The Extreme Political Leanings Of Booktube - (& The Worrying Lack Of Conservative Booktubers)
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- Опубликовано: 23 сен 2021
- In this video I give some musings on the political state of Booktube as a community and consider why more than half of the political spectrum seems to be almost completely absent.
Taylor Romaro's channel - / @taylorromero
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I just want people to talk about books, I don't care about people's politics
This would indeed be the preferred state of things.
That's fair. I can understand that desire, but I do feel it prevents a deeper reading of many books. It is after all extremely difficult to read books like; Brave New World, 1984, Fahrenheit 451, Lolita, Starship Troopers, Slaughterhouse-5 and many more without discussing the political meanings and undercurrent; and that's naturally going to be coloured by your own political stance. What I'd like, is to be able to have these discussions about these books, and about the political issues they raise, without half the political spectrum being excluded.
Sure, it's nice to have discussions about books that are apolitical, and many of the books I read have no political message or meaning; but a lot of them do and I feel very unwelcome in voicing any observations of them because of an intolerant and overbearing rise in left-wing extremism. That's how I honestly feel, and I'm sorry if that makes you uncomfortable, it's really not my intention.
I hope you find value in my videos regardless, and know that we can still appreciate each other as people, even if we disagree... even on issues as base and personal as politics. That's what civilised people do after all.
I definitely agree, and I get tired of the same political leanings over and over, so I definitely get where you are coming from. I may not agree with everything you say, but I respect your right to speak it.
What you want is to read books full of blank pages.
I've been so frustrated with this problem as well. I thought I was not looking in the right locations. So thanks for making a video about the lack of conservatives. I've been thinking about starting one. And u really make me think much harder about it. Thanks.
I hope you do consider making a channel. It'd be nice to get new fresh voices. I read way too slowly to do it all myself.
@@TornadoCreator I'm such a slow reader also. A book a month. If I'm lucky.
A much needed video. I'm a Swedish Conservative Christian who works with literature, and for someone who just dipped his toe in this "Booktube"-thing, this 40 minute video was unbelievably cathartic. I learnt very quickly, either from the videos themselves or from the comments beneath, that Booktube is an echo chamber of woke. I really hope your project of creating a right-of-centre/conservative Booktube will succeed.
Thanks. I have a few small channels that I watch and a community of a couple dozen people who are great people. Sadly the larger elements of Booktube just blank us and act like we don't exist, including people who used to be friendly with us but are now faking a vapid leftist approved persona as their channels have grown, so ignore us as we would damage their brand.
Booktube is deeply political and explicitly left wing, but it's also mostly fake anyway so I don't care about their approval. Even if only 10 people are watching, I'm not going anywhere; evidently. I do this for me, and I'd rather be honest and have just a few online friends watch my stuff than popular online but have to fake this leftist brainwashed "children's TV presenter" persona in order to stay popular. The latter sounds like hell.
I agree with everything you said. I am new to book tube and it is sickening how woke it is. Every single problematic woke topic is represented by creators, content and the dramatic crybaby videos they all make about each other and the various, endless ways they have offended each other. I’m disgusted with it and pretty much over it. I don’t think it will change. Publishing companies are pushing this woke agenda hard so maybe that plays some part in this. I’ve found one or two that I can tolerate and even they either have very different tastes in books than I do or at some point elude to something woke.
Well, hopefully you've got a little respite from all the woke crap here. I can recommend a few channels that are at least apolitical if you'd like, depends what kind books you enjoy really.
@@TornadoCreator I did! I was losing hope lol. That would be great! My favorite genres are horror, thrillers, mystery, dystopian and sometimes science fiction/fantasy. Thanks for the help, it is much appreciated!
I’ve had some new subscribers come from this video, so I came to take a look! Thanks for sending some people my way! Great video- I’m looking forward to watching more from you! My channel is small, but I really enjoying making videos and you’ve encouraged me to step up my game and be more vocal!
I'm glad I could direct a couple more people your way. Thanks for the comment. Hopefully you enjoy the channel, though I intend to post videos across multiple hobbies, so hope that doesn't put you off.
@@TornadoCreator I think that's awesome you want to post about different hobbies! It's sometimes frustrating that RUclips expects people to have a very specific niche.
THANK YOU FOR THIS VIDEO! As diverse that book tube claims to be, it seems to be one of the most homogenized groups I’ve ever seen. We need not only diversity in skin color, religion or sex, we need a diversity of voices. Room to allow people to speak especially if one claims to be a book lover, we should all be on the same page about defending our first amendment
I have been trying to find conservative booktubers, or at least "non-woke" ones that value NOT having modern political and social issues in fantasy. I like watching booktube, but it's so difficult when they all focus on things I don't care about.
That's basically all I want, non-woke booktube. I recommend Mike's Book Reviews and BillyBonzai as good options.
@@TornadoCreator I will go check them out :) Thank you!!!
I recommend Merphy Napier.
@@katjaflammang4018 merphy Napier is a good’n!
She is good, and she's usually quite politically neutral. Sadly her audience are not and I was mobbed and harassed after joining her Patreon funded discord. I left after that. Why would I pay to be part of a community that sends me vile messages, wishing I'd die, and just spouting abuse; all because I don't agree with them on politics. It's sad.
So yes. Merphy Napier is lovely and I don't fault her. Her audience however is disgusting and it's not something that she's ever addressed, at least to my knowledge; which is very disappointing.
I like your approach. In my year of casual viewings and one month as an actual booktuber I've kind of spotted this, but I just assumed I hadn't found my crowd. I put it down to being older than the average booktuber, somewhat poor and non-American. I'm not necessarily right wing - I'm all over the place on different issues - but I do believe in mutual respect and allowing everyone to take their OWN personal journey at their own pace. Which among all else includes booktubers discussing any feature of their favourite books without fear of reprisal.
Thanks, I'm not sure I really consider myself right-wing either. Outside of the woke politics stuff, I'm quite a lefty on most issues. My issue is we lose out on hearing all perspectives.
Anyway, the main aim of this video was to give the non-represented somewhere to say, "Hey, I'm here too", so maybe we're finding our side of booktube right now.
Great video, and the first thing i noticed when watching this type of content.
Doing my part, Reading and reviewing a western novel every week this year.
Happy Reading!
I'm a Christian Conservative (hate politics), and I'm a young writer that is concerned of the highly left leaning book readers ranging from BookTube to Goodreads. I was working in the library field and did see the mild hypocrisy of no politics, but here is black and pride month appreciation displays. And them saying: "No, we can't have anything biblical up at all, it'll show favoritism."
I understood the separation of church and state, and to be apolitical, and not hounding others about idealism from religion or politics; but a lot of stuff that's popular is a pretty liberal, just look at a library's new bookshelf.
I am worried about not getting published because of that, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there. Other than that, I'm happy to have found you. You nailed a lot of things on the head. And what would you like to talk about?
I'm currently reading The Call of the Wild, and Pet Sematary. And I do want to talk to someone about the idea of books more considered for men. My mom once said why she hasn't read Don Quixote (A book I just got and want to start slow reading this summer) is that it was a "Men's book." And The Call of the Wild also has that "boy book" feel to it. I really don't know what else to say, other then, what's your thoughts?
I don't feel shame or anything reading books men are more likely to read. I read Casino Royal and do enjoy James's character, flaws and all because I have a father daughter bond through the 007 films and games. But I can't really find a conversation like this about books considered for men, or women.
Also, any tips for randomly posting phone filmed videos of after book reading thoughts?
Honestly, if you want conversation like that. Join my Discord. I'd love to discuss this stuff with you, but RUclips comments are unreliable at best and my reading experience is sadly quite limited.
We have about 2 dozen regular poster on my Discord, it's free to join and it's very friendly. I guarantee you'll make a few people like Silvan and OEE happy to have someone new to talk books with.
I post a variety of stuff on this channel, from book related to video game related and all other hobbies, but I'm really getting into my reading. I'm currently reading Something Wicked This Way Comes, but haven't decided what I think of it yet.
I look forward to hearing from you again soon.
This video is gold. Thank you for saying everything that I’ve been thinking 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
You're very welcome. Glad you enjoyed it.
I've had two books in my head that I'd been wanting to publish for a while now, one fiction and one nonfiction. The fiction one always tugged at me stronger, but it's for the exact same reasons you talk about that I'd been hesitant to go through with it for a long time, because it's been INCREDIBLY difficult to find good marketing channels for a work of fiction by a conservative Christian author. Not to mention, if Booktube is bad, Authortube is no better. It kind of felt like I was going through the process blind, really, and in many ways still do. I'm currently in the process of putting the finishing touches on the book now and basically approach my marketing as if I'm promoting a nonfiction work, which is easy enough to do as a conservative. But it's still a little tricky because openly conservative consumers of fiction are not as easy to find as those of nonfiction. Thanks for putting together this community. It's sorely needed. I can't imagine how many others like me have been discouraged entirely from starting their novel just because the market is nowhere to be found.
The interesting thing is, I think conservative leaning fiction has a more dedicated readership and is more likely to be thought of as classics in 20 years time. Don't be discouraged, put your ideas out there, for yourself if nothing else.
One thing I will suggest is check out Shad M. Brooks. He's a conservative Christian author; self-published and quite successful. You'd probably find anything you want to release will have at least some cross over with his audience.
@@TornadoCreator @TornadoCreator Yup, love Shad. I've read his book. One thought: It's commonly pointed out that liberal-minded folks tend to be more artistically inclined and significantly better at making their tribes seem attractive, compared to conservatives, especially in our flashy social media world. That's probably why there is a dearth of well-known modern conservative art and entertainment in general. Avid readers whose personal beliefs don't align with mainstream Booktube exist for sure. It's just a matter of bringing them together and inspiring them to use their voice.
Very late to your party, but perhaps a question to
consider would be: Why doesn’t the hobby/habit/joy of reading appeal to right wing people? An exploration of that might be valuable.
That is a really good question. I know that reading does appeal to some on the right. But I think perhaps practical hobbies, gardening, homesteading, mechanics etc. appeals more to the right, while creative hobbies, art, reading, literature, fashion; appeals more to the left. This might be the case.
Well, it’s a reasonable theory. But honestly I think we could all benefit from studying this and seeing where it goes.
I can only speak for myself (and I'm sure there are many more reasons for others, but I stepped away from reading for a long time because I was so busy starting and raising a family. I finally found audiobooks and those got me through the years of having a baby or toddlers constantly hanging from me or sitting on me , sleepless nights, housework etc. Etc. And now that they are older I'm able to really enjoy sitting down with a physical book again. My husband works two full time jobs and is busy with projects around the house and trying to spend quality times with our sons when he's off. He has concluded that, for now, reading as a hobby is not the priority that often makes it to the top of his list, like say throwing ball or fishing with our sons. I also think conservatives, in general, tend to lean into the more hard or concrete areas of hobbies and entertainment. Annnnnd we just haven't found a good community in eachother YET for reading. I've joined a few local book clubs, but needless to say, they weren't my people anymore than the majority of booktubers are.
A lot of people on the right have left the popular left leaning social media sites. They may just be on other platforms.
I've just started, and I have 0 plans to include my political opinions on my channel. We are so inundated with politics these days, so I don't want to drag that into an entertainment space.
@@Xtian_Reads Good luck to you. I don't think its possible any more to be politically neutral when discussing media, because everyone seems so political now; but I hope you succeed all the same.
Thank you for this truth! My issue is finding good books that aren't dripping with woke propaganda 🤮. I came to book tube for help and have only found the opposite. Any suggestions or resources for searching out and finding good- non woke- books???
What kind of books are you looking for, I can try to give you some suggestions.
@TornadoCreator ive got non-fiction covered, but would love any fiction with suspense that's not horror*. I've really been into historical fiction and dark romance lately, but enjoy a good mystery, dystopian, or fantasy (not so much sci-fi). Any trope works, but I don't want to cry (no abused or dying children that we're attached to). But really, I'll read pretty much anything with good suspense.
