Negative Vs Positive Freedom - Viper Rambles #5

Indiziert: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]I've never been late in the entire history of my life If you ignore all the times I've ever been late [Chat TTS] I hate the concept of freedom because you basically aren't free when you need to pay for living and follow rules made by other people Yeah, there's negative freedom and positive freedom Which one's which?

[00:00:15]The difference is your capacity to do things you want to do versus being free from restrictions to do things If you're in a desert by yourself, you have the absolute maximum negative freedom ever There's no one telling you what to do No responsibilities, no regulations, no laws You can do literally whatever you want to do, but it's a sh*t life, obviously Because you need a balance of positive and negative freedom That's why people live in societies They recognize that you've got regulations on you You're restricted You can't do particular things sometimes But in general, you have more positive freedom where you are actually able to do things you want to do, irrespective of your circumstances [Reading chat] Just saw your latest ramble, I wonder how much you feel your movie and TV show interests are affected by your age and unconscious nostalgia For me, hype, quality of shows and movies has increased Yeah, it's definitely, surely that's a thing, right?

[00:01:00]I've said this before, where as you get older, stuff is less new and less geared towards you as a dominant demographic Like I've seen dozens of superhero movies, but if you're like young or younger than me, like, you know, you're 18 or whatever, you haven't necessarily done that It's hard to like reset your brain and just imagine what it's like to see movies today or movies and TV shows today that are with fresh eyes, you know?

[00:01:22][Reading chat] Every generation says new shows and movies are bad and not like they were See, that's my thing though I'm not saying they're bad New stuff being made is, some good stuff, right?

[00:01:29]Well, it is good stuff It's just, there just seems to be less collective watching of particular things because there's just so much content And algorithmically, everyone's put into their own little buckets and stuff So I uploaded my worst performing video of all time It was just me yapping at DreamHack I guess I'll just organize a flat fee to pay the person who edited it The retention here is just not good at all So like 20,000 people clicked in and 10% got to the end It was like 2,000 people watched it, which is cool Appreciate it Actually, I ended up unlisting it because it was just like embarrassing how few views it got Because like I had no way to sell the video algorithmically because it was ultimately just me sitting and yapping, answering random questions And I don't know how to, as I say, sell that so the algorithm will think that people care about it Not only is there a smaller audience for that than my normal content, but also I have to be able to sell that somehow, right?

[00:02:22]And I just can’t A mildly important video will be going up on the... well it's not really that important, but um... Well the first 30 seconds of it explains it so I'll just play that the video hasn't released yet because I haven’t got a thumbnail for it but... A few years ago, during a livestream, I spoke at length on the topic of why people differ in what they believe and how they act The talk existed ever since on my main channel, but I did private or unlist it for a variety of reasons over the years Surprisingly, every time I did so, I would receive emails and messages asking to gain access to it again For example, I received this message today which has inspired me to reupload this video on my side channel as I have deleted it from my main channel I won't waste your time speculating on why this talk resonated with people so much, but I will warn you, it does start kind of slow This talk was not pre-planned and the question that instigated it was not well formed It is a very interesting video and I've been told countless times it's a very interesting video, but I've still always been very surprised how many messages I've received like this [Reading DM] I want to ask briefly about a video of yours that you recently set to private, “Why do People Believe and Act Differently?”

[00:03:23]I found it to be a particularly thoughtful piece of analysis, and I've referenced it often in professional context as it helped clarify some key dynamics I encountered in my job as a lawyer What I really hate, though, about this thing here How many of you noticed this little piece of hair here?

[00:03:35]It’s this one piece here What is this? Drive me crazy The person who sent me that message sent a follow up message actually, let me see if I can find that [Reading DM] You mentioned the start of the video that you wouldn't sp- that you wouldn't speculate on why it resonated with people For what it's worth, I think in my case, it was because I recognized a younger version of myself in the person you were debating with someone more focused on individual blame than on understanding how much a... how much of a person's behaviour stems from environments and circumstances Yeah so I talk about in the video the the viewpoint I'm trying to combat makes society so much worse for everyone But despite that, I think it's a good talk I- I'm still surprised how many messages I get about it, because whenever I remove it, because it’s... it only got like 60,000 views on the main channel over like three years In a weird way, I don't like to look at it because it reminds me of the person that I used to be and I’m so passionate and sharing my views about things and thinking changing people's minds matters and it was only a couple of years ago, man I was far more optimistic about things, but... life beats you down Like I woke up this morning and I saw a tweet someone @s me and writes some complete bullsh*t They've just been lied to by someone and I, you know, I could respond and convince them with that But what's the point?

[00:04:46]There was a time when receiving even just one message like that would kind of throw me off for the day, but now it's just like I've received so many I've been so persistently, inconsistently lied about by people who don't have any content and they just need something to talk about, and someone just invents sh*t That all I have in my heart is pity for these people who are just going to be They can exist being lied to forever and there's nothing I can do about it Check if the video is out by the time this ramble comes out It should be [Chat TTS] I feel like other people spreading misinformation about you is more a part of job as a personality heavy creator, I honestly can't think of a large creator who doesn't have some lies out about them Unless you want to be WatchMojo, this likely won't change I mean, even WatchMojo has also gotten I don't know about lies necessarily but they've also got flack over the years it's just there is an industry that exists specifically to talk about content creators and to therefore necessarily exaggerate and expand upon things that they do in order to generate content, to endlessly speculate This was stuff that existed for traditional celebrities with gossip magazines They've filled a function in the market And so, understandably, there is going to be that kind of product and audience in our industry as well It's just very tiring And me, I have the unfortunate thing that being lied about is like my button that you press, you can walk up and call me a f*ckwit, you can walk up, you can say I'm sh*t, my content’s sh*t I won't bat an eye, I will not care even slightly There are very few things I can't think of a single other thing that I care about, even slightly, no I can get angry on behalf of other people Like I can feel a sense of anger, like injustice or, you know, someone being treated unfairly But when it comes to me personally, it is just that because everything else is just like a subjective opinion Like if you don't like me, who cares if you dislike me for something true, who cares?

[00:06:32]There was a time when I was disliked for things that were actually true about me And that was fine Because like, you know, matter of opinion, like you don't like my politics I mean, in some ways, like, like Destiny calls me a f*ckwit I think that's, it speaks well of my character That like a genocidal sex pest thinks I'm a f*ckwit, right?

[00:06:47]That doesn't faze me at all In fact, I prefer it to be that way But when it comes to people lying about me and spreading that information to, to innocent people who are completely unaware that they're being lied to, it bothers me With every passing year, it's bothered me less And I'm more able to resist it or care about it But it's still annoying, it's still like the one of, if not the worst part of this job It is naturally a consequence of every form of discourse that when you put forth an opinion about something, especially an opinion about something exploitative that makes people money, there's going to be vested interest in making up sh*t about you spreading false information, you know trying to get at you any way that they can I knew that even when I was speaking out about stuff so long ago, it's why I was so resistant to doing it Like I was well aware that people, the average person, will never understand the market forces that causes reaction content to be nothing but a detriment to creators That's why I was resistant to talking about it at all, publicly And if it wasn't for Charlie telling everyone that I thought watching YouTube videos is the same as rape, I never would have combated to the degree that I did, even whilst feeling still feeling the same way that I do Like, I know I've brought this upon myself It's just- it'd be much better if that negative aspect of you know the online ecosystem just didn't exist, because it provides no value to anyone, and specifically harms everyone, those who consume it, those who it's produced about, But it exists entirely for the benefit of people who can produce nothing positive for society but want to generate money in the easiest way possible, which is just mindlessly speculating and making up bullsh*t to appeal to an audience, what can you do?

[00:08:07]You know what really sucks guys?

[00:08:08]While I was over in Miami, I broke one of my DJI microphones These are little ones here which have like a little quite powerful magnet actually Like this is a little thing here it goes like on your chest here Like this... The audio quality is pretty good considering how small it is, but there are quite a few of these microphones around The main reason why I used these ones is because they connect to my action cam instantly, and it's just very convenient to connect them to this instantly Like you just turn them on, they connect without any fuss You may wonder how I have some It's because I lost one in Miami and I broke one in Miami because it fell in a puddle of water And so while I was in Miami, I ordered myself two more replacements, each costing like 65 AUD And when I arrived home, they were here for me So I now have two new DJI Mini microphones And then you know this, its now like three days later and I woke up and in my mod channel was this video, “Meet the DJI Mic 3 Advanced Mini Wireless Microphone” And it's just the new version of the microphone that I just purchased a couple of days ago so, where is this, is it even going to show like a good image of it here?

[00:09:16]Something here? See like it's just- it's just the same one just with a- a bit- a few more better features and sh*t Like reality was telling me, “look brother, you don't need these mic minis, right?”

[00:09:27]“We chucking them away, just get rid of them” “Something's come along” and I'm like, “nah, I'll just buy more” So I wasted 120 bucks, they did me dirty and it's funny because I bought at least one of these from the DJI website And then the next day, I kid you not, I went to the DJI website and everything was sold out, of this type of microphone, the carrying case, the things that plug into phones and stuff Every single accessory, and the microphones were out of stock and I was like, “that's weird” “There was stock of some of these things yesterday” “Oh, well” So clearly they did try to stop people, at least on their website, buying the old devices at least, you know, like a five days before launch But I just happened to get it a day early Very bad RNG As they say, random number generation means luck But yes, these microphones I've always liked using them But under every video that talked about these microphones, of which there are many, because DJI sends out like review copies, review samples to a lot of people Not to me, unfortunately, because they don't like me They don’t even know I exist whatever But you can see like at the same time DJI released, there's like all these videos came out from so many different channels, many with just only a couple of views and stuff, because barely costs DJI anything to give these channels, videos, samples and stuff But in the comment section of all of these is this Bought the HollyLand Lark Max 2 combo with an extra mic And I must say, I'm not regretting it at all Got wireless monitoring when two subjects and much more accessories and much more cheaper And I actually prefer the sound to the DJI Mic 3 This is said in every single one of these videos All the comments section, because two weeks ago this product released and from everything that I've heard, they are better than this product in every single way But the only reason why I'm not getting these is because they don't fit my use case For 99% of use cases, these are better They are cheaper, have more features, easier to use But because I'm using the DJI Action Pro, and I don't want a lavalier mic, and I don't want any of the other features that these Hollyland Mark IIs have, the DJI Mini 3s are still the best for me But that's only because I'm a live streamer If I was doing anything else that I had more freedom to like click stuff in and stuff, I would probably buy these So if you are looking for some little mics to use, you know, check out the Holland Lark Max two or just watch videos comparing them because they do have different features And you know it's unfortunate that you know, the DJI Mic 3 is larger And it is also unfortunate that DJI were complete jerks and put their you see this logo on the front here? Super large The old ones have it like still there, but a bit more subtle It's like, actually you know, this is actually changed as well Well, it's still more subtle It's smaller It's like smaller and it's a little bit shiny, but like it's subtle, they increased the size and made it white How garbage!

[00:12:17]It's the same thing that Rode did with these f*cking things here And I had to paint it black so at least it doesn't stand out F*cking companies and turning people into billboards for their products It's like when people prefer to buy shirts with logos on them and stuff And it's like, “hey, bro, I have this t-shirt” “You know, you want this t-shirt too Go check out this brand” It's almost like products with brand logos on them should cost less money, or you should be able to pay more money to have the logos removed, like 5-10 bucks I deserve a discount Over the course of my career on YouTube, there has always been ups and downs Times when at particular months, it seemed like the algorithm was being a bit mean to your boy DarkViperAU, and other months where I'm looking at my numbers being like, “man, I'm not releasing that much good stuff” “Why am I getting so many views right now?”

[00:13:04]I've seen like days where like dozens of videos will just get like boop like in views It’s the algorithm just like “oh man that DarkViperAU, he is feeling bad today” “Let's just give him some views right” But whenever I- you know I'm all doom and gloom like “this is the end” I like to look at this graph Or rather I like to remember this graph like I don’t look at it every time, but- This is my lifetime views for the entire channel So there's 2.2 billion Obviously a lot of that shorts, but obviously I've deleted many videos over time And if you're curious, I've probably got like 700 million views on long form videos, which are more important So this is my career in a nutshell So you got here I had zero views in 2012 Well actually I technically had another YouTube channel before this This is my gaming career, you could say outside of Twitch 2012 zero views, 2013 5000 views, 2014 14,000 views, 2015, 17,000 views 2016, 22,000 views, 2017, 74,000 views, this is when I started taking YouTube seriously Like I wanted to actually upload my content to YouTube and get some views When I started figuring out editing and stuff, I had uploaded YouTube videos in the past, as you can see here and on the other channel and stuff But this was when I was like, “okay, I'm...” “I am a Twitch streamer first and foremost,” “but I want to be a YouTuber as well in the gaming sphere” And so 2017, 75,000 views Next year, 425,000 views So this is when things start to go off 2019, 32 million views 2020, 100 million views 2021, 200 million views 2022, 250 million views 2023, 360 million views 2024, 550 million views And 2025, 642 million views And we're not even through 2025 yet It does a little bit suck because, you know, shorts distort this towards the end here at different points Nevertheless, in terms of people seeing my face and seeing my content, every year I've done better than the year before So it's good And let's hope that trend continues So some people are confused at the thumbnail that I had for episode 56 of all awards It looked a bit low quality, zoomed in like that, but it's me in a bathtub full of awards and I got a rubber ducky on my head, But you can see my feet sticking out of the bathtub It's somewhat reminiscent of that scene, Witcher three, where he does something similar, you know?

[00:15:10][Reading chat] Yeah, so Nulling says there, yeah I don't know if Mim specifically went for a Witcher 3 reference, but I gave them the idea of me being in a bathtub full of awards with a rubber ducky on my head, and he put those feet in And when I saw him, I'm like, “oh, that's like Witcher 3” “That'll get some clicks, right?”

[00:15:24]Because the problem I had is that there was 55 episodes of All Awards, now 56 And if you see this thumbnail and you can't see the number, which you can't in some cases, like at the end of videos, it just shows you the thumbnail You're not gonna know if you've seen that episode before, Like “yeah I probably seen this” right because like, you know, the thumbnails are all like seen from videos, seen from video, seen from video, Like when there was less all awards episodes, you were like, “well,” “I haven't seen this one clearly because it's a new kind of series, right?”

[00:15:52]But as the awards became, the more episodes came out, I think people don't realize they haven't seen the episodes So I was like, I mean, people get the premise right?

[00:16:00]As long as the thumbnail is communicating the premise that I'm getting awards in GTA online, I can do basically anything So that's why I gave Mim that idea in the hopes of it getting a few more clicks And basically it was my third best performing video behind Melee Only And I mean, the retention doesn't get influenced by the, it doesn't get it changed by the thumbnail, but the retention is good Like, like 38% getting to the end one of these videos is good Like, these are all awards videos, especially many of the most recent ones are edited very well It's just people aren't clicking them, they are entertaining, engaging videos But yeah, the click-through rate is still looking pretty good We're at like hour 10, still hitting at 6%, which is higher than average The next one is going to be this It's not done yet right? But this is very preliminary Do you get this reference?

[00:16:43][Reading chat] Titanic! There you go!

[00:16:44]Instantly in chat I want him change to Yousuf because I think like Yousuf looks more interesting and he's more popular character right?

