Afleveringen
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MAHA's response to the measles outbreak has been horrific, though expectable. Yet RFK Jr's op-ed, in which he advocated for the MMR vaccine, ripped apart his coalition—briefly.
Derek looks at the responses to Bobby's moment of clarity, then contemplates what MAHA really wants now that their champion is the bureaucracy.
Show Notes
Dr Jessica Knurick’s video
Vitamin A For Measles: Kevin Klatt
Measles is not a harmless illness — complications include brain damage, immune amnesia, and death
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This week we’re looking at how folks who associated themselves with the magical and morbid QAnon memes about the “coming storm” that would destroy the Deep State have become that storm, mainly by talking about it, and are now in the position to congeal an even Deeper State characterized by more repression and control. They’re doing it both as conspiracists and as conspiracy theorists would predict: as rich guys pretending to be oppressed.
This opens up the question of “Have we been here before in the US, and what happened?” The parallels are uncanny. In the late 1920s, Henry Ford had his car dealers stick copies of The Dearborn Independent newspaper in the glove compartments of new cars. That was the rag in which he published excerpts of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Today another auto baron, Elon Musk, busts out seigheils and posts Nazi memes whenever he likes. But only one of them got a White House office.
Show Notes
CDC Statement on Measles Outbreak
US Health Secretary Kennedy calls for end to deadly Texas measles outbreak
Copy of STORM is HERE Data
LIVE: Kash Patel’s confirmation hearing for FBI director
Kash Patel Wants to Work From Home for FBI. But Who Does He Live With? | The New Republic
Kash Patel privately agreed to hire an experienced deputy FBI director. Then Trump picked a loyalist | The Independent
How Dan Bongino Went From Infowars to FBI Deputy Director | WIRED
How Trump’s Justice Department has gutted the government’s ability to chase public corruption | CNN Politics
123: The Red-Pilled "Academic" Who Named Our Podcast — Conspirituality
Darkness Over All: John Robison and the Birth of the Illuminati Conspiracy — The Public Domain Review
Conspiracy Theories Abounded in 19th-Century American Politics | Smithsonian
Wealthy bankers and businessmen plotted to overthrow FDR. A retired general foiled it.
Medical Mystery: What killed ‘Red Scare’ Sen. Joseph McCarthy?
FBI director considering having UFC train agents in martial arts, say people familiar with plan | Reuters
What We Know About the CIA's Midcentury Mind-Control Project | Smithsonian
FBI Records: The Vault — COINTELPRO
On campaign trail, RFK Jr. pushes 'bonkers' theory about CIA's 'takeover of the American press' - ABC News
Richard Hofstadter’s “The Paranoid Style” Can’t Help Us Now
Rehabilitating McCarthyism
JFK, Richard Hofstadter, and the ‘Paranoid Style in American Politics’
Ford's Anti-Semitism | American Experience | Official Site | PBS
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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Former "race realist" Richard Hanania recently published an article on The Free Press claiming that all those Nazi salutes the right is waving high in the sky is really "just trolling." Derek disagrees.
Show Notes
Enough — John Ganz
I Can Explain Why the Nazi Salute Is Back — Richard Hanania
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Is life worse for women now than in the 1950s? In a recent interview for The Free Press, author Louise Perry and journalist Bari Weiss muse on just how much women have lost since premarital sex was normalized, the pill reduced sex to consequence-free hedonism, and Roe v Wade rendered abortion as common as going to the dentist. Perry calls this “re-paganization,” delivering an eloquent longing for a lost golden age of female subservience as Weiss nods along and smiles. It’s all very heterodox.
Or is it? No mention of the impacts of Project 2025, the dangerous ascendancy of Christian Nationalism, or the deadly crisis of women’s health in full swing.
Julian analyses their conversation to pinpoint how digital new media dresses up traditionalist right-wing talking points as if they’re open-minded, edgy, and brave intellectual insights.
