49 – Conspiracy Theories, Pseudosciences, God, Empire, & Privilege w/ Christian Perez

This week, Sam chats with Christian Perez. Christian is an adjunct professor of political science at Brookdale Community College and often lectures on the dangers of conspiracy theories. He's also the host of the Modernity and Absurdity podcast.

Things Discussed

- The dangers of even seemingly benign conspiracy theories and the harm of pseudoscience & alternative health (as gateways and toxic environments).

- How conspiratorial thinking always comes with contradictory beliefs, such as conspiracists believing Princess Diana was killed by the royal family while simultaneously believing she's still alive.

- How Christians are one of the oldest conspiracists—because why isn't everyone Christian when the son of God came down to Earth and "His Word" now exists in the world? In particular, why haven't the Jewish people converted to Christianity when they've known about Jesus the longest? How come Christians have traveled the world and have been able to convert everyone else except the Jewish people? And what about Muslims, why won't they convert? Thus conspiracies and contradictory thinking.

- How racism and contradictory thinking allows conspiracists to see the atrocities that have happened to minority groups—from being locked in cages, tortured, experimented on, enslaved, and even genocide, then fear it'll happen to them but then simultaneously deny it ever happening to the minority groups.

Additional Reading from Christian:

https://harpers.org/archive/1964/11/the-paranoid-style-in-american-politics/
http://whatstheharm.net
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Icke
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120126152134.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_libel
https://www.houstonpress.com/arts/no-it-s-not-your-opinion-you-re-just-wrong-updated-7611752
https://eastcoastrenegades.wordpress.com/2012/10/25/the-illuminati-and-why-it-spoke-to-me/
https://whorulesamerica.ucsc.edu/theory/conspiracy.html
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2019/06/who-goes-nazi-office-edition

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Find Christian at the Modernity and Absurdity podcast and on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Modernity-and-Absurdity-849727425064079/

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