Episode Thirty-Two: Christian Influencers | Violating Community Guidelines

[Music] [Applause] [Music] hi guys hey welcome back to violating community guidelines with brittany broski and sarah tower and today we're going to be talking about the influencer to christian pipeline a much requested episode and i do say so myself yes and a topic very near and dear to our hearts yes yes i love christians the thing is we're former christians i actually have seen people like we do touch on christianity a lot it's only because it was a huge part of our lives you know like if you experience something for 18 years and you were just like never talked about it again yeah kind of unusual and maybe you would want to talk about it at certain points especially with people that i don't know could relate to it yes so now is the time um we have a few disclaimers that we would like to go over before we actually get into it um so like sarah said we are both we came from christian households we're very familiar with the church its inner workings its infrastructure how evangelicism works and how it's a missionary faith and all that we understand all of that we don't mean to bully we would like to say if you have faith if you are religious i think that's great i think that this is a scary world and if you find refuge and comfort in the idea of a a god or something in the great beyond i think that's great the dangerous part is when it becomes um a way to enforce values and a way to enforce a way of living upon people who don't exactly who are not receptive to it or want it that's kind of what we are going to be talking about yeah so again we're not bullying christians we are not bullying the christian faith we're both very well acquainted with it and i've seen some beautiful things come out of the christian faith it's not all bad we are focusing on the bad um we also just want to say that this is in some ways um it's been researched and analyzed but this is a relatively new thing you know like the influencer turning christian it's a very special phenomenon i would say and we have a few notable examples and um you know kind of like what are the stepping stones that have been laid for these people to get there you know what is that 180 flip that some of these people encounter so that's kind of what we're going to be talking about um just wanted to say that because you [ __ ] [ __ ] are going to come for us if you [ __ ] [ __ ] feel bullied right now grow up you know okay no we will do our best to not bully we will acknowledge the existence of cringe though yes at multiple points within this podcast episode yeah okay here we go we're gonna get into it i do also want to acknowledge that um i am having anxiety so there's an ice pack on my chest um but it's also just hottest [ __ ] in this studio my back is wet [Laughter] so we're going to talk about this stanley included like four disclaimers which britney touched on and then he also said like you know conversations online are limited nothing is discussed about why creators specifically become religious we do have some hunches i have a like a kind of a huge theory or why content creators are finding god it seems somewhat common within the accounts we follow through the macro discourse of this conversation doesn't really exist online along with a lot of things yeah we discuss on this podcast they simply don't exist offline yeah so i think that's really interesting so we're going to talk about the rise of christianity on tiktok um so stanley doesn't know if this is important but he wanted to add it so we're going to just like delve into it christian tick tock is an explosively growing sub-genre on the app though the christian population's decline in north america has been well documented and teens are even less likely to identify as christian than their parents the burgeoning of the space on tick tock coincides with research claiming about these one-fourth of believers in the united states that their faith has actually gotten stronger during the covet 19 pandemic yes um having all the time at home to create content certainly doesn't hurt the proliferation of hashtag christian videos either and also it like i'm i want to be a little understanding because it was and it is still a time of crisis both in this nation specifically and across the world so i definitely understand the desire or need to seek comfort comfort from an established you know religious institution like that where they have tools in place for that sort of thing you're feeling lost you're feeling misguided you know like all of those things that entice you in you know oh the solution is jesus it's like this is such a vulnerable time in our history um in our current history that i think it's notable to mention as well yeah i mean like right now just i think everyone feels a little bit hopeless like with all the everything happening in the world like the climate laws all the sort of thing and so like you seek out like you want to have hope right and a lot of people find that through religion which if that comforts you that's totally great that's chill love that for you good for you just don't actually force it on anyone else because that's like why would you do that um having all the time yeah so um also it was and still is the time of yup um well christians are less likely present on every social media platform the potency of the community on tick tock feels unique yeah there seems to be a lot more but i think that that's because like on twitter they'd probably just get like absolutely decimated yes um twitter is no place for any sort of optimism facebook i feel like they're thriving pretty well on there that's what christians slay they do their sleigh yeah instagram but also it's like if they're if they are thriving you can't really find them they're like very much their own community yes and instagram christian influencers are so [ __ ] insufferable like it's a holier than now i am better than you yeah you are just not close enough to god you are misled you are you know whatever you're not doing enough i feel like it's such a competition on instagram from what i've seen yeah of you know performative worship and performative um closeness yeah that's like do you really feel like that because i've met so many people that are like god first yeah and they're the most [ __ ] up people yeah like who are actively making [ __ ] up choices and then they just claim god online it's so i don't know i don't know if you feel this way too if like when you meet people that actually walk yeah with god it walk their righteous path it shows yeah you know they're they're good people in theory or if they've been forever changed yeah it shows um and i think a lot of it is performative but that was what i was taught personally um in the churches is you have to perform yeah for your other christians to prove that you are faithful yeah it's [ __ ] i would definitely so my theory on all this is like the same thing i feel about my parents where like so a lot of people instead of seeking therapy find god yes and so like my parents should have should seek therapy but i know that they won't because in therapy you have to face yourself and at a certain point in your life there's it becomes unbearable to like look at yourself but what church christianity specifically allows is that every sunday you can ask for forgiveness so you know you don't feel like a bad person but like what really should be happening is that you need like professional help and i don't mean from god you know that sort of thing a different type of professional yeah not a carpenter um yes but like it i think so that's what i see like going on where you talk about like genuinely bad people they lack the necessary foundation their house is definitely built upon some sand if you know what i mean right right right yeah so i'm saying the people who walk with god probably also have a decent you know understanding of being a good person in general if you were to take them from their faith they would still be a good person right you know i think a lot of people who just [ __ ] like just the you know what the performativeness is just like they are people who actually need professional help it's using religion as a scapegoat almost it's like well i am perfect in his image yeah it's like well then [ __ ] act like it or at least try to that was a big i don't know one of my qualms with like all of it just christianity the type of christianity that i was raised on is that you know um you should walk in his image or try to the whole what would jesus do things yeah he was a perfect person so you should try to make decisions in the way that jesus did that is honoring of your neighbor and loving to all and accepting of all and you know like walking with the lowest of the low and um that is not translated into the practice of a lot of christianity especially the one i grew up with and so it's like i i resent it in a lot of ways like that you know it's like you are you're using god as an escape for your wrongdoings and you're well i'm perfect enough [ __ ] off shut up can you just like try to be a good person yeah well i also think it's like similar to like what so like if you a lot of people are like unwell mentally and they've done someone wrong you have to go to a a real person like an alive person in front of you and own up to what you did if you can be quote unquote forgiven and you when you speak to god right you don't actually have to go to the person and so like it's a way to it's like the i don't want to say easier it is the easier way to own up to something