Breaking Bad Video Essay: Self Acceptance Isn't Enough. Guilt is Good (Jesse Pinkman)

[@evanmil0minefly]

The sad reality of Jesse is that it reflects alot of young teens or adults that are genuinely kind hearted but because of circumstances fall into that kind of life, like Mike says it there are bad cops and good criminals, bad priest and honorable robbers. Jesse is a reminder not only accept what u did but repent and strive to do better, improve ur self into a better person. Great video analysis

[@zeitgeist5134]

Your focus on the therapist's advocacy of self-acceptance is a welcome addition to the analyses of BB. One initially buys into the therapist's advice on account of one's deep compassion for Jesse. Jesse's rejection of that advice is a wake-up call inviting us to engage in critical thinking. The writers of BB have done brilliant work. They give us a nuanced, complex, uncomfortable examination of morality. BB is the Shakespeare of our time.

[@DrUpauli]

I agree. Although I'd say he feels more like a dostoyevsky tonally

[@zeitgeist5134]

@@DrUpauli Ah! Yes. Tortured souls, some deluding themselves, some unable to delude themselves...and all trapped by their circumstances and foolish decisions? No doubt you would have a far more erudite distillation of Mr. D's work (and the comparison). I suppose that I was thinking of BB as a work of theater...ergo, Shakespeare. I do believe that university students will be writing theses about BB 200 years from now (if the intellectual depth of videos of analysis like yours is any indication). That is, if any students still study literature. ;-)

[@CrispySenpai]

@@DrUpauli all I kept thinking about throughout the course of this video was exactly dostoevsky. Mad respect, D is my favorite author and best author of all time.

[@andreat6882]

you can feel guilt and still accept yourself at the same time. yes you can feel bad about something you have done, but all you can do is learn from that situation and do better. there is no reason to ruminate on a mistake youve made. we are all human and everyone should have self acceptance AND be able to improve yourself.

[@ВарвараПикулева-к2и]

This!

[@CrispySenpai]

No you can’t. To accept something is to not change it. You’re either okay with something or you’re not. You can be okay with yourself, or you can not be okay with yourself. Of course there can be aspects of yourself you accept, but there should be aspects of yourself you do not accept, and these come with guilt, and guilt leads us to improvement. Without guilt there would be no improvement and we would all be childish selfish people

[@andreat6882]

@@CrispySenpai hi! you misunderstood my comment. acceptance does not mean being okay with something. acceptance is neutral. acceptance has nothing to do with applying a positive or negative value.m to that thing. acceptance means acknowledging something and not judging yourself for it. for example, you can acknowledge that you need to lose weight in order to more properly take care of your health but not judge yourself for your situation at the same time. guilt and shame only motivate us to do things out of hate for ourselves, and often times only makes you feel worse in the end. if your only motivator is shame or hate for yourself, not only will you suffer mentally in the process, but you will most likely not reach your goal. if you learn how to value and prioritize yourself as a human being with worth, you will find that its easier to do the work done needed to take care of yourself and those around you.

[@CrispySenpai]

@@andreat6882 I don’t think it’s bad to judge ourselves; sometimes we really fuck up and a good judge would call us guilty for it, and our human nature desires to be punished for it. But I think the heart of your comment and response is shame. The video does a great job of separating guilt and shame, and I agree that we shouldn’t just live in constant shame. But guilt does drive people to become better, and that is a good thing.

[@andreat6882]

@@CrispySenpai i think accountability and acknowledging the things you have done wrong are important, but the response you should have is to try to correct the damage youve caused and work to make sure you dont cause the damage again. there is no point in feeling guilt OR shame. guilt shows that you are remorseful for your actions, and i think being aware that you have caused harm is of course a good thing, but there is no point in dwelling on that or what youve done. all you can do is move forward, try to make things better, and not do it again

[@jakefromstatefarm6969]

Self acceptance has been helpful for me, and although its somewhat different than what the group leaders idea of it is, its still somewhat based on it. Self acceptance doesnt mean you just say that everything you did was good and move on. Its about facing and taking accountability for the bad things you did in the past, but also its choosing that those things wont define you, and that they dont have to be the things you do in the future. The 'accept' part of it is about coming to terms with your past and looking at it truthfully, instead of ignoring or sugarcoating it. I think the big issue with it is that self acceptance is just one step of the process, it has to be followed by action in pursuit of improvement. It also works best when the person youve harmed the most is yourself, so the message didnt work as well for jesse.

