History WebVideo / FoldingIdeas

* IRejectYourReality: Discussed in ''This Is Financial Advice''. Dan compares the Apes to Crypto enthusiast (a group he himself had describes in ''Line Goes Up'' as having a poor understanding of reality. Both group share a profound hostility to any kind of bad news or pushback ("FUD" as they call it). But he points out that Apes are even worse, because they refuse to acknowledge events that are actually happening altogether in their refusal to face reality, instead basically living in their own made up reality.

* EarlyBirdCameo: Dan's video on ''[[https://youtu.be/BKP1I7IocYU Why It's Rude to Suck at Warcraft]]'' is majorly co-hosted by [[VideoGame/WorldofWarcraft WoW]] player [[https://www.youtube.com/c/Choice_au Choice]], who first appeared in ''[[https://youtu.be/YQ_xWvX1n9g?t=7753 Line Goes Up — The Problem With NFTs]]''.
** Choice also appeared in ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biYciU1uiUw Contrepreneurs]]'', reading an excerpt from "A Skeptic's Guide to Hypnosis" (the book Dan wrote in said video).

** He reviewed ''Film/PokemonDetectivePikachu'' in a vlog and considered it a welcome [[AvertedTrope aversion]]. He discusses what it could imply for the future of video game movies, though he casts doubt on it being a significant paradigm shift, mainly because ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' in specific has such a unique alchemy to it (rather than being ''just'' an IP being licensed by a publisher to a Hollywood studio, Pokémon is controlled on a multimedia-wide scope by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pokemon_Company a single brand management company]] which already had [[Film/{{Pokemon}} prior forays in theatrical releases]]).

* SlutShaming[[invoked]]: "A Lukewarm Defence of Fifty Shades of Grey (The Movie)" briefly touches on this. Dan argues that while there are definitely ''many'' valid criticisms regarding the source material, a significant portion of the hatedom mostly uses them as a springboard to dunk on the idea of "[[AcceptableTargets mommy porn]]," or the very concept of erotica that didn't fall into commonly male-perceived views of female sexuality. He theorizes this ironically could've contributed to a portion of ''Fifty Shades''' success, with some of its female fans collectively embracing the novel as a public stance on sexual liberation and defiant pushback of this idea.

* EarlyBirdCameo: Dan's video on ''[[https://youtu.be/BKP1I7IocYU Why It's Rude to Suck at Warcraft]]'' is majorly co-hosted by WoW player Choice, who first appeared in his ''[[https://youtu.be/biYciU1uiUw Contrepreneurs]]'' video to read an excerpt of Dan's book ''A Sceptic's Guide to Hypnosis''.

-->''"So much of the actual content is predicated on readings of the material that are just wildly wrong, and yet so absolutely confident in their delivery. Doug decided to accuse an eighty minute movie of being too long and padded, and then didn’t even flinch as he sandwiched that between a rant about people being mean to him on Twitter and an eight minute argument with a busty nightmare squirrel. And it’s that element, that deeply misplaced sense of confidence that really just makes Nostalgia Critic’s The Wall captivating."''

** Also {{discussed|Trope}} in "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6i5Ylu0mgM Minecraft, Sandboxes, and Colonialism]]". It starts with Dan pointing out how the most efficient way to get villagers to live where you want them to closely resembles human trafficking, then branches out into examining colonialist patterns in [[WideOpenSandbox sandbox games]] as a whole. Dan also points out that this isn't itself a moral failing of the games, but rather an awkward consequence of games simulating real-world logistics in a way that unintentionally reflects certain real-world practices where moral leaps in the name of progress are far less ethically acceptable.

** Discussed in his video of ''Film/ThreeHundred'' as a major reason why it's so entertaining. In spite of its incredibly objectifying style -- reducing everything not immediately urgent into {{Living Prop}}s to communicate ideas like [[TestosteronePoisoning "violence is awesome"]], "[[SissyVillain relatively feminine men]] and foreigners are enemies", [[MaleGaze "women and sex are awesome"]], etc. -- he finds it excusable because ''everyone'', including the coded-queer/foreigner antagonist, is depicted as [[RatedMForManly equally badass]].

* TheseusShipParadox: The main topic of discussion in his WebVideo/{{Vsauce}} video is how the Vsauce that started the channel (A fairly cringey variety series that covered gaming where Michael wasn't even the primary host) bared so little resemblance to the[[note]]At the time[[/note]] current incarnation of Vsauce (The lavishly produced ''Mind Field'' as a flagship show surrounded by many spin-off channels) to the point where it's almost irrational to call them the same channel, but that the change between individual versions of the channel was so gradual that many people didn't even notice.

* ThisIsReality:
** Dan sums up that this is the core flaw behind the concept of Decentraland and the Metaverse as a whole: No matter how much it boasts that it can replace reality in the future or pretends that it can be another state within the internet, neither can change the fact that they are both limited to what the code of the program allows and the fact that people cannot engrave their bodies in the web. For all their pretensions, Decentraland can't be anything more than a game and the Metaverse cannot supplant the real world.

** Probably one of his most memorable example is from ''Film/TheBookOfHenry'', where Henry (a 14 year old boy) bursts into his principal's office, clearly enraged exclaiming "GODDAMNIT JANET!". Dan makes fun of this line both in the review proper and the Vlog he made after seeing the movie, comparing Henry's entrance to a [[CowboyCop cop on the edge]] coming to confront DaChief.

