Podcast joint host Hoho as he discusses the rimting Netflix original series Black Mirror.
Now Here he is broadcasting from the mobile studio. Welcome to Black Mirror Podcast
and as always, I'm your host, ho Ho. So Hey, I
was doing I hope you're doing good. I really do. Today we are
revisiting season three, episode six, entitled Hated in the Nation. But before
we go into that, I have got an update that I think is absolutely
amazing. And I know I'm probably behind the times on this, considering this
is May May, but season six is due to release next month, in
June of twenty twenty three, so I am super excited. Now I'm still
going to complete the revisited Okay, I have a couple episodes in season four
one, two, three, a few episodes in season four that I'm wanting
to cover. Of course, we have the interactive film bandersnatch I'm going to
be revisiting, and then it looks like one episode in season five and then
we'll be getting into season six and there are five episodes in that one.
I'll tell you what I'm excited about that, I really am. I do
have the titles right here in front of we have Episode one, Joan is
Awful to Locke Henry, three Beyond the Sea, four Mazor Day, and
then five Demon seventy nine. Who that one sounds who? Yeah, doesn't
it even seventy nine? But anyway, you know, there's I got.
I got high hopes for season six. I really do, you know,
because you know from what I heard of the onset whenever they did decide to
go ahead and do a sixth season, is that they really upped the production
value from my understanding, quite a bit. So you know, the whether
it be cast, whether it be whatever. I have no idea. I
don't know what this is going to translate to. I really don't, but
either way, I'm excited to see what happens. Is that on it is
on? Okay, okay, good, So I'm excited. I really am
this the five episodes, which I think is actually I don't know, that's
kind of what I was expecting. Well, I was kind of expecting six,
But anyway, doesn't matter. So let's go ahead and get into this
episode. Now. It really was a toss up between which one I would
is going to do, you know, Men against Fire and Hated in the
Nation, But to be perfectly honest with you, I settled on hated in
the nation because of just the state of things right now. Okay, because
with the lockdowns and with us being forced into you know, the only type
of interaction that we get was basically through digital, through social media whatnot.
It just it seemed right to me to talk about this episode versus men against
Fire. I mean, it really did. Now before we get into you
know, before we go any farther, you know, definitely spoiler alert if
you have not watched this episode, I highly recommend it. I really do.
It's a great episode, and this one really well. Okay, let's
put it this way. Okay, Now, I'm not that old, because
I don't like to think that I am. You know, it's actually amazing
because the older you get, the older old becomes, you know what I
mean. You know, I mean when I was a kid, you know,
twenty was old, thirty was ancient. Now I'm forty, and it's
like I thinks so bad, you know, I mean, granted, my
body talks to me. You know, I can't do the same things that
I used to did. Pain is different sometimes it constant. You know,
you really discover that, you know, maybe I shouldn't have done that whenever
I was younger. You know, you feel the stupidity of your youth as
you get older, you really do. But my point is, you know,
in my day, you know, before the digital era, you know,
you talk back to somebody, there were consequences, real world consequences to
you running your mouth, to you saying something that you see shouldn't say,
you know, I mean, yeah, I joked that it would be fun
to lip off to you know, Mike Tyson. But in reality, oh,
he'd punch me. It would hurt. And but at least I can
say I lipped off to Mike Tyson. But in the digital age, you
can do those kind of things without having those real world consequences. And that's
one of the things that they explore in this episode. You know, we
called him back in the day, you know, like you know, telephone
tough guys. You know people that would talk so tough on the telephone,
but then face to face, they're like a different person, aren't they.
