Permanent Vacation 2: Vegans Drop Out of School for Social Media "Activism".

the permanent vacation lifestyle
activism within the vegan movement it's a big deal I've been talking about it for years many of you people watching this video now first discovered my channel because of my critique of the permanent vacation and lifestyle activism many of my supporters on patreon ah that's how you got to know me it's a big issue it's an enduring issue it hasn't disappeared it still matters why does it matter why do people like myself talk about it instead of just ignoring it because let's face it the majority of the time whether it's on a big channel or a small channel we do ignore it and you know what let's keep it all the way real even on a human face to face level me cooperating with and interacting with people I do tend to ignore it you guys know I I did one podcast of Jason Posey know in some ways Jason I've said this enough videos I think Jason's you know in some ways he was representing the worst aspect of vacation lifestyle and he had he could laugh about it with me you know I mean you know he's a self-conscious enough guy self-critical enough guy but I didn't I didn't try to shut him down I didn't I didn't refuse to talk to him I didn't say no I'm I'm too good to hang with you because I'm a critic of the primitive occasional lifestyle I set it aside okay let's see what we have in common let's see if we can work on because look guys if what you have in common with somebody is that you want to save the world save the animals promote ecology the vegan diet etc that is something so fundamental and so important and so meaningful for two people to have in common that you should put aside those other things there's other considerations you should put aside you know the fact that maybe you don't both feel that you filming yourself at the beach is the most effective form of activism but you should be able to put it aside and certainly with someone with like Han yells so I did try to put aside those differences I tried to I tried to be friends with any up to to keep things simple didn't work out pretty sure Hanna hates my guts but now that's alright I win some lose some what it's the permanent vacation okay why is it a problem why do people like myself criticize this at all as opposed to just ignoring it given that there are so many videos and so many channels devoted to this approach to veganism that we have to be ignoring we have to be nor on a daily basis and sometimes even when trying to make a friend you set it aside and ignore it also I think there were four headings let's talk about just three of them in this video number one is the impact on the individual person's life which is no joke right people who adopt this lifestyle this paradigm some of them drop out of university to do it some of them drop out of high school to do it and some of them encourage others to drop out of university and drop out of high school to do it okay it's a big deal those are decisions that have tremendous long-term consequences so one pretty sympathetic conversation I had you guys can look it up my channel was posted relatively recently I had this conversation with a young woman in Chiangmai who dropped out of high school and joined the circus she dropped out of high school to go and live in Chiang Mai and live that high fruit rot Oh for lifestyle for the sake of her health and also I think coz of the philosophy the social philosophy of what was what was attached to that she's not the most extreme example but she she lost faith in that project and she had that injury with me so her name is Leah pram Staller and also that video discusses the fact that she gained a ton of weight not everyone does but she gained a ton of weight eating so many males today so look when I talk about this is point one on my list here the impact on an individual person's life it's not trivial quitting your job is not trivial dropping out of university is not trivial dropping out of high school is not trivial someone else dropped out of high school not even college is tests beg okay I guess I'll probably come back to example if you haven't heard of her test tes SBE GG test bag first name last name many people have it when you if you haven't heard of her and you go to her channel you're probably gonna be shocked by how many followers she's got how many viewers she's got when I look at her channel right now a no shade out of that like several of the videos are just showing pictures of food but one two three four five six seven eight nine ten seeing like 10 images of her where she is wearing either white underwear or a white bikini in a white bikini in the shower in a white bikini getting out of the swimming pool something I can't tell if it's a bikini or benning's you know and others bathing suit of different colors and workout clothes very revealing test bag dropped at a high school to play that game okay and some people would say she's very successful you know she some of these videos have 50,000 viewers etc etc choice is still not trivial it's still significant it's still incredibly meaningful short term in long term and you got to think of what if she was your sister what if she was your cousin what if she was your daughter right um I'm digressing I'm digressing to my main point here but you know um I have a million brothers and sisters I have one child I'm divorced but I do have a daughter I do think about these things when I say impact individual person's life I'm not joking I'm not being cynical it's not just a ploy to get views like I want to see something outrageous about test bag and also it's interesting some people misinterpret what I'm saying 180 degrees here like when I raise this as if I'm saying physical beauty is the only thing that matters if you know someone who is a brilliant talented hard-working musician and they have a contract with a recording company still they have to think about what they're doing long term next 50 years their life of musicians the majority who have a contract who record an album who have a contract and an album the majority of them they'll have a career that only lasts two or three years the majority of successful musicians the majority of signing musicians the majority of musicians who get a song on the radio this is a considerable level of success they don't have a 20-year career they maybe have a two-year career right and we're already dealing with a tiny tiny minority of women who sign contracts with a modeling firm a tiny minority have a successful career almost nobody has a 20-year career right you could have been modeling you can have a success over the last two years so again whether you're talking about recording music or modeling you talk to someone who's a bureaucrat one of those ages agency someone who's an agent or a manager and asked