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Why did the American Political Parties Switch? (Released 3/4/2022)
Yes, We're in the Seventh Party System (Released 1/9/2026)
If Every President Took The Political Compass Test (Released 10/23/2020)
The American Urban/Rural Political Divide (Released 7/22/2022) 
Why Do We Get So Angry Over Politics?  (Released 1/4/2019)

And as promised, here is the script from my video:

I’m Mr. Beat and I like to think of myself as a (censored) and a bit of a (censored) as well
I’m sorry to censor myself, but I didn’t want to ruin the surprise. 

There are four types of political groups that every single human being on the planet is a member of, whether they realize it or not.

In this video, I’m gonna explain what those four political groups are.
Clone: Hey punk
Mr. Beat: I thought I told you to start a country in Antarctica
Clone: I did. It’s done. Marie Byrd Land. Beatlandia.
Mr. Beat: Oh, well thank you. Why are you here?
Clone: I’m here to ask you what’s a “political group.” (pause) What’s a political group?
Mr. Beat: A political group is- A political group is…

A group that forms in response to politics.

Clone (long pause): What’s politics again?
Mr. Beat: (quickly): How the power in government is distributed.

More broadly speaking, how power is distributed between people…period. That’s why I always loved the old quote, “Just because you don’t take an interest in politics doesn’t mean politics won’t take an interest in you.” (clips)
The people who say “I don’t want to make this political” are so cringe. Look man, we can’t escape politics. Politics is everywhere, and every day we are constantly affected by it. 

So anyway, I’ve noticed that throughout history four groups tend to naturally form in response to politics. It’s worth noting that this is something I’ve come up with…on my own. If you’re a political scientist watching this and you’re like, “well that just sounds like blah blah blah,” well then please let me know in the comments about that. But also remember I wrote the script for this video not KNOWING about blah blah blah, so don’t call me an idiot, please?

Alright, and I do mean to get political, but here are the four types of political groups. (hold up five fingers)
Clone: You’re holding up five fingers.
Mr. Beat: (look over, then slowly lower thumb) (mumbling) Thumbs not a finger

-Conservatives- (Hit the Brakes!)

Conservatives generally seek to keep things the same. They seek to preserve what’s good in the existing order. Now, that doesn’t mean they aren’t for SOME change, but conservatives want caution, slow evolution….incremental reform, not rapid revolution. Oh crap, am I starting to rap? (rap “they want caution/slow evolution/incremental reform/not rapid revolution”) 
Conservatives tend to think “why change what isn’t broken?” They say proceed with caution because we just don’t know what we might destroy. Conservatives tend to promote “traditional values.” 
Clone: What the heck does that mean?
Mr. Beat: THE RULE OF EXISTING LAWS
Prioritizing stability, safety, faith, family, a more limited government, the preservation of established institutions. Stuff like that. 

Now, being a conservative ain’t all biscuits and gravy. Their stubbornness to change can cause them to constantly be searching for allies to help them double down. They tend to favor whatever benefits the status quo, even if that means tens of millions of people are left behind. Often, conservatives tend to have the mindset that we don’t need to help more people. People are doing fine. Often, conservatives are financially stable themselves.

Overall, though, they tend to focus on the present, a present anchored by the past.

-Reformers- (Fix It!)

Reformers generally seek to change things for the better. They believe the existing system might be fundamentally sound, but it still requires…uh…significant updates, you could say. They aren’t looking to burn the house down….ehhh…..they just think the plumbing is backed up and the roof needs shingles, know what I’m sayin’? 

Of all the political groups, reformers tend to question things the most.
Reformers tend to value empathy, inclusion, justice, equality, and innovation. Reformers tend to trust human reason and experts. And they ain’t afraid to change existing institutions and they ain’t afraid to use the government to make changes. They tend to be pretty passionate about helping the marginalized and they generally tend to be open to new ideas. That all said, reformers recognize that pain for some is needed to help more people. But overall…yep…reformers believe that more people need help. Just like conservatives, reformers are usually financially stable themselves.

Now, being a reformer ain’t all macaroni and cheese. Their openness to new ideas can lead them to underestimate tradeoffs, human nature’s limits, the value of inherited wisdom, and unintended consequences. Sometimes they mistakenly dismiss tradition as nothing more than oppression.

Not only that, reformers often have a hard time actually getting stuff done. They tend to quickly create purity tests and are constantly looking out for traitors to the movement because….well because questioning things is what made them reformers to begin with.

Overall, though, reformers tend to focus on the future. How can we make life better for those who aren’t around yet?

-Reactionaries- (Erase and Rewind)

Well, Reactionaries react. They generally want change by tearing down and destroying everything. 
Reactionaries are often the most misunderstood group. Often, folks lump them in with conservatives or say they are extreme traditionalists. But they are definitely not conservative, and in some cases they couldn’t care less about tradition.

