9.2 - A Rainbow of Inequality: When Social Control Masquerades as Social Justice

[@Reznovismorethan3characters]

Genuinely therapeutic content, watching these videos makes me feel a lot less mad and alone.

[@brysonfetters4934]

This show feels a breath of fresh air in politics nowadays, even compared to lots of the content produced on the left. You don't see analysis this well thought out and clearly communicated almost anywhere else. I hope in the future more people are able to find these videos and learn from them as well!

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

thanks so much! and thanks so much for the donation, it means a lot and really helps! please share if you know people who would benefit or be receptive to this, that’s the most important thing

[@ΛάμψιςἈταξία]

What are you talking about this sounds like another Daily Wire pundit

[@goodwillambassador4102]

​@@ΛάμψιςἈταξίαBad bot

[@ΛάμψιςἈταξία]

@goodwillambassador4102 lol, sure go watch some Ben Shapiro, normie

[@nachfullbarertrank5230]

@@ΛάμψιςἈταξία nah, not really

[@martinb4272]

Yes! I've been saying this for over 10 years now. The bread and circuses and the divide and conquer still holds true.

[@Spytyc]

So far, this is the only channel that accurately portrays the workings of human society correctly.

[@bladdnun3016]

Nailed it, again! Some of the ideas you express were already present in my mind in a half-baked form. Your videos help immensely with connecting the dots and formulating a coherent picture.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

excellent, that’s what i’m trying to do, bake the unbaked cookies and cakes!

[@poppymoon777]

He’s spot on

[@vollstaendingennamen]

yeah, many of those ideas have been around for a long time, its called fascism.

[@ΑρτεμισίαΠλοκαμίδου]

Same!

[@aicram62]

@@WHATISPOLITICS69 aaaahhh don't run... You're WAKING US UP.

[@DjinnandTonik]

Bro, your channel is a revelation. Proper legend. Has helped clarify a lot of things. I felt similarly about stuff but didn't know the historical context as much. Thank you

[@Patxi1776]

Thank you for all the effort you put into making this. This needs to go go viral and be seen by everyone.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

make it so!

[@beyondborderfilms4352]

I really love your work as you break down why alot of social movements feel so different from even 50 years ago. The wealthy and university elites have taken control of these social movements and the media supporta them. Now we need to figure out how to get them back to the common people like you and me.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

yeah i think i want to try to figure out how to make short tiktok videos for a less politically educated audience

[@PaulRGauthier]

We need class-based, socialist and anti-PMC politics. The anti-PMC part is not optional.

[@yazx2434]

As an adult woman with ADHD, thank you for such entertaining videos. :) You are one of the few I can go over an hour and pay attention the entire time. I smile at every inappropriate picture. I can't say I ever grew up in that regard.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

haha im glad! i always feel like these are too dense and my head would explode watching them - but it takes me 3-4 fucking weeks to edit in all of those images (including creating some of them) so i’m really happy that they’re appreciated!

[@enterthevoidIi]

Self diagnosis is not a real diagnosis

[@luxill0s]

@enterthevoidIi How is that relevant to what this commenter said?

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

@@luxill0s it’s not it’s just gratuitous asshole trolling

[@turnipsociety706]

@@WHATISPOLITICS69 they are! hat is why I listen to the podcast. but they are very entertaining, and in the age of visual media, they are very good at getting attention, QED

[@Pletzmutz]

Very glad to see you continue your "original" series. Your videos on language and the history of hierarchies had a significant impact on my political thinking. Thank you!

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

all the stuff i do is related, so it all comes back to this stuff

[@songs8619]

Thank you for eloquently and clearly explaining that which I have been trying to explain to people for ages! It's a huge blessing to have the ability to express oneself in an easily intelligible way.

[@Patrick-jj5nh]

this is so good! thank you. i ve been telling people for years racism essentially comes down to economic self interest and group reference, so addressing inequality is key to solve these exploitable tensions and racist forces...but people always beat you down. these are great, clear arguments for it.

[@THNKKY]

I don’t know if there’s any more effective words than “this guy gets it”, raked my brain and gave up. New to the channel, just about to listen again!

[@MpWrproductions]

Based on the title alone I thought I was being recommended some q-anon agitprop but after watching I gotta say this might be one of the best videos I've ever seen. Great job providing such insightful and thought provoking commentary on the economics of social justice rhetoric and who benefits from it. I can't wait to dive into more of your videos!

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

haha, gotta use the flashy titles to reel ‘em in!

[@Graive17]

​@@WHATISPOLITICS69it worked like a hot damn on me when you released the video about one party dictatorship. I'm so glad my inner reactionary clicked on your video!

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

@@Graive17 haha my clickbait conversion therapy strategy is working!

[@mammamiapizzeria4911]

This is one of the best primer on the subject matter I have seen to date. The fundamental roots and the necessary depth required to make sense of the subject matter has been presented in the most simple and effective manner possible. Utmost gratitude for your work and super kudos for your talent in communication.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

thanks! yes i think i’m good at making things simple. it’s why i hate postmodernism so much!

[@mammamiapizzeria4911]

@@WHATISPOLITICS69 Would love to hear your take on postmodern and critical theory as well someday when you have relatively free time to make videos on it. This was my first video on your channel. Will come back and watch all whenever I get the time to. Lots of interesting topics I see.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

@@mammamiapizzeria4911 oof - i feel like it’s not even worth wasting time on. i encountered it for the first time in grad school and was just shocked by how idiotic it was compared to all the stuff i’d been studying on my own before then. it’s basically just taking all the bright minds in the US and basically neutralizing them so that they can’t be effective radicals, instead turning them into incomprehensible useless circle jerk masturbators.

[@mammamiapizzeria4911]

@@WHATISPOLITICS69 "useless circle jerk masturbators" 🤣🤣🤣

[@bilybob-c4p]

I've been feeling so alone in my perspective of things; it's so refreshing to hear someone else articulate them.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

there are more and more people starting to see things this way - check out No Politics But Class Politics by Adolph Reed and Walter Benn Michaels - I just started reading it after I made this video, but they have so many of the same ideas i’ve been expressing here

[@meatrace]

Brilliant as always. Seeing a new video on this channel always brightens my day so thanks for the illumination!

[@dorsia6938]

Oh my god, I work at one of the top universities in Australia and this is so spot on. I've always found the marketing and branding offputting because anyone with common sense just has to compare the actual actions of the institution with their branding to realise that it is contrived but when you soend some time analysing it and dismantling the hidden meaning, it becomes insidious and even disgusting in my opinion. I also want to express my sincere thanks for these videos, all the years I spent in school, these videos are honestly one of the only times where I feel like I am being properly educated in how to analyse the world around me and think criticially.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

thank you, i love to hear this! what job do you have at your university? I really should have an epsiode where i have some friends from grad school where we talk about postmodernism, because to me it’s like you had this wave of serious radical scholarship in the 60s and 70s that was directed at actually changing things, and then it got drowned out in the 80s until now with this postmodern dreck which takes all the bright young minds and turns them into faux radical incomprehensible narcissistic, masturbators.

[@dorsia6938]

​@@WHATISPOLITICS69that would be an awesome video. I work in student admin part time, I also study there. It's interesting because I see the world of university from both a student and a staff perspective. I feel that working in admin, especially student admin, is perhaps a bit different from academia in the sense that you really get to understand how the university puts so much effort into pretending to deliver support solutions for students but actually delivers fuck all. We also have big issues with universities exploiting and underpaying workers in academia in Aus, been going on for years and there have been some strikes and protests from staff at different institutions across the country in recent times...The funny but sad realisation I had while watching this video is that my university has begun producing campaign material for workers campaigning for better conditions and the word equitable is all over it. Which before watching this video was crazy to me because I always thought, why not just fucking pay them properly instead of doing this weird and ridiculous "we're protesting against ourselves" bullshit but now it makes complete sense. They're just trying to control the language and co-opt the movement.

[@rukbiiboi]

I laughed at "masturbators" not because I'm immature, I hope, but because it's apt

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

@@rukbiiboi i think so!

[@DJonoNeedsaJob]

​​@@WHATISPOLITICS69would very much appreciate a podcast style episode on this! Love your videos and hearing a discussion on these issues would add another dimension to this show. Also just want to say thank you to your work! I started furiously sharing your videos and podcasts to all my friends since they are such a spot-on- and thought-through analysis of contemporary politics from a genuine leftist perspective - which feels hard to come by in the current climate of social media. I've personally gone through a bachelor and masters degree in political science as well as a master in political economy where teachers continuously muddles basic definitions of the most central concepts which you discuss here. You have really managed to clarify thoughts that have been circulating chaotically in my head and put them into a clear theoretical framework - much more successfully than what 7 years of various university professors, who supposedly are specialized in the field, managed to do. Much of this failure I think clearly comes from the postmodern turn in these critical fields, as you say. Would also be interested in hearing what figures and literature have inspired your thinking the most? Thank you for your work!

