Factually! with Adam Conover - Group Chats are Destroying MAGA

Episode Date: May 9, 2025

(In addition to your weekly Factually! episode, this week we're bringing you a monologue from Adam. This short, researched monologue originally aired on the Factually! YouTube page, but we are sharing audio versions of these monologues with our podcast audience as well. Please enjoy, and stay tuned for your regularly scheduled episode of Factually!)Signalgate is a signal of something greater.You can go to my link https://aura.com/adamconover to try 14 days for free. That’s enough time for Aura to start scrubbing your personal info off these data broker sites #sponsoredSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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don't get along with each other. And meanwhile, Pete Hegseth is crashing out on the news about leakers. Those very same people keep leaking to the very same reporters. Once a leaker, always a leaker, often a leaker. And so we looked for leakers because we take it very seriously. Uh oh, strap a pair of depends on the White House because Pete's pissing his pants. And in yet another recently leaked group chat, Republicans are fighting over Trump's own policies. Yeah, you know the vibe is in shambles when even Tucker Carlson leaves your group chat.

That guy never leaves on his own. He's used to getting kicked out. Now look, these guys have always been backstabbing assholes. But lately, I've been wondering if there's another reason behind the constant Trump administration infighting. I think it might be the group chats themselves. Because it turns out, these guys are f***ing addicted to them. It all started, of course, with the infamous Huthy PC small group chat on Signal, where Pete Hegseth texted bombing plans to a group of his colleagues, but also accidentally a

reporter from the Atlantic. Among his many texts were, We're currently clean on OPSEC. Hey Pete, if a reporter hears you say we're clean on OPSEC, you're not clean on OPSEC buddy. This is like texting, thank god Kristen isn't on this thread, in the thread that Kristen is definitely in. Now personally, I think when you f*** up that badly, you should take a step back.

But no. Just last week, Mike Waltz, the guy who initially added the journalist to the Warplans group chat, was caught checking his many signal chats under the table at a cabinet meeting. If you zoom in, you can see that he is using signal to chat with JD Vance, Marco Rubio, Tulsi Gabbard, and at least one visible group chat. I wonder what that one was. Ooh, maybe he was texting with his crush about European foreign policy. Well, Waltz is not alone, because the fact is, Trump's entire right-wing movement is

texting up a storm. The journalist Ben Smith recently uncovered multiple large right-wing group chats populated by billionaires, pundits, and Republican power brokers. It turns out, group chats are the new right-wing social club. A White House advisor even calls them forever dinner parties. And you know what? I think this is part of the reason why we are seeing these public meltdowns on the right. These guys are going nuts because they're hooked on group chats,

one of the weirdest and most manipulative communications technologies we have ever encountered. Well, in this video, I'm going to explore how the group chat took over the right wing, what that is doing to their brains, and what the rest of us can do about it. But before I do, text your group chat and invite them to see some live comedy. You can see me on the road coming up in Oklahoma, Washington state, Brea, California. We're always adding new dates. Head to AdamConover.net for all those tickets and cities. And if you'd like to support this channel and the hardworking people behind it directly,

and I hope you do, you can do so at patreon.com slash adamkonover. So in that infamous signal chat, Trump's national security advisor, his defense secretary, the head of his CIA, his director of national intelligence, his secretary of state, his White House chief of staff, and one very confused Atlantic reporter discussed bombing an apartment building in Yemen. That bombing ended up killing 53 people, including children. And the transcript of the group chat shows us exactly how callously all of these people reacted to those deaths. Excellent! A good start! Fist emoji! American flag emoji! Fire emoji!