without taking accountability with the other people right yeah so i mean that makes sense it's kind of like can i talk about abortion stuff yeah it's like how people will fight for a fetus because a fetus asked nothing of you exactly you know but you won't fight for like the children that already exist because those children could ask you for something or ask you for more in a similar way to like if you wronged someone in real life it you have to be held accountable as opposed to if you could just choose the option to apologize to god right you don't have to speak to like a being in front of you right so yeah it's like how it's just a it's avoidant yeah it's a little bit lacking accountability on a lot of people's parts um i can see how i don't know if good people just want to get something off their chest then maybe that is helpful for you you know what i've never understood too and and i mean hey catholics if you're out there if you're listening i've never understood this okay if jesus died for you yeah you're absolved of all your sin immediately from the moment you're born to when you die like you're yeah why do you then need to ask for forgiveness or beg for forgiveness or repetitively ask for forgiveness every sunday like that's such a par a pillar of the catholic faith i don't understand where that comes in if me just like not understand the basics can you explain catholicism um hey guys in the comments but you know you know what i mean where it's like if you are made in his image and you are absolved of all your sins because he died on the cross why do you need to why is that even an option yeah okay i wronged this person i did something terrible you know the the whole if hitler would have just asked for forgiveness on his deathbed he would have gone to heaven huh yeah it's like i don't i mean we can talk about the bible all day like equal sin the fact that me stealing like a candy bar from someone's lunch box downstairs is the same as murder and like if you just ask for forgiveness you are forgiven wild that is insane to me and i don't think that i'm not gonna get into it but yeah that is really crazy but if you guys understand catholicism at all what i don't understand is baptism dude oh yeah is that that's mainly symbolic like uh were you baptized uh no but my siblings were i was you were baptized do you want to baptize me in the the apartment pool yeah yeah can you tell i was baptized can you yeah you seem clean thank you cool clean girl aesthetic you were just baptized everything's like a baptism when you take a shower um i don't know sorry what were you gonna say interrupted you no i completely forgot you understand baptisms i don't understand but the thing is is like we're now we're just uh we're not understanding like certain points in christianity it's turned into us once again being confused by talking about all right let's i'll get back to the research while christians are likely present on every social media platform like sarah said the potency of the community on tick-tock is unique part of what entices them is what entices anyone that it's easy to go viral you can make a video and basically have no followers and have it find success on the app and stanley's notes are yeah bro it's called the for you page literally the appeal to the entire app literally could be true about any topic and that is true and then i wrote whoa stanley went off was this when you write i thought only i could see that sarah got really high last night and made comments on some of our research and it's just stuff like oh yucky oh so this is especially appealing to christians who view converting others as an obligation of their faith like i said it's missionary yeah christianity there's like a lot of religions that are closed like i know in judaism you're not supposed to try to actively convert people but christianity is very much like uh you have to convert people sort of thing like mission trips my parents have been on so many mission trips i've never gone on a mission trip neither actually no i have it was to like atlanta one time and that's atlanta there was a girl well i mean i lived in south carolina so that was like a three hour drive but this girl i remember she taught me how to dry shave with uh conditioner and then i i didn't realize that her skin was extremely durable so i tried it later and like i just read just like disgusting strawberry skin yeah oh i once dated a girl who could dry shave her [ __ ] i you i would have to go to the [ __ ] er if i tried that uber no but like never like any razor bump it just like [ __ ] and i was like what the [ __ ] is this that's like a hidden talent i know what i can shave my [ __ ] and there's no bumps you and simon's like what do you got you take your pants off and you shave your [ __ ] dry and then he's like he's like what now and then you like smack it around and there's no razor burn no red it's never a red never read what's it like to not have red undertones pink undertones dude i told you i've hooked up with girls who have like no discoloration down there and i'm like you're you're wrong yeah that's satanic my below the belt is like a color wheel for me yes my inner thighs are definitely my summer foundation shade [Laughter] [Music] surprise i suffer from chronic boredom but that's the price i pay for social media brain but sometimes i do wish i had a 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a couple days thank you so much sea geek for those seats seat geek wants to make sure you're getting a good deal so when you're on the app looking for okay god sorry see geek wants to make sure you're getting a good deal so when you're on the app look for the green dots green means good deal red means bad don't worry we've got the hookup use code vcg for twenty dollars off tickets at seatgeek that's twenty dollars off your first purchase with promo code bcg make sure you click the link in the description to download the app okay i'm totally kidding it's not that dark down there no yeah not that contrary to what you [ __ ] think it's not that dark this is more a joke like this is like it's not that bad yeah please guys don't think your inner thighs are just like the christians the christians you tuned in on this one and learned something yeah zero learning zero yes all right anyway under that stanley said about christianity being a missionary faith stanley said major cringe love getting dms of bible verses definitely continue that guys thanks yeah and i think we've talked about this before like people who like evangelise people who preach on like boardwalks that's not effective and i would i would feel like if i'm screaming into a bullhorn on the boardwalk and someone is drawn to me that person is insane yeah not exactly the type of people that you're like looking to follow you i wrote a little note here where i said i've never understood dming bible verses to non-believers like this book already has zero significance or meaning to them so why is quoting one singular verse out of context supposed to alter their way of thinking and bring them to like the light side yeah like this isn't some form of a magic trick i think a lot of christians think that when you hear the word yeah it's supposed to be like a switch in your brain yeah it's just oh i'm that's not how it works yeah i mean it's like the same with um ray dunn sort of pottery at t.j.maxx never do i see like a live laugh love mug and think i gotta really switch it up we have to level up pre-strategize holy [ __ ] yeah dude i'm not living laughing or loving enough i'm gonna buy this yes yeah that's the same with the bible verses also like i mean if you've been raised super christian they pretty much like a lot of them have lost all their meaning yeah oh i do appreciate though when people i don't really get this [ __ ] but like you get people that dm you versus and you hit them back yeah with the bible verse yes that is such a skill such a power my favorite one to just reply with is not like a response is just like he was hung like a mule or something like that which is in the bible explain this christian or like you're like a dog who returns to its vomit that's a bible verse too yeah there's a lot of [ __ ] in the bible if you're going to cherry pick the bible there's so many crazy verses yeah yeah you like genitals like a mule it's like literally a bible verse wild but yeah um so yeah you've you haven't gotten like any like bible verses or anything like that no because i feel like a lot of that comes from men who are trying to [ __ ] you well i don't know on your account that men because you all those are from men that are like yeah usually i would never [ __ ] you well that's because they're like homophobic yeah which is crazy because homo like homosexuality wasn't even the bible to like the 20s it was originally talking about men lying with young boys and like pedophiles were like oh we can't said guys can we like switch this up yeah yeah tired of being [ __ ] on like the gay people yeah i think that's um i've never understood that you know like trying to convert people with just the bible it's like who gives a [ __ ] actually if you weren't raised in a culture to treat the bible like the gift that it supposedly is yeah it has no significance and it's just like that if you're preaching on the boardwalk i'm walking by you dude i'm walking right by you also it's like a lot of the books of the bible were written by like people who are like farmers or like shepherds can you imagine like if you went to like mit and you tried to cite a source and it's john the farmer from