CuriousCat Archive Page 157 of 202

  1. do you really think “don’t brandish the hammer and sickle” is concern trolling?

    in response to Think we should condemn the use of soviet imagery by our fellow leftists? I mean, Stalin was a bit of an asshole.

    There are good faith versions of that argument and there are bad faith versions.

    Frankly, "so you're saying all commentary on the hammer and sickle is concern trolling" isn't in particularly good faith, either.

    People who actually want to tangle with the complexity of the subject usually pose their questions with some nuance.

  2. Not to be a buzzkill about the death of a Billionaire, but currently seeing the way people online interact with it feels unproductive. Like, it's not like all of Koch's money is going to be coming back to citizens, or his enterprises suddenly evaporating away (which I've incidentally learned weren't all just about Climate Denial but also Prison Reform, though idk how much effort was put into that), so I don't see how people wanting to dance on his grave does anything outside of a kind of weak political gesture.

    Similarly, I don't get why people become so hamstrung about people not being exactly positive or respectful of a legacy that has had definite harm on the world. I've seen folks point toward it being unempathetic, but it feels like when they say that they're talking about somebody who Owned Billions of Dollars, a thing they almost assuredly Don't or Ever Will Understand, but the same goes for me too.

    I don't know, this is just a number of different thoughts, was curious if you had perspective or had read stuff that discussed ideas like this. Maybe it'd be smart to have people donate time and money towards Good Causes in the wake of this.

    Not all usefulness is political usefulness. It's morbid to celebrate a person's death, but knowing they can't do harm anymore can be a relief, and the emotional catharsis that comes from a bit of morbid humor is valuable, especially when we're getting nonstop bad news about the shit people like the Koch brothers are doing.

  3. What do you think of your evil twin, Dan Ianskin?

    You're about 30 years too late for this joke.

  4. Did you ever make Sonic OCs

    No, I just drew Sonic a lot.

  5. https://youtu.be/bgwS_FMZ3nQ

    in response to Non Violence is good, but it's highly useful to have these shows of force against a community of power like the Nazis. They respond to dhows of strength, because the community is built off of the perception of their strength, so clocking them is more effective then it seems.

    Thanks, I've already seen Olly's video. Can you link to something specifically about fascists "responding to a show of force"?

  6. Do you mind the jokes where people call you Dan? I know it's not actively malicious or anything, but if it's not in good fun I wouldn't feel comfortable doing it.

    don't tell anyone but I think it's pretty funny

    like seriously keep it to yourself

    if they find out they'll do it too much

  7. Riven and Myst being #1 and 2 is fairly uncontroversial, I think, but I'd love to hear more about your ranking of the last two. Puzzle quality, atmosphere, other stuff?

    in response to Spin-off question: How would you rank the Myst games?

    Exile's ages are just... neat places to house puzzles. They aren't WORLDS the way the rest of the series' ages are. The plot is perfunctory in the same way as Jurassic Park III: find an excuse for the character to go back to some ages/back to the island, have some adventures, and then get them back home. Nothing meaningfully changes about the world or the characters; you could repeat the formula for infinite sequels. Also Chucky Wormtongue delivers a hilariously camp performance, which is actually really enjoyable but, you know, not GOOD in any way. Amateria was a delightful age but everything else about the game felt hollow.

    There are some bizarre choices in Revelation, and some corny acting, but it built worlds that felt like places, with history and stories to tell. And UI elements it added were just *chef's kiss*.

  8. Think we should condemn the use of soviet imagery by our fellow leftists? I mean, Stalin was a bit of an asshole.

    Stalin was indeed an asshole, but you don't sound like a fellow leftist.

  9. Have you had a public debate before? If not, Destiny’s not a good place to start. Even when leftists like Burgis are able to put forward good arguments against him they still come across as very uncharismatic.

    in response to What do you think of all the debates people have been having with Destiny? Also, if you were to be invited by Destiny to debate him, would you accept? Why or why not?

    I haven't done any public debate, and am mostly just entertaining notions at this point. But, hey, since I haven't done it before, I can research his debate tactics and he can't research mine. :D

  12. Do you think you'd ever expand from video games to All Forms of Game? What are the meta-narratives of playing Cribbage?

    I'll talk about basically anything I think is interesting, but I don't have a lot of opinions on Cribbage.

  13. Right out of college I was lucky enough to land a job in my field right away. I’ve been here a few years now and got a good paying job somewhere else. My last day is coming up very soon and I’ve been struggling with this for a while now.

