Hi everyone! I recently saw an article by Polygon on their list of the best video essays of the year, so I decided to steal their idea and do my own list. I still suggest you to look at theirs too, since their choices seem interesting. Mine is just a little silly compilation because I love these videos so much. They're in no particular order and I only list one main video per channel, and then other ones in the paragraph/section. Let me stress that all the channels are worth taking a look at.
- In Search Of A Flat Earth
Folding Ideas makes a wonderful video essay on the Flat Earth movement and [SPOILER??? IDK GO WATCH IT OK] QAnon, and boy is it good. Well shot, well written, well researched. Nothing to say, it's just perfect.
- Hayao Miyazaki - How Animation Comes To Life
A video on "how Studio Ghibli makes animated cinema feel alive". The channel is quite inactive (this is the last one they published and is from 2019), but the animation in on a whole other level. I'd also like to suggest the other video on Alien and the one on Disney's Animation.
- Marx was not a "statist"
A great video that talks about how the conception of Marx being a statist came to be, and proves the talking point wrong once and for all. The whole channel is great, and if you're interested in it I'd like to suggest watching the video on societies of control, the culture industry and hauntology
- "Woke" Disney
Lindsay Ellis shows how Disney uses meta-commentary in their new movies to justify their existence, not to examine the company's past, and how such meta-commentary has adopted a wokeness ethos that is merely performative, doesn't promote any major change (Sexism can be solved with a bunch of #girlbosses) and reconfigures any systemic oppression as the product of only a few bad apples. Another great video is Manufacturing Authenticity (For Fun and Profit!)
- Fallout: New Vegas Is Genius, And Here's Why
If you like this video you might also love is Bloodborne Is Genius, And Here's Why. And if you liked Ellis' video on Disney, you might like Hbomberguy's take on Woke Brands, in which he shows how many of them exploit conservatives' hysteria to just make profits
- Charles Darwin vs Karl Marx
Starting with a video on Darwin and Marx, it then dives into Malthusianism, Spencer, social Darwinism and Eugenics. It's not exactly light-hearted, but very well made. I wanted to suggest some more videos from the channel but I suspect you know it already
- Empires of Modernity
It talks about modernity, early capitalism, colonialism and the East India Company and its horrors in the colonies, specifically in Bengal. A summary on the horrors of British imperialism. Other great videos from the channel are The Fist of Modernity and Proudhon: What is Property?
- No More Presidents
A history of the development of the institution of the US presidency and its continuous expanse of power. It's an undemocratic institution and the product of a broken system, and it should be abolished. Another great video is MAGA and Fascism.
- Lisa Hanawalt: Being Human by Being Animal
A video on Lasa Hanawalt's characters (the creator of Bojack Horseman and Tuca&Bertie). Also, another great video from the channel and a personal favorite, Night In The Woods: Do You Always Have A Choice? (contains major spoilers)
- Life in the Shadow of Midgar
Jacob Geller makes awesome videos, so much so that it was actually difficult to choose which one to put to represent the channel. This one starts with the design of the city of Midgar, in FF7, as a representation of structural inequity, and then talks about real-life developments of hellish environments for the poor and the minorities. Another 'honorable' mention is Artificial Loneliness (btw, the photos by Aristotle Roufanis he mentions are simply gorgeous) and Capitalist Present, Collective Future, even tho I have yet to watch it (because it gives major spoilers for Tacoma, which I have yet to play) but I'm sure it's crazy good.
- In Search Of A Flat Earth
Folding Ideas makes a wonderful video essay on the Flat Earth movement and [SPOILER??? IDK GO WATCH IT OK] QAnon, and boy is it good. Well shot, well written, well researched. Nothing to say, it's just perfect.
- Hayao Miyazaki - How Animation Comes To Life
A video on "how Studio Ghibli makes animated cinema feel alive". The channel is quite inactive (this is the last one they published and is from 2019), but the animation in on a whole other level. I'd also like to suggest the other video on Alien and the one on Disney's Animation.
