WEBVTT - Part Two: How The Rich Ate Christianity 0:00:01.840 --> 0:00:06.160 Oh yeah, I hate when you open the episode like that. 0:00:06.280 --> 0:00:09.920 I really do. I love it, Sophie. It makes me 0:00:09.960 --> 0:00:15.840 feel just missing shrieking. To be honest, No, I like 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:20.320 an almost an almost sexual expression of satisfaction. That's how 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:23.840 you start a podcast. So that's how you start a podcast. 0:00:24.680 --> 0:00:28.880 And to be almost sexual with me. My guests today, 0:00:29.200 --> 0:00:31.639 Dan and Jordan of Knowledge fight Dan and Jordan's on 0:00:31.680 --> 0:00:35.200 a scale how uncomfortable? Oh wow, Wow, you're just buying 0:00:35.280 --> 0:00:39.559 in excellent. I was doing macho and Randy seven, Yes 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:42.920 he was. I was doing straight up. That's what I 0:00:42.920 --> 0:00:46.880 sound like during sex. Yeah. That that's gonna be very 0:00:46.960 --> 0:00:54.080 polarizing among the audience. Uh, people who have opinions. People 0:00:54.080 --> 0:00:57.440 will have opinions. I'm not going to read those opinions 0:00:59.560 --> 0:01:02.600 from my own mental health. I don't do that very often. 0:01:03.080 --> 0:01:06.760 Less polarizing, though, the gracefulness with which Randy Macho Man 0:01:06.760 --> 0:01:09.640 says will drop an elbow off the top of rope. 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:14.160 That's something everyone can appreciate. UM On the next episode, 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:17.600 will we'll we'll have me and the guests all slowly 0:01:17.640 --> 0:01:19.720 eat cereal in front of the mic, so we'll see 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:22.920 what people hate more, the sex or the cereal cereal. 0:01:23.360 --> 0:01:26.080 You could have the name the Cereals. People might be 0:01:26.120 --> 0:01:32.160 constantly become the cereal that I'm eating this capa and 0:01:32.200 --> 0:01:37.040 crunch is this crunch show, Sophie, that the whole show. 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:42.160 There's not enough money in the world to get but 0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:49.000 there is enough cereal. We can do this. So you 0:01:49.080 --> 0:01:52.560 know part two, right, we should probably get back into 0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:56.440 the story. So by by February of ninety seven h five, 0:01:56.520 --> 0:02:00.240 Field has built this list of minister representatives. Right, that's 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:03.800 what he calls the members of Spiritual Mobilization because he's 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:07.840 he's it's specifically an organization for religious leaders. And he 0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:10.280 calls these kind of you know, you might call them 0:02:10.600 --> 0:02:14.240 foot soldiers or whatnot. In his war to make Christianity capitalism, 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:18.760 he calls them minister representatives, yeah, repristers, and in night 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:20.920 he starts doing this in nineteen forty four, he has 0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:24.800 about four hundred minister representatives in forty four. By ninety seven, 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:27.720 there's more than ten thousand of them. Within a m 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:29.920 money behind him, he's able to get out his message 0:02:29.919 --> 0:02:34.080 and keep Spiritual Mobilization together despite its meteoric rise. He 0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:37.600 finds great success in arguing against the Pagan statism of 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:41.080 socialist politics rather than against a social safety net, and 0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:44.080 for the dignity of individual man as a child of 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:47.240 God rather than against the responsibility of rich people to 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:52.000 pay taxes. Clergy begin to flood five Fields, Los Angeles office. 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:54.760 His phone rings off the hook for weird like and 0:02:54.880 --> 0:02:58.480 it's usually people like when people call um, it's citizens 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:02.320 who have like come across his organization somewhere and they're 0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:05.760 they're writing him because they want to get sent political tracts. Um. 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:08.560 That's a big part of what spiritual mobilization does, is it? 