Holy shit, Breadtube has become even more of a grift than it was
Holy shit, Breadtube has become even more of a grift than it was
So I think we already know the outlines of the typical criticisms of Breadtube, namely that it's vaguely-leftist content that focuses on cultural critique and gives a nod to socialist theory here and there but it doesn't actually achieve anything and it's just a media-consumption demographic with no moves towards anything that resembles on the ground organising and activism. (Obviously there are a few outliers but as a rule this generally holds true.)
I dipped out of Breadtube years ago for plenty of reasons but I just posted on Lemmygrad criticising the SPD Three Arrows movement which prompted me to have a look at the Breadtuber Three Arrows and they have done exactly the same thing that Contrapoints and a lot of other large figures in this genre have done:
They build up a healthy Patreon base and then their content drops off to like a couple of videos a year, if that, while continuing to draw off a personal salary which rivals that of a full-time worker.
In the past two years Three Arrows has produced 4 videos, amounting to less than 4.5 hours of runtime all up.
That's staggering for someone who is getting over 60k a year, at the most conservative estimate.
Likewise Contrapoints claimed to be getting 20k a month and she's putting out like 1-2 videos a year. And there's plenty of other examples of this too.
Imagine what could be done if people supported their local grassroots organisations instead of paying boatloads of cash for their twice-yearly YouTube treats smh.
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I know Three arrows does some sort of podcast patreon subscribers can listen to, so maybe that's where they are getting their money's worth?
I think, in some cases at least, what slows videos down is the added quality of research or production most creators invest in after getting popular. In many ways it's also the creative mind sometimes needing some direction a producer gives in general media, and not having that lets them just go absolutely wild is useless work that ends up being scrapped. I might be a bit charitable though because I only followed a few breadtubers, there may be many more that are just grifting.
Personally what intrigues me the most about breadtubers is how they become mild and inoffensive versions of themselves after becoming popular/well-off. Like, what causes that? Is it that the societal problems they criticized no longer applies to them? Is it the allure of advertising money? Is it secret CIA threats? I really do wonder.
I think Shaun still keeps to the same type of content, which is probably why I still bother watching what he puts out.
In many ways it's also the creative mind sometimes needing some direction a producer gives in general media, and not having that lets them just go absolutely wild is useless work that ends up being scrapped
Hbomb
Personally what intrigues me the most about breadtubers is how they become mild and inoffensive versions of themselves after becoming popular/well-off. Like, what causes that? Is it that the societal problems they criticized no longer applies to them? Is it the allure of advertising money? Is it secret CIA threats? I really do wonder.
Their rage against the machine cools off when the machine starts treating them well
Personally what intrigues me the most about breadtubers is how they become mild and inoffensive versions of themselves after becoming popular/well-off. Like, what causes that? Is it that the societal problems they criticized no longer applies to them? Is it the allure of advertising money? Is it secret CIA threats? I really do wonder.
The same exact cause for hungry as fuck "progressives" like AOC to settle and water down and tiptoe away from their original mission: They've switched classes and, therefore, their new class interests are in conflict with their original mission. What's there to be hungry about anymore when you start being fed really well? Why continue trying to destroy the status quo when it's benefiting you materially? This is why it's important to maintain loyalties to class interests (in this case, the interests of the proletariat), instead of individuals who are susceptible to corruption. China does this very well and provides the blueprint.
I understand your point, but I find a bit hard to believe they suddenly have the opposite class consciousness considering they are still much, much further away from anyone that actually owns the means of production. And simply put, they should know better.
they should know better
Sure, if they were actually communists. Most of them were always libs, but they used to be radlibs. Its clear that people like hbomberguy and contrapoints have never actually read Marx.
I don't think its a coincidence that Abi Thorne is one of the only major original breadtubers who has read marx and also keeps uploading consistently. I don't watch her videos anymore but she obviously has read a lot of theory
But for most people it's "good enough".
If I wasnt that obsessed with class war, I'd very happily settle for 200k a year doing almost nothing. Don't need to own the means of production at this stage, I'm doing good enough.
I know Three arrows does some sort of podcast patreon subscribers can listen to, so maybe that's where they are getting their money's worth?
I did have a check there and he has put out 4 podcast episodes in the past year.
Compare that to, say, Citations Needed, TrueAnon, Radio War Nerd, SocialismForAll, The Deprogram and it absolutely pales in comparison.
I think, in some cases at least, what slows videos down is the added quality of research or production most creators invest in after getting popular. In many ways it's also the creative mind sometimes needing some direction a producer gives in general media, and not having that lets them just go absolutely wild is useless work that ends up being scrapped. I might be a bit charitable though because I only followed a few breadtubers, there may be many more that are just grifting.
This was my urge when it came to Folding Ideas because imo his stuff is some of the absolute best quality work to come out of Breadtube; it's insightful, it's well researched and well produced, it goes into topics that are either novel to the left or he approaches them from a novel angle etc. and so I'm pretty sympathetic towards him but... he's done exactly the same thing that I've described.
I agree that having a producer can be really important but if you're pulling in decent cash then surely you would be able to bring someone on for this role.
Personally what intrigues me the most about breadtubers is how they become mild and inoffensive versions of themselves after becoming popular/well-off. Like, what causes that? Is it that the societal problems they criticized no longer applies to them? Is it the allure of advertising money? Is it secret CIA threats? I really do wonder.
Lmao yes. I didn't touch on this because I didn't want to turn my post into a litany of complaints but there's definitely that turn you see in most content creators where their edge gets blunted and their positions mellow out spontaneously. I honestly think that it's about trying to be as appealing and inoffensive to their audience/potential audience as possible but who really knows?
I think Shaun still keeps to the same type of content, which is probably why I still bother watching what he puts out.
Of the Breadtubers, I will still watch Folding Ideas, Shaun, and Hbomberguy if they put out something on a topic which captures my interest and all three of them have always been pretty glacial with their output so, although I feel more charitable towards them because of that fact, I think that they're also guilty of the same phenomenon.
That being said, you could make an argument in defence of these creators because they have pretty much always been slow to release content and at least patrons knew what they were getting when they decided to support these creators. Whether that excuses this or not however is probably a matter of personal perspective.
(Remember when Shaun used to be Shaun and Jen? Pepperidge Farm remembers...)
Thinking about it, it probably has to do with having that income secured. If they could have done so they'd probably have worked at the current speeds since the beginning, but youtube only pays you for videos you put out (and most views come from the first few days after release) so they probably felt an urge to get content out there that no longer exists.
You can probably find examples like this on many other parts of the content creator world, I'm conjecture it's a common thing.
Didn't folding ideas take a huge break due to their massive work being paid about the same as reactor #234?
You can probably find examples like this on many other parts of the content creator world, I'm conjecture it's a common thing.
I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest but tbh I don't have a clue about the rest of the content creation world, aside from what is implicitly materialist or explicitly Marxist so yeah.
Didn't folding ideas take a huge break due to their massive work being paid about the same as reactor #234?
I don't follow Folding Ideas closely so I wouldn't know but that's another thing I'd be inclined to believing.
It is hard to keep up revolutionary ferver for multiple videos a week when you got a mortgage to pay and making fun of disney movies does so much better numbers
You can do inoffensive fun content without telling people voting blue will save the world.