Gotta say it's pretty disappointing how @PresidentSunday has reacted to my last community post on here, both publicly and behind closed doors.
It's not just how he very childishly, or naively, continued to argue that making YouTube videos is something you ought to be able to expect considerable financial compensation for doing in my comments section well beyond the point it was clear we were at an impasse. It's also largely how a great deal of what he's said himself on the matter is either incredibly blinkered at best or disingenuous at worst.
Despite his protestations otherwise; Sunday does think he should be paid talk on the internet, and he's making the case that people ought to pay him enough to sustain his lifestyle out of a sense of sympathy. That's why he's promoting his Patreon so aggressively right now, and why specifically he makes sure to mention in every Patreon sales-pitch his ever-dwindling savings, his encroaching living expenses, and the people in his professional orbit who apparently rely on being paid by him to live themselves.
Further still, Sunday's insistence that he doesn't know why he was demonitized is either a blatant falsehood, or proof of very little critical introspection on his part this past week. While pedants may argue no-one can know exactly why PS had his YouTube ad privileges revoked, it should actually be incredibly obvious to anyone who watches his content - and, of course, to the man himself. The thumbnail of one of his most recent videos prior to the demonitization, 'How PhilosophyTube Lies To You', was just a picture of another creator on the platform (and a transwoman, specifically) smiling happily as she's struck by a man.
Is that sort of imagery more than little a bit gross? Yes. Edgy enough to warrant pulling someone's ads? Maybe, maybe not. But I can't imagine it's the sort of content that wins you any points in the eyes of YouTube's ToS jannies. But no reasonable adult (especially one who's been in Progressive spaces long enough to know better too) can tell me that they can't connect the dots between publishing something like that and getting "unexpectedly" dropped from the partner program mere days later. (And he can't seriously blame anyone in PhilosophyTube's audience for possibly reporting it either - he should have known better as a 'professional YouTuber' than to give them something distasteful enough to report.)
And that's without even getting too deeply into how, when you sign up for a YouTube partnership, you explicitly acknowledge that you can have your partnership terminated at any time for any reason, so if you want to make a career out of YouTube, it would be wise to have a backup plan just in case - but I digress.
More to the point, Sunday's public facing comments throughout this entire episode just strike me as all incredibly shortsighted, or incredibly dishonest. But even worse, I think, is how he decided to react to my recent simple criticism of his actions in less-public spaces like the echochamber of his personal Discord. Despite presenting himself as being at least civil in receiving criticism, in his server (see the embed below) Sunday was actually going off on something of a deranged rant until about 4am his local time wherein he, projecting heavily, told his fans I was merely being resentful of others' success of YouTube. Which is pretty hilarious, given that I thoroughly denounce the very idea anyone should aspire to being careerist YouTube star at every possible opportunity. And I take YouTube so casually that a couple days ago I even announced a two-month hiatus from making videos on here. And also, as it stands, the twenty-or-so dollars my hobbyist YouTube page puts in my pocket every week is still technically more than Sunday's puts in his now - so if I'm envious of anyone on here, it's certainly not him.
Further still, I'm astounded how Sunday - despite presenting himself as above such petty squabbles - opted to whip his server into a two minutes' hate against me. And his strongest soldiers happily called my a psycho, a cunt, an anti-Semite(?!), and a sociopath for his amusement - all because I had the gall to suggest being a 100-concurrents drama streamer would not be a viable career forever.
But, don't let it be said that I won't choose to take the highroad here. I won't sink to his or his fans' level by calling him any similar derogatory things back. And I still sincerely hope Sunday finds a source of income soon, if only just so he can pay his editors who apparently rely on him to make ends meet, or so his poor financial instincts up to this point don't leave him and his partner unhoused.
But I will say this: Feeling entitled to a never-ending cushy online job is still incredibly immature, unrealistic, and extremely out-of-touch with anything approaching what I would call a serious left-wing worldview. And speaking as someone with a Real Job™ in academia - the way Sunday has been acting, publicly and otherwise, is incredibly unbecoming of someone who aspires to a career as a serious public intellectual.