them can you calculate what percentage of people who are signed what percentage of people who sign a contract have a successful career and then what percentage of Everclear the last more than two years it's a tiny tiny percentage right now I don't know why some people hear this kind of thing I'm expressing concern expressed concern for the individual people I'm expressing concern for the future of the movement veganism right my point is not you're too ugly to be a model or you're not talented enough to be Missouri it's not my point my point is dropping at a high school or dropping out of university to become a musician or to become a model is a really bad choice even if you're extremely talented as a musician even if you're extremely gorgeous as a model even if you have signed a contract as a musician or as a model right among the most successful people in those fields the most successful still the majority of only got two or three years in the game and them what right so coming back to hennya I mean look for some people for a tiny minority of people YouTube social media goes from being a hobby to being a profession to being to paying your bills early it might be your career for a lot of those people after a couple of years it goes back from being your career to being your hobby so we've seen haenyeo rise and fall terms of the number of reviewers she used to get more than 30,000 views per video I now see her getting only 6,000 views per video and I've seen her in her videos directly talking about her anxiety that her income from YouTube has fallen not that surprising how long do you think it was gonna last even for people who sing and who sing the hell out of a song we'll have a hit song who have a top-ten song a lot of people are one-hit wonders a lot of people have a career as recording artists the only lasts for one year so if you do what we do here on YouTube here on social you just talk about your life do you really think you can achieve that kind of peak Fame for 20 years for your career in the whole world maybe a couple of people do it I mean I don't even know if 20 years have we really had this kind of social media for 20 years I know if we can have an example of that but again Kenya Kenya may be the single most successful YouTube personality and veganism she may be like if you make a top-ten list I think she's on there for the last decade I think she is one of the most successful people but success is fleeting and again success is fleeting even if you sign the contract as a model or as a musician and us we people people like test bag they ain't got no contract they ain't got no modeling agency right now again I have asked the question with people like Nina and Aranda I've asked the question whether or not they could is also worth asking as a thought experiment and Randa really could be successful as musicians or as models and my opinion on them is no my opinion doesn't matter the reality is they have not succeeded the reality is they're 23 years old they're not teenagers they're adults and their significant voices in veganism and I want to criticize them one because I think their content is garbage I think they're idiots and they're a bad influence on the movement but also fundamentally you know guys they did an advertisement for Taco Bell which raises ethical sure they're reasons to talk about what they're doing now again some people got this 180 degrees the wrong way around and their understanding of the point I've just made to you was being good looking is really important well if you're signing a modeling contract it probably is but that's not actually my point here people I think I've just explained to you clearly enough that I mean we're now into an era of self-made celebrity self-made stardom right it doesn't matter whether or not test bag is good-looking enough to sign a modeling contract even if she did I would still express this kind of concern you know on a human individual level what about your long-term future what about two or three years from now even someone as successful as hennya what about your long-term future what about your future two or three years from now right whether you make a comparison to modeling or music or anything else fame is fleeting even at the top and don't kid yourself we're talking about micro Fame within the vegan demi-monde well way down on the bottom we're talking about people making $500 a month out of YouTube and I know I know you may feel famous if you're a young kid and you're in high school or you're struggling with university you make those five hundred dollars a month you feel lit you think I can do this you think I can grow the I can make it go from 500 to 5,000 I can start paying my read this can be my career that's I understand the excitement understand the enthusiasm it's it's not my role to gas you up kid it's my role to say to you think about 10 years in the future think about 20 years to think about long-term future and looks 0.2 I look like point 1 here is the impact on your life as an individual what like honestly where do you think we're gonna be 10 years from now do you think Kenya is gonna look back and say this had a really positive back to know I think probably a lot of people I've seen so many people drop out and quit the game already delicious journey already dropped out quit the game I've just saw a comment from her from years ago you know reminded me of her existence and I go and look at her Channel hasn't been updated for months tons of people quit the game from all levels they're people who are strictly political there are people who are strictly bikini models people from all different walks of life who get involved play this game for a while and quit how do you think they look back on it now me I'm in this super long term right now I've got a court case with durianrider so what we've had almost 6 months of litigation I don't know Wendell it may be it's only been four months litigation feels at the core cases been going on forever short term it's a drag but I'm thinking where does this put me ten years from now I want to be I'm on a roll heavy in the vegan movement to like the day I die I want to be here when I'm 65 and want you guys to all look back on this and laugh hope we can laugh together I hope you guys still know me when I'm 65 and when you watch youtube videos by pressing a button on your watch whatever state this technology it's evolved to by then right [Music] so you know my point is here not to condemn the whole enterprise but sure the stakes are high people are I mean there was Joe vegan he admitted back in the day back when he was a true believer in during Ryder Philly so before Jovian got famous here on YouTube he got his job he quit his job to go to Thailand and join the circus just to go in worship during Ryder and freely just to go attend the the fruit