97: Brand Awareness

Support Conspirituality on Patreon. Does the word protestor conjure a masked figure in black clothing smashing windows and lighting fires or a weekend liberal ineffectually following rules while sipping on a creamy latte along the state-permitted protest route? A popular media narrative is that peaceful protest works best, but has the power of nonviolent resistance been debunked?  Julian responds to Matthew’s interview with political sociologist, Benjamin Case. In the context of anarchist activism, Case points out that successful “nonviolent protest movements” have always featured property damage, street-fighting, and window smashing. His ethnographic research shows that rioting can also be personally transformative and empowering, as the participant experiences “contentious effervescence.” His interview (and book, Street Rebellion) included a pointed critique of celebrated nonviolence advocate and academic, Erica Chenoweth, and their towering predecessor, Gene Sharp—who, inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, practically created the field of nonviolent resistance studies. Case has some excellent points, especially about how often Chenoweth’s work is misinterpreted. But was Gene Sharp really a tool of American imperialism? Is Erica Chenoweth a willing lapdog to status quo liberalism and capitalist power? What kinds of protest strategy might serve us best in our terrifying authoritarian moment? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2 Jun 5min

Marty Makary and Vinay Prasad claim they're going to open the "black box" at the FDA, an agency they're now both employed at. So they started a podcast. It's not the first official FDA podcast, but it certainly fits into the contrarian ethos both men have cultivated since 2020. Derek and Julian listen in to see how much of that box is actually being opened. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

31 Mai 34min

We’ve been talking about RFK Jr for years, and even dedicated an entire chapter to him in our 2023 book—and we’re going to keep covering him. Since his power and influence has only grown, and since he’s now in charge of America’s entire health apparatus, there’s no way to avoid it. This week we catch up on the last few months of MAHA. Derek looks into why he believes Kennedy’s apparatus, despite claims of being about health, is really a cover for Project 2025’s deregulatory agenda. Julian discusses a recent paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine by Covid contrarians Marty Makary and Vinay Prasad, who now both work under Kennedy. Finally, Matthew will contemplate Kennedy’s crude remarks on autism through the lens of disability politics. Show Notes What Has All This Restaurant Food Done to My Gut? Function Health is Another Theranosesque Scam MAHA’s Goal Is Not Health: Robert Kennedy’s movement promises more privatization RFK Jr. meets with health tech startups, most backed by Andreessen Horowitz COVID infection no longer gives lasting immunity Hybrid Immunity May Be the Key to Developing Better Vaccines Makary, Bhattacharya in New England Journal of Medicine Consequences of Work Requirements in Arkansas: Two-Year Impacts on Coverage, Employment, and Affordability of Care  Concerns About ABA-Based Intervention: An Evaluation and Recommendations - PMC  Adler-Bolton, Beatrice, and Artie Vierkant. 2022. Health Communism: A Surplus Manifesto. Verso Books. SURPLUS. Adler-Bolton, The New Inquiry. October 18, 2022.  Extractive Abandonment - Stimpunks Foundation  Social and medical models of disability and mental health: evolution and renewal - PMC Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

29 Mai 1h 3min

Calley Means is one of RFK Jr’s top advisors. Alongside Tucker Carlson, Means has claimed responsibility for shepherding Kennedy into Trump’s camp. Does this former business school graduate Heritage Foundation intern and business school graduate really care about the nation’s health? Derek listens to a recent interview with Politico and finds the deregulatory ethos that underlies all of Project 2025 is alive and well in MAHA. Show Notes Full interview with Calley Means | POLITICO Health Care Summit 2025 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

26 Mai 7min

After being confirmed as Secretary of HHS, RFK Jr started installing his cabal of wellness influencers and contrarian doctors across the government's many public health agencies. And that means they have to apologize for their boss. Derek and Julian listen in on some of the most outrageous takes so far. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

