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early access: the final Alt-Right Playbook (Patreon)

Published:
2025-01-24 20:37:06
Imported:
2026-06

Content

hey team.

I may have just finished the final Alt-Right Playbook. it's fresh out of the oven so I may decide it needs more work after I look at it again. this is not up on Nebula, this is not for public consumption, and I am feeling all kinds of ways about it existing at all. but, for now, it exists only for you. I'm not announcing anywhere that it's ready, or making any statement about when it goes public. it might go live in the morning, it might go live in a few days, I might sit on it a while. I don't know.

but, for now, it's right here. thank you for making this possible.

I'ma go lie down.

Files

The Alt-Right Playbook: The South Bank of the Rubicon

Comments

Nick

Congrats on finishing a huge journey!

Musicombo

Amazing! Are the final "how to combat right-wing politics/talk to people" videos part of the Alt-Right Playbook and not happening anymore or are those separate and will come out? No problem if those are no longer coming out!

Susan Wenger

I suppose it's possible that there are tweaks you could make to slightly improve this (nothing comes to mind), but this is already good, done is better than perfect, and sooner is better than later. The current administration is moving fast. It's not unlikely that they'll do something that crosses a lot of people's Rubicons in the next hour or so.

Tobias Ribizel

Great work, and really good timing with the release. I could really use this video for some perspective :) And I will never not like a Hadestown reference.

Ian Danskin

I'm not sure what's gonna happen with How To Tell The Truth, but I'm not gonna let it go to waste. I haven't written the deradicalization script, so I don't know what's gonna happen there. the bigger picture, "how do we make big systemic change?" stuff is probably where I'm headed next, and I have some ideas about how to do it.

Josh Grey

The hardest videos to watch in the series. And the most important.

Zoe Storm

Congrats, and thank you. This series has helped me bring lots of things I'd been feeling in my mind into coherent focus, giving me words to describe them.

SiberianHussy

End of an era, good finale, well earned rest!

Musicombo

Take your time!! Your work has changed my life.

JohnMichael Bell

Amazing and poignant. I'd imagine you already had this script written before Musk did his Nazi salute. Part of me thinks it's perfect timing, given how the media is debating "Is this obvious Nazi salute really an obvious Nazi salute." But another part of me thinks if you released this video sooner or later, there would be something equally bad in the news cycle. I don't mean to be glib, but for me the Rubicon was Jan 6th. The only appropriate reaction to that would be to label the entire Republican party as a terrorist organization.

David Lu!!

This is an amazingly thoughtful video, and it if it goes up like this, it will be fantastic. If you are looking for minor technical feedback, I'm not sure if it was intentional, but the fade in/out on the white and red words at 2:33 and beyond are slightly out of sync.

Sarah H

This is a perfect ending to the series. It's obviously incredibly sad that it has to end in this way, for this reason. I hoped a call to action would be part of this and I think this is a really powerful thing to take away and talk about with others

Mike Kachur

I remember reading the original script 3 years ago and thinking "How the hell is he gonna narrate something this heavy and use the little doops to illustrate this?" I am pleasantly surprised you didn't. Also, good move on replacing "American democracy" with "your rights and freedoms"

Lucas Du Berger Deret

I'm sorry, this might be very stupid, but your ''time to act'' thing reminded me of a collegehumor sketch about how ''the time to act is now... No, NOW!''.

Lucas Du Berger Deret

Well, the democrats aren't gonna do that, so what are WE gonna do? Does anyone know the number of a good socialist g club? Donating to indivisible and the ACLU won't matter if they end up getting thrown in j .

Lucas Du Berger Deret

All right! That keeps me hoping! To be honest, if you stopped making videos about politics, I would freak out!

Lomky

I think the only part that felt bad, for me, is the assumption that if one would say we are past our Rubicon, we are being cynical. We passed mine in 2016, and I have been acting on it for nearly a decade. Maybe it's just that I'm not the target audience, but it's a bit demoralizing when the idea that _work is being done_ is elided. Overall I do love the video, and think the larger message is critical.

Leftcross

Thank you for your honesty and courage. This is hard, because it is important, and because we are at a hard and important moment in a long line of hard and important moments.

Ian Danskin

that is intentional, but the effect is not working as well as I want. it's the one thing I might tweak, but I dunno if it's worth it.

ghostnappa

Thank you for doing this series. This series and Angry Jack helped me understand the feelings I had but couldn’t name.

