CuriousCat Archive Page 168 of 202

  1. Do you think it's worth the effort for Lefttube to try to create a pipeline to turn people into leftists like the right does with their ideas?

    Thing is, I don't think the Right *made* a pipeline intentionally. One of the reasons the pipeline is successful is because people contribute to it without trying to. PewDiePie didn't CHOOSE to be the middle rung of the PewDiePipeline, but he is. The pipeline is established through trial and error. Every rung is able to disavow their involvement, or even deny the pipeline exists, and, while this is often willful ignorance, many genuinely believe it isn't real and they aren't part of it.

    I think that process of trial and error - simply following whatever is successful without a larger plan - is the product of there just being a SHITLOAD of reactionary YouTubers. Shaun did a whole video on how, any time a piece of news comes out that reactionaries can exploit, dozens and dozens of nearly identical videos come out.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l63nY0AYebI

    The sheer VOLUME of content means a lot of techniques can be tried at once, and copied if they are successful. It's basically the same way a virus evolves resistance to treatment.

    At present, there aren't nearly enough LeftTubers to create such a system organically, especially since we don't chase the news as much. Also, when we make similar videos - e.g. Hbomberguy and Philosophy Tube both making flat earth videos - we tend to reference and build on each others' arguments instead of all saying the same things with minor variations.

    Since LeftTube couldn't build a pipeline organically, we'd have to do it intentionally, and that just requires a degree of organization and a unity of purpose that we don't presently have. And, where the PewDiePipeline mutates based on anything that gets more clicks, any changes to the LeftTube pipeline would probably be the product of deliberation and compromise, which is slower.

    Not saying it's a bad idea, and not saying I haven't considered something along those lines, but it's a lot of additional labor and I can't predict how many people would sign on.

  2. Have you gotten Smash Ultimate yet? If so, how does it measure up to Melee? Will Melee remain the king of competitive smash, or is Ultimate a worthy successor?

    I enjoy playing Ultimate. I still don't enjoy spectating it. It's a faster and heavier Smash 4, which is good fun, but still a very different beast from Melee at the competitive level. Melee still has my heart as a spectator.

  3. Do you think it's ok to idolize a politician, even for just once in a while and especially to politicians who has some interesting track record that contributed to the development of a nation?

    I mean, I will repeat that I don't decide what is or isn't OK for you to do.

    My position continues to be "never, ever, ever trust a politician." They have a million incentives to lie to you, and even when they tell the truth they tell it for reasons you aren't privy to. The more you trust them, the more they can get away with. Think of a politician as a necessary obstacle between you and the thing you're trying to achieve; there are more and less agreeable obstacles, and some, in fact, make the process quite pleasant, but they are all obstacles. *We* are the ones who are going to make shit happen.

    All that said... I have never in my life been as impressed with a politician as I am with Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. Almost everything that comes out of her mouth is something I have been desperate to hear a politician say. I can't help but like her. Her presence in Washington is a major relief.

    So I'll amend my position: don't trust politicians, but it's OK to like them. Just don't stop scrutinizing the ones you like.

  4. Where you posting on /pol/ as of recently, because someone made a thread about your video claiming to be you.

    Ha. No. That wasn't me.

  5. Are progressives being better progressives all we need or do we eventually need to start converting the others on the other side?

    in response to Would you say your expertise is exposing backwards ideas and showing people the light of progressivism?

    It's not an either/or. The Holy Trinity of LeftTube - Contrapoints, Hbomberguy, and Shaun - are all regularly cited by folks as the people who deradicalized them. There are people doing that work, and I am glad of it. I am just doing the work that is right for me.

    I, personally, think the Left spends too much time trying to reach the Right. I don't begrudge them for trying, though I think most are going about it all wrong, which is part of why I'm making The Alt-Right Playbook. The liberal establishment especially is pathological with their desire to reach out of moderate conservatives, which drags the whole Democratic Party to the center. I'm trying to drag my audience to the left.

