Opulence | ContraPoints

[@Ecolopa]

And so Gigi-Antoinette said to the masses "If they have no clean drinking water, let them drink Mountain Dew".

[@tas713]

The real winner of the nobel literature prize

[@Razuchan]

I feel like I have to write an entire thesis on that sentence

[@chaosfreak83]

It's got what plants crave.

[@el_kks_4361]

@@chaosfreak83 Electrolytes

[@unluckyone1655]

Brawnd- er I mean Mounain dew! Because water is for toilets!

[@not_them]

Every time she says hip hop opulence my brain immediately whispers "hip hopulence"

[@themumblingdumpling2838]

You need more likes

[@zmdumpbox2340]

Ah feel ya.

[@sanityisrelative]

😂

[@ejedwards988]

Almost swallowed my gum laughing at this.

[@mmmk1616]

lol

[@greenbananaman9409]

my mom saw me watching this and said "shes so beautiful! she dresses up to give you facts"

[@cutiemcweirdo]

That’s the perfect way to describe her channel 🤣🤣🤣

[@KaritKtana]

❤️ Adorable - and accurate!

[@eirrac]

Sounds like your mom is the best 😁

[@benedictdwyer2608]

Yasssssssss.....

[@kfie3731]

Army😍

[@goldenalpaca3881]

Shout out to Natalie accurately predicting the rise of "backrooms" horror subgenre. Empty commercial spaces really are as haunting as she describes

[@mooo_cow]

A proof that gays don't have delusions, only prophesies

[@SteveAcomb]

WAIT holy shit

[@tandava-089]

@lif6737 Shes right alot more frequently than JP XD Ironically, her feet are much more grounded, and her head is far more level.

[@tandava-089]

@lif6737 😂 it means she's much more in touch with a lifestyle which is familiar to people who live 'down here', on the street(or needing to go onto the street, like needing to go to Walmart and the like, and a bunch of other places that regular normal ordinary people go in the course of daily life and survival) 😛 I'm sure you were giving me a hard time, and.... Fair enough 😛... But I did mean something specific and distinct by each thing I said, and I wasn't talking about actual feet 😂😛😜

[@nawm8]

​@@tandava-089 They were playing around and understood exactly what you meant.

[@oleksiishekhovtsov1564]

"Call it the American dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it." - George Carlin

[@taterpoot1]

You mean Gorge Carlin

[@KennethWestervelt]

The greatest sin a comedian can aspire to is to imagine themselves a philosopher. Worse yet, for their fans to believe them one. (Bill Hicks, I'm looking at you.)

[@russellharrell2747]

Kenneth Westervelt the only true comedian-philosopher was Gallagher. (Yes I’m kidding)

[@oleksiishekhovtsov1564]

@Emma Morley r/wooosh

[@ddlk9913]

Nah, lots of people are living great lives in the US. Sorry yours sucks.

[@Illiteratechimp]

I saw this working in a hotel. The super wealthy treated us coldly but well, and tipped well. The poor who were there for special events were grateful, even if they didnt tip. The middle class were monsters. Demanded, screamed, tried to get you fired for any perceived slight.

[@msnoodles1]

I worked at a cinema and it was the same there. The poor were just grateful and tended to splurge on food because they went to a movie less often. The wealthy weren't very warm but were proficient and polite. The middle class were the bane of my existence and acted like staff were less than human.

[@madeofcastiron]

from your comments, it seems that middle-class people are the karens among the socio-economic classes. they're just wannabe-rich people

[@Illiteratechimp]

@@madeofcastiron Lol, I met a few Karens in my day, and they did tend to appear to be in the middle ^^ Unfortunately my real name is Ken, so this Karen meme came back to bight me

[@Acidpunk101]

The great billy conolly did a bit about rich and poor laughing at middle class together. Its a universal thing :)

[@Mgdr2011]

wack

[@DAngeloWallace]

this video called me poor and i'm thanking it

[@nailahhuq1238]

You're here!

[@jupiter5128]

Father!

[@MeganMcIntosh]

D'Angelo Wallace hey I highly enjoy your channel too! It’s fun when creators I watch watch other creators I watch!

[@Frank-ju8qr]

Crossover time

[@fruitygarlic3601]

Can't wait to see D'Angelo finally smile, as he holds the head of the last billionaire. For legal reasons, this is a joke, Susan.

[@marcus_johnson]

Opulence has really drowned in the cancellation debacle. Can we take a minute to appreciate what a true piece of mastery this really is?

[@annieinwonderland]

Yes we can and the fact that her colleagues( I hope that is the right word) where on the ball with the topics that people weren't aware of pre covid.

[@NindeRingeril]

I like to watch this video at least once a month because its perfect and on point on everything

[@zacharytaylor2983]

It might be my favorite of Natalie’s videos. I’m an art history and architecture geek, so the references to the “white lie” of classical sculptures, McMansions, Victorian houses, and Dead Malls was just… *chef’s kiss*

[@luk4aaaa]

Cancellation debacle?

[@qwertyman1511]

@@luk4aaaa because misunderstanding and mischaracterizing people to fuel a feeling of hate is pleasant, comfortable and easier than the alternative.

[@haileywarner5109]

These videos help me: 1. Build vocabulary 2. Hear about current events and social issues 3. Hear varying perspectives 4. Reflect on my own shortcomings Basically these are some of the best and most influential youtube videos ever.

[@lavone5541]

I feel the same way, especially after watching Cancelling . It made me be aware of toxic behaviour that i myself am capable of doing.

[@Alexis-wg5nx]

Hailey Warner 5. Appreciate dope makeup, costume, set design, direction, and scoring

[@dingdongshush]

Absolutely nailed it.

[@casey3889]

@@Alexis-wg5nx 6. They also very much appease both my sense for aesthetics and my sense of humor.

[@chaoticcollagen794]

chikin naget I totes realized how I see cancel culture in my other community of those with chronic illnesses. People take each other down SO FUCKIN HARD. It’s so messed up.

[@danw-m2974]

To quote Oscar Wilde "America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between."

[@gabrielcortes6369]

He really didn't knew about Chile.

[@Javier-il1xi]

@@gabrielcortes6369 a cagar que si wn

[@KarryKarryKarry]

Chile was still in the midst of barbarism during Wilde’s hay day.

[@TheEmpress1768]

Native Americans who?

[@joshuasutherland6692]

I guess Oscar forgot people lived here before whitey.

[@RedtsunamiTed]

You just accidentally destroyed the argument of "if you on welfare why did you get your nails done?" It's a taste. A small favor. It's staged 'opulence' and an escape. I grew up food insecure and neglected. But I also had my nails done once after my Mom lost her job. It was her one moment of escape in a spiral the eventually led to us being homeless. She told me, "We can't pawn everything, because I need to look like I'm not poor when I go for a job. It matters to some people what you look like" So we pawned almost everything, and sold the furniture instead.

[@RedtsunamiTed]

Thank you for reading Natalie. I never put anything too real online for fear of being made fun of. The fact that you even read this has me crying. I'm a Mom of two girls now and sometimes, I give them pedicures and paint their nails and remember.

[@KendrixTermina]

I mean the idea that you have to quit being a person until you get financial security is just nonsense. Then there's what in korea is called a "fuckit expense" - Splurging on a little thing that makes you happy because large expenses etc are out of reach It actually takes quite a lot of phones and avocados to buy a house if you'll never have a house what kind of sadistic ass would dare tell you you can't have nice nails or avocadoes. In the end economic justice is a question of human dignity and participating in society - it's hard to GET a job or build social connections if you look like a homeless person. And humans are social animals. We had posturing behavior to impress the other apes long before there were houses and cars. It's a NEED, maybe not like a potentially lethal need like food or water but certainly like sex and socialization. This sort of thing is actually a very rational decision when you consider what a human beings' natural priorities are. This "You need to suffer more before you can get help" logic is inhuman

[@phildolan8783]

It's a rare day when a KZbin comment forces one to take inventory of their fortunate happenstance... I am humbled by the words of @@RedtsunamiTed.

[@MrMindgames101]

Love this thread

[@nbucwa6621]

Needing to not look poor when looking for a job is the real fucking truth fam

[@junebuggeryy]

It is SO cool to hear her talk about a prediction of "Decaying Mall Gothic" aestheticism in 2019, when here in 2021 we're already seeing a huge rise of that in Weirdcore and Liminal Space aesthetics. Maybe I just linger in obscure "horror content" corners of the internet- but I'm definitely seeing a huge increase in people taking 80s decay for their gothic aesthetics. She's right on the money.

[@Samantiics]

thank you for putting my thoughts into words

[@GuiSmith]

I knew there was something there

[@MaryamofShomal]

And it’s totally messing with me as someone born in the early 80s. Ooph.

[@junebuggeryy]

@@MaryamofShomal Haha, oh jeez I can imagine! I think a lot of the "80s horror" content I've seen leans on a sense of nostalgia, so you're probably not the only one

[@mayathepsychiic]

the liminal space thing is absolutely popular rn, not just in your corners of the internet

[@senpaijecho]

Video is 49 minutes long. Natalie rented a DAMN MUSEUM, had 5 different costumes.... and people really focused on the 10 second extract where we hear buck angel's voice?? damn

[@rickardkaufman3988]

@@luanamoraes3578 In her next video, she said I have already made 5 videos against non- binary hatred and transmedicalism.

[@uppercut147]

The backlash reminds of the other day when some dingus I follow on Twitter was screeching about how Bernie Sanders needs to "do something" about the corona virus crisis. When I asked her what, exactly, she thinks he should do, she replied that he could be demanding free testing for the virus AS IF HE HASN'T LITERALLY BEEN THE FACE OF UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE THE WHOLE GOTDAMN TIME. People who hate on do-gooders for Very Dumb Reasons are just THE WORST.

[@uppercut147]

​@KC LOL boy if you don't sit down...

[@TheBloodVodka]

What part was Buck Angel? I fucking missed it.

[@LucasCandiota31]

@@TheBloodVodka 27:27 is the part when Buck Angel talks. He reads a John Waters' quote

[@autdroid6078]

I just realised that the Tabby voice isn't hugely purposeful and is mostly caused by fake fangs...

[@Chipiliro613]

FAKE?!??

[@anotherslice2269]

I don't wanna be a spreader of rumors thanks how are you but was this video basically saying Tabby is dead? Like Natalie's inner Tabby she used to argue with is dead? There's a million interpretations (outside of the fangs / goth look was coincidental...). And/or that her inner Tabby isn't just dead, she thinks the Tabby theory of change / strategy / tactics fetishized by the black-and-red colored online bullies just doesn't apply anymore. (I think all that shit still applies but just wonder.)

