CuriousCat Archive Page 175 of 202

  1. What do you mean by "last chance"? It sucks but surely we can just accomplish all this stuff next election.

    in response to Then which president? Why not Obama?

    Republican obstructionism, gerrymandering, and gaming the electoral college have worsened to the point that I'm not sure a Democrat majority like that is possible anymore, at least not without major reforms to our electoral process. and some of the issues we need to address (i.e. climate change) are on VERY tight schedules.

  2. I am not well-versed in discussing ideology, but I'm wondering if you think this page is fair, or if there's anything amiss to you:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-wing_fascism

    Feel obligated to say this is a good faith question; I'm not good at this stuff.

    I don't know enough about Habermas, et al, to weigh in on the idea of left-wing fascism. I'm not entirely sure why calling it fascism, rather than just left-wing authoritarianism, is useful, but maybe I would if I read the source material further.

  3. Have you seen Bird Box?

    no

  4. Then which president?

    Why not Obama?

    in response to Is Barack Obama the best president your country has ever had?

    Obama deported more immigrants than any President in history. He jailed more whistleblowers than any President in history. He expanded the surveillance state and ramped up drone warfare. He broke up Occupy. He ignored the violence in Ferguson and the water crisis in Flint. He campaigned on breaking up the banks during the recession and then gave a bunch of them jobs instead.

    He also did some amazing things that were considered, before him, basically impossible, and he seemingly never gets credit for them.

    This is why so many lefties are ambivalent about Obama. He was simultaneously so much better and worse than we expected him to be.

    But the major frustration is that we could have done so much more. We had both houses of Congress and the White House, and, if we hadn't rolled over for the Republicans, we could have had a progressive on the Supreme Court as well. We could have done amazing things, and we'll probably never have that much power again. But we played the incrementalist game, assuming we'd hold onto that power indefinitely, so best not to rock the boat too much. We let the Party with no real power dictate the terms of our progress in the name of "good sportsmanship." We didn't fix the economy, we didn't fix the environment, we made a mediocre healthcare system instead of something actually universal, and it may legitimately have been our last chance.

    I don't really have a favorite President, but I guess I'd go with FDR or Lincoln. They were racist, sexist products of their time, but they at least did some lasting good.

  5. Seen/played Blank Mirror: Bandersnatch? Do you have any thoughts about it?
    To me it reads like a love poem to early adventure games, and also kind of a commentary on modern game development crunch culture.

    not yet

  6. The legacy of TotalBiscuit is a fraught one. Totally understand if you don't want to answer this (not to speak ill of the dead and all), but as he was a big part of the GamerGate movement, do you have any thoughts on what his impact was?

    Yeahhhh, I'm not gonna answer that because I don't want death threats.

  7. Is Barack Obama the best president your country has ever had?

    no

  8. what do you like about the role of the US President?

    this is something I never really thought much about until Trump, but — do you think their powers are too wide? their unfettered pardoning, their veto duties, shutting down the government. do you think these are all abilities that should be there?

    it feels like Republican presidents exploit and weaponise the office far more than Democrats do, although they aren't immune from it too

    thoughts?

    Well, like a lot of our government, the office of the President was designed assuming we wouldn't have political parties, i.e. the President would have a distinct set of loyalties from the Legislative and Judicial branches: the President would represent the country as a whole, each Congressperson would represent their own constituents, and the Supreme Court would represent the original framers of the Constitution. Each was supposed to serve as a check on the others.

    It was not supposed to be the case that the Executive branch would have, by default, an alliance with up to 60% of Congress and be strategically stacking the courts with people from their own Party. That was never plan, and the system has never been adequately redesigned to accommodate political parties.

    So, yeah, the office of the President has powers that make one party phenomenally overpowered because the President wasn't supposed to BE in a political party.

    I think this is a problem, but have no idea what to do about it. I've heard it argued that the US would benefit from being a proper parliament, but I haven't really looked into it.

  9. I find myself being pulled deeper and deeper into just being an out-and-out leftist these days, but something that pulls me back is always the Green Brothers — do you think their incredible services to charity and to online communities function in spite of the system, or because of it? Do you think that, for every Green Brother, there are literally millions of people happy to chase their dreams (synonymous, in capitalism, with 'exploiting your fellows') under this system?

    I have discussed my ambivalent love of the Vlogbrothers here:

    https://curiouscat.me/InnuendoStudios/post/714228679
    https://curiouscat.me/InnuendoStudios/post/725041736

  11. How do you avoid being a narcissist?

    I'm kind of chronically humble and averse to being the center of attention, so it's never been a major problem for me, except when I'm in serious bouts of depression where it gets hard to think of anything but my own invasive thoughts. I have meds and therapy for that.

