Latest / The Vance Crowe Podcast / Be Cautious Of Internet Mobs
Transcript
- 00:00:00:00 - 00:00:07:12 Speaker 1 I am deeply suspicious and very, very cautious about joining an internet mob 00:00:07:12 - 00:00:10:03 Speaker 1 controlling a mob is an illusion. 00:00:10:03 - 00:00:19:15 Speaker 1 once it organizes and once it gets enough foundational energy, it won't stop until it's spilled the blood of both the guilty and the innocent. 00:00:19:15 - 00:00:38:02 Speaker 1 But I've seen what happens when somebody is not having their ideas battle tested. I've seen what happens when you have heard another person describe your team's point of view, and when it comes time for you to articulate it in a live environment, it doesn't work. 00:00:38:02 - 00:00:46:12 Speaker 1 I really think that no matter what, it is deeply important for all of us to stop watching other people argue with idiots. 00:00:46:12 - 00:00:54:03 Speaker 1 This is Sean Newman hosted the SNP here in the Great White North. And you're listening to the one and only Vance Cole podcast. 00:00:54:03 - 00:01:11:25 Speaker 1 Welcome back to the podcast and I'm glad you're here. Today we're going to do an As the Crow Flies episode. This is where I talk about something that I'm seeing going on in the world that I just want to have a monologue about. So rather than have a guest on and have me say my idea to this person, I thought I'd just share it with you. 00:01:11:27 - 00:01:43:14 Speaker 1 And what I want you to know about this particular episode is that I don't have an answer at the end of this. I really have a question. What do you think we should be doing? So let's get started. I've been seeing lately the term demon become really popular. It's, something that has surprised me because I heard it maybe in a few kind of out there podcasts, and it was in regards to Christianity and people seeing that there is evil in the world and then referring to other people as demons. 00:01:43:17 - 00:02:04:08 Speaker 1 I heard this a couple months ago, and I've started hearing it more and more and more, and it is going, as we say, down the graph, to where there are larger and larger audiences hearing this. I heard it as recently as Michael Malus talking about it today on his podcast. You're welcome. I've heard Tucker Carlson talk about it, Candace Owens, even Dave Smith. 00:02:04:11 - 00:02:31:15 Speaker 1 So these may not be names of podcasters that you know about, but each of them have millions upon millions of followers and they're using this term demons. It's something that has struck me because there's something deeply unsettling about this. I'm concerned that by using the term demons and by talking about people being demonically possessed, we run into a chance that we might other people. 00:02:31:22 - 00:02:50:11 Speaker 1 Now, I don't mean this in kind of the leftist, oh, we need to be nice to people. I mean it in the very real and tangible way that you can say, no, those people right there. They're not people. There's something other than us, and they're wrong and bad and so bad that we don't need to listen to them. 00:02:50:11 - 00:03:11:17 Speaker 1 Consider them, or even feel like we're doing anything wrong. If we do something terrible to them. Now, I can say that I believe that evil exists in the world, and that there are people out there that are putting the ideas of sex and children anywhere close to each other is bad, and I want nothing to do with it. 00:03:11:19 - 00:03:42:14 Speaker 1 But I do think that we want to be very, very careful about the language that's being used in what we're listening to, because this language can get swept into your mind, and it can begin to poison your individual ability to think and understand what's going on around you. Now, when I was in graduate school, I did a pretty intense study on genocide and how it comes about and there are a few key things that happen during a genocide, not least of which is the controlling of the media. 00:03:42:17 - 00:04:09:16 Speaker 1 But that almost always happened. prior to the massive either deportation or killing of another group of people, and that is to other them. It's to use terms like vermin or demonic to be able to say that group of people, they're so awful, they have no redeemable qualities. And really, at its core, it's teaching us that we could be righteous if we get rid of these people. 00:04:09:19 - 00:04:36:16 Speaker 1 Now, I don't really know how to reconcile this. I have a ton of conflict in my mind about how to handle this, because I see the danger presented by people that want to push ideology onto my children. And yet, at the same time, I am so deeply resistant to mob action, to people saying, hey, let's gather up as a group and let's go, you know, burn down this thing in order to get our way. 00:04:36:19 - 00:05:12:07 Speaker 1 And this brings me to a character that is become probably the most well known figure on all of X, to every CEO and president of a major corporation. And his name is Robby Starbuck. Robby has been leading several campaigns on agricultural groups or groups of companies that have, you know, kind of manly guys out there. And he's saying, hey, did you know that the corporate headquarters of this company that you're buying a lot of products from there involved in Dei initiatives diversity, inclusion, diversity, equity and inclusion? 