Veganism & the political goals of this youtube channel.
28 January 2018 [link youtube]
https://www.patreon.com/a_bas_le_ciel/
The video ends somewhat abruptly, as the waiter comes up the stairs to tell us that the café is going to close in 5 minutes: I suppose the pacing would be better if I'd let him say that, and then closed out the monologue thereafter, but, as it stands now, this is the conclusion "foreshadowed" in the first few minutes. ;-)
Youtube Automatic Transcription
vegans are a group of people who know
the change they want to make in the world and they even know how they want to make it and yet we are so you know fractious and fragmentary we're so divided into mutually hostile camps that it's seemingly impossible to get five people together who agree on these basic principles and who can get a movement going the same way those movements to you know make seatbelts mandatory got going the same way Mothers Against Drunk Driving got going people had to set aside their differences I'm reaching out to these people again and again because fundamentally my reason for being on YouTube is to use YouTube as a platform to organize that kind of real world political activism for three years now I've been asking people so what do you want to do what are you willing to do to make a positive change the future the vegan movement in the next five years right I've been asked that question for three years now so I'm running out of time before those are up and I have to face up the reality that although you know the profound fissures within veganism that exist they should create addressed in debate I don't even have people to debate with about us yen hey guys um broadcasting today has been in a word impossible we announced that we were gonna do the broadcast just 24 hours in advance from an airport the airport had a fabulous wireless connection but it turns out our hotel room did not we got out and scrambled and this is being reported right now from a cafe they're just closing down the cafe coffee shops tonight you might hear some of the dishes going to the dishwasher I can hear them clearing off dishes so I had a lot to say in today's broadcast and the broadcast is being cut short be that as it may I wanted to say a few words about the political purpose of my youtube channel itself and of why I'm on patreon you can click the link below this video and join patreon for $1.00 right now I openly discuss my efforts on patreon as a failure and several other people when patreon supporters wrote back to me saying well come on you shouldn't talk about it as a failure especially given that it's only a failure relative to a preconceived goal you established so fully one year ago now I talked about that on YouTube I my feeling my belief my conviction is that the exact opposite I think it's really important to set goals and then be honest with yourself when you fall short or when you exceed them right so I just went to China in order to learn Chinese how much Chinese did I learn in seven months relative to my goal how much did I accomplish how much could have accomplished etc I think those are really important things to be honest yourself about and any goal you miss of course is relative to some standard a goal is relative to a goal post whether you do well or poorly at something of course relies in part on definitions that have your own selection of your own election and the December 3rd on cold hard facts reality like if you flunk out of chemistry in university that's not a goal post you set for yourself they're gonna be standards like that you you come up against two but sure in this case I openly talked about goals and aspirations I had for the channel and many of those I haven't reached and now there are things I want to do that I can't do so I was emailing people earlier today and talking to people on Twitter about vegan conferences vegan political events I could attend or I would like to attend that is exactly the sort of thing I could do if I was making $400 a month on patreon and I'm not so I can't and I won't maybe that's an oversimplification but sure I'm massively limited in terms of what I can do now coming back to Canada from China in terms of real world vegan activism we're both right now unemployed I just finished doing a one-year contract as a university professor in China during that time I did earn more money than I spent and I did have a bunch of crazy expenditures like flying from China to France to see my daughter but be that as it may I basically saved up five thousand US dollars during that time I've now spent a bit of that too because on the trip back from China had various misadventures so significant amount of that guts met up and my father's death my father left me a gift legally speaking it wasn't evidence it was a gift at the time of his death that was only twenty five thousand dollars Canadian which is not enough money to do anything except stave off poverty right now during this time of transition when I get back from China to Canada look for a new job look to enroll in school again rent an apartment which we've just done so that's what's going on with us so yes the money matters and the the donations of lack of donations are gonna have real-world outcomes one of the other obvious ones you saw I was just talking to my mom about this my mom was actually really hyped to see me published children's storybook I wrote I wrote the storybook in Chinese it's just searched the channel for the word storybook and you'll find what I'm talking about but I wrote a story in Chinese I translated the Chinese into English other people translated it into Japanese German Russia and a few other languages we got Dutch coming up next Dutch translation is coming now um it's a great story starving praising my own work here but it's a great story for children and for parents to sit down and read to their children that deals with some of the core ethical questions if he can ISM but in a way that's not gross or inappropriate I would love