Subtlety is Dead: Communism and 'A Bewitching Revolution' [CC]
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- Опубликовано: 15 сен 2024
- What do you with media that isn't euphemistic about its political intention? Well, if you're me, you make a 25 minute video about it.
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Buy 'A Bewitching Revolution' here: colestia.itch....
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(with extra tracks by Toby Fox from Undertale and Homestuck)
Featuring Curio: / @sophiefrommars
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SOURCES:
Isabelle's Day Off by Yellow Hellion: ye...
Ash Sarkar on Piers Morgan
PhilosophyTube Witchcraft
Hbomb Virtue Signalling
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I know game devs who use subtext. They're all cowards.
"the ones who tell the lies are the solemnest to swear,
and the ones who load the dice always say the toss is fair,
the ones who deal the cards are the ones to take the tricks,
with their hands over their hearts as we play the game they fixed." - 'if it's true', hadestown
always been one of my favorite songs from that album
soldiers in WWII carving flowers into empty shells sounds so romantic i'm surprised more fiction hasn't acknowledged it
anyway this vid is good and the game looks good too
To be fair, WWI isn't really acknowledged that much in fiction anyway, so it's not that surprising their carvings aren't talked about.
There's a fantastic comic about WWI called Charley's War. It was first published in a boy'w war comic in the UK in the 70s and 80s so the main character goes to a lot of places and sees a huge amount of the war, and is often involved in exciting battles, but it's also a very warts and all look at the war and the horrors therein - but it also covers a lot of what the soldiers got up to in order to keep sane and maintain morale, from simple things like firing off a machinegun to heat water for tea or massive, sprawling games of football, to putting on shows or enjoying the utilities still intact in towns they pass through. I don't remember seeing soldiers carvring imagery into used shells in it, but it has been over 30 years since I read it.
The original run recently got reprinted in three volumes.
All quiet on the Western Front had soldiers save the silk parachutes used in illumination shells to take back to lovers or send them home. The driving bands could be used for bracelets or refashioned into small pieces of artwork as they were made of soft copper and were easily workable.
WW1 trench art is well known for soldiers in the conflict refashioning things like bullets and shell casings into artworks and engravings, as many of the soldiers were themselves artisans drafted into the war. www.trenchartofww1.co.uk/index.html
It was fun to listen to the pretending about stuff so positively and oblivious to it being a path to ruin and strife. This video is a good example of progressive Liberal Fascists biggest strength ... pretending feelings to entertain and it's biggest dysfunction... the inability to deal with real things.
I love how the Breadtube community and content creators are making me discover awesome channels like this on a daily basis.
Won't see Nazis doing that : )
If you can, I reccomend liking, commenting, and even mentioning what other leftists channels lead you here in your comments. You can also not worry about it at all but RUclips's algorithm seems to finally be understanding that "left tube" is a demographic worth targeting. Right now it basically starts at Contrapoints then is loosely connected at best, but we can train youtube to be better too
@@motherbat8344 Thanks Comrade
@@motherbat8344 Exactly. I give special credits to The Serfs and Peter Coffin who put in alot of time to make sure to shout out smaller channels who deserve some love. Two days ago, The Serfs held a stream, watching obscure left tube channels, asking them to leave comments and give them love. It was one of the most enjoyable streams of the year for me and subbed to all of them. Because generally, left tube channels are absolute bonkers in terms of sheer efford and quality.
Michiel thoughtslime as well. He has been including a “sponsored message” from smaller channels for the last few episodes. Of course shout out to Gutian Speaks for making the video calling out bread tube and calling for them to do better.
“Maybe my HRT is messing with my emotions” what an absolute unending mood, take a like kind ma’am.
Honestly I've been really depressed lately with the state of the world, but you helped me remember something really important. Communists have to be dreamers! Thanks Sarah! This game looks so good, I'm def going to buy it.
I forgot about this fact until you said that you were going to buy the game, but you can’t buy the game. Anyone can play the game for free, but you can use your resources to help the support the people who made the game. Sorry if I sound like I’m being nick picky, but it really feels like the most genuine expression of egalitarian this game could possibly practice. I love it and I just wanna go help people right now.
"Honestly I've been really depresse"
*Leftist huh? Yeah, that's you have, enjoy the nihilism.*
"Communists have to be dreamers!"
*Pretending is required for communism, it is a fiction after all.*
I'm so happy about this video, because I agreed so much with the sentiment during your talk with Heather Flowers that we're far beyond the point of subtlety. We need to bring out the agitprop in full force. We gotta organize. We can make things happen.