festival there again I interviewed that other young woman who dropped out of high school to do it people are making those kinds of decisions that have a deep impact on their life and they look jumping back back to my main point here this is all my main point it's one long main point people I think it was two years ago that I sent an email to happy healthy ninety-six whose real name is Stephanie you I sent an email to Stephanie you because Stephanie you was at that moment making the decision to drop at a university and she had a video about it on YouTube she's saying well you know I'm gonna drop at a university so that she can be happy and healthy come to find out this week I found out she ain't happy she ain't healthy she's basically at a public breakdown that her whole [ __ ] life on social media is a lie her life based on projecting this image of a happy healthy vegan lifestyle she ain't happy she ain't healthy she dropped out of university for what she dropped out of university to do a bunch of Joe jobs in Australia and possibly Thailand I never heard of her having a job in Thailand I assumed she was spending her parents money during that time no shade but I've never seen anything from her explaining how she earns money but she has said to me that she had some kind of low-level job so she I don't know like I don't know if she worked in a convenience store or what I do not know when all you got a high school diploma and an airplane ticket to Australia I don't know what kind of job you can get you can't get a job in Thailand having the legal as having the legal right to work in Thailand is not easy I've been through that I've done the paperwork to have the legal right to work until I have real life experience job experience that stuff um so look uh you know Steph you how do you sefa knee you happy healthy ninety-six how do you think she's gonna look back on this role veganism and Sarah now Jimmy on point for here this stuff is not anodyne it's not harmless it has real impacts for these people's individuals and then it has real impacts on others who imitate them who emulate them if we were keeping it all the way real who do you think influenced Steph you to try that I'm sure on some level even she's not aware about absolutely certain Steph you of course she was influenced by freely I think she was influenced by Kenya Kenya mania I'm sure she looked at Hania and Hania was there at the peak of her fame and she thought I can do this maybe she thought I can do this better probably true probably Steph you can do a better job than Hanyu mania at that same gig and again now today look at any of them look at you can even look at freely I mean frillies got enough money to get by but all of the miserable [ __ ] two lives you know so look at the look at the outcomes now from Steph you from freely but from Hanna even when you know her fame comes and goes and now what it's not a career and you were still to start with the individuals we're still not even talking about the movement right social media is not an alternative to having a real career it can be an adjunct to having a real career right but my next point is social media is not an alternative to real political activism it has to be an adjunct to real political activism right and people are promoting this it's exactly 100 degrees opposite is the the myth being spun here okay so look impact on the movement in a sense all my videos about this and since I feel like I've already said enough and just eluding forward to the fact that I'm not just concerned I'm just talked about concerned about the individual person their career their life etc but also I've got to be concerned about veganism as such what is the impact on veganism that so-called lifestyle activism has and I've got to be impact I'm sorry I've got to be concerned of my heading number three is the impact that one individual has on another the fact that maybe Stephanie you was in a sense imitating or emulating hennya and it's very easy a course on the internet for one thing is very easy to only speak to people who agree with you to speak with in an echo chamber where no one's challenging your point of view your opinions she was easily really shocking look at any of Ted cars worst videos and then look at the thumbs-up thumbs-down ratio obviously people would disagree with or people who would challenge his lunacy they just don't watch the videos they ignore it which is natural but then you get this self reinforcing pattern right so people do get influenced by this and the movement gets influenced and the perception of the movement gets influenced and as I said at the beginning of this in many ways right now we're an ongoing debate or ongoing struggle for the soul of veganism to decide the future of the movement I wrote a message this morning before I went to class to a young vegan on YouTube her channel is called positively vegan she is I believe 14 years old she is on YouTube and she mentions that her parents you know control her content I assume they vet it or whatever you know I don't know I don't know what the process is but of course that's very good I think if you're 14 years old your parents should be involved you know or some some guardian some older person should be should be helping you manage your social media if you're gonna use social media that age so she's 14 years old and she put up a video that somewhat vaguely says that she is frustrated as many young people are with school and again the stakes are pretty high here I've just mentioned a whole bunch of examples of people actually dropped out of high school or actually dropped out of university to pursue this noxious mix of social media glitz and you know self-styled activism right I mean it's what it is it's it's you know uh it's putting on a bikini in lieu of a revolution but you know as all the pretensions of revolutionary left-wing politics wrapped up in a bikini and sold to you as part of a beach vacation can you imagine why this is so popular can you imagine why this is so influential alright um in the video she doesn't really spell out that she wants to get involved that kind of lifestyle isn't she somewhat vaguely says that she's frustrated that she's trapped in school studying things she's not interested in and that really what she wants to doing is traveling around the world and going to these vegan meetups that she sees on social media so I don't want to put words into her mouth but my concern is that sounds a lot like exactly what Stephanie you said I think about two years ago when she was first justifying her decision to drop at a college and when I wrote to her and I got a reply to neither she nor I had very big YouTube channels at that time saying look I really think you're making the wrong decision and this replied this fourteen-year-old just gets depressing some