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Woooo, we did it! A 4th-wall-breaking (or is it?) Tau Day video on manufactured controversy, suspension of disbelief, and, well, it got pretty intense there for a moment eh?

Here I thought it would be a nice relaxing easy 2-week video to make, but once I scheduled the time to think and write about all this stuff there just kept being more to think and write about. Getting it all coherent and edited down to "just" 14 minutes took some doing, but I'm happy with it and think it was worth the extra effort. 

I'm really glad I decided to spend a couple weeks to sort out my thoughts on this, since it's been bouncing around my head for a long time and I've had trouble articulating it before. Thank you for making me feel supported in taking that time!

Also... shirts. Shirts? Yep, shirts https://store.dftba.com/collections/vi-hart

I always feel weird about selling merch because, y'know, if I wanted a job selling tshirts it would probably be less stressful to just actually sell tshirts as my job, not try to be a new media artist and also sell tshirts too. But DFTBA continues to be a supportive partner who holds my hand through it and got this together in a single day, and I've realized that selling merch won't just get me the extra cash I need to make up the difference, but it also takes the pressure off of y'all to pledge more than you might want to if we lived in a world where I had a million billion dollars.

So. Working on that.

I'm glad the shirt thing suddenly came together because it's perfect for this video. I love it. It's so perfectly awkward in a way that I hope makes people introspect on their suspension of disbelief (before maybe deciding that yes, they actually do want a math shirt in fun summer styles?). I laugh every time I get to the shirt advertisement part of the video, or maybe that's just lack of sleep...

Ok for the next week I want to work on a super fun silly music project that is actually for real with the music theory; I gotta detox from engaging my soul and mind in political machinery to the extent it took to write this script from my evil triangle perspective. I don't want to be an evil triangle. I feel like I could have so easily become an evil triangle if my life experience were different.

But, I just wanna say, I'm actually pretty optimistic about things. When I think about the systems and forces that would destroy us---I mean it seems almost mathematically inevitable that we devolve into instant hatechaos---and then I hear the clear cry of "and yet" from a million voices rising against the tide of those systems and I cannot deny how incredible is the human spirit.

Vi

Files

Suspend Your Disbelief (or, how to ruin everything)

I guess we should regulate ouija boards, eh? ok is it awkward if I offer to sell you a shirt now: https://store.dftba.com/products/tau-day-shirt But while shirts are good capitalism and all, my work is almost completely supported through crowdfunding on Patreon. There's some fun perks over there if you want to join the cult. I mean... be the audience to my secret arts. https://www.patreon.com/vihart These good patrons have given particular support, thank you: Caleb Wright, Albert Wenger, Pat Devlin, Jack Heidrick, Jade Bilkey, David Perryman, Chris Pierik, Donald "Chronos" King, Carol Ghiorsi Hart, Andrea Di Biagio, Charley Sheets, Jodi Vezzetti, Andew Romaner, David A Smith, Michael Tiemann, and Yana Chernobilsky! It is not inevitable that we ruin everything! People are good at stepping up and doing not-ruining, sometimes.

Comments

Thomas Boys

Begins with maths, ends in a terrifying sociological nightmare. Good work!

Cain

I once dated an evil triangle who...saw my potential to also be one, and was disappointed when I wouldn't be. I'm happy taking my planky in more 'let's all be nice to each other' directions. <3 You are a very lovely triangle, and your consistent critical thought is incredibly welcome. Thank you for your timely social commentary, as always.

Kenny Tilton

Wow. And you ended with an infomercial! Perfect. I got a kick out of Planck almost sneaking in the back door. I am going to watch it again with the sound off because I realized the doodling was brilliant and I was not really absorbing it in itself. Then I am going to curate the best voice acting moments. There were some beauts. I have no idea how you produce these things! Thank you.

Michael Tiemann

I loved the hidden irony that a triangle only contains 𝝿 radians, whereas the villainous trapezoid encloses 𝞽 radians. Now we know who is truly evil...mwaahahaha!

Lock

One of my favorite vids of yours! Everyone would watch this... Well, most people would probably get confused if they have no context, but everyone should first watch all your other videos for the context and then afterwards watch this one. Yeah.

Dan Carmon

This is just one more reason why τ is more inclusive than π. Sure, if you introspect and only look at your own angles, then every polygon will think their experience unique, each has its own different multiple of π. But, if instead you take the outside view, and consider how you fit into the world around you, then suddenly you find that all polygons - and even all non self intersecting curves! - can find common ground in the property of being surrounded by τ itself. A triangle is indeed a degenerate quadrilateral, but that does not make it a degenerate!

Charles Tso

Thoughtful video!Plus, it's kind of you to include trapezoids. They really aren't villainous as people think. Though, some are quite obtuse.

Danyel Cavazos

is anyone else thinking about this in terms of the extreme SJW/ victimhood / matrix of oppression way of thinking we are seeing nowadays? ~.~

Cameron Lai

I think it's not about any narrative, in particular. In fact, I think if you apply the narrative to any particular group I think you miss the message? My guess is its about the idea of suspending your disbelief, and how you need to disbelieve. Even someone telling the truth will spin a narrative, and the internet will amplify it and make you see allies and enemies. The way to transcend this and see the truth is to use media literacy and be aware of when you are suspending your disbelief. But by explaining this might have robbed you of being able to come to this truth by yourself. If I was cleverer maybe I could've been able to explain this without laying it all out. Also, this is just the narrative of being smart look at me I know everything. Vi does like fractals and if I was to guess, the video when examined through your media literacy skills seems like one. So ignore me, I'm just some random idiot on the internet, help people, do the right thing, solve problems.

John Violette

I feel inspired to share this video with my political adversaries so they'll see how wrong THEY are ...

Danyel Cavazos

Thank you for your thoughtful response!! I do agree that the video has a general perspective, but I do think we should reflect about how this might be happening right now (with examples!). Media literacy all the way :B

Perryman

I want to say I pre-ordered a shirt out of my own free will and to be “meta” yet I still feel that perhaps that purchase precludes greater understanding.

Mppse

To the extent I "believe in" required reading (viewing?), this video is it.... on a very, very short list. Thank you as always!