![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
podcast friday
Dec. 8th, 2023 07:26 am Life continues to be difficult, and a thing for me that relieves stress is to listen to someone give opinions that I'm almost certain to agree with on a topic of very little consequence. So I will share one of those! And then I will stealth-recommend a YouTube video or two that isn't really related but I liked it.
It Could Happen Here's "Occupy Gotham" is an analysis of Nolanverse Batman, particularly The Dark Knight Rises, featuring Gare and Mia. Obviously they both think the same thing about that series as I do and the links between the film and the Occupy movement have been discussed at great length, but look. A lot of us are having a bad time and it is fun to rag on the politics of Hollywood reactionaries whose aesthetic for "scary protest" has at least shifted from the hippies to Occupy (see also Joker, which did a bad job of it too despite the competence of the film otherwise).
They draw a lot from David Graeber's excellent article, "Super Position," which you've probably read if this kind of thing is your jam but maybe not. But they also riff off it, which is fun, and share a lot of right-wing bad takes, which I/you wouldn't have heard unless you spend time in conspiracy or far-right circles. That material was new to me, and includes an interesting theory about the distinction between mainstream conservative and fascist ideologies.
SPEAKING OF "they draw a lot from," this is a good example of how, when you are creating a high volume of content and quoting a lot from a source, you can in fact easily cite it. Gare and Mia make it clear what's a quote and what's not, and when an idea they're presenting is either similar to what Graeber said or is drawn from his work. It's very easy to understand what is their opinion and what is coming from someone else.
Which makes James Somerton's blatant plagiarism even more damning, because it would have been easier for him to do this than the thing he did. So if you haven't watched it yet and have four hours to kill, I swear that Hbomberguy's "Plagiarism and You(Tube)" is absolutely worth watching. Somerton managed to piss me off with both his misogynistic asides and his claim that the Emcee in Cabaret is a Nazi (wat???) and so this epic takedown of his entire body of work is pure catharsis. He barely touches on the issue that the only original stuff in those videos appears to be absolute nonsense that Somerton made up himself (like the Cabaret thing) so if by the end of those four hours you are still thirsting for more YouTube drama, you can check out Todd In the Shadows "I Fact-Checked the Worst Video Essayist on YouTube". This is absolute petty drama and I am here for it (except both point out why it is actually important) but if it makes you feel better, the subscribers to every queer creator Hbomberguy cited have shot up in response to his video.
It Could Happen Here's "Occupy Gotham" is an analysis of Nolanverse Batman, particularly The Dark Knight Rises, featuring Gare and Mia. Obviously they both think the same thing about that series as I do and the links between the film and the Occupy movement have been discussed at great length, but look. A lot of us are having a bad time and it is fun to rag on the politics of Hollywood reactionaries whose aesthetic for "scary protest" has at least shifted from the hippies to Occupy (see also Joker, which did a bad job of it too despite the competence of the film otherwise).
They draw a lot from David Graeber's excellent article, "Super Position," which you've probably read if this kind of thing is your jam but maybe not. But they also riff off it, which is fun, and share a lot of right-wing bad takes, which I/you wouldn't have heard unless you spend time in conspiracy or far-right circles. That material was new to me, and includes an interesting theory about the distinction between mainstream conservative and fascist ideologies.
SPEAKING OF "they draw a lot from," this is a good example of how, when you are creating a high volume of content and quoting a lot from a source, you can in fact easily cite it. Gare and Mia make it clear what's a quote and what's not, and when an idea they're presenting is either similar to what Graeber said or is drawn from his work. It's very easy to understand what is their opinion and what is coming from someone else.
Which makes James Somerton's blatant plagiarism even more damning, because it would have been easier for him to do this than the thing he did. So if you haven't watched it yet and have four hours to kill, I swear that Hbomberguy's "Plagiarism and You(Tube)" is absolutely worth watching. Somerton managed to piss me off with both his misogynistic asides and his claim that the Emcee in Cabaret is a Nazi (wat???) and so this epic takedown of his entire body of work is pure catharsis. He barely touches on the issue that the only original stuff in those videos appears to be absolute nonsense that Somerton made up himself (like the Cabaret thing) so if by the end of those four hours you are still thirsting for more YouTube drama, you can check out Todd In the Shadows "I Fact-Checked the Worst Video Essayist on YouTube". This is absolute petty drama and I am here for it (except both point out why it is actually important) but if it makes you feel better, the subscribers to every queer creator Hbomberguy cited have shot up in response to his video.