[@peanuttasty247]

An extremely insightful (and entertaining) analysis. Your channel is an amazing resource and you deserve far more attention. Thank you for all you do!

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

thanks so much! please share if you know anyone who would be receptive to this!

[@CCDR07]

Thanks again for the very well-crafted content. I think this is one of the most useful videos to share around with people that you have ever made. A great synthesis of history and political and evolutionary theory, and points towards the solutions/directions that we need to turn our thinking to achieve societal change. I wanted to raise a point in regards to your planned "the purpose of identity politics is genocide", though I find it hard to put succintly. My background is in ecology and evolution, and one of my foremost problems with the public face of biology/ecology/evolution (and the presentation of "objective" scientific information through ideological lenses generally) is the elevation of competition as a key evolutionary driver of behaviour, physiology, morphology, etc. in species. For example, in regards to our evolved mechanisms to identify in-groups and out-groups and the benefits derived therein. Yes, competition for resources between groups obviously plays a role in re-enforcing these abilities, however, I would argue that the genesis of in-group/out-group differentiation arose primarily due to the benefits acrued by facilitating population-level and species-level diversification and adaptation over medium to long-term time scales. An much under-appreciated feature of life is the process of diversification. We may marvel at the astounding diversity of life, but most often we chalk it up as an upshot of competition and "survival of the fittest" without ever considering the fundamental evolutionary advantage of mechanisms producing diversification/speciation itself. It's the ability to diversify and adapt to ever-changing circumstances that has enabled life to persist over the long term, and life has learned alot of chemistry, physics, physiology, behavioural ecology, etc. through the school of hard knocks over long time scales to maintain and promote its ability to diversify/speciate. Genes want to stick around, and groups of genes cooperate and compete with each other to try and accomplish this. In addition, there are some very large and important groups of genes that have been around for far longer than others (and are far more common throughout their respective phylogenetic trees up to and including genes that are common to all life), and you can think of these "immortal" genes exploiting/sacrificing other less connected and less necessary genes to maintain themselves. In this way, you can consider evolutionary selection occuring at many different scales/levels. As a simple example, consider the colour of animals. An evolutionary plastic feature, which involves mechanisms that can switch previously evolved genes off and on as necessary, but can also involve mechanisms that increase the mutation rates of certain classes of genes to achieve colour shifts. Now, any given gene doesn't "want" to be mutated out of existence, but the survival of the large mass of shared genetic material within the population as a whole gets final say about it. If a population can change colour when necessary over evolutionary time, it survives. If some tyrant colour determining gene somehow takes control of the bio-chemical architecture and the population can't adaptively colour shift over time, then it's more likely to say bye bye. Similarly, the process of speciation broadly has many, many mechanisms to support it (someone needs to write a book about this) throughout the animal kingdom. Higher mutation rates among genes involved in reproduction is one such important process and animals (birds for examples) have all kinds of geneticaly based chemical/hormonal, behavioural, physiological mechanisms that enable groups of individuals within sympatric populations to become genetically isolated from each other, and boom, you're on the road to a new species with a limited, but specifically differentiated assortment of genes. Note, competition amongst individuals does not play a role here. Any genetic differences in this group are unlikely to enable it to "outcompete" and displace other individuals in the population and change the overall gene pool, however, far more likely is that small population persists due to random chance (e.g., when this occurs on the fringe of a population/species' range. In addition, these small genetic differences may enable this small pop to eek out some kind of new advantage over other individuals if/when the external conditions changes, e.g., temperature tolerances to climate shifts, or immunity to a new pathogen passing through the population, etc. The crux is that this isn't "competition" in the sense that one group's ability to do better is based on causing another to do worse through competition for some scarce resource, rather, it's the ability of one group to persist in the face of changing conditions when the other group can't. Thus, its the populations that maintain their ability to adapt/persist, which carry the day. Coming back to human beings, cultural schismogeneisis and in-group/out-group differentation is a feature of human life primarily because it provided us the means and impetus to explore, adapt, and flourish across a wide variety of climatic/biogeographic conditions. Obviously, at times competition between groups played a role in re-enforcing the necessity of distinguising between different group members, but if we look at speciation and diversification broadly across the kingdoms of life we can see the primary significance of diversification. I bring it all up to begin with because Western lenses put so much stock in competition between groups, between people, between races, etc. etc., nature red in tooth and claw, etc, and I think this is just perverse and is socio-ecologically harmful.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

OK this is really long and my time is limited, so I’m reading it quickly - but i don’t understand your point. I agree 100% that diversity is important in evolution - especially for a “jack of all environments” species like ours. Even more than that, the fact that in the palaeolithic, climate was changing very rapidly, every couple of generations or so, is an additional reason for why genetic diversity would be extra important in human societies. But what does any of that have to do with group identity? And what does any of what you wrote have to do with group identity? Groups don’t need to be genetically homogenous or different from eachother to compete. In fact some of the most fiercely competitive tribes intermarry exclusively with eachother and are genetically identical. Group identity has no relationship to genetic diversity that I can think of. And that’s exactly why the basis of group identity formation is entirely arbitrary. It doesn’t have to be by race - american nationalism or USSR nationalism for example successfully created strong group identity for multiethnic groups. More importantly, what reason can you imagine for group identity to exist outside of resource competition?

[@ALove29]

I really enjoyed this, thank you. 🙏🏽 This crystallizes perfectly what I've been feeling, especially as someone who struggles to identify with either side of the political spectrum.

[@JMoore-vo7ii]

One of the best political videos I have seen on this platform in a while! Glad to see you are still immersed in making great analysis, thanks so much

[@mrtriffid]

I wanted to listen to the whole presentation before I commented again. This presentation is brilliant. It puts many of the intuitive thoughts (removal of class from public discourse; divide and conquer strategies, the exclusion of economic basis of racism, etc.) that I have had for DECADES into concrete form. Your videos will become part of my regular education!

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

thanks! there are some other people talking about this stuff as well, check out This is Revolution, and Adolph Reed, and Jen Pan on the Jacobin Show among others

[@MrPeterReyes]

The whole section at 15:17 made me think of something I once read on Twitter: "Conservatives want a Christ who is like Caesar, while liberals want a Caesar who is like Christ."

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

haha, never heard that one, nice

[@Sedgewise47]

😔And of course it can’t work [either]way…

[@dixztube]

Aren’t both liberals and conservatives Liberal. Quote seems like more vilification of the other side

[@flowgangsemaudamartoz7062]

@@jacquesdemolay4516 Enlighten us then.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

@@dixztube most liberal and conservatives politcs today are liberal politics in the sense that most liberals and conservatives value individual freedoms, a constitution, representative democracy, markets and have no problem with economic domination and contracts between vastly unequal parties - but there are increasing numbers of people who are abandoning ideas of democracy and individual rights, pretty scary

[@ComradeDt]

For someone who thinks that racism exists outside an economic frame, I have to reconsider that they might be more intertwined than I thought. “Vulgar racism” just illicit strong emotions cuz we experience it (even if on face value) and it hurts. Its hard not to react to it and not the crux

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

thanks! i think they’re inseparable really. and it’s important to react to the racism and discrimination, but if you really want to get to the heart of it and think about changing things on a society level, you have to think about the context of competition and exploitation.

[@drphosferrous]

Ive long suspected that there are intelligent evil people at the head of many racist movements who know in their hearts that people are just people (essentially equal from birth) but they use anti-equality ideas to motivate and decieve those of us who more dumb and violent.

[@ErikMartyn]

Damn it man, I only click on 1hour+ video’s to fall asleep to. And here I am, wide awake at the end of your annoyingly riveting video. Great job!

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

sorry for ruining your sleep! sleep is important!

[@__-vb3ht]

This has helped me sort a few thoughts and incongruencies that have been floating about in my brain for a while. And as a person of faith, it is pretty cool that you acknowledge the inherent subserviseness of Christianity, and how it has been co-opted by and after Constantine. A lot of leftists are dogmatically anti-theistic, all their critical thinking or tolerance just goes out the window when religion is mentioned, but I find it's usually among anarchists where there is a more pleasant and citical discussion of faith. As in tuly critical, not blindly condemning. Thanks a lot man

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

yeah i think religion is neutral, it’s good or bad depending on how it’s practiced, interpreted, who’s doing the interpreting!

