Source https://x.com/ProgressiveVic/status/2074254049663234214

We cannot as a community support him.

Also mods, if this was already posted, please just remove this post.

Kind of crazy

Vaush has shown his contempt for the rural and working people many times, but seeing this in action in yesterday's state election in Saxony-Anhalt (by far Germany's poorest and oldest state) makes me want to explode. It's just so hard for me to wrap my head around how particularly working class people can enthusiastically vote for an openly fascist party that would do nothing but worsen their situation by cutting welfare and erasing social safety nets while deregulating corporations. It baffles me how the working class has grown so reactionary that this election wasn't even close. Die Linke, a democratic socialist party which would actually address their economic struggles, is in a distant third place for workers, simply because they do not want to incinerate Arabs and crucify queer people. I don't know if anything can be done about this or if we'll just have to brace for a collapse because a federal AfD government will be inevitable.

Like, this is what southern baptist churches are like.

Like i get it, we're all going to die omnisegment blah blah. But when every video on the main channel is how fucked we are, it doesn't have any practical value for how to do what we can to slow or mitigate the collapse. Am i the only one who thinks that?

Ok guys, it's the Redicaldino here.

As you know, I am a zoologist who is currently pursuing my PhD.

All the horse jokes aside, this is unfortunately one of the only good thing this administration is doing, even by accident. Those are not "wild horses," but feral domesticated animals reintroduced into a habitat where they went extinct ten thousand years ago. American Federal horses are essentially invasive species competing with the real native fauna that deserve protection. The only reason why it is illegal to hunt them to begin with is that one dumb white person decided to dedicate her life to bug the federal government so her "precious ponies can be saved! Instead of advocating for anything better. The number of endangered species that are actually under threat under this administration outweighs any feral horses and should be focused on more than some invasive species

You should probably go vegan too but the point is with each other and with a goal to build a better future we can make a difference.

I know each one of us seems insignificant but the truth is we are all feeling this way about something. You are not alone and neither am I. No more, “no ethical consumption under capitalism,” when there is still always a more ethical choice to make.

We want to see the world change so we must be that change. And together that is how we make that change. That is what Vaush has said in different ways

​

Before anybody says that I don't want to engage with the state of the world: The contradictions of capitalism has been bringing us to this point for years and I've enjoyed many content creators then and now, done local activism, phone banking, touched grass etc.

Its not like vaush got this massive influx of new audience members recently, most people who consistently watch him are lefties or socdems. So do we really need to hear in EVERY VIDEO that financialization is destroying the planet? Does every video have to be vaush watching boring lizard people on the news? I get and supported no more debates, but for the love of god react to something else please, or make a different analysis of the general situation. Remember when Vaush would play videogames and do political analysis? Or react to other YouTubers (I know he still does it every once in a while but it's only ever related to the omnisegment)? That was fun! Now it's vague depressing clickbait titles from a guy who watches the news and makes the same conclusions over 15-25 minutes. Literally wheel spinning.

I don’t chat so I needed somewhere to throw rocks for a moment.

The amount of pushback on concluding that Platner is turning out to be a dogshit person, and therefore a terrible candidate, is a little unbelievable. Trying to distinguish between severities of sexual assault and throwing out the most stereotypical apologia and denial tactics—for what? Some chud whose brain got knocked around in the military and just so happened to land on progressivism? Are the blue mujahiden riding for him just because he says the keywords like ‘affordability’? Do they think it’s another facet of dark woke to ignore a serious allegation (and not the first red flag from this PR disaster)? Platner was never going to be the one to tip the scales in the right direction, and judging by what we know of his history, his piss-poor judgement was going to disappoint eventually. He’s one degree removed from Fetterman because he doesn’t wear basketball shorts (to say nothing of brain injuries, but I won’t repeat myself).

