CuriousCat Archive Page 189 of 202

  1. Would you rather:

    Have the ability to see the absolute best current literature, film, and video games subjective to your tastes in rank order, updated automatically based on how you change as a person

    or

    Receive five books, movies, and games written for you by 300IQ supergeniuses with omniscient knowledge of you and what stories you'll find the most rewarding and get the most out of.

    I guess the first one? I don't need media to be created just for me.

  2. Should people with genetic illnesses have children?

    "Is eugenics good or bad?"

    It's bad.

  3. You mentioned a need to see more South Korean films, so let me recommend Yeon Sang-ho. His biggest film to date is the (excellent, if mainstream) Train to Busan (2016), which was the blockbuster zombie train movie I never knew I needed. I will however especially highlight his animated The Fake (2013), a dark social realist character drama. (The two films are about as different as can be, yet share the social indignation that runs through Yeon's entire filmography.)

    ok!

  4. The amount of "in a relationship" people on dating websites upsets me...

    I'm not saying that I'm not cool with poly folks. I'd just prefer if the person I'm dating isn't already dating someone else. Nothing to do with whether I'm cool with them or not

    If it upsets you, it doesn't sound like you're cool with them.

  5. When was America great?

    At some point in the future I hope.

  6. You should check out the Prequel Adventure webcomic by Kazerad!

    maybe i will

  7. Is Italian/French Elon Musk bigotted in that it perpetuates national stereotypes that did kill people?

    Can you give me some examples of French stereotypes getting people killed?

  8. So a few days ago something I said in reply to a poll got a lot attention from the internet douchebag brigade, including a screencap of posted by a prominent antifeminist YouTuber, who tactfully redacted my handle but that didn't stop some of her fans tagging me into the thread.

    Long story short, my Curious Cat filled up with a bunch of low-effort insults-in-the-form-of-a-question. As someone who I am guessing has had his fair share of that, what is the best etiquette to follow here?

    Delete them.

  9. ""French" isn't a race."
    How do we decide what is a race?

    White people decide what is and isn't a race depending on their needs in the given moment. The Irish and Italians became white when white folks decided they needed a larger, more unified bloc to keep the Africans oppressed.

    Race exists because of racism and is largely defined by the people in power. "French" isn't a race because white culture has no current need to vilify the French.

  10. Is Italian/French Elon Musk racist?

    "French" isn't a race.

  11. Hi Ian, have you seen this 34-episode series called The Little Nyonya? It's from Southeast Asia and all episodes are now available online with english subtitles (http://www.irisxi.com/the-little-nyonya-%E5%B0%8F%E5%A8%98%E6%83%B9/)

    I think this show during it's time of release and location, is pretty daring, more intriguing and ahead of its time than most southeast asian shows and movies and has a lot of interesting things to say involving feminism, patriarchy, the role of matchmaking in society (one of the main characters even quote matchmaking as something like the sale of poultry readily available for men to pick and choose and questioning the need to know a woman's chastity when looking for suitors) and also implying that one of the main characters could also be gay... on mainstream TV! (normally southeast Asians around the early 2000s are more conservative so any sort of LGBTQ elements in mainstream entertainment would be banned or censored without question)

    It's a great show, by South East Asian standards and the cinematography & blocking (though colour grading doesn't hold up till these day) is by far very inventive and well-framed

    I have not seen that, I'm afraid.

  12. do you think it's correct to give all criticism a fair analysis? like, i remember the Mcelroys issued an apology for when they initially made Taako's skin green because they were accused of being anti-semite, even though if you look into the issue there was no discussion of the trope of green skinned witches being anti-semite before that (now, the depiction of them being greedy, big nosed, sneaky... yeah i can see that, but I'm referring to the skin specifically). I actually admire the way the McElroy were quick to be "sorry, we didnt know, we know now, is blue ok?", but the whole ordeal looked so silly from the outside, like it's very clear there was a very ferocious, "teenagery" mob mentality of just waiting for them to slip up to show the whole world how actually terrible they were. On the other hand, I don't like to assume people are just trolling, when they're making these, in my opinion, far-fetched accusations, because I can also imagine i think they're far-fetched just because of my ignorance. But when you look into it and you see they're making a big ado about nothing, is it still fair to, for lack of better words, give in?

    I think, if you do the quick analysis, "does it cost us anything to make Taako's skin blue?" then the question of whether people are trolling is irrelevant. If they are trolling, they can call it a win. Bully for them. There seems to be a lot of concern about assholes getting philosophical victories, to the point that folks run the risk of actually being shitty to someone rather than maybe, possibly, giving some jerks what they want.

    Philosophical victories are pretty meaningless. Try winning an election with them. I don't think it's worth sweating these things until there's something material at stake.

  13. Galaxy Brain: why do they call Anthony Scarramucci 'the mooch' when all rich people are mooches?

    pwned

  14. You should do an audio book version of "The Authoritarians"!

    I've considered recording some of my research threads as, like, Cliff's Notes versions, but I definitely wouldn't do the whole book. I don't have time and wouldn't want to get sued.

