CuriousCat Archive Page 148 of 202

  1. Hello vegan god. What constitutes an acceptable sacrifice?

    in response to do vegans worship any gods?

    a soybeest

  2. Just wanted to thank you for all the amazing content!! Specifically your video essay Bringing back what’s stolen as it helped me write a character of mine and avoid several pitfalls!

    <3

  3. Most recent word you've learned where haven't found a way to use in a conversation that doesn't make you look like you're saying "yeah, I *know* this word."

    Exculpatory

  4. Here's one that might be a bit controversial - Do you hate the right? Either the ideology or people espousing it? Do you feel they should be hated?

    I feel I do, and I'm constantly going back and forth on whether this is a good thing or not. Hatred is obviously a largely negative emotion, but how are you supposed to feel about people who put kids in cages and routinely make up lies to otherize people who are different than them just to prop up assholes who hold power over all of us? Having such a negative reaction for an ideology that seems to fit the definition of evil so well seems like the only sane response.

    All that said, it's obviously not good to wallow in that kind of hatred, and you want to keep a clear head so at to not let it consume you obviously, but...what else are you supposed to feel towards the right?

    I don't think I hate the Right. I oppose the Right, and the Right makes me very, very angry, and I would probably use the word "hate" as a shorthand for that when talking about the ideology. But the kind of active emotion you're talking about? No, I don't think I feel that. Neither do I think it's unreasonable to feel.

    "Should" is a weird word to use here. Whether you should or shouldn't is moot; you do. I probably wouldn't say "people *should* hate the Right" as, like, a political directive. People can feel however they want to feel, what matters to me is that we oppose them with everything we've got. You feel what you feel, what what are you gonna do with it?

    If you think hatred is something you're wallowing it, and it's going to cloud your judgment or just make you miserable, then I'd recommend you try to work through that. Hate can be useful as a motivator but it does come at a personal cost. No matter how much I despise the ideology of the Right I've tried to maintain some degree of compassion for the people themselves (with variable success). For all the pain they cause, they are also being hurt by their own beliefs, and, had a few things gone differently in my life, I could've been them. It's easier to get inside their heads if I hold room for empathy.

    But, by and large, empathy isn't praxis. How you feel about the Right is your business. If it's a problem for you, change it, but it's not a problem for me.

  5. Which character would best fit in Smash Bros to represent the Adventure Game genre and how would their moveset encapsulate that

    Sam & Max. You control Sam but he has no attacks; all his smashes are using Max as a weapon and all his specials are using weird inventory items, ideally called up from a menu.

  6. Is vegan junk food still bad for you? I'm guessing a high sugar content is still achievable on that kind of diet

    in response to fav vegan junk food?

    No matter how they're made, cookies and donuts are never gonna be health food. Whether a vegan treat is healthier than its non-vegan alternative is a dice roll; some stuff is vegan because it's fancy and organic and expensive (e.g. Newman-O's) and some stuff is vegan because it's all man-made materials (e.g. Oreos).

  7. do vegans worship any gods?

    I am the vegan god

  8. Favorite Mario Enemy

    in response to Favorite Mario Character?

    Shy Guys

  9. fav vegan junk food?

    Hard to pick a favorite, but by CHLOE makes a chocolate donut that roughly approximates Entenmann's but fancier and I love it. Also a sucker for mint Newman-O's and Mi-Del Vanilla Snaps.

  10. can all you leftist boys stop being so hot it's parasocialy distressing me!!!

    what did I do this time?!

  11. Outside of politicians when can we trust a person saying they have a "Evolution" in their character? That what they say 6 years ago isn't representative of who they are now?

    I mean, what they *say* should be in concert with some sort of representative behavior. If they no longer do and say what they did and said 6 years ago, that's a much bigger indication than saying "I've changed."

  12. Do you think making stuff up as you go along in serial storytelling inevitably leads to unsatisfying resolutions?

    in response to I know you're not able to play it because you don't have a VR headset, but do you have any opinion of Half-Life: Alyx based on its announcement and the trailer?

