Full Transcript

Introduction to Deleuze: Difference and Repetition

16:361,284 summary words · ~6 min readEnglishBy Then & NowTranscribed Jun 19, 2026

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Summary

Gilles Deleuze challenges the historical bias of Western metaphysics toward static identity by constructing a materialist ontology where difference is primary and change emerges through repetitions that inherently contain novelty.

By reorienting our focus from rigid categorization to open-ended relational transformations, Deleuze's ontology provides a rigorous framework for understanding human freedom, biological complexity, and systemic evolution.

Section summaries

Introduction to Deleuzian Metaphysics

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The host introduces Gilles Deleuze as a philosopher of radical freedom, new possibilities, and difference. While historically grouped with post-structuralists like Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida, Deleuze is unique in his materialist and monist approach, incorporating concepts from biology, geology, and physics to assert that everything in the universe is fundamentally interconnected. The section outlines his 1968 book 'Difference and Repetition' as the foundation of this worldview.

Deleuze is a philosopher of difference and radical freedom who seeks to expand human possibility.
Unlike language-centric post-structuralists, Deleuze is a materialist who roots his philosophy in the sciences.

Provides the essential framing and distinguishes Deleuze's materialist philosophy from other 20th-century French thinkers.

Post-Structuralism vs. Postmodernism

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This section clarifies the terminological boundaries between post-structuralism (which focuses on language) and postmodernism (a cultural critique of modernity). While Foucault examines the historic shift in social truth through power, and Derrida posits the instability of linguistic meaning, Deleuze provides the deep ontological foundations for this constant flux. The speaker explains that Deleuze builds upon Friedrich Nietzsche's genealogical critique to establish an ontology where stable categories of human nature do not exist.

Foucault and Derrida focus on language and historic subjectivity, while Deleuze establishes their pre-ontological foundations.
Nietzsche's genealogy demonstrated that eternal concepts like good and evil are actually historically contingent.

Crucial for locating Deleuze within continental philosophy and understanding his ontological goals.

The Western Bias for Stability

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The speaker analyzes how classical thinkers like Aristotle and Immanuel Kant constructed systems of thought based on stable, eternal categories of substance and judgment. While this categorization helps us quantify and identify common properties in the world, Deleuze argues it creates a significant philosophical blind spot. Because categorization relies entirely on static, shared traits, it fails to explain how things actually change, transition, and evolve.

Western philosophy has historically prioritized static categories and substances over movement.
Traditional representation cannot explain how systems transition or evolve over time.

Defines the core metaphysical problem of classical representation that Deleuze seeks to dismantle.

Assemblages and the Spaces Between

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Using the evolutionary transition from television to platforms like YouTube, the host explains that change does not happen from inside a category, but from the spaces and differences between diverse systems. Disparate technologies—such as telegraphs, microchips, phone lines, and coding—converged to form something entirely new. This concept is heavily influenced by Spinoza's monism and Saussure's linguistics, where meaning is generated through structural relations and differences between elements rather than absolute, isolated traits.

Evolution occurs through the convergence of disparate systems (assemblages) in relation to their environment.
Deleuze draws on Spinoza's monism to view the universe as a highly connected, infinitely creative field.

Uses a highly concrete technological example to explain how assemblages generate evolutionary change.

The Mechanics of Repetition and Novelty

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This section unpacks the core dynamic of 'Difference and Repetition.' Humans naturally use repetition to generalize and find resemblances, which is the most basic act of thought. However, the host highlights that literal repetition is physically impossible; every physical occurrence, mental thought, or object exists in a distinct time and space. Therefore, every repetition inherently introduces differences, and it is this underlying difference that acts as the primary engine for evolution and creativity.

Generalizing requires mental repetition, yet literal, exact repetition is an impossibility in the natural world.
It is the unique variations within each repetition that drive systemic change and creative thought.

Explains the central thesis of Deleuze's major work and how difference operates within repetition.

Shocks to Thought and Biological Repetition

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The speaker demonstrates how repetition with difference functions in both biology and human psychology. In biology, plants and animals reproduce by repeating genetic codes, but their development is fundamentally shaped by environmental differences like weather, resources, and geography. In psychology, the speaker critiques the Kantian idea of self-contained rational thought. Drawing on Deleuze, he argues that humans do not simply choose to think; rather, external forces and shocks in the world force us to think and reorganize variables to find solutions.

Biological reproduction repeats genetic code but relies on external environmental differences to produce novelty.
Rational thought is not a spontaneous, self-contained act, but a forced response to external, worldly shocks.

Provides vital biological and psychological contexts to illustrate the practical reality of Deleuze's claims.