  15. My hot take of the day:

    Anne Hathaway is extremely overrated. She looks like the default setting of a custom made character in a 2005 video game, and acts like one too 🤷🏽‍♂️

    Agreed?

    Get Lady Anne's name out of your mouth, you rake.

  16. When making a video essay, do you have a part of the process that's your favourite to do?

    Lately I've really enjoyed making mockup webpages and things like that in The Alt-Right Playbook. Like the faux-Backpage or the fake forum post with dox in The Ship of Theseus. I keep making excuses to make more of them. There's just something satisfying about it. ARP videos can be very emotionally taxing to produce, so I have to make my own fun while working on them.

  17. I think the violent overtrow of the ruling class can take many forms, but it requires a general strike. That's why I say appeals to vote are counterproductive because they just set up the working class for disapointment and distrust of politics in general. The right love to say that they 'won over' the working class but the numbers show that in fact people who voted to the right kept voting while the rest just stopped showing up at all, and even if an Obama can pull them to the voting booth we saw how that doesn't last.

    It should be noted that a general strike should include work done for free on a systemic level (such as women taking care of household chores).

    Putting the country to a full halt until the rich have no choice but to accept the abolition of private property. If the rich try to defend that property, then it is morally acceptable to remove them by force. If the police tries to defend the ruling class, it is morally acceptable to use violence to neutralise them.

    As an anarcho comunist, I think that the effort of giving the working class trust in its own strenght should be done by a political party, but others think unions are more appropriate and honestly I believe both will be needed.

    Convincing people to get involved in a movement on a regular basis where decisions are made by consensus and politics are discussed is way harder than convincing them to half heartedly show up once every four years, but it actually builds a strong, offensive, progressive force.

    I'm all for a general strike, but if the goal of this is revolution and the public is expected to go up against the police, the national guard, and/or the military, I don't see the public succeeding.

  18. I have long-time friends & family members who are either politically pretty far right or who are drifting into far right politics. Since I've got a lot of privilege (white, cis/male-passing), my relationships to these people give me a chance to have conversations that might have an effect on their beliefs. So while cutting ties would be easier, do I have an obligation to maintain these relationships & try to be a moderating force on their politics (chances are they'd hear few progressive viewpoints otherwise)?

    That is a balancing act. It is beneficial for people drifting to the Right to have moderating forces, especially since they tend to lose track of what actual progressives are like. I feel privileged people have a responsibility to put their privilege to good use. At the same time, if maintaining contact is causing you a lot of personal distress, there are other ways to put your privilege to good use that don't make you miserable. And sometimes becoming aware that this change in politics may actually cost them friends IS a moderating force. It really depends on you, them, and the relationship y'all have.

    If you're going to have discussions with them, look into how to have them productively. I recommend the later chapters of Bob Altemeyer's The Authoritarians for advice on that front, or you can read my livetweeting of the book here: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/958504832398249984.html

    EDIT: for some reason that unroll didn't grab the whole thread, so here's the Twitter thread and I'll just hope it doesn't crash your app: https://twitter.com/InnuendoStudios/status/928983350123139072

  19. I need to get out of the house more, meet people, that stuff as I'm finding myself getting very lonely and isolated. I want to meet people who have similar interests (usually nerdy shit) but looking into local stuff like that worries me that there will be people like right-wing shitheads around. The biggest group I can see near me is a warhammer one and I've heard terribke things online. This is couple with concerns that one of my few friends is getting into weird right wing views.
    Am I being too paranoid? Will I have to just suck it up and deal with a certain level of shittiness?

    It's not paranoid, but the fact that the communities MIGHT be shitty isn't a great reason to avoid them entirely. No harm in checking one out and then leaving to try a different community if the first one is shitty.

  20. "I'm not a data analyst, statistician, or sociologist." I'd like to offer some help. I am a data scientist, I like your work and I'd be ok with helping if you need or want me to. In fact I'm looking at doing something along the lines of what you do, when I have the time (read: when I get a new job that doesn't require tons of unpaid overtime). I don't have the time to gather data to analyse, nor even the time to figure out sources, but if you stumble on interesting datasets or something, do give me a shout out. No strings attached, if it's something you figure might be interesting or helpful, I have some skills to flex.

    Message me with a contact address (I won't answer it publicly) and I'll reach out if I need anything!

  21. I've seen some videos on Jordan Peterson with titles like "Jordan Peterson Destroys White Privilege" yet when I watch the video he doesn't really seem to be doing that. Instead I see him trying to prove the white privilege isn't the only privilege and that everyone has privilege of different kinds, one of which is white privilege. But what I get from him is that he's saying because privilege is so diverse and that everyone has it, it's not really something that exists. He's saying that fighting privilege isn't a fight you're going to win because you can always keep cutting down on privileged groups definitions until you get to the individual. And he says that that is the answer, individualism. So my question is what do you think of all if that?

