Everything is a Remix 2021 Trailer
Prepare for lift-off, folks!
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UP NEXT: "Everything is a Remix" begins anew!
UP NEXT: “EVERYTHING IS A REMIX” BEGINS ANEW.
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On the Merits of Getting Lost... and What's Next
I worked on a project for 8 years. In this video I talk about what that was like, what I learned and I announce what's next.
In case you missed it, my series about Joe Rogan and Alex Jones is now complete. I’m proud of this work, it packs in a lot of insight and it has jokes. Check it out.
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Buy This is Not a Conspiracy Theory
Buy This is Not a Conspiracy Theory on Blu-ray
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FREEDOM OF SPEECH! CENSORSHIP! SLIPPERY SLOPES!
The final episode of my series about the bizarre relationship between one of the internet's most awful people and his hugely influential enabler. Come back me on Patreon to help me make more vids!
NEW VID: JOE ROGAN IS A LOST CAUSE
My latest explores Joe Rogan's weird alliance with one of the internet's worst people. (Please note: this video features some gross stuff.)
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Poster Clearance Sale
Copy-Transform-Combine Posters are now on clearance sale
COPY-TRANSFORM-COMBINE posters are now on clearance sale! They cost a mere $7.50, which is 75% off their regular price of $30. These are top-quality, screenprinted posters featuring Everything is a Remix's central tenet, "Copy Transform Combine." They are 24x36 inches (61x91.5 cm) and are available in three colors: Coffee, Blue-Grey, and Dark Blue. It should fit nicely in any home or office environment. Get yours now before society collapses!
A poster sighting in the wild
Another poster sighting in the wild
Rogan Vs. Jones: The Ultimate Analysis
In my latest video, I treat Joe Rogan’s interview with Alex Jones with a seriousness and rigor it does not deserve.
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2020: My Year in Review
2020 was nobody’s favorite year and yet, it was a good year for my endeavors. In a surreal plot twist, the near-decade of work I’ve been doing in conspiracy culture suddenly became highly relevant. The bizarre claims and reasoning I’ve been neck-deep in for years emerged as a dominant force in American culture. I was ready to contribute to the conversation, I did, and I’ve still got plenty more to say.
Here’s everything I produced this year. I think some of my very best work is in this lot.
First and foremost, I finished This is Not a Conspiracy Theory! This brain-busting mega-doc was in production for eight years. You can buy it here right now and it should be appearing on additional platforms in the near future. If you backed the Kickstarter, DVDs and Blu-rays are in the works. You can watch the trailer/opening of This is Not a Conspiracy Theory below.
I then put out “Everything is a Remix: Reality” which uses the copy-transform-combine paradigm to explain how we make sense of the world and media. It was a Staff Pick on Vimeo.
After reading Enchanted America by J. Eric Oliver and Thomas J. Wood, I was inspired to make ”Trump, QAnon and The Return of Magic.” This is the most popular video I’ve made in a while and it was also a Staff Pick on Vimeo. And it was briefly banned on YouTube!
The success of “The Return of Magic” led to my first commission for The New York Times, “What Can You Do About QAnon?”. If QAnon has found its way to your family or friends, this video offers insights and solace.
My last video of the year was “Constantly Wrong: The Case Against Conspiracy Theories,” which synthesized much of what I’ve learned about conspiracy theories in recent years. It’s a different and spicier take on conspiracy theories than the one in This is Not a Conspiracy Theory.
To close out this year, I’ve just written “Rogan vs Jones: The Ultimate Analysis,” which deconstructs the popular Joe Rogan interview of Alex Jones. This is a deep, deep, way-too-deep dive into this unintentionally informative conversation. It got so big, I’ve broken it into parts, the first of which will premiere early next year.
It’s been a big year filled with big conversations and I hope I’ve had some small positive influence. I couldn’t have done it without all of you. Thank you so much for your support. If you’d like to help me make more videos, come back me on Patreon. Or buy an Everything is a Remix shirt or buy This is Not a Conspiracy Theory.
CONSTANTLY WRONG: THE CASE AGAINST CONSPIRACY THEORIES
CONSTANTLY WRONG: THE CASE AGAINST CONSPIRACY THEORIES is now live! In this video I cover how conspiracy theories are not like real conspiracies, the profound truth within Bandersnatch and Sliding Doors, and how to fix everything.
You can get my feature doc This is Not a Conspiracy Theory here for just $5!
