CuriousCat Archive Page 200 of 202

  1. Are you ok with that some people can't live healthy on a vegan diet? I always feel guilty as a former vegetarian but I have to avoid a lot of food like anything with gluten and too many carbs are not good for my anxiety.

    So... veganism is complicated.

    Something I discuss in Why Are You So Angry? is the assumption that anyone saying "I'm vegan" is implicitly saying "and you should be too." The "preachy vegan" trope is based in some truth - I have known many a preachy vegan in my day - but I only confirmed I was vegan because someone asked. I'm not looking for converts here, in large part because I don't think preachy veganism accomplishes much. Certainly I didn't give up meat because I got preached to by a stranger.

    The ethics of eating animals are not simple. Veganism is a lot easier in the US than in a lot of other places because the US doesn't have much in the way of a traditional food culture. Giving up fish in Japan, or pork in the Philippines, removes you from tradition in a way that giving up cheeseburgers in the US doesn't. I've also never really bought into the idea that one person's veganism meaningfully decreases animal suffering or reduces one's carbon footprint. Like, yes, a single human eats A LOT of animals and that consumption produces A LOT of pollution, so cutting out meat and animal products means rather a lot of animals won't be slaughtered, but when there are literally billions of meat-eaters on Earth, it is the tiniest drop in an enormous bucket. I am fully aware that volunteering with an environmental group or petitioning for more humane treatment of slaughterhouse animals would have more measurable effect than simply changing my eating habits. And I'm also aware that veganism is a byproduct of a wildly unsustainable food economy. I'm able to get access to fresh vegetables year round because we're flying them in from the southern hemisphere, which is expensive and horrible for the environment and on a long enough timeline I'm pretty sure the practice will collapse on itself. For many nutrients, the only non-animal sources are sea vegetables, which you can't exactly "buy local" in most of the country.

    Like most ethical stances in an unethical world, my veganism is me doing my best with a bad system. It is a thing I can do. I don't claim it's the best thing, or the only thing, it's just a thing I can't justify not doing. If your doing your best with a bad system, it's not really my place to tell you what to do. And, if you're not doing your best, I guess I would ask, with your set of circumstances, what would your best look like?

    But your answer is your business.

  2. Are you a vegan? Why?

    My philosophy of veganism boils down to "no animal needs to die for me to live long and healthfully."

  3. Have you watched Annihilation already? If so what did you think of it?

    I think I really liked it?

  4. Tried to phase this into more of a question but ah screw it. How do you feel about procedural generated stories in games? On one hand you lose the controlled story-structure and it's advantages. On the other hand they can generate a more personal experience to the story. And plenty of games still manage to fit larger themes using this like This War of Mine and Darkest Dungeon. It's also one of the tools that makes games have access to that other mediums don't.

    I like my procedural narratives and I like my handcrafted ones. Let's have it all!

  5. Ian whats the story behind the name innuendo studios?

    When I first started using the handle Innuendo Studios, I was trying to be an indie developer (hence "Studios"). I was working (well, "working") on a game that had an innuendo for a title, one that I thought was pretty obvious but a lot of people didn't pick up on, which tickled me. My Twitter profile from that time was me claiming to have invented the single-player game, with the tagline, "why play with others when you can play with yourself?"

    I liked that "Innuendo" roughly rhymed with "Nintendo." I liked the idea of innuendos as ways of saying two things at once (i.e. Innuendo Studios' motto, "using anything to talk about everything"). I liked the idea of innuendos being a kind of subtext that isn't pretentious. I liked innuendos as part of flirting, where flirtation is both light and fun and unserious but also vulnerable and intimate and actually one of the most serious things we do. And I liked how the best innuendos can be both low-brow and clever, the way analysis of pop culture can be both heady and really, really silly.

    I guess that ethos carried over to my video essays, so I've kept the na,e.

  6. What is the tastiest food you have ever eaten?

    There's a vegan-friendly gourmet cupcakery in Berkeley that I think about all year while waiting to go home to California for the holidays.

  7. This is a question?

    you are a question

    inside a mystery

    doubled, covered, and smothered in an enigma

  8. I wish I had the paitience to go through academic jargon like you do

    I'm actually not good with jargon. I livetweet so much of my research because, if I'm not constantly rewriting it in layperson's terms, I can't fucking follow it. That's the upshot of getting a degree in Interrelated Media instead of liberal arts.

  9. Should I buy an Atari Jaguar?

    You should probably already have one.

  10. Have you played Samorost or its sequels?

    I've played 1 and 2. They're cute.

  11. Why do people make such a big deal out of being "misgendered"? Personally, I couldn't give less of a shit were it to happen to me, especially online. It's just words, it doesn't really matter.

    My trans and nb friends don't make it a big deal when I misgender them because they know I respect them, that I know why gender is important to them, and that any time I use the wrong pronoun it's a mistake from years of habit working under different assumptions. They know it's important to me not to make those mistakes.

