185: Light in the Growing Darkness

Why did Trump kick-off his 2024 presidential campaign in Waco, Texas? Who were the Branch Davidians, anyway? Julian unpacks the incendiary streams of far-right anti-government militia history and religious apocalypticism that our former president is tapping into as he faces legal jeopardy. It all goes back almost 300 years to the original Great Awakening that QAnon and New Age channelers tried to remix in 2020. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

9 Dec 202338min

Conspiracy Theory Catholicism is back, bringing together Satanic Panickers, anti-vaxxers, tradwives who think (or at least say) birth control is an abomination, and survivalist prayer bros who string bullets into rosaries. This motley bunch agree on one thing: Pope Francis is just too damn woke. The movement has many leaders, but only one man has been dubbed “America’s Bishop”: Joseph Edward Strickland, the now-former Bishop of Tyler, East Texas. “Former,” because on November 11, the Pope of Woke canceled him from his post.  Our guest today, Mike Lewis of the Catholic news and opinion website, wherepeteris.com, walks us through this strange tale, detailing how Strickland courted his own demise by going batshit on Twitter during the pandemic, suggesting Francis is a heretic, calling Joe Biden evil, and railing against abortion-derived vaccines. Butcherbox Promo: Sign up today at butcherbox.com/conspirituality and use code conspirituality to get free chicken wings for a year. Show Notes Mel Gibson: The man without a pope - Where Peter Is  Americans, including Catholics, continue to have favorable views of Pope Francis Many Americans — including most Republicans — believe the pope should stay out of U.S. affairs | YouGov Searching for Answers: Why Was Bishop Joseph Strickland Removed?   QAnon Conspiracies Sway Faith Groups, Including 1 in 4 White Evangelicals | News & Reporting | Christianity Today  New poll: QAnon embraced by 11 percent of white Catholics and 15 percent of all Americans | America Magazine   Just one-third of U.S. Catholics agree with their church that Eucharist is body, blood of Christ  Many Americans believe in the supernatural, UFOs | Ipsos  Pope Francis’ unexpected friendship with a group of trans women | America Magazine  The making of Bishop Strickland - Where Peter Is  Strickland's Adventurous Online Legacy - Mike Lewis Extra  Bishop Strickland's "Letter from a Friend"  Podcast: Fr. James Martin on Pope Francis and accompaniment - Where Peter Is  ‘Medical Freedom’ Activists Take Aim at New Target: Childhood Vaccine Mandates Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

7 Dec 20231h 26min

What if every important world event, regardless of how tragic or distant, is really part of a secret plan that only a handful of contrarian podcast pals can decipher? Julian breaks down bizarre clips from recent Dark Horse livestreams, and wonders about the connection between conspiracy theorizing and an increasingly self-important disconnection from reality. Stick around for an expert cameo from psychology professor, Matt Browne, of Decoding the Gurus. Butcherbox Promo: Sign up today at butcherbox.com/conspirituality and use code conspirituality to get free chicken wings for a year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

4 Dec 20238min

Soulmates gone wrong. High-pressure sexual orientation and gender conversion in an MLM coaching cult. Journalist and producer Alice Hines discusses the “master Christ” young couple at the center of Twin Flames Universe and the alarming story that unfolds in the documentary based on her Vanity Fair expose.  Show Notes Inside the All-Consuming World of Twin Flames Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2 Dec 202327min

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