Breadtube Serves Imperialism: Examining the New Brand of Internet Pseudo-Socialism

by Caleb Maupin

A group of liberal commentators with shady origins, loosely calling themselves "BreadTube" have become the primary online pro-socialist voices. The ideology that BreadTubers espouse, however, is not consistent with Marxism-Leninism or genuine anti-capitalism. Drawing from the work of Marx, Lenin, Mao Zedong, William Z. Foster, R. Palm Dutt, Peter Kropotkin and other great revolutionary thinkers, Caleb Maupin shows that BreadTube has emerged due to a power struggle within the US ruling class. Maupin contrasts the BreadTube worldview of pessimism, anti-populism and post-modernism with the hopeful project of 21st Century Socialism around the world. He urges working people to reject the dead end of identity politics, liberalism and de-growth, and instead to stand against decaying imperialism and its drive toward fascism and war.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

194 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2021

Reviews

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

Part of me is upset that this book is fixated on such an esoteric corner of the internet because most people will never know nor appreciate possibly the most embarrassing book ever published.

Caleb Maupin spends a mercifully thin 200 pages airing personal grievances he has with YouTube channels with 20k followers, interspersed with some straw-clutching speculation that hundreds of individual small creators are all ops (US operatives). The book is indistinguishable from a James Charles subtweet about Jeffree Star being "fake", except extended to the length of a book. It is petty, terminally online nonsense.

The ideological crux of the book is that Caleb Maupin is upset that people half his age (without state-media backing like himself) are more popular than him, that is it. The feelings of personal resentment and perceived persecution is so embarrassingly palpable throughout the entire text. This is a man that is just upset and wrote a book about it. So upset that he accuses certain creators of having handlers, or other creators of being personally responsible for apparently countless suicides, and sometimes he's so upset that the veil of textual legitimacy slips and Maupin just rants about the times a creator was rude to him. It's an aspect of the text that is inescapable if you understand the full context of its publication and will remain in your mind during every page: Caleb Maupin wrote a book because he's mad at some people online.

If you're reading this I assume you have too much free time and are on the left, so I would instead recommend you read Engel's "The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State". It's not related to this book at all but it's of comparable length and a much better use of your time. If one person follows this advice, this review would have done more for the left than Maupin's book.

Additional: Quite telling are the omissions in the book. Maupin sees fit to cite BreadTube channels with 10k subscribers who haven't uploaded in a year and people who do not claim to be on the left (Destiny, Steven Hasan), because he has had personal greviences with these people over Twitter, yet fails to cite far more significant figures central to BreadTube. People like Shaun, Lindsay Ellis, Hasan "Hasanabi" Piker, Innuendo Studios. These are major omissions considering the far less significant figures mentioned, this only serves to underline the fact that the book was solely motivated by Maupin wanting the final word on online arguments.

[Ahmed · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't help but love the fact that this book has so many 1-star reviews, it seems like it has reached its intended audience!

So, let me start out first by addressing the blatantly false notion that this book embodies nothing but some kind of a personal vendetta written out of frustration by Caleb against an online political community. It's really not, and I have to wonder whether the people who claim otherwise have really read the book in its entirety or not because it's much more than that.

This book is about the ideologies, politics, and viewpoints that are propagated by breadtube personalities as a whole, but transcend breadtube as a phenomenon and indeed precede it. I believe this to be a worthwhile endeavor because youtube (and the internet in general) has quickly and undeniably become one of the largest and most powerful *truly global* mediums through which organizations, intelligence agencies, and governments can propagate their views and shape mainstream narratives. People who think that it's pointless to study and critique political currents of thought on the internet, and thus dismiss this book at the outset, would do well to consider this.

Now, there were some amusing personal attacks and mentions here and there, which I believe was intentionally done in order to grab the attention of breadtube and help the book reach a wider audience. I believe that Caleb admitted as much in a later interview about the book and so far it seems to have worked brilliantly considering that most of the breadtube personalities have reacted to the book online and how there's an interesting amount of 1-star reviews on this website. Like I said, the book has reached its intended audience and the more exposure, the better.

