Patreon is described by Wikipedia as “a membership platform that provides business tools for creators to run a subscription content service, with ways for artists to build relationships and provide exclusive experiences to their subscribers, or ‘patrons.’”
In 2017, founder and CEO of Patreon, Jack Conte, invented an anti-concept he called ‘Manifest Observable Behavior.’ Intended to distract attention from his own company’s unjust and subjective decisions to remove certain content creators from its platform – based on little more than their expression of views that could be associated with the ‘Right’ – the inherent contradictions in Conte’s use of that term soon became manifest.
The very statement that Patreon’s “decision to remove a creator page has absolutely nothing to do with politics and ideology and has everything to do with Manifest Observable Behavior…” is a manifest admission that it’s all about ideology.
‘Manifest’ means ‘obvious, plainly apparent.’ ‘Observable’ means ‘capable of being observed.’ ‘Behavior’ means ‘the way a person, substance, or machine ACTS under given circumstances.’
Yet no observed ‘action’ on the part of content creators is cited in Patreon’s unannounced ‘de-platforming’ of those content creators. The only ‘action’ observable here is that of Patreon itself. And through its actions, it has demonstrated that it is indeed ‘ideology’ and ‘politics’ that Patreon targets.
In its controversial decision to remove ‘Sargon of Akkad’ from its site, only ‘words,’ not ‘actions,’ were cited – specifically the ‘n’ word and the ‘f’ word. Both of these words are used regularly on Patreon’s own platform by those on the Left, and were only used once by ‘Sargon of Akkad’ many months before its decision – on another forum unrelated to Patreon!
Beyond its sheer irrationality, this reflects a Leftist mentality that equates the expression of words, concepts, and ideas with action itself. And of course, this epistemological deception is necessary for the Left to justify its ideological claim that ‘words’ are ‘violent’ and that therefore, free speech itself is violence.
To protect us from these ‘words,’ Patreon created an Orwellian “trust and safety” committee that its spokesperson, Jacqueline Hart, has made clear is both untrustworthy in principle and unsafe for content providers.
The Internet is really still in a “state of infancy,” notes Robert in conversation with Danielle, and suggests that new platform/funding alternatives will soon arise to meet the needs of a growing market not fearful of free speech or of the freedom to express opposing ideas.
“The real ‘f’ word that scares the Left, as always, is ‘freedom,’” concludes Danielle with an observation that strikes at the heart of the whole controversy.
Given recent events, Patreon has manifestly revealed itself to be an untrustworthy and unsafe platform. Irrationality, contradiction, subjectivity, censorship, denial, and deception are Patreon’s ‘manifestly observable’ operating principles. As a consequence, Just Right Media has officially disassociated itself from that platform.
Given the manifestly observable ‘behavior’ of Patreon, it became incumbent upon us to ‘behave’ Just Right ourselves.
One Response to “DMS 042 – The manifest observable behaviour of Patreon”
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Sargon of Akkad is somewhat left of centre. Indeed, the far left is the only shade of opinion allowed.