- If I sound weird today, it's because I am still recovering from my dental work yesterday, but I'm gonna power it through, and give you a fantastic,
huge Thursday show today, so, buckle up, hit that Like button to show you like them big ones, and let's just jump into it, starting with the mess that is this whole IShowSpeed
racism, controversy. So, IShowSpeed, if you're not aware, because we're all in our
different pockets on the Internet, one of the biggest streamers in the world. He's absolute
ly blowing up, his live streams get, like,
1.5 million to 3 million on the regular, you've got celebrities coming through, I think one of the most
recent was Lil Nas X. But one of his newest streams, it's gotten the most attention being one that got around 8 million views. It's called "irL stream at
World Cup MEETING RONALDO." Speed is absolutely
infatuated with Ronaldo to the point that it's a meme, but also a clip from that live
stream went absolutely viral on social media and it's
because he
sees a fan there in an Argentina jersey and this happens. - Bro, hang on, come back, come
back, come back, come here, come, come, come back.
- Uh? - Why you got an Argentina bro? - English, no. (Speed speaking foreign language) - No, no, Chinese. - (Speed speaking foreign
language) Argentina. - Chinese, no (speaking foreign language). (Speed speaking foreign language) - So the clip goes absolutely viral, people chiming in calling
Speed's behavior racist, people saying things like, "I know he is
still young
and people make mistakes, but I'm kind of over
racist jokes towards Asians being more okay 'cause we don't
get in your face about it." And, "How are people finding this funny? It's insane how people
give racist jokes passes when it's towards Asian people." The (indistinct) you also had many of Speed's fans defending him, Speed himself, also addressing
the situation very quickly in a Twitter video. - Hey, guys, it's a
clip going around words, people is saying I'm being
racist to an As
ian guy. You know, and I just wanted
to say some things, you know, I wasn't being racist to him, I promise you, you know, I seen him, I thought he was, you know, I thought he
was Japanese so I say, (speaking foreign language) I watch a lot of anime. when I thought he was Chinese, you know, I tried to say a nickname that they call me a Chinese. I literally was just talking to a Chinese person earlier today at 4:33, and they said they love me, and I love Chinese people
so I try to say John Kong, l
ike, John Kong. It's a nickname that
they call me in China. If that did come off anyway, if I did offend any
Asian person out there, trust me man, I'm not racist. I love Asian, I love all, man. So I apologize if that came out that way. Love you guys, man. Peace, and I hope you accept my apology. - And so with that, ultimately like other
situations like this, it was just kind of left to
the court of public opinion. But from there other commentators
starting getting involved and we saw the ripple
effect, right? First you have people like
xQc chiming in saying he knows what it's like to be labeled a racist, calling it fucking lame. But the take that probably
got the most attention was from a streamer by the name of Destiny. - Is this the Kai Cenat guy? Oh this is the Speed guy, okay. There's like this whole
new legion of, like, Black zoomer streamers, and for as much as they (beep) talk about how, like, all white people did was scream at the (beep) camera, I feel like that's all these guy
s do. I don't know if they have
more content, but holy shit. - And so Kai Cenat, who if you don't know, is one of the biggest
streamers in the world, in fact he just, he won
Streamer of the Year just a few days ago, this tape from Destiny gets
around to him and he reacts. - First of all, what you're not gonna do is not gonna act like you don't know who is who, dickhead. You obviously know who the (beep) I am and who the (beep) Speed is, so stop acting stupid. I don't know if they have more conte
nt, but lemme go ahead and hate
on them for what I see. I dunno if they do more content, but lemme go ahead and hate
on them for what I see. How about you do your
(beep) research (beep). Do your (beep) research
before you say shit, and clearly you are a
racist, but guess what? I don't give (beep). - And honestly you have
everyone sounding off there, there's too many people to mention, so we'll just go back to xQc
jumping back into the mix with him criticizing
Destiny for his comments. - I just t
hink it's lame that, like, we get diversity in the top streamers, and all their (beep), and all, like, the efforts or whatever are all (beep) combined to, "Oh yeah, the Black dudes that just yell." Like, (beep) is that (bee), man. I think it's unnecessary, that's all. - With all this going down, you have people pointing to Destiny watching Speed's apology
video and then saying. - It's so funny to watch, like, some of the minority
communities catch up to, like, where, like, the white
community wa
s for wokeness, like, 10 years ago. 'Cause, like, he's not a racist, right? I doubt he's racist, but he doesn't realize that,
like, the jokes he's saying are kind of like not okay because they just haven't
had those conversations yet probably on that side of the internet or in those communities, like, white people have
been, like, obsessively having these conversations
for a (beep) decade. So I can understand the perspective from, like, his point
of view where it's like, "Bro, I'm not racist, I
don't hate Asian people." But we're way, way, way
past, in the white world, racism is like an advanced like (beep), that's like a 400 level