    How do I call them out for all the racism, homophobia, xenophobia, islamophobia, transphobia, and sexism I’ve heard them spew for the last few years? They aren’t any worse than your average boomer who watches fox, but I’ve heard them expose views of all of the above.
    I’ve done what I can to push back, but i’d have been starting a fight nearly every day if I had called it all out. Mostly I tried to push back on the racism since that was the most pronounced. At one point they were watching a video of a local black kid being arrested and laughing at it. I got pretty mad and they all acted like I was in the wrong.

    I would have gone to HR if I thought it’d get anywhere, but I understand HR is there to protect the employer’s interests not mine. I know that my department is not the only one like this, in fact I’m confident this behavior is common place throughout the organization. But in most departments this behavior isn’t seen as a problem.

    Part of the reason I’m leaving is this environment. I am unsure of how to let them know this while still being able to get a good recommendation going forward. I could burn the bridge but nearly everyone I know has told me not to. I have resigned myself to the idea that continued donation to black lives matter and Femminist freq and other activist organizations is enough but am unsure of that. I cant tell which I will regret more, burning the bridge, or saying nothing.

    Well...

    I don't know if I'm qualified to help with this. I haven't worked a lot of traditional jobs in my time. I don't know how much impact you can have on this business as an individual who soon won't even work there and couldn't have much impact while you did. I suppose you could report them to the Better Business Bureau? But I don't know how effective that is.

    I think the idea of "don't burn bridges, it may come back to you someday" is nonsense, but, again, I really haven't worked many jobs where I had to worry about it. If it were me, I would say "I owe them nothing, let's light the motherfuckers up," but your friends' concerns may be legit. Don't take the word of some YouTuber who's risking nothing.

    I think it's worth keeping in mind that the problems with this company are systemic, and that calling out or even reforming this one business isn't going to solve racism, homophobia, xenophobia, islamophobia, or transphobia. You are putting a lot of weight on yourself, as though how you behave in this instance is the linchpin for making the world better, and it's probably not. If you think you are in a position to have a real impact on this company, then do it! But if you're not, and this is more about the guilt you will feel if you don't say something even if it's ineffective, it may be better to put that energy into someplace you *can* have an impact.

    Good luck.

  14. Did you ever watch Sailor Moon growing up? If so, who's your favorite sailor scout?

    I did not.

  15. Non Violence is good, but it's highly useful to have these shows of force against a community of power like the Nazis. They respond to dhows of strength, because the community is built off of the perception of their strength, so clocking them is more effective then it seems.

    in response to "I fear what happens if they make these methods less viable." We fucking clock them, that's what.

    Do you have a source for that?

  16. Have you read Against the Fascist Creep (I don't know if it has been recommended already)?

    You're not the first to recommend it, it's true, but thanks for prodding me! I need to add it to my list.

  17. Do you have any idea how things are going on the, how to say... struggle over youtube prominance between breadtube and the reactionaries?

    I haven't really kept tabs on reactionary YouTube in a while. I know they took a hit during the YouTube purge, and I know the big names from when I was paying attention are shrinking in popularity while BreadTube is growing, but there are still A LOT MORE OF THEM than us and they produce content in a MUCH HIGHER VOLUME than we do. I've done some reading about how people process information that makes me think high volumes of #content are more necessary for the Right than for the Left, because their arguments don't make actually hold up to scrutiny. They need the almost mantric repetition to keep people committed to the ideology because the ideology is both nonsensical and immoral.

    I *think* that having a fewer number of BreadTubers making a smaller number of videos, but where the videos actually make *coherent arguments* probably means people walk away understanding leftist ideals in a deeper, more internalized way. So not having the same volume might not be as big of a problem as we think?

  18. Spin-off question: How would you rank the Myst games?

    in response to In honor of FMV seemingly making a comeback (okay, "comeback" might be a strong word, but Erica and Telling Lies coming out in the same month is pretty remarkable, plus Bandersnatch last year), what's your favorite FMV game? Also, how do you feel about live action coming into play in video games again? Any interesting possibilities versus traditional animation and mocap, or just gimmick value?

    Riven > Myst > Revelation > Exile

    Haven't played End of Ages yet.

  19. In honor of FMV seemingly making a comeback (okay, "comeback" might be a strong word, but Erica and Telling Lies coming out in the same month is pretty remarkable, plus Bandersnatch last year), what's your favorite FMV game?
    Also, how do you feel about live action coming into play in video games again? Any interesting possibilities versus traditional animation and mocap, or just gimmick value?

    Does Riven count?

    FMV is a tool like anything else. Used properly, it can be very effective.

  20. I just feel like debates like these are fine as 'practice', but as a form of changing minds, it just doesn't work — they usually just reassure people that their beliefs are already well founded. That's how it always seems, anyway. If the person whose views align with you flops, it's their fault — not their views. I just don't see the use personally

    in response to What do you think of all the debates people have been having with Destiny? Also, if you were to be invited by Destiny to debate him, would you accept? Why or why not?

