Friday 23 December 2022

Full transcript of "A Desperate cry for Help".

People watching this in Europe, people watching this in Asia are going to have a very difficult time relating to what it is I'm trying to explain. In the United States and Canada, we live with a kind of hatred and self-hatred you can never imagine. 


I have a friend in Pittsburgh. When I tell her about how terrible my life is here, how I want to leave, how I want to escape from Canada, do you think she has ever once said to me, "Oh, your life would be so much better here in Pittsburgh"? 


I have several friends living in Los Angeles. Do you think any of them even once have said to me, "Oh, look back at the last five years of your life and think about how much better the last five years would have been if you'd have been living here in L.A. Look ahead to the next five years of your life. Think about what a wonderful, great, positive life you could have living in Los Angeles, California!" 


One of the guys I know living in Los Angeles today, in the past he lived in Hawaii. He's never once said to me I'd be happier living in Hawaii, and, you guys know, Hawaii has a reputation for being an Earthly Paradise. Never.


What we live with in this context, you know, is an awareness of the history of genocide, an awareness of the history of slavery, an awareness of the thinness of the culture that has been painted over that graveyard--the graveyard of extinguished cultures that were once here before, and I can honestly say even if you live in Auschwitz today, even if you live in Treblinka today you cannot relate to this strange sort of of self-hatred.


If you're having a wonderful meal, you have so much food, and it's food such extraordinary quality, and you get a phone call from a friend of yours who happens to be in the neighborhood you might say, "Hey, look, why don't you come over, why don't you pop in and enjoy some of this food, this food I have, there's so much of it, and it's so exquisite, it's so wonderful, I have something to share."


If you live in Pittsburgh, you don't think you have a wonderful life to share. You don't think you live in a wonderful place or a wonderful culture that you can share with someone else, and if you live in Los Angeles you don't think you live in a wonderful place, that you have something to share, right? 


Anywhere here: Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, Alberta... where you live is just something you have to learn to put up with, to cope with, to tolerate. And if anyone says to you, "Oh, hey, I'm thinking about moving to LA," or "I'm thinking about moving to Toronto," any of these places, you respond by thinking about and talking about how hard that's going to be to cope with, what it's going to be like to put up with it.


People born and raised in Bangkok don't think that way, they don't feel that way, even though Bangkok is in some ways a kind of terrifying city. They think they're in the most wonderful place in the world! Bangkok, Thailand. And they will boast to you, "Oh, people from all over the world come here, and it's so wonderful, and it's so exciting, it's so great," you know?


People from Hong Kong, when I was living in Hong Kong I mean, maybe it's changed a little bit now because of political conditions, but people from Hong Kong absolutely believed they were living in the most wonderful city in the world. They thought everybody on Earth envied them. 


You can be from a small town in Italy, you don't have to be from a huge city like Hong Kong or Bangkok, you can be from a small town in the countryside in Italy and feel that you're from this uniquely wonderful place. You feel that when you sit down to eat, you have something to share that's wonderful. Your culture, your home, your place. It's not even that it's something you take pride in. Pride is a different matter, nationalism is a different matter. Empire and imperialism, there's something there you want to share with others, there's something wonderful, whether you think of that qualitatively or quantitatively, that you have so much great food or just the quality of it that you want to invite other people to sit down and and dine at your table. You're living in Trieste, you say, "Life is so wonderful here, why don't you pack up and move here?"


Above and beyond that kind of shame, that kind of hatred and self-hatred we live with in the United States and Canada, you know, um, every day that I am in Canada, I am living in a place where everyone hates me. I don't mean this on a shallow, surface level of people judging you based on your appearance, people hating you without knowing you or people hating you because they misunderstand you or because they don't understand you. No.


Inasmuch as people know me, they hate me. Inasmuch as they understand me.

The more they understand me, the more they hate me. It's a very different thing.


Beautiful women still try to flirt with me, still try to start up, initiate. I don't go to nightclubs, I don't go to coffee shops, I don't go anywhere to meet women. Just a couple days ago I had this beard, but it was a bit shorter, a couple days ago, a woman, a gorgeous, gorgeous woman, tall, slender, looked like she used to be a professional model, I would guess 25-26, completely strikingly gorgeous woman tried to hit on me. She tried to initiate with me just when I was walking on the sidewalk, and I was utterly dismissive toward her. Without getting into telling that story, let me just point out that woman, if I had carried on the farce of flirting with her, you know, if I had advanced the conversation, the flirtation... What do you think she would have invited me to do? Perhaps to go to a bar and drink alcohol and eat meat and watch ice hockey on the television set at the bar. Just think culturally what her assumptions are about me, about who I am, about the life we could have together. Whether you think of that as, like, the far-flung future, like if this woman actually gets married to me and raises kids with me, or. like, if she just gets to know me over a period of two weeks. There are a lot of assumptions she's carrying into this, right? And on every single one of those assumptions she's going to be disappointed, she's going to be shocked, she's going to be horrified because that's not who I am. 


Who I am, if she gets to know me, dealing with white English-speaking Canadians, the primary fact is that I make other people in this culture feel bad about themselves. I make university professors feel bad about themselves no matter how kind and helpful I am towards the professors, the other students... It's not envy, like it causes real self-loathing for them to be around me, you know. They hate me for what I represent, they hate me for the challenge to their own values and assumptions, you know, that I represent. They hate me for how I make them feel about themselves, and then, apart from that, more deeply, and I kind of respect their judgment in this sense, I don't think they're wrong, these people hate me for who I really am. 


The anti-intellectualism that exists in this culture, combined with the post-genocidal, post-slavery, post-british Empire racism, cultural poverty.


Canada is a country with opera houses, but no opera. I was in Nanaimo years ago now. Nanaimo, British Columbia. There's an opera house. Here in Victoria, we have several opera houses. Downtown Toronto there's a huge opera house. Several. Oh yeah, you know, once in a while they might have some opera performers visit from Italy so you can hear Italian opera performed in Canada. There is no Canadian opera, there is no Canadian architecture, there is no Canadian cuisine, alright?


And, hey, the most pathetic of all is there is no Canadian language, right? Our indigenous languages have been driven to extinction. What we can call a Canadian language, right, what English? French? These aren't Canadian languages.


You know, I think there is a bit of a cause and effect relationship. The shame we have about our own history, right? Well how can you be an intellectual in this climate, in this cultural context, without questioning, without investigating, without looking into precisely those things we are the most ashamed of? You can't really build yourself up as an intellectual without negating the compromises and the mythos that your fellow Canadians live with.


What's the minimum commitment Canadians have to have to Canada? Canadians need to believe that the life they have in Canada is better than the life they could have in Los Angeles, California, or in Florida, or even in Pittsburgh, right? Because for any Canadian there's always the temptation and there's always the option of moving to the United States of America. If you think you could have a better life there, there's the temptation of moving back to Europe! If you don't like it, why are you in Canada at all? There's the temptation--I saw this when I was in Toronto, at that time, in huge numbers, young white English-speaking Canadians were signing up to teach English as a second language in Japan, in Taiwan, in South Korea. 


If you don't like it, why don't you get out? Well, each and every Canadian here has to live with some set of excuses, some rationale, and, of course, the truth is very likely to be that they just lack the ambition, right? They never wanted to take on the challenge of surviving in New York City, of surviving in Los Angeles. It was more comfortable, it was more convenient to just remain in a relative backwater, a second rate or third rate city in Canada and to try to convince yourself that you're not a second rate or third rate person living in a second rate or third rate country. 