Daryl Banttari

Laken-Riley allows detention without due process. If there's no due process for anyone, then there's no due process for everyone. They can arrest literally anyone and "claim" they're here illegally, and there's no process to correct it.

h2g2guy

The beginning of this is going to sound negative, and it is, but it also... isn't. Note that I didn't read the script; this was my first time seeing any of this. This felt, at first touch, like a low-key, seemingly disconnected, "let down" of a conclusion for the Alt Right Playbook. You always said that you never had any answers, at least "not yet", but the ARP always felt like it was driving towards *something*. And on one level, this felt like a kind of "Idunno, man; what does this all mean to you?" But really... especially with the latest "successes" of fascism (and yeah, I am going to use the word), this is the best and only real way it could have ended. We can spend as much time as we want studying the approaches of the right, learning their rhetorical and political tricks, but what the fuck does it matter if we neglect to consider a counter-playbook? What does it matter that we can describe what they're doing and how they're doing it, if we continue to just let it happen? What it feels like you're saying in this conclusion is that we've all, always, been saying that we're never going to let "it" happen, that we're going to rise up and stop "it" once the threat is real. But the threat is real. It's been real the whole time. It's valid for each of us to say it's not yet time to act, but we each need to draw a real line, a bright line, not just a line in the sand that will get washed away with the tide. And then we need to actually do the hard part. We need to actually be willing to put our own necks on the line. Brilliant work, Ian. Congratulations on this.

Patrick Kennedy

I think this video is valuable. I don't think you have to call it "the final ARPB" if that's causing too many emotions. It feels more like a fireside chat, or even a confessional. I suspect a lot of us see your videos as gospel and, at least for me, it lets me dissociate from the problems and feel like when the time comes "that person" will have the answer and tell me what needs doing. I think people should hear that "that person" doesn't have the answers either. As a Portlander the "vans disappearing people" I think was when it really started to sink in that we're well and truly charging head first into the Rubicon. For me, it's been the time to act for... a while, at least since Trump walked free on J6, but I'm in a very insulated blue bubble with few immigrants, an already established activism scene protecting the space, and just.. It feels like being at the back of the army, we all know Caesar is fjording the Rubicon but *we're* not, *we're* still on dry land. Even if we wanted to beat Caesar back we're nowhere near anything that would let us do that. I know I could get in touch with those activist groups and start learning what I can do to act, but some part of me just feels no matter what we could do here it would be futile until the flanking army comes and finds us on our side of the river.

Parker Douglas

Thank you for the years of work you put into this. This series helped me contextualize the behaviors of people around me and put sentiments I heald in my heart into words I could speak. I have discovered and formed a new worldview that is not afraid to be more aspirational then it's previous incarnation. Despite everything, I still hold hope and determination to build a better future, we already have the tools to scale the mountain, and through rocky inclines, scraches and bruises sustained, I am resolved to work with others and see through to the summit. I look forward to supporting your next project when I can, thank you again for helping me and others find our own paths up the rockface.

Anders Theroux

I don't mind admitting that this was emotional to watch. The end of an amazing project, but also the start of a wider struggle ❤️

Aaron Roberto

Without meaning to sound cynical, the best time to act based on my Rubicon was back in 2016. The second best time is now. My initial goal was to try to be an alternative voice to the disinformation, but without a following and hours of free timeit was like trying to stem the tide with a butterfly net, and I was almost certainly making things worse for the people I was trying to defend (you helped me realise this). From there I would only respond in comments rather than going after people with wrong information, and backing it when it's clear they don't intend to argue in good faith. I don't know how well this has worked but maybe I took a few votes from Drumpf. As loathe I am to quote Mother Teresa, she was bang on when she said that your efforts may be a drop in the ocean but the ocean would still be less without it.

S

Powerful stuff

Ian Danskin

I don't mean to disparage the work you and many others have done. but I'm alluding to fairly radical acts of civil disobedience.

Nick Kinsman

Thanks for all the work you've put into the series across these years, Ian. This feels like a great capstone to the project. As a Canadian it feels harder to identify what my Rubicon would be, but I really appreciate that the thought is there now. Whatever you start doing more of after this, I'll be happy to continue to support you. If I've been around since Phil Fish, why stop now, eh? Also in case you don't hear it (ever? enough?): You genuinely have the best speaking cadence in the video essayist landscape~

Vinicius Vendramini

A brilliant and hauntingly fitting end to an amazing series. Congratulations on all of it.

Brian Moon

Thank you. This, at least, is a call to a call to action. I appreciate the thought and care you have put into these over the years.

Paden Snell

Thank you so so much for all your work on this series Ian. It has helped me wrap my head around the past... however many years it's been. This is a very fitting cap to the series. And maybe one of the most poignant calls to action I've seen in a long time. We've been the frog slowly boiling in the pot for a long time now.

Paden Snell

I think a big part of the first step is accepting and getting the rest of the reasonable portion of the populace to accept that the democrats WILL NOT SAVE US. Even if they win the next presidential election... if there even is one. Nothing substantial will fundamentally change and things will just slide into decay more slowly for a term... feels like we collectively patted ourselves on the back for beating trump to elect Biden and just became totally complacent as our countries underlying issues just festered and got worse while Biden coasted along doing fuck all.

Charlotte

Thank you for all your fantastic work on the Alt-Right Playbook, Ian! This series is on of the best things on YouTube, period, and I come back to it again and again. And this is an incredible finale, too. I honestly didn't know how one would end a series like this, and I'm all the more impressed that you found such a capstone for it.

PLM

5:30 reminds me of a specific moment in UK politics. It was July 2024, the Conservative party had been crushed in the general election, Labour supporters were celebrating a return to sanity, and a particularly tone-deaf tweet went viral: “It’s nice, isn’t it. The quiet.” A couple of weeks later, race riots broke out across the country.

Matt Welland

A well handled ending for a great series in tough circumstances. I think it is perfect as is. Is "crossed the Rubicon" to be seen as from our perspective or the perspective of the Right? To me it is not us who cross the Rubicon, it is them and that would mark the start of a final battle, not an instant surrender. I started working on what to do a long time ago and will continue until there is no continuing. I know there are many many others in that same boat. It ain't over while there is still fight left in us.

Brian Balmforth

Reminded me tonally of your tumblr post about Outer Wilds. About how we so often deny ourselves the thought of the universe ending, of the worst happening, of the Rubicon already behind us. Because admitting that can feel tantamount to giving up. And about the ability to keep fighting the good fight, even if the universe will blow up, even if the Rubicon is behind us. Because if it is, then we can still make things better on the way out than they otherwise world be

Tony Miller

I want this series, including this episode, in a physical medium just in case things keep moving towards Rome. I think it might be one of the most important pieces of media I have ever seen.

Homebrew Futures

Thank you, Ian. I was hoping when you first uploaded this script that we wouldn't be here. That it wouldn't come to this. But we are and it has. I know you had other videos planned that you had to let go for your own health but this really feels like the right ending to the series. So, again, thank you for everything you've taught us with this series. I know I'm involved in some things and I encourage everyone else to try to find ICE intervention and know your rights trainings, stop the bleeding trainings, check in on your minoritized friends, get involved in your union at work or look into what it will take to start one. Look into what it will take to do tenant unionizing if you're a renter. Listen to the You Already Know How to Organize episode of It Could Happen Here. The one video I have on my own channel has resources on how to get started organizing when you're dooming in the face of crisis and don't know where to begin. There's so much we can do besides just sign waving marches and pouring our energies into trying to elect Democrats. As far as content goes, I'm not quitting my subscription anytime soon. I'm looking forward to seeing where you go next now that you're free of this psychic albatross of a project. Certainly looking forward to the essay on neo-noir, at least! That Edgar Wright essay was a terrific palette cleanser, full of vitality! I hope you can now pursue projects that make you feel that joy again.

Mike Kachur

Watching this once more, I realized this is probably the first TARPB since Endnote 3 to have a showtune in it. I missed that little tradition

GLISS DISC

Hopefully me just joining helps to slightly lessen the impact of anyone who leaves due to the end of the series. I'll stay as long as my financials allow.

Trevor Davison

I may recommend using the “Freetube” application on Windows / Linux… you can create a local copy of videos in high or low resolutions for long term storage

Will

Now I'm curious about your reaction to all of the comments being "The time to act is obviously now"

Liam George

It would be a lie to say that your videos brought me out of the right-wing thing - but if I'd seen them before I came out of it, they would have been. I've been loving The Playbook for years, and I'll probably sort of mourn that I can't expect to see another video that taught me things in this sphere as well as "How to Radicalize a Normie", "I Hate Mondays", "The Card Says Moops" and "The Cost of Doing Business" did. And at the same time, I hope that whatever parts of your world that this death leaves room to grow to, it's as magnificent as this was. I'll continue recommending some video or other from The Playbook to every friend I end up in a political discussion with probably for years. I'm sure a lot of it, if not all of it, will never become redundant. Thanks for your work. I subscribed here today, because I thought that thanks should mean something.

SmoothKriminal

Thank you so much for this. The whole series, and this video specifically. I appreciate all the work that's gone into it and I recommend it to people all the time. <3

Daniel Osswald Claro

What can I say except for the most sincere and heartful thank you