[@tatehildyard5332]

Another Slice I don’t think Natalie ever agreed far left internet was working. Her video, “The Left” where Tabby was introduced was about how ineffective the far left is when it comes to persuasion and political organizing.

[@autdroid6078]

Oh wow, senpai noticed me

[@KeybladeSpirit]

@@anotherslice2269 Contrapoints lore truly is a vast and complex mess that's just waiting to be untangled by the theorycrafting community.

[@Apollo9898LP]

"Comrades, losers, and haters," is such a powerful opener to a sentence

[@BGcam]

Apollo9898LPs it’s the “Friends, Romans, countrymen” of our time 😄 Shakespeare would be proud.

[@cadwelltanner7616]

the three genders

[@puffinpatrol]

inclusive!

[@NelsonStJames]

In our present society one may as well acknowledge that the haters are going to be a part of any one who is anyone's fan club, be they royalty, politician, or youtuber.

[@KangMinseok]

It's like saying "Nazis, bad guys, and evildoers"

[@alexgilmour3907]

Every time I remember what occurred to Natalie because of a ten second voiceover from this masterpiece of filmography, I come back to this video; half from spite, half for the good time. And also so she can keep getting paid for her excellent work.

[@hypatiakovalevskayasklodow9195]

❤

[@hypatiakovalevskayasklodow9195]

,,that’s it, kids, this is why mommy is canceled”

[@eldradulthran6482]

​@@hypatiakovalevskayasklodow9195 You have a splendid name.

[@glencowan7532]

I just saw this clip. They really wanted to cancel her over that? FMD!

[@MenachemSchmuel]

@@glencowan7532 Fibromuscular Dysplasia?

[@raulalvarez5021]

"I accept my fate" she said as she symbolicaly descended down the stairs into her own cancelation based on a single voice casting.

[@CristianMartinez-cr1eo]

I’m wheezing 😂😂

[@aegis_knight]

It's as if the Cancel Culture video is a direct sequel right after the credits

[@stephenwilliams163]

was just thinking this and came here to see if anyone else had said it

[@marieoconnell6191]

Wait who did she cast?

[@ElecTrishian924]

@@marieoconnell6191 Buck Angel, a trans masc porn star/trans activist. The reception to his advocacy has been... mixed as far as I am aware

[@petraszilagyi]

Always start Natalie’s videos deeply annoyed that she’s an attractive know it all, and by the end decide we are in fact best friends.

[@moncielvariable]

When she releases a video, I look at the thumbnail and think "this is going to be too much". Then I click and the esthetic is pure perfection.

[@bgreaud]

I feel like the various visuals keep you locked in. If she sat in an ordinary chair wearing jeans and a plain T shirt and ran all the same dialogue, we wouldn't know what to do...

[@hayk3000]

This happens every time: I click the video, I get baffled by the over the top costumes and aesthetics and chuckle a bit, I sink in the actual ideas and arguments Natalie makes, I forget about the costumes, I'm totally immersed in the ideas, it then clicks that I'm thinking about philosophy or sociology by watching a woman dressed in a FUCKING FAIRY COSTUME EATING A CORN DOG with tea. Every. Single. Time.

[@deplorabledixie2834]

attractive?...LOL

[@coffee_eyed]

@@deplorabledixie2834 yes, bish, attractive.

[@ceciliamoore2292]

As a art history minor who studied a lot of Roman art when you brought up “white marble is a lie” I wanted to cry for joy, Casue I have been telling people that for years .... subscribed lol !!

[@vasilikikakara3092]

Mind if I join you? Me, a poor archeology major from the country that produced said totally-not-white marble statues?:')

[@TheEmpress1768]

Omg art history squad 💅

[@Mmm_Kay]

Spread the word...our girl needs our support❤

[@madelcyfuentes6709]

sis literally SAME

[@cathl4953]

In the museum in athens there is a section where it showcases different stones that could have been used as colours in statues and blatantly says the statues and walls used to be coloured. Many people seem to forget that fact though

[@georgianichols4584]

i'm sorry, no ones going to read this, but i need to talk about the music in the opening scene. oh my god. first of all, it's bach, one of the most famous and rich baroque composers. the word 'baroque' refers to a pearl that is so opulent that is is almost grotesque, like how baroque music is sometimes so ornamented with trills that it can be hard to make out the melody. also, the lyrics to the hymn: "Ach wie fluchtig, ach wie nichtig" basically means 'how fleeting and how insubstantial,' another reference to the basis of opulence. i could go on and on

[@phoebe-gc6cu]

That's beautiful.

[@inescobodiego1198]

Thank you so much, I couldn't recognise the piece and the whole comment was great

[@memoriavetusta3908]

Bach was neither rich nor famous during his lifetime.

[@jesstv3029]

Legend has it, Natalie is still finding glitter on her body. Edit: Well, this comment blew up.

[@werewolf4358]

After about her 3rd video in which she does up the aesthetics, she should have accepted the glitter as a part of her very soul, apperating from the void to fill any space in which none previously existed.... as happens when one uses glitter more than a single time over the course of their lives.

[@Awwscrewit]

I just assume she wears it all the time.

[@Long-wd4ee]

our queen, she *glits*

[@jansamohyl7983]

I suspect she wants to be clocked as Lady Gaga.

[@thenetherone1597]

Fear not, a team of dedicated professionals (and this months lucky patreon subscriber) are hard at work locating every last particle in every last crevasse

[@TheZacharias333]

“Why does Donald Trump’s apartment look like Liberace married a Turkmenistani dictator and moved into a Cheesecake Factory” I’m literally dying her delivery is perfect.

[@officialgritty4740]

And if anyone's watched John Oliver's bit about Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, they know that that is EXACTLY the weird aesthetic he curates lol.

[@akisok0311]

you were at 420 likes and i ruined it :)

[@terriersoundstudio5854]

@@akisok0311 I'ts 666 now, so it's allright

[@carabiner7999]

She is absolutely lethal, on so many levels!

[@Greatoraint]

That was the horse girl of dictators right? LOL

[@Jaqhnun]

"Why does Donald Trump’s apartment look like Liberace married a Turkmenistani dictator and moved into a Cheesecake Factory?" boy I sure love shrieking with laughter alone in my apartment and making my neighbors wonder what kind of insane person lives next door. Thanx Natalie

[@DanCicala]

This video's been out for almost two weeks and still no Rule 34 🙄

[@Seydlitz338]

Just remember that some people like this consider themselves male.

[@JesseColton]

The irony that the framing device of this video is Natalie playing someone who's about to be beheaded by a bloodthirsty mob, and people cancelled her in a bloodthirsty online mob as a result of three seconds of this video

[@HobbylessWolf]

I have rewatched this videos countless times... and only NOW I see the irony! Damn, the World has a dark sense of humor 😶😭

[@JesseColton]

@@HobbylessWolf Yeah me too

[@sayuas4293]

How did she get cancelled and what part of the video caused it?

[@JesseColton]

@@sayuas4293 Theres a whole two hour video going into this but it was because she had Buck Angel reading the John Waters quote about "good bad taste" and "bad bad taste," and since Buck Angel is a transmedicalist, people assumed that must mean Natalie is a transmedicalist, despite her constant and repeated clarifications that she isn't.

[@catherinemccormick3184]

Yeah it hits different now

[@erickdavid4257]

ContraPoints is on a whole other level. I could literally pay $10 to see this video in theaters.

[@ugo7354]

THAT! 😱

[@Electro_Katarina]

Ikr it's a whole experience.

[@aidaflores613]

Agreed!

[@Fraggle-h7o]

@@keylon3 have a better strategy:i just watch each video like 20times

[@hens0w]

Greatest apology video in the world

[@rejh3030]

You can see the whole “decaying mall” aesthetic in vaporwave. Like it’s basically sad, slowed down 80s music played over commercials

[@chrisc185]

That's exactly what I thought, though vaporwave is more of a retro-style "pretending the 80's never died" than it is artsyfying the death and progressing rot of said time period

[@cjaquilino]

Rufus Harman I’d call that aesthetic “mallsoft”. It’s an old subgenre of vaporwave from 2013 or so.

[@danielsantiago4490]

I agree with Chris. Vaporwave glorifies the 80's. It fondly longs and remembers those times (nostalgia). We need the representation of the "ghost" of said times. What would a person living in those decaying hallways look like?

[@smittywerbenjagermanjensen99]

@@danielsantiago4490 there's actually a lot of vaporwave that portrays that decaying 80s aesthetic like this album for example: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qXirh3htd7mKY9E

[@nukiradio]

We are living in the 80's houses the 80's being the house of our dead uncle

[@lalalillymo4]

THE SILENT MAJORITY GENUINELY LOVE YOU NATALIE. WE TALK ABOUT YOU OFF LINE WITH GRATITUDE FOR YOUR WORK AND YOUR ART

[@seanp3302]

you’re the loud minority smh.

[@noahwallace8015]

ULGROTHA ohh shiiiii- 😱

[@angelbarajas9180]

@ULGROTHA Marxism is a political philosophy made by Karl's Marx and it is the idea where the government owns the means of productions to achieve economic equality. Isn't that what the left believes?

[@angelbarajas9180]

@x x Both are loud minorities but Contra fans are usually nice most of her haters are pretty annoying. And I say this as a Conservative Rebuplican but I still like Contra although I don't agree with her on much lol

[@angelbarajas9180]

@ULGROTHA As a Conservative Rebuplican I obviously don't know what goes on in the left but I do know you guys praise Stain on many occasions and hold up signs with the hammer and sickle on it

[@danielmichael3610]

Who the fuck infused Natalie with this kind of talent. I just keep watching these videos and I can't stop. The depth, the story-telling, the ambience, the details, everything. Seriously. I don't even understand what's happening to me as I watch this.

[@theregalproletariat]

She's figured out how to transport people into her mind

[@SassafrasTee7366]

I love the artistic direction of her sets and looks are directly inspired by the video’s topic.

[@arancinostravagante1314]

Your intelligence increase, that's what's happening to you.

[@smeazy41]

She went to college for philosophy so i imagine they helped bit lol

[@MaryamofShomal]

I’m convinced she was born with this ability. Her ability to peer into each and every human soul is only surpassed by her beauty, inside and out.

[@motherbat8344]

Dead malls really should be turned into homeless shelters. I've seen so many replaced with an empty lot.

