Based Camp: The Rule 34 Episode

Join us as we dive into an intriguing conversation about the phenomenon of Rule 34 and fandoms, particularly focusing on the "My Little Pony" fandom. Malcolm and Simone discuss evolutionary pressures that could contribute to our understanding of this phenomenon, addressing arousal patterns, societal norms, cultural traditions, and much more.

Transcript:

Simone: [00:00:00] the first impression that the internet gets is, oh my God, you sick, disgusting monsters.

Simone: How are you turned on? By cartoon ponies, and what you're saying is actually the people turned on by these cartoon ponies are actually very good. Like they're, they're triggered by instincts. Driven by being a very good, committed partner

Malcolm: I'm sorry I don't consume my little pony porn.

Malcolm: I, I'm, I'm, I'm a terror. This is,

Simone: this is probably one of your greatest downsides. Think about all that, that, that is recommended about these, these gentlemen here and true gentlemen is the

Malcolm: word really. Men of class and, and men,

Simone: no men of class and distinction. Checking with me and like the whole gradation of, of genres of this type of material.

Simone: I have to say, hats off to these guys

Simone: Hello, gorgeous.

Malcolm: Hello, Simone. I come to you today dressed as an intellectual. Hello. Because people have said [00:01:00] we are intellectuals.

Simone: Well, LA

Malcolm: Doll, well, I don't know, like elite, not an intellectual elites. This is, this is the brand we have publicly, I guess. So this is an elite conversation.

Simone: Elite, if that counts as what Yahoo News calls us in scare quotes. In scare quotes. Yes, elites. Well, tell me, Mr. Elite, intellectual, what have you been reading about today?

Malcolm: Well, so there was this poll on Reddit, which was going through the different fandoms that people create, R 34 artwork of. So R 34 is based on the internet rule, rule 34, that even exists.

Malcolm: There is porn of it. God

Simone: bless America,

Malcolm: God bless the internet. You little herbs. Anyway, so the second most common fandom the material was coming from [00:02:00] was Little Pony, which is interesting and it's actually something we talk about in our book because if you think about it, humans are degenerates, of course, especially males.

Malcolm: So you would expect it would be some fandom with like scantily clad women. Actually the, the fandom that that beat it was Pokemon, but,

Simone: No.

Malcolm: Okay. Well, I don't, I don't want to get into that, but yeah, you expect that it's gonna be top by a bunch of these fandoms because there are a lot of fandoms out there.

Malcolm: That have a lot of scantily clad women in them. Yeah. So why, why aren't those the fandoms that are dominating these spaces? Well, I'd love to hear, do you have a theory or,

Simone: I, I mean both, both of these top, top rankers are kids shows, so I feel like there's something that has to do maybe with, I. I don't know. It can't be nostalgia though, because the adult audience that got into My Little Pony was not into My Little Pony as a kid. It was the new reboot of [00:03:00] My Little Pony that they only consumed as

Malcolm: adults.

Malcolm: Exactly. So I think it's a couple things that are happening here. So I think the core is, is we need to understand what sexuality, like what are our arousal patterns today We think of them as being these like, Despicable disgusting things because so many of our cultural traditions have evolved around repressing them and, and for good reason.

Malcolm: They lowered fertility rates if you just indulge in them whenever you have them. So a lot of cultures the cultures that were like just indulge in your sexuality whenever you feel it, they did not have as many surviving offspring and they were out-competed. But the cultural groups that recommended a high level of self-control.

Malcolm: However, however what did all of these systems evolve for in the first place? And it was to. Breed with high quality partners who would also dedicate resources to the offspring so that those offspring couldn't make it to adulthood.

Simone: Right? So far so good. Yeah, this seems reasonable.

Malcolm: So, so good. So it would be almost crazy if our arousal systems [00:04:00] were not paired in a way where we find people who our brains subconsciously recognize.

Malcolm: As good life, partners and members of our social group who we think about a lot, who we mentally engage with a lot as more arousing than ones we don't. You particularly ones that we feel uniquely safe around, particularly ones that model our society's ideals around womanhood as it relates to long-term partnership.

Malcolm: And that's what I really think you are seeing here is the very system that evolved to motivate the most wholesome of emotions, be more likely to become aroused by people who you see as wholesome and your friends, right? So

Simone: the, the first impression that the internet gets is, oh my God, you sick, disgusting monsters.

Simone: How are you turned on? [00:05:00] By cartoon ponies, and what you're saying is actually the people turned on by these cartoon ponies are actually very good. Like they're, they're triggered by instincts. Driven by being a very good, committed partner who wants to, well, I'm

Malcolm: not saying it's a good thing to, to be out there consuming this sort of material or creating this material, but what I'm saying

Simone: is, but you're saying it comes from a good place, you're saying?

Malcolm: No, I'm not saying it comes from a good place. Okay. What I'm saying is the evolutionary pressures. That motivated this behavior were actually, I mean it's, it's obviously, so suppose you're coding software, right? Okay. And you're like, well I want people to form like good relationships, so let's code the software to be like, yeah, be more likely to form a relationship with something you see as wholesome.

Malcolm: Something you spend a lot of time around. And if you think like specifically the My Little Pony show, you look at these characters cuz we used to be brownies, we [00:06:00] engaged in like, Is said, like my little pony memes in my proposal to you, when I did that Reddit proposal that, that with viral. Yes. I've had some of our listeners don't even know they were those, those people who, who did those, those types of people.

Malcolm: But anyway the, if you think about the characters in the show, they each represent a different stereotype of ideal long-term female partners. Hmm. With, with all of the aspects of that exaggerated and very few of the downsides. So if you're talking about a cultural archetype that people would glom onto.

Malcolm: Yes. And then two, because a large community formed around the show, a lot of people saw them as almost like high status individuals within the community. Like that would be the closest thing their evolutionary brain would have to. What a star of a show is. Well now

Simone: hold on, hold on. What you're saying here, actually, I feel like this doubly recommends, this community to women. Okay. So let's say that I'm a woman