This needs to be said more, extremely valid point
Thanks for sharing this! I am a conservative reader / Booktuber, I enjoy Christian books as well as conservative politics and I rarely find those who enjoy conservative reads and discussion. I'm in the process of launching my channel and I'm sure there are many of the books I love and review that others on booktube will not like, but it's OK because I'm going to share my thoughts anyhow. Looking forward to your bookish discussions!
Cool. I have a few reviews up and I'm about to start regular reviews, again starting this week so I hope you find them useful and entertaining.
This was really well-spoken with tons of good points. I love finding people of all different political ideologies since because of my unusual views, I'll agree with each part of the spectrum on some things, but disagree with others. I try to keep everything I create apolitical but sometimes admittedly my views seep through, which I think is natural. I don't know where I'd be classified, economically I'm on the-left but on social and moral issues I'm on the right. I generally call myself "old left", "populist", and "syncretic". I'm probably most similar to RT news network (I'm friends with an RT reporter, funnily enough). But whatever I am, I have fun discovering different people of different communities.
Most reasonable people are a mix of left wing and right wing beliefs. Thats one of the things I cover in my latest video which you might find interesting. I think political labels are often less useful than people think. They tie you don't to an ideological framework and often you'll find you only support maybe half of their beliefs.
I would describe myself as a Moderate Classically Liberal Fiscally-Socialist Libertarian, though I'm becoming more of a Conservative Nationalist in part as I get older. And if you're thinking those terms are all contradictory and I could believe almost anything with that many labels... you're right. Politics is complicated and people have more depth than just picking their politics as if its a sports team. (Or at least they fucking should).
Thanks got the comment, much appreciated.
Just found this video! Sadly, I went to search "conservative booktube" to see what was out there and who I might be able to follow. This video came up first, which I have to admit is a bit of a downer, given the subject of the video, i.e. how conservative booktube effectively doesn't exist. That being said, I enjoyed listening to your thoughts as I cleaned my kitchen this morning. You had some very well thought out observations. It's refreshing, honestly. I appreciated your insights as someone who has actively sought out other points of view.
I know it's been two years since you posted this, but have you had any luck locating conservative booktubers? For my part, I've been lurking in the shadows of booktube for some years now. I'm a conservative mom; that being said, I read almost any genre, as long as the writing is good (I'm a sucker for beautiful prose) and the book is interesting, be it fiction or nonfiction. I don't do smut. As you can imagine, I've found it quite difficult to get good book recommendations via booktube these days. It's been disheartening, to say the least; I've been let down by so many booktubers I thought I could jive with.
Anyway! I do want to thank you for making this video and putting your thoughts out there. Honestly, it's given me a good kick in the pants I needed to finally start my own booktube channel. When I do, I'll come back and let you know. :)
This place really has become quite an echo chamber, hasn't it? I've even checked on Rumble for some more conservative-leaning readers, and that well is (for now) dry. But, I don't think booktube is a hopeless cause. If anything, your video tells me as much. So, thanks again! Sorry for the long comment. Hope you're doing well.
I must admit that politics confuse the crap out of me. I have no idea if I am more left or right, or neither. Part of why I created my own channel is because I got tired about hearing about the same types of books. Doesn’t mean I don’t want to read those books, but I want to hear about more books. Also, I find they try to read more books that are newer releases. Older books (published more than 5-10 years ago) are forgotten about. I love the older books. 📖😁📚 However, I am still very much trying to build my confidence to say all of how I feel rather than censoring my feelings and thoughts. I will say that I am Mormon. Books full of sex make me uncomfortable. Not because of my religious beliefs, but because I think it is something special that should between only the people engaging in sex. I wouldn’t want to have someone telling me about how they had sex, so why would o want to read it? I like clean romances. Ones that focus on relationships. Actually getting to know the person. There are things on both sides I agree and disagree with. It when things get extreme that I tend to shut down.
most balanced people have a mixture of left and right leaning views and values. I for one regard myself as right leaning, But I think certain welfare safety nets are necessary for society to function. I'm a Traditionalist in terms of Relationships and Gender Roles, but have no hate for gay people who just wish to live their lives quietly along side me. I'm an pro drug , pro capitalism, anti-woke and anti-statist amalgamation. And that's fine. as are *most* values and worldviews.
@@haas2225 Thank you for your response. I really appreciate it. Everyone is entitled their own opinion and beliefs. I believe having different viewpoints can be very beneficial so that we can learn new things and grow together. I hope that made sense. It did in my head. 😁
I'd say "left" and "right" are largely useless terms in isolation, as they mean different things to different people. I might actually make more political videos explaining the differences as it's something I can explain well and honestly, booktube content on it's own doesn't get a massive amount of views. Though I will still be making bookish content.
As for sex, I agree. I like a sex scene when it's earned. If we're seeing an omnipotent viewpoint, or the view point of one of the people involved; and we've experienced their story, their romance, and their relationship grow; then it can be enjoyable. I hate gratuitous sex. It makes me feel sleazy. I'm also sick of authors referring to men's penis as their "member" and women's vagina as their "sex", if they can't learn to use the correct words they shouldn't bloody well bother.
"He thrusts his throbbing member into her sex", is quite possibly the most infuriating, uncomfortable, and frankly pathetic line you can write in a book; and I've seen that exact line multiple times.
@@TornadoCreator 😂 IVE always been uncomfortable with phrases like that sex line. Makes me feel dirty. I think many authors that out sex in their books do it because they feel they have to to make money. Sex sells after all. I have found that most sex scenes are useless and actually detract from the main plot of the story. Can be very jarring.
@@TornadoCreator They are I agree. I use them mostly to discern to others where I would stand a generic overton window. Maybe a generic overton window is longer apt within the current framework of discourse.
As an avid conservative reader, I can answer your question about what kinds of books conservatives are interested in. Granted, I am not the end-all-be-all for conservative readers, but I think I can offer some insight. I, personally, love historical fiction novels, particularly those set in Victorian England, Tudor England, World War 2, and the 1950s. I enjoy these books because, due to the eras these books are set in, there isn't a ton of expression for leftist views because, at least in the way those views exist today, those views didn't exist. I could be wrong, but that's what i've seen and I've read a lot of historical fiction novels. I also love classics, like the Victorian classics and the classic American literature books like Huckleberry Finn. Given that these books were produced in a time where modern leftist views didn't exist (again, I could be wrong), they do not portray leftist propaganda. And none of these books are political in nature, unless you're dealing with a story surrounding the court politics of Elizabethan England. Andrew Klavan of the Daily Wire, whom I love to listen to book recommendations from, has a 17 minute video about the greatest literature produced across all of western civilization's history that I recommend watching. Here's the link: ruclips.net/video/T2GIretcN_g/видео.html
Granted, I do enjoy George Orwell and Aldous huxley because books like those remind me that it is important to fight for conservative values because a lot of those socio political scenarios stem from a loss of conservative and libertarian values. These examples are very extreme and fictional (thank God for that), but anything could happen.
I hope I answered your question and I hope anyone reading this watches the Andrew Klavan video (he has a lot of content on literature and western culture and values) and gets good recommendations.
Thank you for reading!
I agree with your assessment. I’m not a conservative (perhaps closer to libertarian). But let me guide you all to my favorite “book tuber” Andrew Klavan’s son, Spencer Klavan. He has a podcast called “Young Heretics”. He covers all of the classics from a highly educated conservative perspective.
diversity of opinion on booktube is not a thing on book tube sadly, if you fall outside of leftist stuff even ifs it on one issues or your not part of the group think you are pushed out
I think its about time that changed... and it seems there are enough people who lament this situation along with me that we can force a change. Looks like the left are gonna have to learn how to share the booktube concept, whether they want to or not.
@@TornadoCreator one thing I've found as a man on booktube well a former book tuber now I make videos about a lot of stuff lol if you are not a woman that talks about ya or you dont take part of the drama or group think you are pushed out, you would be shocked as some of the messages ive got from book tubers
@@baldbookgeek I agree. I've already been pushed out and blocked from many of their discord channels and made to feel about as welcome as a fart at Christmas Dinner...
But this video has sparked many responses. People have reached out and I think there's a fairly large group of disenfranchised people who want to be part of this hobby but never get past the opening stage because of the hate thrown their way. I won't stand for this.
@@TornadoCreator its a big part of thereupon I moved away from booktube, im the unpopular kid at school with them and knowing a lot don't like me
@@baldbookgeek sounds like it's time to appropriate booktube. 😂
It would be nice to have youtubers reviewing books that don't follow the leftist narrative. I have to sift through reviews and look at the tags on goodreads for newer books. I think there could be an audience there if more people stood their ground.
I thought I would disagree with this video, but to my surprise I actually agree with most of it. Booktube is going in a weird direction (or maybe I'm just getting old lol) I find it really embarrassing seeing channels only promote erotica and gay teen romance. I wish women could encourage eachother to challenge ourself more than that. There is nothing inherently wrong with the genres but there is little quality control or critical thinking being used. I'm just kind of sick of unauthentic channels causing drama left and right because someone doesn't have the "right opinion"
Yeah. I'm not against any expression. By all means, people are free to like what they like. I'm just concerned that the community is only welcoming to one half of the political spectrum and because of that it's ideas of "normal" are getting skewed. I'm glad you enjoyed the video. I welcome all people with any opinions here to discuss and debate, so long as they remain civil.
THANK YOU! I've noticed this as well! Very frustrating....
I'm a moderate Im not into extreme right or left because both have their issues but I would like to see more conservative booktubers the woke ones get a little too crazy
Precisely my position. Since making this video quite a few traditional Christian conservatives have reached out to me and I'm very happy to have these people involved in the discussions finally; but I'm a classically liberal Atheist. I don't agree with their politics a lot of the time and they'd likely consider me left wing. I'm just sick of the extreme left being the only viewpoint we see and all other viewpoints being labelled as "offensive" and "hate speech".
@@TornadoCreator I'm so tired of seeing it too. So it would be nice to have a variety and not the same extreme leftist views when it comes to booktube.
Thank you for this!!!
You're more than welcome.
Love the video man this is an important topic as a conservative on RUclips I either have to unsubscribe or just ignore what they believe because sometimes the blatant and they reminded about it
This is interesting. Which books/authors do you recommend for a reader who prefers apolitical or more conservative content? Any genre.
I'd say sci-fi released before 2005 is a good bet as when it is political it is rarely preachy, and older 80's and 90's fantasy is often more traditional and less political. Horrors and thrillers tend to be less political.
Ironically, and this is the opposite of what they want. If you want to avoid political books, avoid female writers and non-white writers unless they come recommended. The publishing industry has pushed non-white and female authors writing political crap for so long now that reading white male authors will expose you to significantly less of it sadly, which makes their whole shtick self-fulfilling.
Avoid modern contemporary, romance, YA, and most fantasy written after 2010. It will be idiologically captured.
Recommended authors; Brian McClellan, Orson Scott Card, Steven Erikson, Brandon Sanderson, Peter F. Hamilton, George R.R. Martin, T.H. White, Mike Carey, Andrzej Sapkowski, Iain M. Banks, China Miéville, Gene Wolfe, Andy Weir, Adrian Tchaikovski and classics like H.P. Lovecraft, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, H.G. Wells, George Orwell, Robert A. Heinlein etc.
I am aware my entire list above is men, and I believe most if not all are white. It's a sad reality that talented non-white and female authors are ignored in favour of political messages. That said, I do want to read more women. The feminine perspective is different and I feel it is lacking in my reading at the moment. Hopefully, that's been a help to you.
Thank you for your suggestions! I look forward to checking into those.
As a 50+ adult, I want to focus on quality as much as entertainment. As a female, I look for more in stories than pathetic, helpless damsels in distress.