    Specifically making up MYSTERIES as you go along is deeply risky. The Half-Life franchise is founded on a lot of intrigue and curiosity about its world. A lot of that curiosity depends on the feeling that there are satisfying answers to your questions. While it is possible for a writer to be halfway into a narrative, have raised a number of tantalizing questions, not know what the answers are, and then improvise some good ones, it's harder to pull off than most forms of improvised storytelling.

    But the real problem with Half-Life isn't that they're improvising, it's that I've caught on. If you're making up the answers as you go, that's one thing, but you need the audience to believe there were answers the whole time. Once they pick up that there are no answers - at least not yet - it kills a lot of the intrigue.

  13. I know you're not able to play it because you don't have a VR headset, but do you have any opinion of Half-Life: Alyx based on its announcement and the trailer?

    Honestly, it made me realize that the Half-Life universe will never, ever be complete. The story will never end, every game will have a cliffhanger, you'll always wonder what the G-man's deal is and how the Vortigaunts operate and what happened to Shephard and the Borealis and Alyx's mom. The franchise is gaming's Star Wars before Disney bought it, with such enormous gaps between official installments that every one is a major event. The longer Valve ignores the franchise, the more money they make when they release literally anything in that universe. Why would they ever finish the story? Why would they ever even decide what the answers to the hanging questions are?

    The game looks pretty and I'll enjoy watching an LP of it someday, but it's hard to get too excited. Mysteries don't interest me once I realize the author's making it up as they go.

  14. Is it a faux pas to invite a friend to an event with a +1 if they have multiple partners?

    I mean, if you say +1 but can actually seat more, just say "and guests" and ask for a headcount. But if you only have room for invitees to bring one guest each, it's not unreasonable to ask people to pick a partner for the event. Just don't be surprised if it's not the one you expected.

    (Also, that's just my feeling; I don't speak for all polyam folks.)

  15. Was there ever a point where you were a right leaning person, even just barely? I don't know what it is but I get a grownup version of an edgy-right teenager who looks back at himself and groans.

    no, I'm a grownup version of an edgy liberal who looks back at himself and groans

  17. In my own recent videos and posts, I've been trying to use the words "fool" and "bozo" in place of words like "idiot" or "moron." Do you think this is sufficient to not sound ableist?

    unless someone tells me otherwise, I think those are kosher. I use "dipshit" a lot.

    edit: also "ding dong"

  19. Hey Ian!

    When is your talk on "How to Radicalize a Normie" you did recently going to be published?

    I love your videos and the last talk you did :)

    // Jacob from Sweden

    I'll have it online before the end of the month! I put about 3/4 as much work into it as a normal video and had to do it in half the time, so it was quite a sprint, and I've just kinda taken the week off to avoid burnout. I have the footage and will start reviewing it this coming week.

  20. I think you should know that there is a Muslim woman all the way in Tennessee who wants to give you a big hug! Your videos have been an inspiration for me, both in terms of introspection and creativity. Thank you for being awesome. :-3

    <3

  21. Boy, that thing that happened sure was a doozy.
    What's you're take on this latest controversy?

    (This could be about literally anything, I was wondering if you could give a blanket opinion to help save you time in the future? ^^;

    hoo, boy, that sure was a thing

  22. Do you think lolcats will become popular again in the 2020s? Or any other sort of Vintage Memes from earlier points in history? Are kids going to one day look at Rage Comics and say "I was born in the wrong generation."

    that would be neat and weird

  23. Biggest opinion shift you have had compared to your 2009 self, both for legitimate things and innocuous silly stuff.

    Mostly it's been a steady shedding of ignorance. At 25, I still complained that "queer" was a useless signifier because it was too nebulously-defined, and told my Puerto Rican partner "I see you as white," which are things I would slap younger self for thinking now. Can't think of anything I've done a full about-face on, though; I was already poly, vegan, atheist, and a budding anticapitalist. Those have been my life's big one-eighties.

    Innocuous stuff? I probably still really liked Fight Club.

