WEBVTT - Blame The Beatles! 0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:06.240 Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George 0:00:06.280 --> 0:00:10.920 Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty, Armstrong and 0:00:11.039 --> 0:00:17.800 Getty and he Armstrong and Getty. 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:26.000 There's gonna be a heck of an hour. I can 0:00:26.079 --> 0:00:31.920 just feel it in my bones. Oh, you have no 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:35.920 interest in getting in. You know, podcasting conflicts with anybody. 0:00:36.040 --> 0:00:38.920 I don't. Number one, I don't care, and you know 0:00:39.040 --> 0:00:42.120 number two is just unproductive. But I've got to admit 0:00:42.200 --> 0:00:47.960 I am fascinated by a couple of different media twist offs. 0:00:48.440 --> 0:00:52.200 Tucker number one, because I thought so highly of Tucker 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:55.800 as a writer. Everybody did the thinker, Oh yeah, my goodness, 0:00:55.880 --> 0:00:59.280 so so good. But he's turned towards this groy fery 0:00:59.480 --> 0:01:02.120 anti semotism that I find very, very troubling, and it's 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:02.720 it's a shame. 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:06.520 And why because he was already ungodly wealthy. 0:01:06.760 --> 0:01:09.720 Yeah, I think he actually believes what he's pitching. 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:12.720 Now did he always believe that? And he was keeping 0:01:12.800 --> 0:01:14.320 it quiet? Certain didn't seem. 0:01:14.160 --> 0:01:17.320 Like it, no idea, No, no, it didn't. This seems 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:20.279 to be some sort of change, the idea of falling 0:01:20.319 --> 0:01:23.000 over Vladimir Putin, And what a wonderful place. Rush is 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:25.800 is just that is so looney tunes. It's difficult to 0:01:25.840 --> 0:01:30.679 explain by I mean it's either mental illness or an 0:01:30.720 --> 0:01:34.880 ideological capture of some sort. But the other character that 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:38.520 fascinates me in a weird way is Candace Owens, who 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:42.760 we met once. We did an event with her. Extremely 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:47.360 articulate and confident I think it was Rich Lowry in 0:01:47.360 --> 0:01:50.400 the National Review, and we'll touch on this in a minute, 0:01:50.520 --> 0:01:56.560 points out that confident to the point of just being way, way, 0:01:56.600 --> 0:01:57.440 way over the top. 0:01:57.520 --> 0:02:00.040 Well, we were in a green room with her for 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:04.080 forty five minutes quite a while, and it was just Joe, me, 0:02:04.440 --> 0:02:06.880 her and like her assistant. 0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:08.320 I think it's like four of us in the room. 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:13.320 She was incredibly standoffish, like just not willing to engage 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:16.280 in any conversation whatsoever, and work in the phone. But 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:18.720 now I know she's a complete weirdo. I mean, she's 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:21.840 a very strange person. So here are a couple of examples. 0:02:21.840 --> 0:02:23.760 I don't remember what's in the audio that we're about 0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:26.600 to play you, which is entitled all the Questions Candace 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:29.760 owns is just asking, which if you're not hip to 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:33.760 this is a way that people can say things that 0:02:33.960 --> 0:02:37.040 are they know will be greeted as horrifying, but they 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:40.160 just say, I'm just asking the questions. It's it's just 0:02:40.280 --> 0:02:44.359 it's transparent once you become aware of it, whether it's 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:47.239 a fake historian claiming the Hitler was really a good 0:02:47.280 --> 0:02:49.600 guy and didn't mean for a few Jews to die 0:02:49.720 --> 0:02:55.360 or whatever. But like Candace lately, if you're not familiar 0:02:55.400 --> 0:02:57.720 with her act Is said, and I quote, I'm starting 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:00.680 to think that the assassination of Charlie Kirk was something 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:03.799 you kin to a regi aside, right, the assassination of 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:06.120 a king to install a new ruler who the king 0:03:06.440 --> 0:03:11.240 would never have approved of. And the new ruler of 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:15.200 Turning Point USA turns out to be Kirk's widow, Erica Kirk, 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:18.880 and owens Is argued the Turning Point is covering up 0:03:18.880 --> 0:03:22.839 its involvement in Kirk's assassination and that Erica Kirk knows everything. 