    If people are getting mad at you, maybe it's less about the words and more about the respect.

  12. what is the weirdest community you participate in?

    Every time I talk about competitive Smash using the actual terminology of the community I sound like I'm in a fucking cult.

  13. How many dogs is too many dogs for one house?

    Asking for a friend. Who is me.

    Two dogs per person with an upper limit of four, with exceptions for small breeds of the same litter.

  14. If there was one way you feel click-and-point adventure games could improve for the better, what would it be?

    I would like to see more non-relevant character detail.

    When an NPC's dialogue tree has been exhausted, still being able to have idle conversations of a few lines, which are different when you talk to them again. Anything so that initiating a conversation when there's nothing new to say is not simply a "hello" followed by a "goodbye."

    Also, Revolution made games in the Virtual Theatre engine, which let characters have modest AI, going about their day-to-day routines instead of standing in one place waiting for the player to interact with them. It was pretty under-used, mostly just meaning a character could be found either in his office or just outside his office, but I'd like to see an iteration on that.

    Basically, anything that lets an NPC seem like there is more to their life than being of service to the player. Open world games and RPGs have figured this out, and they have to write dialogue and AI for hundreds of characters, surely adventure games can liven up their handful of NPCs.

  15. what is the worst website you have ever been on?

    Curious Cat on mobile.

  16. Do you maintain a ranking of pretentious people on Youtube, and if so, will you share it here?

    nice try, cop

  18. Ocarina of Time wasn't all that good.

    that is not a question

  19. Y did u choice that Twitter pic?! It freaks me out

    to freak you out

  20. I think the general attitude of your response to the trans women in sports question is well-reasoned. But the fact that you are cisgender shouldn't matter, only the lack of research. Where does this idea come from that people within a disadvantaged group should have 100% say on topics and proposals that in reality have an effect on everyone in public society?

    Well, that isn't actually the idea. Being cis and uninformed is a problem in a way being trans and uninformed isn't. Even if I am pretty educated, I can still be wrong, and when you're a cis person talking about trans issues, spreading wrong opinions can make a lot of peoples' lives worse. Cis ignorance literally gets people killed.

    I make a point not to open my mouth on an social issue where I have systemic power (which, as a cishet white dude, is basically all of them) unless I have done my homework, and I still fuck up sometimes. If my goal is to fuck up as little as possible, I need to know when it's not actually useful to weigh in.

    If you follow anything I do, you know I weigh in pretty often, so obviously I don't think cis people can never speak on experiences they haven't lived. We just have to be more careful about it.

  21. Did you watch Black Panther? What did you think?

    I loved its themes, design, and characters. The only problems I had are the same problems I have with almost all the Marvel movies, and it avoided them better than most.

  22. Who do you main in smash?

    Duh.

  23. When you play a videogame with a nameless protagonist, do you feel you are that character and use your own emotions to create the reasoning for decisions of said character? Or do you feel that character is just a poorly developed blank slate that the creators should have put more work into instead of expecting you to fill it?

    One of the most emotionally resonant moments I've had in a game was the opening sequence of Blue Lacuna (http://blue-lacuna.textories.com/), where I played an essentially blank slate protagonist who had to say goodbye to their lover. I definitely poured my own emotions and experiences into the scene, and it moved me greatly. But, also, one of the most personal and autobiographical moments I've had with a game was experiences while roleplaying as a lesbian. So, you know, games are weird.

    In answer to your question, whether or not a nameless protagonist is a vessel for deep roleplay or a lazy trope depends on how good the game's writers are.

  24. What is a meme that needs to die?

    "triggered" in any context outside of anxiety disorders or PTSD

  25. were you born cool or did you have to work on it?

    I resent the implication that I have ever been cool.

  26. Do you have any POC video essayists to recommend? Preference ones that cover media, pop culture, and philosophy.

    I already (kind of) answered this question: http://bit.ly/2EUWIHJ

    But then Shannon Strucci (kind of) answered it better: http://bit.ly/2BNPKWd

  27. You totally ignored most important part of the question about physical differences(average height being really important in a lot of sports) and runners. And I know about weight classes, it's mportant, but much broader shoulders on average and narrower hips on average are very important in boxing too, even if two boxers are same weight, it doesn't matter they are equal in everything else. I choose boxing as an example exactly because that, I didn't say heavy muscular boxer, I said big. Anyways, sports are very different from each other, and maybe in something like cycling the difference maybe not that drastic, but if we take something specific like running, jumping, basketball small details like that matter a lot. Still do you think it's fair for women to compete with trans people for every sport?

    You ignored the part of my answer where I said I'm not going to weigh in on a problem I haven't researched because uninformed cis opinions are worthless on these topics.

    Are you asking this because of Ian Miles Cheong's transphobic tweets this morning?