    I know I sort of played devil's advocate in this question but I did this because I'd like to hear your opinion on the subject of individualism and privilege. I'm completely neutral in reality and I'm just trying to hear as many sides as I can.

    Due to over a century of racist home loan practices by banks, a disproportionate number of Black people live in economically depressed neighborhoods, in which there are few jobs and little access to healthy food. The non-white people who live in these neighborhoods get inferior education, because schools are funded by property taxes, so poor communities get bad schools. They are also at greater risk of harassment from the police because cops know people in poor neighborhoods can't afford lawyers. How does individualism solve that?

    Black people are significantly more likely to be shot by cops than white people; Black witnesses to police violence are wildly more likely to be killed or arrested after reporting what they see. How does individualism solve that?

    When Black people are convicted of a crime, they are given much, much harsher sentences than white people convicted for the same crime. How does individualism solve that?

    Privilege is OBSERVABLE. Peterson's complaint is that privilege isn't taxonomically sound and that there are more kinds of privilege than whiteness, to each of which I can only respond with "no shit." Unless his suggestion of "individualism" is directed at the white bankers, white cops, and white juries, telling them they should individuate away from their investment in whiteness that makes them punish Black people so much harsher than whites, then it accomplishes fuck all. Peterson thinks he can make material inequalities disappear by nitpicking terminology. I have no use for it.

  22. forumgoer described Natalie/ContraPoints as "the problem with white feminism" citing things like her cozying up neo-nazis:

    https://twitter.com/TheTherynMeyer/status/971931443671711744

    as a clear demonstration of throwing PoC under the bus by reaching out to far right figures (likened to the dearth of true conflict between career democrats and republicans).

    Would you agree with any of that? & sorry for the downer of a question.

    I am uncomfortable with how many questions I get asking me to judge Contrapoints' character.

    Trust is not part of the relationship between you and someone you don't know. If you're talking in terms of trust, you are building a parasocial relationship, and, if you've seen my very first video, you know how toxic I think those can be. YouTubers are not your friends. You can like them, interact with them, even have mutually respectful conversations, but none of that equals a friendship. If someone you're a fan of does something shitty, you should feel disappointed, angry even, but not betrayed. They can't betray you because they are not your friend.

    So let's talk material consequence: What is the worry about Contrapoints being friends with Theryn Meyer? Is it that she's going to adopt some of Theryn's beliefs? I see little evidence of that: Contra's work has been getting MORE progressive the longer she's produced it. If anything, Theryn's the one who's been softening, disavowing Jordan Peterson and making public apologies to non-binary people.

    Is it that Theryn's presence on Contra's Twitter, and their public appearances together, make's Contra's channel/social media less of a safe space for the populations Theryn has been shitty to? Well, Contra's been pretty explicit that her aim with her work is to convert people like Theryn to the Left, and that doing so requires he to make her spaces in certain ways unsafe. She stresses that there are many safe spaces online, but she doesn't feel her space should have to be one, not if it impedes the work she's trying to do. You may disagree with that - I'm on the fence about it myself - but the only decision you have to make is whether you want to follow her various feeds.

    Is it that Theryn's friendship with Contra will increases Theryn's platform? Well, I've been following Contra for a long time, and I've never seen her retween Theryn, I've never seen her share one of Theryn's videos, and these cutesie photos have only appeared on Theryn's feed. Not saying it's never happened, but, if it does, it's rare. I don't see Contra boosting Theryn's profile much, except by people talking about them. The big exception is that they've held debates together, but Contra has sworn off public debates in general.

    The more generalized fear I've heard is that Contra will never challenge one of her friends if that friend does something shitty, of if they're in a public discussion with each other. I don't know what evidence that is based on other than having seen different people do it in the past. All I can say to that is: If you're right, how are you better off knowing about it before it happens? Does it make the transgression better if you get to say "called it" when and if it happens?

    If Contra transgresses, stop consuming her content. If she doesn't, keep watching, unless you don't want to. I don't know what the bluster about what might happen is accomplishing.

  23. Since it's been some time since you made your Kickstarter vs Patreon video, is there any advice from it that you would go back and update/change today if you could? You also said that Kickstarter was a more well known platform. Do you still think that's the case today?

    I haven't kept up with Kickstarter. It seems to be on the far end of the Gartner Hype Cycle now - no longer the New Hotness, no longer something people are sick of, just a tool that exists. The general trend of the audience for Kickstarter growing but not as fast as the number of projects launches has continued, and I think the success rate is below 40% now. The trend of people using Kickstarter to gauge interest and then getting mostly funded through traditional means has continued, which has made some people less invested in the platform.

    All in all, I think my advice still applies, but the landscape has evolved and there are probably other workable strategies that I'm not aware of.