    If you mean literal Narcissistic Personality Disorder, that can't be avoided, only managed. Meds and therapy help there, as well.

  12. This isn't meant to be a disrespectful question (oh boy), but if I'm not at all religious, is there a requirement for US politicians to be sworn in with a religious text?

    I dunno!

  13. https://twitter.com/christapeterso/status/1080950245675040768

    Any chance you could explain this to me (as a layman)? I googled Kantianism and it all seems, like, above board.

    You should probably ask PhilosophyTube, I'm not up on my moral philosophers. https://curiouscat.me/PhilosophyTube

  14. I know it’s all memes a memes and it’s do you think it’s ever possible to seriously discuss what qualifies as a sandwich, tamale and hot dog? If there is a breakdown of this I would love to know but curious to know what your thoughts are on a serious discussion of food definitions and categorization 🤷‍♀️

    https://curiouscat.me/InnuendoStudios/post/662203822

  15. What did you think of Obamacare so far?

    well, it pays for my meds, so

  16. Do you ever worry that giant social media companies (Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Tumblr etc.) have stakes in the outcome of the current culture war online?

    That it might explain why the response to LGBT/leftist content on their platforms is so bizarre when compared to rightwing/fascist content?

    I don't suspect they're thinking that far ahead. What they know is that LGBT content is more "controversial" than fascist content because people tend to underestimate how serious the fascists actually are, and because Republicans are skewing so fashy these days that you can't take down fashy content and still seem non-partisan.

    They're just doing whatever they think will make the most money on a given day. That doesn't mean they're working towards any particular goal. It is, however, very easy to see who benefits from this position, and knowing what will happen and doing it anyway is barely distinguishable from doing it on purpose.

  18. What did you think about Mindhunter on Netflix?

    no opinion

  19. What did you think of Phantom Thread & Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri?

    meh

  20. Forgive me if this is obvious, but I don't get what's supposed to be so shameful about the word "content." Like to me it's just a generic term that means "anything worth publishing in any medium." Yes, general to the point of occasionally dubious descriptive value, but nowhere near "what we call our creative output only because we are living in a dystopia." What am I missing?

    "Content" traditionally refers to things like the contents of your wallet or the contents of a barrel. It keeps the focus on the medium rather than the... well, content. Video content, web content, Photoshop content, it all emphasizes the platform by which the content is delivered. It's a catch-all term - whether you're making videos, drawings, stories, it's all #content.

    You can see where the term is useful: When you're on YouTube you're not solely a video producer. You're leaving comments, making Community posts, maybe doing livestreams that aren't saved. And you're often serving as your own social media manager, directing traffic from Twitter and Facebook and what have you. Since all this stuff is interrelated but it doesn't stay in a single medium, yeah, it can be useful to have a broad term like "content."

    But the reason why corporations use "content" is because they prefer it to "art." If you're YouTube, would you rather people think of the people on your platform as artists, or content-providers? Content is a neutral, interchangeable term. An art platform is good when the art is good, but a content platform is good when there's a lot of content; it does not reflect poorly on YouTube if the content is mediocre.

    Regardless of what it MEANS, "content" is often USED to treat artists as craft-labor, and to emphasize the medium above the message. That's why some of us get kinda antsy around the word.

  21. Is there such a thing as "authoritarian leftists"?

    so there was this guy stalin...

  22. Didn't you yourself say that leftists are against money? Why would I vote left if they would directly undermine our economy since they are against capitalism. Republicans being fiscally irresponsible through militarism and xenophobia (over funding the police and border) is byproduct of fear.

    Leftists are fiscally irresponsible on principle because they want to destroy any and all personal wealth through massive redistribution.

    in response to Are you saying that if you truly care about fiscal responsibility but aren't xenophobic or militaristic you wouldn't be Republican?

    "leftists are against money" is a very foolish thing I have definitely never said

  23. If you hypothetically got big enough that you started making six figures or even an income significantly higher than the average median income for an individual in the US, would you give your wealth away out of principle and not participate in a capitalistic society more than you have to?

    austerity is not praxis
    philanthropy is not praxis
    I would put that money into organizations dedicated to major political reform

    (and buy a sick gaming PC)

  24. Are you saying that if you truly care about fiscal responsibility but aren't xenophobic or militaristic you wouldn't be Republican?

    in response to hi! i think this is one of the most valuable topics that exist in modern political discourse. but not entirely right-wing people, because I think right wingers as a group are damaging, and visible, but not the most sizeable portion of the population. the people that I come across most often are ones entrenched in right wing populist rhetoric when it comes to immigration and defence, but not conservative economic policies. this stems from their exposure to the media and propaganda. Here is a response to a comment I received on Facebook from a friend of mine: https://imgur.com/a/AJP06dO He actually came around when I replied, but my method (long, emotional appeal to reason including sources and pointing out that, hey, no, you've been tricked by people who want to exploit you, is really valuable when speaking to reasonable people, but that isn't always the case). I've been thinking about reaching these people for some time. I think so often this sort of content cannot reach these people. I'm still working on how to get through to them.

    if you're voting Republican, you're voting for xenophobia and militarism and, more often than not, fiscal irresponsibility

    so, if you care about the economy, why would you ever vote Republican?