What I'd like to say about my opinion on euphemism after watching the video is that I think there can be value in euphemism in names, but I don't there there should be any in description. What I mean is that when describing our ideas we should always be upfront and honest, for example when talking about homelessness simply state that you want to take empty house and give them to the homeless, but whether you call that socialism or communism depends on who you're talking to.
What you said about "Will people would really use the tools on their own if we we're euphemistic?" really resonated and I really agree that when talking about those tools we must be honest and upfront, but I do think there is some leeway in how we call those tools.
A really interesting video. Thank you very much for making this.
excellent point. you're right - we must always be careful to remember nuance. sometimes euphemism is helpful, and other times it isn't. the hard work is figuring out when that is!
and further - you're right, Sarah, that the time for euphemism is getting further behind us. the death of our species (and so many others) means we just gotta bluster on through.
Though I (as I mentioned in my own comment) find it odd to call "Socialism" a euphemism. Since I always assumed that to be Socialist was to believe in a system that served as a hybridization of communist and capitalist thought.
“Where’s the musicians?”
THERE IS A FANTASTIC NOVEL ABOUT THIS!! I’m really excited I get to recommend it because it’s my favorite book!
_Station Eleven_ by Emily St. John Mandel
Wow this is the first time I've seen a book rec in RUclips comments! Huzzah for taking eyes off ads and onto a real cool sounding book!
seconded! dope book
@@NU-ph1zx it is a cool aesthetic though, it widens the landscape of apocolyptic fiction and I think that in itself could pave the way for more intentional and meaningful works in the future. besides that, a lot of scifi/futurist fiction is reduced to aesthetics rather than dealing with material circumstances or making any cohesive commentary.
Okay, the last ten minutes of this are maybe the most effective criticism of Generation X disillusionment I have ever encountered. I say that as an actual member of the Gen X cohort. We had/have our idealists and collapsed under the “obvious” impossibility of these ideals over time. This really helps me put in context the frustration younger people have tried to communicate to me. Thank you SO MUCH for framing this so clearly through the medium of... media.
Thanks for this amazing video. Can't even recall the last time I've seen a dose of genuine optimism without brushing aside how fucked everything is delivered in such an effective and digestible manner.
I'm going to get a "Art is not frivolity" tattoo.
the sylveon clip made me cry how dare you
feel my hormonal weeping
I think it's also important to remember that what's realistic and logical is determined largely by the dominant order. We want to get away from that order and changing how we think is vital.
I might show this video to my dad. Tell him that this has nothing to do with our religious differences, that i just want him to think about politics beyond what he's been raised with.
Your thoughts and feelings are not invalid, but the idea that communism and/or socialism are emotionally-based utopia is why I thought they were total bullshit when I was a teenager, even though I thought the idea was nice.
Communism IS logical. Human rights ARE logical. Selfishness and egotism aren't even inherently capitalist - selfish altruism benefits the individual by empowering all of society towards progress. It was when I realised that more individualistic economic systems are a complete fucken failure and that incrementalism is extremely viable that I was radicalised.
It's a rational, logical necessity AND an emotionally fulfilling utopia. It couldn't fulfill if it could not work; it couldn't be logical if it could not make us happy.
it is only illogical if you engage with it from an individualistic perspective, from a community reference frame it is significantly more logical. pure logic cannot itself say that an individualist reference frame should be taken
How did you come about realizing that incrementalism is extremely viable? I hear a lot of people say sudden revolution is the only real option because the powerful will never give up power and will always fight to roll back incremental changes. I firmly believe that communism is logical and I can usually convince people to agree but I always sort of just throw my hands in the air at the "how do we achieve it" question. The idea of a violent revolution seems way too catastrophic so "individualism cant work" rhetoric leaves me lw hopeless
@@SneakyPotato1 This is about where I am at, but I think you need to reframe the notion of that violence. We could, for example create parallel power structures to support a general strike but all of that would be met with state sanctioned "legal" violence and if you can get that point across it's much easier to frame an armed revolution in terms of self defense; After all the sweeping gun control laws in california came after the black panthers took advantage of open carry laws to patrol and defend their own neighborhoods. Violence isn't just physical exertion of force, often it is simply the implied threat of said state sanctioned violence that is used to perpetuate the capitalist mode of production and protect private property, and rarely is it ever employed to actually intervene on the behalf of actual crimes against individuals.
