It Could Happen Here - The Second Messiah: King of Earth

Episode Date: February 13, 2024

Robert reads the autobiographical fiction novel of Justin Mohn, the conspiracy theorist who decapitated his father to spark a revolution against the federal government.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Curious about queer sexuality, cruising, and

expanding your horizons? Hit play on the sex-positive and deeply entertaining podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Join hosts Gabe Gonzalez and Chris Patterson Rosso as they explore queer sex, cruising, relationships, and culture in the new iHeart podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Sniffy's Cruising Confessions will broaden minds and help you pursue your true goals. You can listen to Sniffy's Cruising Confessions, sponsored by Gilead, now on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Thursday. Welcome to Gracias Come Again, a podcast by Honey German, where we get real and dive straight into todo lo actual y viral. We're talking

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Oh, welcome back to Podcast Man, Sad Bad People. The podcast about bad people that make the podcast man sad. I'm the podcast man, Robert Evans, and my co-host today is our friend Garrison Davis. Garrison, how are you doing? Good. I thought it was one of my better intros. That was unfortunately quite good for a topic about some absolutely deranged shit.

Yeah, so obviously this is part two of our series on justin moan the author of our first politically motivated author first because he's just an author better known for his other work yeah i think people should know that when you make that joke as you did the other week on behind the bastards too you are referring to a mathematics paper that cites the uh the unabomber's other published mathematic theories is like better known for his other work mailing bombs to people oh pretty funny yeah and like the unabomber justin moan is deeply accomplished as an all he's written more books than i have well i yes that is true i'm not sure if you want to be writing the types of books that justin is but yeah uh no but but he did write them and you get credit for that um sure so this was as you

stated last episode published in 2020 and i need to start with the cover of this thing. Because it's something else. It's not a good cover. No. It is taken. He appears to have taken it. Or someone else took it of him very close up at a rest stop. And this is relevant because rest stops play a critical, critical role in some of his beliefs about the world and some of his theories

about things that have happened to us. Yes. Rest stops are happening places for Justin Moan. Okay. He is looking behind him. He's like slightly disheveled. He's got like his shirt open weirdly down like a button further than most people.

Gang stalking vibes here. Yeah. It's very much a, and we'll explain gang stalkstalking in a second, but the picture's him, he's like looking behind his shoulder. There's like two big lights behind him in the distance in this photo clearly taken at a rest stop. And then there are like cartoon text bubbles over his shoulder

next to the lights that say, get his picture. Hey, there he is. And then like cartoon action bubbles that say, snap, snap, that I think are supposed to represent people taking photos. People taking pictures, yeah, yeah, yeah he is. And then like cartoon action bubbles that say snap, snap, that I think are supposed to represent people taking photos. People taking pictures. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.

This, as soon as I saw this, I had the same reaction you had, which is like, oh, this is some gang stalking shit. And if you're not aware of gang stalking, gang stalking is kind of an er web 2.0 conspiratorial belief system.

I don't know if a conspiracy theory is even really the right way to frame it gang stalking is people who have i think these are generally people with schizophrenia and one of the things that you can experience with schizophrenia is both this kind of overwhelming sense of paranoia and also the stereotypical hearing voices right um and some people become convinced that they are being followed you know this is something that has happened probably as long as it has existed that they are being like tracked that they are people they're listening in on their thoughts you hear variations of it with the internet and digital communities a chunk of people experiencing this

started forming communities online um and i don't know the exact i don't know if anyone has sort of like sketched out how this happened in time, but the belief they ended up at is that certain people are what are called targeted individuals within the community. And those people are being stalked at all times by large numbers of generally government spies. Now, when I say government spies, they are not envisioning like a James Bond type operator. They believe these are the regular people in the street around them, like people in their neighborhood, their neighbors are all spies

and are all stalking them all the time. And you can watch hours of videos. These people will often film six, eight hours of their life at a stretch. And you can see them just like angrily shouting at their window at like some dude walking past their house or whatever or like a car be like see that blue car didn't pass three times and that wouldn't happen if this wasn't like that and it's so one of the things that like we one of the reasons that gang stalking is kind of interesting and

invaluable to study if you're interested in like how we got to our present moment of like reality collapse in the united states is that this is an example of kind of feelings that have been associated with certain mental illnesses. I'm not going to say it's just schizophrenia, but certain mental illnesses bring about severe bouts of paranoia and a feeling that you are being stalked, right? Or people are listening in on your thoughts or whatever. Because of the way digital communities work, a number of people experiencing this were able to not just get together and share their experiences, but convince each other that they were not the result of an illness and

are in fact the result of a conspiracy. And they have now built a mythos around that conspiracy. And it has led to killings before. People have killed folks they believed were stalking them over gang stalking delusions. It's been happening for years. So yeah, that was the first thing that occurred to me when I saw this cover. And you can find other art that Moan put out where it's like real pictures of him and then fake art of like ghostly figures stalking him with cameras and stuff. Yeah.