You know, I'm a truck driver. We have radio rambos again, you
know, they're talking big and bad on the radio, But yet you see
him in a truck stop and sometimes you can recognize who they are, you
know, by their voice. But it's it's different because now that there's and
they know there's real world consequences to them running their mouth. And whenever you're
in you know, social media, whenever you're talking, you know, I
mean, there's that degree of separation, isn't there, you know, because
there's you know, you're speaking not to a person, but you're speaking to
a name on the screen, an avatar, and you yourself are a name
on the screen. You're an avatar. We don't think about the person behind
the name, the person behind the avatar, the person whom is reading this
and what it could be doing to them, you know. I mean,
we talk to somebody in person, we can see how the conversation firsthand is
affecting them. But whenever we are talking on social media, we don't get
that, you know. We keep run in our mouth and run in our
mouth, not thinking about the consequences, not thinking about how this could be
affecting somebody else. And because of that, you know, we've grown disconnected
with human interaction. We've grown calloused in some ways. And that's one of
the things they kind of explore on this episode. So let's let's let's get
into this. So what happened was, you know, through whatever, Okay,
the bee population had dropped down animal population as well, you know,
because they talked about animals that has gone extinct. But you know, the
bee population is something that we really really need. I mean, if we
if we run out of bees, if if all the bees die, then
we are truly in a very very bad place, you know, because then
the pollination that happens and everything else that the bees do, well it's no
longer going to be done. Plant life is going to die. And since
our existence is attached to their existence, well we jeopardize our own existence too.
Boy, howdy do we ever? So we need bees? And is
what they do through technology nanotechnology I am assuming, is they build these little
robotic bees in order to combat the loss of the bee population, so that
this way they can do the pollination that the bees are no longer there to
do, to save humanity, to save plant life, the whole you know,
nine yards. Now, I don't know if bees actually gone extinct or
not, I don't know, but they build these robotic bees in order to
fill in the gap. Now, in of course, in government fashion,
you know, the government sees this as an opportunity because you know, these
robotic bees, you know, my yes, this is a something that is
necessary, something that people would pay top dollar for. However, considering how
dire this situation was, they didn't want to wait for that. And so
whether it was the company that was designing these bees and producing these bees went
to the government for assistance or whether the government went to them to seize an
opportunity, we don't know. It doesn't talk about that in this episode,
but what it does talk about is that the government, through this relationship with
this corporation that was producing these bees and developing this technology, they seen an
opportunity, and it was an opportunity for surveillance. These bees, you know,
having cameras on them and whatnot, they can track every individual facial recognition
software. They can link the bees cameras to the database that the government has
on everybody and linking profiles and phones and everything else. They can keep track
of in real time everybody everywhere, in typical government fashion, because of course,
we need to do this. What if something happens, we need to
do this now. I don't generally mix politics with this show. I don't
generally do that. But you know, a famous person once said that if
you sacrifice freedom for security, you will lose both and deserve neither. And
this is a warning for just that, a possible consequence for allowing anybody to
have too much power. So there's my sorry, I hit, I'm sorry,
I hit the microphone I got I got my finner caught on the camera
anyway, anyway, you know. But that's as far as I'm going to
go into the political aspect of it. Okay, we'll leave that for you
know, the Ho Ho show, of course. Now is where this starts
to get interesting. Is well, just like any computer, just like any
type of you know, cloud based whatever, something that is not hardline wired,
that is not air gapped between the system, something that you you know,
don't have to physically be present in order to access the system, it's
vulnerable to attack. And that's just what happened. Somebody hacked into and gained
control of all these bees, thousands of them, enough to cover the entire
continent of where this took place, which was Great Britain. That doesn't matter,
it's not really relevant to the story, but that's where this took place,
Great Britain. Now, the guy who did this did this for what
he believed was a good reason. You know, he did this because I
believe it was like a friend of his whom was getting attacked on social media.
She you know, it put her in such a mental state that she
committed suicide, you know, just the random attacks from people who didn't know
her, people that we're you know, taking advantage of the situation of not
having any consequences to their actions. And he was upset about this. He
truly was upset. Now you can justify his actions or not. You know,
it doesn't really matter. And I'm not condoning this type of thing,
don't get me wrong. But you know, as a society, we need
to keep in mind that these people that we're talking to that we are you
know, that we are pointing these attacks at there's somebody behind the avatar.
It has an effect. We need to be aware of this. We need
to stop hating each other. We need to stop doing nothing more than tolerating
each other. You know, in my day, you know, my mother
taught me, if you don't have something nice to say, then keep a
freaking mouth shut. Don't say anything at all. Why do you feel like
you got to give your two cents to somebody. Don't be mindful of your
actions, be mindful of your words. Just be mindful. Be better.
