after fighting with a new usb device i got in the mail im beginning to understand why people hate usbc lmao
ive been fighting with it off and on for 3ish hours and turns out it was the usbc cable i was using.
changed it out to use the one that came with it and boom, worked immediately. 
@aescling yeah thats literally me.
whats worse is that i looked inside the cables BEFORE i plugged everything up and went:
"hmmm. these have different pins in there.... surely it'll be fine tho"
and the rest is history