Sounds Like A Cult - The Cult of Reddit

Episode Date: November 28, 2023

Sounds Like A Cult has covered doomsday cults, political cults, religious cults ... and this week is where they all join forces – on the much requested: Cult of Reddit! Notorious for forming some of the most niche yet largely endorsed group-thinks on the internet, and even powerful enough to take down institutional pillars…is the Cult of Reddit a Live Your Life, Watch Your Back or a Get the Fuck Out Level Cult? This week, Isa welcomes friend, writer and soon-to-be co-host of their new podcast, Lydia Keating, to discuss the good, the bad and the rabbit whole that is The Cult of Reddit.  Head to Host Isa Medina's IG or website to learn more about her new podcast coming in 2024! Or to tell her where to perform stand up next! Thank you to our sponsor: SKIMS Holiday Gift Shop is now open at SKIMS.com. Get free shipping on orders over seventy five dollars.

Thank you to our sponsor, Skims. Believe the hype, Skims has over 100,000 five star reviews for a reason. Skims' holiday gift shop is now open at skims.com. Plus get free shipping on orders over $75. After you place your order, be sure to let them know we sent you. Select podcast in the survey and be sure to select our show in the drop down menu that follows. The views expressed on this episode are solely my opinions and quoted allegations.

The content here should not be taken as indisputable facts. This podcast is for entertainment purposes only. This is Sounds Like a Cult, a show about the modern-day cults we all follow. I'm Issa Medina and I'm a comedian. Every week on our show, we discuss a different fanatical fringe group from the cultural zeitgeist, from diet culture to doomsday preppers, to try and answer the big question. This group sounds like a cult, but is it really? This week I'm so excited to bring on my very smart and funny friend,

writer, content creator, yay of graduate! Lydia Keating to chat about the cult of Reddit. But before we get into the episode, I just want to let everybody know, this is my last solo episode on Sounds Like A Cult, an Amanda and I's last joint episode will be coming out December 12th. But Sounds Like A Cult will go on and I hope you all keep listening. I've loved being a part of this podcast from the beginning as a co-creator and host, but don't worry, I won't be too far away, I'm really excited to start a new project. I'm starting a new podcast with today's guest. You'll be hearing more about it soon and I can't wait to show you what we have in store

for you. But for now, here's my last solo episode with my friend, Lydia Keating, on the cult of Reddit. There are so many different categories of cults that we've covered on this podcast, you know? Doomsday, cults, political cults, sex cults, religious cults, and I feel like Reddit is really where all of those things join forces in individual little threads, subreddits, big reddits, all the little reddits

threads that exist. It's also often said that culture founded on ill-informed and outlandish ideologies, and I think what is more loco than a bunch of people with no profile pictures getting online and upvoting each other's wild theories with very limited resources or no resources to back them up. But it can also be a fun place to build community and laugh and honestly the original source for a lot of the most famous memes. I mean, it's known in the comedy space

that a lot of comedy content is actually stolen off Reddit and repurposed on Twitter where people instead of threads can collect followers and monetize content. So is Reddit a cult? And if so, is it a live your life? I'll watch your back or get the fuck out level cult. Today, my very special guest and I are going to talk about it, the positives, the negatives, and the worst case scenarios, of course, with some cheeky personal stories where we almost

fell into the cult Reddit rabbit hole ourselves and took advice from total strangers. So without further ado, here is the Cult of Reddit. Lydia, I'm so excited to have you on the podcast and for us to be podcasting together. I know, it's so excited to be back on. Sounds like a cult. I was here in the very beginning. You were, you were literally one of our first guests on the cult of marathon running,

but for those of you who haven't met you before, can you please introduce yourself and who you are to our listeners? Yes, I would love to. My name's Lydia Keating. I'm a writer, I'm a content creator, I'm a former comedian, although I might get back into it. And I'm a friend of Esa's and coincidentally,

just ran my seventh marathon. Not to brag, that's so braggy of me. No, I don't think so. I think it's actually something you should brag about. There, yeah, well, okay. I didn't mean that in a braggy way. I just was like, oh, the timing is so fun. Like, here I am back. Yeah, but yeah, you know, I'm trying to run 10 before I turn 30.

And if I do that, then it will be something worth bragging about. Yeah. Oh my gosh. That would be really cool. How many, what is like 26 times 10? That's so many miles 260 plus all the training. Yeah. Oh. Oh, yeah. I was thinking like 26 point whatever the decimal number. Oh, but I like

280 not to try and be like a math whiz but yeah, okay with the decimal You know the exact number two. Well point two times tennis two Oh, no, yeah point two times tennis two. Okay, no, no, so it'd be 200 Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, in fact, I was trying to flex, so now it's not a flex Because then you couldn't yeah, I couldn't quite make it to the finish line on that yeah on the math But could on my seven marathons Yeah, you you could you did it all the way through. Never thought I could do one, but I don't know.