[@prime3106]

In my city the abandoned mall is used as a movie set... films such as evolution, Tokyo drift, the green hornet and a couple of other shows have been filmed there... a part of it was actually repurposed for a small store and the school welcome center... but it's pretty much used as a parking lot for Northrop Grumman's workers to park and get shuttled to make more tiered models of airplanes like the new 747 Eddie Bauer edition with actual safety features that the 3rd world won't be able to afford.

[@cjboyo]

Malls would make amazing community centers.

[@murmea_meoi]

No one's gonna pay for it and they'll turn into ghettos

[@mo3870]

An abandoned mall back home has part of the city's police department and part of a school in it. Most of it is still unused though.

[@abandonedchannel281]

Jorge Lazarini wtf is a 747 Eddie Bauer

[@luleta1644]

"Sksksks and I oop and I oop and I oop, that's praxis'" -Natalie Wynn 2019 Truly a postmodern philosopher.

[@benl2140]

Still makes more sense than Foucault.

[@MagiciteHeart]

I fucking lost it. So fucking great. 😹

[@LorRosengartsky]

Having come this far, Natalie has transcended postmodernism itself and became the queen of metamodernism.

[@cokedupnormies2651]

Gunna leave it at 666 likes

[@cokedupnormies2651]

Who the fuck was the 667th fuck you man

[@jaegermeistersfriend]

do i have the time to watch a 50 minute video about opulence? absolutely not. am i here watching for the third time anyways? absolutely.

[@massy6453]

literally same. i‘ve watched this so many times but each time i understand more and more

[@susannahb2723]

4th time and it's still so stunning I want to play it again

[@rgng]

@@massy6453 yessss

[@jasonwren1124]

same I'm using it as a reference for my university coursework hahaha

[@MinkytheMinkY]

1.5x 😌 Thank me later.

[@feelshowdy]

An interesting thing I've observed is in contrast to the "Trump aesthetic" you describe - old rich who act like new rich, money without class - there is the direct opposite of that: "class" without money. I was raised in what was basically a poor branch of a distant, larger rich clan. My mom grew up middle class, but her taste and style were heavily informed by rich relatives in her childhood, and then the rich clients she went on to work for as an adult banker. She would scoff and roll her eyes at "nouveau riche" aesthetics: anything showy, ostentatious, excessive, "tacky." She loved pointing out when newly upper class people were insecure of their wealth and status, explained how you could tell they were lesser than the old rich, inferior compared to the people bred with class and etiquette as priority. She could always smugly point out which people were "poors getting a little taste of the good life" and subsequently turn her nose up at them. But even as she looked down on everyone who wasn't as assured and muted and "classy" as the old rich, she didn't venerate these supposedly superior people either. To her, being classy was never about the money, but the mindset: assurance, quiet confidence, simple but clean aesthetics in everything. She used to tell me, "The way you dress with class is not to wear things that make you look like you're rich, but to always have pristine hygiene for your body and clothes, and never be seen wearing or using damaged things." This was how she still considered herself classy and continued gladly ragging on the poor, middle class, and the new rich - even after three decades of retiring from her bank job and being stuck as the housewife of a family living in a slum. She taught me all the possible tricks to wash and maintain the few hand-me-down clothes I had so they'd always look new, how to haggle with smugglers of foreign overruns so I could buy original products at the price of fakes, how to cook like mothers in provincial haciendas and never like cheap urban canteens. She's a complicated woman I haven't talked to in a long time, and when I was living with her we always clashed, but this aspect of her has always stood out to me.

[@melaniey.5596]

God damn, that’s one hell of a story. Thanks for sharing it. it’s interesting the contrast of what’s appreciated. While reading this I couldn’t help being reminded of the more modern fashion of “used” things. Like in jeans with washed up colors and holes. But I can see how a clean and “well maintained” look can be used to flex class, as those give te impression of “new”. (Thou what I find more intriguing is the attitude part, the self confidence)

[@yeraysv9529]

@@juno3234 probably because of fabric quality. If your clothes gets ruined after the first wash either you are doing atrocious things to them, or they were gonna rip apart the very second you stop looking at them anyways.

[@katybee3891]

@@juno3234 maybe you wash at a high temperature. Just look at the instructions on the sewn in tags

[@phastinemoon]

I have a similar experience: My father came from old money, whilst my mother is from a firmly working class family (my granddad supported a wife and 8 kids on driving a bus) and the stark contrast between visiting the two always struck me - how we dressed, the food we’d eat, the kind of homes my two different grandparents lived in and how they were decorated/furnished, how not only me and my siblings were expected to behave but how all our aunts and uncles (and cousins) behaved, the things and the way the grownups talked. I remember my father’s side hosting quiet, somber, almost funereal Christmas dinners, with dim lighting, sparse decor, maybe some quiet music by the fireplace… and my mother’s side would always be bustling, loud, the kitchen the hub of activity, everyone in jeans or ugly sweaters, tinsel and big, candy-like lightbulbs, and kitschy ornaments hung on any and every surface, food would usually be tons of chips and crackers and cookies and soda… my dad even outright admitted that he experienced serious culture shock, the first time he came to one of my mother’s Christmas dinners.

[@catty7457]

hey, just wanna thank you, that fourth paragraph about clothes always looking new and pristine just made me realize why i always felt poorer compared to my friends when we’d wear the same things. their clothes just always looked new. thank you.

[@ContraPoints]

Hey gorg heyhowareyou gorg? y'all better like comment and subscribe cause I spent all my money on this

[@theburlapchap3644]

hi

[@Drophinoia]

Hey gorg.

[@jaymarti3188]

How are you Gorg

[@stevegeorge6880]

Fantastic now that you're back!

[@kaylanicoll5400]

ContraPoints hello

[@Ark15964]

“I used to get laughed out of restaurants” made me tear up. People are so awful.

[@zucchinitime]

Ark1 fuck, me too

[@Ark15964]

@Aryan The Sage I do believe her because I've worked in places where I've seen with my own eyes trans women get openly harassed, and because there is a mountain of empirical evidence from within the social sciences that shows this is the case. I'm not even going to argue with you because you've clearly got an agenda lol. Sorry you're stuck, man.

[@punkisdead2662]

@Aryan The Sage what perfect world do you live in where people never get harassed?

[@SpecialBlanket]

When I was 16 I was dating a 24yo trans woman who was like 1 year on HRT I think (I was so young and had never even known a trans person before so I didn't even think to ask her anything about her transition or like... anything. her being trans rarely came up except indirectly with stuff like her abusive dad or certain intimacy issues). In retrospect it seemed like she passed most of the time in public. anyway one day we were eating at a restaurant in the "window seat" and these 4 teenage boys started like, paparazzi'ing her through the window? I had NO idea what was going on and thought it was just some kind of catcalling type of thing or because we were lesbians. in retrospect i should have kicked their ass. i feel really bad that i didn't know it was because they could tell she was trans. also disclaimer, definitely don't date a 16yo if you're 24, in this case it was fine but the reason it's wrong is that it's likely enough to turn out not fine that you're rolling the dice w someone else's future. please no comments about her having done that though that isn't what this comment is about, it's just to contextualize why I was so oblivious

[@AnDi-js8oy]

Vaporwave is literally the aesthetic of abandoned malls and eerie nostalgia... vaporwave is to the 80s what goth is to the victorian era

[@disasterarea9341]

on top of that there is a specific subgenre of vaporwave known as Mallsoft which is specifically for that mall vibe, with 猫 シ Corp.'s Palm Mall being arguably the seminal album of the genre

[@arturhours]

there's a vaporwave album called "news at 11" where slowed down 80s music is undercut with footage from the moment before 9/11

[@Minam0]

Also the reoccurring imagery of white marble sculptures for that extra level of ruin

[@GenkiGanbare]

I'm amazed that Natalie nailed why I spend so much time watching those videos with a picture of the interior of an abandoned mall with muffled 90s pop music in the background. I couldn't even puts words to it myself, but now I have the words. I love the ghosts of the past and the loneliness of ruins.

[@Steven-by5oq]

I was thinking exactly this. *wave might be the goth for the 21st century kids

[@emmawalter5433]

Now that Abigail Thorn is out of the closet between Abby and Natalie a new genre of youtube video has arrived: "Leftist transwoman in glamorous makeup and gorgeous costume pretend to be in their natural environment in fantastical places and wax philisophical." And as a leftist neurodivergent transwoman ex-theatre kid who likes facts and shiny things I have no choice but to stan hard.

[@apersonwhomayormaynotexist9868]

I mean to be fair, even before Abby came out, she was still doing essentially the same thing

[@johndododoe1411]

@@apersonwhomayormaynotexist9868 Yeah, I started watching before Thorn switched to presenting as Abigail.

[@freetousebyjtc]

too bad the two of them don't get along no more rip

[@emmawalter5433]

@@apersonwhomayormaynotexist9868 @John Dodo Doe I am aware she was doing it before she came out publicly, I also watched her before her coming out video, but we didn't know she was trans before that point.

[@josephosullivan9891]

@@freetousebyjtc what is this based on?

[@johnnyjoestar356]

As a nerdy kid with no athletic talent that was encouraged to pursue science, the way contra describes aesthetic pleasure for gems is the feeling I've been calling "curiosity" the all my life, starting to think the scientific community is a bunch of rational fetishists

[@ordinarytree4678]

There is an addictive quality to solving a complex mathematical formula.

[@CamembertDave]

That's a very good observation! Aesthetic pleasure is definitely a big appeal of mathematics for me.

[@classicalsrock]

I study sociology and I feel this, an amazing sense of pleasure when theory connects with observation

[@johnnyjoestar356]

@@CamembertDave oh yeah, math is beautiful, all mathematicians refer to it more as art and language than science

[@johnnyjoestar356]

To all the people replying. I didn't mean the pleasure of solving shit. I meant the genuine fascination for something people in scientific circles call "curiosity" romanticising this feeling as "wanting knowledge" and "the desire to solve a problem" while as a failed botanist I can confirm flowers are just pretty

[@justatinyhalfling]

Shame on you, people who scream at her for a 10sec voice over so loudly that it hurts her more than the praise for the rest of this gem and all her previous work is able to build her up. You have so much to appreciate here, and if you can't see it, you don't deserve it either. Shame on you, you bullies.

[@ShakespearsCyst]

That is the perfect word for these people. Bullies.

[@rojanrjeugenio1879]

Isn't ironic with the guillotine ending? (Not a hater, I swear!)

[@Khannea]

It's all fake protest about sexually traumatized lesbians pretending to be something else, and vindictive alt righters and reactionary racists who are also pretending to be something else. They try to appear as if there's this woke lib (retches) uprising against her, and there is not. But alas, she is indeed a modern madam Curie.