But overall, this book isn't merely about breadtube, it's more about illustrating the extent to which the "left-wing" of Capital will go in order to consolidate its power during its struggle with the right-wing of capital. It shows how capitalism CAN and DOES assimilate anti-capitalism into itself, commodifying socialist rhetoric into what ultimately amounts to just another form of capitalism, albeit a less subtle one.

In fact, Caleb explores the bankrupt ideas brought up by these "socialists" so thoroughly and in such an interesting historical manner that for the majority of the book I often found myself forgetting that it was supposed to be about breadtube in the first place.

When someone like Hasan Abi purchases a $2.75 million dollar house in Hollywood whilst calling himself a socialist and claiming to live within his means, or AOC flaunting her infamous "tax the rich" dress, you start to wonder, do these people really wish to represent the left, or is it all a mere aesthetic for them, just another grift? And I'm not trying to parrot the idiotic "if you're a socialist, why do you own an iPhone?" argument, there's nothing wrong with enjoying yourself. But when your main source of income comes from you being a left-wing political streamer, perhaps you should actually dedicate a part of that income and popularity for political ends, especially considering that you're likely big enough of a public figure at this point to make a noticeable difference.

And for the people who accuse Caleb of proposing some conspiracy theory about Breadtube being made up of CIA agents or whatever, they obviously haven't read the book (at least in its entirety) because Caleb stresses that when he says 'Breadtube serves imperialism' he's speaking of the effects of their actions and the ideas they propagate and not whether they're paid agents or not:

"The important thing to remember about countergangs in the late Cold War is that they are generally not conscious deceivers. Some will read the above contents and believe that African Maoists, UNITA, Left-Wing Intellectuals, or the Bread Tubers of 2021, are all “secret CIA agents” or some other crude interpretation. Nothing could be further from the truth."

"The enemy in the Bread Tube narrative is “Populism” and socialist governments around the world are just another variant of this evil, the equivalent of fascism.When the ignorant, inferior working people are rising up and demanding that the state protect them, rallying around a charismatic leader, this is a threat to the nonconformity and freedom of the superior caste of cosmopolitan intellectuals. The pessimism, sex obsession, anti-growth politics of BreadTube clearly have deep roots. They are not the personal innovation of Vaush, Thought Slime, Contrapoints, or any other shallow internet personality. But these are not the politics of the working class."

The book goes into interesting periods of history, briefly discusses the history and meaning of fascism, and also touches upon the ideas of Georges Sorel and how they manifested in the intellectual pro-establishment left-wing circles that still influence an unfortunately large part of the western left to this day.

The second appendix also presented an excellent critique of American Communists and their failure to tap into the populist roots which had initially enabled Trump's surprising rise to power. It's an overall great read and could certainly be of use even to people who don't care all that much about breadtube or other online political communities.

[FOL · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very important read for anyone on the left or interested in politics in general.

This book backs up the claim that “BreadTube” serves the imperialist establishment in depth. Critics of this book can’t argue with the specific facts.

[Anokh Palakurthi · Rating 1 out of 5]

"Breadtube Serves Imperialism" is as much of a waste of time as you probably think it is. Although there are reasonable critiques to be made about the highly liberal-palatable tendencies and Western focus of left online content creators, Maupin spends most of the book painting his targets in the worst possible light. Even more infuriatingly, he uses conspiratorial logic and loose analogies to mind-read their intentions rather than seriously engage their beliefs in the best faith.

It's really a shame because Maupin's knowledge of Marxism and socialist history is surprisingly solid. Had the book just been a primer on Marxism-Leninism, it would provide useful insight into how Maupin sees its potential utility in American politics. Sadly, that's not what this book is about. No - after reading this, it's clear that Maupin wanted to vent about a few members of "Breadtube" who were rude to him. For as much as he might claim to be against left sectarianism, his latest book feeds fuel to a very pointless fire.

