After two years, Badmouse has finally returned!
To tell us that he’s probably not returning and why that’s the case.
But this is an important video as it gives us an opportunity to take a moment to examine
what it is exactly that we’re all doing here on YouTube - both you, the viewer, and
Left-wing content creators - and it forces us to critically examine the limits and pitfalls
of producing this kind of content, at least in the typical left-tuber way.
And yes, I hate the term “content creator” just as much as you do – I die a little
bit more of cringe each time I hear it, let alone say it.
If anyone has a less terrible term for it, I’m all ears.
Now, there’s a lot to talk about here, so I’m going to start by responding to some
of the main points that Badmouse addressed in his recent video, fleshing some out, pushing
back against others, offering some potential solutions to help make sure that each one
of us doesn’t end up falling into the same traps, getting burnt out , and subsequently
nuking all these channels one by one – and also to help keep us focused on what we’re
actually supposed to be doing here: supporting the development of a collective revolutionary
consciousness.
I wanna say upfront that I highly respect Badmouse for his work – despite some political
disagreements here and there.
He’s an excellent animator who, for a time, was creating quite useful Marxist educational
material, and I sincerely hope he returns to put his skills to use for building the
movement.
Oh and, by the by, no, this isn’t some anti-Breadtube hysteria video about how they’re a CIA plot
to assassinate actual communists or whatever extremely online nonsense people are saying
– I’m talking about Left-wing YouTube in general here, the alliteration just worked
well for the title.
Now, onto Badmouse' video.
Badmouse: Hey guys, it’s been a while.
You might want some explanation for why I just suddenly dropped off the earth, so to
speak.
Here it is.
So, long-time subscribers will know that back in 2017 I took a long break from YouTube because
I was stressed.
I felt really burnt out from making videos – like two a month, I think I was making
at that time.
I didn’t have any original ideas, or any original stuff to make.
So I just figured “okay, I need to take a break from this.
Goodbye.
I’ll come back later”.
And in 2019, I once again began to feel that same feeling I had, only this time it was
much more intense, and much more just, em, visceral to me.
And so as the months went on I gradually lost my interest in making political videos, and
ran out of worthwhile videos.
I just said “fuck it.
I’m leaving.”
Activist burnout is a HUGE issue that many of us struggle with.
And yes, I’m operating on the assumption that creating and disseminating left-wing
educational material and propaganda can be considered a form of activism.
We need to figure out a better way of handling this activist burnout because for those who
are genuinely interested in transitioning from capitalism to socialism, revolution doesn’t
spontaneously happen overnight.
It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
Hell, the comrades in the Philippines have been fighting their revolutionary war for
over 50 years at this stage and they’re ready to fight for 50 more.
But to bring it back to the context of YouTube, it can’t continue to be the case where we
have individuals starting new channels and making solid Marxist content while they’re
excited and full of energy and enthusiasm, only to be ground down and burnt out after
a few months and then ending up deleting the whole channel.
This isn’t a sustainable way of raising class-consciousness and building towards revolution.
That being said, it’s completely understandable how this happens.
Creating video essays (like Badmouse’s) is a hugely time-intensive process, from research
to writing and re-writing, to recording (especially if there’s video involved), to editing both
audio and video, to making animations, to tracking down relevant visuals like stock
footage or finding pictures, to promoting the video, etc.
It’s easy to become overwhelmed and just say “fuck it, it’s not worth the effort”.
Especially if you’re doing it solo, without anyone else’s help, as many of us are – which
may be part of the problem.
And so consequently many aspiring “content creators” now look to less time-intensive
alternatives like streaming, which the YouTube algorithm encourages as you can produce a
lot more content a lot more regularly and keep viewers on the website to view its advertisements
for longer.
And if you release highlight clips from those long-form streams, then even better – more
clicks for YouTube, more time spent on the platform, more money to them – a teeny-tiny
little portion of which flows down to the content creator, creating a material incentive
to focus on producing this kind of content.
Now, for those who’ve resisted this trend and continued to release video essays in the
style of Badmouse, their solution seems mostly to be to release them much less frequently.
For example, the big ones like Contrapoints, hbomberguy, etc. now only release a few videos
per year.
The only big exception that comes to mind is Second Thought, who manages to release
videos weekly – the man’s a machine.
But most of us aren’t.
