202: Steve Hassan and the Trans Cult Conspiracy Theory

Conspirituality

Derek Beres, Matthew Remski, Julian Walker

Social Sciences, Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, Spirituality, Society & Culture, Science

4.2 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 18 April 2024

⏱️ 82 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“Cult expert” Steve Hassan has been publicly concerned with the complex sociology of trans youth since 2020. We track that interest back to his communications with gender critical activists in 2017, who reached out to him because they believed that his cult theory could shed light on what they believed were nefarious aspects of the trans awareness movement. In the spirit of helpfulness, but without any chops in the subject, he stepped up to the plate and started swinging. Regardless of how earnest or paranoid his concern is, his access to this landscape has been bought with his intellectual legacy, and been filtered through networks that question trans identity altogether. His most inflammatory (but also silly) claim is that many young people are being hypnotized by online pornography and influenced by social media groups to the extent they inexorably choose medical transition. We investigate and analyze this unfortunate skid into the culture war mud. Hassan has stated at length his opposition to the “cancel culture” he believes is directed at Rowling and himself. This episode is not that. It’s a sober evaluation of legacy, disciplinary overreach, and what better public intellectual engagement would look like. Show Notes Full show notes posted to our website and Patreon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	But this is the thing that Hasen is really worried about.
0:03.6	Some told me they watched hip-no porn.
0:07.9	I had no idea what they were talking about and so I asked for some
0:11.0	URLs.
0:12.0	He asked for some URLs. He asked for some URLs.
0:13.7	Well, about those URLs, if you find his posts on Instagram
0:17.2	where he repeats this claim, you'll see that dozens
0:20.0	of mystified commenters are asking the same question and he never answers.
0:24.8	So for four years he's made this very strong claim about a genre of fetish porn and no one but
0:29.8	him knows what he's actually referring to so I asked him directly.
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