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:12.160 Since out these right wing zines and books from authors 0:03:12.200 --> 0:03:15.960 like Garrett Garrett UM and Garrett Garrett is g A 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:17.840 R E. T is his first name and then his 0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:19.600 last name is spelled the right way. Have you heard 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:22.760 of this guy? I don't know. No, I have not. 0:03:22.840 --> 0:03:26.960 I've never heard of anyone being named Garrett twice decision 0:03:27.000 --> 0:03:31.080 obviously twice as many times is the wrong number of times? 0:03:31.400 --> 0:03:34.680 But Barbart is it a typo? Or is its spelled 0:03:34.720 --> 0:03:38.560 the first name spelled differently than the last name? It is? 0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:40.840 It is the first name spelled differently? Is he and 0:03:41.040 --> 0:03:43.880 peel bit? Actually kind of I kind of like the 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:48.680 different spellings. Yeah, the first name. The first name has 0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:52.040 one R, one T, the last name has two rs 0:03:52.120 --> 0:03:55.720 to two rs. To tease Garrett or is it like 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:58.800 to Garrett? Yeah, I like it. You're gonna give him that. 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:01.960 I have questions. He is an so he Garrett Garrett 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:05.680 is like an Iron Rand type figure. Like he's a 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:11.680 libertarian fiction Yes, I mean based as hell, so he writes. 0:04:12.080 --> 0:04:15.280 He writes some of the most insufferable sounding literary libertarian 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:17.320 fiction I've ever heard of. You can find all of 0:04:17.320 --> 0:04:20.520 his books today, hosted online for free by the miss Institute. 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:24.159 If you if you want to read Garrett Garrett. Uh, 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:26.680 he was big in the twenties and thirties. And if 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:28.719 the summaries I'm reading or anything to judge by like 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:31.200 it is some of the most insufferable shit ever. One 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:34.040 of his books is called Satan's Bushel. And here's how 0:04:34.080 --> 0:04:37.920 the Micis Institute describes Satan's Bushell. What is Satan's Bushell? 0:04:38.520 --> 0:04:40.520 It is the last bushel that the farmer puts on 0:04:40.560 --> 0:04:43.200 the market that breaks the price, that is, reduces it 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:45.600 to the point that wheat farming is no longer profitable. 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:48.080 The puzzle that afflicts the wheat farmers is that they 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:50.120 sell their goods when the price is low and have 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:52.680 no goods to sell when the price is high. Withholding 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:55.080 goods from the market is one answer, But why should 0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:58.039 any farmer do that? What is the answer to this problem? 0:04:58.080 --> 0:05:00.359 Working from this premise then, as implausa well as it 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:03.000 may sound, but the central figure in this book is 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:05.880 the price of wheat. It is the main source of drama. 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:09.080 The settings are the wheat expit at the Chicago Exchange 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:11.360 and the Kansas wheat fields. Yes, he wrote a book 0:05:11.400 --> 0:05:15.080 where the protagonist is the concept of wheat as a commodity. 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:20.400 I fucking love how bored Satan has to be all 0:05:20.480 --> 0:05:23.680 the time, where he's like, listen, guys, we've got nothing 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:26.240 going on today. I don't know. Let's funk with the 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:32.160 price of wheat. Yeah, there's no more relatable protagonist the 0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:36.760 price of wheat. The hero's journey of Wheat Wheat we 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:40.400 initially rejects the call to adventure, but then accepts it 0:05:40.440 --> 0:05:47.760 after finding a mentor, and the resolution, of course is subsidies. Yes, 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:52.720 it all works out. It's perfect. Um. It is also 0:05:52.839 --> 0:05:56.160 just