[@benjaminallisonii724]

I feel the same way. Religion as a concept and the most common ones in any region are not going away. I feel it would make more sense to be critical and reform relgion as a institution rather than abolish it.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

@@benjaminallisonii724 i think religion changes with circumstances and culture in general - so you have people who follow the same bible text but interpret totally differently - like everyone now ignores the parts of the old testament that say you need to stone your wife if she looks at another man too much… and you have super liberal pro gay christians and super homophobic conservative christians.

[@yehmen29]

I'm one of those 'dogmatist' anti theist atheists. I was raped by Christians (including a Roman Catholic priest) from the age of 3 and they tried to force me to become a nun as soon as I turned 16, so I struggle to keep my calm. I also met Anglican and Jewish people who were pimps, and Muslim people who wanted to marry me (or marry me off to friends and cousins of them) to get a French and a British passport. I know very few theists who are good people, and most of them seem to be Sufis or Quakers or to believe in God without belonging to any church (Dr Doris Reisinger Wagner).

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

@@yehmen29that is totally brutal, and i think you’ve earned the right to be super anti religious… though of course lots of atheists and non religious people do all of those same things

[@Bradonomous]

This is brilliant. Simply brilliant. The only person I’ve seen explain systems of power as clearly is Noam Chomsky. I am very impressed how you set out your framework in proper terms without dumbing down, and somehow make usually very dense and inaccessible concepts very clear and transparent. You are the sort of educator that I may not always agree with, but damn if I won’t benefit from listening to.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

my political brain was very much formed by reading and listening to chomsky, so that’s really cool to hear, thanks

[@Buget-Holodeck]

Amazing content! I think I had like 18 aha moments during this video. I've always found it useful to revisit the fundamental concepts to gain clarity around things. But you take this to the next level. This just cuts through so much political confusion. If I could show this in a classroom I would. Thank you so much for your effort and contributions!

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

thanks! that’s exactly what I’m trying to do - some people do show these in classrooms apparently!

[@peternyc]

God, I missed this channel so much. Thank you for doing this!

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

i was working in this the whole bloody time! (minus a week off after the last one)

[@ockhamsblazer]

this is a brilliant video. thank you for all the work you put in this. i will always share with my friends even if they watch or not. economic equality is our greatest ally against oppression

[@maybepriyansh9193]

Cant tell ya how good these are. I always pause to read up whatever is there on the screen and often laugh or smile looking at the memes coz they are so in context!

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

thanks, put a lot of time into those, glad they’re getting proper appreciation!

[@Avernalism]

This was a useful and access able way to broach the topic and I'm thankful for it.

[@amandadosanjos3994]

So happy to see an episode! 🎉

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

me too! i thought i picked an easy topic and could whip this out in a couple of weeks, but instead it took 3 months…

[@stevencolatrella3257]

Another great insightful analysis. I have shared it dar and wide. Keep up the great work!

[@marvinm.messier1120]

YOU NAILED IT!!! Thanks for this - I intend to share it wide and far.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

please do. thank you!

[@brahemoment6632]

This is very well made. Cant wait to watch more!!

[@abdvs325]

So happy to see so many views on your videos these days. I remember the first video of yours I saw was 2. Worbs and I subscribed immediately after finishing. That was back when you only had a few thousand views per video, if that. I've watched all your other videos since and I'm smarter for having done so. For me, this is right up there with the best shows on youtube.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

thanks so much, love to hear it. yeah i remember when getting 1000 views was a big accomplishment - hopefully more people will keep finding this and ideally it’d have an effect on how people think!

[@georgiemerry8929]

Omggg I just love u this is so entertaining and silly and so incredibly gripping and educational. This shit is so heavy sometimes- being someone who’s not rich at uni- who didn’t grow up middle class, the apathy is so deep and fucked- that’s what disturbs me more than anything. So seeing u be sooo silly and fun and punchy and so fuckin perfectly concise and coherent in ur language like you are I am so inspired and comforted 💗🥲🥲🕌

[@jillfryer6699]

dont despair you can educate yourself as much as you like and just beware of anyone offering short cuts.

[@peterikonberg7490]

I would like to ask about the expression "just beware of anyone offering short cuts" . What experiences and/or concerns are behind this? And how do you mean it in the context of "What is politics?" which could be seen as a short cut, yes? thank you @@jillfryer6699

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

love to hear this! are you in grad school or undergrad? sounds like you’re in UK? i had a very hard time in grad school - luckily where i am university is relatively cheap, so you have a decent amount of less well off kids, but i went to two different schools for undergrad, one where 80% of kids had a job and where where only 20% had a job, and you can really see the difference in attitudes and how the kids who don’t have to work. and yeah there’s almost no spirit of fun in academia, it’s a real spirit killer. i had some good profs though. you should read the book Disciplined Mind especially if you do grad school, it will help you understand why it’s so miserable and help you survive it…

[@georgiemerry8929]

In NZ- the divide here is immense. The identity politics are soo rife everyone using the language of elites: no free thought allowed at my uni, at least not in class or tutorials: no dissent unless carefully worded in essays: no advocating for the poor in class allowed!!! It’s too offensive!! I am very excited for ur identity politics= genocide video this is something I have been thinking about and researching

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

@@georgiemerry8929 omg can you give me an example of “no advocating for the poor”? these stories are always shocking to me. apparently kendi has said talking about the “working class” is a racist dogwhistle … though he just published an article called “the working class is not white” so many even these identity obsessed libs are starting to get the message…

[@idonnow2]

Just discovered your channel and i am binging your entire catalog, this is absolutely top tier content. Your framework for understanding politics reminds me quite a lot of Marshall Rosenberg's nonvionlent communication, not only because of the related anarchist politics of it, but because his framework is so simple yet so concise and robust in that it deals away with all the distractions and the needless complexity to focus on the real root issues

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

never heard of him - is there a specific thing i should check out by him?

[@idonnow2]

@@WHATISPOLITICS69 For a quick (as in 3 hours) introduction there's a very good video in KZbin of an NVC workshop he did that teaches the basics of it, he's an extremely engaging teacher so it's worth a watch. There's also a sort of podcast list of 9 videos that delve much deeper into the history, philosophy, politics and activism and underlying his thought and method. Otherwise you can read his book on nonviolent communication that goes through mostly the same material.

[@maaderllin]

30:15 "Been non, ça s'peut pas, là!" J'ai beaucoup ri. Great video as always, I think a great response to the "Equality vs Equity" image of the baseball game is the one where there is a third picture where the fence has been replaced by a net, that allows everyone to safely watch the game whatever height they are. The material root of inequality have been adressed in that third picture. Also, while I believe intersectionnality is a useful tool of analysis, it shows how having only one tool of analysis and making it our whole worldview will make things incomplete. I think material analysis is the most important one, the basic one someone should have, but that it should be complemented with other frames to cover for possible blind spots. And I think it's preferable to have a material analysis first and THEN complement it with intersectionnality than the opposite.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

yes i agree, you want to look at things from various angles and perspectives to get a full picture, but for things like this if you lose sight of the material conflict and human nature, you lose the whole plot. intersectionality is interesting because it’s *supposed* to include class, but i’d say most of the people invoking it, just throw in class as like an extra identity, or for credibility, they don’t really understand how it fits it. and if you read kimberlé crenshaw’s first article on intersectionality, she does not even mention social class at all! (she mentions the word ‘class’ 5000 times but she’s referring to class in the legal sense of a protected category of people). and i’ll make a little bonus episode where you see how by leaving out class she comes to a really messed up conclusion. i know she talks about it more in later essays, but haven’t dug into them enough to know if she integrates it very well. she seems very much focused on identity in the typical upper middle class manner

[@NightsReign]

​@@WHATISPOLITICS69It is absolutely amazing how ubiquitously people claiming to understand Intersectionality but have no concept of Dialectical Materialism; or those claiming to comprehend Dialectical Materialism, but in their zeal, quickly succumb to Class Reductionism. I'm genuinely thrilled to have stumbled upon your content today! 😁

[@crumbtember]

​@@WHATISPOLITICS69I know you've addressed human nature to some extent before, but I'm curious for a video on how to consider and react to that pertaining to politics 😮❤

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

@@NightsReign i actually kind of hate “dialectical” materialism, but am a big fan of just straight up materialism … but thank you!

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

@@crumbtember i will talk about it a bit more in various episodes, like future Dawn of Everything episodes and the one about identity politics and genocide, basically political evolutionary psychology

[@TheLoyalOfficer]

Great recap, by the way. You map out the "shuffle-jambaroo" brilliantly.

