Strap in, folks, because we're diving deep into the rabbit hole of conspiracy
theories surrounding the total solar eclipse on April eighth. It's like the universe cosmic
spectacular meets a Hollywood blockbuster plot, with every imaginable wild theory thrown into the
Infidel sixty four has the story Infidel. Oh, as you said, welcome
to the realm of the unhinged. You know, the solar eclipse isn't just
a mesmerizing astronomical event, but the ultimate canvas for conspiracy theorists to paint their
wildest fantasies. You know, from a Masonic plot of rituals to allow the
nWo to take over, to red cattle from Texas and Israel for bringing back
sacrificing animals at the temple. This is a grab bag of lunacy, from
rockets to particle accelerators. Everything's been thrown into the mix of this patternicity to
create the most fantastical tales of absurdity. Of course, most have video and
evidence to prove their case. Just as the moon momentmentarily eclipses the sun,
watch far right extremists eclipse of reason and the story we're talking about comes from
Wired. It's by David Gilbert on April fifth, twenty twenty four. So
there's a laundry list that you just mentioned Infidel of coincidental events happening on the
same day, from the firing up of the large Hadrian colander to the launch
of NASA's satellite. It's like conspiracy theorists dream comes true through I meant to
say dream come true with every event being twisted into the fit of the narrative
from impeding do so, I know that you kind of dived a little bit
more into, you know, certain examples of conspiracy theories that were actually espoused.
Tell us a little bit more about that Infidel. Well, you know,
they talked about it passed over Bill Clinton and Mike Pinc's house and jfk
assassination, Waco, all these different things, but really, you know,
it's just a matter of as one of them put you know, there are
many indications that this is the start of something big. No, if you
cover enough area, you're going to cross places where things happen. That's not
exactly something supernatural, but you know, it really is odd how a lot
of these people, and you know, this was a UK died in the
World Conspiracy theorist, So I'm going to do them a little injustice by thinking
more of a slightly different accent. But there's a hell of a lot of
coincidences right here. I mean, come on, be serious. But really,
the one that I found very concerning was was about Israel bringing back the
sacrifice at the Temple with the red heifers, because there are people that believe
that this actually has to happen for the end of the world to occur.
They think these sacrifices have to be resumed and the Third Temple rebuilt. So
when these people start talking about things like this, it concerns me because we
need to be reminded that these are people who don't just think the end of
the world is a possibility, but they want the end of the world to
come about. And that's very concerning. Yes, it is. It is,
Jason, Once you talk a little bit more on your thoughts, oh
man, Well, okay, So you know, I'm in Texas, and
what's really interesting is the day before I recorded up at the ACA Library and
it's great because Infidel was there and you know, uh there with Jamie and
all of our friends, and so I made sure to get the fuck out
of there as quick as possible because I knew what was happening, because the
next day everybody was kind of coming to that area because right around San Antonio
San Marcos there was the path of Totality where you can see the full coverage
of the moon and it's it's wild because you know, I'm driving out and
there's a line exiting San Marcos that was just ridiculous. You know, the
freeway was stopped because of everything. So being being in a very conservative day
like Texas, you know, like, uh, you know, a couple
of us here understand you're you're, I guess you're just your brain is getting
saturated with this type of this type of talking and speak in rhetoric, and
especially working in the industry that I work in, in oil and gas,
you have a primarily conservative group of people who work in that industry. So
I heard a lot of this stuff and it was really disconcerting and what a
really if I have a second, I put something in my notes, and
what it reminded me of was an article that I'd found when I was finishing
up my psychology degree that I used to discuss like difficulties that we deal with
in this world due to people adhering to fundamentals religion. Now the article it's
called, well, it was in the Journal of Applied Research in Memory and
Cognition was published to twenty nineteen. Yeah, and it's called the belief in
fake news is associated with delusionality, dogmatism, religious fundamentalism and reduced analytic thinking.