class or whatever the (beep), we've got advanced levels
of racism here, okay? - And so ultimately you have this fucking extremely messy situation where depending on where
you go on social media, vastly different reactions, right? You go one place you see takes like, "Hey, fuck Speed for
this, Destiny's, right," then you go somewhere else
and people are sayin
g, "Fuck Destiny, Kai Cenat's
exactly right about him," but then you go somewhere else
and you see people saying, "Hey, fuck Speed and fuck Destiny, they were both being racist. Kai Cenat has a justifiable
reason to be angry, he's catching some racist stray." So that's why with this story,
I wanna know your thoughts. You know, we got that
brand new Sunday show, it allows us to like actually
dive into the conversation that people are having, this
argument, that argument, and hopefully we can have
a conversation about it while people are throwing bombs at each other online. And then Brittney Griner is finally free, but so is the Merchant of Death. So Griner, the WNBA star and
two time Olympic old medalist, was arrested in a Moscow
airport last February for allegedly illegally
carrying a cannabis oil. But then almost immediately put on trial, convicted and sent to a
penal colony last month where horrifyingly, she was prepared to stay
for the next eight years. But now, that's all come to a
n end after Biden announced that
she is actually coming home saying that the U.S.
agreed to a prisoner swap, exchanging Griner for the
notorious Russian arms dealer, Viktor Bout, otherwise known
as the Merchant of Death, who has been locked up in
the US for 12 years, right? If you don't know about
him, he began gun running in the wake of the Soviet
Union's chaotic collapse, then making a name for himself selling weapons to rebels, terrorists, and shady governments all over the world, even inspir
ing the 2005
film, "Lord of War" in which he was played by Nicholas Cage. But now both are free, and while it's a diplomatic win for Biden, it's also taken some of the
spotlight off of Russia's war in Ukraine where Kyiv actually made one of its most daring moves on Monday, striking two military bases with drones, hundreds of miles deep
into Russian territory. But where I'll leave this story is with the obligatory, fuck Putin, and also, I'd love to know your thoughts here regarding this exchange.
And then China just invented a mother fracking invisibility cloak. Ah, but don't get too excited, it doesn't literally make you invisible, but it does effectively hide you from AI monitored security cameras, which are everywhere in China. So reportedly, this was designed by a team of four graduate students
at Wuhan University who won the first prize at the Huawei Cup, and the thing that
makes this so innovative is that it looks like a normal coat to any other human observer, right? So you don't
look like
a zebra among horses, but it has a specially
designed camouflage pattern that blinds normal
cameras during the daytime and emits unusual heat patterns at night, meaning it also confuses
the infrared cameras. And when the students tested
it on campus security cameras, the accuracy of pedestrian
detection was reduced by 57%, which would be especially troubling for the Chinese authorities where even you have police
cameras watch people in apartment buildings, on street corners and subway
s and basically everywhere else, with eight of the most
surveilled cities in the world belonging to China. But before you say, "Yes, the revolution," or, "Oh my gosh, I hope these
students are gonna be safe." Fortunately for the CCP, these students aren't making this to help protestors or
anyone resisting the state, rather they're doing it to
help detect vulnerabilities in China's surveillance system in advanced cybersecurity tech. But as far as what's next on the agenda, they plan to expand the
ir
cloaking tech to inanimate objects and cars, also aiming to
undermine other types of cameras like those using remote sensing,
satellites and aircraft. So, you know, nothing concerning at all. And then, Apple is giving
the FBI the middle finger, sort of, with Apple announcing yesterday
that they will be providing the option for users to fully
encrypt their iCloud backups with the goal of putting
that data out of reach for most hackers, but also
notably law enforcement, right? Because, well not
ably
it said that iMessages between Apple devices are
already end-to-end encrypted, most users also back up their iMessages, photos and other content to their iCloud, where Apple could then retrieve
it for locked out users or law enforcement,
also making it reachable by determined hackers to use
for embarrassment at best and extortion at worse. So Apple has decided
that the best option is to make data end-to-end
encrypted within the cloud. Though, a key thing here is
they've actually been trying
to do this for years, right? Back in 2020, they floated the idea, but the FBI pushed back
against it so they dropped it, instead at the time just walling off specific data like passwords, payment and health
information within the cloud. But now all data will be
encrypted within iCloud with the exception of things like emails, calendar and contact data because they require interoperation
with multiple providers. Now, with this, it's
expected that law enforcement and governments are gonna have
so
mething to say about it, considering their long-standing opposition to encryption in the name
of national security, but what this is gonna look
like, it's up in the air, whether it be the