[@MrBornToWin00]

This is a very good video especially on how tackling racial/sex/gender issues without going for class issues does nothing but keep the powerful ones stay powerful and the weakest stay weak. I do wish you made a small emphasis however that the reverse isn't possible either, that you can not tackle class issues without tackling race/sex/gender issues at the same time even though class is the root of all 3. It is extremely hard to keep a group unified if a part, especially if it's a large part of the group, can say/do racist/sexist/homop things maliciously or not with no regards. Anti racist, feminist, and gender/sex studies should be used to bridge people together so they can at the very least tolerate each other to go against the elite not used to further wedge each other apart like it is used often.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

i agree with you - and that’s why common struggles are the best way to fight discrimination - like when you have a union drive or fight for highr wages - in working class contexts people are generally WAY more racist than the microagression stuff you see in liberal offices. but quickly they realize that if they want to win the common struggle for whatever it is they’re fighting for that they will lose if they’re antagonizing their coworkers with sexist, racist, etc bullshit. and through that common struggle they also tend to learn that those ideas are bullshit and come to bond with their collegues. what i’m against though is punishing and cancelling people in the general public who say or think shitty things. you need to say your shitty ideas in order to have them refuted, and people who agree with you need to hear the counterarguments. if you just cancel people then everyone is terrified and no one learns what’s wrong with their ideas, they just learn that some crazy people will ruin their lives for thinking, and then they become big right wingers in response. it’s good to get a reaction and to see that people hate your shitty ideas, but you have to be able to talk them through.

[@Electrodile]

​@@WHATISPOLITICS69 While I think you hit the nail on the head in the last part, I think focusing just on common economic struggle only serves those fights to be more easily dismantled by the elite class. Sure, a racist will work with his black coworkers to serve his economic interests, but if their boss makes a concession that will allow for higher wages so long as that person has never been arrested, their interests will now align with the elite class over their coworkers. That racist will probably not make a leap so far as to believe that the criminal justice system is racist (and even if they do, they might see no problem with it), and wouldn't sacrifice the opportunity to earn better wages just because people they deem as undeserving won't get those same benefits. What is most insidious about discrimination is that it creates social hierarchies, and that is an extremely useful weapon against a movement built on social interaction fighting for equality.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

@@Electrodile but i didn’t say (or mean to imply) that you should just focus on the economic struggle. i’m saying that the economic struggle will force people to deal with the cultural issues. like if you don’t attack the racism, you won’t get unity - but you are more incentivized to deal with racism and learn about it, and care about it, when you’re in a common struggle with someone on your team who’s affected by it. as i was saying in a different thread, that’s why unions were the premiere organizations in fighting against racism in the 1950s when they used to be segregated and racist before. they realized that racism was a disaster for unions and the labour movement in so many ways.

[@Electrodile]

@@WHATISPOLITICS69 Oh, my bad. I think I accidentally misrepresented your ideas, seeing it worded out this way shows it a position I agreed with this whole time. I appreciate you taking the time out to clarify, tho

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

@@Electrodile of course, that’s how we figure it all out!

[@juliuskowalsky2005]

These videos are incredible, love how many things I'm adding to my 'to be read' list that you're pulling from. Now to just get to the reading... Lol

[@weltenrandwanderer2626]

oh, I am looking forward to this! I am always excited when I see a new video of yours. ^-^

[@alexjann5802]

ban bro! This is so fresh and clearheaded. Staying for more. Thank you, you have a true voice

[@Thromaz]

It amazes me how little I knew about the left/right political spectrum (due to centuries of deliberate obfuscation) before watching your videos... I recommend them frequently.... Now I cringe so hard to the point of convulsions whenever I hear people who don't know what they're talking about critique "the left" with such assurance and conviction while appearing to me like a clown in a straight jacket arguing against their interests and equally with the people who claim to be leftists as they aggressively swing their sceptre at the abused alienated victims and casualties that ought to be their allies if they themselves didn't actually lean right.... I don't blame people for being ignorant and propagandized but I do share this series...

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

exactly! the sad thing is so many people now saying “i’m not on the left anymore because i believe in free speech and i think cancel mobs are counterproductive and dangerous” and then they think they must be on the right …

[@nappertandy9089]

Sounds like you're years behind modern right wing thoughts. We've understood equality-equity, corporate fascism etc. But you still speak down to the "Right" especially with your brazen accusation that obvious leftist driven rhetoric and branding it Right wing. Such as the Anti White author shown. The French revolution was driven by divisive hatred as with All left wing movements it thrives on division and envy culminating in "The Terror"

[@NightsReign]

​@@nappertandy9089Interesting. So, you're either saying the right has just been playing stupid for years while being aware of this, or you've sat on this information for years, while the rest of the right flounders with their pointless boycotts? 🤔

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

@@nappertandy9089 right means pro hierarchy of power, and left means pro equality of power. that’s the measuring stick and you measure from there to figure out where your actual politics lie. and you can’t do that unless get your identity out of the way. and the party that ended up in charge of the french revolution ended up betraying the principles of the revolution, much like in the russian revolution. doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with those principles.

[@abdvs325]

Yes, related to this, I saw a video the other day that addressed the supposed "trend" of "Why I left the left" videos. Talking about people who abandoned the "left" because they didn't agree with cancel culture or affirmative action or had disagreements on the trans debate and gender issues. But the whole video was so confused it was painful. Basically because they lacked good definitions as any good "what is politics"-homeboy would know.

[@blankname5177]

Well articulated criticism. Usually people who criticize these shifts are not aganist liberalism rather they are against social justice.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

yeah, there aren’t many voices on the left articulating these critiques - if you haven’t already check out adolph reed jr, walter benn michaels and also the This is Revolution podcast

[@poppymoon777]

It makes sense that the powers that be would want the people fighting amongst themselves and divided.The people turn to those in power to be saved within the chaos. Thanks for this great video

[@richardfinlayson1524]

I love these vids i always find they clarify things in my head, especially after listening to people i know speaking total BS ,like today. Thanks mate ❤️☮️☯️

[@khubza8999]

This insightful commentary deserves more views!!!!

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

thank you! share it with whoever you think will be interested!

[@maxheadrom3088]

Buddy, this video is excellent and since you do such good research and shows the souces I can enjoy my confirmation bias without feeling guilty. (I should note that there's no sarcasm nor irony in the previous phrase - nor on this one. It's a really good video with the same high quality of research of all your videos)

[@takefive1609]

Love your series, finished your podcast in a matter of days! It’s so rare to find political content that has clear definitions, arguments that flow logically, and a clear structure in presentation. Besides politic fundamentals, I also liked your video on why Russian communism failed. Is it possible for you to explain how the Chinese system turned capitalist as well? From my understanding the original party members in the communist party originated in poverty including Mao, unlike the Russian communist party. Again, awesome content, instant subscribe for me!

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

to be very brief, the idea justifying capitalism in china is that the previous system wasn’t generating enough wealth to set the ground for socialism, so they need to allow capitalism to develop to create the wealth and tech that you need for socialism, as per marx’ ideas. so the idea is allow capitalism, managed by the party (also lenin did something similar in russia called New Economic policy) and then once there’s enough wealth and technology for socialism, then you communize it. that part will probably never happen, but that’s the justification

[@takefive1609]

@@WHATISPOLITICS69 Thanks for the reply! Though I'm curious as to what's your take on why they chose this. Is it a matter of practicality, that they thought it required capitalism (at least as an intermediate stage) to advance the economy sufficiently (I remember Deng Xiaoping's quote of the "black cat, white cat", so I believed that this was how they pitched the transformation)? And if so, does this count as evidence that communism, at least in the way they did it, was not feasible (in the sense that when juxtaposed with a capitalist system the economy will develop slower). Or was it rather that they botched the execution, and if so, how?

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

@@takefive1609 i don’t understand the black cat white cat thing, what does it mean? i think they just wanted to increase the wealth and power of china and the party. and yeah i think it’s pretty clear that a straight up command economy with no democracy doesn’t work very well. there were some computer wizards in bulgaria who and USSR who were coming up with ways to democratize the non market economy, which may have improved things dramatically, but the parties rejected them because they would be a threat to their power apparently (haven’t read into it in depth yet)

[@takefive1609]

@@WHATISPOLITICS69 I see, thanks for the reply! As for the quote, I was refering to "黑貓白貓，會捉老鼠的都是好貓", which translates literally to "No matter black cat or white cat, those that catches mice are good cats", which I vaguely remember reading in my high school textbook (I'm Taiwanese). This refers to Deng's policy of adopting capitalism and putting economic growth in front of their communist ideals. I think he started pushing this idea in the 1960's, but was strongly opposed by the gang of four who headed the cultural revolution (who accused him of betraying the party's principles). It only got implemented after he ousted the gang of four in 1976.

