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Thank You + The Future
🕑 Added 2025-05-12 18:50:41 +0000 UTCTo my dear Patrons old and new, thank you for the messages of support I've received in the past week. Among the many messages telling me to kill myself, I've read all of your really kind comments about the most recent work. It's been a much needed reprieve.
Regarding the video, I keep wondering to myself: if I had the choice, would I do it all over again? And the answer is yes. As a professional Content Creator, you're often faced with the question of "how can I make this popular topic interesting?" You are trying to create a need where there wasn't one before. But then there are projects where you know there is a need, where you know something needs to be said, and you know that you're one of the few people willing to say it. Would I say what I have said differently given the chance? Yes, certainly. I've received a lot of good critiques that I take to heart. But I'm glad that I've made my commitments clear and opened a space for discussion on this topic.
In the past few weeks or so I've seen multiple creators post different "takes" on generative AI. But since these takes weren't 100% critical disavowals of AI, these creators faced a waves of backlash anyways. I think there is a real fear here between creators and audience. Actually, I know there is because I've spoken to many creators behind the scenes who have spoken to me about their hesitation in putting out work on genAI.
Ruminations
I'm never going to put out a "Why I Left the Left" video, endorse a cryptocurrency, or take money from Big Tech. I will never not advocate for [REDACTED] against the technofascists. If I ever go back on any of this, you have my permission to kill me. Yet I have been accused of doing or eventually doing all of these things. But my fidelity is neither to man nor machine, but to the Communist Hypothesis. As Alain Badiou writes:
"What is the communist hypothesis? In its generic sense, given in its canonic Manifesto, “communist” means, first, that the logic of class—the fundamental subordination of labour to a dominant class, the arrangement that has persisted since Antiquity—is not inevitable; it can be overcome. The communist hypothesis is that a different collective organization is practicable, one that will eliminate the inequality of wealth and even the division of labour. The private appropriation of massive fortunes and their transmission by inheritance will disappear. The existence of a coercive state, separate from civil society, will no longer appear a necessity: a long process of reorganization based on a free association of producers will see it withering away."
The Communist Hypothesis is not beautiful, it is not comfortable, it is not easy. It requires a rethinking of the forms of thinkable life. A complete destruction of the old forms of Man and God. It is a commitment to something completely unknowable. The Artificial and the Natural are some of the forms of thinkable life that need to die. These ideas create boundaries between human/nonhuman, it allows compartmentalization of our deepest attachments into humanist categories that reify subordination, and it is a part of a regime that I think needs to be completely subverted. I highly recommend you all read the Xenofeminist Manifesto. It is free and short:
"XF seizes alienation as an impetus to generate new worlds. We are all alienated – but have we ever been otherwise? It is through, and not despite, our alienated condition that we can free ourselves from the muck of immediacy. Freedom is not a given–and it’s certainly not given by anything ‘natural’. The construction of freedom involves not less but more alienation; alienation is the labour of freedom’s construction. Nothing should be accepted as fixed, permanent, or ‘given’–neither material conditions nor social forms. XF mutates, navigates and probes every horizon. Anyone who’s been deemed ‘unnatural’ in the face of reigning biological norms, anyone who’s experienced injustices wrought in the name of natural order, will realize that the glorification of ‘nature’ has nothing to offer us–the queer and trans among us, the differently-abled, as well as those who have suffered discrimination due to pregnancy or duties connected to child-rearing. XF is vehemently anti-naturalist. Essentialist naturalism reeks of theology–the sooner it is exorcised, the better."
A question for you
To my patrons old and new, I am at a turning point in my Content Creator career. I'm not sure if I can continue to give 6+ months to a single project. So I wonder, how would you feel about more frequent uploads of shorter (20-40 minutes) videos, at the same level of substance, and a similar level of production value? I fear that attempting to give "the definitive take" on a topic four times a year is draining my soul, especially if the returns in terms of being able to support myself just aren't there. I'm also trying to move away from sponsorships, and hopefully a more frequent schedule will help supplement my income, and give the Patreon some momentum,
And if so, what topics pique your interest? more discussions on technology? online microcultures? gender and queerness (though this will always be an element in my videos)? communism? media analysis? what do you miss? what do you think should be on the horizon? I have my own ideas, but I'd like to hear yours.
We will return to Town Halls and Peer Review, shortly! I'm almost done with the next part of the video, and will be able to get my life in order soon.
"We know that communism is the right hypothesis. All those who abandon this hypothesis immediately resign themselves to the market economy, to parliamentary democracy - the form of state suited to capitalism - and to the inevitable and "natural" character of the most monstrous inequalities." Alain Badiou
Comments
Madellyn S
I've been following you for a while but only recently joined Patreon. After the two recent videos on AI I couldn't help it. It was strange seeing what felt like a mirror of my own feelings laid bare and explored in such thought and depth. It's helped me articulate my own feelings and concerns better to others, so thank you for those videos in particular but every video of yours I've watched has been very insightful and appreciated.
Plato in the Rave
I decided to support you because a lot of your work is important to me. When you talked about the necessity of seeking politics that are popular, or dissected diagnosis and identity as it relates to autism, or discussed the ways in which AI as a tool need be understood and reclaimed, these were not just entertainment or satisfaction of my existing political attitudes. Each work is interested in what our relationship with the topic really is, and how it can meaningfully be applied. I consider things I have not considered before and frequently find myself referencing them in discussion with my communist friends. This is to say that I appreciate your work very much and I have no doubt smaller pieces would still be just as thoughtful.