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Trump has decreed it’s the Gulf of America, and Google agrees, at least for US users. Rep Buddy Carter has introduced HR 1161, the Red White and Blueland Act of 2025 to rename Greenland. And then, of course, there's making Canada the 51st state.
Pay attention to shit like this: it's a magic spell.
Trump is speaking in the old language of the Discovery Doctrine. That’s what we’ll excavate today.
Show Notes
Zizian Killing Spree and Arrests
Zizian leader denied bail
Roko’s Basilisk and Zizian beliefs/practices
Feb 2023 Community Alert about Ziz on Less Wrong
Project 2025 Observer
Native America, Discovered and Conquered: Thomas Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, and Manifest Destiny — Richard J Miller
Trump calls Canada a 'very serious contender' to become 51st state
H.R.1161 - 119th Congress (2025-2026): Red, White, and Blueland Act of 2025
DISCOURSE ON COLONIALISM Aime Cesaire Translated by Joan Pinkham
Biography - Burnum Burnum - Indigenous Australia
The fight to 'free' the Aboriginal flag
Common Methods of Annexation | Snohomish County, WA
Doctrine of Discovery: How the 500-year-old Catholic decree encouraged colonization
Speech Acts (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Mexico's President Sheinbaum threatens to take legal action over the Gulf name change : NPR
How Canada planned to invade the U.S. (and vice versa)
Poilievre says Canada is broken
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What do we worry more about: the far-right beliefs of trolls, or the coding skills of the trolls?
The split focus on Marco Elez and Elon Musk—are they Nazis, or hackers, or Nazi hackers?— highlight two prongs of emergent fascism. The ideological/aesthetic/psychological on one side, and the technocratic on the other. We can call them the manners and the machine.
First, Matthew unpacks a century-old thesis by an OG fascist that says totalitarian regimes take shape when both are working together, but that ultimately, the coup d’etat is about seizing control of the machine.
Then he rounds off with a rant about how easy it is liberal-centrist discourse about manners to distract from the reality of the machine. Why? It’s because in the absence of a clear analysis of how capital and power work—it’s in the sphere of manners—that liberals feel they have a fighting chance. But it’s also exactly where Musk and Elez and Vance and Trump can ignore them.
Show Notes
A Doomed Democracy | STANFORD magazine
The October Revolution - Introduction | Marx Memorial Library
Alexander Kerensky Dies Here at 89 - The New York Times
Curzio Malaparte | Italian Author, Journalist & Politician | Britannica
Reading the Eccentric Italian Writer Who Tried to Cover Up His Fascism ‹ Literary Hub
Curzio Malaparte: The Illusion of the Fascist Revolution
The Californian Ideology
The Californian Ideology Personified - Truthdig
Cyberlibertarianism: The Right-Wing Politics of Digital Technology on JSTOR
175: Diagonalism (w/William Callison and Quinn Slobodian) — Conspirituality
Opinion | Don’t Believe Him - The New York Times
Welcome to Neokayfabe — Abraham Josephine Riesman // Writer
40 Ways to Fight Fascists: Street-Legal Tactics for Community Activists — Spencer Sunshine
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Education / Public service alert:
Matthew critically reviews six books that define fascist eras and recount how they have been opposed. A kind of “here we are, now what?” episode that hopefully interrupts the doomscroll with the sobriety of some practical considerations.
Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny (2017)
Robert Paxton, Anatomy of Fascism (2004)
Paul Mason, How to Fight Fascism (2018)
Mark Bray, Antifa: The Antifascist Handbook (2017)
Curzio Malaparte: Technique de Coup d’Etat (1931)
Spencer Sunshine: 40 Ways to Fight Fascists: Street-Legal Tactics for Community Activists (2021)
Formats range from popular nonfiction to academic history to pragmatic field guide. Politics range from liberal to anarchist. More feminist and non-white sources to be reviewed soon.
