Dismantling New Age cults, wellness grifters, and conspiracy-mad yogis. At best, the conspirituality movement attacks public health efforts in times of crisis. ...
An essay from Matthew on how MAGA religiosity obscures the religious nature of liberalism, and how both obscure the underlying religion of capitalism.
Inspired by Walter Benjamin, who in 1921 wrote:
One can behold in capitalism a religion, that is to say, capitalism essentially serves to satisfy the same worries, anguish, and disquiet formerly answered by so-called religion. Capitalism is a pure religious cult, perhaps the most extreme there ever was. Within it everything only has meaning in direct relation to the cult: it knows no special dogma, no theology.
Show Notes
Mutual Aid Hub
Martin Luther King Jr: Dialectics, Materialism, and the Black Radical Critique of Racial Capitalism with Andrew J. Douglas and Jared A. Loggins
230: How Did We Get Here?
Walter Benjamin, "Capitalism as Religion [Fragment 74],"
Max Weber and Walter Benjamin
Without Dream or Mercy
Has Capitalism Become Our Religion?
On the Concept of History - Walter Benjamin
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6:09
Brief: The $100M Free Press
The Free Press founder, Bari Weiss, recently hosted Peter Thiel on her podcast. While The FP markets itself as as a return to independent and non-partisan real journalism, Julian and Derek point out that's not the case at all—especially when the organization's $15M in funding comes from rightwing and libertarian VCs. Will Weiss factcheck Thiel's misinformation in real-time, as a "non-partisan" outlet should?
Show Notes
Lapdogs Of The "Counter-Elite" Authoritarians
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45:18
234: Trump’s Conspiracist Cabinet
Since the election, Democratic voter disbelief and despair has alternated between grief and rage. We watched some erstwhile vociferous critics of Trump in the legacy media, like Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, kiss the ring and bend the knee, while others adopted a contorted posture of seeming legitimization, like NPR hosting Leonard Leo for a nice long sit-down interview.
Meanwhile, the big egos of MAGA 2.0 seem to rise like Soviet propaganda banners over the American landscape. Trump has named his cabinet picks at lightning speed. His list includes a pro-wrestling executive, a Hare Krishna cult member, a tech billionaire, an anti-vax conspiracy peddler, a FOX News host with far-right tattoos, an alt-med snake oil salesman, two sex offenders, a COVID-contrarian doctor—and, contrary to his claiming to know nothing about it during the election, prominent Project 2025 authors.
What most high profile nominations all have in common is being completely unqualified for the job. Maybe that’s the point. We look at the cabinet picks that intersect with our beat, as pseudoscience conspiracism now completes its journey from the social fringes to deciding White House policies—and all the consequences that entails.
Show Notes
Conspirituality’s Project 2025 coverage
Everything You Need to Know About Donald Trump’s FDA Pick
No, Medical Errors Are Not the Third Leading Cause of Death
Dr. Oz Shilled for an Alternative to Medicare
Trump picks former Florida Rep. Weldon to lead CDC
13 things everyone should know about Pete Hegseth
Trump reportedly plans to kick trans troops out of the military within days of inauguration
Transgender Military Service in the United States
Did RFK Jr. eat McDonald’s in that viral pic aboard Trump’s plane? Here’s the answer
Part One: Vince McMahon, History's Greatest Monster - Behind the Bastards
C-03-CV-24-004019 — John Does suit against WWE, trigger warning.
Case 3:24-cv-00090 Document 1 Filed 01/25/24 — Janel Grant suit, trigger warning.
152: Tulsi Gabbard’s Krishna Consciousness (w/Nitai Joseph)
Tulsi Gabbard's ties to the Science of Identity Foundation, a controversial religious sect that some call an abusive 'cult'
Tulsi Gabbard Had a Very Strange Childhood
What Does Tulsi Gabbard Believe?
Tulsi Gabbard’s ties to secretive cult may explain her perplexing political journey
Islamophobic World View of Tulsi Gabbard's Guru Revealed in Unearthed Recordings – Can she Still Run for President?
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1:12:56
Relief Project #4: Rob Schenck
Matthew here with the fourth installment of Five Big Questions Posed to an Extremely Thoughtful Person.
Rob Schenck joined me in Episode 199 to discuss his deradicalization from the Evangelical anti-abortion movement. Today he joins me to discuss some things he’s learned about hope, faith, resilience and building community in hard times.
Show Notes
Costly Grace - Rob Schenck
199: Inside Anti-Abortion Christian Nationalism (w/Rob Schenck)
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19:09
Bonus Sample: The UFOs Are Being Censored!
The climate denialist who exposed the so-called “censorship industrial complex” returns, this time at another congressional hearing. Michael Shellenberger has come to blow the whistle on Big Government’s UFO cover-up.
Nancy Mace, Lauren Boebert, and Anna Paulina Luna alternate between showing off their knowledge of fantastical History Channel “documentaries” and playing bad cop interrogators.
Reverse-engineered UFO’s! Recovered alien “biologics!” Interdimensional beings! Organic machines that defy the laws of physics!
Shellenberger and his fellow “witnesses” provide precisely zero evidence for any of these earth-shattering claims.
Welcome to the Government Oversight and Accountability Committee circus.
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Dismantling New Age cults, wellness grifters, and conspiracy-mad yogis. At best, the conspirituality movement attacks public health efforts in times of crisis. At worst, it fronts and recruits for the fever-dream of QAnon. As the alt-right and New Age horseshoe toward each other in a blur of disinformation, clear discourse, and good intentions get smothered. Charismatic influencers exploit their followers by co-opting conspiracy theories on a spectrum of intensity ranging from vaccines to child trafficking. In the process, spiritual beliefs that have nurtured creativity and meaning are transforming into memes of a quickly-globalizing paranoia. Conspirituality Podcast attempts to bring understanding to this landscape. A journalist, a cult researcher, and a philosophical skeptic discuss the stories, cognitive dissonances, and cultic dynamics tearing through the yoga, wellness, and new spirituality worlds. Mainstream outlets have noticed the problem. We crowd-source, research, analyze, and dream answers to it.
Ireland