  25. I just want to say thanks for continuing to be a YouTuber whose work completely rejects the idea of the hot take. Your work is nuanced and thoughtful; BBWS is progressive in the directional sense: it is looking forward and imagining what could be. Thanks so much. :)

    \ :D /

  26. to what extent is this (curiouscat) and other social media (namely twitter) "work" to you? do you tweet because it's fun? do you just like engaging with your audience in more meaningful ways than YouTube comments?

    Well, it's hard to delineate what is and is not "work" since I work independently and make what I want. I need to be on Twitter for professional reasons, but I use it in a number of non-professional ways. I don't need to be on CuriousCat, but, having it open, sometimes it feels like an obligation to my audience. There are interactions I used to have on social media that I can't have anymore because there are too many eyes on me - too many people who hate me and look for shit they can take out of context, too many fans who get weird when they know personal details. Any part of my life that is even remotely public has to be, to varying degrees, manicured, somewhat for "brand" reasons but moreso for my own safety and comfort. I keep my Facebook private and only friend people I know so that I have one space online where I can be unfiltered.

    This isn't so much to say "everything is work" as "everything is work and not-work at once." I feel like this is a quintessentially Millennial experience.

  27. Is that podcast thing still a... well, a thing? That seems to be a pretty good solution to hear your opinions about games, even if in a less elaborate or scripted manner

    in response to Didn't know you had one of these! I know that your videos involve intersections of politics with other media (in a very overt way), but I was curious if the current political climate — and need for action — means that videos like your THREE SHORT ARGUMENTS ON THE SECRET OF MONKEY ISLAND or STORY BEATS will be significantly less in frequency throughout 2019? Don't get me wrong: I understand the necessity and value of your political values, but every day I am bombarded with politics. I cannot ignore politics; I am a queer, disabled black man. My life is at stake if I ignore politics. That said... I really miss those older style videos, and that particular type of analysis from you. BBWS kind of scratched that itch, but I can't play a lot of games these days, and I just sort of missing hearing about them. Most of my favourite YouTube creators have moved on from what they started with, and I was just wondering what 2019 looks to include for you. Thanks and best wishes for this coming year.

    I'm still planning a podcast, but not one about games.

  28. Didn't know you had one of these!

    I know that your videos involve intersections of politics with other media (in a very overt way), but I was curious if the current political climate — and need for action — means that videos like your THREE SHORT ARGUMENTS ON THE SECRET OF MONKEY ISLAND or STORY BEATS will be significantly less in frequency throughout 2019?

    Don't get me wrong: I understand the necessity and value of your political values, but every day I am bombarded with politics. I cannot ignore politics; I am a queer, disabled black man. My life is at stake if I ignore politics. That said...

    I really miss those older style videos, and that particular type of analysis from you. BBWS kind of scratched that itch, but I can't play a lot of games these days, and I just sort of missing hearing about them.

    Most of my favourite YouTube creators have moved on from what they started with, and I was just wondering what 2019 looks to include for you.

    Thanks and best wishes for this coming year.

    The Alt-Right Playbook is my primary project right now, but I take a break every 3-4 videos to do something different. And, yeah, I've missed talking about games and want to prioritize that more in 2019. It still means only 2 or 3 non-ARP videos a year, but I don't plan on ever leaving games behind! There's a satisfaction I get from games discourse that I just don't get from talking about movies.

  29. hi! i think this is one of the most valuable topics that exist in modern political discourse. but not entirely right-wing people, because I think right wingers as a group are damaging, and visible, but not the most sizeable portion of the population.

    the people that I come across most often are ones entrenched in right wing populist rhetoric when it comes to immigration and defence, but not conservative economic policies. this stems from their exposure to the media and propaganda.

    Here is a response to a comment I received on Facebook from a friend of mine: https://imgur.com/a/AJP06dO

    He actually came around when I replied, but my method (long, emotional appeal to reason including sources and pointing out that, hey, no, you've been tricked by people who want to exploit you, is really valuable when speaking to reasonable people, but that isn't always the case).