nebraska who said like you know if an object is heavy it'll fall on the ground you're getting expelled yes you're done you're gone you're getting beaten with a computer yeah it is so awful that's okay moving on um that's part of why one of the best represented subgroups is evangelicals a group that emphasizes among other things the need for personal conversion and the importance of even evangelism the definition of the term evangelical is something of a moving target by the fact that the same teens on tick-tock making content gave mixed answers about whether or not they identify as evangelical oh my god wait this reminds me of have you seen the tick tock of people going to like uh what's that school in salt lake oh the university of mormont foreign university and mormon go mormons um yes um but no no what is that what is oh it's like bo derek or something oh [ __ ] me what's it called salt lake city stop oh mormont what is it called uh university [Laughter] yeah but uh they went to brigham young and they asked people if like gay people should have rights and someone's like i've never really thought about it um you're gonna have to come back to me you're gonna have to give me time for this one dude but imagine like if someone came up to me though do you think straight people should have writes like um listen i don't want to get involved right yeah this is not really like it's like do you sound you sound crazy right now i think that they're scared by how politicized it is they don't actually hear the question for what it is yeah do you think ex-people should have rights yes should probably be like yeah most people should have rights exactly i don't understand it's wild dude the laws in salt lake are insane you can only get like one drink at a time totally wear jean skirts down your ankle sorry just being mormon phobic playing soccer's a [ __ ] nightmare in a floraly jean skirt wait weird loss in utah um oh yeah you can't have like coffee you have to drink like diet coke or something i got them on a strictly dc diet from utah oh wait wait ten weird laws in utah that'll leave you scratching your [ __ ] you can't throw rocks somewhere else you have to bury your pet promptly i feel like these are just bogus small laws yeah i don't know if this is you know where it's like in connecticut you can't ass [ __ ] a dog it's like it's i wasn't even gonna do that it's up to the state to decide she says hey stage what imagine in utah your dog immediately dies and you just throw it in the ground like what the [ __ ] um whale hunt is whale hunting is illegal in a landlocked state can't go to sea world and shoot the whales only in utah everywhere else is fine all right chill out ahab yeah come on ezekiel sit captain ahab is from moby dick that's good yes um no sheep hurting down the streets these are yeah this is like just bogus ones i want to look up mormon laws whatever all right so let's go back because mormons okay so let me just say this for everyone at home who doesn't know the difference mormonism is a more extreme version of christianity so um we're not really well versed on it there's a lot more like rules to it it's it's still an abrahamic religion but it's i would not say it's close to christianity they have different prophets different this is the thing when we say abrahamic religions that includes judaism which we're very much excluding in this conversation well because they're not you know they don't subscribe to literally any of the [ __ ] yeah mormonism doesn't acknowledge jesus really either so i don't think that that's i mean you wrote mormonism laws like mormon doesn't believe in jesus but really but joseph is the or who's their [ __ ] i've seen the book of mormon the musical yes okay uh joseph and like mary who is the mormon god who's the mormon god oh his name is russell m nelson he's the current president and prophet of the church russell m nelson 17th president of the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints who was the first mormon prophet joseph smith anyway moving on this is not about mormons yes um you want to go still based on their videos a significant a significant percentage of the most followed christian tick tockers appear to align with the four primary characteristics of the movement as outlined by the national association of evangelicals if they don't always want to label themselves accordingly politics may have something to do with that yeah it's like how if you go on a dating app a man will say he's a moderate but that really means he's a conservative yeah exactly he doesn't want the connotation associated with thinking that way but he still thinks that way yeah he's going to play devil's advocate with your uterus the political connotations aren't unfounded and they highlight tensions playing out in the american church at large about eight and ten white evangelicals voted for trump in the 2020 election following i know following a pattern that's held since the reagan era white evangelicals have tended to support republican candidates while christians of color have tended to support democratic candidates according to robert p jones ceo of the public relations research institute public religion research public religion prri prai for a generation more aware of and eager to condemn racism than their parents were the color line within evangelicism can be troubling that's t we never ever in my 20 years of going to a christian church ever talked about a racial or um societal struggle between different like subcategories of americans you and i mean like we never ever addressed it so i grew up for the majority of my life not thinking it was a problem yeah ever and it's like that is the church is in a lot of ways a an information pipeline you know you get your perception of you get your world view because religion is a world view yeah from the church and that was never mentioned to me yeah and i'm white so i never lived it it was wild for me going to college my first roommate at texas a m was a black woman and she told me um because we had some we still do have some black frats at a m they're very small and um they're very close knit and that was my first ever exposure to that to that and i thought it was so cool and she told me about even in the last five years when i was there so this was i i started at a m in 2015. um probably this was from like 2010 to 2015 there were racist incidents at my school yeah of like girls wearing confederate flag earrings and like saying slurs to other students on campus like racially motivated incidents and her telling me this and me being floored yeah i was like not here she's like yeah [ __ ] here yeah and i was like that i don't want to blame the church for that but the church has a lot to do with why i thought the way i did and it should not have to be black people telling you that they are they live a different in a different world you know than than how i was raised and i was so like embarrassed yeah i was like i've never heard of this and my initial reaction was like no way yeah oh my god dude it was so that college was so shocking for me i don't know no yeah that does make sense like it makes sense why also the church wouldn't talk about it especially if you go to predominantly white churches where it's like um you would have to like acknowledge your past similar to like why people turn religion in the first place exactly white people would have to look at all the systemic issues they've caused and you think about the church's cause yeah and how racism and you know capitalism are so intertwined and a lot of you know christians did like vote republican where like you think about like gerrymandering where that like divides like black and white neighborhoods so you can you know send like you can make more income off this area versus like other people are like they don't get as many resources like it is everything is racial in america especially you would have to really like take a long hard look at yourself like white evangelicals to like realize the damage they've done and that's why they turn to god instead of therapy right so it like makes sense but yeah being raised in like a military household we moved around a lot and it was crazy to see like um like the differences in demographics like i remember we did live in hawaii from like 98 to 2001 and i remember at school we were taught like a lot about the hawaiian culture i knew we did have to like do a hula performance like every class did which i thought was like a very normal thing to do then when i moved to california it was like a lot of people who are hispanic and white kids so that was like another like way i was exposed and then when i moved to beaufort south carolina it was basically segregated like i had to go to like beaufort academy or something like that and it was like all white kids at the private school and so that was the first time i saw like that there is still like very much a divide or like and also as becoming a teenager is becoming more conscious of like like racism in and of itself and then i went to high school in northern virginia which is right next to dc very very diverse but i think seeing south carolina and like especially the church that we went to in south carolina very much like um like happy-go-lucky like light-hearted no no hard feelings like it just has to be like you're good christian and yeah it was really so it's really crazy like again college like really opened me up um to you know what a lot of people's experiences were right you know and i don't want to give off the impression from either of us that like we weren't