[@itsiwhatitsi]

This is the best example of how a YT video must be done

[@durnsidh6483]

And it's one of the least memorable quotes from the video.

[@eoincampbell1584]

The fact that this has so few dislikes shows that the majority of people that got angry over the voice clip in this didn't even bother coming to the video to dislike it let alone watch it.

[@Flowtail]

hey, let's not assume--maybe all of them _did_ come and dislike it! 1.8K isn't a whole lot, but hey apparently it's enough to make a fantastic artist depressed for weeks

[@Flowtail]

@@Pinko-Diamond ah, i see you noticed the joke! :D

[@silentj624]

I noticed that as well. I thought it'd have way more dislikes.

[@silentj624]

Hell, I thought it have more views as well.

[@Jansforreal]

In case anyone was wandering, the intro is sung in German and translates to: Oh, how futile, how fleeting is the human So yeah, points for that

[@LMvdB02]

What's funny is that a 'nicht' in Dutch is a 'fag' or 'queer' so nichtig means faggy or queer as adjective.

[@moonsugar8938]

Whats the name of it

[@seyspectra]

@@moonsugar8938 kzbin.info/www/bejne/rGeYimCpZ5mme7ssi=i7yd4UDUEdXKLvsj

[@brassen]

"When education is not liberating, the dream of the oppressed is to become the oppressor" - Paulo Freire

[@probablyprocrastinating59]

The first time I saw this quote it was under an image of Yoshi riding a horse in Super Mario Sports Superstars.

[@johnsinclair4621]

Probably Procrastinating This comment is precious

[@whatabouttheearth]

WOW!

[@TheKrock106]

where can I find this said image

[@luizag123]

someone's finna get killed under the Bolsonaro regime I see

[@ccalvac18]

"A Gothic aesthetic for the 21st century- this decaying opulence that is the carcass of 20th century consumerism" V A P O R W A V E

[@transsexual_computer_faery]

that is correct

[@transsexual_computer_faery]

@@douglasgaunt537 dubstep is not an esthetic

[@punchultimate]

I thought she was going to bring that up! Kind of interesting that the last gothic aesthetic gave us dracula and this one gave us Saint Pepsi.

[@sithofdarkness8927]

/music plays

[@ShootingStarNeo]

Vaporwave Horror! Vaporwave Horror! Vaporwave Horror! Give me vampires that live in dead malls!

[@Pigeonstatue4232]

This is why you should never feel guilty for taking time and delaying a video if it needs it. This was amazing.

[@phastinemoon]

0:00 - Intro 3:00 - Opulence Main Titles 3:19 - 1) Success 7:28 - 2) Fantasy 13:47 - 3) Class 19:11 - 4) Taste 28:18 - 5) Glamour 34:20 - 6) Envy 41:39 - 7) Ruin 46:35 - End

[@ksdtsubfil6840]

A like and a comment to elevate this

[@lil_archive]

gorgeous~ i love you for this

[@random23287]

She made an entire video on Envy, which is interesting...

[@phastinemoon]

@@random23287 I tried to go through that one and do the same thing… harder to do, since that one, Natalie herself didn’t break into sections and define them with a single-word summation.

[@incertis_itineribus]

thanks

[@Linkarcus]

Me seeing Natalie dressing Goth: I have graduated from "Step on me, mommy" to "Bite me, mommy."

[@transsexual_computer_faery]

"cremate me, mommy"

[@browndemon386]

Thy lactate is like lava on my lips.

[@kaiyodei]

being goth is it's own gender

[@Staff7]

you have mommy issues.

[@PokeyStix]

no words. she looked so good

[@nonexistent6632]

“I like stuff” Contra points is actually goblin core

[@theamici]

Was that a LitRPG reference?

[@weston8400]

It's a reference to a tumblr concept called Goblin Core; an aesthetic which encourages you to get in touch with the more primal and materialist aspects of your personality in a simplistic and unselfish way. Like collecting small amounts jewelry, shiny stones, pretty shells, colorful rocks; really anything nice looking and easy(ish) to get your hands on, so you can indulge in the feeling of having your own little hoard of wealth.

[@seandra82]

I’d say more of a Kobold

[@William_Porter]

Damn I'm a goblin too I collect rocks, trinkets i found on the ground, glass pieces.

[@dumpsockpuppet5619]

Nah, she's obviously a Dragonkin, she likes to hoard all the loot

[@Verdigris5348]

The positive effect Natalie brings to this world shouldn't be understated.

[@JackedThor-so]

Agreed

[@SuzanneDeniseB]

Indeed ♡

[@maxbaker-reid3555]

Strong agree.

[@eszterbalazs1787]

Agreed. Get well, Natalie. 💜

[@madphantom3298]

Anyone know the music at 1:05

[@enderwiggins8248]

I hope Natalie rents out another museum because the set and photography is stunning

[@MashaRitvinsky]

the set isn't a museum lmao, it's one of the buildings at my art school

[@blutygar]

@@MashaRitvinsky Wow, then it's a very nice art school lol

[@aidenb1304]

My only problem with this video is that you never said "hip-hopulence"

[@sudevsen]

Rap Glamour

[@JHVH]

I thought this same thing during the hip-hop segment!!

[@dipp1511]

@PrettyNeckslashes have sex

[@andie1508]

I love that. Hip-hopulance!

[@DanCicala]

That's why Pitchfork gave this video a 9.9.

[@jennybrockartist]

"The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Sparknotes" That made me spit out my tea

[@user-yz9kz6vt9y]

That kind of surprised me that she made a Sparknotes joke about this book, because the Great Gatsby is such a short little novel. Sparknotes is typically used only for the long, tedious ones.

[@anny8720]

@@user-yz9kz6vt9y You'd be surprised at the level of procrastination and laziness most high schoolers possess.

[@qaisellkurdi962]

Former lazy high schooler here. Yeah I found the book super tedious even as short as it is. I can barely remember what the book was about now that I think of it.

[@harry_ord]

@Androva J. why?

[@tfh5575]

Whoever didn’t crack up at that didn’t attend american high school 2005-2009ish

[@immunity_berry]

“They won’t actually cut your heads off, but you’ll have to deploy militarized police. It’ll be a whole thing. Bad for profits. Nosy humanitarians will get involved.”

[@mikelmontoya2965]

Do you also feel like this is kinda What's Wrong With Capitalism Part 3?

[@femmefuntime]

They’ll cut your heads off. They’ll break into your house guerrilla style and do it in front of your family. Sure they’ll deploy the pigs to the front lines, but you can bet a couple hundred will sneak around back and take em out

[@himesilva]

What's that quote from?

[@RyanStorey1231]

Anna Castro - "What's Wrong With Capitalism", either part 1 or part 2.

[@mikelmontoya2965]

@@RyanStorey1231 it's from Part 1

[@mrnonsense1031]

"They call it the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it." -George Carlin

[@muticere]

In hindsight the only thing that hasn’t aged great about this is the idea that Jeffrey Star is sympathetic lol

[@phoebe.aur0ra]

LMAOOOOO we all really got fooled by shane and jeffree for a sec there

[@umangmalik]

the stanning has stopped

[@Ricardo-fv2qi]

Well, he had to be sympathetic to get away with all that shady behavior all along.

[@averyplaysguitar]

I never knew that anyone has ever seriously liked Jeffrey Star

[@phoebe.aur0ra]

@@averyplaysguitar I really wanted to like him, especially because his makeup products really are good. But I never liked his personality, and kinda realized that he hasn't changed most of the behavior that he apologized for. So I think a lot of people are really just there for the eyeshadow formula tbh

[@nevenagavric29]

“We live in a society” -Natalie Wynn, 2019

[@utahraptor4729874]

Nevena funny I actually know who started the meme. It was Gang weed Antarctica on Facebook...

[@EmperorKagato]

Here's your comment gold 🏅

[@angeldeviltears]

natalie: in a society * zooms * me: * leaves video a like *

[@mkmnll7456]

wow, it gets unexpectedly serious and deep doesn't it

[@anoptforout]

"society", but pronounced like Chappelle's Rick James saying "UNITYYYYYY"

[@alextheasparagus6675]

This perfectly describes why I hate the “bright and fresh” interior aesthetic that everyone who wants to look classy has. You know the style with only a few ornaments, everything is white, white, white. And also the gothic segment hit me so hard and I could relate it a lot to my own fascination for 80s goth culture and my love for the ruins (as in not just literal ruins, but ruins as in a concept). As always your videos really makes me Think a lot!

[@msjkramey]

Does that mean I'm basic? Lol. I love mid century modern, with all white and light wood and minimalists pops of color I also love Victorian houses, which made me feel hella called out when she compared them to mcmansions because I've always looked down on those mass produced, ugly houses lol

[@jenm1]

cringeee

[@Udontkno7]

I like that look, it's simple and clean. But I prefer warm clean colors. Browns and blacks.

[@zw6201pppnp]

Hot Topic has a bright and fresh interior aesthetic

[@ayanna6327]

I also hate the white-on-white aesthetic. It reminds me of hospitals.

[@emily-crawford-soprano9181]

Just an offering to the algorithm deities. Who else watches Natalie's work over and over again?

[@elisabethphd]

🙋‍♀️ I can’t possibly get everything out of them the first time through. Or the second.

[@isntitabeautifulday1648]

I just can't stop.

[@VulpineVee]

I have all of her videos downloaded on my phone to watch or listen to whenever my phone is having connectivity issues

[@rottengrapes8605]

same here. every contrapoints vid is a work of art

[@hypatiakovalevskayasklodow9195]

pretty sure at this point i know her videos better than her 😅

[@DylanGeick]

Born in 1998, I can say the 20th century was still kicking until probably around the recession of 2007. I can remember when my local mall was a paradise, my parents were not worried about their credit, and class ascension seemed almost expected. Now the mall is dying, losing money renovating itself bit by bit; Frankenstein’s monster sewing on a new limb after each decays. Even that can’t hide the fact that three of the five department stores have closed and the average lifespan of a store isn’t even six months, with more empty retail space each year. The large suburb snaked through with a golf course that stopped construction 3/4 of the way through when the recession hit is now full of house poor families clinging to their property or empty homes abandoned underwater by tenants who now rent and have nothing to pass on to their children. I feel like I’m painting a bleak picture, but I think maybe that’s the spirit of the millennial age. Next video please: Millennial YOLO culture and financial recklessness inspired by the age of hopelessness in the face of a burdened global economy, looming climate crisis, and seemingly more chaotic global conflicts. On another note, this video was amazingly done and kudos to everyone who worked on it. Each video is better and better. 👍

[@Theomite]

I was out of high school when you were born and I can tell you that mall culture was really not as great by then. You want peak mall culture, you gotta go with early '80s and early '90s. That's when going to the mall was a serious social outing for young people and wasn't marred by need (shit, I gotta go to the mall and get something) or the rising awareness of corporate pandering. By the late 90s, being a mallrat was more stigmatized than in the early 90s when they were really sold to gullible young people as the place to be. Also, by the late 90s movies like CLERKS had really shown the downside of service industry work to people who weren't old enough yet and the mall was nothing but service industry so the allure was largely gone. It was also the time of the $18 CD and that really didn't help.