That is not how you respond to killing 53 people. That's how you respond to me sending you a nude. Now look, I don't really expect a bunch of America first losers to give a shit about how many kids they bombed. But this was also a really serious security breach. It's not a good sign that the people in charge of keeping us safe, you know, the people at the very top, are so asleep at the wheel that they're adding randos

to life or death group chats. But instead of responding to this leak by trying to fix their glaring security problem, they've instead decided to play I know what you are but what am I? When messy little drunk Pete Hegseth was asked about his role in Signalgate, he flipped out and started shouting at the Easter egg roll. They got pollsters for a bunch of lies. This is what we're doing it for. These kids right here. This is why we're fighting the fake news media. This is why we're fighting Greg Roll. with axes to grind, and then you put it all together as if it's some news story. Look at these poor kids.

They thought they were gonna find some candy hidden in Easter eggs. Instead, they realized there was still booze hidden in daddy. Just as a side note, when Pete promised he would quit drinking if confirmed as defense secretary, this was my face. But why is Hegseth losing it?

What has made him feel so afraid and vulnerable on this day of the Easter Bunny's birth? Simple. Because someone tattled on him in his group chat, and that's the one place he thought he was safe. See, that's the thing about group chats. They feel so comfortable and conspiratorial and safe. You get to craft the perfect message before sending it, and then when you do, you get an instantaneous positive response from all your friends. It can make you feel like a snarky little conversational god. And maybe that's why they're so popular among Republican power brokers. Like okay, another conservative chat was recently leaked to journalists at Semaphore.

Its membership includes Shark Tank Shark Mark Cuban, Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, and dry pussy aficionado Ben Shapiro. Yeah, you effin. With some wet ass P word, there's something that is going on here that is not biologically normal. I'm sorry, I know this clip is years old at this point, but it is normal for the p***y to be wet. Have you never f***ed Ben?

Ben Shapiro has never f***ed, and I think we all need to be reminded of that on a semi-weekly basis. Okay, let's get back to it. But the most prolific member of these group chats has to be Mark Andreessen. Andreessen, if you don't know him, co-founded the first commercial web browser, Netscape, and he has since become perhaps the most influential

billionaire venture capitalist on the planet. Also, he looks like Humpty Dumpty. I mean, call him Dr. Robotnik because that is an egg man. Mark looks so much like an egg, I have to wonder, is he behind the shortage? The billionaires have hoarded 99% of the wealth in America and 99% of the eggs into the heads. I'm sorry, I'm being mean.

Mark's head is actually so big and pointy because it's full of stupid ideas. Andriessen recently made headlines by declaring that AI was coming for everyone's job except his own. Oh, of course, Mark, only your job is special and important and can only be done by a human. Who needs real human teachers or doctors when we can have real human dudes who invest money in sh** that usually fails?

Now, Andreessen famously voted for and donated to Democrats for years, but in 2024 he started publicly swinging hard for Trump, donating millions to Trump-friendly super PACs. And this jerk's jerk to the right might have been caused by the group chats themselves. In the past couple of years, people have noticed Andreessen becoming obsessed with these group chats. One person who sat near him at a conference observed that Mark spent the entire time flipping from group chat to group chat, responding and engaging with manic speed.

And another group chat member said, "'My impression is Mark spends half his life "'on a hundred of these at the same time.'" Man, I thought this dude was supposed to be a big shot investor with the only important job on the planet, but it turns out he's spending his time jumping between 50 discords at once like a Roblox kid. His job isn't fancy and important, it's just fucking texting. And what the fuck? It turns out he's spending his time jumping between 50 discords at once like a Roblox kid.

His job isn't fancy and important, it's just f***ing texting. And what the f***? Could this guy possibly be texting so much about? Well, it turns out that right-wing conservatives, billionaires, and tech bros are using these chats to work together to shape political consensus among people like Andreessen. As one group chatter, the incredibly tiresome columnist Thomas Chatterton Williams, even the guy's name is boring to say, as he put it, I've been amazed at how much this is coordinating our reality.

