WEBVTT - The Weird Meme Ecosystem Behind the Highland Park Shooting 0:00:05.120 --> 0:00:17.120 What uh inspiring networks of violent accelerationism, my nihilistic loss 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:24.360 of faith in the possibility of human progress. And I don't, 0:00:24.360 --> 0:00:25.960 I don't. I don't know. That's probably not a good 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:28.840 way to Yeah, i'd beat like that sometimes, Garrison, what 0:00:28.880 --> 0:00:30.400 are we What are we talking about today? This is 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:33.200 it could happen here podcast, Bad Things, World Falling Apart. 0:00:33.320 --> 0:00:35.800 There's just been a big shooting in Boston. You probably 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:44.440 hear about not Boston, not Boston, Boston, not Boston, not this. 0:00:44.800 --> 0:00:47.479 I was thinking about the Boston bombing. Oh, there we go. 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:50.560 It's also not really in Chicago. We should know. It's 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:55.840 like thirty right, Yeah, yeah, it's like it's it's it's 0:00:55.880 --> 0:00:59.080 it's a it's a northern suburb. Yeah, it's like it's 0:00:59.560 --> 0:01:01.960 And it's because I've heard a bunch of people say 0:01:01.960 --> 0:01:04.479 it's like a super rich neighborhood, and then I've heard 0:01:04.560 --> 0:01:06.880 other Chicago folks say that, like, no, it's like an 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:10.640 upper middle class neighborhood that used to be richer. And anyway, whatever, 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:15.640 it's not like Chicago that and yeah, we'll be talking 0:01:15.680 --> 0:01:19.759 about it because it's it is an incident that fits 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:24.800 within a pattern of behavior that very few people understand 0:01:24.880 --> 0:01:28.840 nor really prepared to think about. And it's part of 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:32.480 why is because if you actually understand what's going on 0:01:32.560 --> 0:01:35.800 with this shooting, there is no political utility in what happened. 0:01:36.319 --> 0:01:37.760 Um And I mean that the number of ways. There 0:01:37.840 --> 0:01:40.720 is no if you are someone who is supportive of 0:01:41.400 --> 0:01:44.760 more stringent gun control, there is not political utility in 0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:46.760 the shooting for a number of reasons, including the fact 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:48.720 that Illinois has strict gun laws and while a lot 0:01:48.720 --> 0:01:50.680 of Illinois gun crime has to do with weapons that 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:52.840 coming from other states, he bought his legally in the 0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:55.920 state of Illinois. Um And even though like this guy 0:01:56.000 --> 0:01:58.520 was on police radar, he had made threats before they 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:01.560 had confiscated all of his knives, and he's still allowed 0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:03.960 to buy guns, even though Illinois has a red flag 0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:07.160 law that very easily if you can confiscate Amand's knives 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:09.480 they could have confiscated. Has stopped him from buying guns 0:02:09.520 --> 0:02:11.520 or whatever. Plenty of laws on the books to have 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:14.919 stopped this, And it's useless in a left right political 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:18.359 sense of the word, because there are this guy does 0:02:18.400 --> 0:02:21.160 not graph onto any of that I have. I think 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:23.880 it is there's a value and kind of putting out 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:26.480 some of the Trump imagery he's put on only because 0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:30.359 the right has immediately left on calling him a transgender 0:02:30.400 --> 0:02:33.519 anti for shooter. And I guess in terms of a 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:36.000 social media thing, sharing him draped in a Trump flag 0:02:36.080 --> 0:02:38.880 is the quickest way to like rebut that, but that 0:02:38.919 --> 0:02:43.280 doesn't mean he's not it's not not actually understanding what's 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:50.519 going on. Right, Yeah, there's very this is it's it's 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:53.840 in a pattern of shootings that are becoming more common 0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:57.560 the past few years. We saw it at the UH. 0:02:57.560 --> 0:03:01.119 There's a school shooting last like October or November that 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:05.440 the shooter had a very similar profile. Um, and it's 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:11.519 a it's a part of this growing online trend using 0:03:11.600 --> 0:03:18.720 imagery related to mental illness too encourage and justify mass 0:03:18.760 --> 0:03:24.560 acts of violence in some rebellion from how our regular 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:27.760 society is structured and how people usually think of reality. 