'The Most Misunderstood Philosopher in the World'
Added 2024-05-17 12:23:23 +0000 UTCHello lovely Patrons!
The new episode premieres on YouTube today at 1800 British time! I'll be in the live chat from 1730, that's in four hours - I hope you can join me!
Abi XXx
Comments
Late to the party, completely agree.
Charlie B
2025-02-03 14:50:13 +0000 UTCI've been reading the book (and am a Gender Studies doctoral candidate) and being a slow reader, being able to listen to you explain the concepts so artfully helped me read better. thank you for making all this so accessible ♥️♥️♥️
Ahalya Ganesh
2024-09-11 20:41:56 +0000 UTCIt really hurts me that in one hand you are proud of yourself being very much about facts and reason but on the other hand you are really against Israel in the current war against Hamas. Israel declared this war not because it deemed all the citizens of Gaza "dangerous", but because of the horrible atrocities that happened on October 7th, and Israel doesn't kill all the Palestinians, which is what would make sense to do if the Palestinians were thought of as "abjects", and what would also be much easier to do, for example, by carpet bombing (which just to be clear Israel doesn't do, AFAIA has never done and hopefully never will do). Instead the IDF uses all the intelligence it can get to make the attacks on the terrorists, both the ones that crossed the border on October 7th and the ones leading Hamas (and other terrorist organizations), as targeted as possible, and to limit the civilian casualties to as little as they can. This is of course difficult as Hamas uses the vulnerable Palestinians as a human shield, and build their bases in places like the Shifa Hospital, that by their bery nature collect many of the vulnerable civilians and are uncomfortable places to get into, exactly to deter the IDF from attacking them. Also, how exactly does selling arms to Israel disproportionately hurt women? You know the current Islamistic regime dictated by Hamas really suppresses women's rights, right? You know most of the Hamas members, and definitely its leaders, are men, right? If any, Israel may be a positive force for the women in Gaza that liberates them from the oppressive Islamistic society they are currently in, unless I'm completely missing something. I hope that in the spirit of sharing knowledge between equal either you (Abigail) or someone else can read this and explain your position on the subject more deeply.
רועי סיני
2024-08-25 20:07:12 +0000 UTCSo, so, SO good! I've been a very long time viewer and this, among a great many top notch vid essays, was so far your very best. I learned a great deal and saw things I'd thought I'd already explored deeply from a new perspective. Thank you!
Ostap Soroka
2024-06-04 16:03:44 +0000 UTCI absolutely love your work, thank you! I joined your Patreon after this video. This one is so profound and essential for me at the moment. I have family and a (former) close friend that are caught up in ideas that are hard to deal with for me. There is an element that was not so much addressed in the video and that is fear. For me that is the prime human emotion that underlies in all what you were talking about.
Robert Philip-Broadley
2024-05-30 15:31:05 +0000 UTCHello. You seem to be having a very difficult time. Please try not to feel shame about how you’re feeling. It must be really tough time for you, but please know that many people have had similar experiences and feelings - even if their circumstances aren’t exactly the same. If you need to talk to someone confidentially there are charities with trained people who might offer you some advice and guidance about your situation. Mind is a good example. That might help you obtain anonymous advice right away that fits your circumstances. I know it’s more difficult to get GP appointments these days, but please don’t rule this out as they will show compassion and understanding. Please take care.
CrystalJade
2024-05-28 14:31:32 +0000 UTCHello? I need help? I was so hopeful when you introduced the idea of phantasm in your previous video about gentrification... I am stuck in a phantasm of my own making and I cannot seem to get out. You couldn't tell how to get others out of phantasm, in the end of your video. What about those who want to...but, can't seem to find a way? People like me. I feel like I have a split reality. I am frightened. I don't know what to do. I can't seem to get out. I want to fight people who I know are not my enemies. I am afraid because I want to hurt people I love... the very people who love me. I hoped you might have something for me... the person who both wants to be free of my own phantasm, yet cannot find a way to escape feeling under attack. I want to be reasonable and compassionate: I refuse to think critically out of intense fear and rage. I have been sworn to secrecy, I feel I can't talk this out with anyone. This is a plea of desperation. I hold you to no obligation. I just can't ... talk ... this out ... in my own mind. I want to delete this immediately and not post it. Maybe I should have, but I won't. You can say whether this was right of me to do, or not. If it wasn't right, I am sorry. I don't know what's right and I am scared because I don't know.
You Can Be The Judge
2024-05-26 18:27:04 +0000 UTCI loved the video. Also, an idea: have you thought about adding a podcast form of videos? I know they would have to be stripped from the visuals and acting and costumes to a degree (audio-description would technically also be possible, also making it more accessibile for the blind), but I think it would have been a useful feature - maybe one to try for patrons first like an experiment?
Michalina Loch
2024-05-23 21:58:57 +0000 UTCI really liked the White Void. Just in case you wondered. As for the video as a whole: Awesome. Just awesome.
Sabrina Penna
2024-05-21 19:33:31 +0000 UTCI feel like this is another one where the Philosophy Tube brand can only allow Abi to dance up to a certain line but not cross it. I find that understandable if frustrating; however it did get me to yell "Because it's a fucking egregor!" about the concept of "biological sex" which was cathartic and, upon reflection, I think is an interesting way to frame social constructs.
Chibigodzilla
2024-05-21 02:47:55 +0000 UTCA bit of a reply to self fail…. But just to add that this text might have some relevance to the phantasm phenomenon. If you ask me it’s something more than not listening. It’s more like a dismissal or foreclosure and when this happens whatever is foreclosed will just return in the real, and continue to do so.
CrystalJade
2024-05-20 13:02:02 +0000 UTCGreat work - I enjoyed this. Butler is a great thinker. I have a book on my reading list that seems quite relevant to mention. ‘What is sex?’ by Alenka Zupancic. Although it sounds like an essentialist starting point it seems something quite different. A much deeper set of ideas about the psychosocial domain that I’m quite excited to have up next in my pile of books.
CrystalJade
2024-05-20 12:55:34 +0000 UTCI saw this on Nebula and was so eager to share this with my friends when it became available on Youtube
ComicTF
2024-05-20 01:37:37 +0000 UTCFirst, I want to thank you for helping me think. Because, understanding trans people as a cis-person will be an ever changing and evolving thing, for me. I will also preface with an apology, I do not know the correct words for labeling or referencing so I may some wrong things and correct me if need be. At one point I wanted to understand entirely, but I learned that it wasn't FOR me to understand. It was FOR me to accept, that it didn't need to be complicated but simple and then we all move on with the beauty of life. I have some shame I deal with occasionally. A trans individual felt I was safe enough and would be helpful enough to aid them in a work capacity that flew in the face of legal precedent. There's a lot with this story, but I won't bore, if you look you can find more as I am just copy-pasta-ing things I have put out in the ether before verbatim. I hope to one day find this person and apologize, I did before and they understood, but I am in a different place now in many ways and I hope they are in a better place as well. I truly believe we need trans and anti-trans people to meet, individually. As much as it hurts, the anti-movement people need to be listened to, individually, and shown, individually, that trans people aren't the demons they make them out to be. They want the hatred and anger, they thrive off of it, only becoming stronger in the presence of it. Take it away, and their reasoning shines through little by little. It isn't a panacea, but true change isn't instantaneous, it's a lifetime and it requires maintenance.
Pktur3
2024-05-19 11:41:22 +0000 UTCThank you for this great video. I have read bits of Butler and I must say, her writing is intimidating for people with no training in philosophy! However, with this video, I feel that I have some basis to help me face this mountain again. Also, I suppose we all have some fantasmes one way or another and it is hard to get to each person only with rational talks about facts and sciences. But, if you present it from a multifasceted standpoint, acknowledging the person's reasons for sticking with those fantasmes, as you do here, you might be able to at least sow some good seeds. Also, even if you were just preaching to a choir of converts, it doesn't mean it is useless. Transidentity, gender issues, sexualities, etc., these are all complicated issues, with a lot of confusing stakes at hand. Your videos are precious for people like me who aren't directly concerned and who need to question sometimes deeply rooted assumptions, to get well-structured and articulated information and arguments. Even though I'm all in favor of equal rights for LGBTQIA+, it isessentially out of a vague moral feeling that it is totally unfair to deny them these rights, but I feel that I'm quite far from mastering even the basis of all these issues. Without such content, it would be quite difficult for me to even make sense of my own position with regards to LGBTQIA+ human rights and where I stand and why it is right for me to fight against transphobia. So please, don't give up! We really need people with your skills and intelligence to help elevate the public debates beyond verbal agressions and bring forwards difficult questionss.
Swiss_Woke
2024-05-18 22:12:29 +0000 UTCHello! I agree with most of what you say, except on JKR. She doesn't come from a modest background at all. Her family is quite wealthy. She did go through a time of economic and financial hardship when she divorced and got into a conflict with her parents, but she always got help from her relatives and she started her life as a pretty well-off person, with a higher education diploma. It turns out that she never questioned capitalism and liberalism, in part because she probably never felt the need to. She is definitely a good example of an upper-middle to higher-class person feeling like something is wrong, but not really wanting to know what and prefering to devote her energy and a large part of her own wealth into fighting much weaker scapegoats, as it might give her some feeling of empowerement over something she doesn't have control, while allowing her to remain in her confort zone.
Swiss_Woke
2024-05-18 22:03:34 +0000 UTCAs someone who wrote her dissertation on performativity and gender I loved how Butler was explained narratively. Great contextualisation. They are not the easiest to read but there is so much there. Kinda makes me wanna reread them again and Young.
Kim
2024-05-18 16:28:09 +0000 UTCThis was absolutely fantastic. This was very insightful, and I have to say I really admire just how well you work on every detail.
Eric Stoesser
2024-05-17 23:50:34 +0000 UTCThank you for making & publishing this video. My sexual biology (before feminising HRT) didn't fit into the fiction (social construct) that sex is either male or female. Medical professionals that I talked to about my situation have clearly suggested that I ignore it. For me, the I in LGBTQIA+ stands for "invisible" - I must not challenge the medical world that is historically grounded to support the (caucasian) patriarchy. If "biological sex is immutable", why are gender critical people against gender affirming surgeries for trans people but all for (non-conensual) surgeries being performed on intersex babies/children/adults? The answer is easy, LGBTQIA+ people challenge their _beliefs_ and this exposes/scares them. I may never influence anti-gender people but my coming out (living authentically 24x7) has awoken many people to the truth of transgender reality. I'm blessed to have not lost anyone as a result of my choice to start living authentically.
Whitney Abigail Mallett
2024-05-17 23:39:53 +0000 UTCFirst, I want to thank you so much for what you do! You are a truly amazing person doing great work for humanity. Second, I want to say “brava” for discussing Graff and Korolczuk's book, Anti-Gender Politics in the Populist Moment. I ordered it to read more about it. The anti-genderism/capitalism connection you discussed made me weep. For so long I had these gossamer strings of misunderstandings about why people hated me/us/them. My wife and I would discuss and wonder how a person or group could have such vitriol towards someone they don’t know. This episode helped me tie those strings together and start thinking about ways to possibly have a better dialog with people. Linking anti-genderism (or anything else) to capitalism makes so much sense. People like Rowling, who came from a poor place before getting obscenely wealthy, probably thought that money would fix them. Now after so many years with that wealth, they are realising that capitalism did work to make them money, and to be comfortable. But in the end, it (capitalism), and they, are just as broken as when they were poor, and rather than say that, they hate me and my wife, and all the rest of the people they marginalize because the alternative is to admit that capitalism as we know it, failed us.
Ciree Josephine Laase
2024-05-17 15:57:30 +0000 UTCSeen it twice on nebula, but i'll be there for the premiere..
Sara A.
2024-05-17 13:26:22 +0000 UTCLooking forward to it.
Jeanne H-B
2024-05-17 13:12:45 +0000 UTCGonna put my work computer on “data processing mode” (which means a stapler on the keyboard so they think I’m still working lol) and watch this when it hits this afternoon. Can’t wait!!
Sarah Sarah
2024-05-17 13:02:53 +0000 UTCAlways on a Friday! I must stop making plans for Friday evenings… :D Will catch up with it later tonight or tomorrow.
Amyphist
2024-05-17 12:51:53 +0000 UTCI already saw it on Nebula. Thought provoking and interesting. I am nonbinary and think it's all messed up the way hateful people attack those who just wish to be themselves. Love you all.
Rik Murrietta
2024-05-17 12:36:01 +0000 UTC