So he was taking his anger out on social media the people whom he felt
were responsible for his friends or wives or who whomever it was, their their
death, and so something ended up happening. It was a hashtag kill a
person. I don't know exactly what the command was. I don't. I
don't remember what the hashtag was. I don't. I don't recall. You
know, hashtags is something that I really don't use in social media. It's
it's kind of I don't know how to use them. I know that they
can do some wonderful, amazing things. I know it can, you know,
help you search things, and that there's relevance to it, and you
know it can. It's it's fun, you know, But I myself,
I don't go there. I don't. I don't do that. It goes
beyond me, you know, I just I just don't. Right or wrong,
it doesn't matter. I just don't. I'm still kind of ignorant with
some things. Whenever it comes to how to use social media. I think
that's pretty apparent. Whenever you check out my you know the social media places
where I'm at, but it's neither here nor there. So a hashtag kill
somebody ended up happening, and they, you know, the people that were
using this hashtag were people that were you know, they had grievances towards somebody.
You know, they had grievances towards an individual they had you know that
they didn't like what they were doing. And what you see happen very early
off in you know, the episode, was somebody died and looked like on
the surface it was a suicide, but you come to find out what happened
was one of these little robotic bees had crawled into the ear canalisius individual,
went right into their brain through the pain receptors and just threw them into a
tizzy, making them feel more pained than they have ever felt in their entire
life. And in order to escape the pain, this individual ended up breaking
a bottle and cutting her own throat. Somebody else had passed away because of
this hashtag kill somebody, and during an MRI or the thing you know,
because it is metal, it burst out of the person's head. That's whenever
they realized what was going on, and they had tied it to this hashtag
on social media because these per these people that were dying were people whom the
hashtag said kill them, and that's who the Bees were going after, and
so they tried everything they can do to put a stop to it. And
so that's whenever you come to find out just how much control that the government
was using the surveillance aspect of it. They shut it down, But there
was something else that was going on behind the scenes, because they figured out
that that back door went both ways. They yes, the government can use
the facial recognition and track people, but the program that they were hacking into,
they will they could also hack into the government records and find out who
somebody was, attach a face to the communication device that they had, the
telephone using the IMEI number. And what was going on was every single person
who was using this hashtag kill somebody, the program was saving that person's information.
And when the government decided to shut this whole entire thing down, the
Bees went after everybody who used the hashtag kill somebody. Even though by the
time this was going on, the you know, the word was out,
people knew that by using this hashtag kills somebody, somebody was going to die.
By then, they already knew this. They already knew that there was
a real world consequence to what was going on, and still they didn't care.
Still they were using this hashtag kill somebody as if they were insulated from
what was going on because to them, yeah, there may be a person
on the other side of that. But you know, all right, I'm
gonna be honest with you, Okay, I don't get and I understand that
some people do. I don't. I don't get emotionally attached to people I
don't know. You know, I hear that, you know, an actor
passed away for whatever reason. It doesn't really matter. I mean, it
doesn't affect me emotionally. I didn't oh this individual. Yes, it may
be tragic. Yes, it may raise awareness in some way, shape or
form to help combat against whatever happened, you know, whether it be through
you know, one means or another, it doesn't really matter. But you
know, my point is, it doesn't affect me. This person wasn't part
of my life. I watched them through a television I seen what was going
on in their lives through you know, social media, through what have you.
I don't know these persons, these people directly. It doesn't affect me
in the end, it doesn't change my life. I mean, yeah,
this person may be dead, that doesn't mean I can no longer watch movies.
That just means that he's no longer going to be present in them.
