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Conspirituality — Philosophy
Conspirituality

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.

Copyright: © 2023 Conspirituality

Latest Episodes:

Bonus Sample: Anti-vax Lifestyle Brands Are Here Nov 27, 2023

Show notes

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.

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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

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Deep Cut: The Eyes Always Watching Us Nov 25, 2023

Show notes

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.

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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

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181: YouTuber Redpills Preteen Boys Nov 23, 2023

Show notes

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

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Bonus Sample: So Marianne Williamson Really is the Peace Candidate Nov 20, 2023

Show notes

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.

Matthew reconsiders past criticisms of Marianne Williamson’s theology and candidacy in light of her principled call for a ceasefire as casualties in Gaza rise.

At a moment of global crisis, Williamson is distinguishing herself from the vast majority of her Democratic colleagues—including Bernie Sanders—by calling urgently for a ceasefire as the casualties in Gaza rise.

Biden Democrats are struggling to utter the word “ceasefire.” Rashida Tlaib and the Squad are now targeted for primary challenges funded by AIPAC. Will it fall to a New Age pacifist—long derided as “the crystal lady”—to challenge the geopolitical status quo? Is Williamson's proposed “Department of Peace” really that naive at this point, now that Mike Johnson, as House Speaker, holds the Evangelical view that war in the Holy Land is a sign of Jesus's return?

Show Notes

Israel & Hamas: Ceasefire — Marianne Williamson

148: Marianne Williamson and Asshole Jesus — Conspirituality

Special Report: Marianne Williamson’s Ex- Staffers Speak Out — Conspirituality

Brief: Marianne Williamson’s Spiritual Therapy Schtick — Conspirituality

MW Facebook prayer for Israel and Palestine

Gaza: UN experts call on international community to prevent genocide against the Palestinian people | OHCHR

Lack of clean drinking water for 95% of people in Gaza threatens health crisis | Global development | The Guardian

Leo Varadkar calls for ‘humanitarian ceasefire’ in Israel-Hamas conflict | Business Post

Kinew pledges to search landfill, but says federal role wasn't part of conversation with Trudeau

Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan | The White House

Netanyahu faces rising anger from within Israel after Hamas attack - CBS News

The Presidential Candidates on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict | Council on Foreign Relations

Williamson: Israel and Hamas an Eye for an Eye

What Palestinians Really Think of Hamas | Foreign Affairs

House votes to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib over her Israel-Hamas rhetoric in a stunning rebuke

Original Party Platform of the Likud Party

AIPAC vs. progressives: Israel’s war in Gaza has set the stage for a huge primary battle in 2024

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Brief: RFK Jr. Loses New Age Support Over Israel Nov 18, 2023

Show notes

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RKF Jr., who has campaigned as the peace candidate who will draw down the US military empire, has recently called Israel America’s “aircraft carrier” in the Middle East. When challenged to call for a ceasefire as the casualties rise in Gaza, the self-proclaimed protector of children said, “nobody likes children dying,” but then compared Israel’s efforts against Hamas to Alliance efforts against the Nazis.

On Gaza and Israel, RFK Jr is sounding unlike the end-the-forever wars, bring-our-troops-home candidate that many of his followers in the alternative health, anti-vax, and New Age spiritual communities thought they were supporting.

Now he’s paying the price.

Lifelong pacifist Dennis Kucinich quit the Kennedy24 campaign nine days after Israel began its retaliation for the Hamas attacks. RFK Jr.’s Director of Messaging, Charles Eisenstein, is speaking out against his boss’s one-sided stance. And alternative health and anti-vax mogul Sayer Ji has withdrawn his endorsement in a newsletter sent out to 300K subscribers.

Matthew reports on the developments and poses the questions: What is it about Gaza that suddenly makes the mainstream media reports credible to conspiritualists—as opposed to the news from Ukraine, or about COVID? And if RFK Jr. loses the support of the natural health pacifist who first backed him, who is he left to stand with?

UPDATE: Since recording, Bernie Sanders has in fact followed the lead of Williamson and others in issuing a call for an end to the bombardment of Gaza.

Show Notes

Dennis Kucinich Leaves Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Presidential Campaign - The New York Times.

Dennis Kucinich ceasefire petition

Kennedy Condemns Terrorist Attacks Against Israel | Kennedy24

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Declares Independent Candidacy | C-SPAN.org

RFK Jr Confronted by Pro-Palestine Heckler Calling for Ceasefire at Portland Event [VIDEO] - The Maine Wire

The New Age Origin Story of RFK Jr’s Campaign — Conspirituality

"In my name, I want no vengeance." - Charles Eisenstein

Why I Withdraw My Endorsement of RFK Jr. and Affirm the Urgent Cause for Peace In Palestine & Israel Sayer Ji

Disinformation Dozen Star Sayer Ji Now Exploiting Black Lives Matter | by Matthew Remski

Harvard Should Suspend Students Over Antisemitic Content: Bill Ackman - Bloomberg

Columbia University suspends student groups Students for Justice in Palestine & Jewish Voice for Peace for allegedly violating school policies - CBS New York

Poll: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. takes eye-popping 22 percent against Biden, Trump, - POLITICO

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180: Is This the Next Andrew Tate? Nov 16, 2023

Show notes

Iman Gadzhi is a rising YouTube superstar. A high school dropout and supposed self-made multimillionaire, the 23 year-old marketing guru started his YouTube channel at age 15 with weightlifting videos. He has since built a following of 3.7 million. His life and career path is symbiotic with the platform, mirroring, monetizing, and accelerating every self-help and get-rich trend that blows through through the algorithms.

