So, many of you suggested that I put HAKO on a t-shirt HAKO, if you don't know, has become sort of the motto of this YouTube channel It stands for "Honesty, Assertiveness, Kindness and Open-Mindedness So, for a limited time, we have t-shirts with that on it I actually quite like this design Just like last time this campaign will only last for about 21 days (ends 12/21/2016) and then after that I may bring the t-shirt back, but, it is a limited campaign Anyway, I quite like this design, so, if you like it too, or if you just want to support me, you can check the link in the description, or there will be a link at the end of the video Hi, I'm T1J, follow me on Twitter! So, I'm gonna tell you guys a story. So, for pretty much my entire adult life I've considered myself a liberal, and I mostly still do. When I think of a liberal, I think of a person who values freedom, but thinks that things like equality and justice trump freedom in the list of priorities American liberalism is usually associated with the Democratic Party and this became an issue for me as it became more and more clear that large segments of the Democratic Party didn't really reflect my values that well I think this is part of why a lot of people prefer the term "progressive" to "liberal," because instead of it being, like "Here's this list of dogmatic values that I follow," "progressive" seems more pragmatic Like, instead of simply saying, "I believe this," a progressive is a person who actually observes society and notices a problem and then says "Hey, here's how we might can solve that problem" Or at least that's how I think of it Anyway, that distinction became clearer and clearer to me over time Now, I said that liberals believe that justice trumps freedom and I mostly agree with this, like I don't think a business owner should be free to pay their workers 10 cents an hour I don't think a person should be free to purchase and own hand grenades That dude in your backyard shouldn't be free to put on a clown costume and stalk your children but that's just how I feel about it However, where I began to differ with most liberals was this emerging idea of justice that seemed to me to be kind of warped I feel like there's this idea that, not only is freedom superseded by justice but freedom kind of really doesn't really matter that much So the definition of justice seemed to be expanded to include things like demanding that certain words and phrases never be used or demonizing the criticism of certain ideas like Islam or feminism, even if the criticism is warranted or even the justification of outright censorship of art and entertainment This is an idea of justice that I don't think is very pragmatic, and I think it might actually be harmful Now maybe by chance, this was also around the height of the popularity of the new atheist movement R.I.P. Hitch, the god! And one of the grievances of the new atheists was how unwilling secular liberals were to criticize Islam Like, somehow, Islam got a pass like, it was okay to make fun of or point out the dangerous and idiotic parts of Christianity or Judaism, but not Islam for some reason Like it seemed it seemed to be impossible for many liberals to separate criticism of an idea to hatred of the people who espouse that idea And from this, we got the whole idea of "the regressive left" which eventually grew beyond just Islam to describe a segment of modern liberalism that promotes dangerous, counterproductive or even non-factual ideas for the sake of political correctness or some false notion of justice And during that time I felt like no one was really talking about it, and the few people that were weren't really taken seriously by mainstream or social media, particularly social media Around this time, I think feminism and feminists kind of ran the internet Or, more accurately, feminism had become one of the defining aspects of liberalism, and liberalism ran the internet But, I mean like every popular YouTuber was an outspoken feminist, every blog had a feminist tone to it You couldn't really outwardly criticize feminism without taking a whole bunch of shit for it And, not all, but many of these feminists online expressed ideas which I would, and people at that time would describe as regressive I'm a liberal, I'm a progressive I'm all for equality and justice but I don't think you can bully and bullshit your way there, which I think a lot of feminists were doing So, around about that time I made a couple videos that were critical of liberals and feminists, and I think maybe people took it as me opposing those things which, you know, those people weren't paying attention because I also made a lot of pro-social justice videos at the time But really what it was was me saying "Hey, I feel what you're doing I agree with you, but, you know, let's be intelligent and honest about it and, you know, let's not be a dick about it Then that whole "gamergate" thing happened and gamergate changed the face of the internet as far as I'm concerned, and if you don't know what gamergate is, just google it Before gamergate, there were a few