It doesn't change my life. It doesn't affect me. It doesn't matter to
me, not in an emotional or even a spiritual level. And I think
that had a lot to do with why people were so eager to use this
hashtag kill somebody, because they didn't know him, and in their mind,
this person had done something, something terrible that they felt this person needed to
die so that this way they can no longer do it. And one of
the people that they used a hashtag kill somebody, and after they already knew
the consequences that could happen, was the prime minister of their government. This
person must die. And that's whenever the prime minister demanded that this be shut
down, that these bees be deactivated, and you know it was you know,
but by then they were like, oh, this could be bad,
this could be bad, you know if we you know, because then they
noticed the file that had names in imei numbers that was attached to a face
and an address and everything else that of everybody that used a hashtag. And
they were like, oh, holy crap, there's a possibility that if we
shut these things down that that will activate the bees to do this you know,
this this command and it could send the bees after everybody that has used
a hashtag kills somebody. But they didn't care. You know, this government
official was like, doesn't matter to me. I have to say the Prime
minister were shutting these things down, and they did, and at first they
thought, hey, no problems, no issues, everything worked fine, and
then they quickly realized, oh boy, who these bees win after everybody that
is used a hashtag kills somebody. It doesn't give an indication as to a
number as far as how many people died, but it was a lot.
Let's just put it that way. It was a lot. The person who
did this finally was you know, brought to justice. We don't know how.
It doesn't really say that. All it really tells us is that,
yeah, he was found. But there you go. That's the conclusion of
the Hated in a Nation And why I felt this episode was so impactful and
meaningful because you know, with the covids, with with living in the digital
age, where we live so much of our lives on social media, we
have that degree of separation that easily provides us the insulation from the consequences of
our own actions or our own words that we say. We don't identify these
names and pictures as people. We just don't, which allows us to just
be ugly to people. You know, before social media, before smartphones,
before all of that, there were real world consequences to our actions. Nowadays,
we don't really see that. Nowadays, we don't have that. Nowadays,
it's almost like people would prefer to text or message or tweet somebody that
to actually communicate, even on the phone through a call using your voice,
let alone talk and face to face. It's like we are withdrawing ourselves from
life, aren't we, you know? I mean, how many of us
experience going you know, you maybe a family dinner, maybe going out to
a restaurant. How much time do you spend on your phone surfing social media?
How you know? Do you take a picture of your food and the
look where I'm at and tag somebody in it you know, or wish you
were here or whatever? Why Why do you wish they were there? Because
you know, even though we are more connected than we have ever been,
we are more alone than what we've ever been to. You know, even
though, yeah, even though it's brought us or given us a level of
connection with people we've never had. You know, we spend way too much
time on our phone, not living our life, but living on social media.
Has that damaged us in a way? Now, don't get me wrong,
people, I'm not you know, allowing people away out from the responsibility
of their actions, Like I'm blaming social media and I'm not blaming a person
or an individual. Don't get me wrong. Bad behavior is bad behavior.
You can blame whoever you want to. It doesn't matter. You're still responsible
for what you do. I'm not blaming. But isn't life about balance?
You know? I mean, isn't it about balance? That I mean?
Shouldn't we find some type of harmony between living a life here versus living a
life out there? Shouldn't we find that balance? Shouldn't we not sacrifice one
for the other. Shouldn't we be more concerned with not only our emotional and
mental health, but other people's as well? You know, we weep and
mourn for people that we don't even know we weep and mourn for those whom
you know, something happens to. But we have a chance to have those
interactions with people. Let's take them more often, you know, Let's be
better. Let's not mourn the would it could have shood us and be better.
Didn't know what we should do. I think we should. I love
Black Mirror, I really do. It's an awesome series. An awesome show
explores so many aspects of human life and interactions, and you know, how
we interact with technology, how we interact with ourselves, and how we interact
with ourselves through technology. Black Mirror is awesome. I can't wait to get
into series at six. So, yes, it is going to be a
little while before we get into season six, but that'll allow everybody to you
know, watch it, you know, and have fun with it, get
your own opinions, your own ideas about what's going on before I actually talk
about him here. So the guys awesome episode. Highly recommend watching it.
The next one I do is going to be I think it's Uss Callister.
Yes, Uss Callister Season four, episode one. I'm looking forward to that
one, all right, y'a, always have yourself a great one. I'll
see you the next one. Thank you for listening to the Black Mirror podcast.
If you would like to join the conversation, you can comment on this
episode a spreaker dot com or go to the hohoshow dot com, forward,
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