Interview · moment 11 of 16
Digitally Native Kids and the Tribalism of Online Identity
from #244 - Dobrik's Death Count | The Tim Dillon Show · #244
4 min
Guest
The group discusses how digitally-native younger generations build identity and social status through online group membership rather than lived experience, referencing Abigail Shreier's Joe Rogan appearance and Tim's frustration that comedians and audiences overvalue sexual identity as the most interesting thing about a person.
- Tim examines why people have become fragile and dependent on strangers' online validation for their sense of self.
- Online culture has flattened everybody; younger people are weird in person, don't make eye contact, and can't function at dinner because they're more comfortable online.
- Tim doesn't talk about being gay in his act because it's not interesting—it's not 1987 when people were actually dying.
- He doesn't understand why who you have sex with or your gender identity is supposed to make you an individual; he finds it the least interesting thing about anybody.
- In progressive communities, the opposite trajectory has taken hold: you're supposed to talk about identity constantly and act like online adversity has harmed you horribly.
- When some teenager sends him an Auschwitz meme, he refuses to give that kid power by treating it as a hate crime.
- People are now faking being black or biracial in media and academic culture just to gain identity points, which is weird given how much actual oppression exists in the world.
- Everything has devolved into tribalism and team sports, turning culture and identity into competing factions.
- Pushing back on defamatory claims—like calling someone a stalker—somehow gets you accused of harassment, while the original accusation faces no consequences.