A thread for posts linking Anarchist YouTube Channels
Everything welcome, both good and bad, but I’m particularly interested in content aimed at non anarchists or those very new to the topic.
Definitely interested in people’s views about particular content and the general idea of the use of YouTube as a propaganda tool as well. Thanks.
Only one I really know is Red and Black Telly - can't say I watch it that often, but it's decent. I remember really liking this little video about Lucy Parsons, which you'll either love or hate depending on how you feel about the aesthetic, but then I guess that's true of a lot of things. Oh, and then there's Sub.Media, some of their stuff is really good, I'm personally not a fan of the Stimulator though. Reel News and LabourNet are I guess not anarchist but of interest. There's a short series from Sub.Media of videos like "what is class?" that I suppose is comparable to the libcom intro guides. Oh, and Plan C's "WTF is social reproduction?" I remember being good as well, although the self-censorship in the title is a bit cringe.
Red And Black TV isn’t to eveyone’s taste but his short clips on YouTube about current affairs are pretty good:
They do get a bit repetitive after a while (generally “why isn’t there a load of rioting in the UK”) but his equal contempt for the cobweb left and the right is something that needs hammering home.
Hopefully people will stumble across this sort of thing amongst the morass of pro-Corbyn and alt-right bollocks on there.
Red And Black TV isn’t to eveyone’s taste but his short clips on YouTube about current affairs are pretty good:They do get a bit repetitive after a while (generally “why isn’t there a load of rioting in the UK”) but his equal contempt for the cobweb left and the right is something that needs hammering home.
Hopefully people will stumble across this sort of thing amongst the morass of pro-Corbyn and alt-right bollocks on there.
Hi Fozzie
I’m actually a frequent commenter on Martin’s channel. I love his curmudgeon schtick.
Thanks RR, I’ve started looking through the stuff on the list and have watched a few vids. Christ, there’s some obscure stuff amongst it.
Also thanks to RT. I’ll get round to your suggestions probably tomorrow.
The following list is what makes up my bookmarks folder of youtubers that I occasionally follow:
ContraPoints
hbomberguy
Shaun
Three Arrows
Bat'ko the Manarchist
BadMouse Productions
Socialism or Barbarism!
Thought Slime
Gwen_No_Fear
Thom Avella
Libertarian Socialist Rants
anarchopac
Peter Coffin
Left Sphere
Not all of them are anarchist, but a large part of their audience are.
I think that covers all the YT channels (also the Sterling guy but he does video games, still some audience overlap.) There's also Marxist Yt content like brendanmcooney's series but I don't guess you're looking for that stuff.
As much as anything I’m looking for confirmation that there are few, if any, channels that specifically cater for newbies/non anarchists, that have a really sound grasp of anarchism including good class analysis but are also non cringy and entertaining.
I don’t really want to criticise anyone that gets their shit together enough to start and maintain a channel, and I know there are some great channels out there(Contrapoints, for example, though not specifically anarchist, is mostly fantastic), but I feel that we are woefully lacking in good entry level videos that are going to appeal to the disenfranchised working class.
Still, I may be wrong - I’m familiar with quite a few of all your recommendations but there are as many of them that I don’t know so I won’t draw any conclusions till I’ve traveled through them all.
(also the Sterling guy but he does video games, still some audience overlap.)
Jim Sterling Son's clearly kind of lib-soc ish but very circumspect and mostly into consumer advocacy (hence his big audience numbers), Left Left Up is much more overtly politically analytical for gaming, and she's been heavily involved in Game Workers Unite setting up with the IWGB.
I think one of the things about all these channels btw is they tend to have extremely low viewing figures, even after a long series of programs. The UVW for example clearly made a big effort with filming and documenting stuff for at least a year, but viewer numbers never rose higher than the hundreds.
That sort of lack of improvement will kill people's enthusiasm over time, especially when way higher numbers can be gotten on a more social media-integrated platform like Facebook or Twitter. Problem there I think is that social media ones will just disappear (eg. all the Left Left Up episodes are now buried way down her Twitter channel, which is where she premiers them) and are much harder to share across our websites because they don't embed. I suspect that a solid anarchist Youtube channel needs a bunch of different factors:
- Regular uploads (maybe involving re-upload deals with other channels as well as bespoke stuff on a recognisible schedule)
- Solid backing from existing sites to push traffic (eg. libcom, IGD, enough is Enough, Freedom)
- Better production values (ie. someone to work up splash openings, produce decent coherent graphics for the teaser image, edit vids to make them shorter, snappier, more appealing etc)
- An understanding of Youtube cultural norms and what its audience tends to use it for/expect from it
Youtube actually does have some free training stuff available on that front btw, eg. for News Channels
I guess also being able to work the algorithms? I have no idea how that actually works, but I just looked at a Red & Black video out of curiosity and straightaway had a Joe Rogan video in my recommendations down the side - not the worst thing out there, but not really anarchist content either. Idk, I think about this article a lot, no idea what to actually do about it though. At least Alex Jones getting deplatformed solves the problem where I watched one or two "funniest Alex Jones freakout"-type videos and then youtube kept on trying to show me more Infowars forevermore.
This is useful input. Thanks.
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(also the Sterling guy but he does video games, still some audience overlap.)Jim Sterling Son's clearly kind of lib-soc ish but very circumspect and mostly into consumer advocacy (hence his big audience numbers), Left Left Up is much more overtly politically analytical for gaming, and she's been heavily involved in Game Workers Unite setting up with the IWGB.
