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The transcription captures a conversation initiated by a speaker deeply troubled by the 2019 Christchurch attack, where the gunman live-streamed the massacre with a mindset akin to an internet troll. This event catalyzes the speaker's obsession with how the internet is fundamentally altering human psychology, blurring the line between genuine personal thought and regurgitated online rhetoric. He illustrates this with an anecdote about a friend parroting a view directly from Twitter without self-awareness. Seeking answers, he contacts a well-connected colleague, Kevin, at The New York Times, recalling a prior agreement to jointly investigate the internet's capacity to manipulate. The dialogue frames this investigation as entering a "rabbit hole." It ends with a stark tonal shift to a nostalgic, utopian clip from the early days of the internet, creating a ironic juxtaposition with the preceding discussion about the web's dark, transformative power on modern reality.

Transcription

779 Words, 4178 Characters

English
Hello California California it is New York. Hi New York. Hi. Hi. Hi Larissa. Who else is there in the room? Sint is setting up in the other room. Is Julia there by chance? Hello. Julia this QAnon guy is free to talk anytime. Oh great. Okay. Alright so where do we begin? I'm Sint. How's it going, bros? My name is Panic. So many places we could start. What dream or vision do you want to turn into reality? Let's see. Did this stuff track with her spending more time on the internet? Yes, absolutely. What if we start with when I first called you last year? Do you remember that? I remember that you called and I don't remember all the specifics but I remember that you were pretty alarmed. Um, unprecedented is how police are describing this attack. Skores dead as two mosques are targeted during Friday prayers. It was right after that horrible attack at Christchurch New Zealand. The gunman stormed in wearing a helmet with a camera on it. Moving from room to room killing men, women and children. His guy had like strapped a GoPro on himself and like angled it in a way to make his gun look like a video game. In the most extraordinary fashion, he live streamed his attack. And in his manifesto like essentially said that he was doing it as like a big real life shit post. Right. It's now clear he was deeply familiar with far right groups on the internet. That's where he posted his so called manifesto. This was basically him trolling people. He knew that this would be this horrible tragedy that would become an international news story. And also that like certain people in certain parts of the internet would find it really funny. And that whole thing just felt to me like it was like the strangest and darkest version of this thing that I'm becoming more and more consumed with worry about all the time. Which is like the internet is doing something to us that is profoundly changing who we are. Yeah. Like I keep finding myself in conversations with friends or family or like this one night I was at dinner with this guy who was sharing this like very hyperbolic view about something. And I remembered like as he was sharing it like I think I read this almost word for word on Twitter today. And I asked him like is this what you really think or is this what you read online and he kind of paused and was like I don't know. I don't know if I'm paying enough attention to like what the difference between those two things is. Yeah. I'm wondering like if you think you're still being manipulated. This is a question that I have been just obsessing over for the last several years. How do I tell when I'm being manipulated? Anything goes back to the global football. There are so many videos like that. What's real and what's not test to be true. And as I was like stressing out about all this stuff I had this realization that like oh I work at the New York Times. I am surrounded by very smart well-resourced reporters who could probably like help me find an answer to what the hell's going on. And one of the first calls that I made was you Kevin Rus. Because you are the most online person that I know. And I remember you saying like we got a report on this. We got to go investigate. And then I was actually like I was one tiny step ahead of you because I had just talked to this guy who I thought could really help me understand what the internet is actually capable of doing to a person. Let's do this. I remember you saying essentially like I'm about to step into a rabbit hole. Do you want to come with me? Give me a little test here. Oh sure. Testing 1, 2, 3. Do you want to do me? In just a minute we're going on an exploration the likes of which you have only seen on futuristic television shows. We're going to take a ride on the internet. Today our destination is the worldwide web. Now that I've gotten on the internet I'd rather be on my computer than doing just about anything. Internet sites will soon become alive with virtual characters, interactivity and intelligent agents, enabling you to do things you could never have done before. You'll find yourself wondering how you ever got along without access to the information super high-weight. [Music]

Podcast Summary

Key Points:

  1. The conversation begins with a discussion about the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings, where the attacker live-streamed the attack and framed it as an internet "troll" or "shitpost," highlighting the intersection of real-world violence and online culture.
  2. The speaker expresses a growing concern that the internet is profoundly changing human behavior, identity, and the ability to distinguish personal beliefs from absorbed online narratives.
  3. To investigate this, the speaker turns to colleagues at The New York Times and a particularly "online" contact, Kevin, proposing a collaborative exploration into the internet's manipulative capabilities and its impact on society.
  4. The dialogue concludes with a metaphorical shift to an optimistic, early-internet-era promotional tone, contrasting sharply with the preceding dark discussion about the web's dangers.

Summary:

The transcription captures a conversation initiated by a speaker deeply troubled by the 2019 Christchurch attack, where the gunman live-streamed the massacre with a mindset akin to an internet troll. This event catalyzes the speaker's obsession with how the internet is fundamentally altering human psychology, blurring the line between genuine personal thought and regurgitated online rhetoric. He illustrates this with an anecdote about a friend parroting a view directly from Twitter without self-awareness.

Seeking answers, he contacts a well-connected colleague, Kevin, at The New York Times, recalling a prior agreement to jointly investigate the internet's capacity to manipulate. " It ends with a stark tonal shift to a nostalgic, utopian clip from the early days of the internet, creating a ironic juxtaposition with the preceding discussion about the web's dark, transformative power on modern reality.

FAQs

The shooter live-streamed the attack and described it as a 'real-life shit post,' aiming to troll people and create an international news story, knowing some online communities would find it amusing.

The internet can blur the line between genuine thoughts and online influences, as people may unknowingly adopt hyperbolic views they encounter on platforms like Twitter without realizing it.

There is a growing worry that the internet is profoundly changing human behavior and identity, leading to manipulation and a loss of discernment between reality and online narratives.

The speaker leveraged their position at the New York Times to consult with well-resourced reporters and contacted Kevin Rus, known as highly online, to investigate the internet's effects on people.

Kevin Rus was approached as an expert on internet culture and agreed to help explore the 'rabbit hole' of how the internet manipulates and changes individuals, initiating a collaborative investigation.

A dinner conversation revealed a friend sharing a hyperbolic view that matched something read on Twitter, highlighting confusion over whether it was a personal belief or an online influence.

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Transcription

779 words