Like children, reactionaries let only their emotions guide their political perspectives….especially fear and anger. For the typical reactionary, it’s about feelings, not facts. 

Reactionaries often have nothing to lose and everyone to blame. This is the easiest way to spot a reactionary- they are often quick to scapegoat specific groups. Immigrants. Transgender folks. Billionaires. “The Media.”

Reactionaries tend to think we need to burn everything down and start over from scratch, they are perfectly ok with hurting a lot of people in order to do so, especially those aforementioned scapegoats. In fact, they would argue that they NEED to hurt people in order to fix the political order.

Ok so so far I have made reactionaries look pretty bad, so let me defend them a bit. Reactionaries are often financially struggling and only want to destroy the entire system because the system has not worked for them…like, at all. Most are not inherently bad people. They are just desperate, and often have been screwed over for GENERATIONS. They want reform, but don’t see reformers as allies because reformers tend to be privileged and still want to keep the current system and even still often benefit from the current system.

Overall, though, reactionaries look to a distant, often made-up past, and they often have no hope for the future.

-NPCs- (Autopilot)

Using a video game reference here for the youth, but Non-Player Characters, or NPCs, aren’t paying attention to politics.  NPCs seemingly lack a personal political compass. They uncritically absorb and repeat the dominant narratives and social cues of their environment. In other words, they go along with the majority without any independent analysis or skepticism. They’re background characters following a script. True followers. Sheep.
Sure, they’ll go along with change. Change can happen as long as there is no pain to get there. Like conservatives and reformers, NPCs also benefit from the status quo, but they just don’t care how or why.

In their defense, NPCs often have NO IDEA that they are NPCs. And often modern society offers so much work and distractions that of course they wouldn’t figure out that they are NPCs. And I should stress, they are NOT NPCs when it comes to everything. Some of the most intelligent, inspirational, and dynamic people in the world are NPCs. They’re just NPCs when it comes to politics.
Overall, NPCs are only focused on the immediate present. Cogs in the machine but don’t know. Stuck in each moment, with no desire to get out of it.

-These four political groups are not static-
So, to refresh. Reformers tend to push forward toward a utopian vision. Reactionaries tend to push backward toward an imagined golden age. Conservatives try to stay grounded in the workable past AND present without radical lurches either way. NPCs are just along for the ride.

I like to think of myself as a reformer, but at times I also feel more like a conservative.

And stop it with the stupid left wing-right wing crap- it’s time to admit that the old left wing-right wing political spectrum isn’t that accurate. I made a whole video about why that is, by the way. The fact is, there are not only people who self-identify as right wing who are actually reactionary, there are people who self-identify as LEFT WING who are ALSO reactionary.

Presenting my political group diagram! (with diagram behind me) 
NPCs here to represent where the true center of politics is. Reformers up here to represent where politics is going. Conservatives over here to represent where politics is staying. Reactionaries down here to drag everyone down to….ya know…

To be clear, we NEED all four groups. The healthiest societies probably need constant tension between all four groups. Especially reformers and conservatives. And yes, we even need reactionaries, as they remind us what happens if we completely give into our most destructive emotions. As long as they stay out of power. 

Conservatives- it works, keep it
Reformers- it’s ok, improve it
Reactaries- it’s so broken, so tear it all down
NPC- it’s just there, so uh, follow it?

Conservatives- caution, duty
Reformers- change and hope
Reactionaries- fear, loathing, resentment
NPC- Shoulder shrug emoji

Now you may be wondering, why did I draw up the diagram like this? First of all, why are there so many NPCs?
Well, according to a recent Gallup poll, more than 2/3 of Americans don’t follow politics that closely.^1  (pointing) So that’s, like, more than 66% of the population.

But the number of people in each political group is constantly changing! (slowly float off screen) Woah
 
When things are generally going well, the NPC group tends to grow and the other three groups tend to shrink. However, when things are NOT going so well, the NPC group tends to shrink and the reformer and reactionary groups …aka the change groups…tend to get bigger, especially the reactionaries group. When NPCs become politically activated, sad to say they often begin by becoming reactionaries, as it’s usually economic despair and disillusionment with the whole system that leads them to become politically active to begin with.

(walking in) And that’s what we’re seeing right now. Reactionaries have become such a big group that they have become a major political force, even taking over many powerful governments around the world.

Now, most republics prevent reactionaries, but some do slip into leadership, and when that happens…welllll terrible, terrible things can happen. I believe so many people are worried about the world right now because so many reactionaries have gained power when they’re often the least qualified to hold such power. (walk off)
 
(walk on screen) In my opinion, all other three political groups- reformers, conservatives and yes, NPCs, have to unite against reactionaries if we want our species to survive. 