- Marx was not a "statist"
A great video that talks about how the conception of Marx being a statist came to be, and proves the talking point wrong once and for all. The whole channel is great, and if you're interested in it I'd like to suggest watching the video on societies of control, the culture industry and hauntology
- "Woke" Disney
Lindsay Ellis shows how Disney uses meta-commentary in their new movies to justify their existence, not to examine the company's past, and how such meta-commentary has adopted a wokeness ethos that is merely performative, doesn't promote any major change (Sexism can be solved with a bunch of #girlbosses) and reconfigures any systemic oppression as the product of only a few bad apples. Another great video is Manufacturing Authenticity (For Fun and Profit!)
- Fallout: New Vegas Is Genius, And Here's Why
If you like this video you might also love is Bloodborne Is Genius, And Here's Why. And if you liked Ellis' video on Disney, you might like Hbomberguy's take on Woke Brands, in which he shows how many of them exploit conservatives' hysteria to just make profits
- Charles Darwin vs Karl Marx
Starting with a video on Darwin and Marx, it then dives into Malthusianism, Spencer, social Darwinism and Eugenics. It's not exactly light-hearted, but very well made. I wanted to suggest some more videos from the channel but I suspect you know it already
- Empires of Modernity
It talks about modernity, early capitalism, colonialism and the East India Company and its horrors in the colonies, specifically in Bengal. A summary on the horrors of British imperialism. Other great videos from the channel are The Fist of Modernity and Proudhon: What is Property?
- No More Presidents
A history of the development of the institution of the US presidency and its continuous expanse of power. It's an undemocratic institution and the product of a broken system, and it should be abolished. Another great video is MAGA and Fascism.
- Lisa Hanawalt: Being Human by Being Animal
A video on Lasa Hanawalt's characters (the creator of Bojack Horseman and Tuca&Bertie). Also, another great video from the channel and a personal favorite, Night In The Woods: Do You Always Have A Choice? (contains major spoilers)
- Life in the Shadow of Midgar
Jacob Geller makes awesome videos, so much so that it was actually difficult to choose which one to put to represent the channel. This one starts with the design of the city of Midgar, in FF7, as a representation of structural inequity, and then talks about real-life developments of hellish environments for the poor and the minorities. Another 'honorable' mention is Artificial Loneliness (btw, the photos by Aristotle Roufanis he mentions are simply gorgeous) and Capitalist Present, Collective Future, even tho I have yet to watch it (because it gives major spoilers for Tacoma, which I have yet to play) but I'm sure it's crazy good.
Polygon
The best video essays of 2020
Creators continue to push the envelope of criticism on YouTube
A criticism of the modern conception of mutual aid
https://regenerationmag.org/mutual-aid-a-factor-of-liberalism/
https://regenerationmag.org/mutual-aid-a-factor-of-liberalism/
Regeneration Magazine
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Liberalism
Mutual-aid is in the air. Look near any anarchist or socialist project, and you will see the importance of it emphasized in big bold text. In the name of mutual-aid, people are doing food shares, repairing pot-holes in black bloc attire, fixing brake lights…
"One node that stands out along Kautsky’s timeline is the Dulcinians of Italy, a Christian sect from the fourteenth century. The group believed in gender equality, mutual aid, property in common, and the destruction of a hierarchical church system. Their efforts lasted between 1300 and 1307; Dulcinian leaders were ultimately burned at the stake or otherwise captured and executed after Pope Clement V launched a crusade against the group. The Dulcinians represented to Kautsky the first armed communist uprising in human history. But while armed, revolutionary, and opposed to the Catholic Church, the movement survived as a separatist and egalitarian Christian communist community nestled upon the fortified Monte Rubello in the Piedmont. Both their internecine and communal tendencies were justified by citing scripture. “Clearly, the two sides Kautsky has identified—communal life and revolution—come together with the Dulcinians,” Boer writes in Red Theology"
thebaffler.com/latest/for-heavens-sake-willems
thebaffler.com/latest/for-heavens-sake-willems
The Baffler
For Heaven’s Sake | Adam Willems
A new history of Christian communism glosses over the tradition’s complications in the interest of a statist conclusion.
