The Daily Zeitgeist - Weekly Zeitgeist 299 (Best of 11/6/23-11/10/23)

Episode Date: November 12, 2023

The weekly round-up of the best moments from DZ's season 312 (11/6/23-11/10/23)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me for I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and Shekinah Church. Listen to Forgive Me for I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Keri Champion, and this is Season 4 of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry.

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Hello, the internet, and welcome to this episode of the weekly Zeitgeist. These are some of our favorite segments from this week, all edited together into one nonstop infotainment laughstravaganza. Yeah. So without further ado, here is the weekly zeitgeist. Miles, we're thrilled to be joined in our third seat by today's special expert guest. He is the senior researcher of U.S. hate and extremist movements at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. To quote Samuel L. Jackson, halt onto your butts because it's the return of haltamania. Welcome back to the show, Jared Holt! Jared!

Hey, thanks for having me, guys. I kind of feel like the janitor, I think, like when you go see a concert and all the lights come up, and after those musical renditions, it's... Yeah, yeah. All right, guys. Hey. Hey. Oh, hey. Sweeping up around here.

Don't have to go home, but you really shouldn't stay here. You guys left a lot of little plastic bags on the ground here. Another one of those shows, I guess. How are you doing, Jared? Hey, I'm doing all right. Where are you coming to us from? Chicago. Moved here a couple of years ago, and it's getting a little cold here, but love this city.

Yeah. The old 2-1-3? 3-1-2. 3-1-2. Damn it. Yeah, that's so close. Hey, it's okay, man. It's okay. We, that's so close. Hey, it's okay, man. It's okay.

We covered this yesterday. Yeah, literally. So, Jared, what's like, because, you know, when we first started the show, we had you on when you're working at like Right Wing Watch. I remember. Yeah, yeah. And now like you've, there's like a whole lane to be somebody who is so well versed in like extremist semiotics and monitoring extremist movements that like, I just feel like you're always moving up. And I'm like, this is this is I love the glow up, but it's always on the back of having to have your head in some of the dark

shit all the time. But you're doing well otherwise, despite this career path. I just want to make sure because the work you do is fantastic. The work that your colleagues do is fantastic. I could never imagine being disengaged with it, even at the level we do. But but shit, the level that like you guys do is completely it's like completely different. Yeah, yeah, I'm doing well. I appreciate all that. It's it's really interesting because I started doing this kind of stuff full time, something like eight years ago. Right. time something like eight years ago right and i felt like when i was doing it then i was like the

crazy guy on the town square being like here ye here ye please pay attention to this shit right now it's just like i mean i guess i'm glad it's recognized but it is really unfortunate that you know in the grand scheme of things that it's necessary yeah yeah but so long as i can help you know that's i it's like a calling of mine i guess and i i don't know there's it's really dark but then there's like a little bit of gallows humor that keeps me coming back sure yeah would you say like just kind of having taking a step back would january 6th be the thing that like made sort of the mainstream world take right-wing extremism more seriously was it was it happening before that was it charlottesville what was the kind of overall pattern i i mean i think charlottesville was sort of the beginning of it. And then in 2019, there were a few really, really horrible extremist mass killings. That's when you had like the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.

Right. It's kind of hard to think of a more powerful image than, you know, QAnon aunts and car dealership uncles radicalized by the internet, you know. Right. Smashing through the halls of Congress. I think that was pretty hard to, you know, look away from or write off as like, oh, well, it's just some weird fringe, you know.

Yeah. And you're like. And it's right there in your face. That's my fucking uncle fuck i remember how recently it was like such a fringe idea like even even after right-wing extremism was responsible for the oklahoma city bombing it was just like there was nobody looking into it even after trump Trump got elected. Like there was still like, right. Just people weren't taking it seriously as a threat. It's because we have such, you know, white supremacist reflexes that were like them.

No, no. They're nice kids. They have khakis on. OK. And they're they're not they don't look that imposing. Now, this group of people with these signs over here, I don't know what's going on. It may have to do with their complexion. I don't know. But yeah, like I feel like that always has that's always benefited, especially like right wing extremism is their whiteness or just not whether not being taken seriously or this idea of like, oh, it's nothing. It's just don't worry about that over there kind of shit. Well, I mean, it still does, right? I mean, I think about like even in the field I work in, which is weird to call it a field now.

Right. It's every once in a while you'll catch, you know, after some mass shooting or big event in extremism land, a bunch of people trying to offer up all these like different competing theories as to why it happened, whether it's, you know, like economic hardship or whatever. And it's like, we don't, you know, as a culture, we don't cut this slack or like try to, you know, do armchair psychology over other stuff, you know, and it's always interesting to me, like where that gets applied, because that's one of those, I think, kind of subtle ways that, you know, living in a culture defined by white supremacy like comes out even in the field that you know is hoping to try to counteract some of that right right right exactly but how did they grow up though these skinhead kids it's like well it doesn't matter

because like hold on hold on yeah exactly let's get to the point here the point is he's a skinhead now and that you know. Ah, you hate to see it, don't you? You hate to see it. I feel like that's like what people would say like in newsrooms. Like, ah, you hate to see it. Just these nice kids going afoul. But yeah.

