TRIGGERnometry - How Terrible Ideas Take Over Society - Konstantin Kisin

00:00:00.000 Have you noticed that things got weird a few years ago?

00:00:03.280 That the world makes less and less sense with every year that goes by?

00:00:06.800 Why did protesters in England, where the police are not armed,

00:00:10.120 shout, hands up, don't shoot, at cops who don't carry guns?

00:00:14.240 Isn't it strange that within the blink of an eye,

00:00:16.520 politicians suddenly became unable to explain what a woman is? 1.00

00:00:20.000 A woman can have a penis. 1.00

00:00:21.500 I'm not. 1.00

00:00:23.740 I don't think we can conduct this debate with, you know,

00:00:29.380 Sorry, I've offended you.

00:00:31.440 No, no, no, it's just...

00:00:32.760 How is it that societies whose stated goal

00:00:36.200 was a world in which all men are created equal

00:00:38.780 became obsessed with dividing themselves along racial lines?

00:00:42.660 Why do multinational corporations stick rainbow flags everywhere?

00:00:46.600 Except in Saudi Arabia, obviously. 1.00

00:00:48.740 Do you remember when everyone lost their shit because Donald Trump said 0.99

00:00:52.200 we simply cannot allow people to pour into the United States 1.00

00:00:56.000 undetected, undocumented, unchecked, and circumventing the line of people

00:01:00.580 who are waiting patiently, diligently, and lawfully

00:01:03.440 to become immigrants in this country?

00:01:05.800 You probably don't, because it wasn't President Trump that said it.

00:01:08.820 It was President Obama. 0.99

00:01:10.180 And no one lost their shit, because up until three minutes ago, 0.99

00:01:13.620 everyone, left and right, understood that countries need borders. 0.99

00:01:17.180 And yet, here we are in 2023,

00:01:20.560 where the definition of a woman is now controversial,

00:01:23.360 people breaking into our country illegally is conflated

00:01:25.980 with normal lawful immigration,

00:01:27.800 and the weird obsession with race just won't go away.

00:01:31.080 And what's strange about it is that if you talk to most people,

00:01:34.360 no one wanted this.

00:01:35.920 So how did it happen?

00:01:37.260 And why did no one say anything?

00:01:39.160 Around 2013-2014, social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook

00:01:43.600 began to take off.

00:01:44.720 Virtually overnight, the mainstream media began to publish article after article

00:01:49.160 about racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, etc.

00:01:52.920 And this didn't just happen in Britain and America.

00:01:55.220 It happened in places as far and wide as Nigeria,

00:01:58.500 Japan, Cuba, the Philippines, Qatar, and Brazil.

00:02:01.820 The investor Charlie Munger, who's Warren Buffett's right-hand man, said,

00:02:05.500 show me the incentives, and I'll show you the outcome.

00:02:08.140 What no one realized at the time is that social media rewards

00:02:11.540 certain types of communication.

00:02:13.020 And whatever you reward, you get more of.

00:02:15.780 Social media rewards complaining, outrage, and victimhood.

00:02:19.120 So it produces complaints, outrage, porn, and victims.

00:02:23.500 Why did no one say anything?

00:02:25.120 Well, first of all, some people tried to.

00:02:27.600 J.K. Rowling said something and went from celebrated author

00:02:30.680 to demonized hate figure.

00:02:32.380 Barry Weiss, a journalist at the New York Times, said something.

00:02:35.460 She's no longer at the New York Times.

00:02:37.440 Clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson said something,

00:02:39.840 and now they're trying to take his license to practice away.

00:02:43.260 And despite their efforts, little change does institution after institution succumb to the craziness.

00:02:48.700 That in itself is weird.

00:02:50.500 I often found myself naively thinking that all it takes is one more brave,

00:02:54.940 principled, and articulate individual to stand up and say something,

00:02:58.840 and it would all be over.

00:02:59.980 Instead, one after another, these people lost jobs, opportunities, and careers.

00:03:05.720 It's going on right now with Rasheen Murphy, who dared to suggest that puberty blockers are a bad idea.

00:03:10.840 The BBC responded by removing her work from their radio lineup.

00:03:14.040 This is despite the fact that the Tavistock Clinic, which administered these puberty blockers,

00:03:18.760 was shut down after the Cass Review raised serious concerns about giving these drugs to children.

00:03:24.040 And despite the fact that most people in both Britain and America do not support puberty blockers,

00:03:29.620 gender reassignment surgery, the inclusion of trans women and women's sports, and so on.

00:03:34.120 In other words, prominent, respected, and successful people who speak the truth

00:03:37.880 are punished for saying what most of their fellow citizens believe.

00:03:40.880 Does that make any sense to you? To anyone?

00:03:43.620 So what's going on?

00:03:44.660 People will often use clever-sounding phrases like institutional capture to explain it.

00:03:49.340 But what does that mean exactly?

00:03:50.980 The BBC wasn't physically overrun by a barbarian horde,

00:03:54.340 and I can tell you from personal experience that not everyone at these institutions agrees with what's happening.

00:03:59.940 I once took part in a debate on the BBC in preparation for which I had a call with the producer.

00:04:04.940 In the conversation, she told me how alarmed she herself was by what was going on,

00:04:10.260 but she refused to speak up for herself.

00:04:12.380 Part of this is groupthink, which is when people agree to go along with something

00:04:15.840 because they prioritize harmony within the group over making the right decision.

00:04:20.820 They keep quiet because they know the majority disagree with them,

00:04:24.180 and they don't want to be the black sheep of the group.

00:04:26.520 But a related and even more interesting phenomenon is the Abilene Paradox.

00:04:30.580 The term was introduced by management expert Jeremy Harvey in the 1970s.

00:04:34.380 It's based on a story he used to tell about a family which is sitting around comfortably playing dominoes in the heat

00:04:40.020 when one of them suggests taking a long trip to Abilene, Texas for dinner.

00:04:44.400 Thinking that's what everyone wants, the individual family members all agree to go.

00:04:48.360 It is only when they return from a hot, dusty, unpleasant trip that they gradually realize that none of them actually wanted to go.

00:04:55.300 They went along not because they were in the minority, but because they all thought they were in the minority.

00:05:00.900 But we are not in the minority.

00:05:03.440 Those of us who believe that children can't consent to serious medical interventions,

00:05:07.400 the rational debate is better than name-calling,

00:05:09.980 the countries need borders, the freedom of expression is better than censorship.

00:05:13.760 We're in the majority.

00:05:15.120 That's why we need the J.K. Rowlings, Barry Vices, and Jordan Petersons of the world.

00:05:19.640 They shatter the illusion of consensus and give us a fighting chance against the tyranny of the minority.

00:05:24.960 And this is why the way to end cancel culture is to embrace the canceled,

00:05:28.580 to make sure that people who speak are rewarded for it,

00:05:31.560 and to encourage others to say, enough.

00:05:34.980 If you enjoy these monologues, make sure to head on over to my substack and subscribe.

00:05:39.340 You can read them there weeks ahead of time.

TRIGGERnometry - March 26, 2024

How Terrible Ideas Take Over Society - Konstantin Kisin

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