A few months before he released his book, he put out a song on Spotify called The Justin's Stalkers, which is about being gang stalked. Yeah. Yeah. And again, gang stalking is not a political conspiracy theory. Other than that, you have to believe the government's evil. But don't we all, right? So it's very accessible. There's certain gang stalking people who think they're like the Freemasons are stalking me

or like the Illuminati is stalking me. It's like random stuff like that. You know? Sure. Yeah. the freemasons are stalking me or like the illuminati is talking it's like random antifa you know sure yeah shit gets grafted on as a result of politics but it did not inherently start as something that was like a political thing just kind of out of this very x-filesy because the 90s is really when this starts to form i think late 90s and it's spread like wildfire on like early internet culture people were able to like convince each other or like have their already like a small delusion be strengthened and grown stronger by other people in this community all kind of encouraging each other.

And I think it's relevant too that it's kind of a web 2.0, early web 2.0 phenomenon. Cause I don't think you get the same thing. And I'm not gonna say that what you would get would it be any healthier, but from the social media. Cause the way most social media works is everyone's kind of in a big pit together and this was really the result of a a kind of community that was closed to outsiders that wasn't really being watched by people who weren't drawn to it building a culture and people like

really it takes a lot of time for that to happen um obviously youtube is also a big place where this is is grown but i think after it it had its roots established that was a bit of a digression but i think it is kind of necessary because this is definitely that is definitely where justin comes out of you know like that is very clear to me all of this is kind of rooted fundamentally in gang stalking i think that's like like the foundational keystone belief in what has become his like conspiratorial milieu. So into the book itself, the first page after the page that lets us all know Kindle Direct Publishing is responsible for this thing, says- Gotta love Kindle Direct Publishing.

Thanks, Amazon. The best place to find all of the wild extremist books you could otherwise never, never make. They've really done us all a solid. This book is dedicated to those who know who the real enemy is and can still laugh even in the worst situations. Hope. I don't know what I hope. That describes me. Yeah.

Great. So there are 10 chapters in this thing. They are long chapters. Chapter one is 32 pages. Chapter two is almost 60 pages. Jesus. Chapter three is like another 60 pages, like 50 pages for five. Yeah, these are like long, long chapters.

And yeah, it's about 450 pages. Wow. So chapter one opens. And I'm just going to read you actually a decent little chunk here. So it starts with like him talking to his parents. But why leave, Buster? You're a hometown hero, Mrs. Moon said. Mrs. Moon, in her late 50s, paced back and forth on the hardwood floor of the living room.

Yeah, Buster, you're popular. You were at the top of your class in high school. You were a star athlete. You could end up mayor of this town someday. Why don't you stay around here where everyone knows you and see what happens? You'll have to start anew elsewhere, Mr. Moon said. And obviously, Buster Moon is the actual Justin Moan, and we're talking about his parents. When we talk about Mr. Moon, this is his dad who he murdered and beheaded. Just keep that in mind. Mr. Moon, in his early 60s,

sat on a couch in the living room watching television. A black and white episode of The Twilight Zone was on. The sound on the TV was muted. That's the point. I want to start anew. I want to meet new people, or at least not associate with the people I grew up with and went to school with my whole life. They're all going nowhere in town,

and they'll take me down with them. And we get a little more of that, where, like, he's talking about why he wants, he's not happy here. There's no future for him. What's interesting to me is why he depicts and we don't know that this is accurate to his experience with his parents, but also I don't necessarily think it is not because what he depicts his parents is saying is he shouldn't do this because it's dangerous. Leaving home is dangerous. You can't be safe on your own in a new place or in the city, and you will inevitably get murdered or have something horrible happen. He puts these words in his dad's mouth, right? After he like, first his

mom tells him like, you're going to die if you move out. And then he puts this in his dad's mouth. Yeah, you're going to get kidnapped, addicted to heroin and sold into a sex trafficking ring. Then five years from now, we'll find pictures of you bound and gagged on some Russian website where you're up for sale. So that's his dad. And then his mom adds, why do you think your older siblings stayed within Ohio when they moved out? It's dangerous out of state without your family. So maybe that's just him putting words in their mouth. But like, I have heard stuff like that from people that is not an uncommon thing to express especially among conservative families cities are dangerous people are getting human trafficked all the time it's not safe to be out on your own and and those

are those are some things he he talked about in his uh beheading video and uh yeah i i i know that after he uh had to move back home from colorado after losing his job he did he did move back in with his parents in pennsylvania yep he does have an older sister that just ran him other things i i know of his actual personal life and how that could maybe tie in but yeah yeah yeah and then you know a little bit later as this argument goes on uh there is a note where his mom's like maybe it would be for the best if we took you to a psychiatrist, Buster. You don't seem to be thinking straight. Interesting.