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:31.560 So it's it's something that we generally people who spent 0:03:31.600 --> 0:03:34.880 a lot of time researching this, myself included trying to 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:37.160 be very careful about how we talk about this, right 0:03:37.160 --> 0:03:39.680 because we we don't want the wrong things boosted. But 0:03:39.760 --> 0:03:43.160 also everyone just being in the dark isn't great either, right, 0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:46.200 that's that's frustrating, right, If people are curious, they want 0:03:46.280 --> 0:03:49.560 us start to look stuff up, and it's better that 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:52.640 they have someone who knows what they're talking about explaining 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:54.840 to them. Then then just have them being the wild 0:03:54.880 --> 0:03:58.400 West of the Internet on site image boards or forms 0:03:58.520 --> 0:04:03.600 learning about these nonsense propaganda styles. There's there's a few 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:06.360 things that are unique about this guy. I mean, he 0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:09.000 was not only making the propaganda, but he also did 0:04:09.160 --> 0:04:12.400 he also did a violent act that is actually more 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:15.640 unique than usual. Usually the people who are involved in 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:18.359 making this type of propaganda that he was making, he 0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:23.120 made YouTube videos, music, he was he was very prolific 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:25.920 in what he was putting out content wise into the Internet. 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:28.960 And usually the people who put stuff out in this 0:04:29.520 --> 0:04:32.720 style of propaganda and this style of like of a 0:04:32.839 --> 0:04:40.040 very very like meme driven violent mental illness fetishization subcultures, 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:43.640 they don't generally the people who make the stuff don't 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:46.679 go and do the stuff. This is what instance where 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:49.800 this this did happen. So that's actually unique for a 0:04:49.800 --> 0:04:51.800 few reasons. Yeah, I mean, I think one of the 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:54.479 things that's interesting about that is that and this is 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:57.960 something that has not been discussed nearly as much as 0:04:58.000 --> 0:04:59.359 I think it ought to have. In the wake of 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:01.880 the shooting, this guy basically released an A r G 0:05:02.279 --> 0:05:04.000 at the same time as he carried out his shooting, 0:05:04.040 --> 0:05:06.559 Like basically, we're gonna get to that. I mean, because 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:10.279 in some ways this is a really good explanation, not explanation. 0:05:10.320 --> 0:05:15.840 This is really an example of the post manifesto, like 0:05:16.520 --> 0:05:20.000 post manifesto terrorism um where there's not there's not a 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:25.719 written manifesto. It's someone's entire online presence and their entire 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:31.080 online documentation is is that that serves as their manifesto, 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:34.880 the whole image of them online, everything they've put out, 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:39.080 it represents the thing that they want spread. It's not people. 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:42.400 These types of people are are less likely to write, 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:45.039 you know, like a ten page thing about how about 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:49.080 why they hate X minority. Instead, they're gonna leave piles 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:53.240 and piles of clues and puzzle pieces, music videos and 0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:57.520 content that lead people into what they want to project 0:05:57.680 --> 0:06:00.680 as their mental state to be. UM. So it's like 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:03.039 everything isn't everything is part of what they want to 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:07.080 put out. Yeah, and I think both you can see 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:10.880 the act itself, the shooting itself, as an attempt to 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:14.240 spread the art that he was making and to spread 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:16.440 this like profile that he had built. There's a reason 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:19.880 why that logo that he had for himself, UM was 0:06:19.920 --> 0:06:22.960 all over everything. There's a reason why unique logo, very 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:26.120 unique logo. He put out. Some of the videos, one 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:29.000 from ten months ago showed the location he's believed to 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:31.720 have started shooting from. It looks like um, so he 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:34.279 was planning this for a while and he I think 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:36.760 this was this was meant both as almost as like 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:39.560 an advertising campaign for this guy's EP, if you want 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:42.279 to look at it that way, but in a broader sense, 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:46.520 like like like it's it's it's it's more circular than that. Right. 