LogFAQs > #974564828

More broadly regarding Critical Drinker; I've seen quite a few "cynical" branded youtube channels that talk about media. I'm sure opinions here are also mixed on them, but I don't think anyone can deny Adam of YMS or the people behind RedLetterMedia love film and filmmaking.

Their videos, positive or negative, pretty consistently demonstrate a passion for the medium and its many details - audio work, camera work, the careers of obscure actors, and such a love of film that they find genuine enjoyment even in really bad media that tends to be incompetent.

None of this is present in politically branded film channels I've come across that complain about "wokeism" or insist film has somehow materially gotten worse. They are not there to discuss film as a medium. They are there to complain and sell you a narrative that their hyperfocused and rigid definition of what a film "should" be isn't being met and that standard Hollywood schlock - a fixture of filmmaking for decades - is now somehow a source of cultural rot.

I can't say that people like Mauler or Critical Drinker or TheQuartering or whoever love films or have much knowledge of them. They seem to discover well-loved classics far after everyone else did because they spend so much time & energy doing the equivalent of tearing down a shitty Michael Bay movie.

They don't seek challenges, they await a lot of slop that comes out of the movie industry, get mad at it for views, profit off of a predictable & tired cycle, and continue doing the same thing ad infinitum because it's not about the movies. You can see it both in how bad their positive reviews tend to be compared to any of their far more intelligent contemporaries, but you can especially see it in the sheer volume of negative, venomously made content seemingly designed to make people mad.

This isn't to say you must like the youtubers I initially brought up, but the contrast is enormous and it feels entirely in line with the type of content Sargon of Akkad would make in 2015. They never grew up, they just want to be mad, and they fundamentally lack curiosity and want to relive nostalgia and nothing more.

Misery, a lack of creativity, a constant deferring to "Classics" with little desire to broaden ones horizons, etc. All of it defines these "Anti-woke" media channels. They all variably suck, not because they don't fit some vague leftist ideology, but because they are very abrasive, overconfident, and stupid people.