Show Notes
On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder
Timothy Snyder’s Bad History | City Journal
Robert O. Paxton - The Anatomy of Fascism
Is It Fascism? A Leading Historian Changes His Mind. - The New York Times
How to Stop Fascism
Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook
Curzio Malaparte - The Technique Of Revolution
40 Ways to Fight Fascists: Street-Legal Tactics for Community Activists — Spencer Sunshine
Joyful Militancy | The Anarchist Library
Let This Radicalize You | HaymarketBooks.org
Being Numerous: Essays on Non-Fascist Life — Natasha Lennard
DISCOURSE ON COLONIALISM Aime Cesaire Translated by Joan Pinkham
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Raw Milk. Raw Water. Raw Meat.
Mallory DeMille returns to break down the raw trend in wellness. We look at the science and cultural implications behind it.
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The eighth installment of Matthew’s Five Big Questions Posed to an Extremely Thoughtful Person.
Friend of the pod Blair Hodges joins Matthew to talk about how he’s transformed the teachings of his Mormon upbringing into inspiration for social justice, how he grapples with the limits of the nuclear family as he thinks about community building, and why James Baldwin is so important to him.
Blair has degrees in journalism, religious studies, and disability studies from the University of Utah and Georgetown University. He’s currently working on a research project on the history of intellectual disabilities in Mormon thought.
Show Notes
Relationscapes—with Blair Hodges
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“You don’t get rich writing science fiction. If you want to get rich, start a religion.” With those words, prolific sci-fi pulp fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard prophesied the course of his life’s work.
The 1950s saw the emergence of UFO- and alien channeling-based spiritual groups, as postmodern religious syncretism transformed supposedly ancient angels and demons into benevolent and/or terrifying aliens. No iteration of this fantasy has been more financially fruitful, culturally impactful, controversial, or bizarre than Hubbard’s brainchild: Scientology.
In the latest episode of Roots of Conspirituality, Julian digs into the fascinating backstory of this prolific author, revered as prophetic by thousands, pursued as a fraud by the IRS for decades, described as a cult leader by church escapees, and called an abusive madman by his ex-wives. Allegedly…
The religion is a complex blend of self-help psychology, elaborate pseudoscience, high-demand paranoia, and alien mythology that, at its height, commanded 100,000 members—and is still valued at roughly $2 billion.
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Given how much shit the zone is being flooded with right now, you might have missed Donald Trump screaming about the supposed mistreatment of white South Africans recently. Last week, he said “certain classes of people” were being treated “very badly.” The trigger was a bill signed by South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, a former anti-Apartheid activist, trade union leader, and successful businessman—three qualities Trump doesn’t really understand.
Like the Trump administration, we have our own South African on staff—and he’s legitimately employed here! Julian grew up under apartheid and left the country due to it. Derek chats with him about what life was like growing up there, and he explains the confusion that Trump is injecting into the body politic.
Show Notes
Trump vs. South Africa
South African president signs controversial land seizure law
No Proof Elon Musk's Grandparents Belonged to Nazi Party
Errol Musk Talks About Elon’s Maternal Grandparents
Understanding What the 2025 Expropriation Act Means
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As of recording time, RFK Jr has not yet been confirmed to the HHS Secretary position by the Senate. That might change by publication date. But if we were setting odds on this confirmation, we’d say put your money on Bobby.
So, WTF. Bobby Brainworms will be in charge of US public health, and its influence around the world. Our years of reporting on him have been defeated by the influencer noise of the MAHA Mamas. But we. Will. Carry. On.
Julian reviews the misinfo docket. Derek runs down the bureaucratic implications. And Matthew speculates on just how perfect someone like RFK Jr would be as the domestic health figurehead of a fascist movement, if, you know, that were ever to be possible.
Show Notes
Some Cancers Rising Amongst Younger people
Increased Lung Cancer from the 1960s to 80s.