What is something from your search history? Oh, God. Okay. So the one thing that really did pop up yesterday when I looked was, is it okay for my two-year-old to want to stay home all the time? Right. Oh, like a homebody two-year-old? hates it and so i just like it's just so crazy because when i google something like that it's not like i think there's going to be an answer right i really you know what i'm looking for and this is so sad i'm looking for like a message board where i can just connect to someone in a similar situation and then i just like quickly scan it and then i close the tab and move on with

my life right yeah yeah is that sad of like no yeah it's not all bad yeah i think i should be just like texting a friend right i mean but i guess it's sometimes our like our questions are so specific to experience sometimes we don't have somebody who's been through that exact thing so i can see why sometimes it's cleaner to crowdsource friends miles you don't a friend is gonna want stuff from you that's true but this is you just crowdsource it you see you you cast a wide net see other people's experience and then you can just discard them and then you guys don't always get back to me right away that's why for this specific one i didn't really want to text you i don't interact with people unless it's on my

podcast. That's, uh, you have to come here with a microphone in front of you. Yeah. I haven't spoken to my wife in seven years. What I say, it's gotta be on Mike. This is content, babe. This is content, babe. The, I have a five-year-old. I was fighting this exact battle this very morning, was trying to get him to go to school, and he unbuckled himself as the car started moving and tried to climb into the front seat and be like, I'm not going. I'm not.

No, like, I don't think you understand. I'm not going to school. It's not happening. Like Trump on January 6th, like trying to turn the suburban around. Like, you're like, give me a little bit of weed. Like, yo, get back. Stay back there, sir. What are you doing?

It's very transitory though. Wow. We were over it within five minutes. Okay, that's good. See, my girl, she's new to this whole thing. So she's got endurance. Like I was, they have a little gate on the side of the school.

And for like 20 minutes, I was like peeking through the gate. Yeah. And like, yeah, she's still going. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Get me out of here.

Fuck you. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. No, she's got a really dirty mouth. Don't touch me, you fucking asshole. You're like, oh my God, where did you learn that? I'm like, sorry, honey, I got to go do a podcast. Sorry, very important.

You know what? You can totally just end this right now and go and go hang out with your daughter if you want. By no means the best thing to be doing. No, if I get a phone call from the center, I'll have to take it. But otherwise, you guys, I got my priorities straight. Okay. Okay. Yeah.

What is something, Brian, that you think is overrated i think eating healthy is overrated go on i'm like i'm like i get it like you know it's like eating healthy probably makes you feel better you know it probably makes you live longer but who cares you're here for a good time not a long time here for a good time not a long time yeah or you're for a long time in a bad time like yeah with three moments of enjoying junk food yeah or like not yeah junk food or just like stuff that like if you have two options in front of you it's like why let me have the bad one maybe the bad one's not even that bad what are you okay maybe it's like were you recently at a at a crossroads with with food and you had to decide

whether like which which you're gonna give into the demon or the angel on your shoulder no i generally eat healthy though oh but you seem very healthy like that's the thing is like but there are certain people who just have good like if i eat unhealthily unhealthily in the morning like i'm fucked for like a couple hours at least like my energy is gonna be all messed up and stuff but But that's just because I'm old, you know? And, like, my body doesn't work that well. But there's, like, there was some, one of, like, the greatest NFL players in the league

was, like, talking about how he, like, wakes up and, like, works out for six hours and, like, the only thing he eats at that time is, like, candy or something. It's just, like, but his body is just obviously a far superior machine and it just like doesn't matter you know for him like i have to monitor my shit like he's just like no what wait you have to like pay attention to what you put in your body that sucks man just eat a costco size tub of red vines while you work out.

Exactly. Do you need to eat healthily to feel good, or you're just good either way? Yeah, to maintain my physique, I feel like I need to eat healthy. Just kidding. My ripped physique yeah i feel like no i just eat healthy because i'm like you know trying to like maintain good habits or whatever right i'm kind of like backtracking on everything i'm saying but like but i feel like yeah yeah i feel like when people are like you know i junk food last night i shouldn't have or whatever it's like you can eat junk food and it's okay. You don't have to feel bad about it.

I feel like there's a built-in shame of it. Oh, got it. You mean that part. How much of it is in my head versus actually me eating junk food makes my body work worse? Or is it just like a shame spiral where I'm eating badly and feeling badly and therefore eating badly again. And then it shows up on my hips. As long as you don't walk into a McDonald's and the first thing that the staff says is,

yo, he's back. He's back. Then I feel like you're probably okay but what's your what's your if you're obviously healthy but what's your guilty pleasure like what are you eating when you go man fuck all this health eating healthy i'm gonna eat mine taco bell okay yeah that's healthy taco bell me and that bear have that in common yeah if they have vegetarian options at the place that's that's health food. You don't have to get the vegetarian option. The fact that they offer it means they're thinking about you. So you're saying Taco Bell is

health food? Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. They should have it at Erewhon. But they don't because they're cowards. That's right. Erewhon. Erewhon Blast is like a fruit juice cocktail basically. It's mostly natural. Yeah, mostly, except for the dyes.

Yeah. What were you going to say about Erewhon? I forget. Erewhon's crazy. Erewhon doing Taco Bell would be a game changer, though. I think so. Can you imagine, like, good, if it tasted like Taco Bell,

but it was, like, you know, top tier ingredients. Could that, is it possible that I'm always thinking of like, I think it's the chemicals and the lack of like nutrients that gives it that flavor. But I'm open. I'm open to somebody being like, no, this is actually, I can give you the turnt up. Yeah. Culinary Zeitgang. Let us know. Like, is there, is that possible?