I ran a half marathon, I ran my third half marathon last year and it wasn't as bad as like the previous ones because I just ran it at a really good pace. So I do feel like it's all about the pace. Yeah, also, I don't know if I've ever told you this, but you strike me as such like an active person. Like you're full of vigor. And I feel like you're just like a doer.

And you really do give like marathon. Like you could 100% do a marathon. If I were to think of people in my life, like, oh, who could complain marathon? You would 100% be someone. Thank you. Who would come to mind? I'm gonna take that with who could complain to marathon? You would 100% be someone. Thank you. Who would come to mind? I'm going to take that with me and carry a ton.

You should, when I run one. But today, we are here to talk about the cult of Reddit. It has been a highly recommended topic by listeners. And I also think it's pretty relevant to kind of the new podcast that we're starting in a way. Which I'm so excited about. And we can't say too much, but we're pretty much going to have a podcast where you learn fun facts. We have a fun giggly banter.

And you just tune in every week to learn something new and have a good time and I feel like with the Colt of Reddit we can kind of do that. Yeah, I think so too. I think this will be like a little teaser for what's to come with our podcast. Yes. And yeah, I'm so excited about it. I feel like I don't know how much we can or should say, but all you guys need to know is it's gonna be a good time It's gonna be a good time It's gonna be positive vibes good energy. You're gonna want to tune in a week after week What you're gonna do you get a degree? Yeah, you're gonna be like I want this on my commute every single day Yeah, and I don't know if we can give that to you, but we can do one a week, one time, one commute.

Yeah, but today we are still going to do a classic Sounds like a cult structured episode, and we're going to talk about the cult of Reddit and just kind of to get the conversation going, Lydia, do you use Reddit? I am a consumer of Reddit. I have never posted on Reddit. I actually, the last time I was regularly going on Reddit

every day, I had a little bit of a scarring experience. And I hope. Yeah. And it was during a very dark period of my life. And Reddit, I feel almost facilitated that darkness. And it's not probably what you're thinking, which is just like as someone who has like a public online personality, there are,

I think I've seen like a couple threads about myself, but none of them really have been that bad. I just don't think I'm like big enough for like people care about me enough to shit on me, which I feel every, that is a sign. Like if you have a big following, like if you have haters, that is a sign of success. So sometimes, well, thank you then.

Yeah. I am so successful. I got you. Yeah, you're killing it. No, but I'm literally killing it. It's true. It's like, if you have people talking shit about you on an anonymous online forum,

your career is taking off, all right? Yeah, that's funny. I mean, I'm the same as you. I personally have never used Reddit. Like, I've never posted on it. But I have, you know, I've scrolled around as one does on the internet. And I really thought it was something that like people,

like that like people you got really high and like went on to kind of scroll on like late at night. You know, it was like a very collegey thing. Yeah, I associate with like 17 year old boy is on that. Exactly. Yeah. And in fact, sometimes I feel like when I'm on, I feel like the fact that I discovered Reddit as like a woman in my late 20s, it makes me kind of feel cool.

Like I'm like tapping into them. Like this is what the kids are doing and this is like deep cut internet shit and it makes me feel like I'm like almost alt to be on Reddit. Yeah, yes, that's so true. I mean, Reddit is one of the few like social media platforms that still

is kind of like janky looking, you know what I mean? Oh yeah, yeah, and I think that's been so intentional that they've kept it, they've kept it like early 2000s internet vibe. Exactly, and that is when it was founded. It was founded in 2005 by three UVA alumni, hello. They were UVA roommates, Alexis O'Hanian and Steve Huffman, and then their third friend, Donna Rumei,

sorry, my guy, didn't make the cut. Aaron Swartz, they founded it, and then it was acquired by Condé Nast Publications in 2006. And you'd think that it was always super independent by the fact that they haven't really developed it into a prettier website. But little by little, they have been raising tons and tons of money.

In 2014, they raised $50 million of funding by Sam Altman, including investors, such as Snoop Dogg and Jared Leto. And that put their company at a $500 million valuation at the time. And then in 2017, they raised another $200 million. So they got up to a $1.8 billion valuation and then in 2019 they raised $300 million funding which put them at a $3 billion valuation and then in August of 2021 they raised another $700 million which put them at a $10 billion plus valuation.

So it's not a small company, but in the stretch of the imagination. And then in December 2021, it IPOed, which is actually one of my favorite terminologies. Wait, only in 2021 did they IPO? Yeah. That's what I'm shocking. I don't know. I just, when I think of Reddit, I think of it as a platform that's up there with Instagram, with Twitter, with TikTok.

I mean, personally, I was like a consumer of social media. I would consider it as social media. Well, okay, there's two reasons I go on Reddit. This was what I was alluding to earlier about the dark period of my life when I was really on Reddit. And this was what I was alluding to earlier about like the dark period of my life when I was really using Reddit. But were you like privy to the Moscow murders that happened last winter around actually this time? I think it was like, no.

