ContraPoints

New Video: What's Wrong with Capitalism (Part 1)

New territory for this channel. Probably the topic requested most often.

Basically I intend this video as a general introduction to my views. I introduce a lot of topics without plunging too deep into any one of them (deeper plunges reserved for later videos in this series). I spend the first half of the video trying to frame a critique of capitalism in a way that is broadly relatable, with particular ambitions of drawing in some of that woefully misdirected white male angst we’...

Invite to Submit Question for December AMA Stream

Dear 10+ Patrons,

I'll be doing my December AMA patron stream this Tuesday (January 2) at 4pm ET (see previous post for promise not to spill over into the next month next time). The stream will be archived here as always. 

Use the comments on this post to submit a question you want to ask me, and I'll answer it on the stream!

<3 

Natalie

December AMA Stream Next Tuesday

Hi Friends!

Running behind schedule as usual over here at ContraPoints Inc., but the good news is I've been hard at work on a new video which should be up tomorrow.

I'm going to do the "December" AMA stream next Tuesday (January 2nd) at 4pm ET. If you can't make the stream, it will be archived and posted here as usual. $10+ folks will get the question invite post here shortly.

I hereby promise to schedule the January AMA and Discord hangout for the middle of the month, so this shou...

December Discord Hangout Sunday

Hi friends,

Apologies for being a bit out of touch recently. The good news is I've been working hard on a video which should be up tomorrow!

Let's schedule the December discord hangout for 1pm ET on Sunday—New Year's Eve. Hopefully that's early enough to be before any New Year's plans you may have! As for me I'll probably end up doing a New Year's stream in the hours leading up to midnight because I don't have a whole lot else going on in my life.

I haven't made any progress on t...

Reedit of "Why White Nationalism Is Wrong"

Dear friends,

A video of mine from a year ago, "Why White Nationalism Is Wrong" was apparently flagged by Nazis this week, and was placed in YouTube's "restricted mode,"  a no-comments, no-share, non-suggested mode intended for videos promoting hateful ideologies. The video is also completely unwatchable in several European countries.

This is not the best video I've done on the topic of white nationalists, but it's the one that got flagged down, and I think there's something to be s...

Goddamn It Patreon

Hi friends,

Just thought I'd shoot you a quick note addressing Patreon's very poorly conceived new policy of charging service fees to patrons. It's supposed to be good for creators by shifting the service fee burden from the creator to the patrons, but what Patreon isn't considering is that the patrons are their customers, and the creators' customers, and asking you all to pay a per-pledge fee is a terrible idea that disincentivizes supporting multiple creators.

The backlash directed at ...

November 2018 AMA Stream

Hi friends,

Just a reminder the AMA stream starts in 20 minutes. If you're a 10+ patron and want to ask a question, find the post from a couple days ago and leave a comment!

<3

Natalie

Discord Hangout in 20 Minutes

Dear 15+ Folks,

Just a reminder that the Discord hangout is in 20 minutes!

I've created a bot which has hopefully added all 15+ people into the new server. If you need to connect your Patreon account to a Discord account (or if you're straight-up wondering what Discord is), this article explains it: https://patreon.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/212052266

Hopefully that g...

"November" Discord Hangout This Sunday

Dear 15+ Folks,

I'm planning on doing the next Discord hangout this Sunday at 7pm ET. I have just created a new server, which will eventually become the Contra Patron Server once I get it organized. For now it's only the skeleton of a server. But it should work well enough for the hangout (in fact it should be easier to figure out than that old labyrinth of a server.)

I've created a bot which has hopefully added all 15+ people into the new server. If you need to connect your Patreon acco...

Invite to Submit Question for "November" AMA Stream

Dear 10+ Patrons,

I'll be doing my "November" AMA patron stream this Sunday at 9pm ET (the stream will be recorded and archived here as usual). Use the comments on this post to submit a question you want to ask me, and I'll answer it on the stream!

<3 

Natalie

AMA Stream This Sunday

Hi friends,

I've pulled myself together. If you're wondering what the fuss is about, here are two Twitter threads I wrote about it:

 https://twitter.com/ContraPoints/status/936055501204357120 

 https://twitter.com/ContraPoints/status/936082727346036736 

If you d...

Delaying November AMA & Hangout

Hi friends,

I was hoping to do the November AMA and Discord hangout on schedule this week, but, to be honest, I'm not doing well psychologically and I just don't feel up to it. Really I just need to take a few more days away from the Internet, so no need to reach out or anything since I will be okay and will not be online.

Hopefully I can pull it together by this weekend, and I'll get in touch by then to schedule the AMA/hangout. There will then be two AMAs/hangouts in December to make u...

New Video: Violence

This video picks up on the themes of "Punching Natsees" and "The Left" to speculate about violence more broadly—it seems like lots of us enjoy violence in certain circumstances: What are those circumstances? Is it always morally wrong to enjoy violence? Is there a role for sadism in politics?

Stylistically I tried a lot of new things in this video. I felt I was due for a more experimental one after the last few, in which I've stuck to tried and true methods. As always with the experiments, s...

Discord Hangout in 10 Min!

Here's an updated link:  https://discord.gg/4HE8A2n

Talk to you soon!

<3

Contra

October AMA Stream Archive

Here's the archived stream. Enjoy!