And in the short-term, creators and viewers probably should set more realistic expectations
for these kinds of video releases like “once per month” rather than pumping out content
every other day and getting burnt out, and all ending up in the same position as Badmouse.
Long-term, however, the real solution seems to be more collective efforts to keep advancing
in spaces like these.
Because no matter what, individuals will get tired and burnt out and so on and others need
to be able to step in and pick up the torch when that happens.
Moving forward, revolutionary organisations themselves should, where possible, be the
ones leading collective media efforts, rather than lone wolf individual propagandists.
A good example of how this might work in practice can be seen over on Anti-Imperialist Action
Ireland’s YouTube channel, where you can find their general organisational activity,
as well as video-essays like their series on Loyalism, interviews, and full-on documentaries.
Alongside specific organisational channels like that, there should be larger networks
which can incorporate individuals’ channels within them – creative collectives of a
sort which are linked with actual revolutionary movements, connecting theory and practice
as much as is reasonably possible within the parameters of the platform.
The Badmouses of the world could help a lot by lending their efforts to collective projects
with revolutionary groups, and it would take a lot of the heavy load off everyone’s shoulders
because a whole group of others are around to help out at all times – many hands make
light work.
Badmouse: This isn’t just the only reason for why I left.
On top of this, I just found that years upon years of just existing in politics online
really depresses you.
Like, really.
When you create content, it either isn’t affecting that much, relatively speaking.
Or you end up becoming what I can only really describe as like a brand.
And really what I’ve seen, as the left has gotten much bigger, you know, “brandification”
and idol worship has just become something I’ve exponentially just grown to hate, and
loathe, and avoid.
Which you know largely explains why I just decided to leave.
So, there are two main points here: the first is not really effecting change in the way
that you might desire, and the second is the problem with individuals becoming brands.
If you expect that a 10-minute socialist educational video to herald in the revolution the next
day, as both certain creators and some viewers appear to, then yeah, you’re gonna be disappointed.
If you think that spreading around these videos alone will automatically turn people into
the next Red Army, you’re also gonna be disappointed.
And despite what some individuals in these spaces will say, content creator as individuals
ARE NOT leading mass movements.
Don’t be deceived.
So, then we might ask, what’s the point?
What can left-wing YouTube actually do?
Why create?
Why watch?
Why share these around?
After a few years of doing this, bumping up against limits of various kinds, there are
two things that left-wing content creation appears – to me – to be able to do quite
effectively to help real-world revolutionary movements.
The first, and most effective, is general political education.
It’s difficult to get a solid Marxist political education in most places outside of actually
being part of an IRL organisation’s educational programme, so this educational content can
really help newcomers to the left who are curious about Marxism.
The second thing that can be done is organisational recruitment, by directing large audiences
towards actual mass movements and specific revolutionary organisations and – importantly
– encouraging people to get involved (which unfortunately I don’t see a lot of large
left-wing content creators doing).
As for the remark about creators “becoming brands” – this is unfortunately very accurate.
You can try and push back against this in various ways, but we live in capitalism and
everything happening here is mediated by market dynamics, whether we like it or not.
Everything that can possibly be commodified, is.
Got some commons?
Boom!
Enclosure.
We can try to pretend that “we big-brained Marxists are above these market dynamics”
all we want, but so long as we exist within this system - we’re fooling ourselves.
Even if the brand is “anti-brand”, and “authenticity” or something, then that’s
what you’re selling.
It’s shite, but that’s the system we’re in.
The solution is not to blame individuals and act like we even really have a choice in this,
but rather to replace the capitalist system which necessitates this behaviour with a socialist
system which doesn’t, and to work on actually achieving that.
How that translates onto spaces like YouTube is likely collectivisations of labour in various
ways – not necessarily organisations taking over individuals’ political channels, as
this has been tried and hasn’t worked so well (I recommend listening to Dankey Kang’s
experience with this for more), but rather individualistic political projects becoming
less and less relevant as organisations’ collective political channels and larger networks
grow stronger and stronger - and it should go without saying that this has to be connected
to a genuinely revolutionary movement that’s actually building the support of and empowering
the masses.
Badmouse: I don’t like making stuff that I love for money.
Now, it’s always possible to just not make money from it, and make that stuff you love
anyway.