@@SneakyPotato1 I always like to propose the use of mutual aid networks. people act as wage slaves, willing to take any job that pays, just to keep their head above water, because they need that money to meet their basic needs. But if we can make agreements between working class people to help each other maintain our material conditions, then labor ceases to be compulsory. at this point, the threat of being let go is eliminated and unions gain significant bargaining power to remodel the workplace to be employee friendly. eventually, the employer can be eliminated entirely as he is no longer necessary.
similarly, but setting up networks that help homeless people squat, paying rent becomes no longer compulsory, a landlord cannot threaten you with homelessness, but merely the inconvenience of moving somewhere else.
so teach your homeless how to pick locks, unionize your workplace, dumpster dive from your local supermarket and cook a meal with the loot to share with your community.
I have the board game Class Struggle, gathering dust along with my other board games on account of nobody I know wants to play board games. So my memory might be faulty, but I think I remember those Tarot cards from that game. Which is cool, since nobody plays that game and people need to read those cards. I understand that the game is now a "collector's item" - meaning that its exchange value is much higher than its use value. Ironic.
This is so incredible!!! Keep up the amazing work Sarah, and let's all start a revolution!
this game is about the great Warlock Lenin.
*"In a country ruled by an autocracy, with a completely enslaved press, in a period of desperate political reaction in which even the tiniest outgrowth of political discontent and protest is persecuted, the theory of revolutionary Marxism suddenly forced its way into the censored literature before the government realised what had happened and the unwieldy army of censors and gendarmes discovered the new enemy and flung itself upon him.*
*Lenin, What Is To Be Done?, “Criticism in Russia” (1901)"*
I'm so glad I found your Work before we all burn to death in a little over a decade!
3:55 the difference is that pigs can do no wrong
Pigs are clever and fit. An escaped pig can survive in the wilderness just fine. More than you can say for the cowards in blue.
sarah this is so good thank you so much
yo this is totally unrelated except that I was watching the walking dead bit where you were like "where are the musicians? where are the poets?" and I remembered this book I really love called Station Eleven that goes back and forth in time, but mostly focuses on a post-apocalyptic future where a trope of actors and musicians travel through the remains of the midwest and perform to the scattered communities they come across. it's still honest when it comes to bad shit happening (there's a cult that's Bad News that acts as a sort of antagonist) but really it's super sweet because it's about the beauty and art of doing art and performance and being with a community of people you love and who love creating and FUCK man it's SUCH a good book and I wish more people knew about it
Fizzah A few people have reccomeded it here. Just downloaded it!
Those carvings made me come real close to tearing up. I had heard about art in the trenches.
But seeing an image of it. Yknow. It's beautiful.
It really shreds that idea that we are fundamentally barbaric.
To me the purpose of not always necessarily using words like "communism" or "socialism" isn't about euphemism, or trying to hide my true meaning behind coded words, but rather the opposite - trying to *explain* my true meaning by using non-jargon language and *avoiding* the negative and erroneous coding that's been infused into those words by the bourgeois head-fixing industry. That was especially necessary in my long-ago youth, when "communism = USSR" (and a cartoonish version of that) was the norm, because the USSR was still and seemingly permanently in operation. Yes I'm that old.
The beauty of this specific time is that those words are beginning to emerge from the bourgeois coding. Decades of having everything that smacks of basic human decency denigrated as "socialism" and "communism" have got a lot of people starting to like the sound of those words. The challenge now is to show how those words aren't just descriptions of basic human decency, but the vision of what a society *based on* those principles (as opposed to private profit and hierarchy) would look like.
*Pop* for the algorithm beast.
Keep it up, I needed this today, a nice shot of hope. I really love that line “they can shoot us all to death but they can’t shoot us back to work”
Thank you Sarah, colestia is an acquantaince of mine and I'm a big fan ( and inspired, i'm a gamedev myself) of his work
I'm really happy that you made a video about his game!!!!!!
The next communist manifesto may be a video game. Great discovery (both your channel and that video game).
The only problematic thing I saw was "barbarism" since that was what the term ancient Greeks used to dehumanize non Greek speakers to justify their atrocities, basically a very impactful ancient slur. So it kinda clashes with the message, but I certainly don't think that was intentional bc they seem cool, I'm v excited to play this game now thank u for this vid, I thought you were going to discuss how unless you blatantly outline your political education, people just think they don't need to act because they've been told society's already perfect/on its way but p much all the words/phrases used for clearly communicating utopic praxis have been demonized past any sort of logical debate. If anyone knows how to deal with that LMK
I put this in my Watch Later back in March. 6+ months of unemployment & a job change later I’m watching this on my lunch break with a mask on. Feels funny to return to lefty media analysis now that I’m back on the 9 to 5. I dunno, great video!
great video, the slyveon clip gave me life energy for an entire year. i hope you gave her a cute nickname.
