Technology, Connected - Lego Becomes The Front Line Of The AI Propaganda War

Episode Date: April 21, 2026

The AI meme war between the US and Iran has evolved into an absolute shit show. If you thought it was awful a few weeks ago, you ain't seen nothing yet.AI-generated Lego propaganda videos were a curiosity. Sometimes funny, often violent, always troublesome and never diplomatic, they quickly gained millions of views across social media... because social media. The White House Twitter (X) account was responsible for the US videos. An Iranian media company called Explosive Media, the Iranian. America, either put off by the global consensus that it was losing the war, or bored, switched their AI models to tax season (with equal ineptitude).Iran, losing the guns and missiles part of the war, has changed tact. Explosive Media turned up the heat. And was duly banned from YouTube. Which could of unleashed the beast. Now Iranian embassies are posting them on Twitter (X) and US creators are using the same format to mock it all with Lego.. Just watch it yourself. And let us know what you think. --🎧 Listen to every podcast⁠📺 Follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠🏠 Follow us on ⁠X⁠🏠 Follow Jeremy on ⁠LinkedIn⁠To suggest guests or sponsor the show, please email: [e-mail]----TIMESTAMPS(00:00) Explosive Media(00:38) US Bowling Iran(01:52) Trump's Mask(03:20) Blockade, Blockade(06:28) Drunken Hegseth(08:00) Truth

The meme wars are in full swing. Explosive media, one of several Iran-based groups that have used the Lego figures and blocks that everyone is familiar with. You've seen them to create viral social propaganda videos. Their YouTube channel was closed down, was shut, suspended for violent content. And it has spurned a flood of competitors of other people making AI, using AI to make propaganda videos about the, war in Iran. We're going to watch a few of them. Jeremy hasn't seen these. I might wish I hadn't seen them. We shall see. Official White House video, huh? Wow, commandeering culture again. I'm trying to think how

Leonard Skinner would feel. Actually, they're probably quite a line. Yeah, probably it's right. Yeah. Wow. So I guess or we're forgetting the piece first piece of the puzzle, the try to do it with, out bombing stuff. This is a validation of destruction is really kind of what we're, what we're seeing. Is this another White House one? Oh. No.

So it's spreading now the embassies, the Iranian embassies around the world are getting in on the act. So this is from the Iran embassy in Zimbabwe. Everything depends on your decision. We have prepared all conditions according to your request. Proceed with the operation. Initiate the strike. You are dismissed. That's good.

That's good. Wow. Cinematic. It's what we're all thinking. It's what we're not. It's not what we're all thinking. Short, hits hard. Yep.

That one didn't have any, I guess the other one didn't really take. a take like a cultural vehicle to do anything. I mean, outside of the music and the last one, this was more just a cinematic. Oh wow. This one is, you know, I've seen this one from the Iran embassy in South Africa. Many people said that this was the victory blow. This was Iran winning the meme wars. That hair. I will never give you a the straight The formals must be shot. Bloca, blocuh, please let the ships go through.

Come on at least a few. If you'll block me then I... Blockade, blockade. I thought this was easy peasy. Blockade. Now Macca and Melania leave me. Lockar. Surrender is beneath me.

Love card, love time. I think soon I get him teaching. You're at musician, Jamie. What do you think about that one? I think it's just tech has gotten it, made it so easy to extend the things in our head that may, may should have stayed in our heads, I don't know. The Americans have one strategy and they're sticking to it.

they're sticking to it. This is just blowing shit up. The Iranians are going in a much more interesting direction. It's much funnier. That's why they're doing so well on social media because they're funny and they poke fun at the cultural

and just the stupidity of the politicians rather than foking all the time on the destruction. I know I'm saying that they're good and I'm referring to an AI made propaganda video. Yeah, I think you said this in this kind of phrase. This is like literally the meme wars behind stuff. It's all about finding the path to influence or to be able to influence. And these are the pieces.

People are learning how to make these videos now. So a few weeks ago it was just a few people who knew how to make these legions, go videos and there was a few of them and whether it's a sudden upgrade in the LLMs or it's a sudden kind of learning mechanism and people know how to do them they're just pluriferating now a story comes out so I'm going to share one here which is nothing to do necessarily with what's happening in Iran but there's a well you're you're American you show it you tell me where what channel is this from like where is it supposed so this is to show you that like everyone's making these so This was a story.

I don't know. Was Hegzith caught drinking or something recently, like yesterday? Oh, I don't know. So basically they're taking, breaking news stories and making these videos. This with Lego again, yeah. Well, what shall we do with the drunken heggseth? What shall we do with the drunken heggisth? What shall we do with the drunken hegseth early in the morning?

So we're not going to watch all of that, but just give you an idea of what's happening. It's more daily show comedy, I think, like. Yeah. Saturday night live-ish. A few weeks ago, these were new. It was, okay, this is crazy people are making Lego propaganda videos. But now a few weeks into this, it starts to, in my head, become a bit more serious. If you look at what you could do with these to manipulate elections, let's say.