    It's all part of the same work: we need radicals to become moderates, moderates to become liberals, and liberals to become leftists.

  6. You don’t need to. That video was the primary reason why I desiced to finally watch twin peaks!

    in response to Have you seen Nyx Fears video about Twin Peaks? S’good.

    I'm almost certainly not going to watch Twin Peaks.

  7. Hey! Your video “We Don’t Talk About Kenny” is probably my favorite video analyzing a video game I’ve ever seen. Really opened my eyes. I shot Kenny when I played it, but I didn’t realize the thematic impact he had on the story until you said what you said in the video.

    That being said, I wonder if you have kept up with the series’ third and fourth seasons? Third season was meh to me but the fourth is a return to form imo. It ended yesterday, and I just wanted to see if you were interested in playing it and/or doing a video analysis?

    Seasons 3 and 4 were never ported to Mac. I could play them on Switch, but none of my decisions would carry over, which is frustrating. Will Telltale out of business, a Mac port is pretty unlikely, so I guess Switch is what I'll have to do.

    Anyway, to answer your question, no, I haven't played them yet.

  9. Have you seen Nyx Fears video about Twin Peaks? S’good.

    I love May's work but I haven't seen that one because I don't watch Twin Peaks.

  11. We have reached the freelance/unemployment period where I now actually miss having access to a big office with lots of stimuli and interesting people. I see friends & have a social life but still:

    Tell me how you resist isolation

    I'm historically not very good at resisting isolation. I am introverted enough that I don't need a *ton* of social time, and I live with a partner and a couple housemates so social time happens incidentally, but there are still days where I don't see another living human. It's actually pretty common.

    I, uh... don't have a solution. All I've managed is to ramp up the friend-and-social-life time a little bit.

  12. I think, at this point, we've all had (overwhelmingly white, male) artists we admired turn out to problematic - in some cases monstrous - enough that we can't enjoy them anymore.

    Before I ask the question, I want to make this huge caveat clear: Whatever disappointment a fan might feel in an artist is, obviously, *nothing* compared to the pain of the people whom those artists have hurt. Not even remotely comparable.

    With that said: What's the artist you've feel the most let down by - where you've gone "Aw, fuck, him too?!" the hardest?

    Shane Black.

  13. Do you have any plans to include the idea of stochastic terrorism in any videos and if so would there be any ideas you have that were not covered in the pewdiepipeline video by noncompete

    I don't presently have much to say that Non-Compete didn't cover already. Maybe I'll address it in the future if my research turns up something I want to add, but I would probably still link to his video and try not to say much of the same stuff. I really hate saying things that have already been said well.

  14. Would you say your expertise is exposing backwards ideas and showing people the light of progressivism?

    No. I am very deliberately not focused on changing the minds of people who aren't already progressive. I am trying to show progressives how to be BETTER progressives.

  15. Do you think the future for leftist ideas is bright?

    I don't predict the future.

  16. Would you say atheism can be just as extreme as catholicism?

    Can be? Sure.

    Is, on average, about the same amount of extreme? No.

  17. When will you do a video on Israel?

    from a Palestinian fan

    So far, I haven't done the research. But, ss someone who's not Palestinian, Israeli, Jewish, or Muslim, I feel like, if I had an informed opinion, it wouldn't be a very useful one.

  18. So in your video "Always a Bigger Fish," you describe what Conservatives think the Left wants to do: boost liberal allies up the hierarchy and push liberal opposition down the hierarchy. But as you said in your second endnote on White Fascism, part of the goal of Fascism is to boost a certain "us" up the hierarchy and push "them" down the hierarchy.
    Is this why Conservatives think that Hitler was a socialist and equate the left to Nazis? Because what Conservatives think Liberals want to do and what Fascists actually want to do is very similar: create a hierarchy where a certain group is at the top and its enemies are at the bottom. This would put a lot about Conservative rhetoric about the Left into perspective.