It's hard living with the awareness that everyone here hates you, and that the exceptions are only out of a kind of ignorance, you know, and wishful thinking from people who like your appearance. But, like, even if this woman flirts with me, and she hits on me, as soon as she gets to know me, she gets to learn the first thing about me, she's gonna hate me, and, guys, within Canada, there's no way out. There are no exceptions, alright? It's not the case you can say to me, "Oh, but if you were amongst intellectuals at a great university campus it'd be better!" No, there are no intellectuals on our university campuses. It's not that you can say to me, "Oh, but, if you were involved in the arts, in the theater, in museums and galleries, in stand-up comedy, and music, that there's some artistic community where you'd be appreciated, you'd be among intellectuals." 


No, there's no intellectual alternative. It's not that you can say to me, "If only you committed yourself to a political cause like veganism, if only you committed yourself to a political cause like indigenous peoples politics, First Nations politics, First Nations languages then you'd be around highly motivated, politically engaged people, perhaps slightly intellectual..." No, no. There is no way out but out.


I have been trying to escape from Canada for my entire adult life. I was trapped here and became a prisoner of my passport only because of the coronavirus. I was living in Taiwan when coronavirus made it impossible for me to stay in Taiwan, and, guys, I've gotten to a point in my life where--where am I supposed to run away to?


Like, should we do a poll? Do you guys want me to move to Japan? I was looking at airplane tickets to Tokyo today. You want me to move to Japan?


You know, what's the justification?


If I move to Japan, it's not Canada. 


I mean, I can say that for it. Is there a better life I'm going to live in the next five years if I go to Japan? Is there a better person I can be five years from now if I go to Japan? And can I know people of real substance colleagues even if those are colleagues who work on comedy videos with me or record comedy songs with me? Colleagues I can work with in any capacity as a creative artist, as a filmmaker, politically or otherwise? Is that life in Japan? Because I've got to tell you something guys, I can't rationalize, I can't justify moving to Los Angeles anymore. It's not about a lack of courage on my part, you know, I had enough courage to move to Cambodia, okay? I had enough courage to move to Saskatchewan too. I've relocated again and again and again, and when you get to be in your mid-40s, you know, you have to start asking yourself: when is it my last roll of the dice? That was what made me willing to pack up and move to Israel, that was what made me willing to apply for Israeli citizenship. The possibility that in Israel just one person in a thousand would be a real intellectual of substance because here in Canada it's way fewer than one person in a million. We have no intellectuals at all. Moving to Israel, I mean, in case you haven't been following Israeli politics where Benjamin Netanyahu just took over  government again whereabouts in Israel where about 65 of people will hate me because I'm an atheist, you know, just for that alone, like the percentage of Israelis who are really serious, right-wing, religious nutcases, you know?


Choosing to move to a country where the majority of people hate you, in that sense, on that surface level, right? Just for the possibility of one person in a thousand being a dissident intellectual and a dissident intellectual who can speak English because obviously I would never achieve fluency in Hebrew, I'd get to only some basic level. That was reason enough for me to commit to leaving Canada and moving to Israel, but, guys, this video, in some ways, it's been a long way coming, but in some ways it couldn't have been made any earlier than today, um, it's not just the coronavirus restrictions, it's the fact that I myself have been so sick I'm still not breathing normally, I'm still really disabled by the long-term effects of the coronavirus strain I caught way back when I went to Thailand and came back, when I went for the court case. I've been very, very seriously ill, and, guys, I can't stay here anymore.


I'm making this video just to say: I have to leave, but I have nowhere to go. 


[This video above is more-or-less the sequel to the original "Desperate cry for help", replying to specific comments and emails I'd received, and discussing recurring patterns in the help I had and had not been offered.  Its title is, half jokingly: You are too stupid to watch this video (you're too stupid to help me).]

Saturday 3 December 2022

Nobody is going to help me (a follow-up to "A desperate cry for help")

Note: this was written in reply to a specific Patreon supporter who was describing his own (ongoing) projects in life —projects that are partly inspired by my philosophy and are partly (of course) his own thing.  However, it works as a generalized statement so well that I can share it here without changing much of anything.

———

Look, here's my experience in life:


(1) Nobody cares about me.

(2) Nobody is going to help me.

(3) Nobody ever tries to impress me.

(4) No matter how low my expectations are, everyone lets me down —like, people are constantly turning out to be WORSE than I could have EVER IMAGINED them being.


Yes, this includes people very close to me (my parents, my brothers, the various women who have been my lovers, etc.) but it also includes more distant relationships you've seen on youtube.


Like…


Did I ever expect "Faraday Speaks" (a.k.a. Caleb Cain) would turn out the way he did?  I believe he has now deleted every trace of himself (from youtube, etc.) that he has the ability to delete (but videos interviewing him on other people's channels still remain).


Did I ever expect ModVegan would turn out the way she did?  (Again, she's deleted everything, etc.)


I could attempt to make a list of people I've known in humanitarian work, in studying Chinese, [in ecological politics, in Buddhist scholarship, in First Nations politics,] etc. etc. —but there's no point.


This is my experience.


And this disappointment is not limited to intellectual matters, it's not limited to political matters, and it's not limited to creative endeavors (like trying to get a storybook illustrated and published, etc., or trying to get someone to co-operate with me in making a youtube video, etc.)…


…dude, when I had a newborn baby in my arms, and I sent photographs of myself holding that newborn baby (as an e-mail attachment) to all my friends, colleagues, and relatives, what do you think I heard back?  NOTHING.  When I celebrated my 40th birthday, my 41st birthday, etc. etc., what effort did anyone make to show that they cared about me?  Who tried to surprise me or impress me?  And yeah, I could here specify NOT EVEN the people whom I've done tremendously caring and surprising things for (on their birthdays, or on other, similar occasions) made any kind of "reciprocal" effort.


Dude, that's my experience in life: I don't have any university professors to look up to, and I don't have any contemporaries or colleagues to look sideways at, as my equals.


Yeah, maybe it turns out you're gonna be the first exception to the rule, and your boasting IS NOT BULLSHIT: maybe you're really gonna accomplish something great.  It's very hard for me to be optimistic, just given my experience in the last 8 years, let alone the last 40 years.


Dude, how many people have made a youtube video in response to either one of my books?  We could add "podcast", etc., as it isn't just youtube videos that count.  AFAIK, the grand total = 1.  Think about how little effort that kind of video is, compared to other forms of collaboration.  And now think about how many videos you've seen on my channel in the last five years that anyone else contributed anything positive to, that anyone else collaborated in the creation of, in any way whatsoever.


Dude, I reached out FOR ANYONE to collaborate with me in studying Chinese FOR YEARS AND YEARS AND YEARS —including the years when I was in Taiwan and Yunnan (and years in Victoria in-between).  You wanna know how much positivity I got back?  ZERO.  Just women who wanted to have sex with me —white women (studying Chinese) just as much as Chinese women, I should add.


Money, fame, power, respect, sex —not necessarily in that order.  And the sad fact is, that so few people are even motivated by these things.  Most people are so intellectually inert, they can't be motivated at all.

[Link 1 of 2:] A desperate cry for help.


[Link 2 of 2:] You are too stupid to watch this video (you're too stupid to help me)

Monday 28 November 2022

"Ain't nobody ever gave me any help." @4:52

"And let's be clear, help can include advice."  The link should take you to the 4:52 mark; if it doesn't work, click ahead to that point.

One of the viewers of the channel reminded me of this video from two years ago (!) that foreshadows my current crisis.

@7:00 "I now feel… and I know that not a single person out of my 10,000 subscribers is going to do anything for me, not even on the level of advice, not even on the level of care and concern."



Sunday 27 November 2022

Should my books be translated into other languages?

[Someone wrote in proposing a Hebrew translation of Future of an Illusion, but this answer would apply (mutatis mutandis) to any and every possible language that either one of the books could be translated into.]


————


More people live in Beijing than live in all of Israel.