  28. What do you think anout transgender people in sports? Do you think people who "transitioned from men to women" competing with women is fair? You can't deny that average men is much taller than the average woman, and their bones and muscles are different, men upper body is much stronger, even after lowering testosterone lever. Imagine big muscular male boxer who transitioned competing with women, testosterone is not the only facotor. Or top male runner, the difference between women record on 100m track is the whole one second, which is a lot, after transition it still would be easy to beat it.

    The reason you're saying *imagine* a boxer is because this scenario doesn't exist. We don't have a problem with trans boxers winning all the women's boxing matches. I have a friend who's a bicycle racer who wants to transition but is afraid to take hormones because when trans women are even allowed to race as women the rules are that you have to have been on hormones for over a year. That's how long my friend would have to stop competing.

    "If society treated trans women like women, they might have physiological advantages!" Yeah, let's deal with the first part. No disrespect, but I'm not hypothesizing the possible future advantages of one of the most disadvantaged groups on earth. I know people are already working on solutions to this fairly minor problem and the last thing the world needs is another cis dude weighing in on something he hasn't researched.

    EDIT: btw, boxing has weight classes.

  29. Wish for questions, get a question! Have you played To The Moon and/or its' recent sequel Finding Paradise? They're some of my all-time favorite games and I'd love to hear your thoughts on them.

    Haven't played them, sorry.

  30. So how are you finding Curiouscat so far?

    Wish I got more questions.

  31. I watched Moon many years ago and couldn't follow it properly (I was perhaps too tired at the time to watch a film and didn't realise). Is it worth a revisit despite everything Duncan Jones has done since?

    Yes.

    For what it's worth: Moon in a genuinely great movie. Source Code is... well, Source Code is trying to be two different movies at once and only succeeding at one of them. I haven't seen Warcraft; some folks tell me it's at the very least INTERESTING, from an academic perspective. And Mute is, um, sliiiiiiiightly better than its reputation?

    I don't like this trajectory Duncan Jones is on, but he DID start strong.

  32. Ian can you solve all the problems for me? Thanks :D

    I'm working on it.

  33. You mention that Chinese or Japanese are also PoC but within China and Japan specifically the individual (albeit less global) social dynamic has their own systems of oppression. Han Chinese are typically known for their elitist systems that are xenophobic and oppress minorities in China.

    Similarly, the Yamato Japanese are the dominant group over aboriginal Japanese and, ironically enough, have been historically known to be terrible to Chinese and Koreans.

    Are these systems not problematic enough to warrant all the energy and attention compared to other dynamics that directly involves white people just because white people have been and are the dominant global colonial force?

    Lots of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese media have a wide range of problematic aspects that it seems no one is really interested in tackling or even thinking about.

    We're even further afield now.

    The question I was asked was specifically about whether it was a problem for Asian countries to erase Black people from their history. I am aware that there is all kinds of systemic oppression in Asia, but a) no one asked me about intra-Asian oppression and b) it's not an area I have much knowledge of, nor would a white dude's opinion on that be worth much.

    When you say "no one is really interested in tackling or even thinking about" it, I am aware of at least SOME discourse around those subject coming from Asian writers, and I think it would be more valuable for white guys like me to promote those essays and articles rather that write our own from a place of Western remove. (Which is maybe why you don't see as many anti-racist Westerners weighing in on those issues.)

  34. if there were two guys on the moon and one killed the other with a rock would that be fucked up or what

    Why would you kill someone with a rock in space, when there are so many ways space is already trying to kill you? Just empty his oxygen tank like a normal person.

  35. I am an asian dude making a game about my homeland Yakutia in 1600s, should I include Aka people in it? Or what kind of POC other than Yakuts should I include in it?

    I would recommend against asking random white YouTubers about this.

  36. Hypothetically, and I know you must get this question in bad faith a lot but I'm asking this sincerely, if there are historical causes to believe that black people or other minorities weren't a part of a historical event, is it wrong to use that as a reason to not include black people or other minority characters in historical fiction of that event?

    I know this is used a lot to excuse erasure of black people from Western European history when there's actually evidence that there were many black people in Medieval Europe and a lot of them were active participants in European history.

    But I'm wondering if there's historical evidence that the participants of a historical event did not involve any black people or other minorities, if that's then justified to have historical fiction of that be a bunch of white guys?

    We're getting into the kind of granular and deeply hypothetical situations now where I start to wonder why I'd be the person to ask, being that I'm neither a historian nor a person of color.

    Here's all I feel qualified to say: There are many historical moments where we can say with confidence Black people were not present. Feudal Japan when the borders were closed to outsiders, or Spain's first landing in the Americas. We know Black people weren't present because we know when African people first DID have contact with those areas. But, obviously, we can't say POCs weren't there, because Native Americans and Japanese people aren't white.

    So when would Europe have been as isolated from other cultures as the Americas or Japan? Certainly not during the Age of Imperialism, where Europe was forcing itself of every nonwhite nation it could find. Prior to that? There was still trade with nonwhite regions, exploration, and visiting noblemen. Mansa Musa was traveling Europe in the 13th century. Look, I haven't studied this, but it seems to me there has been contact between Europe and nonwhite countries stretching back to the time when our records get imprecise.