    It would be more accurate to say that they believe EVERYONE is vying to put their people at the top and push others to the bottom. They just think their particular "us" is the one that deserves the top and everyone else is trying to steal it.

  19. Where would all the white and nonwhite people live? How on earth could you ever return all the land in the us to ethnically Indian people without violence? "Giving land back " is a fantasy.

    in response to pretty small group to give it back to. besides on a serious not many are dead and are mostly in oklahoma even in 2019.

    So the thing is: What is moral and right isn't always feasible. Yes, it is probably too late to give the Native Americans their land back. Too much has changed since it was stolen. The non-Native people of North America can't really pack up and go back to Europe anymore. Similarly, with the cumulative interest, reparations to the descendents of slaves would probably bankrupt the country.

    These are debts we owe that may have grown too large to repay.

    But I bring these things up now and again because I think we should consider, as we relate to Native Americans and African Americans, that we are in debt to them. That, when we talk about what should happen to Texas, we recall that, by rights, Texas doesn't belong to us.

    The fact that "giving land back" is a fantasy is one of the greatest avoidable tragedies of history. We let our moral debt grow to the point that things can never fully be made right. This is not a solvable problem, and its unsolveability should inform the way we live. And I don't know what the right way to live under that is. But this shrugging and sneering that it's not even worth thinking about isn't it.

  20. What about jobs you can't pay people to do? Ie ones with lethal risks involved. Also how do you coordinate all this and punish slackers without some form of heirarchy, which will inevitably be abused? This is why I'll never be a leftist you guys only solve the first order problems of your social revolutions. You don't think systemically.

    in response to A little beyond plumbers, what happens when there's a shitty and hard job that needs to be done and no one wants to do it? Just because a society needs that job done doesn't mean enough people are going to raise their hand to do it. You only have two choices, allow the current rich to force other people into those jobs because they are richer and thus have more economic and social power to do so. Or you get the government to force whoever they seem so to do it or else state violence will be enacted on you (fines, police, jail, etc). The reality seems to be pick your poison. Seems the left wants it to be the latter right?

    If you feel there are jobs that are so dangerous no amount of money could convince a person to do them, maybe you should ponder why you're OK making people do them against their will.

  21. for the record, just because people don't know the work doesn't mean they can't appreciate a video talking about it. i've enjoyed all your videos about games even tho the only game you've made a video about that i've even played is melee. hell, i had never heard of any of the games you made story beats about, but i still loved the videos! not saying you definitely should make videos about these plays, but i'd watch (and likely enjoy) them if you did.

    in response to Is there a piece of media you love that you'd like to cover, but feel is so far out of the zeitgeist that it wouldn't be worth the effort of production? Lindsay Ellis has taken on some older films, like Pocahontas, but have also been mostly pretty popular in their time. Is there anything that is not necessarily just older, but perhaps lacks cultural recognition or even significance, but you could delve deep into?

    Yeah, I always try to make my videos about media accessible to people who haven't consumed it. But, like... this would be spending a bunch of time talking about Thing Bad when the Badness of Thing doesn't actually matter. These plays aren't hurting anyone but me. Why talk about it? Their badness isn't actually *interesting*, it just haunts me because I spent weeks with each of them.

  22. So the conversation segment at the beginning of the newest ARP really struck a chord with me, because I've had so many conversations like that and they always turn out the same way (ie nobody changes their minds and the end result is just people being even angrier). I've given up hope on convincing people about these things, it's almost always not worth the time. But I also don't want to do the "don't mention politics" dance with old friends and family just to keep a connection that I don't want or need alive. When and how do we cut people out of our lives, and how do we deal with the internal guilt and external shame that comes with that?

    Thanks, love your work.

    I don't know. I've slowly weeded a lot of those people out of my life over time because it just didn't seem worth it, but I was never that close with any of them to begin with. I don't know how hard it would be if it was one of my inner circle people.

  23. Is cringing a form of empathy?

    I have no idea but that is a FASCINATING question.