complaints we saw last time, or even legislative or court action. And in fact, late last night, the FBI told "The Washington Post" it is, "deeply concerned with
the threat end-to-end and user-only-access encryption pose." But by the way, it looks
that we'll be seeing this option rather quickly with the reported
ly is set
to be available to U.S. users by the end of the year and
international users next year. So let me know, do you love this? Do you hate this? Are you somewhat torn? Any and all thoughts, I'd love to hear. And then with football,
basketball, hockey, and concerts all in full swing, there's an event for everyone, and you're not gonna wanna miss out, which is why I wanna take a second to thank a fantastic sponsor
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that link in the description to download the app. And then, one of my writers, Lily gave me this opening
statement for this story, "Prepare yourself, states
are slamming TikTok harder and faster than how your
mom usually asks for it." Lilly, this is a family show,
it's Christmas in 17 days, but Lilly is correct, right?
We've talked about previous
efforts at the federal level to impose bans and other regulations on the app many times before, but now what we're
seeing are state leaders taking the matter into their own hands. Just yesterday for example, Texas Governor, Greg Abbott ordered that all state agencies
ban the use of TikTok on any government issued
phones and computers. In a letter to state officials, Abbott specifically cited
concerns over data security on the Chinese owned app writing, "TikTok harvest
s vast amounts of data from its users' devices,
including when, where, and how they conduct internet activity and offers this trove of
potentially sensitive information to the Chinese Government." And adding, "while TikTok has claimed that it stores U.S. data within the U.S., the company admitted
in a letter to Congress that China-based employees
can have access to U.S. data. And it's also been reported
that ByteDance plan to use TikTok location information to surveil individual American citizen
s. With a letter also going on to mention how China's 2017 National Intelligence Law requires businesses to help
China with intelligence work, including data sharing, and noting that the algorithm
already censors certain topics that are politically sensitive
to the Chinese Government. But also, a key thing here
is that Abbott is just the most recent Republican Governor to take this kind of action. I mean, just this week alone, you had Maryland's
Republican Governor issuing an emergency directive
banning the use of TikTok and other, "Chinese and
Russian influence products in the Executive branch
of the State Government." And the Governor of South
Carolina also requesting the State's Department of
Administration block TikTok on all State Government
devices that it manages. And all of that comes after
South Dakota's Governor also barred all state employees and contractors from using
TikTok on state-owned devices. And the reason I mentioned all
these individual decisions is that these thin
gs are happening
in rapid succession, right? Prior to the last two weeks, Nebraska was the only state
to impose these kinds of bans, and they did it back in 2020. But all this now is likely
in part due to the fact that last week, FBI Director, Chris Ray, raised new concerns about the app saying it's algorithm allows them to manipulate content and if they want to, to use it for influence operations, which is why more bans
could be on the horizon. With just this week, a group of Wisconsin's
Member
s of Congress asking the State's Democratic
Governor to ban TikTok from State devices, and legislators in Arkansas
drafting a similar bill for the next session. Hell, just yesterday,
Indiana's Attorney General filed two lawsuits against TikTok with the first accusing the
company of misleading users about how safe the app is for children, claiming that it exposes
them to inappropriate content despite its 12 plus age
rating on the app store, and the second alleging that
the platform deceive custom
ers about China's ability
to access their data, saying that it has the
ability to spy on blackmail and coerce users in the name
of Chinese national security. And those suits are actually massive because they've been described as the first of their kind against TikTok and one of the strongest moves against the social media giant taken by a state. Now that said, TikTok
for its part responded with the classic vague
kind of corporate bullshit saying in a statement
that "The safety, privacy, and secu
rity of our community
is our top priority," and adding that it has
many tools and policies to ensure children are only accessing age appropriate content, and that ongoing negotiations
with the U.S. Government will address all national
security concerns. And the spokesperson
also telling the media that TikTok believes that the
efforts are largely fueled by misinformation about our company. But I will say as someone that has a large audience on TikTok, we're about to pass a billion
views after jus
t a year, even I have concerns about
what's really happening. And then in an amazing act of unity, Congress has done the bare minimum. It's both exciting and depressing when you really think about it. Like, this shouldn't have to be a thing, it shouldn't really even
be a thing in question, but I am happy to report that the House has passed the Respect for Marriage Act. So it's on its way to Joe Biden's
desk and when he signs it, same sex and interracial
marriage will be codified in Federal Law.
