CuriousCat Archive Page 86 of 202

  1. Could you tell us more about the interactions you had with his fans?

    in response to Saw on Twitter, of course, that you don't really like Vaush, is it because of the debates or is it related to something else? It seems like he's doing pretty well overall, and his non-debate streams are literally indistinguishable from other leftist streamers who aren't debate bros Don't people have different ways of learning things, so if some people learn through stream discussions, and others through debates, and others through video essays, shouldn't it be fine as long as we all arrive at the same conclusion? And doesn't a large portion overlap? I don't think people watching one thing excludes them from the other? This is me asking in general too, because debates aren't really my thing, they give me anxiety

    this string of questions about why I don't like Vaush and whether I'm pre-judging Vauch and how I should definitely give Vaush a chance has happened like four times. the only other person that's happened with is Jordan Peterson.

    look, 720,000 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every day. there's tons of stuff I don't watch. I don't have a passionate opinion on Vaush. from what little I know of his stuff, I don't think I'd enjoy it, and I've picked up some red flags along the grapevine. maybe I'm wrong! I tend to be a decent judge of what won't jive with me, but I've been wrong before. but, like, *why do so many people give a shit??* like, honestly, one of the bigger red flags is knowing the audience he's cultivated are the kinds of people who will jump into Twitter threads and Curious Cat and spend days telling you're wrong for not watching him. his channel and mine are about the same size, and I'm pretty confident my fans have never done that to anyone. Destiny's fans do the same thing even more aggressively, and I gather Vaush is a big fan of Destiny, to the point where I know people he's unfriended for criticizing Destiny. so, like, enh. none of this is making me wanna go watch his channel.

    I don't even get the pitch! I hear a lot of noise about how what seem like self-evidently bad takes are taken out of context, but no one has told me a single insightful thing he's ever said. people say he's good at deradicalizing conservatives. I'm not a conservative, so I don't even get how I'm the target audience. if I do my job right, I feel like people can point to it and say "here's a good argument I heard from Innuendo Studios." that's how I feel about Contrapoints and Philosophy Tube and Big Joel and Kat Blaque and Maggie Mae Fish and Shannon Strucci and Lindsay Ellis and Dan Olson and Carlos Maza and all my other favorite video essayists. no one has ever pointed me to a good point Vaush has made, they've only tried to convince me something he said isn't as bad as I think.

    so, like, I would like to just live my life? folks are trying to create drama where there isn't any. it's ok if a YouTuber doesn't watch another YouTuber, even if you think he should. touch grass.

  3. Favorite American slang?

    hecka

  4. LeftTube could definitely use more historical content. Especially geared towards the history of socialist action. So that is really exciting. Any particular revolutions you are excited to research/ speak on?

    in response to After Co-Vids and TARP, what are your series plans?

    Mostly it's that I don't know what the path is from where we are to where I want us to be, so I want to look at history and see what I think worked and what I think didn't. I also want to know how much of what I've heard is true and how much is propaganda, be it pro- or anti-communist.

    On my list to research are:

    The Paris Commune
    The Soviet Union
    MAREZ
    The Big Four: China, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam
    The Spanish Civil War
    Burkina Faso
    Chile After Pinochet
    Rebel Radio

    Suggestions welcome.

  5. A white parent expressing anti-whiteness to their white child is rarely appropriate. Unless you want the kid to be eff'd up mentally

    in response to Different Anon, Vaush has lots of detractors who circulate out-of-context clips to make him look bad Maybe just get it over with by watching his stream one of these days and make up your own mind

    ah yes, a critically important issue plaguing Americans, won't somebody think of the white children?

  6. Re: Vaush. Dude, I think you may have been exposed to some misinformation. Vaush is disliked by A LOT of people online dislike him due to him calling out people for being stupid often (including his own chat). It's important to be wary of what you hear about online figures from potentially biased sources.

    Do you think I'm being reasonable?

