I don’t like to be all preachy about peoples treats, I get annoyed when people try to tell me that my slop is bad or somehow dangerous, as if there aren’t about 1000 worse ways to burn holes in my brain than putting a podcast on in the background while doing dishes or driving or whatever. I’m a grown ass adult and I read a good amount and have lots of political discussions and organize in my spare time, its not like I’m some teenager being introduced to these ideas for the first, or even the 50th time.
But my dealings with people in their communities,and I’ve also heard this from other comrades, have been difficult. I don’t blame the hosts, but I’m suspicious of these platforms, the way they manipulate creators and consumers of content, it always seems to go badly. Idk maybe I’m just an old fuck
Step 1: Welp, my first video to my own YouTube channel. Nobody’s gonna watch this, but hey, it was fun to make, maybe it’ll be useful to someone eventually.
Step 2: Ope, I made it big by some fluke of the algorithm! Damn these expectations, I want to keep everybody satisfied, but I just don’t have time…
Step 3: But if I make a Patreon, then I can take time off work to make more videos, which means I get to share more knowledge with people…
Step 4: And if I get editors and scriptwriters et cetera, I – er, my team – can make more videos, which means I get to share more knowledge with people…
Step 5: Then if I start selling merch I can take even more time off work and pay more people to make even more videos, and spread awareness of this show, which means that I get to share even more knowledge with people…
Step 6: You know, taking time off work is super nice, I should make this my full-time job: I get to live the dream and share even more knowledge with people!
Step 7: You know, I’ve got all these people on my Patreon, I should give them at least some perks, as a token of my thanks for their support…
Step 8: Wow, uhh, these people are actually paying quite a bit more than I expected when I first started this… I dunno, I guess I’ll give them bonus videos? Maybe some early access, too? Those are popular perks.
Step 9: Honestly, I’m exhausted from chasing the algorithm and meeting the demands of my patrons and free viewers alike, but thankfully I’ve got all this passive income, right? So I’ll start posting less to YouTube, they’ll understand.
Step 10: You know, I’m surprised by how little I can upload to YouTube and still be able to keep this stuff going. I’ve gotta keep the patrons satisfied, though… Especially the people at the top tiers, I don’t want them spending their money on nothing! So you know what? I’m just gonna move some of these perks up a tier or two. The lower tiers wouldn’t mind, right? They didn’t mind when I was posting less before, they understood the alienation that comes from YouTube and Patreon stealing my – er, my team’s – surplus value, those lower-tier patrons are just here to support me.
Step 11: Uh oh, some of my lower-tier patrons are leaving, but at least I’ve still got this Supreme Soviet level patron who’s paying me $4,000 per month, so I’m still doing OK. I guess I’ll ask if he could cover the lost… profit… OK, he will if I adjust my content a bit, and it’s not like I haven’t adjusted my content before, I did have to tone myself down a bit for the algorithm, but it was all for the greater good, right? And after all, all those free viewers and lower-tier patrons are just freebooters, right? Like, my content is worth this much, so that’s how much people should pay for it, right?
Final state: Leftist YouTube Series is the 200-episode-long free prequel to Liberal YouTube Series, which releases two free episodes per year as a free trial. The subscription fee to get the rest of the series is your firstborn child. The series is created by Guy Onceler, owner of Guy Onceler Studios Inc. He makes cameo appearances in a few episodes but mostly delegates hosting to two of his employees.
Edit: Damn how could I forget the sponsor deals, pretend that I included something about having to modify the content a bit for the sponsors and then by the end 49% of the free videos’ runtime is sponsor deals
Edit 2: Oh and how could I forget how YouTube very explicitly pushes for “toning down” by taking down or demonetizing videos with certain types of content, which encourages Patreon as a place to put uncensored versions of videos.