You know, for a while, we didn't know if this was
actually gonna go through, right? We even had Senator Tammy Baldwin
who helped lead the charge for the bills passing on the show with one of the big
questions of the time being, could Baldwin and others
believe the Republicans who said they would vote for it, but only after the election. And enough stayed true to
their word, but notably, the Senate did have to add an
amendment to sue the concerns from Republicans over religious liberty. But ultim
ately the Senate
got it there, 61 to 36, now The House making its way through, 258 to 169 with 39
Republicans joining Democrats. So the elephant in the room of course is that 169 people voted against it, including one Republican representative who spoke out against it saying. - Mr. Speaker, I'll tell you my priority, protect religious liberty,
protect people of faith, and protect Americans who believe in the true meaning of marriage. I hope and pray that my
colleagues will find the courage to jo
in me in opposing this misguided and this dangerous bill. - Like, I try to put myself
in other people's shoes, but I just, I can't imagine a world where I would be brought to
tears because gay people get to have some of the same
rights as me, right? This coming from a person that likely calls others snowflakes. And remember, she's crying over a thing that doesn't even fully do
what it should do, right? A key thing with this law is
it's not going to force states to issue marriage licenses
for sam
e sex couples, it just requires a state to go, "Oh, we recognize this marriage as long as the marriage license is valid, where it was performed." Repealing Bill Clinton's
1996 Defense of Marriage Act that define marriages
between a man and a woman, which also gave states the ability to not recognize same
sex marriages performed in other states, which is part
of the reason why it's like it's a day to celebrate, but
also it's a day to be like, "Man, we truly live in a world where we have to celebr
ate
the bare fucking minimum." And then they tried to overthrow the German government, right? If you didn't see, 25 people were arrested early Wednesday morning by German police for plotting to overthrow the
government in a violent coup, where the majority of those
arrested being accused of being a part of a
terrorist organization, and the remainder, including
a Russian national, said to be supporters. So key details, the arrests
were part of a series of raids that stretched across 11 of Germany
states and into Austria and Italy. Also, an additional 27 people
had properties searched in the raids and are
reportedly being investigated on suspicion of being
members or supporters, with this organization said to subscribe to several conspiracy theories. Most notably here, the idea
that Germany's Republic after World War II doesn't actually exist, but is rather an
administrative construct set up by the allies. So Germany's Federal Public
Prosecutor's statement saying, "They're firmly convinc
ed that
Germany is currently governed by members of a so-called 'deep state.'" And according to the statement, this group was planning on
installing their own government and leader after their coup. They'd also gathered new members, established a new
administrative structure, obtained weapons, and provided shooting
lessons to their ranks. Oh my God, why does it sound familiar? And they were prepared
to use those lessons, with the prosecutor's statement saying, "The members of the association are
aware that this project can only be realized through the use of military means and violence against
state representatives." This also includes the
commission of homicides, with some even suspected of making plans for an armed force entry into
Germany's Parliament building. I know where I've heard this story before, but also we saw German
lawmakers drawing comparison between this organization
and the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, saying, "At the latest, since January 6, 2021, we
have known that anti-democratic speech can also be followed by actions directed against democracy and parliament. Today, the German security
authorities have succeeded in putting a stop to such
plans to seize power," with nineteen of those
arrested reprimanded in court yesterday and the remaining six
set to see a judge today. But hey, here's what I'll say, good job, Germany. Maybe it's because it is your history, but it is good to see a
country understand history so you sufficiently
take seriou
s the threat of an armed insurrection. Because sometimes when
you don't take it serious and maybe people just
get a slap on the wrist, it's just a test run. You don't use kid gloves on fascists who've got murder on their mind. And then, since we're already
talking about coups today, we should talk about Peru, because they just arrested
President Pedro Castillo for trying to abolish the
constitutional order, right? If you didn't see this yesterday, he tried to get rid of
Congress and take power.