    Enh, debates have proved incredibly useful for the Right, because they often sway minds almost entirely on affect. I did a whole video about it.

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

    Trouble is, affect doesn't sell progressive ideology as well as it sells reactionary ideology. So what I've been pondering is ways to neutralize affect.

  21. what's your favourite art in smash?

    well I walked into that one

  22. what do you like to get questions about on here the most?

    I think I've had the most fun talking about art and Smash.

  23. What do you think of all the debates people have been having with Destiny? Also, if you were to be invited by Destiny to debate him, would you accept? Why or why not?

    I've been pretty clear that I don't think debate is terribly useful unless you know how to do it right. I haven't paid much attention to Destiny's streams, so I dunno how people are doing. He's clearly outperformed some conservatives as well as some leftists.

    I've been kicking around thoughts for ways of performing in debate that would short-circuit the usual performative or bad-faith debate techniques people use, and maybe Destiny would be a good place to try them out since failing on his stream is a lot lower stakes than failing on, like, Sargon's. But I still dunno that it's worth it, and it's the only reason I'd ever go on his stream.

  24. "I fear what happens if they make these methods less viable." We fucking clock them, that's what.

    I'm not debating whether it's ethical to clock a Nazzy. But "we fucking clock them" is no more a strategy than "we protest peacefully." We clock them, and then what? What is the path to progress? Nonviolence is an incredibly useful tool to have in demanding reform or revolution, and having it removed from play is a big loss. One reason King was effective is his pacifism was being contrasted with the Black Panthers and Malcolm X; he wouldn't have been as effective without them, but the movement as a whole progressed because of that contrast. If we can't use pacifism as a tool, we can't have contrast, which means we don't have a reliable method of decreasing authoritarian feelings in response to violence.

  25. Is there a way to do the Ouya that isn't dumb or bad? Also, remember the Ouya?

    Yeah, it's the Switch.

    I really wish the Ouya had been a better system, because I would have loved if microconsoles being open-source were the standard. But, instead, Nintendo is leading the way and closed platforms will continue to be the norm.

  26. Any video ideas that you'd really like to watch but don't personally feel like being the one to make? If so, what?

    Something I thought of while working on the Walking Dead video was Clem's racial ambiguity. Canonically, she is Black, but the brief look we get at a picture of her parents is underlit and at a skewed angle, and, since one parent is more lightly-skinned than the other, it's easy to think she is mixed race. A lot of people report thinking Clem is Asian, or Native American, or even white. This kind of means that she can pass as "anyone's daughter" so long as she's only with one adult; Black, white, East Asian, South Asian, Native, Latino, *any* of them could be *one* of her parents. This seems like a way to make it plausible that she could be Lee's kid in Season 1 and Kenny's kid in Season 2, and so no one asks "wait, how do you know this girl?"

    It's never directly commented on, though one of the endings of Season 2 kiiiiiiiind of pokes at this, where a "family" comes to you asking for help but you reflexively think they're lying because the child is much darker than either of the parents.

    I'm not quite sure what to make of it, and would love to see it explored in depth, but it's definitely not a video a white dude should make.

  27. Season 3 was a step up from 2, but (unsurprisingly) nowhere near season 1. It got back to the idea of having some actual warm moments in between all the bleakness (even a fairly hopeful ending in my playthrough). But still bumpy as hell. Haven’t played season 4. Don’t know if I will, given how the Telltale shit went down - even if people got temporarily hired back.

    And yeah, again, Michonne was just... an emotional void. Nothing mattered, because they didn’t succeed in making me care about anyone - Michonne or the other protags. I guess I did feel angry towards the antagonists at points - which just underlined the point that disgusting/angering players is relatively easy - creating genuine empathy is what takes work.

    in response to I was just rewatching "We Don't Talk About Kenny" for the nth time, and it got me thinking - have you played the later seasons, and would you ever follow up that video? (The "main" game would probably be the more interesting subject, but if you wanted to address the utter empty feeling (IMO) of Michonne, that's also be cool) I apologize for the fact that at least the first part of that question has inevitably been asked here or on twitter before - stupid CC and its lack of search function.

    oi

  28. I love your reading list for the alt-right playbook. Do you have any recommended reading on art and philosophy?

    Cinema Studies: Key Concepts by Susan Hayward is one of the best books on film analysis and theory in existence. It's a good jumping off point for a bunch of other topics. And I'll never pass up a chance to recommend The Motion of Light in Water by Samuel R. Delany, which is about art and writing and queerness and race and a billion other things. A lot of my art and philosophy readings were assigned in school, so they were more often papers and individual chapters rather than whole books. I'm comfortable recommending de Saussure on semiotics, Barthes and Foucault on the death of the author, Casetti on film enunciation, Mulvey and Creed on feminist film theory, Adorno and Horkheimer on the culture industry, bell hooks on just about anything, and so forth.

