Social:BreadTube

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Short description: Group of left-wing YouTubers

BreadTube, also called LeftTube, is a loose and informal group of online personalities who create video content, including video essays and livestreams, from socialist, social democratic, communist, anarchist, and other left-wing perspectives.[1][2][3] BreadTube creators generally post videos on YouTube that are discussed on other online platforms, such as Reddit.[4] Many BreadTube content creators are crowdfunded, and their channels often serve as introductions to left-wing politics for young viewers.[5] BreadTube creators align with collectivist modes of governance, while opposing the alt-right and far-right.[6]

Origin

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Lindsay Ellis (left) and ContraPoints (right), early BreadTubers

The term BreadTube derives from Peter Kropotkin's The Conquest of Bread,[7][8][9] a book explaining how to achieve anarchist communism and how an anarchist-communism society would function. Many BreadTube channels started in an effort to combat anti-social justice warrior and alt-right content that gained traction in the mid-2010s.[10][11] By 2018, these individual channels had formed an interconnected community.[11] Two prominent early BreadTubers were Lindsay Ellis, who left Channel Awesome in 2015 to start her own channel in response to the Gamergate controversy, and Natalie Wynn, who started her channel, ContraPoints, in 2016 in response to the alt-right's online dominance at the time.[8] In an April 2021 interview, Wynn said, "The alt-right, the manosphere, incels, even the so-called SJW Internet and LeftTube all have a genetic ancestor in New Atheism."[12]

Format

BreadTube videos are often noted for their high production values and theatrical elements, running longer than many other YouTube videos.[13][14] Many of them respond to right-wing talking points.[4] Some sources indicate that right-wing and cyberlibertarian creators frequently take antagonistic stances toward political opponents, while many BreadTubers focus on analyzing and interpreting opposing arguments, sometimes incorporating elements of subversion, humor, or, in the words of Wynn, "seduction".[4][15] Many BreadTubers aim to reach audiences beyond those who already hold left-wing viewpoints rather than merely "preach to the choir".[4] Their videos often offer no definitive conclusions; instead, viewers are encouraged to interpret the presented material themselves.[4] Because many BreadTube channels reference left-wing and socialist texts, some viewers encounter these ideas for the first time that way.[5] According to Kelley Cotter, infighting is common in the BreadTube community. Cotter attributes that to "the community hosting a spectrum of beliefs, ranging from social democratic to Maoist".[6]

Channels

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Hbomberguy (left) and Abigail Thorn (right), commonly described as BreadTubers

The vast majority of BreadTube content is in English, and most BreadTubers are American or British.[2] The term is informal and often disputed, as there are no agreed-upon criteria for inclusion. According to The New Republic, in 2019, the five people most commonly mentioned as examples were the aforementioned Natalie Wynn and Lindsay Ellis, along with Harry Brewis (Hbomberguy), Abigail Thorn (Philosophy Tube), and Shaun, while Kat Blaque and Anita Sarkeesian are cited as significant influences;[3][8] Ian Danskin (aka Innuendo Studios),[14] Hasan Piker,[3][16] Vaush,[16] and Destiny[16][17] have also been said to be BreadTubers. However, some of these people, including Ellis,[18] Shaun,[19] and Wynn,[20] have rejected the label.

Amid the 2018 presidential elections in Brazil, left channels became popular in the country.[21] Among them are Pirulla, Clayson Felizola, Felipe Neto, Henry Bugalho, Sabrina Fernandes (Teze Onze), Carlito Neto (O Historiador), Cauê Moura, PC Siqueira, Samuel Borelli, Galãs Feios, Meteoro Brasil, Saia da Matrix, Tiago Santineli, Eduardo Moreira (Instituto Conhecimento Liberta), Plantão Brasil, Tiago Pavinatto,[22] Jones Manoel, Laura Sabino, Humberto Matos,[23] Dimitra Vulcana (Doutora Drag), John Mateus, Lucas Machado, Thiago Torres (Chavoso da USP), Roju Soares, Rebecca Gaia, Zamiliano Frossard (Revolushow),[24] Inteligência Ltda.,[25] Senhorita Bira,[26] Thiago Guimarães (Ora Thiago),[27] Rita von Hunty,[28] Soberana TV,[29] and Orientação Marxista (do Gustavo Machado). Some members of Soberana TV are João Carvalho and Ian Neves.[25][21]