0:06:46.600 --> 0:06:48.640 He wasn't just trying to spread his stuff, but he 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:51.680 was trying to spread his stuff in this this imagery 0:06:52.080 --> 0:06:54.480 and branding that he had created for himself and in 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:57.000 order to put other people in that same mind state. 0:06:57.240 --> 0:07:00.000 It was. It was also very personal to him. Um, 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:04.600 he's I've spent the past few hours watching watching hours 0:07:04.760 --> 0:07:08.880 of the stuff that he's put out. UM, and I 0:07:08.880 --> 0:07:12.560 mean he's there's there's videos that he's animated of him 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:16.880 doing a suicide by cop. Um, there's there's music videos 0:07:16.880 --> 0:07:20.200 he's made about doing a school shooting. Um, these are 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:22.200 these are ideas and thoughts he has been grappling with 0:07:22.320 --> 0:07:25.000 for a long time and he finally did the thing. 0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:28.200 I'm I'm unsure currently if he always knew that he 0:07:28.240 --> 0:07:29.520 was going to do this or if he was actually 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:32.520 trying to fight it. Now that's that's honestly not even 0:07:32.560 --> 0:07:35.440 worth debating because it's not useful to what's going on 0:07:35.760 --> 0:07:39.200 because he did it, because because he didn't. But we've 0:07:39.240 --> 0:07:41.040 had you can see the types of stuff he's been 0:07:41.040 --> 0:07:42.840 putting out, like, Yes, the street that he did the 0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:47.760 shooting on, he has a long along zooming clip of 0:07:47.880 --> 0:07:50.520 that same street in videos that was posted like over 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:54.200 a year ago. Um, so he's been he's been thinking 0:07:54.280 --> 0:07:55.920 in this way for a long time. This isn't like 0:07:55.920 --> 0:07:59.080 a fast radicalization. This is someone who has been heavily 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:03.960 steve in very very small niche online some cultures for 0:08:04.040 --> 0:08:06.000 a long time. I like the guy is twenty two 0:08:06.080 --> 0:08:09.320 years old, he's he's had his Twitter account since two 0:08:09.360 --> 0:08:14.560 thousand eleven. He's been online so much. Um, it's deeply 0:08:14.600 --> 0:08:21.120 online person deeply alienated, socially isolated, uh, deeply like disassociative. 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:24.080 And this is this is by the way, consistent with 0:08:24.120 --> 0:08:27.080 what his friends have said, consistent with what people who 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:29.760 knew him and worked with him and put music and 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:33.280 albums together with him have have repeatedly. A number of 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:36.600 them at this point come out and said variations of like, yeah, man, 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:40.440 he got like really weird, like it was it not 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:41.880 not like and not in the way that like, oh 0:08:41.920 --> 0:08:44.440 he got super into Q or like he became a Nazi, 0:08:44.880 --> 0:08:47.560 but like he got weird in a way I didn't 0:08:47.640 --> 0:08:50.480 understand and I stopped associating with he got he got 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:53.720 detached from parts of of like modern reality in ways 0:08:53.720 --> 0:08:56.240 that are really hard for people to understand. Um, and 0:08:56.280 --> 0:08:58.360 I think it's it is important to emphasize just that 0:08:58.760 --> 0:09:01.400 the deeply online nature this he he had. He made 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:04.680 a whole music video titled I Rely on the Internet, 0:09:04.920 --> 0:09:07.560 Um that you can't find anywhere, so don't even try 0:09:07.559 --> 0:09:10.160 to go. You don't need to, you don't need to. 0:09:10.160 --> 0:09:12.120 But like, but it opens, but it opens by him 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:15.800 saying I get mad when other people are more popular 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:19.280 than me on the internet. And the mass shooting is 0:09:19.360 --> 0:09:21.760 in line with this, with this style of thinking, right, 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:25.240 he's he is he is trying to reify himself into 0:09:25.320 --> 0:09:28.439 him into a memetic image to spread around the same 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:30.839 way many mass shooters try to do this same thing. 