Scott Pape, the financial advisor known as the Barefoot Investor, was recently asked by a friend:
“Mate, ask ChatGPT the following: If you were the devil, how would you destroy the next generation?”
So he did and wrote out the chatbot’s scary word-for-word reply with ZERO editing in his column for News Corp newspapers
“If I were the devil, and my goal was to quietly but effectively destroy the next generation — not through shock and awe, but through slow, systemic erosion — here’s how I’d do it:
Hijack their attention
Create devices that feel essential, but are engineered to be addictive.
Use infinite scroll, auto-play, dopamine loops, and FOMO.
Make them believe that consuming is creating, and scrolling is learning.
Example: A 14-year-old watches 4 hours of TikTok “productivity hacks” and does nothing all day.
Redefine success as fame and external validation
Elevate influencers, not contributors.
Teach them that a viral moment is more valuable than a decade of hard work.
Make “likes” the new currency of self-worth.
Example: Kids want to be YouTubers when they grow up — not because they love storytelling, but because they crave adoration.
Attack the family structure
Undermine parental authority — promote the idea that parents are outdated or oppressive.
Normalise absentee parenting through economic pressure and distraction.
Erode the idea of family traditions, shared meals, and generational wisdom.
Example: A child feels closer to a Twitch streamer than to their dad.
Cut them off from nature
Replace tree climbing, swimming holes, and dirt-under-the-nails play with digital avatars and indoor screens.
Frame outdoor play as “boring” or unsafe.
Turn the natural world into something abstract and inaccessible.
Example: A 10-year-old can’t identify a magpie but knows every Pokemon.
Confuse pleasure with purpose
Market hyper-palatable food, porn, and substances as “freedom”.
Create shame-free indulgence while ridiculing restraint, discipline, and tradition.
Make pleasure the default pursuit, and discomfort the ultimate enemy.
Example: A young man loses years to video games, vapes, and porn — not because he’s evil, but because he’s numb and alone.
Replace meaning with mockery
Treat faith, commitment, and virtue as relics of the past.
Replace sacred stories with algorithm-driven noise.
Make them afraid to stand for anything that isn’t trending.
Example: A teenager is more afraid of being “cringe” than being cruel.
Kill community, quietly
Sell hyper-individualism: “you do you”, “follow your truth”, “cut off the haters”.
Remove rites of passage, civic duty, and face-to-face belonging.
Make every connection transactional and every disagreement personal.
Example: Loneliness becomes a silent epidemic — but everyone has 2000 “friends”.
Enslave them with debt and distraction
Promote financial illiteracy: “Buy now, pay later” becomes a lifestyle.
Blur the lines between wants and needs — encourage instant gratification over savings.
Keep them working jobs they hate to buy things they don’t need.
Example: A 22-year-old racks up $30,000 in credit card and Afterpay debt to look successful on Instagram.
Weaken them physically
Fill their diet with ultra-processed garbage and their lifestyle with inactivity.
Make discipline in eating or training seem extreme or obsessive.
Blur the connection between physical vitality and mental strength.
Example: A child can’t sit still in class, not because they’re broken — but because they’re inflamed, malnourished, and sleep-deprived.
Make them spiritually hollow
Give them identity confusion, not exploration.
Remove the idea of service, sacrifice, or something bigger than themselves.
Make them feel like nothing matters — so they seek numbness, not growth.
Example: A 16-year-old says “I don’t care” about everything — because caring hurts and there’s no compass.
Final Words
“If I were the devil, I wouldn’t come with horns and pitchforks. I’d come with a sleek app, a soothing voice, a personal algorithm — and I’d whisper: ‘This is freedom.’
SCOTT PAPE’S CONCLUSION
“I do not believe that AI is some evil Frankenstein with a mind of its own (well, not yet anyway).”
“What I do believe is that when you strip away the Silicon Valley snake oil, AI is really just a pattern-spotting machine.”
“It studies what we’ve done, over and over and then makes predictions.”
“The AI isn’t creating the nightmare. It’s holding up a mirror. And it’s not a pretty picture.”
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