    So how would we know whether Black people were or weren't at an event back in the 12th century? What does evidence for their absence look like? Usually it would be that we have a whole lot of data of a period and none of it mentions them, but we don't have a whole lot of data for the Medieval period, we only have some. Or it would be that we know the history of Africa and know that there wasn't contact between them and the region in question until a later date, but I don't know that we have that for Europe.

    We keep coming back to this idea of an all-white period of European history. But rather than ask, "what if we had hypothetical evidence that this was the case," I would ask, instead, "was there ever a reason to have this idea in the first place?" We keep treating it as the default, that if there isn't evidence of Black people we can safely assume they weren't there, but when was this default proven? When was Europe isolated? Near as I can tell, we treat it as the default because that's how white people are used to depicting it, which has a lot more to do with white racism than with historical evidence.

    I don't know that there wasn't a period of isolated whiteness in European history. I just know I've never seen a depiction of one that wasn't promptly debunked by an actual historian. And if someone were to seek one out as the setting for a historical fiction, I'd have to wonder, why is THAT the most interesting period for you?

  37. Any non-white guy YouTubers you can recommend? I already follow Lindsay Ellis, Feminist Frequency and Struccimovies, but I've found even fewer POC run video essayists that focus on media and pop culture.

    Can't go wrong with Kat Blaque: https://www.youtube.com/user/TransDIYer

  38. There's been a lot of debates around the historicity and responsibility of depicting Black people's presence in Medieval era Europe. But I notice there's not as much talk about that when the media is a medieval period that's outside of Europe. Say, for example, Chinese Dynastic fiction or Wuxia. Is it equally problematic that there isn't a black people presence in Chinese historical fiction as there is for European historical fiction?

    White Westerners erasing Black people - or just the IDEA of Black people - from their history both reinforces and is a symptom of deeply ingrained systemic racism against Black people. Chinese erasure of Black people from history is crappy, but it isn't tied to much larger oppression, like job discrimination or unequal incarceration rates. Prejudice and oppression are related but they're not the same thing.

  40. Hello! I just wanted to say that I enjoy the Alt-Right Playbook, and I was wondering if you plan to make more episodes? :)

    Tons. The next script is already written.

  41. You said "The image of European history in which no Black people are present is always ahistorical. We know Europe had regular contact with Africa throughout the Medieval era. There is enough fuzziness in the records that it's hard to say who and when and how much, which means a depiction that includes Black people is no more or less plausible than a depiction without." But the game is not about Europe in general,the game is very specific about it's subject- it's set in Bohemia and as of today there are no(really not a single one) historical records about Black people in Bohemia in 1400s. So it's pretty ahistorical too put them in the game. The argument would be totally valid if the game was set in Spain or France. But if you are very nuanced about developers' skin color and the aesthetic choices they make, then why not to be very nuanced about the very subject of the game and history it tries to depict?

    Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. We know that Black people were in many parts of Europe before and after the period in question. It is entirely plausible that they were in Bohemia at that time, as there are ENORMOUS gaps in our records. I promise you there are many, many other things in the game that we don't have evidence for, because there simply isn't enough data to flesh out a believable world.

    So, again, it is just as "accurate" to depict Bohemia with Black people as without.

  42. In the range of 20GX-SoCal falcons, where does Captain Smuckers land? Thoughts on his run at The Gang Hosts a Melee Tournament?

    I think, like a lot of people, Captain Smuckers wasn't really on my radar before The Gang. He was a name I was familiar with but not someone whose sets I sought out. While he's certainly on my radar NOW, I'm not intimately familiar with his play style.

    Based on The Gang, he certainly looks a lot more West Coast than 20GX (and it is West Coast, not SoCal; Isai, SilentSpectre, and Lord are all NorCal boys). I'm sure there's some stuff he's picked up from 20GX, as any up-and-coming Falcon should be learning from everyone, but it seems like he favors style a bit more than optimization. That suits me juuuuuuuuust fine.

  43. Is it possible to peddle around a conceptually ambitious and intricately-written Twine game to be used as the potential skeleton for an actual game if one find the right people who'd be passionate about and commit to the idea? Because if it is possible, I'd really like to find those people.

    I'd say post it to some forums/bring it to some indie meetups and find out. :)

  44. How old is the oldest media you regularly watch/read/listen to/play/however else Mr media can be experienced?

    Oldest: I've played LOOM on average about once a year since I was 7.

    Most regular: I've been reading Sluggy Freelance almost daily since I was 17, exactly half my life.

  45. What’s your favorite language that’s not English and why?

    Rivenese.

  46. What do you think about Kingdom Come Deliverance? Do you think Daniel Vávra is wrong?

    That is not a thing I have opinions about.

