I Read The Most Misunderstood Philosopher in the World 

If you'd like to see the full scene with me and Rhys without the video essay bits in between, it's on Nebula!

Talking about an unnamed mysterious femboy streamer, only referred to by "F" and then immediately having Finn read a quote is a great bit

Hello Abigail, I identify as a cis-white-male in the U.S. State of Oklahoma. I’m not sure if you’ve heard of it, but it is one of the more “conservative” U.S. states. You played a big part in breaking me out of my phantasm related to gender ideology just in time for me to be there to accept some of my best friends as they began to identify as trans. I just wanted to let you know that the brain wyrms aren’t terminal. Good work, and thank you.

23:20 "We're not violent. I mean we're tall, but... So are giraffes. Bodies are just bodies." NGL, I burst into tears

"And this is a common mistake. We might even call it... A phallacy." And here I was expecting a cock-up.

"The truth is there is no sex" I know, I'm not having any

It finally happened. She said “if you’re very clever you’ll know where this is going” and I DID

My boyfriend sent me this video a couple days ago. We used to have heated debates about trans women and I didn’t even realize that I, a feminist, was practicing anti gender ideologies by insisting that trans women are not women. I thought that because he was a man he didn’t understand cis women struggles and was just jumping on the liberal bandwagon to appear progressive. I have been doing a bit of growing with the help of my boyfriend and there’s been so much to unpack and we hadn’t yet returned to this topic. I recently sort of cracked that men and women are performative genders but I was looking at strictly from the heterosexual sense. I never even thought to think about other genders. Thank you so much for taking the time to make this very informative video that has helped me realize my blind spots on this topic. I also thoroughly enjoyed the scene with your younger self (he looks a lot like the guy from Orange is the New Black). I appreciate the creativity and you have gained a new follower ❤️❤️

Hi Abigail, I'm trans and live in Salt Lake City, Utah, probably the most phantasm-y place you can find...outside the Vatican. I'm the musical director of a all-women, trans, non-binary brass band that uses our music to spread awareness, raise funds, and engage in activism to fight the anti-gender and anti-queer movement in our home. I'm sure you probably won't see this, internet comment sections being what they are, but I just want to put it out there that you inspire me. I would never have found the courage to come out, let alone join a band and become an activist without your videos. Thank you.

J.K. Rowling being told to touch grass and talk about _literally anything other than how much she hates trans people_ by _Elon Musk_ of all people will never stop being funny to me.

1:02:40 "The reason they don’t listen, is because they feel that listening is an act of submission." This is SO SO PROFOUND. Thank you!

I started watching when your, *ahem*, brother was sitting on the floor in front of a bookcase speaking philosophically. It seems within that time frame we've both transitioned and have led happier lives. Thank you for all you do ❤.

I love modern Philosophy Tube, but I find myself not watching right as it comes out, because these days there is so much thought, emotion, pain, and joy across the screen that I need to be in the right space at the right time to receive this information. The past three videos have made me cry in absolutely wonderful ways. Near the end of the video where Abby of the present and the past acknowledged the audience is when I finally cried on this one. Just the wave of pride for the journey of PhilosophyTube, the feeling of community thinking about everyone else who watched this too and the intangible connections between trans people, and seeing the past Abby character revel in a simple common joy, this is what I keep coming to this channel for. Beautiful, amazing art beyond measure and yet still entangled in acedemia that changes who I am and how I think every single day.

"Wittig suggested everyone become lesbians" Wittig- "What if we just all had sex with each other haha that would be so crazyyyy idk haha"

"Bigger than Star Wars" Oh my God, they're making her into a Pokemon.

You said that you think it's really sad when people "refuse their own complexity", and that... kinda struck me. I'm autistic; more specifically I have the Math Autism™ where I excel in subjects where there are hard and solid truths (math, natrual science...) but do terribly in less "defined" subjects... like philosophy. All the different perspectives and arguments just frustrate me, I don't like it when I'm left without rigorous Rules. And I think I'm a little frustrated with *myself* as well, as a result. I don't *want* to be complex. I don't want to be confusing to MYSELF, of all people, I never asked to have feelings I can't ever truly explain or an identity that shifts with each new social group I'm apart of. If I had the choice between being a robot or human, I actually think I'd choose the robot. Why be a messy flesh golem piloted by 1,5 kg of neurons and fat, running on less electricity than it takes to power a light bulb, when I can be a mind focused and optimised for peak efficiency? Why be complex, when I can be simple and content? But I don't get that choice. So I'm stuck as the flesh golem, clumsy and confused. At least your videos can give me some kind of guidance in this strange world. So, thank you for that, at least.