    I've been thinking about reaching these people for some time. I think so often this sort of content cannot reach these people. I'm still working on how to get through to them.

    in response to Do you have any suggestions for those of us who would like to talk to right-wing leaning-far-right persons we personally know? Not in a Facebook shouting match, but in a one-on-one scenario like in a coffee shop.

    What if I told you the militarism and xenophobia WERE core tenets of conservatism, and that none of them actually care about economic policy? And that it's nigh-impossible to reach them if you believe their chief concerns are supply-side economics and fiscal responsibility? That these are mostly lies conservatives tell themselves rather than admit they want to consolidate power among the privileged and stratify society into a hierarchy with people like them at the top? And that they may also believe in the principles of democracy and egalitarianism, but don't recognize how fundamentally opposed these two worldviews are, because they bend over backwards to never articulate their true desires?

    See, that's what we're up against. I have a number of leads on how to untangle that psychological knot, but I'm not confident in any of it enough to start telling folks which threads to pull first. And I know that things can go wrong if you approach this *extremely* complicated problem the wrong way.

    So, yes, I will share my findings when I'm confident in them. But, so far, everything I'm confident in sharing I've already shared in The Alt-Right Playbook.

  31. I asked this question, and I didn't mean for it to sound invasive. I'm de-anonymising myself to show that this was a good faith question. I was just curious as to whether you - in family gatherings - are forced to engage with people who worldviews are not reconcilable with you, and how you navigate that. Sorry to seem invasive; wasn't at all my intention. Totally respect your privacy on this front. Thanks for responding, in any case.

    <3

    in response to Interested in whether you come from a family which tends towards the left, or to the right (or to populism)?

    <3

  32. Is 'racial tension' a way to say 'racism' but blaming both sides?

    not in concept, but usually in practice

  34. I’m a leftist, but I’m convinced the labor theory of value is just as wrong as the marginal theory of value. Knowing you’re not exactly a Marxist or a Liberal, do you personally subscribe to an alternative economic foundation?

    I haven't done much research into it and forget all the details of marginalism. From what I know, it seems like markets SOMETIMES function in an LTV sense, and SOMETIMES (though less often) function in a more marginal sense, and that markets are created by humans and humans are fickle creatures, and economic theories are more useful as a set of lenses for interpreting human behavior, the the same way we use literary theories to interpret novels, than as natural sciences that describe universal laws.

    But maybe that's just ignorant waffling.

  36. What should be the goals for progressives in Washington, on YouTube, and for you going into 2019?

    There are a few things I'd like to see from Democrats in Washington. First, I want to see the Dems as a whole embrace and incorporate the increasing body of leftists in their party and in their constituency. Establishment Democrats have been tearing the Party apart trying NOT to move left, seemingly out of fear that centrism is the only way to win elections, no matter how many times this strategy fails. So I'm hoping this new crop of younger politicians who are more left economically and more progressive socially either makes that position untenable or overpowers the establishment Dems. Second, and part and parcel with this, is I want to see the Democrats start acting like an opposition party and stop trying to compromise with Republicans, stop treating Trump like a reasonable leader who can be bargained with, and generally stop letting themselves get screwed by people who openly revile them. They need to block bills and seriously consider impeachment. I'm never going to love liberalism, but I would like liberals to at least be USEFUL for something.

    I'm not sure what I want from YouTubers this year. I've been pondering whether there should be some more formalized collaboration/unity of purpose from LeftTube, and whether I'd be the person to make such a thing happen. I feel resisting fascism can't just be individual action; it has to be organized. But that doesn't necessarily mean YouTube is the best place for that organization, it just happens to be the place where I have influence. So I'm trying to figure out what type of organization I want to be part of, and, in general, I'd like to see other LeftTubers promote organized resistance, even if that resistance is not on YouTube. (At the very least, it would help me figure out what to get involved with myself.)

    Personally, I have a few projects I want to get off the ground this year in addition to my usual video essays. There's a podcast I've been planning for a while I want to make time for. There's a big and kinda different video I want to make that will probably have to be worked on here and there for much of the year, but I'd like to get it out before the year is over. I want to make more mixtapes and non-essay projects on my second channel. I only made one video about games in 2018 and I miss it, so I'd like to do some game videos between Alt-Right Playbook episodes. I'll keep my personal resolutions to myself, but that's most of the professional stuff.

  37. Do you have any suggestions for those of us who would like to talk to right-wing leaning-far-right persons we personally know? Not in a Facebook shouting match, but in a one-on-one scenario like in a coffee shop.

    I gave advice in Why Are You So Angry? that proved to be counterproductive, so I've been hesitant to give advice until I feel I've researched the problem enough. As soon as I feel confident enough in the things I'm learning to recommend them to others, I'll be shouting it from the rooftops.