At any rate, I look forward to more discussion on the lack of diverse perspectives in BookTube (and more suggested authors/titles).
@AnonBloggerCom I'm glad I could help. Just so you know, I'm using this channel as my general vlog channel where I discuss news, current events, and other stuff. I do have a dedicated booktube channel though. It's linked on my main page but assuming YT lets links in comments work, here's a link.
youtube.com/@excessivedetailbooktube?si=EgZ9k8mnjOK2kKdW
No system is perfect and going to far to any side and living in a bubble is not good for anyone. What we need to do is take the beneficial ideas from each ideology, and not go into any extremist ideologies.
Well, this was genuinely fascinating. I think you're completely right that conservative voices are almost entirely absent from BookTube (and my oh my, you got a cheer from me for immediately slapping down that "blacklisted" mean girl rumor-mongering crap when it cropped up in the Comments field here - I can' thank you enough for that). But I have three main reactions to that: a) hooo-boy, are you wrong in your guesses about my politics, b) the reason for my 'delusion' that Trump incited a violent mob to attack the Capitol of my country is the same reason the rest of the world has that delusion: we all watched it happen on live TV, and c) I'm genuinely curious as to what kind of content you feel you're not seeing. I mean, what would a conservative reader's video about, say, "Pride and Prejudice" or "To Kill a Mockingbird" be like? Is there really a conservative way and a leftist way to read "War and Peace"?
Or is it that there are whole KINDS of books that you just don't see any BookTubers talking about?
Honestly, Steve; I think you overblow the whole thing when it comes to the incident concerning the Capitol protest. I also saw it live, and it seemed like an admittedly worrying but far less violent protest than people made it out to be, especially in contrast to the Antifa and BLM protests and how they where covered by the media. I also remember distinctly that Donald Trump told people NOT to do anything violent via social media, and to go home. Regardless, this isn't something that us debating will change. I think we can both agree that the fact that approximately half of USA doesn't trust the electoral system and thinks the elections are illegitimate; and have have done for two election cycles now, is deeply concerning. I genuinely feel you have an overblown and sensationalised view of the events that happened following the election of Joe Biden, but it's not really important for the two of us to discuss books so let's not let it bother us. I'd like to stay on good terms and not allow political disagreements like that to be an issue. In that vein, I should apologise, I shouldn't have called you delusional, it was inflammatory and unfair. I think you're mistaken, but that is not the same and I should acknowledge that.
As for what I might see from a conservative readers perspective. I genuinely don't know. I think they'll see trends of national pride, protectionism, conservation, family values, personal responsibility, traditionalism, the reinforcing of traditional gender roles as positive virtues, and systems of meritocratic societies; all in allegory and the themes of novels. I'd be interested to see where they see these things and what they're interpreting. I don't know if there's a difference, but I feel saddened knowing only half the political spectrum seems to have any influence. I also simply don't feel welcome on Booktube. I can't even be mildly critical of some ideas without being labelled a bigot and I'm so tired of identity politics being everywhere.
Thanks for the response. I appreciate you taking part in the discussion.
@@TornadoCreator Well, I might shake my head at your version of the January 6 insurrection, but for me, what's really bothering here is that simple comment, "I also simply don't feel welcome on Booktube." I very much don't want you to feel that - and I want to know why it's happening. When I think of the many, many BookTube channels I watch every day, I can't think of any that are politically strident. You have people reading classics of all kinds, from Homer to Faulkner. You have 'events' that center on things like Shakespeare or the Victorians or Star Trek. I can understand that such things might not be your own reading tastes, but they're usually not explicitly political at all. So is what you're missing mainly a KIND of book being discussed? I've never found a BookTube channel that deals with current political books at all, but you don't seem to be talking about political books - so is it conservative-leaning fiction you're missing?
And for that matter, wouldn't the absence of conservative BookTube channels be a reflection on conservatives, rather than BookTube? I mean, anybody is free to start a channel, right? So are you saying they don't do it because they don't feel welcome?
@@saintdonoghue I'm looking ideally for booktubers that cover fiction; mainly fantasy, sci-fi, and horror though I'm open to other genres too, but without the far-left undercurrent. It's not present in every video but many of the booktubers that cover those genres are openly and explicitly left wing. They're vocally in support of Antifa, they often make pro-feminist statements and judgements, they see the inclusion of identity politics as a good thing, they describe plot elements as "problematic" and the worst of them outright ruin books under the guise of "trigger warnings". I'm just sick of that perspective being the only perspective I see. Maybe, even with the literally hundreds of booktube channels I follow, I simply haven't found the right channels. It's possible, there are potentially thousands of channels out there but yes I do feel that when you search for bookish content the channels most prominent are extremely vocally progressive-left and that turns conservatives away. People who would make content don't because they don't feel welcome or they start and get sent abuse.
As for why I don't feel welcome, it's the reception I've had. I've been banned from every major booktube chat room I've joined to the point of simply starting my own on Discord out of frustration, all because people don't like that I don't subscribe to their political ideals. I get regular hate messages despite the small size of my channel. But honestly, just on a fundamental level; as a white man I don't feel welcome in a community that constantly peppers feminist, social justice, critical race theory, and Marxist rhetoric into their videos or in their comments sections. They clearly hate me for having "white privilege" and being "part of the patriarchy", and they take entirely reasonable stances I hold and claim I'm a bigot, a racist, a transphobe, and I've even been called a white supremacist; all things that are patently absurd. Basically, there's a huge section of booktube that openly hates white men, (despite some of them being white men themselves); and I know I'm not alone when I say I feel personally attacked by the things they say and the message they spread.
Also, often it's not the booktuber themselves, but their audience. Murphy Napier is a decent person who's never said a bad word about me, but on going to her paywalled Discord server, I was met with hateful comments and constant abuse until I left of my own accord.
Thanks for this very intelligent, interesting talk. It's very courageous of you and will earn you lots of brickbats, I'm sure. I did not know that one can block people on RUclips. How do you go about it? I am thinking of starting a BT channel. I am put off BT a lot because it seems almost entirely to consist of young, female 'readers' posting who are as interested in their appearance and their books' appearance as they are in books in general. Eg, shelving your books according to the colour of their covers! That strikes me as pretty infantile, unless you're five or six. Many of my books are shabby, grainy second-hand copies with little colour about them at all. One young female poster gave details of her make-up and where to buy it! I'm an old man and so feel really out on a limb, but will still give it a go,because I would like to meet a handful of people who are serisouly interested in books. I have found a few older women's' channels that are very interesting and from whom I have actuallyl earnt things. Another complaint I have is the lack of people interested in non-fiction reading. I hardly read anything else! The algorhythm must have filtered a lot of left-wing things out from my recommendations. I haven't had lots of leftie rubbish thrust at me, but I have noticed that leaning, too. Your picture seems very American, culturally speaking, though you sound 'English'.. I'm a Brit. There aren't many Brits on BookTube. Thanks again for a great contribution.
There is a fairly sizable number of British booktubers, and huge groups of people who read sci-fi, fantasy, romance, and even non-fiction; but you may have to put up with some political nonsense from time to time.
I have a video planned where I do deep dive on Booktube as a community and recommend channels based on a few factors. You're also getting involved at a time when Non-Fiction November is around the corner, so there are people actively recommending non-fiction there.
I hope you do join Booktube, and start making videos. The more the merrier. (And yes, you can block people from the Studio app when they comment on your videos, it makes their comments just invisible to other people).
What if the issue is not really the lack of right-leaning book tubers but books that promote right-leaning values? If there aren't that many books what will they read or review?
That's a very good point. I have said for a while that the big fantasy publishers openly push for left themes in their books now. There's even been press releases asking for more "representation" and "own voices", something only the extreme left wants and something that will put right-wingers off.
I've been on the left all my life, and I would like to see more conservative booktubers. I can't understand why anyone who genuinely subscribed to genuine diversity and inclusion wouldn't want to see more variety. What we understand as social justice activism (or wokeness) is increasingly intolerant, authoritarian and censorious. Back in the day, the left used to defend freedom of speech. If we don't allow for diversity of thought and expression, everything will become oppressively grey. Personally, I want to be challenged and excited by new ideas and ways of seeing the world: if I disagree with them, I have to formulate my own arguments against them. I'm not interested in performative sloganeering, or being force-fed what to think by social media mobs. I like to read outside of my comfort zone.
Well said. I'm very much in the same boat. I'm traditionally left wing too; I haven't changed, politics has. The left have abandoned free speech, egalitarianism, meritocracy, and most recently of all community co-operation. 30 years ago, left wing liberals would fight for free speech, scientific truth, and decency for all; now they fight for censorship, identity politics, and corporate control. The political sides have changed almost a full 180.
I'm late to the party with this video, but I felt compelled to reply to this.
I'm an American author who is right of center.
I'm an atheist, libertarian, librarian, and believe in gay rights as well as right to bear arms.
You've hit a few points that I strongly agree with.
With my books, I try to write just a good, intelligent story. Politics in books make them dated SO quickly.
My issue is that I'm not normally vocal about my political leanings because if I "came out of the conservative closet", my sales would dip drastically. I don't talk politics on purpose, but I'm afraid of being blacklisted more than anything else.
I'd love to do a booktube, but I'm just not brave enough.
When your livelihood literally hangs in the balance I don't think anyone would blame you for staying quiet. Sadly it's true that leftists buy more books (especially contemporary books). They don't read more books, they just buy them to photograph them next to a candle for Instagram... but they still buy more of them.
Hopefully you hit it big and can allow yourself the freedom to be honest about what is likely extremely mainstream political beliefs, and not have to pretend to be a psychotic extremist just to get by. I'm forever grateful that I'm not financially dependent on other peoples opinion of me, being on disability isn't much fun, but no-one can get me fired, cancel me, or hurt me financially. I'm untouchable, and I revel in that.
Thanks for the comment. Glad you enjoyed the video.
Hello! I paused your video at 4:07 to say I am a conservative and voracious reader and I am frustrated at the prevalence of extreme liberal booktubers. Is there no one out here who's conservative other than me? Yes! You, apparently. Yay! Just subscribed to your channel. 😊
I'm glad you feel welcome for a change. I'm perhaps not as conservative as most may think. I have quite a few left wing opinions, but at the same time, I've fostered a small and growing community of at least right leaning individuals. You'd be welcome to join us on Guilded if you want to discuss books and more with like minded people. (our Discord server is inactive due to changes to Discords free speech policy). Either way, I appreciate the comment and I hope you find the channel worthwhile.
@@TornadoCreator Thank you! I'm not sure what Guilded is though. I'll look it up. 😊
It's a chat app that you can download both on your phone and on your desktop. There's a link to my server on my channel page and in the description for my more recent videos. You'll find people happy to talk about books and more there.
I would start my own channel but to be honest, I am scared. Those people are relentless
Ignore them. They only matter in your life if you let them. I guarantee, you make a channel, you take part in the community, and you will be welcome and those people are worth it.
Maybe conservative thinkers tend to read non-fiction? This was an interesting perspective, and I've subscribed for the challenge.
Maybe, but even if that's the case; I don't see any of the non-fiction fans on Booktube going against the political narrative either. For me, I'm less focused on finding one or two examples of conservative leaning creators, and more concerned with asking why Booktube has created, (and through social pressure and the threat of ostracisation, enforces), a left wing echo chamber. Thanks for the sub, I hope you enjoy future vids.
Did you end up finding any more conservative booktubers?
I've never heard of Taylor Ramero. I've subscribed to her channel. I think most conservative leaning people don't trust YT. I am Conservative Christian, but I am more Biblical than "religious". Steve Donaghue (sp?) is right of center? I thought he was a leftist. LOL I haven't seen too many of his videos though. YES! Their gate keeping is real. I call them "the clique". My son and I are very political, but because we made the channel about books, we're trying to keep the channel about books. But because I comment on other people's channels, we have been unsubscribed and flat out shunned, it's obvious they don't want their opinions challenged or even questioned in any way. Thank you for helping me on discord.