Trump, QAnon and the Return of Magic
I just released a new mini doc, TRUMP, QANON AND THE RETURN MAGIC. It's a deep dive into the topsy turvy world of Trump, QAnon, 5G, Covid, vaccines, Satanism and more. You'll also find out about the epic clash between Magical Thinkers and Evidence Seekers.
Everything is a Remix: Reality
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Get Everything is a Remix merch here: everythingisaremix.info/merch/
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TRANSCRIPT
Everything is a remix. Every song, every movie, every meme, every idea, every invention, every discovery. Everything we create is copied, transformed and combined from our culture.
And just like our creations are remixed from the world around us, our beliefs are remixed from what we watch, read and listen to.
And this is a disturbing idea. It’s one thing to remix a song or a story or a product, it’s another to remix... yourself, your identity. It’s like programming yourself… without really knowing it.
The number of paths you can choose from is endless and each one leads to a different version of yourself.
Our mediascape is an infinity of rabbit holes. You can disappear into any one you like, and when you awaken from the spell, you've changed. You've absorbed new ideas and they've altered who you are. Repeat this process over and over and over, and your identity can be transformed.
If you're not aware of what’s happening, you can get fooled. You can get lied to, you can get exploited, you can become cannon fodder in someone else's culture war.
But even more importantly, you can fool yourself. You can repeatedly choose more and more extreme rabbit holes and fall deeper and deeper into an illusion you chose, into a hall of mirrors where what's reflected back is your own darkest fantasies.
Many of us are plummeting into crowdsourced nightmares about Bill Gates or 5G or the deep state.
How can we prevent ourselves from getting lost in the funhouse?
To keep a grip on reality, you need to be aware of how you make sense of media and the world. Having awareness, whether it's of your habits or your emotions or your biases, gives you back some power and lets you make wiser choices.
And the first thing you need to be aware of is where our sensemaking starts. It starts with patterns.
What media does, all media, is shrink reality way, way, way down into a digestible size. You can’t drink directly from the firehose. Each media outlet features stories it feels are important and from these selections we spot patterns. Vox gives you one type of pattern, Breitbart gives you another, PBS Newshour gives you yet another. And when you use social media, you're making the pattern yourself, with each click, with each follow, with each like.
These patterns feel convincing, they feel real. But they're actually just repetitions you spotted from a tiny selection of events.
You then set about distorting what these patterns mean. You turn them into little stories that help you understand and remember.
And in the process you sensationalize them, you turn them into juicier stories. You generalize and exaggerate. You strip away nuance and contradictions, and you add conflict and drama. Then you share these stories based not just on their truth or their importance but based on what they make you feel, and much of the time that feeling is anger.
This process of simplification and distortion then produces a master narrative. It produces an ideology. You turn into some version of conservative or liberal or libertarian or progressive or increasingly now, we’re turning into conspiracists.
Your ideology, this highly imperfect contraption that you remixed, probably without even being aware of it, then molds what you see, it puts a spin on everything. Different people can see the exact same thing and draw opposite conclusions.
Ideology is like a program you’re now running. We like to blame the media for programming us, but we’re just as responsible. We develop our ideologies ourselves over the years and decades, based on what we choose to watch, read and listen to.
By just being aware of this process, we can see how meager and lacking our perception of the world is. Our ideology is a simplification of a simplification of a simplification.
Knowing this can help us be more modest and less defensive. It can make us more willing to learn from perspectives that contradict ours.
But most importantly of all, it justifies us having some small measure of doubt about our own beliefs. Critical thinking isn't just about doubting everybody else. It's about doubting yourself.
Conspiracy theories and nonsense and extremism and lies cannot tolerate doubt. They can't absorb criticism and grow. The truth defeats or incorporates our doubts and grows stronger with time.
In the end, the truth wins… eventually.