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:27.160 She also then she says, but it's a vile smear 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:30.279 to suggest she's implicated Erica Kirk and her husband's assassination. 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:34.240 But she's just asking questions. Why don't we go ahead 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:36.120 and play this audio and then we'll follow up go ahead, 0:03:36.160 --> 0:03:36.760 Michael twelve. 0:03:37.720 --> 0:03:41.160 They and other influencers will invoke Erica as the reason 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:43.680 that it's not appropriate to ask questions. It's just not 0:03:43.760 --> 0:03:46.960 appropriate while Erica is still morning for you guys to 0:03:47.000 --> 0:03:48.600 ask any questions. And I'm just going to come back 0:03:48.600 --> 0:03:50.960 at you with some common sense. What sort of widow 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:55.720 wouldn't want people to investigate the assassination of their husband. 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:59.400 Every day that goes on, it feels to me like 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:02.320 Turning Point is engaged in a cover up, So criticism 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:04.800 is pertaining to anything at Turning Point. USA that are being. 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:07.520 Directed at Erica are fair. Obviously they are fair. 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:09.800 You are recognizing that the people around Charlie are not 0:04:09.840 --> 0:04:12.240 acting in the way that they should be acting, that 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:16.280 their emotionality is not needing the moment of violence that 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:19.800 we all witnessed. Nothing in Charlie's life is real. It's 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:21.640 just something that keeps me up at night. 0:04:21.760 --> 0:04:23.240 Just nothing in his life was real, And. 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:27.520 It just so happened that Charlie Kirk kept notebooks and diaries. 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:32.000 He was so diligent that he wrote down his succession 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:36.800 plan featuring who he wanted to take over for the 0:04:36.920 --> 0:04:40.280 organization in the event of his untimely death, like you 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:41.880 know in the third notebook. He was like, Oh, and 0:04:41.920 --> 0:04:43.679 if I accidentally get shot on campus, here's. 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:44.000 What you should do. 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:46.080 Call AIRICUB and then after you call Aerica, come find 0:04:46.080 --> 0:04:48.960 this notebook. Oh but wait, Charlie, wasn't it like a 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:51.760 boy genius? Pretty us, a pretty bright kid. Wouldn't he 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:56.480 have maybe formalized that succession plan outside of like a diary. 0:04:57.000 --> 0:04:59.359 But no, he wanted to put it in these notebooks. 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:02.919 The plan was to guilt us, I think, to try 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:06.120 to haunt us with the ghost of Charlie's notebooks that 0:05:06.160 --> 0:05:08.840 were never going to be allowed to read. Yeah, I'm 0:05:08.880 --> 0:05:12.599 putting the fire here right at the feet of turning 0:05:12.600 --> 0:05:14.760 point because I am disgusted. 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:17.880 I am genuinely disgusted. 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:20.480 I am looking around and wondering whether Charlie's entire life 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:22.520 was the Truman Show. But I'm starting to think that 0:05:22.600 --> 0:05:28.320 the assassination of Charlie Kirk was something akin to a regicide, right, 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:32.719 the assassination of a king to install a new ruler 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:34.760 who the king would have never approved of. 