Maybe I'm just so used to the extremes of the left that Steve Donaghue seemed centre-right by comparison. Glad you enjoyed the video, and welcome to the community.
Found her!
I really appreciated this video. I have been watching booktube for a year now and it is frustrating how much left wing stuff is thrown in my face. If you know of any booktube channels that are conservative viewed that read literary fiction I would appreciate the recommendations. Thank you
I don't know personally, but if you join my Guilded server. (Link on my channel page and in the description of my more recent videos), one of my moderators Haas is familiar with quite a few booktubers, and other members there can probably recommend a few you'd enjoy. Hope that helps.
@@TornadoCreator thank you. I will check it out.
Dude, I feel this, lol. It's getting pretty bad in philosophy too - or at least what I call pseudophilosophy, which is no longer a discussion about ideas, but about agendas. In my opinion, it starts with the romanticization of ideas, moreover ideals - which we see in the more existential philosophies and those relating to meaning in the personal sense - a strong sense of subjectivism and relativism follows. And so we move away from cornerstone and foundational systems of thought, e.g. traditional virtue and the certainty of things like a higher power, and instead roll around in a jumbled mess of pure chaos - and it's because value has been assigned entirely to the individual - and the individual, if we look at him through an honest lens, is fallible . . . I don't want to indulge too much. Lol. Just know that I completely understand. I have found some small channels and they seem like they're good people. Completely different tastes in books, lol, but they keep politics out of it, and they're nice to talk to.
For a long time I've given philosophy the nickname pointlessophy, because it is seemingly nothing but obvious common sense made to sound profound, naval gazing, attempts to make others feel stupid, word games, and ego boosting. Modern philosophy is even worse, it's the modern art of thinking and as much as I hate modern art, at least they took the time to actually cellotape the fucking banana to the wall before they made shit up.
@@TornadoCreator Again, I feel you, lol. One problem I have with modern philosophy, and I think it plays into what you say about it being pointless, is that people treat as they would science, something that is studied merely as an academic discipline and nothing more. That wasn't the original vision for it. It was meant to be a way of life, the obvious thing "lover of wisdom". And somewhere along the way it got lost to obscurity and people indulging with their thoughts in an attempt to consolidate it with science. I feel like it's lost its way. And it's held up by the elite academics who write things nobody cares about except other elite academics.
It's not even the academics that do it, it's just agitators. People with no academic sphere at all, acting like they contribute anything at all to this world. Acting like they matter because they have a "Gender Studies", "Ethnic Studies", or "Equality & Diversity" degree. Yes those are all real and worth about as much as a bullet to the brain.
These people aren't academics. Even before they became blatant in the pointlessness of their so called studies, "Sociology", "Political Science", "Liberal Arts" and "Modern History" have all been disgusting displays of indoctrination and revisionist bullshit. To call these people anything but a waste of skin is to be too generous. Even STEM fields are screwed now.
Academia used to lean left wing. Now academia is underground and facing erradication from the far-left ministry of truth level propaganda factory that is modern education. It's just pathetic. Can we go back to arguing with Creationists, Flat Earthers, and Spiritualist Hippies... at least those people were just stupid. The modern far-left are dangerous.
@@TornadoCreator Oh, I know it's not just academics. Ever been on a philosophy subreddit? I'm never getting on Reddit again. It's terminology out the wazoo; and, honestly, I don't think they have any solid ground for any sorta definition for the things they say. Philosophy has to start with definitions, a grounding of the words we're using - otherwise you're nothing but like new age spiritualism. That's the thing in philosophy now, nobody is defining anything or trying to. Like I said, it's swallowed up by obscurity. Now, of course, I love a poetic sense in philosophy. Plato had it, and the transcendentalists had it, like Emerson - but Emerson's approach was different from the philosophies of Europe. It was one of the first attempts at an American philosophy - what it is that Americans should strive for outside the conditions of Europe, to really become a people formed on the backs of beauty, truth, and goodness. Ideals that I aspire to more than anything. And where have we come now? Without this certainty we have arrived at disarray. But at least the individual is satisfied! That's the great lie: the individual of the modern era. And no, if you look around, the individual is not satisfied.
You are describing Goodreads too.
I'd go further, Goodreads is even worse. It's heavily weighted towards teenage girls to the point where well loved classics are rated lower than the latest piece of shit Sarah J. Maas just released. Additionally, it's got a highschool mentality. Most books are rated hundreds of times before they've even been released both by fanboys who decide to love it pre-emptively giving it 5 stars, and angry SJWs who've decided they hate the author for a tweet they made in 2014 giving it 1 star.
Goodreads is a cesspool and is largely useless for anything more than organising and tracking what you're reading. Reviews and rating on their are worthless.
Left wingers often exclude conservatives/right of center people from communities
I was going to say that Steve Donoghue is a conservative BookTuber, but I see your channel has already done a collaboration with him.
There are BookTubers of many different persuasions, but it takes time to seek them out.
Steve Donoghue is not a conservative. He's anti-woke which I appreciate, but his politics is not only very intolerant of the right wing, he regularly calls out US republicans as "white supremacists", "fascists", and believes there was a huge Jan 6th armed "Insurrection" to overthrow the government. He has classic Trump derangement syndrome.
Ah, so you just made it clear what you mean by 'Conservative'🙄
The problem with terms like "conservative", is no-one has a consistent definition of it. Steve Donoghue actually scoffed at the idea of being considered right wing in one of his many videos once, so he certainly doesn't consider himself to be conservative; that's for sure.
There are 'Political' conservatives and there are 'Religious' conservatives, but I would argue that though Steve Donoghue is not religious, he is definitely a 'Conservative' when it comes to the protection of the U.S. Constitution and the preservation of our Democracy. In regards to what you are calling Trump Derangement Syndrome, this country has never been more divided in my 70 years than it is now, thanks largely to the corrosiveness of this one individual. It's obvious that he is willing to burn this country to the ground in order to get his revenge, and if that happens, we will only have ourselves to blame.
Im new to booktube and reading fiction again, this still seems to be the case....my husband said I must just have a woke algorhythm, but clearly not. can anyone update me with some more conservative channels?
Honestly, since I made this video I've still yet to find any conservative booktube channels with more than a few hundred subs. They basically don't exist.
@@TornadoCreator maybe I will start one!
Plenty of christian booktubers. But a lot of them women talking about romance (nothing wrong with it, i eat that thing up anyway)
@@biancaeleanorplease do
You're probably right. I've been trying to make a definitive list of booktube channels, and there's at least 500+ out there... so I'm sure some of them are Conservative Christian, I just don't seem them speak up much.
I am an American Conservative Christian and I feel that most of the books being published and promoted are very left wing, unless you are super well-known such as Jordan Peterson and the like... I am starting a BookTube channel, with low expectations.
I look forward to seeing your channel.
Based. I never use "conservative" since that has become a meaningless term. It pains me that even mainstream right-wingers don't emphasize the primary rationale of conservatism: conserving and defending the parts of society that actually work over ideas that have been proven to fail like communism. Those evil white patriarchal ideals like free speech, due process, meritocracy, etc. And I never use "liberal". Classic liberalism of course is built on the primacy of the individual over the identity group, and so a "liberal" is solely defended by the right these days. I stick to right vs left, which is a battle between individual rights vs (if I'm being generous) group rights, or (more accurately) totalitarianism.
Most political terms are incorrectly applied and generally misunderstood. I like to think I make myself clear, but even I fall into those same traps. I find discussing politics on a left-right scale itself is deeply reductive.
Ultimately I am very left wing, and yet I have more issues and complaints with the political left than anyone else. The reason is, while I believe in collective ability to solve problems, and the need for social co-operation; I don't feel this dislike and need to tear down the old. Far too much of the left is a combattive desire to destroy what conservatives wish to conserve, rather than a reasonable attempt to convince those conservatives that your new vision for whatever we're discussing would be better than what they already have. I like to think I can approach politics from a starting point of respect; it get you so much further.
Anyone know of any centrist booktubers?
I can't say for sure. Generally booktubers tend to be explicitly left wing or present themselves as non-political. The least openly leftist that I know of would be Mike from Mike's Book Reviews and Murphy Napier, both of which stay politically quiet and I know from other social media are not leftists. That's the best I can recommend.
Ironically the most openly centrist booktuber is probably me... which has made me a pariah as I'm likely labelled a "far-right extremist" by much of booktube. I am a social libertarian, a member of the UK Conservative party, I'm a self-described socialist who supports government ownership of utilities, universal healthcare, and more. I'm an avowed environmentalist, and pro-nuclear power. I'm anti-abortion, pro-gay rights, pro-free speech, and for secular education. I'm an atheist but have no issue with the free practice of religion. I support some capitalist free-markets and the corporate rights. I am anti-unions and anti-civil action. I'm undecided on gun rights. I have traditional ideas of family and community. I'm anti-woke and consider critical race theory and modern feminism to be as destructive and disgusting as white nationalism. Yeah, that about covers it. Pretty centrist I'd say.
Wow, you have a lot of courage openly addressing this - on BookTube no less! I couldn't agree with you more. As a person in his 50's who has been reading voraciously since childhood, long before the internet existed, no less RUclips, I recently started tuning into Book Tube for giggles, and to see what it was all about. But after a few days I had a 'twilight zone' moment. What the hell was going on?!? Everything you say in this video is 110% true. Disoriented, I kept searching and eventually I thought I found a few Book Tubers who said they only spoke about books, until somehow in every other video they somehow introduced diatribes against the greatest POTUS of all time, Donald Trump, or, they mention they will not discuss certain authors because they have "unplatformed" them due to their views, or they only discuss authors who are gay, black, trans, minority, women, gay, third world, (bonus points if they are some combination thereof!), etc., etc. And these mostly young girls are all discussing the same modern garbage dictated by an extreme leftist publishing industry. The classics (which are classics for a reason) are discarded because of who wrote them. To say this is woke, or left wing doesn't even begin to expose the problem. This is a hardcore socialist inculcation. Much the same that there are no conservative faculty in Harvard, or any other of the big universities, BookTube is not only an echo chamber, but also a dangerous platform to savagely condemn and destroy anyone who dares to voice an opinion contrary to theirs. They make history's master propaganda minister, Josef Goebbels, look like a schoolboy in lederhosen.
Totally agree. I'm a pariah on booktube for bringing this up and making it clear that I'm sick of seeing censorship, political pandering, and groupthink dominate the discussions on books. Even the few people like Steve Donoghue and his cabal that do discuss classics, and admittedly do hold them in high esteem and speak out again woke nonsense, still have extreme cases of Trump Derrangement Syndrome that borders on insanity. Even if you dislike Trumps politics, the vitriol and hate is just disgusting.
The only thing I bawk at is the demonising of the word "socialist" in your post. Frankly Americans shouldn't be allowed to use that word because no-one in USA seems to knows what it means. It is certainly not a synonym for "evil", and I'd appreciate more nuance here. What the cult-like extreme left in USA push for is cultural Marxism and authoritarian fascism, a weird inversion of puritan fascism that treats degeneracy and delusion as the new standard of purity. They are NOT socialists. I am a socialist. I believe in strong taxation, state run infrastructure, nationalised healthcare, judiciary, energy, and transit; and I can defend my policies on this. I'm also pro-capitalism and a social libertarian. Because politics is complex and every tradition has some ideas worth considering.
Thanks for the comment. I'm glad you enjoyed the video. I recently posted a video on the importance of 2024 and why Trump is the only sensible choice for USA. You may enjoy that one, would love to get your feedback on it.
Have a good day.
Hi, I’m a libertarian booktuber. I can say from my experience of watching Stephen King booktube content almost all of it is left-wing. Thanks for making this video.
