Understanding the difference between Concrete and Abstract can make the difference between whether your story or video will better be remembered or forgotten. Although the video Logan Paul did on the suicide forest in Japan was controversial and caused him a good bit of hate before he took the video down, it is a good example of concrete vs. abstract.
It should be noted and understood that although concrete can be better remembered, our modern world is not a culture that particularly likes concrete over abstract because concrete can be more disturbing and harder to forget. Abstract can be more warm and fuzzy be remembered for the moment and then forgotten. It fits well with our throw away society.
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Transcript
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howdy and welcome to mighty muddy chuck
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channel I’m Chuck have you ever wondered
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about the difference between a concrete
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memory and abstract memory a concrete
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thought versus an abstract thought an
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abstract thought is more likely to
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present itself from the viewpoint of why
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what is a concrete memory our thought is
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more likely to present itself as how
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that’s the difference between an
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abstract thought and a concrete thought
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now one thing to understand is a
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concrete thought will stick with you
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you’re more likely to remember a
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concrete thought and episodic memory in
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a memory as an episode of your life it
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is the concrete thoughts that you’re
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more likely to remember it’s the
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concrete events that you’re more likely
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to remember as you remember episodes in
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your life abstract is more likely to be
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more hazy because it’s it’s abstract is
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hazy to start with it’s not it’s not
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concrete it’s more foggy you’re less
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certain of what’s happening you’re more
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time you’re in a more confused state and
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so you’re less likely to remember the
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more abstract moments in your life now
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if when Logan Paul had been doing the
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video of when he went into the suicide
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forest in Japan if he had done the video
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where he only talked about seeing the
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body or reacted to seeing the body that
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would have been more abstract if he
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didn’t show the body you would have
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wondered is this some kind of joke you
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would have a
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thought is this real or isn’t it
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you wouldn’t be sure the video would
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have been more hazy because there have
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been more questions regarding to what
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exactly was going on in the video if
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Logan Paul had not shown the body it
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would not have impacted the viewer as
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much it would not have affected the
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viewer as much the viewer would not have
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reacted as severely to what was
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happening in the video because the video
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would have remained more on that
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abstract level and the truth is is a
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week to two weeks from the time the
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viewer saw the video that would be less
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likely to remember that time that logo
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Paul went into the suicide forest in
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Japan and saw a body now there is a
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contradiction between abstract and
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concrete a level of fear can actually
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make a very really vent a scary event
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something that conduct it just affects
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you it affects you in a major way to
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where a concrete event that you’re in
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becomes more abstract there is that that
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contradiction there for example if
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you’re giving a speech for example now
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that’s in itself is not a big deal to a
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lot of people some people you know they
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get stage fright okay so say you’re
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giving a speech and get real nervous you
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almost feel sick at your stomach you’re
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just it’s it’s it’s not pleasant so even
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though you’re in that event in a real
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way to deal with that stress you pull
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yourself back into a more abstract mode
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you may even project yourself to the
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back of the auditorium
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and for the back of the auditorium view
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yourself giving the speech that’s
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disassociation some people look at that
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like a split personality type thing but
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it’s actually it happens to people that
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are not having severe mental issues it’s
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just a level of stress it can cause you
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to remove yourself from a situation to
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make that situation more abstract so
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that you feel like you’re not really
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part of that event it’s a way that you
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deal with stress and that’s a reason if
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you’re in a stressful situation you may
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have part of that memory maybe concrete
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and you may remember part of that memory
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as an episode and then a different part
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of that memory even though it should be
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concrete as well you’ve removed yourself
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from the situation because it’s not
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pleasant to you so it becomes abstract
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so when you’re trying to remember an
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episode it should be longer a longer
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event in your life because it’s concrete
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from you know the full length is
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concrete you’ve removed yourself into an
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abstract part so that you may remember
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this part of the event there’s a memory
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skip and then you remember another part
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of the event and depending you know it
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goes back to the level of stress or how
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you’re dealing with it to the degree you
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bring yourself back into the event or
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the degree that you want to remove
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yourself from the event so much that it
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becomes abstract that’s the reason so
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you’ve in episodic memory either as an
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episode in your life you may remember
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parts of that episode which is that a
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fairly long episode you may remember
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parts of it but there are memory skips
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now some people reacted to Logan Paul’s
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behavior when he saw the body and his
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behavior to some degree did not come
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across as real the little bits that I
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saw of it now
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let me remind you I didn’t see the full
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video I only saw the parts that people
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included in their videos where they were
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being critical of it so I don’t really