Lung Cancer Rates Today
Smoking Suppresses Appetite and Results in Lower BMI for Some
64% of Adults in UK Overweight
65% of Australians Overweight
Diabetes Was 1.8% in the US in 1960
11.6% of US Population Has Diabetes
Risk of Alzheimer’s Doubles Every 5 Years After 65
30% of Smokers are Overweight or Obese
A recent study did NOT show vaccines cause autism, but RFK Jr. keeps pushing the lie.
“A New Academic Publishing Model”: Right-Wing Dark Money Group Launches Fringe Medical Journal
Judge Orders White House to Unblock Funding for NIH, Others
RFK Jr.'s financial disclosures reveal millions in both debt and income as he awaits HHS confirmation
Racial ‘Sterility’ and ‘Hyperfecundity’ in Fascist Italy. Biological Politics of Sex and Reproduction in
History of fascism, reproductive rights offers lessons for today
Are tyrants good for your health?
When the leader is ill—or addicted to cocaine, meth, steroids, or hormones
Five Pseudosciences That Fueled the Nazis
‘Hitler Was Centre of Our Lives’: Confessions of Nazi Criminals’ Wives | History | Nuremberg. Casus pacis
Theodor Morell: Hitler’s Particularly Odious Physician
Public Health Under the Third Reich
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Derek meditates on a recent conversation about the left-right divide between Ezra Klein and James Pogue.
Show Notes
MAGA’s Big Tech Divide: Ezra Klein Show
Going Back to Cincinnati — James Pogue
Inside the New Right, Where Peter Thiel Is Placing His Biggest Bets — James Pogue
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In the spring of 2017, Jordan Peterson first went viral by writing this in Canada’s National Post:
I will never use words I hate, like the trendy and artificially constructed words “zhe” and “zher.” These words are at the vanguard of a post-modern, radical leftist ideology that I detest, and which is, in my professional opinion, frighteningly similar to the Marxist doctrines that killed at least 100 million people in the 20th century.
Remember that horseshit, or things like it? Did you guffaw because he was obviously absurd? Did you try to reason with his stans online? Did you see him as a crank influencer, or a dangerous political figure?
Did you hope his ideas would be beaten down in the marketplace of ideas? Or did you seek him out at a public event and shout him down with a bullhorn?
Today, word salad like this is everywhere—including in Project 2025, now driving the Trump admin.
Matthew visits the antifascist woodshed to investigate the liberal manners, free speech naivety, and lack of community alliances that dissuaded him from grabbing the mic during a Peterson Q&A in 2017 and shouting:
“Your ideas are fascist and you should STFU. You are endangering trans people with your bullshit. Why do you care about how they experience their bodies, you whining pervert? Why are you inciting hatred against young people who want a better world?”
Because… look where we are now.
Show Notes
Read the Memo Pausing Federal Grants and Loans - The New York Times
President George H.W. Bush on political correctness (1991)
The History of Political Correctness—Lind
The Pitfalls of Liberalism — Kwame Ture
The Forgotten History of the World's First Trans Clinic | Scientific American
Jordan Peterson: The right to be politically incorrect | National Post
Bill C-16, An Act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code (gender identity or expression)
Jordan Peterson is trying to make sense of the world — including his own strange journey
Postmodern Neo-Marxism — Jordan Peterson’s Shadow
Doug Ford met Jordan Peterson, appointment calendar reveals | CBC News
Why are the Proud Boys so violent? Ask Gavin McInnes — SPLC
Jordan Peterson revealed he once earned $400,000 a month
Antifa by Mark Bray
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Edward Snowden is largely only a public name thanks to Glenn Greenwald’s reporting, for which he was one of the contributors to a Pulitzer Prize-winning series for The Guardian in 2014. For a while, Matt Taibbi was considered the heir to Hunter Thompson when his gonzo journalism tore open the 2008 financial crisis and gave the public the term “vampire squids.”
Yet in more recent years, both men have swerved right: Glenn became a darling on Fox News and Taibbi was recruited by Elon Musk as one of the Twitter Files “journalists.” How did that happen? We’re joined by journalist Eoin Higgins, whose new book, Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left, dives into the career arcs of both Greenwald and Taibbi, and how they confuse and distort right-left alignments.