    I think you're being vague and weirdly invested in me liking a YouTuber

  7. Fam, it seems you're just looking for excuses because he's so successfully doing the praxis to your theory

    His chat is literally the holding space you describe in Normie, only more fun

    At the very least, if you're really interested in figuring out what can be done to deradicalize people, you should be keen on studying his approach

    in response to Yet another anon: I don't quite know what "complaining about anti-whiteness" means, but my best guess is that it has to do with Progressives who direct their ire toward individual white people rather than towards systems of oppression that have existed for centuries. Vaush criticizes the online left a lot because he wants it to be more effective at advancing various political goals. But I cant accurately summarize all of his positions on race and class because they're quite nuanced. Your best bet is to contact him privately and just ask him what he believes.

    here's the passage about holding spaces from the video you're referring to (emphasis added):

    "I DON'T KNOW THAT LEFTY SPACES ARE IDEAL FOR THIS, in no small part because bringing someone who’s a bit of a Nazi but working on it into diverse communities is… questionable. And it probably wouldn’t be good for him, either; having just gotten out of a toxic belief system, he’s going to be deeply skeptical of all ideologies. In a perfect world, PEOPLE WHO CARE ABOUT GABE could build for him - to use a therapy term - a holding space. Someplace private - physical or digital - where Gabe can work out his feelings, where he is both encouraged and expected to be better but is not, in the moment, judged. That comes later. It is delicate and time-consuming work that SHOULD NOT BE DONE IN PUBLIC, but we find these beliefs, built up over the course of months or years, tend to fall away very quickly with a shift of environment."

    so a public, parasocial, lefty space is kind of the opposite of what I was talking about, you know?

    if you're going to criticize my theory, maybe listen to it first

  8. Yet another anon: I don't quite know what "complaining about anti-whiteness" means, but my best guess is that it has to do with Progressives who direct their ire toward individual white people rather than towards systems of oppression that have existed for centuries. Vaush criticizes the online left a lot because he wants it to be more effective at advancing various political goals. But I cant accurately summarize all of his positions on race and class because they're quite nuanced.

    Your best bet is to contact him privately and just ask him what he believes.

    didn't he also go on a long rant about how people should be distancing themselves from BLM?

  10. After Co-Vids and TARP, what are your series plans?

    I want to do a deep dive into leftist revolutions, and I want to talk about the history of the adventure game, though the latter might end up being a podcast.

  12. Best way to argue with 2A people who try to trap you into a game of definitions and whataboutisms?

    don't

  13. https://youtu.be/vk9ZRBGpLkM
    thoughts? which side of this debate do you fall more towards?

    this video is an hour long

  14. Different Anon, Vaush has lots of detractors who circulate out-of-context clips to make him look bad

    Maybe just get it over with by watching his stream one of these days and make up your own mind

    in response to Saw on Twitter, of course, that you don't really like Vaush, is it because of the debates or is it related to something else? It seems like he's doing pretty well overall, and his non-debate streams are literally indistinguishable from other leftist streamers who aren't debate bros Don't people have different ways of learning things, so if some people learn through stream discussions, and others through debates, and others through video essays, shouldn't it be fine as long as we all arrive at the same conclusion? And doesn't a large portion overlap? I don't think people watching one thing excludes them from the other? This is me asking in general too, because debates aren't really my thing, they give me anxiety

    do please explain to me in which context complaining about anti-whiteness is acceptable

  15. Saw on Twitter, of course, that you don't really like Vaush, is it because of the debates or is it related to something else?

    It seems like he's doing pretty well overall, and his non-debate streams are literally indistinguishable from other leftist streamers who aren't debate bros

    Don't people have different ways of learning things, so if some people learn through stream discussions, and others through debates, and others through video essays, shouldn't it be fine as long as we all arrive at the same conclusion?

    And doesn't a large portion overlap? I don't think people watching one thing excludes them from the other?

    This is me asking in general too, because debates aren't really my thing, they give me anxiety

    look the only things I know about Vaush are the periodic bits that float my way about, like, talking about when it's okay to complain about anti-whiteness and that every interaction I've had with his fans has been insufferable

  16. What if your attention deficit is so bad that you can barely read a sentence without getting a migrane? (asking for a friend)

    in response to #1 tip for self care

    video games

  17. What personal, individual, ideally distinct advice would you give to someone who wants to, leave?

    leave where?