aware yeah i mean we were of discrimination or anything like that until we were what 18 like that's not true yeah it was i think the the uh degree of it was a bit shocking when you're not under your parents wing yeah that was that personally for me where i was like oh this is actually a lie yeah and everything i've been told is a lie yeah i mean and our parents like i mean i my parents actively were like you know nothing is wrong right you know like we dealt with racism racism in the 60s then they're white so they say that and they believe that because they only reap the benefits of being white you know so we are kind of we were we were aware obviously of racism and discrimination you know before we were 18 but we didn't like realize the true burden yeah in a similar way we sound like idiots like how we described in previous episodes where a man you know gets a wife and has a daughter and suddenly he realizes women are discovering sentient and now we understand yeah yes anyway what was the original thing that we were talking about the original thing was um kids our age are more eager to condemn racism than their parents were within the church or or as a christian to speak up about it yeah and it's also i mean christianity i don't want to make mass generalizations but in my experience is that the church is the worst perpetrator of i don't see color yeah we're all brothers and sisters yeah [Music] yes you should see color you should see color at some you should point because you that means you're erasing like a lot of what people go through yeah you know we're all equal in the eyes of god we're no we're not all equal in the eyes of the law yeah and the eyes of the american government and the eyes of society so yeah yeah it was it was very much that it's like i don't care if you're black white purple or zebra yeah hey don't say that hey red flag when you say that's why you know you're about to hear something really racist it's like a key indicator yeah um whether for that reason or others many jinzy evangelical creators seem wary of being defined by a political party which is what you were just saying yeah like uh too political for me yeah we're centrists yeah um they often sidestep explicitly political content on their pages although not for the issue of abortion about which they make many many many videos yeah luckily i don't get a lot of this [ __ ] on my for you page really i don't get pro or anti-choice pro-life yeah republican [ __ ] if i do it's people making fun of it yeah so i never really encounter these type of videos it is so hot in here it is so so hot yeah both of these ice packs are pressed up against my tits and they've completely melted yeah just warm liquid these are going back in the company freezer i feel like i'm breastfeeding yeah yes no but it's it's totally fine yeah um they do talk like we said earlier the reason why it's easy for a lot of people to talk about abortion is because you're speaking for something that cannot speak for itself exactly and that's the same reason why people go so hard for animals rights as well right you're it's an innocent creature that can't speak for itself can't ask for anything and follow up other than food and shelter however if you want to like speak for the hundreds of thousands of kids in foster care those people are going to ask you for stuff right they're going to ask you for your time and for your money and so like why not that's too much so the animals and fetus i mean you should care about animals yes but like animals and fetuses if people go a lot harder for those two topics or as opposed to human rights that's when you can probably make a like pretty safe assumption that they're kind of christian yeah as well definitely or it's that weird like empathetic for the wrong things not the wrong things but very strange things like what do you mean like when people are are like way too into you know like save the seals that are being clubbed yeah in antarctica and it's like i think that's great that you picked that to like really ride or die for but i feel like there's a lot other pressing like that it's like why do you care more about animals than like kids being lost and abused in the american foster care system i mean you could definitely care about a lot of things you can but when that's like when you go on their profile and that's all you see i don't know maybe i'm speaking out of my ass you know where it's like why is that okay it kind of makes you it's like yeah like if you go on this person's page they're like advocating for baby seals and you're like oh come on there's people starving like here like there's kids in africa by the way yeah so what's your [ __ ] problem i mean you can care about one thing but i understand like yeah um so although tick tock is enabling evangelism in new ways it existed in different avenues before other social media tv radio newspaper do you grow up watching joel osteen we didn't grow up watching joel but we did go to church every sunday and wednesday wednesday too i went to awana anyone out there know what i wanna is i had to memorize bible verses um i think it was just a way to get our parents out of the house wait what what is that i wanna it's just like a sunday school for like wednesday night and you go and like you meet all the cool kids we just called that youth group yeah i mean we had youth group too our youth group was wednesday night and it was mainly an excuse to like go see your crush yeah yeah the first time i smoked weed was with my pastor's daughter yeah the pastor's daughter is usually our son is usually like the most [ __ ] up person you've ever met in your entire life sickest coolest kid you've ever met yes so slay okay so we wanted to talk a bit about um the tendency to lean a bit conspiracy theorist um in the specific subculture of tick-tock christians yeah um so there was this article that came out where someone interviewed someone named evelyn juarez um and she creates a tick-tock claiming the tragedy of astroworld doesn't sit right with her i think anyone with a working heart and brain would think that astroworld doesn't sit right with you yeah yeah but hers was a bit more imaginative she claimed it was about the supposed satanic symbolism of the set they're trying to tell us something we just keep ignoring all the signs reads the tick tock caption followed by the hashtags wake up witchcraft and hashtag illuminati juarez a 25 year old in dallas l texas is a typical tick tocker albeit a quite popular one with 1.4 million followers many of her videos reveal an interest in true crime and conspiracy theories the gabby petito case for instance or lol nazax's devil shoes or the theory that multiple world governments are hiding information about antarctica one of her videos from november suggests that a survey sent to texas residents about the use of electricity for critical health care could signify that something is coming and the state government knows it this is uh just paranoia at work yeah this this is just paranoia and again christianity is like uh god said this what source believe me and so trust me bro yeah so like obviously that i feel like conspiracy theories would it's a perfect climate you know perfect storm definitely is and the [ __ ] about conspiracy theories is that there's no hard evidence against it other than common sense yeah you could say anything yeah and someone would be like well you know have you ever seen him in the same room yeah it's that sort of [ __ ] it's like no dude yeah why would you even think about it like that that [ __ ] of like it's satanic no how about it was just poorly planned yeah i think like a lot of people don't realize how paranoid they actually are yes like think about like if you're talking to a guy and he doesn't takes you back for a couple hours your mind is going through like 20 different scenarios of like he doesn't like me anymore he thinks i'm stupid he's annoyed with me i'm i'm not the one yeah and this is just amplified because now it's like you know what's happening in the world it's not interpersonal relationships it's like what is the government doing right so it's like their paranoia is just off the charts yeah her beliefs are reminiscent of many others on the internet people who speak of bad vibes demonic spirits or a cosmic calamity looming over looming just over the horizon one that the government may be trying to keep secret juarez says she was raised christian although at age 19 she began to have a more personal relationship with god outside of organized religion and stanley adds a comment here that says l as an increasing number of young people do many of them work out their ideas in real time online which i want to do an episode on yeah the idea of having of growing up publicly online yeah posting your every thought but on top of that using the internet as a form of therapy or a personal diary which both you and i do yeah i want to talk about it yeah i mean we use it as a diary but we don't start conspiracy theories yeah other than my butthole is black it's not a conspiracy yeah but i mean yeah it is kind of crazy like how they work this out in real time online you can see like the evolution of their thought process in their videos and how it gets so clickbaity towards the end of like you're going to want to watch this it's like do i yeah but then also when you put out those paranoid beliefs you find people with those similar paranoid beliefs who like reinforce what you're saying it confirmation bias that's all [ __ ] tick-tock is tick-tock enables that [ __ ] if tick-tock was only scientists