220: Swifties for Trump (and Other AI Lies)

What is it like to get red-pilled, find a fragile community of peers, and then come out on the other side?  What are the personal, social, and political wounds that make conspiracy theories feel like medicine—or a drug? What is the difference between debunking theories and healing wounds? Today the trio discusses excerpts of an interview Matthew recorded with Stephanie Kemmerer, a former conspiracy theorist and now public educator. Stephanie is part of a newly formed non-profit called The American Information Integrity Alliance and co-facilitator of the support group DOUBT: Discussing Our Unusual Beliefs Together.  Kemmerer’s journey tells us a lot about how people fall into the rabbit hole, how they can claw their way back out. But she also suggests that the rabbit hole is really a hole in the culture, and that there’s plenty we can do to fill it in. Butcherbox Promo: Sign up today at butcherbox.com/conspirituality and use code conspirituality to choose your free steak for a year and get $20 off. Show Notes American Information Integrity Alliance D.O.U.B.T. (Discussing Our Unusual Beliefs Together)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

30 Nov 20231h 13min

In 2021, the anti-vax dating site, Unjected, appeared on the scene. Between Unjected's conservative marketing campaigns, which leans conspiratorial and bigoted, and its partnership with supplements company, The Wellness Company, Derek breaks down why this appears to be the emergence of anti-vax lifestyle brands—a trend he believes is only going to grow in the coming years. Butcherbox Promo: Sign up today at butcherbox.com/conspirituality and use code conspirituality to choose your free steak for a year and get $20 off. Show Notes Anti-vax dating site exposed data for 3,500 users through ‘debug mode’ bug Maui emergency services head, who met criticism for not using sirens during wildfire, resigns In deadly Maui fires, many had no warning and no way out. Those who dodged a barricade survived Exclusive Interview: The founder of Unjected, a dating site for the unvaxxed, talks about why it's still growing after getting kicked off the App Store MAGA Influencers Are Sold on This Grifty Wellness Company Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

27 Nov 20237min

Derek interviewed journalist and researcher, Arthur Holland Michel, after the publication of Michel's 2019 book, Eyes in the Sky: The Secret Rise of Gorgon Stare and How It Will Watch Us All. When reading Naomi Klein's book, Doppelganger, Derek was struck by Klein's insight that the Right has picked up issues the Left has abandoned—such as surveillance technology. And he recalled this interview with Michel, who reports on some of the scariest surveillance tech in history. Sign up today at butcherbox.com/conspirituality and use code conspirituality to choose your free steak for a year and get $20 off. If you’ve never donated through GiveWell before, you can have your donation matched up to $100 before the end of the year or as long as matching funds last. To claim, go to GIVEWELL.ORG and pick PODCAST and enter Conspirituality at checkout. Show Notes The surveillance technology that will watch us all, all the time Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

25 Nov 202347min

Sign up today at butcherbox.com/conspirituality and use code conspirituality to choose your free steak for a year and get $20 off. If you’ve never donated through GiveWell before, you can have your donation matched up to $100 before the end of the year or as long as matching funds last. To claim, go to GIVEWELL.ORG and pick PODCAST and enter Conspirituality at checkout. Round two on Iman Gadzhi, the 23-year-old self-proclaimed marketing millionaire who makes conspiracy theory videos to sell business coaching packages. (Listen to EP 180 for background.) This week, Julian and Matthew discuss Gadzhi's seemingly plagiarized rhetoric that invites preteen boys from Boston to Belarus to drop out of school. Manosphere types are drawn to fascist values like moths to the flame, yet when they get too close, they have to reckon with authoritarianism, and try to rebel against it. Julian discusses Gadzhi's deceptive social-media-based marketing in the context of election-disrupting technologies. Matthew then exposes the cruelty at the heart of Gadzhi's coaching scheme, as the YouTuber imagines disciplining his future sons with violence. Show Notes Join THE RESCUE today (Gadzhi content) The Great Reset - Iman Gadzhi Iman Gadzhi LIED to You - He is The Puppet Master  Iman gadzhi is pulling his second fear mongering scam and coffee should talk about it THE IMPACT OF SCIENCE ON SOCIETY The country school of to-morrow Context: "People yield themselves with perfect docility to our molding hand" Education or Indoctrination? The Violent Origins of Public School Systems in an Era of State-Building Webarchive: Foster Gamble quoting Gates Thrive - Viral Video The Revisionists Revived: The Libertarian Historiography of Education  The Origins of the American Public Education System: Horace Mann & the Prussian Model of Obedience Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