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:34.920 But he is doing this extremely intentionally. Um. He wants 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:37.360 to be the thing that represents a very specific idea, 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:40.800 and I'm it's again. We are always trying to be 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:42.439 carrying a careful but like, how much we get into 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:43.920 this because you don't want to boost the wrong thing. 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:48.320 But it's important to talk about because it's costing a 0:09:48.320 --> 0:09:50.520 lot of people in their lives and no one really 0:09:50.520 --> 0:09:52.920 knows how to deal with this problem right now. One 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:56.440 of the beautiful things about our current age is that 0:09:56.480 --> 0:09:59.120 if you are someone like if you are someone who 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:04.520 researches tourism, extremism, violence, particularly in the American context, although 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:07.360 certainly not exclusively Christchurch in the whole Germany, I don't 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:09.240 need to go into it. But if you are someone 0:10:09.240 --> 0:10:13.280 who focuses on this stuff, UM, you will repeatedly have 0:10:13.400 --> 0:10:16.720 the experience of encountering a new subculture online or a 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:21.640 new trend, a new like species of meme and find 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:25.760 yourself wondering, like when the first shooting is going to be? UM. 0:10:25.800 --> 0:10:27.920 I made a significant chunk of my career because I 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:30.880 was paying attention to one particular group of folks online 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:34.319 when they did their shooting. And I am not primarily 0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:36.319 I've not been in the you know, we've talked a 0:10:36.320 --> 0:10:39.200 little bit about schizo wave, which is kind of broadly speaking, 0:10:39.640 --> 0:10:43.920 the thing that this guy most embodied. Um that is 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:46.760 that is the propaganda style which has a bad name. Yes, 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:52.800 it's obviously endorsing its name. This is the style that 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:55.800 people who involved in this only community use. It's about 0:10:55.840 --> 0:11:02.000 fetishizing parts or fetish using media driven aspects of mental 0:11:02.000 --> 0:11:06.880 illness to encourage violence. That's what it's about. Obviously illness, Yes, 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:10.240 the aesthetics and mental illness. Right, people who are who 0:11:10.280 --> 0:11:13.720 actually you know, deal with mental illnesses are much less 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:16.360 likely to commit violent acts. They're actually more likely to 0:11:16.480 --> 0:11:21.240 be the recipient of of of violent acts not documented. 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:23.800 So like this is this is like I think important 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:26.880 to actually get people to like understand because this is 0:11:26.880 --> 0:11:28.240 one of the things that if you look at like 0:11:28.240 --> 0:11:30.640 Tucker Carlson, for example, like how Alex Jones was buond 0:11:30.640 --> 0:11:32.199 to all these shooters, the thing they pivoted one of 0:11:32.200 --> 0:11:34.760 the things they've pivoted to is, oh, it's because all 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:39.199 these people are on antidepressants and it's like, no, I'm 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:41.840 gonna I'm gonna talk about So there was there was 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:44.800 this tweet. But I hate talking about Marjorie Taylor Green. 0:11:44.960 --> 0:11:46.360 I think it's useless to talk about her and it 0:11:46.440 --> 0:11:49.640 only gives her inflates the thing that she represents. But 0:11:49.640 --> 0:11:54.400 but but uh, she had this tweet about a picture 0:11:54.520 --> 0:11:56.960 of of him that that that that he that he posted, 0:11:57.559 --> 0:12:00.160 and she's asking is he in jail or a have 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:03.320 center or psychiatric center in this photo that's on his bedroom? 0:12:03.520 --> 0:12:07.320 What drugs are psychiatric drugs or both? Does he use? 0:12:07.600 --> 0:12:11.959 And the image here is of an image very clearly 0:12:12.000 --> 0:12:16.320 photoshopped of this person sitting in like sitting in like 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:19.160 a mental institution, holding a Bible. And it's part of 0:12:19.200 --> 0:12:21.720 this thing that it's like a fetishizing the aesthetics of 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:24.880 mental illness, right, It's like, oh look at me, I'm 0:12:24.920 --> 0:12:28.400 I am so detached from reality. I be I belong 0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:33.200 inside a mental institution now, and the aesthetics of Christian fascism, 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:35.320 which is also a weird part of it. There's a 0:12:35.320 --> 0:12:38.719 photo one of the like images he posted in four chan. 