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Poll for the next video
🕑 Added 2018-09-28 00:05:25 +0000 UTC Time to decide what the channel's next video will be, here are the options:- I would talk about The Emoji Movie as an example of what The Frankfurt School's Adorno and Horkheimer called the culture industry - when culture becomes commodified, standardized, mass-produced and used to keep people in passivity. Even though Adorno’s work on the culture industry is decades old, it still pretty well applies to The Emoji Movie. It’s a good example both because of the ubiquitous product placement and its plot structure. You won’t have to have seen The Emoji Movie to follow the video, of course. Wisecrack had already talked about The Emoji Movie using Horkheimer but they did it in terms of instrumental rationality, which is not the angle I’ll be approaching it from.
- (Kinda want to passive-aggressively title this "stop using 'postmodernism' when you mean 'leftist identity politics') One thing you notice about people like Jordan Peterson and Stephen Hicks and their fans, is that they use “postmodernism” almost interchangeably with “identity politics”. Stephen Hicks lists non-postmodern feminists like Dworkin and MacKinnon among postmodernists. In a lecture, Peterson even portrayed Foucault as believing that individuals do not exist outside of group identities. This is completely false, as Foucault was suspicious of identity politics - he saw it as a potential tool, but what he wanted was a politics that would allow one to create new identities, and foster self-expression, rather than alliance to already established identities, believing that such identities might restrict our “unique selves". Judith Butler, a much-misrepresented postmodern feminist, has also explicitly critiqued identity politics as they are often essentialist in nature. Traces of similar sentiments are present in Deleuze. I would talk about the way these philosophers are misrepresented in this regard, and explain some of their views on identity politics.
- I'd talk about the philosophy of the 1st season of the TV show True Detective, which is philosophical pessimism, explicitly talked about by one of the show's main characters Rust Cohle. I'd talk about Thomas Ligotti's philosophical influence on Rust's character, but also about the philosophical influences of Ligotti himself, such as Zapffe and Cioran. I'd explain some philosophical themes mentioned in the show, such as the depreciation and denial of life, pessimism as a worldview and antinatalism. You wouldn't need to have watched the show to understand the video, but I imagine this would be of interest mostly to fans of the show.
Thanks, everyone!
Comments
Voted for True Detective cuz this keeps coming up on your polls and you gotta make it sometime
Simpler name please
Although I like the other two, I chose the middle one because I remember being my curiosity satisfied from watching Wisecrack (or some other channel) videos on Emoji Movie and True Detective.
I love the idea for the Emoji Movie one, but in all the previous polls, and this one, #2 always seems the more "important" video to make. Still hope you get to do the Emoji Movie video at some point.
Cuck Philosophy
That's understandable, but the equation of postmodernism with identity politics, although exemplified by Peterson, is EVERYWHERE. I see it all the time in YouTube circles, people like Sargon as well. It might not be interesting to people already familiar with postmodernism, but I do think it's important to debunk such widespread misrepresentations. Additionally, I think it would have positive value as well because I would explain some postmodern views. That being said, I don't think I'll talk about Peterson on the channel again after this. (Hopefully he'll stop being relevant)
Pavel A
Sometimes misinformation, particularly popular misinformation, must be addressed as a general public service.
Alex Wennberg
My current university course on the traditions of critical theory has opened my eyes up to Adorno, and as I've taken quite a liking to him I'd love to see that Emoji Movie essay. But I can completely see why PoMo != IdPol would be amazingly interesting and important as well, so if I could split my vote between the two...
I would prefer Emoji Movie but I think the world needs #2.
I still resent you spending more time addressing Jordan Peterson's willful ignorance and misrepresentation of post-modernism. Correcting Peterson's misgivings distinctly feels to me like tilting at windmills however it appears I am outnumbered by those who view this as a worthwhile and legitimate fight. While Peterson's fame possibly justifies such a dressing-down of his views, I would rather I learned something new from your excellent content.
Yàvin Arba
I think Deleuze's concept of BECOMING defuses the tension between both sides and will probably be a better way to tackle that imho...
musou
i had to vote for one but i'd love to watch any of these.
Cuck Philosophy
I actually hadn't made that connection myself, and although I don't think I will explore the topic from the angle ContraPoints was tackling, postmodern views on identity politics are really related to her video, that's a good point
Cuck Philosophy
That makes sense, although The Emoji Movie kind of had become a common cultural phenomenon just through the united disgust everyone had for it, whether they watched it or not
Pavel A
Will always vote for Emoji movie... but PoMo/Identity Politics has an interesting angle after Contrapoints' Aesthetics video. Specifically the part where Foucault was suspicious of identity politics in favour of the creation of new identities. The connection for me is that Natalie shows the classic tension/contradiction between internal psychologically-constructed identities and external socially-constructed identities... and the difficulty of constructing a gender identity in a hostile social context. But then again, your video may have nothing to do with these questions, really.
Not to knock Emoji Movie analysis at all, but I feel like part of the appeal of Shrek analysis involved it being so universal/accessible, and was something that one could share with others who were less theory-inclined (as one could at least be certain that they were familiar with the signifiers involved). I feel that the Emoji Movie was much less watched/lauded than Shrek, and in turn has less socially common surface area in which to dig your hooks.
Cuck Philosophy
I'd love to do that one! I had assumed people would be more interested in it as so many people wanted more videos like the Marxist analysis of Shrek. Oh well, either way I'll keep it on the polls until it gets picked.
Arben
I will keep voting for Emoji Movie every goddamn time. I like all your work (or else I wouldn't be here), but to me where you've really shined is in the analysis of topics that other people wouldn't (think to) analyze seriously, and I want to see more of that.
