Aqa psychology years one1 and two2 a level and aS 9781908682406

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AQA

PS Y CH O LO G Y Fo r A Le v el y e ar 1 & AS

Cara Flanagan Dave Berry Matt Jarvis Rob Liddle

AQA

PSYC HO LO GY PSYCHOLOGY FFor or A Level e ar 1 & AS AS y ear Cara Flanagan Dave Berry Matt Jarvis Rob Liddle

This copy is made under the terms of the CLA Print Disability Licence to be used only by a print-disabled person. Except as permitted by law, it may not be further copied, nor may it be supplied to any other person, without permission. This copy is made under the terms of the CLA Print Disability Licence to be used only by a print-disabled person. Except as permitted by law, it may not be further copied, nor may it be supplied to any other person, without permission.

© Illuminate Publishing Ltd. For use under terms of the CLA Print Disability Licence only.

Published in 2015 by Illuminate Publishing Ltd, P.O. Box 1160, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL50 9RW Orders: Please visit www.illuminatepublishing.com or email [email protected] © Cara Flanagan, Dave Berry, Matt Jarvis, Rob Liddle The moral rights of the authors have been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

The Year 1 course: A level and AS Co-teachability Students doing the AS or Year 1 of the A level cover exactly the same topics during their course of study. A level students have a few additional topics for Paper 2 (see bottom of this page). This means that the AS and Year 1 of the A level are co-teachable.  In the A level exams questions are likely to be worth a maximum of 16 marks and AS questions a maximum of 12 marks (see page 221 for more on this). If you are an A level student, you can take the AS exam at the end of your first year but this will not count towards your A level. You must take all three A level papers at the end of your final year of study.

AS level

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Paper 1 Introductory Topics in Psychology Each section is worth 24 marks. All questions are compulsory. Section A: Social influence Section B: Memory Section C: Attachment

ISBN 978-1-908682-40-6 Printed in the UK by Cambrian Printers, Aberystwyth 09.15

Paper 2 Psychology in Context

The publisher’s policy is to use papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products made from wood grown in sustainable forests. The logging and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders of material produced in this book. If notifed, the publisher will be pleased to rectify any errors or omissions at the earliest opportunity. Editor: Geoff Tuttle Design and layout: Nigel Harriss

• There are two papers. • Each paper is 1½ hours and 72 marks in total. • Each paper is worth 50% of the final AS level mark.

Each section is worth 24 marks. All questions are compulsory. Section A: Approaches in psychology Section B: Psychopathology Section C: Research methods

Research methods A minimum of 25% of the overall assessment will assess skills in relation to research methods. A minimum of 10% of the overall assessment will assess mathematical skills for both AS and A level.

A level

• There are three papers. • Each paper is 2 hours and 96 marks in total. • Each paper is worth 33.3% of the final A level mark.

Paper 1 Introductory Topics in Psychology Approval message from AQA This textbook has been approved by AQA for use with our qualification. This means that we have checked that it broadly covers the specification and we are satisfied with the overall quality. Full details of our approval process can be found on our website. We approve textbooks because we know how important it is for teachers and students to have the right resources to support their teaching and learning. However, the publisher is ultimately responsible for the editorial control and quality of this book. Please note that when teaching the Psychology AS and A-Level course (7181; 7182), you must refer to AQA’s specification as your definitive source of information. While this book has been written to match the specification, it does not provide complete coverage of every aspect of the course. A wide range of other useful resources can be found on the relevant subject pages of our website: www.aqa.org.uk.

Each section is worth 24 marks. All questions are compulsory. Section A: Social influence Section B: Memory Section C: Attachment Section D: Psychopathology

Paper 2 Psychology in Context Sections A and B are worth 24 marks, C is worth 48 marks. All questions are compulsory. Section A: Approaches in psychology Section B: Biopsychology Section C: Research methods

Paper 3 Issues and Options in Psychology Each section is worth 24 marks. Section A is compulsory, Sections B, C and D contain three topics each and students select one from each. Section A: Issues and Debates in Psychology Section B: Relationships, Gender or Cognition and Development Section C: Schizophrenia, Eating Behaviour or Stress Section D: Aggression, Forensic Psychology or Addiction

Paper 2: Extra topics for A level If you are doing A level rather than AS, then you will need to study Paper 3 topics plus the following additional topics for Paper 2: Approaches: The psychodynamic and humanistic approaches, plus a comparison of all approaches. Biopsychology: Localisation of function in the brain, ways of studying the brain, biological rhythms.

2•

Research methods: Content analysis, case studies, reliability, validity, features of science, reporting psychological investigations, levels of measurement, probability and significance, choosing inferential tests.

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Contents 4 How to use this book 6 What is Psychology? The chapters 14 Chapter 1 Social influence 44 Chapter 2 Memory 72 Chapter 3 Attachment 102 Chapter 4 Approaches in psychology (including biopsychology) 132 Chapter 5 Psychopathology 164 Chapter 6 Research methods 211 Appendix: A level and AS skills 222 References 226 Index with glossary Contents • 3

© Illuminate Publishing Ltd. For use under terms of the CLA Print Disability Licence only.

How to use this book Doing psychology consists of three skills: describing what you know, applying your knowledge and analysing/evaluating this knowledge. This applies to all students – AS students and A level students.

On page 211 we give you an overview of practice questions, which will help you to see why we have designed our spreads as they are.

Describing what you know

Applying your knowledge

Analysing and evaluating

Assessment objective 1 (AO1) is concerned with your ability to report detailed descriptions of psychological knowledge and demonstrate your understanding of this knowledge. On most spreads in this book we have presented all the AO1 material on the left-hand side. We have divided the text up with subheadings to help you organise your understanding. Each heading should act as a cue for material to recall and matches the material in the summary at the end of each chapter.

Assessment objective 2 (AO2) is concerned with being able to apply your psychological knowledge. It is a really good way to assess whether you do understand psychological knowledge. On every spread we usually have two or three ‘Apply it’ questions which give you a chance to practise this AO2 skill of application in relation to both concepts and research methods. Research methods topics are covered in Chapter 6 but we have given you a chance to apply them throughout the book.

Assessment objective 3 (AO3) is concerned with your ability to evaluate the concepts and studies you have learned about. On most spreads in this book we have presented the AO3 material on the right-hand side. Generally we have focused on three criticisms, each one clearly elaborated to demonstrate the skill of evaluation. For Year 1 A level students slightly more evaluation is required and this is supplied in the ‘Evaluation extra’.

What is an ‘assessment objective’? It is something that is used to assess your ability. You can demonstrate what you know by describing it but there is more to knowledge than that. There is the further skill of being able to use your knowledge in new situations (applying your knowledge). And a further skill is to be able to judge the value of your knowledge (evaluation). All three of these skills are part of your studies.

Conformity: Asch’s research Variables affecting conformity including group size, unanimity and task difficulty as investigated by Asch. Asch has done more than most to increase our understanding of conformity and the circumstances in which it arises. Perhaps his greatest contribution to psychology was to devise a procedure to assess how much people will conform to the opinion of others even in a situation where the answer is certain (unambiguous).

Key terms Group size – Asch increased the size of the group by adding more confederates, thus increasing the size of the majority. Conformity increased with group size, but only up to a point, levelling off when the majority was greater than three. Unanimity – The extent to which all the members of a group agree. In Asch’s studies, the majority was unanimous when all the confederates selected the same comparison line. This produced the greatest degree of conformity in the naïve participants. Task difficulty – Asch’s line-judging task is more difficult when it becomes harder to work out the correct answer. Conformity increases because naïve participants assume that the majority is more likely to be right.

X

A

B

C

Standard and comparison lines In the Asch studies, the line X on the left-hand card is the standard line. The lines A, B and C are the three comparison lines. The participants have to say which of the comparison lines is the same length as the standard line X.

3rd

4th

5th

2nd

6th

1st

7th

The physical arrangement of the participants in the study. Asch The naïve (genuine) participant was always seated either last or (as here) next to last in the group. Participants gave their answers out loud, one at a time, beginning with the 1st person.

Evaluation

Asch’s research Procedure Solomon Asch (1951, 1955) tested conformity by showing participants two large white cards at a time. On one card was a ‘standard line’ and on the other card there were three ‘comparison lines’. One of the three lines was the same length as the standard and the other two were always substantially different (i.e. clearly wrong). The participant was asked which of the three lines matched the standard. The participants in this study were 123 American male undergraduates. Each naïve participant was tested individually with a group of between six and eight confederates, as shown in the diagram (below left). The naïve participant was not aware that the others were confederates. On the first few trials all the confederates gave the right answers but then they started making errors. All the confederates were instructed to give the same wrong answer. Altogether each participant took part in18 trials and on 12 ‘critical trials’ the confederates gave the wrong answer. A trial was one occasion identifying the length of a standard line.

4 • Introduction

Artificial situation and task

The naïve participant gave a wrong answer 36.8% of the time. Overall 25% of the participants did not conform on any trials, which means that 75% conformed at least once. The term Asch effect has been used to describe this result – the extent to which participants conform even when the situation is unambiguous. When participants were interviewed afterwards most said they conformed to avoid rejection (normative social influence).

Asch’s variations

Limited application of findings

Asch was further interested in the conditions that might lead to an increase or a decrease in conformity. He investigated these by carrying out some variations of his original procedure. 1. Group size He wanted to know whether the size of the group would be more important than the agreement of the group. Asch found that with three confederates conformity to the wrong answer rose to 31.8% (see graph on facing page). But the addition of further confederates made little difference. This suggests that a small majority is not sufficient for influence to be exerted but, at the other extreme, there is no need for a majority of more than three. 2. Unanimity Asch also wanted to know if the presence of another, non-conforming, person would affect the naïve participant’s conformity. To test this, he introduced a confederate who disagreed with the others – sometimes the new confederate gave the correct answer and sometimes he gave the wrong one. The presence of a dissenting confederate led to reduced conformity, whether the dissenter was giving the right or wrong answer. The figure was, on average, 25% conformity. The presence of a dissenter enabled the naïve participant to behave more independently. This suggests that the influence of the majority depends to some extent on the group being unanimous. 3. Task difficulty Asch made the line-judging task more difficult by making the stimulus line and the comparison lines more similar in length. He found that conformity increased under these conditions. This suggests that informational social influence plays a greater role when the task becomes harder. This is because the situation is more ambiguous, so we are more likely to look to other people for guidance and to assume that they are right and we are wrong.

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Concepts: The big night out

Some students are celebrating the end of their exams by having a night out. They have been in the pub all evening and are now discussing which nightclub to go on to. Imogen prefers Rotting Flesh but the majority of the group wants to go to Scar Tissue.

Briefly explain how each of the following factors might affect whether or not Imogen conforms to the majority: (a) Group size. (b) Unanimity. (c) Task difficulty.

Social Influence

Perrin and Spencer (1980) repeated Asch’s original study with engineering students in the UK. Only one student conformed in a total of 396 trials. It may be that the engineering students felt more confident about measuring lines than the original sample and therefore were less conformist. But it is also possible that the 1950s (when Asch carried out his research) were an especially conformist time in America, and therefore it made sense to conform to established social norms. But society has changed a great deal since then, and people are possibly less conformist today. This is a limitation of Asch’s research because it means that the Asch effect is not consistent across situations and may not be consistent across time, and so is not a fundamental feature of human behaviour.

Participants knew they were in a research study and may simply have gone along with the demands of the situation (demand characteristics). The task of identifying lines was relatively trivial and therefore there was really no reason not to conform. Also, although the naïve participants were members of a ‘group’, it didn’t really resemble groups that we are part of in everyday life. According to Fiske (2014), ‘Asch’s groups were not very groupy’. This is a limitation because it means that the findings do not generalise to everyday situations. This is especially true where the consequences of conformity might be more important, and we interact with other people in groups in a much more direct way.

Findings

Question

18 • Chapter 1

A child of its time

Only men were tested by Asch. Other research suggests that women might be more conformist, possibly because they are more concerned about social relationships (and being accepted) than men are (Neto 1995). The men in Asch’s study were from the United States, an individualist culture, i.e. where people are more concerned about themselves rather than their social group. Similar conformity studies conducted in collectivist cultures (such as China where the social group is more important than the individual) have found that conformity rates are higher. This makes sense because such cultures are more oriented to group needs (Bond and Smith 1996). This shows that conformity levels are sometimes even higher than Asch found. Asch’s findings may only apply to American men because he didn’t take gender and cultural differences into account.

Evaluation eXtra Findings only apply to certain situations

The fact that participants had to answer out loud and were with a group of strangers who they wanted to impress might mean that conformity was higher than usual. On the other hand, Williams and Sogon (1984) found conformity was actually higher when the majority of the group were friends than when they were strangers. Consider: Why do you think conformity might be higher in a group of friends rather than strangers? Is it possible that conformity changes from situation to situation? Explain why this is a serious limitation of Asch’s studies.

Ethical issues The naïve participants were deceived because they thought the other people involved in the procedure (the confederates) were also genuine participants like themselves. However, it is worth bearing in mind that this ethical cost should be weighed up against the benefits gained from the study. Consider: Why is this a limitation of the study? What do you think the benefits of the study were? On balance, do you think they outweighed the ethical issues or not? Explain your answer.

STUDY TIPS • Ethical criticisms are only relevant when considering a study. Such issues do not challenge the validity of the findings.

Conformity is usually assumed to be a bad thing. But sometimes situations demand that everybody pulls in the same direction.

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Methods: Group size

Variation of Asch’s baseline study: Group size.

40 35

% Conformity rates

The specification says…

30 25 20 15 10 5 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Size of majority (number of confederates)

Questions

1. The results from Asch’s research on the effects of group size are shown above. Approximately what was the conformity rate when there was one confederate? (1 mark) 2. What was the rate when there were three confederates? (1 mark) 3. What was the rate when there were nine confederates? (1 mark) 4. Asch used a volunteer sampling method to recruit his participants. Explain one strength and one limitation of this sampling method. (4 marks) (See page 175.) 5. When the group size was four there would be only one naïve participant and the others were confederates. Express the number of confederates as a fraction and a percentage of the total group size. (2 marks) (See page 196.)

Check It 1. One variable that affects conformity is unanimity. Explain what is meant by unanimity in relation to conformity. [2 marks] 2. Apart from unanimity, identify two variables that have been shown to affect conformity. Briefly outline how each of these variables affects conformity. Refer to evidence in your answer. [6 marks] 3. Describe Asch’s study of conformity. Include details of what he did and what he found. [6 marks] 4. Describe and evaluate Asch’s research into conformity. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

Conformity: Asch’s research • 19

© Illuminate Publishing Ltd. For use under terms of the CLA Print Disability Licence only.

Extra features on each spread

Extra features in each chapter

What the specification says

Chapter introduction

The spread begins (top left) with an excerpt from the specification showing you what is covered on the spread. There is also a brief analysis of what the specification entry means.

Each chapter begins with discussion points that might help you start thinking about the topic.

Each chapter ends with a useful spread summarising the key points from each spread. These summaries should help you revise. Look at each key point and see what you can remember. Look back at the spread to remind yourself. Each time you do this you should remember more. Revision Summaries

Study tips

Conformity: types and explanations Conformity is yielding to group pressures.

This book has been written by very experienced teachers and subject experts. When there is room they give you some of their top tips about the skills necessary to develop your understanding of psychology. They may also include pointers about typical misunderstandings. Check it

Judging the lengths of lines.

Asch’s research

Evaluation

Procedure Confederates deliberately gave wrong answers to see if participant would conform.

A child of its time Perrin and Spencer found less conformity in 1980 than 1950s.

Findings Naive participants conformed on 36.8% of trials. 25% never conformed. Variations Conformity increased up to group size of four. Dissenter reduced conformity. Conformity increased when task was harder.

Explanations of conformity

Types of conformity

Conformity: Asch’s research

Artificial situation and task Demand characteristics meant participants just played along with trivial task.

Internalisation Private and public acceptance of group norms.

Informational social influence (ISI) Conform to be right. Assume others know better than us.

Identification Change behaviour to be part of a group we identify with.

Normative social influence (NSI) Conform to be liked or accepted by group.

Compliance Go along with group publicly but no private change.

Evaluation Research support for ISI More conformity to incorrect maths answers when they were difficult, as predicted by ISI. Individual differences in NSI nAffiliators want to be liked more.

Limited application of findings Asch’s research only conducted on American men. Evaluation extra Findings only apply to certain situations. Ethical issues.

ISI and NSI work together Dissenter may reduce power of ISI and NSI.

Behaviour may be determined by social norms.

Evaluation

The Stanford prison experiment (SPE) Procedures Mock prison with students randomly assigned as guards or prisoners. Findings Guards became increasingly brutal, prisoners increasingly withdrawn and depressed. Conclusions Participants conformed to their roles as guards or prisoners.

Control Random assignment to roles increased internal validity. Lack of realism Participants were play-acting their roles according to mediaderived stereotypes, Dispositional influences Only one-third of guards were brutal so conclusions exaggerated. Evaluation extra Lack of research support. Ethical issues.

Obedience: situational variables

Evaluation

Proximity Obedience decreased to 40% when teacher could hear learner, and to 30% in touch proximity condition.

Research support Bickman showed power of uniform in field experiment.

Location Obedience decreased to 47.5% when study moved to run-down office block. Uniform Obedience decreased to 20% when ‘member of the public’ was the experimenter.

Student digital book A digital version of this student book is also available if your school has access to our Digital Book Bundle of student and teacher resources. You can view this digital version via a tablet or computer at school, home or on the bus – wherever it suits you. There are extra features in the student digital book that support your studies. For every spread in this book there are: • Lifelines: Very straightforward, easy-to-digest key descriptive points for the spread topic. • Extensions: Extra information, studies or activities to challenge and stretch you further. • Web links to YouTube videos or other sites. • Answers to the Apply it and Evaluation extra questions in this book (invaluable!). • Quizzes: Interactive, self-marking quizzes that help to check and reinforce your understanding on a topic. • Practice questions: Extra questions to help you practise your skills.

38 • Chapter 1

Milgram’s original obedience study

Cross-cultural replications Cross-cultural findings support Milgram. But almost all studies in similar cultures to USA so not very generalisable.

Obedience is due to factors within the individual.

The Authoritarian Personality Procedure Adorno et al. used F-scale to study unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups.

A limited explanation Cannot explain why some of Milgram’s participants disobeyed or the lack of moral strain in Hofling et al.’s nurses.

Binding factors Allow individual to ignore the damaging effects of their obedient behaviour.

Legitimacy of authority

Findings People with authoritarian personalities identify with the ‘strong’ and have fixed cognitive style.

Evaluation

Legitimacy of authority Created by hierarchical nature of society.

Cultural differences Explains obedience in different cultures because reflects different social hierarchies.

Destructive authority Problems arise, e.g. Hitler.

Evaluation extra The ‘obedience alibi’ revisited. Real-life crimes of obedience.

Evaluation Research support Some of Milgram’s obedient participants had authoritarian personalities (Elms). Limited explanation Can’t explain increase in obedience across a whole culture. Better explanation is social identity theory.

Authoritarian characteristics Extreme respect for authority and obedience to it.

Political bias Equates authoritarian personality with rightwing ideology and ignores extreme left-wing authoritarianism.

Origin of the authoritarian personality Harsh parenting creates hostility that cannot be expressed against parents so is displaced.

Evaluation extra Methodological problems. Correlation, not causation.

Resistance to social influence Social support

Evaluation

Conformity Reduced by presence of dissenters from the group.

Research support Conformity decreases when one person dissents even if they are not credible (Allen and Levine).

Obedience Decreases in presence of disobedient peer who acts as a model to follow.

Findings 65% gave highest shock of 450v. 100% gave shocks up to 300v. Many showed signs of anxiety.

Low internal validity Participants realised shocks were fake. But replication with real shocks got similar results. Good external validity Findings generalise to other situations such as hospital wards. Supporting replication Game of Death found 80% gave maximum shock, plus similar behaviour to Milgram’s participants. Evaluation extra An alternative explanation – Social identity theory. Ethical issues.

Locus of control

Research support Obedience drops when disobedient role models are present (Gamson et al.).

Procedure Participants gave fake electric shocks to a ‘learner’ in obedience to instructions from the ‘experimenter’.

Social Influence

Research support Internals less likely to fully obey in Milgram-type procedure (Holland).

Continuum High internal at one end and high external at the other.

Contradictory research People have become more external and more disobedient recently (Twenge et al.). Hard for LOC to explain.

Resistance to social influence People with high internal LOC are more able to resist pressures to conform or obey.

Evaluation extra Limited role of locus of control.

Social influence and social change

Minority influence

Psychological research can help us change society.

Minority influence leads to internalisation.

Minority influence

Evaluation

Locus of control LOC is sense of what directs events in our lives (Rotter).

Social change

Evaluation

Consistency If the minority is consistent this attracts the attention of the majority over time.

Research support for consistency Moscovici’s blue-green slides and Wood et al.’s meta-analysis.

Commitment Augmentation principle – personal sacrifices show commitment and attract attention.

Research support for depth of thought Minority views have longer effect because they are deeply processed (Martin et al.).

Flexibility Minority more convincing if they accept some counter-arguments.

Artificial tasks Tasks often trivial so tell us little about real-life influence.

The process of change Above factors make majority think more deeply about issue. Snowball effect – minority view gathers momentum until it becomes majority influence.

Evaluation extra Research support for internalisation. Limited real-world applications.

Evaluation

The special role of minority influence Minority influence is powerful force for innovation and social change. Example – civil rights movement in the USA. Lessons from conformity research Normative social influence can lead to social change by drawing attention to what majority is doing. Lessons from obedience research Disobedient role models. Gradual commitment is how obedience can lead to change.

Research support NSI valid explanation of social change, e.g. reducing energy consumption (Nolan et al.). Only indirectly effective Effects of minority influence are limited because they are indirect and appear later (Nemeth). Role of deeper processing It is majority views that are processed more deeply than minority views, challenging central feature of minority influence. Evaluation extra Barriers to social change. Methodological issues.

Revision Summaries • 39

Practical corner Questions on research methods account for a minimum of 25% of the assessment, therefore you should devote a lot of time to understanding how psychologists conduct research. There is no better way to do this than being a researcher yourself. We offer some ideas for research activities and provide additional opportunities to practise mathematical skills. Practice questions, answers and feedback Learning how to produce effective question answers is a SKILL. On this spread in each chapter we look at some typical student answers to practice questions. The comments provided indicate what is good and bad in each answer. Multiple-choice questions (MCQs) Here’s a chance to test your new-found knowledge. Questions on each spread in the chapter, with answers at the bottom right of each spread. Keep trying until you get 100%. Multiple-Choice Questions Conformity: types and explanations 1. Which of the following is a type of conformity? (a) Unanimity. (b) Internalisation. (c) Normative social influence. (d) Obedience.

3. Which of the following statements best describes compliance? (a) Conforming to a majority because we want to be accepted or liked. (b) Publicly and privately agreeing with the majority view. (c) Publicly agreeing with the majority but privately disagreeing. (d) Conforming to a majority because we want to be correct. 4. Which of the following statements best describes normative social influence? (a) Going along with a group of people because we want to be liked by them. (b) Going along with a group of people because we don’t know what we’re doing. (c) Going along with other people even though we don’t agree. (d) Going along with other people because we accept their views.

Conformity: Asch’s research

The SDB is your answer.

Are Germans different?

Evaluation extra Control of variables in Milgram’s variations. The ‘obedience alibi’.

2. Which of the following is an explanation for conformity? (a) Compliance. (b) Informational social influence. (c) Identification. (d) Internalisation.

Need a life line?

Lack of internal validity Some of Milgram’s procedures contrived, so not genuine obedience (Orne and Holland).

Obedience: Dispositional explanations

Evaluation Research support Blass and Schmitt found that people do blame the legitimate authority for the participant’s behaviour.

How people disobey and refuse to conform.

Obedience: Milgram’s research

Evaluation Obedience is due to pressures in the situation.

Situational variables

Obedience due to the influence of other people.

Agentic state Autonomous state Free to act according to conscience. Switching between the two – agentic shift.

Evaluation extra Individual differences in NSI. Research support for NSI.

Conformity to social roles: Zimbardo’s research

A sample of practice questions to help you focus on how you will be using the material on the spread. The final question is an extended writing question. AS students should aim to answer a 12-mark version whereas A level students will need to practise a 16-mark version. Extended writing skills are discussed on pages 218–219.

Obedience: Social-psychological factors Agentic state Acting as agent of another.

1. In Asch’s original study, the naïve participant was always seated: (a) Last. (b) First. (c) Next-to-last. (d) Last or next-to-last. 2. What did Asch find about group size? (a) Conformity kept increasing with group size. (b) Conformity decreased as group size increased. (c) Conformity increased with group size but only to a point. (d) Increasing group size had no effect on conformity. 3. What did Asch find about unanimity? (a) Conformity stayed the same whether the majority was unanimous or not. (b) A unanimous majority had the greatest effect on conformity. (c) When a partner disagreed with the majority, conformity increased. (d) A divided majority had the greatest effect on conformity.

42 • Chapter 1

Social Influence

4. What did Asch find about task difficulty? (a) Conformity decreased when the task became more difficult. (b) Conformity increased when the task became more difficult. (c) Increasing task difficulty had no effect on conformity. (d) The task was too difficult for the naïve participants.

Conformity: Zimbardo’s research 1. The Stanford prison study investigated: (a) Rebellion. (b) Conformity to social roles. (c) Obedience to authority. (d) Compliance. 2. What was Zimbardo’s role in the Stanford prison study? (a) The prison superintendent. (b) Both prison superintendent and lead researcher. (c) Lead researcher. (d) Not part of the study. 3. The roles of guard and prisoner were decided: (a) On a first-come, first-served basis. (b) By asking the participants to volunteer. (c) By the researchers. (d) Randomly. 4. Which statement best describes the behaviour of the prisoners? (a) They resisted the cruelty of the guards throughout the study. (b) They became more withdrawn and anxious as the study progressed. (c) They made it very difficult for the guards to enforce the rules of the prison. (d) They supported each other.

Obedience: Milgram’s research 1. Milgram recruited his participants by: (a) Placing adverts in local papers and sending out flyers. (b) Putting up posters in the local neighbourhood. (c) Word of mouth. (d) Drawing names out of a hat. 2. Three people were involved in Milgram’s procedure. They were: (a) Participant, Confederate, Learner. (b) Experimenter, Confederate, Learner. (c) Experimenter, Teacher, Learner. (d) Experimenter, Learner, Mr. Wallace. 3. (a) (b) (c) (d)

The final prod given to the participants was: ‘It is absolutely essential that you continue.’ ‘Please go on.’ ‘You have no other choice, you must continue.’ ‘The experiment requires that you continue.’

4. In terms of Milgram’s findings, 65% refers to the proportion of participants who: (a) Refused to continue at some point in the procedure. (b) Went all the way to the top of the shock scale. (c) Disobeyed at the very beginning of the procedure. (d) Went up to 300v and then refused to continue.

Obedience: Situational explanations 1. What did Milgram find out about proximity in his variations? (a) Obedience increased when the experimenter issued his instructions over the phone. (b) Obedience decreased when the teacher and learner were physically closer. (c) Most participants obeyed even when they had to put the learner’s hand on a shock plate. (d) The physical proximity of experimenter, teacher and learner had the smallest effect. 2. What did Milgram find out about location in his variations? (a) Obedience decreased when the study was conducted in a run-down part of town. (b) The high status and reputation of Yale University made no difference to obedience. (c) Most participants still obeyed when the study was moved to a run-down office building. (d) Changing the location had the greatest effect on obedience. 3. Which of Milgram’s variations produced the lowest obedience? (a) Teacher forces learner’s hand onto shock plate. (b) Study is transferred to run-down office block. (c) Experimenter issues instructions by telephone. (d) Member of public stands in for experimenter. 4. Bickman’s (1974) study supported Milgram because he found that: (a) Changing to a higher status location increased obedience. (b) People more often obeyed someone dressed in a security guard’s uniform. (c) Increasing the distance between the participants reduced obedience. (d) Reducing the distance between authority and participant increased obedience.

Obedience: Psychological factors 1. ‘Believing you are carrying out the wishes of someone else’ is a brief description of: (a) Informational social influence. (b) Situational theory of obedience. (c) Agentic state. (d) Legitimacy of authority. 2. The massacre of unarmed civilians at My Lai by American soldiers can be explained by: (a) Agentic state. (b) Legitimacy of authority. (c) Both the agentic state and legitimacy of authority. (d) Neither the agentic state nor the legitimacy of authority.

3. A problem with the agentic state explanation is that: (a) It can’t explain why the proportion of people who obeyed the experimenter in Milgram’s study was so high. (b) It can’t explain why some people in Milgram’s study did not obey the experimenter. (c) There is no research support. (d) It is not as useful as legitimacy of authority. 4. Legitimacy of authority is a good explanation of cultural differences in obedience because: (a) Some cultures are more traditionally respectful of authority than others. (b) Some cultures are less traditionally respectful of authority than others. (c) Cultures differ in the way parents raise children to view authority figures. (d) All of the above.

Obedience: Dispositional explanations 1. According to Adorno, people with an authoritarian personality: (a) Are highly obedient to authority. (b) Look with contempt on people of inferior social status. (c) Favour traditional values and conventional attitudes. (d) All of the above. 2. Authoritarian personality is measured using the: (a) Assertiveness scale. (b) Potential for fascism scale. (c) AP-scale. (d) Potential for obedience scale.

2. Social support helps people to resist social influence because: (a) It breaks the unanimity of the majority. (b) It provides a model of disobedience to be followed. (c) It frees people to act according to their consciences. (d) All of the above. 3. Which of these statements about locus of control is the most accurate? (a) Everyone is either definitely internal or definitely external. (b) There is very little difference between moderate internals and moderate externals. (c) High internals and high externals are at opposite ends of a continuum. (d) Internals and externals are very similar in their ability to resist social influence. 4. High internals are more likely to resist social influence than high externals because: (a) They believe that whatever they do makes no real difference. (b) They tend to be more self-confident and to take personal responsibility. (c) They are less likely to have an authoritarian personality. (d) They have a greater need for social approval from others.

Minority influence

3. An authoritarian personality develops because a child: (a) Receives unconditional love and affection from parents. (b) Is spoiled by his or her parents who do not use any discipline. (c) Experiences feelings of hostility towards his or her parents that cannot be expressed directly. (d) Is accepted regardless of his or her achievements. 4. People with an authoritarian personality are very preoccupied with social status. Therefore they: (a) Treat all people with respect. (b) Feel sympathetic to those of lower status. (c) Tend not to be impressed by the trappings of high status. (d) Are servile and obedient towards those of higher status.

Resistance to social influence 1. The effects of social support were shown in Asch’s studies when: (a) The size of the majority was increased from 2 to 14. (b) The task was more difficult because the lines were closer. (c) The participants wrote their answers down rather than stated them out loud. (d) A dissenter gave the correct answers all the time.

1. Minority influence is especially effective because: (a) It involves supporting strange and unusual causes. (b) People are forced to think more deeply about the issues. (c) No one likes to think they are part of a mindless herd. (d) A small group of people appears unthreatening.

Social influence and social change 1. Once social change has occurred, its origins are forgotten by the majority in a process called: (a) Social cryptomnesia. (b) Flexibility. (c) Gradual commitment. (d) Internalisation. 2. Conformity to the majority can sometimes create social change through the operation of: (a) Augmentation. (b) The snowball effect. (c) Social proof. (d) Normative social influence. 3. The augmentation principle in minority influence refers to: (a) How the source of social change is eventually forgotten. (b) How members of the minority make personal sacrifices. (c) The attention that the minority attracts from the majority. (d) The deeper processing of the minority view by the majority. 4. The way in which a minority view becomes the new norm of the majority can be explained by: (a) Compliance. (b) Social proof. (c) Consistency. (d) The snowball effect.

2. Consistency in the minority position is effective because: (a) It highlights the complacency of the majority. (b) It increases the amount of interest from the majority. (c) Most people have a need to be consistent in their views. (d) A bickering minority attracts more attention and support. 3. Flexibility in the minority position is needed because: (a) Consistency alone can be a negative thing and off-putting. (b) It shows that the minority isn’t really all that bothered. (c) It allows the majority to get its own way, so they are more likely to agree. (d) None of the above. 4. Minority influence can lead to which kind of conformity? (a) Compliance. (b) Identification. (c) Internalisation. (d) Informational.

MCQ answers

The specification terms are explained, mirroring what you might be expected to know if you were asked to explain the terms. These key terms are emboldened in blue in the text. Other important words are emboldened in the text and explained in the glossary, which forms part of the index.

Chapter summary

Conformity: Types and explanations 1B, 2B, 3C, 4A Conformity: Asch’s research 1D, 2C, 3B, 4B Conformity: Zimbardo’s research 1B, 2B, 3D, 4B Obedience: Milgram’s research 1A, 2C, 3C, 4B Obedience: Situational explanations 1B, 2A, 3D, 4B Obedience: Psychological factors 1C, 2C, 3B, 4D Obedience: Dispositional explanations 1D, 2B, 3C, 4D Resistance to social influence 1D, 2D, 3C, 4B Minority influence 1B, 2B, 3A, 4C Social influence and social change 1A, 1D, 3B, 4D

Definition of specification terms

Multiple-Choice Questions • 43

How to use this book • 5

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What is psychology? Some people think that psychology is just common sense – but it isn’t. In some ways, psychology can be seen as a test of common sense. Psychology has shown that what we have always strongly believed to be true often turns out to be wrong. And sometimes things that sound like wild ideas turn out to be true. Psychology specialises in what are called counter-intuitive findings. These are the results from psychological research studies that you just didn’t expect, which pleasingly and surprisingly contradict common sense. You read them, and you think, ‘Well, how about that then?’.

Decisions, decisions, decisions You have probably had many experiences of having to make a decision about something important and agonising about it. Should I or shouldn’t I? For example, Cara’s daughter recently couldn’t decide whether or not she should break up with her boyfriend. I won’t list the things he had done wrong but she really wasn’t sure that he was the one. On the other hand she loved him. She eventually decided to stay with the relationship but kept asking herself ‘Did I do the right thing, am I better off without him’?

The philosopher Voltaire said, ‘Common sense is not so common’. He could well have added, ‘and doesn’t often make a lot of sense either’.

6 • What is Psychology?

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Psychologists have explained Cara’s daughter’s confusion. Let’s begin with a study they tried. They told students in their study: I am going to pay you £50 to spend an hour to turn the pegs on a board 90 degrees at a time. (So far, this sounds a good deal. But there is a little more to it.) When you have finished I wonder if you would mind telling some other students that you actually really enjoyed the task. The two psychologists who did this study – Leon Festinger and James Carlsmith – demonstrated something quite surprising. What do you think the students said when they had to describe the task to another student? Those students who were paid a lot (it was actually $20 but the study was done in 1959) were a bit negative. But students who were paid a measly $1 gave a glowing account of what fun they had! If there is a budding psychologist inside you, you should be asking ‘That’s odd – I wonder why?’ Festinger and Carlsmith came up with a theory called cognitive dissonance. If you do a boring task for a lot of money and then have to tell someone it was fun, this produces no conflict in your mind (‘I did it because I was paid a lot’). If you do a boring task and have to say it was fun but get very little money, you may be asking yourself, ‘why did I do that?’ – there is some conflict in your mind. The students with conflict had to find an excuse for themselves about why they did such a boring task and lied, so they convinced themselves it wasn’t actually that boring – and that meant they could justify their behaviour to themselves. The theory of cognitive dissonance says that when we are faced with a decision that produces anxiety and conflict (dissonance), we want to reduce the conflict. One way to do this is to think that one option is much less desirable and then the anxiety vapourises.

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And what does this have to do with Cara’s daughter and her boyfriend? Her distress is a state of cognitive dissonance – holding two conflicting thoughts – should I have finished the relationship or should I have continued? That creates discomfort that we seek to reduce. Cara’s daughter spoke to a friend who was in a similar situation. The friend ended her relationship and says she has regretted it ever since. Her ex now has someone else. This makes Cara’s daughter feel better – she made the right choice. Her dissonance is reduced.

psychology is great What is psychology? • 7

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Psychology is the science of behaviour and experience Armchair psychology People like to offer their own explanations for why people do what they do. Psychologists go beyond common sense and beyond personal opinions. The single thing that matters most in psychology is evidence. Real psychologists, as opposed to armchair ones, are expected to provide evidence for their every utterance (well, almost every one). Evidence doesn’t come from personal experience, or subjective opinion. It comes from what we call empirical evidence, which is what research studies are all about. Research studies are crucially important, and form the foundations of psychology. Psychologists do research studies – they write down what they did (procedures) and what they found (findings). Then other psychologists can read about the studies and criticise them or try something similar. But let’s not be too dismissive of that armchair theorising. That’s the starting point of our psychological knowledge. We then use the evidence from studies to evaluate our theories, to change and develop them, to get as close to the truth about behaviour as we scientifically can.

The key word is science. We think science is the best thing since sliced bread – but actually it isn’t a ‘thing’, it’s a process. It is a wonderful process that enables us to get closer and closer to understanding the world. This is the process:

Step 1: Identify a research question or issue. This usually stems from observing an interesting behaviour, or from a broader psychological theory.

For example (and lets take a simple example), have you ever heard the saying ‘familiarity breeds contempt’ or ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’? So which is true?

Step 2: Decide on a topic to study (your aim) and (if appropriate) form a testable hypothesis. Your observations lead you to decide on a topic to study. In some kinds of scientific research a formal statement is made – a hypothesis. This is a statement of what you believe is true. You state this so that you can test to see whether it is supported by evidence and thus may reflect reality.

In order to test the idea we need to go with one of the views – familiarity leads to increased liking rather than contempt.

Step 3: Design a way to test your hypothesis. This is where it gets remarkable. The key feature of science (as you should know from GCSE) is that it is controlled. There are many different kinds of study but let’s consider doing a controlled experiment like Festinger and Carlsmith’s (previous page) – we get one group of people to do a task in one way and we get another group of people to do a task differently so we can compare them.

In fact Robert Zajonc (a well-known psychologist whose name just happens to be pronounced as ‘Science’ – yes, really) tested just such a hypothesis. He made up a list of words such as ZABULON and ENANWAL.

Step 4: Carry out the study. It’s very important to take due account of ethical issues when conducting the study (see facing page).

Step 5: Analyse the results and draw conclusions. You may present your results in a bar chart or may do a statistical test to see if your hypothesis is supported. Step 6: Evaluate and feedback. If the hypothesis has been rejected by the analysis, then it needs to be revised and retested. So we form a revised hypothesis … Even if your hypothesis is supported, you might come up with further ideas to refine your original hypothesis …

So here’s our hypothesis ‘You feel more positive about a word you hear ten times than something you hear just once’.

Participants* were asked to listen to a list of words. One group of participants heard the word ZABULON 10 times in the list and a second group heard it once. The opposite was true for ENANWAL. At the end participants were asked to rate how much they liked all the words in the list.

Zajonc found that participants did rate the words heard more frequently as more likeable. So we can conclude that familiarity does not breed contempt. However, there are criticisms of this study. Can you think of any?

*When psychologists do research, the people in their studies are called ‘participants’.

The even better news is, psychologists don’t have all the answers. The truly great thing about psychology, the thing that really gets thousands of researchers and practitioners up in the mornings, is that there is still so much to learn and understand. There is still a lot of room for discussion and debate. And now you can join in.

8 • What is Psychology?

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Validity If you did think about the study by Zajonc on the facing page, one thought might have occurred to you – participants would have realised that some of the words were repeated a lot. This may have led at least some participants to try to guess what the study was about and alter their behaviour. Therefore the results of the study actually don’t represent anything real. This is an issue of validity – which refers to whether something is real or just an outcome of a research study that actually doesn’t represent reality. Validity is a difficult topic so don’t expect to get it all at once. But it is an issue of central importance in psychological research so you will need to get it eventually.

Internal validity Internal validity concerns things inside a research study. It may be the question of whether we are testing what we actually intend to test. In our familiarity example, do you think we were actually testing whether familiarity makes something more likeable? Internal validity also concerns the question of ‘control’. It might be that other factors affected our findings. For example, some people might have heard the words ZABULON and ENANWAL before (not likely – that’s why they were chosen). But if they had, that would have spoiled everything. Researchers need to try to control everything that could cause problems. This is something discussed in Chapter 6.

External validity External validity is concerned with things outside the research study. To what extent can we generalise our research findings to other situations? Do you think Zajonc’s study could be used to explain why repeated adverts are very successful on TV?

Research methods in psychology A mysterious student has been attending a class at Oregon State University for the past two months enveloped in a big black bag. Only his bare feet show. Each Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 11.00 am the Black Bag sits on a small table near the back of the classroom. The class is Speech 113 – basic persuasion … Charles Goetzinger, professor of the class, knows the identity of the person inside. None of his students in the class do. Goetzinger said the students’ attitude changed from hostility toward the Black Bag to curiosity and finally to friendship. Taken from the Associated Press, Feb 27, 1967

When Zajonc (1968) wrote a report of his study described on the facing page he began with the story above. It suggests that familiarity doesn’t breed contempt – it actually breeds liking for something. At least in some situations… He called this the mere exposure effect.

Psychologists use a variety of methods in their research – all of them aim to be scientific because they seek to be objective and controlled and repeatable. Often psychologists conduct experiments, which means they can draw conclusions about cause and effect. The main issue with experiments is they can be quite trivial; just looking at a few variables doesn’t always represent real life (you might feel that about Zajonc’s study). One alternative is to simply observe what people do in their everyday lives – psychologists watch people through two-way mirrors or from behind a bush in a park (not very often). The problem here is that, frequently, there is just too much going on to allow us to draw useful conclusions. Other methods include questionnaires, interviews, case studies and also performing correlational analysis. The key is using all kinds of different methods to study one aspect of behaviour and considering how the findings from the different kinds of study inform us. As research methods are so important to psychology, they feature very prominently throughout the rest of this book.

Ethics in psychology Ethics refers to standards of behaviour, behaving with due respect for the people (or animals) you are studying. Ethical issues matter in psychology because the potential for causing damage is so much greater in psychology than it is in, say, chemistry. The subject matter of psychology is behaviour and the participants in research studies are human beings. It is all too easy to carry out studies that could expose people to embarrassment, anxiety, stress or even worse forms of psychological harm. So psychologists are always very careful to include steps to reduce this possibility, to make sure that the dignity and welfare of participants are protected. Ethical guidance is issued by professional psychological associations such as the British Psychological Society (BPS) or the American Psychological Association (APA). These organisations publish codes of conduct that psychologists and researchers have to follow in their research and professional practice.

Statistical analysis in psychology We’ve seen that conducting empirical research is a fundamental activity of psychology, but it would all be wasted effort if we didn’t have a way of knowing what our results mean. This is where statistics come in. There are two types of statistics in widespread use in psychology – descriptive statistics and statistical tests. Descriptive statistics summarise data. They include measures such as the mean and drawing graphs. Such methods allow us to get a quick snapshot of the patterns in our data. Statistical tests are based on probability (see Chapter 6). The key thing for you to know is they tell us if any pattern in our results is just due to chance.

Psychology is the science of behaviour and experience • 9

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Approaches In Chapter 4 we discuss approaches in psychology, so this is a very brief introduction to support you until you get to that chapter. The idea of an ‘approach’ is that psychologists tend to have a general view of what causes behaviour. Some of them think that the way we behave is largely inherited, others believe it is largely learned through your life experience. For example – think about football. What is it that makes someone interested in football or good at it? Did they inherit some kind of football gene from their parents or did they learn to love it perhaps because their family enjoyed kicking a ball around? Psychologists call this nature (what you are born with) or nurture (your life experiences). There are other key differences in the main approaches described on this page.

Nature or nurture?

Or nappies?

Biological approach

Behaviourist approach

The biological approach explains behaviour in terms of physical causes in our brains and bodies, and this includes our genes. The most likely biological source of causes of behaviour is the brain, which produces chemicals called neurotransmitters (such as serotonin, which plays an important role in regulating our moods). The endocrine system is also significant because it produces hormones (for example adrenaline) that have a big impact on our behaviour. The methods used by this approach to investigate behaviour are physical too. Brain scans can show us the structure and functioning of the brain. Researchers then try to relate these to normal as well as abnormal behaviours. In the last 20 years the development of brain scanning techniques has led to a massive increase in understanding how the brain relates to behaviour. Research on animals can be helpful too, because we can’t deliberately make changes to the human brain to observe the effect on behaviour (no really, we can’t, not for research purposes). This approach to understanding behaviour is largely ‘nature’ – though many aspects of the brain and body and even your genes (surprisingly) can be changed by nurture.

The central concept of this approach is the influence of experience on our behaviour, and how we learn behaviours. Basically we are born as ‘blank slates’ and what we become is shaped by experience (sometimes termed ‘the environment’). Basically we either learn through association (classical conditioning) or reinforcement (operant conditioning). If you have cats you will know that they come running as soon as they hear a cupboard door being opened. They have learned to associate that noise with food. You probably also know the usefulness of treats with animals – a small reward reinforces a behaviour and makes it more likely to happen in the future. These are examples of classical and operant conditioning. Whatever characteristics we might be born with, these take second place to the crucial roles of our experience and the environment. Because this approach is most closely associated with scientific psychology, it’s no surprise that behaviourists are cheerleaders for the experimental method in psychology because it involves precise and objective measurement of behaviour in controlled conditions. The approach also uses research with animals, because it sees no significant qualitative differences between human and animal behaviour. PS: There is also social learning theory, an extension of the behaviourist approach that incorporates indirect learning.

10 • What is Psychology?

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AS level students only need to study the biological, behaviourist and cognitive approaches. A level students go on to study the psychodynamic and humanistic approaches. We have covered all these approaches in Chapter 4.

Cognitive approach This approach focuses on thinking – our feelings, beliefs, attitudes and expectations and the effects they have on our behaviour. The approach employs the ‘computer metaphor’ to explain how our minds work; like computers we process information. The approach has been used to explain many things including mental disorders such as depression. According to the cognitive approach depression occurs because people think negatively – they put the worst possible interpretation on events and play down the good things that happen to them. They think it will never get better. According to the cognitive approach the depression lies in the way they are thinking rather than in reality. Like behaviourist psychologists, cognitive psychologists use lab experiments as a key research method. But a big difference is that while behaviourists have no interest in what goes on inside the mind, cognitive psychologists are the opposite. The processes inside the mind are precisely what they are interested in and have an important link to the behaviours we observe.

Whatever works best

The unconscious mind lies beneath

Psychodynamic approach This is the approach that originated with Sigmund Freud, possibly the most well-known psychologist ever. He believed that the causes of behaviour lie within the unconscious mind, the part of the mind that is normally closed off to us but is extremely active. The iceberg metaphor has been used to represent this ‘invisible’ unconscious mind that has powerful effects (think Titanic). There is constant dynamic conflict between parts of the unconscious and the conscious mind. We can get a brief glimpse of this conflict when we dream, which is why Freud advocated the use of dream interpretation to help us understand what’s in the unconscious and why it affects us. The approach also emphasises the importance of childhood experiences, which have a major impact on our personality development and our behaviour as adults.

Humanistic approach The humanistic approach is firmly based on the concept of the self. This concerns issues to do with your self-concept (how you see yourself), and your self-esteem (how you feel about yourself). The humanistic approach also emphasises the importance of being able to make our own rational choices. All of the other approaches suggest that our behaviour is, to a large extent, directed by other forces not always under our control – genes, the environment, our thought patterns, or our unconscious mind. Humanistic psychologists believe the goal of psychology is not prediction or control but to understand the whole person.

The distance from the biological approach to the humanistic perspective represents the huge range that is psychology. Although researchers working in these two approaches may call themselves psychologists, they have very little in common in terms of their assumptions about behaviour, their preferred explanations, their philosophical viewpoints, the methods they use to investigate behaviour, or even the research questions they are interested in answering. That’s how broad a subject psychology is – and that’s one reason why it’s so exciting. These different approaches also reflect the undoubted truth that human behaviour is complex and is probably not going to be fully understood from just one approach. Because of this, in recent years, there has been a growth of the eclectic approach. This is preferred by psychologists who aren’t committed to any one particular approach. The eclectic approach uses the assumptions, explanations and methods from many different approaches. Their slogan could well be: ‘Whatever works best’.

Eclectic aims to select what is best in various approaches, methods, or styles

Approaches • 11

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Psychology in the real world The goals of psychology Consider one of the really important health issues of our times – the obesity crisis in Britain. Here’s a disturbing statistic to be getting on with: 67% of men and 57% of women in Britain are overweight or clinically obese. Can psychology do anything to help? In the box on the right we use obesity as an example to illustrate what most psychologists seek to do with the research tools and knowledge at their disposal. So what is psychology for?

Describing behaviour Psychologists want to be able to describe what is happening when people ‘behave’. This is mostly a matter of observation. Psychologists observe how behaviours are related to each other. They might, for example, notice that certain behaviours occur together quite often and form a pattern. They might even begin to get an indication of which behaviours are ‘normal’ and which ‘abnormal’. Eventually, after enough studies have been conducted, possible explanations of the behaviour emerge, which takes us on to the next goal of psychology.

Explaining behaviour Describing behaviour is just a starting point. Psychologists really want go beyond merely describing the behaviour that is happening and try to explain where it comes from, the reasons for it, what causes it. To do this, they formulate theories of behaviour then use the scientific method (see page 105) to test them. This of course is where disagreements emerge. There are many competing theories about the causes of behaviour, which often reflect the general approach psychologists adopt within psychology. Can psychologists do more than explain behaviour? Yes, they can predict behaviour.

Predicting behaviour This is the logical next step. Once we are confident that certain behaviours consistently occur under certain conditions, we can use that knowledge to predict how a person’s behaviour (including their thoughts) might change in the future. These predictions (known as hypotheses) can be turned into statements that can be tested in studies.

Controlling behaviour The idea that psychology should be in the business of controlling behaviour may have sinister overtones for some people. But what if we changed the language a little? What if we said that the ultimate goal of psychology is to change behaviour? This is unquestionably something that many branches of psychology attempt to do. For example, psychological therapies for mental disorders are not just about trying to understand or explain behaviours such as phobias or depression. The intention is to change people’s behaviour, from maladaptive ‘abnormal’ behaviour that causes pain and suffering to adaptive, ‘normal’ behaviours that bring happiness (or less pain, at least).

epidemic proportions

and change obesity-

12 • What is Psychology?

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Concepts: Obesity and the goals of psychology Describing obesity Researchers use various research methods to work out what obesity is and how it relates to other factors. For example, they may use questionnaires or interviews to learn about attitudes towards eating in obese people. Psychologists might observe people’s eating behaviour and measure how much people actually do eat. They might do brain scans to see if obese and thin people differ in thinking patterns.

Explaining obesity The descriptions that are collected enable psychologists to develop explanations. There are several current explanations drawn from the whole range of approaches in psychology. There’s a biological explanation that explains obesity in terms of the activity of hormones and other chemicals within the body. There’s a behavioural explanation that focuses on past learning experiences of rewards and punishments involving food. There’s also a cognitive explanation that emphasises the ways that we think about, interpret and perceive the meaning of food and eating.

Predicting obesity If obesity is associated with inactivity, it is a short step to make the prediction that less active people are more likely to be overweight. If we identify depression as one of the causes of obesity, then again it is a simple matter to predict that depressed people are more likely to be obese.

Controlling obesity There may even be a political dimension to behavioural control (see ‘The Nudge Unit’ on the facing page). The obesity crisis is a good example. Because the costs of obesity are so high (especially type 2 diabetes) the government employs psychologists to devise programmes to change eating and exercise behaviours in people who are overweight.

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Why did you do psychology? Some people think it will help them read other people’s minds. Some people, when they find out you’re doing psychology, really do say things like, ‘I’d better watch what I say then,’ or, ‘Does that mean you’re trying to analyse me?’ They might even say, ‘I had this really interesting dream last night. What happened was…’ At which point, you might be wishing you’d said you were doing English Lit instead.

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Concepts: The science of self-talk Motivating self-talk refers to the things we say to ourselves to get us moving or motivated to do something. We probably all do this from time to time but sportsmen and sportswomen use this technique more than most. Sanda Dolcos and Dolores Albarracin (2014) noticed that there are two ways of using such self-talk – first person and second person. For instance, we can say to ourselves ‘I can do it’ (first-person) or ‘you can do it’ (second-person). But does this actually make a difference to performance? Dolcos and Albarracin suspected it does because it reminds us of our childhood experiences of encouragement, with people such as parents and teachers (hopefully) saying ‘you can do it’. The researchers got the participants to imagine themselves to be a character in a story. Participants had to write down the advice that they would give themselves to motivate themselves to complete a task (solving a set of anagrams). Half of the participants had to write their advice down in the first person and the other half in the second person. So the hypothesis they tested was: ‘There is a difference in the number of anagrams solved by the participants who used first-person self-talk and those who used second-person self-talk.’ Dolcos and Albarracin found that more anagrams were solved when second person selftalk was used (17.53 on average) than with the first-person variety (15.96 on average). This does not look like a big difference, but statistical analysis showed that it was unlikely to be a chance result. They concluded that second-person self-talk is more motivating than first person. However, whether this is really due to reminders of encouragement in childhood can’t be conclusively decided by this one study. So more research is needed to test further hypotheses in order to narrow down the range of alternative explanations. Questions

1. Briefly outline what behaviour is being described. 2. What explanation do the researchers propose for the behaviour? 3. How could this research be used to predict and control behaviour?

Change behaviour The Nudge Unit This is the popular name for the Behavioural Insights Team, a department that was formed to apply psychology to government policies. Its aim is to change behaviour one small step at a time (that is, to ‘nudge’ people into making small changes, because they are more achievable). For example, the Nudge Unit has devised projects to get more people to sign up to organ donation or to give blood, to encourage people to pay their taxes on time, to give more time and money to charity, reduce food waste, and so on. They even tried to offer some advice to the England team at the World Cup in 2014, by applying psychological research to taking better penalties (ironically, the team never had the chance to put this advice to the test). Here’s another example of behavioural control: The people at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam wanted to know how you might stop men from missing the urinals and making a mess on the floor of the airport toilets. You could put up signs telling them to be more careful, or warning them of dire consequences if they don’t get their aim straightened out. But here’s a better idea. Men (OK, some men) like nothing more than having something to aim at. So men’s urinals at Schiphol Airport were given a small but significant redesign. A tiny black spot, in the shape of a fly, was inlaid into the middle of the pristine white porcelain urinal. It stood out like…well, like a fly on a white urinal. Although no truly scientific studies have been conducted into the effectiveness of this method, apparently Schiphol’s cleaning costs were reduced by 8%.

Psychology in the real world • 13

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Chapter 1 Social Influence 14 • Chapter 1

Social Influence

Henry Fonda is a juror in the film 12 Angry Men. The jury has to decide on the innocence or guilt of an 18-year-old boy accused of murder. Fonda alone believes that the accused is innocent. Everyone else in the room disagrees with him. Who will end up influencing whom? Will the minority of one convince the others, or will the majority rule? What would you do if you felt sure you were right and the others were wrong? How would you convince them? Or would you feel scared to oppose the others? Why would you feel scared?

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Contents 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34

Conformity: Types and explanations Conformity: Asch’s research Conformity to social roles: Zimbardo’s research Obedience: Milgram’s research Obedience: Situational variables Obedience: Social-psychological factors Obedience: Dispositional explanations Resistance to social influence Minority influence Social influence and social change

36 38 40 42

Practical corner Revision summaries Practice questions, answers and feedback Multiple-choice questions

Chapter 1 Contents • 15

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Conformity: Types and explanations The specification says… Types of conformity: internalisation, identification and compliance. Explanations for conformity: informational social influence and normative social influence. We all like to think that we know our own minds, that we make our own decisions and can tell when someone is trying to manipulate us. In short, we like to think we act independently. But is it possible that this is just an illusion? Psychologists believe that we are all subject to the forces of social influence. Many of our everyday decisions are the result of pressures to conform to the opinions and behaviours of other people.

Key terms Conformity – A change in a person’s behaviour or opinions as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people’ (Elliot Aronson 2011). Internalisation – A deep type of conformity where we take on the majority view because we accept it as correct. It leads to a far-reaching and permanent change in behaviour, even when the group is absent.

Types of conformity Herbert Kelman (1958) suggested that there are three ways in which people conform to the opinion of a majority:

Internalisation Internalisation occurs when a person genuinely accepts the group norms. This results in a private as well as a public change of opinions/behaviour. This change is likely to be permanent because attitudes have been internalised, i.e. become part of the way the person thinks. The change in opinions/behaviour persists even in the absence of other group members.

Identification Sometimes we conform to the opinions/behaviour of a group because there is something about that group we value. We identify with the group, so we want to be part of it. This may mean we publicly change our opinions/behaviour to achieve this goal, even if we don’t privately agree with everything the group stands for.

Compliance This type of conformity involves simply ‘going along with others’ in public, but privately not changing personal opinions and/or behaviour. Compliance results in only a superficial change. It also means that a particular behaviour or opinion stops as soon as group pressure stops.

Explanations for conformity

Identification – A moderate type of conformity where we act in the same way with the group because we value it and want to be part of it. But we don’t necessarily agree with everything the majority believes.

Morton Deutsch and Harold Gerard (1955) developed a two-process theory, arguing that there are two main reasons people conform. They are based on two central human needs: the need to be right (ISI), and the need to be liked (NSI).

Compliance – A superficial and temporary type of conformity where we outwardly go along with the majority view, but privately disagree with it. The change in our behaviour only lasts as long as the group is monitoring us.

Informational social influence (ISI) is about who has the better information – you or the rest of the group. Often we are uncertain about what behaviours or beliefs are right or wrong. For example, you may not know the answer to a question in class. But if most of the class agrees on one answer, you accept that answer because you feel they are likely to be right. The reason individuals follow the behaviour of the group (the majority) is because people want to be right. ISI is a cognitive process because it is to do with what you think. ISI is most likely to happen in situations that are new to a person (so you don’t know what is right) or situations where there is some ambiguity, so it isn’t clear what is right. It is also typical in crisis situations where decisions have to be made quickly. It also occurs when one person (or group) is regarded as being more of an expert.

Informational social influence (ISI) – An explanation of conformity that says we agree with the opinion of the majority because we believe it is correct. We accept it because we want to be correct as well. This may lead to internalisation (see above). Normative social influence (NSI) – An explanation of conformity that says we agree with the opinion of the majority because we want to be accepted, gain social approval and be liked. This may lead to compliance (see above).

Informational social influence (ISI)

Normative social influence (NSI) Normative social influence (NSI) is about norms, i.e. what is ‘normal’ or typical behaviour for a social group. Norms regulate the behaviour of groups and individuals so it is not surprising that we pay attention to them. People do not like to appear foolish and prefer to gain social approval rather than be rejected. So NSI is an emotional rather than a cognitive process. NSI is most likely to occur in situations with strangers where you may feel concerned about rejection. It may also occur with people you know because we are most concerned about the social approval of our friends. It may be more pronounced in stressful situations where people have a greater need for social support.

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Concepts: Social influence at college It is Oliver’s and Lola’s first day at college and they are keen to make a good impression. Oliver pretends to be interested in the other students’ conversations even though he really finds them boring. Lola watches other students very carefully because she wants to complete her work just like they do, to avoid making any mistakes.

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Social Influence

Questions

Whose behaviour is being influenced by informational social influence, Oliver’s or Lola’s? Whose is being influenced by normative social influence? Explain both of your answers.

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There are many reasons for going along with the other people in a group. Often, it's so we can be accepted and liked by them, even if we don't really share their values and opinions.

Practical activity on page 37

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Concepts: Real-life application Schultz et al. (2008) found they were able to change the behaviour of hotel guests by using printed messages encouraging them to save energy. The messages that suggested other guests were using fewer bath towels were the most successful.

Evaluation Research support for ISI

Question

Lucas et al. (2006) asked students to give answers to mathematical problems that were easy or more difficult. There was greater conformity to incorrect answers when they were difficult rather than when they were easier ones. This was most true for students who rated their mathematical ability as poor. The study shows that people conform in situations where they feel they don’t know the answer, which is exactly the outcome predicted by the ISI explanation. We look to other people and assume they know better than us and must be right.

Does this demonstrate ISI or NSI? Explain your answer.

Individual differences in NSI Some research shows that NSI does not affect everyone’s behaviour in the same way. For example, people who are less concerned with being liked are less affected by NSI than those who care more about being liked. Such people are described as nAffiliators. These are people who have a greater need for ‘affiliation’ – a need for being in a relationship with others. For example, McGhee and Teevan (1967) found that students high in need of affiliation were more likely to conform. This shows that the desire to be liked underlies conformity for some people more than others. Therefore there are individual differences in the way people respond.

The idea of Deutsch and Gerrard’s ‘two-process’ approach is that behaviour is either due to NSI or ISI. But the truth is that, more often, both processes are involved. For example, conformity is reduced when there is one other dissenting participant in the Asch experiment (see the next spread). This dissenter may reduce the power of NSI (because the dissenter provides social support) or may reduce the power of ISI (because there is an alternative source of information). This shows that it isn’t always possible to be sure whether NSI or ISI is at work. This is the case in lab studies, but is even truer in real-life conformity situations outside the lab. This casts serious doubt over the view of ISI and NSI as two processes operating independently in conforming behaviour.

Consider: Explain why such individual differences are a limitation of the ISI explanation.

A psychologist studied conformity by observing five people starting new jobs in an office of a major British retail company. Questions

1. Explain why this could be considered to be a naturalistic observation. (2 marks) (See page 180.) 2. Explain one strength and one limitation of naturalistic observation. (2 marks + 2 marks) 3. The psychologist needed to devise some behavioural categories. So she had to decide which behaviours could be considered examples of conformity. Explain what is meant by behavioural categories. (2 marks) (See page 182.)

5. The psychologist used event sampling to observe conforming behaviours over a two-week period during break-times and lunchtimes. Explain what is meant by event sampling. (2 marks) (See page 182.) 6. When the psychologist analysed her results, she found high levels of conforming behaviour by people starting new jobs. Use your knowledge of informational social influence and normative social influence to explain why people might conform in this situation. (4 marks)

STUDY TIPS

Evaluation eXtra As with NSI (above), ISI does not affect everyone’s behaviour in the same way. For example, Asch (1955) found that students were less conformist (28%) than other participants (37%). Perrin and Spencer (1980) conducted a study involving science and engineering students and found very little conformity (details on the next spread).

Methods: Conformity at work

4. Give three examples of possible behavioural categories in the context of this study. (3 marks)

ISI and NSI work together

Individual differences in ISI

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Research support for NSI Asch (1951) found that many of his participants went along with a clearly wrong answer just because other people did (see next spread). So he asked them why they did this. Some of the participants said they felt self-conscious giving the correct answer and they were afraid of disapproval. When Asch repeated his study but asked participants to write down their answers instead of saying them out loud, conformity rates fell to 12.5%. Consider: How does this research support the NSI explanation? Why is this a strength of the explanation?

• The ‘Apply it’ questions on every spread give you an opportunity to practise the skill of applying your knowledge – which is a good test of your understanding.

Check It 1. One type of conformity is internalisation. Explain what psychologists mean by the term internalisation in this context. [2 marks] 2. Explain what is meant by the term informational social influence in relation to conformity. [2 marks] 3. Outline normative social influence as an explanation for conformity. [4 marks] 4. Describe and evaluate informational social influence and normative social influence as explanations for conformity. Refer to evidence in your answer. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

Conformity: Types and explanations • 17

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Conformity: Asch’s research The specification says… Variables affecting conformity including group size, unanimity and task difficulty as investigated by Asch. Asch has done more than most to increase our understanding of conformity and the circumstances in which it arises. Perhaps his greatest contribution to psychology was to devise a procedure to assess how much people will conform to the opinion of others even in a situation where the answer is certain (unambiguous).

Key terms Group size – Asch increased the size of the group by adding more confederates, thus increasing the size of the majority. Conformity increased with group size, but only up to a point, levelling off when the majority was greater than three. Unanimity – The extent to which all the members of a group agree. In Asch’s studies, the majority was unanimous when all the confederates selected the same comparison line. This produced the greatest degree of conformity in the naïve participants. Task difficulty – Asch’s line-judging task is more difficult when it becomes harder to work out the correct answer. Conformity increases because naïve participants assume that the majority is more likely to be right.

X

A

B

C

Standard and comparison lines In the Asch studies, the line X on the left-hand card is the standard line. The lines A, B and C are the three comparison lines. The participants have to say which of the comparison lines is the same length as the standard line X.

3rd

4th

5th

2nd

6th

1st

7th

The physical arrangement of the participants in the study. The naïve (genuine) participant was always seated either last or (as here) next to last in the group. Participants gave their answers out loud, one at a time, beginning with the 1st person.

Asch’s research Procedure Solomon Asch (1951, 1955) tested conformity by showing participants two large white cards at a time. On one card was a ‘standard line’ and on the other card there were three ‘comparison lines’. One of the three lines was the same length as the standard and the other two were always substantially different (i.e. clearly wrong). The participant was asked which of the three lines matched the standard. The participants in this study were 123 American male undergraduates. Each naïve participant was tested individually with a group of between six and eight confederates, as shown in the diagram (below left). The naïve participant was not aware that the others were confederates. On the first few trials all the confederates gave the right answers but then they started making errors. All the confederates were instructed to give the same wrong answer. Altogether each participant took part in18 trials and on 12 ‘critical trials’ the confederates gave the wrong answer. A trial was one occasion identifying the length of a standard line.

Findings The naïve participant gave a wrong answer 36.8% of the time. Overall 25% of the participants did not conform on any trials, which means that 75% conformed at least once. The term Asch effect has been used to describe this result – the extent to which participants conform even when the situation is unambiguous. When participants were interviewed afterwards most said they conformed to avoid rejection (normative social influence).

Asch’s variations Asch was further interested in the conditions that might lead to an increase or a decrease in conformity. He investigated these by carrying out some variations of his original procedure. 1. Group size He wanted to know whether the size of the group would be more important than the agreement of the group. Asch found that with three confederates conformity to the wrong answer rose to 31.8% (see graph on facing page). But the addition of further confederates made little difference. This suggests that a small majority is not sufficient for influence to be exerted but, at the other extreme, there is no need for a majority of more than three. 2. Unanimity Asch also wanted to know if the presence of another, non-conforming, person would affect the naïve participant’s conformity. To test this, he introduced a confederate who disagreed with the others – sometimes the new confederate gave the correct answer and sometimes he gave the wrong one. The presence of a dissenting confederate meant that conformity was reduced by a quarter from the level it was when the majority was unanimous. The presence of a dissenter enabled the naïve participant to behave more independently. This suggests that the influence of the majority depends to some extent on the group being unanimous. 3. Task difficulty Asch made the line-judging task more difficult by making the stimulus line and the comparison lines more similar in length. He found that conformity increased under these conditions. This suggests that informational social influence plays a greater role when the task becomes harder. This is because the situation is more ambiguous, so we are more likely to look to other people for guidance and to assume that they are right and we are wrong.

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Concepts: The big night out

Some students are celebrating the end of their exams by having a night out. They have been in the pub all evening and are now discussing which nightclub to go on to. Imogen prefers Rotting Flesh but the majority of the group wants to go to Scar Tissue. Question

Briefly explain how each of the following factors might affect whether or not Imogen conforms to the majority: (a) Group size. (b) Unanimity. (c) Task difficulty.

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Evaluation A child of its time Perrin and Spencer (1980) repeated Asch’s original study with engineering students in the UK. Only one student conformed in a total of 396 trials. It may be that the engineering students felt more confident about measuring lines than the original sample and therefore were less conformist. But it is also possible that the 1950s (when Asch carried out his research) were an especially conformist time in America, and therefore it made sense to conform to established social norms. But society has changed a great deal since then, and people are possibly less conformist today. This is a limitation of Asch’s research because it means that the Asch effect is not consistent across situations and may not be consistent across time, and so is not a fundamental feature of human behaviour.

Participants knew they were in a research study and may simply have gone along with the demands of the situation (demand characteristics). The task of identifying lines was relatively trivial and therefore there was really no reason not to conform. Also, although the naïve participants were members of a ‘group’, it didn’t really resemble groups that we are part of in everyday life. According to Fiske (2014), ‘Asch’s groups were not very groupy’. This is a limitation because it means that the findings do not generalise to everyday situations. This is especially true where the consequences of conformity might be more important, and we interact with other people in groups in a much more direct way.

Limited application of findings Only men were tested by Asch. Other research suggests that women might be more conformist, possibly because they are more concerned about social relationships (and being accepted) than men are (Neto 1995). The men in Asch’s study were from the United States, an individualist culture, i.e. where people are more concerned about themselves rather than their social group. Similar conformity studies conducted in collectivist cultures (such as China where the social group is more important than the individual) have found that conformity rates are higher. This makes sense because such cultures are more oriented to group needs (Bond and Smith 1996). This shows that conformity levels are sometimes even higher than Asch found. Asch’s findings may only apply to American men because he didn’t take gender and cultural differences into account.

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Methods: Group size

Variation of Asch’s baseline study: Group size.

40 35 % Conformity rates

Artificial situation and task

Conformity is usually assumed to be a bad thing. But sometimes situations demand that everybody pulls in the same direction.

30 25 20 15 10 5 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Size of majority (number of confederates)

Questions

1. The results from Asch’s research on the effects of group size are shown above. Approximately what was the conformity rate when there was one confederate? (1 mark) 2. What was the rate when there were three confederates? (1 mark)

Evaluation eXtra

3. What was the rate when there were nine confederates? (1 mark)

Findings only apply to certain situations

4. Asch used a volunteer sampling method to recruit his participants. Explain one strength and one limitation of this sampling method. (4 marks) (See page 175.)

The fact that participants had to answer out loud and were with a group of strangers who they wanted to impress might mean that conformity was higher than usual. On the other hand, Williams and Sogon (1984) found conformity was actually higher when the majority of the group were friends than when they were strangers. Consider: Why do you think conformity might be higher in a group of friends rather than strangers? Is it possible that conformity changes from situation to situation? Explain why this is a serious limitation of Asch’s studies.

Ethical issues The naïve participants were deceived because they thought the other people involved in the procedure (the confederates) were also genuine participants like themselves. However, it is worth bearing in mind that this ethical cost should be weighed up against the benefits gained from the study. Consider: Why is this a limitation of the study? What do you think the benefits of the study were? On balance, do you think they outweighed the ethical issues or not? Explain your answer.

STUDY TIPS • Ethical criticisms are only relevant when considering a study. Such issues do not challenge the validity of the findings.

5. When the group size was four there would be only one naïve participant and the others were confederates. Express the number of confederates as a fraction and a percentage of the total group size. (2 marks) (See page 196.)

Check It 1. One variable that affects conformity is unanimity. Explain what is meant by unanimity in relation to conformity. [2 marks] 2. Apart from unanimity, identify two variables that have been shown to affect conformity. Briefly outline how each of these variables affects conformity. Refer to evidence in your answer. [6 marks] 3. Describe Asch’s study of conformity. Include details of what he did and what he found. [6 marks] 4. Describe and evaluate Asch’s research into conformity. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

Conformity: Asch’s research • 19

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Conformity to social roles: Zimbardo’s research The specification says… Conformity to social roles as investigated by Zimbardo. We turn our attention on this spread to a special kind of conformity. Previously, we’ve looked at how we have a tendency to conform to the behaviours or opinions of other people when they form the majority of a group. But to what extent do we conform to the expectations that people have of us? These arise out of the roles we play in society and are powerful influences on our behaviour.

Key terms Social roles – The ‘parts’ people play as members of various social groups. Everyday examples include parent, child, student, passenger and so on. These are accompanied by expectations we and others have of what is appropriate behaviour in each role, for example caring, obedient, industrious, etc.

The Stanford prison experiment (SPE) Following reports of brutality by guards in prisons across America in the late 1960s, Philip Zimbardo and his colleagues wanted to answer this question – do prison guards behave brutally because they have sadistic personalities, or is it the situation that creates such behaviour?

Procedure Zimbardo set up a mock prison in the basement of the psychology department at Stanford University (Haney et al. 1973). They advertised for students willing to volunteer and selected those who were deemed ‘emotionally stable’ after extensive psychological testing. The students were randomly assigned the roles of guards or prisoners. To heighten the realism of the study, the ‘prisoners’ were arrested in their homes by the local police and were then delivered to the ‘prison’. They were blindfolded, strip-searched, deloused and issued a uniform and number. The social roles of the prisoners and the guards were strictly divided. The prisoners’ daily routines were heavily regulated. There were 16 rules they had to follow, which were enforced by the guards who worked in shifts, three at a time. The prisoners’ names were never used, only their numbers. The guards, to underline their role, had their own uniform, complete with wooden club, handcuffs, keys and mirror shades. They were told they had complete power over the prisoners, for instance even deciding when they could go to the toilet.

Findings

In the Stanford prison study both prisoners and guards were given uniforms that would dictate their social roles.

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Concepts: A mock psychiatric ward This scenario is based on an actual study by Norma Jean Orlando (1973). A researcher decided to investigate how conformity to social roles can influence people to behave in extreme ways. She selected staff at a psychiatric hospital to play the roles of patients on a ward for one week. After two days, several mock patients experienced symptoms of psychological disturbance, some cried uncontrollably, others became extremely withdrawn, and a few tried to escape. As time went on, most of the participants became more anxious and depressed, and felt very strongly that they were trapped and isolated. The study had to be ended early because some ‘patients’ were losing their sense of self-identity. Question

Use your knowledge of Zimbardo’s research into conformity to social roles to explain why the mock patients behaved as they did.

20 • Chapter 1

After a slow start to the simulation, the guards took up their roles with enthusiasm. Their behaviour became a threat to the prisoners’ psychological and physical health, and the study was stopped after six days instead of the intended 14. Within two days, the prisoners rebelled against their harsh treatment by the guards. They ripped their uniforms, and shouted and swore at the guards, who retaliated with fire extinguishers. The guards employed ‘divide-and-rule’ tactics by playing the prisoners off against each other. They harassed the prisoners constantly, to remind them they were being monitored all the time. For example, they conducted frequent headcounts, sometimes in the middle of the night, when the prisoners would stand in line and call out their numbers. The guards highlighted the differences in social roles by creating plenty of opportunities to enforce the rules and punish even the smallest misdemeanour. After their rebellion was put down, the prisoners became subdued, depressed and anxious. One prisoner was released on the first day because he showed symptoms of psychological disturbance. Two more were released on the fourth day. One prisoner went on a hunger strike. The guards attempted to force-feed him and then punished him by putting him in ‘the hole’, a tiny dark closet. Instead of being considered a hero, he was shunned by the other prisoners. The guards identified more and more closely with their role. Their behaviour became more brutal and aggressive, with some of them appearing to enjoy the power they had over the prisoners.

Conclusions The simulation revealed the power of the situation to influence people’s behaviour. Guards, prisoners and researchers all conformed to their roles within the prison. These roles were very easily taken on by the participants – even volunteers who came in to perform certain functions (such as the ‘prison chaplain’) found themselves behaving as if they were in a prison rather than in a psychological study.

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Concepts: Abu Ghraib

From 2003 to 2004, United States Army Military Police personnel committed serious human rights violations against Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad. The prisoners were tortured, physically and sexually abused, routinely humiliated and some were murdered. Zimbardo noticed some remarkable similarities between the behaviour of the personnel at Abu Ghraib and the guards in the Stanford prison study. Question

Using your knowledge of Zimbardo’s research, explain what happened at Abu Ghraib in terms of conformity to social roles.

Social Influence

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Evaluation

Methods: Gender roles

Control A strength of the SPE is that Zimbardo and his colleagues had some control over variables. The most obvious example of this was the selection of participants. Emotionally stable individuals were chosen and randomly assigned to the roles of guard and prisoner. This was one way in which the researchers tried to rule out individual personality differences as an explanation of the findings. If guards and prisoners behaved very differently, but were in those roles only by chance, then their behaviour must have been due to the pressures of the situation. Having such control over variables is a strength because it increases the internal validity of the study. So we can be much more confident in drawing conclusions about the influence of roles on behaviour.

Lack of realism Banuazizi and Mohavedi (1975) argued the participants were merely play-acting rather than genuinely conforming to a role. Their performances were based on their stereotypes of how prisoners and guards are supposed to behave. For example, one of the guards claimed he had based his role on a brutal character from the film Cool Hand Luke. This would also explain why the prisoners rioted – because they thought that was what real prisoners did. But Zimbardo pointed to evidence that the situation was very real to the participants. Quantitative data gathered during the procedure showed that 90% of the prisoners’ conversations were about prison life. ‘Prisoner 416’ expressed the view that the prison was a real one, but run by psychologists rather than the government. On balance, it seems that the situation was real to the participants, which gives the study a high degree of internal validity.

Role of dispositional influences Fromm (1973) accused Zimbardo of exaggerating the power of the situation to influence behaviour, and minimising the role of personality factors (dispositional influences). For example, only a minority of the guards (about a third) behaved in a brutal manner. Another third were keen on applying the rules fairly. The rest actively tried to help and support the prisoners, sympathising with them, offering them cigarettes and reinstating privileges (Zimbardo 2007). This suggests that Zimbardo’s conclusion – that participants were conforming to social roles – may be over-stated. The differences in the guards’ behaviour indicate that they were able to exercise right and wrong choices, despite the situational pressures to conform to a role.

Evaluation eXtra Lack of research support

Ethical issues

Steve Reicher and Alex Haslam’s (2006) partial replication of the Stanford prison experiment was broadcast on BBC TV, so has become known as the BBC prison study. Their findings were very different to those of Zimbardo and his colleagues. It was the prisoners who eventually took control of the mock prison and subjected the guards to a campaign of harassment and disobedience. The researchers used social identity theory (SIT – Tajfel 1981) to explain this outcome. They argued that the guards failed to develop a shared social identity as a cohesive group, but the prisoners did. They actively identified themselves as members of a social group that refused to accept the limits of their assigned role as prisoners.

A major ethical issue arose because of Zimbardo’s dual roles in the study. For example, on one occasion a student who wanted to leave the study spoke to Zimbardo in his role as superintendent. The whole conversation was conducted on the basis that the student was a prisoner in a prison, asking to be ‘released’. Zimbardo responded to him as a superintendent worried about the running of his prison rather than as a researcher with responsibilities towards his participants.

Consider: Explain why this finding challenges Zimbardo’s conclusions about conformity to social roles.

Consider: Explain why this is an ethical limitation of the Stanford prison study.

In our society there are many social roles in which males and females are expected to behave differently, such as parenting behaviour. A psychologist was interested in studying conformity to gender roles in parenting. She decided to conduct an observational study of parents of one-year-old children. Her hypothesis was that the parenting behaviour of mothers and fathers would conform to traditional gender roles – mothers would behave in traditionally ‘feminine’ ways and fathers in traditionally ‘masculine’ ways. More specifically, she predicted that mothers would show more ‘caring’ behaviours and fathers more ‘aggressive’ behaviours. Questions

1. Identify one behavioural category to record ‘caring’ behaviour and one to record ‘aggressive’ behaviour. (2 marks) (See page 182.) 2. The psychologist decided to use time sampling to record her observations. Explain what is meant by time sampling. (2 marks) 3. Explain why the psychologist might carry out a pilot study before the main observation. (3 marks) (See page 178.) 4. Identify two ethical issues the psychologist should consider before conducting her investigation. (2 marks) (See page 176.) 5. Explain how she could deal with one of these issues. (2 marks) 6. The psychologist’s hypothesis was supported by her findings. Use your knowledge of conformity to social roles to explain this outcome. (3 marks)

The abuses at Abu Ghraib prison woke the whole world up to how the power of the situation and of social roles can make apparently ordinary people do evil things.

Check It 1. Explain what is meant by the term social roles. Use an example to explain the concept. [2 marks] 2. Outline Zimbardo’s research into conformity to social roles. In your answer, refer to what the participants did and what was found. [6 marks] 3. Discuss research into conformity to social roles. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

Conformity to social roles: Zimbardo’s research • 21

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Obedience: Milgram’s research The specification says Obedience as investigated by Milgram. Conformity is one form of social influence, where pressure is exerted by the behaviour of the majority. As Asch’s studies showed, these pressures don’t even have to be explicitly stated – we don’t have to be told to conform. In contrast, obedience is a form of social influence where people are told what to do. We will consider research on obedience on this and the next two spreads. We start with what is probably the most famous – and infamous – research study in the history of psychology.

Key terms Obedience – A form of social influence in which an individual follows a direct order. The person issuing the order is usually a figure of authority, who has the power to punish when obedient behaviour is not forthcoming.

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Concepts: Ethical guidance Milgram was not breaking any official ethical guidance at the time because none existed. It was because of his research (and that of Zimbardo a few years later) that ethical issues became an urgent priority for psychology. All professional psychological associations publish and frequently update ethical guidance for practising psychologists and researchers. In Britain, the British Psychological Society (BPS) produces a Code of Ethics and Conduct that is described and discussed on pages 176–177. It addresses several issues, including: ⦁ A participant’s right to withdraw from the research. ⦁ The need to get fully informed consent from the participants. ⦁ The use of deception. ⦁ The importance of protecting participants from the risk of psychological and physical harm. Questions

1. For each of these ethical issues, identify how they arose in Milgram’s study. 2. What steps did Milgram take to address these issues? 3. To what extent do you think he was successful?

22 • Chapter 1

Social Influence

Milgram’s original obedience study Stanley Milgram (1963) sought an answer to the question of why the German population had followed the orders of Hitler and slaughtered over 10 million Jews, Gypsies and members of other social groups in the Holocaust during the Second World War. He wanted to know if Germans were different – were they more obedient? He began his research by establishing a method to study obedience. His first, original study is the one against which all the others (‘variations’) are compared, which is why it is sometimes called the ‘baseline’ study.

Procedure Milgram recruited 40 male participants through newspaper adverts and flyers in the post. The ad said he was looking for participants for a study about memory. The participants recruited were aged between 20 and 50 years, and their jobs ranged from unskilled to professional. They were offered $4.50 to take part (this was a reasonable amount of money in the early 1960s). When participants arrived at Milgram’s lab they were paid the money at the outset and there was a rigged draw for their role. A confederate, ‘Mr. Wallace’, always ended up as the ‘learner’ while the true participant was the ‘teacher’. There was also an ‘experimenter’ (another confederate) dressed in a lab coat, played by an actor. Participants were told they could leave the study at any time. Experimenter The learner was strapped in a chair in another room and wired with electrodes. The Student teacher was required to give the learner an increasingly severe electric shock each time the learner made a mistake on a learning task (the task involved learning word pairs). The shocks were demonstrated to the teacher. Thereafter the shocks were not real. Teacher The shock level started at 15 (labelled ‘slight shock’ on the shock machine) and rose through 30 levels to 450 volts (labelled ‘danger – severe shock’). When the teacher got to 300 volts (‘intense shock’) the learner pounded on the wall and then gave no response to the next question. After the 315-volt shock the learner pounded on the wall again but after that there was no further response from the learner. When the teacher turned to the experimenter for guidance, the experimenter gave a standard instruction: ‘An absence of response should be treated as a wrong answer’. If the teacher felt unsure about continuing, the experimenter used a sequence of four standard ‘prods’, which were repeated if necessary: Prod 1 – ‘Please continue’ or ‘Please go on.’ Prod 2 – ‘The experiment requires that you continue.’ Prod 3 – ‘It is absolutely essential that you continue.’ Prod 4 – ‘You have no other choice, you must go on.’

Findings No participants stopped below 300 volts, 12.5% (five participants) stopped at 300 volts (‘intense shock’), 65% continued to the highest level of 450 volts. Qualitative data were also collected, such as observations that the participants showed signs of extreme tension; many of them were seen to ‘sweat, tremble, stutter, bite their lips, groan and dig their fingernails into their hands’. Three even had ‘full-blown uncontrollable seizures’. Prior to the study Milgram asked 14 psychology students to predict the participants’ behaviour. The students estimated that no more than 3% of the participants would continue to 450 volts. This shows that the findings were not expected. All participants were debriefed, and assured that their behaviour was entirely normal. They were also sent a follow-up questionnaire; 84% reported that they felt glad to have participated.

Many of Milgram's participants objected, but they were still willing to carry out the wishes of the experimenter.

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Evaluation

Practical activity on page 202

Low internal validity Orne and Holland (1968) argued that participants behaved the way they did because they didn’t really believe in the set up – they guessed it wasn’t real electric shocks. In which case Milgram was not testing what he intended to test, i.e. the study lacked internal validity. Gina Perry’s (2013) recent research confirms this. She listened to tapes of Milgram’s participants and reported that many of them expressed their doubts about the shocks. However, Sheridan and King (1972) conducted a similar study where real shocks were given to a puppy. Despite the real shocks, 54% of the male student participants and 100% of the females delivered what they thought was a fatal shock. This suggests that the effects in Milgram’s study were genuine because people behaved the same way with real shocks. Milgram himself reported that 70% of his participants said they believed the shocks were genuine.

Good external validity Milgram’s study may at first glance appear to lack external validity because it was conducted in a lab. However, the central feature of this situation was the relationship between the authority figure (the experimenter) and the participant. Milgram argued that the lab environment accurately reflected wider authority relationships in real life. Other research supports this argument. For example, Hofling et al. (1966) studied nurses on a hospital ward and found that levels of obedience to unjustified demands by doctors were very high (with 21 out of 22 nurses obeying). This suggests that the processes of obedience to authority that occurred in Milgram’s lab study can be generalised to other situations. So his findings do have something valuable to tell us about how obedience operates in real life.

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Methods: Milgram’s debriefing At the end of the procedure, Milgram carried out a debriefing session with each of his participants. This was an opportunity for him to explain the true purpose of the study and what had really happened. It was also intended to make the participants feel better about their role in the study, especially if they had been completely obedient throughout. Part of the debriefing was a structured interview to ask participants questions about their experiences in the study. Milgram also wanted to collect qualitative data about the reasons why participants obeyed or disobeyed the experimenter. Questions

1. Explain one strength and one limitation of a structured interview. (2 + 2 marks) (See page 185.) 2. Explain one difference between a structured interview and an unstructured interview. (2 marks) 3. Explain what is meant by qualitative data and give an example from Milgram’s study. (2 marks) (See page 190.) 4. Write one suitable question Milgram could have asked in the interviews to collect qualitative data. (1 mark) 5. Explain what is meant by quantitative data. (1 mark) 6. Write one suitable question Milgram could have asked in the interviews to collect quantitative data. (1 mark)

Supporting replication Le Jeu de la Mort (The Game of Death) is a documentary about reality TV, presented on French television in 2010. It includes a replication of Milgram’s study. The participants believed they were contestants in a pilot episode for a new game show called La Zone Xtrême. They were paid to give (fake) electric shocks – when ordered by the presenter – to other participants, who were in fact actors, in front of a studio audience. In a remarkable confirmation of Milgram’s results, 80% of the participants delivered the maximum shock of 460 volts to an apparently unconscious man. Their behaviour was almost identical to that of Milgram’s participants – nervous laughter, nail biting and other signs of anxiety. This replication supports Milgram’s original conclusions about obedience to authority, and demonstrates that his findings were not just a one-off chance occurrence.

Evaluation eXtra An alternative explanation – Social identity theory According to social identity theory the key to obedience lies in group identification. In Milgram’s study, participants identified with the experimenter – they identified with the science of the study. When obedience levels fell, this was because the participants identified less with the science and more with the victim or with another group. Alex Haslam and Steve Reicher (2012) analysed the behaviour of the participants in Milgram’s study. They looked at how a person behaved every time one of the four prods was used. The first three prods don’t demand obedience, they appeal for help with the science (e.g. ‘The experiment requires that you continue’). The 4th prod demands obedience (‘You have no other choice, you must go on’). Every time the 4th prod was used, the participant quit.

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Concepts: When nurses disobey Rank and Jacobson (1977) found evidence to contradict Hofling et al.’s conclusions (see left) about obedient nurses. They replicated Hofling et al.’s study but altered some contrived aspects of the original procedure that might have maximised obedience. For instance, being given an order over the telephone was unusual. It was also unusual to be asked to administer an unknown drug. In the Rank and Jacobson study the nurses were asked to administer Valium, a real drug (‘Astroten’) that the nurses would have been familiar with. They also gave the doctor a name known to the nurses, and the nurses all had the chance to discuss the order with each other. In these more realistic circumstances, only two out of 18 nurses obeyed the doctor’s order (before they were prevented from carrying it out). Question

What would you conclude about obedience to authority from this study?

Consider: According to SIT, why did Milgram’s participants obey? Explain why this is a limitation of Milgram’s conclusions about authority.

Ethical issues

Check It

Diana Baumrind (1964) was very critical of the ways Milgram deceived his participants. Milgram led participants to believe that the allocation of roles as ‘teacher’ and ‘learner’ was random, but in fact it was fixed. Perhaps the most significant deception involved the participants believing the electric shocks were real. Baumrind objected because she saw deception as a betrayal of trust that could damage the reputation of psychologists and their research.

1. Explain what is meant by the term obedience. [2 marks] 2. Describe one study into obedience. Include in your answer what the participants had to do in the study and what was found. [6 marks] 3. Describe and evaluate Milgram’s research into obedience. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

Consider: Why else is deception undesirable in psychological research? For example, what other knock-on effects does it have for the participant?

Obedience: Milgram’s research • 23

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Obedience: Situational variables Explanations for obedience: situational variables affecting obedience including proximity, location and uniform, as investigated by Milgram. Milgram’s ‘baseline study’, described on the previous spread, established a method he could repeat and vary, and use to place a numerical value on the rate of obedience. Milgram began his research with the belief that obedience might be due to personality – were the Germans different? However, he found that situational factors might explain obedience better. He continued to explore this in further studies.

Key terms Situational variables – In his research Milgram identified several factors that he believed influenced the level of obedience shown by participants. They are all related to the external circumstances rather than to the personalities of the people involved, and include: Proximity – The physical closeness or distance of an authority figure to the person they are giving an order to. Also refers to the physical closeness of the teacher to the victim (learner) in Milgram’s studies. Location – The place where an order is issued. The relevant factor that influences obedience is the status or prestige associated with the location. Uniform – People in positions of authority often have a specific outfit that is symbolic of their authority, for example police officers and judges. This indicates to the rest of us who is entitled to expect our obedience.

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Concepts: The power of a uniform A psychologist conducted an investigation into obedience. He used two confederates – one was dressed as a firefighter and the other was dressed in everyday smart-but-casual clothes. The confederates stood on different streets and instructed people to pick up a piece of litter and put it into a bin. A record was kept of how many people obeyed the instruction. Questions

1. From what you know about obedience research, what is the likely outcome of this study? Explain your answer. 2. Are there any ethical issues that might arise in this study?

24 • Chapter 1

Social Influence

Situational variables After Stanley Milgram conducted his first study on obedience, described on the previous spread, he carried out a large number of variations in order to consider the situational variables that might create greater or lesser obedience.

Proximity In Milgram’s original study, the teacher and learner were in adjoining rooms, so the teacher could hear the learner but not see him. In the proximity variation, they were in the same room. In this condition, the obedience rate dropped from the baseline 65% to 40% (see graph below). Percentage of fully obedient participants

The specification says…

70 60

65

50

47.5

40

40

30

30

20

20.5

10

20

0 Teacher Teacher Experimenter Experimenter Baseline Change of gave orders played by study at location to and learner forces run-down in same learner’s by phone ‘member of Yale office room hand onto public’ University plate

Variation

Graph showing obedience levels in Milgram's variations of his baseline study. The graph shows how proximity, location and uniform all affected obedience. In an even more dramatic variation, the teacher had to force the learner’s hand onto an ‘electroshock plate’ when he refused to answer a question. In this touch proximity condition, the obedience rate dropped further to 30%. In a third proximity variation, the experimenter left the room and gave instructions to the teacher by telephone. In this remote instruction condition time proximity was reduced. The outcome was a further reduction in obedience to 20.5%. The participants also frequently pretended to give shocks or gave weaker ones than they were ordered to.

Location In another kind of variation Milgram changed the location of the obedience study. He conducted a variation of the study in a run-down building rather than the prestigious university setting where it was originally conducted (Yale University). In such a situation the experimenter had less authority. Obedience fell to 47.5%. This is still quite a high level of obedience but it is less than the original 65% in the original baseline study.

Uniform In the original baseline study, the experimenter wore a grey lab coat as a symbol of his authority (a kind of uniform). Milgram carried out a variation in which the experimenter was called away because of an inconvenient telephone call right at the start of the procedure. The role of the experimenter was taken over by an ‘ordinary member of the public’ (played by a confederate) in everyday clothes rather than a lab coat. The obedience rate dropped to 20%, the lowest of these variations.

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Evaluation of Milgram’s variations Research support Other studies have demonstrated the influence of these situational variables on obedience. In a field experiment in New York City, Bickman (1974) had three confederates dress in three different outfits – jacket and tie, a milkman’s outfit, and a security guard’s uniform. The confederates stood in the street and asked passers-by to perform tasks such as picking up litter or giving the confederate a coin for the parking meter. People were twice as likely to obey the assistant dressed as a security guard than the one dressed in jacket and tie. This supports Milgram’s conclusion that a uniform conveys the authority of its wearer and is a situational factor likely to produce obedience.

Lack of internal validity Orne and Holland’s criticism of Milgram’s original study was that many of the participants worked out that the procedure was faked. It is even more likely that participants in Milgram’s variations realised this because of the extra manipulation. A good example is the variation where the experimenter is replaced by a ‘member of the public’. Even Milgram recognised that this situation was so contrived that some participants may well have worked out the truth. This is a limitation of all Milgram’s studies because it is unclear whether the results are genuinely due to the operation of obedience or because the participants saw through the deception and acted accordingly.

Cross-cultural replications A general strength of Milgram’s research, that applies to his variations as well, is that his findings have been replicated in other cultures. The findings of cross-cultural research have been generally supportive of Milgram. For example, Miranda et al. (1981) found an obedience rate of over 90% amongst Spanish students. This suggests that Milgram’s conclusions about obedience are not limited to American males, but are valid across cultures and apply to females too. However, Smith and Bond (1998) make the crucial point that most replications have taken place in Western, developed societies (such as Spain and Australia). These are culturally not that different from the USA, so it would be premature to conclude that Milgram’s findings about proximity, location and uniform apply to people everywhere.

Evaluation eXtra

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Methods: Milgram and proximity The graph of results from Milgram’s variations on the facing page of this spread gives obedience rates relating to proximity, location and uniform, plus the original baseline result. Use that information to answer the following questions. Questions

1. Draw up a table to present the results provided in the graph. Make sure you label the table accurately and clearly. (3 marks) 2. Use your knowledge of research to explain what these results tell us about the effect of situational variables on obedience. (3 marks) 3. There were 50 participants in the ‘teacher and learner in the same room’ variation. Calculate the number of participants who obeyed. (2 marks) (See page 196.)

Control of variables in Milgram’s variations A strength of Milgram’s variations is that he systematically altered one variable at a time (such as proximity) to see what effect it would have on the level of obedience. All the other procedures and variables were kept the same as the study was replicated over and over again with more than 1000 participants in total. Consider: Why is this level of control a strength of Milgram’s research?

The ‘obedience alibi’ Milgram’s findings from his variations support a situational explanation of obedience. The proximity of experimenter, teacher and learner, the location of the study, and the presence of a uniform are all factors within the situation that influence obedience. But this perspective has been criticised by David Mandel (1998) who argues that it offers an excuse or ‘alibi’ for evil behaviour. In his view, it is offensive to survivors of the Holocaust to suggest that the Nazis were simply obeying orders and were victims themselves of situational factors beyond their control. Consider: Why is the situational perspective offensive? What is missing from a situational explanation of evil behaviour?

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Concepts: Obedience in the supermarket As everyone knows, teachers have lives outside work. Students might even be lucky enough to see a teacher they recognise at the weekend, shopping or suchlike. One day, in the college canteen, a teacher asked a student to pick up a piece of litter and put it in the bin. The student duly obliged. A few days later, outside a local supermarket, another teacher asked the same student to pick up some litter and bin it. This time the student refused.

Not all uniforms are symbols of authority. Perhaps sometimes a uniform is just about being smartly dressed.

Question

Using your knowledge of Milgram’s variations, explain this difference in the student’s behaviour.

4. Milgram carried out several pilot studies of his procedure. Explain what is meant by a pilot study. (1 mark) (See page 178.) 5. Explain two strengths of carrying out a pilot study. (2 marks + 2 marks) 6. One criticism of Milgram’s studies is that the results were influenced by demand characteristics. What is meant by demand characteristics? (1 mark) (See page 168.) 7. Explain how demand characteristics might have influenced the results of Milgram’s studies. (3 marks)

Check It 1. Milgram investigated situational variables affecting obedience to authority. Identify two of these variables and explain how each of them affects obedience. [3 marks + 3 marks] 2. Describe one study that demonstrated how proximity might be a factor in obedient behaviour. Include details of what the researcher did and what conclusions were drawn. [5 marks] 3. Milgram provided situational explanations for obedience. Describe and evaluate two situational variables that have been shown by Milgram to affect obedience to authority. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

Obedience: Situational variables • 25

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Obedience: Social-psychological factors The specification says… Explanations for obedience: agentic state and legitimacy of authority. Milgram also offered social-psychological explanations for the levels of obedience he found in his studies. Such explanations concern the influences of others on an individual’s behaviour as opposed to external factors in the situation (described on the previous spread). Both of the explanations on this spread emphasise that the causes of obedience lie in social hierarchies.

Key terms Agentic state – A mental state where we feel no personal responsibility for our behaviour because we believe ourselves to be acting for an authority figure, i.e. as their agent. This frees us from the demands of our consciences and allows us to obey even a destructive authority figure. Legitimacy of authority – An explanation for obedience which suggests that we are more likely to obey people who we perceive to have authority over us. This authority is justified (legitimate) by the individual’s position of power within a social hierarchy.

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Concepts: I will obey

Max’s younger sister finds out that he has a bag of sweets. ‘Give me one of those sweets’, she demands, trying to snatch the bag from his hand. But Max refuses. Just then, Max’s dad comes into the room. He has finally had enough, so he tells Max: ‘Your room is a complete disgrace, go and tidy it up immediately. And when you’ve done that, you can go down the shops and get me a loaf of bread’. Max replies, ‘Certainly dad, I’ll go and do that right now.’ Question

Use your knowledge of why people obey to explain Max’s behaviour. Refer to both the agentic state and legitimacy of authority explanations.

Agentic state Stanley Milgram’s initial interest in obedience was sparked by the trial of Adolf Eichmann in 1961 for war crimes. Eichmann had been in charge of the Nazi death camps and his defence was that he was only obeying orders. This led Milgram to propose that obedience to destructive authority occurs because a person does not take responsibility. Instead they believe they are acting for someone else, i.e. that they are an ‘agent’. An ‘agent’ is someone who acts for or in place of another. An agent is not an unfeeling puppet – they experience high anxiety (‘moral strain’) when they realise that what they are doing is wrong, but feel powerless to disobey.

Autonomous state The opposite of being in an agentic state is being in an autonomous state. ‘Autonomy’ means to be independent or free. So a person in an autonomous state is free to behave according to their own principles and therefore feels a sense of responsibility for their own actions. The shift from autonomy to ‘agency’ is called the agentic shift. Milgram (1974) suggested that this occurs when a person perceives someone else as a figure of authority. This other person has greater power because of their position in a social hierarchy. In most social groups when one person is in charge, others defer to this person and shift from autonomy to agency.

Binding factors Milgram then raised the question of why the individual remains in this agentic state. Milgram had observed that many of his participants spoke as if they wanted to quit but seemed unable to do so. The answer is binding factors – aspects of the situation that allow the person to ignore or minimise the damaging effect of their behaviour and thus reduce the ‘moral strain’ they are feeling. Milgram proposed a number of strategies that the individual uses, such as shifting the responsibility to the victim (‘he was foolish to volunteer’) or denying the damage they were doing to the victims.

Legitimacy of authority Most societies are structured in a hierarchical way. This means that people in certain positions hold authority over the rest of us. For example, parents, teachers, police officers, nightclub bouncers, all have some kind of authority over us at times. The authority they wield is legitimate in the sense that it is agreed by society. Most of us accept that authority figures have to be allowed to exercise social power over others because this allows society to function smoothly. One of the consequences of this legitimacy of authority is that some people are granted the power to punish others. Most of us accept that the police and courts have the power to punish wrongdoers. So we are willing to give up some of our independence and to hand control of our behaviour over to people we trust to exercise their authority appropriately. We learn acceptance of legitimate authority from childhood, of course, from parents initially and then teachers and adults generally.

Destructive authority This makes perfect sense; however, problems arise when legitimate authority becomes destructive. History has too often shown that charismatic and powerful leaders (such as Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot) can use their legitimate powers for destructive purposes, ordering people to behave in ways that are callous, cruel, stupid and dangerous. Destructive authority was very clearly on show in Milgram’s study, when the experimenter used prods to order participants to behave in ways that went against their consciences.

Vietnam.

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26 • Chapter 1

Concepts: Massacre at My Lai

Milgram’s findings have been used to explain the notorious war crime at My Lai in 1968 during the Vietnam War. As many as 504 unarmed civilians were killed by American soldiers. Women were gang-raped and people were shot down as they emerged from their homes with their hands in the air. The soldiers blew up buildings, burnt the village to the ground and killed all the animals. Only one soldier faced charges and was found guilty, Lt William Calley. His defence was the same as the Nazi officers at the Nuremberg trials, that he was only doing his duty by following orders.

Social Influence

Question

Explain the behaviour of the soldiers in terms of agentic state and legitimacy of authority.

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'If yer name's not on the list... ' Most people accept that a nightclub doorman's authority is worth respecting because we trust him or her to exercise it responsibly.

Evaluation Research support Blass and Schmitt (2001) showed a film of Milgram’s study to students and asked them to identify who they felt was responsible for the harm to the learner, Mr. Wallace. The students blamed the ‘experimenter’ rather than the participant. The students also indicated that the responsibility was due to legitimate authority (the ‘experimenter’ was top of the hierarchy and therefore had legitimate authority) but also due to expert authority (because he was a scientist). In other words they recognised legitimate authority as the cause of obedience, supporting this explanation.

A limited explanation The agentic shift doesn’t explain many of the research findings. For example, it does not explain why some of the participants did not obey (humans are social animals and involved in social hierarchies and therefore should all obey). The agentic shift explanation also does not explain the findings from Hofling et al.’s study (see page 23). The agentic shift explanation predicts that, as the nurses handed over responsibility to the doctor, they should have shown levels of anxiety similar to Milgram’s participants, as they understood their role in a destructive process. But this was not the case. This suggests that, at best, agentic shift can only account for some situations of obedience.

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Methods: An obedience survey A psychologist was interested in the attitudes students have towards obedience. He wanted to know whether the students thought that obeying the orders of an authority figure was desirable or not. He also wanted to know what factors influenced the students’ decisions to obey authority figures. He produced a questionnaire and distributed it to 200 students at a local sixth-form college. When he returned the next day to collect the questionnaires, he found that 160 students had completed it.

Evaluation

Questions

Cultural differences

1. Identify two methods the psychologist could have used to select a sample of participants. Explain one strength and one limitation of one of these methods. (2 marks + 2 marks + 2 marks) (See page 174.)

A strength of the legitimacy of authority explanation is that it is a useful account of cultural differences in obedience. Many studies show that countries differ in the degree to which people are traditionally obedient to authority. For example, Kilham and Mann (1974) replicated Milgram’s procedure in Australia and found that only 16% of their participants went all the way to the top of the voltage scale. On the other hand, Mantell (1971) found a very different figure for German participants – 85%. This shows that in some cultures, authority is more likely to be accepted as legitimate and entitled to demand obedience from individuals. This reflects the ways that different societies are structured and how children are raised to perceive authority figures. Such supportive findings from cross-cultural research increase the validity of the explanation.

The ‘obedience alibi’ revisited One limitation of the agentic state explanation is that there is research evidence to show that the behaviour of the Nazis cannot be explained in terms of authority and an agentic shift. Mandel (1998) described one incident involving German Reserve Police Battalion 101 where men obeyed the orders to shoot civilians in a small town in Poland. This was despite the fact that they did not have direct orders to do so (they were told they could be assigned to other duties if they preferred). Consider: As the men of Battalion 101 were not ordered to murder civilians, explain how their behaviour challenges the agentic state explanation.

Real-life crimes of obedience A strength of the legitimacy of authority explanation is that it can help explain how obedience can lead to real-life war crimes. Kelman and Hamilton (1989) argue that the My Lai massacre (see Apply it box, facing page) can be understood in terms of the power hierarchy of the US Army. Consider: Explain why this is a strength of the legitimacy of authority explanation.

3. In terms of questionnaires, explain what is meant by closed questions and open questions. (2 marks + 2 marks) (See page 186.) 4. Give one example of a closed question and one example of an open question the psychologist could have used in his study. (2 marks + 2 marks) 5. Calculate the number of completed questionnaires as a percentage of the total distributed. (1 mark)

STUDY TIPS

Evaluation eXtra

2. Explain one strength and one limitation of using a questionnaire. (2 marks + 2 marks)

• A great way to evaluate an explanation is to consider the research evidence that supports or contradicts it. But make sure you use the evidence effectively. Focus on explaining how the evidence supports or challenges the theory. Don’t get sidetracked into describing the evidence at length. • You can go even further with your evaluation. Are there any limitations with the evidence itself? Are there any problems with the research method, for example? How does this affect the support (or otherwise) for the explanation?

Check It 1. In the context of obedience, explain what is meant by agentic state and legitimacy of authority. [2 marks + 2 marks] 2. Give one criticism of the agentic state explanation for obedience. Refer to Milgram’s research in your answer. [4 marks] 3. Outline and evaluate one or more explanations of obedience. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

Obedience: Social-psychological factors • 27

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Obedience: Dispositional explanations The specification says… Dispositional explanation for obedience: the authoritarian personality. Not all psychologists accept that obedience can be fully explained by factors within the situation or the social structure. They reason that there must be at least some role for the personality or disposition of the individual. After all, not all of Milgram’s participants fully obeyed, and some actively rebelled, despite them experiencing identical situational and social pressures. There are several dispositional explanations of obedience, but the most influential concerns the authoritarian personality.

Key terms Dispositional explanation – Any explanation of behaviour that highlights the importance of the individual’s personality (i.e. their disposition). Such explanations are often contrasted with situational explanations. Authoritarian personality – A type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority. Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors.

Consistently harsh and critical parenting can lead to the development of an authoritarian personality when the child becomes an adult.

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Concepts: Workplace bully Leon works in the Head Office of a big national company. His boss has a reputation as a bully because he is always shouting at people and telling them what to do in no uncertain terms. The floor Leon works on is open-plan so his boss can easily see what everyone is doing. Leon has noticed that his boss is always sucking up to the senior managers at every opportunity. Question

Explain the behaviour of Leon’s boss in terms of (i) situational variables; (ii) social-psychological factors; (iii) dispositional factors.

The authoritarian personality Like Milgram, Theodor Adorno and his colleagues wanted to understand the antiSemitism of the Holocaust. Their research led them to draw very different conclusions than Milgram had. On the basis of their research they came to believe that a high level of obedience was basically a psychological disorder, and tried to locate the causes of it in the personality of the individual.

Procedure Adorno et al. (1950) investigated the causes of the obedient personality in a study of more than 2000 middle-class, white Americans and their unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups. They developed several scales to investigate this, including the potential for fascism scale (F-scale) which is still used to measure authoritarian personality. Two examples of items from the F-scale are: ‘Obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues children should learn’, and ‘There is hardly anything lower than a person who does not feel a great love, gratitude and respect for his parents’. Other examples are given on the facing page.

Findings Probably the most interesting discovery from this study was that people with authoritarian leanings (i.e. those who scored high on the F-scale and other measures) identified with ‘strong’ people and were generally contemptuous of the ‘weak’. They were very conscious of their own and others’ status, showing excessive respect, deference and servility to those of higher status. Adorno et al. also found that authoritarian people had a cognitive style where there was no ‘fuzziness’ between categories of people, with fixed and distinctive stereotypes about other groups. There was a strong positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice.

Authoritarian characteristics Adorno concluded that people with an authoritarian personality have a tendency to be especially obedient to authority. They have an extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it. They also show contempt for people they perceive as having inferior social status, and have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender. They view society as ‘going to the dogs’ and therefore believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as love of country, religion and family. People with an authoritarian personality are inflexible in their outlook – for them there are no ‘grey areas’. Everything is either right or wrong and they are very uncomfortable with uncertainty.

Origin of the authoritarian personality Adorno et al. also sought to identify the origin of the authoritarian personality type. They concluded that it formed in childhood, as a result of harsh parenting. Typically, the parenting style identified by Adorno features extremely strict discipline, an expectation of absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards, and severe criticism of perceived failings. It is also characterised by conditional love – that is, the parents’ love and affection for their child depends entirely on how he or she behaves. Adorno argued that these experiences create resentment and hostility in the child, but the child cannot express these feelings directly against their parents because of a wellfounded fear of reprisals. So the fears are displaced onto others who are perceived to be weaker, in a process known as scapegoating. This explains a central trait of obedience to higher authority, which is a dislike (and even hatred) for people considered to be socially inferior or who belong to other social groups. This is a psychodynamic explanation.

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Concepts: Caleb’s granddad

Caleb’s granddad is the old-fashioned type. As far as he’s concerned, there are good Zombies and there are bad Zombies and that’s all there is to it. He thinks the youth of today are a bunch of wasters and what they all need is a spell in the Zombie Army. He longs for the days when we had strong leaders who knew how to get things done. Caleb has also noticed that his granddad talks with a lot of respect about his old bosses from work: ‘They don’t make them like that anymore – you’d do anything for them.’ Caleb often wonders why his granddad thinks like this. Question

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From what you know about obedience, how would you explain to Caleb why his granddad has these attitudes?

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Evaluation Research support Milgram and his assistant Alan Elms (1966) conducted interviews with a small sample of fully obedient participants, who scored highly on the F-scale, believing that there might be a link between obedience and authoritarian personality. However, this link is merely a correlation between two measured variables. This makes it impossible to draw the conclusion that authoritarian personality causes obedience on the basis of this result. It may be that a ‘third factor’ is involved. Perhaps both obedience and authoritarian personality are associated with a lower level of education, for instance, and are not directly linked with each other at all (Hyman and Sheatsley 1954).

Limited explanation Any explanation of obedience in terms of individual personality will find it hard to explain obedient behaviour in the majority of a country’s population. For example, in pre-war Germany, millions of individuals all displayed obedient, racist and antiSemitic behaviour. This was despite the fact that they must have differed in their personalities in all sorts of ways. It seems extremely unlikely that they could all possess an authoritarian personality. This is a limitation of Adorno’s theory because it is clear that an alternative explanation is much more realistic – that social identity explains obedience. The majority of the German people identified with the anti-Semitic Nazi state, and scapegoated the ‘outgroup’ of Jews.

The F-scale technically measures tendency towards fascism, thought to be the essence of the authoritarian personality. Fascism is an extreme right-wing ideology personified by former dictators such as Mussolini (above) in Italy and Franco in Spain.

Political bias The F-scale measures the tendency towards an extreme form of right-wing ideology. Christie and Jahoda (1954) argued that this is a politically biased interpretation of authoritarian personality. They point out the reality of left-wing authoritarianism in the shape, for example, of Russian Bolshevism or Chinese Maoism. In fact, extreme right-wing and left-wing ideologies have much in common – not the least of which is that they both emphasise the importance of complete obedience to legitimate political authority. This is a limitation of Adorno’s theory because it is not a comprehensive dispositional explanation that can account for obedience to authority across the whole political spectrum.

Evaluation eXtra Methodological problems A limitation of the authoritarian personality explanation is that it is based on a flawed methodology. Greenstein (1969) goes as far as to describe the F-scale as ‘a comedy of methodological errors’. For example, the scale has come in for severe criticism because every one of its items is worded in the same ‘direction’. This means it is possible to get a high score for authoritarianism just by ticking the same line of boxes down one side of the page. People who agree with the items on the F-scale are therefore not necessarily authoritarian but merely ‘acquiescers’, and the scale is just measuring the tendency to agree to everything (see acquiescence bias on page 185). Also, Adorno and his colleagues interviewed their participants about their childhood experiences. But the researchers knew the participants’ test scores, so knew which of them had authoritarian personalities. They also knew the hypothesis of the study.

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Concepts: The F-scale

Here are some more items from the F-scale created by Adorno and his colleagues to measure the nine dimensions of the authoritarian personality. Participants had to rate their agreement with each item on a 6-point scale ranging from 1, disagree strongly, to 6, agree strongly. ⦁ The businessman and the manufacturer are much more important to society than the artist and the professor. ⦁ Science has its place, but there are many important things that can never be understood by the human mind. ⦁ Every person should have complete faith in some supernatural power whose decisions he obeys without question. ⦁ Nobody ever learned anything really important except through suffering. ⦁ Homosexuals are hardly better than criminals and ought to be severely punished. Question

Use your knowledge of Adorno’s theory to explain how each of these items relates to the features of the authoritarian personality.

Consider: Why are these problems limitations of the explanation?

Correlation, not causation Adorno and his colleagues measured an impressive range of variables and found many significant correlations between them. For instance, they found that authoritarianism was strongly correlated with measures of prejudice against minority groups. However, no matter how strong a correlation between two variables might be, it does not follow that one causes the other. Therefore, Adorno could not claim that a harsh parenting style caused the development of an authoritarian personality. Consider: Explain why this is a serious limitation of the explanation.

Check It 1. Explain the term dispositional explanation in relation to explanations of obedience. [2 marks] 2. In the context of explanations of obedience, explain what is meant by the authoritarian personality. [2 marks] 3. Outline the authoritarian personality explanation of obedience. [6 marks] 4. Discuss the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

Obedience: Dispositional explanations • 29

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Resistance to social influence The specification says… Explanations of resistance to social influence including social support and locus of control. Based on research covered in the previous spreads, you’d be forgiven for thinking that people are mostly puppets easily swayed by the forces of social pressure to conform or obey. But this is far from the truth. Even in Milgram’s studies, a healthy minority of participants refused to fully obey (35%). In Asch’s studies the most common behaviour was not conformity (most people did not conform most of the time).

Key terms Resistance to social influence – Refers to the ability of people to withstand the social pressure to conform to the majority or to obey authority. This ability to withstand social pressure is influenced by both situational and dispositional factors. Social support – The presence of people who resist pressures to conform or obey can help others to do the same. These people act as models to show others that resistance to social influence is possible. Locus of control (LOC) – Refers to the sense we each have about what directs events in our lives. Internals believe they are mostly responsible for what happens to them (internal locus of control). Externals believe it is mainly a matter of luck or other outside forces (external locus of control).

Social support Conformity Social support can help people to resist conformity. The pressure to conform can be reduced if there are other people present who are not conforming. As we saw in Asch’s research (page 18) the person not conforming doesn’t have to be giving the ‘right’ answer but simply the fact that someone else is not following the majority appears to enable a person to be free to follow their own conscience. This other person acts as a ‘model’. However, Asch’s research also showed that if this ‘non-conforming’ person starts conforming again, so does the naïve participant. Thus the effect of dissent is not long lasting.

Obedience Social support can also help people to resist obedience. The pressure to obey can be reduced if there is another person who is seen to disobey. In one of Milgram’s variations, the rate of obedience dropped from 65% to 10% when the genuine participant was joined by a disobedient confederate. The participant may not follow the disobedient person’s behaviour but the point is the other person’s disobedience acts as a ‘model’ for the participant to copy that frees him to act from his own conscience.

Locus of control (LOC) Julian Rotter (1966) first proposed the concept of locus of control. It is a concept concerned with internal control versus external control. Some people (internals) believe that the things that happen to them are largely controlled by themselves. For example, if you do well in an exam it is because you worked hard, if you don’t do well it is because you didn’t work hard. Other people (externals) have a tendency to believe that things happen without their own control. If they did well in an exam they might well say it was because they used an excellent textbook (ours). If they failed they might blame it on the textbook (not ours) or they had bad luck because the questions were hard.

Continuum

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Concepts: Under pressure You are a member of the student council at a sixth-form college. You are all meeting to elect a chairperson. The three candidates have all addressed the meeting and have now left. It’s decision time. But you begin to get a bit worried because the teacher who liaises with the student council is asking a lot of questions about one of the candidates. After a while, it becomes clear that he is trying to influence the students to vote for this person.

People differ in the way they explain their successes and failures but it isn’t simply a matter of being internal or external. There is a continuum with high internal LOC at one end and high external LOC at the other end of the continuum, with low internal and low external lying in between.

Resistance to social influence People who have an internal LOC are more likely to be able to resist pressures to conform or obey. This is fairly obvious if you think about it – if a person takes personal responsibility for their actions and experiences (good or bad) then they are more likely to base their decisions on their own beliefs and thus resist pressures from others. Another explanation for the link with greater resistance is that people with a high internal LOC tend to be more self-confident, more achievement-oriented, have higher intelligence and have less need for social approval. These personality traits lead to greater resistance to social influence.

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Question

What factors might make it difficult for you to resist the pressure from the teacher to vote a certain way?

Concepts: Locus of control in action

Asgarth and Hyacinth are students at Rydell High. They have very different outlooks on life. Asgarth believes you have to grasp opportunities with both hands because your fate is under your own control. That is why he has put his name forward to be his tutor group’s representative on the school council. Hyacinth, on the other hand, thinks that ‘what will be will be’ and there’s very little she can do to change that. She is also standing as tutor group rep, but she thinks it’s just down to luck whether she wins or loses. Questions

1. Identify Asgarth’s and Hyacinth’s locus of control. 2. Whoever wins the election is likely to come under pressure to conform or obey. Will Asgarth or Hyacinth be better able to resist social influence? Explain your choice.

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Evaluation

Practical activity on page 36

Research support – resistance to conformity Research evidence supports the role of dissenting peers in resisting conformity. For example, Allen and Levine (1971) found that conformity decreased when there was one dissenter in an Asch-type study. More importantly, this occurred even if the dissenter wore thick glasses and said he had difficulty with his vision (so he was clearly in no position to judge the length of the lines). This supports the view that resistance is not just motivated by following what someone else says but it enables someone to be free of the pressure from the group.

Research support – resistance to obedience Another strength is that there is research evidence that supports the role of dissenting peers in resisting obedience. Gamson et al. (1982) found higher levels of resistance in their study than Milgram. This was probably because the participants in Gamson’s study were in groups (they had to produce evidence that would be used to help an oil company run a smear campaign). In Gamson’s study, 29 out of 33 groups of participants (88%) rebelled. This shows that peer support is linked to greater resistance.

Evaluation

What is the effect of one dissenter?

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Methods: Social support A researcher wanted to investigate the effect of having a supporter on the level of conformity. She used an Asch-type task where participants had to judge the lengths of lines. On each trial, only one participant was genuine – the others were confederates of the researcher. One of these confederates was instructed to give the correct answer every time, even when this disagreed with the majority. The procedure was repeated, but this time the majority was unanimous and there was no dissenter. Table showing conforming responses Total trials

Conforming responses

Research support

One dissenter

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Research evidence supports the link between LOC and resistance to obedience. Holland (1967) repeated Milgram’s baseline study and measured whether participants were internals or externals. He found that 37% of internals did not continue to the highest shock level (i.e. they showed some resistance) whereas only 23% of externals did not continue. In other words internals showed greater resistance to authority. Research support of this nature increases the validity of the LOC explanation and our confidence that it can explain resistance.

No dissenter

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Contradictory research However not all research supports the link between LOC and resistance. Twenge et al. (2004) analysed data from American locus of control studies over a 40-year period (from 1960 to 2002). The data showed that, over this time span, people have become more resistant to obedience but also more external. If resistance were linked to an internal locus of control, we would expect people to have become more internal. This challenges the link between internal LOC and increasing resistant behaviour. However, it is possible that the results are due to a changing society where many things are out of personal control.

Evaluation eXtra

Questions

1. Identify the independent and dependent variable in this study. (2 marks) (See page 167.) 2. Write a suitable directional hypothesis for this study. (2 marks) (See page 166.) 3. Identify the experimental design used in this study. (1 mark) (See page 170.) 4. Explain one strength and one limitation of this design. (2 marks + 2 marks) 5. Calculate both results as percentages of the total number of trials. (2 marks) (See page 196.) 6. What do the results of this study tell us about the role of social support in resisting social influence? (3 marks)

STUDY TIPS • When answering questions it helps to use specialist terms – it provides detail. So make a point, on every spread, of identifying such specialist terms (they are often emboldened) and don’t be afraid to use them.

Limited role of LOC The role of LOC in resisting social influence may have been somewhat exaggerated. Rotter (1982) points out that LOC only comes into play in novel situations. It has very little influence over our behaviour in familiar situations where our previous experiences will always be more important. This point is often overlooked in discussions of LOC and resistance. It means that people who have conformed or obeyed in specific situations in the past are likely to do so again, even if they have a high internal LOC. Consider: Why is this a limitation of the LOC explanation of resistance?

Check It 1. In the context of resistance to social influence, explain what is meant by the term social support. [2 marks] 2. Identify and explain an everyday example of how social support could lead to resistance to authority. [2 marks] 3. Outline locus of control as an explanation of resistance to social influence. [4 marks] 4. Describe and evaluate two explanations of resistance to social influence. Refer to evidence in your answer. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

Resistance to social influence • 31

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Minority influence

Minority influence

The specification says… Minority influence including reference to consistency, commitment and flexibility. We’ve said quite a lot so far about how majorities apply (real or imagined) pressure to others in their group. But if this is the only pressure that is felt, how does change come about? Where do new ideas come from? Moscovici was the fi rst to identify the process of minority influence as a contrast to majority influence. He introduced the idea of minority influence to explain innovation – new ways of doing things.

Key terms Minority influence – A form of social influence in which a minority of people (sometimes just one person) persuade others to adopt their beliefs, attitudes or behaviours. Leads to internalisation or conversion, in which private attitudes are changed as well as public behaviours. Consistency – Minority influence is most effective if the minority keeps the same beliefs, both over time and between all the individuals that form the minority. It’s effective because it draws attention to the minority view. Commitment – Minority influence is more powerful if the minority demonstrates dedication to their position, for example, by making personal sacrifices. This is effective because it shows the minority is not acting out of self-interest. Flexibility – Relentless consistency could be counterproductive if it is seen by the majority as unbending and unreasonable. Therefore minority influence is more effective if the minority show flexibility by accepting the possibility of compromise.

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Minority influence refers to situations where one person or a small group of people (i.e. a minority) influences the beliefs and behaviour of other people. This is distinct from conformity where the majority is doing the influencing (and thus conformity is sometimes called majority influence). In both cases the people being influenced may be just one person, or a small group or a large group of people. Minority influence is most likely to lead to internalisation – both public behaviour and private beliefs are changed by the process. Serge Moscovici first studied this process in his ‘blue slide, green slide’ study (see below left). This study and other research have drawn attention to the main processes in minority influence.

Consistency Over time, the consistency in the minority’s views increases the amount of interest from other people. This consistency might be agreement between people in the minority group (synchronic consistency – they’re all saying the same thing), and/or consistency over time (diachronic consistency – they’ve been saying the same thing for some time now). Such consistency makes other people start to rethink their own views (‘Maybe they’ve got a point if they all think this way’ or ‘Maybe they’ve got a point if they have kept saying it’).

Commitment Sometimes minorities engage in quite extreme activities to draw attention to their views. It is important that these extreme activities are at some risk to the minority because this demonstrates commitment to the cause. Majority group members then pay even more attention (‘Wow, he must really believe in what he’s saying so perhaps I ought to consider his view’). This is called the augmentation principle.

Flexibility Nemeth (1986) argued that consistency is not the only important factor in minority influence because it can be interpreted negatively. Being extremely consistent and repeating the same arguments and behaviours again and again can be seen as rigid, unbending, dogmatic and inflexible. This is off-putting to the majority and unlikely to result in any conversions to the minority position. Instead, members of the minority need to be prepared to adapt their point of view and accept reasonable and valid counter-arguments. The key is to strike a balance between consistency and flexibility.

The process of change All of the three factors outlined above make people think about the topic. If you hear something which agrees with what you already believe it doesn’t make you stop and think. But if you hear something new, then you might think about it, especially if the source of this other view is consistent and passionate. It is this deeper processing which is important in the process of conversion to a different, minority viewpoint. Over time, increasing numbers of people switch from the majority position to the minority position. They have become ‘converted’. The more that this happens, the faster the rate of conversion. This is called the snowball effect. Gradually the minority view has become the majority view and change has occurred.

Methods: The blue-green slides Moscovici et al. (1969) demonstrated minority influence in a study where a group of six people was asked to view a set of 36 bluecoloured slides that varied in intensity and then state whether the slides were blue or green. In each group there were two confederates who consistently said the slides were green on two-thirds of the trials. The participants gave the same wrong answer on 8.42% of trials, 32% gave the same answer as the minority on at least one trial. A second group of participants was exposed to an inconsistent minority and agreement fell to 1.25%. For a third control group there were no confederates and all participants had to do was identify the colour of each slide. They got this wrong on just 0.25% of the trials.

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Questions

1. What is meant by control group and why was it used in this study? (3 marks) (See page 178.) 2. Present these results in the form of a properly-labelled table. (2 marks) 3. Present the results in the form of a bar chart. Make sure you label the axes. (3 marks) (See page 194.) 4. State two conclusions that you could draw from this study. (4 marks) 5. The results are given to two decimal places. What does this mean? (2 marks) (See page 196.)

Calling a blue slide green is not as silly as you might think. Some blues do look quite green.

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Evaluation Research support for consistency There is research evidence that demonstrates the importance of consistency. Moscovici et al.’s study (described on the facing page) showed that a consistent minority opinion had a greater effect on other people than an inconsistent opinion. Wood et al. (1994) carried out a meta-analysis of almost 100 similar studies and found that minorities who were seen as being consistent were most influential. This suggests that consistency is a major factor in minority influence.

Research support for depth of thought There is research evidence to show that change to a minority position does involve deeper processing of ideas. Martin et al. (2003) gave participants a message supporting a particular viewpoint and measured their support. One group of participants then heard a minority group agree with the initial view while another group heard this from a majority group. Participants were finally exposed to a conflicting view and attitudes were measured again. Martin et al. found that people were less willing to change their opinions if they had listened to a minority group rather than if they were shared with a majority group. This suggests that the minority message had been more deeply processed and had a more enduring effect, supporting the central argument about how the minority influence process works.

Being in a minority in the real world can be dangerous. But even a minority of one can be persuasive if he or she is consistent, committed to the cause and flexible. Maybe it wouldn’t work in a tug-of-war?

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There was a time in this country when very few people recycled cans, bottles, newspapers and the like. In fact, people who did were often viewed by the majority with suspicion, as anyone who carried out such ‘green’ activities was often considered ‘a bit strange’. Question

How did the minority activity of recycling become so widely accepted by the majority? (Include all of the features of minority influence in your answer.)

Artificial tasks A limitation of minority influence research is that the tasks involved – such as identifying the colour of a slide – are as artificial as Asch’s line judgement task. Research is therefore far removed from how minorities attempt to change the behaviour of majorities in real life. In cases such as jury decision making and political campaigning, the outcomes are vastly more important, sometimes even literally a matter of life or death. This means findings of minority influence studies such as Moscovici et al.’s are lacking in external validity and are limited in what they can tell us about how minority influence works in real-life social situations.

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In a variation of Moscovici’s bluegreen slide study, participants were allowed to write their answers down, so their responses were private, rather than stated out loud. Surprisingly, private agreement with the minority position was greater in these circumstances. It appears that members of the majority were being convinced by the minority’s argument and changing their own views, but were reluctant to admit to this publicly. Moscovici thought that this was probably because they didn’t want to be associated with a minority position, for fear of being considered ‘radical’, or ‘awkward’, or even ‘a bit weird’.

Research studies usually make a very clear and obvious distinction between the majority and the minority. In fact, being able to do this in a controlled way is a strength of much minority influence research. But a significant limitation is that reallife social influence situations are much more complicated than this. There is more involved in the difference between a minority and a majority than just numbers. For example, majorities usually have a lot more power and status than minorities. Minorities are very committed to their causes – they have to be because they often face very hostile opposition. On the other hand, they can be tight-knit groups whose members know each other very well and frequently turn to each other for support.

Consider: In what way does this finding support Moscovici’s explanation of how the minority influence process works?

Consider: Why is this a limitation of research into minority influence? Do you think research reflects the importance of these real-life issues?

Question

Using what you know about minority influence, explain how this change of opinion could have happened.

STUDY TIPS

Limited real-world applications

Concepts: A jury decides

Psychologists have discovered that minority influence can be an important social influence process in jury decision making. A jury of 12 people has to decide on the guilt or innocence of a defendant charged with murder. A vote is taken at the start of the jury’s deliberations – 11 believe the defendant is guilty. Only one person is convinced of his innocence. Because the jury has to reach a unanimous decision, the discussion begins. After several hours, another vote is taken. This time, all 12 jurors believe the defendant is not guilty.

Evaluation eXtra Research support for internalisation

Concepts: Recycling

• Research studies can serve two purposes. You can use them when asked to describe research or you can use them as part of evaluation in an extended writing answer. • The key issue is the description of what the researchers did (the procedure). This is creditworthy material in a descriptive question but not when using the study for evaluation – in this case you should just focus on what the study has demonstrated, i.e. what it ‘shows’ (the findings and/or conclusions).

Check It 1. Explain what is meant by the term minority influence. [2 marks] 2. Psychologists believe that minority influence involves consistency, commitment and flexibility. Explain what is meant by each of these factors in relation to obedience. [3 marks] 3. Describe and evaluate research into minority influence. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

Minority influence • 33

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Social influence and social change The specification says… The role of social influence processes in social change. Moscovici’s research into minority influence rejuvenated the study of social influence because it gave psychologists a new and exciting direction. They started investigating how major changes in behaviour occurred on the level of whole societies, and not just as a result of minority influence but other forms of social influence as well. This spread presents the ultimate practical application of such psychological knowledge.

Key terms Social influence – The process by which individuals and groups change each other’s attitudes and behaviours. Includes conformity, obedience and minority influence. Social change – This occurs when whole societies, rather than just individuals, adopt new attitudes, beliefs and ways of doing things. Examples include accepting that the Earth orbits the Sun, women’s suffrage, gay rights and environmental issues.

Social change The special role of minority influence Let’s consider the steps in how minority influence creates social change by looking at a real-life example – the African-American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s. (1) Drawing attention through social proof – In the 1950s in America, black separation applied to all parts of America. There were black neighbourhoods and, in the southern states of America, places such as schools and restaurants were exclusive to whites. The civil rights marches of this period drew attention to the situation by providing social proof of the problem. (2) Consistency – There were many marches and many people taking part. Even though they were a minority of the American population, the civil rights activists displayed consistency of message and intent. (3) Deeper processing of the issue – This attention meant that many people who had simply accepted the status quo began to think about the unjustness of it. (4) The augmentation principle – There were a number of incidents where individuals risked their lives. For example the ‘freedom riders’ were mixed racial groups who got on buses in the south to challenge the fact that black people still had to sit separately on buses. Many freedom riders were beaten and there were incidents of mob violence. The film Mississippi Burning portrays the murder of three civil rights campaigners. (5) The snowball effect – Civil rights activists such as Martin Luther King continued to press for changes that gradually got the attention of the US government. In 1964 the US Civil Rights Act was passed, which prohibited discrimination. This represented a change from minority to majority support for civil rights. (6) Social cryptomnesia (people have a memory that change has occurred but don’t remember how it happened) – There is no doubt that social change did come about and the south is quite a different place now but some people have no memory of the events above that led to that change.

Lessons from conformity research Earlier in this chapter you read about Asch’s research. He highlighted the importance of dissent in one of his variations, in which one confederate gave correct answers throughout the procedure. This broke the power of the majority encouraging others to dissent. Such dissent has the potential to ultimately lead to social change. Environmental and health campaigns increasingly exploit conformity processes by appealing to normative social influence. They do this by providing information about what other people are doing. Examples include reducing litter by printing normative messages on litter bins (‘Bin it – others do’), and preventing young people from taking up smoking (telling them that most other young people do not smoke). In other words social change is encouraged by drawing attention to what the majority are actually doing.

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Concepts: Tackling obesity Everyone agrees that Britain is in an obesity crisis – 65% of men and 58% of women are now overweight or obese. Heart disease, certain cancers and especially type 2 diabetes are all on the increase, costing the NHS billions of pounds every year. Experts agree that any improvement in the situation is going to require significant changes in attitudes and behaviours across the whole of society. Question

You have been asked to advise a government department worried about the developing obesity crisis. Using your knowledge of how both (i) conformity and (ii) obedience processes can influence social change, explain what advice you would give the government. Make sure you refer to social influence research in your advice.

Lessons from obedience research Milgram’s research clearly demonstrates the importance of disobedient role models. In the variation where a confederate teacher refuses to give shocks to the learner, the rate of obedience in the genuine participants plummeted. Zimbardo (2007) suggested how obedience can be used to create social change through the process of gradual commitment. Once a small instruction is obeyed, it becomes much more difficult to resist a bigger one. People essentially ‘drift’ into a new kind of behaviour.

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Concepts: Minority influence and social change

There are many examples of how minority influence has led to social change, including those in the definition of social change (above, left) and also black people in South Africa. Just a few are: how opinion changed from believing the world is flat to accepting it is round; suffragists and suffragettes campaigning for the vote for women; black people in South Africa winning the right to vote after the end of apartheid; changing attitudes towards waste disposal (the green movement) and changing attitudes about smoking. Question

Choose one (or more) of these examples. Describe how the six-step process of minority influence (outlined above) can explain the social change you have selected.

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Women who actively campaigned for the vote were seen as deviant (and worse). Seventy years later, they were celebrated as social reformers on British postage stamps.

Evaluation Research support for normative influences Nolan et al. (2008) investigated whether social influence processes led to a reduction in energy consumption in a community. They hung messages on the front doors of houses in San Diego, California every week for one month. The key message was that most residents were trying to reduce their energy usage. As a control, some residents had a different message that just asked them to save energy but made no reference to other people’s behaviour. Nolan et al. found significant decreases in energy usage in the first group. This is a strength because it shows that conformity can lead to social change through the operation of normative social influence.

Minority influence is only indirectly effective Social changes happen slowly when they happen at all. For example, it has taken decades for attitudes against drink-driving and smoking to shift. Do minorities really have much of an influence? Charlan Nemeth (1986) argues that the effects of minority influence are likely to be mostly indirect and delayed. They are indirect because the majority is influenced on matters only related to the issue at hand, and not the central issue itself. They are delayed because the effects may not be seen for some time. This could be considered a limitation of using minority influence to explain social change because it shows that its effects are fragile and its role in social influence very limited.

Role of deeper processing Moscovici’s conversion explanation of minority influence argues that minority and majority influence involve different cognitive processes. That is, minority influence causes individuals to think more deeply about an issue than majority influence (conformity). Diane Mackie (1987) disagrees and presents evidence that it is majority influence that may create deeper processing if you do not share their views. This is because we like to believe that other people share our views and think in the same ways as us. When we find that a majority believes something different, then we are forced to think long and hard about their arguments and reasoning. This means that a central element of the process of minority influence has been challenged and may be incorrect, casting doubt on the validity of Moscovici’s theory.

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Methods: Normative influence and social change One morning a group of five volunteers went knocking on doors to ask residents of an inner-city housing estate to spend one hour helping a local charity to construct a small garden. At 20 of the flats the volunteers gave a normative message – they described the project and included the information that the majority of neighbours agreed to help out. At another 20 flats they gave a control message – they simply described the project before asking the residents to commit one hour of their time. Questions

Evaluation eXtra Barriers to social change

Methodological issues

Bashir et al. (2013) investigated why people so often resist social change, even when they agree that it is necessary. For example, the researchers found that their participants were less likely to behave in environmentally friendly ways because they did not want to be associated with stereotypical and minority ‘environmentalists’. They rated environmental activists and feminists in negative ways, describing them as ‘tree huggers’ and ‘man haters’. The researchers’ advice to minorities hoping to create social change is to avoid behaving in ways that reinforce the stereotypes because this will always be offputting to the majority they want to influence.

Explanations of how social influence leads to social change draw heavily upon the studies of Moscovici, Asch and Milgram. All of these studies can be evaluated in terms of their methodology, as we have seen in previous spreads. These criticisms are just as applicable here, and raise doubts about the validity of the explanations.

Consider: On balance, does this support or contradict the role of minority influence? Explain your answer.

Consider: Do you think methodological criticisms undermine the link between social influence processes and social change?