  25. I just got into your channel after having only seen the melee video before, which is a big misstep on my part, your other videos are brilliant.

    Do you still keep up with smash/melee, and do you like ultimate? Apologies if you've been asked this already.

    heh, yeah, been asked a bunch of times, but no worries! I still follow competitive Melee, and I enjoy playing Ultimate but don't follow the competitive scene.

  27. Hey, so, I live in Massachusetts too, and while I love some things about this state I also find plenty to criticize, particularly our willingness to elect "modern Republicans" to the governorship because "decorum". I was wondering, could you share some of your thoughts about MA politics?

    Our state's love for Republican governors is really weird, I'll grant you that. But one side effect of spending so much time researching the Far Right for The Alt-Right Playbook is that I have neglected to follow local politics very well. I'm afraid I don't have much to say about it. We at least keep passing good bills!

  28. Is this a topic worth doing a video about? Maybe not like a long critical analysis, just a general "call for left unity" sort of thing (though I can see why you'd be wary of the ensuing shitstorm).

    in response to Are you concerned about the inevitable leftist infighting the primaries’ results will bring about?

    I just don't think I would accomplish much. Plenty of people have done calls for lefty unity. I don't think my channel will suddenly succeed where all those other calls have failed.

    Something I try to accomplish with Innuendo Studios is to treat social progressivism and economic justice not as *subjects* but as lenses through which I look at other subjects. Most every video is advocating for some degree of leftism and some degree of social justice, simply by making arguments that depend on both. This isn't exactly a plan, it's just the way that I look at the world, but I've been doing it a little more consciously as the videos have gotten more and more political. I like putting the subtle pressure on my audience to bridge the gap between those two lenses in order to understand my points.

    I hope that has some positive effect.

  29. lol sorry about that. it was pretty fun to write it into the void and have someone read it. so thank you for that!

    in response to (spoiler about twin peaks i guess) so, a few days ago i was talking to a friend, a huge lynch fan, about twin peaks, which i found at best hilariously stupid and at worst incredibly boring and soap-opera-ish. When i told her that the twist of who the killer is was unpredictable only because of how out of the blue it was, she smugly replied "but it's obviously a metaphore for domestic abuse" and I was so dumbfounded i had no reply. But, wait a second, no it's not: the father was shown to have raped and abused Laura ONLY because of the demon's influence, otherwise was horrified of his own actions and incredibly remorseful when realizing what he's done. What's this metaphore supposed to be? That abusers are actually good people with "bad tendencies" that don't want to abuse in the first place and we should feel bad for them?? Do you have a take on this? (also, yeah, IT'S NOT A TWIST IF THE TWIST IS ACTUAL SUPERNATURAL FORCES jesus i hate lynch)

    <3

  30. (spoiler about twin peaks i guess) so, a few days ago i was talking to a friend, a huge lynch fan, about twin peaks, which i found at best hilariously stupid and at worst incredibly boring and soap-opera-ish. When i told her that the twist of who the killer is was unpredictable only because of how out of the blue it was, she smugly replied "but it's obviously a metaphore for domestic abuse" and I was so dumbfounded i had no reply. But, wait a second, no it's not: the father was shown to have raped and abused Laura ONLY because of the demon's influence, otherwise was horrified of his own actions and incredibly remorseful when realizing what he's done. What's this metaphore supposed to be? That abusers are actually good people with "bad tendencies" that don't want to abuse in the first place and we should feel bad for them?? Do you have a take on this? (also, yeah, IT'S NOT A TWIST IF THE TWIST IS ACTUAL SUPERNATURAL FORCES jesus i hate lynch)

    This is not a question, and, if it were, it would be about a show I don't watch, but thanks!

  31. How so? What research article proves otherwise than what I've stated?

    The Kardashians are not people we should look up to often, but people would still revere them like goddesses

    in response to But parasocial relations tend to go towards unhealthy directions over time. Name me one recent/past example of parasocial interaction that comes out as healthy

    Tell you what: You show me whatever study you found that said parasocial relationships are usually unhealthy and I'll dig up the one on mirror neurons that shows parasocial feelings for other races decreases racism. Deal?