** Probably one of his most memorable example is from ''Film/BookOfHenry'', where Henry (a 14 year old boy) bursts into his principal's office, clearly enraged exclaiming "GODDAMNIT JANET!". Dan makes fun of this line both in the review proper and the Vlog he made after seeing the movie, comparing Henry's entrance to a [[CowboyCop cop on the edge]] coming to confront DaChief.

* ObliviousToHisOwnDescription: At one point when discussing the ''WebVideo/SatelliteCity'' crossover in the Nostalgia Critic review of ''The Wall'', he notes that Fennah attempts to critique the monsters in "The Trial" for being underdeveloped and coming out of nowhere, existing just for spectacle. He refutes this by pointing out that most of the monsters in question are pretty obviously just symbolic versions of already-introduced-and-developed characters in the film, but notes that the description is actually dead-on for the crossover itself, where the monsters ''are'' underdeveloped characters that come out of nowhere and serve no real purpose other than to look weird.

* {{Eagleland}}[[invoked]]: Dan examines Type 2 of this in "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLUvR8zKbh0 The People Vs. Clark Kent]]", finding that ''Film/ManOfSteel'' -- [[{{Applicability}} however unintentional]] -- is a perfect encapsulation on 21th century American foreign policy: {{Franchise/Superman}} -- ''the'' symbol for truth, justice, and the American way -- marches around the globe [[JudgeJuryAndExecutioner exercising extrajudicial power in pursuit of a single terrorist cell]], [[AppealToForce eschewing diplomacy]] or [[AMillionIsAStatistic concern for collateral damage]], and [[MoralMyopia even if they cross the lines they're attacking their enemies for, it's excusable]], because when [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality Superman]]/[[AmericaSavesTheDay America does it]], "[[TautologicalTemplar it's okay. It's worth the cost]].

* ShadowGovernment: Dan points out that, in regards to Decentraland, the real power behind the DAO is not even its whale users but rather the Decentraland Foundation that humours the decisions of the DAO when it suits them but also does stuff to Decentraland on its own.

* GuideGangIt: Dan discusses the concept in "Why It's Rude to Suck at Warcraft" when talking about opaque, undocumented mechanics. He takes [[DrawAggro Threat]] as an example. Early in WOW's existence, Threat was poorly understood, its mechanics speculated on. DPS classes chaffed against it. As Threat was understood, and the Threat meter became a common mod, Threat as a mechanic basically vanished. But he points out a side effect of that is that Threat Meters lead to Damage meters, which suddenly allowed one to see just how well everyone in a group is performing their role, leading to more instances of StopHavingFunGuys.

* SelfInflictedHell: Discussed in "Why It's Rude to Suck at Warcraft" as what essentially happened to WOW Classic. It was intended to be a break from all the regimented play of WOW but unliked when WOW was new, Classic's areas, itemization, and play has long been figured out and optimized. Meaning players are, even more than in modern WOW, pushed towards speed running and pro-play strategies because doing anything but is deliberately playing "wrong" because its ignoring all the info that's been available for more than a decade. Players brought back instrumental play to classic and made it worst.

* ItsEasySoItSucks: Invoked in both of his ''World Of Warcraft'' videos where he discussed the often held belief that an old game is a better game, and the belief that old ''World of Warcraft'' was "harder" is what made it better than modern WOW. He argues it wasn't. It was merely more a question of requiring more patience, and the fact that the exact systems the game used were not as fully known, explored, documented and that info easily disseminated to players. The second video brings up how players revolted and regarded certain rewards as illegitimate when Blizzard over-corrected in making them easier to obtain.

** In his video on [=NFTs=], he notes that a lot of blockchain advocates describe how things will hugely benefit from being added to the blockchain, such as medical records or social media, without actually explaining ''why'' those things are beneficial for being on the blockchain. Indeed, having all information be part of an incredibly energy-inefficient public ledger where it's near-impossible to remove anything would create a lot of problems (for instance, in the case of social media, doxxing and revenge porn would become near-impossible to deal with). He surmises that this comes down to the fact that blockchain advocates treat the blockchain as "the way of the future", and by extension, anything going onto the chain must be an ineffable good and a step towards tomorrow, regardless of whether it actually provides any real benefits.

* {{Defictionalization}}: Discussed in ''The Future Is a Dead Mall''. Dan mentioned the idea that Science Fiction has a history of predicting future invention, pointing out that there's a survivorship bias there, the many more inventions based off science fiction ideas who proved silly, useless, impractical, deadly, or physically impossible.[[invoked]]

** Dan points to the entire concept of the Metaverse as seen in ''Literature/SnowCrash'' and ''Literature/ReadyPlayerOne'' and other works as this in ''The Future is a Dead Mall'' - even when decoupled from how awful Decentraland's implementation of these concepts is. The idea of a contiguous virtual space that's mapping the internet like a physical space sounds cool in an abstract or as a literary device because plot devices don't need to consider the limitation and various complications real life use brings up. The more you think about it, the more you realize that such spaces are inherently worst at everything you'd want them to do than a webpage might be. From certain designs who by their very nature will block all line of sights from neighbors, \the fact that humans can navigate a grid of items on a shopping site faster and more efficiently than physically navigate a virtual store filled with virtual goods or the fact that one can move between webpages faster than one can move across .

** In the same video, he points VR as another example of this. VR is cool but extremely limiting due to the ease by which it can cause disorientation and all existing VR experience are a compromise between what would be cool and what the human body will tolerate. Which is why most VR experience have the player standing still in a very small footspace while the game takes charge of teleporting them from environment to environment. =