  24. Favorite Mario Character?

    Luigi, Yoshi, Daisy

  26. If you were murdered by a master disguise artist who impersonated you and took over your life, how would people be able to figure it out and expose your murderer?

    probably not using enough antiquated turns of phrase

  27. IDK if the thought of doing something like that ever even crosses your mind you are probably way too far gone. I really feel you need to possess a special evil to do something like that.

    in response to How much do you think Right wing and islamist terrorism is them making semi-normal people into murders and how much it is just them attracting people who were already prone to mass-murder and just giving them a reason to finally go out and do what they have always wanted to do. We already have many people who commit massacres for no reason maybe they are just taking from the same pool.

    Hey, cool fact turned up in my research: people who think they couldn't possibly be radicalized are in fact the most susceptible to radicalization.

  28. Have you ever considered selling merch? I'd buy Alt-Right Playbook bumper stickers, t-shirts, refrigerator magnets of all the teeny people you draw, maybe a Gabe keychain

    Yeah. I don't super like the idea of merch. Capitalism sucks and all that. But I do think it'd be cool to have additional revenue streams in case anything ever happens to Patreon. I've kicked around a DEUTERAGONIST T-shirt, an artist rendition of the completed storytelling diagram from The Artist is Absent on a poster, and maybe doop keychains or stickers would be neat. I dunno. Still thinking about it.

  32. Why is it that centrists like Shoe0nhead, Chris Ray Gun, and Amoured skeptic are like... Mentally incapable of understanding that saying "we should call out toxic ideas in movies" is not "This piece of Media will cause real world violence"?

    the fact that those people are considered "centrists" is evidence of how far the overton window has shifted

    anyway, it's because they have bought into reactionary rhetoric and they see the narrative they've been sold

  34. How much do you think Right wing and islamist terrorism is them making semi-normal people into murders and how much it is just them attracting people who were already prone to mass-murder and just giving them a reason to finally go out and do what they have always wanted to do. We already have many people who commit massacres for no reason maybe they are just taking from the same pool.

    I don't think Normal People vs. People Who Will Commit Violence Regardless is a useful distinction. I believe most people are *capable* of violence. All kinds of factors can activate those parts of one's personality, especially if you're not consciously working against it, but there are folks out there actively trying to activate them and most of us will be, at the wrong moment, susceptible to it.

  35. sword or magic?

    yes

  36. I'm not the same anon, but that quote.. "I just eventually had stuff on my mind that wouldn't leave me alone til I made art out of it." is LITERALLY my creative process. It's so weird, it's like I need to create all the time. There's almost no choice (this is what I want to do for a living for the most part anyways, so I don't mind!) If I ever become notable in any way for my art (knocking on wood as I write this), I'm gonna make sure people know about your channel and writings because they are so darn good.

    thanx!

  37. Your PayPal link doesn't seem to work anymore. It might just be my computer, but I thought you should know.

    I know, I deliberately shut the PayPal down after people deduced my private email from it. For some reason YouTube won't let me take down the link.

  38. Your content is SO insightful!

    Were you like this when in your 20’s? Is there a specific habit that influenced your content (reading books, watching reviews or stuff like this)

    It's been a steady evolution. I couldn't have made stuff like I'm making now at, like, 21, but I think that was mostly a lack of knowledge and practice. I spent a lot of writing classes in my early twenties frustrated by how much I wanted to say something and how little I seemingly had to say. I've mostly just been reading and thinking and learning and talking to people and scrutinizing and writing a lot for the last 15 years, and now I do that for a living.

    If you're in your twenties and having trouble articulating yourself, all I can say is, that happens. And I know from experience how unhelpful it can feel when the only response is "it'll get better as you get older," but it's only cuz we don't know what else to say. I just eventually had stuff on my mind that wouldn't leave me alone til I made art out of it.

    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  39. I kinda hate to ask this, but do you have an opinion on the "Template Response/asking for emotional support" discourse? I've appreciated your views on mental health topics before, so I feel like your opinion would be a good one.

    If you're talking about the "I don't have the mana to help with this" tweet, I think that is incredibly benign and am appalled at the people who are mad about it.

  40. Is there anything about 'Why are you so Angry?' that, in retrospect, you'd change or add?

    The end bit where I said "have more debates with reactionaries" is something I've spent the whole of The Alt-Right Playbook walking back.