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:37.600 Right. 0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:43.480 So she's suggesting that these diaries journals that he kept 0:05:43.680 --> 0:05:47.640 are fake. I guess that his wife faked him up. Says, See, 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:49.240 he wrote it down here. He wanted me to be 0:05:49.279 --> 0:05:51.880 in charge if something happened to him. 0:05:51.520 --> 0:05:56.880 Exactly saw a little too, pad. Isn't it a little tinting. 0:05:56.720 --> 0:05:59.680 That she was involved in having him killed because she. 0:05:59.640 --> 0:06:01.800 Wanted When you say, wait a minute, are you hinting 0:06:01.800 --> 0:06:03.640 that she was involved in having him killed? You say, 0:06:03.640 --> 0:06:08.039 that's despicable? How dare you question me? Yeah, it's crazy. 0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:12.840 As Rich Lowry writes, when Alex Jones was at his 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:14.560 height and he hasn't gone away, it felt as though 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:16.279 he was in it for the entertainment. He was like 0:06:16.320 --> 0:06:19.000 the WWE announcer who knows the wrestling is fake, and 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:21.600 knows that we know the wrestling is fake, but impuse 0:06:21.640 --> 0:06:23.680 his play by play with a sense of great import 0:06:23.720 --> 0:06:26.160 all the time. I would agree he was despicable, but 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:28.920 that was the vibe. Owens is different. To be sure, 0:06:28.960 --> 0:06:31.839 she's entertaining too, and he gives some examples. But Owens 0:06:31.920 --> 0:06:34.599 is more alluring and sinister than Alex Jones. She wants 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:37.240 followers not just to sell them the equivalent of supplements, 0:06:37.240 --> 0:06:39.760 but to gain influence and turn mega in a direction 0:06:40.680 --> 0:06:44.720 hostile to Israel, Jews and Judaism. Now it is true 0:06:44.720 --> 0:06:47.480 that Owens is ignorant of basic things and makes embarrassing 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:50.960 elementary factual mistakes all the time. Yet she's very glib, 0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:53.120 and her credibility as a talker is bolstered by the 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:56.799 near sociopathic self confidence of someone who believes her saying 0:06:56.839 --> 0:07:01.080 something must make it true. And then her riff about 0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:05.000 the moon landings being faked is characteristic. She kind of 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:07.800 knows something about the Van Allen radiation belt, which is 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:10.720 more than most people can say, but overstates its potential 0:07:10.760 --> 0:07:14.320 as an obstacle, and she misunderstands how temperature works in space, 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:19.520 among other things. Or her contention that dinosaurs are fake 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:23.160 and gay. This apparently stems from her wholly erroneous belief 0:07:23.200 --> 0:07:27.040 that only paleontologists have ever found dinosaur bones, so there 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:30.360 must be conspiracy among them to fabricate fossils to undermine 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:34.120 faith in God. Clearly true, and the Jews have a 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:37.559 special place in her conspiracies. Harvard is a Masad base, 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:41.040 which Rich writes highly convenient. One assumes if Israel wanted 0:07:41.040 --> 0:07:45.520 to carry out an operation against Tufts or Bodouin. Israel 0:07:45.600 --> 0:07:48.680 was involved in the September eleventh attacks, The Holocaust is 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:52.680 exaggerated or fake. Eli Weisel is a liar. The Jews 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:56.120 carried out the Bolshevik Revolution in order to exterminate Christians. 0:07:56.400 --> 0:07:59.280 The Jews kill JFK and for some reason, also Michael 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:02.160 Jackson Stalin was a secret Jew, and so is ed 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:05.120 a Turk. Jeffrey Epstein, of course, was doing Israel's bidding. 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:08.000 She hasn't accused the Jews of poisoning the wells, but 0:08:08.160 --> 0:08:09.280 give it time. 0:08:10.840 --> 0:08:14.200 And she's portraying. I'm reading her Twitter posts from today. 