[@artekal3d]

I was about to write something similar to this. Well written! When I watched Breaking Bad for the first time and saw the way Jesse misunderstood self-acceptance and "accepted" that he's the bad guy, i cringed a bit (which tbh is his wrong judgement in the first place, because if he was the bad guy, he wouldn't have been affected so much because of Jane's death which is indirectly caused by him according to him). Self acceptance is always the first part of getting out of that...guilt. Yes, guilt is exactly why you're looking to get better in the first place. If you weren't feeling guilty, you wouldn't even be needing any group therapy or something. The thing is, that guilt, whether it be of not trying hard enough for your goals, or killing someone, or abandoning someone, stops you from doing anything at all. Mentally paralyzed. People get into drugs and alcohol and shit to get the easy way out to cope (which Jesse did several times). Self acceptance is for letting go of all that past by just accepting and acknowledging you've done all of that. Kinda forgiving yourself. Not in a way that "ohh, that's nothing, shit happens", but "i have done terrible things, and i may or may not do it in the future, but i'm going to try my best to improve." Societal judgement may work sometimes and don't get me wrong, it is necessary a lot of times, but it makes things worse a lot of times. Making the person feel like that one mistake he did is permanently stuck with him and he may never get out of it, so why would he bother improving? (which i think BCS showed with Jimmy). Societal judgement is primarily was for the safety of the tribes in the past, but in modern times it gets exaggerated a lot especially when it doesn't hold true as much as it used to. Ultimately, self acceptance is for yourself just like you said, for other's sake you should have strong values (like, not killing someone, not intentionally hurting someone, etc)

[@JW-ri9oy]

This was amazing work man. I thought of a scene in Better Call Saul when Gus says “It makes up for nothing; I am what I am.” That’s the sort of harmful self-acceptance discussed in this video, on display again in the creators’ second series!

[@CrispySenpai]

I’ve watched many BB analysis videos, but this video might capture what makes it the best show of all time. We live in a very selfish and self accepting world, where everyone tries to pretend like there is not “good and evil”, but our subconscious minds scream against this, and that is illustrated best in breaking bad. “Virtue doesn’t make sense in a world of survival of the fittest, and the consequence of virtue is suffering.” Maybe this is why Dostoevsky tells us in the brothers Karamazov to “seek happiness in sorrow” through the great Zosima.

[@DrUpauli]

Thank you for the high praise! I'm glad you enjoyed it, I was pretty proud of this video

[@jonm.678]

Surprised this doesn’t have more views. This was a very nuanced take- great video

[@DrUpauli]

Thank you!

[@KN-hg2nv]

We need more people who think like you. subscribed.

[@DrUpauli]

Thank you!

[@franciscadri3090]

i can't believe this has 2000 views, it's incredible! i love ur insight and i think it goes as far as making me and possibly others introspect about our own lives and how we deal with guiltand shame. i definitely took your ideas to heart :)

[@DrUpauli]

Thank you! You can help change the low view count you know, share it everywhere you can and think will be useful!

[@tesladavinci]

All of these Breaking Bad analysis videos are great!

[@DrUpauli]

Thank you!

[@Southern19]

Great video. I really loved the distinction made between guilt and shame

[@DrUpauli]

Thank you!

[@NYQINA]

Insanely thought provoking, and awesome perspective that you brought to the table! Awsome analysis man!

[@DrUpauli]

Thank you!

[@OrigenalDarkMew]

"It's never what you've done, it's what you've done lately." -A Day To Remember

[@Dad8od]

Great video! Flies in the face of everyone"speaking their own truth."

[@adrian_veidt]

The interesting thing is Guilt and acceptance are not enough. Aaron paul's character in Bojack Horseman said it, "You can't keep doing this. You can't keep doing shitty things and feel bad about yourself like that makes it okay. You need to be better!"

[@unhelpful-harry]

Loved the vid man. I feel strongly that negative emotions have their place, so I enjoy hearing people who agree talking about why. It's essentially the same for me -- I think avoidance of negative emotions keeps people morally stunted. I've had my share of shit from people 'with issues' and I'm starting to feel like 'issues' are a pretty flat excuse. Everybody has scars and weaknesses, and plenty choose to be good. Guilt is a form of atonement, and I think it's signficant that Jesse's suffering causes viewers to become sympathetic again. We understand instinctively that suffering absolves, and guilt is a form of it. As much as I love being positive and building people up, sometimes people deserve to feel bad about what they've done.

[@DrUpauli]

Thank you! I love your perspective

[@KatoBeyond]

Great video, right as I finished my Breaking Bad rewatch

[@DrUpauli]

Thank you!

[@DraculaCronqvist]

I would not go so far as saying that guilt is always good - because some people absolutely engage in performative guilt. They feel guilty for what they do, but have no desire to change because what they do still feels too good to stop. So they feel guilty, so they can tell themselves how they are really a better person, despite not making an effort to be better. Saul Goodman is a perfect example of this.