If you weren't in the business at all, you'd think that everyone was arriving at conclusions independently and they're not. It's a small group of people who talk to each other and overlap between politics and journalism and a few industries. And that's a big deal. Our politics are literally being shaped by a shadowy cabal of powerful people in a secret meeting none of us will ever get to see. This is the exact kind of conspiracy theory wing nuts usually get so worked up about, and these people are actually f***ing doing it. And it's clear that these group chats are being used to keep pro-Trump political coalitions in line,

in lockstep with each other. In one chat, Trump's special advisor for AI and crypto, I swear to God that's a real title, David Sacks, mocks fellow group chat members for suffering from what he calls Trump Derangement Syndrome, which is basically an insult Republicans use to call anyone who criticizes Trump hysterical. Then Saxcadally suggested that they form a new group chat with only smart people.

I mean, that is so f***ing juvenile, it's basically a quote from Mean Girls. I can almost imagine him writing it in a burn book. Mark Cuban is a fugly slut. I mean, I thought these guys were supposed to be powerful. They have the ear of the President of the United States, after all, and they're shaping policy that affects almost every human being on Earth. So why are they acting like whiny little bitches over text?

Simple, because they're getting brain poisoned by the group chat itself. But first, if you don't want your information to leak onto the internet, I wanna talk to you about this video's sponsor, Aura. When's the last time you did a quick internet search for your own name? Chances are, you might come across your phone number, your old addresses, even the names of your relatives just sitting out in plain view.

Take for instance, my producer Tony. Look at all this info just sitting out there for folks to steal. For shame, Tony. I scrubbed my info clean the second I knew it was out there, and it's time for Tony to do the same. As it is for all to steal. For shame, Tony. I scrubbed my info clean the second I knew it was out there, and it's time for Tony to do the same. As it is for all of you. That's why I recommend Aura, a service that automatically removes your info from data broker sites and keeps it off. No confusing forms, no endless requests, just the sweet relief of privacy. But Aura is more than just that. It's a full digital security suite. Real-time fraud alerts, dark web monitoring,

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for a second. I mean these dudes are rich, right? So they could be having these chats on private planes or fancy clubs or underground sex dungeons. Instead they're chained to their phones just like the rest of us. Why? Well group chats are unlike any other form of communication we've ever had access to. They are wildly popular. One study found that 98% of WhatsApp users are in at least one group chat and another study found that the average person is in 83 group chats and at first that sounded crazy to me and then I realized I've got my family group chats, my work group

chats, my TV trash-talking group chats, my college besties, the one chat I use just for talking about the Dodgers, a group chat for coordinating seeing sinners in IMAX that has since turned into a convoluted in-joke about how we all hate one of the people in the group chat, and a lot more. Bitches be chatting. And I have a theory for why these chats are so popular. They're addictive. Group chats, like a lot of stuff on our phones, provide a form of operant conditioning. That basically means when something gives us positive rewards,

we come back to it over and over again. Just like when a dog knows they get a treat when they sit, I know I get a little hit of dopamine every time my phone dings. And group chats provide a lot of dings. A text conversation with one person might naturally pause while the two of you do something else, but when dozens or hundreds of people are in a group chat, it can literally be a non-stop dopamine factory.

Plus, group chats feel like a private club, and when other people in them are influential or famous, no matter how egg-shaped they are, you get an ego boost from participating. Or an egg boost. Or an egg boost. Because he looks like... We can move on. And unlike a private club, a group chat is open 24-7. You can attend this club while you're taking a sh**, while you're scrolling your ex-feed, or even while you're at a boring meeting. Traditional forms of communication just aren't as addictive as group chats, which offer instant attention from other people whenever we want it. And you know, a lot of people blame social media for making us addicted to our phones,

but I actually don't think it's social media at all. Social media is just what we do to fill the time in between texting. It's the f***ing messages apps that are the real crack pipe. Now look, group chats obviously aren't all bad. They can be a lot of fun, and they can be really useful when you need to update your whole family on how meemaw's surgery went.

