June 22, 2025 • 12 mins
The airstrike on Iran didn’t just hit the news, it detonated across TikTok. We look at the psychology of digital panic, the architecture of algorithmic fear, and the slippery slope from information to indoctrination. Not all viral is vital.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Hey everyone, on this episode I want to talk about something
I've been noticing for a while, but it's become especially loud
this week. the US just carried out air strikes on Iran and
within hours TikTok was flooded with videos screaming about
World War 3, reinstated drafts and nuclear fallout.
(00:23):
And while I understand where thefear is coming from, I think
it's important to take a step back a moment.
I'm not going to lie, I feel like TikTok is becoming to
Zelenials what Fox News and CNN are to Boomers and Gen.
X. That is a fear distribution
machine. But instead of anchors and news
tickers, we have trending audiosand chaotic green screens and
(00:46):
influencers speaking with total certainty even when they have no
clue what they're talking about.And the algorithm rewards it.
That's what we're breaking down today.
O, let's get into it.
(01:08):
All right, What actually happened on June 21st, 2025?
As I'm recording this, it is 9:20 PM 6/21/25.
And for the record, by the time this is out, we will most likely
have more information and updates on what is taking place
in the world. And I certainly hope that I'm
(01:29):
not going to eat my words because I don't want, you know,
war and I don't want the worst things to happen.
But I still think it's incredibly important to stress
how necessary it is in this day and age to let yourself live
moment by moment and not constantly in a possible future
(01:50):
fed to you by algorithms. So on June 21st, the US launched
a series of targeted airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear
facilities. These were described as surgical
strikes. That is something that is aimed
specifically with the intent on completing a clear goal.
(02:10):
One thing I would like you to understand as I go on with this
episode is I am not pro war. I am not pro USI am not pro
military. I completely understand the
verbiage that is used by Trump in the White House to
essentially lie to the American people.
So don't listen to me here as some pro conservative or
(02:32):
moderate even. I'm just trying to rationalize
here before I let my mind sink into anxiety.
So we had three surgical strikesaimed specifically at these
uranium enrichment sites. Trump claimed that the strikes
were meant as a deterrent and not an act of war.
(02:54):
So let's get that out of the way.
I've seen tons of TikTok videos about the US just declared war.
No we did not. We did not declare war.
That is a click bait title. If you take the words from
Trump's own mouth, which I can, I know isn't worth much, but
it's still significant when you consider that words, especially
(03:15):
on the world stage, hold a ton of weight.
So Trump called these strikes a deterrent and not an act of war.
And as of now, Iran's response has been cautious.
There's been no full scale retaliation, no declared war.
Intelligence analysts from groups like the International
Crisis Group and reporting from the Guardian and Wall Street
(03:38):
Journal confirmed that regional actors, including Russia, the EU
and Gulf countries are all urging restraint.
Oftentimes what we are fed to the algorithm is this domino
effect, right? Iran has attacked boom, Russia's
at war, China's at war, Pakistan's at war.
(03:59):
Clearly it's not that simple. What we are witnessing right now
is not that obvious, But why does it feel like we're on the
edge of total annihilation? Well, Simply put, has to do with
fear. During the early 2000s, cable
news networks made fear profitable.
I don't know if you are old enough to remember this, but
(04:20):
there were constant terror alertlevels on Fox News.
On CNN. There was round the clock
countdowns during war coverage. It wasn't just information, it
was essentially engagement farming.
And TikTok does the exact same thing, but it's almost worse
because it's faster, it's more emotional, and it's far more
(04:43):
personal. You see, the algorithm doesn't
care about accuracy. You could look this up.
I think there's an alarming statistic that was released
recently talking about the misinformation regarding
psychological facts like therapyfacts, mental health facts just
not being right. And these are all propagated by
the biggest, most influential accounts on social media.
(05:06):
Again, the algorithm doesn't care about accuracy, it cares
about interaction. And you see, fear makes people
comment, makes them repost and share, keeps their eyes on that
screen. And that makes creators, yes,
even well meaning creators, incentivized to exaggerate.
(05:28):
Think about how the app works. And this isn't just exclusive to
TikTok. This is also Instagram as well.
You're scrolling, whether through Reels or your explorer
feed, discovery feed, whatever you call it on TikTok, and
suddenly some teenager is yelling at you that the giraffe
is coming back or some 20 year old has a serious face on why
this is the end. Someone green screens a fake map
(05:51):
of nuclear fallout. People start crying on camera
about how they just know we're going to war and all of this
feels real. It feels urgent.
And before you know it, you're spiraling because TikTok and
Instagram make every crisis feelpersonalized.