Ah, for a moment I thought he had an anarchist son, but then recalled that's the nickname he acquired (also goes by Chungus)... I grew really tired of him banging on about how dissatisfied he is with games; not really shocking game companies are after money, and will cut corners and mistreat employees etc.
had a Joe Rogan video in my recommendations down the side - not the worst thing out there,
Depends who his guest is! Ok though, not the worst, but he’s still bloody awful.
Quote:
had a Joe Rogan video in my recommendations down the side - not the worst thing out there,Depends who his guest is! Ok though, not the worst, but he’s still bloody awful.
Here's Stefan Molyneux's hour-long introduction to "anarchy."
Noah Fence wrote:
Quote:
had a Joe Rogan video in my recommendations down the side - not the worst thing out there,Depends who his guest is! Ok though, not the worst, but he’s still bloody awful.
Here's Stefan Molyneux's hour-long introduction to "anarchy."
Oh boy. That is painful.
I remember really liking this little video about Lucy Parsons, which you'll either love or hate depending on how you feel about the aesthetic
I see what you mean about the aesthetic! Kinda challenging, right? The funny thing is that I enjoyed the visual aspect but feel I would enjoy both the visuals and the audio if I consumed them seperately!
The Plan C vid has very good production values and is delivered with great clarity yet they only have 192 subs! I know it’s the views that really count but all the same, less than 200 subs! Besides, apart from the social reproduction one most of their vids have less than 100 views. Clearly, it ain’t easy to create a wide reach on YouTube.
Just found this - again, vimeo rather than youtube, not found if it's duplicated on there, and not watched it all yet but it looks pretty decent production-quality-wise: https://vimeo.com/310957841 Not claiming that the Stansted 15 are anarchists (some of them may well be, I dunno), but certainly at least anarcho-relevant. Having said that, only watched a bit, so don't blame me if anyone says anything horrendously liberal in it!
If there’s anything liberal in it we’ll know the truth about you. Freudian click!
Edit: There’s a clip of an MP speaking at a rally in their support. Are you insisting you didn’t know that RT?
Joking aside, it’s a good little film.
Saw this on the libcom twitter feed today, Really well made and funny intro to anarchy that looks set to become a series. Black Cat Anarchy School: https://youtu.be/U3Rs7Pjd8gM
CGT in Spain has has it's own outlet (Rojo y Negro TV):
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAdtgt5slNceh_0z2dQqpLw
Still working my way through all of these. Still seen very little that’s good for attracting new people such as liberals or ancap/libertarian types to anarchism.
Agent - I haven’t heard any mention of anarchism so far but Shaun’s videos are fantastic. I’m not even completely certain why because the format is nothing special. I guess they are just really well thought through and delivered in a very relaxed manner. Thanks for this, a definite permanent addition to my list.
Agent - I haven’t heard any mention of anarchism so far but Shaun’s videos are fantastic. I’m not even completely certain why because the format is nothing special. I guess they are just really well thought through and delivered in a very relaxed manner. Thanks for this, a definite permanent addition to my list.
Yeah, I agree. I'd probably say he's one of or possibly my favourite lefty Youtuber that I've come across, probably for the relaxed manner Noah mentions. His take down of far-right 'Great Replacement' rhetoric is brilliant.
Still working my way through all of these. Still seen very little that’s good for attracting new people such as liberals or ancap/libertarian types to anarchism.
Haven't given them a listen yet but it looks like that's part of what Left Sphere are about. Be interested to hear how ACG get on with putting their podcasts on Youtube as well and how that gets taken up.
His take down of far-right 'Great Replacement' rhetoric is brilliant.
Indeed. That’s one that I’d already watched. Pretty much perfectly executed.
Was going to recommend that French black cat channel above.
Also not specifically anarchist as such, but WCH has a YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/workingclasshistory
Although as Rob commented, our viewing figures on that platform are not that high. We get far more video views on our other social media channels like Facebook, Twitter etc.
I kind of think to be a successful YouTuber, it really helps to understand YouTube culture. Which we don't, unfortunately. A lot of things which seem to get popular are quite self-referential with other popular YouTube phenomena, like replies to prominent YouTubers and things like that.
I like SocialRevolution https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAM9Fz6AQtDuFUk0QceAaRA they also have a blog here at libcom https://libcom.org/blog/ivysyn
Does any anarchist here have an opinion about BadMouseProductions?
I could be wrong here, but sometimes he sounds a bit like an apologist for any African or South American leftist government? For example Sankara and Maduro?
But I might be so anti-leninist and anti-bolivarian that I gobble up liberal misinformation.
Nah, he took a hard turn into Tankie ville, haven't watched his vids in awhile but his twitter feed was basically CPGB-ML talking points.
Nah, he took a hard turn into Tankie ville, haven't watched his vids in awhile but his twitter feed was basically CPGB-ML talking points.
Ugh, I looked him up on Twitter now. Depressing...
Some more Jim Sterling. Haven't seen it yet but he seems to be taking more shots at capitalism lately, within the context of video games (still don't think he's a commie or his politics extend beyond consumer advocacy as mentioned though)
Can anyone summarise the current beef within lefty Youtube? I see there's accusations of Peter Coffin supporting a friend who is an abuser, but this has somehow sucked in a whole host of others who I don't understand how they're connected (Non-Compete, Thought Slime plus random others who I'd never heard of but seem to be essential to the story)
Michael M describes his experience helping organize the West Virginia teacher strikes in 2018 and 2019, as a member of the West Virginia United caucus, and the IWW....
Archive of Why?, an anarchist publication produced out of New York City from 1942-1947.
A short biography of Volin (Voline) Russian anarchist and one of the founders of the anarchist synthesis
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