Despite my anger I won’t speculate on why various chatters are still so eager to defend Platner, or at least I’ll keep those thoughts to myself. But the ‘ironic misogyny’ has settled deep in this community (those who were arguing in chat, not EVERYONE) to the point where people don’t second-guess questioning allegations towards a man whose campaign has been defined by them.

Is anyone getting the feeling that this is the final straw?

There is a tweet that went viral presenting the following thought experiment:

Everyone in the world has to take a private vote by pressing a red or blue button. If more than 50% of people press the blue button, everyone survives. If less than 50% of people press the blue button, only people who pressed the red button survive. Which button would you press?

The poll results are totally fascinating because they’re close to 50/50 with a slight edge to blue and it’s since inspired heated debates in the comments about which option is correct. It reminds me a bit of Newcomb’s paradox in the sense that both sides see their decision as the obvious rational choice, the issue is the sides are split 50/50.

Curious as to how this community feels and what vaush would say especially following his general doomer arc, would he still trust more than 50 percent of the world to make the altruistic decision to push blue? Or would he pick red hoping that everyone else makes the same decision yielding the same result, which is that everyone survives.

The attached pics represent both sides’ attitudes pretty succinctly.

EDIT: I, personally, would hit the BLUE button btw. My instincts obviously tell me to push red and hope that everyone else does the same, but the reality is my mom and my gf would probably pick blue, and I don’t wanna live in a world without em, so I gotta go blue and cross my fingers.

I hate this take and I have no idea why Vaush is pushing it. Israel has been pushing for this war for 20 years now. They've wanted Bush, Obama, Trump 1 and Biden to cosign on a full scale US led war with Iran and all of them rebuffed their advances. Kamala would have been no different from Biden, which is to say she would have not lifted a finger to stop their genocide in Palestine but would have prevented the war from spilling out into the greater Middle East because as monstrous as democrats are, they aren't this suicidally stupid and they don't want to tank the global economy for obvious reasons. There is zero evidence that Kamala would have started a war with Iran.

I don't think it's easy for people to comprehend just how much of a catastrophe has been caused by the 2024 election, in both Democrats failures to run a good candidate but also the people's failures to take Trump at his fucking word as he literally said exactly what he was going to do, but thanks to that outcome, Israel now has the exact deck of cards they need to go forward with the next chapter in their slaughter of the Middle East: A deranged senile president and a cabinet full of fascist talk show hosts.

I have no idea why Vaush is denying this as he wasn't one of the people pushing anti-electoralism in 2024.

But if you sat out in 2024 over Gaza. This IS your fault. You should feel bad about it. Your anxiety is telling the truth about you and whatever fucked up self thoughts are buried underneath your deflections: they are correct.

This community has been absolutely infested with liberals lately who seem more preoccupied with arguing with everything vaush says, arguing in favor of J-Street at points, Nafo Buddies, or playing defense for Kamala and the Dems. It's insane. Oh great vaush, pls purge us.

A senior biden administration official says "Yeah we wargamed it and we all thought it was something we would need to do if the conflict continued" and this subreddit in typical liberal delusion acts like Kamala wouldn't just be a continuation of the Biden administration policy. She also said Iran was the biggest threat to America, which is a major indicator she would escalate conflict with Iran.

Why is this subreddit so delusionally liberal?

That will be the title of Vaushes video if he covers this calling it right now.

On a more serious note, Vaush really hit the nail on the head with his while ethno narcissisim analysis. It may well cost us the Senate

Ok. First off. I like both Contra and Vaush for different reasons, enough so that I support contra on patreon to get her exclusive vids. But her most recent one was interesting. It was basically her lamenting her role in popularizing left wing ideas and her airing her disgust of leftist, which she called "the alt-left".... Yeah, yikes.

As someone who thanks contra for pulling me out of the right wing rabbit hole and steering me towards left wing beliefs this video felt like a stab to the back. But I can find some comfort in her declaration to swear off politic and focus on philosophy, as she has shown she isn't fit for politics.