God, as someone who watched *a lot* of your stuff pre-transition, left for a while, and decided on a whim to come back to this video specifically, absolutely wild timing.

"If a tree falls in a forest and nobody's around to hear it, it has no pronouns" Nice throwback, the question is finally answered!

The whole "you can't change sex" argument as an intersex person is infuriating because you did that to me! I'm just undoing it, to be my true self, and you demand I stop because you can't imagine that people fall outside the binary and that we can try to undo the harm done to us as a child, or in a close enough way to be happy with our body finally

"because the only people who don't change... are the dead" Very powerful line

Now this is what I call a video essay! Already a classic, it has all the marks of one: -performing roles in between the scripted monologue (bonus points for literally arguing with yourself) -standing in front of a blank wall (bookshelf and/or desk are optional) -letting other lefttubers and/or friends read out quotes, (bonus points if the viewer has to know their voices, or take a deep dive to find out who they are) -the giant turning of the tables around the middle of the video, where we find out that everything is connected to other videos and the topic has been a completely different one the entire time (or has it?) -ART! (you will know it, when you see it, but will you understand why?) Big fan, keep up the good work.

I hope someone shows Judith Butler this. I was lucky enough to take a class with them back in 2006, and it was the best academic class I ever took in a grad program. There was this beautiful moment on their first day of lecture where they sighed and said, "Now this part . . . I'm still not sure what Walter Benjamin is saying here." You could almost hear a spell being broken. All of us had the same thought at the same time: if Judith Butler can admit to being confused, then there's no shame in it. The class was the only one I took where every question was a genuine question and not one designed to comment or argue or show off intelligence (although to show off a bit myself, there was one point in class where I said something and they said, "That's very important!" and I died of excitement). We all listened to one another and wondered and speculated together without self-consciousness. I think Butler would love not only the analysis in this video, but the spirit of compassion, the embrace of listening and change.

Regarding "it's gonna fuck up our love life"- it's difficult to overstate just how attractive a feature happiness is to most people.

"I brought them with me" I don't know why that made my cry. I've been following your work since I was in high school and I have been utterly changed by it. I hope it will continue to change me.

Holy shit, Abi. This might be your most powerful video to date, and from my perspective, that is saying a thing. Thanks for sharing your conversation with Past You. Most of us aren't proud of everything Past Us did / said / thought, but publicly using your past perspective as an illustrative point is brave and naked in a deeply inspiring way.

"the reason they don't listen is because they feel listening is an act of submission" is the best explanation of Posie Parker I've ever heard

"I didn't feel entitled to be there" is such a painful regret. That hits hard.

“We aren’t violent, we are just tall, but so are giraffes “ Are you sure you’re not violent? Because you just twisted a rusty knife right into my feels

"the reason they don't listen is because they feel listening is an act of submission" 😭😭😭😭 SO ACCURATE.

I thought it was interesting that Abby and Rhys switch between using ‘you’ ‘I’ and ‘we’ depending on the context during the dialog

Cis-male chemistry and physics nerd here, who has always believed the naturalised "sex is biology, gender is sociology" dichotomy to be reasonable and factual. The historical analogy to 'race' really got me thinking. Its not like I had a life changing epiphany, but I think the points raised will brew in the background and will in time change my worldview. Many, many thanks for that

JFC I teared up multiple times. I didn't expect "I love you" to your past self to wreck me. Growth and continual work on yourself is hard. I'm so proud of you.