[@sidneysill8495]

I have been looking for this channel and PoV as well as insight for a long time, I just didn't know it. Liked and subscribed, thank you for your hard work.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

thank you, hope you get good use out of it!

[@diegoalbizo3930]

Love the show! This has been the most useful podcast I have ever listened to. I was wondering if you will ever cover modern day socialist projects in more depth like the Zapatistas, Rojava, or even the 2006 Oaxaca strikes? I think it would be really interesting to learn about more modern class struggle.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

i feel like there are already a lot of good videos on that stuff no? i try to do things that i feel like no one else has covered properly. but if there aren’t good videos on that stuff then it’s something i should cover because it’s important.

[@diegoalbizo3930]

I just love your format and insights so much that I would love to hear you talk about that stuff lol. But I guess you're right, and I assume that you don't want any more work on your already insane schedule. Also thank you so much for all this content

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

@@diegoalbizo3930 i might mention it in the context of talking about something else, like how i’ve talked about the spanish anarchists a few times. but i’d need to read more to be sure i know what i’m talking about and since i started this show i barely have time to read unless it’s for an episode! like this topic i picked becuase i thought i could whip out the episode in 2-3 weeks, but instead it took 3 months… hahaha

[@nelitogorostiza16]

perate perate cabrón, lo del 2006 en Oaxaca un proyecto socialista?, yo tuve familiares que eran profesores cuando ocurrió todo el desmadre de la APPO y Ulises Ruíz, todos ellos están e acuerdo en que esa madre fue nada más una especie de "guerra civil entre corporativismos priistas" donde como siempre los pobres pusimos los muertos para los dos lados, para muestra de ello solamente señalan a Flavio Sosa. Que fue un estallido de violencia horrible?, sin duda que sí, una de mis tías ya jamás volvió de eso, pero de que fue algo socialista?, ni madres, o por lo menos así lo cuenta la gente que lo vivió. Edit: ya si quieres cobertura de alguien a quien le tocó vivirlo y a quien si se vio en lo mero feo de los enfrentamientos, ahí está Frida Guerrera, o también Julio Astillero. Pero si que se vaya a la mierda Ulises Ruíz.

[@Hulloder]

This is the best political content being produced today. I'm not kidding. I'd like to see your take on political struggles as they relate to ecological issues/land autonomy. Do you have any plans for stuff like that?

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

like which ones in particular? i don’t have any thoughts knowledge about that in general, and i assume other people are already doing good stuff on that?

[@peterikonberg7490]

Great and enlightening content again! Thank you for all that well-prepared food for actions, now its on me to share and care for and about this episode's wisdom

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

that’s the spirit! put it to good use!

[@richellelemon3137]

The student was waiting and the teacher arrived! Thank you :)

[@tinygregmusic]

30 seconds in and I love it. I really appreciate your efforts and your videos, thanks so much ❤

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

hey thanks! love your octatrack videos btw, super useful! just when you think it’s all been done, you whip out new tricks and methods. and great music too!

[@tinygregmusic]

@@WHATISPOLITICS69 thank you brother. I'm just making stuff that makes me happy and I'm really glad that others can enjoy it and learn from it too. Not to sound like an echo or anything but I really dig your music too. I love that you use it as interludes to these fantastic videos 👍

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

@@tinygregmusic thanks, i love to get appreciation for the music! no one notices! especially form someone with talent it means more. i have a bunch of stuff almost done, these damn videos get in the way of music so bad!

[@tinygregmusic]

@@WHATISPOLITICS69 I can imagine the videos must take you a very long time to write!! You have a way of expressing things that really resonates with me. I think I have listened to most of your music, it's a style that I'd really like to get better at producing myself!

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

@@tinygregmusic thanks, that’s a great compliment! the hardest thing with the videos is finding and fixing all the images and editing them in - the reading and writing is also very laborious, but it can be done outside or at a friends place, while the editing im just stuck at home all day. the music is in a simple song format style, which i like, but i don’t have much ability when it comes to live jamming, i need to compose everything

[@can3p]

Thanks for the video. I didn't think too much about left/right division in terms of precise definitions before your podcast and it helped a lot

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

very fundamental! unsurprisingly our media and education systems don’t seem to want us to think too much about hierarchy vs equality and rather we think about nonsense instead…

[@NoName-OG1]

Kept wanting to chime in with “but what about” - but you kept popping in with just that. I have some analogies to share in a bit wham I get a chance.

[@magawooh95]

I found your channel about a month ago thanks to the videos you did on The Dawn of Everything. I’ve now made my way through every single video you’ve ever done and I am super grateful to have found out about you and this channel. You’re doing amazing work and it has opened my eyes to a lot of things, including anarchism. I’m thoroughly enjoying your content and will be sending some dollars your way for future videos/projects. Wishing you all the best!

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

thank you! new episode will be out tomorrow, fingers crossed…

[@magawooh95]

@@WHATISPOLITICS69 looking forward to it!

[@MischievousMischief]

Omg a new video 🤩 I learn no much from your videos, thank you!

[@JD-ny3vz]

I legitimately get Soo excited when I see a new upload from you. My favorite channel

[@Bigglesworthicus]

comrade you are an absolute fucking gem, pumping out pure bangers that never miss

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

haha love to hear that!

[@georgeorwell7291]

brilliant 100% and suits my intuition that we are being played. Pitchforks fighting amongst while kings laugh.

[@TimoDcTheLikelyLad]

Always a pleasure these episodes, just stunning 👏🏴

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

love to hear it!

[@squirrelgirl1853]

Thank you. This is so well done and so well spoken and so TRUE! Infinite Love and Gratitude! 💜🌏🙏

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

hey, thanks - and i saw your earlier comment that i guess you deleted - i was in the same position for a long time, and it’s really hard. i don’t have any great advice, just if possible to try to find a community of people with similar values and sometimes that can lead to work that is more enjoyable and dignified (whether it pays well or not)

[@squirrelgirl1853]

@@WHATISPOLITICS69 thank you.....yeah I deleted it.....after I posted it I thought "what was I thinking posting that depressing shit?" So I deleted it. But thank you, I appreciate the advice. Also I had you feeling you saw it when I went to delete it lol....weird.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

@@squirrelgirl1853 haha, i see all - but only because youtube sends me notification with most of the comments people leave, so often i go click to respond and they’re gone. some comments they don

[@squirrelgirl1853]

@@WHATISPOLITICS69 lol well I think I actually deleted 2 comments and I thought maybe I should stop while I'm ahead lol but I loved your video so much I wanted to do my part to get it to as many people as possible.....you pulled all the important information (which was A LOT) together from long ago until now and wove it together in such a brilliant, easy to understand way. It resonated greatly. Beautifully done. Truth with the proof. Thank you.

[@ignatiushazzard]

I greatly appreciate your work comrade ❤

[@jillfryer6699]

you will be reported to the community correctness committee for re education.

[@Kandralla]

Thank you for doing this. Politically I probably don't agree with you on a lot but as in all things the tension between competing needs/desires/forces are what creates stability; friction causes your car to use more energy but too little friction and your car becomes uncontrollable. That is the biggest problem with the currently popular philosophy, it shuts down that tension in favor of going all in on a single driver and we're starting to see the cracks that instability is creating. As the last Gen-X, someone who hung out with actual punks, and watched the proto-goths wretch at the idea of Hot Topic; I'm just baffled by how many people today think they're in the counter-culture, and completely lack the self awareness to step back, see "Pride, brought to you by Bank of America", and immediately start asking what went wrong.

[@xkoenigseggx]

GIVE THIS GUY MONEY, WE NEED MORE AWESOME VIDS!

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

YES PLEASE!!! I thought this video was going to take two weeks to whip out and it took 3 months full time instead… help!

[@emmettdoylemusic]

This clearly enunciated lessons it took me many years of being an antifascist and anti-racist activist while simultaneously organizing among a majority white, blue collar workforce to learn.

[@Quentin-je8jd]

Have you read Eve Chiapello and Luc Boltansky's the new spirit of capitalism? It is precisely about the point you make at the beginning of the video, the way capitalism "internalizes" the criticisms that are formulated against it from the left.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

i haven’t ill have to take a look at it, it’s a very important point that needs to be made more often!

[@Bigglesworthicus]

damn that one's been on my shelf for like 5 years and I haven't had a crack at it yet, better get on that

[@asbeautifulasasunset]

Glad your channel suddenly appeared. Excellent work. Subscribed.

