Is he the ultimate con artist?

is he the ultimate con artist?

all my normie friends think their expert philosophers after watching his videos

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he's not a con artist, he's just made it his goal to build a bridge between normies and philosophers he likes. In general I think that's a bad thing, and prefer what Zarathustra says, something like "my mouth is not for these ears" and leaves

let's face it, normies often have sex lives which is degenerate. A lot of them are women too, who are inherently inferior. Really makes you wonder if philosophy really isn't just for the white man like us, who ACTUALLY appreciate it instead of doing it for likes on facebook

>I think that's a bad thing

Can you articulate why?

Aside from his accent being complete wank, I can appreciate him trying to bring philosophy to the YouTube masses

But why have a McDonald's cheese burger when, if you put in a little more effort, you can have steak?

Is he old or young? I can't tell.

He's in his late 40s

He built a business on lay intellectualism. He can controversially be regarded as a con artist if he pretended that he represented an actual, serious intellectualism, but inasfar as I know he does not.

Honestly I don't really object to this. It allows lay people to digest at least some wisdom, even if it is presented in really inaccurate form. Had it not been for people like him a lot of lay people would have been watching TV and mindlessly scrolling through Facebook - but this stimulates their brain at least somewhat.

Meh, the youtube masses will not go deeper into philosophy. They will only watch those videos and think that is all they need. It is a superficial education.

Probably has something to do with casting pearls before swine. It just seems like the 'average person' will do everything in their power to appear to be on a moral high-ground without taking a single step themselves.

CERTIFIED PHILOSOPHERS JUMPER

nah, he really does buy into the stuff he says and wants to help people. I'm not saying I agree with everything he does, but I'm quite certain he's genuine.

Also, to the criticisms that he sells a bunch of crap, I have to wonder where the money he makes goes. If it's all to fund his own business, and they take modest salaries, I hardly find that reprehensible.

No? Thats like calling JK Rowling a pseud for writing books for middle schoolers. The School of Life is meant to help people get into philosophy, not be a serious, deep dissection of the philosophers he makes videos about. You have to start somewhere.

A better informed society is a better society. He's performing a fairly crucial role, in my mind. My only complaint is that he doesn't recommend reading after the videos he posts to help people figure out what they need to read to have a nuanced understanding.

>But why have a McDonald's cheese burger when, if you put in a little more effort, you can have steak?

Obviously, because some people don't have the time and money for a steak. A cheeseburger from McDonald's is better than starving, and the disparity makes you all feel better about yourselves, so what's the big deal?

These threads happen all the time, and it's just back patting "we're so much better than normies, lol" self-sucking.

It's almost like you guys feel threatened by him for letting some people into your super secret club.

>You have to start somewhere.

>It's almost like you guys feel threatened by him for letting some people into your super secret club.
No i get pissed off when some smug know it all starts arguing with me and repeating his/her Wikipedia knowledge to me

So don't argue with them. It takes two, right?

Yeah, and actual fucking philosophers start with Plato you dunce.

yeah but then how else will I make friends at university. Kept to myself in high school to avoid conflict and ended up depressed.

>You have to start somewhere.

You're right but from what I can tell that's all most people do. They never get passed the starting line. They get a Cliff's Notes interpretation of a philosopher then nod their heads smugly and continue going about their day. Philosophy should burn in you, not be a passing curiosity.

I have no problem with your points, but you can't really reduce philosophy into a cheese burger, doesn't really work. I'm not even *that* into philosophy. It's not a "secret club" although it seems that way sometimes, and some people do treat it that way. But some shit just needs a bit more effort to understand, it takes a lot of effort to read. It's not self-sucking, it's just how it is.

>wanting to bring the masses into philosophy

I bet you also think that it's bad that people don't read anymore and that bad books are poisoning our culture.

>not starting with the presocratics, egyptians and sumerians

Yeah, maybe that's what most people do. But some of them go deeper into literature/philosophy just because of this videos.

>But some shit just needs a bit more effort to understand, it takes a lot of effort to read. It's not self-sucking, it's just how it is.
Obviously, the videos are just the starting point, what's bad about that?

Not him, but to communicate these thinkers to normies you have to corrupt their message to the point of misinformation, which is what this guy does.

Some things can't be fed to the plebs in their authentic form, in which case it is better not to try than to corrupt philosophies in the process.

I didn't say it was bad as a starting point, but is it really a "starting point"? as another user said, apparently there isn't further reading recommended.

>Muh dilution of western civilization

Why do you think women are inferior, user? You buttmad because they won't let you put their arm around them?
:^)

>all my normie friends think their philosophers after watching his videos.
>their
>normies

This site is pathetic. Not because of grammar mistakes. But because how how incredibly important you all think you are for being absolutely useless.

He does mention each author's most relevant/famous works

see you tmr

but what if his videos inspire people to look deeper into those philosophers/philosophies

>not starting with prehistory
>not starting with the cave people
wew

Except Alain of Bottom is a piece of shit that can't bare his shit-tier books being criticised. He's a sheltered bourgeois prat (he tells a story about how his father thought his first million-dollar best seller was "peanuts"). I don't remember the last time I found his videos insightful, probably 18 months ago when I barely understood any philosophy whatsoever. It's not just his introductory videos that are shallow, all of his stuff barely wets the ankle.

>Here's the salsa
steamthing.com/2009/06/review-of-alain-de-bottons-pleasures-and-sorrows-of-work.html

His video on Kant mentions absolutely nothing about his epistemology. It's pretty bad.

Episte-what now? English pease!

Did he really write that? That is so fucking reddit, right down to the schadenfreunde. Twat.

One time I saw some comments written by Adolf Hitler on YouTube.

Here's the salsa:
Www.YouTube.Com

you sound like a loser

...

I feel like this is why booktube is so bad

Never argue with anyone, always agree with them. Laugh a lot and laugh easily. Smile for no reason and always ask how people are doing. Look at Jimmy Fallon to fine-tune the fakeness. People like you now will hate you, but normies will start slowly befriending you.

thx user