Is it possible to just, cause I know like there's high-end like smash burgers and stuff like that right that's like really great ingredients and that stuff works out pretty well but like can you get what we love about taco bell using like all natural like locally sourced ingredients. Yeah. I bet there is like a TikTok dedicated to that. Yeah, I'm sure. Right. Like, yeah, like, like health, health junk. But like they have, you know, they sell like the Taco Bell seasonings that you could put on ground beef.

I got to say, when I use like store-bought ground beef with that, I'm like, yo, this shit is, this shit tastes gross. Like, yeah, because it's real. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's different than the shit at Taco Bell. It tastes too meaty. I'm like, the fuck is this? You can like, it's not so much, the meat is not so much a paste

that just gets spread like a layer of paste that has the memory of like a time that I ate meat. So less than actual pieces of meat in my mouth yeah god taco bell so good i'm also i've been i've been craving i've been craving fast food every time i drive by it is it and being reminded of like there's that study that people who live within like a couple blocks of a fast food restaurant generally like have much worse health prospects and prognoses and yeah i live right by a wendy's oh i was going there a lot four times a week i would say yeah that's a lot of that's a lot of no's that you have to get yourself to say

you know on a daily basis. That's some real control. Like, I can't honestly, I live by a Taco Bell and a McDonald's, but it takes every fiber of my being to stay away from that Taco Bell. So then I end up doing this thing where I'm like, oh, I'll go to the other fast food place because there ain't Taco Bell.

Yeah, I don't, it's some stupid shit, but I'm not on that. I'm not on that. I'm not on that life as much as I used to be. That's for sure. Yeah. There needs to be like, as somebody that like calls you when you're like about to drive by that place,

like there's a GPS that like knows you're driving by a fast food place. And then you get an emergency phone call from a loved one, but it's not real. It's like, you got to get home right now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. real they're just like you gotta get home right now yeah yeah yeah yeah the baby's coughing exactly yeah and so you go home and you have you don't even think about it what is uh what's something you think is underrated okay i am in my 30s and i love staying with my friends in other cities like when i travel for comedy i like but i'm learning like my boyfriend is like i'm almost 40 i'm for comedy i like but i'm learning like my boyfriend is like i'm almost 40 i'm getting a hotel room and i'm like no let's stay with friends we get to like wake up and have breakfast with them and like hang out with their kids and it's like a sleepover for adults you know yeah i love it i think we need to yeah it's community it's you know i'm i've i

kind of i'm kind of on the side of your boyfriend but also i like it's it is fun it's community it's you know i'm the i've i kind of i'm kind of on the side of your boyfriend but also i like it's it is fun it's always like it feels good to be like to wake up in like a friend's place and just kind of start there but my whole thing is when i take a shit i don't want to have people being like yo is he still taking this shit or being like yo bro like one bathroom in here i need you need better friends, Miles. People got to accept you for your shit. It's not even me. It's like for me, I need my own bathroom.

You need friends who have a Starbucks closer by their house. That's all. So they can go to the Starbucks. Yeah, exactly. Because you're going to light that shit up. I need my bidet. Your main bedroom, the bathroom off of that, if i could just uh borrow that for the afternoon yeah i just like you're sleeping and i'm like you're like listing all

the ways you're terrible house guests i'm using their disgusting in your home yeah sorry man i'm just gonna utterly fuck up this bathroom and i'm sorry I invited 30 of my closest friends to have a chili contest in your home. Mind I borrowed your wife's bathrobe for the bubble bath. And these guys, they're real jokesters. We like to put Visine in each other's food and stuff.

So we get terrible stomach problems. Whatever. We're going to have a good time. We did have friends stay with us when we were living in Santa Monica and our toilet completely like fucked up and so we had to like keep going to the starbucks like that was the only bathroom that was like working oh i've done that i've done that in someone's home before i have to tell you this story it's embarrassing as hell but i was like a kid and my family was visiting their family friends that they had known in india that they hadn't seen in like decades and we stayed with them and like i clogged

the toilet yeah and it literally caused house damage like it like that my dad was trying to unclog it and like the seal broke and it leaked and it was like leaking through the roof and it was like leaking through the roof. And it was so bad. It was the worst thing in the world. And it all came from a small child. Oh, that's amazing. Well, at least you were a child. It wasn't like hearing your... I was like younger. Yeah, I was young.

I just realized, I think your story just made me realize that I had like a formative experience at a Halloween party when I was in fourth grade. I saw your eyes go black for a second. And I was like, what is happening in the brain? Yeah, I like warged. Yeah, I warged.

He turned into one of the dead people from the Crossroads video. Reference to everybody. I remember it was a Halloween party for this girl, Daniela. And we was like a costume party. And this was, I'm pretty sure. Oh, Daniela party will give you IBS, man. Yo, Daniela. I fucked her bathroom up so party. And this was, I'm pretty yellow party. I'll give you IBS. I fucked her bathroom up so bad. The toilet was clogged.

I could not unclog it. And then like the games were starting. So I had to abandon my post and go out there. And then like, everyone was like, something's wrong with the next, like vocal point of the party is like, something's wrong with the toilet.