Suppose I had received a similar offer from a young man of the same age living in Beijing, offering to translate Future of an Illusion into Chinese.


(And this would be a lot of work.)


There is only one reason good enough to justify the effort: this young man thinks, "If I translate this into Chinese, and my name is on the cover next to the author, SOONER OR LATER it will bring me in the company of precisely the kind of people I'd want to meet."


He thinks, "Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but AT SOME TIME over the next 20 years, this book is going to get me invited into the company of some vegan intellectual worth talking to, some would-be revolutionary worth talking to, etc." —and perhaps this would be true.


Perhaps.


China has 1.4 billion people: perhaps within the span of 20 years there would be two or twenty dissident intellectuals worth meeting —and this translator would eventually be able to say (when he is 50 years old, in retrospect) that he is glad he translated the text because it brought so many friends/colleagues into his life (people he otherwise would not have known at all, or people whom he would not have gotten to know well).


There are barriers.  How would even 100 people end up reading the book (in Chinese translation) in China?  Perhaps he needs to advertise the book or give lectures on the book at vegan conferences, etc. —I have no idea.  There are barriers to even the humble estimate of 100 people in China reading the book in the span of 20 years.  If he promotes it, or if SOMEONE promotes it, yes, it could reach thousands or millions of readers —but just 100 (out of one billion) might be unattainable.


Can you name a single other youtuber who has promoted my book, Future of an Illusion?  Can you name a single vegan youtuber, speaking English, who has discussed the book?  Perhaps not a book review or a promotion, but can you name a single video in which a youtuber (or several, sitting together at a table) TALK ABOUT the book?  I believe the number of these videos —in English— is zero.


This reflects the overall death of the vegan movement —it actually DOES NOT reflect a decline in the quantity or quality of viewers on my channel.


So, is it a good idea for you to translate the book into Hebrew?


The correct answer does not depend on me, and it does not depend on you: it depends on OTHER PEOPLE who must remain unknowable and unknown.


Yes, it is possible that your translation of the book will have an impact with 100 Israelis, or 1,000 Israelis —and it is possible it will reach an audience of this size immediately (not over the span of 20 years).  That's possible.  But you must think about how disappointed and sorrowful you'll be if you struggle to translate the text into Hebrew and then it reaches only five people, and brings nothing positive into your life.


That is the only answer to your question that matters.


If I told you that I didn't want the book translated into Hebrew, but you were optimistic that the translation would bring just 10 new colleagues into your life over the span of 20 years, then it would be worthwhile for you to do it —and for you to do it for yourself, for your own benefit, not for mine.

Sunday 13 November 2022

Living for the Tunnel

There's no light at the end of the tunnel, so I'm living for the tunnel.

According to google, I am the first person to use the phrase LIVING FOR THE TUNNEL.  Hard to believe, but… google wasn't exactly designed to be a foolproof index of minor witticisms, new coinages and catchphrases.



Saturday 12 November 2022

The Stupidest Comment of the Month.



Their ideology demands that they pretend there is something mysterious about the location of the city of Ur; as I already explained in my video, the location of Ur is probably the most thoroughly established fact in the history of archaeology, the history of anthropology —or, simply, in the history of the world.  It would be easier to come up with a new theory for the original location of London at this point (because there's been more research into ancient Mesopotamia than pre-Roman England!).

Monday 31 October 2022

Nihilist Messiah: Eisel Mazard After "No More Manifestos"

"Question, why are you a nihilist? Just wondering."

The rope is a fetter for the rope: through the act of untying, nothing is liberated, nothing is destroyed, nothing is removed, no obstacle is obviated, and yet we may call the rope free inasmuch as the knot is undone.  Belief is binding; the believer is bound.  The mind is a fetter for the mind: in the act of unbelieving, the fetter is undone.  Belief is a relationship of the believer to the believer, nothing else —as the knot is a relationship of the rope to the rope, and does not tie it to anything else, and the act of untying does not free it from anything but itself.  Knowing what I know is freedom; everything else is slavery.  There are many ways to believe, and many things to believe in, and many leaders who will say that "we" are bound together by these beliefs; but there is only one nihilism —and it is mine, not ours, not yours —and it divides me against you, forever and ever —in the perpetual parting of the ways. 

https://www.amazon.com/More-Manifestos-philosophy-%C3%A0-bas-ciel/dp/B0B4GP4WSB/

Saturday 15 October 2022

Messianic atheism; messianic nihilism.



You know, when Matt Dillahunty is dead and gone, he'll only be remembered as a (ranking) competitive video game player —nobody will remember him for his words.  I'd like to imagine that the books I've written will "live on" in a somewhat different fashion.  ;-)

Tuesday 11 October 2022

The Non-Autistic Spectrum.

Yes, that's right… the opposite of the autistic spectrum…

the spectrum of everyone else…

Google informs me (although I find it difficult to believe) that I'm the first person to "deploy" the concept of "the non-autistic spectrum"… whether in earnest or satirically… or neither… or both.



Wednesday 5 October 2022

Dog freedom is not freedom freedom.


 





















A riff on, "Dog cookies are not cookie cookies".

Or, to accurately reflect the phrasing of the sign itself: "Dog cookie!  Not cookie cookie!"

Please allow me to add: Canadian democracy is not democracy democracy.


Monday 3 October 2022

The Worst of the Worst: Just How Bad Does Youtube Censorship Get?

 This is an old example from my channel, but I think it's important enough for me to "immortalize" it on this (public) blog:

"Why was this video deleted from youtube?  Why did I not receive an email advising me?  Why did I not get the opportunity to appeal a strike?  I do not think procedure was followed here: there was no notification, no review… and no violation." 

This was originally posted (to my now-defunct Twitter account) here: https://twitter.com/EiselMazard/status/1122202176770588672

The video that was —thus— censored is one of the least offensive I have ever made, not even reflecting on why I quit Buddhism, but, instead, reflecting on the ways in which I still regard Buddhism positively, after quitting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvgjZS-lGZY



Monday 26 September 2022

Youtube censorship: further absurdities.

Chat transcript for case: 9-5458000032609

Sep 26, 10:10 PM (Pacific Time)


10:11:10 PM Angela: Hi, thank you for reaching out. My name is Angela. 


10:11:22 PM Eisel Mazard: This video has been "under review" since 2018:

https://youtu.be/skNJnMSOwCY

So…

three and a half years?


10:12:08 PM Angela: I'm sorry to hear that your video has been under review since 2018. 


10:12:08 PM Eisel Mazard: This one has been since 2016:

https://youtu.be/d157m8S3Xv8

Do you need some more time for that decision?

This one has 4,800 views"

https://youtu.be/yvRJkZlIFnI

Under review since 2016.


10:13:16 PM Angela: Thank you for sharing more details about your concern.


10:13:21 PM Eisel Mazard: With 4,800 views: a few more years?  A few more months?  A few more weeks?

No, not a concern:

(1) I want action.

(2) I want an apology.

This video has 25,000 views:

https://youtu.be/d157m8S3Xv8

STILL UNDER REVIEW.

FOR HOW MANY YEARS?


10:14:27 PM Angela: Let me check this for you


10:14:43 PM Eisel Mazard: Report it to management.

I will hear back from you by email.

These are not the only examples on my channel.


10:14:44 PM Angela: I understand how important it is for you to have your videos reviewed. 


10:14:50 PM Eisel Mazard: I am a partner with over six million views total.

I matter.

Youtube has a contractual and moral obligation to me.

Youtube is my full time job.

How can you expect someone to wait FOR YEARS for decisions on demonetization and censorship?


10:15:38 PM Eisel Mazard: Eisel Mazard left the conversation

10:15:38 PM Eisel Mazard: Eisel Mazard ended the conversation

 

Wednesday 21 September 2022

New camera, new you, but it's still season two.