I know it’s tricky because YouTube promotes monetised content more heavily as that’s
how the platform makes its money (or appropriates surplus value from us), which means that choosing
to demonetise your content will cause less people will see it.
And if you’re making political propaganda, then you want the proletarian message to reach
as many working-class and otherwise oppressed people as possible.
Weighing up the pros and cons, YouTube monetisation does appear to be worth the trade-off in terms
of aiding the dissemination of this propaganda.
And plus, you’ll realistically probably only get about €5 per video, so comparing
that to the dozens of hours of labour that has gone into producing it, you’re basically
working for free.
Phew!
What a relief!
If you have a job and you’re in a financial position to, then don’t do it for money.
Delete the Patreon and just create.
Do it to serve and advance the revolutionary movement – we always need more propagandists
and educators.
Again, particularly working collectively where possible.
Badmouse: I just find the whole “guy educates you on socialism” thing, genre – whatever
– just a little bit cringe.
Heh.
Yeah, yeah, couldn’t be me!
*ahem* moving swiftly on…
Badmouse: Looking at some contemporary newcomers, I just get the feeling sometimes certain people…
certain people are maybe more interested in becoming YouTubers than, you know, they are
with the whole struggle.
And I see that exemplified in the way that they respond to stuff.
Or the way that they respond to invitations.
Or, you know, in the stuff that they do.
And, I…
I don’t…
I don’t like that.
Debate me, bro!
No, but honestly, this is a massive issue.
Individualism is a HUGE problem on the online left.
Badmouse earlier mentioned this problem of idol worship, and brands and so on.
The apotheosis of which is perhaps the online debate culture which has developed, wherein
the purpose of these debates is not education or to help organisations, or even to arrive
at truth as its proponents may claim - it’s merely pitting individuals against one another
in egotistical battles of rhetoric.
And, as anyone who’s engaged with public formal debates knows, that’s all it is:
rhetoric - theatre.
Pseudo-intellectual jousting.
Winning a debate does not mean a position is correct.
Losing a debate does not mean a position is incorrect.
Certainly not according to the Marxist theory of knowledge as outlined in texts like On
Practice, Where Do Correct Ideas Come From?
etc. (and, importantly, many of these supposedly left-wing debate bro types are claiming to
be Marxists, which should be setting off alarm bells for anyone viewing their content immediately).
But anyway, yeah, there’s a huge problem of YouTubers creating content as an entirely
individualistic project to big themselves up, to make themselves individually appear
to be these god-like giga-brains or whatever, rather than to focus on developing the movement
and supporting the international proletarian struggle more broadly.
Egos have to be kept in check within collective networks of comrades who actively engage in
principled good-faith criticism and self-criticism.
This can do nothing but make all of us stronger together.
Badmouse: It is my belief, and there might be science that proves me wrong, but I don’t
know.
It is my belief that most people don’t ponder what a topic is, go to YouTube, click on the
first like and go “Mmm.
This video was released a few years ago.
Mmm.
They might have changed their views, it might be a bit outdated.
I’ll bear this in mind when determining my view.”
Most people, when they see a video on class, or class explained, they go “Ah!
That person looks like an authority on this.
I know what class is all about now.
I don’t need anything else to know.
I’ve got it” We just see something said by normally a strong, well-spoken white guy,
and go “Ah!
This person knows what they’re saying.
*clicks* Damn right.
Solid d1ck.
I got it.
So as much good as some videos might be, if there’s some misleading or outdated information
in there, it’s not something that I personally feel comfortable with.
This is a really good point.
Related to everything else covered thus far about individualism and idol worship is the
creation of these pseudo-authority figures.
People unfortunately often mistake confidence for expertise.
And due to the kinds of meritocratic values with which we’re instilled, we can sometimes
assume that – for example – the number of subscribers that a channel has corresponds
with the correctness of the channel holder’s positions.
Which, it doesn’t.
The YouTube algorithm doesn’t give a shit about whether someone’s positions are correct
or not – its singular concern is maximising profit.
If you can make YouTube a lot of money, your voice will be amplified.
It doesn’t matter whether you’ve actually been democratically elected to speak on behalf
of a movement – whether you actually represent the people.
It doesn’t matter if you have experience as an educator or a propagandist, or if you
even actually have a clue what you’re talking about.
