Yes it is important the field you work in. You are going to spend something like 40% of your waking hours doing it. If you think doubleshifting manual labour under scorching sun and whips is somehow equivalent to 8 hours in an office environment where you answer phones or w/e, you've lost the thread.

You're right that not everyone can change jobs. You grossly exaggerate what is required to do so, however. Yes, changing between highly skilled careers that required a significant amount of specialized knowledge isn't available to all that many people. But you can't even see the miseries of slave labour from the desk of your first career, they're so far away.

You haven't thought too much about infrastructure and what it would mean to have it removed, have you? Of course infrastructure is a benefit to employers, but that's not relevant to how beneficial it is to the 'slaves'. I expect casual access to electricity, water, and world wide communication would have done a lot for slaves, to name just a few of the elements of infrastructure. I'm honestly starting to doubt your sincerity now.

Slaves had good healthcare? Holy shit. I never expected to hear something like that. I don't need to make a counter point here, as you've ridiculed yourself. American healthcare is shitty -- COMPARED with other developed countries. It is light years ahead of anything that has existed outside the jurisdiction of a government.

Yes, the influential have an advantage. Nobody is disputing that. It doesn't utterly negate your rights across the board. You can still travel. You can still educate yourself. You can still own property. You can still address many grievances by wielding your rights. This list goes on and on. ALL things a slave couldn't ever hope to do. I think the rest of your paragraph should have been moved to the protection from hostility section so I'll address it there.

I was addressing hostility from other slaves. You are probably right in that the tribalism it fosters can be very dangerous where countries clash. In a system without government, spats would result in undending blood feuds, all across the territory ruled by the anarchy, whereas under a state, if they happen across borders they can erupt into something far worse.

I don't agree with the way the US has handled the extremist muslim situation that they mid-wifed in the middle east. But are you going to tell me that you're less safe, now, even after all the alluded too transgressions, than some rural farmer in South Sudan, who is effectively living without any guaranteed rights?

I'm definitely for more compassion and socialism than seen in modern US policy, so I'm not sure what your point is. Are you trying to claim that policies on slave plantations were more generous towards the slaves than our current policies are towards us?

Let's just say that I'm loathe to accept an unsourced opinion than medieval peasantry lead better lives than the average government-laden citizen nowadays. I'm sure there are some points on which they did better. Superstition, sickness, famine, war, flooding. We honestly don't have anything that even compares to these in the modern world. If you could link it or something though, I'd love to read it. It sounds interesting.

These posts are getting too long.

I'm deeply saddened that Schmawy passed away and my hope is that it was swift and painless.

He was one of the few people who seemed to make friends with everyone and keep a balanced, mellow outlook. He will be missed and remembered.

I didn't know him much in real life other than a casual facebook friend (slightly more real life than videosift), but on videosift he was a big presence and losing his voice has made the place a little colder.

Good bye, Schmawy, it was fun.

I know this is probably the most insipid possible point to raise over an interesting video, but why is everyone always telling us George Orwell's real name? Other authors don't seem to get the same treatment. In the world of pop music it's Elton John (whose original name was actually Walter Sloppycock or whatever it was), in literature it's George Orwell. Or they'll casually mention some fact about a certain Eric Blair and then pause to not so subtly observe your reaction.

It doesn't seem to me to be a very important thing to know. Like the occasional debate over who actually wrote Shakespeare's plays - probably this bloke called William Shakespeare, but maybe not, who knows - someone did it, and a jolly good job they did of it, and that person we call Shakespeare. The body of work is what counts, and good lord but Orwell had a hell of a body of work. Sometimes the bodies of actual fascists.

@notarobot: Valid point about the playlist link. I'm going to work on moving it on the single video page and also adding it to the front page.

Regarding short/long/nsfw, I just quickly threw that onto the front page today after someone ^up there pointed out they were missing. I first had it next to the "comments" link, but thought everyone would prefer them below the thumbnail because they are hard to spot in the other area and serve to clutter it up more.

To me the uniform space between thumbnails is a non-issue, and in fact something I still don't even recognize casually now that you've pointed it out.

What do the rest of you guys think? Does the placement of long/short/nsfw below the thumbnails on the front page bother you and prefer that they'd be right of the thumbnail next to the "comments" link? Or are you happy with it where it is?

The other reason I put it below the thumbnail is that when you expand the video you can see that info in the meta data column with the length, channels, and tags.

@newtboy.

I don't see the word fat as anything other than descriptive. That dancer was fat. I am fat. It is just a word. No "calling out" was intended.

What I meant by I wouldn't complain "as much" if men's bodies started being as constrained in the media was my inarticulate attempt to bring a sense of equality to my rant. I agree with you that there are more average looking women on TV. But "more" isn't many. What I was trying to say was -- right now, average looking men are everywhere in the media, way out of proportion to average looking women. That pisses me off. When there comes a time when average looking men start disappearing, my anger over the gender inequality of numbers will fade.

My anger over the under-representation of average-looking won't fade, though. I'll be equally as pissed on behalf of both genders.

I'm glad that you are engaging with me, and much more respectfully than I have engaged with you. I knew I shouldn't use the term "willfully blind." I was peeved and that wasn't fair nor kind. I apologize.

I will stick to "blind," though. The studies are there. Any casual watching of movies and TVs supports my position. So why are you blind, then? The facts don't support your position. Your claim to research is a puzzle to me. What research, when all the research supports my points? I concede your point that it is better than it used to be, but "by far"? No, my friend. Not "by far." Not even close to "by far."

Every little bit helps, though. Thank god for Gabourey and Melissa and Amy Schumer who proudly weighs a stupendous 160 pounds and makes fun of Comedy Central for trying to make her starve herself into stickness.

I remember weighing 160 pounds, when I was in my late 20s. I thought I was fat. Hell, I thought I was fat when I weighed 140 pounds. Now I weigh 240 pounds, and I really am fat. I wish I had Amy back then. Of course, she is a product of the latest wave of feminists who are calling bullshit on... well, the list is long. I'm so proud of her.

And I'm proud of my contribution that made it possible for her to do what she is doing. Yippee for us!

Thanks for such a respectful exchange. My apologies again for my ill-chosen, ill-mannered words.

i wish he worked in bar in london - far more attentive than the usual casual staff

I hate how she casually talks about Sherlock Holmes as if the TV show is the only version to exist.

Really. Public figures have less expectations of privacy. The difference between Wiener's wiener and 'The Fappening' is how the material was accessed and disseminated. And I'm not saying either is not a problem, but I'm saying that Wiener was a married elected official who chose to send dick picks to chicks other than his wife while in office. And then some of the recipients provided the material to the media, which isn't the same as an ex-lover self-publishing. And 'The Fappening' was a lapse of security of the cloud, right? So I don't see causation of similarity.

@GenjiKilpatrick -- I'm sure you could contact Anthony Wiener and get more pics. And I definitely wouldn't say leaked nudes is perfectly acceptable and to be expected, but it's most likely to be expected because the technology and ramifications are new. Snowden said the NSA casually exchanged images of nude women (probably men, too), and they weren't celebrities. Of course, I'm sure neither Snowden or the NSA leaked them.

Some interesting arrow science.
Predicting that wobble = warlock.

0.38% of the video yields 95% of comments.

Hadn't considered the fist bump as a potential health measure.

During greeting processes I've fist bumped a billionaire (he shook his head after, with a smile), refrained from physical contact (sick) and have been told "i killed your family" (many times by a friend, joke deliberately focused on inappropriate things to say), in all cases i knew the person well.

I think the difference in appropriateness is how well you know the individual, and what they're tolerant of. A first bump as a first meeting is a bit off imo as no bond has been built and best left to a generic handshake.
These guys however, had obviously met multiple times, so not a bad idea to freshen things up with some alternatives. Seems the older fella was too quick for this to be their first fist bump.

Also i agree fist bumping is not professional, it's casual.. with or with out a classy explosion.

I use that as a euphemism for unprofessional or immature and extremely casual or unconcerned with society and civility and lacking consideration or respect for your elders or everyone in general.

It's very often used in place of a handshake, and in my boys' case, it's exclusively attempted to be used that way.

I dunno, thesee big ass companies are getting pretty good at shutting down content, at least for casual surfers. Now there is content available online that requires cable provider login.

I'm not saying the format isn't hurting but the format is ALWAYS changing and shifting, back tracking and then leaping forward. I still listen to the radio and go to the theater and theatre. Live shows? Hell yeah.

Any format is relevant to varying degrees when the same people own and run multiple formats for content: Marvel Television, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Netflix, Marvel comics, Marvel on your iPad, Disney on ice.

Yet this xenophobe still represents our community with his vile attacks on anyone "different" in the eyes of the casual visitor who does not have the experience we do.

Imagine seeing the page as a fresh newbie, seeing some disgusting homophobic rant and seemingly no one batting an eyelid at it.

I just tell people that I don't give out that information. No zip code or anything. When people started asking me my name years ago I thought they were fucking crazy, and I was shocked to see so many people casually giving their name and address out.

I think that the noise being picked up by the recorder makes it sound a lot worse than what it is. In my opinion, he's only really patting next to the baby.

Would it not be fair to say that clapping is a roughly equivalent action? And i see people doing that near babies all the time without someone worrying about affecting the kid's mental state as it grows up, or worrying if the kid perceives the clapping of hands as a threat or worry.

If babies are too young to understand, then they may misunderstand clapping? Or alternatively how are they to understand the waving of someone's hand nearby to be aggressive? Especially given that it appears to be a comfortable family unit.

Most importantly, can we please consider that the baby was slapping its own leg? Perhaps one day the baby slapped its hand about, the father did the same thing, and the baby got enjoyment out of it? It slaps its hand about again at the end too. We don't know, we can't know, and it's very unfair to make so many casual assumptions - not just about his actions, but about what is normal for different people.

I'm concerned about the amount of assumptions being made in chastising this man. Especially when drawing a parallel to an anecdote about someone "growing up skittish" because of "teasing". Correlation, not necessarily causation.. and again, what evidence is this of teasing, and how is it fair to speculatively compare it to something stated so vaguely?

I'm sorry to be combative about it, but i feel this is a huge leap of imagination based on 30 seconds of video. A great many of us (if not all) could be made to look all kinds of contrary ways based on 30 second snippets, and it's an indelible brush that he's being hurriedly tarred with. I stand to be corrected, but i don't see any signs of distress either from the baby or the person recording, and the baby looks otherwise healthy and well provisioned. It was not placed in that seating with those accoutrements without care and attention. I think more harm than good can come of judging things like this, considering the subtlety of most *actual* abusers.

Dirt is safe enough to eat. Does that mean I have to eat a handful of dirt? It's weed killer, guys. But, yeah, don't claim it's so casually drinkable if you aren't willing to casually drink it.

It's a video with 2 jerks being played to a choir full of jerks. A circle jerk, in fact.