Right before Thanksgiving, it was these four students at University of Idaho who got stabbed in there. Oh, yes. You told me about that. I did. And I was on, I saw a bit of it on social media. Yeah, oh, yeah. There were two actually reddit threads that formed. And I was like checking both every hour. And it became, it was like quintessential internet sleuthing. And then like people who like suspects who were seen on certain video cameras, like where some of the victims were last seen

became like docks because people on red and figured out their identities Which is super harmful especially when the individuals who are docks to end up being completely innocent and it was like a Kid who had to like leave campus because these reddit threads had like exposed him But yeah, I became like all consumed. I never contributed. So I'll say that because I think there is some like ethical, I don't know, stakes on the line when you're contributing to threads like that.

But yeah, and I mean, I think that kind of paints the picture that it is this cult that you can observe from a distance. But it also is a cult that I feel like as soon as you start participating outside of just like upvoting and downvoting, and as soon as you start commenting on the thread and like potentially adding to misinformation spreading, then you are very much a part of the cult. Yes.

And you are not only contributing to its growth, but you are contributing to like the effects that it can have outside of the website and into real people's lives. Yeah, and there's like this idea of Ananon, I always mess up this word, Ananonimity. Ananonimity. Ananimity. When it's like, look at me ESL, and I know word. Ananbity. They're like,

I, there's some parts of Reddit where like being anonymous, like makes a lot of sense. Like the ACOC adult children of alcoholics, there's Reddit threads there. And like, yeah. And it makes sense that you maybe want this like space

in this forum to like talk to other people who have had this shared childhood trauma. And don't necessarily want your name attached to that account. I don't know. I think that's great that there's a space on the internet where people can find this community but not expose themselves and feel comfortable. But then I think of the threads, let's say influence influencer snark threads, which are now, I think, like a big thing.

Like for me, I just think if you are an anonymous user, contributing to threads, like, influencer snark threads, which if you don't know what that is, it's just people who are shooting on, like, content creators and influencers on these anonymous threads. Like, I really do think it like has to beg the question that you as an individual have to ask to yourself, like why am I okay saying this on an anonymous forum?

I don't know, like it's like, yeah, how does that not? Definitely. Cross your mind when you're like commenting like hate on these threads, like it's so weak. To me, it's like, yeah, I feel like it allows people to separate themselves from their ethical persona because they have a whole,

and that's the very culty thing about it, is when you talk to people who have survived cults, or people who have escaped cults, they almost describe their experience as something that they were an entirely different person. And they didn't see themselves, they saw themselves in a different light. And I feel like that's the thing about creating

an alternate persona online is that you are able to draw this invisible line of being like, that's me online. But I'm kind to people in my day to day life. And I also don't know what the consequences are of my online actions, so I can go to bed at night and sleep like a baby.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that's the whole, and there's already sort of this like, divider that people I think feel between like reality and their behavior behavior online just on normal social media. That isn't anonymous. Like TikTok, hate comments, an Instagram hate comments, and all that. But then there's this other buffer on Reddit

that makes it even more insidious than other social media platforms because everyone is anonymous and you can't really become an individual influencer on the platform. And I think that in that way it's a very democratic platform, which makes it super decentralized because it's up to the people to like upvote the commentsvote the comments. But who do you think is the ultimate cult leader in the cult of Reddit? Do you think it's like the founders? Do you think it's the tech investors, the people?

Where do you think the biggest influence comes from? I kind of feel like because there is no algorithm like working to convince people of one thing or trying to drive people to care about a certain topic. It feels like Reddit is a platform that is fueled a lot by confirmation bias and people have these existing feelings, have these existing beliefs and just want to hear someone like I have like research some random ash like

put in some really random like search keywords and read it just to find one other person out to the master mate. Yeah. So random. But just like find one person out there who's like shared an experience and I can't even remember exactly what this is But I just know I've like searched some like hyper hyper-specific thing and it's just simply because you're looking for someone who's like maybe Also had this one very specific experience and so in a way it feels like the cult leaders are Like the individuals like you're literally just looking for people to confirm stuff you already know, I think.

A lot of the time. Yeah, it's almost like a mirror, a mirror like platform. Like you're looking for the cult leader and you're standing in front of the mirror. It's you babe. Yeah, and you're like this is so fun. Like I can't believe I found these people who like completely align with like my past experiences

and my beliefs about the world. It's like you literally like looked for them and like like You typed in the most specific search words to find these people. This isn't random I'm trying to think of an example of like what to do if your boyfriend Text his sister that he's annoyed at you After you ate his leftovers like you know, and I'm shit like that. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's really funny.

I definitely, I can think of something I've typed about my relationship. Okay, wait, one has to be. I can't, it's because it's mean. I'm sorry, such an, I'm not, I should have said that, but I just want to say that like in my like deep down down like when I was like down bad and things were not going well I like literally wrote like such a specific Honestly multi-sentence search about like wait

I get one example that comes to mind which you do not have to confirm her tonight. Okay. Yeah What why is my boyfriend like not staying hard? I don't know. That's definitely not it. But. No, that wasn't it. But yeah, here's an example. This is not mine, but this is a little play

on what you just gave. Yeah. Boyfriend can't stay hard during sex, but says, I am the love of his life. Should we break up? Yeah. Yeah. You know, and then you find people who've had this experience, and you're like, says, I am the love of his life, should we break up? You know, and then you find people who've had this experience. And you're like, you literally find like a subreddit word for word.