But they can have a lot of drawbacks in higher stake settings. Because chat messages also flatten social cues. There's no eye contact, there's no tone of voice, no physical presence of another human being that might cue our brain to moderate our behavior. And maybe that's why we assume anyone we're communicating

with via text is less empathetic and less friendly. Your friend doesn't hate you, you just can't see their eyes. And when we perceive that lack of empathy on the other side of the phone, it's easier for us to justify acting without empathy right back. It can be a vicious cycle where we start to act

way meaner over text than we would ever be willing to do in public. Like how many times have you been in a group chat that devolved into infighting even when everybody in it was supposed to have common cause? Group chats encourage dunking on each other. When someone else says something dumb, you can breathlessly text your friends on a smaller group chat to mock that person, and then you all toss in popcorn gifts while you wait for someone else to tear them apart back in the big chat. Group chats offer you that sweet sweet dopamine in exchange for being a callous

asshole. It's like if you gave your dog a treat every time they bit your neighbor except this time you are the dog and the person giving the treat. Imagine that you're in a group chat full of bridesmaids that slowly turns on the bride after she insists everyone dress in pews. Oh, all of you were best friends before this group chat started, but suddenly Meredith is dunking on Melissa for picking out a pews jumpsuit,

and Megan is back channeling with Miranda to convince the bride to switch to lavender. Meanwhile, Margo is convincing Melanie that the bride picked out pews because she knows it looks ugly on Malala. All of these besties would never say any of that out loud, but the alluring power of the group chat, the lack of eye contact,

the ability to write your worst thoughts in cold text without having to hear them out loud, that pushes the bridesmaids to the brink. That is what group chats do, and that's what they're doing right now to the people running our f***ing government. I mean, when the people at the top of this country are governed by this kind of anti-empathy group chat communication, it's easy to see how they're devolving into backbiting and mutual hatred.

The National Security Advisor is scheming behind the Defense Secretary's back. The Chief of Staff is texting screenshots to the VP with eye-roll emojis. The CIA Director is egging on the Secretary of State into making a scene in front of his boss. These guys were already callous assholes before this. Their jobs literally pushed them to compartmentalize the violence and horror of their own actions. But now the group chat is helping them do it tenfold. So yes, the right wing is using these group chats as a major tool to organize everything

from bombing civilians to coordinating public messaging against journalists they don't like. And all of it is making the very people who run our government even more aggressive and hostile than they already were. So what can we do about it? After all, unless they leak, these chats are private, right? When the message is deleting themselves as quickly as 30 seconds after they're sent. Some people might say the answer is more group chats.

That those of us organizing for a better world beyond the Trump White House need to get into a big rolling group chat together too, right? But the truth is, group chats are vulnerable to misunderstanding and political exploitation no matter who's in them. To take just one recent example, transgender government workers created a group chat to discuss the federal crackdown on trans people. Eventually, this chat wound up discussing things like gender reassignment surgery. And now that those transcripts have leaked to the public, conservatives are using them

as further evidence to push trans people from public life. And you know, I personally have been a part of organizations where the group chat turned from a vehicle to organizing into a toxic brew of sniping and backbiting that just wasted time and pushed our goals further out of reach. As fun as they can be, group chats simply have their limits for what they can accomplish. They can be great to gab about the Bachelor, but they're not a substitute for in-person organizing and human connection. And, you know, getting people together in person or even over Zoom can be difficult,

but when you're able to look each other in the eye and establish real human trust, you can get a lot more done than when you're hiding and sniping behind a screen. Every organizer worth their salt knows that it's the bonds between humans, not screen names, that truly make change. And you know what?

The sniveling right-wing dorks hiding on the secret group chats probably aren't going to learn that. But maybe the rest of us can. Maybe while they're busy burying their faces in their phones, trying to come up with the best possible dunk on each other or the greatest combination of American flag emojis the world has ever seen, the rest of us can come together

in person and fight for a better world in the real world. That was a HeadGum Podcast. Hi, I'm Jessi Klein. And I'm Liz Feldman, and we're the hosts of a new HeadGum Podcast called Here to Make Friends. Liz and I met in the writer's room on a little hit TV show called Dead to Me, which is a show about murder. But more importantly, it's also about two women becoming very good friends in their 40s.

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