It was Bronstein at all. Now, it was two studies with over
nine hundred participants, and they're saying that they demonstrated that although like the llusion
prone individuals were no more likely to believe true news headlines, they displayed an
increased belief in fake news headlines was often feature implausible content. Mediation analyzes suggest
that analytic cognitive style may be partially may partially explain these individuals increased willingness to
believe fake news. Exploratory analyzes showed that dogmatic individuals and religious fundamentalists were also
more likely to believe false but not true news, and these relationships may be
fully explained by analytic cognitive style. Our findings suggests that existing interventions that increase
analytic and actively open minded thinking might be leveraged to help reduce belief in fake
news. So the way to translate that is if people learn how to employ
skepticism, which is I know all four of us are all about, then
it helps combat that tendency to believe in fake news. And the thing that
really stood out to me is that they conclusively found in both studies that being
being part of not just religious because that's its own thing, but being part
of a fundamentalist group, which is what we see here in the South and
especially was espousing these ideas, makes you prone to believe fake news and not
real news, which is really interesting to me. That not real really stood
out to me. So that's what I wanted to add to this, Cynthia,
and other articles and other studies that support these notions of religious fundamentalists people
being prone to what they call being delusion prone, which is, in a
sense, you're willing to believe in something with evidence to the contrary. So
that's why religion isn't a delusion, but some of the results of fundamentalist thinking
are delusion because you can show somebody that this is not the case, and
they still cling to it like they cling to their own identity. So back
to you, Cynthia, Well thank you. Yeah, I kind of want
to explore this whole notion about a proclivity to being delusion prone. And our
other resident student of psychology would be miss Helen Green also on the panel as
well. And I think that you wrote a little bit about belief plus mental
illness equals bad outcomes. What did you mean by that? It's because we
tendoth even people that have very very health close beliefs still think they're coming from
a rational place because the magical thinking feeds into it. So for example,
if you think the eclipse and like goes along a certain path and the previous
clips goes on another path, and it forms a pattern, and this pattern
leads to you know, you know, uh, Jesus signaling something, or
the devil signaling something, or the world government signaling something something something something.
To you, it seems rational because you're putting the pattern together. It doesn't
hold any sort of like objectivity to it. But so you you already have
that thinking going okay. And then on top of that, because of this,
you think you're correct. Because the one thing also and we do this
all the time, even people that are skeptics and bias, is that we
follow the thing that makes us feel good rather than what is correct. But
the thing is, though, is that if you don't have that rational thought
and abjectivity to kind of pull you back from that, you'll just follow the
thing that makes you feel good. And the patterns constantly confirm why you think
that belief is it's going to lead to bad outcomes because you're not living in
the real world. You're not living in the world of rationality, You're not
living in the world of you know, this makes me feel good, but
is it true the thing that's making me feel good, the thing that's feeding
that dopamine dump, that's feeding my belief system, that's feeding like you know,
oh, you know, the eclips is here, you know, and
you get all these influencers online like confirming, you know, certain confirming your
bad ideas because bad ideas don't exist in a vacuum, and lean to those
bad ideas leading into bad behavior. Glenn, I know you're going to talk
about this, the article that you had posted about those ideas leading to some
very very tragic outcomes. So even though we you know, like I make
fun of were conspiracy theories because I love being a conspiracy theory, I like,
I think that the way that people think and the stuff they come up
with is entertaining. But I like it as entertainment like I will like ancient
aliens as entertainment. I don't I don't want anyone to think that these ideas
can get so extreme that it causes actual harm. But unfortunately, we see
over and over again with bad ideas and bad beliefs, that it can lead
to actions that cause real harm to other people. And and for you know,
we know people that are you know, that have been ideas and I
call them functional delusionals. They're able to hold down a job, they're able
to take care of their families, they're able to do all the things,
but they just have like you know, they think lizard people are real.
Okay, all right, you know it's I don't think you should think that
way, but it's relatively harmons if you're not hurting anybody. But the thing
is, though, is that where that line is and where mental where the
bad belief feeds into mental illness and those and if you're not getting proper treatment
for that, it can lead to bad outcomes. And that's that's the thing
that I find so disconcerting when we're talking about things like the eclipse because it
exacerbates the people that are dealing with those issues and it and it kind of
aligns, for lack of a better word, for those tendencies for those bad
ideas to become action get amplified. And that's the thing that's so disconcerting.
But I want to explore that whole issue concerning like bad outcomes and you actually
and let's and it was also indicated Infidel that you found a story about how
this whole issue with I believe it was a astrologer influencer that that did of
that fatally stabbed a partner because of you know, because of what because of
this particular event to talk about you know, talk about that a little bit
more. You know, I almost feel like that Jason and Helen set me
up for this perfectly because he talked about the tendency to fall for bad ideas
and a fundamentalist group and then Helen talking about the mental illness aspect, and
you know, I'm not going to go into the fact that we have a
woefully inadequate mental illness UH program as far as taking care of people who have
real problems, because that's a whole issue in itself that really plays into this
as well. I'm glad Helen mentioned it. But you know, this woman,
uh, she was an influencer, as you mentioned, an astrologist.
She had made some sort of name for herself whatever that means in that in
that world. And you know, I found it interesting because on April Fields
she she posted wake up, wake Up, the apocalypse lips is here.
Everyone who has ears, listen, You're time to choose what you believe is
now. And I hear so much Christian rhetoric. Let he that half ear,
let him hear, you know, I hear that rhetoric almost echoing out
of this woman who obviously has some problem because she stabbed her partners. You
mentioned as she got her child into the vehicle, her two children and threw
them out on the interstate and the eight month old daughter died. Uh So
I mean yes, And these are the real ramifications of people believing bad things,
and of course once again to that mental health crisis we have in this
country that we're not paying attention to. But this is why it's so bad
and so dangerous, because, as Helen mentioned, you know, they're functional
people who you know, they believe things. But does it really make a
difference does it really change certain things? No, not really, it doesn't.
But when it comes down to this, this is people being federal rhetoric,
a diet of danger of threat. And so what we have is this
woman who obviously felt some real concerns, obviously not real issues external from herself,
and the price is paid by a family that's lost an eight month old
little girl because of fear and a market that is driven money, politics and
control by fear. And so fear costs us eight month old their life through
their mom who could have really used some help. But we're not really set
up for that kind of thing anyway. Yeah, that's the horrible part about
it. I mean, like all of us can mention about how we can
laugh and joke about these wild conspiracyory but you know, the possibility of our
more serious implications definitely are in the freight, as you mentioned in Fidel,
with this influencer who end up stabling a partner there know the babe actually lose
life and and and here we are right and you know one of the other
things that you know was a thing that was on April eighth, or pre
or pre April eighth, were far right extremists using this celestial event to push
their agenda of government control with warnings of potential disruptions and cell coverage and electrical
outlet out outages, and and some are even convinced that this was just a
smoke screen for a power graph. I I kind of want to get the
panel's thoughts about that, in particular on how like, you know, some
of these different people who will look at a perfectly natural phenomenon and then equivocated
to this particular far reaching issue concerning power graphs and electrical outages and et cetera.
I've started with Helen, then Infidel and in Jason Lee. Okay,
So I don't think when we're talking about people that believe that this is connected
to some kind of wider, you know, thing that's going on. I
think this is just again when even when we're talking about, like, you
know, people that have mental illness, it's still looking for that pattern.
And also when people want to believe that that political control and power comes from
an outside source, it's not. You know, the systems and you know,
culture, personality and all the things that we know help the role the
role of politics as it does. Do they contribute to something that has to
be outside of it, and I think that it's right for people to take
advantage of those things. And we know that's happened. Qann comes to mind,
and which was something that starts to conspiracy. But then when a certain
someone saw where the wind was blowing, took up the banner and it was
like, yeah, this is helping me. And when and when we're talking
about something like you know, an eclipse or a natural phenomenon that we know
how it works, you know, like we know we all know how this
works, but they still have to contribute some kind of like divine intervention to
show that, like you're a particular person that you really really really like and
really really want to have power. It's a it's a beckoning or harrowing of
them like gaining that power, or the opposite where it's a warning and dovo
for that person or that person you know, it's part of something that's really
really bad and it's and it feeds into that whole. It's not separate from
religious belief. It's still politics. Religion is politics, and politics is religion.
It's all the same thing. Is that I'm going I'm going to use
something that is a perfect natural phenomenon it's really cool. But if I give
it a certain spin, if I give it a certain meaning, then now
I can influence my opinion into the whitergeist. And it's it's annoying because this
is just an eclipse. It was really cool. I didn't get to see
it. I stuff on the internet because I wasn't in the viewing place.
But you know, it's cool, but it just frustrates me that people use
celestial normal events to bring about any sort of religious or political spice to a
narrative. It's frustrating. I've got to say that while I was in the
area. Unfortunately, cloud cover took care of that concern. So in twenty
seventeen we went to Nebraska for it and that was really cool, but we
missed the one close by. So but you know, I have to say
that when people start talking about patterns, and I think you're right, hell,
and there's there's a need seat patterns and that expectation. You know,
there are textured tiles in my bathroom that I could tell you thirty things that
I see images of all the time, because that's what our brains do.
We see patterns, and so it doesn't take much. But I think that
right now, what we're seeing is something a little different because we have people
who have a desire to create this constant back and forth. It's not about
truth, it's not about being right. It's about constantly pointing fingers, keeping
the cot, keeping it all churning, just stirring the pot, keeping it
going. Because they breed off of that dissatisfaction. They breed off of that
frustration that they continue to feed. So it doesn't matter if what you're feeding
it is cotton, candy, or actually something of substance, it's still going
to feed the frustration. And that's what they want. Now. Yeah,
So what really stands out to me, all this stuff makes me think of
as social conditioning. If you look at the predominant kiddy tail, if if
you look at the predominant belief, especially where I live in the South,
where a lot of us here live in the South, it's Christianity, and
it's a certain flavor of Christianity that accepts the apocalypse is true. So what's
happening is that? So Cynthia mentioned, you mentioned things like war and bad
shit happening and people rising to power and stuff, And I remember y two
K, I remember very clear. I was old enough to party at that
age, and I just remember everyone telling me shit was going to happen and
all the stuff, and it didn't happen, you know, because we were
prepared. So the reason people thought shit was happening is because they were tying
it back to the revelations of John, you know, and that shit that's
really driven down our throat in the media, you know, like like like
Helen and Infidel were talking about. It's we've we've been primed for shit like
this for a long time. But we're also primed to follow authority, right
so, and then anybody who's in the media, anybody who's in politics,
anybody who makes money in a sense have been positioned at a place of authority,
anybody who's given a platform, we have an automatic. We need to
listen to the thing happened to us, especially those like we talked about and
have been talking about, and I mentioned those who are primed for delusion prone
thinking. So I think the root of this is ultimately just a campaign almost
like a syop that I mean saturates every aspect of our existence. And then
there's a book that everybody in these fucking places that don't pay taxes that's taught
and driven down our throat, and everybody kind of has this like fear porn
boner. People love destruction and fucking bad shit and if they can be the
one that's like knows about the bad shit and can fucking say I told you
so, and that just gives them like a like a social boner. Right,
So it's I think that we just got a priming issue that goes down
kind of just to the root of our neurology and physiology. At this point,
we respond emotionally to this type of shit. It's easy to rile us
up. It's easy to get people interested, it's easy to get people focused
on fear porn and from all the reasons that Infidel and all and all the
methods and ways of Infidel and Helen what we're talking about. But I think
the root cause is ultimately inculcation and indoctrination and the normalization of armageddon. And
if you I'll end with this, if you look at the current stats of
people who believe that there's going to be an end of the world armageddon type
event, it is is way more than you would fucking think, especially in
a country that's at the forefront of medical and technological innovation. It really breaks
my heart. So it's about all I got to say about that. Yeah,
it's it's very interesting, how you know, Helen, you were talking
about basically like endorphin response, about the brain really endorphined. You know,
when we when we focus on things that make you good, But when I
think about like world domination, triggering events, and also the whole thing about
armageddon, it doesn't make me feel good. I'm so I'm so sorry.
I'm so sorry that what I really want to hit on this is because I'm
gonna forget it. Dopamine hits during the anticipatory stage when you are anticipating something.
That's when dopamine hits. All this is is fucking anticipation all the time.
So I'm sorry to cut in. I just really because you're hitting on
something that's like something I was just listening to Sapalsky talking about I'm gonna drop
out, But I just I wanted to hit that. It made me excited.
It is a constant fucking anticipation, so they're constantly getting psychologically fucking stoned
off of this. Sorry, I'm done. Sorry, Shell, You're no,
You're perfectly fine. And actually that because like that actually answers a question
that was in my head because I'm like, how in the world are you
getting dopamine responses and also endorphins release off of something that is extremely scary that
we have. Yeah, and then and we have no evidence to support well
that exists, right, But you know, I just wanted to decide tell
everybody that I actually did get a chance to witness the solar eclips in my
area. We got about to ninety four percent of talent in our area in
the good old Windy City, and I went out with my family to witness
it, and it was really cool. Matter of fact, I believe why
was the National Park Service in our area even like held an event. News
was out there. They distributed the glasses so that we can actually see and
I even got my mom on video explaining the pathway of the moon and how
the moon travels in an ellipses, a pattern that contributes to the phenomenon.
It was really great, and that's why I just want to say, I
love you, mommy, You're so smart. But regardless when it comes to
these conspiracy theories, at the end of the day, there is zero evidence
to support any of these coins. So while some folks are busy connecting dots
that don't exist, maybe it's time for a reality. The eclipse should just
be enjoyed for what it is, a beautiful natural phenomenon, not a plot
for world dumb