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:17.840 She's portraying it is like she and Charlie were really close. 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:21.520 She and Charlie Kirk heartbreaking. They really killed my friend. 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:25.440 But justice will be served, and that she's being attacked 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:29.000 for trying to get the truth out about who killed 0:08:29.040 --> 0:08:33.040 her friend. Right today, on the show We Go Max, 0:08:33.080 --> 0:08:35.880 we find irrefutable proof that Turning Point knows more than 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:38.720 they're telling us. Charlie was right. He knew I would 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:41.440 be the one to defend him after death. Join us Live, 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:45.880 blah blah blah. She's got seven point four million followers 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:49.000 on Twitter. I don't know how much money that makes 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:50.719 you Quite a. 0:08:50.640 --> 0:08:53.880 Bit, yeah, I got a bunch of examples of there 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:57.040 were actually two shots. The rifle shot was used only 0:08:57.080 --> 0:09:00.200 to cover up another shot from an unknown assata in 0:09:00.240 --> 0:09:04.600 a close range that would be difficult to coordinate Robinson. 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:07.880 The actual shooter's role was to drive around campus assisting 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:12.760 in costume changes. Let's see she heared that Robinson is 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:15.920 bewildered by the idea that he carved messages and bullet casings. 0:09:16.640 --> 0:09:19.400 She also doubts the authenticity of his text messages with 0:09:19.480 --> 0:09:23.480 his trans boyfriend. She believes the text aren't credible because 0:09:23.520 --> 0:09:25.720 there's no way Robinson would use a fancy word like 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:31.120 vehicle instead of car. Rich writes, not only his vehicle 0:09:31.160 --> 0:09:33.920 not a particularly uncommon word. Owens messes up what she 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:37.160 considers to be evidence that cinches the point. In sleuth mode, 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:39.720 she says that police bodycam footage of Robinson after the 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:42.679 car accident shows him using the word car instead of vehicle. 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:44.960 But in the course of that very tape, he also 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:47.280 says vehicle and. 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:49.720 Pretty slim no matter what I mean. 0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:53.600 Oh my god, yeah, yeah. And this goes on for 0:09:53.640 --> 0:09:57.160 a long time about the Jews, especially about the Jews. 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:01.560 There's a couple of ages of this, but that's enough 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:04.880 of that. So the broader point that I find really 0:10:05.320 --> 0:10:11.160 interesting and compelling is how these conspiracy theories work and 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:15.040 how do they get people? And I remember when QAnon 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:18.319 was big, I read an absolutely fantastic description of how 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:21.880 that works. What are the various triggers that the perpetrator 0:10:21.920 --> 0:10:24.600 of these hoaxes use? And I wish I could find 0:10:24.600 --> 0:10:27.320 it because it's very straightforward and easy to understand. 0:10:27.480 --> 0:10:31.000 I got to admit, if my conscience would allow me, 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:35.200 it'd be pretty fun to do the canvas thing where 0:10:35.200 --> 0:10:37.800 you just make stuff up and kind of ride this 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:42.840 wave of nonsense and keep people pulling people along and 0:10:42.880 --> 0:10:45.600 come up with new wacky ideas. It'd be pretty fun. 0:10:46.040 --> 0:10:49.320 Oh yeah, it's a great mental exercise. You get to 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:51.320 know the four or five tools of your craft and 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:53.920 then you have to react quickly and make new stuff up. 