23 Nov 20231h 24min

Sign up today at butcherbox.com/conspirituality and use code conspirituality to choose your free steak for a year and get $20 off. If you’ve never donated through GiveWell before, you can have your donation matched up to $100 before the end of the year or as long as matching funds last. To claim, go to GIVEWELL.ORG and pick PODCAST and enter Conspirituality at checkout. Matthew reconsiders past criticisms of Marianne Williamson’s theology and candidacy in light of her principled call for a ceasefire as casualties in Gaza rise.  At a moment of global crisis, Williamson is distinguishing herself from the vast majority of her Democratic colleagues—including Bernie Sanders—by calling urgently for a ceasefire as the casualties in Gaza rise. Biden Democrats are struggling to utter the word “ceasefire.” Rashida Tlaib and the Squad are now targeted for primary challenges funded by AIPAC. Will it fall to a New Age pacifist—long derided as “the crystal lady”—to challenge the geopolitical status quo? Is Williamson's proposed “Department of Peace” really that naive at this point, now that Mike Johnson, as House Speaker, holds the Evangelical view that war in the Holy Land is a sign of Jesus's return? Show Notes Israel & Hamas: Ceasefire — Marianne Williamson  148: Marianne Williamson and Asshole Jesus — Conspirituality  Special Report: Marianne Williamson’s Ex- Staffers Speak Out — Conspirituality  Brief: Marianne Williamson’s Spiritual Therapy Schtick — Conspirituality MW Facebook prayer for Israel and Palestine  Gaza: UN experts call on international community to prevent genocide against the Palestinian people | OHCHR  Lack of clean drinking water for 95% of people in Gaza threatens health crisis | Global development | The Guardian  Leo Varadkar calls for ‘humanitarian ceasefire’ in Israel-Hamas conflict | Business Post  Kinew pledges to search landfill, but says federal role wasn't part of conversation with Trudeau  Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan | The White House  Netanyahu faces rising anger from within Israel after Hamas attack - CBS News  The Presidential Candidates on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict | Council on Foreign Relations  Williamson: Israel and Hamas an Eye for an Eye  What Palestinians Really Think of Hamas | Foreign Affairs  House votes to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib over her Israel-Hamas rhetoric in a stunning rebuke  Original Party Platform of the Likud Party  AIPAC vs. progressives: Israel’s war in Gaza has set the stage for a huge primary battle in 2024 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

20 Nov 20239min

Butcherbox promo: Sign up today at butcherbox.com/conspirituality and use code conspirituality to choose your free steak for a year and get $20 off. RKF Jr., who has campaigned as the peace candidate who will draw down the US military empire, has recently called Israel America’s “aircraft carrier” in the Middle East. When challenged to call for a ceasefire as the casualties rise in Gaza, the self-proclaimed protector of children said, “nobody likes children dying,” but then compared Israel’s efforts against Hamas to Alliance efforts against the Nazis. On Gaza and Israel, RFK Jr is sounding unlike the end-the-forever wars, bring-our-troops-home candidate that many of his followers in the alternative health, anti-vax, and New Age spiritual communities thought they were supporting. Now he’s paying the price. Lifelong pacifist Dennis Kucinich quit the Kennedy24 campaign nine days after Israel began its retaliation for the Hamas attacks. RFK Jr.’s Director of Messaging, Charles Eisenstein, is speaking out against his boss’s one-sided stance. And alternative health and anti-vax mogul Sayer Ji has withdrawn his endorsement in a newsletter sent out to 300K subscribers. Matthew reports on the developments and poses the questions: What is it about Gaza that suddenly makes the mainstream media reports credible to conspiritualists—as opposed to the news from Ukraine, or about COVID? And if RFK Jr. loses the support of the natural health pacifist who first backed him, who is he left to stand with? UPDATE: Since recording, Bernie Sanders has in fact followed the lead of Williamson and others in issuing a call for an end to the bombardment of Gaza. Show Notes Dennis Kucinich Leaves Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Presidential Campaign - The New York Times. Dennis Kucinich ceasefire petition Kennedy Condemns Terrorist Attacks Against Israel | Kennedy24 Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Declares Independent Candidacy | C-SPAN.org RFK Jr Confronted by Pro-Palestine Heckler Calling for Ceasefire at Portland Event [VIDEO] - The Maine Wire The New Age Origin Story of RFK Jr’s Campaign — Conspirituality "In my name, I want no vengeance." - Charles Eisenstein Why I Withdraw My Endorsement of RFK Jr. and Affirm the Urgent Cause for Peace In Palestine & Israel Sayer Ji Disinformation Dozen Star Sayer Ji Now Exploiting Black Lives Matter | by Matthew Remski Harvard Should Suspend Students Over Antisemitic Content: Bill Ackman - Bloomberg Columbia University suspends student groups Students for Justice in Palestine & Jewish Voice for Peace for allegedly violating school policies - CBS New York Poll: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. takes eye-popping 22 percent against Biden, Trump, - POLITICO Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