to have that Illustrated and published and on store shelves and the reason why that hasn't happened yet now he's mine now over the last year there were the reasons my girlfriend already knows that's my girlfriend sitting off-camera we worked with an artist who flaked out that was the other thing that happened so it could money today is the reason why it's not happening now I inherited a lot less money than I thought I would I thought I get fifty thousand plus I thought 50 thousand 50 thousand it changes them with that and I didn't about 21 thousand Canadian which is I think less than 20,000 u.s. and I have a four-year-old daughter I have responsibilities in life and I got to worry about getting myself my next job but yeah I wish I had the financial margin or security to just get that book Illustrated and published and I don't and the artist I had before who flaked out on us keeping all the way wheel I really thought that if we work with her we could do like a crowdfunding Kickstarter type thing and get it rolling without too much money upfront I had confidence in that but she flaked out what's at the now so look um I would like to actually read out and discuss the message that is posted as text to patron I paint posted a sort of short essay which is a long discussion of what's been going on with this YouTube channel about what the political aspirations the YouTube channel are etc etc I mean it's not about what I see is the future of this YouTube channel it's about what the future of this channel isn't you know it's about the doors that have been closed and the failures and then what direction that funnels us into in terms of our lives and aspirations how we're gonna move forward as vegan activists and how we're gonna move forward in terms of using this platform using the internet generally try to make something positive happen right um I want to say for the purposes of this video again anyway you can click on and read that article that's a separate thing I've reached out to and tried to collaborate with so many people from so many different walks of life because as a used to emphasising videos going back to years and more I think the fundamental unit of political organization is having a group of maybe just 10 people who can really work together create a foundation engage in lobbying make something happen in Canada that's partly even just for legal reasons you got to get people together who can sign as the signatories to a board to create a charity clearly legal entity start receiving donations start lobbying start making things happen you need that group of friends five or ten people who trust each other and can sign checks for the same bank account and I've if someone asked me fundamentally why did I ever become friends with Charles Marlow formally known as the vegan cheetah that's why why did I ever reach out to an interview the light twins or I was interviewed by the white Twins whatever we had a conversation we had one one long great podcast still worth listening to my opinion you know and those guys later kind of went crazy and break it broke up and they've gotten into all this strange spiritual stuff why did I meet not interact these people why did I ever reach out to someone like Kenya mania each one why did every try to cooperate with someone like vegan gains or even worse ask yourself I mean each of these people is deeply flawed in a different a very different way you know some politically some religiously or spiritually or what-have-you I'm reaching out to these people again and again because fundamentally my reason for being on YouTube is to use YouTube as a platform to organize that kind of real world political activism right and when I'm talking to somebody like the light twins of course maybe I'm gonna recruit them we're talking some lakenya maybe I'm gonna be able to really collaborate with them maybe not but maybe even by reaching out to them positively they're gonna introduce me to the person I can really work with I can really make something happen with right that's surviving that's good practice in life whether it's business or politics what have you so done that again and again and again for about three years now I think I used to talk about it more I just don't talk about anymore cuz I don't like repeating the same message a huge move on to other to other topics but here I am now three years into this and I don't have that circle of ten people I don't have that circle of five people I don't even feel like I have three people I feel like I'm totally alone aside from my girlfriend but yeah of course my girlfriend counts but there's a sense our relationship is so close that it can't be counted as a political one and I guess it can't be you can't be counted as a colleague quite because you're you're more or less than a colleague both right um but sure so I'm not all alone I have my girlfriend with me and she'd love to do any of this stuff this activism but that's all of God so that is a failure yes failure is relative to goals use of herself or forego posts or definitions yourself yourself but I think it's really important to set and recognize success and failures when I you know whether they're financial aspirational political or otherwise so I still say this stuff to people recently get someone who was in the audience just now where the guy in called truth grab and other people freaked out about that including quests other people were really surprised when I was talking to him and I found out that he wasn't vegan I said to him we're looking at the only reason I'm here is to meet other vegans and try to get organized right try to work for the future of the other vegan movement I'm just keeping it real you know so and people were meeting in that context people were shocked that I was like I've got I've got no reason to talk to you you know if you're not vegan if you're not part of the future this movement if you're not part of the solution I don't really even care if you're part of the problem you