I made the mistake of going on Twitter today to find a tweet. 😬
I'm glad Urbanist Twitter is not representative of actual urbanists, because it's basically just this. 😆
I will never understand the mentality of people who dislike a YouTuber and then rant about it for months on social media, instead of doing something sane like, say, watching something else, making the content they want to see, or maybe touching grass.
I genuinely think that too much social media rots people's brains.
@notjustbikes I've automated my Xitter activity. When I post to Mastodon, it automatically gets posted to FecesBook and Xitter – so I don't have to go to thoe places. However, I end up going anyway confirm that the automation worked. I always regret it.
@notjustbikes some ppl honestly believe that good urbanism is unlimited free parking in front of their preferred shops/businesses for their Ford F-150 or Chevy Silverado. Weird.
@notjustbikes the latest criticism that I saw about this basically bolts down to "the only way to change things is getting involved locally, and the videos don't point to how to do that".
Which is a fair enough statement, but not really the goal of your channel. And I kinda understand that Americans try to shield themselves from the increasing judgement from Europe which they try explain away as "they don't understand America" and never like "things might not be so perfect here...".
Local involvement is literally what Strong Towns does, and I've promoted them constantly, since before NJB was even a thing.
Strong Towns have told me that the majority of their members have come from my channel.
What I've seen lately is "you're a big YouTuber so you have a moral responsibility to fix America", which is insane, when I'm a Canadian living in the Netherlands, but then, American Exceptionalism is a hell of a drug.
@notjustbikes yeah, my housemate was in the US for a while and then went to Canada, and it was a breath of fresh air for him to suddenly see Angela Merkel on TV (he is german). In the US it really feels like the whole world is the US. It's extremely hard to understand anything you see online as not a part of the US basically...
@notjustbikes also I got to understand that changing the world goes through some who plant the seeds, some who grow them and some who harvest, basically. You are generally the seed for a lot of other YouTube channels and inspiration on local level. I think that any local action in the US would have very little to work with without things like Bicycle Dutch's documentation of how things work in the Netherlands and your honest comparing and judging outsider perspective. Those together are a power combo that blasts people's brains open. I think people mostly don't really like that feeling, and how effective that is, honestly... People don't like to be told that they were wrong.
@lapingvino sure, that's all well and good, but there are a growing number of Americans that seem to think that I need to hand-hold them through the process of fixing their city, and/or play an active role in making it happen.
Even though I'm not American and I don't live there.
And what's most frustrating is that they've gone from saying, "you'd be more successful if you'd make this content I want," to "you're a big YouTuber so you have a moral responsibility to make this content I want." 🙄
@notjustbikes@lapingvino also you made that Carmel, IN video. It's not like they haven't local examples and expertise at hand, if they wanted change or needed American based examples. Just duplicate that stuff already.
@isotopp@lapingvino I have never made a video about Carmel. I think you're confusing me with another YouTuber like Bicycle Dutch or American Fietser (who lives there).
I only make videos about places I visit in person and I generally try not to go to the US anymore.
You are right, of course. I checked, it was indeed Bicycledutch visiting American Fietser. I am very sorry, I should know better than to post before breakfast coffee.
Still, it is not as if in the US they have no local examples they could copy if they wanted to actually improve their cities. Tested, and actually working on US soil. Looking slightly differently than the Dutch examples, but working on identical principles.
@notjustbikes@lapingvino I've gotten roughly to the next level of,
"Are you saying you'd want NJB to rip up the highways and lower traffic volume from the suburbs into [your American city]?"
"Of course not! People bought those houses knowing they'd be able to drive"
@notjustbikes it is always easier to bullshit about other people's ideas than to be constructive and have your own or even have a constructive critique, like
I understand your approach. It has these properties, these are advantages those are disadvantages. Here is my counter proposal, it has the following effect.