It has like three comments underneath and you like take them as gospel. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you find like one other lonely person out there. And you're like, Oh, wow. This is a shared universal. I should stay in this relationship. That's so funny. But I think those are all really good points. I mean, it is really controlled by confirmation bias.

I did look into this a little bit, but Reddit does have a little bit of an algorithm in that it will process the first few votes to weigh whether the content is hot or not. But then after that, it really is up to the people because unlike liking a video and versus not liking a video on Instagram you can literally upvote it or downvote it. That's kind of what makes it to me a more green flag cult is that the comments are controlled like the popularity of the

comments are controlled by the people, not the platform. It's not an algorithm, like the people are the algorithm. But again, to your point, like the negatives are the propensity to spread misinformation. Yeah. And hate. Yeah, yeah. But like that could be, that's true for so much social media now,

right? Like it's true for every platform. Okay, so I want to know, what do you think are some of the cultiest groups on Reddit? Or have you ever come across one that you think was giving red flags? Honestly, like the Moscow murder Reddit threads, really I felt were gave. Because what it was, I think it was a lot of people who were really deeply disturbed by what had happened and they were vulnerable and they were scared. And these Reddit threads gave them some sense of comfort, control, and community, all those three things at the same time. But that must be kind of similar to the psychology of why people get into cults

because they're scared, right? Like, yes. Yeah, I think it's like there's a combination of people who seek community through cult-like groups are people who not only are scared and not always scared, but they're people who feel a little bit lost and who are seeking answers. And we always joke about this with the live your life level

cults, but it's almost like we live in a society where we have decision overload. You know, we have so many decisions to make on a day-to-day basis that, I mean, we've seen memes about it everywhere. You kind of want to be like, I'll join a cult just so I don't ever have to make a decision ever again. Yeah, yeah. You know, it everywhere. You kind of want to be like, I'll join a cult just so I don't ever have to make a decision ever again.

Yeah, yeah. You know, it's like, tell me what to do and tell me how to live my life. And so I think when it comes to murder and true crime, particularly the Moscow murders, people were scared and they were looking for answers and they wanted to have someone tell them, either it was gonna be okay

or that there is a particular way to solve the issue or just like a next step, you know, like, to a point where when you're struggling with your life, you wanna plan and you wanna list of what you wanna do next. Yeah, and it's interesting that you say that because I think when the Moscow murder threads were at their cultiest It was when the police didn't have a suspect in custody for like two and a half three weeks And so I think that big unknown and that big question mark made the threads have this

Sense of like well, we're solving it here then. And like, like, the sense of like action taking that the police were obviously doing, but not, you know, talking about because they're literally doing a murder investigation. I think that's one of the cultiest red flags is when one of these cult-like groups creates some sort of like actionable stance outside of the group

itself. It starts to affect everyday people and their everyday lives and there were innocent people who were identified as potential suspects who then had to leave college because they were being harassed, right? Yeah, and the parents of the victims there started to be some very harsh criticism of them. And like, I don't know if that had actual tangible effects on these families, but it was a thing where like the impact of these threads started to expand beyond the people who are willingly participating.

That reminds me of the Reddit forum for Wall Street Bets. And what happened with the Game Stock price, as an example of Reddit threads and subreddits that have done that, like have kind of expanded outside of Reddit during the pandemic. For those of you who don't know, there was an army of traders on Reddit with a forum which was like our slash wall street

bets that helped drive the meteoric rise in game stock price and it forced halts in trading and caused a major headache for short sellers betting against it. And essentially it created this whole story kind of of like the David and Goliath vibe of like the everyday people rallying together to fight against Wall Street. And I think that was like one of the most amazing shows of like public unity against a corporation. So I wanted to give this as an example of what good can come out of Reddit. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ OK, Max, we have a new spot for Sunwing vacations. OK, Sunwing Cyber Monday deals up to 40% off.

Hang on, I think we got the wrong script. Yeah, it's 40% off, what's the issue? 40% off Cyber Monday vacation deals? Yes, why do you keep repeating me? 40% off? Huh, just think about what you could do with all those savings. I know, in fact it's in the script. When you save more, you can do more.

For daily door crashing deals, visit your local travel agent or... ...the MNCAA! Trading the next generation, underwear, loungewear and shapewear. My favorite part about the holiday season is bundling up with the whole family for a cozy TV session or around the fire. And I just got the cozy unisex robe from Skims Holiday Giftshop. I have been wearing this thing non-stop. I'm not even kidding. I have been wearing it to sleep, to bed around the house while watching TV and I'm giving one to each of my family members, so I'm not the only one. It is so comfortable.