  39. How do you propose we prevent the new emergent LeftTube from suffering the same fate as the previous incarnation of LeftTube? (pre 2012 atheist lefttube)

    Back then wasn't perfect but we had a large community of atheist youtubers attacking homophobia, Rightwing punditry, and even proto alt right racism, while defending Occupy, and defending science.

    2013 happened and it seemed like half the people we thought were allies broke off to form anti SJW youtube.

    The standard bearers of LeftTube are all very expressly social justice-y, so I don't worry that we're going to have a lot of right-wing infiltration. I have some concerns that the community will fail to be as intersectional as it needs to be. Most of the big names are white, and the expressly anti-capitalist channels are more marginal. This is less a problem with the creators than with how the media is consumed, and how it is shared, and by whom. There's also the hypervigilance in some corners of the Left around perceived imperfections from our "celebrities" - people used to being sold out being absolutely convinced that Contra is truscum and Hbomb is a rape apologist based on slight missteps in their pasts that they have spent considerable time contextualizing and apologizing for.

    These are the pitfalls I worry about LeftTube falling into. LeftTube is not a movement - it is not formally organized, it has no unified principles, it doesn't have any specific goals or demands. It is a loose collection of YouTubers with similar perspectives, many of whom know each other. They are associated primarily because fans associate them with one another. Because it's not formalized, it can't build in protections against these pitfalls - it's just a bunch of individual people making judgment calls. And many individuals making bad judgment calls until the whole community is skewed in a crappy direction is more or less what happened to atheist YouTube.

    It's hard to imagine that specific outcome with LeftTube. It's more likely that it will fragment, and some parts will eat other parts alive, and some big names will quit because the drama and backbiting are too taxing. I don't know how probable that is, but I think it's the most believable worst-case scenario.

  40. What do you think about the left-scape that used to exist on Youtube before the anti feminist plague of 2012?

    You had people like the Amazing Atheist, speaking out publicly against the Tea Party, proto-alt-right racism, homophobia, rightwing punditry targeting the Occupy movement, and extreme fundamentalist Christianity.

    And within what seemed like a very short time span a little over half of those people became anti-feminist reactionaries.

    I'm happy that a new left tube is growing out of the ashes, but I can't help but feel cautiously optimistic seeing how quickly the previous atheist "left" coalition on Youtube was quickly dismantled and mutated into something reactionary and ugly.

    Any community with a large white male population that feels in some way marginalized will be targeted for recruitment by the Far Right. It will be rewarded for mild reactionary sentiments until it becomes both socially and financially profitable to travel further and further right. If you don't embrace progressive values from the outset, you will *always* contend with this.

    Maybe atheist YouTube shouldn't have elevated a bunch of mediocre sexist white men just because they dunked on the right people? It's not like Amazing Atheist, Sargon, and Thunderf00t were ever particularly smart or talented.

  41. Why do you think that gaming has not developed a Haikyuu/Yuri!! on Ice style coming of age sports narrative, or a Remember the Titans style social commentary sports narrative? The closest I can find are the Longshot and MyCareer modes in NBA 2k and the recent Maddens, but even they intersperse the story so choppily between gameplay designed for simulation/fantasy that they lose focus on the narrative. For a while I thought that it was because there wasn't an engine that would effectively fit the genre, but lately I've been feeling more and more like the telltale engine for WD-alikes would work very effectively to tell such a story. Then I started wondering if the audience was there, but nearly every gamer I talk to either loves shows and movies like that or is at least open to them, so I'm left wondering... Seriously, why don't we have this?

    I dunno, I guess a sports game that doesn't have popular sports mechanics is a hard sell?

  42. Then does both don hertzfeldt and Charlie Kaufman have anything in common? Or even more so, who does the dream-logic better?

    in response to What is it about don hertzfeldt's works that appeals to you more than David Lynch's?

    Enh, they're different. Kaufman seems interested in taking surrealist ideas and then grounding them in the mundanity of real life, like a portal into someone's head being turned into a profit-making attraction, or the logistics of living in a house that is always on fire. Hertzfeldt is more into making semi-plausible reasons for things to be hallucinatory - literally traveling into a person's unconscious or showing their mental breakdown from their perspective - but not requiring the imagery to make any literal sense. I appreciate both approaches, and they accomplish different things, so I don't feel any need to rank them.

  43. How to incorporate dream-logic in creative writing?

    Hell if I know. Most dream logic in movies seems too, well, *logical* to me. The best depictions of dreaming I've seen are Waking Life and that one episode of Buffy. But that is not a type of writing I practice, so I can't help you employ it.