  24. hi, i have a libertarian "friend" who is insistent on using the term "tr*p" and that it isn't harmful, and as much as i (a trans person whose ex boyfriend gaslight me when i came out to him) tried to explain that the etymology alone of the word is really shitty, insists that the use is reclamatory, even though he's cis, and tells me i'm being too "intense and damning" as fair as i try to be. so, basically, angry jack. your videos have had a huge impact on me and how i see art and politics and discussion of them, and i dont know how much you can help with this specifically, id like to know your thoughts, and at the very least, thank you for your series for giving me confidence and faith to stand up for what i think is right. wordy, i know. also, i hope youre having a good day

    I mean, my first question is, "Is this someone you need to be friends with?" But, since you're asking, I'm going to assume this relationship is one you want to keep and go from there.

    I'd guess the most immediate, short-term solution would be to say, "That word bothers me. You can consider me oversensitive if you want, but, for the sake of our friendship, please don't use it around or about me."

    The larger understanding that most trans people feel the same as you, that your friend doesn't have the authority to call it reclamatory, that even if it were reclamatory that doesn't mean cis people get to use it, it the kind of slow-growing shift that you probably shouldn't have to wait for to get basic respect. It may come simply from being around you, from you talking about your life and experience, from hearing you talk about them to other people, from meeting more trans people (whom they don't alienate by casually using slurs). If you're invested in them as a person, slowly sanding down that belief may be worth the effort, but, from my experience, it's a process, not an event. The best thing you can do for yourself is to remove that conversation from the context of an argument, because that's where they're most likely to plant their feed and push back.

    But if you can resolve the short-term tension and just expose them to different viewpoints over time, I dunno, you might get somewhere?

  25. How often do you cry when reading/playing stories and what was the last story that made you cry? For myself, don't cry often but there are moments in Nier: Automata that are a lot.

    It's not uncommon for me to cry, though I go through waves where I'm more emotionally affected by games/books/movies and waves where I'm less. Tends to correlate with what's going on in my life. I don't actually remember what the most recent thing that made me cry, though I know it wasn't long ago that I was rewatching clips from the (mostly mediocre) Les Miserables movie. "I Dreamed A Dream" has always destroyed me, but Hathaway's performance is, like, pure unadulterated heartbreak.

    I know that's not an interesting answer, but it's all that's coming to mind.

  26. I remember you made a thread a while back, one of those where you livetweet your research, and it was of a book that described conservatism and how they work to preserve the status quo above all else. I know this seems kind of vague but I can't find that thread anymore and would love to know the name of that book

    My research threads are always under the hashtag #IanLivetweetsHisResearch, but I think you're either talking about The Reactionary Mind by Corey Robin or The Authoritarians by Bob Altemeyer.

  27. "Books>movies = fact

    Don't lie don't deny"

    aww, there's the problem. if you use = instead of == the compiler thinks that you're assigning the value instead of testing for it. someone coded that anon wrong no wonder they think that.

    A programmer's spouse asked them to go to the grocery store. "Get a loaf of bread. And, if they have eggs, get a dozen."

    The programmer came back with 12 loaves of bread. The spouse asked why.

    "They had eggs."

  28. who do I have to blow around here to finally get my rightful recognition as the best dicksucker in Kent County Delaware?

    Old Man McGillicutty.

  29. Why's Spielberg thought to be a lesser kind of director? He did cerebral prestige movies like Munich.

    Spielberg has been considered The Greatest Director in the World for most of his career, so I don't think people saying he's not usually very cerebral means they think he's "lesser."

    Spielberg's really only ever as cerebral as the script he's working with. He's on record as saying he doesn't really know the difference between popcorn entertainment and brain food. That's why even thoughtful movies like Minority Report have goofy shit in them.

    It's not bad to still have the heart of a 12-year-old, especially when it's a very kind and optimistic 12-year-old. Spielberg doesn't have to be cerebral to be good. Just don't go to him if you're expecting deep thoughts on the subject matter; that's rarely what draws him to a script.

  30. Would it be a strong gimmick to act like those people who are racist, sexist, etc. "ironically,' but instead be an "ironic" Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, and basically just say everything an MLM would say, but deflect all criticism by saying it's ironic?

    I don't think the world needs more irony.

  31. Books>movies = fact

    Don't lie don't deny

    books != movies

    fact

  32. Should the global community rather than try to cut emissions - something which is ignored by China and other developing countries - instead initiate Manhattan Project-style efforts to directly decarbonate the atmosphere?

    What? Almost the entire world outside the US signed the Paris Accord, and China is, in fact, taking the lead on reducing emissions. Do you know something I don't about this?

    As for decarbonating the atmosphere, the huge majority of climate plans that keep us from getting so hot the planet becomes inhospitable assume that a breakthrough for removing CO2 from the atmosphere will happen. The limits set on major polluters are built around the idea that they can pollute above guidelines now because a percentage of their pollution will be removed in the future. And people all over the world are working very hard on CO2 removal.