The Skims Holiday gift shop is now open and your favorite skims staples like fits everybody, cotton, soft lounge, and sleep now available in cheerful colors and festive prints. Plus, Skims Signature Holiday collection are back for the season and designed for the whole family. You've never been this cozy at home for the holidays. Skims makes holiday shopping so easy, with styles for everybody in the family. Skims holiday gift shop is the destination for all your gifting needs. Believe the hype, Skims has over 100,000 five star reviews for a reason.

Skims holiday gift shop is now open at skims.com, plus get free shipping on orders over $75. After you place your order, be sure to let them know we sent you. Select Podcast in the survey, and be sure to select our show in the drop down menu that follows. I think one of the main sources of good that comes out of Reddit is like, was something we've already touched on, is like, giving people who maybe are a little community less, the sense of community. Like even, I don't know, there's, what's what's the, I think the biggest Reddit thread is literally called Ask Reddit.

Do you know this one? Where it's like, it poses a question like, what's the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to you? And I don't know, sometimes the questions don't hit, but sometimes the questions like pop off and like the Reddit thread goes viral and gets like thousands and thousands of responses.

Yeah. All that is is like people sharing stories and fostering like this kind of strange sense of connection and with other humans. And what I love about it and what I find so strikingly different around between that and like kind of the connection that forms on other social media platforms, namely Instagram and TikTok, which is like the parasocial one that exists between like content creator and consumer of content, is like Reddit is literally a place where people,

like in a egalitarian platform where people are sharing their stories with each other. Yeah. And there isn't, it isn't like centered around one person, one creator, one influencer. And I think there's just like, it's kind of giving campfire. It's giving everyone to sit around in a circle, holding hands, talking about sometimes their darkest secrets.

And I think that is like, there's inherent goodness in that. Yes. And that also makes me think of the fact, like the way that you describe the community, it's like everyone's telling stories around a campfire. It also makes me think of like the fact that people bring stories from other platforms, they bring stories from Twitter, they bring stories from TikTok, they bring stories from Instagram. And there isn't this, there is not like an us versus them

mentality on Reddit against other social media platforms. Right. It's not like people like wear Reddit, like with the same pride of like Reels versus TikTok, you know? Yeah. Like there is like a culture around comparing Instagram to TikTok and being like, oh, this one's better, this one's for Gen Z, this one's for Millennial. We're Reddit.

It's all generations. Yep. And all people jumping into the campfire to tell their stories, whether they be true or false. True. And I remember this is, I have two things today. One of them is that I remember I had like a very impactful experience on Reddit that actually kind of did change my life, not to be dramatic, but it was an ask, it was an ask Reddit thread. And the question was what was the best piece of, or what the question was, what was the best piece of, or what, it was either like, what was the best piece

of advice someone's ever given to you, or what is the best piece of advice you would give to your 20 year old self? And someone's advice, and I'm paraphrasing here, was it's never too late. You're never too far in a relationship to break up. You're never too far down the line in a career, just switch career paths.

If there was other examples, but you can always, like you can still change your mind. Because let's be honest, I think once you start getting married and having kids, like yeah, you can change your mind, but it's gonna be tough. Yeah.

And getting a divorce with children, I cannot imagine. No, yeah. And but I think like people, I mean I know friends who like, you know, they've been in the same relationship for their entire 20s. Maybe they met their partner in their in college. And they definitely have, maybe they're not like totally happy. And there's like a version of them out there that could be happier but they have the sunk cost mentality maybe they're not totally happy, and there's a version of them out there

that could be happier, but they have this sunk cost mentality where they're like, it's been nine years, so might as well make it a 10, and then might as well get married. And I think that whether that be a relationship or whether that be a career, it's totally a thing. We're like, even when we're so, so young, in your 20s, you're so young, in your 30s,

you're still so young, but you your 20s you're so young, in your 30s you're still so young, like, but you still are like, well I'm old now, because I'm not, I'm not 12 years old suddenly I'm old. Anyway, that, this is attention, but basically I saw this piece of advice and it's like something you know, but then when you see it like written down you're like, whoa, that's really real. And I was at this kind of like, you know, very much like a pivot point in my life. I had to like really do some naval gazing about what I was leaving behind and whether I actually wanted to return to exactly that. And I kept thinking about that. And then I ultimately did decide to make some pretty major changes to my life.

And that was a good thing that came from like that is like incredible. But I read something from a stranger And it's like wow radically changed my life Yeah, I like that you mentioned that you read it and it was like later No, not that you literally read it. I read it You read it on reddit and it's giving Bible. It's giving You kind of have to see the words written on paper to leave them. Yeah, you know ink Yeah, you need the ink to be painted onto your heart strings. Yeah.

And that's so important. I do think that's like almost like a spiritual thing about Reddit in a not in a non-red flag way in a way that you can read something and then you can process it throughout time and then come back to that thought later. And then to your point of like, it's never too late to break up with someone or there are people who kind of just stay in relationships for a long time because it's easier.