As someone who's literal plan for life is leaving society, getting a bunch of friends together, all chipping in for an island and a bunch of tiny houses, and starting a commune, the end of this video actually made me cry
You're one of my favourite creators. This is a phenomenal piece
Both of your videos has given me the wonderful experience of enjoying someone's content for the effort, humor and information then finding out "Oh their politics are actually great?" and it's just SUCH a relief
"Where are the musicians, where are the poets, where are the comedians, where are the painters?"
Many survival/management sims exist, and most of them focus around gathering, agriculture, and a tech tree. There's no shortage of mechanics around those things. But most of the higher end of the maslow hierarchy of needs, if present at all, ends up being a single abstract bar that you need to fill. It might be interesting for more games to come out that revolve around those concepts, in more detail, that are still a simulation and don't just lean on a narrative for those sorts of things.
Far out this is good. I feel inspired by this game your talking about
Came back to this vid to say that I would have never known about this game if not for you and it was the most memorable and cherished game I played last year. Thank you!!!
Really great video Sarah ! It made me feel, it made me laugh, and it made me cry. Gave me a bit of much needed hope and maybe I need to reevaluate my cynicism because you're right. They want me to feel like I can't do it; that we can't do it but, I think we can. This video is an instant favorite of mine.
On the topic of witchcraft, magic, and vehicles for ideas (get ready for crazy person talk lmao): I disagree with the characterization of magic as "pulling something from nothing". Essentially all serious magic has its foundation in deep relationships with the environments and beings of this world and the Other, with the seen and unseen everywhere in our lives. Unless the person doing magic has their entire head up their ass, making magic produce desired, real outcomes necessitates that one have at least a little more continual involvement with the actual needs of the world around them than if they weren't doing magic. In that sense magic can be (and, imo, good magic is) simultaneously work and a vehicle for arriving at truths that serve as calls to action.
I don't think it's so much that magic IS something for nothing, I think the point is more that people who don't know anything about magic and are afraid of magic THINK that it's something for nothing. Because yes, I agree with you - anyone who wants to treat magic with any seriousness or respect learns very quickly that it's not something that comes without effort and consideration!
Magic is a tool for self empowerment. Learning to mess with base elements should be a thing that all humans can do.
I think it's something from nothing in the same sense that art is. You don't genuinely get something from nothing, since you have to have starting materials/knowledge, and you need to put in effort and time, but the end result is that now something exists (or something happened, could maybe argue if there's a difference) which previously didn't. Importantly, I think, is that it's hard (but not impossible) to tie it into a capitalist framework; I can simply make art if I want to, and I don't (necessarily) need to rent tools or have a boss extracting whatever profits I might make to do so. While not literally something from nothing, it's something from myself, which I think can just as frightening a concept to capitalist power structures.
Part of why software is so interesting to me, since I can really just make stuff, and I can practically conjure my own tools with which to do so. Not that it's anywhere near as easy as that makes it sound, but still, the freedom of creation in it.
I hate The Walking Dead series, but I absolutely love the TWD comic. It has literally the opposite message than the show (mild spoilers ahead).
Do you know when do the humans start to have a reasonable chance of surviving the zombies? When Rick and other people realize that if everyone stops being an egoist asshole and everyone works for the community instead everyone is better off. Rick's words, not mine.
Then we see a lot of people voluntarily choosing to save their neighbors' lives by sacrificing themselves in a heartbeat, and are remembered as heroes.
And they start to actively fight the egoist individuals, trying to reason with them if possible, and shooting them if not.
And they fight someone who tries to make himself a feudal lord, making all the "tough decisions" and therefore failing.
And then they make a commune of communes, where communities help each other and art and happiness is everywhere.
And then they fight literal social darwinists.
And then they contact an imploding capitalist society, and somehow manage to drive it to a more egalitarian way of doing things.
It's all subtext, but it is clear if you pay attention. Please read the cómic.
the quote "if the figure of discipline is the worker-prisoner, the figure of control is the debtor-addict" comes from Mark Fisher's book _Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?_
thanks for reminding me that hopefulness exist and I can feel it :)
and I appreciate the hot take on twd ;)
is that a CURIO CAMEO???