I don’t like to be all preachy about peoples treats, I get annoyed when people try to tell me that my slop is bad or somehow dangerous, as if there aren’t about 1000 worse ways to burn holes in my brain than putting a podcast on in the background while doing dishes or driving or whatever. I’m a grown ass adult and I read a good amount and have lots of political discussions and organize in my spare time, its not like I’m some teenager being introduced to these ideas for the first, or even the 50th time.
But my dealings with people in their communities,and I’ve also heard this from other comrades, have been difficult. I don’t blame the hosts, but I’m suspicious of these platforms, the way they manipulate creators and consumers of content, it always seems to go badly. Idk maybe I’m just an old fuck
Initial state: A great leftist series on YouTube.
Step 1: Welp, my first video to my own YouTube channel. Nobody’s gonna watch this, but hey, it was fun to make, maybe it’ll be useful to someone eventually.
Step 2: Ope, I made it big by some fluke of the algorithm! Damn these expectations, I want to keep everybody satisfied, but I just don’t have time…
Step 3: But if I make a Patreon, then I can take time off work to make more videos, which means I get to share more knowledge with people…
Step 4: And if I get editors and scriptwriters et cetera, I – er, my team – can make more videos, which means I get to share more knowledge with people…
Step 5: Then if I start selling merch I can take even more time off work and pay more people to make even more videos, and spread awareness of this show, which means that I get to share even more knowledge with people…
Step 6: You know, taking time off work is super nice, I should make this my full-time job: I get to live the dream and share even more knowledge with people!
Step 7: You know, I’ve got all these people on my Patreon, I should give them at least some perks, as a token of my thanks for their support…
Step 8: Wow, uhh, these people are actually paying quite a bit more than I expected when I first started this… I dunno, I guess I’ll give them bonus videos? Maybe some early access, too? Those are popular perks.
Step 9: Honestly, I’m exhausted from chasing the algorithm and meeting the demands of my patrons and free viewers alike, but thankfully I’ve got all this passive income, right? So I’ll start posting less to YouTube, they’ll understand.
Step 10: You know, I’m surprised by how little I can upload to YouTube and still be able to keep this stuff going. I’ve gotta keep the patrons satisfied, though… Especially the people at the top tiers, I don’t want them spending their money on nothing! So you know what? I’m just gonna move some of these perks up a tier or two. The lower tiers wouldn’t mind, right? They didn’t mind when I was posting less before, they understood the alienation that comes from YouTube and Patreon stealing my – er, my team’s – surplus value, those lower-tier patrons are just here to support me.
Step 11: Uh oh, some of my lower-tier patrons are leaving, but at least I’ve still got this Supreme Soviet level patron who’s paying me $4,000 per month, so I’m still doing OK. I guess I’ll ask if he could cover the lost… profit… OK, he will if I adjust my content a bit, and it’s not like I haven’t adjusted my content before, I did have to tone myself down a bit for the algorithm, but it was all for the greater good, right? And after all, all those free viewers and lower-tier patrons are just freebooters, right? Like, my content is worth this much, so that’s how much people should pay for it, right?
Final state: Leftist YouTube Series is the 200-episode-long free prequel to Liberal YouTube Series, which releases two free episodes per year as a free trial. The subscription fee to get the rest of the series is your firstborn child. The series is created by Guy Onceler, owner of Guy Onceler Studios Inc. He makes cameo appearances in a few episodes but mostly delegates hosting to two of his employees.
Edit: Damn how could I forget the sponsor deals, pretend that I included something about having to modify the content a bit for the sponsors and then by the end 49% of the free videos’ runtime is sponsor deals
Edit 2: Oh and how could I forget how YouTube very explicitly pushes for “toning down” by taking down or demonetizing videos with certain types of content, which encourages Patreon as a place to put uncensored versions of videos.
Turns out the coercive forces of capitalism also applies to anti-capitalists
Remember: when you see the coercive laws of capitalism at your doorstep, simply say…
if you’re trying to turn a profit under capitalism then yeah it sure does