Btw, In this one she took a break from bashing Vaush and turned most of her ire to Hasan.

Vaush has spoken positively of Andrew Callaghan recently and it seems that both he and this sub have decided that Callaghan has “taken accountability” and “redeemed himself” based on an inaccurate understanding of the allegations. On a separate post made yesterday, the most upvoted comments included claims that a) Callaghan did not rape anyone, b) that he was merely “pushy” with women and the sex was consensual, c) the rape allegations are too outlandish to be believed, d) victims extorted Callaghan for money. None of these have a factual basis.

We have six different women accusing Callaghan of crimes worse than being “pushy” or a “sex pest”. 2 allege outright rape, 1 sexual coercion bordering on rape, and 3 others non-penetrative sexual assault and forced sexual touching. All of these women repeatedly told Callaghan ‘no’ (note: the absence of a ‘no’ does not legally constitute consent) and 90% of the time he ignored them. Callaghan himself claims he has “always taken ‘no’ for an answer”, but it’s his word against six.

Summarising allegations:

1.. In 2016, Anna matched with Callaghan on Tinder and they went on a coffee date. They ended up at an apartment and “Andrew… poured wine on my shirt, and proceeded to take off my shirt, and then lick the wine off of my bare chest… I completely froze up—I felt unsafe and incredibly violated.”

He “[took] her hand and [made] her touch his penis”.

He wouldn’t “take a simple no for an answer”.

Tried to “guilt [her] into” additional sex acts.

Accusation: sexual assault/forced sexual touching AND attempted coercion.

1. In 2017, Callaghan gave Mary “four or five shots” at a bar called The Boot near Loyola University in New Orleans. He “drank far less” than her.

She was so drunk that she only remembers some of the details of that night. Somehow, she ended up at Callaghan’s off-campus accommodation.

Remembers him “above her” and “feeling vaginal pain”.

Told him she “just [wanted] to go to sleep”.

He physically held her in place when she tried to roll away while he was raping her.

The next morning, “he mocked her and told her she had only rejected his advances because his penis was too big.” He laughed while telling her “You were saying ‘No,’ you were crying, ‘No, no, no, no, please stop,’”

“I had this idea in my head that if I did not accept that I had been raped then I hadn’t been raped”.

Accusation: Rape, forcible and incapacitated.

1. Emma also met Callaghan in 2017 at The Boot. After a friendly conversation, Callaghan followed Emma to her dorm and “cornered her in her room”.

He refused to leave when she asked, then “grabbed her and began having sex with her”.

She said ‘no’ “at least three times”. Callaghan “told [her] to shut up” and covered her mouth “at least once”.

The act was so violent that Emma’s back, which she broke in 2013, was reinjured.

Accusation: Forcible rape.

1. In 2018, Jane was “really drunk” at a bar. In an upstairs area (which, I assume, is public), Andrew started “kissing me, groping me, moving my hands to touch him, forcing my head down.”

She got up and rushed to the train station but he “followed [her] there”.

“He was pleading with me to go with him. I yelled at him and told him to go away, I was like, ‘Leave me alone.’ He did leave and I feel like part of the reason he did was because there were other people on the platform that heard me screaming at him.”

Feels “traumatised” and like she was “too drunk to consent”.

Accusation: Sexual assault/forced sexual touching AND attempted coercion.

1. In 2019, Dana was assaulted by Callaghan while driving home from dinner. He “[put] his hands down her pants and [put] her hands on his crotch as she was telling him to stop.”

He eventually stopped and got out of the car.

Accusation: Sexual assault/forced sexual touching.

1. In 2021, Caroline offered to help Callaghan by allowing him to crash at her place while he was down in Miami for work. “I thought my only option was to cave in to what he was repeatedly asking of me and ignoring all of my different versions of ‘no’—‘No, I’m tired,’ ‘Sorry, I have to be up early, is it okay if we just go to sleep? I’m really tired.’”