Unclear to me if they did, but I think that does kind of suggest that was a thing his parents suggested often. And then his dad says, yeah, you're talking crazy, Buster. If someone doesn't mug you when you step out of the car, you'll end up running out of money and being homeless. And then you'll get put in prison for panhandling, tresp or stealing food and ending up making prison love to bubba the butcher and that has the feeling of something that he heard before that someone that's pretty specific like that sounds like something somebody was told and is kind of repeating here you know i i don't know that but that is very much the feel it has um and there's a couple other bits where it's like i i i could see this being something you heard from your very conservative

family um or elsewise picked up in the media because there's another point where his dad is like you'll be all alone and they know exactly how much money you have it's all digital you can't beat the system you can't beat dot dot dot and then in italics the machine mrs moon shot a wide-eyed glance at mr moon huh what do you mean buster said mr moon shook his head oh nothing you'll have to find out for yourself and then at this point a cow screams uh that's how he describes the cow uh as screaming and then their dog barks and they all run outside uh it's clear that something has gone wrong and mr moon says oh hell not again those cult fucking commie bastards he grabs a

shotgun and there they find the exsanguinated and skinned corpse of the family cow outside in the yard because they're at like a farm in ohio i believe yeah they're at like a the family farm so he thinks at first that this hide is a carpet then buster realized the carpet had black and white spots like a cow and was hide material the cow had been completely exsanguinated as the livestock industry would call an animal drained of blood the cow's eyes were missing the bones were strewn in a perfect circle around the cow hide in an almost ritualistic or ceremonial manner with a skull at the top of the circle will 12 would be on a clock about the same time.

It was then there was not one drop of blood near the scene. Huh? Now, when I brought up X-Files earlier, that's kind of why, because that's X-Files stuff. That's a very X-Files opening. Yeah.

The Twilight Zone was playing on the TV in the room in the scene. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And this is obviously, by the way, if you listen to a lot of or read a lot of like, particularly kind of turn of the last century UFO stuff, a lot of it focuses on animals

being exsanguinated, right? Cows killed in these like weird fashions. Now he is talking about a ritual murder. And also the timing doesn't work out because they hear the cow run outside and it's been completely skinned and exasperated. But I think what's important is like, you get an idea of like this didn't come into his mind unbidden right the term exsanguinated as referred to a cow's corpse did not come into his mind and been that's evidence of like the kind of media diet he had right sure i mean he

was born in 1991 that's like yeah that's prime growing up with the x-files oh absolutely yeah i mean i'm not that much older than him and that was definitely a big part of my childhood. Yeah. But you know what could be a big part of your childhood retroactively? The products that can make your life better? That's right. That's right. Garrison, time is a flat circle, and that means that if you buy products that advertise

on our show today, anything bad that happened in your childhood can be healed. So here's the ad. Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about.

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join me every week for Post Run High. It's where we take the conversation beyond the run and get into the heart of it all. It's lighthearted, pretty crazy, and very fun. heart of it all. It's lighthearted, pretty crazy, and very fun. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Curious about queer sexuality, cruising, and expanding your horizons? Hit play on the sex-positive and deeply entertaining podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Join hosts Gabe Gonzalez and Chris Patterson Rosso as they explore queer sex, cruising, relationships, and culture in the new iHeart podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Sniffy's Cruising Confessions will broaden minds and help you pursue your true goals. You can listen to Sniffy's Cruising Confessions, sponsored by Gilead, now on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Thursday. Hola, mi gente. It's Honey German, and I'm bringing you Gracias, Come Again, the podcast where we dive deep

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Ah, we're back, and we're reading from the second messiah king of earth by our friend justin moan so it opened with what i would describe probably as it's probably some some kind of satanic ritual like i'm guessing yeah yeah we get a little more about what his dad thinks here because the next thing you know but his dad starts crying and buster tries to comfort him. And his dad says, a cow that waits nearly a ton. Well, look, the spelling's not perfect. A cow that weighs nearly a ton gets completely drained of blood and its bones and organs are taken out perfectly without one drop of blood being spilled. And it all happens right here in the middle of this field in less than an hour, maybe even in just a couple of minutes. It's the fifth cow this has happened to this season.

And Betsy was my best cow. We just won't be able to make a profit this year oh my gosh he starts to cry and then he says don't tell your mother i told you this but you're right to leave this place and go far away there's nothing for you here and in fact there's nothing for anyone here so at this point buster's like hey don't say that dad you know we've still got a farm it'll be okay and his dad says oh b, soon you will learn. If you move out west on your own, there is an evil in this world, which has found its way into this country,

into every country. It is an ugly evil. Nearly all the family farms in this state and plenty of other states have seen the same trend in the past 20 years or so, a trend none of us have seen before. Unexplainable tragedies.