  18. #1 tip for self care

    this week's burnout recovery plan has involved a lot of reading books

  22. Is Brazil developed? Is developed just a term for "non-white" or does it actually have economic importance? Why can't I just ask one question in one post?

    in response to Why is the American Right so much further right then the right of other developed nations? Or, why is the American Far-Right more powerful than the far-right of other developed nations? Which of these questions would you say is more correct, and how would you answer it?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developed_country

  23. I can only speak of Britain, but the death rate wasn't a hypercapitalist mistake, just one of lack of care for how the actual incompetence of this government (and deliberate racist pandering) was killing people by the tens of thousands, the hypercapitalism just came as a gloss to the same "sending infected people into care homes" stuff that American states were doing, so if you wanna use us as a case study on the right what you surely need too focus on is:
    The reason the right distrust the state is that at root they are terrible at running it, and assume everyone else must be also
    The reason the far right gains control is always the same, fear over loss of control and 'purity' (bodily, racial, or other) makes people open to letting the monsters off the chain again

    in response to Why is the American Right so much further right then the right of other developed nations? Or, why is the American Far-Right more powerful than the far-right of other developed nations? Which of these questions would you say is more correct, and how would you answer it?

    that is all true. the hypercapitalist failure I was referring to was not doing a fuller shutdown of business for fear of what saving lives would do to "the economy," same as we did in the US, but shutting down even less and reopening even sooner.

  24. What would you say to someone that wants to make video essays like TARP but doesn't find the time? That someone is obviously not me (?

    make it very slowly

  25. Why is the American Right so much further right then the right of other developed nations?
    Or, why is the American Far-Right more powerful than the far-right of other developed nations?

    Which of these questions would you say is more correct, and how would you answer it?

    I mean, Britain's hypercapitalism gave them an even higher COVID death rate than ours, Brazil's run by a literal fascist, and France came perilously close to electing le Pen, and I think at least one of those nations are developed.

  26. Can you even be hot and cute at the same time

    in response to Would you rather be cute or hot?

    living proof baby

  27. Come to think of it, what were your thoughts on "Broken Age" as a whole?
    I can infer from your "The Death of the Adventure Game" essay that you thougt it not really innovative in form for an adventure game.

    in response to How are you feeling about the imminent Psychonauts 2? Excited, or more worried about a monkey's paw situation that's unfortunately not been uncommon with revivals of long-dormant titles?

    There's a spiel I have workshopped in my head but never bothered to put in a video that goes something like this:

    Roger Ebert once described a shot in the movie Dark City, where a camera looks down the hallway of a police department, a row of lights artfully placed in the frame. This shot serves little narrative purpose, it's just a guy walking down a hall. It doesn't need to be this striking. But the set is clearly built on a soundstage. Days and days of work went into building this hallway. It doesn't appear in any other shots. A ridiculous amount of labor just to make this one shot of a cop stepping into a hallway as beautiful as it can possibly be.

    He said it was hard not to forgive the movie its flaws when every frame feels like a carefully-crafted gift to the viewer. This is how I feel about Broken Age.

    In structure, it is a LucasArts style point-and-click adventure game. The games Schafer worked at at Lucas were skillfully animated, but the animation was still simple. Disk space and budgets were limited. Guybrush Threepwood had a single speech animation; it didn't need to follow any particular cadences because the text appeared above his head, drawing the eye away from his mouth, and his voice was only heard in the player's imagination. It just had to look like talking. By the second game, he could make a handful of gestures while speaking. These were general enough, and the resolution low enough, that they could mean different things depending on context. His open-palm stance could look plaintive, exasperated, or foolish. They were efficient, multipurpose.

    Broken Age follows the modern convention of every line being recorded by a voice actor and lipsynched. And then it goes beyond. Every single line is a unique animation, functionally a tiny, interactive cutscene. Speech animations flow seamlessly into idle animations while the player chooses the next line. A complex lighting system means the sprite will be tinted to match the surrounding environment.

    Does this make the experience better? Absolutely. If I'm generous, I'll say this makes it 2x as good as the older, simpler animation system. But I gather it cost something like 5-10x as much. So was it wise? And does it make the game, with its muddled themes, lumpy plot, annoying puzzles, and flat ending, good? I can't say it does.