That's why I've never dated anyone. Just like, I'm like, that's why I'm in a dialogue. That's actually why I'm single because I don't I don't want to get caught. Yeah. For sure. That's a real fear though. That's my commitment. Yeah. I do want to say though that there is like again like championing Reddit here. There is like that that piece of advice. It's never too late. Kind of a like we've heard it before. Like it's not like the most like unique original profound piece of advice, it's never too late. Kind of a, like we've heard it before, like it's not like the most like unique,

original, profound piece of advice, but like I said, it did have a profound effect on me. And I think one of the reasons for its profundity, profundity, profundity, profundity. Is that a real word? Yes, I don't know what pronounce it correctly, but yes, profundity. Profund city? It doesn't have an S in it, doesn't it? No, no, no, but yes, oh, profundity. Profundity?

It doesn't have an S in it, doesn't it? No, no, no, no, it is profundity. Is because I think there's something really powerful, like what you were talking about earlier about, like Reddit enabling subreddit. So like, oh, there was all sorts of pieces of advice given on this one, ask Reddit, thread, which was what's the best piece of advice you've ever, you'd give to your 20 year old self.

But then the one that really impacted me had a whole chain of like people commenting under that, either sharing anecdotes of like how they did make these radical changes and they're like 20s and they were so grateful for it. Or people who were like, I wish I had heated this advice when I was that age because it really bit me in the butt. You know, you know, and that's, that is such a different experience as like a reader. Then for example, reading that advice from like someone's like self-help book, which might be like our super smart, wise self-help book. But like, I don't know when you're reading about real people's experiences who are not,

there are also, no one's profiting off of sharing this advice. Yeah. Like, people are saying this because they feel so compelled to share it, that like, they really think it matters. Yeah. And like, whereas like an author, like a psychologist author who's like giving you advice, it's like, okay, you wrote a book and it has great advice, but you're also making money from me like buying it reading it I don't know that some sort of like falsehood there's more I feel like biased or like personal interest involved in

Like the consumer's culture of giving advice on platforms outside of Reddit. Yes. Yeah So I think Reddit is very unique and special in that way, where it's like people are speaking up just for this because they believe what they have to say is like, important, not because they're cloud chasing, not because they're making money from it, just because they're like, I want other people to know this.

Yeah, and I don't want to harp too much on the point of like literally reading, but you mentioned it again and how like it's up to you to interpret those words like in a non biased way. And I think that you're able to do that more when you read something when it doesn't have a face to it, you know, like if of course there are people on TikTok or Instagram or even Twitter who are giving advice and who are telling stories with advice attached to it. But let's see I see a video of a girl telling me, like, oh, I wish I would have done this in my 20s.

I'm a human. And so I'm gonna watch that video and I'm gonna judge it based off of her looks, her voice, her tone, her delivery. And that's going to like alter my perception of the advice given. And so I do think that that's like a really precious thing about Reddit that like it's up to interpretation. Like the kind of like,

again, Bible constitution vibes, you know. Yeah. Yeah. It's giving up to interpretation. Yeah, like you receive what how you internalize things from Reddit is like much pure than how you would receive like maybe the same piece of advice on Instagram. The other thing that I was going to say is I know I was like poo pooing the like the snark influencer snark pages on on Reddit but this is really for me to show if anyone's a snarker, I'm about to show you how enlightened I am. If you're on these Instagram snark pages, honestly, I think there's value in those two,

even though it's people just spreading hate and vitriol against strangers that they don't know, it's offering the users, the snarkers on those reddits, some sense of community, which clearly, they desperately need. They desperately need some, some sense of, of people who are like minded and whether that, that thing that's bonding them is hate or not. I don't know. Maybe that's not important. If it's giving people comfort, I don't know, this is a little bit of a utilitarian perspective.

For them, as long as the people who they're snarking never read it, if it's giving you some sense of comfort and being okay, then that's creating eutles. And that's good. Yeah, whatever. And it also gives people a voice because I mean, even it's kind of like a dumb example, but it's kind of like I do watch like bachelor in paradise and sometimes when I watch it alone I'll go on Twitter to like tweet my thoughts because I want I want to have a voice I have an opinion I'm watching something and I'm having like an immediate reaction and I want to put it out there and so you're right

even the threads that aren't necessarily net positive have some sort of community element to them. Yeah, yeah. And I'm like all about community, so however you can find it. I will say though, to push back on that a little bit, push, I'm gonna push, is that when people stop prioritizing having community outside of the internet, like making real-life friends, you can have real-life discussions with about your thoughts and about culture or social media or influencers or the news, that is when it can be a little concerning because then they're only talking to people online.

