Blocked and Reported Episode 277: Internet Poisoning (with Katherine Dee)
18 snips
Sep 22, 2025 
Katherine Dee, an insightful internet ethnographer and the voice behind the Substack Default Friend, joins for a fascinating discussion. They explore the wild evolution of online communities, from the quirky furries to the unsettling world of sissy hypno. Katherine delves into the dark side of digital culture, examining the motives behind violent acts like the Charlie Kirk shooting. As a parent, she shares her philosophy on limiting screen time to foster offline development and essential life skills.
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Money Changed The Internet's Incentives
- Monetization and media attention reshaped online communities by changing incentives.
- Katherine Dee argues these shifts reduce experimentation and warp culture toward attention-seeking behavior.
Twitter Launched Politics; X Amplifies It
- Twitter catalyzed political mobilization while X amplifies and supersizes those movements.
- Dee separates Twitter's role in starting online political trends from X's role in magnifying them.
Weird Subcultures Built Social Infrastructure
- Early niche groups like furries, deadheads and trans communities built much of the internet's social infrastructure.
- Katherine Dee says those communities pioneered forums, listservs and fan sites that shaped how people organize online today.