of the same concerns I think you're gonna see exactly why I expressed this and all of these concerns concerns about the individual because there's about influence concerns about the movement etc so as a high pause that's my abbreviation of positively vegan as their screen name so just say hi pause um hi pause feel free to share this message with your parents maybe they'll read it anyway like I know maybe we're parents actually you know login and and read the comments but I do open by saying look I'm happy if this if this message reaches her parents I'm just as happy as if it reaches her because it serves the same purpose feel free to share this message with your parents maybe they'll read it anyway the reality is that the road to making a difference in veganism or any political movement is not via social media maybe your parents could help you find examples of people who have actually had influential careers linked to ecology and animal rights or veganism sensu stricto they have very little resemblance to the people you allude to seeing on the song social media the people whom you'd like to emulate ok so just pause there this is so true but very very few people will see it it's not easy to find there are examples of people who actually have careers whether as lawyers or advocates some kind of political career involved with animal rights ecology would have you some of them have a stutter some of them have a poor stage presence some of them would never have a youtube channel just for that reason like you know they can't speak in a confident way on camera some of them are fat some of them are ugly plenty of the poor is nothing wrong with that yo ugly vegans represent you know um some of them are shy some of them come out of a an academic background some of them of no academic banker you can find examples people had careers of that kind that are really influential and successful who actually didn't have any formal education related maybe they were a carpenter or something for it is interesting but it's not easy to find I mean that's what I say maybe her parents could show her some examples of what people like who have a career linked to this form of activism because again one thing I'm emphasizing is the difference between short term fame and a career although your video doesn't really explain to me what your vision of your own future might be and I don't want to assume for example that you think you can emulate Hannya mania but perhaps it is some specific role model of this kind that you have in mind you just briefly say that you want to travel around the world going to meetups but the reality is that when you attend these meetups you'll have nothing to offer by contrast a medical doctor or a lawyer might have a lot to offer you can have expertise in a totally unrelated field and still be respected in the movement you can also just do honest work that earns the respect of your peers in almost any field but respect is earned and the bottom line is that someone who is a doctor or a linguist or a successful small business owner is in a massively advantageous position relative to a teenager on social media okay so again look the movement is the movement is the movement and some of you guys had this experience you show up to a meet-up of vegan activists of people aspiring to do vegan activism aspiring to organize something to make something happen if you show up and you just say hey I'm not from around here I don't live here out of any connections local government or of any local knowledge what's going on but I have pretty I have pretty pictures of myself on Instagram I'm a young attractive person on social media people may be nice to you but it's really a dead end you really have nothing to offer the movement whether you're going to meet up in London England or in Athens Greece or in Thailand you say yeah I just got off the plane I'm living this lifestyle like hanger mania where I just fly around the world I don't put down any roots I don't get any involvement with City Hall or Parliament's or with a political foundation I just get off the airplane and then I come to this meetup and I eat strawberries with you guys or I drink mango smoothies with you guys and then I go in a very real sense you have nothing to offer yes people will be nice to you I mean like you know people will chat with you maybe they'll go out and dance with you maybe they'll go out partying with you okay but in terms of the movement somebody doing that is that such a steep disadvantage to someone shows up and says yeah I'm a medical doctor I'm a vegan and I'm a medical doctor and now if the medical doctor just got off the airplane okay yes I'm his vanity I'm a medical doctor and for years I've been involved with lobbying City Hall I've been involved with lobbying the school board for education because you know I've been objected the school board keeps teaching kids that eating chicken eggs is good for their health I'm a medical doctor I have five years experience taking the fight to the school board trying to get the standards changed in public education so we stopped teaching kids lies about you know the conditions animals live in the health value nutritional value of eggs dairy etcetera wow that guy has a lot on that guy or that woman could be a female doctor or whatever Wow so yeah it's a meet up and what you see on social media we see on YouTube may give you the sense that all you need to do is buy an airplane ticket and go to that meet up and things are so for you and things improve for the movement and wonderful things happen and it's just not true when you show up that meet up in a sense you have to make an argument explaining why you have anything to offer to the movement if you have a lot to offer you can take on a leadership role if you have a little bit to offer maybe you fit in somewhere in between maybe what you have to offer is just time by the way because a medical doctor will not have a lot of free time that medical doctor may want younger people to volunteer to help him with that stuff because he's so busy running his medical practice blah blah blah sure sometimes the puzzle pieces can fit together and the whole is much better so the whole is much bigger than each of the pieces individually no doubt that's part of the beauty of organizing political activism okay but the movement is the movement is the movement and you show up in the Meetup and you have nothing to offer but a pretty face and Instagram profile with 10,000 followers you got nothing to offer even though plenty of people will be flattering towards you I mean the main thing I see happening at those meetups some of which you can see on camera you know like on YouTube and some of which you know you see in real life a bunch of burnt-out Loser hippies making excuses for each other for why they have no ambition