Reception

According to The Conversation, as of 2021, BreadTube content creators "receive tens of millions of views a month and have been increasingly referenced in media and academia as a case study in deradicalisation."[10] According to The Independent, BreadTube "commentators have been trying, quite successfully, to intervene in the right-wing recruitment narrative – lifting viewers out of the rabbit-hole, or, at least, shifting them over to a new one."[16] Kevin Roose wrote in The New York Times that BreadTube creators employ a method he referred to as a kind of "algorithmic hijacking":[17] they focus on the same topics content creators with right-wing politics discuss to get their videos recommended to the same people consuming right-wing or far-right videos,[17] thereby exposing a wider audience to their perspectives.[4]

Criticism

As a black BreadTuber, Kat Blaque has criticized the scarcity of them and argues the valuation of her work depends on white audiences. BreadTuber Kyle Kulinski (Secular Talk) has said that infighting in the community has made it "politically impotent and ineffectual".[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Alexander, Julia (January 31, 2020). "Carlos Maza is back on YouTube and ready to fight" (in en). https://www.theverge.com/tech/2020/1/31/21112724/carlos-maza-steven-crowder-vox-youtube-harassment-policies-breadtube. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Koenigsdorff, Simon (January 13, 2020). "Youtube: Auf der anderen Seite die linken Influencer" (in de-DE). https://blog.zeit.de/teilchen/2020/01/13/youtube-influencer-linke-social-media/. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Citarella, Joshua (September 12, 2020). "Marxist memes for TikTok teens: can the internet radicalize teenagers for the left?" (in en). http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/12/marxist-memes-tiktok-teens-radical-left. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Kuznetsov, Dmitry; Ismangil, Milan (January 13, 2020). "YouTube as Praxis? On BreadTube and the Digital Propagation of Socialist Thought" (in en-US). TripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique 18 (1): 204–218. doi:10.31269/triplec.v18i1.1128. ISSN 1726-670X. https://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/1128. Retrieved July 3, 2020. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Fuchs, Christian (2021). Social Media: A Critical Introduction (3rd ed.). SAGE Publications. pp. 199–200. ISBN 978-1-5297-5274-8. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Cotter, Kelley (2022-03-18). "Practical knowledge of algorithms: The case of BreadTube" (in en). New Media & Society 26 (4): 2131–2150. doi:10.1177/14614448221081802. ISSN 1461-4448. 
  7. ↑ Roose, Kevin (February 12, 2020). "A Thorn in YouTube's Side Digs In Even Deeper" (in en-US). https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/12/technology/carlos-maza-youtube-vox.html. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Amin, Shaan (July 2, 2019). "Can the Left Win YouTube?". The New Republic. ISSN 0028-6583. https://newrepublic.com/article/154399/can-left-win-youtube. Retrieved July 3, 2020. 
  9. ↑ Roose, Kevin (April 30, 2020). "Three: Mirror Image". Rabbit Hole (Podcast). The New York Times. Retrieved July 3, 2020.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Lee, Alexander Mitchell (March 8, 2021). "Meet BreadTube, the YouTube activists trying to beat the far-right at their own game" (in en). http://theconversation.com/meet-breadtube-the-youtube-activists-trying-to-beat-the-far-right-at-their-own-game-156125. 
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Mniestri, Aikaterini; Gekker, Alex (October 5, 2020). "Temporal Frames for Platform Publics: The Platformization of Breadtube" (in en). AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research. doi:10.5210/spir.v2020i0.11281. ISSN 2162-3317. https://journals.uic.edu/ojs/index.php/spir/article/view/11281. Retrieved November 19, 2021. 
  12. ↑ Maughan, Philip (April 14, 2021). "The World According to ContraPoints" (in en). https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/contrapoints-natalie-wynn-interview/. 