    But it's hard to get mad about it. Whether it was a wise use of labor, it was a gift. It was made with love.

    Probably not gonna play it again, but I'm grateful nonetheless.

  29. What's the best pizza topping? Not your favourite, but the objectively, factually, logically, truthfully, reasonably correct answer.

    roasted garlic

  30. Would you rather be cute or hot?

    I'm already both

  31. What's the classic game you most would like a top to bottom, but still faithful, remake of? Like, the kind that's more or less 1:1 with the original, but looks and handles like a modern game?

    first thing that comes to mind is how great Blast Corps would be with good game feel

  32. I assume you think that high school students shouldn't be expected to be employed. But I think it's nice for teenagers to have some financial independence, so I'd like your feedback on this idea:

    Students should be paid to take extracurricular activities. So stuff like Band, club activities, higher level courses, sports and other competitive activities, arts courses, and anything else that enriches a student's educational experience.

    Do you think this general idea would work?

    how about this: if we want students to have financial independence, we should just pay them. they're already doing more than a full-time job's worth of labor.

  33. Any thoughts on Hypnospace Outlaw? I loved the idea of internet as adventure game, and how it uses comedy to disarm you for drama. I think some of the best writing in ANY medium comes from doing that.

    I should really finish it. A lot of the early assignments just feel like visiting the same pages again and again to see what's changed, and it gets very tedious. I'm assuming, from the praise I've heard, it gets better as it goes on.

  34. when you say you hate tomatoes do you mean raw or will you almost never eat anything with tomato in it

    nah, I actually love most tomato products, but if it has the texture of a tomato it will kick up my gag reflex

  35. How are you feeling about the imminent Psychonauts 2? Excited, or more worried about a monkey's paw situation that's unfortunately not been uncommon with revivals of long-dormant titles?

    I never finished the original, so I don't have any strong feelings either way. Also, let's be honest, Tim Schafer's games post-LucasArts have always been interesting-but-janky.

  36. Was the world really actually fucked up back then, but it was just unacceptable to talk about it in public? Like how did gay and trans people live with themselves when their desires/identities were considered taboo? Or what about people with ADHD and autism when those disorders weren't even recognized?

    I'm not gay, nor do I have ADHD or autism, nor was I alive at the time, so I'm not sure I could be of much help here. Sorry!

  37. How much did you engage with the lore of Hallownest when you first played Hollow Knight?

    as much as humanly (bugly?) possible

  39. So…. *is* Aaron Lewis the only one? ^^;

    I wish

  40. What do you think about The Dark Knight Rises, and more specifically the allusions to the Occupy Wall St movement?

    lol, it's a mess

  41. To celebrate the completion of your CO-VIDs series, I decided to go back and find the first question you ever anwsered on your CC account, and to ask if your anwser has changed since then, so here it is:

    "What, in retrospect, do you think your favorite video essay that you've made has been?"

    that must've taken a LOT of scrolling

    I don't remember what I said last time, so I'm not sure how different this is, but, at this moment, I'd say Genre and the Adventure Game is the one I have the most fondness for, and How to Radicalize a Normie is the greatest achievement

  42. what's so good/fun/engaging about Tik Tok?

    honestly, it's the only social media platform I know that regularly brings users joy

  43. do you like the Culture novels?

    haven't read them but I know the pitch. the first couple chapters of Consider Phlebas were in the back of a different sci-fi book I read recently, and I liked the first chapter but wasn't as into the second, so I haven't prioritized the series. I was thinking of reading Use of Weapons at some point.

  44. What are the best and/or your favourite platformer games?

    pure platformers:

    celeste
    knytt stories
    super meat boy
    super mario world
    jumpman

    stretching the definition a bit:

    iconoclasts
    hollow knight
    gunstar heroes
    cave story

  45. reply to this with thoughts when you see it, if you like

    in response to have you seen first cow?

    this message is going to disappear among the 3000+ unanswered messages before that happens, sorry

  46. Ur fav indian dish

    masala dosa

  47. ian danskin knows football, real top 10 anime plot twists moment :p

    in response to Your favorite position?

    is that football?

