You may vaguely remember Sargon of Akkad’s petition to “UNIVERSITIES” to shut down all “social justice” courses. It’s been three months since Mr. Of Akkad — actually a dude named Carl, who lives in Swindon — launched the thing, and up until two days ago the only real effect it’s had in the real world was garnering Carl a supportive shoutout from the racist street thugs of the English Defence League.
But Carl of Swindon’s dopey petition has finally accomplished something he can be proud of. Well, kinda. It’s inspired a somewhat belated yet still quite hilarious response video from Youtube’s esteemed Hbomberguy — you know, the guy that did that classic “measured response” to the Sarkeesian Effect. The FIFTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS one. So enjoy!
And if you can’t bear to hear another word about the petition, you can always skip ahead to the part of the video (about nine minutes in) in which Hbomberguy discusses Carl’s less-than-glorious performance in an online debate with one Kristi Winters, a feminist who embarrassed poor Carl by exposing just how little he actually knows about feminism.
Personally I quite liked hbomber’s cuts to himself, reminded me of Charlie Brooker. Still great video though, glad I’m a patron ^^
M is the Picasso of the modern age.
Hbomberguy has become my new favourite YouTuber of all time
@Bina:
It’s why I am incredulous towards most who use the term nowadays: they don’t really seem to care about the concept as much as being immune from criticism which, in turn, restricts the speech of other people. As Frank from God Bless America put it – they don’t give a shit about your free speech or mine.
https://youtu.be/O_J9C2XoGO0
As far as YouTube goes: I made the mistake of getting into a…”conversation”…after watching Demotivatoropinion’s video about Steve Shives and TJ Kirk’s rivalry then subsequently losing all respect I had for him. He not only agreed with someone over the “Shirtgate” thing, as if pointing out inappropriate attire for an interview was a “personal attack” (because of some sarcastic Tweets? Christ Al-fucking-mighty, these guys are thin-skinned…), but then someone misapplied Hanlon’s razor to the situation and he pat them on the back for being oh-so-brilliant.
To clarify, Hanlon’s razor states this:
“Never assume malice when stupidity will suffice.”
Now, this is a perfectly reasonable thing to use as a response to conspiracy theorists who assume – say – 9/11 was an “inside job” rather than the culmination of bad policy decisions within the Middle East that helped train and arm the mujaheddin in response to the Soviet invasion of the Middle East.
The problem? This was about racism. Applying that phrase to racist behavior and agreeing with it, from someone who makes videos decrying racism as often as he does, was an astonishing act of hypocrisy I simply couldn’t abide.
Yeah, sorry, but that’s fucking horseshit. When it comes to racism – ignorance and malice aren’t mutually exclusive. One enables and justifies the other. Being racist in a “nice” way doesn’t somehow make it more excusable because the effect is the same as if it was outwardly malicious.
Someone else tried to correct me and I replied explaining that I actually got the quote but think it was misapplied. That person, like all disingenuous trolls, acted receptive at first and was pleasant when he thought we were agreeing with one another. Well, we didn’t, because he didn’t think racism was a big deal (he mocked Black Lives Matter) and that only people who point out racism are only doing so for attention and are “over-sensitive.” It became pretty clear, right after explaining my experiences with discussing race and gender as well as the hostility towards it, he simply wanted me to agree with and validate him – because he became incredibly aggressive and accused me of saying things I never said.
For someone who kept trumpeting Hanlon’s razor and how you shouldn’t wrongly attribute things to others, he sure as fuck loved to assume and assume and assume. Apparently, because my experiences weren’t the same as his own (which were skewed given he claimed “The Feminists” were ruining YouTube – which has no real bearing in reality), I must be wrong. Who knew that the things you personally experience are invalid if they don’t exactly reflect someone else’s? I didn’t. Then he declared the conversation was over (in his third reply to me) while erroneously claiming I declared myself to be an arbiter of truth. So, what, he’s the arbiter of when a conversation ends? Wow, such logic!
The last straw was when Demotivatoropinion chimed in again with this milquetoast defense of TJ by claiming that he only seems malicious because he rambles so much but still occasionally says reasonable things. No, you fucking dumbass, he is malicious regardless of whether he’s doing it purposefully or only out of ignorance. Racism is racism is racism is racism. One degree of it isn’t “better” than the last because it’s all detrimental to marginalized groups. Goddamn, I am so sick of white people being so driven to excuse certain kinds of racist behavior out of some false sense of “open-mindedness.” How does it make sense to be open-minded towards behavior that is inherently closed-minded? Oh, right, I forgot: because it’s convenient for the intellectually lazy.
I was not only reminded why I avoid getting into online discussions with those I am unfamiliar with, but even people who I like might – in actuality – just be a total cretin who hid it well. Or, perhaps, you were too willing to expect better of them…
Hbomberguy is hilarious. New fan here!
As funny as Hbomberguy is, I have to say, this Youtube video is my favourite thing to come from the Measured Response to the Sarkesian Effect:
Hbomberguy is so brilliant! Hilarious and hits all the right points at the same time. He really knows how to take the mickey out of people like Sargon, but he is also legit entertaining too. Add to that the fact he loves the Star Wars prequels AND Man of Steel, and he’s my perfect video maker!
I really don’t get why so many of these bozos use the term ‘free speech’ when they have no idea what it means. The obvious explanation is that they think it only applies to them and no one else, but I think it is more complex than that.
NickNameNick, I get what you mean about people we like having the potential to turn out to be real morons. A person who is a friend of mine has started liking all these anti-SJW ‘humour’ things on Facebook, and I’m currently in the process of recovering from nearly, genuinely throwing up from how horrible it all is.
Some of his actual get content – the reviews, mainly – is also quite interesting. They’re really critiques more than strict reviews.
@Nparker:
Honestly? I just can’t stand the compartmentalization anymore – it’s harder and harder to tolerate. Especially from people who pat themselves on the back for supposedly being more self-aware and rational than the rest.
When it comes to racism? To quote a minor character from Peep Show: you can fuck off – you can fuck right off.
It seems white individuals are so concerned about their feelings and those of other white people that they have to make excuses as to why one kind of racism isn’t “as bad” as another. Except it’s still an excuse, and a cowardly one at that.
It’s like when hardcore atheists online try to explain why they target Islam more than Christianity is because it’s “not as bad” – they’re doing so out of personal bias (because they live in a society where Christian values are largely accepted) and convenience (because Islam is largely made up of scary brown people) than that actually being the case – all those witch burnings and groups like the Lord’s Resistance Army in Africa are both influenced by Christianity. These same people probably don’t bother criticizing Hinduism, despite the fact it has as many problematic elements as Islam, because they’re just not familiar with it and because people from India are harder to demonize than people from the Middle East.
If you can’t admit that all racism and religious violence is terrible regardless of who it comes from and how, you’re a massive hypocrite. If you have to start arguing about degrees and how one is more forgivable than another ’cause reasons, you don’t deserve any ounce of respect from me or anyone else.
@NickNameNick
It’s like when hardcore atheists online try to explain why they target Islam more than Christianity is because it’s “not as bad” – they’re doing so out of personal bias (because they live in a society where Christian values are largely accepted) and convenience (because Islam is largely made up of scary brown people) than that actually being the case
Woah, what happened there? It block quoted my comment and left what I was quoting alone. How odd.
Yeah, I can’t stand Dawkins for that reason – along with the fact that, after making such a big deal about child molestation by Catholic priests, he seemed to have no issue with molestation in a secular setting. As if it is any different.
That’s a perfect example of compartmentalization, actually: molestation is bad when a religious authority figure does it. Otherwise? Not a big deal, ’cause reasons!