  13. ↑ Williams, Wil (June 1, 2021). "The video essays that spawned an entire YouTube genre". Polygon. https://www.polygon.com/22417320/best-video-essays-youtube-history. Retrieved August 11, 2021. 
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Somos, Christy (October 25, 2019). "Dismantling the 'Alt-Right Playbook': YouTuber explains how online radicalization works" (in en). https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/article/dismantling-the-alt-right-playbook-youtuber-explains-how-online-radicalization-works/. 
  15. ↑ Cross, Katherine (August 24, 2018). "The Oscar Wilde of YouTube fights the alt-right with decadence and seduction" (in en). https://www.theverge.com/tech/2018/8/24/17689090/contrapoints-youtube-natalie-wynn. 
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 Ellingham, Miles (January 17, 2021). "The rise of BreadTube: The battle for the soul of the internet" (in en). https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/long-reads/breadtube-gamergate-twitch-online-politics-streamers-b1765156.html. 
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 Roose, Kevin (June 8, 2019). "The Making of a YouTube Radical (Published 2019)" (in en-US). The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/08/technology/youtube-radical.html. 
  18. ↑ Lindsay Ellis [@thelindsayellis] (November 10, 2020). "Someone tell this person that breadtube isn't a thing.". https://twitter.com/thelindsayellis/status/1326207223077335041. 
  19. ↑ Shaun [@shaun_vids] (March 25, 2020). "do not send me messages about 'breadtube' drama. or 'breadtube' generally. its a fake group with arbitrary, subjective membership". https://twitter.com/shaun_vids/status/1242617649193979905. 
  20. ↑ Natalie Wynn [@ContraPoints] (February 23, 2021). "I encourage my audience to drop the label 'BreadTube'.". https://twitter.com/ContraPoints/status/1364059709456711680. 
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Camarano, Arthur Corrêa (May 3, 2023). "A esquerda que não teme dizer seu nome na internet" (in pt-BR). https://blogfca.pucminas.br/colab/influenciadores-comunistas-na-internet/. 
  22. ↑ Caetano, Guilherme; Gomes, Bianca (October 15, 2023). "Dos títulos apelativos à bandeira do Brasil, youtubers de esquerda crescem com o uso da estética bolsonarista" (in pt-br). https://oglobo.globo.com/blogs/sonar-a-escuta-das-redes/post/2023/10/dos-titulos-apelativos-a-bandeira-do-brasil-youtubers-de-esquerda-crescem-com-o-uso-da-estetica-bolsonarista.ghtml. 
  23. ↑ Cordeiro, Tiago (September 1, 2020). "Quem são os "influencers" de esquerda que levam o marxismo para as redes sociais" (in pt-BR). https://www.gazetadopovo.com.br/ideias/quem-sao-os-influencers-de-esquerda-que-levam-o-marxismo-para-as-redes-sociais/. 
  24. ↑ Sayuri, Juliana (October 5, 2021). "Os bastidores do Boteco Comunista, a live de youtubers de esquerda" (in pt-BR). UOL. https://tab.uol.com.br/noticias/redacao/2021/05/10/os-bastidores-do-boteco-comunista-a-live-de-jovens-youtubers-de-esquerda.htm. 
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Gaglioni, Cesar (December 28, 2023). "A onda de influenciadores comunistas nas redes" (in pt-br). https://www.nexojornal.com.br/expresso/2022/09/03/a-onda-de-influenciadores-comunistas-nas-redes. 
  26. ↑ Gonzalez, Mariana (October 17, 2020). "Senhorita Bira: da prostituição às aulas de sociologia no YouTube" (in pt-br). https://www.uol.com.br/universa/noticias/redacao/2020/10/17/jovem-ensina-sociologia-unindo-o-que-aprendeu-da-academia-a-prostituicao.htm. 
  27. ↑ Bastos, Márcio (May 10, 2020). "Conheça Thiago Guimarães, youtuber que une cultura pop, humor, política e filosofia" (in pt-BR). JC. https://jc.ne10.uol.com.br/cultura/2020/05/5608695-conheca-thiago-guimaraes--youtuber-que-une-cultura-pop--humor--politica-e-filosofia.html. 
  28. ↑ Paiva, Letícia (October 20, 2019). "Conheça Rita von Hunty, a drag queen que ensina sociologia no YouTube" (in pt-BR). https://claudia.abril.com.br/sua-vida/conheca-rita-von-hunty-a-drag-queen-que-ensina-sociologia-no-youtube/. 
  29. ↑ Paulo, São (December 14, 2022). "A situação da classe trabalhadora na internet" (in pt-BR). https://averdade.org.br/2022/12/a-situacao-da-classe-trabalhadora-na-internet/. 



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