weird. Of Darkness was my favorite book, very telling 0:05:56.600 --> 0:05:59.320 because Garrett. Garrett is huge. He's one of the most 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:01.880 popular off the authors that five Fields distributing. It's very 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:04.560 telling of these guys ideology that like you hear, hey, 0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:06.880 we've gotten so good at farming wheat that it's it's 0:06:06.920 --> 0:06:09.320 basically free. And instead of being like, oh good, no 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:11.599 one will ever not have bread again, the dream of 0:06:11.680 --> 0:06:15.200 human beings for thousands of years finally realized, it's oh 0:06:15.200 --> 0:06:20.560 my god, that we won't make money. It's it's it's 0:06:20.640 --> 0:06:26.919 unfortunate the way that the system works, so that a 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:29.600 lot of drama in the book hinges upon someone who's 0:06:29.600 --> 0:06:31.920 apparently poisoning all of the wheat as a favor to 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:34.240 the farmers, like poisoning the wheat to kill it so 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:36.680 that it will make wheat more valuable to help the farmers. 0:06:36.760 --> 0:06:39.880 Like this guy sounds like the name was mon Santo. 0:06:40.160 --> 0:06:42.840 This is crazy. This is the most amazing book I've 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:46.000 ever heard of predicting programming, if I understand correctly, does 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:49.440 is the person who's poisoning the wheat heroic character? I think, 0:06:49.520 --> 0:06:51.680 so I have that kind. I'm gonna be honest with you, guys. 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:54.800 I didn't read this book. Absolutely did not read this 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:58.000 fucking book. Um. I read a summary of the book 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:00.359 by the Masa's Institute, which, by the way, this is 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:04.440 y'all will enjoy this. In its biography of Garrett Garrett, 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:07.560 the Misas Institute notes that he was quote as noted 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:10.400 for his critiques of the New Deal and US involvement 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:14.760 in the Second World War. Now right, you hear that 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:21.240 m the only war for him being against is inherently suspicious. No, no, no, 0:07:21.520 --> 0:07:23.480 it's not that they're against World War two, is that 0:07:23.520 --> 0:07:27.000 they're against the concept. If you look against World War two, 0:07:27.080 --> 0:07:29.880 I had better see a Quaker somewhere in your biography 0:07:30.000 --> 0:07:33.680 or I am making some dire assumptions. You know, the 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:41.400 Mesa Institute is the insufferable fox that run across Like 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:43.960 they they've come up in some of our stuff before. 0:07:43.960 --> 0:07:47.280 And yeah, one of the things I note, uh in particular, 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:50.680 is like they're like they have a long argument on 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:53.320 their website about why you don't have a positive obligation 0:07:53.440 --> 0:07:56.880 to feed your children. Like they're good ship. That's the 0:07:56.960 --> 0:08:00.240 good ship. That's the libertarian stuff I love. Right, they're 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:04.160 fucking when you've got like Fred Coke arguing about the 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:06.200 fact that people should be able to sell themselves into 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:10.680 slavery and fucking yes, that's the good ship. If you can't, 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:15.040 then do you really own yourselves? Yeah, it's really funny too, 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:18.880 Like it's it's shameful that you've got something as batshit 0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:22.080 wacko as that is, like slavery is good because otherwise 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:24.680 you don't own yourself. And this guy decides to write 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:27.640 a book about fucking wheat prices, like, come on, man, 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:31.320 there's so many cooler places to take this. I mean, 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:36.240 what's trading places about? But orange prices? It's the same. No, No, 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:39.360 