Creativity and Consequences: Comedy and My Changing Subscriber Count.

I'm not complaining.  But if any of you thought that I would immediately reach a larger audience through this change of format (that could, indeed, potentially appeal to a larger audience than my three hour livestreams about history, philosophy and politics)… well, no, not immediately.  ;-)

Tuesday 20 September 2022

On the meaning of the word "impossible".



"If!  Don't you come around here using that word 'if'!"

ONLY TWO MINUTES LONG.

Sunday 18 September 2022

Comedy, the art of using stupidity, productively



Apparently I'm the first person to have said this, too.  Or, at least, the first person google is aware of.

Comedy: the art of using stupidity, productively.

Monday 12 September 2022

Inmon: abbreviating "involuntary monogamy", parallel to "involuntary celibacy".

Involuntary Monogamy: perhaps there has never before been a term for it… but now there is!  The first appearance of #INMON in the history of the internet, and the first use of the word inmon in the history of the world occurred on my youtube channel… TODAY.  ;-)

No, BTW, I didn't create this blog to be a running tally of minor witticisms that happened to coin new terms… but…

Thursday 8 September 2022

Democracy is not enough… BUT… even so…



Re: "…I am a subject to someone who was never elected…" —the problem is even worse than that.  You may accept the authority of a surgeon who is not elected, but his authority may be based on something that you intellectually respect.  If not, of course, you can try to replace him (i.e., find a better surgeon).  The royal family fails even these (less-than-democratic) criteria for legitimacy: they don't study for and write exams that would establish their authority —and they can't be obviated if they fail to live up to our standards.

Link 1:

I Killed Queen Elizabeth II

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu0r43FjxUw

Link 2:

Political Revolution in the 21st Century: How Not Why.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdB0vKy5uLQ

Thursday 1 September 2022

Apparently, I'm the first person to say "Tradcon Icon", too.

It's such an obvious witticism…

you would think someone, somewhere had said it before…

but according to google, no, yet again…

https://youtu.be/F0pac_Y9ItE



Tuesday 23 August 2022

The will to learn, the will to live: as real as a blind man's cane.

[From correspondence.]


I write in few words to avoid boring you.

I disagree with this distinction.

And others parallel to it.

I admit: I just recently wrote a book on this very topic.

(I am not admitting this to sell you a copy of the book, but just to explain that my thoughts on the matter are prefabricated.)


Some people cannot read.

Some people do not know how to read.

Some people can read and know how to read, but nevertheless NEVER read a book (unless they're compelled to by work, school, etc.).


These three groups, equally, do not read.


Some people cannot participate in politics.

Some people do not know how to.

Some people can, and understand how, but don't.


The three are one.


I am proposing the unification of laziness, ignorance, stupidity and disability.


Some people are blind from birth.  Some people are mentally and/or physically retarded.

But those who live as if they are blind, as if they are retarded, due to a lack of will, they are truly blind, and truly retarded.

There is more truth, not less, to their incapacity.


The will cannot be taught.

Those who lack the will lack something.

It's as real as eyesight.

It's as real as a walking stick.

It's as real as a blind man's cane.


https://www.amazon.com/Veganism-Future-Illusion-Eisel-Mazard/dp/B09X7QXPRF


E.M.


Monday 22 August 2022

Hollow Tourism, Hollow Cosmopolitanism; Deep Tourism, Deep Cosmopolitanism.

The comment, in full:

Re: "You are simply making the larger point that because they've seen other democracies as examples, they have more colours to work with, as you put it, when thinking of a model of democracy, what it should be, what it should look like, as compared to the US…"  Correct, but I am also heaping scorn on Parisienne fashionistas (etc.) who engage in "hollow tourism" (a term coined on this channel, believe it or not) without having the educational experience that these Philippine migrants have (voluntarily or involuntarily!).  You could say that I'm contrasting "hollow cosmopolitanism" to "deep cosmopolitanism", with greater depth being attributed to the (too often dismissed and too easily despised) lower working class (even janitors, etc.).  Although not exactly a fashionista, I wonder if Boris Johnson has any sense of what life is like anywhere outside of London (i.e., with any "depth") —although I am certain he has briefly visited innumerable countries, including Hong Kong.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2KKve8rZns

And here is the link to the video that provides the context for the comment (as opposed to the link to the first video using the idiom "hollow tourism" in the title, already provided above).  https://youtu.be/NobM76UtwmM

Saturday 20 August 2022

Art is the Opposite of Compromise.



I googled it: apparently I'm the first person to have said it.  In English.  There's always the horrifying possibility that I'm quoting the Pali canon without realizing it.  ;-)

Art is the opposite of compromise.




Monday 15 August 2022

Will this be the end of my Youtube channel? Yet more censorship struggles.

If youtube's policy is that images of animal cruelty result in a community guideline strike, my whole channel could be deleted and disappear tomorrow (as I certainly have more than three examples of this on the channel, and their policy is, "three strikes and you're out").


This has never happened before.


Here's the text I typed into their web-form, as an objection / complaint:

(1) I am a vegan activist.  (2) I am an animal rights activist.  (3) I have published books, for example, on this topic, and I have uploaded more than 100 lectures to youtube (arguing that the slaughter of animals is immoral).  (4) The moral and educational purpose of the video is therefore clear to the audience.  (5) "We review educational, documentary, artistic, and scientific content on a case-by-case basis."  The violence against animals shown here is clearly educational and documentary in its purpose.  (6) "Limited exceptions are made for content with sufficient and appropriate context and where the purpose of posting is clear."  The POLITICAL PURPOSE of the video is indeed clear to the audience (and there is a warning at the start of the video) criticizing the meat industry.

Tuesday 12 July 2022

The Epitome of Advice Nobody Wants to Hear: Writing to "Decline".

This was left as a comment for the perpetually depressed youtuber known as "Decline" (on this video).

You can't have a relationship if you don't relate.  Women will talk to you (and keep on talking to you, for years) because (1) they find you interesting to talk to, (2) they care about you, and (3) they know you care about them: this is true for people at all levels of physical attractiveness (the beautiful and the ugly alike).  You can slightly improve your life through exercise and diet and exercise, but you don't (yet) realize how slight and how shallow that (possible) improvement is.  You can radically and profoundly improve your life through achieving higher levels of intellectual sophistication (generally visible to others as cultural sophistication, or some other specific kind of sophistication, resulting from the particular field in which you apply your intelligence).  Eat a vegan diet and do 200 push-ups per day, sure, it'll slightly improve your life and relationships, but actually being a good person both mentally and morally makes your life better every day with or without a partner (with one partner or with multiple partners, etc.).  On some level you know this is well intentioned advice; on some level you know that it isn't really possible for it to be wrong.

It is a rare thing to say, "it is impossible for me to be wrong in offering you this advice", but we've finally hit that point, ladies and gentlemen: I'm offering my opinion on something so ineluctably obvious that we've passed the threshold of the irrefutable, and have entered into the realm of the indisputable.

And yes, for the record: the repetition of the verb "exercise" was originally an error… but I found it charming, and decided to keep it in.  ;-)

Wednesday 6 July 2022

This is not a minor footnote in the history of veganism.

The book addresses EXACTLY these misconceptions and misperceptions —many of them "well intended", I know.  I genuinely don't think any book has ever done that before —neither "for" nor "against" veganism.  My work may not be the "enlightenment" (Aufklärung) anyone is hoping for, but it is at least the great "clarification" (Klärung) the movement needs.  ;-)

Sunday 3 July 2022

The Wonder that Was Cambodia: an email written in 2010.

