How do you feel about the phenomenon of channels like Wisecrack that have emerged over the past 5~ years? I just watched this video and found it interesting (not necessarily the commentary, more it's existence):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlptgqP_PEA
Channels like Wisecrack, The School of Life, The Nerdwriter etc condense really hug ideas into unworkable timeslots and end up giving entry level insight into the topics discussed. An earnest intellectual inquiry can't be the reason these channels are successful, given that they're usually discussing books, ideas or individuals that you could go and look up yourself.
Both the Nerdwriter and Wisecrack have done this same head-patting dismissal of Donald Trump where they act above it all and talk about how he's wrong but "his fans don't care if he's right". It feels like the point of these videos is to affirm the viewer's personal prejudice about most people being idiots and make the viewer feel as if they're one of the enlightened few. They capitalise on an anxiety to be (not necessarily to be seen as) intelligent, overloading people's brains with trivia about x famous writer or w/e.
The video and the culture surrounding it are a much better demonstration of all the society of the spectacle than the actual commentary itself.
The entire culture surrounding these videos is just pure fucking narcissism. You have to put in a good amount of intellectual effort to become actually intelligent but viewers of these sorts of channels want to be seen as intelligent without doing the work. It's a very particular phenomenon since being "intelligent" is pure interpretation, it's not like hitting the gym for months and becoming physically fitter, you just have to come across as smarter than the person you're talking to. It's one of the only traits you can make people think you possess without actually possessing it.
>How do you feel about the phenomenon of channels like Wisecrack that have emerged over the past 5~ years?
they're good
I think the people making these videos, especially Nerdwriter since he's just a guy and not a huge YouTube publisher like wisecrack and doesn't sell self-help seminars and "philosopher's jackets", have an authentic desire to understand the topics they talk about and promote intellectualism. It's not a bad idea to encourage people to think deeper about things and introduce a large audience to philosophy. Their videos can't give a complete overview of anything, but they're not meant to. They're entry level by design, and that's why they're popular.
If there is a problem with these channels it's that some part of their audience will use their videos as their only source of education on complex topics and become annoying pseudointellectuals.
>An earnest intellectual inquiry can't be the reason these channels are successful, given that they're usually discussing books, ideas or individuals that you could go and look up yourself.
Because clearly only the people with time to read books upon books are allowed to know what a Kierkegaard is. Entertainment may never dare to overlap.
>Both the Nerdwriter and Wisecrack have done this same head-patting dismissal of Donald Trump where they act above it all and talk about how he's wrong but "his fans don't care if he's right". It feels like the point of these videos is to affirm the viewer's personal prejudice about most people being idiots and make the viewer feel as if they're one of the enlightened few.
You only watched a single video, didn't you?
>The entire culture surrounding these videos is just pure fucking narcissism. You have to put in a good amount of intellectual effort to become actually intelligent but viewers of these sorts of channels want to be seen as intelligent without doing the work.
This is just unbacked conjecture you got after reading 'grow smarter' at the top of the page. Ironically, you are also being narcissistic by indirectly calling unintelligent anyone who hasn't invested as much work as you into studying.
People watch these videos because they are entertaining, nothing more. Whether they decide to be pretentious about it is unrelated. It's not as if the channel constantly reminds it's viewers that they are intelligent.
>>7721243
Not gonna lie, I never heard of this guy and I Kinda liked the video, the 8-bit graphics were dope.
>>7721853
Same here, honestly.
>>7721243
Regarding the videos on philosophy: Metaphysics for the masses, is it really so wrong?
There are probably very few negative things one can say regarding what those channels do in regards to movies, but the literature related stuff I've found has been very surface level and often annoying.
>>7721910
>expecting anything but entry level from a youtube video
you should never.