    The problem is no one's certain it's even possible at the scale we're expecting. It isn't a specific problem we're trying to solve, not "we know an atom can split and cause an explosion, how do we make that into a bomb?" but "here's a thing we need to do, any ideas how we do it?" It's a longer, vaguer process.

    The models that don't involve CO2 removal require much faster and more drastic reductions in emissions than any country is preparing to do. So we're... not in a good place with this one.

  33. So, obviously replacing public services with private equivalents is dumb.

    But what about replacing private services with public equivalents? Where I live, in the middle of nowhere, Internet as a public utility would be amazing.

    Yes, that is what a lot of us lefties are advocating for.

  34. I just watched the wonderful TED talk by James Bridle on algorithmic kid's YouTube (which is utterly terrifying) I agree with a lot of the points he makes, but near the end he seems to lay the blame for the problem along a wide array: algorithmic reccomendation as a concept, consumer trust in that concept, and youtube's monetization model.

    Really, though, doesn't the blame lie on just that last one as a symptom of late capitalism?

    I mean, we can boil most problems with the internet down to "capitalism," and it's not like we'd be wrong, but I'd imagine the point he's making is that, with changes to (or the replacement of) the algorithmic recommendation model, and tweaks to its monetization, YouTube could be a somewhat less shitty piece of late capitalism. Late capitalism will trend towards the shittiest version of itself that is profitable, so there's little incentive to tweak the algorithms until someone publicizes the way they're shitty.

    A TED Talk is an unlikely place to create political revolution, but it can maybe put YouTube at risk of losing money now that the problems are public.

  35. If Nolan isn't the Thinking Man's Spielberg, what's he instead?

    Spielberg for people who think they're smarter than they are.

  36. Bizarre movie thought of the day.

    What if in Terminator 2 the T-1000 had adopted a Kyle Reese appearance from the outset based on Skynet's records?

    Not sure it would have accomplished much, since John had never met his father, there weren't any pictures of him, and Sarah knew Kyle was dead.

    Here's the Terminator 1 thought I had the other day: What was the Terminator's plan for after he killed Sarah? It's not until Genesys that anyone goes forward in time (I mean, faster than the speed at which we are all moving forward in time). So, like, the Terminator can't just go home. Midway through the movie he's hiding out in a hotel room with half his face torn off and apparently rotting, and he's just, what, supposed to blend into society after Sarah is dead?

    Really makes you think.

  37. Liked watching Roman Polanski's films? Or not because of the person himself?

    I feel bad about his tragic past though... so damn cruel

    I've only seen Rosemary's Baby and Chinatown. Chinatown is a flat-out classic. I don't have a problem with watching his movies, but I do feel weird seeking them out, so I tend not to. Nothing about the movies I've seen make me desperate to see his other stuff, and the few minutes I saw of The Ninth Gate were godawful.

    His past is very tragic. His crime is also very tragic for the girl. Both these things are true.

  38. Have you read Saga? Same writer as Y the Last Man.

    nope

  39. Could you beat Putin in a fight?

    I'm sure I could outrank him in Nuclear Throne.

  40. 'The acting achieves a certain effect, but the means by which he achieves that is Bad Acting.'

    Different anon, but how is it still Bad Acting if there's intent and reason behind the choice? Isn't it kind of narrow to say something like that is 'Bad' in comparison to unintentional, purposeless bad acting ala The Room? Like, would you say Mulholland Drive has bad acting?

    People can make intentional choices that are still wrong. There are many ways to be bad.

  41. how should children be gendered before they're old enough to gender themselves?

    Folks I know with kids who try not to be prescriptivist about gender tend to alternate between the pronoun commonly associated with the child's sex and using singular they. Sort of a soft, non-commital assumption that the baby is cis without particularly enforcing the idea. I don't have kids and I'm cis, so I don't know that I have much to add to that conversation.

  42. What do you like (and not like) about David Lynch & Stanley Kubrick?

    (Be it their creative choices, casting choices, their treatment towards their own crew & cast, artistic ambiguity etc.)

    https://curiouscat.me/InnuendoStudios/post/431942081

  43. QUESTION:

    Protest/give an opinion OR use a "have-some-sense-of-humor-for-a-day" excuse on social media when you see someone talks about politics, race, gender issues of today

    I feel like those aren't the only options.

  44. What's your opinion on Elon Musk? Is it worth following and agreeing with whatever he's saying?

    Ha, no.

  45. As a foreign observer any talk about a "second civil war" sounds awfully bizarre to me. The American populace is either too brainwashed or cowed to ever again take up arms against the government on a national level.

    I have stopped pretending I know where things are headed.

  46. do you consider yourself part of the queer community on the account of being poly?

    I do not. Others might. It's not my place to police the definition of "queer."

