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  • 86 Posts
  • 45 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 13th, 2023

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  • Just a little post about transparency for your info.

    If you didn’t know, you can see a list of all of my mod actions at any time by clicking the Modlog link in the sidebar here: modlog link in the community sidebar

    This image shows my entire history of mod actions in this community as of right now: list of mod actions in /c/VideoEssays including two posts removed for breaking rule 2

    It’s mostly me trying to figure out how stickied posts work lol. I did remove two posts so far. Both times it was just because they didn’t have the video duration in the title of the post. I did give them more than a day to edit the title to include it before removing the posts. If that ever happens to you, you’re welcome to post the video again as long as the new post title follows rule 2.

    If you ever have any questions for me about anything, you can send me a direct message or ask in one of these chat threads (tag me if you do that one, just in case). Either way, I’ll do my best to respond quickly.

    Thank you all for being here! I’m really proud of the community we’re making :)
















  • It feels like the activity is partaking of me rather than the reverse

    Thanks for giving me these words to describe the feeling so well. I don’t feel interested and passionate… I feel consumed and dominated.

    Now that I think about it, lots of words that describe focus have etymologies that feel appropriately sinister. Captivated, enthralled, enraptured, fascinated, bewitched, mesmerized, hooked - all related to being controlled against your will.




  • Well, I hear you. Here’s my take. Sorry it’s a bit long.

    Chill Goblin tries to make his videos entertaining with comedy, and the satirically enshittified title is definitely part of that. He does make high-quality video essays, though. If you’re using the phrase “conspiracy theory content” to mean content that uses specious reasoning to persuade the viewer to believe in paranoid fantasies, then this video doesn’t qualify. It’s not about persuading anyone that any particular conspiracy theory is true. I’d describe this video as Chill Goblin using the subject of JFK conspiracy theories to do two things:

    -flex some solid information literacy skills with a pop conspiracy as stress test

    -bridge the discussion towards real examples of US imperialism

    Ultimately, he rejects all of the conspiracy theories that he examines, but he shows his work at how he got there, which I think is especially useful for any potentially paranoiac viewer who isn’t familiar with what “doing your own research” actually means. He collected a range of sources from a variety of perspectives. He engaged with them critically and skeptically to judge whether they are authoritative. In the video description, he highlights which are primary sources and which aren’t. He’s transparent about his biases as the interpreter of these sources for the audience. He does make a lot of jokes, but it’s not unusual even for professional educators to use charisma and entertainment to ensure that their students stay engaged with the topic.

    To be transparent myself, I’m not a nutjob (to my knowledge). I believe that if you trace most conspiracy content back far enough, you’re likely to discover a vast cesspit of fascism. However, I’m fascinated by the idea of conspiracy theories. In my job, I research researching (AKA information-seeking behavior for those in the biz), so I’m invested in thinking a lot about the thought-terminating nature of a paranoid conspiracy mindset and about how popular media engages with that. I’m also just generally interested in how CG uses comedy in his lecturing style.

    On a more superficial level, as the person currently modding this lemmy community, I’ve been trying to make sure that there’s always a lot of variety in what people can find here. I posted this video in particular because it has a jokier presentation style than lots of the posts so far and because we’ve had relatively few videos that focus on US history compared to media or culture. BTW I really appreciate how you’ve helped with that, too. Your posts so far have covered a big range of topics and styles.