247: The Deeper State

Did you hear that Taylor Swift is supporting Donald Trump for president? That’s right: last week, the former president shared photos of fans rocking “Swifties for Trump” t-shirts on Truth Social. Trump seemed pleased, replying to his online following of 24 billion people: “I accept.” Yet something seemed off. Just like photos of Trump surrounded by seven-fingered Black Americans smiling on city stoops, these Swiftie endorsement photos were AI generated. As it turns out, AI is playing a more insidious and dangerous role in this year’s election—and in the conspiracy theory industry—than ever. The line between fact and fiction has long been blurred, but we’re entering a new reality where distinguishing between those two might prove impossible. This week, we look at the stakes of the first AI-generated election in America—and wonder how much worse it can get, even in three short months. Show Notes Trump Promotes A.I. Images to Falsely Suggest Taylor Swift Endorsed Him Christian Nationalists Are Opening Private Schools. Taxpayers Are Funding Them. Fake Photos, Real Harm: AOC and the Fight Against AI Porn Propaganda, foreign interference, and generative AI AI Poses Risks to Both Authoritarian and Democratic Politics Election disinformation takes a big leap with AI being used to deceive worldwide B'Tselem report summary: "Welcome to Hell: The Israeli Prison System as Network of Torture Camps", August 2024 B'Tselem report: "Welcome to Hell: The Israeli Prison System as Network of Torture Camps", August 2024 Detention and alleged ill-treatment of detainees from Gaza during Israel-Hamas War  U.S. decries reported sexual abuse of Palestinian prisoners after graphic video aired on Israeli TV  US approves sale to Israel of $20 billion weapons package | Reuters  A record share of US electricity comes from zero-carbon sources - but more work is needed  China could exceed renewables generation target of 33% by 2025 | S&P Global Commodity Insights  Israeli Government Pays $2M for AI Influence Campaign Israel-Funded Disinfo Campaign Targets US Lawmakers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

22 Aug 20241h 15min

A short break-the-fourth-wall reflection from Matthew on his new regular series for our main feed, starting in September.  The Conspirituality Relief Project will provide regular timeline-cleanser interviews in which super interesting guests reflect on hope, faith, resilience, and building community in hard times.  You know, all of the things that conspirituality itself promises to do, but can’t, or won’t. Every guest gets thirty minutes, and the same five questions: What terrifies you most in these times? What is the most meaningful and supportive idea or story you return to for reliable wisdom and relief? What is the greatest obstacle you face in forming community relationships, and how do you work to overcome it? If you were responsible for comforting and guiding a child terrified of climate catastrophe, how would you do it? What would you say?  If your wisest ancestor came in a dream to offer you one piece of advice about living in difficult times, what would it be? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

19 Aug 20245min

An unexpectedly cheerful followup to “JD Vance Taps into Parental Rage.” The alt titles today could be: “Tim Walz Taps into Parental Goals,” or “Disarming the Disinfo of the Right is Great, But Have You Tried Dad Jokes?”  Across social media, liberal millennial women are tagging Tim Walz as the return of the dad they lost to Fox News. Matthew digs into that graveyard with a survey of the tools that we’ve used to examine the nature and function of patriarchal bullshit as it dominates conspirituality, cults, and QAnon. The result is a stroll through a Madame Tussaud’s display of fragile and toxic influencer fathers, from Jordan Peterson to Jim Watkins to RFK Jr to Donald Trump.  Tim Walz not only doesn’t do any of the things these guys do—he might be rooting around in his special tool drawer now to find just the thing it’ll take to fix what they’ve done. Note: this is not a blind love-fest or blanket endorsement of as-yet vague policies. But there is something powerful going on with Walz’s new-old modeling of Big Dad Energy.  Show Notes A Balanced Assessment of Tim Walz’s Record from the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy | lvgaldieri  Tim Walz’s green resume has an oily stain  Minnesota activists criticize Tim Walz for refusing to meet with Palestinians – Mondoweiss  Donald Trump Likens His Schooling to Military Service in Book - The New York Times  Tim Walz was my teacher in high school. Here's what I've carried with me about him all these years later. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