  47. For me the perfect gig to go and see would be to see Radiohead play live and for them to play this setlist:

    1. There There
    2. 2+2=5
    3. Creep
    4. My Iron Lung
    5. Let Down
    6. Ful Stop
    7. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
    8. Morning Bell
    9. Planet Telex
    10. Idioteque
    11. Like Spinning Plates
    12. True Love Waits
    13. Separator
    14. Lotus Flower
    15. The National Anthem
    16. How To Disappear Completely
    17. Blow Out
    ------
    Encore 1:
    1. Fuwa Fuwa Time
    2. Honey Sweet Tea Time
    3. Samidare 20 Love (w/ Phil Selway speach about 'lyco ping')
    4. Gohan Wa Okazu
    5. U&I
    ------
    Encore 2:
    1. The Gloaming
    2. Renai Circulation
    3. Platinum Disco
    ------
    Encore 3:
    1. Everything In Its Right Place

    My ideal set list would have more OK Computer and The Bends, and nothing off Hail to the Thief except maybe I Will.

  48. "everything wrong with whiteness"

    Is there a list for what is wrong with whiteness?

    What would you say is wrong with blackness? or brownness?

    or perhaps you'd like to clarify?

    Clarification: fuck off.

  49. This may be a slightly troubling issue to confront but I feel I need to confront it sooner rather than later.

    In my past, I have 2 notable experiences where I've been a shitty human being towards women. One involved emotional manipulation in an attempt get her to sleep with me (something I realised in hindsight) and the other was what I can only describe as inappropriate touching without proper consent. These were both in the last 5 years.

    I have been soul searching for a long time since and realise how much of a piece of shit I was to both these women. I am now on better terms with both, having discussed these incidents in person with them, but still feel conflicted in terms of where this leaves me as someone who wants to be an ally going forward.

    I'd like to believe I'm a changed person since then, but can't help but feel like a massive hypocrite trying to now be a force for good.

    Should I keep my head down and be an ally in the shadows - or be outspoken for the issues I care about, knowing that someone could easily find out + bring up either of these matters and reasonably infer I'm a terrible person/a flaming hypocrite?

    I would say the best way to be an ally is to talk openly about what you did and how you came to understand it was wrong, to talk about the pervasiveness of male entitlement and rape culture, to talk about what making amends looks like, to talk about why it seemed acceptable at the time, and encourage other men to learn from your mistakes. A lot of people talk about how many should and shouldn't behave, but not many model what making up for past behavior should look like. Be transparent about what you did, let people decide if they want to accept you as an ally, an be OK with the fact that some won't. And if anyone compliments you for how responsible you're being, stress that what you're doing is what should be expected of everybody and that you should be praised for basic decency.

    You don't become an ally just by calling yourself one, you are an ally when people choose to ally with you. So let people know your whole shit and let them choose.

  50. Hey Ian, as a person who is bisexual, i've always had this niggling belief that no one is truly 100% one way or the other in terms of their attraction and sexuality. If everything is a social construct, its not a jump to think that sexuality is to right? Do you have any thoughts on this? I'm very open to changing my mind on this.

    I've only ever been attracted to femmes, and I've been super into everyone I've ever dated. But it's no insult to my past partners to say that, hands down, the most gorgeous person who's ever been into me is a male friend I had when I was 20. He was goddamned BEAUTIFUL and if I'd been queer enough to date him everyone would have wondered how I nabbed a guy so clearly out of my league. It was certainly flattering, though, to this day, I don't know why he was so into a gangly straight white boy.

    I tell you this because, yes, sexuality is a spectrum, and, yes, probably hardly anyone is 100% gay or 100% straight, and, yes, I suspect a lot of people are more bisexual than they realize because society may have socially pressured them to, in a sense, round to the nearest orientation. And I know some people have had their orientations are fluid, knowing for a fact that they are bisexual at one point in their lives and knowing just as concretely that they are gay later on.

    But I don't think sexuality is a social construct, because, if I had any control over my Kinsey number, I would have chosen to be bi and dated the fuck out of that man.

  51. If someone gets paid a very large amount to perform an arbitrary job like a CEO does or whatever but then they redistribute 99% of their earnings to homeless people, is that ethical?

    In the personal sense, sure, if you have a lot of money and are willing to redistribute basically all of it, that is bringing a lot of good into the world.

    In the social sense, it doesn't solve any systemic problems. Capitalism loves stories about enormous donations to charity, restaurants offering meals to hungry people, bosses giving their cars to employees who walk 20 miles to get to work. They like these stories because they codify food, money, and access to work as gifts rather than rights.

    I would rather the CEO use their wealth to lobby politicians to change the tax code than for the CEO to just give their money away, because the amount one CEO can give isn't enough to deal with our problems, and it shouldn't be any one man's responsibility. The fact that a much of society depends on charity is a failure of democracy.

  52. Am I irrational or should all billionaires face trial for crimes against humanity?
    #sendthemtothehague

    I'd settle for redistribution of their wealth.