1. What research method was used in this study? Explain your answer. (1 mark) (See page 172.) 2. Explain one strength and one limitation of this research method. (2 marks + 2 marks) 3. The sampling method was not a volunteer sample. What was it? (1 mark) (See page 174.) 4. Explain one limitation of this sampling method.

(2 marks)

5. Using your knowledge of the role of social influence processes in social change, explain the likely outcome of this study. (2 marks)

Check It 1. In the context of social influence, explain what is meant by social change. [2 marks] 2. For many years, drinking alcohol and then driving was something that many more people did. But over time this behaviour has come to be seen as less and less acceptable and is now much less common than it used to be. Using your knowledge of social influence, explain how this social change came about. [4 marks] 3. Describe how social influence processes contribute to social change. [6 marks] 4. Discuss the role of social influence processes in social change. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

Social influence and social change • 35

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Practical corner The specification says Knowledge and understanding of …. research methods, practical research skills and maths skills. These should be developed through ….. ethical practical research activities. This means that you should conduct practical investigations wherever possible. On this spread you have an opportunity to try a correlational study as well as collecting data by using questionnaires and by using interviews.

Ethics check Ethics are discussed in detail on pages 176–177. We suggest strongly that you complete this checklist before collecting data. 1. 2. 3. 4.

Do participants know participation is voluntary? Do participants know what to expect? Do participants know they can withdraw at any time? Are individuals’ results anonymous?

5. Have I minimised the risk of distress to participants? 6. Have I avoided asking sensitive questions? 7. Will I avoid bringing my school/teacher/psychology into disrepute? 8. Have I considered all other ethical issues? 9. Has my teacher approved this?

This is where all your friends want to go next. But you don't. Will you be susceptible to their persuasion?

A set of example data. Participant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

LOC Score 21 12 17 3 7 19 15 23 16 2

Social influence Score 38 20 32 14 19 47 27 42 15 12

A high LOC score is external. A high social influence score reflects high obedience/ conformity.

36 • Chapter 1

Social Influence

Practical idea 1: Susceptibility to social influence In this chapter you learned that internals are more likely to resist social influence (see page 30). In contrast externals are more susceptible to social influence because they believe that what happens to them is down to luck. Is this true? This practical investigates the correlation between locus of control and resisting social influence. You will use questionnaires to measure the co-variables.

The practical bit Locus of control scale You could create your own scale to measure locus of control (LOC). You will need items that tap into internality and externality. You could produce a scale that is tailored to your likely participants and their daily experiences. Alternatively, you could use Rotter’s LOC scale, which has the benefit of being a wellestablished instrument that has been used in literally thousands of research studies. Plus it’s already done for you. Use the term ‘Rotter locus of control scale‘ in the search engine of your choice. Note that a low score indicates an internal locus of control, a high score is external.

Susceptibility to social influence scale This one you will have to create yourself. Think of social influence scenarios that your participants might find familiar. For example, ‘You are on a night out with a group of friends. Most of them want to go on to a nightclub that you hate. Will you go along with them?’ Devise ten items that cover situations of conformity and obedience. Your participants’ responses need to be quantifiable, so use a Likert scale to rate each answer (see page 186). If 5 means ‘very likely’ then the higher a participant’s score, the more susceptible to social influence they are.

Response bias People sometimes give the same responses to all the items on a questionnaire just out

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of habit. This is a particular problem in this practical because people who are susceptible to social influence will probably just agree with all the items. The solution is to mix up the ‘directions’ of the items – half of them should be worded ‘negatively’ so that when scoring for these items 1 becomes ‘very likely’, 2 becomes ‘quite likely’, and so on.

Ethical issues It’s tempting to believe that ethical issues don’t matter a great deal in studies like this. But using questionnaires to measure personal variables does involve asking sensitive questions. So you should be aware of the importance of anonymity and confidentiality. Make sure the items on your scales are not going to cause any degree of psychological harm (anxiety, humiliation, embarrassment, and so on). You should also, as always, consider the issues of informed consent and the right to withdraw.

Selecting your participants The most convenient sampling method to use is opportunity sampling. It might be useful to ask them to complete the questionnaires in a quiet place so they can give the task their full attention.

Analysing your data A correlational relationship can be positive or negative (see page 188). The clearest way to assess this is by drawing a scattergram. You will have two scores for each participant, and will need to present your results in a table as well as a graph.

Methods: The maths bit 1

1. A sample set of data is given on the left. Draw a scattergram of the results. Remember to plot the pairs of scores precisely and label your axes carefully. (3 marks) (See page 188.) 2. What kind of correlation does this scattergram show? Explain your answer.

(2 marks)

3. Explain why the median would be the most suitable measure of central tendency. (2 marks) (See page 192.) 4. Calculate the median for each variable. 5. Calculate the range for each variable.

(1 mark) (1 mark) (See page 193.)

6. Based on your analysis, what conclusion could you draw about the relationship between locus of control and susceptibility to social influence? (2 marks) 7. Do these findings support previous research into this relationship? Explain your answer. (2 marks)

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Practical idea 2: Social influence and lifestyle choices Social psychologists are interested in the lifestyle choices that people make from the perspective of social influence. Is it possible that people’s choices are affected by the attitudes and behaviours of others? The purpose of this practical is to find out the reasons why people engage in positive or negative lifestyle-related behaviours, and to see if any of them are linked to social influence processes.

The practical bit This practical uses an interview as the research method to collect qualitative data. You need to choose a socially relevant topic that interests you and involves social influences such as conformity and obedience. Here are some examples for you to think about: giving blood, donating organs, getting involved in sporting activities, leading a healthier and more active lifestyle, reducing alcohol intake, giving up smoking, volunteering for good causes or getting your baby vaccinated.

Designing the interview The first decision you need to make concerns the type of interview you’ll conduct. A good choice is a semistructured interview. You have questions that you want to ask but are willing to follow-up the interviewee’s responses where necessary, especially if they highlight a social influence process. Next, what type of questions will you ask? Closed questions are possible, but a more useful option is open questions. This gives your interviewees the opportunity to respond in their own words, but this does make it more difficult to record their responses as you go along. So you should consider using a device to record the whole interview for analysis later. You should create some questions around the four social influence processes

of: compliance, internalisation, identification, and obedience. For example, take blood donation. If the interviewee donates blood on a regular basis, you could ask them ‘Have you ever talked about giving blood with any of your friends or family? What happened?’ Or, ‘Has anybody ever told you that you should give blood? What were their reasons?’ Or even, ‘Would you still give blood even if nobody else you knew did? Why is that?’ Finally, you should think about rapport between yourself and the interviewee. What can you do to put them at their ease so they are relaxed and more willing to respond to questions truthfully?

Selecting your participants Once again, opportunity sampling should be suitable as it’s convenient. But because you are interviewing people face-to-face, you will need to give some thought to location – somewhere quiet and relaxing would be ideal. You should aim to interview no more than eight participants on the same topic.

Lives depend on people donating blood and coming back again and again to give more. But are some people put off by social pressures to conform or obey? Interviews are an ideal method to research this question.

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Methods: The maths bit 2 The table below summarises the reasons people gave for donating blood in a hypothetical sample. Calculate all of the following: 1. The total number of responses for each type of social influence. (1 mark) 2. The total number of responses for each participant. (1 mark) 3. The total number of responses for each type as a percentage of the overall number of responses (that is, calculate four percentages). (1 mark) (See page 196.) 4. The mean number of compliance, identification, internalisation and obedience responses per participant (that is, calculate four means). (1 mark) (See page 192.)

Ethical considerations

Also:

When getting consent, make sure participants are fully informed, for example by making them aware that you will ask questions about your chosen issue. Give due consideration to privacy, confidentiality and the right to withdraw. Avoid questions that are intrusive, or might cause offence or psychological harm (including embarrassment).

5. Draw a suitable bar chart to represent the data in the table for each type of influence. Label your axes carefully. (3 marks) (See page 194.) 6. Do any of the participants stand out as especially vulnerable to social influence or resistant to it? Explain your answer. (2 marks) 7. Explain what the qualitative data tell us about the reasons the interviewees gave for donating blood. (2 marks) (See page 190.)

A set of example data.

Analysing your data The challenge you face is turning your answers into quantitative data. For each answer decide what kind of social influence was being assessed and then decide whether or not the participant was showing this behaviour (e.g. being compliant or identifying). It may be more reliable to ask a second person to also score the data and compare the outcome.

Participant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Compliance Identification Internalisation 2 3 2 4 1 2 1 0 3 0 2 0 0 3 2 2 1 1 5 4 4 1 2 3

Obedience 0 2 0 3 0 0 3 1

Practical corner • 37

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Revision Summaries

Conformity: types and explanations Conformity is yielding to group pressures.

Judging the lengths of lines.

Asch’s research

Evaluation

Procedure Confederates deliberately gave wrong answers to see if participant would conform.

A child of its time Perrin and Spencer found less conformity in 1980 than 1950s.

Findings Naive participants conformed on 36.8% of trials. 25% never conformed. Variations Conformity increased up to group size of four. Dissenter reduced conformity. Conformity increased when task was harder.

Explanations of conformity

Types of conformity

Conformity: Asch’s research

Artificial situation and task Demand characteristics meant participants just played along with trivial task.

Internalisation Private and public acceptance of group norms.

Informational social influence (ISI) Conform to be right. Assume others know better than us.

Identification Change behaviour to be part of a group we identify with.

Normative social influence (NSI) Conform to be liked or accepted by group.

Compliance Go along with group publicly but no private change.

Evaluation Research support for ISI More conformity to incorrect maths answers when they were difficult, as predicted by ISI. Individual differences in NSI nAffiliators want to be liked more.

Limited application of findings Asch’s research only conducted on American men. Evaluation extra Findings only apply to certain situations. Ethical issues.

ISI and NSI work together Dissenter may reduce power of ISI and NSI. Evaluation extra Individual differences in NSI. Research support for NSI.

Conformity to social roles: Zimbardo’s research Behaviour may be determined by social norms.

Evaluation

The Stanford prison experiment (SPE) Procedures Mock prison with students randomly assigned as guards or prisoners. Findings Guards became increasingly brutal, prisoners increasingly withdrawn and depressed. Conclusions Participants conformed to their roles as guards or prisoners.

Control Random assignment to roles increased internal validity. Lack of realism Participants were play-acting their roles according to mediaderived stereotypes, Dispositional influences Only one-third of guards were brutal so conclusions exaggerated. Evaluation extra Lack of research support. Ethical issues.

Obedience: situational variables

Obedience is due to pressures in the situation.

Evaluation

Proximity Obedience decreased to 40% when teacher could hear learner, and to 30% in touch proximity condition.

Research support Bickman showed power of uniform in field experiment.

Uniform Obedience decreased to 20% when ‘member of the public’ was the experimenter.

38 • Chapter 1

Lack of internal validity Some of Milgram’s procedures contrived, so not genuine obedience (Orne and Holland). Cross-cultural replications Cross-cultural findings support Milgram. But almost all studies in similar cultures to USA so not very generalisable. Evaluation extra Control of variables in Milgram’s variations. The ‘obedience alibi’.

Social Influence

Are Germans different?

Milgram’s original obedience study Procedure Participants gave fake electric shocks to a ‘learner’ in obedience to instructions from the ‘experimenter’. Findings 65% gave highest shock of 450v. 100% gave shocks up to 300v. Many showed signs of anxiety.

Evaluation

Situational variables

Location Obedience decreased to 47.5% when study moved to run-down office block.

Obedience: Milgram’s research

Low internal validity Participants realised shocks were fake. But replication with real shocks got similar results. Good external validity Findings generalise to other situations such as hospital wards. Supporting replication Game of Death found 80% gave maximum shock, plus similar behaviour to Milgram’s participants. Evaluation extra An alternative explanation – Social identity theory. Ethical issues.

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Obedience: Social-psychological factors Obedience due to the influence of other people.

Agentic state Agentic state Acting as agent of another. Autonomous state Free to act according to conscience. Switching between the two – agentic shift. Binding factors Allow individual to ignore the damaging effects of their obedient behaviour.

Legitimacy of authority Legitimacy of authority Created by hierarchical nature of society. Destructive authority Problems arise, e.g. Hitler.

Evaluation

Obedience: Dispositional explanations Obedience is due to factors within the individual.

Research support Blass and Schmitt found that people do blame the legitimate authority for the participant’s behaviour. A limited explanation Cannot explain why some of Milgram’s participants disobeyed or the lack of moral strain in Hofling et al.’s nurses.

Evaluation Cultural differences Explains obedience in different cultures because reflects different social hierarchies. Evaluation extra The ‘obedience alibi’ revisited. Real-life crimes of obedience.

The Authoritarian Personality Procedure Adorno et al. used F-scale to study unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups. Findings People with authoritarian personalities identify with the ‘strong’ and have fixed cognitive style.

Evaluation Research support Some of Milgram’s obedient participants had authoritarian personalities (Elms). Limited explanation Can’t explain increase in obedience across a whole culture. Better explanation is social identity theory.

Authoritarian characteristics Extreme respect for authority and obedience to it.

Political bias Equates authoritarian personality with rightwing ideology and ignores extreme left-wing authoritarianism.

Origin of the authoritarian personality Harsh parenting creates hostility that cannot be expressed against parents so is displaced.

Evaluation extra Methodological problems. Correlation, not causation.

Resistance to social influence How people disobey and refuse to conform.

Social support

Evaluation

Conformity Reduced by presence of dissenters from the group.

Research support Conformity decreases when one person dissents even if they are not credible (Allen and Levine).

Obedience Decreases in presence of disobedient peer who acts as a model to follow.

Research support Obedience drops when disobedient role models are present (Gamson et al.).

Minority influence Minority influence leads to internalisation.

Minority influence

Evaluation

Consistency If the minority is consistent this attracts the attention of the majority over time.

Research support for consistency Moscovici’s blue-green slides and Wood et al.’s meta-analysis.

Commitment Augmentation principle – personal sacrifices show commitment and attract attention.

Research support for depth of thought Minority views have longer effect because they are deeply processed (Martin et al.).

Flexibility Minority more convincing if they accept some counter-arguments.

Artificial tasks Tasks often trivial so tell us little about real-life influence.

The process of change Above factors make majority think more deeply about issue. Snowball effect – minority view gathers momentum until it becomes majority influence.

Evaluation extra Research support for internalisation. Limited real-world applications.

Locus of control

Evaluation

Locus of control LOC is sense of what directs events in our lives (Rotter).

Research support Internals less likely to fully obey in Milgram-type procedure (Holland).

Continuum High internal at one end and high external at the other.

Contradictory research People have become more external and more disobedient recently (Twenge et al.). Hard for LOC to explain.

Resistance to social influence People with high internal LOC are more able to resist pressures to conform or obey.

Evaluation extra Limited role of locus of control.

Social influence and social change Psychological research can help us change society.

Social change The special role of minority influence Minority influence is powerful force for innovation and social change. Example – civil rights movement in the USA. Lessons from conformity research Normative social influence can lead to social change by drawing attention to what majority is doing. Lessons from obedience research Disobedient role models. Gradual commitment is how obedience can lead to change.

Evaluation Research support NSI valid explanation of social change, e.g. reducing energy consumption (Nolan et al.). Only indirectly effective Effects of minority influence are limited because they are indirect and appear later (Nemeth). Role of deeper processing It is majority views that are processed more deeply than minority views, challenging central feature of minority influence. Evaluation extra Barriers to social change. Methodological issues.

Revision Summaries • 39

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Practice questions, answers and feedback Question 1 Explain what is meant by the term social roles. Use an example to explain the term. (2 marks) Morticia’s answer A social role is something that people do when they are

with others. For example, being a mother or teacher. That is a social role. Luke’s answer They are the parts that people play when they are in social

Morticia’s definition is weak but there is a discernible example. In contrast Luke’s definition here is much better than Morticia’s and there are relevant examples too, a great answer.

situations, i.e. with other people. They create expectations of what we have to do. For example, being a doctor or a mother has expectations attached. Vladimir has missed the point. His definition lacks clarity and is a little Vladimir’s answer A role is something you do, social is being with other

people. So a social role is what you do as affected by other people.

too much like common sense to be of any value. There is no example either, which was required in the question.

Question 2 Proximity is one situational variable affecting obedience. Outline one other situational variable affecting obedience. (3 marks) Morticia’s answer One other situational variable is location. This refers to the place you are when being ordered to do something. In Milgram’s study when people were in a run down office they obeyed less.

Morticia has provided sufficient detail for a question of this kind. A situational variable is identified and explained. Detail of a Milgram variation is further elaboration.

Luke’s answer Location is a situational variable. It’s where you are and it affects how much people will obey an order. It relates to the situation that’s why it is a situational variable.

The boys didn’t do as well. Luke has identified a variable but the elaboration is not strong. There is also no account of the effect of this factor on obedience levels. Vladimir just says ‘proximity’ which is ambiguous – it does make sense because there is further clarification. However, the idea that proximity to the authority figure reduces obedience is inaccurate. Both of them have included something of merit but on balance, weak answers.

Vladimir’s answer Proximity is a situational variable. It is how close you

are physically to the person giving the orders or the person you may be harming. Closer proximity reduces willingness to obey.

Question 3 Outline Asch’s study of conformity. In your answer you should describe the method used by Asch and state what he concluded. (4 marks) Morticia’s answer Asch conducted a study in the 1950s where he had between 6 and 8 confederates and one naïve participant (all men). The confederates gave a wrong answer on 12 out of the 16 trials when asked to identify the line that was the same length as three other lines. On these 12 critical trials the true participants gave a wrong answer 30% of the time though 25% of the participants never conformed.

There is a slight error (16 trials) in Morticia’s answer but the rest is clear and accurate. There is no conclusion though – only findings – so the answer only partially meets the requirements of the question.

Luke’s answer Asch did a study on conformity to see whether people would conform to an

In Luke’s answer the method is not as strong as Morticia’s but there is a discernible conclusion this time which unfortunately lacks development. On balance this makes it as good as Morticia’s answer.

unambiguous stimulus. He used lines to measure conformity. There was one standard line and 3 comparison lines. A group of confederates gave the wrong answer. Asch found that the true participant also gave the wrong answer 25% of the time. This is the Asch effect – conforming even when the answer is obviously wrong. Vladimir’s answer Participants had to judge the length of a line. There were confederates

giving the wrong answers on some of the trials. The participant always went last and was quite anxious when he saw that the others were giving the wrong answer. Nevertheless they conformed most of the time to the wrong answer. All the participants were men and were American.

Vladimir gives some accurate description of the method. The rest of the answer is vague and includes evaluative comment rather than focussing on the question, a weak answer.

Question 4 Briefly outline and evaluate the Authoritarian Personality as an explanation for obedience. (4 marks) Morticia’s answer The Authoritarian Personality is an explanation for why some people are more obedient than others. It may be because they are born like that or it may be because they are brought up that way. Such people tend to be quite conformist as well and right wing in their politics. People were measured using an F scale to see how authoritarian they were and this matched up with how obedient they were. One limitation with this explanation is that there isn’t much other research evidence to support the explanation. It might not really be an Authoritarian Personality but it could be situational factors that make people obey. Luke’s answer This is a dispositional explanation for why some people obey. Essentially some people have high respect for authority figures and are more dismissive of inferiors, which is why they obey. There was support for this from Milgram’s research where participants who had been most obedient were found to be high in Authoritarianism, thus demonstrating the link. Vladimir’s answer People with authoritarian personality have a strict upbringing

and look to authority figures. They are afraid of being the odd one out so they think they have to listen to being told. They are afraid of punishment and concerned with norms and values.

40 • Chapter 1

Social Influence

Morticia’s answer is inaccurate (‘born like that’ is wrong) and the description focuses a little too much on method rather than theory. There is relevant content though (reference to upbringing and right-wing views). The limitation is relevant though the first sentence is generic. Overall a reasonable but not good answer.

In Luke’s answer the first two sentences summarise the explanation very well and there is a clear link to obedience (which answers to this question often lack). The use of evidence as evaluation is good too but there is room for a little more of this. Vladimir is correct in mentioning ‘strict upbringing’ but that’s about all that is relevant in his answer. There is some relevance further on in the answer but also confusion with conformity. Although Authoritarian Personality has been used to explain conformist attitudes the focus of the question is on obedience.

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On this spread we look at some typical student answers to questions. The comments provided indicate what is good and bad in each answer. Learning how to produce effective question answers is a SKILL. Read pages 211–221 for guidance. Question 5 Betty and Sue are two newly qualified teachers who are discussing their decision to support a recent one-day strike. ‘I wasn’t sure at first’, said Betty, ‘but having spoken to the other teachers, they really convinced me it was a good idea. And I would do it again in similar circumstances’. ‘Oh dear’, replied Sue. ‘I’m a bit embarrassed really. I’m afraid I only did it because everyone else did’. Discuss normative social influence and informational social influence as explanations of conformity. Refer to Betty and Sue in your answer. (12 marks AS, 16 marks AL) Morticia’s answer Normative social influence is when people go along with the group to avoid rejection

and not stand out and to fit in with others. Although the person may do one thing in public, in private their opinion doesn’t change, e.g. smoking in front of friends. This kind of influence is most likely in unfamiliar situations.

Morticia’s essay is an AS response whereas Luke’s is an A level response.

Informational social influence is when we look to others for information on how to behave in a new situation when we are unsure. We take the group’s views into account and change both private and public opinion, e.g. we follow our friend’s answer in class when we don’t know the answer. This kind of influence is most likely in situations where there is uncertainty such as something that is new or something that is contradictory.

Morticia presents a concise and well-focussed answer. The description of the two explanations is clear and accurate. Perhaps ‘compliance’ and ‘internalisation’ could have formed part of the description though they are mentioned at the end.

So in the example of Betty and Sue, Betty is an example of informational social influence (ISI) and Sue is an example of normative social influence (NSI). This understanding was demonstrated by Asch’s study. When Asch arranged for the number of confederates to be reduced conformity also fell because there was reduced NSI on the participant. When the conformity task was made harder conformity went up because participants were unsure of the answer and therefore they looked to others which was a result of ISI. When participants wrote their answer down there was no conformity because there was then no normative pressure because no one knew about it.

In terms of evaluation and analysis, Morticia has used the Asch variation effectively and linked these to the two explanations in each case. This is something that students rarely do well in this type of question. There is relevant evaluative comment at the end of the answer also.

The weakest part of the answer is the application to the question stem. Although Morticia has successfully matched the two characters with the two explanations, there is NSI and ISI are difficult to measure. It’s hard to know why someone has conformed. Also there might be little engagement with the stem beyond that. other reasons for conformity such as identification where someone actually identifies with the people The lack of engagement with the stem would in the group and changes their views both publicly but not privately. There is also compliance and cost proportionately more in an A level answer (327 words) than an AS one. internalisation.

In Asch’s original study there was NSI because participants went along with the majority view so they didn’t stand out and to avoid rejection. They didn’t really believe they were right but went along with the group answer.

Luke’s answer Normative social influence is the desire to be liked and accepted into a group and could also be from fear of ridicule. Normative influence leads to compliance which is where a person changes their public behaviour whilst maintaining their private views. In the example Sue is behaving in this way because she changed her behaviour to fit in with the others because she wanted to be liked – she did it because everyone else did (the majority). But she didn’t necessarily believe in what she was doing.

This is an excellent answer because there is a lot of knowledge and understanding shown.

In contrast Betty clearly changed her private views. So in this case it would be an example of informational social influence where someone changes what they think and do this both publicly and privately. This is often done out of a desire to be right. A person may feel uncertain about the right thing to do and turns to the majority as a way of establishing what is right. This leads to internalisation where a person changes their private opinion along with public behaviour. Evidence for normative social influence was demonstrated by Asch in a variation of his classic study. The participant is told that they’re late for the study involving a simple unambiguous task of having to judge the length of lines so they have to write their answer down. The confederates said their wrong answers out loud before they wrote down their answers. In this condition conformity rates fell from 32 to 12.5%. This shows conformity decreases when fear of group ridicule is removed, so it shows the influence of normative social influence. One strength of normative social influence is that it is the only explanation for conformity in unambiguous situations. How else can you explain the levels of conformity in Asch’s study where the answers were clearly wrong? The participants showed they were confused and yet they conformed. This is a situation where they didn’t know the other people so it might not have mattered but they still clearly didn’t want to look foolish.

Luke’s answer is also excellent, in fact marginally better than Morticia’s. The description of both explanations is clear and accurate. There is also description of relevant evidence (Asch, Lucas) in support of the explanations. Notice how engagement with the stem is much more effective here than in the answer above. Luke ‘embeds’ his application points within the description of the explanations. There is effective analysis and evaluation too. Normative social influence is analysed in the context of the Asch study and informational social influence in relation to Lucas. There is also good use of examples.

Support for informational social influence comes from Lucas et al. who asked students to give answers to easy and difficult maths problems. They found that conformity increased when the problems were more difficult. This is because people feel less sure and therefore look to the majority to find the answer. The increased conformity was especially high in those students who were not confident about their maths skills supporting the idea of informational social influence when there is uncertainty or ambiguity. Examples of internalisation appear in real-life. For example political speeches where a person listens to (444 words) the majority view and takes on those views because they are unsure of what is right.

Practice questions, answers and feedback • 41

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Multiple-Choice Questions Conformity: types and explanations 1. (a) (b) (c) (d)

Which of the following is a type of conformity? Unanimity. Internalisation. Normative social influence. Obedience.

2. Which of the following is an explanation for conformity? (a) Compliance. (b) Informational social influence. (c) Identification. (d) Internalisation. 3. Which of the following statements best describes compliance? (a) Conforming to a majority because we want to be accepted or liked. (b) Publicly and privately agreeing with the majority view. (c) Publicly agreeing with the majority but privately disagreeing. (d) Conforming to a majority because we want to be correct. 4. Which of the following statements best describes normative social influence? (a) Going along with a group of people because we want to be liked by them. (b) Going along with a group of people because we don’t know what we’re doing. (c) Going along with other people even though we don’t agree. (d) Going along with other people because we accept their views.

Conformity: Asch’s research 1. In Asch’s original study, the naïve participant was always seated: (a) Last. (b) First. (c) Next-to-last. (d) Last or next-to-last. What did Asch find about group size? Conformity kept increasing with group size. Conformity decreased as group size increased. Conformity increased with group size but only to a point. (d) Increasing group size had no effect on conformity.

2. (a) (b) (c)

3. What did Asch find about unanimity? (a) Conformity stayed the same whether the majority was unanimous or not. (b) A unanimous majority had the greatest effect on conformity. (c) When a partner disagreed with the majority, conformity increased. (d) A divided majority had the greatest effect on conformity.

42 • Chapter 1

Social Influence

4. What did Asch find about task difficulty? (a) Conformity decreased when the task became more difficult. (b) Conformity increased when the task became more difficult. (c) Increasing task difficulty had no effect on conformity. (d) The task was too difficult for the naïve participants.

Conformity: Zimbardo’s research 1. (a) (b) (c) (d)

The Stanford prison study investigated: Rebellion. Conformity to social roles. Obedience to authority. Compliance.

2. What was Zimbardo’s role in the Stanford prison study? (a) The prison superintendent. (b) Both prison superintendent and lead researcher. (c) Lead researcher. (d) Not part of the study. 3. (a) (b) (c) (d)

The roles of guard and prisoner were decided: On a first-come, first-served basis. By asking the participants to volunteer. By the researchers. Randomly.

4. Which statement best describes the behaviour of the prisoners? (a) They resisted the cruelty of the guards throughout the study. (b) They became more withdrawn and anxious as the study progressed. (c) They made it very difficult for the guards to enforce the rules of the prison. (d) They supported each other.

Obedience: Milgram’s research 1. Milgram recruited his participants by: (a) Placing adverts in local papers and sending out flyers. (b) Putting up posters in the local neighbourhood. (c) Word of mouth. (d) Drawing names out of a hat. 2. Three people were involved in Milgram’s procedure. They were: (a) Participant, Confederate, Learner. (b) Experimenter, Confederate, Learner. (c) Experimenter, Teacher, Learner. (d) Experimenter, Learner, Mr. Wallace. 3. (a) (b) (c) (d)

The final prod given to the participants was: ‘It is absolutely essential that you continue.’ ‘Please go on.’ ‘You have no other choice, you must continue.’ ‘The experiment requires that you continue.’

4. In terms of Milgram’s findings, 65% refers to the proportion of participants who: (a) Refused to continue at some point in the procedure. (b) Went all the way to the top of the shock scale. (c) Disobeyed at the very beginning of the procedure. (d) Went up to 300v and then refused to continue.

Obedience: Situational explanations 1. What did Milgram find out about proximity in his variations? (a) Obedience increased when the experimenter issued his instructions over the phone. (b) Obedience decreased when the teacher and learner were physically closer. (c) Most participants obeyed even when they had to put the learner’s hand on a shock plate. (d) The physical proximity of experimenter, teacher and learner had the smallest effect. 2. What did Milgram find out about location in his variations? (a) Obedience decreased when the study was conducted in a run-down part of town. (b) The high status and reputation of Yale University made no difference to obedience. (c) Most participants still obeyed when the study was moved to a run-down office building. (d) Changing the location had the greatest effect on obedience. 3. Which of Milgram’s variations produced the lowest obedience? (a) Teacher forces learner’s hand onto shock plate. (b) Study is transferred to run-down office block. (c) Experimenter issues instructions by telephone. (d) Member of public stands in for experimenter. 4. Bickman’s (1974) study supported Milgram because he found that: (a) Changing to a higher status location increased obedience. (b) People more often obeyed someone dressed in a security guard’s uniform. (c) Increasing the distance between the participants reduced obedience. (d) Reducing the distance between authority and participant increased obedience.

Obedience: Psychological factors 1. ‘Believing you are carrying out the wishes of someone else’ is a brief description of: (a) Informational social influence. (b) Situational theory of obedience. (c) Agentic state. (d) Legitimacy of authority. 2. The massacre of unarmed civilians at My Lai by American soldiers can be explained by: (a) Agentic state. (b) Legitimacy of authority. (c) Both the agentic state and legitimacy of authority. (d) Neither the agentic state nor the legitimacy of authority.

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Obedience: Dispositional explanations 1. According to Adorno, people with an authoritarian personality: (a) Are highly obedient to authority. (b) Look with contempt on people of inferior social status. (c) Favour traditional values and conventional attitudes. (d) All of the above. 2. (a) (b) (c) (d)

Authoritarian personality is measured using the: Assertiveness scale. Potential for fascism scale. AP-scale. Potential for obedience scale.

3. An authoritarian personality develops because a child: (a) Receives unconditional love and affection from parents. (b) Is spoiled by his or her parents who do not use any discipline. (c) Experiences feelings of hostility towards his or her parents that cannot be expressed directly. (d) Is accepted regardless of his or her achievements. 4. People with an authoritarian personality are very preoccupied with social status. Therefore they: (a) Treat all people with respect. (b) Feel sympathetic to those of lower status. (c) Tend not to be impressed by the trappings of high status. (d) Are servile and obedient towards those of higher status.

Resistance to social influence 1. The effects of social support were shown in Asch’s studies when: (a) The size of the majority was increased from 2 to 14. (b) The task was more difficult because the lines were closer. (c) The participants wrote their answers down rather than stated them out loud. (d) A dissenter gave the correct answers all the time.

3. Which of these statements about locus of control is the most accurate? (a) Everyone is either definitely internal or definitely external. (b) There is very little difference between moderate internals and moderate externals. (c) High internals and high externals are at opposite ends of a continuum. (d) Internals and externals are very similar in their ability to resist social influence. 4. High internals are more likely to resist social influence than high externals because: (a) They believe that whatever they do makes no real difference. (b) They tend to be more self-confident and to take personal responsibility. (c) They are less likely to have an authoritarian personality. (d) They have a greater need for social approval from others.

Minority influence 1. Minority influence is especially effective because: (a) It involves supporting strange and unusual causes. (b) People are forced to think more deeply about the issues. (c) No one likes to think they are part of a mindless herd. (d) A small group of people appears unthreatening.

Social influence and social change 1. Once social change has occurred, its origins are forgotten by the majority in a process called: (a) Social cryptomnesia. (b) Flexibility. (c) Gradual commitment. (d) Internalisation. 2. Conformity to the majority can sometimes create social change through the operation of: (a) Augmentation. (b) The snowball effect. (c) Social proof. (d) Normative social influence. 3. The augmentation principle in minority influence refers to: (a) How the source of social change is eventually forgotten. (b) How members of the minority make personal sacrifices. (c) The attention that the minority attracts from the majority. (d) The deeper processing of the minority view by the majority. 4. The way in which a minority view becomes the new norm of the majority can be explained by: (a) Compliance. (b) Social proof. (c) Consistency. (d) The snowball effect.

2. Consistency in the minority position is effective because: (a) It highlights the complacency of the majority. (b) It increases the amount of interest from the majority. (c) Most people have a need to be consistent in their views. (d) A bickering minority attracts more attention and support. 3. Flexibility in the minority position is needed because: (a) Consistency alone can be a negative thing and off-putting. (b) It shows that the minority isn’t really all that bothered. (c) It allows the majority to get its own way, so they are more likely to agree. (d) None of the above. 4. Minority influence can lead to which kind of conformity? (a) Compliance. (b) Identification. (c) Internalisation. (d) Informational.

MCQ answers

4. Legitimacy of authority is a good explanation of cultural differences in obedience because: (a) Some cultures are more traditionally respectful of authority than others. (b) Some cultures are less traditionally respectful of authority than others. (c) Cultures differ in the way parents raise children to view authority figures. (d) All of the above.

2. Social support helps people to resist social influence because: (a) It breaks the unanimity of the majority. (b) It provides a model of disobedience to be followed. (c) It frees people to act according to their consciences. (d) All of the above.

Conformity: Types and explanations 1B, 2B, 3C, 4A Conformity: Asch’s research 1D, 2C, 3B, 4B Conformity: Zimbardo’s research 1B, 2B, 3D, 4B Obedience: Milgram’s research 1A, 2C, 3C, 4B Obedience: Situational explanations 1B, 2A, 3D, 4B Obedience: Psychological factors 1C, 2C, 3B, 4D Obedience: Dispositional explanations 1D, 2B, 3C, 4D Resistance to social influence 1D, 2D, 3C, 4B Minority influence 1B, 2B, 3A, 4C Social influence and social change 1A, 1D, 3B, 4D

3. A problem with the agentic state explanation is that: (a) It can’t explain why the proportion of people who obeyed the experimenter in Milgram’s study was so high. (b) It can’t explain why some people in Milgram’s study did not obey the experimenter. (c) There is no research support. (d) It is not as useful as legitimacy of authority.

Multiple-Choice Questions • 43

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Chapter 2 Memory

Iʼll meet you at the top of Memory Lane And weʼll be fine if you recall my name. Top of Memory Lane by Lenka

Can you remember…

… what this feels like?

… what this smells like?

… what this tastes like?

… your first day at school?

44 • Chapter 2

Memory

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Contents 46 48

Coding, capacity and duration of memory The multi-store model of memory

50

Types of long-term memory

52

The working memory model

54 56

Explanations for forgetting: Interference Explanations for forgetting: Retrieval failure

58

Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony: Misleading information

60

Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony: Anxiety

62

Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony: Cognitive interview

64 66 68 70

Practical corner Revision summaries Practice questions, answers and feedback Multiple-choice questions

… how you did this?

… what happened here?

… what is memory?

Chapter 2 Contents • 45

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Coding, capacity and duration of memory The specification says… Short-term memory and long-term memory. Features of each store: coding, capacity and duration. Our everyday experience of memories is that there are two main types. Some are brief and quickly forgotten, but others can last a very long time indeed. Psychologists broadly agree, and have investigated in great detail the features of what they call short-term memory and longterm memory.

Key terms Coding – The format in which information is stored in the various memory stores.

Research on coding Once information gets into the memory system, it is stored in different formats, depending on the memory store. The process of converting information from one form to another is called coding. Alan Baddeley (1966a, 1966b) gave different lists of words to four groups of participants to remember: • Group 1 (acoustically similar): words sounded similar (e.g. cat, cab, can). • Group 2 (acoustically dissimilar): words sounded different (e.g. pit, few, cow). • Group 3 (semantically similar): words with similar meanings (e.g. great, large, big). • Group 4 (semantically dissimilar): words that all had different meanings (e.g. good, huge, hot). Participants were shown the original words and asked to recall them in the correct order. When they had to do this recall task immediately after hearing it (STM recall), they tended to do worse with acoustically similar words. If participants were asked to recall the word list after a time interval of 20 minutes (LTM recall), they did worse with the semantically similar words. This suggests that information is coded semantically in LTM.

Capacity – The amount of information that can be held in a memory store. Duration – The length of time information can be held in memory. Short-term memory (STM) – The limited-capacity memory store. Coding is mainly acoustic (sounds), capacity is between 5 and 9 items on average, duration is between about 18 and 30 seconds. Long-term memory (LTM) – The permanent memory store. Coding is mainly semantic (meaning), it has unlimited capacity and can store memories for up to a lifetime.

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Methods: Peterson and Peterson Some psychology students tried the technique used by Peterson and Peterson to assess the duration of short-term memory. Their results are shown in the graph below.

% of correct responses

100

50 25

3 6 9 12 15 18 Retention interval (seconds)

Questions

1. Estimate the percentage of correct responses at each retention interval using the graph above. Place your answers in a table. (3 marks) (See page 196.) 2. The results shown above are almost identical to Peterson and Peterson’s results. What can you conclude about the duration of STM from this graph? (3 marks)

46 • Chapter 2

Digit span How much information can STM hold at any one time, i.e. what is its capacity? Joseph Jacobs (1887) developed a technique to measure digit span. The researcher gives, for example, 4 digits and then the participant is asked to recall these in the correct order out loud. If this is correct the researcher reads out 5 digits and so on until the participant cannot recall the order correctly. This determines the individual’s digit span. Jacobs found that the mean span for digits across all participants was 9.3 items. The mean span for letters was 7.3.

Span of memory and chunking George Miller (1956) made observations of everyday practice. For example, he noted that things come in sevens: there are 7 notes on the musical scale, 7 days of the week, 7 deadly sins, and so on. This suggests that the span (or capacity) of STM is about 7 items (plus or minus 2). However, Miller also noted that people can recall 5 words as well as they can recall 5 letters. They do this by chunking – grouping sets of digits or letters into units or chunks.

Research on duration Duration of STM

75

0

Research on capacity

Memory

Duration is the defining feature of STM. But how short is it exactly? Margaret and Lloyd Peterson (1959) tested 24 undergraduate students. Each student took part in eight trials. A ‘trial’ is one test. On each trial the student was given a consonant syllable (also known as a trigram, such as YCG) to remember and was also given a 3-digit number. The student was then asked to count backwards from that 3-digit number until told to stop. This counting backwards was to prevent any mental rehearsal of the consonant syllable (which would increase the student’s memory for the consonant syllable). On each trial they were told to stop after a different amount of time – 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 or 18 seconds. This is called the retention interval. Their findings are shown in the graph on the left. It suggests that STM may have a very short duration indeed, unless we repeat something over and over again (i.e. verbal rehearsal).

Duration of LTM Harry Bahrick and colleagues (1975) studied 392 participants from the American state of Ohio who were aged between 17 and 74. High school yearbooks were obtained from the participants or directly from some schools. Recall was tested in various ways, including: (1) photo-recognition test consisting of 50 photos, some from the participant’s high school yearbook; (2) free recall test where participants recalled all the names of their graduating class. Participants who were tested within 15 years of graduation were about 90% accurate in photo recognition. After 48 years, recall declined to about 70% for photo recognition. Free recall was less good than recognition. After 15 years this was about 60% accurate, dropping to 30% after 48 years. This shows that LTM can last a very long time indeed.

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Evaluation Artificial stimuli One limitation of Baddeley’s study was that it used quite artificial stimuli rather than meaningful material. The word lists had no personal meaning to participants. This means we should be cautious about generalising the findings to different kinds of memory task. For example, when processing more meaningful information, people may use semantic coding even for STM tasks. This suggests that the findings from this study have limited application.

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Concepts: Chunking in STM

Have a quick read of the following letters, look away and try to recall them in the same order:

YEBNOIPDTALGRCU Try the same thing with this list:

DATNOLPIBREYCUG And, finally, try again with this list:

CARDOGLITPENBUY

Evaluation

Question

Lacking validity

Use your knowledge of the capacity of STM to explain why one of these lists is easier than the others.

One limitation of Jacobs’s study is that it was conducted a long time ago. Early research in psychology often lacked adequate control. For example, some participants may have been distracted while they were being tested so they didn’t perform as well as they might. This would mean that the results might not be valid because there were confounding variables that were not controlled. However, the results of this study have been confirmed in other research, supporting its validity.

Not so many chunks One limitation of Miller’s research is that he may have overestimated the capacity of STM. For example, Cowan (2001) reviewed other research and concluded that the capacity of STM was only about four chunks. This suggests that the lower end of Miller’s estimate (five items) is more appropriate than seven items.

Evaluation Meaningless stimuli in STM study

Pelmanism

A limitation of Peterson and Peterson’s study is that the stimulus material was artificial. Trying to memorise consonant syllables does not reflect most real-life memory activities where what we are trying to remember is meaningful. So we might say that this study lacked external validity. However, we do sometimes try to remember fairly meaningless things, such as phone numbers, so the study is not totally irrelevant.

A card game where cards are in pairs. You shuffle the cards and then put them face down on the table. The first player turns two cards over. If they match, the pair is theirs and they have another go. If they don't match, turn them back over and try to remember where they are for your next turn. It is a test of STM capacity and duration.

Higher external validity One strength of Bahrick et al.’s study is that it has higher external validity. Real-life meaningful memories were studied. When studies on LTM have been conducted with meaningless pictures to be remembered, recall rates were lower (e.g. Shepard 1967). The downside of such real-life research is that confounding variables are not controlled, such as the fact that Bahrick’s participants may have looked at their yearbook photos and rehearsed their memory over the years.

Evaluation eXtra Criticising Peterson and Peterson One explanation for why we forget things in STM is that the memory trace simply disappears if not rehearsed (spontaneous decay). An alternative explanation is that the information in STM is displaced – STM has a limited capacity and any new information will push out what is currently there. In the study by Peterson and Peterson participants counted down during the retention interval. Consider: Explain how this might cause displacement. In what way might this mean that Peterson and Peterson’s study lacked internal validity?

STUDY TIPS • If asked to describe a study, always try to include information about what the researchers did (the procedure) and what they found (the findings or results). You can also include conclusions as part of the findings.

Check It 1. Explain what is meant by duration of short-term memory. [2 marks] 2. Explain what is meant by coding in long-term memory. [2 marks] 3. Outline one research study into the duration of long-term memory. In your answer include what the researchers did and what they found out. [4 marks] 4. Outline and evaluate research related to the features of short-term memory (coding, capacity and duration). [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

Coding, capacity and duration of memory • 47

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The multi-store model of memory

This model is based on the features of STM and LTM as well as a third store, the sensory register.

Retrieval

Iconic Echoic

Short-term memory store (STM)

Other sensory stores

Key terms

Response (remembering)

Multi-store model (MSM) – A representation of how memory works in terms of three stores called sensory register, short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM). It also describes how information is transferred from one store to another, how it is remembered and how it is forgotten. Sensory register – The memory stores for each of our five senses, such as vision (iconic store) and hearing (echoic store). Coding in the iconic sensory register is visual and in the echoic sensory register it is acoustic. The capacity of sensory registers is huge (millions of receptors) and information lasts for a very short time (less than half a second).

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Concepts: The case of HM

Case studies of individuals with memory disorders have provided some useful evidence relating to the multi-store model. One of them has become especially well known – the case of a man referred to by his initials, HM. HM underwent brain surgery to relieve his epilepsy. Unfortunately for him, the procedure used was in its infancy and not fully understood. Crucially, a part of his brain known as the hippocampus was removed from both sides of his brain. We now know this to be central to memory function. When his memory was assessed in 1955, he thought the year was 1953, and that he was 27 years old (he was actually 31). He had very little recall of the operation and he could not remember speaking with someone just an hour earlier. His LTM was tested over and over again but never improved with practice. He would read the same magazine repeatedly without remembering it. He couldn’t recall what he had eaten earlier the same day. However, despite all this, he performed well on tests of immediate memory span, a measure of STM.

The case of HM is usually taken to support the multi-store model. Can you explain why?

48 • Chapter 2

Memory

Long-term memory store (LTM)

Sensory register A stimulus from the environment; for example, the sound of someone’s name, will pass into the sensory registers along with lots of other sights, sounds, smells and so on. So this part of memory is not one store but several, in fact one for each of our five senses. The two main stores are called iconic memory (visual information is coded visually) and echoic memory (sound – or auditory – information is coded acoustically). Material in sensory registers lasts only very briefly – the duration is less than half a second. The sensory registers have a high capacity, for example over one hundred million cells in one eye, each storing data. Very little of what goes into the sensory register passes further into the memory system. But it will if you pay attention to it. So the key process is attention.

Short-term memory (STM) STM is what is known as a limited capacity store, because it can only contain a certain number of ‘things’ before forgetting takes place. On the previous spread we noted that the capacity of STM is, on average, somewhere between 5 and 9 items of information (the magic number 7 ± 2’), though research suggests it might be more like 5 rather than 9. Information in STM is coded acoustically and lasts about 30 seconds unless it is rehearsed. Maintenance rehearsal occurs when we repeat (rehearse) material to ourselves over and over again. We can keep the information in our STMs as long as we rehearse it. If we rehearse it long enough, it passes into long-term memory (LTM).

Long-term memory (LTM) This is the potentially permanent memory store for information that has been rehearsed for a prolonged time. Psychologists believe that its capacity is unlimited and can last very many years. For example, as we saw in the previous spread, Bahrick et al. (1975) found that many of their participants were able to recognise the names and faces of their school classmates almost 50 years after graduating. We also saw that LTMs tend to be coded semantically (i.e. in terms of meaning). Although this material is stored in LTM, when we want to recall it, it has to be transferred back into STM by a process called retrieval. According to the MSM, this is true of all our memories. None of them are recalled directly from LTM.

Frontal lobe

Hippocampus

Hypothalmus

Question

Prolonged rehearsal

Maintenance rehearsal (rehearsal loop)

There is a hippocampus on both sides (hemispheres) of the brain. The hippocampus has been shown to play a major role in memory.

STUDY TIPS

Psychologists have produced many models of memory to represent and explain how our memories work. The specification includes two of these models of memory. On this spread we look at the fi rst of these, the multistore model.

Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin’s (1968, 1971) multi-store model describes how information flows through the memory system (see diagram below). The model suggests that memory is made up of three stores linked by processing.

Sensory register

The multi-store model of memory: sensory register, short-term memory and long-term memory. Features of each store: coding, capacity and duration.

The multi-store model (MSM) Stimulus from the environment

The specification says …

• You can use the case study of HM as a point of evaluation for the MSM – it provides supporting evidence. • You can also criticise the methodology used (it was a unique case study of a braindamaged individual). However, such methodological criticisms are only creditworthy if they are explicitly linked to the MSM, e.g. you say ‘therefore this case study does not offer good support for the MSM’.

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Evaluation Supporting research evidence A major strength of the MSM is that it is supported by research studies that show that STM and LTM are indeed qualitatively different. For example, Baddeley (previous spread) found that we tend to mix up words that sound similar when we are using our STMs. But we mix up words that have similar meanings when we use our LTMs. The strength of this study is that it clearly shows that coding in STM is acoustic and in LTM it is semantic. So they are different, and this supports the MSM’s view that these two memory stores are separate and independent. Further support is given by all the studies of coding, capacity and duration we encountered in the previous spread.

There is more than one type of STM The MSM states that STM is a unitary store, in other words there is only one type of short-term memory. However, evidence from people suffering from a clinical condition called amnesia shows that this cannot be true. For example, Shallice and Warrington (1970) studied a patient with amnesia known as KF. They found that KF’s short-term memory for digits was very poor when they read them out loud to him. But his recall was much better when he was able to read the digits to himself. Further studies of KF and other people with amnesia showed that there could even be another short-term store for non-verbal sounds (such as noises). The unitary STM is a limitation of the MSM because research shows that at the very least there must be one short-term store to process visual information and another one to process auditory information. The working memory model (see page 52) includes these separate stores.

Concepts: Revision

Two students were chatting about their forthcoming exams. They were not Psychology students or they would have known better. The first student said, ‘I always learn stuff by just repeating it over and over to myself until I remember it’. ‘Yes, I agree’, replied the second student. ‘It’s by far the best way to revise, no question’. Question

Use the multi-store model to explain the comments made by the two students.

This well-known effect from Bonfire Night depends on your iconic memory store, one of the memory stores of the multi-store model. You can write your name in the air with one sparkler because an afterimage persists on the retina for approximately one twenty-fifth of a second after the stimulus has moved on. This is called persistence of vision.

There is more than one type of rehearsal According to the MSM, what matters in rehearsal is the amount of it that you do. So the more you rehearse some information (a list of words, for example), the more likely you are to transfer it to LTM and remember it for a long time. However, Craik and Watkins (1973) found that this prediction is wrong. What really matters about rehearsal is the type. They discovered that there are two types of rehearsal. Maintenance rehearsal is the type described in the MSM, but this does not transfer information into LTM. It just maintains it in STM, hence the name. Elaborative rehearsal is needed for long-term storage. This occurs when you link the information to your existing knowledge, or you think about what it means. This is a very serious limitation of the MSM because it is another research finding that cannot be explained by the model.

Evaluation eXtra Artificial materials

In everyday life, we form memories related to all sorts of useful things – people’s faces, their names, facts, places, and so on. But a lot of the research studies that provide support for the MSM used none of these materials. Instead, they used digits, letters, and sometimes words. They even used what are known as consonant syllables that have no meaning (such as ZLG). Consider: Why is this issue a limitation of the MSM? Can you think of a better alternative to these materials? Can you then explain why this alternative may present problems of its own?

There is more than one type of LTM There is a lot of research evidence that LTM, like STM, is not a unitary memory store. For example, we have one long-term store for our memories of facts about the world, and we have a different one for our memories of how to ride a bicycle. These different types of memory are explained on the next spread. Consider: Explain exactly why this evidence presents a problem for the multi-store model.

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Methods: Duration of STM

An experiment was carried out to investigate the duration of STM. Two groups of participants were given a list of words to learn. Both groups were given 30 seconds to do this. One group (Group A) then had to recall as many words as they could after a 6-second delay. The other group (Group B) was given a 20-second delay. Questions

1. Identify the independent and dependent variables in this study. (2 marks) (See page 166.) 2. Identify the experimental design used in this study. (1 mark) (See page 170.) 3. Explain one limitation of this type of design. (2 marks) 4. The researcher wanted to find the average number of words recalled for each group. What would be the most appropriate measure to use? Justify your answer. (2 marks) (See page 192.) 5. The experimenter found that Group B recalled fewer words than Group A. Does this support the MSM? Explain why or why not. (3 marks)

Check It 1. Outline the multi-store model of memory. [6 marks] 2. Outline two limitations of the multi-store model of memory. [4 marks] 3. Discuss the multi-store model of memory. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

The multi-store model of memory • 49

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Types of long-term memory The specification says … Types of long-term memory: episodic, semantic, procedural. As we have seen, a major limitation of the multi-store model is its description of long-term memory (LTM) as a single, unitary store. On the basis of hundreds of research studies, psychologists now know that there are potentially many different long-term stores. This is perhaps unsurprising when you consider the vast range of information we can remember, from facts to faces. On this spread, we look at the three types included in the specification.

Key terms Episodic memory – A long-term memory store for personal events. It includes memories of when the events occurred and of the people, objects, places and behaviours involved. Memories from this store have to be retrieved consciously and with effort. Semantic memory – A long-term memory store for our knowledge of the world. This includes facts and our knowledge of what words and concepts mean. These memories usually also need to be recalled deliberately. Procedural memory – A long-term memory store for our knowledge of how to do things. This includes our memories of learned skills. We usually recall these memories without making a conscious or deliberate effort.

Types of long-term memory (LTM) Endel Tulving (1985) was one of the first cognitive psychologists to realise that the multi-store model’s view of LTM was too simplistic and inflexible. Tulving proposed that there are in fact three LTM stores, containing quite different types of information. He called them episodic memory, semantic memory and procedural memory.

Episodic memory Episodic memory refers to our ability to recall events (episodes) from our lives. This has been likened to a diary, a record of daily happenings. Some examples are: your most recent visit to the dentist, a gig you went to last week, the psychology class you had yesterday, the breakfast you ate this morning, and so on. These memories are much more complex than you might think. First of all, they are ‘time-stamped’ – in other words you remember when they happened: recently or last week or this morning. Secondly, your memory of a single episode will include several elements, such as people and places, objects and behaviours, and all of them are interwoven to produce a single memory. Thirdly, you have to make a conscious effort to recall episodic memories. You may be able to do so quickly, but you are still aware that you are searching for your memory of what happened when you went to the dentist.

Semantic memory This store contains our knowledge of the world. This includes facts, but in the broadest possible sense. This type of memory has often been likened to a combination of an encyclopedia and a dictionary. So it would include knowledge of such things as: applying to university, the taste of an orange, what zombies like for dinner and the meaning of words. This last one is important. Your semantic memory contains your knowledge of an impressive number of concepts such as ‘animals’, ‘Justin Bieber’ and ‘love’. These memories are not ‘time-stamped’. We don’t usually remember when we first learned about Justin Bieber, for example. Semantic knowledge is less personal and more about facts we all share. However, as the brief list above demonstrates, semantic memory is about much more than ‘facts’. It contains an immense collection of material which, given its nature, is constantly being added to.

Procedural memory This is our memory for actions, or skills, or basically how we do things. We can recall these memories without conscious awareness or a great deal of effort. A good example is driving a car. Our ability to do this (eventually) depends on procedural memory. We change gear without having to recall how. We indicate left or right at a junction without even realising we’ve done so. These are the sorts of skills we might even find quite hard to explain to someone else. If you try to describe what you are doing as you drive the car, the task may well become more difficult.

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Methods: Amnesia As part of a clinical study, five people suffering from amnesia are given tests of long-term memory. Their scores for two of these tests are shown in the table below. The higher the score, the better the recall. Participant

Episodic Memory Score

Semantic Memory Score

1

6

9

2

3

7

3

5

7

4

6

8

5

4

10

50 • Chapter 2

Memory

Questions 1. Calculate the mean score for each test. (2 marks) (See page 192.) 2. Draw a bar chart of the mean scores you calculated in Question 1. (3 marks) (See page 194.) 3. Explain how a bar chart differs from a histogram. (2 marks) 4. Explain what the findings seem to tell us about long-term memory. (2 marks)

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Evaluation Clinical evidence The famous case studies of HM (Henry Molaison) and Clive Wearing are relevant here. Episodic memory in both men was severely impaired as a consequence of amnesia. They had great difficulty recalling events that had happened to them in their pasts. But their semantic memories were relatively unaffected. For example, they still understood the meaning of words. So HM would not be able to recall stroking a dog half an hour earlier and could not remember having owned a dog in the past, but he would not need to have the concept of ‘dog’ explained to him over and over again. Their procedural memories were also intact. They both knew how to tie their shoelaces, how to walk and speak, and, in Clive Wearing’s case (he was a professional musician), how to read music, sing and play the piano. This evidence supports Tulving’s view that there are different memory stores in LTM. One store can be damaged but other stores are unaffected. This is clear evidence that not only are these types of memory different, but they are stored in different parts of the brain.

Clive Wearing lost access to many of his memories because of a viral infection in his brain.

Neuroimaging evidence

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There is also evidence from brain scan studies that different types of memory are stored in different parts of the brain. For example, Tulving et al. (1994) got their participants to perform various memory tasks while their brains were scanned using a PET scanner. They found that episodic and semantic memories were both recalled from an area of the brain known as the prefrontal cortex. This area is divided in two, one on each side (or hemisphere) of the brain. The left prefrontal cortex was involved in recalling semantic memories. Episodic memories were recalled from the right prefrontal cortex. The strength of this finding is that it supports the view that there is a physical reality to the different types of LTM, within the brain. It has also been confirmed many times in later research studies, further supporting the validity of this finding.

Concepts: Clive Wearing

Clive Wearing suffers from a severe form of amnesia that resulted from a viral infection that attacked his brain, damaging the hippocampus and associated areas. Before this infection Clive was a world-class musician and he can still play the piano brilliantly and conduct a choir but he can’t remember his musical education. He can remember some other aspects of his life before the infection, but not others. For example, he knows that he has children from an earlier marriage, but cannot remember their names. He recognises his second wife, Deborah, and greets her joyously every time they meet, believing he has not seen her in years, even though she may have just left left the room for a few minutes.

Real-life applications Being able to identify different aspects of LTM allows psychologists to target certain kinds of memory in order to better people’s lives. Belleville et al. (2006) demonstrated that episodic memories could be improved in older people who had a mild cognitive impairment. The trained participants performed better on a test of episodic memory after training than a control group. Episodic memory is the type of memory most often affected by mild cognitive impairment, which highlights the benefit of being able to distinguish between types of LTM – because it enables specific treatments to be developed.

Questions

1. Can you explain why Clive will play the same piece of music over and over again? 2. Imagine you have been asked to test Clive Wearing’s memory to see which of Tulving’s three types of LTM are intact. Explain how you might do this.

Problems with clinical evidence

Three types of LTM or two?

Psychologists are very interested in studying people with brain injuries. People like Clive Wearing and Henry Molaison (see above) have provided a lot of useful information about what happens when memory is damaged. This has even helped researchers to understand how memory is supposed to work normally. But such clinical studies are not perfect. For instance, there is a serious lack of control of all sorts of different variables in clinical studies.

Cohen and Squire (1980) disagree with Tulving’s division of LTM into three types. They accept that procedural memories represent one type of LTM. But they argue that episodic and semantic memories are stored together in one LTM store that they call declarative memory i.e. memories that can be consciously recalled. In contrast procedural memories are non-declarative.

Consider: Can you think of some examples of variables that might be difficult to control? Explain why this lack of control is a real problem for our understanding of memory.

Consider: This may seem like a trivial difference between these researchers. Can you think why it is actually very important to get the distinctions between episodic and semantic memories right?

STUDY TIPS

Evaluation eXtra • You may need to explain a difference between the types of LTM (see the box below). A common mistake is to describe one type of LTM, and then describe a second type of LTM. If you do this there is no connection between the two definitions. You must identify a difference. • A good way of doing this is to choose a feature of memory that one type of LTM has but another type does not. For example, if we were contrasting episodic and semantic memory we might say ‘One difference between them is the extent to which we are taught them – no one teaches you your episodic memories but many semantic ones are taught’.

Check It 1. Explain what is meant by the terms episodic memory, semantic memory and procedural memory. [6 marks] 2. Explain one difference between semantic memory and procedural memory. [2 marks] 3. Outline one study that has investigated the different types of long-term memory. [4 marks] 4. Describe and evaluate different types of long-term memory. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

Types of long-term memory • 51

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The working memory model The working memory model (WMM)

The specification says … The working memory model: central executive, phonological loop, visuo-spatial sketchpad and episodic buffer. Features of the model: coding and capacity.

The working memory model (WMM) is an explanation of how one aspect of memory (short-term memory) is organised and how it functions. The WMM is concerned with the part of the mind that is active when we are temporarily storing and manipulating information, for example when working on an arithmetic problem or playing chess or comprehending language, etc. The model consists of four main components, each of which is qualitatively different especially in terms of capacity and coding.

One of the limitations of the multi-store model is the fact that the stores were described as single units. On the previous spread we saw that long-term memory can be subdivided. Research has also shown that shortterm (working) memory has qualitatively different subdivisions. Alan Baddeley and Graham Hitch (1974) developed a model of short-term memory to account for this research.

Central executive The central executive is essentially an attentional process that monitors incoming data, makes decisions and allocates slave systems to tasks – the slave systems are described below. The central executive has a very limited processing capacity.

Key terms Working memory model (WMM) – A representation of short-term memory (STM). It suggests that STM is a dynamic processor of different types of information using sub-units coordinated by a central decision-making system. Central executive (CE) – The component of the WMM that co-ordinates the activities of the three subsystems in memory. It also allocates processing resources to those activities. Phonological loop (PL) – The component of the WMM that processes information in terms of sound. This includes both written and spoken material. It’s divided into the phonological store and the articulatory process. Visuo-spatial sketchpad (VSS) – The component of the WMM that processes visual and spatial information in a mental space often called our ‘inner eye’. Episodic buffer (EB) – The component of the WMM that brings together material from the other subsystems into a single memory rather than separate strands. It also provides a bridge between working memory and longterm memory.

Phonological loop One of the slave systems is the phonological loop (PL). It deals with auditory information (i.e. coding is acoustic) and preserves the order in which the information arrives. The PL is subdivided into: • The phonological store, which stores the words you hear. • The articulatory process, which allows maintenance rehearsal (repeating sounds or words in a ‘loop’ to keep them in working memory while they are needed). The capacity of this ‘loop’ is believed to be two seconds’ worth of what you can say.

Visuo-spatial sketchpad The second slave system is the visuo-spatial sketchpad (VSS). The VSS stores visual and/or spatial information when required. For example, if you are asked to work out how many windows there are on your house you visualise it. It also has a limited capacity, which according to Baddeley (2003) is about three or four objects (see ‘Using the VSS’ below). Logie (1995) subdivided the VSS into: • The visual cache, which stores visual data. • The inner scribe, which records the arrangement of objects in the visual field.

Episodic buffer The third slave system is the episodic buffer. This was added to the model by Baddeley in 2000. It is a temporary store for information, integrating the visual, spatial, and verbal information processed by other stores and maintaining a sense of time sequencing – basically recording events (episodes) that are happening. It can be seen as the storage component of the central executive and has a limited capacity of about four chunks (Baddeley 2012). The episodic buffer links working memory to LTM and wider cognitive processes such as perception.

Central executive Phonological loop (PL)

Visuo-spatial sketchpad (VSS)

Episodic buffer

Articulatory control system

Phonological store

Long-term memory

The PL contributes to our learning of the sounds of language (phonology). It accesses long-term memory to store and retrieve information about language sounds. This allows us to develop our vocabulary as children and, in a foreign language, as adults. The VSS contributes to our understanding of ‘visual semantics’ – the meanings of objects in our visual environment. It can access long-term memory to store and retrieve visuo-spatial information. For example, if someone says to us, ‘Think of something you sit on’, we can easily retrieve an image of a chair or a sofa from LTM.

52 • Chapter 2

Memory

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Concepts: Using working memory

Picture in your mind the capital letters J and D, side-by-side. At the moment they are the same size and colour. Now manipulate your images of these letters to form an object, let’s say an umbrella. You can change their size and orientation but not the letters themselves; they have to be capital J and capital D. You can colour them in mentally if you wish. Let’s try that again, this time with different elements. Imagine a square, a triangle and the capital letter H. Try and arrange these into an object; your choice this time. One more go: how about an oval, a triangle, the capital letter K and the lower case letter b? Oh, and a question mark? You might have noticed that it very soon becomes quite difficult and eventually impossible to mentally hold onto that much information. Question

What do you think this tells us about working memory? What were you doing when you performed this task?

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Practical activity on page 64

Evaluation Clinical evidence

Support for the WMM comes from Shallice and Warrington’s (1970) case study of patient KF who had suffered brain damage (see also page 49). After this damage happened KF had poor STM ability for verbal information but could process visual information normally presented visually, i.e. he had difficulty with sounds but could recall letters and digits. This suggests that just his phonological loop had been damaged leaving other areas of memory intact. This supports the existence of a separate visual and acoustic store. However, evidence from brain-damaged patients may not be reliable because it concerns unique cases with patients who have had traumatic experiences.

Dual task performance Studies of dual-task performance support the separate existence of the visuo-spatial sketchpad. Baddeley et al. (1975) showed that participants had more difficulty doing two visual tasks (tracking a light and describing the letter F) than doing both a visual and verbal task at the same time. This increased difficulty is because both visual tasks compete for the same slave system whereas, when doing a verbal and visual task simultaneously, there is no competition. This means there must be a separate slave system (the VSS) that processes visual input.

Lack of clarity over the central executive Cognitive psychologists suggest that this component of the WMM is unsatisfactory and doesn’t really explain anything. Alan Baddeley himself recognised this when he said: ‘The central executive is the most important but the least understood component of working memory’ (Baddeley, 2003). The central executive needs to be more clearly specified than just being simply ‘attention’. For example, some psychologists believe it may consist of separate components. This means that the WMM hasn’t been fully explained.

Evaluation eXtra Studies of the word length effect support the phonological loop

Brain scanning studies support the WMM

Baddeley et al. (1975) demonstrated that people find it more difficult to remember a list of long words (such as ‘association’) rather than short words. This is called the word length effect. This is because there is a finite space for rehearsal in the articulatory process (probably about two seconds’ worth). The word length effect disappears if a person is given an articulatory suppression task – this is a repetitive task that ties up the articulatory process. For example, doing a task while saying ‘la la la’ means that your articulatory process is kept busy.

Braver et al. (1997) gave their participants tasks that involved the central executive while they were having a brain scan. The researchers found greater activity in an area known as the left prefrontal cortex. What was especially interesting was that the activity in this area increased as the task became harder. This makes a lot of sense in terms of the WMM: as demands on the CE increase, it has to work harder to fulfil its function.

Consider: Explain why this finding shows support for the WMM.

Consider: Explain why this finding shows support for the WMM.

There is a to use y ver y good rea s on w h our mo y it bil Carr yin g out t w e phone and d is against the law rive at th o task s of work tha es ing mem or y can t use the same ame time. on one or both le c of them ad to poor pe omponents r forman . ce

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Concepts: Dual-task performance

Think about performing the following two tasks at the same time. You have to repeat a phone number over and over to yourself (maintenance rehearsal) while also answering a true-false quiz in a magazine. It turns out that most people can do this quite successfully. The multi-store model cannot explain this, but the working memory model can. Question

How can you use the WMM to explain what is happening?

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Methods: The word length effect

A cognitive psychologist presented one group of participants with a list of short words to learn (e.g. torch, ear, sun). Other participants were given a list of longer words to learn (e.g. caravan, elephant, celery). She found that participants in the first group were able to recall more words than participants in the second group. Questions

1. Write a suitable hypothesis for this experiment. (2 marks) (See page 166.) 2. Is your hypothesis directional or non-directional? (1 mark) 3. Identify one possible confounding variable and explain how it might affect the findings of this study. (2 marks) (See page 168.) 4. Use your knowledge of the working memory model to explain the finding from this study. (2 marks)

Check It 1. In relation to the working memory model, explain what is meant by the terms central executive and episodic buffer. [2 marks + 2 marks] 2. Briefly outline the working memory model. [4 marks] 3. Outline one limitation of the working memory model. [2 marks] 4. Describe and evaluate the working memory model. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

The working memory model • 53

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Explanations for forgetting: Interference The specification says …

Interference theory

Explanations for forgetting: proactive and retroactive interference. Forgetting is the other side of the coin to remembering. Psychologists have tried to understand and explain it by carrying out research studies and formulating theories about why we forget. The specification focuses on two explanations. In this spread we consider the fi rst of these: interference.

Key terms Interference – Forgetting because one memory blocks another, causing one or both memories to be distorted or forgotten. Proactive interference (PI) – Forgetting occurs when older memories, already stored, disrupt the recall of newer memories. The degree of forgetting is greater when the memories are similar.

Mean number of items recalled

Retroactive interference (RI) – Forgetting occurs when newer memories disrupt the recall of older memories already stored. The degree of forgetting is again greater when the memories are similar.

At least some forgetting takes place because of interference. This occurs when two pieces of information conflict with each other, resulting in forgetting of one or both, or in some distortion of memory. Interference has been proposed mainly as an explanation for forgetting in longterm memory (LTM). Once information has reached LTM it is more-or-less permanent. Therefore, any forgetting of LTMs is most likely because we can’t get access to them even though they are available. Interference between memories makes it harder for us to locate them, and this is experienced as ‘forgetting’.

Types of interference It is very likely that the two (or more) memories that are interfering with each other were stored at different times. So psychologists recognise that there are two types of interference: • Proactive interference (PI) occurs when an older memory interferes with a newer one (pro in this context means working forwards, from old to new). For example, your teacher has learned so many names in the past that she has difficulty remembering the names of her current class. • Retroactive interference (RI) happens when a newer memory interferes with an older one (retro meaning working backwards). For example, your teacher has learned so many new names this year that she has difficulty remembering the names of the students last year.

Effects of similarity In both cases, the interference is worse when the memories (or learning) are similar, as discovered by John McGeoch and William McDonald (1931). Procedure McGeoch and McDonald studied retroactive interference by changing the amount of similarity between two sets of materials. Participants had to learn a list of 10 words until they could remember them with 100% accuracy. They then learned a new list. There were six groups of participants who had to learn different types of lists: • Group 1: synonyms – words with the same meanings as the originals. • Group 2: antonyms – words with the opposite meanings to the originals. • Group 3: words unrelated to the original ones. • Group 4: nonsense syllables. • Group 5: three-digit numbers. • Group 6: no new list – these participants just rested.

5 4 3 2 1 0

Synonyms

Antonyms

Unrelated adjectives

Nonsense syllables

Numbers

None

Type of interfering material

Findings When the participants then recalled the original list of words, their performance depended on the nature of the second list. The most similar material (synonyms) produced the worst recall. This shows that interference is strongest when the memories are similar. The results are shown in the graph on the left.

Graph showing results of the study by McGeoch and McDonald.

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Concepts: Forgetting adverts

Raymond Burke and Thomas Skrull (1988) presented a series of magazine adverts to their participants, who had to recall the details of what they had seen (for example, the brand names). In some cases, they had more difficulty in recalling earlier adverts. In other cases, they had problems remembering the later ones. The effect was greater when the adverts were similar (that is, the ads were for identical products by different brands). This phenomenon is known as competitive interference.

54 • Chapter 2

Memory

Question

Use your knowledge of interference theory to explain the findings of this study.

Concepts: Caleb Caleb saw a film about Zombies a while ago, and went to see a different one recently. A friend, Ashton, asked him some questions about the first film but Caleb found he had trouble recalling the details accurately. A second friend, Anais, then joined in and wanted to know about the recent film Caleb went to see. But, again, Caleb seemed to forget some parts of it. Question

Outline the interference theory of forgetting, referring to Caleb’s experience in your answer.

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Evaluation Evidence from lab studies Interference in memory is probably one of the most consistently demonstrated findings in the whole of psychology. Literally thousands of lab experiments have been carried out into this explanation for forgetting, such as McGeoch and McDonald’s research on the facing page. Most of these studies show that both types of interference are very likely to be common ways we forget information from LTM. This is a strength because lab experiments control the effects of irrelevant influences and thus give us confidence that interference is a valid explanation for at least some forgetting.

Artificial materials

Elizabethan lovers

There is a much greater chance that interference will be demonstrated in the lab than in real-life situations, for one good reason. The stimulus materials used in most studies are lists of words. The task facing participants is to learn these lists. Learning lists of actual words is definitely more realistic than learning lists of consonant syllables (such as TZK). But this is still quite some distance from the things we learn and try to remember in everyday life – people’s faces, their birthdays, the ingredients of our favourite pizza, details of psychological research studies, that kind of thing. This is a limitation because the use of artificial tasks makes interference much more likely in the lab. Interference may not be as likely an explanation for forgetting in everyday life as it is the lab.

She made the mistake of calling her new boyfriend by her old boyfriend’s name. A very unfortunate example of proactive interference.

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To illustrate the difference between the two types of interference, imagine you have learned to drive a car in the UK (you may not need to imagine this, of course). You will have learned to drive on the left side of the road.

Real-life studies Some research studies have considered interference effects in more everyday situations. Alan Baddeley and Graham Hitch (1977) wanted to find out if interference was a better explanation for forgetting than the passage of time. So they asked rugby players to try to remember the names of the teams they had played so far in that season, week by week. Because most of the players had missed games, for some the ‘last team’ they played might have been two weeks ago, or three weeks ago, or more. The results very clearly showed that accurate recall did not depend on how long ago the matches took place. Much more important was the number of games they played in the meantime. So a player’s recall of a team from three weeks ago was better if they had played no matches since then. This study shows that interference explanations can apply to at least some everyday situations. The study by Burke and Skrull (facing page) also demonstrated interference in more everyday situations.

You then fly to Spain for your holidays and hire a car. Driving out of the airport, you narrowly avoid causing an accident because you failed to drive on the right. This is one example of interference. You return to the UK and, driving out of the car park, you find yourself in the right-hand lane. This is another example of interference. (One of our authors lives in Spain and has clearly had problems – ed.) Question

Can you identify which is proactive interference and which is retroactive interference? Explain why you made this choice.

There is no doubt that the majority of lab experiments are designed so that the possibility of interference is maximised. One example of how this occurs is in the time periods between learning lists of words and recalling them. For good practical reasons, these time periods are relatively short, and may in some cases be very short indeed (if your participants go away they may not come back!). So a participant may have to learn one list of words, and then learn a second one 20 minutes later, and then recall one of them a few minutes after that. The whole experience of learning something and recalling it could be over within an hour. Consider: Explain why this is a limitation of the interference theory. Do we normally learn and remember information like this in real life?

Interference effects may be overcome using cues Endel Tulving and Joseph Psotka (1971) gave participants five lists of 24 words, each list organised into six categories. For example, words such as: hut, cottage, tent, hotel, cliff, river, hill, volcano, captain, corporal, sergeant, colonel, ant, wasp, beetle, mosquito, zinc, copper, aluminum, bronze, drill, saw, chisel. The categories were not explicit but it was presumed that they would be obvious to participants (can you spot the categories?). Recall was about 70% for the first word list but this fell as participants were given each additional list to learn, presumably due to interference. However, at the end they were given a cued recall test – they were told the names of the categories as a clue. Recall rose again to about 70%. Consider: What does this tell us about interference? Explain why this is a strength of the interference explanation.

STUDY TIPS

Evaluation eXtra Time between learning

Concepts: Driving

• Don’t confuse evaluation and description. Students often think they are doing evaluation but they aren’t evaluating at all – they’re just describing. You might evaluate the interference explanation by pointing to the supporting evidence. But if all you do is say what the evidence is, that’s description. To evaluate, you need to use the evidence effectively. Don’t focus on what the evidence is (a brief description is sufficient) – focus instead on what it tells us about interference. Does it support the explanation? How? Why is this a good thing? That is the road to effective evaluation.

Check It 1. Explain proactive interference as an explanation for forgetting. [2 marks] 2. Explain retroactive interference as an explanation for forgetting. [2 marks] 3. Outline interference as an explanation for forgetting. [4 marks] 4. Describe one study in which interference as an explanation of forgetting was investigated. Indicate in your answer the method used and the results obtained. [6 marks] 5. Describe and evaluate interference as an explanation for forgetting. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

Explanations for forgetting: Interference • 55

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Explanations for forgetting: retrieval failure The specification says … Explanations for forgetting: retrieval failure due to absence of cues. There is a difference between accessibility and availability of information in memory. The main reason we forget material from our vast long-term memory store is because the material is not accessible (we can’t get at it) even though it is available (it is actually present). This is likely to be due to a lack of the right ‘triggers’ or cues.

Key terms Retrieval failure – A form of forgetting. It occurs when we don’t have the necessary cues to access memory. The memory is available but not accessible unless a suitable cue is provided. Cue – A ‘trigger’ of information that allows us to access a memory. Such cues may be meaningful or may be indirectly linked by being encoded at the time of learning. For example, cues may be external (environmental context) or internal (mood or degree of drunkenness).

Retrieval failure theory The reason people forget information may be because of insufficient cues. When information is initially placed in memory, associated cues are stored at the same time. If these cues are not available at the time of recall, it may make it appear as if you have forgotten the information but, in fact, this is due to retrieval failure – not being able to access memories that are there (i.e. available).

Encoding specificity principle (ESP) Endel Tulving (1983) reviewed research into retrieval failure and discovered a consistent pattern to the findings. He summarised this pattern in what he called the encoding specificity principle. This states that if a cue is to help us to recall information it has to be present at encoding (when we learn the material) and at retrieval (when we are recalling it). It follows from this that if the cues available at encoding and retrieval are different (or if cues are entirely absent at retrieval) there will be some forgetting. Some cues are linked to the material-to-be-remembered in a meaningful way. For example, the cue ‘STM’ may lead you to recall all sorts of information about short-term memory. Such cues are used in many mnemonic techniques (See page 219.) Other cues are also encoded at the time of learning but not in a meaningful way. We will consider two examples of this: context-dependent forgetting (external cues) and state-dependent forgetting (internal cues).

Context-dependent forgetting Duncan Godden and Alan Baddeley (1975) carried out a really interesting study of deepsea divers working underwater. In this situation it’s crucial – a matter of life and death – for divers to remember instructions given before diving about their work underwater. Procedure In this study the divers learned a list of words either underwater or on land and then were asked to recall the words either underwater or on land. This therefore created four conditions: • Learn on land – recall on land. • Learn underwater – recall on land. • Learn on land – recall underwater. • Learn underwater – recall underwater. Findings In two of these conditions the environmental contexts of learning and recall matched, whereas in the other two they did not. Accurate recall was 40% lower in the non-matching conditions. The external cues available at learning were different from the ones at recall and this led to retrieval failure.

State-dependent forgetting

Retrieval-failure theory argues that forgetting will occur when the contexts of learning and recall are different.

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Concepts: Paul

Paul drove his friends out to eat one summer’s day. Just as they got to the restaurant car park he suddenly realised something – he had forgotten his wallet. ‘I keep my wallet and jacket in different places, but always pick them up together’, Paul said. ‘but because it’s such a lovely evening, I decided not to bother with the jacket’.

Procedure Sara Carter and Helen Cassaday (1998) gave anti-histamine drugs (for treating hay fever) to their participants. The anti-histamines had a mild sedative effect making the participants slightly drowsy. This creates an internal physiological state different from the ‘normal’ state of being awake and alert. The participants had to learn lists of words and passages of prose and then recall the information, again creating four conditions: • Learn on drug – recall when on it. • Learn not on drug – recall when on it. • Learn on it – recall when not on it. • Learn not on it – recall when not on it. Findings In the conditions where there was a mismatch between internal state at learning and recall, performance on the memory test was significantly worse. So when the cues are absent (for example, you are drowsy when recalling information but had been alert learning it) then there is more forgetting.

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Concepts: That stinks!

Smell can act as context-related cue to memory as shown in a study by John Aggleton and Louise Waskett (1999). They based their study on a museum in the northern city of York, which was called Jorvik in Viking times. There is an underground museum in York where you can walk round the 1000-year-old ruins of Jorvik, recreated to be like the town of that time – including all the smells.

Question

Can you explain how Paul forgetting his jacket meant that he also forgot his wallet?

Aggleton and Waskett (1999) found that recreating these smells helped people to recall the details of their trip to the museum more accurately, even after several years. Questions

1. Explain this finding in terms of cues.

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2. Can you think of a way in which findings like these could be used to help elderly people suffering from poor memory?

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Evaluation

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Supporting evidence An impressive range of research supports the retrieval failure explanation for forgetting. The studies by Godden and Baddeley and Carter and Cassaday (see facing page) are just two examples of this research. In fact, one prominent memory researcher, Michael Eysenck (2010), goes so far as to argue that retrieval failure is perhaps the main reason for forgetting from LTM. This is a strength because supporting evidence increases the validity of an explanation. This is especially true when the evidence shows that retrieval failure occurs in real-life situations as well as in the highly controlled conditions of the lab.

Questioning context effects Baddeley (1997) argues that context effects are actually not very strong, especially in real life. Different contexts have to be very different indeed before an effect is seen. For example, it would be hard to find an environment as different from land as underwater. In contrast, learning something in one room and recalling it in another is unlikely to result in much forgetting because these environments are generally not different enough. This is a limitation because it means that the real-life applications of retrieval failure due to contextual cues don’t actually explain much forgetting.

Recall versus recognition

Methods: A sticky problem

Can chewing gum enhance memory? Baker et al. (2004) investigated this question. Students were randomly placed into one of four groups, which were: ⦁ Gum–gum (chewing gum when learning a list of words and when recalling it). ⦁ Gum–no gum (chewing gum when learning but not when recalling). ⦁ No gum–gum (not chewing gum when learning, but doing so when recalling). ⦁ No gum–no gum (not chewing gum when learning or recalling). All of the participants had to learn a list of 15 words in two minutes. They then had to recall the words straight away and again 24 hours later. Immediate recall showed only small differences between the groups. But after 24 hours, the average number of words correctly recalled was 11 for the gum–gum, 8 for gum–no gum, 7 for the no gum–gum group and 8.5 for the no gum–no gum group.

The context effect may be related to the kind of memory being tested. Godden and Baddeley (1980) replicated their underwater experiment but used a recognition test instead of recall – participants had to say whether they recognised a word read to them from the list, instead of retrieving it for themselves. When recognition was tested there was no context-dependent effect; performance was the same in all four conditions on the facing page. This is a further limitation of context effects because it means that the presence or absence of cues only affects memory when you test it in a certain way.

Evaluation eXtra Problems with the encoding specificity principle Can the encoding specificity principle (ESP) be tested? The short answer is no. The ESP is not testable and leads to a form of circular reasoning. In experiments where a cue produces the successful recall of a word, we assume that the cue must have been encoded at the time of learning. If a cue does not result in successful recall of a word, then we assume that the cue was not encoded at the time of learning. But these are just assumptions – there is no way to independently establish whether or not the cue has really been encoded. Consider: Why do you think this is a limitation of the retrieval failure explanation? Does it mean that the explanation is worthless and should be abandoned?

Real-life applications Although context-related cues appear not to have a very strong effect on forgetting, Baddeley still suggests they are worth paying attention to. For instance, we have probably all had the following experience: you are upstairs in your bedroom and you think ‘I must go and get such-and-such an item from downstairs’. You go downstairs only to forget what it was you came down for. But the moment you go back upstairs, you remember again. When we are having trouble remembering something, it is probably worth making the effort to try and recall the environment in which you learned it first. This is in fact a basic principle of the cognitive interview, a method of getting eyewitnesses to crimes to recall more information (see the spread on page 62). Consider: Why is it a strength of the retrieval failure explanation that it has real-life applications such as these?

Questions

1. Explain how demand characteristics might have operated in this study. (2 marks) (See page 168.) 2. The procedures were standardised. Explain what this means and give one example. (3 marks) (See page 161.) 3. A measure of dispersion was used to summarise the findings. Identify which one might be the most appropriate to use and explain why. (2 marks) (See page 193.) 4. Sketch a bar chart to display the four findings given. Remember to label axes clearly. (3 marks) (See page 194.) 5. Use your knowledge of retrieval failure to explain the findings of this study. (3 marks)

Check It 1. Explain retrieval failure as an explanation for forgetting. [2 marks] 2. In the context of forgetting, what is meant by a cue? You should use an example in your answer. [2 marks] 3. Describe one study in which retrieval failure was investigated. Indicate in your chosen study the method used and the results obtained. [4 marks] 4. Describe and evaluate retrieval failure as an explanation for forgetting. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

Explanations for forgetting: retrieval failure • 57

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Factors affecting eyewitness testimony: misleading information Leading questions The specification says … Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony: misleading information including leading questions and post-event discussion. The next three spreads consider how memory research can be applied to a very important topic – the reliability of eyewitness testimony. We begin by looking at the effects of misleading information on what eyewitnesses recall after experiencing an incident.

Key terms

Procedure Elizabeth Loftus and John Palmer (1974) arranged for participants (students) to watch film clips of car accidents and then gave them questions about the accident. In the critical question (a leading question) participants were asked to describe how fast the cars were travelling: ‘About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?’ This is a leading question because the verb ‘hit’ suggests the speed the car was going. There were five groups of participants, each was given a different verb in the critical question. One group had the verb hit, the others had contacted, bumped, collided, smashed. Findings The mean estimated speed was calculated for each participant group. The verb contacted resulted in a mean estimated speed of 31.8 mph. For the verb smashed, the mean was 40.5 mph. The leading question biased the eyewitness recall of an event.

Why do leading questions affect EWT?

Eyewitness testimony (EWT) – The ability of people to remember the details of events, such as accidents and crimes, which they themselves have observed. Accuracy of EWT can be affected by factors such as misleading information, leading questions and anxiety.

The response-bias explanation suggests that the wording of the question has no real effect on the participants’ memories, but just influences how they decide to answer. When a participant gets a leading question using the word ‘smashed’, this encourages them to choose a higher speed estimate. Loftus and Palmer (1974) conducted a second experiment that supported the substitution explanation – the wording of a leading question actually changes the participant’s memory of the film clip. This was demonstrated because participants who originally heard ‘smashed’ later were more likely to report seeing broken glass (there was none) than those who heard ‘hit’. The critical verb altered their memory of the incident.

Misleading information – Incorrect information given to the eyewitness usually after the event (hence often called ‘post-event information’). It can take many forms, such as leading questions and post-event discussion between co-witnesses and/or other people. Leading question – A question which, because of the way it is phrased, suggests a certain answer. For example: ‘Was the knife in the accused’s left hand?’. This suggests the answer is ‘left hand’. Post-event discussion (PED) occurs when there is more than one witness to an event. Witnesses may discuss what they have seen with co-witnesses or with other people. This may influence the accuracy of each witness’s recall of the event.

Post-event discussion When co-witnesses to a crime discuss it with each other (post-event discussion), their eyewitness testimonies may become contaminated. This is because they combine (mis)information from other witnesses with their own memories. Research has demonstrated how this happens. Procedure Fiona Gabbert and her colleagues (2003) studied participants in pairs. Each participant watched a video of the same crime, but filmed from different points of view. This meant that each participant could see elements in the event that the other could not. For example, only one of the participants could see the title of a book being carried by a young woman. Both participants then discussed what they had seen before individually completing a test of recall. Findings The researchers found that 71% of the participants mistakenly recalled aspects of the event that they did not see in the video but had picked up in the discussion. The corresponding figure in a control group, where there was no discussion, was 0%. Gabbert et al. concluded that witnesses often go along with each other, either to win social approval or because they believe the other witnesses are right and they are wrong. They called this phenomenon memory conformity.

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Concepts: Was I that drunk?

Seema Clifasefi and colleagues (2013) attempted to use leading questions to implant a memory of an event that never happened (called a false memory). They did this by giving their participants a document that claimed to be a personalised food and drink profile. This was supposedly put together by powerful computer software based on the participants’ earlier responses to a questionnaire. For one group, their profiles included the false information that they had once, under the age of 16, drunk so much alcohol that they were sick.

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Later, the participants completed a memory test in which a leading question

Memory

asked when they had become sick from drinking too much alcohol. The researchers found that a significant number of the participants ‘recalled’ being sick due to drinking too much alcohol before they were 16. But even more surprisingly, a proportion of these participants also claimed that they now disliked certain alcoholic drinks because of this (nonexistent) experience. Question

Using your knowledge of the effects of misleading information, explain the findings from this study.

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Practical activity on page 65

Witnesses in court trials swear an oath to tell the truth. They may think they are telling the truth but psychological research shows this could be an illusion.

Evaluation Useful real-life applications A great strength of all research into misleading information is that it has hugely important practical uses in the real world, where the consequences of inaccurate EWT can be very serious indeed. For example, Loftus (1975) believes that leading questions can have such a distorting effect on memory that police officers need to be very careful about how they phrase their questions when interviewing eyewitnesses. Research into EWT is one area in which psychologists believe they can make an important positive difference to the lives of real people, for instance by improving the way the legal system works and by appearing in court trials as expert witnesses.

The tasks are artificial A real limitation of Loftus and Palmer’s study is that their participants watched film clips of car accidents. This is a very different experience from witnessing a real accident, mainly because such clips lack the stress of a real accident. There is some evidence that emotions can have an influence on memory (see the next spread). This is a limitation because studies that use such artificial tasks may tell us very little about how leading questions affect EWT in cases of real accidents or crimes. It could even be that researchers such as Loftus are too pessimistic about the accuracy of EWT – it may be more reliable than many studies suggest.

Individual differences There is evidence that older people are less accurate than younger people when giving eyewitness reports. For example Anastasi and Rhodes (2006) found that people in age groups 18–25 and 35–45 were more accurate than people in the group 55–78 years. However, all age groups were more accurate when identifying people of their own age group (called own age bias). Research studies often use younger people as the target to identify and this may mean that some age groups appear less accurate but in fact this is not true.

Evaluation eXtra Demand characteristics Zaragosa and McCloskey (1989) argue that many answers participants give in lab studies of EWT are the result of demand characteristics. Participants usually do not want to let the researcher down, and want to appear helpful and attentive. So when they are asked a question they don’t know the answer to, they guess, especially if it’s a yes/no question. Imagine you are a participant in a study. You have seen a film of a street robbery and now you are answering some yes/no questions. One is: ‘Did you see the blue car?’ There was no blue car in the clip, but you still answer ‘yes’ to this question because that seems a more helpful answer. Consider: Explain why demand characteristics are a problem for studies of EWT.

Consequences of EWT Foster et al. (1994) point out that what you remember as an eyewitness can have some very important consequences in the real world, but the same is not true in research studies. Consider: What difference do you think this makes to how leading questions affect the accuracy of EWT in the real world compared to in studies?

Verb

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Methods: Loftus and Palmer The results from Loftus and Palmer’s study are shown in the table on the right: Questions

1. Write a suitable aim for this study. (2 marks) (See page 166.)

Mean estimate (mph)

Contacted

31.8

Bumped

34.0

Hit

38.1

Collided

39.3

Smashed

40.8

2. There were five groups of participants in this study. Explain why it would have been necessary to randomly allocate participants to each of the five groups. (2 marks) (See page 171.) 3. Questionnaires were used to collect the data. Explain one strength and one limitation of using questionnaires in this study. (4 marks) (See page 185.) 4. Identify and explain one ethical issue that arose in this study. (3 marks) (See page 176.) 5. Use your knowledge of how misleading information affects EWT to explain the findings of this study. (3 marks)

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Concepts: Disentangling post-event discussion Bodner et al. (2009) found that the effects of post-event discussion can be reduced if participants are warned of the effects. Recall was more accurate for those participants who were warned that anything they hear from a co-witness is second-hand information (or ‘hearsay’) and that they should forget it and recall only their own memory of the event. This finding can help us to decide if Gabbert et al.’s explanation of PED on the facing page is correct. Question

If a warning can negate the effects of post-event discussion, does this show that memory conformity is occurring? Explain your answer.

Check It 1. Explain what is meant by the term post-event discussion. [2 marks] 2. Briefly outline one study that has investigated the influence of misleading information on eyewitness testimony. [4 marks] 3. Give an example of a leading question and explain how this might affect the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. [3 marks] 4. Explain how post-event discussion may affect the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. [3 marks] 5. Describe and evaluate research into the influence of misleading information on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

Factors affecting eyewitness testimony: misleading information • 59

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Factors affecting eyewitness testimony: anxiety The specification says …

The effects of anxiety Anxiety has strong emotional and physical effects. But it is not clear whether these effects make eyewitness recall better or worse. There is research to support both possibilities.

Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony: anxiety. Stressful situations create anxiety. Crimes and accidents are no exception. When we witness such events, we experience physiological and psychological changes that could affect what we later remember. So now we turn our attention to the second major factor that can affect the accuracy of EWT – anxiety.

Key terms Anxiety – A state of emotional and physical arousal. The emotions include having worried thoughts and feelings of tension. Physical changes include an increased heart rate and sweatiness. Anxiety is a normal reaction to stressful situations, but can affect the accuracy and detail of eyewitness testimony.

Weapon focus effect

Anxiety has a negative effect on recall Anxiety creates physiological arousal in the body which prevents us paying attention to important cues, so recall is worse. One approach to studying anxiety and eyewitness testimony (EWT) has been to look at the effect of weapons (which create anxiety) on accuracy of recall of the witness. Procedure Johnson and Scott (1976) did research on this. They led participants to believe they were going to take part in a lab study. While seated in a waiting room participants heard an argument in the next room. In the ‘low-anxiety’ condition a man then walked through the waiting area, carrying a pen and with grease on his hands. Other participants overheard the same heated argument, but this time accompanied by the sound of breaking glass. A man walked out of the room, holding a paper knife that was covered in blood. This was the ‘high-anxiety’ condition. Findings The participants later picked out the man from a set of 50 photos; 49% of the participants who had seen the man carrying the pen were able to identify him. The corresponding figure for the participants who had seen the man holding the blood-covered knife was just 33%. The tunnel theory of memory argues that a witness’s attention narrows to focus on a weapon, because it is a source of anxiety.

Anxiety has a positive effect on recall

The study by Johnson and Scott demonstrated the weapon focus effect. Research shows that the anxiety of seeing a weapon focuses all your attention on the weapon and this means you won’t be able to recall much else.

The stress of witnessing a crime or accident creates anxiety through physiological arousal within the body. The fight-or-flight response is triggered which increases our alertness and improves our memory for the event because we become more aware of cues in the situation. Procedure John Yuille and Judith Cutshall (1986) conducted a study of a real-life shooting in a gun shop in Vancouver, Canada. The shop owner shot a thief dead. There were 21 witnesses – 13 agreed to take part in the study. The interviews were held 4–5 months after the incident and these were compared with the original police interviews made at the time of the shooting. Accuracy was determined by the number of details reported in each account. The witnesses were also asked to rate how stressed they had felt at the time of the incident, using a 7-point scale, and asked if they had any emotional problems since the event, such as sleeplessness. Findings The witnesses were very accurate in their accounts and there was little change in the amount or accuracy after 5 months – though some details were less accurate, such as recollection of the colour of items and age/height/weight estimates. Those participants who reported the highest levels of stress were most accurate (about 88% compared to 75% for the less-stressed group).

Explaining the contradictory findings According to Robert Yerkes and John Dodson (1908) the relationship between emotional arousal and performance looks like an ‘inverted U’ (see graph below). Kenneth Deffenbacher (1983) applied the Yerkes-Dodson Law to EWT. Lower levels of anxiety produce lower levels of recall accuracy. But memory becomes more accurate as the level of anxiety experienced increases, just as you would expect from the graph. However, there comes a point where the optimal level of anxiety is reached. This is the point of maximum accuracy. If an eyewitness experiences any more stress than this, then their recall of the event suffers a drastic decline.

Concepts: Natural disasters One problem with many lab-based and real-life studies of anxiety is that they only compare high and low anxiety groups. The inverted-U theory cannot be properly tested unless there is a moderate anxiety group as well. Parker et al. (2006) overcame this problem by interviewing people who had been affected by the destruction wrought by Hurricane Andrew in the United States in 1992. The researchers defined anxiety in terms of the amount of damage the participants suffered to their homes. The researchers found that there was a link between the level of recall and the amount of damage/anxiety experienced.

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Questions

1. Based on the inverted-U theory, can you predict which group showed the most accurate recall? Explain why you chose this group. 2. Do you think that the method used to operationalise anxiety is a valid way of measuring anxiety?

Yerkes-Dodson Law This inverted U theory states that performance will increase with stress, but only to a certain point, where it decreases drastically.

Performance

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low

medium

Arousal

high

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Evaluation Weapon focus effect may not be relevant

Death statue outside the London Dungeon, a good place for a Psychology experiment.

The study by Johnson and Scott (facing page) on the weapon focus may test surprise rather than anxiety. The reason participants focus on the weapon may be because they are surprised at what they see rather than because they are scared. Pickel (1998) conducted an experiment using scissors, a handgun, a wallet or a raw chicken as the hand-held items in a hairdressing salon video (where scissors would be low anxiety, low unusualness). Eyewitness accuracy was significantly poorer in the high unusualness conditions (chicken and handgun). This suggests that the weapon focus effect is due to unusualness rather than anxiety/threat and therefore tells us nothing specifically about the effects of anxiety on EWT.

Field studies sometimes lack control Researchers usually interview real-life eyewitnesses sometime after the event. All sorts of things will have happened to the participants in the meantime that the researchers have no control over – discussions with other people about the event, accounts they may have read or seen in the media, the effects of being interviewed by the police, and so on (i.e. post-event discussions). This is a limitation of field research because it is possible that these extraneous variables may be responsible for the accuracy of recall. The effects of anxiety may be overwhelmed by these other factors, and impossible to assess by the time the participants are interviewed.

There are ethical issues Creating anxiety in participants is very risky. It is potentially unethical because it may subject people to psychological harm purely for the purposes of research. This is why real-life studies are so beneficial – psychologists interview people who have already witnessed a real-life event, so there is no need to create it. This issue doesn’t challenge the findings from studies such as Johnson and Scott but it does question the need for such research. One reason is to compare findings with the less controlled field studies – and the benefits of this research may outweigh the issues.

Evaluation eXtra The inverted-U explanation is too simplistic Anxiety is very difficult to define and measure accurately. One reason for this is that it has many elements – cognitive, behavioural, emotional and physical. But the inverted-U explanation assumes only one of these is linked to poor performance – physiological (physical) arousal. Consider: Explain why the inverted-U theory is an incomplete explanation of how anxiety affects EWT. Is there more to the relationship between anxiety and EWT than just physiological arousal, for instance?

Demand characteristics operate in lab studies of anxiety Most lab studies show participants a filmed (and usually staged) crime. Most of these participants will be aware they are watching a filmed crime for a reason to do with the study. Chances are most of them will work out for themselves that they are going to be asked questions about what they have seen. Consider: How might demand characteristics affect the way participants respond? What might make them more or less accurate in their recall?

@ookx hs Methods: Labyrinth of Horror Tim Valentine and Jan Mesout (2009) carried out a study in the real-life setting of the Horror Labyrinth at the London Dungeon. It is designed to be frightening with many ‘scares’ such as darkness, screams, gory models and sudden movements. Visitors to the Labyrinth were offered a reduced entrance fee if they agreed to complete questionnaires at the end of their visit to assess their level of self-reported anxiety. They wore wireless heart monitors to confirm that they were experiencing anxiety. On the basis of these two measures participants were divided into two groups: high anxiety and low anxiety. The participants’ task was to describe a person encountered in the Labyrinth (played by an actor). The researchers found that the high anxiety participants recalled the fewest correct details of the actor and made more mistakes. The researchers also found that 17% of the high anxiety group correctly identified the actor in a line-up compared to 75% correct identification by those in the low anxiety group. Questions

1. Explain why this study is an example of a quasi-experiment. (2 marks) (See page 173.) 2. Explain one limitation of a quasi-experiment. Refer to the study above in your answer. (2 marks) 3. Identify the sampling method used in this study and explain one strength of this method. (3 marks) (See page 175.) 4. Questionnaires were used to collect the data. Write one closed question and one open question that could have been used in this study. (4 marks) (See page 186.) 5. Select one other study of the effect of anxiety on the accuracy of EWT. How do the findings compare with the findings in the London Dungeon study? (3 marks)

Check It 1. In the context of eyewitness testimony, explain what is meant by the term anxiety. [2 marks] 2. Briefly outline one study that has investigated the influence of anxiety on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. Indicate in your chosen study the method used and the results obtained. [4 marks] 3. Describe the effect of anxiety on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. [4 marks] 4. Describe and evaluate research that has investigated the influence of anxiety on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

Factors affecting eyewitness testimony: anxiety • 61

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Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony: Cognitive interview The cognitive interview The specification says … Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony, including the use of the cognitive interview. We have seen that eyewitness testimony may lack accuracy, yet such accuracy is vital to the police and the courts. So psychologists have turned their attention to fi nding ways of improving the accuracy of EWT based on sound psychological evidence. This includes the cognitive interview, what Eysenck and Keane (2010) believe is one of the most successful contributions psychologists have made to society.

Key term Cognitive interview (CI) – A method of interviewing eyewitnesses to help them retrieve more accurate memories. It uses four main techniques, all based on well-established psychological knowledge of human memory – report everything, reinstate the context, reverse the order, and change perspective.

STUDY TIPS • Sometimes you might need to consider the use of a cognitive interview in a real-life scenario. Think about how a police officer would ask questions and how this would affect the responses from witnesses. Always consider the effects on characters in any scenario.

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Concepts: Try it yourself A great strength of the cognitive interview is that its techniques are based on sound psychological research into how human memory works. For example, report everything and reinstate the context are both based on Tulving’s encoding specificity hypothesis (see page 56).

Ronald Fisher and Edward Geiselman (1992) argued that eyewitness testimony could be improved if the police used better techniques when interviewing witnesses. They recommended that such techniques should be based on psychological insights into how memory works, and called these techniques collectively the cognitive interview (CI) to indicate its foundation in cognitive psychology. There are four main techniques that are used.

1. Report everything Witnesses are encouraged to include every single detail of the event, even though it may seem irrelevant or the witness doesn’t feel confident about it. Seemingly trivial details may be important and, moreover, they may trigger other important memories.

2. Reinstate the context The witness should return to the original crime scene ‘in their mind’ and imagine the environment (such as what the weather was like, what they could see) and their emotions (such as what were their feelings). This is related to context-dependent forgetting discussed on page 56.

3. Reverse the order Events should be recalled in a different chronological order to the original sequence, for example, from the final point back to the beginning, or from the middle to the beginning. This is done to prevent people reporting their expectations of how the event must have happened rather than the actual events. It also prevents dishonesty (it’s harder for people to produce an untruthful account if they have to reverse it).

4. Change perspective Witnesses should recall the incident from other people’s perspectives. For example, how it would have appeared to other witnesses or to the perpetrator. This is done to disrupt the effect of expectations and schema on recall. The schema you have for a particular setting (such as going into a shop) generate expectations of what would have happened and it is the schema that is recalled rather than what actually happened.

The enhanced cognitive interview (ECI) Fisher et al. (1987) developed some additional elements of the CI to focus on the social dynamics of the interaction. For example, the interviewer needs to know when to establish eye contact and when to relinquish it. The enhanced CI also includes ideas such as reducing eyewitness anxiety, minimising distractions, getting the witness to speak slowly and asking open-ended questions.

These techniques aren’t just useful in recalling crimes. You can use them to try and recall any event you have been part of or witnessed and want to remember more about. Try it for yourself. Think of any fairly recent situation. Picture the setting in your mind. What is the weather like? What time of day is it? What can you see? Think about the internal context as well. How do you feel? Happy? Sad? Can’t remember? It’s worth persisting – you might be surprised how much you recall that you thought you’d forgotten. Now change your perspective. Is there someone else there? Picture the situation as they see it. What can you see now? Anything different? Questions

1. What did you discover? 2. What do you think the techniques of the cognitive interview tell us about the difference between the availability and accessibility of memories?

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Memory

Friendly, relaxed, business-like. In the enhanced CI the interviewer takes time to establish rapport with the witness, to encourage them to recall more information about what they have seen.

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Evaluation The CI is time-consuming Police may be reluctant to use the CI because it takes much more time than the standard police interview (the one you see on TV). For example, more time is needed to establish rapport with the witness and allow them to relax. The CI also requires special training and many forces have not been able to provide more than a few hours (Kebbell and Wagstaff 1996). This means it is unlikely that the ‘proper’ version of the CI is actually used, which may explain why police have not been that impressed by it.

Some elements may be more valuable than others Milne and Bull (2002) found that each individual element was equally valuable. Each technique used singly produced more information than the standard police interview. However, Milne and Bull found that using a combination of report everything and context reinstatement produced better recall than any of the other conditions. This confirmed police officers’ suspicions that some aspects of the CI are more useful than others. This finding is a strength because it suggests that at least these two elements should be used to improve police interviewing of eyewitnesses even if the full CI isn’t used. This in turn increases the credibility of the CI amongst those who use it – police officers.

Research Methods: Assessing the cognitive interview A psychologist carried out an experiment to find out if a cognitive interview was more effective than a standard police interview (no fancy cognitive techniques) in helping witnesses to recall more information. She placed an advert in local newspapers asking for people to participate. The advert indicated that participants would be shown a short film of a knifepoint mugging, and that they would be interviewed by a police officer. Once the data were all collected, the psychologist compared the mean number of items correctly recalled in the cognitive interview with the mean number of items correctly recalled in the standard police interview. Questions

1. Explain what experimental design might be used in this study. Outline what you would do to conduct the study. (3 marks) (See page 170.) 2. Explain one strength and one limitation of this experimental design. Refer to the study described above in your answer. (2 marks + 2 marks) 3. Identify the sampling method used in this study. (1 mark) (See page 174.) 4. Explain how investigator effects might have operated in this study. (3 marks) (See page 169.) 5. Explain how a pilot study might have been conducted in the context of this study. (3 marks) (See page 178.)

Support for the effectiveness of the ECI Research suggests that the enhanced cognitive interview (ECI) may offer special benefits. For example, a meta-analysis by Köhnken et al. (1999) combined data from 50 studies. The enhanced CI consistently provided more correct information than the standard interview used by police. This is a strength because studies such as this one indicate that there are real practical benefits to the police of using the enhanced version of the CI. The research shows that it gives the police a greater chance of catching and charging criminals, which is beneficial to society as a whole.

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Concepts: Write your own A police officer trained in using the cognitive interview is helping a witness to recall more information about a mugging. Eventually, she gives the witness the following instruction: ‘Please tell me as much as you can remember about what you saw. Please do not leave anything out, even if you think they are just unimportant small details.’

Evaluation eXtra Variations of the CI are used

Questions

Studies of the effectiveness of the CI inevitably use slightly different CI techniques or use the enhanced CI. The same is true in real life – police forces evolve their own methods.

1. Which of the four main techniques of the cognitive interview is being used in the above statement?

Consider: Explain why this variation is a problem when we try to evaluate how effective and useful the CI is. What are the implications for the police?

2. For the three other techniques, write down the exact wording of the instructions the police officer might give to the witness.

Consider: Do you think it’s a good thing that police forces have developed their own variations of the CI? Explain your answer.

CI creates an increase in inaccurate information The techniques of the CI aim to increase the amount of correct information remembered but the recall of incorrect information may also be increased. Köhnken et al. (1999) found an 81% increase of correct information but also a 61% increase of incorrect information (false positives) when the enhanced CI was compared to a standard interview. Consider: Do you think it’s a good reason for abandoning the CI and using the standard police interview instead? Explain your answer.

Check It 1. Explain what is meant by the term cognitive interview. [2 marks] 2. Outline how the cognitive interview can improve the accuracy of EWT. [4 marks] 3. Cognitive interviews have been developed to improve EWT. Identify and explain two techniques used in the cognitive interview. [6 marks] 4. Describe and evaluate the cognitive interview as a way of improving the accuracy of EWT. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony: Cognitive interview • 63

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Practical corner

Practical idea 1: Dual-task performance

The specification says …

Hitch and Baddeley (1976) tested their working memory model by considering the prediction that people can perform two tasks at the same time as long as the tasks use different components of the working memory system, for example the tasks use the phonological loop and the central executive. If a person uses the same component, performance should be slowed down. This practical is a laboratory experiment to investigate dual-task performance.

Knowledge and understanding of …. research methods, practical research skills and maths skills. These should be developed through ….. ethical practical research activities. This means that you should conduct practical investigations wherever possible. The topic of memory is ideally suited to experimental research. Questionnaires are also frequently used to gather data for analysis. The two practical activities on this spread give you an opportunity to use both of these methods.

The practical bit Designing your experiment Your participants have to perform two tasks at the same time – a verbal task and a reasoning task. For some participants the two tasks will use the same component of working memory. All participants do Task 1, a reasoning task that uses the central executive. They are shown two letters, such as ‘AB’ and a statement ‘B is followed by A’ and asked to indicate if the statement is true or false (see ‘creating your materials’, below left). Simultaneously participants do Task 2, either: • Condition A: Participants say ‘the the the’ repeatedly – this involves just the phonological loop. • Condition B: Participants generate random digits (i.e. just say any digits) – this involves both the central executive and the phonological loop. • Condition C: No additional task – this is a control condition.

Ethics check Ethics are discussed in detail on pages 176–177. We suggest strongly that you complete this checklist before collecting data. 1. Do participants know participation is voluntary? 2. Do participants know what to expect? 3. Do participants know they can withdraw at any time? 4. Are individuals’ results anonymous? 5. Have I minimised the risk of distress to participants?

The hypothesis is that participants in Condition B perform Task 1 more slowly than participants in Condition A or C because they will be performing two tasks that involve the central executive. You will use an independent groups design with three groups of participants (one each for Conditions A, B and C – though you don’t have to include Condition C).

6. Have I avoided asking sensitive questions? 7. Will I avoid bringing my school/teacher/psychology into disrepute? 8. Have I considered all other ethical issues?

Ethical issues

9. Has my teacher approved this?

You can tackle ethical issues by writing a consent form and a debriefing script. One issue you should address is confidentiality. Your participants will probably not want their results to be made public or to risk them being identified. Another issue is the right to withdraw at any point, which includes the right for participants to withdraw their data. Finally, you should consider protection from psychological harm. Some participants may feel that their performance is being evaluated. They may be worried that their memories are poor. For some other issues, see the Ethics check box (left).

Creating your materials For all groups you need a reasoning task (Task 1). You should construct a table for this. It should include ten sentences about the relationship between the letters A and B, plus space for the participants to record a response. You can use these five sentences to start you off:

Choosing your sample

Letters

Statement

AB

A follows B

You could use an opportunity sampling method. You’re going to have to test participants individually, so you could just approach people in your school/college canteen or wherever, as long as you have somewhere quiet to go to.

BA

B is followed by A

Analysing your data

BA

A does not come before B

AB

B is followed by A

BA

A follows B

You want to see if there are any differences between the groups of participants in the time taken to complete the reasoning task (the dependent variable). You could also consider the number of errors made.

@ookx hs

TRUE

FALSE

Methods: The maths bit 1

Time taken to complete reasoning task (secs) Condition A

1. Redo the table on the right, giving all data to the nearest whole number. (2 marks) 2. Calculate the mean and the range for each group. (3 marks) (See page 192.) 3. Which type of graphical display would be appropriate to present the results in the table? (1 mark) (See page 194.)

64 • Chapter 2

4. Sketch the graphical display you have identified in your previous answer. Remember to label your axes carefully. (3 marks) 5. Based on the descriptive statistics, what conclusion could you draw about the effect of the verbal task on performance of the reasoning task? (2 marks) (See page 192.) 6. Do these findings support the working memory model? Explain your answer. (2 marks)

Memory

Condition B

32.38

42.73

28.93

50.21

34.27

43.63

30.41

46.25

36.84

44.37

34.28

45.81

37.11

67.32

29.79

48.91

37.46

41.63

35.58

47.79

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Practical idea 2: EWT and leading questions Research has shown that various factors can affect the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. One of these factors is misleading information in the form of leading questions. The aim of this study is to use a video clip to find out if leading questions affect the recall of an eyewitnessed event. This is a laboratory experiment using a questionnaire to assess the dependent variable.

The practical bit You will need two groups of participants in order to analyse the impact of a leading question on accuracy of recall. The wording of a single question should vary between the two groups.

Selecting and constructing your materials You will need to find a suitable video clip, most likely from YouTube. You are looking for something brief, an incident of some kind about which you can ask questions concerning what happened, who was involved and so on. You need to take ethical issues into account when choosing the clip (see below). You will also need to construct a questionnaire. A crucial design element of this concerns the types of questions that you might use. These are likely to be a combination of closed and open questions. The open questions could ask your participants to describe in their own words the incident they have seen. The closed questions will be specific and offer a yes/no or true/false response. One of these closed questions should be your leading question. The answers to this question will be the only ones you are interested in and will analyse. This question should differ for the two groups in your study, so that you can make a comparison. This means that you will have two questionnaires, but the only difference between them will be in this one question.

Choosing your sample Individual testing would be time consuming and inconvenient. A better approach would be to show the clip to a whole class at once. You could randomly select a class from your school population. The two forms of the questionnaire should be randomly distributed to class members, thus participants are randomly allocated to experimental conditions.

Ethical considerations It is unlikely in a study like this that you are going to ask anything that invades your participants’ privacy. But, even so, it is advisable to steer clear of any questions that might be considered sensitive. Your choice of clip needs to be carefully thought through. Avoid anything that may cause offence or anxiety. So choose something fairly mundane and everyday, rather than an accident or violent crime. When people have their memories tested, in any form, they may well feel that they are being evaluated on their performance. So you should reassure participants that this is not the case in any debriefing that you carry out at the end of the procedure. This will help to protect participants from possible psychological harm. You should also take steps to secure your participants’ consent, and respect their right to withdraw from the study.

Analysing your data You will want to be able to show your results so that someone will instantly be able to see what impact a leading question has had on the accuracy of eyewitness recall. So you should present your data using appropriately selected tables and graphs.

The justice system recognises that leading questions can influence an eyewitness's testimony, which is why they are officially banned. But that doesn't stop most barristers from trying!

@ookx hs

Methods: The maths bit 2 1. The table below shows the results of an experiment like the one on the left. How many participants were there in the leading questions group? (1 mark) 2. How many were there in the non-leading questions group? (1 mark) 3. Calculate the number of participants in the leading questions group as a percentage of the total number of participants. (1 mark) (See page 196.) 4. Are the data in the table quantitative or qualitative? Explain your answer. (2 marks) (See page 190.) 5. Explain one strength and one limitation of this type of data. (2 marks + 2 marks) 6. Draw a bar chart of the results in the table. Remember to label your axes accurately. (3 marks) (See page 194.) 7. Explain what conclusions you can draw from the bar chart about the impact of leading questions on eyewitness testimony. (2 marks) Condition A: participants answered a leading question

Condition B: participants answered a nonleading question

Yes

No

Yes

No

8

2

4

6

I’m outta here! Don’t forget, your participants have a right to withdraw from your experiment.

Practical corner • 65

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Revision Summaries Coding, capacity and duration of memory Consider short-term memory and long-term memory.

Research on coding

Research on capacity

Research on duration

Baddeley Acoustic in STM, semantic in LTM.

Digit span Jacobs (digit span): 9.3 digits, 7.3 letters.

STM Peterson and Peterson: up to 18 seconds without rehearsal.

Evaluation

Span of memory and chunking Miller: 7 ± 2 span, putting items together extends STM capacity.

LTM Bahrick et al. (yearbooks): recognition of faces 90% after 15 years, recall 60%. Recognition dropped to 70% after 48 years.

Artificial stimuli Word lists had no personal significance.

Evaluation Lacking validity Could be extraneous variables such as distractions. Not so many chunks Cowan: estimated STM as about four chunks.

The multi-store model of memory Sensory register Iconic and echoic stores with very brief duration, high-capacity. Transfer by attention. Short-term memory (STM) Limited capacity and duration store. Mainly acoustic coding. Transfer to LTM by rehearsal. Long-term memory (LTM) Unlimited capacity and duration, permanent store. Mainly semantic. Created through maintenance rehearsal.

Higher external validity Meaningful real-life memories, showed greater recall that LTM studies with meaningless material (Shephard). Evaluation extra Peterson and Peterson may be displacement not decay.

Types of long-term memory Three different long-term memory stores.

A representation of memory with three stores.

The multi-store model (MSM)

Evaluation Meaningless stimuli Used consonant syllables.

Types of long-term memory

Evaluation Supporting research evidence Studies into coding, capacity and duration demonstrate differences between STM and LTM. There is more than one type of STM Studies of amnesia (e.g. KF) show different STMs for visual and auditory material. There is more than one type of rehearsal Elaborative rehearsal necessary for transfer to LTM, not maintenance rehearsal.

Episodic memory Memory for events in our lives (‘diary’). Semantic memory Memory for knowledge of the world, like an encyclopaedia and dictionary. Includes language. Procedural memory Memory for automatic and often skilled behaviours.

Evaluation extra Artificial materials. There is more than one type of LTM.

Evaluation Clinical evidence Clive Wearing and HM had damaged episodic memories but semantic and procedural memories fine. Neuroimaging evidence Episodic and procedural memories recalled from different parts of the prefrontal cortex. Real-life applications Training programme for adults with mild cognitive impairments. Evaluation extra Problems with clinical evidence. Three types of LTM or two?

The working memory model Dynamic processing in short-term memory.

The working memory model (WMM) Central executive (CE) Co-ordinates slave systems and allocates resources, very limited storage.

Clinical evidence KF had poor auditory memory but good visual memory. Damaged PL but VSS fine.

Phonological loop (PL) Auditory information – phonological store and articulatory process (maintenance rehearsal).

Dual-task performance Difficult to do two visual tasks at same time, but one visual and one verbal is OK (Baddeley et al.).

Visuo-spatial sketchpad (VSS) Visual information – visual cache (store) and inner scribe (spatial arrangement).

Lack of clarity over the CE Not yet fully explained, probably has different components.

Episodic buffer (EB) Integrates processing of slave systems and records the order of events. Linked to LTM.

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Evaluation

Evaluation extra Studies of the word-length effect support the PL. Brain scanning studies support the WMM.

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Explanations for forgetting: Interference One memory blocks another.

Interference theory

Evaluation

Types of interference Proactive – old memories disrupt new ones. Retroactive – new memories disrupt old ones.

Evidence from lab studies Well-controlled studies show interference effects.

Effects of similarity McGeoch and McDonald: similar words created more interference.

Artificial materials Lists of words are not like everyday memory, may overemphasise interference as an explanation. Real-life studies Baddeley and Hitch (rugby players) supported interference. Evaluation extra Time between learning. Interference effects may be overcome using cues.

Explanations for forgetting: retrieval failure Forgetting because of a lack of cues.

Retrieval failure theory

Evaluation

Encoding specificity principle Tulving: cues most effective if present at coding and at retrieval. May be a meaningful link.

Supporting evidence Wide range of support. Eysenck claims retrieval failure is most important reason for LTM forgetting.

Context-dependent forgetting Godden and Baddeley (deep-sea divers): recall better when external contexts matched.

Questioning context effects No forgetting unless contexts are very different, e.g. on land versus underwater (Baddeley).

State-dependent forgetting Carter and Cassaday (anti-histamine): recall better when internal states matched.

Recall versus recognition Absence of cues affects recall but not recognition.

Factors affecting eyewitness testimony: misleading information

Evaluation extra Problems with the encoding specificity principle. Real-life applications.

Post-event information affects EWT.

Misleading information Leading questions Loftus and Palmer (car speed): estimates affected by leading question (smashed versus contacted). Why do leading questions affect EWT? Response bias – no change to memory. Substitution explanation supported by Loftus and Palmer and report of presence of glass. Post-event discussion (PED) Discussions with others contaminates eyewitnesses’ memories. Gabbert et al. demonstrated effect, calling it memory conformity - information and normative social influence involved.

Evaluation Useful real-life applications Could help prevent miscarriages of justice and change police interviewing. Tasks are artificial Watching film clips ignores the stress and anxiety associated with a real accident or crime. Individual differences Older people may be less accurate because of own-age bias. Evaluation extra Demand characteristics. Consequences of EWT.

Factors affecting eyewitness testimony: anxiety Emotional and physical arousal affects recall.

The effects of anxiety

Evaluation

Anxiety has a negative effect on recall Johnson and Scott (weapon focus): highanxiety knife condition led to less good recall. Tunnel theory of memory.

Weapon focus effect may not be relevant Pickel (raw chicken) showed that it may be surprise and therefore tells us nothing about effects of anxiety.

Anxiety has a positive effect on recall Yuille and Cutshall (shooting): high anxiety associated with better recall when witnessing real crime.

Field studies sometimes lack control Researchers can’t control what happens to witnesses between the crime and the interview.

Explaining the contradictory findings Yerkes-Dodson law suggests both low and high anxiety lead to poor recall (Deffenbacher).

Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony: Cognitive interview Based on psychological evidence.

The cognitive interview (CI) Report everything Include even unimportant details. Reinstate the context Picture the scene and recall how you felt. Context-dependent forgetting. Reverse the order Recall from the end and work backwards. Disrupts expectations.

Evaluation CI is time-consuming Takes longer and needs special training. Some elements may be more valuable than others Report everything and reinstate the context used together produced best recall.

Change perspective Put yourself in the shoes of someone else present. Disrupts schema.

Support for the effectiveness of the ECI ECI consistently produces more accurate recall than standard interview.

The enhanced cognitive interview (ECI) Adds social dynamics, e.g. establishing eye contact.

Evaluation extra Variations of the CI are used. CI creates an increase in inaccurate information.

There are ethical issues Creating anxiety in lab studies may cause psychological harm. Evaluation extra The inverted-U explanation is too simplistic. Demand characteristics operate in lab studies of anxiety.

Revision Summaries • 67

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Practice questions, answers and feedback Question 1 Outline one study in which the working memory model has been investigated. In your answer, refer to what the psychologist(s) did and what was found. (3 marks) Morticia’s answer Hunt et al. looked at dual task performance. Participants had to perform a psychomotor task whilst answering questions from an intelligence test at the same time. As the questions became more difficult, performance on the psychomotor task deteriorated. This suggests that the central executive has limited capacity and can become overloaded if too many demands are placed on it. Luke’s answer The working memory model was investigated where participants were given two tasks, one task was a visual task and one was a verbal task. The results showed that these could be done because there are different parts to shortterm memory. However, the study lacked ecological validity. Vladimir’s answer There was a case study of KF who had brain damage. KF had some problems with his short-term memory but not his long-term memory. In fact it was only some aspects of STM that were damaged. KF could deal with visual input and remember this in the short term but could not deal with numbers. This supports the working memory model.

Morticia has produced a detailed and accurate description of a relevant study. The procedure and findings are all well-explained as required by the question. Luke describes a study that is not identifiable without more detail/ explanation of the tasks involved. There might some value in the answer if the sub-components that would be needed to perform these tasks were mentioned. The last sentence does not add anything. Vladimir includes some relevant information – the idea that parts of STM can remain intact whilst others are damaged. However, there again are no named components of working memory here and the reference to KF not being able to ‘deal with numbers’ is vague. A weak answer.

Question 2 Briefly explain one strength of the working memory model. (2 marks) Morticia’s answer One strength is that it is unlike the multi-store model which suggests short-term memory is a unitary store whereas the WMM shows how STM is divided into different subsystems such as the phonological loop and visuo-spatial sketchpad. Luke’s answer One strength is it goes into more complex detail on how short-term memory works than the multi-store model. Vladimir’s answer It is a more detailed explanation than the multi-

store model as it begins to show processes that may occur.

Morticia gives a detailed and accurate answer that includes reasoned comparison with the multi-store model. Luke also makes a comparison with the multi-store model but this point needs further elaboration for the second mark (how is working memory ‘more complex’?). Vladimir says nothing of any value. The first half of the sentence is not strong enough to earn credit and the second half is vague.

Question 3 What is meant by ‘procedural memory’? Give an example. (2 marks) Morticia’s answer Procedural memory is a type of long-term memory that stores actions and skills, such as riding a bike.

Morticia provides a clear definition and a relevant example – just a perfect student!

Luke’s answer Procedural memory is a type of long-term memory that holds unlimited information and has knowledge of sequences, events, personal memories, lists and can be retrieved at a later date.

Luke provides an inaccurate definition and there is no example.

Vladimir’s answer Procedural memory is a type of long-term memory

which remembers how to do something such as how to ride a bike.

Vladimir’s example is fine but the definition that comes before it is not strong enough to be worth including. Vladimir should have referred to ‘memory for actions/motor skills’ rather than ‘how to do something’ which is a little vague.

Question 4 A woman is being questioned by a police officer about a heated argument she witnessed on an evening out with friends. The argument took place in a bar and ended with a violent assault. A knife was discovered later by police behind the bar. ‘Did you see the knife the attacker was holding?’ asked the police officer. ‘I’m not sure there was a knife – yes, there probably was’, replied the woman. ‘I was so scared at the time it’s hard to remember, and my friends and I have talked about what happened so many times since I’m almost not sure what I did see’. Explain two factors that affect the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. Refer to the information above in your answer. (4 marks) Morticia’s answer One factor is leading questions, which suggest a particular event/

detail and change how a person remembers an experience. In the police officer’s question, the use of the phrase ‘the knife’ is leading and suggests there was a knife. The second factor was the post-event discussion, so the woman has been affected by what her friends have been saying (they have talked about the incident ‘many times’) and this may change her memory. Luke’s answer It was a violent assault so the woman probably felt anxious. Studies like Johnson and Scott show that such anxiety reduces the accuracy of a person’s recall. Another factor that might affect accuracy would be the way the police officer put the question (‘the knife’ suggests there was a knife) – it was a leading question. Loftus and Palmer showed that such questions suggest an answer to a witness and also alter the person’s memory, thus reducing accuracy. Vladimir’s answer The accuracy of EWT can be affected by misleading information and also by anxiety. The woman wasn’t sure what she had seen so the police officer’s question may have had a big effect.

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Morticia’s answer is excellent (again). Both factors are clearly identified and explained, and there is good application/ engagement with the stem. Luke starts well, with reference to anxiety as something that would affect accuracy, and provides support from psychological research. The second factor mentioned is the leading question, again supported with research. Both factors are clearly contextualised Vladimir has identified two factors (misleading information and anxiety) but not explained them, so very little of value here. The attempted application is too weak to be considered (Vladimir would have to make it clear how the question was leading).

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On this spread we look at some typical student answers to questions. The comments provided indicate what is good and bad in each answer. Learning how to produce effective question answers is a SKILL. Read pages 211–221 for guidance. Question 5 Discuss interference and retrieval failure as explanations for forgetting. Refer to evidence in your answer. (12 marks AS, 16 marks AL) Morticia’s answer Interference theory considers how forgetting in LTM occurs because one memory

blocks another memory. The result may be a distortion of what you recall or a complete inability to recall the information. There are two types of interference. With proactive interference an older memory interferes with a newer one. For example, your teacher may find it difficult to recall the names of all the students in your class because she has learned so many names in the past. The second kind of interference is retroactive interference, where a newer memory interferes with past learning. Taking the same example it could be that your teacher has difficulty remembering the names of some of her past students because she has learned many more student names. In both cases the problem is that the memory is actually available (it is there in memory) it has just become inaccessible. This was demonstrated in a study by Tulving and Psotka who showed that the more word lists people had to remember the lower their recall rate fell. But at the end they were given cues to help them and they could remember many more words – this shows that the words were there but interference was preventing recall. Research studies, especially lab experiments have demonstrated interference effects. For example, McGeoch and McDonald’s study showing that the more similar two word lists were the more retroactive interference was created. Such support is good because lab studies are well controlled. However, such studies tend to use stimuli (such as word lists), which are not like what people do with their memories in everyday life. This means that lab studies make it look like interference is a more important explanation for forgetting than it really is in everyday life. Nevertheless there are studies of interference in everyday life, which show that interference does happen. Baddeley and Hitch studied recall in rugby players. They compared what the players could recall of their match scores over a season. Those players who played in more games had a lower percentage of scores, showing that interference was affecting what they could recall. The other explanation of forgetting is retrieval failure which is also about accessibility rather than availability but is about cues – context or state-dependent.

Morticia’s essay is an AS response whereas Vladimir’s is an A level response. Morticia starts very well with a clear definition of interference, including the two types, and these are clarified through the use of examples. There is a really good description of relevant evidence here, too. Three studies are clear, accurate and concisely presented. There is a limited descriptive account of retrieval failure at the end of the essay. There is effective use of evidence. The findings from all three studies are clearly linked/related to the relevant explanation in each case, which is something that many students fail to do. There are some methodological criticisms of the McGeoch and McDonald study and some attempt to relate these criticisms to the explanation more generally. That said, Morticia might have been better advised to focus her evaluation on the explanation itself rather than criticising the supporting evidence. The description in this answer is slightly better than the evaluation. This is a reasonable answer but not a good one.

(372 words) Vladimir’s answer There are several explanations for forgetting such as trace decay, displacement,

interference and retrieval failure.

Vladimir’s answer does not start too promisingly: the explanation of interference is not very clear (note the use of ‘interfere’ in the definition – don’t define a term using the same word) and neither is the explanation of the two types clear, though it is just about accurate.

Interference theory suggests that the reason why people forget things is because two memories interfere with each other. There is proactive interference and retroactive interference. In the case of proactive interference something you learned first interferes with something you learned later. In retroactive it is the opposite. A study to support the interference theory was done by McGeoch. He gave participants word lists to be learned and showed that the new lists had an effect on being able to The description of retrieval failure is better recall the older lists. This supports retroactive interference. with reference to absence of cues as well as Another explanation for forgetting is retrieval failure. What happens is that a memory that is in your memory can’t be recalled because you don’t have the cues to help you recall it. There are two types of retrieval failure of forgetting. These are context dependent and state dependent. In the case of context-dependent forgetting this means that people recall things better if they learn and recall them in the same place. In mood-dependent forgetting this means mood rather than context is important, for example if you are sad or drunk. A study that supports this is the study of underwater divers who learned word lists on land or underwater and then recalled them on land or underwater. The divers had the best recall if they learned them underwater and later recalled them underwater or if they learned them on land and later recalled them on land. There are several issues surrounding studies into memory and forgetting. One issue is the lack of validity as the studies often use artificial stimuli. This means the findings cannot be generalised because they are not like real life. Also the studies often had small samples and this makes the studies difficult to generalise to other people. In some studies only men were involved so that makes generalisation difficult.

context-dependent and state-dependent forms of forgetting. The point about the influence of mood is not properly developed though. There is some accurate descriptive detail of two studies (the divers study is better explained). Apart from a brief reference to retroactive interference at the end of the first study, there is very little ‘use of evidence’ which is an evaluation skill. Similarly, the evaluation points at the end are focused on the studies rather than the explanations and would receive very little evaluation credit.

This is another reasonable answer but less successful than Morticia’s. The evaluation has (315 words) really let Vladimir down.

Practice questions, answers and feedback • 69

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Multiple-Choice Questions Coding capacity duration 1. ‘Coding is acoustic, capacity is limited and duration is between about 18 and 30 seconds’. Which memory store is being described? (a) Sensory register. (b) Long-term memory. (c) Short-term memory. (d) Procedural memory. 2. The term coding refers to what? (a) The format in which information is stored in memory. (b) The length of time information is stored for in memory. (c) The amount of information that can be stored in memory at any one time. (d) The transfer of information from one memory store to another. 3. Which of these statements best describes LTM? (a) Memory store with limited capacity and acoustic coding. (b) Permanent memory store, with semantic coding. (c) Temporary memory store, with visual coding. (d) Memory store with semantic coding and limited capacity. 4. (a) (b) (c) (d)

Peterson and Peterson investigated: The capacity of STM. The duration of STM. The coding of STM. The duration of LTM.

The multi-store model of memory 1. Which of the following are features of the sensory register? (a) It has a capacity of seven items, plus or minus two. (b) Memories in the register can last up to a lifetime. (c) The capacity is very large. (d) Coding is semantic. 2. The multi-store model describes which of the following memory stores? (a) Short-term memory and long-term memory only. (b) Sensory register, long-term memory and shortterm memory. (c) Episodic memory, semantic memory and procedural memory. (d) Good memory and poor memory. 3. The process by which information is held in STM by repeating it over and over again’. What is being described here? (a) Retrieval. (b) Consolidation. (c) Elaborative rehearsal. (d) Maintenance rehearsal.

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4. The case of HM supports the multi-store model because he: (a) Had a poor LTM and a poor STM. (b) Had a good immediate memory span but could not remember whom he had spoken to just one hour earlier. (c) Could never learn a new skill or remember practising it. (d) Had a good STM span for digits but a poor one for letters.

Types of long-term memory 1. Which of the following are most likely to be stored in episodic long-term memory? (a) Memories for facts such as ‘Elizabeth Loftus is a psychologist’ . (b) Memories of events that have happened to us at various times, involving other people and places. (c) Our knowledge of what words mean. (d) Memories of our skilled actions, such as being able to play the guitar. 2. Cohen and Squire disagree with Tulving’s three types of LTM. So which of the following do they suggest instead? (a) Declarative memory and procedural memory. (b) Short-term memory and long-term memory. (c) Episodic memory and semantic memory. (d) Sensory memory and iconic memory. 3. ‘Time-stamped and needs to be consciously searched’ is a description of which type of longterm memory? (a) Very long-term memory (VLTM). (b) Procedural memory. (c) Episodic memory. (d) Semantic memory. 4. Which specific area of the brain is important in recalling both semantic and episodic memories? (a) The hippocampus. (b) The cerebral cortex. (c) The prefrontal cortex. (d) The amygdala.

Working memory model 1. ‘Brings together different types of information into a single memory’ is a description of which component of the working memory model? (a) Central executive. (b) Episodic buffer. (c) Phonological loop. (d) Visuo-spatial sketchpad. 2. The case study of KF supports the WMM because he had: (a) A poor STM but intact LTM. (b) Poor STM for verbal material but near-normal STM for visual information. (c) A near-normal STM but could not recall events from long ago. (d) No ability to learn new skills.

3. The phonological loop of working memory is divided into two elements. These are: (a) The central executive and long-term memory. (b) The phonological store and the articulatory process. (c) The visuo-spatial sketchpad and the episodic buffer. (d) Short-term memory and long-term memory. 4. Which component of the WMM links working memory with LTM? (a) Central executive. (b) Episodic buffer. (c) Phonological loop. (d) Visuo-spatial sketchpad.

Explanations for forgetting: Interference 1. Interference is an explanation for forgetting from which memory store? (a) Sensory register. (b) Iconic memory. (c) Echoic memory. (d) Long-term memory. 2. (a) (b) (c) (d)

Proactive interference occurs when: Newer memories cause forgetting of older ones. Memories fade over time. Older memories cause forgetting of newer ones. We don’t have the right information to trigger our memory.

3. Which of the following situations makes interference less likely? (a) When two instances of learning are similar. (b) When two instances of learning are meaningful. (c) When two instances of learning are different. (d) When the time between two instances of learning is short. 4. Which of the following is the best example of retroactive interference? (a) A student revises for her Spanish exam, then her French exam and has trouble recalling her Spanish. (b) A student revises for her Spanish exam, then her French exam and has trouble recalling her French. (c) You have a new mobile phone number but keep telling people your old one. (d) You accidentally call your new boyfriend or girlfriend by your old one’s name.

Explanations for forgetting: Retrieval failure 1. Retrieval failure occurs when: (a) Information disappears from memory and is no longer available. (b) Information was never encoded in long-term memory in the first place. (c) We don’t have the right cues to recall a memory. (d) We have a lot of relevant cues and we pay attention to them.

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4. Tulving’s encoding specificity principle states that forgetting is likely when: (a) A cue present when we learn something is also present when we try to retrieve it. (b) A cue present when we learn something is absent when we try to retrieve it. (c) Retrieving information happens very soon after we learn it. (d) Two sets of information are very different.

Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony: Misleading information 1. Which of the following statements is the best definition of eyewitness testimony? (a) Our ability to remember such things as facts and figures. (b) How people remember the details of events they have observed themselves, such as crimes and accidents. (c) Our memories for people’s names and faces. (d) Memories that last for weeks, months or even years. 2. Which of the following is the best example of a leading question? (a) Are you or are you not a Zombie, Mr. Jackman? (b) Why is it there’s never a Zombie around when you need one? (c) How many years have you been a Zombie for? (d) Do you think the Zombie Apocalypse has finally arrived?

4. The task in Loftus and Palmer’s study was artificial because it: (a) Lacked the emotional impact of a real-life accident. (b) Took place in a lab. (c) Is unethical to show film clips of accidents. (d) Resembled a real-life accident.

Factors affecting the accuracy of eyewitness testimony: Anxiety 1. (a) (b) (c) (d)

What did Johnson and Scott investigate? EWT for natural disasters. The inverted-U theory. The weapon focus effect. The Labyrinth of Horror.

2. The tunnel theory of the relationship between EWT and anxiety states that: (a) We are able to recall the details of many aspects of an event. (b) Our attention narrows to concentrate on one aspect of a situation. (c) A high level of anxiety is related to a high level of recall. (d) Most people experience anxiety when witnessing crimes and accidents.

Improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony: Cognitive interview 1. Two of the main techniques of the cognitive interview are: (a) Change perspective and reinstate the context. (b) Change perspective and change your opinion. (c) Report everything and use retrieval cues. (d) Reverse the order and answer the interviewer’s questions. 2. The enhanced cognitive interview uses the four techniques of the CI. It also: (a) Is a lot quicker. (b) Is more widely used. (c) Gets the witness to speak slowly. (d) Is nearly as effective as the CI. 3. Two of the main techniques of the CI are based on: (a) Tulving’s encoding specificity principle. (b) Miller’s research into the capacity of STM. (c) The multi-store model of memory. (d) Baddeley’s research into coding in memory. 4. A significant limitation of the CI is: (a) It is time-consuming for the police to use. (b) It is less effective than the standard police interview. (c) Some aspects of it are more useful than others. (d) It is not supported by the bulk of psychological research into how human memory works.