Like it's breaking. And I was like, Oh shit, that's me. That's me. That's me. That's me that's me right so i think that god thank you just you just knocked a memory loose i'm gonna you know what i'm gonna call her i'm gonna call her and work this out make a couple's therapy but for people whose toilets you fucked up yeah exactly like reach out to her and you're expecting her to be like miles what are you talking about that's no problem she's like miles you can't unfuck up's no problem she's like miles you can't unfuck up that toilet okay she's like you know my my parents had to move from that house right

it was too dramatic and she's like also why are you bringing this up like we've been friends since then i'm like sorry but i'm sorry, yeah, but to your point, adult sleepovers can be truly wonderful. You really, it's just like, I don't know. It's a unique, every hotel is like fairly similar. Whereas you get a completely unique, it's like that part in the rehearsal, the Nathan Fielder show where he like goes to that house. He's like, everything here is like so perfect you couldn't like recreate this with the greatest work of art he's just like looking at the way they like leave their shit around right and it's just like that's

the most beautiful work of art sometimes it's like the most authentically humane human thing seeing how people live or like raise their kids or play with their dogs. It's just being in their life. I feel like it's more intimate than going out to a restaurant and meeting up and all of the conversation winding down at the predicted amount of time.

It's fun. It's wild because on the other side of the coin, I love having people stay with me. I love it because then I get to like you know my love languages come out like i'm all about acts of service and shit like that so i start cooking and doing those kinds of things and so like when you experience that on the other side too that's also a nice way to like kind of remember like that you have a bond with people too so yeah and you're not gonna get that at the hotel buffet right and i do when i go to their

house i do order room service and demand to be served to me uh yeah you're like there's not even a menu what do you mean i'm just dropping towels outside the bedroom door yeah i'm sorry where's the comment box yeah where do i leave some feedback for you left up you left a post-it note on your door last night before you went to sleep that said two eggs benedict uh and espresso what was that that's what i'll have in the morning yeah and uh we're gonna be sleeping in so if you could just like kind of bring it in quietly but hushed hushed hushed but bring it in like i don't want it to be cold so like let me know it's there, but don't fucking wake me up. They start getting

into it. They're like, where's my tip? Yeah, exactly. They give me a bill. I'm like, damn, fucking 47 bucks? The fuck is this? They're like, well, there's a service fee. It's 30%. Alright, let's take a quick break, and we'll come back and talk about

the GOP debate. I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series, Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and LA-based Shekinah Church, an alleged cult that has impacted members for over two decades. Jessica and I will delve into the hidden truths between high-control groups and interview

dancers, church members, and others whose lives and careers have been impacted, just like mine. Through powerful, in-depth interviews with whose lives and careers have been impacted, just like mine. Through powerful, in-depth interviews with former members and new, chilling firsthand accounts, the series will illuminate untold and extremely necessary perspectives. Forgive Me For I Have Followed will be more than an exploration. It's a vital revelation aimed at ensuring these types of abuses never happen again. Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

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Oh, we're back. Mm-hmm. So, Jared, something that your institute has been talking about is sort of some of the opportunism happening from the extreme right. It feels like there are like avowed anti-Semites that are using the current situation in Gaza to like kind of get their message in under the radar to people that are merely trying to learn more about what is happening on the ground. Are you seeing a lot of this kind of opportunistic rhetoric happening both on the side of anti-Semitism and then kind

of in other ways on the side of Islamophobia? Yeah, definitely. I mean, any kind of like major cultural flashpoint like this is going to be a big source of opportunism from extremist groups. And on the extreme right, we've seen, you know, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, you know, all kinds of folks that have these really sort of ingrained anti-Semitic beliefs trying to insert themselves into the conversation. And, you know, they sort of rehearse these talking points for so long. They are absolutely obsessed with Israel and that sort of stuff. So now that that is in the news, you know, I think some of them have been able to, you know, get on platforms like Twitter or I guess it's X now. Don't even, don't even.

Still Twitter. And, you know, kind of convey this false sense of authority, right? You know, and maybe they get people in by, you know, just kind of sharing news about what's going on or speculation or whatever. And then, you know, if they get people along for the ride, then, you know, that's when the real shit comes out. You know, this is in these kind of opportunities. You know, I think back to when I started and, you know, was hanging out on 4chan during the Trump movement and whatever. And, you know, to this day, there's this obsession with like red pilling. Not a lot of people like call it that explicitly anymore, but just seeking these little opportunities to like plant these little seeds and try to take these social movements that have a lot of emotion, you know, that are maybe debated or less clear

on facts in some cases, like in this one where there's like both a time zone gap and also just a disparity between like the amount of reporters on the ground that are able to get good information and like have it bounce through and then wind up in a U.S. audience, you know, in that gap, that's where they're trying to leverage things and get people, even if, you know, they're not going to go to like a pro-Palestine protest and walk away with a crowd viewed as legitimate or being viewed as, you know, being reflective of how people secretly really feel. Right. It's like the greatest gift in the world to extremists. Because I feel like who's that? Was that one of Benny Johnson?

Like a clown clown yeah like i felt early on he was like tweeting things that seemingly like appeared objective like about like policies of the israeli government and then people were like dude this guy is fucking a trash racist like did like hold on these people that this dude is getting a ton of retweets right now know that this person has like his does not have their head in this for the right reasons. He's purely here to like, insert himself to get an audience that is eventually going to switch a certain way. But like when you when you guys do an analysis, you were obviously you're saying like, you're seeing like an uptick in both Islamophobic posts and anti-semitic posts but you're also very you're careful to do the thing which because right now i feel like we're in this environment where people are conflating israel with the entire religion of judaism or conflating a call for a ceasefire to be anti-semitic but how do you get like so in that analysis what were you guys even finding from from from like what's currently happening? Yeah. So doing analysis over like several platforms on social media, there's no like totally perfect methodology. Sure. So these are like approximations based on like collections of keywords we put together and then sort of culling and refining, you know, getting the government of israel is not like