[@Z-Man125]

Very good insightful video. Funnily enough I found your channell by accident because of your video for the dumbbell anime after doing a little "research"

[@DrUpauli]

Lol. Glad you enjoyed it

[@bottleargon]

dude i laughed so hard when i switched tabs back and all fo the sudden its a big black dude flexing lol. btw gains looking good keep on it.

[@chrisgarcia6413]

Step 1 for change is acceptance

[@CrispySenpai]

Accept what you did was wrong. We can’t change behavior if we don’t recognize/accept that our behavior was wrong in the first place.

[@vinsmokedsanji9962]

Great video as always.

[@isac8475]

underated video

[@DrUpauli]

Thank you! Please share 🙏

[@audreyf.7806]

The abs comercial is crazy

[@DrUpauli]

Subscribe! 😁 youtube.com/@UpauliAthletics?si=vAXLxZoEK79DDdX7

[@SteelSquishy]

Nice subtle flex

[@irishperhaps]

Absolutely amazing. Bravo.

[@henrywallacesghost5883]

Alot of times the hardest person to forgive is yourself. It's easier to forgive others because you feel you have the right to grant it.

[@ps-xj8zn]

Guilt is probably good for you in the long run, i agree. But that mistake u made can still never be undone. Gale is still dead forever, so to speak. How do u cope with that

[@readytoenditall]

The one thing that bothers me about this plot line in the show is just that it’s not at all what treatment is like in my experience. It feels like a “normie” interpretation of what they think AA is like. I’m not a fan of AA for many reasons, but I’ve always found that accountability was a gigantic part of the program. The whole goal was to change your behaviors for the better, and mend your relationships through action. Also wanted to mention that I think some guilt and shame can be toxic. A lot of abuse victims end up holding onto the shame that their abusers should be carrying. I believe Jesse has both positive and toxic guilt and shame. It’s positive that he feels guilt about Gale. But he is experiencing toxic shame when Walter convinces him he was wrong about him poisoning Brock. He feels like such a bad person for believing Walter could do such a thing and for threatening him for it, when in reality he had every right to do that.

[@Delta_Aves]

I’ve heard AA is more or less a cult these days, where addicts are told to “give themselves over to Jesus” or “it’s all part of God’s plan” or some other religious bullshit that forgoes accountability. Addiction may not always be a choice, but you need to take the initiative if you actually want to get better and mend your relationships.

[@thecowboy9698]

Feeling guilt over making bad decisions, especially those that hurt other people, is good in itself, but it isn't enough if it doesn't motivate us to change. There is no such thing as subjective morality.There are certain things that are always things that are always wrong, and no matter what bullshit you try to spin to justify it, the things that are inherently wrong will always be such.

[@JonyPlayz1]

Interesting video

[@DrUpauli]

Glad you think so!

[@bendu8282]

Well damn

[@unclesamuel2076]

Great Vid, also 1:0 like to dislike ratio!

[@timsusss]

Not a big fan of these scenes and the underlying theme. Support groups for hardcore drug addicts are a tool to get off and stay off drugs. There are good reasons why self improvement is “out of scope” and I think the show is muddying the message.

[@jamiewilliams7425]

man you are talking about this topic like a kid in highschool. i hope that you are that. otherwise... damn. your commentary isn't wrong but it's also really not saying anything the show didn't clearly say it's self almost constantly.

[@StarWarsExpert_]

brooooo, don't spoil that much directly at the beginning. I accidentaly clicked this.

[@DrUpauli]

The show is like 10 years old

[@StarWarsExpert_]

@@DrUpauli Fine

[@chimpwimp9407]

@@DrUpauli The problem I have with this statement is that there are hundreds of thousands of pieces of media to consume (just from tv shows alone). I still to this today haven't finished Better Call Saul. If anything you could at least put a spoiler warning.

[@S_yIvie]

I dont think your logic criticising "its okay if it doesnt hurt other people" works, because your examples all rely on someone getting hurt. Being an adict is a life style that makes you hurt people around you and is clearly not an example of this philosophy

[@DrUpauli]

That was part of my point. It harmfully impacts the individual, and since the individual is living in society it harms society. You can't really compartmentalize yourself. There isn't really any morally neutral action you can take. Everything either brings you closer to goodness or further away. Some more noticeable that others

[@S_yIvie]

@@DrUpauli Exactly! And the ones that bring you closer to goodness dont hurt anyone. Me being gay doesnt hurt anyone, so I can just do it. Me smoking a cigarette causes people around me to inhale smoke