[Nate · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're offended by this book, it means it's 100% correct.

Caleb provides a necessary and urgent analysis on the state of 'leftist' social media in the western hemisphere, and how it exists primarily to serve imperialism by funneling progressive-minded people into a 'controlled' or 'synthetic' left movement that conveniently shares all the views the US state department has on actually-existing socialist and anti-imperialist countries, and thus aids the west in developing consent for war and further sanctions.

If you aren't afraid of honestly questioning your own views and seeing them from another angle, you will enjoy this book. However, if all you're interested in is confirming everything you already think you know and viewing politics as a sports team, then you'll most likely just submit a negative review without having read it just because r/vaush told you to.

[N.C.Cai · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have actually read this from cover to cover except for citations, which I can attest there were a lot of them. The book could have been a bit more to the point but all in all a good take down of breadtube. I especially liked the analysis on Thoughtslime and Vaush, especially in light of the recent vaush mask off moment (of which there have been many but ppl don't seem to care) just shows that Breadtube really does serve imperialism.

[David Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is long overdue and exposes the role that Breadtube plays in it's very Anti Working Class activities by been the left arm of Imperialism. This needs to be read by all.

[Jameson M. · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to enjoy this book, because I believe there are many valid criticisms to be made of the "BreadTube" sphere of left-leaning content creators on YouTube, especially from a Marxist, anti-imperialist perspective. Sadly, this book was such a disappointment, it's hard to overstate.

Where to start? First off, this is some of the most amateurish writing I've ever seen. Maupin discusses a lot of the history of the US and international left, yet he has no footnotes and cites no sources. It is basic knowledge that if you are writing history or nonfiction, you need to cite sources in order to have credibility. The closest he gets is to write something like, "An article from Wired published January 15, 2020 says..." but he will not include the article in his list of sources. Has this guy never written a college paper before - or even a high school paper for that matter? He does include a bibliography at the end with some of the books he cites (mostly political texts), but no page numbers, etc. And crucially, he includes no references to the actual BreadTubers' content (more on that later).

In addition to not citing literary sources, he also cites no sources for what various BreadTubers have said. This would be quite easy to do, as he could not only cite the date the videos were published on YouTube, but even could cite the exact time in the videos in which things were said. Yet he doesn't even attempt to do this, so we are just expected to believe what Maupin tells us these folks have said. There are two points early on in the book - pages 19 and 24 - where he literally tells the reader to look up proof online for themselves. Are you kidding me? I've never had an author tell me "Google it" before. 

Throughout the whole book, Maupin's version of evidence or citation amounts to "Trust me dude." For an author to write a book criticizing YouTube content creators, and to not include any direct quotes from these individuals when they are abundant, is ridiculous. All Maupin succeeds in doing is constructing a straw man to rail against, and he does a poor job at that. 

While the BreadTube sphere includes quite a few YouTube content creators, Maupin only selects a handful for discussion: Natalie "Contrapoints" Wynn, "Vaush," "Thought Slime," "HBomberguy," and "Socialism Done Left." He talks about three other individuals: "Destiny," "Faraday Speaks," and Dr. Steve Hassan, but admits that they are "not technically 'BreadTubers' by definition." I can think of a dozen more just off the top of my head, but Maupin is obviously unfamiliar with more than a handful of BreadTubers he has had interaction with.

The subject matter really jumps all over the place, from Marxist theory to the history of the socialist movement to current events. But in 200 pages, Maupin never provides convincing proof of the book's thesis - that BreadTubers secretly operate as an arm of the capitalist establishment. Or is his thesis merely that BreadTubers spread the narrative of imperialism? He dances back and forth between these two theses the entire book. I will give some examples of his accusations:

Page 47: "Covert support is most likely being provided in order to enable the 'algorithmic hacking' that has allowed BreadTube to flourish." But he provides zero evidence for this supposed algorithmic hacking here, or anywhere else in the book. 