inherently antisemitic right so that should not qualify and and again like you said calling for a ceasefire or you know that sort of thing is not necessarily like pro-hamas right i think the powers that be like these militaries and stuff right would like love for us to just be like at each other's throats you know and failing to see this like middle humanitarian ground of being like what if killing innocent people is bad right right period yeah what if we're just against that yeah what if like children didn't have to die indiscriminately, right? But in these situations, that sort of headbutt that's happening is just producing these huge rises in online rhetoric that's very specifically Islamophobic, very specifically anti-Semitic. And those trends are also reflected

in some of the early like offline data we're seeing you know leaders of synagogues getting targeted people showing up to pro-palestine protests with weapons like just north of chicago and skokie someone showed up with like a it's like a paintball gun it's like a less than lethal gun type thing but it still managed to to terrorize the crowd and all that. So that conversation that's happening online is also reflecting itself in real life. And if you're a member of either one of these communities, maybe rightfully so, you would feel a little bit on edge. Right. Yeah. And I'm sure adding to that the utter lack of moderation on Twitter, it's just like it's just a free for all. And I know you guys are pointing out that there's a 422 percent rise in the use of anti-Muslim language on X since the start of this.

And, yeah, like that's why, like when I first reached out, I was like, I'm really curious to get your perspective on this, because I can I already was seeing like at the start of this that there were these like people I'm like I'm pretty sure I know that handle but for bad reasons like I'm pretty sure this person is a scumbag like neo-nazi and then they'll just like kind of sanitize their avatar to be like no I'm wearing a suit and I have this like I have an Israeli and American flag in it but I'm also doing this like really like really opportunistic shit. And I can just see how, because of how charged the entire situation is, it must be like, like the extremists must be just like rubbing their hands together to be like, oh, we can really take advantage of this in either direction, really. Yeah, definitely. It's like if, I mean, if you look at the, you know, explosion of the hospital in Gaza, for example, that example, that was like a really good example of the information gap that they're exploiting in this situation where there's reports of this explosion.

You know, some initial remarks both from, you know, government over Gaza and Israel newsrooms in the U.S. are trying to figure out what the hell is happening. A few of them fall like flat on their face. A lot of details still aren't clear. But in that gap, you know, which can be several hours, if not days. And, you know, I mean, we don't we still don't have like the most insane like if you're taking this position of being like inherently skeptical of like government claims. like as far as hard concrete this is one two three what happened we still don't have that right and that gap is where the opportunity lies for these folks because they can come in and say you know you should listen to

me because xyz and while you're here i've got all this extra shit to say. And then that's when they're getting sort of their. They're coming in this with ulterior motives. Right, right, right. You know? Yeah. Yeah. The conflating of anti-Semitism and criticism of the Israeli state is where a lot of these extremists are thriving. And then on the side of Islamophobia, as Miles mentioned, your organization found a 422% rise in the use of anti-Muslim language on Twitter since the start of the conflict. But it's like it feels a little bit different there because so much of the U.S. government and like mainstream media's official default position, like since 2001, has had a lot of Islamophobia baked into it. So like, how are you guys,

it seems like that this is metastasizing, Islamophobia is metastasizing in real time as this conflict is happening. How do you see, how do you kind of track that and and how are you seeing it change currently yeah so the the numbers are you know an analysis of data that we're pulling off platforms using you know both third-party tools tools we have methodologies we have in-house to do this kind of stuff but when it comes to i think what you're speaking to, Jack, is like the mainstreaming effect of this stuff. Yeah. And that's a lot harder to track. We are like actively at the drawing board on that.

Like, how can you quantify or like illustrate in a unobjectable way or undisputable way a mainstreaming effect? So that's kind of a work in progress. But I will say generally to see this kind of stuff also reflected in institutions and from individuals that should know better and have a lot of power and sway in society is totally disappointing. And a lot of research shows that when people in those positions of authority in a society make positive statements, you know, condemning this sort of thing, discouraging people from engaging in violence and that sort of stuff, it actually does have an effect on people. Yeah. To me, when I see that kind of stuff reflected, I just think it's like a forfeiting of a certain moral responsibility that as, it's a, it's a crazy time. Your organization recently released a report about white supremacy 3.0, which got me excited because I thought there might be some crypto that I could purchase involved with this because web

3.0, you know, you got to strike while the iron's hot those prices are low you gotta buy the dip you know what you're saying you lost so many you know you lost so much money on the apes you know you gotta find out you gotta figure out how to make that bad i told him i said there's some racist imagery in that shit too jack i don't know i said i'm blind right now so how am i i got welder's eye man i don't know what I bought. I got Welder's eye, bro. But yeah, I mean, like, this is, it is wild because, yeah, like, seeing this idea of white supremacy, white nationalism 3.0, like, was like, okay, wait, so we're talking about third wave racism, basically. So 1.0 being what, like, skinheads, like that era?