    For more contemporary/accessible stuff, David Foster Wallace is a bit of a problematic fave for me, and anything he's written about art and pop culture is fairly wonderful (his essay "Greatly Exaggerated" is actually my favorite piece on the death of the author). Scott McCloud's trilogy of Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics, and Making Comics is amazing. Michael Pollan writes about food but really he uses food to write about *everything*, and I love the way he thinks. Tom Bissell's one of the more interesting writers about games.

    Stuff I need to read more of: the smidgen of Hannah Arendt I've read is brilliant. I'm long overdue to read Audre Lorde. I'm familiar with some of the core concepts but still need to actually read Understanding Media by Marshall McLuhan.

    I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting. Hope that gets you started at least!

  29. Any insight into why some privileged but liberal-raised people are susceptible to leftist ideas while others seem particularly susceptible to the idea that "liberals control society" and, therefore, that reactionary ideas are counter-cultural?

    Everyone has questions about why the world is the way it is and how to behave ethically within it, and they seek answers to these questions from time to time. If you have a liberal mindset but also privilege, then you are tugged in two directions: your liberalism encourages you to value equality and tolerance, while your privilege gives you some investment in the system that prizes you over others. So when you go seeking answers, your liberal side may take you down the path of deeper, systemic critique of society that terminates in leftism, while your privileged side may take you down the rabbit hole of conspiracism and rationalization of the systems that benefit you.

    As best I can tell from my research, which direction you tip can be as dippy as which community you stumble into when you're looking for answers. There seem to be factors that make people more vulnerable to conspiracism - it's common to be in a transitionary phase, like a breakup or moving to a new city, and there's *some* evidence that having a history of being bullied or abused makes one more susceptible - but, still, the large majority of people who have those factors *don't* become conspiracists. A lot of "getting redpilled" is about being asked to choose your privileged side over your progressive side in ways that seem harmless, but then demand that you stick to that decision as the communities you frequent get incrementally more radical.

  30. What region is your accent from?

    Someone in my comments once said I was a mix of California and Great Lakes, which was either extremely accurate or extremely lucky. I grew up in Cali and have a bit of my mom's Indiana accent despite never having been to Indiana myself. You can hear her in the way I pronounce "want."

  31. Hi. I looked for this question pretty hard and I know you must have been asked it before but the search functions on here SUCK and I was basically just creatively Googling, and failing.

    I've written four scripts for video essays, but I've never edited a video before. I do have access to professional recording equipment, because my dad is a musician, but I don't really want to be on camera. Do you have any advice for where to learn to edit? The essays are generally visual medium + context + larger concerns.

    Where did you pick up your skills? I have ideas for making visual jokes, funny zooms — it's stuff I have written into the script . I just don't know how to make it a reality!

    I actually went to college for this, so I'm not sure what the best options are for self-teaching. There are a lot of free editing courses online, editing software comes with tutorials if you want to do things the hard way, and you can always take a course in nonlinear editing at your local community college if you learn best in a classroom. Wish I could be of more help!

  32. You are turned into a mosquito for 24 hours, after which you will return to your normal presumably human self. How do you spend this time?

    you're saying I can fly for 24 hours?

    I'm going to fly for 24 hours.

  33. And, uh, same guy that just asked the TWD question: Given I know you also love the game, there's GOTTA be material in Tales of the Borderlands about what that game gets *right*, hasn't there? Like, the idea of TofB's choice mechanic being, for the most part, about rewarding with the funny/awesome moments of your choice, instead of the usual one of two evils? And how that SHOULD make the game feel less consequential and even more like an interactive movie than the average Telltale-like, but instead is somehow, if anything, *more* satisfying? And even with the often silly tone, still hits the dramatic bits with full weight?

    Or, I dunno, maybe there's mostly just material for a rambling, Curious Cat only-kind-of-question.

    https://innuendostudios.tumblr.com/post/145225788532/thoughts-on-tales-from-the-borderlands

  34. Hi. How are you?

    What do you find useful about CuriousCat? Its drawbacks are obvious, and I've seen them addressed in buckets of asks, either addressed head-on or in asides. Surely, though, there are things you do like or get from responding to viewers. I like that you do this, and check in every week or so; I figured I'd try and throw some positivity at you on here.

    Thanks again! So shines a good deed in a weary world.

    I ask myself this question every day.

