It's good. Also it isn't really about the subject matter and is genuinely some smart shit. Edit: posted half way through when I just thought this was good, for an update its REALLY good
Everybody is all "I hate video essays" but what they hate is shitty video essays
I remember seeing one of this fellow's earlier works. It really annoyed me how badly he misrepresented basic Marxism.
Edit: Holy shit, the pontificating. I'm only a few minutes in and this asshole does this for 2 and a half hours?!
Fuck, it's just getting worse. This person's sense of humor is worse than that of a Netflix comedian
"DAE Marx is a white westerner?" fuck you for showing me this stupid video. This is such a compatible-left asshole.
The only useful thing in this ridiculously long jeremiad of ennui is the term "post-politics". The rest of it is an utter waste of time if you aren't a baby leftist, and what little good some parts of it serve for baby leftists is wildly offset by its incoherent attacks on Marxism and populism. I should have listened to my gut reaction (see the original line of this comment) and skipped it.
I totally agree with you; I watched this yesterday just after it released because I tend to enjoy Alexander's videos though I have issues with most of them, and I came away from this very unhappy and have since unsubbed and made the algorithm stop recommending their stuff. Like, I don't wanna be the guy to be like "Oh, you forgot to discuss X!" when X is only tangentially related and the post/video is already hours long, but holy fucking shit, there is almost zero discussion of anything outside of America in this video, which is a massively critical aspect of how liberalism and capitalism functions (i.e. imperialism). I'm not sure how you could talk about Alexander Hamilton without discussing his contribution to the creation of financial institutions which are now oppressing billions and destroying the planet. Nothing at all about the contradiction between Hamilton's protectionism and the propaganda that America has been a champion of free markets for its entire existence?
This is the most well-articulated video exploring the "Western leftist" position I've ever seen, and it's very ugly because of that. Marx isn't dismissed per se, but he does the whole "Marx didn't consider X" by stating that class conflict isn't the only conflict in world history - which Marxist feminists and many others have already explored in great depth! It reads like he received this viewpoint from a Marx-sympathetic university course that nonetheless could not fully endorse Marxism for fear of people complaining that they're turning people into commies; countervailing and ultimately useless ideological frameworks are therefore forced in to provide "balance", like teaching that antibiotics and magical crystals could help treat the sick, and we have to keep an open mind! The tacit assumption is that Marxism is a dead-end ideology with many good ideas, instead of like, the guiding ideological framework of many if not most communist parties and communist states around the world (and most particularly the non-white world!) The unironic acceptance (though not endorsement) that liberalism stood victorious over the "totalitarian" ideologies of fascism and communism is incoherent in the current environment where a communist China is ascending past the United States. If he made this video in 2010, I'd understand; but this laziness no longer slides in 2024. Despite - and maybe even because of - the milquetoast calls to action and logging off that he does at the end, it leaves the viewer more muddled and confused than when they began. This isn't always a bad thing, so long as it is part of a grander project to then elucidate the way forward after having dismantled previous conceptions of where society should be headed. This is not that. This is somebody upset at liberalism but so drenched in capitalist realism that they are unable to shift away from it to genuinely revolutionary internationalist thinking, and so they end up doing liberalism again but from a different perspective.
The end of the video is where I was forced to give up on him as a video essayist. I'm not sure if it's the massive success of his youtube channel making him no longer connect as much with those in poverty (both inside and outside America); his university education in sociology (I think?) turning him into a PMC, or perhaps his background in some way. But saying that half the people telling you not to vote for Kamala are Russian bots is just peak radlib Tumblr/Reddit, and is disconnected from reality. The deaths of hundreds of thousands/millions of Palestinians, Yemenis, Iraqis, Syrians, Libyans, Vietnamese, Koreans, Cambodians, Filipinos, and many others is insufficient to move even the most "radical" of western leftists into working towards the dissolution of American fascist empire. They are the Nazi Germans who refused to fight against Hitler. They are hiding behind their media and will blame it, Nuremburg-style, when the forces of reaction are defeated and anti-imperialism triumphs. Their children and grandchildren will suffer under their weight of their parents and grandparent's unwillingness to fight the status quo, questioning why they voted for a genocidal empress instead of working to dismantle the death machine. This video convinced me - they are not brainwashed, they know full-well what they are doing, and I can only hope that the oppressed peoples of the world grant them more forgiveness than they deserve.
From Gramsci:
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It reads like he received this viewpoint from a Marx-sympathetic university course that nonetheless could not fully endorse Marxism for fear of people complaining that they're turning people into commies
For sure. Marxism in social science 101 is viewed as this esoteric hyper-specific framework that is only about class, and besides, class isn't real anyways because middle-class! 101 likes to focus on Marx as if no-one has ever continued his work. Alex seems to know that, since he references Angela Davis and black marxism. Though Angela Davis did support Harris when she became VP, so I guess maybe its just the radicalized nature of modern US marxism.
But saying that half the people telling you not to vote for Kamala are Russian bots is just peak radlib Tumblr/Reddit, and is disconnected from reality.
I had the same feelings about it. I feel like he is only interested in the abstract/philosophical aspects of liberalism and marxism (ideologies in general maybe), without actually applying analysis to current material conditions. His brief comment that Reps and Dems are both liberals is completely neglected in the end section.
I feel like he is only interested in the abstract/philosophical aspects of liberalism and marxism (ideologies in general maybe), without actually applying analysis to current material conditions.
He would be a hundred times better if this were true, but he doesn't even investigate Marxism very closely at all. I think he just pontificate on post-structuralism.
Look, it's the first video I saw by them and fell asleep in the second half.
No worries, his other videos are fairly good and if you have free time then I'd recommend giving a few of their videos a spin, I just think this one sucks. It starts strong but then fails to create a big hammer-blow critique of liberalism and how it's been an ideology for justifying slavery and imperialism and genocide around the world to this day and we must break free of the two-party system, and instead he heads into philosophical ennui
Was gonna say, I was kinda vibing on this at first but like 45 minutes in they just kept repeating the same 2 or 3 baby leftist talking points and didn't make any interesting or original elaborations on it. Increasingly I was suspecting them of going Lib so I'm not surprised they said "Russian Bots" at the end of it all.
The existence of Hamilton is such a weird point in the history of American liberalism.
Don't see what that has to do with the video but I also don't really understand not wanting tacos
They get tacos in like the first 10 minutes and they look really good
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This was the video I commented about. I really like the video and Alex's channel in general, but I agree with GarbageShoot that the video has issues representing Marxism (that I also notice from other breadtube creators). What really solidified this thought for me was when in the end of the video he said that people who are against voting are russian bots in a serious context.
What a way with words, even the video is super smart you make it sound like the dumbest thing ever.
Is this something I can play vidya to? Or is it worth paying complete attention to?
It's mostly an audio experience. There is effort put in visually thet is worth noting but it's not essential. To anyone who misses Matt Christman, this is pretty close
I found a YouTube link in your post. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