October AMA Stream Tonight! (TIME CHANGE)

Dear friends,

The October AMA stream will be tonight! 10+ patrons please note that I've changed the time from 6pm to 8pm (I forgot I'm meeting someone for coffee at 5 when I initially scheduled the stream). 10+ patrons should also have gotten the invite post yesterday, in the comments of which you can ask your question. Looking forward to answering your questions tonight!

<3

Contra

Discord Hangout This Saturday

Dear 15+ Patrons,

I'll be hosting my October Discord hangout this Saturday. The hangout will begin at 2pm Eastern Time and last a couple hours.

~~~I also want to announce that I'm considering opening a new, Patron-only ContraPoints Discord, to which all, say, $2+ patrons will be invited (and which we'll use for the 15+ hangouts). The current Discord is basically a fan server—it's moderated and used by a variety of fans of my channel, not all of whom are patrons. I therefore feel somewh...

Invite to Submit Question for October AMA Stream (TOMORROW!)

Dear 10+ Patrons,

I'll be doing my October AMA patron stream tomorrow (Friday) at 6pm Eastern Time (the stream will be recorded and archived here as usual). Use the comments on this post to submit a question you want to ask me, and I'll answer it on the stream!

Also, sorry for the short notice, I've taken a little vacation and gotten a bit behind on this organizational stuff.

<3 Contra

New Video! Degeneracy

I've stepped up the complexity once again and am facing the fact that, realistically, I can only do one of these a month (at the rate I'm currently going even that's a push—several sleepless nights were required to get this one out). I'll be thinking in future months about how best to put your backing to optimal use—I could hire some help with editing, research, etc., and increase output. Or, I could own the one-video-a-month schedule, switch pledges from per video to per month, and diversif...

New Old Video Commentaries Now Available

Hi friends,

Just want to let you know that there are now some videos archived on my live stream channel that might interest you. I've done some commentaries on my videos that are now over a year old, and I've also posted my 2 month transition update, if that interests you.

I've thought of making the commentary streams a patron reward in the past, but decided that I prefer to have them publicly available. I view it as a basic aspect of responsible YouTubing to revisit past videos, correct...

September 2017 AMA Stream

Hi friends,

Here's the AMA stream from earlier today. Enjoy!

<3

Contra

AMA Patron Stream Today

Dear friends,

Here's the link to the patron AMA stream, which will be live at 5pm ET. If you're a $10+ patron and haven't asked a question yet but still want to, leave it in the comments on the earlier post about the stream. I will post the archived stream here once it's done processing. Talk to you soon!

<3

Contra

Reminder: Discord Hangout in 15 Min

Just a reminder that the hangout will start in 15 min! Here's a discord link if you don't have it already:  https://discord.gg/9GR7Mu
 

Instructions for getting connected to the server are in the earlier announcement post. Talk to you all soon!

<3 Contra

Discord Hangout This Thursday

Dear 15+ Patrons,

I'll be hosting my September Discord hangout this Thursday. The hangout will begin at 6pm Eastern Time and last a couple hours.

If you're new to Discord here's how it works:

Discord is an app that you can run in your browser that basically works just like an old-fashioned chatroom. The advantage over Google hangouts is you can have more than 10 people in chat at once.

I have my own ContraPoints server, which is made and moderated by fans and not closely supe...

Invite to Submit Question for September AMA Stream

Dear 10+ Patrons,

I'll be doing my September AMA patron stream this Friday at 5pm Eastern Time (the stream will be recorded and archived here as usual). Use the comments on this post to submit a question you want to ask me, and I'll answer it on the stream!

<3 Contra

New Video! The Left

In this one I revisit some of the questions raised in "Punching Natsees," but with a focus on strategy rather than ethics. I've tried to navigate this pretty difficult subject matter with nuance and good humor, but I'll leave it to you all to judge how effective I've been. Let me know what you think!

I'll be posting later today to notify the 10+ and 15+ patrons about the next AMA stream/Discord hangout. My last video was my most successful by far in terms of views and engagement, and I've sinc...

1000 Patrons Celebration Stream: Live Now!

Actually, live in about 10 minutes. I still have to fix my face as usual. Don't have any plans for the stream, thought we could just hang out!

Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_nEUFPZuEw

<3

Contra

1,000 Patrons Celebration Stream Tomorrow!

Dear friends,

We're having a good day over here at ContraPoints studios. One of my videos hit 100k views for the first time, my channel hit two million views, and, as of a few minutes ago, I have 1000 patrons here on Patreon.

The last year has been the best year of my life. I'm doing work that I love and that I think is important, and I owe it all to you. Thank you so very, very goddamn effing much.

Let's celebrate. I'll be hosting a patron-only stream tomorrow at 6pm Eastern Time....

New Video Now Public, Please Share!

Dear friends,

Just letting you know, "Decrypting the Alt-Right" is now public, so feel free to share far and wide! Video captions and metadata are also now up.

Will be posting soon about the next AMA video and Discord hangout.

<3

Contra

(Note to new $5+ patrons: new patrons will be in the credits for the first time the month AFTER they pledge. This is because Patreon doesn't actually charge anyone for anyone for anything till the 1st of the following month, so they r...

New Video! Decrypting the Alt-Right: How to Recognize a F@scist (Early Patron Link)

Dear friends,

Here's a link to my new video. I'm giving you all early access. (Basically I want to get the video into the August pledge period but I don't want to publish it this late at night (it gets more views if I publish earlier in the day, the theory goes). I'll do another post tomorrow when I publish for non-Patrons, and by then I'll have the metadata (description, music credits) and captions.

This video is basically the product of my anger about the Charlottesville rally a few we...