I doubt you'll see this, but thank you for the video. I have been here a long time, and I'm ashamed to admit that at the time of your transition I selfishly felt annoyed and frustrated, as if for some reason I was losing something as you changed. I think at the time, for whatever reason, it was important for me to have examples of masculine role models that were still intelligent, kind and caring, and your transition disrupted that. But coming on this journey with you, well, it has been part of a fundamental shift in myself and in how I understand the world and everyone in it. When you said "I brought them with me" I was reduced to tears. When you looked back at your past self, and said "I love you", I also saw my past self sitting there, as your viewer, and came a little closer to being at peace with who I once was. Thank you for this moment, and for continuing to do what you do.

"They think that listening is an act of submission." You just blew my mind and explained my failed marriage.

As a cis man the idea that my genitalia or general physical form is inherently threatening in some sense has always been something i hated, i can’t imagine how much worse that notion would probably affect a trans woman.

That last bit where you talk to yourself had me really choked up. Very powerful scene. "I brought them with me" thanks for all your great insights and videos. Very few RU-vid videos have got me to cry, badge of honor for you!

Thank you for the great video and the ever so great quality captioning! There is so much overlap with deafness and transgenderism. I'm deaf with cochlear implants, I pass as a hearing person, I speak fluent finnish and hear my surroundings and other's speech well enough to manage in life. But I am deaf, nothing EVER changes that. But the society's view on my deafness and disability changes. I always tell people that my deafness is only a feature in me, not something that needs fixing. I do not suffer from deafness, but I suffer greatly when I am trying to pass as a hearing person and ever since the surgery as a 3,5 years old I've been going through the never ending rehabilitation (which will last until the day I die or if I quit using my CIs). All thanks to the people thinking I wouldn't have a good life without CI. They never wanted to believe the deaf community, telling them that they're fine without hearing. The deaf don't know what hearing is like, and won't miss it. An abjectification happening here as well, I guess? I had no say regarding my CI-surgery, since people forced it on me when I was 3,5 years old, thinking I wouldn't have a good quality of life without the hearing ability. (This is called audism, by the way.) Deafness is only a feature in me, I do not suffer or have pain because of it. Thanks to the sign language, I have my community where I can be myself at ease without language barriers or hearing fatigue. I oftentimes think about the intersex baby surgery discussion and compare it to my situation. The intersex babies should be left alone, no one should force a gender to a baby and cut their bodies. I agree with this. But where does the line go? Deaf babies should be left as if as well, this is my opinion. Deaf babies do not suffer. People assumed my life would be easier if I was a hearing person. Which is just plain old audism. In some way I think transgenderism is a form of disability as well, not having the body that the brain thinks it should have. Body dysphoria can be rather disabling thing to have. Also, #2 comparision. My white skin color is another feature of mine. I do not suffer from it, it causes no pain whatsover. And this is how it should be for POC people as well! Anything other than white skin is a problem for our society, even if for example a black person does not have any suffering due to their skin color. It is the society and the people in it that cause the great pain, racism, not the skin color itself. Just like my deafness, white skin, fat and curvy body, big boobs and p*ssy, they're only features in my body but somehow they have been given bunch of weird significances in our f*cked up society that I do not agree with and they do not represent me at all. I am just me, not your view of myself.

As a woman who at different points had real, prickly black, facial hair, produced milk when not pregnant, didnt have periods for long stretches, and more due to a benign lump in my brain which more commonly happens to men... Our definitions of sex and sex features can deny lived realites

It always amazes me how many so-called feminists forget that one of the main tenets of the movement is, "Person first, woman second." Protection was never the point. The point is recognition, personal autonomy, and equal opportunity. Defining "woman" is a step backwards because, by definition, a lot of us were doing things that went against what people at the time considered "normal" for women. For instance, it wasn't "normal" for a woman to have intellectual pursuits. It wasn't "normal" for a woman to have a job outside of keeping house and raising children. It wasn't "normal" for women to have ambition. If you place borders around what a woman is or is supposed to be, then you limit what women can do.

Thank you for this! As a brazilian i felt deeply ashamed when u mentioned Butler’s passage through here, and it makes me angry that most people use her work, whitout ever reading it, to disseminate lgbtphobia. They’re not only one of the most missunderstood philosophers in the world but one of the most dangerous, inspiring and clever too. By far the best vídeo on their work i’ve ever seen on RU-vid. ❤️🇧🇷

It's so wild to see Philosophy Tube just keep getting better and better and better. It really makes you feel like you are part of something. Like "I was there during those legendary years of Philosophy Tube!"