  41. Why did you decide to include Chris Ray Gun in the reactionary montage from your most recent vid? If I remember correctly he is center left?

    We need to let go of the idea that a) we know a person's politics purely from what they say and can ignore their behavior and b) that their personal politics are the end-all be-all of whether they are part of the Alt-Right recruitment pipeline. I included Chris Ray Gun - and Jordan Peterson and Steven Crowder and Thunderf00t and every other person people question me for including - because they have said and done things the Alt-Right likes and so the Alt-Right flocks to them, tries to get footholds in their audience, encourages them to collab with other people in the Alt-Right pipeline, and harasses anyone who criticizes their problematic behavior. And people like CRG make little effort to push this audience away, and directly profit off of the added attention.

    CRG is an antifeminist transphobe who says "All Lives Matter," complains about "SJWs," claims there's no gender pay gap, and shows up in videos with Dave Rubin and Amazing Atheist. So he is part of the Alt-Right pipeline. How intentional that is is, as always, an open question, but his intent doesn't matter. He's part of the recruitment process. That's what the video was about.

  42. Do you think we have a lot to learn from people who work to get people out of older far right hate groups? Like the people who try to get folks out of Neo Nazi groups, the Klan, and the (non-sharp) skinheads?

    Yeah, that's where I learned a lot of stuff for How to Radicalize a Normie. There's a lot of work would need to be done to adapt their techniques to the Alt-Right, but I'm betting the core idea is the same.

  43. are you friends with Sonic?

    in response to are you friends with Mario?

    Sonic is nobody's friend

  44. Speaking of collectivist space stations... have you read any of Becky Chambers' Wayfarer series? Her human space stations aren't as collectivist as I'd imagine yours would be, but they're definitely more collectivist than I've seen in many other works.

    in response to The beauty of optimistic sci-fi is that you can always improve your picture of a better society as your understanding of modern problems improves. 90s star trek was full of "your sex determines your personality" and "gender determines sexuality", but that's gone by the time you hit Discovery. Likewise, the cop thing and the myth of benevolent expansion can be changed. Star Trek can be what we want it to be. I guess what I'm saying is write some DS9 fanfic where sisko's an anarchist.... and a furry...

    They've been recommended to me many times and are on my To Read list, but I haven't gotten to her yet!

  46. Do you think there's something to be said for the notion that right-wing arguments are convincing to people because they're easy to understand?

    One of the points I made int he last video is that reactionary arguments are easy to understand in a superficial way, but do not stick the way more internally-consistent arguments do. Like, the reason there's so much conspiracism on the Right is because their simplistic arguments cannot accurately describe the complex world we live in, and, once people start to notice that, they come up with Byzantine explanations for why things aren't as simple as they should be.

    Conservatism is only simple when you're starting out.

  47. What do you think of people who argue that the Nazis only failed due to incompetence, and that they would have won if they had been smart?

    if they'd been smart they wouldn't have been nazis

  48. what if you were friends with Mario?

    what do you mean "what if"

  49. So it's like Ready Player One in a collectivist space station, ya?

    in response to The beauty of optimistic sci-fi is that you can always improve your picture of a better society as your understanding of modern problems improves. 90s star trek was full of "your sex determines your personality" and "gender determines sexuality", but that's gone by the time you hit Discovery. Likewise, the cop thing and the myth of benevolent expansion can be changed. Star Trek can be what we want it to be. I guess what I'm saying is write some DS9 fanfic where sisko's an anarchist.... and a furry...

    isn't that book about a fanboy trying to save a multi-billion dollar corporation?

    super collectivist

  50. I know you don't want to be overly hopeful, and for good reason, but a theme that's been popping up to me over the last few ARPB videos is

    Fascism is by its very nature, self-defeating, and it seems like a lot of their tactics are about overpowering others before their self-defeating tendencies start to destroy them. They reinvent lingo to get people in, but once they're deep enough, its all the old flags, the old symbols, the old ideas driven by hate and fear.

    But they always lose. Should we at least keep that in mind as an antidote to hopelessness?