The Virtual, Multiplicities, and Contingency

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This section introduces the 'virtual'—the map of latent potentiality for newness. The virtual is made up of intensities and differential relations between 'ideas,' which Deleuze defines as pre-individual multiplicities. Using YouTube as an example, the host illustrates how pre-existing systems (hands, eyes, internet, keyboard) formed a contingent assemblage. The multiplicity precedes and structures the actualized idea, meaning that final outcomes are always contingent and could have easily been configured differently.

The 'virtual' is a structured plane of real, latent potentiality that shapes future possibilities.
Pre-individual multiplicities precede and organize the actualized forms we observe in reality.

Explains Deleuze's crucial concept of the virtual and how it differs from abstract possibility.

The Virtual as a Rejection of Relativism

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The host uses the academic study of World War II to show how pre-organized multiplicities (dead bodies, diaries, historical documents) act like a coiled spring, shaping and limiting the actual possibilities available to a historian writing a new narrative. Because the virtual is real and highly conditioned, it strips Deleuze of the vulgar reputation of postmodernism as 'anything goes.' It guarantees the continuous opening of new possibilities and radical freedom without collapsing into radical relativism.

The virtual structures and limits actual possibilities, acting like a coiled spring in the present.
Deleuze's materialist ontology avoids radical relativism by grounding change in real, finite conditions.

Synthesizes the ontological arguments and defends Deleuze against typical critiques of postmodern philosophy.

Philosophical Context and the Poet vs. Politician

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The host concludes by advising viewers that Deleuze's systematic thought is heavily reliant on Spinoza and Kant, making them recommended reading. He shares a final metaphor contrasting two figures: the poet and the politician. The poet represents creative power, affirming difference in a state of permanent revolution and eternal return. Conversely, the politician denies difference to preserve, prolong, or enforce a static representation of historical order. The section ends with an appeal for channel support.

A proper understanding of Deleuze's system requires familiarity with Kant and Spinoza.
The poet represents the affirmation of creative difference, while the politician represents the conservation of static order.

Contains valuable pedagogical advice and a helpful metaphor, but is less ontologically dense than previous sections.

Key points

The Primacy of Difference Over Identity — Traditional philosophy (from Aristotle to Kant) relies on static categories to judge, classify, and represent reality, which ultimately obscures change. Deleuze argues that differences in the spaces between things are ontologically primary, generating the very categories we mistakenly treat as stable.
Repetition with Difference — Repetition is never a series of exact copies because every iteration occurs in a unique spatial, temporal, and environmental context. It is the subtle variations (novelty) within every physical or conceptual repetition that drive evolutionary development and creative thinking.
The Virtual as Real Potentiality — Deleuze defines the 'virtual' not as an abstract illusion, but as a real, structured field of pre-individual multiplicities and latent potentialities that precedes and conditions actual possibilities.

“ontological matters are in reality historical matters parading in ontological gob” — Todd May

“the more that living matter complexifies, the more it transforms this virtual into spontaneous action and unforeseen movements” — Gilles Deleuze

AI-generated from the transcript. May contain errors.

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[Music]

0:04

Jil dollars as Todd may put set is a

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philosopher of new possibilities of how

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we might think of things in ways that

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would open up new regions for living

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most simply he's a philosopher of

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difference of how things change over

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time

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for this reason he's usually referred to

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as a postmodern or post structural

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philosopher lumped him with other French

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theorists like Michel Foucault and

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Jacque Derrida there are both big

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similarities and big differences though

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for me and this applies to other

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post-structuralist s-- thinking and de

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leurs in terms is to conceptualize a

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radical freedom that as humans we are

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free to change the world in ways that

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don't always seem possible his work has

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been used in many disciplines from

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education reform politics history and

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even hard sciences this is the key

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difference between him and other post

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modernists his work is filled with

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references to science biology geology

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evolution where someone like Derrida

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emphasizes how we understand the world

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primarily through language and text

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Delors is a materialist and monist

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in other words everything in the

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universe both physical and thinking is

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connected I'll introduce Talos is

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thought through his 1968 book different

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and repetition the laws of thinking

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could be set to articulate the

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ontological foundations that's the

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question of what there is at the most

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basic level of phenomena of other

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thinkers referred to as post

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structuralist and post modernists and by

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the way while those two terms are

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sometimes used interchangeably I use

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post structuralist as referring to

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theory and theorists that mostly

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emphasize language and postmodernist

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as a more catch-all term that loosely

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refers to thinkers a period and the

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culture that critiques modernity anyway

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Michel Foucault for example points to

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high meaning and

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frames of social truth change over time

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constituting new subjectivity is

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condition both through power and

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knowledge the idea of discipline for

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example or how we think about mental

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illness has changed over time while

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Jacque Derrida argues that language is

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unstable and meaning is always deferred

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so we can never really pin anything down

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both point to a world or a human

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subjectivity that is in flux moving

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changing dollars it might be said

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provides the ontological or even the pre

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ontological foundations for these sorts

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of peace thinkers like Foucault Derrida