  53. was there a specific catalyst or channel that inspired you to become a youtube video man yourself? or did you just decide to try it out one day

    Making videos was already my thing before I was on YouTube, because I did kinda go to school for it. But was there a channel that inspired me to take the plunge and put stuff on YouTube, and let me know that there was an audience for the kind of stuff I might make, and influence a lot of how I approach video essays as a medium?

    Errant Signal.

  54. How do I convince libertarians that corporations are way more likely to violate their rights than the gubment?

    Why do you need to?

  55. Have you come to terms with the fact that you are living on stolen land?

    That's a very weird question. Descendants of colonizers are raised not to question colonization, so it's not something we are asked to "come to terms with." If you accept that living on stolen land is a crime, I'm not sure it's something you *should* "come to terms with."

    It believe our society should pay reparations. I also have doubts that I will see that happen in my lifetime. Like anyone with a conscience, I think that's some bullshit.

  56. Did you liked watching Joe Rogan's shows and podcast before?

    No.

  57. Sam Harris or Jordan Peterson?

    The cold embrace of death.

  58. Just wanted to say you really enriched my thinking and understanding of the world and inspire me work towards a better, more just society. I guess that's not much of a question. Question mark?

    Less than three.

  59. what books (or any media form) would you recommend i read to be more well-rounded/informed person? by informed i don't mean current events, but more how history (very broad usage here) frames current ones. i just need a jumping off point

    The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan - food, from agriculture to industry.
    Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity, by David Foster Wallace - math.
    The Motion of Light in Water, by Samuel R. Delany - sex, race, the 60's, art, gay culture, language, everything.
    Black Boy, by Richard Wright - race, the South, and socialism.
    My Brain is Open, by Bruce Schechter - more math, Eastern European history, Paul Erdos.
    Backlash, by Susan Faludi - feminist history and context.

    Most films by Errol Morris.

  60. Why do you think MSM are surprised (or are at least acting surprised) that the president may believe Russia over US intelligence, like he hasn't been essentially all-caps tweeting about it for months on end?

    A lot of people seem to be operating on the belief that there are lines even Trump has the good sense not to cross, like showing deference to a dictator on national television immediately after public statements from the intelligence community that the dictator definitely meddled in the election. No matter how low he sinks, there will be people shocked when he sinks even lower.

  61. Hello Ian, I just want to say that I starting to love what you're doing on Twitter and YouTube... especially on your analysis on The Handmaiden which was one of my favourite movies to come out in 2016.. I also heard before that you used to watch The Good The Bad & The Weird, another South Korean film which I think you liked...

    Can I ask you. Did you watch this South Korean movie called I Saw The Devil? The film is directed by the same director who did the Good The Bad and The Weird. And it stars the South Korean dude who played Storm Shadow in those mediocre GI Joe movies and another dude who plays the main character from Oldboy (not the mediocre remake)..

    Such coincidence also I'm mentioning Oldboy since that one is directed by the same person who did The Handmaiden? Any favourite movie directors from South Korea and overseas? Is Chan-Wook Park one of your favourite film directors?

    I haven't seen I Saw The Devil, I'm afraid. I have seen Oldboy, but that and The Handmaiden are the only Park Chan-wook movies I've seen. I've seen a few movies by Bong Joon-ho, and liked Snowpiercer a LOT. I think that's most of the South Korean cinema I can recall.

    I should probably get around to some of them soon, eh?

  62. Just for context, here's where that Frankie Boyle quote came from:
    http://aca.st/f4e87d

    He also talks about how why you should never concede "I should always be making a point" as an artist because in doing so, it becomes easy to get caught up in trying to figure out a way that "the point" is an easy point to get in order for the work to have been worthwhile. Which he argues is dangerous because a lot of art doesn't have a terribly easy or gettable point.

    This guy's takes are bad.

  63. Hi Ian, is it okay to use this as an excuse to interact with you because i think youre pretty much the best? (serious question btw)

    Aw, thanks. This is a forum for anyone to interact with me, but mostly only respond to things that generate modestly interesting conversation.

  64. "The fact that you think calling a customer a rando asshat and calling a Black person a monkey are comparable is everything wrong with whiteness."

    I'm not comparing the two for their content, I'm comparing the response - you were the one who said "Ignore the content of the tweets and focus on the response and firing"

    "Whenever there is a debate like this, people get entirely fixated on "did the person transgress or didn't they?" They completely lose sight of whether the response is appropriate, proportionate, or fueled by misogyny. The conversation devolves into "if you do something wrong, you get punished," with no thought to what kind of punishment is fitting."

    You were making, to my understanding, a more general argument about the reach of employers (whether they can fire based on views expressed on a personal twitter account) and how they should react to public outcrys. That's the comparison I was making.

    Saying "but Rosanne DID transgress and Price DIDN"T!" is fixating and devolving (your words, not mine).