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know his full reaction to what was
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happening but it was part of the
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reaction that I saw you could pretty
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much tell that he was removing himself
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from the situation in other words he
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wasn’t just trying to act goofy he went
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into that mode to remove himself from
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the situation it might be compared to
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say that you go you have gone to the
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funeral of someone that you care about
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and did you love and it’s a highly
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stressful event for you to go to their
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funeral and and other people are in the
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same situation that you’re in
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so to distract yourself and they are
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distracting themself removing themselves
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you’re removing yourself from the
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situation you might tell jokes you may
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laugh that may come across as
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disrespectful but it’s a coping
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mechanism because you and they are in an
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awful situation that you don’t want to
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be happening you don’t want it to be
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real you don’t want it to be concrete
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you do not want it to be concrete
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because you don’t want it to be real so
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you go into another mode where you kind
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of remove yourself from the situation
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and you and they may kill jokes and you
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may laugh many times you may bring
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yourself back to the sense of the
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reality of it and reflect on the life of
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the person that you’re going to miss but
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it’s a coping mechanism it’s it’s not
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disrespect its removing yourself from
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the situation and when it’s all over you
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may not even pull it remember
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that abstract moment of the event you
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may mainly remember you feeling like
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crying and you’re dying inside yourself
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that may be what you remember you may
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remember the part where it’s concrete
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which real when you’re facing it and
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you’re knowing it you may remember that
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part of it but the part where you’re
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trying to distract yourself from the
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moment where you’re trying to make it
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more abstract you may not even remember
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that part of the event now of course
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it’s possible as some people have
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suggested that logan paul and his
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entourage went there because they knew
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there was going to be a body there they
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had already in fact discovered the body
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before the the videotaping at the
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videotaping of you know finding the body
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in other words it was kind of scripted
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out and that’s possible too
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but there again it’s still a coping
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mechanism
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it’s still coping mechanism mechanism
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now some people are offended that he
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showed the body or at least they pretend
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they’re offended that he showed the body
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but
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understand by showing the body he took a
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video that could have been primarily
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abstract which you would have forgot
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about in three days from the time you
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clicked it up you’d already forgot about
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it
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if he kept the video abstract it would
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have been forgettable by showing the
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body he made it real his behavior aside
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showing the body brought it into
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concrete mode there was no one if
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there’s a body there is now how would
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people react if there was a body it
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wasn’t him telling us a body there but
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not showing the body by showing the body
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he made something that could have been
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abstract he made it real
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he made it concrete he made it
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unforgettable and it was there
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and we live in a society they prefer
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stuff abstract that prefers stuff fuzzy
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that prefer stuff forgivable on some
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level we as a society actually prefer
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stuff that’s forgettable
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it’s our throwaway Society but by making
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the video concrete by making the video
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less likely to be forgotten he brought
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home a very serious issue suicide now it
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may be a question to whether he was the
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one that should have done the video and
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I guess it’s a question to whether that
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type of video belongs on YouTube but
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it’s an issue that does need to be
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discussed it’s an issue that does need
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to be made real because too often when
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the subject is talked about when suicide
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has talked about it is put in at more
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abstract terms let’s put in abstract
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terms so you know in the abstract people
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care in the concrete people realize it’s
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a problem and they forget about it
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now after Logan Paul did his video a lot
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of people did their videos being
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critical I didn’t really see any video
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being positive about what he had done or
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YouTube had done and I understand you
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know that people feel like that Logan
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Paul is treated special while other
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channels are being knocked down by
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YouTube you know demonetized and
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censored in other ways and and this
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makes people angry I understand that
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part of it and I understand the part
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that people reacted the way they reacted
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because they did not
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want it brought home real they did not
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want it concrete in their memory they
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wanted it’s something they could easily
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forget about I know a lot of the people
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that did the videos they you know they
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present a lot they cared about the issue
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of suicide and some of my guests did but
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here’s the thing every video critical of
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Logan Paul it’s forgettable totally
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forgettable nobody’s gonna remember both
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of those videos and yeah I know people
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don’t remember well maybe the create the
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level of cringe might make it so real
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but I’m not critical of Logan Paul to be
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honest i I’ve never really got into the
