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Part one of a two-part conversation with Guido Preparata, on why conspiracy theory is too important to leave to conspiracy theorists, the academic world, the myth of agency, centers of power, the mechanized beehive, the class division, Alex Jones, insider knowledge and oaths, a sociological study of Jones, a custodianship of truth, an academic caste system, monks and universities, veneration of power over truth, the survival of free-thinking spirits, a kept class, The Ideology of Tyranny, the PC-movement, Foucault, buried phantasms reigning supreme, the white male monster, the lineage of the politics of diversity, Bataille plagiarized, Kripal & Strieber, postmodernism & Satanism, the conservatism of postmodernism, white pig art, praising the poor, killing the universals, the lingo of power, arguments that eat themselves, the creation of cognitive dissonance, cognitive malformation, a regime of discursive terror, the spread of dissonance, information overload by design, the view of the despot, the drive for power, how stories are told, a barbarous mindset, securing privilege, the shape of the psyche, organized ritual abuse, dark conspiratainment, social engineering & child traumatization, the cult of violence, Ernst Jünger & pain as the foundation of life, postmodernist strands of violence, soft masses.
Songs: “Blindfold” (with Adriano Dias Pereira), by Sava Marinkovic; “Jagode” by Bitipatibi; “Dumbo”
by Amanita Dodola.
Very well done. This conversation could have devolved into demonizing the so called “alternative media-conspiracy theory world” through criticism. That does happen a lot. Even if it’s unintended. Also, I’m in no way opposed to logical criticism of conspiracy theories.
Instead you both navigated the subject by using criticism to achieve a different, possibly clearer view of how information and events affect us.
Thank you both.
Great podcast! Thanks, Ben, Jasun, and Guido. Jasun, you must keep pursuing this subject of conspiratainment. Every angle and layer opens up a fascinating discussion.
This point about censored information and information overload keeps coming up—the contrast of the world of 1984 where information is suppressed, and the world of Brave New World where there is too much information. In the episode of my podcast called TMI https://notesfromtheuncannyvalley.com/2017/10/05/episode-3-second-to-last-second/, I use quotes from the science fiction writer Philip Dick and the scientist Carl Sagan as a jumping off point. Dick made this prediction in 1980, “(By the year 1995)Computer use by ordinary citizens will transform the public from passive viewers of TV into mentally alert, highly trained, information-processing experts.” A ridiculously naive prediction for a man who specializes in dystopias! As I say in the podcast “Decades later, computer use by ordinary citizens is transforming the public into habitually distracted consumers, unleashing a dark collective id, and manifesting a schizophrenic media environment where no one feels anything is real or true.” In contrast to Dick, Sagan wrote, in 1995 (also the year the internet went commercial), “I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.”
Recently came across Dustin Atlas, an academic also coming at this subject. You might want to talk to him, Jasun. Here are some of his thoughts on conspiracy—
https://blogblawgblog.wordpress.com/2018/01/14/conspiracy-and-the-hamster-wheel/
This was an excellent interview and I look forward to the next installment. I’ve been meaning to send you an email but I haven’t done it. I’m curious what our little conversation looks like now that it’s been a few weeks… I’m glad to have found Gib via the comment section here, as I don’t always look. I just listened to my first little piece of his work and I enjoyed it a lot.
This was a refined conversation, rarefied even. There are some of us out here who appreciate this like fresh water. I’m about a third of the way through seen and unseen. It is insightful & good so far… thank you Jasun.