247: The Deeper State
This week we’re looking at how folks who associated themselves with the magical and morbid QAnon memes about the “coming storm” that would destroy the Deep State have become that storm, mainly by talking about it, and are now in the position to congeal an even Deeper State characterized by more repression and control. They’re doing it both as conspiracists and as conspiracy theorists would predict: as rich guys pretending to be oppressed.
This opens up the question of “Have we been here before in the US, and what happened?” The parallels are uncanny. In the late 1920s, Henry Ford had his car dealers stick copies of The Dearborn Independent newspaper in the glove compartments of new cars. That was the rag in which he published excerpts of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Today another auto baron, Elon Musk, busts out seigheils and posts Nazi memes whenever he likes. But only one of them got a White House office.
Show Notes
CDC Statement on Measles Outbreak
US Health Secretary Kennedy calls for end to deadly Texas measles outbreak
LIVE: Kash Patel’s confirmation hearing for FBI director
Kash Patel Wants to Work From Home for FBI. But Who Does He Live With? | The New Republic
How Dan Bongino Went From Infowars to FBI Deputy Director | WIRED
123: The Red-Pilled "Academic" Who Named Our Podcast — Conspirituality
Conspiracy Theories Abounded in 19th-Century American Politics | Smithsonian
Wealthy bankers and businessmen plotted to overthrow FDR. A retired general foiled it.
Medical Mystery: What killed ‘Red Scare’ Sen. Joseph McCarthy?
What We Know About the CIA's Midcentury Mind-Control Project | Smithsonian
FBI Records: The Vault — COINTELPRO
Richard Hofstadter’s “The Paranoid Style” Can’t Help Us Now
JFK, Richard Hofstadter, and the ‘Paranoid Style in American Politics’
Ford's Anti-Semitism | American Experience | Official Site | PBS