Thankyou for this video I’ve been lookingfor conservative booktubers as well glad I found your channel! New subscriber! However cuz I’m a female I dislike scifi lol. I’ve got a hack though! Watch lefties talking bout “troublesome authors “ or books I’ll never read cuz the author is anti lgbt I’ll get ideas of new books to read lolll. Just because I can’t relate to gay couples being inlove ?!?? How would I relate to that and why is it being pushed on YA ?! Ew. I buy my books from waterstones. That’s y I’m more into classics though it’s harder to read but the stories don’t have all that propaganda in it 🌞. Upload more videos!!! From Kuwait 🇰🇼
Booktube is very far left and toxic...that's why my interest to watch and even join them has dwindeled during the years.
I am not really left or right...but more center but leaning right.
I am planning to create content for that demographic and also international focused since, I am orginally from a country in Africa.
Interesting. It's always good to get different perspectives, so definitely do make videos. You probably won't see huge viewing figures, as booktube it quite limited audience wise. Don't let politics put you off, a small decent community is all you really need. Wider RUclips may be a toxic leftist shithole but we can ignore them.
I been trying to find more conservative or non woke booktubers. I love reading all types of books. I know conservative authors I follow on Twitter.
Well congratulations. You've found the tiny bit of booktube that is openly anti-Woke. I recommend joining the discord, the community is quite welcoming.
Have you read any of Terry Goodkind’s stuff? I wouldn’t regard Ayn Rand as a conservative (an extreme libertarian, if anything), but a lot of conservatives are certainly still fans of hers (somewhat ironically 😂). I don’t think The Sword of Truth is particularly well-written beyond the very first book, “Wizard’s First Rule”. However, even as someone who doesn’t agree with Rand on a lot of things, I can still see that Goodkind’s books never get a fair shot with the oh-so-woke booktube community.
Especially with Daniel Greene’s review of “Wizard’s First Rule”, it’s pretty obvious the book was dead on arrival for him. He allowed his personal biases against the author to colour his judgment of the book - which is why he spent a great chunk of his review talking about that cover-art controversy again, even though that was about a much later book in the series, and even though Daniel had already done so in a separate video on Goodkind as an author.
Conversely, a lot of Ayn Rand fans don’t seem to think that Goodkind’s books are a particularly accurate depiction of Rand’s views either. Among others, there’s a pretty obvious anti-abortion scene in book 5, “The Soul of Fire”, when Ayn Rand was openly pro-choice. Added to that, the scene falls flat on its face, because while the character in the scene refuses to abort her foetus, Goodkind himself then “aborts” it, by having a bunch of thugs show up to beat her up, causing her to lose the child. Because apparently, that didn’t fit into his plans for the story at this point. In other words: It’s fine for an author to initiate an abortion if a child doesn’t fit into his plans right now - but not for the character herself! 😂
So yeah, Goodkind neither seems to be particularly popular with left-wing fantasy readers, nor with devout Ayn Rand fans. The most loyal Goodkind fans just seem to be those fantasy readers who don’t fit into either category (meaning, neither woke, nor objectivists).
I've not read Terry Goodkind, but it was more because he came across as arrogant to me. Refusing to consider himself a fantasy author always seemed like he was looking down on me for my taste which made me take an immediate dislike.
That said, I've never given him a fair try, so perhaps I should. I hear its very Tolkien-esq in structure, which puts me off a little as I'm not a huge fan of that style.
Ultimately, it has marks against it from me going in, but if I do read it I'll make a point to give it a fair chance. Booktube popularity (and vilification) are rarely rational.
@@TornadoCreator Yeah, the guy clearly had a talent to “place himself between all the chairs” 😁.
Tolkien isn’t necessarily the first comparison I’d make when it comes to Goodkind. In fact, there are no elves, dwarves, orcs, or hobbits in his entire setting - it’s all just humans, plus a few signature non-human creatures like the gars. And sure, there’s a dragon. The only obvious parallel to Tolkien (if not ripoff) is the character of Samuel (=Smeagol).
Most people seem to agree that Goodkind primarily ripped off The Wheel of Time. In terms of levels of violence, some of his books are on-par with Game of Thrones. But Wizard’s First Rule came out a few years before A Game of Thrones, so there’s no way Goodkind ripped off Martin - at least not in his early books. In the later ones, yes, he clearly took a lot from Martin, too.
Republican that voted Trump here , I enjoyed the hell out of this. I’ve desperately been searching for conservative book tubers that talk about sci-fi/fantasy. The closest thing I’ve found to it are Mikesbookreviews, Allen , and Brian Lee Durfee. So tired of seeing these bitch ass booktubers constantly virtue signaling. It’s getting just as hard to find non left leaning authors. I’ve gotten to where I’ll do some research on the author and then I’ll also look on goodreads to see what words they use to describe the genre of the book. If it says queer , I won’t read it. Cause usually it means the books are full of pc left leaning garbage. There are some exceptions. I’m all for diversity as long as it’s done right. Anyway , enjoyed your video. It’s good to know I’m not the only one looking for a different perspective in the book tube community.
Sadly, it's clear that Allen and Mike are not conservative and are no longer politically neutral either as they regularly collab on the Shelf Space discord server, a server I was banned from within an hour of joining for not being left wing enough. I didn't even mention politics. That group are thought policing the booktube community. I have tried to make my Guilded server as a counterpoint alternative, but once these guys disavow you, they make it hard to promote your channel at all. It's very much a political "old boys club", must be this much left-wing to enter. Book clubs shouldn't have political prerequisites.
Yo-Luke Smith’s Not Related Podcast is worth a binge session. He’s not a Booktuber, but he’s extremely well-read, informative and traditionalist/conservative.
Thanks, I'll check him out.
@@TornadoCreator fyi, he’s a linux user so none of his episodes are on Apple Podcast or Spotify. He has a website, but I’m pretty sure every episode is on yt. As a starting point, I highly recommend the episode on Statistics or the Joseph Schumpeter episode about Capitalism and Socialism.
I should note that he’s a PhD student in linguistics as well, so uh, VERY BIG BRAINED lol.
Also-the podcast itself is deliberately apolitical, but he speaks candidly about his views in his regular videos/vlogs.
I've seen similar problems when people discuss western cartoons and fandoms online, but most young people are liberal, so it kind of makes sense.
It's true what people say... if you're not a liberal when you're 20 you have no heart, but if you're not a conservative by the time you're 30 you have no brain...
Left wing politics are inherently good spirited, compassionate, and kind but are often unrealistic and destructive, set up by idealists who haven't had time to be invested in the current system. Usually followed by people easily taken in by emotionally driven pipe dreams that in practical application turn out to be disgustingly authoritarian.
Right wing politics on the other hand are sensible, practical, and responsible; but in stupid or selfish hands they can justify callous or even cruel policies, and grave injustice and inequity in the name of preserving a "system that works". Slow to address needed changes, and with a sentimental attachment to tradition, the practical elements are often overshadowed by its outward social harshness.
Politics is complicated.
I had to actively search out a video with your views because I feel the same way and there’s no conservative representation anywhere.
Well we have a growing community if you want to join us and chat online. We've moved to Guilded though, rather than Discord. The link is on my channel page if you're interested.
Good overview, thank you. I'm late with my comment, but I have a couple of thoughts.
1. I recently heard Jonathan Haidt, the social psychologist, talk about what he calls "structural stupidity." Structural stupidity is when one side of a discussion dominates, and moderate voices are silenced. He says that the dynamics of social media (Twitter and FB in particular) create "structurally stupid" discussions, because there is only room for one view. In order to learn, you have to be challenged by points of view that are different than your own -- even ones that are diametrically opposed to your own. Otherwise, you live in an echo chamber, where all you get is confirmation of your own bias. Haidt says that this is the case in universities as well -- they have become "structurally stupid" environments, because left-wing voices dominate and shut down conservative ones (Haidt is a classical liberal himself). I thought of that as I listened to you. Booktube is structurally stupid.
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2. You said near the end that, if you are left wing, "surely you want the right wing to have a voice." Ah, no, I'm afraid that is far too optimistic. Part of what characterizes "woke" is the belief not just that other side is wrong, but that they are *bad people,* and they deserve to be canceled and silenced, even fired. They are not interested in listening to the other side. The other side (to them) is not just wrong; it is evil.
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3. Booktube is dominated by young women. As you point out, that's where it sprung from). Young women have a propensity to engage in reputation destruction and exclusion -- that's how they aggress (as opposed to men, who tend to be more direct). If you look at the toxic dynamics of social media, they are things that women specialize in. I'm not saying men aren't involved or don't collude with it, just that it's a female specialty, and a particular specialty of young, immature women (i.e., those in their teens or twenties). I think that goes some distance to understanding why Booktube is so nasty and exclusionary at times.
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4. You mentioned the videogame community and said that it seemed to lean right to you. That may be the case on RUclips, but more generally, the picture is different. The largest internet gaming forum, Resetera, is heavily progressive/leftist. Hundreds of people have been banned for expressing "wrong" opinions (anything that goes against feminist/progressive/woke ideology, basically). Discussion is prohibited for certain "problematic" games such as the recent Harry Potter game. A number of major gaming sites (e.g., Polygon, Kotaku) are notoriously leftist as well. I won't even get into Adam Sessler and the recent G4 debacle. As I see it, the right-leaning RUclips gaming channels popped up in *reaction* to that -- as a way to provide a different voice. That's my perspective, anyhow.
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Having said all that, I will confess to being a 61 year old heterosexual white male. So I assume that disqualifies me entirely, lol. I am socially liberal but economically conservative. I don't really feel the need for more conservative Booktube channels, per se. What I would like is just a reduction in the silly virtue signaling -- you know, white men apologizing for including "dead white men" in their reading list, diversity hires in Top Ten lists, never-ending lists of "problematic" authors, issuing "trigger warnings," talking about the characters' racial or sexual identity as if that is central somehow, etc.
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Anyhow, thank you for the thought-provoking video.
Thank you for the comment. It was good to hear someone elses perspective and to confirm that there are more voices out there than just the one prescribed opinion we're fed.
I will agree games journalism is overly left wing, but in my experience actual gamers consider those sites to be a sad echo chamber disconnected from actual gamers. A joke that no-one takes seriously. The reactionary RUclipsrs get far more views now while sites like Kotaku struggle got relevance, using outrage to try to drum up views.
Maybe I'm wrong about gaming, but regardless; nothing is as insular, intolerant, and closed-minded as Booktube right now and that is a huge shame I feel.
@@TornadoCreator You're probably right about the videogame media. It's not as leftist as I portrayed, and most gamers laugh at the more lunatic aspects of it. Still, those aspects are not small, and they've definitely had a negative impact on the gaming industry and games journalism.
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I agree that more conservative-leaning Booktube channels would be good. Seems like there is a niche to be carved out there. It's happened in other areas -- like the news space or in movie reviews. Why not on Booktube, too? Perhaps it is not large enough to support that kind of diversity, or perhaps Booktube's origins (in female YA lit) make that unlikely. But it's interesting to think about.
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Would the creator be explicitly political in his/her commentary? "I don't like this book because it sounds like a third-wave feminist wrote it" or "I like this book because it has a traditional male hero"? Maybe. Or maybe the politics could be in the background rather than foreground; that would be my preference. Maybe the creator would focus on books from earlier eras, before identity politics. Or maybe he/she would explicitly focus on modern, conservative-themed books -- hopefully not cornball Christian fiction, but something more meaty. I guess it would depend on the content creator.
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Anyhow, take care. Baldur's Gate 3 is getting rave reviews. I'm not a D&D or even CRPG guy myself, but I saw that you mentioned D&D in another video, so I assume you're aware of it. Looks really good.
Yeah, I've heard good things about Baldur's Gate 3. I'm currently a little behind in gaming as I've still got Final Fantasy 16 unplayed and waiting for me. I've been writing my own TTRPG as a replacement for D&D. It's my own setting and system, 6 years in the making and yesterday was the first playtest session... so it's been a huge focus for me recently.
