{"id":875289,"date":"2025-10-02T21:38:46","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T02:38:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/02\/where-the-woke-debate-burns-hottest-in-incredibly-long-youtube-essays-on-the-likes-of-rfk-jr-and-ms-rachel\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T21:38:46","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T02:38:46","slug":"where-the-woke-debate-burns-hottest-in-incredibly-long-youtube-essays-on-the-likes-of-rfk-jr-and-ms-rachel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/02\/where-the-woke-debate-burns-hottest-in-incredibly-long-youtube-essays-on-the-likes-of-rfk-jr-and-ms-rachel\/","title":{"rendered":"Where the \u201cWoke\u201d Debate Burns Hottest: In Incredibly Long YouTube Essays on the Likes of RFK Jr. and Ms. Rachel"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lindsay Ellis,<\/strong> a California-based filmmaker and mother of two<\/a>, has been making videos for YouTube since 2007<\/a>. But even she was surprised by the response to her most recent release on the platform. In her 142-minute video \u201cThe Unforgivable Sin of Ms. Rachel<\/a>,\u201d Ellis explains how the children\u2019s entertainer figures into debates about \u201cwoke\u201d children\u2019s media before pivoting to conversations about genocide, the war in Gaza, and the roots of antisemitism. The video ends by saying that charitable donations can make a difference in situations that otherwise seem intractable, and provides a link to the Palestinian Children\u2019s Relief Fund. As of September 12, the video has over 2 million views and has raised more than $750,000 for the charity.<\/p>\n

In a call one week after she posted the Ms. Rachel<\/strong> video, Ellis tells Vanity Fair<\/em> that she put extra care into it. \u201cIf you are releasing something to YouTube, you are making a pact with the algorithm,\u201d she says. \u201cIf someone already got to the topic, you had better have a good take. You had better have something new and refreshing, or people are going to be so annoying about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ellis\u2019s approach is more Ken Burns<\/strong> than Mr. Beast\u2014a style that\u2019s increasingly successful on a website once associated mostly with short, disposable clips. Though video essays, which intercut narration and footage\u2014both self-recorded and stock\u2014with occasional textual references, have had a home on YouTube since the site\u2019s early years<\/a>, they\u2019re having a moment right now thanks to a generation of creators who have leveled up both their technical skills and their marketing abilities.<\/p>\n

Ellis\u2019s opus on Ms. Rachel is only one of several slickly produced video essays that have racked up millions of viewers this summer, feature-length YouTube videos that feel more like documentaries than the prank wars or makeup tutorials of yore. On March 24, ContraPoints\u2014a Peabody Award\u2013winning<\/a> channel with 1.9 million subscribers that counts Ezra Klein<\/a>, Jameela Jamil<\/a>,<\/strong> and Chris Hayes<\/strong><\/a> as fans\u2014released \u201cConspiracy<\/a>,\u201d an almost three-hour deep dive into Jeffrey Epstein, Alex Jones,<\/strong> and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/strong> that\u2019s been watched 4.1 million times and counting. In August, Elephant Graveyard, an anonymous creator<\/a> who makes videos about comedy, released a 90-minute video about Joe Rogan<\/strong>\u2019s influence on the medium, both in Austin and globally, as part three of a bigger series on the famous podcaster. In typical YouTube fashion, its title captures the argument well: \u201cHow Comedy Was Destroyed by an Anti-Reality Doomsday Cult<\/a>.\u201d The trilogy has attracted almost 9 million views.<\/p>\n

Clearly, these videos are responsive to news headlines\u2014but they analyze issues in a different way than news channels or topical comedians like Josh Johnson,<\/strong> whose viral stand-up sets launched him into a hosting role on The Daily Show<\/em> this July<\/a>. Video essayists rely on a balance of deep research and on-the-fly adjustments, taking a long view of what is driving the news cycle and continuing to tweak their videos until the very last minute\u2014which adds an urgency that might not come through via scripted narration alone. Ellis said she improvised her latest video\u2019s emotional conclusion soon before she posted it to YouTube. \u201cI don\u2019t know if you could tell, but my hair is dirty. That\u2019s why it\u2019s pulled back,\u201d she says. \u201cI filmed it basically the day before the video went up\u2014like fuck it, conclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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These creators are deeply indebted not only to Burns, but to the personality-driven work of other star documentarians like Adam Curtis, Errol Morris,<\/strong> and Michael Moore.<\/strong> Once you get used to the persistent formal tics of online media\u2014costume changes, the occasional jump cut to a meme\u2014the videos are every bit as thrilling as something that might be shown in a theater. But they\u2019re also cerebral, dropping highbrow references without apology. Natalie Wynn,<\/strong> the creator behind ContraPoints<\/a>, traveled to the Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC to film a segment about political conspiracies and the supposed mystery behind the death of John F. Kennedy. Throughout \u201cConspiracy,\u201d she comments on the works of Jean-Paul Sartre, Karl Popper, and Richard Hofstadter\u2014but she introduces this segment with blunt colloquialism. \u201cAmerica has a weird obsession with JFK. I feel like it\u2019s because of two things,\u201d she says. \u201cOne, he\u2019s hot. Two, he\u2019s dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once upon a time, YouTube\u2019s scrappiness was part of its charm. These days, technological advances (and hours of practice) make a professional sheen easier to achieve\u2014and Ellis, like many creators, also works with a production staff to make sure she is \u201cobsessing over quality.\u201d For her, making a video isn\u2019t only about the product itself: She\u2019s also adopting the mindset of a film distributor, thinking from the start about how early viewers will respond to her work. \u201cIt has to be tailored around \u2018How do I get people to click on it this first round?\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cIt almost has to be an event, because otherwise everything on your channel becomes disposable.\u201d<\/p>\n

YouTube has always been a self-referential place, and for the last decade or so, gaining an audience has required creators to jump into the fray either by posting videos constantly or by capitalizing on drama between creators. But as YouTube becomes a bigger part of real life\u201485% of American adults say they use it at least occasionally, according to a 2024 Pew survey<\/a>\u2014the people who have built followings there are opening up their repertoires to more sweeping commentary.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Though the trend toward feature-length documentaries has been brewing for a while, it may have been turbocharged last spring, when YouTuber Jenny Nicholson<\/strong> released a four-hour-long review of her underwhelming stay at Disney World\u2019s Star Wars<\/em>\u2013themed hotel. By the time Nicholson\u2019s epic was released, the hotel was already closed\u2014but the video nevertheless netted 14 million views and a New York Times<\/em><\/a> review calling it one of the year\u2019s \u201cmost captivating pieces of entertainment.\u201d (VF<\/em> also named it one of the \u201c22 Undersung TV Gems<\/a>\u201d of the year.)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear that there\u2019s increasing audience demand for the deep dive\u2013style fare these filmmakers are providing. According to Kevin Munger,<\/strong> a social scientist who studies online behavior, the pivot toward lengthier clips could also be financially motivated. \u201cIn terms of mapping between the audience preferences and the actual money that the creators get, the platform has total control,\u201d he says. \u201cIt does seem that they have changed the monetization scheme in favor of higher quality long-form content.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2019, frustrated by the pressure of producing videos at YouTube\u2019s pace, Ellis joined a group of 75 creators to start Nebula<\/a>, their own streaming service, which is owned by Standard, the company that manages the creators. On Nebula, videos play without ads\u2014and without a view-maximizing algorithm. But even years later, she can\u2019t afford to post her work only on that platform. \u201cThe problem with Nebula, at least as it stands right now, is it is restricted to the audience you already have,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s really hard to grow an audience on Nebula, which is not a social-media platform. How do you find people on the outside and bring them in? They have to already know who you are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Munger\u2019s research shows that the metrics themselves can be a powerful tool for attracting audiences on YouTube. \u201cIt is incredibly important for audiences that their preferred creators have the high score, in terms of their numbers of views,\u201d he says. \u201cIf a creator decides not to follow their audience\u2019s lead, then other creators who do prioritize their audience\u2019s preferences are going to end up taking more and more of the overall audience share.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Ellis agrees that the trend toward longer, splashier features on YouTube reflects specific changes on the platform\u2014namely, that the algorithm determines how far to spread a new video based on the engagement of a creator\u2019s most committed subscribers. Still, she points out that most of the people behind these features have left-leaning politics\u2014and have learned what works on YouTube in part by watching their right-wing competitors.<\/p>\n

While Ellis was working on the Ms. Rachel video, the contrast occasionally depressed her. \u201cThe whole time I was making this video\u2014and obviously it took months\u2014I am watching Ben Shapiro<\/strong> just shart out hours and hours of garbage every day. It doesn\u2019t matter if he\u2019s fact-checked, and it doesn\u2019t matter if he\u2019s wrong. He doesn\u2019t care,\u201d she says. \u201cWe are held to a higher standard, and that\u2019s not a bad thing in and of itself. But it does make it difficult to compete in an ecosystem where sometimes volume is the same as quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s trying to take the long view. \u201cThis is not a new problem. Forty years ago, you\u2019d have Ken Burns on one side and Rush Limbaugh on the other, though they weren\u2019t necessarily in direct competition. They have very different audiences, but one inevitably is going to have more volume than the other and therefore more influence,\u201d she says. \u201cI do genuinely think people are hungry for new and different things, and they want to be exposed to new ideas. They want to learn new things and be educated, but it\u2019s very hard to get that to them.\u201d Unless you know how to keep audiences watching for hours at a time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Erin Vanderhoof
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lindsay Ellis, a California-based filmmaker and mother of two, has been making videos for YouTube since 2007. But even she was surprised by the response to her most recent release on the platform. In her 142-minute video \u201cThe Unforgivable Sin of Ms. Rachel,\u201d Ellis explains how the children\u2019s entertainer figures into debates about \u201cwoke\u201d children\u2019s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":875290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37830,4009],"tags":[122164,6103],"class_list":["post-875289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-woke","category-where","tag-woke","tag-where"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=875289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/875290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=875289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=875289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=875289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}