Is that what we call 1.0? So 1.0 is, yeah, kind of the old school before people started doing.0s. Right. Yeah. Beta. You know, the 1.0 or I guess like alt-right 1.0, that would be like the countercurrents blog, VDare, Richard Spencer's of the world. Because that was like, you know, these kind of like older folks a lot of them were writers and whatnot 2.0 would be you know sort of like charlottesville and what happened after that

and a lot of 1.0 types were like part of the 2.0 it's not like these are completely distinct groups or movements or whatever and then like a 3.0 now is you you know, kind of its own mess. I think it maybe makes sense to think of it less in terms of like generations and maybe more in terms of tactics. Right, right. whatever 2.0 was you know that big attempt to go mainstream really soaking in the internet using that to full advantage and this 3.0 is almost like a little bit of return to form going back to that local model but with like a whole host of baggage that came from like the years before right because like even the term right is coming from their movement it's not something you guys like yeah this term yeah it's not like we came up. We came up for their own internal purposes. Like we need a white nationalism 3.0, for lack of a better word. And like for them, the aim is sort of to be able to make this their their ideology basically palatable to normal people is like kind of like a huge part of this 3.0 push. Right. palatable to normal people is like kind of like a huge part of this 3.0 push, right?

Yeah, yeah. And, you know, you would think that, but actually, it's, you know, our IT guy called us and was like, hey, we've got the latest update for white nationalism. We have to refresh your computer. Yeah. I need you to sign on to TeamViewer now or Zendesk. I'm going to walk you through. Is this a scam? No. But like, yeah, like it feels like like to your point, like the tactic now is like, OK, maybe that didn't work. What we really need is to be able to just kind of blend in and seem normal. So this becomes an acceptable kind of ideology to subscribe to. And they have very like their tactics are different now, too, even for recruiting. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so the report we're talking about is about something called active clubs, which we can talk about in a second, but more generally in the white

supremacist movement and just far-right movements overall, they've kind of realized something that the evangelical right has known for decades, that like any effective organizing in the last few decades has understood very acutely, which is that winning a national office is hard. Running a candidate for president is hard. You know, even state government positions can be tricky. But school boards, city council, you know, like trying to get a sheriff in like a lot of these are local elections that are won by, you know, in a lot of places, you know, maybe not a Chicago or an L.A. or whatever, but like a lot of places in the U.S. can be won with like a matter of a few hundred votes. Right. hundred votes. Right. So there's more opportunities to take power there. And then, you know, by harassing these low level governments and threatening people, showing up at all these meetings, you know, going nuts, creating a hostile environment. A lot of these folks that ran for these local offices didn't sign up for that shit. They don't have resources to like be safe when

that shit's happening. Right. So a lot of them resign, like a lot of election officials on a county level have resigned, you know, over the last few years. I just saw a report about that recently about how there's a lot of election officials that are resigning. People like buckle up for 24 then, because this is exactly the kind of situation like extremists want. Yeah. Cause there's a big opening, right. And if, and if these offices are easier to win,

if it's easier to get their policies through like their dream vote policies, or at the very least smacking down policies, they don't like, you know, that if that happens at scale, then the idea of national candidates of, you know, big organizations starts to become more feasible, right? It's like the most time-tested way to gain political power, which is

start at the bottom and work your way up. Right. All right. Let's take a quick break and we'll come back. We'll keep talking about this strategy and we'll get into active clubs. We'll be right back. I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and LA-based Shekinah Church, an alleged cult that has impacted members for over two decades.

Jessica and I will delve into the hidden truths between high control groups and interview dancers, church members, and others whose lives and careers have been impacted, just like mine. Through powerful, in-depth interviews with former members and new, chilling firsthand accounts, the series will illuminate untold and extremely necessary perspectives. Forgive Me For I Have Followed will be more than an exploration. It's a vital revelation aimed at ensuring these types of abuses never happen again. Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradente. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk

Offline, a new podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. When you're just starting out in your career, you have a lot of questions like, how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed? Or can I negotiate a higher salary if this is my first real job? Girl, yes. Each week, we answer your unfiltered work questions. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in experts who do, like resume specialist Morgan Saner. The only difference between the person who doesn't get the job and the person who gets the job is usually who applies. Yeah, I think a lot about that quote. What is it like

you miss 100% of the shots you never take? Yeah, rejection is scary, but it's better than you rejecting yourself. Together, we'll share what it really takes to thrive in the early years of your career without sacrificing your sanity or sleep. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This summer, the nation watched as the Republican nominee for president was the target of two assassination attempts separated by two months. target of two assassination attempts, separated by two months. These events were mirrored nearly 50 years ago, when President Gerald Ford faced two attempts on his life in less than three weeks. President Gerald R. Ford came stunningly close to being the victim of an assassin today. And these are the only two times we know of that a woman has tried to assassinate a U.S. president.

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available now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. We're back. And Amanda Lund, you have a new podcast we mentioned up top. Keys to the Kingdom, by the way, well named. I don't often say that about podcasts, but just a perfect name. Thank you.

But you are using your background as a Disney Park cast member, as well as a bunch of research and interviews to take people behind the scenes and there's one story that popped onto our radar about people people are apparently pooping all over the park in places they're not supposed to yeah i it was wild how i like when we were putting together stories for the episode, like this story, like literally dropped like yesterday. So an SF gate, highly regarded journalistic outlet, by the way. And so the story is sort of going on a lot of stories that are being shared on Reddit by former cast members and guests that seem to overlap. So one person posted in like a Disney subreddit quote, I am in the queue for Rise of the Resistance. Someone let their kid take a dump on the floor and then they just walked out and left it. WTF.

Then someone replied, for the skeptics, this actually happened. Fun fact, this was one of three shit related incidents at Rise today. Less fun fact, I was here for all three of them. Wow. So it sounds like shit like this, and the pun is intended, has also happened on attractions like Flight of Passage at Disney World. Someone said, quote, let's just say that the attraction I work at has what the cast ended up dubbing, quote, the poop hall because of the amount of times guests have gone in there and pooped. We even put up a camera and it didn't stop it. And I don't know how hyperbolic that is.

and I don't know how hyperbolic that is. Is this must be because the lines are long and like perhaps I mean, I'm not surprised. I've heard of one instance of this, but it was at Hong Kong Disneyland.