    I mean, the Nazis lost, but they killed 6 million Jews in the process. I'm far more concerned with the cost of them gaining any power whatsoever than with whether they successfully take over the world.

  51. Okay um excuse you I will have you know you were hot in the crowdfunding videos and you're hot now so yeah, okay, maybe your hotness is only temporary but only in the sense that human existence is temporary in the grand scheme of things.

    in response to stop being hot on twitter I'm trying to partake in some leftie political education not be thirsty on main. There's a reason i don't follow Olly on twitter so if you start posting selfies I'll have to unfollow you too

    you're gonna give me an ego here

  52. The beauty of optimistic sci-fi is that you can always improve your picture of a better society as your understanding of modern problems improves. 90s star trek was full of "your sex determines your personality" and "gender determines sexuality", but that's gone by the time you hit Discovery. Likewise, the cop thing and the myth of benevolent expansion can be changed. Star Trek can be what we want it to be.

    I guess what I'm saying is write some DS9 fanfic where sisko's an anarchist.... and a furry...

    in response to Sisko is the rare example of the Troop/Cop/Liberal Trinity, all three of the problems activists are constantly told *must* remain dominant as part of any new social system or it's "too extremist". Star trek in general was a case-study of the failure of imagination that happens when you're a privileged white american living under capitalism and try to envision anything better. The more recent stuff is bad by comparison because a different group of privileged white americans living under capitalism went "yeah that's cool, but what what if we got rid of the parts that make me uncomfortable?" Anyway didja read The Expanse? It's not a good future, but it's interesting.

    no no no, my fanfic is about something else

    I want to set an *adventure game* in a collectivist space station

  54. stop being hot on twitter I'm trying to partake in some leftie political education not be thirsty on main. There's a reason i don't follow Olly on twitter so if you start posting selfies I'll have to unfollow you too

    I'm sure I'm only temporarily hot, it'll pass.

  56. I mean take the country I live in Iceland there isn't much of that going on here. And I would agree with you that in the countries where that does happen it's a big problem. But the thing is you don't want to stop that you just want to be the one in power doing it. The solution should be to lessen the government's power but you want to increase it.

    in response to Under socialism the individual has no rights and is completely beholdent to the will of the collective (aka the state). If the collective doesnt like you they can take away your property, your ownership of your labour and even your life. Capitalism is the only system that guarantees individual freedom.

    The problem you seeing is not a problem with any specific governmental or economic model, it's the problem of *power*. And the aim of Leftism, in whatever form it takes, is to distribute power such that it's hard to amass and use against people. You say we want to expand the government's power; I want the people to BE the government. You know, like what democracy's supposed to be?

    Lessening the government's power under capitalism just cedes more power to businesses, and, say whatever you want about governments, businesses have even LESS obligation to work towards your better interest.

  57. Is there any use in trying to put leftists in positions of power in the hopes that they will work to dismantle such power from said positions?

    Of course! If you're after reform, good to have them in power. If you're looking for revolution, I'd rather have them on the other end of the negotiation table (and it charge of the tanks) than Republicans.

  58. Sisko is the rare example of the Troop/Cop/Liberal Trinity, all three of the problems activists are constantly told *must* remain dominant as part of any new social system or it's "too extremist".

    Star trek in general was a case-study of the failure of imagination that happens when you're a privileged white american living under capitalism and try to envision anything better.
    The more recent stuff is bad by comparison because a different group of privileged white americans living under capitalism went "yeah that's cool, but what what if we got rid of the parts that make me uncomfortable?"

    Anyway didja read The Expanse? It's not a good future, but it's interesting.

    in response to So DS9 basically?

    I watch The Expanse, haven't read it.

  59. If you met an alternate universe version of yourself who was a liberal, would you argue with them?

    I spent my 20's arguing with him, that's why he's me today

  61. So DS9 basically?

    in response to how would you Do it

    no

    sisko is a cop

  62. Under socialism the individual has no rights and is completely beholdent to the will of the collective (aka the state). If the collective doesnt like you they can take away your property, your ownership of your labour and even your life. Capitalism is the only system that guarantees individual freedom.

    you show me a capitalist government that isn't regularly taking away property, ownership of labor, or lives

    like, have you ever looked at a society?