00:05:12:10 - 00:05:37:25 Speaker 1 And he's saying, let me show you what's going on behind the scenes. Let me show you what classes they're forcing the employees to take, what sort of, money they're donating to different programs. Now, do you want the customers or the people that are selling you things? Do you want them to be able to do these things? And are your dollars that you're going to purchase their goods from going to ends that are ultimately bad? 00:05:37:28 - 00:06:00:17 Speaker 1 Now, I have to say that Robby has been incredibly successful just in the last, you know, a couple of months, you've seen Tractor Supply Company come out and say they're not going to do diversity, inclusion, Dei initiatives. You've seen John Deere start to walk back. Some of theirs and even just recently Harley Davidson saying, hey, we're going to take a look at what we're doing internally. 00:06:00:17 - 00:06:29:00 Speaker 1 It doesn't sit well with our customers. And so I have to say, like, if you want to push back on ideas and you can find a way to get enough social pressure for your company to change, I think that's a good thing. I think that is the way of capitalism. But I am deeply suspicious and very, very cautious about joining an internet mob and being a part of that, because that's what Robbie's doing. 00:06:29:00 - 00:06:54:04 Speaker 1 He's using X to be able to galvanize, get a bunch of people going, showing photographs, getting them worked up, and then pointing them at the people that he is fighting against. And so, you know, on the one hand, he's being successful and he's even being successful on initiatives that I think are good to push back on. But at the same time, controlling a mob is an illusion. 00:06:54:09 - 00:07:22:17 Speaker 1 You can never control a mob once it gets going, because once it starts to consume that energy that, let's go take down this person. Let's go. you know, cancel or let's go destroy this person. Then it takes on a life force all of its own. And, once it organizes and once it gets enough foundational energy, it won't stop until it's spilled the blood of both the guilty and the innocent. 00:07:22:20 - 00:07:55:03 Speaker 1 And I think that this is something that makes me very reluctant to support what's going on with Robbie Starbuck, because I am concerned about that, that whipping up of people to push back on ideologies. But at the same time, I don't know, how do you fight in ideology? How do you, push back and try and make sure that the companies that, are putting these things out, oftentimes because they felt pressure to put them out, now feel some kind of counterbalance, pressure that feel something else going on. 00:07:55:05 - 00:08:18:26 Speaker 1 And this is where we run into a real problem, because a lot of times, the people that are pushing these ideologies that maybe you and I don't really like, they use tactics like canceling, like mob action, like, making people feel like there is a huge number of people that want this change. And so what's the way to balance against that? 00:08:18:28 - 00:08:52:15 Speaker 1 I think that when we use mob action, we run into a danger of, if you use the tactics of your enemies, it is not long before you become your enemies, the very thing that you were fighting against. And so I don't know, my, my core awareness is that we should always fight against demigods. I really liked that. Dave Helland last week we had on the podcast, he talked about how there's been these rise of figures that have galvanized us, that have talked to us about things that we agree, but nobody else is saying. 00:08:52:15 - 00:09:15:00 Speaker 1 So they've been courageous, they've been inspirational, they're very, articulate. So they get us going and then we hand over a lot of our thinking to them because we say, oh, look at this person. Andrew Tate, Tucker Carlson, Dave Smith. This person can help save us. So I'm going to take what they're thinking and take it on as my own. 00:09:15:00 - 00:09:39:29 Speaker 1 And I mean, I am completely guilty of this, and I'm very aware that I can hear an idea. It can be very compelling to me, and I can take on that opinion very quickly. And it's, it's something that's scary to me. And I think it should be scary to everyone, because what ends up happening and I don't know specifically about the people that I'm citing, maybe they're not demigods, I don't know. 00:09:40:01 - 00:09:53:23 Speaker 1 But what happens with somebody that is so articulate and comes in and says, hey, I'm going to help us. I'm going to lead us. I'm going to take us into this place. And they might do it with a lot of emotional intelligence. They might do it in a way that it doesn't sound like they're trying to be a leader. 00:09:53:23 - 00:10:19:00 Speaker 1 They can even be like, I don't know, I'm just saying what I think is true. But over time, that energy builds and what happens is a demigod. This this person is going to ask you to make sacrifices for the we, the that you feel when you're listening to these people. But the reality is with a demigod, there is not a you and me and us together. 00:10:19:00 - 00:10:45:07 Speaker 1 There's not those sacrifices that you're making to them are actually giving up your individuality, and it's giving power to them. And it is really, really dangerous. And I think that ultimately we begin outsourcing our individual thinking and our individual morality for this leader who we overlook some of their flaws, we take on some of the things that they're thinking of and some of the things they're talking about that we don't do anything about. 00:10:45:07 - 00:11:05:02 Speaker 1 We just start saying like, oh yeah, okay, well, I didn't know that before, but now I'm going to take on that thinking. So for me, what do you do? I don't know. That's ultimately the question that I have for you. What should we do to be able to push back on ideologies and people that are putting ideas out there into the lives of our family members? 