Fears of a Military Coup, America Has a Testing Problem & Mass Formation Hypnosis

In the first episode of 2022, Alex covers a myriad of topics including the outcome of the Elizabeth Holmes trial, a disturbing op-ed by three retired US generals in which they warn of a potential coup in 2024, America’s COVID testing problem, and thoughts on the Joe Rogan podcast and “mass formation psychosis.” 

In this episode:

On December 17th, three retired generals put out a disturbing op-ed in the Washington Post. These three generals were Paul Eaton, Antonio Taguba, and Steven M. Anderson. In a nutshell, the article worries that the same doubts that have impacted the general public concerning who won the 2020 election have also hit the military. The generals paint the hypothetical scenario that in 2024, a large portion of the armed forces isn’t sure who won the election. This is made worse by conflicting reports from military leaders. What if in 2024 there is another riot but this time the military is splintered and the rioters get support? 

 

The US has a testing problem and even after a summer of the Delta surge, policymakers and the private sector were still behind in producing enough. Alex goes into some of the reasons as to why this happened and what can be done. In general, it seems like the US lacked and still lacks any national strategy.

 

Joe Rogan has recently gone fully into the anti-vaccine space and the idea of “mass formation psychosis” has been discussed by several of his recent guests. They argue that there is a nefarious plan to vaccinate the country and not discuss treatment methods or alternative options. Alex mentions how Dr. Malone recently said on the podcast that “When you have a society that has become decoupled from each other and has free-floating anxiety in a sense that things don’t make sense, we can’t understand it, and then their attention gets focused by a leader or series of events on one small point just like hypnosis, they literally become hypnotized and can be led anywhere.” People like Rogan and many on the right believe this describes the left’s authoritarian shift during COVID. In reality, Alex argues that this idea better reflects what the Trump movement did to the right.