As for Booktube, I'd like to see the odd explicitly conservative Christian boon critic as a different voice; but I would prefer for a right-wing or right-leaning critic who just judges things without politics being a big deal. Honestly I just want a couple of critics who I know aren't going to rate a book higher for having a non-white non-male main character, a thinly veiled Trump allegory for the main villain, and an obvious parallel for the trans lobby or BLM as the main protagonists. I'm sick of it. Just as I'm sick of seeing TV reviews for shows like Buffy The Vampire Slayer that harp on about Feminism...
Yes Buffy is about a superpowered teen girl who fights monsters because Joss Whedon (who the feminists have now all cancelled for no obvious reason), thought it'd be amusing to flip the trope of a monster chasing a damsel, and have the damsel chasing a monster. That's it! It doesn't have to be meta commentary on the current political landscape and as a non-American can I just add this; The rest of the world doesn't give a peanut decorated shit which shakey old incompetent arsehole of a man you have as President!
So yeah. That's how I feel at least. Have fun with Baldurs Gate 3.
@@TornadoCreator lol, agree. I don't even care who's in office, half the time. The political parties are two wings of the same buzzard.
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That's really ambitious! To try to build your own game. Damn. That must have been a long job.
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I would like that sort of Booktube channel, too. Just keep the political commentary out of it. No one really cares anyhow. At least I don't. That's not what I come to Booktube for. We've got enough of that everywhere else.
Oh Goodness! I thought channels like this didn’t exist here on YT. I thought I was the only one being tired and worried about Booktube being so WOKE. I used to be subscribed to way more booktubers, but had to unsubscribe because of all this WOKE sh!t. Thank you!
You're more than welcome. There are a few of us who are quite anti-woke and prepared to speak on it. The more popular Booktube channels are very much a leftish high-school clique, but there's hundreds of us with less than 2k subs that form an ever growing web of small booktubers doing it for the community.
Sounds like you might like the fantasy book I wrote! I agree, most every single fantasy story, ESPECIALLY fantasy romance, is always a strong female lead that defeats the patriarchy. It’s gotten so annoying
Possibly, if you send me a link, I may check it out; though I will say I've got a huge backlog of books to get to so it could be a while.
I'm a conservative who reads books, but I only have a video channel off of this website where I still have free speech. I don't trust RUclips to not censor conservatives, and I believe that they are destroying this website with censorship. Also, if you are interested in perspectives to the political right of you, I used to flirt with the idea of being a Libertarian Socialist and I voted for Bernie Sanders in one of the primaries, and while I am not completely against welfare, I dropped my belief in socialism and Bernie Sanders after reading the slim book Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt-- which I would recommend to anyone, and which I see as a basic, short explanation of highly likely truth around the relationship between policy and economics.
I upload to both Rumble and Odysee alongside RUclips. I'm well aware of the censorship and fully support alt tech, but YT is still the big fish in the pond and I'd only be sabotaging myself to not use it.
I hear ya.
If the conservative movement continues to be regressive, anti intellectual, bans or burns books and otherwise suggests education should be strictly utilitarian then it's not going to be terribly surprising that popular platforms that host user content aren't going to be hard right wing. You might want to ask why the Amish are under represented in auto racing.
And you might want to ask why you have such a ridiculous cartoonish perception of conservatives. Obviously you didn't watch the video.
@@TornadoCreator I think it is charitable. By all means work to change perceptions. Define the conservative movement for us.
@@TornadoCreator You're actually correct that I didn't watch the full video. After the first minute or two I gave up. It wasn't very good. It wasn't engaging. There was no reason to continue on. I dismissed it and found something else to occupy my time and my mind.
I don't generally find it worth my while arguing with people who lack the attention span to finish a RUclips video. Thanks for the engagement. If you decide you want to take part properly, let me know.
I'm not right wing, but I share your frustration - I enjoy hearing differing points of view and booktube pretty much sings in one big chorus. All harmony and no counterpoint. Also, unfortunately, a lot of the left wing views there are the most ignorant variety of left-leaning views, where US people spout progressive shibboleths and show how little they are aware of world history and of any culture other than their own.
Honestly, I don't consider myself to be right wing. I'm a pretty open socialist and classical liberal, I'm just anti-woke and genuinely anti-racist (ie. I don't give BLM a pass for hating white people).
Most of the people who accuse me of being right wing are American, which I honestly find hilarious. Our conservatives support universal healthcare, push 5-guaranteed weeks paid vacation per year, and prefer to stay secular and keep religion out of politics. Being "right" over here is often more left wing than even the most socialist of Democrats... I find the whole thing quite funny. Its just the progressive woke stuff that I have an issue with.
As I see it, USA has far right corportate bible thumpers, and far right corporate woke progressives... but the whole right-left dichotomy makes little sense honestly. Rarely do people even know what the other means, I just wish booktube wasn't such an intolerant hive-mind.
@@TornadoCreator Black Lives Matter is a fine sentiment but BLM as an organisation seems to have been a racket (how many mansions?) and to have advocated for some pretty nasty ideas at times. Glad to find an old-school lefty on here, but now I'm stuck again - I want to find what the right wing types think, and - as you said in your vid - they either don't read or don't do booktube!
Yeah, it was a shame extremists ruined the movement because I was suitably morally angered by George Floyd's murder. Police should be held to account, and he was, he was arrested and tried for murder. I lost sympathy when people used that as an excuse to riot, start a race war, and create ponzi schemes. Same with the Palestine movement. I'd be open to hearing about a 2 state solution and hearing their complaints, but when the woke brigade start cheering for terrorists killing thousands including children, and groups like "Queers fo Palestine" show up, when Israel is the only place in the middle east you won't be arrested or put to death for being gay; I can only assume the woke left are gaslighting me. I'm disgusted with the left right now.
As for the right on booktube; all I want is well rounded opinions. To expand my horizons by having many different perspectives I can consider because that makes you a better person and a more thoughtful reader. I have found a few moderates on the right I can talk with about books and current events; few of them take part in something like booktube though.
Ironically, what I'm asking for is tolerance, diversity of opinion, and a willingness to consider others perspectives. It's amazing how much hate you can get for advocating for that.
Omg! Thank you for saying the truth about Jan 6! I’m so tired of everyone saying it was such a terrible thing to happen when the “summer of love” caused probably 10x the damage of anything broken at the Capitol.
You're very welcome. I'm not American so I can take a step back and see it for the tribalist nonsense it is. The coverage of the "insurrection", which was actually a glorified walk-in protest, is just being blown out of proportion because of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Some people lose their mind when it comes to Donald Trump and can't be objective.
@@TornadoCreator I completely agree on every point. Unfortunately, it!s hard to set people straight because they buy into the media lies and they hate Trump so much they refuse to even listen.
@@ajmatt574has your mind changed now that he has been indicted on alleged crimes against the United States?
Mine hasn't, because this isn't an opinion. I know what happened on Jan 6th. I was alive and awake on that day, I saw the reports in real time, I saw the video footage. There was no insurrection.
Trump being indicted for what, the third time now, means nothing. Oh look establishment Democrats hate Trump and will make up lies and fake crimes in order to desparately try to brand him a criminal in the hope he won't be allowed to run for president in 2024... it's pathetic.
There are legit reasons to dislike Trump, but this crap only serves to make his position stronger, because they are proving that the establishment is anti-Trump and willing to bend the system to take power from him. It makes the whole 'Stolen Election' thing seem more and more plausible each day, and that is NOT something they want people seriously wondering about.
I think there's certain ways to spot more open minded people that don't tend to gather at the 'poles' as it were; It tends to be a smattering of historical or philosophical non-fiction within either their TBRs (less common) or scuttled into goodreads ratiings / reviews. If you find someone reviewing Solzhenitsyn or Hayek and are treating the works with the respect they deserve, they are going to people that are willing to have conversations. People who have a love of a combination of Historical Fiction, Non-Fiction about Societal Antiquity and GK Chesterton / T.S. Eliot Books are your Trad Con / Christian types. who, if they are americand, can be fairly Anglophilic, and yearn for that thatched roof, land rover, quilted jacket and breakfast tea lifestyle :P these people exist. Im hoping so for my own sake to be honest :P
Thank you for your help on discord. I'm the American Conserv/Christian, but probably not in the pigeon hole most people would assume. We question everything. I don't have a land rover, and I shuddered when I read the quilted jacket, but I do quilt blankets. LOL Thatched roofs? Isn't that only in Europe? But don't mess with tea. We are hard core English tea drinkers. 🤗😂👍
@@BookZealots You're welcome, let us know if you need anymore assistance. I must confess the second half of my breakdown is mostly a bad attempt at parodying glibness. I stand by my theory about an increased interest in non-fiction. It's seems to me that there's a section of conservatives that are more curious than most and like to build a wider view of the world comparative to other parts of the political spectrum. I'm still learning though; 2 years ago I would have described myself as left wing, so I'm still on my exploration through all of *this*, whatever this is anyways 😂
@@haas2225 As I get older my reading has changed a lot. Recently I've noticed the crazier the world/governments become, the more nonfiction I want to read, because I feel that reading nonsense is a waste of time while the world is burning, so to speak. I don't like that politics is dividing citizens. The politicians have forgotten they work for us, and they're turning us into their plebeians. I wasn't offended by what you wrote. I don't know if my sarcasm came through with the tea either. (though we are serious about our tea). Still figuring out discord, but it's time for me to get ready for bed and read. =) So good to meet more people on YT.
@@BookZealots Everything has become divisive. It's gotten so bad that even someone saying they disliked a movie or a comic book results in poltically laced condemnations. It's exhausting, and it almost feels like its on purpose at this point to avert our gaze from the establishment / elites and no question whta they are up to. Don't worry, being a Brit, I'm pretty serious about my Tea too. Hope you sleep well. Look forward to talking to you more about books and such!
hey lord of the rins is amazing, it's so sophisticated but it doesnt get analysed properly
I honestly think people put too much stock into LOTR. It's iconic and influential sure, but to act like it's still the number 1 best fantasy novel, that no-one had built on and improved upon Tolkiens work in 70 years is laughable. It's nostalgia and group think that places LOTR so high in peoples ratings. Yes its a great book, no its not a damn holy text... that's the difference I feel.
Everyone's gotta be so woke. It makes me want to rip my head off. smh
Jordan Peterson has a very good explanation for this, specifically why women are into books. Women are more imaginative while men are visual oriented. That's why more men watch p@rn while women read books like Twilight or Fifty Shades of Grey.
Interesting. It also goes some way to explaining the political leanings as women are significantly more likely to be left wing than men.
Seriously. I don't think I've found one that isn't either straight up socialist or ultra progressive.
Yeah, it's really bizarre isn't it.
For Hollywood, wokeness largely seems to be a marketing ploy (“fan-baiting”, getting viewers to hatewatch their uninventive remakes). That’s why they always dial it back for the Chinese and Arab market. For booktube, however, where you’d expect to see precisely those indie creators that Hollywood would be in dire need of, the fact that a lot of them are also woke suggests that many of them actually believe this stuff. 🙄
Sadly yes, many of them do believe the woke crap... but that's largely because they're thick as pig-shit, and haven't had to justify or question those beliefs while in their echo chambers. It's sad but modern society makes it much easier for crazies and idiots to find each other, and then reinforce each others bullshit. The publishing industry is unfortunately no different.
It’s interesting that your video popped up in my feed. I’ve been building a library, having read from a Kindle app for years. I’ve been concentrating on classics and learning about which editions I want to buy. I have not noticed any politics at all in most of the channels I’ve seen, which is quite a few at this point.