And the same way that it's great that texts and written words are up to interpretation, it can also be a bad thing because someone might be writing a response that they think is neutral and then you might read it as an attack. Totally. Yeah, I feel like conversations online are take either the form of like you exist in a bubble

and you're just being, people are just agreeing with you or you're in like a vicious fight with someone. And that is not like, that's not what debates and disagreements and conversations in real life are like. And so if you're only having those sort of like disagreements or discussions online then you're really losing touch with reality. Yeah, and it reminds me a little,

like obviously it's very different, but this conversation reminds me a little bit of like the cult of Peloton. And there is this online community and you can like high five people and like you can avoid going to a gym for the rest of your life and making friends. But that's fine. It's all fine and dandy. If you are online a lot, I just think like again, it's just important to keep yourself

in check and make sure like, oh, I still have friends, IRL. Okay, this is like fascinating because I also think the opposite of someone who's like a let-ite who rejects all social media and kind of like shits on social media and shits on any of the all of these platforms, like sometimes I think that like I feel like those people are like revered as these these super socially healthy people who are completely tapped out of this, the digital landscape. And part of me is, I don't think that's healthy either, because social media is whether we like it or not

part of the fabric of our society, and these online discussions, online debates. It's literally to be like culturally literate. You have to have like some knowledge of what's going on over here. What's maybe not necessarily what's going on on Reddit. I'm walking here. Yeah. But like you, you like, I don't know when someone's like, oh, I don't,

I don't, I don't, I don't use Instagram, like I've never, ever seen Instagram. I never have seen TikTok. I'm like, grow up. Yeah. It's like, okay, well then you like don't really know't use Instagram. Like I've never ever seen Instagram. I never have seen TikTok. I'm like grow up Yeah, okay Well, then you like don't really know what's going on because like I and that's why they are happy because ignorance is bliss

But also ignorance is ignorance babe. Yeah, you're ignorant. Yeah. Yeah, and you stay ignorant So yeah, I think there are positives of online Communities, but there are also negatives of online community. So we've talked about like all these scenarios, and I want to bring up a worst-case scenario where a reddit discussion and a reddit thread kind of manifested itself in real life outside of reddit. So I wanted to talk about the January 6th insurrection because that was actually an idea that was partially planned on Reddit. According to a Washington Post article written by Craig Timbers and Tom Hamburg, Trump and his supporters used social media sites to spread falsehoods about the validity of Joe Biden's victory over Trump in 2020.

And many posts in those threads called for extraordinary action, including violence, and in some cases to prevent Biden from ascending to the White House. And on January 6th, Congress was meeting to certify the election results, and as you probably know, hundreds of Trump supporters bashed their way physically, aggressively and violently into Congress, the building, as a part of clashes that left five people dead. And it is wild that really happened. But Congress has been trying to hold social media companies accountable

and no social media company has provided full accounts of its role in spreading these falsehoods. But because they haven't really been open to helping Congress solve where these riots came from, the January 6th Committee subpoenaed tech giants, including Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook, to hand over information that could help them in their investigations. So that's kind of a worst-case scenario situation. Right.

Five people dead. Literal coup. What the fuck? Yeah, that's like as pretty much as bad as it gets. Do you think that Reddit was a leader in this? Do you think it was kind of played a cult leader role or do you think that this could have happened with or without Reddit?

I don't think it could have happened at the scale, and therefore what actually happened. The reason why so much violence occurred and why five people died was because, it was the amount of people that came to the January 6th insurrection. It was enough people that could storm the Capitol and actually enter the building.

But I think everyone who found these Reddit threads, they had these beliefs prior. I think I would wager that they sought out the community that aligned with beliefs that they already had. Yeah. I don't think Reddit was the reason they believed that Biden's presidency was fraudulent. Yeah, it's almost like they were already, and we see this a lot with cults.

It's like people who are susceptible to one cult are susceptible to other cults. But it's like they were already in the cult of Donald Trump. So what was to prevent them from joining another like subcultural cult of that cult. It was just like the next level of ascendance for their trump cult. Right, right. Okay, I do have one more question for you before we wrap up and that is, do you think the cult of Reddit is a live your life? watch your back or get the fuck out level cult. Probably watch your back. Like if you find yourself returning daily to a reddit thread, I think you should ponder that and figure out like what it is you're actually seeking.

Um, and get a life, I'm just kidding. And fucking stop being a loser. Yeah, just kidding. Just kidding. No, but like, yeah, I don't know. Just like, you gotta think about why you're going there and why you're, you're, you're snarking and like, what, why, why you're doing that. And I think that could be true for so many different right threats, but like. Just think about it.

Just give it a good naval gaze. Talk to your therapist about it. Talk to a friend. Literally, I think if you're not, I don't know. Maybe this is a reach, but like, I feel like if you are not comfortable having like the things you're looking for, the conversations that you're looking for on Reddit, if there's no one in your real life that you're not comfortable having that conversation with, if there's not one person in your real life that you would

be comfortable having that exact conversation within saying that exact thing with. I think that's an issue. I don't know, do you think that? I mean, I would agree. Yeah, like, yeah, if this is the only place you feel like seen on this specific subject matter, I think then there's something maybe wrong. And yeah, and I actually think that there's maybe

something wrong in like a not an insulting way like we're not saying like you're a bad person we're just saying like Maybe see what steps you can take outside of the internet to find that community in person because it is so important as a human being to have that right right and if you find like like an example I can think of that makes me feel like really Bad for people is like LGBTQ youth, you know? Right. Like they who don't feel comfortable coming out to their family and who don't feel like they can talk to anyone in their lives about it