  35. I was just rewatching "We Don't Talk About Kenny" for the nth time, and it got me thinking - have you played the later seasons, and would you ever follow up that video? (The "main" game would probably be the more interesting subject, but if you wanted to address the utter empty feeling (IMO) of Michonne, that's also be cool)

    I apologize for the fact that at least the first part of that question has inevitably been asked here or on twitter before - stupid CC and its lack of search function.

    Seasons 3 and 4 never came out on Mac. I've been holding out for whenever I get a PC laptop so I can play on Steam and port my decisions over from 2, but I may cave and get them on Switch. I don't hold out a lot of hope for them, 2 was such a complicated mess. But I want to spend more time with Clem.

  36. Can you tell if one person asks multiple Qs in a row

    kind of

  37. Political freedoms are severely restricted in Burkina Faso. Human rights organizations had criticised the Compaoré administration for numerous acts of state-sponsored violence against journalists and other politically active members of society.
    43.7 percent of people live under the poverty line. Lol Great example buddy

    Political freedoms are severely restricted in Burkina Faso because capitalists executed the leader of their prospering socialist state, BUDDY.

  38. Everyone seems to think I was talking about the US interfering in the affairs of other countries. I was actually thinking it the other way around.

    in response to adding to the problem is that as in your example, the nazi state took great inspiration from the USA and the American press, for all they happily jumped with public opinion later, were glowing in their presentation of hitler. Any nation having a "moral reason" to interfere presupposes they have the moral authority to do so. I'm not sure there is any country the USA could justify interference in anymore. All of the worst offenders have the US to thank for their existence.

    It's the same moral question in either direction. Who has the moral authority to do so, and can you trust that authority not to be misused?

  39. I've noticed I find adventure games more emotionally resonant (the main Videogame genre that can make me cry) than other genres. Is this your experience, and do you think there's a reason for that if so?

    Stories can be very affecting, and adventures make storytelling their chief concern. I've played some deeply emotional non-adventure games, but it's a lot more common for mechanics-focused games to treat narrative as a secondary concern.

  40. Sorry, wasn't OP and just wanted a reading list. No opinions either way on contemporary communist governments tbh. Thanks for the link!

    do you have any recs from here that are engaging to the politically... uninformed?

    in response to which books would you recommend? would you ever consider making a reading list on tumblr that you could link to?

    I have notes on all the ones I've finished in the post, and I say which ones were accessible and which were kinda dry.

  42. Nice knowing that communism only works in books lol.

    if you think every communist revolution has ended in starvation and dictatorship, you haven't done any reading

  43. (original anon)

    Ideally, I would want to see a hypothetical universal language instituted as everyone's second language, for use in the context of communicating with their overseas neighbors, rather than as a replacement for the languages that every people already speak amongst themselves. This is why I wondered about it in the context of a world without borders-- if there could be no imperialist pretext because there's no borders to cross to invade other countries, because presumably we've achieved a degree of peace where most everyone agrees we don't need borders, then, in theory, I don't suppose anyone would have a problem with a "territorially neutral" language being added.

    I thought about trying to clarify this before, but as you so readily dismissed the initial question I figured you wouldn't be interested. Anyway, that was my thought.

    in response to Do you not have an opinion or do you just not feel qualified to give it? I had only asked because you had expressed the belief that the benefits of a universal language do not outweigh the hegemonic implications, so asking if this applied to rules and laws didn't seem too far removed. (I do apologise if I offended you or made you uncomfortable, I hope you have a great day today 😊).

    You have to understand that, if you make EVERYONE speak the same second language, then primary languages are no longer useful. They aren't necessary to speak to your family of origin, because they all speak the secondary language as well. And the secondary language can be spoken with anyone, where the primary is limited. There's no reason to print things in multiple languages, since everyone speaks the secondary language. Eventually, the only reason to continue speaking the primary language is sentiment. It doesn't serve a pragmatic function.

    This is part of how many Native America and African languages have gone extinct. On a long enough timeline, the language of origin fades from use because it isn't needed. It may seem pragmatic, but it proves a roundabout way of robbing people of their culture, and I don't see what it accomplishes that translators aren't already accomplishing. Certainly it's more efficient than the massive undertaking of teaching an entire planet a second language.

  44. Why do you think so many leftists are into BDSM? Seems like it runs counter to the idea of preferring egalitarianism over power hierarchies - but then, I'm hardly one to talk.

    Sincerely, a leftist into BDSM

    A leftist into BDSM should probably understand how the detailed protocols of kink, in which a power imbalance is a heavily negotiated arrangement with concrete terms arrived at as equal, that lasts for a duration the sub co-determines, and in which there are expectations on the dominant as to what is and isn't acceptable and how they are to behave when the scene is over, would be right in keeping with leftist distributions of power.

