Parallax Views w/ J.G. Michael
Society & Culture
On this edition of Parallax Views, fake news and the rise of conspiracy theories like QAnon have become political hot-takes since the 2016 election of President Donald Trump and events like the January 6th, 2021 "Stop the Steal" riots on Capitol Hill. But disinformation and conspiracy theories that stretch far beyond the limits of credulity didn't begin in the 21st century. Case in point with the strange case of UFO hobbyist Paul Bennewitz. and what has become know to UFO enthusiasts as "The Bennewitz Affair". It's a story that doesn't necessarily point towards beings from another world, but rather the mix of deliberate disinformation on one hand and flat-out kookery on the other hand that may play a role in phenomena of Pizzagate and QAnon.
Adam Gorightly, author Saucers, Spooks, and Kooks: UFO Disinformation in the Age of Aquarius, and David Perkins, who wrote the forward to said book, join us on this edition of the program join us to unravel how disinformation campaign involving a special agent of United States Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) and others participated in a disinformation campaign against Bennewitz after the enthusiastic UFO hobbyist began attracting unwanted attention to Kirtland Air Force Base.
The saga of Paul Bennewitz, as you'll learn in this conversation, ended in tragedy. More precisely, Bennewitz was driven off a psychological cliff into madness that culminated in instiutionalization. But the story doesn't end there. As it turns out the fanciful stories fed to Bennewitz about malevolent extraterrestrial, government deals with an alien presence and it's cover-up, an underground base at Dulce, New Mexico, and more formed the foundation of modern UFO mythology, from cattle mutilations to Area 51, in its most conspiratorially-minded form (which, incidentally, often overlap a great deal with far-right wing "Patriot" and militia movements). Regardless of whether one believes in UFOs or not, what makes the Bennewitz Affair and the late 20th UFO Conspiracy subculture potentially interesting today is what it may be able to tell us about disinformation and the current crop of conspiracy theories like QAnon in the 21st century. All that and more on this edition of Parallax Views!
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The U.S. Role in the Rise of Vladimir Putin w/ Greg Palast/The Hidden History of Big Brother w/ Thom Hartmann/Orthodox Christianity, Russkiy Mir, & the Ukraine Crisis w/ George Demacopoulos
Cuba & Ukraine Crisis w/ William LeoGrande/Gulf States & Ukraine Crisis w/ Kristian Ulrichsen/U.S. Foreign Policy & Ukraine w/ Daniel Bessner
Hitler’s Cosmopolitan Bastard: Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, the Founding Father of Europe w/ Martyn Bond/Russia and Sanctions w/ Brian Grodsky
Soaring Gas Prices & the Economy w/ Mike Swanson/Putin’s Game in Ukraine w/ Larry Hancock
The Cloak-and-Dagger, Hall of Mirrors World of the Donbass w/ Aaron Lake Smith/Project Censored’s State of the Free Press 2022 w/ Mickey Huff
Ukraine Crisis w/ John Feffer
Putin’s Ukraine Gamble, War, and Hubris w/ Patrick Cockburn
Ukraine Crisis w/ Zachary Paikin/World Beyond War w/ David Swanson
Ukraine Crisis w/ Kuba Wrzesniewski
Ukraine Crisis w/ James W. Carden
70s Blaxploitation Cinema and Its Pop Culture Legacy w/ Thaddeus Russell & Kamasi Hill
The Palestinian Struggle and Human Rights w/ Dr. Hanan Ashrawi/The 2022 Israel Lobby Con w/ Grant F. Smith
The Problems of Genocide: Permanent Security and the Language of Transgression w/ A. Dirk Moses
The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution w/ Lindsay M. Chervinsky
The Golden Age of Islamic Philosophy + Muhammad Ali Jinnah w/ Amb. Akbar Ahmed/Global Wealth Inequality w/ Chuck Collins
Cuba: The 60 Year Embargo, the Pandemic Response, & Havana Syndrome w/ Dr. Mitchell Valdés Sosa/Foreign Interventions & Turmoil in Libya (+ Gulf Politics & Yemen) w/ Giorgio Cafiero
The Azov Battalion and U.S. Support of the Ukrainian Far-Right w/ Lev Golinkin
FIXED: Havana Syndrome, TikTok Tics, & Mass Psychogenic Saber-Rattling/The Lucrative Business of Anti-Vaxx? w/ Mia Jankowicz/Amensty International Israel/Palestine Report w/ Stephen Zunes
Breaking Through the Propaganda on Israel/Palestine w/ Sut Jhally & Roger Waters/NSO Group Spyware Scandal Deepens w/ Nick Cleveland-Stout & Taylor Giorno
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