Seek this community online and I think that's a perfect and valid Community and stepping stone to have those conversations, but you can't live the rest of your life, not having anyone in person who you can confide in. Totally. So, you know, safely and cautiously, however it works for you, take those steps to find that community in person, whether that's like an after-school club or whether that is like reaching out to someone in a safe way to see like, oh, maybe it's another kid in my school feels this way or another person in, at my job feels this way, you know. Yeah, this like is a little bit of a reach, but my coach and college used to say, and

I think this is maybe like a Buddhist saying, but true happiness is when what you think, what you say and what you do are all in alignment. And I think about that often, and with Reddit, this example you're using about LGBTQ youth, that is maybe the, if they're about thinking about coming out, what they're thinking and what they're saying on the internet, maybe aligned, but what they're doing is not quite there. Yeah, and that's okay because it's like a long journey and it's like

you have to be gentle with yourself but like yeah, like I guess like you maybe what I don't know if this is like maybe I'm going to cancel it for this but like you haven't achieved full happiness yet because if you've been your real life what you're doing is an aligned with those two things then like You're not there. Yeah, and I feel like you probably mean like it's not that you're you're not incapable of happiness But you will be a lot happier totally once you are True to yourself and it's okay that it takes time But I I urge everyone to to take steps towards that.

Yes, totally. Yeah. Well, you heard it here first folks. Reddit is a hard, hard watch here back. Yeah, you agree? Yeah, 100%. I think it's very good for community. I think it's very good for disfostering discussion, allowing people to express their opinions. But I think,'s a very good for a disfostering discussion, allowing people to express their opinions, but I think like a lot of internet culture, it's really important to not let yourself get sucked up into it. It's been too long and too hard.

Mm-hmm. And I feel like this conversation was really reflective of like a lot of the things that we're gonna talk about on our new podcast. Yes! I know. And I'm so excited. Yeah, I am too. Does there anything you want to tell a listener about the new podcaster about yourself? Sign off. Where can our listeners find and follow your cult?

Yeah, well people who listen to sounds like a cult. My name is Lydia. I'm a content creator on mostly TikTok and Instagram. My content has taken so many different iterations, but I would say mainly I'm a kind of like recreational running content creator. And that's what a lot of people know me for. Also do a little bit of food content.

But yeah, I just moved to New York. And I'm just out here. Yeah, that's what I'm doing. I'm moving to New York. And I know East to Threw. I used to stand up in the early, early days when I used to live in LA. And yeah, so I guess sometimes I'm still

a little bit funny on the internet, but not in a formal one. I think you're hilarious and so smart. And I think Lydia is a very humble person. I just have to say, she went to Yale. I'll say it. She went to Yale. She wrote in college athletic.

And she also got her MFA in writing. So we have a smarty pants on our hands. I'm just so excited to like start this new podcast where we can banter and be funny and also informational and do it week after week. Yeah yeah I always say that I feel like I there's like there's obviously many brands of humor but I think there's like two big categories and one is cynical humor and the other is earnest humor. And I feel I'm like often like like compelled by cynical humor. Like when a man is like cynical and funny,

woo! Like I like fall in love, but ultimately I think that humor, it reaches a dead end. After a little bit, there's only so many times you can make fun of someone before. I have a point here that I'm gonna make, by the way. But there's a point that I'm about to make. Anyway, I feel like both of us, like I just feel like we are both very earnest, but then also, and this is me kind of

pumping my own tire here, but I'm mainly trying to give you a compliment, but also very funny. And that, ultimately, I feel like comedy, the point of it, is to get at a deep truth. And when you're earnest and you can still be funny and you can still laugh, that is the language that needs to be used to get it like the truest of truths. And this is the thing guys, for those of you listening,

that's what we're gonna be doing on our new podcast. We're gonna be earnest, we're gonna be funny, and we're gonna be exposing the truths of this world. Yes, yes we are. And I'm so excited to do that with you in New York. We're also gonna have so many truths to tell We will yeah, and we'll oh, sorry gone no you go on Well, just that the whole podcast is just off being like no you go you go Nope, no, god

Just that I think like we're gonna also be getting to these truths with fun guests as well. Yes, with fun guests who are gonna be experts and they're gonna be comedians and they're just gonna be people with experiences on the different topics that we're gonna cover every week. Yes, it's gonna be great. Well, that's our show. Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back with a new episode next week. But in the meantime, stay Coltty. But not too Coltty. Sounds like a cult was created, hosted,

and produced by Esa Medina and Amanda Montel. This episode was edited, hosted, and produced by Esa Medina. Our theme music is by Casey Colb, and I'm on produced by Issa Medina. Our theme music is by Casey Colbe and I'm on Instagram at Issa Medina. I-S-A-A-M-E-D-I-N-A-A where you can find me on my website, IssaComedy.com. IssaComedy.com where you can tell me where to perform stand-up

or find information on my new podcast that I'm launching in 2024. in 2024.