[@ninjacats1647]

It's only a matter of time before malls are obsolete. Brick and mortar institutions are slowly being replaced by the internet. Give it a few decades before Colleges start closing en masse, when they figure out how to make college classes easily accessible online. Most of the information in Colleges can be found on youtube already anyways. It's only a matter of time before even well established institutions start to crumble at the advance of the digital age. And I hope it does too, the digital age is more efficient than the industrial era.

[@l-y-d-s]

The 20th Century ended with 9/11. Malls were in decline prior to the financial crisis. 9/11 kicked off a global war on terror to and numerous wars to reshape the Middle East in order to control oil and gas reserves which continues to this day. This resource scramble In the face of scarcity marks the beginning of the current century where even water will become a scarce commodity for the global south.

[@autumnwindwalker]

@@Theomite I second this. I'm Gen X and I was a mall rat in the 1980s. That was the mall heyday.

[@bradpeterson6259]

r/wallstreetbets is literally millenial yolo culture concentrate

[@JudyBarazi13]

I believe it was John Mulaney who said “Donald Trump is what a poor person thinks a rich person is”

[@arnaudlangenais-desmarais3230]

IT IS!

[@DominantColors]

Many, many people have made this banal observation.

[@Horadrius]

A poor man’s idea of a rich man, a stupid man’s idea of a smart man, and a weak man’s idea of a strong man.

[@justalostlocal]

@@Horadrius Nailed it. He has to show off his money, he has to look down on people, he has to bully to get his way. All of these point to the opposites of what Trump said he is.

[@angelbarajas9180]

Trump 2020

[@amaravazquez8591]

"A gothic aesthetic for the 21st century". Could this be why Vaporwave became so popular? It started off as a joke but then the meaning behind it became more genuine and intriguing. A nostalgic admiration and ridicule for the heydays of grand shopping malls and yuppie corporate America.

[@shanegrele]

I think "Neon Palm Mall" actually uses footage from the dead malls series, maybe even of the Owings Mills mall.

[@celeri6497]

i have to agree. i thought immediately of vaporwave when i heard "dead malls"

[@domimera]

Wasn't it the opposite? It started very clearly with a meaning but turned into a joke/meme as it became more popular. I think only recently have people started thinking about vaporwave again as some form of commentary rather that hihi a e s t h e t i c

[@becks_r]

Dominik Maleš I think the subconscious desire to look at the 80-90s for inspiration can actually still have that meaning OP said, even if it was just a “meme” at its genesis.

[@janetmarlena6815]

That's what I was thinking, It's kinda a broken utopian feeling.

[@danielconradie191]

I come back to this video from time to time, absolutely love it. I'm at the section now where you talk about marble statues and how they were originally painted, and it reminded me of a recent experience I had. Our art collective recently completed a mural in a small rural town in South Africa. Very conservative, the legacy of Apartheid still very much palpable: white people live in the desirable town centre, whereas the labour force (predominantly mixed race) are housed on the outskirts. It was actually startling (but admittedly somewhat entertaining also) to witness how inflammatory our presence was. A young queer child who grew up in a conservative small town, now given the opportunity to disrupt another conservative small town? How tantalizing a prospect is that!? Our work tends to be very bright, colourful, and geometric in nature, and it was fascinating to see how the two social classes received the work. On one side, we had a literal mob of townspeople (and the local pastor) who came to object, threatening us with legal action, and rather bluntly implying that the use of bright colours are reserved for the lower class (read non-whites). "Go paint the shacks in the township, there's no place for colour here," one woman screamed at us. Their main complaint was that they did not feel included in the design of the mural, even though the artwork was created following a pattern making workshop that we hosted with the local community, with an open invitation to all. Then after the fact insisted that we include all kinds of naive iconography predominantly revolving around the agricultural sector - some of which we incorporated, but after their little pitchforkless mob decided to blatantly ignore. And the rest of the community? They absolutely loved it, immediately made it their own, helped us paint, and even took shifts guarding it at night to make sure that nobody came to deface it. It was fascinating to see how something as benign as colour can have such a powerful effect on people.

[@michaellacipriani6012]

I really appreciate the use of Baroque music in a video about opulence, taste, and class. Baroque music-especially Baroque opera-- occupies such a weird space in modern American culture. It's often used as an emblem of high class, yet it’s so at odds with the contemporary WASP notion of good taste. Baroque music is... well... tacky. Baroque music is sensual. It’s full of dance rhythms that constantly bring the music out of the head and into the body: the gavotte, chaconne, courante, gigue etc. Musicians like Monteverdi who we now think of as the pioneers of Baroque style introduced dissonant new harmonies that dramatize text by eliciting physical tension and release. These harmonies were disparaged at the time by conservative musicians as harsh and physically painful to listen to. Baroque music is show-off-y. The A-B-A da-capo aria form, popularized in the Baroque period, basically only existed so virtuosic singers could amaze audiences with technical fireworks in improvised runs and trills in a repeated A-section. Musicians in the subsequent classical period mostly did away with da-capo arias in their efforts to cull the excesses of the Baroque. And then there’s the visual design: Plenty of Baroque period costumes would look over-the-top on a drag stage! The word “Baroque” itself disparages the period’s aesthetic extra-ness. The term comes from the French word meaning “misshapen” and was originally used to describe lumpy pearls. By 1767, Le Dictionnaire de l'Académie Française defined the word as “irregular, bizarre or unequal”. Baroque concerts were rowdy. Audience etiquette in that era’s operas was really more like a modern football game than a modern classical music performance: People leaving the theater and coming back for the famous singers’ arias, talking, eating, drinking, having a good time with their friends. And Baroque opera is pretty darn queer. So many of the plots feature men disguising themselves as women, women disguising themselves as men, sometimes “accidentally” falling in love with someone of their same gender… Then there’s the convention of female mezzo-sopranos playing young men, of male tenors playing old women, of soprano and mezzo castrati playing masculine romantic heroes... It always makes me laugh to hear conservatives holding up Baroque music as exemplary of restraint or good taste. Especially when they're using it to bash contemporary music's perceived harshness, sensuality, aesthetic excess, or lack of respect for tradition. “It is my belief that there is nothing but smoke in the heads of such composers and that they are so enamored of themselves as to think it within their power to corrupt, spoil, and ruin the good old rules handed down in former times by so many theorists and most excellent musicians, the very men from whom these moderns have learned to string together a few notes with little grace.” (“Of the Imperfections of Modern Music” by Giovanni Maria Artusi. Written in criticism of Claudio Monteverdi in the year 1600.)

[@johnwalker1058]

So older generation people being like "the youngster's music of this generation sucks, my generation had real sh*t" sentiments basically run back through human history. Got it.

[@StarberryGAME]

Wow, thank you for this observation. Another brilliant layer to the video that I'm sure went over a lot of people's heads (I know it went over mine)

[@klisterklister2367]

i feel this in my soul, baroque music slaps

[@elenamora1150]

Okay, I need to state: I love you - or at least I love, how your mind works. Now I'll have to listen to more baroque music. Thanks for your analysis and interpretation

[@r.taylor8836]

So, if its not Baroque, do fix it? Nothing is truly as classy as anyone likes to think of it as.

[@dunadan1995]

It's so weird how these videos are a lot of the time on a topic that I genuinely don't care about(not a lot of glamour and opulence going on where I'm from), and then Natalie just comes through with a 50 minute video and I feel like I absolutely have to watch it and then she just makes it so absurdly fun and interesting and visually stunning that I can't help but get into the topic that I had no prior experiences with or a strong opinion on. Goddamnit, this is art.

[@geovanedasilvaporto628]

Kinda same

[@JackDevaney]

Also same

[@OpalPrinzessin]

I only realized now it was a 50 min video. Wow. She's worth it.

[@jordanallen3078]

@@OpalPrinzessin 49 minutes 6 seconds.

[@heroicfool8541]

"This decaying opulence that is the carcass of 20th century consumerism." Thank you for inspiring my next horror story aesthetic.

[@Talmonis42]

Yeah, it's the background I've been working with of late as well. Few things are more disturbing to me than the empty halls and boarded up houses of American decay. We spent two centuries killing all of the predators that could threaten our cities and towns, pushing them further and further into the wilderness, when we didn't exterminate them entirely. One wonders what kind of things will prosper in empty towns of fewer and fewer "sane" people.

[@HammarHeart]

Soooo, Dawn of the Dead?

[@felipevitorino7745]

“My earliest memories are of aesthetic bliss.” Such a great line Natalie writes so well

[@linseyspolidoro5122]

That Jo Weldon line: “Tacky, like hell, is always other people.” 👌🏻 Spot on.

[@chubbybee2]

Personally, I fully enjoy being tacky on purpose. Decora is fun and it fuels my soul

[@seanaaron7888]

I'm now confused about the definition of tacky. I'm surprised poor/poverty was left out of the description because that's how I always thought of it. I grew up in a trailer park and my parent always called things like exposed wood, blankets in windows, people outside in pjs, etc., as tacky..

[@lobrundell4264]

Oh yeah you like Contrapoints? Name five of her gemstones.

[@lostotter1956]

Countrapoints is Thanos confirmed

[@rebix6848]

Obsidian, amethyst, uuuhhh... jade?

[@kingkitty4248]

Trashade, Campereye, subsidian, stranggeleigh, Falsewood.

[@lobrundell4264]

@@kingkitty4248 subsidian😄

[@lolitaras22]

Baruch Spinoza, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Bo Burnham, John Waters.

[@mxrush76]

I'm grateful with you, I'm a simple heterosexual guy that has understood a lot of things about trans and LGBT community that help me to reach a healthy masculinity.

[@leoleyva4719]

we love that for you self aware king

[@Wesker10000]

What does that even look like? We're still privileged as fuck. How is that healthy?