  48. Any plans to play Neofeud?

    not really? folks keep recommending it, but I just don't dig the aesthetic. should I try it anyway?

  49. have you seen first cow?

    it's on my list, but not yet

  50. are vacations and tourism weird? is it okay to tie a reprieve from responsibility (which can def be mentally healthy) to specific locations in ways that can impact or burden those living there?

  51. Can one be a feminist and still buy fast fashion items?

    can one be a feminist and still ask men what clothes women are allowed to buy?

  52. Your favorite position?

    fullback

  53. Well as long as I'm asking about UK directors who have a lot of clout but I'm not sure how they're perceived by American, are you very familiar with the films of Ken Loach? If you aren't, I think you'd like him.

    I've seen Bread and Roses. I felt mixed on it.

  55. It’s true that some of them allowed the trumpist mob into the capitol, but many fought them, distracted them, led them away from the members of Congress and even shot one. Is it fair to simply say “the cops stepped aside?” Many did step aside, but many others did keep the members of Congress safe and got beaten for it.
    There are many good arguments for defunding or abolishing the police, but saying that the police did nothing to stop the assault on the capitol doesn’t seem like one of them to me.

    in response to They didn't do very well in Charlottesville either. And at Capitol, some cops have actually helped the rioters. Others have dutifully resisted them though and in the end they have pushed them out so that the Congress session could be finished. The thing is, wouldn't a citizen militia do even worse? So far the best attempt at a police alternative seems to be Asayish in Syrian Kurdistan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asayish_(Rojava_regions) But those are trained alongside the YPG militia and armed with kalashnikov rifles (again, like YPG). I really think you should look into Rojava.

    I didn't say they did nothing. I'm saying it's hard to argue that a citizen-led group couldn't do better. Citizens have done a better job than the cops did on the 6th hundreds and hundreds of times. How many times have they chained themselves to trees to prevent deforestation? How many times have they halted evictions by refusing to let cops enter a building? Hell, not long ago they barricaded an ICE facility. During Occupy they shut down the entire Port of Oakland. If you want evidence that they could do a better job than police, keep in mind, in most of these cases, the people they were stopping *were* the police.

    Let's not pretend they couldn't stop a bunch of fascist dipshits from entering a building.

  56. Are you going to play the Outer Wilds expansion? And what was your reaction when you first heard about it.

    hype thru the roof

  57. Do you ever struggle with feeling like reality ain’t real? How do you deal with it?

    the most reliable are things like the twitter account that just posts pictures of turtles or the subreddits devoted to bunnies with pancakes on their heads

    and there's always tiktok

  58. They didn't do very well in Charlottesville either. And at Capitol, some cops have actually helped the rioters. Others have dutifully resisted them though and in the end they have pushed them out so that the Congress session could be finished.

    The thing is, wouldn't a citizen militia do even worse? So far the best attempt at a police alternative seems to be Asayish in Syrian Kurdistan.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asayish_(Rojava_regions)
    But those are trained alongside the YPG militia and armed with kalashnikov rifles (again, like YPG). I really think you should look into Rojava.

    in response to If you abolished the police, how would you stop the Capitol riot? How about the Charlottesville rally? You're right that protecting people is not the police's job, but this is. And I can't imagine an untrained, unequipped militia being able to handle this.

    I'm pretty sure the Black Panthers would have handled it better than the cops who literally stepped aside and let insurrectionists breach the barricade

  59. Is Sonic 3 the precursor to Half-life in terms of the way it tells its story?

    no, both are clearly descendants of Ultima Underworld

  61. Thoughts on Danny Boyle's films? Is he big in the U.S?

    Well, I was once a teenage boy, so I had a Trainspotting poster on my wall. I think I've aged out of his early, "cool" work. 28 Days Later is a pretty impeccable thriller. Sunshine is a fascinating setup with a plot that is by turns interesting and frustrating stuck in it. Steve Jobs is... well, it's Sorkin at his Sorkinest, so it's full of neoliberal capitalist apologia and also WATCHABLE AS HELL. Overall I think he's a talented filmmaker capable of great things, while also sometimes overindulging in his hyperactive stylism and his work gets more and more treacly the older he gets. I give Danny Boyle 3 1/2 out of 5 stars.