    Power that comes only by the consent of the people affected by it and which can be removed instantaneously if it's misused strikes me as a very leftist understanding of power.

  45. which books would you recommend?

    would you ever consider making a reading list on tumblr that you could link to?

    in response to You oppose fascism rightfully. But why are you ok then with communism. Communism has ended with Authoritarianism, mass murder and starvation every time it was tried.

    I already have a reading list on Tumblr: https://innuendostudios.tumblr.com/post/183630744222/research-masterpost

    if you want evidence of a communist state that didn't descend into autocracy, literally just google Burkina Faso, or any of the Latin-American countries whose governments we overthrew

  46. Do you not have an opinion or do you just not feel qualified to give it? I had only asked because you had expressed the belief that the benefits of a universal language do not outweigh the hegemonic implications, so asking if this applied to rules and laws didn't seem too far removed.

    (I do apologise if I offended you or made you uncomfortable, I hope you have a great day today 😊).

    in response to Tangentially related, how do you distinguish between imperialism and the implementation of supernational rules? For example, if the people of one nation overwhelmingly want to discriminate against a minority, should they be permitted to make this choice or should the international community pressure them not to? Should "westerners" have a say in the laws of other nations (and vice versa)? Are these good forms of imperialism, or do they require very careful implementation?

    It's something I hadn't really though about before you asked, and, while I could form an opinion on the spot, it wouldn't be very informed, and given the charged politics inherent to the question, sharing an uninformed opinion feels irresponsible.

    People being robbed of their language of origin is something I read about in Linguistics class, which is why I felt comfortable giving an opinion on that.

  47. You oppose fascism rightfully. But why are you ok then with communism. Communism has ended with Authoritarianism, mass murder and starvation every time it was tried.

    read a book

  48. am i right in feeling a little uncomfortable at Nice Goofball Youtuber doing his Fragile Object Falling challenge sponsored by the NAVY? like... i know everyone needs to pay their bills and if squarespace comes along, baby, you shill for those web templates. But i find it a bit weird to see a subset of the army using youtube to reach young recruits through funny hijinks...

    There is no ethical consumption under capitalism, but that is of *particularly* questionable ethics.

  49. Hello!
    I absolutely adore your content, for you understand to tackle everything I am interested in, in a single channel.

    Anyhow, I don't want to waste your time with praise you've heard a million times already - I just wanted to ask, if you are OK with me adding German subtitles to your "The Alt-Right Playbook", for I observe a lot of similarities among the Alt-Right in the US and the Alt-Right in Germany (regarding talking points and discourse strategies).

    I am terribly sorry if you already have a policy about adding subtitles written somewhere - I haven't found it.

    Best Wishes
    Celia

    You are free to submit subtitles to any of my videos, and there are always links to the transcripts in the show notes for reference! Be warned I am TERRIBLE about approving subtitle submissions. It's just a thing I always forget to check on. But I will get to them eventually!

  50. Would it be worth the effort for YouTubers to promote candidates in their state or local government races?

    I run into the issue of, if I were going to promote a candidate on YouTube, I would need to research THE HELL out of them and all their opposition. It's one thing to cast a vote, it's another to endorse to 200,000 subscribers. So far I haven't had the time, though I kick around the idea of doing a Democratic Primary Rundown video that talks about Harris, Warren, Sanders, and Biden. Would be a good excuse to actually delve into their histories myself, get a better sense of what they'd be like as Presidents.

  51. Have you ever thought to talk about video games made in non-commercial environments? Like art installation kinds of stuff.

    I interviewed the guys from Babycastles for a flash magazine several years ago, that was pretty neat. But beyond that I haven't really experienced many games in an installation setting.

    I sometimes think about doing a video on old, pre-2008 indie games, when there were "hits" on, like, TIGSource and the Adventure Game Studio forums, which were freeware games that have been all but forgotten now because they never really got played outside of their micro communities, but back then being adored in your micro community was about the biggest you could expect to be. Then Braid and Castle Crashers and World of Goo changed everybody's expectations of indie games, and that era kind of passed. But talking about, like, Glum Buster and An Untitled Story and Space Funeral... yeah, I think about that stuff sometimes.

    Not quite what you asked, I realize.

  52. I just gave myself shell shock after realizing we have over a year until the next presidential election

    that is not a question

  53. Is it unethical to sexually fetishize socialism?

    look I can't help it

  54. What's a game mechanic you've thought would be fun too see but isn't been fully implemented

    Oh no, you're not stealing my game ideas!