As far as politics go, from your accent, I gather that you’re not based in the US (apologies if I’m wrong). I would like to start with what you mean by right wing or left wing. When you talked about the guy whose wife is libertarian and that he didn’t vote for Trump, I have to push back a little. Trump hijacked the Republican Party from conservatives. His movement is more a cult of personality than anything else, which in my view is not conservative. In fact, the party did not include any platform in their last convention, essentially ceding that to anything Trump says is what we believe. Again, not conservative.
As for BLM being a “stain”, as you put it, if I am correct that you aren’t from the US, you don’t understand, perhaps, the level of racism and issues with policing that developed that movement. Of course, a lot of this may come down to your choice of media outlets, which have, since the rescinding of the Fairness Doctrine in the US, been overly swayed by politics.
In any event, I suppose a case could be made that the more you read, the less conservative you become. I would suggest that this is largely because reading exposes you to a lot of different perspectives, which has the consequence of opening your mind to alternate perspectives of our world. Again in the US (sorry, my political understanding of foreign politics is not to the level it needs to be to have a valid perspective), the more educated one is, based on degrees from universities, the more left you skew.
I would suggest that if you want a right wing book tube channel and have identified it as a hole that needs to be filled, then by all means start one. What’s stopping you?
By the way, while I have seen a few channels that I can guess the politics of, most of them are simply nonpolitical and enjoy discussing books they’ve read. Not everything has to be political, after all. I have not seen the erotica channels you speak of, and don’t plan to. Thanks for your video!
Thank you for your comment. You're correct I'm not in the US, I'm British so my perspective on US politics is very much that of an outsider looking in.
Defining what is meant by "left" and "right", is probably the biggest stumble in most political discussions. I have a video on exactly that which might help explain what I mean.
ruclips.net/video/zIqnkJBNhTg/видео.htmlsi=AM1kXoY2hNq7xEN_
As for some of the other issues. My take on BLM is based on their actions. I haven't seen the racial issues in US policing, true; but I did see first had the BLM riots here in UK where they destroyed local monuments, damaged buildings, and had pitched battles in the streets with police. I saw videos of the same thing happening in USA and internationally. I'm aware of more than a dozen people killed in their riots that the media laughably called "mostly peaceful protests". I don't care what they original cause is at that point. BLM in practice was an urban terrorist mob and I find it bizarre that people didn't call them out more readily.
That one issue aside. I suspect we would have much in common politically, and a discussion or debate would lead us to see we have more similarities than differences. I'm glad your experience with Booktube has been relatively politics free, but mine pointedly has not been. I've been ostracised and faced abuse for voicing mainstream opinions and it's very clear that the community at large are intolerant of diversity of thought; which is sad for what is supposed to be an online book club, essentially.
Thank you again for engaging. I look forward to further discussions.
@@TornadoCreator Thanks for your reply.
Regarding BLM (or most movements, tbh), there is a fringe element that does violence, which is abhorrent. I do think that there are cases of ‘false flag’ operations which are done to discredit the movement (as one of the BLM protesters in Milwaukee, for instance, was discovered to be a white supremacy nut job). However, I don’t discount the fact that there are radicals that use whatever movement, left or right, to indulge their destructive bent. In my view, the average person in these movements is not radical, but merely sympathizes with the movement. However, if these ‘mainstream’ people support and/or give aid and sympathy to the violent radicals amongst them, then they are also abhorrent.
When underprivileged groups have strived for generations, I can understand why there are violent extremists among them, but that understanding of cause does not make their actions any less egregious. The situation of the Palestinians and Hamas is a good example. I understand the decades long grievance of Palestinians, but to do violence is not only wrong, it’s counterproductive. Nonviolent protest, in the lineage of Ghandi, MLK, and Mandela is the model that works. In the short run, you are going against a superior force and may even die in jail for your political beliefs. In the long run; however, a consensus builds among those who witness the terrors inflicted by the powers that be, and history does reward the effort. In the case of Israel, unfortunately, extremists on both the Palestinian and Israeli sides both undermine the peace process that should have been relatively easy. Nothing show this more clearly than the assassination of Anwar Sadat after the peace accord in the 1970’s.
Thanks for the discussion!
@skeller61 Well said. I have a visceral dislike of both BLM and the pro-Palestine movement because I see them as destructive urban terrorists. If they acted as civilized people, I would be willing to listen to their issues.
As for BLM, lets not lie and claim it was "white supremacists" doing "false flags"; its not and we both know its not. I will accept that racism in USA and in the police is an issue, and I agree George Floydd was murdered and justice needed to be done. I also see a sickening amount of anti-white racism, woke progressive cultural marxism, and the disgusting ideology of critical race theory; which is just "white people are evil" given an academic label. There are huge racist elements of BLM, which has now more recently been exposes as a money laundering operation anyway, and I find them repugnant. You don't combat racism with more racism. BLM is a step away from being the KKK with the colours reversed. All racism is wrong, this should not be a controversial statement or a difficult concept to get across.
As for the Palestine issue. I lose all respect for a group when they slaughter innocent children and teens at a music festival, kill thousands unprovoked, and then act like they're the victim. The political tension in Israel and Palestine is so long reaching and old now, that there is no good guy politically; but this issue in 2023 is far more simple. Iran funded HAMAS to commit terrorist acts out of religious and racial hatred, and I disavow that 100% as any reasonable person should. Mass murdering terrorists are bad, and I can't believe all the people on the left defending and willfully ignoring a massive terrorist slaughter so they can support Palestine, an Islamic extremist state that would hate them anyway. The cognative dissonance is amazing.
I do feel while I have more hardline positions it seems. We can at least appreciate the others perspective, and frankly theres precious little of that on the internet, so thank you.
@@TornadoCreator Thanks for your reply. I disagree with you about BLM. Although I’m sure unsavory groups are using the label, that is clearly appropriating what began as a grass roots effort to elevate the issue of police brutality against black people. It sounds to me that the media you are consuming is decidedly against the movement in general, and that you are basing your views on a campaign of disinformation meant to discredit the movement in order to squash its original purpose.
As far as the ‘false flag’ comment, I’m not generalizing, as I was specifically pointing to one, well documented incident in the wake of the George Floyd murder. I’m sure these types of things happen by extremists on both ends of the spectrum, including the radicals on the left.
However, in the US, the right wing propagandist machine is well coordinated (Fox ‘News’, OAN, Newsmax, etc.) and they propagatied the lie that Jan 6 was a false flag operation by ‘Antifa’ and/or the FBI. This is ludicrous on its face, as why would leftists want to disrupt the certification of Trump’s opponent? Yet, there are a lot of ordinary Americans who swallowed the Kool-Aid and believe these lies. The big lie, that the 2020 election was ‘stolen’, had Fox News having to pay out $787.5 million to Dominion voting systems in a libel suit recently. In other words, the propaganda machine of the right is way out of proportion and is definitely not a ‘both sides’ issue, at least here in the US.
As for the Palestinian people, they have been taken over by a series of groups, Hamas being the latest, which are simply terrorist organizations. Unfortunately, the propaganda on this issue far outweighs the news, and I can see that the average Palestinian would be subjected to this radicalizing propaganda nonstop.
I don’t blame the people in the US who have fallen for the right wing propaganda, or the average Palestinians who fall for the anti-Israeli propaganda. However, both groups of people have been radicalized to a dangerous extent and, even if it’s not their fault that they hold these positions in the face of unending propaganda, if they act by giving aid and comfort to the perpetrators of either Jan 6, or the attack on Israel, they have become terrorists themselves and are a danger to rational people everywhere.
Always hold your strongly held beliefs up to scrutiny and seek out other perspectives, as the goal of every propaganda machine is to radicalize ordinary people in support of the groups that do harm. Peace!
Ultimately I think we both have to agree that we actually don't know what we're talking about. Unless we were there in person, we are making judgements based on second hand at best, information. We don't know what actually happens at BLM rallies, or on the border of the Gaza Strip, or at the Capitol Building on Jan 6th, or during any other main historical event. We don't know unless we were there, and we likely weren't.
All we have to go off is news, media reports, political interpretations, and hearsay. As people we know almost nothing so must interpret the world based almost exclusively on what people claim happened.
I think what matters is decent morals. Decent people who reject hatred, fundamentalism, terrorism, violence, and authoritarianism. Even if these people are taken in by propaganda they will limit any bad they perpetuate by the intrinsic good in their world philisophy. The second important element is skepticism, logic, and free-thinking. Someone who constantly asks questions is less succeptable to propaganda, and so is more able to believe a true vision of the reality of the world.
We need to aim for both of these things, and I think we're doing fine. While I think we base our opinions on different sources, and have reached different positions because of that. I like to think good intentions shine through in our positions and that is what matters most.
I was watching some booktuber videos from various people, and I noticed that in almost every video, the person just HAD to make some random comment about conservatives, Trump, JK Rowling, etc. Or throw in a line about feminism and "the patriarchy". It was never necessary for the discussion of the book, it was thrown is just as some "diss" on a person or political position they dislike. It was almost as if they wanted to say "I'm a leftist btw" just to remind you that you were watching a left wing channel, almost like some kind of advertisement.
I'm not really into politics and I don't like it when people use their videos, that seem apolitical on the surface to push their personal agenda. Like, just talk about the f---ing book, that's why I'm here. It's just really annoying.
I agree. Though I am politically minded and do openly talk about politics. I make it clear that I'm doing so. If you dislike politics, you may find my videos frustrating; but one thing I do try to do is at least make any political topic relevant to the book.
I do feel literature and politics are heavily linked. Its hard to talk deeply about the themes of some books without also taking politics. I'd be less annoyed if the conversation didn't feel so dogmatic. Its not that they're all left wing that bothers me, its the implicit suggestion that you better be as well or they'll not be happy.
I know you probably consider me part of the "extreme left", most likely I'm one of the most leftist people in your Discord. However, I do value your opinions and I would welcome opinions that are further to the right as well. I think Booktube is an echo chamber and it's very exclusive, where people with even a small difference in opinion to the majority are being black-listed. I appreciate being challenged on my opinions, it makes me question them and do some rethinking, which I think is valuable for personal growth. I wouldn't say I subscribe to any particular ideology, though my country as you probably know is a liberal leaning social democracy.
"Right" and "left" are arbitrary constructs, almost everyone here would be considered left in USA, even the ones we mean when we say right-wing here. It's largely dependent on context. Which perspective are you coming from? You've been calling yourself both right- and left-wing in this video. My left/right scale extremes are communism/facism, which means an extreme left person would be a communist to me and I don't think that's what most people on Booktube are. Certain political concepts such as feminism have supporters on both sides of the center, it's not just a left thing.
On the topic of erotica, I wholeheartedly agree with you, it's disturbing to me that we shun male-gaze pornography but actively promote female-gaze ones. We don't even call it pornography, even though it is. Personally I would prefer if both kinds were kept private, unless it's to challenge them. Gay erotica is titillating for many women and is often promoted and written to cater to women, not to gay men and many contain homophobic stereotypes. It's deemed acceptable because of virtue signalling like you said. I feel like the community has been criticizing this though, so there are discussions happening.
Keep up the good work ☺️ I'm always happy to hear your opinions and I feel like I always come away feeling more informed after watching your videos. You're always respectful and honest.
Thanks for the comment, its good to see others seeing the same trends as I... but you are correct, I describe myself as both left and right wing, which is confusing...
I think it might be a good move to make a video defining "left" and "right", politically. So people aren't left unsure about what I'm talking about.
@@TornadoCreator Yeah, considering some of the comments you got, I think people might have been confused if this was the first video of yours that they saw 😅
20:05 - "Most of them haven't read it."
No doubt that's true. I can't count the number of people I know that have seen the Peter Jackson movies but have never picked up the books.
I suspect there's lots of faking on booktube. People who claim they've read many of the popular books just to fit in. It's a bit sad really. You can tell how many books people fake reading by how many they claim they read yet only ever seem to be able to talk in the broadest sense over. As if all they actually know is what you can get from the blurb and watching a 10min review here on RUclips.