Page 36: "[Steve] Hassan has become a mentor to Caleb Cain, and according to an unnamed source appears to be advising other members of the BreadTube community in their efforts." No evidence provided, except for an "unnamed source." Again, "trust me dude." 

Page 30: "The nature of BreadTube as a poorly executed 'deradicalization' effort by the most powerful factions among the imperialists is made quite apparent." To Maupin, perhaps, but he has provided no evidence of this to us, the reader. Apparently making content that aims to deradicalize those under the influence of far-right, racist conspiracy theories isn't a noble pursuit in and of itself undertaken by individuals who wish to provide a counter-narrative - no, it must be orchestrated by a powerful faction of capitalists. 

Maupin conveniently ends the book with a 20 page autobiography about himself and his own political development. He obviously wants to show his leftist "credentials" and demonstrate that he is the one to lead America forward to socialism, not the other "synthetic leftists" whom he decries. 

I could write an entire book myself about all the things I find problematic with this book, but this is long enough. Suffice to say that this is amateur writing at its worse. Maupin doesn't even understand how to put quotations within quotations properly. This book was self-published, obviously, because this would never make it across an editor's desk. Sloppily written, poorly executed, and full of weak straw man arguments. I am very disappointed. 

[Caleb L. Carman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book, like its author, is a bit of a double-edged sword; on the one hand, I agree with the basic premise: that the YouTube algorithm, for its young progressive viewers susceptible to socialist ideas, has instead promoted liberal, social-democratic, postmodernist, CIA-adjacent imperialist voices posing as socialists. This book could have been much better. Unfortunately, there are many shortcomings in the execution of proving this thesis, with which I very much agree. Here are a few ways a future author might revisit the same topic more successfully:

1. The “BreadTube Serves Imperialism”, does not work.

2. Focus on systems, not individuals. Instead of speculating on the possible CIA funding of certain YouTubers, Caleb could have stuck to pointing out how TouTube is responsible for upholding particular perspectives over others, with detailed examples, and how that sets a foundational ideology for framing online discourse. That this or that YouTuber receives CIA funding is a curiosity, but in and of itself not that interesting. (Fidel Castro received funding from the CIA back when they thought he was a bourgeois nationalist; should we, therefore, denounce the Cuban revolution?) What’s important is the social role played by the actors involved. For instance,

3. Call out the messages, not the messenger. Most of Caleb’s exposés devolve into personal attacks on people he has sparred with online. They read like the bitter ramblings of someone who shows signs of personal resentment, insecurity, and self-absorbed thinking. (Knowing what we know now about Caleb’s history of cultism and sexual predation, the bill fits). Instead,

4. Step back, and look at the broader picture.

5. Be Specific.

[I will edit this review later]

In short, the book is a petty, scatterbrained, unserious

[Thomas · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have known pain. It exists within the 200 pages of this book.

The time spent reading this book would be much better spent sitting on a cold toilet seat stressing and squeezing, trying to give yourself haemorrhoids.

[Ellen · Rating 1 out of 5]

lmfao

[David B. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I came across the book via Youtube videos making fun of it and got my hands on a copy.

It was a fairly quick read, Maupin has some skill as a narrator, even though he doesn't know how to cite sources and struggles with formatting.

While I don't agree with Maupin on some issues, I do tend to lean more in his direction politically rather than towards 'Breadtube.' That said, I followed his arguments and interactions with them over the past year and found them to be embarrassingly ridiculous and irreversibly fatal to his portrayal of himself as any kind of serious intellectual. (A shame really, as he started out with a credible performance against the debate-bro charlatan Ian "Vaush" Kochinski.)

The book was far better than I expected, and has some utility as a history of Left anti-communism, though this has been done better by people like Parenti, etc. It does also contain cogent recapitulations of key ideas of many of the theorists mentioned in the blurb. Maupin himself was active in social media promoting the 'citations' in the book, but in fact it contains relatively few, and none I could discover of the type 'In this specific video, breadtuber X said Y, and Y is pro-imperialist because of z.'