    [EDIT: OK, having learned some of the context I realize this is a really flip response to a real issue that my work has touched on repeatedly, and not just a question about what I think of a random game. So! Opinions forthwith!]

    I haven't really followed Kingdom Come or Vávra's running commentary, so I don't know which thing you're asking if he's wrong about.

    Do I think Vávra is wrong in his opinions on historical accuracy? Yes, completely. The image of European history in which no Black people are present is always ahistorical. We know Europe had regular contact with Africa throughout the Medieval era. There is enough fuzziness in the records that it's hard to say who and when and how much, which means a depiction that includes Black people is no more or less plausible than a depiction without. In the end, the designer is always making an aesthetic choice, and we should always question white people making the aesthetic choice to not depict Black people (which tends to be the choice they make). Claiming "historical accuracy" to handwave the decision you made has always been lazy and cowardly.

    Do I think Vávra is wrong about GamerGate having had some good points and/or being primarily about freedom of speech? If you know my work, you know my answer: he is obviously and extremely wrong.

    I'm sure there are other things Vávra is wrong about, happy to add to the list if you think of any.

  47. So you mentioned in one of the Alt Right Playbook videos that people in the alt right like to put people in boxes to dismiss them, feminist, liberal, etc. Have you also noticed a tendency to do this on the left? I know I definitely start ignoring people when I see pepe or a maga tag or a gamergater tag.

    I've already answered this question: https://curiouscat.me/InnuendoStudios/post/316344063

  48. Do you remember the first book/movie/tv show that you saw/read and didn't like regardless of reviews or other people's opinions and was able to explain why you disliked it? And if yes what was it?

    I was in 6th or 7th grade when I watched a Gallagher comedy special on TV. I had no concept of feminism at that age, but, even then, I thought, "Jeez, jokes about how men and women are, like, SO DIFFERENT are really played out."

  49. What's you take on Slavoj Zizek as a public speaker ? He has become very memified within the left (for good or ill) in the recent years, for his speech paterns but not a lot of people actually red his books.

    I haven't read his books, either.

  50. Have you seen Bright?

    Hell no.

  51. Have you seen contrapoint's video on violence? What did you think of her arguments and position?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmsoVFCUN3Q

    I can't really agree or disagree because she's not making an argument so much as teasing out the complexities of the issue. Contra is very good at teasing out complexities.

    It does get me thinking about how two different points she makes play off each other: First, that, once you deem a certain type of violence acceptable and allow yourself to enjoy it, it's not going to stop being enjoyable once if the justifications get weaker. Second, that the punching of Richard Spencer is the only high-profile violence committed by the Left that anyone can point to (as compared with regular beatings and literal murder by the Far Right).

    So, then: does the fact of Richard Spencer's memeification mixed with the fact that it has not led to a dramatic increase of more and greater violence from the Left imply that the moral compass of the Left can find violence enjoyable without escalating it? Or is it the fact that there is so much debate over the validity of punching Nazis that the Left can't fully embrace it? Is it the lack of tacit approval from authority that makes Left violence less common than police violence and hate crimes committed by white people? Is it good to rely on a kind of reflexive emotional distaste for unjustified violence to keep us from becoming a violent society, or is it better to be guided by reason and morality over gut reactions? And is that even a feasible thing for a world population of billions?

    I don't have any more answers than Contra, but it's all stuff to chew on.

  52. Do you support the argument that satire shouldn't be subtle, because what's the point of it if those targeted are not going to get it and get the opposite message? Basically, what's your take on Malcolm Gladwell's satire paradox?

    I had to go listen to the podcast in question (http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/10-the-satire-paradox) before I could answer this, but here are some thoughts:

    1. Leave it to Gladwell to report Poe's Law as if it's a recent discovery.

    2. Gladwell is mostly arguing against toothlessness in satire, and I am generally in agreement with him about Enfield's Loadsamoney and Fey's Palin. I do often wonder, if the people you're satirizing enjoy your satire, what good is it?

    3. Satire can serve several functions. The basest one is simply allowing you to laugh at something that is otherwise pretty unhappy. This has little political impact but it can be a relief to people on the side of the satirist. I don't think Colbert roasting Bush at the Correspondents' Dinner changed many minds, but god I needed a laugh in those days. This is valuable even when the opposition doesn't get the joke.

    4. I think satire is best when it reveals something. Bob Roberts isn't a perfect movie, but its goofy fusion of Ronald Reagan and Bob Dylan helped me understand how conservatism uses folksiness to its advantage and co-opts counter-cultural movements. I understood it more concretely through caricature than I think I would have in an essay. This, again, does not depend on the target getting the joke.

    5. The main risk of the target not getting the joke is that you will accidentally empower your opponent. I don't know how big that risk is, so it's hard to weigh the pros and cons. (Would have been nice if Gladwell actually did some journalism in that area, would've supported his argument.)

