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On 6 November 2025, officials from Spring Education Group announced that in May 2026, at the conclusion of the school year, Stratford School will close its Richmond District Campus located at 645 14th Avenue in San Francisco, California, which hitherto has served as a private preschool and elementary school with a Mandarin immersion program.

Although a statement on the school’s web page doesn't disclose a specific cause for the closure, there is speculation that San Francisco's declining birth rate along with the exodus of new families from the city due to housing scarcity, overall cost of living and concerns about quality of life amid San Francisco's high crime and homelessness rates has precipitated a drop in enrollment at the Stratford School’s 14th Avenue campus.

Founded in the back of a church in Danville, California in 1999 by early childhood educator Sherry Adams, Stratford School is now a chain of more than 30 campuses across California, offering preschool through high school education with over 9,000 students enrolled. Since 2017, Stratford School has been owned by Primavera Capital Group, a private equity fund founded in China with offices in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, and Palo Alto. Spring Educational Group, a subsidiary of Primavera, owns more private schools than any company, diocese, congregation or individual, with 240 facilities across 19 states, including Montessori nurseries and K-12 facilities in California, STEM-focused elementary schools in Texas, and eight elite BASIS academies in Washington DC, New York and elsewhere.

According to an exposé by David Rose published on Unherd.com, Primavera Capital’s founder and chairman, Fred Hu, is an ardent Chinese nationalist with strong financial and political ties to the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party, earning him the nickname “Red Fred.”

As David Rose researched his exposé, he stumbled upon a letter issued in 2019 from China’s Ministry of Education disclosing that 45 Chinese embassies under instructions from President Xi Jinping had conducted “systematic research” on how to set up and run schools abroad to disseminate “excellent Chinese culture” and indoctrinate the children of Chinese expatriates.

Historically, when a private equity firm buys a company, it takes a view to maximize profits and returns for investors, usually within three to seven years. As the ultimate goal is to eventually sell the company at a higher price or extract value, this often causes the acquired company to suffer financial distress that easily becomes unsustainable, often resulting in the business being shuttered. In the event that this happens with a trucking company, a turkey farm or an appliance store, consumers end up inconvenienced. However, when an educational facility ends up fiscally squeezed out of existence amid a takeover by an equity firm, the consequences go far beyond mere inconvenience. For example, studies have shown that pupils that experience school closures during their K-12 career have lower test scores along with worse attendance and behavior in the short term and later in life may struggle to finish college and experience difficulties in the job market.

In the immediate aftermath of the announcement, which was delivered without warning, angry parents, led by Hilary Ong, began circulating a petition to keep the Inner Richmond campus open. In addition to expressing “disappointment, anger and loss of trust” and lamenting “lack of transparency and accountability,” the petition points out that many of the parents who enrolled their children at Stratford School's 14th Avenue campus have purchased homes nearby, endured long commutes and spent an average of approximately $28,000 per year per student on tuition. The petition also requests that representatives from the Spring School, a subsidiary of Primavera Capital, to meet with students and parents to discuss reasons for the closure, brainstorm alternatives and consider viable transition plans for students and staff along with continuing the Mandarin immersion program. In spite of the bad feelings expressed, the petition optimistically states, “...we believe it is not too late for Stratford to demonstrate integrity and leadership by engaging with families and finding a solution together.”

As of this writing, the petition has accumulated over 500 signatures.

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James Conrad writes for BrokeAssStuart.com and plays guitar in Remedy Feelin'. He lives in San Francisco.

On 2 September 2025, StatNews.com reported that biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences, currently the largest maker of HIV medicines, plans to boost prices significantly for several treatments that are widely distributed by state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAP) to about 110,000 low-income HIV and AIDS patients unable to afford comprehensive and sufficient health care coverage.

This decision will inevitably compound financial worries faced by these programs as a result of federal funding cuts made by the Trump regime, particularly plans to lay off 10,000 employees at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In turn, the federal funding cuts made to programs like Medicaid may force states to cut their health care budgets. Even more alarming, reductions in federal funding for HIV prevention programs could precipitate a rise in new cases of HIV and AIDS, which would further strain the resources of AIDS Drug Assistance Programs.

Mike Weir, legislative and policy affairs director at the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors, stated in an email sent to HIV community programs nationwide, ADAPs “stand at a critical precipice,” citing “unsustainable” costs for prescription medicines. In this email, he also stressed that it was “essential” that ADAPs be granted the best possible discounts from manufacturers in order to serve the most patients without resorting to cost-cutting, as list prices for crucial HIV medicines invariably exceed $50,000 per year.

“Alarmingly, several ADAPs are already beginning to plan for dire cost-containment measures, including wait-lists,” advised Weir in the email.

Carl Schmid, the executive director of the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to improved health care access for low-income patients, states, “More people are coming off marketplace plans and Medicaid, so there is more pressure being placed on ADAPs. We’re worried about the future because of the cuts and ADAPs are the payer of last resort.”

According to Tim Horn, head of the medication access program at NASTAD, approximately 90% of ADAP spending on prescription drugs is for HIV medications. In 2023, that amounted to $972 million before rebates. Weir also noted that 60 percent of the HIV drugs purchased by ADAPs, such as Biktarvy, Genvoya, Descovy, and Odefsey, are manufactured by Gilead.

Established in 1987, the ADAPs are funded by the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, a federal initiative that provides essential medical care and support services for under-insured and uninsured AIDS patients. Unfortunately, the federal monies allocated to ADAPs has plateaued at just over $900 million since fiscal year 2014 while the purchasing power of US currency has continued to diminish with inflation since that time.

Considering that, Tim Horn predicts that there will be a “...cascade of consequences. This could mean that ADAP budgets need to increase, which requires retaining more rebates [to provide services] and potentially requiring the states to take more Ryan White funds to give to the ADAPs in order to make the ADAPs whole,” he explained. “In other words, financial stress gets passed around.”

Horn also notes that for the time being, Gilead has requested recent utilization data from ADAPs to better understand how their budgets will be impacted in the event of price hikes on HIV drugs and that Gilead last raised prices in the mid-single digits in 2023 after freezing prices for several years.

“We had a very productive meeting [with Gilead], but none of us have a crystal ball about specific implications [government] health care reforms will have ADAPs face dire uncertainties over the next couple of years. Even a 10% price increase would be seriously detrimental. … And their proposal is out of lock step with the rate of inflation.”

The next meeting between NASTAD and Gilead is scheduled to take place in October.

Jacquelyn Clymore, the HIV/STI/hepatitis director in the Communicable Disease Branch of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the state ADAP, states, “We want the manufacturers to understand how much we appreciate what they do. But any increase would be a concern. ADAPs have finite resources. There has not been an increase in funding for a long time.”

Perhaps Gilead’s willingness to negotiate with NASTAD has come as a result of negative publicity the company has experienced on account of its greedy business practices. For example, in July 2023, the New York Times reported that internal documents at Gilead Sciences, Inc. revealed that the company decided to delay the release of an updated
Tenofovir formula that was potentially less toxic to patients’ kidneys and bones than the previous formula to prolong its patent protections specifically in order to maintain a monopoly on the market, prevent competitors from producing less expensive alternatives, and keep the prices for its Tenofovir-based drugs at a premium.

More recently, in April 2025, the United States Department of Justice reached a $202 million settlement with Gilead after the company was found to have violated the Anti-Kickback Statute and the False Claims Act by giving health care practitioners money and all-expenses-paid travel to attend and speak at events that were often little more than social gatherings, with little or no educational content on display.

Raising prices on medications may seem to be a small thing. Many Americans have come to regard rising inflation as normal and predictable and indeed unavoidable, especially where drug prices are concerned. However, this particular change is a significant one and should not escape attention. The price hike in question is above the rate of inflation, and if it does take effect, it would cripple a program patients rely on in order to survive. Affected patients, their families, and friends should pay close attention.

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James Conrad writes for BrokeAssStuart.com and plays guitar in Remedy Feelin'. He lives in San Francisco.

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In the 1970s, rock and roll was still very much a man's world. However, that didn't deter Fanny from making their mark. Though they unfortunately had to navigate the sexism endemic to the music business and disappointing album sales, numerous peers and contemporaries had no choice but to recognize them as a musical force to be reckoned with. David Bowie, who was once in a relationship with bassist Jean Millington, said, “They were one of the finest fucking rock bands of their time, in about 1973. They were extraordinary: They wrote everything, they played like motherfuckers, they were just colossal and wonderful…They’re as important as anybody else who’s ever been, ever.”

Fanny’s story begins in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, where June Elizabeth Millington was born on 14 April 1948, the oldest of seven chidren. Her sister Jean Yolanda arrived a little more than a year later, on 25 May 1949. As a child, June began learning to play piano and ukulele.

In 1961 the Millington family moved to Sacramento, California. Although the family experienced racism, June and Jean began writing songs together and performed them on their ukuleles, which earned them the respect of their peers.

"We played at the junior high school variety show," June remarked in a 2011 interview. "Kids started coming up to us and telling us they liked it. So it dawned on us this was a way to make friends.”

As the influence of Motown Records and the Beatles loomed large in the 1960s, the Millington sisters went electric. In high school, they formed a band called the Svelts, with June playing guitar and Jean taking up bass.

By 1968, the Millington sisters were invited to join an all-female band called Wild Honey, which included drummer Alice de Buhr, a native of Mason City, Iowa, who had previously played with them in the Svelts. The following year, they signed a contract with Reprise Records, a Warner Brothers subsidiary. Before long, a definitive lineup was established, consisting of June Millington on guitar, Jean Millington on bass, keyboardist Nicole “Nickey” Barclay and Alice de Buhr. By the beginning of 1970, the women unanimously decided to rename the band Fanny.

“We really didn’t think of [the name Fanny] as a butt, a sexual term,” June noted. “We felt it was like a woman’s spirit watching over us.”

Their first self-titled album almost sounds like two different bands. The Millington sisters’ compositions are very much informed by the influence of the Beatles and Motown, but their technical skills come to the fore in particular on their cover of Cream’s “Badge”. On the other hand, while Nickey Barclay’s songs are also soulful, they have a harder edge.

This heavier sound gave focus to the second album, Charity Ball, whose title track hit the very bottom of the U.S. Top 40. The album also included a dramatic arrangement of the Stephen Stills song “Special Care,” which bested the original recording. Though this direction would be pursued further on the following album, Fanny Hill, the Millington sisters stayed true to their roots by including covers of “Hey Bulldog” by the Beatles and “Ain't That Peculiar” by Marvin Gaye.

During this time, the band appeared on television programs like The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, The Old Grey Whistle Test, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, The David Frost Show, The Dick Cavett Show and Beat Club. They shared stages with acts like Chicago, Steppenwolf, Ike and Tina Turner, Slade, and Humble Pie.

Unfortunately, not all was well. The music press did not take them seriously just because they were women, despite the fact that all four members had been studying their respective instruments since childhood.

When the band played the Speakeasy in London, Michael Watts, reviewing the gig for Melody Maker, assumed they were pantomiming to a pre-recorded backing track and insinuated that “Fanny…will make a great impact by exploiting their sex.”

By 1973, the band's management demanded that they play gigs wearing more provocative feminine attire, a decision the band hated, as it further objectified them.

“This was [during] the tour for [the album] Mother's Pride,” Alice de Buhr related in an email. “They’d avoided using our looks and sex for the first three albums, and thought, ‘Why not use their sexiness? Nothing else has worked.’”

Complicating matters even more, June Millington and Alice de Buhr were both lesbians in an era where intolerance was commonplace – shortly after realizing she was gay, de Buhr was committed to a psychiatric hospital for two weeks. “I was always dating boys, no problem,” said Alice de Buhr in an interview for the Women of Rock Oral History Project. “But I figured it out [that I was gay] and I felt filthy. I felt perverted, and in a small town, that was…real difficult.”

“I didn’t hide it; everybody knew,” said June in an interview with Geoff Barton for Classic Rock Magazine. “The record company just said not to talk about it.”

In the end, the pressure of it all became overwhelming. In 1973 after the album Mother's Pride, June Millington and Alice de Buhr both quit the band. With guitarist Patti Quatro and drummer Brie Howard, Fanny released one more album, Rock and Roll Survivors, scored a Top 40 hit with the song “Butter Boy,” then folded.

After the split, the Millington sisters remained active in the music business, but kept a lower profile. Jean sang backing vocals for David Bowie, appearing on the hit song “Fame.” June found steady work as a producer and released a few solo albums in the 1980s. In 1986, she and her partner Ann Hackler founded the Institute for the Musical Arts, an all-girls music school that also offers support for women in the music business.

As for Alice de Buhr, she transitioned to the business side of music, working as the local marketing director at A&M Records. In the 1980s, she founded Inner Visions Group, a company that distributed special interest videos to libraries and retail outlets.

In the early 2000s, interest in Fanny was renewed when Rhino Records released a box set collecting their first four albums. In 2016, the Millington sisters joined Brie Howard, forming the band Fanny Walked The Earth. Although Jean suffered a stroke and June was diagnosed with breast cancer, the band persevered, releasing a self-titled album in 2018.

In 2021, the documentary Fanny: The Right To Rock was released. In 2023, the Millington sisters, along with Brie, Patti, Alice, and Jean's son filling in on bass, did a brief tour in support of the documentary airing nationally on PBS.

In the film, June declares, “We broke through that barrier, and it wasn't through talking. We just fucking did it.”

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James Conrad writes for BrokeAssStuart.com and plays guitar in Remedy Feelin'. He lives in San Francisco.

On 29 April 2025, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York issued a press release declaring that the United States Department of Justice has reached a $202 million settlement with Gilead Sciences, a pharmaceutical company known for manufacturing antiretroviral drugs often used to treat HIV and AIDS. The settlement was approved by U.S. District Judge Paul A. Englemayer.

Gilead was the defendant in a civil fraud lawsuit in which the DOJ, citing the Anti-Kickback Statute and the False Claims Act, asserted that Gilead gave health care practitioners money and all-expenses-paid travel to attend and speak at events that were often little more than social gatherings, with little or no educational content on display. In return, the health care professionals would prescribe drugs manufactured and sold by Gilead, such as Stribild®, Genvoya®, Complera®, Odefsey®, Descovy®, and Biktarvy®, all of which contain tenofovir and emtricitabine. 

Recently, critics of a California pharmaceutical and insurance law, California Senate Bill 159, passed in 2019, pointed to that law as creating a regulatory framework that could easily preference Descovy over Gilead’s prior PrEP medication, Truvada, where there was no clinical rationale for choosing one drug over the other. Truvada is now available as a generic, whereas Descovy is not. Therefore, the latter carries a much bigger price tag for patients, employers and taxpayers. The two drugs are considered equally effective for most patients despite the pricing differential. 

Previously, critics of Gilead’s practices with regard to antiretroviral drugs used to treat HIV and AIDS called the company out for gaming the patent system to keep Truvada under patent, and as expensive as possible for as long as possible. In July 2023, the New York Times reported that Gilead had decided to delay the release of an updated tenofovir formula that was potentially less toxic to certain patients’ kidneys and bones than the previous formula. The company's decision was made specifically to prolong its patent protections, maintain a monopoly on the antiretroviral drug market, prevent competitors from producing less expensive alternatives, and keep the prices for its tenofovir-based drugs at a premium. 

In sum, the activities at the core of the case settled last month do not represent the first time Gilead’s greedy and opportunistic way of doing business has gotten the company into trouble.

The claim regarding kickbacks and swanky travel was first filed in August 2016 by Paul Bellman, M.D., an HIV/AIDS specialist practicing in New York City. Shortly afterward, the U.S. Attorney's Office joined the suit.

First enacted in 1972, the Anti-Kickback Statute forbids pharmaceutical companies from offering doctors and other healthcare providers financial incentives to use the company’s products or services, for which payment may be made under Medicare, Medicaid, or other federally funded healthcare programs. Violating this law carries penalties including up to ten years in jail and fines up to $100,000 per count.

The False Claims Act, dating from 1863, provides the government with a means of pursuing litigation against persons and companies that defraud government programs.

Under the terms of the settlement, Gilead Sciences was ordered to pay a total of $202 million. The lion’s share of this sum – just under $177 million – will go to the U.S. government and the rest will be paid to several states in which Gilead held its events, including New York, Florida, Louisiana and Hawaii.

Gilead also admitted that from January 2011 to November 2017, it had paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to high-volume prescribers of HIV drugs to be speakers at its HIV Dinner Programs, which were often held at swanky restaurants ill-suited for educational presentations, much less those about AIDS; and that over 250 practitioners who were prescribing Gilead's drugs attended the HIV Dinner Programs on the same topic three times or more within a six-month period. The speaker programs also precipitated the submission of numerous deceptive claims to federal health care programs paid by Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, and the AIDS Drug Assistance Program.

A statement from Gilead following the settlement mentioned that the corporation agreed to the terms to “avoid the cost and distraction of potential litigation regarding this legacy compliance matter.” The statement also reads, “Gilead’s HIV speaker programs have served to educate healthcare professionals about the appropriate use and benefits of these important medicines. These efforts are important for healthcare providers and patients to have the necessary information to make the best decisions for their care. Gilead’s therapies have transformed the treatment paradigm for HIV, and Gilead will continue to drive innovation to meet patients’ needs.”

Obviously, the DOJ has a different opinion, along with the receipts to back it up.

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During this video with No Show Nora last summer, grifter Jamie Mustard said he’d speak with anyone from the PTS Discord (I believe it was then called SPTV Discord?) or Reddit about the claims he was making regarding a PTSD treatment he was pushing on vulnerable former cult members who have symptoms of PTSD. The treatment in question is called Dual Sympathetic Reset. Here’s an article by neurologist Steven Novella on the Science Based Medicine blog about the treatment.

Many people who have questions about the treatment and the claims Mustard makes about said treatment reached out to Jamie Mustard regarding a potential interview. I did and I know of at least 3 other podcasters and youtubers who reached out to Mustard. He refused to show up on any of our shows and has largely stopped taking interviews in the anti-scientology scene since tucking his tail and running from those of us who might ask difficult questions about this treatment and, more importantly, his own financial interest in getting as many people as possible to pay thousands of dollars several times (possibly yearly?) for a treatment that is, at best, potentially helpful in a very limited way for a some people some of the time.

But me being, well, me… I also noticed something interesting in our DM exchange. Jamie Mustard is stupid. Mind expandingly stupid. I have had conversations with a lot of quacks, grifters, and internet ghouls over the years but none of them are as fucking stupid as Jamie Mustard. None of the chemtrails people, none f the flat earthers. Not even the people who drink their own urine for “health reasons”. Jamie Mustard is the dumbest motherfucker I have ever tried to have a discussion with.

It is generally unethical to release DMs. But upon finding out, just today, that Jamie Mustard is still working behind the scenes with some of the SPTV creators to rope some of their viewers into paying thousands of dollars several times for this unproven treatment, I looked through the messages to make sure there was no sensitive personal info in the exchange, and I am publishing these messages. First I want everyone to see this guy basically run away when he figured out that I have looked into the matter to the extent that I can as a non expert and didn’t really find evidence for the claims he’s making. But also, I want everyone to see how FUCKING STUPID this guy is.

So here’s the exchange for Download in HTML format. I know it’s annoying that it’s all in reverse order, but that’s how Instagram exports this stuff.

Below are some screen shots of just the beginning of the discussion. It’s amazing.

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No this is not a joke.
Mr. Smith-Levin, you screwed this whole thing up, didn’t you?

How many of the board members on your website are even still on the board?

Since I last wrote about what’s going on in the anti-scientology community, things have only gotten worse. And really, we all know why. At the head of this charity (or whatever it is) sits a man who, at every turn, has made every possible bad decision and pissed off almost everyone he once called a friend and/or a colleague. This includes people who used to act like they were tasked with guarding the man’s reputation by Xenu himself like No Show Nora. Was Nora ever on the board of SPTV? I don’t know, this shit is too hard to keep track of. It also includes dude’s now ex girlfriend, though it appears she is still listed as a board member on the website. I wonder if Aaron pissed off whoever does the website. Probably. Mike Brown is listed as the secretary, is he writing down any of what’s happening? Is he still the secretary? Is Natalie Webster still the treasurer? Hell, maybe she ran off with all the money like that one lady from Honey Badger Radio did. Just about the only person who I know Aaron hasn’t pissed off in all this is that PTSD grifter Jamie Mustard. And that’s simply because Jamie Mustard is too fucking stupid to understand any of this. Believe me I know, I tried to negotiate an appearance on my show via Instagram DM with that guy… and boy howdy.

Regardless of all that, Aaron Smith-Levin needs to step down. I know he started it and the foundation is mostly about him and his ego. He was sad when he was removed from The Aftermath Foundation for, among other things, going on The Rick Wiles White Power Hour, getting in multiple fights at local Clearwater watering holes, one of which while he was collecting signatures for his run for city council, and of course, the straw that broke the intergalactic camel’s back, the incident(s?) in Los Angeles during the second Danny Masterson trial. But since then, it’s not like the dude decided to do some soul searching and try to moderate and temper his behavior. He’s been all YOLO (do people still say that?) and gotten himself assaulted (again) on Hollywood Blvd after harassing some old guy and his dog… THEN insisting that he and the other guy be arrested instead of accepting the cops’ offer to just let them both go about their business and leave each other alone. And of course there was the box incident. It wasn’t as serious, but it sure was funny as shit watching Aaron throw an Amazon package at a rent a cop on Scientology property.

For the love of whatever it is you worship, man… okay that’s probably yourself… but in any case, here’s another screen shot from your website which I’ve annotated, using a red arrow.

Do that one, Aaron. Do that one.

If you’re wondering who could ever replace you on this board, assuming it doesn’t just implode, I’ve put together a handy list of people who I think would be suitable to replace you.

Tommy Davis
Oh No Nora
Tom Cruise
Ted Cruz
Andy Nolch
Tampa Brad
Grant Cardone
Pearl Snappy
Jamie Mustard
Inco G. Nito
Jamie DeWolf
Karen De La Carrier
Andrew Gold
Rick Wiles
Sky Daily
Dodge Landesman
Jenna Miscavige
Charlie Wakley
Steven Mango
The Angry Gay Pope

But if I am being honest here, my real choice would be Marty Rathbun. Sure Marty has his problems and a lot of people think he did some work for Scientology after he supposedly left. But he did the smartest thing I saw any of the former cult members who were being harassed do. He fucked off to a cabin in the woods and stopped talking to all of you maniacs.

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Not everyone is a character like MadisonStar Moon, Hamburglar Dan Bidondi, and Betty Washam…
But Oh No Nora sure is. So we present to you the Oh No Nora Incognito Soundboard.
Use the buttons below, or if you want the files, here they are!

This is a huge honor, congrats Nora!

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Many argue that Scientology is a dying cult. Due to its harsh decline in membership and the scandals made public in recent exposes like Leah Remini’s Aftermath Series and the trial of Danny Masterson, it no longer appears to be a powerful organization. Their success came from its list of powerful celebrities like Tom Cruise and John Travolta, as well as rich donors like Grant Cardone, and Bob Duggan. This powerful core of public Scientologists as well as indentured workers in its Sea Org is growing older, and with recruiting at an all-time low, it would be hard to argue that the cult is not in decline. Today the organization exists primarily as a real estate empire propped up by a few rich folk thanks to the aforementioned exposés, but also activism by groups like Anonymous and the Project Chanology protests of the late 00s. Scientology’s dwindling membership, currently estimated at 30,000 members worldwide or less, is now eclipsed by the anti-scientology movement. While it’s hard to gauge how many are actively organized in resistance to the cult, r/scientology alone, the biggest anti-scientology forum on Reddit, has nearly 40,000 members.

At this point it’s probably good to give a little bit of background on the reason for the unfolding chaos. I’ve gone over this in an article published 1 year ago to the day, and then again on a live stream, which I encourage the readers to check out. Here are the broad strokes of my analysis: Aaron Smith-Levin had no business running a charity. In late summer 2021, after drinking for nearly five hours at a popular bar in Clearwater Florida, Smith-Levin repeatedly used gendered slurs to refer to a woman whom he recognized at the bar. He was overheard discussing her in reference to the “Hot-Crazy Scale.” This wasn’t the first time he harassed her. He had previously sent unwanted Facebook messages to her. Here’s the bodycam video of him talking to the Clearwater PD. He ended up being beaten up by her boyfriend at the time. Smith-Levin said that his behavior was due to stress from having left the cult 7 years prior.

Then, just a couple months later he went on the Rick Wiles White Power Hour to discuss the cult and his run for office, pleading ignorance about Wiles after the fact. This, in conjunction with his association with Alex Stein, led me to call for The Aftermath Foundation to remove Smith-Levin from their board in March of 2023. As a result of my reporting, I was removed from nearly every anti-Scientology group on Facebook, and was unable to get responses from some of my contacts in the movement. I have been accused of working for Scientology’s counter-intelligence group the Office Of Special Affairs dozens, if not over a hundred times. Below are just three examples from my screenshots folder. They are not unlike the people who believe in “chemtrails” who suggest that anyone who isn’t buying what they’re selling must be paid by the government, a “shill”. It’s stupid. These people have lost the plot.

Subsequent to what was outlined in my call for his removal, the retrial of Danny Masterson happened. Smith-Levin was on the scene “reporting” on the trial. During the trial, Smith-Levin had one or more outbursts in the courthouse. Some believe this nearly caused a second mistrial, but obviously we cannot confirm what “almost happened”. Smith-Levin invited his fans to join him during the trial, turning the serious ordeal into a meetup. There, he met a woman who was also covering the Masterson trial and he initiated a fling. The woman alleges she was the victim of an assault by Smith-Levin in the course of their interactions. Smith-Levin denies this allegation. And of course there were allegations that this was an OSA operation. 

I tried to track down information about this incident in June 2023 when I was made aware of the allegation via an email from an anonymous tipster.

In the course of trying to investigate this, I had off-the-record discussions with former cult members and other members of the anti-Scientology community. Everyone knew about this, but nobody was saying shit about it. Along the way someone must have spilled the beans,  betraying the confidence of our discussions and giving out my contact information because I was contacted by several “people interested in the matter” who would not give me their real names or divulge who they work for, but were very interested in whether or not I had some kind of “smoking gun” evidence about the alleged assault and whether or not I had spoken with the alleged victim. I didn’t tell any of them shit, though I did try to keep them on the phone to try to suss out what they knew or to get them to accidentally give me info on their own identities. At first I thought all of these people were likely involved with the cult of Scientology, but now I have some doubts about one of them, the very last one who contacted me. I think maybe that person was contacting me on behalf of some other person or organization. Maybe on behalf of  Smith-Levin? Maybe on behalf of The Aftermath Foundation? Who knows.

As with the cult itself, the ex-Scientology community and the anti-Scientology community are white. Very white. Also the popular creators tend to be heterosexual and from an upper middle class background. This is partially a YouTube problem no doubt as that’s who tends to be popular on the platform more broadly. But this can be cause for concern in activist communities, leaving lots of blind spots. This played out with a moderator of the most popular anti-Scientology YouTube channels who went by Goldie. She was allegedly compensated for her moderation. Goldie had a Gab account that she was using to post hateful things about queer folks, people of color, and other marginalized groups. In addition, she also seems to be a flat earther. Unlike the bigoted stuff, that’s actually kind of funny. 

When alerted to this, a few of the creators who had her as a moderator removed her right away, but not everyone. As you might imagine, Aaron Smith-Levin hesitated to cut ties with the right-winger. All of the creators in “SPTV” did eventually remove her, though only a few actually said anything denouncing the hateful commentary or making fun of the flat earth stuff, which again, is kind of funny. Michelle Carpenter released a great video about Goldie, which angered some viewers who interpreted this criticism as an attack on the community.

That was kind of a lot of background info, but I think it’s important and I hope you’ve dug into some of the stuff that I’ve linked to. Now… on to November 2023.

In November 2023, The Aftermath Foundation finally removed Aaron Smith-Levin as VP and from their board of directors entirely. Fairly unceremoniously too– just his name and face as the former VP with a nice message thanking him for his work with the foundation. It was totally normal and inoffensive, and most people coming to the website would hardly take note of this. People leave projects to move on to new projects all the time, and with Smith-Levin dedicating most of his time to YouTube anyways, it would make sense that he wouldn’t have time to carry out duties as VP.

This could have been the end of this matter. This should have been the end of this matter. After all, these are professional people running a reputable charity. And this article would be pretty fuckin boring if that was the case. The title would be a lie, and you’d have just been hoodwinked. NOPE! The two videos were posted on November 20th and 22nd: the first from Aaron Smith-Levin about his removal, the second from members of the board of Aftermath who formally announced the decision. 

The chat in both were pretty wild, but you will now only see a filtered version of the chaos. Smith-Levin’s chat replay is still there, but his moderators removed a lot of chat messages, mostly those messages critical of him or speculating about the real reasons for his dismissal. Aftermath removed their chat replay, though you can still see the comments under the video. Smith-Levin’s much larger following more or less declared war on The Aftermath Foundation. Obviously neither side has any kind of military or paramilitary force, and for that we can all be very thankful. While in his “last statement” on the matter, Smith-Levin attempted to nail himself to a cross (figuratively, obviously), the board from Aftermath tried to keep things professional and opted to do a “normal live stream”. No such luck. Their chat was absolutely swarmed with vicious insults and accusations, including references to OSA.

A strange detail that came out in all this is that there was apparently no code of conduct for Aftermath Foundation prior to November 2023. Did those on the board just figure that because they were all pals, such a thing wasn’t necessary? Did everyone just assume that all the board members were going to behave ethically because that’s just how people should behave? Having a code of conduct for a charitable organization’s executives is pretty standard procedure. Upon taking a second look at the board of this charity, it’s notable that everyone’s qualifications seems to be “is a former Scientologist” with one exception: an attorney. Nobody on the board seems to have any experience in the non-profit sector prior to forming the Aftermath Foundation, though you’d think the attorney on their board, Ray Jeffrey, should have known that having a very basic code of conduct is probably a good idea, even if it’s just boilerplate text.

Fast forward to January 19th, 2024. Smith-Levin attended an ongoing protest in front of a Scientology-owned building. I immediately noticed something strange about this protest. Of the dozen or so people who were in attendance, only one person seemed not to be live-streaming this event. The crowd was younger than most of the anti-Scientology creators I am familiar with and they were all streaming the protest toTikTok and YouTube. There were no signs, there was no chanting. It was very disorganized. This was a far cry from the protests I remember during Project Chanology.

About a half hour into Smith-Levin’s video, a man with a cane and a dog walks by. “That’s the guy who used his dog as a weapon against the Squirrel Squad”, Smith-Levin narrates. Smith-Levin confronts the man. The man with the dog rather aggressively tells Smith-Levin to leave him alone. Then a physical confrontation occurs in which Smith-Levin’s phone is knocked out of his hands by the man’s cane. Smith-Levin quickly reaches for his phone, crossing the man’s path again. The man then punches Smith-Levin in the side of the head and walks off. Aaron Smith-Levin calls the police.

After talking to the protest group for a while and complaining that the police are not arriving quickly enough, Smith-Levin and the protesters proceed to follow the man around the area near the Scientology building, surrounding him on a street corner at one point. This goes on for quite some time. Now the “protest” isn’t even really happening in front of the scientology building. It’s all about Aaron Smith-Levin getting into a small tussle on Hollywood Blvd. with a man who it doesn’t appear has anything to do with the cult of Scientology.

The police arrive after some time. Surprisingly, they actually try to de-escalate the situation; not something the LAPD is known for. Their proposal is that both men go their separate ways and leave each other alone. Smith-Levin is having none of it and wants the man arrested. An officer tells Smith-Levin that if one of them is being arrested, both of them are being arrested. So both are arrested. After all, if nobody gets arrested, that’s just not good content. And the “protest” is over.

The cooking begins. Gotta link this guy to Scientology! A YouTuber named Serge posts a photo of another African-American man in a Way To Happiness shirt asking “Could this be him?”

This community is so paranoid and so desperate for anything bad that happens to anyone in the in-group to be the result of Scientology that the obvious answer in this case doesn’t even seem open for consideration. Hollywood Blvd. is a busy area with a lot of people. Conflict is bound to happen on Hollywood Blvd. It’s the kind of place where you might just get punched in the face if you fuck with people who are walking down the street. It always has been. Probably always will be. This man obviously had previous confrontations with the people attending the ongoing protest. Smith-Levin could have just left the guy alone. But you can’t turn leaving someone alone into content now, can ya? 

Over the next few weeks, there are other incidents where the protest group in Los Angeles gets into minor scuffles with random people passing by. You can find examples of this in the r/clubxenu subreddit up to the current time. It doesn’t seem that any of these altercations involve people associated with the cult of Scientology, though that doesn’t stop people from claiming that they are.

On January 29th 2024, one of the many content creators who hosted Smith-Levin to talk about his removal from The Aftermath Foundation wrote Mike Rinder an email, ostensibly on behalf of a former member of Scientology named Mirriam Francis. This email is formatted as questions from Francis, but reads more like a series of accusations that need to be answered. The accusations include claims that Rinder threatened and intimidated Francis, that Rinder was party to an OSA cover-up of sexual battery against children at Flag in Clearwater circa 1994, that Rinder was party to withholding aid resources from Aftermath as retaliation against Francis, covering up sexual abuse perpetrated against Francis from 1997 to 2004, and much more. This letter is signed “Alex The Rabbit”.

Aftermath foundation council sent this letter in response:

Mike Rinder took to his blog on February 8th to write a response to the allegations outlined in the email. He spent a good amount of the article outlining correspondence he had with Francis as well as some correspondence he had with law enforcement regarding crimes committed by Scientology. But he also spent a good amount of time talking about Scientology/OSA tactics used to discredit critics and linking them to the allegations made in the email. On that same day, Rabbit did a live stream with Mirriam Francis, also making reference to OSA tactics. Now everyone is OSA.

And of course, Aaron Smith-Levin went on YouTube Live to respond to what was said in Rinder’s blog post. At the beginning Smith-Levin accidentally tells a funny joke, claiming he likes to stay “above the fray”. In this video, Smith-Levin goes full “debate bro” and suggests that Rinder and Francis have a live discussion to hash this out. There’s a lot of rehashing of old business and personal grievances in this video that have nothing to do with the matter at hand.

I wasn’t going to include this, but it’s quite absurd and illustrative of the larger point here. On Saturday, Feb 24th, just a week before the writing of this article, there was another “protest” in downtown Los Angeles. Before meeting up with the rest of the group, Aaron Smith-Levin and two other people were walking around the area live streaming. They see a woman looking at a box she had picked up off the ground, and offer to “deliver” the box upon finding out that it’s addressed to a Scientology building. Smith-Levin  proceeds to show therecipient’s full name and mailing address on live stream upon grabbing the package. The trio then walks up onto Scientology property and approaches a security guard. The guard tells them to leave. Smith-Levin tries to hand the box to the security guard. The guard does not want to take it. Instead of just setting it down, Smith-Levin throws the box (and his own sunglasses) at the security guard. The guard then escorts them off of the property, rudely. None of this had to happen. The trio could have just looked for a door facing the street and dropped the package in front of the door where someone would see it. But that doesn’t generate conflict. This was about conflict. Conflict is content. If you check the chat replay for the live stream, you’ll see one of Smith-Levin’s fans suggesting that the woman who found the package had set them up. Everyone is OSA!

Faithful YouTube viewers might think that the last three to four months have been pure chaos, and they would be correct. But the seeds of this chaos have always been there. The problems with this community are not new. The anti-Scientology space has always been cliquey. If you ask the wrong questions, people will go after you. Famously, Steven Mango alleges that Karen De La Carriere charged him thousands of dollars for independent Scientology auditing services during a tumultuous time in his life where, in my never-humble opinion, he probably should have sought out legitimate mental health services. He was ostracized. People cut ties with him immediately. Obviously, people were speculating that Mango was working for OSA, the tried-and-true knee jerk reaction. Since then, he scarcely makes video content and isn’t involved much in the public sphere, despite his major role in My Scientology Movie (2015).

For many of the names you might know it’s as if they left Scientology but never left it behind. Karen De La Carriere, mentioned above, has been accused of continuing the practice of auditing, allegedly preying on former members as they got out. (At the same time, she appears to be on good terms with a vast chunk of ex-Scientologists.) However, she also makes donations to the same police department which she claims is in the pocket of the cult. Does she think she’s offsetting Scientology’s attempts to influence the cops with these donations? Who knows. 

Claire and Marc Headley have been doing interviews about Scientology for years and help run The Aftermath Foundation, which helps people leaving the cult. Mike Rinder has been  a whistleblower on Scientology about the cult since leaving in 2007, ending up as a co-star on Leah Remini’s show exposing the cult. Leah Remini’s only well-known TV work since leaving the cult is a show about the fucking cult. Chris Shelton obtained a Master’s Degree in Scientology, now offering consulting services for people who leave the cult.

The rift that began in November between the Aftermath Foundation and Smith-Levin’s dedicated fanbase exploded into a witch hunt, where the latter’s fans hurled accusations at the remaining board members of still being Scientologists and having a conflict of interest due to most of them being married to one another. “SPTV” creators suddenly reorganized into camps, and viewers mass-unsubscribed to Rinder, the Headleys, Amy Scobee and Mat Pesch. Smith-Levin announced that he would create a new foundation, and at the time of writing this, he’s apparently assembled ten people to comprise his new board, and boasted that none of them are married. 

Smith-Levin has not only amassed nearly a quarter million subscribers on YouTube, but he’s also been the wind behind the sails of smaller creators attempting to grow their audience. It’s rumored that he’s even purchased equipment for some creators to get started. These creators are loyal to him. So when he went on his post-Aftermath interview tour putting on the waterworks and acting like Scientology destroyed his family, this is where he went. I thought it was strange at first as there was and still is fertile ground in the manosphere and what’s left of the IDW for him to claim he was canceled for being a conservative or speak about how unfair his breakup with his wife had been. I guess my prediction a year ago that Smith-Levin would go on the “I’ve been cancelled” IDW tour was wrong.

No longer leashed by Aftermath Foundation’s non-disparagement clause regarding other ex-Scientologists who do “similar work” to the charity’s, Smith-Levin is free to criticize anyone who gets on his bad side. He has used his platform and others’ to attack creators like Chris Shelton, Mike Rinder, Tony Ortega for the umpteenth time, Claire Headley, Amy Scobee, Michelle Carpenter, and minor figures who chat in a Discord. Though to this point, not a word about Echoplex Media that we can find outside of a few commenters here and there in the live chat.

To keep things fresh and exciting, the remaining content creators have had to do whatever they can to keep the temperature high and the content fresh. If it means turning inward and turning on each other, that’s what many will do. And it’s just getting started. Stay tuned!

Big thanks to everyone who helped me copy edit this and for all the people I was able to reach out to during the process for info and to help me check the facts!

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Author Bios:

Christopher T. Conner is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Missouri. They are co-author of Electronic Dance Music: From Deviant Subculture to Culture Industry. Chris is also the editor of Extremism and Conspiracy Theories in New Times due out in Spring 2024, The Spectacle of Online Life coming Fall 2024, and a solo authored text on QAnon due out Spring 2025---each part of The Frankfurt School in New Times book series with Rowman & Littlefield. 

Fletcher Jackson is a senior undergraduate student at the University of Missouri, Columbia in Religious Studies. They are co-teaching an academic success seminar where they teach Vipassana meditation. They hope to use their research on the intersection of religion, spirituality, and positive psychology to become a hospice chaplain in the future. In the meantime, they provide one-on-one care to the dying at an end of life home, contribute to local queer activism and write poetry.

The “Kids Online Safety Act of 2022” is a bill introduced by Senator Richard Blumental May 02, 2023. Endorsed by President Joe Biden, the bill is a bi-partisan initiative to “protect” kids from harmful content online. On the surface this bill seems like a step in the right direction, but deeper analysis of the initiative and comments made by Senate Republicans call into question just exactly who this bill is meant to target, and what types of content is deemed as “harmful” to children. Many grassroots organizations note that this seems like an attempt to push members of the LGBT+ community off the internets, and thus out of public life.

HUGE! President Biden just called for senators to support legislation moving this week to protect kids online. #KOSA #COPPA pic.twitter.com/7N69AQxMAv

— Design It For Us (@DesignItForUs) July 25, 2023

Unless one has closely followed President Biden’s career, they might be unaware of Biden’s fair-weather support of LGBTQIA2+ issues. This includes his concerning 2006 statement showing a lack of support for Gay marriage, and an attempt to ban early EDM events disproportionately impacting Queer men of color. The “Kids Online Safety Act of 2022” also bares resemblance to Biden’s “Reducing America’s Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act of 2022” (RAVE), which was framed as an initiative to protect children. The effect of the RAVE act, according to scholars, was a rise in drug use and in overdoses at EDM gatherings. 

Given Biden’s lackluster stance on LGBTQIA2+ issues, it isn’t surprising to see him echo some of the inflammatory language used by conservatives using terms like “experimenting on children” to rally support for the Bill. While Biden’s use of language might be dismissed as poor word choice, republican Senator Blackburn, for example, has said the bill needs to be passed in order to protect “minor children from the Transgender [sic] in this culture and that influence.”

Democrats who have commented on the Bill focus almost exclusively on its importance in providing much needed regulation online. Republicans see the bill as an opportunity to remove LGBT+ people, and Queer friendly ideas off of the internet. While some may see this as conjecture there have already been independent reviews of the Bill, with some noting that this will not only impact LGBT+ persons. Analysts argue that because of its vagueness it has the ability to impact a wide range of other groups.

“This Kids Online Safety Act” represents an ongoing moral panic that began over the COVID-19 pandemic—which disproportionately impacted LGBT+ persons. The term moral panic was coined by British Sociologist and Criminologist Stanley Cohen in the 70s. Put simply, Coehn saw the media as playing a crucial role in for the formation of moral panics which could result in the mobilization of official resources (police, legislation, and societal stigma). Under Cohen’s model we are at an important inflection point where public officials are beginning to respond to these moral outcries which time and time again have been shown to be embedded in morality not in reality. 

The reality is that since the COVID-19 pandemic anti-LGBT crimes rose 19% in 2023, with many of these events being documented across social media over this past Summer and Fall. These included protests at Gay Pride events, banning LGBT themed books, destruction of Pride displays at Target, and online harassment and doxing by troll farms. Conservatives and far-right activists have urged their audiences and the public to engage in a range of harassments. However, Trans people  rank at the bottom of nearly every social indicator and are most at risk for being victimized.

The rhetoric being used today reflects that of the  1960s—which included government produced propaganda directed at LGBT+ people and argued that they were a social contagion that were a danger to kids. This is also the same rhetoric that was used to pass the Hayes code which prevented any  LGBT+ person from being presented in a positive light by film and television studios, the effects of which are still being fought against to this day. 

The fear from LGBT+ persons is that The Kids Online Safety Act is nothing short of a revised Hayes Code for the digital age. The irony here is that the internet has historically been a place for marginalized people to congregate however, as the internet has evolved it has become an increasingly hostile space for LGBT+ persons. The brunt of this online violence is targeted at Trans folk who are often the victims of online harassment campaigns.

The Kids Online Safety Act also puts much of the enforcement on online platforms empowering them to enact rules and guidelines to protect children. However, online platforms have their current guidelines acting against LGBT+ persons and especially Trans Women online—and existing technology being used to enforce Anti-Trans legislation being passed at the state level. 

The online platform www.twitch.tv, for example, has become a haven for LGBT+ content creators. However, terms of service regulations have resulted in unequal enforcement around the topics discussed to what trans live streamers are permitted to wear when appearing on camera. A double standard on these platforms exists for when one considers that cis-gendered women, like Amouranth or JennFoxxx, are rewarded and promoted for for their sexually suggestive content (bikini streams, talking about sex, and for other sexually explicit content)—even garnering national attention and accolades from journalists. 

One of the Trans content creators we spoke with, Polly People, was recently banned from the platform for inappropriate attire even after Twitch relaxed its guidelines. While she now uses YouTube as an alternative platform, she notes this has cost her a significant amount of income in the shift. Others I spoke with for this story suggested that these cis-gendered women, like the ones mentioned above, may receive increased placement on the site. These kind of incidents mean more than just not being able to access the platform, but also deprives them of income.

In sum, the Kids Online Safety Act reflects growing concern and pressure from the public around the future of LGBT+ rights and visibility, and also the need for government regulation of online social media sites. However, this Bill would make it easier for Trans people to be deplatformed rather than provide them with protection from the severe forms of harassment which they experience on a daily basis. If previous enforcements of terms of service are any indicator, The Kids Online Safety Act will do little to end the harassment from conservative outlets such as Libs of Tik Tok which have been shown to incite people to violence, and are even given airtime by National news outlets. 

While it’s clear that some kind of online regulation is indeed necessary, the proposed Bill seems to be a misguided attempt fueled by an ongoing moral panic around Trans people occupying public space. Sensible online regulation would curb false, misleading, or dangerous information being shared but there are so many other ways social media regulation is indeed necessary—including protections for workers in these mediums (i.e. live streamers, content moderation teams, other auxiliary support staff). For now at least, the future of the internet remains undetermined, but the Kids Online Safety Act would make the internet less safe for all of us. 

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Matt does most of the show prep and post production for our podcast How The Tech Are You, so we thought we might start posting a list of the things he found interesting on YouTube and other video sites!

Obviously last week’s HTTAY on YouTube!

Red banned! Bandcamp in trouble, Google Shields AI Users, Ubuntu 23.10 - HTTAY 65
In this episode:
- California Outlaws Common Red Food Dye
- Google to Shield AI Users from Copyright Claims
- Ubuntu 23.10 released
- Bandcamp lays off appx 50% of their employees

Why Capitalism Loves Fossil Fuels - Our Changing Climate

Our Changing Climate takes a look at the birth of industrial capitalism with the rise of fossil fuels. Why would early industrialists switch to fossil fuels with hydro power being more abundant in the early days of industrial capitalism?

We Need To Talk About "Authoritarianism" - Second Thought

Second Thought on authoritarianism, what it means and how we use the word. We can all think of countries with authoritarian regimes, but could the US be just as authoritarian?

The Cult of Productivity - How Money Works

From the description:

"You know you are a lazy person, and there are thousands of people who want to tell you exactly how to fix that. But the truth is, you are probably just fine, and falling too far into the productivity rabbit hole will just make you lazier, more stressed, and poorer than when you started."

Why Studios Are Going To Regret These Strikes - Corey Mandell

Film Courage interviews Corey Mandell in this video. Corey points out how connections made during the strike between the strikers could lead to serious problems for the major studios in the future.

The Crummy Behavior of Under-The-Radar Tech CEOs - SOME MORE NEWS

In this video from Some More News, Cody Johnston talks about all the really bad behavior of pretty much all of the CEOs of major companies.

What Disney Doesn't Want You to Know About VFX Workers - More Perfect Union

From the description:

"When George Lucas first created Star Wars, he used non-union workers to make the VFX-heavy film quickly. But decades later, visual effects workers are still non-union, leading to rampant abuse and turnover. That’s about to change."

Christopher T. Conner is Teaching Assistant Professor of Sociology at The University of Missouri, Columbia. He is co-author of Electronic Dance Music: From Deviant Subculture to Culture Industry. His work has also been teaching in a variety of outlets including YOUNG: Journal of Nordic Youth Culture, The Sociological Quarterly, Deviant Behavior, Symbolic Interaction, and Sexualities. He has also co-edited numerous anthologies including The Gayborhood: From Sexual Liberation to Cosmopolitan Spectacle.

Follow Chris on Twitter

Why did conspiracy theories explode in popularity? It all boils down to narratives.

The last three years have revealed a strange, fundamental truth about American society: we do not exist in a world where we all perceive the same reality; rather, we exist in a universe of competing beliefs about the nature of the world. And for myriad reasons — including the fundamental way that the internet shapes our reality and provides alternative “facts” to every conceivable scenario — there is no shortage of sources that bolster these competing worldviews.

Hence, we’ve seen a rise, or at least acknowledgement, of “alternative beliefs” — ranging from election outcomes, folk cures for COVID, and even fantastical beliefs about Jewish space lasers. Some blame social media as the source of the rise of extremist beliefs. But, what if those with these views, and the divisions that stem from them, always existed? What if they would have likely existed even without being supercharged by social media?

As someone who researches conspiracy theories, I’m often asked why people believe in fantastical ideas. My response is that we need to look for the underlying social conditions making beliefs in these ideas not only plausible alternatives to individuals, but widely popular. As C. Wright Mills argued in “The Sociological Imagination,” when large sectors of a society each experience social problems, it indicates not a personal failure on anyone’s part; rather, it points to underlying problems in the makeup and structure of society.

Many social scientists and journalists are quick to paint a narrative which blames social media and other new communications technologies. There’s no doubt that new technologies have sped up the rate and reach of “alternative beliefs.” But just because an idea is available for public consumption doesn’t mean that people will necessarily adopt those ideas. There is something more happening here.

One of the ways conspiracy theorists and figures pushing falsifiable narratives were able to attract adherents to their belief system is by offering compelling narratives that tapped into the fears and desires of the public. QAnon was an example of this — it effectively folded many different facets of American life into one narrative that seemed absurd to outsiders.

In that sense, QAnon was empowering. But beyond that, QAnon was successful because it had an evangelical component that encouraged individuals to recruit others to the movement. Indeed, QAnon gave its adherents the opportunity to become “digital soldiers.” Thus, everyday people became transmitters of ideas and encouraged to take those ideas and modify them using whatever they could — lyricists created QAnon music, movie producers produced video content, graphic designers created memes, and some began podcasts devoted to the QAnon movement. QAnon even became popular in unlikely spaces like yoga studios, among practitioners of alternative health therapies, and with others not fitting the popular stereotype of a far-right wing conspiracy theorist.

Attempts to debunk and debate conspiracy theorists often do not resolve divisions. This is partially because these alternative belief systems are crafted in a way that exploits the real human suffering that exists in society. A common narrative among those involved with QAnon are feelings of loneliness, suffering, concern for the future, and an overall sense that something isn’t right in the world. Conspiracy theorists offer simple solutions to social problems, while science often does not typically offer comparably compelling narratives that might thwart these ideas.

Interpretive sociology, and symbolic interactionism, offers a framework that argues for the importance of narratives and stories in making sense of our everyday lives. Narratives are powerful tools which can be used to move people to action. They were also used instrumental tools used by social movement organizers like Martin Luther King, Jr., and John F. Kennedy as part of their communicative strategy. However, narratives were also key by figures like Tucker Carlson, Donald Trump, and Adolf Hitler. While ideologically these figures are vastly different, what made them formidable public figures was their ability to offer up compelling narratives not only about the state of the world, but also to offer a vision of the way the world ought to look moving forward. They are, or were, masters of the narrative.

In a world in which individual experience is prioritized — through complex individualized algorithms, machine learning, and now artificial intelligence — there is the potential for optimism. Sociology is well poised to offer a counter-narrative which is practical, compelling, and reaches a wide swath of people. Symbolic Interactionism rose to prominence in the 1960s, amidst calls for an engaged sociology that could speak to people’s lived experiences. It is not mere coincidence that this new perspective emerged at a time of civil unrest and calls for justice, factors that mirror today’s world. Since the ‘60s, things have become increasingly complex. To reach the public we need scientists of all varieties willing to harness technological innovations and meet the people where they are at — including public-facing work not kept behind paywalls, podcasts and livestreams which are educational and entertaining, and other multi-media content that is publicly digestible.

Academia, however, often does not reward public scholarship, and when it does it certainly isn’t at the rate that it rewards academic work likely only to be read by other social scientists. To critics of public scholarship, I point to the well-oiled integrated machine of the far-right, which has made significant advances in the last decade. Academia’s aversion to public scholarship has created a vacuum that has allowed for anti-scientific, anti-democratic, and even harmful information to go unchallenged and widespread.

There is some hope though. There is a younger crop of technologically knowledgeable academics working their way to holding the keys of power. Others, like myself, have been willing to embrace all kinds of technological innovations—from working with popular news outlets, to adding sound effects to my courses. Now is an optimistic time for sociology, and perhaps what is needed is an innovative sociology. One that will teach students and the public about the social realities of others in new and compelling ways — ones that are both critical but also aimed at providing hope, agency, and optimism.

Aaron Smith-Levin is a popular anti-scientology YouTuber. He is also the Vice President and Vice Chair of the Aftermath Foundation, a group that offers support and services to former members of the cult who have left or even had to escape in a clandestine way. The Aftermath Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization, and donations are tax deductible. This is not an article about The Aftermath Foundation really though. Nobody here is suggesting that you not give them money if you choose to donate to charitable causes, either. We’ve found no reason to believe the charity does anything but good work.

This is an article about a man who ran for Clearwater City Council. A man who lost. His behavior while running for city council very likely contributed to his loss. The incident that everyone in Clearwater was talking about is pretty wild. On September 17th 2021 Smith-Levin called the Clearwater Police he was punched in the face at a cigar bar while he was out collecting signatures to get on the ballot. Aside from the fact that getting punched in the face while collecting signatures is pretty out of the ordinary, the rest of the story just doesn’t really scream “would be good as a public servant” either. The reason he was punched in the face is that he was repeatedly calling a woman at the cigar lounge a cunt according to staff at the business. This isn’t Australia, and that’s not a term of endearment here. Smith-Levin claims that he knew the woman from his time in Scientology. Smith-Levin admits to having sent her Facebook messages, apparently hitting on her, 18 months before. He told the police he had done it because “she’s super hot”. You can see some video of his interaction with Clearwater Police in this article.

The next month, October 2021, Smith-Levin REALLY stepped in it. This has not been publicized as much as the event at the cigar lounge, but it speaks to judgment and character even more in our opinion. Smith-Levin appeared on TruNews. Don’t know what TruNews is? Well you probably know who Rick Wiles is. Here’s a super cut. You probably don’t want to browse around Bitchute though, it’s a cesspool.

Yep, just straight up anti-semitism. Over and over again. Synagogue Of Satan? Yikes. Aaron claimed that he didn’t know that Rick Wiles’ content was anti-semitic and racist. This is a very tough claim to swallow. A quick google search of Rick Wiles would give anyone a pretty clear impression of who and what Rick Wiles is. Rick was far more prominent and prolific in 2021 than he is at the time we’re writing this article, too. Rick Wiles has a history of anti-LGBTQ+ propaganda and all out hatred as well… which brings us to the present.

Aaron has a history of criticizing Scientology for being anti-gay. The basic cruxt of it is that there’s a thing in the cult called the tone scale. The higher up the tone scale you go, the better you are essentially. The tone of 1:1 is “covert hostility”. L Ron Hubbard included gay and bisexual people in this category. Mike Rinder does a pretty good job explaining it here. This is all pretty well known to people with even a passing interest in Scientology. Leah Remini puts it a bit, okay a lot, more bluntly here.

Smith-Levin criticizes Scientology for being anti-LGBTQ+ in all 3 of these videos and more.

You can find this stuff all over Aaron’s channel actually. This is because Aaron really has a problem with the anti-LGBTQ+ stance of Scientology. Or at least that’s what we thought. I mean, the criticisms about Scientology here are valid. And they’re well documented. Then we saw this.

We thought maybe it was nothing, maybe he just saw that 50 cent tweeted out a video. But then we watched the video. The video was full of praise for other work that Alex Stein has done. The thing is, we have to assume that Aaron, who has made videos criticizing Scientology for being anti-gay would certainly eventually figure out that Alex Stein is a raging anti-queer bigot. You know, because after the embarrassing incident with Rick Wiles, a guy definitely does his homework.

Stein spreadig anti-LGBTQ+ hate when covering a pride event for Rebel News

Stein screeching at a drag queen story hour event in NYC

And who could forget this one, where Stein says the school is “grooming” your kids

Well, no such video or post criticizing Stein for his bigoted antics was forthcoming. Actually, if you look, Aaron did several more videos praising Alex Stein. And people had in fact told Aaron about Alex Stein’s other work, as if he didn’t know about it, which is highly doubtful. Then Aaron had Alex on for a very cordial and praiseful interview, during which, shockingly enough, Scientology’s anti-gay stance, which Aaron has pointed out over and over again in his videos in the past, simply did not come up. For, you know, whatever reason.

Just a couple guys, pallin around

Oh and we haven’t watched this yet (you may see it on The Intellectual Dollar Tree soon) but knowing what kinds of people Lex gives an uncritical platform to, we can make a fairly good  guess that’s what’s happening here. Aaron may very well be trying to break out of the anti-scientology shell, break a sort of glass ceiling so to speak. To find a much larger audience, an audience that we believe Chris Shelton tried to court. More on that another day, maybe. The galaxy brain intellectual dark web type audience. The so-called IDW is full of race and IQ weirdos, misogynists, antivaxxers, podcasters engaged in hiv/aids denial, and even a few people who literally still believe that you can measure a skull as part of the method by which you determine someone’s intelligence.

For fuck’s sake, anti-scientology community. TAKE. OUT. YOUR. TRASH. Appearing on Rick Wiles’ show. Getting beat up at a bar for repeatedly harassing some woman who he’d previously drunk texted with inappropriate shit because “she’s hot”. And then cozying up to Alex Stein after having done video after video about how bad it is that Scientology is bigoted against queer people? He’s not just some guy. He’s the vice president and vice chair of one of the most well known organizations offering help and support to former Scientologists.

Remove Aaron Smith-Levin from his leadership positions at Aftermath. And to the rest of the anti-Scientology community, you’d be best to distance yourself from Smith-Levin as well.

And on a more personal level, something I’ve been talking about on stream, on our podcasts, and occasionally here on The Defamation Times. I am pretty tired of people using my queer identity and the queer identity of others as a prop in their fuckin crusade. I have no doubt that Aaron is just another one of these assholes who is oh so happy to use the fact that someone or some group is anti-queer as a hammer against them when it suits him but then when it comes down to it, he’ll cast all that aside if it means getting access to someone like Lex Fridman or Alex Stein. After all, most of us are covertly hostile. I on the other hand am overtly hostile.

Christopher T. Conner is Teaching Assistant Professor of Sociology at The University of Missouri, Columbia. He is co-author of Electronic Dance Music: From Deviant Subculture to Culture Industry. His work has also been teaching in a variety of outlets including YOUNG: Journal of Nordic Youth Culture, The Sociological Quarterly, Deviant Behavior, Symbolic Interaction, and Sexualities. He has also co-edited numerous anthologies including The Gayborhood: From Sexual Liberation to Cosmopolitan Spectacle.

Gay and Lesbian studies researchers use the term “pinkwashing” when companies, corporations, and governments donate to LGBTQIA+ causes without addressing the problems facing those communities—including their own practices that harm those groups. The discourse over the last few weeks surrounding the recent release of Hogwarts Legacy, a video game inspired by the J.K. Rowling book series Harry Potter, illustrates the limitations of online activism and the problem of pinkwashing. 

For those unaware, J.K. Rowling has engaged in a range of anti-trans behavior, earning her the label as a trans exclusionary feminist—or the idea that women’s issues and trans issues are completely different and in order to advance equality we must focus only on cis-gendered women’s issues. 

If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction. If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased. I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn’t hate to speak the truth.

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 6, 2020

This is why, once the game was announced for release, many in the trans community have called for people to avoid playing the game due to the transphobic stances taken by Rowling on the internet. Even the game itself features a trans character who is Sirona Ryan—a name which is at best a pun to draw attention to the character’s trans identity, and at worst a transphobic troupe. 

Both left and right wing political commentators have characterized calls for a boycott as an overreaction and a futile expression of identity politics. Even top leftist streamer Hasan Piker has been talking, nearly non-stop, about the game and his frustration with his subscribers asking him not to play the game.

Hasan Piker Reacting to Ben Shapiro’s Characterization of His Decision to Not Play Hogwarts After Reaction from Trans Community

His commentary is also echoed by popular trans activist, and former Canadian political contender turned livestreamer, Keffals, who made national news due to ongoing harassment campaigns from the site KiWi Farms. They both seem to suggest that boycotting the game is a meaningless action, and use a range of arguments to justify their decision. Elsewhere, those calling for the boycott have been getting death threats and other harassing messages from rabid fans upset about individuals' negative reactions—even those which use Harry Potter themed transphobic slurs such as a death curse which are directed towards trans people on social media. 

Commentary From Trans Streamer Keffals Reacting to Jessie Gender’s Explanation of the Boycott

However, even before the game’s release, Warner Brothers knew the game might struggle to be successful and took efforts to adjust their marketing strategy.  Their adjustments appears to be highly successful with the game rising to the number one slot on the online PC game store Steam. It was among the top games played on the streaming platform twitch. However, some leftist news outlets have claimed that the success is driven by the trans community’s anger towards the game. 

While many online influencers seem caught in the cultural discourse, their commentary illustrates the fractures and fissures that exist among activists on how to advance political agendas. Those against the boycott argue that the game itself is as harmless as a child’s toy. Activists calling for political action, through a boycott, note that playing the game would reward one of the largest transphobic cultural figures in the world and advance harmful antisemitic and transphobic narratives. 

Individuals like Hasan Piker, who have a long history of advocating for trans rights, suggested playing the game for money to raise money for a trans cause. However, his strategy also illustrates the limits of online activism in that it exposes the fact that political change cannot happen through mere discourse alone—sometimes action is necessary. While cultural narratives and critique can be powerful for raising public interest and awareness about social issues, real world mobilization is necessary in order for political change to happen. 

Some may know this criticism as the slacktivism critique—a term used to describe the fact that online politics is one dimensional and often performative, and that focusing solely on online organizing obscures the interconnected nature of politics and economic conditions. Moreover, we live in a time where attention, views, and discourse have become commodified—a topic related to my recent book. While some have attempted to resolve this by suggesting that individuals play the game to raise funds for charitable causes, does raising money for charity offset the harm caused or does it undermine the very reason why trans activists have asked people to not buy the game? 

While donating to a charitable cause might provide financial assistance to worthy causes, such actions illustrate Slavov Zizek’s critique of cultural capitalism—or that attempts to offset the harm created from the consumption of a good, by paying an additional cost in an attempt to offset those negative costs. Another example is the idea of carbon credits. While one might be led to believe that they are reducing or somehow alleviating the environmental harm they cause through the purchase of carbon credits, the fact is we cannot offset the consumption of resources or reduce the emissions of fossil fuels by paying a price. 

Nearly two decades ago now Mark Fisher wrote Capitalist Realism. His scathing critique of contemporary society was that we live in a society in which we can’t even imagine a system outside capitalism—even our attempts to create change, he argues, have been co-opted by those in power. The discourse over Harry Potter, it would seem, lays bare the critique of Capitalist Realism in online political spaces. The individuals with the most massive audiences, the largest reach, and the social currency necessary to lead the charge against those pushing harmful transphobic rhetoric are unable to think of how they might advance the political agenda outside of raising money for charitable causes. More importantly,  instead of siding with trans advocates it seems that many online leftists are unable to walk away and not play the game on their media platforms. Instead these individuals have argued the left just doesn’t want them to have fun, even if those harmed are the ones that made them famous.

A.F. Lewis is a PhD candidate in Sociology with a graduate minor in Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Missouri, Columbia. Their areas of interest are political sociology, social movements, and social theory. Their work has been featured in The Activist History Review and in “Politics as Public Art: The Aesthetics of Political Organizing and Social Organizing.” Their forthcoming book from Lexington Books, part of The Frankfurt School In New Times Series, is based on a five year ethnographic study of a Midwestern University. They are currently a lecturer at Université Paris Nanterre in France. 

Christopher T. Conner is Teaching Assistant Professor of Sociology at The University of Missouri, Columbia. He is co-author of Electronic Dance Music: From Deviant Subculture to Culture Industry. His work has also been teaching in a variety of outlets including YOUNG: Journal of Nordic Youth Culture, The Sociological Quarterly, Deviant Behavior, Symbolic Interaction, and Sexualities. He has also co-edited numerous anthologies including "The Gayborhood: From Sexual Liberation to Cosmopolitan Spectacle.”

The recent decision by Governor Ron Desantis (R-FL) to fire the President of New School University, replace the board of trustees, and to abolish diversity equity and inclusion programs in higher education came as a shock to even most conservatives. His swift enactment of policy is yet another casualty in the “war on wokeness.” However, to far right researchers, and those working on university campuses this was less surprising.

Most people have a view, largely shaped by the media, that college and university campuses are bastions of left-wing ideology. However, even during the 1960s antiwar protests movements, colleges and universities have always had a sharp conservative bent. Over time the work of student movements has been folded into the corporate structure of the institution. What most people are likely unaware of is a new phenomenon happening across college campuses in which far-right organizers have sought to use them as a place for contestation, recruitment, and protest/counter protest.

Since 2011 hate crimes on college campuses has been on a sharp rise in the United States. The latest available data, at time of publication, from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) found a total of 313 cases of white supremacist material on campuses for the 2018-2019 school year. These cases include bomb threats to historically Black Colleges and University, gag orders against teaching, threats to specific scholars, and the weaponization of critical race theory to create controversy over curriculum.

Far right ideology has been mainstreamed largely through online community building and organizing, and manifested in physical space with use of violence—like when conservative pundits Richard Spencer or Milo Yinappplous schedule lectures on campuses and planned marches such as the Unite the Right Rally on University of Virginia campus in 2017.

This would explain, at least anecdotally, why there are increasing reports from educators (that we have spoken with) about the increased presence of racist, sexist, and discriminatory behavior across college campuses. Some of these incidents, like the recent controversy at the University of Missouri where a student used racial slurs in a snapchat message to another students and joked about the murder of three Black University of Virginia student athletes, illustrating the limited power that University administrators have over these kinds of situations.

While administration later condemned the student’s post, the University was unable to take disciplinary action under the First Amendment. This is a major area of controversy and contradiction in the contemporary era of the American university—that condemns racial discrimination, yet rarely takes action against racist incidents or confront many systemic issues within the institution.

Students took to social media, first to bring the incident to the administration’s attention, and when nothing was done, to express their outrage. Mizzou YDSA (Young Democratic Socialists of America), posted their annotated version of the announcement made by administration.

Incidents like the one above are in fact nothing new for college campuses. While a few anecdotes might be hand waved away as a few bad apples, our own research on the far right reveals something a bit more deliberate than a leaked electronic communication. The Southern Poverty Law Center tracked recruitment flyers by white nationalist groups from 2016-2017, reporting 329 flyers across 241 college campuses—like the one’s below.

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It would seem, based off these early observations, that far-right groups are initiating the same tactics across University systems. Even here we see administrators either unable, or unwilling, to act against these flyers. Despite conservative accusations that they are being silenced, or censored, empirical studies and experts have shown that this is not the case at all.

As Vegas Tenold observed in his 2018 book “Everything You Love Will Burn” the demographic of the Alt-Right that attend universities consists mainly (but by no means exclusively) of “white frat boys [who] could now explain to the world how white frat boys were the true victims of feminism, affirmative action, and other forms of anti-white persecute and could, with a straight face, stand up in public and rejoice in someone finally fighting for their rights as white, affluent college guys.” These individuals are often armed with the full strength of their connection to the University, outside online communities, formal organizations with resources, and even the support of some politicians.

As educators we have both seen the impact that conservative leadership has had on the state of higher education. This includes cuts at the state and federal level, but also a retooling of higher education towards a consumer model. The impact on higher education has been an erosion of standards in favor of student retention and satisfaction. While the move to a more “student centered” model has some merits, under conservative leadership it has been weaponized to remove people who disagree with conservative ideology—including those trying to make their students think critically about religion, those with low teaching evaluations (which are disproportionately women, people of color, and other minorities), or those who would criticize the University.

While University leadership is unable, or unwilling, to challenge the status quo (i.e., Board of Trustees or other elected officials) students are mobilizing to change this system. Some of this is already taking place such as within the University of California school system in which students went on strike over low wages, poor health care, lack of COVID-19 protections, and a variety of other issues. The growth of far-right ideology is a result of the University adopted a consumer “student centered” model of education.

Just as students in the 1960s had to learn how to find their voice, students today are doing the same. However, speaking out on campus can come with consequences. As we write, striking Temple University graduate students are losing their tuition remission, health care coverage, and have one month to pay their tuition bill in full. Perhaps through the actions of these students, and their allies on the ground, a vision of the future that runs counter to that of the alt-right can be more clearly articulated—something the left has failed to do.

Christopher T. Conner, PhD.
University of Missouri, Columbia
Department of Sociology
ctckdg@missouri.edu 

For most people the idea that anyone could be part of the far right and gay seems like an unimaginable paradox. However, as my ethnographic adventures into the far-right and conspiracy theories has found they do in fact exist—and is a finding corroborated by other researchers in my field. More importantly, they seem to be gaining traction and momentum within certain sectors of the LGBTQIA2 community—both in the United States, Europe, and Australia. Many of the ideas currently being espoused promote racial hierarchies, transphobia, and even anti-gay sentiments. Where do these ideas come from? What underlying conditions were already there for the far-right to use to their advantage? And, most importantly, is there anything that can be done about it? While conservative LGBTQIA2 individuals have always existed, even during the reign of the Nazi party, in an age of increasingly divisive rhetoric these ideas and beliefs have been given new life.

According to a 2020 study conducted by the Williams Institute approximately 9 million LGBT adults are registered voters, 15% of which are Republican and only 50% are Democrats. Like my recent peer reviewed journal article in Sexualities, some of the findings of this report make sense while others seem to contradict conventional wisdom about the individuals so studied. For instance, sexual orientation is considered an insignificant part of identity for LGBTQIA2 Republicans, yet 38% of this sample thought being an LGBT was a personal shortcoming. This recent report highlights a significant divide that has existed and persists within the LGBTQIA2 community—whether we have moved beyond the shared experience of marginalization that gave rise to the movement, or if we have entered into a “post-gay” era. However, gay men have played a pivotal role in promoting some of the most discussed topics in conservative politics—including an idea known as “the great replacement” theory.

It may shock readers to learn that a gay French socialite and artist named Renaud Camus coined the phrase “the great replacement” theory—an idea which has been promoted in far right circles as the idea that whites are being replaced at rate that they will be the minority by 2050 and that Democrats are attempting to accelerate this through liberal immigration policies. Camus has been photographed proudly marching alongside Neo-Nazi’s and others making him an even more bizarre figure than conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos. These ideas have also been promoted by those who call themselves the IDW—a group of pseudo intellectuals promoting conservative talking points and anti-science rhetoric. Among those promoting these ideas are Jordan Peterson, gay political commentator Dave Rubin who if has not directly promoted replacement theory has promoted transphobic and anti- lesbian rhetoric, venture capitalist Peter Thiel, and Sam Harris—all “members” of the Intellectual Dark Web.

While for those not familiar with the inner workings of the far right, or alt-right, this may seem like a bizarre juxtaposition however the literature on authoritarianism gives us an idea on how one could hold these seemingly contradictory beliefs at the same time. In the 1950s Theodore Adorno and his contemporaries sought to understand if there was something within individuals that could lead individuals to choosing fascist ideology. Their groundbreaking study identified a number of traits that would lead one towards supporting authoritarian leadership. Of those nine traits several stick out as important for our discussion here—the belief in ridged (especially gendered) categories, belief that hierarchies are natural and justified, and aggression towards those seeking to transgress boundaries. These traits however, had already been cultivated by the gay community long before Milo, Dave Rubin, or Replacement Theory was televised into households.

Far right ideas however are in fact embedded within LGBTQIA2 culture, and empirical research studies have continuously found threads of discrimination based on gender, race, age, and ability which coalesese nd form hierarchies of beauty within gay culture. When asked why these hierarchies exist, and why some gay men choose to date only those at the top of this hierarchy, I found these men repeated some of the same talking points as those espoused by conservative political figures. These include overly racialized statements including the all too common no-fats no-femmes no-Asians. Thus, when Renaud Camus’ penned the great replacement theory he may have merely been expressing opinions which white gay men have been using as justifications for holding racist ideologies long before he published his book—one need only look to #grindrwhileblack for examples of this, or the Instagram page by the same name.

[insert tweet here]

https://twitter.com/grindrwhileblk/status/1557140414972452868

While the gay community and LGBTQIA2 spaces may seem like an odd place for the seeds of right-wing extremism to take root, the culture that has been built post-stonewall is one that has been increasingly commodified and as such increasingly exclusive—so much so most individuals chose not to live in gayborhoods but rather elsewhere due to affordability.

An additional mechanism that has allowed far right ideology to seep into the gay community comes, ironically, from the successes of the gay rights movement in promoting gay marriage. The term post-gay was used initially by Paul Burston a British News Journalist who when interviewed said he, “meant it tongue in cheek not in the way it has been taken recently.” The term however, was then used by several high-profile figures including an interview with Nate Silver in Out Magazine who used the term to divorce himself from political ideology. In a post-gay era, brought on by the Obergefell v. Hodges decision, they argue that one’s sexuality is distinct from one’s politics. This was the position of the first elected gay alderman in St. Louis in 2009 , when I interviewed him in my role as news reporter, and a sentiment that persists throughout Democratic and Republican parties. This sentiment, however, has exposed the far-right tendencies that have existed within gay culture.

With far-right extremism on the rise, the spread of these ideas and rhetoric represents a growing threat to the larger LGBTQIA2 community. On the ground this has played out in a variety of surprising ways—from promotion of QAnon by LGBTQIA2 persons, gay men openly using racial slurs on dating apps, and the general adoption of authoritarian positions which marginalize those at the bottom of the LGBTQIA2 world. In 2016 I witnessed how toxic this had become when lesbian protestors gathered to prevent the Long Pride parade and promote transphobic messaging. Here in the United States we’ve had parallel developments with gay men promoting ideas that naturalize hierarchies of beauty—claiming that they are natural and even a product of human evolution.

Outside of these ideas embedded within LGBTQIA2 culture we’ve also seen formal organizations that support conservative politicians. These include groups like #twinks4trump, gaysfortrump, in addition to the one’s that have existed for decades before hand (i.e. Log Cabin Republicans). In interviews that I have conducted with conservative gay figures they reiterate that they want to be seen as equal to, not distinct from, their straight counterparts. Many of these men also felt rejection from the larger LGBTQIA2 community leading them to find acceptance from others. Feeling rejected, these men found a warm embrace from conservative ideologues—why else would an openly gay man Black man call Pride a sin, and speak against gay pride festivals as immoral grounds for sexual gratification. Such behaviors seem to be the product of trying to appease conservative leaders, even if that means denouncing others like themselves.

In my ethnographic work on gay culture I’ve met many men who delayed coming out, myself included, because of the “body facism” or “toxic masculinity” that exists in the gay community. Even if you reject my premise that LGBTQIA2 culture had tendencies which provided fertile ground for far right ideologies to take hold, surely we can all agree that hiding one’s identify because of perceived rejection of one’s community is reason enough to change these behaviors. Moreover, in these initial first few days of a new virus attacking MSM communities—monkeypox—gay men seem to be clinging onto the hyper-individualism which has proved so harmful to other diseases including HIV/AIDS and COVID. If the LGBTQIA2 community is to weather this storm, perhaps we need to reconsider the places spaces and configurations that the community draws upon. COVID has given us a remarkable opportunity to reimagine what community looks like and to unravel the root causes of so many problem the LGBTQIA2 community has grappled with for decades.

Christopher T. Conner, PhD.
University of Missouri, Columbia
Department of Sociology
ctckdg@missouri.edu 

Marcus Weinman, M.S.
PhD Candidate, University of Vermont
Department of Neurological Sciences
marcus.weinman@uvm.edu 

Former University of Toronto Professor of Clinical Psychology Jordan Peterson recently received a flurry of criticism on twitter for a tweet in which he criticized Sports Illustrated cover model Yumi Nu. His tweet (below) not only criticized her looks, but also suggested that her appearance was an authoritarian attempt by the left to force him to appreciate her beauty.

Sorry. Not beautiful. And no amount of authoritarian tolerance is going to change that. https://t.co/rOASeeQvee

— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) May 16, 2022

The backlash from Twitter and the media was swift and came from social media influencers (from online political commentators like Hasan Piker and Vaush), independent news outlets (The Young Turks), and even mainstream news sources (NBC News, New York Post), international news outlets (The Independent, and Toronto Sun). Incidents like the aforementioned tweet, in the current political climate of America, are becoming increasingly more common as the culture war issues find  themselves at the forefront of the public mind. Popular intellectual figures, like Peterson, have built their careers off of stoking these hot bed issues and claiming injustice when people disagree with their ideas. 

It's a conscious progressive attempt to manipulate & retool the notion of beauty, reliant on the idiot philosophy that such preferences are learned & properly changed by those who know better (see https://t.co/RLOu4wlNM6)(https://t.co/tUzihxdXOl) but don't let the facts stop you. https://t.co/90uEnV6DL3

— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) May 16, 2022

What most of the comments and reactions seem to have missed is Peterson’s follow up tweet (above) in which he justifies his position by linking to scientific articles to validate his opinion. Can science be used to measure whether or not someone is attractive? While some recent studies have tried to do just that, many more studies refute these claims. 

The sociology of human sexuality and race has long held that concepts like beauty and race are social constructions -- determined by a range of cultural, biological, and other complex social factors. Classic television shows, like The Twilight Zone, also remind us that beauty is in the eye of the beholder rather than a universal characteristic. Yet, the IDW and practitioners of this kind of science try to apply their model of science to nearly everything—linking and reducing all kinds of aspects of human behavior as serving an evolutionary function. However, the work of those in this field who are respected are far more careful than the IDW in their claims. Against the overly deterministic model posed by the IDW, current consensus, among scholars in this field, is that human nature is a complex combination of biology and other social factors—often noting that they can’t tell us with any great deal of precision what their findings necessarily mean for society at large. 

The kind of model advocated by the IDW more closely resembles that of the 18th and 19th Century biological determinism—the kind that served as the basis for eugenics programs in Nazi Germany and even here in the United States. Peterson’s claims run the full range of biological determinism, from justifying social hierarchies as natural to why patriarchy should be the preferred organizing principle in societies. He also appears to be, at points in his book, justifying men who engage in violent acts–like the Buffalo shooting–by blaming that young men have to endure an unfair burden. To say that the ideas espoused by Peterson and the IDW connect to white supremicist ideology is more than just conjecture, as their ideas can be traced from academia to far-right groups online. 

One need only look to the end of May 2022 when the Buffalo shooter took the lives of 10 African Americans. Far-right groups rejoice in Peterson’s claims that hierarchies are natural and good for society, as they serve as a “legitimate” scientific basis for promoting racist ideologies. Laced throughout the manuscript left behind by the Buffalo shooter are references to a range of claims espoused by race scientists. These include tweets, memes, and links to prominent thinkers in this field like Steven Pinker and his colleagues who have published and espoused flawed literature directly cited by the shooter. The most infamous of these models is Charles Murray’s “The Bell Curve” in which intelligence and race were argued to be correlated–the implication being that people of color are “naturally” somehow less intelligent. 

These models continue to be fundamentally invoked by prominent academics like Stanley Goldfarb, a former Dean of Medicine and current faculty at the University of Pennsylvania's medical school, who also opposes anti-racist efforts in medicine. Taken together, these events suggest that biological essentialism has permeated the ivory tower of academia more than many realize. While some of the examples mentioned here are explicit in their bigotry, there are far more cases of simple miscommunication (or no communication at all) leading to their ideas being co-opted by far right groups. 

maybe behavioral geneticists should be more upset about a white supremacist terrorist citing their work and having it center their worldview than they are at the people who are pointing out that their work was cited pic.twitter.com/aVmPUAZFBU

— Dr. Kevin Bird (@thebirdmaniac) May 15, 2022

Some anti-racist academics in genetics have criticized their colleagues (above) and called for change from within. They emphasize that scientists can and should protect against the exploitation of their work in recognizing the importance of clearly communicating their findings. When scientists fail to consider the ways their ideas might be used, for good and for bad, the results can be disastrous. Such was the case when some levied a social constructionist critique of the use of the psychiatric system, which was subsequently used by conservatives to justify dismantling the state public health system. Scientists must use caution when trying to convey their ideas - lest they be used to justify heinous acts, including terrorism. 

The radicalization of the Buffalo shooter should serve as a warning to other scholars, as he was one in a long line of domestic terrorists who relied heavily upon “race science” to justify their actions. The same kind of logics have also motivated people to commit heinous against against the LGBTQ+ community. While the shooter may have lacked scientific literacy necessary to understand the studies he cites, researchers must work to not be complicit in this process. Whether it be scientific racism to justify one’s beliefs, or a lack of fully considering the larger impact of one’s findings, scientists need to better understand how working in science is a social activity. Science itself is a powerful tool when used in pursuit of helping lead the way towards the betterment of society, and it is equally a tool for harm when used to naturalize hierarchies and inequality found throughout society. Horkheimer’s critique of instrumental reason reminds us that science is a tool used to pursue a goal–to what end these tools are used is a question of what we want to prioritize. 

Author Bios:

Christopher T. Conner is Teaching Assistant Professor of Sociology at The University of Missouri, Columbia. He has published work on the Philosophy of Social Science, LGBTQ+ culture, Technology, and Misinformation/Disinformation. His work has been featured in a variety of outlets including YOUNG: Journal of Nordic Youth Culture, The Sociological Quarterly, Deviant Behavior, Symbolic Interaction, and Sexualities. He has also co-edited numerous anthologies including The Gayborhood: From Sexual Liberation to Cosmopolitan Spectacle, Forgotten Founders and Other Neglected Social Theorists, and Studies in Symbolic Interaction: Subcultures.

Marcus Weinman is a PhD candidate at the University of Vermont in Cellular/Molecular Biology. His dissertation focuses on neuroscience and the epigenetics of epilepsy. His work has been featured in Cancer Cell International, BMC Cancer, and Cell Stress Chaperones. He also runs a biweekly science communication live stream where he covers scientific issues ranging from the latest data related to COVID-19, to the intersection of science, politics, and society

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Christopher T. Conner, PhD.
Teaching Assistant Professor of Sociology
University of Missouri, Columbia

Over the course of the pandemic conservatives and far right representatives have mobilized in a widespread assault on science as an institution. While this has been an ongoing phenomenon well before COVID, over the pandemic it has expanded into a variety of issues relevant that concern the LGBTQ+ community–especially in light of recent schools’ decision to remove safe space stickers or anything related to Pride, and the expected overturning of Roe V. Wade. At the center of the maelstrom are a group of individuals who call themselves the Intellectual Dark Web (IDW)—so named by New York Times reporter Barry Weiss, and a label they have also used to describe themselves. While to most people this conjures up images of websites where people can by illicit substances, the IDW is merely a loosely affiliated group of celebrity academics and pseudo-intellectuals. These include people like internet talk show hosts like Ben Shapiro and Joe Rogan; but also discredited academics like Jordan Peterson, Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying who use their scientific credentials to justify conservative positions on hot button “culture war” topics like the legislation targeting the existence of LGBTQ+ people, prohibitions on critical race theory, and anti-abortion legislation–creating a rift between some individuals aligned with the IDW. Although the IDW is not a formal organization, their mutual support has allowed their collective impact to be felt far and wide.

While each member of the IDW concerns themselves with a variety of different issues the central line trying their work together is the link between biology and human social behavior. While there are a variety of reputable scholars working in this area, they diverge from the IDW by noting the limitations of their work—and they don’t try to use their work to justify discriminatory policies. Figures in the IDW have even gone so far as to alleging that women, African Americans, and LGBTQ+ people are inferior. The work of the IDW resembles the kind of armchair theorizing that gave rise to a whole host of discredited scientific endeavors in the 1950s. We know today that such old theoretical stances are deeply rooted in the rampant racism and bigotry that existed in that age—perhaps why many of their fan base comes from far-right circles.

If the IDW remained contained to academic circles they would probably go unnoticed, and their harm could be contained. However, they have done well at cultivating rich benefactors that have allowed their voices to be amplified across the internet and beyond. So called establishment science operates under a process known as peer review in which other anonymous scholars critique their ideas. While biases of reviewers can sometimes taint this process, such internal debates make up a whole field of study known as the philosophy of science. However, in the case of the IDW the issues rest not in the partisan biases of other scientists, but rather rests squarely on a failure to meet the rigorous methodological standards of scientific investigation. Even mainstream outlets have begun to recognize the IDW’s devolving standards as a result of subverting peer review. One review of Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying’s best selling book was described by The Guardian as a book that "lazily repeat[s] false information from other pop-science books."

The IDW however is not entirely to blame for their ability to massively influence the public, the institution of science is also an accomplice to their success. Since the 1950s there have been calls for scholars to speak to the lived experiences of those they study and to make a greater connection with the public. This call has been answered mostly by scholars hailing from marginalized backgrounds including LGBTQIA2 persons, African Americans, and women who have had to fight hard to be recognized within science. Behind every scholar from a minority group is a story of struggle. WEB DuBois, one of the greatest public intellectuals of our time, lacked funding and faced significant opposition to his pioneering scholarship on the study of African American experience. Contrary to this the members of the IDW are backed by a range of conservative billionaires. Dave Rubin, for example, is funded by Learn Liberty which is supported by Charles G. Koch—the 20th richest person in the world who has contributed vast sums of money towards conservative and far right political figures, and anti LGBTQ+ legislation. Eric Weinstein (Bret Weinstein’s brother), is perhaps the most vocal person in the IDW, serves as the director of Thiel Capital founded by Peter Thiel who also owns paypal. This allows the voices of those in the IDW to be amplified over legitimate science, and the public mobilized against the very institutions which might guard against ideas like the consumption of bleach as a cure for COVID.

The IDW has exposed the shortcomings of institutional science, and has illustrated the important commitment that research institutions have to the public. This is due in large part to the lack of an incentive structure for those working in science to engage in this type of work. In fact, young scholars who are often best equipped to engage in public scholarship, risk placing their careers in jeopardy due to the political nature that comes from public scholarship. Tenured faculty, who are protected, lack the skills to reach audiences outside of academia—trapped in the preverbal ivory tower. This includes a multitude of individual scientists and other intellectuals taking to Twitch.TV and Youtube to lead the charge against misinformation. While to outsiders these platforms are more closely associated with gaming and watching than science communication, over the pandemic the two sites have been used in a variety of intellectual ways.

An overwhelming majority of science communicators on Twitch.TV have recognized the potential for harm to the LGBTQ+ and other minority communities posted by the IDW. This is due in part to the platforms large trans and non-binary population, and because many of the leading science communicators on the platform hail from the LGBTQ+ community. As my own research on LGBTQ+ life has shown, LGBTQ+ persons have always been good at using the internet as a mechanism to organize, find community, and ways to establish community–thus it is no wonder that they have applied these community organizing skills towards public outreach. Such science communicators include those in public health such as Marcus Weinman, Dr Neuroforieur, philosophers such as Dr. Bwinbwin, and independent science commentators such as Echoplex Media, and Gremloe. However, LGBTQ+ allies on Twitch.TV, and other platforms, such as biologist The Peer Review, sociologist Professor EXP, and smaller professional journalists like LVELHEAD also explore these issues in their own outreach efforts–albeit from markedly different perspectives. Unlike the IDW the thing that unites these individuals is their dedication and passion to restoring public trust in science, but more importantly in promoting truth, equality, and understanding. As these figures show us, scientists and professionals of all backgrounds need to come out of the laboratory as we need them now more than ever! As rights for the minorities and the LGBTQ+ community continue to erode, this Pride may matter more than we all know.

Christopher T. Conner is Teaching Assistant Professor of Sociology at The University of Missouri, Columbia. He has published work on the Philosophy of Social Science, LGBTQ+ culture, Technology, and Misinformation/Disinformation. His work has been featured in a variety of outlets including YOUNG: Journal of Nordic Youth Culture, The Sociological Quarterly, Deviant Behavior, Symbolic Interaction, and Sexualities. He has also co-edited numerous anthologies including The Gayborhood: From Sexual Liberation to Cosmopolitan Spectacle, Forgotten Founders and Other Neglected Social Theorists, Studies in Symbolic Interaction: Subcultures.

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Austin Bennett does so many live streams that this was bound to happen! He lost his race for CA State Senate and then went completely potato on the guy who won. Take a look into it if you’re not familiar :)

If you’d like the sounds for your own use, here’s a zip pack!

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In March 2021 we decided to start catfishing Austin Bennett. Then we got bored with his hateful bullshit. Here's the full, unedited conversation from Facebook messenger.

Audio files are right before the message exchange embed, in the order they appear in the discussion.

March 8, 20213/8/21, 10:57 AM

March 8, 20213/8/21, 3:35 PM

March 8, 20213/8/21, 8:17 PM

June 10, 20216/10/21, 8:04 PM

June 10, 20216/10/21, 11:12 PM

Austin forwarded a link

June 15, 20216/15/21, 3:18 PM

June 15, 20216/15/21, 3:35 PM

June 15, 20216/15/21, 9:31 PM

June 16, 20216/16/21, 3:10 PM

June 17, 20216/17/21, 9:35 AM

June 20, 20216/20/21, 5:55 PM

June 20, 20216/20/21, 9:05 PM

June 21, 20216/21/21, 12:03 PM

And good luck with your trial. I wish you the best

June 21, 20216/21/21, 12:56 PM

June 21, 20216/21/21, 2:16 PM

June 21, 20216/21/21, 2:53 PM

June 21, 20216/21/21, 3:19 PM

June 28, 20216/28/21, 9:00 AM

July 4, 20217/4/21, 1:15 PM

July 6, 20217/6/21, 8:52 PM

July 6, 20217/6/21, 11:59 PM

July 7, 20217/7/21, 1:25 PM

July 7, 20217/7/21, 1:52 PM

July 7, 20217/7/21, 2:56 PM

July 7, 20217/7/21, 11:14 PM

Austin replied to you

July 8, 20217/8/21, 5:58 PM

July 18, 20217/18/21, 3:44 PM

July 18, 20217/18/21, 8:51 PM

Austin replied to you

That’s sad to hear. I can’t think of John’s last name off hand, but he is in LA. He was one of the big leaders, and there was another but I can’t think of his name also I’ll come up with them though. In any case, I am surprised they are silent now. Or maybe I shouldn’t be. It’s a very tough gig and a few years will spend you

Austin replied to you

Austin replied to you

July 19, 20217/19/21, 2:50 PM

You replied to Austin

July 19, 20217/19/21, 7:12 PM

I didn’t mean John Graff, but he’s a good one and has been a long time friend. He gets remarkable pictures. I still don’t remember who it was. It will come to me, I am certain

July 20, 20217/20/21, 3:49 PM

July 23, 20217/23/21, 2:20 PM

July 23, 20217/23/21, 5:12 PM

July 23, 20217/23/21, 6:06 PM

July 23, 20217/23/21, 6:35 PM

July 23, 20217/23/21, 11:20 PM

July 25, 20217/25/21, 3:15 PM

July 25, 20217/25/21, 3:46 PM

July 25, 20217/25/21, 6:12 PM

Austin replied to you

July 27, 20217/27/21, 4:59 PM

August 2, 20218/2/21, 6:16 PM

August 3, 20218/3/21, 8:03 PM

August 5, 20218/5/21, 5:45 PM

August 9, 20218/9/21, 11:42 AM

August 12, 20218/12/21, 2:49 PM

August 12, 20218/12/21, 3:11 PM

Austin replied to you

Austin replied to you

August 13, 20218/13/21, 1:59 PM

August 14, 20218/14/21, 9:39 AM

August 16, 20218/16/21, 12:19 AM

Austin replied to you

August 16, 20218/16/21, 1:12 PM

August 17, 20218/17/21, 1:06 AM

August 17, 20218/17/21, 12:17 PM

August 17, 20218/17/21, 12:58 PM

August 18, 20218/18/21, 12:28 PM

What do you think my Twitch user name should be… any ideas

August 20, 20218/20/21, 6:05 PM

August 20, 20218/20/21, 10:34 PM

August 27, 20218/27/21, 8:21 PM

August 27, 20218/27/21, 10:26 PM

August 28, 20218/28/21, 10:28 AM

August 29, 20218/29/21, 12:06 AM

Austin replied to you

August 29, 20218/29/21, 1:07 AM

August 29, 20218/29/21, 2:20 PM

August 29, 20218/29/21, 6:03 PM

August 30, 20218/30/21, 5:37 PM

August 30, 20218/30/21, 6:03 PM

August 30, 20218/30/21, 6:50 PM

August 30, 20218/30/21, 11:27 PM

August 31, 20218/31/21, 5:37 PM

August 31, 20218/31/21, 6:12 PM

September 27, 20219/27/21, 8:34 PM

September 27, 20219/27/21, 9:22 PM

September 27, 20219/27/21, 10:57 PM

September 28, 20219/28/21, 5:49 PM

September 28, 20219/28/21, 8:44 PM

October 17, 202110/17/21, 3:26 PM

October 18, 202110/18/21, 1:23 PM

November 18, 202111/18/21, 3:56 PM

November 21, 202111/21/21, 4:08 PM

November 21, 202111/21/21, 11:24 PM

Austin replied to you

I actually do have two good mics, or at least decent enough. The Samson mic I was using last I kept hidden. It was my fault the mic cut out, because there’s a hair-trigger button that turns it on and off… so my fault

November 23, 202111/23/21, 6:48 PM

November 24, 202111/24/21, 6:58 AM

Austin replied to you

Austin replied to you

November 25, 202111/25/21, 4:54 PM

November 25, 202111/25/21, 10:45 PM

Austin replied to you

November 27, 202111/27/21, 7:20 PM

November 27, 202111/27/21, 9:44 PM

November 28, 202111/28/21, 1:33 PM

November 28, 202111/28/21, 4:21 PM

November 28, 202111/28/21, 4:38 PM

November 29, 202111/29/21, 1:51 PM

If you don't want to mess with all that, some people use this. It allows you to bring in guests and send your stream to multiple platforms at once. The downside is it's not very custom. https://streamyard.com/pricingStreamYard | Browser-based live studio for professionals

This is cheaper and will allow you to use OBS or their built in tools. But it's not as good as streamyard. The browser based ones let you get going right away. https://restream.io/pricingPlans & Pricing | Restream

November 29, 202111/29/21, 9:01 PM

Austin replied to you

November 29, 202111/29/21, 9:56 PM

November 29, 202111/29/21, 10:37 PM

Is this the channel you are talking about?

November 30, 202111/30/21, 11:32 AM

November 30, 202111/30/21, 12:43 PM

This is their channel. https://www.twitch.tv/echoplexmediaEchoplexMedia - Twitch

November 30, 202111/30/21, 1:03 PM

November 30, 202111/30/21, 1:42 PM

November 30, 202111/30/21, 7:43 PM

December 1, 202112/1/21, 4:26 PM

December 5, 202112/5/21, 5:07 PM

December 6, 202112/6/21, 1:41 AM

Austin replied to you

December 6, 202112/6/21, 8:36 PM

December 6, 202112/6/21, 8:54 PM

Austin replied to you

Austin replied to you

Austin replied to you

https://www.facebook.com/psompodcast/videos/792904481490594The Patriot State Of Mind Podcast posted a video to playlist The Patriot State Of Mind Podcast Episodes.

Austin replied to you

Austin replied to you

December 7, 202112/7/21, 5:48 PM

December 7, 202112/7/21, 7:28 PM

December 10, 202112/10/21, 8:11 PM

December 10, 202112/10/21, 11:30 PM

December 12, 202112/12/21, 6:48 PM

December 12, 202112/12/21, 7:24 PM

December 13, 202112/13/21, 6:39 PM

December 26, 202112/26/21, 5:17 PM

December 26, 202112/26/21, 8:09 PM

December 27, 202112/27/21, 5:47 PM

December 27, 202112/27/21, 11:13 PM

There's a lot of hypocrisy fore sure. My wife and I just headed to Sutter Creek. It used to be my motorcycle route with my friends. We'd go to Chatter Box in Jackson for breakfast and head the long way home through Ione. It was run by a gay couple and it was always packed. They always made my eggs perfectly over easy, the way I like it.

January 1Jan 1, 2022, 3:22 PM

January 1Jan 1, 2022, 3:46 PM

January 1Jan 1, 2022, 7:07 PM

January 2Jan 2, 2022, 3:34 PM

January 3Jan 3, 2022, 3:45 PM

January 6Jan 6, 2022, 4:57 PM

January 6Jan 6, 2022, 8:21 PM

January 7Jan 7, 2022, 4:23 PM

January 10Jan 10, 2022, 10:54 PM

January 21Jan 21, 2022, 5:06 PM

January 21Jan 21, 2022, 7:05 PM

January 21Jan 21, 2022, 11:43 PM

January 23Jan 23, 2022, 6:39 PM

Thank you Raena! It’s hard to grow facial hair for long. Once it starts to bug Caryn when I kiss her, I have two choices to make. Anyway, she hasn’t said anything. When we met I was sporting a goatee. How are you doing? What area do you live in Chico do you live in? Did you grow up in Chico?

January 24Jan 24, 2022, 6:27 PM

January 26Jan 26, 2022, 11:41 AM

January 26Jan 26, 2022, 12:11 PM

January 26Jan 26, 2022, 12:44 PM

January 26Jan 26, 2022, 2:35 PM

January 26Jan 26, 2022, 4:33 PM

January 28Jan 28, 2022, 12:30 PM

January 28Jan 28, 2022, 4:58 PM

January 31Jan 31, 2022, 12:43 PM

January 31Jan 31, 2022, 1:03 PM

January 31Jan 31, 2022, 7:46 PM

January 31Jan 31, 2022, 9:57 PM

Austin replied to you

February 1Feb 1, 2022, 3:10 PM

February 1Feb 1, 2022, 5:42 PM

February 1Feb 1, 2022, 8:28 PM

February 2Feb 2, 2022, 12:15 AM

February 3Feb 3, 2022, 12:12 PM

I don't mind people who are religious or spiritual. I just mind people who are bigoted or racist. Which is usually the religious and spiritual people funny enough. Which is also exactly the opposite of what they're supposed to believe in. But I've gotten into so many arguments with people over hypocrisy, I just quit. Its not worth the energy and aggravation. I just smile and nod and move on lol

February 3Feb 3, 2022, 12:50 PM

February 12Feb 12, 2022, 1:02 PM

February 12Feb 12, 2022, 6:57 PM

My not very techy friend Amira uses this restream thing. She said all you need is a web browser and a microphone and camera. It makes it easy to bring on guests I think too. https://restream.io/pricing?interval=yearlyPlans & Pricing | Restream

There are tutorials and stuff for the studio feature here. https://support.restream.io/en/collections/1623532-restream-studioRestream Studio | Restream Help Center

here's a good video on how it works. https://youtu.be/ikOFdrCtr-URestream Studio Tutorial — Run Professional Live Streams from Your Browser

February 12Feb 12, 2022, 7:44 PM

February 13Feb 13, 2022, 4:48 PM

February 14Feb 14, 2022, 7:46 AM

February 14Feb 14, 2022, 10:03 AM

February 14Feb 14, 2022, 11:01 AM

That's a good way of saying it, peeling people away from here... I've noticed the same thing, but hoping I find find an effective enough alternative that will draw people to at least spend more time on another platform. You mentioned clients, what is it you do Raena... and glad you would be open to connecting in the future. As long as you're okay with me and how I dress, it is vise versa. I thought you may not want to be seen with me.

February 14Feb 14, 2022, 9:04 PM

February 16Feb 16, 2022, 10:16 AM

Whats wrong with the way you dress? I think it rather snappy. You have a lot of very nice ties

February 16Feb 16, 2022, 10:41 AM

Thank you

February 17Feb 17, 2022, 12:41 AM

February 18Feb 18, 2022, 3:53 PM

February 18Feb 18, 2022, 4:46 PM

February 18Feb 18, 2022, 5:27 PM

February 18Feb 18, 2022, 7:29 PM

Right? If I can't fit it in my car, I dont really need it

February 18Feb 18, 2022, 9:24 PM

February 20Feb 20, 2022, 11:35 AM

February 20Feb 20, 2022, 4:17 PM

February 22Feb 22, 2022, 10:29 AM

I hope you're feeling better today

February 23Feb 23, 2022, 10:06 AM

Austin replied to you

Austin replied to you

February 25Feb 25, 2022, 2:28 PM

February 25Feb 25, 2022, 8:38 PM

February 27Feb 27, 2022, 10:12 AM

Dr. Judy Mikovits to my right, Dr. Jim Meehan to my right. I pray they be my expert witnesses in my coming jury trial, verifying indeed mercury is in vaccines and the senator/pediatrician lied when he said there is none. For the sake of justice and our children, I pray Dr. Judy and Dr. Meehan will stand with me as an expert witness. I cannot say absolutely vouch for Judy. Jim on the other hand, stood up for me and truth out of a hundred influential people. He was the only one.Austin Bennett

February 27Feb 27, 2022, 3:45 PM

February 27Feb 27, 2022, 6:03 PM

February 28Feb 28, 2022, 3:22 PM

March 4Mar 4, 2022, 10:38 PM

March 5Mar 5, 2022, 9:07 AM

Austin replied to you

Austin replied to you

March 5Mar 5, 2022, 1:59 PM

March 5Mar 5, 2022, 6:17 PM

March 6Mar 6, 2022, 3:17 PM

March 7Mar 7, 2022, 9:18 PM

Austin replied to you

March 9Mar 9, 2022, 5:01 PM

March 9Mar 9, 2022, 10:30 PM

March 10Mar 10, 2022, 4:35 PM

March 10Mar 10, 2022, 9:07 PM

March 25 at 4:47 PMMar 25, 2022, 4:47 PM

March 25 at 7:24 PMMar 25, 2022, 7:24 PM

March 25 at 9:03 PMMar 25, 2022, 9:03 PM

March 25 at 10:00 PMMar 25, 2022, 10:00 PM

March 31 at 2:43 AMMar 31, 2022, 2:43 AM

Austin Bennett was live — at California State Capitol.

April 1 at 2:35 PMApr 1, 2022, 2:35 PM

April 1 at 3:25 PMApr 1, 2022, 3:25 PM

April 1 at 8:05 PMApr 1, 2022, 8:05 PM

April 2 at 11:18 AMApr 2, 2022, 11:18 AM

April 2 at 2:29 PMApr 2, 2022, 2:29 PM

April 3 at 7:14 PMApr 3, 2022, 7:14 PM

Austin replied to you

April 3 at 7:36 PMApr 3, 2022, 7:36 PM

April 9 at 7:41 PMApr 9, 2022, 7:41 PM

April 9 at 10:11 PMSat 10:11 PM

April 11 at 12:37 PMMon 12:37 PM

April 11 at 4:01 PMMon 4:01 PM

Austin replied to you

Austin replied to you

April 11 at 6:48 PMMon 6:48 PM

You replied to Austin

April 12 at 12:12 PMTue 12:12 PM

April 12 at 1:31 PMTue 1:31 PM

Today at 12:13 AM12:13 AM

Austin replied to you

Today at 4:08 PM4:08 PM

Today at 7:43 PM7:43 PM

Today at 8:25 PM8:25 PM

Today at 9:10 PM9:10 PM

Austin replied to you

Today at 9:33 PM9:33 PM

Right around the time that Bret Weinstein, Heather Heying, and a bunch of other IDW figures or adjacent assholes went antivaxx, I found myself in a community of people on Twitter who saw fit to go after these folks, with a laser focus on Bret and Heather for obvious reasons. As with these kinds of online communities, there are rings around any given individual in that community with people or entities that are super close and communicate a lot being in one’s immediate ring, a ring outside of that where there’s less direct communication but people are still swimming in the same pool more or less, and outward from there.

Probably in the 4th or even 5th circle out from me in this imaginary orbit diagram is a fellow named David Fuller. David runs a YouTube channel called Rebel Wisdom. I’ve gone after him on Twitter for being a huckster and was blocked shortly thereafter. Here’s why:

And this isn’t even the worst of it. There’s this:

The event has passed and there’s no price listed anymore. But take my word for it, this shit was $700+ for a few zoom calls about “breathwork”. We did an episode of The Intellectual Dollar Tree about it. 

But this clear attempt to grab money from credulous fools is not how Fuller got on our radar. His somewhat awkwardly edited YouTube videos, which he refers to as “films”, are an exercise in Fuller trying desperately to look thoughtful while his guest says whatever it is they’re going to say. Sometimes it’s just mundane “look how smart I am” shit, and sometimes it’s Eric Weinstein saying the most whacked out thing you’ve ever heard in your life. And this is just kind of par for the course for anyone who’s gonna interview people like Eric. If you push back on any of the absolutely batshit things he says, you’re never gonna hear from him again. So David, ever the lapdog for the IDW, does what’s expected.

To his credit, David has posted positive messages about vaccines on Twitter and his blog. He’s also posted negative things about the anti vaccine community on Twitter and his blog. But not to his credit, he won’t say anything approaching these statements on his YouTube channel, where the vast majority of his audience and following resides. His Twitter, at the time of this article being written, has about 13k followers. We can only guess how many regular readers his blog posts get. Maybe he can hook us up with some metrics, though not likely, as he blocked me immediately when I started talking about his very expensive “breathwork” event. His YouTube channel has over 230k followers at the time of this article being written. His recent videos get between 10 and 30k views. Not huge. BUT, when he has someone like Eric Weinstein on and just sits there trying to appear thoughtful while Eric makes increasingly grandiose and, well, let’s just say it, delusional statements about himself, his brother Bret, and the state of the world around us, he gets more than 10x his average views.

Among his most popular “films” is one where he fawns over the so-called Intellectual Dark Web. This is almost certainly the first piece of his work we watched on The Intellectual Dollar Tree. In this “film” which he calls A Glitch In The Matrix, he very thoughtfully (looking) interviews Jordan Peterson about the online phenomenon. His questions are basically statements, and I would say that about half of them are just straight up stroking Jordy Pete’s ego. He follows this up with another “film” (okay an edited interview) called Glitch In The Matrix II with Eric Weinstein. The opening of this is all you really need to listen to honestly. David does everything short of giving Eric a handy during this interview. I could go on… like this shit about Ivermectin, largely presented as “well this person says x and this other person says y”… but let’s just stop here.

When I went after Fuller on Twitter I was quite surprised by some of the responses I got. I was told that he’s just a nice guy who sometimes gets himself into situations where he appears to be misguided. I was asked to view more of his content, the claim being he does ask difficult questions of the IDW cult figures he has on to make his “film” with, I just need to watch more of his content (where have I heard this before?). I was told that the rest of his content isn’t as important as the fact that he is against medical misinformation (see the paragraph that starts with “To his credit”). I was even told that my criticism of his scam is just mean and that the breathwork thing is just some harmless hippy shit that I shouldn’t be so up in arms about.

It occurred to me then, but I waited to write about it till now, that there’s some tribalism at play here. The space I became a part of, especially as I move out from that inner ring of people I really like interacting with… it’s all dudes. And it’s all fuckin white dudes. Vast majority of them are straight too. And the civility porn that comes with white intellectual spaces, especially ones populated with almost all straight white dudes, has created its own tribe. It’s a tribe I am not and will not be a part of, not just because I don’t want to be a part of it, but because that tribe will always reject someone who is willing to be “uncivil” in favor of getting to where the rubber meets the road. See part 6 of this series from way back when if you want to know what I thought then, and largely still think about that right now.

I don’t reject civility as a means to an end, I reject it as an end unto itself. I reject the idea that someone politely sitting there being a conduit for Jordy Pete’s sexism and Eric Weinstein’s delusional self aggrandizing is good or useful in any way. The idea that Fuller has ever asked any of these IDW people any question that made them uncomfortable is a complete joke. Or if he did, it hit the cutting room floor and was not included in any of his “films”. And I flatly reject the notion that just because such a person has some good takes on vaccines occasionally on Twitter or his blog, we shouldn’t have him in our metaphorical crosshairs in this, the war of bad ideas.