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Paul brothers
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I’m not saying as a put-down or like I’m
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so cool octave cool for the power
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brothers you know I’m not trying to put
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them down I just you know there’s only X
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amount of time in a day and I’m having
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trouble getting things completed as it
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is so I tend to watch PewDiePie let’s
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note and he does some really good stuff
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and some of them some of the videos were
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actually longer which I have trouble
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watch because I have trouble finding the
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time to watch and but
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but back to the point I’m not being
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critical Logan Paul when he realized
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that there were so many people upset
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with the video he quickly brought it he
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took it down YouTube didn’t remove the
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video he removed the video and he
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deserves credit for that he responded to
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the criticism on his channel whether it
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was right or wrong for him to do the
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video he responded to the criticism and
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he responded fairly quickly I think I’m
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not critical of Logan Paul and he
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brought forth an important issue and he
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did it in a way that really you know
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concrete concrete where the videos being
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critical more abstract forgettable like
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this video I’m dealing with more
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abstract concepts
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you might remember you might not for all
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the long periods you won’t remember
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which is unfortunate because I think I’m
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making a valid point here it’s important
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to understand you know the abstract
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memory versus concrete memory and how
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even a memory that’s concrete if your
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level of fear is at a certain level that
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it becomes abstract because you remove
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yourself from the situation and
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abstracts forgettable there are certain
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things we just don’t want up here we
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really don’t but at the same time didn’t
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we start trying to analyze our episodic
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memories and we realize our skips and
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our memories and we realized we have
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removed ourselves from certain
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situations when the events were
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happening now that this is true maybe
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something happened wise 12 your Seldon
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I’m not sure what I just I’ve got I’ve
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got memories gifts between and of course
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we start trying to feel and that’s gifts
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that you’re likely to create false
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memories and that’s a problem so you
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don’t want to create false memories when
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you start trying to fill in those blinds
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and you’re trying to try to remember
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abstract is very hard to remember once
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you go into that abstract mode it’s
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really hard to dig that back out and
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it’s very
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for whatever you dig out to be reliable
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because when they’re skips
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you’re likely to try to fill those skips
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and sometimes what you’re trying to fill
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those skips with what you’re trying to
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rationalize in reason it’s more rifle
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eyes and reason than actually
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remembering and you just your memories
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get muddled and you just not reliable a
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hypnosis a lot of times it tries to fill
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those skips it’s not reliable so anyway
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I think it’s interesting I think the
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memory you know want the one thing I
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like about the discussion on the mental
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effect is it does impart go to memory
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you know whatever the full thing is you
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know the fact that we do remember things
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differently it does seem that certain
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things change
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it’s just weird but but even when you
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get away from the supernatural and the
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weirdness and and say this is a some
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kind of digital computer program and
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there’s glitches in the computer but you
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can’t away from all that stuff just the
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memory itself the way you remember stuff
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and the way you deal with situations
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it’s interesting in itself
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so anyway much thanks for watching
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listening and I do appreciate it don’t
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be too hard on Logan Paul remember he’s
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a living breathing creature care more
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about the living than the dead care more
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about the living than the dead and
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there’s no reason to be mean to people
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there’s no reason to be mean if you if
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you didn’t like what Logan Paul did good
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fine you know do your video and how you
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don’t didn’t like what he did but don’t
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be mean don’t be mean to the dude don’t
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be jealous of the dude don’t be jealous
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our success or failure here on YouTube
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is our own my failure is my own I
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understand that I think sometimes that
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I’m being kind of knocked down by
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outside forces I do and you know I get
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into that mode sometimes my god I don’t
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fully understand what’s going on why you
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know this is whatever but at the end of
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the day still my success or my failure
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as a writer or are doing these videos is
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my success or failure you know it’s it’s
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me do it right or do it wrong it’s me
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and I think that’s one really bad thing
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about what YouTube is doing is because
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we even when we kind of know it’s us
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because of the shenanigans that they
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pull it’s easy to want to blame them
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when generally it’s still us you know
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it’s still us it’s either felling or
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succeeding it’s not them it’s not what
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they’re doing to us but because they do
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pull shenanigans and we do know they
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pull shenanigans it’s real easy to get
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in that mode and just play the blame
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game
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I just mistreat me so much no I’m not
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gonna go in that mode whatever
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shenanigans they pull it doesn’t matter
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I’m not drawing traffic it’s me it’s not
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them