Be Cautious Of Internet Mobs

About this episode

A solo "As the Crow Flies" monologue where Vance works through his ambivalence about internet mob dynamics, sparked by observing the rising use of "demon" language across podcasters (Michael Malice, Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Dave Smith) to describe political opponents, and by Robbie Starbuck's social-pressure campaigns against corporate DEI programs (Tractor Supply, John Deere, Harley Davidson). Vance draws on his graduate-school study of genocide to explain the danger of "othering" language, argues that mob tactics corrupt whoever wields them regardless of whether the underlying cause is just, and warns against "demigod" figures (citing Andrew Tate, Tucker Carlson, Dave Smith by name) who ask followers to outsource their individual thinking. He connects this to his own Monsanto spokesman experience — the danger of never having your ideas battle-tested by real disagreement — and closes without a firm answer, explicitly inviting listener pushback and describing his personal anti-mob defenses: his wife, a core group of five friends, and the podcast audience itself.

“Controlling a mob is an illusion. You can never control a mob once it gets going, because once it starts to consume that energy that let's go take down this person, let's go, you know, cancel or let's go destroy this person, then it takes on a life force all of its own. And once it organizes and once it gets enough foundational energy, it won't stop until it's spilled the blood of both the guilty and the innocent.”

“I think that when we use mob action, we run into a danger of if you use the tactics of your enemies, it is not long before you become your enemies, the very thing that you were fighting against.”

“That's why you have to get in front of people that don't agree with you. And it may not be somebody that's actually on the other side. It may just be a really good person that is effective at steel manning or a highly disagreeable person that won't just accept what the narrative is. You need to be around these people so that that way you can say your ideas and have somebody give you resistance so that that way you can figure out, are my ideas as clear and convincing as I thought?”

Key moments

• Cold open stating Vance's core thesis up front: deep suspicion of internet mobs and the illusion of controllability once mob energy is unleashed (~0-2%).
• Extended discussion of the rising use of "demon"/"demonic" language across major podcasters and Vance's genocide-studies background informing his concern about "othering" rhetoric as a precursor to atrocity (~5-15%).
• Introduction of Robbie Starbuck as a case study — acknowledging his DEI-rollback campaigns achieved real corporate change (Tractor Supply, John Deere, Harley Davidson) while still calling the tactic dangerous mob activity (~19-27%).
• The core ethical tension Vance sits with throughout: mob tactics work and sometimes target genuinely bad ideologies, but "if you use the tactics of your enemies, it is not long before you become your enemies" (~28-38%).
• "Demigod" framework — naming Andrew Tate, Tucker Carlson, and Dave Smith as examples of articulate figures whose followers outsource individual thinking and morality to them (~38-46%).
• Personal anecdote from his Monsanto spokesman years: audience members who thought they understood GMO/pesticide arguments discovered their command of the subject was weaker than assumed once actually challenged live (~57-63%).
• Closing personal disclosure of his anti-mob defenses: his wife's habitual disagreement, a core group of five friends who "pressure test" his ideas, and an open invitation for listener emails/pushback (~62-70%).
• Final framing: evil is "the allowance or encouragement of suffering where suffering is not needed" (citing Jordan Peterson), and the only defense against becoming a mob is genuine community that expects course-correction rather than groupthink (~70-80%).