On YouTube, your “authority” is primarily derived from the fact that you’re able to
make YouTube a lot of money – even if that’s by spreading lies and misinformation, so…
not great!
Again, a collective network would be able to handle this kind of stuff much better,
keeping people in check, making sure that if erroneous positions are put forward or
misinformation was spread then these could be rectified, etc., etc.
This video that Badmouse has released is important in helping us to understand many of the potential
pitfalls of left-wing content creation, and can help us to see paths forward for overcoming
them.
I will also say that I believe it would be better for everyone if Badmouse put his videos
up again, albeit with disclaimers for points which were incorrect.
This could easily be done with a pinned comment at the top.
He could put a notice in the title to say “check pinned comment” or “this video
is outdated”, etc.
Years of educational materials are unfortunately now gone because of what appears to be a generally
misplaced sense of embarrassment as he believes a lot of what he’s created is, quote, “cringe”
– which is kinda cringe.
Deleting these educational materials has wider-reaching ramifications than he may realise.
Actual political organisations, including communist parties, often use materials such
as these as part of their own courses’ supplementary materials.
For example, there might be a reading group of On Contradiction, and the group will be
assigned to read the text, and the supplementary materials provided for that group meeting
would’ve been the Red Menace episode and BadMouse’s video On Contradiction.
And those materials can be incredibly helpful in terms of helping newcomers to communism
visualise what can sometimes appear to be quite abstract concepts.
Now, if the purpose of the channel was just to feed an individual ego, then yeah, maybe
videos which are believed to be “cringe” should be kept private.
But if the purpose was to help educate the masses and contribute to the development of
proletarian class-consciousness to help build movements more broadly, then those videos
should be made public again.
Not only for random people on the internet who stumble across them, but for actual communist
organisations that use these materials as part of their educational programmes.
There was a lot of really useful stuff there, and it’d be a shame for that all to go to
waste due to some sense of personal embarrassment.
I’d encourage Badmouse to think more deeply about the collective interests of the international
revolutionary movement which benefits from this work, and to be careful of falling into
the liberal trap of placing “personal interests first and the interests of the revolution
second”.
Badmouse has excellent skills in terms of animation and the production of videos.
He also has a good knowledge of Marxism, though, like everyone else, myself included, we all
have certain areas that need to be refined.
I sincerely hope Badmouse will return to making left-wing educational material and revolutionary
propaganda soon.
It doesn’t need to be even “BadMouse Productions” per se - it could even be educational videos
on behalf of a specific political organisation or movement.
But the important thing is that he does contribute his skills to the revolutionary movement.
There’s a lot of potential for left-wing YouTube as a tool for genuine Marxist political
education, as well as some openings for organisation and agitation.
We can’t cede this territory to opportunists and imposters who masquerade as “socialists”
but in truth seek little more than fame, fortune, and the bolstering of their own personal egos.
Alright, thank you for watching.
Badmouse’s video was a little bit of a wake-up call for me as I’m definitely heading down
the burnout route myself at the moment.
I think to dial back the frequency of videos to every second Friday to ensure the continuation
of this channel for the foreseeable future.
I’ll write up a post on Patreon to explain what’s going on a bit more for anyone who’s
interested and ask for your feedback there.
Speaking of which: Thank you Ian McShea, Yugopnik, Anix Magnus,
Boricua Guerilla, Ryan Hodgson, soup, Evan Crossland, Madeleine, sonic232, Sagan, Michaela
Schmid, Christian Nipales, Brian Ruiz, Alfonso Dingo Torres, Mecholova, keytothefields, Rotgardist,
Todd Sprang, NikedeSade, TrainHXIII, Meowcifur, Hunter Johnson, Rare Hero, Donal O Coisdealbha,
Six Ní Bhaoighealláin, lepanneän, Kale Marx, Roja, MLMinPractice, Eric Lindahl, Zekay
Goodie, Laverna Wintermore, kyle rapp, Vučko, Doctoma, Ayob Farah, bekey, Pastor Joubert,
A Mouthwash Bottle, MrMiyamoto, Kyle King, Reverend Lawn Gnome Hollywood, Wonderbad,
JT Chapman, José, Joseph Sheppard, Jack Shneidman, Comrade Amara, WealthForThe99Percent, Sp00p,
and Trailer Park Communist.
Cheers everyone, agus slán go fóill.