Welcoem to posts!!
in the future - u will be able to do some more stuff here,,,!! like pat catgirl- i mean um yeah... for now u can only see others's posts :c
Hello everyone. Been a while!
I wrote an update for you all, but it's apparently too long for the Community tab, so you can read it by clicking this pastebin link below.
pastebin.com/wSffGxJ1
I hope you all are happy and healthy, and remain so for the entirety of the new year.
In solidarity,
Barak
50 - 9
4 Years
This month marks four years since I uploaded my first political essay to YouTube. In previous years, I would have celebrated today with a public stream. Instead I'm going to clock in at my job in a few minutes and probably be working until the middle of the night.
I have no idea if it was COVID, my co-op, my job, my own attitudes - or a combination of everything - that got in the way, but I feel I'm at an impasse with this channel. I have no desire or energy to produce anything in the near future, and that means I can't justify accepting monthly payments on Patreon any longer. Today Iām going to un-launch my Patreon page, meaning I will no longer be able to accept payments or new Patrons, but that my Patreon page will still exist if I choose to re-launch it at a later date.
I started writing for YouTube because I my soul demanded that I use the skills I honed for years as a writer to make an impact. The response I received to my videos was a revelation. It forever dispelled the mystery that my words could have impact if I built up the courage to speak. In many ways, I consider my experiment with Patreon and YouTube to be a resounding success.
The problem is now my soul is demanding something else. It's demanding that I stop shouldering so much responsibility for the world. It's demanding that I rest and reflect on what I accomplished in the last four years, and asking myself if I really have to desire to continue work of this difficulty. It's demanding that I correct an imbalance in my being. I have been letting the mental side of myself run rampant while neglecting my physical and emotional sides. I feel that a period of my life that was intensely devoted to public education and community building - at the expense of my own health - is ending.
My intentions now are to save up for a cross-country move that I hope will take place in 10 months. I'll be leaving Texas after 29 years and experiencing a new state and a new city. Perhaps the change of surroundings will provide the inspiration to reinvent my approach to this type of content and return to YouTube. Or maybe it will be the beginning of a new chapter in my life focused on recovery and discovery of new sides of myself. Only time will tell.
Truthfully, I don't believe I will ever walk away from writing forever. Persuasive writing is literally the foremost skill I've trained throughout my life. The problems I speak about in my videos aren't going away, and as time marches on, I believe their relevance will only be enhanced. I will always feel the urge to explain and elucidate complex ideas in ways that others cannot or will not. And so, I believe this isn't really the end for this channel, but maybe this iteration of this channel.
For my Patrons, I want to humbly thank you for your support over the last four years. You all are genuinely some of the most supportive and understanding individuals I've ever had the pleasure of meeting and speaking to. You all honestly kept me alive during COVID when I was furloughed and my job was shut down, and I tried to pay that kindness back with weekly streams and loads of notes and documents. With your permission, I'll be hanging on to your email addresses in the event that I return to creating content, and I'll alert you when I decide to re-launch my Patreon page. If you don't want me to do that, just message me.
For my subscribers on YouTube and other platforms, thank you sincerely for all the views, comments and shares over the past four years. I hope that the videos I made continue to serve as a useful resource for you while this channel enters a hiatus.
In solidarity,
Barak
51 - 11
Thank you all for 200,000 views on This Is Neoliberalism Part 1! I never thought I would ever get 200K views on a video in my life. Great milestone for me.
In solidarity,
Barak
41 - 8
Going live in one hour!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrjjy...
Join my live stream where I'm going to be talking about the future of the channel in terms of video content, Patreon support and even bigger ideas not mentioned in my most recent video!
5 - 0
Hi all. I'm running a little bit late on the video but I will have it out this evening. The stream on February 7th has been scheduled as well.
10 - 0
Hello everyone. I would like to announce I will have a new video published on my channel seven days from today.
However, this is not going to be a normal video that explores a particular idea or time in history. Instead it is going to be a basic persuasive appeal to join my growing Patreon community and help me achieve independence from conventional employment - at a time when conventional systems are failing many of us.
To be completely transparent, I have not received any unemployment assistance since November, meaning Patreon is actually my sole income at the moment. I'm perfectly capable of finding other work, but finding work is ultimately time spent away from this channel and its development. My goal since the onset of this channel has been to one day treat it as my sole occupation, and with the help of YouTube subscribers like yourself, that goal is actually quite attainable.