The far left Castillo
took office last year after a tight runoff election, and his opponents were not fans of his and they controlled Congress, which then enacted its
constitutional right to use the attorney
general to investigate him on, like, six different
corruption charges, three of which eventually led to what are called constitutional complaints, aka de facto charges against him. With all that leading to Castillo claiming that his opponents have been trying to enact their own coup since da
y one through these investigations, and all the while, he couldn't
keep ministers in office as they kept resigning or being replaced, and more corruption allegations
came out against him and his close friends and family with it eventually coming
to a head yesterday when Congress made it
clear that it was going to vote to impeach the president. And at this point, it wasn't
just those on the right, with many of Castillo's
own party ditching him. However, the President
attempted to play his trap ca
rd and claim that he was abolishing Congress and enacting an emergency government that would rule by decree. And during that time, he hoped that a new parliamentary
election could take place in order to draft a new constitution. Now this move was widely
denounced both within Peru and by the international
community as a coup, and within the country, many of the president's own
cabinet and party members abandoned ship and resigned in mass. Even Dina Boluarte,
his own vice president, had ditched hi
m by this point and tweeted, "I reject the decision by Pedro Castillo to perpetrate the breakdown
of the constitutional order by closing Congress. It's a coup d'etat that
aggravates the political and institutional crisis
that Peruvian society will have to overcome with
strict adherence to the law." And internationally, we saw
the U.S. Ambassador to Peru tweet out, "The U.S. strongly
urges President Castillo to reverse his attempt
to shut down Congress and allow Peru's democratic institutions to
function according
to the Constitution." And adding, "We encourage
the Peruvian public to remain calm during
this uncertain time." While Argentina's Ministry
of Foreign Affairs said, "Argentina regrets and
expresses its deep concern over the political crisis that
the sister Republic of Peru is going through, and calls on all political
and social actors to safeguard democratic institutions, the rule of law and constitutional order." And within Peru itself, there was almost no time for people to a
ctually panic about what would happen, with the military quick to say no and called it an infringement
of the constitution. Shortly after that, Congress was like, "Yeah, no." With a meeting up anyways
and voting to impeach and remove him from office. And in the end, 101 of 130 members voted to get rid of Castillo
with just six members of his own party voting
against the measure. He was also charged with rebellion and arrested while he was still
on his way out of the area by his own police escort
. Also, his wife, alongside
his sister-in-law, are both under heavy scrutiny
for their alleged corruption with a ton of accusations out there that there was a whole web
around Castillo that was used to enrich those close to him. And while Castillo
obviously denies all this, it remains to be seen how Peru is going to handle all of this. But in the meantime,
Boluarte has been sworn in as president and is the
country's first female president. While in the streets of Peru, we've seen Castillo's foll
owers
coming out to protest, many have praised Peru for
taking such quick action and stopping this illegal power grab, which, I will say as an American, it's very interesting to see what happens in a country where, you know, a president who tries
to destroy the country and become a dictator actually
gets held responsible. And the guy is not even done, he just recently called
for the Constitution to be completely ignored
and installed into power. But anyway. And then I'm a hungry man, boy, daddy,
whatever you wanna call me,
but the main point being, I like snacks, which is why I wanna
tell you about a sponsor of the PDS, Bokksu. Bokksu is my favorite Japanese snack box. They work with family
businesses throughout Japan to send you a new theme of
authentic treats every month. The first Bokksu you'll receive is Seasons of Japan, and after that you'll receive a new themed box like this one. I already got a little
sneak peek of the next box, which is Shinshun New Year, which I will say, the
matcha
chocolate covered strawberries are insane, sweet and slightly sour. It even comes with a
booklet that takes you through the theme, the
origins of the snacks and details on the flavors. You know, I love Japan when I went, I don't often get the chance, so I like having a little piece
of it like delivered to me, especially when that little
piece is something I can eat. And not just for you, if you're looking to get creative
with your holiday gifting, Bokksu is a great choice. Yeah, it's gre
at to surprise
someone with a thing, but also a unique experience, and you get to support
the show at the same time, win, win, win. So click that link in the description now and use code DEFRANCO15 to get $15 off your first BOKKSU order. And then, we're best friends, right? Well, actually, no, I can have
a deep appreciation for you, you can have a deep appreciation for me, but we don't actually know each other. But also understand it's not weird. A lot of you probably feel
attached to some celeb
rity, a podcast or an influencer,
an artist, a creator, or some sort of public figure. That's something that's already happened, but especially something
that's more understandable as the content's gotten more personal and it's something that's
become fairly normal as a part of media consumption and of course we've
talked about it before, parasocial relationships, right? And for me, this isn't like