[@Flowtail]

@@Wesker10000 my dude, your comment kinda implies that all the cis, het, able-bodied, white men gotta go give themselves a disability and marry a trans PoC, otherwise they Cannot Exist due to their Privilege power isn't in itself a moral good or ill, rather it comes in how that power is wielded

[@Wesker10000]

@Kimmy I wanna know what healthy masculinity looks like. I don't want to be toxic but I don't know how It is possible.

[@Wesker10000]

@@Flowtail Marrying wouldn't fix anything. Being discriminated against would. Or not existing/excluding ourselves from the public sphere. Yeah. But how it is gotten is also important. We got it unjustly.

[@highclass_lady]

I love the illuision of "untouchable" "safety" & "security" that a "comfortable" life suggests. A fantasy of being unbothered by, or at least more equipped to deal with, a lot of the worries, precarity, danger & instability that makes the underprivileged particularly vulnerable. Seeking out 'simulacrums' & escapism reminds me of a *Breakfast At Tiffany's* quote (alluding to anxiety & PTSD) *"Well, when I get it the only thing that does any good is to jump in a cab and go to Tiffany's. Calms me down right away. The quietness and the proud look of it; nothing very bad could happen to you there"*

[@hannahbevan7055]

“English gentleman Oscar Wilde” this hurts my Irish heart

[@michaellevesley3578]

I was just about to comment saying that oscar wilde was irish

[@h0wnr681]

@@michaellevesley3578 I had no idea, he's always shown in media with an english accent

[@cfmorrow1]

That's not contra points fault. I mean, shes not wrong in a way. Wilde was Anglo Saxon or anglo irish and our country hasn't a very good history of acknowledging people of different religions, and also hated people who had any UK ancestry and treated them like they had no place here. Also he lived abroad and his acceptance into the irish cannon is only very recently because of his whole court case and the state of homophobia at the time.

[@ONeill01]

Ughh 😞

[@michellejean11]

We can forgive Natalie for this little slip mostly we Irish know who Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was.

[@pauly260]

"I think it is still hitting people with slow motion shock that the 20th century is really over...In the 80s, this looked like the start of a big new world of wealth for everyone. In fact, it was the last gasp of 20th century general prosperity." As someone who was born and raised in post-Vietnam era America, this hit me hard. We are living in an age of globalized trade, runaway inflation & growing class disparity & society in large is still in a cold war mindset, like the magical Reagan fairy will touch his glittery Deregulation & Privatization wand onto all our problems & make them vanish, not realizing those concepts got us here. Think of it this way; if all the factories closed in the sixties & your average baby boomer in their twenties had to work two jobs, or accept harder employment at lower pay, would we be in this mess? Is telling the (former) middle class that "you just need to apply yourself, that's what I did" helping anyone? I remember the age of the mall. It seemed like things were only going to get better. Hell, I remember every teen hanging out there on Friday & Saturday night. The fact that so many have closed or been torn down is testament to the failure of oat & sparrow economics. Now I understand the casino analogy.

[@c_wyz]

The first bit you quoted: Do you know where the original comment went?

[@pauly260]

MeMyselfAndI534 don’t know. I got it from pausing this video.

[@dylankornberg4892]

I feel like every small to midsize town in the US has some version, in varying degrees, of the Owing’s Mill phenomenon. I remember being 12 or 13 years old and realizing the nearby mall near my hometown in Massachusetts was dying. That was some 14 years ago, and it’s still in the midst of its slow, agonizing death throes. Walking through a dying mall that’s been dying for over a decade, one that you still dimly remember as a local Mecca of commerce and social life, is a profoundly strange experience. Whenever I visit my parents I always try to make a trip to that mall, partly to see if it’s still there but mostly out of a macabre pleasure in walking through its dimly lit, half empty halls, the ethereal sounds of early 2000s pop music echoing across the faux marble corridors.

[@bossbaddiegames]

Dylan Kornberg here in England I find we have a similar situation. Everything here is packed tighter. Our malls/shopping centres sit inside towns so they never truly die. My nearest one, I’d say 25% of the stores are the same as they were 15 years ago but they’re run by expertly niche individuals or massive chain stores. What is a mess are stores outside the shelter of the centre. Those on high streets are gutted and gone for the most part. There’s an out of town/city mall we have called the Trafford Centre and it’s still like the old days… plasterboard painted to look like gran opulent marble, massive food court, good mix of shops. It’s funny how that place stands immortal. Only now I’m realising how weird it is that it’s still there with it’s cinema, arcades, big and little shops… they even expanded it about 6 years ago adding loads more shops across a bridge that connects the two massive complexes together.

[@WindspriteM]

It's interesting to read this from a German perspective. There are malls here, but there never where that many in the first place. And same above mentioned about the UK, we have malls mostly in city and town centers, so they don't die out completely, especially in a local center (like the larger town nearest to most other towns and villages within 20 minutes of driving) What I see happening a lot, is a commercial centralization. Small towns lose their central shopping streets while the next larger central town or city gains a lot more interesting and specialized places for eating and shopping. Sometimes that's nice, because there's actually a higher diversity in shops than before, however long established business models (like family bakeries, butcheries or other crafts are subsumed by larger local chains that operate in a more industrial way) I don't know if the buying power has gone down that much. Maybe shops dying out here just isn't as blatant as huge malls emptying, because we never had highly opulent malls in the first place. German malls are more like clean shopping streets with a roof above. I really wonder how Natalie would see the aesthetics of German malls, because the aesthetics are simply different. They are a little less impressive, less marbly, with more glass and steel and generally toned down, with mirrors being the shiniest things. Personally I like them better, but I'm undecided if it's because they really aren't as gaudy as American malls or if I'm just more attuned to this style. My father tells me, people used to feel less of a need to dress up, because everyone earned about the same (and we don't dream the American dream of becoming successful as much, political promise has always focused more on achieving stability rather than big success) so why show off, but now that inequality is rising (here in Germany too), people feel more pressure to give an appearance than before. We also discussed this in the context of a three-week-trip to Paraguay I'd been on, where I realized that even though people had really simple living conditions, they would make sure to have a wardrobe that didn't give away their low social standing. A lot of older clientele with savings help keep certain businesses alive on the streets in my area and municipal authorities often make a lot of fuss about the shopping streets dying out and pour effort in it to keep it from happening, by setting up events, like international food festival here or a concert there. I think part of the trend of shops closing down can also be ascribed to online shopping (that it would have happened regardless of economic policy) When I'm in China on the other hand, I observe a huge boom in new and recent shopping malls. All of them very shiny, new and also a slight mess of unfinished parts still under construction (like, in Germany that mall would never ever have already opened), but all very exciting and there was a _plethora_ of them. If you've ever wondered, why the Chinese are willing to put up with their government, apart from gaps in their political education, I suppose that shopping malls are probably part of the answer. Oh, and yes, my family is bougie enough that I live in Germany but have visited both China and the US...

[@madmady8278]

I think the fact that the 80s has decayed so much is very emblematic of why so many movies and shows want to recreate it. My generation has never really seen the true 80s. So like with ancient Greeks or the Victorians we adore seeing this forgotten era of financial and social prosperity unfold in a highly dramatised representation. Even though it's rarely a historically accurate depiction of the time itself. But similarly theres a growing distance between us and that era. Though it belonged to my parents theres a growing air of divide, as my generation sees less and less of a future and our parents care less and less about trying to save one for us. In that way the 80s are haunted to us. They represent a time of unhindered growth and opportunity for the generation that came before us. But to us they represent the final reaping of our resources, a garish race to take the last with little consideration for all the children yet to come. The mall IS the vampires nest, and theres a morbid satisfaction for youth in watching it die.

[@leahheim1923]

LOVE THIS

[@jumpoutatree]

Speaking as someone who lived through the 80s, the striving and avarice of that decade was nothing compared to that of 2004-2007. I've never lived through a blingier era than that.

[@angelaslittlebit]

To me, the 80s is the era that set the course for the world we live in today. In it, there was a significant shift to the right politically (Regan, Thatcher, etc). This increased wealth for some, but at the expense of those with less. The yuppies of those days were the winners, and the rust belts were for the rest. Since then, the disparity has spread, creeping over a larger and larger proportion of society. I remember many voices during the 80s decrying the growing divide between those in society with a future and those without. The only real change has been one of proportion.

[@nerveagent1905]

There's something satisfying about it, certainly

[@Shaigorath]

The joke is on this generation because the malls died and were replaced by cheap crap from Walmart and Amazon.

[@greycat1246]

going back to this video years later I'm struck by how Natalie predicted the boom of liminal spaces as a horror aesthetic as much as they've become a bit trite now, I can't help but love them, they do evoke this sense of decay in the 21st century, clean artificial rot

[@trissylegs]

"rAp muSIc es thE reEson for prOBlems wIth the blAcks". Is the my faviore Ben Shapiro impersonation.

[@kittykittybangbang9367]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/bYrTaq2Df8R-p68

[@legrandliseurtri7495]

Wait, he really said that? Sadly I'm not surprised.

[@bcreel83]

then you haven't really listened. his phrase is "the problem has nothing to do with race and everything to do with culture, and the governments' push to devalue the nuclear family (father in the family to especially guide their young sons and show better decision making) with a focus on education as an expectation, and modeling proper ways to deal with conflict and fear, and to show all of the opportunities available to their children, that especially grown with education, learning social niceties, and schools should be teaching real skills. like how to pay bills, what rent is. what gpa is. what happens to your future available choices, and why they become fewer and fewer, if they don't pick up on these expectations that society will expect you to know, and won't give you a pass, just because you weren't taught. it sucks to start in that situation, but thats where it needs to start. at home

[@bcreel83]

he also goes over " do these 3 things and you'll never be poor: graduate high school, get a full time job, and don't have children before you get married". and if you try and say "why is that important?" you know youre not being honest to yourself. that rings true for any human with a pulse any 10 year old would agree.

[@legrandliseurtri7495]

@@bcreel83 Yeah, whatever. Shapiro is a fascist.

[@thepresence365]

As an English teacher, I stand behind Natalie's synopsis of F. Scott Sparknotes' work 👍

[@tonycampbell1424]

"When I was young, in the 1970's" "When I was young, in the 1940's" Oh come now, girl. We all know better. You were never young; you're just a force of nature in corporeal form, a timeless muse with lungs and teeth and fabulous legs.

[@jungoo3486]

I was born in the 1902 lol am still alive you mere mortals!

[@dalegribble4308]

Anonymous Human9999 mr burns?

[@dalegribble4308]

Tony Campbell she was an Atlantean priestess. Check out atlantean ball pictures online

[@rhyderrek6155]

I maintain that she is an avatar of Dionysus.