commenting pretty much all of the [ __ ] would be debunked like immediately yeah but yeah a tick-tock only for scientists it's just hank green yes um they may talk about manifesting their dreams and faceless sex traffickers waiting to install tracking devices on women's parked cars which happens some might act almost as prophets or shamans spreading the good word and guiding prospective believers while others might just lurk in the comments they might believe all or only some of these ideas part of the draw of internet spirituality is that it's perfectly pick and chooseable but more than anything they believe in the importance of keeping an open mind to whatever else might be out there my mom is this my mom is this 280 yeah um it's this whole idea of your third eye being opened even though it's like you don't know what the [ __ ] you're talking about yeah you don't this is a world that gets so scary because when you when you frame everything like that yeah of well keep an open mind yeah that's that leads to so much misinformation and so much imaginative thinking and you get caught up in this like in that like yeah oh and you find someone else that thinks this too and oh well you must be right because now there's a facebook group with a thousand people in it it's just like it gets so dangerous um and then you see things like the january 6th yeah you know it's like when enough people are so misinformed that they now think they need to take action on something it's just a very scary thing i don't know no that is exactly true i agree with you joseph russo a professor of anthropology at wesleyan university discusses religious conspiracy theories online call it the religion of just asking questions or exactly yeah or or doing your own research that's [ __ ] queuing on dude it's that it's do your own research google it i know this is like a stupid question to ask because i pretty much know the answer to it it's like it's crazy like how a lot of christians or these people will interpret the bible as fact but then also suggest that a lot of passages are like um like analogies or like they didn't mean it literally yeah like it's like if so it's like i don't know how you pick and choose and if you're the person picking and choose what is literal and what's like right yeah it's like then i i don't really trust what you're saying and i don't trust your ability to make a balanced decision yeah like [ __ ] einstein's never like you know it's a it's an analogy like it's you know you're like this is an actual [ __ ] scientific formula that you came up with especially when it comes to christianity and like the bible and things of life and death well it was a metaphor oh well you're not supposed to actually stone your wife yeah but gay people should go to prison yes like what i think what's like crazy i mean this does so to touch on what we talk about a lot escapism so i'm gonna talk about like the kids who the people who become christian online i can understand again if your home life or what's happening inside of you is not ideal and you want to escape into the internet and feel better about yourself a lot of what happens though is for most teenagers who are feeling some sort of turmoil turn to the internet and they find like therapy like they find like you know these therapy videos because that's like that's everywhere you know and they find like you you're valid your parents are crazy you're not you know weird for this and so then a lot a portion of those kids seeking out answers do get diverted to christianity and you know once again can like having faith and hope and not actually having to face what is wrong with you internally is does feel good for a lot of people you know and so the example of of the people that turned like to christian influencers like one of them was is i'm not i don't speak on a gay kid and so if you are live in a christian household and you feel like you know bad that you are gay and then your parents hate you and if you come out they're going to kick you out you know then you turn to god and you just like you don't actually have to like address the issue which will suck you know like i know it it does it does make sense that a young kid wouldn't want to like come out or like talk to their parents especially if your parents are bigots but so i think that's what happens with a lot of these influencers who are like because there are multiple examples of ones that are gay who were like gay icons and then they became christians and everyone's like what happened and it's like they're trying to escape what's hap how they feel in their body and instead of being diverted to therapy or resources they were diverted to christianity it's it's preying on that vulnerability yeah and that weakness that these kids experience of like feeling lost and feeling unwanted and feeling the lowest yeah they've ever felt and then some christian swoops in and says have you heard the good news yeah you know and it's like if that has offered should we say their name little anthony yeah i've talked about low anthony in that example yeah that has offered him some form of peace yeah that's all i ever hope for anyone you know what i mean is like if you can navigate this [ __ ] life with even an ounce of peace good for you yeah the part where it turns dangerous is if you are now telling other people how they should live yeah because you have found solace and refuge in this faith yeah it's like at what point does it turn into okay well this worked for me so i'm gonna tell you guys how you should be living now yeah that's the wild part so it's hard to be empathetic when it gets to that point and i think that it's really a sad situation yeah what you were just describing it's just weakness you know it's just feeling like it's you against the world and sometimes the world wins yeah and and it's a very sad thing um and so i don't want to [ __ ] on christianity but it's like is that the best thing for that person yeah it's like on if you're in your if this is like i don't know how to so i'm from a white family that's not really that close and culturally it's not a lot about a community so like when i have like people ask me like who are younger like how do i come out i'm like do does your family mean like a lot to you like is community and your culture like mean a lot to you and if they're like yes yes or um i'm like do you want like are you currently living in your family's house and they're like yes i'm like i don't think that i'm the best person to ask advice from because i was already out of my parents house i don't give a [ __ ] about my family and like i have really no like tight community and i feel like those are huge factors in a lot of people's lives when they come out so like when i think of like low anthony types you and i know how scary christianity can be there was we went to one church in california where um one of the sunday school teachers was talking about how he kind of agrees with family annihilation which is where a dad will kill his entire family what the [ __ ] and we we went to that church for like a little bit and so like that's the type of people like if you're surrounded by that type of people in your church a low anthony situation does make sense oh it's just kooks yeah like i did like trigger warning in the church in south carolina there was like this gay kid um who unfortunate he did kill himself and but he was like the worship leader for like the youth group oh my god and they said like we're not gonna host his funeral at the church because not only is he gay but he killed himself which means you're not going to heaven and so like again a low anthony situation makes sense where if you're terrified of people like that rightfully so right the only thing which is does suck about having a public platform is that if you now shame others for that um i understand that you're trying to deflect attention from yourself but also you are hurting others in the process and that's what we're trying to like talk about like the hang up like where it gets weird yeah yes that is so it is that if you are so clearly struggling internally and you have a platform yeah and you're spewing that kind of stuff because you're being fed that behind closed doors it's so weird yeah it is weird it's really really unfortunate so they're moving along is this a western thing perhaps it's all because of the puritans they were the ones after all who uh consecrated the american i thought consecrated means like when you [ __ ] after getting married consecrate the marriage yeah consecrate the marriage oh consummate the marriage defecate the marriage the american [ __ ] the american legacy of individualism piety and hard work at the expense of all else or maybe it came out of the recurrent phenomena of protestant-led great awakenings that have peppered u.s history since before it was a country um social movements that preached the importance of one's personal relationship with god outside of organized rituals and ceremonies it was the idea that you could perfect yourself your health and your circumstances explains mary wren an economics professor at the university of the west of england bristol who studies neoliberalism and religion good for her you would you had a thought on this yeah um this is therapy because she says the idea that perfect yourself your health and your circumstances escapism your circumstances your health your mental health like it's crazy like god gives a lot of people a guidebook but it doesn't help them unpack their trauma right you know sort of thing we're like i know you talked