Cardposting
Gotta say it's pretty disappointing how @PresidentSunday has reacted to my last community post on here, both publicly and behind closed doors.
It's not just how he very childishly, or naively, continued to argue that making YouTube videos is something you ought to be able to expect considerable financial compensation for doing in my comments section well beyond the point it was clear we were at an impasse. It's also largely how a great deal of what he's said himself on the matter is either incredibly blinkered at best or disingenuous at worst.
Despite his protestations otherwise; Sunday does think he should be paid talk on the internet, and he's making the case that people ought to pay him enough to sustain his lifestyle out of a sense of sympathy.
That's why he's promoting his Patreon so aggressively right now, and why specifically he makes sure to mention in every Patreon sales-pitch his ever-dwindling savings, his encroaching living expenses, and the people in his professional orbit who apparently rely on being paid by him to live themselves.
Further still, Sunday's insistence that he doesn't know why he was demonitized is either a blatant falsehood, or proof of very little critical introspection on his part this past week. While pedants may argue no-one can know exactly why PS had his YouTube ad privileges revoked, it should actually be incredibly obvious to anyone who watches his content - and, of course, to the man himself.
The thumbnail of one of his most recent videos prior to the demonitization, 'How PhilosophyTube Lies To You', was just a picture of another creator on the platform (and a transwoman, specifically) smiling happily as she's struck by a man.
Is that sort of imagery more than little a bit gross? Yes.
Edgy enough to warrant pulling someone's ads? Maybe, maybe not. But I can't imagine it's the sort of content that wins you any points in the eyes of YouTube's ToS jannies.
But no reasonable adult (especially one who's been in Progressive spaces long enough to know better too) can tell me that they can't connect the dots between publishing something like that and getting "unexpectedly" dropped from the partner program mere days later.
(And he can't seriously blame anyone in PhilosophyTube's audience for possibly reporting it either - he should have known better as a 'professional YouTuber' than to give them something distasteful enough to report.)
And that's without even getting too deeply into how, when you sign up for a YouTube partnership, you explicitly acknowledge that you can have your partnership terminated at any time for any reason, so if you want to make a career out of YouTube, it would be wise to have a backup plan just in case - but I digress.
More to the point, Sunday's public facing comments throughout this entire episode just strike me as all incredibly shortsighted, or incredibly dishonest.
But even worse, I think, is how he decided to react to my recent simple criticism of his actions in less-public spaces like the echochamber of his personal Discord.
Despite presenting himself as being at least civil in receiving criticism, in his server (see the embed below) Sunday was actually going off on something of a deranged rant until about 4am his local time wherein he, projecting heavily, told his fans I was merely being resentful of others' success of YouTube.
Which is pretty hilarious, given that I thoroughly denounce the very idea anyone should aspire to being careerist YouTube star at every possible opportunity.
And I take YouTube so casually that a couple days ago I even announced a two-month hiatus from making videos on here.
And also, as it stands, the twenty-or-so dollars my hobbyist YouTube page puts in my pocket every week is still technically more than Sunday's puts in his now - so if I'm envious of anyone on here, it's certainly not him.
Further still, I'm astounded how Sunday - despite presenting himself as above such petty squabbles - opted to whip his server into a two minutes' hate against me. And his strongest soldiers happily called my a psycho, a cunt, an anti-Semite(?!), and a sociopath for his amusement - all because I had the gall to suggest being a 100-concurrents drama streamer would not be a viable career forever.
But, don't let it be said that I won't choose to take the highroad here. I won't sink to his or his fans' level by calling him any similar derogatory things back.
And I still sincerely hope Sunday finds a source of income soon, if only just so he can pay his editors who apparently rely on him to make ends meet, or so his poor financial instincts up to this point don't leave him and his partner unhoused.
But I will say this:
Feeling entitled to a never-ending cushy online job is still incredibly immature, unrealistic, and extremely out-of-touch with anything approaching what I would call a serious left-wing worldview.
And speaking as someone with a Real Job™ in academia - the way Sunday has been acting, publicly and otherwise, is incredibly unbecoming of someone who aspires to a career as a serious public intellectual.
1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 95