I love project Zomboid because it sorta kicks the shins of the power fantasy of the apocalypse. The zombies are slow, stupid, and weak. And you'll die anyway. You'll run out of food, you'll get sick, you'll fall off a roof, and you'll die. In multiplayer games, though, things are very different. Multiple people means a more even spread of skills, it means you're more able to gether resources, you can build, you can farm, you can guard each other. I have never seen a problem in PZ that could not be solved by five people who got along with each other. Trying to recreate traditional power structures is actively detrimental, and almost never happens organically. None of which this inherent to the game's mechanics, you don't get a magic buff or anything for being around other people, your life just gets easier.
"Talking Communist Cat" Hmmmmmm... Reminds me of a certain game who's name begins with "Night" and ends with "In the woods" All jokes aside have you heard of or played Night in the woods?
i played the game right after watching this video and i really enjoyed it! it's super cute and it also hit me right in my feelings at a couple points. thanks for sharing!!
Paid for the game and just gave it a try. Absolutely fantastic! Thanks for talking about it
Love this video - I'm slowly dropping my euphemisms over time and I'm glad to say people are receptive... there's a lot of propaganda to break through, but when faced with bare, untainted Communist ideas/principles I've found people largely receptive/understanding. Keep up the amazing work
If you are sick of the cynicism of the Walking Dead and are looking for a positive zombie story about the power of human connection, the webcomic Shoot Around is that.
It’s also super gay.
I loved this video! your analysis is always spot-on. thank you!
Thank you so much for this very enjoyable take! I might argue that we on the Left should be both honest AND persuasive, and that the problem is less about our honesty than about our inability to articulate why we want what we want and why everyone else should, too. Like, I don’t know anyone who is a socialist, communist or anarchist who pretends not to be (though some folks HAVE to be silent about it at work). I DO know a lot of Leftists, on the other hand, who never communicate with non-Leftists except in the form of protest. And protests are CRUCIAL, of course! But so is canvassing, getting to know people, and getting involved with their lives. I think you said it well when you described how kindness should be so much more than how it is defined by capitalism, and I think that we haven’t done a good enough job explaining why calling for a revolution is the path of care and concern for our fellow humans.
listen if we all do things like this they cant stop all of us
20:13 don't think you snuck that Oppa Toby Style past me
:o)
I hate to chop up you words but:
' I’ve advocated for a euphemistic leftism. I felt for a while that you have to be subtle and strategic with how you deploy your rhetoric. Maybe there’s some merit to that, but this strategy misses the fact that the establishment is already apposed to leftism, euphemistic or otherwise. You can’t beat the liars at their own game because they aren’t trying to tell the truth. It’s not enough to have the knowledge, you have to know how to spread it to other people so that they can use it for the same purpose, because you aren’t a saviour. You are at best a guide. The question I ask myself is will people really understand these tools and deploy them on their own if we are euphemistic about what we mean. We live in desperate times. Ours is a world that is slowly coming unraveled. It’s time for us to recognise that the game is rigged, the system is unjust, and that those in power will do nothing to change that- Unless we are bold, brazen, and unsubtle in what we mean to accomplish. I don’t know if we can do it, I don’t know if it’s possible. I want to believe that it is, and regardless, we have to try, and to try is to be bewitched by the dream of a revolution. '
I'm gonna print this bad boy out and stick it on my fridge. Fantastic video, I'll have to check out the game!
Real good.
I discovered this game too recently and loved it.
The time for subtlety has passed. The world isn't slowly coming unravelled, it's hurtling towards apocalypse.
I LOVE YOUR WORK SO MUCH SARAH. thank you for this. I've been feeling so hopeless lately and disillusioned with leftist shit but you've reminded me why I was drawn into the hope of revolution in the first place. This was beautiful. Thank you.
I highly recommend the Angie Speaks video on the politics of witchcraft
15:50 okay, thanks, I'm crying now
I had to research the trenches and warfare of the world wars for a poem, I literally put myself there like 2 weeks ago, too soon
Now THIS is some good goddamn propaganda! Thank you for this!
This is wonderful, I want to play this game.
Also, I’m a witch and I approve this message.
i really like this game, and this video. both together felt really hopeful and nice. kinda inspired me to do more art
Stumbled across this and LOVE IT. Thanks for an engaging and informative talk about what seems like a pretty fun game and some kick-ass praxis!
Speaking of praxis : ALGORITHM GO!