about your mother's a christian which the way you describe your mother makes a lot of sense that she would be christian um my parents like i'm not saying that the white my parents are like scientists like actual like your parents scare me they're like my mom was is a doctor like my dad programs like he does like big [ __ ] like where but they are christian scientists and they believe in evolution but they don't believe like that gay people should have rights but they don't they also acknowledge that the world was created 10 000 years ago but they also believe in evolution i just don't get it and so you're like and this is the power of mental illness my parents it makes sense why they are so mentally ill but if it's so much easier for them to accept that evolution happened in 10 000 years for them to look at themselves in the mirror and be like i am a narcissist do you know what i mean yes yes because narcissists are shame avoidance and it would make sense that they would believe to me an outright lie right then look at themselves it's that yeah and it's what we were talking about earlier in this episode of just avoiding any form of self-accountability yeah is that you can turn to god and god will make it all go away mm-hmm it's like of course you're gonna pick that dude yeah who wouldn't and i think that's where it splits it's like what is your intention with religion because we're talking about people who intend to use religion to like pervert what's ever happening upstairs you know or what they've done to people and then there's a lot of people who use religion to truly become better people and find purpose in their life which feels like a few it feels like the minority um and i think that's pretty sad because christianity in in like the textbook definition of trying to in your life walk like jesus did is such a should be a beautiful notion you know of like jesus hung out with prostitutes and the lowest of the low and his disciples and you know like he he healed people and he was unafraid to join the outcasts of society yeah and that message of love and acceptance is a beautiful thing it is very rarely ever mentioned you know that jesus was a brown man yeah who lived in the middle east yeah like no one i don't know it's so even when you bring that up to like when i bring that up to my parents they roll their eyes dude whenever you know it's my grandparents i'm like you need to start thinking of the bible as a historical document yeah instead of the end-all be-all which is what we're taught to think yeah and that's so i don't know because the bible can be the worst weapon mm-hmm you've been hit with a book huh you ever been hit with a book no yes you know this is a separate thought whenever i see a tow truck i imagine like jesus being crucified on the back of it oh i see that too yeah yeah because it's like the but that's it's just an invasive thought me too like well how do you see a cross yeah yeah but yes i understand what you're saying um anyway it's during periods of economic crisis that we really see it start to flourish says this economics professor because many of the churches where it's preached can be attended virtually the messages travel much farther it's a lot easier to have believers and you don't have to physically be in a church the pandemic kind of yeah exhibited that the portability of the message is what makes people believers in the prosperity gospel even when there's not necessarily regular church-goers it also explains this weird trend in social media where we're constantly living through crisis after crisis and it leaves people reeling yeah so it would make sense that you know there has got to be some form of [ __ ] escape like there's got to be some some answer and so i think we saw that really during the pandemic when it was just like oh my god does it get any worse yeah so i i get this and i get also it lends itself to the tick tock thing is the rise of tick tock during the pandemic yeah and oh my god this is such a what a stage to spread the good word yes it's just like i get how all of these factors lined up perfectly to create this influencer to christian pipeline or just a platform for christian influencers yeah you know cola brandt [ __ ] who are the girls cody and noel make fun of girl to find their girlfriends you know yes yes yeah you know it's like of course there's a platform for all these people because it's it's people are lost yeah as do i um so these binaries espoused by internet spirituality good and evil demonic and angelic abundance and poverty are reinforced everywhere in culture and not only in the context of religion the demonic is one of those very superficial distinctions that really has a lot to do with who's your customer who are you trying to frighten oh period yeah are you trying to frighten into believing what you believe yeah you can you can scare a lot of people online uh it can stand in the kind of generalized force of evil in ever in a very effective way regardless of what the specifics are explains rousseau it works on people not necessarily because they've read the bible but because they watch harry potter or re-token or play dungeons and dragons it is this sort of fictionalized like what is a demon yeah what is something that's demonic yeah uh where is the popular tig talker joined the platform during a particularly difficult period in early 2019 she was forced to drop out of college and began suffering from depression like i said like i said should have sought therapy it makes sense that she pivoted to god after that her husband was in a bad car accident i needed somebody to vent to a therapist she says though she was raised in a religious household her beliefs differ from her parents and that she feels less connected to the ideas taught by the church and more to jesus himself i've noticed a lot of the younger generation looking for god in a different way she says they move away from their religious background and have an actual relationship with god did you just pop into the influencer to christian pipeline me yeah is that you the purple icon oh last man stanley popped in i was like i thought you're already in here stanley's in the dock stanley's in the chat how do we contact him it's like a seance where is he is he at the top stanley where are you in the dark call him a slur i only could say one um oh wait there he is i found him oh wait i'm i'm moving hey i wrote hey stanley speak to me oh he's already moved on anyway all right stanley actually wrote a note here earlier um that this may play into the conversation of the creators we're talking about later and how they may have used social media as that outlet and that collaborating with jesus later in their content creation i was like not collabing with jesus collabing with jesus yeah guys shake new collab with jesus dropping tomorrow we should have my post notifs on lipstick swatches with jesus trixie cosmetics ex jesus um i also earlier we skipped over a part that i wanted to mention um spiritual trends proliferate much like cultural and political ones in fact the latest iteration of new thoughts founding principles is inseparable from the internet russo the anthro anthropology professor notes that as social media has become the dominant cultural force in our society which is scary ideologies are spreading between people who may have vastly different beliefs and backgrounds but who show up on each other's feeds and relate in new ways i think that i've talked about this before where it's like we're exposed to so many cultures and backgrounds and cool [ __ ] things because of this phenomenon and it could be such a force for good and such an educational and enlightening form of like sharing media it's just not yeah like a lot of it's just this [ __ ] people just like here's why i think abortion is uh murder and you should go to jail yeah it's like okay good stuff guys we could be so much smarter and then every single time we choose not to be yes honestly me though sorry like if i if i have the option to like lay in bed and be a doofus versus like go out in the world and like cure cancer oh definitely i'm gonna doof it up oh yeah yeah just doofen it all day yes i understand like i understand to some extent i wouldn't like start a conspiracy theory out of my own paranoia yeah mm-hmm um anyway juarez this girl who loves god on tech talk her teacher comment section is proof in itself she says people have been like yo i can relate to this more than what i've been taught her approach to spirituality echoes many beliefs common in certain sex of christianity that occult practices shouldn't be messed with for instance or for instance she doesn't engage in manifestation because she says humans don't always know what's good for us i've dated a bunch of guys that now i know i shouldn't have but at the time thought they were the man of my dreams you ever prayed over a man um not recently have you ever prayed what do you have you ever prayed over what do you mean pray over now i used to pray for a boyfriend in high school really yeah i used to treat god like he was [ __ ] santa claus yes can i please god please i want like this james avery bracelet did you leave out any cookies for him for god yeah no so that's why you didn't get your prayers answered well i tithe did you die yeah it's like a high school job big thing no my church is a big thing in my family to time no i mean i know my family ties but i didn't know if you as an individual tithe i when i got my first job out of college um i lived with my grandparents for a bit while i was looking for a place to live like