On Saturday, February 21, Tom Secker and I had the great pleasure of joining Kira Young on her live radio show The Bridge. We started out with a discussion of the recent surge of neo-nazism within the alt-community and what this means for alternative media. Later on, we explored the fascination the Left has with Vladim Putin and all things Russian. We then moved on to the subject of cults and their connections with the intelligence services. I went into some detail regarding Scientology and various cultic connections to the CIA. In particular, I discussed psychic research being conducted by the CIA at Stanford Research Institute, headed by two high-ranking Scientologists, Harold Puthoff and Ingo Swann. I related how the CIA was funding this research while the FBI was deeply involved in infiltrating and arresting high-ranking members of the cult. Later, we explored the LSD movement and the CIA orchestration behind it, as well as the interesting Scientologists who were part of that movement. We rounded off the conversation by looking at the current drug culture within the alt-movement. All three of us gave our thoughts on the popularity of DMT and ayahuasca, and how the promotion of these power psychoactive drugs may be part of a much wider plan to derail the alternative community. We also reflected on how cannabis culture has changed from a movement promoting personal freedom into a cult of getting stoned all the time. Finally Tom and I talked about our new podcast series The CIA and Hollywood, and what to expect from it.
Show notes:
The Bridge with Kira podcast archive
Porkins Policy Review 
Comments
Hey Pearse, interesting podcast, also courtesy of Kira and Tom Secker. I do think you use the term ‘cult’ a little too loosely, but I haven’t got a better term to suggest, so it will do for now.
On an somewhat unrelated note, I noticed that you don’t offer any way to support you financially with donations. Is this a position of principle for you, or do you have some other reason for this? I would gladly throw some bitcoin in your cup.
Hey Bob,
I know what you mean with throwing around the term cult, it can get a bit dicey. We didn’t get a chance to discuss it at all but Stefan Molyneux would have been an excellent example of a true bonafide cult leader operating within the alt-media. His practice of “de-fooing” is identical to “disconnection” and he exhibits many other traits similar to a cult leader running a cult.
I actually get this question quite often about donations. I would gladly accept donations bitcoin or otherwise. The only thing stopping me is my long awaited website update. There was a time a few months ago when I was about to revamp the entire site; make it look a lot sharper and easier to use, and add a donation button. The new podcast series Tom Secker and I are working on has been eating up a lot of my time so that has put a damper on the website updates. Hopefully, fingers crossed, sometime in either April or May the website will be updated and there will be an easy way to donate. I would appreciate it tremendously. You can always send money to my PayPal account.
Sorry Pearse, I’m just not comfortable linking my paypal account to your work — I fear things will get worse before they get better, so I am taking precautions. You are a public person with some community support, whereas I’m just some guy on the internet who is not yet ready to shed his cloak of anonymity.
You can easily add a bitcoin address at the end of your posts, and the donations will go directly to your wallet. It really couldn’t be easier.
As for cults, and Mr. Molyneux in particular — this issue definitely warrants further discussion and investigation. Do you think he’s an intelligence asset? Do you think he helps or harms the alt-media community? James Corbett seems to think he’s a good guy, as does Jeff Berwick of Anarchopulcho and Anarchast fame. I also think he puts out pretty good content, and does address a fair bit of taboo issues other alt-media personalities do not dare touch. I’ve my own experience with Freedomain Radio, and I can tell you more if you are interested. They say they’re pretty accessible, you could try reaching out to them for comment if you are so inclined.
Regardless of whether we agree on the above matter, you’re doing great work, and I thoroughly appreciate it. Even if I don’t always agree, but I think that’s the point of this decentralized, federated community — we the irate minority are not of one mind, and forge our own paths in this complex and sometimes hostile place.
“It’s a cold world out there. Sometimes I think I’m getting a little frosty myself.”
Let’s get down to business, shall we. Alternative media and the community around it have a long history of twisting facts to fit their agenda, having attention span of about 60 seconds, being obsessed with sensationalized news stories and ignoring just about anything with substance, being homophobic, racist, misogynistic and polluting informational flow in this medium with useless ranting. 2/3 of articles and videos shared are nothing but empty attitudes, stretched on two pages of text or THREE hours of audio.
It’s an awful people hating space, where people go hysterical about death of animals… but their reaction to death of actual human beings can be summarized with “mm…well, this happened..mm..yeah”. They go from “yes, islamophobia is another elite project, divide and conquer, blah-blah-blah” to “these RADICAL horrible GODAWFUL muslims” with a speed that is truly astounding (if not comical). People cringe, eye-roll and take a break from a computer to walk off the second-hand embarrassment. It’s all good. It makes sense that the majority of people questioning the mainstream are either poorly socialized crowd, who don’t fit in well; or people drawn in from other fringe movements, like anarchists; or not so fringe white supremacists… or all of the above plus some bible worshiping thrown in for dramatic flare. I’m only half joking. Okay, I’m not even joking. Nobody is judging, nobody is calling anybody out (even when the occasion calls for it).
But like. This “Russia is my second mother and Putin is my long lost Daddy” deal. It’s getting out of control. A year ago, when I saw some people drawing parallels between US states and Lugansk&Donetsk, I admit – I laughed. It takes a lot of courage to put your content out there, people mess up, things happen. In about 2 weeks after? People started to come out of e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e with piles and piles of completely misinterpreted facts, russian propaganda lies, with de-contextualized and primitive understanding of the region. And it was amazing to me, because this was probably the first time in my life I fully understood that Soviet’s closed borders created an absolute vaccum in the minds of Westerners, when they just don’t know how to feel about anything, and I mean anything, that concerns this region. It’s a bizarre mix of white supremacist sympathy for them as white people on one side, and instinctive alienation left from the years of past propaganda on the other.
Honestly, it’s a mess. There’s something to be said about general attitude and philosophy behind this growth sprout of love for Putin. The belief is that as long as anybody fights against NWO, their ends justify the means. In the case of Putin, not only is he the long dreamed leader for white nationalists (who are stuck in perpetual blues after Obama took the office), he’s also fighting the good fight elsewhere, shedding blood on the other side of the globe, fighting the beast (in many ways their beast) out of their homes, lands, ocean away. In their understanding he’s keeping war out of their “homeland” and for that, they are grateful (while making plans to flee out of their homeland). Albeit a little guilty he’s fighting, supposedly, the battle they should be. You just cannot reason with that. This is an attitude of a coward and cowards are not rational, they are loyal to illusions their fear pains. Not facts.
There’s also the language barrier, that goes both ways. Ukrainian media sites never made a habit of translating their content to english, unlike the russian counterparts. You get tons of Soviet style propaganda from russian sources and it’s a dribble from Ukrainian side of the web.
Where I’m getting with this. Considering the face of this community, maybe I’m the fool here for being surprised at this spectacle. This Putin cult in alternative media reminds me of people from first world countries abandoning everything they know to find themselves in another culture, going to third world country and fetishizing their language, beliefs, history. Only now it’s a white country. Which, I presume, exacerbates the symptoms.
I’m under impression some people are choosing to lay low and wait this farce out until it fizzles. I tip my off my hat to the three of you for speaking out.
Now, I know there are nuts out there in alt-space, but at least there’s a variety of nuttery. Unlike the mainstream cultural monolith, which is crazy in a very uniform way. But nuttery can only established after you’ve ruled out wrongness.
Now, I will say at the outset that Putin is as much a ruler and controller as “our guys” over in the angloamerican establishment. But I have the benefit of linguistic dexterity both in English and Russian, so I’ve been able to gather a lot of understanding from the “other side”.
Do you think our alt-media folks here know what the “Putin Plan”, or, more precisely, the plan for Russian Sovereignty is? Because it is very much about taking back control of their central bank. They talk about it pretty openly — look up Evgeny Fedorov’s videos on this if you are curious.
That sounds pretty good, right? Well… thing is, they want to institute zero-percent rates on the Ruble, and get the printing presses rolling to build factories.
Do you think our alt-media guys know this? I’m all for sovereignty and all, but they speak of _national_ sovereignty, much like the rulers of other nations the angloamerican establishment has encroached upon — take Venezuela, Iran, or Cuba, to name a few. It’s almost like they’re handing Putin the reins on purpose…
You speak of the perception that the Russian people are defending the “homeland”. Thing is, that entire region has been greatly informed by an actual, factual invasion back in the forties. You might remember it as World War Two, but for them it is the Great Patriotic War. Russian history is replete with invasions and open aggressions — whether it’s the Khans, Napoleon, Wilhelm or Hitler, and the defensive narrative has been a staple in the History Textbooks for a very long time.
Of course, the rulers make good use of these cultural staples. They do it in Russia — or Greater Rus’ as they would see it. Those same rulers understand the chessboard positions quite well. Just today I was listening to a Russian member of the Sovereignty Movement give a speech about who runs the WWF, with all the links to the Huxleys, the Oranges, and the Rockefellers that you probably know all too well. (And no, I’m not talking about wrestling, though I would not mind seeing David “The Rock” Rockefeller go against Jesse Venura)
As happens quite often in our own alt-media space, people have a good understanding of the present moment, but a subpar knowledge of its history, and therefore an inadequate range of plans and solutions for the future. Now, you want to say you’ll sit this out until it blows over. That there’s a Cult of Putin a-brewing. Well, feel free to sit on the sidelines, but then you have committed to doing nothing to differentiate between those who seek truth, but are underinformed, and those who are truly, irretrievably crazy.
As for me, I will try to do my part. We’re all fringes here — pick who you wish to _battle_, and who you wish to _inform_. Because when you explain something away as “crazy”, you commit yourself to inaction, ’cause you can’t argue with crazy.
Best be sure crazy’s really as crazy as you think.
DMT…a product used since time immemorial (like magic mushrooms) and LSD (which is an atom short of being a natural product, we could even discover it is a natural ergoloid. I’ve had LSD 100+ times from 99 to ’08 and I haven’t embarked into anything cultish or brain-washing. Those things are tools, if used wisely, and certainly not in an MK-Ultra setting or other psywarfare. I would imagine Pearse, that you know that it was invented by a Swiss researcher at Sandoz (who make all kinds of medication, from stuff in the aisles for cold to prescription) looking for a heart medication, which makes sense because some ergoloids really constrict the arteries badly it kills you and you bad trip beforehand (like in the middle ages when people ate bread contaminated with ergot).
Your straight-edge stance is a bit overbearing at times. Otherwise you’re awesome though.