Okay. Then that was a friend told me a story. I think a guest maybe pooped in like a planter. Yeah. Okay. Well, at least that's a planter versus right there in the line for rise.

Wait, are we not supposed to poop in the planter? Okay. So you've been pooping in the planters. Is that, I mean, I haven't, I'm not going to say like I did it frequently,

but like I thought that, yeah, like fertilizer good for the plant. Let's just say his living room stinks. Yeah. Do not go inside his house in the summer. Balancing on like a tiny little. Like a gargoyle.

The custodial staff at Disneyland, they've got stories. And we actually, this isn't poop related, but we talked to a street journal journalist who had written a story about people spreading ashes yeah and that is a super common occurrence in the haunted mansion specifically and he here's just like a little tidbit we talked about this in the last episode of the podcast but when the custodial notices someone has spread ashes, they call it in over their little walkies as Code Grandma. Oh, my gosh. But then they got in trouble for doing that. So they had to call it like whatever.

Code. Clean up. Code G. Yeah. Something. G-Ma. Or Grand M. Code Ashes.

It's incredible that like that kind of stuff goes on. And I don't know i mean i personally have never even really seen or smelled poop at disney yeah well they want to keep the princesses insulated from that sort of thing yeah i need you to just you don't need to believe the magic yeah and now that i say that it's that's a lie because i did smell a lot of poop poopy diapers yeah oh yeah it's in their diapers yeah that's what i'm like is it i get that too like when you have thousands of little kids having to wait in long lines right shit happens there you know exactly like they should have more bathrooms along the path of the line because it's like i you know i was at disney world less than a year ago and you know

you are waiting for hours if you don't remember to like get your kids like get your kid to the bathroom beforehand like at at some point your four-year-old's going to be like, look, man, it's not a question of if or when it's happening. It's a question of where it's happening. You got to bite the bullet and just be like, well, I just waited in a three-hour line for nothing. Right, right, right. Which is fine, but then your kid's going to be, like, right. phenomenon kind of thing you know like where people who have to like go to a bookstore and got to take a dump suddenly like are people just overwhelmed by the magic kingdom and like their bowels go phantasmic on them or like what i think you might be honestly i think you might be on to something i feel like people are just so excited right right yeah and like maybe the clam chowder

doesn't help not for me that's what I do to avoid taking it up. Walking around with a bread bowl of clam chowder. Dude, just housing it, man. Just housing it and then eating the bread bowl. No spoon like a fucking Viking sipping out of my vanquished enemy's skull. I love it.

And it looks just as tough as that. Oh, yeah, yeah, except just really gross. And people are like, do you have to slurp that in line right now in in my ear i'm like look it's i haven't been here in a while but it sounds like the code system like is normal right because like you just said there's code grandma or whatever they altered it for spreading ashes and there's also a code for feces which is code h for like horse manure so the custodial staff could clean up any like horse shit like on main street. And now they also have human code H for the human variety, which is human code. H is so foreboding.

Like that doesn't make me less curious what's going on. Right. I'm following the employees who are like, we got a human code H over here. We got to like, it sounds like a human got loose in Toontown or something like it. Or there's like some Soylent Green thing happening. Yeah, that's, that's scary. I bet they clean it up like so efficient, efficiently, that you like wouldn't even notice. Like I heard a story that one time at Disney during Christmas, you know, they have those big like clydesdale horses okay so one of the horses like dropped dead and they put like a little tarp over it but they don't

obviously want just like a dead horse in the middle of main street so they surrounded the horse with christmas carolers oh my gosh oh wait as a way to kind of like distract from nothing to see here what's behind that tarp? Shut the fuck up. Yeah, exactly. So I wonder if they do the same thing with like a little turd on the ground, if they'd be like quick Pinocchio, like go over there,

like do some animation in front of the little turd. And put like a Mickey hat on it, on top of it. Just to be like, it's nothing. Because anything is that can be made a magical moment, you know, and that is what disney does best yeah what's more whimsical than a pile of excrement with a mickey hat i can't think of anything else that would that would probably brighten my day i wonder like do the people who run the show who are like all right get me 20 carolers over here and just have them circle the

horse carcass and start like that's that's a sort of genius that i feel like are are these people who like what what is your background when you get to that position is your background like being a casino pit boss or are you are you coming from like the world of like you know i've been involved in many kinetic situations in the middle east if you know what i'm saying they're probably coming from the pentagon yeah yeah yeah the pentagon is a revolving door between the pentagon and be like controlling like being the eyes in the sky at disneyland and disney world you would think so but i think the road to getting like that job is just being a disney adult and believing so heavily in the magic that you will do whatever it takes to protect the magic yeah including if a kid sees the dead horse that

kid needs to go because otherwise he's gonna get out into the world start talking about it and he's gonna dissipate the magic a little bit or Or what you do is you indoctrinate that child and you make sure they have a lifelong career in the company. Right. Like keep your enemies closer. Oh, right, right, right. Smart. Absorb them. They're like, hey, kid, you got a lot of potential.

Don't waste it out there in the real world. You should you should apply that here in the kingdom. What do you think? If you ever get the sense that they're turning, you got to you got to take care of that really. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. They're like, yeah.

