She put problematic in the title for click bait! I can't believe it!

Humans are so ornate, I think minimalism just erases all of that and makes people feel bad for partaking in small luxuries like Starbucks.

i hate minimalism :( i want to fill my house with things i like, tons of color, interesting pieces i’ve picked up through life. but when my sister comes into my bedroom she goes “it looks like a twelve year old’s room.” why? because it doesn’t look like an Ikea display? because the sole decoration isn’t a small green succulent? i hate it here

Yes, the homogeneity is so sad. Minimalism really does seem to sometimes offer the illusion of control while keeping them consumerisms alive and letting the top 1% sit back and relax

Also the aesthetic part of minimalism when it comes to living space can be at odds with parts of living frugally. Like, saving containers from food to pack things in later, saving boxes and bags, keeping old clothes rather than giving them away / throwing then out because you don't wear them often... There are a lot of behaviors that stem from not having unlimited funds to replace and aquire things that might result in you're space being more cluttered. So aesthetically you might not look like a minimalist even though you aren't over-consuming and buying thoughtlessly.... Okay ramble over bye!

Calling Jesus a minimalist is hilarious because not only was he super into charity like you’ve said but he canonically didn’t like rich people. Also how come minimalists never turn all that money they’re saving to the poor? Are they just hoarding it? Isn’t that kind of oppositional to the whole ethos lmaoooo Great video, queen! Love the lighting situation also!

this video is simply... amazing. I definitely agree about the classist and homogenizing goals of the current trends of minimalism. they’re so focused on capitalist productivity/wealth hoarding instead of ensuring mutual survival/true autonomy for all. there’s also i think a huge religious component to it that sits in the background w the assumption that ascetic lifestyles are virtuous, filtered through other dominant cultural ideas like the protestant work ethic etc. Although, i think there are some very important minimalist/intentional non white cultural aesthetics like fengshui or zen architecture. Even something like Japanese animist traditions show up in modern decluttering guides like Marie Kondo’s. Decision fatigue in this hyperconsumerist world is a real thing, but wearing the same $375 dollar grey shirt every day doesn’t seem like it’s the way out it’s being sold as. Also, it’s to what degree this somewhat weird action can be aestheticized that really makes the success of the proponent. I once saw a thread ripping someone w an unfinished basement apartment to shreds because it was “ugly”- when it was perfectly neat, the person clearly cared about their belongings and had nothing more than they needed. It just didn’t have the white box “look”. Also i think ppl who advocate for minimalism so zealously need to examine why oppressed people might seek comfort in overconsumption due to generational trauma around scarcity/not having enough.

I always viewed the minimalist trends as highly aspirational. To not only have JUST ONE of a certain thing, but for it to be THE ONE THING - not just making do with a coat from 10 winters ago because it's warm and in one piece - you need to be very priviliged. The individuality thing too! I'm always lowkey sorry for all these people whose partners upload the "how to live with someone who is not a MINIMALIST LIKE YOU" videos.

Very thought provoking! I had never considered how minimalism relates to the erasure of culturally significant clothing, objects, etc. I would argue that such items are not incompatible with the practice of minimalism though, in the sense that one could have only have a few of such items and those few are deeply treasured. But I get how those who follow the aesthetic of minimalism wouldn’t be into it. Personally, I like some of the principles of minimalism, like consuming less and treasuring/ valuing a few high quality items, but I’m not into the whole aesthetic thing. I find the aesthetic to be cold, unpersonal, and just plain boring.

Hi everyone! Thanks so much for watching. As always let me know your thoughts, hope you're having a good day ⭐

The comment that white people should be just upset with white supremacy because of the homogenization of white cultures was really insightful!! Great video!

I major in architecture and we were assigned to read adolf loos collected essays for book review & analysis… and it’s so hard to swallow bc he was shaming ppl for enjoying ornaments on designs, associating tattoos to criminal… granted that it was like THE 1900s but just, so aggressive for what. We get it (i do see his points), u like practicality and simplicity but let other people enjoy their ornaments too! He was so adamant on “look at french! They’re far ahead of of this! This is why Venma is stuck in this atrocity” chill, no country would have their own identity whatsoever if we just chase the more advanced country’s art form.

Thanks for this. I always felt like minimalism sort of strips some of the fun. I sometimes feel its also far from the frugality and sustainability I really admire. My grandmother (here in Sweden, born in the 1920's) has always been very moderate with things. She has the stuff that she's always had. My grandfather used to save stuff (like stamps, old notes from when he was teaching, various documents), but never in like a disorganised way. He treasured them. When he died, there were some things to get rid of but not just random waste. The Scandinavian "style" I grew up around was never sterile. It was nicknacks and simple rugs. Nothing to show off, as it was culturally frowned upon to be bragging, but simplicity would not look like having no unnecessary things. I think we (at least in Europe) have a lot to learn from the generation who grew up during the war, how they got what they needed and saved what they had.

What I find particularly bothersome about The Minimalists too is that they had the privilege in the beginning, earning 6-figure annual incomes before deciding they needed ‘financial freedom’ and then continue to profit off the movement they’ve created. It’s a super enticing notion but as someone who isn’t even remotely close to earning as much as them, I felt compelled to get rid of all my things. But I didn’t realised until later that I was actually getting rid of everything that made me feel as normal as everyone else and now I feel somewhat betrayed. I don’t have financial freedom because of that at all. I don’t buy heaps of stuff because I literally can’t. So while they’re profiting, I’m losing. Of the occasional money I do have to spend on myself, I like to practice anti-consumerism as a form of anti-capitalism - even though I know full well that it’s going to do nothing. But now it is so engrained in me that I’m struggling to change it.

I was really out here not realizing the colonialist aspects of minimalism for years smh. Great video!

I was doing F.I.R.E before I learnt it was a movement. As much as it is a good way to prepare for the future these lifestyles are not the only way a person can achieve fulfillment. I learnt a longtime ago that some attain peace from sharing with friends and family while others are more at peace when they have financial security. I say this because during last year's lockdown many members of the movement expressed regret from not taking opportunities to spend more time with family and friends because it would cost them some money to do so. Minimalist lifestyle can also be another way for money and material things to take center stage in our lives.

Very insightful! I had not considered the idea that minimalism is trying to treat a symptom and not the actual cause of overconsumption. It is a serious problem anytime there are recommendations of individual solutions for a systemic issue.

“Two bros being dudes in black t-shirts” lmaooo I’m here to stay.

The clickbait title worked on me 😬. Great video! 💖

I'm glad you brought up economic classes and minimalism. I'm trying to have less stuff just because it's a hassle moving everything all the time, BUT the reason I have to move everything all the time is because we can only afford to rent each place for a year because prices keep going up and we're barely living above poverty. Also, I'm currently pregnant and being extremely mindful about what we ask for a baby shower or anything because we only can afford so much space so we can only have so much baby stuff because it simply won't fit and we can't afford to rent a bigger space.

Being on a tight budget, you have to be intentional about your spending but, a lot of times, that spending is not going to align with minimalism. For example, sometimes you buy a 5 lb bag of rice or a 10 pack of kitchen sponges. It can veer into hoarding but generally it's more than you may not have the highest quality or newest things but you have enough pencils for 10 years of school. I think this dovetails with your videos on how affordable zero waste and sustainability are.

I’ve never been able to put it into words like you have but I’ve always said that minimalism doesn’t have to be this boring grey, almost uniform-like aesthetic. You can focus on and cherish more important things without compromising color, culture and whimsy lol

Yes! I knew it! My reason for not being a minimalist is because I’m a woman and my weight/clothing size fluctuates 3 sizes each month. And also because I’m poor and like to fix things- to do that efficiently you’ve got to have storage space and collections of parts. And on the flip side, when you have to move with too stuff- do you get rid of half of it because you’re overwhelmed and it’s too much to deal with? I’ve had to move almost once a year since I became an adult. In Europe you get furniture, silverware, bedding when you rent, but not in the USA. You gotta leave that house as empty and barren as you found it. Every evidence of the place being occupied gets charged for, cheap carpet worn out, terrible flat white walls must be free of marks- etc.

Well - some good points - but we still must get rid of having too much. It's unhealthy to have too much stuff. - but thank you for your excellent comments - all true & accurate - keep up the good work & go see Joshua Becker. Much love eh.

The polished "industrial" aesthetic of minimalism forces those who partake to buy manufactured pieces and contribute to capitalism instead of something handmade, supporting a local artist, because it's not as "trendy". Craftspeople just can't compete with the lower prices offered by big companies, so a lot of the cultural knowledge is lost as these practices slowly die out - the Heritage Crafts Association in the UK has a Red List of all the traditional crafts that are now endangered/extinct. Similarly lots of perfectly good quality furniture is thrown out due to being "dated" because it does not fit the modern minimalist aesthetic. However, I can see why it's so popular in a generation where buying a house is a near impossibility - lugging lots of furniture between rentals is tricky.

listen, problematic just speaks to us all

A lot of influencers do this with their apartments/living spaces and even I would aspire to the minimalist design before I really got to know myself. Damn. It’s hitting me now. Thank you for this.

Another fantastic video, thank you!

I was actually always drawn to minimalism because I like the idea of getting rid of things that are not important to me but that many people do on default just because we are supposed to (a simple example: I used to wear make up but then realised it’s just a waste of money for me because I don’t enjoy it, and I was wearing it only because it is considered appropriate to dress up in certain occasions). This video however brought up many good points that I wasn’t considering, I really enjoyed it. I agree that the main problems with this movement is the individualism and the fact that it doesn’t address any root cause to what it tries to solve. I also really liked the insight on whitewashing. Great video!

Thank you for making this video. I’ve always been skeptical of minimalist culture but I’ve never been able to articulate exactly why I felt that way until now. You covered all bases.

Great video! I've been working to make my wardrobe a lot less Minimalism-centric and indulge in brighter colors, prints, and accessories because it makes me much happier, and I've been wearing those pieces a lot more vs. my "versatile" pieces.

This was really insightful!! Thank you 🤩

Minimalism shouldn't be about snobbery and aesthetic....it's about getting by on less and saving. I understand top down minimalism where people are forced into through poverty but poor people can still be irresponsible with credit cards and loans.

this a great and really thought-provoking video! makes me think of how rich people houses often have 1 $20,000 piece of furniture per room and look so incredibly empty and boring and depressing. i first learned about minimalism through environmental, financial and anti-capitalist lenses, which is almost always about thinking more critically about what you're buying rather than only having X of each objects or having all white everything. overall i think i'm more of a minimalist than the vast majority of people I know in terms of both how much i purchase and how much i have. and yet my home and wardrobe are SO much more eclectic, colorful and even cluttered-looking than average. pretty much everything I have is secondhand/vintage, made by an artist, or DIY'd from mostly secondhand materials, which is really at odds with the homogeneous minimalist aesthetic. I really love the majority of my objects and find them both functional and beautiful, so I'm happy to have them on display rather than hidden away. for many popular minimalists, it seems like they go from hyperconsumerism of many cheap shitty things to spending just as much (or more!) on fewer items that fit the all-white aesthetic. (I think gittemary johansen and shelbizzleee are two great counterpoints to this, and they've def informed my thinking!) i never thought about how whiteness as the "dominant" culture erases the more ornate and individualized aesthetics of the people who get subsumed into whiteness -- it's such a good point! like you said, elaborate designs are a part of most human cultures, which anthropologically often means its a pretty innate human desire. i imagine the minimalism-ing of individual cultures into whiteness also plays into appropriation of more visually interesting, more complex aesthetics and practices from non-white cultures (but, of course, in the most homogenized and washed out way -- like condensing all of the nuance and variety of Black hair braiding into two symmetrical, middle-parted, pigtail "boxer braids").

Such a brilliant video !

I talked with someone who everyday had a 5$ lunch takeaway because they couldn't afford the time or salt/spices to cook pasta at home. Or the student who'd everyday eat even more expensive takeaway because she didn't want to eat bread throughout the day. yes she's in severe debt and last i heard she couldn't pay phone bills or rent. idk i think quit a few hours of one of your 5 jobs (and/or ask for a bit of salt fro your neighbor?????) and you have the time to cook pasta for a tenth of the price. yes one shitty month and then you'll have so much fucking money so you can buy actual fucking spices on your own. i want the money to get takeaway everyday wtf. i live on muesli bars.

When you count clotches in most of proposals of capsule wardrobe, they are still twice more, sometimes sometimes four x more than I buy in my financially better moments. I like your way of thinking, subscribed. Greetings from Poland :)

Thank you for your thoughtful explanation. I now realize That I’ve been misusing the term “minimalism” for the Idea of less consumerism and living more simply. Thank you for enlightening me to the reality of stifling the beauty and intricacies of culture, patterns, and expression. I now realize I like simple living, not minimalism.

Happy to find ur channel!

she put problematic in the title for click bait! loved it, i've always had a nagging sense of disease around the minimalist movement and this really helped me see a new angle

i like a lot of the minimalist aesthetic but i always felt something was wrong with the way it was presented and u got it on point !!

Two dudes being bros heheh well said. But on a more serious note: This is a fantastic video, thank you so much for this well thought out video essay ❤️

Amazing topic ♥️

New subscriber here! I really enjoyed this! ❤️❤️

i loved everything about this video 💕

I hate the minimalism aesthetics However I can't help but see minimalism as something that helped me personally. To me, minimalism is inherently anti-consumerist and it has helped me both buy less, donate more, as well as value and take care of the things I already have. However minimalism that is strongly linked to aesthetic look of a typical minimalist, I find incredibly pretentious and toxic. Like, this is not some sort of competition, it's just a philosophy to help you distinguish the things that you actually need from the things that capitalism is trying to convince you, you need

It's not click bait, your point of view is/was refreshing.

She put problematic in the title for clickbait. Loved it!

It’s interesting that the supposed cultural erasure of modern architecture is “fascist”, when the fetishization of “traditional” ornamental culture (which itself is a construct the nationalism of the 1800s) is a hallmark of fascism. The idea that “traditional” ornamental culture is somehow more pure is quite concerning.

Great vid!

Great !!

Kristen Leo made an awesome video about this too! I highly recommend it!

very insightful video

Omg, your points were great. And what you've said about the individualism part of it, i have never thought about it (and other stuff you've said), but like almosy every thing i have watched talking about minismalism was from man, and mostly white guys in the primor of their ages (20's or 30's), and of course, with no responsabilities but their own lifes. I can never imagine a minimalist house with kids on it hahaha. idk

Great video For me I don’t just think it’s for the rich Dudes I mean every time I see a minimalist KZfaqr I see a white wall an empty room and one good piece of really expensive furniture and most of them are ordinary people not rich but in the videos they tell you how minimizing saved their lives and financial problems

I've been struggling with the homogenization of minimalism! Because I love the idea of simply having less stuff and clutter, but I also like color and cultural things and interesting stuff! And now that I've learned about the whole history of minimalism and its connection to facism and cultural erasure, I'm struggling even more! I'm trying to find a balance of some kind. How not feel conflicted about participating in minimalism, but also protecting my personal peace and mental health?

Nice points

I had an issue with minimalism being tied to western things.

You are conflating Minimalism as an aesthetic with Minimalism as a lifestyle. No one is stopping you from wearing ornate clothing. I am a minimalist, however, I do not own just black, white and grey items. I just own fewer items which allows me to save up for nicer items not made of plastic. Nicer items are not always more expensive either. You just need to learn to read labels and recognise quality. I use these items until they stop functioning. I love classical design, I love Gothic design,I like fantasy and Etherial design. I love embroidery and lace and my favourite colours are green, blue and purple. Minimalism helped me pinpoint my personal style. Before I just bought things because I thought something was cute in the moment without any consideration of how it would fit into my style and how functional it is for me or even if it was my true aesthetic or not. There's many an item that ended up hanging in the closet gathering dust because I didn't see the flaws while purchasing it. Minimalism helped me develop a more critical eye. I now notice things that wouldn't have noticed before which saves me money in the long run as I make fewer mistakes. Speaking of money. Stop counting other people's money. The money I'm saving from being a minimalist I will invest into future generations of my family so that they don't have to be a slave to the 9-5 rat race and can pursue things that they enjoy without the pressure to perform. Maybe they will even choose philanthropy as something that they enjoy. Maybe they will invent something that will help others because they will have the luxury of time. And I will definitely teach my future offspring about minimalism and how it can be useful in building intergenerational wealth.

This was so good, and blew my fucking mind.

I’ve always wondered what’s the point of minimalism exactly, gotta read the book or watch their videos

Speak 👏

I was very into minimalism at first, and productivity as well. I traded both for just being more mindful and intentional. And with that I mean not impulse buying things just because they are on sale. I feel the productivity and minimalist movements are very elitist. Making these decisions seem effortless and why aren't you doing them already, it's not that hard! Which I feel is 1) counterproductive and 2) untrue and 3) just plain bad. Some people don't have the privilege to sit down and even consider these things, let alone execute on them.

I just like the minimalist aesthetics.

The lighting is completely creepy.

Minimalism is the way for the privileges to sells their basic already been existed for free with hijacked prices to stocked up their own bags.

👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

She put problematic in the title for click bait ☺️

Comment for engagement

Interesting that you didn’t comment on the whole Marie Kondo movement too. It may be different given she’s Japanese and there may be something more cultural about what she’s promoting, but yeah. I lost a pair of GOOD winter boots fooling with minimalism ☹️

She totes put *problematic* in the title for clickbait, wow!

How dare I get click baited lol

Yeah, I tried minimalism and low waste. It helped me learn to let go of things and not hold on to stuff I throw in a box and don't touch until I deep clean again. But I realized I was oversimplifying myself, and I noticed I was stressing over keeping things simple 😂 gotta remember my canvas bags to go shopping, gotta make sure everything has little to no plastic, gotta be mindful of the places I get my stuff from, gotta spend money on high quality stuff so I don't have to buy 3 cheap alternatives. I realized I actually don't have to do all of that. I didn't have to do all this stuff to feel like I'm contributing to the betterment of society. You don't have to get rid of all your furniture, makeup, collectibles & memories to remind yourself what's important in life. So what if you have a crap ton of books you haven't read in years? If uou like having a library, you should have a library.

She put problematic in the title for click bait!

She put 'problematic' in the title for click bait :))

She put problematic in the title for clickbait 😂

Ugh why did I watch this! Such clickbate! The title is clickbate! But also like she's wonderful.

Such a wonderful topic and well done research. Minimalism IS problematic in many ways. In this current economic system it is elitist and kind of a new way to make money out of nothing by telling people to get rid of everything they have in order to be happy (with new fancy, shiny things). I do have a small problem with the term "white supremacy", because it´s not accurate enough to describe the cultural (neo)colonialism we´re facing everywhere. It´s rather a "western world supremacy" we´re exposed to. Being light coloured doesn´t mean to belong to this western block with it´s ideological backround automatically. But yes, now the whole world is looking through this western prism, which happens to be defined mostly by white old man. I´m deeply upset with cultural homogenization "made in west".

Минимализм лучше, живите с этим

P.S Minimalism also helps me to keep my house in order which helped me to manage my anxiety.

Problematic clickbait lol well done

Really nice video with interesting points 😍

She put problematic in the title for click bait!