a completely new feeling, even with the characters
on scripted shows, I feel connections with them
, sometimes when series ends, I feel like I just got broken up with. This thing that made me feel something and what was ultimately
a one-sided relationship is now gone. But because I think we're
seeing this more and more, I wanted to learn more about it, right? I wanted to try to understand
parasocial relationships more, talk about, you know, how they impact us. So we reached out to Dr. Gayle Stever, a professor of psychology
at Empire State College who has studied parasocial
theory and interac
tion for decades. And it turns out the reason why
we form these relationships, it sounds simple, but it's
also very interesting. It has to do with the fact that our brain is wired to always look
for a social connection, whether it be in person
or just watching something on a screen. - And there's a part of your brain that can't really tell the difference between a person in real life
and a person through media. So those images and voices
are all being processed as if they are real. If you see th
e same face and
voice over and over and over, your human tendency is to
wanna form a relationship with that person. - So it also feels like it makes sense to learn that some of the earlier studies on parasocial relationships
actually focused on soap operas. I don't know if you
had a parent like this, but my stepmom loved soap operas, right? The closest thing the younger
generation had to that were, like, daily vloggers or people binging stuff on Netflix. But specifically with older people, becau
se they tend to
spend a lot of time alone, soaps filled a social void. Parasocial relationships
can fill all sorts of void for anyone, whether it be
role models, entertainment, companionship, or even romance. With Stever pointing to one
woman that she had met recently who lost her husband to cancer. So she thinks, you know, "The
romantic part of my life, it's over." But then all of a sudden
she becomes a huge fan of Josh Groban. And even though she was
much older than him, she was likely not gon
na meet
him, she had a crush on him. - What did that do for her? Well, what she said was, "I realized that that part of
my emotions was still there, that I could still have a
romantic feeling about somebody, and I'm thinking now about dating again." - Well, Stever also
noting that is an example of a very healthy parasocial relationship. One where it's not like
she's stalking this guy and it actually helped to break down walls of her social life. Without you specifically realizing it, you may hav
e formed some
parasocial relationships to fill the gaps in your life as well, especially with us now
coming out of the pandemic. During the empanada, there was increased loneliness
for basically everyone, the paraguay made it more likely that we would connect people
we saw on our screens. But Stever even saying during that time, she joked that Stephen Colbert
was her parasocial therapist. - And he was helping
you as a viewer process the challenges of the
pandemic by letting you see how he was co
ping with it, in that particular case, using humor to help sort of diffuse
some of the tension of what people were experiencing socially. So you walk away from the
show and you feel like, "Oh gosh, there's somebody
else who understands what I'm going through." - And Colbert wasn't
the only one doing that, all the late night hosts were as well as influencers and celebrities. And so, during the perineum, consuming and interacting
with all this media became a very universal experience. But understa
nd, while it
was certainly heightened during the panini, it was something that just existed because of social media, right? On Instagram, TikTok,
YouTube, right me, right now, you have people talking to the camera directly addressing the
people that are watching it, whether that means speaking generally or saying specific
names like, "Hi, James." And this form of direct communication that's become massively
popular online has changed how we engage with these relationships. - It's a very interper
sonal
feeling to the interaction. I do think that social media, because of the direct address, has formed a more intimate kind
of parasocial relationship. - And it can feel personal when we see these people
on our screens every day. And I understand this, I understand before I made videos and I felt like I was
fostering a community, I was someone in the stands watching. Hell, it's part of the reason
I even started this show. I used to watch "The Show with Ze Frank," and when it ended I felt like
, "Oh my God, where'd my
sense of community go?" Right, so familiarity and repetition, it's a huge part of it. - I would venture that these media people that we watch over and over and over, we know more about them than
we know about our neighbors. - For me, that is a fact. And social media also opens the door for there to be a two-way interaction. There's always a chance
they're gonna see what you say and they might even respond
to your post or your comment. With Stever even noting that, yeah,
through these interactions,
it is a two-way street, celebrities might actually
recognize and know certain fans based on the interactions. But in addition to all of that, social media has allowed
fans to connect more with one another. And Stever has actually
been studying fandom since back in the eighties. And back then, they'd
put out ads and magazines looking for people to join pen pal groups, but now in an instant, you can
ask a whole world of people with a device that fits
in your back pocket
and. - They can go on Facebook or Instagram and find like-minded fans
and become part of a network of fans and have that be
part of their social life. - Now with fandoms, you might automatically jump
to the most extreme situations, or you think about the most extreme fans, you think about scary stories, hearing about celebrities
