As the age of oil winds down, a variety of interlinked forces are in play. Dave outlines a framework spanning roughly the last 100 years that helps put oil, gold, cryptocurrency, disinformation, radicalization, and the pandemic in perspective, and offers ideas about how we might overcome the looming climate emergency. He also addresses questions posed by listeners. Recorded live, November 2021.

End Times for Oil: Crypto, Gold, Radicalization, and January 6th

In 1964, Henry Littlefield proposed that the wildly popular book and film "The Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum could be read as an allegory about the gold standard, silver, and other political themes present in the 1890's when Baum was conceiving of the book. Others suggest it could be read as a theosophical story as well. Regardless of Baum's intent, this reading of this universally beloved story provides a gateway for people to think about such topics as monetary policy. Today, with cryptocurrency serving as a modern proxy for gold, we can think about its parallels to gold and its strengths and weaknesses. By tying current debates to history, we gain a better understanding of the present moment. Includes discussion of Littefield's theory and listener questions and ideas about cryptocurrency and cults historically connected to gold and oil.

The Wizard Of Oz, The Gold Standard, and Crypto

Most people may not be aware that the modern Republican Party has been overtaken in recent decades by libertarian extremists that hail from the anti-communist, gold-obsessed John Birch Society. Dave Troy talks with Dr. James Scaminaci III, who is a noted expert on the extreme Christian Right and the American libertarian movements, as well as 4th generation warfare. He describes how the ideology from the John Birch Society eventually ended up in the Council for National Policy, the Ron Paul 2008 campaign, the Tea Party, January 6th and in cryptocurrency.

The Libertarian Roots of January 6th, with James Scaminaci and Dave Troy

Ruth Ben-Ghiat is the author of the book "Strongmen: Mussolini to Present". She joins Dave Troy in conversation about the history of fascism in Italy, its offshoots around the world and connections with the Catholic Church. Ben-Ghiat studied how multiple dictator strongmen came to power, the tools they used to keep it, and how they eventually fell, to look for common patterns.  She presents fascism as a "third way," a right-wing reaction to communism in Soviet Russia, rooted in private property and privatization. They discuss the risks present today, previous fascist coups in Chile, parallels with cryptocurrency, and how the United States may emerge from its current authoritarian moment.

The Fascist Playbook from Mussolini to Today with Ruth Ben-Ghiat

Continuing discussion from November 23 with Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Dave talks with Monique Camarra, an instructor at the University of Siena and co-host of the Kremlin File podcast. Dave and Monique have a wide-ranging conversation spanning the origins of Italian fascism, its asthetic roots, and its spread and adoption around the world. They tie the global fascist turn to oil, gas, and carbon fuel interests and to gold and cryptocurrency, and offer ideas for how people worldwide might better subjugate the current fascist turn.

The Roots and Legacy of Fascism with Monique Camarra

The 1930's was a time of incredible upheaval in world politics, and the United States was no exception. Financial uncertainty, the New Deal, and anxiety about FDR's departure from the Gold Standard accompanied the flourishing of cult practices that aimed to address fundamental questions around the direction the country (and the world) might take. These groups, informed by previous traditions such as New Thought and Theosophy, offered a hierarchical, eugenicist view of society linked to prosperity and gold. Today's conflicts around cryptocurrency serve as a proxy for these same questions about our future direction. Joe Szimhart offers a sweeping overview of America's cultish turn, along with some ideas about how we might move forward at this very challenging time.

Two books referenced (with permission):

400 Years of Imaginary Friends by Kenneth and Talita Paolini
http://lightofchristtruth.com/References/Imaginary.pdf

Psychic Dictatorship in America by Gerald Bryan (1940)
http://tyob.info/public/pdf/psydict.pdf

The Cult Roots of American Fascism with Joe Szimhart

Anyone studying online disinformation will eventually come to the realization that much of it can be traced back to the oil and gas industry — specifically to groups like the Council for National Policy, created by and for oil and industrial interests. These networks have a deep history of fascist activity in the United States, where they were born primarily as a reactionary response to the New Deal and fears of "creeping socialism."

Brent Allpress is an architectural academic based in Melbourne, Australia, and has been studying these networks in detail for the last several years. He has collaborated with authors such as Anne Nelson (Shadow Network) and filmmakers Dr. Charles Kriel and Kat Gellein (People You May Know).

He has come to believe that most all of the political conflict we are experiencing is rooted in the carbon crisis, of which the January 6th insurrection was one expression. Today, the conflict rages on as oil industry influence (going so far as to vacuum up psychological profiling data) determines whether, how quickly, and how well we may respond to the looming carbon disaster.

And cryptocurrency, by creating demand for even more energy and forestalling our response, is only making things worse. This is a must-listen session for a planet out of time.

The Death of the Carbon Coalition
Existing models of U.S. politics are wrong. Here’s how the system really works.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/02/12/carbon-coalition-median-voter-us-politics/

Shadow Network (Book, Anne Nelson)
https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Network-Media-Secret-Radical/dp/163557319X/

People You May Know (Film, Kriel & Gellein)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12606876/

The Aftermath of Cambridge Analytica (TEDxMidAtlantic)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd5pxDEXBWA

Oil, Data, and Psychological Warfare with Brent Allpress

The Council for National Policy was created in 1981 with funds from the oil and gas industry to operationalize goals of the libertarian and Christian Right movements which had joined forces to elect Ronald Reagan as president. The CNP went on to play significant roles with the Iran Contra affair as well as to significantly shape the strategy of the right for the following four decades. The CNP played a significant role in the planning and execution of the January 6th attacks.

Anne Nelson's book "Shadow Network" documents the CNP from inception to the present moment. She discusses the CNP, as well as multiple aspects of its history, goals, obsessions with eliminating taxation and regulation and with so-called "sound money" such as gold and now, cryptocurrency.

The Hidden Agendas Behind January 6th with Anne Nelson

Christine Arena is a public relations veteran, climate activist, and filmmaker based in San Francisco. For the last several years she's been studying the funding of influence campaigns by the carbon fuel industry, looking at ways to expose and disrupt their strategies.

She and Dave discuss the history of how the oil industry has not only sought to deny climate science, but to target lawmakers and the public with influence and psychological warfare campaigns that minimize the harms caused by the industry while outright obstructing any kind of action that might stand in their way.

Christine's current project is a grant-funded documentary, PLAYED, which outlines the influence of the oil and gas industry and proposes ways to disrupt it. She has also appeared on the podcast series DRILLED by journalist Amy Westervelt, specifically in Season 3.

For more information, check out her website at generousfilms.com, and check out DRILLED at criticalfrequency.org.

Listeners may also want to check out work on Discourses of Delay:
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/global-sustainability/article/discourses-of-climate-delay/7B11B722E3E3454BB6212378E32985A7

The Oil Industry's War on Reality with Christine Arena

Dave Troy is a technologist, historian, and disinformation researcher.

Oil, Data, and Psychological Warfare with Brent Allpress

David Troy

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