    Oh for fuck's sake. I said ignore the content and ask if you think it's OK for an employer to fire you for BEING RUDE TO A CUSTOMER, not for BEING A BLATANT RACIST.

    Racism is not content you get to ignore. Getting fired for being a racist is a fitting punishment. How on Earth do I need to explain this?

  65. Keen for the new She-Ra?

    The backlash against She-Ra is super gross, but I'm not particularly invested in the final product. I'm stoked Noelle Stevenson has a show, though.

  66. Is it just me or do you have more aggressive right wingers poking at your curious cat than usual?

    They come in waves. Maybe I'm just answering more than usual.

  67. I think friends with benefits is a horrible fucking idea... (*no pun intended)

    Don't you agree?

    If you think it's a horrible idea, don't do it. Some people are good at it.

  68. I used your video on death of a euphemism on my project for APUSH on he evolution of conservative language as a source. I hope you find that neat.

    What grade did you get?

  69. It's the Hbomb fan again: I just watched his essay on Lovecraft. I think there's a tendency on the left to label a person or work "problematic" and then cease to engage with them either out of self-preservation (which is totally understandable) or because it's intellectually easier to sort things into "good" and "bad" boxes.
    For a long time in my life, I would try to defend or make concessions for things I liked if there was some concern about it being "good" (Lovecraft was a product of his time!) or disown things completely if the consensus started leaning towards "bad" (Lovecraft was a bigot and I hate him and his work!).

    This is all to say that for me there's something really cathartic and liberating about Hbomb acknowledging Lovecraft's problematic aspects while maintaining appreciation for his work's worthwhile aspects. Do you agree? Is it hypocritical for me to have my c-[ake/thulu] and eat it too?

    Yes, I agree with Hbomb. I think it's very hard for people to maintain an appreciation of what makes a work meaningful and criticism of what makes it problematic, so they tend to pick one or the other. But that kind of polarization isn't helping anyone, because the world is complex and if we don't engage with that complexity we're not going to deal with any of our problems.

    And, like, if you're waiting for a work of fiction you can love that doesn't have any problematic elements, you're going to be waiting a good long time.

  70. Is it possible you might become racist and conservative as you get older?

    Me, personally? I'm pretty devoted to anti-racism and progressivism, so I don't believe so.

    There's this belief that people get more conservative as they age which is SOMEWHAT born out by research, but it seems to be a mix of things. For one, as people get older, they start to emulate the politics of their parents more. Most people are as progressive as they will ever be right after they finish college, and then get bounce back towards the middle as they get older. Our parents are our models for adulthood, so it makes sense that we act more like them as we age. College tends to make people more progressive than their upbringing, so unless you were raised by super-hippy libertines, emulating your parents will probably mean becoming more conservative.

    The other factor is that, as we age, beliefs that were considered progressive when we were young tend to become more mainstream in adulthood and may even become regressive by middle age. So it's less the people become conservative and more that the world around them becomes progressive.

    Mix those two things together and, yes, people appear to get conservative with age. But the reality is each generation is actually less conservative than the one before, and just can't keep up with the one that follows.

  71. Do you ever wonder if those "voting is a suckers game" types have ever had to watch an election knowing the result could mean whether or not you'll get your medicine?

    While that's kinda-sorta an unavoidable segment of their argument, I believe what they're saying is voting is a choice between voting Republican and not getting your medicine or voting Democrat and having your medicine get more and more expensive until you can't afford it because Dems won't regulate the market. They're saying the problem is capitalism, and as long as you are voting within capitalism, your options are "get screwed quick" and "get screwed slow."

    I just don't happen to believe that "don't vote" solves much on its own, and that we should at the very least choose "get screwed slow" between now and whatever revolution they're planning.

  72. Do you think the idea that 'taste is morally neutral' is just an excuse for edgy shitlords to say irresponsible things?

    I think it's a widely held misconception that edgy shitlords have weaponized so they can say irresponsible things. Most people who believe it aren't shitlords; everyone who believes it is enabling shitlords.

  73. Voting is a sucker's game : at worst you get Trump, at best you get Obama who can't do a thing that the next Trump won't destroy. The only way for progress is the violent overthrow of the ruling class. That means forced expropriation of factory owners and landlords and the public appropriation of wealth stolen from the working class.

    The few advances elected 'leftists' gave the working class were always obtained in fear of the organized worker movements.

    How do you see this violent overthrow taking place?

  74. Why do you think firearms should be legal at all?
    "Defense Against Oppressive Government" or "Fuck off, I like guns?"
    Something else entirely?

    I don't have any particular desire for firearms to be legal, I just know private ownership can be quite safe with proper regulations and I think banning them is impractical.

  75. Why are you so attached to Rhode Island?

    It's the first place I ever lived that I chose. I was raised in California and I moved to Massachusetts for a job, but Rhode Island was somewhere I went because I wanted to be somewhere else, and I picked Providence. And it was exactly the right place for me at that time in my life.

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