A DAY AT THE OUTRAGE COALFACE

Blimey.

Where to begin?

Well, the comments on the latest video are... exactly what we expected to be honest.

Probably slightly more positive on the whoie - given I thought we were going to upset everyone en masse, including you lot (amazingly, only one comment so far mentioning that Digi was better when Eli was in it more) - but maaaaan.

Turns out it was just the right we upset.

We've put on a lot of subscribers today, and the video has obviously skyrocketed out of the gate, but clearly - as we expected to - we upset a lot of those who joined in the wake of the Milton Keynes video. We lost a lot of those. Probably for the best.

Rage-baiting works though! Not that's what we were doing, but it'd be so easy to grow the channel by posting nothing but videos that stir emotions. Don't worry: normal service will be resumed imminently. I can't be doing this faff every week.

The main issue with the commenters seems to be that they're not watching past the first 7 minutes before commenting angrily - really, really, really angrily - so they don't get the context or the main point of the video. It's a lesson in how not to retain people on YouTube more than anything else. We'll remember that for next time.

I've been trying very, very hard to remain civil - and for the most part have succeeded. I've done a lot of holding back today, and dancing around my own feelings and opinions in the replies. I'm trying to be as diplomatic as I can. In a video that seeks to unite, it seemed wrong to be my usual flippant self in the comments, and just dismiss real fears that people have out of hand.

I did post one reply to someone who said "You lost me when you said 'phobia'" by saying "Well, it's a scary word", but that was too good a joke to pass up.

It's hard though. I'm starting to get tired of the "It's not racism - it's about Islam" and "It's all Keir Starm's fault" stuff now. I don't think much of Starmer - he just seems so wishy-washy - but I did vote for him. And he wasn't the one in power these past 14 years, so I figure at least give him a chance before blaming him for the Tories' mishandling of the country.

YouTube manages to catch some of the more extreme comments, but there are ones slipping through here and there. Nothing that personal about me - I mean, calling me an idiot and all that, but thats fine. It's just irritating they don't watch on - just too quick to paint me as a "middle class liberal elite" - with a cottage in the countryside, according to one...

Or an AI (according to another).

Because - let's face it - that's how they feel. It's the us and them thing that I talked about in that. They see me as one of "them", and that's what's causing the damage - a woke, a liberal, a lefty. All I can do is offer my small contribution to make people feel heard, but it's barely going to do anything.

It's hard not to despair for our country and the world though. I honestly don't know what can be done. Like America it really feels we have become irreversibly divided. I'm realising that even in trying to be balanced, my view - as a Londoner - is distorted. All the Muslims I've known in my life were totally integrated, as British as any of us. But clearly a hell of a lot of people feel differently, so beyond my bubble perhaps it is a different story. I think I have to try to be open and mindful around this.

Plus... much as I don't consider myself on the right or left of anything, I've never voted Conservative, so perhaps I am liberal. I just don't think in those terms though; I don't apply any sort of label to myself. It's weird. It always felt too restrictive to me. As I said on BYAMPOD a while back, the only political ideology that has made sense to me in recent years is anarchism - not blowing things up. But true anarchism, a society without hierarchical structures. I accept it's completely unworkable probably, so I can't even say I'm an anarchist.

Does make me want to leave the country and go and live on a remote island.

Aaaaaaanyway. Hope you all had a good weekend. Speak in the week.

Paul