it's the main character, right, I feel like I also 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:42.319 there was a gorilla that's not Is this wheat book 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:45.640 available on tape? I don't know about that, but it 0:08:45.760 --> 0:08:49.720 is in public domain. Dan, you could do a free 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:57.040 audio book of the week Satan's Bookshel oh Man. That 0:08:57.160 --> 0:08:59.880 is an MST three K movie waiting to happen. I 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:01.440 had to note we're going on a bit of a 0:09:01.440 --> 0:09:03.480 tangent with Garrett Garrett, but it is important to get 0:09:03.480 --> 0:09:06.200 some some some texture as to like the kind of 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:09.560 material that Spiritual Mobilization is putting out. And when I 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:12.000 saw that Garrett Garrett had been an opponent of us, 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:13.960 involvement in the Second World War. I did a little 0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:16.959 bit more digging and I found an article from Garrett 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:20.920 Garrett titled War has Lost its Pockets from the Saturday 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:24.360 Evening Post in nineteen forty, where Garrett argues He argues 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:26.440 a lot in this article. One of the things he 0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:28.439 says is that it wouldn't make sense for the Nazis 0:09:28.480 --> 0:09:31.319 to use forced labor because that's bad for business. Sure, 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:34.520 Nazis that wouldn't use forced labor. That's not very efficient. 0:09:34.880 --> 0:09:37.800 I'm gonna be I'm gonna be straight with you. Indisputable. Yeah, 0:09:37.840 --> 0:09:43.560 it's beautiful, nailed it. Get I've heard that same sort 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:47.120 of like tone from libertarians about slavery in America as well, 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:49.720 like that people wouldn't mistreat their slaves. That doesn't make 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:55.800 economic sense. Yeah, okay, guys. Anyways, my favorite book of 0:09:55.840 --> 0:10:00.760 the Bible is Exodus. I don't know why. So Spiritual 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:05.200 Mobilization sells this guy's books like hotcakes. Now flush with cash, 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:08.480 Fivefield decides to draw in new ministers by making the 0:10:08.520 --> 0:10:12.480 gospel of free enterprise profitable. In October of ninety seven, 0:10:12.480 --> 0:10:15.680 he holds a national sermon competition with the Perils to 0:10:15.720 --> 0:10:18.160 Freedom as a theme, and he offers five thousand dollars 0:10:18.160 --> 0:10:21.439 in prize money. More than twenty thousand ministers submit entries, 0:10:21.480 --> 0:10:24.079 which is fifteen percent of all clergymen in the nation. 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:28.480 So this is now, This isn't just I sent a 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:30.200 letter to a bunch of people. This is I have 0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:33.960 made a connection. They are engaging directly with the and 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:37.160 making propaganda of their own now, which is a really 0:10:37.200 --> 0:10:39.559 smart way to do this, right. Can I ask you 0:10:39.559 --> 0:10:43.000 a question, Yeah, has has part of that been like, 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:46.160 because because everything that we're talking about now is purely 0:10:46.200 --> 0:10:49.800 economic and currently in the present day, all of that 0:10:49.960 --> 0:10:53.920 is tied in with a real blood thirst. So in 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:57.480 this time period, was that separate? Was there still that 0:10:57.920 --> 0:11:01.119 undercurrent of like and you're to have to kill infidels 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:03.480 like that kind of thing, or yeah, that's there. I mean, 0:11:03.480 --> 0:11:05.719 these guys are very we'll talk. The Korean War comes 0:11:05.760 --> 0:11:08.719 into this a little bit um you know there there, 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:12.559 this is this immediate post war period. There's not quite 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:14.960 as much of that just because everyone's kind of tired 0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:17.280 of fighting for a little byone's already fought out, but 0:11:17.600 --> 0:11:20.600 we know several million died whatever. Once we start getting 