June 25, 2020

5: Disease as a Metaphor (w/Maggie Levantovskaya)

1 hour 42 minutes

Conspiritualists are compelling for numerous reasons: they’re charismatic; they claim to transcend polarized politics; they claim to speak the unspeakable in a quest for hidden truths. It makes sense that a key rhetorical instrument in their toolbox is poetry.

“The real virus is fear” is a unifying metaphor for conspiritualists, but there are others. In conspiritual-ese, the immune system is like the Christian soul: eternal, perfect, and solitary. Masks are signs of submission that symbolize the suppression of free speech and even slavery. Public health departments are bureaucracies of death. Vaccines are poisons designed to demand compliance. Vaccinators are Satanic agents compelled to enter the sacred space of the body — especially the child’s body — in order to possess it.

In this episode, Derek (cancer survivor), Matthew (pulmonary embolism survivor), and Julian (Lyme disease in remission) discuss the function of the beautiful and delusional metaphors of illness and transcendence in conspiritual-ese, applying the discoveries of Susan Sontag and Eula Biss. Maggie Levantovskaya, an Adjunct Lecturer at Santa Clara University, discusses her essay, “My Disease is Not a Metaphor.”

Show Notes

“My Disease is Not a Metaphor” — Maggie Levantovskaya

“Don’t Thank Me for My Sacrifice” — Maggie Levantovskaya

Resilience and Possibility Conversation with Zach Bush MD

Mary Baker Eddy: American Religious Leader

The Science of Mind — Ernest Holmes

“The Trouble With Medicine’s Metaphors” — Dhruv Khullar

Travis View on adrenochrome

Internalised Ableism: The Tyranny Within

Ableism and internalized ableism

“Will you Go with a War-Cry or a Whimper?” — Ben Ralston

On Immunity: An Inoculation — Eula Biss