    6. Some argue (http://bit.ly/2hlz6Fn) that there is value to letting certain folks - not your target, but people who disagree with you - in on the joke, because letting them laugh with you can help sway them to your side. I'd like to see some journalism on that, too.

    7. Malcolm Gladwell is a hack.

  53. Just an observation with regards to the whole violence thing is that nobody seems to talk about the concept of precedent. Once you punch Richard Spencer in the face, it sets the precedent that assault and battery is an acceptable means of combatting The Enemy. And then it's as simple as saying (not even proving) that someone is The Enemy to justify such actions.

    Al Letson certainly isn't a Nazi, but because he defended a random Trump supporter who was getting jumped by a mob, he became identified as The Enemy and became targeted by that mob. And I see very few people who seem willing to acknowledge the progression from one to the other.

    I haven't followed the story, but I'm looking up Al Letson and I can't find anything that suggests he is now considered The Enemy in an ongoing way. Is he no longer safe at protests? Does he get chased down the way Richard Spencer does? Do people knock his camera out of his hand when they see him? Watching the video and what I'm seeing is, shortly after he intervenes, a number of other lefties start calling for the attacks to stop. All the reports say he suffered only minor injuries, and the violence abated quickly. I'm not seeing any ongoing harassment from Antifa, any thinkpieces about how he's a Nazi. Near as I can tell, he threw himself into the middle of a beating and took a few blows in the confusion before everyone stopped.

    Google's not very good at doing this kind of research on the fly, so if Letson has been permanently labeled The Enemy, shoot me some links and I'll check them out.

  54. You have to admit violence is the most effective and efficient way to shut terrible things down. Someone who is spouting off hateful ideas won't be stopped by people telling that person it's offensive. But violence is a quick and easy way to stop hate from being propagated. If the Left were better at utilizing violence than the Right then we wouldn't be in this situation right now. The Alt-Right probably would have been completely stomped out if the Left armed themselves effectively and smashed back the way they do and do it harder.

    If the Right doesn't want to be civil then it should be gloves off for the Left. I'm tired of seeing the Left constantly be victimized by Right-Wing violence throughout history and it's time we learn that they are winning because of violence and coercion and, in the face of that, hugs and kisses only makes you a doormat to be taken advantaged of. Angels don't stop Devils.

    *sigh*

    Once again, I have never advocated for pacifism in the face of the Alt-Right, so I don't know what people are arguing against.

    But if you're going to argue the Left should have hit harder sooner, what specifically do you mean? Before they were marching on Charlottesville, the people who became the Alt-Right were congregating on anonymous webforums. How do you suggest we punch them there? Is it more effective to dox and physically hunt down every white supremacist on /pol/? Because what I said about shutting down platforms where white supremacists organize is both more feasible, more effective, and has the better optics of not being violent.

    There is also ample data suggesting that violent counterprotests can make the public feel threatened and thereby more susceptible to authoritarian rhetoric. I am not saying this to make a moral argument against violence, I am saying that violence and pacifism are both tools that are effective in different contexts. I'm not here for a debate about whether violence is or isn't moral, I'm here for discussions of when it is and isn't useful.

  55. I'm currently writing an essay involving a large retrospective look at the work of Richard Kelly, and I remember in your Life is Strange video, you mentioned Donnie Darko as a comparative punchline.
    So in case no one else has already asked, what is your stance on Kelly's body of work?

    I've only seen Donnie Darko, and I would call it Bargain Bin David Lynch. (Which is kinder than a guy I knew who called it Teen Angst Jacob's Ladder.)

    It doesn't do anything for me.

  56. You said you hate the military

    The US military is a racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, and obscenely overfunded institution that treats perpetual war as a business.

    Unless I say otherwise, any time I claim "this organization is shit," my position is "wouldn't it be great if we made it not shit?"

    I'm never going to like the military, but I'm a lot more likely to see reform than abolition in my lifetime, so that's where I focus my energy.

  57. Do you think it's reasonable that we can just abolish the military and secret service and then the world will just leave us alone and not have places like China, Russia, or Saudi Arabia wreck their own havoc that'll eventually have a negative effect on us? I don't trust that the world is in a better place if the US cedes it's military activities to overtly totalitarian powers such as Russia, China, Turkey or Saudi Arabia

    Why do you ask? I've never discussed military abolitionism.

  58. Can there be any positive social change without a violent uprising ?

    Depends on how broadly you define "violent" and "uprising."

  59. Who's your favorite non-hbox puff?

    Honestly, I don't pay super close attention to pools and early bracket, and the other Puffs tend to wash out at majors before Top 24. Seeing Prince Abu almost crack Top 8 at Evo was pretty rad, but I'm not familiar enough with him or the others to have favorites.

  60. What are your thoughts on the whole "AAA games are getting too expensive to make" issue? What do you think would be the best way to fix it?

    It is true that, if gaming prices had kept pace with inflation, they'd probably cost $120 by now, and that's without accounting for increased budgets, and that's why there's loot boxes and microtransactions and paid DLC.