I know, easier said than done. Reformers often look at conservatives as obstacles to progress. Conservatives often look at reformers as naive, reckless, and overly idealistic. Both reformers and conservatives often look at the NPC as the “swing vote” that is easily convinced by the loudest voice. All of them tend to put the reactionaries into the “basket of deplorables.” 

But have some empathy for reactionaries. They’re feelings are real. Their suffering is real. And they deserve to be happy. And yes, even some reactionaries can be reachable. Many reactionaries end up becoming conservatives and reformers, and yep, even NPCs if things get better enough.

So, at least for now, I am calling for all Reformers and Conservatives to put aside their differences to not only fight back against Reactionaries, but also to recruit NPCs to help them fight back against Reactionaries. And after we fight them. We help them, so that reactionaries never try to take over the world again. 

So what about YOU? What political group do YOU belong to? What political group do you think I belong to? Do you think my four political groups are crap? Well, they could be. After all, I kind of just made them up. I presented to you in this video a…how do you say…HYPOTHESIS? Political scientists feel free to put me in my place in the comments below. Thanks for staying curious!
_________________________________________
^1.https://news.gallup.com/poll/513128/attention-political-news-slips-back-typical-levels.aspx?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_content=morelink&utm_campaign=syndication
​

Can't get enough of this video? Here are some related videos:

Related videos:
Political Spectrums Explained - Why is there a left wing and a right wing? (Released 11/22/2019)
Yes, We're in the Seventh Party System (Released 1/9/2026)
The American Presidential Election of 2020 (Released 2/12/2021)
The American Presidential Election of 2024 (Released 2/14/2025) 
Every Type of Government Explained (Released 8/6/2021)
Why did the American Political Parties Switch? (Released 3/4/2022)
I went to a political party's biggest party (Released 8/27/2024)

And as promised, here is the script from my video:

Who’s conservative? Are YOU conservative?
I’m Mr. Beat, and, in some ways, I am conservative. In other ways, not so much. Dictionary? (the magical Dictionary is thrown at Mr. Beat)

When it comes to politics, “conservatism” is a set of beliefs that promotes preserving traditional values. And when I say “traditional,” I mean stuff handed down from generation to generation to generation to generation…you get the idea, right? Being a conservative means you also often want to protect traditional customs, culture, and institutions. Generally speaking, conservatives are cool with the status quo, with keeping things…more or less…the same.

Conservatives often get classified as “right wing.” However, as I explained in THIS video which I released SIX YEARS AGO HOLY POOP, uhhh yeah as I explained in that video that can be misleading because the whole right wing-left wing spectrum is problematic, to say the least. In the United States of America, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76g-chfBEz8&t=65s Yes, USA, we have two major political parties (awww). The Democratic Party and the Republican Party.

When most Americans hear “conservative” they don’t think “cautious about institutional change.” They think low taxes, pro guns, strong border, anti-abortion. And indeed, for most of my entire life, the Republican Party has generally been considered the more “conservative” party in the United States…the party that wanted to keep things the same. The party of traditional values. The Democratic Party, on the other hand, was considered the LESS conservative party. Ya know, the party that wanted to change things. By the way, Republicans have only been calling Democrats “liberal” since the 1980s.^1 Both parties used to call themselves that before then.

Anyway, in this video, I’m going to make a take that’s hot. I think there’s a compelling argument that the Democratic Party is actually the more conservative major political party in recent years. 

But wait. Hold up! Will you please hear me out? (looking down) Oh no! You already smashed that dislike button. My career is over. Dangit! Well, I guess, I should just be captured by my audience. Whatever you say goes. You’re right. (walks off)

Nah dude. In this video, let’s make the argument that the Democratic Party is the more conservative political party. Ya know…just for funsies.

(but first)
I hate to break it to you, but every time you go online, giant corporations are stealing your personal data. And then data brokers are turning around and selling your personal data to ANYONE. Stuff like your address, your phone number, even your political beliefs and income level. I hate this crap. But you wanna know one way I fight back. By using DeleteMe. DeleteMe proactively removes our home address, phone numbers, and family details from the internet. What I like about DeleteMe is that it sends you these personalized privacy reports showing what they found, where they found it, and what they DELETED. I’ve been using it for several years at this point and it’s done a really good job scrubbing my personal information from all kinds of messed up sites out there. 
Protect YOUR personal information and your family’s personal information with DeleteMe. And get 20% off DeleteMe consumer plans when you go to joindeleteme.com/mrbeat and use promo code MRBEAT at checkout (QR code on screen). That’s join delete me dot com/MRBEAT, code MRBEAT.
(and now back to an unhinged take from Mr. Beat) 

Here is why I think there’s a solid argument that the Democratic Party is the more conservative major American political party in recent years. Hey! Keep an open mind, Jackie. 