Because my expenses are actually quite low compared to the average American, I can live comfortably on around $1,250 per month. This would only require 1,250 of my roughly ~9,240 YouTube subscribers or the ~7,000 viewers of This Is Neoliberalism Part 5 to become Patrons. To make it even better, because I already graciously receive roughly $260 per month from 47 absolute champions on Patreon, that number is even further reduced. If 1,000 subscribers began donating $1 per month, I would be free to produce content for the channel at a much faster rate, including content on topics other than Neoliberalism.
I do want to save some of the argument for the video itself, so I'll stop there.
Look forward to the video on Sunday, January 31st. The basic pitch for becoming a Patron will also be followed by a stream one week after, on Sunday, February 7th at noon Central Time, where I will make an even more detailed persuasive case for becoming a Patron, with a long-term view of the future. Viewers will have the chance to ask me questions about my future content and long-term plans in the stream.
The link to my Patreon campaign is below. I have tweaked my Patron reward tiers this morning based on feedback from my Patrons, and I'll be working today to make sure those rewards are fulfilled for any new Patrons that join today.
www.patreon.com/barakalypsenow
Thank you all so much for reading. This might be the most important update to the channel I've put on YouTube so I do hope you all consider it.
In solidarity,
Barak
20 - 1
Thanks to everyone who joined me for the live stream last night! Unfortunately I completely forgot to mention that Films For Action will be airing one episode of This Is Neoliberalism per night starting on October 12th and ending on October 16th! You can join the nightly showings on their Facebook page at 8pm central time each night!
www.facebook.com/filmsforaction/
25 - 1
Thank you to everyone who joined to watched the premiere of This Is Neoliberalism Part 5 last night! It was a fun way to introduce a new video to the channel.
Be sure to keep an eye out for another stream scheduled for October 10th at 7pm central time, where we will be chatting about the episode and about the future of the channel in general.
Hope everyone is having a good week!
In solidarity,
Barak
43 - 2
Hello everyone. If you are an Activist or Revolutionary tier patron or above you can go check the Google Doc link of my Part 5 draft and read my most recently completed version. I think this is the draft I'll be going with. It may receive minor changes during recording but nothing major I don't think. I'm not linking it here since I'm trying to retain it's value for higher tier patrons, but if you are a $5 or $10 patron and haven't received a link to it in the past, let me know and I will send it to you.
I intend for the video to be published 10/1.
In solidarity,
Barak
15 - 1
Hello everyone. The channel is past due for an update so here is where I'm at.
I was furloughed from my job in mid-March and it seems very unlikely that I will get my job back any time soon. I am in a stable living situation though.
It has taken me about 5 months to find my equilibrium under quarantine. I spent the first several months figuring out how to live with the coronavirus pandemic along with everyone else. Coronavirus, the George Floyd protests, and now Trump's use of unidentified agents in Portland have made concentration very difficult for me. Even after my stream on May 1st, I was mostly spending my time rethinking my daily habits and trying to improve on the basics like eating well, sleeping well and fighting a sedentary lifestyle.
That doesn't mean I haven't made progress on Part 5. I'm doing my due diligence and taking even more detailed notes on my readings than I have on previous episodes. There are a lot of different characters and timelines to follow in the next episode, and it will be especially tricky to weave them all together.
I just finished battling some pretty catastrophic computer issues that required me to buy some new parts and rebuild it. The whole process took about two weeks. No files or progress on Neoliberalism Part 5 were lost. Now that my computer is back, I'm going to try and close the book on Part 5 as soon as I can.
Hope everyone is healthy and safe.
In solidarity,
Barak
45 - 12
I write educational analyses of complex issues in contemporary politics, history and news.
BarakalypseNow is a quadruple entendre. It's a play on the famous war movie Apocalypse Now mixed with my name (Barak), it's my YouTube channel focused on news and politics, and it's my personal state of outrage at the state of the world. The Barakalypse marks the end of the world of corruption, greed and senseless violence! But, a deeper definition of "apocalypse" makes it more synonymous with a revelation, or a great dispensing of clarity, rather than a cataclysmic end of the world. This channel is my way of bringing on the apocalypse.