"The Oxford English Dictionary says" might be my favorite recurring bit on PT.

“An IMAX-level act of projection” OMG what a PERFECT phrase.

I can't believe digital deaging has improved so much to account for transitions. incredible

This video is so rich. You’re pulling at threads of questions I’ve had balled up for a long time. I really appreciate you making this.

UK: *author writes book about brain worms making politicians raving bigots* US: RFK

"I think it is really sad when people refuse their own complexity" hit hard here.

I think the man who was never there is just mad that you're in Star Wars, and he isn't, which is funny considering he always exits by disappearing into the Force. (Also, turning off your voice is a super funny party trick)

You've got to stop making me cry with these banger videos! First you coming out video shows up right when I start to cave in on my self wondering how I can ever live as the "man" I'm supposed to be and then I discover finn and dive into the deep end coming out to friends and family and taking estrogen and then this video discusses all my fears and worry's for the future and that argument you have with your past self just has me bawling as I feel like I've done that with my self so much this past two months. I'm so glad I discovered you, Your truly a role model and a wonderful person I hope I can inspire those around me like you inspire people. I hope more people can hear our voices and realize we are not the treat they claim and we just want to live a happy fulfilled life like they do without having to struggle against a harsh uncaring system designed by old men who never had to worry about anything other than how much more money and power they can get.

My favorite new thing is Abby popping menacingly out of doorways to tell me philosophy things

"The only people that don't change are the dead" is the motto I live by now

Beautiful work, so well-expressed! And congratulations on all your new opportunities 😊

Hi there. This video hit hard. I'm enby, and just started T, 4 and a bit years after coming out to myself and 4 months after realizing that I wanted to go on T. I turn 27 in a few weeks. Cried at the end, it was so powerful to give the past self hugs and love. I also have lots of blood family that are in phantasms (thankfully I have an awesome chosen family), and this video expanded on prior and brought together with new ideas and philosophies that helped me to understand so much about the world they are all in, and that we are all in. Thanks for the amazing videos, as always.

I was born with a muscle illness, slowly changing my body, becoming more and more disabled over time. What this did to me, was pull me out of some phantasms, as believing became a contradiction to my experiences in life. The people who saw this happen, joined me on my journey. I educated myself on the disability rights movement and talked about it to the people around me. The ones close to me became allies and some conservative relatives became a lot more progressive. I think that compassion and love are powerful forces that can destroy phantasms. So sharing our experiences to our loved ones, is the way to change society.

"Performative" becoming one of the most widely misused words on the internet has to be one of the most irritating symptoms of people's casual (lack of) awareness of theorists like Butler.

This was beautiful. You and I both kinda came out at the same time. And the segment with your past self had me bawling. I think I also am at a point where I wish I could hug that guy and tell him things will be ok. Even if it doesn't look like it.

This video really touched me. I wish I could sit everyone I know down and make them watch it classroom-style, but an 1 hour video on a topic they might not want to even think to engage with is a huge ask, especially since I live in Eastern Europe, and almost no one I know irl speaks enough English to understand it. I'm nonbinary out here, and it gets really dark, and it hurts. You're bringing me some light. Sending every trans person reading this love. We will make it out of the darkness. I promise.

"I brought them with me" that was the most beautiful and emotional parasocial moment I've ever had. You're brilliant and I'm so glad to be able to see your journey.

I love how you've managed to make this opening premise of a lack of performance into its own kind of performance

Currently experiencing this video without sound bc it's late and I can't be asked to get my headphones and wanna say KUDOS BIG TIME for accessibility measures and excellent captions because it's such a well organized visual experience. I've always experienced your content with sound before and this is ALSO GREAT--maybe even better just for how my brain is processing it, which is kind of weird but also delightful. So thank you for the efforts you put in to make videos so available to different types of people.

also as an aspiring script writer, I will be taking notes on your self duologue Damn incredible writing

I collapsed in laughter at "let's talk about femboys!"

As a 6’3 cis woman whose experiences in life have been very much impacted by her height the line about your height hit hard. Because all the transphobic talking points about tall, big handed, large trans women actually being men are disheartening to listen to.