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:56.920 It's it's almost like a creative writing exercise in a way. 0:10:57.360 --> 0:11:00.120 But anyway, I came across this by Claire Layman, and 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:02.719 we'll take a break and come back with it. The 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:07.880 New Medievals. The bones of conspiracy theories haven't changed through 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:13.000 the centuries, though the details are different. How conspiracy theories 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:17.120 are right out of the Middle Ages. Thought this was intriguing. 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:17.920 Hope you enjoyed it. 0:11:17.920 --> 0:11:19.600 And then there's also the other end of it is 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:23.760 that certain people that really really really want these I 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:25.839 don't want them, but some people do. It makes them 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:29.560 feel better. That's its own interesting thing. Anyway, lots on 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:37.559 the way stay here, so uh, they're voting on the 0:11:37.600 --> 0:11:38.280 Epstein files. 0:11:38.320 --> 0:11:38.440 Dan. 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:40.439 I only bring that up because that's, you know, to 0:11:40.520 --> 0:11:42.599 be a popular conspiracy for a very long time and 0:11:42.640 --> 0:11:47.160 obviously has a lot of conspiracy conspiratorial things around it 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:50.280 with him being involved with the Jews, and that's how 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:53.280 the Jews blackmailed people is through Epstein et cetera. 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:55.280 And that's one of the many versions of it. So 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:57.560 we're talking about conspiracy theories and how they work and 0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:00.560 what's at the the root of them. And I remembered 0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:02.280 a piece I brought to you a while ago, about 0:12:02.320 --> 0:12:05.280 a month ago, about gnosticism, how a lot of the 0:12:05.320 --> 0:12:10.800 people pushing this stuff are like the first century Gnostics, 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:14.640 a Christian heresy that holds that the material world is evil, 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:17.760 that a special KnowledgeR knows this with a g lifts 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:21.480 us out of its corruptions into redemption. Salvation under its 0:12:21.480 --> 0:12:24.720 theory requires neither faith nor action, only the recognition that 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:28.439 you're being lied to and that your soul belongs elsewhere. Gnosticism, 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:31.679 like orthodox religions, asks why evil exists, but instead of 0:12:31.720 --> 0:12:35.640 traditional answers rooted in personal responsibility, it posits that malevolent 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:38.880 forces control the world. Knowledge of these forces becomes the 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:42.880 work itself. Discover them and you are redeemed, which is interesting. 0:12:43.400 --> 0:12:50.360 But then this from Claire Layman, a piece called the 0:12:50.520 --> 0:12:54.000 New Medievals, and he goes into a variety of people, 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:59.120 including Candace Owens, who has been implicating everyone in the murder, 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:02.559 from the Israeli to Turning Point Usa itself to Erica 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:07.440 Kirk and last week her speculation reached its apogee when 0:13:07.440 --> 0:13:14.480 she suggested that Donald Trump himself was involved, which is, well, 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:16.520 what the hell go for a touchdown if you're throwing 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:19.600 the ball. But then she writes to Claire Wright's owns, 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:22.280 while theorizing is an anomaly, it's part of something older 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:25.640 and darker. There's a distinctly medieval quality to much of 0:13:25.679 --> 0:13:29.960 the conspiratorial right, a world animated by unseen cabal's moral 0:13:30.000 --> 0:13:34.920 corruption and divine punishment disguised as politics. Then she talked 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:37.920 about how in journalism if it bleeds, it leads in. 0:13:38.040 --> 0:13:41.280 Any story that features a villain or a group of 0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:45.640 