Livestock gets mutilated or disappears. Crops get infested with bugs or disease. And then all of a sudden, the farm is taking a financial loss. The farm shrinks and eventually the family goes bankrupt or their land is bought out by a big corporation. More farmers have committed suicide in the past decade than any other profession. And I can't blame them. Now, that ties into some very real and very powerful conspiracy theories that this a lot of this ties into like Bill Gates stuff. You know, the idea he has bought up a bunch of farmland and among conspiratorial sex, he has bought all the farmland and China's buying all of it or China and Bill Gates are buying it together.

And they want to because they want to control the food supply and take out the ability of Americans to feed themselves. Right. Yeah. Because they want to control the food supply and take out the ability of Americans to feed themselves, right? Yeah. Like, this is a, this is something he picked up from right-wing media. This is not an invention of his for this book. This is probably something he was either raised to believe or came to believe fairly early in life because of what other people around him were saying. This is common stuff. He has put a twist on it, but this is not coming out of nowhere.

This is common stuff. He has put a twist on it, but this is not coming out of nowhere. So after this, he basically tries to talk his dad into like, hey, can't you call the FBI or the police or, you know, surveil them to catch whoever's doing this? And his dad says, other farmers have tried. They just lose all their money faster. And the police and the FBI have investigated. But how could they stop something like this from happening out of nowhere? I've sold more than half the acres of the Moon family farm over the past three years alone, and we can still barely stay afloat.

There's no fighting it. It's too secretive. It's too constant. It's too well orchestrated. It's just too evil. But why is this happening? Why is the government letting America's farms get unfairly taken over? Well, as my father once told me, if you want to take over a country, you have to gain control of their food supply.

Remember, my father was an immigrant from Germany, and he fled the Nazis with your grandmother, who was a Jew, to come to America. He used to always say, there are the Germans, there are the Russians, and then there are the Germans from Russia. And they all came to America for the same reason, land. And that is Justin's family history, which is why some nazis on telegram did not like him uh yeah he's very much not a nazi and at the same time there's elements of like what he's saying here that like yeah the germans from russia that moved here very much john birch stuff that like a fifth column of communists from europe have moved here and are trying to change this country so the conversation ends he goes to sleep he wakes up the next morning to like leave his family forever to start a new life out west uh and he starts by going out to the farm taking

out his pipe and his last bit of marijuana a few green buds that he he says to himself perfectly calculated and then he smokes his last bowl of marijuana, which I'm sure he did regularly and certainly did not help his situation. Justin Moen did have a medical marijuana card that he had to give up on January 29th to go purchase a handgun that he would then later use one day later to kill his father.

Yeah, I guess good that he had to give up his medical marijuana card first. Yeah, that certainly prevented this. Yeah say um yeah yeah really stopped the problem so he says goodbye to his parents uh and he gets on the road right they seem he actually does not describe his dad as being very mean in this he's pretty sympathetic in the book but interesting um yeah which which is interesting but you know a few years went by between this one and between him killing his father. So why, when I brought up earlier that highway rest stops are a major part of this book, that's because of what comes next.

So he crosses from Ohio into Indiana, um, and he sees a rest area approaching. Mmm, got a piss and wouldn't mind a snack. Buster said he pulls off the highway, he gets into a parking lot. Um, and he describes most of the men and women wore overalls, flannel shirts, and straw hats walking in and out of the building to and from the parking lot. A few people stood off to the sides of the building and parking lot in a grass area. A few men were urinating outside near the trees. An old man was squatting at the tree line taking a shit. I've never been to, I've been to a lot of rest stops.

I've actually not seen that happening at a rest stop. But this is to set up something that's happening at the rest stop, which he learns about when he goes into the bathroom. And it turns out to be a bad decision because as soon as he stands at the urinal, he hears someone behind him saying, Oh yeah, that's real nice. Just look at that. You want to try it? Another voice whispered Buster eyed with one eyebrow and raised towards the stall on his left four legs stood in the stall.

And then he hears people snorting drugs and a bit of white powder falls to the floor and a guy falls down and then is like oh shit that's good how much for an ounce i think they're selling i'm not sure if it's supposed to be fentanyl or cocaine cocaine or something yeah something like that and then they realize he's listening to them do cocaine or whatever in the rest stop bathroom. Hold on a sec. I think someone's in here listening to us. The other person whispered, should we kill him? The first person whispered, at which point he flees the rest stop.

Yeah. It's a quick escalation. This is like such a, like taken to a humorous degree, but such a like, oh, what the Fox News viewing set thinks about like everything outside of their suburbs. Justin did not grow up in Ohio. He grew up in Pennsylvania. I think his family lived about an hour north of Philadelphia.