The argument with yourself broke something in me. I ugly cried… And now I’m on the Seattle voice lab wait list… and I’m seeing the doctor next week. Life IS too short everybody, be kind to yourselves

As someone who is both Jewish and queer I’ve always felt like antisemitism and homophobia/transphobia functioned similarly in ways I couldn’t quite articulate. This video perfectly describes how similar those forms of bigotry are and how insidious they can be.

That talk about phantasms really reminds me of the way I feel when I’m confronted with a phobia: “It feels as if I’m in danger” turns into “I’m in danger.” and “It feels as if I’m going to crash the car” becomes “I’m going to crash the car”. The resulting “truth” seems inevitable in that moment, it feels so real and it’s so obvious that I can’t comprehend anyone not seeing it.

The scene with Rhys was so powerful. It made me cry, twice. Just the framing of talking to your past self as you are now, telling that person you used to be that you love them, though you're not them. And having them be able to see you as you are now and love that, too. I think most people can relate to the power in that, but it is perhaps especially resonant for queer people.

1:05:18 I literally started crying. I haven’t been with the channel for a long time or anything, just recently discovered it. But this is so sweet

It is so refreshing to see not just a summary of the discourse but an exploring of how it connects to a wider system, this was fantastic brain food (and I sobbed throughout the last half of this, there were so many things I needed to hear. The whole scene of you talking to yourself was just beautiful, 'i bought them with me' a stunning 4th wall break and 'They feel that listening is an act of submission' hit hard. It finally answered the question I've spent years confused about. Thank you!

Hi Abby Im Kristina and I am a transgender woman as well. I shit you not, before I went home to watch your video, I was in therapy and doing inner child work. I was speaking to myself as a child and I was telling her how sorry I was for not standing up for her and how she didnt deserved what happened to her. Watching you speak to Rhys and addressing the challenges of being trans and transitioning but also the joy and the hope you had for your future reminded me that I want to tell my past self (who is me) that I am not just sorry but that I am going to earn her forgiveness. I want to tell her that "I am going to take care of my physical and mental health" and "I am going to find the love we never had, romantic and platonic and everything in between" and "I am going to do everything I can do to help trans children growing up now to experience joys, milestones and a childhood and adolescence as themselves" and "I will be a physician so that one day, a trans child or adult will come to my office and say they want to transition and across them will be someone who can smile at them and say "Welcome home". I want to say to my inner child "Im sorry" and "thank you for surviving to become me" and "You can rest now, I will take it from here". To steal your line, I want to tell her "I love you". I know we are strangers Abby and you might never see this but thank you.

The trans femme urge to use the deep voice lmfaooo love it

Damn it, the "I brought them along" and the hugging and self-love... Fuck you for making me cry, and thank you.

Another wonderful and informative video. Your videos have brought so many opportunities for thought and consideration into my life. I've been watching you for years and have grown during this time, partially thanks to you. Sidenote: I doubt you'll read this comment and that's okay, but the moment when your 'younger self' said "I'm scared-" and it cut to you... I felt so connected to what was happening; your facial expression was so beautiful, empathetic, and full of pain for them and full of compassion for them. It nearly brought me to tears. It appeared so genuine. I don't know how you shot the conversation with yourself, but that moment is so powerful.

Rhys turning to see the audience, idk why but that hit me so hard, I immediately started crying. Also your final line "[I hope I continue to change] because the only people who don't change are the dead" is sooo poignant after that whole conversation with your "dead" self and but also the implication of like, people who refuse to change are limiting themselves in a very profound way, as you expressed in your video. 10/10, this might be one of your best videos yet.

24:21 This is also true of disabilities. If someone believes you to be disabled and discriminates against you for it, your underlying circumstances are largely irrelevant. For instance, my supervisor once created an ableist, hostile work environment... because I said I didn't like going to concerts. It doesn't matter that "not liking concerts" isn't a disability-he PERCEIVED it as an impairment of my sensory and cognitive function and harassed me for being "impaired."

I appreciate Abigail keeping it very grounded and real for this video. travelling back in time to talk to your younger self is just so relatable

"we might even call it a fallacy" … SCREAMING 🤣

I lost an uncle to phantasm. My sister came out and my whole family was blacklisted by him. I want to not care, but he's been someone that has always been present in my life and it's impossible not to care. If you find a way, any way, to get people out of the phantasm, please share it!

I was holding it together up until “there’s more of them.”

I legit teared up seeing you talk to your former self about getting older, seeing the dynamic between you two spark and cry. You're a wonderful actor Abigail, and an important speaker in this world of phantasms. Thank you.

This is one of my favorite episodes yet. I’m gonna be rewatching it. Thank you for continuing to make such excellent material!!!

"An IMAX level act of projection", lmao!

Almost accidentally, I was raised vastly without gendered expectations. I was born at the tail end of the eighties, my parents weren't hippies or contrarians, it wasn't an experiment or an attempt to rail against the trappings of society. They just never told me a thing I had to do was because I was a 'girl'. I had to wear a dress because we were going somewhere fancy, and those happened to be my fancy clothes. I couldn't play in the mud right now because it was almost supper. The only limiter on what toys I was allowed to have was how much they cost. I do not recall ever in my youth hearing the words 'because you're a girl', or 'that's for boys'. I was fourteen the first time someone, a hairdresser, made a choice for me based on gender, altering the hair style I'd picked from a book because it 'wouldn't look good on a girl'. I still remember, twenty years later, being upset about it. What did my being a girl have to do with my hair style? Somehow, despite going to an all-girls junior high, I was well into my teens before I ever was explicitly given gendered reasons for why something was how it was. I still *saw* things that happened due to societal gender expectations...I never saw men in formfitting dresses (though I did see them in kilts), and I usually saw boys being the ones to be more into roughhousing (though my mother was stronger than my father most of my life). Being aromantic and asexual just so happened to remove dating and all the myriad expectations that come with that from my experience as well, and being a naive and oblivious little muffin meant I didn't even notice my friends getting into that sort of thing until *very* late. As a result, I had a very difficult time grasping the concept of 'gender' when I finally did start thinking about it, in my last year of high school. I couldn't understand how someone could 'feel' like a man or a woman, or what that had to do with anything they did in life. I thought for a while it was just the trappings...a generally agreed upon set of colours, behaviors, and desires that were 'girly' or 'manly'. I didn't understand how someone could feel so strongly about what someone else *wore* that they'd argue over it, let alone start such a huge, worldwide discourse. What did it matter? I just didn't understand. My first inkling of feeling a 'gender' divide for myself was when I realized that I classified skirts as 'hippie' and pants as 'anime'. Some days I would be in an anime mood, and want to wear pants, other days I'd be feeling more hippie, and want to wear a sarong skirt. It took me months to click (in my mid 20s) that this sort of unquestioned, inner mental association was akin to what most people were feeling in regard to the gender divide. And while my 'hippie vs anime' moods extended solely to my outfits, it gave me some sort of glimpse into the understanding that everyone around me already had and shared...that there *was* a difference, and it *did* matter, if only to the individual who was trying to figure it out. It was a straw I could grasp, a foot on the train that everyone around me was riding that let me extrapolate how this *felt* to people who cared about it, and even those who didn't really care about it but still felt it as general background noise in their lives. Since then I've been trying to figure out exactly what sounds right to me. I genuinely feel like a 'genderless' world, one in where no expectations are placed on a person based on their reproductive anatomy, would be a happier one. One where no one questioned what you liked doing or wanted to be when you grew up based on your gender, one where physical dimorphism matter *only* for medical reasons (I'm pretty sure this person with no ovaries is not experiencing an ectopic pregnancy), and what sort of job you were considered for was determined completely and only by your physical and mental capabilities. Would it erase gender dysphoria? I honestly don't know, but I lean towards 'not completely', though I think being able to dress and act however felt right with no one questioning why you wanted to do so would certainly *help*. I think a world where no one gave a shit either way what your sex, gender, or representation was would be a happier one, simply because it would be one less divide people had to worry about, one less side to take, one less ingroup and outgroup for people to get fussed over. And I kind of wish more people had experienced the more-or-less genderless upbringing that I did, because from my point of view, it's let me reach for the things I want without the added layer of considering if society approves of 'a girl' doing those things. And I feel like humanity in general would be happier if this notion 'gender' being somehow important outside of the individual just...wasn't part of our collective consciousness.

I've put off watching this when I saw you interview yourself I knew would be difficult to watch. Thank you for the cathartic cry, it's hard to be kind to yourself sometimes. Your coming out play catalyzed the final crack in my egg, I'm so proud of how far I've come. I'm also proud of how far you've come, all the people you've helped showing up.

This is wholesome. Thank you for making some really interesting concepts from Butler's book more accessible to more people :)

I am definitely one of the people who thought "how did she do the hug scene at the end? They're the same person!!" before remembering that was Rhys. Well done Rhys!!!

"The only people who don't change... are the dead." My sister was a terf. We had a pretty strained relationship for the last few years, in large part because of the contempt she treated me with when I challenged her nonsensical bigotry. She was brilliant, but she was not good at listening to other people's perspectives when they contradicted her own -- someone who, when you argued with her, would just dig in deeper out of a sort of ego-principle. I don't know why she couldn't see that the "gender critical" movement was stupid, boring, reactionary conservatism that was utterly unworthy of her support. The idea of the phantasm helps me put that in perspective: not that she wasn't able to understand it, but that something psychologically prevented her from trying. I hadn't given up hope that she would think better of it. She died in December. I mourn her, and I mourn the possibility of change that was never realized.

I thought the homosexual lobby was where I hung out before the meeting

Great stuff. Teared up at several points, and I really enjoyed the deeper introduction to Butler's work. (Also, I love seeing my face in the audience every time you share that clip of "The Prince" heh heh.)

“if a tree falls in the forest, and no one’s around to hear it… it has no pronouns.” i fucking LOST IT

There are some dwarves in the final Narnia book that, at the end of the world, are thrown into a stable that is a door to heaven. All of the other characters can see the beauty and joy, but the dwarves are stubborn, they refuse to be "taken in" and "fooled", refuse to see the paradise right in front of them, and therefore literally only see the filthy inside of a stable. That's how it feels to me sometimes to hear those on the far right talk. You could be so happy, but you've convinced yourself that everyone is out to get you, or pull one over on you, and so that's what you're reality becomes, the only happiness you can muster is out of spite and a sense of superiority that you and yours weren't tricked.

Welp. Every scene with your past self made me tear up, and the last one absolutely destroyed me. Thanks

This was one of the most beautiful pieces of media i think I've ever seen. The whole throughline that was you speaking to your past self kept tears in my eyes for an hour. I echo your sentiments. I hope this is not the most kind, compassionate, and able I'll ever be. I would like to bring the love and comfort and acceptance that you bring to your audience, and the willingness to give us room to figure it out for ourselves, to the people in my life. To as many people as i can. Thank you for being such an inspiration, Abigail. Ne'er a holier thought than the philosophy here taught.

"I hope that this is not the cleverest or most compassionate that I will ever be" is one of the nicest sentiments I've heard in a while, and one I hope to take to heart. Thank you.

Thank you! The ending scene with "old you" saying hi to the audience and being surprised and amazed to see MORE of us was such a good feeling to be part of and your content is the highlight of my month!

Hi Abbi! Remember seeing the sneak peak on Patreon but only now had time to watch it.

This was probably THE best video on the channel so far. Really, a manifestation of what Philosophy Tube is. I love you! (also thank you for putting subtitles!!)

I keep crying over every section of "I'm You from the Future" in this. "We become an aunty" broke me in such a good way. Thank you, Abigail.

I didn't know there was a specific word for it, but I feel like the word 'abjectification' captures something I've become more aware of in the world. It's much better than 'dehumanizing' the meaning of which I feel has become a bit diluted. The people in Gaza are abjectified, in a similar way to how Azerbaijan and Turkey abjectify Armenians, and how Russia abjectifies Ukrainians and people from the Baltic states. One of my fears is that people I know and love will be abjectified not just by Russia but by western countries that are too apathetic to intervene on their behalf. It's disturbing that the powers that be can suddenly decide on a whim that you don't count as a person, that your home can be taken from you or demolished, that all traces of you can be erased, just because.

As someone who loves reading boring published papers. Thank you forever for adding references, but also random bibliographies for further reading. Love it!