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and originally Nietzsche there is no

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stable ontology of human nature as I

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talked about in a previous video

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Nietzsche shows how concepts like good

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and evil have changed over time again as

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Todd may has phrased it ontological

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matters are in reality historical

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matters parading in ontological gob

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while much of Western philosophy has

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focused on an ontology of what there is

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Delors wants to account for how things

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change in other words to account for

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difference over time for movement he's

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largely responding to philosophers like

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Aristotle and Kant who both

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conceptualized stable categories of

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thought and of substance for Kant for

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example we have the natural ability to

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rationally judge things by quantity

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quality relation modality for Aristotle

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there is substance doing having we're

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thinking of the very basics of the world

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okay bear with me this isn't that

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important to start to understand what

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Toulouse is saying what he's really

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doing is criticizing thinkers which

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turns out to be the vast majority of

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Western philosophy who emphasize that

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which is stable or eternal over that

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which is in movement and in flux think

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about how we judge things how we think

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about what things are we can quantify

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and qualify say

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leaves here are four they all have a

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similar shape color smell they all grow

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in a similar place in similar dirt they

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look the same they are then of the same

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species we can judge that this is an oak

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leaf we could make a list of the

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qualities anything has literally

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anything television has a screen can

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pick up broadcasts has a power supply we

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can try and think of the things that are

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essential to that thing and here's the

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problem if we just do that then we

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cannot account for change of how certain

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things develop into new things we need a

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way to understand how loosely television

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evolved into say Netflix or YouTube the

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evolution didn't come from anything

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inside the category of television it

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comes from the Telegraph the military

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development of the internet the phone

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line coding microchips all of these

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things converged into something new in

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exactly the same way that new species

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have evolved they evolved in relation to

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their environment and other species for

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Delors it's the spaces between things

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the differences between all of these

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things that create the possibilities for

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newness in fact all things are defined

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by the differences between them this is

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as with most post-structuralism

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influenced by socios belief that meaning

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is a product of the differences between

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words and signifiers we understand what

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blue is because of its relationship to

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red yellow green not because of any real

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tangible relationship between this and

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the word blue Delors is philosophy

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builds upon Spinoza's monism that

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everything is connected in fact the

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world is so complicated so connected so

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mysterious that there are potentially an

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infinite number of possibilities in the

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world not right now but

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potentially in theory may cites the

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example of origami an infinite number of

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shapes on an infinite number of pieces

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of paper folding moving changing dollars

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writes that no two grains of dust are

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absolutely identical no two hands have

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the same distinctive points no two

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typewriters have the same strike no two

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revolvers score their bullets in the

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same manner difference is everywhere

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indifference and repetition Delors his

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goal is to theorize a definition of

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difference in itself opposed to

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repetition when we think we repeat when

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I think of the leaf I repeat something

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of the actual leaf in my mind when I

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engage in that judgment between the four

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leaves I have to repeat four times to

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come to that conclusion when we do this

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we are generalizing we are looking for

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resemblances we know what greenness is

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even if the shades are different we know

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what that shape is even though it's

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slightly different

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generalizing is the most basic action of

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thought and to generalize we must repeat

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repetition contributes to generality but

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in every repetition something distinct

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occurs no leaf is actually a repetition

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a precise exact copy they are all

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different in color in shape even in

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position and in time and the thought of

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the leaf is again different and the next

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time I think of the leaf it's different

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and the next time newness is inscribed

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in every moment each repetition is

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something new in space and time it has

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no equal or equivalent while carrying

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something from the first every act of

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nature repeats with novelty and every

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repetition of every thought creates

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something new in the mind which

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contemplates it but here is the main

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point it's the very difference in every

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repetition that accounts for change for

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newness for evolution for creativity

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if we only conceptualize the repetition

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the representation we fail to understand

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how different changes concepts and

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things take the movement between

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television and YouTube hypothetically

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the person who invents YouTube looks at

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the television than his computer then

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uses the Internet in his mind he repeats

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all these things but he reorganizes them

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he repeats them differently he repeats

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the idea of television while

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reorganizing it with the idea of what is

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different about a television and the

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computer but it's not just the

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television and the computer differences

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that bear on the process are many

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language tools education code the innate

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biological aptitude of the inventor all

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of these things repeat themselves in

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some way in every act towards the new

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similarly when a baby is born it is both

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the repetition of genes DNA blood and a

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response to differences like the size of

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the womb or the environment it's born

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into a plant repeats itself through

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seeds but differences like the intensity

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of the wind rain and Sun animal

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interactions all have a bearing when

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thinking a person repeats things in some

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way we rationalize and we judge we

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identify things see analogies between

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things see things opposed to each other

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and judge things that are the same we

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organize and reorganize a plane of

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possibility we do something new but we

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also repeat something old it's not