[00:16:51]And I think what you normally can't see a boat in the background because this is like the actual thing it looks like in Titanic I think there should be the boat a little bit visible And we need more awards, like raining down or around my neck, as if it's like the blue gem from the movie Also, it might be good to have this hand flipped around So, because I like that it references Titanic, but even if you don't get that reference, it's funny because he's T-posing So it has multiple levels there And Hoth said it in chat T-Pose Yeah, so it's a good idea We went to, well, my sister, my dad, my girlfriend, Aitana, and myself, we went to see the new Naked Gun movie And it was good!

[00:17:24]Aitana didn't like it It is crazy how limited the taste Aitana has for media For example, she won't watch anything animated And we basically did a thing where I would do one thing she wants and she does one thing I want And I wanted her to watch Megamind and Emperor's New Groove And also not necessarily watched by everyone animated movies I've ever seen And I showed them both to her and she's like, “Oh I've seen these” “These are great!”

[00:17:47]I was like, “what?”

[00:17:49]“But I thought you didn't watch animated stuff” She’s like “oh yeah, well I've seen these ones” “Oh, the blue haired guy I know that guy” But she didn't like Naked Gun So naked gun, for those who don't know, is sort of like a remake, sort of sequel to the original Naked Gun movies with Leslie Nielsen, where it was basically Leslie was a drama actor, and then he moved into comedy, but he didn't stop presenting himself as like a drama actor in the comedy The idea being you are never meant to communicate to the audience that you know, what you're doing is funny And so it's a lot of like, short gags I'll show you one example from the newest movie It's like 15 seconds, but it communicates perfectly the sort of comedy that's in the movie All the movies, the first edition and this new one with Liam Neeson You don't remember me, do you?

[00:18:36]Should I?

[00:18:37]My brother, you shot him in the name of justice That can literally be thousands of people Shot him in the back as he ran away Hundreds Unarmed At least 50 He was white So you're Tony Royland's brother So it's just, it's a movie with just nonstop jokes like that Like a lot of taking things to extremes to create a laugh As in like, you know, cops drink coffee a lot So throughout the movie, they're constantly given coffee And even in the most ridiculous of circumstances There's a lot of wordplay, intentionally misunderstanding words like double meanings of words and stuff Like a simple one, like take a chair And she's like, “no, I've got many at home” “Thank you” That kind of comedy And so that doesn't vibe with everyone, but I like it And the movie did very well in terms of its rating What was it, IMDb?

[00:19:25]It's not that good It's 6.7 But that's what I mean Like it's a comedy that appeals to a certain amount of people and it appeals to me And my father though, most importantly, he loved it He laughed many, many times during the movie And that's the important thing, because it's Father's Day So if you're looking for a comedy with that kind of comedy in it, if you like that kind of stuff, feel free to watch it In fact, if you like my kind of comedy that I make in my videos, you'll probably enjoy it because it's somewhat similar to a lot of the comedy that I do When I think about the kind of jokes that I make, it's actually a significant variety I don't know where, I can show a lot of my comedy is unintentional, but like, I love this, what happened yesterday [Reading tweet] Another DarkViperAU out of context moment The silence was loud, even if it was unintentionally funny So I'm going to go into director mode to make myself, f*ck And I just never acknowledge it Because obviously that was unintentional But like when I said it, “I realized what I said” Hi!

[00:20:22]Getting to the end of a Viper Rambles episode proves that you like me and my work far more than the average person Given that it's possible that you might find value in becoming a YouTube member Members get early access to all my videos, including rambles, as well as access to my growing library of Re-uploaded delete videos, 5% off my merch, and the ability to leave comments and feedback before public release, which is incredibly helpful for me and my team [It is!]

[00:20:45]You also get a cute badge next to your name, so I can easily identify you in my comment section and livestream chat And you can also use all my cute emotes everywhere on the channel Lastly, after three months of being a member, you can submit on my Discord to join my GTA online crew Thanks for the consideration I hope you enjoyed the episode and I hope you enjoy future ones as well!