know this is this is not when I'm on line four so another quip to quote myself that struck me today earlier today we listened back to a video I made I don't know long enough ago that I've forgotten all about it which was my response to Justin Peterson Jordan Peterson thinks that's what she's here for Jordan Peterson where I commented it's a really interesting video team honesty I had forgotten what I said in that video to such an extent that I found it really interesting and surprising but I commented you know vegans are a group of people who know the change they want to make in the world and they even know how they want to make it and yet we are so you know fractious and fragmentary we're so divided into mutually hostile camps that it's seemingly impossible to get five people together who agree on these basic principles and who can get a movement going the same way those movements to you know make seatbelts mandatory got going the same way Mothers Against Drunk Driving got going people had to set aside the differences I'm sure people got some people probably got involved in Mothers Against Drunk Driving because they were just opposed to people during alcohol for religious reasons and other people got involved because they had a relative who died in a car crash and at a strong emotional reason there would have been all kinds of diverse motives brought together by the mission statement of Mothers Against Drunk Driving any of these examples I use different movements to try to get rid of cigarette smoking educate people about cigarettes causing cancer etc etc right we have that hurdle to get over and some of us are only in this movement because of the heart attacks and some of us are only this movement because you're into adopting bunnies and stray cats we call this diversity but yeah for me for three years now I've been asking people so what do you want to do what are you willing to do to make a positive change the future the vegan movement in the next five years right I've been asked that question for three years now so I'm running out of time before those are up and I have to face up the reality that although you know the profound fissures within veganism that exist they should create addressed in debate I don't even have people to debate with still this day only one person ever collabed collaborated with me on the book review videos that was not vegan I still don't even have people who are looking at me across those fissures interested in debating these things for the future that even I don't even have people were interested cooperate me on the purely ideal ideal and idealistic side of the equation talking about the ideas talking about the philosophy and the political philosophy in the way forward this one I don't even have collaborators of that kind much less do I have five or ten collaborators to get organized make a movement make something happen in the real world so that's a failure and now me and my girlfriend party of two we've got to look forward to and asking ourselves the question should we enroll in college learn how to bake bread should we get involved in food services should we get involved in feeding vegans and feeding people to be vegan try to make something boss that way as a platform for fish evolution
the change they want to make in the world and they even know how they want to make it and yet we are so you know fractious and fragmentary we're so divided into mutually hostile camps that it's seemingly impossible to get five people together who agree on these basic principles and who can get a movement going the same way those movements to you know make seatbelts mandatory got going the same way Mothers Against Drunk Driving got going people had to set aside their differences I'm reaching out to these people again and again because fundamentally my reason for being on YouTube is to use YouTube as a platform to organize that kind of real world political activism for three years now I've been asking people so what do you want to do what are you willing to do to make a positive change the future the vegan movement in the next five years right I've been asked that question for three years now so I'm running out of time before those are up and I have to face up the reality that although you know the profound fissures within veganism that exist they should create addressed in debate I don't even have people to debate with about us yen hey guys um broadcasting today has been in a word impossible we announced that we were gonna do the broadcast just 24 hours in advance from an airport the airport had a fabulous wireless connection but it turns out our hotel room did not we got out and scrambled and this is being reported right now from a cafe they're just closing down the cafe coffee shops tonight you might hear some of the dishes going to the dishwasher I can hear them clearing off dishes so I had a lot to say in today's broadcast and the broadcast is being cut short be that as it may I wanted to say a few words about the political purpose of my youtube channel itself and of why I'm on patreon you can click the link below this video and join patreon for $1.00 right now I openly discuss my efforts on patreon as a failure and several other people when patreon supporters wrote back to me saying well come on you shouldn't talk about it as a failure especially given that it's only a failure relative to a preconceived goal you established so fully one year ago now I talked about that on YouTube I my feeling my belief my conviction is that the exact opposite I think it's really important to set goals and then be honest with yourself when you fall short or when you exceed them right so I just went to China in order to learn Chinese how much Chinese did I learn in seven months relative to my goal how much did I accomplish how much could have accomplished etc I think those are really important things to be honest yourself about and any goal you miss of course is relative to some standard a goal is relative to a goal post