why they have no accomplishments why they've wasted the last five years of their lives sometimes the last 15 years of their lives just trying to stoke up each other's egos right there's a lot of that going on actually that was one things I warned Stephanie you about I said to Stephanie you look one of the problems is with your plan because you didn't just drop out of university she dropped out of university to join the circus over in Thailand I said look you know and this is this raw raw a fruitarian righto for demi-monde and Thailand said look one of the problems is you're going to a community where nobody is gonna challenge you on these decisions you made cause she doesn't made a terrible decision and I hope she's smart enough to regret now I hope she is but you know at least she at least she's still young enough to read it maybe she can still go back to school maybe she can still have a real career or something but the problem is you're gonna go into this demi-monde into this small circle of people who are in the tiny minority of people who are gonna reinforce all of your delusions of grandeur let me let me I didn't stutter but let me restate that case you couldn't hear me clearly you're moving into a demi-monde of people who are going to reinforce your delusions of grandeur now that can happen just on the internet where people stay at their own desk tons of people broadcasting they get a little social circle of people who do nothing but flatter them nothing would praise them nothing but reinforce their sense that what they're doing is right and good and effective effective as effective activism and you know in a sense the underlying tragedy their lives can get worse and worse and worse until it hits a breaking point I think that's just what happened with Stephanie you she kept deal with in the name of her channel is happy healthy 96 how long do you maintain that illusion that everything's fine that everything's great until you hit a breaking point and you say hey this is a disaster hey I'm checking into the hospital hey actually my health is terrible actually I'm not happy with my life right now me I keep it all the way real you guys know all the time how miserable I you know what's up in my life good bad indifferent right but most these people are not are not playing by those rules and I can even say that of Hannya handiest any other middle she's pretty honest with Hania she get a little bit of an illusion that things are fine and then periodically she gives you a video where she's really letting you know once she's had a lot of health problems that she's not healthy that she's not healthy and that she's not happy that she has a lot of things that are that are wrong in her life but now when that brief period of fame fades and the money starts to dry up from YouTube you got to think about the difference between micro Fame and a lifelong career because my commitment to veganism is lifelong what I can actually do comes and goes right but I'm thinking long term and if there's one thing in contrast to Ted Carr encounters to all the other people encouraging you to be indulgent and short time thinking if there's one thing I want delivered you I want people to think long term whether I'm talking to this fourteen-year-old whether I'm talking to some of my fans who are 55 years old we all got to think long term right okay so okay respect is earned the bottom line is someone who is a doctor or a linguist or even a successful small business owner is massively advantageous relative to a teenager in social media I guess she just mentioned a small business owner what if somebody owns a vegan restaurant what if someone owns a vegan food truck what if someone owns a vegan pancakes and a vegan hotdog stand any that's I mean I always say the food services it's kind of the most ubiquitous and most easily ignored form of vegan activism obviously you're doing something that gives you a basis to really you know engage in real activism where you're really valued in that community if you can really form a vegan community maybe it is a real community that you know this kind of social media career does not give you ever right it also gives you roots gives you roots and a you know in a real place in bricks-and-mortar right okay the teenagers on social media may be the easiest part of the movement to see and thus the easiest thing for you to emulate but they're generally a bunch of losers I've been to those cafes in Thailand and I've seen it for myself period so actually I mean just a pause honor that's a meaningful point the the teenagers in bikinis of social media are the easiest thing to see easiest thing to emulate but again in contrast to the medical doctor or the small business owner or the restaurant owner or any Emil again you can even go to I'm not a big fan of what's going on in academic animal-rights go to an academic animal rights conference at a university you're gonna see a whole different side of things that's not popping on Instagram but it's a lot realer and a lot deeper and you're gonna meet some people of decades and decades of experience with the pursuit of social change under this under this heading right but you don't see you don't see the guy washing dishes in the back of the vegan restaurant do you if you're starting a small restaurant you do your own dishes man before you got enough money to hire a dishwasher I think there were a lot of people I think there are a lot of people sincerely motivated to save the planet save the animals all that stuff who are tonight washing dishes I think some people are listening to this video on YouTube while they're washing dishes in the back of their small vegan restaurant but that's not what you're gonna see on social media what you're seeing is the glittering facade of test bag high school dropouts Stephanie you college dropout any amania I don't even know hennya media's educator I don't know if she went to university I don't know that but Hannya mania someone who has no career aside from social media so do I think is gonna have to look at getting a real job pretty soon no shade I too have to look at getting a real job pretty soon you guys gonna see that on my channel you're gonna see exactly how that changes my life so the people who are making a real difference the people who have 14 year old who this letter was to a 14 year old inner parent to help prepare entreated the people who a 14 year old should really learn from which really emulate are the people who are not on camera in their bikinis but they're not so easy to find those positive examples right okay those people are not successful I mean those people who you will literally meet in the cafe in Chiang Mai Thailand you know what I'm talking about some of you know some of you don't know but anyway those people are not successful and they do not