Episode 53- Let Me Go Crazy on YouTube

On this week’s Plunge we dive into the wild world of right wing YouTube to explain the controversy over its recent statement cracking down on “supremacist” content, how average young men are gradually radicalized into far right ideologies including race science, antifeminism, Islamophobia, and white nationalism, and how this dark corner of the internet likely played a role in radicalizing mass shooters in Christchurch, Quebec City, Pittsburgh, and most recently, Dallas, Texas and Concord, California. We discuss some of the “luminaries” of YouTube’s right wing and the fabled “intellectual dark web,” including Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson, Stefan Molyneux, and Dave Rubin. As you will see, these figures are not so much troubled geniuses slaying liberals and leftists alike with logic and reason as they are sophists appealing to the most reactionary tendencies and traditions under the guise of truth-telling and an oft-stated-if-not-acted-upon willingness to hear out both sides. We also shout out some of the YouTube creators countering the proliferation of right wing gibberish on the platform with reasonable arguments meant to provide an alternative to the insular, violent worldview that young people are regularly exposed to on their YouTube recommendation feeds.