Do you remember how you felt when Russia invaded Ukraine?
(06:14):
I know how I felt. I thought for sure I was going
to war. I remember watching, reading
minute by minute, sifting through comments to see if there
was going to be any nuclear strikes, reading Russias
response to the West to stay outof it unless they want, you
know, Hellfire. There was a lot of Saber
rattling and I remember being filled with fear.
(06:37):
Now, hear me out. I'm not trying to downplay
conflicts such as what's going on in Ukraine or in Africa.
These are all real, serious conflicts.
But are you really thinking about any of them now to the
same degree that you were buriedin as those events broke out?
You have every right to empathize, to be worried, to
lament the atrocities, these whores in the world.
(07:00):
But I want to stress again that you were never, ever created
with the ability to understand everything all at once.
That is to say, you are not omniscient.
You are not omnipresent. Your mind can literally not
understand the scope of violenceand suffering that is taking
(07:20):
place on any given day, in any given moment.
And so apps like TikTok and Instagram profit off of what we
call fear baiting. Fear baiting happens when
creators lean into the emotionalweight of a crisis without
checking facts. And that's the kind of stuff
that the algorithm just eats up.There's hardly any editing
(07:41):
process, there's hardly any factchecking, just vibes.
The nonprofit group First Draft found in 2023 that TikTok was
one of the top platforms for spreading misinformation during
crisis. And yes, that's including
COVID-19, along with what we just talked about, Ukraine's
invasion and even natural disasters.
(08:04):
Misinformation on TikTok is especially dangerous because of
how emotional and aesthetic it is.
If somebody is crying on camera or using trending sad music, we
are going to subconsciously believe them.
And in the last 48 hours alone, we've seen fake conscription
orders, out of context missile videos from completely different
(08:26):
years. This attributed military footage
from video games even, which is wild to think about.
What you are watching on screen,you don't even know if it's from
last night, from today, from this month.
Sometimes it's from a conflict years ago.
And so that does something to your nervous system.
What happens is that your nervous system becomes flooded
(08:48):
with this kind of content, and you start to feel like the world
is ending every week. Even if you know better
intellectually, your body still processes the panic.
You see the headline, that clickbait caption, and before your
brain even understands logically, your body is
reacting. It's called limbic hijacking.
(09:08):
That's when your emotional brainoverrides your rational brain in
response to perceived danger andit's insanely exhausting.
This isn't just a TikTok problem, it's an intention
economy problem. TikTok and Instagram are
optimized for speed, motion and amplification.
(09:28):
They're perfect platforms for fear baiting.
So what do we do? What do we do with this
information? Well, I think the first thing
that we should do always is pause.
When you see a fear inducing video, ask yourself, is this
coming from a place of insight or panic?
I would even go as far as to saydon't even watch.
(09:53):
But if you must watch, I think the next thing you should do is
verify. Is this an actual conflict
reporter? Is this person a real scholar?
Are they a journalist on the ground?
There are sites out there that Fact Check constantly.
Have them on bookmark. But really, if you can restrain
yourself, I think it is so important to interrupt the loop,
(10:18):
take a break from doom scrolling, re regulate your body
before diving into the next video.
And you know what that gives youample time to do?
Conversate, communicate, talk about it.
Help your friends pause too. Not in a condescending way, but
just as a reminder that not everything trending is true.
(10:42):
It is so important for our mindsand body, especially during this
day and age, to stay grounded. Regardless of what conflict
happens, protest happens, major event happens.
Always, always, always have in the back of your head that the
people in power are going to want you confused.
(11:03):
They're going to want you overstimulated.
They are going to want you distracted.
Because when you have a large amount of people who are
confused, overstimulated and distracted, then you have a
large group of people that are insanely easy to manipulate.
That's why there is nothing moredangerous to a government than a
(11:24):
clear headed and educated individual.
Because that's when we start asking better questions.
That's when we start thinking more before we react.
And look, I know it's scary out there.
Believe me, there is an undercurrent of anxiety in my
mind. But I refuse to be ruled by it
(11:46):
till those declarations happen, until those threats and those
fears are at our doorstep, I'm going to focus on the moment, On
what I can do to prepare. On what I can do to educate.
On what I can do to dismantle these oppressive structures,
systems in place that are meant to keep us in fear.
(12:09):
So don't hear me as somebody downplaying the evil in the
world. You cannot be an effective
fighter for freedom unless you are calm, level headed and
educated. And I know that is hard in a
loud world and with platforms like TikTok, CNN, Fox News X,
(12:34):
whatever, that make that noise even louder.