present a career path for you personally nor a viable future for the movement in general they're a bunch of losers helping each other in making excuses for their own lack of ambition harsh but you know I mean the vision you have is not an alternative to the long hard road of ambition and accomplishment not even if for example you want to become a local police officer something that does not require too many years of education but would make you respect it in your own community and in fact would give you a sort of status or respect even within the vegan movement plus again it's a great example so young woman is 14 years old if she becomes a police officer you know especially would be a vegan female police officer when she shows up at the meet up when she starts to organize vegan activism whatever it is lobbying city hall lobbying the Education Board or just supporting a new restaurant trying to start up food services or trying to get trying to get vegan meals as an option for prisoners in jail or hey let's make the whole prison vegan actually if you became a police officer you might have a really interesting path head of you and you can still go on vacation you can be a police officer and once a year or twice a year you can fly to Thailand I don't care go to meet up in Thailand you know a whole different footing then and people are gonna talk to you differently people gonna listen to you differently too and you would really have something to offer even a police officer so there's not related to veganism anyway the way being a medical doctor would be right um when you show up at the meetups around the world that you're imagining what do you have to offer I say this as someone who is aware that he has very little to offer if I show up at a vegan event or at a Green Party event etc I have to make the case that my voice matters and you will have to make the case also at age 18 at age 28 or age 38 the struggle never ends at the end of my message is 14 year old social media is not an alternative to having a real career social media is not an alternative to real political activism real organization etc it can be an adjunct to it right and that's not false humility when I say I've got relatively little to offer right now I'm still in court for my divorce if that goes really well soon I may be spending several months in the year with my daughter and then all my time and energy is gonna go into playing with my daughter right keep me real I may still be able to come on YouTube but like my capacity to be involved with vegan activism sorry limited if I'm spending more time with my daughter I'm spending less time thinking about vegan activism I've got a full-time job coming up you guys gonna to see all my life changes when I start that and you know the type of activism I can do you know partly because of my connection to my daughter I wrote a children's story book I wrote it in both English and Chinese it's a story book about veganism or promoting a vegan agenda but it's for children it's Privett presenting the core concepts of veganism in a way children can relate to I wrote it in Chinese I translated the Chinese in English other people have already translated it into Russian German and Swedish so there may be a move on to translate and even more languages I'd love to get that story book published at least in Chinese in English with beautiful illustrations to me that's a form of activism and it's also a book I can show my own daughter and can be meaningful in my own life it can be meaningful in your life if you've got kids - - all you guys are there beautiful form of activism but it is this small scale stuff that's I don't have a lot to offer I can go to a meet-up and meet other vegans and say that back when I did the last time I talked to people in the green party email I just rolled up on them saying look I have background in political science there's a lot of useful advice I can give you you want to talk to me I didn't have I had no money I have no time I was busy as hell back then I was involved with First Nations politics so crea jib way etc you know the native peoples of Canada politics I couldn't uh you know I really had so little off for the Green Party but I did manage to based mostly on my background my past I managed to convince them yeah you know what I got I got something important to say so look as a major footnote here this is just a footnote but I want to say I have many many videos on this channel complaining very surly sincerely complaining about how terrible my own experience university is my experience of higher education is not positive my high school was terrible my university was worse my experience with higher education in Canada I'm Canadian originally absolutely terrible I think there are many many good reasons to drop out of university and I've been tempted by them myself but to simplify slightly it's very different to drop out of university because you want to do something as opposed to dropping out of university because you want to do anything or to drop out of university because you want to do nothing and maybe nobody in your life is gonna be as honest with you as I've just been whether it was I was that honest with Stephanie you when she made the decision drop in University if she talked to me I would be that honest with test bag about her decision drop out of high school I mean God my heart goes out to her parents I don't know what the [ __ ] her parents are thinking because I mean you know your parents have got a look at that same YouTube page with her in her underwear and in a white bikini and in the shower and stuff and think what the hell did our daughter drop out of high school for right like my kid dropped out of high school and their YouTube page was all respectable academic lectures on veganism I stopped happy if my kid drew up to the high school and their YouTube pages old recipe videos and cooking I still wouldn't be happy I'd say this is a disaster whether or not you're you know exploiting your sexuality this way whether or not it's about your body being the way you earn your living but something I've said before on this channel and I'll say it again and you know I'm saying this with sincere concern for the individual people involved as well as for the future of the movement there's a difference between becoming a stripper so you can pay your way through college and dropping out of college to become a stripper what these people are glorifying as lifestyle activism is the permanent vacation it's not using your beauty and youth and vitality not using your talent as a singer or what have you to progress in your own education to progress towards a career it's not like a stripper paying her way through college it really is equivalent to dropping out of college in order to become a stripper and I got to tell you at least