I finally watched this video and
holy shit
I felt so many chills throughout this video.
It's true, we're a very cynical generation but wow
this video sparks something and makes me want to read into history of capitalism (many countries are capitalistic though so they will most likely be favorable towards capitalism...)
Idk, this video makes me feel motivated
You should really watch the new season of The Walking Dead. It has a new showrunner and I think she might be a communist because season 9 goes so well with communist theory. The main theme of the season is evolution and a major running plot thread throughout the season is that all of the communities are trying to come together to put on a fair to promote unity and hope, but the natural threats of the world keep making things difficult and stirring up tension, showing how nature always throws us new threats and tests us but ultimately the best way for us to get through it is by working together, which they do end up doing and the season ends with all of the characters having a snowball fight. They also introduce a character who plays the violin and discusses exactly what you talk about here with the importance of art! I really think you would like it and that it might help you see the earlier seasons in a different light, as I’ve honestly always read the show as having these same ideas behind it, I just don’t think they were necessarily always well conveyed.
Small-scale, local anarcho-communism, here and now, short of a revolution, is crucial for - among other things - demonstration purposes. There's too much a sense that it is impossible, so anything to show what it would look like is a necessary answer. Beyond that, it can mean people get FED or sheltered or clothed; it can mean we have the satisfaction of DOING that; and it means testing and building that new world from here, rather than some far-off happy place after all resistance to communism is suddenly washed away.
See, what you see as an endorsement of communism in this game, I feel reads more like Anarchy.
I guess this comes down to the whole "left unity" argument, but I see a big difference between the two. Especially a world where community built structures are the focus, this really is more about Anarchism, than Communism.
Did you see Dan Olson's video about accidentally doing a colonialism in Minecraft? In it he asks why we haven't had a game similar Minecraft or Factorio or Satisfactory, but it's you reclaiming the environment from the ravages of industry. It seems that A Bewitching Revolution kinda might be that game?
i had precisely the same thought when i watched that video
Oh nice, found another new lefty channel! Subbed. Also Philosophy Tube and Ash Sarkar are good.
This is going to sound trivial and silly, but your video reminded me of it: I quit caffeine last year, and I feel like I've only now (re-)discovered myself. You see, caffeine, like capitalism, puts you into survival mode and hampers your ability to dream (by reducing the amount of REM sleep your experience-in fact, for a few weeks after I quit, I experienced what's known as "REM rebound" where I was suddenly having multiple vivid and memorable dreams per night where previously I couldn't remember dreaming much at all). It's also the only drug your employer is likely to supply you at work. I wonder why that is?
So anyway I belief caffeine is a tool of capitalism and coffee snob culture must be smashed along with our chains.
This reminds me of when my History professor was talking about the history of cigarettes, and how a big part of why they're addictive is that they're in small portions, easy to maintain, practical, etc. They're convenient, easy to access, and there's always another one waiting afterward. Tobacco had existed before cigarettes were invented, but addiction to them wasn't as rampant. (Unrelated but it was pretty cool having a history prof with a phd in drug history)
Immediately got me thinking of all the vending machines on campus that had coffees and energy drinks, how they're just all over the place, quick and easy to access, convenient. Caffeine is standing out as this generation's nicotine, with the convenient energy drinks and portioned coffees being this generation's cigarettes. Coffee has existed for a while, but it's only now that people are drinking so many energy drinks per day that they wind up needing pacemakers.
Unfortunately, caffeine being a stimulant, capitalism hopped on that, and stuff like 5 hour energy is touted as being the solution to the problems overwork creates; "just keep taking this and we can pretend that the real problem here is that not enough people are regularly popping caffeine." It's gone beyond habit and turned into a "fix" for another problem (a little similar to how cigarettes were advertised as relaxing/stress relief, interesting to note).
tl;dr The Problem Is Capitalism
Beautiful and inspiring! Thank you so much for making this!
Genuinely incredible work. Thank you so much.
Nice profile pic!
How dare you compare pigs to cops. That's an inult to pigs, lovely little creatures they are.
someone broke into my house and put that bit in the video. i would never defame a pig
it always annoys me how i can't give credits to the numerous homeless folks in Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Mankind Divided. So seeing you being able to give a homeless person a house in this game sounds oddly satisfying.
I had no idea how much I needed this video
15:25 oh god YESS, glad I'm not the only one feeling this way
Wait...
No...
I'm...
The first one here?
...
Can I say it?
I'm going to say it.
