YouTube Censorship, and the Logic of Empire

The Logic of Empire is a science fiction novella by Robert A. Heinlein which explores the reasoning behind chattel-slavery.  It explores the lives of plantation owners on Venus, who keep their employees indentured through the Company Store, and overpriced addictive drugs, even though this relegates the Owners into becoming the servile Master in the Hegel’s master-slave dialectic.  As is repeatedly pointed out by the characters, it doesn’t make a lick of sense – a true free market, and respect for the workers, would triple production – but nonetheless there is a logic behind the broken word they promote.

The same thing goes for our current paradigm of manufactured consent.  Companies and governments stay in power by empowering the lowest common denominator, but the result is a trashy, second-rate world full of third-rate people.  They rule over empires of dirt, rather than cohabiting with virtuous and engaging fellow humans.  Everybody’s miserable, and society is decaying, but at least the logic of it all remains consistent.

That structural insanity is what’s behind the latest YouTube censorship; and given the current structures, any replacement for YouTube would quickly embrace the same toxic standards.

The ultimate source of the problem is the citizens – you and me.  Garbage in, garbage out.  The reason low-quality pablum dominates is because you and I let it.  The solution is for us to put our money where our mouth is.

The status quo wants you to remain a passive consumer, unengaged and uninvolved.  Content for free – so long as you consume the content that they tell you to consume.  They promise free access to the commons, so long as you don’t complain.  Nonetheless, tragedy will result.  So with that in mind, I’ll be suspending YouTube advertising from my videos indefinitely; and I ask that you consider supporting your favourite content-creators financially.

There is no such thing as a free lunch.  We all need to put our money where our mouth is.

Styxhexenhammer’s Alliance to Combat Google
Matt Forney’s list of recommended channels
Delicious TAcos, How to Be a Screenwriter in Hollywood

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