The morning of the day hbomberguy's new "Plagiarism and You(Tube)" video dropped, I talked to @kaceydotme about wanting to make a video essay. I like video essays because they're extremely effective forms of information dispersal, but I also recognize the amount of effort that goes into video essays. My main hesitation to making essays is wasting that effort, and not even finding any enjoyment out of it in the process.
However, after watching harris bomberman's video twice now, I'm suddenly left feeling a little more nuanced.
I want to finish writing, recording and editing my video essay. I want to find different techniques that I find fun. And above all else, I want to quit when I don't like putting in the effort anymore. The thing that fucks me up most about James Somerton's blatant plagiarism is that I have sat here for YEARS wondering if I could make video essays, noting their popularity and the potential prosperity to arise from it, and saying "my heart's not in it, I'd rather not do something I don't love doing." And that's the thing; i saw profitability, and said "nah, not for me." James saw profitability and said "If I steal other people's work, I can make the easy money."
Fuck James Somerton, that lazy, disrespectful thief. I spent the past couple years seeing the same patterns he saw, but where I refused to step into a ring I was not prepared for, he waltzed in and stole his way to success. I held a principled stance on letting the professionals make their video essays, while he just strolled right on in and pretended he was also a professional.
So if he can walk in as a damn poseur and fake it till he makes it, I can write actual original content and get there, too - and keep my fucking principles intact.