There is plenty of 'because of Z' in the book, Z being the theory and practice of left anti-communism, but Maupin simply does not do the work of demonstrating via textual analysis the affinities between the content produced by someone like Thoughtslime (a self-professed comedian) and the type of CIA-sponsored left anti-communism whose history he outlines. Instead he relies mostly on broad generalizations (including the patent absurdity of 'working people don't like lowbrow comedy' in the course of a bizarre harangue about the symbolism of slime,) and Larouchian conspiracy theories involving the alleged (a reliable anonymous source told me) affinity between a notorious cult 'deprogrammer' and a minor breadtuber who was featured in a NYT article 3 years ago.

There's merit to the argument; grifters like the fake socialist youtuber Vaush are as much a cancer on the body politic as the worst right-wing talk radio hosts, but if I didn't already know that I'm not sure I would have been persuaded by Maupin's arguments here.

[Gnost · Rating 1 out of 5]

As a preface, some of the criticisms laid out by Maupin of "Breadtube" playing Marxist without showcasing an understanding of it, as well as being propagated due to it not posing a real threat to capital, are valid.

The rest of this book consists of comparing a YouTuber to Mussolini for liking poop jokes, repeated claims that Breadtube is a creation of Joe Biden/the CIA (which he justifies with saying it's a "covert" operation and the creators themselves are unaware of this), as well as varying degrees of unsubstantiated claims attributed to "Breadtube" or a specific creator in an attempt to provide some cohesion to a book he forgot the premise of about a dozen times while writing it.

Bonus meme: A real quote from this book!
"It is also worth noting that Sorelian pessimist and ex-socialist Benito Mussolini shared the fixation on feces ... often found among BreadTube voices."

[Hiram Munn · Rating 5 out of 5]

So the people complaining about it being about airing online grievances haven't read the book. To slightly re-edit and repost my Amazon review.

"Do not judge this book by its cover and title. This text reads well and provides many examples and footnotes to back up well researched points. Its about so much more than "BreadTube" and Maupin works to show some of the historical similarities between "BreadTube" and other organizations and groups that have been used to stabilize or destabilize the targets of Imperial power through out the history post 1848. An engaging read!"

I found that when I picked it up, I couldn't put it down. I didn't finish it in one sitting, but it was a nice evening read. It is thought provoking and worth your time.

[Neologist · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great analysis from my favorite journalist and political commentator, Caleb Maupin. Invoking history and political philosophy, Caleb makes it crystal clear how the internet fake left "SJW" types fit within a greater repeating pattern of manipulation by the American deep state. Instead he proposes an alternative vision of an independent socialist movement that is marked by optimism, professionalism and doesn't shy away from the progressive aspects of American history. We need a government of action to FIGHT for working families!

[Will · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought this would be fun given the idiotic subject, but of course it's a high-minded intra-leftist critique full of dumb history lessons.

[Tony Ross Jr. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maupin clearly knows a lot about history, especially surrounding the development of Marxism and its ideas. I know this because 80 percent of the book is quotes from historical figures and others, rather than his own content. This made the book boring to read, but there were some juicy parts. He mentions Contrapoints and critiques her video on the Alt-Right, saying in not so many words that Contra seems to equate White nationalist with Fascist, or that Alt-Right is the only type of fascism to worry about in America. Maupin wants a definition of fascism based in history, which is fine. However, the main concern comes when he talks about Vaush.

I'm not a fan boy of Vaush, though I do watch and like some of his content. That being said, Vaush clearly lives in Maupin's head rent-free. You can tell the animosity he has for him just by the way he writes about him. For example, for Contrapoints, you get a critique of her ideas. For Vaush, you get a revival of the smear campaigns against him and off-handed comments like he "lacks charisma".

