Philosophy Tube

edit: Forget that, I need a new pair of eyes >.> I only realized on second watch that it was literally a different actor in the first half.

Kudos to Rhys Tees for fooling me so effectively, lol.

Edited by Lyendith on Feb 2nd 2021 at 6:45:29 PM

You're not the only one! I've seen few people comment that.

I guess the red hair and extra weight should have been an obvious giveaway but you know, theatrics and all.

I almost find it funny how half of the English-speaking youtubers I follow seem to make a coming out video at some point. There’s Contra of course, but Hbomb came out as bi a few years ago, Thought Slime once came out as non-binary, anituber Digi came out as trans^note though I can’t say I ever "followed" her, I just watch a few of her vids, hell even movie reviewer Chris Stuckman recently came out as an ex-Jehova’s Witness (and pansexual, incidentally). And now there’s Abby, who also came out as bi previously.

And yet that hasn’t happened with any of the French youtubers I know, with the exception of Mrs. Yéyé (though I only know of her through another channel). I wonder if it’s due to different cultural contexts. But maybe it’s just sheer coincidence.

Edited by Lyendith on Feb 3rd 2021 at 5:23:44 PM

Everyone has also been locked in their houses alone with their thoughts for a year. Probably an environment conducive to figuring yourself out.

Related, the guy who played in the last video's youtube channel went from 100 subs, to now 5k. So he's really happy and Abigail shared the video.

So he’s not actually red-haired?

Speaking of acting, does anyone know movies or plays or other things Abigail has been in?

She's starting a podcast with Alice Caldwell-Kelly from Well There's Your Problem about James Bond movies, but I dunno when that's officially starting.

Edited by Ghilz on Feb 12th 2021 at 10:13:55 AM

Here we are. Her first video as Abby.

2nd video. Or third if we count the behind the scene explanation one. But she was Abby in her coming out video. Someone else played the man who wasn't there.

Oh yeah. I mean, her first… post-coming out episode? Though honestly, 30 seconds in I had already forgotten about it since it’s till the same old Philosophy Tube outside of that.

Anyway, I was aware of most of the arguments in the Death Penalty debate, but less on prison abolition… I’m usually of the opinion that prison should only be used if the criminal is shown to be physically dangerous, but then there’d be the question of "how do we decide when they no longer are?" I also remember that line in a rap song (from the point of view of a fictional mafioso) that said "You get as many connections in one year of prison as in ten years of freedom"…

So yeah, the question of prisons’ moral implications and their effectiveness at achieving their purported goal is a necessary debate to have. In my country at least, any attempt to pass laws that reduce the number of prison sentences is critized by the right as "angelism" and "laxity", so we’re not quite there yet.

I've been a strong prison abolitionist since I was 21 when I got assulted by some kid and the police started harnessing me to give evidence in court so that this kid could be locked up and I ended up doing research to see if prison was statistically likely to do anything remotely positive for this kid and the likelyhood of future offenses (big no). Prior to that I had been a prison reformist because I believes prisons infringe on fundimental human rights but it was was research into the harm they do that pushes me into abolition.

So I've always pinned my abolition philosophy to consequentialism (populating prisons puts the public at risk increase the number of assults as assults are more common within prison and serving time for most offenses increases your potential to reoffend)

But I was surprised that I couldn't give a good answer to Abby's hypothetical of "if you can reduce assults by subjecting one undeserving person to hardship, what's the consequentialism response to that?" And also "scientifically proving that punishment doesn't work to deter crime is largely impractical".

So I guess I've rethought what motivates my abolition. And now I quantify it as "no human should have the right to hold someone against their will, let alone in inhumane conditions, and this should extend to the state as well." But this is a harder praxis because it doesn't immediately lend itself to alternatives like consequentialism does.

Previously house arrests, rehab, community service, training and employment schemes and social investment seemed like obvious alternatives. But when when you're flat out saying that the state shouldn't have the right to hold someone anywhere, house arrests, rehab and community service go against that and you're left only with preemptive measures rather than restorative justice or compulsory rehabilition or risk reduction measures, and that feels, lacking?

Edited by Whowho on Mar 6th 2021 at 11:47:47 AM

I mean my problem with that is that's one opinion to have for someone who assaulted you (which I'm also not sure I agree with). But what if they kill someone?

I feel a big reason why the prison wouldn't do anything to help them is because they are so fucked up. That's a point in favor of prison reform. You take a place like Norway (or one of the Nordic countries) where it's a prisons have very low recidivism rates, prison seems to do it's job.

Well I'd point out that being in prison doesn't prevent people from murdering each other. If someone attempted to murder me I'm not sure putting that person in prison would protect someone from going through the same thing I did.

Serial killers are different, I acknowledge that the situational reasons for their murder attempts are different from typical ones.

No it doesn't, but people generally have reasons for killing one another. It's not as simple as you put a murderer next to a murderer they're going to murder.

And well I have read that the murder rate is in fact lower in prison than it is outside. And I agree the American prison system is deeply fucked up. But if that's true that's not really a point against it, is it? Now it does have a much higher mortality rate, but still much lower than the mortality rate of United States in general. Note the second one is per 1000 instead of per 100,000, so you need to multiply the given number by 100.

Edited by jjjj2 on Mar 6th 2021 at 9:40:34 AM

Huh, I'm surprised to hear that the murder rate in institutions are seemingly lower. You'd think you'd have MORE reason to murder in prison than out of it. I've not looked at those stats before because I've been more concerned with assults due to my personal history and being from blighty I've not had the same reason to look at USA prisons.

If I had to guess, murder rates in prison are low because you don't have easy access to a weapon and you can probably get caught.

Weird thing is that prison murder rates used to be higher than the general population. The article linked above points out that this used to be the case in the eighties.

An interview with Owen Jones. Apparently she’s written a play and will try to put it out when the apocalypse is over.

Also, she’s auditionned for Star Wars VII but hasn’t had a response yet. I hope she gets the part.

A video about ideology, reading between the lines and of course Jordan Peterson.

Didn't she already cover Peterson? Or was it Contra?

She did. I wonder if she brings that up in her video. Need to watch it

She already covered Peterson, and so did Contra.

"5 people and a homeless man" as noted in the comments, is just a terrifyingly wonderful example of the what is not being said thing.

the video isn't really about peterson. its really using him as a springboard to talk about the philosphy of ideology and such.

also, Abigail often mentions in her livestreams a sort of personal metric she uses to judge her own work by, and if i recall, she actually didn't like how her first jordan peterson video came out based on that metric, so i am not surprised she'd want to revisit the peterson well to maybe cover it better?

Yeah it's more about using him to talk about ideology and structuralism and post-structuralism and that sort of stuff. Not liking the first one also makes sense, as for revisiting.

"We've talked about the bones and muscles of Peterson, let's talk about his asshole."

I'm starting to think Abby's American evil twin is having a bad influence on her.

Still, that "what you're not playing" thing is kinda the reason I'm always afraid of discussing politics, let alone actively taking part in them. Even if there are ideas I agree with, there's always a part of me that thinks "What if there's something I'm missing? What if after years of supporting a cause I realize I've been fighting on the wrong side all along?" As funny as it is, the a-hole analogy is fitting because that's not something you want to look at.

By the way, I'm glad she found a way to keep the Arsonist around.

Edited by Lyendith on Apr 10th 2021 at 6:24:56 PM