[@jakegerard1870]

I've felt myself leaning more and more to the 'right' in the last few years as wokeness has taken over, not so much because I disagree with the core ideas presented, but because I think the people presenting them are full of crap at best and have malicious intent at worst. A lot of the time it feels like I'm the only person in my social circle who is picking up on this, which makes me wonder if I'm just getting jaded with age. It's nice to see someone present information to the contrary, and it's good to know that maybe I'm not leaning as far right as I think I am. Anyway, great content and great explanations of the topics covered.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

there you go, you’re not drifting right, it’s all the woke people who are drifting to the right! they just don’t realize it because they’re confused by the left wing language.

[@naftbc9149]

Super phenomenal job articulating my base thoughts and providing much much more education.

[@phillipwalker787]

Your video is brilliant as always, and while I do agree with the overall them and most of the conclusions, I do have one quibble, that might unfortunately be fundamental. TLDR: I would argue that your video's perspective, which sees identity-based discrimination as an outcome of economic/class disparity, is too simplistic. I believe that this viewpoint leans more towards capital, despite its argument for labor. There is also a socio-cultural class system (examples provided below). I would argue that discriminatory behavior still exists within economic groupings like trade unions, which indicates that purely economic solutions may not suffice. A non binary approach that considers different perspectives may be necessary. And despite my critique, the quality of the content is undeniable and I look forward to more. FULL COMMENT: Cards on the table, I'm speaking from my own perspective, but I believe that your argument while well researched and factually accurate is still fundamentally an argument coming from the perspective of capital and not labor though I believe it believes it is arguing from the perspective of labor to solve issues pertaining to labor. Ostensibly attempting to use capital to solve capitalism. Which is an ouroboros. If I could boil down your thesis (and correct me if I misunderstood) it reads thusly: "Racial, gender, sexual etc. based discrimination (let's call this phenomena identity based discrimination or discrimination based on immutable traits) does exist and is the result of economic/class based disparity." I believe this is a bit of a binary that ignores some fundamental truths and unwittingly obscures the broader picture... We absolutely have a class system based on economics, but we also have a socio-cultural class system. To borrow your Chris Rock example, BIack people are not just perceived as poor, we are perceived as unintelligent, aggressive, loud, untrustworthy etc. All the bad stuff. As a result of these purely cultural assumptions, BIack people are excluded from decision making in society on a macro, micro and economic level. If both Chris Rock and Crack Rock entered a building dressed the exact same and no one knew anything of their finances or fame, Crack Rock would still be granted preferential treatment when it comes to whether or not they are listened to or whether or not their decisions are taken seriously or given due consideration. This is not a universal truth but I believe we can agree that this is more the case on average. I have witnessed this in action. There are many times that members of the same economic class interact and make decisions but when one those members also happens to belong to an oppressed cultural class, the moment they make a suggestion they will be ignored or told they don't know what they are talking about, but when a person belonging to a more dominant cultural class says the exact same thing, they will be praised. Saying that this is all comes back to economics is like saying people cut down trees because of economics. Yes trees are indeed cut down because of economics, but the solution is not to make sure trees get compensated for getting cut down by giving them money made from other threes. The issue is that while trees and humans are fundamentally equal in that they are both living beings, humans intellectually give lip service to trees but do not perceive them as fundamentally equal so we humans feel it is justified to use them to our utility. For a less absurd (and admittedly purposefully comical) example, The Tulsa Massacre while driven by economic interests was not solely to make sure poor people (or the people that haven't had time to accrue capital) remained poor. it was about who was in control the capital being produced. African kingdoms had more of a head start in the acquiring of capital but they still fell prey to colonialism, tribalism predates capitalism, and even in economic groupings of people like trade unions (one of which I am proud to say I am a member of) these identity based discriminatory issues still occur. This is why the ruling class doesn't want to talk about it or on the other side bend over backwards to pretend they're actually doing something about it. Crushing things into a binary ignores some fundamental truths about human behavior. A more ternary approach is required to see things from different perspectives and come to a common consensus so we can solve we Russian Peasants' issues by understanding them fundamentally. That being said, I love your work and I think it is the most thoughtful stuff on KZbin. I am always excited when I see one of your videos. Keep up the good work! P.S. with regards to the "give me money" of it all, if influencers are really serious about making this a profession and leaving their unfulfilling jobs, instead of trying to find ways to convince an already cash strapped viewer base give give money they don't have or being upset at the "algorithm" they should organize, unionize and present their demands to the icky poo poo head CEOs that run the social media companies. That's what we writers are doing. just sayin' Love and solidarity ♥

[@kshproductions7996]

I'm not sure if you give a proper treatment of economic materialism, it's not like peoples ideas of trees as not being treated equally just naturally arose out of nowhere, and *then* people began to cut down trees and degrade the environment once they somehow came to this magical conclusion. It's that the very ways we perceive of each other, nature, and ourselves *stem* from the ways our subjectivities are formed within the society we are formed within--meaning that culture arises from the real material social interactions individuals have to engage in to survive. *Because* nature under capitalism is valued purely as a dead resource, we come to treat of it only for our utility. The rise of apathy towards nature has its roots in the enclosures and forcible separation of the direct producer from their means of subsistence (which was nature itself) historically, and alongside this alienation from nature the transformation of it into a means of valorizing capital, so that most interactions with 'nature' to many only arrive in the processed state of a packaged commodity to most. As for your example with racism against black people--again, this stems from a materialist-economic understanding of society. The use of scientific racism and whatnot to justify the inferiority of black people arose primarily *after* the economic class structure of slavery came in place, as to *justify* those economic relations. In addition, even once they were freed of slavery, the fact that they were still economically restricted from moving up in the ladder kept many of them in the position of poverty, and this led to the need to group together to survive, some forming into gangs, and often having to resort to criminal activity to get a living. They are then treated merely as "unintelligent, aggressive, loud, untrustworthy, etc." because white populations abstracted away all of these material social constraints which led to them having resort to less than ideal actions, kept them from gaining proper education, etc. So it's wrong to understand them merely as cultural phenomena, because their roots are in justifying what is ultimately the economic class system of slavery, as much as it developed after. And although cultural phenomena are granted a sense of autonomy once they arise (i.e they can retain in their cultures even after the material relations which gave rise to them disappear,) this is only to a certain degree because even in the example with black americans we have pathway dependencies established by historical circumstances which lead to them, in their real material lives, not having the same opportunities even today. It's true that the cultural dimension is at play too, keeping a prejudice which disallows for political action to remove economic constraints, but these largely arise as a result of material economic conditions, rather than vice versa

[@phillipwalker787]

@@kshproductions7996 Your pathological need to discount my assessment of my own oppression literally proves my thesis. Your use of "their" demonstrates to me that you are either not a BIack American or at the very least don't identify with that ethnicity (not race, ethnicity). My use of "we" in tandem with my profile picture demonstrates that I am a member of that subgroup. I don't need you to tell me the correct interpretation of what I experience every day. I am telling you and I need you to listen. You have literally proven exactly what I have stated. You have received no financial gain for discounting my opinion about my own lived experience (unless you have, in such a case please disclose for transparency, silence is tacit endorsement of my position) and yet you felt it necessary to tell me, a black materialist that I was wrong about my assessment of the world as I have lived it and provided lived examples of. You have responded to my lived anecdotal experience with hypotheticals and circular assessment with the only discernible goal being to rationalize rationalizing. Using me as a prop to disprove my own experience to me. The only other supposition I can come to is that it may not be based on ethnicity, it may be that you behave this way with all the people in your environment. If that is the case I suggest you stop talking to me and revaluate your real life interactions. Otherwise I need you to actually listen to what I am saying. My previous statement is what I have lived. It is my assessment and it may not be perfect but it will always be more correct than yours because it is my assessment of my own observed experience. And yes, there are American BIack people who will disagree with me, but attempting to ask them with the sole purpose finding the opinion that disproves what I have take the time to type proves that you are not taking me seriously as a human being and are rather using me as a material object and using my experience as an prop to fit your utility. As previously stated. You don't know what your're talking about and you need to stop pretending you do and start listing. For once... Love and solidarity

[@kshproductions7996]

@@phillipwalker787 I would have very much preferred you to actually talk about what was wrong in my assesment rather than get strangely emotional and feel like I was attacking you for what I felt like was you not understanding an adequate economic materialist analysis. I'm not a black individual myself, though I am still a PoC for what it's worth, but nothing in your comment was anything more than an emotional attack on my character rather than any of the points I felt was right. I feel that if you held the words 'love and solidarity' you would not have done such a thing and would have rather instructed me on why I was wrong to have these beliefs, otherwise it is nothing more than just posture. I would appreciate it if I was treated with love and solidarity as something more than a catch phrase at the end of an attack on my personal character. So I'd still appreciate to know why you believe the things I said are wrong. Love and solidarity.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