whether you do well or poorly at something of course relies in part on definitions that have your own selection of your own election and the December 3rd on cold hard facts reality like if you flunk out of chemistry in university that's not a goal post you set for yourself they're gonna be standards like that you you come up against two but sure in this case I openly talked about goals and aspirations I had for the channel and many of those I haven't reached and now there are things I want to do that I can't do so I was emailing people earlier today and talking to people on Twitter about vegan conferences vegan political events I could attend or I would like to attend that is exactly the sort of thing I could do if I was making $400 a month on patreon and I'm not so I can't and I won't maybe that's an oversimplification but sure I'm massively limited in terms of what I can do now coming back to Canada from China in terms of real world vegan activism we're both right now unemployed I just finished doing a one-year contract as a university professor in China during that time I did earn more money than I spent and I did have a bunch of crazy expenditures like flying from China to France to see my daughter but be that as it may I basically saved up five thousand US dollars during that time I've now spent a bit of that too because on the trip back from China had various misadventures so significant amount of that guts met up and my father's death my father left me a gift legally speaking it wasn't evidence it was a gift at the time of his death that was only twenty five thousand dollars Canadian which is not enough money to do anything except stave off poverty right now during this time of transition when I get back from China to Canada look for a new job look to enroll in school again rent an apartment which we've just done so that's what's going on with us so yes the money matters and the the donations of lack of donations are gonna have real-world outcomes one of the other obvious ones you saw I was just talking to my mom about this my mom was actually really hyped to see me published children's storybook I wrote I wrote the storybook in Chinese it's just searched the channel for the word storybook and you'll find what I'm talking about but I wrote a story in Chinese I translated the Chinese into English other people translated it into Japanese German Russia and a few other languages we got Dutch coming up next Dutch translation is coming now um it's a great story starving praising my own work here but it's a great story for children and for parents to sit down and read to their children that deals with some of the core ethical questions if he can ISM but in a way that's not gross or inappropriate I would love to have that Illustrated and published and on store shelves and the reason why that hasn't happened yet now he's mine now over the last year there were the reasons my girlfriend already knows that's my girlfriend sitting off-camera we worked with an artist who flaked out that was the other thing that happened so it could money today is the reason why it's not happening now I inherited a lot less money than I thought I would I thought I get fifty thousand plus I thought 50 thousand 50 thousand it changes them with that and I didn't about 21 thousand Canadian which is I think less than 20,000 u.s. and I have a four-year-old daughter I have responsibilities in life and I got to worry about getting myself my next job but yeah I wish I had the financial margin or security to just get that book Illustrated and published and I don't and the artist I had before who flaked out on us keeping all the way wheel I really thought that if we work with her we could do like a crowdfunding Kickstarter type thing and get it rolling without too much money upfront I had confidence in that but she flaked out what's at the now so look um I would like to actually read out and discuss the message that is posted as text to patron I paint posted a sort of short essay which is a long discussion of what's been going on with this YouTube channel about what the political aspirations the YouTube channel are etc etc I mean it's not about what I see is the future of this YouTube channel it's about what the future of this channel isn't you know it's about the doors that have been closed and the failures and then what direction that funnels us into in terms of our lives and aspirations how we're gonna move forward as vegan activists and how we're gonna move forward in terms of using this platform using the internet generally try to make something positive happen right um I want to say for the purposes of this video again anyway you can click on and read that article that's a separate thing I've reached out to and tried to collaborate with so many people from so many different walks of life because as a used to emphasising videos going back to years and more I think the fundamental unit of political organization is having a group of maybe just 10 people who can really work together create a foundation engage in lobbying make something happen in Canada that's partly even just for legal reasons you got to get people together who can sign as the signatories to a board to create a charity clearly legal entity start receiving donations start lobbying start making things happen you need that group of friends five or ten people who trust each other and can sign checks for the same bank account and I've if someone asked me fundamentally why did I ever become friends with Charles Marlow formally known as the vegan cheetah that's why why did I ever reach out to an interview the light twins or I was interviewed by the white Twins whatever we had a conversation we had one one long great podcast still worth listening to my opinion you know and those guys later kind of went crazy and break it broke up and they've gotten into all this strange spiritual stuff why did I meet not interact these people why did I ever reach out to someone like Kenya mania each one why did