The reality is, you don't need to actually read books to do booktube. You make "book hauls", TBRs, wrap-ups where you stay vague, and tier list videos. None of which have any details of the books in them. You can do this without reading a single book you feature. It's easy to fake it on booktube.
@@TornadoCreator Now that you mention it, I have noticed many more videos of the types you mentioned than of actual reviews or discussions. I'm actually quite new to the whole BookTube ecosystem, by the way.
I suppose I fall more into the "classical liberal" camp myself in many ways, though I just consider myself independent. But apparently I am now an extreme far right radical since I detest and oppose the woke left.
That's how a lot of people feel. There's a lot of disaffected people on the political left, with no voice or ability to take part because they find the left taken over by authoritarian fascists. Some try to crowbar themselves into the right, where they have a voice at least but most people have fundamental disagreements on basic ideals. Some stay on the left and pay lip service to the woke madness, permanently afraid they'll be cancelled next for saying a word that was PC last week, and is bigoted now for some reason.
It's a horrible reality, but the political left has been usurped. I intend to at least push back on that.
I don't know what I am politically, but I do know that I think reading (and writing - thus informing the next generation of readers) is quite self-selecting in this way. I suspect the left-wing ideals just naturally align with the sort of understanding that reading fosters. Years ago when reading was all you had, and an instant connection to a constant flow of 'content' on a small phone wasn't a thing, I reckon it would've been expected that reading would be more diverse. But as it stands, you sort of have to go out of your way to read, so it's more self-selecting in that sense - a certain person is drawn to it, a certain person enjoys it.
'Bedroom culture' is often used in sociology to explain the differences in boys and girls - girls are happy to read and draw and play with their dolls in their rooms, while boys are expected to go out to the park and ride their bikes (of course there are exceptions, but we're talking ideal socialisation). So it's not surprising that this continues on into adulthood and more women read than men.
There are ideas that have flown off and become something bigger than necessary - the bizarre fixation on JK Rowling bashing, despite her obviously securing her place in literary history. But this is the nature of an echo-chamber. I don't care for 'queer' books, so I don't watch booktubers who recommend that. A shitty book does not become good simply because there was a gay couple in it. This is definitely something booktube needs to work on. It's quite often I see people who insist they love high-quality literature handle 'queer' books with kid gloves, and it's not right.
I feel like this is a thing - men entering a space and then feeling disheartened that it doesn't work for them as men, and then whining about feminism. All I can do is laugh. Hardly an exemplary display of those meritocratic ideals. Work to forge your own space then, that's what feminism did for women. You can't whine that it worked, and then bash people who do the same for the systems that work for you.
I don't complain that reading appeals more to women. I'm glad to have finally found something that does because every other hobby seems to be male dominated. My complaint is that booktube (and media in general now) is intolerant of non-leftist politics, and openly hateful towards straight white men under the guise of diversity and inclusion.
I no more what reading to change for men, than I expect video games to change for women. Men who read will create a more male-focused demand in literature and that will create books for men. Likewise with women and video games. This is fine...
This videos main point is that Booktube itself is pandering and intolerant, and an extremist far-left entity, that pretends to be inclusive when it's anything but.
@17:50 - I still have a playlist saved of about 100 booktube videos, all recorded within a week of 1 June 2020. They are either 1) white booktubers self-flagellating, and apologizing for their own innate racism, and urging other white booktubers to do better - and trashing Republicans OR 2) young black women or girls under 30 complaining that Social Media is oppressive towards them because it is especially difficult for black girls to get a social media following, complaining that racist Social Media treats them like token black booktubers, and that street protesting is good because systemic racism is a greater public health emergency than covid - and trashing Republicans. I found the whole thing to be gross and disgusting virtue preening hypocrisy from these delusional booktubers. I made a few videos criticizing some of that, and that cost me a ton of subscribers. Then I just said 'screw it' and started making videos mocking 'The Science' behind our covid policies. That lost me a ton more subscribers and numerous RUclips strikes. I don't care - losing subscribers over that kind of stuff is hilarious. But I also found in the process of all that that there are a lot of booktubers out there who are more conservative than most - they just don't wear their politics on their sleeves. Thank you for the video.
Once again, you seem to be speaking my mind in this entire video when it comes to “booktube.” Maybe I just haven’t come across any yet and have missed some, but I’ve yet to see any fairly large booktuber (people like jessethereader, polandbananasbooks, etc.) that isn’t left-wing or left-wing to an absolute fault. Even smaller, run of the mill book tube channels seem to suffer from this as well. There will almost always be some mention of gay/lgbt representation, “slut” shaming, some form of feminism or theme of it, racism, and probably other things that aren’t coming to mind at the moment. I’ve yet to come across anyone like that who’s even more centrist or right-leaning, they don’t even have to be right-wing or conservative necessarily. And it’s quite frustrating and annoying, as it comes off like a huge clique where everyone has to conform and have the same or very similar opinions to one another. I’m gay myself, and I can’t tell you how sick and tired I am of hearing about gay representation in books, it’s such obvious pandering and virtue signaling. I’m not necessarily against gay characters being in books, specifically gay men since I’d obviously relate to that more, but I think they should be in a book because they were meant to be in the story that the author intended to write, not to check off a political point box so leftie audiences will be happy and because it’s expected.
I know exactly what you mean about representation. I know a lot of people who will actually avoid books that are described as having "LGBT Rep" because they find it pandering and preachy.
Great books can have solid examples of different sexualities in them without it being a political mess. A Game Of Thrones and the whole ASOI&F series are great examples and I would be pissed to see them described as "LGBT Rep". They don't represent anything. This isn't a fucking cheerleaders parade. It has non-straight characters... and it has a normal amount of them. Not more than half the fucking cast.
Good books do it well. Bad books do nothing but pander.
@@TornadoCreator Exactly. Just because a book is advertised as having “LGBT representation,” or any other sort of “representation” for that matter, doesn’t mean that your book is good or that it will be good. In fact, it probably just means that it will either be mediocre or just complete crap. The Game of Thrones books are a perfect example, and the characters that do pop up and aren’t straight are there because they were meant to be in the story, not because the Martin was trying to pander and get brownie points. He obviously just intended that from the start, aka they’re in there naturally. And honestly, if anything, the fact that there aren’t many gay characters or none at all in any given books kind of reflects reality when you think about it, as bleak as it may be at times. The majority of people on earth are straight, so it only makes sense to expect that most of the characters, if not all, will be straight in any given book where sexuality is present. And as far as the “representation” part goes, who says these characters represent me as an individual? Sure, I may relate to them based on similar feelings and experiences growing up and stuff like that, but I know I’ve come across a lot of gay people whom I disagree with on a number of things and have virtually nothing in common with, aside from the fact that they and I both happen to be attracted to the same gender. But then that’s a whole other thing, when it comes to the collectivism and hive mind mentality of the LGBT community.
The character I felt most empathy for in a book recently is an uneducated illiterate athletic woman in her 50s. I'm a physically disabled university educated man in his 30s. Representation is bullshit. Good characters will be relatable regardless of who they are.
@@TornadoCreator Well said, there’s been a number of characters that I’ve related to, but don’t share the same orientation that I do. All I can say is that it must be sad to function through the lenses of “I can only relate to characters who are the same gender/skin color/sexual orientation as me.”
It must be a very lonely world for them... and literature must be frightfully unfulfilling for them too. I pity them, sincerely.
Great video. I have a take on this that, I believe, spans across all media. People that are on the left tend to be less open to exposing themselves to differing views. People on the right tend to be more open to analyzing any view. That being said, they are able to watch left wing “book tubers”. They will follow the content that is apolitical and as long as the creator doesn’t specifically target their views, they can kind of brush it off. I personally will watch Daniel Greene and other left wing channels because we agree on fantasy books for the most part. They will have videos that are cringey leftist nonsense and I will just stop watching that specific video. I agree that there needs to be a more conservative community. It does get tiring. But, if the opposite were true, the leftists would view it as “there are no watchable booktubers so I need to make a channel”. People on the right are just like, “well… crap. I guess it’s no different than movies, music, news, social media, universities, comic books, etc”
Yeah, but half the world population shouldn't be so willing to hand over the entirety of our cultural forms of expression to the most intolerant half just because it's easy. I'd rather we had no media at all than only leftist media; what a horrible, hate filled, entitled, narcissistic world that would depict.
I am a leftist of forty one years, an eclectic reader and a black straight male. One who is atheist, despises video games and rather entertain a game of Go or chess.
Your view of leftist appears to be fairly shallow. That said, I thrive off of different world views and dig well-formed counter arguments.
I am glad to have stumbled upon your channel. I grew up reading: Ray Bradbury, Clifford Simak, Wilbur S. Peacock, Frank Herbert (beyond the Dune series), John Wyndham, Stanis Law, Robert Silverberg and many others.
Most of the Black leftist readers I know, like myself, enjoy a wide variety of literature, music, and hobbies. It is always fun to see tribal jailers from either extreme attempt to define us.
Anyway...very interesting topic.
Peace
Thanks for the comment, I'm glad you enjoyed the video and I intent to start posting regularly again starting next month.
As for my depiction of "the left", it's a little reductive but largely reactionary and simplified for the sake of the video; really this is more a criticism of US centric progressivism but to go into details like that only adds confusion. I myself am a classically liberal socialist with non-fiscal libertarian beliefs, which drives many people crazy because they don't know which box to put me in.
I look forward to future comments and maybe a good hearted debate or discussion in the future. Welcome to the channel.
I don’t know if she’s conservative but she’s not woke at all, but you should check out “it’s too late to apologize” her channel is great. She does deep analyses of books and is against censorship and gatekeeping. She actually wrote a sci-fi book about a matriarchal dystopia where a strong female lead liberates a bunch of men to fight for their freedoms against female tyranny. It was pretty good actually.
This guy is one of the best Booktubers I know and he is Right leaning: youtube.com/@TheAvidReaderBookReviews
Just to give you guys some interesting perspective the most famous Booktuber in Brazil is Center Right leaning (I am from Brazil), youtube.com/@tatifeltrin
By the way she has a very impressive catalog of videos, unfortunately for you guys all in Portuguese (maybe the translation function?)
Both are very moderate, polite and even very qualified (He is a Historian in training - don't know the details and she is a Portuguese/English teacher with a lot of experience in translation - masters and stuff - just giving you guys some background)
It's good to hear in other languages the bookish content isn't so skewed politically. I'll check out the channels, though sadly I don't speak Portuguese. Only English and very broken Spanish and Japanese, I'm effectively monolingual.
@@TornadoCreator the Spanish will help, but anyway you can keep an eye for her catalog of books and titles of the authors (the titles in the thumbnails will give you some idea), she speaks perfect English and has some collaborations with big booktubers (she is big - think about it, her audience is Brazilian people, an undeveloped country and she has 600k subs), she also keeps an English literature bookclub that might be interesting, because they read only good stuff, in English.
The historian is great as well, a Crichton fan, his history and economy indications are fenomenal (I have no idea how I came by him on the RUclips 😅)
I would call myself moderately right wing, a classical liberal to keep things simple. I generally don't discuss my political beliefs because that's not what my channel is about, but I think it's good to keep in mind when you read books that have political or social satire or commentary.
@10:10 The utter incuriosity about why women use "Sapphic" instead of "lesbian", and the flaunting of ignorance regarding who the ancient Greek poet Sappho was and why she's an icon for women, laced with a slightly patronizing sneer - are two possible explanations as for why there aren't conservative booktubers, not to mention strong evidence of why conservatives don't care about the humanities at all. Good luck with changing the tide.
there is a channel called lengthyounarther
he isn't conservative but has a right wing ideology. he is an anarcho capitalist.
one of my favorites is his parody review of how to be an anti racist:
ruclips.net/video/mGuYM52zhVs/видео.html
check him out
I will do, thanks.