[@Plant_Parenthood]

Most people dont know this but when you change genders, you have to start ageing again from 0

[@Dekubud]

As a trans guy from a dirt poor family, I think this video really helped me understand my "gaudy" tastes, how they both conflict and go along with my desire to pass as well as how I came to accept those gaudy tastes at the same time I accepted my transness. I think people have associated gaudiness with feminity so much they don't consider that leather jackets completely covered in spikes, huge motorcycles, being covered in tattoos or owning a huge offroad truck as a city dweller are, in essence, just as gaudy is a any example you gave in your video. To me, they all are gaudy and I say that while unironically loving those things. I wonder if my bad taste should be considered naive or not. Because I don't like tacky things or dress in a tacky way ironically. I sincerely love those things but I also know they fall outside of what is considered classy and am completely capable of dressing in a classy way.

[@nikk6435]

interesting. I'm transmasculine as well and my guilty gaudy thing is this country hip-hop white boy aesthetic. I'm quite in a conflict with this, as someone who is not related to it culturally and also who holds progressive left views, while I associate that aesthetic with conservatism. I think for me it is a manifestation of being an immigrant who grew up liking American things and a way gender dysphoria messed with me. It's like I cringe and love it at the same time. Have never reflected on it before, and now I did!

[@tortis6342]

Oof yeah. I love the exuberant flamboyance of 90s grunge, even though I’m too pragmatic to wear bright colors.

[@maximumslap2687]

What a cool take. Now that I think about it, what is the crass, playful exuberance of 1960’s Kustom Kulture if not “masculine” camp. Or the modern bosozoku subculture. I honestly don’t know much about these subcultures or their histories, but I’ve noticed in photos from earlier 1950’s hot rodder meetups girls posing with boys and styling themselves exactly the same, in the same cut of jeans and custom leather jackets. Curiously, in sharp contrast with the fiction of some 1960’s underground *biker* comics I’d once read (and at least one movie) that place heavy emphasis on strict separation of gender roles - only men are the bikers, hypermasculine, unkempt, violent, criminal; whereas women are always roadside bar dwellers, promiscuous, hyperfeminine, often disposable partners for the male characters, even if that itself is portrayed as tragic.

[@slimkt]

My dad once referred to Natalie as ‘the smart half-naked woman that looks like she stepped out of a fancy painting.’ I see it now. Also, can we praise Natalie for getting other loveable YTers to do voiceover for the quotes? Great touch!

[@landonpowell6296]

Adam Neely's cameo was dope, but tbh Buck Angel is a shithead, lol.

[@clarkrogers7789]

Buck Angel is a shithead AND his voice acting was really bad.

[@charcoalangel7536]

@Brittany Gail-Regula Please don't be a d*ck about things.

[@leolin8956]

@Brittany Gail-Regula This may be one of the most unintelligent responses I've seen on youtube in a while. What was I expecting anyways? Especially from a person who refers to themselves as an adult while possessing the maturity of a toddler and the intelligence of a common jellyfish

[@doogusbroogus1079]

okaaayyyyy........anyways, yeah screw Buck Angel.

[@criticalthinkingconcubus]

I went to a relatively “mixed” high school in the city. One day my dad befriended a black man whose son went to my school. His name was Malachi. When asked him if his son knew me his response was, “Oh, you’re talking about the rich girl.” When he told me about that I was perplexed. My family was very well off, but I wouldn’t say we’re rich. I certainly never looked rich. I only wore blue jeans, sneakers, t-shirts, and I never wore jewelry nor got my nails done. My back pack was also nothing fancy. As a I grew up and my world view widened, it dawned on me. I always wore a new outfit every day, kept my clothes and shoes clean, bought a new backpack every school year, went to the movies every weekend, had a weekly allowance, wasn’t forced nor inclined to get an after school job, lived in the rich side of the city, went on out of state vacations twice a year, I was able to bring big lunches from home and had one of those insulted lunch boxes, and shopped at the mall a lot so odds are some of the kids saw me hanging around there. I’m also an only child. From Malachi, and possibly the other black kids’ perspectives, I was rich. When I think of “rich girls,” I think of Sharpay, Elle Woods, or the cast of Mean Girls. People who wore brands like Calvin Klein, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and Prada. Who road around in new sports cars and limousines, took European yacht vacations every weekend, and lived in 5 story mansions. It made me realize that “rich” was a matter of perspective.

[@Tam-gg4zr]

Jasmine Donald I totally get you. Coming from a refugee family that was struggling financially during my childhood I always thought my family was poor-but they always insisted that we were actually well off. It wasn’t until my parents saved enough and visited the homeland where I witnessed abject poverty and starvation firsthand that I understood how privileged and well off I actually was.

[@masmantour]

I grew up poor and people always thought my brothers and I were well off because we were clean and well dressed. My parents used to say that being poor didn't mean you didn't have to care, but I think they were just protecting us from a more abject poverty. The type that couldn't afford running water.

[@Zimpfnis]

Oh No! Who insulted your lunch box? It has no agency in its design:)

[@jadrobe3492]

oh my gosh, yes,, my perspective has been widened, thank you

[@isabee5332]

I get this. I was the poor kid at my highschool. I worked 20-30 hours a week to help my parents pay the electric bills. I never had new clothes and so on. I was always so jealous of people that got to go on fieldtrips that cost money and such. I realize now honestly there were people much worse off. I'd see you and I'd think rich, because you didnt have to worry about if your parents would have to be late on a electric payment. But at the same time many would be jealous that I had the ability to help my parents make that payment instead of mostly trying to do that on my own. Its crazy. But at the end of the day I think what matters is we all have enough to live plus a little more. Enough to live lets us survive, that little bit more lets us live.

[@PhilosophyTube]

I'll book the Club.

[@AvaToccoRodriguez]

G’day Olly!

[@10z20]

wow, another left tuber, commenting here, just like everyone else! I bet they are friends on other platforms too! I hope they agree with each other on all things and organize little cameos in their videos! hahaha I love youtube.

[@cyancyborg1477]

Oi it's KZbin's bastard prince.

[@meganaxelia]

10z20 Of course haha rawrrr XD UwU.😊 We are all one big globalist cult.😊 Join us, unless you’re a racist, xenophobic, transphobic, homophobic, islamophobic, uneducated, nazi!😊

[@umangmalik]

@@10z20 this but unironically

[@roseszalay2869]

! about the painted statues ! THAT ISN'T WHAT THEY ACTUALLY LOOKED LIKE! We can only infer the base layers of the paint- so any shading, detail, or other such things are lost and because we do not have a basis for what color they used we can only paint with the base colors. The statues probably looked a lot better than the reproductions we see today!

[@jillpole]

Thank you for saying this! My reaction to seeing the painted statues was negative because the recreations flatten out all of the incredible detail the sculptor was able to get in the marble. I'd love to see them painted as they actually would have been.

[@MaliUrum]

that makes sense, it would be nice to see a full recreation with all details and shadings done by artists even with slight inaccuracies

[@kittyess]

“F. Scott Sparknotes” I’m dead

[@JensPlaner]

I just love the music choice of "Ach wie Nichtig - ach wie Flüchtig" by Telemann. Roughly translated it means "Oh how futile, oh how vapid" and it contemplates how inane and vapid material goods are in the face of god. It just perfectly contradicts the message of the video. And to top it all of the music ist composed in Counterpoint! *chefs kiss*

[@sandraranchon1784]

this is the best comment of all

[@estherbosbach377]

OMG If you listen to Telemann long enough, you might die of abjection

[@cogitorium1089]

But it is the kind of music that, when we hear it, makes us imagine a baroque concert hall with an opera singer in a golden coat, and a bourjois crowd looking through binoculars. Therefore, it confirms through contradicting. (We imagine the taste of baroque as lavish and opulent, but we also imagine it, still, as classy, as proven by its use for super-intellinent psychopats in cinema).

[@Kaloapoele]

[@anomienormie8126]

ooh nice. good shit.

[@jesslesinski]

“Glamour associated with witchcraft, paganism and sexual deviancy.” Hey how are you? 🧙🏻‍♀️💋

[@RoxanneJ81]

We need to bring that definition of glamour back. I want to see that in a Vogue spread.

[@salenebrom6476]

jesslesinski 🤔

[@idigamstudios7463]

@@RoxanneJ81 As someone into all of those things, agreed Gorge.

[@donnydarko47]

my life explained

[@Jvich]

I am a fresh out of the womb new fan of contrapoints. I’m watching all of her vids Newest to oldest and I am finally at this video - a video in which she was apparently canceled for, for a hot minute. And out of all the countless risky, controversial topics she has spoken on, she was sacrificed to the internet over a video about - pretty gem stones. ( yes yes, I know that’s not what the entire video is about and the content isn’t even related to what she was canceled over, but god dammit that’s called hyperbole kids and all the cool kids are using it.)

[@ksdtsubfil6840]

Welcome to the Queendom of Nyatalie

[@maira.azzara]

why was she canceled

[@celestestellatram1467]

@@maira.azzara She cast a notorious trans actor, Buck Angel, to voice over the John Waters quote.

[@Kyrielsh1]

@@celestestellatram1467 A controversial, it seems, trans actor. Supposedly "truscum" but I don't know yet what that exactly means... Anyway, guilt by association => canceling. Really, Twitter may have given "a voice" to many marginalised people, but it also brings the worst out of people...

[@ImpudentInfidel]

Ironically having Buck Angel on would be a MUCH bigger deal these days. Putting his name on "Trans Men Fight Back" basically burned every bridge.

[@loonachan]

I sometimes work on the decommissions of old offices. In these cases, the offices aren't typically demolished, but are sold to others, and they typically want to redo everything- carpets, walls, light fixtures, doors, etc. One place I did used to be the global headquarters of a rather large company that was doing quite well throughout the 90s and 00s, and they did the place up to be rather... opulent, especially in parts. Artwork both in painting and sculpture form, the owner was into classic cars and always had at least one beautifully restored car on display inside of the office. A much larger company bought this one out after it hit the skids during the recession, and the new owners have no need for such an opulent place. So it was my entire job for a while to oversee this ruin, as staff were slowly moved out into other offices and everything else was moved out or trashed. It's here you see just how phony a lot of this opulence is- once it's torn off the wall and put on a different light it is just a pointless decoration, a celebration of success that is always going to be fleeting. It truly was an eerie and depressing but also a little satisfying to be paid a large amount of money to turn the place into a stripped-down ruin to be papered over once again by someone who hopefully had more... taste.