Show Notes
Sharath Jois, Heir to Founder of Ashtanga Yoga, Dies at 53 - The New York Times
Sharath’s Statement on Pattabhi Jois’s Assaults: Context, Links, Notes – Matthew Remski
Surviving Modern Yoga - North Atlantic Books
Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left
Eoin Higgins Morning Brew | Bluesky
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Part 2 of Matthew’s sit down with sex-work veteran and social justice advocate Esme Providence Brown to discuss New Age / wellness antifeminist, Kelly Brogan, and how her craven politics bolster the permission structure for Trumpian misogyny.
They track her political and aesthetic journey from labcoat wearer to wellness pole dancer to BDSM cosplayer—a spiral through deepening layers of appropriation, disavowal of responsibility, and cringe-tastic ideas. Esme concludes with some deep insights on what it means for artisanal BDSM to be stripped of its political and consent-culture context, and who Brogan’s “feminism is a psy-op” argument really serves.
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When asked if he thought Mark Zuckerberg’s effective ending of fact checking was in response to threats that he would “put him in jail for a very long time,” Trump replied, “Probably. Yeah, probably.” A week later, TikTok voluntarily disabled their app for users, then put up an announcement saying that Trump was going to bring them back.
Julian talks to digital disinformation expert Renee Diresta about the massive Big Tech realignment with MAGA, which now means Meta, X, and TikTok may become more like TruthSocial. If fact checking is biased, content moderation is censorship, and combating foreign propaganda is anti-free speech, where does that leave us now?
Show Notes
If you Give A Mouse a Cookie: Renee Diresta
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What the ever loving fuck. That’s our intro today.
But we do have a structure. Julian’s going to review the Executive Order chaos, including the pardoning and deputizing of fascist street gangs. Derek’s going to explain what the ever loving fuck it means for health agencies to turn off access to health data. And I’ll look at two Xtian responses to fascism: one hypocritical and one poetic… but maybe toothless.
Show Notes
Freed Capitol riot ringleaders regroup - and vow 'retribution'
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Full episode available here.
The alien from Venus in George King’s head said: “Prepare yourself. You are to be the voice of interplanetary parliament.” It’s 1952 and the Englishman has been meditating deeply. Eight days later, a famous yogi from India materializes to explain what’s going on.
These experiences became the basis for the Aetherius Society—an organization that still has 35 chapters around the planet today. They claim the world’s governments are covering up their communication with a spiritually enlightened galactic federation, so as to maintain control over humanity.
If that sounds like 2020 red-pilled Instagram grift, you’re right! Everything old is new again.
Julian’s series, The Roots of Conspirituality, a history of new age conspiracism, is now conveniently organized under the “Collections” tab at the top of our Patreon page. Each episode is self-contained—but listen from the start if you want to trace the journey from the 1840’s “burned over region” of the American North East to today!
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On Jan 10, the Oregon Nurses Association launched the largest healthcare strike in Oregon state history. Some 5k frontline caregivers from 8 Providence hospitals and 6 clinics have been holding the line in freezing temperatures as they fight for basic rights that their employer—a Catholic nonprofit healthcare system whose C Suite members make millions of dollars every year—refuses to give them.
Derek discusses why such strikes, and unions in general, are so important as the new administration takes office. He breaks down some of Providence’s past legal problems, discusses his own experience as a Providence patient, and talks to some of the nurses on the strike line.
Show Notes
Dr Jennifer Lincoln
Oregon Nurses Association
Resources for striking healthcare professionals
It's Time for Providence to Put Patients Before Profits
Providence, striking Oregon health workers remain apart on key issues
They Were Entitled to Free Care. Hospitals Hounded Them to Pay.
Hospital System to Refund Poor Patients Who Were Entitled to Free Care
Wealthiest Hospitals Got Billions in Bailout for Struggling Health Providers
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