*F I R S T*
My interpretation of The Walking Dead is that it's about rejecting pessimism and not giving up on working with people to create a better world. Many of the deaths are purely out of unluckiness and aren't portrayed as the fault of the characters. A huge amount of the show directly focuses on how wrong Rick is at times, with him repeatedly stepping down from his authoritarian leadership, and how he should be more proactive in helping people (which is basically the entire thesis of Season 3). It actually ends up being quite optimistic, and pretty much everything from the second half of Season 5 onwards chronicles the group finally making a strong attempt to create a new civilization.
Also pretty much every cop in the show turns out to be a monster.
the most frustrating part about being a communist is knowing the power that each member of the working class holds but is oblivious to, or more accurate, oblivious to the power of when combined in solidarity
Then organize them
this video made me feel better. thanks :]
More good stuff, I want to be a witch
Larissa Thorn I’m the witchcraft fairy, poof you are now a witch. Go out and agitate!
Am studying witchcraft myself and can confidently say it's worth every second of study
Just found you on twitter and now I found a new great channel keep up the great work
I got stuck in the game, a prayer guides me to in front if the house you give to the homeless person, but nobody's there and I can't figure out what to do
) =
I planted all the trees, got rid of all the war propaganda, cameras, and anti-bird spikes
hey whats that song that ends at 2:37?
love you and your work so much
a monumental task stands before us. a better world is on the horizon. lets make it so
You can shoot down bird spikes to make room for owls who will warn you about the police. Just a neat thing I missed my first time through that is p helpful
Orders received, I'll double my production of communist animemes.
Great video! You’re getting better and better.
I don't know if it's used as much nowadays, but when the video got to talking about emotion and politics I couldn't help but remember the "bleeding heart liberal" pejorative. ('Liberal' of course is a broad term in conservative circles that can mean anything from left-leaning centrist to dye in the wool communist). I grew up when that particular insult was more common, and I guess it's stuck with me.
Just idea that someone could CARE so strongly for others people; that an intense empathy for the plight others was something to be scoffed at. To be weak enough to feel, or be foolish enough fall for the affectation of the poor. That amount of caring being naivete at best, socially reckless at worse. What an awful way to talk about hearts.
Thanks for a great video, a nice game recommendation, and the reminder to be a little more brave.
this has been a huge sticking point for me basically my entire life, and it's definitely coming up in a near-future video
the ussr clearly over-corrected on socialist realism by promoting it as the "official" art form; it's imo, one of their biggest mistakes. but like, there's something to be said about the power of socialist realism, cuz it's art that is unabashedly plain in what it means, what it has to say, and what it believes the future to be. like in a way Bewitching Revolution is kinda a 21st century socialist realist work? & i think we on the left should embrace a new era of socialist realism (again, ideally without throwing away all other art genres)
“The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible.” ~ Toni Cade Bambara
we definitely need more work like this and sorry to bother you, but yes, there also has to be a space for other kinds of art.
About what you said with post-apocalyptic fiction, read ShootAround, I think you'd enjoy it.
I love this and cannot wait to try this game. All I want to be is the local neighbourhood communist witch
Great video and great game. Now in my must play list.
i LOVED ur take on the walking dead
I've been thinking for a while now about demystification, on two fronts. Firstly I've been a Marxist (of some indeterminate flavour) for nearly 30 years now and I have a deeply ingrained habit of approaching political topics from oblique angles; always asking questions, trying to get people to examine the common assumptions that underpin capitalist logic but never explicitly discussing Marx or Communism. You only discuss the Big M with your anointed comrades, not with the unenlightened masses. This is a terrible habit to fall into because not only does it make you dishonest, but you can't actually live a communist life that way. I have seen so many Marxists (usually the academic ones who got paying jobs) become jaded bourgeois workers over the years. Not because they grew to like neoliberal society, but because they were living it honestly while living Marxism secretly. Now more than ever before is a time to live Marxism and speak Marxism.
Secondly, I am profoundly struck by the parallels between the current state of the world and the Reformation period in Europe. The force which guides peoples' lives, Neoliberalism, is mystified almost exactly as Christianity was under the Catholic church. People go through the forms and make the sacrifices without fully understanding why they're doing it because they have been denied the language. The priests give obtuse answers to questions such as "why do the rich get to buy their way into heaven while the poor languish in purgatory?" and insist that it is insufficient devotion on the part of the questioner that is to blame. People yearn once again to have the mystification of the world stripped away and to be given the opportunity to find their own meaning. And as with the printing press giving voice to that desire and creating an explosion of discussion and thought, I'm seeing now an increasing interest in the demystification of capitalism spreading across the internet. There is an upsurge of good, modern literature about today's problems the likes of which I've never before seen in my lifetime. There's a genuine movement growing.
