The Left | ContraPoints

This is a fictional dialogue between characters created for philosophical and artistic purposes. I do not necessarily endorse the viewpoints of any of the characters involved.

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Music:
“Overture to Tannhäuser” by Richard Wagner
“Berg: Four Pieces for clarinet and piano, Op. 5” by Alban Berg
“Without A Sound” by HOME

[ContraPoints]

Political videos tend not to be interpreted very charitably (I know this video is going to be upheld by centrists as evidence I’ve “gone full Antifa” and by leftists that I’m a closet centrist) so I’d better state unambiguously what I think.

The character Tabby represents a lot of what I think is wrong about leftist strategy: the indifference to optics, the undisguised hostility to the ideologically impure, the sectarian nitpicking, the alternation between extreme optimism (“a communist revolution can happen in the United States and it will go well if it does”) and extreme pessimism (“neoliberal propaganda has so tight a grip on the general public that why should we even bother trying to appeal to them?”), the blurring of lines between recognizing the necessity of violence in certain situations and the aesthetic celebration of violence as an end in itself. Nevertheless I try to represent Tabby with some sympathy, and anticipate that my viewers will like her—my audience is at least 95% trans Antifa cat girls, but I hope that doesn’t prevent them from thinking about the critique.

The character Justine is a mouthpiece for a lot of my complaints about the left, and the recipient of some leftist criticisms of me (“you go to brunch with these people?”), but I chose not to represent her as an attractive alternative. She’s complacent, frivolous, and ineffective, full of derision for the way other leftists do things but not contributing much for her own part either. When a fascist comes knocking on the door it’s better to have Tabby there than Justine. To see if Justine can put her money where her mouth is we’d have to see what speech she delivers following the fascist speech. This YouTube channel is effectively my attempt to make that speech, and I can’t be the one who judges how successful it is.

[McCbobbish]

I want a sitcom wherin all these characters are just living in the same house.

[bathoryaria]

I'm on a huge ContraPoints binge, and I'm convinced that this channel is pretty much the best thing to ever happen to YouTube.

[fantasticmangotastic]

Why is it no use to play chess against ContraPoints?
Because Natalie will always Wynn

[jonnysac]

The worst thing about her Nazi character is that he isn't even that exaggerated at all when you compare him to some actual Nazis, hell I've seen genuine Nazis who are far more ridiculous than that

[Bumbillion]

Vaporwave Marx-Engels Reader is the true left aesthetic.

[bioniclestef]

Not gonna lie, your redesign of The Marx-Engels Reader just confirms my belief that we need S Y N T H W A V E L E F T I S M

[guilhermetoledo]

"Ladys and Gentlemans, A facist". Brazil 2018 elections

[kevinhull]

2017: "There's something appealing about a guy in a mask"

That has a completely different meaning in 2020!

[laurak]

It absolutely hurts my brain to imagine creating dialogue for two characters that espouse opposing views, but who express them in such a way that I'm simultaneously critical of them and sympathetic to them BOTH. Bravo for that, and thanks for always making me legitimately question myself!!!

[despairia]

"What we need is social justice, drugs, and rock'n'roll."


I AM IN.

[princeramblerose]

i don’t think politics has ever felt more tangible and palatable to me as an inexperienced, impressionable teenager who can barely make sense of who she is, and that’s saying a lot. all i really have to say is, thank you.

[chestersdad]

These videos deserve some sort of Youtube Academy Award for everything....lighting, set design, staging, timing, decor. They always look stunning. And the content is thought provoking.

[EpicLuigi]

During the video I actually forgot that the characters were being played by the same person. You're really good at this!

[phillipwombacher]

“Your in pure theory and if anything is anti Marxist it’s that” yesss

[edward]

“Under the black boots of the third world horde”

Bish! We don’t wear no boots here in the third world, we wear rubber flip flops or flip flops made out of empty plastic water bottles

[diamonddogi]

"Sometimes I think you secretly don't want your ideas to succeed, you actually enjoy being a pariah whose political beliefs never gain any traction, because if you have purely theoretical political beliefs, you're never accountable for the way things are going"

AAAHHH SOOOO

[lyadmilo]

... I have said... "Actually, I am an anarcho-syndacalist...".... I have never before now truly felt the full weight of "I feel so called out right now." I feel so called out right now. And I love it. Natalie, improve my rhetoric!!

[brijmsn]

To be fair I see plenty of people on the far right having meltdowns and not being cool either

[snowcardinal]

Looking back on this video 3 years after it was published, the left really has gotten their shit together with marketing, and the right definitely fell off a deep end in terms of “coolness.”