A________,


Last night's mandatory trip to the pub (that people pretend isn't mandatory) reminded me of various problems and shortcomings in/with Whitedom (I dare not say "White Culture", due to the paucity of culture).


It was an Australian-dominated event (though two French and two Americans were there) and when I asked various questions about what time I should arrive, etc., my boss told me to "lower [my] anxiety about the whole event" --as it was supposedly a very casual event, etc., and attendance was optional, etc., as it would be in Australia.


Instead, of course, it was very much the usual thing of respect mattering a great deal, but people wanting to pretend that it didn't.


And, of course, it really isn't a minor imposition: I was at work at 8:00AM sharp on Friday (and nobody else was; I was alone in the office for a fair while) --and now [my employer expects] me to hang out 5PM to past 8PM?  After discussing it with my boss, I showed up closer to 7:45 PM --looked at the menu in the place they had selected, and then immediately left to eat at a place two doors down ("Vego").


So, then I come back, fed, closer to 8:00PM.


[The implicit point being that everything on the menu in the first locale contained meat.]


There was one American guy there, who almost nobody knew at all (i.e., a recent/oblique friend of somebody on staff), who was close to coming to a fist-fight with me from the minute I sat down.  Typical white-ass stuff.  He'd had a few drinks, and has been in Phnom Penh for all of 6 months.  Apparently he teaches "International Relations" (i.e., pol. sci.) at Pannyashastra University --which tells you nothing about his background --and he became offended and defensive whenever questions were asked about his background (even his age).  Ian (my boss) was watching him carefully, as he noticed that the guy responded to almost everything I said with an insult (etc.) --including my remark that I normally (for the sake of simplicity) just describe my employment as "author" because "despite the details, I earn my living with a pen".  This, too, reflects the sadness of the situation: Ian really is the smartest guy in the room, with the longest research experience, but he isn't sitting at the head of the table.  Their white-Australian culture requires us all to mill about like pigs at the same trough --and we're not.  We all come to that trough with very different expectations of ourselves and of each other --and that boils down to respect.  I don't even remember the American guy's name --but I wouldn't be surprised if that did come to a fist fight at some random meeting in future (I assume he arrived unhappy about unrelated things --because I only discussed banal pleasantries in front of the guy).


Myself, the two French and one of the Australians (Andree) left again, to eat at the Indian place immediately next-door, shortly after I met the other professor (of Economic History, also at Pannyashastra, but British in origin) whom I was there to meet.


Most of these guys seem to be here for the wrong reasons --even if they're making a positive contribution of some kind.


After a long discussion of my research* I asked him (i.e., the British professor of Economic History) casually if he had already been interested in Cambodia before relocating here, and the answer was a flat "no": typically, he vacationed in Cambodia (after a divorce) and ended up with a second marriage (leading to a second divorce) and three half-Khmer kids.  I really don't think that Cambodia is a business you can marry into; but then, I could be shallow, crass, catty, judgmental and wrong.**


* [e.g., actual question he asked me:

  "What do you mean by saying your research is, 'obscure'?",

  My reply, "Have you ever heard of 'Pali' before?"

  "No."

  "That's obscure."]


** [He did look the picture of a man who was killing himself with food and alcohol, perhaps not even gradually --and, you know, I don't regard the body and the mind as two separate things.  This, too, fills out the stereotype image of the white man who marries into a "career" (or semi-retirement?) on the Mekong --but can't actually walk up a flight of stairs.]


The two French are doing research pursuant to degrees in public health (they're not a couple, BTW, but obviously have a lot in common and hang out together).  We're of approximately the same age, and did "socialize well" together.  They're both specialists... but not specialists in Cambodia (nor the region).  One of them has prior work in West Africa (Nigeria, etc.) --and the other, I suppose, has ambivalent feelings toward Cambodia as she's obviously half-Vietnamese.  It would be interesting to hear her perspective on Phnom Penh --but I think she was already too drunk by that point in the evening.

[On another occasion, when she was entirely sober, this same half-Vietnamese half-French researcher would attempt to seduce me in front of my first wife, an anecdote that ended in a manner that was hilarious to everyone assembled --including my first wife.]


Shortly before leaving, I said to my boss, "Hm, I suppose A____ was too busy to make it.  I invited her, but she probably didn't have time to reply.  Did a nervous looking Swede approach you at any point during the night?"  He replied, "Yes, actually, there was a Swedish girl around here..." --so, I don't know if you tried to cross paths and then left (at one of the moments when I was away from the table) or if this was an unrelated Swede at the same bar.


E.M. 

Thursday 30 June 2022

Hated by many, admired by few.

 

This contains an authentic example of an uncorrected typo (way vs. ways, in the image above).  I certainly hope you appreciate the authenticity.  ;-)

—————

[Amanda, writing to me:] CALL TO ACTION (updated) by the Excelsior 4 team:  PLEASE SHARE THIS. Why: because the judge ruled against the jury seeing footage captured from Excelsior Hog Farm. Why this matters: the Excelsior 4 defendants are charged with, among other things, Mischief under the CCC. Mischief includes the prevention of lawful use of property, etc. The footage shows UNLAWFUL animal cruelty. Therefore, the judge has prejudiced the jury against the defendants. Reminder: you can share without viewing!

—————

[My reply:] Henh?

Why are you sending this to my desk?

BTW, now four years later [i.e., four years after the last time she'd written to me], I can say: "read it and weep".

https://www.amazon.com/Veganism-Future-Illusion-Eisel-Mazard/dp/B09X7QXPRF

—————

[Amanda:] Aren't you Vegan? I thought that meant we were on the same side: speaking for the animals. This case has three of my friends facing decades in prison for an action about 200 of us did three years ago. It was the largest mass action for animal rights in Canadian history. Since you speak so much about Veganism, I thought you would care. My mistake.

That is amazing you got a book published - congratulations! Why are you saying read it and weep? I think all forms of speaking for the animals is amazing. Great job!

It was suggested we send this action to people and groups with a large following. I assumed you were one of them.

—————

[My reply:] (1) I am vegan.

(2) I am a dissident intellectual within the vegan movement: hated by many, admired by few.

(3) If you send me spam, you're going to be blocked as a spammer.  That is what you've done, so that is what I'll do.

(4) Read the book, and then you can get in touch with me —via Patreon, like everyone else— to let me know if you laughed more or less than you cried.

(5) Re: "I think all forms of speaking for the animals is amazing."  I don't believe you.  As life goes on, you will find there are some ways of speaking that are worse than silence still.

—————

[Amanda:] I wish you find happiness and peace in this lifetime. It would make you a better activist. Yeesh. I sincerely feel sorry for you.

—————

[My reply:] HA HA HA HAH A…

There's hardly a happier man in all the free world!

But I certainly doubt that you (or your friends) will find anyone happier in jail!

Monday 27 June 2022

And if the cover is awful, this will be the collectible "first edition with awful cover". ;-)


No More Manifestos: the political philosophy of Eisel Mazard
is now "in print".

And if the cover is awful, this will be the collectible "first edition with awful cover".  ;-)

Yeah, as you can imagine… there's a reason why most self-published books on Amazon have just plain text on a colored background (as their front cover).  The editing software is… both limited and limiting.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B4GP4WSB

You can change the suffix ".com" to the appropriate suffix for any other country to order from the nearest version of the Amazon website, e.g.,

https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B0B4GP4WSB

https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0B4GP4WSB

However, if you order from Amazon Germany, the book will not be (magically) translated into German.  ;-) 

Wednesday 22 June 2022

Advice nobody wants to hear: career and/or/as/vs. human nature.

1. I cannot provide advice on "career choices".  I can provide advice on human nature.


2. Most people give advice that is shaped (and warped) by their own positive experiences.


Someone who was a computer programmer 20 years ago may be profoundly ignorant as to how difficult it is to earn a living as a computer programmer today.