3. Real-life studies of anxiety and EWT have found that: (a) High levels of anxiety are associated with low levels of recall. (b) High levels of anxiety are associated with high levels of recall. (c) Anxiety and recall are not related. (d) The findings from lab studies are correct. 4. An advantage of Yuille and Cutshall’s study was: (a) It allowed a high degree of control over variables. (b) It overcame all possible ethical objections. (c) It investigated anxiety in real-life eyewitness situations. (d) The findings are easy to analyse.

MCQ answers

3. Godden and Baddeley found lower levels of recall when: (a) Learning and recall both took place underwater. (b) Learning and recall both took place on land. (c) Recall took place only a short time after learning. (d) Learning took place on land and recall took place underwater.

3. Which of the following sequences of verbs did Loftus and Palmer (1974) use in their study? (a) Contacted, pranged, hit, collided, smashed. (b) Touched, bumped, hit, collided, smashed. (c) Contacted, bumped, hit, collided, smashed. (d) Contacted, bumped, hit, walloped, smashed.

Coding capacity duration 1C, 2A, 3B, 4B Multi-store model 1C, 2B, 3D, 4B Types of LTM 1B, 2A, 3C, 4C Working memory model 1B, 2B, 3B, 4B Forgetting – interference 1D, 2C, 3C, 4A Forgetting – retrieval failure 1C, 2A, 3D, 4B EWT misleading information 1B, 2C, 3C, 4A EWT anxiety 1C, 2B, 3B, 4C EWT cognitive interview 1A, 2C, 3A, 4A

2. Being drunk when you learn something and when you recall it is an example of which kind of cue? (a) State-related. (b) Context-related. (c) Mood-related. (d) Memory-related.

Multiple-Choice Questions • 71

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Chapter 3 Attachment

From Etude Realiste by AC Swinburne       A baby’s eyes, ere speech begin,     Ere lips learn words or sighs,     Bless all things bright enough to win     A baby’s eyes.       Love, while the sweet thing laughs and lies,     And sleep flows out and in,     Sees perfect in them Paradise.       Their glance might cast out pain and sin,     Their speech make dumb the wise,     By mute glad godhead felt within     A baby’s eyes.

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Chapter contents 74 76 78 80 82 84 86 88 90 92

Introduction to attachment Schaffer’s stages of attachment Animal studies of attachment Explanations of attachment: Learning theory Explanations of attachment: Bowlby’s theory Ainsworth’s Strange Situation Cultural variations in attachment Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation Romanian orphan studies Influence of early attachment on later relationships

94 96 98 100

Practical corner Revision summaries Practice questions, answers and feedback Multiple-choice questions

Chapter 3 contents • 73

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Introduction to attachment The specification says …

Caregiver–infant interactions

Caregiver–infant interactions in humans: reciprocity and interactional synchrony.

From an early age babies have meaningful social interactions with their carers. It is believed that these interactions have important functions for the child’s social development, in particular for the development of caregiver–infant attachment.

The role of the father.

Reciprocity

Attachment begins with the interactions between infants and their caregivers. It is the responsiveness of the caregiver to the infant’s signals that has profound effects.

Key terms Reciprocity – A description of how two people interact. Mother–infant interaction is reciprocal in that both infant and mother respond to each other’s signals and each elicits a response from the other. Interactional synchrony – Mother and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated (synchronised) way.

What is an attachment? An attachment can be defined as a close two-way emotional bond between two individuals in which each individual sees the other as essential for their own emotional security. Attachment in humans takes a few months to develop. We can recognise an attachment when people display the following behaviours: • Proximity: people try to stay physically close to those to whom which they are attached. • Separation distress: people are distressed when an attachment figure leaves their presence. • Secure-base behaviour: even when we are independent of our attachment figures we tend to make regular contact with them. Infants display secure-based behaviour when they regularly return to their attachment figure while playing.

From birth babies and their mothers (or other carers) spend a lot of time in intense and pleasurable interaction. Babies have periodic ‘alert phases’ and signal that they are ready for interaction. Mothers typically pick up on and respond to infant alertness around two-thirds of the time (Feldman and Eidelman 2007). From around three months this interaction tends to be increasingly frequent and involves close attention to each other’s verbal signals and facial expressions (Feldman 2007). A key element of this interaction is reciprocity. An interaction is reciprocal when each person responds to the other and elicits a response from them. Traditional views of childhood have seen the baby in a passive role, receiving care from an adult. However, it seems that the baby takes an active role. Both mother and child can initiate interactions and they appear to take turns in doing so. Brazleton et al. (1975) described this interaction as a ‘dance’ because it is just like a couple’s dance where each partner responds to each other’s moves.

Interactional synchrony You might have watched the sport of synchronised swimming in which pairs of swimmers perform the same actions in unison. Two people are said to be ‘synchronised’ when they carry out the same action simultaneously. Interactional synchrony can be defined as ‘the temporal co-ordination of micro-level social behaviour’ (Feldman 2007, page 340). It takes place when mother and infant interact in such a way that their actions and emotions mirror the other. Meltzoff and Moore (1977) observed the beginnings of interactional synchrony in infants as young as two weeks old. An adult displayed one of three facial expressions or one of three distinctive gestures. The child’s response was filmed and identified by independent observers. An association was found between the expression or gesture the adult had displayed and the actions of the babies. It is believed that interactional synchrony is important for the development of mother– infant attachment. Isabella et al. (1989) observed 30 mothers and infants together and assessed the degree of synchrony. The researchers also assessed the quality of mother–infant attachment. They found that high levels of synchrony were associated with better quality mother–infant attachment (e.g. the emotional intensity of the relationship).

Attachment figures One of the important questions attachment research has to answer concerns who infants become attached to.

Parent–infant attachment Traditionally we have thought in terms of mother–infant attachment. Schaffer and Emerson (1964) found that the majority of babies did become attached to their mother first (around 7 months) and within a few weeks or months formed secondary attachments to other family members, including the father. In 75% of the infants studied an attachment was formed with the father by the age of 18 months. This was determined by the fact that the infants protested when their father walked away – a sign of attachment.

The role of the father

Fathers’ role in attachment may be around play rather than comfort.

So how important are fathers in children’s development and do they have a distinct role? Grossman (2002) carried out a longitudinal study looking at both parents’ behaviour and its relationship to the quality of children’s attachments into their teens. Quality of infant attachment with mothers but not fathers was related to children’s attachments in adolescence, suggesting that father attachment was less important. However, the quality of fathers’ play with infants was related to the quality of adolescent attachments. This suggests that fathers have a different role in attachment – one that is more to do with play and stimulation, and less to do with nurturing.

Fathers as primary carers

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There is some evidence to suggest that when fathers do take on the role of being the main caregiver they adopt behaviours more typical of mothers. Tiffany Field (1978) filmed 4-monthold babies in face-to-face interaction with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers. Primary caregiver fathers, like mothers, spent more time smiling, imitating and holding infants than the secondary caregiver fathers. This behaviour appears to be important in building an attachment with the infant. So it seems that fathers can be the more nurturing attachment figure. The key to the attachment relationship is the level of responsiveness not the gender of the parent.

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Practical activity on page 94

Evaluation

It is hard to know what is happening when observing infants Many studies involving observation of interactions between mothers and infants have shown the same patterns of interaction (Gratier 2003). However, what is being observed is merely hand movements or changes in expression. It is extremely difficult to be certain, based on these observations, what is taking place from the infant’s perspective. Is, for example, the infant’s imitation of adult signals conscious and deliberate? This means that we cannot really know for certain that behaviours seen in mother–infant interaction have a special meaning.

Controlled observations capture fine detail Observations of mother–infant interactions are generally well-controlled procedures, with both mother and infant being filmed, often from multiple angles. This ensures that very fine details of behaviour can be recorded and later analysed. Furthermore babies don’t know or care that they are being observed so their behaviour does not change in response to controlled observation – which is generally a problem for observational research. This is a strength of this line of research because it means the research has good validity.

Observations don’t tell us the purpose of synchrony and reciprocity Feldman (2012) points out that synchrony (and by implication reciprocity) simply describe behaviours that occur at the same time. These are robust phenomena in the sense that they can be reliably observed, but this may not be particularly useful as it does not tell us their purpose. However, there is some evidence that reciprocal interaction and synchrony are helpful in the development of mother–infant attachment, as well as helpful in stress responses, empathy, language and moral development.

Sports like diving and swimming can involve synchronisation. Interactional synchrony involves a bit more than just performing in unison – each partner is responding to the other’s cues.

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Methods: Observations Much of the research into caregiver–-infant interaction has been carried out by means of observation. For example, Field’s study (see facing page) is an observation comparing the behaviour of primary caregiver mothers, primary caregiver fathers and secondary caregiver fathers. Questions

1. The observations were videotaped. Explain why that would increase the validity of the study. (2 marks) (See page 9.)

Evaluation Inconsistent findings on fathers Research into the role of fathers in attachment is confusing because different researchers are interested in different research questions. On one hand, some psychologists are interested in understanding the role fathers have as secondary attachment figures whereas others are more concerned with the father as primary attachment figure. The former have tended to see fathers behaving differently from mothers and having a distinct role. The latter have tended to find that fathers can take on a ‘maternal’ role. This is a problem because it means psychologists cannot easily answer a simple question the layperson often asks: what is the role of the father?

If fathers have a distinct role why aren’t children without fathers different? The study by Grossman (facing page) found that fathers as secondary attachment figures had an important role in their children’s development. However, other studies (e.g. MacCallum and Golombok 2004) have found that children growing up in single or same-sex parent families do not develop any differently from those in two-parent heterosexual families. This would seem to suggest that the father’s role as a secondary attachment figure is not important.

Why don’t fathers generally become primary attachments? The fact that fathers tend not to become the primary attachment figure could simply be the result of traditional gender roles, in which women are expected to be more caring and nurturing than men. Therefore fathers simply don’t feel they should act like that. On the other hand, it could be that female hormones (such as oestrogen) create higher levels of nurturing and therefore women are biologically pre-disposed to be the primary attachment figure.

Evaluation eXtra Socially sensitive research: working mothers Research into mother–infant interaction is socially sensitive because it suggests that children may be disadvantaged by particular child-rearing practices. In particular, mothers who return to work shortly after a child is born restrict the opportunities for achieving

2. Explain how could the reliability of the observations could be checked. (2 marks) 3. What would be the benefit of conducting this research in a lab? (2 marks)

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Concepts: Cheering up Boris Research into the role of the father in attachment has allowed psychologists to advise parents about their children’s development. Boris is the father of a 9-month-old girl, Emily. Boris has noticed that recently when Emily is distressed she only accepts comfort from her mother. This upsets him and leaves him feeling unimportant as a parent. Question

Referring to research into the role of fathers, what could you tell Boris about his role in Emily’s developing attachments?

Check It interactional synchrony, which Isabella et al. (see facing page) showed to be important in the developing infant–caregiver attachment. This suggests that mothers should not return to work so soon and has socially sensitive implications. Consider: Should socially sensitive research be carried out? How potentially important is research into attachment and how should this be balanced against social sensitivity?

1. Explain what is meant by interactional synchrony. [2 marks] 2. Outline research into caregiver–infant interactions. [4 marks] 3. Outline the role of the father in attachment. [6 marks] 4. Describe and evaluate research into caregiver–infant interactions. [12 marks AS, 16 marks A4]

Introduction to attachment • 75

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Schaffer’s stages of attachment The specification says Stages of attachment as identified by Schaffer. Multiple attachments. Various theorists have identified stages in the development of attachments, but we are concerned with the study Schaffer and Emerson carried out in the 1960s in Glasgow, and the stages they identified.

Key terms

Key study: Schaffer and Emerson Rudolf Schaffer and Peggy Emerson (1964) aimed to investigate the formation of early attachments; in particular the age at which they developed, their emotional intensity and to whom they were directed.

Method The study involved 60 babies – 31 male, 29 female. All were from Glasgow and the majority were from skilled working-class families. The babies and their mothers were visited at home every month for the first year and again at 18 months. The researchers asked the mothers questions about the kind of protest their babies showed in seven everyday separations, e.g. adult leaving the room (a measure of separation anxiety). This was designed to measure the infant’s attachment. The researchers also assessed stranger anxiety – the infant’s anxiety response to unfamiliar adults.

Findings

Stages of attachment – Many developmental theories identify a sequence of qualitatively different behaviours linked to specific ages. In stages of attachment some characteristics of the infants’s behaviour towards others change as the infant gets older.

The data about attachments are shown in the table on the left. Between 25 and 32 weeks of age about 50% of the babies showed signs of separation anxiety towards a particular adult, usually the mother (this is called specific attachment). Attachment tended to be to the caregiver who was most interactive and sensitive to infant signals and facial expressions (i.e. reciprocity). This was not necessarily the person with whom the infant spent most time. By the age of 40 weeks 80% of the babies had a specific attachment and almost 30% displayed multiple attachments.

Multiple attachments – Attachments to two or more people. Most babies appear to develop multiple attachments once they have formed one true attachment to a main carer.

Stages of attachment

Age at at onset of specific attachments, of attachment-to-mother, and fear-of-strangers

Based on the information they gathered on developing attachments Schaffer and Emerson proposed that attachments develop in four stages.

Stage 1: Asocial stage (first few weeks)

Age in weeks

Specific attachments N

Attachment-to-mother N

Fear-of-strangers N

21–24

4

3

0

25–28

15

13

10

29–32

17

18

15

33–36

7

8

19

37–40

7

8

7

41–44

4

4

4

Stage 2: Indiscriminate attachment

45–48

3

3

2

49–52

1

1

0

From 2–7 months babies display more observable social behaviour. They show a preference for people rather than inanimate objects, and recognise and prefer familiar adults. At this stage babies usually accept cuddles and comfort from any adult, and they do not usually show separation anxiety or stranger anxiety. Their attachment behaviour is therefore said to be indiscriminate because it is not different towards any one person.

53–78

2

2

3

Total

60

60

60

Age of onset of first specific attachment. From Schaffer and Emerson (1964)

This is not really an asocial stage (even though Schaffer and Emerson used that term) as the baby is recognising and forming bonds with its carers. However, the baby’s behaviour towards nonhuman objects and humans is quite similar. Babies show some preference for familiar adults in that those individuals find it easier to calm them. Babies are also happier when in the presence of other humans.

Stage 3: Specific attachment From around 7 months the majority of babies start to display anxiety towards strangers and to become anxious when separated from one particular adult (the biological mother in 65% of cases). At this point the baby is said to have formed a specific attachment. This adult is termed the primary attachment figure. This person is not necessarily the person the child spends most time with but the one who offers the most interaction and responds to the baby’s ‘signals’ with the most skill.

Stage 4: Multiple attachments Shortly after babies start to show attachment behaviour towards one adult they usually extend this attachment behaviour to multiple attachments with other adults with whom they regularly spend time. These relationships are called secondary attachments. In Schaffer and Emerson’s study, 29% of the children had secondary attachments within a month of forming a primary (specific) attachment. By the age of about one year the majority of infants had developed multiple attachments.

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Methods: Observations

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Schaffer and Emerson used a mix of self-report and observation in their study. The observations took place in infants’ own homes – observers noted how the infants responded to their presence (stranger anxiety).

Questions

1. In what way is this study a naturalistic observation? (2 marks) (See page 180.) 2. In what way could this study be described as an overt observation? (2 marks) 3. In what way could this study be described as a participant observation? (2 marks) 4. Data on separation anxiety was collected from the mothers themselves. In what way may this have challenged the validity of the data collected? (2 marks) (See page 9.)

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Evaluation Good external validity Schaffer and Emerson’s study was carried out in the families’ own homes and most of the observation (other than stranger anxiety) was actually done by parents during ordinary activities and reported to researchers later. This means that the behaviour of the babies was unlikely to be affected by the presence of observers. There is an excellent chance that participants behaved naturally while being observed. We can therefore say the study has good external validity.

Babies and their carers behave more naturally when observed in their own homes.

Longitudinal design A strength of the study was that it was carried out longitudinally. This means that the same children were followed-up and observed regularly. The quicker alternative would have been to observe different children at each age. This is called a cross-sectional design. However, longitudinal designs have better internal validity than crosssectional designs because they do not have the confounding variable of individual differences between participants (participant variables).

Limited sample characteristics The sample size of 60 babies and their carers was good considering the large volume of data that was gathered on each participant. However, the fact that all the families involved were from the same district and social class in the same city and at a time over 50 years ago is a limitation. Child-rearing practices vary from one culture to another and one historical period to another. These results do not necessarily generalise well to other social and historical contexts.

Evaluation Problem studying the asocial stage Schaffer and Emerson describe the first few weeks of life as the ‘asocial’ stage, although important interactions take place in those weeks. The problem here is that babies that are young have poor co-ordination and are generally pretty much immobile. It is therefore very difficult to make any judgments about them based on observations of their behaviour. There just isn’t much observable behaviour! This does not mean the child’s feelings and cognitions are not highly social but the evidence cannot be relied on.

Conflicting evidence on multiple attachments Although there is no doubt that children become capable of multiple attachments at some point, it is still not entirely clear when. Some research seems to indicate that most if not all babies form attachments to a single main carer before they become capable of developing multiple attachments (Bowlby, 1969). Other psychologists, in particular those who work in those cultural contexts where multiple caregivers are the norm, believe babies form multiple attachments from the outset (van IJzendoorn et al. 1993). Such cultures are called collectivist because families work together jointly in everything – such as producing food and child rearing.

Measuring multiple attachment There may be a problem with how multiple attachment is assessed. Just because a baby gets distressed when an individual leaves the room does not necessarily mean that the individual is a ‘true’ attachment figure. Bowlby (1969) pointed out that children have playmates as well as attachment figures and may get distressed when a playmate leaves the room but this does not signify attachment. This is a problem for Schaffer and Emerson’s stages because their observation does not leave us a way to distinguish between behaviour shown towards secondary attachment figures and shown towards playmates.

Evaluation eXtra Schaffer and Emerson used limited behavioural measures of attachment Schaffer and Emerson were able to carry out a scientific study of attachment development because they used simple behaviours – stranger anxiety and separation anxiety – to define attachment. Some critics believe these are too crude as measures of attachment.

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Concepts: Tam’s separation anxiety Jock and Morag live with their son Tam and Morag’s mother, who looks after little Tam while Jock and Morag both work. Despite the fact that Morag works, she makes a special effort to sit and play with Tam when she gets home. When Tam got to the age of 7 months old he began to get quite upset when his parents left for work. His grandmother tried to distract him and give him lots of attention. Questions

1. Referring to Schaffer and Emerson’s stages of attachment, how would you explain to Jock and Morag why Tam’s behaviour has changed? 2. Based on Schaffer and Emerson’s stages, what could you advise them to expect from Tam’s attachment behaviour in the future?

STUDY TIPS • Note how, throughout this book, we have endeavoured to close each criticism with a summary sentence ‘This means that ..’ or ‘This shows that …’ It is important to make your critical point crystal clear.

Check It 1. Outline stages of development as identified by Schaffer. [4 marks] 2. Outline one criticism of Schaffer’s stages of attachment. [4 marks] 3. Explain what is meant by multiple attachments. [3 marks] 4. Evaluate research into multiple attachments. [4 marks] 5. Describe and evaluate Schaffer’s stages of attachment. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

Consider: To what extent is it a strength or a limitation that Schaffer and Emerson used simple behavioural measures of attachment?

Schaffer’s stages of attachment • 77

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Animal studies of attachment The specification says … Animal studies of attachment: Lorenz and Harlow. Animal studies have looked at the formation of early bonds between non-human parents and their offspring. This is of interest to psychologists because attachment-like behaviour is common to a range of species and so animal studies can help us understand attachment in humans.

Key termS Animal studies in psychology are studies carried out on non-human animal species rather than on humans, either for ethical or practical reasons – practical because animals breed faster and researchers are interested in seeing results across more than one generation of animals.

Lorenz’s research In the early 20th century a number of ethologists conducted animal studies of the relationships between infant animals and their mothers. Their observations informed psychologists’ understanding of mother–infant attachment in humans. One of the most prominent ethologists was Konrad Lorenz.

Imprinting Lorenz first observed the phenomenon of imprinting when he was a child and a neighbour gave him a newly hatched duckling that then followed him around. Procedure As an adult researcher Lorenz set up a classic experiment in which he randomly divided a clutch of goose eggs. Half the eggs were hatched with the mother goose in their natural environment. The other half hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz. Findings The incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere whereas the control group, hatched in the presence of their mother, followed her. When the two groups were mixed up the control group continued to follow the mother and the experimental group followed Lorenz. This phenomenon is called imprinting – whereby bird species that are mobile from birth (like geese and ducks) attach to and follow the first moving object they see. Lorenz identified a critical period in which imprinting needs to take place. Depending on the species this can be as brief as a few hours after hatching (or birth). If imprinting does not occur within that time Lorenz found that chicks did not attach themselves to a mother figure.

Sexual imprinting Lorenz also investigated the relationship between imprinting and adult mate preferences. He observed that birds that imprinted on a human would often later display courtship behaviour towards humans. In a case study Lorenz (1952) described a peacock that had been reared in the reptile house of a zoo where the first moving objects the peacock saw after hatching were giant tortoises. As an adult this bird would only direct courtship behaviour towards giant tortoises. Lorenz concluded that this meant he had undergone sexual imprinting.

Harlow’s research Konrad Lorenz with his imprinted geese.

Harry Harlow carried out perhaps the most important animal research in terms of informing our understanding of attachment. Harlow worked with rhesus monkeys, which are much more similar to humans than Lorenz’s birds.

The importance of contact comfort

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Concepts: Poppy’s rescue Spike is a zookeeper who specialises in the care of monkeys. He has just been asked by the police to take charge of a 45-day-old orphan monkey called Poppy who was rescued from a home where she was kept alone in a cage with a soft towel. When Spike first meets the baby monkey, Poppy clings to the towel and screams in fear when she sees she is in a new environment. The police ask Spike what would have been the effect on Poppy had she not been rescued and what sort of future she can look forward to at the zoo. Questions

1. Based on Harlow’s research how would Poppy’s social development have probably turned out if she had not been rescued? 2. Referring to Harlow’s research, suggest how Spike should proceed with Poppy. How good are her chances of healthy development?

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Attachment

Harlow observed that newborns kept alone in a bare cage usually died but that they usually survived if given something soft like a cloth to cuddle. Procedure Harlow (1958) tested the idea that a soft object serves some of the functions of a mother. In one experiment he reared 16 baby monkeys with two wire model ‘mothers’ (see picture on facing page). In one condition milk was dispensed by the plain wire mother whereas in a second condition the milk was dispensed by the cloth-covered mother. Findings It was found that the baby monkeys cuddled the soft object in preference to the wire one and sought comfort from the cloth one when frightened regardless of which dispensed milk. This showed that ‘contact comfort’ was of more importance to the monkeys than food when it came to attachment behaviour.

Maternally deprived monkeys as adults Harlow and colleagues also followed the monkeys who had been deprived of a ‘real’ mother into adulthood to see if this early maternal deprivation had a permanent effect. The researchers found severe consequences. The monkeys reared with wire mothers only were the most dysfunctional; however, even those reared with a soft toy as a substitute did not develop normal social behaviour. They were more aggressive and less sociable than other monkeys and they bred less often than is typical for monkeys, being unskilled at mating. As mothers some of the deprived monkeys neglected their young and others attacked their children, even killing them in some cases.

The critical period for normal development Like Lorenz, Harlow concluded that there was a critical period for this behaviour – a mother figure had to be introduced to an infant monkey within 90 days for an attachment to form. After this time attachment was impossible and the damage done by early deprivation became irreversible.

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Concepts: Farming

Farmers have long been aware of the idea of imprinting. One common practice to ensure the survival of orphan lambs is to take the fleece from another lamb that died and wrap this around the orphan lamb. This means that the mother, whose infant lamb had died, will now look after the orphan who is motherless and no doubt would otherwise die. Question

How can you use the concept of imprinting to explain this?

Evaluation Generalisability to humans Lorenz was interested in imprinting in birds. Although some of his findings have influenced our understanding of human development, there is a problem in generalising from findings on birds to humans. It seems that the mammalian attachment system is quite different from that in birds. For example, mammalian mothers show more emotional attachment to young than do birds, and mammals may be able to form attachments at any time, albeit less easily than in infancy. This means that it is not appropriate to try to generalise any of Lorenz’s ideas to humans.

Wire mothers used in Harlow’s study.

Some of Lorenz’s observations have been questioned

Evaluation Theoretical value Harlow’s findings have had a profound effect on psychologists’ understanding of human mother–infant attachment. Most importantly Harlow showed that attachment does not develop as the result of being fed by a mother figure but as a result of contact comfort. Harlow also showed us the importance of the quality of early relationships for later social development including the ability to hold down adult relationships and successfully rear children.

Practical value The insight into attachment from Harlow’s research has had important applications in a range of practical contexts. For example, it has helped social workers understand risk factors in child neglect and abuse and so intervene to prevent it (Howe 1998). Of course these findings are also important in the care of captive monkeys; we now understand the importance of proper attachment figures for baby monkeys in zoos and also in breeding programmes in the wild.

Ethical issues Harlow faced severe criticism for the ethics of his research. The monkeys suffered greatly as a result of Harlow’s procedures. This species is considered similar enough to humans to be able to generalise the findings, which also means that their suffering was presumably quite human-like. Harlow himself was well aware of the suffering he caused – Harlow referred to the wire mothers as ‘iron maidens’ after a medieval torture device. The counter-argument is that Harlow’s research was sufficiently important to justify the effects.

Evaluation eXtra

Can Harlow’s findings really be applied to humans? Although monkeys are clearly much more similar to humans than Lorenz’s geese, they are not human. Psychologists disagree on the extent to which studies of non-human primates can be generalised to humans. Consider: How similar are monkeys to humans? What are the main arguments for and against applying attachment research carried out on monkeys to humans?

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Methods: Deprivation damages brains Follow-up studies have replicated Harlow’s findings and, in addition, have autopsied the deprived monkeys to see whether their deprivation has physically affected their developing brains. A researcher is interested in levels of two brain chemicals (serotonin and oxytocin) in the monkey brains. She measures the levels of each chemical extracted from the brains of euthanised deprived and control monkeys. Questions

1. State the aim of this study. (2 marks) (See page 166.) 2. Write a non-directional hypothesis for this study. (2 marks) (See page 166.) 3. Explain the difference between an aim and a hypothesis. (2 marks)

STUDY TIPS

Later researchers have questioned some of Lorenz’s conclusions. Take, for example, the idea that imprinting has a permanent effect on mating behaviour. Guiton et al. (1966) found that chickens imprinted on yellow washing up gloves would try to mate with them as adults (as Lorenz would have predicted), but that with experience they eventually learned to prefer mating with other chickens. This suggests that the impact of imprinting on mating behaviour is not as permanent as Lorenz believed.

• You may be asked about Harlow’s animal research, Lorenz’s animal research, both Harlow and Lorenz or animal research into attachment in general. Make sure you are clear about what you will say in response. Don’t make a knee-jerk response when you see the words ‘animal study’ writing about the first animal study that comes to mind.

Check It 1. Outline Lorenz’s animal studies of attachment. In your answer refer to what he did and what he found. [4 marks] 2. Describe one study by Harlow related to attachment. [4 marks] 3. Briefly evaluate Harlow’s animal studies. [4 marks] 4. Describe and evaluate animal studies of attachment. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

Animal studies of attachment • 79

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Explanations of attachment: Learning theory The specification says … Explanations of attachment: learning theory. Psychologists seek to explain behaviour. One popular explanation for attachment in the 1950s was learning theory – the view that attachments develop through classical and/or operant conditioning (described on page 106).

Learning theory and attachment Learning theorists John Dollard and Neal Miller (1950) proposed that caregiver–infant attachment can be explained by learning theory. Their approach is sometimes called a ‘cupboard love’ approach because it emphasises the importance of the caregiver as a provider of food. Put simply they proposed that children learn to love whoever feeds them!

Classical conditioning

Learning theory – A set of theories from the behaviourist approach to psychology, that emphasise the role of learning in the acquisition of behaviour. Explanations for learning of behaviour include classical and operant conditioning.

Classical conditioning involves learning to associate two stimuli together so that we begin to respond to one in the same way as we already respond to the other. In the case of attachment, food serves as an unconditioned stimulus. Being fed gives us pleasure – we don’t have to learn that, it is an unconditioned response. A caregiver starts as a neutral stimulus, i.e. a thing that produces a neutral response. When the same person provides the food over time they become associated with ‘food’ – when the baby sees this person there is an immediate expectation of food. The neutral stimulus has become a conditioned stimulus. Once conditioning has taken place the sight of the caregiver produces a conditioned response of pleasure. To a learning theorist this is love!

Classical conditioning of attachment

Operant conditioning

Key terms

Unconditioned stimulus > Unconditioned response Food Pleasure Neutral stimulus Mother

> No response

Unconditioned + neutral stimuli > Unconditioned response Food + Mother Pleasure Conditioned stimulus -> Conditioned response Mother Pleasure

Baby food – is that really all there is to love?

Operant conditioning involves learning to repeat behaviour, or not, depending on its consequences. If a behaviour produces a pleasant consequence, that behaviour is likely to be repeated again. The behaviour has been reinforced. If a behaviour produces an unpleasant consequence it is less likely to be repeated. Operant conditioning can explain why babies cry for comfort – an important behaviour in building attachment. Crying leads to a response from the caregiver, for example feeding. As long as the caregiver provides the correct response, crying is reinforced. The baby then directs crying for comfort towards the caregiver who responds with comforting ‘social suppressor’ behaviour. This reinforcement is a two-way process. At the same time as the baby is reinforced for crying, the caregiver receives negative reinforcement because the crying stops – escaping from something unpleasant is reinforcing. This interplay of mutual reinforcement strengthens an attachment.

Attachment as a secondary drive As well as conditioning, learning theory draws on the concept of drive reduction. Hunger can be thought of as a primary drive – it’s an innate, biological motivator. We are motivated to eat in order to reduce the hunger drive. Sears et al. (1957) suggested that, as caregivers provide food, the primary drive of hunger becomes generalised to them. Attachment is thus a secondary drive learned by an association between the caregiver and the satisfaction of a primary drive.

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Methods: Sampling

A team of attachment researchers is interested in whether feeding influences attachment. The team believe that mothers and babies who have difficulty breastfeeding are less likely to develop good quality attachments. They ask for volunteers from a hospital where mothers who struggle with breastfeeding attend feeding support groups. At one year from birth these mother–baby pairs and a control group are assessed for attachment.

Concepts: Cheska’s choice Cheska is a baby. Her family is very well off and her mother has enlisted the help of a nanny to help with practical care. Cheska is bottle-fed and most of her feeds are administered by the nanny. Cheska’s mother works part-time so Cheska spends approximately the same number of hours a week with her mother as she does with her nanny. The nanny is mostly interested in practical care whereas when Cheska’s mother is with her she plays with her and spends a lot of time cuddling.

Questions

1. Explain what is meant by a volunteer sample. (2 marks) (See page 174.) 2. Identify two strengths of using a volunteer sample in this study. (2 marks) 3. Explain one limitation of volunteer sampling. (2 marks) 4. A better (more representative) sample could be obtained by random sampling. Explain how the researchers in the above study might obtain a random sample. (4 marks)

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Questions

1. Cheska’s mother is concerned that she will get more attached to her nanny because she usually feeds her. Based on your understanding of learning theory should she be worried? 2. Now read the criticisms of the learning theory account of attachment. How would you explain to Cheska’s mother that she might not need to worry? Refer to psychological evidence.

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Evaluation

Methods: Ethical issues in infant research

Counter-evidence from animal research

Psychologists are concerned with ethical issues in their research. Sometimes the obvious way to gather data raises really serious issues.

A range of animal studies has shown that actually young animals do not necessarily attach to (or imprint on) those who feed them. On page 78 we reviewed animal studies of attachment. Lorenz’s geese imprinted before they were fed and maintained these attachments regardless of who fed them. Harlow’s monkeys attached to a soft surrogate in preference to a wire one that dispensed milk. In both these animal studies it is clear that attachment does not develop as a result of feeding. The same must be true for humans, i.e. that food does not create the attachment bond – after all, learning theorists themselves believed that non-human animals and humans were equivalent.

A group of psychologists are interested in which is more important when it comes to forming attachments with adults – feeding or cuddling babies. The psychologists come up with the following experimental design: they will ask the parent who does most of the feeding to stop cuddling their baby. They will ask the other parent to do no feeding but provide comfort and cuddles. A year later the researchers will assess how strongly attached the infant is to each parent.

Counter-evidence from human research Research with human infants also shows that feeding does not appear to be an important factor in humans. For example, in Schaffer and Emerson’s study (page 78) many of the babies developed a primary attachment to their biological mother even though other carers did most of the feeding. These findings are a problem for learning theory as they show that feeding is not the key element to attachment and so there is no unconditioned stimulus or primary drive involved.

Questions

1. Referring to the British Psychological Society’s code of ethics, explain two reasons why this experiment would be ethically unacceptable. (4 marks) (See page 177.) 2. Explain one way in which psychologists deal with ethical issues in their research. (4 marks)

Learning theory ignores other factors associated with forming attachments Research into early infant–caregiver interaction suggests that the quality of attachment is associated with factors like developing reciprocity and good levels of interactional synchrony (e.g. Isabella et al. 1989 – see page 74). In addition, studies have shown that the best quality attachments are with sensitive carers that pick up infant signals and respond appropriately. It is very hard to reconcile these findings with the idea of cupboard love. If attachment developed purely or primarily as a result of feeding, there would be no purpose for these complex interactions and we would not expect to find relationships between them and the quality of infant–caregiver attachment.

A grandmother that regularly cares for a baby may become the baby’s primary attachment figure – but not because she fed the baby.

Evaluation eXtra It seems fairly certain that, taken as a whole, learning theory is not a good explanation for infant– caregiver attachment. However, we do believe that many aspects of human development are affected by conditioning. The problem with learning theory as an explanation for attachment is mostly the idea that feeding provides the unconditioned stimulus, reinforcement or primary drive. It is still credible that association (classical conditioning) between the primary caregiver and the provision of comfort and social interaction is part of what builds the attachment. Consider: Is there still a point in considering learning mechanisms in relation to attachment given that the link with feeding is discredited?

A newer learning theory explanation Dale Hay and Jo Vespo (1988) have proposed a newer explanation for infant–caregiver attachment based on social learning theory. Social learning theory is based on the idea that social behaviour is acquired largely as a result of modelling and imitation of behaviour. Hay and Vespo suggest that parents teach children to love them by modelling attachment behaviour, e.g. by hugging them and other family members, and instructing and rewarding them with approval when they display attachment behaviour of their own; ‘that’s a lovely smile/hug’, etc. Consider: To what extent does a social learning explanation for attachment get around the problems of early learning theory explanations, and thus provide a valid explanation for attachment?

STUDY TIPS

Some elements of conditioning could still be involved

• If you are writing about learning theory as an explanation for attachment, remember that there is no point in giving general information on conditioning. It absolutely has to be applied to explaining the development of infant–caregiver attachment. • If there is no mention of attachment, it is not a good answer.

Check It 1. Outline the learning theory explanation of attachment. [4 marks] 2. Outline two criticisms of learning theory as an explanation of attachment. [2 marks + 2 marks] 3. Describe and evaluate learning theory as an explanation of attachment. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

Explanations of attachment: Learning theory • 81

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Explanations of attachment: Bowlby’s theory The specification says … Explanations of attachment: Bowlby’s monotropic theory. The concepts of a critical period and an internal working model. The specification identifies a second explanation for the formation of attachment – Bowlby’s theory, which has become the dominant theory of attachment in psychology.

Bowlby’s monotropic theory John Bowlby rejected learning theory as an explanation for attachment because, as he said, ‘were it true, an infant of a year or two should take readily to whomever feeds him and this is clearly not the case’ (1988: p23). Instead Bowlby looked at the work of Lorenz and Harlow for ideas and proposed an evolutionary explanation: that attachment was an innate system that gave a survival advantage. Imprinting and attachment evolved because they ensure that young animals stay close to their caregivers and this protects them from hazards. Millions of years ago this might have been wild animals, today it is traffic and electricity.

Monotropy

Key terms Monotropic – A term sometimes used to describe Bowlby’s theory. The mono means ‘one’ and indicates that one particular attachment is different from all others and of central importance to the child’s development. Internal working models – The mental representations we all carry with us of our attachment to our primary caregiver. They are important in affecting our future relationships because they carry our perception of what relationships are like. Critical period – This refers to the time within which an attachment must form if it is to form at all. Lorenz and Harlow noted that attachment in birds and monkeys had critical periods. Bowlby extended the idea to humans, proposing that human infants have a sensitive period after which it will be much more difficult to form an attachment.

Babies’ smiles elicit instinctive attachment behaviours from adults.

Bowlby’s theory (1958, 1969) is described as monotropic because he placed great emphasis on a child’s attachment to one particular caregiver (hence the word mono), and he believed that the child’s attachment to this one caregiver is different and more important than others. Bowlby called this person the ‘mother’ but was clear that it need not be the biological mother. Bowlby believed that the more time a baby spent with this mother-figure – or primary attachment figure as we usually call them now – the better. He put forward two principles to clarify this: • The law of continuity stated that the more constant and predictable a child’s care, the better the quality of their attachment. • The law of accumulated separation stated that the effects of every separation from the mother add up ‘and the safest dose is therefore a zero dose’ (1975: page 255).

Social releasers and the critical period Bowlby suggested that babies are born with a set of innate ‘cute’ behaviours like smiling, cooing and gripping that encourage attention from adults. He called these social releasers because their purpose is to activate the adult attachment system, i.e. make an adult feel love towards the baby. Bowlby recognised that attachment was a reciprocal process. Both mother and baby have an innate predisposition to become attached and social releasers trigger that response in caregivers. The interplay between infant and adult attachment systems gradually builds the relationship between infant and caregiver, beginning in the early weeks of life (as we discussed on page 88). Bowlby proposed that there is a critical period around two years when the infant attachment system is active. In fact Bowlby viewed this as more of a sensitive period. A child is maximally sensitive at the age of two but, if an attachment is not formed in this time, a child will find it much harder to form one later.

Internal working model Bowlby proposed that a child forms a mental representation of their relationship with their primary caregiver. This is called an internal working model because it serves as a model for what relationships are like. It therefore has a powerful effect on the nature of the child’s future relationships. A child whose first experience is of a loving relationship with a reliable caregiver will tend to form an expectation that all relationships are as loving and reliable, and they will bring these qualities to future relationships. However, a child whose first relationship involves poor treatment will tend to form further poor relationships in which they expect such treatment from others or treat others in that way. Most importantly the internal working model affects the child’s later ability to be a parent themselves. People tend to base their parenting behaviour on their own experiences of being parented. This explains why children from functional families tend to have similar families themselves.

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Methods: Meta-analysis Bailey et al. (see facing page) looked at how consistent attachment quality was in three generations of families. Van IJzendoorn (1995) carried out a meta-analysis of the results of 18 similar studies covering a total of 854 parents. Results strongly supported the idea that wellattached parents tended to have children also with good attachments. This in turn means that attachment quality was being transmitted from one generation to the next.

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Questions

1. Explain what is meant by meta-analysis. (2 marks) (See page 191.) 2. Explain the difference between a meta-analysis and a review. (2 marks) 3. Explain one strength of meta-analysis as a research method. (2 marks) 4. Explain how this research supports the internal working model. (3 marks)

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Concepts: Millie and Mark

Bowlby identified a critical period after which human children cannot easily form a secure attachment. Mark and Millie are considering adopting a child. They have made contact with a potential adoptee with a troubled past. The boy, Hugo, is now four years old. For his first two years Hugo lived with an abusive family and never formed a proper attachment. Question

Based on your understanding of the ideas of the critical period, what advice might you give Mark and Millie?

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There is support for internal working models. This mother is likely to have a similar quality of attachment to her mother and her daughter.

Evaluation Mixed evidence for monotropy Bowlby believed that babies generally formed one attachment to their primary caregiver, and that this attachment was special, in some way different from later attachments. Only after this attachment was established could a child form multiple attachments. This is not supported by Schaffer and Emerson (1964). As we have reported (page 76) they found most babies did attach to one person first. However, they also found that a significant minority appeared able to form multiple attachments at the same time. It is also unclear whether there is something unique about the first attachment. Studies of attachment to mother and father tend to show that attachment to the mother is more important in predicting later behaviour (e.g. Suess et al. 1992). However, this could simply mean that attachment to the primary attachment figure is just stronger than other attachments, not necessarily that it is different in quality. The jury is still out on monotropy.

Support for social releasers There is clear evidence to show that cute infant behaviours are intended to initiate social interaction and that doing so is important to the baby. Brazleton et al. (1975) observed mothers and babies during their interactions, reporting the existence of interactional synchrony. They then extended the study from an observation to an experiment. Primary attachment figures were instructed to ignore their babies’ signals – in Bowlby’s terms, to ignore their social releasers. The babies initially showed some distress but, when the attachment figures continued to ignore the baby, some responded by curling up and lying motionless. The fact that the children responded so strongly supports Bowlby’s ideas about the significance of infant social behaviour in eliciting caregiving.

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Concepts: Psychology teachers John and Mary are both teachers of psychology (you may know them). Much to the amusement of their students they recently married and had a baby. They see this as a great opportunity to use their knowledge of child development in bringing up their own child, Ian.

Support for internal working models The idea of internal working models is testable because it predicts that patterns of attachment will be passed on from one generation to the next. Bailey et al. (2007) tested this idea. They assessed 99 mothers with one-year-old babies on the quality of their attachment to their own mothers using a standard interview procedure. The researchers also assessed the attachment of the babies to the mothers by observation. It was found that the mothers who reported poor attachments to their own parents in the interviews were much more likely to have children classified as poor according to the observations. This supports the idea that, as Bowlby said, an internal working model of attachment was being passed through the families.

One day Mary walks in to find Ian attempting without success to catch John’s eye and initiate interaction while John watches television, ignoring his infant son. Mary is furious. ‘Remember what happened in the Brazleton study!’ she says. Question

Evaluation eXtra Temperament may be as important as attachment

Monotropy is a controversial idea because it has major implications for the lifestyle choices mothers make when their children are young. The law of accumulated separation states that having substantial time apart from a primary attachment figure risks a poor quality attachment that will disadvantage the child in a range of ways later. Feminists like Erica Burman (1994) have pointed out that this places a terrible burden of responsibility on mothers, setting them up to take the blame for anything that goes wrong in the rest of the child’s life. It also pushes mothers into particular lifestyle choices like not returning to work when a child is born. This was not Bowlby’s intention – he saw himself as boosting the status of mothers by emphasising the importance of their role.

Bowlby’s approach emphasises the role of attachment in the child’s developing social behaviour. However, a different tradition of child development emphasised the role of temperament in the development of social behaviour. Temperament is the child’s genetically influenced personality. For example, temperament researchers suggest that some babies are more anxious than others and some more sociable than others as a result of their genetic makeup (Kagan 1982). These temperamental differences explain later social behaviour rather than attachment experiences. Temperament researchers often accuse Bowlby of over-emphasising the importance of a child’s early experiences and the quality of their attachment.

Consider: To what extent is monotropy a useful idea and to what extent has it caused problems for mothers? Is it a limitation of Bowlby’s theory?

Consider: To what extent is the existence of temperament a problem for Bowlby’s approach?

STUDY TIPS

Monotropy is a socially sensitive idea

With reference to Bowlby’s idea of social releasers and the Brazleton et al. study (see left), explain what Mary is getting at.

• You may hear about the implications of Bowlby’s ideas for working mothers. You can use this as a criticism, but make sure you explain what the issue is. By all means get cross but be clear why and what your point is. Rants don’t tend to score highly in reasoned, evidenced arguments!

Check It 1. Outline Bowlby’s theory of attachment. Include reference to the critical period and internal working models. [6 marks] 2. Explain what is meant by a monotropic theory. [2 marks] 3. Outline two criticisms of Bowlby’s theory of attachment. [2 marks + 2 marks] 4. Describe and evaluate Bowlby’s monotropic theory of attachment. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

Explanations of attachment: Bowlby’s theory • 83

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Ainsworth’s Strange Situation The specification says … Ainsworth’s ‘Strange Situation’. Types of attachment: secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant. Ainsworth worked with Bowlby on the development of attachment theory. Her particular contribution was to produce a method, still used today, to assess the strength of attachment between an infant and others. This method of assessment is called the Strange Situation.

Key terms Strange Situation – A controlled observation designed to test attachment security. Infants are assessed on their response to playing in an unfamiliar room, being left alone, left with a stranger and being reunited with a caregiver. Secure attachment – Generally thought of as the most desirable attachment type, associated with psychologically healthy outcomes. In the Strange Situation this is shown by moderate stranger and separation anxiety and ease of comfort at reunion. Insecure-avoidant attachment – An attachment type characterised by low anxiety but weak attachment. In the Strange Situation this is shown by low stranger and separation anxiety and little response to reunion – an avoidance of the caregiver. Insecure-resistant attachment – An attachment type characterised by strong attachment and high anxiety. In the Strange Situation this is shown by high levels of stranger and separation anxiety and by resistance to be comforted at reunion.

The Strange Situation The Strange Situation was developed by Mary Ainsworth (1969). The aim was to be able to observe key attachment behaviours as a means of assessing the quality of a child’s attachment to a caregiver.

Procedure The Strange Situation is a controlled observation procedure designed to measure the security of attachment a child displays towards a caregiver. It takes place in a room with quite controlled conditions (i.e. a laboratory) with a two-way mirror through which psychologists can observe the infant’s behaviour. The behaviours used to judge attachment included: • Proximity seeking: an infant with a good attachment will stay fairly close to the caregiver. • Exploration and secure-base behaviour: good attachment enables a child to feel confident to explore, using their caregiver as a secure base, i.e. a point of contact that will make them feel safe. • Stranger anxiety: one of the signs of becoming closely attached is a display of anxiety when a stranger approaches. • Separation anxiety: another sign of becoming attached is to protest at separation from the caregiver. • Response to reunion with the caregiver after separation for a short period of time under controlled conditions. The procedure has seven episodes, each of which last three minutes. Beginning: Child and caregiver enter an unfamiliar playroom. 1. The child is encouraged to explore.

Tests exploration and secure base.

2. A stranger comes in and tries to interact with the child.

Tests stranger anxiety.

3. The caregiver leaves the child and stranger together.

Tests separation and stranger anxiety.

4. The caregiver returns and the stranger leaves.

Tests reunion behaviour and exploration/ secure base.

5. The caregiver leaves the child alone.

Tests separation anxiety.

6. The stranger returns.

Tests stranger anxiety.

7. The caregiver returns and is reunited with the child.

Tests reunion behaviour.

Findings Ainsworth et al. (1978) found that there were distinct patterns in the way that infants behaved. She identified three main types of attachment: • Secure attachment (Type B). These children explore happily but regularly go back to their caregiver (proximity seeking and secure base behaviour). They usually show moderate separation distress and moderate stranger anxiety. Securely attached children require and accept comfort from the caregiver in the reunion stage. About 60–75% of British toddlers are classified as secure. • Insecure-avoidant attachment (Type A). These children explore freely but do not seek proximity or show secure base behaviour. They show little or no reaction when their caregiver leaves and they make little effort to make contact when the caregiver returns. They also show little stranger anxiety. They do not require comfort at the reunion stage. About 20–25% of toddlers are classified as insecure-avoidant. • Insecure-resistant attachment (Type C). These children seek greater proximity than others and so explore less. They show huge stranger and separation distress but they resist comfort when reunited with their carer. Around 3% of British toddlers are classified as insecure-resistant.

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Concepts: What’s the difference?

Like you, Rosie is studying Psychology and has just learned about the Strange Situation. She is quite confused about the different types of attachment and can’t remember what behaviours go with each type. So she creates the table on the right. Fill in her table using words like ‘high’ or ‘low’, ‘strong’, etc.

Secure Proximity-seeking Exploration/secure-base Stranger anxiety Separation anxiety Response on reunion

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Insecureavoidant

Insecureresistant

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Practical activity on page 95

Evaluation Support for validity Attachment type as defined by the Strange Situation is strongly predictive of later development. Babies assessed as secure typically go on to have better outcomes in many areas, ranging from success at school to romantic relationships and friendships in adulthood. Insecureresistant attachment is associated with the worst outcomes including bullying in later childhood (Kokkinos 2007) and adult mental health problems (Ward et al. 2006). This is evidence for the validity of the concept because it can explain subsequent outcomes.

Good reliability The Strange Situation shows very good inter-rater reliability. In other words different observers watching the same children in the Strange Situation generally agree on what attachment type to classify them with. This may be because the Strange Situation takes place under controlled conditions and because the behavioural categories are easy to observe. In a recent study Bick et al. (2012) looked at inter-rater reliability in a team of trained Strange Situation observers and found agreement on attachment type for 94% of tested babies. This means we can be confident that the attachment type of an infant identified in the Strange Situation does not just depend on who is observing them.

The test may be culture-bound There is some doubt about whether the Strange Situation is a culturebound test, i.e. it does not have the same meaning in countries outside Western Europe and USA. This is for two reasons. First, cultural differences in childhood experiences are likely to mean that children respond differently to the Strange Situation. Second, caregivers from different cultures behave differently in the Strange Situation. For example Takahashi (1990) has noted that the test does not really work in Japan because Japanese mothers are so rarely separated from their babies that, as we would expect, there are very high levels of separation anxiety. Also in the reunion stage Japanese mothers rushed to the baby and scooped them up, meaning the child’s response was hard to observe.

Evaluation eXtra What does the Strange Situation measure?

There is at least one more attachment type

The Strange Situation measures a child’s responses to the anxiety produced by being in an unfamiliar environment. That is not in doubt. However, what is more controversial is whether the main influence on this anxiety is attachment, as Ainsworth assumed. Jerome Kagan (1982) has suggested that in fact temperament, the genetically influenced personality of the child, is a more important influence on behaviour in the Strange Situation than attachment. It means that temperament may be a confounding variable.

Ainsworth conceived of three attachment types: insecureavoidant, secure and insecureresistant. However Main and Solomon (1986) pointed out that a minority of children display atypical attachments that do not fall within types A, B or C behaviour. This atypical attachment is commonly known as disorganised attachment. Disorganised children display an odd mix of resistant and avoidant behaviours.

Consider: Explain how this challenges the validity of the Strange Situation.

Consider: How does the existence of a disorganised attachment type challenge Ainsworth’s notion of attachment types?

Attachment type in infancy, as defined by the Strange Situation, predicts social behaviour like bullying in later childhood.

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Methods: Sampling

The Strange Situation is a controlled observation procedure. It takes just over 20 minutes and involves time sampling – every 15 seconds observers noted what behaviours were being displayed. The alternative to time sampling is event sampling. The Strange Situation involves non-participant observation. The alternative is participant observation in which observers infiltrate the situation being observed and take part in the observed activity. Questions

1. Explain one advantage of time sampling over event sampling. (2 marks) (See page 182.) 2. Explain why non-participant observation is appropriate for the Strange Situation. (2 marks) (See page 180.)

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Concepts: James’s first visit to his childminder James is a one-year-old boy whose parents are both psychologists. They have decided to send James to a childminder so that his mother, Ruth, can return to work part-time. The first time James meets the childminder Ruth introduces them and encourages James to play in the playroom. James explores a little but regularly visits Ruth. Ruth then leaves the room for a few minutes. James is upset when Ruth leaves and is wary of the childminder but he is overjoyed when Ruth comes back in and accepts comfort readily from her. When James’s father calls later to ask how the visit went Ruth says ‘Great. He’s securely attached!’ Question

Based on your understanding of attachment types, explain what Ruth meant by this and why she judged James to have a secure attachment.

Check It 1. Describe how Ainsworth studied types of attachment. [6 marks] 2. Outline what is meant by a secure attachment. [3 marks] 3. Explain the difference between secure and insecure attachment. [3 marks] 4. Describe and evaluate the Strange Situation. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

Ainsworth’s Strange Situation • 85

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Cultural variations in attachment Studies of cultural variations

The specification says …

Key study: van IJzendoorn

Cultural variations in attachment including van IJzendoorn. Child-rearing styles vary across different cultures. The question is how these might impact on the proportions of different attachment types in different countries. It might be that attachment types are the same across the world or they might be different. We look in detail at the classic meta-analysis of cultural differences by van IJzendoorn.

Key term Cultural variations – ‘Culture’ refers to the norms and values that exist within any group of people. Cultural variations then are the differences in norms and values that exist between people in different groups. In attachment research we are concerned with the differences in the proportion of children of different attachment types.

Marinus van IJzendoorn and Pieter Kroonenberg (1988) conducted a study to look at the proportions of secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant attachments across a range of countries. They also looked at the differences within the same countries to get an idea of variations within a culture. Procedures The researchers located 32 studies of attachment where the Strange Situation had been used to investigate the proportions of infants with different attachment types. These 32 studies were conducted in eight countries; 15 were in the USA. Overall the 32 studies yielded results for 1,990 children. The data for these 32 studies were meta-analysed, results being combined and weighted for sample size. Findings The findings are shown in the graph below left. There was wide variation between the proportions of attachment types in different studies. In all countries secure attachment was the most common classification. However the proportion varied from 75% in Britain to 50% in China. Insecure-resistant was overall the least common type although the proportions ranged from 3% in Britain to around 30% in Israel. Insecure-avoidant attachments were observed most commonly in Germany and least commonly in Japan. An interesting finding was that variations between results of studies within the same country were actually 150% greater than those between countries. In the USA, for example, one study found only 46% securely attached compared to one sample as high as 90%.

Other studies of cultural variations Proportions of secure, avoidant and resistant babies in van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s meta-analysis.

An Italian study Simonella et al. (2014) conducted a study in Italy to see whether the proportions of babies of different attachment types still matches those found in previous studies. The researchers assessed 76 12-month olds using the Strange Situation. They found 50% were secure, with 36% insecure-avoidant. This is a lower rate of secure attachment than has been found in many studies. The researchers suggest this is because increasing numbers of mothers of very young children work long hours and use professional childcare. These findings suggest that cultural changes can make a dramatic difference to patterns of secure and insecure attachment.

insecure-resistant insecure-avoidant secure 100%

A Korean study Jin et al. (2012) conducted a study to compare the proportions of attachment types in Korea to other studies. The Strange Situation was used to assess 87 children. The overall proportions of insecure and secure babies were similar to those in most countries, with most infants being secure. However, more of those classified as insecurely attached were resistant and only one child was avoidant. This distribution is similar to the distribution of attachment types found in Japan (van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg 1988). Since Japan and Korea have quite similar child-rearing styles this similarity might be explained in terms of child-rearing style.

90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40%

China

Germany

Conclusions Israel

United States

Netherlands

Japan

10%

Sweden

20%

Great Britain

30%

0

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Secure attachment seems to be the norm in a wide range of cultures, supporting Bowlby’s idea that attachment is innate and universal and this type is the universal norm. However, the research also clearly shows that cultural practices have an influence on attachment type.

Concepts: Helga’s worried

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Methods: Pilot studies

The proportion of infants classified with each attachment type differs between nationalities. Helga and Lars have recently moved to England from Germany with their son Kurt. They take part in some attachment research at their local university and are disturbed to hear that Kurt has an insecure-avoidant attachment.

A team of psychologists are interested in cultural variations in attachment. They want to see if the Strange Situation works as a test of attachment security in a range of countries including some where attachment type has not been assessed before. They decide to carry out a pilot study in these countries.

Question

Questions

Should Helga and Lars be concerned by this? Refer to the proportions of German children of each attachment type in the van IJzendoorn study.

1. Outline what is meant by a pilot study. (2 marks) (See page 178.)

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2. Why is it advisable to carry out a pilot study before using a test on a new population with which it hasn’t been tried before? (2 marks)

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Evaluation

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Large samples A strength of combining the results of attachment studies carried out in different countries is that you can end up with a very large sample. For example, in the van IJzendoorn meta-analysis there was a total of nearly 2000 babies and their primary attachment figures. Even studies like those of Simonella et al. and Jin et al. had large comparison groups from previous research, although their own samples were smaller. This overall sample size is a strength because large samples increase internal validity by reducing the impact of anomalous results caused by bad methodology or very unusual participants.

Samples tend to be unrepresentative of culture The meta-analysis by van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg claimed to study cultural variation whereas, in fact, the comparisons were between countries not cultures. Within any country there are many different cultures each with different child-rearing practices. One sample might, for example over-represent people living in poverty, the stress of which might affect caregiving and hence patterns of attachment. An analysis by van IJzendoorn and Sagi (2001) found that distributions of attachment type in Tokyo (an urban setting) were similar to the Western studies, whereas a more rural sample had an over-representation of insecure-resistant individuals. This means that comparisons between countries (such as Italy or Korea) may have little meaning; the particular cultural characteristics (and thus the caregiving styles) of the sample need to be specified.

Methods: Populations and samples

Studies of cultural variation in attachment make use of samples of infants and their primary attachment figures. These samples are drawn from different populations. For example, the van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg analysis looked at 32 studies each of which tested attachment in a particular and different population. The best sampling techniques are those that are likely to produce a representative sample. Two common ways to obtain a representative sample are by systematic and random sampling. Questions

1. With reference to the van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg study explain the difference between a target population and a sample. (2 marks) (See page 174.) 2. With reference to the populations of the eight countries, explain what is meant by a representative sample. (2 marks) 3. Explain how both random and systematic sampling could have been used to obtain one sample of infants in Britain. (2 marks + 2 marks)

Method of assessment is biased Cross cultural psychology includes the ideas of etic and emic. Etic means cultural universals whilst emic means cultural uniqueness. The Strange Situation was designed by an American researcher (Ainsworth) based on a British theory (Bowlby’s). There is a question over whether Anglo-American theories and assessments can be applied to other cultures. Trying to apply a theory or technique designed for one culture to another culture is known as imposed etic. An example of imposed etic may be the idea that a lack of separation anxiety and lack of pleasure on reunion indicate an insecure attachment in the Strange Situation. In Germany this behaviour might be seen more as independence than avoidance and hence not a sign of insecurity within that cultural context (Grossmann and Grossmann 1990).

Evaluation eXtra Alternative explanation for cultural similarity

The Strange Situation lacks validity

Bowlby’s explanation for cultural similarities is that they are due to the fact that attachment is innate and universal and thus produces the same kind of behaviours all over the world. van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg proposed an alternative possibility. They suggest that small crosscultural differences may reflect the effects of the mass media, in which a large number of books and television programmes ‘that advocate similar notions of parenting are disseminated across countries’.

There is the basic issue with using the Strange Situation in research. On the previous spread we considered whether the Strange Situation might not be measuring attachment at all. Kagan et al. (1986) suggested that attachment type is more related to temperament than to the relationship with the primary attachment figure. In which case the Strange Situation is not assessing attachment it is simply measuring anxiety.

Consider: What are the real implications of research on cultural variations for theories of attachment?

Consider: What are the implications for conclusions about cultural variations?

Recent research on attachment in Korea supports the idea that there are only modest differences in attachment types across countries.

Check It 1. Explain how van IJzendoorn studied cultural variations in attachment. [4 marks] 2. Describe what research has found about cultural variations in attachment. [6 marks] 3. Explain one criticism of research into cultural variation in attachment. [3 marks] 4. Describe and evaluate research into cultural variations in attachment. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

Cultural variations in attachment • 87

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Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation The specification says … Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation. We have already looked at Bowlby’s monotropic theory of attachment (see page 80). This spread is concerned with his earlier theory of maternal deprivation. This theory focuses on how the effects of early experiences may interfere with the usual processes of attachment formation. Bowlby proposed that separation from the mother or mother substitute has a serious effect on psychological development.

Key term Maternal deprivation – The emotional and intellectual consequences of separation between a child and his/ her mother or mother substitute. Bowlby proposed that continuous care from a mother is essential for normal psychological development, and that prolonged separation from this adult causes serious damage to emotional and intellectual development.

Theory of maternal deprivation John Bowlby proposed a theory of attachment but prior to this he developed the theory of maternal deprivation (1951). This earlier theory focused on the idea that the continual presence of nurture from a mother or mother-substitute is essential for normal psychological development of babies and toddlers, both emotionally and intellectually. Bowlby famously said that ‘mother-love in infancy and childhood is as important for mental health as are vitamins and proteins for physical health’ (Bowlby, 1953 p. 240). Being separated from a mother in early childhood has serious consequences (maternal deprivation).

Separation versus deprivation There is an important distinction to be made between separation and deprivation. Separation simply means the child not being in the presence of the primary attachment figure. This only becomes an issue for development if the child is deprived, i.e. they lose an element of her care. Brief separations, particularly where the child is with a substitute caregiver, are not significant for development but extended separations can lead to deprivation, which by definition causes harm.

The critical period Bowlby saw the first 30 months of life as a critical period for psychological development. If a child is separated from their mother in the absence of suitable substitute care and so deprived of her emotional care for an extended period during this critical period then (Bowlby believed) psychological damage was inevitable.

Effects on development Intellectual development One way in which maternal deprivation affects children’s development is their intellectual development. Bowlby believed that if children were deprived of maternal care for too long during the critical period they would suffer delayed intellectual development, characterised by abnormally low IQ. This has been demonstrated in studies of adoption. For example, Goldfarb (1947) found lower IQ in children who had remained in institutions as opposed to those who were fostered and thus had a higher standard of emotional care (see facing page for details of study). Emotional development A second major way in which being deprived of a mother figure’s emotional care affects children is in their emotional development. Bowlby identified affectionless psychopathy as the inability to experience guilt or strong emotion for others. This prevents the person developing normal relationships and is associated with criminality. Affectionless psychopaths cannot appreciate the feelings of victims and so lack remorse for their actions.

Bowlby’s 44 thieves study Affectionless psychopaths aren’t necessarily serial killers but they do lack guilt and empathy.

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This study examined the link between affectionless psychopathy and maternal deprivation. Procedure The sample in this study consisted of 44 criminal teenagers accused of stealing. All ‘thieves’ were interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy: characterised as a lack of affection, lack of guilt about their actions and lack of empathy for their victims. Their families were also interviewed in order to establish whether the ‘thieves’ had prolonged early separations from their mothers. A control group of noncriminal but emotionally disturbed young people was set up to see how often maternal separation/deprivation occurred in the children who were not thieves. Findings Bowlby (1944) found that 14 of the 44 thieves could be described as affectionless psychopaths. Of this 14, 12 had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers in the first two years of their lives. In contrast only 5 of the remaining 30 ‘thieves’ had experienced separations. Of the control group, only 2 out of 44 had experienced long separations. It was concluded that prolonged early separation/ deprivation caused affectionless psychopathy.

Methods: Natural experiment Bowlby’s 44 thieves study is an example of a natural experiment. He identified an independent variable of maternal separation/deprivation and measured its effects on social development. It was not, however, possible to randomly allocate participants to experimental groups because the independent variable (deprivation and no deprivation) already existed and was assessed retrospectively.

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Questions

1. Explain why this study is a natural experiment. (2 marks) (See page 173.) 2. Explain how the dependent variable of social development was operationalised. (2 marks) 3. If the independent variable is deprivation in infancy, what are some likely confounding variables? In other words what sort of things might co-occur with deprivation that might influence social development? (2 marks) (See page 168.)

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Evaluation The evidence may be poor Bowlby drew on a number of sources of evidence for maternal deprivation including studies of children orphaned during the Second World War (see Goldfarb at bottom right), those growing up in poor quality orphanages, and of course his 44 thieves study. However, these are all flawed as evidence. War-orphans were traumatised and often had poor after-care, therefore these factors might have been the causes of later developmental difficulties rather than separation. Similarly, children growing up from birth in poor quality institutions were deprived of many aspects of care, not just maternal care. Furthermore the 44 thieves study had some major design flaws, most importantly bias; Bowlby himself carried out the assessments for affectionless psychopathy and the family interviews, knowing what he hoped to find.

Counter-evidence Not all research has supported Bowlby’s findings. For example, Hilda Lewis (1954) partially replicated the 44 thieves study on a larger scale, looking at 500 young people. In her sample a history of early prolonged separation from the mother did not predict criminality or difficulty forming close relationships. This is a problem for the theory of maternal deprivation because it suggests that other factors may affect the outcome of early maternal deprivation.

The critical period is actually more of a sensitive period Bowlby used the term ‘critical period’ because he believed that prolonged separation inevitably caused damage if it took place within that period. However, later research has shown that damage is not inevitable. Some cases of very severe deprivation have had good outcomes provided the child has some social interaction and good aftercare. For example, Jarmila Koluchová (1976) reported the case of twin boys from Czechoslovakia who were isolated from the age of 18 months until they were seven years old (their step-mother kept them locked in a cupboard). Subsequently they were looked after by two loving adults and appeared to recover fully. Cases like this show that the period identified by Bowlby may be a ‘sensitive’ one but it cannot be critical.

Evaluation eXtra Animal studies show effects of maternal deprivation

Failure to distinguish between deprivation and privation

Although most psychologists are very critical of the theory of maternal deprivation, an interesting line of research has provided some support for the idea that maternal deprivation can have long-term effects. Levy et al. (2003) showed that separating baby rats from their mother for as little as a day had a permanent effect on their social development though not other aspects of development.

Michael Rutter (1981) claimed that, when Bowlby talked of ‘deprivation’, he was muddling two concepts together. Rutter drew a distinction between deprivation, which really means the loss of the primary attachment figure after attachment has developed whereas privation is the failure to form any attachment in the first place. Rutter claimed that the severe long-term damage Bowlby associated with deprivation is actually more likely to be the result of privation. (On the next spread we will look at research with children who never formed attachments.)

Consider: To what extent can studies like this be said to support the theory of maternal deprivation?

Consider: How could this distinction be used to improve Bowlby’s theory?

Teenagers who suffered maternal deprivation are not necessarily more likely to be criminals.

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Concepts: Maternal deprivation as a legal defence Maternal deprivation has been associated with criminality, in particular criminality involving no empathy or guilt. Simon is a habitual criminal. Since his early teens he has liberated many car stereos and shoplifted. More recently he has turned to burglary and violent crime. Simon is now in court for mugging a 75-year-old. Simon studied psychology and decides to use the fact that his mother was in hospital for a time in his first year as a defence. Questions

1. How could Simon use the theory of maternal deprivation to excuse his actions? 2. Referring to the criticisms of the theory of maternal deprivation, explain why Simon might be unwise to use this defence.

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Concepts: A deprivation study

William Goldfarb (1955) followed up 30 orphaned children to age 12. Of the original sample half had been fostered by four months of age whilst the other half remained in an orphanage. At 12 their IQ was assessed using a standard IQ test called the Stanford-Binet test. It was found that the fostered group had an average IQ of 96 whereas the group that remained in the orphanage averaged only 68, within the retarded range. Question

Explain Goldfarb’s results using Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation.

Check It 1. Explain what is meant by maternal deprivation. [3 marks] 2. Outline evidence used to support the theory of maternal deprivation. [4 marks] 3. Explain one criticism of the theory of maternal deprivation. [4 marks] 4. Describe and evaluate Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation • 89

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Romanian orphan studies: effects of institutionalisation The specification says … Romanian orphan studies: effects of institutionalisation. The theory of maternal deprivation predicted long-term negative effects result from early deprivation. This can be studied in the context of institutional care. Much of our modern understanding of this has come from studies carried out in the last 25 years in Romania because historical events left a large number of children there in poor quality institutions.

Key terms Institutionalisation – A term for the effects of living in an institutional setting. The term ‘institution’ refers to a place like a hospital or an orphanage where children live for long, continuous periods of time. In such places there is often very little emotional care provided. In attachment research we are interested in the effects of institutional care on children’s attachment and subsequent development. Orphan studies – These concern children placed in care because their parents cannot look after them. An orphan is a child whose parents have either died or have abandoned them permanently.

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Romanian orphan studies Research on maternal deprivation has turned to orphan studies as a means of studying the effects of deprivation. A tragic opportunity to look at the effects of institutional care and the consequent institutionalisation arose in Romania in the 1990s. Former President Nicolai Ceauc,escu required Romanian women to have five children. Many Romanian parents could not afford to keep their children and the children ended up in huge orphanages in very poor conditions. After the 1989 revolution many of the children were adopted, some by British parents.

Rutter’s ERA (English and Romanian Adoptee) study Procedure Michael Rutter and colleagues (2011) have followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans adopted in Britain to test to what extent good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions. Physical, cognitive and emotional development has been assessed at ages 4, 6, 11 and 15 years. A group of 52 British children adopted around the same time have served as a control group. Findings When they first arrived in the UK half the adoptees showed signs of delayed intellectual development and the majority were severely undernourished. At age 11 the adopted children showed differential rates of recovery that were related to their age of adoption. The mean IQ of the those children adopted before the age of six months was 102, compared with 86 for those adopted between six months and two years and 77 for those adopted after two years. These differences remained at age 16 (Beckett et al. 2010). In terms of attachment, there appeared to be a difference in outcome related to whether adoption took place before or after six months. Those children adopted after they were six months showed signs of a particular attachment style called disinhibited attachment. Symptoms include attention seeking, clinginess and social behaviour directed indiscriminately towards all adults, both familiar and unfamiliar. In contrast those children adopted before the age of six months rarely displayed disinhibited attachment.

The Bucharest Early Intervention project

Methods: Correlations

In Rutter’s research on Romanian orphans it was found that at age four years there was a negative correlation between age at adoption and intellectual development (IQ score) at age 4. Questions

1. Briefly explain the difference between a correlation and an experiment. (2 marks) (See page 188.) 2. What are the implications for the conclusion we can draw from this study? (2 marks) 3. Explain why you might expect to obtain a negative correlation in this study. (2 marks) 4. Sketch a scattergram showing what the results would be likely to look like. (3 marks)

Procedure Zeanah et al. (2005) assessed attachment in 95 children aged 12–31 months who had spent most of their lives in institutional care (90% on average). They were compared to a control group of 50 children who had never lived in an institution. Their attachment type was measured using the Strange Situation. In addition carers were asked about unusual social behaviour including clingy, attention-seeking behaviour directed inappropriately at all adults (i.e. disinhibited attachment). Findings They found that 74% of the control group came out as securely attached in the Strange Situation. However, only 19% of the institutional group were securely attached, with 65% being classified with disorganised attachment. The description of disinhibited attachment applied to 44% of institutionalised children as opposed to less than 20% of the controls.

Effects of institutionalisation Disinhibited attachment is a typical effect of spending time in an institution. They are equally friendly and affectionate towards people they know well or who are strangers that they have just met. This is highly unusual behaviour; remember that most children in their second year show stranger anxiety. Rutter (2006) has explained disinhibited attachment as an adaptation to living with multiple caregivers during the sensitive period for attachment formation. In poor quality institutions like those in Romania a child might have 50 carers none of whom they see enough to form a secure attachment. Mental retardation In Rutter’s study most children showed signs of retardation when they arrived in Britain. However, most of those adopted before they were six months old caught up with the control group by age four. It appears that, like emotional development, damage to intellectual development as a result of institutionalisation can be recovered provided adoption takes place before the age of six months – the age at which attachments form (see Shaffer’s stages of attachment, page 76).

Good parenting by adopters made up for the physical and intellectual problems suffered at first by the Romanian adoptees.

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Evaluation Real-life application Studying the Romanian orphans has enhanced our understanding of the effects of institutionalisation. Such results have led to improvements in the way children are cared for in institutions (Langton 2006). For example, orphanages and children’s homes now avoid having large numbers of caregivers for each child and instead ensure that a much smaller number of people, perhaps only one or two people, play a central role for the child. This person is called a key worker. Having a key worker means that children have the chance to develop normal attachments and helps avoid disinhibited attachment. This shows that such research has been immensely valuable in practical terms.

Fewer extraneous variables than other orphan studies There were many orphan studies before the Romanian orphans became available to study but often these studies involved children who had experienced loss or trauma before they were institutionalised. For example, they may have experienced neglect, abuse or bereavement. These children were often traumatised by their experiences and suffered bereavement. It was very hard to observe the effects of institutionalisation in isolation because the children were dealing with multiple factors which functioned as confounding participant variables. In the case of Romanian orphans it has been possible to study institutionalisation without these confounding variables, which means the findings have increased internal validity.

The Romanian orphanages were not typical Although much useful data about institutionalisation has come out of Romanian orphan studies, it is possible that conditions were so bad that results cannot be applied to understanding the impact of better quality institutional care or indeed any situation where children experience deprivation. For example, Romanian orphanages had particularly poor standards of care, especially when it came to forming any relationship with the children, and extremely low levels of intellectual stimulation. This is a limitation of the Romanian orphan studies because the unusual situational variables mean the studies may after all lack generalisability.

Evaluation eXtra Ethical issues One of the methodological issues for Rutter’s ERA project (English and Romanian Adoptee project) is that children were not randomly assigned to conditions. The researchers did not interfere with the adoption process, which means that those children adopted early may have been the more sociable ones, a confounding variable. To control for such variables, another major investigation of fostering versus institutional care, did use random allocation. In the Bucharest Early Intervention project (see facing page), Romanian orphans were randomly allocated to institutional care or fostering. This is methodologically better because it removes the confounding variable of which children are chosen by parents but it raises ethical issues. Consider: How can you use this evidence as evaluation of research on the effects of institutionalisation?

The long-term effects are not yet clear The studies described on the facing page have now followed up fostered and adopted orphans into their mid-teens and found some lasting effects of early experience, in particular for those adopted late. However, it is too soon to say with certainty whether children suffered short- or long-term effects. It may be that the children who spent longer in institutions and currently lag behind in intellectual development or display attachment difficulties may still ‘catch up’ as adults. Equally, early-adopted/ fostered children who appear to have no issues now may experience emotional problems as adults. Consider: What does this imply about the conclusions we can draw about the effects of institutionalisation?

The Romanian orphanages may have been of such bad quality that results cannot be generalised to other institutions.

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Concepts: Nadia

Nadia was adopted when she was two years old. Prior to this she had lived in a home for orphans. Now at the age of 11 she is doing well at school but her parents and teachers have noticed that she has a tendency to be attention seeking, including with strangers. Her adoptive parents wonder if this could be related to her early experiences before being adopted. Question

Referring to the effects of institutionalisation, explain why Nadia may be showing this unusual social behaviour.

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Concepts: Irena

Irena was adopted by British parents when she was two months old. She had lived for most of her life prior to this in a poor quality Romanian orphanage. At the age of 16 she did less well in her GCSEs than most of her friends. A family friend (actually a pretty rubbish friend) says to Irena’s adoptive mother ‘what can you expect with her background?’. Question

Referring to what you know about the intellectual development of Romanian orphans adopted in Britain, what would you say to the family friend?

Check It 1. Briefly outline what is meant by institutionalisation. [2 marks] 2. Outline what research has found about the effects of institutionalisation on attachment. [6 marks] 3. Describe one study of Romanian orphans. Include both what the researcher(s) did and what they found in your answer. [4 marks] 4. Describe and evaluate research into Romanian orphans. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

Romanian orphan studies: effects of institutionalisation • 91

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Influence of early attachment on later relationships The specification says … Influence of early attachment on childhood and adult relationships, including the role of an internal working model. The major importance of attachment is the ability to form relationships with people other than your primary attachment figure. We look again at Bowlby’s idea of internal working models and at research into the link between attachment type and the quality of later relationships.

Key terms Childhood relationships – Affi liations with other people in childhood, including friends and classmates, and with adults such as teachers. Adult relationships – Those relationships the child goes on to have later in life as an adult. These include friendships and working relationships but most critically relationships with romantic partners and the person’s own children. Internal working models – The mental representations we all carry with us of our attachment to our primary caregiver. They are important in affecting our future relationships because they carry our perception of what relationships are like.

Attachment and later relationships Internal working model Earlier in this chapter we discussed the formation of the internal working model (see page 82) – John Bowlby (1969) suggested that a child having their first relationship with their primary attachment figure forms a mental representation of this relationship. This internal working model acts as a template for future relationships. The quality of the child’s first attachment is crucial because this template will powerfully affect the nature of their future relationships. A child whose first experience is of a loving relationship with a reliable caregiver will tend to assume that this is how relationships are meant to be. They will then seek out functional relationships and behave functionally within them, i.e. without either being too uninvolved or being too emotionally close (which would typify type A behaviour) or being controlling and argumentative (type C behaviour). A child with bad experiences of their first attachment will bring these bad experiences to bear on later relationships. This may mean they struggle to form relationships in the first place or they may not behave appropriately when they have them, displaying type A or C behaviour towards friends and partners.

Relationships in later childhood Attachment type is associated with the quality of peer relationships in childhood. Securely attached infants tend to go on to form the best quality childhood friendships whereas insecurely attached infants later have friendship difficulties (Kerns 1994). In particular, bullying behaviour can be predicted by attachment type. Rowan Myron-Wilson and Peter Smith (1998) assessed attachment type and bullying involvement using standard questionnaires in 196 children aged 7–11 from London. Secure children were very unlikely to be involved in bullying. Insecure-avoidant children were the most likely to be victims and insecure-resistant children were most likely to be bullies.

Relationships in adulthood with romantic partners In a study of attachment and both romantic relationships and friendships Gerard McCarthy (1999) studied 40 adult women who had been assessed when they were infants to establish their early attachment type. Those assessed as securely attached infants had the best adult friendships and romantic relationships. Adults classed as insecure-resistant as infants had particular problems maintaining friendships whilst those classed as insecure-avoidant struggled with intimacy in romantic relationships. Cindy Hazan and Phillip Shaver (1987) conducted a classic study of the association between attachment and adult relationships. Procedure They analysed 620 replies to a ‘love quiz’ printed in an American local newspaper. The quiz had three sections. The first assessed respondents’ current or most important relationship. The second part assessed general love experiences such as number of partners. The third section assessed attachment type by asking respondents to choose which of three statements best described their feelings. Findings 56% of respondents were identified as securely attached with 25% insecureavoidant and 19% insecure-resistant. Those reporting secure attachments were the most likely to have good and longer lasting romantic experiences. The avoidant respondents tended to reveal jealousy and fear of intimacy. These findings suggest that patterns of attachment behaviour are reflected in romantic relationships.

Relationships in adulthood as a parent Insecure-resistant infants are the most likely to struggle to get on with friends as they get older.

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Methods: Questionnaires and interviews Research into the quality of peer and romantic relationships and attachment requires selfreporting of attitudes towards and experiences of relationships. This can be done by means of interviews or questionnaires. Interviews can be structured or unstructured. The kinds of interviews used to assess relationship quality are normally structured.

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Internal working models also affect the child’s ability to parent their own children. People tend to base their parenting style on their internal working model so attachment type tends to be passed on through generations of a family. Recall the study by Bailey et al. (2007, see page 83). They considered the attachments of 99 mothers to their babies and to their own mothers. Mother–baby attachment was assessed using the Strange Situation and mother–own mother attachment was assessed using an adult attachment interview. The majority of women had the same attachment classification both to their babies and their own mothers.

Questions

1. Explain how you might use both a questionnaire and an interview to assess the quality of peer relationships. (2 marks) (See page 186.) 2. Why would you use a structured interview to assess relationship quality? (2 marks) 3. Explain why you might choose to use closed questions in your interview. (2 marks)

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Evaluation Evidence on continuity of attachment type is mixed Internal working models predict continuity between the security of an infant’s attachment and that of its later relationships, i.e. attachment type in infancy is usually the same as that characterising the person’s later relationships. Evidence for this continuity is mixed. Some studies, like that by McCarthy (facing page), do appear to support continuity and so provide evidence to support internal working models. Not all studies, however, support internal working models. For example, Zimmerman (2000) assessed infant attachment type and adolescent attachment to parents. There was very little relationship between quality of infant and adolescent attachment. This is a problem because it is not what we would expect if internal working models were important in development.

accurately.

Most studies have issues of validity

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Most studies of attachment to primary caregiver and other significant people do not make use of the Strange Situation but assess infant–parent attachment by means of interview or questionnaire, not in infancy but years later. This creates validity problems. First, assessment relies on self-report techniques like interviews or questionnaires to assess the quality of those relationships. The validity of questionnaires and interviews is limited because they depend on respondents being honest and having a realistic view of their own relationships. A related problem concerns the retrospective nature of assessment of infant attachment. Looking back in adulthood at one’s early relationship to a primary attachment figure probably lacks validity because it relies on accurate recollections.

Association does not mean causality In those studies where infant attachment type is associated with the quality of later relationships the implication is that infant attachment type causes the attachment. However, there are alternative explanations for the continuity that often exists between infant and later relationships. A third environmental factor such as parenting style might have a direct effect on both attachment and the child’s ability to form relationships with others. Alternatively the child’s temperament (discussed on page 87) may influence both infant attachment and the quality of later relationships. This is a limitation because it is counter to Bowlby’s view that the internal working model caused these later outcomes.

Evaluation eXtra The influence of early attachment is probabilistic

Self-report is conscious but internal working models are not

It does seem very likely that the quality of infant attachments is an influence on later relationships. However, some attachment researchers, including Bowlby, have probably exaggerated the significance of this influence. Ann Clarke and Alan Clarke (1998) describe the influence of infant attachment on later relationships as probabilistic. People are not doomed to always have bad relationships just because they had attachment problems. They just have a greater risk of problems. There is a further issue that by emphasising this risk we become too pessimistic about people’s futures.

There is a theoretical problem with most research related to internal working models. Internal working models are unconscious; we are not directly aware of their influence on us. We would not really expect to get direct evidence about them by means of interviews or questionnaires because people can only self-report what they are aware of. When participants self-report on their relationships they are relying on their conscious understanding of those relationships. At best the self-report gives us indirect evidence about internal working models. This is a potential limitation of most research involving the concept of internal working models.

Consider: On balance is it better to know the risks or is such research best avoided because it is potentially damaging?

Consider: What are the advantages of using self-report measures of internal working models?

Concepts: Internal working models in social work Sarah works in Social Services assessing risk to children from parents that have been referred after issues have arisen with the quality of their parenting. She has just received a new case; a neighbour of a family with a 10-year-old girl has complained that the child has been neglected. When Sarah interviews the mother about the family it emerges that the mother was neglected in her own childhood. Question

Referring to internal working models, explain what Sarah might think about the origins of the alleged neglect.

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Concepts: Internal working models in therapy Some types of psychological therapy make use of internal working models. Gary and Carly have just started relationship counselling. They have been together for a year but they have frequent rows. Carly feels that Gary is distant and wants to spend a lot of time alone. Gary says he is not used to intimacy. He also objects to Carly wanting to know where he is and starting rows. Gary and Carly have very different relationships with their parents. Gary’s mother was always fairly uninvolved and they are not close. Carly reports that her mother is argumentative and controlling. Question

What might their therapist say about Gary’s and Carly’s internal working models?

Check It 1. Explain what is meant by an internal working model. [3 marks] 2. Describe what research has shown about the link between early attachment and adult relationships. [6 marks] 3. Describe and evaluate research into the influence of attachment on childhood and adult relationships. Refer to evidence in your answer. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

Influence of early attachment on later relationships • 93

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Practical corner

Practical idea 1: Observing synchronous interactions in adult conversation

The specification says … Knowledge and understanding of ….research methods, practical research skills and maths skills. These should be developed through …..ethical practical research activities.

It would be great to observe synchronous interactions in a mother and baby but there is the practical issue of having a mother and baby available! However, synchronous interactions can be observed between pairs of adults. We suggest that you can observe synchronous interactions happening in peer-to-peer communication. The aim of this study is to investigate whether people’s non-verbal communication synchronises, i.e. becomes more similar during a conversation. This involves the use of observational techniques.

This means that you should conduct practical investigations wherever possible. For both practical and ethical reasons we don’t recommend you carry out practical work with young children, but there are relevant things you can do using your peers as participants, as suggested here. One practical activity uses observational techniques, the other involves questionnaires as the means of assessing the dependent variable in a quasi-experiment.

The practical bit You are testing the hypothesis that non-verbal communication becomes more synchronised as a conversation progresses. If we want this interaction to mimic what takes place between mother and baby, the communication needs to be friendly – this won’t work with an argument!

Ethics check

Choosing your participants The usual considerations about sampling don’t really apply in this study. You only need to look at two people, although there is no reason why you shouldn’t extend this to a larger sample if you wish. It is, however, critical that interaction between the two participants is friendly and natural, therefore it is more important that the two people you observe already have a reasonable level of intimacy than it is that they are representative of the population. Choose two friends or perhaps a romantic couple.

Ethics are discussed in detail on pages 176–177. We strongly suggest that you complete this checklist before collecting data. 1. Do participants know participation is voluntary? 2. 3. 4. 5.

Do participants know what to expect? Do participants know they can withdraw at any time? Are individuals’ results anonymous? Have I minimised the risk of distress to participants?

Behavioural categories You will need to decide what to observe. We suggest looking at facial expression or gestures. You could also look at posture if you wish. You will need to agree specific behavioural categories that will capture the kind of non-verbal signals you are likely to see. Things like smiling, laughing, frowning, direction of gaze and clasping hands or waving hands should work. Maybe conduct a pilot study in which you watch pairs talking and make a note of their non-verbal signals. These can form your behavioural categories. Don’t have too many categories because you may find it difficult to record what is going on. When you know what you are looking for draw up a tally chart like the one in the box below.

6. Have I avoided asking sensitive questions? 7. Will I avoid bringing my school/teacher/psychology into disrepute? 8. Have I considered all other ethical issues? 9. Has my teacher approved this?

Time sampling You are interested in whether non-verbal signals synchronise during a conversation so you need to regularly check whether each category is synchronised at an agreed time interval, say every 30 seconds. At exactly that point observe the two participants and record whether each target behaviour is synchronised.

Ethical issues This study should be ethically acceptable as long as it is conducted well, but there are some issues to be aware of. Make sure you have real consent from your observees. They should know exactly what is going to happen to them and there should be no social pressure to participate. Participants must be aware of their right to withdraw. If you film the interactions you must delete the video file once it has been analysed.

Analysing your data You will need to present your results in the form of tables and graphs. You will want to be able to show your results so that someone will instantly be able to see whether synchrony increases during the course of a conversation.

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Table 1 Table showing synchronisation of NVC at 30-second intervals y = synchronised n = not synchronised Smile/frown

30s

60s

90s

n

n

y

120s 150s 180s 210s 240s y

n

y

y

1. Identify two or more characteristics of good behavioural categories. (2 marks) (See page 182.)

y

2. What fraction of the scores on the left are synchronised? (2 marks) (See page 196.) 3. Explain this statement ‘number of synchronised observations > number of not synchronised observations’. (1 mark)

Gaze

n

n

n

y

y

n

y

y

Hands

n

n

n

n

y

y

y

y

Posture

n

n

n

n

n

y

y

y

Total synchronised

0

0

1

2

2

3

4

4

94 • Chapter 3

Methods: The maths bit 1

4. What conclusion would you reach based on the information in Table 1? (2 marks) 5. Draw a scattergram to show the correlation between time spent in conversation and synchronisation. (3 marks) (See page 188.) 6. Draw a bar chart to represent the data in Table 1. (See page 194.)

Attachment

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Practical idea 2: Attachment to mobile phones

People really love their mobile phones.

We love our mobile phones. No really, we actually love them! We don’t just get attached to people. We also display attachment behaviour to fictional characters, places and even technology. Vincent (2006) has identified a range of reasons for our attachment to phones; we use phones frequently, we rely on them, associate them with social relationships and take comfort in the fact that they allow us to interact with loved-ones. The aim of this study is to use questionnaires (or interviews) to see if people of different phone attachment types respond differently to the loss of their phone. The study is a quasi-experiment because the independent variable is attachment type.

The practical bit This will require putting together your own self-report measures. You will need a measure of attachment to phone type and a way to assess people’s distress at losing their phone.

Ethics ethics ethics!!!!!

Your measure of attachment to phone You need to put together a simple way to classify people’s attachment to their phone as secure, insecure-avoidant or insecure-resistant. One way is to ask participants to choose which of three statements best describes their attachment to their phone. Have a look at the statements used by Hazan and Shaver (on the right) to classify romantic attachment type and see what you can come up with. A secure attachment to your phone will be indicated by high in affection for it but low dependence. An insecure-avoidant relationship will be more distant and you might not want to be dependent on your phone. Someone with an insecure-resistant attachment may show ambivalent feelings about the phone but not entirely trust it.

Question: Which of the following best describes your feelings? Answers and percentages: Secure (N = 319, 56%): I find it relatively easy to get close to others and am comfortable depending on them and having them depend on me. I don’t often worry about being abandoned or about someone getting too close to me.

Your measure of phone-loss anxiety You also need a way to measure how anxious people would become if they lost their phone. The simplest way to do this is to ask them to imagine they cannot find their phone and rate their anxiety on a scale, for example 0–10.

Analysing your data You will need to present your results in the form of tables and graphs. You will want to be able to show your results so that someone will instantly be able to compare the average anxiety rating for each attachment type. These can be presented as tables of averages or bar charts.

Avoidant (N = 145, 25%): I am somewaht uncomfortable being close to others; I find it difficult to trust them completely, difficult to allow myself to depend on them. I am nervous when anyone gets too close, and often, love partners want me to be more intimate then I feel comfortable being. Anxious/ambivalent (N = 110, 19%): I find that others are reluctant to get close as I would like. I often worry that my partner doesn’t really love me or won’t want to stay with me. I want to merge completely with another person, and this desire sometimes scares people away.

A way of classifying romantic attachment into attachment types. From Hazan and Shaver (1987)

STUDY TIPS

There are some critical ethical issues to get right in this study, mostly around the risks of harm and distress. First, you have no business assessing people’s general attachment types. The risk of seriously worrying and upsetting them is just too great. Your attachment measure must purely measure the quality of people’s attachment to their mobile phone. Second, you should not try to assess participants’ reaction to a real loss of their phone. In other words you can’t steal it – even for a short period – just to see the response! Instead you must ask people to imagine their response to the loss of their phone.

• Sometimes when you read about a practical activity that was thought up by other people it is hard to visualise the study. We find that it can be useful to look first at the exemplar table of results or the graph of similar results and work backwards from that. So, in this study, if you aren’t getting it yet, look at the graph.

10

Phone-loss anxiety scale

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Methods: The maths bit 2

1. Explain why the data in this graph could be described as quantitative. (2 marks) (See page 190.)

The maths bit

2. Explain one strength and one limitation of using this kind of data in this study. (2 marks + 2 marks)

On page 215 we have given a list of the mathematical skills you will be expected to demonstrate.

3. Estimate the mean anxiety score for avoidant, secure and resistant participants from the graph. (3 marks) (See page 196.) 0 avoidant

secure

resistant

Anxiety score in participants with avoidant, secure and resistant attachments to phones

4. Give each of these mean scores as a fraction and a percentage of the total. (3 marks) (See page 196.)

Overall, at least 10% of the marks in assessments for Psychology will require the use of mathematical skills.

5. What conclusion would you draw from the bar chart? (2 marks)

Practical corner • 95

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Revision Summaries

Introduction to attachment Caregiver interactions facilitate attachment.

Caregiver–infant interactions

Evaluation

Attachment figures

Evaluation

Interactions Babies have frequent and important interactions with their caregiver.

Hard to know what is happening Observe simple gesture and expression, and assume infant’s intentions.

Parent–infant Traditionally mother-infant, other attachment figures like the father may also be important.

Inconsistent findings Different research questions overall picture unclear.

Reciprocity Mothers respond to infant alertness. From 3 months close attention between mother and infant.

Controlled observations Capture fine detail of interactions.

The role of the father Grossman et al.: attachment to fathers less important but fathers may have a different role – play and stimulation.

Children without fathers aren’t different Suggests the father role is not important.

Interactional synchrony Interactions become co-ordinated. Isabella et al.: quality of attachment related to synchrony.

Purpose of synchrony and reciprocity Feldman: just observations, purpose not entirely understood.

Fathers as primary carers Field: fathers as primary carers adopt attachment behaviour more typical of mothers.

Fathers not primary attachments May be due traditional gender roles or biological differences. Evaluation extra Socially sensitive research: working mothers.

Schaffer’s stages of attachment A classic study of the development of attachment.

Key study: Schaffer and Emerson

Evaluation

Aims To investigate the age of attachment formation and who attachments are formed with.

Good external validity Observations were in participants’ natural environments.

Method Mothers of 60 Glasgow babies reported monthly on separation anxiety.

Longitudinal design Same participants were observed at each age, eliminating individual differences as a confound.

Findings Most babies showed attachment to a primary caregiver by 32 weeks and developed multiple attachments soon after this.

Limited sample characteristics All families were from the same area and over 50 years ago, so may lack generalisability.

Stages of attachment

Evaluation

Asocial stage Little observable social behaviour.

Asocial stage Social behaviour is hard to observe in the first few weeks but this doesn’t mean the baby is ‘asocial’.

Indiscriminate attachment More observable attachment behaviour, accept cuddles from any adult.

Conflicting evidence van IJzendoorn et al.: research in different contexts has found multiple attachments may appear first.

Specific attachments Stranger anxiety and separation anxiety in regard to one particular adult.

Measuring multiple attachments Just because a child protests when an adult leaves does not necessarily mean attachment.

Multiple attachments Attachment behaviour directed towards more than one adult (secondary attachments).

Evaluation extra Schaffer and Emerson used limited measures of attachment.

Animal studies of attachment Important insights into human behaviour.

Lorenz’s research

Harlow’s research

Procedure Goslings saw Lorenz when they hatched.

Procedure Baby monkeys given cloth or wire ‘mother’ with feeding bottle attached.

Findings Newly hatched chicks attach to the first moving object they see (imprinting). Sexual imprinting Adult birds try to mate with whatever species or object they imprint on.

Evaluation Generalisability Birds and mammals have different attachment systems so Lorenz’s results may not be relevant to humans. Some observations questioned Guiton et al.: birds imprinting on rubber gloves did later prefer their own species.

Findings Monkeys clung to cloth surrogate rather than wire one, regardless of which dispensed milk. Maternally deprived monkeys Grew up socially dysfunctional. The critical period After 90 days attachments wouldn’t form.

Evaluation Theoretical value Demonstrated that attachment depends more on contact comfort than feeding. Practical value Howe: informs understanding of risk factors for child abuse. Ethical issues Suffering of the monkeys would be human-like.

96 • Chapter 3

Evaluation extra Can Harlow’s findings be applied to humans?

Attachment

Explanations of attachment: Learning theory Cupboard love theory.

Learning theory Classical conditioning Caregiver (neutral stimulus) associated with food (unconditioned stimulus). Caregiver becomes conditioned stimulus.

Evaluation Animal studies Lorenz and Harlow showed that feeding is not the key to attachment.

Operant conditioning Crying behaviour reinforced positively for infant and negatively for caregiver.

Human research Schaffer and Emerson: most primary attachment figures were the mother even when others did most feeding.

Attachment as a secondary drive Attachment becomes a secondary drive through association with hunger.

Ignores other factors Cannot account for the importance of sensitivity and interactional synchrony. Evaluation extra Some elements of conditioning could still be involved. There is a newer learning theory explanation.

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Explanations of attachment: Bowlby’s theory

Ainsworth’s Strange Situation

The dominant theory of attachment behaviour.

Bowlby’s theory Monotropy One particular attachment is different in quality and importantance than others. Social releasers and the critical period Innate cute behaviours in the first two years. Internal working model Mental representations of the primary attachment relationship are templates for future relationships.

Evaluation Mixed evidence for monotropy Some babies form multiple attachments without a primary attachment. Suess et al.: other attachments may contribute as much as primary one. Support for social releasers Brazleton et al.: when social releasers ignored babies were upset. Support for internal working model Bailey et al.: quality of attachment is passed on through generations in families. Evaluation extra Monotropy is a socially sensitive idea. Temperament may be as important as attachment.

Cultural variations in attachment Mother–infant relationships differ around the world.

Studies of cultural variations Key study: van Ijzendoorn Compared rates of attachment type in 8 countries. Found more variation within than between countries. Other studies Simonella et al.: Italian attachment rates have changed, may be due to changing practices. Jin et al.: Korean attachment rates similar to Japan, could be due to similar child-rearing styles. Conclusions It appears that attachment is innate and universal and secure attachment is the norm. However cultural practices affect rates of attachment types.

Evaluation

Measuring attachment quality.

The Strange Situation Procedure 7-stage controlled observation. Assessed proximity seeking, exploration and secure base, stranger and separation anxiety, response to reunion. Findings Infants showed consistent patterns of attachment behaviour. Types of attachment Secure: enthusiastic greeting, generally content. Avoidant: avoids reunion, generally reduced responses. Resistant: resists reunion, generally more distressed.

Evaluation Support for validity Attachment type predicts later social and personal behaviour, e.g. bullying. Good reliability Different observers agree 90%+ of the time on children’s attachment types. Culture-bound Attachment behaviour may have different meanings in different cultures so the Strange Situation may be measuring different things. Evaluation extra What does the Strange Situation measure? There is at least one more attachment type.

Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation Concerns separation rather than attachment.

Theory of maternal deprivation

Evaluation

Separation versus deprivation Physical separation only leads to deprivation when the child loses emotional care.

Samples unrepresentative of culture Countries do not equate to cultures nor to culturally specific methods of child rearing so can’t make generalisations.

Evidence may be poor Orphans have experienced other traumas. Bowlby may have been a biased observer.

Critical period The first 30 months are critical and deprivation in that time causes damage.

Counter-evidence Lewis: sample of 500, no link between early separation and later criminality.

Method of assessment is biased Research using the Strange Situation imposes a USA test on other cultures (imposed etic).

Effects on development Goldfarb: Deprivation causes low IQ. Bowlby: emotional development, e.g. affectionless psychopathy.

A sensitive period Bowlby exaggerated the importance of the critical period.

Evaluation extra Alternative explanation for similarity. The Strange Situation lacks validity.

44 thieves study (Bowlby) Many more affectionless psychopaths than controls had a prolonged separation.

Large samples Reduce the impact of anomalous results so improve internal validity.

Romanian orphan studies: effects of institutionalisation

Evaluation extra Animal studies show effects of maternal deprivation on social development. Failure to distinguish deprivation from privation.

Influence of early attachments on later relationships The effect of the internal working model.

An example of the effects of deprivation.

Romanian orphan studies

Evaluation

Rutter’s ERA study 165 orphans adopted in Britain. Some of those adopted later show low IQ and disinhibited attachment.

Real-life application Both institutional care and adoption practice have been improved using lessons from Romanian orphans.

Bucharest Early Intervention project Random allocation to institutional care or fostering. Secure attachment in 19% of institutional group versus 74% of controls.

Fewer extraneous variables Romanian orphans had fewer negative influences before institutionalisation than e.g. war orphans.

Effects of institutionalisation Disinhibited attachment and delay in intellectual development if institutionalisation is prolonged.

Romanian orphanages not typical Conditions were so bad that results may not generalise to better institutions. Evaluation extra Ethical issues, especially Bucharest Early Intervention project. Practical applications to adoption and institutional care practice.

Attachment and later relationships Internal working model Bowlby’s idea that the primary attachment relationship provides a template for later relationships. Relationships in later childhood Kerns: securely attached children have better friendships. Myron-Wilson and Smith: securely attached children less likely to be involved in bullying. Relationships with romantic partners McCarthy: securely attached adults have better relationships with friends and partners. Hazan and Shaver: secure responders had better and longer-lasting relationships, avoidant responders had fear of intimacy. Parental relationships Bailey et al.: mothers’ attachment type matched that of their mothers and their babies.

Evaluation Evidence is mixed Zimmerman et al.: found little relationship between quality of attachment and later attachment. Low validity Most studies assess infant attachment by retrospective self-report which lacks validity. Association does not mean causality A third factor like temperament might affect both infant attachment and later relationships. Evaluation extra The influence of attachment is probabilistic. Self-report is conscious but working models are not.

Revision Summaries • 97

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Practice questions, answers and feedback Question 1 Schaffer identified stages in the development of attachment. Briefly outline one of these stages. (2 marks) Morticia’s answer There are four stages in Bowlby’s theory: asocial stage, indiscriminate, discriminate and multiple attachments. In this last stage a baby forms more than one attachment. Luke’s answer The first stage is the asocial stage. In this stage a baby doesn’t behave differently towards people and objects and has no attachments. Vladimir’s answer One of the stages is when a baby becomes attached. Before that the baby has no especial attachments and after that the baby develops many attachments.

Morticia’s list of stages is only useful in the sense that the final stage is identified. There is a partial outline here of multiple attachments but only a weak answer. Luke’s is a more focused answer: the relevant stage is identified and the outline is just about detailed enough for a question of this kind. Vladimir’s answer would not trouble the scorers. He gives a vague and muddled answer that describes the process of attachment in general but not specific stages.

Question 2 Distinguish between insecure-avoidant attachment and insecure-resistant attachment. (4 marks) Morticia’s answer Insecure-avoidant means a baby avoids its mother on reunion whereas insecure-resistant means the baby resists at reunion. Another difference is in terms of stranger anxiety. Insecure-avoidant babies show little stranger anxiety whereas insecure-resistant babies show a lot. Luke’s answer Stranger anxiety is low in both types of attachment and the same is true for separation anxiety. Avoidant children don’t seek proximity but they do explore freely. Vladimir’s answer Insecure-avoidant babies explore freely but don’t seek proximity. They show little separation or stranger anxiety. Insecureresistant babies resist comfort on reunion and can get very distressed.

Morticia has clearly met the ‘distinguish’ requirement of the question and made two relevant contrasting points, so top class answer. The first part of Luke’s answer is inaccurate. The second sentence is correct but there is no distinction made with resistant children so the answer offers nothing of value. All the detail in Vladimir’s answer is correct; however, his expression is poor. The reader is rather left to make the distinction between the two types themselves rather than being directed by Vladimir (Morticia’s answer is much better in this respect). Therefore this constitutes a partial answer.

Question 3 Edgar is an only child. He is one year old. His mother has to work away from home most of the time so he is cared for by his father. Explain the relationship Edgar is likely to have with his father. Refer to psychological evidence in your answer. (4 marks) Morticia’s answer Since he is cared for by his father most of the time then he might be In Morticia’s answer the reference to secure attachment is relevant as is the evaluative comment regarding quality. There securely attached to his father, though he might not be because research has shown that what matters is the quality of the relationship. So even though he isn’t with his mother a is very little evidence though so the answer is not really lot of the time he still might be more closely attached to her. He would still be attached to addressing the question. his father but not as closely. Luke’s answer The role of the father can be for fun and play. Or children are sometimes most closely attached to their father, more than their mother. There is nothing that says close attachments have to be to mothers. There was a study where some children were more attached to their father than their mothers. Vladimir’s answer The study by Schaffer and Emerson found that children often were more closely attached to their fathers than their mothers. This means that Edgar might be more closely attached to his father especially as he spends more time with him. Though Schaffer and Emerson didn’t find that amount of time was important.

Luke’s answer is too generic and anecdotal (and there is also no application to Edgar). The brief reference to ‘a study’ at the end of the answer needs additional detail to be regarded as a contribution. Vladimir makes reference to evidence here as well as a clear link to Edgar in the context of this. The analytical comment at the end is also relevant. The application and/or use of evidence needs a little bit more development.

Question 4 Briefly evaluate Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation. (3 marks) Morticia’s answer Bowlby claimed there was a critical period in development, around the age of 2. If attachments don’t form at that time it is unlikely they will develop at all. The importance of attachments is that they influence relationships later in life because they are a template from the internal working model.

Unfortunately Morticia appears to have misinterpreted the question and given a description of Bowlby’s theory rather than an evaluation. This reinforces the fact that questions should always be read carefully.

Luke’s answer One criticism of this theory is that Bowlby talked about a critical period in development – that separation is only harmful if it occurs in the early years. This idea has been criticised because it is probably more like a sensitive period. Not all children are harmed at this age and some children may be harmed if separation occurs later. This doesn’t mean Bowlby was wrong, he just exaggerated the idea of all or nothing.

Luke has focused on one limitation only here but there is nothing in the question to suggest that it is not a legitimate approach. This is a thoughtful, well-elaborated point. The first sentence is descriptive but useful for scene-setting.

Vladimir’s answer There are some problems with the evidence. For example, in

Bowlby’s 44 thieves it could be that there were other extraneous variables, such as a poor physical environment, that caused the later problems. Other research has shown that children can recover from such experiences. Another issue is that animal studies were used to support this and they can’t be generalised to humans.

98 • Chapter 3

Attachment

Vladimir takes a different approach and provides three separate evaluative points. The emphasis on evaluating the ‘evidence’ rather than the theory detracts from the overall value of the answer. Not as good an answer as Luke’s.

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On this spread we look at some typical student answers to questions. The comments provided indicate what is good and bad in each answer. Learning how to produce effective question answers is a SKILL. Read pages 211–221 for guidance. Question 5 Discuss animal studies of attachment, including research by Lorenz and Harlow. (12 marks AS, 16 marks AL) Luke’s answer Animal studies of attachment are useful because you can’t do the same kinds of

things practically or ethically with humans, so they give support to theories like Bowlby’s theory. In this essay I am going to describe and evaluate Lorenz’s research on imprinting and Harlow’s research on contact comfort. Both were important in the development of Bowlby’s theory. Before Bowlby’s theory there was also learning theory and this research was important in showing that learning theory was wrong. Lorenz did research with geese and goslings. He had a group of goose eggs and when one lot hatched the first thing they saw was Lorenz. They followed him around. To test this Lorenz put a whole lot of young geese together, some of them had imprinted on their real mother. As expected the ones that imprinted on Lorenz followed him instead of their real mother. Bowlby based his idea of attachment on imprinting and said that babies become attached like geese imprint – because it makes them more likely to survive as they stick close to an adult and are less likely to be eaten. Harlow’s study was with baby monkeys. He had observed that baby monkeys often survived better in cages without their mother if you gave them a soft cloth to cuddle. He set up an experiment to test this where there were two wire mothers. One of the mothers had a feeding bottle attached while the other one was covered in cloth. The monkeys were kept all the time in a cage just with these two wire mothers. The monkeys spent their time with the cloth covered mother not the other one which shows that contact comfort is important in attachment. The big issue with these studies is how much they do tell us about human attachment. In the case of geese they are quite different to humans because the attachment system is much more advanced. Research with monkeys is better because they are mammals too.

Luke’s essay is an AS response whereas Vladimir’s is an A level response. Apart from a hint of an evaluative point at the beginning, there is not really anything of value in Luke’s first paragraph. Many students waste important time with introductory paragraphs. The second paragraph is better, though elements of the Lorenz description are poorly expressed. There is effective use of evidence at the end of the study though. There is more relevant detail of Harlow’s research in the next section followed by a hint of analysis at the end. There is an evaluative comment in the final paragraph too but this should be developed much more. In summary, an overly descriptive essay that includes too little analysis.

(330 words) Vladimir’s answer The two most important studies are by Lorenz and Harlow. Lorenz studied

imprinting in geese. He did this by taking the eggs from a goose and putting some of them in an incubator so when they hatched the first thing they saw was Lorenz. The other eggs hatched with their mother. The goslings with Lorenz continued to follow him around. Lorenz also investigated the relationship between imprinting and mate preferences. He observed that a peacock tried to mate with a tortoise because it had been raised in a reptile house. Harlow did an experiment with monkeys kept in a cage with two wire mothers. In one condition the feeding bottle was on a wire mother with no covering. In another condition the bottle was on the other wire mother, which was covered in cloth. The monkeys always preferred the monkey covered in cloth, which shows that feeding is not important in attachment. The research has been very valuable for understanding attachment and how early attachment can affect later behaviour. However some people have challenged the research. For example, Guiton found that chickens that initially became attached to yellow rubber gloves later tried to mate with them. However, if they had experience of other chickens they soon changed their mating preferences. Imprinting is more flexible than Lorenz had suggested. There is the important issue of ethics. In both these studies the animal’s subsequent development was affected by the research. For example the monkeys remained quite disturbed because they were raised in isolation. But it is a question of costs and benefits because, on the other hand, this research has been valuable not only in developing theories but also in the way children are treated. It has helped social workers understand the risk factors in child abuse. A major issue is how much these studies can be used in theories of human behaviour. In the case of geese there is much that is different. The mammalian attachment system is quite different to imprinting so it is a mistake to base the idea of attachment on the behaviour of birds. There is a stronger argument for generalising from monkeys to humans, as they are genetically very similar to us but nevertheless differ in important ways. For example, they do not have such prolonged childhoods and may not develop permanent relationships. Their behaviour is less guided by thinking than in the case of humans, which means that their behaviour would be more determined by experiences than their capacity to think about how to conduct a relationship.

This is an excellent essay that is extremely well written and clear throughout. The studies at the beginning of the answer are concisely presented but contain all the relevant details. Perhaps Vladimir could have used the evidence in the first paragraphs a little more effectively by adding an implication/conclusion at the end of each paragraph – a bit of analysis. However, this is a minor point. Harlow’s study is used effectively and there is also effective use of evidence employed as counter-argument in the case of Guiton. As this is a ‘studies’ rather than a ‘theories’ essay, discussion of ethical issues is perfectly appropriate (ethical issues can’t change a theory) and the explanation of the costs and benefits in such research is particularly well considered. The rest of the answer is also impressive and develops the theme of generalisation (or the lack thereof) from animal studies to human behaviour very well. Though perhaps there was room for a tiny bit more evaluation.

(415 words)

Practice questions, answers and feedback • 99

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Multiple-Choice Questions Introduction to attachment

Animal studies of attachment

1. Which of the following best describes reciprocity? (a) A walk. (b) A chat. (c) A dance. (d) A fight.

1. What is the phenomenon in which early contact influences mate preference called? (a) Imprinting. (b) Contact comfort. (c) Deprivation. (d) Sexual imprinting.

2. During interaction, the mother’s and infant’s signals: (a) Synchronise. (b) Differentiate. (c) Slow down. (d) Stay the same.

2. Which of these behaviours describes Harlow’s monkeys that were maternally deprived? (a) Aggressive. (b) Sociable. (c) Socially skilled. (d) Good parents.

3. Which of the following activities is more common in fathers than mothers? (a) Smiling. (b) Holding. (c) Imitating. (d) Playing.

3. In which condition were Harlow’s monkeys most damaged by early experience? (a) Biological mother from birth. (b) Wire mother from birth. (c) Cloth mother from birth. (d) Biological mother from two months.

4. Which of these is a strength of research into early interaction? (a) It is a socially sensitive topic. (b) It is easy to interpret infant behaviour. (c) Controlled observations capture fine detail. (d) Observations tell us the functions of behaviour.

4. Which of these is an argument for animal attachment research? (a) Clear applications to humans. (b) They form emotional attachments like humans. (c) Ethics of animal suffering. (d) Replication of findings.

Schaffer’s stages of attachment

Explanations of attachment: Bowlby’s theory 1. Which of the following statements is true of monotropy? (a) One attachment is seen as different and more important than others. (b) Children can only attach to one person. (c) Children must have one caregiver only. (d) The primary attachment figure must be the biological mother. 2. Which of the following is probably not a social releaser? (a) Smiling. (b) Cooing. (c) Gripping. (d) Projectile vomiting. 3. Internal working models have an influence on which of the following? (a) Romantic relationships. (b) Relationships with children. (c) Relationships with friends. (d) All of these. 4. According to Bowlby, the critical period in humans lasts for approximately how long? (a) One month. (b) Twelve months. (c) Two years. (d) Sixteen years.

1. In the 1964 study which of the following best describes the participants? (a) 60 18-month-old girls from Glasgow. (b) 60 middle-class children and fathers from Edinburgh. (c) 30 working-class boys and their families from Glasgow. (d) 60 working-class children and their families from Glasgow.

Explanations of attachment: Learning theory

Ainsworth’s Strange Situation

1. According to classical conditioning, which of the following best describes the attachment figure: (a) An unconditioned stimulus. (b) An unconditioned response. (c) A conditioned stimulus. (d) All the above.

1. The Strange Situation can be best described as what kind of study? (a) Naturalistic observation. (b) Controlled observation. (c) Laboratory experiment. (d) Self-report.

2. Schaffer and Emerson assessed what in the infants? (a) Stranger anxiety. (b) Separation anxiety. (c) Separation and stranger anxiety. (d) Zombie-related anxiety.

2. A parent learning to comfort a crying baby in order to stop it crying is an example of: (a) Negative reinforcement. (b) Positive reinforcement. (c) Punishment. (d) A primary drive.

2. How is separation anxiety assessed in the Strange Situation? (a) Being spoken to by a stranger. (b) Playing in an unfamiliar room. (c) Being left alone in the playroom. (d) Reunion with the primary attachment figure.

3. In which of these stages does a child first display social behaviour towards all adults? (a) The asocial stage. (b) The indiscriminate attachment stage. (c) The specific attachment stage. (d) The multiple attachment stage.

3. In learning theory, which of the following is the focus of a primary drive? (a) Food. (b) Love. (c) Comfort. (d) Aggression.

4. At what age do children usually start to form a specific attachment? (a) 2 months. (b) 7 months. (c) 11 months. (d) 18 months.

4. Which of the following is true of learning theory explanations for attachment? (a) They make use of classical conditioning only. (b) There is counter-evidence from human studies. (c) Attachment is seen as a primary drive. (d) They focus on the role of interactional synchrony.

3. Which is true of securely attached infants in the Strange Situation? (a) They are clingy. (b) They get extremely anxious at separation. (c) They are happy at reunion with the primary attachment figure. (d) They show little or no anxiety.

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Attachment

4. Which of these is a strength of Ainsworth’s attachment types? (a) Influence of temperament. (b) Inter-rater reliability of the Strange Situation. (c) Cross-cultural validity of the Strange Situation. (d) Additional attachment types appear to exist.

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1. In van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study, which country had the highest rate of secure attachment? (a) Israel. (b) USA. (c) Britain. (d) China. 2. In van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study, which country had the highest rate of insecureavoidant attachment? (a) Germany. (b) Sweden. (c) Britain. (d) Japan. 3. In their recent Italian study Simonelli et al. found an unusually high level of: (a) Insecure-resistant attachment. (b) Secure attachment. (c) Insecure-avoidant attachment. (d) Atypical attachment. 4. Which is not true of cross-cultural attachment comparisons? (a) Secure attachment is the most common type in every country. (b) There is more variation within countries than between them. (c) Some attachment behaviours seem to have different meanings in different countries. (d) Some countries have particularly bad parents.

Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation 1. Which of the following best describes maternal deprivation? (a) Separation from the primary attachment figure. (b) Failure to attach to a primary attachment figure. (c) Failure of attachment figures to feed the infant. (d) Loss of care of the primary attachment figure without a substitute. 2. The critical period in which prolonged separation can lead to deprivation is within the first: (a) 30 days. (b) 30 weeks. (c) 30 months. (d) 30 years.

3. Which of the following is true of the 44 thieves study? (a) There was no association between maternal deprivation and affectionless psychopathy. (b) Partial replications, e.g. Lewis (1954) have found similar results. (c) Results are not supported by those of Goldfarb (1955). (d) There may be bias because Bowlby assessed affectionless psychopathy and deprivation. 4. Which of the following is not usually a symptom of affectionless psychopathy? (a) Lack of empathy. (b) Lack of guilt. (c) Inability to form close relationships. (d) Serial murder.

Romanian orphan studies 1. Which of the following best describes the aim of the ERA study? (a) A follow-up of Polish orphans looking at social and intellectual development. (b) A follow-up of Romanian orphans fostered in Romania. (c) A follow-up of Romanian orphans looking at social and intellectual development. (d) A follow-up testing the quality of adoptees available from Romania. 2. At four years: (a) A negative correlation was found between age of adoption and intellectual development. (b) A positive correlation was found between age of adoption and social-emotional development. (c) A positive correlation was found between age of adoption and intellectual development. (d) No correlations of any sort.

Influence of early attachment on later relationships 1. Which of these is a true statement concerning internal working models? (a) They serve as templates for future relationships. (b) They are the result of temperament. (c) They predict perfectly what sort of relationships people will have. (d) They determine social development and are unalterable. 2. Which attachment type is most likely to be associated with bullying? (a) Securely attached. (b) Insecure-resistant. (c) Insecure-avoidant. (d) Disinhibited. 3. Which attachment type is most likely to be have a lot of arguments with friends? (a) Securely attached. (b) Insecure-resistant. (c) Insecure-avoidant. (d) Disinhibited. 4. Which of these studies does not support an important role for internal working models? (a) Myron-Wilson and Smith (1998). (b) Zimmerman et al. (2000). (c) McCarthy (1999). (d) Bailey et al. (2007).

3. Which of the following is a symptom of disinhibited attachment? (a) Avoidant attachment behaviour. (b) Indiscriminate attachment behaviour. (c) Secure attachment behaviour. (d) Resistant attachment behaviour. 4. Which of these is an advantage of the Bucharest Early Intervention project? (a) Better ethics than the ERA study. (b) A larger sample than the ERA study. (c) Random allocation to conditions. (d) Children were fostered rather than adopted.

MCQ answers Introduction to attachment 1C 2A 3D 4C Stages of attachment 1D 2C 3B 4B Animal studies 1D 2A 3B 4A Theories of attachment: Learning theories 1C 2A 3A 4B Theories of attachment: Bowlby’s theory 1A 2D 3D 4C Ainsworth’s Strange Situation 1B 2C 3C 4B Cultural variation in attachment 1C 2A 3A 4D Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation 1D 2C 3D 4D Romanian orphan studies 1C 2A 3B 4C The influence of early attachment on later relationships 1A 2C 3B 4D

Cultural variations in attachment

Multiple-Choice Questions • 101

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Chapter 4 Approaches in Psychology If you were a painter … … how would you describe this picture? What features or aspects would be of most interest to you?

If you were a geographer … … how would you describe this picture? If you were a historian, … … how would you describe this picture? If you were a mathematician … … how would you describe this picture?

If you were a bee … … how would you describe this picture?

You are a psychologist ...

How would you describe this picture? Just as this picture could be described in different ways by different people (or insects!), so different psychologists approach the study of human beings in different ways. In this chapter, we explore some of the key approaches in psychology and their suggestions as to how we should best investigate and understand human behaviour and experience. First, however, we chart the origins of psychology, from its early beginnings, through to the present day.

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Approaches in Psychology

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Chapter contents 104 106 108 110 112 114 116 118 120 122

Origins of psychology The learning approach: behaviourism The learning approach: social learning theory The cognitive approach The biological approach Biopsychology: the nervous system and the endocrine system Biopsychology: neurons and synaptic transmission (A level only) The psychodynamic approach (A level only) Humanistic psychology (A level only) Comparision of approaches

124 126 128 130

Practical corner Revision summaries Practice questions, answers and feedback Multiple-choice questions

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Origins of psychology The specification says… Origins of psychology: Wundt, introspection and the emergence of psychology as a science. The idea of psychology as a distinct branch of study in its own right is generally dated at around 1880 when the fi rst experimental lab was established. That said, the philosophical roots of psychology stretch back much earlier than this. We shall consider these early roots as well as chart the emergence of psychology as a scientific discipline.

Key terms Psychology – The scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those functions affecting behaviour in a given context. Science – A means of acquiring knowledge through systematic and objective investigation. The aim is to discover general laws. Introspection – The fi rst systematic experimental attempt to study the mind by breaking up conscious awareness into basic structures of thoughts, images and sensations.

Wundt and introspection Wundt’s lab The first ever lab dedicated to psychological enquiry was opened by Wilhelm Wundt in Leipzig, Germany in 1879. The objective Wundt set himself was to document and describe the nature of human consciousness. This pioneering method came to be known as introspection, and involved Wundt and his co-workers recording their own conscious thoughts, with the aim of breaking these down into their constituent parts. Isolating the structure of consciousness in this way is called structuralism.

Controlled methods This early attempt to investigate the mind might be regarded by many as naïve, but some of the methods and techniques Wundt and his co-workers used would nevertheless be recognised as ‘scientific’ today. All introspections were recorded under strictly controlled conditions using the same stimulus every time (such as a ticking metronome). The same standardised instructions were issued to all participants, and this allowed procedures to be repeated (replicated) every single time. Thus, Wundt’s work was significant in that it marked the separation of the modern scientific psychology from its broader philosophical roots.

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Psychology’s early philosophical roots Rene Descartes (1596–1650) Descartes, a French philosopher, suggested that the mind and body are independent from each other – a philosophical stance that came to be known as Cartesian dualism. Although this view has since been challenged, it suggested that the mind could be an object of study in its own right. Descartes demonstrated his own existence with the famous quote ‘I think therefore I am’. John Locke (1632–1704) Locke proposed empiricism, the idea that all experience can be obtained through the senses, and that human beings inherit neither knowledge nor instincts. This view would later form the basis of the behaviourist approach that the world can be understood by investigating external events that are observed and measured. Charles Darwin (1809–1882) Central to Darwin’s evolutionary theory is the notion that all human and animal behaviour has changed over successive generations, so that the individuals with stronger, more adaptive genes survive and reproduce, and the individuals with weaker genes do not survive and reproduce. Thus, these weaker genes are ‘weeded out’ (survival of the fittest). The assumption that many human behaviours, such as social behaviour, have evolved due to their adaptive value is deeply rooted in many areas of psychology, especially the biological approach.

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17th century – 19th century Psychology is a branch of the broader discipline of philosophy. If psychology has a definition during this time it is best understood as experimental philosophy.

1879 Wilhelm Wundt opens the first experimental psychology lab in Germany, and psychology emerges as a distinct discipline in its own right.

1900s Sigmund Freud publishes The interpretation of dreams, and the psychodynamic approach is established. Freud emphasised the influence of the unconscious mind on behaviour, alongside development of his personcentred therapy: psychoanalysis. He argued that physical problems could be explained in terms of conflicts within the mind.

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The emergence of psychology as a science Watson and the early behaviourists

Scientific approach

By the beginning of the 20th century, the scientific status and value of introspection was being questioned by many, most notably the behaviourist John B. Watson (1913). Watson’s main problem with introspection was that it produced data that was subjective, in that it varied greatly from person to person, so it became very difficult to establish general principles. Watson was also highly critical of introspection’s focus on ‘private’ mental processes and proposed that a truly scientific psychology should restrict itself only to studying phenomena that could be observed and measured. Thus, the behaviourist approach was born, and with it the emergence of psychology as a science.

Watson (1913), and later Skinner (1953), brought the language, rigour and methods of the natural sciences into psychology. The behaviourist focus on the scientific processes involved in learning, alongside the use of carefully controlled lab experiments, would go on to dominate the discipline for the next five decades. The legacy of behaviourism can still be observed today. Many modern psychologists continue to rely on the experimental method as part of their research and practices. However, the scope of this research has broadened considerably since the behaviourists first studied learning in the lab. Following the cognitive revolution of the 1960s, the study of mental processes is now seen

1960s The cognitive revolution came with the introduction of the digital computer. This gave psychologists a metaphor for the operations of the human mind. The cognitive approach reintroduces the study of mental processes to psychology but in a much more scientific way than Wundt’s earlier investigations.

1960s Around the time of the cognitive revolution, Albert Bandura proposes the social learning theory. This approach draws attention to the role of cognitive factors in learning, providing a bridge between the newly established cognitive approach and traditional behaviourism.

1980s onwards The biological approach begins to establish itself as the dominant scientific perspective in psychology. This is due to advances in technology that have led to increased understanding of the brain and the biological processes.

Eve of the 21st century Towards the end of the last century, cognitive neuroscience emerges as a distinct discipline bringing together the cognitive and biological approaches. Cognitive neuroscience is built on the earlier computer models and investigates how biological structures influence mental states.

onwards

1913 John B. Watson writes Psychology as the Behaviourist views it and BF Skinner establishes the behaviourist approach. The psychodynamic and behaviourist approaches dominate psychology for the next fifty years.

1950s Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow develop the humanistic approach – the socalled ‘third force’ in psychology, rejecting the views favoured by behaviourism and the psychodynamic approach that human behaviour was not determined by the individual. Humanistic psychologists emphasise the importance of selfdetermination and free will.

as a legitimate and highly scientific area within psychology. Although mental processes remain ‘private’, cognitive psychologists are able to make inferences about how these work on the basis of lab tests. The biological approach also makes use of experimental data. Researchers within this area have taken advantage of recent advances in technology to investigate physiological processes as they happen, including live activity in the brain using sophisticated scanning techniques such as fMRI and EEG. Suffice to say that, even though the scientific method is still a major cornerstone psychology, it has come a long way since its early beginnings.

WHAT’S IN A WORD? The word ‘psychology’ comes from the Greek word ‘psyche’ meaning ‘mind’ and the Greek word ‘logos’ meaning ‘study of’. However, most modern psychologists might consider ‘the study of the mind’ too narrow a definition when describing the diverse and multidisciplinary nature of their work.

Check It Rene Descartes, he thinks therefore he is.

1. Explain what Wundt meant by introspection. 2. Define what is meant by the term psychology. 3. Briefly explain the emergence of psychology as a science.

[3 marks] [2 marks] [4 marks]

Origins of psychology • 105

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The learning approach: Behaviourism The specification says…

The behaviourist approach

The behaviourist approach including classical conditioning and Pavlov’s research, operant conditioning, types of reinforcement and Skinner’s research. The behaviourist approach emerged at the beginning of the 20th century and became the dominant approach in psychology for half of that century. It is also credited as being the driving force in the development of psychology as a scientific discipline.

Key terms Behaviourist approach – A way of explaining behaviour in terms of what is observable and in terms of learning. Classical conditioning – Learning by association. Occurs when two stimuli are repeatedly paired together – an unconditioned (unlearned) stimulus (UCS) and a new ‘neutral’ stimulus. The neutral stimulus eventually produces the same response that was fi rst produced by the unlearned stimulus alone. Operant conditioning – A form of learning in which behaviour is shaped and maintained by its consequences. Possible consequences of behaviour include positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement or punishment. Reinforcement – A consequence of behaviour that increases the likelihood of that behaviour being repeated. Can be positive or negative.

1 Before conditioning

2 Before conditioning

response

response salivation unconditioned response

unconditioned stimulus 3 During conditioning

bell neutral stimulus

food

unconditioned response

bell conditioned stimulus

salivation conditioned response

• Often, students have difficulty explaining the distinction between negative reinforcement and punishment. Remember that negative reinforcement increases the likelihood of a behaviour being repeated (because it avoids an unpleasant consequence). In contrast, punishment decreases the likelihood of a behaviour being repeated (because of its unpleasant consequence).

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Classical conditioning – Pavlov’s research Classical conditioning is learning through association and was first demonstrated by Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov revealed that dogs could be conditioned to salivate to the sound of a bell if that sound was repeatedly presented at the same time as they were given food. Gradually, Pavlov’s dogs learned to associate the sound of the bell (a stimulus) with the food (another stimulus) and would produce the salivation response every time they heard the sound. Thus, Pavlov was able to show how a neutral stimulus, in this case a bell, can come to elicit a new learned response (conditioned response) through association (see diagram below left).

Operant conditioning – Skinner’s research BF Skinner (1953) suggested that learning is an active process whereby humans and animals operate on their environment. In operant conditioning there are three types of consequences of behaviour: • Positive reinforcement is receiving a reward when a certain behaviour is performed; for example, praise from a teacher for answering a question correctly in class. • Negative reinforcement occurs when an animal (or human) avoids something unpleasant. When a student hands in an essay so as not to be told off, the avoidance of something unpleasant is the negative reinforcement. Similarly, a rat may learn through negative reinforcement that pressing a lever leads to avoidance of an electric shock (below). • Punishment is an unpleasant consequence of behaviour, for example being shouted at by the teacher for talking during a lesson. (Finding a way to avoid that would be negative reinforcement.) Positive and negative reinforcement increase the likelihood that behaviour will be repeated. Punishment decreases the likelihood that behaviour will be repeated.

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response salivation

The behaviourist approach is only interested in studying behaviour that can be observed and measured. It is not concerned with investigating mental processes of the mind. Early behaviourists such as John B. Watson (1913) rejected introspection as it involved too many concepts that were vague and difficult to measure. As a result, behaviourists tried to maintain more control and objectivity within their research and relied on lab experiments as the best way to achieve this. Following Darwin, behaviourists suggested that the basic processes that govern learning are the same in all species. This meant that in behaviourist research, animals could replace humans as experimental subjects. Behaviourists identified two important forms of learning: classical conditioning and operant conditioning.

no conditioned response

4 After conditioning

response bell

no salivation

STUDY TIPS

food

Assumptions

Concepts: The Skinner Box

(A) Skinner conducted experiments with rats, and sometimes pigeons, in specially designed cages called Skinner Boxes. Every time the rat activated a lever (or pecked a disc in the case of the pigeon) within the box it was rewarded with a food pellet. From then on the animal would continue to perform the behaviour. (B) Skinner also showed how rats and pigeons could be conditioned to perform the same behaviour to avoid an unpleasant stimulus, for example an electric shock. Questions

1. Which aspect of operant conditioning does paragraph A illustrate? 2. Which aspect of operant conditioning does paragraph B illustrate?

Approaches in Psychology

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Evaluation Scientific credibility Behaviourism was able to bring the language and methods of the natural sciences into psychology by focusing on the measurement of observable behaviour within highly controlled lab settings. By emphasising the importance of scientific processes such as objectivity and replication, behaviourism was influential in the development of psychology as a scientific discipline, giving it greater credibility and status.

Real-life application The principles of conditioning have been applied to a broad range of real-world behaviours and problems. For instance, operant conditioning is the basis of token economy systems that have been used successfully in institutions, such as prisons and psychiatric wards. These work by rewarding appropriate behaviour with tokens that can then be exchanged for privileges. For an example of how classical conditioning has been applied to the treatment of phobias, see page 144. Treatments such as these have the advantage of requiring less effort from a patient because the patient doesn’t have to think about their problem (as they do in ‘talking therapies’). Such therapies are also suitable for patients who lack insight.

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Concepts: Behaviourism and gambling Skinner discovered that if an animal was rewarded every time it activated the lever or pecked the disc, the conditioned behaviour would quickly die out (become extinct) as the animal was satiated (full of food pellets!) It was revealed that a variable ratio schedule would prolong the behaviour and was most resistant to extinction. Here, reinforcement is given after an unpredictable (variable) number of responses are produced, for example, every 10, 15, 12, etc., times the lever is pressed. This has been applied to a number of forms of human behaviour, including gambling addiction. Question

Explain how addiction to gambling could be explained by the principles above.

Mechanistic view of behaviour From a behaviourist perspective, animals (including humans) are seen as passive and machine-like responders to the environment, with little or no conscious insight into their behaviour. Other approaches in psychology, such as the social learning theory and the cognitive approach, have emphasised the importance of mental events during learning. These processes, which mediate between stimulus and response, suggest that people may play a much more active role in their own learning. This means that learning theory may apply less to human than to animal behavour.

Evaluation eXtra

How could the urge to shoot zombies in a video game be explained by operant conditioning?

Environmental determinism The behaviourist approach sees all behaviour as determined by past experiences that have been conditioned. Skinner suggested that everything we do is the sum total of our reinforcement history. This ignores any possible influence that free will may have on behaviour. Skinner suggested that any sense of free will is simply an illusion. When something happens we impose a sense of having made the decision but, according to Skinner, our past conditioning history determined the outcome. Consider: How much of our behaviour do you think is determined by the environment and how much is the result of our own free will?

Ethical and practical issues in animal experiments Although experimental procedures such as the Skinner Box enabled behaviourists to maintain a high degree of control over their experimental ‘subjects’, many critics have questioned the ethics of conducting such investigations. The animals involved were exposed to stressful and aversive conditions, which may also have affected how they reacted to the experimental situation. Consider: Does what we learn from experimental studies such as the Skinner Box justify the way in which the animals were treated?

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Concepts: Behaviourism and gaming

David Wong (2008) has used Skinnerian principles to explain addiction to video games in his article 5 creepy ways video games are trying to get you addicted. His argument is that the video game environment is a form of Skinner Box providing reinforcement contingencies and rewards that are dependent upon certain behaviours (killing zombies, shooting aliens, successful completion of the level, etc). The use of the lever or joystick in many video games, it is argued, is analogous to the behaviour exhibited by the rat in the Skinner Box, and the success and addictive nature of many early video games, such as Pac-Man, is explained by the fact that the central character navigates its way around the screen literally munching on food pellets! Question

How could video game addiction be explained using behaviourist principles?

Check It 1. Explain one assumption of the behaviourist approach. [3 marks] 2. Outline two types of reinforcement as suggested by the behaviourist approach. [4 marks] 3. Outline and evaluate the behaviourist approach in psychology. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

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The learning approach: Social learning theory The specification says… Social learning theory including imitation, identification, modelling, vicarious reinforcement, the role of mediational processes and Bandura’s research. Albert Bandura proposed social learning theory as a development of the behaviourist approach. He argued that classical and operant conditioning could not account for all human learning – there are important mental processes that mediate between stimulus and response.

Key terms Social learning theory – A way of explaining behaviour that includes both direct and indirect reinforcement, combining learning theory with the role of cognitive factors. Imitation – Copying the behaviour of others. Identification – When an observer associates themselves with a role model and wants to be like the role model. Modelling – From the observer’s perspective, modelling is imitating the behaviour of a role model. From the role model’s perspective, modelling is the precise demonstration of a specific behaviour that may be imitated by an observer. Vicarious reinforcement – Reinforcement which is not directly experienced but occurs through observing someone else being reinforced for a behaviour. This is a key factor in imitation. Mediational processes – Cognitive factors (i.e. thinking) that influence learning and come between stimulus and response.

A child may want to imitate the dribbling skills of Lionel Messi (pictured), but may lack the necessary ability required to reproduce the behaviour.

Social learning theory Assumptions Albert Bandura agreed with the behaviourists that much of our behaviour is learned from experience. However, his social learning theory (SLT) proposed a different way in which people learn: through observation and imitation of others within a social context, thus social learning. SLT suggested that learning occurs directly, through classical and operant conditioning, but also indirectly.

Vicarious reinforcement For indirect learning to take place an individual observes the behaviour of others. The learner may imitate this behaviour but, in general, imitation only occurs if the behaviour is seen to be rewarded (reinforced) rather than punished, i.e. vicarious reinforcement occurs (see box below). Thus, the learner observes a behaviour but most importantly observes the consequences of a behaviour.

The role of mediational processes SLT is often described as the ‘bridge’ between traditional learning theory (previous spread) and the cognitive approach (next spread) because it focuses on how mental (cognitive) factors are involved in learning. These mental factors mediate (i.e. intervene) in the learning process to determine whether a new response is acquired. Four mental or mediational processes in learning were identified by Bandura: 1. Attention – the extent to which we notice certain behaviours. 2. Retention – how well the behaviour is remembered. 3. Motor reproduction – the ability of the observer to perform the behaviour. 4. Motivation – the will to perform the behaviour, which is often determined by whether the behaviour was rewarded or punished. The first two of these relate to the learning of behaviour and the last two to the performance of behaviour. Unlike traditional behaviourism, the learning and performance of behaviour need not occur together. Observed behaviours may be stored by the observer and reproduced at a later time.

Identification People (especially children) are much more likely to imitate the behaviour of people with whom they identify, called role models. This process is called modelling. A person becomes a role model if they are seen to possess similar characteristics to the observer and/or are attractive and have high status. Role models may not necessarily be physically present in the environment, and this has important implications for the influence of the media on behaviour (see facing page).

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Concepts: Do children imitate what they see?

(A) Bandura et al. (1961) recorded the behaviour of young children who watched an adult behave in an aggressive way towards a Bobo doll (see right). The adult hit the doll with a hammer and shouted abuse at it. When these children were later observed playing with various toys, including a Bobo doll, they behaved much more aggressively towards the doll and the other toys than those who had observed a non-aggressive adult. Question: Which aspect of SLT does study A illustrate?

(B) Bandura and Walters (1963) showed videos to children where an adult behaved aggressively towards the Bobo doll. One group of children saw the adult praised for their behaviour (being told ‘Well done’). A second group saw the adult punished for their aggression towards the doll, by being told off. The third group (control group) saw the aggression without any consequence. When given their own Bobo doll to play with, the first group showed much more aggression, followed by the third group, and then the second. Question: Which aspect of SLT does study B illustrate?

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Evaluation The importance of cognitive factors in learning Neither classical nor operant conditioning can offer an adequate account of learning on their own. Humans and many animals store information about the behaviour of others and use this to make judgements about when it is appropriate to perform certain actions. As Bandura observed: ‘Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous, if people had to rely solely on the effects of their own actions to inform them what to do. From observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviours are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide to action’ (Bandura 1977). As such, SLT provides a more comprehensive explanation of human learning by recognising the role of mediational processes.

Over-reliance on evidence from lab studies Many of Bandura’s ideas were developed through observation of young children’s behaviour in lab settings. Lab studies are often criticised for their contrived nature where participants may respond to demand characteristics. It has been suggested, in relation to the Bobo doll research (bottom of facing page) that, because the main purpose of the doll is to strike it, the children were simply behaving in a way that they thought was expected. Thus the research may tell us little about how children actually learn aggression in everyday life.