  32. Warren is... interesting. She admits proudly to be a capitalist, but has a pretty progressive track record and even propose to break up Amazon, Google, and Facebook, which honestly seems pretty radical. While I do think her chances of wining are slim compared to Bernie, I was wondering what your thoughts are on her strategy to "reform capitalism"

    in response to Which Presidential candidate are you supporting?

    As I said, I haven't sat down and done the research.

  33. Are you concerned about the inevitable leftist infighting the primaries’ results will bring about?

    in response to Which Presidential candidate are you supporting?

    It's not just inevitable, it's already here. And yes.

  34. But parasocial relations tend to go towards unhealthy directions over time.

    Name me one recent/past example of parasocial interaction that comes out as healthy

    in response to It sounds like parasocial interaction isn't your thing, but on the other hand your videos have a lot of personality and people think you're cool and smart because of them. Do you see any tension there?

    There's actually a lot of research into the fact that developing parasocial feelings for people of different races/genders/orientations/etc. decreases bigotry.

    Honestly, I don't know where you got the idea they go unhealthy more often than not.

  35. What about all DC movies? Aren't they anti-fascist movies too?

    in response to what's you favorite anti-fascist movie?

    None of the Snyder movies are anti-fascist.

  37. What do you think of mutualism?

    beats parasitism

  38. "I need the bases of power removed from Nazis and the wealthy. I need the systems that produce them to be changed. I don't need the people themselves harmed or removed; I just need to prevent them from harming everyone else."

    Does this include religious wing nuts?

    I generally need to prevent any big organization from causing large-scale harm.

  39. I wanted to let you know that your content brings me hope, for some reason, and for that I thank you.

    <3

  40. which ghibli film do you think has the best soundtrack?

    Spirited Away is the most memorable soundtrack.

  42. Is it possible to advocate for eugenics without leading to violence or genocide?

    probably, but why?

  43. Okay, but you never did give your own answer in the video; Bebop or Eva?

    Haruhi.

  44. is there a specific reason you wouldn't go on Chapo Trap House? Some sort of ideological difference or just not a fan of their style?

    One of the biggest struggles on the Left is you're simultaneously trying to get the social justice crowd to acknowledge issues of class while trying to get the socialists to stop using the r-word.

    Chapo is the main locus of the second problem.

  45. Which Presidential candidate are you supporting?

    We don't have any Presidential candidates yet.

    Of the people who've thrown their hat in the primaries, I'm most impressed with Warren. But I feel I'll need to have a sit-down and research the F out of all of them at some point.

  46. It sounds like parasocial interaction isn't your thing, but on the other hand your videos have a lot of personality and people think you're cool and smart because of them. Do you see any tension there?

    Parasocial interaction is not, on the face of it, good or bad, but it can go in healthy or unhealthy directions. I very deliberately don't appear often on camera, don't reveal much biographical information, and try to thread the needle of using enough I-statements that I acknowledge I am a person and not a Disembodied Voice Of Unimpeachable Truth but not so much that what I'm saying becomes less important than the fact that it's *me* saying it.

    Like, I sometimes think it'd be fun to do a music recommendation video or a Top 10 Movies list, but the whole idea of those kinds of videos isn't that the music or movies are good, but that they are Ian's Personal Favorites. The point of the video is at least as much about you learning my tastes as it is about the art on display. And I don't want to be the subject of my videos. I want to be the conduit between you and the subject.

    There is no way to avoid parasocial relationships, and no way to make myself wholly invisible. All I can do is try to steer the ship away from the kinds of relationships that make me uncomfortable. I'm not perfect at it, but so far it's getting the job done.

  47. what's you favorite anti-fascist movie?

