I think a lot about the fact that the real genius of Hbomberguyās plagiarism video was not just the exposĆ© aspect of it but the fact that it so effectively demonstrated WHY plagiarism is bad.
When teachers warned against plagiarism in school, they made it seem like the reason it was bad was because it got you out of doing work. Plagiarism was bad because it was lazy. And that is (1) not a very strong deterrent to students who are only taking this class and writing this paper because theyāre forced to and therefore donāt care about the work, and (2) missing the real harm behind the action.
On some level, yeah, plagiarism is bad because it will prevent you from learning how to write well on your own. Thereās a real fear that a generation of kids wonāt know how to write (which means they wonāt know how to think) because theyāll be so used to having an āAIā machine do it for them that theyāll be helpless without it. That is very much a concern. But itās far from the only issue. Harry laid out the other problems really well:
1. Plagiarism is enshittification. When you have to reword stuff to hide that youāre stealing it, the writing will be clunkier, wordier, more awkward, and less natural-sounding. This makes the piece worse, which isnāt good for anyone. Who needs more bad writing in the world?
2. Plagiarism spreads misinformation. Again, stealing stuff usually requires having to reword things to get around plagiarism checkers. That can make it very easy to (accidentally or purposely) rewrite a sentence to now be false instead of true. This is made worse by the fact that hiding the source of the information makes fact-checking impossible.
3. Plagiarism is anti-educational. If the audience doesnāt know where something came from, they canāt go visit that source to learn more about the topic. Theyāre prevented from finding any additional knowledge, which makes researchāand therefore progressādifficult.
4. Plagiarism makes it impossible for creators to earn a living, thereby making it impossible to create. Funnily enough, this means less material for plagiarists to steal from, so the whole scam is really just a snake eating its own tail. Like all scams, it canāt last long. When plagiarists can make huge profits by stealing and putting out content faster because theyāre stealing, the real creators who actually do the work have no chance. They canāt compete because they canāt create as fast as a plagiarist can steal. So they donāt make as much money, which means they canāt live off their work, which in turn means they canāt create anymore. This keeps going until all thatās left is stolen garbage.
Thereās a lot to love about that video, but this part in particular is my favorite by far.