[@nicholaslastname]

second vote; for the algorithm

[@Greenarchy]

I used to do network wiring in offices, from old to under instruction, it was truly weird watching finish carpenters glue fancy looking veneers onto shitty disposable composite wood. And knowing that it would all be thrown away in a couple years. Made me sad

[@RegsaGC]

Algorithm gang.

[@dylanbarr9074]

and the people?

[@loonachan]

@@dylanbarr9074 The people were largely just moved to other offices. It wasn't so much downsizing as it was just getting rid of a building the new company owners really didn't need. The last couple waves of people coming out were kinda screwed though, as they essentially had to go to work at a depressing abandoned building and as soon as the ownership of the building flipped, the new owners started charging them like $100 a week for parking. Keep in mind that many of these people worked at the old company HQ, they were generally considered more important than those working at the satellite offices- the same offices they were stuffed into once their building closed. Poetic.

[@sital9117]

Well, this "decaying opulence" movement/aesthetics has actually been a thing since the early 2010s. The vaporwave music genre started out as a critique of consumer capitalist culture, with its 80s and 90s visual aesthetic of empty malls, old computer operating systems (like Windows 95 and all of that), romanticized advertisements, etc. The main appeal of the genre is the feelings of nostalgia for this idea of a consumerist future where the glamour and opulence of material wealth is at the tip of your fingers, but it is then contrasted with the reality that this never happened and that it's all a cheap tactic to take your money, also the fact that a lot of these malls are now abandoned. There are other sub-genres that do the same thing but instead give different types of imagery like: stereotypical groceries and their endless aisles filled with fresh produce at every corner, or big bustling cities with underlying tones of dread and lost potential. Obviously these aren't the only types of aesthetics the genre offers, but they all have the similar theme of being empty husk-like ideas of the 20th century.

[@Jaqhnun]

I immediately thought of Vaporwave too during the segment about dead malls. A genre echoing the visual and auditory aesthetics, broken promises and empty dreams of the late 20th century... gothic to the core, but make it teal and hot pink.

[@sital9117]

@@Jaqhnun well the "hot pink" variant to vaporwave would be pc music. They have the same critique of consumer culture but instead of decaying malls its hot pink advertisements, extremely vapid/soulless themes, and a sort of ironic happiness accompanied with lyrics about virtual lifestyles and 21st century relationship problems. While vaporwave tries to imbrace consumerism in a more sad/nostalgic way; pc music and other collectives like it (nuxxe, for example) embrace consumerism by showing the vapid positivity and all of its glistening advantages.

[@johnnydugas1970]

I mean it's been a thing since dark romanticism like she's talking about

[@sital9117]

@@johnnydugas1970 of course, but I'm talking about the specific romanticism of 20th century consumerist culture when she talked about decaying malls and shops

[@johnnydugas1970]

@@sital9117 ahhhhhh, I understand. Apologies

[@Spottedleaf14]

back in my first year at college, I wrote a paper on the connection between white supremacy and neo-classicism, and I had to dig, hard, into the library resources to find that information about the roman statue-paint. I was studying art history, and every class included these modern all-white images, presenting the West as contiguous with this art. I'm so glad this is a bit more present in the common discourse now.

[@thebiggestcauldron]

The past tastes best when the time has washed off all its actual colours.

[@Sophia-zk5kz]

@@thebiggestcauldron Damn, that's a solid quote and so true.

[@timetotalktitanic7381]

The occasional “hey how are you?” are so hilarious! I dunno why, they just kill me hahaha gotta love Natalie

[@rinamine]

When Natalie said, "We live in a society," I felt that. 😔😔😔

[@quietkiwi7572]

Same bro so hard.

[@hanshintermann1551]

BOTTOM TEXT

[@adaremalke2948]

The thing I find funny is that I've always loved Natalie's aesthetic. I genuinely find it timeless and visually pleasing. To hear people think its tacky is surprising to me. Is it a bit extra? Yes. But not in a way that I find busy or visually confusing

[@DocBree13]

Damn, I love this woman. I feel like I should get university fine arts credit for watching some of these videos.

[@highclass_lady]

"For the wealthy and powerful, opulence is a flex, a demonstration of their wealth and power; but for the marginalized and impoverished, opulence is a simulacrum of the wealth and power they’ve been denied." -Natalie Wynn saving this quote 💓

[@EikokuSama]

"oh kingsley....it looks...it looks mexican!" added to my list of criminally underrated contrapoints lines

[@rawhamburgerjoe]

My brother is a classics professor and his advisor's first name was Kingsley.

[@maxrubin4001]

My favorite underrated Contrapoints line is "Good banter, well done" from her video "The Aesthetic"

[@blueheartsystem1502]

never realized so many philosophers were gay until you mentioned it. wow. how long as the gay agenda existed?

[@delen4386]

idk ask the sumerians they were into trans women and nonbinary folks were assigned magic powers, these greek only copied pasted itt

[@waningmoons]

delen y kore gacha so the gay agenda has existed for as long as civilization has...wait until some folks realize that lol

[@aecides3203]

@@waningmoons Yeah, around since the dawn of civilisation with our agenda and we still haven't collapsed it into an orgy of deviant behaviour. We really need to step up our game or nobody's going to take us seriously. Soon my pretties, soon.

[@henryanderson6752]

How old is thinking?

[@i_snort_bathsalts8388]

You: we're gay? Everyone else: always has been Click

[@eruditeidiot]

"Honey, you'd better start a revolution" should be on some kind of merch. Made me laugh so hard I had to rewind.

[@isntitabeautifulday1648]

We have kind of already did that : we have printed Che Guevara's face on a lot of cheap t-shirts manufactured in China by now. Capitalism is very efficient at reclaiming pretty much everything, and especially ideas, expressions and symbols which were supposed to fight it.

[@Guy-m8m]

'Chicks with Bricks'

[@jauxro]

The phrase "Chicks with Bricks" really resonated with me lol

[@nathanphillips6911]

I think this is my favorite of all of Natalie's work. This really is a masterpiece.

[@felipevitorino7745]

This was her Magnum Opus. Deep reflections, dead on predictions, delivery on point, music crisp, ART! AAAARRRRRTTTTT

[@Blondiebelle196]

It's been a year and I just had to come back to this video after watching D'angelo Wallace's influencer-19 vid. Its exactly what you said Natalie, when the poor are suffering this much, they no longer see displays of wealth as aspiring, but as examples of a broken and detrimental society.

[@MaryamofShomal]

D’Angelo and Natalie are two of my absolute favorites

[@Queen_Ribbon]

I just watched this now and tbh I feel like 20th Century Gothic as an aesthetic could be discussed in relation to vaporwave, given its roots in taking artifacts from 80s consumerist culture and warping it to create dissonance and surrealism. There's even a specific subgenre of vaporwave called "mallsoft" which conceptually tries to answer the question "what does music at an abandoned mall sound like?"

[@bifurioussiren]

this +

[@Arshva]

Or every vampire is a knock off CardiB. Imagine...

[@RevolutionUtena]

I’m just going to pretentiously note that my ancient Roman art obsessed self is really happy that you’re spreading the gospel of painted statues.

[@ArgoIo]

Considering how expensive and hard to get by bright and vivid pigments where in ancient times, seeing a sculpture or building in it's original painted state can be breathtaking.

[@d3nza482]

@@ArgoIo It's about as original as the white marble look was. Actually, it's more like a cheap Chinese knockoff. Originals were painted to achieve life-like authenticity. Recreations were painted to achieve sensationalism. That is why they are painted as if by a small child, slapping a flat coat of paint over various parts of the statue while leaving most of its marble unpainted - they were going for the shock effect of paint on chalk. "OMG! They were NOT white?! Well, I say..." Romans left quite a few paintings and mosaics showing that they understood the use of paint to achieve shades, tones and texture of human skin and garments. Assuming that those same artists were painting their VERY HARD to make and VERY EXPENSIVE statues as children would paint their wooden dolls only reveals the inbred superiority and disdain of the folks doing the painting of those replicas. Both over the "Roman pagans" and of the general unwashed public. "So... You think that you know something about Romans, you poor peasant? Do you have even a mere masters?" Same as with talk of "whitewashing". As if renaissance artists, whose esthetic it is that ended up being copied through later centuries, were busy with setting a racial agenda. Must be why they used bronze for blonds. apollo.imgix.net/content/uploads/2019/01/WebImage_FebDiary_closeup.jpg

[@yltraviole]

@@d3nza482 I don't think it was just sensationalism. Scientific methods can deduce that these marble statues were painted red, or blue or whatever, but subtler shades than that can't be found by just checking the chemicals left behind on marble. Maybe it can be assumed by comparing the statues to the mosaics and frescoes of the ancients, but the people making the reconstructions could have reasoned that, since it can't be proven with absolute certainty, we shouldn't base them on those assumptions. That said, I suspect that the next wave of scientific discourse is going to argue that the original colors were actually subtler and not as flat. But I don't think it's fair to assume that the current reconstructions are the result of sensationalism instead of the lack of nuance of an archeologic discovery in process.

[@Cythil]

@@yltraviole I think the problem is that we sometime assume something to be the norm without exploring the other options. We assumed that the marble statues where not painted so we always presented it as that. Not to extreme assumption I will admit. But now we know they where painted. We do however assume a bit to much sometimes in what techniques where used and often assume just the simplest techniques where used. It a good base start but I think we should also explore (And especially look) for other possibilities. We can see this in other fields to. Like sometimes certain species of dinosaurs appears unfeathered in reconstructions just because we have not found any traces of feathers yet on those parts. But every related species do have feathers on those parts. I think in some cases it would make more sense for us to actually explore alternatives since it might inspire us to look for signs of those potential alternatives. And of course. Do not assume that people (or nature, when we talk about palaeontology) needs to conform to our sense of aesthetics today. I quite like white marble. But I understand that while I might find a white temple to look aetheticaly pleasing people in the past wanted something more colourful. And I have actually come to appreciate my self more rich colours and feathered dinos. Leaving me in a situation where I like both the old and the new old old. Both the artificial and the real. ;)

[@tommier5210]

I like your username.

[@yolandaponkers1581]

So awful, yet interesting, to hear about the forlorn, newly-destitute man in Vegas. I visited Reno a few years ago, and I’m not a religious person, but it just felt like Sodom and Gomorrah, for lack of a better descriptive. People left and right were crying after losing everything, crying in pawn shops trying to sell their most valuable possessions for quick cash back home, and even asking if they could provide services to strangers to pay off their debts. It felt like the whole town preyed on suffering.