At some point during COVID, he caught the conspiracy theory bug, and turned his channel into a red pill factory, pumping out such volumes of aggressively paranoid content that YouTube money bros started comparing him to Andrew Tate.

Now, Gadzhi is reaching more aggressively into the brains of pre-teen boys around the world with a morbid fantasy about the origins of public education, and how it dooms them all into woke slavery. But it’s not just a conspiracy theory. It’s a highly-structured marketing campaign pitching his online sales coaching scheme as a substitute for high school.

Show Notes

Join THE RESCUE today. #fyp #viral | iman gadzhi | TikTok —Gadzhi content

Rebels stage new invasion of Dagestan | The Independent

Dagestan: Mob storms Russian airport in search of Jews - BBC News

Iman Gadzhi Talks About His Stepdad

Independent School Fees — Southbank International

Entrepreneur Pushes for More Inclusive Education in Developing Countries — Forbes

3 Books Changed My Life—Gadzhi content

What Are the 48 Laws of Power? The Complete List | Shortform Books

The Half-Century in Bullshit: On Peter Bogdanovich’s “Paper Moon” and Robert Greene’s “The 48 Laws of Power”

Atomic Habits — If Books Could Kill

Corona Virus: SMMA in Crisis—Gadzhi content

Vaccine Regret Counselling | Life Coaching in London, UK

The Covid Crisis of 2021 - Richard Harris & Iman Gadzhi Unveil the Shocking Truth

Iman Gadzhi Opens Up About Why He Agrees With Andrew Tate & His Unique View On Women!!

5 Habits Keeping MEN Weak—Gadzhi content

A wife like that—Gadzhi content

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Bonus Sample: Swamp Creatures 5: Trump Davidians Nov 13, 2023

Show notes

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You’ve heard the names of our Deep State swamp creatures. But the details of their career histories, criminal indictments, and intersecting political activities paint a startling picture.

Alt-right rabble-rouser and pseudo-intellectual, Steve Bannon, was part of the team that salvaged Trump’s floundering 2016 campaign. Like Roger Stone and Mike Flynn, he was in the war room at the Willard Hotel around January 6, 2020—having told his podcast audience that “all hell is going to break loose.”

What happened between those dates is quite a tale. With Trump’s 2024 candidacy looming, Steve Bannon remains poised to bring his nasty visions to life.

*Correction: During this bonus, Julian mistakenly says Trump called it “The Movement.” He meant to say that Bannon did.

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Brief: Neoliberal Psychedelics Nov 11, 2023

Show notes

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What happens when psychedelic therapy is introduced into a society in which both the set and setting is capitalism? Derek navigates the hope and hype of psychedelics in a for-profit healthcare system with two leading researchers, Neşe Devenot, PhD and Brian Pace, PhD.

Show Notes

Beyond the psychedelic hype: Exploring the persistence of the neoliberal paradigm

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179: The Conspiracy of…Cities? (w/Doug Gordon) Nov 09, 2023

Show notes

Close your eyes and imagine exiting your front door. Within moments, everything necessary for your life is a few blocks away, except perhaps your job. Groceries, coffee, toiletries, your bank—if you’re still a physical bank-type person—auto shop, all within walking distance. You never have to commute too far to live your life.

Sounds like quite a dystopian hellscape, doesn’t it?

Believe it or not, that’s yet another conspiracy theory that emerged earlier this year, because the ability to access things you need is apparently a Deep State plot. Derek is joined by “The War on Cars” co-host, Doug Gordon, to discuss how this conspiracy started and why smart urban planning is a boon for society. First, we discuss Jane Jacobs, the Scranton, Pennsylvania-born journalist and theorist who brought her civic activism to Toronto in 1968, with Matthew coloring in how her legacy has fared during the rise of the Ford family.

Corrections: In his unbridled enthusiasm for the topic and the memories it churned up, Matthew messed up THREE things—the Escalade is a Cadillac, not a Ford, “Downtown” was sung by Petula Clark, not Peggy Lee, and Bill Davis was a Progressive Conservative Premier, not a Liberal! Apologies.

Show Notes

The Woman Who Saved New York City from Superhighway Hell | Vanity Fair

‘The streets belong to the people’: Why a premier killed the Spadina Expressway | TVO Today

Ford family is building a political dynasty

Video shows Councillor Doug Ford handing out $20 bills at TCHC building

Where the Spadina Expressway Didn't Stop | The Local

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Bonus Sample: A Prescription — To Fix Healthcare Nov 06, 2023

Show notes

Derek spent nearly a month trying to get a flu shot. During the same period, he has yet to secure an updated Covid booster. There are many problems with anti-vax propaganda. But there are also serious issues with America’s for-profit healthcare system. Derek shares his last few months navigating it, first with his wife’s breast cancer screenings (and the unexpected costs dumped on them) and then with a shot the CDC wants everyone to receive, apparently without understanding just how challenging that can be.

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