Script for update video next week

Happy year everyone! Let’s talk about what I have coming up in 2022!

I talked about this a lot in my video about Alan Wake. I’ve been unhappy with how I was doing things in previous years, so I'm going to be making what I want this year, not what I think people will like, and I won't be working to deadlines, I'll be giving everything as long as it deserves to make it good. I am still going to be doing media analysis essays. The Matrix Resurrections video is coming, I promise. It will just take a while to get here. Also the Forgotten City video. Also the next instalment Monster Men. I’m working on all these things, I’m just making them really really good instead of rushing for a deadline I set myself and stressing myself out for no reason.

For now I want to talk about how I'm going to use my platform politically, because the biggest change I want to make with how I interact with this space is to take myself seriously, take my fellow leftists seriously, and take the potential of the internet for empowering leftists to make the world a better place seriously - and if anyone anywhere is typing a snarky comment about some kind of social media drama nonsense they want to drag me into: sorry, I don't have any time for that shit now. That's what I mean when I say I'm taking all of this seriously. I can see what is worthwhile and what exists only to waste our time.

Yeah, a lot of this video is just a big promo for various things I’m doing, but as you may have noticed I rebranded recently, and I’m taking my online presence in a slightly different direction, so I thought it was a good idea to put all of that in one easy, accessible place. In this video I’m talking about my plans for making more directly political stuff in 2022. Maybe first I should be clear about what my politics are.

It's a bit cheesy but the word I use for my politics is "cyberpunk". In short, what I mean by that is that I am an anarchist, a communist, and my life, work, and main political interests are absolutely, terminally online. Log off? Can't be done.

Big tech has already made web projects that by framing as “platforms” they pretend are uplifting people or giving them access to a megaphone, where in reality these projects are funnels. We have been flocking into these massive traps with our eyes open, too busy yelling at each other for myopic nonsense to notice as the trap swings shut behind us, and now tech bros are sitting on the precipice of changing the nature of the web permanently, not just to finanicalise everything on the internet but to turn the internet into a tool of control that will make single individual tech bros more powerful than individual human beings have maybe ever been.

Let’s say it in absolutely certain terms: Web 3.0 is evil and if you care about the internet at all you should be working to stop it. And you might not care about the internet, and that’s okay, because our world is plagued with monumental apocalyptic problems. I’ll be using my uh “platform” as much as I can to direct people toward ways that they can take care of people around them and protect one another as the global supply chain collapses, neoliberal governments become increasingly authoritarian and fascist militias try to take out their confusion and anger on the most vulnerable in society.

So what are we going to do about it?

Weekly from the end of January and into March I'm releasing the first batch of a series of recorded interviews I've made, called Organising Interviews. In them, I interview organisers and activists from around the world about what they do, how they do it, and how you can do it as well. A couple of those are out already, and if you haven’t seen them, that’s because YouTube hates people making more than One (1) kind of content. So even if you’re not super into those, please go give them a little watch, because the more people go watch it and hit the like button, the more people will be suggested it. Isn’t it cool how YouTube doesn’t even show your videos to people who are subscribed to your channel?
Anyway I’m very proud of Organising Interviews and I hope you’ll go check it out! I want to share the knowledge and information with people that will help them help themselves and each other as we try to survive inside the rotting carcass of capitalism. What a world.

If you’re involved in organising or activism and want to come tell me about it, send me one email at curiopolitics@gmail.com with Organising Interviews in the subject line, or if you know someone who’s doing something you’d like to see me cover, get them in touch with me.

I’ve also started doing a weekly livestream show called Red Planet, link in the description. Red Planet is a commie roundtable with all your faves where we report on what’s happening and what needs to happen for us to live in a better kind of society. If this seems conceptually similar to Organising Interviews, that’s kind of deliberate. Not everyone likes every kind of format, so it helps to get the message across if it takes lots of different forms. There will even be some people who I’ve interviewed for Organising Interviews guesting on Red Planet.

I think that the internet has enormous potential for social change, and leftists who a lot of people follow online can easily use our platforms this way to educate people not only on leftist theory but on ways to actually take care of each other. Like, I know a lot of people don’t even know tenant’s unions exist, as a concept, or assume that they don’t exist where they live, and they often do, and even when they don’t you can actually organise with your neighbours pretty easily, and then knowing that people have your back if your landlord tries to screw you over makes a huge difference!
I think that by talking about what people are doing and what people are forced to do by capitalism, even content creators can have an impact on the world that could be genuinely revolutionary.

I know some of you are thinking wow, this all sounds really dry and I know, I’m highlighting the information education focused stuff first because I think it’s important, but I also strongly believe in left culture - the need to have comedy, gaming, real serious art, and other forms of media that are casually and unapologetically leftist. I don’t think that every single twitch game streamer who happens to be a commie should spend all their time reading quotes from Das Kapital or speaking to people in climate camps. That’s part of how I view my media analysis work - it’s left culture: I don’t pretend to have any other politics than what I really believe in, but I’m trying to also just tell you about video games I think are neat.

Speaking of chilling out and vibing while being a leftist, I do a whole bunch of streaming, did you know that? I have a twitch, where I play games and sometimes laugh at crypto bros or go down rabbitholes into weird chinese dance cults. Did you know Shen Yun is a weird fascist anti-LGBT dance cult? Probably not! I have an archive channel for all my streams and backups of the Red Planet episodes, link in the description!

Oh and here’s another fun thing I do that’s pretty chill and low-key: My pal Mildred from the channel Thought Slime and I have started doing a show called Cringe Corner where we tell each other about bullshit we found on the internet, like a guy who thinks breathing makes you immune to the cold, or a QAnon trend of trying to prove that everyone in the world is transgender. Link in the description! That’s where all the links are!

I’m also working on a video essay for March about conspiracy theorists, and one for later in the year about Eugenics. I think Eugenics is a topic that people don’t really discuss with the depth and layers of understanding that it really requires, and I hope that people will get a lot out of what I have to say about it. Also, cheap shot but I love the working title I have for that essay: Eugenics - A History Of Failing To Get Smarter.

Link in the description to my patreon. Patreon dot com slash Sophie From Mars. That’s kind of the hub of everything that I do, plus there’s lots of bonus content there, plus that’s where you can see stuff early. Like the projects I just mentioned, and the one I’m about to talk about? All on patreon.

Okay, final big exciting announcement! If you think that the political stuff I’ve talked about here is smart and cool, or you’re like Sophie I don’t understand that please explain that more well, good news: I’m writing a 3-part 9-essay collection called Cyberpunk 2022: A Direction For The Online Left, where I’m going to explain everything I believe in and where I think we need to go from here in way more detail. For example, I think that surveillance should be the single issue leftist content creators are most focused on. Don’t get why? I’ll explain in the thing!
I’ll be releasing Cyberpunk 2022 in three parts on my patreon as I complete each section, and then when it’s all done I’m going to make an abridged version as a video essay so people can get a broad overview of the ideas. I’m really excited about it, and deciding to take the time I need over my projects and really make stuff as good as it deserves has only made me more excited.

I don’t just believe in communism, or that capitalism is failing - I know from study and understanding that the system we live under now is collapsing, and I can see the things that people need to do to make a new, better system are mostly just normal human ways to take care of each other. I’ve chosen my role in that, as a cyberpunk, and honestly, I don’t care if people disagree with me. I’d love if people engage critically with my work as it comes out because at least then we’ll be arguing over the best steps to make the world better instead of constant social media drama. I’m going to be here telling people what I believe in and the things I’ve learned from people who are doing things to help people in the real world, and I don’t need for everyone to believe what I believe. My beliefs do not require them to.