So you keep doing you Sarah, keep speaking truth to power in your way. It matters.
Why would successful Marxists hide their identity?
Watching this I felt like wednesday Addams when they locked her in the happy cabin and made her watch little mermaid
I found this video through an unrelated discussion of apocalypse media where your section on the Walking Dead got thrown into the mix. I'll admit that I'm much more moderate than you in regards to any socialist/communist views you have (Namely that most truly "revolutionary" action in the name of completely collective ideology, as we've seen multiple times in history with the USSR and Modern China, mostly because violent revolution inherently requires someone to fill the power vacuum left by whatever system you got rid of and the people who do that tend to be demagogues who will swiftly put themselves in autocratic positions.)
Yet, I do find something interesting about seeing a piece of media so brazen in its ideas, and so willing to show the absolute extent of the ideal world created BY those ideas, even if I believe in some level of more moderate change.
I also don't really see Socialism as a Euphemism for Communism, as I always assumed that it was more of the hybridization and synthesis of capitalist and communist ideas. That at its best, a Socialist Society would be people working to mutually benefit themselves and others around them.
Heck. Yes.
the bit about art and expression during war, when tied to the earlier bit about walking dead, is so relevant to what is now happening here in India and I'm hoping in other spaces, that are working with covid19. the amount of content, made by artists, researchers of all kinds, designers, and journalists, seems hilariously unreal* compared to the bleakness of what is otherwise depicted.
*might be tied to surveillance capitalism and its machinery as well.
but cheers, stay safe and dream a lil more for us all!
I regret to say it, when I feel like by design, I should feel the opposite, but I feel more anxious after watching this video than before. I feel if I played the game, it'd be an even more potent experience of anxiety.
Nevertheless this is an important video with a lot of good ideas in it that I intend to remember. I feel I'm a better person for watching it, if nothing else to hear the word communist said so much. I'm not a communist, but people who are communists deserve a place in political discussion, and that place is harder to have when the word that communists use to identify their ideology has an association for most normies (like myself) as something mostly bad governments have identified themselves with.
I'm sure after enough exposure to it though that instant association will fade into a muddled pile of "this word could mean any number of good or bad things" that comes when I hear words like capitalism.
I just discovered you and I already love your content💖. I’m curious what your pronouns are? I don’t wanna call you by the wrong pronoun. 💖
she/they, thank you!!
Thank you so much for this video! I've been thinking about this a lot recently, particularly how, if we are serious about truly rooting out all of the capitalism that has percolated into the human psyche, we will have to start letting go of a lot of Enlightenment signifiers of masculinity. This kind of cold rationality and self-interest, unwavering even in the face of human suffering, might have served a purpose at some point but has been hijacked as a tool for capitalism's perpetuation. Things like care, support, emotional connection, communication, empathy, imagination, all the things that are considered weak, are going to have to lead the revolution. I'm not saying they are our only tools in the arsenal, but they are going to have to LEAD. Because we have to make a choice about who we are and what kind of a world we want to build.
I think the most blatant and horrific example of this kind of "rationality" being employed to defend capitalism is when Destiny straight up used American war crimes and genocide in Vietnam as a JUSTIFICATION for why capitalism is a "better" (read: more violent) economic system. Expressing the idea that war crimes are bad and that there is inherent worth to human life would have been considered "weak", "irrational", and "not pragmatic" (a century ago, maybe "hysterical"...?). So Luna was left in the awkward position of having to convince someone that an economic system that murders millions of people globally for no reason is bad without being able to appeal to the immorality of said murders.
This is why RUclipsrs like Vaush and Destiny (he's a pig we've found out now) worry me because I wonder if they're taking the affect of the reactionary 4chan troll too seriously. Vaush has even explicitly stated that he tries to put on the persona of someone who reactionaries can respect/take seriously, i.e. put on the masculine affect that peddles in "hard facts" and "appeals to reason". On the one hand, I get it from a strategic perspective, but we need to be very careful that we don't fall for our own act and start assigning inherent value and worth to perspectives which are expressed from such a stance.
PS from a theory perspective I believe this involves us taking theorists like Foucault just as seriously as Chomsky, but that is another discussion lol