Critique and activism are not two different things.

there's filmmaking and film criticism
there are two completely separate things two completely separate categories and we might even think of one as antagonistic to the other one is being the opposite of the other but you know in fact when you really think about it a little bit philosophically film criticism is a positive contribution to the art of filmmaking still two separate things the guy who makes the film and the guy who evaluates the film criticizes the film says how it could have been better two separate things philosophy and the critique of philosophy are not two separate things it would be slightly observed for someone to criticize a film critic by complaining all you do is criticize why don't you go make your own film instead of criticizing this movie that Selden theaters is saying it's so bad the answer you'd have to give back is hey these are two separate things filmmaking is a legitimate art form but what I'm doing as a critic of the film is also legitimate is also important it's also a positive contribution to filmmaking it would be utterly absurd and a bafflingly stupid to say to someone why did you write this critique of Kantian philosophy why did you write this critique of Plato Socrates Aristotle the philosopher maybe why did you write this critique of philosophy instead of writing your own philosophy the critique of philosophy is philosophy they're not two separate things in the act of writing and explanation of what I consider to be wrong with the philosophy of Plato or Immanuel I am declaring I am explaining my own philosophy there aren't two categories here there's only one why would anyone criticize Bernie Sanders instead of declaring their own political philosophy why would anyone criticize Donald Trump instead of engaging positively in their own political mission purpose party in the pursuit of politics do you see the fallacy at the bottom of this way of thinking the critique of politics and politics these are not two separate things in the act of criticizing Bernie Sanders you are declaring you are announcing you are explaining your own political philosophy you are articulating what goals you're pursuing of politics and how you think you should reach it right you are making a positive contribution to politics even if Bernie Sanders supporters perceives your critique as something negative the act of criticizing Donald Trump is in itself and of itself politics it's not the opposite of politics see this fallacy of thinking film criticism something different from filmmaking right criticism of Donald Trump is not something other than politics it's not even something negative it's a positive contribution to politics there are not two categories here critique is philosophy critique is politics there are not two antagonistic and opposed categories I received some criticism from another youtuber that I found quite laughable and quite stupid and quite counterproductive and this is the fundamental misapprehension misconception or conceit at the basis of his complaints against myself he complains that my YouTube channel is only a critique of vegan politics that it's only a critique of what's wrong with the vegan movement that this channel is not in itself and of itself vegan activism and he's wrong the critique of activism is activism it's the same full ocean no take to keep rolling it's the same fallacious mode of reasoning again and again and again I do not feel the need to justify what I do here on YouTube in terms of the outcomes but the outcomes are interesting they're interesting to talk about they're interesting to reflect on and they're part of how I justify spending time and money on this hobby on YouTube which is in some ways a success and in some ways a failure I have reached over 4.6 million views on this YouTube channel if I were instead to imitate earthling IDI if I were instead to imitate James ASPI and stand on a street corner and talk to strangers one by one there's absolutely no way I could reach 4 million people there's no way I could reach 1 million people per year and roughly speaking this year I'll get about 1 million views on this channel could be better could be could be only 800,000 if it's a bad year could be 1.2 million if it's a good year that's the kind of range we're talking about here ok so this is a very simple measure of the extent of the influence the the outcome of the activism in that sense there's another really interesting question of depth we watched a video earlier today of James ASPI talking to a muscular American guy with his shirt off who had no particular respect for James asked me no reason why you would James asked was just some weirdo on a street corner talking to no particular respect for James ASCII espy's views philosophy is ethics of animal rights but asthma and no reason why should this is just a conversation between two strangers of the street and I think the video was 20 minutes long I don't know if the unedited conversation was even longer than that but you could spend 20 minutes talking to four million strangers on the street if you could reach the same numbers this YouTube generation and you would never have the depth of influence the degree of a meaningful relationship that I have on this channel with people every day I had about three young men write to me at the same time this is about two weeks ago so quite recently both three young men wrote to me all at the same time one of them was 21 years old and he started watching my youtube channel when he was 16 I have now been a major formative influence in his life he's heard me talk about philosophies or if he talked about politics he served me talked about veganism another one had been watched the channel for two or three years and again I think his current age about 20 so again his late teenage years we started to ask himself these questions seriously watch my channel he heard what I had to say about these things he heard my reasoning and why did he start watching my channel why did he care about what I have to say it's it's not because I have a pretty face it's not it's not because I'm offering you a weight loss cure telling you how to do 200 push-ups a day or something right in that kid's case or that young man's case now he was a kid at the time he came to my YouTube channel because he liked my interpretation of the writings of george RR martin science fiction author or fantasy author might have some videos