villains doing something dastardly to innocent victims is much more 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:48.680 likely to be read and shared than an article that say, 0:13:48.840 --> 0:13:54.280 debunks such narratives with statistics, she explains, our mammalian brains 0:13:54.320 --> 0:13:58.720 are wired to perceive and anthropomorphized threats. When our ancestors 0:13:58.720 --> 0:14:02.600 saw thunderbolts down from the sky, they didn't think it 0:14:02.679 --> 0:14:06.120 was caused by electricity in the air and complex weather systems, 0:14:06.240 --> 0:14:08.840 but by the wrath of vengeful gods. That's what I 0:14:08.880 --> 0:14:12.360 believe it looks like humans. Yeah, Jack still believes that 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:15.920 we have to talk him down after every weather forecast, 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:21.840 But so media entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs, whether it's a canvas owns 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:26.560 or a big publisher or executive, knows that readers want 0:14:26.600 --> 0:14:29.840 to be frightened by stories of plotters, vandals, criminals, and killers. 0:14:30.320 --> 0:14:34.800 In literature and film disproportionate attention compared with the works 0:14:34.800 --> 0:14:38.320 of other sorts. For example, thrillers make up over twelve 0:14:38.360 --> 0:14:40.840 percent of adult fiction sales in the US, True Pride 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:43.480 Crime podcast account for nearly a quarter of the top 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:48.920 rank show US It's very very hot. Yet conspiracy theories, 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:51.920 those tales of shadowy cabals wreaking havoc in the world, 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:54.640 seem to be the most seductive at all, I'm sorry, 0:14:54.680 --> 0:14:57.440 the most seductive of all. They combine the adrenaline of 0:14:57.480 --> 0:15:00.720 a thriller with the morality of a fable. These moral 0:15:00.800 --> 0:15:04.280 horror stories, as literary professor Jonathan Goshall argues in a 0:15:04.280 --> 0:15:07.720 twenty twenty one book called the Story Paradox, succeeded not 0:15:07.840 --> 0:15:11.880 because they persuade people rationally, but because they gratify audiences 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:16.680 on an emotional level. He wrote, quote, conspiracy stories promise 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:21.240 heroes and villains, secret clues, and moral urgency, and each 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:25.600 one invites the listener to join a righteous crusade. That's 0:15:25.600 --> 0:15:30.000 a really good example. Heroes and villains, secret clues, and 0:15:30.120 --> 0:15:34.120 moral urgency, and you get to join a righteous crusade. 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:37.760 I get this, and clearly it's true. I just it's 0:15:37.760 --> 0:15:41.320 interesting to me that some people like me just aren't 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:45.280 susceptible to it if it doesn't make sense, like, well, 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:47.400 I don't get that, and then there's no proof that 0:15:47.440 --> 0:15:49.320 it's that this is true, and then I just let 0:15:49.320 --> 0:15:49.640 it go. 0:15:50.520 --> 0:15:52.200 You know. One more note before the break and then 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:53.520 I want to come back with more of this because 0:15:53.520 --> 0:15:56.960 it's super thought provoking. But he mentions, She mentions a 0:15:57.000 --> 0:16:01.080 couple of scientific experiments psychological experiments through the years, where 0:16:01.360 --> 0:16:10.200 people who feel powerless, confused, overwhelmed, powerless begin to see 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:16.120 patterns that are not there because they really want to 0:16:16.240 --> 0:16:20.479 bring order to the disorder that they perceive. Quote. Participants 0:16:20.480 --> 0:16:23.080 who lack control were more likely to perceive a variety 0:16:23.160 --> 0:16:27.440 of illusory patterns, including seeing images and noise, forming illusory 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:32.400 correlations in stock market information, force, even conspiracies, and developing superstitions. 0:16:32.440 --> 0:16:35.400 The authors wrote. Another twenty twenty study found that the 0:16:35.520 --> 0:16:39.000 lack of a sense of lack of agency also predicted 0:16:39.040 --> 0:16:41.280 belief in Jewish conspiracies. 