In the past, being a computer programmer was "easy money".  Now, it is easy poverty.


The man who is giving you this advice: he has "no skin in the game".


He is not thinking about the percentile chance that his advice will fail: he is not thinking about what you will do (how you will survive) if his plan is a failure.  He is thinking about this (and talking about this) as if it "can't lose".  It can.


You have to plan for the possibility of failure.


Many, many people in computer programming fail.


If you are not passionate about computer programming, and you are not talented in computer programming, why would you compete with people who are passionate and talented?  Maybe there is an answer to this question: MAYBE.


I have a reason to compete with the authors of children's storybooks, even if I am not especially passionate and talented about producing children's storybooks: I have an ethical reason motivating me to make the effort, even if I fail.  Some jobs may fall into this category (i.e., you're not talented at it, you're not passionate about it, but do it anyway).


However, in the year 2022, nobody in their right mind would say that computer programming is a "safe" or "easy" career compared to (e.g.) becoming a nurse, becoming an x-ray technician, or any of those other boring jobs attached to health services (some of which require very little formal education, and are actively sought out by new immigrants from third world countries for that reason: they are "a way to get ahead" soon after arriving in America, etc.).


Again, my commentary here is about human nature: I don't know you, and I don't know if you'd be the worse nurse in the history of the world or what.


3. With any kind of art (rap music, painting, stand up comedy, etc.) the verdict comes from the audience.  It doesn't matter what you think your art is worth, it doesn't matter if you find your own creation entertaining: either an audience exists for it, or else it does not.


I could repeat what I said about illustrated children's storybooks, above, under this heading: yes, there are some exceptions to the rule, and yes it is possible (e.g.) that it would be worthwhile for me to produce a series of children's storybooks that nobody appreciates aside from myself and five other people (because I have a sort of ethical reason to do so, etc.).


However, my point here is, under heading #3, that you have to ask the question of whether or not there's an audience that will embrace you: the rate of failure in the creative arts (and the performing arts, etc., "art" most broadly defined) is much worse than the rate of failure in computer programming.


4. You have to decide to what extent you're interested in working WITH your own nature, as opposed to AGAINST your own nature.


And the caveat is here: we are talking about your KNOWN nature --i.e., your nature inasmuch as it is known to yourself.


Most of us, up to a certain age, only know about ourselves, "I like video games".  We don't know what our talents are, we don't know what talents we lack.  We don't know if we would be a good police officer or a bad police officer.  We don't know if we'd be good at nursing, computer programming, etc., because we really don't know ourselves.


Knowing what classes you enjoyed in school (and what classes you did not enjoy) is similarly misleading.  If you enjoyed high school science class, that DOES NOT mean you'd enjoy a career in the sciences (it does not even mean you'd enjoy university level science classes).


Would a job that forces you to work in isolation (like computer programming) be good for you or bad for you?


Would a job that forces you to socialize with people (face to face, like nursing) be good for you or bad for you?


Consider the possibility that you don't know the answer yourself yet: you have to ask yourself questions about human nature in general, about YOUR OWN nature in particular, and then you have to decide the extent to which you want to challenge your own nature to change (i.e., work against it) as opposed to taking advantage of the inclinations/passions/talents you already have (working with your nature, not against it).


It would be much easier for me to write a comedy novel than to do stand up comedy; it would be easier for me to do stand up comedy than to make a documentary film; what's easiest may not be best for me ("personal growth"), may not be best for my audience, and may not be the best way to make money.

Sunday 12 June 2022

I don't always tell people to quit video games.

As you can guess from the final sentence, this was addressed to someone who became hopelessly entwined in the great Tommy Tallarico fiasco of 2022.

Saturday 11 June 2022

All those puppets for all those years.

If my daughter is seeing this one day: YEP, I KEPT THOSE PUPPETS WITH ME AT ALL TIMES, FOR ALL THOSE YEARS, even if you don't remember playing with them.

Q&A: The Nutrition and "Micro Economics" of a Vegan Diet.

I presume you can guess the broad outline of the question from the details of my answer.  ;-)

—————

I am not bothering to narrate the fact that the single biggest economic difference you can make is between eating in restaurants vs. cooking for yourself: anywhere in Europe, NOT BUYING restaurant food (and not buying chocolate bars, etc., "convenience food") is much more significant than the slight difference in price between two competing items at the grocery store.


This disclaimer may be the real advice you need, and it may not be: some people don't realize that if they want to save money (on food, etc.) THE MAIN OPPORTUNITY they have to do so is refusing to meet friends in restaurants, or even refusing to buy convenience food while waiting for a bus after work (or after school, etc.).  Making your own sandwich is always cheaper than paying someone else to make a sandwich for you —but in Europe, this difference is dramatic (whereas in China, many people eat in restaurants three meals per day, because the difference in price is very slight).


I have never lived in Sweden, but my experience is that 90% of the groceries available in France are also available in Germany and Greece —i.e., the options are overlapping and similar throughout the E.U. bloc (but, admittedly, Spain would be better for fruit and vegetables than Sweden, at opposite ends of the E.U. climate spectrum, and I aside you rely on many things imported from Spain, as even the British do).


The fundamental strategic decision you need to make is this:


Will you get protein from a powder, or from beans, peas and lentils?


Canada produces vegan protein powder: the cheapest I can get costs less than 15 Euros per kg —more expensive brands (THAT ARE NOT BETTER, IMHO) cost about 27 Euros per kg.


If you're buying protein powder, everything else in your vegan diet is easy, both economically and nutritionally.


If you have vegan protein powder and a multivitamin pill every day, the rest of your diet can be cereal and soymilk, and you'll be fine —although if you want to make the effort to eat salad every day, go right ahead (although you know very well this will cost you more time and money).


The question becomes somewhat more interesting if/when you decide NOT to rely on protein powder (and, again, economy is a factor here, as you've posed the question in this way).


What is your major, daily source of protein going to be?


White rice with yellow lentils?  Canned peas?  Beans that you buy dry, and prepare in a pressure cooker?


Whatever the choice you make, everything else in your diet is going to revolve around this decision: if the "backbone" of your diet is white rice with (Brazilian) black beans at every meal, then the other vegetables / side dishes that accompany this will be influenced by the procedure of preparing the rice and beans.


You're not going to combine black beans with bread and strawberry jam.  You could, but you won't.


The economic problem is just failing to think these things through: if you eat "impossible burger" style processed food as your main source of protein, it will massively increase your costs over any of the options narrated above.  Obviously, if you try to eat a diet based on tropical fruit (in Europe) it would massively inflate your costs.  The first can happen accidentally, as people just start buying packaged and processed main courses for convenience without thinking it through; the latter (a mango based diet, etc.) never happens accidentally (it happens ideologically).


All of Europe has high quality lentils available.  Canada does not.  All of Europe has high quality canned peas available.  Canada does not.  This is hardly an exhaustive list: it would be really depressing to get into the details of how abominably poor the quality of food is in Canada.  Lettuce is bad here.  Basically all fruit and vegetables are bad here.  Everything here is worse than Europe AND worse than Asia (e.g., worse than Taiwan, not just worse than Thailand).


In any given social context, there are limits to how much money you can save on food, without changing your social context: if you really want to save money beyond what I've described above, refusing to watch movies, refusing to drink alcohol, or moving into an apartment with cheaper rent (etc.) will all be more significant that the difference between (e.g.) the cost of lentils and the cost of black beans —or the cost of protein powder and any/all beans.