And there's a lot of elections coming up in the next few years. I just got researched a few of these. You got France, April 20, 20, 2016. Argentina, October, 27, Brazil, October 26, Mexico, a bit later, 2030, China, whatever that means, 2028. The US, November, 2028. If everybody can make these videos, and it will have evolved and matured a lot from stupid Lego videos to something much more nefarious, something much more realistic, something much more dangerous. I think that's the worry for me now.

Well, I think everything is, we talk about technology just in general always, all the time on the show. And technology is jet fuel on good stuff or bad stuff. And this is a technology that is allowing propaganda to be easier, more scalable and created really by anybody. I think there are still folks that that hold the reins to the content channels. This is where things like, you know, the TikTok America, that algorithm, I think that's something that is going to be interesting to watch. How do we, you know, who the people that own TikTok America are closely tied to the Trump administration. What does that mean if the content engine that 85 to 90 percent of 18 to 25s are watching all the time? you know, how do we know what gets through is based on the right parameter?

I don't know. It's a lot to think about, man. What happens in two years when the North Korean and Russian bot farms that they're using to churn out hundreds and thousands of videos to influence the elections, and they're bypassing any, it doesn't matter what parameters that the Americans TikTok put in because they'll get around them with sheer quantity of these videos. And once those bot farms get this and they're trained and versed and programmed to churn it out and it's not Lego videos, it's hyper-realistic videos of politicians and people and figures in the public eye saying and doing things that they haven't said and done.

Then what happens? Yeah. And when you see a piece of content, there's certain things, you can't unsee it. Like, so what I tell my kids when they go online. Like, don't search up weird stuff because like once you see something, you can't unsee it. It's in your brain. It has mind share and it's really hard to not see or be influenced by. So how it's back to accountability. Like how do you trace back the changing of someone's perspective or belief in something by the pieces of content? that hit their brain, even though they won't, say you don't want them to hit your brain. Say you don't want these pieces of content to hit your brain, but they're going to because they're run through specific algorithms targeted to you. So, yeah, it's funny. It's not funny. Like there's nothing funny about this, but it's ironic that we were just talking about unpacking the moon user guide to the moon from NASA and had two words in their ground truth. Ground truth, interestingly applicable here, because ground truth is really going to be hard

to determine when you have so much noise trying to influence what is true and your individual personal backstops and mechanisms to determine what you're seeing is true or not. It'll be impossible. If you get your news from Twitter, it will be impossible. If you get your news from Facebook, it will be impossible. If you get your news from Instagram, it will be impossible. get your news from TikTok, it will be impossible. If you get your news from Google, it will be impossible to not only ascertain truth, but to get anywhere near what the truth is. There will be

no truth. Entering an AI-driven era of zero truth. Where do you go for your truth? In two years, when everyone's getting ready for the American election, where do you go next year in France, when everyone's getting ready for the election, where do they go? The rate, There you go. The last bastion of truth. The radio. Well, it's a bit, yeah. The visuals.

Where do you go for truth? The easiest place to find it and back up your current opinion is, is the short answer. The long answer is Kevin Kelly talked about this in one of his books, 12 inevitable technological truths. And I think one was filtering, right? So it's got to be, what if there's a technology that allows you to create various specific and very scalable evaluators of content. Then you're creating your own echo chamber in a way, though, which is kind of dumpy as well.

Like, man, it's a lot. But you could curate your own truth. But again, that takes the wisdom to know that that's what you want, first of all. And not everybody has the wisdom to know what they want, especially when it comes to finding out what's happening with the people who make decisions and we're going to vote for this person or that person get them in power to make the decisions for the rest of our life. You've got to want it.

And if you're getting your news from these sources, you don't really want it, do you? I want a bird's eye view of what's happening in the world. Give it to me now. I'll take this, this, this and this. That must be true. Here we go. Confirmation bias. Give me the paper.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a, man. personally curated, personally updated, multi-platform algorithms. Ancient books. Pages.

I was having an argument with somebody this day, so I get you much better off. I'm just, I'm not going to, I was going to read old books and not read modern newspapers, let alone modern media. Read old books. There's another thinking on paper t-shirt waiting to happen.

Read old books. read there you go so that's what's happening in the the meme wars the meme wars have taken on a turn now it's right not just iran and the white house making these videos everybody's making these videos sores getting an update the l lms are getting an update it's going to be easier and easier and easier be careful out there don't watch do you know i haven't heard any press releases from lego i haven't heard anything that's interesting yeah nintendo i haven't read although you know create my news so maybe they are out there but I haven't read them I haven't seen them they haven't called duty GTA makers of those that yeah why have they not come out and said

anything why don't come out and said stop using the fucking Lego for your mind games oh yeah well another another heavy Friday I'm thinking on paper but we're here to bring you all of it the good the bad, the confusing, the undetermined, I think is where we're landing in a lot of this. And the very, very ugly. And the very ugly. Be careful out there, friends and neighbors. Until next time. Be curious.

Status eruptive. And for peace's sake, start thinking on paper if you haven't.