18 Nov 202322min

Iman Gadzhi is a rising YouTube superstar. A high school dropout and supposed self-made multimillionaire, the 23 year-old marketing guru started his YouTube channel at age 15 with weightlifting videos. He has since built a following of 3.7 million. His life and career path is symbiotic with the platform, mirroring, monetizing, and accelerating every self-help and get-rich trend that blows through through the algorithms.  At some point during COVID, he caught the conspiracy theory bug, and turned his channel into a red pill factory, pumping out such volumes of aggressively paranoid content that YouTube money bros started comparing him to Andrew Tate.  Now, Gadzhi is reaching more aggressively into the brains of pre-teen boys around the world with a morbid fantasy about the origins of public education, and how it dooms them all into woke slavery. But it’s not just a conspiracy theory. It’s a highly-structured marketing campaign pitching his online sales coaching scheme as a substitute for high school. Show Notes Join THE RESCUE today. #fyp #viral | iman gadzhi | TikTok —Gadzhi content Rebels stage new invasion of Dagestan | The Independent  Dagestan: Mob storms Russian airport in search of Jews - BBC News Iman Gadzhi Talks About His Stepdad  Independent School Fees — Southbank International Entrepreneur Pushes for More Inclusive Education in Developing Countries — Forbes 3 Books Changed My Life—Gadzhi content What Are the 48 Laws of Power? The Complete List | Shortform Books  The Half-Century in Bullshit: On Peter Bogdanovich’s “Paper Moon” and Robert Greene’s “The 48 Laws of Power”   Atomic Habits — If Books Could Kill Corona Virus: SMMA in Crisis—Gadzhi content Vaccine Regret Counselling | Life Coaching in London, UK  The Covid Crisis of 2021 - Richard Harris & Iman Gadzhi Unveil the Shocking Truth  Iman Gadzhi Opens Up About Why He Agrees With Andrew Tate & His Unique View On Women!! 5 Habits Keeping MEN Weak—Gadzhi content A wife like that—Gadzhi content Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

16 Nov 20231h 18min

Butcherbox promo: Sign up today at butcherbox.com/conspirituality and use code conspirituality to choose your free steak for a year and get $20 off. You’ve heard the names of our Deep State swamp creatures. But the details of their career histories, criminal indictments, and intersecting political activities paint a startling picture. Alt-right rabble-rouser and pseudo-intellectual, Steve Bannon, was part of the team that salvaged Trump’s floundering 2016 campaign. Like Roger Stone and Mike Flynn, he was in the war room at the Willard Hotel around January 6, 2020—having told his podcast audience that “all hell is going to break loose.” What happened between those dates is quite a tale. With Trump’s 2024 candidacy looming, Steve Bannon remains poised to bring his nasty visions to life. *Correction: During this bonus, Julian mistakenly says Trump called it “The Movement.” He meant to say that Bannon did. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

13 Nov 20237min