  55. People either want the generally historical and nuanced perspective you bring to a study of far-right ideology applied to other topics Or they want to find a hot take they can screenshot and read you to filth on twitter over.
    Thoughts on the new no mans sky update? When do they get to stop doing development penance?

    in response to Tangentially related, how do you distinguish between imperialism and the implementation of supernational rules? For example, if the people of one nation overwhelmingly want to discriminate against a minority, should they be permitted to make this choice or should the international community pressure them not to? Should "westerners" have a say in the laws of other nations (and vice versa)? Are these good forms of imperialism, or do they require very careful implementation?

    Ah yes, utterly uncontroversial subject NMS.

    I have no opinion.

  56. adding to the problem is that as in your example, the nazi state took great inspiration from the USA and the American press, for all they happily jumped with public opinion later, were glowing in their presentation of hitler.

    Any nation having a "moral reason" to interfere presupposes they have the moral authority to do so. I'm not sure there is any country the USA could justify interference in anymore. All of the worst offenders have the US to thank for their existence.

    in response to Do you think one country interfering in the affairs of another (elections, et al) can be justified if they have a moral reason for doing so?

    a compelling point

  57. Tangentially related, how do you distinguish between imperialism and the implementation of supernational rules? For example, if the people of one nation overwhelmingly want to discriminate against a minority, should they be permitted to make this choice or should the international community pressure them not to? Should "westerners" have a say in the laws of other nations (and vice versa)? Are these good forms of imperialism, or do they require very careful implementation?

    in response to Would instituting a universal language be a good idea in a world without borders?

    I am getting a lot of questions that are above my pay grade. I mostly talk about the Alt-Right and video games...

  58. Thoughts on FiveThirtyEight/Nate Silver?

    Someone on Twitter commented that Nate Silver has devolved into the kind of wonkery about undefinable notions like "electability" that FiveThirtyEight was meant to be an alternative to. Still a useful resource for actual data, but Silver himself seems to be taking an slow expedition into his own butt.

  59. Depends on how you're defining dictator.

    Lenin was involved in mass executions. James Ryan puts the numbers between 10,000-28,000 in Lenin's Terror, but that isn't consensus; W. Bruce Lincoln's Red Victory is generally agreed upon by historians, which has the number much higher across the whole Russian Civil War (100,000, but many of those weren't executions so there's some conflation). I don't know how you're defining absolute dictatorial power, but he (to moralise) belonged in a prison. I think part of communism working has to continue to allow dissent. It's also very difficult to be functionally communist in a world that isn't friendly to that, but mass executing your political enemies doesn't help.

    It was after Lenin's attempted assassination that he instructed his inner circle to "prepare the terror", but this is often considered to be a rationalisation after the fact. Lenin had already sent correspondence via telegrams to begin a campaign of “mass terror” to quell resistance by civilians. It was part of securing power, and Lenin was not ignorant

    in response to Stray thought that almost certainly has been discussed and/or dismissed many times over, but I'm just getting it out of my brain: Most, if not all, examples of communism turning into authoritarian regimes are, at least in part, caused by the initial head of those governments being the leader of the preceding bloody revolution, and the qualities that make for effectively leading forces to violently topple a sitting government aren't necessarily qualities that guarantee capability to lead a government that is tolerant of dissent, or even generally sane, in peace time?

    I'm not defending Lenin, and you have a deeper knowledge of the time than I do. I'm just saying, most of the authoritarian policies of the USSR came from Stalin. The debate over what precisely a leader has to do to cross the line into "dictator" is a valid one to have but I'm ill-equipped to have it.

    Your point that people who lead socialist revolutions often resort to "quelling" dissidents is well-taken, but, again, I haven't done the research to fact-check you.

  60. For your money, which piece of fiction (any medium(s) you prefer) has the biggest disparity between how clever/subversive it THINKS it's being and how clever/subversive it actually is?

    You know the ones, right? The ones that just end up feeling smarmy AF.

    The most obvious answer is still the best answer: South Park.

  61. Stray thought that almost certainly has been discussed and/or dismissed many times over, but I'm just getting it out of my brain:

    Most, if not all, examples of communism turning into authoritarian regimes are, at least in part, caused by the initial head of those governments being the leader of the preceding bloody revolution, and the qualities that make for effectively leading forces to violently topple a sitting government aren't necessarily qualities that guarantee capability to lead a government that is tolerant of dissent, or even generally sane, in peace time?

    What are your examples? Mao comes to mind, but Lenin wasn't much of a dictator, and what we think of when we think of the USSR as an authoritarian state happened under Stalin after Lenin died. I don't know that Che was much of a dictator. Can't speak to Chavez; I haven't researched him and most of what I know comes through the US's characterization of him.

    Fill me in!