First of all, my definition of “conservatism,” which again is a set of beliefs that promotes preserving traditional values, goes back to the OG conservative, Edmund Burke, considered one of the most influential conservative philosophers of the 1700s, baby. Burke hated the French Revolution’s radical upheaval. He hated tearing down everything old for abstract ideals like “liberty, equality, fraternity.” Nah dude. Burke argued for prudence…cautious, gradual change. Respect existing institutions, man. Preserve what works. Burke famously said society is a “partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.”^2

Based on all that, if Burke was around today, I speculate he might consider the Democratic Party the more conservative party right now. And here are three reasons why…

Reason #1
Defending Institutions and Democracy (January 6th footage)

The Democratic Party seems to be for conserving the country’s core political institutions, or the rules, norms, and organizations that have guided our behavior for generations. Ya know…stuff like federal agencies, the three branches of government, separation of powers among them and within them, checks and balances, federalism, free and fair elections, peaceful power transfers, or the Constitution itself. The Republican Party, more often than not, seems to question these political institutions.

Here’s a prime example of this.
After the presidential election of 2020, millions of Republican voters, as well as a majority of Republican members of Congress, challenged the election results. They protested across the country. All of this culminated with the January 6 United States Capitol attack, which saw President Donald Trump supporters violently raid the Capitol building in order to prevent the certification of the election results. Flash forward to the presidential election of 2024, and Democratic voters, even though many of them were shocked and all of them disappointed, overwhelmingly accepted the results. 

Here’s another example.
In his second term, Trump has overhauled federal agencies, fired thousands of civil servants, went to war without Congress, and straight up consolidated power in the executive branch. If Burke was around today, he’d call that radical experimentation, not careful conservation. Hundreds of political scientists have said that the United States is straight up headed toward authoritarianism.^3 In case there was any confusion here, the United States has never been an authoritarian country. (well not fully)

The Democratic Party, meanwhile, has moved into the role of “institutionalist.” They are consistently trying to protect government agencies and Congressional norms.

Reason #2
Foreign Policy and the New World Order
This is probably the clearest example.
Since World War Two, “conservative” foreign policy often meant “internationalism.” It meant strong alliances and American leadership influence over the rest of the world, particularly with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, a military alliance of 32 European and North American democratic countries. (Tear Down This Wall speech)
That was the Republican brand! But today, many prominent Republicans, led by Trump of course, have turned their backs on allies. They’ve questioned NATO and pulled back from international agreements. (America First)

And who seems to be defending the post-World War Two global order now? The Democrats. THEY are the ones arguing for the preservation and even strengthening of the alliance system that has defined the last 80 years. 

Reason #3
Free Markets Under Attack
For a long time, being “conservative” meant being cool with free trade and against protectionism, or the restriction of trade to PROTECT domestic industries from foreign competition. Today? Oh they’re much cooler with protectionism. They’re perfectly cool with using the power of government to pick winners and losers through tariffs and trade wars. The biggest critics of tariffs have been Democrats. (clip)

The Republican Party used to mostly be the party of Wall Street and Big Business. Now, the Democratic Party is just as much in bed with Wall Street and Big Business, if not more so.^4 

Ok, let’s be real here. This isn’t a slam dunk.
Legit Counterarguments

On social and cultural issues, Republicans still generally lean more conservative. Many Republicans are against abortion expansion, against the federal government doing anything about climate change, against too much immigration, for school choice, for traditional family structures, and for traditional gender roles. On all these issues, the Democrats are still the party of change. 

Many Republicans also more consistently talk about FISCAL conservatism, or making sure the government doesn’t spend so much money. Well, they TALK about it, but Republicans currently in power have done nothing to actually reign in spending in recent years.

Now, some modern Republicans might even argue that they are trying to RESTORE an older America…like before the federal government dramatically grew throughout the 20th century. Ok, fair point I guess, but even supposed RESTORATION requires massive, dramatic upheaval. You can’t go back to 1956 without tearing apart A LOT of what exists in 2026. That’s not preservation. That’s revolution.

The bottom line is, when we look at the FUNCTION of the two political parties, the roles have flipped. The Republican Party is now the party of radical reform, populism, and dismantling institutions. The Democratic Party is the party of institutionalism, international stability, and preserving the status quo.

So the argument ain’t that Democrats are conservative on everything. They’re just more conservative on the fundamentals of government- the rule of law, institutions, and cautious change. And I have to point out that a growing number of Democrats are NOT like that. Many Democrats are now calling for more dramatic reforms like universal health care, universal basic income, a wealth tax, and straight up amending the Constitution to end partisan gerrymandering and bring in a number of voting reforms. Then again, calling to AMEND the Constitution, as opposed to just straight up REINTEPRETING THE CONSTITUTION HOWEVER YOU WANT TO….still seems somewhat conservative these days.

Politics isn’t static. As I point out in my Party Systems video, political parties evolve. And even political labels can mean different things to different people and at different times in history. For decades, “conservative” has often been interlinked with stability, responsibility, and caution, all qualities most voters value. “Liberal,” on the other hand, has often been interlinked with recklessness, radicalism, and instability, things most voters distrust.

My main point is this- whenever a politician calls themselves a “conservative,” ask them WHY they call themselves a conservative. Voters should judge based on principles, not labels. I consider MYSELF a conservative when it comes to certain aspects of my country that have been around for centuries- stuff like the separation of powers, checks and balances, federalism, the rule of law. 

Sure, the BRAND of conservatism may still be associated with the Republican Party, but the PRACTICE of conservatism is arguably more associated with the Democratic Party these days. 

That doesn’t make the Democrats right or the Republicans wrong. It doesn’t mean you should vote one way or another. It just means our political vocabulary is struggling to keep up with a quickly shifting political reality. 

And honestly? I think that’s worth knowing. Which is why I’m going to make a video about it. I promise. (looking around) Apparently I already did and I’m currently in it and you just watched it. Ha!

But what do YOU think? Am I just full of crap? I mean, all of us are full of crap. It’s why we go to the bathroom. Anyway, let me know down below, and watch out for the bots. Thanks for staying curious!

______________________________________________
^1.  https://janda.org/politxts/PartyPlatforms/LIberal%20as%20a%20Dirty%20Word.pdf
^2.  https://www1.cmc.edu/pages/faculty/welliott/teachers/burke.htm
^3. https://www.npr.org/2025/04/22/nx-s1-5340753/trump-democracy-authoritarianism-competive-survey-political-scientist
^4.https://www.npr.org/2020/08/17/902626429/wall-streets-big-money-is-betting-on-biden-and-democrats-in-2020#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20Center%20for%20Responsive%20Politics%2C,slightly%20more%20than%20half%20going%20to%20Democrats

Sources/further reading:
https://www.earlymoderntexts.com/assets/pdfs/burke1790.pdf 
https://democracyproject.org/posts/why-conservatives-must-defend-liberal-democracy 
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctt1xx4p4 
https://peterlevine.ws/?p=8791 
https://www.newyorker.com/news/hendrik-hertzberg/naked-truths

​

Can't get enough of this video? Here are some related videos:

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If Every President Played Squid Game (Released 6/20/2025)
Mr. Beat Plants a Tree for MrBeast #teamtrees (Released 10/27/2019)
​What I really think about HistoryTubers (Streamed live 11/12/2023)
How YouTubers are Changing the Culture (Released 3/13/2025 on my second channel, The Beat Goes On)


And as promised, here is the script from my video:

Jimmy: I’m MrBeast. Most of you are probably watching this on your phone right now. And you’re watching it on YouTube. But how did this all even get started?

In 2004, when I was six years old, a guy named Jawed Karim couldn't find two videos online: Janet Jackson's Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction, and also footage of a recent tsunami. Honestly, my mom wouldn’t have let me watch either. 
Two of the biggest news stories in the world…nowhere to be found online. His friends Chad Hurley and Steve Chen had a similar frustration…they couldn't share videos online they recorded during a dinner party. But all three of them had just made good money at PayPal, and they kept landing on the same idea: video sharing shouldn't be this hard.
Fast forward to Valentine's Day 2004 in Hurley's garage.
They needed a name. "Tube" meant TV so why not make it more personal. YouTube! They bought the domain that night. Funny enough, Karim's original pitch was actually to make it a dating site…people uploading videos of themselves, “Hot or Not” style. But obviously that didn't pan out.  
Mr. Beat: Pan out? Hey, what are you doing?
Jimmy: I’m making a history video about YouTube!
Mr. Beat: But this is MY channel. I’m Mr. Beat. YOU’RE Mr. Beast. Remember? 
Jimmy: The only thing that separates us is a measly “s”
Mr. Beat: I appreciate that, Mister, but I’M the American history guy. I can handle this. Besides, what do YOU know about YouTube? How are you even qualified?
Jimmy: Well, I do have more subscribers than any other YouTuber
Mr. Beat: Yeah I heard about that. (pause) Ok look, I’ll let you hang around to chime in every now and then, but otherwise you’re just gonna have to let the teacher teach, ok?
Jimmy: I was just trying to make this more exciting.
Mr. Beat: Oh you’re helping alright (turn and wink at the camera)

(with Mr. Beat now narrating) Ok, so where were we? Hotornot. Yes, Karim, Hurley, and Chen, originally meant for YouTube.com to be a dating site. However, after Yahoo bought Flickr, a site that let folks upload and share photos, for apparently $25 million, the three decided that YouTube should basically be more like Flickr. In other words, YouTube would become a place where anyone could share personal videos.

April 23, 2005. That’s the day Karim uploaded this (play “me at the zoo”)...the first video uploaded to YouTube. That video’s still up today, by the way…it currently has _____views….oh wait….now it has_____views….ope…refreshing it again….now it has _____
Mr. Beast: Please stop that
By that time, Karim, Hurley, and Chen had enough money from investors to launch a beta version of the site, which means YouTube would be public but they’d still be making lots of changes to it in order to make it better. After they opened up YouTube to the public in May, they had a problem. Just a tiny one. People weren’t uploading videos to the site. Well that actually seems like quite a big problem since the site was nothing without people uploading their stuff. Oops.

But that began to change when they did two things…

1. They allowed users to easily comment underneath and share videos, especially on other quickly growing social media sites like Myspace and the Facebook
2. They let users post pirated clips from TV and movies

Well that seemed to work. By September YouTube 100,000 views a day. Wow!
Mr. Beast: I get 100,000 views a second.
Mr. Beat: Brag about it

THIS, a Nike ad uploaded by some random person, was the first YouTube video to break one million views.^1 By the time the site went fully public on December 15, 2005, YouTube was getting 8 million views a day.^2 

But not everyone appreciated the fact that YouTube let users post pirated clips from TV and movies. Ya know, like the people who made lots of money from TV and movies. In February 2006, after THIS Saturday Night Live video went viral on the site, NBC asked YouTube to take it down for real. But flash forward to just a few months later, and NBC was like “uh, we’re good,” and paid YouTube to promote some of its shows.
On May 18, 2006, I decided to post my first-ever video on YouTube. There it is. It’s a clip of my band, Electric Needle Room, performing a song at a local show. The video is still up, by the way. it currently has 1,697 views…oh wait….refreshing…no, it still just has 1,697 views. How about one more time, for good measure? Dang it, It still has 1,697 views.
Mr. Beast: Please stop that.
Well that’s depressing
Of course, back then internet speeds were quite slower than they are now, so even low res videos like this one took FOREVER to upload. I vividly remember beginning the upload before I went to bed and then waking up the next morning to find the video STILL UPLOADING. 

How old were you in May 2006?
Mr. Beast: I had just turned 8 years old

Around the time of Mr. Beast’s 8th birthday, YouTube had adopted the slogan “Broadcast Yourself” and was growing way faster than any other video platform online. In July 2006, users were uploading around 65,000 new videos every day and the site was getting around 100 million video views a day.^3

Mr. Beast: All my channels get around 100 million views a day
Mr. Beat: Brag about it

And due to this success, a little company called Google had its eyes on YouTube. It had tried its own video sharing platform, Google Video, but honestly it was kinda lame. What do you do when you’re lame but others are awesome? You buy the awesome so it’s yours! Or uh…buy the others who are awesome so that YOU can be awesome. On October 9, 2006, Google announced it had bought YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock. At the time, YouTube had only around 65 employees. As it turns out, YouTube was one of the best investments Google ever made. In part due to Google’s infrastructure and money it needed to scale up, the site continued to dramatically grow. 

2007 was indeed a HUGE year for YouTube. In May, the site started its Partner Program to let people get paid for the videos they posted. Basically, the uploader of the video got to share the revenue produced by advertising on the site. And it was way more generous than any other site. Even to this day, YouTube usually takes 45% of the advertising revenue from videos in the Partner Program, with 55% going directly to the uploader.

Mr. Beat: I know that, to this day, I still make most of my revenue from YouTube ad revenue. What about you?
Mr. Beast: __________________

Back in 2007, though, only a select few creators could make ad revenue from their stuff. Still, within months some of these creators were already making six-figure incomes from YouTube alone.^4 THIS 56-second viral video, first posted on YouTube in May 2007, eventually went on to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars thanks to this program. I should add that YouTube also began to identify copyrighted content to make sure the actual rights holders got the ad revenue, not the pirates. YouTube made such a splash in 2007 that even presidential candidates were announcing their campaigns via the platform. One of those candidates, a U.S. Senator from Illinois named Barack Obama, took advantage of the platform for his campaign quite well. And one last thing about 2007. During that one year alone, YouTube consumed as much bandwidth as the ENTIRE INTERNET DID in the year 2000.^5 Holy wow. 

By 2008, “vlogs” were all the rage. What is a vlog you may be asking. It’s like a blog but for video. What is a blog you might be asking. Oh, well short for “weblog,” blogs are just websites in which people regularly post stuff from, often in a diary-style format. What is a diary you may asking. 
Mr. Beast: Please stop that
Mr. Beat: Ok moving on.
What were the first YouTubers you remember watching as a kid?
Mr. Beast: ______________________

Despite the popularity of vlogs, over the next two years, YouTube was still primarily known as a place where viral videos did well, but not so much regular programming. Ya know, cats and wild moments caught on video type of stuff. But that changed when giant media companies began partnering with YouTube. Not only that, this is when YouTube added live events and better playback features. By the end of 2008, the site had begun experimenting with HD video. By the end of 2009, you could upload full 1080p HD videos, baby.