@phillipwalker787 Hi philip - i’m not sure we actually disagree, except that i don’t understand what you mean when you say a class analysis favours capital?? I agree that there’s a cultural class system (like most obviously in slavery or jim crow, apartheid, or classical patriarchy as very clear examples). But my argument is that these cultural class hierarchies serve the purpose of economic exploitation or exclusion - which I think you agree with? I also think that discrimination systems go beyond immediate economic interest, because discrimination is an instinct, it’s a shortcut, and sometimes the shortcut fails at it’s original purpose and becomes it’s own thing. The union is a good example - but it’s also a good example of how important class is. So in the 1930s (i might have my decades wrong here, im going by memory) unions in the US were still segregated by race, and generally excluded black workers, even though economically that was really idiotic. That’s because the racist attitudes inculcated by the slavery and jim crowe regimes take on a life of their own, and surpass immediate economic calculations - to an extent. very soon (i think by the 1950s? but maybe it’s the 1920s vs the 1930s…), the unions realized that they had to stop being racist because black workers would just be scabs every single time, because why shouldn’t they, the unions don’t accept them, so fuck them, we need work. and so the unions would be getting crushed. and that’s when the unions became the biggest anti-racism advocates in the US. they integrated, often against the protest of many of their members in the south, and insisted on solidarity across race lines, and equality of races etc. and even the super racist members had to accept it because they were getting slaughtered otherwise. and the members even in the south came to realize that this was the only way to go. and then as part of common struggle with black workers the white workers became much less racist, because common struggle melts those attitudes, and it also redefines your ingroup as the workers instead of the whites or negroes etc, and the outgroup becomes the bosses instead of the blacks or whites etc. so union members had some of the least racist attitudes in polls vs the non unionized population. You see what I mean? Also about youtube - i do *not* want to be financially dependent on these hideous monstrosity corporations! Don’t want a dime from them! Terrible incentives, especially with all the censorship they do. I don’t want money from cash strapped viewers, but i do want it from viewers who have money to give!

[@phillipwalker787]

​@@kshproductions7996 See previous response ⬆ And next time, start out by asking a question.

[@juicedgoose]

Intro proper nailed what I've been failing to articulate! This is gonna be juicy. Thinking of which, love the shirt

[@juicedgoose]

Finished the video...many many thanks. It's a huge relief to know I'm not just seeing patterns that aren't real. It's right in front of our eyes, can't believe how long it's taken for someone to say it clearly and without getting sidetracked into mad conspiracies. When I've got some pesos I'll fling em your way, bless you sir.

[@alicem2103]

Love your channel! My one objection here is mostly due to your choice of verbiage. I know you arent using the term "lizard person" in the same way that the conspiracy theorists use, but just so you are aware, the "lizard people" conspiracy IS based in an antisemitic world-domination theory. So, while I know you dont mean to give any credence to antisemitism, it would be maybe a good idea to reasses your use of the term "lizard person" to signify a disguised negative reality wearing the appearance of something pleasant or positive. I get the nod to the classic movie, and sadly (although not something immediately apparent) even the old films and literature focused on "lizard people" as monsters are drawn up from old antisemitic conspiracy theories of the underground neo nazi type groups of their time.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

thanks, but nah. i’m jewish, and i’m taking back “lizard people” and repurposing it for better use. first of all, it’s a small minority of people who associates lizard people with antisemitism, so why would i waste a perfectly good metaphor? in the end it just preserves it as an antisemitic trope, as if i’m trying to respect the work of the anti semites! and why shouldn’t i take a great metaophor that’s being used idiotically by some people, and instead use it intelligently?

[@alicem2103]

@WHATISPOLITICS69 hell yeah! I can support that. If you'd been using it as a gentile, without any awareness of the old trope- I'd have thought it valuable to point out. That's the only reason I mentioned it. Your reasoning is totally sound with me (not like you need my approval, lol) 👍👍

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

@@alicem2103 haha, id be fine with non jews using it the same way too!

[@alicem2103]

@WHATISPOLITICS69 sure :) I think it's interesting that a lot of people aren't aware of the connections between the two so I wanted to point it out. Keep up your work! I've learned so much from channels like yours that I initially discovered as a baby leftist. The sheer quantity of theory that's out there can be daunting. It's all well and good to shout "read theory!" At people (and I DO read theory) but there's really something to be said for the need for oratory dissection that seeks to make ideas concise and digestible. There's really so much value in it, particularly in the age of the internet where, let's be honest, people are far more likely to reach for YT than they are to reach for century old books.. no matter how valuable the information might be therein.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

@@alicem2103 yes agreed, and even long form videos i think narrow the audience too much. im going to keep doing them, but also make tik tok length videos of variious ideas to reach more people

[@Dave0G]

Having seen other producers here demolish the current formulations of the Left and Right it's been useful to have the original building blocks unearthed so things swing back towards making sense, much appreciated.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

yes, we need words to describe these fundamental concepts like political hierarchy and equality! one of the victories of the right wing is destroying these words so that we can’t identify who’s on the side of political equality anymore

[@Iris-kc8mq]

Yet another brilliant episode. I wish so much more people would watch your channel. ( I cant really help expand, I have no friends and those I do have are political analfabets, they surely would benefit most byt are completely uninterested) I hope it picks up, this channel is wonderful, so much knowledge and no bull shit

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

haha that sucks having only illiterate friends - i need to make tiktoks geared towards political illiterates!

[@Iris-kc8mq]

@@WHATISPOLITICS69 possibly tik toks or shorts could actually work for those who consider themselves not interested in politics, not a bad idea

[@r.w.bottorff7735]

Love your work, I'm very excited to see 11.2 whenever you are finished with the mountain range of research it's certainly going to require. Sincerely, thank you!

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

it’s coming … but it’ll still be awhile, i want to put out some less labour intensive episodes first or else i will implode! new insanely labour intensive episode will be out within a week, or two max…

[@r.w.bottorff7735]

@@WHATISPOLITICS69 Please don't implode! Take all the time you need, there's plenty for me to learn in the meantime.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

@@r.w.bottorff7735 the longer it takes me to make an episode, the longer i’m working with no income! part of the implosion factor…

[@r.w.bottorff7735]

​@@WHATISPOLITICS69In that case, take all the time you need as fast as you can and when I'm able to I'll donate to the channel. You're awesome, thanks!

[@ZeekerPhinder]

