. There were problems, and there was value.

    It's always more interesting to deal with that complexity that try to chuck things into the This Is Good bucket vs. the This Is Bad bucket.

  65. If people are curious about what socialised art looks like, the history of the bbc is a good shout. Obviously it's partially (and increasingly) commercial, but throughout its history their are countless examples of large scale productions that are great and not for profit.

    The people are paid regardless of the popularity of the end result. There are no investors taking a chunk of the top.

    It also allows for things to get funded not entirely on the basis of how many people will watch it. The idea that something is worthwhile as art for its own sake (or as education etc) can inform what gets to get made more so than it does under a purely profit-driven system.

    Not-for-profit art also means no hoarding of intellectual properties a la disney, and no product placement. The benefits are significant, and we can see a glimpse of them within publically own media.

    There are plenty of soviet examples of socialised creative industry too, but I think the beeb is a good starting point to show how "socialised art" =/= "propaganda about the glory of the republic".

    tl;dr: Competition is not a necessary condition for creativity.

    in response to So what would the film industry look like if it were worker owned? Would there just be several smaller production houses? How are the movies getting distributed?

  66. I'm not the same anon as this person, but I sent you a follow-up question earlier asking why/how Parasite is neoliberal, just out of curiosity (I haven't actually seen the movie). Did you not see that question?

    in response to Yeah, how neoliberal can you get by...[checks notes] depicting rich people as human beings.

    I did, but wanted to give this chucklefuck a chance to treat me like a human being first.

  67. Yeah, how neoliberal can you get by...[checks notes] depicting rich people as human beings.

    I'm not gonna play the game where you put words in my mouth and then make me correct you. If you want to know what I meant when I called Parasite neoliberal, you can ask me.

  68. That's not really an answer. You can make up weird reasons for a thing to be political. That doesn't mean it's valid. You just repeat the mantra and never explain how it's political.

    in response to Hi different anon here. Your answer seems to really depend on the artists intention. What if you saw a painting of a mountain hanging somewhere and you no idea who painted it or what their intentions were. That piece of art would not be political in any way to me. Wich is my problem with the "all art is political" statement. It all just depends on the beholder. If I decide it's not political then it's not political.

    I explained how Kieslowski is political

  69. Are you surprised and relieved that Elon Musk's favorite film this year is Parasite?

    I still contend that Parasite is neoliberal, so I am neither surprised nor relieved.

  70. So what would the film industry look like if it were worker owned? Would there just be several smaller production houses? How are the movies getting distributed?

    in response to Is media as escapism/for fun incompatible with socialist systems? Obviously people need to have fun still, but there doesn't seem like there could be a real way to sustain massive entertainment industries without utilizing a market system in some form, right? Could that be a good thing, like do we really need the Super Bowl or Hollywood?

    look, I don't know the ins and outs of economic theory nor film distribution enough to pitch you a new, socialized film industry on the spot, the point is that movies don't need to be high-profit commodities to get made. they will get made because people want to make them and people want to view them.

  71. Hi different anon here. Your answer seems to really depend on the artists intention. What if you saw a painting of a mountain hanging somewhere and you no idea who painted it or what their intentions were. That piece of art would not be political in any way to me. Wich is my problem with the "all art is political" statement. It all just depends on the beholder. If I decide it's not political then it's not political.

    in response to I remembered you mentioned that all art is political, irrespective of their time, yes? But if you seen any film from Krysztof Kieslowski, including The Double life of Veronique... there seems to be no hint of political side that he took. So is it possible for art to be apolitical? Or are you gonna just say that any art that is apolitical is still political? If so, why? Because all I can see is that it is unreasonable to conclude that apolitical art is political

    "The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude."
    - George Orwell

    Same goes for the opinion that a piece of art is free of politics.

  73. Are you saying this as like "you're right the enterprise is unsustainable and the act of imagination itself is corrupted by the fact you have to Sell It" or "we can't imagine a future where art and media isn't fueled via recouping the costs of production of other media, people need to imagine wider"

    in response to Is media as escapism/for fun incompatible with socialist systems? Obviously people need to have fun still, but there doesn't seem like there could be a real way to sustain massive entertainment industries without utilizing a market system in some form, right? Could that be a good thing, like do we really need the Super Bowl or Hollywood?

    the second thing

    like, christ, we could socialize the film industry right now just by changing who owns what and who gets paid

  74. Is media as escapism/for fun incompatible with socialist systems? Obviously people need to have fun still, but there doesn't seem like there could be a real way to sustain massive entertainment industries without utilizing a market system in some form, right? Could that be a good thing, like do we really need the Super Bowl or Hollywood?

    jesus capitalism has ruined our ability to imagine

  75. I remembered you mentioned that all art is political, irrespective of their time, yes?

    But if you seen any film from Krysztof Kieslowski, including The Double life of Veronique... there seems to be no hint of political side that he took.

    So is it possible for art to be apolitical? Or are you gonna just say that any art that is apolitical is still political? If so, why? Because all I can see is that it is unreasonable to conclude that apolitical art is political

    Krysztof Kieslowski who did the Trois Couleurs Trilogy, where each film represented one of the colors and themes of the French flag? Krysztof Kieslowski who made 10 films dissecting the Ten Commandments? I feel like that's a weird choice for calling art apolitical.

    All art is political because it's made by people who have politics, and exist in a culture that has politics. What you choose to include is political. What you don't include is political. Casting a man as the protagonist is political. Casting a woman is political. Talking about the essential character of your nation is political. Interpreting religious texts is political.

    Everyone has politics, so everything they make is political.

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