So he grew up in a very like suburban area outside of a big city. And that all kind of graphs onto this. Yeah, it makes sense. sense now there's an interesting bit here when he's outside of i guess they decided not to chase him out of the bathroom but he's still walking around the rest stop and we get a little like gang stalking bit here people stared at buster and kept glancing at him and he wondered why he didn't look or dress too differently and he was barely out of ohio then he realized everyone was with someone else. Nobody else was alone except him. And like, that's

a delusion. That's the kind of delusion that leads to gangsta. Because number one, I guarantee you there were other alone people at every rest stop he ever went to. But also like, people don't pay attention to that sort of thing. That is a voice in his head telling him to hyper focus on this. So he gets freaked

out by this. he describes himself having a panic attack right he describes it like having a panic attack about the fact that he's alone out here now it seemed as though more people were glancing at him even talking about him as if they sensed his feeling of vulnerability emanating from his chest like shark smelling fresh blood so he finishes eating and he gets back on the highway and he drives for a bit more until he crosses. He passes Indiana and gets into Illinois. And then we have another rest stop scene. OK, this is like he spends a lot of time on rest stops.

And this is I'm going to need your occult knowledge here, Garrison. So you can let me know if he if he gets this stuff right. So is he's like walking through the rest stop area, he sees that like there's a poster on the wall that says, this cabin was once an outpost for trading with the Native Americans, used during the Civil War to store guns and ammunition. Then he walks to another glass casing on the adjacent wall and he reads the poster inside.

Considered haunted by locals after pagan witches lived in the cabin who were later burned at the stake for witchcraft, abandoned for over 100 years before being restored as a rest area uh so he he's that's to set the scene and then he goes like gets himself some food or something and as he's looking outside of the surrounding forest he sees 100 yards into the forest there are tiki torches lit and it's 401 p.m in the afternoon what the fuck do they have torches lit in the forest for if it's not going to be dark for another two hours busteruster said. So he walks in and he sees a few individuals dressed like vagabonds dancing slowly in circles around the fire with their arms spread out, waving in

the air. Buster quietly climbed through some bushes to get a quiet, closer look. There were two men and a woman, all in dirty, torn robes, dancing within a circle of lit candles and tiki torches. One male and female danced inside the circle, chanting and murmuring words which Buster couldn't make out. The other male was kneeling on the ground inside the circle, carving a pumpkin. A picture lay in front of him in a bed of flowers. Please, spirits of nature and beyond, accept this pumpkin carving and our sacrifices on this day of Samhain in remembrance of our deceased loved ones.

Please ease their passage into the other world. Okay? How's that sounding so far, Garrison? Is that real? Is this supposed to be around Halloween? Is this supposed to be? It's unclear. But based on the fact that day ends at 6 p.m., probably yes.

Oh, yeah. Okay. Well, yeah. I mean, dancing around a fire is certainly- Sure. Is certainly- By a rest stop. Sure.

All right. Well, let's get to them finishing the ritual. Okay. So next, a woman screams the magic words, Ayaka! I don't know. Looked it up. Couldn't find anything. That does not sound familiar to me either, but yeah.

Yeah. So she screams, and then another female emerged from behind a tree with a donkey by a leash in one hand and a stick carrying a decorated horse's skull on the other the horse's skull had red ornaments in its eye sockets and a sheet draping over its head she danced into the center of the circle of candles with the others the man who was kneeling picked up a long curved sword from the ground and stood up let the sacrifice of this ass please the spirits of nature the man yelled yeah well you know this is probably a little bit more intense than your average wiccan uh sawan ritual

um but sure yeah yeah i i don't know an ass that's a unique sacrifice story usually it's like a cow uh or a chicken or something but i appreciate that so he raises the sword above his head no buster yelled hee-haw the donkey whined the donkey got scared and jerked away just as the man swung the sword sloosh blood spurted upwards and outwards ah the female yelled the female fell to her knees and the donkey ran away from the forest her severed arms still hurting holding onto the leash the female raised her bleeding stump you idiot you cut off my arm she said well the donkey got scared the man said now what are we going to eat the woman said the three others glanced at each other then looked at the woman

on the ground with one arm no don't even think about it she said the man holding the sword raised it high above his head again ah she screamed ah buster screamed the woman held her remaining arm up just as the man swung down the sword the sword cut her hand in half from top to bottom between the middle finger and ring finger slicing all the way down her forearm now that's that's not where i expected this passage to go but it gets better because they all realize buster's there at this point and give up on their plans to eat this woman who they have now hacked at twice and instead she and all of them start charging buster and he describes it as they all turned directly towards buster and began running towards

him even the woman with one arm which was divided in half like a lobster claw ran towards buster her arm flapping in halves as she sprinted towards him that is some interesting writing uh yeah that's that that's i didn't call that coming i love that uh yeah she got lobsterified yeah that's a very eventful saw when um yeah huh i don't think that actually happened to buster i i i don't think think that I don't believe on Justin's move from Pennsylvania to Colorado he stumbled across a pagan ritual where they

dismembered a woman and gave her a lobster claw. I do suspect that maybe he saw someone walking their dog near a rest stop and filled in the rest. That is certainly possible. Speaking of dog shit, you know what's not dog shit these ads uh-huh that's right these ads aren't we sponsored by like the state of ohio or something

oh yeah then in that case we probably should just move on Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. You know that rush of endorphins you feel after a great workout? Well, that's when the real magic happens. So if you love hearing real, inspiring stories from the people you know, follow, and admire? Join me every week for Post Run High. It's where we take the conversation beyond the run and get into the heart of it all.