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Concepts: Video nasties

Bandura’s Bobo doll experiments have implications for the media – are children, and indeed some adults, influenced by the violence and aggression they see on television, in movies and video games? This debate was brought into sharp focus in 1990 following the death of James Bulger, a toddler from Liverpool murdered by two ten-year-old boys. At the time it was argued by many UK newspapers that the child killers were inspired by the horror film Child’s Play 3, and there were many calls for rules and censorship on such ‘video nasties’ to be tightened. However, many researchers dispute the link between the media and real-life violence. For example, Guy Cumberbatch (2001) argues that supposed ‘video nasties’, of the type cited in the Bulger case, are much more likely to frighten children than to make them frightening (aggressive) towards others. He argues that isolated incidents such as these are better explained by other factors such as social deprivation, child abuse and early exposure to violence in the home. Questions

1. Using social learning principles explain why media (such as violent videos) may potentially have a negative impact on children’s behaviour. 2. How might the media vicariously reinforce violence and aggression?

Underestimates the influence of biological factors Bandura makes little reference to the impact of biological factors on social learning. One consistent finding in the Bobo doll experiments was that boys were often more aggressive than girls regardless of the specifics of the experimental situation. This may be explained by hormonal factors, such as differences in levels of testosterone, a hormone that is present in greater quantities in boys than girls and which is linked to increased aggressive behaviour. This means that this important influence on behaviour is not accounted for in SLT.

Evaluation eXtra Explains cultural differences in behaviour Stanley Kubrick withdrew his controversial 1971 film A Clockwork Orange from British cinemas after a series of ‘copycat’ incidents based on scenes from the film.

STUDY TIPS

Social learning theory has the advantage of being able to explain cultural differences in behaviour. Social learning principles can account for how children learn from other individuals around them, as well as through the media, and this can explain how cultural norms are transmitted through particular societies. This has proved useful in understanding a range of behaviours, such as how children come to understand their gender role. Consider: How could the learning of gender-appropriate behaviour be explained by social learning theory? Why would the biological approach have difficulty accounting for cultural differences in gender behaviour?

Less determinist than the behaviourist approach Bandura emphasised reciprocal determinism, in the sense that we are not merely influenced by our external environment, but we also exert an influence upon it, through the behaviours we choose to perform. This element of choice suggests that there is some free will in the way we behave. Consider: Why is this a less determinist position than that suggested by the behaviourist approach? In what way is this preferable?

• If you need to evaluate social learning theory you might, for example, use the Bobo doll studies (or other studies) to illustrate key points. However, you should keep descriptions of the procedures and findings within these studies to a minimum and instead make it clear how the implications/ conclusions from these studies support (or contradict) key SLT concepts.

Check It 1. Outline what is meant by the term identification in relation to the social learning theory approach. [2 marks] 2. Explain one limitation of the social learning theory approach. [3 marks] 3. Outline and evaluate the social learning theory approach. Refer to the behaviourist approach as part of your evaluation. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

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The cognitive approach The specification says… The cognitive approach: the study of internal mental processes, the role of schema, the use of theoretical and computer models to explain and make inferences about mental processes. The emergence of cognitive neuroscience. The cognitive approach developed in the 1960s as a response to the behaviourists’ failure to acknowledge mental processes. The development of the fi rst computers gave cognitive psychologists a metaphor for describing mental processes.

Key terms Cognitive approach – The term ‘cognitive’ has come to mean ‘mental processes’, so this approach is focused on how our mental processes (e.g. thoughts, perceptions, attention) affect behaviour. Internal mental processes – ‘Private’ operations of the mind such as perception and attention that mediate between stimulus and response. Schema – A mental framework of beliefs and expectations that influence cognitive processing. They are developed from experience. Inference – The process whereby cognitive psychologists draw conclusions about the way mental processes operate on the basis of observed behaviour. Cognitive neuroscience – The scientific study of biological structures that underpin cognitive processes.

Misperceived song lyrics Did Celine Dion really sing ‘The hot dogs go on’ on the 1997 Titanic movie soundtrack? A case of schema distorting our interpretations of sensory information, leading to perceptual errors.

The cognitive approach Assumptions In direct contrast to the behaviourist approach, the cognitive approach argues that internal mental processes can, and should, be studied scientifically. As a result, the cognitive approach has investigated those areas of human behaviour that were neglected by behaviourists, such as memory, perception and thinking. These processes are ‘private’ and cannot be observed, so cognitive psychologists study them indirectly by making inferences about what is going on inside people’s minds on the basis of their behaviour.

Theoretical and computer models One way to study internal processes is through the use of theoretical models. One important theoretical model is the information processing approach, which suggests that information flows through the cognitive system in a sequence of stages that include input, storage and retrieval, as in the multi-store model (see page 48). The cognitive approach also uses computer models, where the mind is compared to a computer (the ‘computer analogy’) by suggesting that there are similarities in the way information is processed. These models use the concepts of a central processing unit (the brain), the concept of coding (to turn information into a useable format) and the use of ‘stores’ to hold information. Such computational models of the mind have proved useful in the development of ‘thinking machines’ or artificial intelligence.

The role of schema Cognitive processing can often be affected by a person’s beliefs or expectations, often referred to as schema. Schema are ‘packages’ of ideas and information developed through experience. They act as a mental framework for the interpretation of incoming information received by the cognitive system; for example, you have a schema for a chair – something with legs that you can sit on. That’s a package of information learned through experience that helps you to respond to the object appropriately. Babies are born with simple motor schema for innate behaviours such as sucking and grasping. For example, the grasping schema consists of moving a hand towards an object and shaping the hand around the object in co-ordination with visual input. As we get older, our schema become more detailed and sophisticated. Adults have developed mental representations for everything from the concept of psychology to a schema for what happens in a restaurant or what a typical zombie looks like. Schema enable us to process lots of information quickly and this is useful as a sort of mental short-cut that prevents us from being overwhelmed by environmental stimuli. However, schema may also distort our interpretations of sensory information, leading to perceptual errors (see examples on facing page).

The emergence of cognitive neuroscience Cognitive neuroscience is the scientific study of the influence of brain structures on mental processes. Mapping brain areas to specific cognitive functions has a long history in psychology. As early as the 1860s Paul Broca had identified how damage to an area of the frontal lobe (which came to be known as Broca’s Area) could permanently impair speech production. It is only in the last twenty years, however, with advances in brain imaging techniques such as fMRI and PET scans, that scientists have been able to systematically observe and describe the neurological basis of mental processes. For example, in research involving tasks that required the use of episodic and semantic memory, Tulving et al. (see page 51) were able to show how these different types of long-term memory may be located on opposite sides of the pre-frontal cortex. As well as this, the system in overall charge of working memory – the central executive – is thought to reside in a similar area (see the1997 study by Braver et al. on page 53). Scanning techniques have also proved useful in establishing the neurological basis of some mental disorders. On page 150 the link between the parahippocampal gyrus and OCD is discussed. It appears to play a role in processing unpleasant emotions. The focus of cognitive neuroscience has expanded recently to include the use of computer-generated models that are designed to ‘read’ the brain. This has led to the development of mind mapping techniques known as ‘brain fingerprinting’. One possible future application of this could be to analyse the brain wave patterns of eyewitnesses to determine whether they are lying in court!

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Evaluation Scientific and objective methods The cognitive approach has always employed highly controlled and rigorous methods of study in order to enable researchers to infer cognitive processes at work. This has involved the use of lab experiments to produce reliable, objective data. In addition, the emergence of cognitive neuroscience has enabled the two fields of biology and cognitive psychology to come together. This means that the study of the mind has established a credible scientific basis.

Machine reductionism Although there are similarities between the human mind and the operations of a computer (inputs and outputs, storage systems, the use of a central processor), the computer analogy has been criticised by many. Such machine reductionism ignores the influence of human emotion and motivation on the cognitive system, and how this may affect our ability to process information. For instance, research has found that human memory may be affected by emotional factors, such as the influence of anxiety on eyewitnesses (see page 60).

Application to everyday life As we have seen, cognitive psychologists are only able to infer mental processes from the behaviour they observe in their research. As a consequence, cognitive psychology occasionally suffers from being too abstract and theoretical in nature. Similarly, experimental studies of mental processes are often carried out using artificial stimuli (such as tests of memory involving word lists) that may not represent everyday memory experience. Therefore research on cognitive processes may lack external validity.

Evaluation eXtra

Concepts: The influence of schema on perception 1. Read the following paragraph: The Pschyology of Zombeis Evrey gnereation gtes the mosnter it deserevs as the reprsenetaiton of its depeest faers. Tdoay’s zombeis, who are usulaly infetced in thier thuosands, repersent our modren faer of contaiguos disesaes, uncnotrolled medcial techonolgoy and socail colalpse. Zombeis are lniked, in our cutlure, with daeth and we probalby evovled to aviod daed and disesaed bodeis to aviod infcetoin’, accrodnig to Lynn Alden, a profsesor of pschyology at the Univesrity of Britsih Colmobia. ‘But its one thnig to aviod a corspe that ins’t movnig and qiute anotehr wehn tehy strat chasnig you!’ Question:

Explain the role of schema in helping you make sense of the information above. 2. In contrast, many people misread the following sentences.

PA

Question:

Explain the role of schema in the misperception of the sentences above. 3. Bugelski and Alampay (1962) – the rat-man Two groups of participants were shown a sequence of pictures, either a number of different faces or a number of different animals. They were then shown the ambiguous figure the ‘rat-man’ (below). Participants who saw a sequence of faces were more likely to perceive the figure as a man, whereas participants who saw a sequence of animals were more likely to perceive the figure as a rat.

Real-life application The cognitive approach is probably the dominant approach in psychology today and has been applied to a wide range of practical and theoretical contexts. For example, cognitive psychology has made an important contribution in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and the development of ‘thinking machines’ (robots), exciting advances that may revolutionise how we live in the future. Consider: How has cognitive psychology been applied to the treatment of depression? In what way has cognitive psychology improved the reliability of eyewitness testimony?

Less determinist than other approaches The cognitive approach is founded on soft determinism – it recognises that our cognitive system can only operate within the limits of what we know, but that we are free to think before responding to a stimulus. This is a more reasonable ‘interactionist’ (middle-ground) position than the hard determinism suggested by some other approaches. Consider: Explain how this is more flexible than the hard determinism of the behaviourist approach.

Check It 1. Outline the emergence of cognitive neuroscience. [4 marks] 2. Briefly explain how theoretical models are used in cognitive psychology to make inferences about mental processes. [4 marks] 3. Describe the cognitive approach in psychology. Evaluate the research methods used by cognitive psychologists. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

Question:

Explain how the influence of schema may account for this.

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Methods: Problem solving

A cognitive psychologist carried out an experiment into the effects of other people on problem solving. An independent groups design was used. In Condition A, 15 children were given 30 problems each to solve in two hours. The children completed the task in the same room and were allowed to talk to each other. In Condition B, a different group of 15 children were given the same problems and the same time to solve them but worked in silence. The number of problems solved in Condition A was 204; the number of problems solved in Condition B was 324. Questions

1. What percentage of the total number of problems solved were solved in Condition B? (2 marks) (See page 196.) 2. Calculate the mean number of problems solved in Condition A and Condition B. (2 marks) (See page 192.) 3. Sketch a suitable graphical display to represent the mean number of problems solved in Condition A and Condition B. (3 marks) 4. Explain one conclusion that can be drawn from the mean number of problems solved in Condition A and Condition B. (2 marks)

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The biological approach The specification says… The biological approach: the influence of genes, biological structures and neurochemistry on behaviour. Genotype and phenotype, genetic basis of behaviour, evolution and behaviour. The biological approach predates psychology but in recent years has gained prominence due to advances in technology such as the development of brain scanning techniques and increased understanding of the genetic basis of behaviour.

Key terms Biological approach – A perspective that emphasises the importance of physical processes in the body such as genetic inheritance and neural function. Genes – They make up chromosomes and consist of DNA which codes the physical features of an organism (such as eye colour, height) and psychological features (such as mental disorder, intelligence). Genes are transmitted from parents to offspring, i.e. inherited. Biological structure – An arrangement or organisation of parts to form an organ, system or living thing. Neurochemistry – Relating to chemicals in the brain that regulate psychological functioning. Genotype – The particular set of genes that a person possesses. Phenotype – The characteristics of an individual determined by both genes and the environment. Evolution – The changes in inherited characteristics in a biological population over successive generations.

The biological approach Assumptions The biological approach suggests that everything psychological is at first biological, so to fully understand human behaviour, we must look to biological structures and processes within the body, such as genes, neurochemistry and the nervous system. An understanding of brain structure and function can explain our thoughts and behaviour. From a biological perspective, the mind lives in the brain – meaning that all thoughts, feelings and behaviour ultimately have a physical basis. This is in contrast to, say, the cognitive approach that sees mental processes of the mind as being separate from the physical brain.

The genetic basis of behaviour Behaviour geneticists study whether behavioural characteristics, such as intelligence, personality, mental disorder, etc., are inherited in the same way as physical characteristics such as height and eye colour. Twin studies are used to determine the likelihood that certain traits have a genetic basis by comparing the concordance rates between pairs of twins; that is, the extent to which both twins share the same characteristic. If identical (monozygotic) twins are found to have higher concordance rates than non-identical (dizygotic) twins – for musical ability, schizophrenia, love of romantic films or whatever – this would suggest a genetic basis. This is because MZ twins share 100% of each other’s genes, whilst DZ twins share about 50% (the same as any siblings).

Genotype and phenotype A person’s genotype is their actual genetic make-up, whereas phenotype is the way that genes are expressed through physical, behavioural and psychological characteristics. The expression of a genotype is inevitably influenced by environmental factors. For instance, identical adult twins usually look slightly different because one has exercised more or one has dyed their hair and so on. So, despite having the same genes, the way identical twins’ genes are expressed (the phenotype) is different – see also the example of PKU (opposite). This illustrates what many biological psychologists would accept, that much of human behaviour depends upon an interaction between inherited factors (nature) and the environment (nurture).

Evolution and behaviour The evolution of animals and plants is a fact. In the 19th century, Charles Darwin proposed a theory to explain this fact – the theory of natural selection. The main principle of this theory is that any genetically determined behaviour that enhances an individual’s survival (and reproduction) will continue in future generations, i.e. be naturally selected. This happens in a similar way to a farmer deciding which animals to use for breeding – the farmer selects the ones who possess desirable characteristics. For example, if one of a farmer’s cows has a high milk yield the farmer chooses this cow for further breeding so his stock of cows become progressively better milk producers. In nature this selection takes place ‘naturally’ – no one ‘decides’, the selection occurs simply because some traits give the possessor certain advantages. The possessor is more likely to survive, reproduce and pass on these traits. If the individual survives but does not reproduce, the traits do not remain in the gene pool.

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Concepts: Giraffes, long necks and Bowlby

When considering the long neck of the giraffe, the evolutionary argument (put forward by Darwin himself) is that its extra height gives the giraffe an advantage in obtaining food that would not be available to shorter-necked rivals. This is an example of how an animal has adapted physically in response to its environment. However, what psychologists are really interested in is the evolution of behaviour. Some examples of behaviours that are seen in humans and animals are: Memory – human memory evolved because it provided advantages. Attachment – Bowlby argued that attachment to a primary caregiver is adaptive. Mental disorder – there is evidence that some mental disorders, such as OCD, have a genetic basis. Some psychologists argue, therefore, that these genes must have some adaptive advantage. Question

In each of the above examples, can you suggest what the adaptive advantages might be?

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Evaluation Scientific methods of investigation In order to investigate the genetic and biological basis of behaviour, the biological approach makes use of a range of precise and highly scientific methods. These include scanning techniques, such as fMRIs and EEGs, family and twin studies, and drug trials. With advances in technology, it is possible to accurately measure biological and neural processes in ways that are not open to bias. This means that the biological approach is based on reliable data.

Real-life application Increased understanding of biochemical processes in the brain has led to the development of psychoactive drugs that treat serious mental illnesses, such as depression. Although these drugs are not effective for all patients, they have revolutionised treatment for many. This is a strength of the biological approach because it means that sufferers are able to manage their condition and live a relatively normal life, rather than remain in hospital.

Causal conclusions The biological approach offers explanations for mental illness in terms of the action of neurotransmitters in the brain. The evidence for this relationship comes from studies that show a particular drug reduces symptoms of a mental disorder and thus it is assumed that the neurochemical in the drug causes the disorder. This is a bit like assuming that the cause of a headache is lack of paracetamol simply because taking paracetamol is effective in relieving symptoms of a headache. Discovering an association between two factors does not mean that one is a cause. This is a limitation because the biological approach is claiming to have discovered causes where only an association exists.

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Methods: Twin study

In a study of depression, a researcher investigated the genetic basis of the disorder. One way to do this is to compare concordance rates for identical twins (monozygotic) who have exactly the same genes with non-identical (dizygotic) twins who share about 50% of the same genes. Both kinds of twins grow up in similar environments. Concordance rates express the likelihood that a trait present in one twin is also found in the other twin. The following mean concordance rates found by the researcher were: Monozygotic (MZ) twins – 49% Dizygotic (DZ) twins – 17% Ordinary siblings – 9% Questions

1. Is this a lab, field, natural or quasi-experiment? Explain your choice. (2 marks) (See page 172.) 2. What type of experimental design has been used? Explain your answer. (2 marks) (See page 170.) 3. Identify the independent and dependent variables within this experiment. (2 marks) (See page 166.) 4. Explain what the findings above tell us about the genetic basis of depression. Refer to all three findings in your answer. (3 marks)

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Concepts: PKU

Evaluation eXtra

Phenylketonuria (PKU) is a rare genetic disorder that can be detected in babies using a heel prick test. If left unchecked, PKU causes severe learning difficulties in those who carry the genotype. If detected early enough, however, the child can be placed on a restricted diet and will develop normally without any complications.

Determinist view of behaviour

Questions

The biological approach is determinist in the sense that it sees human behaviour as governed by internal, biological causes over which we have no control. This has implications for the legal system and wider society. One of the rules of law is that offenders are seen as legally and morally responsible for their actions. The discovery of a ‘criminal gene’, if there was such a thing, may complicate this principle.

1. Explain how PKU illustrates the relationship between genotype and phenotype. 2. Do some further research yourself and identify another genetic condition that illustrates the relationship between genotype and phenotype.

STUDY TIPS

Consider: If scientists discovered a ‘criminal gene’ that made someone more likely to offend, and carriers could use this as a defence in court, what would be the implications for society and the legal system?

• If writing an essay on the biological approach, make sure you do not include too much description of biological structures and processes. An essay should be a concise overview of the approach itself.

IDEA FOR YOU

Cannot separate nature and nurture Identical twins, non-identical twins and members of the same family all have genetic similarities. Therefore, the biological approach argues, any similarities in the way that they look or behave must be genetic. However, there is an important confounding variable. They are also exposed to similar environmental conditions. This means that findings could just as easily be interpreted as supporting nurture rather than nature. This approach also has difficulty accounting for the fact that, in research studies, DZ twins often show higher concordance rates than pairs of ordinary siblings (as in the ‘Apply it’ example above right). This is likely to be explained by the influence of nurture as DZs and ordinary siblings both have about 50% (on average) genes in common. Consider: What are the implications of this for genetic explanations of behaviour?

Why not look back over the four approaches you have studied and try comparing them. Draw up a table showing the ways in which they are similar and the ways in which they are different.

Check It 1. Using an example, explain what is meant by ‘evolution of behaviour’. [3 marks] 2. Using an example, distinguish between genotype and phenotype. [3 marks] 3. Discuss the contribution of the biological approach to our understanding of human behaviour. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

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Biopsychology: The nervous system and the endocrine system The specification says…

The nervous system

The divisions of the nervous system: central and peripheral (somatic and autonomic).

The nervous system is a specialised network of cells in the human body and is our primary internal communication system. It has two main functions: • To collect, process and respond to information in the environment. • To co-ordinate the working of different organs and cells in the body.

The function of the endocrine system: glands and hormones. The fight or flight response and the role of adrenaline. Humans, like animals, have two major physiological systems that regulate behaviour in response to the environment. These are the nervous system and the endocrine system.

It is divided into two sub-systems: • Central nervous system (CNS) • Peripheral nervous system (PNS).

The central nervous system

Key terms

The CNS is made up of the brain and the spinal cord. • The brain is the centre of all conscious awareness. The brain’s outer layer, the cerebral cortex, is highly developed in humans and is what distinguishes our higher mental functions from those of animals. Only a few living creatures – sponges, sea squirts, jellyfish and some Manchester United fans – do not have a brain. The brain is divided into two hemispheres. • The spinal cord is an extension of the brain. It is responsible for reflex actions such as pulling your hand away from a hot plate.

Nervous system – Consists of the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system. Central nervous system (CNS) – Consists of the brain and the spinal cord and is the origin of all complex commands and decisions. Peripheral nervous system (PNS) – Sends information to the CNS from the outside world, and transmits messages from the CNS to muscles and glands in the body.

It passes messages to and from the brain and connects nerves to the PNS.

Somatic nervous system – Transmits information from receptor cells in the sense organs to the CNS. It also receives information from the CNS that directs muscles to act.

The peripheral nervous system The PNS transmits messages, via millions of neurons (nerve cells), to and from the central nervous system. The peripheral nervous system is further sub-divided into the: • Autonomic nervous system (ANS) governs vital functions in the body such as breathing, heart rate, digestion, sexual arousal and stress responses. • Somatic nervous system (SNS) controls muscle movement and receives information from sensory receptors.

Autonomic nervous system – Transmits information to and from internal bodily organs. It is ‘autonomic’ as the system operates involuntarily (it is automatic). It has two main divisions: the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.

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Human Nervous System

Concepts: A frightening experience Peripheral Nervous System Autonomic Nervous System Sympathetic Nervous System

Parasympathetic Nervous System

Central Nervous System Somatic Nervous System

Brain

Spinal Cord

The major sub-divisions of the human nervous system.

Jim Bob was telling his friend Sue Ellen about his recent frightening experience. ‘I was walking home by myself in the dark. Suddenly, I heard a shuffling noise behind me and the faint smell of rotting flesh. I realised it was coming closer. I saw a bus at the bus stop and decided to run. I could hear the footsteps getting closer. I don’t think I’ve ever moved so quickly. I leapt on the bus – shaking, sweating and my heart was beating fast. I turned to see an empty street as the bus pulled away from the stop. Had I imagined it?’ Question

Outline the role of the central nervous system and autonomic nervous system in behaviour. Refer to Jim Bob’s experience in your answer.

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The endocrine system

Practical activity on page 124

Glands and hormones The endocrine system works alongside the nervous system to control vital functions in the body. The endocrine system acts much more slowly than the nervous system but has very widespread and powerful effects. Various glands in the body, such as the thyroid gland, produce hormones. Hormones are secreted into the bloodstream and affect any cell in the body that has a receptor for that particular hormone. Most hormones affect cells in several organs or throughout the entire body, leading to many diverse and powerful responses. For example, the thyroid gland produces the hormone thyroxine. This hormone affects cells in the heart (increases heart rate). It also affects cells throughout the body increasing metabolic rates (the chemical processes taking place in the cells). This in turn affects growth rates. The main glands of the endocrine system are shown in the diagram on the right. The major endocrine gland is the pituitary gland, located in the brain. It is often called the ‘master gland’ because it controls the release of hormones from all the other endocrine glands in the body.

Hypothalamus Pituitary Thyroid Parathyroid

endocrine human body.

Adrenals Pancreas Ovaries (female) Testes (male)

Endocrine and ANS working together: Fight or flight Often the endocrine system and the autonomic nervous system work in parallel with one another, for instance during a stressful event. When a stressor is perceived (your friend jumps out to frighten you or you think about your upcoming exams) the first thing that happens is a part of the brain called the hypothalamus triggers activity in the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system. The ANS changes from its normal resting state (the parasympathetic state) to the physiologically aroused, sympathetic state (try it – think of having to learn all this for your exams).The stress hormone adrenaline is released from the adrenal medulla (a part of the adrenal gland) into the bloodstream. Adrenaline triggers physiological changes in the body (e.g. increased heart rate) which creates the physiological arousal necessary for the fight or flight response. All of this happens in an instant as soon as the threat is detected – an acute response – and is an automatic reaction in the body. The physiological changes associated with this sympathetic response are listed in the table below right. These changes explain why stress, panic, or even excitement, is often experienced as a ‘sick’ feeling (‘butterflies’ in your stomach – does that describe what you were feeling?). Finally, once the threat has passed, the parasympathetic nervous system returns the body to its resting state. The parasympathetic branch of the ANS works in opposition to the sympathetic nervous system – its actions are antagonistic to the sympathetic system. The parasympathetic system acts as a ‘brake’ and reduces the activities of the body that were increased by the actions of the sympathetic branch. This is sometimes referred to as the rest and digest response.

Key terms Endocrine system – One of the body’s major information systems that instructs glands to release hormones directly into the bloodstream. These hormones are carried towards target organs in the body. Gland – An organ in the body that synthesises substances such as hormones. Hormones – Chemical substances that circulate in the bloodstream and only affect target organs. They are produced in large quantities but disappear quickly. Their effects are very powerful. Fight or flight response – The way an animal responds when stressed. The body becomes physiologically aroused in readiness to fight an aggressor or, in some cases, flee. Adrenaline – A hormone produced by the adrenal glands which is part of the human body’s immediate stress response system. Adrenaline has a strong effect on the cells of the cardiovascular system – stimulating the heart rate, contracting blood vessels and dilating air passages.

Biological changes associated with the sympathetic and parasympathetic response

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Methods: Stress and illness

Research has shown that people who get ill have often experienced major stressful life events in the previous few months and years, such as getting married, divorce, death of a loved one, etc. A researcher investigated this relationship between illness and life events. She gave 150 participants a questionnaire in which they had to indicate the number of major life events (from a list of 20) they had experienced over the past three years. This was compared with the number of days off work through illness the participants had had over the same period. The researcher found a positive correlation between the two co-variables. 1. In the context of the investigation above, what is meant by ‘a positive correlation between the two co-variables’? (2 marks) (See page 188.) 2. Suggest a suitable graphical display that the researcher could have used to show the relationship between the two co-variables. (1 mark) 3. Explain one advantage of correlational studies. Refer to the investigation above in your answer. (2 marks) (See page 189.) 4. Explain the difference between correlations and experiments. (3 marks)

Sympathetic state

Parasympathetic state

Increases heart rate

Decreases heart rate

Increases breathing rate

Decreases breathing rate

Dilates pupils

Constricts pupils

Inhibits digestion

Stimulates digestion

Inhibits saliva production

Stimulates saliva production

Contracts rectum

Relaxes rectum

Check It 1. Name and briefly outline two divisions of the human nervous system. [4 marks] 2. Identify and describe two glands of the endocrine system. [2 marks + 2 marks] 3. Briefly outline two hormones and explain the function of each of these. [2 marks + 2 marks] 4. Using an example, explain what is meant by the fight or flight response. [3 marks]

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Biopsychology: Neurons and synaptic transmission The specification says… The structure and function of sensory, relay and motor neurons. The process of synaptic transmission including reference to neurotransmitters, excitation and inhibition. On the previous spread we considered the major biological structures and systems. Now we will delve a little deeper and, in so doing, get a good deal smaller!. We will investigate how the nervous system transmits signals for communication via the billions of nerve cells (neurons) it houses.

The structure and function of neurons There are 100 billion neurons (nerve cells) in the human nervous system, 80% of which are located in the brain. By transmitting signals electrically and chemically, these neurons provide the nervous system with its primary means of communication.

Types of neuron There are three types of neurons: motor neurons, sensory neurons and relay neurons. The features of each are summarised in the key terms on the left and illustrated in the diagram below. sensory neuron cell body

We will also consider how these nerve cells communicate with each other, through electrical and chemical messages, within the body and the brain.

of tion irec

tion duc con

relay neuron

d

Key terms

nodes of Ranvier myelin sheath

Neuron – The basic building blocks of the nervous system, neurons are nerve cells that process and transmit messages through electrical and chemical signals.

axon

Sensory neurons – These carry messages from the PNS (peripheral nervous system) to the CNS. They have long dendrites and short axons. Relay neurons – These connect the sensory neurons to the motor or other relay neurons. They have short dendrites and short axons.

dendrites cell body

axon

Motor neurons – These connect the CNS (central nervous system) to effectors such as muscles and glands. They have short dendrites and long axons.

motor neuron

The structure of a neuron

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Concepts: Function of neurons A

pain receptor

B

Neurons vary in size from less than a millimetre to up to a metre long, but all share the same basic structure. The cell body (or soma) includes a nucleus, which contains the genetic material of the cell. Branch-like structures called dendrites protrude from the cell body. These carry nerve impulses from neighbouring neurons towards the cell body. The axon carries the impulses away from the cell body down the length of the neuron. The axon is covered in a fatty layer of myelin sheath that protects the axon and speeds up electrical transmission of the impulse. If the myelin sheath was continuous this would have the reverse effect and slow down the electrical impulse. Thus, the myelin sheath is segmented by gaps called nodes of Ranvier. These speed up the transmission of the impulse by forcing it to ‘jump’ across the gaps along the axon. Finally, at the end of the axon are terminal buttons that communicate with the next neuron in the chain across a gap known as the synapse (see facing page).

Electric transmission – the firing of a neuron muscle effector spinal cord

Question

Identify the type of neuron labelled A and B.

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When a neuron is in a resting state the inside of the cell is negatively charged compared to the outside. When a neuron is activated by a stimulus, the inside of the cell becomes positively charged for a split second causing an action potential to occur. This creates an electrical impulse that travels down the axon towards the end of the neuron.

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Practical activity on page 125

Synaptic transmission Chemical transmission – synapses

Neurons communicate with each other within groups known as neural networks. Each neuron is separated from the next by a tiny gap called the synapse. Signals within neurons are transmitted electrically; however, signals between neurons are transmitted chemically across the synapse. When the electrical impulse reaches the end of the neuron (the presynaptic terminal) it triggers the release of neurotransmitter from tiny sacs called synaptic vesicles. axon

synaptic vesicle

presynaptic nerve terminal

Key terms Synaptic transmission – The process by which neighbouring neurons communicate with each other by sending chemical messages across the gap (the synapse) that separates them. Neurotransmitter – Brain chemicals released from synaptic vesicles that relay signals across the synapse from one neuron to another. Neurotransmitters can be broadly divided into those that perform an excitatory function and those that perform an inhibitory function. Excitation – When a neurotransmitter, such as adrenaline, increases the positive charge of the postsynaptic neuron. This increases the likelihood that the neuron will fi re and pass on the electrical impulse. Inhibition – When a neurotransmitter, such as serotonin, increases the negative charge of the postsynaptic neuron. This decreases the likelihood that the neuron will fi re and pass on the electrical impulse.

neurotransmitter synapse

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Concepts: The reflex arc

Fill in the gaps using the terms provided at the bottom of the box. The knee-jerk reflex is an example of a reflex arc:

dendrite

postsynaptic receptor sites

Neurotransmitter Neurotransmitters are chemicals that diffuse across the synapse to the next neuron in the chain. Once the neurotransmitter crosses the gap, it is taken up by the postsynaptic receptor site – in other words, the dendrites of the next neuron. Here, the chemical message is converted back into an electrical impulse and the process of transmission begins again in this other neuron. Several dozen types of neurotransmitter have been identified in the brain (as well as in the spinal cord and some glands). Each neurotransmitter has its own specific molecular structure that fits perfectly into a post-synaptic receptor site, similar to a lock and a key. Neurotransmitters also have specialist functions. For instance, acetylcholine (ACh) is found at each point where a motor neuron meets a muscle, and upon its release, it will cause muscles to contract.

A stimulus, such as a hammer, hits the knee. This is detected by sense organs in the _________________, which convey a message along a _________________, The message reaches the _________________, where it connects with an _________________, This then transfers the message to a _________________, This then carries the message to an _________________, such as a muscle, which causes the muscle to contract and, hence, causes the knee to move or jerk. Missing words: effector

CNS (central nervous system),

sensory neuron

PNS (peripheral nervous system)

motor neuron

relay neuron

Excitation and inhibition Neurotransmitters have either an excitatory or inhibitory effect on the neighbouring neuron. For instance, the neurotransmitter serotonin causes inhibition in the receiving neuron, resulting in the neuron becoming more negatively charged and less likely to fire. In contrast, adrenaline (an element of the stress response which is both a hormone and a neurotransmitter) causes excitation of the post-synaptic neuron by increasing its positive charge and making it more likely to fire.

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Concepts: Psychoactive drugs

Increased understanding of the mode of action of neurotransmitters in the brain has led to the development of psychoactive drugs to treat mental disorders. For instance, depression has been linked to a lack of serotonin, which is thought to play an important role in stabilising mood. A category of drugs known as SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) such as Prozac, slow down the reuptake of serotonin after it has crossed the synapse, ensuring it stays active for longer in the brain. Question

Use your knowledge of synaptic transmission to explain what is happening at the synapse.

Check It 1. Briefly explain the process of synaptic transmission. [4 marks] 2. With reference to neurotransmitters, explain what is meant by both excitation and inhibition. [4 marks] 3. Distinguish between a sensory neuron and a relay neuron. [2 marks]

Biopsychology: Neurons and synaptic transmission • 117

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The psychodynamic approach A level only The specification says… The psychodynamic approach: the role of the unconscious, the structure of personality that is Id, Ego and Superego, defence mechanisms including repression, denial and displacement, psychosexual stages. The psychodynamic approach is most closely associated with the work of Sigmund Freud (though several postFreudians were influenced by and expanded upon many of Freud’s ideas).

Key terms

The unconscious – The part of the mind that we are unaware of but which continues to direct much of our behaviour. Id – Entirely unconscious, the id is made up of selfi sh aggressive instincts that demand immediate gratification. Ego – The ‘reality check’ that balances the confl icting demands of the id and the superego. Superego – The moralistic part of our personality which represents the ideal self: how we ought to be. Defence mechanisms – Unconscious strategies that the ego uses to manage the confl ict between the id and the superego. Psychosexual stages – Five developmental stages that all children pass through. At each stage there is a different confl ict, the outcome of which determines future development.

Psychosexual stages Stage

Description

Consequence of unresolved conflict

Oral 0–1 years

Focus of pleasure is the mouth, mother’s breast is the object of desire.

Oral fixation – smoking, biting nails, sarcastic, critical.

Anal 1–3 years

Focus of pleasure is the anus. Child gains pleasure from withholding and expelling faeces.

Anal retentive – perfectionist, obsessive.

Focus of pleasure is the genital area.

Phallic personality – narcissistic, reckless, possibly homosexual.

Child experiences the Oedipus or Electra complex (see facing page). Latency

Earlier conflicts are repressed.

Genital

Sexual desires become conscious alongside the onset of puberty.

The role of the unconscious Freud suggested that the part of our mind that we know about and are aware of – the conscious mind – is merely the ‘tip of the iceberg’. Most of our mind is made up of the unconscious: a vast storehouse of biological drives and instincts that has a significant influence on our behaviour and personality. The unconscious also contains threatening and disturbing memories that have been repressed, or locked away and forgotten. Just bubbling under the surface of our conscious mind is the preconscious which includes thoughts and ideas which we may become aware of during dreams or through ‘slips of the tongue’ (what Freud referred to as parapraxes). An example of such a slip is calling a female teacher ‘mum’ instead of ‘miss’.

The structure of personality

Psychodynamic approach – A perspective that describes the different forces (dynamics), most of which are unconscious, that operate on the mind and direct human behaviour and experience.

Phallic 3–5 years

The psychodynamic approach

Anal expulsive – thoughtless, messy.

Freud described personality as ‘tripartite’, composed of three parts: • The id is the primitive part of our personality. It operates on the pleasure principle – the id gets what it wants. It is a seething mass of unconscious drives and instincts. Only the id is present at birth (Freud described babies as being ‘bundles of id’). Throughout life the id is entirely selfish and demands instant gratification of its needs. • The ego works on the reality principle and is the mediator between the other two parts of the personality. The ego develops around the age of two years and its role is to reduce the conflict between the demands of the id and the superego. It manages this by employing a number of defence mechanisms (see below). • The superego is formed at the end of the phallic stage, around the age of five. It is our internalised sense of right and wrong. Based on the morality principle it represents the moral standards of the child’s same-sex parent and punishes the ego for wrongdoing (through guilt).

Psychosexual stages Freud claimed that child development occurred in five stages, see table below left. Each stage (apart from latency) is marked by a different conflict that the child must resolve in order to progress successfully to the next stage. Any psychosexual conflict that is unresolved leads to fixation where the child becomes ‘stuck’ and carries certain behaviours and conflicts associated with that stage through to adult life.

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Concepts: Defence mechanisms

The ego has a difficult job balancing the conflicting demands of the id and the superego but it does have help in the form of defence mechanisms. These are unconscious and ensure that the ego is able to prevent us from being overwhelmed by temporary threats or traumas. However, they often involve some form of distortion of reality and as a long-term solution they are regarded as psychologically unhealthy and undesirable. Three defence mechanisms are listed in the table below with their definitions. Repression

Forcing a distressing memory out of the conscious mind.

Denial

Refusing to acknowledge some aspect of reality.

Displacement

Transferring feelings from true source of distressing emotion onto a substitute target.

Question

Three examples of defence mechanisms in action are given below. Match each example to one defence mechanism listed in the table above. Difficulty forming heterosexual relationships.

A. Continuing to turn up for work even though you have been sacked. B. An individual forgetting the trauma of their favourite pet dying. C. Slamming the door after a row with your girlfriend.

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Evaluation

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Explanatory power Although Freud’s theory is controversial in many ways, and occasionally bizarre, it has nevertheless had a huge influence on psychology and Western contemporary thought. Alongside behaviourism, the psychodynamic approach remained the dominant force in psychology for the first half of the 20th century and has been used to explain a wide range of phenomena including personality development, abnormal behaviour, moral development and gender. The approach is also significant in drawing attention to the connection between experiences in childhood, such as our relationship with our parents, and later development (see research into the effects of early attachment patterns on adulthood and adolescence – page 92).

The case study method Freud’s theory was based on the intensive study of single individuals who were often in therapy (see the case of Little Hans – right – and other Freudian case studies such as Dora and Rat-man). Although Freud’s observations were detailed and carefully recorded, critics have suggested that it is not possible to make such universal claims about human nature based on studies of such a small number of individuals who were psychologically abnormal. Furthermore, Freud’s interpretations were highly subjective; it is unlikely, in the case of Little Hans for instance, that any other researcher would have drawn the same conclusions. In comparison with the other approaches we have come across in this chapter, Freud’s methods lack scientific rigour.

Concepts: The Oedipus complex and the case study of Little Hans In the phallic stage, little boys develop incestuous feelings towards their mother and a murderous hatred for their rival in love – their father (the Oedipus complex). Fearing that their father will castrate them, boys repress their feelings for their mother and identify with their father, taking on his gender role and moral values. Girls of the same age experience penis envy: they desire their father – as the penis is the primary love object – and hate their mother (the Electra complex). Although Freud was less clear on the process in girls, they are thought to give up the desire for their father over time and replace this with a desire for a baby (identifying with their mother in the process). Freud supported his concept of the Oedipus complex with his case study of Little Hans. Hans was a five-year-old boy who developed a phobia of horses after seeing one collapse in the street. Freud suggested that Hans’ phobia was a form of displacement in which his repressed fear of his father was transferred (displaced) onto horses. Thus, horses were merely a symbolic representation of Hans’ real unconscious fear: the fear of castration experienced during the Oedipus complex. Questions

1. Is the Little Hans case study good evidence for the Oedipus conflict? Explain your answer. 2. Is this a scientific way of investigating phobias? Explain your answer. 3. How might a behaviourist explain Hans’ phobia of horses?

Untestable concepts The philosopher of science Karl Popper argued that the psychodynamic approach does not meet the scientific criterion of falsification, in the sense that it is not open to empirical testing (and the possibility of being disproved). Many of Freud’s concepts (such as the id and the Oedipus complex) are said to occur at an unconscious level, making them difficult, if not impossible, to test. According to Popper this affords psychodynamic theory the status of pseudoscience (‘fake’ science) rather than real science.

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Concepts: Id, ego and superego

EGO ID I want it now!

I need to do a bit of planning to get it.

ER EGO SUP You can’t have it– it’s not right

Evaluation eXtra Practical application

Psychic determinism

Alongside the theoretical basis of the psychodynamic approach, Freud also brought to the world a new form of therapy: psychoanalysis. Employing a range of techniques designed to access the unconscious, such as hypnosis and dream analysis, psychoanalysis is the forerunner to many modern-day psychotherapies that have since been established. Although Freudian therapists have claimed success with many patients suffering from mild neuroses, psychoanalysis has been criticised as inappropriate, even harmful, for people suffering more serious mental disorders (such as schizophrenia).

Freud believed, in relation to human behaviour, that there was no such thing as an ‘accident’. Even something as apparently random as a ‘slip of the tongue’ (such as mistakenly describing your partner’s new outfit as ‘fattening’ rather than ‘flattering’) is driven by unconscious forces and has deep symbolic meaning (though the meaning’s pretty obvious in the case of the ‘fattening’ example!). The psychodynamic approach explains all behaviour – even accidents – as determined by unconscious conflicts that are rooted in childhood such that any free will we may think we have is an illusion.

Consider: Why do you think psychoanalysis might not be effective with serious mental disorders?

Consider: How does this psychic determinism compare with other approaches we have come across?

What would the ID, EGO and SUPEREGO suggest you do in the following situations? 1. You have missed lunch and are walking past a cake shop. 2. You are just leaving work and your boss asks you to stay an extra hour. 3. You are sat on a bus and notice someone has left a wallet full of £50 notes. 4. You are driving home and another car pulls out in front of you nearly causing a collision.

Check It 1. Using an example, explain the role of the unconscious. [3 marks] 2. Identify one Freudian defence mechanism and explain how it would affect behaviour. [3 marks] 3. Discuss the psychodynamic approach. Refer to at least two other approaches in psychology in your answer. [16 marks AL]

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Humanistic psychology A level only The specification says… Humanistic psychology: free will, self-actualisation and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, focus on the self, congruence, the role of conditions of worth. The influence on counselling psychology. Humanistic psychology emerged in the United States in the 1950s largely as a result of the work of Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. It became known as the ‘third force’ in psychology – alongside behaviourist and psychodynamic approaches – and represented a challenge to both. Rogers felt that Freud had dealt with the ‘sick half’ of psychology, so the humanistic approach concerned itself with explanations of ‘healthy’ growth in individuals.

Key terms Humanistic psychology approach – An approach to understanding behaviour that emphasises the importance of subjective experience and each person’s capacity for selfdetermination. Free will – The notion that humans can make choices and are not determined by biological or external forces. Self-actualisation – The desire to grow psychologically and fulfi l one’s full potential – becoming what you are capable of. Hierarchy of needs – A five-levelled hierarchical sequence in which basic needs (such as hunger) must be satisfied before higher psychological needs (such as esteem and selfactualisation) can be achieved. Self – The ideas and values that characterise ‘I’ and ‘me’ and includes perception and valuing of ‘what I am’ and ‘what I can do’. Congruence – The aim of Rogerian therapy; when the selfconcept and ideal self are seen to broadly accord or match. Conditions of worth – When a parent places limits or boundaries on their love of their children; for instance, a parent saying to a child, ‘I will only love you if…you study medicine’ or ‘if you split up with that boy’.

Humanistic psychology Free will All the approaches we have considered so far are determinist to some degree in their suggestion that our behaviour is entirely, or at least partly, shaped by forces over which we have no control. Even the cognitive approach, which claims we are free to choose our own thoughts, would still argue that such choice is constrained by the limits of our cognitive system. Humanistic psychology is quite different in this respect, claiming that human beings are essentially self-determining and have free will. This does not mean that people are not affected by external or internal influences but we are active agents who have the ability to determine our own development. For this reason, humanistic psychologists such as Rogers and Maslow, reject scientific models that attempt to establish general principles of human behaviour. As active agents we are all unique, and psychology should concern itself with the study of subjective experience rather than general laws. This is often referred to as a personcentred approach in psychology.

Self-actualisation Every person has an innate tendency to achieve their full potential – to become the best they can possibly be. Self-actualisation represents the uppermost level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (see below). All four lower levels of the hierarchy (‘deficiency needs’) must be met before the individual can work towards selfactualisation (a ‘growth need’) and fulfil their potential. Humanistic psychologists regard personal growth as an essential part of what it is to be human. Personal growth is concerned with developing and changing as a person to become fulfilled, satisfied and goal-orientated. Not everyone will manage this, however, and there are important psychological barriers that may prevent a person from reaching their potential.

The self, congruence and conditions of worth Rogers argued that for personal growth to be achieved an individual’s concept of self (the way they see themselves) must be broadly equivalent to, or have congruence with, their ideal self (the person they want to be). If too big a gap exists between the two ‘selves’ the person will experience a state of incongruence and self-actualisation will not be possible due to the negative feelings of self-worth that arise from incongruence. In order to reduce the gap between the self-concept and the ideal self, Rogers developed client-centred therapy (see facing page) to help people cope with the problems of everyday living. Rogers claimed that many of the issues we experience as adults, such as worthlessness and low self-esteem, have their roots in childhood and can often be explained by a lack of unconditional positive regard (or lack of unconditional love) from our parents. A parent who sets boundaries or limits on their love for their child (conditions of worth) by claiming ‘I will only love you if…’ is storing up psychological problems for that child in the future. Thus, Rogers saw one of his roles as an effective therapist as being able to provide his clients with the unconditional positive regard that they had failed to receive as children.

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Concepts: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Maslow’s main interest was in what motivates people. In order to achieve our primary goal of self-actualisation, a number of other deficiency needs must first be met. The first of these is physiological. Imagine you wanted to produce the best psychology essay you had ever written; this would be very difficult if you were hungry or tired. Moving up the hierarchy, the next deficiency need is safety and security followed by love and belongingness and then self-esteem. A person is only able to progress through the hierarchy once the current need in the sequence has been met. Maslow characterised life as a series of peak experiences: moments of great achievement, ecstasy or elation when all deficiency needs are satisfied. He also identified and researched a number of self-actualisers: people who, for whatever reason, were fulfilled in life and had used their abilities to the fullest.

Although it might be possible to apply the hierarchy of needs to zombies, Maslow argued that the need for self-actualisation is uniquely human.

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Question

Can you think of any people, in the media or who you know, who could be described as self-actualisers? Explain your choices in each case.

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Evaluation Not reductionist Humanists reject any attempt to break up behaviour and experience into smaller components. Behaviourists explain human and animal learning in terms of simple stimulus-response connections; Freud described the whole of personality as a conflict between three things: id, ego and superego; biological psychologists reduce behaviour to its basic physiological processes and supporters of the cognitive approach see human beings as little more than information processing ‘machines’. In contrast, humanistic psychologists advocate holism, the idea that subjective experience can only be understood by considering the whole person. This approach may have more validity than its alternatives by considering meaningful human behaviour within its real-life context.

Limited application Unlike some of the other approaches we have come across, humanistic psychology has relatively little real-world application. It is true that Rogerian therapy has revolutionised counselling techniques (see right), and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has been used to explain motivation (see below left), particularly in the workplace. However, it remains the case that the approach has had limited impact within the discipline of psychology as a whole. This may in part be due to humanistic psychology lacking a sound evidence-base (see below) and also due to the fact that the approach has been described, not as a comprehensive theory, but as a loose set of rather abstract concepts.

Concepts: Counselling psychology

Rogers’ client-centred (or latterly, person-centred) therapy is an important form of modern-day psychotherapy. Rogers referred to those in therapy as ‘clients’ rather than ‘patients’ as he saw the individual as the expert on their own condition. Thus, therapy is non-directive, and the client is encouraged towards the discovery of their own solutions within a therapeutic atmosphere that is warm, supportive and non-judgemental. For Rogers, an effective therapist should provide the client with three things: genuineness, empathy and unconditional positive regard. The aim of Rogerian therapy is to increase the person’s feelings of self-worth, reduce the level of incongruence between the self-concept and the ideal self, and help the person become a more fully functioning person. Rogers’ work transformed psychotherapy and introduced a variety of counselling techniques. In the UK and the US, similar counselling skills are practised, not only in clinical settings, but throughout education, health, social work and industry. Client-centred therapy has been praised as a forward-looking and effective approach that focuses on present problems rather than dwelling on the past. However, much like psychoanalysis (see previous spread), it is best applied to the treatment of ‘mild’ psychological conditions, such as anxiety and low self-worth. Question

Why would Rogers’ therapy be less effective in treating more serious mental disorders such as schizophrenia?

Positive approach Humanistic psychologists have been praised for ‘bringing the person back into psychology’ and promoting a positive image of the human condition. Freud saw human beings as slaves to their past and claimed all of us existed somewhere between ‘common unhappiness and absolute despair’. Humanistic psychology offers a refreshing and optimistic alternative; it sees all people as basically good, free to work towards the achievement of their potential and in control of their lives.

Evaluation eXtra Untestable concepts

Cultural bias

Humanistic psychology does include a number of vague ideas that are abstract and difficult to test. Concepts such as ‘selfactualisation’ and ‘congruence’ may be useful therapeutic tools but would prove problematic to assess under experimental conditions. Rogers did attempt to introduce more rigour into his work by developing the Q-sort – an objective measure of progress in therapy. Nevertheless, as would be expected of an approach that describes itself as anti-scientific, humanistic psychology is short on empirical evidence to support its claims.

Many of the ideas that are central to humanistic psychology, such as individual freedom, autonomy and personal growth, would be much more readily associated with individualist cultures in the Western world such as the United States. Collectivist cultures such as India, which emphasise the needs of the group, community and interdependence, may not identify so easily with the ideals and values of humanistic psychology. Therefore, it is possible that this approach would not travel well and is a product of the cultural context within which it was developed.

Consider: What would a behaviourist’s view of humanistic psychology be?

Consider: Look back at the other approaches in this chapter. Is there evidence of culture bias in any of the theories or ideas suggested?

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Concepts: Joyce: teacher or dancer? Joyce is a successful teacher and is well-liked by her colleagues. However, Joyce has always dreamed of becoming a ballroom dancer. She spends much of her free time with her partner practising elaborate lifts, and can often be seen twirling around the classroom during break times. Joyce is considering leaving teaching and becoming a professional dancer. Her colleagues have described Joyce’s plans as ‘ridiculous’, and her parents, who are very proud of the fact that their daughter is a teacher, have told Joyce they will not speak to her again if she does. Joyce is beginning to feel sad and miserable. Question

Referring to features of humanistic psychology, explain how Joyce’s situation may affect her personal growth.

Check It 1. Explain what humanistic psychologists mean by conditions of worth. Give an example. [3 marks] 2. Outline and briefly evaluate the influence of humanistic psychology on counselling. [5 marks] 3. Outline assumptions of humanistic psychology. Discuss how humanistic psychology is different from other approaches within psychology. [16 marks AL]

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Comparison of approaches A level only The specification says… Comparison of approaches In this chapter, we have considered six of the major psychological approaches. Here, we outline some of the areas of agreement, disagreement, contention and overlap between these different ways of viewing and explaining human behaviour. Our discussion is organised around five themes: views on development, nature versus nurture, reductionism, determinism, explanation and treatment of abnormal/atypical behaviour. We also revisit the different research methods associated with each approach before fi nally, assessing the benefits (and otherwise) of adopting an eclectic approach which aims to combine elements from different approaches.

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Concepts: Let’s be friends: areas of overlap and agreement between approaches Although there are many significant differences between the theories and assumptions within each approach, there are some areas of overlap and ways in which approaches complement each other. You may recall how the social learning theory approach was described as a ‘bridge’ between the behaviourist and cognitive approaches because it emphasised the importance of learning from the environment as well as the role of mediating cognitive factors. The fusion of cognitive and biological approaches has led to the development of cognitive neuroscience – a sophisticated field that links mental states to biological structures. The psychodynamic approach shares much in common with the biological approach as both see biological drives and instincts as crucial determinants of human development. Finally, humanistic and psychodynamic approaches can both be reasonably described as person-centred in the way that they place subjective experience at the centre of their research. These are just some of the ways in which psychological approaches overlap.

Views on development In terms of child development, the psychodynamic approach presents the most coherent theory of development, tying its concepts and processes to specific (psychosexual) stages that are determined by age. That said, Freud saw very little further development once the child enters the genital stage in the teen years. Stage theories within the cognitive approach have contributed to our understanding of child development. For example, as part of their intellectual development, children form increasingly complex concepts (schema) as they get older. Maturation is an important principle within the biological approach whereby genetically determined changes in a child’s physiological status influence psychological and behavioural characteristics. Humanistic psychologists see the development of the self as ongoing throughout life; a child’s relationship with its parents is seen as a key determinant of psychological health. Finally, the behaviourist approach and social learning theory do not offer coherent stage theories of development but instead see the processes that underpin learning as continuous, occurring at any age.

Nature versus nurture The debate about whether human behaviour is more influenced by inherited biological factors (nature) or by the environment and experience (nurture) has a long history in psychology. The biological approach and the two learning approaches are furthest apart in this respect. Behaviourists characterised babies as ‘blank slates’ at birth and suggest that all behaviour comes about through learned associations, reinforcement contingencies or, in the case of social learning theory, observation and imitation. In contrast, the biological approach argues from a position that ‘anatomy is destiny’ and behaviour is the result of a genetic blueprint that we inherit from our parents. Other approaches are less easy to categorise. Although Freud thought that much of our behaviour was driven by biological drives and instincts, he also saw relationships with parents as playing a fundamental role in future development. Similarly, humanistic psychologists regard parents, friends and wider society as having a critical impact on the person’s self-concept. Finally, although cognitive psychologists would recognise that many of our information processing abilities and schema are innate, they would also point to the fact that these are constantly refined through experience.

Reductionism Reductionism refers to the belief that human behaviour can be most effectively explained by breaking it down into constituent parts. The opposing view is holism, that phenomena are best understood by looking at the interplay and interaction of many different factors. Behaviourism is reductionist in the sense that it breaks up complex behaviour into stimulus-response units for ease of testing in the lab. Also reductionist is the biological approach in the way that it explains human behaviour and psychological states at the level of the gene or neuron. The psychodynamic approach reduces much of our behaviour to the influence of sexual drives and biological instincts, although Freud’s argument that personality is a dynamic interaction between the three parts of the personality is often viewed as a more holistic explanation. The cognitive approach has been accused of machine reductionism by presenting people as information processing systems and ignoring the influence of emotion on behaviour. Like behaviourists, social learning theorists reduce complex learning to a handful of key processes (imitation, modelling, etc.) though they do at least place emphasis on cognitive factors that mediate learning, and how these interact with external influences. Finally, and quite distinct from other approaches, is humanistic psychology, which formulates a holistic approach to understanding human behaviour. This involves investigating all aspects of the individual, including the effects of interaction with others and wider society.

Question

Select two or three approaches. Draw Venn diagrams (see example on right) to show the ways in which these approaches overlap and intersect. Use this page and the rest of the chapter to draw out the features and assumptions that different approaches have in common.

The cognitive approach

The behaviourist approach

Reductionist

Mediating factors

Use of lab experiments

Focus on learning

The social learning approach

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Determinism Determinism is often confused with reductionism but is quite distinct from it – though many determinist explanations are also reductionist. Determinism proposes that all behaviour has an internal or external cause and is thus predictable. As we have seen, the behaviourist approach sees all behaviour as environmentally determined by external influences that we are unable to control. The biological approach advocates a form of genetic determinism in its assumption that much of our behaviour is directed by innate influences. Psychic determinism is a key feature of the psychodynamic approach insofar as we cannot know the unconscious forces that drive our behaviour, and that these are simply rationalised by our conscious minds. The positions described above are known as hard determinism; the next two approaches take a ‘softer’ view. The cognitive approach suggests that we are the ‘choosers’ of our own thoughts and behaviours, yet these choices can only operate within the limits of what we know and have experienced. Social learning theorists, like Bandura, put forward the notion of reciprocal determinism – the idea that as well as being influenced by our environment, we also exert some influence upon it through the behaviours we choose to perform. Only humanistic psychology stands alone in its assertion that human beings have free will and operate as active agents who determine their own development.

Explanation and treatment of abnormal/atypical behaviour The behaviourist model sees abnormality as arising from maladaptive or faulty learning in the sense that inappropriate or destructive patterns of behaviour have been reinforced. Behaviour therapies, such as systematic desensitisation, which take a symptom-based approach have been applied successfully to the treatment of phobias. Social learning theory has had relatively little application to treatment, but the principles of modelling and observational learning have been used to explain how negative behaviours such as aggression may be learned through the influence of dysfunctional role models. Freud saw anxiety disorders as emerging from unconscious conflict, childhood trauma and the overuse of defence mechanisms. Psychoanalysis has had some success as a therapy but it is not appropriate for everyone because it requires a considerable input from the patient in terms of time and also ability to talk about and reflect on emotions. Much more effective and applicable is cognitive therapy (especially when combined with behaviour therapy as CBT) in the treatment, for example, of depression. It aims to identify and eradicate faulty thinking which is assumed to be the root cause of maladaptive behaviour. Also effective is humanistic therapy (or counselling) based on Rogers’ philosophy that closing the gap between the self-concept and the ideal self will stimulate personal growth. Finally, the biological approach, many would claim, has revolutionised the treatment of mental disorders through the development of drug therapy which regulates chemical imbalances in the brain.

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To what extent is our behaviour dictated by forces beyond our control?

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Concepts: The eclectic approach

As was mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, many modern psychologists take a multidisciplinary approach to the study of human behaviour. Eclecticism in psychology refers to the combining of several approaches, methods and/or theoretical perspectives in order to provide a more comprehensive account of human behaviour. Such an ethos has proved fruitful in the field of mental illness. Combining treatment options from several different perspectives – such as drugs, cognitive therapy and family therapy – has led to more effective outcomes for schizophrenic patients and lower relapse rates (e.g. Stein and Test 1980). Many topic areas in psychology have also benefitted from ‘interactionist’ theories that combine different levels of explanation. The diathesis-stress model in psychiatry accounts for the fact that many mental disorders are a complex interaction of biological predisposition and environmental triggers. Similarly, the biosocial approach rejects the traditional distinction between nature and nurture by explaining how basic biological differences are reinforced by the environment during gender development, for instance. Question

Although there are obvious advantages associated with eclecticism in psychology, what issues/problems might such an approach present?

Concepts: Idiographic and nomothetic approaches The six approaches are also divided in terms of whether they are attempting to establish general laws by studying large groups of people (nomothetic approach) or whether they are aiming to understand what makes individuals unique (idiographic approach). The former generally involves the use of the experimental method whereas the latter tends to be more concerned with indepth qualitative methods such as case studies and unstructured interviews. Broadly speaking, the more scientific approaches – behaviourist, social learning theory, cognitive and biological – subscribe to the experimental method. That said, the biological and cognitive approaches often draw upon data derived from case studies, especially those involving individuals who suffer from unusual abnormalities or deficits (as in the case of HM in memory on page 51). The person-centred approaches – psychodynamic and humanistic – are idiographic in that they exclusively favour the case study method, usually carried out within clinical settings. Question

What are the strengths and limitations of adopting:

STUDY TIPS • You might enhance your understanding of the information on this spread by drawing a table with the five themes across the top and the six approaches down the side. Then summarise the information on this spread in relation to each approach.

Check It 1. Outline one way in which the behaviourist approach and social learning theory approach overlap. [2 marks] 2. Explain two differences between the cognitive approach and humanistic psychology. [6 marks] 3. Outline and compare any two approaches in psychology. [16 marks AL]

(i) An idiographic approach to human behaviour? (ii) A nomothetic approach to human behaviour?

Comparison of approaches • 123

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Practical corner The specification says… Knowledge and understanding of … research methods, practical research skills and maths skills. These should be developed through … ethical practical research activities. This means that you should conduct practical investigations wherever possible. Here, we suggest an idea for an experiment that you might conduct related to the biological approach, as well as a demonstration of electrical transmission in the nervous system. There is also a naturalistic observation linked to your knowledge of learning approaches.

Ethics check Ethics are discussed in detail on pages 176–177. We suggest strongly that you complete this checklist before collecting data. 1. Do participants know participation is voluntary? 2. Do participants know what to expect? 3. Do participants know they can withdraw at any time? 4. 5. 6. 7.

Are individuals’ results anonymous? Have I minimised the risk of distress to participants? Have I avoided asking sensitive questions? Will I avoid bringing my school/teacher/psychology into disrepute? 8. Have I considered all other ethical issues? 9. Has my teacher approved this?

Practical idea 1: The effect of arousal on performance Evidence suggests that performing in front of an audience causes physiological arousal (activation of the autonomic nervous system) and the release of adrenaline. This can improve performance on a simple task (or one we are very good at), which explains why athletes usually break records competing in front of an audience rather than in training. On unfamiliar or difficult tasks, however, people tend to become stressed (or overaroused) leading to more errors and poorer performance. The aim of this study is to see whether the physiological arousal caused by an audience affects performance on a simple task. This is a laboratory experiment.

The practical bit Materials and basic design The task participants will complete is straightforward – crossing out the letter ‘e’ from a passage of text as quickly as possible. The text needs to be long enough to keep participants occupied for a reasonable period of time, but not so long that they are there all day! There are a number of ways to assess the dependent variable. Probably the easiest way is simply to time how long participants take to complete the task. (You could also take into account any mistakes made, e.g. letter e’s that they missed.) All participants should complete the task alone and then with an audience of about three or four people. As this is a repeated measures design, the order of conditions should be counterbalanced.

Keep control This only thing that should affect the dependent variable in this experiment (time taken to complete the task) is the independent variable (whether an audience is present or not). All other possible extraneous variables should be kept constant. For this reason, there should be strict standardisation of procedures for all participants. You should write a briefing statement, standardised instructions (for both conditions of the experiment) and a debriefing. These should take account of all relevant ethical issues (see left) and participants should be treated with respect. It might be wise to inform participants at the beginning that they will be placed in a situation where their performance on a task will be observed by others, as some participants may be reluctant to continue. However, revealing the full aim of the investigation may be best left to the end as this could have some influence on how participants approach the tasks.

Which hypothesis? Table of results for an experiment on the effects of arousal Condition A: Time in seconds to cross out e’s without an audience Condition B: Time in seconds to cross out e’s with an audience Participant

Condition A

Condition B

1

56

52

2

63

64

3

60

48

4

72

71

5

57

46

6

62

64

7

70

53

8

81

83

9

50

54

10

66

56

Totals Standard deviation

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On the face of it this looks a simple task, and evidence suggests that the arousing effects of an audience lead to improved performance when a task is easy. However, for some people, the distracting effects of the audience may lead to ‘over-arousal’ and poorer performance as a result (see the Yerkes-Dodson Law on page 60). For this reason, we would recommend writing a nondirectional hypothesis for this study.

Sampling You will need to consider a suitable sampling technique for this study and you need to think about what would make an appropriate sample size.

Analysing your data Finally, you should present your results in the form of tables and graphs so that the effect of arousal on performance of a task can be clearly seen. You could also use the sign test (see page 198) to analyse the data.

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Methods: The maths bit 1

1. In the table on the left, what percentage of participants improved their performance with an audience? (1 mark) (See page 196.) 2. Using the data in this table, calculate the mean time it took to cross out letter e’s in Condition A and B. (1 mark) (See page 192.) 3. Explain one strength and one limitation of the mean as a measure of central tendency. (2 marks + 2 marks) 4. Sketch a suitable graph to represent the mean values calculated in question 2. (3 marks)

8.9573

11.4450

5. Give each standard deviation in the table on the left to one decimal place. (1 mark) (See page 195.) 6. What do the standard deviations tell us about the spread of data in each condition of the experiment? (2 marks)

Approaches in Psychology

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Practical idea 2: Gender differences in adult-child play The aim of this study is to see if there is a difference in the way that adults interact with their children depending on the child’s gender. Following learning theory, are gender differences in children’s play reinforced by the ways in which adults interact with children? This is a quasi-experiment because gender is the independent variable. Observational techniques are used to collect data.

The practical bit We have chosen a naturalistic observation as the most suitable method to collect data. It may be possible to simply ask parents or guardians, via a questionnaire or interview, what forms of play they prefer to engage in with their children but there may be a social desirability bias as parents may not want to appear gender-stereotypical in their answers (or look as if they don’t play with their children at all!). Similarly, if parents know they are being observed within a controlled environment – as in a lab observation – they may change their normal behaviour due to the demand characteristics of the situation. Therefore, this study will take the form of a covert observation in a natural environment, in this case, a local park.

Try it – The speed of electrical transmission

Is it ethical?

Stand in a line with a bunch of your friends (or classmates) all holding hands. The person on one end of the line needs a stopwatch and the person on the other end of the line should hold a bicycle horn (the squeezy kind). On the count of three the person with the watch should start the timer and squeeze the hand of the person next to them. That person then squeezes the hand of the person next to them, and so on. When the person holding the horn’s hand is squeezed they should sound the horn and the timer is stopped. Bear in mind that you might need to practise a couple of times to get it right! Do the same but this time hold the hand of the person on your left and touch the shoulder of the person on your right. Does the time from start to end change?

Covert observations are ethical as long they involve public behaviour that would be happening anyway in the absence of the researcher. If it is not obvious that you are recording behaviour then there is no need to ask for consent or debrief your participants on this occasion.

Designing your observation Perhaps you will simply record the type of play that the adults and children are engaged in, for instance ‘playing football’ or ‘hide and seek’. Alternatively, you might want to categorise adult–child interaction as, say, ‘active’ or ‘passive’, in which case you will need a list of behavioural categories that specify the difference between the two. For instance, ‘active play’ may involve running around whereas ‘passive play’ may involve sitting and talking. Once these categories are drawn up, you can then record the frequency with which they occur. You also need to determine the sampling method for the observation. Will you record the number of times behaviour occurs (event sampling) or record the behaviour of participants at specific time intervals (time sampling)? This may also affect how behaviour is recorded, that is, through written description or the use of a tally chart.

Now for the maths bit… Measure the span from tip of right hand to tip of left for all the people in the group and calculate the total distance the signal travelled. Divide the distance travelled by the time the signal travelled to determine the speed in metres per second. Scientists have estimated that the speed of electrical transmission across a large myelinated axon is around 200 metres per second. How did you compare? Have another go and see if you can beat your time (but chances are you’re unlikely to catch the electrical impulse!).

Will you work alone or with someone else? We shall see in Chapter 6 how observations conducted by a single researcher may introduce bias so it might be a good idea to work with a partner. To this end, you might wish to conduct a pilot study, for instance of a family member or friend playing with their children, so you can assess the reliability of your observations with your co-researcher. Whatever you decide, you will need to present your results in the form of tables and graphs to give an instant picture of the gender differences in play.

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Methods: The maths bit 2 1. Using the data in the table on the right, calculate the total number of times active play was observed in adult–boy pairs and in adult–girl pairs. Do the same for passive play. (2 marks)

The data collected for frequency of active and passive play between adult–girl pairs and adult–boy pairs. Type of play

2. Draw a bar chart to show the difference in active play and passive play for adult–girl pairs and adult–boy pairs. (3 marks) (See page 194.) 3. Explain one conclusion that can be drawn from the bar chart you have drawn. (2 marks) 4. Identify the type of data in the table on the right. Explain one limitation of using this type of data. (1 mark + 2 marks) (See page 190.)

Active play Running

Shouting

Passive play Physical contact

Sitting

Talking

No physical contact

Adult–boy pair

11

8

5

3

2

3

Adult–girl pair

4

3

5

5

6

3

Practical corner • 125

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Revision summaries Origins of psychology We’re going to go back in time.

The learning approach: Behaviourism

Wundt and introspection Wundt’s lab First psychology lab in Leipzig, introduced structuralism. Controlled methods Standardised instructions made the procedures replicable.

All behaviour is learning through association or reinforcement.

Evaluation

The behaviourist approach

Early philosophical roots Descartes, Locke, Darwin.

The emergence of psychology as a science Watson and the early behavourists Rejection of introspection.

Assumptions Observable. Basic processes same in all species.

Scientific credibility Objectivity and replication helped create psychology as a science.

Classical conditioning – Pavlov Association of NS with UCS to produce new CS and CR.

Real-life application Token economy used in prisons. Focus on here and now, e.g. treating phobias.

Operant conditioning – Skinner Reinforcement (positive and negative). Punishment.

Scientific approach Behaviourism, the cognitive revolution, the biological approach, cognitive neuroscience.

Mechanistic Humans are passive responders, mental events not included. Evaluation extra Environmental determinism. Ethical and practical issues in animal experiments.

The learning approach: Social learning theory All behaviour is learned from observing other people in social context.

The social learning approach Assumptions Observable. Basic processes same in all species. Vicarious reinforcement Observation leads to imitation if behaviour is vicariously reinforced (Bobo doll experiment). Mediational processes Attention, retention, motivation, reproduction. Identification More likely to imitate role models you identify with.

Evaluation Cognitive factors in learning More comprehensive account of learning. Evidence from lab studies Demand characteristics and low validity. Underestimates influence of biology Aggression involves hormonal factors e.g. testosterone. Evaluation extra Explains cultural differences. Less determinist than behaviourism (reciprocal determinism).

The cognitive approach The study of internal mental processes.

The cognitive approach Assumptions Internal mental processes can be studied through inference. Theoretical and computer models Information processing approach. Mind is likened to a computer and applied to artificial intelligence. The role of schema Beliefs and expectation affect thoughts and behaviour. Innate or learned. Mental short-cut, leads to perceptual errors. The emergence of cognitive neuroscience Biological structures link to mental states e.g. Broca. Brain imaging (e.g. fMRI) used to read the brain.

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Evaluation Scientific and objective methods Lab experiments to produce reliable, objective data. Credible basis. Machine reductionism Ignores the influence of emotion. For example anxiety and EWT. Application to everyday life Abstract and overly theoretical. Artificial stimuli. Evaluation extra Real-world application, such as AI. Less determinist than other approaches.

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The biological approach Everything psychological is at first biological.

Evaluation

The biological approach Assumptions Biological processes: genes, neurochemistry and the nervous system.

Scientific methods Precise techniques, such as scanning techniques, family studies, drug trials.

Genetic basis of behaviour Twin and family studies.

Real-life application Psychotherapeutic drugs.

Genotype and phenotype Interaction between nature and nurture.

Causal conclusions Drugs may only be associated with symptom reduction, not causes.

Evolution and behaviour Natural selection of genes based on survival value and, ultimately, reproductive success.

Evaluation extra Determinist. Cannot separate nature and nurture.

Biopsychology The two major physiological systems that regulate behaviour.

The nervous system Central nervous system Brain and the spinal cord. Peripheral nervous system Autonomic nervous system (sympathetic and parasympathetic). Somatic nervous system (body).

The endocrine system Glands and hormones Hormones distributed in bloodstream. Pituitary is the master gland. Fight or flight Sympathetic arousal: pituitary → ACTH → adrenal gland → adrenaline.

Structure and function of neurons Types of neuron Motor, sensory and relay neurons. Structure of a neuron Cell body contains nucleus, has dendrites. Axon covered in myelin sheath divided by nodes of Ranvier. Electrical transmission Positive charge leads to action potential.

Synaptic transmission Synapse Terminal buttons at synapse, presynaptic vesicles release neurotransmitter. Neurotransmitters Post-synaptic receptor site links to dendrites of adjoining neuron. Specialist functions e.g. acetylcholine for muscle contraction. Excitation or inhibition Adrenaline is excitatory, serotonin is inhibitory. Psychotherapeutic drugs SSRIs increase serotonin activity.

A level only

The psychodynamic approach

A level only

Humanistic psychology Emerged as the third force in psychology.

Behaviour is determined by unconscious forces that we cannot control.

The psychodynamic approach

Evaluation

Role of the unconscious The conscious mind is the ‘tip of the iceberg’.

Explanatory power Huge influence on psychology and Western thought.

Structure of the personality: id, ego and superego In constant conflict, ego protected by defence mechanisms (e.g. repression, denial, displacement).

Case study method Unique and abnormal cases, lacks scientific rigour.

Psychosexual stages Five stages, a different conflict at each stage.

Untestable concepts Much of the theory is unfalsifiable and untestable, thus pseudoscientific. Evaluation extra Practical application in psychoanalysis. Psychic determinism denies our free will.

Humanistic psychology

Evaluation

Free will People are active agents who are selfdetermining.

Not reductionist Humanism places importance on the whole person.

Self-actualisation Everyone has an innate tendency to want to reach their potential.

Limited application Not a comprehensive theory but a loose set of concepts.

The self, congruence and conditions of worth Personal growth requires congruence between self and ideal self.

Positive approach Optimistic approach that sees people as basically good.

Hierarchy of needs Maslow identified physiological deficiency needs to be satisfied before safety and self-actualisation.

Evaluation extra Untestable concepts. Cultural bias (individualist). Vague ideas that are abstract and difficult to test so the approach lacks evidence.

Revision summaries • 127

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Practice questions, answers and feedback Question 1 Explain what Wundt meant by ‘introspection’. (2 marks) Morticia’s answer is too vague to be of any merit.

Morticia’s answer This is a method that was used by Wundt to investigate the way

people thought. Luke’s answer is somewhat better but there remains little reference to what Wundt did or how he did it.

Luke’s answer It means to look inwards, specifically to look inside a person’s head to understand what they are thinking and the way their mind works. It’s a way to access conscious thinking. Vladimir’s answer Wundt opened the first lab dedicated to the study of psychology. He wanted to investigate human behaviour and consciousness and used introspection to do this.

Again, a disappointing answer. Vladimir’s reference to the first psychology lab does not help define the term and the word ‘consciousness’ is irrelevant.

Question 2 Using an example, distinguish between genotype and phenotype. (3 marks) Morticia’s answer Genotypes are your genes which determine things like eye colour and many aspects of behaviour. Phenotype is what you actually see in terms of what people are like. Luke’s answer You are born with a set of genes, called your genotype. However, these are expressed through the environment so the outcome is your phenotype which is your genes plus the environment. A good example is PKU, a genetic disorder which can cause learning difficulties unless baby’s diet is adjusted (their environment). This adjustment of the environment leads to the baby’s phenotype. Vladimir’s answer Identical twins are a good example of phenotype

because they have exactly the same genotype but not necessarily the same phenotype. Their phenotype is affected by their experiences (environment) which may be different.

The phenotype explanation is too vague to be of any value. The genotype definition is marginally better. This is an excellent answer from Luke. The definitions are supported by the example that clearly communicates the distinction between the two terms.

Vladimir almost communicates what is meant by ‘phenotype’ in the last sentence but more explanation is required. The only solid comment is the example of identical twins.

Question 3 Outline the fight or flight response. (3 marks) Morticia’s answer The fight or flight response describes how a person or animal reacts in an emergency situation. The first thing is that adrenaline is produced and this makes the body ready for physical action. This might mean fighting or fleeing. If there is no danger then the body can go back to the relaxed state.

Morticia’s answer is rather generic but there is relevant content, including reference to adrenaline. Better answers would include detail of physiological changes and the nervous system.

Luke’s answer When stressed the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system is aroused. This leads the pituitary gland to release ACTH which acts on the adrenal glands, producing adrenaline. It is this hormone that causes the physiological arousal associated with the fight/flight response, e.g. heart beat and breathing increase.

Luke provides a sophisticated general description of the stress response followed by specific detail of fight or flight and there are examples of relevant physiological changes. Well done.

Vladimir’s answer Adrenaline causes biological changes such as increased heart rate, increased breathing, eye pupils dilate, digestion is inhibited, saliva production is suppressed, the rectum contracts and so on. All of this enables an animal to be able to stand and fight or flee for their life.

Vladimir’s answer is spot on but a little ‘list-like’ in terms of examples of the various bodily changes. Some additional detail is at the end but there really needs to be a bit more – it’s all in the detail.

Question 4 A research report claimed that people who believe in aliens are 17 times more likely to claim that they have seen a UFO compared to people who do not. Explain what cognitive psychologists mean by the term schema. Refer to the information above in your answer. (4 marks) Morticia’s answer Schema are packages of ideas that generate expectations. They are part of the way we think. Cognitive psychologists use them to explain thinking. People see UFOs because they believe in aliens and therefore are more likely to report them. Luke’s answer Schema are used by cognitive psychologists to describe how people

think about the world and their experiences. This would explain UFOs because if you don’t believe in them you wouldn’t see them. This is an example of schemas because it shows how people are thinking and it is affected by their schema. Vladimir’s answer In the example the schema would be the belief that some people

Morticia gives a brief but accurate definition of schema supported by a similarly brief link to the stem, so neither component amounts to more than a partial answer. Luke’s definition of schema offered here is not strong, though the link to the stem is partially successful.

Vladimir has done well. There is reference within this answer to

‘mental framework’, ‘expectations’ and to the idea that schema have that aliens do exist. Such schema are a mental framework for thinking about may speed up or distort processing, all of which show clear certain types of things such as UFOs as well as aliens. Having this belief leads to expectations and makes such people more likely to actually interpret something they understanding of the concept. The application is also thorough see as a UFO. Schema may speed up information processing or may make our cognitive and well embedded in the answer. system prone to error (the UFO may not be there).

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On this spread we look at some typical student answers to questions. The comments provided indicate what is good and bad in each answer. Learning how to produce effective question answers is a SKILL. Read pages 211–221 for guidance.

Question 5 Describe and evaluate the behaviourist approach in psychology. As part of your answer you should refer to the research methods used by behaviourist psychologists. (12 marks AS, 16 marks AL) Morticia’s answer Behaviourists take the view that the only thing that psychologists should concern

themselves with is observable behaviour. Behaviourists are also focused on learning. They believe that all behaviour can be explained through learning – the experiences you have after you have been born. Learning may involve classical conditioning or operant conditioning. In the case of classical conditioning, first described by the Russian Pavlov, learning begins with a basic stimulus-response link. An unconditioned stimulus causes an unconditioned response. If a neutral stimulus becomes associated with the unconditioned stimulus it eventually predicts the unconditioned response, then it has become a conditioned stimulus producing a conditioned response. Pavlov demonstrated this with dogs and salivation. The dogs eventually salivated when they heard a bell because that became associated with the arrival of food. Operant conditioning is about operating on your environment. An animal operates on its environment and this has consequences. If these consequences are rewarding then this reinforces the behaviour that brought about the reward and it will be repeated. A behaviour might lead an animal to avoid a negative experience and this is also reinforcing (negative reinforcement), so the behaviour is likely to be repeated. Punishment decreases the likelihood that behaviour will be repeated. One criticism of behaviourist ideas is that they present a rather mechanistic view of behaviour. They leave out the thought and emotion that influences human behaviour and, to some extent, animal behaviour. People take a much more active role in their behaviour rather than the passive control suggested by conditioning.

Morticia’s essay is an AS response whereas Vladimir’s is an A level response. Morticia’s answer is well written and well balanced. The first paragraph is clear enough and followed by accurate, detailed accounts of the two forms of learning. Her descriptive content demonstrates knowledge, accuracy, clarity and organisation as well as use of specialist terminology. There are relevant strengths and a limitation here too. Some of these – such as the point about being a mechanistic explanation – might have been supported by reference to alternative approaches. This is not a requirement of the question but is just plain good analysis. On the other hand there is reference to the research methods used by behaviourists, so this satisfies that aspect of the question. Morticia could have offered more commentary/analysis in relation to the use of lab studies.

One strength of the approach is that it is very scientific with lots of very controlled studies of animals where there are few extraneous variables so the conclusions are firm. On the other hand there is the question of whether such very controlled artificial research with non-human animals really can be applied to human behaviour in the real world. Overall the answer is light on evaluation, which is especially important for A level. In order to produce good answers students must give special focus to evaluation and evaluation (391 words) skills.

Another strength of the behaviourist approach is that it has been applied usefully. For example, token economy systems are used in prisons where rewards are used to shape prisoner behaviour. Vladimir’s answer The behaviourist approach is to explain all behaviour in terms of classical and

operant conditioning, i.e. learning. The first demonstration of classical conditioning was by Pavlov. He was investigating salivation in dogs and noticed that they could be trained to salivate to the sound of a bell. He demonstrated this process in a controlled lab conditions. If a bell was rung repeatedly at the same time as food was presented, the animal learned to associate the bell with food and eventually salivated to the bell alone. Operant conditioning was demonstrated by Skinner with rats and pigeons in a cage called a Skinner Box. If the animal pressed a lever a food pellet appeared. This reinforced the lever press behaviour so that the animal repeated it more and more. Rats (and pigeons) could also be conditioned to avoid a stimulus such as an electric shock. Both kinds of learning involve no thought. New connections are formed in the brain but behaviourists are not interested in what goes on in the brain – they just focused on how new behavioural links are formed, i.e. learned. They proposed that everything can be learned in this way. Behaviourists suggest that humans are made of the same building blocks as animals and therefore the same laws apply. So all human behaviour too is learned and it is a passive process. Your behaviour is conditioned by things outside you. Of course this suggests that we have no free will yet most people do feel they have a sense of their own will. Skinner would argue that this is just an illusion of having made a decision. The assumption that the same laws apply is challenged because animals are different from humans because human behaviour is more influenced by thinking and emotion. The basis of behaviourism is on research with animals which enables high control but such studies may not generalise to humans or even to some other animals.

Vladimir also describes the two forms of learning but with slightly less sophistication than in the answer above. Besides this initial description there is further descriptive detail. He makes points related to the focus on observable behaviour and the link between human and animal learning though these are not always clearly expressed. Evaluation/analysis is present but it is not the main focus of the essay. There is some analytic reference to free will (or lack of it), the qualitative difference between humans and animals, and a very brief comment on the limitations of animal studies at the end. Overall, not as strong on evaluation as the previous answer and an overly descriptive answer. The evaluation content is partly effective whereas the description is mostly clear and organised and specialist terminology has been used. The lack of evaluation has a serious impact on the overall worth of the answer.

(321 words)

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Multiple-Choice Questions Origins of psychology 1. From earliest to most recent, which of the following is the correct chronological order of when the following psychological approaches were first established? (a) Social learning theory : humanistic : behaviourist : cognitive neuroscience (b) Cognitive neuroscience : social learning theory : behaviourist : humanistic (c) Humanistic : behaviourist : cognitive neuroscience : social learning theory (d) Behaviourist : humanistic : social learning theory : cognitive neuroscience 2. Which of the following is a criticism that Watson made of introspection? (a) It can’t be replicated. (b) It doesn’t deal with experience. (c) It produces objective data. (d) It is unscientific. 3. Who suggested that the mind and the body (brain) were separate and independent of one another? (a) Darwin. (b) Wundt. (c) Descartes. (d) Locke. 4. Who suggested that humans inherit neither knowledge nor instincts? (a) Darwin. (b) Wundt. (c) Descartes. (d) Locke.

The learning approach: behaviourism 1. Which is a basic assumption of the behaviourist approach? (a) Learning processes in animals cannot be generalised to humans. (b) The main influence on behaviour is your genes. (c) Learning is influenced by private mental processes. (d) Learning should be studied scientifically in a laboratory. 2. Pavlov identified the following steps in classical conditioning: Bell (before learning) – food – salivation (before learning) – bell (after learning). Which is the correct sequence of terms for the features listed above? (a) Unconditioned response – neutral stimulus – unconditioned stimulus – conditioned stimulus (b) Neutral stimulus – unconditioned response – conditioned stimulus – unconditioned response (c) Unconditioned stimulus – conditioned stimulus – unconditioned response – neutral stimulus (d) Neutral stimulus – unconditioned stimulus – unconditioned response – conditioned stimulus

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3. Complete this sentence: Operant conditioning is best described as… (a) A form of learning in which behaviour is shaped and maintained by its consequences. (b) A form of learning in which a stimulus is associated with a response. (c) A form of learning in which an observer imitates the behaviour of a role model. (d) A form of learning in which new behaviour is produced that avoids an unpleasant consequence. 4. A Behaviourist researcher carried out a lab experiment. He put a rat in a specially designed box. Every time a light came on, the rat would receive an electric shock to its feet. However, over time, the rat learned that if it pressed a lever when the light came on, it would not receive the shock. What aspect of operant conditioning is the Behaviourist researcher investigating? (a) Partial reinforcement. (b) Positive reinforcement. (c) Negative reinforcement. (d) Punishment.

The learning approach: social learning 1. Which one of the following statements about Bandura’s Bobo doll experiments is false? (a) Children were more likely to imitate aggression that was rewarded (reinforced). (b) Children who saw the model punished were more likely to imitate aggression than children who saw no consequences. (c) The experiments have been used to support the idea that children may be influenced by what they see in the media. (d) The experiments support the idea that learning can often occur indirectly. 2. Which of the following is not a mediational process in the social learning approach? (a) Motivation. (b) Attention. (c) Retention. (d) Application. 3. The idea that human beings influence their environment as well as being influenced by it, best describes: (a) Hard determinism. (b) Environmental determinism. (c) Soft determinism. (d) Reciprocal determinism. 4. Which statement about the social learning theory approach is false? (a) Learning and performance always occur together. (b) Attention and retention are more likely to be involved in the learning than performance of behaviour. (c) Motor reproduction and motivation are more likely to be involved in the performance than learning of behaviour. (d) Role models that children identify with need not be real but may be symbolic.

The cognitive approach 1. Which statement about the role of schema is false? (a) They allow us to make mental short cuts. (b) They may lead to perceptual errors. (c) They are not present at birth. (d) They act as a mental framework of interpretation. 2. A cognitive psychologist gave students simple word lists to learn under lab conditions. The students were able to recall an average of seven words within their short-term memory (STM). The psychologist concluded that the capacity of STM is seven items. This is a good example of: (a) Inference. (b) Interference. (c) Implication. (d) Illustration. 3. (a) (b) (c) (d)

The cognitive approach is a good example of: Internal determinism. External determinism. Hard determinism. Soft determinism.

4. Which statement about cognitive neuroscience is false? (a) It was first identified in the 1970s as an emergent discipline. (b) It investigates how biological structures influence mental processes. (c) It brings together the fields of cognitive psychology, anatomy and neurophysiology. (d) It makes use of advances in brain imaging technology such as fMRI.

The biological approach 1. (a) (b) (c) (d)

Which of the following formulas is true? Genotype + phenotype = environment. Phenotype + environment = genotype. Genotype + environment = phenotype. Genotype – phenotype = environment.

2. (a) (b) (c) (d)

The biological approach is an example of: Internal and soft determinism. Internal and hard determinism. External and soft determinism. External and hard determinism.

3. The fact DZ twins tend to show higher concordance rates than ordinary siblings suggests: (a) The importance of hereditary/genetic factors in development. (b) The importance of environmental factors in development. (c) That DZ twins are more genetically similar than ordinary siblings. (d) That ordinary siblings may be raised in a more similar way than DZ twins.

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Biopsychology: the nervous system and the endocrine system 1. Which division of the nervous system is divided into sympathetic and parasympathetic branches? (a) The central nervous system. (b) The peripheral nervous system. (c) The somatic nervous system. (d) The autonomic nervous system. 2. Which describes the somatic nervous system? (a) Maintains homeostasis by regulating body temperature, heartbeat, etc. (b) Made up of the brain and the spinal cord. (c) Controls muscle movement. (d) Passes messages to and from the brain and connects nerves to the PNS. 3. (a) (b) (c) (d)

The master endocrine gland is the: Adrenal gland. Pituitary gland. Thyroid gland. Hypothalamus.

2. Which is not part of the basic structure of a neuron? (a) Cell body. (b) Axon. (c) Effector. (d) Dendrite.

4. (a) (b) (c) (d)

3. Which of the following does not occur during synaptic transmission? (a) The neuron is in a resting state. (b) An electrical impulse triggers the release of neurotransmitter. (c) Neurotransmitter diffuses across the synaptic gap. (d) The chemical message is converted back into an electrical impulse.

1. When it first emerged, humanistic psychology came to be known as: (a) The first force. (b) The second force. (c) The third force. (d) May the force be with you.

4. The following describes what process? ‘When a neuron is activated by a stimulus, the inside of the cell becomes positively charged for a split second. This creates an electrical impulse that travels down the axon towards the end of the neuron.’ (a) Synaptic transmission. (b) Inhibitory response. (c) Pre-synaptic terminal. (d) Action potential.

Humanistic psychology

A level only

2. When there is a mismatch between the selfconcept and the ideal self, this is referred to as: (a) Self-actualisation. (b) Conditions of worth. (c) Congruence. (d) Incongruence.

The psychodynamic approach A level only

3. According to Rogers, an effective therapist should provide the client with three things. Which of the following is not one of these? (a) Being empathic. (b) Being judgemental. (c) Being genuine. (d) Unconditional positive regard.

1. Which of the following is not a term used by Freud in relation to the structure of the mind? (a) Conscious. (b) Preconscious. (c) Subconscious. (d) Unconscious.

4. Which of the following is a ‘growth need’ in Maslow’s hierarchy? (a) Self-actualisation. (b) Love and belongingness. (c) Safety and security. (d) Physiological.

4. Which is not an action of the parasympathetic branch of the ANS? (a) Inhibits digestion. (b) Contracts pupil. (c) Stimulates saliva production. (d) Decreases heart rate.

2. In which stage does the Oedipus complex take place? (a) Oral. (b) Anal. (c) Phallic (d) Genital.

Biopsychology: neurons and synaptic transmission

3. Which of the following is ‘transferring feelings from the true source of distressing emotion onto a substitute object’? (a) Displacement. (b) Denial. (c) Repression. (d) Regression.

1. Which of the following carries messages from the PNS to the CNS? (a) Sensory neuron. (b) Motor neuron. (c) Relay neuron. (d) Synaptic neuron.

Freud’s theory is most associated with? Environmental determinism. Biological determinism. Reciprocal determinism. Psychic determinism.

MCQ answers Origins of psychology 1D, 2D, 3C, 4D The behaviourist approach 1D, 2D, 3A, 4C The social learning theory approach 1B, 2D, 3D, 4A The cognitive approach 1C, 2A, 3D, 4A The biological approach 1C, 2B, 3B, 4A Biopsychology: the nervous system and the endocrine system 1D, 2C, 3B, 4A Biopsychology: neurons and synaptic transmission 1A, 2C, 3A, 4D The psychodynamic approach 1C 2C 3A 4D Humanistic psychology 1C 2D 3B 4A

4. Which of the following is not an assumption of the biological approach? (a) The brain and the mind are distinct and separate. (b) Psychological characteristics may be genetically determined in the same way that physical characteristics are. (c) An imbalance in neurochemical levels may explain mental illness. (d) Human behaviour has adapted to the environment through natural selection.

Multiple-Choice Questions • 131

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Chapter 5 Psychopathology

Is it normal to feel like this? Are you (and your feelings) normal? What is normal?

132 • Chapter 5

Psychopathology

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Storm and strife and stress, Lost in a wilderness, Groping to find a way, Forth to the haunts of day Sudden a vista peeps, Out of the tangled deeps, Only a point – the ray But at the end is day. Dark is the dawn and chill, Daylight is on the hill, Night is the flitting breath, Day rides the hills of death. Paul Laurence Dunbar

Contents 134 138 140 142 144 146 148 150 152 154

Definitions of abnormality Phobias Depression Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) The behavioural approach to explaining phobias The behavioural approach treating phobias The cognitive approach to explaining depression The cognitive approach to treating depression The biological approach to explaining OCD The biological approach to treating OCD

156 158 160 162

Practical corner Revision summaries Practice questions, answers and feedback Multiple-choice questions

Chapter 5 Contents • 133

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Definitions of abnormality The specification says … Definitions of abnormality: including statistical infrequency and deviation from social norms. This chapter is concerned with psychopathology, which is the study of psychological disorder – psycho for psychological and pathology, which means the study of the causes of diseases. How can we decide if a person’s behaviour and/or psychological state are sufficiently unusual (i.e. abnormal) to justify diagnosing and treating them for a psychological disorder? On this spread we consider two methods used to make this decision: statistical infrequency and deviation from social norms.

Key terms Statistical infrequency – Occurs when an individual has a less common characteristic, for example being more depressed or less intelligent than most of the population. Deviation from social norms – Concerns behaviour that is different from the accepted standards of behaviour in a community or society.

Population %

3

The normal distribution of IQ scores. There is more about normal distributions on page 195.

2

Statistical infrequency Perhaps the most obvious way to define anything as ‘normal’ or ‘abnormal’ is according to the number of times we observe it – statistics are about numbers. According to the statistical definition any relatively usual behaviour or characteristic can be thought of as ‘normal’, and any behaviour that is different to this is ‘abnormal’. This is what is meant by statistical infrequency. We can, for example, say that at any one time only a small number of people will have an irrational fear of buttons or believe for no good reason that their neighbours are zombies.

Example: IQ and intellectual disability disorder This statistical approach comes into its own when we are dealing with characteristics that can be reliably measured, for example intelligence. We know that, in any human characteristic, the majority of people’s scores will cluster around the average, and that the further we go above or below that average, the fewer people will attain that score. This is called the normal distribution. You can see the normal distribution of IQ (in the drawing below left). The average IQ is set at 100. Most people (68%) have an IQ in the range from 85 to 115. Only 2% of people have a score below 70. Those individuals scoring below 70 are very unusual or ‘abnormal’, and are liable to receive a diagnosis of a psychological disorder – intellectual disability disorder (what used to be known as mental retardation).

Deviation from social norms Most of us notice people whose behaviour is a deviation from social norms, i.e. when a person behaves in a way that is different from how we expect people to behave. Groups of people (hence ‘social’) choose to define behaviour as abnormal on the basis that it offends their sense of what is ‘acceptable’ or the norm. We are making a collective judgement as a society about what is right.

Norms are specific to the culture we live in Of course those social norms may be different for each generation and every culture, so there are relatively few behaviours that would be considered universally abnormal on the basis that they breach social norms. For example, homosexuality continues to be viewed as abnormal in some cultures and was considered abnormal in our society in the past.

Example: antisocial personality disorder

1

60

70

80

90

100

110

120

130

140

IQ

A person with antisocial personality disorder (psychopathy) is impulsive, aggressive and irresponsible. According to the DSM-5 (the manual used by psychiatrists to diagnose mental disorder) one important symptom of antisocial personality disorder is an ‘absence of prosocial internal standards associated with failure to conform to lawful or culturally normative ethical behaviour’. In other words we are making the social judgement that a psychopath is abnormal because they don’t conform to our moral standards. Psychopathic behaviour would be considered abnormal in a very wide range of cultures.

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Methods: Amanda

Human characteristics are normally distributed, with most people clustering around the mean and small numbers of people at the extremes. Amanda is referred to a clinical psychologist for poor social skills. The psychologist assesses her and shows her where her skills fall on the normal distribution. The mean score on this test is 50. Amanda scores 21. mean

SD standards for standard deviation. About 68% of the population lies between +1 and –1 SD.

−2sd −1sd

+1sd +2sd

Amanda’s score

About 95% of the population lies between +2 and –2 SD.

Antisocial personality disorder is defined primarily by deviation from social norms.

134 • Chapter 5

Psychopathology

Questions

30

40

50

60

70

1. Estimate where Amanda’s social skills fall in the population. (2 marks) 2. Based on this statistical distribution should Amanda be considered abnormal? Explain your answer. (2 marks)

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Evaluation

Practical activity on page 157

Some people can be statistically unusual and deviate from social norms without being thought of as abnormal.

Real-life application A strength of the statistical definition is that it has a real-life application in the diagnosis of intellectual disability disorder. There is therefore a place for statistical infrequency in thinking about what are normal and abnormal behaviours and characteristics. Actually all assessment of patients with mental disorders includes some kind of measurement of how severe their symptoms are as compared to statistical norms (as distinct from social norms). Statistical infrequency is thus a useful part of clinical assessment.

Unusual characteristics can be positive! IQ scores over 130 are just as unusual as those below 70, but we wouldn’t think of super-intelligence as an undesirable characteristic that needs treatment. Just because very few people display certain behaviours does make the behaviour statistically abnormal (i.e. it is not ‘normal’) but doesn’t mean it requires treatment to return to normal. This is a serious limitation to the concept of statistical infrequency and means that it would never be used alone to make a diagnosis.

Not everyone unusual benefits from a label Another problem with statistical infrequency is that, where someone is living a happy fulfilled life, there is no benefit to them being labelled as abnormal regardless of how unusual they are. So someone with a very low IQ but who was not distressed, quite capable of working, etc., would simply not need a diagnosis of intellectual disability. If that person was ‘labelled’ as abnormal this might have a negative effect on the way others view them and the way they view themselves.

Evaluation Not a sole explanation A strength of the deviation from social norms definition is that it has a real-life application in the diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder. There is therefore a place for deviation from social norms in thinking about what is normal and abnormal. However, even in this case there are other factors to consider, for example the distress to other people resulting from antisocial personality disorder (the failure to function definition, which is explained on the next spread). So in practice, deviation from social norms is never the sole reason for defining abnormality.

Cultural relativism Another problem with using deviation from social norms to define behaviour as abnormal is that social norms vary tremendously from one generation to another and from one community to another. This means, for example, that a person from one cultural group may label someone from another culture as behaving abnormally according to their standards rather than the standards of the person behaving that way. For example, hearing voices is socially acceptable in some cultures but would be seen as a sign of mental abnormality in the UK. This creates problems for people from one culture living within another culture group.

Can lead to human rights abuses Too much reliance on deviation from social norms to understand abnormality can also lead to systematic abuse of human rights. Looking at the historical examples of deviation from social norms in the table on the right, it is pretty clear that these diagnoses were really there to maintain control over minority ethnic groups and women. The classifications appear ridiculous nowadays – but only because our social norms have changed. More radical psychologists suggest that some of our modern categories of mental disorder are really abuses of people’s rights to be different.

Evaluation eXtra

Social versus statistical norms One strength of the deviation from social norms approach is that it includes the issue of the desirability of a behaviour. The statistical infrequency approach doesn’t take desirability into account. For example, genius is statistically abnormal but we wouldn’t want to include that in our definition of abnormal behaviours. This means that social norms can be more useful than statistical norms. Consider: Can you think of another example of where social norms work better than statistical norms as a way to define abnormality?

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Concepts: Mark

Mark is a practising Pagan (i.e. a follower of a pre-Christian religion). He lives alone and works as an IT consultant, doing most of his work at home and communicating via the Internet. His IQ is 145 (placing him in the top 1% of the population) and measures of depression are around average. Questions

1. Based on statistical infrequency and deviation from social norms, would you say that there is a case for judging Mark to be abnormal? Explain your answer. 2. Why is there a good case for not classifying Mark as abnormal at all?

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Concepts: SPD

In the past there were examples of mental disorders that have been invented in order to control how people live (see left). But are any modern diagnoses open to the same criticism? Schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) is defined largely by deviation from social norms. Patients are characterised by eccentric behaviour including superstition and beliefs in the supernatural that deviate from their cultural norms. They may also see flashes and shadows that are not seen by others and presumably are not real. This personality type is often found in families where relatives have a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Question

Is it a reasonable approach to define schizotypal personality as abnormal or is it a human rights abuse?

Historical examples of deviation from social norms. Diagnosis

Group

Symptom

Drapetomania

Black slaves

Running away

Nymphomania

Women

Sexual attraction to working-class men

Check It 1. Explain what is meant by statistical infrequency as a way to define abnormality. [3 marks] 2. Outline one criticism of statistical infrequency. [3 marks] 3. Explain what is meant by deviation from social norms as a way to define abnormality. [4 marks] 4. Describe and evaluate two ways of defining abnormality. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

Definitions of abnormality • 135

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Definitions of abnormality (continued) Failure to function adequately

The specification says … Definitions of abnormality: including failure to function adequately and deviation from ideal mental health. On the previous spread we considered ways to identify when a person’s behaviour and/or mental state is sufficiently unusual to justify diagnosing and treating them for a mental disorder. Two further defi nitions of abnormality are identified in the specification and explained on this spread – failure to function adequately and deviation from ideal mental health.

Key terms Failure to function adequately – Occurs when someone is unable to cope with ordinary demands of day-to-day living. Deviation from ideal mental health – Occurs when someone does not meet a set of criteria for good mental health.

A person may cross the line between ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’ at the point when they can no longer cope with the demands of everyday life and they fail to function adequately. We might decide that someone is not functioning adequately when they are unable to maintain basic standards of nutrition and hygiene. We might also consider that they are no longer functioning adequately if they cannot hold down a job or maintain relationships with people around them.

When is someone failing to function adequately? David Rosenhan and Martin Seligman (1989) have proposed some signs that can be used to determine when someone is not coping. These include: • When a person no longer conforms to standard interpersonal rules, for example maintaining eye contact and respecting personal space. • When a person experiences severe personal distress. • When a person’s behaviour becomes irrational or dangerous to themselves or others.

Example: intellectual disability disorder On the previous spread we looked at the example of intellectual disability disorder and saw that one of the criteria for diagnosis was having a very low IQ (a statistical infrequency). However, a diagnosis would not be made on this basis only – an individual must also be failing to function adequately before a diagnosis would be given.

Deviation from ideal mental health

Very few people meet all Jahoda’s criteria for good mental health. Those who do tend to have statues built to celebrate it! Can we really say that is normal?

A very different way to look at normality and abnormality is to ignore the issue of what makes someone abnormal but instead think about what makes anyone ‘normal’. In other words we consider deviation from ideal mental health. Once we have a picture of how we should be psychologically healthy then we can begin to identify who deviates from this ideal.

What does ideal mental health look like? Marie Jahoda (1958) suggested that we are in good mental health if we meet the following criteria: • We have no symptoms or distress. • We are rational and can perceive ourselves accurately. • We self-actualise (reach our potential). • We can cope with stress. • We have a realistic view of the world. • We have good self-esteem and lack guilt. • We are independent of other people. • We can successfully work, love and enjoy our leisure. Inevitably there is some overlap between what we might call deviation from ideal mental health and what we might call failure to function adequately. So we can think of someone’s inability to keep a job as either a failure to cope with the pressures of work or as a deviation from the ideal of successfully working.

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• We have covered four definitions altogether. It is most important that you know all four of these definitions – and important that you can give a detailed explanation of each one. • One way of providing detail is to use examples so don’t ignore these. • One other word of advice – a good way of demonstrating your understanding is being able to apply it to cases like that of Pondlife (facing page), so make sure you can answer our questions on applying it.

136 • Chapter 5

Psychopathology

STUDY TIPS

The statue is of the Indian statesman Mahatma Ghandi – widely regarded as a supreme human being!

Concepts: Paraphilias

One thing that has changed over time is that psychologists have generally become less inclined to classify people as abnormal simply on the basis of one definition. For example, we used to define paraphilias (unusual sexual behaviours) on the basis that they were deviations from social norms. This meant, for example, that when homosexuality was less socially acceptable it was classified as a paraphilia. This would not happen now. In the DSM-5 system paraphilias are only classified as mental disorders if they involve harm or distress to the person themselves or other people. So exhibitionism (flashing), paedophilia (attraction to children) and frotteurism (rubbing up against people in public) are still considered abnormal because they cause harm and distress as well as being deviations from social norms. Consensual sadomasochism and transvestitism (cross-dressing) are no longer classified as abnormal simply because they deviate from social norms. Question

Explain how our modern understanding of paraphilia is based on several of the definitions considered on this spread and the previous spread.

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Evaluation Patient’s perspective A strength of failure to function adequately is that it does attempt to include the subjective experience of the individual. It may not be an entirely satisfactory approach because it is difficult to assess distress, but at least this definition acknowledges that the experience of the patient (and/or others) is important. In this sense the failure to function adequately definition captures the experience of many of the people who need help. This suggests that failure to function adequately is a useful criterion for assessing abnormality.

Is it simply a deviation from social norms? In practice it can be hard to say when someone is really failing to function and when they are just deviating from social norms. See, for example, the table on the right. We might think that not having a job or a permanent address is a sign of failure to function adequately. But then what do we say about people with alternative lifestyles who choose not to have those things? Similarly those who practise extreme sports could be accused of behaving in a maladaptive way, whilst those with religious or supernatural beliefs could be seen as irrational. If we treat these behaviours as ‘failures’ of adequate functioning, we risk limiting personal freedom and discriminating against minority groups.

Subjective judgements When deciding whether someone is failing to function adequately, someone has to judge whether a patient is distressed or distressing. Some patients may say they are distressed but may be judged as not suffering. There are methods for making such judgments as objective as possible, including checklists such as Global Assessment of Functioning Scale. However, the principle remains that someone (e.g. a psychiatrist) has the right to make this judgement.

It is a comprehensive definition A strength of deviation from ideal mental health is that it is very comprehensive. It covers a broad range of criteria for mental health. In fact it probably covers most of the reasons someone would seek help from mental health services or be referred for help. The sheer range of factors discussed in relation to Jahoda’s ideal mental health make it a good tool for thinking about mental health.

Cultural relativism Some of the ideas in Jahoda’s classification of ideal mental health are specific to Western European and North American cultures (we say they are culture-bound). For example, the emphasis on personal achievement in the concept of selfactualisation would be considered self-indulgent in much of the world because the emphasis is so much on the individual rather than the family or community. Similarly, much of the world would see independence from other people as a bad thing. Such traits are typical of individualist cultures.

It sets an unrealistically high standard for mental health! Very few of us attain all Jahoda’s criteria for mental health, and probably none of us achieve all of them at the same time or keep them up for very long. Therefore this approach would see pretty much all of us (well, everyone we know anyway) as abnormal. We can see this as a positive or a negative. On the positive side it makes it clear to people the ways in which they could benefit from seeking treatment – say counselling – to improve their mental health. At the other extreme, deviation from ideal mental health is probably of no value in thinking about who might benefit from treatment against their will.

Labelling

When we make a judgement that someone is failing to cope we may end up giving them a label that can add to their problems. For example, it would be very ‘normal’ to get depressed after the loss of a job, home or relationship.

Failure to func tion adequately or lifest yle

Someone in that position might well benefit from psychological help. However, future employers, partners and even finance organisations may attach a permanent label to that person. Consider: To what extent do you think that it is helpful to diagnose individuals as abnormal and offer them therapy?

choice?

Group

Behaviour

New Age Travellers

Do not live in permanent accommodation and may not work.

Base jumpers

Take part in an extreme spor t with a high mor tality rate.

Spiritualists

Take part in religious rituals believing they are communicating with the dead .

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Evaluation

Evaluation eXtra

People who live alternative lifest yles may appear to func tion inadequately or to deviate from idea l mental health. When does a lifest yle choice become abnormal?

Concepts: Pondlife

A problem with both failure to function and deviation from ideal mental health definitions is that they do not help us make objective judgments about people who choose a lifestyle outside the mainstream. Some lifestyles can be considered maladaptive because they involve high-risk activities or considered irrational because they involve unusual religious or political beliefs. Pondlife is a well-qualified 25-year-old software analyst who has chosen to live an alternative lifestyle in a squat. He does not regularly work. He struggles sometimes to keep his hair and clothes clean because his current squat does not have running water. Apart from this inconvenience Pondlife is happy as .. well he is very happy. Question

According to the failure to function adequately and ideal mental health criteria, should Pondlife be considered abnormal?

If sanity and in sanity exist, ho w shall we know This was the qu them? estion psycholo gist David Rosenh asked – read ab an out his classic st udy on defining abnormality, on page 181.

Check It 1. Explain what is meant by failure to function adequately. [4 marks] 2. Outline one strength of the failure to function adequately definition of abnormality. [4 marks] 3. Explain what is meant by deviation from ideal mental health. [4 marks] 4. Describe and evaluate at least two definitions of abnormality. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

Definitions of abnormality (continued) • 137

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Phobias

DSM-5 categories of phobia

The specification says … The behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics of phobias. In your course you will focus on three examples of mental disorder: phobias, depressive and obsessivecompulsive disorder (OCD). This spread is concerned with signs and symptoms of phobias. These include the ways in which people suffering from a phobia behave, think and feel in relation to the phobic stimulus, i.e. the thing they are afraid of.

Key terms Phobia – An irrational fear of an object or situation. Behavioural – Ways in which people act. Emotional – Ways in which people feel. Cognitive – Refers to the process of thinking – knowing, perceiving, believing.

All phobias are characterised by excessive fear and anxiety, triggered by an object, place or situation. The extent of the fear is out of proportion to any real danger presented by the phobic stimulus. The latest version of the DSM recognises the following categories of phobia and related anxiety disorder: • Specific phobia: phobia of an object, such as an animal or body part, or a situation such as flying or having an injection. • Social anxiety (social phobia): phobia of a social situation such as public speaking or using a public toilet. • Agoraphobia: phobia of being outside or in a public place. On this spread there is an illustration of each of these three types of phobia.

Behavioural characteristics of phobias We respond to things or situations we fear by behaving in particular ways. We respond by feeling high levels of anxiety and trying to escape. The fear responses in phobias are the same as we experience for any other fear even if the level of fear is irrational – out of all proportion to the phobic stimulus.

Panic A phobic person may panic in response to the presence of the phobic stimulus. Panic may involve a range of behaviours including crying, screaming or running away. Children may react slightly differently, for example by freezing, clinging or having a tantrum.

THE DSM SYSTEM

Avoidance

There are a number of systems for classifying and diagnosing mental health problems. Perhaps the best known is the DSM. This stands for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder and is published by the American Psychiatric Association.

Unless the sufferer is making a conscious effort to face their fear they tend to go to a lot of effort to avoid coming into contact with the phobic stimulus. This can make it hard to go about daily life. For example, someone with a fear of public toilets may have to limit the time they spend outside the home in relation to how long they can last without a toilet. This in turn can interfere with work, education and a social life.

The DSM is updated every so often as ideas about abnormality change. The current version is the 5th edition so it is commonly called the DSM-5. This was published in 2013.

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Endurance The alternative to avoidance is endurance, in which a sufferer remains in the presence of the phobic stimulus but continues to experience high levels of anxiety. This may be unavoidable in some situation, for example for a person who has an extreme fear of flying.

Concepts: Case study: Padraig

When we think of phobias in everyday life we tend to have in mind fairly mild fears – such as not loving snakes or spiders. These mild fears can be as much amusing as anything else. However, cases where phobias have been diagnosed as a mental disorder (called clinical phobias) can be disabling and cause tremendous suffering. In fact a clinical phobia is only diagnosed if anxiety is considerable and it impacts on the sufferer’s life. Consider the case of Padraig. Padraig is a psychology undergraduate. He suffers from gynophobia – a phobia of women. This is an unusual condition and one which Padraig finds causes offence to many people he meets. Others don’t take it seriously and laugh at Padraig. Padraig finds his studies very difficult because most of the students on his course are women. His social life is very limited because the people he likes best at the University all hang out in mixed-sex groups. This causes Padraig severe distress and he feels guilty – he does not dislike women, he is just very anxious around them. His self-esteem is low and this is made worse by the fact that Padraig has no idea where his phobia comes from. Question

Consider each of the four definitions of abnormality you have studied. For each one explain in what way Padraig would be judged as abnormal.

138 • Chapter 5

Psychopathology

Agoraphobia is an excessive fear of being outside or in a public place. This can be disabling to the extent that sufferers cannot leave their home.

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Emotional characteristics of phobias

Practical activity on page 156

Anxiety Phobias are classed as anxiety disorders. By definition then they involve an emotional response of anxiety and fear. Anxiety is an unpleasant state of high arousal. This prevents the sufferer relaxing and makes it very difficult to experience any positive emotion. Anxiety can be long term. Fear is the immediate and extremely unpleasant response we experience when we encounter or think about the phobic stimulus.

Example: arachnophobia Matt has a phobia of spiders (arachnophobia). His anxiety levels will increase whenever he enters a place associated with spiders – this may be the spidery bit of a zoo or his own garden shed! This anxiety is a general response to the situation. When he actually sees a spider he experiences fear – a very strong emotional response directed particularly towards the spider itself.

Emotional responses are unreasonable The emotional responses we experience in relation to phobic stimuli go beyond what is reasonable. So, for example, Matt’s fear of spiders involves a very strong emotional response to a tiny and harmless spider. This is wildly disproportionate to the danger posed by any spider Matt is likely to meet in his shed.

Social phobias include a fear of public speaking.

Cognitive characteristics of phobias

Arachnophobia

Spiders

The cognitive element is concerned with the ways in which people process information. People with phobias process information about phobic stimuli differently from other objects or situations.

Ophidiophobia

Snakes

Zemmiphobia

Giant mole rats

Selective attention to the phobic stimulus

Coulrophobia

Clowns

Kinemortaphobia

Zombies

Lutraphobia

Otters

Mycophobia

Mushrooms

Omphalophobia

Belly buttons

Rectaphobia

Bottoms

Xanthophobia

Yellow

Cognitive distortions

Nomophobia

Lack of a phone signal

The phobic’s perceptions of the phobic stimulus may be distorted. So, for example, an omphalophobic is likely to see belly buttons as ugly and/or disgusting, and an ophidiophobic may see snakes as alien and aggressive looking.

Pogonophobia

Beards

Alphabutyrophobia

Peanut butter

Triskaidekaphobia

Thirteen

Irrational beliefs A phobic may hold irrational beliefs in relation to phobic stimuli. For example, social phobias can involve beliefs like ‘I must always sound intelligent’ or ‘if I blush people will think I’m weak’. This kind of belief increases the pressure on the sufferer to perform well in social situations.

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Concepts: Eloise and the buttons

Children are prone to phobias, including some that may appear downright odd to us as adults. One phobic stimulus is buttons. Eloise has a phobia of buttons. She refuses to wear any clothes with buttons and she even refuses to go into clothes shops where there are likely to be clothes with buttons. When questioned, Eloise says that this is because of the extreme anxiety that buttons cause her. She also says that she believes that buttons will always pinch her skin and that this will leave a bruise. Questions

1. Identify the behavioural, emotional and cognitive aspects of Eloise’s fear. 2. Conduct your own research and find another specific phobia. What behaviours, emotions and cognitions characterise it?

Phobia

If a sufferer can see the phobic stimulus it is hard to look away from it. Keeping our attention on something really dangerous is a good thing as it gives us the best chance of reacting quickly to a threat, but this is not so useful when the fear is irrational. A pogonophobic will struggle to concentrate on what they are doing if there is someone with a beard in the room.

Phobic stimulus

Examples of specific phobias

A specific phobia. There are people who fear buttons and people who fear belly buttons. To an omphalophobic belly buttons may appear ugly. This is an example of a cognitive distortion.

Check It 1. Outline the behavioural characteristics of phobias. 2. Outline the emotional characteristics of phobias. 3. Outline the cognitive characteristics of phobias.

[3 marks] [3 marks] [3 marks]

Phobias • 139

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Depression The specification says … The behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics of depression. This spread is concerned with signs and symptoms of depression. Where phobias are characterised by anxiety, depression is characterised by a low mood – it belongs to the general category of ‘mood disorders’.

DSM-5 categories of depression All forms of depression and depressive disorders are characterised by changes to mood. The latest version of the DSM recognises the following categories of depression and depressive disorders: • Major depressive disorder: severe but often short-term depression. • Persistent depressive disorder: long-term or recurring depression, including sustained major depression and what used to be called dysthymia. • Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder: childhood temper tantrums. • Premenstrual dysphoric disorder: disruption to mood prior to and/or during menstruation.

Key terms Depression – A mental disorder characterised by low mood and low energy levels. Behavioural – Ways in which people act.

Behavioural characteristics of depression

Emotional – Ways in which people feel.

Behaviour changes when we suffer an episode of depression.

Cognitive – Refers to the process of thinking – knowing, perceiving, believing.

Activity levels Typically sufferers of depression have reduced levels of energy, making them lethargic. This has a knock-on effect, with sufferers tending to withdraw from work, education and social life. In extreme cases this can be so severe that the sufferer cannot get out of bed. In some cases depression can lead to the opposite effect – known as psychomotor agitation. Agitated individuals struggle to relax and may end up pacing up and down a room.

Disruption to sleep and eating behavior Depression is associated with changes to sleeping behaviour. Sufferers may experience reduced sleep (insomnia), particularly premature waking, or an increased need for sleep (hypersomnia). Similarly, appetite and eating may increase or decrease, leading to weight gain or loss. The key point is that such behaviours are disrupted by depression.

Aggression and self-harm

Depression is associated with withdrawal from social and work life.

Sufferers of depression are often irritable, and in some cases they can become verbally or physically aggressive. This can have serious knock-on effects on a number of aspects of their life. For example, someone experiencing depression might display verbal aggression by ending a relationship or quitting a job. Depression can also lead to physical aggression directed against the self. This includes self-harm, often in the form of cutting, or suicide attempts.

Sufferers of depression may experience reduced sleep (insomnia).

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Concepts: Jessica

Jessica is a 20-year-old university student. Her parents have been very worried since she returned home for a holiday. They hear Jessica up late into the night and also notice that she appears to have lost quite a bit of weight. Jessica is very sensitive when asked about this and snaps at her parents. In one argument she says that she hates her parents and herself. In another argument she says that she did not enjoy being at university and hates visiting her family. She shows no enthusiasm about returning to university after the holiday and has been unable to concentrate on a piece of coursework she has brought home to work on. Question

1. Identify the behavioural, emotional and cognitive aspects of Jessica’s state. 2. Based on these characteristics, should Jessica’s parents be concerned that she may be suffering from depression? Explain your answer.

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Emotional characteristics of depression Lowered mood When we use the word ‘depressed’ in everyday life we are usually describing having a lowered mood, in other words feeling sad. As you can see from the rest of this spread there is more to clinical depression than this. Lowered mood is still a defining emotional element of depression but it is more pronounced than in the daily kind of experience of feeling lethargic and sad. Patients often describe themselves as ‘worthless’ and ‘empty’.

Anger Although sufferers tend to experience more negative emotions and fewer positive ones during episodes of depression, this experience of negative emotion is not limited to sadness. Sufferers of depression also frequently experience anger, sometimes extreme anger. This can be directed at the self or others. On occasion such emotions lead to aggressive or self-harming behaviour.

Lowered self-esteem Self-esteem is the emotional experience of how much we like ourselves. Sufferers of depression tend to report reduced self-esteem, in other words they like themselves less than usual. This can be quite extreme, with some sufferers of depression describing a sense of self-loathing, i.e. hating themselves.

Cognitive characteristics of depression The cognitive aspect of depression is concerned with the ways in which people process information. People suffering from depression or who have suffered depression tend to process information about several aspects of the world quite differently from the ‘normal’ ways that people without depression think.

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Concepts: Case study: Dai

Most of us would describe ourselves as feeling ’depressed’ at some point in our lives and possibly may feel depressed relatively frequently. What we are usually describing is a feeling of being ‘a bit down’, a normal variation in mood. However, clinical depression can be a severe condition, as illustrated in the case of Dai. Dai is 27. In most cases depression appears between the ages of 20 and 40. He has been suffering from very severe depression for some time. Although depression itself is not particularly unusual, depression as severe as Dai’s is rare. His depression was first diagnosed 18 months ago when he failed to ‘bounce back’ after the death of his mother. Dai has been unable to work for the last year and he has not felt able to get out of bed for several weeks now. His doctor prescribed some drugs and arranged for psychotherapy but neither has really made any difference. Although Dai’s employer is currently treating him as on long-term sick, he has used up his period of paid sick pay and he may soon be declared unfit to work and lose his job. Dai’s family is concerned about his reputation in their community if he has to live on benefits. Dai’s mood and self-esteem are very low and he suffers periodic anxiety as well. Question

Consider each of the four definitions of abnormality you have studied. For each one consider in what way Dai would be judged as abnormal.

Poor concentration Depression is associated with poor levels of concentration. The sufferer may find themselves unable to stick with a task as they usually would, or they might find it hard to make decisions that they would normally find straightforward. Poor concentration and poor decision making are likely to interfere with the individual’s work.

Attending to and dwelling on the negative When suffering a depressive episode people are inclined to pay more attention to negative aspects of a situation and ignore the positives. In other words they tend to see a glass as half empty rather than half full. Sufferers also have a bias towards recalling unhappy events rather than happy ones – the opposite bias that most people have when not depressed.

Absolutist thinking Most situations are not all-good or all-bad, but when a sufferer is depressed they tend to think in these terms. They sometimes call this ‘black and white thinking’. This means that when a situation is unfortunate they tend to see it as an absolute disaster.

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Methods: Oona

Some doctors consider weight change as a result of depression to be significant when the sufferer gains or loses 5% of their body weight. Oona normally weighs 10 stone exactly. Her current weight is nine stone six pounds. Questions

1. Approximately what percentage of her body weight has Oona lost? (1 mark) 2. Is this weight change likely to be seen as clinically significant? Explain your answer. (2 marks)

Most of us see the glass as half full but when in a depressive episode we are more likely to see it as half empty.

Check It 1. Outline the behavioural characteristics of depression. [3 marks] 2. Outline the emotional characteristics of depression. [3 marks] 3. Outline the cognitive characteristics of depression. [3 marks]

Depression • 141

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Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) DSM-5 categories of OCD

The specification says … The behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics of OCD. The third mental disorder in the specification is obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This involves anxiety (similar to phobias) and irrational thinking.

Key terms OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) – A condition characterised by obsessions and/or compulsive behaviour.

The DSM system recognises OCD and a range of related disorders. What these disorders all have in common is repetitive behaviour accompanied by obsessive thinking. • OCD: characterised by either obsessions (recurring thoughts, images, etc.) and/or compulsions (repetitive behaviours such as hand washing). Most people with a diagnosis of OCD have both obsessions and compulsions. • Trichotillomania: compulsive hair pulling. • Hoarding disorder: the compulsive gathering of possessions and the inability to part with anything, regardless of its value. • Excoriation disorder: compulsive skin picking.

Behavioural – Ways in which people act.

Behavioural characteristics of OCD

Cognitive – Ways in which people process information, including perception, attention and thinking.

Compulsions

• When describing OCD, students often find it difficult to distinguish between obsessions and compulsions. It may help you to be clear that: • A compulsion is a behaviour, i.e. it is something you do. • An obsession is a cognition i.e. it takes place in the mind.

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Concepts: Jaz

Jaz suffers from OCD. She described her condition as follows: I’m constantly anxious about catching diseases from other people. I can’t get thoughts and pictures of dirt out of my mind. Every day I clean my whole house and wash my hands hundreds of times every day. When anyone comes to the house I make them wash their hands before I can go near them. I know this is ridiculous but I can’t help it – it makes me feel better, but only for a little while.

Study TIPS

Emotional – Ways in which people feel.

The behavioural component of OCD is compulsive behaviour. There are two elements to compulsive behaviours: 1. Compulsions are repetitive: Typically sufferers of OCD feel compelled to repeat a behaviour. A common example is hand washing. Other common compulsive repetitions include counting, praying and tidying/ordering groups of objects such as CD collections (for those who have them) or containers in a food cupboard. 2. Compulsions reduce anxiety: Around 10% of sufferers of OCD show compulsive behaviour alone – they have no obsessions, just a general sense of irrational anxiety. However, for the vast majority compulsive behaviours are performed in an attempt to manage the anxiety produced by obsessions. For example, compulsive hand washing is carried out as a response to an obsessive fear of germs. Compulsive checking, for example that a door is locked or a gas appliance is switched off, is in response to the obsessive thought that it might have been left unsecured.

Avoidance The behaviour of OCD sufferers may also be characterised by their avoidance as they attempt to reduce anxiety by keeping away from situations that trigger it. Sufferers of OCD tend to try to manage their OCD by avoiding situations that trigger anxiety. For example, sufferers who wash compulsively may avoid coming into contact with germs. However, this avoidance can lead people to avoid very ordinary situations, such as emptying their rubbish bins, and this can in itself interfere with leading a normal life.

Questions

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1. Identify the behavioural, emotional and cognitive aspects of Jaz’s state. 2. At the top of the facing page OCD is illustrated as a cycle. Use this to describe Jaz’s OCD as a cycle.

Methods: Bar chart

Most OCD sufferers experience both obsessions and compulsions; 10% experience compulsions alone and 20% experience obsessions alone. Question

On a bar chart, plot the percentages for those suffering (a) obsessions only, (b) compulsion only and (c) obsession + compulsion (you have to work this out!). Make sure that you follow the conventions of bar charts (see page 194): • Bars should not touch. • Axes need to be labelled.

Compulsive hand washing is a typical feature of OCD.

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• The graph should have an appropriate scale. • It should also have a suitable title. (4 marks)

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Obsessive thought

Temporary relief

Anxiety

Compulsive behaviour

The cycle of OCD. Adapted from www.mind.org.uk

Emotional characteristics of OCD Anxiety and distress OCD is regarded as a particularly unpleasant emotional experience because of the powerful anxiety that accompanies both obsessions and compulsions. Obsessive thoughts are unpleasant and frightening, and the anxiety that goes with these can be overwhelming. The urge to repeat a behaviour (a compulsion) creates anxiety.

Accompanying depression OCD is often accompanied by depression, so anxiety can be accompanied by low mood and lack of enjoyment in activities. Compulsive behaviour tends to bring some relief from anxiety but this is temporary.

Guilt and disgust

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Concepts: Case study: Sarita

As well as anxiety and depression, OCD sometimes involves other negative emotions such as irrational guilt, for example over minor moral issues, or disgust, which may be directed against something external like dirt or at the self.

OCD is considered to be one of the most unpleasant mental disorders to experience. It involves severe anxiety, and any strategies to reduce this anxiety are likely to interfere with sufferers living a normal life.

Cognitive characteristics of OCD

Sarita suffers from OCD. She has suffered OCD on and off since she was a teenager, when her parents separated. Only 1–2% of the population suffers from clinical OCD, making it fairly unusual.

The cognitive approach is concerned with the ways in which people process information. People suffering from OCD are usually plagued with obsessive thoughts but they also adopt cognitive strategies to deal with these.

Obsessive thoughts For around 90% of OCD sufferers the major cognitive feature of their condition is obsessive thoughts, i.e. thoughts that recur over and over again. These vary considerably from person to person but are always unpleasant. Examples of recurring thoughts are worries of being contaminated by dirt and germs or certainty that a door has been left unlocked and that intruders will enter through it or impulses to hurt someone.

Cognitive strategies to deal with obsessions Obsessions are the major cognitive aspect of OCD, but people also respond by adopting cognitive coping strategies. For example, a religious person tormented by obsessive guilt may respond by praying or meditating. This may help manage anxiety but can make the person appear abnormal to others and can distract them from everyday tasks.

Like most people with OCD Sarita suffers from both compulsive behaviours and obsessions. She has obsessive thoughts of dirt and a compulsion to wash her hands every time she touches something that might be dirty. As a new mother Sarita experiences difficulty because her obsession with dirt makes it very hard for her to change nappies. She is often alone with her baby as her husband works so, in the daytime, this is a real problem. The other local mothers find Sarita’s OCD hard to understand and she wonders whether they see her as a bad mother. This in turn has led to Sarita experiencing low self-esteem. She is now receiving support from Children’s Services. Question

Consider each of the four definitions of abnormality you have studied. For each one consider in what way Sarita would be judged as abnormal.

Insight into excessive anxiety People suffering from OCD are aware that their obsessions and compulsions are not rational. In fact this is necessary for a diagnosis of OCD. If someone really believed their obsessive thoughts were based on reality that would be a symptom of a quite different form of mental disorder. However, in spite of this insight, OCD sufferers experience catastrophic thoughts about the worst case scenarios that might result if their anxieties were justified. They also tend to be hypervigilant, i.e. they maintain constant alertness and keep attention focused on potential hazards.

Check It 1. Outline the behavioural characteristics of OCD. [3 marks] 2. Outline the emotional characteristics of OCD. [3 marks] 3. Outline the cognitive characteristics of OCD. [3 marks]

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) • 143

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The behavioural approach to explaining phobias The specification says … The behavioural approach to explaining phobias: the two-process model – classical and operant conditioning. Psychologists are interested in explaining mental disorders and using such explanations as the basis of treatments. One of the key explanations for phobias is the behavioural approach – that phobias can be learned by classical conditioning and maintained by operant conditioning.

Key terms Behavioural approach – A way of explaining behaviour in terms of what is observable and in terms of learning. Classical conditioning – Learning by association. Occurs when two stimuli are repeatedly paired together – an unconditioned (unlearned) stimulus (UCS) and a new ‘neutral’ stimulus (NS). The neutral stimulus eventually produces the same response that was fi rst produced by the unlearned stimulus alone. Operant conditioning – A form of learning in which behaviour is shaped and maintained by its consequences. Possible consequences of behaviour include positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement or punishment.

The two-process model The behavioural approach emphasises the role of learning in the acquisition of behaviour. The approach focuses on behaviour – what we can see. On page 138 we identified the key behavioural aspects of phobias – avoidance, endurance and panic. The behavioural approach is geared towards explaining these rather than the cognitive and emotional aspects of phobias. Hobart Mowrer (1960) proposed the two-process model based on the behavioural approach to phobias. This states that phobias are acquired (learned in the first place) by classical conditioning and then continue because of operant conditioning.

Acquisition by classical conditioning Classical conditioning involves learning to associate something of which we initially have no fear (called a neutral stimulus) with something that already triggers a fear response (known as an unconditioned stimulus). John Watson and Rosalie Rayner (1920) created a phobia in a 9-month-old baby called ‘Little Albert’. Albert showed no unusual anxiety at the start of the study. When shown a white rat he tried to play with it. However, the experimenters then set out to give Albert a phobia. Whenever the rat was presented they made a loud, frightening noise by banging an iron bar close to Albert’s ear. This noise is an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) which creates an unconditioned response (UCR) of fear. When the rat (a neutral stimulus, NS) and the unconditioned stimulus are encountered close together in time the NS becomes associated with the UCS and both now produce the fear response – Albert became frightened when he saw a rat. The rat is now a learned or conditioned stimulus (CS) that produces a conditioned response (CR). This conditioning then generalised to similar objects. They tested Albert by showing him other furry objects such as a non-white rabbit, a fur coat and Watson wearing a Santa Claus beard made out of cotton balls. Little Albert displayed distress at the sight of all of these.

Maintenance by operant conditioning People may acquire and maintain a phobia of dogs if they have a bad experience with an animal. Both classical and operant conditioning are involved.

Responses acquired by classical conditioning usually tend to decline over time. However, phobias are often long lasting. Mowrer has explained this as the result of operant conditioning. Operant conditioning takes place when our behaviour is reinforced (rewarded) or punished. Reinforcement tends to increase the frequency of a behaviour. This is true of both negative reinforcement and positive reinforcement. In the case of negative reinforcement an individual avoids a situation that is unpleasant. Such a behaviour results in a desirable consequence, which means the behaviour will be repeated. Mowrer suggested that whenever we avoid a phobic stimulus we successfully escape the fear and anxiety that we would have suffered if we had remained there. This reduction in fear reinforces the avoidance behaviour and so the phobia is maintained.

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Concepts: Zelda Zelda has a phobia of dogs. As a child she was once bitten by a dog belonging to a family friend. Now when she thinks about dogs she experiences anxiety and she becomes very afraid whenever she sees a dog close up. This is particularly bad when she is approached by a German Shepherd. Zelda avoids dogs whenever possible. Question

Using the two-process model explain how Zelda might have acquired her phobia and how it might be maintained. Refer to the processes of classical and operant conditioning in your answer.

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Concepts: Amina

Agoraphobia is phobic anxiety towards leaving the sufferer’s home environment. This is a serious problem because it prevents the sufferer going about their normal daily life. Amina suffers from agoraphobia. She is a keen A level student but she is struggling to attend college because of the acute anxiety she suffers when attempting to leave her house in the morning. Her phobia began shortly after being mugged. Actually Amina finds she can leave the house as long as someone else is with her, but her parents leave for work early and she lives in the opposite direction of college from her friends. Question

1. Explain how Amina’s agoraphobia might have been acquired and maintained according to the twoprocess model. 2. Evaluate the two-process model as an explanation of Amina’s condition.

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Evaluation Good explanatory power The two-process model was a definite step forward when it was proposed in 1960 as it went beyond Watson and Rayner’s concept of classical conditioning. It explained how phobias could be maintained over time and this had important implications for therapies because it explains why patients need to be exposed to the feared stimulus. Once a patient is prevented from practising their avoidance behaviour the behaviour ceases to be reinforced and so it declines. The application to therapy is a strength of the two-process model (see next spread).

Alternative explanation for avoidance behaviour Not all avoidance behaviour associated with phobias seems to be the result of anxiety reduction, at least in more complex phobias like agoraphobia. There is evidence to suggest that at least some avoidance behaviour appears to be motivated more by positive feelings of safety. In other words the motivating factor in choosing an action like not leaving the house is not so much to avoid the phobic stimulus but to stick with the safety factor. This explains why some patients with agoraphobia are able to leave their house with a trusted person with relatively little anxiety but not alone (Buck, 2010). This is a problem for the two-process model, which suggests that avoidance is motivated by anxiety reduction.

An incomplete explanation of phobias Even if we accept that classical and operant conditioning are involved in the development and maintenance of phobias, there are some aspects of phobic behaviour that require further explaining. Bounton (2007) points out, for example, that evolutionary factors probably have an important role in phobias but the two-factor theory does not mention this. For example, we easily acquire phobias of things that have been a source of danger in our evolutionary past, such as fears of snakes or of the dark. It is adaptive to acquire such fears. Seligman (1971) called this biological preparedness – the innate predisposition to acquire certain fears. However, it is quite rare to develop a fear of cars or guns, which are actually much more dangerous to most of us today than spiders or snakes. Presumably this is because they have only existed very recently and so we are not biologically prepared to learn fear responses towards them. This phenomenon of preparedness is a serious problem for the two-factor theory because it shows there is more to acquiring phobias than simple conditioning.

Evaluation eXtra Phobias that don’t follow a trauma

What about the cognitive aspects of phobias?

Sometimes phobias appear following a bad experience and it is easy to see how they could be the result of conditioning. However, sometimes people develop a phobia and are not aware of having had a related bad experience. For example, I might have a fear of snakes although I have never actually met one, let alone been frightened by one!

We know that behavioural explanations in general are oriented towards explaining behaviour rather than cognition. This is why the twoprocess model explains maintenance of phobias in terms of avoidance. But we also know that phobias have a cognitive element (see page 139).

Consider: What alternative explanations could explain these phobias that appear with no prior conditioning experience? What does this suggest about classical conditioning as an explanation?

Consider: In what way is this a criticism of the behavioural explanation of phobias? How could you explain the cognitive aspects of phobias?

We don’t usually develop phobias of cars although many of us have bad experiences with them. The two-process model cannot easily explain this.

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Methods: Treating agoraphobia A clinical psychologist is interested in whether her agoraphobic patients are able to leave their home with relatively little anxiety provided a safe person is with them. She finds that of the last 15 agoraphobic patients she worked with 10 benefited from a trusted companion while 5 did not. Questions

1. Express these figures as (a) a ratio, (b) a fraction and (c) a percentage to one decimal place. (3 marks) (See page 196.) 2. Present this data in a graph. (3 marks) 3. This study could be described as a natural experiment. Explain in what way this might be a natural experiment. (See page 173.) 4. How could you conduct this same study as a field experiment? (2 marks) (See page 172.) 5. Outline one ethical issue a psychologist would need to consider when carrying out this study. (2 marks) (See page 176.)

Study TIPS • Be clear about the difference between the behavioural characteristics of phobias, behavioural explanations and behavioural treatments (covered on the next spread). There are similarities in each of these as they are all focused on behaviours. It is important to avoid a knee-jerk response when you read the word ‘behavioural’.

Check It 1. Outline the two-process model of phobias. [4 marks] 2. Explain one limitation of the two-process model. [4 marks] 3. Outline how classical conditioning can be used to explain phobias. [4 marks] 4. Describe and evaluate the behavioural approach to explaining phobias. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

The behavioural approach to explaining phobias • 145

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The behavioural approach to treating phobias The specification says … The behavioural approach to treating phobias: systematic desensitisation including relaxation and use of hierarchy; flooding. Psychologists are interested in explaining why phobias develop but also in understanding how to treat them. The specification identifies two behavioural methods used in the treatment of phobias.

Key terms Systematic desensitisation (SD) – A behavioural therapy designed to reduce an unwanted response, such as anxiety, to a stimulus. SD involves drawing up a hierarchy of anxiety-provoking situations related to the phobic stimulus, teaching the patient to relax, and then exposing them to phobic situations. The patient works their way through the hierarchy whilst maintaining relaxation. Flooding – A behavioural therapy in which a phobic patient is exposed to an extreme form of a phobic stimulus in order to reduce anxiety triggered by that stimulus. This takes place across a small number of long therapy sessions.

Systematic desensitisation Systematic desensitisation (SD) is a behavioural therapy designed to gradually reduce phobic anxiety through the principle of classical conditioning. If the sufferer can learn to relax in the presence of the phobic stimulus they will be cured. Essentially a new response to the phobic stimulus is learned (phobic stimulus is paired with relaxation instead of anxiety). This learning of a different response is called counterconditioning. In addition it is impossible to be afraid and relaxed at the same time, so one emotion prevents the other. This is called reciprocal inhibition. There are three processes involved in SD. 1. The anxiety hierarchy is put together by the patient and therapist. This is a list of situations related to the phobic stimulus that provoke anxiety arranged in order from least to most frightening. For example, an arachnophobic might identify seeing a picture of a small spider as low on their anxiety hierarchy and holding a tarantula at the top of the hierarchy. 2. Relaxation The therapist teaches the patient to relax as deeply as possible. This might involve breathing exercises or, alternatively, the patient might learn mental imagery techniques. Patients can be taught to imagine themselves in relaxing situations (such as imagining lying on a beach) or they might learn meditation. Alternatively relaxation can be achieved using drugs such as Valium. 3. Exposure Finally the patient is exposed to the phobic stimulus while in a relaxed state. This takes place across several sessions, starting at the bottom of the anxiety hierarchy. When the patient can stay relaxed in the presence of the lower levels of the phobic stimulus they move up the hierarchy. Treatment is successful when the patient can stay relaxed in situations high on the anxiety hierarchy.

A REAL EXAMPLE OF AN ANXIETY HIERARCHY Newman and Adams (2004) outlined the hierarchy used to treat a phobia of dogs in a teenage boy with learning difficulties. 1. Introduction to dogs in photographs. 2. Dogs introduced without direct access. 3. Dog introduced to the same room. 4. Dog introduced to personal space on lead. 5. Loose dog introduced through a window. 6. Loose dog introduced but blocked by waist-high object. 7. Loose dog in the same room. 8. Repeated with different dogs. 9. Observe loose dogs in a park from a distance. 10. Close proximity to dogs in a park.

Fear of cats could be treated either by systematic desensitisation or flooding.

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Flooding Flooding also involves exposing phobic patients to their phobic stimulus but without a gradual build-up in an anxiety hierarchy. Instead flooding involves immediate exposure to a very frightening situation. So an arachnophobic receiving flooding treatment might have a large spider crawl over them for an extended period. Flooding sessions are typically longer than systematic desensitisation sessions, one session often lasting two to three hours. Sometimes only one long session is needed to cure a phobia.

How does flooding work? Flooding stops phobic responses very quickly. This may be because, without the option of avoidance behaviour, the patient quickly learns that the phobic stimulus is harmless. In classical conditioning terms this process is called extinction. A learned response is extinguished when the conditioned stimulus (e.g. a dog) is encountered without the unconditioned stimulus (e.g. being bitten). The result is that the conditioned stimulus no longer produces the conditioned response (fear). In some cases the patient may achieve relaxation in the presence of the phobic stimulus simply because they become exhausted by their own fear response!

Ethical safeguards Flooding is not unethical per se but it is an unpleasant experience so it is important that patients give fully informed consent to this traumatic procedure and that they are fully prepared before the flooding session. A patient would normally be given the choice of systematic desensitisation or flooding.

Concepts: Emily and cats

Emily has a phobia of cats. This is inconvenient as several of her friends have cats and she finds it hard to visit them because of her anxiety. Question

1. Consider how she could be treated by systematic desensitisation. 2. Explain how she could be treated by flooding. 3. She can’t decide which therapy might be best for her. What would you advise her about her choice of the two treatments?

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It is effective Research shows that systematic desensitisation is effective in the treatment of specific phobias. For example, Gilroy et al. (2003) followed up 42 patients who had been treated for spider phobia in three 45-minute sessions of systematic desensitisation. Spider phobia was assessed on several measures including the Spider Questionnaire and by assessing response to a spider. A control group was treated by relaxation without exposure. At both three months and 33 months after the treatment the systematic desensitisation group were less fearful than the relaxation group. This is a strength because it shows that systematic desensitisation is helpful in reducing the anxiety in spider phobia and that the effects are long-lasting.

It is suitable for a diverse range of patients The alternatives to systematic desensitisation – flooding and cognitive therapies – are not well suited to some patients. For example, some sufferers of anxiety disorders like phobias also have learning difficulties. Learning difficulties can make it very hard for some patients to understand what is happening during flooding or to engage with cognitive therapies that require the ability to reflect on what you are thinking (see pages 148–149). For these patients systematic desensitisation is probably the most appropriate treatment.

It is acceptable to patients A strength of systematic desensitisation is that patients prefer it. Those given the choice of systematic desensitisation or flooding tend to prefer systematic desensitisation. This is largely because it does not cause the same degree of trauma as flooding. It may also be because systematic desensitisation includes some elements – learning relaxation procedures – that are actually pleasant! This is reflected in the low refusal rates (number of patients refusing to start treatment) and low attrition rates (number of patients dropping out of treatment) of systematic desensitisation.

Methods: Clinical trial The bar chart below shows the symptom prevalence for groups of patients treated by flooding, systematic desensitisation and kept on a waiting list (a control condition). % of patients with symptoms following treatment

Evaluation

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Bar chart showing the effectiveness of treatment for specific phobias

100 75 50 25 0 control

systematic flooding desentisisation

Questions

1. What does the graph tell us about the effectiveness of different treatments for phobias in this study? (3 marks) 2. Explain why a control condition is necessary. (2 marks) (See page 170.) 3. Studies comparing different therapies usually use an independent measures design. Explain what an independent measures design is and why it is preferable for this type of study. (3 marks).

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Concepts: Manish

Evaluation

Manish has a phobia of giant mole rats (zemmiphobia). This is a particular problem for him as he works in the mole rat enclosure at a zoo. Imagine you were helping Manish with this problem using systematic desensitisation.

It is cost-effective

Question

Flooding is at least as effective as other treatments for specific phobias. Studies comparing flooding to cognitive therapies (such as Ougrin 2011) have found that flooding is highly effective and quicker than alternatives. This quick effect is a strength because it means that patients are free of their symptoms as soon as possible and that makes the treatment cheaper.

1. How would you put together an anxiety hierarchy for treating zemmiphobia? 2. How would you teach Manish relaxation? 3. Explain how you would expose Manish to giant mole rats in such a way as to tackle his phobia.

It is less effective for some types of phobia Although flooding is highly effective for treating simple phobias it appears to be less so for more complex phobias like so social phobias. This may be because social phobias have cognitive aspects. For example, a sufferer of a social phobia does not simply experience an anxiety response but thinks unpleasant thoughts about the social situation. This type of phobia may benefit more from cognitive therapies because such therapies tackle the irrational thinking.

The treatment is traumatic for patients Perhaps the most serious issue with the use of flooding is the fact that it is a highly traumatic experience. The problem is not that flooding is unethical (patients give consent) but that patients are often unwilling to see it through to the end. This is a limitation of flooding because time and money are sometimes wasted preparing patients only to have them refuse to start or complete treatment.

Evaluation eXtra Symptom substitution A common criticism of both systematic desensitisation and flooding is that when one phobia disappears another may appear in its place. For example, a phobia of snakes might be replaced by a phobia of trains. Evidence for symptom substitution is very mixed, however, and behavioural therapists tend not to believe it happens at all. Consider: Why might symptom substitution be considered a limitation of these therapies?

Check It 1. Outline one behavioural method for treating phobias. [4 marks] 2. Explain what is involved with flooding as a treatment of phobias. [3 marks] 3. Explain one limitation of using systematic desensitisation to treat phobias. [4 marks] 4. Describe and evaluate the use of the behavioural approach to the treatment of phobias. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

The behavioural approach to treating phobias • 147

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The cognitive approach to explaining depression The specification says … The cognitive approach to explaining depression: Beck’s negative triads and Ellis’s ABC model. One approach to explaining the development of depression is based on the cognitive approach. In particular we are interested in how depression involves negative patterns of thinking and other cognitive processes such as schema.

Key terms Cognitive approach – The term ‘cognitive’ has come to mean ‘mental processes’, so this approach is focused on how our mental processes (e.g. thoughts, perceptions, attention) affect behaviour. Negative triad – Beck proposed that there were three kinds of negative thinking that contributed to becoming depressed: negative views of the world, the future and the self. Such negative views lead a person to interpret their experiences in a negative way and so make them more vulnerable to depression. ABC model – Ellis proposed that depression occurs when an activating event (A) triggers an irrational belief (B) which in turn produces a consequence (C), i.e. an emotional response like depression. The key to this process is the irrational belief.

Beck’s cognitive theory of depression American psychiatrist Aaron Beck (1967) suggested a cognitive approach to explaining why some people are more vulnerable to depression than others. In particular it is a person’s cognitions that create this vulnerability, i.e. the way they think. Beck suggested three parts to this cognitive vulnerability.

Faulty information processing When depressed we attend to the negative aspects of a situation and ignore positives. For example, if I was depressed and won £1 million on the Lottery, I might focus on the fact that the previous week someone had won £10 million rather than focus on the positive of all I could do with £1 million. We also tend to blow small problems out of proportion and think in ‘black and white’ terms.

Negative self-schemas A schema is a ‘package’ of ideas and information developed through experience. They act as a mental framework for the interpretation of sensory information. A self-schema is the package of information we have about ourselves. We use schemas to interpret the world, so if we have a negative self-schema we interpret all information about ourselves in a negative way.

The negative triad A person develops a dysfunctional view of themselves because of three types of negative thinking that occur automatically, regardless of the reality of what is happening at the time. These three elements are called the negative triad. When we are depressed, negative thoughts about the world, the future and oneself often come to us. a) Negative view of the world – an example would be ‘the world is a cold hard place’. This creates the impression that there is no hope anywhere. b) Negative view of the future – an example would be ‘there isn’t much chance that the economy will really get better’. Such thoughts reduce any hopefulness and enhance depression. c) Negative view of the self – for example, I might think ‘I am a failure’. Such thoughts enhance any existing depressive feelings because they confirm the existing emotions of low self-esteem.

Ellis’s ABC model An event like failing an important test can trigger irrational beliefs and so lead to depression.

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Concepts: The cognitive approach The cognitive approach to understanding depression emerged in the 1960s as psychologists in general changed their emphasis from studying observable behaviour to studying mental processes. The cognitive approach to depression is most concerned with explaining the kinds of thinking and selective attention that characterise depression. The approach does not ignore emotion and behaviour but it sees them as the result of cognition.

Another American psychiatrist, Albert Ellis (1962) suggested a different cognitive explanation of depression. He proposed that good mental health is the result of rational thinking, defined as thinking in ways that allow people to be happy and free of pain. To Ellis, conditions like anxiety and depression (poor mental health) result from irrational thoughts. Ellis defined irrational thoughts, not as illogical or unrealistic thoughts, but as any thoughts that interfere with us being happy and free of pain. Ellis used the ABC model to explain how irrational thoughts affect our behaviour and emotional state.

A Activating event Whereas Beck’s emphasis was on automatic thoughts, Ellis focused on situations in which irrational thoughts are triggered by external events. According to Ellis we get depressed when we experience negative events and these trigger irrational beliefs. Events like failing an important test or ending a relationship might trigger irrational beliefs.

B Beliefs

Question

Ellis identified a range of irrational beliefs. He called the belief that we must always succeed or achieve perfection ‘musturbation’. ‘I-can’t-stand-it-itis’ is the belief that it is a major disaster whenever something does not go smoothly. Utopianism is the belief that life is always meant to be fair.

Explain in what ways both Beck’s and Ellis’s explanations are examples of the cognitive approach.

C Consequences When an activating event triggers irrational beliefs there are emotional and behavioural consequences. For example, if you believe you must always succeed and then fail at something this can trigger depression.

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Evaluation It has good supporting evidence A range of evidence supports the idea that depression is associated with faulty information processing, negative self-schemas and the cognitive triad of negative automatic thinking. For example, Grazioli and Terry (2000) assessed 65 pregnant women for cognitive vulnerability and depression before and after birth. They found that those women judged to have been high in cognitive vulnerability were more likely to suffer post-natal depression. Clark and Beck (1999) reviewed research on this topic and concluded that there was solid support for all these cognitive vulnerability factors. Critically, these cognitions can be seen before depression develops, suggesting that Beck may be right about cognition causing depression, at least in some cases.

It has a practical application in CBT A further strength of Beck’s cognitive explanation is that it forms the basis of a cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT). All cognitive aspects of depression can be identified and challenged in CBT. These include the components of the negative triad that are easily identifiable. This means a therapist can challenge them and encourage the patient to test whether they are true.This is a strength of the explanation because it translates well into a successful therapy.

It doesn’t explain all aspects of depression

Those who look at the downsides of a situation are more prone to depression.

Beck’s theory explains neatly the basic symptoms of depression, however depression is complex. Some depressed patients are deeply angry and Beck cannot easily explain this extreme emotion. Some sufferers of depression suffer hallucinations and bizarre beliefs. Very occasionally depressed patients suffer Cotard syndrome, the delusion that they are zombies (Jarrett 2013). Beck’s theory cannot easily explain these cases.

Evaluation A partial explanation There is no doubt that some cases of depression follow activating events. Psychologists call this reactive depression and see it as different from the kind of depression that arises without an obvious cause. This means that Ellis’s explanation only applies to some kinds of depression and is therefore only a partial explanation for depression.

It has a practical application in CBT A strength of Ellis’ explanation is that, like Beck’s explanation, it has led to a successful therapy (see next spread). The idea that, by challenging irrational negative beliefs, a person can reduce their depression is supported by research evidence (e.g. Lipsky et al.1980). This in turn supports the basic theory because it suggests that the irrational beliefs had some role in the depression.

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Concepts: Yasmin

Yasmin has just been made redundant. She takes this very hard and finds herself suffering symptoms of depression. When questioned, Yasmin says that the situation is unfair and that she is ashamed. Question

1. How would you put this sequence of events into the ABC model? 2. In terms of Ellis’s theory, what kinds of irrational thinking is Yasmin displaying? 3. Does Yasmin have any symptoms that Ellis’s approach would struggle to explain?

Although Ellis explains why some people appear to be more vulnerable to depression than others as a result of their cognitions, his approach has very much the same limitation as Beck’s. It doesn’t easily explain the anger associated with depression or the fact that some patients suffer hallucinations and delusions.

Evaluation eXtra Cognitive primacy Cognitive explanations for depression share the idea that cognition causes depression. This is closely tied up with the concept of cognitive primacy, the idea that emotions are influenced by cognition (your thoughts). This is certainly the case sometimes, but not necessarily always. Other theories of depression see emotion as stored like physical energy, to emerge some time after its causal event. Consider: Can you think of examples of emotion that do not appear to be the result of cognitions? How would you use this as a criticism?

Attachment and depression Studies of attachment (see Chapter 3) have shown that those infants that develop insecure attachments to their parents are more vulnerable to depression in adulthood. Consider: How could this link between attachment security and depression be explained using cognitive theory. In what way would such an explanation count as supporting evidence?

Study TIPS

It doesn’t explain all aspects of depression

• We have presented two cognitive explanations for depression. You must know both of them as they are named in the specification. • It is very important when discussing these that you do focus on depression rather than giving a more general description of the cognitive approach.

Check It 1. Outline the ABC model as an explanation for depression. [4 marks] 2. Explain one limitation of Beck’s negative triad as an explanation for depression. [4 marks] 3. Describe and evaluate the cognitive approach to explaining depression. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

The cognitive approach to explaining depression • 149

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The cognitive approach to treating depression The specification says …

Cognitive behaviour therapy

The cognitive approach offers explanations for depression which can then be applied to the treatment of depression. In particular we are interested in cognitive behaviour therapy, the standard psychological treatment for depression. You are also required specifically to know about the role of challenging irrational thoughts in CBT.

Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) is the most commonly used psychological treatment for depression and a range of other mental health problems. If you see a clinical psychologist for a mental health problem the chances are you will receive CBT. CBT begins with an assessment in which the patient and the cognitive behaviour therapist work together to clarify the patient’s problems. They jointly identify goals for the therapy and put together a plan to achieve them. One of the central tasks is to identify where there might be negative or irrational thoughts that will benefit from challenge. CBT then involves working to change negative and irrational thoughts and finally put more effective behaviours into place. Some CBT therapists do this using techniques purely from Beck’s cognitive therapy, or some rely exclusively on Ellis’s rational emotive behaviour therapy. Most draw on both.

Key terms

CBT: Beck’s cognitive therapy

The cognitive approach to treating depression: cognitive behavioural therapy including challenging irrational thoughts.

Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) – A method for treating mental disorders based on both cognitive and behavioural techniques. From the cognitive viewpoint the therapy aims to deal with thinking, such as challenging negative thoughts. The therapy also includes behavioural techniques such as behavioural activation. Irrational thoughts – Also called dysfunctional thoughts. In Ellis’s model and therapy, these are defi ned as thoughts that are likely to interfere with a person’s happiness. Such dysfunctional thoughts lead to mental disorders such as depression.

CBT begins with a collaborative assessment.

Cognitive therapy is the application of Beck’s cognitive theory of depression (see page 148). The idea behind cognitive therapy is to identify automatic thoughts about the world, the self and the future – this is the negative triad. Once identified these thoughts must be challenged. This is the central component of the therapy. As well as challenging these thoughts directly, cognitive therapy aims to help patients test the reality of their negative beliefs. They might therefore be set homework such as to record when they enjoyed an event or when people were nice to them. This is sometimes referred to as the ‘patient as scientist’, investigating the reality of their negative beliefs in the way a scientist would. In future sessions if patients say that no one is nice to them or there is no point in going to events, the therapist can then produce this evidence and use it to prove the patient’s statements are incorrect.

CBT: Ellis’s rational emotive behaviour therapy (REBT) REBT extends the ABC model (see previous spread) to an ABCDE model – D stands for dispute and E for effect. The central technique of REBT is to identify and dispute (challenge) irrational thoughts. For example, a patient might talk about how unlucky they have been or how unfair things seem. An REBT therapist would identify these as examples of utopianism and challenge this as an irrational belief. This would involve a vigorous argument. The intended effect is to change the irrational belief and so break the link between negative life events and depression. This vigorous argument is the hallmark of REBT. Ellis identified different methods of disputing. For example, empirical argument involves disputing whether there is actual evidence to support the negative belief. Logical argument involves disputing whether the negative thought logically follows from the facts.

Behavioural activation Alongside the purely cognitive aspects of CBT the therapist may also work to encourage a depressed patient to be more active and engage in enjoyable activities. This behavioural activation will provide more evidence for the irrational nature of beliefs.

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Methods: Clinical trial of CBT

The table below right shows the outcomes for a trial of CBT versus more old-fashioned behaviour therapy without cognitive techniques. A higher score indicates greater depression. Questions

3. What would you conclude about the relationship between number of sessions and reduction in symptoms? (2 marks)

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CBT

2. Plot the improvement for each patient against the number of CBT sessions they received on a scattergram. (4 marks) (See page 194.)

Condition

Behaviour therapy

1. Calculate how much improvement each patient showed. Put the data from your calculations in a table. (2 marks)

Patient number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Number of sessions 12 12 7 5 5 9 9 10 6 11

Depression score before therapy 18 22 16 17 18 21 16 18 18 17

Depression score after therapy 6 10 8 10 12 11 7 9 11 7

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Evaluation It is effective There is a large body of evidence to support the effectiveness of CBT for depression. For example, a study by March et al. (2007) compared the effects of CBT with antidepressant drugs and a combination of the two in 327 adolescents with a main diagnosis of depression. After 36 weeks 81% of the CBT group, 81% of the antidepressants group and 86% of the CBT plus antidepressants group were significantly improved. Thus CBT emerged as just as effective as medication and helpful alongside medication. This suggests there is a good case for making CBT the first choice of treatment in public health care systems like the National Health Service.

CBT may not work for the most severe cases

Some patients are too distressed to engage with CBT.

In some cases depression can be so severe that patients cannot motivate themselves to engage with the hard cognitive work of CBT. They may not even be able to pay attention to what is happening in a session. Where this is the case it is possible to treat patients with antidepressant medication and commence CBT when they are more alert and motivated. Although it is possible to work around this by using medication, this is a limitation of CBT because it means CBT cannot be used as the sole treatment for all cases of depression.

Success may be due to the therapist–patient relationship Rosenzweig (1936) suggested that the differences between different methods of psychotherapy, such as between CBT and systematic desensitisation, might actually be quite small. All psychotherapies share one essential ingredient – the therapist–patient relationship. It may be the quality of this relationship that determines success rather than any particular technique that is used. Many comparative reviews (e.g. Luborsky et al. 2002) find very small differences, which supports the view that simply having an opportunity to talk to someone who will listen could be what matters most.

Evaluation eXtra

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Concepts: Treating Yasmin

You have read about Yasmin’s experience of redundancy on page 149 and her resulting depression. We are now going to look at Ellis’s ideas about challenging irrational beliefs to show how a cognitive behaviour therapist might be able to help Yasmin. Question

1. Yasmin suffers from irrational thoughts. Explain in what way these are irrational. 2. How might you go about challenging these thoughts if you were a cognitive behaviour therapist?

Some patients really want to explore their past One of the basic principles of CBT is that the focus in therapy is on the present and future, not the patient’s past. This is in contrast to some other forms of psychological therapy. Some patients are aware of the link between their childhood experiences and current depression and want to talk about their experiences. They can find this ‘present-focus’ very frustrating. Consider: Is there a benefit to talking about one’s past in therapy? To what extent should we see this as a problem with CBT?

Overemphasis on cognition There is a risk that because of its emphasis on what is happening in the mind of the individual patient CBT may end up minimising the importance of the circumstances in which a patient is living (McCusker 2014). A patient living in poverty or suffering abuse needs to change their circumstances, and any approach to therapy that emphasises what is happening in the patient’s mind rather than their environment can prevent this. CBT techniques used inappropriately can demotivate people to change their situation. Consider: How big a risk is this for patients in CBT? Is there something cognitive behaviour therapists can do about it? How is this a criticism of CBT?

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Concepts: Trina

Depression is a common but disabling condition. The ‘first line’ treatment in the National Health Service is CBT. Trina has been diagnosed with depression. Her symptoms include sadness and lethargy – she struggles to get out of bed each morning – and she is disturbed by automatic thoughts that she is a failure and the future is going to be unhappy. Question

1. How might a cognitive behaviour therapist tackle Trina’s depression? 2. Trina asks her therapist how useful CBT is. What might the therapist tell her?

Check It 1. Outline what is meant by cognitive behaviour therapy. [4 marks] 2. Explain one limitation of cognitive behaviour therapy. [4 marks] 3. Outline the role of challenging irrational thoughts in the cognitive-behavioural treatment of depression. [4 marks] 4. Describe and evaluate cognitive behaviour therapy for depression. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

The cognitive approach to treating depression • 151

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The biological approach to explaining OCD The specification says … The biological approach to explaining OCD: genetic and neural explanations. We now turn to the third mental disorder in the specification, OCD, and consider explanations for it. In particular we are interested in how an individual’s vulnerability to OCD may be affected by their genetic make-up and how the brain functioning of a sufferer of OCD may differ from that of someone without the condition.

Key terms Biological approach – A perspective that emphasises the importance of physical processes in the body such as genetic inheritance and neural function.

Genetic explanations Some mental disorders appear to have a stronger biological component than others, and OCD is a good example of a condition that may be largely understood as biological in nature. One form of biological explanation is the genetic explanation. Genes are involved in individual vulnerability to OCD. Lewis (1936) observed that of his OCD patients 37% had parents with OCD and 21% had siblings with OCD. This suggests that OCD runs in families, although what is probably passed on from one generation to the next is genetic vulnerability not the certainty of OCD. According to the diathesis-stress model certain genes leave some people more likely to suffer a mental disorder but it is not certain – some environmental stress (experience) is necessary to trigger the condition.

Candidate genes Researchers have identified genes, which create vulnerability for OCD, called candidate genes. Some of these genes are involved in regulating the development of the serotonin system. For example, the gene 5HT1-D beta is implicated in the efficiency of transport of serotonin across synapses.

OCD is polygenic

Genetic explanations – Genes make up chromosomes and consist of DNA which codes the physical features of an organism (such as eye colour, height) and psychological features (such as mental disorder, intelligence). Genes are transmitted from parents to offspring, i.e. inherited.

However, like many conditions, OCD seems to be polygenic. This means that OCD is not caused by one single gene but that several genes are involved. Taylor (2013) has analysed findings of previous studies and found evidence that up to 230 different genes may be involved in OCD. Genes that have been studied in relation to OCD include those associated with the action of dopamine as well as serotonin, both neurotransmitters believed to have a role in regulating mood.

Neural explanations – The view that physical and psychological characteristics are determined by the behaviour of the nervous system, in particular the brain as well as individual neurons.

Different types of OCD

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Concepts: Jack

OCD is widely believed to be a biological condition with its roots in genetic vulnerability and brain dysfunction. Jack suffers from OCD. His grandfather and uncle also suffered from OCD, to the extent that his uncle had brain surgery to relieve his symptoms. As a psychology student Jack is curious about what might have caused his condition. Question

1. What might his psychologist tell Jack about the likely role of genetic vulnerability in causing his OCD? 2. What might she say about what may be happening in his brain that is associated with his symptoms?

Under view of the brain showing regions implicated in OCD. Parahippocampul gyrus

Lateral frontal lobes

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One group of genes may cause OCD in one person but a different group of genes may cause the disorder in another person. The term used to describe this is aetiologically heterogeneous, meaning that the origin (aetiology) of OCD has different causes (heterogeneous). There is also some evidence to suggest that different types of OCD may be the result of particular genetic variations, such as hoarding disorder and religious obsession.

Psychopathology

Neural explanations The genes associated with OCD are likely to affect the levels of key neurotransmitters as well as structures of the brain. These are neural explanations.

The role of serotonin One explanation for OCD concerns the role of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which is believed to help regulate mood. Neurotransmitters are responsible for relaying information from one neuron to another. If a person has low levels of serotonin then normal transmission of mood-relevant information does not take place and mood – and sometimes other mental processes – are affected. At least some cases of OCD may be explained by a reduction in the functioning of the serotonin system in the brain.

Decision-making systems Some cases of OCD, and in particular hoarding disorder, seem to be associated with impaired decision making. This in turn may be associated with abnormal functioning of the lateral (side bits) of the frontal lobes of the brain. The frontal lobes are the front part of the brain (behind your forehead) that are responsible for logical thinking and making decisions. There is also evidence to suggest that an area called the left parahippocampal gyrus (see diagram on left), associated with processing unpleasant emotions, functions abnormally in OCD.

All the main approaches in psychology are discussed in Chapter 5. The biological approach is on pages 112–117. Psychology grew out of biology, and the study of mental disorder evolved largely within the medical profession, so it is no surprise that there are important biological approaches to explaining mental health problems.

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Evaluation There is good supporting evidence There is evidence from a variety of sources for the idea that some people are vulnerable to OCD as a result of their genetic make-up. One of the best sources of evidence for the importance of genes is twin studies. Nestadt et al. (2010) reviewed previous twin studies and found that 68% of identical twins shared OCD as opposed to 31% of non-identical twins. This strongly suggests a genetic influence on OCD.

Too many candidate genes Although twin studies strongly suggest that OCD is largely under genetic control, psychologists have been much less successful at pinning down all the genes involved. One reason for this is because it appears that several genes are involved and that each genetic variation only increases the risk of OCD by a fraction. The consequence is that a genetic explanation is unlikely to ever be very useful because it provides little predictive value.

Twin studies An important way to study genetic influence on a psychological characteristic is to compare the similarity of identical twins, who share all their genes, and nonidentical twins who are only as genetically similar as any siblings. Where identical twins (monozygotic) are much more likely to share a characteristic like OCD than nonidentical (dizygotic) twins this strongly suggests that genes are involved in that characteristic.

Environmental risk factors It seems that environmental factors can also trigger or increase the risk of developing OCD (the diathesis-stress model). For example, Cromer et al. (2007) found that over half the OCD patients in their sample had a traumatic event in their past, and that OCD was more severe in those with more than one trauma. This suggests that OCD cannot be entirely genetic in origin, at least not in all cases. It may be more productive to focus on the environmental causes because we are more able to do something about these.

Evaluation There is some supporting evidence There is evidence to support the role of some neural mechanisms in OCD. For example, some antidepressants work purely on the serotonin system, increasing levels of this neurotransmitter. Such drugs are effective in reducing OCD symptoms and this suggests that the serotonin system is involved in OCD. Also, OCD symptoms form part of a number of other conditions that are biological in origin, for example Parkinson’s Disease (Nestasdt et al. 2010). This suggests that the biological processes that cause the symptoms in those conditions may also be responsible for OCD.

It is not clear exactly what neural mechanisms are involved Studies of decision making have shown that these neural systems are the same systems that function abnormally in OCD (Cavedini et al. 2002). However, research has also identified other brain systems that may be involved sometimes but no system has been found that always plays a role in OCD. We cannot therefore really claim to understand the neural mechanisms involved in OCD.

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Methods: Family studies Lewis (1936) assessed 50 patients with OCD at the Maudsley Hospital in London, looking for cooccurrence of OCD in immediate family. He found that 37% of his patients with OCD had parents with OCD and 21% had siblings with OCD. This suggests there may be a genetic basis to OCD. Questions

1. Explain why this study might be considered to be a quasi-experiment. (2 marks) (See page 172.) 2. You plan to carry out a similar study on patients with OCD and their siblings. You have access to a list of all patients with OCD in your nearest city. Describe how you would obtain a random sample of participants. (3 marks) (See page 174.) 3. Describe how you would obtain a stratified sample. (Strata might include gender, age and socio-economic status) (3 marks)

We should not assume the neural mechanisms cause OCD There is evidence to suggest that various neurotransmitters and structures of the brain do not function normally in patients with OCD. However, this is not the same as saying that this abnormal functioning causes the OCD. These biological abnormalities could be a result of OCD rather than its cause.

Evaluation eXtra The serotonin-OCD link may be simply co-morbidity with depression Many people who suffer OCD become depressed. Having two disorders together is called co-morbidity. This depression probably involves (though is not necessarily caused by) disruption to the serotonin system. This leaves us with a logical problem when it comes to the serotonin system as a possible basis for OCD. It could simply be that the serotonin system is disrupted in many patients with OCD because they are depressed as well. Consider: What evidence could suggest that serotonin is in fact directly linked to OCD?

Study TIPS • There is quite an overlap in the explanations about the role of genetic and neural factors in the development of OCD. However, you need to be clear what is a neural explanation and what is a genetic explanation because both terms are identified in the specification.

Twin studies are flawed as genetic evidence Twin studies are a standard source of evidence for genetic influence. However, they make the assumption that identical twins are only more similar than non-identical twins in terms of their genes, but overlook the fact that identical twins may also be more similar in terms of shared environments (for example, non-identical twins might be a boy and a girl who have quite different experiences). Consider: How does this affect the value of twin studies?

Check It 1. Outline genetic explanations of OCD. [6 marks] 2. Evaluate the evidence for a genetic basis to OCD. [4 marks] 3. Outline the neural basis of OCD. [4 marks] 4. Explain one criticism of neural explanations for OCD. [2 marks] 5. Describe and evaluate the biological approach to OCD. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

The biological approach to explaining OCD • 153

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The biological approach to treating OCD The specification says … The biological approach to treating OCD: drug therapy. The biological explanations of OCD imply that biological treatments may be successful, most obviously through the use of drug treatments that target abnormal neurotransmitter levels.

Key term Drug therapy – Treatment involving drugs, i.e. chemicals that have a particular effect on the functioning of the brain or some other body system. In the case of psychological disorders such drugs usually affect neurotransmitter levels.

presynaptic nerve

Drug therapy Drug therapy for mental disorders aims to increase or decrease levels of neurotransmitters in the brain or to increase/decrease their activity. On the previous spread we saw that low levels of serotonin are associated with OCD. Therefore drugs work in various ways to increase the level of serotonin in the brain.

SSRIs The standard medical treatment used to tackle the symptoms of OCD involves a particular type of antidepressant drug called a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (or SSRI for short). SSRIs work on the serotonin system in the brain. Serotonin is released by certain neurons in the brain. It is released by the presynaptic neurons and travels across a synapse (see diagram on the left). The neurotransmitter chemically conveys the signal from the presynaptic neuron to the postsynaptic neuron and then it is reabsorbed by the presynaptic neuron where it is broken down and re-used. By preventing the re-absorption and breakdown of serotonin SSRIs effectively increase its levels in the synapse and thus continue to stimulate the postsynaptic neuron. This compensates for whatever is wrong with the serotonin system in OCD. Dosage and other advice vary according to which SSRI is prescribed. A typical daily dose of Fluoxetine is 20mg although this may be increased if it is not benefiting the patient. The drug is available as capsules or liquid. It takes three to four months of daily use for SSRIs to have much impact on symptoms.

Combining SSRIs with other treatments SSRI blocking reabsorption of serotonin seratonin

Drugs are often used alongside cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) to treat OCD. The drugs reduce a patient’s emotional symptoms, such as feeling anxious or depressed. This means that patients can engage more effectively with the CBT. In practice some people respond best to CBT alone whilst others benefit more from drugs like Fluoxetine. Occasionally other drugs are prescribed alongside SSRIs.

Alternatives to SSRIs

synapse postsynaptic nerve

receptor sites

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Methods: Symptom severity The table below shows the symptom severity in patients with OCD being treated by SSRIs or a placebo. The scale goes up to 10. SSRIs

3 6 4 3 6 4 3 1 2 5 4 5 3 5 5

Placebo 6 7 5 8 5 9 5 7 6 7 8 7 8 8 9 Questions

1. Are these data quantitative or qualitative? Explain your answer. (2 marks) (See page 191.) 2. Suggest an example of the sort of data that might be gathered to go alongside the data above. (2 marks) 3. Suggest a research method that could be used to gather this kind of data. (2 marks) 4. Placebos act as a control condition. Explain why a control condition is needed in this kind of research. (3 marks) (See page 170.)

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Where an SSRI is not effective after three to four months the dose can be increased (e.g. up to 60mg a day for Fluoxetine) or it can be combined with other drugs. Sometimes different antidepressants are tried. Patients respond very differently to different drugs and alternatives work well for some people and not at all for others. • Tricyclics (an older type of antidepressant) are sometimes used, such as Clomipramine. These have the same effect on the serotonin system as SSRIs. Clomipramine has more severe side-effects than SSRIs so it is generally kept in reserve for patients who do not respond to SSRIs. • SNRIs (serotonin-noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors). In the last five years a different class of antidepressant drugs called SNRIs has also been used to treat OCD. These are, like Clomipramine, a second line of defence for patients who don’t respond to SSRIs. SNRIs increase levels of serotonin as well as another different neurotransmitter – noradrenaline.

Six different SSRIs are commonly used in the UK for adults. Two of these are currently recommended for children. The most commonly used SSRI is Fluoxetine (sold as Prozac).

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Evaluation Drug therapy is effective at tackling OCD symptoms There is clear evidence for the effectiveness of SSRIs in reducing the severity of OCD symptoms and so improving quality of life for OCD patients. Soomro et al. (2009) reviewed studies comparing SSRIs to placebos in the treatment of OCD and concluded that all 17 studies reviewed showed significantly better results for the SSRIs than for placebo conditions. Effectiveness is greatest when SSRIs are combined with a psychological treatment, usually CBT. Typically symptoms decline significantly for around 70% of patients taking SSRIs. Of the remaining 30% alternative drug treatments or combinations of drugs and psychological treatments will be effective for some. So drugs can help most patients with OCD.

Drugs are cost-effective and non-disruptive An advantage of drug treatments in general is that they are cheap compared to psychological treatments. Using drugs to treat OCD is therefore good value for a public health system like the National Health Service. As compared to psychological therapies SSRIs are also non-disruptive to patients’ lives. If you wish you can simply take drugs until your symptoms decline and not engage with the hard work of psychological therapy. Many doctors and patients like drug treatments for these reasons.

Drugs can have side-effects Although drugs like SSRIs are often helpful to sufferers of OCD, a significant minority will get no benefit. Some patients also suffer side-effects such as indigestion, blurred vision and loss of sex drive. These side-effects are usually temporary. For those taking Clomipramine, side-effects are more common and can be more serious. More than one in ten patients suffer erection problems, tremors and weight gain. More than one in a hundred become aggressive and suffer disruption to blood pressure and heart rhythm (www.nhs.uk). Such factors reduce effectiveness because people stop taking the medication.

Evaluation eXtra Unreliable evidence for drug treatments Although SSRIs are fairly effective and any side-effects will probably be short term, like all drug treatments they have some controversy attached. For example, some psychologists believe the evidence favouring drug treatments is biased because the research is sponsored by drug companies who do not report all the evidence (Goldacre 2013).

Drug therapies are relatively cheap compared with the cost of psychological therapy. They are also easy – patients don’t have to make much effort, they just remember to take the drugs.

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Methods: Olanzapine

SSRIs significantly reduce symptoms in around 70% of patients (Sansone and Sansone 2011). This means that alternative treatments are needed for the remaining 30%. Bogetto et al. (2000) trialled a drug called Olanzapine with 23 patients who had not responded to SSRIs. Ten of these patients responded to the Olanzapine. The mean symptom rating improved from 26.8 to 18.9 on the Yale Brown Obsessive Compulsion Scale. Questions

1. State the aim of the study. (2 marks) (See page 166.) 2. Write a non-directional hypothesis for this study. (2 marks) (See page 166.) 3. Briefly explain one ethical issue the researchers should take account of in carrying out the study, and explain how they could deal with this. (2 marks + 2 marks) (See pages 176–177.)

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Concepts: Akash

SSRIs are the first line treatment for OCD. They may be taken alone or with a psychological therapy. It may be possible in some cases to just have the psychological therapy.

Consider: What are the relative strengths and limitations of drugs (and the supporting evidence) versus psychological therapies?

Akash is a busy entrepreneur with a young family. He has a recent diagnosis of OCD and his doctor prescribes drug treatment – Fluoxetine. Akash has always been healthy and never thought much about taking drugs before. He enquires about the possibility of having a psychological treatment instead.

Some cases of OCD follow trauma

Questions

OCD is widely believed to be biological in origin. It makes sense, therefore, that the standard treatment should be biological. However, it is acknowledged that OCD can have a range of other causes, and that in some cases it is a response to a traumatic life event.

1. Given Akash’s lifestyle can you see any reasons why Fluoxetine might suit him better than psychological treatment?

Study TIPS

Consider: Is it appropriate to treat cases that follow a trauma with drugs? • This is one of the most technically complex parts of the specification because there are a lot of long and unfamiliar words to get your head around. Use the initials like SSRIs and SNRIs to make it simpler. Don’t get bogged down in detail or anxious that you can’t imagine serotonin crossing a synapse! That’s normal.

2. What else might Akash’s doctor advise him to do to relieve his symptoms of OCD?

Check It 1. Outline the use of drug therapy for OCD. [4 marks] 2. Explain one limitation of using drug therapies to treat OCD. [4 marks] 3. Describe and evaluate the biological approach to the treatment of OCD. [12 marks AS, 16 marks AL]

The biological approach to treating OCD • 155

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Practical corner

Practical idea 1: Gender differences in fears

The specification says …

The aim of this study is to explore whether there are gender differences in the extent to which people experience fears. More specifically we are interested in whether men or women are more likely to have an irrational fear, and whether they tend to be afraid of different things. This is a quasi-experiment because gender is the independent variable. A questionnaire is used to collect data.

Knowledge and understanding of ….research methods, practical research skills and maths skills. These should be developed through …..ethical practical research activities. This means that you should conduct practical investigations wherever possible. Because you cannot carry out research on participants with mental health problems you are limited here to research using a non-clinical population (a quasiexperiment looking at gender differences) or making observations of existing data.

There a various ways you could investigate gender differences in irrational fears. For practical and ethical reasons we recommend that you do this by self-report. You will need to construct a questionnaire and use it to collect data from men and women about their fears.

Designing your questionnaire

Ethics check Ethics are discussed in detail on pages 176–177. We suggest strongly that you complete this checklist before collecting data. 1. 2. 3. 4.

The practical bit

Do participants know participation is voluntary? Do participants know what to expect? Do participants know they can withdraw at any time? Are individuals’ results anonymous?

5. Have I minimised the risk of distress to participants? 6. Have I avoided asking sensitive questions? 7. Will I avoid bringing my school/teacher/psychology into disrepute? 8. Have I considered all other ethical issues? 9. Has my teacher approved this?

Remember not to frighten or upset your participants!

On page 186 we explain key decisions to be made when designing a questionnaire. For this particular questionnaire the most basic thing you want to know about is how many men and how many women have irrational fears. This can be discovered using a simple yes/no question. Don’t forget to have some way of recording whether each participant is male or female. You will also want to ask about what fears they may have. You need to decide whether to have a tick-list with a selection of fears (closed question) or just ask people what fears they have (open question). The former will make it easier to analyse results but you may miss unusual fears. You may decide you would also like to collect information about severity of fears. If so you need a way to record this, such as using a 1–5 rating scale.

Ethical issues This study should be ethically acceptable as long as it is conducted well, but there are some issues to be aware of. You are asking people to disclose what may be fairly personal information so be particularly aware of confidentiality. You are also discussing an unpleasant emotional experience so it is critical that participants are fully aware that participation is voluntary, that they know exactly what will take place in the study and that they are aware that they have the right to pull out at any time. Most importantly, your survey should just involve people with sub-clinical fears, i.e. not people with a clinical phobia. You are not allowed to work with people with mental health problems as you may cause real distress. Make sure that you check this with each participant.

Choosing your sample You will need to consider a suitable sampling method for this study (see page 174 for a detailed discussion of sampling). As always there is a trade-off between sampling techniques that allow you to get a large number of participants quickly and those that allow you to obtain participants who are more representative of their population. You also need to think about what is an appropriate sample size for this study.

Analysing your data You will need to present your results in the form of tables and graphs. You will want to be able to show your results so that someone will instantly be able to see whether there are indeed gender differences in fears and what the differences are. An example is shown below.

Table 1 People who have an irrational fear Gender Irrational fear

Male (N=10) 4

Female (N=10) 7

Table 2 Severity of fear (measured on a scale of 1–5 where 5 = greater fear) Male 2 4 3 2 2 2 1 1 4 2

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Female 4 5 5 4 4 3 4 4 5 5

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Methods: The maths bit 1

1. In Table 1 N = 10. What does this mean? (1 mark) 2. Looking at Table 1, what percentages of males and females reported an irrational fear? (1 mark) (See page 196.) 3. What conclusion would you reach based on the information in Table 1? (2 marks) 4. Using the data in Table 2, calculate the median male and female severity scores and present them in a suitable table. (2 marks) (See page 192.) 5. Identify the range of scores for males and females. (1 mark) (See page 193.) 6. What do these ranges tell us about the fears of the two groups of participants? (2 marks)

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Practical idea 2: Mental health in the media Previous studies have found that press coverage of mental health issues is poor. Reports focus on violent incidents or use inappropriate language like ‘nutcase’ or ‘bonkers’ to describe people with a mental health problem. However, there is much better awareness of mental health now so it may be that this is much less of a problem than in the past. The aim of this study is to investigate the language used in press coverage of mental health using a method of indirect observation.

The practical bit This study is a kind of observational study. It is a bit different from other kinds of observation in that you are not watching live participants. Instead you are studying people indirectly through the records they produce (called a content analysis). This can be a book, magazine, newspaper, website or film.

Negative coverage of mental health issues in the media is distressing for people with a mental health problem and their families.

Choosing your media This is very much up to you. You may have a stack of newspapers and magazines in your school library from which to work. Alternatively, many publications keep a free archive that you can access online (see suggestions on right). Past studies have either focused on analysing a particular type of publication over time or instead tried to obtain a snapshot of coverage across a range of media. We recommend that you choose a particular publication (or compare two) and aim to gather a good range of data from it.

Your tally chart Before you start sampling your media for information, you need a good idea of exactly what you are looking for. There are a number of options here. You could categorise each mention of mental health according to the overall thrust of the article. Some articles might, for example, be about the financial pressures on mental health services, others about particular conditions or treatments, others on celebrity mental health problems and yet others about the dangers posed by people with mental health problems. In essence you are identifying behavioural categories. Another approach is to identify key words such as ‘nutcase’. You may well find for example, that this kind of inappropriate language is used more frequently in tabloid newspapers than in the broadsheets. You will need a tally system to count up how many articles contain your targets. You can see an example below.

Sampling your information Once you know exactly what you are looking for, you need to sample your media. If you are working with hard copies of newspapers or magazines you will need to choose a set of editions and scan each selected one after the other. If you are searching an online archive then you have two options. Either call up each edition in turn and scan it as you would a hard copy or use the search tool and input your search terms (e.g. ‘mental health’) and analyse by the hits you obtain from this.

Name

Publication type

Web address

BBC News

General News Organisation

www.bbc.co.uk/news

The Daily Mail

Newspaper

www.dailymail.co.uk

The Huffington Post

Online Newspaper

www.huffingtonpost.com

The Guardian

Newspaper

www.theguardian.com

GETTING THE BEST FROM ONLINE SEARCHES When searching online databases for articles you need to think carefully about search terms and in particular about how you combine them. In a study of mental health think about the range of terms a publication might use, e.g. mental illness or madness. For best results put your search terms in double quotes and capitalise the link word OR. For example, you might search for:

Analysing your data You will need to present your results in the form of tables and graphs. You will want to show your results so that someone will instantly be able to see what sort of coverage the media you looked at give to mental health. You will collect data in the form of frequencies. These can be presented as tables of percentages or bar charts.

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Examples of searchable media archives

“mental health” OR “mental illness” OR “madness”

Methods: The maths bit 2

1. Construct a bar chart from the data in the table below. (3 marks) (See page 194.)

The maths bit

2. Outline what conclusions you might draw from this bar chart. (2 marks)

On page 215 we have given a list of the mathematical skills you will be expected to demonstrate.

3. Is the data in the table quantitative or qualitative? (1 mark) (See page 190.) 4. Explain one strength and one limitation of using this kind of data. (2 marks + 2 marks) 5. Given that this is an observational study, suggest what sampling method could be used to collect data in this study? Explain your answers. (2 marks) (See page 174.) Theme The Daily Sleaze The Bleeding Heart Liberal

Danger to the public 10 0

Crimes involving mental health 15 5

Overall, at least 10% of the marks in assessments for Psychology will require the use of mathematical skills.

Celebrity with mental Underfunded health problem services 45 1 3 36

Practical corner • 157

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Revision summaries Definitions of abnormality How do we decide when someone needs treatment for a mental disorder?

Statistical infrequency

Deviation from social norms

Definition Numerically unusual behaviour or characteristic.

Failure to function adequately

Definition Social judgments about what is acceptable. Norms are culture-specific What is normal in one culture may not be in another.

Intellectual disability disorder IQ below 70 is part of the diagnosis of IDD.

Antisocial personality disorder Impulsive, aggressive, irresponsible behaviour is not socially acceptable.

Evaluation Real-life application Simple means of assessing patients.

Definition Failing to cope with demands of everyday life.

Definition Jahoda considered normality rather than abnormality.

When is someone failing? Signs, e.g. not conforming to interpersonal rules, personal distress.

What does it look like? Includes lack of symptoms, rationality, selfactualisation, coping with stress.

Intellectual disability disorder Failing to function is part of the diagnosis of IDD as well as low IQ.

Evaluation

Evaluation

Not a sole explanation Other factors matter such as distress to others.

Unusual characteristics can be positive Some unusual behaviours don’t require treatment.

Patient’s perspective Captures experience of people with mental distress problems.

Cultural relativism Unfair to judge someone from another culture.

Not everyone unusual benefits from a label Some people with low IQ function adequately and don’t benefit from being labelled.

Can lead to human rights abuses The social norm approach maintains control over minority groups, e.g women.

Deviation from ideal mental health

Is it different from deviation from social norms? Alternative lifestyles or doing extreme sports may be examples of both.

Evaluation Comprehensive definition Includes all the reasons anyone might seek help. Cultural relativism Ideas specific to Western cultures, e.g. selfactualisation. Universally high standard of mental health Few people achieve all or even most of the ideals.

Subjective judgements Requires a subjective judgement during assessment.

Phobias An anxiety disorder.

Characteristics Behavioural Panic. Avoidance or endurance. Emotional Irrational and unreasonable fear and anxiety. Cognitive Selective attention. Irrational beliefs. Cognitive distortions.

Behavioural explanation Two-process model Mowrer: Two processes of conditioning. Acquisition by classical conditioning Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) produces a fear response, UCS then associated with neutral stimulus. Maintenance by operant conditioning Avoidance of phobic stimulus reinforced by anxiety reduction so the phobia is maintained.

Evaluation Good explanatory power Explains how phobias can be both acquired and maintained. Alternative explanation for avoidance May be motivated more by seeking safety rather than anxiety reduction. Incomplete explanation of phobias Cannot account for preparedness to acquire phobias of some stimuli and not others.

Behavioural treatment: Systematic desensitisation Anxiety hierarchy A list of situations ranked for how much anxiety they produce.

What is it? Exposes patients to a very frightening situation without a build-up.

Relaxation Reciprocal inhibition. Relaxation includes imagery and/or breathing techniques.

How does it work? Works by extinction of the conditioned fear response.

Exposure Exposed to phobic stimulus whilst relaxed at each level of the anxiety hierarchy.

Evaluation Effective More effective than relaxation alone after 33 months (Gilroy et al.). Diverse range of patients E.g. Appropriate for patients with learning difficulties. Acceptable to patients Patients prefer to flooding so drop-out rates are lower. Evaluation extra Some phobias don’t follow trauma. Cognitive aspects of phobias not explained.

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Behavioural treatment: Flooding

Ethical safeguards Patients must give informed consent to and be prepared for flooding.

Evaluation Cost-effective More effective than systematic desensitisation and quicker, therefore cheaper (Ougrin). Less effective for some Less effective for complex phobias like social phobias. Traumatic treatment Drop out rate is high so ineffective. Evaluation extra Symptom substitution.

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Depression A mood disorder.

Characteristics Behavioural Lethargy or agitation. Increased or decreased sleeping/eating. Aggression and self-harm. Emotional Lowered mood. Anger towards self and others. Low self-esteem. Cognitive Poor concentration. Negative bias. Absolutist thinking.

Cognitive explanation: Beck’s theory

Cognitive explanation: Ellis’s ABC model

Faulty information processing Attending to the negative aspects of a situation.

Activating event A negative life event that triggers a response.

Negative self-schemas Negative information about ourselves is accessed whenever we encounter a self-relevant situation.

Beliefs Beliefs that lead us to over-react to the activating event, e.g. that life should always be fair.

The negative triad Negative views of the world, the self and the future.

Consequences Depression results when we over-react to negative life events.

Evaluation Supporting evidence Solid support for idea that certain cognitions make us vulnerable to depression (Clark and Beck). Practical application in CBT Negative thoughts can be identified and challenged by a therapist. Doesn’t explain all aspects Cannot easily explain extremes of anger or hallucinations and delusions.

Evaluation Partial explanation Some cases of depression follow life events but not all. Practical application in CBT Irrational thoughts can be identified and challenged by a therapist. Doesn’t explain all aspects Cannot easily explain extremes of anger or hallucinations and delusions. Evaluation extra Cognitive primacy. Insecure attachment linked to depression.

Cognitive treatment: Cognitive-behavioural therapy Beck’s CT Aims to identify negative thoughts and challenge them, including through testing them. Ellis’s REBT Aims to identify and challenge irrational beliefs by argument. Behavioural activation Includes techniques from CT and REBT but also behavioural techniques.

Evaluation It is effective Significantly more effective than no treatment (Culipers et al.). May not work for the most severe cases Not effective where patients are too depressed to engage with therapy. Patient-therapist relationship All therapies fairly similar (Luborsky et al.). Evaluation extra Some patients want to explore their past. Overemphasis on cognition.

OCD An anxiety disorder.

Characteristics Behavioural Compulsions usually decrease anxiety. Avoid situations that trigger anxiety. Emotional Intense anxiety. Depression. Guilt and disgust. Cognitive Obsessive thoughts. Cognitive strategies, e.g. prayer. Self-insight.

Biological explanations: Genetic Candidate genes Genes that may be involved in producing symptoms of OCD, e.g. 5HT1-D beta. OCD is polygenic Different combinations of up to 230 genetic variations. Different types of OCD Different combinations of gene variations may cause different kinds of OCD.

Evaluation Good supporting evidence Twin studies show OCD is influenced by genes (Nestadt et al.). Too many candidate genes So many genes involved means little predictive value. Environmental risk factors OCD is associated with trauma, so it is clearly not entirely genetic in origin.

Biological explanations: Neural Serotonin Low levels of serotonin linked to OCD. Decision-making systems Frontal lobes and parahippocampal gyrus may be malfunctioning.

Evaluation Supporting evidence Antidepressants that work on the serotonin system alleviate OCD (Nestadt et al.).

Biological treatment: Drug therapy SSRIs Antidepressants that increase levels of serotonin at the synapse. Combining SSRIs with other treatments Combine with CBT or other drugs. Alternatives to SSRIs Clomipramine (acts on serotonin plus other systems) or SNRIs (noradrenaline).

Evaluation

Not clear what mechanisms are involved All the neural systems associated with OCD are only involved in some cases.

Effective at tackling symptoms SSRIs are superior to placebos in treating OCD (Soomro et al.).

Shouldn’t assume neural mechanisms cause OCD Neural abnormalities may be the result of OCD not the cause.

Cost-effective Compared to psychological treatments drugs are cheap and non-disruptive.

Evaluation extra Serotonin-OCD link may be co-morbidity with depression. Twin studies are flawed as genetic evidence.

Can have side effects Indigestion, blurred vision and loss of sex drive; worse for Clomipramine. Evaluation extra Unreliable evidence for drug treatments. Some cases of OCD follow trauma.

Revision summaries • 159

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Practice questions, answers and feedback Question 1 Beck’s negative triad consists of three kinds of negative views. One of these negative views is about the self. Identify one of the other components of the negative triad and explain how this might lead to depression. (2 marks) Morticia’s answer fits the bill. Another point of the triad is identified and the elaboration meets the requirement set out in the question.

Morticia’s answer The world is another negative view. If people think it is always going to be negative then they give up trying and withdraw. Luke’s answer The triad is the self, the future and the world. Negative worldview makes you just generally feel negative, for example you think the world is a cruel place and this makes you lose hope.

Luke takes a slightly different approach and the elaboration this time is communicated via an example, but the overall effect is the same as Morticia’s.

Vladimir’s answer Feeling negative about other people makes you feel depressed because everything seems black and depressing.

Not so good for Vladimir. ‘Other people’ is too vague as is the elaboration.

Question 2 What is obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)? (3 marks) Morticia’s answer OCD has three components. The behavioural component is having compulsions which the sufferer tries to avoid. The emotional component is accompanying anxiety and distress. The cognitive component is the obsessive thoughts that give rise to obsessions. Luke’s answer OCD is an anxiety disorder where sufferers have obsessions and compulsions. Obsessions are recurring intrusive thoughts and compulsions are repetitive actions that the sufferer feels they must complete in order to stop the obsessions. Vladimir’s answer An obsessive-compulsive disorder is a recurring intrusive thought that produces anxiety. In order to reduce this and feel better many OCD sufferers feel compelled to do certain things. For example, they might wash their hands five times a day. This reduces their anxiety.

Morticia does not really explain what obsessions or compulsions are, which should be the main focus of her answer. The mention of the emotional component is of some value but there is little else. This is a clear and accurate answer from Luke. Both elements of the disorder are outlined and there is additional detail in recognising that OCD is an anxiety disorder. Notice that he possibly wrote less than the other two students but his is the best answer. Vladimir defines the idea of an obsession (though it is not labelled as such). ‘Compulsion’ is not clearly defined and the example does not work very well – washing your hands five times a day doesn’t really qualify as a compulsion! A weak answer.

Question 3 Rashid has a phobia of balloons. She decides to overcome this phobia using systematic desensitisation. Her therapist teaches her how to relax. Explain the next steps in her treatment. (3 marks) Morticia’s answer The next step would be constructing the hierarchy. This would go from low to high. At the high level it might be her exposure to the biggest thing she would be frightened of, such as a room with lots of balloons. At the lowest level would be something that creates just a little anxiety, such as a picture of a balloon on the other side of the room. Luke’s answer Rashid would next produce a hierarchy of her anxieties, starting from something that produces very little fear (just a photo of one balloon) up to something that would produce a lot of fear (a room with lots of balloons). Then Rashid starts at the bottom level and practises being relaxed with the photo. When she can do that she does the same for each level until she can cope with a lot of balloons. Vladimir’s answer The next step is to produce an anxiety hierarchy working with the psychologist. This hierarchy contains items at the bottom which cause very little anxiety and gradually increases until there is an item which would create maximum anxiety. At each level Rashid practises feeling relaxed until she is finally cured. She also might have homework to do.

Morticia shows some understanding of an anxiety hierarchy, which is relevant, as is the application to Rashid’s fear of balloons. There is engagement with the context beyond just using the word ‘balloons’ or ‘Rashid’ occasionally which is all that Vladimir has done. A reasonably good answer from Morticia. Luke’s answer is even better. It includes implicit reference to the ‘stepped approach’ in confronting the phobia and is well focused on the scenario. An ace response. Vladimir gives some relevant detail of the process but there is no application to Rashid or her balloon fear – just including names doesn’t really count as engaging with the stem of the question. The information on systematic desensitisation is relevant but that’s it.

Question 4 Briefly explain one criticism of using systematic sensitisation to treat phobias. (3 marks) Morticia’s answer One criticism is that this is a reasonably effective method used to treat phobias such as balloon phobia. However, it isn’t the most effective therapy as research has found that flooding is more effective but far more scary so patients may drop out. Therefore, overall, systematic desensitisation may be better to use because there is more likelihood of a positive end result. Luke’s answer An important strength of this kind of treatment is that it can be

used by all sorts of patients. Some therapies require you to put in a lot of effort, such as doing CBT but systematic desensitisation doesn’t require any thinking. You just do it. Vladimir’s answer One criticism of systematic desensitisation is that it is based on

behaviourism and behaviourism is based on animals. This means we are trying to apply the results from research on animals to human behaviour. Humans are different from animals so this is not really justified. It doesn’t make sense to make such assumptions.

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Morticia’s answer is somewhat muddled but there is sufficient detail for a short question. She gets side-tracked a little in the middle part of this answer but the comparison point is made clearly enough by the end. Luke is wrong here – systematic desensitisation may require a lot of effort too so the comparison does not really stand up here. However, his first point has some value but lacks elaboration. Vladimir’s answer gets nothing because it is more a criticism of the behaviourist approach in general rather than applied to the therapy particularly. Comparison must be ‘reasoned’. Also just saying ‘quicker’ or ‘cheaper’ without adequate explanation of why is not sufficient.

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On this spread we look at some typical student answers to questions. The comments provided indicate what is good and bad in each answer. Learning how to produce effective question answers is a SKILL. Read pages 211–219 for guidance.

Question 5 Discuss two or more definitions of abnormality. (12 marks AS, 16 marks AL) Morticia’s answer There are four main definitions of abnormality. The first is the statistical

infrequency model, the second is deviation from social norms, the third is failure to function and the fourth is deviation from ideal mental health. According to the first, statistical infrequency model, people are judged to be abnormal because they do not statistically behave in the same way as others. Most people behave one way but a few people behave differently and therefore are judged abnormal. One problem with this definition is that some desirable traits can be judged as abnormal.

The second definition is also deviation this time not statistical but from social norms. This means that a person might be judged as abnormal because they behave differently from the group. For example, the group might think that people should not murder other people so anyone who does this is judged as abnormal. A problem with this definition is the social norms change and therefore it isn’t a fixed way to judge abnormality. It also is subjective and can lead to human rights abuses. The third definition is failure to function. What this means is that some people can’t do normal everyday things like get up and go to bed at usual times, feed themselves, keep down a job and so on. So they aren’t really coping adequately with life and this is a way to judge them as abnormal. This too requires subjective judgements but on the positive side it is more about the patient’s experience than the other definitions, which is a good thing.

Morticia’s essay is an AS response whereas Luke’s is an A level response. Morticia starts with an introduction listing all the definitions at the beginning. This wastes valuable time when answering a question and is simply repeated later. Introductions rarely make a valuable contribution. She has managed to cover all four definitions that are named on the specification but that has been at the expense of detail in places. Descriptively though, this is a good response. Although the first definition is a little vague, the other three are well described and include use of examples to illustrate key points. This essay deals well with description.

This sounds good but the real expense is the lack of time to produce evaluation, which is especially important when writing a timed essay. It would have been better to simply be selective and just cover two definitions (as Luke has done). In a question such as this full marks (342 words) are available for just two definitions.

The final definition is deviation from ideal mental health. Jahoda suggested a list of things that could be used to judge mental health. For example, she said having good self-esteem, a job, having no distress, a realistic view of the world, coping with stress, being independent and so on – all of these things are what mentally healthy people have. The trouble with this definition is that very few people actually have all of these things and therefore it isn’t a very good definition. Luke’s answer One of the ways to define abnormality is in terms of social norms. A social norm is a

how society has defined what is acceptable. A norm is something that is typical in any society not just in terms of how common behaviours are (which is the statistical infrequency definition) but also in terms of what that society has deemed acceptable. An example of this would be antisocial personality disorder which is defined by DSM-5 in terms of a failure to conform to behaviour that is culturally normative. Thus this mental disorder has been specifically defined in terms of social standards. In a sense this can be seen as a useful and defendable position. People who behave in an antisocial way, doing things that disrupts the lives of other people and the fabric of our society is abnormal and suggests something is wrong with that person’s moral standards. The problem, however, is that this kind of definition is open to abuse. It offers a means for any society to control behaviours that are seen as undesirable by some. For example, women who were sexually promiscuous were diagnosed as nymphomaniacs and put in mental hospitals. By defining abnormality in terms of social norms societies make moral judgments absolute and allow a small number of people to decide what is right.

A further important issue with the deviation from social norms approach is that it is culturally relative. What is acceptable in one society is not acceptable in another. This means that a person living in the UK from another culture may behave in ways following their own social norms but be judged abnormal in our culture. This clearly creates problems for them because they are behaving normally but are judged as abnormal. A second definition of abnormality is failure to function adequately. Essentially this is about not being able to cope with day-to-day life. A person should be able to independently maintain basic standards of eating and hygiene. We also expect that people should be able to relate to other people and should be able to do some kind of work. In a sense this definition spills over into the social norms definition because some of these ideas of ’functioning adequately’ are socially determined – in some cultures it might not be expected that everyone has to have a job. Other signs of inadequate functioning have been suggested such as being distressed and being a danger to oneself. From this point of view this definition of abnormality takes the patient’s perspective and tries to find a way of defining abnormality, which will help the people who need it. One problem with this is that such judgements are subjective – how does anyone decide if someone is sufficiently distressed to need help? The Global Functioning Scale is one attempt to measure such subjective criteria in an objective way but it still means that someone like a psychiatrist has to make a judgement.

The evaluation in Morticia’s answer is placed after each definition. At least one point has been given for each definition but it is a shame Morticia did not elaborate these and develop a more thorough discussion. The point about human rights abuses, particularly, would benefit from further qualification. This answer is descriptively strong but with only some cursory underdeveloped evaluation; the overall result is disappointing.

Luke has taken a very different approach to the question than the one above by focussing on two definitions only. This is arguably the more difficult route as this requires more depth of detail which many find demanding. However, on the positive side it leaves him much more time for evaluation. Both definitions are clearly and accurately explained. There is a sophisticated level of descriptive detail in both, supported by relevant examples. The evaluative points too are thorough and very well developed (compare these with those above). The answer is rich in analysis and commentary and this makes all the difference to the overall value of the answer. Well done.

(487 words)

Practice questions, answers and feedback • 161

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Multiple-Choice Questions Definitions of abnormality (1)

Phobias

1. (a) (b) (c) (d)

1. Which of these is a behavioural characteristic of phobias? (a) Fear. (b) Avoidance. (c) Anxiety. (d) Aggression.

1. (a) (b) (c) (d)

2. Which of these is an emotional characteristic of phobias? (a) Fear. (b) Sadness. (c) Anger. (d) Humour.

2. A case study of learning a phobia by classical conditioning involved: (a) Little Peter. (b) Little Hans. (c) Little Albert. (d) Little Mix.

3. Which of these is a cognitive characteristic of phobias? (a) Selective attention. (b) Delusions. (c) Avoidance. (d) Endurance.

Depression

3. Which is a limitation of the two-process model? (a) It can’t explain how phobias are maintained over time. (b) There is no supporting evidence. (c) It can’t explain how fear of dogs might be acquired. (d) It can’t explain preparedness for certain phobias.

1. Sufferers of depression may experience which of the following behavioural characteristics? (a) Changes to activity level. (b) Changes to sleep patterns. (c) Changes to eating patterns. (d) All of the above.

4. What reinforces avoidance in the two-process model? (a) Anxiety reduction. (b) Safety cues. (c) Preparedness. (d) Positive reinforcement.

2. Patients with a diagnosis of depression are likely to have: (a) Lowered mood. (b) Anger. (c) Low self-esteem. (d) All of the above.

The behavioural approach to treating phobias

Which of the following is statistically abnormal? An IQ of 45. An IQ of 71. An IQ of 120. An IQ of 100.

2. Which of the following is not a deviation from social norms? (a) Laughing during a funeral service. (b) Aggression in a combat sport. (c) Transvestitism. (d) Watching a pirated film. 3. Which of these is a criticism of statistical infrequency? (a) It has no real-life application in diagnosis and assessment. (b) All unusual characteristics are a bad thing. (c) Unusual people need a diagnosis to help them become more normal. (d) Unusual positive characteristics are just as uncommon as unusual negative characteristics. 4. Which of these is a strength of deviation from social norms? (a) Good real-life application in diagnosis and assessment. (b) Social norms are pretty much the same between different cultural groups. (c) Social norms are handy for justifying human rights abuses. (d) Social norms are a valid predictor of future mental health.

Definitions of abnormality (2) 1. According to Rosenhan and Seligman which of these is a sign of failing to cope? (a) A person no longer conforms to social rules. (b) A person hears voices. (c) A person experiences mild distress. (d) A person’s behaviour is unusual. 2. According to Jahoda’s ideal mental health, which of the following is a sign of ideal mental health? (a) Failure to cope with stress. (b) Good self-esteem. (c) Being dependent on other people. (d) Conforming to social norms. 3. Which of these people is failing to function adequately? (a) Someone who cannot hold down a job. (b) Someone with an alternative lifestyle. (c) Someone who has a fairly happy relationship. (d) Someone with a smallish house. 4. Which of these is a sound strength of deviation from ideal mental health? (a) It is usefully narrow. (b) It applies well to a variety of cultures. (c) It is comprehensive. (d) It sets a realistic standard for mental health.

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Psychopathology

3. Which of the following is a cognitive characteristic of depression? (a) Focusing on the negative aspects of a situation. (b) Low self-esteem. (c) Anger. (d) All of the above.

OCD 1. (a) (b) (c) (d)

Most people with OCD experience: Obsessions only. Compulsions only. Obsessions and compulsions. Obsessions or compulsions.

2. Which of the following is not an emotional characteristic of OCD? (a) Anxiety. (b) Lowered mood. (c) Guilt. (d) Compulsions. 3. Patients with a diagnosis of OCD are unlikely to experience which of these cognitions? (a) Obsessive thoughts. (b) Rational thoughts. (c) Cognitive coping strategies. (d) Good insight into their OCD.

The behavioural approach to explaining phobias The two-process model of phobias involves: Classical conditioning only. Operant conditioning only. Social learning only. Classical and operant conditioning.

1. Which of the following is not normally part of systematic desensitisation? (a) Learning relaxation procedures. (b) Constructing an anxiety hierarchy. (c) Massive immediate exposure to the phobic stimulus. (d) Gradually increasing exposure to the phobic stimulus. 2. Which of these is a good example of flooding? (a) An arachnophobic having a small spider placed in the next room. (b) A kinetomortaphobic being made to watch a zombie film in the front row of a cinema. (c) A zemmiphobic being given a giant mole rat to look at through window. (d) A lutraphobic seeing a small picture of a book about otters through glass. 3. Which of the following applies to systematic desensitisation? (a) It has very limited application. (b) It is unsuitable for patients with learning difficulties. (c) It has a high dropout rate. (d) It is acceptable to most patients. 4. Why might flooding be considered to be superior to systematic desensitisation? (a) It is less traumatic. (b) It is suitable for a wider range of patients. (c) It is more effective for those who complete the treatment. (d) It works for a wide range of phobias.

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1. Which of the following is not part of Beck’s cognitive triad? (a) Negative view of the world. (b) Negative view of the future. (c) Negative view of therapy. (d) Negative view of the self. 2. Which of these is a type of dysfunctional belief in Ellis’s cognitive model? (a) Negative self-schema. (b) Musturbation. (c) Negative view of the world. (d) Negative view of the self. 3. Which of the following is a criticism of Beck’s model of depression? (a) Studies have never found abnormal cognition in depressed patients. (b) Depressed patients do not report abnormal cognition. (c) It doesn’t explain all aspects of depression effectively. (d) All of the above. 4. Which of the following is a limitation of the ABC model? (a) There is no evidence linking activating events to depression. (b) It has no practical application in psychological therapies. (c) It doesn’t explain cognitive aspects of depression. (d) It can’t explain hallucinations and delusions in severe depression.

The cognitive approach to treating depression 1. CBT does not use techniques from which of the following? (a) Behavioural therapies. (b) Cognitive therapy. (c) Rational emotive behaviour therapy. (d) Biological treatments.

2. (a) (b) (c) (d)

Which is the main technique in REBT? Reality testing. Disputing irrational beliefs. Disputing automatic thoughts. Behavioural activation.

3. (a) (b) (c) (d)

Which of the following is true of CBT? It treats the way people think. It treats the way people behave. It is reasonably cost effective. All of the above.

4. (a) (b) (c)

Which of these is a strength of CBT? It only takes several weeks to work. It is of benefit for most patients. CBT focuses on the circumstances in which patients live. (d) Patients choose CBT to explore their past.

The biological approach to explaining OCD 1. Which of these is a true statement concerning OCD? (a) OCD does not run in families. (b) OCD involves just one gene. (c) OCD is caused by one particular combination of genes. (d) Twin studies suggest OCD is genetically influenced. 2. Which neural system appears not to be involved in OCD? (a) The serotonin system. (b) The lateral frontal lobes. (c) The right parahippocampal gyrus. (d) The left parahippocampal gyrus. 3. Which of these applies to neural explanations for OCD? (a) There is no supporting evidence. (b) The same mechanisms explain all cases of OCD. (c) Neural mechanisms may not cause OCD. (d) The serotonin system is a complete explanation.

4. Which of these would not suggest a genetic basis for OCD in a patient? (a) OCD runs in their family. (b) They have an identical twin with OCD. (c) A brain scan shows reduced activity in the lateral frontal lobes. (d) They had a recent trauma.

The biological approach to treating OCD 1. Drugs are often used to treat OCD for which of the following reasons? (a) No side-effects of drugs. (b) The cost of drugs compared to other treatments. (c) The time taken for drugs to affect symptoms. (d) The permanent cure offered by a course of drugs. 2. What is the most common biological treatment for OCD? (a) SNRIs. (b) CBT. (c) SSRIs. (d) Clomipramine. 3. Which of the following is not a side-effect of antidepressants? (a) Memory loss. (b) Reduced sex drive. (c) Weight gain. (d) Depression. 4. Which of the following statements is true? (a) A standard dose of Fluoxetine is 20mg a day. (b) SSRIs should not be combined with any other treatment. (c) Fluoxetine is also known as Valium. (d) SSRIs can take up to four years to have an effect.

MCQ answers Definitions of abnormality (1) 1A, 2B, 3D, 4A Definitions of abnormality (2) 1A, 2B, 3A, 4C Phobias 1B, 2A, 3A Depression 1D, 2D, 3A OCD 1C, 2D, 3B The behavioural approach to explaining phobias 1D, 2C, 3D, 4A The behavioural approach to treating phobias 1C, 2B, 3D, 4C The cognitive approach to explaining depression 1C, 2B, 3C, 4D The cognitive approach to treating depression 1D, 2B, 3D, 4B The biological approach to explaining OCD 1D, 2C, 3C, 4D The biological approach to treating OCD 1B, 2C, 3D, 4A

The cognitive approach to explaining depression

Multiple-Choice Questions • 163

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Chapter 6 Research Methods

Research noun: research; the systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions. Method noun: method;

Contents 166 168 170 172

Experimental method Control of variables Experimental design Types of experiment

174 176 178 179 180

Sampling Ethical issues and ways of dealing with them Pilot studies (and more) Check out what you have learned so far Observational techniques

182 184 186 188

Observational design Self-report techniques Self-report design Correlations

190 192 194 196 198 200

Data analysis: Kinds of data Data analysis: Descriptive statistics Data analysis: Graphs Mathematical content Introduction to statistical testing Peer review and psychology and the economy

202 204 206 208

Practical corner Revision summaries Practice questions, answers and feedback Multiple-choice questions

164 • Chapter 6

Research Methods

a particular procedure for accomplishing or approaching something, especially a systematic or established one.

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Do people dream more when they eat cheese? Do people dream in colour or black and white? What do they dream about? Do people twitch when they sleep or remain still? Is there a relationship between the amount of exercise people do and the number of dreams they have?

TELL ME!!!

How could you investigate these questions? This chapter is going to show you some of the methods and techniques that psychologists use to answer questions about all human behaviour – but 1. fiIrst, see what ideas you can come up with.

Check It

Chapter Contents • 165

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Experimental method The specification says … Experimental method. Aims: stating aims, the difference between aims and hypotheses. Hypotheses: directional and non-directional. Variables: including independent and dependent; operationalisation of variables. Psychologists are able to draw upon a number of different methods as part of their research but one of the most often used is the experimental method.

Experimental method Aims We have a theory that energy drinks affect how much people talk. This is based on our understanding (having read a few research studies on the Internet) that energy drinks contain sugar and caffeine, and that these substances increase alertness making people ‘chattier’. As luck would have it, a new energy drink – SpeedUpp – has come on to the market and we’re keen to know whether it might affect the talkativeness of those who drink it. Now that we have an initial idea, the next step is to narrow the focus of our research to produce an aim. In psychological research, aims are developed from theories, like our energy drink theory above, except in psychology the theories tend to be much more sophisticated and are based on many more hours of research! Aims are general statements that describe the purpose of an investigation. In the case of our investigation, the aim would be something along the lines of: To investigate whether drinking energy drinks makes people more talkative.

Go on…it might make you more talkative.

Hypotheses Having written an aim, we now need to formulate a hypothesis. A hypothesis is a statement that is made at the start of a study and clearly states the relationship between variables as stated by the theory. In the case of our investigation this would be: Drinking SpeedUpp causes people to become more talkative. Hypotheses can be directional or non-directional. In a directional hypothesis the researcher makes clear the sort of difference that is anticipated between two conditions or two groups of people. For this reason, directional hypotheses include words like more or less, higher or lower, faster or slower, etc. People who drink SpeedUpp become more talkative than people who don’t. People who drink water are less talkative than people who drink SpeedUpp. A non-directional hypothesis simply states that there is a difference between conditions or groups of people but, unlike in a directional hypothesis, the nature of the difference is not specified.

Experimental method – Involves the manipulation of an independent variable to measure the effect on the dependent variable. Experiments may be laboratory, field, natural or quasi. Aim – A general statement of what the researcher intends to investigate; the purpose of the study. Hypothesis – A clear, precise, testable statement that states the relationship between the variables to be investigated. Stated at the outset of any study. Directional hypothesis – States the direction of the difference or relationship. Non-directional hypothesis – Does not state the direction. Variables – Any ‘thing’ that can vary or change within an investigation. Variables are generally used in experiments to determine if changes in one thing result in changes to another. Independent variable (IV) – Some aspect of the experimental situation that is manipulated by the researcher – or changes naturally – so the effect on the DV can be measured. Dependent variable (DV) – The variable that is measured by the researcher. Any effect on the DV should be caused by the change in the IV. Operationalisation – Clearly defi ning variables in terms of how they can be measured.

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People who drink SpeedUpp differ in terms of talkativeness compared with people who don’t drink SpeedUpp.

Doing an experiment We have decided to test our energy drink theory by doing an experiment. Firstly, we are going to gather together two groups of people, let’s say 10 in each group (mostly because we only know twenty people). Then, starting with the first group, we will give each person (or each participant – because that’s what you call people in studies) a can of SpeedUpp to drink. The participants in the other group will just have a glass of water each. We will then record how many words each participant says in a five-minute period immediately after they have had their drink.

Deciding which type of hypothesis to use Leaving aside the debate about whether or not this is a ‘good’ experiment (it’s not really) and the exact details of how it would work (it probably wouldn’t), which type of hypothesis should we choose? Psychologists tend to use a directional hypothesis when the findings of previous research studies suggest a particular outcome. When there is no previous research, or findings from earlier studies are contradictory, they will instead decide to use a non-directional hypothesis. Even though SpeedUpp is a new energy drink, the effects of caffeine and sugar on talkativeness are well-documented. Therefore we will opt for a directional hypothesis on this occasion.

STUDY TIPS

Key terms

• Writing clear and testable hypotheses is not easy. • When you read your hypothesis back to yourself make sure (1) the IV and DV are clear and measurable, (2) you have stated the relationship between the IV and DV and not stated an aim, (3) and that you have selected the appropriate hypothesis, i.e. directional or non-directional, based on the information you have been given in the question.

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Practical activity on pages 64 and 124 Independent and dependent variables In an experiment, a researcher changes or manipulates the independent variable (IV) and records or measures the effect of this change on the dependent variable (DV). All other variables that might potentially affect the DV should remain constant in a properly run experiment. This is so the researcher can be confident that the cause of the effect on the DV was the IV, and the IV alone.

Levels of the IV In order to test the effect of the IV we need different experimental conditions. If we simply gave some participants SpeedUpp, how would we know how talkative they were? We need a comparison. We could either: • Compare participants’ talkativeness before and after drinking SpeedUpp. • Compare two groups of participants – those who drink SpeedUpp with those who drink water (which is the way we have described the study on the facing page). In either case the two conditions are no SpeedUpp or drinking SpeedUpp. These are the two levels of the IV: the control condition (no SpeedUpp / drink of water) and the experimental condition (energy drink). A well-written hypothesis should make it easy to tell what the IV and DV are. May we proudly unveil the directional hypothesis we have written for our energy drink investigation… (Note that this is different from the hypothesis on the facing page – hypotheses come in all shapes and sizes but are still correct as long as they state the relationship between the variables.) The group that drinks an energy drink will be chattier than the group that drinks water. Great isn’t it? Except it isn’t really. What should also be obvious within a good hypothesis, unlike the one above, is how each of the variables has been operationalised in order to make the hypothesis clear and testable.

Operationalisation of variables Many of the things that psychologists are interested in, such as social behaviour, intelligence or thinking, are often a little fuzzy and not easy to define. Thus, in any study, one of the main tasks for the researcher is to ensure that the variables being investigated are as unfuzzy and measurable as possible. So, a much better hypothesis than the one above would be: After drinking 300ml of SpeedUpp participants say more words in the next five minutes than participants who drink 300ml of water. See the difference? Now that our variables are operationalised and our hypothesis is written, we’re free to concentrate on more important things, such as how on earth we’re going to count all the words that twenty people say in five minutes. We might need to make some more friends…

Are two tails better than one? Sometimes the terms ‘two-tailed’ and ‘one-tailed’ are used instead of ‘non-directional’ and ‘directional’.

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Concepts: Directional or non-directional Decide whether the following hypotheses are directional or nondirectional. What features/words in each hypothesis are important when making your choice? 1. There is a difference in children’s reading ability depending on whether they have blue or brown eyes. 2. Dogs that are rewarded with chocolate sit when told to do so more often than dogs that are not rewarded with chocolate. 3. There is a difference in the psychology grades of students depending on whether they are male or female. 4. Teenagers who watch horror films have more friends than teenagers who watch romantic comedies.

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Concepts: IVs and DVs

Identify the IVs and DVs in the examples below: 1. Talking to a child will increase their language ability. 2. People are more aggressive on hot days. 3. Students may be late for school because they stayed up late the night before. 4. Watching horror films will make children have nightmares.

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Concepts: Bringing it all together

For each of the aims of the investigations below, operationalise the IV and DV, and write a directional and non-directional hypothesis. 1. To investigate whether high confidence levels in children affect their level of obedience. 2. To investigate whether a new drug (Anxocalm) reduces anxiety in patients with phobias, as compared with having no treatment. 3. To investigate whether yawning is contagious. 4. To investigate whether owning a goldfish has a positive effect on psychological well-being. 5. To investigate whether blondes have more fun.

5. People will be rated as more attractive if they wear red.

Check It 1. Explain the difference between an aim and a hypothesis. [3 marks] 2. Identify one way in which each of the following terms could be operationalised: memory, physical aggression and intelligence. [3 marks] 3. Suggest two occasions when a psychologist might choose to use a non-directional hypothesis. [2 marks]

Experimental method • 167

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Control of variables The specification says Variables: extraneous and confounding. Demand characteristics and investigator effects. Control: randomisation and standardisation. In any experiment, there will always be a number of unwanted factors that can potentially affect the relationship between the independent and dependent variables, spoiling or distorting the results in the process. Fortunately, psychologists are aware of this issue and have devised several different ways of tackling it, some of which we shall explore here.

Key terms Extraneous variable (EV) – Any variable, other than the independent variable (IV), that may have an effect on the dependent variable (DV) if it is not controlled. EVs are essentially nuisance variables that do not vary systematically with the IV. Confounding variables – Any variable, other than the IV, that may have affected the DV so we cannot be sure of the true source of changes to the DV. Confounding variables vary systematically with the IV. Demand characteristics – Any cue from the researcher or from the research situation that may be interpreted by participants as revealing the purpose of the investigation. This may lead to a participant changing their behaviour within the research situation. Investigator effects – Any effect of the investigator’s behaviour (conscious or unconscious) on the research outcome (the DV). This may include everything from the design of the study to the selection of, and interaction with, participants during the research process. Randomisation – The use of chance in order to control for the effects of bias when designing materials and deciding the order of conditions. Standardisation – Using exactly the same formalised procedures and instructions for all participants in a research study.

Control of variables Extraneous variables The key to an experiment is that an independent variable (IV) is manipulated (changed) to see how this affects the dependent variable (DV). The only thing that should influence the DV is the IV. Any other variables that might potentially interfere with the IV (or the DV) should be controlled or removed. These additional, unwanted variables are called extraneous variables and, where possible, are identified at the start of the study by the researcher, who then takes steps to minimise their influence. Many extraneous variables are straightforward to control such as the age of the participants, the lighting in the lab, etc. These are described as ‘nuisance variables’ that do not vary systematically with the IV. These may ‘muddy’ the experimental water so to speak but do not confound the findings of the study. They may just make it harder to detect a result.

Confounding variables Confounding variables do change systematically with the IV. Let us imagine in our energy drink study we have twenty participants in total and decide to use the first ten participants who arrive for the water condition. It happens that these first ten participants are some very shy, introverted individuals. Our next ten participants, for the SpeedUpp condition, are all quite extravert types, very loud and outgoing. An unfortunate coincidence you say but this coincidence means that we have ended up with a second unintended IV – personality. So when we come to analyse our results and find that the Speedup group were chattier we can’t be sure if this is because of the drink or the personalities of the participants. Personality is a confounding variable. If our extravert types had been spread evenly between the two groups it wouldn’t matter (though it might be worth controlling just in case). The problem was that extraversion varied systematically with the IV and this alone could explain changes in the DV.

Demand characteristics Participants are not passive within experiments and are likely to be spending much of their time trying to make sense of the new situation they find themselves in. As such, participant reactivity is a significant extraneous variable in experimental research and one that is very difficult to control. In the research situation, participants will try to work out what is going on. Certain clues may help them interpret what is going on. These clues (or cues) are the demand characteristics of the experimental situation and may help the participant to ‘second-guess’ the experimenter’s intentions as well as the aims of the study. Participants may also look for clues to tell them how they should behave in the experimental situation. They may act in a way that they think is expected and overperform to please the experimenter (the ‘please-U effect’), or, they may deliberately under-perform to sabotage the results of the study (the ‘screw-U effect’). Either way, participant behaviour is no longer natural – an extraneous variable that may affect the DV.

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Concepts: Extraneous variables

In a properly conducted experiment it is important that potential extraneous variables are identified during the design of the study and appropriate steps are taken to control them. Questions

1. Come up with at least ten extraneous variables that would need to be controlled in the energy drink study. 2. Which of the extraneous variables you have listed would be easy to control and which would be more difficult? 3. Take five of the extraneous variables you have listed and explain what steps you would take to control them.

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Saint or sinner? Some participants try and please the researcher in experiments whereas others try to negatively affect the results. Which type of participant would you be?

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Investigator effects

Randomisation In any investigation there are simple steps that the researcher can take to minimise the effect of extraneous/confounding variables on the outcome. One of these is the use of randomisation, which refers to the use of chance wherever possible to reduce the researcher’s influence on the design of the investigation. In short, this is an attempt to control investigator effects. For example, a memory experiment may involve participants recalling words from a list. The order of the list should be randomly generated so that the position of each word is not decided by the experimenter. In an experiment where participants are involved in a number of different conditions, the order of these conditions should be randomly determined. For example, in the energy drink experiment we might want to know what quantity of SpeedUpp caused chattiness, we may set up four experimental conditions: drinking water (Condition A), drinking100ml of SpeedUpp (Condition B), drinking 200ml of SpeedUpp (Condition C), and drinking 300ml of SpeedUpp SpeedUpp (Condition D). If all participants were to take part in all four conditions, the order in which these conditions were completed would need to be randomised for each participant (this is an alternative to counterbalancing – discussed on the next spread).

Standardisation As far as is possible within an investigation, all participants should be subject to the same environment, information and experience. To ensure this, all procedures are standardised, in other words there is a list of exactly what will be done in the study. This includes standardised instructions that are read to each participant. Such standardisation also means that non-standardised changes in procedure do not act as extraneous variables.

The Variable family Ivy (IV) and Davy (DV) are a happy couple with a good relationship. However, Evie (EV) is often interfering and tries to constantly change Davy much to Ivy’s annoyance…

Study tips

Participant reactivity also leads to investigator effects. Consider this: it is possible that during our energy drink study, as we are recording the words spoken by each participant, we may be inclined to smile more during our interactions with some participants than others. Given that we are expecting the energy drink group to speak more than the water group, we may unknowingly – in our unconscious behaviour – encourage a greater level of chattiness from the energy drink participants. This is an example of an investigator effect, which refers to any unwanted influence of the investigator on the research outcome. As Hugh Coolican (2006) points out, this can include expectancy effects and unconscious cues (such as those described above). It might also refer to any actions of the researcher that were related to the study’s design, such as the selection of the participants, the materials, the instructions, etc. Leading questions, which are discussed in relation to eyewitness testimony on page 58, are a good example of the power of investigator effects.

• Be careful not to refer to ALL investigations as experiments. This is something that students new to psychology tend to do quite often. If you are not sure whether the piece of research you are talking about involved an experiment then you should use a more general term such as ‘investigation’ or ‘study’. Note that in research methods, some of the terms and concepts we discuss relate to experiments specifically, but others are also a feature of investigations in general.

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Concepts: Participant variables and situational variables Extraneous variables can be sub-divided into participant variables and situational variables. Participant variables are any individual differences between participants that may affect the DV. Situational variables are any features of the experimental situation that may affect the DV. Question

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Methods: Maths test A teacher wanted to see how the investigator effect would influence performance on a maths test. She gave 20 of her sixth form class the same maths test but told half of the class the test was suitable for year ten students and the other half that it was suitable for degree students. When the results of the test were analysed, the group that were told it was suitable for year tens had performed significantly better on average. Questions

1. Identify the IV and the DV within this experiment. (2 marks) 2. Identify one possible extraneous variable in this experiment and briefly explain how it may have affected the DV. (3 marks) 3. Explain how the results of this experiment could be used to support the investigator effect. (3 marks)

Separate the list of extraneous variables below into participant variables and situational variables: Noise

Age

Motivation

Weather

Personality

Temperature

Intelligence

Concentration

Time of day

Gender

Instructions

Check It 1. Outline what is meant by the term demand characteristics. [2 marks] 2. Explain the difference between an extraneous variable and a confounding variable. [3 marks] 3. Suggest one example of how randomisation may be used within psychological research. [2 marks] 4. Outline what is meant by investigator effects and explain why it is important to control these within an investigation. [4 marks]

Control of variables • 169

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Experimental design The specification says … Experimental designs: repeated measures, independent groups, matched pairs.

Experimental design Experimental design refers to the way in which participants are used in experiments. By ‘used’ we do not mean taking them out for dinner and never calling them again, we mean how the testing of participants is arranged in relation to the different experimental conditions.

Control: random allocation and counterbalancing.

Independent groups In order to fi nd out whether the independent variable (IV) affects the dependent variable (DV), we need something to compare it with – a comparison condition – a different level of the IV. This leads us to three types of experimental design, each with different strengths and limitations.

Key terms Experimental design – The different ways in which the testing of participants can be organised in relation to the experimental conditions. Independent groups design – Participants are allocated to different groups where each group represents one experimental condition. Repeated measures – All participants take part in all conditions of the experiment. Matched pairs design – Pairs of participants are fi rst matched on some variable(s) that may affect the DV. Then one member of the pair is assigned to Condition A and the other to Condition B. Random allocation – An attempt to control for participant variables in an independent groups design which ensures that each participant has the same chance of being in one condition as any other. Counterbalancing – An attempt to control for the effects of order in a repeated measures design: half the participants experience the conditions in one order, and the other half in the opposite order.

Study TIPS • Don’t confuse experimental ‘designs’ with ‘types’ of experiment (as in lab, field, natural and quasi – covered on the next spread). It’s easily done so make sure you’re aware of the difference!

Conditition A QUIET PLEASE

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An independent groups design is when two separate groups of participants experience two different conditions of the experiment. If there are two levels of the independent variable (IV) this means that all participants experience one level of the IV only. In our energy drink investigation this would involve: • One group of participants (group 1) drinking the energy drink (let’s call this condition A, the experimental condition). • A different group of participants (group 2) drinking the water (let’s call this condition B, the control condition). The performance of the two groups would then be compared. In this case, we would compare the difference in the mean number of words spoken in the five-minute period after drinking for each group (this is the version described on page 192).

Repeated measures Another way of carrying out the energy drink investigation would be for all participants to experience both conditions of the experiment. • Each participant would first, for example, experience condition A (the energy drink condition, the experimental condition). • Each participant would then later be tested again in condition B (the glass of water condition, the control condition). Following this, the two sets of data from both conditions would be compared to see if there was a difference. A repeated measures design at least guarantees that we are comparing ‘like with like’ (and so, for the SpeedUpp experiment, this may be the better option). In contrast, an independent groups design assesses the performance of two different groups of people, which might be a problem.

Matched pairs One major issue with repeated measures is the fact that when participants are tested more than once, and experience all conditions of the experiment, there is an increased likelihood they will become wise to the aims of the study. To combat this, a happy medium is matched pairs. Here, participants are paired together on a variable or variables relevant to the experiment. For instance, in a memory study participants might be matched on their IQ, as this might be a good indicator of their ability to recall information. The two participants with the first and second highest IQ scores would be paired together, as would the participants with the third and fourth highest, and so on. Then one participant from each pair would be allocated to a different condition of the experiment. This is an attempt to control for the confounding variable of participant variables and often necessitates the use of a pre-test if matching is to be effective. So back to our SpeedUpp study, we might observe participants interacting in a room before the experiment begins and select the two people that appear to be the chattiest. One of the pair would be placed in condition A and the other in condition B. We would then do the same with the third and fourth most talkative participants, and so on. The experiment would then be run in the same way as an independent groups design (see above).

Conditition B

Conditition A In an independent groups design (left) the participants in each condition are different…but they are the same in a repeated measures design (right).

QUIET PLEASE

Conditition B

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Evaluation Independent groups The biggest issue with an independent groups design is that the participants who occupy the different groups are not the same. If a researcher finds a mean difference between the groups on the dependent variable (DV) this may be more to do with individual differences (participant variables) than the effects of the IV. To deal with this problem researchers use random allocation (see Apply it right). Independent group designs are less economical than repeated measures as each participant contributes a single result only. Twice as many participants would be needed to produce equivalent data to that collected in a repeated measures design. The strengths of using independent groups are that order effects are not a problem whereas they are a problem for repeated measures designs. Participants also are less likely to guess the aims.

Repeated measures The biggest issue for repeated measures is that each participant has to do at least two tasks and the order of these tasks may be significant (i.e. there are order effects). In the energy drink example, having the energy drink first may have a continuing effect when a participant drinks water afterwards. To deal with this researchers use counterbalancing (see right). Order effects also arise because repeating two tasks could create boredom or fatigue that might cause deterioration in performance on the second task, so it matters what order the tasks are in. Alternatively, participants’ performance may improve through the effects of practice, especially on a skill-based task – in this case participants would perform better on the second task. Order acts as a confounding variable. It is also more likely participants will work out the aim of the study when they experience all conditions of the experiment. For this reason, demand characteristics tend be more of a feature of repeated measures designs than independent groups. The strengths of using repeated measures are that participant variables are controlled and fewer participants are needed.

Concepts: Random allocation

To address the problem of participant variables in an independent groups design, participants should be randomly allocated to the different experimental conditions. Random allocation attempts to evenly distribute participant characteristics across the conditions of the experiment using random techniques – for example pieces of paper with A or B written on them are placed in a ‘hat’ and the researcher selects them one at a time to assign participants to groups. Question

Explain one way in which we could have randomly allocated participants to the two conditions in the energy drink study.

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Concepts: Counterbalancing

Counterbalancing is an attempt to control order effects in a repeated measures design. In counterbalancing, half the participants take part in condition A then B, and the other half take part in condition B then A as follows: Participant 1 A-B Participant 2 B-A Participant 3 A-B and so on. Counterbalancing is sometimes referred to as the ABBA technique for obvious reasons i.e. where every participant does four trials, A, B, B then A. Note (as with random allocation in relation to participant variables), counterbalancing does not remove or prevent order effects, but attempts to balance out the effects of order between the two conditions. Question

Explain how, if we had used a repeated measures design in the energy drink study, we could have counterbalanced the two conditions.

Matched pairs Participants only take part in a single condition so order effects and demand characteristics are less of a problem. Although there is some attempt to reduce participant variables in this design, participants can never be matched exactly. Even when identical twins are used as matched pairs, there will still be important differences between them that may affect the DV. Matching may be time-consuming and expensive, particularly if a pretest is required, so this is less economical than other designs.

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It’s a little known fact that the Swedish pop group ABBA took their name from a way of reducing order effects in a repeated measures design experiment.

Concepts: Which design?

Which of the following is an independent groups design, a repeated measures design or a matched pairs design? 1. Depressed patients were assigned to receive either cognitive therapy or behaviour therapy for a 12week period. A standardised test for depression was administered and participants were paired on the severity of their symptoms. 2. A researcher randomly assigned student volunteers to two conditions. Those in condition one attempted to recall a list of words that were organised into meaningful categories; those in condition two attempted to recall the same words, randomly grouped on the page. 3. To investigate whether students are more alert in the morning or the afternoon, each student is given a hazard perception test before school and at the end of the day.

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Concepts: Rat-man

Check It

Look back at the Bugelsky and Alampay (1961) rat-man study on page 111. Explain why a repeated measures design would not have been suitable for this investigation.

1. Outline what is meant by random allocation and outline one way in which this could be carried out. [3 marks] 2. Explain one limitation of a repeated measures design. [3 marks] 3. Outline what is meant by a matched pairs design. [2 marks]

Experimental design • 171

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Types of experiment The specification says Types of experiment: laboratory and field experiments; natural and quasi-experiments. All experiments involve a change in an independent variable, with the researcher recording or measuring the subsequent effects on the dependent variable. How the IV changes, and under what circumstances, varies from one type of experiment to another. There are four different types of experiment used in psychology, each with its own strengths and limitations.

Key terms Laboratory (lab) experiment – An experiment that takes place in a controlled environment within which the researcher manipulates the IV and records the effect on the DV, whilst maintaining strict control of extraneous variables. Field experiment – An experiment that takes place in a natural setting within which the researcher manipulates the IV and records the effect on the DV. Natural experiment – An experiment where the change in the IV is not brought about by the researcher but would have happened even if the researcher had not been there. The researcher records the effect on the DV. Quasi-experiment – A study that is almost an experiment but lacks key ingredients. The IV has not been determined by anyone (the researcher or any other person) – the ‘variables’ simply exist, such as being old or young. Strictly speaking this is not an experiment.

Laboratory experiments Laboratory experiments are conducted in highly controlled environments. This is not always a laboratory (lab) – it could, for example, be a classroom where conditions can be well controlled.

Strengths Lab experiments have high control over extraneous variables. This means that the researcher can ensure that any effect on the dependent variable (DV) is likely to be the result of manipulation of the independent variable (IV). Thus, we can be more certain about demonstrating cause and effect (high internal validity). Replication is more possible than in other types of experiment because of the high level of control. This ensures that new extraneous variables are not introduced when repeating an experiment. Replication is vital to check the results of any study to see whether the finding is valid and not just a one-off.

Limitations Lab experiments may lack generalisability. The lab environment may be rather artificial and not like everyday life. In an unfamiliar context participants may behave in unusual ways so their behaviour cannot always be generalised beyond the research setting (low external validity). As well as this, participants are usually aware they are being tested in a lab experiment (though they may not know why) and this may also give rise to ‘unnatural ‘behaviour (see demand characteristics described on page 168). Furthermore, the tasks participants are asked to carry out in a lab experiment may not represent real-life experience; for instance, recalling unconnected lists of words as part of a memory experiment (low mundane realism).

Field experiments In field experiments the IV is manipulated in a natural, more everyday setting (in the field, not necessarily in a field).

Strengths Field experiments have higher mundane realism than lab experiments because the environment is more natural. Thus field experiments may produce behaviour that is more valid and authentic. This is especially the case as participants may be unaware they are being studied (high external validity).

Limitations However, there is a price to pay for increased realism due to the loss of control of extraneous variables. This means cause and effect between the IV and the DV in field studies may be much more difficult to establish and precise replication is often not possible. There are also important ethical issues. If participants are unaware they are being studied they cannot consent to being studied and such research might constitute an invasion of privacy.

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Concepts: Lab, field, natural or quasi? You decide

Which of the four investigations below is the lab experiment, the field experiment, the natural experiment and the quasi-experiment? 1. Baron-Cohen et al. (1986) got children with Down’s syndrome, children with autism and ‘normal’ children to arrange comic strip stories into the correct sequence. It was found that the children with autism performed significantly worse when it came to ordering the comic strip.

Good enough to eat? If a researcher had deprived you of food for four hours you might perceive this cake as being brighter than if you had just eaten, but would you have been involved in a lab, field, natural or quasi-experiment?

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2. Piliavin et al. (1969) conducted an experiment on a busy New York subway in which a researcher pretended to collapse. It was found more people helped when the victim was carrying a walking stick than when they smelt of alcohol. 3. Williams (1986) monitored the change in behaviour of 6–11-year-old children in a Canadian town before and after television was introduced for the first time. Significant increases in levels of aggression were observed after the children had access to television. 4. Gilchrist and Nesburg (1952) deprived participants of food and water for four hours and showed them pictures of food. These participants rated the pictures of food as being brighter than the control group who had not been food deprived.

Research Methods

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Natural experiments

Practical activity on pages 65, 95, 125 and 203

Natural experiments are when the researcher takes advantage of a pre-existing independent variable. This kind of experiment is called ‘natural’ because the variable would have changed even if the experimenter was not interested. Note that it is the IV that is natural not necessarily the setting – participants may be tested in a lab. In a field experiment the setting is natural.

Strengths Natural experiments provide opportunities for research that may not otherwise be undertaken for practical or ethical reasons, such as the studies of institutionalised Romanian orphans (Rutter, see page 90). Natural experiments often have high external validity because they involve the study of real-life issues and problems as they happen, such as the effects of a natural disaster on stress levels.

Limitations We might expect a rise in people’s stress levels as a result of a zombie outbreak, but what type of experiment would measure this?

A naturally occurring event may only happen very rarely, reducing the opportunities for research. This also may limit the scope for generalising findings to other similar situations. Another issue is that participants may not be randomly allocated to experimental conditions (this only applies when there is an independent groups design). This means the researcher might be less sure whether the IV affected the DV. For example, in the study of Romanian orphans the IV was whether children were adopted early or late. However, there were lots of other differences between these groups, such as those who were adopted late may also have been the less attractive children who no one wanted to adopt.

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1. Identify the type of experiment (lab, field, natural or quasi) described below. (1 mark each)

Quasi-experiments

a) Measuring the change in stress levels in the local residents of a town following a zombie invasion.

Quasi-experiments have an IV that is based on an existing difference between people (for instance, age or gender). No one has manipulated this variable, it simply exists. For instance, if the anxiety levels of phobic and nonphobic patients were compared, the IV of ‘having a phobia’ would not have come about through any experimental manipulation.

b) Comparing the performance of a group of 20 humans and a group of 20 zombies on a video game that requires divided attention and multi-tasking. c) Measuring the physiological response of zombies to a range of stimuli including bright light, loud noise and mild electric shocks.

Strengths and limitations

d) Recording the number of people who refuse to enter a lift when one zombie is in there compared to when there are three zombies in there.

Quasi-experiments are often carried out under controlled conditions and therefore share the strengths of a lab experiment. Quasi-experiments, like natural experiments, cannot randomly allocate participants to conditions and therefore there may be confounding variables.

Concepts: ‘True’ experiments

In a true experiment the IV is under the direct control of the researcher who manipulates it and records the effect on the DV. From this perspective, only lab and field experiments are true experiments as they involve manipulation of the IV by the researcher. Questions

1. Explain why natural and quasi-experiments cannot be classified as ‘true’ experiments.

2. What are the strengths and limitations of each of the experiments described above? (2 marks each)

Study TIPS

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Methods: Experiments with zombies

• Internal validity is about what goes on inside an experiment. Was it poorly controlled? Was the task really mundane? If so, the findings are probably meaningless. • External validity is about generalising the findings from a study to other situations, such as everyday life. That’s the whole point of doing research! • Students often think that lab studies don’t tell us much about everyday life because they are artificial but that’s not always true – often it is the task that is artificial (low mundane realism) and that’s what reduces external validity.

2. Decide which of the following studies would be classed as true experiments and which would not: a) Comparing the attitudes of psychology and sociology students towards independent study. b) Comparing the recall of students who learned a psychology theory in groups and those who learned on their own.

Check It

c) Comparing the GCSE results of male and female students.

1. Explain what is meant by a laboratory experiment. [3 marks] 2. Explain one strength and one limitation of a field experiment. [3 marks + 3 marks] 3. Explain the difference between a field experiment and a natural experiment. [3 marks]

d) Comparing the progress of students who were randomly assigned at the beginning of the year to either a group taught using traditional methods or a group taught using contemporary methods. e) Comparing the verbal ability of students who use social networking sites and those who do not.

Types of experiment • 173

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Sampling The specification says … Sampling: the difference between population and sample; sampling techniques including random, systematic, stratified, opportunity and volunteer; implications of sampling techniques, including bias and generalisation. Psychological investigations require one important ingredient – people!* Groups of people (participants) that form part of research studies are selected through the process of ‘sampling’. There are five important sampling techniques used in psychology and these are discussed on this spread.

Populations and samples The population refers to the large group of individuals that a particular researcher may be interested in studying, for example students attending colleges in the North West, children under six with autism, women in their thirties, etc. This is often called the target population because it is a subset of the general population. For practical and economic reasons, it is usually not possible to include all members of a target population in an investigation so a researcher selects a smaller group, known as the sample. Ideally, the sample that is drawn will be representative of the target population so that generalisation of findings becomes possible. In practice, however, it is often very difficult to represent populations within a given sample due to their diverse nature. Inevitably then, the vast majority of samples contain some degree of bias. Samples are selected using a sampling technique that aims to produce a representative sample. We will look at the main techniques used by psychologists.

Random sample

*Or sometimes animals.

A random sample is a sophisticated form of sampling in which all members of the target population have an equal chance of being selected. To select a random sample; firstly, a complete list of all members of the target population is obtained. Secondly, all of the names on the list are assigned a number. Thirdly, the sample is generated through the use of some lottery method (a computer-based randomiser or picking numbers from a hat).

Key terms Population – A group of people who are the focus of the researcher’s interest, from which a smaller sample is drawn. Sample – A group of people who take part in a research investigation. The sample is drawn from a (target) population and is presumed to be representative of that population, i.e. it stands ‘fairly’ for the population being studied. Sampling techniques – The method used to select people from the population. Bias – In the context of sampling, when certain groups may be over or under-represented within the sample selected. For instance, there may be too many younger people or too many people of one ethnic origin in a sample. This limits the extent to which generalisations can be made to the target population. Generalisation – The extent to which fi ndings and conclusions from a particular investigation can be broadly applied to the population. This is made possible if the sample of participants is representative of the population.

Systematic sample A systematic sample is when every nth member of the target population is selected, for example every 3rd house on a street or every 5th pupil on a school register. A sampling frame is produced, which is a list of people in the target population organised into, for instance, alphabetical order. A sampling system is nominated (every 3rd, 6th or 8th person, etc.) or this interval may be determined randomly to reduce bias. The researcher then works through the sampling frame until the sample is complete.

Stratified sample A stratified sample is a sophisticated form of sampling in which the composition of the sample reflects the proportions of people in certain sub-groups (strata) within the target population or the wider population. To carry out a stratified sample the researcher first identifies the different strata that make up the population. Then, the proportions needed for the sample to be representative are worked out. Finally, the participants that make up each stratum are selected using random sampling. For example, let’s say in Manchester, 40% of people support Manchester United, 40% support Manchester City, 15% support Bolton and 5% support Leeds. In a stratified sample of 20 participants there would be eight United fans, eight City, three Bolton fans and one solitary Leeds supporter. Each of these would be randomly selected from the larger group of fans of their team, e.g. Bolton fans selected from Bolton supporters, if there are enough.

Study TIPS

Opportunity sample

174 • Chapter 6

Given that representative samples of the target population are so difficult to obtain, many researchers simply decide to select anyone who happens to be willing and available (an opportunity sample). The researcher simply takes the chance to ask whoever is around at the time of their study, for example in the street (as in the case of market research). • Don’t confuse opportunity sampling and random sampling. If the word is used in its everyday sense, it could be argued that opportunity sampling involves selecting people ‘at random’. In psychology, however, random sampling is a much more sophisticated and complex process.

Research Methods

Volunteer sample A volunteer sample involves participants selecting themselves to be part of the sample; hence, it is also referred to as self-selection. To select a volunteer sample a researcher may place an advert in a newspaper or on a common room notice board. Alternatively, willing participants may simply raise their hand when the researcher asks.

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Hey! Who fancies being

in our sample?

Evaluation Random sample A random sample is free from researcher bias. The researcher has no influence over who is selected and this prevents them from choosing people who they think may support their hypothesis. However, random sampling is difficult and time-consuming to conduct. A complete list of the target population may be extremely difficult to obtain. Furthermore, you may end up with a sample that is still unrepresentative – the laws of probability suggest that random sampling is likely to produce a more representative sample than, say, opportunity sampling. However, it is still possible that the random method may select, for example, 20 female psychology teachers from Lancashire called Joyce. In addition, selected participants may refuse to take part (which means you end up with something more like a volunteer sample). This particular issue applies to all of the methods below.

Systematic sample This sampling method avoids researcher bias. Once the system for selection has been established the researcher has no influence over who is chosen (this is even more the case if the system is randomly selected). It is also usually fairly representative. For example, it would be possible, but quite unlucky, to get an all-male sample through systematic sampling.

Stratified sample Stratified sampling avoids researcher bias. Once the target population has been sub-divided into strata, the participants that make up the numbers are randomly selected and beyond the influence of the researcher. This method produces a representative sample because it is designed to accurately reflect the composition of the population. This means that generalisation of findings becomes possible. However, stratification is not perfect. The identified strata cannot reflect all the ways that people are different, so complete representation of the target population is not possible.

Opportunity sample Opportunity sampling is convenient. This method saves a researcher a good deal of time and effort and is much less costly in terms of time and money than, say, random sampling. On the negative side, opportunity samples suffer from two forms of bias. First, the sample is unrepresentative of the target population as it is drawn from a very specific area, such as one street in one town, so findings cannot be generalised to the target population. In fact, in psychology, the most common sample that is used is students who happen to be studying psychology and are very available to researchers! Think how biased that is. Second, the researcher has complete control over the selection of participants and, for instance, may avoid people they do not like the look of (researcher bias).

Volunteer sample Collecting a volunteer sample is easy. It requires minimal input from the researcher (‘they come to you’) and so is less time-consuming than other forms of sampling. Volunteer bias is a problem. Asking for volunteers may attract a certain ‘profile’ of person, that is, one who is helpful, keen and curious (which might then affect how far findings can be generalised).

Create a stratified sample of 10 Smarties that accurately reflects the proportion of different colours in the whole tube. How would you work it out? You might have to eat a couple to make it simpler!

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Concepts: Which sampling method? Decide which one of the five sampling techniques is being used in the examples below: 1. Students investigating the link between age and attitudes to the legalisation of drugs stop people in the street and ask them their views. 2. An occupational psychologist surveying employees about stress at work selects a sample that reflects the overall staff ratio of management to shop floor workers. 3. A teacher selects a sample of Year 9 students to take part in a test of selective attention by picking every third student from the register. 4. A member of senior management is interested in teachers’ opinions regarding their workload. She assigns all the staff a number, places these in a hat and draws out 20 numbers. 5. A university lecturer requests participants for an experiment into how expectation affects perception by placing an advert on the common room notice board.

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Methods: Being random

Two psychology students designed a study on conformity. They planned to ask people to fill in a questionnaire. They arranged it so it looked like some other students had already filled in some answers. In fact the student researchers filled in the answers themselves so that most of them were wrong. The student researchers wanted to see if their participants would conform to the wrong answers. They decided to use a random sampling technique. 1. Explain how they could obtain a random sample of all the students in their school. (3 marks) 2. Explain why they might have found it easier to use an opportunity sample. (2 marks) 3. Explain why that might have produced a less representative sample. (2 marks)

Check It 1. Outline one strength and one limitation of random sampling. [4 marks] 2. Explain what is meant by stratified sampling. [3 marks] 3. Explain the difference between a population and a sample. [3 marks] 4. Explain how you would select a stratified sample of all the male and female workers within a sausage factory. [3 marks] 5. Explain one reason why it might be difficult to make generalisations from a volunteer sample. [2 marks]

Sampling • 175

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Ethical issues and ways of dealing with them The specification says … Ethics, including the role of the BPS code of ethics; ethical issues in the design and conduct of psychological studies; dealing with ethical issues in research. One of the most important considerations in psychology is how to conduct worthwhile and innovative research whilst at the same time respecting the dignity and wellbeing of participants. Here, we discuss the major ethical issues in psychology and how professional psychologists deal with these in accordance with the guidelines set down in the BPS code of ethics.

Ethical issues in the design and conduct of psychological studies Ethical issues arise in psychology when a conflict or dilemma exists between participants’ rights and researchers’ needs to gain valuable and meaningful findings. This conflict has implications for the safety and wellbeing of participants. For instance, a researcher may not wish to reveal the true purpose of a research study to participants in order to study more ‘natural’ behaviour. But is it acceptable to mislead participants in this way – it might involve lying to them? Is it acceptable to tell participants they failed a test in order to study responses to failure? Is causing psychological distress to participants ever justified? What if they were made aware of this beforehand, would that make a difference? Let us consider four of the major ethical issues that face participants and researchers in psychology.

Informed consent

Key terms Ethical issues – These arise when a confl ict exists between the rights of participants in research studies and the goals of research to produce authentic, valid and worthwhile data. BPS code of ethics – A quasi-legal document produced by the British Psychological Society (BPS) that instructs psychologists in the UK about what behaviour is and is not acceptable when dealing with participants. It is built around four major principles: respect, competence, responsibility and integrity.

At a basic level, prospective participants in studies should know what they are getting into before they get into it. Informed consent involves making participants aware of the aims of the research, the procedures, their rights (including the right to withdraw partway through the investigation should they so wish), and also what their data will be used for. Participants should then make an informed judgement whether or not to take part without being coerced or feeling obliged. From the researcher’s point of view, asking for informed consent may make the study meaningless because participants’ behaviour will not be ‘natural’ as they know the aims of the study.

Deception Deception means deliberately misleading or withholding information from participants at any stage of the investigation. This is linked to the above. Participants who have not received adequate information when they agreed to take part (or worse, have been deliberately lied to) cannot be said to have given informed consent. Despite that, there are occasions when deception can be justified if it does not cause the participant undue distress. For instance, in our energy drink study it would probably be legitimate not to tell participants that there is another group drinking a different substance, as knowing this may affect their behaviour.

Protection from harm As a result of their involvement, participants should not be placed at any more risk than they would be in their daily lives, and should be protected from physical and psychological harm. The latter includes being made to feel embarrassed, inadequate or being placed under undue stress or pressure. An important feature of protection from harm, as mentioned above, is participants being reminded of the fact that they have the right to withdraw from the investigation at any point.

Privacy and confidentiality Participants have the right to control information about themselves. This is the right of privacy. If this is invaded then confidentiality should be protected. Confidentiality refers to our right, enshrined in law under the Data Protection Act, to have any personal data protected. The right to privacy extends to the area where the study took place such that institutions or geographical locations are not named.

Methods: Briefing and debriefing

When participants arrive to take part in a study they are given a briefing so they can provide informed consent (told what they will be asked to do, told some or all of the aims of the research, etc.). After the research participants will be debriefed (see facing page). Question

Write a briefing and a debriefing statement that could be read out to each of the participants in the energy drink experiment. You’ll need to write separate ones for each of the experimental conditions. Try to make sure you include all the details and issues described on these pages to ensure that participants are treated as ethically as possible. (5 marks)

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Research Methods

Study TIPS

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• Your understanding of ethical issues will be important throughout the whole of your study of psychology. You can use this understanding to present ethical criticisms of the studies you have read about throughout this book and may have an opportunity to discuss cost-benefit issues – can the ethical costs be justified in terms of the benefits? • It is important, when using ethical issues as evaluation, to remember that such issues do not challenge the findings of a study. Just because a study might be judged unethical by today’s standards does not mean its findings are meaningless.

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Ethical issues apply to all the different research methods used in Psychology – it may seem as if they just apply to experiments but you have yet to read about the others!

Ways of dealing with ethical issues BPS code of conduct The British Psychological Society (BPS), like many other professional bodies, has its own BPS code of ethics and this includes a set of ethical guidelines. Researchers have a professional duty to observe these guidelines when conducting research – they won’t be sent to prison if they don’t follow them but they may well lose their job. The guidelines are closely matched to the ethical issues on the facing page and attempt to ensure that all participants are treated with respect and consideration during each phase of research. Guidelines are implemented by ethics committees in research institutions who often use a cost-benefit approach to determine whether particular research proposals are ethically acceptable (see Apply It below).

Dealing with informed consent Participants should be issued with a consent letter or form detailing all relevant information that might affect their decision to participate. Assuming the participant agrees, this is then signed. For investigations involving children under 16, a signature of parental consent is required. There are other ways to obtain consent, which are described on the right.

Dealing with deception and protection from harm: debriefing

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Concepts: Alternative ways of getting consent From a researcher’s point of view the problem with asking for informed consent is that it may spoil the research – participants then know what is being studied and alter their behaviour accordingly. Psychologists have tried to address this problem by devising three alternatives: ⦁ Presumptive consent – rather than getting consent from the participants themselves, a similar group of people are asked if the study is acceptable. If this group agree, then consent of the original participants is ‘presumed’. ⦁ Prior general consent – participants give their permission to take part in a number of different studies – including one that will involve deception. By consenting, participants are effectively consenting to be deceived. ⦁ Retrospective consent – participants are asked for their consent (during debriefing) having already taken part in the study. They may not have been aware of their participation or they may have been subject to deception. Question

None of these methods are considered ‘ideal’ by researchers. What would you suggest are the main problems with each?

At the end of a study, participants should be given a full debrief. Within this, participants should be made aware of the true aims of the investigation and any details they were not supplied with during the study, such as the existence of other groups or experimental conditions. Participants should also be told what their data will be used for and must be given the right to withhold data if they wish. This is particularly important if retrospective consent is a feature of the study (see right). Participants may have natural concerns related to their performance within the investigation, and so should be reassured that their behaviour was typical or normal. In extreme cases, if participants have been subject to stress or embarrassment, they may require counselling, which the researcher should provide.

Dealing with confidentiality If personal details are held these must be protected. However it is more usual to simply record no personal details, i.e. maintain anonymity. Instead, researchers usually refer to participants using numbers or initials when writing up the investigation. In a case study, psychologists often use initials when describing the individual or individuals involved (see the study of HM on page 48). Finally, it is standard practice that during briefing and debriefing, participants are reminded that their data will be protected throughout the process.

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Concepts: Cost-benefit analysis

It is the responsibility of ethics committees to weigh up the costs and benefits of research proposals to decide whether the research study should go ahead. Benefits might include the value or ground-breaking nature of the research. Possible costs may be the damaging effect on individual participants or to the reputation of psychology as a whole. Question

Imagine you are sitting on an ethics committee. Should the following investigations go ahead? Do a cost-benefit analysis of each. 1. A teacher actively discriminates against the children who have blue eyes in her Year 5 class (and encourages the non-blue-eyed classmates to do the same) by withholding privileges and giving them more difficult tasks to do. This was a study to demonstrate the evils of racial prejudice (Elliott 1968). 2. As a naïve participant sits in a waiting room, (fake) smoke is pumped under the door suggesting that the next room is on fire. A group of confederates have been told to remain passive and not raise the alarm. This is an investigation into the factors that influence behaviour in an emergency (Latané and Darley 1968).

Cost-benefit analysis The role of ethics committees is to make judgements about the costs and benefits involved in carrying out individual pieces of research.

Check It 1. Using an example, explain what is meant by the term ethical issue. [3 marks] 2. Identify one ethical issue in psychology and outline one way in which this issue could be dealt with. [3 marks] 3. Briefly explain the role of the BPS code of ethics in psychological research. [3 marks] 4. Discuss ethical issues in psychological research. Refer to one or more research studies in your answer. [12 marks AS, 16 marks A level]

Ethical issues and ways of dealing with them • 177

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Pilot studies (and more) The specification says …

The aims of piloting

Pilot studies, and the aims of piloting. Pilot studies are an important element of research design in that they allow a researcher to test investigation procedures with a small group of participants before the investigation begins. We shall consider the aims of piloting on this spread as well as some of the other features of experimental design that have not been mentioned elsewhere.

Key term

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Study TIPS

Pilot study – A small-scale version of an investigation that takes place before the real investigation is conducted. The aim is to check that procedures, materials, measuring scales, etc., work and to allow the researcher to make changes or modifications if necessary.

• Many students misunderstand the purpose of pilot studies and often assume they have something to do with testing or finding support for the hypothesis. They don’t. ‘Piloting’, as it is sometimes referred to, is an important part of the design process that makes the researcher aware of problems that can be fixed before data gathering begins.

Concepts: Piloting

Remember the energy drink study? How could you forget? An experienced researcher has taken a look at our proposed design and suggested we conduct a pilot study before carrying out the main investigation. Question

Explain, in as much detail as you can, how such a pilot study could be done and what, as researchers, we might learn from it.

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Concepts: SpeedUpp

Thinking back to the energy drink investigation… 1. Explain why a single-blind procedure may be useful in reducing the effects of demand characteristics. 2. If a single-blind procedure was used, explain what would have to happen at the end of the study. 3. Explain how you might set up a double-blind procedure. 4. Explain how this would be effective in reducing the influence of investigator effects within the experiment. 5. Which condition of the energy drink experiment is the control group? Explain what purpose this group serves.

178 • Chapter 6

Research Methods

Pilot studies A pilot study is a small-scale trial run of the actual investigation – the investigation might be an experiment or any one of the other methods you are about to learn about. A pilot study may involve a handful of participants, rather than the total number, in order to ‘road-test’ the procedure and check the investigation runs smoothly. It is also important to recognise that pilot studies are not just restricted to experimental studies. When using self-report methods, such as questionnaires or interviews, it is helpful to try out questions in advance and remove or reword those that are ambiguous or confusing. In observational studies, a pilot study provides a way of checking coding systems before the real investigation is undertaken. This may be an important part of training observers. In short then, a pilot study allows the researcher to identify any potential issues and to modify the design or procedure, saving time and money in the long run.

Some other things you should know Single-blind procedure We mentioned, when discussing ethical issues, that participants will Single blind test sometimes not be told the aim of the research at the beginning of a Patients study. As well as this, other details Unaware of the test being conducted may be kept from participants, such as which condition of the experiment they are in or whether there is another condition at all. This is known as a single-blind procedure and is an attempt to control for the confounding effects of demand characteristics (see page 168).

?

?

Control pills regular

Doctor Aware of the test being conducted

Test pills placebo

? ?

Double-blind procedures In a double-blind procedure neither the participants nor the researcher who conducts the study is aware of the aims of the investigation (often a third party conducts the investigation without knowing its main purpose). Double-blind procedures are often an important feature of drug trials. Treatment may be administered to patients by someone who is independent of the investigation and who does not know which drugs are real and which are placebos (‘fake’ drugs).

Double blind test

Patients Unaware of the test being conducted

?

? Control pills regular

Doctor Test pills

Unaware of the test being conducted

placebo

Control groups and conditions In the example of the drug trial above, the group that receives the real drug is the experimental group/condition and the group that receives the placebo is the control group/condition. We use the word ‘control’ in research to refer to the control of variables but we also use it to refer to setting a baseline. Control is used in many experimental studies for the purpose of comparison. If the change in behaviour of the experimental group is significantly greater than that of the control group, then the researcher can conclude that the cause of this effect was the independent variable (assuming all other possible confounding variables have remained constant).

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Check It Fake estimates A sixth form psychology student was interested in the effect of social influence on behaviour and decided to conduct an experiment. She approached 40 Year 11 students around her school and presented each of them with a picture of a crowd scene. Each participant was asked to estimate how many people were in the picture. 20 participants (Group A) were shown the picture of the crowd scene only. The other 20 participants (Group B) were shown the picture of the crowd scene alongside five numbers that, they were told, were the estimates of other participants who had guessed before them. Based on the size of the crowd, these guesses were clearly too high, but the psychology student wanted to know whether these would affect the estimates of the participants in Group B.

Check It Gender differences in texting

Questions

1. What is the independent variable in this experiment? [2 marks] 2. What is the dependent variable in this experiment? [2 marks] 3. Identify the experimental design used in this experiment. [1 mark] 4. Explain one advantage of the experimental design you identified in your answer to 3. Refer to this experiment in your answer. [3 marks] 5. Write a suitable hypothesis for this experiment. [2 marks] 6. Identify the sampling method used in this experiment. Justify your answer. [2 marks] 7. Explain how random allocation could have been used in this experiment. [2 marks] 8. Write a debriefing statement that could be read out to the participants in Group B. [4 marks] 9. Explain why standardisation is important when conducting experimental research. [2 marks] 10. Explain one way in which the procedure of this experiment could have been standardised. [2 marks] 11. Explain what is meant by the term extraneous variable. [1 mark] 12. Identify one extraneous variable in this experiment, explain why it would need to be controlled, and how this could be done. [3 marks]

A teacher was interested to know whether there was a difference in the number of mobile phone texts male and female students send. The teacher selected a random sample of 20 boys and 20 girls from the whole school and got them to record the number of texts they had sent at the end of each day. After two weeks, the teacher compared the total number of texts for boys and girls and found there was very little difference between them.

Questions

1. This is an example of a quasi-experiment. Explain why this is a quasi-experiment. [2 marks] 2. Explain one disadvantage of a quasi-experiment. Refer to this experiment in your answer. [3 marks] 3. The teacher used random sampling to select participants. Explain how the teacher may have used random sampling in this experiment. [3 marks] 4. Explain one strength of random sampling. [2 marks] 5. Before the experiment began, the teacher conducted a pilot study. Explain why the teacher decided to conduct a pilot study. [2 marks] 6. Explain how social desirability bias may have affected the outcome of this study. [3 marks] 7. Identify one ethical issue that the teacher should have taken account of when conducting this investigation. [1 mark] 8. Explain one way in which the teacher could have dealt with the ethical issue that you identified in your answer to 7. [3 marks] 9. Explain what is meant by operationalisation when designing experiments. [2 marks] 10. Explain how the teacher has operationalised ‘difference in texting’ within this investigation. [1 mark] 11. Explain what is meant by the term confounding variable. [2 marks] 12. Explain one way in which investigator effects may confound the results of this study. [3 marks]

Pilot studies (and more) • 179

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Observational techniques The specification says Observational techniques. Types of observation: naturalistic and controlled observation; covert and overt observation; participant and non-participant observation. The experimental method may not always provide the most suitable way to study a particular behaviour. There are a number of non-experimental methods available to psychologists, one of which is observation. On this spread we consider the different types of observational method, as well as the strengths and limitations of each.

Key terms Naturalistic observation – Watching and recording behaviour in the setting within which it would normally occur. Controlled observation – Watching and recording behaviour within a structured environment, i.e. one where some variables are managed. Covert observation – Participants’ behaviour is watched and recorded without their knowledge or consent. Overt observation – Participants’ behaviour is watched and recorded with their knowledge and consent. Participant observation – The researcher becomes a member of the group whose behaviour he/she is watching and recording. Non-participant observation – The researcher remains outside of the group whose behaviour he/she is watching and recording.

There’s got to be a cat around here somewhere…

Types of observation One important non-experimental method is observation. Observations provide psychologists with a way of seeing what people do without having to ask them (as in studies involving self-report methods – a joy yet to come). They also allow researchers to study observable behaviour within a natural or controlled setting (see below). This method allows a researcher the flexibility to study more complex interactions between variables in a more natural way. Note that observation is often used within an experiment as a way, for example, of assessing the dependent variable.

Naturalistic and controlled observations Naturalistic observations take place in the setting or context where the target behaviour would usually occur. All aspects of the environment are free to vary. For instance, it would not make sense to study how senior management and employees in a particular factory interact by dragging the whole of the workforce into an artificial lab setting. It is much better to study ‘interaction’ in the factory environment where it would normally take place. It is sometimes useful to control certain aspects of the research situation, so a controlled observation may be preferred. For example, Mary Ainsworth made use of a controlled observation as part of her Strange Situation studies (see page 84). Ainsworth recorded the way in which children reacted to their mothers and how they dealt with the introduction of a stranger within a specially designed playroom environment. Ainsworth and her team recorded their data remotely, via a two-way mirror, so as not to disturb the action. In a controlled observation there is some control over variables, including manipulating variables to observe effects and also control of extraneous variables.

Covert and overt observations Behaviour may occasionally be recorded without first obtaining the consent of the participants. Covert observations are those in which the participants are unaware they are the focus of study and their behaviour is observed in secret, say from across a room or from a balcony (but rarely from behind a bush). Such behaviour must be public and happening anyway if the observation is to be ethical. In contrast, overt observations are when participants know their behaviour is being observed and have given their informed consent beforehand.

Participant and non-participant observations Sometimes it may be necessary for the observer to become part of the group they are studying, as is the case with participant observations. For instance, we might have improved the study of factory workers and management (referred to above) by having the researcher actually join the workforce to produce a first-hand account. Non-participant observations are when the researcher remains separate from those they are studying and records behaviour in a more objective manner. It may often be impractical or even impossible to join particular groups so that non-participation is the only option – such as a middle-aged female researcher observing behaviour amongst Year 10 students at a boys’ school!

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Concepts: Types of observation

State whether the following observations are naturalistic or controlled; covert or overt; participant or non-participant. Explain your choices in each case: 1. A researcher secretly joins a religious cult to see if people are being brainwashed. 2. A researcher watches primary school children through a two-way mirror in a playroom to investigate co-operation. 3. A researcher observes the crowd at a football match using footage from CCTV recordings. The crowd do know there are CCTV cameras.

On page 166 we describe the ‘aims’ of an experiment. All research studies have aims - not just experiments.

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4. A researcher observes student behaviour by enrolling on an AS course and pretending to be a mature student. 5. The head of a psychology department observes an A level class by watching the lesson at an agreed time, sitting at the back of the room.

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Evaluation

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In all observations it is not possible to establish cause and effect.

Concepts: On being sane in insane places

Naturalistic and controlled observations

A very famous observational study was conducted by David Rosenhan (1973), investigating the problem of defining abnormal behaviour.

Naturalistic observations tend to have high external validity insofar as findings can often be generalised to everyday life, as the behaviour is studied within the environment where it would normally occur. That said, the lack of control over the research situation makes replication of the investigation difficult. There may also be many uncontrolled extraneous variables that make it more difficult to judge any pattern of behaviour. Controlled observations, in contrast, may produce findings that cannot be as readily applied to real-life settings. Extraneous variables may be less of a factor so replication of the observation becomes easier.

Covert and overt observations The fact that participants do not know they are being watched removes the problem of participant reactivity (see page 168) and ensures any behaviour observed will be natural. This increases the validity of the data gathered. However, the ethics of these studies may be questioned as people, even in public, may not wish to have their behaviours noted down. For instance, ‘shopping’ would generally be recognised as a public activity, but the amount of money people spend on a shopping trip is probably their own private business! In this sense, overt observations are more ethically acceptable but the knowledge participants have that they are being observed may act as a significant influence on their behaviour.

Participant and non-participant observations

Once they had gained access, the observation began. Each patient (as they now were) stopped pretending to have symptoms and instead observed and recorded the daily life of the patients in the institution – the usual ward routine, interactions with the staff, etc. One notable finding was the way in which staff at the hospital behaved towards the researchers. Despite the fact that many of the genuine patients quickly realised that the pseudopatients were fake, staff were slower to catch on. Significant also was the way in which the behaviour of the pseudopatients was regarded by staff. Note-taking by one of the researchers was described as ‘repetitive writing behaviour’ in their patient notes, and pacing the corridors, which researchers often engaged in to ease their boredom, was interpreted as a sign of anxiety. In short, the ‘normal’ behaviour of the researchers was seen by staff at the various hospitals as ‘symptomatic’ of the mental disorder they had been labelled with. Questions

1. Is Rosenhan’s observational study: a) Naturalistic or controlled? (1 mark) b) Covert or overt? (1 mark) c) Participant or non-participant? (1 mark) 2. This study is seen as a powerful example of the influence that the label ‘mental illness’ has on the way we view behaviour but how valid is the method used? Identify two strengths and two limitations of the observational methods used in this study. (4 marks)

Study TIPS

In participant observations, the researcher can experience the situation as the participants do; giving them increased insight into the lives of the people being studied. This may increase the validity of the findings. There is a danger, however, that the researcher may come to identify too strongly with those they are studying and lose objectivity. Some researchers refer to this as ‘going native’ when the line between being a researcher and being a participant becomes blurred. Non-participant observations allow the researcher to maintain an objective psychological distance from their participants so there is less danger of them ‘going native’. However, they may lose the valuable insight to be gained in a participant observation as they are too far removed from the people and behaviour they are studying.

Rosenhan arranged for eight pseudopatients, one of whom was himself, to present themselves individually to various psychiatric institutions in the US complaining of fake symptoms of mental disturbance. These symptoms included hearing voices. All eight pseudopatients were admitted and given a diagnosis of schizophrenia in remission in all but one of the cases.

• There is a tendency to confuse controlled observations with laboratory experiments, whilst naturalistic observations are often mixed up with natural experiments! • Remember that although there may be variables in an observation there is no independent variable (IV). In an experiment, this IV either exists regardless of the researcher (as in a natural or quasiexperiment) or is manipulated by the experimenter (in a lab or field experiment).

Check It Re-read Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison study on page 20. Decide which of the three types of observation – described on the opposite page – it is. How does this study illustrate some of the strengths and limitations of observational research?

1. Explain the difference between a naturalistic observation and a controlled observation. [3 marks] 2. Briefly outline what is meant by a covert observation and an overt observation. [2 marks] 3. Explain one strength and one limitation of a nonparticipant observation. [2 marks + 2 marks] 4. Briefly evaluate the use of naturalistic observations in psychological research. [4 marks] 5. Identify two types of observation and state one limitation of each. [4 marks]

Observational techniques • 181

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Observational design The specification says Observational design: behavioural categories; event sampling; time sampling. On the previous spread we considered the observational techniques – the different types of observation available to psychologists. Here, we focus on how a researcher would actually plan an observational study.

Key terms Behavioural categories – When a target behaviour is broken up into components that are observable and measurable. Event sampling – A target behaviour or event is fi rst established then the researcher records this event every time it occurs. Time sampling – A target individual or group is fi rst established then the researcher records their behaviour in a fi xed time frame, say, every 60 seconds.

Inter-observer reliability It is recommended that researchers do not conduct observational studies alone. Single observers may miss important details or may only notice events that confirm their opinions or hypothesis. This introduces bias into the research process. To make data recording more objective and unbiased, observations should be carried out by at least two researchers. It is vital, however, that pairs of observers are consistent in their judgments and that any data they record is the same or very similar. As such observers must be trained to establish inter-observer reliability. • Observers should familiarise themselves with the behavioural categories to be used. • They then observe the same behaviour at the same time, perhaps as part of a small-scale pilot study. • Observers should compare the data they have recorded and discuss any differences in interpretations. • Finally observers should analyse the data from the study. Inter-observer reliability is calculated by correlating each pair of observations made and an overall figure is produced. You can check the inter-observer reliability of a set of observations using the behavioural categories for your observational study (see Apply it on facing page). Pass your list to a friend and ask them to use the list to observe the same people for five minutes. How does your data compare? Have you established interobserver reliability?

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Issues in the design of observations Structured and unstructured One of the key influences on the design of any observation is how the researcher intends to record their data. The researcher may simply want to write down everything they see. This is referred to as an unstructured observation and tends to produce accounts of behaviour that are rich in detail. This method may be appropriate when observations are small in scale and involve few participants. For example, observing interaction between a couple and a therapist within a marriage guidance counselling session. Often, however, there may be too much going in a single observation for the researcher to record it all. Therefore, it is necessary to simplify the target behaviours that will become the main focus of the investigation. For example, if the target behaviour was ‘aggression’ and the setting was a school playground, the specific acts (verbal or physical) that make up the target behaviour would need to be clearly defined. Structured observations such as these allow the researcher to quantify their observations using a pre-determined list of behaviours and sampling methods.

Behavioural categories In order to produce a structured record of what a researcher sees (or hears), it is first necessary to break the target behaviour up into a set of behavioural categories (sometimes referred to as a behaviour checklist). This is very similar to the idea of operationalisation that we came across earlier on page 167. Target behaviours to be studied should be precisely defined and made observable and measurable. For instance, the target behaviour ‘affection’ may be broken down into observational categories such as hugging, kissing, smiling, holding hands, etc. Each of these behaviours must be observable – there should be no need for inferences to be made, such as ‘being loving’. Two observers might interpret this differently and thus it would not be a reliable category. Before the observation begins, the researcher should ensure that they have, as far as possible, included all of the ways in which the target behaviour may occur within their behavioural checklist.

Sampling methods Continuous recording of behaviour is a key feature of unstructured observations in which all instances of a target behaviour are recorded. For very complex behaviours, however, this method may not be practical or feasible. As such, in structured observations, the researcher must use a systematic way of sampling their observations (note that ‘sampling’ in this context has a different meaning to that discussed on page 174). Event sampling involves counting the number of times a particular behaviour (the ‘event’) occurs in a target individual or group. For instance, event sampling of dissent at a football match would mean counting the number of times players disagree with the referee. Time sampling involves recording behaviour within a pre-established time frame. For example, in a particular football match we may only be interested in one specific player so we may make a note (using a behavioural checklist) of what our target individual is doing every 30 seconds.