anti-feminist voices out there, but like I said it was really hard to criticize feminism on the internet without getting shut down, but once the gamers got involved, everything just blew up Gamergate basically started as an attack on liberalism and feminism well, actually, it started as a malicious harassment campaign against specific women but it evolved into this idea that liberals and feminists were ruining video games for everyone And, eventually, this transformed into the idea that liberals and feminists were ruining everything And no longer did anti-feminists have to hide in the shadows, they essentially declared war on feminism and slowly ripped control of the internet away from them So it went from seeming like nobody was talking about the problems with feminism to everybody was talking about the problems with feminism So for a good minute I was like, "Okay, this is cool, people are actually talking about this people are actually criticizing this thing that was like, forbidden to criticize at first" But the problem is I think of the old criticisms of the so-called regressive left I think of people like Sam Harris and Bill Mahr and Cristopher Hitchens who made very intelligent civil criticisms of the left and pointed out their issues in a very reasonable way and this is not what I was seeing from the anti-feminists and the gamergate crowd This was, in large part, just knee-jerk vitriol, this was a full blown reactionary movement, this was no longer about intelligent criticisms of feminists, this was about destroying feminism ridiculing it, mocking it, smearing it making feminism a bad word It grew into outright denial that feminism was even useful or necessary which was never my position And it became to me that we were no longer having smart, civil conversation We're in a place now where the discourse is basically, "If it makes feminism look bad then it's fair game," even if it doesn't matter even if it's out of context, even if it's just demonstrably not true, and now this has extended beyond feminism into social justice in general We even have people who call themselves liberals who hold typically conservative ideas, like the denial that social injustice is a huge problem or stuff like, "I don't get all this newfangled protests and pronouns, we need to take it back to how it was when I was growing up" Like, that's exactly how conservatives talk Like, the people that we really need to worry about are all those activists trying to change everything Many people voted Trump into the presidency because of the regressive left, even though almost all of the people who originated the idea of the regressive left have opposed Trump Which is ironic, because the whole idea of the regressive left is based on the idea that liberals were starting to neglect classically liberal positions And it's doubly ironic because my original criticisms of feminism were things like cherry picking, and misrepresenting the facts but those things have now become a basic aspect of the anti-feminism movement Like, I never want to pick a side because nothing is immune from criticism and I also don't want to be assumed to have views that I don't have like I get tweets and messages where people make assumptions based on one video, or based on a person that I collaborated with, and that's what happens when you pick a side, people make assumptions about you But my home is the internet, like this is where I live, and right now on the internet it's become fashionable to spew vitriol, and to misrepresent the facts of social injustice and the world And, I just can't get down with that I don't want to pick a side, I have plenty of criticisms for feminists and plenty social justice groups, but if you're drawing a line in the sand, then I'm going to pick the side that acknowledges the facts of social injustice in the world, and values compassion and tolerance of other human beings every time. Das jus me doe! Thank you for watching my video, you can check out my last video here If you want to check out the new HAKO t-shirt or if you just want to support me there should be a link over here Remember to stay HAKO and subscribe if you like my hair
This guy is super chill. Just watched some of his other videos and subscribed. Thanks for the recommendation!
A fan of his videos , his Sam Harris video is a great one as well
I heard of his videos before the regulars of breadtube. He used to do a more casual daily-news type material and game reviews before getting into more nuanced territory.
Enjoyed his material then, and still enjoying his stuff now.
I love T1j. Very interesting down to earth insights. Also his livestreams are very chill.
Yup he pops up frequently in Breadtube. He's also in the Breadtube.tv roster
Speaking of POC, are there any POC Breadline creators to watch? I love watching these types of videos as an Asian woman, but it's nice to show support for other POC too.
Noice! Always great to add another breadtuber to my sub!
His takes on both the left and the right are simpatico with mine and his hair is lovable. Subscribed.
I posted a Black Red Guard video yesterday.