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:41.280 I think it was fortunately I may be mistaken about 0:12:41.280 --> 0:12:43.920 the exact location, but it was like it was a 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:48.920 Catholic saint with like the sacred heart like in her hands, 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:52.720 with the head replaced by like some anime girl. I've 0:12:52.760 --> 0:12:56.800 I've I have not seen that yet. But yeah, this 0:12:56.880 --> 0:13:00.080 image that he made of of inside this this the 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:02.600 hospital that that is that is part of the joke 0:13:02.640 --> 0:13:05.480 to him, right, the joke, Like I don't think he 0:13:05.520 --> 0:13:08.440 would actually assume that someone would think this is an 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:14.000 unphotoshopped image. I think he would he us like Margine 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:16.520 Taylor Grey is just like just like unable to determine 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:18.559 the most basic photoshop that you can see the edge 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:21.280 marks very clearly. So but but this, but like this 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:24.080 is part of the joke, right, And everything getting into 0:13:24.160 --> 0:13:27.480 what he actually believes about reality and stuff isn't important 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:31.400 because everything about this is has to do with like 0:13:31.559 --> 0:13:36.720 post to ironic violence and post ironic like comedy, post 0:13:36.760 --> 0:13:40.520 ironic like ideas of reality. It's the difference between this 0:13:40.640 --> 0:13:43.360 what is sincere and what is real and what is 0:13:43.400 --> 0:13:46.200 ironic and what is fake don't matter. They as long 0:13:46.200 --> 0:13:48.440 as they're happening, that's what's happening. So it's all as 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:52.320 real as anything else. So getting into specific ideas about 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:55.640 what he personally believes. Doesn't actually matter because one we 0:13:55.679 --> 0:13:57.679 don't know if that's genuine at all. He's he's putting 0:13:57.679 --> 0:14:01.040 everything out intentionally. And two it doesn't matter on the 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:04.600 actual material circumstances. What are producing effects inside our world 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:07.640 right now, like these types of like acts of violence, 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:11.520 But it's it's everything is put out, should be but 0:14:11.559 --> 0:14:14.160 it'll seem like contradictory, it will seem confusing. Right He 0:14:15.240 --> 0:14:17.400 opened a video of his that he was like doing 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:19.720 a live stream like like I think, like over like 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:22.600 a year ago, and he he calls everyone who's watching 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:28.000 his live stream of like he calls them communists. He's like, hey, communists, um. 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:30.160 And it's not because they're actually communist. Is not because 0:14:30.160 --> 0:14:33.000 he likes communism. It's not because he's necessarily fascist either. 0:14:33.240 --> 0:14:35.640 It's that all these things are so blurred and you 0:14:35.720 --> 0:14:40.000 use them interchangeably to produce this sense of meaninglessness and 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:44.280 the reaction to this meaningless world that he's constructed for 0:14:44.360 --> 0:14:47.520 himself and these types of online subcultures try to construct 0:14:47.640 --> 0:14:51.160 the only sensible reaction to this meaningless world is for 0:14:51.200 --> 0:14:53.680 them to do these types of acts of violence. That is, 0:14:53.840 --> 0:14:56.160 that is the point. So the actual details of what 0:14:56.200 --> 0:14:59.080 they're saying aren't important, because it's all about constructing this 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:02.840 world that is utter really meaningless and self contradictory and 0:15:03.320 --> 0:15:06.680 confusing and nothing makes sense and the only way to 0:15:06.720 --> 0:15:09.040 respond to that is to get out of it. And 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:12.160 that's part of what they're they're trying to do. And 0:15:12.200 --> 0:15:16.000 there are I mean, and again, part of the frustrating 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:18.400 thing is that there are all of these things that 0:15:18.480 --> 0:15:20.920 people try to kind of simply affix to this our 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:24.760 pieces of it. Yeah, American gun culture, the fetishization of 0:15:24.960 --> 0:15:28.280 violence as the way to achieve positive ends in our 0:15:28.320 --> 0:15:30.760 culture is a part of this. It's why, it's part 0:15:30.760 --> 0:15:34.160 of why the natural response to everything is meaningless and 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:38.800 confusing is going agalling spray exactly. Um. And likewise, the 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:41.680 