on my own and they were gracious enough to let me live with them for a bit and i would go to church with them every sunday um and my grandpa tithe's like solid like good money yeah um and i felt very obligated to i didn't feel cold too it wasn't on my heart to tithe yeah but it was like i feel like a [ __ ] if i don't so i did like twice like this feels i like can barely feed myself yeah like i don't have the means to be giving money to the church i made 120 in two weeks at limited too let me give away 12 literally god that's so smart of me that's the subway sandwich yes that's one meal you're sacrificing this i don't know so moving along to this girl named abby richards is a 25 year old different disinformation researcher who creates tick talks about how conspiracy theories spread online and who regularly works with scholars to debunk and contextualize harmfulness now what is the difference between disinformation and misinformation misinformation is a woman and disinformation is a doctor yeah she's watched how chaotic current events the astral world tragedy kova 19 the confusing broken job market have driven louder conversations around spirituality from talkers no matter where they fall in the ideological or political spectrum yeah i think aren't in a spectrum um there's a collective sense that the world is ending whether it's climate change whether it's the rapture the return of jesus wealth inequality satanic worship or other people's vibrations are too low so true yeah the rapture or you got low vibrations no his vibes are like oh yes it's the only nonpartisan issue when enormous swaths of people feel as though they should have no power against evil doing they have no power against evil doing she argues they tend to opt into narratives that provide a simpler answer as to why the world is terrifying yeah with the case of astral world the organizers didn't do their due diligence and they prioritize profit over the health and safety of humans and that is a lonelier grimmer thought to sit with and travis scott be begin being a demonic villain right yeah dude it's but that's the crazy thing is like it obviously the crowd crush is like a huge [ __ ] issue and that's like a very it's a horrible thing that's happened in the past but these people instead of like looking at past historical examples they're just like this is demonic mark twain once said that truth is stranger than fiction and it's so true because like we'd rather believe that there's some great other that's a big thing in in religion too is like there's this other yeah that we can blame oh the devil tempted me yeah the devil made me do it i was tempted and i was brought to the light you know i had whatever and it's not just like you and your natural instinct that's a lack of accountability exactly the devil made me do it no you are weak yeah you just made a shitty decision you cave to your like chemical brain chemicals exactly yeah we'd rather blame this other than you know this just acknowledging the selfish apathetic ways of like a few people that put on this dumb ass concert yeah you know like that is this was blown up into this huge thing a tragedy surely but to start inciting this whole new level of panic yeah of like will this happen you know this happened because he's a devil worshiper what the [ __ ] are you talking about dude it's like this was just a poorly planned tragedy exactly it's so and you can't argue with people who think like that you can't because they're always going to be like well how do you know well yeah it's like the same as like arguing with the narcissist like a lot of people i'm not saying all these people are narcissists but like if you are avoiding shame or you don't want to like reflect or you physically are incapable of reflecting they would rather believe the lie a hundred percent of the time than level with you you know like i i realize like at a certain point it's going to be impossible it is impossible to talk to my mom about any sort of self-reflection and in a similar way it's it's going to be impossible to talk to these people because their brain physically will not accept like what is truth if the truth puts them in any sort of discomfort right you know yeah what a way to live so it's easy to point to q anon which has been argued in itself its own religion as the worst case scenario of internet spirituality q anon appeared to be led by a mysterious prophetic figure dropping vague omens and references to a coming battle of good and evil before overtime becoming increasingly likely that cue the supposed top breaking official under president trump was actually just the guy running the message board despite the fact that none of q's predictions have come true it barely matters the roots of q anon have already been seated in american culture and politics many believers now use the same fear-stoking online rumor campaigns to cast anti-racism as liberal propaganda or abortion as murder and will certainly evolve to espouse the next reactionary ideology in the culture war didn't stutter the entire time reading it's so scary though i know it's all the whole thing was true it's just like they have created this new reality that they are so comfortable living in yeah and and it's this understanding almost equivalent to like the christian rapture that one day one day the truth is going to come out yeah what the [ __ ] are you talking about dude yeah get back to work which is like you know it's just paranoia and like enough paranoid people come together and it's like really really dangerous i'm thinking about the people that i've dealt with in my life that were exceptionally paranoid and they were the most terrifying people to be around right because they thought of all these scenarios and these ways to like hurt me because they thought that they were being attacked and again it's a form of mental illness where you need to talk to a specialist but then again they'd rather just do the easier routes of what if you know definitely but just as in mainstream religions it's impossible to judge a system of beliefs based on its most extremist or violent adherence i don't think there's any pacifists and q and on yeah i wouldn't think so either i think as a whole is pretty offensive and scary can you imagine like a tab it's like the rational side of q and r yeah yeah it doesn't exist even then you're like what is that who would that mean okay believing wholeheartedly and illogical or unexplainable things is part of a person part of being a person and not necessarily a bad one although it's perfectly reasonable to view the current state of the world and remark that things do not seem to be going in a very positive direction that total destruction is imminent whether it comes in five years or 500 many of us still cling to the arguably illogical hope that good whatever your idea of it will prevail yeah um debatable do you think what do you think the world do you think the world is good or evil i think that humans are innately evil um and that's why things like religion exist in the first place is because we for some reason are naturally submissive and subservient and we we seek a higher power to serve whether that's a king whether that's a landlord not that but you know like i'm on the ground we're shipping our landlord he said we live here please fix the fridge filter he's good but you know it's it's like we crave direction and religion fills that void for a lot of people is that it it is the moral signage and guideposts that we so badly want it teaches us how to live it gives us a rule book and i don't think that religion is innately bad but i do think it's innately flawed because it's man-made yeah if god is perfect religion is man-made so it's flawed so what's the [ __ ] point yeah you will never be perfect and i understand the idea of like trying to live in a godly way but at the same time why not just like be a good try to be a good person try to be as good as you can like i think that that is we've talked about this before too of like atheists or some of the nicest people you'll ever meet because it's this sort of backseat nihilistic perspective of like we're all going to die nothing matters yeah can i help you with anything you're like do you need help are you okay it's like i don't know some of the meanest [ __ ] people i've ever met in my life are christians yeah i don't get it yeah so we're going to talk about the influencers who became followers of jesus christ like our main examples so there's uh you know we have woe vicki uh some of you might know will vicki she was recently jesusified jesus defied good for her and i'm gonna say um just off of oh hold on brittany is playing something and i don't know where it's playing from anyway this is well vicki she's a christian now okay so woe vicki is like this white rapper girl it was so cringy but i'm gonna say for this one i don't think i do acknowledge that she may be mentally ill but like i think it's more of a rebrand you know what i mean than an actual turn to god again i'm not in her soul mind or therapy sessions um i think it's real okay for her because all of her content now is about this yeah where it used to be like i got money whatever whatever vicky used to do and she is like the bad baby type to know that people are watching her because they're so intrigued and they're they're mad at her it's like she knew that and she capitalized on it and now it's like i genuinely think she's seeking god i don't know yeah maybe what a wild thing it's always the most unexpected people i feel like this is her talking about how she's single