  44. would you consider yourself 'patriotic'? how heavily connotated is that word for you? what does it even mean? especially when you live in a country with a dark history (so all of them, probably)

    No, I would not consider myself patriotic. I think the idea of patriotism is harmful like 90% of the time. I mean, I can kind of get onboard with the notion of "American Values" if you stick with the interpretation where it's all equality and human rights and democratic cooperation, and if you treat that as an ideal America must strive towards but has always failed to embody. If you're running for office, you'll need to employ patriotism, and that's the most ethical version of it. But I'm not running for office, and I think a country is only as good as its actions, and I dislike how patriotism generally means a kind of vague, unconditional love of country that is supposed to sustain regardless of what that country does. I have no use for it.

  45. oh no what’s up with mulaney?
    can i recommend aparna nancherla. her twitter is great too.

    in response to Who are some comedians you enjoy?

    Oh, nothing terrible! He's got a few problematic jokes, but, considering how awful some comics are, he actually seems like a pretty decent dude.

  46. What is it about don hertzfeldt's works that appeals to you more than David Lynch's?

    they have a similar dream-logic quality to them, but

    a) they mostly make sense
    b) they don't pretend to make more sense than they do
    c) they're not full of weird hangups about women

  48. "....Baby shark dudududu
    Baby shark dudududu

    Baby shark..."

    Like that song?

    it's fine

  49. Who are some comedians you enjoy?

    Mitch Hedberg
    Hannah Gadsby
    Cameron Esposito
    John Mulaney (with a few caveats)

  50. Interested in whether you come from a family which tends towards the left, or to the right (or to populism)?

    fam, you ask me questions about my family, I'm going to wonder whether you're trying to dox me

  51. why doesn't curiouscat have a search function ffs

    RIGHT?!?!

  52. Are you going to hit 2000 questions answered before new years?

    Depends on if I get good enough questions by midnight.

  53. Inevitable thoughts on Warren, a MA Dem running for President?

    I've been saying for a while that Warren seems like the best mix of progressivism, leftyness, and electability of everyone gearing up to run.

  54. Should we relax before the end of the year of every year because the calendar is man made?

    Most ritual is arbitrary. Most ritual is valuable. I like the reflection the New Year brings.

  55. Do you believe that first-wave feminism walked hand in hand with white superiority in the past?

    I mean, this is still a problem in third-wave feminism today, and any movement where white people hold sway. Whiteness is a hell of a drug.

  57. thoughts on Obama?

    also: do you think Obama's relative lightness vis-a-vi dark-skinned Black folks played a role in his "electability"?

    Like a lot of lefties, my feeling about Obama is intense ambivalence.

    I can't speak with authority on the semiotics of light-skinned Black politicians.

  58. "I don't want to think about how many readings I did for fun years after I failed a paper on them."

    I have, thus far, never failed a paper in university, but I also think your videos are significantly more entertaining than any piece of academic writing I have ever produced, which makes me think — is university in the US harder than in the UK? Because I just straight-up wouldn't submit an essay that was going to fail. I write it, usually very baked, and sometimes they catch that I didn't proof-read very extensively (because it was finished at 4 AM when it was due at 12 PM), but I've never actually gotten lower than a B.

    Or, were those failures at higher levels (beyond second year)?

    in response to "Like, I was assigned Adorno, but no one ever assigned me Chomsky. (Also I didn't actually *read* the Adorno until way after it was assigned.)" college student here, this is a relief. I'm 2 years in (4 year course) of an English Lit degree and I get pretty high grades without ever reading the stuff I'm set. I DO read assigned critical discussions in preparations for tutorials — articles, essays — but I don't really feel like dedicating a week to reading Thomas More's Utopia.

    Well, by "fail" I meant "got a zero because I didn't turn it in." I have *definitely* gotten lower than a B, though.

  59. "Like, I was assigned Adorno, but no one ever assigned me Chomsky. (Also I didn't actually *read* the Adorno until way after it was assigned.)"

    college student here, this is a relief. I'm 2 years in (4 year course) of an English Lit degree and I get pretty high grades without ever reading the stuff I'm set.

    I DO read assigned critical discussions in preparations for tutorials — articles, essays — but I don't really feel like dedicating a week to reading Thomas More's Utopia.

    so I did 2 years of college, 3 years of a different college, 5 years of no college, and then 4.5 years of still more college, but in that FINAL college I actually did the readings, and, you know what? most were pretty good!

    that's where #IanLivetweetsHisResearch came from

    college is a ton of cool information relevant to your interests dumped on you at the precise stage where you have the least time and the most resistance to being told what to do. I don't want to think about how many readings I did for fun years after I failed a paper on them.