It's lighthearted, pretty crazy, and very fun. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Curious about queer sexuality, cruising wherever you get your podcasts. iHeart podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Sniffy's Cruising Confessions will broaden minds and help you pursue your true goals. You can listen to Sniffy's Cruising Confessions, sponsored by Gilead, now on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Thursday.

Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into how tech's elite has turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, better offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech from an industry veteran with nothing to lose. This season I'm going to be joined by everyone from Nobel winning economists to leading journalists in the field and I'll be digging

into why the products you love keep getting worse and naming and shaming those responsible. Don't get me wrong, though. I love technology. I just hate the people in charge and want them to get back to building things that actually do things to help real people. I swear to God things can change if we're loud enough. So join me every week to understand what's happening in the tech industry and what could be done to make things better. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. Ah, we are back and having a really good time

learning some more about our old friend justin moan so garrison uh at this point he uh he flees from the wiccanists and their d-handed friend um and he he gets back on the road again doesn't seem to call the police over this but i guess they probably were in on it too what could the police have done about people dismembering a woman directly next to a crowded highway rest stop? So he decides he gets to St. Louis. He needs to find a place to eat. He finds a cheap Italian restaurant and he parallel parked at the curb. Buster walked inside the restaurant and to the counter.

A small man stood beside the counter with a thick Italian accent. I make a good pie for you like you find on the east coast yeah no west coast and then he uses a slur for gay people stuff okay no good thank you buster said you ain't a slur are you the man said no sir buster said you sure you don't want some pineapples on this with no red sauce, all white and a cheesy stuffed crust, huh? And then he calls him a slur again. No, just very stereotypical, but also bigoted Italian chef character here. You know, I actually ate at an Italian restaurant in St. Louis last year. I was not accosted for being gay, but.

That's good. That's good. Did your guy have a comedic Italian accent? No, I think I was being served by a lesbian, actually. Okay, well, that's probably why. That's probably why, yeah. So Buster tells him that he just wants a plain pizza, and the pizza man is willing to serve him,

but he does use the slur again. At this point, two men barged into the restaurant wearing long black peacoats, black pants and shoes and black fedoras. I already paid my dues. Base, here we go. This is what I was signing up for. Rest stops are fine.

This is what I wanted. Yeah. I already paid my dues, boys, the man behind the counter said the man behind the counter spun pizza dough in one hand look pet tony un paso con pizza one man said the other man in the fedora laughs the old fool thinks we're here to collect dues so what the hella do you want a fucking pizza for and he just keeps using that he can't he cannot mention pizza without dropping a slur i am i'll tell you what i'm not sympathetic towards this italian man's plight both men in fedoras laughed

hysterically and turned towards buster they lifted their peacoats and revealed thompson's submachine guns those are so much more expensive than modern crime guns why are they spending 3300 oh it's good stuff like in chicago maybe in st louis come on of course chicago come on st louis let's so real here the men never explain why they're killing this guy, but as Buster's eyes widen, they begin- No slurs allowed, buddy. No, yeah. Yeah, these are the LGBT police.

So they open fire. They each empty 100 bullets towards the man behind the counter. Jesus Christ. They turn to leave. You saw nothing, kid, nothing. Got it, the man said said i didn't see shit buster said oh my god so the bigoted pizza man has been shot full of holes and honestly i'm fine not a big loss just leaves and goes back to his car he finds a what a fascinating

thing to include in the story. He's making a lot of choices here. I wish I could ask him about some of his process. Like, why did the pizza man have to be stereotypically Italian? Why did the gangsters have to carry a gun that has been outdated for nearly 100 years? Anyway, he goes to a cheap Asian restaurant next. And again, parallel parks at the curve. He really wants us to know that he can parallel park this is this is something he's made a point of several times interesting oh no garrison i'm not not excited to try to read you this next line a small man stood behind the counter with a thick chinese accent no no no you can do italian i am i am not gonna try this um what's important

you know is that he says the same thing as the italian man i make it racially but he says i'll make you good food like you get on the east coast no west coast and then he also uses the same slur and then he asks several more times about it and repeatedly calls him a slur um i don't understand why they are both the same person um but the same two men in long black pea coats fedoras come in and uh then they shoot this guy repeatedly huh yeah yeah this that's actually more interesting that this whole incident gets repeated just with slightly different cultural backing. It is compelling, right? And again, the guys are like, you saw nothing, but then they're like, oh, hey, aren't you the same kid from the other restaurant where we just machine gunned a man? And Buster, showing admirable bravery here, says, yeah, what's going on? I'm

just trying to find something to eat. And the mafia man very nicely explains, Oi kid, every restaurant in St. Louis is owned, owned by the same gang. That's why they all say the same script when you walk in, but we're taking over their racket and we're taking over the restaurant business in St. Louis.