0:11:20.600 --> 0:11:22.720 into these wars, and Korea in Vietnam. Yes, these guys 0:11:22.760 --> 0:11:25.080 get very pro killing the communists, and you know that 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:27.520 this is cool. This gives birth to the to the 0:11:27.920 --> 0:11:30.440 chunks of the conservative movement that are pro Rhodesia and 0:11:30.440 --> 0:11:35.400 all that. Yes, so Pugh and the n A M 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:38.559 are so happy with this, this thing that Fifield carries 0:11:38.559 --> 0:11:40.960 out getting all these ministers to engage with this propaganda, 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:44.440 that they double his annual budget. Pugh generally takes a 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:48.800 lead here in soliciting donations from his rich friends. He 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:50.720 he sees this as a success, and he wants to 0:11:51.040 --> 0:11:53.440 like a crack has been made in this wall of 0:11:53.600 --> 0:11:56.679 leftism in in the clergy in America, and he wants 0:11:56.720 --> 0:11:59.880 to shoot as much fucking water into that crack as possible, 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:03.400 try to expand it. Um. So he tells his fellow 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:06.800 rich guy friends it is hot that spiritual mobilization should 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:09.200 be at the top of the list for all their donations, 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:11.880 citing the polls that he paid for that showed ministers 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:14.840 as the most influential molders of public opinion. But as 0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:17.160 this experiment rolled forward, there were some on the left 0:12:17.200 --> 0:12:19.720 who could see the shape of was starting to take form. 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:22.559 I'm gonna quote now from Kevin Cruz's book One Nation 0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:27.560 Under God, How Corporate America invented Christian America. Quote. In February, 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:31.360 journalist Kerry McWilliams wrote in a cidic cover story on 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:34.400 It for the Nation, with save Christianity and the save 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:38.199 Western Capitalism chance becoming almost indistinguishable, A major battle for 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:41.319 the minds of the clergy, particularly those of the Protestant persuasion, 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:43.960 is now being waged in America, he began. For the 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:46.360 most part, the battle lines are honestly drawn and represent 0:12:46.400 --> 0:12:48.880 a sharp clash in ideologies. But now and then the 0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:51.680 reactionary side tries to fudge a bit by backing movements 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:54.600 which mask their true character and real sponsors. Such a 0:12:54.640 --> 0:12:58.280 movement as Spiritual Mobilization. McWilliams explained to his readers the 0:12:58.320 --> 0:13:00.880 scope of its operations, note that it now had nine 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:04.000 organizers working in high rent offices in New York, Chicago, 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:06.719 and Los Angeles, and had distributed hundreds of thousands of 0:13:06.760 --> 0:13:09.800 pamphlets to prob by pro business authors for free, but 0:13:09.920 --> 0:13:12.920 no one knew who was funding the operation. McWilliams warned 0:13:13.080 --> 0:13:15.640 there had only been vague statements from Fifield that non 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:17.840 ministers who have a common stake in the America and 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:21.480 Christian traditions cannot contribute service, and that it was only 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:25.360 natural that they give substance instead. And mc williams's withering account, 0:13:25.440 --> 0:13:28.600 Fifield came off as a charlatan who prostrated himself before 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:31.800 the apostles of rugged individualism to secure his own fame 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:35.200 and fortune, and in return prostituted himself for their needs. 