  61. Yeehaw Ian! Do you think the “cowboy meets sci-Fi world” movie like from Cowboys and Aliens could ever work out? I’m curious because of your Sonic video and how “being Cool” ages poorly and we live in a time where the cowboy isn’t so cool

    I'm not sure "cowboys aren't cool" passes muster in the year of Red Dead Redemption 2.

  62. what's it in? It disheartens me a lot that so many YouTubers like yourself have been to uni when I just don't have access to that kind of education... I realise this isn't your area (given that you attended university), but how can I grow and learn without academic feedback?

    in response to do you have a university degree?

    I have a degree in Interrelated Media from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, but...

    OK, the most valuable things college did for me, in descending order of usefulness, were:

    1) compelled me to make a lot of stuff
    2) made it easier to get a job if videos don't pay the bills
    3) taught me things

    College makes numbers 1 and 3 faster and easier, but number 2 is the only one you can't do on your own. Education is a large and tangled subject, especially in the US, and I don't want to downplay the advantages postsecondary education. But I also think there are misunderstandings about how college benefits folks doing what I do, and don't want to paint a lack of college as a greater barrier than it is.

    I went to community college, and then I went to art school, and then I dropped out and couldn't afford to go back until I was nearly thirty. I only got my degree last year. A lot of things I studied in school have made their way into my videos, but, also, a lot of it was self-taught. My videos can be very academic, but I went to art school - all the politics and half the academia are things I studied on my own. Like, I was assigned Adorno, but no one ever assigned me Chomsky. (Also I didn't actually *read* the Adorno until way after it was assigned.)

    And most of the technical stuff I learned when I was (nominally) a film major at my second college I've forgotten. Like, I got the top grade on my cinematography midterm, but I couldn't tell you anymore how to measure footcandles. What makes information stick is what gets put to use - I remember the rule of thirds because I (occasionally) appear on camera. Having to employ this stuff for college projects was incredibly useful, but even more useful was having to employ it as a freelancer during the years I was a dropout. Like, I *never* had a consistent work ethic until rent money was on the line.

    I repeated the adage "fail early and fail often," and I meant it. The reason you've never seen most of my failures is because they were homework assignments, presented in a classroom and politely savaged by a community of my peers. It's the making of stuff and the community that got me where I am moreso than the education itself. College gives you that stuff on a silver platter, and also a ton of books and lectures and conversation that will help you think more critically about your work, and that's why it's valuable: It's a lot of what will help you, all in one place, in a very concentrated span of time.

    But tons of people get the "make shit/get feedback" experience on webforums, tons learn to think critically at the library, tons get hands-on education at cheap community colleges, tons learn to meet deadlines by freelancing.

    Go to college if you can manage it, but you're going to have to integrate your education with a lot of hands-on experience and solo study anyway. So, if you can't afford college, you'll need more of the other stuff. It's harder, but doable.

  63. regarding you studying film (which I didn't know), do you think you'd be able to put together a video like this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27b16c9PHac

    It's the most recent video I've seen where I've been like - DAMN. the EDITING

    While I am MARVELING at the craft here, I must confess, I find that level of visual business distracting from the narration. And, while it doesn't apply in this instance (Grace actually has some substantive analysis here), I often feel that showy editing is used to make trite commentary seem more impressive than it is. I sometimes feel like a lot of YouTube is the same handful of opinions repeated, again and again, with the only variation being how well they are edited.

    Maybe this is a rationalization for the plainness of my own videos, but I take some pride in keeping the focus on the contents of my arguments rather than the aesthetics of my production. Not that it's an either/or, but I will sacrifice aesthetics any time doing so will make my argument clearer.

  64. do you have a university degree?

    yes

  65. Hi! I was reading your answer about making videos when you were younger (I don't know what age you are now, so I don't know how much distance you have from 22-year-old-Innuendo... I also don't know your name?! I've seen all of your videos and I don't know your name)...

    And I was wondering: how did you come out the gate with well-made videos from a purely visual sense? If I were to try my hand at your first video, it would look like TOTAL garbage. Not just because of software*, but because I don't want to produce work that doesn't visually look professional, so I just don't bother.

    I do feel I have things to say! I don't struggle with ideas. Literally just putting the actual videos together would be a massive headache for me, so I do regular ol' essays.

    *I am a postgrad student with 0 disposable income. I'm not totally afraid to admit that I will steal software from large corporations sometimes. I know that sucks. I don't know what else to do. Things are hard. It's 2018.

    Well, in my professional opinion, the visual aesthetic of This Is Phil Fish is ugly as fuck, so I don't feel I came out the gate looking good at all.