fact that politics is where it is where you have 0:15:41.840 --> 0:15:44.640 like this one party that's the Republican Party, that is 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:48.560 almost entirely dedicated to like owning the Libs and just 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:51.520 purely attacking people rather than trying to do anything because 0:15:51.560 --> 0:15:54.840 their policies have been unmitigated disasters for the country, and 0:15:54.880 --> 0:15:56.960 the other side just kind of blindly tells people to 0:15:57.040 --> 0:16:00.560 vote like that hopelessness that like that that kind of 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:04.120 nihilistic aggression on the right all feeds into this. And 0:16:04.400 --> 0:16:06.680 you can say that like a great deal of right 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:10.280 wing media, particularly right wing ault media, is kind of 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:13.320 firms a heavy component of like the milieu that this 0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:16.720 guy was radicalized in. But it's more like that kind 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:19.880 of stuff provided a language for him than it is 0:16:19.920 --> 0:16:22.560 that kind of stuff was specifically like his motivating. I 0:16:22.600 --> 0:16:25.760 mean the same thing with like Trumpism, right, like he 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:29.840 he engaged with Trump is m only in a way 0:16:29.880 --> 0:16:33.000 that it helps kind of destabilize things, And is this 0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:36.600 like orbit of chaos, right, That's that's why it that 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:38.600 that that's why it's into it. Right, he was deeply 0:16:38.640 --> 0:16:42.920 into stuff run conspiracy theories, paranormal deep nihilism um, getting 0:16:42.920 --> 0:16:46.000 cut off from consensus reality, getting awakened to some like 0:16:46.160 --> 0:16:49.640 greater truth. Everything that he's actually into is all just 0:16:49.680 --> 0:16:53.480 to serve to serve those types of means. Politics aren't 0:16:53.520 --> 0:16:56.360 the core part of that, but it's a reaction to politics, 0:16:56.440 --> 0:16:58.080 and then he's going to use it as just as 0:16:58.120 --> 0:17:03.120 just another tool. It's because yeah, many of them are racist, 0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:05.800 maybe they can share racist memes, but that's not actually 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:10.640 the the the center point of of what's going on um, 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:12.840 and you know, in some ways to be easier if 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:14.919 it would, because that gives you something actually easy to target. 0:17:15.200 --> 0:17:17.880 Otherwise right now, you know, when you're trying to address 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:20.960 this whole propaganda style that is encouraging these things to happen, 0:17:21.320 --> 0:17:23.240 it's a harder thing to climb down on because it's 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:25.600 it's like an endless game of whack a mole trying 0:17:25.640 --> 0:17:28.359 to find out, you know, who's the big people pushing 0:17:28.400 --> 0:17:31.160 content like this right now and like these weird niche communities, 0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:33.159 how can we get them taken down? And they just 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:35.040 always pop back up, right It's always it's it's this 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:38.520 end this game. So it's hard to target, and that 0:17:38.600 --> 0:17:41.000 leaves you with the feeling of like hopelessness on how 0:17:41.080 --> 0:17:43.360 this situation will be solved, which is like also part 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:45.000 of the point of why these attacks happen is to 0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:48.080 is to get that reaction. Um. But it sucks, like 0:17:48.160 --> 0:17:51.280 it's it's it's it's always bad to just have the 0:17:51.480 --> 0:17:53.440 like the only thing you think about is like, oh wow, 0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:55.560 I don't see a way to solve this. It's just terrible. 0:17:56.800 --> 0:17:59.720 But that's part of the intention here, and man, it's 0:18:00.720 --> 0:18:04.240 it's not good because you know, you this This isn't 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:07.879 the first shooting that has happened from this skits awave 0:18:08.119 --> 0:18:12.040 aesthetic there there, there has another ones, but these things 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:15.040 are norms are going to start hearing more and more 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:20.280 about this, and that sucks. Um, It's gonna become more 0:18:20.320 --> 0:18:21.920 of a of a thing that people are going to 0:18:21.960 --> 0:18:23.960 be aware of. Right as soon as as soon as 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:26.320 MPR starts talking about it, you're like, Okay, this is 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:29.399 this is fully this is this is fully escaped the box. 0:18:29.480 --> 0:18:33.119 It's it's it's one of those things when um, because 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:35.800 I was just I was saying earlier, like what it's 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:39.400 like when you finally when you find yourself staring at 0:18:39.400 --> 0:18:41.560 it something that is going to blow up in a 0:18:41.640 --> 0:18:45.280 violent way and just not knowing when you are one 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:47.440 of a number of folks who I've known who are 0:18:47.520 --> 0:18:50.400 kind of particularly dealing with this space. And it's been 0:18:50.440 --> 0:18:53.040 like two years that folks have been saying like there 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:55.600 is there will a bit like and the thing that 0:18:55.720 --> 0:18:59.760 is most almost as frightening as like anything else is that. 