In the 21st century, food is obsolete: all you need to live is contained in the vitamin pill, the protein powder, and then practically anything (such as cereal and soymilk) to make up your remaining "macros" (i.e., the sheer number of calories you'd need to live).  We all live in the shadow of this obsolescence, not wanting to face up to its implications, because this entails that our whole culture of cuisine is obsolete, and a large portion of our notion of happiness (and enjoyment) is obsolete, too.

Friday 10 June 2022

Tkyosam, defender of the unexamined life not worth living.



You can learn a whole lot from examining other people's mistakes, and you can learn nothing at all by ignoring them.

The Lao Language in 2022: AGAIN.

I can't exactly say that I'm learning Laotian, but…

Wednesday 8 June 2022

The Psychology of Vegan Gains: Final Judgement.

 Re: "But, in general it seems Vegan Gains has no will to live."


This is my honest assessment: I think he has just lived a very childish life…

…and it is easy for most people to think, "Doing childish things will make me happy, because they made me happy when I was a child".

Part of the tragedy of adult life is that those things can't make you happy anymore: I can't play Sonic the Hedgehog all day and be happy.  I can't play the board game Monopoly and be happy.  I can't read comic books and be happy.  I can't.


Richard remains mystified that doing these things to make himself happy "doesn't work" —and if you include illegal drugs (mushrooms, etc.) he now has quite a long track record of trying to "cure" what's "wrong" with himself, when these things that are supposed to make him happy leave him feeling empty / miserable.


Re: "When he repeatedly claims he hates children and people…"


Honestly, I don't even believe that's true of him, although he insists that he's a misanthrope himself: I think he loves people and wants to be loved by them.  Even his narcissism and grandiosity are attempts at being loved (demands to be loved) whether it's by his faceless audience or by particular people.


What would you say if you knew a dog that only wanted to cuddle with baby goats, but hated and feared puppies, i.e., babies of its own species?  Richard cuddles with dogs, cats, rabbits, etc., treating them AS IF they are human babies, while insisting that he has this violent hatred of babies and raising children: he treats his pets as children that never grow up.

(And yes, by the way, I philosophize about this issue in the book: Future of an Illusion.)


So, even in this respect, I do not think he knows himself.  He doesn't know what would make him happy.


Re: "I was hoping there was some way for you and him to reconcile, because I do believe you can be a positive influence in his life.  Helping to bring a better message to the world about veganism and the future of effective political activism."


Thank you for saying that.


For several years, I tried to be a positive influence in Richard's life, and in Ask Yourself's life, and in the lives of many other flawed and immoral people (e.g., Vegan Cheetah!).


I tried.


But ultimately you have to come back to the same refrain: don't make excuses for people who make excuses.


Richard really is addicted to his excuses.


And, yes, in terms of my own values and biases in this situation…


…the "little" lies he tells (such as the story that Avi defeated me in a debate about anti-depressants) are —from my perspective— extremely damning indictments of the man.


Remembering things that didn't happen when it's convenient for you, forgetting things when it's convenient for you, and presenting stories to your audience (as fact) that you've made up out of thin air… I know that psychiatrists do not treat these as major signs of mental illness, BUT I DO.  I think these are very telling indications of someone being self-centered, delusional and frankly dangerous.


The truth doesn't exist as an end in itself, but a man's relationship to the truth does indeed reveal a great deal about the man.

Monday 6 June 2022

Vegan Gains: "Secret" Emails, Lies & Defamation.

 

[Feb. 1st, 2019]

[Richard, writing to Eisel:]

You've made several videos making up lies about me and you should know some of these lies could get me into serious trouble with the law. You claimed on camera at 6:15 in your video titled Vegan Gains is not "cured", he's not "a new man" that I own real firearms. You also claim that you came to this conclusion because you claim that I have never said I do not own real guns and because you claim I have an interest in firearms and plan to own firearms in the future. I do not own real firearms Eisel and currently I am not legally able to own firearms due to my probation and you accusing me of owning firearms could have serious legal consequences for me. 


If you do not take down this video I will do everything I can to take this video down and take down any other videos you've made accusing me of criminal activity. I will first try to get these videos taken down through youtube's own policies against harassment and bullying, I have already talked to my multi channel network about this issue and if that does not work then I will pursue legal action against you. To be absolutely clear I want you to take down any videos you've made accusing me of any criminal activity.  


[Note that Richard's current allegations that I called the police (and/or that I somehow "doxed" him) are completely absent from this correspondence, indicating that these allegations are a fantasy that Richard had not yet concocted in Feb. of 2019.  The chronology of this fantasy is very strange: it wouldn't have made sense in 2019, but it makes even less sense in 2022: when exactly were these events supposed to have happened?  Does he imagine that I called the Toronto police department while I was in Kunming, China, prior to my interview with him in August of 2016, when he first told me that he was "in trouble with the law"?  When else could it have happened, and how are all the other events in the timeline supposed to make sense, if this theory of his were true?  This seems to be a wildly implausible fantasy he came up with that serves the self-centered psychological function of shifting blame (for his mistakes, and his problems) onto someone else —while also, conveniently, avoiding mention of the real (and deeply embarrassing) reasons why Richard cut off communication with me.]

—————


[Eisel:]

Richard,

(1) Did it even occur to you to talk about this in a constructive way?

(2) Local time here = 11:23 PM, so I am replying without going back
and listening to the video, however, I'm willing to presume (at this
moment) that you have a reasonable request that you're stating in an
extremely unreasonable way (i.e., blackmail and threats).

(3) Let me just speculate as to what the reasonable request MIGHT BE
that you COULD HAVE MADE in a parallel universe:

"Hi Eisel, I know that you're not aware that I'm currently living
under probation, but under the terms the court set for me, I'm not
actually able to own firearms.  In your video, around 6:15, suggest
the possibility that I could own firearms.  It would really mean a lot
to me if you could edit the video, and re-upload a version clarifying
that I have written in to you, letting you know that I do not (in
fact) own any real firearms."

There are ten different ways this could be worded this that would not
have been blackmail.

Dude, I don't know if you imagine that you know me, but maybe you've
heard me say (about 10,000 times) that I'm a man of principle and
integrity, and I do the right thing ONLY AND PRECISELY because it is
the right thing to do.

You know: I don't like Durianrider.  He really harmed me.  I do not
lie about Durianrider: if I'm wrong, it is NOT because I'm lying.

I would not lie about you, Richard: if I've said something in my video
that is false or misleading due to either (1) my sincere ignorance, or
(2) imprecision/vagueness of wording (and in this case, it may be a
combination of both 1 & 2) I would be entirely eager to rectify that
SIMPLY BECAUSE IT IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO.

This is apparently so totally incomprehensible to you, that you open
your very first email to me with blackmail and threats: you give
lecture about morality and ethics for hours and hours on youtube (your
"debates" often evoke formal logic, and refined academic concepts of
ethical theory)… but this really shows how totally ethically
illiterate you are, and how you're totally incapable of understanding
someone like myself.

(4) The video does not state as a fact that you own real firearms: you
know exactly what it states (it points out the peculiar vagueness of
what you said, and it contrasts that your statements that you would
like to own firearms, that you plan to buy firearms, etc.) and it asks
whether or not your vagueness was intentional, because only the
firearms shown on-screen are "fake" (here meaning "Air Guns" or "B.B.
Guns").  However, if that statement is incorrect, misleading, or if
you are just personally concerned that it could be perceived as
misleading (by people in the audience who may not be listening
carefully) I would be HAPPY to make an amendment/clarification to the
video (i.e., to edit that part of the video, and re-upload) SIMPLY
BECAUSE IT IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO.

(5) Really question why you're blackmailing me?  You know: Norvegan,
also, used blackmail as he default mode of "problem solving", both
with myself and with Vegan Footsoldier (and that's it was a sign of
real dishonesty on his part).

E.M.