  63. Since this seems to be a theme lately: has there ever been a movie/piece of media that has done the “asshole protagonist” well without dipping into The Tyler Durden Zone?

    BoJack

  64. I watched the whole thing.

    It improves a little bit in season 3 when they hired more writers, but it still almost always rewards Rick for being an asshole.

    The Pickle Rick episodes might be one of the only exceptions. There is a scene where a therapist actually takes Rick to task and it is framed in a way that puts Rick in the wrong. It’s so weird to me that people obsess over this episode but never talk about that scene.

    in response to What is your opinion of Rick and Morty

    I've heard people talk about that scene, usually with some ambivalence, like, "I dunno if the show has delivered on what that scene implies."

  65. Since you talked about it in your video on the beginners guide, did you like the ending to the Soprano's?

    I've only seen scattered episodes of The Sopranos. I watched the ending, and read a bunch of thinkpieces about it, but haven't watched enough of the show to know whether it works as a conclusion.

  66. Do you think the Wolf of Wall Street works as a cautionary tale about excesses and greed when it seems to enjoy revelling in the characters bad behaviour?

    it is extremely ineffective as a condemnation, as evidenced by the multiple videos I watched insisting that the movie didn't want you to empathize with DiCaprio that invariably had a segment saying "and in this scene, you kinda feel for him"

    people still think making an amoral white man empathetic is some sort of achievement

  67. What's your personal game of the year (game you've played this year, not necessarily released this year)?

    Hollow Knight

  68. What is your opinion of Rick and Morty

    I've only seen a bit. Not my cuppa. I've ranted before about my frustration with how Dan Harmon loves asshole protagonists, and he really wants to comment on the fact that being an asshole actually makes you broken and miserable, but all that really seems to do is help you sympathize with him and softly forgive his behavior.

    I'm sure if I watched the show my opinion would be more complicated, but I don't know that it would be dramatically different.

  69. What's your opinion of the whole "Difficulty in games" discussion that now pops up again with every release of a Soulsborne- and Cuphead-like?

    I don't really have anything to say on it that hasn't been said by other people.

  70. What are your favourite shows?

    Of stuff currently airing, I really like BoJack Horseman, The Good Place, Steven Universe, and Bob's Burgers. I need to get back to Better Call Saul, I'm a season behind.

  72. What do you think about Hillary Clinton going full TERF recently?

    Ennnhhhh, not to defend Clinton's statements, which are awful and transphobic, but they are entry-level TERF. Full TERF gets way, way uglier.

    It think it's especially disheartening knowing that Clinton was the author of a lot of the Obama Administrations bills defending trans access to bathrooms and such. It's one of the reasons some trans folks I knew preferred Clinton over Sanders, Sanders having been mostly silent on the issue. This isn't just awful and disappointing, it's an about-face.

    Looking at the comments in context, it does seem the headlines are exaggerating things? Clinton is essentially saying "trans people are valid, but this is all new to me and I don't get it, people being freaked out by trans people is understandable." It's not quite the "TERFs have a point" argument it's being sold as, even though it's still crap, it still empowers TERFs, and she's had over a decade IN WHICH SHE LITERALLY WROTE POLICY ABOUT IT to learn more.

    In short: more complicated that The Discourse is letting on, still bad.

  73. soooo um not to be a buzzkill but twitter com/BernForBernie20/status/1194009594349182976

    in response to what's your opinion on this? https://theintercept.com/2019/11/07/sanders-immigration-plan-ice-cbp/

    Yeah, not good. But Sanders was saying just a few months ago that we absolutely need strong security at the border. Both these candidates have changed their positions on things due to pressure from their constituency and pressure from each other. Sanders having a plan to abolish ICE changes the incentives for Warren. Let's see how it shakes things up.

  74. Are you vegan for moral or dietary reasons, and if moral, why?

    not sure I wanna have that conversation again

  75. how would you Do a Socialism in a fantasy setting

    I would prefer to do a socialism in a sci-fi setting

Anon commented:
Ian replied: