Fun Civil War fact: Lee was absent from class at West Point the day they discussed not fighting uphill. He skipped class to participate in a drinking contest with none other than a young Ulysses S. Grant.

A bad economy and uncertain future make people very afraid. It’s tempting to stick your head in the sand, blame all your problems on a specific demographic, then trust dear leader will punish the people that made you scared.

It’s completely divorced from reality, but reality sucks right now. People are scared. They’re taking the blue pill to feel better and pretend the horror all around them isn’t happening. They won’t max out their credit cards and become homeless. Dear Leader will fix things before that happens.

If content creators provide 90% or even 60% of value to YouTube, why is Google a trillion dollar company while major content creators are fighting for scraps that fall from their table? Why are content creators who aren’t in the top tier compensated so little for what they bring to the table?

YouTube is nothing without content. Unionize. Stand together and get paid what you’re worth.

These tech companies have underestimated their utility. They are mostly providing mindless time wasters. If you try to charge money or create inconvenience, people will look for something else to do.

Their attention is your lifeblood, and you’re actively giving them reasons to look elsewhere. The VC grow-at-all-costs business model is fundamentally flawed. It doesn’t scale when profitability becomes a priority.