every try to cooperate with someone like vegan gains or even worse ask yourself I mean each of these people is deeply flawed in a different a very different way you know some politically some religiously or spiritually or what-have-you I'm reaching out to these people again and again because fundamentally my reason for being on YouTube is to use YouTube as a platform to organize that kind of real world political activism right and when I'm talking to somebody like the light twins of course maybe I'm gonna recruit them we're talking some lakenya maybe I'm gonna be able to really collaborate with them maybe not but maybe even by reaching out to them positively they're gonna introduce me to the person I can really work with I can really make something happen with right that's surviving that's good practice in life whether it's business or politics what have you so done that again and again and again for about three years now I think I used to talk about it more I just don't talk about anymore cuz I don't like repeating the same message a huge move on to other to other topics but here I am now three years into this and I don't have that circle of ten people I don't have that circle of five people I don't even feel like I have three people I feel like I'm totally alone aside from my girlfriend but yeah of course my girlfriend counts but there's a sense our relationship is so close that it can't be counted as a political one and I guess it can't be you can't be counted as a colleague quite because you're you're more or less than a colleague both right um but sure so I'm not all alone I have my girlfriend with me and she'd love to do any of this stuff this activism but that's all of God so that is a failure yes failure is relative to goals use of herself or forego posts or definitions yourself yourself but I think it's really important to set and recognize success and failures when I you know whether they're financial aspirational political or otherwise so I still say this stuff to people recently get someone who was in the audience just now where the guy in called truth grab and other people freaked out about that including quests other people were really surprised when I was talking to him and I found out that he wasn't vegan I said to him we're looking at the only reason I'm here is to meet other vegans and try to get organized right try to work for the future of the other vegan movement I'm just keeping it real you know so and people were meeting in that context people were shocked that I was like I've got I've got no reason to talk to you you know if you're not vegan if you're not part of the future this movement if you're not part of the solution I don't really even care if you're part of the problem you know this is this is not when I'm on line four so another quip to quote myself that struck me today earlier today we listened back to a video I made I don't know long enough ago that I've forgotten all about it which was my response to Justin Peterson Jordan Peterson thinks that's what she's here for Jordan Peterson where I commented it's a really interesting video team honesty I had forgotten what I said in that video to such an extent that I found it really interesting and surprising but I commented you know vegans are a group of people who know the change they want to make in the world and they even know how they want to make it and yet we are so you know fractious and fragmentary we're so divided into mutually hostile camps that it's seemingly impossible to get five people together who agree on these basic principles and who can get a movement going the same way those movements to you know make seatbelts mandatory got going the same way Mothers Against Drunk Driving got going people had to set aside the differences I'm sure people got some people probably got involved in Mothers Against Drunk Driving because they were just opposed to people during alcohol for religious reasons and other people got involved because they had a relative who died in a car crash and at a strong emotional reason there would have been all kinds of diverse motives brought together by the mission statement of Mothers Against Drunk Driving any of these examples I use different movements to try to get rid of cigarette smoking educate people about cigarettes causing cancer etc etc right we have that hurdle to get over and some of us are only in this movement because of the heart attacks and some of us are only this movement because you're into adopting bunnies and stray cats we call this diversity but yeah for me for three years now I've been asking people so what do you want to do what are you willing to do to make a positive change the future the vegan movement in the next five years right I've been asked that question for three years now so I'm running out of time before those are up and I have to face up the reality that although you know the profound fissures within veganism that exist they should create addressed in debate I don't even have people to debate with still this day only one person ever collabed collaborated with me on the book review videos that was not vegan I still don't even have people who are looking at me across those fissures interested in debating these things for the future that even I don't even have people were interested cooperate me on the purely ideal ideal and idealistic side of the equation talking about the ideas talking about the philosophy and the political philosophy in the way forward this one I don't even have collaborators of that kind much less do I have five or ten collaborators to get organized make a movement make something happen in the real world so that's a failure and now me and my girlfriend party of two we've got to look forward to and asking ourselves the question should we enroll in college learn how to bake bread should we get involved in food services should we get involved in feeding vegans and feeding people to be vegan try to make something boss that way as a platform for fish evolution