    He's "big" in the US in the sense that he's critically respected. He's won Best Picture twice. He's not exactly box office gold but he's got clout.

  63. Sometimes I think that any amount of subtlety can muddle a clear message. Just look what happened to Fight Club, a movie with a very obvious message (sexy man bad). Was that the message its most ardent fans got?

    in response to Why is subtlety more prized than clear purpose?

    Fight Club's message is in no way obvious because it's deeply enamored with what it claims to be critiquing.

  64. I plan to die in the apocalypse - trying to survive it just sounds too painful and stressful.

    in response to White house officials recently told voting rights groups that they just have to "out-organize voter suppression" I really wish there were enough far left types in the USA to move the electoral needle more than democrats punching themselves in the face over and over but this is where we are instead You ever think about learning an apocalypse skill? I tried to learn some stuff about farming and first aid over lockdown but I'm no good at self directed learning

    it'll take more than an apocalypse to get rid of me

  65. How do you decide what to believe when two credible people have differing opinions?

    look for more sources and develop your own opinion

  66. How much do you value subtlety in art?

    subtlety is neither good nor bad, only a tool that can be used well or poorly. some work is gloriously unsubtle, some employs subtlety when it should not, and sometime a lack of subtlety robs the art of a more complex message.

  67. Why is subtlety more prized than clear purpose?

    in response to Is In Time a relevant & more engaging film to watch? A film about a world where humans can live forever so they use time as money but when you run out of time you'll díe

    if you know my work you know full well that I'm a big fan of clear purpose. however, a lack of subtlety often correlates with a lack of nuance, and, when dealing with something as broad as capitalism and mortality, lack of nuance is a problem, and, with Niccol especially, lack of subtlety is often unbearably smug.

  68. How much more likely do you think a polyamorous person is to own a king-sized bed than a monoamorous? Is there a special bed store poly people go to that has the forbidden beds bigger than a king?

    you have to be a third-degree metamour or closer for me to share polycule secrets

  70. Have any book recommendations?

    favorite book I've read this year is The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders, followed probably by Kim Stanley Robinson's Aurora and Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone's This Is How You Lose The Time War. I've also got a weird soft spot for Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota series, even though not much happens in the first one and the second has more going on but is also somewhat less interesting... I think it's gonna be a case where I wouldn't give any single book five stars but might do for the series as a whole. we'll see how I feel when I get through the third one.

  71. If you abolished the police, how would you stop the Capitol riot? How about the Charlottesville rally?

    You're right that protecting people is not the police's job, but this is. And I can't imagine an untrained, unequipped militia being able to handle this.

    cops DIDN'T stop the capitol riot

    https://www.tiktok.com/@marcus.dipaola/video/6914723446496840965

  72. Where *don't* babies come from?

    Albuquerque

  73. You've talked about decriminalising sex workers. I hope you'd like to simultaneously criminalize the pigs, I mean men, who hire them.

    men are not the only people who hire sex workers, and criminalizing johns is just a roundabout way of criminalizing sex workers

    part of decriminalization is destigmatization, and it sounds like you would benefit from the latter

  74. Is In Time a relevant & more engaging film to watch? A film about a world where humans can live forever so they use time as money but when you run out of time you'll díe

    it's Andrew Niccol so I'm going to assume it's as subtle as getting hit with three steam engines

  75. White house officials recently told voting rights groups that they just have to "out-organize voter suppression"

    I really wish there were enough far left types in the USA to move the electoral needle more than democrats punching themselves in the face over and over but this is where we are instead

    You ever think about learning an apocalypse skill? I tried to learn some stuff about farming and first aid over lockdown but I'm no good at self directed learning

    in response to You mean "let's watch the ancoms and other far-left people sit out 2022 because Biden Bad and then the Republicans make major gains and stymie even the appearance of reform", right?

    I'm just hoping post-calamity earth needs video essayists

Anon commented:
Ian replied: