Hello, everyone. This is Conspiruality, where we investigate the intersections and roots of conspiracy theories and spiritual influence to uncover cults, pseudoscience, and authoritarian extremism.

My name is Matthew Remski. You can follow myself, Derek and Julian, on Blue Sky. The podcast is on Instagram and threads, and you can find me,

personally, on YouTube and TikTok as anti-fascist ad. This Patreon bonus is called Liberals punching left,

and it's my entry in the async paywalt conversation the three of us are having on this podcast

about the definitions of liberalism

and leftism in the context of how various strains of the Democratic Party will either defeat

or concede to the MAGA movement at the midterms. For me, the conspiruality tie-in is about

a root diagnostic task. We've spent years thoroughly describing how

spirituality spins out of control in cognitive and affective zones, and we agree on the mechanics

of how that happens, but we disagree on the political and economic causes and on what the history

of fascism predicts.

So while our beat is not explicitly political,

we have also discovered the deep political divides that impact how we approach this material.

And it's challenging because we are political actors like everyone else,

but we are not political scientists.

However, I do think we are

learning how to be more precise about ideology. Okay, so what do I mean by liberals punching left?

I'm describing the habit of centrist and liberal politicians, pundits, and

institutions directing their sharpest attacks, not at the right, but at their own left flank.

I'm describing the habit of treating leftists as an urgent threat to the political order,

even when they have almost no power. And the examples are everywhere.

Bill Clinton declares the era of big government is over to signal liberal distance from labor.

...