Plane, Puritan, GIF, Twitter, Toast
What If The Fourth Plane Hit?
AlternateHistoryHub | YouTube | 17th June 2018
Flight 93 was headed either for the Capitol or the White House—and neither of those buildings had been fully evacuated by the time it would have hit. In the White House alternate timeline, "the symbol of the American presidency is destroyed; instead of talking to the American people from the Oval Office, George W. Bush instead does it from a makeshift office somewhere in D.C" (9m 09s)
In Defense Of Puritanism
Atun-Shei Films | YouTube | 11th September 2021
What if the Puritans were not evil theocrats, but radical progressives? Their essentially utopian ideals—in stark contrast with the cynical, Original-Sin conservatism of Protestantism—set them apart as perhaps the only truly leftist Christian sect. Even makes the argument that the Salem Witch Trials were overblown...contentious, but fascinating, and well-put-together (1h 1m 36s)
The Viewer Classifieds
Tech Startup Mini-Documentary: Palmer Luckey created the modern VR industry with Oculus and now he's revolutionizing defense technology with Anduril. John Coogan tells his full story in this 23 minute mini-documentary: https://youtu.be/zVLcoJS4fCg
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Have Heart
Will Anderson | Vimeo | 11th September 2021
A day in the life of a looping animated GIF who begins to fall into an existential crisis. "Why aren't you close with me anymore?" his wife asks. "When our beaks overlap it kinda makes a circle," he responds. Despite the ultra-minimalist style, almost bears a resemblance to The Truman Show–the costs of living life in the public eye (12m 09s)
Twitter And Anti-Intellectualism
Big Joel | YouTube | 31st August 2021
Picking apart the nuances of Twitter discourse—a vegan's comparison of meat consumption to bestiality prompts a flurry of argument, and then further argument about that argument, some condemning the question itself. "In a lot of cases, it's genuinely easier to perform incredulity, to invent some harm, to produce a political other, than to just think about something for a while" (21m 10s)
Browser Video Of The Week: Ada Palmer
Ada Palmer is a cultural historian and the author of science fiction novels, including the award-winning Terra Ignota series. This week, she talks to Baiqu about big tech’s censorship problem, the false narrative of the singular hero in history, and Machiavelli's laundry (42m 19s)
Funny Video Of The Week
Thesis: You can make a professional-looking documentary about anything. (Including toast.)
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