And they do a thing. They're like, you don't want a bunch of carolers singing around you. Right. You know what the folks don't act right. End up spread around the haunted mansion. Do you? Yeah. You take him over to Tom Sawyer's Island.

Yeah. Like a little boat ride. Take a little boat ride with me. Yeah. The real Grimms, like a mob hit. On the canoes, you know those canoes that no one goes on? Like, hey, let's go on a canoe

ride. You want to go fishing? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, let's do that. It's interesting too, like even how like even the design of, I didn't realize there are certain parts of the park that are like sort of acknowledging rivers of excrement um which i did not know this is alleged allegedly i haven't heard this in liberty square there's a there's an odd brown path that is meant to hearken the 16th

century when indoor plumbing didn't exist and represent the river of excrement that would have been flowing when people emptied their chamber pots so they're like i don't know if like this is what they're trying to do like it's supposed to look like an odd path but like people with a historic lens like that kind of looks like uh back in the day when people just dumped their poo and pee out in the middle of the street and created a little sewage river yeah yeah the imagineers are really sick. Oh, you sick fucks. Yeah, I think to your point, like one clinical psychologist's explanation

behind like public defecation includes anxiety. And I think, you know, kids getting ready to go on a ride or even like adults. I saw some like pretty wild shit happen. Like as an adult got to the front of like the longest line I waited in when I was at Disney World was like the Ratatouille ride. And like there was an adult who like wanted their ride to go like exactly the way they had envisioned it. And so they didn't want to ride with anybody else next to them. And the people had to like kick them off the ride because they were like fighting with them

it was like very very sad like upsetting but it's just like too much people truly snap and you just also have to imagine like the the amount of people going through disneyland like on any given day like their crowd control is so good um that you don't even really can't even comprehend how many people are actually around you. And so it's just statistically like some of those people are going to have a tummy ache. Right? Yeah. Yeah. I think it's also too, it's kind of like, you know, I get the anxiety part because it's so fucking expensive to go to Disneyland, Disney World. And if you don't live in Florida or California, like that's an expense. People save a lot of fucking money to take their family to go have this experience.

And I can just see how that can mount to a point where, yeah, maybe, you know, your stomach goes haywire a little bit. You're like, fuck, I need to take a shit. But I mean, I feel like it's the same way. Like, right. Like we were talking like earlier, like when when the show first started we're talking about how there's so many fights with parents at chucky cheese yeah yeah that's also because they serve alcohol but a lot of people also point to the fact that a child's birthday coupled with like maybe stressed finances and things like that can create like a high anxiety environment that can just go off at any second and i've seen recently like clips of like people fucking scrapping at disneyland too and you're like i i can see how

like all of that can come together where it's coming out in like people getting aggressive with each other or maybe just rivers of shit going left left. Taking just a little poop, just squatting in line at Pirate to the Caribbean and just like letting a few drop. And then moving on your way and saying, hey, it's my numbers up. I'm going to get on this ride. Yeah. Money I'm paying. I should be allowed to take a shit in this line. Right.

That's exactly right. And I get why, too. Like the person you're talking about, Jack, who knows how much money they spent. And, like, in their mind, they're like, no, no, no. Y'all motherfuckers owe me this. I'm doing Ratatouille this fucking way. And you're like, well, we have, like, thousands of people in line here. Like, we can't really guarantee that.

And, yeah, people want to fucking lose it. But, hey, I don't know. And, like, the Disney, like, business plan has been has been like I remember we were talking within the last year that like park attendance was down and then it was revealed that was actually part of their plan because they just like charged so much money that people would actually stop coming in such high numbers to the park and like it wouldn't the drop in attendance wouldn't offset the amount of money they were making and it would make it like a better experience for the people there except of course for the people who can't afford it and are like she's like having a breakdown because they're realizing like they're putting too much pressure on this moment because they've gone into debt to accomplish it it's that's crazy i mean if i was a billionaire like i would just become a club 33 member and like pay whatever thirty thousand dollars a year just to have that kind of like

no line experience yeah yeah that's club 33 that's real that's a like club at disney that's like behind the scenes and but it's invite only oh yeah you get beat into it by mickey mouse and pluto you have to name a bunch of cereals why they jump you already know that's the proud boys when they jump you in sorry i get it mixed up sometimes yeah but yeah i remember like i had a friend who was like whose family was fully disney brained as kids And I remember they threw somebody at their church they went to got the chance to go and eat at the restaurant and shit. And like, I like for them, it was Internet, but apparently those like totally unauthorized because you're not you're not supposed to have images of. Yeah. The coveted club. I've been in.

I've done a few special events. All right. Yeah. And worth it. Worth the 30 grand. I mean, of course. It's amazing. There's a full bar.

There's a buffet. Oh. Hey. Is it how close is how similar is the vibe to the eyes wide shut party oh it's quite there's quite a bit of overlap yeah yeah single icy piano key the whole time you're walking in yeah yeah a lot of plague doctor mess all right's going to do it for this week's weekly Zeitgeist. Please like and review the show if you like the show.

It means the world to Miles. He needs your validation, folks. I hope you're having a great weekend, and I will talk to you Monday. Bye. Bye. Bye. Thank you. I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed.

Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and Shekinah Church. Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Keri Champion, and this is Season 4 of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. Every great player needs a foil. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game.

Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Listen to the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Elf Beauty, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti. And I'm Jermaine Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. There's a lot to figure out when you're just starting your career. That's where we come in. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do,

like negotiation expert Maury Tahiripour. If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation, then I think it sort of eases us a little bit. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.