17 Aug 202435min

Eight years ago, they called us cucks, libtards, and globalists. We were corrupted by cultural Marxism, teaching our kids to hate themselves. Four years ago they gloated over drinking liberal tears. They called us sheeple, groomers, vampires, pedos. We made up a pandemic so that we could brew up a kill shot, and force it on everyone after making ourselves soy-boy sick. We were exposing our kids to trans strippers in the library and showing them how to use buttplugs in kindergarten. When our children were sufficiently deranged and submissive, we drained them of adrenochrome and mutilated their privates. JD Vance’s ONE JOB was to turn this bullying into policy, and encode it in the pages of Project 2025. Peter Thiel sent him forth to blend every shitpost into a radioactive slurry to power a cybertruck convoy carrying the titans of New Right capitalism into Washington.  He tried. He really did.  But then came the stories about him. That he fucked a couch. He wrote about it in his book, someone said. Someone else said he was getting off on dolphin porn. The lies spread, with glee and schadenfreude. And he folded. Like a foldaway.  Suddenly, all the green drained out of million shriveling Pepes and made the world verdant with hope. And from the middle of a cornfield football grid, Tim Walz manifests with his Big Dad grin and said, "Let’s roll up our sleeves and beat these creepy weirdos.” Today we’ll talk about fighting conspiracy theories that started as jokes with jokes that defuse conspiracy theories. About what it takes to commandeer the attention economy, and how much of our souls we spend to do it. About the difference between meme wars and policy debates, and how far the Big Dad Energy vibes can take us. Show Notes RFK Jr.'s incredible disappearing campaign  Was J.D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy Really a True Story? All About the VP Candidate's Controversial Memoir  Walz on Morning Joe The author of the viral joke post about JD Vance having sex with a couch breaks his silence  162 lies and distortions in a news conference. NPR fact checks former President Trump Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

15 Aug 20241h 17min

Tech billionaire Peter Thiel claims “freedom and democracy are incompatible.” Mentor and $15M donor behind JD Vance’s political career, Peter Thiel also has an influence: Mencius Moldbug, computer programmer and lead philosopher of the “Dark Enlightenment,” or “neoreactionary” movement.  Moldburg says, “if Americans want their government to change, they’re going to have to get over their dictator phobia.” Erstwhile pen-name of Curtis Yarvin, “Moldburg” is openly anti-democratic, advocating for one-party city-states ruled by CEO-kings. His takes on race, slavery, and the Nazis are equally alarming.  Vance has also publicly praised and cited his work, and Thiel gave $1.1 million to Yarvin’s tech start-up. Julian digs into the toxic pseudo-intellectual philosophy behind the next wave of MAGA authoritarianism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

12 Aug 20245min

Ziklag’s ultra-wealthy network of Christian donors is spending nearly $12M to mobilize Republican voters in order to secure a Trump victory this November. ProPublica found that their plan involves purging 1M+ people from the voter rolls in key swing states. Unsurprisingly, this is yet another Christian nationalist group with ties to Project 2025. Here’s the thing: Ziklag is classified as a 501c3 charity organization, which means they’re breaking longstanding rules of nonprofit governance. Will they be held accountable and lose their status? Derek and Julian discuss. Show Notes Inside Ziklag, the Secret Organization of Wealthy Christians Trying to Sway the Election and Change the Country Ziklag Exposed: Secretive Christian Nationalist Network Tries to Purge Voters in Battleground States Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

10 Aug 202436min

You’re an eight year-old girl. The purity culture of your evangelical church, ruled by men but policed by women, has you worried that the spaghetti straps on your summer top might be sinful. You learn from the women around you how to defer, serve, please, keep your voice girl-like forever, and use it to both signal obedience but also piously request relief from sexual aggression.  You’re a seven year-old boy. The holy laws of gender in your church dictate that when you’re the only male present at Bible study, you must lead the room full of women in reading and prayer. You must perform manliness in your boy’s body, assuming an anxious leadership role you did not earn. If you don’t puff yourself up, you’re a sissy—one of the girls alongside you learning the tones of the Fundie Baby Voice. These are parts of the stories of Julia Postema and Jeremiah Gibson, the co-hosts of the podcast Sexvangelicals: The Sex Education the Church Didn't Want You to Have. They are Boston-based licensed psychotherapists and certified sex therapists. They specialize in helping couples with negative religious backgrounds discover sexuality that works for their partnership. Julian and I sat down with them to learn about how their clients recover from purity culture, and sometimes in the process run smack into its mirror world: the tantric workshop land of divine masculine and feminine stereotypes plus fascinations with semen retention. Show Notes Sexvangelicals: Podcast | Website | Instagram | Substack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

8 Aug 20241h 15min

Scroll through masculinity influencer social media feeds and you're constantly told there's a "crisis of meaning." But is that really true? Has a shared meaning ever reflected the totality of any population? Derek turns this idea over in his head by looking at the mythology of the hero's journey. But first, he provides some inspirational messages from the White Dudes for Harris call last week, where perhaps a new and empowering sense of masculinity is taking hold. Show Notes White Dudes for Harris Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

5 Aug 20245min