SOURCES
Audio
DJ Shadow, “Building Steam With a Grain of Salt [Alternate Take]” (2005)
spoti.fi/2NKXcGe
apple.co/2VOs9xZ
De La Soul, “Say No Go” (1989)
amzn.to/2NElLVs
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, “Objects in Mirror (Are Closer Than They Appear)” (2019)
spoti.fi/3eNJajb
apple.co/2CT38e9
Michael Andrews, “Goldfish” (2005)
spoti.fi/3g7ab18
apple.co/3eMu7WN
Video
Straight Outta Compton (2015) amzn.to/2YQw4fD
Everything is a Remix (2015) everythingisaremix.info
Neil Gaiman, Masterclass (2019) masterclass.com/
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Mr. Robot (2015) amzn.to/3dR3m25
Westworld (2016) hbo.com/westworld
Vertigo (1958) amzn.to/38fJa93
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) amzn.to/3io2sxV
Alice in Wonderland (2010) amzn.to/2BSWBzP
Alice (1988) amzn.to/2CVRoYu
Get Out (2017) amzn.to/3dTTjK1
Now You See Me (2013) amzn.to/3eNFTjT
Pinocchio (1940) amzn.to/2NI8U4z
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) amzn.to/3eNsGr3
Enemy at the Gates (2001) amzn.to/31tCNO8
Saving Private Ryan (1998) amzn.to/3g8efy4
Memento (2000) amzn.to/2BoOjQb
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Dredd (2012) amzn.to/2VyDBNN
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) amzn.to/3gbEm7j
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Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) amzn.to/3dNAU12
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The Lady from Shanghai (1947) amzn.to/2VspoSH
Sweet Charity (1969) amzn.to/3dJGIJ3
Under the Skin (2013) amzn.to/38fLexP
Alice in Wonderland (1951) amzn.to/3ghsWyT
Halt and Catch Fire (2014) netflix.com/title/70302182
Visitors (2013) amzn.to/2BoLGxP
WarGames (1983) amzn.to/3eLxeyg
The Matrix (1999) amzn.to/31wODqA
Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! (2007) amzn.to/3dHU2O1
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) amzn.to/3gdRitz
Alien (1979) amzn.to/3eOoyaz
The Empire Strikes Back (1980) amzn.to/3eOoyXQ
The Karate Kid (1984) amzn.to/31wjvru
Boyhood (2014) amzn.to/31vrnJH
The X Files (1998) amzn.to/3gerq0M
Visitors (2013) amzn.to/2BoLGxP
TRON: Legacy (2010) amzn.to/2VxvnW6
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989) amzn.to/31tEB9S
UHF (1989) amzn.to/3eMrZ1f
Dear White People (2017) netflix.com/title/80095698?source=35
Under the Skin (2013) amzn.to/38fLexP
Eighth Grade (2018) amzn.to/2Vzyc9j
Poltergeist (1982) amzn.to/3iriFlU
Nightcrawler (2014) amzn.to/2NIChDQ
Carl Sagan, Cosmos (1980) amzn.to/2Zp47ub
Barton Fink (1991) amzn.to/2YMJEQR
Network (1976) amzn.to/2YLdlSi
Watchmen (2019) hbo.com/watchmen
Wonder Woman (2017) amzn.to/2Zrdzx0
The Avengers (2012) amzn.to/2BoLjTW
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019) amzn.to/38h76co
Dear White People (2017) netflix.com/title/80095698?source=35
This is Not a Conspiracy Theory (2020) thisisnotaconspiracytheory.com
Visitors (2013) amzn.to/2BoLGxP
Westworld (2016) hbo.com/westworld
TRON: Legacy (2010) amzn.to/2VxvnW6
Sorry to Bother You (2018) amzn.to/2NKNQKB
Devs (2020) hulu.com/series/devs-fd2f6cc3-dafc-4741-ae2e-d86494f3ca51
Inside Out (2015) amzn.to/3eYPrs8
Eighth Grade (2018) amzn.to/2Vzyc9j
Poltergeist (1982) amzn.to/3iriFlU
Nightcrawler (2014) amzn.to/2NIChDQ
Dear White People (2017) netflix.com/title/80095698?source=35
Leave No Trace (2018) amzn.to/38edkcQ
The Staggering Girl (2019) mubi.com/t/web/global/43y3rxz
F for Fake (1973) amzn.to/3gpvT0L
Undone (2019) amzn.to/2BeQRjX
Avengers: Endgame (2019) amzn.to/2VBosvo
Dark City (1998) amzn.to/38fn06K
Ema (2019) mubi.com/t/web/global/43y3rxz
This is Not a Conspiracy Theory Final Cut Now Live
I am thrilled to announce that the final cut of This is Not a Conspiracy Theory is now live! This cut features a new and updated opening, visual improvements to the first couple episodes, a new audio mix and a variety of tweaks. This is the definitive version of This is Not a Conspiracy Theory and it's what will be burned to blu-ray and DVD. Run time is 94 minutes. (Click here if you purchased with Vimeo on Demand.)
This is Not a Conspiracy Theory also has a brand new trailer. Please share it far and wide!
Up next I'm producing subtitles and one final, closing-up-shop video in which I'll discuss what I've learned on this eight-year journey and say good-bye.