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enough like Kant to say that rationality

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thinks as de leur says something in the

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world forces us to think we might

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organize questions in our mind or create

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goals or have plans but they arise from

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somewhere real they are presented to us

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by the world and we reorganize the

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variables to try and create solutions

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there is a kind of map of things to

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repeat and things we could make

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different this map the innate

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potentiality of newness is what de leurs

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calls the virtual virtuality

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similarities to potentiality the

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universe moves bodies move concepts move

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all in relation to each other they

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repeat but in every repetition different

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combinations of differences potentialize

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de leurs writes that the more that

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living matter complexify z-- the more it

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transforms this virtual into spontaneous

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action and unforeseen movements the

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virtual is a product of the intensities

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between differences the lines of flight

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between them the virtual is determined

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by the differential relations between

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what de leurs terms ideas which are made

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up of multiplicities again you have

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television microchipped the internet

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hands eyes a keyboard the differences in

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relations between them point towards new

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lines of flight there are many

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potentialities in any moment though lots

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of configurations the results is also

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random contingent YouTube could have

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easily been a different new

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configuration of all these possibilities

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a different person a different name a

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different set up ideas are made up of

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multiplicities combinations of

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representations and differences

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assemblages like bone structure or

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geology are part of the multiplicity but

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the multiplicity precedes the actual

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idea it defines and creates its

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possibilities let's shift from YouTube

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to World War 2 something you can do with

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YouTube multiplicities are presented to

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us in pre organized forms a group of

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techs on World War 2 the University

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studying it a conference on world war ii

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diaries the bodies of the dead the

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photographs all of the differences

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between them point to disparate lines of

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flight for new potentialities upon which

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the historian might write a new history

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the virtual is like a coil it's not

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possibility though it precedes

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possibility it creates the conditions

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for possibility each possibility in any

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given moment is conditioned by lines of

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imminence that give it its shape if we

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acknowledge that possible

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he's due spring from somewhere somewhere

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rue then the virtual is that play the

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virtual is the surplus of the present

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moment of any fixed identity and it's

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grounded in the spaces between things in

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their differences de leurs rights

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everywhere couples and polarities

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presuppose bundles and networks

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organized opposition's presuppose

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radiations in all directions

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stereoscopic images form no more than an

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even and flat opposition but they depend

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on something quite different an

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arrangement of coexistent tiered mobile

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planes and disparate nurse within an

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original debt everywhere the depth of

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difference is primary this perspective

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strips post-modernism of its vulgar

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reputation of claiming that anything

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goes that leads to a radical relativism

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the virtual is very real very much

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conditioned it only presents itself

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through a finite number of possibilities

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at any given time but it does guarantee

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the opening of new possibilities

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guarantees the possibility of continual

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change and freedom fillers is a

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notoriously complicated thinker and he's

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responding to a lot of other complicated

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thinkers and complex ideas and

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admittedly I'm no expert

14:27

I've read all of difference and

14:29

repetition and a lot of other delivers

14:32

over the past few months and it all fits

14:34

together as a system that's heavily

14:36

influenced by people like Spinoza and

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Kant who it's a good idea to understand

14:42

before you start reading delivers these

14:44

though are the concepts to understand to

14:47

appreciate the rest of Delors work I'll

14:49

expand on this further at some point

14:51

maybe next week although I might take a

14:53

break but on the schedule at some point

14:56

will be videos on the resume and the

14:58

Oedipus and hopefully a more in-depth

15:01

look at his relationship with can't I'd

15:04

also like to make a lighter video on

15:06

the philosopher of the 68 movements I'll

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leave you though with a quote I like

15:11

about two metaphorical figures of

15:13

difference and repetition that of the

15:15

poet who speaks in the name of a

15:17

creative power capable of overturning

15:20

all orders and representations in order

15:23

to affirm difference in the state of a

15:26

permanent revolution which characterizes

15:28

eternal return and that of the

15:31

politician who is above all concern to

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deny that which differs so as to

15:36

conserve or prolong an established

15:39

historical order or to establish a

15:42

historical order which already calls

15:44

forth in the world the forms of its

15:47

representation so recently YouTube

15:51

demonetised this entire channel

15:53

something that I hope isn't permanent

15:55

but for now you patreon is the only way

15:57

these videos get made so here's my

15:59

request if you think you get the same

16:01

value from four of these videos as you

16:04

do from just one cup of coffee then

16:07

please consider pledging $1 per video

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that's $4 per month

16:11

to help keep this channel going you can

16:14

even limit your pledge to one dollar per

16:16

month and I'm trying to make being a

16:18

patreon supporter worth it with the

16:20

scripts audio sources your name in the

16:22

credits and in the future I hope to

16:24

create extra content just for patrons to

16:27

those that already support them and I

16:29

thank you so much this channel wouldn't

16:31

exist without you see you next week

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