    But, in general? I went to college for film and video. I feel there are a lot of YouTube with less training whose stuff looks *waaaaaay* better than mine, so by no means do you need a film degree to look good, but that's where I learned the basics of editing and composition. It's also where I learned to look at art analytically, which probably had the bigger impact. Watching other people's videos with an eye towards how they made it, what works and *why* it works, influences my work more than anything.

    If you're a student, you may have free access to Lynda, and it might help to run through an editing course. And I would recommend watching some videos you think are good and taking notes on how they do what they do, what you like most, how the argument is structured - you can learn a lot! But, the harsh reality is, I've got the same advice for you that everyone else has: Fail early and fail often.

    No matter how much studying you do, your first video is going to look like garbage. The more you prepare, the less garbage it will be, one day you will look back and think, dang, that's ugly as fuck. There's no avoiding it: You gotta get the garbage video(s) out of your system. Everybody starts somewhere. If it makes you feel better, you can make a garbage video and not release it. (I actually wrote and filmed two video essays before This Is Phil Fish that I never released or even edited.) Also, tons of good video essayists have no visual style to speak of. You can just put your audio over game footage or a picture of a skull and still find your audience if your arguments are interesting.

    I believe in you!

  66. Would you consider re-publishing BRINGING BACK WHAT'S STOLEN as one single, long video? I realise it might cannibalise ad revenue from the other videos, but doesn't the increased revenue from longer form content cancel that out?

    I don't mean taking down the originals, obviously; just posting an additional compilation. I've been sending people the playlist link but it's... well, YouTube haven't really worked out the kinks on that.

    I've said this a few times already, but I uploaded a single-video version and YouTube blocked it for copyright infringement. So we stick to the 8-parter.

  67. Out of interest, would you be willing to share the books you read in researching BBWS?

    There's a bibliography in the end credits!

  68. Why do you hate Ronald Reagan? I feel as though he's become a symbol for a lot of things he only somewhat embodied.

    You are correct that he is a shorthand for a whole mess of issues that were brewing before he rose to power, but he did not "somewhat" embody them, he loudly and deliberately became that symbol. He doesn't bear all the blame for what happened to culture in the 80s, but the fact that I blame society for producing Reagan doesn't make me hate Reagan any less. He was a man in a position to do horrible things and he did them proudly, and America has literally never recovered.

  69. are you in the lgbtq+ family?

    Depends on what letters fall under "+" but I don't think so. I'm pretty tragically straight, in most senses of the word.

  70. Hi there! I love your videos. I do. And I find myself able to engage with them at an academic level, but I don't find myself able to create BBWS-level analysis on my own, and I don't know where you looked to start putting these ideas together.

    I'm 21, soon to be 22. I wonder what it would look like if your 22-year-old-self was creating these videos, and not you. That's what I want to ask about, really.

    My 22-year-old self would probably have stronger opinions yet more centrist politics, talk more authoritatively with less research, make more assumptions, overvalue the hot take, lack nuance, generally try to be more of a YouTube Personality, and make more jokes.

    It is possible that, by the time I was 25 or so, experience (and probably several public fuckups) would have taught me to be more like I am now, so maybe I would have gotten where I am today earlier, but I would have several years of content I wish i could scrub from the internet. I don't know if that's better or worse; I don't regret coming out the gate with work I'm still proud of, but I do regret how long a fear of failure kept me from finishing projects.

    For what it's worth, BBWS took four months of research AFTER taking an entire class on the subject. It didn't just spring out of my head. I often use video subjects as an excuse to learn tons about something I find interesting. You could produce something similar if you'd read two books and like thirty essays on a given subject.

  72. Why is the concept of "i'm only intolerant towards intolerance " is a flawed idea?

    It's not.

  73. Ok... Brave New World or 1984?

    in response to Animal Farm or Brave New World?

    Animal Farm.

  74. Planning on making any new years' resolutions?

    Yeah probably.

  75. What are your opinions on the original Mary Poppins?

    Also, which big emotional moment in the new one did you not like?

    I haven't watched Mary Poppins in years, so I dunno if it holds up. I liked it as a kid, and feel it at least had parts that worked.

    The big "emotional" moment in the new one was the reprise of Where The Lost Things Go that the kids sing do their dad to help him with his grief over his dead wife. It is so fucking trite and empty, "she's not gone, she's still with us" from three kids who have shown zero grief about their dead mom through the whole movie, giving their dad an empty homily about people staying with you when they die as if that makes anyone feel better, bearing no resemblance to actual bereavement, and the dad being more or less fine about his wife from then on. Ugh. And the song isn't even good!

Anon commented:
Ian replied: