CuriousCat Archive Page 188 of 202

  1. why are you white?

    Because my ancestors chose to distinguish themselves from the people they were oppressing.

  2. Is it hypocritical to not want to date straight people?

    I would need to know more about you to know why it would or wouldn't be hypocritical.

  3. You Night in the Woods review/essay from last year was really insightful, have you had the chance to revisit it since the Weird Autumn update/edition?

    Ach, no! I haven't made the time yet. I have so little time to play games, and when I do I seem to prioritize familiar things I love or things I haven't played, so familiar things I want to revisit have taken a backseat. :O

  4. Speaking of Princess Mononoke, have you seen another anime series called Mononoke? 12 episodes altogether...

    http://www.gstatic.com/tv/thumb/tvbanners/14459185/p14459185_b_v8_aa.jpg

    It's a spin-off of one of the episodes from 2006's horror anthology series Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales

    I have not seen that.

  5. Let's make it clear...

    Princess Mononoke > James Cameron's Avatar

    This checks out.

  6. If someone asks you which states you've been to, should you include DC?

    Yes but you should always mention it last, unless you've been to a territory.

  7. does marxism make her pussy wet?

    no, that's what the bath is for, try to keep up

  8. "Do France, Monaco, and Italy have lower taxes than we do?"

    taxes for the rich can be eschewed, look at the U.S., why would it be any different?

    *rubs temples*

    we're talking about changing tax laws in the US driving the billionaires away

    if they can just ignore the laws, they wouldn't move

  9. I just want to kick ass and eat ass... and I'm all out of ass!

    What should I do?

    how should i know
    do i look like an asstronomer

  10. what do you say when someone says 'islam is a cult?'

    I don't talk to those people.

  11. So why don't vegans go off the grid and grow veggies and stuff?

    Some do.

  12. would you consider yourself well-read?

    No, because I always have a million books I want to get through and no time to read.

  13. Food is real, garlic bread was good

    gratz

  14. Please enlighten this plebian, but how are transhumanists a cult?

    Um, if I talk about a "Christian cult" I'm not saying all Christians are cultists, fam.

  15. Billionaires can live wherever they want, live in a gated community in France or go to Monaco or Italy. The point is their factories will go where instability is.

    Even without the U.S. Armed forces to help them, they'll still have mercenaries and anyone who's willing to have some opportunity, imaginary or not.

    Thus we can blame all of the billionaires, but they'll leave and we as people can go back to smaller simpler life.

    Personally I like it. We can go back to an early 19th century-like world. Then we will have a more fairer world.

    Do France, Monaco, and Italy have lower taxes than we do?

  16. Since someone brought up Tom Cruise, I’m having a really hard time wrapping my head around the popularity of Scientology. Why do so many high-profile people join it?

    That is outside my area of expertise, but there's that documentary, Going Clear, that's supposed to be pretty informative.

  18. Is food real?

    [witty reply]

  19. What do you think I should do if I want to make freinds?

    be good and be good at it

  20. If I secure enough income to achieve basic living security (food, housing, medical, and moderate discretionary spending), what's the most ethical thing I can do with the remainder?

    [EDIT: nvm, Effective Altruism is apparently a singularity cult, so maybe read some of their resources but choose something else from the Twitter thread.]

    I tried crowdsourcing an answer to this on Twitter and it sounds like the best resource for this question is the group Effective Altruism: https://www.effectivealtruism.org/

    All the answers were good, and are still coming in, so check them out here: https://twitter.com/InnuendoStudios/status/1025074396975845376

  21. a word of warning, the "effective altruism" crowd is a front for the singularity/transhumanism cult, a group rife with reactionary techbros and outright fascists. note how "invest in ai" is high up on the list of most effective spending. resources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ku9b-fPa1s http://amormundi.blogspot.com/2012/05/unbearable-stasis-of-accelerating.html

    fucking WHAT?!

  22. "Exactly which country do you think wealthy people would want to live in that has a more billionaire-friendly tax system than the US?"

    Well Uzbekistan, 7.5% corporate tax, the Jersey Islands with no corporate tax, the Caymans. I mean there are plenty of places to go.

    https://taxfoundation.org/corporate-income-tax-rates-around-the-world-2017/

    So you tell me, these folks can set up shop where they want.

    As you know there are only a handful companies who control the country. Once they sense real revolution, they will bug out and be ready to produce in their new facilities in no time.

    They have sooo many contingency plans. I used to work for Procter and Gamble, it'll shock you dude

    Are we talking about where people incorporate their company, or where they live? Because I was under the impression we were talking about income tax, which is to do with where you actually reside, and I don't foresee many billionaires moving to Uzbekistan.

  23. I think most people shouldn't have to worry too much about what's ethical to do with their money. It's the rich who need to be held accountable for how (un)ethically they obtained that money and what they can possibly do with it ethically

    You are correct that they shouldn't have to, but right now the rich AREN'T solving our problems and we're not just gonna wait around til they do.

  24. Won't the rich just go to another country with little to no taxes?

    So squeezing them for money it pointless.

    Unless you are talking about internationalism.

    I mean most companies are incorporated in Delaware, because there are no fees there so it's easier, same with Microsoft being incorporated in Switzerland, I think.

    So yeah I guess internationalism is the only path.

    I guess the world revolution is the only way.

    Exactly which country do you think wealthy people would want to live in that has a more billionaire-friendly tax system than the US?

  25. great roast of that centrist trying to justify his ignorance!

    But in all seriousness, great vid, sorry fot the f'ed up algorhythm youtube uses.

    Have you ever seen the anime Akira?

    yes

  26. I'm really hungry. How do I eat?

    I highly recommend using your large head orifice.

  27. Would you prefer human-touch to content/copyright bots? I've been told that the alternative to bots would very likely be wageslaves in developing countries. I'm not sure I like either if that's the case.

    It's not an either/or, though. Too much content comes into YouTube every hour to be reviewed manually by humans. The solution will have to be at least partially automated. But:

    a) they need to change the parameters of the automation to favor producers over corporations
    b) they need to employ more human beings to evaluate the most extreme claims
    c) they need to actually commit to robust anti-hate and anti-harassment policies, because I don't trust them to recognize either at present

    The "wageslave" argument is particularly crap. Google can afford to pay employees a living wage. The only reason they'd use cheap labor in other countries is greed.

  28. so flat tax of say 22% for all?

    Flat tax is bullshit.

    One of the best phrasings I've heard - from Cracked, of all places - is that the wealthy pay more in taxes for the same reason the tall person gets things off the top shelf: Because it needs to be done and they are the ones able to do it.

  29. So your video "Lady Aboshi is wrong" was pretty good, how would this apply to say centrists who say both sides the alt-right are wrong. It seems everyone wants to tear people limb from limb for saying Antifa is wrong for wearing masks and using violence such as Eric Clanton who smited that guy with a bike lock, on the other hand, yes Heather Heyer is dead and it is a tragedy. It seems that bth sides also resrt to doxxing of family members as well, which some will say is more the alt-right than antifa (because antifa is just a loose group of like minded people)

    So how would you apply your reasoning in that video to the situation here?

    This video is very much a response to both-sidesism. There is no comparison between Antifa and the Alt-Right. The phrase that made the rounds recently was, "If you leave the Nazis alone, they will kill you. If you leave Antifa alone, they will play Pokemon Go and eat Nutella."

    I'm no fan of hitting people with bike locks, but, so far, Antifa have killed precisely zero people, and have used violence only to prevent greater violence from a group whose express purpose is violence, exclusion, and murder of minorities. We can't simply condemn acts of violence while disregarding what that violence is in service of and still call ourselves moral. You have to pick a goddamn side.

  30. "We may have to disable your account if you have 3 or more strikes within a 3-month period"

    Obligatory: "Well, good thing we don't have to worry about you putting out 3 or more videos within a 3-month period."

    Dude, your essays are always worth the wait. I teared up at one point in this one, it's so wild to hear such a straightforward message and think "how can this possibly be controversial?"

    thanx :)

  31. Can I produce subtitles in Brazilian Portuguese for your videos? We are going through a particularly bad political period here in Brazil and I would like to share your videos with friends, especially the whole "Alt-Right Playbook" series, since I think I can identify those strategies being used by liberals here.

    Sure thing! I always forget to enable subtitle submissions, but they're on now!

  32. dunno if you answered this but do you like taxes?

    I believe in taxes paying for the common good. I don't like our current tax structure that costs me a surprising amount of money for how little I make and gives huge breaks to millionaires.

  33. Do you have thoughts (documented or not) on Spike Jonze? I feel like my relationship to the movie "Her" changed a lot after I realized I was polyamorous.

    Adaptation was one of my all-time favorite movies when I was younger, though I think much of that is owed to Charlie Kaufman rather than Jonze. I think he's very talented and creative. Her didn't move me as much as it did some other folks. I felt like it raised a lot of interesting questions that it didn't really engage with. Mostly he's someone I pay attention to but don't adore.

  34. Who in the SSBM top 50 do you tend to root for?

    Captain Smuckers
    Kage
    Amsah
    Kirbykaze
    aMSa
    Zain
    PewPewU
    n0ne
    La Luna
    S2J
    Axe
    Plup
    Mew2King
    Hungrybox

  35. what is the best joke?

    it's funny cuz the dog's name is Jesus

  36. so if you don't feel like you can do a video on the semiotics of porn, would you write something on the topic? I'm super curious to hear your thoughts

    Maybe under a pseudonym.

  37. Did Miyazaki defang The Wind Rises, should he have critiqued Japan harsher?

    I don't know enough Japanese history to say for sure, but I definitely felt weird watching it.

  38. What do you think of Boston?

    Is it progressive?

    What would you change about it?

    I hear they are more racist than places like Alabama.

    I like it.

    It is very progressive in many ways, though often fails to live up to its progressive reputation.

    I would make the streets make any goddamn sense.

    Boston has a lot of racism and a lot of anti-racist activism. We told the Nazis to fuck right off when they tried to rally here, but overall I wish it was better on race than it is. I don't know much about Alabama other than stereotypes so I can't compare.

  39. Do you like Ocasio Cortez?

    What I know, I like, though I haven't researched her much because she's running in a different state.

  40. So what do you think of Dan Harmon?

    I'm not fond.

  41. What do you think of John Cleese's attitudes towards the UK in present day?

    He seems to be showing more of a liberal attitude towards the positive change in the UK in terms of the Muslim population and their representation in the city councils which has been growing.

    I do not have my finger on the pulse of the John Cleese fandom.

  42. "You don't tell the ambulance to take you to three hospitals to see what the best deal is while you're bleeding out."

    yes but there are different levels of hospitals and different skills. Once again it comes down to specialization...you ignored that.

    I'm not up for debating obtuse people today, sorry.

  43. What do you think of Eyes Wide Shut?

    I did not see Eyes Wide Shut. My opinions on Kubrick are THOROUGHLY documented at this point.

  44. What do you think of family doctors instead of big old hospitals?

    They should be socialized as well.

  45. How long have you been in a poly-amorous relationship?

    Have you done a video about the strengths and weaknesses of such a relationship structure?

    I don't do videos about my romantic life. I also don't give specifics about it. But I will say, asking how long I've been "in a polyamorous relationship" is a strange question, because poly people often aren't in *a* polyamorous relationship, they are in multiple relationships. Polyamory is not a transitive condition; I am not poly because my partner is poly, I would be polyamorous even if I were single. It is the relationship structure I practice, regardless of who I'm dating.

  46. Do you think appeals to emotion creates more ideologues?

    SOME appeals to emotion create more of CERTAIN kinds of ideologues.

  48. "Hospitals often don't tell you what something will cost in advance, and you're usually stuck with a given hospital by your network, so people can't "shop around" for medical care. Which means price doesn't correlate with the cost of the procedure or the labor involved; hospitals can charge pretty much anything. There's no incentive to be cheaper than the competition."

    Have you ever studied operations management and the idea of "eating costs"?

    Does a plumber tell you what the cost of fixing your sewage pipe will be?

    no, not until they see what is wrong.

    Same with medical care.

    If you're talking about a ballpark figure, okay, but otherwise no one can predict how much a service will cost until it is finished.

    It all comes down to details and not knowing what is wrong until you see it in front of you.

    No shit. But you ignored the part about being trapped with a specific hospital because of your network. And if the bid after assessment from a plumber is too high you can call in another plumber and get another bid. You don't tell the ambulance to take you to three hospitals to see what the best deal is while you're bleeding out.

  49. What do you think of Quentin Tarantino?

    Sometimes I like him. I always have problems with him. Reading the shit about him and Uma Thurman made me lose most of what affection for him I still had.

  50. Any thoughts on Soviet films like "Stalker"?

    I still haven't seen any Tarkovsky, because I'm a bad film buff.

  51. Do you like Spike Lee?

    Sometimes.

  52. You do realize that Copyright claims come from big business not youtube. they are just an intermediary.

    Copyright claims come from YouTube in the sense that YouTube builds the bots and algorithms that flag things as copyright infringement and allows corporations to ban your work or take your money without a single human being actually watching to see whether it's Fair Use.

  53. Have you ever studied Frederick Winslow Taylor?

    He was a kinda-communist sympathiser.

    I have not.

  54. Do you think (apart from free healthcare for all) that the medical "system needs to change?

    Maybe more robots whom can perform surgeries?

    Possibly less addictive prescription drugs prescribed?

    How about no b.s. administration to slow the whole system down?

    One thing Obamacare achieved is that the government was receiving tons and tons of medical bills from different hospitals, all of which became public record, which meant, for the first time, people could quantitatively compare what procedures cost in different hospitals. And we basically learned that prices are completely and utterly random. The same procedure at two different hospitals might have a tenfold difference in price, for no discernible reason but "people will pay anything for life-saving care."

    Hospitals often don't tell you what something will cost in advance, and you're usually stuck with a given hospital by your network, so people can't "shop around" for medical care. Which means price doesn't correlate with the cost of the procedure or the labor involved; hospitals can charge pretty much anything. There's no incentive to be cheaper than the competition.

    That is a thing I would change.

  55. "... One movie which I didn't see because it sounds like a lot of trope-y bullshit about mental illness, and as a person who takes meds for depression and anxiety I suspect I'm not going to be as smitten with it as everyone else.."

    I had a brother who is suffering from PTSD and we both watched Split and thoroughly enjoyed it. Overall, I can say it's neither insulting nor cliched about mental illness. However, me and my bro do admit it's scary (James McCoy playing 23 different characters and they're all creepy)

    So rest assured just watch it as a decent psychological thriller , but be sure to watch till the end ;)

    Other folks I know with mental illness were very unhappy with that movie, so it looks like opinions are divided on it.

  56. You liked Adult Swims infomercials? Most particularly those from Alan Resnick?

    No opinion.

  57. Anymore good Errol Morris films you would recommend me to watch?

    Come to think of it, I've only seen Cheap, Fast, and Out of Control, Standard Operating Procedure, and Tabloid. I need to see The Thin Blue Line and The Fog of War, I just haven't been up for docs about war crimes or police injustice of late. All the ones I've seen have been great.

    If you want some reading, Morris' book Believing is Seeing is really fascinating.

  58. Who do you think does something similar like David Lynch but way better?

    Don Hertzfeldt.

  59. If you catch someone staring at your girlfriend with you in public, how would you respond?

    Which girlfriend?

  60. Are you agnostic? Has anyone tried to talk you out to accompany them to church? Read some gospels, Quran excerpts etc.?

    I'm an atheist, but I was raised Methodist. Family used to take me to church semi-regularly. I also find religion pretty interesting, so I still read about it from time to time. I had a gig last year editing a series of lectures on Rabbinical history, which was absolutely fascinating.

  61. Do you like any literature, films that delves into metaphysics, surrealism, parody, metafiction?

    My first Samuel R. Delany was Dhalgren, and that was a trip.

  62. ("utilitarian" anon) Oh wow yeah, with all the moral philosophy happening I just forgot that word had an meaning on a personal scale, whoops

    I was thinking, "I should have just said 'instrumentalist'" and then was like... wait...

  63. how do I make her pussy wet?

    have you tried running her a bath?

  64. What do you think of China?

    It's shaped a little like a chicken.

  65. At 5:48 in "Lady Eboshi is Wrong" you say "utilitarian" when "objectivist" or just "selfish" seems more appropriate. Utilitarianism, when it's not extinctionist, usually values other people for their own sakes, or at least the sake of their own joy. Am I misunderstanding utilitarianism or you or ???

    I guess I'm using the word "utilitarian" in the more colloquial sense of "doing what has utility to you." It was maybe not the best word choice given that there is a philosophy that uses the same word that I'm not well versed in. But the only other words I can think of are also philosophies!

  66. What do you think of pornography?

    Sometimes I wish I could get away with video essays on the semiotics of porn.

  67. What you think of my guy Putin?

    Can he do no wrong?

    I think it's impossible

    He has saved Russia!

    He also has an 83 percent approval rating.

    beat that

    I liked his verse in Epic Rap Battles of History.

  68. Do you support the legacy of artists like Picasso?

    Picasso is going to be Picasso with or without my support.

  69. Any feelings on your comments on "they'll help you move today, then take your healthcare tomorrow"?

    Do you still live by those
    words?

    If you're asking whether I agree with statements I made earlier this year, yeah. It's not like much has changed.

  70. Will this be your thousandth answer?

    maybe

  71. Speaking of Mission Impossible Fallout and Tom Cruise recently,...

    You think that Tom Cruise's best ever acting performance is from Tropic Thunder as Les Grossmann?

    Hell, the first time watching Les in that movie and towards the end, I couldn't tell that it was Tom Cruise and I just thought that was another real fat 40 year old dude coincidentally sharing the same name and voice when the credits rolled... Until I saw the REAL Tom Cruise in the premiere promoting Tropic Thunder...

    My God, this dude does have extraordinary talent

    I'm not overly fond of Tropic Thunder's "yelling = acting = comedy" formula, sorry.

    Tom Cruise's good performances rely on a very simple trick: he plays characters that are shallower than his acting ability. I sincerely think he is genuinely good in Mission: Impossible 3, because he brings so much more pathos to the emotional scenes than the role of Ethan Hunt, strictly speaking, requires. It's not a LOT of pathos, he's just making the most of thin material. Like, you know those actors who can make a great performance out of mediocre roles? If you ONLY take mediocre roles, you can look like one of those actors!

    But, hands down, his best performance is Jerry Maguire, because it's a movie about a phony who's trying his hardest to stop being a phony. Casting an actor with a reputation for seeming phony in dramatic roles, who wants nothing more than to knock a dramatic role out of the park, is brilliant.

    I don't quite buy the "you complete me" speech, at least not the way most people seem to buy it, as the moment when Jerry finally expresses himself sincerely. It strikes me as a bullshit artist trying not to sound like a bullshit artist. But if you read him AS a bullshit artist, as someone who has spent so much of his life bullshitting people that he genuinely doesn't know how to sound sincere anymore, that he means what he says but is only half-capable of SOUNDING like he means what he says, you should absolutely give it to an actor who only half acts like a human being. The look in Cruise's eyes, "this is coming out wrong but please believe me," is exactly the look Jerry should have. An actor trying to sell a dramatic role and a charlatan trying to become an honest man are not very different from each other. It's perfect.

  72. What's your favorite M. Night Shyamalan movie? Especially since Glass is coming out soon

    That dude is on a renaissance lately. You're glad that he's finally making a decent movie or two just for once?

    This "renaissance" is one movie which I didn't see because it sounds like a lot of trope-y bullshit about mental illness, and as a person who takes meds for depression and anxiety I suspect I'm not going to be as smitten with it as everyone else.

    The Sixth Sense is still his only good movie.

  73. If most creators on patreon finish their work at the end of the month, would it make sense for a creator to try to put out a video in the middle of each month, when everyone's starved for #content?

    Literal YEARS of videos are being uploaded to YouTube every day. There is no time of the month that is starved for #content.

  74. Gene-editing advances to the point somatic cells can be altered at will and with precision. Physical abilities can be tailored to the last value. Market forces dictate what physical make-up you gotta have to be find employ.

    Is that eugenics?

    If every person on Earth has 100% equal access to gene editing, then ARGUABLY not, but, even then, you'd probably see a huge decrease in deafness, blindness, albinism, dwarfism, etc. These are communities and cultures that could disappear in a few generations because the parents deciding whether their children have these traits would likely not have them themselves. And while many, possibly most, deaf people would rather not be deaf, the eradication of the deaf community would be a tremendous loss.

    For further study, watch Gattaca.

  75. Have you ever been literally kicked in the butt?

    Of course. I was a child once.

Anon commented:
Ian replied: