BreadTube

BreadTube or LeftTube is a loose community of leftist YouTubers. "BreadTube" references anarchist writer Pyotr Kropotkin's The Conquest of BreadFile:Wikipedia's W.svg,[note 1] also known as the "Bread Book".[1]

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BreadTube may be considered a response to the overwhelming presence of right-wing, anti-SJW and conspiratorial YouTubers, especially in the mid-2010s, that move young people through the "alt-right pipeline".[2] Their goal is not only to de-radicalize young people and draw them away from those reactionary places, but also to educate progressives that moved further left –especially after the rise of far-right kakistocrats like Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro.

Notable BreadTubers/LeftTubers

Some of the most influential and impactful BreadTubers include:

ContraPoints

See the main article on this topic: ContraPoints

Hosted by Natalie Wynn, a socialist and feminist trans woman with an academic background who discusses a variety of socio-political topics with an emphasis on gender and sexuality. Her videos are known for their combination of dark, theatrical humor, flamboyant costumes, and a surreal atmosphere. Her content has moved toward personal stories about the effects of modern society from a trans perspective.

Hbomberguy

See the main article on this topic: Hbomberguy

Harris Brewis, better known as Hbomberguy or Harris Bomberguy (not to be confused with Bomber Harris), is a British socialist gamer who produces video essays on popular media[3][4] and "measured responses" aimed to debunk conspiracy theories[5][6] and reactionary talking points.[7][8]

He became known to a more mainstream audience in January 2019 for livestreaming a 57-hour attempt to complete the video game Donkey Kong 64 for charity, which raised approximately $340,000 for the UK trans children support group Mermaids. The stream featured special guests such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Chelsea Manning, John RomeroFile:Wikipedia's W.svg, Chuck TingleFile:Wikipedia's W.svg, and Mara WilsonFile:Wikipedia's W.svg, as well as fellow Internet celebrities Natalie Wynn (ContraPoints), Lindsay Ellis, Jim SterlingFile:Wikipedia's W.svg, Riley J. Dennis, Adam Conover (Adam Ruins Everything), Dan Olson (Folding Ideas), Abigail Thorn (Philosophy Tube), Shaun, Dan Arrows (Three Arrows), Virgil Texas & Matt Christman (Chapo Trap House), Jenny Nicholson, and Lewis Lovhaug (Linkara).[citation needed]

NonCompete

See the main article on this topic: NonCompete

Hosted by Emerican Johnson, a self-identified intersectionalist anarcho-communist,[9] who focuses on political re-education and promoting fellow BreadTubers. Johnson, a former right-wing entrepeneur, became disillusioned with capitalism and moved to Vietnam.[10]

Philosophy Tube

See the main article on this topic: Philosophy Tube

Hosted by British philosopher Abigail "Abby" Thorn. Philosophy Tube was created in 2013 as an educational channel about, well, philosophy, with Abby using a standard "talking head" format, a simple webcam, and natural lighting. Her intention was to give away her MA in Philosophy to the people for free after the Tory government in the UK tripled university tuition fees. Her videos began as miniature lectures, but as her channel became more focused on social issues and political philosophy, she began experimenting with making more longform video essays, with higher production values, comedic sketches and interludes similar to ContraPoints's (complete with sexy costumes and bisexual lightingFile:Wikipedia's W.svg), which isn't surprising considering that Abby is also a professional actress. [11]

Secular Talk

See the main article on this topic: Kyle Kulinski

A talk show hosted by Kyle Kulinski, an atheist, shill for Big Seltzer,[12] and a progressive Democrat (he is a co-founder of Justice Democrats,File:Wikipedia's W.svg even though he describes himself as a social democrat/left libertarian. Kulinski is critical of Israel and American imperialism, but as TYT-influenced liberals often do, he has a US-centric view of the left-right spectrum (i. e., "socialism is when the government does stuff") and dislikes SJW-types.[citation needed]

Shaun

See the main article on this topic: Shaun

Shaun was initially a "let's play" channel run by two old school friends, Shaun and Jen, but after 2016 Shaun began making solo videos debunking alt-right talking points in a calm, British way (Jen has nothing to do with Shaun's political videos and only appears on S&J's new gaming channel).[citation needed]

Three Arrows

See the main article on this topic: Three Arrows

Hosted by Dan Arrows, a German socdem who creates videos debunking fake history,[13] with a focus on debunking Holocaust denialism and other falsehoods and myths related to Nazi Germany,[14] European history,[15] and fascism.

Vaush

See the main article on this topic: Vaush

Vaush is an anarcho-syndicalist of the "dirtbag left" variety who debunks reactionary content[16][17] and isn't afraid to debate fascists and DESTROY them with facts and logic.[18] He is somewhat edgier than most of BreadTube, which often gets him in drama with other leftists. [19]

Xanderhal

Xanderhal (real name Alexander Haley) is a young American BreadTuber and gamer who produces live-stream videos in much the same format as Vaush (who is one of his inspirations), involving a live chat on the side of the screen. Xanderhal's content focuses on responses and rebuttals to conservatives, transphobes and other reactionaries, live discussions and debates both with fellow leftists and people with whom he disagrees with politically, and video game streams. As of August 2020, his channel had 41.6k subscribers and just over 4 million views.[20] Xanderhal's former YouTube name, prior to his rebranding in February 2020, was PigPuncher.[21] It was under this old name that he made his signature video in December 2019, "How I Fell Down The Alt-Right Pipeline and Escaped", a detailed narration outlining the personal and formative circumstances and the YouTubers and online communities that contributed both to him being seduced into alt-right beliefs and to his subsequent de-radicalization, with the aim of preventing other young people from falling into the same trap.[22]

Other channels and podcasts

  • Big Joel: Videos are simple and consist mostly of him talking to a camera, referred to as "video essays". There are several videos where he discusses deeper, more abstract themes in some films he watched, several animated ones such as Shrek, Over the Hedge, Frozen 2, and more. He also uses the same style, in exploring themes, to criticize popular right-wing media such as PragerU and Jordan Peterson and the hate mob (including Thunderf00t) against Anita Sarkeesian.
  • The Gravel Institute, founded by former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel using money left over from his presidential campaign, was created as the left's answer to PragerU, with the goal to "beat [PragerU] at their own game", in their own words.[23] It aims to promote left wing causes using notable speakers (such as Richard D. WolffFile:Wikipedia's W.svg and Brianna Joy GreyFile:Wikipedia's W.svg, with planned appearances from Bernie Sanders and Chelsea Manning) and five to ten minute videos. It should be noted that unlike PragerU, the Gravel Institute lists its sources and labels the axes on its graphs.
  • Innuendo Studios is a YouTube channel hosted by self-described "pinko" Ian Danskin.[24] His typically medium-length, well-researched videos, which use simple yet polished visuals, alternate between analyzing media (primarily video games) and identifying and analyzing trends in political discourse, both through a progressive-left lens. Examples include "Why Are You So Angry?"[25], a short series on the psychology of GamerGate, and "Bringing Back What's Stolen" [26], a series that uses Mad Max: Fury Road as a starting point to analyze how female characters are typically portrayed in such media, as well as how misogynistic tropes can be found and remedied. Also worthy of note is "The Alt-Right Playbook"[27], a much longer series analyzing "the rhetorical strategies the Alt-Right uses to legitimize itself and gain power" and, to some extent, common themes within reactionary conservatism at large.
  • Jimmy Snow, better known by his pseudonym Mr Atheist, is a popular atheist YouTube vlogger, commentator, and human rights activist who has been active since early 2018.[28] Most of his videos are critical commentaries of other YouTube videos made by deeply religious and bigoted YouTubers, but he will occasionally speak of other issues, such as politics. Snow grew up in the southern United States, and was a deeply religious Mormon throughout the first twenty years of his life. He has stated that he had very bigoted views during his Mormon days, which were mostly influenced by religious brainwashing.
  • Peter Coffin is an agender (they/them pronouns[29]) anarchist, satirist, and social critic from Michigan[citation needed], creator of "Very Important Documentaries"[30] (political infotainment), "Many Peters"[31] (Coffin's take on current topics), and "Adversaries"[32] (critiques of advertisement).
  • Some More News is a Youtube channel run by Cody Johnston and Katy Stoll and hosted by Johnston.[33] It is updated on a weekly basis with videos focusing on pretty much whatever is the largest news story of each week. They also host a podcast called Even More News, which focuses on some of the smaller events of the week.[34]
  • Thought Slime is a sweaty,[35] non-binary (prefers he/him pronouns),[36] Canadian former stand-up comedian turned anarcho-communist and GarfieldEats aficionado.[37] His earlier content (before he decided to reveal his face) featured "King Cuck", an animated avatar resembling Timmy Turner from The Fairly OddParentsFile:Wikipedia's W.svg. He makes goofy, "entergaging" (entertaining and engaging) videos on anarchist theory,[38][39] mental health,[40] anti-capitalism,[41] and anti-fascism.[42] And let's plays.[43] Oh, and make up tutorials.[44] He is a member of the Industrial Workers of the World.[45]

ButterHorse

"ButterHorse" is the Twitch.tv version of BreadTube. The term was coined by The Serfs, who also hosted a charity livestream called Butterpalooza on October 2019, featuring a huge list of BreadTubers.[46]

gollark: If you used the async API I mean.
gollark: If you want to know what the result of a command was you have to pull the events.
gollark: What could POSSIBLY go wrong?
gollark: That reminds me, I should really add the prompt to enable or disable SPF.
gollark: Clearly you're just using poorly designed bricks.

Notes

  1. A less dogmatic but still anarchistic choice wold have been Luis Buñuel's Land Without Bread.File:Wikipedia's W.svg

References

  1. The Conquest of Bread, Pyotr Alexeyvich Kropotkin, The Anarchist Library
  2. "The PewDiePipeline: how edgy humor leads to violence", NonCompete, YouTube
  3. "Fallout 3 Is Garbage, And Here's Why", Hbomberguy, YouTube
  4. "Pathologic is Genius, And Here's Why", Hbomberguy, YouTube
  5. "Flat Earth: A Measure Response", Hbomberguy, YouTube
  6. "Climate Denial: A Measured Response", Hbomberguy, YouTube
  7. "Cultural Marxism: A Measured Response - Hbomberguy", Hbomberguy, YouTube
  8. "The Golden One: A Measured Response", Hbomberguy, YouTube
  9. "'What are you, some kind of COMMUNIST?' My Ideology Explained" @ 1m19s
  10. "Confessions of a Capitalist: how a serial entrepreneur became a dirty commie", NonCompete, YouTube
  11. "Giving away a philosophy degree online: Actor Oliver Thorn shares his philosophy education on YouTube", BBC
  12. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/big-seltzer
  13. "Were the Crusades Defensive? - A Response to Steven Crowder, Three Arrows, YouTube
  14. "Guns in the Third Reich - A Response to Ben Shapiro and Others, Three Arrows, YouTube
  15. "A Battle of Lies - Fake News in the Great War", Three Arrows, YouTube
  16. "CLOWN WORLD & Nazi Dogwhistling", Vaush, YouTube
  17. "Red Ice TV LIES; FAILS to Turn me into a FASCIST", Vaush, YouTube
  18. "Vaush DESTROYS ExtremeDad on Drug Decriminalization Policy", Vaush Highlights, YouTube
  19. Vaush calling me a self hating Black stereotyping myself for disagreeing with him, and apparently he knows more about the BPP than me & REPEATEDLY MISGENDERING ME. Yeah, you're totally not a racist or a transphobe. Sure bud. by @theblvckhorned (11:19 PM · May 20, 2020) Twitter (archived from 30 Dec 2020 08:24:54 UTC).
  20. Xanderhal - YouTube.
  21. Xanderhal. Big Announcement! - New Name, Rebrand, Goodbye PIGPUNCHER!. YouTube.
  22. Xanderhal. How I Fell Down The Alt-Right Pipeline and Escaped. YouTube.
  23. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvI68YO7dVY
  24. Innuendo Studios on YouTube
  25. Why Are You So Angry?, YouTube video
  26. Bringing Back What's Stolen, YouTube video
  27. The Alt-Right Playbook, YouTube video
  28. Jimmy Snow on YouTube
  29. https://web.archive.org/web/20200318052841/https://twitter.com/petercoffin
  30. "Very Important Documentaries" playlist, Peter Coffin, YouTube
  31. "Many Peters" playlist, Peter Coffin, YouTube
  32. "Adversaries" playlist, Peter Coffin, YouTube
  33. Some More News on YouTube
  34. Even More News, Website
  35. "Getting Sweaty About Globalism", Thought Slime, YouTube
  36. "2000 Subscriber Q & A", Thought Slime, YouTube
  37. "GarfieldEats, a normal website in normal capitalism", Thought Slime, YouTube
  38. "Ten things everyone gets wrong about Anarchists!", Thought Slime, YouTube
  39. "All Cops Are Bad", Thought Slime, YouTube
  40. "The uncomfortable truth about mental illness that nobody wants to admit", Thought Slime, YouTube
  41. "How to Succeed in Capitalism", Thought Slime, YouTube
  42. "Antifa O P T I C S", Thought Slime, YouTube
  43. "Finishing DeltaRune", Thought Slime, YouTube
  44. "Non-binary buffoon achieves the Perfect Cat Eye -- Making It Up As I'm Going Along", Thought Slime, YouTube
  45. "Easy Direct Action", Thought Slime, YouTube
  46. Full Butterpalooza stream on Twitch: part 1 & part 2
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