interpreting these short stories in his books and he said wow you know what you said it with us so he established a kind of intellectual respect for me or a sense of kinship with me he respected what I had to say I actually built literature right and then on that basis you start to take an interest in what I have to say about politics history how to live a meaningful life there are other people who have discovered this channel because they were trying to quit video games they were at rest in what I said of avidians there were people who discover this channel because of what I said about antidepressants SSRI drugs mental health self-improvement on and on alright so as absurd as it may seems if I were to come on YouTube now and do absolutely nothing but make videos unrelated to veganism even that could be evaluated as a form of vegan activism with very measurable life-changing outcomes for the people who are drawn to this channel because they're interested in what I have to say on some completely unrelated topic and then once they've established this kind of kinship with me this kind of respect for me interest in what I have to say and who I am and why then they become interested why did discover come vegan what does he have to say about veganism there's this long history of the you sense channel right and this is without even getting into the examples in the discussion of how really deeply meaningful it is for people who are already vegan who care about veganism to connect with and relate to the critique of the vegan movement that's presented in my channel now this guy criticized my channel at one point I think he was kind of losing faith and what he had to say himself he says you know hyperbolic over-the-top way oh well what kind of person even would become vegan because they saw the video son on aisel Meszaros channel i nabela see how much it fair question but I think he was faltering because even as he said that out loud he could already start to think through the answer right precisely the kind of person who doesn't respond positively to [ __ ] half-truths lies cult-like recruitment tactics the kind of person who's quite ornery independent free-thinking critical the sort of person who is not easily impressed by earthling yet I think some of the hardest people to convert to veganism are precisely the people who are drawn in through my channel I think some of the people who are the most valuable in terms of that what the intellectually can contribute to veganism are the kind of people who respond positively to what's in my channel you guys so this very simple question who wants to hear a bunch of lies about how there's nothing wrong with the vegan movement and what kind of person is going to respond positively to a down-to-earth in-depth discussion of what's wrong with the vegan movement in what ways we're succeeding but in what ways were failing and how we can do better what kind of personality is that second to first did that that sound like a bad person to you that's someone you don't what to reach out to even if you were doing on the street activism like James asked me like earthling ed don't you think that could be a positive wonderful conversation if you had someone approached you said look I am kind of sort of interested in veganism but I notice a lot of things wrong with the movement some people some would respond positively to a 100% cult leader like responds flatly denying that anything's wrong with feeding it everything so how can how can you say that how can you sow what do you mean there's nothing wrong with our cult nothing's gone nobody's in prison nobody's been accused of terrorism you know nobody's been accused of sexual assault no none of these problems you've heard about our call no nobody's nobody's complaining about millions of dollars disappearing and being wasted no no don't eat more money there's no nobody's even questioning where the money goes or what happened to those millions of dollars okay maybe maybe some people would respond positively to that 100 percent dishonest cult leader approach right you can imagine what sort of person that would be but just take the moment and think honestly what kind of person will respond positively instead you saying yeah you know what there's a lot wrong with the movement you know what millions of the [ __ ] have been wasted millions of dollars disappeared there have been sex scandals there have been corruption scandals there have been people who went to prison for terrorism there having people who talked about violence and there been some people who are racist and so on yeah oh that's true but you know what you have to make an ethical commitment are you gonna keep on making excuses for being an adult human being who gets down on his hands and knees underneath a cow to drink the milk out of its utter are you gonna pretend that's natural and normal and necessary are you gonna keep on making excuses for this fundamentally observed part of our culture or are you gonna challenge it are you gonna say hey I can do better than my own grandparents and you know what there's there's a lot wrong with our movement but I'm actually willing to examine that I'm willing to talk about it I'm willing talk to you right now about what could be better five years in the future 20 years in the future so and so what what kind of person is gonna respond possibly okay the fundamental miss approach and people are burdened with is that the film critic is the enemy of the filmmaker and that somehow the creation of film or the creation of philosophy or the creativity that goes on within politics is inimical to the critique of these things and it's not the critique of what's wrong with politics is itself a vital positive contribution of politics that is part of the way forward for politics even if you supported the Republican Party in the United States of America the critique of what's wrong with the Republican Party would be a tremendously important part of that process right the critique of Donald Trump is not just something that's done by his enemies it's something that's done by his supporters it's something that's done by his own employees like his press agent you know his public relations staff and so on and so forth okay critique is not taking a step backwards it's a step forwards and I'm here on YouTube doing that alone and with each and every video I upload I'm asking who else wants to take that step forward with me and if it's not you then who