What do students do when their teacher leaves the room? The record sheet below is used to record behaviour. A behaviour checklist is given (across the top) with space below to record the behaviour of a target student. A tally mark is placed each time one of the behaviours is observed – an example of event sampling. Carries on working

Uses mobile phone

Talks to another student

Listens to music

IIII

I

III

II

Leaves the room

Reads a magazine

Falls asleep

Eats

I

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Evaluation Structured versus unstructured

Practical activity on pages 94, 125 and 157

Structured observations that involve the use of behavioural categories make the recording of data easier and more systematic. The data produced is likely to be numerical (see the discussion of quantitative data on page 190), which means that analysing and comparing the behaviour observed between participants is more straightforward. In contrast, unstructured observations tend to produce qualitative data, which may be much more difficult to record and analyse. However, unstructured observations benefit from more richness and depth of detail in the data collected. Though there may be a greater risk of observer bias with unstructured observations, as the objective behavioural categories that are a feature of structured observations are not present here. The researcher may only record those behaviours that ‘catch their eye’ and these may not be the most important or useful.

Behavioural categories Although the use of behavioural categories can make data collection more structured and objective, it is important that such categories are as clear and unambiguous as possible. They must be observable, measurable and self-evident. In other words, they should not require further interpretation. Researchers should also ensure that all possible forms of the target behaviour are included in the checklist. There should not be a ‘dustbin category’ in which many different behaviours are deposited. Finally, categories should be exclusive and not overlap; for instance, the difference between ‘smiling’ and ‘grinning’ would be very difficult to discern.

Sampling methods Event sampling is useful when the target behaviour or event happens quite infrequently and could be missed if time sampling was used. However, if the specified event is too complex, the observer may overlook important details if using event sampling. Time sampling is effective in reducing the number of observations that have to be made. That said, those instances when behaviour is sampled might be unrepresentative of the observation as a whole.

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Concepts: Behavioural categories Draw up a behavioural checklist of facial expressions that might be observed in a six-month-old infant. Try to observe all the ‘rules’ of behavioural categories explained above.

Psychologists monitoring a group of people having a meeting.

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Methods: Observation: Over to you

Observational techniques are often used as a means of assessing the dependent variable (DV) in an experiment. You could conduct an experiment looking at the differences in the way males behave when in same-sex pairs/groups and opposite-sex pairs/groups (it would be a natural experiment if you observe ‘self-determined’ pairs). In this study the independent variable (IV) is same-sex or opposite-sex pairs. You need to measure the DV – the differences in the way males behave. To measure this you can observe their behaviour. Follow the steps below in designing your study.

Decisions to make Aims and hypothesis • What is the aim of your study? • If this is an experiment, what is the hypothesis? Is it directional or non-directional?

Decide on the design of the observation • • • •

Setting – controlled or naturalistic? Observer’s status – covert or overt? Observer’s involvement – participant or non-participant? Sampling method – continuous, time or event sampling?

Decide how the DV will be recorded • Unstructured observations or structured ones? • Fully operationalise the DV into behavioural categories. • Create a behaviour checklist (record sheet) to record frequency of observations.

Check It 1. Using an example, explain what is meant by time sampling in an observation. [2 marks] 2. Imagine you are conducting an observation of the ‘confidence’ shown by students in a lesson. Operationalise the behaviour ‘confidence’ using three behavioural categories. [3 marks] 3. With reference to your answer in question 2, design a record sheet that could be used to observe the difference in confidence between male and female students in a Year 12 class. [3 marks]

Consider ethical issues • Can covert observations be justified? • Is this a public behaviour that would be happening anyway?

Analysis of data • How will you present your results? (For ideas see pages 194–195.)

Observational design • 183

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Self-report techniques The specification says Self-report techniques: questionnaires; interviews, structured and unstructured. Sometimes the most straightforward way of understanding why people behave in the way that they do is to ask them. This is the self-report method in psychology and it comprises questionnaires and interviews; two separate techniques that we shall consider on this spread.

Key terms Self-report technique – Any method in which a person is asked to state or explain their own feelings, opinions, behaviours and/or experiences related to a given topic. Questionnaire – A set of written questions (sometimes referred to as ‘items’) used to assess a person’s thoughts and/or experiences. Interview – A ‘live’ encounter (face-to-face or on the phone) where one person (the interviewer) asks a set of questions to assess an interviewee’s thoughts and/ or experiences. The questions may be pre-set (as in a structured interview) or may develop as the interview goes along (unstructured interview).

Questionnaires Questionnaires – not surprisingly – involve a pre-set list of written questions (or items) to which the participant responds. Psychologists use questionnaires to assess thoughts and/or feelings. A study may simply consist of a question to find out about the kind of dreams people have or a long list of items designed to assess an individual’s personality type. A questionnaire may be used as part of an experiment to assess the dependent variable. For example, whether views on the legalisation of specific recreational drugs are different in older and younger people.

Open and closed questions There are a number of different possible styles of questions in a questionnaire but these can be broadly divided into open questions and closed questions. An open question does not have a fixed range of answers and respondents are free to answer in any way they wish. For instance, we might ask participants in our energy drink experiment how they felt during the investigation or why they thought they became more talkative (assuming they did). Open questions tend to produce qualitative data that is rich in depth and detail but may be difficult to analyse. A closed question offers a fixed number of responses. We might ask our participants if they felt more talkative as a result of the energy drink and restrict them to two options: ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Alternatively we might get them to rate how sociable they felt after consuming the drink on a scale of 1 to 10. Closed questions produce numerical data by limiting the answers respondents can give. Quantitative data like this is usually easy to analyse but it may lack the depth and detail associated with open questions.

Interviews Although some interviews may be conducted over the phone, most involve a face-to-face interaction between an interviewer and an interviewee. There are two broad types of interview: structured and unstructured interview.

Structured interviews Structured interviews are made up of a pre-determined set of questions that are asked in a fixed order. Basically this is like a questionnaire but conducted face-toface (or over the phone) in real-time, i.e. the interviewer asks the questions and waits for a response.

Unstructured interviews An unstructured interview works a lot like a conversation. There are no set questions. There is a general aim that a certain topic will be discussed, and interaction tends to be free-flowing. The interviewee is encouraged to expand and elaborate their answers as prompted by the interviewer.

Semi-structured interviews A multiple choice test is a good example of a questionnaire that uses closed, rather than open, questions.

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Many interviews are likely to fall somewhere between the two types described above. The sort of interview that one is most likely to encounter in everyday life – a job interview – is a good example of a semi-structured interview: there is a list of questions that have been worked out in advance but interviewers are also free to ask follow-up questions when they feel it is appropriate.

Concepts: Open and closed questions

1. Write one closed and one open question for each of the following scenarios: a) A psychologist interviewed PE teachers at a local school to assess the pupils’ attitudes towards exercise.

2. Which of the following are associated with open questions and which are associated with closed questions? a) Responses tend to include greater depth/detail.

b) A teacher distributed a questionnaire to her pupils to assess their mood on a Monday morning.

b) Often involves ticking a box or circling an answer.

c) A doctor produced a patient questionnaire to assess whether a new computer system had affected waiting times for appointments.

d) Respondents can’t explain their answers.

d) A scientist designed a questionnaire to assess people’s anxiety levels about a zombie apocalypse.

f) Difficult to collate and summarise data.

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Research Methods

c) Responses are easier to compare. e) Conclusions drawn may be open to bias.

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Evaluation

The following items appeared on a lifestyle questionnaire:

Strengths Questionnaires are cost-effective. They can gather large amounts of data quickly because they can be distributed to large numbers of people (note that it is the number of people that is important as this determines the volume of data collected). A questionnaire can be completed without the researcher being present, as in the case of a postal questionnaire, which also reduces the effort involved. The data that questionnaires produce is usually straightforward to analyse and this is particularly the case if the questionnaire comprises mainly fixed choice closed questions. The data lends itself to statistical analysis, and comparisons between groups of people can be made using graphs and charts.

1. Have you ever taken illegal drugs?

YES/NO

2. Have you ever had unprotected sex?

YES/NO

3. Have you ever drunk alcohol under the legal age limit? YES/NO 4. Do you regularly give money to charity?

YES/NO

Question

Explain why the items above may produce a social desirability bias.

Would you em ploy this chap ? No, me neith The joys of th er. e semi-struc tu red interview .

Limitations A major problem is that the responses given may not always be truthful. Respondents may be keen to present themselves in a positive light and this may influence their answers. For example, if asked ‘How often do you lose your phone’ most people would underestimate the frequency. This is a form of demand characteristic called social desirability bias. Questionnaires often produce a response bias, which is where respondents tend to reply in a similar way, for instance, always ticking ‘yes’ or answering at the same favoured end of a rating scale (discussed on the next spread). This may be because respondents complete the questionnaire too quickly and fail to read questions properly. A particular form of response bias, acquiescence bias, is discussed below right.

Evaluation

Concepts: Social desirability bias

Practical activity on pages 37 and 65

Structured interviews Structured interviews, like questionnaires, are straightforward to replicate due to their standardised format. The format also reduces differences between interviewers. It is not possible, however, given the nature of the structured interview, for interviewers to deviate from the topic or elaborate their points, and this may be a source of frustration for some.

Unstructured interviews There is much more flexibility in an unstructured than in a structured interview. The interviewer can follow up points as they arise and is much more likely to gain insight into the worldview of the interviewee. However, analysis of data from an unstructured interview is not straightforward. The researcher may have to sift through much irrelevant information and drawing firm conclusions may be difficult. As with questionnaires, there is a risk that interviewees may lie for reasons of social desirability. However, a skilled and experienced interviewer should be able to establish sufficient rapport with the participant so that even when sensitive and personal topics are discussed, any responses given are more truthful.

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Concepts: Questionnaires or interviews Sort the following points into two categories: those that are more likely to apply to questionnaires, or to interviews, or to both:

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Concepts: Acquiescence bias and the F-scale Acquiescence bias (or ‘yea-saying’) is the tendency to agree with items on a questionnaire regardless of the content of the question. Jackson and Messick (1961) demonstrated acquiescence bias using the F-scale, a standard questionnaire that measures authoritarianism (see page 29). Jackson created a reversed version of the F-scale where all the items were the opposite in meaning to the original questionnaire. He gave both the original and reversed versions to the same group of respondents and found a strong positive correlation (see page 188) between the two sets of results (which is not what you would expect). Question

What does this suggest was happening each time participants answered the questionnaires?

a) Responses are easy to analyse.

Check It

b) Involves large numbers of participants.

1. Explain one strength and one limitation of collecting data using a questionnaire. [3 marks +3 marks] 2. Distinguish between a questionnaire and an interview. [3 marks] 3. Distinguish between a structured interview and an unstructured interview. [3 marks] 4. Briefly evaluate the use of interviews in psychological research. [4 marks]

c) Qualitative data. d) Can create rapport between researcher and participant. e) More control over responses. f) Formal structure. g) The respondent can be encouraged to elaborate.

Self-report techniques • 185

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Self-report design The specification says Questionnaire construction, including use of open and closed questions; design of interviews. Having introduced questionnaires and interviews on the previous spread, we now turn to issues involved in the design of these. Namely, what options do questionnaire writers have available to them when they are constructing ‘items’, what issues should they be aware of when conducting interviews, and fi nally, some advice on good question writing when designing self-report studies.

Key terms Open questions – Questions for which there is no fi xed choice of response and respondents can answer in any way they wish; for example, why did you take up smoking? Closed questions – Questions for which there is a fi xed choice of responses determined by the question setter; for example, do you smoke? (yes/no)

Designing questionnaires On the previous spread we explained that questionnaires could include two types of question: open questions and closed questions. It is also the case that closed questions can be further divided into different types. It makes sense to refer to the following examples as ‘items’ as these are not really questions in the traditional sense.

Likert scales A Likert scale is one in which the respondent indicates their agreement (or otherwise) with a statement using a scale of usually five points. The scale ranges from strongly agree to strongly disagree, for example: Statement: Zombie films can have educational value 1 2 3 strongly agree agree neutral

4 disagree

5 strongly disagree

Rating scales A rating scale works in a similar way but gets respondents to identify a value that represents their strength of feeling about a particular topic, for example: Question: How entertaining do you find zombie films? (circle the number that applies to you) Very entertaining

1

2

3

4

5

Not at all entertaining

Fixed choice option A fixed choice option item includes a list of possible options and respondents are required to indicate those that apply to them, for example: Question: For what reasons do you watch zombie films? (Tick all those that apply) Entertainment Amusement

To escape Education

To be frightened To please others

Designing interviews

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Concepts: Open and closed questions Indicate which of the following are open questions and which are closed questions:

Most interviews involve an interview schedule, which is the list of questions that the interviewer intends to cover. This should be standardised for each participant to reduce the contaminating effect of interviewer bias (see facing page). Typically, the interviewer will take notes throughout the interview, or alternatively, the interview may be recorded and analysed later. Interviews usually involve an interviewer and a single participant, though group interviews may be appropriate especially in clinical settings. In the case of a one-to-one interview, the interviewer should conduct the interview in a quiet room, away from other people, as this will increase the likelihood that the interviewee will open up. It is good practice to begin the interview with some neutral questions to make the participants feel relaxed and comfortable, and as a way of establishing rapport. Of course, interviewees should be reminded on several occasions that their answers will be treated in the strictest confidence (see ways of dealing with ethical issues on page 177). This is especially important if the interview includes topics that may be personal or sensitive.

1. Do you think recycling is important? (YES/NO) 2. Explain your answer to Q1. 3. How often is your rubbish bin collected? (tick the option that applies) once a week

once a fortnight

once a month

other

4. How likely are you to recycle the following items in an average week? Plastic bottles Very likely 1 2 3 4 5 Not at all likely Cans Very likely 1 2 3 4 5 Not at all likely 5. How old are you?

186 • Chapter 6

Research Methods

Rapport is important in an interview, but this might be judged as slightly too much…

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Writing good questions Clarity is key when designing questionnaires and interviews. If respondents are confused by or misinterpret particular questions, this will have a negative impact on the quality of the information received. With this in mind, the following are common errors in question design that should be avoided where possible.

Overuse of jargon Jargon refers to technical terms that are only familiar to those within a specialised field or area. For instance, the following question includes jargon: Do you agree that maternal deprivation in infanthood inevitably leads to affectionless psychopathy in later life? Of course as psychology specialists who have read Chapter 3 you know all about maternal deprivation but to the layperson this would be confusing. It is also unnecessarily complex – the best questions are simple and easily understood.

Emotive language and leading questions Sometimes, the author’s attitude towards a particular topic is clear from the way in which the question is phrased, as in the following examples: Boxing is a barbaric sport and any sane person would want it banned. The coalition government has destroyed our once-proud National Health Service. Is it not obvious that student fees should be abolished?

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Methods: Self-report: Over to you

Design a questionnaire that could be distributed to students at school or college. Perhaps you could investigate some aspect of school life that people may have strong views about such as how much homework students receive or whether school uniform should be worn. You might conduct this as a quasi-experiment and compare the views of male and female students or students across different year groups. In this case the questionnaire is being used to assess a dependent variable. Follow the steps below in designing your study.

Decisions to make Aims and hypothesis • What is the aim of your study? • If an experiment, what is the hypothesis, is it directional or nondirectional?

Decide the items for your questionnaire • Open questions? • Closed questions (Likert scale, rating scale, fixed choice option)?

Pilot the questionnaire to check understanding • Remove/reword questions that are too complex, leading, doublebarrelled, etc.

When did you last drive over the speed limit? In the first two examples, words and phrases such as ‘barbaric’, ‘sane’, ‘destroyed’ and ‘once-proud’ are emotive and should be replaced with more neutral alternatives. The third example is a leading question as it guides the respondent towards a particular answer; as is the fourth example, which assumes that the person being questioned has broken the speed limit at some point!

Double-barrelled questions and double negatives A double-barrelled question contains two questions in one; the issue being that respondents may agree with one half of the question and not the other.

Sampling • What is your target population? • How will you select participants?

Consider ethical issues • How will you gain informed consent? • How will you ensure anonymity/confidentiality?

Analysis of data • How will you present your results? (For ideas see pages 194–195.)

Do you agree with this statement: Premier league footballers are overpaid and should have to give twenty per cent of their wages to charity. Finally, questions that include double negatives can be difficult for respondents to decipher. I am not unhappy in my job (agree/disagree). There is a much more straightforward way of asking this question – see if you can work it out!

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Concepts: The importance of a pilot study

Before the study begins, questionnaire and interview questions should always be piloted. Re-read the discussion on the aims of piloting on page 178 and answer the following questions. Questions

1. Briefly explain what is meant by a pilot study.

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Concepts: Interviewer bias

Standardisation of questions within an interview is one way of controlling for the possible effects of interviewer bias. However, this may not remove bias entirely. This is especially true if the interview is unstructured because the interviewer controls the way the discussion develops and the lines of enquiry followed. Question

Read back through this chapter and try to identify as many forms of bias in psychological research as you can – and the steps taken to minimise these (hint: there are lots!).

2. Describe how a pilot study of a questionnaire or interview would be carried out. 3. Explain what would be gained from conducting the pilot and what the researcher might do as a result.

Check It 1. Using the example of a questionnaire that measures stress in the workplace, explain the difference between closed and open questions. [4 marks] 2. Explain two issues that should be considered when designing interviews. [4 marks] 3. Explain two issues that should be considered when designing questionnaires. [4 marks]

Self-report design • 187

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Correlations The specification says Correlations. Analysis of the relationship between co-variables. The difference between correlations and experiments. Positive, negative and zero correlations. We now turn to the fourth main research method in the Year 1 specification - correlation. Properly speaking, correlation is a method of analysis not a research method but it is an easier term to just say ‘correlation’ rather than ‘studies using correlational analysis’.

Key terms Correlation – A mathematical technique in which a researcher investigates an association between two variables, called co-variables. Co-variables – The variables investigated within a correlation, for example height and weight. They are not referred to as the independent and dependent variables because a correlation investigates the association between the variables, rather than trying to show a cause and effect relationship. Positive correlation – As one co-variable increases so does the other. For example, the number of people in a room and noise are positively correlated. Negative correlation – As one co-variable increases the other decreases. For example, the following two co-variables: number of people in a room and amount of personal space are negatively correlated. Zero correlation – When there is no relationship between the co-variables. For example, the association between the number of people in a room in Manchester and the total daily rainfall in Peru.

Correlations Types of correlation Correlation illustrates the strength and direction of an association between two or more co-variables (things that are being measured). Correlations are plotted on a scattergram (see examples below). One co-variable forms the x-axis and the other the y-axis. Each point or dot on the graph is the x and y position of each co-variable.

Types of correlation Let’s consider two things that might be correlated. Frequent use of caffeine is correlated with high anxiety. We might get people to work out how many caffeine drinks they consume over a weekly period. We could then get these same people to self-report their level of anxiety (let’s say on a 20-point scale) at the end of the week. We might expect to see a positive correlation between the two variables if we plotted the data on a scattergram – a positive correlation means the more caffeine people drink, the higher their level of anxiety. Perhaps we could also get these same people to record how many hours sleep they have over the same period. Drinking a lot of caffeine often disrupts sleep patterns, so perhaps the more caffeine someone drinks the less sleep they have. This would be a negative correlation insofar as one variable rises the other one falls. Finally, we might also persuade our intrepid participants to record the number of dogs they see in the street within the same week. As far as we are aware, there is no relationship between the number of caffeine drinks someone has and the number of dogs they see in the street. For this reason, we might expect to find something close to a zero correlation between these two variables.

The difference between correlations and experiments In an experiment the researcher controls or manipulates the independent variable (IV) in order to measure the effect on the dependent variable (DV). As a result of this deliberate change in one variable it is possible to infer that the IV caused any observed changes in the DV. In contrast, in a correlation, there is no such manipulation of one variable and therefore it is not possible to establish cause and effect between one co-variable and another. Even if we found a strong positive correlation between caffeine and anxiety level we cannot assume that caffeine was the cause of the anxiety. People may be anxious for all sorts of reasons (personality type, a stressful job, personal problems, being badgered by a researcher to record their caffeine levels) and therefore their influence on the other variable cannot be disregarded. These ‘other variables’ are called intervening variables.

Concepts: Positive and negative correlations Are the following positive or negative correlations? 1. The more aggressive the parents, the more aggressive their children are. 2. The hotter the temperature, the fewer clothes people wear. 3. The fewer sweets eaten, the fewer fillings needed.

Number of caffeine drinks

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Anxiety level

Anxiety level

positive correlation

negative correlation

Anxiety level

4. The colder the weather, the higher people’s fuel bills. 5. The more people exercise, the less their risk of heart disease.

no correlation

6. More sociable people have more friends. 7. The fewer hours of daylight, the more depressed people there are. 8. The more films you watch, the more interesting you are.

188 • Chapter 6

Research Methods

Scattergrams to show the relationships between number of caffeine drinks and anxiety level (left), number of caffeine drinks and hours sleep (middle) and number of caffeine drinks and number of dogs seen in the street (right).

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Yeah it tastes great obviously – but is it worth the money?

Practical activity on page 36, 156 and 203

Evaluation Strengths

Correlations are a useful preliminary tool for research. By assessing the strength and direction of a relationship, they provide a precise and quantifiable measure of how two variables are related. This may suggest ideas for possible future research if variables are strongly related or demonstrate an interesting pattern. Correlations are often used as a starting point to assess possible patterns between variables before researchers commit to an experimental study. Correlations are relatively quick and economical to carry out. There is no need for a controlled environment and no manipulation of variables is required. Data collected by others (secondary data such as government statistics) can be used, which means correlations are less time-consuming than experiments.

As a result of the lack of experimental manipulation and control within a correlation, studies can only tell us how variables are related but not why. Correlations cannot demonstrate cause and effect between variables and therefore we do not know which co-variable is causing the other to change. For instance – in the example on the facing page – we cannot conclude that drinking caffeine causes anxiety. It may be that people who are already anxious drink more caffeine as a result. So, establishing the direction of the effect is an issue. It may also be the case that another untested variable is causing the relationship between the two co-variables we are interested in – an intervening variable (see facing page). This is known as the third variable problem. Perhaps people who have high-pressured jobs – and hence spend a lot of their time feeling anxious – drink a lot of caffeine because they work long hours and need to remain alert. Thus, the key unaccounted-for variable here is job type which, in effect, is causing the relationship between the other two co-variables. Largely because of the issues above, correlations can occasionally be misused or misinterpreted. Particularly in the media, relationships between variables are sometimes presented as causal ‘facts’ when in reality they may not be. For instance, an often-quoted statistic is the relationship between being raised in a single-parent family and the increased likelihood of being involved in crime. This does not mean, however (contrary to many reports), that single-parent households cause crime or that children from such families will inevitably go on to commit crime. There are many intervening or ‘third’ variables at work here, such as the fact that children from single-parent families tend to be less well off so this might explain the link between one-parent families and crime.

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Concepts: Correlational hypotheses

Hypotheses written for correlations are not the same as those for experiments. There is no IV or DV in a correlation. The hypothesis still has to clearly state the expected relationship between variables – but co-variables in this case, which must be clearly operationalised. Also, as with experimental hypotheses, correlational hypotheses can be directional or non-directional. A directional hypothesis for the chocolate correlation (above right) could be:

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Concepts: Correlation: Over to you Is there a correlation between the price of chocolate and how tasty it is? Why not test this on your friends? This might be one of the more expensive investigations you carry out but, chances are, your friends will like you a lot more afterwards! Buy five bars of chocolate ranging from cheap to, well, not so cheap! Get a friend to try each one – blindfolded – and rate them for tastiness on a scale, say, out of twenty. Analyse the data by sketching a scattergram of the data for each co-variable (price of chocolate plotted against tastiness rating) to see if there is a relationship between the two. Then try it again with another two or three participants to see if results are similar – assuming your chocolate budget will stretch that far! Remember, it’s all in the name of science…

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Concepts: Curvilinear relationships Some relationships are more complex than positive or negative correlations. The Yerkes-Dodson law of arousal states that performance is at its best when there is a moderate (optimal) level of arousal and will deteriorate if the arousal level is too low or too high.

Performance

Limitations

low

medium

high

Arousal

There is a positive correlation between the price of a chocolate bar and its tastiness rating (out of 20).

Question

Whereas the equivalent non-directional hypothesis would be:

Can you think of any co-variables that might demonstrate such a relationship?

There is a correlation between the price of a chocolate bar and its tastiness rating (out of 20). Question

Check It

Write directional and non-directional hypotheses for the caffeine and anxiety level study, and the caffeine and sleep study, described on this spread.

1. Define what is meant by a correlation. [2 marks] 2. Explain one strength and one limitation of the use of correlations in psychological research. [6 marks] 3. Define what is meant by a co-variable. [2 marks]

Correlations • 189

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Data analysis: Kinds of data The specification says Qualitative and quantitative data; the distinction between qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques. Primary and secondary data, including meta-analysis. When an investigation is conducted, data is collected. This is words, numbers, images, sounds without context, etc. Once context (meaning) is added then data becomes ‘information’. Data analysis is the process of turning data into information.

Qualitative and quantitative data Qualitative data Qualitative data is expressed in words, rather than numbers or statistics, and may take the form of a written description of the thoughts, feelings and opinions of participants (or a written account of what the researcher saw in the case of an observation). Thus, a transcript from an interview, an extract from a diary or notes recorded within a counselling session would all be classed as qualitative data. Qualitative methods of data collection are those that are concerned with the interpretation of language from, for example, an interview or an unstructured observation.

Key terms

Quantitative data

Qualitative data – Data that is expressed in words and non-numerical (although qualitative data may be converted to numbers for the purposes of analysis).

This is data that is expressed numerically. Quantitative data collection techniques usually gather numerical data in the form of individual scores from participants such as the number of words a person was able to recall in a memory experiment. Data is open to being analysed statistically and can be easily converted into graphs, charts, etc.

Quantitative data – Data that can be counted, usually given as numbers.

Which one is best?

Primary data – Information that has been obtained fi rsthand by the researcher for the purposes of a research project. In psychology, such data is often gathered directly from participants as part of an experiment, selfreport or observation. Secondary data – Information that has already been collected by someone else and so pre-dates the current research project. In psychology, such data might include the work of other psychologists or government statistics. Meta-analysis – ‘Research about research’, refers to the process of combining results from a number of studies on a particular topic to provide an overall view. This may involve a qualitative review of conclusions and/or a quantitative analysis of the results producing an effect size.

A qualitative perspective

Neither really, it depends upon the purpose and aims of the research. Also there is significant overlap between the two: researchers collecting quantitative data as part of an experiment may often interview participants as a way of gaining more qualitative insight into their experience of the investigation. Similarly, there are a number of ways in which qualitative information can be converted to numerical data.

Primary and secondary data Primary data Primary data (sometimes called field research) refers to original data that has been collected specifically for the purpose of the investigation by the researcher. It is data that arrives first-hand from the participants themselves. Data which is gathered by conducting an experiment, questionnaire, interview or observation would be classed as primary data.

Secondary data Secondary data is data that has been collected by someone other than the person who is conducting the research. In other words, this is data that already exists before the psychologist begins their research or investigation. Data such as this is sometimes referred to as ‘desk research’ and it is often the case that secondary data has already been subject to statistical testing and therefore the significance is known. Secondary data includes data that may be located in journal articles, books or websites. Statistical information held by the government (such as that obtained in the Census), population records or employee absence records within an organisation are all examples of secondary data.

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Concepts: Qualitative and quantitative data

Which of the following would produce qualitative data and which quantitative data? 1. Students rate their enjoyment of research methods on a scale of 1–10. 2. A recovering patient describes his experience of schizophrenia. 3. A researcher asks passers-by their views on litter in the town centre (using a series of ‘yes’ and ‘no’ questions). 4. Students give feedback on their teacher using a questionnaire made up of open questions.

A quantitative perspective

190 • Chapter 6

5. A researcher categorises the social behaviour of children into one of three types.

How many soldiers are there?

6. Students record the number of hours they spend revising and the number of hours they spend on social network sites.

What time of day is it?

7. A teacher interviews Year 10 students about their ideas of what psychology is.

How many soldiers are wearing hats?

8. A girl writes a diary describing what daily life is like for a child.

Research Methods

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Evaluation Qualitative data Qualitative data offers the researcher much more richness of detail than quantitative data (below). It is much broader in scope and gives the participant/respondent more licence to develop their thoughts, feelings and opinions on a given subject. For this reason, qualitative data tends to have greater external validity than quantitative data; it provides the researcher with a more meaningful insight into the participant’s worldview. That said, qualitative data is often difficult to analyse. It tends not to lend itself to being summarised statistically so that patterns and comparisons within and between data may be hard to identify. As a consequence, conclusions often rely on the subjective interpretations of the researcher and these may be subject to bias, particularly if the researcher has preconceptions about what he/she is expecting to find.

Quantitative data Essentially the criticisms of quantitative data are the opposite of those above: quantitative data is relatively simple to analyse, therefore comparisons between groups can be easily drawn. Also, data in numerical form tends to be more objective and less open to bias. On the other hand, quantitative data is much narrower in scope and meaning than qualitative data. It thus may fail to represent ‘real-life’.

Concepts: Meta-analysis

A particular form of research method that uses secondary data is meta-analysis. This refers to a process in which the data from a large number of studies, which have involved the same research questions and methods of research, are combined. The researcher(s) may simply discuss the findings/conclusions – which is a qualitative analysis. They may additionally use a quantitative approach and perform a statistical analysis of the combined data. This may involve calculating the effect size – basically the dependent variable of a meta-analysis – which gives an overall statistical measure of difference or relationship between variables across a number of studies. On the plus side, meta-analysis allows us to view data with much more confidence and results can be generalised across much larger populations. However, meta-analysis may be prone to publication bias, sometimes referred to as the file drawer problem. The researcher may not select all relevant studies, choosing to leave out those studies with negative or non-significant results. Therefore the data from the meta-analysis will be biased because it only represents some of the relevant data and incorrect conclusions are drawn. Questions

1. Find examples of meta-analysis within this book.

Evaluation

2. Explain how this study was conducted. 3. Was there an effect size?

Primary data The main strength of primary data is that it fits the job. Primary data is authentic data obtained from the participants themselves for the purpose of a particular investigation. Questionnaires and interviews, for instance, can be designed in such a way that they specifically target the information that the researcher requires. To produce primary data, however, requires time and effort on the part of the researcher. Conducting an experiment, for instance, requires considerable planning, preparation and resources, and this is a limitation when compared with secondary data, which may be accessed within a matter of minutes.

Secondary data In contrast to primary data above, secondary data may be inexpensive and easily accessed requiring minimal effort. When examining secondary data the researcher may find that the desired information already exists and so there is no need to conduct primary data collection. The flip side is that there may be substantial variation in the quality and accuracy of secondary data. Information might at first appear to be valuable and promising but, on further investigation, may be out-dated or incomplete. The content of the data may not quite match the researcher’s needs or objectives so the old adage, ‘if you want something doing well, do it yourself’ could often apply!

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Concepts: Primary and secondary data Which of the following would be classed as primary and which secondary data? 1. A researcher searches through newspapers to see if there is a relationship between daily temperature and the total number of violent incidents. 2. An interview with people with obsessive-compulsive disorder about their experiences. 3. An observation of how primary school children negotiate rules during a game of marbles. 4. A comparison of crime statistics in inner city and rural areas to see if there is a difference. 5. A researcher assesses how the GCSE results of schools in her local area compare with national averages. 6. A lab study to see if males or females are more susceptible to visual illusions.

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Concepts: What data?

Of the methods listed below, which would produce qualitative data and which quantitative? An experiment An interview A questionnaire (mainly closed questions) A questionnaire (mainly open questions) A correlation A structured observation An unstructured observation

7. A researcher examines the transcript of a trial to see if there were inconsistencies in eyewitness accounts. 8. A researcher asks cinemagoers leaving a horror movie if they feel more murderous after seeing the film.

Check It 1. Using examples, explain the difference between primary data and secondary data. [4 marks] 2. Explain one strength and one limitation of qualitative data. [6 marks] 3. Explain what is meant by the term meta-analysis. In your answer, refer to one example of a meta-analysis. [3 marks]

Data analysis: Kinds of data • 191

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Data analysis: Descriptive statistics The specification says Descriptive statistics: measures of central tendency – mean, median and mode; calculation of mean, median and mode; measures of dispersion: range and standard deviation; calculation of range. We have seen how data may come in two forms: qualitative or quantitative. Here we shall focus on the latter. There are various ways of summarising and analysing numerical data in order to draw meaningful conclusions. These are collectively known as descriptive statistics – which include measures of central tendency and measures of dispersion and also graphs (on the next spread).

Key terms Descriptive statistics – The use of graphs, tables and summary statistics to identify trends and analyse sets of data. Measures of central tendency – The general term for any measure of the average value in a set of data. Mean – The arithmetic average calculated by adding up all the values in a set of data and dividing by the number of values there are. Median – The central value in a set of data when values are arranged from lowest to highest. Mode – The most frequently occurring value in a set of data.

MEAN – MEDIAN – MODE – RANGE

1 3, 1 3, 1 3, 1 3, 1 4 , 1 4 , 16 , 18 , 2 1 MEAN 15 MEDIAN 14 MODE 13 RANGE 8

Measures of central tendency Measures of central tendency are ‘averages’ which give us information about the most typical values in a set of data. There are three of these to consider: the mean, the median and the mode.

Mean The mean is what most of us will recognise as the average. It is calculated by adding up all the scores or values in a data set and dividing this figure by the total number of scores there are. For instance, in the following data set of scores: 5, 7, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17 The total is 107 divided by the number of scores (10), which gives us a mean value of 10.7. The mean is the most sensitive of the measures of central tendency as it includes all of the scores/values in the data set within the calculation. This means it is more representative of the data as a whole. However, the mean is easily distorted by extreme values. If we replace 17 in the data above with the number 98, the mean becomes 18.8 which does not really seem to represent the data overall!

Median The median is the middle value in a data set when scores are arranged from lowest to highest. In an odd number of scores, the median is easily identified. In an even number of scores (just as the ten numbers above) the median is halfway between the two middle scores. These are 10 and 11, so the median is 10.5. The strength of the median, unlike the mean, is that extreme scores do not affect it, so whether 98 replaces 17 in the data above or not, the median remains the same. It is also easy to calculate (once you have arranged the numbers in order). However, it is less sensitive than the mean as not all scores are included in the final calculation.

Mode The mode is the most frequently occurring score/value within a data set. In some data sets there may be two modes (bi-modal) or no mode if all the scores are different. Although the mode is very easy to calculate, it is a very crude measure. Notice how in the set of scores above, the mode is 7, which is quite different from the mean and the median (and not really representative of the data as a whole). For some data – data in categories – the mode is the only method you can use. For example, if you asked your class to list their favourite dessert, the only way to identify the most ‘typical’ or average value would be to select the modal group.

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Methods: And the results are in….

Study TIPS

The table below shows the results of our energy drink experiment using a repeated measures design (as suggested on page 170). The score for each participant is the number of words said in the five minutes after consuming each drink (participants were filmed and the number of words spoken after each drink were counted). • If you have to decide what method of central tendency should be used with a particular set of data, consider whether there are any extreme scores – a score that is significantly lower or higher than the others. If there are no extreme scores then the mean is the best option as it is the most sensitive measure of the three. However, if there is an extreme score, the median is most suitable as the mean would become distorted. Note that the mode is never the best option, except if the data are in categories.

192 • Chapter 6

Research Methods

P1

P2

P3

P4

P5

P6

P7

P8

P9

P10

SpeedUpp

110

59

206

89

76

141

Water

122

45

135

90

42

87

152

98

198

57

131

113

129

62

Questions

1. Calculate the mean, median and mode for the SpeedUpp condition and the water condition above. Give all answers rounded up to the nearest whole number. (3 marks) 2. What can you conclude from these calculations? (2 marks)

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Measures of dispersion Measures of dispersion are based on the spread of scores; that is, how far scores vary and differ from one another. We shall focus on two of these: the range and the standard deviation.

Range The range is a simple calculation of the spread of scores and is worked out by taking the lowest value from the highest value and (usually) adding 1. Thus, the range for the data on the left is (17 − 5) + 1 = 13. Adding 1 is a mathematical correction that allows for the fact that raw scores are often rounded up (or down) when they are recorded within research. For instance, someone may complete a simple task (such as crossing out all the letter e’s in a paragraph) in 45 seconds. However, it is unlikely they took exactly 45 seconds to complete this task (in fact it may have taken them anywhere between 44.5 and 45.5 seconds), so the addition of 1 accounts for this margin of error. The advantage of the range is that it is easy to calculate. However, it only takes into account the two most extreme values, and this may be unrepresentative of the data set as a whole. For instance, pupils in a maths class achieved the following test scores:

No, not that kind of spread.

0, 47, 49, 50, 50, 50, 51, 53, 54, 56, 56, 57, 100

Key terms

The range here is 101: one student was ill during the test and scored nothing, the topscoring student had been given the paper for homework by mistake! This illustrates the problem with the range that it may not give a fair representation of the general spread of scores as, in this example, most students achieved around half marks in the test and the range, more accurately was 11.

Measures of dispersion – The general term for any measure of the spread or variation in a set of scores. Range – A simple calculation of the dispersion in a set of scores which is worked out by subtracting the lowest score from the highest score and adding 1 as a mathematical correction.

Standard deviation A much more sophisticated measure of dispersion is the standard deviation. This is a single value that tells us how far scores deviate (move away from) the mean. The larger the standard deviation, the greater the dispersion or spread within a set of data. If we are talking about a particular condition within an experiment, a large standard deviation suggests that not all participants were affected by the IV in the same way because the data are quite widely spread. It may be that there are a few anomalous results. A low standard deviation value reflects the fact that the data are tightly clustered around the mean, which might imply that all participants responded in a fairly similar way. The standard deviation is a much more precise measure of dispersion than the range as it includes all values within the final calculation. However, for this reason – like the mean – it can be distorted by a single extreme value.

Methods: Drawing conclusions from a table of results The table below includes a summary of the results gained from an experiment. The experiment compared the number of words recalled when words were learned in silence compared to when words were learned whilst music was playing in the background. Table shows the means and standard deviations for the number of words recalled when learned in silence and when learned with music playing

Condition A (learned in silence) Mean number of words recalled Standard deviation

Condition B (learned with music playing)

21.2

14.6

1.1

4.6

Questions

1. What conclusion can be drawn from the mean values above? (2 marks) 2. What do the standard deviations tell us about the scores in each condition? (2 marks)

Study TIPS

@ookx hs

Standard deviation – A sophisticated measure of dispersion in a set of scores. It tells us how much scores deviate from the mean by calculating the difference between the mean and each score. All the differences are added up and divided by the number of scores. This gives the variance. The standard deviation is the square root of the variance.

• Look carefully at the wording of the specification (at the top left of the facing page). This means you must know how to calculate the mean, median, mode or range (and can use a calculator for this). • There is no requirement to calculate the standard deviation, hence the formula for the standard deviation is not included here. Although this is a complex calculation to carry out ‘by hand’, it is fairly straightforward using a scientific calculator. For this reason, you may want to perform the calculation at some point just so you can see how the values in the data set relate to the final figure.

Check It 1. Explain what is meant by the standard deviation. [2 marks] 2. State one strength and one limitation of the median as a measure of central tendency. [3 marks] 3. The following data was collected in an experiment: 23, 24, 26, 28, 29, 29, 30, 31, 32, 32, 33 What is the most appropriate measure of central tendency for the data above? Justify your answer. [3 marks]

Data analysis: Descriptive statistics • 193

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Data analysis: Graphs The specification says Presentation and display of quantitative data: graphs, tables, scattergrams, bar charts. Distributions: normal and skewed distributions; characteristics of skewed distributions. On this spread, we continue our discussion of descriptive statistics and look at some of the ways in which data can be presented and how it may be distributed.

Presentation and display of quantitative data Summarising data in a table There are various ways of representing data; one of these is in the form of a summary table. It is important to note that when tables appear in the results section of a report they are not merely raw scores (like the example seen at the bottom of page 192) but have been converted to descriptive statistics.

Table showing the mean number of words spoken in five minutes and standard deviations for the SpeedUpp condition and the water condition

Key terms

Bar chart – A type of graph in which the frequency of each variable is represented by the height of the bars.

@ookx hs

Concepts: Other types of graphs: Histograms and line graphs Histograms

2520-

Line graphs

amount recalled

In a histogram the 15bars touch each other, which shows that data is 10continuous rather than discrete (as in a bar chart). 5The x-axis is made up 0of equal-sized intervals 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 of a single category, for instance, percentage scores in a maths test broken down into intervals such as 0–9, 10–19, 20–29, etc. The y-axis represents the frequency (number of people who scored a certain mark) within each interval. If there was a zero frequency for one of the intervals, the interval remains but without a bar.

Line graphs also represent continuous data and use points connected by lines to show how something changes in value, for instance, over time. 5 min 1 hr 1 day 2 days 3 days Typically, the IV is plotted on time since learning occured the x-axis and the DV on the y-axis. For instance, in an investigation of how the passage of time affects our ability to remember information, the decline in recall would be shown as a continuous line.

SpeedUpp condition 119 53.8

Water condition 96 35.8

It is standard practice to include a summary paragraph beneath the table explaining the results: We can see from the mean values that there were more words spoken, on average, in the five minutes following the consumption of the energy drink (119 mean words) than the water drink (96 mean words). This suggests that drinking an energy drink makes people more talkative than drinking water. The standard deviation is higher in the SpeedUpp condition (53.8) suggesting that there was a larger spread of scores than in the water group condition (35.8). This suggests that not all participants were equally affected by the energy drink. In the water group scores were clustered around the mean to a greater degree.

Bar charts Data can be represented visually using a suitable graphical display so the difference in mean values can easily be seen. The most suitable graph in this case is a bar chart. Bar charts are used when data is divided into categories, otherwise known as discrete data. In the example above, the categories are our two conditions (the SpeedUpp condition and the water condition) and these occupy the horizontal x-axis. The frequency or amount of each category is plotted on the vertical y-axis (effectively the height of the bar – see below). Bars are separated on a bar chart to denote that we are dealing with separate conditions.

Bar chart showing the mean number of words spoken in five minutes for the SpeedUpp condition and the water condition 150 Mean number of words spoken

Scattergram – A type of graph that represents the strength and direction of a relationship between co-variables in a correlational analysis.

Mean Standard deviation

100 50 0 SpeedUpp

Water

Questions

What graphical display would be most appropriate to represent the following: a bar chart, a scattergram, a histogram or a line graph? 1. The change in a person’s body temperature over the course of a day. 2. The difference in average annual rainfall between Manchester and Paris. 3. The relationship between daily temperature and people’s ratings of how happy they are. 4. The frequency of people who chose ‘snow’ as their favourite weather condition broken down into sub-categories of age.

194 • Chapter 6

Research Methods

Scattergrams We came across scattergrams earlier in this chapter, during our discussion of correlations on page 188. Unlike the other forms of graph on this spread, scattergrams do not depict differences but associations between co-variables. Either of the co-variables occupies the x-axis and the other the y-axis (it does not matter which) and each point on the graph corresponds to the x and y position of the co-variables.

Study TIPS • When presenting a table or graph always have a title and clearly label columns or axes.

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Did you know?

Distributions

78% of statistics are made up on the spot?

Normal distribution

Or is it 87%?!

If you measure certain variables, such as the height of all the people in your school/college, the frequency of these measurements should form a bellshaped curve similar to that shaded green below right. This is called a normal distribution which is symmetrical. Within a normal distribution, shown below right, most people are located in the middle area of the curve with very few people at the extreme ends. The mean, median and mode all occupy the same mid-point of the curve. The ‘tails’ of the curve, which extend outwards, never touch the horizontal x-axis (and therefore never reach zero) as more extreme scores are always theoretically possible. This normal distribution is discussed on page 134 with reference to defining abnormality.

Err…hang on ...

Key terms

Skewed distributions

Normal distribution – A symmetrical spread of frequency data that forms a bell-shaped pattern. The mean, median and mode are all located at the highest peak.

Not all distributions form such a balanced symmetrical pattern. Some data sets derived from psychological scales or measurements may produce skewed distributions, that is, distributions that appear to lean to one side or the other, as in the examples below right. A positive skew is where most of the distribution is concentrated towards the left of the graph, resulting in a long tail on the right. Imagine a very difficult test in which most people got low marks with only a handful of students at the higher end. This would produce a positive skew. It is interesting to note how the various measures of central tendency are affected by this situation. The mode (as we would expect) remains at the highest point of the peak, the median comes next, but the mean has been dragged across to the right. Remember how extreme scores affect the mean. Here, the very high-scoring candidates in the test have had the effect of pulling the mean to the right, whereas the median and mode – neither of which include all the scores when they are calculated – remain less affected by this. The opposite occurs in a negative skew. A very easy test would produce a distribution where the bulk of the scores are concentrated on the right, resulting in the long tail of anomalous scores on the left. The mean is pulled to the left this time (due to the lower scorers who are in the minority), with the mode dissecting the highest peak and the median in the middle.

Skewed distribution – A spread of frequency data that is not symmetrical, where the data clusters to one end. Positive skew – A type of distribution in which the long tail is on the positive (right) side of the peak and most of the distribution is concentrated on the left. Negative skew – A type of distribution in which the long tail is on the negative (left) side of the peak and most of the distribution is concentrated on the right. mean median mode

@ookx hs

50%

50%

Concepts: The area under the curve There are certain statistical facts in relation to the normal distribution and the standard deviation.

Above: The normally distributed bell curve. Note the position of the mean, median and mode.

As can be seen from the graph, 68.26% of the population fall between one standard deviation above and one standard deviation below the mean value (the middle section of the curve).

Below: Skewed distributions, negative and positive skew. This time see how the median and mean shift with the change in distribution.

Two standard deviations above and below the mean include 95.44% of the population, and 99.73% are three standard deviations above and below the mean.

mode median mean

frequency

mode median mean

68.26% Negatively skewed (to the left)

Positively skewed (to the right)

95.44%

Check It

99.73% –3

–2

–1

0

1

2

3

Question

Using the graph, work out what percentage of the population would be between the mean and one standard deviation below average. Note that the answer is the same in the case of one standard deviation above average.

1. Identify three features of a normal distribution. [3 marks] 2. Using an example, explain the difference between a positive and a negative skew. [3 marks] 3. Identify one type of graph and explain when it would be appropriate to use it to display data. [3 marks]

Data analysis: Graphs • 195

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Mathematical content The specification says Overall, at least 10% of the marks in assessments for psychology will require the use of mathematical skills. Calculation of percentages. On this spread, we cover some of the mathematical skills identified in the specification. No – don’t run away! Many of you may be concerned about the maths content in psychology – some of you may be excited! For the worried ones, rest assured that we have already covered, on other spreads, a number of the mathematical skills. These include working out the mean, median and mode, drawing conclusions from tables and graphs, recognising different forms of data, etc. Here we cover the rest; so, take a deep breath – there’s nothing to be scared of…

Mathematical content Calculation of percentages One of the maths skills not covered on previous spreads is how to calculate a percentage. With reference to the raw data at the bottom of page 192, what percentage of participants spoke more words in the SpeedUpp condition than the water condition? There were 6 participants whose word score was higher for the SpeedUpp condition than the water condition out of a total of 10 participants. To calculate the percentage we use the following formula: Number participants who spoke more after SpeedUpp 6 × 100 = × 100 = 60% Total number of participants 10

Converting a percentage to a decimal To convert a percentage to a decimal, remove the % sign and move the decimal point two places to the left. For example: 37% is 37.0 then move the decimal point two places to left is 0.37 So, for the percentage of participants who spoke more words in the SpeedUpp condition: 60% is 60.0, move the decimal point two places to the left = 0.60 (0.6).

Converting a decimal to a fraction Work out the number of decimal places in your number. For example, 0.81 has two decimal places (two digits after the decimal point) and 0.275 has three decimal places. If there are two decimal places then you divide by 100, if there are three decimal places you divide by 1,000. The number of decimal places equals the number of zeros. The fractions you get are 81/100 and 275/1000 Sometimes you can reduce the fraction by finding the lowest common denominator, the biggest number that divides evenly into both parts of the fraction. In the case of 275/1000 you can divide both by 25 and get 11/40 In the energy drink experiment, 0.6 of the total group spoke more words in the SpeedUpp condition. There is only one decimal place here, so we divide by 10. The fraction is 6/10.

Maths. Officially not as scary as being chased by an alligator.

@ookx hs

Methods: Estimate results

It may be necessary to comment on the average or dispersion of a set of data, which may require estimating the answer. Estimations of this type are called order of magnitude calculations. The most words spoken in the SpeedUpp condition was 206 and the lowest was 59 (this data is at the bottom of page 192). What would you guess the range would be? (Use rounded figures such as 200 – 60.) See answer on facing page. Question

Now do the same for the Water condition. (1 mark) (Data also in table at bottom of page 192.)

@ookx hs

The biggest number that will divide into both parts of the fraction is 2 therefore, after dividing both parts of the fraction by 2, we are left with 3/5 (or threefifths).

Using ratios We can also express the information above as a ratio. Considering the SpeedUpp example, we could calculate a part-to-whole ratio, that is, the ratio of the number of participants who spoke more words in the SpeedUpp condition (6) to the total number of participants (10) = 6:10 (which can be reduced to 3:5). This could also be written as a part-to-part ratio. The number of participants who spoke more words in the SpeedUpp condition (6) to the number of participants who spoke more words in the water condition (4) = 6:4 (which can be reduced to 3:2). Ratios should always be reduced as with a fraction, by finding the lowest common denominator.

Estimate results It may also be necessary to comment on the mean or range of a set of data, which may require estimating the answer. You might be asked to estimate the range of a data set where the highest number was 322 and the lowest was 57. What would you guess the range would be? See facing page for answer.

Methods: Percentages, decimals, fractions, ratios, estimations Work through all the calculations in the main text, this time using the number of participants who spoke more words in the water condition. Make sure you always show all your workings out for any calculation so your teacher can assess the method(s) you used.

196 • Chapter 6

Research Methods

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@ookx hs

Interpreting mathematical symbols

Methods: Selecting and sketching graphs

You will need to be able to understand and use the following mathematical symbols: Symbol

Symbol name

Meaning / definition

Example

=

equals sign

equality

4 = 3 +1

>

strict inequality

greater than

3>2




inequality

much greater than

3000 >> 0.02

, ∝ ≈ Substitute numerical values into algebraic equations using appropriate units for physical quantities. Solve simple algebraic equations. Graphs

Some research methods questions include mathematical content – see right. All of this content is covered in Chapter 6 as part of research methods but there is a special spread on pages 198–9 that deals with content not otherwise covered. Our ‘Apply it’ questions throughout the book give you further practice. There is a special focus on mathematical content in the questions on each ‘Practical Corner’ spread.

Translate information between graphical, numerical and algebraic forms. Plot two variables from experimental or other data.

Understanding application (AO2) • 215

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Understanding evaluation (AO3) AO3 is a bit more than evaluation. It also means to analyse and interpret. To analyse an orange you might consider what it is made of.

We finally move onto the third skill – evaluation. What is it you have to do when you evaluate something? Think of the orange again (picture on right to help you). How can you evaluate an orange? Most people are puzzled by such a question. Evaluation means ‘consider its value’ (eVALUatE). No, the answer is not 30p. You might say – it is great to take an orange in your bag for lunch because it doesn’t get damaged. That’s an advantage/strength of an orange. You might also say – I don’t like oranges because my hands get all sticky. That’s a disadvantage/limitation of an orange. You could elaborate your answer by making a comparison, I don’t like oranges because my hands get all sticky whereas they don’t get so sticky with a banana. Understanding elaboration is what it is all about.

Beginner level evaluation: Identify a criticism There are many different kinds of criticism, as you will discover in this book. For example, research support for a theory is a strength whereas lack of research support is a limitation. High validity is a strength and low validity is a limitation. To evaluate a concept, study or theory you might say: This concept is supported by research. This study has been supported by other studies. This study was well controlled. This study had a limited sample. This theory lacks validity.

You have identified the criticism, which is a beginning! Some students don’t ever get much beyond this – and have to rely on their AO1 marks. It’s too easy just to state these rather generic criticisms, i.e. criticisms that can be used anywhere. But it is a beginning. So don’t feel too bad if that is all you can do for a while.

Intermediate level evaluation: Make it relevant The next step is to make your criticism relevant to the particular concept/study/theory. You need to say something to make your criticism unique rather than generic. For example: • This concept is supported by research. Elliott et al. also found that men were more conformist than women, using a British rather than American sample. • This study had a limited sample. The investigation only involved five people and they were friends of the researcher.

In the case of the criticism below – it may look good but it is still generic (and therefore not worth much): This study was well controlled. All important extraneous variables were monitored so that only the independent variable affected the dependent variable. You can drop that criticism in almost anywhere and it will work.

Higher level evaluation: Explain it well When you have mastered intermediate level, it is time to move on – but don’t do this until you have mastered the intermediate level. Don’t run before you can walk. There are many ways to explain your critical point: • You can use examples. • You can elaborate on what you have said already. • You can end by explaining why your point is a strength or limitation.

is ints in th ritical po c our e ll a th t f a o ny sure th n e to Look at a d have trie me rule: book. We ow the sa ll fo ts in o critical p point State the levant Make it re e point Explain th explained , we have y ll a n fi d An or a strength why it is . limitation

Let us know if we haven’t 216 • A level and AS skills

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Some marked examples Question: Discuss one limitation of social learning theory. (3 marks) One limitation is that it used artificial evidence. A lot of the studies were done in laboratories and are very artificial. This means you can’t really apply this to real life, which means that the theory may not be relevant because people don’t behave like that.

Evaluation questions use these command words: Analyse Evaluate Discuss (which may mean describe and evaluate) There are other command words that also indicate evaluation, such as compare, justify, comment on.

Teacher comment: For 3 marks you would first be expected to identify the problem, which has been done here. For further marks there should be additional information about the limitation, including an explanation about why this is a limitation. There has been some attempt to do this (can’t apply to real life) but it is very generic so not very effective. This is a very weak answer. Question: Briefly evaluate the use of non-human animal studies in attachment research. (4 marks) Such studies are used because it would not be ethical to use humans and separate them from their parents, so this is a strength of such studies. On the other hand, it is difficult to generalise from research using animals, such as the studies by Lorenz where he demonstrated imprinting by arranging for some goslings to see him when they hatched. The research on imprinting led to attachment theory but maybe is not relevant. Teacher comment: If a question just asks for evaluation you can present strengths and/or limitations. There is no requirement for balance and no specific number of criticisms is required – you could receive full marks for just one point of criticism. The answer above covers two points of criticism that are both relevant but not very effective – the descriptive content about Lorenz’s research is not an explanation of the critical point. In this way the answer has lost focus. The explanations are limited and no specialist terminology has been used. This answer would get some credit but is not very effective.

AO3 Mark scheme The descriptors that may be used to mark a 4-mark AO3 question: Level

2

1

Marks

Description

3–4

Evaluation is relevant, well explained and focused, rather than generic criticism. The answer is generally coherent with effective use of specialist terminology.

1–2

Evaluation is relevant although there is limited explanation and/or limited focus. Specialist terminology is not always used appropriately. Award one mark for answers consisting of a single point briefly stated or muddled.

0

No relevant content.

The mark scheme is presented here as an illustration of the AQA mark scheme. Always check the AQA website for the latest version of mark schemes as these may have been amended.

Question: Evaluate the multi-store model of memory. (6 marks) Case studies have been used to show that there is a distinct difference between short- and long-term memory. For example, the study of HM who suffered damage to his hippocampus found that he still had long-term memory but couldn’t form new short-term memories. This shows that the two kinds of memory have different physical locations in the brain, supporting the multi-store model. One limitation of the multi-store model is that it is probably too simple. Subsequent research has shown that short-term memory has several sub-stores (e.g. visual and verbal stores as in the working memory model) and the same is true for long-term memory (e.g. episodic and procedural memory). This means that the multi-store model was quite restricted in what it told us about memory. Teacher comment: In an evaluation question worth 6 marks you probably need to present more than one criticism for a 6-mark question. Two criticisms, well explained, could be enough. Three criticisms might be better but once you try to cover more than two criticisms you don’t have time to explain them sufficiently, which jeopardises your overall mark. The two criticisms covered here are both effective, well-explained, focused, organised and there is evidence of specialist terminology. This is altogether an impressive answer.

AO3 Mark scheme Marks

Description

3

5–6

Evaluation is clear and effective. The answer is coherent and well organised with effective use of specialist terminology.

2

3–4

Evaluation is mostly effective. The answer is mostly clear and coherent, with some appropriate use of specialist terminology.

1

1–2

Discussion lacks detail/explanation. The answer lacks clarity, accuracy and organisation in places. Specialist terminology is either absent or inappropriately used.

0

No relevant content.

What is effective? Essentially ‘effective’ means something that works, such as ‘an effective treatment for malaria’. An effective critical point is therefore one that works – it should not be generic.

What is generic? Essentially the word ‘generic’ means ‘general’. In the context of making criticisms it refers to that nice little list of all-purpose criticisms ‘This study lacked validity’, ‘This theory is culturally biased’, etc. Such all-purpose criticisms can be scattered everywhere and require little understanding. Therefore they are not very useful. Anyone can do that. Some generic criticisms can be quite lengthy. For example, ‘One problem with this research is that it is quite artificial. It was conducted in a laboratory where things are not like they are in everyday life. This makes it difficult to generalise the findings to everyday experience and makes the research worthless.’ Such a comment can be put in many essays with no attempt to make it specifically relevant – and therefore it doesn’t count for much.

What is explanation? ‘Explain’ means offer some further information to help the reader understand what you are saying. This may include providing more relevant facts, offering an interpretation (‘this means that...’), justifying the point you are trying to make, and so on. Maybe think of the difference between someone asking you to tell them what you did last night and them asking you to explain what you did last night. Hmm.

What is focus? If you focus on an image, you concentrate your attention on that one thing. The same is required for good criticism. You need to pay attention just to the study or theory you are criticising rather than making general criticisms. One issue related to focus is that students often describe material (such as describing the procedures of a study) instead of explaining the critical point. They lose focus.

Using research studies as evaluation

The descriptors that may be used to mark a 6-mark AO3 question: Level

What do these terms mean?

The mark scheme is presented here as an illustration of the AQA mark scheme. Always check the AQA website for the latest version of mark schemes as these may have been amended.

On page 212 we noted that you may present information about a research study as part of your descriptive content – but you can also use research studies as evaluation. If you do this then it is really only the findings/conclusion that will be creditworthy as AO3. Description of procedure might be credited as description (AO1).

Understanding evaluation (AO3) • 217

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Essay questions The final kind of question for us to examine is the essay question (AKA extended writing question for the longer ones) – where you are required to include both description (AO1) and evaluation (AO3) and sometimes also application (AO2). Examples of such questions are shown on the right. Notice: • The command words vary. • The number of marks varies. Essay questions at AS level are likely to be a maximum of 12 marks where AO1 and AO3 are likely to be equally divided. • Essay questions at A level are likely to be a maximum of 16 marks – on questions worth 16 marks the balance of marks is likely to be skewed towards AO3. • One of the questions on the right includes some application material. • One question asks specifically for studies, others concern theories/ explanations and there is also one that just mentions research (so a theory or studies would be acceptable). • Questions sometimes say ‘one or more’. This means that you could produce an effective answer if you only discuss one study/theory but you can do more if you wish.

• Briefly outline and evaluate the authoritarian personality as an explanation of obedience to authority. (4 marks) • Discuss one definition of abnormality.

(6 marks)

• Discuss one or more types of long-term memory.

(8 marks)

• Outline and evaluate two studies of social influence.

(10 marks)

• Describe and evaluate research related to minority influence. (10 marks) • Maria and Sam were both abandoned at birth and spent the first few months of their lives in an institution. Sam was adopted by a loving family at the age of two months whereas Maria was not finally adopted until she was just over one year of age. Discuss the influence of early attachment on childhood and adult relationships. Refer to the experiences of Maria and Sam as part of your discussion. (12 marks) • Describe and evaluate explanations of forgetting.

(16 marks)

• Discuss the contribution of Lorenz and Harlow to our understanding of attachment.

(16 marks)

At the end of each chapter in this book are some student answers to practice questions, including answers for essay questions.

Some useful phrases for AO3 An a pplicatio

n is …

T his mea ns

that …

On the other

ha nd …

One strengt

h is …

One limitatio

n is …

T his shows t

hat …

In contrast

…

However …

Essays on research studies In a question on research studies that is worth 12 marks, about half of the marks are available for a description of the studies. If you try to describe too many studies you won’t have time to include details of the studies – and it is the details that show your understanding. Less is more – cover fewer studies but give lots of detail. Just one or two studies may be enough. It’s about quality rather than quantity.

Essays with application material These questions include application in addition to the usual describe and evaluate elements of an essay question. You are required to make appropriate links between the theory and the scenario (stem) presented. If you do not do this you will not have fully answered the question.

Partial performance Some questions ask for two things. For example, ‘Outline and evaluate two definitions of abnormality. (12 marks)’ In such an essay if you only describe and evaluate one definition, this is called ‘partial performance’. You have only answered half of the question.

What do students do wrong in essays? • Students give too much description, not enough well-explained evaluation. • Students fail to make their evaluation effective – use the lead-in phrases on the left to make it clear when you are presenting evaluation. • Students fail to answer the question – take time to plan your answer to focus on what will be creditworthy. If you just start writing your answer you may forget the focus of the question so it pays to do some planning. It may also help, as you start each new paragraph, to go back to the title to remind yourself what the essay should be about. • Students do not use paragraphs – which makes the essay very difficult to read. ‘Organisation’ is one of the criteria by which you are assessed so it will affect the overall impression of the essay.

E MOtRion pointos.n. S I S a LES evalu borati

218 • A level and AS skills

s/ ela udie tail/ er st for de w e F e e tim Mor

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Discuss drug therapy as a treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder. Refer to evidence in your answer. (12 marks AS, 16 marks AL) Student answer

Teacher comments

OCD is seen to be mainly biological in origin and therefore drug treatments are an obvious solution. OCD has been linked to low serotonin and obsessive thoughts. Therefore SSRIs are used to treat OCD. SSRIs (they are called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) slow down the reuptake of serotonin at the synapse and calm patients down. This calming down means that their thoughts and rituals become less frequent and they can lead a more normal life.

On the positive side this essay is well organised. The student has put all the descriptive material first followed by all the evaluation. This would help a reader to identify these components of the essay. The paragraphs make the essay easy to read, which contributes to the organisation of the essay. The descriptive content has used specialist terminology and

A typical dose of the drug is 20mg given as capsules or in liquid form which they is accurate and well-detailed in places but this is not always take daily. The drugs often take 3–4 months before any effect is noticed which is true. For example, the action of SSRIs has not been explained. something that may put patients off. Then they stop taking the drugs and then they obviously don’t benefit from them. Four evaluative points are discussed, none of which are If patients do keep on but still the SSRIs do not work there are other alternatives. First the dosage can be increased to 60mg but that might lead to side effects. There is another drug Clomipramine that also affects the serotonin system but it has more side effects and therefore is not the first line treatment. SNRIs are also used. These target another neurotransmitter noradrenaline as well as serotonin. Research suggests that such drugs can be very effective. One study reviewed a number of other studies and found that SSRIs performed better than placebos in about 70% of cases. SSRIs were most effective when combined with psychological therapies such as CBT. However, recently researchers have drawn attention to the fact that some of the drug evidence may be unreliable. It is mainly funded by drug companies who may be biased about what evidence they publish as they make a lot of money from drugs.

thorough. The effectiveness is spoiled by the lack of precision, for example the study on effectiveness has not been cited. In this section of the essay specialist terms have not been used, the study on effectiveness was a meta-analysis so that term might have been included. The account of drug companies conducting biased research is rather superficial (lacks focus). The final paragraph repeats what has already been said so adds nothing to the answer. Altogether the evaluation is mostly effective but not thorough. The student’s final attainment is calculated by working out

Patients and doctors prefer drug therapy to psychological therapy because it is cost the best fit for all these different assessments to see what level best describes the answer. The actual mark will be effective and easy. From the patients’ perspective very little effort is required. From the doctors’ perspective giving drugs is cheaper than psychological therapies. determined by whether one is drawn to the level above or below.

One considerable problem is that drugs have side effects though these tend to be minimal for SSRIs. Typical side effects are indigestion, blurred vision and reduced sex drive. If they do occur, they may be temporary but it could be enough to put someone off taking the drugs.

For an A level essay more rigour and evaluation is expected and therefore, for that standard, this essay would be assessed less well than for an AS response.

There are many other issues with drug treatments but overall patients like them because they require no effort and they often appear to be doing some good, though that could be a placebo effect. They generally don’t have bad effects. 404 words

Mark scheme used for essay questions In a 12-mark essay where there are 6 marks AO1 and 6 marks AO3. In a 16-mark essay where there are 6 marks AO1 and 10 marks AO3.

Level

Marks for AS level

Marks for A level

Description

4

10–12

13–16

Knowledge is accurate and generally well detailed. Evaluation is thorough and effective. The answer is clear, coherent and focused. Specialist terminology is used effectively. Minor detail and/or expansion of argument is sometimes lacking.

3

7–9

9–12

Knowledge is evident but lacks focus in places. There are occasional inaccuracies. Evaluation is mostly effective. The answer is mostly clear and organised. Specialist terminology is mostly used appropriately.

2

4–6

5–8

Knowledge is present. Focus is mainly on description. Any evaluation is only partly effective. The answer lacks clarity, accuracy and organisation in places. Specialist terminology is used inappropriately on occasions.

1

1–3

1–4

Knowledge is limited. Evaluation is limited, poorly focused or absent. The answer as a whole lacks clarity, has many inaccuracies and is poorly organised. Specialist terminology is either absent or inappropriately used.

0

0

ard vel stand le A s u s r dard AS ve level stan

eA ok like th standard It may lo as the AS (for e m a s e th arks is simply st more m quite ju re a re t but the That ’s no luation). more eva true: mselves tions the s e u q y a s enging. 1. The es ore chall may be m ar 2 end of Ye that a 2. By the te c expe d to it will be ill be able student w their wider of make use sues, ding of is n ta s r unde s and e approach d debates, n a methods research uce more thus prod ussions. isc mature d

No relevant content

To decide on a mark identify the level that best describes the essay, and then consider whether you are more tempted by the level above or below to determine the exact mark to award. Always check the AQA website for the latest version of mark schemes as these may have been amended.

Essay questions • 219

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Start by considering the descriptive component of your essay. You are likely to need a maximum of 6 marks’ worth of description (AO1). If you identify an appropriate number of key points that will help you structure your answer. We have done this for an essay on locus of control. Select any essay title in this book, produce an empty frame like the one below and fill it in for the description component. You may decide to add a few more rows but don’t add much more or you’ll end up with too much.

Applying psychology to successful studying There are probably two big challenges ahead for you: 1. Writing essays. 2. Learning all the material in this book. The suggestions on this spread are informed by psychological research – after all, we are psychologists.

Writing frame for an essay AO1 Key point

Description

Locus of control (LOC)

Rotter suggested people have a sense of what controls their behaviour.

Internals

Some people believe that the things that happen to them are largely controlled by themselves. For example, if you do well in an exam it is because you worked hard.

Externals

Other people believe that things happen without their control. If they did well in an exam they might say it was good luck or the textbook. If they fail it was bad luck or the questions were hard.

Continuum

There is a continuum with high internal LOC at one end and high external LOC at the other end of the continuum, with low internal and low external lying in between.

Explanation 1

People who have an internal LOC are more likely to be able to resist pressures to conform or obey.

Explanation 2

People with a high internal LOC tend to be more self-confident, more achievementoriented, have higher intelligence and have less need for social approval.

The psychology behind writing frames is called scaffolding. Psychologists use this term to describe the process where a person needs support in the early stages of learning to do something new.

Now do the same for the evaluation (AO3). To plan your evaluation the organisation of the writing frame is a bit different. On page 216 we explained that good critical points start with the basics, and then you may add further elaboration (intermediate and higher level). The table below will help you plan this.

The idea is that, when you are ready, you kick away the scaffold, and – hey presto – you can do it on your own.

Always walk before you run: 1. Start with the basics, identify key points. Three may be enough to begin with. 2. Learn how to elaborate these. 3. Extend the number of points you feel you can tackle. We have added two more.

Not a good idea if you are standing on a real scaffold.

AO3 Key point

Intermediate level evaluation

High level evaluation

There is research support.

Holland measured levels of LOC in a repeat of Milgram’s study and found that more internals resisted the order to continue to the end than externals.

This supports the link between LOC and resistance to obedience. It is a valid explanation.

There is counter-evidence.

This challenges the LOC explanation Twenge et al. found that people today are more resistant to being obedient but because resistance should not be related to obedience. also more external.

There is an alternative explanation for the findings.

It is possible that the results are due to a changing society where many things are out of personal control.

The study was a correlation and therefore the changes may be due to an intervening variable.

A level students may consider some further evaluation points:

LOC may be less important than Rotter suggested.

LOC has very little influence over our behaviour in familiar situations where our previous experiences will always be more important.

This means that people who have conformed or obeyed in specific situations in the past are likely to do so again, even if they have a high internal LOC.

There are alternative explanations for resistance to obedience.

For example, people may resist obedience because they have social support, as shown in Asch’s study.

This social support explanation may be better because it applies to a wider variety of situations.

Some essays also involve some application (AO2), for example: Mavis didn’t do so well in her exams. She blames her teacher, she blames the textbook, and she blames the fact that none of her friends worked. In fact she blames everything but herself. Describe and evaluate research relating to the role of locus of control in resisting social influence. Refer to Mavis on your answer. (12 marks AS or 16 marks AL) If you are answering an essay like this you must remember to make links to the context. Remember

220 • A level and AS skills

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yc wer of ps o p e h t n i Believe

hology A cue

Revision cards We have divided this book into spreads. Each spread represents one chunk of the specification as indicated at the top left of the spread. For each topic you should produce a revision card. For some spreads you might decide to have two revision cards.

There are snooker cues and there are other cues – a cue is a thing that serves as reminder of something else. An actor knows she must come in on cue – a reminder or signal. Psychologists have investigated the value of cues in remembering. They act as a reminder of what else you know. In the writing frame on the facing page the column labelled ‘key point’ can serve as a cue to remember the contents in the right-hand column – though you may need a few more words for a good cue.

The big secret is that you should do this NOW. Revision is meant to be re-vision – seeing it again. When you study a topic, prepare a card like the one below. It will help you understand the spread. But the joy is that you will have a set of revision cards all ready for the end of year exams.

This is the purpose of the cue words column on your revision card. If you just memorise these cues you should be able to produce the information to the left. Psychological research shows that people often have much more in their heads than they can recall – they just need the right cue (see page 56).

Topic: Locus of control

Cue words

There are two spaces for each evaluation point in order to record the levels of elaboration.

Describe

A sense of what controls your behaviour.

Rotter LOC

Describe

Own control, e.g. poor exam mark due to lack of effort.

Internal

Describe

Outside out control, e.g. bad luck, bad teacher.

External

Describe

High low low high.

Continuum

Mnemonics

Describe

Internal LOC  resist conform or obey.

Can resist

Describe

Internal LOC  less need for social approval.

Confidence

Evaluate

Milgram’s study, high internals resisted.

Holland

Here is a final bit of psychology – we psychologists know what techniques work! And the main answer is … processing. The more you play around with and discuss the ideas, the better you will remember them. Just making the revision card will give you an opportunity to process the new ideas.

Validity. Evaluate

40 years on  more resistance but more external.

Here are two further thoughts:

Twenge

Expect opposite. Evaluate

Changing society.

Alternative

Things may be out of our control. Optional Evaluate

LOC has less influence because previous experiences will always be more important.

Familiar situations

E.g. people who have conformed/obeyed in the past are likely to again. Evaluate

Alternative explanation. May explain more situations.

Try writ in your re g an essay just vision c using ard.

Social support

Method of loci This is a method used by stage performers who wow audiences with memory feats. Say, for example, the performer is trying to memorise the names of every member of the audience. He mentally walks around his house (or down a street) and places each name somewhere, forming a link between the name and place – for example he puts ‘Mary’ in a bowl of berries (Mary Berry, the cookery expert). Later, when trying to recall names he just takes a mental walk and finds the items where he left them. Try it out – it really works for things you are finding difficult to remember.

Test your recall Most students revise by reading things over and over (maintenance rehearsal in the lingo of psychologists). But this doesn’t work that well. What works much better is to read something, then close your book, and write down everything you can remember. The act of trying to recall the information strengthens the memory trace.

Applying psychology to successful studying • 221

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Neto, F. (1995). Conformity and independence revisited. Social Behaviour and Personality, 23, 217–222. ▶ page 19 Nolan, J. M., Schultz, P. W., Cialdini, R. B., Goldstein, N. J. and Griskevicius, V. (2008). Normative social influence is underdetected. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34, 913–923. ▶ page 35 Orlando, N. J. (1973). The mock ward: a study in simulation. In O. Milton and R. G. Wahler (Eds.), Behaviour disorders: perspectives and trends. Philadelphia: Lippincott. ▶ page 20 Orne, M. T. and Holland, C. H. (1968). On the ecological validity of laboratory deceptions. International Journal of Psychiatry, 6, 282– 293. ▶ page 23 Perrin, S. and Spencer, C. P. (1980). The Asch effect: a child of its time? Bulletin of the British Psychological Society, 32, 405–406. ▶ pages 17, 19 Perry, G. (2013). Behind the shock machine: the untold story of the notorious Milgram psychology experiments. New York: The New Press. ▶ page 23 Rank, S. G. and Jacobson, C. K. (1977). Hospital nurses’ compliance with medication overdose orders: a failure to replicate. Journal of Health and Social Behaviour, 18, 188–193. ▶ page 23 Reicher, S. and Haslam, S. A. (2006). Rethinking the psychology of tyranny: the BBC prison study. British Journal of Social Psychology, 45, 1–40. ▶ page 21 Rotter, J. B. (1966). Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement. Psychological Monographs: General & Applied, 80, 1–28. ▶ page 30 Rotter, J. B. (1982). The development and applications of social learning theory: selected papers. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. ▶ page 31 Schultz, P. W., Khazian, A. M., and Zaleski, A. C. (2008). Using normative social influence to promote conservation among hotel guests. Social Influence, 3, 4–23. ▶ page 19 Sheridan, C. L. and King, R. G. (1972). Obedience to authority with an authentic victim. Proceedings of the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, 80, 165–166. ▶ page 23 Smith, P. B. and Bond, M. H. (1998). Social psychology across cultures. London: Prentice Hall Europe. ▶ page 25 Tajfel, H. (1981). Human groups and social categories. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. ▶ page 21 Twenge, J. M., Zhang, L. and Im, C. (2004). It’s beyond my control: a cross-temporal meta-analysis of increasing externality in locus of control. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 8, 308–319. ▶ page 31 Williams, T. P. and Sogon, S. (1984). Group composition and conforming behaviour in Japanese students. Japanese Psychological Research, 26, 231–234. ▶ page 19 Wood, W., Lundgren, S., Ouellette, J. A., Busceme, S. and Blackstone, T. (1994). Minority influence: a meta-analytic review of social influence processes. Psychological Bulletin, 115, 323–345. ▶ page 32 Zimbardo, P. (2007). The Lucifer effect: understanding how good people turn evil. New York: Random House. ▶ pages 20, 21, 34 

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Johnson, C. and Scott, B. (1976). Eyewitness testimony and suspect identification as a function of arousal, sex or witness, and scheduling of interrogation. Paper presented at the American Psychological Association Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C. ▶ page 60 Kebbell, M. R. and Wagstaff, G. F. (1997). Why do the police interview eyewitnesses? Interview objectives and the evaluation of eyewitness performance. The Journal of Psychology, 131, 595–601. ▶ page 63 Köhnken, G., Milne, R., Memon, A. and Bull, R. (1999). The cognitive interview: A meta-analysis. Psychology, Crime and Law, 5, 3–27. ▶ page 63 Loftus, E. F. (1975). Leading questions and the eyewitness report. Cognitive Psychology, 7, 560–572. ▶ page 59 Loftus, E. F. and Palmer, J. C. (1974). Reconstruction of automobile destruction: an example of the interaction between language and memory. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behaviour, 13, 585–589. ▶ page 58

Valentine, T. and Mesout, J. (2009). Eyewitness identification under stress in the London Dungeon. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 23, 151–161. ▶ page 61

Feldman, R. (2007) Parent-infant synchrony: Biological foundations and developmental outcomes. Current Directions in Psychological Science 16 340–345. ▶ page 74

Yerkes R. M. and Dodson J. D. (1908). The relation of strength of stimulus to rapidity of habit-formation. Journal of Comparative Neurology and Psychology, 18, 459–482. ▶ page 60

Feldman, R. (2012). Parent-infant synchrony: a viobehavioural model of mutual influences in the formation of affiliative bonds. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 75, 125–142. ▶ page 75

Yuille, J. C. and Cutshall, J. L. (1986). A case study of eyewitness memory of a crime. Journal of Applied Psychology, 71, 291–301. ▶ page 60 Zaragoza, M. S. and McCloskey, M. (1989). Misleading post-event information and the memory impairment hypothesis: comment on Belli and reply to Tversky and Tuchin. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 118, 92–99. ▶ page 59

Chapter 3

Logie, R. H. (1995). Visuo-spatial working memory. Hove, UK: Erlbaum. ▶ page 52

Ainsworth, M. D. S. and Wittig, B. A. (1969). Attachment theory and the exploratory behaviour of one-year-olds in a strange situation. In Foss BM (ed) Determinants of infant behaviour (vol 4). London: Methuen. ▶ page 84

McGeoch, J. A. and McDonald, W. T. (1931). Meaningful relation and retroactive inhibition. American Journal of Psychology, 43, 579– 588. ▶ page 54

Ainsworth, M. D., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., and Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: Assessed in the strange situation and at home. New Jersey: LEA. ▶ page 84

Miller, G. A. (1956). The magical number seven plus or minus two: some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychological Review, 63, 81–97. ▶ page 46

Bailey, H. N., Moran, G., Pederson, G. R. and Bento, S. (2007). Understanding the transmission of attachment using variable- and relationshipcentred approaches. Development and Psychopathology, 19, 313–343. ▶ pages 83, 92

Milne, R. and Bull, R. (2002). Back to basics: A componential analysis of the original cognitive interview mnemonics with three age groups. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 7, 743– 755. ▶ page 63 Parker, J. F., Bahrick, L. E., Fivush, R. and Johnson, P. (2006) The impact of stress on mothers’ memory of a natural disaster. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 12, 142–154. ▶ page 60 Peterson, L. R. and Peterson, M. J. (1959). Short-term retention of individual verbal items. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 58, 193–198. ▶ page 46 Pickel, K. L. (1998). Unusualness and threat as possible causes of “weapon focus.” Memory, 6, 277–295. ▶ page 61 Shallice, T. and Warrington, E. K. (1970). Independent functioning of verbal memory stores: A neuropsychological study. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 2, 261–273. ▶ page 49

Beckett, C., Castle, J., Rutter, M. and Sonuga-Barke, E. J. (2010). Institutional deprivation, specific cognitive functions and scholastic achievement: REA study findings. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 75, 125– 142. ▶ page 90 Bick, J., Dozier, M. and Perkins, E. (2012). Convergence between attachment classifications and natural reunion behaviour among children and parents in a child care setting. Attachment and Human Development, 14, 1–10. ▶ page 85 Bowlby, J. (1944). Forty-four juvenile thieves. London: Balliere, Tindall and Cox. ▶ page 88 Bowlby, J. (1951). Maternal care and mental health. Geneva: World Health Organisation. ▶ page 88 Bowlby, J. (1953). Some pathological processes set in train by early mother-child separation. Journal of Mental Science, 99, 265–272. ▶ page 88

Shepard, R. N. (1967). Recognition memory for words, sentences and pictures. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behaviour, 6, 156–163. ▶ page 47

Bowlby, J. (1958). The nature of the child’s tie to his mother. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 39, 350–373. ▶ page 82

Tulving, E. (1983). Elements of episodic memory. Oxford: OUP. ▶ page 56

Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and loss vol I. London: Pimlico. ▶ pages 77, 82, 92

Tulving, E. (1985). How many memory systems are there? American Psychologist, 40, 385– 398. ▶ page 50

Bowlby, J. (1975). Attachment and Loss, vol 2. Harmondsworth: Penguin. ▶ page 82

Tulving, E. and Psotka, J. (1971) Retroactive inhibition in free recall: Inaccessibility of information available in the memory store. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 87, 1–8.  ▶ page 55 Tulving, E., Kapur, S., Craik, F. I. M., Moscovitch, M. and Houle, S. (1994). Hemispheric encoding/ retrieval asymmetry in episodic memory: positron emission tomography findings. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 91, 2016– 2020. ▶ page 51

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Feldman, R. and Eidelman, A. I. (2007). Maternal postpartum behavior and the emergence of infant–mother and infant–father synchrony in preterm and full-term infants: The role of neonatal vagal tone. Developmental Psychobiology, 49, 290–302. ▶ page 74 Field, T. (1978). Interaction behaviors of primary versus secondary caretaker fathers. Developmental Psychology, 14, 183–184. ▶ page 74 Goldfarb, W. (1947). Variations in adolescent adjustment of institutionally-reared children. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 17(3), 449. ▶ page 88 Goldfarb, W. (1955). Emotional and intellectual consequences of psychologic deprivation in infancy: a re-evaluation. In P. Hoch and J. Zubin (Eds) Psychopathology of childhood. New York: Grune and Stratton. ▶ page 89 Gratier, M. (2003). Expressive timing and interactional synchrony between mothers and infants: cultural similarities, cultural differences, and the immigration experience. Cognitive Development, 18, 533–554. ▶ page 75 Grossmann, K. E. and Grossmann, K. (1990). The wider concept of attachment in crosscultural research. Human Development, 33, 31–47. ▶ page 87 Grossman, O. (2002). Kolya: A Study of Father and Son Creativity. Canadian Journal of Psychoanalysis, 10, 133–145. ▶ page 74 Guiton, P. (1966). Early experience and sexual object choice in the Brown Leghorn. Animal Behaviour, 14, 534–538. ▶ page 79 Harlow, H. (1958). The nature of love. American Psychologist, 13, 673–685. ▶ page 78 Hay, D. F. and Vespo, J. E. (1988). Social learning perspectives on the development of the motherchild relationship. In Burns, B. and Hay, D. F. (Eds). The Different Faces on Motherhood. New York: Springer. ▶ page 81 Hazan, C. and Shaver, P. R. (1987). Romantic love conceptualised as an attachment process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 511–524. ▶ pages 92, 95 Howe, D. (1998) Patterns of adoption: nature, nurture and psychosocial development. Oxford, Blackwell. ▶ page 79 Isabella, R. A., Belsky, J. and von Eye, A. (1989). Origins of infant-mother attachment: An examination of interactional synchrony during the infant’s first year. Developmental Psychology, 25, 12–21. ▶ pages 74, 81 Jin, M. K., Jacobvitz, D., Hazen, N. and Jung, S. H. (2012). Maternal sensitivity and infant attachment security in Korea: Cross-cultural validation of the Strange Situation. Attachment and Human Development, 14, 33–44. ▶ page 87 Kagan, J. (1982) The construct of difficult temperament: a reply to Thomas, Chess and Korn. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 28, 21–24. ▶ pages 83, 85

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Kagan, J., Reznick, J. S., and Snidman, N. (1986). Temperamental inhibition in early childhood. The study of temperament: Changes, continuities and challenges. Hove: Psychology Press, 53–67. ▶ page 87

Simonelli, A., de Palo, F., Moretti, M. Baratter, P. M. and Porreca, A. (2014). The strange situation procedure: The role of the attachment patterns in the Italian culture. American Journal of Applied Psychology, 3, 47–56. ▶ page 87

Kerns, K. A. (1994). A longitudinal examination of links between mother-infant attachment and children’s friendships. Journal of Personality and Social Relationships, 11, 379–381. ▶ page 92

Suess, G., Grossmann, K. E., and Sroufe, L. A. (1992). Effects of infant attachment to mother and father on quality of adaptation in preschool: From dyadic to individual organisation of self. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 15, 43– 65. ▶ page 83

Kokkinos, C. M. (2007). Elementary school children’s involvement in bullying and victimisation: the role of attachment style and internalising and externalising symptomatology. Scientia Paedigogia Experimentalis, XLIV, 49–60. ▶ page 85 Koluchova, J. (1976). The further development of twins after severe and prolonged deprivation: a second report. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 17, 181–188. ▶ page 89 Langton, E. G. (2006). Romania’s children. The Psychologist, 19, 412–413. ▶ page 91 Levy, F., Melo, A. I., Galeg, B. G., Madden, M. and Fleming, A. S. (2003). Complete maternal deprivation affects social but not spatial learning in rats. Developmental Psychobiology, 43, 177– 191. ▶ page 89 Lewis, H. (1954). Deprived children: the Mersham experiment, a social and clinical study. London: Oxford University Press. ▶ page 89 Lorenz, K. (1952). King Solomon’s ring. London: Methuen. ▶ page 78 Main, M. and Solomon, J. (1986). Discovery of a disorganised disoriented attachment pattern. In Affective development in infancy. Norwood: Ablex. ▶ page 85 McCallum, F. and Golombok, S. (2004). Children raised in fatherless families from infancy: a follow-up of children of lesbian and single heterosexual mothers at early adolescence. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 45, 1407– 1419. ▶ page 75 McCarthy, G. (1999). Attachment style and adult love relationships and friendships: a study of a group of women at risk of experiencing relationship difficulties. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 72, 305–321. ▶ page 92 Meltzoff, A. N. and Moore, M. K. (1977). Imitation of facial and manual gestures by human neonates. Science, 198, 75–78. ▶ page 74 Myron-Wilson, P. and Smith, P. K. (1998). Attachment relationships and influences on bullying. Proceedings of the British Psychological Society, 6(2), 89–90. ▶ page 92 Rutter, M. (1981) Maternal deprivation reassessed. 2nd edition. Penguin: Harmondsworth. ▶ page 89 Rutter, M. (2006). Attachment from infancy to adulthood. The major longitudinal studies. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 47, 974– 977. ▶ page 90 Rutter, M., Sonuga-Barke, E. J., Beckett, C., Castle, J., Kreppner, J., Kumsta, R., Bell, C. A. (2011) Deprivation-specific psychological patterns: Effects of institutional deprivation. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development. 75(1), 1–250. ▶ page 90 Schaffer, H. R. and Emerson, P. (1964). The development of social attachments in infancy. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 29, 1–77. ▶ pages 74, 76, 83  Sears, R. R., Maccoby, E. E. and Levin, H. (1957) Patterns of child-rearing. Evanston, Ill: Peters and Row. ▶ page 80

Takahashi, K. (1990) Affective relationships and their lifelong development. In Baltes, P. B. (ed) Lifespan development and behaviour vol 10. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum. ▶ page 85 Van IJzendoorn, M. H. (1993). Multiple caregiving among African Americans and infant attachment: The need for an emic approach. Commentary. Human Development, 36, 103–105. ▶ page 77 Van IJzendoorn, M. H. (1995). Adult attachment representations, parental responsiveness, and infant attachment: a meta-analysis on the predictive validity of the Adult Attachment Interview. Psychological Bulletin, 117(3), 387. ▶ page 82

Milner, B., Corkin, S. and Teuber, H. L. (1968) Further analysis of the hippocampal amnesic syndrome: 14 year follow-up study of HM. Neuropsychologia, 6, 215–234. ▶ page 227 Skinner, B. F. (1953). Science and Human Behaviour. New York: MacMillan. ▶ pages 105, 106  Stein, C. J. and Test, M. A. (1980) Alternative to mental hospital treatment program and clinical evaluation. Archives of General Psychology, 37, 392–397. ▶ page 123 Watson, J. B. (1913). Psychology as the Behaviourist views it. Psychological Review, 20, 158– 177. ▶ pages 105, 106 Wong, D. (2008). Five creepy ways video games are trying to get you addicted: http://www.cracked. com/article_18461_5-creepy-ways-video-gamesare-trying-to-get-you-addicted.html [Accessed July 2014] ▶ page 107

Chapter 5 Beck, A. T. (1967). Depression: clinical, experimental and theoretical aspects. Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press. ▶ page 148

Van IJzendoorn, M. H., and Kroonenberg, P. M. (1988) Cross-cultural patterns of attachment: A meta-analysis of the Strange Situation. Child Development, 59, 147–156. ▶ page 86

Bogetto, F., Bellino, S., Vaschetto, P. and Ziero, S. (2000). Olanzapine augmentation of fluvoxaminerefractory obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD): a 12-week open trial. Psychiatry Research, 96, 91–98. ▶ page 155

Van IJzendoorn, M. H. and Sagi, A. (2001). Cultural blindness or selective inattention? American Psychologist, 56, 824–825. ▶ page 87

Bounton, M. E. (2007) Learning and behaviour: a contemporary synthesis. Sunderland: Sinauer Associates. ▶ page 145

Vincent, J. (2006). Emotional attachment and mobile phones. Knowledge, Technology and Policy, 19, 39–44. ▶ page 95

Buck, M. (2010). Two-factor theory of learning: application to maladaptive behaviour. School and Health, 21, 333–338. ▶ page 145

Ward, M. J., Lee, S. S. and Polan, J. (2006). Attachment and psychopathology in a community sample. Attachment and Human Development, 8, 327–340. ▶ page 85

Cavedini, P., Riboldi, G., D’Annucci, A., Belotti, P., Cisima, M. and Bellodi, L. (2002). Decision-making heterogeneity in obsessive-compulsive disorder: ventromedial prefrontal cortex function predicts different treatment outcomes. Neuropsychologia, 40, 205–211. ▶ page 153

Zeanah, C. H., Smyke, A. T., Koga, S. F. and Carlson, E. (2005). Attachment in institutionalised and community children in Romania. Child Development, 76, 1015–1028. ▶ page 90 Zimmerman, B. J. (2000). Attaining self-regulation: A social cognitive perspective. In M. Boekarts, P. R. Pintrich and M. Zeidner (Eds) Handbook of selfregulation. San Diego: Academic Press. ▶ page 93

Chapter 4 Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioural change. Psychological Review, 84, 191–215. ▶ page 109 Bandura, A. and Walters, R. H. (1963). Social Learning and Personality Development. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. ▶ pages 106, 108 Bandura, A., Ross, D. and Ross, S. (1961). Transmission of aggression through imitation of aggressive role models. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 63, 575–582. ▶ page 108 Bugelski, B. R. and Alampay, D. A. (1962). The role of frequency in developing perceptual sets. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 15, 205–211. ▶ page 111 Cumberbatch, G., Wood, G. and Littlejohns, V. (2001). Television: The Public’s view 2000. London: ITC. ▶ page 109 Freud, S. (1909/1977) Analysis of a phobia in a five year old boy (Little Hans) The Pelcian Freud Library, Volume 8, Hammondsworth: Penguin. ▶ pages 104, 118, 119, 121

Clark, D. A., and Beck, A. T. (1999). Scientific foundations of cognitive theory and therapy of depression. New York: John Wiley and Sons. ▶ page 149 Cromer, K. R., Schmidt, N. B. and Murphy, D. L. (2007). An investigation of traumatic life events and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 45, 1683–1691. ▶ page 153 Ellis, A. (1962). Reason and emotion in psychotherapy. Michigan: L Stuart. ▶ page 148 Gilroy, L. J., Kirby, K. C., Daniels, B. A., Menzies, R. G. and Mongomery, I. M. (2003). Long-term follow-up of computer-aided vicarious exposure versus live graded exposure in the treatment of spider phobia. Behaviour Therapy, 34, 65–76. ▶ page 147 Goldacre, B. (2013). Bad Pharma: How medicine is broken and how we can fix it. London: Fourth Estate. ▶ page 155 Grazioli, R. and Terry D. J. (2000). The role of cognitive vulnerability and stress in the prediction of postpartum depressive symptomatology. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 39(4), 329–347. ▶ page 149 Jahoda, M. (1958). Current concepts of positive mental health. New York: Basic Books. ▶ page 136 Jarrett, C. (2013). Scanning a brain that believes it is dead. BPS Research Digest 21 May 2013. ▶ page 149

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Chapter 6 Baron-Cohen, S., Leslie, A. M. and Frith, U. (1986). Mechanical, behavioural and intentional understanding of picture stories in autistic children. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 4, 113–125. ▶ page 172 Bugelski, B. R. and Alampay, D. A. (1961). The role of frequency in developing perceptual sets. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 15, 205–211. ▶ page 171 Coolican, H. (2006). Introduction to research methods in Psychology. London: Hodder Arnold. ▶ page 169

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INDEX/GLOSSARY

44 thieves study 88–89 ABC model Ellis proposed that depression occurs when an activating event (A) triggers an irrational belief (B) which in turn produces a consequence (C), i.e. an emotional response like depression. The key to this process is the irrational belief. 148–149, 151 ABCDE model Extends Ellis’s explanation of depression (ABC model) to a therapy – D stands for disputing irrational thoughts and E for the effect of disputing. 150 Acetylcholine A neurotransmitter. In the central nervous system, acetylcholine plays a role in attention and arousal. In the peripheral nervous system, it works by causing muscles to contract. 117 Acoustically Refers to sounds or the sense of hearing. 46, 48, 49 Acquiescence bias Tendency for a person to respond to any questionnaire/interview item with agreement regardless of the actual content. 29, 185 Action potential A short increase and decrease of electrical activity in the membrane of a neuron, transmitting a signal away from the cell body. 116 Adaptive Any physical or psychological characteristic that enhances an individual’s survival and reproduction, and is thus likely to be naturally selected. Such characteristics are passed on to future generations. 12, 104, 112, 145 Adorno, Theodor 28–29 Adrenal glands Small glands located on top of each kidney that are part of the endocrine system. Various hormones are produced including adrenaline and noradrenaline and corticosteroids, including cortisol. 115 Adrenaline A hormone produced by the adrenal glands. These are part of the human body’s immediate stress response. Adrenaline has a strong effect on the cells of the cardiovascular system – stimulating the heart rate, contracting blood vessels and dilating air passages. 10, 115, 117, 124 Adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) 115 Adult relationships Refers to those affiliations a child has later in life as an adult. These include friendships and working relationships but most critically relationships with romantic partners and the person’s own children. 92 Affectionless psychopathy A behaviour disorder in which the individual has no ability to experience shame or guilt and lacks a social conscience. This means that they may find it ‘easier’ to commit crimes. 88

Agentic shift Changing from being in an autonomous state to being in an agentic state, i.e. moving from taking personal responsibility for one’s actions to believing one is acting on behalf of an authority figure. 27

Anxiety hierarchy 146

Agentic state A mental state where we feel no personal responsibility for our behaviour because we believe ourselves to be acting for an authority figure, i.e. as their agent. This frees us from the demands of our consciences and allows us to obey even a destructive authority figure. 26, 27

Articulatory process A component of the phonological loop which acts as an ‘inner voice’, i.e. words/sounds are verbally repeated. 52, 53

Agoraphobia Intense fear of being in public places where you feel escape might be difficult. 138 Aim A general statement of what the researcher intends to investigate; the purpose of the study. 166, 190 Ainsworth, Mary 84–85, 87, 180 Amnesia A loss of memory due to brain damage, disease, or psychological trauma. 49, 51 Animal studies Studies carried out on non-human animal species rather than on humans, either for ethical or practical reasons – practical because animals breed faster and researchers are interested in seeing results across more than one generation of animals. 78–79, 81 Anomalous results Data that do not fit in with the pattern of the other data. 87 Anonymity An important aspect of confidentiality; a participant remains anonymous, i.e. their name is withheld or simply not recorded. 36, 94, 124, 156, 177, 202 Antidepressant A group of drugs which increase the production of serotonin and/or noradrenaline, and reduce symptoms of depression. 28, 29 Antianxiety drugs 201 Anti-Semitism Hatred or discrimination of Jews as a religious or cultural group. 151, 153–155 Antisocial personality disorder A mental health condition where a person has a repeated pattern of behaviour manipulating or violating the rights of others. Often leads to crimes against people. 134 Anxiety A state of emotional and physical arousal. The emotions include having worried thoughts and feeling of tension. Physical changes include an increased heart rate and sweatiness. Anxiety is a normal reaction to stressful situations, but can affect the accuracy and detail of eyewitness testimony. 7, 9, 23, 26, 27, 36, 58, 60–61, 62, 65, 76–77, 84–85, 87, 90, 111, 121, 123, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 173, 181, 201 Anxiety disorders A group of mental disorders characterised by levels of fear and apprehension which are disproportionate to any threat posed. 139

Approach A way to explain behaviour; a general perspective or mode of thinking. 10–11, 12 Armchair psychology 8

Articulatory suppression task An activity that prevents rehearsal of words in the articulatory loop. 53 Artificial intelligence Machines showing human-like reasoned behaviour. 110, 111 Asch, Solomon 17, 18–19, 30, 31, 34 Asocial stage 76–77 Association 10 Attachment An emotional bond between two people that endures over time. Leads to certain behaviours such as clinging and proximityseeking. Serves the function of protecting an infant. 72–101, 201 Definition of 74 Figures 74–75, 76, 77, 81, 82, 83, 87, 88–89, 92, 93 Multiple 76, 77, 201 Stages 76–77 Attachment type Refers to whether a person is securely or insecurely attached, i.e. the way you relate to others in the context of intimate relationships. 84–87, 90, 92–93, 95 Augmentation principle If a person performs an action when there are known constraints, their motive for acting must be stronger. 32, 34 Authoritarian personality A type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority. Such individuals are also thought to be submissive to those of higher status and dismissive of inferiors. 28–29 Authority 22–29 Autonomic nervous system (ANS) Transmits information to and from internal bodily organs. It is ‘autonomic’ as the system operates involuntarily (it is automatic). It has two main divisions: the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. 114, 115, 124 Autonomous state Being aware of the consequences of one’s own actions and therefore taking voluntary control of one’s own behaviour. This explains why some individuals act independently rather than obediently, as in an agentic state. 26 Avoidance 38, 142, 146 Axon The long projection of the neuron from the cell body. 32, 34

INDEX/GLOSSARY • 227

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Bandura, Albert 105, 108–109 Bar chart A type of graph in which the frequency of each variable is represented by the height of the bars. 28–29 Baseline study 19, 22 Behaviour Adaptive 12 Controlling 12 Describing 12 Effect of 26 Explaining 12 Maladaptive 12 Predicting 12 Behaviour checklist In an observational study, dividing the behaviour(s) to be observed into individual components. A form of operationalisation. Each component should be an observable behaviour. 182–183 Behaviour geneticists A field of study concerned with the role of genes in behaviour, such as inherited factors in mental disorder or aggression. 112 Behavioural Ways in which people act. 10, 11, 85, 94, 104, 105, 106–107, 109, 110, 119–123, 125, 138, 140, 142, 144–147, 157 Behavioural activation A therapy for depression focusing on encouraging patients to engage in those activities they are avoiding. The goal of the intervention is to increase environmental reinforcement. 150 Behavioural approach A way of explaining behaviour in terms of what is observable and in terms of learning. 10, 11, 104, 105, 106–107, 109, 110, 119–123, 144–147 Behavioural categories When a target behaviour is broken up into components that are observable and measurable. 85, 94, 125, 157, 182–183 Behavioural characteristics 138, 140, 142 Behavioural explanation 12 Behavioural Insights Team 13 Behavioural therapy Any form of therapy derived from the behaviourist model, for example systematic desensitisation. 123 Bias In the context of sampling, when certain groups may be over- or under-represented within the sample selected. For instance, there may be too many younger people or too many people of one ethnic origin in a sample. This limits the extent to which generalisations can be made to the target population. 125, 174, 175, 185, 186, 187, 200 Binding factors 26 Biological approach A perspective that emphasises the importance of physical processes in the body such as genetic inheritance and neural function. 10, 11, 104, 112–113, 122–123 Biological explanation 12 Biological preparedness The ability of some organisms to associate significant (i.e. in terms of survival) combinations of stimuli, responses and reinforcers. 145 Biological structure An arrangement or organisation of parts to form an organ, system or living thing. 112 Biosocial approach 123, 152–155 Bowlby, John 77, 82–83, 84, 87, 88–89, 92, 93, 112, 201 BPS See British Psychological Society.

228 • INDEX/GLOSSARY

BPS code of ethics A quasi-legal document produced by the British Psychological Society (BPS) that instructs psychologists in the UK about what behaviour is and is not acceptable when dealing with human participants. It is built around four major principles: respect, competence, responsibility and integrity. 176–177

Client-centred therapy A method of treatment for mental disorders where the focus is on the problem from the client’s viewpoint rather than any diagnosis from the therapist. See counselling. 120

‘Brain fingerprinting’ 110

Closed questions Questions for which there is a fixed choice of responses determined by the question setter; for example, do you smoke? (yes/no) 37, 65, 184, 186

Brain scan A technique used to investigate the functioning of the brain by taking images of the living brain. This makes it possible to match regions of the brain to behaviour by asking participants to engage in particular activities while the scan is done. Brain scans are also used to detect brain abnormalities such as tumours. Examples: CAT scan, PET scan, MRI scan, fMRI scan. 10, 51, 105 Briefing 124 British Psychological Society BPS, Professional association for psychologists in Britain, governing and guiding the behaviour of psychologists. 176–177 Broca’s area An area of the brain in the frontal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, associated with production of language. 110 Calculated value The value of a test statistic calculated for a particular data set. 198–199 Candidate genes 152 Capacity The amount of information that can be held in a memory store. 46, 47, 48

Clinical Refers to medical practice. 51, 53, 121, 123, 135, 138, 141, 143, 147, 150, 156, 186

Coding The format in which information is stored in the various memory stores. 46, 48, 49, 110 Cognitive Refers to the process of thinking – knowing, perceiving, believing. 7, 11, 12, 105, 107, 110–111, 122–123, 139, 141, 143, 148–151, 155 Cognitive approach The term ‘cognitive’ has come to mean ‘mental processes’, so this approach is focused on how our mental processes (e.g. thoughts, perceptions, attention) affect behaviour. 11, 105, 107, 110–111, 122–123, 148–151 Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) A method for treating mental disorders based on both cognitive and behavioural techniques. From the cognitive viewpoint the therapy aims to deal with thinking, such as challenging negative thoughts. The therapy also includes behavioural techniques such as behavioural activation. 123, 149, 150–151, 155 Cognitive characteristics 139, 141, 143

Cartesian dualism The distinction made between the body and mind, first systematically discussed by the philosopher Descartes. 104

Cognitive dissonance 7

Case study A research method that involves a detailed study of a single individual, institution or event. Case studies provide a rich record of human experience but are hard to generalise from. 9, 78, 119, 123

Cognitive explanation 12

Cell body The part of a cell that contains the nucleus. 116 Central executive (CE) The component of the WMM that co-ordinates the activities of the three subsystems in memory. It also allocates processing resources to those activities. 52, 53, 64, 110 Central nervous system (CNS) Consists of the brain and the spinal cord and is the origin of all complex commands and decisions. 114, 116 Cerebral cortex The surface layer of the forebrain (the two hemispheres). It is grey in colour and it is highly folded to make it possible to fit the massive amount of material inside the skull. 114 Chance The extent to which something occurs randomly, i.e. in the absence of a discoverable cause. 168, 169, 170, 174 Charts 8, 95, 157, 185 Childhood experiences 11

Cognitive distortion 139 Cognitive interview (CI) A method of interviewing eyewitnesses to help them retrieve more accurate memories. It uses four main techniques, all based on well-established psychological knowledge of human memory – report everything, reinstate the context, reverse the order, and change perspective. 57, 62–63 Cognitive neuroscience The scientific study of biological structures that underpin cognitive processes. 110 Cognitive primacy 149 Cognitive style An individual’s characteristic way of thinking. 28 Cognitive therapy A form of psychotherapy which attempts to change a client’s thoughts and beliefs as a way of treating maladaptive behaviour. It differs from cognitive-behavioural therapy because the latter involves some element of behavioural techniques. 123, 147 Collectivist culture A group of people who place more value on the ‘collective’ rather than on the individual, and on interdependence rather than on independence. The opposite is true of individualist culture. 19, 77, 121

Childhood relationships Affiliations with other people in childhood, including friends and classmates, and with adults such as teachers. 92

Commitment Minority influence is more powerful if the minority demonstrates dedication to their position, for example by making personal sacrifices. This is effective because it shows the minority is not acting out of self-interest. 32

Chunking Grouping sets of digits or letters into units or ‘chunks’. 46, 47

Common sense 6

Classical conditioning Learning by association. Occurs when two stimuli are repeatedly paired together – an unconditioned (unlearned) stimulus (UCS) and a new ‘neutral’ stimulus (NS). The neutral stimulus eventually produces the same response that was first produced by the unlearned stimulus alone. 10, 80–81, 106, 144, 146

Competitive interference 54 Co-morbidity The presence of two or more coexisting unhealthy conditions or diseases. 153 Compliance A superficial and temporary type of conformity where we outwardly go along with the majority view, but privately disagree with it. The change in our behaviour only lasts as long as the group is monitoring us. 16, 37

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‘Computer metaphor’ 11 Computer models 110 Concordance rate A measure of similarity (usually expressed as a percentage) between two individuals or sets of individuals on a given trait. 112 Conditioned response (CR) In classical conditioning, the response elicited by the conditioned stimulus (CS), i.e. a new association has been learned so that the neutral stimulus (NS) produces the unconditioned response (UCR) which is now called the CR. 80, 144, 146 Conditioned stimulus (CS) In classical conditioning, the neutral stimulus (NS) becomes the CS after the NS has been paired with the unconditioned stimulus (UCS). The NS now takes on the properties of the UCS and produces the unconditioned response (now a conditioned response, CR). 80, 144, 146 Conditions of worth When a parent places limits or boundaries on their love of their children; for instance, a parent saying to a child, ‘I will only love you if…you study medicine’ or ‘if you split up with that boy’. 120 Confederate An individual in an experiment who is not a real participant and has been instructed how to behave by the researcher. 18, 22, 24, 30, 31, 32, 34 Confidentiality An ethical issue concerned with a participant’s right to have personal information protected. 36, 64, 156, 176–177, 186, 203 Conformity ‘A change in a person’s behaviour or opinions as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people’ (Elliot Aronson 2011). 16–21, 22, 30–31, 34, 35, 36 Explanations of 16 Types of 16 Confounding variables Any variable, other than the IV, that may have affected the DV so we cannot be sure of the true source of changes to the DV. Confounding variables vary systematically with the IV. 47, 77, 85, 91, 168–171, 178 Congruence The aim of Rogerian therapy; when the self-concept and ideal self are seen to broadly accord or match. 120 Consent 125 Consistency Minority influence is most effective if the minority keeps the same beliefs, both over time and between all the individuals that form the minority. It’s effective because it draws attention to the minority view. 32–33, 34 Consonant syllable Three letter chunks with no vowels also called a trigram. 46, 49, 55 Content analysis A kind of observational study in which behaviour is observed indirectly in pictorial or verbal material. A detailed analysis is made of, for example, books, diaries or TV programmes. May involve an initial qualitative analysis to produce categories, which then can be represented with qualitative data (examples from each category) or quantitative data analysis (counting the frequency of particular instances in each category). 157 Context-dependent forgetting 56–57, 62 Continuous data Data that are not in categories, can take any value within a range. 194 Continuous recording Making a note of everything without pause. 181 Control condition The condition in a repeated measures design that provides a baseline measure of behaviour without the experimental treatment (IV), 64, 167, 170, 178

Control group In an experiment with an independent groups design, a group of participants who receive no treatment. Their behaviour acts as a baseline against which the effect of the independent variable (IV) may be measured. 32, 51, 58, 78, 88, 90, 147, 178, 202 Controlled observation Watching and recording behaviour within a structured environment, i.e. one where some variables are managed. 84, 85, 180–181 Conversion explanation 35 Correlation A mathematical technique in which a researcher investigates an association between two variables, called co-variables. 9, 28, 29, 36, 115, 188–189 Cost-benefit analysis Making a decision by weighing up costs (in terms of time, money, harm) against gains (in terms of value to society). 177 Counselling A form of therapy that aims to increase a client’s self-esteem through unconditional positive regard from the therapist. This is based on the concept that maladjusted behaviour or unhappiness occurs as a result of receiving conditional love in childhood and, as a result, continuing to strive for acceptance. Such striving blocks the ability to self-actualise. 121, 123, 137 Counter-intuitive 6 Counterbalancing An attempt to control for the effects of order in a repeated measures design: half the participants experience the conditions in one order, and the other half in the opposite order. 124, 170, 171 Counterconditioning Being taught a new association that is the opposite of the original association, thus removing the original association. 146 Co-variables The variables investigated within a correlation, for example height and weight. They are not referred to as the independent and dependent variables because a correlation investigates the association between the variables, rather than trying to show a cause and effect relationship. 188–189, 194 Covert observation Participants’ behaviour is watched and recorded without their knowledge or consent. 125, 180–181 Critical period The time within which an attachment must form if it is to form at all. Lorenz and Harlow noted that attachment in birds and monkeys had critical periods. Bowlby extended the idea to humans, proposing that human infants have a sensitive period after which it will be much more difficult to form an attachment. 78, 82, 88–89 Critical value The value that a test statistic must reach in order for the null hypothesis to be rejected. 198–199 Cross-cultural research A kind of natural experiment in which the IV is different cultural practices and the DV is a behaviour such as attachment. 25, 27 Cross-sectional design One group of participants representing one section of society (e.g. young people or working-class people) is compared with participants from another group (e.g. old people or middle-class people). 77 Cue A ‘trigger’ of information that allows us to access a memory. Such cues may be meaningful or may be indirectly linked by being encoded at the time of learning. For example, they may be external (environmental context) or internal (mood or degree of drunkenness). 56–57

Cued recall test A method of testing memory where participants are given material to be learned, and then when recall is tested, they are given cues (such as category names) to enhance recall. This permits one to discover all the words that are available not just those that are currently accessible. 55 Cultural relativism 135 Cultural variations ‘Culture’ refers to the norms and values that exist within any group of people. Cultural variations then are the differences in norms and values that exist between people in different groups. In attachment research we are concerned with the differences in the proportion of children of different attachment types. 27, 86–87 Culture-bound Restricted to a particular culture, i.e. group of people defined by their shared practices. 85, 137 Curvilinear relationship 189 Darwin, Charles 104, 112 Data Primary 190–191 Qualitative 22, 23, 37, 183, 184, 190–191 Quantitative 21, 37, 183, 190–191 Secondary 190–191 Debrief A post-research interview designed to inform the participants of the true nature of the study and to restore them to the state they were in at the start of the study. 22, 23, 64, 124, 125, 177, 202, 203 Deception An ethical issue, most usually where a participant is not told the true aims of a study (e.g. what participation will involve) and thus cannot give truly informed consent. Occasionally deception may involve the provision of false information. 19, 22, 23, 176–177 Decimals 196 Decision making 6–7 Declarative memory Memories that are consciously recalled, explicit and can be put into words. 51 Deeper processing 34–35 Defence mechanisms Unconscious strategies that the ego uses to manage the conflict between the id and the superego. 118, 123 Demand characteristics Any cue from the researcher or from the research situation that may be interpreted by participants as revealing the purpose of the investigation. This may lead to a participant changing their behaviour within the research situation. 19, 59, 109, 125, 168, 171, 185 Dendrite Branching projections from the end of a neuron carry nerve impulses from neighbouring neurons towards the cell body. 116 Denial An ego defence mechanism whereby anxiety is reduced simply by denying that there is a problem. 118 Dependent variable (DV) The variable that is measured by the researcher. Any effect on the DV should be caused by the change in the IV. 64, 124, 166–168, 171, 172, 180, 184, 191 Depression A mental disorder characterised by low mood and low energy levels. 11, 12, 113, 123, 140–141, 143, 148–151, 153, 201 Depth of thought 33 Descartes, Rene 104 Descriptive statistics The use of graphs, tables and summary statistics to identify trends and analyse sets of data. 9, 192–193

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Determinism The view that an individual’s behaviour is shaped or controlled by internal or external forces rather than an individual’s will to do something. 111, 113, 119, 123 Deviation from ideal mental health Occurs when someone does not meet a set of criteria for good mental health. 136 Deviation from social norms Concerns behaviour that is different from the accepted standards of behaviour in a community or society. 134, 137 Diachronic consistency Consistency over time. 32 Diagnosis 135, 136 Diathesis stress model 123, 152 Digit span A way of measuring the capacity of shortterm memory in terms of the maximum number of digits that can be recalled in the correct order. 46 Directional hypothesis States the direction of the difference or relationship. 166, 189 Discrete data Data that can only take certain values, for example the number of children in a class – you can’t have half a child. 194 Disinhibited attachment A type of insecure attachment where children do not form close attachments. Such children will treat strangers with inappropriate familiarity (overfriendliness) and may be attention-seeking. 90, 91 Disorganised attachment Characterised by a lack of consistent patterns of social behaviour. Such infants lack a coherent strategy for dealing with the stress of separation. For example, they show very strong attachment behaviour which is suddenly followed by avoidance or looking fearfully towards their caregiver. 85, 90 Displaced A form of ego defense where the individual unconsciously redirects the threatening emotion from the person or thing that has caused it onto a third party. For example, you might kick your dog after having a row with your boyfriend. 28, 47, 119 Displacement Same as displaced. Dispositional explanation Any explanation of behaviour that highlights the importance of the individual’s personality (i.e. their disposition). Such explanations are often contrasted with situational explanations. 28

Drug therapy Treatment involving drugs, i.e. chemicals that have a particular effect on the functioning of the brain or some other body system. In the case of psychological disorders such drugs usually affect neurotransmitter levels. 123, 154–155

Episodic memory A long-term memory store for personal events. It includes memories of when the events occurred and of the people, objects, places and behaviours involved. Memories from this store have to be retrieved consciously and with effort. 50–51, 110

DSM-5 The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. This is a classification system of mental disorders published by the American Psychiatric Association. It contains typical symptoms of each disorder and guidelines for clinicians to make a diagnosis. The most recent version is DSM-5. 134, 136, 138, 140, 142

Estimating Obtaining an approximate answer. 22, 47, 58, 179, 196, 215

Dual-task performance Refers to a research procedure where an individual is asked to perform two tasks simultaneously. If participants are slower doing these tasks at the same time than when doing them separately, it is assumed that both tasks compete for the same resources in the brain. For example, reading out loud and walking are two tasks that can be performed just as well separately as simultaneously. However, reading out loud while writing a letter at the same time leads to reduced performance on each task. 53, 64

Ethical guidelines A set of principles designed to help professionals behave honestly and with integrity. 22, 176–177

Duration The length of time information can be held in memory. 46, 48 DV See dependent variable. 48 Echoic memory The sensory register that stores auditory information. 48 Eclectic approach 11, 122, 123 Economy The state of a country or region in terms of the production and consumption of goods and services. 200, 201 EEGs Electroencephalograph (EEG). A method of detecting activity in the living brain, electrodes are attached to a person’s scalp to record general levels of electrical activity. 105, 113 Effect size A measure of the strength of the relationship between two variables. 191 Ego The ‘reality check’ that balances the conflicting demands of the id and the superego. 118 Elaborative rehearsal 49 Electra complex 118, 119 Emotional Ways in which people feel. 139, 141, 143

Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder 140

Empirical evidence 121

Distributions 134, 195

Empiricism A method of gaining knowledge which relies on direct observation or testing. 104

Dizygotic twins Non-identical twins formed from two fertilised eggs (or zygotes). 112, 113 Dopamine A neurotransmitter that generally has an excitatory effect and is associated with the sensation of pleasure. Unusually high levels are associated with schizophrenia and unusually low levels are associated with Parkinson’s disease. 152 Double-barrelled questions 187 Double blind procedure Neither the participant nor researcher conducting the study are aware of the research aims or other important details of a study, and thus have no expectations that might alter a participant’s behaviour. 178 Double negatives 187 Drawing attention 34 Dream interpretation 11 Drive reduction An animal is motivated to act in order to satisfy biological needs; once satisfied, the result is drive reduction. 80

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Encoding See coding. Encoding specificity principle Recall is best when there is a large overlap between the information available at the time of retrieval (cues) and the information in the memory trace. 56, 57, 62 Endocrine system One of the body’s major information systems that instructs glands to release hormones directly into the bloodstream. These hormones are carried towards target organs in the body. 10, 114, 115 Enhanced cognitive interview (ECI) 62, 63 Environment 11, 110 Epilepsy A disorder which causes occasional storms of electrical activity in the brain (a fit) leading to convulsions and loss of consciousness. 48 Episodic buffer (EB) The component of the WMM that brings together material from the other subsystems into a single memory rather than separate strands. Also provides a bridge between working memory and long-term memory. 52

Ethical behaviour 134 Ethical committee A group of people within a research institution that must approve a study before it begins. 177

Ethical issues These arise when a conflict exists between the rights of participants in research studies and the goals of research to produce authentic, valid and worthwhile data. 8, 9, 19, 21, 22, 23, 36, 64, 65, 79, 91, 94, 95, 124, 146, 156, 176–177, 178, 180–181, 186, 202, 203 Ethologists Researchers who promote the use of naturalistic observation to study animal behaviour. They focus on the importance of innate capacities and the adaptiveness of behaviour. 78 Event sampling A target behaviour or event is first established then the researcher records this event every time it occurs. 125, 182–183 Evolution The changes in inherited characteristics in a biological population over successive generations. The process by which species change to adapt to their environment. Pressures from the environment ‘select’ those who have the characteristics and behaviours which enhance their survival in competition with others – the survival of the fittest. Those who survive and reproduce are the ones who pass characteristics/behaviours on to subsequent generations. 82, 112, 145 Evolutionary theory An account for the changes in species over millions of years; characteristics that enhance survival and reproduction are naturally selected. 104 Excitation When a neurotransmitter, such as adrenaline, increases the positive charge of the post-synaptic neuron. This increases the likelihood that the neuron will fire and pass on the electrical impulse. 117 Excoriation disorder 142 Experimental condition The condition in a repeated measures design containing the independent variable as distinct from the control. 65, 167, 170, 173, 178 Experimental design The different ways in which the testing of participants can be organised in relation to the experimental conditions. 81, 170–171 Experimental group The group in an independent groups design containing the independent variable as distinct from the control. 78, 178 Experimental method Involves the manipulation of an independent variable to measure the effect on the dependent variable. Experiments may be laboratory, field, natural or quasi. 10, 105, 123, 166–167 Experimental philosophy A field of psychology that uses empirical data as distinct from rational argument. 104 External validity The degree to which a research finding can be generalised to, for example, other settings (ecological validity), other groups of people (population validity) and over time (historical validity). 9, 23, 33, 47, 77, 111, 172

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Externals Individuals who feel that their behaviour and/or thoughts are controlled by factors other than their personal decisions and/or action, such as being controlled by luck, fate or the behaviour of other people. 30–31, 36 Extinction In conditioning theory, the disappearance of a learned response when stimuli stop being paired (classical conditioning) or no reinforcement occurs (operant conditioning). 107, 146 Extraneous variable (EV) Any variable, other than the independent variable (IV), that may have an effect on the dependent variable (DV) if it is not controlled. EVs are essentially nuisance variables that do not vary systematically with the IV. 61, 124, 168–169, 172, 180, 181 Extra-sensory perception (ESP) The ability to acquire information without the direct use of the five known physical senses. 203 Extraversion A personality trait where the individual is outgoing and impulsive. 168, 203 Eyewitness testimony (EWT) The ability of people to remember the details of events, such as accidents and crimes, which they themselves have observed. Accuracy of EWT can be affected by factors such as misleading information, leading questions and anxiety. 58–63, 65 Failure to function adequately Occurs when someone is unable to cope with the ordinary demands of day-to-day living. 136 False memory 58 Family studies Research where close relatives (parents and their children) are compared on certain traits such as IQ or mental disorder in order to determine whether genetic factors underlie these traits. 153 Falsification Proving the truth of a research hypothesis by demonstrating that the null version is false. Scientific theories cannot be proved to be true; they can only be subjected to attempts to prove them false. 119 Father, role of 74–75, 201 Field experiment An experiment that takes place in a natural setting within which the researcher manipulates the IV and records the effect on the DV. 25, 61, 172, 202 Fight or flight response The way an animal responds when stressed. The body becomes physiologically aroused in readiness to fight an aggressor or, in some cases, flee. 60, 114, 115 File drawer problem Bias created because the results of some studies are not published (filed away), for example studies with negative results. 191, 200 Fixation In psychoanalytic theory, a focus on a particular stage of psychosexual development because of over- or under-gratification during that stage. 118 Fixed choice option Question with a predetermined number of answers. 185, 186 Flexibility Relentless consistency could be counterproductive if it is seen by the majority as unbending and unreasonable. Therefore minority influence is more effective if the minority show flexibility by accepting the possibility of compromise. 32 Flight or fight response The state of being ready to engage in conflict or run away. An environmental demand, such as a stressor, results in activation of the sympathetic nervous system and a state of physiological arousal. The animal’s heart and breathing rates are increased, digestion is slowed down, and sugar is released in readiness for intense activity – whether fighting or running away.

Flooding A behavioural therapy in which a phobic patient is exposed to an extreme form of a phobic stimulus in order to reduce anxiety triggered by that stimulus. This takes place across a small number of long therapy sessions. 146–147 fMRI Functional magnetic resonance imaging. A method used to scan brain activity while a person is performing a task. It enables researchers to detect those regions of the brain which are rich in oxygen and thus are active. 105, 110, 113 Fraction Indicates parts of a whole. 196 Free recall A method of testing memory. Participants are given a list of to-be-remembered items, one at a time. Later the participant is asked to recall the items (e.g. by writing down as many items from the list as possible in any order they choose). 46 Free will The notion that humans can make choices and are not determined by biological or external forces. 107, 109, 119, 120, 123 Frequency 125 Freud, Sigmund 11, 104, 118–119, 120, 121 Frontal lobes Responsible for logical thinking and making decisions. 49, 110, 152 F-scale A test of tendencies towards fascism, used to assess the authoritarian personality. 28, 29, 185 Gender roles 21 Generalisation In conditioning, the tendency to transfer a response from one stimulus to another which is quite similar. 80, 91, 144 Generalisation In relation to research findings, the extent to which findings and conclusions from a particular investigation can be broadly applied to the population. This is made possible if the sample of participants is representative of the population. 77, 79

Hard determinism 111, 123 Harm To cause physical or mental injury. In the context of psychological research, harm to participants could include lowered self-esteem or embarrassment. 9, 22, 36, 37, 61, 64, 65, 88, 95, 119, 136, 140, 141, 176, 177 Harlow, Harry 78–79 Hemisphere The forebrain (largest part of the brain) is divided into two halves or hemispheres. 51, 114 Hierarchy of needs A five-levelled hierarchical sequence in which basic needs (such as hunger) must be satisfied before higher psychological needs (such as esteem and self-actualisation) can be achieved. 120, 121 Hippocampus A structure in the subcortical area of each hemisphere of the forebrain, associated with memory. It is part of the limbic system, and is therefore also involved in motivation, emotion and learning. 48, 51 Histogram Type of frequency distribution in which the number of scores in each category of continuous data are represented by vertical columns. In contrast to a bar chart, the data in a histogram have a true zero and a logical sequence. There are also no spaces between the bars. 194 Hoarding disorder 142 Holism An argument or theory which proposes that it only makes sense to study a whole system rather than its constituent parts (which is the reductionist approach). 121, 122 Hormones Biochemical substances that circulate in the bloodstream and only affect target organs. They are produced in large quantities but disappear quickly. Their effects are very powerful. 10, 12, 75, 109, 114, 115, 117 Humanistic psychology approach An approach to understanding behaviour that emphasises the importance of subjective experience and each person’s capacity for self-determination. 11, 120–123

Genes They make up chromosomes and consist of DNA which codes the physical features of an organism (such as eye colour, height) and psychological features (such as mental disorder, intelligence). Genes are transmitted from parents to offspring, i.e. inherited. 10, 11, 112, 122, 152–153

Hypothesis A clear, precise, testable statement that states the relationship between the variables to be investigated. Stated at the outset of any study. 8, 12, 21, 29, 94, 124, 166, 175, 189, 198

Genetic explanations see Genes

Iconic memory The sensory register that stores visual information. 48

Genetic determinism 123 Genetic explanation 152–153 Genotype The particular set of genes that a person possesses. 112, 113 Gland An organ in the body that synthesises biochemical substances such as hormones. 115, 117 Gradual commitment When you start with a small commitment, but this gradually increases and before you know it you have made more of a commitment than you intended. 34 Graph A pictorial representation of the relationship between variables. 9, 36, 65, 94, 95, 124, 125, 156, 185, 194–195 Group identification 23 Group interviews 186 Group size Asch increased the size of the group by adding more confederates, thus increasing the size of the majority. Conformity increased with group size, but only up to a point, levelling off when the majority was greater than three. 18

Id Entirely unconscious, the id is made up of selfish aggressive instincts that demand immediate gratification. 118 Ideal self The person you would like to be. 120 Identification A ‘moderate’ type of conformity where we act in the same way with the group because we value it and want to be part of it. But we don’t necessarily agree with everything the majority believes. 16 Identification When an observer associates themselves with a role model and wants to be like the role model. 108 Idiographic approach An approach to research that focuses more on the individual case as a means of understanding behaviour, rather than aiming to formulate general laws of behaviour (the nomothetic approach). 123 Imitation Copying the behaviour of others. 108 Imposed etic A technique or theory developed in one culture and then used to study the behaviour of people in a different culture with different norms, values, experiences, etc. 87 Imprinting An innate readiness to acquire certain behaviours during a critical or sensitive period of development. 78–79, 81

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Independent groups design Participants are allocated to different groups where each group represents one experimental condition. 64, 111, 170 Independent variable (IV) Some aspect of the experimental situation that is manipulated by the researcher – or changes naturally – so the effect on the DV can be measured. 88, 95, 124, 166–168, 172, 173, 178, 198 Indirect learning 10 Individualist culture A group of people who value the rights and interests of the individual. This results in a concern for independence and self-assertiveness. People tend to live in small families unlike collectivist societies. This is typical of Western cultures, in contrast to many non-Western cultures that tend to be collectivist. 19, 121, 137 Inference The process whereby cognitive psychologists draw conclusions about the way mental processes operate on the basis of observed behaviour. 110 Information processing approach Any theory that equates the mind to a computer: input, processing and output of information. 110 Informational social influence (ISI) An explanation of conformity that says we agree with the opinion of the majority because we believe it is correct. We accept it because we want to be correct as well. This may lead to internalisation. 16–17, 18 Informed consent An ethical issue and an ethical guideline in psychological research whereby participants must be given comprehensive information concerning the nature and purpose of the research and their role in it, in order for them to make an informed decision about whether to participate. 22, 36, 146, 176–177 Inherited 122 Inhibition When a neurotransmitter, such as serotonin, increases the negative charge of the post-synaptic neuron. This decreases the likelihood that the neuron will fire and pass on the electrical impulse. 117 Inner scribe In the working memory model, a component of the visuo-spatial sketchpad which deals with spatial relations, such as the arrangement of objects in the visual field. 52 Insecure attachment Develops as a result of the caregiver’s lack of sensitive responding to the infant’s needs. May be associated with poor cognitive and emotional development. 84, 85, 86, 92, 95 Insecure-avoidant attachment An attachment type characterised by low anxiety but weak attachment. In the Strange Situation this is shown by low stranger and separation anxiety and little response to reunion – an avoidance of the caregiver. 84, 86, 92, 95

Institutionalisation A term for the effects of living in an institutional setting. The term ‘institution’ refers to a place like a hospital or an orphanage where children live for long, continuous periods of time. In such places there is often very little emotional care provided. In attachment research we are interested in the effects of institutional care on children’s attachment and subsequent development. 90–91 Intellectual disability disorder Impaired cognitive functioning that is apparent in childhood. Must include some elements of lack of normal functioning. 134–135, 136 Interactional synchrony Mother and infant reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated (synchronised) way. 74, 81, 83 Interference Forgetting because one memory blocks another, causing the other memory to disappear or be forgotten. 54–55 Internal mental processes ‘Private’ operations of the mind such as perception and attention that mediate between stimulus and response. 110 Internal validity A kind of validity, concerned with what goes on inside a study – the extent to which the researcher is measuring what was intended. In an experiment, this includes the control of variables to ensure that changes in the DV are solely due to the IV. 9, 21, 23, 25, 77, 87, 90, 172 Internal working model The mental representations we all carry with us of our attachment to our primary caregiver. They are important in affecting our future relationships because they carry our perception of what relationships are like. 82, 83, 92, 93 Internalisation A deep type of conformity where we take on the majority view because we accept it as correct. It leads to a far-reaching and permanent change in behaviour, even when the group is absent. 16, 37 Internals Individuals with an internal locus of control, attributing the events in their lives to their own decisions and behaviour. 30–31, 36 Inter-observer reliability The extent to which there is agreement between two or more observers involved in observations of a behaviour. This is measured by correlating the observations of two or more observers. A general rule is that if (total number of agreements) / (total number of observations) > +.80, the data have high interobserver reliability. 182 Inter-rater reliability Correlating the judgments of two or more ratings of behaviour, as when using a rating scale. Can happen in a questionnaire or interview when behaviour has been rated or in an observation when behaviour has been rated. 85

Insecure-resistant attachment An attachment type characterised by strong attachment and high anxiety. In the Strange Situation this is shown by high levels of stranger and separation anxiety and by resistance to be comforted at reunion. 84, 85, 86, 92, 95

Intervening variable A variable that comes between two other variables and can be used to explain the relationship between two variables. For example, if a positive correlation is found between ice cream sales and violence this may be explained by an intervening variable – heat – which causes both the increase in ice cream sales and the increase in violence.

Institutional care An ‘institution’ is a place dedicated to a particular task, such as looking after children awaiting adoption, caring for the mentally ill or looking after patients in hospital. It is a place where generally people are looked after for a period of time, as opposed to day care or outpatient care where people go home every day. 90–91

Interview A ‘live’ encounter (face-to-face or on the phone) where one person (the interviewer) asks a set of questions to assess an interviewee’s thoughts and/or experiences. The questions may be pre-set (as in a structured interview) or may develop as the interview goes along (unstructured interview). 9, 23, 37, 59, 60, 62–63, 92, 93, 95, 123, 125, 178, 184–185, 190 Semi-structured 37, 184 Structured 23, 92, 184–185 Unstructured 23, 92, 123, 184–185

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Interview schedule A set of pre-set questions for an interviewer to use. 186 Interviewer bias 186, 187 Introspection Studying and reporting thought processes. 104–105 Inverted-U theory 60, 61 Investigator effects Any effect of the investigator’s behaviour (conscious or unconscious) on the research outcome (the DV). This may include everything from the design of the study to the selection of, and interaction with, participants during the research process. 168, 169 IQ IQ stands for intelligence quotient because it was originally calculated by dividing test score by age. More recent tests use norms to work out a person’s IQ based on their score and age. 88, 89, 90, 134, 135, 136 Irrational thoughts Also called dysfunctional thoughts. In Ellis’s model and therapy, these are defined as thoughts that are likely to interfere with a person’s happiness. Such dysfunctional thoughts lead to mental disorders such as depression. 150 IV See independent variable. Jargon 187 Journal articles Report of a research study or group of studies related to a similar aim, published in an academic magazine (journal). 190 Lab Any setting (room or other environment) specially fitted out for conducting research. A lab is not the only place where scientific experiments can be conducted. It is, however, the ideal place for experiments because it permits maximum control. Labs are not used exclusively for experimental research, for example controlled observations are also conducted in labs. 11, 17, 22, 55, 59, 60, 61, 84, 105, 106, 109, 111, 122, 124, 172, 202 Laboratory (lab) experiment An experiment that takes place in a controlled environment within which the researcher manipulates the IV and records the effect on the DV, whilst maintaining strict control of extraneous variables. 11, 55, 105, 106, 111, 124, 172 Laboratory (lab) studies 17, 55, 59, 60, 61, 109, 202 Leading question A question which, because of the way it is phrased, suggests a certain answer. For example: ‘Was the knife in the accused’s left hand?’ This suggests the answer is ‘left hand’. 58–59, 65, 169, 187 Learning approach The explanation of behaviour using the principles of classical and operant conditioning. The view that all behaviour is learned, a position held by behaviourists. 106– 109, 122, 124 Learning theory A set of theories from the behaviourist approach to psychology that emphasise the role of learning in the acquisition of behaviour. Explanations for learning of behaviour include classical and operant conditioning. 80–81, 82, 108; also see Social learning theory Legitimacy of authority An explanation for obedience which suggests that we are more likely to obey people who we perceive to have authority over us. This authority is justified (legitimate) by the individual’s position of power within a social hierarchy. 26 , 27 Lifestyle choices 37

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Likert scale Respondents can indicate the extent to which they agree or disagree with a statement. There are usually five levels ranging from ‘strongly agree’ through ‘neutral’ to ‘strongly disagree’. 36, 186 Line graph A graph displaying continuous variables shows information as a series of data points connected by straight line segments. 194 Location The place where an order is issued. The relevant factor that influences obedience is the status or prestige associated with the location. 24 Locke, John 104 Locus of control (LOC) Refers to the sense we each have about what directs events in our lives. Internals believe they are mostly responsible for what happens to them (internal locus of control). Externals believe it is mainly a matter of luck or other outside forces (external locus of control). 30–31, 36 Long-term memory (LTM) The permanent memory store. Coding is mainly semantic. It has unlimited capacity and can store memories for up to a lifetime. 46, 48–52, 54, 57, 110 Longitudinal study 74, 77 Lorenz, Konrad 78–79 LTM See long-term memory.