"The decline in trust of the news media has coincided with a deep concentration of the news media. Without trustworthy news sources, conspiracy theories are spreading like wildfire, particularly on social platforms like Facebook and Reddit. Corruption, particularly at the neglected state and local levels, is on the rise. Reversing media consolidation—and rebuilding local news and a vibrant, diverse internet—is crucial to rebuilding American democracy. It’s clear that this effort cannot happen on its own—the government must step in."
https://newrepublic.com/article/160562/media-consolidation-bad-journalism-democracy
https://newrepublic.com/article/160562/media-consolidation-bad-journalism-democracy
The New Republic
Make Media Small Again
Why consolidation is bad for journalism—and how the government can fix it
"Distrust of establishment media has led Trump’s supporters and other conservatives to immerse themselves in an echo chamber of overtly partisan right-wing media. [...]
The conservative pivot to hyper-partisan news sources is actually ironic, because many of these outlets were founded and are run by billionaire oligarchs who maximize their profits by fanning the flames of discontent while covertly lobbying for policies that maintain the status quo."
"In her pioneering 1978 study of the social factors that shape the production of news stories, “Making News,” Tuchman observed that news is oriented to discrete, novel events rather than ongoing systemic issues. Thus, “news” is typically about what went wrong today, rather than what goes wrong every day. This perspective has real consequences for coverage of topics such as institutionalized racism or social movements that aim to expose and oppose power relationships that might otherwise be taken for granted as “natural.”"
"In his 1979 book, Deciding What’s News, Gans picked up and developed Tuchman’s critique, noting, for example, how news professionals often engage in “built-in anticipatory avoidance” to reduce the impact of pressures from advertisers, government agencies and officials, interest groups and peers. Gans observed how forms of anticipatory avoidance reinforced journalists’ preference for featuring the viewpoints of already powerful public figures while avoiding sources that evoke dissent or lack such authority. As others have since summarized, “news” as understood by the establishment press tends to be about what those in power say and do."
"The corporate media’s ideological commitments and structural biases are more clearly illuminated by an analysis of topics they systemically ignore or report only in passing, than by critiques that blame the political predispositions of individual reporters and specific media organizations or promote conspiratorial explanations. As Tuchman wrote, “The power to keep an occurrence out of the news is power over the news.”"
truthout.org/articles/its-true-that-corporate-media-is-biased-but-not-in-the-ways-right-wingers-say/
The conservative pivot to hyper-partisan news sources is actually ironic, because many of these outlets were founded and are run by billionaire oligarchs who maximize their profits by fanning the flames of discontent while covertly lobbying for policies that maintain the status quo."
"In her pioneering 1978 study of the social factors that shape the production of news stories, “Making News,” Tuchman observed that news is oriented to discrete, novel events rather than ongoing systemic issues. Thus, “news” is typically about what went wrong today, rather than what goes wrong every day. This perspective has real consequences for coverage of topics such as institutionalized racism or social movements that aim to expose and oppose power relationships that might otherwise be taken for granted as “natural.”"
"In his 1979 book, Deciding What’s News, Gans picked up and developed Tuchman’s critique, noting, for example, how news professionals often engage in “built-in anticipatory avoidance” to reduce the impact of pressures from advertisers, government agencies and officials, interest groups and peers. Gans observed how forms of anticipatory avoidance reinforced journalists’ preference for featuring the viewpoints of already powerful public figures while avoiding sources that evoke dissent or lack such authority. As others have since summarized, “news” as understood by the establishment press tends to be about what those in power say and do."
"The corporate media’s ideological commitments and structural biases are more clearly illuminated by an analysis of topics they systemically ignore or report only in passing, than by critiques that blame the political predispositions of individual reporters and specific media organizations or promote conspiratorial explanations. As Tuchman wrote, “The power to keep an occurrence out of the news is power over the news.”"
truthout.org/articles/its-true-that-corporate-media-is-biased-but-not-in-the-ways-right-wingers-say/
Truthout
It’s True That Corporate Media Is Biased — But Not in the Ways Right-Wingers Say
To confront corporate media’s profit-driven logic, we must encourage close criticism but not all-out dismissal.