    Mad Max: Fury Road

  48. So what made you become a youtuber?

    Video is the medium I prefer! It was my main medium in art school, and my college work was heavily influenced by internet video artists like Neil Cicierega and Ze Frank. So when I had ideas for essays, it was the most natural fit to make them as videos. Then I discovered there were people doing exactly that on YouTube and there might even be an audience for it, and the rest of the episode writes itself.

  49. Amidst everything, how do you stay hopeful? I am finding the more I educate myself and research like you the more exhaustion, dread, and hopelessness I feel.

    The way my brain is wired, I feel the most exhaustion, dread, and hopelessness when I'm NOT doing research. The problems feel huge and and vague and looming and all I want to do is pull a blanket over my head and never move again. Diving into research is how I cope. The problem feels no less threatening, but it feels more concrete, comprehensible. It's a thing that I could do something about, even if I don't yet know what.

    People say my videos depress them about the state of the world. But they make *me* less depressed.

    I'm sorry if that's not how you're wired. I seem to be weird in that respect. The way I deal with hopelessness is usually to spend time with friends, express solidarity with them, and also eat as many desserts as I want.

  50. hey i love ur work and a lot of you asks seem really volatile so i just wanted to do a quick little ♥️ love tap um also a question. whats your favorite pokemon (idk if youve ever played, but i do need an answer regardless, thank you)

    Thank you! I've gotten a deluge of new asks since releasing the last video, and a LOT of them are combative. You should see the ones I delete!

    I haven't played or watched Pokemon, I'm afraid, but, like many people, I would die for Sobble.

  51. A little beyond plumbers, what happens when there's a shitty and hard job that needs to be done and no one wants to do it? Just because a society needs that job done doesn't mean enough people are going to raise their hand to do it.

    You only have two choices, allow the current rich to force other people into those jobs because they are richer and thus have more economic and social power to do so. Or you get the government to force whoever they seem so to do it or else state violence will be enacted on you (fines, police, jail, etc).

    The reality seems to be pick your poison. Seems the left wants it to be the latter right?

    in response to Are you dissing plumbers bro?

    Or - and try to follow me here - you increase the payment for the dirty job until someone wants to do it.

    Or - this is gonna sound wild - you give the public control of and responsibility for the entire system, including the dirty jobs, and let them collectively decide how to deal with it. I've always thought everyone in the community doing a few hours a month of the dirty jobs no one wants to do full-time was a good solution; just a bit of community service.

  52. There are certain caveats to equality. You are not equal to a neo-nazi they are beneath you. Likewise, you are not equal to the capitalist class. They are also beneath you. A democracy would function much better if they don't include these people. Agree or disagree?

    Look, I don't know you, you're an anonymous Curious Cat ask, and maybe you're asking in good faith and you genuinely believe these things, and, if so, sorry. But you have to understand how much you sound like all the other people who are trying to get me, either directly or indirectly, to advocate authoritarianism or violence. You write like you're setting me up for some kinda gotcha, some response you can screenshot and post on Twitter and yell about how Ian Danskin believes in murdering people he doesn't agree with. And I'm not going to do it.

    The hard thing to embrace is that Neo-Nazis are people. And oil barons destroying the planet just to add a small percentage to their already obscene wealth are people. One of the reasons we have to contend with the evil these people do is because we live in a democratic society, which means *we are responsible for them.* They are our fellow citizens, no matter how much we hate them. I grow very tired of the argument that you can solve the world's problems with empathy, but I still believe empathy is critically important.

    I need the bases of power removed from Nazis and the wealthy. I need the systems that produce them to be changed. I don't need the people themselves harmed or removed; I just need to prevent them from harming everyone else.

  53. Are you dissing plumbers bro?

    in response to Is your solution for the wealthy to hire other wealthy to clean the toilets? That doesn't sound very likely unless you have the government come in and force people to hire toilet cleaners from the upper class. I'm confused by what your solution is.

    I'm rejecting the idea that plumbers should be denied the ability to be something other than plumbers if they want to be. You'd have to work pretty hard to read that as anti-plumber.

