Newsletter: Fostering Courage and Compassion
Fighting for Free Speech and Resisting Trump’s Threats
This week’s livestream will be tomorrow, Wednesday, September 24th, at 2-3 p.m. EDT. We plan to livestream on YouTube, Substack, Instagram, Facebook, and others! I welcome everyone to tune in with questions and comments! Last week’s livestream was a great success; you can see the recording here if you missed it.
I was invited to join Lev Parnas and Malcolm Nance for a Substack Live on Lev’s channel this week. Ukraine is under grave assault by Putin. It appears Putin is testing NATO by flying drones and planes over NATO airspace. We will be working on a post for Lev’s Substack on the issue of Russia kidnapping Ukrainian children and brainwashing them to become true believers.
Former Trump attorney, Michael Cohen, invited me to be on his “Mea Culpa” podcast. We discussed why Trump’s followers remain loyal despite scandals, how repetition and fear fuel authoritarian obedience, and why MAGA loyalists must be seen as victims of psychological warfare. We explored the overlap between cult tactics, Christian Nationalism, and Trump’s constant attacks on the press. It is available on Amazon Audio and on the MeidasTouch YouTube Channel.
In this week’s episode of my newly rebranded podcast, Cults, Culture & Coercion, “Compassion Over Conversion: Continuing Science-based Research for Queer and Trans Health,” I interview Dr. Matthew Skinta. I met Matthew at a Harvard Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy conference where we both presented. He is a tenured professor and expert on gay and trans issues, and in this moment of attack on Trans and Gay people; I am so glad to platform an expert. You can listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Of course, the interview video is on our YouTube channel and below:
In next week’s episode, “Irene’s Entropy: Coffee as Courage and Ritual as Repair,” I talk with Irene of Irene’s Entropy, a mechanical engineer turned musician, storyteller, pilot, and entrepreneur. Raised in a strict Mormon household, she underwent the experience of a recruitment mission and left in her early 20s. The video of our talk is available in advance for our YouTube members, so now is an excellent time to become a YouTube channel member.
Last week, we posted a special members-only post for our paid Substack subscribers, “The Cult of the Sovereign Citizen.” I explain how the sovereign citizen movement operates with cult-like dynamics, using ritualized pseudolegal beliefs to hijack people’s decision-making, disrupting court proceedings, and often leading to severe personal consequences. If you haven’t already done so, please consider supporting my work and becoming a paid subscriber; you will receive many benefits, including deep dive investigative analyses, case studies, timely commentary, special guest collaboration posts, and in-depth subscriber-only responses.
Last Thursday, I had a fascinating Zoom meeting with the Oatmeal Club of Bainbridge Island in Washington State. We discussed the pervasive influence of undue influence and psychological manipulation in modern society, emphasizing the role of media, social media, and AI in targeting emotions and thoughts. I fielded questions from the audience and highlighted the impact of disinformation from China, Russia, and Iran on U.S. politics and the importance of critical thinking and diverse information sources.
This upcoming Thursday at 7:30 Eastern time, I have been invited to be a guest on the Seneca Project podcast, The Stakes. I will speak with hosts Tara Setmayer and Michelle Kinney about my book, Cult of Trump, and how Christian Dominionism is shaping our political landscape.
In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, I would like to remind everyone that I have been translating my work into Spanish, including a downloadable Spanish-language version of my Influence Continuum and BITE Model. My book, Combating Cult Mind Control, has been recently published as Combatiendo el Control Mental de las Sectas.
Compassion, empathy, and science have all been under rapid-fire attack during the second Trump Administration. This is especially true towards Queer and Transgender communities, though other minority communities within the United States are also being targeted. Dr. Matthew D. Skinta, PhD, ABPP, is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Affiliated Faculty of Women and Gender Studies at Roosevelt University in Chicago. He helped us better understand what areas of the science community are being targeted, what research projects have been cancelled, and on what grounds.
Read the blog post or listen to the podcast, below:
In 1997, a distressed father in Missouri insisted that a judge lacked jurisdiction over his custody case simply because the courtroom flag flew a so-called “maritime flag of war.” In his view, the flag meant the court was under “admiralty law,” not civil law. Therefore, he claimed, the judge had no authority to rule on his family matters.
Read the paid subscriber article now!
As always, please let us know what you think about these pieces or what you’d like to see us discuss in the future. Thanks so much!
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