Marxism | The Whole Plate

I was not prepared for this level of deep dive.

Mister Joshua

WE STANNNNN THIS WAS SO GOOD

Awesome work as always!

Seeshure

wanted: a trek reboot by Aaron Sorkin

Peterson is a psychopathic Kermit the Frog. He will put you in a box that you didn't know existed to further his regurgitated right wing talking points, then look at you like you're a fucking dimwit because you accepted them. Seriously, fuck that guy.

This series just keeps digging and digging at I love it.

Chantal Beaulne

I really enjoyed this. Its always interesting seeing your stuff and a great jumping off point to look into further details. These movies are fascinating to look at as an outsider and your perspective has been really interesting. Thanks for all the hard work making this stuff. The editing in this one was really well timed for the most part and I liked the quick cuts.

Piper Malone

I have come for the education about the meaning and significance of Marxist discourse in postmodern analysis, and I shall stay for the prospect of Lindsay's take on that live-action Beauty and the Beast film. My own take having been something that I think can be encompassed by the fact that literally the first thing that I did on having seen it and getting home was putting on the original one.

Matthew Dunne

dude - if you're making these broad declarations about Dawkins-quoting feminists, don't put the onus on me to "look it up". At least provide links. Who is this fringe of postmodern feminism? Who are their thought leaders? When did a prominent postmodern feminist deny objective laws of physics? Can you tell me what the basic objectives of postmodern feminism even are? You can't just blithely make these broad assumptions without at least coming in with some citations (i.e. Judith Butler said "x" in (year) in her essay on "y"). And the discussion over whether IQ testing is racially biased (a perfectly valid position as there are many studies on the topic that support the assertion) is a pretty gross thing to bring up in a discussion about biological determinism. No one is saying IQ tests are "rigged" as intentionally racist, but that IQ tests are an outdated form of intelligence testing developed overwhelmingly by white power structures, which either implicitly or explicitly punishes modes of communication more common in non-white social groups. Have we already hopped to "actually the black-white IQ disparity is genetic" now? Either way, I'm ready to tap out. I have a 45 minute video complaining about Beauty and the Beast '17 I need to finish by Monday. Again, I point you to the video Natalie did on the subject - I hope you take the time to give it a look.

Lindsay Ellis

Oh, this was on a forum with anon-handles years ago now- I'm afraid I couldn't point you at a twitter account or anything publicly traceable. They might well have been teens on tumblr or the equivalent for all I know. But I mean, just look up Richard Dawkins quoting feminists who think that Newton's Principia was a rape manual or that E=MC^2 privileges the speed of light. There is definitely a fringe of postmodern feminism which doesn't think there's such a thing as objective laws of physics, let alone an objective endocrine system. More recently, I would say that David Pakman's piece on race and IQ from a few months back leaned very far into the 'everything is cultural bias' side of the spectrum. One can have a reasonable debate on the role of environment in determining IQ, but telling people that IQ tests are rigged by racists is about as helpful as telling the morbidly obese that their scales don't work.

Morgan Allen

who are these leftist public figures who are arguing that there are zero biological differences between men and women. and I don't mean teenagers on tumblr or bots on twitter - I mean at LEAST a blue checkmark.

Lindsay Ellis

To be clear, I've downgraded the risks of climate change largely because trends in the prices of oil vs. renewables will spell out a shift to clean energy on purely mercenary economic grounds, which is already happening. I'm not saying a global climate cataclysm wouldn't be bad, I just don't think it'll happen. There *are* people on the left who will seriously argue that there are zero biological differences between men and women. I know this because I have argued with them. They're a numerically tiny minority compared with the hordes of evangelicals, but they do have a disproportionate and pernicious influence in academia. I'm not denying that the lunatic right are a broader threat than the lunatic left, but the lunatic left does exist.