Mediational processes Cognitive factors (i.e. thinking) that influence learning and come between stimulus and response. 108 Memory conformity 58 Memory trace The physical record or ‘trace’ of a memory. 47 Meta-analysis ‘Research about research’, refers to the process of combining results from a number of studies on a particular topic to provide an overall view. This may involve a qualitative review of conclusions and/or a quantitative analysis of the results producing an effect size. 33, 63, 82, 86–87, 190, 191 Milgram, Stanley 22–27, 28, 30 Mind mapping 110 Minority influence A form of social influence in which a minority of people (sometimes just one person) persuade others to adopt their beliefs, attitudes or behaviours. Leads to internalisation or conversion, in which private attitudes are changed as well as public behaviours. 32–35 Misleading information Incorrect information given to the eyewitness usually after the event (hence often called ‘post-event information’). It can take many forms, such as leading questions and post-event discussion between co-witnesses and/or other people. 58, 65 Mnemonic techniques 56

Machine reductionism Explanations which liken human behaviour to that of a machine. This means that such explanations tend to overlook the influence of emotional and social factors. 111, 122 Maintenance rehearsal Verbally repeating an item to keep it in memory. 48 Major depressive disorder 140 Majority influence The influence of the majority i.e. more than 50% of the people. See conformity. Maladaptive The extent to which a behaviour is not adaptive (literally ‘badly adapted’). Something that is adaptive increases an individual’s wellbeing and survival. 12, 137 Maslow, Abraham 105, 120, 121 Matched pairs design Pairs of participants are first matched on some variable(s) that may affect the DV. Then one member of the pair is assigned to Condition A and the other to Condition B. 170, 171 Maternal deprivation The emotional and intellectual consequences of separation between a child and his/her mother or mother substitute. Bowlby proposed that continuous care from a mother is essential for normal psychological development, and that prolonged separation from this adult causes serious damage to emotional and intellectual development. 78, 88–89, 187 Mathematics 196–197 Mean The arithmetic average calculated by adding up all the values in a set of data and dividing by the number of values there are. 9, 46, 58, 63, 90, 134, 192 Measures of central tendency The general term for any measure of the average value in a set of data. 192 Measures of dispersion The general term for any measure of the spread or variation in a set of scores. 193 Media 157 Median The central value in a set of data when values are arranged from lowest to highest. 192

Modal group Related to the mode, the most commonly occurring group. 192 Mode The most frequently occurring value in a set of data. 192 Modelling From the observer’s perspective modelling is imitating the behaviour of a role model. From the role model’s perspective, modelling is the precise demonstration of a specific behaviour that may be imitated by an observer. 108, 123 Models May refer to role models but term also used to refer to a representation of an aspect of behaviour, such as the multi-store model. 30, 34, 48, 82–83, 92–93, 108, 110, 120, 123 Monotropic A term sometimes used to describe Bowlby’s theory. The mono means ‘one’ and indicates that one particular attachment is different from all others and of central importance to the child’s development. 82–83, 88, 201 Monozygotic twins Identical twins formed from one fertilised egg (or zygote). 112, 113 Morality principle 118 Motivating 13, 121 Motor neuron Carries message from the CNS (central nervous system) to effectors such as muscles and glands. Short dendrites and long axons. 116 MRI Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) produces a three-dimensional image of the static brain which is very precise. A magnetic field causes the atoms of the brain to change their alignment when the magnet is on and emit various radio signals when the magnet is turned off. A detector reads the signals and uses them to map the structure of the brain. 105, 110, 113 Multiple attachments Attachments to two or more people. Most babies appear to develop multiple attachments once they have formed one true attachment to a main carer. 76, 77, 201 Multi-store model (MSM) A representation of how memory works in terms of three stores called sensory register, short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM). It also describes how information is transferred from one store to another, how it is remembered and how it is forgotten. 48–49, 110

Mundane realism Refers to how an experiment mirrors the real world. The simulated task environment is realistic to the extent to which experiences encountered in the simulated environment will occur in the real world. 172 Myelin sheath 116 Myelinated axon 125 nAffiliators People who have a need for affiliation, i.e. association with others; preferring the company of others. 17 Natural experiment An experiment where the change in the IV is not brought about by the researcher but would have happened even if the researcher had not been there. The researcher records the effect on the DV. 172, 173 Natural selection The major process that explains evolution whereby inherited traits that enhance an animal’s reproductive success are passed on to the next generation and thus ‘selected’, whereas animals without such traits are less successful at reproduction and their traits are not selected. 112 Naturalistic observation Watching and recording behaviour in the setting within which it would normally occur. 125, 180–181 Nature Those aspects of behaviour that are innate and inherited. Nature does not simply refer to abilities present at birth but to any ability determined by genes, including those that appear through maturation. 10, 122 Negative correlation As one co-variable increases, the other decreases. For example, the following two co-variables: the number of people in a room and amount of personal space are negatively correlated. 188–189 Negative reinforcement In operant conditioning, a stimulus that increases the probability that a behaviour will be repeated because it leads to escape from an unpleasant situation and is experienced as rewarding. 80, 106, 144 Negative thinking 11 Negative skew A type of distribution in which the long tail is on the negative (left) side of the peak and most of the distribution is concentrated on the right. 195 Negative triad Beck proposed that there were three kinds of negative thinking that contributed to becoming depressed: negative views of the world, the future and the self. Such negative views lead a person to interpret their experiences in a negative way and so make them more vulnerable to depression. 148 Nervous system Consists of the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system. 112, 114–115 Neural explanations The view that physical and psychological characteristics are determined by the behaviour of the nervous system, in particular the brain as well as individual neurons. 152–153 Neural networks A structure of interconnected neurons, each with multiple connections. 117 Neurochemistry Relating to chemicals in the brain that regulate psychological functioning. 112 Neurological Related to neurons/nervous system. 110 Neuron The basic building blocks of the nervous system, neurons are nerve cells that process and transmit messages through electrical and chemical signals 114, 116–117, 122, 154 Neuroses A personality or mental disturbance characterised by anxiety but where the patient has not lost touch with reality, as distinct from psychosis. 119

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Neurotransmitter Brain chemicals released from synaptic vesicles that relay signals across the synapse from one neuron to another. Neurotransmitters can be broadly divided in terms of whether they are excitatory or inhibitory. 10, 113, 117, 152–153 Neutral stimulus (NS) In classical conditioning, the stimulus that initially does not produce the target response, i.e. it is neutral. Through association with the unconditioned stimulus (UCS), the NS acquires the properties of the UCS and becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS) producing a conditioned response (CR). 80, 144 Nodes of Ranvier The gaps in the myelin sheath that protect the axon of a neuron. 116 Nominal data Data that are in separate categories. 198–199 Nomothetic approach An approach to research that focuses more on general laws of behaviour rather than on the individual, possibly unique case (the idiographic approach). 123 Non-declarative memory Memories are implicit, on automatic pilot and without conscious thought they cannot be put into words. 51 Non-directional hypothesis A form of hypothesis that states a difference, correlation or association between two variables but does not specify the direction (e.g. more or less, positive or negative) of such a relationship. 124, 166, 189 Non-participant observation The researcher remains outside of the group whose behaviour he/she is watching and recording. 180–181 Noradrenaline A hormone and a neurotransmitter that generally has an excitatory effect, similar to the hormone adrenaline. The hormone is produced by the adrenal gland. 154 Normal distribution A symmetrical spread of frequency data that forms a bell-shaped pattern. The mean, median and mode are all located at the highest peak. 134, 195 Normative social influence (NSI) An explanation of conformity that says we agree with the opinion of the majority because we want to be accepted, gain social approval and be liked. This may lead to compliance. 16–17, 18, 34–35 Norms Something that is standard, usual or typical of a group. 19, 135–137 Nucleus The control centre of a cell containing genetic material. 116 Nudge Unit 13, 201 Nurture Those aspects of behaviour that are acquired through experience, i.e. learned from interactions with the physical and social environment. 10, 122 Obedience A form of social influence in which an individual follows a direct order. The person issuing the order is usually a figure of authority who has the power to punish when obedient behaviour is not forthcoming. 22–31, 34, 36 ‘Obedience alibi’ 25, 27 Objectivity Being uninfluenced by personal opinions or past experiences, being free of bias. As distinct from subjectivity. 180, 181 Observation A research study where only observational techniques are used. 9, 12, 21, 75, 83, 94, 125, 157, 180–183, 190 Observational design An overall plan for conducting observational research. 182–183 Observational learning 123 Observational study 21, 83, 157, 178

234 • INDEX/GLOSSARY

Observational techniques A set of systems to increase the objectivity and validity of data collected when a researcher watches or listens to participants engaging in whatever behaviour is being studied. Observational techniques may be used in an experiment as a method of assessing the dependent variable. 94, 180–181 Observer bias In observational studies there is a danger that observers’ expectations affect what they see or hear. This reduces the validity of the observations. 183 Obsessive-compulsive disorder See OCD. OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) A condition characterised by obsessions and/or compulsive behaviour. 110, 142–143, 152–155, 201 Oedipus complex Freud’s explanation of how a boy resolves his love for his mother and feelings of rivalry towards his father by identifying with his father. 118, 119 Oestrogen The primary female hormone, though also present in males in small amounts. Regulates the menstrual cycle and female development in puberty. 75

Participant observation The researcher becomes a member of the group whose behaviour he/she is watching and recording. 180–181 Participant reactivity The tendency for participants to react to cues from the researcher or the research environment. 168, 181 Participant variables Characteristics of individual participants (such as age, intelligence, etc.) that might influence the outcome of a study. 77, 170, 171 Part-to-part ratio A comparison of one part of a whole to another part. A ratio is a comparison of two things. 196 Part-to-whole ratio A comparison of one part of a whole to the total number of parts in the whole. 196 Pavlov, Ivan 106 Peer review The assessment of scientific work by others who are specialists in the same field to ensure that any research set for publication is of high quality. 200 Pelmanism 47

One-tailed test Form of test used with a directional hypothesis. 198

Penis envy 119

Open questions Questions for which there is no fixed choice of response and respondents can answer in any way they wish; for example, why did you take up smoking? 37, 62, 65, 184, 186

Peripheral nervous system (PNS) Sends information to the CNS from the outside world, and transmits messages from the CNS to muscles and glands in the body. 114, 116

Operant conditioning A form of learning in which behaviour is shaped and maintained by its consequences. Possible consequences of behaviour include positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement or punishment. 10, 80, 106, 144; also see Reinforcement

Persistent depressive disorder 140

Percentages 196

PET scan Positron emission tomography. A brainscanning method used to study activity in the brain. Radioactive glucose is ingested and can be detected in the active areas of the brain. 51

Operationalisation Clearly defining variables in terms of how they can be measured. 166–167, 189

Phallic stage In psychoanalytic theory, the third stage of psychosexual development when the organfocus is on the genitals. 118, 119

Opportunity sampling A sample of participants produced by selecting people who are most easily available at the time of a study. 36, 37, 64, 174–175, 202

Phenotype The characteristics of an individual determined by both genes and the environment. 112

Order effects In a repeated measures design, a confounding variable arising from the order in which conditions are presented, e.g. a practice effect or boredom effect. 171 Orphan studies These concern children placed in care because their parents cannot look after them. An orphan is a child whose parents have either died or have abandoned them permanently. 90– 91, 173 Overt observation Participants’ behaviour is watched and recorded with their knowledge and consent. 180–181 Own age bias The tendency to recognise or remember things more easily if they relate to your own age group. 59 Parahippocampal gyrus An area of the cerebral cortex (grey matter) that surrounds the hippocampus. Involved in memory. 110, 152 Paraphilias 136 Parapraxes A Freudian slip, a minor error in action, such as slips of the tongue, due to repressed emotions. 118 Parapsychology 203 Parasympathetic nervous system A division of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) which controls the relaxed state (rest and digest), conserving resources and promoting digestion and metabolism. The parasympathetic branch works in opposition to the sympathetic branch of the ANS. One or the other is active at any time. 114, 115 Parkinson’s Disease 153

Phenylketonuria (PKU) An inherited disorder that prevents metabolism of phenylalanine, resulting in a build-up of poisonous substances that cause brain damage. If the disorder is detected at birth, the individual can be given a diet that avoids phenylalanine and thus prevents the potential brain damage. 112, 113 Phobia An irrational fear of an object or situation. 107, 119, 123, 138–139 Phonological loop (PL) The component of the WMM that processes information in terms of sound. This includes both written and spoken material. It’s divided into the phonological store and the articulatory process. 52–53, 64 Phonological store (PS) A component of the phonological loop which acts as an ‘inner ear’, i.e. storing sounds. 52 Physical harm 22 Pilot study A small-scale version of an investigation that takes place before the real investigation is conducted. The aim is to check that procedures, materials, measuring scales, etc., work and to allow the researcher to make changes or modifications if necessary. 94, 125, 178–179 Pituitary gland Called the master gland of the body’s hormone system because it directs much of the hormone activity. 115 PKU See phenylketonuria. Placebo A treatment that should have no effect on the behaviour being studied, it contains no active ingredient. Therefore it can be used to separate out the effects of the IV from any effects caused merely by receiving any treatment. 155

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Pleasure principle In psychoanalytic theory, the drive to do things which produce pleasure or gratification, and to avoid pain. 118 Polygenic 152 Population A group of people who are the focus of the researcher’s interest, from which a smaller sample is drawn. 65, 156 PNS See peripheral nervous system. Positive correlation As one co-variable increases so does the other. For example, the number of people in a room and noise are positively correlated. 28, 115, 188–189 Positive reinforcement In operant conditioning, a stimulus that increases the probability that a behaviour will be repeated because it is pleasurable. 144 Positive skew A type of distribution in which the long tail is on the positive (right) side of the peak and most of the distribution is concentrated on the left. 195 Post-event discussion (PED) Occurs when there is more than one witness to an event. Witnesses may discuss what they have seen with cowitnesses or with other people. This may influence the accuracy of each witness’s recall of the event. 58–59, 61 Postsynaptic neuron 154

Privation The failure to develop any attachments during early life. This is contrasted with ‘deprivation’ or ‘disruption’ where attachment bonds have formed but may be disrupted either through physical or simply emotional separation (the loss of attachments). 89 Premenstrual dysphoric disorder 140 Proactive interference (PI) Forgetting occurs when older memories, already stored, disrupt the recall of newer memories. The degree of forgetting is greater when the memories are similar. 54–55 Probability (p) A numerical measure of the likelihood or chance that certain events will occur. 9, 197, 198 Procedural memory A long-term memory store for our knowledge of how to do things. This includes our memories of learned skills. We usually recall these memories without making a conscious or deliberate effort. 50–51 Prosocial 134 Protection from harm 176–177 Proximity The physical closeness or distance of an authority figure to the person they are giving an order to. Also refers to the physical closeness of the teacher to the victim (learner) in Milgram’s studies. 24

Post-synaptic receptor site A receptor on the neuron that is receiving the information at the synapse. A neurotransmitter locks into a specific receptor on the receiving neuron and this triggers an electrical signal in the receiving neuron. 117

Proximity seeking Wishing to remain in close contact with a caregiver/attachment figure. 84

Preconscious Consists of information and ideas that could be retrieved easily from memory and brought into consciousness. 118

Psychoanalysis A form of psychotherapy, originally developed by Sigmund Freud, that is intended to help patients become aware of long-repressed feelings and issues by using techniques such as free association and dream analysis. 104, 119, 121, 123

Prefrontal cortex 51, 53 Presumptive consent A method of dealing with lack of informed consent or deception, by asking a group of people who are similar to the participants whether they would agree to take part in a study. If this group of people consents to the procedures in the proposed study, it is presumed that the real participants would agree as well. 177 Presynaptic neuron The transmitting neuron, before the synapse. 154 Presynaptic terminal The end of the transmitting neuron, ending at a synapse. 117 Primary attachment figure The person who has formed the closest bond with a child, demonstrated by the intensity of the relationship. This is usually a child’s biological mother but other people can fulfil the role. 75, 76, 81, 82, 83, 87, 88–89, 92, 93 Primary data Information that has been obtained first hand by the researcher for the purposes of a research project. In psychology, such data is often gathered directly from participants as part of an experiment, self-report or observation. 190–191 Primary drive Innate drives (motivators) such as for food, water and sex. 80, 81 Prior general consent Prospective participants in a research study are asked if they would take part in certain kinds of research, including ones involving deception. If they say yes they have given their general consent to taking part in such research. 177 Privacy An ethical issue that refers to a zone of inaccessibility of mind or body and the trust that this will not be ‘invaded’. Contrasts with confidentiality. Can be dealt with in some situations by providing anonymity. 37, 65, 176–177

Psychic determinism 119, 123 Psychoactive drugs A chemical substance that alters one’s mental processes. 113, 117

Psychodynamic approach A perspective that describes the different forces (dynamics), most of which are unconscious, that operate on the mind and direct human behaviour and experience. 11, 104, 118–119, 120, 122–123

Qualitative data analysis Any means of extracting meaning from data that focuses more on words (i.e. what participants say) than on forms of numerical data. Qualitative analyses interpret the meaning of an experience to the individual(s) concerned. 22, 23, 37, 183, 184, 190–191 Qualitative methods 123 Quantitative data Data that can be counted, usually given as numbers. 21, 37, 183, 190–191 Quantitative data analysis Any means of extracting meaning from data that uses numerical data as the basis for investigation and interpretation (e.g. descriptive or inferential statistics). 21, 37, 183, 190–191 Quasi-experiment A study that is almost an experiment but lacks key ingredients. The IV has not been determined by anyone (the researcher or any other person) – the ‘variables’ simply exist, such as being old or young. Strictly speaking this is not an experiment. 95, 125, 172, 173 Questionnaire A set of written questions (sometimes referred to as ‘items’) used to assess a person’s thoughts and/or experiences. 9, 22, 27, 36, 65, 92, 93, 95, 125, 156, 178, 184–187, 190 Random allocation An attempt to control for participant variables in an independent groups design which ensures that each participant has the same chance of being in one condition as any other. 20, 65, 88, 91, 170, 171, 173 Random sampling A sample of participants produced by using a random technique such that every member of the target population being tested has an equal chance of being selected. 174– 175 Random technique A method that ensures that each item has an equal chance of being selected. This can be achieved with random number tables or numbers drawn from a hat. 171 Randomisation The use of chance in order to control for the effects of bias when designing materials and deciding the order of conditions. 168, 169

Psychodynamic explanation 28

Randomly generated list 169

Psychological development 88, 90

Range A simple calculation of the dispersion in a set of scores which is worked out by subtracting the lowest score from the highest score and adding 1 as a mathematical correction. 193

Psychological harm 9, 22, 37, 61, 64 Psychology The scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those functions affecting behaviour in a given context. 6, 12, 104 Goals of 12 Psychomotor agitation Unintentional and purposeless motions associated with high levels of distress. 140 Psychosexual stages The five stages in child development comprising specific conflicts, the outcome of which determines future development. 118, 122 Psychotherapeutic drugs 201 Publication bias The tendency for academic journals to publish only positive findings, or findings that agree with existing theory. 200 Punishment Any procedure that decreases the likelihood that a behaviour will be repeated because the overall experience is unpleasant. 12, 106, 144 Q-sort 121 Qualitative data Data that is expressed in words and non-numerical (although qualitative data may be converted to numbers for the purposes of analysis). 22, 23, 37, 183, 184, 190–191

Rating scale A means of assessing attitudes or experiences by asking a respondent to rate statements on a scale of 1 to 3 or 1 to 5, etc. Produces ordinal data. 156, 185, 186 Ratio A comparison of two things. 196 Rational choices 11 Raw scores Original data that has not been transformed in any way, for example by working out an average. 194 Reactive depression Depression that can be attributed to a reaction to a life event such as the death of a loved one. 149 Real-life studies 47, 55 Reality principle In psychoanalytic theory, the drive to accommodate to the demands of the environment in a realistic way. 118 REBT (Rational emotive behaviour therapy) An example of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) where maladaptive behaviour is attributed to faulty thinking. Therefore the therapy aims to change this faulty thinking, making it rational. REBT acknowledges the importance of emotions as well as thinking. The outcome is behavioural change, thus R + E + B. 150–151

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Recall 46, 55, 56–57, 60, 63 Reciprocal determinism A person’s behaviour both influences and is influenced by personal factors and the social environment. 109, 123 Reciprocal inhibition In the case of opposing muscles, one is inhibited by the other’s action. 146 Reciprocity A description of how two people interact. Mother–infant interaction is reciprocal in that both infant and mother respond to each other’s signals and each elicits a response from the other. 74, 75, 76, 81 Reductionism 122 Rehearsal 46, 49

Right to withdraw An ethical issue; participants should have the right to withdraw from participating in a research study if they are uncomfortable with the study. 22, 36, 64, 94, 124, 156, 202

Selective serotonin reuptake indicator (SSRI) An antidepressant group of drugs that increase available amounts of serotonin by preventing their reabsorption by the transmitting neuron. 117, 154–155, 201

Right to withhold data 177

Self The ideas and values that characterise ‘I’ and ‘me’ and includes perception and valuing of ‘what I am’ and ‘what I can do’. 120, 122

Rogers, Carl 105, 120, 121 Role model People who have qualities we would like to have and we identify with, thus we model or imitate their behaviour and attitudes. 108, 123 Sample A group of people who take part in a research investigation. The sample is drawn from a (target) population and is presumed to be representative of that population, i.e. it stands ’fairly’ for the population being studied. 174– 175

Self-actualisation The desire to grow psychologically and fulfill one’s potential – becoming what you are capable of. 120, 136, 137 Self-concept The self as it is currently experienced, all the attitudes we hold about ourselves. 122 Self-esteem The feelings that a person has about their self-concept. 11, 120, 136, 141

Reinforcement A consequence of behaviour that increases the likelihood of that behaviour being repeated. Can be positive or negative. 10, 35, 80, 106, 108, 122, 144; also see Operant conditioning

Sampling frame The source material from which a sample is drawn. 174

Relay neurons Carry message from sensory neurons to motor neurons or other relay neurons. Short dendrites and short axons. 116

Sampling techniques The method used to select people from the population. 36, 37, 64, 80, 94, 124, 125, 156, 157, 174–175

Self-reporting 92, 93, 180, 184–187

Reliability 125

Scanning Scanning is used for research purposes and also used to record the structure and action of the brain and body, such as PET scans and MRI scans. This is done for research and also to detect abnormalities such as tumours. 10, 51, 105

Semantic memory A long-term memory store for our knowledge of the world. This includes facts and our knowledge of what words and concepts mean. These memories usually also need to be recalled deliberately. 50–51, 110

Repeated measures All participants take part in all conditions of the experiment. 124, 170 Replication The opportunity to repeat an investigation under the same conditions in order to test the validity and reliability of its findings. 23, 25, 27, 89, 104, 107, 181 Repression A form of ego defence whereby anxietyprovoking material is kept out of conscious awareness as a means of coping. 118 Research Hypothesis 8, 12, 21, 29, 94, 124, 166, 175, 189, 198 Limitations 19, 35, 47, 49, 185, 189, 191 Methods 9, 11 Support 17, 25, 27, 31, 33, 35 Also see Validity Researcher bias 175 Resistance to obedience 31 Resistance to social influence Refers to the ability of people to withstand the social pressure to conform to the majority or to obey authority. This ability to withstand social pressure is influenced by both situational and dispositional factors. 30–31 Response bias A tendency for interviewees to respond in the same way to all questions, regardless of context. This would bias their answers. 58, 185 Retrieval Recall of information previously stored in memory. 48, 56–57 Retrieval failure A form of forgetting. It occurs when we don’t have the necessary cues to access memory. The memory is available but not accessible unless a suitable cue is provided. 56– 57 Retroactive interference (RI) Forgetting occurs when newer memories disrupt the recall of older memories already stored. The degree of forgetting is again greater when the memories are similar. 54–55 Retrospective consent Obtaining permission after a study or event. 177 Review A consideration of a number of studies that have investigated the same topic in order to reach a general conclusion about a particular hypothesis. 149, 151, 153, 155, 190

Scattergram A type of graph that represents the strength and direction of a relationship between co-variables in a correlational analysis. 36, 194 Schema A mental framework of beliefs and expectations that influence cognitive processing. They are developed from experience. 62, 110, 111, 122, 148 Schizophrenia A severe mental illness where contact with reality and insight are impaired, a kind of psychosis. 119 Schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) A personality disorder characterised by difficulties with relationships, and being emotionally and socially withdrawn. 135

Self-harm 140 Self-report technique Any method in which a person is asked to state or explain their own feelings, opinions, behaviours and/or experiences related to a given topic. 184–185 Self-talk 13

Semantically The meaning of something, such as a word. 46, 48, 49 Semi-structured interview An interview that combines some pre-determined questions (as in a structured interview) and some questions developed in response to answers given (as in an unstructured interview). 37, 184 Sensory neurons Carry messages from the PNS (peripheral nervous system) to CNS (central nervous system). Long dendrites and short axons. 116

Science A means of acquiring knowledge through systematic and objective investigation. The aim is to discover general laws. 8, 104

Sensory register The memory stores for each of our five senses, such as vision (iconic) and hearing (echoic). Coding in the iconic sensory register is visual and in the echoic sensory register it is acoustic. The capacity of sensory registers is huge (millions of cells) and information lasts for a very short time (less than half a second). 48

Scientific method An objective means of testing hypotheses in order to develop empirically based explanations/theories. 12

Separation anxiety Distress shown by an infant when separated from an attachment figure. 74, 76, 77, 84, 85, 87

Secondary attachment figure The closest emotional bond is with a primary attachment figure; additional support is available from secondary attachment figures who provide an emotional safety net. 74, 75, 76, 77

Serotonin-noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) 154

Secondary data Information that has already been collected by someone else and so pre-dates the current research project. In psychology, such data might include the work of other psychologists, or government statistics. 190– 191

Sexual selection A key part of Darwin’s theory explaining how evolution is driven by competition for mates, and the development of characteristics that ensure reproductive success.

Secondary drive Learned drives (motivators) acquired though association with a primary drive, such as money that enables primary drives to be satisfied. 80 Secure attachment Generally thought of as the most desirable attachment type, associated with psychologically healthy outcomes. In the Strange Situation this is shown by moderate stranger and separation anxiety and ease of comfort at reunion. 85, 86, 92, 95 Secure-base behaviour Secure attachment provides a sense of safety to enable exploration and independence. 74, 84

Serotonin 10, 117, 152–153

Sexual imprinting Acquiring a template of the characteristics of a desirable mate. 78

Short-term memory (STM) The limited-capacity memory store. Coding is mainly acoustic; capacity is between 5 and 9 items on average, duration is between about 18 and 30 seconds. 46–49, 52–54 Sign test A statistical test used to analyse the difference in scores between the same participants under two experimental conditions. 124, 198–199 Significance A statistical term indicating that the research findings are sufficiently strong to enable a researcher to reject the null hypothesis under test and accept the research hypothesis. 190, 197–199 Significance level The level of probability ( p) at which it has been agreed to reject the null hypothesis. 198

236 • INDEX/GLOSSARY

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Significant figures Giving a rough idea of a number by substituting zeros as place holders. In a number with two significant figures we keep the two most important digits and replace others with zeros, rounding up if necessary. 197 Single-blind procedure A type of research design in which a participant is not aware of research aims and/or of which condition of the experiment they are receiving. 178 Situational variables In his research Milgram identified several factors that he believed influenced the level of obedience shown by participants. They are all related to the external circumstances rather than to the personalities of the people involved. 24, 91 Skewed distribution A spread of frequency data that is not symmetrical, where the data clusters to one end. 195 Skinner, BF 105, 106–107 SLT See social learning theory. Snowball effect A process that starts from an initial state of small significance and increasingly becomes larger, such as starting with only a small group of people supporting an idea and gradually more and more people are supportive. 32, 34 SNRIs Serotonin–norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, a group of anti-depressant drugs.

Social releasers A social behaviour or characteristic that elicits a caregiving reaction. 82 Social roles The ‘parts’ people play as members of various social groups. Everyday examples include parent, child, student, passenger and so on. These are accompanied by expectations we and others have of what is appropriate behaviour in each role, for example caring, obedient, industrious, etc. 20–21

Statistics A method of collecting, summarising and analysing data for the purpose of drawing some conclusions about the data. 198–199 Stereotypes A perception of an individual in terms of some readily available feature, such as their group membership or physical attractiveness, rather than their personal attributes. 28, 35 STM See short-term memory.

Social support The presence of people who resist pressures to conform or obey can help others to do the same. These people act as models to show others that resistance to social influence is possible. 30

Strange Situation A controlled observation designed to test attachment security. Infants are assessed on their response to playing in an unfamiliar room, being left alone, left with a stranger and being reunited with a caregiver. 84–85, 86–87, 90, 93, 180

Soft determinism The concept that there are constraints on our behaviour but within these limitations we are free to make choices. 111

Stranger anxiety Distress shown by an infant when approached by an unfamiliar person. 76, 77, 84

Somatic nervous system (SNS) Transmits information from receptor cells in the sense organs to the CNS. It also receives information from the CNS that directs muscles to act. 114 Specific phobia One type of phobia where fear is linked to a particular class of objects such as spiders or heights. 138 Spinal cord Part of the central nervous system, a bundle of nerves from the brain transmitting nervous signals between the brain and the rest of the body. 114

Stratified sampling A sampling technique in which groups of participants are selected in proportion to their frequency in the population in order to obtain a representative sample. The aim is to identify sections of the population, or strata, that need to be represented in the study. Individuals from those strata are then selected for the study using a random technique. If the sample is not randomly selected from the stratum, it is then a quota sample. 174–175 Structuralism Any theory that aims to study the relationship among phenomena rather than the phenomena themselves, and the systems formed by these relations. 104

Social anxiety (social phobia) 138, 147

Spontaneous decay The disappearance of the physical memory trace over time where there is no external cause. 47

Social approval 16

SSRI See selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor.

Social change Occurs when whole societies, rather than just individuals, adopt new attitudes, beliefs and ways of doing things. Examples include accepting that the Earth orbits the Sun, women’s suffrage, gay rights and environmental issues. 34–35

Stages of attachment Many developmental theories identify a sequence of qualitatively different behaviours linked to specific ages. In stages of attachment some characteristics of the infants’ behaviour towards others change as the infant gets older. 76–77

Social cryptomnesia When social change occurs, the new attitude becomes an integral part of the society’s culture, and the source of the minority influence that led to it is often forgotten. ‘Cryptomnesia’ refers to the experience that an idea is new and original whereas in fact it is a memory from the past. For example, a person writes a song they believe is their own but in fact they heard it before. 34

Standard deviation A sophisticated measure of dispersion in a set of scores. It tells us how much scores deviate from the mean by calculating the difference between the mean and each score. All the differences are added up and divided by the number of scores. This gives the variance. The standard deviation is the square root of the variance. 193

Substitution explanation An explanation for inaccurate eyewitness recall, suggesting that misleading information replaces the original memory. 58

Standard police interview 63

Sympathetic nervous system A division of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) which activates internal organs for vigorous activities and emergencies, such as the ‘fight or flight’ response. It consists of nerves that control, for example, increased heart rate and breathing, and decreased digestive activity. The sympathetic branch works in opposition to the parasympathetic branch of the ANS. 114, 115

SNS See sympathetic nervous system.

Social desirability bias A tendency for respondents to answer questions in such a way that presents themselves in a better light. 125, 203 Social hierarchy A structure with a few people at the top having power over those at lower levels of the structure. 26, 27 Social identity theory (SIT) The theory that suggests your behaviour is motivated by your social identity. A person’s self-image has two components: personal identity and social identity. Personal identity is based on your characteristics and achievements. Social identity is determined by the various social groups to which you belong, your ‘ingroups’. 21, 23, 29 Social influence The process by which individuals and groups change each other’s attitudes and behaviours. Includes conformity, obedience and minority influence. 22, 30–31, 33–37 Social learning theory A way of explaining behaviour that includes both direct and indirect reinforcement, combining learning theory with the role of cognitive factors. 10, 81, 105, 107, 108–109, 122 Social norms Something that is standard, usual or typical of a group. 19, 134, 135 Social phobia (social anxiety) An excessive fear of social situations such as leaving the house or speaking in public. 138, 147

Standardisation Using exactly the same formalised procedures and instructions for all participants in a research study. 124, 168, 169, 186, 202 Standardised instructions A set of instructions that are the same for all participants so as to avoid investigator effects caused by different instructions. 104, 124, 169 Stanford prison experiment 20–21 State-dependent forgetting 56 Statistical analysis 8, 9, 185 Statistical infrequency Occurs when an individual has a less common characteristic, for example being more depressed or less intelligent than most of the population. 134 Statistical norms 135 Statistical test (Inferential test) Procedures for drawing logical conclusions (inferences) about the population from which samples are drawn. 198–199 Statistical testing Provides a way of determining whether hypotheses should be accepted or rejected. In psychology, they tell us whether differences or relationships between variables are statistically significant or have occurred by chance. 9, 190, 198–199

Structured interview Any interview where the questions are decided in advance, basically a questionnaire delivered by a person. 23, 92, 184–185 Structured observations The researcher uses various ‘systems’ to organise observations, such as a sampling technique and behavioural categories. 182–183

Superego The moralistic part of our personality which represents the ideal self: how we ought to be. 118 Survival of the fittest 104

Symptom severity 154 Symptom substitution 147 Synapse 117, 152 Synaptic transmission The process by which neighbouring neurons communicate with each other by sending chemical messages across the gap (the synapse) that separates them. 117 Synaptic vesicles Small sacs on the end of a presynaptic neuron that contain neurotransmitters that will be released into a synapse. 117 Synchronic consistency Consistency between group members. 32

INDEX/GLOSSARY • 237

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Systematic desensitisation (SD) A behavioural therapy designed to reduce an unwanted response, such as anxiety, to a stimulus. SD involves drawing up a hierarchy of anxietyprovoking situations related to the phobic stimulus, teaching the patient to relax, and then exposing them to phobic situations. The patient works their way through the hierarchy whilst maintaining relaxation. 123, 146–147, 201

Token economy systems A form of behavioural therapy, where desirable behaviours are encouraged by the use of selective reinforcement. For example, patients are given rewards (tokens) as secondary reinforcers when they engage in correct/socially desirable behaviours. The tokens can then be exchanged for primary reinforcers – food or privileges. 107

Unstructured observations Every instance of a behaviour is recorded in as much detail as possible. This is useful if the behaviours you are interested in do not occur very often. 182–183

Trauma 155

Systematic sample A method of obtaining a representative sample by selecting every 5th, 7th, 10th or whatever person. This can be random if the first person is selected using a random method; then you select every 5th, 7th, 10th person after this. 174–175

Trichotillomania 142

Variable ratio In operant conditioning when a reward is delivered at intervals that change each time rather than, for example, every 15 seconds. 107

Table of critical values A table that contains the numbers used to judge significance (whether the null hypothesis can be rejected). The observed (calculated) value of the test statistic is compared to the number in the table (called the critical value) to see if the observed value is significant. 198–199

Twin studies Research conducted using twins. Monozygotic (MZ) twins have the same genes whereas dizygotic (DZ) twins are about 50% similar genetically. It is presumed that all twins share a similar environment, so by comparing MZ and DZ twins one can conduct a quasi-experiment, where the independent variable is degree of genetic similarity. This means the influence of genetic factors can be assessed. 112–113, 153

Tables 36, 65, 94, 95, 124, 125, 156, 198–199 Tally chart 157 Target population The target population is the entire group a researcher is interested in, the group about which the researcher wishes to draw conclusions. For example, if a sample is taken from a group of men aged 30–60 living in London then the target population is London men in this age group and conclusions should only be applied to this target population. Usually researchers apply the conclusions to a wider population and then questions are asked about generalisability. 174, 175 Task difficulty Asch’s line-judging task is more difficult when it becomes harder to work out the correct answer. Conformity increases because naïve participants assume that the majority is more likely to be right. 18 Temperament Emotional type, such as being outgoing or reserved, moody or cheerful. 83, 85, 93

Tricyclics 154 Tunnel theory An explanation for the weapon-focus effect that the weapon narrows the field of attention and thus reduces information to be stored. 60

Two-process theory In relation to social influence, used to describe the two processes that explain conformity: normative and informational social influence. In relation to explaining anxiety disorders, the two processes of classical and operant conditioning explain the onset and persistence of disorders that create anxiety, such as phobias. 16–17 Two-tailed test Form of test used with a nondirectional hypothesis. 198 Two-way mirror What appears to be a mirror from one side permits viewing from the other side. 9, 84, 180, 183 Types of attachment Refers to whether a person is securely or insecurely attached, i.e. the way you relate to others in the context of intimate relationships. 84–87, 90, 92–93, 95

Terminal buttons 116 Testosterone Testosterone is a hormone produced mainly by the testes in males, but it also occurs in females. It is associated with the development of secondary sexual characteristics in males (e.g. body hair), but has also been implicated in aggression and dominance behaviours. 109

Unanimity The extent to which all the members of a group agree. In Asch’s studies, the majority was unanimous when all the confederates selected the same comparison line. This produced the greatest degree of conformity in the naïve participants. 18

The unconscious The part of the mind that we are unaware of but which continues to direct much of our behaviour. 118

Unconditional positive regard Providing affection and respect without any conditions attached. 120

Theoretical models 110

Unconditioned response (UCR) In classical conditioning, the innate reflex response to a stimulus, such as salivating when presented with food. 80

Theory A collection of general principles used to explain specific observations and facts. 166 Third variable problem An unintentional third variable influences two separate variables that are being measured. 189 Thyroid gland A pair of small endocrine glands located in the neck that release hormones important for growth and the activity of cells in the body (metabolism). 115 Thyroxine One of the main hormones secreted by the thyroid glands, which controls metabolism. 115 Time sampling A target individual or group is first established then the researcher records their behaviour in a fixed time frame, say, every 60 seconds. 125, 182–183

238 • A level and AS skills

Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) In classical conditioning, the stimulus that inevitably produces an innate reflex response, such as food producing a salivation response. 80, 81, 144, 146 Uniform People in positions of authority often have a specific outfit that is symbolic of their authority, for example police officers and judges. This indicates to the rest of us who is entitled to expect our obedience. 24 Unstructured interview The interview starts out with some general aims and possibly some questions, and lets the interviewee’s answers guide subsequent questions. 23, 92, 123, 184–185

Validity 9, 21, 23, 25, 27, 33, 35, 47, 51, 55, 75, 77, 85, 87, 91, 93, 111, 121, 172, 181

Variables Any ‘thing’ that can vary or change within an investigation. Variables are generally used in experiments to determine if changes in one thing result in changes to another. 21, 24, 47, 51, 61, 64, 77, 88, 91, 95, 124, 166–173, 178, 180, 181, 184, 188–189, 191, 198 Variance 193 Venn diagram 122 Vicarious reinforcement Reinforcement which is not directly experienced but occurs through observing someone else being reinforced for a behaviour. This is a key factor in imitation. 108 Visual cache In the working memory model, a component of the visuo-spatial sketchpad which deals with the storage of visual information, such as the arrangement of objects. 52 Visuo-spatial sketchpad (VSS) The component of the WMM that processes visual and spatial information in a mental space often called our ‘inner eye’. 52, 53 Volunteer bias 175 Volunteer sampling A sample of participants produced by a sampling technique that relies solely on inviting people to take part. 80, 174–175 Watson, John B. 105 Weapon focus effect 60–61 Wearing, Clive 51 Word-length effect People remember lists of short words better than lists of long words, governed by the capacity of the phonological loop. 53 Working memory An area of memory that deals with information that is being worked on, equivalent to short-term memory. It is divided into separate stores representing different modalities. 110 Working memory model (WMM) A representation of short-term memory (STM). It suggests that STM is a dynamic processor of different types of information using sub-units coordinated by a central decision-making system. 52–53 Wundt, Wilhelm 104, 105 Yerkes-Dodson law 60, 124, 189 Zajonc, Robert 8 Zener card test 203 Zero correlation When there is no relationship between the co-variables. For example, the association between the number of people in a room in Manchester and the total daily rainfall in Peru. Zimbardo, Philip 20

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Acknowledgements © Julia Trotti: Front cover, Photographer: Julia Trotti; Model: Madeline Rae Mason; Makeup: Lidija Jevremovic; Stylist: Jessie McNaught: p6, Photographer: Julia Trotti; Model: Madeline Rae Mason; Makeup: Chereine Waddell; Styling: Jessie McNaught: p218, Photographer: Julia Trotti; Model: Madeline Rae Mason; Makeup: Megan Vaughan; Styling: Jessie McNaught. © Shutterstock: p5, Photology1971; p8, Malyugin; p10, Picsfive, Hein Nouwens, Inara Prusakova; p11, EKS, Kompaniets Taras, Sergey Nivens; p12, Michael D Brown; p13, images.etc; p17, YanLev; p19, bikeriderlondon; p22, Sergey Nivens; p24, AMA; p25, michaeljung; p26, utcon; p27, Eugenio Marongiu; p28, Timof; p30, alphaspirit; p31, Mjak; p32, Neyro; p33, AndreyPopov; p34, Skylines; p35, YANGCHAO; p36, AndreyPopov; p37, Monkey Business Images; p44, American Spirit, Gajus, KieferPix, Nolte Lourens, Soloviova Liudmyla, Subbotina Anna, Vitalinka; p48, wacomka; p50, YanLev; p53, Elena Elisseeva; p54, matkaWariatka; p55, VILevi; p56, Alessandro Colle; p57, Keeneye, Leszek Glasner; p58, IVL; p59, Everett Collection; p60, Roland IJdema; p61, Alexandra Thompson; p62, Adam Gregor; p63, Danomyte; p65, bikeriderlondon, David Pereiras; p72, Denis Kuvaev; p74, Pressmaster; p77, bikeriderlondon; p80, margouillat photo; p81, Volt Collection; p82, mimagephotography; p83, Monkey Business Images; p84, Solis Images; p85, Jeff Thrower; p87, leungchopan; p88, fotogestoeber; p89, Firma V; p90, Pressmaster; p92, smikeymikey1; p93, Kristo-Gothard Hunor; p95, Marcos Mesa Sam Wordley; p102, mary416; p104, Graeme Dawes; p105, AISA - Everett; p107, Mike H; p108, Maxisport; p110, Callahan, Jstone; p112, Eric Isselee; p113, Noel Powell; p114, 3drenderings; p117, BamboOK; p121, ostill; p125, szefei; p132, Africa Studio; p136, Eric Broder Van Dyke; p138, Andrew Lever; p139, Ioannis Pantzi; p139, R. Gino Santa Maria; p140, AsianShow; p141, Arkela; p142, hxdbzxy; p144, Eric Isselte; p145, Rommel Canlas; p146, Pavlo Loushkin; p147, Onyshchenko; p149, deeepblue; p151, altanaka; p153, Augustino; p155, Adam Gilchrist; p156, Kamil Macniak; p157, Blend Images; p164, Ollyy; p166, Oleksiy Mark; p167, Andrea Izzotti ; p168, Urszula Lysionek; p169, michaeljung; p172, Arina P Habich ; p173, Callahan ; p174, jesadaphorn; p175, Morgan DDL; p175, phloen; p176, rnl; p177, Marijus Auruskevicius; p179, Rawpixel, Syda Productions; p180, Javier Brosch; p184, Pakawat Suwannaket; p185, Lisa F. Young; p186, Catalin Petolea; p186, doomu; p189, NotarYes; p193, Aleksandar Bozhikov; p195, PathDoc; p196, Photomika; p197, Mattz90; p198, Orca; p201, Alexander Raths, Sergey Nivens; p202, WP84; p211, somartin; p212, Darren Woolridge, M.Stasy, Tim UR; p213, FXQuadro, Helena Ohman; p214, Nejron Photo, Yuriy Vlasenko; p216, BonD80; p220, Vereshchagin Dmitry; p220, Yuriy Vlasenko; p221, indigolotos, Olga Danylenko, Ollyy; also Picsfive; irin-k; Ana de Sousa © Cartoonstock: p143, p200 © Fotolia: p6, Jack; p7, andrejco; p9, Christian Schwier; p94, karelnoppe; p117, Rob3000; p134, M; 135, Mickyso; p140, hikrcn; p148, i love images ; p150, WavebreakMediaMicro; p152, Ilenia Pagliarini; p154, Rob3000; p170, la gorda Picture-desk.com: p14,109, ©United Artists/The Kobal Collection Alamy: p171, © Marc Tielemans / Alamy Science Photo Library: p78, ©Science Photo Library; p79 ©Science Source/ Science Photo Library; p183, ©CROWN COPYRIGHT/HEALTH & SAFETY LABORATORY SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY; p203, ©OSCAR BURRIEL/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY p51 © arenapal.com; p20, p181 © Philip G. Zimbardo; p76, © photolibra.com / C. John Cleare CC BY-SA via Flickr: p13, Vincent Lau CC; p49, toolmantim via Wikimedia Commons: p21, p29,75,91,154

•239

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The back page The authors would like to thank our fantastic support team at Illuminate Publishing – first and foremost Rick Jackman who managed the superhuman task of bringing this project to fruition and with good humour! We would also like to thank the rest of the team at Illuminate – Peter Burton, Clare Jackman and Saskia Santos – plus our excellent editor Geoff Tuttle and the book’s designer Nigel Harriss whose talents are beyond compare. The authors and publisher also wish to thank the following teachers and their students for their invaluable suggestions: Sara Arkle of Cherwell School, Oxford; Jo Haycock of Newport Girls’ High School, Newport and Diana Jackson-Dwyer.

Cara has written many books for A level psychology and is senior editor of Psychology Review. She speaks at and organises student conferences. In a previous life she was a teacher probably for more years than you have been alive. Her spare time (what there is of it) involves her husband and children (now over 20 years old), pubs and mountains, preferably on the same day.

Dave has been a psychology teacher for 15 years and currently works at Bolton School (an independent school in the Northwest) in the boys’ and girls’ divisions. Dave enjoys eating out, eating in, having races with his son, and has an unfortunate – but nevertheless lifelong – commitment to Leeds United Football Club.

240 • The end

cover: racing About the e model g ason is th reat friends M e a R e g Madelin ver. She is her, of our co hotograp p the front n io sh fa t n ork in a w lli d ri n b a with a both live y e h age T im i. tt chose this about Julia Tro ralia. We d st a u h A e y, w e Sydn rsation cognitive f a conve because o logy, zombies and k. Matt o ch g the boo social psy en plannin Review h y w g lo ce o n a disson for Psych ce ie an p d a a n re e Rick had had writt might rains and b ie b ie b m o m Z o on Z killing a and from out how article ab nance … so is d e iv it searching gn a skip to create co a hop and en we saw Julia’s, s a w it there d, wh oth, photos an We thank them b for cover r. ve g o in d w le llo w bo am, for a we were s. See creative te to r o e h p id r w e e and th veral oth this and se ge 7 for more on us to use pa n o n io uct our introd ance. n so is d e cognitiv

Matt is a Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. He teaches part time, is an editor of Psychology Review magazine and works as a freelance trainer and holds a Research Fellowship at Keele University. When not working (which is fairly rare) Matt likes walks in the Lake District, listening to anything by Maynard Keenan and watching anything by Joss Whedon.

Rob was an A level psychology teacher for more than 20 years, before turning to writing. He’s also taught undergraduates. Rob’s been told often enough (by his wife, mainly) that he’s a bit of a geek. It’s true that he likes nothing more than to settle down of an evening with a big book of facts. He still buys CDs, and will explain why at great length unless someone stops him. He still hasn’t seen Frozen, despite having two granddaughters.

Photographer: Julia Trotti Model: Madeline Rae Mason Makeup: Lidija Jevremovic Stylist: Jessie McNaught

AQA Psychology for A Level Year 1 & AS Written by leading psychology authors, Cara Flanagan, Dave Berry, Matt Jarvis and Rob Liddle, this book’s engaging visual style and tone will support you through the AS or Year 1 course and help you prepare for your exams.

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Approved by AQA, this book offers high quality support you can trust

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The attractive layout will help you engage with the information Each topic is presented on one spread to help you instantly see the whole picture, with description and evaluation clearly separated

Practical research activities support the development of your research methods skills

Exam practice and skills guidance is provided for the new assessment objectives and mark schemes.

About the authors: Cara Flanagan is a well-known and respected author for A Level Psychology.  A practiced teacher with examining experience and a wellknown conference presenter, Cara is renowned for creating resources that students love to use. Dave Berry is a practiced psychology teacher with examining experience. He regularly leads face-to-face and online training courses for a major awarding body. Dave teaches psychology at Bolton School, Lancashire. Also in this series: AQA Psychology for A Level Year 2 – Student Book (978-1-908682-41-3) Digital Books:

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Matt Jarvis currently teaches psychology at a sixth form college in Hampshire. An experienced teacher of psychology from GCSE through to postgraduate level, Matt has authored numerous psychology textbooks. Matt is Honorary Research Fellow at Keele University and also has examining experience. Rob Liddle has more than twenty years’ teaching experience in psychology, from GCSE to postgraduate study. A psychology graduate with a Masters in Organisational Psychology, Rob is an experienced examiner who currently writes psychology books and resources. He teaches at a sixth form college in Southport, Merseyside.

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Yes, Margaret, the War in Israel is Fake they all were

by Miles Mathis First published October 7, 2023

Well, we knew they were going to start another war, and the timing of this one is perfect. Just as Congress stops funding Ukraine, Hamas conveniently flies into Jerusalem on motorized kites. . . because, you know, why not? The Gentiles will believe anything. They could have reported that Hamas rode in on tricycles and no one would have questioned it. Or if anyone did question it, Google would block them. That's what will happen to this paper. In the first minutes it will go to number one and then it will be magically delisted, just like all my other papers. [Added October 9: If you think I am delusional, I can prove it. Google did exactly that, and we know they censored it because the other search engines didn't.

I am listed #9 on page one at Bing for the general search Israel War Fake, with no quotes and no mention of me. I picked that search because it is a general search many would use and it is not a direct quote from my title. So it is not skewed to my paper. And if we check page two we find I am outranking MSN at #12. So I am beating MSN at Bing! Also outranking NBC, Yahoo News, AP, CNN, Wikipedia, and the BBC. I am ranked #16 at Duck and #19 at Yahoo. At Yandex this paper ranks #1.

[October 10: Bing was so embarrassed by my outranking of MSN, they immediately removed my listing. Which is censorship. Which is of course illegal. These major search engines are not allowed to simply remove results they don't like. We know my paper didn't fall off the charts overnight, since it retained its rankings at Yahoo, Duck, and Yandex. For more proof of my high rankings and internet censorship, you may visit this paper.] [October 12: Bing has reinstated my listing at #14, perhaps in response to this. We will see how it goes from here.] Here's more proof of the war:

Because, you know, you can't fake a smoke plume by burning a pile of wood or something. Or with CGI. Mossad doesn't have that tech. Here's more proof of the war:

A woman with a baby fleeing a burning pile of leaves. With cops. Wow, I'm convinced. I can hardly witness the carnage. I hope this came with a triggering warning. Here's more proof of the war:

Yeah, that looks totally real. Totally not pasted together. And what horrible damage from a missile! It destroyed two entire windows! I like the guy sitting there in the other window, hoping he can catch the next one in his teeth. Here's more proof, from a search on “bodies paraded through streets”.

But wait. Are those bodies being paraded through streets, or just some soldiers practicing war games. Don't matter, publish it! Then we are shown video of some guys in a truck firing weapons. Yeah, so. Are the rounds live or blanks? We don't know, but since this is Israel, Hollywood east, I assume this is the usual Jewish theater. But we knew this was theater without even studying the pictures, since we already know Hamas is fake. Just like the PLO and all the other Arab organizations, it is a front for the Israeli army and was created by Mossad just for times like this. As I say, Jews in turbans.

For more proof of that, I send you back to my 2021 article by my writer-on-the-ground in Tel Aviv, Josh, who quotes mainstream Jewish sources admitting Hamas was created and funded by the Israeli Defense. He reminds us of the alleged founder of Hamas, Sheik Yassin:

You have to laugh. A dead ringer for Jewish actor Christopher Lee. And remember what Gore Vidal taught us: Lee=Levi. Still don't believe me? Well try this: an article just out at the New York Post, admitting that Hamas is represented by New York attorney Stanley Cohen. My readers will get a big kick out of that name, and not just for the Cohen. Here's more horrific images from the Israel War:

As you see, the carnage is incredible, with that little hooker wearing a bandage on her knee and running, that lady smiling because she is being groped by an Aryan dude, that guy tilted, and that smoke! Just offscreen children and grandmothers are being killed, held hostage, or made to watch American TV! UPDATE, Next day: More information continues to arrive, confirming this was all staged. That running girl in the last image was allegedly at a big peace party being held out in the desert— conveniently right on the Gaza border—and the parasailers were attacking this peace concert. Another prominent photo allegedly shows a girl dead in the back seat of a car, killed by a strawberry jam grenade, by the looks of it.

Because that makes sense, right? If you were Hamas, itching for revenge against Israel, you would target a bunch of kids at a peace party, and kill all their model girls:

That's another model girl allegedly killed. Here is what we are being told. See if you find it believable at all. Hamas raped her, broke her limbs, killed her, they paraded around her naked dead body as they spat on her corpse and yelled "Allahu Akbar".

Yeah, I bet. That's the video from the back of the pickup truck. Except that we are already getting confirmation this was all staged and that she was just an actress flown in for this part. To start with, we find she has an extensive previous photo and video presence online, indicating she is an actress. She has a bunch of spooky tattoos, including snakes, indicating she is bad news. I suspect her name given in the press Shani Louk/Luk isn't her real name. It means “Red Comrade”, so figure it out yourself. Within 24 hours the internet was littered with poorly written stories about her, like this. These stories appear to have been prewritten by agents who don't know how to write, using AI for help. In these stories, she is anywhere from 22 to 30. Her mother Ricarda Louk is quoted saying she was 22, while her cousin Tom Weintraub is quoted saying she was 30. Weintraub is identified as both male and female, as Tom and Tomasina. And another problem. I have just looked at dozens of photos and videos of Shani Louk posted online, and I don't see a match to the death photo. We are told friends and family identified her by the leg tattoos, but Louk's leg tattoos go all the way around her leg, and are dark and obvious.

In the video, the tats looked CGI'ed in later, and they are blurry, light, and don't go all the way around the leg. If you have the stomach to look more closely, you see why this is: that thing in the film isn't a person, it is a dummy made to look like Louk with dreads. All the limbs are bent backwards like they are rubber—which they are. As usual, we can't see her face, so there is no way to truly identify her. To answer that, we are told all her limbs were broken by these guys, but that isn't how broken limbs look. That is how rubber dummy limbs look. If these guys had completely broken her knee joints, you would see bones poking out and bruises and blood. All you see is pristine rubber knees. If you don't believe me, ask your surgeon if that looks real. Plus, remember this recent paper, where I showed you how realistic these female mannequins/sex dolls have become. In a blurry video like this, you literally could not tell the difference. Here's another problem no one is mentioning. This video had to have been shot by Hamas, but there is no way those guys are going to appear by face in video and then allow it to be posted online worldwide. If any of this were real, it would just be asking Mossad to find you, torture you, and kill your whole family, including all pets. So all these guys are also actors. This whole thing was staged. Israel has now released the names of 42 of these young female models/actresses that are supposedly missing:

Not surprisingly, several of them are Kohens. Even stranger, the site posting them, voiceofeurope.com, has since scrubbed 9 of them, including the Kohens, taking us down to. . . 33. If that is because they were already found safe, it means 1/6th were found safe in the first few hours, meaning they weren't too careful compiling this list. What are the odds the others will be found safe in the next few hours, or be found working for Mossad or Hollywood? Olga Pilnik has since been removed as well. Possibly because we can translate her Hebrew name as Shani Amin, which means “red shining one”. That is more indication Shani Louk's name is an alias as well. These are stage names, not real names. You do realize this makes absolutely no sense, right? A dozen bozos hang-glided over the border into a kibbutz peace party and kidnapped 42 of the most beautiful women in Israel? So how did Hamas get

those girls out of there and back across the border? The border was tight on the way in, requiring they come in silently by air, but then they could noisily drive their pickups full of dead girls back over the border? Where did the pickups come from? Did they bring those in on kites, too? Anyone buying this story is braindead. Despite the obviousness of this fake, everyone on both sides in the US and worldwide is selling it as real, including Trump, David Icke, RFK, Lara Logan, AOC, Alex Jones, and all the rest. No prominent person is questioning it. None of them can spot moulage or a rubber girl. Perhaps most surprisingly, the Dems are actually taking the side of Hamas. Why on earth would they do that? Because it is part of the purposeful tanking of the Democratic Party, something I have been telling you about for years now. The Dems are purposely doing everything wrong now, and this is just one more example. Addendum October 10: reports from the mainstream press in France (LCI) are already confirming my reading here:

That is yesterday, and it is saying “ 48 hours ago nobody knew the location of the Peace Party, it seems that it is the Israeli army which organized the operation, it is staggering.” Anne Nivat, the reporter, admits that the party was only organized the day before, so how did Hamas make these complicated plans to attack it using parasails and so on? She doesn't seem to be aware that the deaths were staged/faked, but she does seem to be realizing the event was an inside job or a false flag. In the same report, we see this photo of cars attacked:

What's wrong there? Anyone? Why are all the cars white? It is the same problem we saw recently in Hawaii, where everything went to white. The CGI program apparently goofed here, forgetting to apply color to any of the fake cars it pasted in.

After three days of selling this as real and even amplifying it, a few places like Infowars are finally reporting today on fake coverage. There we find Clarissa Ward at CNN getting caught faking incoming missiles on the ground in Israel. They then remind this has happened many times before, going back to the First Gulf War. Yes, but Infowars knew that three days ago: why didn't they question any of this stuff to start with? Why are they still selling the main lines of the “war” in many other stories? Same for Zerohedge, Breitbart, Gateway Pundit, NaturalNews, and all the alternative sites of that sort. They know—and have reported themselves—that the mainstream has been caught hundreds of times making up stories about babies killed, civilians decapitated, all the usual worst atrocities. But then they all reported that in the last three days without questioning any of it. Just today there were stories about Hamas decapitating babies, and these alternative sites printed it with no question, in lockstep with the mainstream. Breitbart is turning out to be the worst of those in this regard, and is again shooting itself in the foot. It will lose many readers, since it assuming everyone on the right is a big supporter of Israel—something that is simply not true. But readers there are seeing just how slanted their coverage is, proving who is really running things over there: the Phoenician Navy, of course. Same with Trump, who has previously commented on fake news. He is famous for promoting the idea. But here he has been among the worst repeating this fake news and the fear and division that accompanies it. Today he was giving speeches warning about WWIII, nukes, and “obliteration”. All for political hay, so that the Pentagon can send aircraft carriers to fight guys on kites and request billions more for “defense”, and so that he himself can claim none of this would have happened on his watch. In other words, more of the worst kind of wag-the-dog propaganda and gaslighting. Really putrid made-for-TV-and-internet theater. But it continues to unwind on them, and we see proof of that straight from this paper of mine. The fact

it went superviral immediately, even above anything at the highly promoted Infowars, proves that millions of people were searching on “Israel War Fake.” So many, as it turns out, the Pentagon and Langley were forced into panic mode, being ordered to immediately manufacture a lot of fake news items with those search terms, to misdirect and water down on that question. They desperately needed to push my listing down. Finding that impossible on such short notice, Bing was forced to simply delete it. At many of those manufactured pages, they try to convince us that yes, false stories do get shared online, photos get mixed up, mistakes are made, but that is mainly the fault of social media, and bad actors probably sent in from Russia or China. It doesn't mean you should question this event as a whole, or the news as a whole. In other planted stories around the “fake” search, the mainstream sites are claiming that anyone that disbelieves the mainstream stories is themselves spreading fake information or “hate”. Standing the truth on its head, as usual. They want you to believe that those who refuse the propaganda are propagandists. Those who refuse the hate are haters. Those who refuse the lies are liars. They even want to seem to bluff you into believing it is illegal to question the news. If everyone assures you there is a real war going on and you refuse to believe it, you are a criminal or terrorist. It isn't true. There are no laws of that sort. You don't have to believe what the government reports, no matter how loudly they report it. Even some of my best readers can't seem to get the message here, even after all we have been through. They are saying, yes, Miles, you have proved some fakery here, and others are showing other instances, but that is no reason to jump to conclusions. That is no reason to write off the entire war as a fake. Really? So exactly how many cases of fraud would I have to show you before this was not “jumping to a conclusion”? What percentage of all events in history would I have to out as fakes before you got the message that these people are inveterate fakers and pathological liars? Because the percentage is getting up there. I have covered literally thousands of the top events and people in history, showing you precisely none of them were what we have been sold. We have been sold a line of a million lies, and yet when I tell you the next thing they say is a lie, you claim I am jumping to a conclusion? Where is the jump? There is no jump, I am just arriving naturally and rationally at the logical conclusion, after decades of research: it is a vast and audacious fraud, run on us all for profit and control. There is no longer any least doubt of it, so there is no jump. The only jump would be coming to any other conclusion, given what we have discovered. Get this through your head once and for all, as a general rule of logic: once you have proven a person or group is a liar, the default assumption is that everything important he says is a lie. All trust should be gone. If, in an extended event, you discover sub-events are purposely falsified, the default assumption is that all events are false. In other words, if we find—and we have found—that many events in this Israel War are manufactured, staged, or purposely falsified, the logical assumption is that the whole thing is fake. There is no reason to fake parts of a real event, since a real event has plenty of real things to report on. Plus, we are not judging this event in isolation. We are not judging it only upon its owns merits. It is one in a long line of similar events, put on by the same people. We have already caught them lying about everything else in history, so of course they are lying about this, too. Do you see how that works? It isn't just my research, it is Lestrade's voluminous research on the Pacific Theater. It is Orwell, promoted by the mainstream, who warned us of exactly this: staged wars in far off lands, faked by the

media. If you have read 1984, you know they didn't just have constant war to create hate and drive the economy, they had constant fake war, manufactured by writers, with nothing real going on on the ground. It is Hollywood, which has admitted this is what is going on in films like Wag the Dog. Robert DeNiro told you to your face. They also admit it in films like The Truman Show and The Matrix: the whole thing is a fake. Even George Bush admitted it, saying “if they knew what we were doing they would hang us all from the nearest lamp post”. What was it they were doing? What did he mean? He meant this. He meant that if we found out the Phoenicians were faking everything, and always had, we would rise up, burn them all down to ash, and then launch the ash in a rocket to the Sun, where it could never be reconstituted again. Addendum October 12: You want more? I will keep giving you more. Readers are continuing to send in fake photos from this fake war. They have more patience with this than I do. Here are two more.

There are programs you can use to tell if a photo is real or not, so my reader fed that photo into it. It read 4% real, 96% AI. Metadata on the photo indicates it was not taken with a camera, rather all done in photoshop then compressed and downsized to hide the seams. That's pretty obvious at a glance, or should be. Why? Well, remember what I have taught you: look at the photo as a background, middleground, and foreground. In a real photo, that will be harder to do, since it will all blend in together naturally, as it should. But in fake photos like this one, it is very easy to divide it into those three parts. Often a middleground is filled with smoke, but we don't see that here. We see a confusing middleground that seems to consist of a tank, one guy, and some trash in a land of dirt. The guy is way too big, since he would match the size of the Jeep in the foreground. You could stand him beside that Jeep and he would almost be large enough. But there is a little problem called perspective. He is much further away than the Jeep, so he should look much smaller. These bozos who piece these photos together always bungle perspective, which is why it is so easy for artists like me to catch them at it. Same problem with the tanks in the background, which are the same size as the tank in the middle ground. But since they are much further away, they should be much smaller than that. So I don't need a computer program to tell me this is fake. I can tell just from its lack of perspective.

Next we have that one, supposed to be two Israeli soldiers protecting a cameraman. You have to laugh. Looks like something completely different, don't it? But they forgot to protect the other cameraman. What other cameraman? The one taking the picture. Also notice these guys appear to be from different units, since their uniforms don't match. Different shoulder patches and helmets. But the strangest thing is that we are supposed to believe soldiers protect the press, two soldiers assigned to each cameraman as human shields. Again, you have to laugh. That isn't what we have seen in the past, is it, especially from the Israeli Army, which hates real media people, who just get in the way and see things they weren't supposed to see. They may take an unauthorized photo. The press is generally kept out of all war zones now, and those allowed in are agents themselves, and are therefore left to fend for themselves—if any real fending is required, which it isn't. Plus, if they are in such a dangerous zone, why isn't the cameraman wearing a helmet to start with? We just saw this photo heading Lestrade's new article, remember:

She has the press vest on and a helmet, but the guy above doesn't. Another continuity error. So many questions, so few answers. And another one, hot from my inbox:

Three of the four guys are in sandals, and the fourth may be as well. So everyone over there wears open-toed shoes to walk through war zones? Reminds us of Hawaii, where we saw the same thing. You may want to ask yourself what miraculous path those guys took through that rubble behind them, to get through without cutting up their toes or ankles. But obviously they didn't, since this is more CGI. The computer doesn't understand things like shoes or walking.

After Lestrade's paper on Israel came out yesterday, I decided to dig a bit more on Nicole Zedeck, bikini reporter for i24News.

Her father is listed at Instantcheckmate as David Zedeck of Florida and Newport Beach, CA. Is that the same David Zedeck who is head of Global Music at United Talent Agency, one of the biggest in Hollywood? Seems like more than a coincidence, since I am proving the Israel War is just a Hollywood production, and the main scene in Act 1 has been at a music festival. Both David Zedecks are 58. But Newport Beach is far to the south of Beverly Hills, where the music guy is listed. It is in Orange County, which indicates our David Zedeck moved there with his daughter when she went to college. Although not from there, she went to Chapman, graduating in 2021. So what does this tell us? Well, it appears that despite having the same names and ages, they are not the same guy, since the music producer's daughter is named Missy and works for AEG. She is dark-haired. Our David Zedeck is listed as an attorney in Austin. He is also a company owner in Steamboat Springs. He has owned 11 companies, and is currently listed as the owner of Eretz Management, which sells properties in Israel. I guess you see how that ties in here? Before we move on, let's take a quick look at that Chapman University. Although often sold as a Christian University, that is just a front. They admit it has had military connections since at least 1958, and a big film school opened in 1996, when the spooks took over the university in toto. It now has strong links to Hollywood and through them to the Pentagon and Langley. A few years later the Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education was opened as well, telling you who took it over. Explaining why Chapman was involved in this latest hoax. That was funded by Barry Rodgers of BFM Aerospace, formerly Lear Siegler, the big defense contractor. Otherwise he is a ghost, with no presence on the internet. Also interesting concerning Chapman is what I was told by other reader, who informed me he had been at a big conference there in the early 1990s on psychedelics, led by the usual cadre of spooks including Ram Dass, Tim Leary, and Dennis McKenna. So, just what I expected going in. But are the two David Zedecks related? It would explain the promotion of Nicole, wouldn't it? And it would explain why she went to Los Angeles for school. As we dig on that, we find Nicole's grandfather Murray Zedeck, and we can definitely link him through his locations to the Murray Zedeck, retired COB of TransCapital Bank. Since bought out by Power Financial. So that's a palpable hit. Nicole's aunt Gina is married to Shane Stansbury, who just happens to be a senior lecturer in law at Duke University, previously a federal prosecutor. He is a distinguished fellow at their Center for Law, Ethics, and National Security. So we are really getting somewhere now. I guess you see how that ties in here? In his profile we find that among many others, he prosecuted Minh Quang Pham, a former associate of Anwar al-Awlaki and key operative for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, for terrorism offenses;

Oho, you mean the Anwar al-Awlaki I have proved was a big fake? [See p. 3, there] Remember this, from that paper: Al-Awlaki (real name Nasser) graduated from Colorado State University, which he illegally attended on a foreign student's visa, claiming to have been born in Yemen. While still at CSU, he (allegedly) went to Afghanistan to train with the mujahideen, where he was allegedly radicalized. Seems like he would have needed to have been radicalized before he went, but we aren't told how this rich boy was radicalized in Colorado. Despite being a radical, he then went to George Washington University to work on his PhD in education. As radicals and imams do.

The usual BS we are sold by the Intel communities. This indicates Nicole's uncle Stansbury is a spook working fake court cases, like many others we have blown the cover of.

Note the Arlington, VA, there, along with all the other locations. But let's return to the Zedecks. The Hollywood David Zedeck's parents are listed as still alive in Islip, Jack and Lorraine. . . Finally, I found a link. These Zedecks of Central Long Island (Islip, Babylon), related to the David Zedeck of Beverly Hills, also have links to Parkland, FL. See for example Maurice Zedeck, 88. Well, Nicole also has links to Parkland through her Zedecks, see her cousins Jordan and Benjamin. That's because her (great?)uncle Leonard is from there, as well as Jupiter. We are told Leonard worked with Murray Zedeck the big banker in a large real estate company in that area (or actually many of them). So we now have the two Zedecks with family in the same town, strongly indicating they are related. Murray's father is given as Benjamin in one of his bios, and we find a Benjamin Zedek, later Zedeck, in Albany, and his Geni page is managed by Murray. Our Zedecks are also from Albany, with some of them having the locations of Ballston Lake and Clifton Park. Benjamin is not listed with a son Murray, but that is because Murray is still alive. They don't list living relatives. At any rate, these Zedeks of New York are not just Jewish, they are HaKohens. Of the high priestly class. So that fits in here like buttered fingers in a glove. It also allows us to link Nicole's Zedecks back to New York, as well as to give us a second town match with Albany. So we now have a probable match based on locations that Nicole is related to the big talent agency/music festival guy in Hollywood. That would start to explain why they used a music festival in this current fake event. Otherwise it is inexplicable. Now we just need to link to a paragliding company, to explain that. Speaking of which, one of my French readers just sent me this link, about EU Ambassador Sven Kuhn von Burgsdorff, who paraglided in July in Gaza to “show the way” to the Palestinians. Remember, Kuhn=Kohen, so we have the usual telegraphing of an event.

And in other news, it is being reported that the Red Cross is AWOL, refusing to check on the “hostages” in Gaza. That just confirms again this is all a fraud, though nobody but me is reading it in the logical way. How can the Red Cross check on hostages that don't exist? You would think the CIA would be able to bring the Red Cross under the hoax umbrella, but I guess they forgot to write them into the script. President of Israel Isaac Herzog is quoted today as saying all Palestinians are now war targets, “all responsible”, but that somehow that is not against international laws of warfare. Israel is ordering the evacuation of huge areas and cutting off their water and electricity and food supplies. UN High Commissioner Volker Turk has admitted all that is strictly illegal, since a country cannot target civilian populations in that manner. All this has been illegal since the time of the US Civil War and before, which is just one reason our treatment of the Natives was seen as so heinous. So even if you believe the mainstream story of the “war” so far, you should be shocked at Israel's response. They appear to be using it as an excuse for genocide. And these people can't figure out why they aren't liked. The Jews seem to be trying to use this manufactured conflict to generate sympathy for themselves, but as usual they are shooting themselves in the foot high caliber. We are finding out the left in the US was already sympathetic to Palestine, and though places like Breitbart and Gateway Pundit want you to believe Israel has strong support from the right, that isn't true, either. It has the support of Republican political leaders and the military, but almost no support from voters on the right. The only conservatives in the US who support Israel are conservative Jews and some fundamentalist Christian sects who are philoSemitic. The rest of us are sick to death of the whole subject. We wish these people would colonize the Moon and leave us be of their fake projects and conjobs.

So the timing and form of this latest fraud is the worst possible for them. It not only puts eyes on them, generating more revolutionary fervor at the grassroots, it hurts the Republican party and these conservative voices like Breitbart, Gateway Pundit, and all the rest. People are ditching those sites in droves, due to this alone. And it undercuts support for Trump and any other conservative candidates talking about supporting the new war in Israel. I have news for you: the American people don't support ANY new war. They are sick to death of the Old World Order of constant fake wars, draining the treasuries and stealing taxes, and they do not support a New World Order that does the same. They can see that as bad as the Old World was, the New World is even worse. The only good news, if you could call it that, is that Infowars has seen the writing on the wall here and is already pulling back quickly from its early support of this narrative. Today it is leading with stories on the ADL using this event to crack down on free speech, and the Isaac Herzog story—admitting that Israel's over-reaction is shocking and even suspicious. Except that, in another lead story, they are still selling the Peace Party massacre as real and selling newer fake films of Hamas taking hostages and setting houses on fire. So they have a long way to go. This is to be expected, since Infowars' main job is to keep fear levels high. The manner isn't so important, and they can even appear to be revolutionary as long as the message is fear and division. And if their message is contradictory and garbled, both pro-Israel and con, so much the better: it keeps your mind properly stirred, so you can't figure out anything and therefore cannot act.

Introduction Public Schools The Family American Symbols and Holidays Christianity and Churches The LGBTQ+ Agenda Immigration Antiwhiteism Censorship Cowardly Conservatives Conclusion Copyright Info  

Introduction

Conservatives, or who should really just be called normal humans who maintain the basic values, traditions, and social norms that individuals, families, and communities have lived by since ancient times, are under attack by a barrage of deeply disturbing ideologies and well-funded institutions that can only be described as insane—or evil. Instead of being relegated to a fringe group in a dark corner of the Internet or the subjects of a documentary looking into the lives of degenerate weirdos for viewers’ entertainment, these insane people and their agendas are being promoted in public schools and Universities, by Hollywood celebrities and award-winning shows and films, and boosted by the algorithms on the Big Tech social media platforms. Even major food brands and retailers are awash in this new breed of Leftist propaganda. The onslaught of wokeness is even gaining support in the legal system with draconian laws being snuck through Democratcontrolled state legislatures which undermine the very foundation of what America once stood for. We now have Marxists in our own Congress calling for the removal of American symbols, the erasure of our history, and the systemic demonization of White people. The communication tools our society now relies on are being used to censor those who push back against their agenda too loud, and countless activist media outlets exist for the sole purpose of being attack dogs for the regime and smear its enemies as “racists,” “transphobes,” “antisemites,” and an array of other defamatory labels they hope will stick. Children, being impressionable and vulnerable, are one of the enemy’s prime targets. And in recent years it’s become common in public

schools across the country for teachers to sexualize their students as young as preschoolers—having kids engage in LGBTQ Pride parades at school, and the mainstream media now promotes pre-teen boys dressing in drag and young girls getting their breasts surgically removed if they feel uncomfortable with their body or unsure of their gender.1 Freaks, who in past generations you would only see featured on the Jerry Springer Show, are now credentialed teachers and proudly post videos on TikTok bragging about what they’re doing with their students. The U.S. Military is openly recruiting and celebrating gays, lesbians, and transgenders.2 Kids’ cartoons are promoting gender bending drag queens to their young impressionable audiences on Disney+ and Nickelodeon.3 What had always been seen as an adult form of entertainment at gay night clubs in seedy parts of the inner city is now being performed for small children at schools and libraries across the country.4 Many of our cherished holidays are even under attack from those within our own country. Such disgruntled citizens (and illegal aliens) were once relegated to shouting on the street corner, but now their anti-American ideas have taken root and mainstream Marxist Democrats are openly calling for the destruction of statues of the Founding Fathers, abolishing the national anthem, and even replacing the American flag.5 They hate the foundation of our country, including the Bill Rights and the freedoms Americans have enjoyed since 1776. And there’s not just an ongoing assault on our nation’s symbols and founders, but on Capitalism itself with many Democrats continuously nudging us toward socialism. The COVID lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 warmed millions of Americans up to the idea of getting free handouts from the government while they sit at home instead of going to work. And calls for issuing a Universal Basic Income, or UBI—free money to those unwilling to work, are increasing.6 Antifa, the Marxist foot-soldiers who show up to intimidate, threaten, and attack attendees at Conservative events, are now commonplace in cities across the country, and they’re allowed to act with impunity and face no legal consequences for the violence they carry out, which is either ignored by the media or blamed on Trump supporters for “inciting it” by simply existing. In their efforts to overthrow the United States and collapse us into the New World Order, our country has been flooded with a steady stream of millions of illegal aliens from third world countries for decades. These

people aren’t just future Democrat voters, but they further reduce the White majority and erode patriotism in America because most of them aren’t interested in becoming Americans and don’t care about our history, values, or customs—they just simply want to take advantage of what America has. They’ll never assimilate, and instead just further weaken the bonds that hold our cultural fabric together. To entice the caravans of migrants to continue coming, Democrats offer them free housing, free healthcare, free education, and an endless list of welfare benefits which further stresses our sputtering financial system. We’re already so far in debt as a nation that it’s impossible to repay, and things are getting to the point where even paying the interest on the national debt may be impossible.7 The only way out of such a financial hole is to print more money—a lot more. Which means hyperinflation—drastically eroding the value of the dollar and skyrocketing prices, which will likely lead to what some call the Great Reset. A primary tactic to sow discontent and foment social unrest is the promotion of antiwhiteism (anti-White racism) under the banner of Critical Race Theory, which is a scholarly sounding veneer used to cause racial strife by opening old wounds that healed long ago and blaming White people for all the current problems and shortcomings Black people have today. Critical Race Theory disguises antiwhiteism as supposed “history” and promotes the conspiracy theory that White supremacy is woven into the fabric of America and at the heart of our institutions. While we’ve had racial injustices in the past (as with every multicultural country or region throughout history) and struggled to overcome the conflicts between different ethnic groups living among each other, by the end of the 20th century race relations were quite harmonic in the United States—only to begin deteriorating in the 21st century under President Obama who constantly stoked the embers of what was nearly an extinguished fire, reigniting racial and class conflicts and using Black Lives Matter to fan the flames. They’re “woke” they say, which just means they blame others for their own personal failures under the guise of “oppression” which is either imaginary or self imposed so they can portray themselves as victims who insist deserve special treatment. Wokeness is just another synonym for Marxism and is used to gather more supporters for the cause.

And of the Conservatives being targeted in this current culture war, Christians are enemy number one because of their adherence to traditional (normal) family values and customs. The Left’s vicious hatred for Christianity has no bounds with Christian holidays, symbols, and businesses now under constant attack.8 The forces manipulating our society are more than just social media algorithms amplifying absurdities, perverts, and antiwhiteism; although the Big Tech platforms are a large part of the problem. There’s also Operation Mockingbird secretly pulling the strings behind the scenes of the “news” networks, Wikipedia masquerading as an “encyclopedia,” Google curating search results and burying websites and articles containing information they don’t want the general public to know; and now various artificial intelligence “chatbots” which present just as biased information because their programmers have placed strict parameters on the kinds of answers they can give and the content they can generate.9 Of course the high priests of Hollywood are in lockstep, building up false idols whose behaviors and ideologies are modeled by millions of mentally enslaved morons. What most people mindlessly consume as “entertainment” is carefully crafted political propaganda designed to incrementally desensitize the population to various ideas and activities; slowly shifting sensibilities and encouraging radical new notions. The advent of social media proved to be a powerful tool against mainstream media, ultimately revolutionizing countless industries—from how customer service is conducted by businesses, to how people consume TV shows, movies, and music. Through Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube (the first three massive platforms to become centerpieces in society), various “personalities” and independent media companies organically grew massive audiences by utilizing the new technology which allowed anyone to post and distribute their reports to millions (for free), which had previously required enormous and expensive infrastructure to accomplish. It wasn’t until after Donald Trump’s 2016 election victory that mainstream media conglomerates fully realized the average individual in their kitchen on a laptop was now on an even playing field with them, and their information monopoly had slipped through their fingers. What was once seen as a technological novelty that people used to keep in touch with old friends also meant they could share a local news story that may end up being seen by so many others it becomes a national story by going viral.

People also couldn’t help but notice how the mainstream media acted as gatekeepers and purposefully ignored crime patterns and other issues that should have been widely covered. So the mainstream media struck back, co-opting the Big Tech social media platforms, partnering with them—and they were soon transformed into extensions of the mainstream media instead of alternatives, and the good old days were over. The brand name conglomerates weaseled their way back into a position of dominance over the flow of information. Donald Trump winning the 2016 Presidential Election shocked much of the country, if not the world. Hillary Clinton had been expected to win and most of the media portrayed her victory as inevitable—as if it was her “right” to be the next president, which compounded Democrats’ disappointment when she ultimately failed. Once the shock began to wear off, instead of coming to grips with the outcome, a vicious war was launched in hopes of destroying the Trump administration by any means necessary. Plans to impeach him were drawn up before he was even inaugurated.10 Then throughout his administration, he and his associates were relentlessly attacked by Deep State operatives in the intelligence agencies, frivolous lawsuits in the courts, Operation Mockingbird mouthpieces in the “news” media, and his supporters faced increasing censorship on social media. Trump would have been banned from Twitter shortly after the 2020 election even if the January 6th protest hadn’t turned into a riot because the media and the Democrats had manufactured an image of him as a dangerous monster, and numerous politicians including Kamala Harris had been demanding he be banned from social media even before the election.11 But the provocateured and staged false flag “insurrection” was the pretense they were looking for to finally purge him from all the Big Tech platforms and further crackdown on his supporters. Republicans who doubted the outcome of the 2020 election or voiced concerns about Democrats stealing it were now censored on social media, despite Democrats making the same allegations for four straight years prior. But now any talk of a stolen election was “dangerous,” and “undermines our Democracy.” Only in communist countries and other dictatorships are citizens not allowed to question the legitimacy of the ruling party, and that’s what happened in America.

They’re also engaging in what’s called lawfare (legal warfare), which means using the legal system to harass and persecute one’s enemies. Donald Trump, his associates, and his supporters have all been swept up in crippling legal entanglements—while the justice system allows the Biden and Clinton crime families, and Black Lives Matter and Antifa foot soldiers to operate above the law. Many January 6th defendants who weren’t even accused of assaulting police or vandalism during the infamous protest at the Capitol that day were denied bail and held in jail for several years until their trials.12 Many of these same political prisoners were then sentenced to extremely harsh and unfair prison time for technically just trespassing if they happened to be members of the Proud Boys, or became symbols of the protest like the “QAnon Shaman” and the guy who was photographed with his feet resting on Nancy Pelosi’s desk. They were all sentenced to years in prison13 One of the first actions the Justice Department took once Joe Biden was sworn into office was indicting a Twitter user named Douglas Mackey for posting a meme five years earlier back in 2016 joking that Democrats could “skip the lines” on election day by “texting” in their vote instead.14 A common joke posted every election year by people from both political parties, along with the one about the “friendly reminder” that the opposing political party votes on Wednesday. Nobody is fooled by such posts because they’re obvious jokes. And not a single person took the meme about Democrats being able to “text” in their vote for Hillary Clinton seriously, but Douglas Mackey (who went by “Ricky Vaughn” on Twitter) was still indicted for “election interference!”15 He was later sentenced to seven months in federal prison.16 Legal battles often take years and easily cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, even millions to defend. Those found innocent (or not liable in a civil case) usually can’t recoup any of those costs. They may win the case, but are still destroyed financially. The head of Joseph Stalin’s secret police force in the Soviet Union infamously said, “Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime,” and the power of prosecutors to abuse their authority is widely known even in western Democracies. Former Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson admitted in some cases, “it is not a question of discovering the commission of a crime and then looking for the man who has committed it, it is a

question of picking the man and then searching the law books, or putting investigators to work, to pin some offense on him.”17 He goes on, “It is in this realm—in which the prosecutor picks some person whom he dislikes or desires to embarrass, or selects some group of unpopular persons and then looks for an offense, that the greatest danger of abuse of prosecuting power lies. It is here that law enforcement becomes personal, and the real crime becomes that of being unpopular with the predominant or governing group, being attached to the wrong political views, or being personally obnoxious to or in the way of the prosecutor himself.”18 The U.S. Supreme Court has found that even though the law may be “fair on its face, and impartial in appearance” it can still be “applied and administered by public authority with an evil eye and an unequal hand,” allowing prosecutors to make “unjust and illegal discriminations between persons in similar circumstances,” thus violating their civil rights by using the very mechanisms of government that are supposed to protect them.19 The FBI used disinformation to get a FISA warrant to spy on the Trump campaign in order to create the false narrative he conspired with Russians to “steal” the 2016 election. After his administration was bogged down for years, the Mueller investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing and when Robert Mueller finally testified about his investigation, he proved to be an embarrassing and bumbling old man who couldn’t even convincingly articulate why it was launched in the first place.20 But the lawfare continued, with prosecutors ultimately indicting Trump for paying Stormy Daniels to sign an NDA to keep quiet about their alleged affair (claiming it was an unreported campaign expense), then for keeping some documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence from his time in the White House; and soon after that for other trumped up charges (no pun intended) claiming he orchestrated a “criminal conspiracy” trying to steal the 2020 election. All signs of a banana republic and a collapsing society. And sadly, we aren’t just opposed by a matrix of enemies on the Left, but also from within our own ranks. Brand name “Republicans” and corporate “Conservatives” have been too cowardly for years to stand up against what’s happening to our culture—afraid of being called “homophobic” or “racist.” Only recently since the insanity has boiled over and infected elementary school children’s cartoons and soiled

advertisements from big box retailers and the U.S. military have they dared say anything. And it wasn’t until censorship of Conservatives had snowballed out of control and swept up mainstream figures (culminating in the seated President at the time, Donald Trump, being banned from all Big Tech platforms) that brand name Conservative news outlets, pundits, and Republican members of Congress finally began speaking out about what many of us independent YouTubers had been shouting from the rooftops about for years. You’ve seen what’s happening. And even though you may try to keep up with the news, there’s only so much time in the day for that among all the other obligations of life. Unless your full-time job is following politics or pop culture, it’s impossible to know the full extent of the damage being done to society, but it’s clear to anyone that we are facing relentless assaults on numerous fronts. And as the weeks, months, and years fly by, we tend to lose perspective on where things are and how much they’ve changed. The shock wears off, and the “new normal” sets in. Like the proverbial frog slowly boiling in the pot unaware of what’s happening because of the small but incremental temperature increases, most people won’t see the big picture of what the Marxists are doing to America until it’s too late. So before we get to the point of no return (which hopefully we haven’t already crossed) mute your phone, schedule some quiet time for yourself, and let’s take a close look at how the pieces of the puzzle all fit together in The War on Conservatives.  

Public Schools

Public schools (which should really be called government schools) were once a place for kids to learn the basic knowledge needed to get through life: reading, writing, and arithmetic; along with history, geography, science, and a few others; but in recent years they have become indoctrination centers where Leftists use the captive audience of young and impressionable minds to shape future generations into the mold of Marxism. “Give me a child when he’s seven, and we’ll have him for life,” is an old maxim attributed to numerous individuals throughout history from the Greek philosopher Aristotle to Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. Whoever said it doesn’t matter because the statement conveys the obvious importance of early education and how what a child is taught when they’re young can shape their character and beliefs for the rest of their lives. It’s now commonplace in public schools across the country for teachers to not just hang LGBTQ+ rainbow “Pride” flags up in their classrooms, but stock their libraries with sexually explicit queer books, and countless teachers are now “coming out” to their students as gay, lesbian, and gender non-binary—even posting the videos on TikTok.21 Many schools are inviting drag queens to put on “performances” for the kids and hold “Pride” parades every June to kick off queer Pride Month.22 Activities that had previously always been contained in seedy gay bars have now been imported into elementary schools across America.23 Most LGBT teachers who have infiltrated the schools are openly grooming young students hoping to convince them to question their own gender and experiment with their sexuality. And instead of just teaching history (which contains atrocities, and embarrassing actions carried out by

every culture around the world), the woke system is intent on indoctrinating students to think that not much has changed from 1850s until now in the United States. And even though slavery ended after the Civil War they still insist that America has “White supremacy” woven into the very fabric of our society. Every institution—from the legal system and schools to businesses and sports are supposedly secretly being run by “White supremacists” and keeping Black people down!24 It’s all being done under the cover of Critical Race Theory which is further disguised under the label of “history,” but the agenda is the same. As countless proponents of Critical Race Theory have openly admitted, the principles and concepts are the same ones teachers are using to indoctrinate children with while avoiding the term itself in hopes of hiding their motive. “Critical Race Theory” is really just a code word for antiwhiteism (anti-White racism), and it’s now common for teachers to have Black Lives Matter flags hanging in their classrooms. Project Veritas was able to give everyone a close look at the mindset of these teachers when they caught one on hidden camera during an undercover investigation in Sacramento, California where he admitted he was trying to turn his students into “revolutionaries.”25 He had a poster of Chinese communist dictator Mao Zedong on the wall in his classroom as well—not as an educational tool about history or communism, but because the teacher himself is an avowed communist. When Project Veritas later confronted him while he was out walking his dog to ask about what they had captured him on video saying, he was literally wearing a giant hammer and sickle communist tank top! A school board meeting held the next day was packed with parents who demanded he be fired.26 Surprisingly he was, but how many other literal communists are working as teachers doing the same thing and go unnoticed by school officials and parents? During a meeting of the American Federation of Teachers Union, a Colorado teacher boasted that there were fellow Marxists in the crowd and called for a “forceful cultural revolution” in America against “whiteness.”27



FBI Investigates Parents

After a wave of parents began showing up to school board meetings and telling off the administrators for mandating children wear COVID masks in school all day and subjecting the students to gender bending propaganda and Critical Race Theory (antiwhiteism), the National School Boards Association sent a letter to the Biden administration literally comparing parents who were slightly aggressive or a bit rowdy during the meetings to domestic terrorists.28 Less than a week later the Department of Justice sent a memo to the FBI instructing them to investigate alleged “threats” made to school boards by parents, and so the FBI’s counterintelligence division began opening investigations. One case involved a mother who told her local school board “we’re coming for you” during a meeting, which was interpreted as a threat (when it was an obvious figure of speech about exposing them and voting them out) but an investigation was launched into her anyway.29 Another investigation was launched after someone reported a parent to the FBI because he “rails against the government” and “has a lot of guns.”30 Joe Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland testified to Congress that antiterrorism tools (like spying on their social media activity) had not been used against any of the protesting parents, but seven months later an FBI whistleblower revealed that they actually had.31 The New York Times even blamed the Proud Boys (a right-wing men’s social club, similar to a Moose Lodge or The Elks) for the increasing turnout at school board meetings by angry parents who got fed up with their children being indoctrinated with queer theory and antiwhiteism. Their headline read, “Proud Boys Regroup, Focusing on School Boards and Town Councils,” and the article detailed in horror that “The far-right nationalist group has become increasingly active at school board meetings and town council gatherings across the country.”32

Others like MSNBC host Jason Johnson suggested the pushback against school boards was being fueled by “white nationalists” as well.33 Mother Jones, a Leftist online outlet warned, “School boards have long been a tool of White supremacy” and that the “once-innocuous local gatherings have become anti–critical race theory caucuses administered by white people.”34 The Columbus Dispatch in Ohio echoed this sentiment telling their readers that “racists may be coming to a school board near you.”35



“Cultural Discipline”   

Some schools are even adopting a practice called “Cultural Discipline” or “Transformative Education Professional Development & Grading,” which means they’re allowing Black students to get away with causing trouble and handing out lesser punishments to them if they are disciplined because of concerns the school may be perceived as being “racist” since more Black students cause trouble than White students (because they statistically tend to come from fatherless homes and don’t grow up with the proper discipline) and thuggery is often glorified and celebrated in Black culture.36 The schools adopting this practice are framing it as taking an “equitable” approach to punishment and discipline.37 Notice the Orwellian change of terms recently from equality to equity. Marxists don’t want people to be treated equally. They want special privileges granted to nonWhite people (and queers) to supposedly “make up” for past “injustices” they claim haven’t been remedied.38 Schools are even adopting policies of not docking students’ grades for missing class, misbehavior, and failing to turn in their assignments on time because those methods “disproportionately hurt the grades of Black students,” they say.39 Not issuing detentions and suspensions to Black students who deserve them and letting their bad behavior go unpunished is rationalized by the same ridiculous argument we see from people who claim there must be “systemic racism” in police departments across the country because Black people are arrested for committing violent crime at levels nearly ten times that of White people (per capita).40 It’s uncomfortable for most people to face the fact that Black men commit astonishingly more crimes per capita than White people, so of course they’re going to get arrested more! And an important side note about what per capita means, since most Liberals don’t know anything about statistics. Often when people point out

the Black Crime statistics and mention the fact that Black people are 13% of the U.S. population, but commit 50% of the total violent crimes, some Liberals will look up the murder statistics in the United States and claim “that’s not accurate.” But it is. Those who deny the facts about Black Crime are only comparing the total number of murders committed by White people to the total number committed by Blacks, but don’t take into consideration that Blacks are only 13% of the U.S. population.41 The term per capita means per person, or the average number per group, and is a more accurate way of reporting statistics, but because Liberals are ignorant about most things—they just don’t get it. Since the White population is still an extremely higher percentage of the overall population in the United States, it would be common sense that White people would account for a higher number of murders, but we’re talking about percentages per group here. And the uncomfortable reality is that Black people make up only 13% of the U.S. population, but commit half of all violent crime as a whole.42 And the vast majority of those perpetrators are Black males, so if you really want to get down to specifics, 6% of the US population (since half of the total Black population are males, and they’re the ones who commit virtually all the violent crime compared to females out of the group) the scary reality is that a tiny demographic of the American population (6%—the Black males) are responsible for half of the violent crime in the country! Nobody would argue that police are being “sexist” because men are arrested far more often than women for committing violent crime, because everyone knows that men commit more violent crime than women! But admitting the obvious facts about Black Crime is deemed “racist.” And when the figures of students who are punished for misbehaving and causing disruptions in school are broken down by race, it shouldn’t be surprising to find the same patterns that are shown in crime statistics. But the actual reason for such a wide disparity raises uncomfortable questions, so instead of addressing the root of the problem, “racism” is blamed.



Removing Honors Classes

Schools across the country have been ending honor classes along with gifted and talented programs because administrators are worried that they may appear as if they’re “discriminating” against Black and Latino students because the programs tend to be dominated by White and Asian students.43 Proponents of such idiocy are calling it a more “equitable” education, the social justice buzzword meaning there are too many White students in the programs.44 In San Diego, the entire school district changed the grading system because Hispanic students’ grades were on average significantly lower than White students because of the language barrier since so many of them are illegal aliens or anchor babies born and raised by Mexican parents who speak little to no English themselves.45 Before the change, 23% of D or F grades went to Hispanics, another 23% went to Native Americans, and 20% to Black students, while only 7% went to White students.”46 In hopes of making the grades more “equitable” the district stopped docking students’ grades for assignments that are turned in late. So now there are basically no deadlines for homework which will just further incentivize students not to schedule their time properly to do it, and they’ll just keep watching TikTok videos or playing videogames all night instead. A Minnesota school announced they were no longer going to be giving students F’s in order to “combat systemic racism.”47 And homework doesn’t get marked down if it’s turned in late anymore there too, and students’ grades are no longer effected by tardiness or detentions for bad behavior either. Standardized tests have been deemed “racist” as well. The National Education Association says, “Since  their inception almost a century ago, the tests have been instruments of racism and a biased system. Decades of research demonstrate that Black, Latin(o/a/x), and Native students, as well

as students from some Asian groups, experience bias from standardized tests administered from early childhood through college.”48 Of course the whole point of a standardized test is that all students take the same test! But now the Marxists want affirmative action-style tests so Black and Hispanic students can get different questions (easier questions) in order to artificially and unfairly boost their test scores! “We still think there’s something wrong with the kids rather than recognizing there’s something wrong with the tests,” said race hustler Ibram X. Kendi, who heads up the laughable “Antiracist Research & Policy Center at Boston  University.”49 He says that, “standardized tests have become the most effective racist weapon ever devised to objectively degrade Black and Brown minds and legally exclude their bodies from prestigious schools.”50 During the 2020 election cycle, at a town hall event Joe Biden was asked by a lunatic in the audience if he would promise to put an end to “racist” standardized tests, and he responded “yes.”51



Teachers Coming Out as Gay to Their Class

Until very recently, teachers would never talk about their personal lives in the classroom. Students didn’t know if they were single, dating someone, married, or divorced, because their personal relationships have no bearing on the material students need to learn at school. But now it’s commonplace for teachers who are LGBTQ to announce their sexual preferences to their students in hopes of getting the kids to start talking with them about sex or experiment with homosexuality themselves. The Libs of TikTok Twitter account, which is dedicated to finding videos posted publicly on TikTok by Liberal teachers and other odd individuals who keep coming up with new “genders,” has highlighted countless teachers who don’t just make TikTok videos talking about how they’ve “come out” to their students as LGBTQ. Some of them actually record their speech on their phones and then post those videos on TikTok! One teacher made the announcement she was a lesbian to every class that day so all of her students heard her speech.52 Many of the students cheered since they’ve been conditioned to celebrate such behavior. Another TikTok video posted by a teacher shows her explaining that she took down the American flag in her classroom and hid it because it’s an “offensive symbol,” but has an LGBT Pride flag hanging in her room and when a student asked what they were supposed to do during the Pledge of Allegiance she told them to pledge allegiance to the Pride flag.53 One queer high school teacher posted a video he recorded inside his classroom bragging about how “most days” he comes to school wearing stilettos, “and the reason why is so I can create an explicitly queer space for all my students. That way they know this place is a place for them, by them, and cuz I never had one of these growing up.”54 In the video he showed off his high heels. It’s important to understand that these aren’t just a few rare or isolated instances. The Libs of TikTok Twitter account regularly reposts

videos that are found on TikTok to raise awareness about just how widespread the problem is and to show how many teachers are talking with their students about their sexuality or trying to confuse the kids about which gender they are.



“Gender Non-Binary” Teachers

But it’s not just gay and lesbian teachers who feel they need to “come out” to their students these days. Libs of TikTok has also uncovered numerous teachers (many of whom are elementary school teachers), “coming out” as “gender non-binary” to the kids (someone who doesn’t consider themselves to be a man or a woman, but neither!) Blue and green-haired freaks who were once only found loitering in the streets of inner cities or working at adult video stores are now teaching elementary school children and preschool across the country. One woman (with green hair as usual) explains, “So I’m a nonbinary elementary school teacher, and my kids know I’m non-binary, they know I’m not a girl or a boy, I use ‘they’ ‘them’ pronouns in the classroom. We work on it. Not all the kids get it. That’s okay. And I go by Mx. Gray in the classroom, not Miss or Mister—Mx. And today one of the kids goes, ‘hey, we’ve got two boy teachers in the classroom because the other teacher in the classroom at the time was a guy. And I go, no there’s not. I’m not a girl or a boy, remember? And she goes ‘oh my God. Wait, does that mean you’re dead? So, I think that’s my new gender now.”55 Of course a three-year-old doesn’t understand what the hell her lunatic teacher means by saying she’s not a boy or a girl. How could any child begin to comprehend such nonsense? And what kind of school wouldn’t escort the teacher from the property immediately after learning that they’re saying they aren’t a man or a woman and trying to confuse the children with such mentally deranged insanity? One polyamorous gender-fluid witch (polyamorous meaning in open relationships with numerous different sexual partners) who teaches preschool in Florida posted a video on TikTok saying how proud she is to talk with her 4-year-old students about her sexuality.56 And that’s not a typo, she also identifies as a witch. The list goes on and on of preschool and

elementary school teachers who post TikTok videos boasting that they’re teaching children about “transness” and “queerness.”57 One preschool teacher explained that she hands out “pronoun pins” to the 4-year-olds she teaches every day so they can choose which “gender” they want to be that day. “We have some that pick, like, ‘she’ / ‘her’ every single day, and we have some that change it up.”58 When I was in high school in the 1990s if a teacher put up a gay Pride flag, we would have torn it down every time they stepped out of the classroom into the hallway, and no one would have said who did it. And if they replaced it, the same thing would happen every single day until they gave up. And if a teacher came out as a “gender non-binary” and started talking about they weren’t a man or a woman, the parents in the community wouldn’t have even needed to get involved because we the students would have run them out of town ourselves. Virtually any community in America would have run such freaks out of town in previous generations (or even hung them in the town square depending how far back it was) if they started telling elementary school children that boys could be girls and girls could be boys or made an announcement that they were queer, but today these creatures are allowed to make children participate in their fetishes and delusions by affirming their “identity” and most schools and parents are doing nothing to stop them!59



Sexual Predator Teachers Now Allowed

Teachers even vaguely hinting at anything sexual with their students has always been a major red flag that they were a predator, and even the most subtle reference to anything sexual would have immediately been condemned by administrators and a dark cloud of suspicion would have hung over them for the rest of their career. Each year students would pass on word of the incident to the incoming students in the freshman class and such behavior would become part of school lore. The rumors would never stop. Students with younger siblings would tell them what happened and they would tell their friends, and the teacher would never live it down, and in most cases would have been fired immediately. But now if the teacher is gay or bisexual, they often openly brag in TikTok videos about what they’re doing and the grooming agenda has gone full speed ahead. All while the media runs stories defending the practice and accusing Conservatives of being “homophobic” and going on a “witch hunt.”60 The Government Accountability Office [GAO] published a report back in 2014 warning about the dangers of sexual predator teachers in public schools, recommending administrators be on the lookout for “grooming behaviors” that are “part of a pattern of behavior and are done with the intent to perpetrate future sexual abuse or misconduct.”61 In 2015 The Washington Post ran the headline, “More teachers are having sex with their students. Here’s how schools can stop them.”62 The article noted that the previous year there were 781 teachers or school employees were accused or convicted of sexual relationships with students, and cites social media as the primary method perpetrators use to first start communicating with their victims. In 2019 the Iowa Department of Education published a guidebook to help teachers and administrators identify grooming in public schools, listing one of the red flags as (obviously) “talking about student sexuality” and

having “inappropriate and personal conversations with students.”63 But now queer teachers grooming students using these exact same methods is widely acceptable behavior.



Gay Pride Parades in Schools 

Once something that was always confined to inner city streets in places like New York and Los Angeles, gay Pride parades and “celebrations” are now regular occurrences in public schools across America.64 They call them “Pride” parades now instead of gay Pride parades, because that name wasn’t inclusive enough for the transgenders, pansexuals, and all the rest of the gender-bending degenerates who all fall under the queer umbrella. And young children who don’t yet know what differentiates gay and transgender people from normal people are being deceived about what the events are for. They’re told that “Pride” celebrations are just about people celebrating “who they are” and anyone who is “different,” or that it’s about “diversity,” while masking what is actually being celebrated. Teachers are using classical conditioning techniques to associate the rainbow “Pride” flag with positive feelings—and like new members of a cult, the kids aren’t being told what the group actually believes in hopes of incrementally indoctrinating them in order to make them more receptive to what’s really going on so it won’t appear as a sudden shock, causing them to possibly turn away. Girls have always loved rainbows, and to innocent children they symbolize magic because they’re such a rare occurrence. Most people only see naturally occurring rainbows a few times throughout their lives, but the LGBTQ movement has turned it into a sexual kink fetish symbol. In 2022 “Pride Month” debauchery went supernova with countless schools across the country holding drag queen events for children. It’s not just one or two, or even a handful of isolated instances—it’s now a common occurrence. And not just in high schools. Drag queen “Pride” events targeting children as young as two years old are now commonplace.65 Schools regularly host drag queen story hour, and other drag queen themed events, like “drag queen bingo” night, and drag queen talent

shows.66 A middle school in New York even welcomed a drag queen to teach boys how to apply drag makeup.67 There are too many such events to list here. And many public schools are now forcing kids to study “gay history.” As of 2023 at least six states require schools to teach it, including California (which was the first, as usual), along with New Jersey, Illinois, Oregon, Colorado, and Nevada.68 And not just in high schools, but middle schools and elementary schools too.69 In one Illinois school, prekindergarten children are given an “introduction” to the rainbow flags and gender identity, and third graders are taught that White European colonizers “forced two-spirit people to conform to the gender binary.”70 A Florida school took elementary students on a field trip to a local gay bar to teach them about Pride Month.71 Michigan’s Democrat attorney general said she wants “a drag queen for every school.”72 But the Leftists aren’t satisfied with “Pride” month events now being the norm at schools across the country throughout the month of June so some schools now have “Back to School Pride Festivals” to celebrate queerness as the new school year begins.73 Some people are now calling summer “Pride season” because they’re not satisfied with “just” one month dedicated to them.74 Project Veritas caught the dean of students at a Chicago area high school on undercover video bragging that he had dildos, butt plugs, and lube passed around to students (as young as 14) and was excited they were interested in how to use the butt plugs.75 Of course the dean is a queer himself. It’s nobody’s business what two consenting adults do in the privacy of their bedroom they used to say, but now the queers won’t shut up about it and insist on sharing their lifestyles with children and demand they celebrate it with them. A math teacher in Huntington Beach, California forced students to watch an LGBTQ Pride Month propaganda video and many of them revolted. One student caught this on video and posted it online showing them booing, making barfing sounds, and asking “Why are you showing this to kids?” The teacher then threatened them with a Saturday detention, claiming they were being “inappropriate.”76



Drag Queen Story Hour Pedagogy

Drag shows have always been considered adult entertainment because of their inherent sexual nature. And it’s always been gay—there has never been a single heterosexual drag queen in the history of the world, with the exception of some men dressing in drag as a joke because of the absurdity of it—something that has always been viewed as such, with depictions in popular films and sketch comedy bits on TV. But the Marxists are now using drag as a way to indoctrinate children into gender bending and other queer activities instead of making people laugh at how odd it is for men to dress as women. On one hand they try to claim it’s just “entertainment” for the kids and there’s “nothing sexual about it,” while on the other admit that they are strategically using it as a pedagogy, meaning a method of teaching, in hopes of sparking “queer imagination” in the children, “strategic defiance against social norms” and the “destigmatization of shame.”77 In an article published in the educational journal Curriculum Inquiry they admit, “Drag queens have historically been relegated to the realm of the night. In the past few years, however, drag performers have made their way from the dimly lit bars of gayborhoods [gay neighborhoods] and into the fluorescent lights of libraries and classrooms.”78 It goes on to say “positioning queer and trans cultural forms” are “valuable components of early childhood education” and they encourage teachers to use Drag Queen Story Hour “as a way of bringing queer ways of knowing and being into the education of young children” and “create spaces for young children and families to immerse themselves in LGBT-themed stories.”79 It was cowritten by a drag queen who goes by the name of “Little Hot Mess” who was featured in an Associated Press video about drag queen story hour where he is seen asking the children “Who wants to be a drag queen when they grow up?”80



Transition Closets 

An increasing number of public schools are now offering what are called “Transition Closets” which include clothes, makeup, and jewelry that students can change into once they arrive at school so they can “transition” their “gender” into something else while hiding it from their parents.81 The idea seems to have been popularized on TikTok (as with nearly all socially toxic tends) and now some schools are receiving grants to fund them.82 An organization called Valid USA aims to “support schools interested in creating gender-affirming wardrobe spaces for trans and nonbinary affirming clothing” by donating clothes and makeup in what they call their Schools Affirming Wardrobe program.83 Their website notes, “We offer a range of complimentary services, including free chest binders, bras, underwear, packers, referrals, and compassionate support from fellow trans peers.”84 These “transition closets” don’t just stock ordinary clothes though. They supply children with binders (not three ring binders, but breast binders to flatten girls’ breasts tight against their chests to help them look more like a boy), as well as “tucking” underwear which help hide the penis and testicles of males who want to look like “girls.” They also include “packing underwear” which contain prosthetic penises and testicles to give girls who wear them the appearance of a bulge in their crotch as if they have male genitalia.85 Many schools are now issuing guidelines to teachers demanding they not tell parents about such activities. A Conservative activist group called Empower Wisconsin obtained a copy of training materials given to teachers in the state’s Eau Claire district which says that “Parents are not entitled to know their kids’ identities. That knowledge must be earned,” meaning they aren’t supposed to tell parents if their child starts gender bending at school.86

New Jersey’s “Transgender Student Guidance for School Districts” says that teachers aren’t allowed to tell a parent if their child “comes out” as “transgender” and mandates all school officials use whatever name or pronoun students want.87 “A school district shall accept a student’s asserted gender identity; parental consent is not required. Further, a student need not meet any threshold diagnosis or treatment requirements to have his or her gender identity recognized and respected by the district, school or school personnel. Nor is a legal or court-ordered name change required. There is no affirmative duty for any school district personnel to notify a student’s parent or guardian of the student’s gender identity or expression,” it says.88 “Schools are advised to work with the student to create an appropriate confidentiality plan regarding the student’s transgender or transitioning status,” it goes on to say. And “a school district shall keep confidential a current, new, or prospective student’s transgender status.”89 Such rules are probably in place in countless districts across the country by now. Parents in Massachusetts sued their child’s school after they found out that teachers were secretly encouraging students to change their gender and use different pronouns while keeping the “transitions” secret from the children’s parents.90 And it’s up to parents to find out whether their children’s schools are engaging in this same behavior. Most parents have no idea because few (normal) people could have imagined such policies would even be considered, let alone actually implemented.



LGBT Children’s Books

The first LGBT children’s books appear to have been published in the early 2000s, such as King and King (2003) about a prince who’s supposed to be marrying a princess, but instead catches the eye of her brother and marries him instead. Another one called And Tango Makes Three (published in 2005) is about two gay penguins who adopt a baby penguin as “their” child, and was written to teach kids about same sex couples. Back then the books barely made any waves with only a few people denouncing them like Bill O’Reilly on his primetime show on Fox News at the time. And most Conservatives who heard of them thought, while they may be strange, they were no cause for alarm and quickly forgot about them. But these LGBT children’s books weren’t rare novelties, they were just the start of an onslaught of this kind of material. And the books that would soon follow weren’t designed to supposedly help parents explain what gay people are and why some children have “two mommies” or why their uncle has a “special friend.” This new wave of LGBTQ children’s books teach children it’s cool for boys to wear dresses and makeup and that they should try dressing in drag and experiment with homosexuality. Jacob’s New Dress, which came out in 2014, encourages young boys to wear dresses. “Jacob loves playing dress-up, when he can be anything he wants to be,” the description on Amazon reads. “Some kids at school say he can’t wear ‘girl’ clothes, but Jacob wants to wear a dress to school. Can he convince his parents to let him wear what he wants? This heartwarming story speaks to the unique challenges faced by children who don’t identify with traditional gender roles.”91 Sparkle Boy (2017) also encourages boys to wear dresses, even if they’re not transgender and still identify as a boy. The book’s description reads, “Casey loves to play with his blocks, puzzles, and dump truck, but he also loves things that sparkle, shimmer, and glitter. When his older sister,

Jessie, shows off her new shimmery skirt, Casey wants to wear a shimmery skirt too.”92 And so he does, and he also starts painting his nails like his older sister too. The parents embrace his new “gender expression,” but his older sister is uncomfortable with it at first, but at the end she accepts his new style and respects it since dresses and “sparkly things” are “for everyone to enjoy.” Julian is a Mermaid (2018) is another book aimed at grooming boys to wear dresses. Big Wig (2022) is another one about a young boy who becomes a drag queen, and was even promoted by Pizza Hut’s Book It! program which encourages young children to read.93 Others are sexually explicit, and unimaginably obscene. One such book titled Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evinson is so explicit that in 2021 when a mother who checked it out from the school’s library and started reading it out loud to the school board meeting they tried to get her to stop. She began, “What if I told you I touched another guy’s dick? What if I told you I sucked it? I was 10 years old, but it’s true. I sucked Doug Goble’s dick, the real estate guy, and he sucked mine, too.”94 A school board member interrupted her, saying, “There are children in the audience here.”95 She responded that if it’s too offensive to read out loud at a school board meeting, then why is it in the school library? Other parents in the audience at the school board meeting cheered her when she was finished speaking. And others across the country began showing up at school board meetings too and reading Lawn Boy and other books like it out-loud, all of which are also found in the schools’ libraries. Videos of the incidents went viral on social media since most schools, like city councils, record their meetings and post the archives online. A graphic novel titled Let’s Talk About It, written by a bisexual man named Matthew Nolan, encourages boys to play with each other’s buttholes, saying “When you’re starting out, explore your butt solo till you get used to it. Lube up and don’t rush,” and tells them, “a great place to research fantasies and kinks safely is on the Internet. There are tons of people and communities out there who share your interests and have all kinds of advice.”96 It also recommends sex toys for kids and promotes sexting.

One of the reviews on Amazon reads, “This is NOT appropriate for teenagers. Some of the content had me and my husband absolutely shocked and horrified! Read this book before you let your children touch it! The book starts off great and about half way through it’s extremely inappropriate, things I don’t even want to detail on this review.”97 A book called Seeing Gender by Iris Gottlieb, which is aimed at teens, contains a chapter titled “Sex work is not a bad term” (meaning prostitution) and glowingly says it’s “one of the oldest jobs in history” and explains that “A person may exchange sex or sexual activity for things they need or want, such as food, housing, hormones, drugs, gifts, or other resources.”98 A school librarian at a middle school in Loudoun Country, Virginia defended the book being on the shelf, saying many of the students “are sex workers” and the book “makes them feel validated.”99 The list of degenerate books aimed at children could fill an entire book in and of itself. Of course many Leftists these days are furious that Conservative parents don’t want these kinds of books in school libraries, denouncing socalled “book bans,” but these same people would be screaming bloody murder if copies of The Turner Diaries were included in school libraries, the novel that inspired Timothy McVeigh to bomb the Oklahoma Federal Building in 1995. And if that book was in a school library, it should outrage parents because obviously certain books are inappropriate for children. Would the parents who claim banning LGBTQ books in school libraries is reminiscent of Nazi Germany want copies of The Anarchist Cookbook, the infamous bomb-making manual, available to the students? What about Playboy magazine or Penthouse? Any reasonable person can admit that some ideas can be dangerous (like books about how to build bombs) and measures should be taken to ensure such materials aren’t planting seeds into the minds of impressionable and irresponsible children.



Anti-Grooming Laws

After the general public became of aware of how pervasive the problem of teachers grooming their students is, discussing their sex lives with them, and encouraging gender bending; Florida passed an antigrooming bill forbidding teachers from discussing sexuality or gender identity with students from preschool through third grade.100 Later expanded through 12th grade.101 It was dubbed the “don’t say gay bill” by Democrats who falsely claim the laws forbid gay teachers from talking about their partners at all. Similar legislation was then introduced in other states, including Alabama, Georgia, Ohio, and Louisiana.102 Sixteen states would eventually move to prohibit teachers from talking about sexual orientation or gender identity with students in the early grades.103 Word finally got out about what the LGBTQ teachers were doing, and parents and state legislatures knew they had to stop them. A major reason Florida’s legislature introduced the bill is because of the Libs of TikTok Twitter account which simply searched TikTok for publicly available videos posted by teachers who were openly bragging about discussing their sexuality with their students and then reposted them on Twitter, bringing them to the attention of others. These videos of the fluorescent-haired freaks often went viral and caught the attention of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and others who decided to draft legislation to stop the groomers. The Washington Post admitted, “Libs of TikTok has become an agenda-setter in right-wing online discourse, and the content it surfaces shows a direct correlation with the recent push in legislation and rhetoric directly targeting the LGBTQ+ community.”104 Media Matters, the George Soros funded Leftist smear merchant, told the Washington Post, “Libs of TikTok is shaping our entire political conversation about the rights of LGBTQ people to participate in society…It

feels like they’re single-handedly taking us back a decade in terms of the public discourse around LGBTQ rights. It’s been like nothing we’ve ever really seen.”105



Cameras In Classrooms? 

In 2020 and 2021 when word spread about the extent of the child grooming and Critical Race Theory (antiwhiteism) in public schools, some parents started pushing for cameras in all classrooms that would livestream what’s happening so they could check in and listen to what the teachers were doing. Conservative lawmakers in Florida and Iowa even introduced bills to mandate them, but so far none of the bills have passed.106 Of course, Leftists are opposing the idea, but why shouldn’t parents have access to a password-protected livestream of the classrooms? Many parents set up nanny cams in their house to monitor their nanny and baby sitters so they can see what they’re doing with their children when they’re gone. Even many dog kennels have livestreams so people can have some peace of mind by checking in on their pet when they’re out of town if they have to put them into a doggie daycare center. So why shouldn’t parents be able to see what’s happening in their child’s classroom?



Homeschooling Makes Big Comeback

Once seen as fringe or something only extremely religious parents did, homeschooling is now seeing widespread acceptance by many Conservatives who don’t want to turn their children over to government schools to be indoctrinated by some crazy leftist who’s going to incorporate Critical Race Theory into their math class somehow. If you live in a small town or a city in a Republican state and know the teachers and people in the community, the schools might be somewhat safe, but if you live in a Democrat controlled region, then God help you! Of course putting your kids in a private Christian school is a great idea, but not everyone can afford that. If you’re just starting a family, these are things to consider, and you need to plan ahead. Start investing for your children’s education in a private school, or move to a different town or even a new state to raise your kids so you won’t plant any roots in a Liberal community and then get stuck there. MSNBC deemed this growing trend racist (of course), saying, “It may seem harmless, but the insidious racism of the American religious right’s obsession with homeschooling speaks volumes.”107 Actor Kirk Cameron, who has been a vocal Christian and critic of Hollywood’s war on our culture, has been attacked by the media for encouraging more parents to start homeschooling their kids.108 And if the Liberal media is against something, then you can be sure that whatever it is—it’s the right thing to be doing.    

Author’s Note: Please take a moment to rate and review this book on Amazon.com, or wherever you purchased it from if you’re reading the ebook, to let others know what you think. This also helps to offset the trolls who keep giving my books fake one-star reviews when they haven’t even read them.

Almost all of the one-star reviews on Amazon for my previous books are from NON-verified purchases which is a clear indication they are fraudulent hence me adding this note. It’s just more proof that Liberals are losers and can’t play fair, so if you could help me combat them as soon as possible since you actually bought this book, that would be great! Thank you!

The Family

Since the beginning of the human race, families have been the foundation of our species’ survival. Mothers, fathers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and siblings have helped feed, protect, and educate their fellow humans who they share common ancestry with. Families maintain cultural norms and customs, and offer emotional and even financial support if one of their members falls on hard times. Families have been the center point of civilization and everyone instinctually knows they are the most important thing in life. But now our modern society is plagued by broken families missing tight-knit social structures, which is causing a cascading failure that is having devastating effects emotionally and financially that reverberate throughout the entire country. It’s largely due to single mothers, many of which were raised by single mothers themselves, compounding the problem. Working mothers, who turn their children over to strangers at day care centers so they can go sit in a cubicle behind a computer for eight hours a stretch only contributes to the breakdown, a situation which is impossible to avoid for most families because of the current cost of living. The ideal single income family with a stay at home mom of the 1950s is sadly a bygone era in America. Parents used to be able to trust leaving their children alone in front of the television when Sesame Street or Barney and Friends were on to keep them entertained while mom did laundry, cleaned the house, or got dinner ready, but today the major brand name television stations are cultural poison and toddlers are given Internet connected devices to play games and watch cartoons which are being covertly used to indoctrinate them with enemy propaganda before they can even talk.

Political science professor James Kurth wrote, “The great movement of the second half of the nineteenth century was the movement of men from the farm to the factory…The greatest movement of the second half of the twentieth century has been the movement of women from the home to the office…[This] movement separates the parents from the children, as well as enabling the wife to separate herself from her husband. By splitting the nuclear family, it is helping to bring about the replacement of the nuclear family with the non-family.”109 TikTok stars, teachers, and traditional Hollywood celebrities have mostly replaced parents as the primary influence on children’s lives. And now that we’re into the third generation of nearly half of all children growing up in broken homes where the parents have separated (or were never married in the first place) perhaps out of spite from being raised in dysfunctional families, many Liberals today are vehemently anti-family and despise what was once the cultural norm—like Edward Norton’s character in Fight Club who “felt like destroying something beautiful” because of his nihilism. The official website for the Black Lives Matter movement explained one of their goals was to “disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure.110 Not to preserve, protect, or restore it—but to disrupt and dismantle it. At a TEDx talk, a popular forum for “experts” to present their ideas, feminist Merav Michaeli detailed why she wants marriage to be abolished. “We must cancel marriage,” she begins. “Not only religious marriage. Marriage is not an issue of religion. Also civil marriage. I want all secular states to totally eliminate all registration and regulation of marriage. I want to cancel the very concept of marriage.”111 And she certainly isn’t alone. Feminist activist (and lesbian) Masha Gessen once admitted that the Left’s goal of legalizing gay “marriage” was to eventually eliminate marriage and monogamous relationships altogether. “Gay marriage is a lie,” she said, back in 2012, three years before the Supreme Court mandated it be legalized in all 50 states. “Fighting for gay marriage generally involves lying about what we’re going to do with marriage when we get there. It’s a no-brainer that the institution of marriage should not exist,” she concluded.112 She’s a contributor for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and numerous other mainstream publications, so

she’s not just some fringe queer on TikTok. She is one of the establishment’s LGBTQ activists (who now uses they/them pronouns). There is a relentless assault on intimate and committed relationships (not to mention gender norms and heterosexuality in general), and aside from the moral decay in society, technology is making it easier than ever to shop around for one-night stands and swipe through dating apps to see if the grass appears greener elsewhere.



Tradwifes

As a reaction to modern Liberal society, the term “Tradwife” has emerged in some Conservative circles to refer to a traditional wife who chooses to be a stay at home mom and take care of the house and kids instead of turning them over to a daycare center and heading off to be stuck in a cubicle all day in the corporate world. They’re not gold diggers who don’t want to work—they’re traditionalists who seek to restore the kind of family culture that was the norm in previous generations. Often this involves modest living since the families are supported by only one income. But these lifestyles are under attack by the very Liberal Establishment they are trying to avoid. In response to a story by the BBC about a tradwife named Alena Kate Pettitt who runs a YouTube channel called The Darling Academy with just a few thousand subscribers where she encourages other women to embrace the lifestyle, Becca Lewis (who published the infamous “YouTube Alternative Influence” report in 2018 complaining about how popular many Conservative YouTubers had become), said the tradwife featured in the story was “radicalizing” right-wing extremists. “Who needs YouTube rabbit holes when you have the BBC broadcasting literal white supremacist propaganda,” she said.113 Yes, a woman who chooses to take care of her kids at home while the husband goes off to work and prefers the traditional gender roles is considered to be “white supremacy” to Liberal lunatics. The New York Times is also upset over the rise of Tradwives. They published a story titled “The House Wives of White Supremacy” which started, “Over the past few years, dozens of YouTube and social media accounts have sprung up showcasing soft-spoken young white women who extol the virtues of staying at home, submitting to male leadership and bearing lots of children—being ‘traditional wives.’” It goes on, “These accounts pepper their messages with scrapbook-style collections of 1950s

advertising images showing glamorous mothers in lipstick and heels with happy families and beautiful, opulent homes.”114 The article focused on one particular woman who goes by Wife With a Purpose (Ayla Stewart) on YouTube and attacked her as “the most prominent and certainly most openly white supremacist of the women who call themselves tradwives, but she is not an anomaly.”115 Ayla Stewart caught the eye of the Liberal Media Industrial Complex when she posting a video with the tongue in cheek title “The White Baby Challenge,” saying she had made six—and challenged other women to match or beat her number of kids.116 But while Black and Latino women can boast about making more brown babies to quicken the demographic decline of White people into a minority group in the U.S., if any White person expresses interest in boosting the White population, they are denounced as a “Nazi.” CNN complained that “Though the numbers of self-identified tradwives are low, social media has allowed them to reach sizable audiences. The 10 to 15 largest tradwife accounts have tens of thousands of followers across Instagram and YouTube.”117 CNN also decried that some of them “nod to White nationalist ideas such as Replacement Theory” and don’t support LGBTQ people and use phrases like “the natural order” when talking about relationship dynamics and gender roles. They’re especially concerned that, “Some promote homeschooling to avoid exposing their children to progressive ideas about sex education and gender identity.”118 The New Statesman, a radical Leftist publication founded by the Fabian Society—a British socialist organization whose original symbol was literally a wolf in sheep’s clothing, openly supports “abolishing” families, saying, “Family is a terrible way to satisfy our desire for love and care, according to the writer and academic Sophie Lewis. The solution? Abolish it.”119 The article sung praises of Sophie Lewis’s insane ideas which are detailed in her book titled Abolish the Family: a Manifesto for Care and Liberation, where she compares families to prisons.120



Cooking is “Sexist” 

Marxists work to attack and undermine every custom and social norm in order to sow chaos and destabilize the culture in hopes of being able to push their agenda through as a replacement for the “old” ideas. And aside from trying to stigmatize stay at home moms, they’re also trying to portray women who cook for their husbands and families as “oppressed” and embarrassingly “old fashioned.” Every time surveys come out showing how many people still believe all women should know how to cook, feminist bloggers fume. “Good grief. It turns out gender stereotypes are just as bad today as they were 30 years ago,” reports Women’s Health magazine.121 Saying “women should know how to cook” shouldn’t even be a controversial statement. It’s like saying all accountants should know how to add. Of course they should! There’s something wrong with them if they don’t. (And yes, all men should know how to use a variety of basic tools. I’ll get to America’s masculinity crisis later in this chapter.) The Today Show in Australia (another hotbed of liberalism, particularly in Melbourne) did an entire segment attacking a stay at home wife after she posted something on Facebook about how she makes her husband breakfast and coffee in the morning, saying it was “sexist” and like living back in the 50s. “Has he hypnotized her or something? Who does this stuff?” asked one of the hosts. “I mean, I like my husband, but make your own bloody breakfast,” said another.122 Feminists even claim that the standard specifications of kitchens are sexist, because the height of countertops and sinks were set in order to be an ideal height for the average-sized woman.123 And why shouldn’t they be? A viral video of a girl cooking on a Twitch livestream showed the pan catch fire and she didn’t know what to do so she literally started asking her viewers in a panic hoping they would type something in the chat to help her.124 It was a grease fire, but the first thing she did was take the pan off the

stovetop, turn on the sink, and pour running water all over it, so the fire then got even bigger! If she would have taken HomeEc class in school (like all girls should), or learned how to cook from her mother like she should have ever since she was little, she would have known to smother the fire by putting the lid on the pan (if it was a metal lid, not glass), or pour baking soda all over it (which releases carbon dioxide when heated so it smothers the flames), or take the pan outside and set it on the driveway where nothing else will catch fire. But Home Economics (or HomeEc) classes have been deemed sexist and mandating that all girls enroll in them is “sexist.”125 For generations while boys were in auto shop or wood shop class learning about how to fix and maintain vehicles and use tools to build things; girls took HomeEc and learned about cooking, sewing, child care, home management, and interior design so when they entered the real world they would know how to take care of sick children and cook healthy meals for their families—things every mom needs to know, but now learning the essential responsibilities that people need in order to have a productive and well balanced life are shunned, thanks to feminism.



Feminist Poison 

Feminism isn’t about “equal rights” for women anymore, and hasn’t been for generations. It’s about disrupting the social order, the divisions of labor, and partnerships between the two sexes and is attempting to suppress the natural instincts of women and turn them against men (or the Patriarchy, as feminists say) and even against the idea of being mothers. Feminism has meant different things depending on the time period and has gone through four different phases, or waves as they’re called, since the early 1900s when groups of women banded together to demand the right to vote (called women’s suffrage), resulting in the 19th amendment passing in 1919. The 1960s and 70s marked the second wave, where groups of women demanded they be given more political positions and worked to legalize abortion (succeeding in 1973 with Roe v. Wade). But many feminists still weren’t happy, so they continued complaining about things which led to the third wave in the 1990s where they demanded even more women be given leadership positions in the government and business— while simultaneously complaining about men “objectifying” them as they boosted their sex appeal through every possible means in order to use their sexuality to their advantage since they know men are innately suckers for any beautiful woman’s requests. Then around 2012 the fourth wave of feminism arose due to the advent of social media which allowed angry and ugly women from across the country to connect with each other online and affirm each other’s maladjustments and abnormal ideas, culminating in new “causes” like celebrating abortions, obesity, and their periods.126 Stuck in online echo chambers, most fourth wave feminists (who are usually queers with blue hair which is used to signal to others that’s who they are), these women usually find themselves trapped in a downward spiral and hating normal women (especially beautiful ones and White women) for existing, and are so spiteful of their happiness, marriages, and

motherhood that they are determined to tear down every institution and social norm that embraces such lifestyles. The “Women’s March” held every January isn’t about “women’s rights,” it’s a feminist parade. This is where Madonna voiced her fantasies about blowing up the White House after Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton for the presidency, and where actress Ashley Judd did her famous rant about her period and having to pay sales tax when she buys tampons.127 The feminists today who constantly whine about imaginary problems—like men supposedly making more money than women, fail to acknowledge that men often work jobs which involve much higher safety risks and are exposed to greater physical and health hazards. Not to mention they regularly work jobs that involve backbreaking labor (like construction, pouring concrete, laying brick, roofing, etc.) and also jobs that involve getting dirty every day (like a mechanic or garbage man). A Sex and the City writer, the famous show that aired on HBO following the exploits of a group of women living in New York City, later said she regrets choosing a career over having children because now she is “truly alone.”128 She’s worth nearly twenty million dollars, but now says she regrets where she placed her priorities when she was younger. Most feminists eventually find themselves in the same position (minus the wealth) realizing that once their looks fade and guys stop paying attention to them, they have no purpose in life and nobody loves them. Not having children has other implications aside from future loneliness for most people. And it doesn’t just raise the difficult question of who will help look after you when you become elderly, or who will make sure the nursing home isn’t taking advantage of you or abusing you. But also who will visit you in the hospital when you get sick or need surgery? Who will inherit your “stuff” when you die? Who will clean out your house? Who will organize your funeral? Who will even know that you died?



Relationships in Shambles

Online dating was once seen as something only computer geeks did. Even when Match.com first launched in the early 1990s many people thought it was odd, and “online dating” was often ridiculed. But today when most people never leave their phone more than an arm’s length away, apps like Tinder have turned online dating into a game. Swiping through potential matches is like looking for a new shirt or someplace to eat. With the new apps to find dates while sitting on your couch at home instead of having to leave the house to go anywhere like a party or even a bar, people feel if a relationship ends they can just pick up their phone and find another date later that day. And like ordering dinner, they scroll through the menu looking at photos and listed interests until they see something they like. It’s almost strange now to ask a girl out on a date in person at school, the gym, or at the store. These “dating” apps have cheapened relationships, leading to others being treated as if they’re disposable.129 They’ve caused a hedonistic hookup culture, and virtually ruined dating dynamics. Facebook and other social media sites make it easy for old classmates or just friends of friends to contact people privately. And prior to social media and cellphones, if a married person wanted to cheat on their spouse, they couldn’t just have their lover call the home phone which sat in the kitchen because it could be picked up by the husband/wife or the kids and blow their cover. But now everyone has their own phone, and if you don’t have their number you can message them privately on Facebook or Instagram. These endless options combined with the moral decay of the culture has caused long term relationships (and especially marriage) to dramatically decline, which will have disastrous consequences further down the road. Facebook is actually cited in one-third of divorces as a major contributing factor.130 One survey of Tinder users found that two-thirds of them were already in a relationship, and many of them were even married.131 But not all

of them are looking to cheat or find someone else to dump their partner for. Many of them, it turns out, just crave the attention of others like those who obsess over their Instagram “likes.” They’re seeking validation through matches on Tinder, even though they never intend to actually meet up with anyone.132



Normalizing Porn

People once had to go to a seedy adult bookstore or gas station to buy a Playboy or Penthouse magazine, or find where their dad hid his pornos, but now endless porn is just a couple taps away and with few parents using restrictions on their children’s tablets or smartphones, it’s fully accessible for anyone of any age. For decades since the proliferation of Internet porn the only “safety” mechanism in place is a button users click to “verify” they’re at least 18-years old, which is just a self-certification with zero actual verification of their identity or age.133 Producing porn, whether explicit photos or a sex tape, used to be completely taboo and something that only extremely vulnerable girls from broken families or those with drug problems would succumb to, but slowly the Left has been normalizing that as well. In 2016 a new “social media” platform launched called OnlyFans which is basically Instagram for adult content where girls post sexually explicit photos and videos of themselves behind a paywall for their subscribers. It’s not even an underground or fringe platform. OnlyFans is so huge that it’s now part of American pop culture and boasts three million “content creators” (virtual prostitutes).134 And tabloids like The New York Post regularly publish stories about women who quit their respectable jobs as nurses or scientists, and then “get rich” from their OnlyFans accounts.135 In 2021 OnlyFans reluctantly announced they would no longer allow sexually explicit content (which is the only reason it exists) due to banks and credit card processors threatening to refuse to do business with them anymore after a letter signed by 100 members of Congress demanded the Department of Justice investigate them because the site “has become a major marketplace for buying and selling Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) in the United States, as well as soliciting sexual activity with minors.”136 But six days later, the credit card processors changed their mind

about severing ties with the “social media” amateur porn giant, so it continues to thrive.137 YouPorn and Pornhub are other user generated porn platforms for explicit homemade videos, which have been used to host not just revenge porn (recorded or published without the consent of one of the participants) but also child sexual abuse material as well.138 These platforms allow turnkey porn production anyone with just a webcam or cellphone can make, all from the comfort of their own bedroom. In the past, girls would have to respond to postings from porn companies (usually disguised as “model agencies” looking for vulnerable girls to exploit) and travel to their studios because the infrastructure to produce and sell it was expensive and required a degree of technical skills to run a whole website and setup payment systems for credit cards, but OnlyFans and the other “do it yourself” porn platforms have made it just as easy as being an Instagram influencer or YouTuber. Perhaps equally shocking is that Twitter also allows hard core porn to be posted and shared.139 Elon Musk didn’t ban it after he purchased the platform, and it’s the only major social media platform that allows it. Facebook and Instagram have strict policies against just nudity, but Twitter allows hard core porn. That alone should have caused it to be banned from the Apple and Android App Stores, which both have strict policies against sexually explicit content, but they mysteriously allow Twitter to operate as an X-rated app. And while Democrats whine about “hate speech” on the platform (speech they hate), none of them have a problem with Twitter hosting countless hardcore pornographic videos and allowing accounts by porn stars to promote their explicit content. Many people who get addicted to porn eventually need more hardcore videos in order to become aroused and get off, so they start watching fetish porn involving all kinds of perverted acts hoping to satisfy their growing sexual appetites. It literally rewires the pleasure sensors in their brain making them less aroused by “normal” porn, and sexual encounters with (actual) women.140 Many porn addicts experience what’s called porn-induced erectile dysfunction when they try to have sex with a woman because the reward centers of their brain have been desensitized from watching so much porn,

and like a drug addict who needs larger doses in order to get high, they have artificially caused a tolerance to build up in terms of sexual arousal.141



Promoting Prostitution

Watching porn, and producing amateur “social media” porn isn’t just being normalized in the New World Order through OnlyFans, PornHub, and YouPorn. An increasing number of Liberals are boldly supporting the normalization and legalization of prostitution. The slogan for their plan is “sex work is real work.”142 It used to be virtually impossible to find anyone except some odd libertarian eccentrics who would call for the legalization of prostitution, but now the idea is gaining popularity in Democrat circles as the next frontier of “civil rights.”143 Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has openly endorsed prostitution as a profession, parroting the mantra that “sex work is real work.”144 Ana Kasparian, cohost of The Young Turks—one of YouTube’s most popular “news” channels, says, “it’s totally fine if someone’s working as a sex worker, something that we’re supportive of,” and equates prostitution “rights” with abortion rights.145 Teen Vogue magazine supports it too, with articles like “Why Sex Work is Real Work” which endorse prostitution to their young teen readers and recommends prostitution apps be created in the same vein of hookup apps, and says there shouldn’t be any stigma attached to it.146 George Soros’ Open Society Foundation (the largest private donor for Leftist causes) also endorses it, and recommends people call them “sex workers” rather than “prostitutes” because “The term ‘sex worker’ recognizes that sex work is work. Prostitution, on the other hand, has connotations of criminality and immorality.”147 Their official stance on the issue is “Sex workers sell sexual services in order to earn a livelihood. The vast majority of sex workers choose to do sex work because it is the best option they have. Many sex workers struggle with poverty and destitution and have few other options for work. Others find that sex work offers better pay and more flexible working conditions

than other jobs. And some pursue sex work to explore and express their sexuality.”148 The TEDx forum also promotes it, giving a platform to a woman for her talk titled “Sex Work is Real Work” in 2022.149 The ACLU also supports legalizing prostitution, posting their official stance on the issue in an article titled, “Sex Work is Real Work, and it’s Time to Treat it That Way.”150 The Democrat Supervisor of the City of San Francisco, Hillary Ronen, introduced a resolution in early 2023 urging state legislatures to decriminalize prostitution in California.151 And it likely won’t be long before this is a major Democrat Party platform for future congressional or presidential candidates.



Abortion

The messaging behind supporting abortion went from “safe, legal, and rare” to women wearing t-shirts that read “I Had An Abortion” (sold by Planned Parenthood), and Hollywood actresses proudly proclaiming that without getting abortions when they were younger, they wouldn’t have been able to become “stars.”152 An organization calling itself “The Satanic Temple,” which exists solely to hate and troll Christians, has wealthy financial backers and lawyers who help them file lawsuits against Christians—including challenging states which have restricted abortions, claiming that banning or restricting abortions violates their “right to practice their religion,” and literally refers to the practice as a “Satanic abortion ritual.”153 After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, the ADL [Anti-Defamation League, a Leftist Jewish secular organization] issued a statement denouncing the decision and called abortion a “Jewish value.”154 In my previous book, Hollywood Propaganda: How TV, Movies, and Music Shape Our Culture, I detail how Planned Parenthood has a special department dedicated to lobbying Hollywood studios and writers to encourage them to insert pro-abortion messages in their projects.155 For the last decade now they even host a special reception with hundreds of producers, directors, and writers to celebrate films and TV shows that promote abortion.156 In 2017, the dating app OkCupid partnered with Planned Parenthood to integrate a special profile badge on users’ accounts to show if they “Stand with Planned Parenthood” as a way to signal to potential matches that if those women get pregnant, guys could be at ease knowing they would kill the baby so they wouldn’t have to become fathers.157 When the new Roe v. Wade draft decision was leaked showing the Supreme Court had overruled the previous 1973 decision, a move that would now allow each state to decide whether they want to ban or restrict

abortions, Democrats had an even bigger meltdown than usual. Congressman Eric Swalwell warned “The Republicans won’t stop with banning abortion. They want to ban interracial marriage. Do you want to save that? Well, then you should probably vote.”158 Chelsea Manning, (born Bradley Manning before “transitioning” into a “woman” who had been convicted of espionage after leaking classified documents to Wikileaks during the Obama administration), encouraged “her” Twitter followers to buy guns and start training in teams to “protest” the court’s decision.159 Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot echoed this sentiment, saying, “To my friends in the LGBTQ+ community—the Supreme Court is coming for us next. This moment has to be a call to arms.”160 She and others were concerned the Supreme Court may also reverse their decision on gay “marriage,” which hopefully they will someday, which is what she meant by they’re “coming for us next.” After the stunning overturning of Reo v. Way Vice News published a story about how people can make “DIY abortion pills” from horse medication, saying “Misoprostol is relatively easy to acquire from veterinary sources, since in addition to medically inducing abortions, it’s also used to treat ulcers in horses.”161 The fury unleashed by the Democrats over them not being able to kill babies at will, even up until just before the moment of birth makes them look no different than the ancient Canaanites who used to sacrifice their infants to Molech. To add some perspective, it’s a crime to damage or destroy the eggs of a Bald Eagle, and many other animals that are considered endangered species. It’s a felony, in fact.162 It’s even a crime to harm various plants if they’re located on designated Wetlands.163 So quite literally, plants and bird eggs are considered more precious to Liberals than unborn human babies.