And I just want you to know thatyou don't have to give all of
your attention to fear. So stay curious, stay calm, and
I'll see you in the next episode.
Hey everyone, on this episode I want to talk about something
I've been noticing for a while, but it's become especially loud
this week. the US just carried out air strikes on Iran and
within hours TikTok was flooded with videos screaming about
World War 3, reinstated drafts and nuclear fallout.
(00:23):
And while I understand where thefear is coming from, I think
it's important to take a step back a moment.
I'm not going to lie, I feel like TikTok is becoming to
Zelenials what Fox News and CNN are to Boomers and Gen.
X. That is a fear distribution
machine. But instead of anchors and news
tickers, we have trending audiosand chaotic green screens and
(00:46):
influencers speaking with total certainty even when they have no
clue what they're talking about.And the algorithm rewards it.
That's what we're breaking down today.
O, let's get into it.
(01:08):
All right, What actually happened on June 21st, 2025?
As I'm recording this, it is 9:20 PM 6/21/25.
And for the record, by the time this is out, we will most likely
have more information and updates on what is taking place
in the world. And I certainly hope that I'm
(01:29):
not going to eat my words because I don't want, you know,
war and I don't want the worst things to happen.
But I still think it's incredibly important to stress
how necessary it is in this day and age to let yourself live
moment by moment and not constantly in a possible future
(01:50):
fed to you by algorithms. So on June 21st, the US launched
a series of targeted airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear
facilities. These were described as surgical
strikes. That is something that is aimed
specifically with the intent on completing a clear goal.
(02:10):
One thing I would like you to understand as I go on with this
episode is I am not pro war. I am not pro USI am not pro
military. I completely understand the
verbiage that is used by Trump in the White House to
essentially lie to the American people.
So don't listen to me here as some pro conservative or
(02:32):
moderate even. I'm just trying to rationalize
here before I let my mind sink into anxiety.
So we had three surgical strikesaimed specifically at these
uranium enrichment sites. Trump claimed that the strikes
were meant as a deterrent and not an act of war.
(02:54):
So let's get that out of the way.
I've seen tons of TikTok videos about the US just declared war.
No we did not. We did not declare war.
That is a click bait title. If you take the words from
Trump's own mouth, which I can, I know isn't worth much, but
it's still significant when you consider that words, especially
(03:15):
on the world stage, hold a ton of weight.
So Trump called these strikes a deterrent and not an act of war.
And as of now, Iran's response has been cautious.
There's been no full scale retaliation, no declared war.
Intelligence analysts from groups like the International
Crisis Group and reporting from the Guardian and Wall Street
(03:38):
Journal confirmed that regional actors, including Russia, the EU
and Gulf countries are all urging restraint.
Oftentimes what we are fed to the algorithm is this domino
effect, right? Iran has attacked boom, Russia's
at war, China's at war, Pakistan's at war.
(03:59):
Clearly it's not that simple. What we are witnessing right now
is not that obvious, But why does it feel like we're on the
edge of total annihilation? Well, Simply put, has to do with
fear. During the early 2000s, cable
news networks made fear profitable.
I don't know if you are old enough to remember this, but
(04:20):
there were constant terror alertlevels on Fox News.
On CNN. There was round the clock
countdowns during war coverage. It wasn't just information, it
was essentially engagement farming.
And TikTok does the exact same thing, but it's almost worse
because it's faster, it's more emotional, and it's far more
(04:43):
personal. You see, the algorithm doesn't
care about accuracy. You could look this up.
I think there's an alarming statistic that was released
recently talking about the misinformation regarding
psychological facts like therapyfacts, mental health facts just
not being right. And these are all propagated by
the biggest, most influential accounts on social media.
(05:06):
Again, the algorithm doesn't care about accuracy, it cares
about interaction. And you see, fear makes people
comment, makes them repost and share, keeps their eyes on that
screen. And that makes creators, yes,
even well meaning creators, incentivized to exaggerate.
(05:28):
Think about how the app works. And this isn't just exclusive to
TikTok. This is also Instagram as well.
You're scrolling, whether through Reels or your explorer
feed, discovery feed, whatever you call it on TikTok, and
suddenly some teenager is yelling at you that the giraffe
is coming back or some 20 year old has a serious face on why
this is the end. Someone green screens a fake map
(05:51):
of nuclear fallout. People start crying on camera
about how they just know we're going to war and all of this
feels real. It feels urgent.
And before you know it, you're spiraling because TikTok and
Instagram make every crisis feelpersonalized.
Do you remember how you felt when Russia invaded Ukraine?