    It is also true that, if my wages had kept pace with inflation, I could happily pay $120 for a game rather than deal with all that bullshit.

    But wages didn't keep pace with inflation, I can only rarely afford a game at full price as it is, and there's a reason most of the stuff I've talked about on my channel has been $20-30 indie games.

    The only REAL solution to this problem is a better distribution of wealth, but that's maybe a bit beyond the games industry to accomplish.

  61. I'm also a melee fan and I've recently gotten into Starcraft 2. Have you ever watched any Starcraft (1 or 2)? Or are you into any other esports?

    Melee is the only esport I've ever followed.

  62. You say the alt right puts people in "boxes" so that their points can be summarily ignored but can't the same allegation be leveled at people on the left?

    Terms like brocialist, racist, sexist, reactionary, etc?

    I'ma let you know up front that this is the kind of argument that is given to me in bad faith so often that it's hard to give you the benefit of the doubt, but I'm going to answer it anyway.

    You ask your average person who talks about "the SJWs" what it is that SJWs believe, how they think, how social justice operates, and they don't know. Most of their information comes second-hand; they don't know what the feminists are saying, they know what Sargon of Akkad is saying the feminists are saying. The actual tenets of feminism, of race theory, of gender studies, of trans* activism, they have only a cursory, caricatured understanding of any of it.

    Ask your average person who talks about racism, sexism, authoritarianism, and they will - ON AVERAGE - have a decent understanding of those subjects. They know what racists claim to believe, and they know how racism operates (which are two different things). Most aren't experts, but they have some basic and freely-available knowledge. Again, there is knowledge and ignorance on both sides, this is AN AVERAGE, but the social justice crowd knows much, much more about the anti-social justice crowd than the reverse.

    My point about putting people in boxes is that, once you put someone in a box, you can ignore them. Generally, with the racist, sexist, or reactionary boxes, they are put there so they can be studied.

  63. What do you think of moviebob?

    I feel like the term "problematic fave" might be a little too strong, as I don't think Bob is THAT problematic but he's also not THAT much of a fave.

    I like him, I've watched his stuff for a long time. As he's gotten more overtly political online and in his videos he's disillusioned a lot of people on the Left. He's generally pretty progressive but some of his dismissals of Trump voters can be alternately ableist and classist, and some have pointed out that his "these people are dead-enders and the world will leave them behind" is borderline eugenicist. Even his political takes that I agree with - which is, in fairness, most of them - are, at best, kind of entry-level and are often oversimplified.

    But, like, whatever. I notice a lot of folks who diss him are fans of folks I find distasteful, like Chapo Trap House or Red Letter Media. And they are usually pretty open about the problems with those folks, which is fine; all faves are problematic. It's just a question of where you draw the lines.

    I felt RLM's sexist humor and casual rape jokes were across the line for me, and didn't feel the same about my problems with Bob.

    I do honestly wonder whether the criticisms of Bob are partly to do with the subsets of the Left that value class issues over identity politics, as Bob's failings are largely to do with class and CTH and RLM's are largely to do with gender, but I couldn't say without more study.

  64. Hey Ian. Do you think there is a fundamental confusion between equality and inclusivity in liberal discourse ? I define equality as a right to be treated and do the same things as others do while inclusivity is more of a right to have to have access to consumption that was previously gated away and specificly made for and by white men. From that point I don't realy see inclusivity as a mean to realy challenge the status quo and induce deep progressive societal changes, as those who posses the means of production will keep them as long they abide to inclusive demands, this can already be observed in hollywood where women and minorities are protagonists and actors if movies but the direction and the money are mostly from white men.

    This is like that joke, right? Conservatives say, "We're going to put Muslims in internment camps" and liberals say, "You'd better let women be guards!"

    Whatever you want to call it, yes, greater representation in existing power structures is not, in and of itself, reform. And Democrats often fixate on gestures of inclusivity rather than real change. This is a problem.

    That said, representation is significant. However broken out democracy is, and however much sway wealth has over government, votes do matter. It is rarely possible to change policy without popular support, and representation makes popular support possible. I don't like the current Hollywood studio system, but I still want Black actors cast in it, because famous Black people make policies that advantage Black people more popular. I don't like the military, but I want women and trans* people to have access to it because it's easier to reform a diverse military than a sexist and transphobic one.

    The problem I have with liberalism is that it too often sees inclusivity as the end goal, rather than a step towards equality. But it is a necessary step.

  65. What do you think about the situation where many gigantic gaming youtubers are embracing neo-reactionary figures and talking points like Jon Tron and Pew Die Pie?

    Should we be worried about their influence over especially young teens and children on youtube?

    Your second question answers your first question, and the answer to your second question is yes.

  66. What was your worst date?

    Haven't had any truly bad dates, so here's the closest thing:

    When I moved to Oakland with my best friend, we snagged a house before we had enough people to fill it, and started interviewing potential housemates. We met a guy named Troy off of Craig's List at a cafe in Rockridge.