being stalked and harassed. Right, online there have been instances of, like, extreme fans,
stalkers showing up, police getting involved. I mean, there was a story,
I w
on't mention who, but police had to show up and
shoot and kill this person. Then you see situations like
Tana Mongeau having a stalker sending her photos of
a guy holding a knife outside of her house. - Now he found my new house's address, he lives out of a van, he messages me, like, every second, he sent a photo of his dick too. - And that also kinda
feels like a trend, right? We've seen the, likes,
of Belle Delphine saying she got death threats
from stalkers, right? People taking photos of
the
mselves outside of her house in the middle of the night, right? And so we see these stories
in the news all the time, but Stever says that this
kind of dangerous behavior may not be directly related to that person's parasocial
relationship with a celebrity in the way that we think. - There are people out there who think celebrity worship is a slippery
slope to mental illness, I haven't seen it, I've done case studies
of fans for over 30 years and I meet a lot of fans face-to-face. Most of the fa
ns I meet
who are troubled fans, who are engaging in a
way that's not healthy, have an underlying mental illness. - So Stever was saying that it's less to do with the parasocial attachment, and far more with the
preexisting mental illness that they've been struggling with, right? It's more so the mental illness aspect that causes a bigger problem
leading to troubling behavior. She's saying that based
off her observations, superfans are not necessarily more likely to suffer from mental illness th
an general population at large. And saying in her experience, the fans that she met are
largely grounded in reality, of sound mind and understand
they'll likely never meet the celebrity that they love. Though, notable thing, saying their feelings on this might be moderately controversial because it requires more research. So there is room for
disagreement among experts. - It's the old, as I already said, chicken and the egg
question, which came first? The fixation on the celebrity or the underly
ing issue
that has caused them to become fixated. And really, we need a
whole lot more research to definitively answer that question. - And even though Stever noted
that there is wiggle room for how people understand this, this idea that the behavior of superfans and stalkers being separate, that's actually been echoed
by a number of people who have experienced it themselves. With Alexis Bowater, for example, a TV presenter and news reporter in the UK who's been stalked
herself, telling "BBC New
s" that she feels is super fans and stalkers have little in common. Though here, it is also worth noting that there are other things
that experts have suggested to watch out for, to make
sure parasocial relationships do not become unhealthy, right? One of the big things, "Make sure these relationships don't actually replace relationships with people that you know," also, "Don't think about these
relationships as mutual." But with all that said, and us now on the other
side of this conversation,
I do wanna pass the question off to you, what are your thoughts on this topic? Also, what are your experiences with this or experiences that you've also witnessed? But that is where today's show ends. As always, thank you for watching, liking and being a part of these
daily dives under the news. Remember, whether it be this
show or the previous three, I'm gonna be taking some of your comments and talking about them on Sunday, but as always, my name's Philip DeFranco, you've just been filled in.
I love you faces and I'll see you Sunday.
Comments
"I was literally talking to a Chinese person earlier today and they said they love me" has the same energy as, "I can't be racist because my bestfriend is black!"
As an Asian person, straight outta Asia, I am very offended by what Speedy did. I have been dealing with that shit since I was young and it's really not funny. Being called a new virus, ching chong, konichiwa, and many more... I am tired of people thinking it's okay to assume and speak the wrong language to me. 🙃
I say this as a black person myself. There are still a lot of people who don't know that the definition of racism is not just about hating people of other races. Racism is about people's perception of inferiority/superiority. It is about looking down or discriminating against another race on the basis that you think something about that race is inferior to you or other races. People need to understand that mocking people of another race because you think their features, culture, accents, or language is silly or stupid enough to make fun of is RACIST. Usually, this is based on prejudices you may have about a certain race. Unfortunately, even some black people I know personally, like iShowSpeed, don't really understand this. While the streamer doesn't seem to hate Asian people, but he doesn't seem to respect their language and culture which is why he mocked that Asian man.
I cannot fathom calling marriage equality "dangerous" when it literally doesn't affect anyone except the people who want to get married. Like it literally hurts no one at all.
Phil the “empanada” at 21:45 threw me for a loop 😂 I was catching up on your show while feeding my newborn and had to replay that segment 5x to ensure I wasn’t going crazy. But you obviously know this already, given the strength of our parasocial relationship lol
I didn’t realize how intense parasocial relationships could be until the try guys drama. I was genuinely upset by the news and many of my friends who up until that point I didn’t know we’re try guys fans were upset as well even going as far as posting on their stories about how sad they were
"I was talking to a Chinese person today" is just "I have black friends I'm not racist" in a different coat.