strippers make pretty good money what most of these people are doing short term and long term I think you're looking at a disaster as I said whatever 30 minutes ago now this video has been going on for a while please keep in mind even the most talented people with an obvious verifiable talent like playing music a musician who has a contract a model who has a contract those people can maybe only be looking at a career lasting two or three years so you should be terrified if you don't have a contract you don't have that kind of obvious skill what eclair Michelle is another one dropped out of school right dropped out of school for what did you do up to this did you drop at a school to do something or did you drive a school to do anything like whatever you have to do survive or did you drop your school for nothing if my kid dropped out of school to join the army totally different totally different from dropping at a school to go to Chiang Mai and hang around in a cafe with a bunch of losers and I know I know there are idiots we're going to misrepresent what I've just said as if what I'm saying is that beauty is the only thing that matters if this is a criticism of other vegans for not being good-looking enough and it's a funny irony because really the substance of my advice what I'm saying is that the opposite extreme um so look what I'm gonna mention last year I do think there's another important issue that sometimes treated in a very shallow and catty and left-wing way which is the question of colonialism legacy of colonialism the issue I sometimes people say cultural appropriation there's the question of the the jarring contrast between the permanent vacation happening in Thailand Thailand where currently there's a military dictatorship there are all these extreme political problems of course there's also you know poverty the poor you will have with you always as it says in the Bible you know there are all kinds of serious social problems right now in northern Myanmar we've got a civil war at hot Civil War in case you didn't know including aerial bombardment real body counts real cities being reduced to rhumble Oh sir pardon me reduced to rubble and Thailand is treated as if it is just a blank canvas for these lazy white Western tourists to project their fantasies onto for them to live their own life of short term self-indulgent sin etc not even in the pursuit of a career not even the pursuit of research not even the pursuit of humanitarian interests not even attempting to learn the language why is it Thailand I think things are different in a subtle but profound way if instead of Thailand this were happening in Jamaica right Jamaica a country so utterly defined by the history of colonialism and slavery in a way that's so obvious why is Jamaica populated by black people and not by the indigenous people I mean the indigenous people were driven I believe to the edge of extinction I do not know if in Jamaica it was a hundred percent genocide I've studied that a couple of the other islands history Jamaica not in particular most of the Caribbean the indigenous people were driven to the edge of X of genna's extinction of genocide in some places they're completely wiped out right the population of Jamaica through the repopulation of Jamaica through slavery the history of European colonialism it's staring you in the face every day you're aware of it there I mean I plenty of tourists still enjoy going to do makeup but I think the question is there why is it Thailand instead of Jamaica Y's talents in South Africa why is it Thailand instead of Egypt even we can ask why is it Thailand instead of Malaysia Malaysia is just a Muslim majority country the beaches are just as beautiful the mangoes are just as good you know it's not the climate here Egypt also has beautiful peaches by the way right somehow people are managed to sleep through social and political reality in Thailand and I think that the confrontation with the legacy of colonial history etc would somehow be more visceral would somehow be more difficult to ignore if we were even talking about Jamaica and I'm not joking when I've suggested earlier that Jamaica they have a meaningful connection to vegetarianism the Rastafarians is a vegetarian movement actually Jamaican culture in many ways connects to vegetarianism not quite veganism in in a meaningful way it could be that in the future Jamaica instead of Thailand becomes a major vacation destination for vegans becomes a place where vegans organize their their conferences their parties or what-have-you but if so let's have curiosity and concern and ambition and human decency to deal with the reality of what Jamaica really is and I would it would mean so much to me if any of you people it would Ted Carr anyone living in Chiangmai had concern and curiosity and ambition and decency to face up to what thailand really is or even what chiang mai specifically really is okay and yeah I've joked about it a lot that my expectations are low my standards are low but but yeah there there is I think there is an onus on us to live up to live up to that to exceed that because we're supposedly this morally pure political movement who are looking around at all these meat eaters saying why don't you live up to our standards but the irony is we're making a complete [ __ ] farce out of ourselves with this permanent vacation self-indulgent dead-ended mentally and morally bankrupt [ __ ] of parading a life of short-term sensual self-indulgence in the midst of a military dictatorship in the midst of you know a coup d'etat taking over the government in the midst of a civil war in Southeast Asia hey guys next year let's let's have righto for let's have the vegan festival in Syria let's have it in Egypt let's have it in South Africa Savin Jamaica first Thailand means so much to me it's been such a big part of my life I can still speak Thai with a heavy lotion accent I would love it for Thailand to be the center of the future this movement be so convenient for me personally right but it's got to be the real Thailand it can't be a fake Thailand it can't be a fantasy of Thailand it can't be a version of Thailand denuded of its whole real cultural history and political context too just to just be this blank canvas for you know white Western fantasies to be painted on to right and frankly if we're honest about it through this issue of colonialism etc I think that's exactly why it's Thailand I think people don't want to deal with the guilt trip that they would have even these idiots in South Africa or in Jamaica it's only in Thailand that they can sleep and stay asleep to that extent of both social and political reality outside of their window I said a long time ago guys wrapping this up that I wished that a video I made would be the last video I ever made it with durianrider and then