So that's why both the Chinese man and the Italian man said the same things is they have a script. Oh, wow. Um, huh? man said the same things as they have a script oh wow um huh yeah that's compelling that is compelling yeah so so buster stops at a gas station to get a pre-made tuna sandwich which to be honest seems like the decision to make after after going through two of these yeah so he he winds up driving again through the countryside. He approaches Columbia in between St. Louis and Kansas City. And he asks a guy if he can use a public restroom.

Yes, sir. Just take this here key, which is so you can get in the door. The man held a key up towards Buster. Ha ha ha ha. The man laughed. Odd way to write laughter. Not how laughter sounds.

Buster walked up to the man and took the key. Thanks, Buster said. Well, say, mister, you're not from around here, is you? I don't recognize you, the man said. No, I'm just passing through, Buster said. You making your way to Kansas City? Yes, sir. Well, you better be careful.

There are bandits on that bridge that goes over the Missouri River sometimes at night. Now, that's not true, but also- i i i did run into bandits on my okay okay on my road trip through uh through uh kansas okay okay it's been a couple of years for me yeah st louis yeah no it was it was intense so buster's like that's great i'm gonna use the bathroom anyway and the man says i'll be watching you and And so Buster says, okay, maybe I won't go. And then the man yells, I was gonna suck your dick. So I think we've gotten a good picture of what's going on with this guy.

I'm not really sure why. It's interesting, like even the absurdity does have kind of its roots and you can see some of these, this, like everybody is programmed, like saying a same script or whatever. Like there's the,

like the, that's why these interactions seem weird to me is that like, this isn't real people talking to me. These are people reading from a script. It's all, you can kind of tie it all back to some of the delusional thinking. I want to cities. Are these like lawless zones?

Yes. Yes, yes. There's bandits on the road and people just getting machine gunned in their restaurants. Yeah, so this book ends, one of the last chapters about this is the FBI and the CIA electrocuting Buster and asking him questions.

They're making him, specifically they want him to tell them their sins, right? Because he's the second Messiah. Because he's the second Messiah. So one of them asks, and they seem to know everything about his their sins, right? Because he's the second Messiah. Because he's the second Messiah. So one of them asks, and they seem to know everything about his entire life, right? Which is, again, kind of ties back to the delusion. So one of them's like, what about the time you were drunk and threw a punch at a guy who wasn't looking during a group fight in college? Not really sure what a group fight in college is, but we can move right past that. What about all the cigarettes

you've smoked and acid you've taken and mushrooms and ecstasy and all the other drugs you did? I only did them a couple of times. It's not like I'm an addict. Still serious damage to the body and putting your life at risk. CIA is very concerned about his overall health. Yeah, the CIA famously on the edge

about using psychedelics. Yeah, so this goes on for a while and then the CIA agent leaves and FBI agents put him into a black SUV and drive him to Andrews Air Force Base. The FBI agents wheeled Buster onto an Air Force One and Air Force One jet. Also Air Force is one word and got on board with him. Then the jet took off. By the time the jet landed in Moscow, Russia, Buster no longer shook constantly. But every once in a while he had full-body jerk. The FBI agents wheeled him off the plane. Two Russian FSB agents waited on the bottom of the ramp. The FBI agents nodded to the FSB agents, who nodded back.

Then the FBI agents got back on board the jet. The FSB agents wheeled Buster to a black rectangular SUV and put him inside. Then they drove to the Kremlin. Buster sat in a wheelchair in the Kremlin. He was motionless, stared off into the distance at nothing, and his jaw hung. Then they drove to the Kremlin. Buster sat in a wheelchair in the Kremlin. He was motionless, stared off into the distance at nothing, and his jaw hung. Suddenly his entire body jerked. Then he went back to being still. The president of Russia walked up to Buster.

