everything is a remix every song every
movie every meme every idea every
invention every discovery everything we
create is copied transformed and
combined from our culture you get ideas
from two things coming together and just
like our creations are remixed from the
world around us our beliefs are remixed
from what we watch read and listen to
and this is a disturbing idea it's one
thing to remix a song or a story or a
product it's another to remix yourself
your identity it's like programming
yourself without really knowing it the
number of paths we can choose from is
endless and each one leads to a
different version of yourself
[Music]
our Mediascape is an infinity of rabbit
holes you can disappear into anyone you
like and when you awaken from the spell
you've changed you've absorbed new ideas
and they've altered who you are repeat
this process over and over and over and
your identity can be transformed if
you're not aware of what's happening you
can get fooled you can get lied to you
can get exploited you can become cannon
fodder in someone else's culture war but
even more importantly you can fool
yourself you can repeatedly choose more
and more extreme rabbit holes and fall
deeper and deeper into an illusion
you chose into a Hall of Mirrors where
what's reflected back is your own
darkest fantasies many of us are
plummeting into crowd-source nightmares
about Bill Gates or 5g or the deep sting
how can we prevent ourselves from
getting lost in the funhouse
[Music]
[Laughter]
[Music]
to keep a grip on reality you need to be
aware of how you make sense of media and
the world having awareness whether it's
of your habits or your emotions or your
biases gives you back some power and
lets you make wiser choices and the
first thing you need to be aware of is
where your sense making starts it starts
with patterns you see a pattern emerging
here Scully what media does all media is
shrink reality way way way down into a
digestible size you can't drink directly
from the firehose each media outlet
features stories
it feels are important and from these
selections we spot patterns Vox gives
you one type of pattern
Breitbart gives you another PBS newshour
gives you yet another and when you use
social media you're making the pattern
yourself with each click with each
follow with each like these patterns
feel convincing they feel real but
they're actually just repetitions you
spotted from a tiny selection of events
you can always find something resembling
the pattern you're looking for you then
set about distorting what these patterns
mean you turn them into little stories
that help you understand and remember
and in the process you sensationalize
them you turn them into juicier stories
you generalize an exaggerated you strip
away nuance and contradictions and you
add conflict and drama then you share
these stories based not just on their
truth or their importance but based on
what they make you feel and much of the
time that feeling is anger this process
of simplification and distortion then
produces a master narrative it produces
an ideology you turn into some version
of conservative or liberal or
libertarian or progressive or
increasingly now we're turning into
conspiracists they have been programming
us and programming you since you were
little and you don't even know
because you don't even question your
ideology this highly imperfect
contraption that you remixed puts a spin
on everything different people can see
the exact same thing and draw opposite
conclusions ideology is like a program
you're now running we like to blame the
media for programming us but we are just
as responsible we develop our ideologies
ourselves over the years and decades
based on one we choose to watch read and
listen to by just being aware of this
process we can see how meager and
lacking our perception of the world is
our ideology is a simplification of a
simplification of a simplification
knowing this can help us be more modest
and less defensive it can make us more
willing to learn from perspectives that
contradict ours but most importantly it
justifies us having some small measure
of doubt about our own beliefs
critical thinking isn't just about
doubting everybody else it's about
doubting yourself conspiracy theories
and nonsense and extremism and lies
cannot tolerate doubt they can't absorb
criticism and grow the truth defeats or
incorporates our doubts and grows
stronger with time
in the end the truth wins
eventually
[Applause]
everybody I'm Kirby I made this video
and the reason I made this video is that
I've spent a lot of time in recent years
thinking about media thinking about
conspiracy theories thinking about how
we make sense of the world and I want to
make a little short video that kind of
synthesizes some of the most essential
stuff that I've learned in recent years
so that's what I attempted to do with
this video I want to show you kind of
how flimsy and primitive and clunky your
means of making sense of the world is
this is not personal thing it does not
matter how smart you are you can be the
smartest person on the planet the
complexity of the world Dwarfs your
intelligence it does not matter how
smart you are nobody has the world all
figured out some people might find this
kind of a bummer idea I personally have
benefited from it enormous Lee I find it
a much better way to look at the world
to not think you are so right to not be
so certain about your beliefs I just
think it's a much better way to live
your life it makes you less defensive it
makes you better able to engage with
other points of view and it makes you us
angry makes us angry so I've really
benefited from this mindset I hope maybe
you do too if you'd like to learn more
about this topic I have a documentary
called this is not a conspiracy theory
which is 90 minutes long it's produced
in the video essay style and you can buy
that for 10 bucks or if you buy and
everything is remix t-shirt or poster
you can get this is not a conspiracy
theory included for free alright thanks
so much for watching everybody I will
see you next time if you would like to
see more videos from me come back me on
patreon that's what I'll be up to for
the next while thanks again for watching
see you later bye