You Tube Post No.7

Fanboys.  Gotta love 'em.  And it seems Condell has a few of them.  Fanboys go beyond the norm.  They don't just subscribe to Condell, they actively promote him.  Kind of the anti-thesis of what I'm doing.

I've come across Fanboys in one particular area before.  Gaming.  In gaming, fanboys can be mainly split into opposing hardware clans, Nintendo Fanboys, Sony Fanboys, and, of course, Microsoft Fanboys.  There can be sub-types (Mario Fanboys, Sonic Fanboys, etc) but generally, the main fault lines are down the choice of hardware.  With Fanboys, once they have made the choice of hardware (not many people can afford more than one games console!), they are wed to it and will swear undying fealty to the brand.

Condell, I think, is becoming a brand.  I fully expect his revised website to be a much slicker affair, with better signposts to his merchandise.  He is moving beyond YouTube 'amateur', especially now that his money spinning DVD is available over on richarddawkins.net.

So, it is not surprising that there are a few Condell Fanboys springing up.   None of them have the delivery skills that Condell does, which in turn makes it easier to dissect what they say.  My favourite Condell Fanboy is nz2k2.  This guy has much love for Condell.  It seems every other video he makes references Condell in one way or another, and, yes, he even has the t-shirt.

What I find quite funny is the admission in his profile that:

I am British, and stuck in Britain right now, but I feel far more at home in wonderful New Zealand, where I work and spend as much time as legally possible...

I'm a Brit by passport (hopefully not for long now) but I consider myself a Kiwi at heart.

How embarrassing. He spends as little time as possible in the UK, and yet still feels he can comment upon the religious situation in the UK (and Europe).   The guy is leaving the UK for New Zealand!  Perhaps there are too many Muslims here for his liking?  Hopefully, when he gets a New Zealand passport he'll stop pretending he's British.  Still, at least he answers his comments.

My latest post is an answer to nz2k2's video 'Happy Half Million Pat Condell! And some serious thoughts..'  In it, he makes the assertion that there is a 'lack of denouncement' or terrorism from Muslims.  And taking a quick look around on YouTube, there are actually a number of videos from Muslims denouncing terror, but nothing that has summed up the global Muslim community efforts since 9/11 to condemn terrorism in the name of Islam.

So, using my favourite research tool, I set about gathering evidence and put together a video showing how Muslims have been denouncing terrorism.  Hope you like it.

StickAm

So I've started to use StickAm.  There are plenty of people there with which to exchange ideas.  But one guy I'm not so sure of goes by the name of 'shootupaschool'.  This guy basically said that he likes to rape and sexually molest Muslim children.  Obviously he was not serious.  But even in jest.  That just isn't funny, is it?

UPDATE: 16/04/2008 Funnily enough, the user 'shootupaschool' does not exist at Stickam anymore.  Wonder why that is?

A great primer...

Got sent this Middle East primer today.  Thought it might be useful for some people to read, regardless of if they are American or not.

YouTube Post No.6

So, I've taken a different tact with this video, which is why it took me a bit longer than usual. Hope you will see why.

This video is a basic demonstration of the moral hazards of taking something, anything, out of context.  So I mashed up 3 or 4 of Condells' videos to produce my take on context.  I have no doubt that Pat Condell fans will not hesitate to leave comments along the lines of 'but that isn't what he meant...', but then, that is my point.  Hope you enjoy it.

UPDATE: A hearty congrats to TheMilitantKafir who was the first to point out that I took Pat Condell out of context.  Bravo, my good man, bravo.

Blog Me Baby One More Time

So, I found this little ditty today, this guy thinks I have an axe to grind. and I suppose to some extent he is right, but how he can use that tired cliche against me, and not think about how it applies to Condell, is beyond me.

What irks me about this particular post, is this nugget of wisdom:

Give the guy credit! At least he stakes his claim, offers his opinion and is willing to stick his neck out. He admits he is an atheist!

Hey! It’s a free world. Let’s keep it that way! We need dialogue not dis-respect.

I agree with the last sentence at least.  In fact, I'd say that is exactly what I've been trying to do.  I'm not sure why Pat Condell should get credit for staking his claim.  I mean.  Tony Blair staked his claim on a 'dodgy dossier'.  He was wrong, but should we give him credit for it?  I'm not sure how he is sticking his neck out either.  Is the implication that he is in danger for making his claims?  And so what if he admits he is an Atheist?  I understand he is an Atheist.  That does not make his views more or less valid than anyone elses'.  Does it?

I'm all for respectful dialogue. Condell, though, doesn't want dialogue.  In fact, he is actively avoiding it.  Apart from his first video, none of his rants has actually been a reply or a comment on anything else going on in the YouTube community.  He never responds to the replies to his videos, and I've never seen a text comment that he has posted.  And, adding insult to injury, I never see him on StickAm!  No. His is a monologue.  We must listen to his imparted 'freethinking' pearls of wisdom, who questions him will be set upon by the freethinking police.  'You must agree with pat because he is right and all Muslims are wrong' is the typical chain of reasoning.

Ironic?  I think so!

A response to a response...

Nothing to do with Pat Condell, but I'd be surprised if the Condell-Meister doesn't comment on Fitna.

In the meantime, I've kept myself occupied with this simple rebuttal of PfanderFilms' claims over on YouTube.

Stats Update

So Condell squeezed another video out, "Appeasing Islam", and our resident image guru (I like to call him 'Deep Throat') updated the running stats. Click on the stats image for a bigger version.

At the time of writing. the "Appeasing Islam" video has had 439,977 views. In stark contrast, his video previous to this ("Take a cruise, Tom"), in which Condell applied his 'comedy' skills to Scientology, has received a less than stellar, for Pat anyway, 86,340 views. This is despite it being published for a whole two weeks longer.

I'm no psychologist, but surely Pat realised as quickly as I did that his Scientology video was not going to garner him a massive amount of viewers.  Is it any wonder that he quickly followed it with his usual Islam-bashing rhetoric?

Whilst the numbers alone make an interesting topic of debate (who are all these people who believe what is told to them by somebody on the Internet without at least seeking some sort of confirmation from other sources?), I wonder which of Condells 30,000 odd  subscribers are the ones who ensure the wide distribution he so obviously gets in particular response to his Islam baiting?

Obviously, Condell enjoys the support and linkage of the BNP, but probably not when he lets loose on Christianity... I don't know, I'll need to ponder this, perhaps I'll get my thoughts together enough to write something coherent on this.