DAVID

[01:03.35] I was in Germany around the time of the terrorist attack in Munich
[01:07.89] A mass shooting in which nine people were killed
[01:10.24] July 22nd, 2016
[01:15.32] Two days before there had been an axe attack
[01:18.72] On a train in Versburg, no casualties
[01:21.28] Two days after there would be a machete attack
[01:23.58] In Reutlingen, two casualties
[01:26.54] These events were unusual
[01:28.17] Both in their nature and in their proximity to one another
[01:31.26] They made headline news across the world
[01:32.95] You might not remember them
[01:34.10] But you almost certainly heard about them at the time
[01:36.17] They came at a time when
[01:37.42] Tensions surrounding the refugee crisis were and still are
[01:42.27] At the point of recording
[01:43.53] Hitting boiling point
[01:45.08] Not just in Germany
[01:46.32] France had suffered a brutal terrorist attack
[01:48.94] Less than two weeks earlier
[01:50.02] In Nice, eighty six casualties
[01:51.92] And in Paris the previous November, a hundred and thirty casualties
[01:55.26] And in Belgium, as well
[01:56.47] Where an attack on Brussels airport had left
[01:58.45] Uh, thirty dead in March
[02:00.21] And in Greece
[02:00.88] Whose economy was already sinking into the fucking ocean back in 2010
[02:04.02] On whose shores thousands of refugees were now landing every day
[02:09.39] Back home tensions were just as high, if not higher
[02:12.23] Now we hadn't had an attack since the London bombings in 2005
[02:15.62] Mind you, fifty two casualties
[02:17.08] But the news was waterboarding us daily
[02:20.69] With footage of the makeshift camp in Callais
[02:22.70] Containing just under seven and a half thousand refugees
[02:25.42] Seeking sanctuary in the U.K
[02:27.02] Now compare that number
[02:29.22] To the number Germany had taken in
[02:31.71] By some estimates, over 1.1 million
[02:35.39] And we, like most islanders I guess
[02:38.57] Start to look a little hysterical in the face of change
[02:40.96] And overly concerned with maintaining
[02:42.34] The sanctity of our personal space
[02:44.01] Whether our anxiety was justified or not
[02:48.98] Our country and the rest of the continent was divided
[02:51.62] Between those who felt that there were lessons we had to learn
[02:55.72] From the fallout of the holocaust and the second world war
[02:58.15] That we had nothing short of a moral fucking duty
[03:01.45] An obligation to take in as many refugees
[03:04.02] As we could realistically afford to care for
[03:05.75] And on the other side
[03:07.18] Were those who were worried that
[03:08.83] Having a large group of people entering the country
[03:11.27] Regardless of their country of origin
[03:12.85] Would be a strain on our resources
[03:14.20] And a threat to our culture
[03:15.63] With the added twist that these people
[03:17.67] Were coming from a region
[03:19.68] That we had been for over half a decade bombing the fuck out of
[03:23.35] Where extremist anti-western sentiment had been coalescing
[03:27.37] Under the flag of a so-called islamic state
[03:29.41] A group who were now explicitly stating
[03:31.67] That they were going to be sending sleeper agents
[03:33.34] Into Europe along with the refugees
[03:34.80] It was a fucking mess
[03:36.28] Nobody knew what was going on
[03:40.16] And everybody was watching Germany
[03:41.52] To see whether it was worth following their lead
[03:46.60] "There will be blood," said the continent's right wing
[03:51.06] And then when the Munich attack happened
[03:54.02] We on the left, privately
[03:56.98] Started to wonder if they were right after all
[04:03.62] Nobody had any real information
[04:05.86] And so the tabloids and the blogs
[04:07.69] Increasingly indistinguishable from one another
[04:10.49] Did what tabloids and blogs do best
[04:12.18] Syrian asylum seekers
[04:13.71] Refugee crisis
[04:14.94] Muslim terrorist attack
[04:16.12] The human brain is not designed to be a truth detector
[04:21.21] It's designed to respond to stories
[04:22.99] The more evocative the better
[04:25.20] There is a, there is a gap that was left empty
[04:30.46] When we outsourced our folk storytelling to Hollywood
[04:33.26] That the tabloid press has stepped in to fill its place
[04:35.86] They take the familiar pieces of our day to day lives
[04:38.56] The shopping centers
[04:39.38] The airports
[04:39.92] The immigrants
[04:40.52] The weird unfamiliar religions
[04:42.14] And they rearrange these pieces in front of our eyes
[04:44.88] Into terrifying constellations
[04:46.64] Until one of the constellations snags
[04:48.30] Against something dark and amorphous in our subconscious
[04:51.33] Triggering the release of a potent natural speedball into our system
[04:55.13] Dopamine, endorphins, adrenaline
[04:57.89] Keeping us coming back to the same papers
[04:59.67] And the same websites again and again for more of that feeling
[05:02.85] Because we enjoy being afraid
[05:04.39] And we enjoy being afraid because that payload of
[05:07.54] Dopamine, endorphins, adrenaline
[05:09.08] Is the same bunch of chemicals that is released when we are happy
[05:12.26] It's why a lot of us feel amazing after watching a horror movie
[05:15.76] It's why a mediocre horror movie is, for many of us
[05:18.84] More enjoyable than an Oscar-winning drama
[05:20.86] And it's why the horror movie industry is effectively
[05:23.35] A money printing machine
[05:24.50] And it's the same reason why the Mail Online
[05:26.37] Is the internet's most visited English language news provider
[05:32.07] You don't just enjoy hearing stories about monsters
[05:34.11] You go looking for them
[05:36.28] You do this because your brain thinks it's learning from them
[05:39.25] It's a particularly ingenious quirk of natural selection
[05:42.01] The fact that we can be scared by and alter our behavior
[05:45.24] In response to abstract fears
[05:48.12] This is what has kept us nimble
[05:50.27] And vigilant
[05:51.99] And alive for tens of thousands of years
[05:54.59] The hunter who now really avoids getting eaten by a tiger
[05:56.80] Who is given a main line dose
[05:58.12] Of pharmaceutical-grade mortal fucking terror
[06:00.83] Firing up learning synapses of their brain
[06:02.89] Like watching the burning of Alexandria in reverse
[06:05.36] This hunter is unlikely to make the mistakes
[06:07.55] That almost got him killed more than once
[06:09.10] But how do you pass that knowledge on
[06:11.69] Without throwing your children at tigers and hoping they come home?