Mr. Beat: Do you remember when you couldn’t post videos longer than 10 minutes?
Mr. Beast: I’ve always been able to post videos longer than 10 minutes. I think you’re just old.
Mr. Beat: Ah, so they raised it, and they must have lowered it again after that. Huh.

In July 2010, John and Hank Green, famous on YouTube for their Vlogbrothers channel in which they sent weekly vlogs to each other for the whole world to see, held the first VidCon, a convention for video influencers. Over the following years, it’d go on to become one of the biggest gatherings of creators, fans, and brands in the world. I mean, John and Hank are STILL sending each other weekly vlogs. It’s like the world’s longest conversation.

On July 29, 2010, YouTube officially increased the upload video length limit from 10 minutes to 15 minutes.^6 Eventually YouTubers, as they were now called, could unlock way longer video lengths through verified accounts. As a matter of fact, verified accounts can now upload videos up to 12 hours long.

Mr. Beat: What’s the longest video you’ve ever uploaded to YouTube?
Mr. Beast: ______________________

Also by 2010? A company called Vevo was providing music videos to YouTube. Music videos quickly became the most popular on the platform…since…I don’t know…I guess music is a big deal or something. Since this time, every video that has become the most-watched on YouTube has been some sort of music video. Today the most-watched YouTube video of all time is, unfortunately, the Baby Shark Dance, which is quickly approaching 17 BILLION views. Ugh. That’s disgusting.  By 2011, algorithms had started to become more sophisticated at influencing recommendations and subscriber behavior. It was in January of that year, 2011, that I decided I was going to start a channel where I could post my educational videos…videos that I had previously only shown my students in the classroom teaching American history. This might surprise you to hear, but there weren’t many educational channels on the platform at the time. Heck, Crash Course didn’t even exist yet and Vsauce was still making video game videos. Heck, in 2011 there also weren’t many news and politics videos, beauty and fashion videos, reaction content, or even kids content. However, over the next five years (2012-2017), YouTube became a platform for careers, not just viral hits. Channels like PewDiePie and Smosh began to accumulate millions of subscribers. YouTube developed its own CULTURE. Video creators began to take sponsorships, sell merchandise, and do live events. Multi-channel networks, or MCNs, became a thing to organize bigger operations. YouTube expanded globally, with localized sites and languages. As smartphones became more common, more and more folks began to exclusively watch videos on their phones. I don’t think we appreciate today how wild of change this was…to watch a video on your phone! Crazy Town. For years, most people watched YouTube videos on their phone. 

Mr. Beat: When did you start your channel and what type of videos did you make? 
Mr. Beast: ______________________

By 2015, YouTube had become the main platform for music, news, and pop culture. That’s also when YouTube Red debuted, now called YouTube Premium, in which viewers can pay a fee to access ad-free content and original programming. 2015 was when I started my Presidential Elections in American History series, by the way. 

Mr. Beat: When would you say was the “Golden Age” of YouTube?
Mr. Beast: ______________________

In 2017, YouTube introduced Super Chats in which viewers can buy a chat message so that it stands out among the pack during livestreams. Within a year YouTube would introduce channel memberships, a way for dedicated subscribers to get extra perks for their loyalty to one channel.
But it was also around this time that YouTube went through some growing pains.
Because, for the most part, just about ANYONE could post ANYTHING on there, some controversial stuff got posted, and advertisers got pretty darn worried when their ads got played in front of videos that…I don’t know…glorified violence and promoted extremist groups and stuff? The “YouTube Adpocalypse" described a trend that began in 2017 in which MANY advertisers boycotted and withdrew their ads from the platform, resulting in a bunch of negative traditional media coverage. In response, YouTube dramatically cracked down on offensive content and made it much more difficult to monetize controversial videos. It also strengthened its YouTube Kids app to filter out stuff seen as “inappropriate” for kids.

That same year, TikTok launched, and I’m not talking about the Kesha song. Unlike YouTube, TikTok was built for the phone. It featured VERTICAL videos, extremely short vertical videos. In fact, the max length for early TikTok videos was just 15 seconds, and for the longest time the max length for them was just 60 seconds. Well, by 2019 TikTok had become huge, especially with the young folks, and so I started a TikTok account. There’s my first TikTok video I ever posted, on December 14, 2019. Yeah I think I was trying to impersonate Napoleon for some reason.

And YouTube responded by introducing Shorts, (no, not THOSE kind of shorts. Yes, THOSE kind of Shorts) which it first rolled out in 2020. 
Mr. Beat: Do you remember the first vertical video you ever made?
Mr. Beast: ______________________
The first Short I released, on July 30, 2021 and about embargoes and sanctions for some reason (man I’m a dork), looked really weird since I stretched my body to fit the horizontally-shot video how I wanted it to vertically. What the heck? A random black bar at the top of the video? Man, I struggled.