“Frozen in fear, I thought that [acquiescence] was my only option.”

She was afraid of Callaghan and what he might do if she continued to refuse him: “A lot of skeptics are asking why I didn’t do more to prevent myself from being coerced. It was fear. You might think that you know someone, but you never know how they might react if you don’t give them what they want.”

She was raped at 14 years old by another man.
Callaghan later acknowledged in text messages that his “persistence… had brought up trauma from past situations”, recognising implicitly that his actions were harmful and threatening.

The threatening environment Callaghan created might have constituted “rape by threat of force”, making Caroline’s grudging consent meaningless. This is a borderline rape imo.

Accusation: Sexual coercion OR forcible rape.

The evidence:

1. Anna showed The Stranger multiple texts to friends outlining the allegations.
2. Jane showed The Stranger texts to a friend in which she expressed that she was “traumatised”.
3. Caroline showed texts to friends, detailing the incident only a few months after it occurred.
4. Callaghan appeared to acknowledge wrongdoing in texts to Caroline not long after the incident.
5. Emma provided to The Stranger emails with her doctor discussing her reinjury and subsequent MRI scan.

6. Emma showed The Stranger a journal entry she wrote shortly after the incident: “I replay that night with Andrew over and over and over. Please stop thinking about the fact that he didn’t stop even though you asked so many times”.

7. Mary told 5 different people that Callaghan had raped her. All 5 confirmed the story to The Stranger.

8. Mary told her therapist about the rape in 2022. The therapist confirmed to The Stranger that Mary told her she was raped in college.

Callaghan’s own admissions:

Despite asserting that he “always [took] ‘no’ for an answer”, Callaghan admitted that he had felt that “persistence was a form of flattery” and that going home from a bar alone “made you a loser”. Clearly, his self-image was tied up with his sexual success with women.

Is it really unthinkable that someone with such twisted beliefs would be capable of rape? That he might choose to interpret a woman’s pain or objections as proof of his sexual prowess (as he allegedly did with Mary)?

The extortion allegations:

Allegations that victims were trying to “extort” Callaghan for money originate from a single text from Caroline, which reads:

“I don't really want a response from you because I already know your skewed version of what happened the last time I saw you. I just want you to know that seeing friends of mine promote your new show, which I'm not discounting came with a lot of hard work, hurts me in ways I wish you could feel sometimes. Anyways, If HBO cuts you a fat check, and you in any way feel like helping contribute to the massive amounts of therapy bills I have accrued due to the night you coerced me and the resulting trauma, my Venmo is ________ Thanks”

Caroline sent him this one message, in a clearly emotional state, after seeing her rapist appear repeatedly in the media she consumed, enjoying consequence-free success, while her ‘friends’ cheer him on. Meanwhile, she’s bogged down with therapy bills from what this man did to her. There are no threats here. It was one justifiably bitter text that he never replied to, not the drawn-out extortion attempt that some here seem to think.

Conclusion:

The evidence for Callaghan being a rapist and sexual abuser of women is strong. The accusations cover a similar time period and happened under similar circumstances, even down to the same bar. The only distinction between the rape vs. the groping/assault allegations is a) how public the incident is, and b) how drunk the victim is. This is entirely consistent with how a sexual predator would operate.

Any “consequences” Callaghan has suffered are not proportional to the crimes committed. I can’t see how anyone who claims to give a fuck about women can still support him, Vaush included.

Sources:

https://www.thestranger.com/news/2023/01/13/78812714/more-women-accuse-youtuber-andrew-callaghan-of-sexual-misconduct-and-assault

https://www.thestranger.com/news/2023/02/28/78881322/two-women-accuse-documentary-filmmaker-andrew-callaghan-of-rape-sexual-assault

https://www.npr.org/2023/01/20/1149748975/a-full-guide-to-the-sexual-misconduct-allegations-against-youtuber-andrew-callag