[06:14.42] If the hunter is a decent storyteller
[06:15.78] Able to induce in others even a fraction of that terror
[06:18.75] Emulate the conditions
[06:20.12] Replicate the lessons
[06:21.61] The people who hear the hunter's story
[06:23.22] Will be at an evolutionary advantage
[06:24.90] Without ever needing to see a tiger
[06:27.27] But we are not hunters anymore
[06:29.26] Not really
[06:31.64] The Mail online is not saving anybody–from anything
[06:35.12] And I was aware of all this
[06:38.05] I knew the games the right wing played
[06:40.61] I thought being onto their games meant that I was safe from them
[06:43.28] That I could dip in and out of the swamp at will
[06:45.66] Without fear of being infected by it
[06:47.88] And I was dipping in and out of it
[06:50.55] Regularly
[06:51.19] Because I was following the most interesting U.S. election cycle
[06:53.22] In modern fucking history
[06:54.86] Hillary Clinton vs Donald Trump
[06:56.67] The great unpopularity contest
[06:58.52] A nation-wide poll to see who was the least unlikable
[07:01.56] Everyday I would wake up
[07:03.05] And it would be the first thing I'd google
[07:05.04] And Donald Trump had made xenophobia
[07:06.99] The keystone of his entire campaign
[07:08.44] To listen to him speak
[07:09.90] Meant throwing your gates wide open
[07:12.33] And inviting his memetic trojan horse into your brain
[07:15.35] I did this every
[07:16.19] Day
[07:17.86] This is how people go insane
[07:19.73] This is how people forget what is real
[07:23.64] And what is a smear of bird shit on their window pane
[07:31.39] On my way home, from Germany
[07:34.36] I stayed overnight in a hotel in Paris
[07:36.66] And I woke in the middle of the night
[07:38.77] To the sound of screaming
[07:42.52] Gunshots
[07:44.41] Commotion
[07:47.92] And next to my bed, standing over me
[07:53.25] Two middle eastern men
[07:54.56] With assault rifles
[07:56.32] Speaking in a language I didn't understand
[07:58.53] And I knew, instantly, as you do in dreams
[08:02.93] That a group of terrorists had taken the hotel
[08:07.22] And were going room to room executing the western infidels
[08:11.37] I knew
[08:12.62] But then I woke up
[08:17.53] And I took a deep breath
[08:20.64] I opened my eyes, and my bedroom was empty
[08:27.18] This was the exact moment I realised
[08:31.96] That the monster stories I'd been laughing at for years
[08:36.89] Had slipped through the bars of their cage
[08:38.64] Burrowed through my eyes and ears and had hatched while I was sleeping
[08:44.40] They weren't just on the news and in the papers anymore
[08:46.87] They were in my fucking head
[08:48.99] Emulating the conditions
[08:50.49] Replicating the lessons
[08:52.00] This is how I learned that
[08:53.73] I am not above being a scared little white man
[08:56.67] I am not too smart to fall for all the rhetorician bile
[09:01.57] I am not immune to the disease
[09:03.17] The right wing is deliberately trying to spread
[09:05.91] These stories do not deserve our respect
[09:08.35] But that doesn't mean we can be careless around them
[09:10.13] And for the rest of my life
[09:11.48] Whenever I see a brown person
[09:13.81] Wearing a puffy jacket or a rucksack or carrying a sports bag
[09:16.95] My heart rate will increase
[09:18.48] And my pupils will dilate
[09:20.63] And my brain will secrete dopamine
[09:22.90] Endorphins
[09:23.55] And adrenaline into my bloodstream
[09:26.07] And sometimes
[09:27.91] Sometimes I will forget that this is happening because I'm weak
[09:34.09] Sometimes
[09:35.38] Hopefully not too regularly
[09:38.70] I will make the stupidest mistake it's possible to make
[09:41.62] I will assume that my fear of something is evidence
[09:43.61] That that something is worth being afraid of
[09:53.13] You know the killer behind the Munich terror attack?
[09:56.29] Was eighteen year old David Sonboly
[10:00.57] A secular German born citizen
[10:02.53] Who was targeting Turks and Arabs
[10:04.93] Because it was Turkish and Arab children who had been bullying him
[10:08.25] He idolized Anders Breivik
[10:10.20] A Norwegian terrorist who killed
[10:12.22] Among others
[10:12.95] Fifty five children who he believed were apart
[10:15.51] Of a global left wing conspiracy
[10:17.04] David Sonboly supported Germany's far-right political party
[10:21.92] And he considered himself a proud member of the arian race
[10:31.77] I try to remember this
[10:33.32] When I have the
[10:34.43] The fucking narcissism
[10:39.52] The feel
[10:40.53] Unsafe
[10:44.41] In this country
[10:45.95]