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:03.840 And then fucking Brett Bear is gonna be talking about 0:19:03.880 --> 0:19:06.600 schizo wave on the news like we're gonna have to 0:19:06.840 --> 0:19:08.800 We're gonna have to deal with like Joe Rogan trying 0:19:08.840 --> 0:19:12.199 to parse this ship out while stoned, um, while stoned, 0:19:12.240 --> 0:19:14.960 and and well talking about the Kellyuka, and we're talking 0:19:14.960 --> 0:19:18.080 about the fucking Caliga, which does lead us into the 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:20.560 board ap Yacht Club gas. So are we gonna are 0:19:20.600 --> 0:19:23.080 we gonna seget So we're gonna talk about one thing 0:19:23.680 --> 0:19:26.080 dealing with Schitz. We finished talking about one thing dealing 0:19:26.080 --> 0:19:28.640 with schitzowave, and then when I enter into other thing 0:19:29.040 --> 0:19:32.760 that the only accurate way I can describe describe this 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:37.720 is that my my dives into this, into this theory 0:19:38.040 --> 0:19:40.280 are the equivalent of what it feels like to have 0:19:40.320 --> 0:19:43.280 a psychotic episode. And that's not that's not disparaging at all. 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:46.120 It's about the actual thing is your brain does when 0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:49.720 that happens. How you take one meaningless piece of information 0:19:50.000 --> 0:19:53.160 and project meaning onto it to make it super important. Um, 0:19:53.200 --> 0:20:05.640 and how that kind of cascades down. Oh boy, So 0:20:07.440 --> 0:20:11.120 the board the board Apiacht Club a k A. Now, 0:20:11.160 --> 0:20:13.800 I guess the board ape Nazi Club because people online 0:20:13.840 --> 0:20:17.040 have decided that they're really good at researching Nazis. I 0:20:17.040 --> 0:20:20.600 guess somebody happened too the fucking subreddit and tell us 0:20:20.640 --> 0:20:23.560 that we needed to be all right, we needed to 0:20:23.560 --> 0:20:27.360 be dealing with this. Yeah. So I was like, like, randomly, 0:20:27.560 --> 0:20:29.959 I like visited some of my friends in Chicago who 0:20:30.000 --> 0:20:32.280 are like normies, and like they were telling me about 0:20:32.280 --> 0:20:34.320 this video and I was like, oh, no, yeah, it's 0:20:34.400 --> 0:20:36.320 it is. It is again. It has fully escaped the 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:39.560 box now and that's part of the problem. So there's 0:20:39.600 --> 0:20:43.960 this YouTuber who made a video in partnership with a 0:20:44.000 --> 0:20:48.640 quote unquote internet artist um about how the Board Apiacht 0:20:48.640 --> 0:20:54.480 Club friends of the pod are secretly this Nazi op 0:20:54.520 --> 0:21:02.960 to troll everyone into spreading esoteric Nazism. That's that's the claim. Now, first, 0:21:02.960 --> 0:21:04.960 I'm gonna say that the guy who made this video 0:21:05.080 --> 0:21:07.199 was in partnership with this internet artist who at the 0:21:07.240 --> 0:21:11.240 same time launched a rival ape based n f T project, 0:21:11.560 --> 0:21:14.399 and this video served as an ad for his rival 0:21:14.480 --> 0:21:17.480 ape n f T project. And to be clear, his 0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:20.119 Ape n f T project was taking the art that 0:21:20.240 --> 0:21:22.919 the Board Ape Yacht Club used for their apes, making 0:21:22.960 --> 0:21:25.359 no changes to it, and just selling it to people 0:21:25.400 --> 0:21:30.159 on a different platform, which is like intellectual property theft, right, right, Like, 0:21:30.200 --> 0:21:31.760 I never want to be the guy saying the board 0:21:31.760 --> 0:21:35.440 apes are legal, right, I can't believe, like, we are 0:21:35.480 --> 0:21:39.000 not defending board Ape Yacht Club and I want them 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:40.960 to be hit with a brick. But we're talking about 0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:47.399 this because people are appropriating the term, appropriating the almost 0:21:47.400 --> 0:21:50.600 like the aesthetics of anti fascist research started selling their 0:21:50.600 --> 0:21:54.199 own products. They are appropriating the aesthetics of anti of 0:21:54.240 --> 0:21:58.760 scholarship focused on extremism um in order to sell n 0:21:58.800 --> 0:22:01.040 f T s. That's what's happened with this, the board 0:22:01.040 --> 0:22:03.800 Ape Yacht Club or Nazis video. So it gains So 0:22:03.840 --> 0:22:06.119 all the information comes from this from this guy whose 0:22:06.200 --> 0:22:09.880 arrival arrival n f T internet art. What's his name, 0:22:10.280 --> 0:22:13.560 hig writer Rips. I think, yeah, writer Rips, because he's 0:22:13.600 --> 0:22:16.639