—————

[Richard:]

I didn't black mail you, I told you what I was going to do if you do not take down your slander videos. You're making criminal accusations against me which are not true and this puts both me and my wife in danger. This goes against youtube community guidelines so I have contacted my multi channel network and they will try to get your slander videos removed if you do not do it yourself. If youtube is unwilling to remove your videos slandering me then I will pursue legal action against you. I don't care if you make videos criticizing me but when you make up false criminal accusations against me that's going too far. I would suggest you take those videos down yourself to avoid getting community guidelines strikes on your channel which could result in your channel being terminated and to avoid any legal issues. I have no interest in getting your channel terminated or pursuing legal action against you, this is not a threat, I just want to make sure my wife and I are safe. The reason I have contacted you is to avoid having this escalate any further and I have no interest in continuing an argument with you. 

—————

[Eisel:]

Richard,

You have been "inaccurate" (I am choosing not to say "dishonest" but
"inaccurate") in claiming that my video states (circa 6:15) that you
currently own guns.  Do you want me to quote exactly what the video
says?

I have not responded with hostility: I have responded by pointing out
(1) that you are issuing threats and engaging in blackmail, and (2)
this is really absurd, because (as you may know) I am really genuinely
willing to do the right thing because it is the right thing to do.

Sometimes, the right thing to do is to clarify something vague that
could mislead people, even if there was no intent to mislead people.

Sometimes, the right thing to do is to say, "Look, I have explained my
perspective on this, however, somebody (VG) may be hurt by the
discussion, for these reasons".

Sometimes, the right thing to do is to explain, "When I made that
video, I was unaware of _xyz_, and now Richard has written in to
inform me of _xyz_."

There are constructive ways to solve the problem (and you know,
editing a video only takes a few minutes, e.g., to upload a different
version of a video to reflect a correction).

Have you ever done this Richard?

Have you ever shown this much good-will toward someone writing in to
you, saying that you'd made a video that hurt them?  If someone wrote
to you saying that your video had been unfair to them or
misrepresented them in some way?  Maybe.  Maybe you have.  But if you
have, it's certainly remarkable to me that absolutely no method other
than threats and blackmail occurred to you.

Now, from my perspective, you are also lying, but perhaps you're
merely being inaccurate or vague, and perhaps you're not intentionally
deceiving me.

You made one claim so far: you find what I say around 6:15 of one
video upsetting, because you think some people may
interpret/misunderstand it as meaning that you currently own (real)
firearms.  Well, that is NOT what the video says (i.e., I do not make
that claim, and I can quote to you exactly what I do say), but I can
still sympathize with the notion that you'd want to publicly clarify
that you do not own real firearms, and I have already said that I
would be pleased to upload an edited version of the video that
clarifies this (e.g., "Richard wrote in to reassure me that he does
not, currently, own any real firearms, and that he is under
terms-of-probation that do not allow him to do so…").  That would be a
fix/correction: newspapers do that all the time.

Now, instead of responding positively to the co-operative spirit of
that message, you write back saying, "You're making criminal
accusations against me which are not true and this puts both me and my
wife in danger."

Uhhhhhh… I'm left to suppose that this is "inaccurate" in much the
same way as your earlier claim, whether that's because of dishonesty
on your part, or, perhaps, just because you're emotionally
overwhelmed.  However: I've shown you (already) that I'm willing to
make corrections and amendments to anything I've said that's
incorrect: why not respond positively (constructively, co-operatively)
and let me know what other "criminal accusations that are not true"
you'd want to see rectified?

I honestly do not know of any: there's a lot of criticism of your
conduct in these videos, but (e.g.) my commentary on the psychology of
self-justification involved in your formation of your opinions on
gun-control policy… nothing in that analysis has even the aura of
"criminal allegations".

E.M.

—————

[Richard did not reply.]

—————

[Feb. 2nd, 2019]

[Eisel:]

Richard,

Okay, so I'll make a video proceeding with your statement that (1) you
do not currently own (real) firearms because the police do not allow
you to, under the terms of your probation, (2) correct me if I'm
wrong, but you have lied (and you continue to lie) in claiming that
you do not own any real weapons (you claim that all of your weapons
are "fake" and are "toys") because the knives, assault batons, swords,
etc., are indeed real weapons, (3) you still want to own guns in the
future, as soon as you are allowed to do so legally.  Is this correct?

Do you want to clarify what your position on firearms ownership is?

Do you believe that someone who has hallucinations of the kind you
describe yourself (including auditory hallucinations, "hearing voices"
that are not there, having paranoid and aggressive reactions to
strangers, with the specific delusion that people are trying to kill
you when they just say hello to you, or shake hands with you, etc.)
…do you think that sort of person should be allowed to own, use and
carry firearms?

If I described that person to you, as someone other than yourself,
would you agree with the statement, "The government is justified in
doubt their responsibility to safely use firearms"?

Do you think that the military would be willing to recruit or employ
someone with this list of symptoms, and to trust them to use guns
responsibly in a high-pressure situation?

Would you not agree that someone who had your checklist of symptoms
might be disqualified from owning/carrying firearms in at least some
democratic countries?

Richard: when people write in to me saying, "He should be on
psychiatric medication", I write back saying, "No, he should just take
a vow that he's not going to do any of these things again."

You say that you're a changed man: what you're showing me is that you
haven't changed.

You presented yourself as a victim of censorship; you then become a
hypocrite the moment it suits you ("You're putting me and my wife in
danger!" —as if this were more true of you than (e.g.) a bodybuilder
claiming his life is in danger if his apartment is searched for
illegal drugs, because you've accused him of using illegal drugs).

Richard, you have just been morally grandstanding about the right of
free speech, critique and satire, and then the moment it's convenient
for you, you do everything in your power to "oppress" someone else
—while continuing to play the victim card.

You know that I could make a telephone call to the Toronto police
TODAY with no difficulty, and simply express my concerns about you,
and THAT would more likely entail problems for you and your parole
officer.  I didn't do that: I engaged in exactly the kind of rational,
philosophical discussion about ethics (on youtube) that you claim to
support and defend —but not when it questions your own most sacred
value (namely, wasting time playing video games).

Newspapers make criminal allegations all the time: it is part of
journalism.  If a newspaper says, "the alleged bank-robber", that's an
allegation (it is reporting an allegation: the etymology of the two
words is clear).

In Canada, telling the truth is always a defense against defamation: I
have been telling the truth.  You have completely failed to provide
even one example of me (1) lying, or (2) making a criminal allegation
against you.  However, yes, e.g., you have openly talked about using
illegal drugs (e.g., hallucinogenic mushrooms) on your youtube
channel, so if I report that you've used illegal drugs, then I am
making an allegation in the same sense that a newspaper is, in
reporting the facts.  That doesn't mean I'm doing anything wrong:
talking about criminal allegation is one of the most important parts
of (protected) freedom of speech.

There are legal consequences for making reckless and irresponsible
criminal allegations, but that's not what I've done in my videos: you
are the one who has made irresponsible criminal allegations (accusing
Durianrider of rape, although this is certainly not the only example)
and you have been callous and cruel toward others when doing so.

Richard, you've been a complete hypocrite here: you've become
everything you always said you despised.  You are (1) playing the
victim and (2) at the same time, you're really engaging in bullying
and harassment yourself ("I'll shut down your channel!", "I'll sue
you!") in response to legitimate criticism and satire.

Really think with some detachment and objectivity about the contrast
between the criticism-and-satire I've directed at you, and the
criticism-and-satire you've directed at so many other people.  Even
think about the difference between the criticism I've directed at you,
and your replies to me (just insulting me, basically).

The golden rule would be pretty easy for you to apply here, Richard:
why can't you act toward me the way you'd want others to act toward
you?

E.M.