Morgan Allen

There really isn't though - Peterson makes arguments against positions that literally no one on the left is making. Nobody on the left is saying that all hierarchies are the result of Patriarchy. Nobody on the left is saying that women have upper body strength equivalent of men. This is the insidious thing about Peterson - he posits himself as some moral paragon by making arguments against positions nobody has. No one is denying that there are biological differences between women and men. No one is denying that trans women have a Y-chromosome. And even if there was some "biology denial" on the left that was stating, I don't know, PMS is a myth fabricated by the patriarchy or something, in what universe is that even coming close to the existential danger placed upon humanity by climate change denial? That is such a false equivalence it's honestly kind of insulting. ContraPoints did a recent video where she addresses some of Peterson's more popular talking points - I hope you take the time to check it out: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LqZdkkBDas" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LqZdkkBDas</a>

Lindsay Ellis

I bumped into Peterson through his online lectures on the role of IQ in the workforce, and a lot of his lectures on personality and psychometrics are interesting and, so far as I can tell, broadly accurate. There's a certain strain of biology-denial on the left that I think may be almost as damaging as climate denial on the right (though less damaging than the everything-denial coming from bible thumpers and flat earthers on the right.) He does cherry-pick, particularly when it comes to the spin he puts on judeo-christian mythology as the ostensible lynchpin of western culture, but I'd rather be dealing with him than Dennis Prager or Kent Hovind.

Morgan Allen

Well done on the MakeToys Starscream-he's the best version out there.

I think there is precious, precious little that Peterson and I agree on.

Lindsay Ellis

I said "oh boy" out loud when I saw you posted this. Not in a bad way. In a Mickey Mouse way.

Mx. Maxwell

Nice collab with ContraPoints, I can't believe she's still sub 200k subscribers, here's hoping she gets the Lindsay Ellis bump. I follow Jordan Peterson (un-named but not unnoticed in this vid) and several members of the "Intellectual Dark Web" as well. I think you all have important things to say and those places where you differ are important to wrestle with. With the exception of Ben Shapiro I suspect you agree about more than you disagree, even though JP gets pretty hysterical regarding the "Post-Modernist/Neo-Marxist" boogeyman he likes to invoke and his Dadaist ideas on truth... and his habit of becoming inarticulate and using questions as answers to avoid saying things he knows are unpalatable... other than that, he seems like a pretty solid dude :-/

Another home run for Lindsay. The Whole Plate is one of my favorite series that're on the channel. People have been saying since the announcement of the first Bayformers movie that the franchise is another cash grab (a lucrative one at that) but it's important to look deeper into what it MEANS that the world has so heartily accepted such an exploitative franchise dripping with product placement. Thanks for all the work you do, Lindsay.

Ethan

Cause she is. And thanks you Lindsay.

Maria Luna Celeste

How can you be this consistently awesome

Anders Twetman

whats with him and jazz ^^ jesus. great video, as always!

Hieronymusgoa

Avatar might be the closest example, off the top of my head? Military recruitment rates are actually trending down, though.

Morgan Allen

As an FCC lawyer, major props for tie in with Children's Television Rules decision. Could you please do a piece on the changing portrayal of government and civic participation in popular culture? The shift from government as a means of correcting social injustice to government as oppressor of the (usually white and male) individual is huge as part of Boomer culture. The suspicion of the people to the idea that government is capable of any good, even when taken over by the heroes, continues to reverberate in modern tv and film. West Wing is notable as an exception (although Star Trek may also qualify).

Circa 1985/1986, when I was a little kid, my mom told me that the Transformers cartoon was just a very long advert for the toys. At the time, I didn't believe her. How foolish I was! The realization that bayformers contains a similar advert for the military really bears repeating. It makes me wonder: How many people have entered the military after being influenced by Bay's films as children? How many of them are unable to admit to themselves, as I was, that they were influenced by the advertising? Did Bay more-or-less inception a huge chunk of the young generation into the military? Also: what are some good anti-advert films? Even better: have there been any cases of a successful bait-and-switch in this regard? (I.e., something _marketed_ as a simple popcorn movie, where the trailers make it look like it's going to have Bay-style military product placement with a recruitment tie-in, but which turns out to contain a well-constructed anti-advert that gives the viewer new reasons to consider pacifism and non-violent conflict resolution.) Can anyone recommend anything along these lines? Also: yay for Contra! (:

Marx was very astute at pointing out the structural failings of capitalism, the problem was that his suggested solutions were systematically terrible. I'm not a particular cheerleader for corporate kleptocracy, and I do think there's such a thing as a rational articulation of socialist policy, but all the reasonable versions of socialism (A) don't closely resemble his suggestions and (B) have actual economic data to back themselves up. I don't think dragging Marx back into the equation is especially helpful.

Morgan Allen

Also yay for Contra!

About A Bike

Wonderful video. In my home country of Norway, the socialist parties, and the parties previously associated with communism (a term not really used in Norwegian contemporary politics, except by its critics) is gaining a lot of support, which is really tricky for the status-quo, and traditional medi, who are noticing that the "Stalin was bad, and people died a long time ago" arguments don't really bite any longer, and coming to the defense of capitalism is getting more and more difficult if you're not going to use strictly ideological arguments. Marxism is sort of a buzz-word these days, and the ideas for sure gaining popularity with the younger demographic.

About A Bike

So now I've a bunch of wikipedia articles to read and some books too. Thanks?

That was a great episode! And as someone who studied cultural studies, 'Jazz-hater' made me giggle because it's so accurate. Adorno was weird.

Thank you so much!

Baylor Thornton

Yeah, that stuck with me too. It was distracting because I really enjoyed the rest of it.

Cherry

YES! I'm glad I wasn't the only one who read into that!

Ryan Elliott

The part where you talk about the combination of ant-capitalism in the text, with heavy product placement reminds me a lot of Mark Fisher's Capitalist Realism.

FBH

Another good video, but I think the best part was introducing me to this "Contrapoints" channel! How have I never heard of her?!

Jarren Butterworth

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLthw2YWb4s" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLthw2YWb4s</a>

So...

Natalie disappointedly asking for "Smash?" is a perfect moment.

Really awesome video, Lindsay! I'd like to voice one concern however. If it's possible, maybe you could rewrite the bit where you call higher-ups "reptiles". I'm sure you're aware of this, but that sort of language has strong roots in antisemitism. Thank you for reading.

Ezra Curry

Really happy to see my two favorite youtubers work together.

Andrew Henderson

Whoa, this one is specially good Lindsay, AH &lt;3

SulaMoon

Really interesting video essay, Lindsay! I have nothing snarky to say, just that I really liked it. Is that normal in this day and age? If not, it should be.

How has 20 min just passed?? I swear, Lindsay has mastered the art of time dilation.

laugh my ass off, Lindsay, when you started heaving sighs and going "why did I do this" I started laughing out loud. also, I love you and Contra's work together and the continuing joke at Tabby's expense.

Stormbourne

Truly wonderful. Surprise Marx was glorious and I really liked the way you used Adorno whilst problematising some aspects of him at the same time.

I took a jazz class in college, and one of our assignments was to read one of Adorno's essays on jazz. It was quite a ride.

Jacob Haller

So much Marxism... so little time... too little Tabby... Adorno is the go to guy, but fuck him, jazz is good. Loved the video. And this last part is wholly my own wish that I have no idea of how one would fulfill, but I wish I could see how to fit Deleuze on this Plate....

August B Denys

I love this already and all I've seen is the thumbnail of Marx as Bumblebee.

Thanks for the early release.

Chris arnold

I loved this video. If you do a hundred of these on different film, social, and political theories, I don't think I'll get enough. Good job and well done!

It's really interesting to see the contrasting versions of the American military-industrial complex's exercise of soft power in feature films alongside the increasingly more prevalent Chinese version of same.

Joe G

This was one crazy ride. Loved it.

I see. Well I've been looking forward to this subject since you announced it.

Callen

We're doing two videos this month

Lindsay Ellis

Whoa nelly this is way earlier than you usually post. Were you just really satisfied with the editing? I think I remember you saying that you usually get the video out at the end of the month to allow for maximum editing opportunity.

Callen