00:11:05:05 - 00:11:27:23 Speaker 1 How do we push back against that without becoming the very mob that we're worried about? My sense is that our best hope is to speak the truth as we see it, and to voice our opinion, not just with people that we know agree with us, but are actually actively seeking out people that don't agree with you and that this is really hard in today's day and age. 00:11:27:23 - 00:11:46:14 Speaker 1 You know, you may see on television all these people wearing masks and you look around in your own community, you're like, well, nobody that I'm around wears masks or, you know, dresses in these incredibly unorthodox ways that I feel like is threatening to me, but I see it happening somewhere else. So you start taking on these opinions. 00:11:46:14 - 00:12:04:17 Speaker 1 But they're not about the people around you. They're about people far away. And so how do you communicate with them? I don't know exactly. I use this podcast to train and counter people that are different from me, but even I could do better. I could be bringing people on that think far more differently than than what they do, and I'm going to try and make a commitment to that. 00:12:04:20 - 00:12:33:15 Speaker 1 But I've seen what happens when somebody is not having their ideas battle tested. I've seen what happens when you have heard another person describe your team's point of view, and when it comes time for you to articulate it in a live environment, it doesn't work. It's there's you. When you start to feel that pressure, when you get asked questions you didn't expect, all of a sudden you realize like, oh, actually, my command of this information wasn't as strong as I thought. 00:12:33:17 - 00:13:01:21 Speaker 1 I saw this all the time when I was working as a spokesman for Monsanto, because there would be people that would have really strong feelings about GMOs or pesticides, and when they would finally get their chance to speak on the microphone and to ask the person from Monsanto, the first person from Monsanto they'd ever met, they now are in a situation where they realize, I've only ever heard this argument when it goes well for the person that recorded it, for the person that knows a lot more than me. 00:13:01:27 - 00:13:24:20 Speaker 1 And so they found themselves encountering resistance that they didn't expect, and now their argument falls apart. And so this for me has also happened where I've I vastly overestimated how well I knew a subject because I'd heard somebody talking about it over and over and over again. And so I thought like, oh, I know all the arguments, but that's why you have to get in front of people that don't agree with you. 00:13:24:23 - 00:13:48:25 Speaker 1 And it may not be somebody that's actually on the other side. It may just be a really good person that is effective at, steal meaning or a highly disagreeable person that won't just accept what the narrative is. You need to be around these people so that that way you can say your ideas and have somebody give you resistance so that that way you can figure out, are my ideas as clear and convincing as I thought? 00:13:48:27 - 00:14:12:16 Speaker 1 Now that I've encountered resistance, are there things that I didn't think of that I should have thought of? That? Now that I've encountered it, it's going to help me figure out do I need to change my idea, or do I need to improve how I'm talking about it? So I really think that no matter what, it is deeply important for all of us to stop watching other people argue with idiots. 00:14:12:16 - 00:14:31:10 Speaker 1 This is a very, very popular, form of media that's going on in Onex and on YouTube and on Instagram. It's where you have somebody that's a really good talker, sits and talks to crowds of people, some like a Charlie Kirk, and they're oftentimes arguing with people that are not very sophisticated. Their ideas aren't very good. And I think that's fine. 00:14:31:10 - 00:14:58:11 Speaker 1 Right. You're you're kind of dispelling bad ideas, but you can't take that on as the work that you have done to actually say, what is it that I believe? What do I know how well do I know these things? And does somebody else have a counter narrative that might be worth me, considering this is the best I know how to do, which is to talk with other people that have a very different worldview and to try and see what can I be doing to improve my point of view. 00:14:58:11 - 00:15:23:10 Speaker 1 The best thing I have going for me is that my wife, will disagree with basically anything that I say, and I think it's wonderful. We have a lot of great discussions, and I have a core group of five people I see regularly, none of whom take what I'm saying to be the truth. They're always pushing and pressure testing, and I also have the wider audience, including you, a podcast listener that hears me say something and pushes back. 00:15:23:10 - 00:15:41:02 Speaker 1 I got several emails after the Dave Holland interview. I got some after the Jack Millican. When I love them, I don't always have as much time to respond to those as I want to, but I would love if you have ideas for you to be pushing back on me. That's what we need in order to make our ideas better. 00:15:41:05 - 00:16:01:22 Speaker 1 So I don't know where this leaves us. I do believe that there is evil in the world. My definition of evil is one that I heard Jordan Peterson say, and it's really resonated with me. And I've hammered on it for a long time. But it is the, the allowance or the encouragement of suffering where suffering is not needed. 