This week, California Governor Gavin Newsom rode sane pandemic messaging to victory against the Republican-led recall election by a huge margin. Unsurprisingly, voting patterns perfectly matched the state COVID heat map, with fans of the recall suffering the worst outbreaks. Meanwhile, a strict lockdown in Australia, which is experiencing a Delta outbreak, led to American libertarians and right-wing commentators screaming fascism! We talk to Decoding the Gurus co-host (and real-life Australian) Matthew Browne about the situation on the ground. Later in the episode, Julian interviews another Aussie, Dr. Izzy Smith, about her online anti-conspiracy theory activism and science advocacy.

In the Ticker, Derek looks at JP Sears’s new cryptocurrency grift, which appears to be inspired by fellow Austinite Mikki Willis—who also announced a supplement grift this week. Matthew talks briefly to Toronto video journalist Morgan Yew to begin making sense of the alarming convergence of racist alt-right groups with aggressive anti-mask, anti-vaccine protestors at medical facilities in Canada.

Show Notes

How the media helped fuel the anti-vaxx movement

The Non-Fungible Freedom Column

Atlantic article “Australia Traded Away Too Much Liberty”

Josh Szeps Twitter thread response to The Atlantic

Federalist article Pursuing Covid-Zero Has Turned Australia into an Authoritarian State

Opinion | Meet the police chief turned yoga instructor prodding wealthy suburbanites to civil war

Ex-La Habra police chief Alan Hostetter, 5 others charged in Jan. 6 Capitol riot

When QAnon Came to Canada

Glowing Mama Anti-Masker. Toronto Influencer Socially Toilets in… | by Matthew Remski | Medium

Morgan Yew (@weynagrom)

Morgan Yew interviewing Sarah Choujounian of Canadian Frontline Nurses

Morgan Yew: Plan to “Interview” Racist Anti-Lockdown Influencer Ends in Violence

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