I watch a lot of leftist YouTube content. It's a character flaw.
I've noticed repeated mentions of Discordianism lately, all of them wrong.
One video where the Illuminatus! trilogy is suggested as a text for learning about Satanism(?)
Another where A Sermon on Ethics and Love is cited and then Discordianism is said to be "A parody religion some people draw meaning from which teaches us to enjoy Chaos and dismiss Order"
This feels like the Principia recently did the rounds in those circles and they didn't actually ... get it? And I realise that I'm probably one of <500 people worldwide who gives a flying fuck about this but the way I see it either someone sets the record straight in another video or that's going to be where a lot of people think the story ends.
I did YouTube videos once. I swore I'd stop because it's a horrible timesink. But I'm very tempted to try again. Is this a terrible idea? If I do it anyway is there anyone here who would want to help review scripts etc?
Obviously all you can ever really give is *your interpretation* on what Discordianism is, but it bugs the shit out of me that some people are going around saying we're satanists or inherently anti-order and getting no challenge.
Okay so apparently I'm in a writing mood.
I couldn't NOT write a first draft of this.
I very much welcome any comments. Goddess knows I've been out of the loop long enough I'm actually not sure how comfortable I am speaking for the community even though I'm flagging at every step that I am not an authority and there is a diversity of opinion.
Over 4000 words in like 3 hours. The fuck is wrong is wrong with me?
I personally think the people who learn about Discordianism from Youtube or Wikipedia aren't going to be Discordians anyway. I don't see any good in a good, informative Youtube video about it.
I do my evangelism by sharing snippets of Holy Nonsense, or talking about reality grids. I aim at psychologists and social workers. Activists. Writers. People who are readily interested in the concepts, and who have the mindset to coax what's good out of the shitheap, to dig two layers deeper and then try to generalize what they've learned. I pick and choose because some people won't understand, some people won't care, and some people will take the wrong message away.
Meanwhile, having the most readily pop-cultural stuff be wildly off-base weeds out troublemakers and assholes. They come in thinking Discordianism is a new tool to be a dick with, they try it, and it means I don't need to waste time wondering if they're worth my time. They got what they wanted and they stopped digging.
There's a whole trend of far-right Discordianism associated with Trump and QAnon shit. They're working off of the pop-culture stuff. I know where I stand with them almost immediately. If they were working with the more interesting elements, I'd have to at least see if they could learn anything at all, because I'd have a lever to play with to possibly skew their worldview towards mine.
So... I think this is actually a bad idea.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised to learn of the Trump/QAnon crossover, but I am.
I admit that kind of makes me want to do it more. I don't like the idea of giving them space. They can get their fucking hands off my Goddess or lose them as far as I'm concerned.
But at the very least I can get rid of the elements in this which give away that most people are tired of the old jokes. Maybe they really are still just the funniest shit ever.
Thanks for pointing me towards the far right element. I'll do some more research on that too.
I haven't been able to find any alt right Discordian links - any chance someone could point me in the right direction?
Nearly all the Facebook discordians seemed alt right, though its a few years since I've been om fb
Yeah I'm not on there either.
Guess I'll have to sign up.
Quote from: Scribbly on January 04, 2023, 08:17:23 AM
I haven't been able to find any alt right Discordian links - any chance someone could point me in the right direction?
There was a discord channel linked from r/discordian (the last time I followed it the link had expired, but they might have updated it.) I lurked there for a short time before I saw some anti-vaxx and pro-Jan 6th bullshit and peaced out. I can't say for sure it was the prevailing attitude, but it went unchallenged, and you know what they call 10 guys hanging out with a nazi.
For sure.
I've been working on the script and I've done what I can to make it very explicitly anti that bullshit.
I've also toned down a lot of aspects of the initial draft which talked directly about BIP-Discordianism vs Original Flavour Discordianism.
Ultimately I still think that I want to get this stuff out there because I think more people could do with being exposed to these ideas and I strongly dislike the idea of shutting up because fash might hear.
It's unlikely it'll reach a huge audience anyway but of the videos you can find about Discordianism on YouTube right now there's only a couple that didn't feel entirely awful and the rest are very depressing.
I should have added: I like your script, it made me think about Discordianism in ways I wasn't already, and I would definitely watch it.
Thanks :D
What with recent events I've decided to do the second script first (since it talks about the Five Stages of Chaos).
If all goes according to plan I should be able to start filming on the 1st Feb.
I had a lot of fun making the diagram.
There were more delays as my housemate was stuck away for longer than I would have liked and then some personal stuff came up.
Began filming today and learned:
1) This is kind of fun.
2) I hate literally everything about my voice and appearance.
3) All voice feminisation software is shit OR my voice is uniquely ill suited to it.
Don't really want to put my voice out there unaltered so I'll have to find some sort of workaround on that. It's going to take me forever to figure out filming and editing though so I've got some time before that's pressing I guess.
I've slowly dialed down my planned output from like... maybe I can get 6 out this year to maybe I can get this first one done before June. :lulz:
Oh, it's not you. Voice software actually sucks.
If you want some quick and dirty voice hacks:
In your regular speaking voice, hold a note like you're singing. It will be off key, it doesn't matter.
Move your tongue around while holding the note. You can hear the sound change, and you can feel the place where the air is vibrating most in your airway move around -- that's where the vocal resonance is. If you can't feel it, drop the pitch some until you can.
Now, instead of using your tongue (you need that to talk), move the resonance with your throat, lips and cheeks. You want to place the resonance at the center of the roof of your mouth, right at the back of the hard palate. It'll take a little work, but it's not impossible to figure it out.
Hold the resonance there and begin talking normally. Talk a LOT. Check the resonance every so often because early on it'll wander around. You'll have a strange monotone at this time, but you're just getting used to keeping your vocal resonance placed where you want it to be.
When you think you've got it down naturally, raise the pitch range of your voice just a bit, and then try bringing in your natural pitch changes and tone with it. You want a balance -- if you end up falling out of the desired pitch range, dial back your pitch changes and tone. If you start sounding like Microsoft Sam, play with the pitch range you want to be in until you sound natural again. If you ever lose the resonance, you have to find it again before you can continue.
When ready, record.
First time I did this took me about 3 hours, and I could keep it going for about a half hour before I'd lose the resonance and have to go through the process of finding it again. It's second nature now, entirely unconscious.
Also, either start with your mouth open a bit, or bare your teeth. Otherwise you get this awful SMACK when you start talking.
Thanks for the tips! Definitely all helpful.
I'm still not quite there on the voice thing but I think I'll get there with a bit more practice. It's a pain and I'm starting to see why 'content creators' burn out making themselves do this shit daily/weekly. I'm definitely going to take this at my own pace.
May just work around the other visual aspect by doing voiceover on royalty free clips / relevant news clips / good images rather than appearing myself on camera at all. Aside from my own issues with my appearance, I think that might be more entertaining than the costume anyway.
For the first video or two it might not get you anything, but you can also ask other content creators if they'd like to pitch in to do bits and pieces for e.g. sight gags. If you get lucky and get someone with an established audience interested early, it can get you a big boost in terms of initial viewership, which is critical to growing further. Lots of content creators fucking suck, but there's enough good ones out there.
After struggling with this for a few more weeks I'm cooling on the idea of following through with the videos for a few reasons.
Seems a shame to let the scripts go to waste though, so I might rework them into more of an essay format.