0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:45.400 Specifically, well, maybe that's why conspiracies don't work on me. 0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:49.400 Then I don't generally feel powerless or lacking agency, so 0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:52.280 they don't grab me in the same way. 0:16:53.080 --> 0:16:55.600 So a little more of how this applies to the 0:16:55.640 --> 0:16:59.200 modern world, and some examples from history coming up in 0:16:59.240 --> 0:17:02.040 a moment or two. Who please do stay tuned. If 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:04.800 you can't stay tuned, just grab it later via podcast. 0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:07.520 You ought to subscribe or follow Armstrong and Getty on 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:10.879 demand Armstrong and Getty. 0:17:12.240 --> 0:17:15.679 They and other influencers will invoke Erica as the reason 0:17:16.200 --> 0:17:18.840 that it's not appropriate to ask questions. It's just not appropriate. 0:17:19.560 --> 0:17:21.680 While Erica is still morning for you guys to ask 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:23.239 any questions. And I'm just going to come back at 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:24.240 you with some common sense. 0:17:24.440 --> 0:17:27.440 What sort of widow wouldn't want people. 0:17:27.480 --> 0:17:30.560 To investigate the assassination of their husband everyone? 0:17:30.600 --> 0:17:33.280 So that's Candice Owens. I saw a different podcaster that 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:36.119 is not as popular as her, but pretty popular. He 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:42.879 had a video of Charlie Kirk and his wife on 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:45.920 some sort of podcast interview show in anyway. They were 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:49.120 asked how they met, and Erica Kirk said how we met? 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:50.919 And she paused for a little bit, and then the 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:55.920 podcast host stops it. Who has to pause to remember 0:17:56.000 --> 0:17:59.600 how they met their spouse? Something is weird here, That 0:17:59.720 --> 0:18:02.120 is not normal marriage, that sort of thing. 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:05.440 Great example, yeah, great example. So we're in the midst 0:18:05.440 --> 0:18:07.840 of discussing a couple of different pieces of thinking on 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:12.439 conspiracy theorists. Michael, why do you look so troubled? Everything? No, 0:18:12.480 --> 0:18:17.200 everything's great. Actually, I'm just yeah, we're getting indigestion. Are 0:18:17.200 --> 0:18:21.680 you enough? Californian prones guilt. I'll grab some guilt. Yeah, 0:18:21.760 --> 0:18:23.800 there you go. All right. So anyway, we're we're talking 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:26.119 about conspiracy theories and the shapes they take in the 0:18:26.560 --> 0:18:29.719 kind of ancient origins of them. If you're just joining 0:18:29.800 --> 0:18:32.359 and joining them, maybe gravit via podcast later I'm strong 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:36.640 getting on demand. But the conspiracist worldview transforms chaos into 0:18:36.720 --> 0:18:41.000 drama and tragedy into design. It restores meaning in a 0:18:41.040 --> 0:18:44.280 confusing world by insisting that every disaster, every death, every 0:18:44.320 --> 0:18:48.240 downturn must have a reason. The most enduring conspiracy theories, 0:18:48.320 --> 0:18:52.760 like those surrounding JFK's assassination This is so interesting, often 0:18:52.800 --> 0:18:55.880 follow events that feel too momentous to have been set 0:18:55.920 --> 0:18:59.600 in motion by something as mundane as one mentally unwell 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:00.840 into visual. 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:06.040 I get that it's hard to deal with Jamie Palmer, 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:08.280 who's an editor at Quillette. 0:19:08.280 --> 0:19:12.240 When the senior editors had he was a conspiracy thinker 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:15.320 for years. He's not anymore. He noted that the idea 0:19:15.359 --> 0:19:18.560 of a communist misfit killing an American president was an 0:19:18.600 --> 0:19:21.239 embarrassment to the New Left, which he was part of. 0:19:21.680 --> 0:19:24.760 Unable to accept that a unremarkable loaner could alter the 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:28.639 course of history. Many instead turned to elaborate alternate explanations. 0:19:28.960 --> 0:19:32.159 And I like this so much, I clipped it. Psychologists 0:19:32.200 --> 0:19:35.960 call this the proportionality bias, the belief that great events 0:19:36.000 --> 0:19:40.560 require great causes. A solitary gunman feels arbitrary and small. 