Video "script" (Patreon)

I was GONNA HAVE THIS DONE TODAY but my voice has gone out. Probably from overuse, so it'll have to wait a week or so until I heal. THIS is the script to my first non-musical video. Read it, preemptively comment on it. See what changes between now and the edit.

Dog Whistles #1 - Insults are ruining your arguments.

Hey everyone. This is it. This is the first video. I’ve climbed into the youtube machine and I’m ready. 

I’m not ready.

(throughout this bit, screaming “I don’t know what I’m doing” over and over, gets louder and louder)

I don’t know how to animate anything. I barely know how to run this video software. I just learned that “Audio Drift” is a thing, where my camera and microphone can’t agree on how fast TIME goes and I (sudden cut)

Hello everybody this is Pepper Coyote and you’re listening to Dog Whistles, a show about online discourse that’s also party about Dogs, because coyotes are DOGS and I occasionally play a WHISTLE do you get it? DO YOU G- (cut)

Calling people fat idiots on the internet is fun. I mean. If it wasn’t we wouldn’t have literal millions of people (children) doing it in comment sections across the web. One constant I’ve found in humanity is our willingness to insult one another. From a distance. (text shows: Over the internet) and for the record you should know that the intended audience of this video is people who do WANT to communicate. If your goal is “trolling” or getting out aggression, or simply to yell at people you don’t like… by all means. I can’t stop you. No, I’m talking to my fellow… (Text shows :”Sarcasm” Music: Classical) Intellectuals who want to argue more effectively on the internet. The ANTI-trolls.

I’ve been watching this guy Shaun (link to vid in question) who proposes, in far more detail than me, strategies to actually go about changing people’s minds. You can be as “right” as you want, but when it comes to voting time, numbers are what matter. So let’s get to the point.

(Echoey voice) INSULTS INDICATE FAILURE.

Let’s define insults.

To oversimplify, I consider any term with the sole purpose of putting the opponent down, that also has little to NO relevance to the subject being discussed, an insult.

It’s probably an insult IF,

It’s something they can’t control

It’s provably false.

It’s irrelevant to the subject at hand.

This covers cosmetic things like “fat, balding, poorly dressed” but also covers terms like “SJW, Cuck, beta,” and a whole host of “Dog Whistles” that really only get thrown out there as code words to try and encourage other internet onlookers to pile on. “Hurt you, signaling” as it were. Get it? It’s like “virtue signaling” but I put a little spin on it. (GOD I AM SO CLEVER). I’d also discourage using loaded words, that have so many meanings to so many different people that they’re useless without a kind of massive footnote discussion clarifying what you mean when you say words. So skip that and say what you mean. And this brings me to the larger point here.

What’s the point of talking to people? When I send a message online, my goal is to convey meaning. I want someone to receive information. You might be thinking, yeah. Duh. BUT HERE’S THE DEAL. Half of the internet mewling these days seems to result from people not saying what they mean, and it ends up accidentally making victims out of some despicable people. Let me give two VERY DIFFERENT examples.

If you wanted to go about criticizing Barak Obama, what words would you choose?

Are these words what you really mean?

I’m not happy with all the drone strikes. I think they probably kill more civilians than the military wants to let on. I’m not big on all the snooping the NSA is doing, and how it got worse under his leadership. I’m also not happy with how the people who brought all this snooping to our attention were treated once they let us in on the stuff.

These are things we can talk about. Things we can debate. Things WORTH debating, at least in my opinion.

Ya know what ISN’T helpful to this end? Making fun of his blackness. Making fun of his upbringing. Calling him a secret Muslim. Implying he somehow isn’t American at all, and this is due to some grand conspiracy in which a Kenyan guy plots to create a sleeper cell that will one day grow up to overthrow the US government by giving people access to healthcare. Or something like that.

There is plenty to criticize Obama for, and people go for the WORST stuff, but ya know who gets gone after for even DUMBER stuff? MY current president (show picture of Goku). Wait. Wrong timeline.