  62. Is it wrong to watch Lindsay's new video and think "wow, being super hitler that flies sound kinda awesome"?

    yeah

    you can enjoy riding a dragon without doing a genocide

  63. Do you think one country interfering in the affairs of another (elections, et al) can be justified if they have a moral reason for doing so?

    You mean, like, what if the US had prevented Hitler from being appointed Chancellor? I dunno. Still would've had a raging Nazi problem that the US really didn't have the ability to fix, but maybe things would've gone differently if Hitler hadn't gotten into the government when he did. But, like... how exactly do you prevent the appointment of a non-elected position without, like, executing the Kaiser?

    This is thorny territory, and I don't think I'm equipped to tangle with it.

  64. Have you not been asked to read other comments, or have you not had time?

    in response to Hi Ian! Have you ever been a guest voice in any of the “LeftTube” creators I might know (or not know)? I watched Lindsay Ellis’ video about GoT earlier and it inspired this question.

    I haven't been invited into collabs much, and I have only invited someone to collab once. I've showed up on a stream or two, but I'm a bit of a hermit.

  66. What do you think of spiders?

    in response to What did you think of Spider-Man PS4?

    they're really cool and also freak me out!

  67. Wait, are you a Malthus fan?

    not in specific, but I was running out of adjectives that end in my name

  68. One thing that kinda bothers me about Before the Storm was how different Rachel is portrayed compared to what little we've heard about her from the original series. Playing through the game, I feel like I'm talking to a different, nicer Rachel, not someone who'd cheat on me with a druggie (who loves dogs, but still) and then abandoned me the moment a better opportunity came to flee to a better life. Or maybe that was intentional to show how charismatic and manipulative Rachel is. Any thoughts?

    There was a hint that Rachel Amber had a volatile side and might make rash decisions under pressure, but, yeah, it does feel a bit of a retcon. I only vaguely remembered what we already knew about Rachel when I played BtS, so it didn't jump out at me. I dunno, like I said, Rachel never *really* felt like a whole character, so I suppose she could have done anything and they could have sold it.

  69. Hi Ian!

    Have you ever been a guest voice in any of the “LeftTube” creators I might know (or not know)? I watched Lindsay Ellis’ video about GoT earlier and it inspired this question.

    I read one of the comments in the montage at the end of Shannon's Parasocial Hell video. That's the only one.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLA-uFKjQ-g

  70. Hopefully this question's not a dumb thing to ask, but...

    Do you think it'd be better for the left to try to all rally around a particular candidate and work together to get that particular candidate into office, or to leave individuals up to choose their personal candidate and risk none of the good candidates winning because none of them individually won enough support?

    in response to who is your top pick?

    I don't know what we should do, and I also don't think deciding what should or shouldn't happen is going to have much effect. There are a lot of people running in the primaries right now, and people on the left have differing favorites. And we can say "we'll be stronger if we all unify under a single candidate, even if they're not your favorite," but when has that ever worked? That's what we said about Al Gore, John Kerry, and Hillary Clinton. It's the politician's job to appeal to the voters, not the voters' job to make concessions on issues that matter to them.

    So I think, especially now, while it's still the primaries, it's good to have a lot of dissent, to see how candidates are willing to shift their positions to appeal to voters, and that gives us a lot of latitude to make our biggest demands of them. Everybody uniting under one banner come hell or high water strikes me as wasting that opportunity. And I'm not terribly concerned about people not showing up to vote because their preferred candidate didn't get the nom; overwhelmingly, people who backed Sanders in the primary went on to vote Clinton in the election, just as people who backed Clinton mostly went on to vote Obama in 2008. The people invested in the primaries aren't who we have to worry about, it's the general public who aren't going to show up for a nominee who doesn't stand for what matters to them, which is why it's so critically important to nominate someone people genuinely believe in.

    Like, *I* will vote Biden, hell or high water, if he gets the nom. But I can't count on the general public to. But I believe Warren or Sanders or even (ugh) Harris would get people to show up on Election Day.

    So let's just... not start making concessions already. That's my feeling, anyway.

  71. ...yes?

    in response to What did you think of Spider-Man PS4?

    I can't afford a PS4. The only current-gen console I own is a Switch, and it was a graduation present.

  73. Saw on Twitter you don't like Oliver Stone/agree with the consensus he's a hack. Any spicy hot takes/places to look for someone who hasn't heard a negative word about him and is now curious (cat)?

    Watch the magic bullet speech from JFK, read literally anything about the actual bullet's trajectory, and realize how much conspiracism is owed to Oliver Stone in specific.

    You'll understand.

  75. who is your top pick?

    in response to What's your problem with Bernie?

    Warren. Sanders is second.

Anon commented:
Ian replied: