Bonus Sample: Goliath & Narcissus: A Brett Weinstein Breakdown
What if every important world event, regardless of how tragic or distant, is really part of a secret plan that only a handful of contrarian podcast pals can decipher? Julian breaks down bizarre clips from recent Dark Horse livestreams, and wonders about the connection between conspiracy theorizing and an increasingly self-important disconnection from reality. Stick around for an expert cameo from psychology professor, Matt Browne, of Decoding the Gurus.
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Hello everyone, welcome to Conspiratuality.
I'm Julian Walker.
Today, for this bonus episode, I'm thinking about the psychology of conspiracism.
I'm going to look at a series of recent clips with you from a particular high-profile contrarian influencer.
He has a YouTube channel, along with his wife, that has close to a half million subscribers.
During the COVID pandemic, they became incredibly influential as a kind of conduit for anti-vax doctors and ivermectin enthusiasts.
And there were three in particular who would use their YouTube podcast as a stepping stone or a launch pad for gaining exposure to Joe Rogan's roughly 11 million listeners.
As well as the circuit of big-ticket conferences and high-profile protest marches like that infamous Defeat the Mandates rally at the Lincoln Memorial where RFK Jr.
had his famous Anne Frank escaping the Nazis gaffe.
As well as his claim that Bill Gates was using 80,000 drones to surveil the population so as to make sure everyone got the deadly COVID vaccine.
I'm talking, of course, about Bret Weinstein.
We've covered him before, but his recent content has made me wonder both if he's getting worse and also what that means.
It has me thinking about the kinds of arcs that conspiracy influencers take.
And what those arcs might show us about human psychology, about the phenomenon of audience capture, and perhaps the kinds of echo chambers that these folks find themselves in.
Now, you've probably heard me observe what I now realize is perhaps a manifestation of this.
Since the beginning of 2023, the contrarian, alt-media, conspiracy-friendly podcast and YouTube crew ...kind of collectively decided that it was time to just go ahead and take a victory lap.
This entailed reinforcing one another's echo chamber perception that in fact every claim they had made that was criticized during the pandemic as being a conspiracy theory In fact, had turned out to be true.
Really, just because they say so.
You know, the vaccines failed and were deadly.
COVID was definitely a lab leak.
Masks never worked.
And all the quarantine measures were actually covert authoritarianism with an ulterior motive.
Kids were hugely psychologically damaged by masks and not going to school.
And, of course, the Twitter files proved that big tech, legacy media and government intelligence agencies were all colluding in censoring the brave truth-tellers who have now finally, supposedly, been vindicated.
Now, as usual, this story includes some half-truths, but a lot more distortions, bad interpretations, and motivated leaps in reasoning that are not actually supported by any evidence or facts.
But in the closed loop of these circles, and the fame and fortune incentives that keep making sensationalist claims that contradict mainstream perspectives necessary, this doesn't really matter.
Now in some cases, this dynamic, as we've covered a lot on the podcast, drives many influencers further and further into the arms of right-wing propagandists.
Largely because those people traffic so fluently in conspiracy theories as a lingua franca.
Russell Brand, of course, is the flagship example, but Joe Rogan's platforming of Alex Jones and then Gavin McInnes, who started the Proud Boys, and the slow at first and then all at once slide he had into having an overwhelmingly anti-woke and far-right guest list really paved the way.
And then that slide perhaps inevitably coincided with more reasonable, science-informed and politically progressive guests presumably electing not to return.
Now in other cases, as in the one I am speculating about today, the intense identification with having access to hidden, stigmatized knowledge and brave but persecuted analysis of the world seems to significantly amplify, or perhaps just make more and more visible, a specific psychological trait.
And that trait is narcissism.
Narcissism is a term that's often used in common speech as an insult.
Self-absorbed, arrogant, toxic.
To be called a narcissist is a pathological label that borders on describing a sociopath.
And it is true that it's probably wise to steer well clear of people with the extreme amplification of trait narcissism, which is technically diagnosed as narcissistic personality disorder.
But as with other traits like conscientiousness, neuroticism, agreeableness, extroversion or introversion, etc., we all exist on a kind of sliding scale of narcissism too.
Many psychologists believe that a moderate amount of it is healthy and supports confidence and resilience and optimism in the face of life's difficulties.
Now I find it worthwhile to remember that when the Roman poet Ovid created the famous story over 2,000 years ago about the character named Narcissus falling in love with his own reflection in a pool of water after having rejected another character in the story named Echo, who had the affliction of only being able to repeat the last few words of anyone she was talking to, This kicked off a literary and psychological fascination with narcissism that many have explored and unpacked ever since.
Now in Ovid's story, which may have even had earlier origins, Narcissus eventually comes to realize that his longing for union with his own reflection that he mistakenly perceives as an always out of reach true love is so consuming the unrequited burning passion so great within him that he dies and is then transformed into a beautiful gold and white flower.