I love that Phil is doing these little 'mental health' stores and especially focusing on social media like parasocial relationships.
Thank you for introducing me to the concept of parasocial relationships. I have friend like that and I didn’t understand why she was so involved with a person personal life when that person doesn’t even know her. It feels like I just gained a nugget of knowledge.
I didn't think I had any parasocial relationships until Jenna Marbles left the internet & I was genuinely devastated.
Back when I did a video editing internship they called the parasocial relationship “editor syndrome” because you would get a whole bunch of footage and when the director says cut the camera will often keep rolling, especially when you’re working on the set of a documentary or a reality show. So as an editor you got to tune into different conversations like you were on set and in your brain it was like you had been involved in that conversation.
Thank you for talking about parasocial relationships. It helped me explain what I've been feeling a little better. Recently Kevin Conroy passed away and it hit me hard. He voiced batman in a lot of shows that got me thru some tough times during my childhood. BTAS, Justice league, and Justice league unlimited to name some. When the news broke I was devastated but at the same time I felt kinda silly feeling so upset over someone I've never met. Now learning about parasocial relationships it makes sense.
As a Chinese American, my experience is when you call anyone out for making sounds that imitate "Chinese" they double down minimizing what they have just done by saying they were just trying to greet you or say something they think is Chinese. What he did was racist. I took issue with the fact that he was still screaming KONICHIWA when the individual was telling him he is Chinese, knowing that he continued to scream konichiwa. Then, issuing an apology about how he was just trying to be friendly. Tbh, I have had this happen to me so many times that it's irritating. If you want to greet someone, just greet someone in your language. Being friendly DOES NOT require you to greet them in their language. Frankly, it is absolutely uncomfortable, upsetting, and off-putting when anyone does this, especially out in public.
Phil saying empanada and panini instead of saying pandemic has me rolling. 😂
I really appreciated the story on parasocial relationships. Felt like Phil and his team seeking a story in contrast to reporting daily news. The daily news is amazing! But happy to see the PDS continue to grow and experiment
I really enjoyed the segment where you talked about parasocial relationships, in particular fandoms. One of the reasons people view kpop fans as rabid may be because of those 'stalkers' and over the top 'super fans', but the vast majority of fans are chill normal people just happy to enjoy music. Many fans can become so attached because the artists are very good at creating a parasocial relationship that almost feels two way. And for some of the smaller bands, it really can be to an extent, with apps that allow messaging from artist to fan and back. With this strong parasocial relationship, it does lead to a lot of people feeling like they would ride or die for their 'friend' and is possibly the reason why we come out in troves to defend our favorite artists. Especially so because this artist often had helped us through tough times in our lives, whether they know it or not. But also, I'm glad she just lightly mentioned the aspect of community. One of the most positive aspects that I have gotten from becoming a kpop fan, was finding small communities of people who also like the same artist, and I have formed relationships with those other fans through a mutual interest. I've even formed some bonds strong enough that I've travelled to go meet and become real life friends with them! It's crazy to think that some of the people that I interact with multiple times a day, who are now my really good friends, may not have come into my life had it not been for the existence of a musical artist.
I find parasocial relationships really interesting because we all basically has some form of them. As a late diagnosed autistic woman these types of relationships have helped me feel less alone and understand different types of people I’m also just naturally a over sharing so it also kinda feels right to be hearing about people lives. I try my best to always remember I don’t actually know these people and be is respectful as possible for that same reason.
Parasocial relationships are rough, especially when you are young and don't know fully what's happening. As a kid I developed some with a few content creators one of which being Smosh. When Ian and Anthony stop working together it was rough. It felt like two of your closest friends weren't together anymore, which is something that has happened with my real friends. Nowadays I can separate it a bit better, but for the youth with apps like TikTok it probably feels even more intimate with those parasocial relationships. And with in-person relationships being impacted by COVID and with remote learning, kids can definitely be highly affected by these.
The Speed drama makes me so mad. The man said he wasn’t Japanese and Speed insisted on saying konnichiwa to the point where he took an aggressive tone. As an Asian person I had so many encounters like that even to the point of being followed by an older man who insisted I was Chinese. I don’t care how much he insists he’s not racist, he is and his actions were 100% racist.
This is going to be one hell of a Sunday show, im excited to see it. There were a lot of really loaded topics today and is my personal nominee for one of the best pds of the year