00:16:01:24 - 00:16:30:22 Speaker 1 And I think a lot of the things that people are pointing out that are demonic are that they're they're evil in some way that we're observing, that people are putting ideas out there that could cause suffering to people, to children, to the most innocent among us, and that evil will cause suffering that will last generations. And so I don't know how you push back against this, but I know that evil lurks in the heart of every man. 00:16:30:22 - 00:16:57:09 Speaker 1 It lurks in your heart, and it lurks in my heart. And when we start using language that allows us to view the other side, not as human beings, with all of the frailties and the the vices and the challenges that we face, we know nothing about their experience is. And yet we say they are so different than us that they don't even qualify for the same treatment. 00:16:57:09 - 00:17:26:22 Speaker 1 They don't, oh, they don't qualify for the same morality. They don't qualify for the same level of dignity. But I'm balancing this against the very real fact that when they're putting ideas out into the world that I think could harm me and my family, I want to push back on them to. So I sense that the only hope is community, and I mean that in the real sense of community, people with integrity that expect positive actions from us, they expect us to speak up. 00:17:26:29 - 00:17:47:09 Speaker 1 They expect us to see things that are incorrect and change our minds and change our opinions, but that they also don't allow us to generalize or other people. And I think those that encourage us to meet with our enemies and to talk with them and to to see them, is this is the way that you stay away from joining a mob? 00:17:47:09 - 00:18:13:26 Speaker 1 And I talk about this concept all the time. There is a temptation in all of us to join what other people are doing, to push back on the bad things. We are afraid, and we get this natural herd instinct to band together and give up the morality and the education and the civility that we've learned over time. And it'll it can allow us to do horrible, terrible, terrible things. 00:18:13:26 - 00:18:34:11 Speaker 1 I have personally seen rational, good human beings murder other men, and I have read enough books to know that anyone can be swallowed up into this. And even though it may not seem like it right now, I think we can all feel that there's a tension in the air, but it feels like, the other side is winning and and we're on our back foot. 00:18:34:11 - 00:18:56:15 Speaker 1 And so I'm not really worried about our side turning into a mob, me turning into a mob. We should all recognize that this can happen to any one of us. And so I know for me personally, I'm drawing a line in the sand for what ideas are allowed to come into my home. And, who do we spend time with and how are we building out our own community? 00:18:56:18 - 00:19:18:23 Speaker 1 But if you have other ideas for how to push back on negative ideologies without becoming a part of the mob, then I want to hear them. So you can always send those to me at Vance, at Vance crew.com. I would love to hear that more. Or also find me on X at Vance Crew. I want to talk about this because I think it is going to be a growing issue in the future. 00:19:18:26 - 00:19:40:20 Speaker 1 All right. I'm going to wrap up for now. I know this has been kind of a heavy topic, and, it's a little bit shorter of a podcast than we normally do, but, a lot of things that are going on right now for, for me and the whole team, you know, if you've been listening to the Vance Crew podcast, you might also be interested to know that we've started what we call the AG Tribes report. 00:19:40:22 - 00:19:59:04 Speaker 1 This is an effort for me to get out of my echo chamber and only listen to the certain type of AG that I am drawn towards, and it's pushing me to talk to all different parts of the ag world. What are they thinking about? What do they believe in? How do they feel about things as wide ranging as, RFID tags in cattle ears too? 00:19:59:05 - 00:20:18:17 Speaker 1 Should you be putting solar panels or wind farms, on your own farm? This is a way for me to be able to figure out what are really the spirit and, feelings that people have from different tribes. So if you're interested in that, we do a live show. It's 30 minutes long on Thursday evenings at 6 p.m. central. 00:20:18:19 - 00:20:38:26 Speaker 1 The, co-hosts are always from a different tribe, and, they tell me that it is an exciting but nerve wracking process because we go bang, bang, bang through the stories and, when we're all done, they, like, look wide eyed and they're like, man, I can't believe that went so fast. So that's been wonderful. We are also going into the fall harvest season. 00:20:38:26 - 00:20:58:19 Speaker 1 If you or your family would be interested in having us do a legacy interview for your family members while you're doing harvest, then go to legacy interviews.com and hit the contact page to tell me all about it. We did this last year. We got to do something like eight interviews in a single family farm house. It was wonderful. 00:20:58:19 - 00:21:16:08 Speaker 1 People would hop off the combine or the grain cart and come in and record their story. And then a couple months later, we sent them all their videos to be able to have and know that they could pass on their stories of their family and their family farms. And it was a wonderful experience. So go to Legacy interviews.com to find out more. 00:21:16:10 - 00:21:25:10 Speaker 1 All right. That is going to do it. I am going to sign off for today, but we'll be back next week with another interesting interview.