No Monetization of my Opinion pieces

Rinklestein

I like this as a policy, even mentioning this in the video should help people come to think about how they engage with opinion pieces online.

I like ypur position. It is giving you freedom to express an opinion. A good decision if you ask me. 🙂

Ist ein Idiot der aus dem Müll kroch

I think there is a problem with you leaving monetization and Patreon contributions out of things you put work in. I am assuming you will still put effort into a video that is „just your opinion“ in a similar manner to your commentary documentary short films, it might be easier and involve less research, but I don’t know what the process involves and I don’t believe it is little work. My philosophy is that a person should be paid for the work they do and when that doesn’t happen something is wrong. It might be that their work was bad, or that they are being discriminated against, or apparently that some people think that their time and effort is free. If I buy a newspaper in which there is political commentary it is because I care to listen to a persons perspective and because it spurs discussion over a concept incident or politics, not because I want to hear things I agree with. That might be different for other people, but they would probably also not be willing to pay for the work that is put into the content. I agree with your point of interference by acting in a market such as the YouTube media industry, but I don’t think the problem lies with the ability to sustain one’s own existence with the discussion of culture society and politics. I think the problem is, that as someone who produces commentary, you are bound by producing a specialized product such as an opinion piece and having to have each product sustaining itself instead of making the production the thing you are being paid for, is not viable unless you cater to the most profitable or the largest profitable demographic. If you get paid the same money no matter what you do, you either live under a communist regime a failed social market economy system or are free to produce any kind and number of goods. This is why people push for subsidies towards the arts, because the product itself is not profitable, but the result the product has is valuable to our society, without discussion and diversity any social system will inevitably collapse, but markets don’t allow for diversity they only encourage efficient production and selling of goods to the most profitable demographics. If you are trying to revolutionize the way social and political commentary is made and marketed on the internet, you have to build an independent Institution, that distributes capital by the value a given actor in this system has to the system, not by how profitable their products are. Science has a similar problem in which what is good science differs from what is profitable science, grants and independent institutions help to keep good science viable, it’s still not nearly as profitable as bad science that is marketable, but it gives a nudge in the right direction. A market and an audience that does not appreciate good commentary or science is not such an Institution I agree with that, but simply trying to forge a culture of working for free is just as bad, because people should pay for the content they consume (at least that’s my opinion), creators should be paid for their work and expecting one’s own core audience to keep you afloat via voluntary contributions that you are even appearing to discourage is unfair (at least in my mind). I think Patreon contributions on monthly basis could work very well for you. You can put in work for the projects you feel have value and merit, without feeling the market pressure as much and I think it could work for many of the people that are in a similar situation as you (ergo are trying to shield themselves from the temptation of giving the people what they want so to speak). Commentary is a form of art and the systems we have developed to encourage the independence of artist in the traditional sense could also work for this community you were talking about, but since there is a lack of such systems you could find a compromise in the form of rules on how someone can make money of their work, like a common network that makes up for lost revenue and maybe splitting discussion of the content from the content so it becomes harder for outside actors to influence the culture and spirit of your work, that don’t plan on furthering discussion, but rather using it as a tool for a political agenda or financial benefits. I hope you consider a way to keep commentary viable in a financial sense and in the sense of a medium of discussion and well… even read this garbage comment that took me an hour to write… yeah not very smart, but time is money and I don’t got lots of money but I do be having some left over time that is starting to smell pretty bad, so have some on the house… Mit freundlichen Grüßen someone who just talks to much about the economic viability of ideals and human values

Good choice! Only thing that is a disadvantage is that this would disincentivises opinion pieces in general, which is maybe good (I love the history analysis videos) but would be interesting to have a few of them in between.

ILL State Fishing

Very honest, I am more than fine with it!

The transparency on this channel is unbelievable and much appreciated. I would pay for a Chomsky critique, no matter the position. Too much pedestalling....

Teo Cherici

I'd like to make a counterargument: the crowdsourced nature of patreon implies that there is no easy way of steering or influence your commentary such as private financing from a single individual or company would do. So I'd still gladly support you in your work, commentary or non

Euchale

I personally don´t mind either way how you handle this. I support you because I enjoy your content. As long as your content is good I will continue to support you.

Sometimes I’m critical of your business decisions because I think you put honor over practicality, but I 100% support this decision. Money has turned political commentators into grifters and hacks.

Helipilot

I appreciate the honesty, and am glad you prioritize both integrity and making content you feel to be important. I personally do not mind if you monetize this video as well, but respect why you feel that way towards what will be an opinion piece.

This is exactly why I like this channel!

Just take my money or just go integrity mode and provide commentary independent from financial interest, im fine either way