after that durianrider started this fight with me and we ended up in court and all this stuff is legal legal proceedings litigation I could say I hope this is the last video I make about the primitive occasion but it's not how I really feel I think I personally have made tremendous progress on this issue I think that we collectively on YouTube there's been such an evolution in the last two years things have come so far so fast and I have played a role in that even people who hate this channel really responded to and really you know reshaped they're engaging with these issues because of my critique of the permanent vacation and it also brought people out who yeah look I say that actual phrase permanent vacation I basically introduced into this discourse the same way a bunch of my little catchphrases like you know digital demi-monde have have caught on and become currency even among people who don't watch this channel even people who hate this channel right I don't hope this is the last time I discuss these issues I hope that one year from now we've made just as much progress as I know that we made in the last year we made a ton of progress and it's partly because of me it's probably because of a thousand other people not that many people maybe it's use one thousand people you know it's not a hollow boast for me to say we can do better I've seen it I've seen people respond to these problems being pointing out to them by trying to do better and by actually doing better the beautiful thing about veganism being stuck in its current nascent stage of just getting started of not yet being a real movement and so on is that we get to ask these questions and come up with new answers before any one is committed to a formally organized political movement and that's a beautiful thing but there was a time when I first started talking with these issues when people responded with absolute hostility to my asking these questions and when they responded by accusing me of working for the CIA they accused me of trying to destroy veganism from the inside and they accused me of being anti vegan because I dared to question the role of lifestyle activism we talked about in contrast to real political activism and contrast to other forms of activism in contrast even running a restaurant told these are the things because I questioned the really negative outcomes for people of this message of drop out of school and somewhat some people day I've just become a degenerate just to run away and join the circus and live for your own short-term self there was a really strong voice of opposition a couple years ago saying no no no the only way to promote veganism is to show our own happiness to show how happy and healthy we are it was like happy healthy 96 is to make a great display of how happy those who are and it's gonna attract people whose own and today across the board people respond to these same criticisms by saying well you know what that's a really good question maybe there's more than one answer but across the board I think you see people trying to come up with new and meaningful and working answers bad news is look guys for some of these people it's too late you can go back and watch that video I did with Lia pram solar so she's gonna finish high school now she had to go back to school she's gonna finish high school in her mid-20s some of these people who dropped out of university will never get the chance to go back to university some of these people whether it's on camera or off camera are gonna end up mopping the floor at Starbucks or taking other really low-level jobs because they ran away to live this social media dream and then sooner or later they had to wake up to the [ __ ] social media nightmare the temptation of that little bit of Fame that little bit of money that that I think that specific temptation is not one that any other social movement has really had to deal with before yes I think if you were a Christian preacher in the 1960s as part of the civil rights movement there was money there was fame there was sex a lot of those guys cut Tron into it can read a lot of accounts that I'm sure some of those elements of human nature didn't change but I think it is true that we are dealing with now at this early stage of veganism temptations that are so great temptations that are out of all proportion to the vitality and viability and power influence of the movement itself you guys celebrate when our scandals get covered in the newspapers you know vegan scandals like freely breaks up with her boyfriend or Jerry and writers threats give me okay you want to actually think about the ratio of coverage of the scandals to the coverage of positive accomplishments we've got and what do you think the influence is what do you think the knock-on is effect that is for the people who are coming into the game now I've been in the game just long enough to see people get brokenhearted and drop out I got a real short message from raw excess I've had raw access on my channel before you've seen him he's a black guys african-american I've seen him making fun of me who he pretends to be me and he tries to imitate my voice an accent pretty funny but I said to him why did you delete your channel gave me a very short answer he said I lost faith in the community the deccan community I said to a man I'm Way past you I'm Way past you on that when I started this channel I'd lost faith nakum you my first message out the gate was there is no community get over it for me that was step one for him and maybe the final step maybe he'll reconsider and come back right on a human level I think this stuff has a profoundly corrosive and demoralizing influence and there are some people like me who will say fine makes me stronger I'm still in it for life I still see a future for veganism in this world I still see this as such a meaningful and such an important message even though I've been through this blah blah blah um I think there's a silent majority I think there's a much much larger number of people who are responding this and going off in another direction there's just a huge number of people who are looking at the teenagers who drop out of high school and they don't comment and they don't complain and they don't engage in this debate they just go in another direction so there's an opportunity cost here that we can't even measure and invisibly that's that that's the single biggest negative impact from this game we're playing on social media right now do you think I can go a whole year without making another video on permanent vacation let's try to be six months I hope we all make a lot of progress but then guys I hope you've all made a lot of progress the next time I got approached these issues because like I said I feel like we made a ton of progress since the last time I broached them hit me up