Shorts quickly became huge. By early 2023 they had reached tens of billions of daily views. That’s billions with a B. By 2024, they had become the platform’s most dominant growth engine and the best way for new channels to quickly find an audience. Indeed, Shorts, which now have a max length of three minutes, completely rewired YouTube’s discovery algorithms, production cadence, and even economic incentives. It also seemed to shorten our attention spans. 

The COVID-19 (COVID-19) pandemic saw YouTube continue to dramatically grow, especially since so many folks were stuck at home. In fact, my channel did so well during the pandemic that, in 2021, I left teaching in the classroom to join the hundreds of thousands of people around the world who already considered themselves full-time YouTubers.

Mr. Beat: When did you decide to become a full-time YouTuber?
Mr. Beast: ______________________

Despite the popularity of Shorts, YouTubers were now making more epic long-form content than ever before. We’re talking really high production values which now compete with the big budget Hollywood studio films. Oh you want an example? On November 24, 2021, Mr. Beast, the guy who keeps trying to take over this video, released a video called “$456,000 Squid Game in Real Life!,” a video based on the hugely popular South Korean Netflix show Squid Game. The video took $3.5 million to produce and its recreated sets were visually stunning. Mr. Beast’s ambition I’d say paid off, as the video got 100 million views in less than three days and currently has around 914 million views.^7 

In recent years, YouTube has rolled out new features like automatic language dubbing, shopping timestamps, video chapters, premieres, and AI filters, which uh…has been interesting.

Last year, YouTube made more than $36 BILLION in ad revenue alone.^8 Today, YouTube is the second-most-visited website in the world. The only site that tops it? Google search. YouTube is now mostly on the big black mirrors, not the small ones. Yep, more people watch YouTube on TV today than any other device. One could argue that YouTube is bigger than every cable and broadcast network combined. Today, there are literally tens of millions of YouTube channels. Based on my estimates, there are probably at least 2 million people around the world who do what we do for a living. YouTube full-time, I mean. I argue it now has created more millionaires under 30 than Hollywood or the TV, film, or music industries ever did. YouTube has turned hobbies into careers. It has democratized and decentralized media production, distribution, and fame. The term “influencer” only became a thing due to YouTube.  It’s changed how we learn and how we interact with each other. It changed advertising and commerce. It’s transformed politics, culture. It’s now THE dominant discovery platform- from music to food to clothing to everything in between. Simply put, YouTube has continued to keep the spirit of innovation and creation more alive arguably more than any other place today, digital OR physical. 

Which brings us to today. And who better exemplifies YouTube’s impact and influence than the most impactful and influential YouTuber of all time. One who has dramatically changed the world through their philanthropy and cultural influence.  I’m talking about the Scottman, of course! Scottman895 Travel!  (looking over at Mr. Beast) Oh, and Mr. Beast. 

Mr. Beast: I can’t believe this all started with a nipple
Mr. Beat: History is weird, man.
Thanks for staying curious
Up here is a video in which I argue all the best art around the world is now found on YouTube. Over here is a subscribe button to subscribe to Mr. Beast. He really needs all the help he can get. Plus, rumour has it, you get a cookie for subscribing. Speaking of which, where’s my cookie?

_______________________________________________
^1.https://web.archive.org/web/20151113090506/https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=i_JS1YG8H2c
^2.https://web.archive.org/web/20170512055717/http://www.businessinsider.com/key-turning-points-history-of-youtube-2013-2
^3.https://web.archive.org/web/20181231004209/http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-07-16-youtube-views_x.htm
^4.https://web.archive.org/web/20170501011034/http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/11/business/media/11youtube.html
^5.https://ghostarchive.org/archive/zVjof 
^6.https://archive.nytimes.com/bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/29/youtube-gives-users-their-15-minutes-of-fame/
^7.https://web.archive.org/web/20230713151654/https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/news-trends/article/3157862/inside-youtuber-mrbeasts-real-life-squid-game-viral 
^8. https://www.justice.gov/atr/media/1398706/dl

Sources/further reading:
Like, Comment, Subscribe by Mark Bergen
Purchase here: https://amzn.to/3MRRB2C
YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture (Digital Media and Society)
By Jean Burgess and Joshua Green
Purchase here: https://amzn.to/4j00W4I 
https://ghostarchive.org/archive/Qm8fL 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/ztq2g2p
https://web.archive.org/web/20170516152014/http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1570795,00.html
https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2005-11-21-video-websites_x.htm 
https://web.archive.org/web/20230523124430/https://thenextweb.com/news/youtube-rolls-out-redesigned-one-channel-layout-to-all-users
https://web.archive.org/web/20240505223149/https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/04/viacom-v-google-decision 
https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/2024-us-youtube-impact-report/?utm_source=chatgpt.com 

Creative commons credits:
Coolcaesar 
Gage Skidmore

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