24 Mai 34min

The most annoying convert TradCath in the world, JD Vance, whose cherubic face belies all his bootlicking aggression, gets his moment with Pope Bob. Usha stands behind him in a black mantilla. He hands the pontiff an oversized envelope: an invitation from Donald and Melania to a White House dinner. Bob smiles guardedly as he takes it and without looking at it, setting it on his desk. “I’ll read that at some point,” Vance sputters, “of course, of course.”  The scene is set for the Church-State tension of whatever phase of global fascism we’re now entering. These ghouls who jail students, disappear immigrants, and lobby for the Trump Gaza resort, shuffle into the Vatican with hats in hand to meet a fellow American who is nothing like their boss, asking for pats on the head, wondering what kind of alliance they can forge, perhaps through anti-wokeness discourse. The enigmatic response from Pope Bob sums up where we all are as we read the incense swirls for whether he’s going to keep steering the world’s 1.4B Catholics against the tides of late-stage capitalism and environmental disaster, Francis-style.  Show Notes Michelle Remembers | Satanic Panic Patreon Collection  Brief: Deep Church Conspiracy (w/David Lafferty)  Brief: The CPAC Pope and the Icicle Babies (w/ Brad Onishi) 183: Woke Pope Cancels America's Bishop (w/Mike Lewis) Sisters of the Little Way Vatican’s financial watchdog reports decrease in suspicious activities reports in 2024 Why the next Pope faces major money challenges Pope warns the Vatican pension fund needs urgent reform as employees demand transparency Cardinal convicted of embezzlement won't participate in conclave for Pope Francis's successor A cardinal is convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to 5 1/2 years in Vatican trial  Church defends Indigenous peoples: ‘Doctrine of Discovery’ was never Catholic Vatican Denounces ‘International Law of Colonization’ Reparations for empire: What the new pope owes to Africa | Slavery Catholic Order Pledges $100 Million to Atone for Slave Labor and Sales The Dark History of How the Catholic Church Built Its Massive Wealth The Vatican—Bulwark of Imperialism Indigenous leaders hope Vatican's repudiation of oppressive colonial concepts leads to real change The Man Who Took On Pope Francis: The Story Behind the Viganò Letter The Excommunication of Archbishop Viganò - Crisis  Bishop Strickland removed from diocese after accusing pope of backing 'attack on the sacred' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

22 Mai 1h 16min

Matthew is back today for more with Ben Case: profiling Gene Sharp and the (non)politics of strategic nonviolence, plus his strange funding sources. Also: why did Erica Chenoweth speak out against antifascist Trump protesters in January of 2017, and suggest their research proved that property damage and scuffles with the police would ruin any opposition movement to Trump? Also: where does the funding come from for all this bad research? Gene Sharp worked for the Department of Defense, and today, Bill Ackerman is a top funder of strategic nonviolence research.  Case is a retired professional Muaythai fighter, an organizer, educator, and writer. He is a researcher at the Center for Work and Democracy and a fellow at the Resistance Studies Initiative.  Show Notes Street Rebellion: Resistance Beyond Violence and Nonviolence | Case Why Civil Resistance Works | Columbia University Press  Why Not Riot? Interview with Author Ben Case - CounterPunch.org   Change Agent: Gene Sharp’s Neoliberal Nonviolence (Part One) – Nonsite.org  Have Repertoire, Will Travel: Nonviolence as Global Contentious Performance  Violence Will Only Hurt the Trump Resistance | The New Republic Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

19 Mai 6min

You may have grown up with the term “nonviolence” shining like a pole star over every discussion of how we accomplish socio-political change. But what does it really mean? And who defines violence for that matter—beyond the police, the courts, and others in power? Today, the theory of non-violence has grown beyond its Gandhian, spiritual aspiration roots, while retaining an irrational faith and offering a distorted view of resistance history. It is now a think-tank-approved, purportedly evidence-based method that guarantees movement success.  That reasoning comes from the pioneering scholarship of the pacifist Gene Sharp in the 1960s, and his inheritors in strategic nonviolence discourse, Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan. They argue that Gandhi’s sacred ideal of satyagraha also happens to be the only successful pathway to lasting change—and they have the data to prove it.  But do they? Nope. Matthew’s guest today persuasively shows that the movements we think of as “nonviolent” never really are. Why don’t we know this? Through a tangle of academic malpractice, spiritual bypassing, liberal wish fulfillment, and erasing anticolonial voices. Oh, and Gene Sharp also got a lot of funding from the Department of Defense. Benjamin S. Case is a retired professional Muaythai fighter, an organizer, educator, and writer. He is a researcher at the Center for Work and Democracy and a fellow at the Resistance Studies Initiative.  P.S.: During our conversation, Ben mentioned that there are antifascist fighting clubs out there. Here are a few to look into: Haymaker in Chicago. SKN Muay Thai in Pittsburgh, PA. Balagoon Boxing Club in Philly, PA. Show Notes Street Rebellion: Resistance Beyond Violence and Nonviolence | Case Why Civil Resistance Works | Columbia University Press  Why Not Riot? Interview with Author Ben Case - CounterPunch.org   Change Agent: Gene Sharp’s Neoliberal Nonviolence (Part One) – Nonsite.org  Have Repertoire, Will Travel: Nonviolence as Global Contentious Performance  Violence Will Only Hurt the Trump Resistance | The New Republic Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

17 Mai 47min