0:19:40.920 --> 0:19:45.080 A hidden cabal, on the other hand, restores symmetry, purpose 0:19:45.160 --> 0:19:50.520 and a sense of moral order. Yeah, the proportionality bias. Now, 0:19:50.560 --> 0:19:53.000 this is where it really gets interesting. Long before a 0:19:53.119 --> 0:19:56.440 modern variance, conspiracy theories were spread via word of mouth 0:19:56.640 --> 0:19:59.960 in the Middle Ages. Jews were targeted in particular because 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:02.639 they lived among Christians, but apart from them, they were 0:20:02.680 --> 0:20:06.040 marked by different laws, different rituals, and occupations were reviewed 0:20:06.080 --> 0:20:08.920 as the people who had known Christ but had rejected him. 0:20:09.320 --> 0:20:12.320 When a boy was kidnapped and murdered in twelfth century England, 0:20:12.400 --> 0:20:15.200 the accusation that Jews used the blood of children and 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:19.800 their passover rituals began to spread across Christendom the original 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:24.440 blood libel, and during the Black Deaths, Jews were again 0:20:24.520 --> 0:20:28.880 blamed for deliberately spreading the plague through the poisoning of wells, 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:34.320 which led directly to pilgrims, meaning the slaughter of Jews 0:20:34.359 --> 0:20:40.000 across Germany, France and Switzerland. During the Reformation, Martin Luther 0:20:40.320 --> 0:20:44.560 oh produced texts of virulent anti Semitism, urging Christians to 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:47.440 eject them forever from their lands and raise and destroy 0:20:47.520 --> 0:20:51.639 their houses. These stories of villainy served the function the 0:20:51.840 --> 0:20:56.320 United Christians against a common enemy, blamed catastrophes like the 0:20:56.359 --> 0:21:00.240 Pandemics on humans rather than complex systems that they didn' understand, 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:04.200 and legitimized violence, as well as the confiscation of Jewish property. 0:21:04.800 --> 0:21:10.959 The specifics change. Demons become globalists, witches become elites, and 0:21:11.080 --> 0:21:16.679 covens become cupls, but the psychology remains the same. Conspiracy 0:21:16.720 --> 0:21:21.840 theories offer what old religions once did, moral structure, belonging, 0:21:22.080 --> 0:21:25.520 and the assurance that evil is real, identifiable, and conquerable. 0:21:25.720 --> 0:21:27.879 The platforms have changed, but the pattern has not. 0:21:30.880 --> 0:21:32.639 I was listened to a podcast the other day a 0:21:32.680 --> 0:21:35.520 topic I've talked about a lot before, the Witch Trials 0:21:35.720 --> 0:21:39.600 of that period. At the time the printing press became popular. 0:21:39.880 --> 0:21:44.720 It really drove the witch trials in that, like the Internet, now, 0:21:44.880 --> 0:21:47.680 you had printed material out there that anybody could say 0:21:47.680 --> 0:21:50.040 anything they wanted, and lots of people believed everything they 0:21:50.080 --> 0:21:54.240 read and the whole witch things spread. Forty thousand witches 0:21:54.280 --> 0:21:57.840 they believe were killed over many, many decades during that 0:21:57.880 --> 0:22:01.320 period of time, which is a witch long conspiracy theory. 0:22:01.680 --> 0:22:06.679 Blaming is a discomfort with the number of unwed women 0:22:06.720 --> 0:22:08.560 there were, is a lot of what it was driving 0:22:08.560 --> 0:22:09.200 it culturally. 0:22:09.320 --> 0:22:13.240 Wow, So the first real use of the printing press 0:22:13.320 --> 0:22:16.480 was printing crap about witches. Yeah. If that don't tell 0:22:16.480 --> 0:22:18.680 you everything you need to know about humanity, I don't 0:22:18.720 --> 0:22:21.000 know what was. So here's the interesting question. I think, 0:22:21.000 --> 0:22:24.479 if you're thinking a man or woman, what's the difference 0:22:24.560 --> 0:22:27.960 between a conspiracy and a conspiracy theory? I mean, because 0:22:27.960 --> 0:22:31.880 there are plenty of conspiracies, more than one person working 0:22:32.040 --> 0:22:40.080 toward a despicable end, gotting illegal end, you got to 0:22:40.080 --> 0:22:43.600 give JFK people, certainly in the early part a pass. 0:22:44.080 --> 0:22:47.000 So it turns out the guy lived in Russia, went 0:22:47.040 --> 0:22:48.280 to Cuba recently. 0:22:48.520 --> 0:22:51.960 I mean, come on, had been id'd by the CIA 0:22:52.000 --> 0:22:52.359 in the. 0:22:52.240 --> 0:22:55.600 Midst of the Cold War. Yeah, it's almost a stretch 0:22:55.640 --> 0:22:58.080 that he wasn't involved with the Soviet. 0:22:57.800 --> 0:23:01.760 Union somehow, right, Yeah, I would agree there was plenty 0:23:01.800 --> 0:23:02.520 of risks for that mail. 0:23:02.520 --> 0:23:04.240