I like your exuberance, and your desire to identify the Truth of Reality, and your understanding that our culture has wandered WAY off the Path To Truth. I like how you're willing to vivaciously follow an alternate line of inquiry. I respectfully and strongly suggest, however, that you incorporate into your process another powerful and important component which our culture has ejected: CHECKING FOR COMPLETE ACCURACY IN EACH STEP IN YOUR PROCESS, BEFORE MOVING TO THE NEXT STEP. I promise you'll be VERY pleased with the results, and those results will absolutely blow your mind, and expand your mind far beyond what you ever imagined, and cause many falsehoods to come crashing down, and will reveal to you many infinitely awesome things about Reality. For example, you are correct to focus on EQUALITY as a critically key concept. However, I'm not sure you've yet determined WHY Equality is a critically key concept. Here's why: Every human being is born into this world with no choice regarding ANYTHING: the birth, itself; the body we're born into; the family, community, nation, culture, language, religion, political milieu, or point in history we're born into. No human being has ever had a choice regarding the financial situation into which he/she would be born. No human being has ever had a choice regarding his/her ancestry. After our birth, we are each totally helpless and totally reliant on whoever happens to be in charge of our care --- we have no choice in the matter. We have no choice but to breathe the air which surrounds us, and to consume the nourishment provided to us, and to experience the tactile sensations imposed upon us, and to conform to the physical environment(s) we are exposed to, and to assimilate the innumerable sights and sounds and smells we are exposed to, and to assimilate and assess and respond to the words and concepts which are expressed toward us and in our presence, and to assimilate and assess and respond to the emotions which are expressed toward us and in our presence. At some point, we begin to be able to make distinctions: between Self and Others, between objects, places, and characteristics. Then we begin to be able to form and use Concepts, giving us a quantum leap in understanding the universe and categorizing the Facts of Reality. And at some point, we realize there REALLY IS such a thing as GOOD & EVIL, RIGHT & WRONG. THEN WE BEGAN MAKING CHOICES --- and that process continues until the day we die. In ALL those massively important respects, we are all IDENTICAL --- WE ARE ALL EQUAL.... This is a Self-Evident Truth.... QUESTION: So (other than a Parent, who is in charge of our safety and nurture and who is required to give us the best possible start in Life, and who typically and hopefully LOVES US) how could one human being or group possibly acquire the right or legitimately acquire the power to do Evil things to another human being or group? How could any human being or group legitimately acquire the right to lie to, or steal from, or murder, or injure, or manipulate, or coerce, or defraud, or kidnap, or slander, or mandate ANYTHING to another human being or group? ANSWER: They can't. No human being or group can possibly acquire a legitimate right to do those evil things to another human being or group. If you accept the above Answer as TRUE, then everything else in your life must flow directly from that Truth: your personal behavior and thoughts and actions and interactions with other human beings --- and your view of Politics.... If you believe and understand that ALL the above is TRUE, then you might be tempted to say something like: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed". Or, you might say, as Thomas Jefferson did in 1801: "Still one thing more, fellow-citizens - a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government…." Early in your video, you make a huge illogical leap from the idea of Equality directly to the idea that Democracy is the superior form of government. However, in a Democracy, 51% of the people can vote to do any and all evil things to the remaining 49% of the people. Even worse is a Representative Democracy, wherein 51% of the Representatives can vote to do all manner of evil to the entire nation (even to the people who voted for them), or to the entire world. However, in a Constitutional Republic, all such Evil can be restrained by a Constitution which is universally recognized to be the Supreme Law of the Land. The Constitution specifies and describes exactly what Government IS, and exactly what it SHALL DO, and exactly what it SHALL NOT DO --- the goal being that even when Evil People get elected, they are unable to carry out their Evil desires, because those Evil Things are Unconstitutional.... The Framers of OUR Constitution knew all this, and this is exactly why they framed our Constitution --- to restrain the Evil People who seek power and will therefore obtain positions of power and influence. Unfortunately, no Constitution can be effective when it is no longer universally recognized as the Supreme Law of the Land. When the Evil People hold the majority of the positions of power and influence in a society, and when the general population descends into corruption and ignorance, the Constitution is mostly or completely ignored; and Evil abounds and freely multiplies; human Freedom and Dignity, and Peace, and Honor, and Happiness, and Friendship and Trust all wither and die; and chaos, confusion, fear, hatred and violence, pain, suffering, sorrow, decay, destruction and death rot the entire society. Read our Constitution, and you'll then immediately realize that our government bears little resemblance to the government MANDATED by The Supreme Law of the Land; and ALL its actions are Unconstitutional and have ONLY Evil Results --- specifically, everything mentioned in the previous paragraph....

[@jamesdragonforce]

I don’t usually comment on videos, but I gotta say keep up the impressive work 👍.

[@dagoo1462]

Regarding the meme with the kids trying to watch the game over the fence, it is the fact that they can't get in to see the game with everyone else - love your channel

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

right - even with the boxes it’s not “equitable” - they should be able to get seats! (unless it’s sold out)

[@Riskofdisconnect]

The best version of that meme I saw showed equality was when the fence was removed altogether.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

@@Riskofdisconnect exactly - or better yet they get seats, cause if you’re out there with no fence, you’re gonna get knocked out by a ball!

[@arlaban22]

WOW !!...THIS GUY IS REALLY GOOD.....I HAVE BEEN THINKING THESE PERSPECTIVES FOR A WHILE NOW BUT HE PUTS IT INTO A MORE LOGICAL WAY.

[@claudiaborges8406]

Wow, I never thought I’d actually find a video that explains the issue with “identity politics”. It thought it was just right-wing reaction about minor reforms Edit: this is a bad way of putting it but what I mean with this comment is that this video connects a lot of loose threads, like centrist/liberal/moderate utopianism, issues with their policies, capitalism pulling the rug under us while we worry about the right and many other things mentioned in the video. Awesome f****** content, glad I found this channel. This also SOUNDS very useful information for discussing politics with those various groups, but I’ll only know once I try lol

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

haha good luck! you’ll probably like the upcoming “the purpose of identity politics is genocide” episode!

[@sl-lz3dw]

I would love to be able to buy from you, Daniel, the transcripts to these in bound book form to give to people who read a lot but won't watch videos because they don't stay focused. I'd consider cutting and pasting from the transcripts here except I really want you to get benefit from what you've given us here (because I want you to continue) and my doing that could reduce your views without anything given in solidarity. Edit: A collection of episode books, that included key graphics, would be Awesome, btw.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

i don’t think the transcripts actually read very well - at one point i’ll want to make a book out these, but do it properly - just making the transcripts and dealing with printing them and graphics would already just be a lot of work and not really worth it at this point to do a half assed job, better to put in more work and do it properly

[@bz7901]

This is one of the best things I've ever seen in my life. I'm sharing it with everybody.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

thank you! very glad (and surprised) that this is getting such a good response!

[@TamasKalman]

fantastic commentary. in fact, one of the best.

[@Essential4Life]

Thank you for this information! Just quit a job that could have been a miserable way of life. Am very greatful for learning

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

congratulations on quitting! hope you find something more worthy of your time!

[@Essential4Life]

@@WHATISPOLITICS69 Thank you sir!

[@MrA5htaroth]

I have watched a few of your videos over the last couple of days and really appreciate that you lay out each argument according to its own internal logic before you critique it (I am writing this after you lay out the "right wing" argument made by Peterson for equality of process). Far too often we are presented with a straw man of one position or another, or even the creator of a video allows themselves loaded terms in their description of one side of an argument. You have moved my position on one or two issues - most notably whether tyranny is inevitable under a "socialist / communist" regime (you argue it isn't, and I agree at least in absolute terms, if not in historical terms) - and it isn't often that I feel that I have been treated fairly enough by a presenter that I am willing to do this, or that their argument is well-enough founded. Thanks for the content, I'll keep watching.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

thank you! yes, we don’t learn anything if we just have strawman understandings of the other side, and we also lose the ability to respect the intelligence and intentions of people with different opinions. and also you can’t win an argument if you don’t know what the opposing argument is…!

[@hollacemcmeirce6017]

Wow! Very well done! You are absolutely epic & made a new fan!

[@joelgray8176]

Sweet work man! Read a similar treatment on intersectionality when that was a thing, called the politics of everybody, did you see that? Doesn't really matter, your smashing it man, right there on the edge. I'm looking forward to when the land comes into this.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

no, never heard of that one - what do you mean about the land?

[@pilarintechnicolor]

This is really good, thank you for making this video!!

[@resistancepublishing]

Wow thank you for this informative video. I’ve been thinking along this train of thought for a while. You’re putting my thoughts into words lol.

[@matbrady123456]

New to your channel. My intro is this video. And wow... This is SO GOOD that I think you need to do a bite-sized version to have it get more broader appeal and to go viral. This is one of the best explanations as to why things are as they are that I've ever heard. It shoots directly at the core of several fundamental issues, and does it extremely well. Subscribed.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

thanks! yes i plan to do short 1-2m tiktok versions of all my ideas after the next few long epsiodes i have in the works

[@matbrady123456]

@@WHATISPOLITICS69 That is fantastic news. Thank you! I emailed your video to Jimmy Dore, and also Sabby Sabs, and asked them to interview you. If you want a receptive audience, that is also popular, those two have created terrific platforms for that. Just mentally prepare for your subs to shoot up past 1M. Great work, and I look forward to the viral success that will be your 1-2 min tik tok versions. For an angle, you could do an explanation vid of the Cornell West/Jimmy Dore interview that went horribly wrong for exactly the reasons that you laid out in your video. Like, ex-act-ly! It's amazing. Something like that will spread rapidly, and help other people along the way.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

​@@matbrady123456 oh boy, i haven’t seen that interview - i would have expected them to get along, i remember dore being all about 3rd party after bernie lost ha i think i can live with 1M subs… i wouldn’t do a full video on a bad interview, but i might mention it, need to see it first

[@jonathanseagraves8140]

If that "equality/equity" meme were not a straw man The Equality side would have the man and his two kids sitting in the bleachers eating popcorn.

[@nzdoom827]

Damn that was an impressive breakdown. Nice to see Pascal Robert and Bertrand Cooper’s work get a shoutout too.

[@WHATISPOLITICS69]

thanks! yeah, a lot of the inspiration to do this episode came from stuff I heard from Robert and This is Revolution, or stuff I read that they talked about

[@joeyrufo]

29:00 your talk of being a tenant lawyer, it's like, every so often I get reminded, oh yeah, they do have problems in Canada! 🤣😭🤦