because god wants her to be single so good for her uh-huh we also have like um statin harry who i personally have never heard oh yeah stat in here so statin harry is this young boy who was like a super huge like lady gaga stan and he was like very much queer if you know what i mean like and so i again what we were alluding to with like low anthony like if you're he seems to probably still live with his parents and if this is a safety thing i understand why he is doing this but he made an extreme 182 god again he is a child so i'm not going to like rip him i understand why especially children who are influencers pivot so hard to god definitely if yes and then we also have um low anthony is who we were talking about um this one is wild honestly because he used to be so gay and like he he shifted things for a long time people loved low anthony and it was the weirdest [ __ ] ever that picture he posted that's what i'm saying like it's so just out of the blue and and you're very right you know it's like we never know what's going on behind closed doors we never know what's going on in his personal life to like why he made this decision i personally think that these two examples are safety reasons the uh i'm the jay oh whoa vicky girl probably just like i don't know wanted to hang out with god more this is him now yeah he's always just like you need to repent now i don't want to talk about how sad um conversion therapy makes me yeah so sad but there's also some other notable examples they weren't necessarily i mean they a lot of these like i'm the j is a tick talker i'm the j was the craziest [ __ ] ever when that came out she's like guys we're like you're kidding right yeah like you're this is a joke she was very much not and then she he converted to christianity it's really interesting to watch and then we have people who started off as christians and then their christianity got more let's say severe marcus johns cola brant yeah cooler brandt was always christian though i think it just came out more when vine ended and he became like a family man and so you want to see like a family channel with like christian values and like a wife and a son and daughter or whatever i used to love marcus john's vine he was funny he was my favorite dude i loved him and then i started watching his youtube videos way back in the day and just like kind of the way that he interacted with his wife was so christian yeah like so like i man you woman yeah you cook you homemaker me man yeah and it was like i know that he loves her and she loves him but it's such a an antiquated style of romance yeah and it's it it is a weird internal cognitive dissonance i have because in my mind i still sometimes think this is marriage yeah this is a healthy openly loving godly marriage yeah this is what my parents want for me and this is what i should want for myself and then i watch it and there's something that just makes my stomach turn a little bit yeah about how he talks to her like she's a baby yeah and how he doesn't really trust her to do things on her own he is to be with her and he teaches her how to do things and it's like this should be sweet but i just take it as kind of condescending mm-hmm i don't know maybe i just hate men no i think which so i in your tic talk that you posted the other day like you're trying not to become a misandrist i think the again like you said the more you learn about the world the more you see men and you more you see racism and the more you see all these issues for what they really are yeah so like similar to how like when you went to college it was like night and day yeah i think like these types of people who find that type of content endearing are very much living like how you were before you went off to college where it's like very much like a sheltered mindset of yeah so it makes sense like i feel like if you were to watch it maybe a year ago it had been like a little bit more fine but you watch it today and you're like and you can see these things you're like this is not okay yeah it's like i wouldn't want that for myself but it's this weird thing that i feel pressured to say to be like well if they're happy yeah but it's like she deserves so much more than that yeah but i'm not it's it's that thing of you don't know better leave them alone yeah you're just as bad if you're if i were to be if i weren't myself and i was just a commenter just a consumer of marcus john's content and i was commenting on his wife's vlogs you know you're really are you really comfortable with him like yeah you know what i mean it's like just putting that seed in her head i didn't need to do that she's in a happy marriage well i mean there's i mean there's no problem with you know putting a seed in someone's head because a lot of times like i mean it is helpful like a lot of not all these commenters like have a negative intention when they're like hey dude there's something wrong right like we talked about with when conor was on the podcast like someone pointed out like some like a speckle in his eye and was like joking that he's like you know it has a disease but we have seen tick tocks where like someone has actually found out that they have skin cancer right because a doctor commented right like a lot of women post about their stories on tick tock of like maybe they're in a domestic violence situation and someone comments like dude that's actually like i was in that too and here's some resources being not all commenters like have this like negative intent and if you delicious yeah critical intent and i trust your brain that you seeing their relationship and you know how a man should treat a woman in a relationship i trust your judgment if you felt like it's necessary to comment hey dude you deserve better than this sure if you were just going on like a random couple's like vlog from like paris and you're like you're reading too much into what he does and you're like i think you should divorce him he didn't open the door for you at the you know something right that would be like totally unwarranted but i think yeah it's a weird thing because it's like especially as content creators you're choosing to put your life online yeah opening yourself up for criticism period yeah we do it anyone with a [ __ ] check mark does it and it's like you have to be prepared for that but at the same time know your place as a commenter and as a creator you know in that weird undefined relationship it is so [ __ ] weird which episode coming by the way parasocial relationships we definitely want to talk about that in the future yes um anyway i think this has been a wonderful discussion i think if you find comfort and safety and hope and religion and it does make you a better person or someone who like he's not hurting other people then i'm really happy for you it makes sense the world is going to [ __ ] so if you just need some sort of hope i totally get it yeah to help you sleep at night i get it i definitely get it because what's the opposite is that better you know being plagued with the issues of the world weighing heavily on your chest at night it gets all consuming so yeah definitely understand and definitely coming from that background i see i have been privy to some instances where christianity has been a beautiful thing yeah you know and i've seen people come together to uplift their community and to uplift an individual who's struggling with maybe a disease or we used to like donate um school supplies to like inner city kids and stuff like that where you're making a difference in the community which is what it's all about it feels like that's very rare yeah such a rarity now it's all the [ __ ] [ __ ] christian christian discourse online yeah about women's bodies and about guns and about it's like that is this really yeah christianity yeah it's an interesting topic let us know what you guys think let us know how you feel and how catholicism works yeah what is um uh what's what's the deal with mary um all right i've always had that question though you guys love mary but thank you guys so much for listening this um this has been another episode of violating community guidelines make sure to like and subscribe on the youtube spotify apple podcast wherever you get your podcasts raid us five stars leave us a review leave us a comment leave us a funny story you guys are so crazy yes um also we're going on tour we're going on tour tickets go on sale august 2nd so maybe by the time this comes out they will be on sale be sure to get them we're coming to florida texas the northeast new england i don't know where new england is man it's um new york new york apparently isn't new england no it's not but we are going to new york going to new york and then also the midwest yeah so uh everyone on the west coast sorry about it you snooze you lose yeah you snooze you lose you shouldn't live there we'll see you in the future though we will we this is the first tour ever um but we will do more in the future so if you can't come now oh well guess what we got free youtube videos for you guys so keep watching those all right thank you guys love you very much [Music]

Channel: Violating Community Guidelines

Views: 825,575

Keywords: Christian, influencers, christian influencers, violating community guidelines, violating, community, guidelines, brittany broski, sarahschauer, sarah, schauer, sarah schauer, brittanybroski, internet, comedy, podcast, comedy podcast, internet comedy podcast, jesus, christ, church, religion

Id: lmEYU3cSARw

Length: 80min 1sec (4801 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 15 2022