OUR current president. Donny Troompoh. Tremp is being Cyberbullied and we need to stop. But not for the reason you think.

If you wanted to criticize D-dawg Trumbus, how would you do it?

What words would you use. What words do you MEAN?

I don’t like the contempt for the free press that’s so central to our democracy. I don’t like how he wants to keep people out of the US seemingly based on hunches and skin color. I don’t like how we continue to be told that medicare for all is an insane pipe dream while a border wall, excuse me, “wall system” that has a current price tag around 200 billion, is seen as a real thing that will actually happen. I don't like the lying. I don’t like the lying. I don’t like the lying. So with all of this happening, I get a little annoyed when the best we have for him online, is talking about…

His skin tone? (screenshot of cheeto joke) His… weight? (fat joke) His… HAIR? (wig joke)

This is the kind of stuff I made fun of my burger king manager for. Because I didn’t really have any real complaints. I just hated working at burger king. My words had no substance.

What’s the point of talking to people?

If the best argument you have against someone is that they’re a fat old idiot who looks dumb, maybe push back the keyboard and take a break because you don’t have an argument. The best you’ll get is some of your twitter followers liking your “sick burn”. You’ve transmitted no ideas. You’ve just reminded a bunch of people who already agree with you, that they agree with you. President = dumb/bad.

What. Is the point. Of Talking to people?

Instead of going after people for superficial reasons, go after them for their ideas. It’s the internet. All you HAVE is your ideas. And a little icon. And mine’s of a dog person, so no one takes me seriously anyway.

Alright, I’ve been rambling for a long time and I need to wrap this up. It’s late and I’m a busy guy. And that’s kind of the problem. You might be thinking

“I really don’t want to go online and have to explain all this stuff that everyone should already know. 

It’s not my job to be nice to awful people until they change their minds. 

I don’t have time for this.”

And. You’re kind of right. People being unaware of things going on around them is frustrating. What’s more frustrating? They’re going to go vote based on that incomplete information.

Being nice to awful people who have no interest in returning the same level of curtesy really sucks but hey. You don’t have to be NICE per say, you just have to make affective arguments. Even if you don’t convince the person you’re talking to, and you won’t, other people will see the conversation thread. Over time, onlookers will recognize the reasonable, fact-based arguments, and dismiss the ranty, insult-ridden ones.

You don’t have the time? Understandable. But you know who DOES have the time?

Me (dab, airhorns, dubstep music,)

Kidding. The people who seem to have all the time in the world for this, are far right-wing people. There’s been a movement for a while now aiming to groom teenagers, and college-age people for joining white supremacist movements. The people who are VERY willing to talk about their ideas in pseudo-intellectual tones, are the “red pill’ers” and the “race realists” and the “white nationalists”. There’s been a lot of work done to put a positive, and even “academic” face on things like… “racism”. “Sexism”. And “transphobia” (each of these words are in reverb’d voice, pink flowery filter, to soothing music. Slow-mo shots of my face, smiling.) And there’s been a lot of work to put a negative spin on things like “affordable healthcare” “Legal Immigration” and “worker protections” (opposite of last shot. Evil music, demon voice, red filter, frowning face.) If you don’t get your voice out there in a reasonable, non-insulting way, then that’s the only voice these kids are going to hear.

I’m getting off topic. Defend your ideas with ideas. Not insults. It’s bad debate. It shows a lack of substance behind what you’re saying, and is generally unhelpful to the bigger goal of effectively communicating ideas between people. Ya know. The point of talking to someone.

ENDING

So what do you think? Where have I gone wrong? Am I totally off base with this? Should we be out there dunking on people whenever possible? Lemme know in the comments. Bonus points if you can let me know without being a big meany.

Thank you to my friends on Patreon. You’re the reason I can do ANY of this.

Special thanks to:

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