  54. iron workers local 7 in roxbury, carpenters local 327 ect ect.

    in response to Do you support you local Union?

    I am not an ironworker or a carpenter, so I don't pay dues to either of those unions.

  55. pretty small group to give it back to. besides on a serious not many are dead and are mostly in oklahoma even in 2019.

    in response to What do you think of giving Texas back to Mexico?

    and who's fucking fault was that?

  56. Do you think it's possible to have wealth differences between classes of people and have a real egalitarian society?

    "To each according to their need" acknowledges that there will be some wealth inequality. Orwell argued that there is no inherent problem with people who do more or harder work getting more pay, but felt there was no reason the richest person in society should have more than ~10x what the poorest person has.

    When the difference in income isn't enormous, what we know of as "wealth" does not exist.

  57. Would society be better if we kill all the rich?

    I mean... there are BETTER ways to improve society.

  58. https://twitter.com/DegenerateThing/status/1108789799807315969
    I don't think that this is the same as alt-right boys being "ironically" racist.
    But I'm also not sure what need these jokes do fill.

    Catharsis. Mocking racists. Using dark humor to show solidarity with other victims of white bigotry.

    I'm not sure why I should care about these jokes since they don't tie into real oppression and do not, historically, translate into real violence. There's literally nothing at stake other than white people getting their fee-fees hurt.

  59. Sorry if you've published this elsewhere but where are you at in your research list? I'm looking forward to hear your thoughts on some of the stuff, Alt-America esp, since you've read a fair bit of the stuff it cites theory wise now (The Authoritarians and some of the work that's come based on it)

    Currently reading Healing from Hate. I'm leaning towards either This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed or Terror, Love, and Brainwashing next. I want to read Alt-America, but it's just... very big.

  61. So I find this disingenuous in your videos.. you use the term libertarianism wrong.

    libertarianism comes from Proudhon, Makhno, Kropotkin, ect. It is not Hoppe, Smith, or whatever white trash they bring up from the depths.

    I wish you would point the history of the term libertarianism. If you have then fine share a link and I will take back what I wrote.

    What? When did I talk about libertarianism for more than like 3 words?

  62. Do you think hierarchies are inherently bad?

    I am extremely wary of institutional hierarchies.

  63. Is UBI a pipe dream?

    I just saw Apollo 11 and I don't think something as basic as UBI is unreasonable WHEN WE LANDED ON THE MOTHERFUCKING MOON

  64. Were you ever a fan of Sam Harris?

    lol no

  65. Have you always considered yourself left-wing?

    I was raised liberal, drifted further left as I got older.

  66. What do you think of the late Christopher Hitchens?

    he was kind of a dick

  67. Where do you stand on capital punishment?

    I'm against it

  68. What is your stance on assisted suicide?

    should be a right

  69. What do you think of giving Texas back to Mexico?

    how about we give it all back to the native americans

  70. Do you support you local Union?

    which local union?

  71. Do you support the use on waterboarding?

    obviously not

  72. Is your solution for the wealthy to hire other wealthy to clean the toilets? That doesn't sound very likely unless you have the government come in and force people to hire toilet cleaners from the upper class. I'm confused by what your solution is.

    in response to "Someone needs to clean the toilets." Someone does... need to clean the toilets tho? What's wrong with this argument?

    what?

    the wealthy person who shits in the toilet doesn't need to hire anybody.

    they can clean their own shit.

  73. Ever been to a rally?

    I've been to protests. Don't think I've been to any rallies.

  74. Do you think there's any significant difference between american conservatism and European conservatism (Supposedly less crazy)?

    I haven't studied European conservatism, but I can't imagine it's a fundamental difference. More likely a difference of scale.

  75. Do you believe that Google and Amazon should be publicly owned?

    Anything big enough that it is functionally a monopoly should either be broken up or nationalized.

Anon commented:
Ian replied: