How BreadTube challenges right-wing discourse

In our current hybrid media system, older (mass media) and newer (social media) logics are interacting, and the complex relationships between actors are based on the power they can exercise in this system. “Actors create, tap, or steer information flows in ways that suit their goals and in ways that modify, enable, or disable others’ agency, across and between a range of older and newer media settings.” (Chadwick, 2016)

Some video content creators on the left side of the political spectrum who are tangentially part of the leftist, loose association of independent online videographers and their surrounding communities dubbed ‘BreadTube’ try to do just that. These actors use new right and mainstream tactics to break into the information flow of the hybrid media system to advance the spread of leftist ideas and, more importantly, to hinder the diffusion of the ideology of the right.

By analysing these borrowed tactics, we can start to understand how BreadTube videos are effective at challenging the mainstream and right-wing discourses. However, analysing these tactics will also lay bare the biggest weakness of BreadTube’s approach.  

Methodology

Using both information from BreadTube creators, the r/BreadTube subreddit and the paper “YouTube as Praxis? On BreadTube and the Digital Propagation of Socialist Thought” (Ismangil & Kuznetsov, 2020), we will first try to pinpoint what BreadTube is and what ideology is at the basis of it. This definition of BreadTube and the ideology behind it will then serve as the backdrop of the analysis of why some frequently recurring tactics in BreadTube content are successful at challenging new right and mainstream discourse.

The data that is used primarily comes from YouTube videos by popular BreadTube creators, because these videos most prominently show the effective features of leftist videos as well as the big underlying problem of the BreadTube community.

What is BreadTube?

‘BreadTube’ (or ‘LeftTube’ as it is sometimes called because of its ideological content) is described by Dmitry Kuznetsov and Milan Ismangil as “a loose association of independent online videographers and their surrounding communities that makes up a leftist response to alt-right use of digital media. The moniker Loose Association implies a lack of central organisation, of a structure that determines their relationships. Instead, a shared ideology binds them together.” (Ismangil & Kuznetsov, 2020) The BreadTube community is not just limited to YouTube on which videos by BreadTube creators are usually posted, but it stretches across multiple media platforms, such as Reddit, Discord and its own video aggregation site BreadTube.tv.

r/BreadTube

It is important to stress that, as the second rule of the r/BreadTube subreddit suggests, BreadTube content is not just a counterweight to the new right's usage of digital media, but it is also critical of mainstream ideology. We need to interpret mainstream ideology here as pro-establishment (liberal or conservative), pro-authoritarian, and, perhaps most importantly, pro-capitalist. This critique of mainstream ideology is one of the cornerstones of the shared ideology that keeps BreadTube, which is home to users and creators with a wide array of different political, leftist dispositions, from falling apart.

This shared leftist ideology has its roots in the tradition of the radical enlightenment, which vouches for universal rights, direct democracy and radical equality, not just before the law, but socioeconomically as well (Israël, 2010). This direct democracy can only successfully be achieved when every citizen is educated on how to be democratic, which is why BreadTube takes the role of free educator for all. “BreadTube fills an ideological void for people who may lack the means and methods to educate themselves.” (Ismangil & Kuznetsov, 2020) Viewers are encouraged to go beyond BreadTube videos and make use of the educational tools the community around these creators provides, such as discussion boards, book clubs and the dedicated discord channel for pirated or open access books and articles. 

To realize its ideal of equality between creators, BreadTube prioritizes the quality of the content over the popularity of the content creator as stated in its subreddit rules. Furthermore, which works are accepted as BreadTube content is decided through democratic processes between users, such as discussions on forums or voting on Reddit. (Ismangil & Kuznetsov, 2020) This is why you will see videos created by smaller creators, as shown in figure 2, as well as videos with leftist content that were created by videographers whose channels typically do not revolve around this type of content, trending on the Reddit page alongside videos by bigger ‘BreadTube’ channels.

This is also in line with what some popular content creators from the community have stated. Not all popular ‘BreadTube’ creators self-identify as a BreadTuber, because, as T1J explains in the video above, the term is both creatively and politically limiting; it conditions you to strictly create essay style videos that are leftist, anti-capitalist and reactionary to the right in nature. The term is also often used by fans and journalists in reference to an elite group of popular leftist content creators, which makes the term a gatekeeper to the community.

However, just because the selection process of content is decided democratically and just because many BreadTube videographers do not self-identify as a BreadTuber, does not mean there is complete equality between creators. In a sense, the top BreadTube creators function as ‘reluctant leaders’ or ‘anti-leaders’, who subscribe to the ideology of horizontalism and therefore do not want to be seen as leaders. Unlike Gerbaudo’s definition of ‘reluctant leaders’ or ‘anti-leaders’, they do not bring “a degree of coherence to people’s spontaneous & creative participation in protest movements” by virtue of scene-setting or scripting work (Gerbaudo, 2012). Instead, they render leftist content by smaller creators more meaningful by connecting it to a larger collective with a shared ideology. They also lead the way in discovering successful and innovative content creation tactics, raising the bar of what leftist content can be in the process.

BreadTube tactics

Content-wise, BreadTube videos are as diverse as their creators. While it is true that BreadTube videos often fall into the categories of explanatory video, in which a broad topic is introduced and analysed, or a response video, in which a right-wing or liberal talking point is debunked (Ismangil & Kuznetsov, 2020), every content creator has their own way of executing these types of videos.  Some, like videos by Philosophy tube, are well-researched deep dives into specific topics, while others, like videos by ContraPoints, use a discursive-dialectical technique to highlight various sides of a specific debate. There are also creators who primarily discuss topics from their own personal perspective, such as Kat Blaque.

Despite these large differences in the way videos are executed,  are often borrowed from mainstream and right-wing content, used across multiple popular leftist channels that have proven to be very effective at breaking into the right-wing and mainstream information flow. These techniques allow these BreadTube videos to reach and hold the attention of traditionally mainstream and right-wing audiences, which in turn has the potential of challenging these audiences’ views.

Nostalgic Aesthetics

Atomic Blonde (2017)

What do the blockbuster movie ‘Atomic Blonde’, Majid Jordan’s music video for ‘Small Talk’ and livestreams of the leftist channel Philosophyubes have in common? They all use a lighting technique called bi-lighting (also known as bisexual lighting), which is a technique where a combination of pink, purple and blue hues are used. The colour scheme originates from nightclubs and has been used in television and music videos as a subtle nod to the bisexuality of the character on screen.

u/Generic_Green_Squid on r/starterpacks

Many will recognize bi-lighting in combination with bright neons and glitch effects as a nostalgic 80’s aesthetic. In actuality, the 80’s aesthetic is often confused with the more recent retro vaporwave aesthetic that emerged in the early 2010s. This style not only incorporates the previously mentioned visual elements, but also uses late 1990s web design, old cartoons and anime, 3D-rendered objects, cyberpunk elements and consumer items to achieve a vague sense of surrealism and nostalgia.

Originally, the style was  to ambiguously critique the hollowness of consumer capitalism, which eventually led to less ambiguous subgenres such as the communist ‘laborwave.’ Due to this history of anti-capitalist usage, it makes sense for BreadTube and BreadTube creators to use the style as a motif in their leftist content, which is for example reflected in r/BreadTube’s banner.

Although bi-lighting already had a big overlap in colour scheme with the vaporwave aesthetic, its usage by BreadTube creators really took off when the technique also started gaining popularity in the mainstream. Not only does bi-lighting provide a way for BreadTube creators to pay homage to the -in origin- anti-capitalist vaporwave style, it is also a powerful tool to make the visuals of your video appeal to a broader mainstream audience, which may increase the uptake of the video. Lastly, this lighting technique can also serve an important symbolic function, such as in ContraPoints’ video “Tiffany Tumbles”  (13:48), where it highlights the ideological differences between a conservative transgender woman and a progressive transwoman.

Internet Humour

The new right has long adopted trolling, harassment and meme-culture in their metapolitical strategy to appeal to a young, tech-savvy audience who grew up  (Maly, 2018) “To do so, they purposefully craft a shared identity based on hipness and edginess, and they signify a countercultural identity that largely draws from youth movements of the past.” (Lewis, 2018)

BreadTube creators have also started using meme-culture and internet-culture to appeal to that same young audience while simultaneously poking through the edginess of right-wing arguments to critically look at them. In a New York Times article, ContraPoints state something similar: “I noticed that right-wing people were taking these old-fashioned, knee-jerk, reactionary politics and packing them as edgy punk rock. One of my goals was to take the excitement out of it.” (Roose, 2019).

One video in which she clearly does this is “Are Traps Gay?”, which discusses the infamous internet debate about whether or not it is gay to be physically attracted to crossdressing men and/or transgender women, which divulged into a debate on whether the question itself was unacceptably offensive or just a joke. ContraPoints not only looks seriously and critically at this debate which is seen by many as a meme, but she connects it to larger discussions on gender identity, fragile masculinity and transphobia.

The approach clearly works, as evidenced by testimonies from formerly alt-right audience members. The same New York article wrote after an interview with one of these audience members: “Unlike most progressives Mr. Cain had seen take on the right, Mr. Bonnell (Destiny) and Ms. Wynn (ContraPoints) were funny and engaging. They spoke the native language of YouTube, and they didn’t get outraged by far-right ideas.” (Roose, 2019)

SEO

Search engine optimization is the umbrella term for a collection of strategies used to have content appear high up in search results. Digitally literate (meta)political influencers on the right have strategically been using politicized keywords for the marketing purposes of their content. Rebecca Lewis also found that: “influencers are explicitly using terminology affiliated with progressive social justice movements and are therefore appearing in search results for those terms.” (Lewis, 2018) In this way, right-wing (meta)political actors are hijacking the information flows of these progressive social justice movements to hinder their agency.

However, this also happens vice versa. BreadTube content creators also consciously use right-wing terminology in their titles and other meta-content to tap into right-wing information flows. At the beginning of her previously mentioned video “Are Traps Gay?” ContraPoints explains why “o we’re like a jogger, racing against a car. The only way to win is to hijack the car.” Using the term ‘trap’, despite the fact that it may offend some of her trans audience members, allows her -a transgender woman- to hijack the conversation led by primarily straight, white men on the topic.

YouTube

Using right-wing terminology in combination with producing high-quality, long-form content which appeals to a broad audience has proven to be a very successful formula for other BreadTube creators, like Hbomberguy in figure 6, as well. Not only does their content appear at the top of the research results, but there is also an increased chance that their content will be recommended by YouTube’s algorithm to those who have shown interest in right-wing topics, content and content creators.

The biggest problem facing BreadTube

The above-mentioned tactics are vital tools in appealing to a wide audience and they, combined with the high quality of most BreadTube videos, are the reason for BreadTube’s initial and continued success.  However, some of the tools and affordances that BreadTube relies on, are founded on neoliberal principles, which is in complete contradiction with BreadTube’s anti-capitalist stance and may have deeply troubling consequences.

Especially the video hosting site YouTube where BreadTube videos are initially uploaded is problematic. Unlike Reddit, where what content deserves the spotlight is decided democratically by users or BreadTube’s own video aggregation site BreadTube.tv, where BreadTube videos are ranked chronologically on YouTube, what content is suggested to users is decided by its algorithms weigh various variables with the goal of keeping users on the site as long as possible  advertisements. This is why YouTube is seen as a necessary evil if a leftist content creator wants to reach a large audience that does not just include BreadTube users. This problem is also explained in BreadTube.tv’s about section:

“Services such as YouTube use hidden algorithms to serve content to users, the preferences of these algorithms are determined by YouTube's values, which as they are a subsidiary of Google is the generation of capital through advertising.”

Although the workings of YouTube’s algorithms are kept hidden, we can be fairly certain that one of the variables used is the relative weight or popularity of a creator. Van Dijck, when discussing the work of Ding and  on YouTube’s workings, noted this: “The unequal distribution of views among uploaders, as the researchers suggest, is hardly a matter of fair competition among users, but of YouTube tweaking its engine to benefit some heavyweight users.” (Van Dijck, 2013).

This, of course, causes the exact inequalities between BreadTube content creators that r/BreadTube is trying to avoid by focussing on the quality of submitted content rather than the popularity of creators. This issue is also reflected in the difference between what fans and journalists consider to be BreadTube versus the definition that r/BreadTube and its content creators give.

There are fears within the community that there will be content creators looking to take advantage of BreadTube’s popularity and infrastructure for their own financial gain “The incentive to being included as a part of LeftTube is fairly obvious. There’s an obvious financial upside, as well as an added bonus of extra media exposure that could potentially open up the door to more eyeballs being set on your content.” (Khaled, 2019) Popular, established creators within the BreadTube community are also frequently accused of exploiting their position to make a profit. In the video below, for example, the content creator Shaun the Skeleton is criticized for his popular PragerU response videos, which -from the viewpoint of the critic- profit financially of the divide between the left and conservatives.

On the other end of the spectrum, smaller BreadTube creators are not able to financially support themselves with their videos. It is true that YouTube’s algorithms have generally preferred longer-form content in recent years, like r/BreadTube. However, unlike r/BreadTube, the production value of the content and how heavily researched the video is, is not necessarily rewarded. Furthermore, YouTube values the consistency of a creator’s uploads and for BreadTube creators who have a very high production value like Philosophy Tube or ContraPoints, there are often weeks if not months between videos. This makes the platform unsustainable for smaller creators who want to make a living off of their content.

Patreon, ko-fi or one-time PayPal donations can help alleviate some of these problems by providing smaller creators a way to earn extra income and bigger creators a way to not contribute to YouTube’s generation of capital. However, this does not make the tightrope that BreadTube creators have to walk on between not making a sustainable income and making too much profit from their work disappear. Furthermore, Patreon, Ko-fi and PayPal are also still for-profit services.

In other words, there are ways, like the r/BreadTube subreddit, to increase the equality between BreadTube creators and tactics, like SEO, to exploit the system to spread a leftist ideology.  However, you cannot have a significant impact as a leftist content creator on the information flows of the right and mainstream if your actions are completely in line with your ideology.

integration in the Conclusions

Borrowing techniques from the right and mainstream helps BreadTube creators break into the information flows of the mainstream and the right, which allows their content to reach, keep the attention of and challenge the viewpoints of a broader audience than just leftists.

Unfortunately, this is a double-edged sword: to achieve the maximum effectiveness of their videos, BreadTube creators need to play by the rules of the neoliberal affordances that they use, which goes completely against their anti-capitalist ideology. At the moment, the mentality of the end justifies the means still holds up, but the distrust between creators and their leftist base will only increase if creators continue to rely too heavily on the neoliberal system that they are trying to oppose. In the long term, this might damage the believability of BreadTube’s most important cornerstone: its shared ideology, which will destabilize the community as a whole.

References

Chadwick, A., Dennis, J., Smith, A. P. (2016). Politics in the Age of Hybrid Media: Power, Systems, and Media Logics. In Bruns, A., Enli, G., Skogerbø, E., Larsson, A. O., Christensen, C. (Eds.), (2016). The Routledge Companion to Social Media and Politics. a/n: Routledge

Ismangil, M., Kuznetsov, D. (2020) YouTube as Praxis? On BreadTube and the Digital Propagation of Socialist Thought. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31269/triplec.v18i1.1128

Israel, J. (2010). A revolution of the mind. Radical Enlightenment and the intellectual origins of modern democracy. Princeton and Oxford, England: Princeton University Press

Gerbaudo, P. (2012). Tweets and the Streets. Social edia and Contemporary Activism. Northampton, England: Pluto Press

Maly, I. (2018, May 13). Pepe the frog, het ok-teken en Poe's wet: wat je moet weten over Nieuw Rechtse troltechnieken. Retrieved from: https://www.diggitmagazine.com/column/pepe-frog-het-ok-teken-en-poes-wet-wat-je-moet-weten-over-de-alt-right-troltechnieken

Lewis, R. (2018). The alternative Influence Network. Broadcasting the Reactionary Right on YouTube. Retrieved from: https://datasociety.net/library/alternative-influence/

Roose, K. (2019, June 8). The Making of a YouTube Radical. Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/08/technology/youtube-radical.html

Van Dijck, J. (2013). The culture of connectivity. A critical history of social media. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Khaled, A. (2019, July 29). A Battle for the Soul of BreadTube Is Currently Taking Place. Retrieved from: https://medium.com/swlh/breadtube-lefttube-youtube-contrapoints-hbomberguy-radicalization-541d69313f8b