Conspirituality

Part Two: Matthew remembers the snow job of “The Sound of Music.” Also: more on Sophie Scholl, introducing the Edelweiss Pirates, the “adult gaze”, what trusting kids means, notes from Emma Goldman and Janusz Korczak, and excerpts from a poem by Aku Päiviö, father of Jules, who traveled from Northern Ontario to Spain in 1937 to volunteer in the International Brigade.

____

When fascism rises, and some young people are drawn into its orbit, because everyone from Jordan Peterson to Andrew Tate has figured out how to exploit resentment at the failures of capitalism, we have an opportunity to give our kids a lot more than moralistic calls for a return to normalcy, compliance, warnings about screen time, striving to be better students, doing more sports, and not making too much of a ruckus. 

The kind of parenting that limits itself to restoring the status quo for younger people in an age of fascism is not engaged parenting. 

It’s not enough to be a good boy or girl. Antifascism takes more than that.

Op-ed: Try again, President Kumar: Renewing calls for Tufts to adopt March 4 TCU Senate resolutions 

Death toll since Israel's aggression on Gaza on October 7 rises to 31,819 (March, 2024) 

Austerity Has Always Been a Project to Empower Capital at the Expense of Workers 

It's Not Them; It's Us: Thoughts on the Show Adolescence

Adolescence is a really well made depiction of misogyny that fails to critique it | by Mallory Moore | Mar, 2025

Netflix’s ‘Adolescence’ Taps Into the Latest Moral Panic   

Jonathan Haidt’s Claims On Kids & Tech Crumble Under Scrutiny From Top Expert, Candice Odgers | Techdirt 

UK government's own estimate says welfare cuts to push 250,000 into poverty | Reuters

Labour’s cuts to PIP will drag a quarter of a million people into absolute poverty, DWP figures show – Disability News Service

55: Games Against Humanity (w/ Thi Nguyen) — Conspirituality

207: Gaming Realities (w/Thi Nguyen) — Conspirituality  

Reminder to the media: Research video games before reporting on them 

Out of the Ruins:The Emergence of Radical Informal Learning Spaces

Anarchist Education and the Modern School: A Francisco Ferrer Reader 

The People's Republic of Neverland: The Child versus the State  

Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work

Teaching Resistance: Radicals, Revolutionaries, and Cultural Subversives in the Classroom

TRUST KIDS! Stories on Youth Autonomy and Confronting Adult Supremacy

Refusing Complicity: The Bravery of Sophie Scholl - Radical Tea Towel

Sophie Scholl and the youth resistance against the Nazis – DW – 02/22/2023

The majority of news influencers are conservative men, study finds 

An Unclaimed Country: The Austrian Image in American Film and the Sociopolitics of The Sound of Music 

The politics of The Sound of Music | Peter Levine 

Edelweiss Pirate Walter Mayer

The Edelweiss Pirates: A Story of Freedom, Love and Life

Walter Meyer describes his 1943 trial for looting, and the impact of his role in the Edelweiss Pirates on the sentence he received | Holocaust Encyclopedia

The Edelweiss Pirates

The Child and Its Enemies | The Anarchist Library —Emma Goldman

DECLARATION OF CHILDREN'S RIGHTS—Janusz Korczak 

The King of Children: A Biography of Janusz Korczak - Betty Jean Lifton

Sophie Scholl – The Final Days

Remember the Mac-Paps - rabble.ca 

The Canadians In The Spanish Civil War 

'Gentleman Jules' lived for just causes | Sudbury Star 

Poetry – Friends and Veterans

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But the parents? Meh. 

When fascism rises, and some young people are drawn into its orbit, because everyone from Jordan Peterson to Andrew Tate has figured out how to exploit resentment at the failures of capitalism, we have an opportunity to give our kids a lot more than moralistic calls for a return to normalcy, compliance, warnings about screen time, striving to be better students, doing more sports, and not making too much of a ruckus (as Marco Rubio calls it). 

The kind of parenting that limits itself to restoring the status quo for younger people in an age of fascism is not engaged parenting. 

It’s not enough to be a good boy or girl. Antifascism takes more than that.

In this Part One, Matthew previews our main feed discussion of Adolescence (coming this Thursday), parses a speech by Gareth Southgate, wonders why Jonathan Haidt knows nothing about gaming, and remembers Sophie Scholl. 

Op-ed: Try again, President Kumar: Renewing calls for Tufts to adopt March 4 TCU Senate resolutions 

Death toll since Israel's aggression on Gaza on October 7 rises to 31,819 (March, 2024) 

Austerity Has Always Been a Project to Empower Capital at the Expense of Workers 

It's Not Them; It's Us: Thoughts on the Show Adolescence

Adolescence is a really well made depiction of misogyny that fails to critique it | by Mallory Moore | Mar, 2025

Netflix’s ‘Adolescence’ Taps Into the Latest Moral Panic   

Jonathan Haidt’s Claims On Kids & Tech Crumble Under Scrutiny From Top Expert, Candice Odgers | Techdirt 

UK government's own estimate says welfare cuts to push 250,000 into poverty | Reuters

Labour’s cuts to PIP will drag a quarter of a million people into absolute poverty, DWP figures show – Disability News Service

55: Games Against Humanity (w/ Thi Nguyen) — Conspirituality

207: Gaming Realities (w/Thi Nguyen) — Conspirituality  

Reminder to the media: Research video games before reporting on them 

Out of the Ruins:The Emergence of Radical Informal Learning Spaces

Anarchist Education and the Modern School: A Francisco Ferrer Reader 

The People's Republic of Neverland: The Child versus the State  

Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work

Teaching Resistance: Radicals, Revolutionaries, and Cultural Subversives in the Classroom

TRUST KIDS! Stories on Youth Autonomy and Confronting Adult Supremacy

Refusing Complicity: The Bravery of Sophie Scholl - Radical Tea Towel

Sophie Scholl and the youth resistance against the Nazis – DW – 02/22/2023

The majority of news influencers are conservative men, study finds 

An Unclaimed Country: The Austrian Image in American Film and the Sociopolitics of The Sound of Music 

The politics of The Sound of Music | Peter Levine 

Edelweiss Pirate Walter Mayer

The Edelweiss Pirates: A Story of Freedom, Love and Life

Walter Meyer describes his 1943 trial for looting, and the impact of his role in the Edelweiss Pirates on the sentence he received | Holocaust Encyclopedia

The Edelweiss Pirates

The Child and Its Enemies | The Anarchist Library —Emma Goldman

DECLARATION OF CHILDREN'S RIGHTS—Janusz Korczak 

The King of Children: A Biography of Janusz Korczak - Betty Jean Lifton

Sophie Scholl – The Final Days

Remember the Mac-Paps - rabble.ca 

The Canadians In The Spanish Civil War 

'Gentleman Jules' lived for just causes | Sudbury Star 

Poetry – Friends and Veterans

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"If Americans want to change their government, they're going to have to get over their dictator-phobia."

That's neo-reactionary philosopher Curtis Yarvin in 2012, when he outlined a strategy that's eerily similar to how Trump and Musk are now destroying our government.  The "dark enlightenment" blogger, long a transgressive darling of the New Right, has in the last two months enjoyed a fresh round of mainstream exposure.

We look at a man who has the ear of those who are reshaping our world at breakneck speed.

Show Notes

That's Bait - by Jeff Sharlet

Kristi Noem Gets a MAGA Makeover - The New York Times

Kristi Noem’s New Teeth Are Blowing Up in Her Face | Vanity Fair

Venezuela-hired lawyers file petition in El Salvador aimed at freeing Venezuelans deported by US | AP News

Kristi Noem’s El Salvador Prison Photo Op Might Have Violated the Geneva Convention

Trump wants FEMA gone. But that could be its own kind of disaster.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem posed in front of El Salvador prisoners wearing $50k watch  

Will Stancil: "The El Salvador government is using its concentration camp as a kind of Disneyland thrill ride for right-wing influencers”

Kelly Brogan’s Divine Dungeon: Pt 1 (feat/Esme Providence Brown)

Kelly Brogan’s Divine Dungeon: Pt 2 (feat/Esme Providence Brown)  

‘All life is a service’: The Contested Erotics of Fascism from Foucault to Frost – Retrospect Journal

Cathedrals of Erotic Misery • Ill Will

Politico Yarvin Interview

Financial Times on Dark Enlightenment

TIME on Dark Enlightenment

Common Dreams on Dark Enlightenment/DOGE

NYT Podcast End of Democracy

Jennifer Kollmer, 1971-2021 — Yarvin’s obit poem, TW on the rest of the blog!

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What is an oligarchy, exactly? Is the US entering a period similar to post-Soviet Russia in the 1990s? What do Russian oligarchs have to do with proven interference in the 2016 US election? 

Julian digs into Russian history to explore parallels with modern-day America. Meet Vladislav Surkov, the architect of both Putin’s 25-year rule over what Surkov has dubbed “sovereign democracy,” and the global propaganda strategies generating our post-truth ecosystem of disinformation and conspiracies. There’s a reason why politics feels like theater these days, why democracy seems like a pipe dream. 

While MAGA has a fascism fetish, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine might be a better match for Hitler on the verge, with Trump and Co acting as macho-clown versions of Neville Chamberlain.

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Derek and Julian discuss Robert Paxton's 2004 book, The Anatomy of Fascism, in light of 2025 America.

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McGill University science communicator, Jonathan Jarry, was recently given hundreds of hours of Zoom calls between alt-med salesman, Joseph Mercola, and a supposed clairvoyant that goes by Bahlon. Jonathan joins us to discuss what he found.

Show Notes

Brad Schimel Admitted to Having "Psychologically Beat the Daylights Out" Of His 8-Year-Old Daughter - MeidasTouch News

Rallying Anti-Musk Donors, Liberal Judge Raises $24 Million in Key Court Contest - The New York Times

Here are claims about Wisconsin’s Supreme Court candidates — and the facts

Ahead of Wisconsin Supreme Court election, Elon Musk PAC offers cash for pledge - WPR

Trump backs Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate in hotly contested race - ABC News

Billionaires become a focus of the 2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court race

Brad Schimel Begins Campaigning With Anti-MLK Advocate Charlie Kirk - MeidasTouch News

Exclusive Videos Show Dr. Joe Mercola’s Dangerous Ideas Whipped up by Alleged Medium

Brief: RFK's Health Propaganda Roundtable

Terminated HHS grants

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The Wellness Company is now selling retatrutide, a weight loss drug currently undergoing stage 3 trials by Eli Lilly. An anti-vax company that uses fear-based marketing to push supplements appears to be overstepping legal lines. Yet will they be held accountable in an RFK Jr-led HHS?

Derek looks at private market healthcare propaganda from Ronald Reagan to Kennedy, showing how health is not the real goal of MAHA. But if they can sell untested products to fat and chronically ill patients along the way, all the better.

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Julian covers the recent Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference in London. Headlined by Jordan Peterson, featuring Konstantin Kisin, Ayan Hirsi Ali, Jonathan Pageau, and Eric Weinstein, the conference positioned itself as an inspiring cultural gathering focused on reclaiming Western values. 

Behind the scenes, a hedge-fund billionaire new media baron, conservative libertarian think tank, shady funding source in Dubai, and an evangelical English aristocrat use the prestige of ARC and its celebrity figureheads to popularize a very specific political, economic, and religious agenda.

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Trump administration Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, recently stated the American economy is going to need a "detox" period. And so today we look at peak the conspirituality convergences between biological and political purification projects.

Quinn Slobodian, professor of international history at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, joins Matthew in the final segment to offer his big picture view on the Kings of Pain.

Show Notes

Johns Hopkins to lose 2,000 jobs after Trump’s $800m cut in USAid funding

Young scientists see career pathways vanish as schools adapt to federal funding cuts

Report: mRNA vaccines are in RFK Jr’s crosshairs; funding in question

FDA Makes Flu Vaccine Recommendations Without Convening Advisors

HHS sends all employees a $25,000 voluntary buyout offer

Exclusive: US CDC plans study into vaccines and autism, sources say

USDA gears up for MAHA dietary guidelines update

Musk Said No One Has Died Since Aid Was Cut. That Isn’t True.

Watch CNBC's full interview with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent

Why we must teach medical students about the role of physicians during the Holocaust | AAMC

Teaching Hard Truths About Medicine and the Holocaust | Journal of Ethics | American Medical Association

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Click here to hear the full episode on Patreon.

Second of Matthew’s two-part examination of why the hell questions of force, non-violent resistance with and without force, unarmed violence and property damage, and armed violence are so incredibly hard to talk about in a culture thick with spiritual and political bypassing. Are we capable of understanding the difference between morality and strategy?

Part 1 focused on philosophy and psychology while today the focus will be on definitions and tactics. Together, both parts will push back on conspiracism about the identities, motives, and methods  of antifascists. Both will present slices of the rich discourse on violence and non-violence from antifascist history, including clarifying definitions of key terms. Both will open a space to think carefully about what intensities of self and community defense are both useful and tolerable in the fight against fascism. 

Today we’ll get into the very thick weeds of how the “strategic nonviolence” research of Gene Sharp, Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan is framed as empirical, but may be way more about idealizing Gandhi than about facts on the ground.

Huge list of references for each!

Stopping the Press: The Threats to the Media Posed by the Second Trump Term | The New Yorker

What the FBI Has Done, and Kash Patel Could Do - Columbia Journalism Review 

Hakeem Jeffries cracks down on Trump speech disruptions 

Neo-Nazi Richard Spencer Got Punched—You Can Thank the Black Bloc | The Nation 

Aamer Rahman: Is it really ok to punch nazis? 

$16.5M settlement reached in class-action lawsuit over mass arrests during 2010 G20 summit | CBC News 

Meditations at the ringed fence around G20 Toronto - rabble.ca 

Remaining Human: A Buddhist Perspective on Occupy Wall Street - Michael Stone 

Brief: The Outside Agitator Conspiracy Trope (w/Dr. Peniel Joseph) — Conspirituality 

Anti-fascists linked to zero murders in the US in 25 years | Donald Trump | The Guardian 

40 Ways to Fight Fascists: Sunshine 

rules for radicals | saul d. alinsky 

198 METHODS OF NONVIOLENT ACTION | — Gene Sharp

She Interrupted a Town-Hall Meeting and Was Dragged Out by Private Security - The New York Times 

Martin Luther King Jr. had a much more radical message than a dream of racial brotherhood 

The Enigma of Frantz Fanon | The Nation

Frantz Fanon and the struggle against colonisation | MR Online

Frantz Fanon and the Paradox of Anticolonial Violence – Solidarity

Frantz Fanon—a vital defence of violence by the oppressed - Socialist Worker

Land and Freedom (1995 Ken Loach) [ENG Sub] (starting at the collectivization debate scene) 

Full Spectrum Resistance — McBay 

The Failure of Nonviolence | The Anarchist Library 

Beyond Violence and Nonviolence | ROAR Magazine 

Debunking the myths around nonviolent resistance | ROAR Magazine 

Social movements and the (mis)use of research: Extinction Rebellion and the 3.5% rule 

Responding to Domestic Terrorism: A Crisis of Legitimacy - Harvard Law Review 

Domestic Terrorism: Definitions, Terminology, and Methodology — FBI 

676 | United States Sentencing Commission

Activists use 'Tesla Takedown' protests to fight job cuts by Musk and Trump | Reuters

Tesla vehicles destroyed, vandalized since Musk began role at White House, authorities say - ABC News

Anti-DOGE protests at Tesla stores target Elon Musk's bottom line | AP News

Tyre Extinguishers: A Night Out with the Climate Activists Sabotaging SUVs

Leaflet | Tyre Extinguishers 

Tesla Stocks Tumble as Elon Musk’s Political Role Grows More Divisive - The New York Times

Internal Memos: Senior USAID Leaders Warned Trump Appointees of Hundreds of Thousands of Deaths From Closing Agency 

Beyond Violence and Nonviolence | ROAR Magazine 

Violence Will Only Hurt the Trump Resistance | The New Republic 

Why Not Riot? Interview with Author Ben Case - CounterPunch.org

10 Lessons on Filmmaking from Director Ken Loach

BBC Taster - How to Make a Ken Loach Film

Land and Freedom (1995 Ken Loach) [ENG Sub]

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