[Julesreads · Rating 5 out of 5]

A critical sketch of the niche “leftist” thinkers/content creators known loosely as BreadTube is expanded to illustrate how imperialist and capitalist ideology functions in its forever fight to undermine socialism and communism, anti-imperialism and anti-capitalism. My favorite parts include a mini theoretical lesson on the definition of fascism, the myriad of historical evidence that rips in and out for the effect of light touch with heavy stroke, and the optimism Maupin infused into the overarching narrative. Calling everyone fascists and Nazis and racists may make politics easy for some, but it doesn’t solve the dire issues facing us in a capitalist society. In the words of Al Green, let’s stay together (and stop capitalism and embrace communism globally).

[Donald Schantz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't listen to these negative reviews. Caleb Maupin spends only one chapter explaining the context of who these Breadtubers are. The rest of the book spends it's time focusing on the idealogy of these Breadtubers, and the toxic effect their idealogy has on our culture.


He lays it all out simply, and he is extremely accurate in to detrimental effects of their ideology in the book. I suggest taking the time to read the book if you are serious about socialism happen in our time.

Great book to record to your Comrades!

[Jake · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great read. Despite the name, the book delves into a general look at Left Anti-Communism rather than just bash "BreadTube" members the whole time, even though it does include a chapter about who BreadTube consists of and some sections critiquing the ideas they present.

I do wish however footnotes were included (even though quotes did include the text it came from) and some ideas were further expanded upon.

[Vini Vince · Rating 1 out of 5]

Few entertaining pages about some e-celebs and grifters... the rest is tedious, pretentious and badly put together. Complete waste of time.

[Molly · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'll give Caleb this: He's better at hiding his antisemitism in this book than in the other one I read. It's still extremely clear though. Even with all the abysmal misspellings.

I'd describe this book as a barrage of unsourced rage-tweets where he tries to doxx as many as he can in a truly pitiful way of lashing out because he's not as popular as he wants to be rather than anything resembling political theory. He just jumps from subject to subject without rhyme or reason, he tries to say leftists are fascists and fascists are leftists, and it really needs repeating: He's really antisemitic.

This isn't a criticism of Breadtube, this is drivel written through three sleepless days getting increasingly angry.

It's a waste of time, energy, and the only good thing I can say about it is that it's a great resource to use when discussing what a clown Caleb is.

[Ruth Wynne-Jones]

I just want to echo the sentiment about this book lacking citations. I think it also needed to establish Breadtube as an entity rather than a group of individual youtubers for the thesis to land. It was not well argued - although Maupin was a lot more lucid on everything that didn't have anything to do with Breadtube.

Maupin claimed that Thought Slime might be purposefully standing in-front of an animated sewer ("the fact that Matt "Thought Slime" narrates sarcastic, crude videos which often condemn the concept of economic growth or fixate on mental illness related topics, while standing in front of the image of a sewer dropping with green slime may not be an accident") because they are trying to get across the Malthusian view that "instead of recommending cleanliness to the poor, we should encourage contrary habits. In our towns we should make the streets narrower, crowd more people into houses, and court the return of the plague."

I uh... I don't feel the need to engage with this argument on an intellectual level.

Personally I believe that Breadtube is an applied label describing a group of individual youtubers with some overlap when it comes to talking points, fanbase, and ideological views. If it turns out that "in reality, it is likely serving one section of the American ruling elite and the intelligence agencies” ................. then I'll be like thanks for the heads up... this book gave me no reason to believe that though.

[D.F. Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book, but if the author wants to actually understand Fascism he should read one of A. James Gregor's books like 'Italian Fascism and Developmental Dictatorship' instead of unobjective sources.

[Tony Lee Ross Jr. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The 3 stars is for Maupin’s extensive knowledge of history. -2 stars for bringing in petty internet drama in the midst of an otherwise respectable work.

[Tony Ross Jr. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Russia state-affiliated media representative Caleb “The Spank” Maupin writes an entire book on internet drama. (With the facade of caring about leftist politics.)

[Luís Garcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Read in Beijing, China)