Congratulations, your comment is so hateful and unkind, that I am pinning it so that everyone can see it and re-read the post I made earlier this year. Copied and pasted: I would immensely appreciate it if my wonderful, socially conscious audience would please stop asking me to make yet another video about a miserable, heartbreaking, soul-crushing topic. I'm sorry if this is not what you want to hear, but I have recently accepted that doing these kinds of videos non-stop for 14 years, video after video, week after week, month after month, year after year, has had a profoundly deleterious psychological effect on me. I'm pleased with my career in the sense that I do not wish to return to wage labor, but I am not pleased with what I have put myself through. Making videos like that requires an enormous amount of research, and most of that research is about war, poverty, abuse, discrimination, racism, dead civilians, and in some cases, the literal end of the world. It's too much. I have been working on myself lately, and this conclusion is simply unavoidable. I think I have been slowly killing myself by doing this. No more. I'm a KZfaqr living in a studio apartment, not a rich politician with an obligation to the community that elected them. I'm not a leader, I'm an anarchist. I hate leaders. People write comments like “You're doing really important work.” all the time. No, I'm not. I earnestly believe what I say, I'm no grifter, my politics are sincere, my beliefs are devout, but I have never claimed to be important. I hope my work has been helpful to people, I really do. I don't have children, and my work is my only real legacy, but these “compliments” put so much pressure on me, and I would like that to stop, please. Another KZfaqr went through a similar crisis of faith a while ago, and God, I wish I had listened. I can't change the world. I hope I've done enough, but can I just continue my career as a video essayist making stuff that's mostly fun? (Not actually requesting. I'm gonna.) People sometimes notice this and write “Your content is a little too serious and sad for me to watch all the time, so I'm gonna have to pass on this one.” You and me both, buddy. Why didn't I listen to you? IMPORTANT: If you don't make such requests, then this next part is NOT about you. Relax, much love. But if you have ever pressured me or told me that this is an obligation I have, well, no. Lately, I've received even more comments than usual like “If you don't make a video about [catastrophe], then you tacitly side with [catastrophe].” I have been getting those for years but now more than ever. I need you to know that this is HORRIFIC to me, and I do not respect this. There is an enormous, galaxy-sized difference between “Please don't use your platform irresponsibly.” and “You have a obligation to produce what I have unilaterally decided, no matter how you feel, and if you don't, it's your moral failing.” There is a difference between "Are you planning to make this video?" and "Why haven't you made this video yet?" Because the former, although still a bit unwelcome, feels at least earnest whereas the latter is an accusation. Worse still, it's an accusation that I have not fulfilled an obligation that I absolutely, positively do not have. Even worse still, it's an accusation that does not take my own mental health, my own life, and my own autonomy into account. It's usually not worded quite like that, but sometimes it's even worse. Sometimes it feels like a threat. No matter how it's worded, the message is the same, and it's not something that a complete stranger gets to tell another complete stranger. It's monstrously self-righteous, and I do not have to acknowledge it as legitimate. Anything even resembling this is unacceptable. Please see that. “Why haven't you made a video about [worst thing in the world this week]?” I don't know, man. Because I'm dying inside? Because I was raised in an intensely Catholic environment (school, church, altar boy, confession, nuns, sin, Hell) to feel guilty about everything that I did? Because my conscience told me that in order to be a good person and be right with God, I needed to do more and more and more and more and more and more, even though the more-and-more was just a bunch of KZfaq videos. Putting life-or-death responsibility on someone who has no life-or-death power will always be wildly disproportionate, not to mention myopic, ignorant and borderline immoral. If you don't do this, I thank you sincerely, but if you have done this to me lately, BACK. OFF. I make videos on the internet. I didn't take an oath of office. More importantly... I am a person. I am not a KZfaq channel. Please stop telling me that the absence of a video on my KZfaq channel means I don't care or that I don't engage with this elsewhere. I attend protests, I give to charities and the homeless when I can, I signal-boost topics that are important to me, and I write political opinions on the internet outside of my KZfaq channel. I'm a human being, and I live even when you're not watching my videos. I do not blink in and out of existence when you press play and pause. I think this would be easier if I actually were a grifter chasing trends, like if I didn't really care, but I do care, and it hurt me too much. I'm not quitting KZfaq, this is my job, but PLEASE stop asking me to make a video about the next big massacre. It's not going to happen, and the presumed expectation that it must happen or will happen soon is painful to me. There are already thousands of videos and articles about whatever you think is so vital that I, specifically, have a moral obligation to do, too. It's an extremely online opinion to think that me groaning into my mid-tier microphone for my mid-tier KZfaq channel is going to solve a global catastrophe or even make a grain-of-sand-sized difference. My video is not going to be the one thing to stop what you and I both wish would stop, and condescendingly telling me that not making a KZfaq VIDEO is a “dereliction” of a “duty” that I did not actually agree to but has been assumed of me is genuinely, completely bonkers. (That is a paraphrased quote I received recently, that making a funny video instead of a miserable video was a dereliction of duty.) That's too much pressure. My new format is “whatever I want” and that's the way it is. If I want to talk about sitcoms and goofy nonsense, I will. If I want to talk about the next big bad thing that killed everyone, I will, but don't hold your breath, and PLEASE don't ever ask. I'm ignoring any such request for me to do so, and such a call will not be welcome no matter how much you want me, individually, to help solve a global crisis from the edge of my bed where I write KZfaq videos. I'm sorry if any of this comes across as hostile, but it seems like saying this in more polite terms and in private didn't seem to work. I'm turning 42 in May, and I need to start taking better care of myself for the second half of my life. P.S. - My comments are moderated and do not even appear outside of my KZfaq dashboard until I click Approve. It only looks like your comment appears automatically because it can be seen in your account but nobody else's account. That's where most of this onslaught has occurred: sent directly to me through my dashboard for my APPROVAL. Don't reply to this, because I won't be clicking Approve on any of it, and if you can't help yourself, then I'm blocking your account. I apologize if that sounds aggressive, but the replies are moderated for a reason. You can just not reply, because this isn't about you. If you make a response video or response stream, even in support of me, I won't watch it because I don't watch videos about myself. Never have, never will. I can't stop you, it's your life, but I firmly, actively discourage this behavior. This is something I'm telling you, not something I am asking to discuss. It's not up for debate, because I make all the decisions in my life, just like every other person on Earth. Peace out, home slice. New video in about a week, and it's almost entirely about video game music. Bye for now.

You're free to watch another channel. Leon doesn't have to cover the genocide. There are plenty of channels you can watch that can inform you of it.

"Home slice" 😎🤌

@@renegadecut9875 Hey, I just want to sincerely apologize because I was pos for immediately making a request. I now realize I added myself to the list of people who have done this (selfishly) You've made it clear that you didn't want a response to your community post, but I just wanted to apologize for being inconsiderate. I was completely ignorant and I should have stopped and remembered that you are a human being. Not to mention undermining the video you have taken the time to make. That said, I just want to say thank you.

There's genocide going on and you're browsing youtube and making comments? I have arbitrarily decided you in particular should be doing something about the genocide with your time!

Ya'll were freaks.

Freaks of the internet, stand proud!

I got good/bad news for you!

Imagine Data playing Pinball for the first time in one of the Holodecks!!

I also came to say something nice, then was reminded that everything is terrible, too, when I saw the pinned comment, after I had already written mine. Instantly the pleasant nostalgia was soured. I am one of the target groups for political violence. I don't need to be reminded to never relax. I am reminded nonstop. Knowing how that makes me feel, why would I think that creators want to make miserable stuff? If it's a responsibility, it's so distributed that nobody should ever be hassled. These topics are very well-covered on YT, and YT videos aren't going to make Biden not a zionist. Sigh.

I felt the same thing, it's really weird show the most mundane things can trigger the strongest memories

Absolutely. I had a physical reaction when he mentioned them and did the Leonardo DiCaprio pointing thing. It's so funny the things that get absolutely seared into your memory without you even realizing it!

Pizza hut with the jukebox was my jam.

Why do those cups resonate so strongly with people? Lol our brains are wild

An international nostalgic treasure

I will not conform.

Depends on what part you’re from. We don’t all talk like we’re from Dundalk.

What part of Baltimore are you from? Because Dundalk is in the county. "Not everyone in Baltimore talks like people who don't live in Baltimore." goes without saying.

more fun to say bawlmur than ball-ta-more ngl

One of the best times I’ve had in an arcade was buying a birthday party at a full arcade in the 80’s and playing four-player Gauntlet with infinite credits. It was such a trip to just walk through huge crowds of ghosts, taking thousands of points of damage without caring “I HAVE NOT SEEN SUCH BRAVERY”

Free Play in the DFW area in Texas does this, and it's a great place for Gen X parties.

Add a bar and you have a place in Seattle

I need to find a freeplay arcade. Seems a lot of people go to cons for the game room these days.

I need to find one. This sounds so wonderful!

Thank you, god, it's one of my pet peeves. That they aren't the same is the whole point of Ms.

Damn it, you beat me to it.

If anything, this just supports the forbidden love theory. They use the ambiguous one because they don't want anyone to know...

Miz haha

that is funny to me bc they actually gave a character a rock toss special move later on when they put Cody from final fight in there

Shiva gives the best hugs.

Rainbow Edition. It was a bootleg hack of the arcade machine. Fun times.

I played the Super Mario Bros. game in a Laundromat in Chinatown.

This is true. My uncle told me so, and he works at Nintendo.

I'm glad it was relatable. Have a great day!