(06:14):
I know how I felt. I thought for sure I was going
to war. I remember watching, reading
minute by minute, sifting through comments to see if there
was going to be any nuclear strikes, reading Russias
response to the West to stay outof it unless they want, you
know, Hellfire. There was a lot of Saber
rattling and I remember being filled with fear.
(06:37):
Now, hear me out. I'm not trying to downplay
conflicts such as what's going on in Ukraine or in Africa.
These are all real, serious conflicts.
But are you really thinking about any of them now to the
same degree that you were buriedin as those events broke out?
You have every right to empathize, to be worried, to
lament the atrocities, these whores in the world.
(07:00):
But I want to stress again that you were never, ever created
with the ability to understand everything all at once.
That is to say, you are not omniscient.
You are not omnipresent. Your mind can literally not
understand the scope of violenceand suffering that is taking
(07:20):
place on any given day, in any given moment.
And so apps like TikTok and Instagram profit off of what we
call fear baiting. Fear baiting happens when
creators lean into the emotionalweight of a crisis without
checking facts. And that's the kind of stuff
that the algorithm just eats up.There's hardly any editing
(07:41):
process, there's hardly any factchecking, just vibes.
The nonprofit group First Draft found in 2023 that TikTok was
one of the top platforms for spreading misinformation during
crisis. And yes, that's including
COVID-19, along with what we just talked about, Ukraine's
invasion and even natural disasters.
(08:04):
Misinformation on TikTok is especially dangerous because of
how emotional and aesthetic it is.
If somebody is crying on camera or using trending sad music, we
are going to subconsciously believe them.
And in the last 48 hours alone, we've seen fake conscription
orders, out of context missile videos from completely different
(08:26):
years. This attributed military footage
from video games even, which is wild to think about.
What you are watching on screen,you don't even know if it's from
last night, from today, from this month.
Sometimes it's from a conflict years ago.
And so that does something to your nervous system.
What happens is that your nervous system becomes flooded
(08:48):
with this kind of content, and you start to feel like the world
is ending every week. Even if you know better
intellectually, your body still processes the panic.
You see the headline, that clickbait caption, and before your
brain even understands logically, your body is
reacting. It's called limbic hijacking.
(09:08):
That's when your emotional brainoverrides your rational brain in
response to perceived danger andit's insanely exhausting.
This isn't just a TikTok problem, it's an intention
economy problem. TikTok and Instagram are
optimized for speed, motion and amplification.
(09:28):
They're perfect platforms for fear baiting.
So what do we do? What do we do with this
information? Well, I think the first thing
that we should do always is pause.
When you see a fear inducing video, ask yourself, is this
coming from a place of insight or panic?
I would even go as far as to saydon't even watch.
(09:53):
But if you must watch, I think the next thing you should do is
verify. Is this an actual conflict
reporter? Is this person a real scholar?
Are they a journalist on the ground?
There are sites out there that Fact Check constantly.
Have them on bookmark. But really, if you can restrain
yourself, I think it is so important to interrupt the loop,
(10:18):
take a break from doom scrolling, re regulate your body
before diving into the next video.
And you know what that gives youample time to do?
Conversate, communicate, talk about it.
Help your friends pause too. Not in a condescending way, but
just as a reminder that not everything trending is true.
(10:42):
It is so important for our mindsand body, especially during this
day and age, to stay grounded. Regardless of what conflict
happens, protest happens, major event happens.
Always, always, always have in the back of your head that the
people in power are going to want you confused.
(11:03):
They're going to want you overstimulated.
They are going to want you distracted.
Because when you have a large amount of people who are
confused, overstimulated and distracted, then you have a
large group of people that are insanely easy to manipulate.
That's why there is nothing moredangerous to a government than a
(11:24):
clear headed and educated individual.
Because that's when we start asking better questions.
That's when we start thinking more before we react.
And look, I know it's scary out there.
Believe me, there is an undercurrent of anxiety in my
mind. But I refuse to be ruled by it
(11:46):
till those declarations happen, until those threats and those
fears are at our doorstep, I'm going to focus on the moment, On
what I can do to prepare. On what I can do to educate.
On what I can do to dismantle these oppressive structures,
systems in place that are meant to keep us in fear.
(12:09):
So don't hear me as somebody downplaying the evil in the
world. You cannot be an effective
fighter for freedom unless you are calm, level headed and
educated. And I know that is hard in a
loud world and with platforms like TikTok, CNN, Fox News X,
(12:34):
whatever, that make that noise even louder.
And I just want you to know thatyou don't have to give all of
your attention to fear. So stay curious, stay calm, and
I'll see you in the next episode.
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