King Moon, there is an uprising for more food in several parts of Southeast Asia, the president of Russia said. Gah-ha, Buster chuckled. What do you recommend the Global Communist Confederation do to your majesty? The president of Russia said. Gah-heh, Buster chuckled. What do you recommend the Global Communist Confederation do to your majesty? The President of Russia said. Gah-heh-heh, Buster chuckled. Buster stared off into the distance still. Genocide? The President of Russia said. Yeah-heh-heh, I love that. Buster

smiled. The President of Russia turned around to face representatives from countries all over the world. Kills them all! Orders directly from the king of earth the president of russia said fighters jets and bombers from the united global force of china russia america and europe flew over southeast asia dropping bombs on every country destroying every main city burning forests and villages and killing hundreds of millions of people and that's how the book ends so i i am fascinated about this middle chunk yeah where he goes to colorado and uncovers a satanic conspiracy involving the democratic party um but that end bit kind of got me thinking about there was all of these like like um all these like artistic things he was doing that was almost preparing himself to do an act of

violence against a family member but as much as that was the future he was building for himself you also mentioned that he was being transported around by the fbi and like i wonder how much that was a part of the future he was building for himself like now that he's arrested at a national guard base he's now being taken from place to place by government officials. He's constantly now surrounded by feds. He has built the reality for himself that now he is actually always watched by the government

because he's been arrested for doing these things. He has created this fantasy world that he can now live in forever. Yeah. Whether he goes to trial, he's probably going to... If his defense is smart, they'll do some sort of insanity defense he'll be sent to a psychiatric place like he's now always going to be watched he is being moved around by government agents like he is living the thing that he was writing

about and i find that that that second half of like him being caught also a compelling like a compelling thing that he was preparing himself for and it i mean he is he expresses repeatedly variations of like because the fbi and the cia are constantly in this book and also like constantly just like people coming into his life around him um which again is part of this delusion but also you can see how a lot of these common right-wing tropes about like everything is infiltrated by the feds. January 6th was a federal op and stuff.

How this is also going to feed into the delusions of a guy like this, right? Like he's very much, this is very much ripped from the headlines and that you can see how things he was encountering and like conspiracy culture and popular media grafted themselves onto the delusions that he had yeah you can also see i i turned randomly to a page i haven't gotten to yet in this book 260 and the first line i saw in the middle of the page is let's fucking kill them and then eat them a midget in a wheelchair yelled holding an rpg so there's quite a lot in this book all right well well then i don't

know what the line of good taste and is like i think it's i don't think we'll keep going back to this i felt justified and like well i want to know what's in this thing once it seems kind of bad to keep doing that with this guy who murdered people's book but man there's a lot in here uh no and i there is a use in understanding how these people think um and under unpacking the sorts of large large swaths of of of content that that uh people that are doing these mass acts of violence or very targeted acts of violence have been leaving online because yeah it allows you to actually get a better look at overarching patterns um specifically his songs for me are very very evident of that yeah like they're very similar to a lot of stuff you were you were uh reading the book like he has the

the song about him being tracked on his phone is called they came for justin moan yeah they found him all alone uh they tracked him on his phone he talks about the uh student loans that he couldn't pay off the payments made him grown money controlled his life they wanted him to die just like this all all of just all this stuff they said he was god they came for justin moan yeah anyway well it's it's it's it's not to like laugh at him necessarily no it's it's about actually understanding this and yeah this is all fucked up so a part of a coping mechanism is kind of laughing at some of the more ridiculous elements but it's it is it is a an attempt to actually understand this this growing trend in american culture yeah because you can't just like and this is the thing

that the right often wants it wants to do with this is like well this is just a mental illness problem and like no it's not like you have to understand it's american culture yeah what's going into people's heads even if they also have you know know, are mentally ill, what's going into their heads, what they believe about the world influences how they act on those delusions and the nature of those delusions. This is what happens to your brain when it entirely becomes corrupted by the culture of war.

Like this is now taken over his entire method of thinking. This is the only way you can see the world. And there's people who are paid to get people to be like this. Like this is the only way you can see the world and there's people who are paid to get people to be like this like this is this is people's whole job is to get more and more people to only think in these terms um and this is one of the results of that of that effort by elements of the american right yeah anyway it's bad that'll be a good book to explain to a young child in 50 years to be why yeah why is this on your bookshelf well let me tell you about a man named justin mode if i ever have a kid garrison this will be the first book they read no

that's not that's probably a bad idea yeah well let let's be done. Let's go away. Goodbye. It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources for It Could Happen Here updated monthly at coolzonemedia.com slash sources. Thanks for listening.

Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast Post Run High is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Curious about queer sexuality, cruising, and expanding your horizons?

Hit play on the sex-positive and deeply entertaining podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Join hosts Gabe Gonzalez and Chris Patterson Rosso as they explore queer sex, cruising, relationships, and culture in the new iHeart podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Sniffy's Cruising Confessions will broaden minds and help you pursue your true goals. You can listen to Sniffy's Cruising Confessions, sponsored by Gilead, now on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Thursday. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast,

and we're kicking off our second season digging into Tex Elite and how they've turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, Better Offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech brought to you by an industry veteran with nothing to lose. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts from.