    At first, he just seemed like kind of a nerd. He was disappointed that I didn't recognize his necklace, which was apparently Cloud's necklace from Final Fantasy VII. I asked him if he'd seen Advent Children. He didn't seem to know what I was talking about.

    He was oddly disinterested in talking about the house. He started telling us about some lucky break in World of Warcraft where he used the last of his gold to identify three mystery items, and they turned out to be three of the rarest items in the game.

    Then he told us he used to be kind of a computer hacker, and had done some questionable things. I asked the biggest place he'd ever cracked; he wouldn't tell me because, he said, there might be a warrant out for his arrest.

    Next he talked about his previous career as a motorcycle drag racer, something he'd made good money at for several years, but had given up three years earlier, though his girlfriend wanted him to get back into it. Troy was 19. I did the mental math and said, "You started motorcycle drag racing at, what, 12?" He said, yeah, as soon as his legs could reach the pedals!

    He went on to tell us about his relationship with the LA gang The Red Dragons, whom he said were "50% Black, 50% Hispanic, and the rest are Asian." He told us about how his ninja master had once, as a training exercise, left him in the snow in nothing but jeans and a t-shirt to find his own way back, and then did the same in a desert. He told us about having multiple personalities, and how once he'd blacked out and woken up two years later in China, and was only just starting to remember the dark things he'd done as his other persona. He told us how he could kill a person with his bare hands, and had once thrown a guy out a window when he found his girlfriend sleeping with him. He told us how every woman he'd ever dated but his current girlfriend had cheated on him, and he would never strike a woman but had bloodied his knuckles on his bedroom wall in anger about it.

    After the interview, he walked us back to the BART station and waved goodbye as we rode the escalator up. We managed to keep it together until he was out of sight.

    He invited us to his birthday party a few weeks later. He had apparently married his girlfriend by then. We didn't respond.

  67. I'd love you forever if you did that video in Yahtzee ^0^

    Your love sounds very conditional.

  68. Thoughts on Yahtzee Croshaw? His 'media personality' (can't think of a better term) and his games?

    In particular, you mentioned the Chzo Mythos ages ago in a Tumblr post. Do they still stand up?

    At various points I have considered doing a video about Yahtzee, because I watched his whole arc. I played his games when he was just a guy on the Adventure Game Studio forums, I checked out his writing on his website, I saw his first video review when he posted it, and I followed his entire rise with Zero Punctuation. His "media personality" is a case study in how a somewhat problematic person's worst tendencies get amped up when an audience is clamoring for them, and how "ironic" sexism and "ironic" racism will always be embraced by overt sexists and racists, and how the culture war forces people to pick a side and people who looked like they were making progress backslide HARD once something like GamerGate happens...

    I don't think I want to do any more profiles of contentious figures, but there's a lot there.

    Most of the Chzo Mythos is varying degrees of "only OK" but, with a few caveats, I think Trilby's Notes is genuinely good. His 3-part cinematic platformer 1213 is also pretty genuinely good. I miss that Yahtzee.

  69. Can you please elaborate on your thoughts regarding Undertale? Given Story Beats I thought it would have been right up your alley.

    I don't have much to say, really. I gave up pretty early on, before the plot had properly kicked in. The level exploration and puzzles seemed a little tedious and the combat was clever but a little repetitive, and I found when I put it down that I didn't have a huge desire to pick it up again.

    I didn't hate it or anything, it just didn't click for me.

  70. Do you think racism, sexism, homophobia etc will ever truly vanish from society?

    People keep asking me to predict the future like I'm some kinda junior Nostradamus.

    I don't know if we WILL ever eradicate prejudice from society, I merely operate on the assumption that we CAN. I think people will always have their own personal, emotional biases. I'm not sure we can get away from the reflexive fear of the other. So long as there are different kinds of people, I think there will be prejudices. But we are certainly capable of ending the systemic aspects of prejudice, I believe that. The way white people think of prejudice, where skin color is just a thing some folks have irrational biases against, and the only thing at stake is hurt feelings? I think that's something to work towards. The current situation where skin color is something a heavily armed police force has biases against? That's something we are certainly capable of ending.

  71. Are you pro or anti skub?

    Nice try, cop.

  72. Do you have any favorite stand-up comedians?

    Mitch Hedberg, I guess.

    I'm not up on modern comics so there's not much competition.

  73. who is best pony?

    You are.

  74. Do you think the best way to counter South Park's damage would be for someone to make another animated comedy with "Caring is Good" as the overall message?

    It's called Steven Universe.

  75. Would you say South Park created the septic society of today? That it brainwashed a whole generation into thinking "Caring Is Gay," that everybody who tries to change things for the better is a delusional and/or dangerous extremist?

    Created it? No. It is a symptom.
    Made it worse? Holy shit yeah.

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