Decline Porn

It's a good thing I went walking last weekend and got lots of photos to blog, because I haven't taken a single photo in the last couple of days. It's been wet and dreary and I haven't seen anything inspiring. Better wet than freezing cold, like much of the USA, but still...I could use some sunshine.

As I walked home last night, I was listening to the newest episode of the QAA podcast (formerly Q-Anon Anonymous), which examines modern conspiracy theories weekly in a very loose, conversational style. This week they're talking about so-called "Decline Porn," those videos you see on YouTube in which travelers visit European cities and talk about how dangerous and decrepit they've become. This really is an entire genre of YouTube video -- I watched one such video about London several months or maybe even a year ago, just for kicks, and now I still get similar recommendations in my channel. The QAA episode specifically focuses on London videos but you also see them about Paris, Berlin, Lisbon and lots of other places.

They usually have a dramatic title like "London Has Changed," or even "London Has Fallen," and the gist is that while London used to be a nice tidy city full of law-abiding white people drinking tea, it is now a dangerous hellhole full of marauding dark-skinned invaders, phone snatchers and knife-wielding criminals. Of course this is nonsense, but it's interesting that there's an appetite for such content. These videos get significant numbers of views, often far outpacing regular travel videos.

I suspect they're being watched by people who already believe that Europe's capital cities are changing for the worse -- people who are fearful or critical of migrants, who aren't going to travel themselves and who want to hear confirmation that migration leads to civilizational collapse. Often these vloggers are visiting parts of town where immigrant populations are the highest and using them to represent the entire city -- a bit like going to Chinatown in New York or San Francisco and saying, "Look at this! The Chinese are taking over!"

In the video I watched, which I don't want to link to because I don't want to perpetuate the bullshit, the vlogger was walking along a London street and talking about how he'd seen swarms of phone-snatchers on motorcycles zooming past. As far as I could tell, anyone wearing black on a motorcycle was, in his mind, a phone-snatcher. I got news for you, buddy -- most of them are Deliveroo drivers carrying take-away chicken from Nando's.

And that's what these vloggers do -- they film regular everyday people going about their non-criminal business, cast that footage in a dark or deceptive light, and use it to represent the entire metropolitan area. Do we have litter and homeless people in London? Of course we do! We're a city! And we are a very diverse city -- one of the most diverse in the world. But the fact is, diversity -- despite occasional culture clashes -- mostly works just fine here. That's what the people who produce and consume these videos don't want you to hear.

I've lived in London for almost 15 years, I've walked all over this city day and night, and I have never been a target of street crime. I've never had anything stolen, I've never been threatened by anyone sketchy. Our home has never been burgled. I often walk with my camera clearly visible, and while I am careful with my phone I comfortably use it on the streets. I've never been pickpocketed. (Unlike in New York!)

So if you're seeing these videos, keep in mind that they're fiction. They're "Decline Porn," meant to titillate but not to represent reality.