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:38.200 So and this is how it's framed at the time 0:13:38.200 --> 0:13:39.880 because they don't have access to like the letters and 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:41.520 stuff I've been reading. They don't know that this is 0:13:41.559 --> 0:13:43.440 all funded by the n A. M. Right, that's not 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:46.360 super obvious to any to anyone writing it, but that 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:49.280 he can tell from what Fifield saying that like there 0:13:49.360 --> 0:13:52.680 is some shady business interest in spiritual pobalization, like he's 0:13:52.679 --> 0:13:55.960 speaking about it. I always love more than anything whenever 0:13:56.120 --> 0:14:00.400 people use adjectives that are thoroughly inadequate for the job 0:14:00.440 --> 0:14:04.680 of like you know, he's fudging things, like no, there's 0:14:04.720 --> 0:14:08.760 a multimillion dollar campaign behind a lie, Like this is 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:12.200 not fudging things. He's not Like, oh it's not it's 0:14:12.240 --> 0:14:15.040 not fifty dollars, it's a hundred dollars. It's this motherfucker 0:14:15.200 --> 0:14:18.319 is killing everyone. Yeah, I mean obviously at the time 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:20.920 to like McWilliams doesn't have all that data. There's only 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:23.040 so much you can say in an article without being sued. 0:14:23.040 --> 0:14:27.040 But you can see he's like he's he knows what's happening, 0:14:27.080 --> 0:14:29.000 he just doesn't have the proof of it, right, Like 0:14:29.520 --> 0:14:31.640 he's trying to like put that out as clearly as 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:38.720 he can. Something's rotten in Denmark. And yeah, this scares 0:14:38.800 --> 0:14:41.320 the hell out of the n A M right that 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:44.160 that like this guy is kind of onto them um 0:14:44.200 --> 0:14:46.880 and that he's attacking fifield is like a charlatan. So 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:49.360 they mobilize a bunch of rich guys, including the president 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:52.760 of the Republic Steel Corporation, to send out mass mailers 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:56.760 to other business owners and executives defending Fifield Um. And 0:14:56.800 --> 0:14:59.120 as a fun fact, the guy who sends out this 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:02.920 mass letter is the Charles White, the president of Republic Steel. 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:07.080 Charles White presided over the nineteen thirty seven Memorial Day 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:10.680 massacre when ten Republic Steel union workers were gunned down 0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:13.720 by policemen for striking. So that's the guy. He sends 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:15.400 out a letter to a bunch of rich guys calling 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:18.920 Fivefield one of my personal friends, to solicit donations for 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:23.040 it's literally about to say republic steel sounds like a 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:27.560 dystopian future for like the overarching And then the next 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:30.120 thing you said, murdered ten people. And I'm like, well, 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:34.680 you know what there are quote from this letter that 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:39.200 White writes defending Fivefield. Our company has supported this crusade 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:41.560 generously for some years, and we believe in it deeply, 0:15:41.680 --> 0:15:44.440 the more so since I have read this irresponsible article 0:15:44.480 --> 0:15:48.640 and see how the opposition feels about spiritual mobilization. White 0:15:48.680 --> 0:15:50.520 then went on to ask the people you'd written this 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:52.800 letter to, why don't you send a check at once? 0:15:53.120 --> 0:15:55.360 And in short order, more than a hundred thousand dollars 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:58.360 had been donated by business owners to spiritual mobilization And 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:01.760 like a couple of days, Um, it's great, Like he's 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:03.960 doing the whole. They're trying to cancel us, like the 0:16:04.040 --> 0:16:06.280 liberal media is trying to cancel us. You need to 0:16:06.280 --> 0:16:10.240 send us money very ahead of his time, you know, Trailblazer, 0:16:10.880 --> 0:16:14.040 just such a like you're getting money from people. If 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:16.520 you get a hundred thousand dollars from people, it's people 0:16:16.560 --> 0:16:19.400 who do not give us shit about money, you know, 0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:22.520 like in two days that's crazy. Yeah, and that's like 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:24.840 a millionaire. Two that's like a couple of million bucks. 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:29.440 Then yeah. So spiritual mobilization itself responded to this criticism 0:16:29.440 --> 0:16:31.680 in the nation, and that time honored tradition of smart 0:16:31.720 --> 0:16:36.040 ship heads. It got bigger and louder. It launched The 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:40.000 Freedom Story, a fifteen minute radio program presented by Fifield, 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:44.480 and here's CRUs in Politico describing this. In the original scripts, 0:16:44.480 --> 0:16:47.280 Fifield made direct attacks on democratic programs at home, but 0:16:47.320 --> 0:16:49.760 his lawyer warned him they would lose the public service 0:16:49.800 --> 0:16:52.000 designation that gave them free air time if he were 0:16:52.040 --> 0:16:56.000 two plane spoken with partisan attacks. In Stay, you're gonna 0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:58.520 go down the Mike Lindell route. You gotta stop, you 0:16:58.600 --> 0:17:00.960 gotta stop. I can see the future. You gotta become 0:17:01.000 --> 0:17:03.600 Mark with Lindell. No, that's not even what he's worried about. 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:05.879 He's finder than becoming Mike Lindell. He doesn't want him 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:10.119 to have to pay for this ad by it being right, 0:17:10.320 --> 0:17:14.480 so he advises instead that Fifield should basically, instead of 0:17:14.480 --> 0:17:17.000 don't talk about democratic policies in the US, that's not 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:18.960 allowed you you'll get you know we'll have to pay 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:21.879 for it then, But if you talk about foreign examples 0:17:21.920 --> 0:17:27.320 of the minister being socialism, then that's not political. Hey, 0:17:27.320 --> 0:17:30.919 why don't we own why don't we own Venezuela? Like, 0:17:31.119 --> 0:17:34.399 I mean honestly, like look into your heart. Okay, So 0:17:34.480 --> 0:17:37.960 anything outside the United States not politics, not politics, can't 0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:43.280 be politicize. Not exactly. We we just talked about how 0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:48.240 nonpart is in the Crusades were good times. So since 0:17:48.280 --> 0:17:51.040 fifields nambackers had lost a lot of friends in me 0:17:51.240 --> 0:17:52.919 or had a lot of friends in media, it was 0:17:53.000 --> 0:17:56.040 child's play to ensure that this freedom story got free 0:17:56.040 --> 0:17:59.520 airtime in over five hundred stations. So this this thing again, 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:02.200 and they're like, your motherfucker's could pay for this. But 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:05.399 you know, it also sounds better if it's not political, right, 0:18:05.440 --> 0:18:07.600 It doesn't sound like I'm a guy making a right 0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:10.760 wing like ad. If I'm just talking about the history 0:18:10.840 --> 0:18:13.399 and the dangers of creeping socialism to freedom in these 0:18:13.440 --> 0:18:16.560 other countries. You know, it's it's it's a smarter way 0:18:16.600 --> 0:18:18.960 to do it. Um. So this is a big hit 0:18:19.000 --> 0:18:21.639 gets out to a lot of earbuds, and five fields 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:24.800 next big move is a four day conference in nineteen fifty, 0:18:24.840 --> 0:18:27.080 with twenty five of the most popular ministers in the 0:18:27.119 --> 0:18:30.280 United States and an assortment of big business leaders, including 0:18:30.760 --> 0:18:34.560 Crane and Pew. A pair of economists, Friedrich von Hayek 0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:37.879 and Ludwig von mess were also present. Yeah, but they're great. 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:42.920 The Austrians are here. Stop y back in the fix 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:46.720 in between writing articles about how you don't have to 0:18:46.720 --> 0:18:50.159 feed your kids and how what are you doing feeding 0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:55.600 your kids? You're wasting here yet for him, he sits up, 0:18:55.680 --> 0:18:59.600 Perhaps children should starve, and rounds of applause come from 0:18:59.600 --> 0:19:03.359 the minute. Steers and business leaders in the audience. Listen, 0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:06.560 when I when I went to and took my dog 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:10.040 Jake to basic dog training, the dog trainer was very specific. 0:19:10.200 --> 0:19:12.600 She said, you have to work for your paycheck. And 0:19:12.680 --> 0:19:15.520 now it makes perfect sense to me. People are dogs, 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:18.760 is what I'm trying to say. Yeah, Um, that's that's 0:19:18.800 --> 0:19:21.040 what that's That's a big part of what's happening at 0:19:21.040 --> 0:19:25.760 this conference. So Fifield describes the goal of this like 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:30.359 Uh Symposium as to quote, defined the conflicts in this 0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:33.919 critical period of civilization and to establish freedom's answers to 0:19:33.960 --> 0:19:37.520 these problems. Tentatively, the agenda will cover such subjects as 0:19:37.560 --> 0:19:42.720 the relationship of liberty to Christianity, equality and morality, competition, incorporation, 0:19:42.840 --> 0:19:46.280 and the application of true Christian principles to present day problems. 0:19:47.280 --> 0:19:50.080 So this is a big hit. It gets the most 0:19:50.119 --> 0:19:53.199 popular preachers in the world in the country together with 0:19:53.240 --> 0:19:55.080 all of the richest people in the country and a 0:19:55.080 --> 0:19:58.280 bunch of libertarian economists, and they all start being buddies 0:19:58.320 --> 0:20:00.640 with each other, and they start like spreading their ideas around. 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:03.679 And these ministers go back to their gigantic churches and 0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:06.760 like start talking about some of the things they've encountered. Uh. 0:20:06.800 --> 0:20:10.760 Social Mobilization launches a magazine called Faith and Freedom, which 0:20:10.800 --> 0:20:12.760 was built as a place where ministers could write in 0:20:12.800 --> 0:20:15.440 and express their views freely, debating with one another over 0:20:15.480 --> 0:20:17.760 the issues of the day. But almost all of those 0:20:17.760 --> 0:20:20.640 debates where really just screeds against social welfare. Right, there's 0:20:20.640 --> 0:20:22.879 not like a left wing right wing debate. It's like 0:20:23.160 --> 0:20:28.000 how much should we stop feeding people? Rum and And 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:29.800 this is actually where we get into one of the 0:20:29.800 --> 0:20:34.080 precursors of the modern right wing. Like bugbear that Satanists 0:20:34.119 --> 0:20:36.920 are secretly behind socialism, I think this is the start 0:20:36.960 --> 0:20:39.000 of that. And I want to read a quote here. 0:20:39.480 --> 0:20:41.280 This is from one of the ministers who wrote for 0:20:41.320 --> 0:20:43.760 Faith in Freedom and an essay he did called Pagan 0:20:43.840 --> 0:20:47.320 Origin of the Social Gospel um which in which he 0:20:47.400 --> 0:20:50.879 argues that pagan influenced strands of Christianity and he includes 0:20:51.000 --> 0:20:54.480 Unitarianism here, sure had led to a quote shift in 0:20:54.560 --> 0:20:57.119 faith from God to man, from eternity to time, from 0:20:57.160 --> 0:21:00.520 the individual to the group, from individual conversion to social coercion, 0:21:00.720 --> 0:21:03.800 and from the church to the state. That like Pagan 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:07.359 origin of the Social Gospel, that like the idea of 0:21:07.400 --> 0:21:10.800 a social welfare state in anyway, um is he's not 0:21:10.840 --> 0:21:13.879 calling it Satanist, but it's it's not Christian. It's fundamentally 0:21:13.920 --> 0:21:19.440 anti Christian, is don't I think it's a transition towards Satanism. 0:21:19.640 --> 0:21:23.320 It's God, then humans, then Satan's next. Yeah, yeah, totally. 0:21:23.560 --> 0:21:26.560 You know, I I feel I feel for the for 0:21:26.600 --> 0:21:29.159 these people, right because you used to be able to 0:21:29.280 --> 0:21:31.840 just call someone a witch and people would believe you. 0:21:32.320 --> 0:21:34.520 But now you have to do this whole dog and 0:21:34.600 --> 0:21:36.919 pony show with all these lies. You have to do 0:21:36.960 --> 0:21:40.000 all this pagan ship. You can't just say people who 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:43.320 like socialism or which people, but to be fair, they 0:21:43.320 --> 0:21:45.800 did do empirical tests about whether or not people were witches. 0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:49.520 Well they were heavy, yeah yeah, or or they were 0:21:49.560 --> 0:21:53.520 able to be crushed by rocks cultures like there were things. 0:21:53.520 --> 0:21:55.320 You would feed them and if they die, they're not 0:21:55.359 --> 0:21:58.800 a witch. But if they survived, they're a witch. It 0:21:58.800 --> 0:22:01.919 works both ways. Get a job or have a giant 0:22:02.000 --> 0:22:04.320 rock tossed on you. I feel like this is very simple. 0:22:05.400 --> 0:22:08.280 So in nineteen fifty, the Republicans, you know, after this 0:22:08.359 --> 0:22:10.920 is after several years of an a M and five 0:22:10.960 --> 0:22:13.639 Field working together. In nineteen fifty the Republicans have a 0:22:13.760 --> 0:22:16.240