The Masculinity Crisis In America  

Aside from most women not knowing how to cook anymore (or sew, or properly keep a house clean), the majority of men are also failing in their social responsibilities. They don’t know how to check or change the oil in their cars, or even know when it should be done. Lucky for them, newer cars have oil change monitors which notify drivers when it’s time, but that’s beside the point. Many don’t know how to use basic tools (and don’t even own any). They wouldn’t even know how to stop a squeaky kitchen cabinet (hint: you lubricate the hinge). This is because they’re raised without fathers, so they never learn the basic knowledge or skills that have been a standard part of boy’s lives since the beginning of time. So many turn to online role models in hopes of learning what being a man is all about, but unfortunately many of those men are preying on the vulnerable and lost in order to take advantage of them financially and use them to boost their own out of control egos. Countless young men came to look up to Andrew Tate, a former kickboxer turned camgirl kingpin who made his fortune as a pornographer exploiting women (and the lonely gullible men who paid to interact with them online).164 He later hired a team of social media managers to promote his new scheme of teaching men “how to be men” through his “Hustlers University” online course—which also offers an affiliate program to entice his fans to promote it to others in hopes of making a commission and make some “easy money” themselves.165 He is an entertaining guy, like a heel in professional wrestling (the bad guy) playing the part to a T, always wearing sunglasses indoors like some rock star and posting pictures of himself standing in front of fancy cars or seated in a private jet with his shirt halfway unbuttoned, but Andrew Tate is a complete failure of a man. He is a misogynist in the truest sense, but a broken clock is right twice a day.

Sure, some of the cliché truisms he says are valid critiques of society, but the guy is a complete scumbag which was clear from the moment he first started going viral (due in large part to financially incentivising his young teenage fans to spam video clips of him across social media through an affiliate marketing scheme).166 It’s amazing how so many Conservatives came to see him as some kind of inspiration and sage especially when there are so many clips of him and his brother in their past openly bragging about their camgirls cashing in on suckers.167 He’ll never know what love is or be in a healthy relationship, let alone a marriage, because he has no conscience and his entire schtick is a money-making charade that compensates for the deep insecurities he is desperately trying to hide. The so-called manosphere, which is the online community of pickup artists, men’s rights activists, and hyper anti-feminists is full of phonies and frauds. A prime example being “Jack Murphy” (whose real name is John Goldman) who became a popular “guru” selling online courses claiming he’ll teach guys how to be “real men” through his “Liminal Order.” He was exposed as a literal cuck (who enjoyed having his wife getting screwed by other men) and sticking dildos up his butt (and talking about having sex with other men) while he was working as the male equivalent of a camgirl.168 Other desperate young men look to psychologist Jordan Peterson as a parasocial father figure who is best known for his advice to “clean up your room” which is a metaphor he uses to encourage people to take control of their own lives instead of allowing their environment to dictate their behavior. But despite him building his reputation as a self-help guru with all the answers to life’s questions, he had a mental breakdown, becoming suicidal and addicted to benzodiazepines, an anti-anxiety drug, after he couldn’t handle the pressures of his wife’s kidney cancer diagnosis.169 A psychologist who couldn’t even handle his own problems and emotions, yet became a social media celebrity by dispensing what is seen as profound wisdom to everyone else on how to manage theirs. Former Rolling Stone music critic Neil Strauss wrote an interesting book called The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists in 2005, back when online dating was still seen as something only for nerds and before dating apps, which detailed his experiences learning how to

develop the courage (and strategies) to actually walk up to women in person and talk to them and get their numbers and schedule dates. Aside from being an autobiographical story about his own journey and personal transformation, the book also conveys how anyone can use the same techniques as he did to dramatically improve their dating life. His sidekick “Mystery” (Eric Von Markovic) later published his own how-to guide titled The Mystery Method, which despite occasionally recommending using some unethical tactics (like lying or stretching the truth) actually does have the social science down pretty solid regarding early stage relationship dynamics, and contains proven strategies to start conversations with girls and get dates the old fashion way—in the real world—face to face, not through some app. The biggest problem most single and lonely guys face is illustrated by NHL star Wayne Gretsky who used to say you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take, and all strategies and tactics aside, if books like Neil Strauss’s or Mystery’s just convince young men to take action and actually ask out women they’re interested in instead of being afraid of rejection, that alone would make a world of difference. Learning the art of the pickup shouldn’t be about bringing girls home from the bar and getting laid (which is actually a terrible idea). It’s about developing the skills and confidence to ask the cute bank teller or receptionist at the dentist office for her number if you feel a connection instead of walking away and thinking “what if” on your way home. While feminism (and all other forms of Liberalism) have thrown relationship dynamics out of balance, and created monsters, there are still plenty of girls who haven’t fallen victim to the new culture, and will feel as though they’ve been rescued by Prince Charming from it once they find a guy whose interests, values, and goals align with their own.  



American Symbols and Holidays

The enemy hates America, our past, our present, and everything we stand for—including symbols of our country like the Founding Fathers, the American flag, and even our national holidays. They’re trying to change the meaning of America from a place of freedom, prosperity, and ingenuity, to one of exploitation, racism, and oppression in order to weaken the foundation of our society so it will collapse into a socialist / communist revolution. This is the same strategy China’s dictator Mao Zedong used by directing his student-led paramilitary group of faithful followers called the Red Guards to target the “Four Olds”—old customs, old culture, old habits, and old ideas; to have them eradicated so the “new” China could emerge with a bureaucratic superstructure controlling all education, art, and entertainment to facilitate the communist society he had envisioned.170 A country’s holidays not only preserve its culture, but help each new generation carry on traditions, reflect back on important events, and enjoy the benefits a country has to offer. But now nearly every American holiday from fairly small ones that don’t cause much of a celebration like Columbus Day, to big ones like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Easter, and Christmas are attacked every year by the ungrateful and spiteful rejects in our society— just like Mao Zedong’s Red Guard did in China, hoping to eliminate patriotism in America and pride in our culture. Many of them can’t even enjoy Martin Luther King Day because it just reminds them of what White people did to the poor Blacks generations ago. I’ll detail the attacks on Christmas and Easter in the next chapter because those are the two main targets of the American Marxists, but their list is long, so here’s just a brief overview:



Independence Day

Every year when the 4th of July comes around now countless Black people and self-hating Whites cry about how Blacks weren’t free when the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, so they can’t be grateful for the freedoms they enjoy today as a result of living in this country. Their opposition to the holiday is like clockwork, and every year there are columns published in mainstream Liberal outlets about how the 4th of July makes Black people feel bad, and lists their grievances about why they shouldn’t celebrate it.171 The holiday causes disgruntled “African” Americans to blame “the White man” for their own personal failures because of what happened to ancestors of theirs whose names they don’t even know. Many dream of one day getting reparations, and think they’re entitled to millions of dollars each.172 Marxist Democrat Congresswoman Cori Bush from Missouri says “When they say that the 4th of July is about American Freedom, remember this: the freedom they’re referring to is for white people. This land is stolen land and Black people still aren’t free.”173 Vox, a well-funded Leftist “news” website published an article titled “3 Reasons the American Revolution Was a Mistake,” which argues that declaring independence from England was “a monumental mistake” and “We should be mourning the fact that we left the United Kingdom, not cheering it.”174 It goes on to say that the United States should have remained a British colony because fewer Native Americans would have been oppressed and slavery would have supposedly ended sooner! They even claim our form of government would be better since Britain has a parliamentary system instead of our three branch separation of powers system. (Britain doesn’t have a free speech amendment in their constitution, by the way, and instead have strict laws that criminalize “hate speech.”)

Of course Vox couldn’t conclude their screed without distain for White people, saying, “The main benefit of the revolution to colonists was that it gave more political power to America’s white male minority.”175 It’s always the White man’s fault! On the eve of Independence Day a few years ago, The Washington Post declared, “It’s time to reconsider the global legacy of July 4th 1776,” and denounced American independence saying it “helped further colonialism and white supremacy.”176 The article goes on to lament how after freeing ourselves from the British empire we went on to build an empire of our own, acquiring Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam—and that America reinforced “black and indigenous lives did not matter.”177 The Associated Press published a story on Independence Day in 2023 about how the word “patriot” is now often seen as a negative word because “Today, the word and its variants have morphed beyond the original meaning. It has become infused in political rhetoric and school curriculums, with varying definitions, while being appropriated by white nationalist groups.”178 That same year Ben and Jerry’s, the over-priced “super premium” ice cream tweeted, “This 4th of July, it’s high time we recognize that the US exists on stolen Indigenous land and commit to returning it,” and linked to a petition demanding South Dakota give the land where Mount Rushmore stands back to the Sioux Indian tribes as part of the Land Back movement, which demands that “traditional territories” of Native American tribes be given back to them.179 But it turns out that the Ben and Jerry’s factory in South Burlington, Vermont sits on land that used to belong to the Abenaki tribe until British colonists arrived in North America and forced them out.180 They probably didn’t even know that, and surely don’t care, because if they meant what they said about supporting the Land Back movement they would turn the deed to their property over to the tribe.



Thanksgiving 

Thanksgiving offends Liberals too because it reminds them of how the pilgrims “stole the land from Native Americans.” But if someone is dumb enough to trade Manhattan for $24 worth of beads and trinkets (which is purportedly what the Native Americans did with the early settlers), then that’s their loss. Many Liberals go so far as to say Thanksgiving is a celebration of “White imperialists” and the supposed “genocide” early settlers committed against the natives.181 But it’s not just a few thousand crazies on Twitter. Such insane ideas have institutional support, and as usual, that of Hollywood celebrities.182 Marxist media outlets now publish editorials from Native Americans every year about how Thanksgiving hurts their feelings because it reminds them of their ancestors’ failings. The official YouTube Twitter account even posted an animated GIF showing a group of Native American girls tipping over a dinner table filled with the traditional food in protest of the holiday.183 They also tweeted a link to a video by Francesca Ramsey (best known for complaining about White kids wearing certain Halloween costumes) titled “5 Comebacks For Your Racist Relative During The Holidays,” because Leftists obsess over non-White people who suffer from inferiority complexes.184 Previous years’ tweets had been about helping nonprofit organizations feed homeless and needy people on Thanksgiving, or “Thanksgiving Fun Facts,” but that was before YouTube went full libtard.185 When the NFL’s Washington Redskins were scheduled to play Thanksgiving one year, it added extra “insult” according to those triggered by holiday because they considered the team’s very name to be a “racist slur.”186 A few years later the team’s name was changed to the “Washington Football Team” (after 87-years as the Redskins) as an interim name, and then later to the Washington Commanders in order to appease critics who kept harping about how the team’s name was “racist.”

Marxist media outlets now even ring the alarm about the supposed “environment impact” of Thanksgiving, claiming that it increases greenhouse gas emissions and is contributing to climate change.187 Vice “News” calculated what they claimed to be the CO2 emissions for preparing a turkey, writing, “cooking a typical Thanksgiving dinner contributes 80 pounds of CO2 to the planet’s decline. That’s equivalent to the carbon emissions of driving about 100 miles in your average American car.”188 Others echo these concerns, including The Huffington Post, which published an article titled “The Environmental Impact Of Your Thanksgiving Dinner,” and suggested “alternative ingredients that cause less environmental damage,” going so far as to say people should consider not serving turkey at all, and use plant-based foods instead.189 Many of the White people who hate Thanksgiving are just spiteful since they grew up in dysfunctional families that probably don’t even get together for the holiday, or if they did when they were growing up, it was an utter disaster and regretful. But instead of trying to break the cycle by starting their own family to restore the tradition, they just invent reasons to complain about the holiday and try to spoil everyone else’s fun. A new form of virtue signaling has arose in recent years called a “land acknowledgement,” where people openly apologize to ancient Native American tribes which used to live in the region where an event is occurring. For example, at the Oscars in 2020 just before actor Taika Waititi presented the nominees for an award, he did a “land acknowledgement” by saying that the Tongva, the Tataviam, and the Chumash used to live in the vicinity where the Oscars ceremony was being held.190 It’s a way of apologizing for White people modernizing the region, or as the Leftists say, “colonizing” it. Such a ridiculous practice isn’t just done by Hollywood actors who often embrace fringe causes hoping to look like they’re helping ordinary people. To kick off an online Microsoft training seminar in 2021, the hosts began by saying, “We need to acknowledge that the land where the Microsoft campus is situated was traditionally occupied by the Sammamish, Duwamish, Snoqualmie, Suquamish, Muckleshoot, Snohomish, Tulalip, and other coast-Salish peoples since time immemorial. A people who are still continuing to honor and bring to light their amazing heritage.”191

These ridiculous land acknowledgements even occur before some city council meetings and board of supervisors meetings.192 A growing number of schools even hold land acknowledgment ceremonies, and some have put up plaques inside of schools as a form of their “acknowledgement” as well.193 The idiots who engage in such a ridiculous practice never mention that Native American tribes were at war with each other, long before the European settlers arrived in North America (not to mention they committed genocide against each other as well, and enslaved those from other tribes who survived).194 But as usual, all the problems other ethnic groups have experienced throughout all of history, are blamed on White people.



Halloween

“Progressives” can barely enjoy Halloween anymore either because some stores might sell costumes the snowflakes think are “cultural appropriation.” These same people don’t have a problem letting kids dress up as psychotic mass murderers for Halloween, but if they happen to wear a rasta wig or sombrero, then it’s the end of the world. Megyn Kelly was famously fired from hosting NBC’s flagship show Today after saying she didn’t see a problem with White kids dressing up as characters that happen to be of another race.195 The following day she even issued a dramatic apology on air, starting the show by saying how sorry she was—how she was “wrong,” and it’s “not okay.” But that was the last time she would appear on the show.196 From the media outrage over her comments, you would have thought she shouted out the n-word on air, but she just dismissed the insane controversy over White kids wearing certain Halloween costumes. Disney pulled a costume for their animated film Moana after morons complained that it was “brownface” and “cultural appropriation,” thus offensive.197 In the film, a demigod named Maui (voiced by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) is a Pacific Islander, with his arms covered in tattoos and he wears a grass skirt. But if that style of clothing is worn by a White kid who loves the movie, then that’s “offensive” to Pacific Islanders. So the costume was recalled and banned.198 There were even complaints about White kids wearing the Black Panther costume in some promotional pictures advertising the sale of the costume on Walmart and Target’s websites.199 Their grievances are obviously absurd, but imagine the backlash if White people complained that a Black kid was pictured modeling a Superman costume! The Democrats in Congress would pass a resolution denouncing the complaints and the Justice Department would launch a Civil Rights investigation!



Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day is offensive to many Liberals too now since gay men who are raising children are confronted with the reality of the horrifying and unnatural environment they’re forcing “their” children to grow up in, so there’s a push to make Mother’s Day “more inclusive” for LGBTQ people.200 For Mother’s Day 2022, clothing company Calvin Klein released an ad featuring a pregnant transgender “man” wearing only underwear with “his” belly sticking out where the poor unfortunate baby is growing.201 The person’s breasts were surgically removed, so the mother won’t be able to properly feed the baby once it’s born and will have to resort to formula instead of breastmilk. Some transgender “women” are even posting photos online showing them “breastfeeding” babies, who they abuse by having the babies suck on their fake “breasts” despite not being able to produce any milk.202 There are now even transgender “women” who post TikTok videos about how they’re deciding to celebrate Mother’s Day despite actually having fathered children because now they identify as “women.”203 The “Human Rights Campaign,” a Leftist queer lobbying organization, has a guide for teachers called “Welcoming Schools” which encourages them to “develop more inclusive practices around celebrating Mother’s and Father’s Days” and recommends a book called Stella Brings the Family which is about a girl whose school is having a Mother’s Day celebration but Stella has “two daddies” and doesn’t have a mom to invite to the party so the book is designed to “help” kids “acquire the vocabulary to talk about LGBTQ families.”204 An increasing number of schools are just canceling Mother’s Day celebrations altogether. The madness seems to have started in 2017 and has since spread.205 The Washington Post complains, “For some gay parents, Mother’s Day (or Father’s Day) is awkward” and features numerous gay

couples who call them “Hallmark holidays” that “don’t merit a celebration.”206 GLAAD—the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation lobbying organization, has a “Mother’s Day Resource Kit” that provides “potential story ideas and suggestions on how to make coverage of Mother’s Day more inclusive.” Some of their recommendations are to, “Include a lesbian or transgender mother as part of a composite profile of how mothers in the region enjoy the holiday. Profile a lesbian couple’s journey to adopt (either locally or abroad). Report on the legal difficulties faced by lesbian couples as they try to become parents. Profile a mother who has come out as lesbian, bisexual or transgender to her children, spouse/partner or extended family. Profile a child who has come out to his or her mother or grandmother.”207 In 2018 Fortune magazine published an article titled “Making Mother’s Day More Inclusive” and shows two gay Black men with a baby. It starts off saying “Mother’s Day can be fraught for many reasons for many people,” and repeats the same Leftist complaints about how gay men raising children together are uncomfortable with the holiday.208 Some lunatics are even upset that Mother’s Day leaves out women who don’t have children and say it should be a day “for all women” and “there’s no need to feel left out” if a woman never had children!209 The British Medical Association, the equivalent of the American Medical Association in the United States, issued new “guidance” in 2017 recommending doctors and other health care providers not refer to pregnant women as pregnant women, and instead call them pregnant people.210 While laughable at the time, the insane trend has caught on and now the Center for Disease Control in the United States,211 Planned Parenthood, and other organizations recommend using the same term.212 That or birthing person.213 During her confirmation hearing after being appointed as Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson (who was chosen by Joe Biden simply because she’s a Black woman) couldn’t even provide a definition for the word woman when asked by Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn. “I’m not a biologist,” she responded, which proved the point the senator was trying to raise by asking it.214 Liberals are afraid to say what a woman is now, because they don’t want to ostracize transgender people who “identify” as women. And

admitting that trans “women” aren’t real women would derail the Marxists’ gender bending agenda, so when asked the basic question “what is a woman?” they freeze up, and avoid answering the question, or provide a nonsense response like “a woman is whoever identifies as a woman.”



Father’s Day

Father’s Day reinforces cisgender heteronormative patriarch stereotypes of men controlling the grill and so Liberals are upset about that, and they also feel it’s offensive to single mothers whose children don’t have fathers in their lives—and lesbian couples who have adopted children or purchased sperm from a sperm bank and had themselves artificially inseminated since their poor children don’t have a dad. And since most Black kids don’t have fathers in their homes and Father’s Day is an uncomfortable reminder of that fact, the holiday is also deemed racially insensitive.215 The average Black woman has children by two or three different fathers (baby daddies as they call them), none of whom they’ve ever married and on average none of them even live in the home with her and the children.216 Another uncomfortable fact about the Black community you’re not supposed to mention, which has also been the inspiration for some very politically incorrect jokes you’re not supposed to tell either. The Huffington Post published an article titled “Three Reasons Why Father’s Day Should Be Abolished,” and complains that dads are often the “secondary parent” because the mother is usually the primary caregiver since men typically work longer hours while moms are in charge of childcare and housework, and even calls the holiday a waste of money.217 Others who have no children, along with those whose fathers were abusive or absent, are also upset about Father’s Day, prompting The Chicago Tribune to ask “Is Father’s Day Outdated?” They say since the holiday triggers bad memories for some it should be abolished. Others have been calling for it be renamed “Special Person’s Day” instead.218 For these same reasons some schools are now doing away with acknowledging the holiday at all.219 LGBTQ groups are upset that Father’s Day is about normal men (straight men) and not homosexuals or transgenders, so GLAAD published

a “Father’s Day Resource Kit” (just like they did for Mother’s Day) to encourage their allies in the media to make sure they include queers in their Father’s Day news coverage and television show plots.220 “The lives of gay, bisexual and transgender parents and their families are often absent in Father’s Day coverage since print and electronic press reports often focus solely on straight parents,” they complain. Their “resource kit” even provides story ideas and other suggestions on how to make Father’s Day more “inclusive” which are just as ridiculous as you could imagine.221



Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day upsets these same crazies too because it “perpetuates heteronormativity,” a Leftist buzzword meaning that heterosexual couples are the norm (which of course they are) but that upsets them because all the commercials throughout the entire history of the holiday (until the queer Pride pandemic) featured couples consisting of a man and a woman celebrating the holiday and that reminds LGBTQ people that they are a fringe minority (despite efforts to artificially amplify their representation in media). It used to be just feminists who get upset about Valentine’s Day because they’re perpetually single and have nobody special in their lives to celebrate it with, so they lash out every February 14th when it comes around, publishing a slew of blogs, YouTube videos and TikToks complaining about it. But now with the Marxist’s cultural insurrection underway, Valentine’s Day is under attack for not being gay. The ADL complains, “Be aware of how some holidays can reinforce restrictive social norms around gender identity and sexual orientation. For example, as students get older and Valentine’s Day becomes more focused on romantic relationships and not friendships, celebrations may reinforce heterosexist notions that all relationships are between a boy and a girl and marginalize LGBTQ  youth, or youth who simply are not interested in romantic relationships.”222 University student newspapers are usually the most upset about Valentine’s Day being about normal (heterosexual) couples, and every year publish articles spewing their heterophobia. The University of Utah’s paper complains, “For individuals that identify outside of the gender binary, this heteronormative depiction of Valentine’s Day presents other problems—not only does it exclude any potential relationships they might be involved in, it also dismisses the existence of their gender identity altogether.”223 One student interviewed for the article said, “I perceive Valentine’s Day as a huge piece of heteronormativity. While having good intentions, it

really pushes the norm of cis[gender] male and cis[gender] female romance. For instance, pretty much every movie and TV show’s portrayal of this day is between a cis[gender] man and cis[gender] woman. It makes me a little upset, especially because I feel like my ideal relationship is never shown onscreen.”224 “Cisgender” if you don’t know, is a cultural marxist term meaning someone whose genitalia matches their gender identity, or as they say, whose gender identity “corresponds” to the sex they were “assigned at birth.” Cis is Latin for “on this side of,” which is the opposite of trans which means “across from” or “on the other side of.” Or as comedian Norm MacDonald used to say, “It’s a way of marginalizing a normal person.” The student newspaper at California State University, San Marcos whines that, “The holiday perpetuates a fixed depiction of couples and romance as primarily held between a man and a woman,” and blames “the media” for heterosexual relationships being viewed as the norm.225 Some elementary schools are canceling Valentine’s Day celebrations which involve arts and crafts and forbid students from handing out Valentine’s cards to their classmates. One such school sent out a notice to parents saying, “While we acknowledge the celebration of Valentine’s, and are mindful of the popularity of that day, it is not celebrated by all students/families in our community. It is essential that all students feel welcomed and reflected at school, and that our celebrations do not negatively impact our families and students.”226 It also explicitly told parents not to let their children bring any Valentine’s cards or candy. The principal of an elementary school in Saint Paul, Minnesota who canceled Valentine’s Day celebrations said he was concerned that kids doing arts and crafts or exchanging Valentine’s Day cards may “suppress” some students!227 Elementary schools in an East Lansing, Michigan district also canceled Valentine’s Day celebrations, saying they can cause “unintended consequences” such as “drama and teasing.”228 A Rutgers University psychology professor is urging all schools to cancel Valentine’s Day celebrations because it’s about “romantic love” and so it “does not have a place in school.”229



It Never Ends 

Columbus Day is another annual reminder of how the early European settlers treated the natives which sparks the usual rounds of complaints, so progressives have been pushing to not just cancel Columbus Day, but to replace it with a new holiday they call Indigenous Peoples’ Day to honor and commemorate Native Americans. In 1992 the city of Berkeley, California symbolically renamed Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day and nobody really noticed or took the move seriously and just wrote off the idea as coming from a bunch of hippies, but as the years went on more and more cities began officially replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day.230 In 2017 the Los Angeles city council voted to do so, becoming the largest city to make the change.231 Two years later Washington D.C.’s city council did the same thing.232 And as president, Joe Biden issued a presidential proclamation in 2021 declaring October 10th (Columbus Day) to be “Indigenous Peoples’ Day.”233 Now on the iPhone calendar it marks the “holiday” automatically as such, and the notification cannot be removed.234 At some point they’ll probably fully cancel Columbus Day, purging it from all calendars like the toppled confederate monuments were removed from public display and the confederate flag banned, claiming it’s disgraceful to commemorate the “violent colonization in the Western hemisphere.” But if the European settlers hadn’t colonized North America, instituted our form of government—bringing with it law and order, and designed and built the infrastructure of modern society; then the Native American tribes may still be living in tepees, warring with each other, and doing rain dances hoping to get their crops to grow so they wouldn’t starve instead of having the luxuries of grocery stores and other modern conveniences.

And without the Europeans establishing colonies here, the African Americans wouldn’t be Americans at all, because if their ancestors weren’t brought here as slaves then they would have been born and raised in any number of the third world countries in Africa, many living in dirt huts and walking around barefoot not owning any shoes. But because of what their ancestors went through, they get to enjoy everything that the United States has to offer.



American Monuments

When there’s a revolution in a country, the old flag and monuments are torn down and replaced by symbols of the new regime. There is a famous video of a gigantic Saddam Hussein statue being toppled during the War in Iraq showing Iraqis celebrating and hitting it with their shoes once it fell to the ground (a sign of disrespect in their culture).235 And in the 21st century United States, countless monuments were toppled in a similar fashion as the attempted Marxist revolution began heating up.236 Since Leftists hate America’s history, culture, and customs, it only makes sense that they would focus that hatred on American monuments. But not just the old “racist” Confederate monuments, which have stood in the South for a hundred and fifty years. They also want statues of the Founding Fathers torn down, and ultimately the American flag that flies on top of the U.S. Capitol building. During a discussion about numerous Confederate monuments being torn down across the South on CNN, one of their contributors named Angela Rye called for statues of George Washington to be torn down too because he owned slaves, saying, “To me, I don’t care if it’s a George Washington statue or Thomas Jefferson, they all need to come down.”237 Race-baiting grifter extraordinaire Al Sharpton agrees.238 And so did the city council of New York, which had a statue of Thomas Jefferson removed from City Hall which had stood there for over 100 years.239 Later they considered removing more statues and artwork of Jefferson, and those honoring George Washington too.240 A few years before the height of the anti-Confederate monument hysteria (which succeeded in removing nearly 100 monuments across the South in the year 2020 alone), protesters in Atlanta vandalized a Peace Monument that was set up in 1911 to symbolize reconciliation between the North and the South after the Civil War, thinking it was a Confederate

statue of some kind.241 A statue of Abraham Lincoln (who freed the slaves) was vandalized in Chicago with graffiti saying “colonizer.”242 Mount Rushmore is also a target of frequent protesters and even threats to blow it up.243 Vice News wrote an article originally titled “It’s Time To Blow Up Mount Rushmore” and then quietly changed it to “Let’s Get Rid of Mount Rushmore” after controversy grew about them trying to incite violence.244 Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi responded to the rash of vandalism and angry mobs toppling confederate monuments in the wake of the George Floyd riots by saying, “If the community doesn’t want the statue there, the statue shouldn’t be there,” adding, “I don’t care that much about statues.”245 One reporter pressed her, asking “Respectfully, shouldn’t that be done by a commission, or the city council—not a mob, in the middle of the night throwing it into the harbor?” to which she responded, “People will do what they do,” and shrugged off the mobs as if what they were doing was no big deal.246 Interestingly, George Orwell foresaw this kind of cultural erasure in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, writing, “One could not learn history from architecture any more than one could learn it from books. Statues, inscriptions, memorial stones, the names of streets—anything that might throw light upon the past had been systematically altered.”247 They’re engaged in a cultural genocide (not to be confused with an ethnic genocide, which is the deliberate killing of a large group of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the purpose of eradicating it). Cultural genocide is defined as “acts and measures undertaken to destroy nations’ or ethnic groups’ culture through spiritual, national, and cultural destruction.”248 This is done through destroying cultural artifacts like books, artwork, and monuments (or even buildings). Destruction of such artifacts is actually a violation of numerous international treaties which aim to protect such objects even in times of war. The Treaty on the Protection of Artistic and Scientific Institutions and Historic Monuments (also known as the Roerich Pact), which was signed by 21 different countries reads, “The historic monuments, museums, scientific, artistic, educational and cultural institutions shall be considered as neutral and as such respected and protected by belligerents. The same respect and protection shall be due to the personnel of the institutions

mentioned above. The same respect and protection shall be accorded to the historic monuments, museums, scientific, artistic, educational and cultural institutions in time of peace as well as in war.”249



The National Anthem

For generations the National Anthem had been proudly played before nationally televised sporting events to signify how fortunate we are to live in the United States where citizens can enjoy such entertainment at their leisure, but that tradition too came under attack by anti-American forces within our own country. That battle became part of pop culture in 2016 when the San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick (who was adopted as a child by a nice White family since his Black biological mother and father abandoned him) started kneeling (or sitting) during the song instead of proudly standing with his hand over his heart in order to “protest” against supposed “police brutality” and to show solidarity with the Marxist Black Lives Matter movement.250 It sparked a national debate with the usual leaders of cultural decay —Hollywood celebrities and Liberal “journalists,” siding with Kaepernick and painting him as some kind of civil rights hero. Then the tradition itself was attacked, with many calling for the song to stop being performed at sporting events all together.251 Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA team, quietly stopped playing the national anthem before games at his stadium in November 2020, but then resumed the tradition after pushback from the NBA three months later.252 New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees apologized for saying that he would still stand during the National Anthem and thought people kneeling were disrespecting the flag.253 The following day after his initial comments he posted a video on Instagram saying, “It breaks my heart to know the pain I have caused. I would like to apologize to my friends, teammates, the City of New Orleans, the Black community, NFL community and anyone I hurt with my comments yesterday. In speaking with some of you, it breaks my heart to know the pain I have caused.”254

All that for just disagreeing with those who refused to respect the National Anthem at the games! To appease the crazies, the NFL started having a singer perform the “Black National Anthem” before games in the 2021 season, which is a song that some Black people feel “better represents” them.255 Many disgruntled Black people think the National Anthem itself is racist, and it’s a celebration of “White supremacy.”256 The NAACP, the National Association for the Advance of Colored People, says it’s one of the most racist songs in America, and have lobbied legislatures to remove it as a our national anthem.257 Democrat Congressman Cedric Richmond of Louisiana, who is the head of the “Congressional Black Caucus” (a group of Black congressmen who work to promote the interests of Black people over other Americans), supported a petition posted on Change.org calling for it to be abolished, saying it contains “racism, elitism, and even sexism.”258



The American Flag 

The American flag obviously symbolizes our great nation (or at least what a great nation we used to be), and since the Marxists hate everything about the United States—from our Founding Fathers, to the Bill of Rights, and every aspect of our culture, it should come as no surprise that the very sight of Old Glory sends them into a hissy fit as well. A survey conducted in 2018 by the non-profit Foundation for Liberty and American Greatness found that 1 out of 5 millennials see the American flag as “a sign of intolerance and hatred.”259 In 2015, I posted a YouTube video showing me asking random people walking along a boardwalk by the beach in southern California if they would sign a petition to “ban” the American flag and issue a new flag featuring rainbow stripes for “diversity,” and many people gladly supported the cause.260 While it was slightly funny at the time, it was an early indicator of the declining patriotism in America and the growing hostility from within. Nike canceled the rollout of a limited edition shoe that was scheduled to be released in 2019 to commemorate Independence Day because it featured the Betsy Ross flag, a flag that represents the original 13 colonies.261 The cancellation came after complains by Colin Kaepernick who had become the face of Nike, landing a multi-million dollar contract with them the previous year.262 In the past, athletes like Michael Jordan and Andre Agassi were the face of the sneaker giant, and they never engaged in divisive political rhetoric or got involved in political causes. Instead, they strictly stuck to sports, knowing it would be bad for business to ostracize half of their fans by publicly aligning with either political party or anything having to do with politics at all. But today, promoting Liberal political causes is put before profits and most of corporate America is now in a competition with each other over who can best use their resources to promote “social justice.”263

A group of students at a California high school were sent home after they came to class on Cinco de Mayo (the Mexican holiday, meaning May 5th) wearing shirts with the American flag on them. The school considered their shirts to be “cultural disrespect” and forbid the students from wearing them.264 They sued the school for violating their first amendment rights, but the Ninth Circuit court ruled against the students!265 Their lawyers wanted to take the case to the Supreme Court, but in 2015 (when it was still dominated by Liberals) they rejected even hearing the case!266 The Sigma Chi fraternity at Stanford University was told by a school administrator that the American flag flying on their frat house could be seen as “offensive, intimidating, aggressive or alienating” to others.267 In response, the frat bought an even larger flag the very next day and hung that one outside as a “silent but visible protest.”268 They didn’t get a letter from the school because they were flying a Confederate flag or one with an expletive or offensive imagery. They were just flying an American flag! Comedian Sarah Silverman, best known for being Jimmy Kimmel’s ex-girlfriend from many years ago, said in her now defunct Hulu show that the American flag makes her “scared” and “shaken” because she’s a Jew, and “nationalism  is innately terrifying for Jews” because the Nazis were nationalists, meaning they were highly dedicated to their own nation and it formed a central part of their identity. And so Americans saying “We’re number one” and posting a flag outside their home is too nationalistic for her, because it’s “really like an old bed buddy of racism and xenophobia.”269 So, she’s worried that some Americans (the patriotic ones) like America too much, and they remind her of Nazis because of their national pride. MSNBC contributor and New York Times board member Mara Gay says she thinks it’s “disturbing” that so many Donald Trump supporters fly the American flag because it sends the message that this is “their” country.270 And now every year around the 4th of July numerous TikTok videos go viral of Black people complaining about seeing all the American flags everywhere, and insisting that anyone who has one flying outside their house must be “some racist ass White mother fuckers.”271



The Coming Collapse of the United States? 

The polarization between Red states and Blue states has never been more intense, aside from the Civil War era. The coronavirus lockdowns in 2020 and 2021 clearly showed the vast disagreement between different states regarding mandates for masks, vaccines, and forced school and business closures. And with such dramatically different views regarding abortion, school curriculums, transgenderism, reparations, and other irreconcilable divides, many wonder at what point do we have a “national divorce” and split the country in two, or numerous different Republics. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, various regions broke off into independent republics. And the borders of many countries have changed throughout history as they rose and fell. So it’s not unforeseeable that at some point in the future the United States could break apart into various regional republics. Nearly a dozen Conservative counties in Oregon have been trying to secede and be annexed into Idaho, in what’s called the Greater Idaho Movement.272 For decades fringe voices have been calling for Texas to secede, but nobody took such people seriously; although now many have been wondering what possible solution is there to America’s growing cultural divide other than a national divorce? If the Supreme Court gets stacked with a Liberal majority and keeps passing draconian laws that businesses and teachers would have to legally follow or get sued into bankruptcy—like the “Equality Act” that Democrats keep hoping to cram through, which would force everyone to recognize dozens of different “genders” and allow anyone to declare themselves a man or a woman (or neither), and let them to participate in any activities which had been exclusive to that sex—including giving them access to locker rooms and showers (and competing on girls sports teams if someone self identifies as a “girl”)—then what recourse would normal people have at that point?

Businesses would lose their license and be shut down and sued by left-wing activists or the Justice Department for violating the “civil rights” of the gender benders. Employees would be fired if they refused to play along with a transgender customer’s “identity,” or if they referred to a coworker as a he/him or a she/her if that person “identifies” as “gender nonbinary.” What do we have in common with today’s Democrats? Our moral values, political interests, and economic models are completely polar opposites. The old days of trying to find common ground on various issues or compromise on certain things in order to win other concessions are over. The debates about what to do politically with the country are no longer about which group of people should get tax cuts or which communities should get federal funding for infrastructure or social welfare programs. They’re much more personal, and the differences are so much more extreme than anyone in previous generations could have ever imagined. Every day more Conservatives want nothing to do with Democrat policies (and vice versa). And not just economic policies, but policies in schools and the workplace. We even have drastically different views about what entertainment we want to watch since many long-established shows, sporting events, and even television commercials now bombard audiences with divisive political propaganda using once-great brand name products like Bud Light, Gillette, and Hershey’s to normalize drag queens, celebrate gay “marriage,” and promote transgenderism to children. Our national debt is economically unsustainable, the lack of patriotism and open resentment and hatred for the United States from many of our own citizens is unprecedented. The floods of countless millions of illegal aliens who will never assimilate into American culture and instead are only diluting it by importing their own are forever changing the social landscape. Many historians (and ordinary Americans) see the warning signs flashing that we may be in the late stages of an empire—one that appears to be approaching a complete collapse.    



Christianity and Churches

People who love sin always hate God because His existence and moral code is offensive to their debauchery, deception, and destructive lifestyles. And while many Liberals hate God, they specifically hate Christians because Christianity is very clear about God’s principles. Instead of some generic and nebulous “god,” Christians believe in a very specific Deity who has laid out very clear codes of conduct in the Bible. And this conduct is often directly opposed to the way Liberals live their lives. Muslims mostly avoid scorn from the Left because they’re seen as a non-White minority group and thus “oppressed.” Liberals rarely if ever criticize Islam or Muslims, but love to espouse their hatred of Christians. Even fewer people criticize Judaism or Jews because they know they’ll instantly be branded an “antisemite” and have their career destroyed. You hear about how terrible “Islamophobia” and “antisemitism” is all the time, but never about Christianphobia. It’s not even seen as a real word. But Christians are the most hated group of people in America, and contrary to popular belief, the most persecuted religious group in the world.273 And not just in the Middle East or 3rd world countries in Africa, but also in Europe and even the United States.274 When Evangelist Franklin Graham, Billy Graham’s son, planned to give a series of sermons around the UK, every venue he had booked (including in Birmingham, Liverpool, and Sheffield) canceled on him over what they said was his past “homophobic and Islamophobic” comments for preaching that homosexuality is “something to be repentant of, not something to be flaunted, praised or politicized,” and for calling Islam a “wicked and evil” religion.275

The city council in San Antonio, Texas voted to ban Chick-fil-A from their new airport, claiming the restaurant has a “legacy of antiLGBTQ behavior” because it’s a Christian owned company and famously stays closed on Sundays, the Lord’s Day.276 Shortly after, another airport in Buffalo, New York did the same thing for the same reason.277 New York Magazine then published an article celebrating the ban and listing a bunch of other restaurants that sell chicken sandwiches, recommending people eat there instead, so they’re not “supporting our nation’s hate mongers.”278 The New Yorker (different from New York Magazine) complained that Chick-Fil-A was “infiltrating New York City” when they expanded there, and called it “creepy” that their corporate mission statement mentions God.279 The Left hates Hobby Lobby, the mega arts and crafts store for the same reason. They’ve donated to various Christian causes supporting prolife legislation and opposing gay “marriage.”280 And they’re also closed on Sundays, an old tradition many businesses followed until around the 1980s. So Hobby Lobby is often the target of rabid Leftists online who would never even shop there anyway because they don’t have an ounce of creativity in their brains so they would never even think of going to an arts and crafts store. One of America’s largest Christian legal defense groups, Alliance Defending Freedom, was banned from Amazon.com’s charity fundraising program Amazon Smile after the Southern Poverty Law Center branded them a “hate group” because they defend businesses in court which are bullied by LGBTQ extremists trying to force them to engage in practices that violate their religious beliefs—like baking gay “wedding” cakes and catering gay “weddings.”281 At the Jersey Shore, a large pier in the Ocean Grove community that has two sections, one which extends perpendicular to the main walkway near the end, has been interpreted to look like a Christian cross from the air, so it came under attack by LGBTQ extremists who complained it was a religious symbol.282 In one of Project Veritas’ undercover investigations they caught an assistant principal in Connecticut on tape saying that he wouldn’t hire Conservatives or Christians.283 If someone said the same thing about not hiring Jews or Muslims it would have caused a national scandal with

Democrats in Congress and the Justice Department launching an investigation, but this story went virtually unnoticed in the media.284 When a group of Christians were spotted hanging out in a coffee shop in Seattle by the owner (who is a queer) he started yelling at them to leave and said he would “fuck Christ in the ass,” and then sexually harassed them by talking about how he has sex with his boyfriend.285 As the group left he told them to tell their friends (other Christians) not to come there.286 The entire incident was captured on video and posted online but the business owner faced no consequences. If he went on a rant about Jews or Muslims and kicked them out, it would have been one of the top stories in the country and Jewish groups like the ADL would have ran him out of business by suing him for discrimination. But discriminating against a group of Christians is accepted. And sadly this isn’t an isolated incident. It’s a growing trend. A man wearing a “Jesus Saves” shirt in the Mall of America in Minnesota was told by a security guard that he needed to take it off or leave because it was considered to be “soliciting,” which is a violation of the mall’s rules.287 Just wearing a shirt promoting Jesus was deemed the same as if he was handing out flyers, which is what the ban on soliciting is actually in place to prevent—which is a reasonable policy and one that nearly every business has, but now just seeing the name Jesus on a t-shirt is offensive. A Christian group in Virginia called the Family Foundation had their dinner reservations canceled after the owner learned that they oppose abortion and gay “marriage.”288 The owner proudly posted on his Instagram about it, and this sort of thing likely happens a lot more than people know because most of the time such discrimination isn’t going to make the news since the business owners aren’t going to brag about what they’ve done on social media. Leftists tried to get the husband and wife team Chip and Joanna Gaines fired from their HGTV home renovation show in 2016 because they go to church and their church—like any real church that believes in the Bible—doesn’t support gay “marriage.”289 But despite the controversy they kept their show and they’ll be safe as long as they don’t voice their opinions about gay “marriage” themselves. Other Christian HGTV hosts, the Benham brothers (not to be confused with the “Property Brothers,” a different pair of twin brothers on the network), were going to help people renovate their shabby homes in a

new series until they got caught up in a news cycle that smeared them as “anti-gay” and “anti-choice extremists” because unlike Chip and Joanna Gaines who remain silent on the issue, the Benham Brothers denounced gay “marriage,” so HGTV dropped them.290 After Donald Sterling, the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers NBA basketball team was caught on tape making “racist” remarks about his “girlfriend” (nearly fifty years his junior) having sex with Black guys, the league forced him to sell his team—and then some people began arguing that “homophobes” (i.e. Christians who don’t support gay “marriage”) shouldn’t be allowed to own an NBA team either, and wanted to start a witch hunt to force them to sell their teams as well.291 Christian schools are even under attack by Liberal attorney generals who claim they’re “discriminating” against LGBTQ people if they don’t hire them.292 Similar lawsuits and threats have been made against churches and pastors who refused to host same sex “weddings.”293 CNN host John King insinuated that Mike Pence’s wife should have her Secret Service protection revoked after she decided to volunteer as an art teacher a few days a week at a Christian school that doesn’t allow gays or lesbians to be teachers, saying taxpayers were “subsidizing her life” even though every vice president (and their wives) receive secret service protection.294 After word first broke that Karen Pence would be teaching at the school, which like all (real) Christian schools, doesn’t celebrate homosexuality like most government run public schools do, the hashtag #ExposeChristianSchools trended on Twitter from so many Liberals venting their hatred and Christianphobia.295 Singer Lady Gaga even chimed in on the issue, attacking Mike Pence during a concert—calling him the “Worst representation of what it means to be a Christian.”296 CNN then declared that “Christianity’s future looks more like Lady Gaga than Mike Pence.”297 It’s amazing that a bunch of people who hate Jesus are always telling Christians what Jesus would do. Because of the publicity over the controversy, another school in the district announced that they were now refusing to play any sports against the teams at the one Mrs. Pence taught at.298 A Catholic club at Georgetown University—America’s oldest Catholic college, was labeled a “hate group” by LGBTQ activists on campus because they believe (correctly) that marriage is between a man and

a woman, so a student senator filed a complaint with the school claiming the Catholic club’s beliefs violated the school policy against “fostering hatred or intolerance.”299 Why a Catholic school would even allow LGBTQ students to attend is another question—one you’re not supposed to ask. Shouldn’t Catholic and Christian schools be allowed to expel students who openly celebrate what the Bible condemns? Texas Christian University added a course called “Queer Art of Drag” to their curriculum in 2021 as an elective, where students create a “drag persona” and a “lip-sync portfolio” consisting of videos of them singing and dancing in drag. They also have to perform at the school’s annual Night of Drag.300 The fact that a supposed “Christian” college would allow and encourage drag shows is ridiculous, and having a course dedicated to it which gives students credit for it is blasphemous and the school should be forced to remove the word Christian from its name. Angry queers tried to get the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team to cancel their annual Christian Day, which is a post-game event that has been held for over 30 years where fans who wish to remain in their seats after the game can enjoy speakers (often current or former Cardinals players) who talk about Jesus and the Christian life.301 A Marxist LGBTQ extremist group called Stonewall Militant Front organized hoping to shut down a mega church in Austin, Texas and doxxed the pastor and his son causing them to be flooded with death threats because the church doesn’t support gay “marriage.”302 Conservative social media personality and former Congressional candidate Laura Loomer was banned from Twitter (under the leadership of Jack Dorsey) for “Islamophobic” comments about Democrat Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, where Loomer just pointed out that Islam oppresses homosexuals and women.303 At the time she had over 250,000 followers. But a simple search any day of the week brings up countless profanity-filled vicious and hateful anti-Christian tweets, but nobody is suspended or banned from social media for hate speech against Christians. (Loomer’s account was restored four years later along with many others after Elon Musk bought the platform.)304 If you look at how much the morality of America has been degenerating, it appears as if we’re living in the End Times and the prophecy of the Antichrist doesn’t seem so far-fetched. We’re seeing the

open worship of Satan and not just the corny heavy metal band type of satanic antics, but a more sophisticated, organized, and funded form of satanism. It probably won’t be much longer until an admitted satanist is elected to Congress (who will be a Democrat, no doubt). After Democrats took control of the House of Representatives in the 2018 midterm election, they proposed removing the age-old “so help me God” line from the oath taken before key committee hearings.305 Leftists want the government to be God, but our rights come from God, not the government. In the New World Order, however, identity politics has become a new religion. Queerness and intersectionality is their faith. And it follows most of the same tenets as a religion, including having its own rituals, path to atonement, and excommunication of “heretics” who stray from the dogma.



Christmas Under Attack

The Left often mocks the War on Christmas while they wage war. It’s a gaslighting tactic. And like most fronts in the culture war, the Left’s attacks on Christmas started small and weren’t seen as a threat that would have any effect, but they relentlessly persisted and the trickle turned into a flood. Now the “Satanic Temple”—an anti-Christian hate group, desecrates Christmas displays set up on public property by installing their own satanicthemed displays right next to them every December under threats of lawsuits against local and state governments if they’re not allowed to, claiming that forbidding their “Christmas” displays would be a violation of their First Amendment.306 If they targeted Jewish holidays, the ADL would freak out and get them banned from social media, payment processors, and apps like Venmo and PayPal to cut off their funding for being a “hate group,” but it’s acceptable to hate Christians and attempt to desecrate our holidays. As part of the Marxist agenda aiming to destroy American culture, Leftists are working to undermine almost every national holiday, but since Christmas is a Christian holiday despite it being mostly secularized for generations, they are extremely upset about it because of its origins and underlying meaning. The name itself is derived from Christ’s Mass, marking the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, but despite the holiday being more about Santa Claus than it is about celebrating the birth of Jesus these days, Leftists still hate the holiday because its Christian roots will never be forgotten. It’s not “inclusive” enough they say, and it’s “offensive” to Jews, Muslims, and atheists (although mostly Jewish secularists who are Liberal atheist non-practicing Jews, also known as JINOs—Jews in name only, in the same vein as RINOs—Republican in name only, but you’re not supposed to notice that, let alone say it out loud). Many Jews throw around the word “antisemitism” more than Black people call others “racist.” But the “antisemitism” label has much more

power and often proves to be extremely damaging to people’s careers if it’s hurled at them. An anti-Christian screed in The Washington Post starts off, “Please don’t wish me a Merry Christmas…It’s impolite and alienating to assume I follow your religion.”307 She complains “it is everywhere, for over a month…in a way no other holiday is—not even Easter. It is in every ad, in every window and doorway, and on everyone’s lips.” As a Jew, she says, it’s “uncomfortable,” “weird,” “exhausting,” and “makes me feel like a stranger in my own land.”308 She goes on, “Despite the movies and the shopping, despite the Germanic decor, Christmas is still, at its core and by design, about the birth of Christ…Whenever I hear the name, I hear the ‘Christ’ in it,” And she doesn’t want to be “reminded a thousand times every winter.”309 Most atheists enjoy Christmas, decorate their homes each year, buy presents for their loved ones and gather for Christmas dinner. They’re not the ones complaining about Christmas (except for a few rare militant ones who are actually just satanists in disguise and hate everything about life). Buddhists aren’t offended by being told “Merry Christmas.” Neither are Hindus, Sikhs, or Zoroastrians. An NBC News op-ed complained that, “December in America is a constant onslaught of Christmas culture: Every store gets decked out in Christmas finery and puts carols on full blast, seemingly believing that it encourages shopping. Television shows that normally avoid any discussion of anything approaching religious observance suddenly get into the spirit, devoting extra-long episodes to stories about the generous spirit inspired by this time of year.”310 It went on to complain that “Ostensibly secular offices and schools are suddenly awash in Santas and sleighs and reindeer…It would be bad enough if this aggressive Christmas assault were purely the domain of the rabid right wing…But the truth is that liberals—even ones who ostensibly embrace religious diversity—can be just as bad as their conservative counterparts when it comes to enforcing the oppressive Christmas climate.”311 What she means is Christmas is “oppressive” to the Jews (which she herself is one, including the typical JINO preface “as a Jew” in her tirade). The report concluded that we should “take a long hard look at the way

Christmas is used to send the message that America is a nation primarily for Christians.”312 A former producer for Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox News sued him and the network for what she claimed was a “hostile work environment” and said in her lawsuit she faced “antisemitism” because there were “noisy” Christmas decorations in the office, and when she complained about them, she was called a “grinch” and a “scrooge” by a coworker.313 That’s “antisemitism” she says! But the War on Christmas gets much worse than a small but vocal demographic of non-Christians getting offended that the holiday is an intricate part of American culture. Santa is now seen as a symbol of White supremacy and White privilege by many Liberals, who say it makes Black children feel ostracized.314 So there are increasing calls to depict Santa as a penguin instead of jolly old Saint Nicholas, to be more “inclusive.”315 In a webinar put together by the Jewish ADL aimed at public school teachers, they complained about arts and crafts projects where teachers have students draw pictures of Santa Claus! One of the panelists admitted “Santa Claus is not considered to be a religious symbol, for Constitutional purposes, so asking students to draw a picture of something that’s not deemed religious is Constitutional,” but then he turned the conversation over to another panelist to explain “even though this is technically Constitutional, an assignment like this is none the less—problematic.”316 It’s a problem to them that kids draw pictures of Santa in school! In 2017 a children’s book titled Santa’s Husband was published which depicts Santa as gay and married to a Black man—a book written by a Jew who, of course, doesn’t celebrate Christmas.317 He just wrote it to denigrate the holiday. CNN praised the book when it was first released as a “fresh new twist” on the story of Santa Claus.318 After a political activist named Jacob Wohl recommended that Jews should assimilate into American Christian culture by putting up Christmas lights in December, he started trending on Twitter from so many people attacking him, calling him an “antisemite” (not realizing he himself is Jewish) and his comments even made headlines. Publications like Newsweek even twisted his recommendation by reporting that he “demanded” Jews do it.319

After The Santa Clauses TV mini-series staring Tim Allen came out on the Disney+ streaming service, a Jewish film critic named Scott Weinberg complained that Tim Allen (who plays Santa) has a line where he laments, “Saying ‘Merry Christmas to all’ has suddenly become problematic,” thus proving the character’s point. “It just struck me as a truly weird thing to put in a kid’s series,” Weinberg said. “‘Someone wants to stop us from saying Merry Christmas!’ is not some random campaign. It’s a low-key effort to vilify anyone who doesn’t celebrate this holiday,” he concluded.320 After he was widely mocked on Twitter, he then cried that he was the victim of “antisemitism.”321 Christmas represents everything we’re trying to preserve in America: family, tradition, capitalism, and most importantly, Christ—all things the Left vehemently hates. And they deem it a “microagression” to even say Merry Christmas to someone.322 Starting in 2017 the DC Metro (the government agency that oversees public transportation, such as busses and other rapid transit services) banned any Christmas ads on or in Washington DC busses that mention Jesus, God, or Christianity.323 So no more “Jesus is the reason for the season” or “Keep Christ in Christmas” posters allowed. And now each year numerous Universities across America struggle with allowing faculty and students to hold Christmas parties out of concerns they’ll offend non-Christians who think the holiday is “oppressive.” They post sections on their websites urging people to be “culturally sensitive” in December, and saying things like, “Displays that feature exclusively singlethemed decorations [meaning Christmas] may be well intentioned, but they can marginalize those who celebrate other religious and cultural beliefs during this season.”324 Many schools suggest not doing a “Secret Santa” gift exchange either.325 The Universities don’t want the faculty to put up any Christmas decorations that have any religious connotations either (so no baby Jesus in a manger), only secular ones like snowmen. They also request faculty not hold celebrations that even “indirectly” celebrates “religious holidays.”326 Would Indian or Chinese people who emigrated to a predominantly Muslim country like Saudi Arabia or Pakistan send out memos encouraging people not to celebrate Ramadan or Eid al-Fitr because it might not be “inclusive” enough for them? Would British or Irish people who were

working in Israel ask colleagues in that country not to celebrate Jewish holidays or avoid using any religious symbols during popular celebrations there because it wouldn’t be “inclusive” enough for non-Jews? Never! Would Christians living in India complain about Hindu symbols being displayed for the celebration of Diwali (the Festival of Lights), one of the most popular celebrations in the country every year? Of course not! But those who are hostile to Christmas are aided by brand name Liberal media outlets every year which amplify their attacks on Christian celebrations in America—and it’s time people stop giving into the demands of a small minority who don’t want to assimilate and enjoy the biggest holiday around the world. Most people, out of ignorance (or fear), just point to “Liberals” as the ones who oppose and attack Christmas, and very few people will mention that there is usually a very specific group of Liberals who oppose Christmas—Liberal secular Jews—or Liberal non-practicing Jews (not to be confused with the conservative religious Orthodox Jews, who believe in God and don’t just identify as Jews ethnically or culturally).327 While Orthodox Jews don’t celebrate Christmas either, they’re not usually hostile about it like many Liberal JINOs and tend to be friendly with (and respectful of) Christians,328 despite their differences about Jesus, because Orthodox Jews share many of the same values as Christians, whereas JINOs are typically Leftist atheists.329 A lot of people get confused when they hear about Jews who don’t believe in God because most non-Jews don’t understand that “Jewish” is also an ethnicity aside from a religion, but because Jewish ethnicity has been historically linked with Judaism (the religion) most non-Jews don’t know that ethnic Jews who no longer follow the religion of the ancient Israelites still identify as Jews because the word has dual meanings.330 During a speech at Texas A&M University, Ben Shapiro, one of the most famous Orthodox Jews in America, remarked why so many (ethnic) Jews are Leftists, saying, “This is one of the questions I get most often from non-Jewish audiences, is why are Jews so disproportionately to the left. And the answer is the vast majority of Jews don’t go to synagogue, don’t believe in God, [and] don’t believe in the Bible…Jews are the single most anti-religious, quote unquote ‘religious’ group in the United States.”331 And to understand why Jews don’t celebrate Christmas and why so many of them actively oppose it being an integral part of American culture,

one has to understand the history of Christianity and how Jews rejecting Jesus as the son of God and the Messiah has caused an ongoing division between Jews and Gentiles (non-Jews) for over two thousand years. Few Christians are aware that Muslims actually believe Jesus was a prophet, they just don’t believe he was God in the flesh or that his death atoned for mankind’s sins. Muslims believe Jesus was born of a virgin though (which Jews do not), and that he performed miracles—including restoring a blind man’s vision, healing a leper, and raising the dead.332 All of this is written in the Koran, which contains some of the same stories as the Christian Bible.333 In Judaism on the other hand (and among JINOs—Jews in name only—who no longer follow the Jewish religion or even believe in God but still identify as Jews culturally), Jesus is viewed as a fraud and a false prophet, and because of the events that led to his crucifixion and being rejected by the ancient Israelites as the messiah—many Jews and Christians have had an often tense opposition between each other ever since.334



Easter Under Attack 

Even though Easter has been covered with a secular veneer similar to Christmas, the Christian roots are far more visible because the resurrection of Christ is at the core of Christianity and it’s seen as a far more religious holiday than Christmas. And since most Liberals hate Jesus and Christianity, Easter Sunday causes them to flip out and spew their hatred every year, usually on social media which is where Leftists prefer to live their lives and air their every grievance as soon as they come to mind. Anti-Christian posts don’t violate the terms of service on the Big Tech social media platforms (unlike criticism of Jews or Muslims) and most Leftists wouldn’t even think of criticizing Muhammad, the revered prophet of Islam—or any Muslim holidays, beliefs, or practices; but every Easter the Christianphobes vent their hatred of Jesus and Christians online. A single post criticizing a Jewish holiday or tradition (like the eating of hamantaschen, a pastry which symbolize the cut off ears of Jewish enemies during their holiday of Purim)335 or mocking their ritual of swinging a chicken around their head while saying a prayer—thinking it transfers their sins to the chicken, which is an atonement ritual many religious Jews engage in for Yom Kippur,336 would cause a national outrage and make headlines across the country, but attacking Christians is so commonplace it’s now central to mainstream American culture. Recently, every year when Easter comes around, cries of “antisemitism” come from the Liberal media which continuously work to smear the Christian holy day as an attack on Jews for the crucifixion of Jesus. But shockingly these smears aren’t just from the usual media outlets, they’re also now coming from some heretical “Christian” or “Catholic” ones as well. America Magazine, a publication put out by the Jesuits of the United States (a Catholic group), published an article titled “The Gospel of John has been used to justify anti-semitism—so we should stop reading it on Good Friday.” It starts out saying, “Over the weekend, I saw a number of

comments from Jewish Twitter users expressing concern about the week to come. The Christian celebration of Holy Week brings with it increased antiSemitic comments, threats and violence, and it has for over a thousand years.”337 It continues, “Reading John’s Passion [meaning the Book of John from the Bible] on Good Friday causes real harm. And our practice is far more a matter of tradition than any theological necessity.”338 The writer suggests avoiding some of the specifics about the events that led up to the crucifixion of Jesus because certain historical facts have been deemed “antisemitic” by Jews. The Book of John is seen as more problematic than the other Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) because of the verse found in John 8:44 which reads, “You [the Jews who want Jesus to be killed] belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires.” It’s deemed an “antisemitic” passage because it paints the Jews who wanted Jesus killed as satanic. Aside from John 8:44, other verses that echo this sentiment such as Revelation 2:9 (and 3:9) which warn about “those who say they are Jews and are not, but are of the synagogue of Satan,” are also deemed “antisemitic.”339 Some Jewish leaders have even called for Bibles to come with warning labels on them which highlight and counteract what they deem “antisemitic” passages and themes about “the seemingly stubborn nature of the Jewish people and their disloyalty to God.”340 Billy Graham, the most respected Christian evangelist in the 20th and 21st century, deemed “America’s pastor,” can be heard on the Nixon White House Tapes referencing these verses since President Nixon secretly recorded every conversation in the Oval Office using a voice-activated tape recorder. The last of the tapes, which contain more than 3,000 hours of conversations, were made public in 2002 and include Billy Graham having a very candid discussion with the president back in 1972 where he can be heard telling Nixon, “You see the Bible makes a distinction, Mr. President, between two groups of Jews. One is called the synagogue of Satan—there are two different kinds.”341 He continues saying the other group is called the remnant of God’s people, who are Jews which will become Christians in the End Times. “And then there’s the synagogue of Satan,” he says again. “And nearly all of your religious deceptions in the latter days, like the Bible speaks, latter days

would be a thousand years; [comes from] what they call the synagogue of Satan. In other words, they are energized by a supernatural power called the Devil. This is what the Bible teaches, whether you believe it or don’t believe it, this is the Biblical teaching. This is what I believe. And I believe that they have a strange brilliance about them because they’re smart. And they are energized in my judgement by a supernatural power, and you see, and uh, of course Hitler didn’t uh—they had a stranglehold on Germany. On the banking of Germany, on everything in Germany—and the media. They had the whole thing, you see. And he [Hitler] went about it wrong, but this stranglehold has got to be broken or this country is going to go down the drain.”342 Nixon asked, “You believe that?” Graham: “Yes sir.” Nixon responded, “Good Lord. I can’t ever say it, but I believe it.”343 When the tape was made public 30 years later, Billy Graham was denounced as an “antisemite” but surprisingly it didn’t completely destroy his career or legacy. And the fact that he never talked about such things publicly, but instead kept that conversation for what he thought was a private discussion with the president of the United States, speaks volumes about how dangerous it can be to talk about certain parts of the scriptures. Even the cross itself has been called an “antisemitic symbol.” The London Guardian says “Christians must understand that for Jews the cross is a symbol of oppression” and that “Christianity bears primary responsibility for historic antisemitism.”344 In 2023, Israel’s government proposed a ban on Christians proselytizing in their country.345 “America’s greatest ally,” as both the Republicans and Democrats in congress always tout, who we give billions of dollars in aid to every year,346 tried to ban preaching the Gospel.347 (And this wasn’t the first time).348 After news of the latest proposition made it to the United States, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement saying he wouldn’t sign the bill into law and frantically tried to engage in damage control so Christians would continue to support the State of Israel and the Jewish people.349 The “fact checkers” online tried to mitigate the damage too, claiming the proposed bill wouldn’t ban people from “talking about Jesus,” just proselytizing, or trying to convert someone to becoming a Christian.

People in Israel could still talk about him! A senior editor at The Jerusalem Post said, “And it wouldn’t exist [meaning the proposed ban] if missionaries would just back off—at least in our own country.”350 Few Christian churches and political pundits will admit that while Israel tolerates Christian tourists—preaching to Jews about Jesus is highly discouraged and often results in hostility and scorn.351 After Mel Gibson’s blockbuster Passion of the Christ film was released in 2004, it was widely denounced as “antisemitic” because it was the most popular film about Jesus in generations. A Jewish critic for The New York Daily News named Jamie Bernard called it “the most virulently anti-Semitic movie made since the German propaganda films of the Second World War.”352 The Jewish Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said it “continues its unambiguous portrayal of Jews as being responsible for the death of Jesus. There is no question in this film about who is responsible. At every single opportunity, Mr. Gibson’s film reinforces the notion that the Jewish authorities and the Jewish mob are the ones ultimately responsible for the Crucifixion.”353 Well, Christians who have actually read the Bible would know that’s actually how it happened. Groups like the ADL try to split hairs and claim that technically the Romans killed Jesus, but the Bible makes it very clear that the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem at the time were the ones pushing for it. In Matthew 27:24 the Bible quotes Pontius Pilate (the Roman governor of Judea at the time) saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood… It is your responsibility!” meaning the Jewish Pharisees who had conspired to have Jesus arrested and killed for “blasphemy” and being a “false” messiah. The Bible also says that Pontius Pilate even offered to release Jesus, but the angry crowd of Jewish townspeople demanded Barabbas be set free instead, another prisoner who had been recently arrested for insurrection against Rome and murder.354 Bari Weiss, who has worked as the opinion editor for The New York Times and a book reviewer for The Wall Street Journal, insists it’s a “conspiracy theory” that Jews were behind Jesus being crucified.355 Others however, like Jewish comedian Sarah Silverman gloat, “I’m glad the Jews killed Christ. Good! I’d fucking do it again!”356

Of course it’s not fair to blame all Jews or Jewish people living today for killing Jesus any more than it would be to blame White people in general for slavery in America’s past, but it was the Jewish religious leadership at the time (the Pharisees) who conspired to have the Romans kill him, which Jewish advocacy groups like the ADL consider to be an “antisemitic trope” if you dare say it. Yes, quoting the Bible is considered to be “antisemitic” these days, including passages like Matthew 12:14 which reads, “But the [Jewish] Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.” And Mark 11:18 which says, “The chief [Jewish] priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.” It wasn’t the Romans who were insisting he be crucified. The Bible makes that very clear. Luke 23:23-24 says “But with loud shouts they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed.  So Pilate decided to grant their demand.” It’s rare for Biblical dramas to become so popular, but almost ten years after The Passion of the Christ, the History Channel’s miniseries The Bible was a hit in 2013, and like clockwork the same cries of “antisemitism” rang out about that as well.357 Very few Christians today have an understanding of the tense (and ongoing) opposition many Jews have toward Christians. Before becoming a Christian, the Apostle Paul (a religious Jew prior to his conversion) actually hunted down and killed the first followers of Jesus.358 Martin Luther, the monk who started the Protestant reformation by famously nailing his Ninety-Five Theses to the front door of his local church in 1517 starting the Protestant Reformation, is deemed an antisemite for his theological writings criticizing Judaism. His book On The Jews and Their Lies, published in 1543 and sold on Amazon since it first launched in 1995, was banned sometime around the year 2020 during a purge of numerous titles Jewish groups had been pressuring the retailer to censor.359 There are plenty of books critical of Christianity, Catholicism, and the Inquisition, but certain books that are critical of Judaism, Jewish secularism (JINOs), Jewish ethnocentrism (their in-group favoritism), or discussions about any “Jewish banking dynasties” have been recently censored completely from Amazon and aren’t allowed to be sold. Even used copies by third parties are forbidden from being listed.360

In the Talmud, the recorded oral teachings of Jewish religious leaders (known as Rabbinic Judaism which has been the mainstream form of Judaism since the 6th century), it not only says that Jesus was a false messiah and blasphemer who the Pharisees proudly put to death,361 but that Mary was a whore and an adulteress who had sex with a Roman soldier named Panthera, and that’s how she became pregnant with Jesus.362 The Talmud is considered to be just as sacred as the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) by most Jews, but Christians aren’t demanding the Talmud be banned, or clamoring about any “anti-Christianism” because of the theological differences they have with Jews. While Christians may debate and discuss their disagreements, they’re not framing the Jewish view as being “hate speech” or “dangerous” like Jews paint Christian beliefs and Bible verses. Most Christians aren’t even aware of the Talmud and are quite shocked to learn what it says about Jesus—and that it is one of the most sacred religious texts of modern Judaism and “the single most influential document in the history of Judaism.”363 The diametric opposition between Judaism and Christianity softened in the early 20th century largely due to a new edition of the Bible, the Schofield Bible, an annotated version of the Bible (meaning including commentary and notes alongside the scriptures) published by Cyrus I. Scofield in 1909 which changed the view many Christians have towards Jews. It eased the tensions between the two groups by convincing Christians that God commands their uncritical support of the State of Israel, and turned most American evangelicals into Zionists (people who support Israel as a homeland exclusively for Jewish people) and now put Jews on a pedestal as “God’s chosen people” or the “apple of God’s eye.” This, despite Jews not believing in Jesus as the Son of God, and most ethnic Jews not even being religious at all.364 The Bible makes it clear that God’s covenant is with those who have faith in Christ—those who believe in Jesus, not people who just so happen to belong to a certain ethnic group, even if at one point in history God issued them the Ten Commandments.365 Christians believe that faith in Jesus (that he is God in human form and he paid the penalty for your sins, accepting the punishment on your behalf) along with genuine repentance (regret or remorse for your sins) is the only way to have salvation and come into fellowship with God;366 and

the entire premise of Christianity is that it’s by faith alone (belief), not rituals or works—or outside actions; or anything that you can “do” (such as “being a good person,” so no one can boast that they have more favorability with God than others).367 And this salvation certainly isn’t contingent on anyone’s ancestry or what ethnic group you belong to. Jesus offers fellowship with God (and access to the Kingdom of Heaven) to all of mankind—Jew and Gentile (meaning non-Jews, also called Goy or Goyim, which is a disparaging term used by some Jews to refer to non-Jews).368 Judaism is a very exclusive and ethnocentric religion. Notice Jews don’t try to preach or spread the word to others about their God, because to them, he’s their God, and they are his special people. In fact, they discourage people who aren’t born (ethnically) Jewish from converting to Judaism, and many converts still aren’t considered Jews according to Jewish law because if their mother isn’t an (ethnic) Jew, then they’re not really seen as Jewish because they have no direct genetic lineage to the ancient Israelites.369 This is why some people accuse Jews of being Jewish supremacists, which of course is denounced as another “antisemitic slur” because White people are the only ethnic group that are supposed to be framed as seeing themselves superior to others. But some Jews do reveal their own superiority complex when giving the impression that they’re above doing certain kinds of jobs like manual labor.370 One of the most famous rabbis in Israel, Ovadiah Yosef, preached that “Goyim were born only to serve us. Without that, they have no place in the world—only to serve the People of Israel…Why are gentiles needed? They will work, they will plow, they will reap. We will sit like an effendi [a member of the nobility] and eat…That is why gentiles were created.”371 When he died in 2013, he was given the largest funeral in the history of Israel.372 Jews, in their view, work “prestigious” jobs like being doctors and lawyers. This is not a knock against them at all. Their culture emphasizes education and success, much like Asian Americans do. But they’re very sensitive to even the slightest criticism from non-Jews. If an (ethnic) Jew who once also followed religious Judaism (an Orthodox Jew, the ones who wear the yarmulke) becomes a follower of Christ (a Christian believing in Jesus), they are often called a messianic Jew

to make the distinction that while they have Jewish heritage (ethnicity) they are also a Christian. Jesus came to fulfill the Old Testament prophesies of a Messiah (a savior), and essentially reform (or transform) Judaism, much like Buddha reformed Hinduism by preaching his formula for “enlightenment” to all, breaking the monopoly held by the religious leaders at the time in India, the Brahmins, who saw themselves as the authorities others needed to rely on in order to gain knowledge of God.373 With the coming of Jesus the Messiah, Jews were invited into God’s new covenant which was also offered to all of mankind so they could do away with external rituals and other stringent practices they previously used in hopes of becoming holy and pleasing to God, and instead they could now be guided by faith alone through a spiritual transformation of their mind which automatically changes how they think and behave, bringing them into harmony with God through the Holy Spirit, a supernatural force that functions as an invisible guide and conscience. But the Bible makes it clear that many Jews were jealous of their “chosenness” over the Gentiles (non-Jews) being offered communion with the God of Israel who they saw as their God—the God of (ethnic) Jews. By God becoming a man in the form of Jesus, he also provided a way for humans to better understand him, and relate to him. He came to earth not only to reveal his instructions through parables that any man, woman, and child could understand, but to set an example for how to think and how to behave. To be the ultimate role model. And when the Holy Spirit enters a person’s mind (through belief in Christ) it’s like downloading a new operating system for your computer or phone, and the old animalistic (carnal) human nature is upgraded, and one becomes anointed with a spiritually-minded consciousness. 2nd Corinthians 5:17 says “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, and the new is here.” There are many metaphors that describe this, perhaps the most common is a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly. Christians use the term born again to signify this transformation, and Jesus enables us to interface with the awesome and inconceivable power of God in a way that our limited brains can comprehend. Anyone who rejects Christ as the Son of God, the Light of the World (the transmission of God’s messages to mankind) also rejects God (John

2:23), so Jews who don’t believe in Jesus are not God’s chosen people.374 Not anymore. Not since the new covenant—the arrival of Jesus. Christians are God’s chosen people. This is Supersessionism because Christians superseded the Jews as God’s covenanted people. Often it’s called replacement theology as a pejorative and is considered a “heresy” by many churches today because they don’t want to be accused of “antisemitism” even though the Bible makes it very clear that Christians are God’s chosen people, and ever since the early days of Christianity, Christians were universally understood to be just that until Zionism became a major influence in Christianity.375 Romans 9:6-8 says “For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel…it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.” Galatians 3:29 also makes it clear that, “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” And your personal salvation and relationship with Christ have nothing to do with two different ethnic groups (Jews and Palestinians) fighting over a plot of land half way around the world in Israel or which one occupies any of the disputed territories.376 And any Christians who read the New Testament for themselves, instead of relying on what non-Christians or false preachers tell them it says, would know the true history and reasons for the differences and ongoing tensions between Christianity and Judaism. While most Christians today don’t hold any grudges against Jews despite the conflicts of the past, and instead revere them for the role they played in God’s plan in the Old Testament and hope that they (along with everyone on earth) will one day come to believe in Jesus, unfortunately many Jews stand firm in their opposition to Christian culture and holidays while often masking their hostilities in hopes of not bringing any attention to themselves because of it.377



Tax-Exempt Churches

Most Christians don’t know, but in order for churches to get taxexempt status (meaning they don’t have to pay federal or state income tax on all the donations, or property tax) the government severely limits what the pastor (or priest) can say during their sermons and restricts what kinds of political activities the church can engage in or endorse.378 Virtually every church in the United States is held to these standards because they all operate as 501(c)(3) tax-exempt entities, as opposed to typical businesses which are set up as corporations (or sole proprietorships if they’re small). In 1954 then-senator Lyndon B. Johnson (a Democrat) successfully proposed an amendment to the tax code (called the Johnson Amendment) which prohibits all 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations from endorsing or opposing any political candidates or legislation.379 This means that a church’s tax-exempt status could be revoked if the pastor starts incorporating real world examples into their sermons and denouncing or supporting any specific candidates or legislation.380 You didn’t think the government granted churches tax free status because they support Jesus, did you? It was to buy them off and keep them out of the way, and diminish their power to organize and influence things politically. Jesus said “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s,” meaning you should pay your taxes.381 But unfortunately, most churches have sold their First Amendment rights for 30 pieces of silver. Many also don’t want to drive away people who may have Liberal political views, so they try their best to keep politics out of the Church, which is one of the reasons why Christians in America have gotten so soft and afraid to denounce the widespread degeneracy in our culture. President Obama’s senior legal advisor suggested that Churches should lose their tax-exempt status if they didn’t officiate gay “weddings” once the Supreme Court ruled in favor of them under his administration.382 When Beto O’Rourke was running for president during the 2020 election

season he agreed, saying that any Churches which refuse to acknowledge gay “marriage” should lose their tax-exempt status.383 Such battles have been quietly raging for years. The city of Houston launched an investigation into a local church back in 2014 to determine whether or not to revoke their tax-exempt status. They issued a subpoena demanding sermon notes and other documents after the lesbian mayor was alerted to the pastor’s sermons denouncing a local ordinance the city was trying to pass which would have allowed those who identify as transgender to use whatever public bathrooms they wanted, no matter their biological sex.384 A United Methodist Church that owns a boardwalk pavilion in New Jersey lost their tax-exempt status in 2007 after they wouldn’t allow a lesbian couple to use the location for their “wedding.”385 Gay “marriage” wasn’t even legal at the time, but they requested to use the pavilion for their “ceremony” anyway and were denied, so they sued and the court ruled in their favor.386 After members of the Mormon Church helped organize support for Proposition 8 in California which banned gay “marriage” throughout the entire state back in 2008, LGBTQ groups tried to get their tax-exempt status revoked.387 When the San Francisco archbishop issued a notice that the Catholic church would refuse then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi communion because of her very vocal pro-abortion stance, #TaxTheChurch started trending on Twitter from so many people demanding their taxexempt status be pulled.388 Pastor Greg Locke, a popular social media personality and head of a church in Tennessee, faced calls to have his church lose its tax-exempt status after a video went viral showing him railing against abortion, shouting, “If you vote Democrat, I don’t even want you around this church! You can get out! You can get out, you demon! You cannot be a Christian and vote Democrat in this nation!”389 After his rant made headlines he claimed that he would dissolve his church’s 501(c)(3) himself, “because the government ain’t gonna tell me what I can and what I can’t say.”390



Apostate Churches

Far worse than churches afraid to weigh in on political issues out of concerns that they might lose their tax-exempt status or hoping to avoid offending churchgoers (thus driving away some Democrat attendees along with their tithing) if the pastor is too overtly Conservative, are those who openly teach things or accept things that the Bible clearly opposes. Most churches in America are afraid to denounce gay couples adopting children, let alone even call homosexuality a sin anymore (and especially not perverted or disgusting), but some “churches” have gone even further and hired openly gay pastors.391 And not just “churches” in San Francisco. Churches in Birmingham, Alabama,392 Madison, Wisconsin,393 Baptist churches in Louisville, Kentucky,394 United Methodist churches in Texas, and more.395 If you search Google for “Church hires openly gay pastor” there are countless news stories from local outlets about supposed “churches” across the country which are doing it. Soon these apostate churches will likely print Bible editions that exclude various parts of scripture that the popular culture in America objects to (like verses denouncing homosexuals or pointing out that Jewish Pharisees conspired to have Jesus killed—the Romans didn’t just crucify him out of the blue).396 A Chicago-area church announced that it was “fasting from Whiteness” for Lent—the Christian tradition in various denominations of giving something up for the period preceding Easter to commemorate the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert fasting and being tempted by Satan. Their “fast” involved “giving up” music created by White people during the worship and instead used music from Black people.397 They even put a “Fasting from Whiteness” sign in their front lawn. Other churches across America have given sermons denouncing “White privilege” and shown solidarity with the Black Lives Matter

movement.398 Drag shows are even being held at supposed “Christian” churches. In 2019 the Fairview Community Church in Costa Mesa, California held one which may have been the first “church” to do so.399 A few months later that same year, South Bay Pentecostal Church in San Diego held one.400 Followed by the Trinity Episcopal Church in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania a few months after that.401 The Episcopal Church is an apostate organization that claims to be Christian while accepting gays and lesbians as pastors (and officially supports abortion) so it shouldn’t be a surprise they’re holding Drag Queen Story Hour events, but many different denominations are doing so.402 A private Episcopal “Christian” school in Manhattan that charges nearly $60,000 a year for tuition, forced students to attend a drag show inside its chapel. Footage of the event was posted online showing a drag queen singing and dancing up and down the aisle in between the pews.403 A Lutheran church in the Chicago area hosted a drag queen story hour event at the end of 2021 where the church’s pastor was the drag queen! He told the children, “I am also a boy most of the time when I’m here, but today, I’m a girl.”404 As usual, photos of the event were proudly posted on social media by the perpetrators to celebrate what they had done.405 More “churches” continued to follow. One in Florida called Naples United Church of Christ hosted a drag queen show for kids ages 12-18 to “help” them with the “exploration of LGBTQ-related issues facing today’s youth”406 When signing up to attend the event, children (or their parents who signed them up) were asked to include their pronouns on the registration form. The “pastor” at University Christian Church in San Diego, Caleb J. Lines, does his sermons wearing an LGBTQ rainbow-colored sash, and calls drag “holy.” He also preaches that God is gay.407 As degenerate as drag shows are, they had always been considered exclusively an adult form of entertainment until the early 2010s when the LGBTQ community began openly targeting children. And despite what these satanic “churches” and their “pastors” say about it, the Bible is very clear on God’s view of crossdressing. Deuteronomy 22:5 says “The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God.”

Aside from the perverts who get sexual gratification dressing as women (autogynephilia), crossdressing has also been used for comedic effect for generations because it’s so strange to see a man dressed up as a woman or pretending to be one, and so countless films and TV shows have used the bit to get laughs. Classics like Some Like It Hot (1959), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), and sketch comedy shows from In Living Color and Saturday Night Live to Tyler Perry’s movies used it as a staple bit, but now it’s considered to be offensive and hateful to laugh at men who dress as women—and instead we’re supposed to not just take them seriously, but put them on a pedestal as freedom fighters for “inclusion” and “diversity” in the New World Order.



Hate Crimes Against Christians

While in America it’s common to be slandered and defamed for being a Christian, believers in other parts of the world like North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, and numerous regions in Africa, they literally risk their lives by professing belief in Jesus Christ.408 It never makes the news in the United States, but militant Muslims in African countries (including Somalia, Nigeria, Libya, and Yemen) regularly murder them.409 Aside from being mocked and slandered by the Hollywood elite and Christianphobia allowed to flourish on the Big Tech platforms, when Christians in America are victims of hate crimes those attacks go mostly unnoticed—and are only reported in the local newspapers or in a 15-second sound bite on the local television news. The ADL [Anti-Defamation League] claims to fight against “hate” and “bias” to “protect Democracy and ensure a just and inclusive society for all,” but they aren’t concerned in the least about hate against Christians. They’re an anti-Christian hate group who work to protect and promote Jews, gays, transgenders, and any group of people who are non-White. The Southern Poverty Law Center, another anti-White and antiChristian hate group, has what they call a “hate map” on their website showing all of the groups they hate and where they’re located. And this map was used by a mass shooter in 2012 to target a Christian organization called the Family Research Council which is a think tank and lobbying organization that has opposed gay “marriage” and other Leftist agendas like the LGBTQ child grooming movement.410 The gunman told police he intended to kill as many people as possible but was thankfully tackled by the building manager (despite being shot in the arm himself) and was able to stop what would have been a mass casualty event. The shooting soon vanished from the news, never to be mentioned again. The shooter was later convicted of terrorism charges and sentenced to 25 years in prison.411

An 84-page report published by the Family Research Council identified at least 420 attacks against 397 different churches between 2018 and 2022 including arson, vandalism, and bomb threats.412 One of these involved a church in San Diego that was vandalized with satanic symbols by someone (or a group) who spray painted them on the building after the church made headlines for denouncing a local drag queen story hour event.413 Churches across the country were vandalized with pro-abortion messages shortly after the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked in 2022. Churches in Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, Virginia, Oregon, Louisiana, and others were all vandalized by pro-abortion zealots.414 Antifa social media accounts were also posting the locations of Pregnancy Resource Centers, which are pro-life organizations that encourage pregnant women not to have abortions and offer other options like counseling to help prepare them for motherhood, or connecting them with adoption agencies to place the children with couples who will raise them as their own. Such targeting has led to numerous cases of vandalism and arson against these facilities as well.415 One in Madison, Wisconsin was firebombed with a Molotov cocktail and graffiti spray painted on the building that read, “If abortions aren’t safe, you aren’t either.”416 Another Pregnancy Resource Center was set on fire in Peoria, Illinois during this tense time period after it was learned that Roe v. Wade was being overturned.417 Every Christmas there are local news reports of Nativity scenes that were set up outside of churches and peoples’ homes which were destroyed, and while these crimes may make the local news, the regular occurrences of such hate crimes are ignored by the Liberal media industrial complex as a whole. But if someone drops some leaflets outside a synagogue or in a Jewish neighborhood criticizing Judaism or claiming Jewish secularists are uniquely over-represented in positions of power in the government or the media, then it’s literally a national news story and gets denounced by members of Congress.418 World champion boxer Manny Pacquiao was assaulted while at a popular Los Angeles shopping mall called The Grove by a gay extremist who spotted him and was upset that Pacquiao had posted a Bible verse on his Instagram recently denouncing sexual perversion.419 Pacquiao obviously

could have knocked the man out with one punch, but restrained himself and defused the situation. And instead of being commended for not breaking the man’s face, Pacquiao was banned from the mall by the owners who denounced him as a “homophobe.”420 In March 2023 a transgender “man” committed a mass shooting at a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, killing three nine-year-old children and three adults. And during their investigation police discovered the shooter had written a detailed manifesto explaining why “he” did it, but authorities refused to publish it, or even discuss the contents of it, claiming it would be “dangerous.”421 After several months and numerous legal challenges by those demanding police reveal the motive for the attack (and the shooter’s manifesto), the courts still refused to release it, but the reason was obvious. They were trying to cover-up the fact that it was an anti-Christian hate crime committed by a transgender terrorist. Even the Wikipedia page about the incident (titled 2023 Nashville School Shooting) respects the shooter’s “preferred pronouns” referring to Audrey Hale throughout the article using he/him pronouns and calls her “Aiden” which is the masculine name “he” went by once identifying as transgender.422



The Left Embracing Satanism

The Marxist establishment doesn’t just hate Christians and God, they actually admire Satan—and this isn’t hyperbole or political rhetoric. They literally do. In the coming years we’ll see theistic Satanism rise—not just clownish groups like the “Church of Satan” or the “Satanic Temple,” but more serious groups that espouse the doctrine that Satan is actually the “good” God, and they’ll proclaim the God of the Bible is the “evil” one who “enslaved” Adam and Eve as robotic animals, deprived of free will. The great secret of most occult fraternities is that they believe Satan is the “good” God, who helped mankind break free from the prison of ignorance in the Garden of Eden by convincing Adam and Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Nineteenth century occultist Helena Blavatsky, whose 1888 book The Secret Doctrine is credited with helping revive interest in the occult in our modern age, wrote “Satan will now be shown, in the teaching of the Secret Doctrine, allegorized as Good, and Sacrifice, a God of Wisdom.”423 This same view is echoed by nearly all classic occult authors from Eliphas Levi and Alice Bailey, to Aleister Crowley, who wrote, “This serpent, Satan, is not the enemy of Man,” but he is good, and he “made Gods of our race.”424 An increasing number of people in the LGBTQ+ community are embracing Baphomet as one of their symbols, the hermaphroditic human/goat figure said to have been worshiped by the inner circle of the Knights Templar.425 For hundreds of years Baphomet has been used as Satanic symbol, from people like Aleister Crowley to the Church of Satan in the 1960s to The Satanic Temple today. And the creator of a transgender clothing line carried by Target also incorporated Baphomet into his designs because it’s “a deity who themselves is mixture of genders, beings, ideas and existences. They

[meaning Baphomet] reject binary stereotypes and expectations,” adding “Satan respects pronouns. He loves all LGBT+ people.”426 But the coming Luciferian religion is not just about trolling Christians by adopting satanic symbols or some abstract philosophy pondering the history of mankind and the origin of consciousness. As technology continues to advance at a breathtaking pace, Transhumanism will also rise in popularity with many people believing that through science and technology they’ll be able to literally become “immortal,” either through manipulating human DNA or replacing body parts as they wear out with 3D printed or lab-grown organs—or even transitioning human beings into what they’re calling “inorganic life forms” by uploading the contents of one’s brain into the “cloud” or external silicon databases where they can live as “gods” in a virtual world of cyberspace. Transhumanist advocates see this as the next phase of evolution through “intelligent design” instead of by natural selection. And such ideas may sound insane and the stuff of science fiction (and they are), but there are also some very wealthy and dedicated believers who are literally working night and day hoping to make such ideas a reality.427 Transhumanism and ancient occult philosophy have converged with adherents believing that they will finally be able to achieve Godhood like Satan said they could in the Garden of Eden. Dr. Richard Seed, a geneticist who horrified the medical community by advocating for cloning human beings in the 1990s, had even more radical notions. He was a Transhumanist who once ominously stated, “We are going to become gods, period. If you don’t like it, get off. You don’t have to contribute, you don’t have to participate, but if you are going to interfere with me becoming a god, you’re going to have trouble. There’ll be warfare.”428 He died in 2013 at the age of 85, so things obviously didn’t work out as he expected, but others are carrying on his vision. One of them is Ray Kurzweil, who has become the leading proponent of Transhumanism, and has worked for Google since 2012. He even signed up to be cryogenically frozen if he dies before technology is advanced enough to turn him into a “god,” hoping to be thawed out in the future if such advancements are achieved.429 Elon Musk is also a Transhumanist, and his company Neuralink is developing neural interfaces, or BMIs (brain machine interfaces) in hopes

of enabling humans to become super-intelligent cyborgs.430 He has also suggested that a new religion is needed, saying, “Too many people have lost faith in the future. A new philosophy is needed”431 and is developing an artificial intelligence entity called xAI which he says aims to “understand the true nature of the universe.”432 This discussion is far beyond the scope of this book, but just a few years ago bringing up these issues would have been considered pure fantasy and delusional, but they’re increasingly being taken seriously and the implications of such technology, if it successfully progresses, will be extremely difficult to grapple with. Most Transhumanism proponents neglect to even begin to consider the ramifications of their goals, and are willing to naively turn their mind and body over to multinational mega-corporations who can’t even be trusted with users’ personal data or protecting their privacy, but they’re still willing to grant these same companies physical access to their own brain through a neural interface, just like the enslaved humans in The Matrix films.  

 

The LGBTQ+ Agenda

All they wanted was the right to get “married” they said, which happened in 2015 when the U.S. Supreme Court dictated to the American people that the definition of marriage should be changed from a man and a woman partnered together for a lifetime committed relationship to that of two men or two women as well. This, despite a marriage being defined as a partnership between a man and a woman ever since the beginning of the human race—and this mandated redefining of marriage was the moment when our society began sliding down the slippery LGBTQ+ slope into the Twilight Zone. Allowing two men and two women to call themselves a “married” couple wasn’t enough though. Soon just a few short years later we saw the rise of “drag kids”—young boys dressed as drag queens and performing in gay bars where grown men throw dollar bills at them just like patrons do to strippers in strip clubs.433 And then teachers began telling their elementary school students that little boys might actually be girls and vice versa. And schools started inviting drag queens to perform for students and even holding gay “Pride” parades on school grounds.434 These so-called “drag kids” aren’t just a few isolated instances, they’ve become an entire industry. In 2018 ABC’s flagship morning show Good Morning America famously hosted “Desmond is Amazing” when he was just 11-years-old, who sashayed onto the stage to a thunderous applause.435 He’s just one of many pre-teen “drag kids” whose parents have infected social media with such material which is then celebrated and amplified by the legacy media outlets. In 2019 YouTube, which also hosts full length films by major studios aside from user-generated content, started streaming a documentary

called Drag Kids, not to sound the alarm about the practice, but to celebrate and promote it. Netflix produced a series called AJ and the Drag Queen about a 10-year-old boy who travels around with a drag queen as he performs in shows across the country.436 In 2022 the Discovery channel produced a documentary about child drag queens—again to glorify them, not to denounce the growing trend.437 They feel so emboldened now since gender-benders and perverts are widely celebrated in pop culture at every Hollywood award show and boosted to go viral on the Big Tech platforms, that in 2021 the San Francisco Gay Choir (yes, that’s actually the name of the organization—not just the San Francisco Choir, but the gay choir) released a song with lyrics about how “We’re coming for your children…You think we’ll corrupt your kids if our agenda goes unchecked. Funny. Just this once, you’re correct.” They go on, “We’ll convert your children. Happens bit by bit. Quietly and subtly, and you will barely notice it.”438 The chorus in the song is literally “We’re coming for your children.” To promote their agenda even further, countless fake polls are published with highly skewed numbers attempting to show that LGBTQ people aren’t just one or maybe two percent of the population (which they are), but that twenty or thirty percent of people are either gay or some kind of queer or transgender.439 One such poll claimed that more freshman at Harvard and Yale identify as LGBT-whatever than consider themselves Conservative.440 38% of college students at Brown University in Rhode Island said they “identify” as LGBTQ as well, according to a recent poll.441 The CDC claims that 25% of high school students identity as LGBTQ, which is utterly ridiculous.442 Part of the reason the percentages are so absurdly high is because not identifying as queer is seen as being homophobic these days, and many straight kids falsely check that they’re some kind of LGBTQ on these surveys in order to inflate the percentages so the queers don’t feel like such a small minority. It’s like stuffing the ballot box. They’re just trying to help their “team” get more votes because they feel sorry for them. Children aren’t born a boy or a girl now, they say. They are “assigned” a sex by the doctors or their parents who “assume” the child’s sex because of their genitals. The subversives want kids raised “gender

neutral”—meaning not making any distinction between boys and girls at all.443 The children can later decide for themselves if they want to be a boy or a girl (or neither). Many suspect that parents who raise their children “gender nonbinary” are actually suffering from a form of Munchausen syndrome by proxy.444 A study conducted back in 1991 published in the National Library of Medicine found that 53% of the mothers of children with gender dysphoria met the criteria for having Borderline Personality Disorder.445 Meanwhile all the Leftist online outlets continue to promote gender bending with an endless barrage of stories touting how men should start wearing makeup.446 And not just to hide an unsightly blemish, but lipstick and eye shadow. And there is a sustained campaign to encourage young boys to wear dresses.447 It’s almost impossible now to watch any major media outlet without having gays and transgenders shoved in your face on countless TV shows, award shows, and even commercials. In 2021 Playboy magazine put a gay man dressed as a “bunny” on the cover, wearing heels and tights. Seriously, a gay man on the cover of Playboy magazine!448 Since Pandora’s Box has been opened, now men who identify as women are demanding to be allowed to use women’s bathrooms, locker rooms, and showers. Transgender “women” who have been convicted of crimes have even been sent to women’s prisons, where they have impregnated and even raped the (actual) women there!449 Despite being biological males and not having any “bottom surgery” (to remove their penis) they “identified” as women, and so they were sent to a women’s prison!450 And then there’s the growing problem of biological men who identify as women competing in women’s sports and robbing high school girls of college scholarships and robbing college athletes of their rightful place in competitions.451 It’s as if the gates of Hell have been opened and hordes of demons are running amuck, and instead of trying to contain the madness—schools, major corporations, the U.S. military, and the mainstream media are all promoting it.



Pride Month

Every June is the worst because now you can’t escape being harassed by LGBTQ+ propaganda around every corner, whether you’re scrolling through social media, channel surfing on network television, or even grocery shopping because the cultural Marxists deemed it “Pride Month,” which is now basically a national holiday. It used to be called Gay Pride Month, but that wasn’t “inclusive enough” since it didn’t reference bisexuals, transgenders, pansexuals, and the countless other supposed “genders” and sexual orientations in the queer community. Virtually every major brand on social media from automobile companies to banks change their profile pictures to incorporate a rainbow into their logos, and most post special messages about how much they support LGBTQ people. Nearly every professional sports team in the NFL, MLB, NBA, and even NHL now hold an annual “Pride Night” in June (or launch a promotional campaign if it’s their off season) to celebrate this as well, where the teams coerce players to wear special rainbow jerseys or pins. They even have gay-themed half time shows at the games.452 And now there are “Pride” sections in major stores like Target and Walmart with special LGBTQ-themed clothes throughout the month of June.453 PetSmart even sells rainbow colored “Pride” accessories for dogs and cats each year!454 Many major food brands from Bud Light and Kellogg’s, to KIND bars and Effen Vodka all produce special gay Pride packaging for their products just like most companies do for normal holidays such as Halloween, Christmas, and Easter.455 In 2021 Chipotle started selling special burritos named after popular drag queens to celebrate the “holiday.”456 The following year Taco Bell announced they were sponsoring a “Drag Brunch Tour” at numerous locations and held drag shows inside their restaurants.457 Some teachers in public schools even have their elementary school kids make Pride flags as an arts and crafts project.458 And anyone who doesn’t participate in LGBTQ

Pride celebrations at schools, work, or sporting events is denounced as “homophobic” and their career can be destroyed in an instant.459



Targeting Children with Transgenderism

Everyone knows how impressionable young children are. Until the age of six or eight most of them believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy. So it wouldn’t be hard at all to convince little boys that as they grow up they’ll transform into a girl or vice versa. And since transgenders are being celebrated as if they’re divine beings endowed with special powers, it seems many Liberal parents want their children to be transgender so they can be a symbol of how woke the family is. The Marxist propaganda trying to normalize incorporating children into drag shows is now everywhere in media—including advertisements. Kaiser Permanente insurance featured a scene from a Drag Queen Story Hour event in one of their commercials in 2019.460 It started off just showing people from different walks of life, noting that everyone needs health insurance, but for the obvious reason they included a quick segment of a drag queen reading to small children to further desensitize people to the idea. Major brands like Oreo, Sprite, Pantene shampoo, and Gillette razors have produced commercials featuring and celebrating transgender kids or young adults.461 In October 2021 the Twix candy company came out with a Halloween-themed commercial about a young boy who wanted to wear a princess dress and his babysitter (a “witch”) encouraged him to do so. She even used her “magic” powers to kill another boy who was making fun of him for wearing the dress.462 Kraft, best known for their macaroni and cheese, sponsored the publication of a children’s book about pronouns titled His, Hers, Them & Theirs: Learning Pronouns with the Bears in 2021 which was read by two drag queens online for a special Christmas-themed Drag Queen Story Hour.463 There’s even a transgender Barbie doll now, modeled after “Lavern” Cox, a transgender actor who was featured on the cover of Time magazine in 2014. And a drag queen Build-A-Bear modeled after RuPaul.464

In 2021 Blue’s Clues, a cartoon aimed at preschoolers on Nickelodeon, aired a singalong featuring a drag queen at a Pride parade as it sung how amazing queer people are (including gender non-binary people).465 The Democrats’ strategy to counter opposition to their new predatory behavior is to call anyone who is against grooming children a QAnon conspiracy theorist.466 In further attempts to stifle criticism Wikipedia calls the blatant LGBTQ grooming activities a “conspiracy theory.”467 After a few members of the Proud Boys (the American nationalist organization that often counter-protests at Marxist events) showed up to protest a drag queen story hour event at a library in the San Francisco Bay Area, the local district attorney’s office launched a “hate crime” investigation into them.468 They weren’t violent or threatening, all they did was show up and denounce the event for exposing children to sexual themes and call the drag queen a groomer. After protesters showed up outside a gay bar in Dallas, Texas that held a drag queen event advertised to children, Newsweek ran a headline titled “Video of ‘Anti-Groomer’ Protest Outside Gay Bar Sparks Outrage,” giving the impression that it was the protest which was the problem, not that drag queens were performing for small children inside.469 Of course the groomers were upset about the protest so Newsweek took their side and portrayed them as the victims of “homophobes.” Until recently it would have been unheard of for anyone to bring children to drag shows (let alone have pre-teen children themselves dress in drag) because it was always seen as an adult form of entertainment. Drag queens often have sexual innuendo names which clearly illustrate and emphasize the adult nature of the shows. The sexual focus is also evident in the fact that all drag queens are gay (or bisexual, or some kind of queer). Unsurprising to normal people, numerous drag queen story hour readers have been found to be convicted sex offenders or later arrested for possessing child pornography.470 Two of the drag queens who read books to children at a Houston, Texas library were found to be convicted child sex offenders.471 This was only discovered after a Conservative group called Mass Resistance (formerly the Parents’ Rights Coalition) investigated the drag queens who were involved. A judge in Milwaukee, Wisconsin who was the head of a local LGBTQ advocacy group called the Cream City

Foundation which sponsored drag queen story hour events, was arrested for possession and distribution of child sexual abuse videos.472 Another reader at Drag Queen Story Hour473 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania was charged with 25 counts of child pornography.474 And there are undoubtedly many more, but it would take a local journalist reporting on such arrests to take a few extra steps to look into the backgrounds of such perpetrators. This, at the same time mainstream Liberal outlets are endorsing kink for children.475 Kink, if you’re not aware of it, is basically a synonym for sexual perversion of any and all kinds. The Washington Post published an op-ed by one of their writers titled, “Yes, kink belongs at Pride [celebrations]. And I want my kids to see it.”476 Photos now circulate every June showing parents who bring their small children to Pride parades which feature other attendees wearing kink gear, including “pup masks” and others who are practically naked.



Tucking And Packing Underwear for Kids 

Because an increasing number of progressive parents are either convinced their children are trans or convincing their children they’re trans, companies are even selling special “tucking” underwear for small “transgender” children.477 “Tucking” involves shoving the testes up inside the inguinal canals and then pulling the penis and scrotum between the legs and holding it in place with the underwear made of firm material in that area.478 For transgender “boys” they’re selling fake penises (known as “packers”). Such items were once only available on fringe websites but now they’re listed for sale on Amazon and even Etsy.479 For “Pride Month” in June 2022, Target began selling “chest binders” (also known as compression tops) which women who want to be men use to compress and hide their breasts; and “packing underwear” which include padding to cause a bulge in the crotch to give the appearance of a penis and testicles.480 It wasn’t until the following year that such products caught the attention of most Conservatives, sparking calls for a boycott. As part of Target’s new LGBT Pride Collection, they also sell “tucking underwear” (or gaffs) which transgender “women” (and drag queens) use to help conceal their penis, which again is done by shoving their testicles up the inguinal canals (where they were before birth) and folding their penis downward under their legs and using a stiff front panel to keep everything in place.481 The head of the Health and Human Services department under Joe Biden, Xavier Becerra,  supports sex change surgery for children.482 Not “just” crossdressing the kids and using different pronouns for them. But putting them on puberty blockers and then subjecting them to genderreassignment surgeries! They call it “health care” or “gender affirming care.”

And I won’t even describe what such surgeries entail, or the lifelong complications they bring. You can go and Google “vaginoplasty” or “phalloplasty” to see photos of exactly what “gender-affirming” surgeries do to people’s genitals. But be warned! They are horrific, but people should know what the end of the road is for transgender patients. When White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked about the Health and Human Services director endorsing gender-reassignment surgeries for minors she confirmed that is the official stance of the Biden administration, saying it is “a best practice and potentially lifesaving.”483 The Assistant Health Secretary, Admiral “Rachel” Levine, who is a transgender “woman,” is obsessed with legalizing and normalizing putting small children on puberty blockers and giving them gender-reassignment surgeries (which also literally sterilizes them).484



Disney Goes Gay 

Even Disney, the once family friendly entertainment giant beloved by everyone for generations, has become a vehicle to deliver LGBTQ propaganda to children. A leaked Zoom meeting of Disney executives in 2022 showed them openly talking about the company’s “not so secret gay agenda” with one of them bragging they were “adding in queerness” wherever they could and planned for at least 50% of the characters in their films and television series to be LGBTQ+ or racial minorities by the end of 2022. Shortly after the leaked Zoom meeting it became clear that Disney was keeping their promise to “queer up” more characters, something that had already been happening for the last eight years, but most parents had no idea it was happening at all. Disney had been slowly yet incrementally introducing gay characters starting back in 2014 when the Disney Channel’s most popular comedy at the time Good Luck Charlie decided to include a lesbian couple who were raising a daughter together.485 The next year (in 2015) on the Disney-owned ABC Family Channel [which has since been renamed “Freeform”] a show called The Fosters included a scene showing two thirteen-year-old boys kissing which was hailed as another first for the LGTBQ movement.486 From there, it just continued to snowball. Disney+ released an animated short called Out (2020) about—you guessed it—a kid who comes out to his parents as gay after he moves in with his “roommate” who turns out to be his boyfriend. He was nervous about his parents finding out the truth, but of course, they were thrilled. The film was hailed as Disney/Pixar’s “first gay main character.”487 Then they introduced their first bisexual character in their series The Owl House in 2020, which includes a 14-year-old girl in a leading role who used to be interested in boys, but now likes girls.488 The show’s creator is

bisexual herself and bragged that she lobbied Disney to turn the character bisexual just like her, and they agreed.489 Again, all this started happening years before the leaked Zoom meetings where they openly talked about their agenda, which wasn’t even a secret because every time they gayed up a cartoon or movie since 2014 it was celebrated as another “move forward” by the Marxist media.490 Sadly, most Conservatives didn’t notice or were too cowardly to say anything about it, but the leaked Zoom meeting in 2022 laid bare their plan for all to see. The previous year in June 2021 for “Pride Month” they produced a special “Pride Celebration Spectacular” musical hosted by a drag queen on Disney+.491 Two words nobody ever thought they would hear in the same sentence—Disney and drag queens. Then in 2022 Disney launched an LGBTQ Pride children’s clothing line.492 And in June 2023 they held their first LGBTQ Pride Night at their theme parks.493 That same month they released a feature film called Elemental which introduced their first “gender non-binary” character, voiced by a “non-binary” actor.494 There’s no putting the toothpaste back in the tube. Disney is a queer company, and it probably won’t be long before they announce that Mickey Mouse is bisexual.



U.S. Military Goes Gay 

Gays used to be banned from the U.S. military because no one wants to have a member of their unit checking them, out dreaming of having sex with them; but now our military doesn’t just allow them in— they celebrate them, and are actively recruiting them! Even during the Trump administration various branches of the military started posting messages on their social media accounts celebrating Gay Pride Month, and even posting videos of soldiers in uniform talking about how great it is to have a bunch of queers in the military.495 The Department of Defense has been celebrating LGBT Pride Month since 2012.496 And now every June the different branches of the military post rainbow flags on their Instagram, Facebook, and other social media accounts along with cringeworthy messages about how they “commemorate the proud legacy of LGBT individuals who are part of the fabric of the nation and the U.S. Army.”497 They even post videos online showing senior officers in uniform standing in front of Pride flags while announcing, “We observe LGBT pride month to mark the progress we’ve made” and call on all Americans to celebrate lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender people.498 Even though President Trump is very LGBT-friendly and never really criticized the community as a whole, he did ban transgender people from serving in the military, causing every Liberal on social media to sound off about what a “bigot” he is and how it’s “discrimination.”499 We don’t allow mentally unstable people around dangerous weapons, and since statistically about half of transgender people are suicidal, that’s all the more reason they shouldn’t be allowed in the military.500 Not to mention the female soldiers don’t want to have to shower with some “chick with a dick.” But once Trump was out of office and Joe Biden moved in, the woke agenda went into overdrive. First he lifted Trump’s ban on

transgenders, and then the U.S. Army (and other military branches) began subjecting solders to mandatory diversity, equity, and inclusion training on gender identity to indoctrinate them into accepting transgender and other queer soldiers.501 The Air Force then featured a transgender “woman” in a video posted online to mark the made-up Twitter holiday “Transgender Day of Visibility.”502 Lieutenant Colonel “Bree” Fam, one of the highest-ranking “openly transgender” people in the military, who works as an engineer and looks like a six-foot-tall man wearing lipstick with his hair in a ponytail. The Army released a series of woke recruitment videos in 2021, including one featuring a girl who was proud to have been raised by “two moms,” and a cartoon illustration of her story showing a scene from the lesbian “wedding.”503 She also mentioned how she had been “fighting for freedom since she was a kid” as the ad showed her marching in a gay Pride parade. That same year the CIA also posted a series of recruiting videos featuring people who would have previously never even been considered for employment in the agency due to psychological problems, but now are being celebrated as part of the new “diversity” initiative. One woman, a “proud Latino,” introduced herself as a “cisgender millennial” who said she suffers from anxiety but the CIA is so welcoming they gave her a job anyway.504 Another video featured a queer man with a giant nose ring. Even NASA now releases videos for “Pride” month featuring employees talking about how they’re gay, lesbian, transgender, and gender non-binary and “no matter what your identity is in the community, there’s going to be a place for you.”505 Since LGBT people are supposed to only be celebrated and nothing about their perverted sexual activities or unhealthy lifestyles are supposed to be criticized (like the high rate of HIV or incontinence later in life from their anuses being stretched out),506 the issue of gay men raping other men in the military is perhaps the most forbidden topic of all. The dirty secret behind President Obama lifting the longstanding ban on gays in the military is the frequency of gay soldiers raping other men.507 All of the focus around the issue of sexual assault in the military is on women victims (in the rare instances it’s mentioned in the media at all), but the fact is that since men make up almost all of the perpetrators in sex

crimes, what’s always overlooked is that they’re not just raping women— the gay ones are raping men. And ever since welcoming gays into the military instead of forbidding them and kicking them out if discovered (which was the policy until 2011), an epidemic of gay men sexually assaulting other men has been occurring.508 Such crimes are most often unreported because the victims are too embarrassed to come forward and talk about what happened.509 Recent estimates are that 90% of male victims don’t report such incidents.510 In attempts to hide the number of men raped by gays in the military—aside from usually only focusing on the female victims—reports often group all forms of unwanted sexual contact into one figure (from groping to attempted rape, to actual rape—or penetrative assault as it’s called), so most people dismiss such incidents as just hazing.511 And while there is hazing and bullying (the same kinds of juvenile and often perverted “pranks” seen in college fraternities) which do technically constitute sexual assault—the rapes and attempted rapes are swept under the rug.512 The actual number of male rape victims in the military was estimated to be fifteen times higher than what’s actually reported less than three years after gays were allowed in, according to a study by the  American Psychological Association.513 53% of overall known sexual assault victims in the military are now male.514 These facts are ignored by most of the media because publicizing them is not only deemed homophobic, but also a national security risk because it would undermine faith in our military and hurt recruiting efforts.515



The “Father” of “Gay Rights” Movement 

While the gay agenda had grown into a tsunami in the 21st century, the storm had been brewing for decades as activists plotted to get LGBTQ lifestyles accepted by society as a whole. The man credited as being the “father” of the “gay rights” movement is Harry Hay, who created a secret society in the 1950s called the Mattachine Society which was named after a French group of entertainers in the 16th century who wore masks when performing. He took inspiration from Freemasonry and Communism as well because he admired Marxist ideologies regarding “oppressed” groups.516 Harry Hay also supported the infamous pedophile group NAMBLA, the North American Man Boy Love Association, which advocates for eliminating the age of consent laws for sexual contact with children.517 During the Los Angeles Gay Pride Parade in 1986 he marched holding a banner that read “NAMBLA Walks With Me” because organizers had banned the group from participating in the parade and Harry Hay was upset that they were “discriminating” against NAMBLA.518 When he was later confronted about his support for NAMBLA he said, “If the parents and friends of gays are truly friends of gays, they would know from their gay kids that the relationship with an older man is precisely what thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen-year-old kids need more than anything else in the world.”519 Hay himself says he had a sexual relationship with a 25-year-old adult male when he was just fourteen, and thought it was “beneficial.”520 After Hay died, David Thorstad, an admitted pederast and co-founder of NAMBLA, praised him for being “a vocal and courageous supporter of NAMBLA.”521 Hay had worked closely with the organization for years hoping to legalize and normalize pederasty just like in Ancient Greece where men engaged in sexual relations with young boys and was considered a “normal” part of the culture at the time.522



Harvey Milk  

Harvey Milk is another gay icon celebrated for being the first openly gay man to be elected to public office, serving as a member of the Board of Supervisors in San Francisco, which is sort of like a City Council. And like virtually all of the gay men held up as heroes in the LGBTQ community for their “trailblazing” work to normalize homosexuality, Harvey Milk himself was a pederast who had a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old boy when he was a 34-year-old man.523 In 2008 a biographical film titled Milk was released starring Sean Penn which was praised by critics, and was given the Academy Award for the Best Film—and Sean Penn was given the Oscar for Best Actor.524 Since he served (closeted) in the U.S. Navy, they later decided to celebrate him by naming a ship after him in 2021, and now sailers are forced to be stationed on the USNS [United States Naval Ship] Harvey Milk, a gigantic replenishment oiler. A Navy ship named after a pederast.525 And now that numerous states across the country are mandating that students be indoctrinated with “LGBTQ history” in schools, Harvey Milk is included in social studies text books—portrayed as a hero and civil rights pioneer.526 After a school in southern California rejected a state-mandated text book because it included a section singing praises of Milk, Governor Gavin Newsom fined the school board $1.5 million dollars for violating the state’s mandatory curriculum.527



Dr. John Money’s Twisted Legacy 

Since we can’t go a single day without hearing about “gender identity” and the ridiculous ideas about how there are an unlimited number of “genders,” it’s important people understand the history of the concept and the man behind it. His name is Dr. John Money, a psychologist and “sexologist,” and he’s the man who is widely credited with coining the terms “gender identity” and “sexual orientation” in the 1960s which planted the seeds for the insanity that would later sweep across the country.528 John Money’s concept of gender separated it from one’s sex. If you look up the word gender in older dictionaries, the definition says something like “either the male or female division of a species,” but now many dictionaries have Orwellianly changed the definition to say it has do with one’s “identity” and an “individual’s personal awareness,” and how they “feel.” Like most (if not all) of the early LGBTQ “rights” activists, John Money also endorsed pedophilia, saying, “If I were to see the case of a boy aged ten or eleven who’s intensely erotically attracted toward a man in his twenties or thirties, if the relationship is totally mutual, and the bonding is genuinely totally mutual…then I would not call it pathological in any way.”529 He argued that pedophilia was “harmless in most instances.”530 But he is perhaps best known for recommending that a small boy (David Reimer) whose penis was accidentally cut off during a botched circumcision operation in the 1960s be raised as a girl in order to “remedy” the unfortunate situation.531 Dr. Money believed that gender was just a social construct and that there were no differences between boys and girls other than their genitals, so he thought that if the boy was raised as a girl that “she” would act like other girls and could be a girl.532 But as David Reimer (Brenda) grew up, the brainwashing wasn’t working and he rejected being raised as a girl, despite

having been subjected to sexual reassignment surgery at 22 months of age which removed his testicles and fashioned a synthetic vulva (vaginoplasty). Despite his experiment completely failing (with David Reimer not only rejecting being told he was a girl, but also committing suicide as an adult years after he resumed living as a man) and Dr. Money’s hypotheses that a boy could be socialized into being a girl proving to be false, his warped ideas about “gender identity” became solidified in the LGBTQ doctrine, not to mention codified into law. And this goes far beyond someone suffering from gender dysphoria feeling like they were born in the wrong body and wanting to change their “gender” from male to female or vice versa on their own. That was just phase one. Now they demand no gender be accepted as a “gender”—or the “gender non-binary” people as they’re called. And these oddities aren’t just found in fringe communities online. News outlets like The New York Times and NBC News are promoting this ideology.533 And gender non-binary characters who use they/them pronouns are being included in children’s cartoons in attempts to normalize it.534 Singer Sam Smith, the grammy award-winner of the chart-topping single “Stay With Me” decided to “come out” as gender non-binary in 2019, making him the most famous celebrity to do so at the time. Then two years later singer Demi Lovato did the same thing as she descended into madness.535 But it doesn’t stop there—it never stops. In 2017 numerous states began issuing drivers licenses to “gender non-binary” people using a letter X instead of M or F to signify “other.”536 By 2023 nearly half of all states allowed such practice.537 Then people started suing to have “no gender” as an option included on birth certificates instead of just a boy or girl.538 Thirteen different states now allow “non-binary” birth certificates to be issued.539 In 2021 the American Medical Association recommended that a baby’s sex no longer be included on birth certificates!540 As of 2023, seventeen different states allow people to amend their birth certificates to list “X” as their gender.541 Of course there isn’t a requirement for a medical diagnosis like an MRI brain scan because there is no such thing as “no gender.” All that’s needed for these changes is for someone to just say they are gender “neutral” or “non-binary” or whatever the hell new term they’ve come up with to describe their insanity.

Women identifying as transgender “men” who have given birth to children are even suing the government trying to have themselves legally declared the children’s father.542 And it’s not just a few isolated instances— this is an increasing legal battle that transgender “birthing persons” are waging.543 In 2017 the Dove soap company released a commercial featuring what they called “real moms” with their babies and included a transgender “woman” who fathered a child, but he not only identifies as a “woman” he also identifies as the child’s mom!544 No sane society would allow someone so delusional to have custody of a child, but these sorts of things aren’t just allowed to happen—it’s being celebrated by a major household brand!



DeTransitioners  

While transgenderism is being hailed as the next “exciting” phase of human “evolution,” what’s rarely talked about are the detransitioners, or the people who at one point in their lives decided to try portraying themselves as the opposite gender, often taking hormones and even having surgery, who then later regret their decision and decide to revert back to their original gender. The phenomena first came to widespread attention in May 2021 when CBS’s 60 Minutes featured interviews with a group of them, causing LGBTQ activists and their allies to completely freak out. The LGBTQ lobbying organization GLAAD slammed the 60 Minutes report saying it was “a shameful segment fear mongering about trans youth,”545 and were especially upset because it included some of the detransitioners explaining that they were convinced to change their gender after watching popular transgender YouTubers and joining online trans communities on Tumblr where members encourage people to change their gender if they’re the slightest bit uncomfortable with their body or confused about their identity. The Human Rights Campaign, another queer advocacy group, said it “further marginalized and victimized” transgender people.546 They were concerned all right. Concerned that people were finally beginning to hear about the dark side of trying to change one’s “gender” and how there are people who deeply regret it and are warning others not to try it. Many Leftist lunatics who live their lives online reacted as if this was the start of a transgender holocaust. Media outlets that will even mention detransitioners cite figures that are very low, trying to downplay the number of people who regret their “transition.” The supposedly small percentage of detransitioners is most likely because they don’t get the celebration and adoration of those who “come out as trans.” Many who detransition are embarrassed about what they had done and so they quietly revert back to their original identity and try to get on with their lives.



Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria

Some believe that the cause of so many young people thinking they’re transgender is due to rapid-onset gender dysphoria, or a social contagion fueled by social media (and now mainstream media), and peer pressure.547 One transgender psychologist named “Erica” Anderson (who was born a man) and who has helped hundreds of teens transition, now expresses that “she” is worried the trend has “gone too far,” saying, “What happens when the perfect storm—of social isolation, exponentially increased consumption of social media, the popularity of alternative identities—affects the actual development of individual kids? We’re sailing in uncharted seas.”548 One explanation for rapid-onset gender dysphoria is that it’s a maladjusted way children (especially girls) deal with being uncomfortable with their body during puberty and the pressures of being sexy, so they’re repulsed by their own gender—feeling they can’t compare to the cultural standards of beauty. Often there are underlying mental health conditions which exacerbate their body image discomfort. Many are just lesbians, so they’re confused about being sexually attracted to other girls and think maybe they’re a boy in the wrong body because of the explosion of transgender propaganda in recent years. Similarly many teen boys who think they’re transgender are just gay (which you’re not supposed to say is also abnormal and something the medical community should research in order to prevent or cure, just like transgenderism). A young woman named Chloe Cole, who at age 15 got a double mastectomy removing her breasts in order to “transition” to a boy, later changed her mind in less than a year and a half after realizing she made a mistake and is one of the more visible detransitioners.549 Aside from giving numerous interviews detailing her story to warn others, she filed a lawsuit

against Kaiser Permanente hospital in 2022 for breaching the standard of care for doing the double mastectomy on her when she was just a child.550 Transgender advocates argue that Conservatives being outraged over hospitals performing “sex change” surgeries or “gender affirming care” as it’s called, on minors isn’t happening, while at the same time denouncing those who are against it.551 Helena Kerschner is another young woman who speaks out about the danger of rapid-onset gender dysphoria after once identifying as a transgender man.552 “I don’t think I would have ever even considered seeing myself as a boy without the social aspects, especially if I hadn’t joined these online communities specifically because there wasn’t anything at the time, really in my school or in my community, that was influencing me. It was all online,” she now says.553 A retired Navy SEAL named Chris Beck famously became a transgender “woman” in 2013, and then years later announced that he had detransitioned back to a man and now says that he destroyed his life by thinking he was transgender and is warning people about not transitioning their children if they’re confused about who they are.554 Numerous studies have shown that the vast majority of children who suffer from gender dysphoria end up growing out of it once they go through puberty.555 And most probably wouldn’t have even questioned their gender at all if the idea hadn’t been planted in their minds in the first place.



Other Possible Causes 

Sigmund Freud believed homosexuality is caused by a disruption in a child’s psycho-social development.556 Other psychologists agree.557 An article in Scientific America titled “Oedipus Complex 2.0: Like it or not, parents shape their children’s sexual preferences” states, “This basic developmental system, one in which certain salient childhood events ‘imprint’ our psychosexuality, may not be terribly uncommon. In fact, that early childhood experiences mold our adult sexual preferences— specifically, what turns us on and off, however subtle or even unconscious these particular biases may be—could even be run-of-the-mill.”558 Some studies have shown that people who were molested as children are inclined to later become child molesters themselves when they’re adults.559 So are people born pedophiles, or do they become pedophiles because of some horrific experience they themselves fell victim to as a child that altered their brain and perverting their desires? It’s severely politically incorrect to even remotely compare pedophiles to homosexuals, but isn’t it obvious that they both suffer from a similar sexual attraction dysfunction? Scientists have even identified a high correlation between people who were molested as children and those who identify as gay when they’re adults.560 It’s not just politically incorrect to say—and if you do say it, you could easily and quickly end your career, get kicked out of school, and/or banned from social media—but gay people (and transgenders) are not normal. That doesn’t mean you should hate them. But it doesn’t mean we should ignore the scientific and obvious reality. But you’re not allowed to say that they have a birth defect if they’re actually “born that way” as many claim. And you’re certainly not allowed to say they have a mental disorder. Instead, the Establishment is trying to frame the issue as if there’s no more of a difference between someone’s sexual orientation and gender identity

than there is between someone who prefers to date blondes over brunettes, or someone who is left-handed vs right-handed. Of course there’s a world of difference between what hand somebody writes with or throws a baseball with and people using body parts in ways they clearly weren’t designed for (or cutting them off because they feel like they were born in the wrong body). You’re not allowed to have this conversation though, or even suggest that there is anything wrong with these people in any way, whether from a birth defect in a region of the brain that regulates sexual orientation and gender identity, or whether they developed some kind of mental disorder or maladjustment strategy to cope with the underlying issues.561 But inquisitive people can’t help but suspect that whatever is causing transgenderism and homosexuality is being covered up, and any investigation into it is violently discouraged.



Endocrine Disruptors 

Aside from rapid-onset gender dysphoria, others point to hormonal imbalances that may be caused from synthetic estrogen or what are called endocrine disruptors that are believed to ultimately result in birth defects in the brain as a fetus develops (known as the hormone theory of sexual orientation).562 But for well over a decade there have been concerns that these chemicals have been feminizing boys when exposed to them as they’re developing in the womb. In 2005 the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York found that “Gender-bending chemicals mimicking the female hormone oestrogen can disrupt the development of baby boys” in the first human study about this after the effects had previously been widely known to occur in tests on animals.563 A few years later in 2009 they released a follow-up study further confirming that “Chemicals in plastics alter the brains of baby boys, making them more feminine.”564 The findings were reported in some mainstream outlets, including The Los Angeles Times, which noted, “Boys born to mothers who have above-normal levels of the controversial chemicals known as phthalates in their urine are less likely to exhibit masculine behavior, a new study has found. Phthalates, which block the activity of male hormones such as androgens, could be altering masculine brain development.”565 And while such findings should have caused as big of concern as the discovery of cancerous chemicals or the dangers of gun violence, these studies went mostly unnoticed. Scientists have also found that the lower the levels of testosterone a fetus is exposed to during gestation (growth), the more feminized the child will be if it’s a boy, and the more likely they are to be gay.566 And they found that by altering the levels of testosterone in pregnant animals they can change the sexual orientation of their offspring, thus making them gay.567

They even know the specific region of the brain that is affected—the third interstitial nucleus of the anterior hypothalamus, or the INAH-3, which is the part of the brain that is responsible for sexual behavior (the sexually dimorphic nucleus).568 Research by Ray Blanchard (who himself is gay) found that when a child is forming in utero, if there are high levels of antibodies against the NLGN4Y protein (which is involved in brain development in males), then the brain is also more feminized.569 This research indicates that the more boys a woman gives birth to, the more likely they are to be gay because there is a higher level of the protein each pregnancy.570 Dr. Deborah Soh, author of The End of Gender, suggests that further researching the cause of homosexuality and transgenderism with the goal of preventing it may be “unethical” because she knows if scientists confirm it’s a birth defect that could be prevented by pregnant women avoiding hormone-altering endocrine disruptors or offsetting them through medication, that would undermine LGBTQism, therefore the people who have been celebrating and promoting it will be viewed in hindsight like other medical quackery throughout history. Before plastic food packaging was the norm, it was mostly cardboard, metal, and glass. So is it just a coincidence that as plastic food packaging containing BPA became the standard that society has seen an explosion in gay people and transgenders? Also in recent years researchers have been reporting that sperm counts have dropped 50% over the last several generations and testosterone levels in men have also been dramatically declining.571 Women’s workout clothes have also recently been found contain as much as 40 times the levels of BPA that has been deemed safe—since sports bras, leggings, and athletic shirts are made of synthetic fibers (plastic) so they don’t absorb sweat like cotton clothes do and instead helps wick it away.572 The BPA in the clothes is absorbed through the skin because of the close contact, and the Center for Environmental Health sent legal notices to eight brands of popular women’s clothes putting them on notice about the concerning levels of the chemical found in their clothes.573 Some suspect soy consumption is causing the drop in testosterone since it contains phytoestrogens or plant-based estrogen, effecting hormones levels—feminizing males.574 Is consuming too much soy

contributing to the gender-bending and sexual disorientation epidemic? Is it causing hormone imbalances in pregnant women who consume it, thus altering the brains of their baby boys? Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a very interesting statement during an interview on Dr. Jordan Peterson’s podcast when Peterson stated he believes the apocalyptic hysteria about climate change has demoralized young people and is causing high levels of depression and loneliness. Kennedy responded that he thought that was a simplistic reason, and went on to say, “In fact, I think a lot of the problems we see in kids and particularly boys, it’s probably underappreciated how much of that is coming from chemical exposures, including a lot of the sexual dysphoria that we’re seeing.”575 He continued, “You know these kids are being overwhelmed by a tsunami, I mean they’re swimming through a soup of toxic chemicals today. And many of those are endocrine disruptors. There’s atrazine throughout our water supply. Atrazine by the way, if you, in a lab put atrazine in a tank full of frogs it will chemically castrate and forcibly feminize every frog in there. And ten percent of the frogs, the male frogs, will turn into fully viable females able to produce viable eggs, and if it’s doing that to frogs there’s a lot of other evidence that it’s doing it to human beings as well.”576 Atrazine is a common herbicide used to kill weeds in farmers’ fields, golf courses, and residential lawns. And has been found in the water supply in hundreds of districts across America, which millions of people have been drinking.577 Aside from killing weeds which it’s designed to do, it has been shown to convert testosterone into estrogen.578 One of Alex Jones famous rants is about “chemicals in the water that turn the fricking frogs gay,” referring to Atrazine, and if you can look past his histrionics, he was making a good point. He had seen the studies and was frustrated and upset that the issue wasn’t getting the attention it should and that more people weren’t concerned about it. People also made fun of him for ranting about the BPA in juice boxes feminizing boys because many couldn’t look past his over the top style and didn’t understand just how sophisticated his concerns were behind his theatrics hoping to get people’s attention.579 A growing number of scientists now suspect that birth control pills may actually be causing some women to become sexually attracted to other women! The pill has long been known to come with a range of side effects from weight gain to mood swings, but now scientists are investigating

anecdotal evidence that the hormone changes they cause may result in altering some women’s sexual attraction.580 It can take eight months to a year before a woman’s hormone levels return to normal after she stops taking the birth control shot.581 In fact, it’s fairly common for women who stop taking birth control to experience side effects for months, ranging from no menstrual periods, to acne and hair loss, in what’s called post-birth control syndrome.582 Is birth control medication (which is designed to alter women’s hormone levels) also having effects on fetus development even after they stop taking it? There are other factors most people are unaware of as well that are missing from virtually every discussion and debate about homosexuality and transgenderism. TMZ, the celebrity news site, published a story back in 2015 when Bruce Jenner first announced that he was transitioning into a “woman” and taking female hormones which contradicted everything the LGBT advocates had said for years about “gay conversion therapy.” TMZ reported, “Several prominent doctors in the field tell us, the hormones often change sexual preference,” and referenced a study of 300 transgender people showing one third of them changed their sexual preference because of the opposite sex hormones they took.583 They noted that the female hormones Bruce Jenner was taking would feminize not just his body, but also his brain, causing him to “think like a woman,” and there was a 1/3 chance he would be sexually attracted to men as a result. The National Center for Biotechnology Information has also reported that many transgender patients’ sexual orientation (meaning the sex they’re attracted to) changes due to undergoing hormone therapy as they’re attempting to change their gender.584 So if over 30% of people who take hormones of the opposite sex in hopes of altering their body to become more like that sex, ultimately end up also changing their sexual orientation (who they’re attracted to because their brain also changes), then why isn’t hormone replacement therapy being explored to help children (and adults) who suffer from gender dysphoria? If a boy thinks he’s a girl, or feels like a girl, then why not give him testosterone to masculinize his brain instead of giving him cross hormones (estrogen) and then subjecting him to all kinds of horrifying surgeries trying to make him look like a woman? Is it possible that the transgender movement is looking at this entire problem from the wrong angle?

And why isn’t HRT (hormone replacement therapy) being used on homosexuals to fix their sexual attraction disorder by giving them hormone boosters that correspond with their own biological sex, since that appears to be a way to reverse their same sex attraction? Perhaps with medical advances in the future and brave scientists who aren’t afraid of the social consequences of their findings we may have definitive answers to these questions and solutions to these problems. But it’s also possible that because of the ramifications of uncomfortable truths, these answers may be forever suppressed and hidden, and the scientists who pursue them smeared by disinformation campaigns as the human species continues to suffer from mass psychosis, endocrine disrupting chemical-induced birth defects, and genital-mutilating surgeries marketed as the only solution.    



Immigration

If people sneak into a theater through the exits hoping to watch a movie without buying a ticket, they’re kicked out immediately once they are discovered—or even arrested. If some stranger walks into your house without permission even if the door is unlocked and they start relaxing on your couch, that’s trespassing—and a crime. And so is entering a country without permission, even if you find an unguarded path or sneak in by hiding in the back of a truck. But this crime is being allowed and encouraged by Democrats for various reasons, one of which you’re not supposed to say out loud, but everybody knows. Illegal immigration though our southern border has been a problem for many decades, and while some of the invaders would get deported once apprehended, once Joe Biden took over as president the word got out that the U.S. was welcoming anyone in who could make it to our southern border from anywhere in the world. Many of the people in the massive caravans who made the long trek north from South and Central America were literally wearing Joe Biden tshirts! When one man on the journey was asked by ABC News “Would you have tried to do this when Donald Trump was president?” He answered “Definitely not.” The reporter then asked him, “Did you come here because Joe Biden was elected president?” To which he responded “Basically.”585 Another one interviewed by CNN said he hoped for “Patience and prayers that we can get to the U.S. because they have a new president, of course Biden. He’s going to help all of us, he’s giving us 100 days to get to the U.S. and give us legal paper, so we can get a better life for our kids and family.”586

Every single day (year after year) hundreds, and often two or even three thousand people enter the United States illegally through the southern border, and the conservative estimates are that over 11 million illegal aliens currently live in the U.S. but more realistic figures are double that.587 In the month of February 2019 alone, over 66,000 were counted by U.S. Border Patrol, the highest number in over a decade, and that doesn’t include all the ones who got in without being noticed.588 It’s common for the Border Patrol to spot 1000 a day, every day, month after month flooding in.589 And again, those figures are just the ones we know about. The Department of Homeland Security counted 234,088 illegal aliens that were “encountered” at the border just in the month of April 2021, which was the highest total ever in one month.590 At least two million invaded the United States in the first year Joe Biden was president.591 That’s well over 100,000 every single month.592 More than two million more came the next year.593 Vice President Kamala Harris was surprisingly asked about this staggering number during an interview with Chuck Todd on NBC’s Meet the Press and she responded with a nonsensical word salad saying, “We have a secure border in that—that is a priority for any nation, including ours and our administration.”594 This was all part of the plan. During his campaign in 2020, Joe Biden said that as president he would call for all the migrants the Trump administration was able to block from coming in to “surge to the border.”595 Meanwhile Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the ADL, says that the people who talk about “open borders” or “caravans” of migrants are using “White supremacist phrases.”596 Most of them falsely claim they’re seeking “asylum” or that they needed safe harbor from a hostile government they had fled—a well-known scheme used by illegal aliens to gain access to our country. Once inside they’re allowed to stay under those false pretenses, and are given a court date to begin hearing their claims which is often ten years in the future!597 In the meantime they apply for green cards, and unless they’re arrested for a violent crime they’ll be deemed a “lawful permanent resident” after a year, and never be deported.



Anchor Babies 

The other dirty secret of the illegal immigrant invasion, aside from the astonishing number of them continuously flowing into our country, are the millions of them who have anchor babies once they’re here. An anchor baby is the child of an illegal alien mother who comes here pregnant (or gets pregnant after she arrives) and then once she gives birth, the child is automatically granted citizenship, thus all but ensuring the mother will never be deported. In 2022 there were 300,000 anchor babies born to illegal alien mothers across the U.S.598 Analysis conducted by the Center for Immigration Studies shows that 400,000 is about the average each and every year, dating back to at least 2018. The Congressional Budget Office published a report in 2017 estimating that at least 4.5 million anchor babies are currently living in the United States.599 Of course anchor baby is considered to be a racist slur, just like illegal alien, because the Left tries to deter people from pointing out what’s happening. The term refers to the child anchoring the mother to our country. And as you would expect, U.S. taxpayers end up paying the hospital bills for the children to be born because the mothers don’t have any insurance (or money), and then we also pay the expenses for the mother to raise the children through the various social welfare programs funded by our tax dollars since they can’t afford to raise them on their own. But it’s not just illegal immigrants who are living off our tax dollars. Over 50% of legal immigrant households receive some form of government welfare—from food stamps, to housing assistance, school lunch programs, and Medicaid.600 A report by the Center for Immigration Studies shows that 63% of non-citizens living in the U.S. use at least one form of welfare.601 Some Republicans have finally begun calling for an end to “birth right citizenship” which automatically grants a baby citizenship if it’s born on U.S. soil, even if the mother is here illegally. The sane thing to do would

be only grant citizenship to the child if the mother is here legally, but we live in an insane and dysfunctional society. And of course Democrats want to legalize the 20+ million illegal aliens living here so they can be the party’s new voter base. Democrats have turned their back on the working class and now pander to the welfare class who just want free stuff. The Biden Justice Department was even planning on paying illegal aliens $450,000 each as a “settlement” for the Trump administration separating families once they were detained after crossing into the U.S. illegally!602 Only after news of the planned “settlements” made headlines did they abandon the idea.



More Preferential Treatment

Sixteen different states allow illegal aliens to get drivers licenses!603 Bank of America even allows them to get credit cards!604 In California they’re given government health care through the state’s Medicaid program.605 During the 2020 election cycle all ten Democrat candidates running for president raised their hands when asked by a debate moderator if they would offer healthcare to all “undocumented” immigrants.606 Calling what’s happening an “invasion” is considered “hate speech,” because obviously it is an invasion and the puppet masters are desperately trying to discourage the American people from doing anything to stop it. The Department of Homeland Security under the Biden administration has even been caught secretly flying the aliens across the country in the middle of the night to disperse them throughout other regions so they’re not just concentrated in border states in the South. It’s for “diversity.” Many of them have no desire to become Americans. They just want to take advantage of what America can offer them. They don’t care about our culture, customs, holidays, or laws. They just want to create little Tijuanas within the American cities they inhabit. Various Latino groups like La Raza (meaning the race, which was recently renamed to UnidosUS to sound less Latino supremacist) and MEChA (the Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan) support what’s called the Reconquista movement (Spanish for reconquest) and openly brag about how they’re plotting to take back (reconquer) territory in the American Southwest (including California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas) in order to make their own country called Aztlan which refers to a mythical homeland of the Aztecs.607



Illegal Alien Crimes

The illegal aliens aren’t just using up resources they’re not paying for, taking jobs away from Americans, having anchor babies that are automatically granted citizenship, and irreversibly changing our culture by making little Tijuana’s within American cities, but a lot of them also commit crimes. And not just theft or fraud (by using stolen social security numbers to get jobs), but violent crime—and a lot of it. Every year in America there are often hundreds of murders committed by illegal aliens who obviously shouldn’t even be here to begin with.608 These crimes may make the local news for 15 seconds but then it’s on to the weather, so their real impact is never realized. CNN and MSNBC will do entire segments about a White person using a racial slur during an argument in a store or restaurant somewhere, but the illegal alien murders never get a mention there. Nor on the national broadcast networks like ABC, NBC, or CBS. The New York Times and The Washington Post never report on them either and certainly wouldn’t dedicate a headline to the ongoing problem, but if a White woman gets into an argument with a Black person over something and video of the incident is posted online, then the “Karen” is doxxed with a barrage of headlines and her name trends on Twitter from thousands of people denouncing her for being “racist.”609 Aside from murder, many illegal aliens commit other crimes that should never occur because they shouldn’t even be here in the first place. Burglaries, rapes, thefts, and drunk driving offenses all go virtually unnoticed by the media and Democrat lawmakers. Democrats even defend MS-13 gang members who law enforcement agencies consider to be the most violent and sadistic street gang in the world. They’re the ones best known for torturing and dismembering their enemies.610 Illegal aliens in general are estimated to commit twice as many crimes as American citizens.611 But mentioning that is considered “xenophobic” and “racist.”

Often when illegal aliens are arrested for non-violent crimes like DUI or theft, they’re let out of jail pending their trial because Democrat run cities (the sanctuary cities, as they’re called) forbid local authorities from turning them over to ICE [Immigration and Custom Enforcement], so they’re just set free back out onto the streets!612



The Wall

Democrats used to at least pretend to be against illegal immigration, but all that changed when Donald Trump became president. They’ve long been planning on their new voter base being the 20 million illegal aliens living in the United States once they’re given a “pathway to citizenship”— which means full citizenship within a few years of being granted amnesty. Democrats blocked $5.7 billion in funding that President Trump wanted to complete the border wall, but gave Ukraine over $200 billion to defend their border.613 Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez compares our southern border wall to the Berlin Wall and Senator Elizabeth Warren calls it “a monument to hate and division.”614 When he was running for president in 2020, Beto O’Rourke said he wanted to tear the wall down!615 During Joe Biden’s campaign that same year he promised if he wins “There will not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration.”616 Before the Democrats embraced open borders, when Barack Obama was a U.S. Senator from Illinois back in 2005 he said, “We all agree on the need to better secure the border and to punish employers who hire illegal immigrants. Those who enter the country illegally and those who employ them disrespect the rule of law and they are showing disregard for those who are following the law. We simply cannot allow people to pour into the United States undetected, undocumented, unchecked, and circumventing the line of people who are waiting patiently, diligently, and lawfully to become immigrants in this country.”617 When Hillary Clinton was a senator in New York she admitted, “The Mexican government’s policies are pushing migration north…There isn’t any sensible approach except to do what we need to do simultaneously. Secure our border—with technology, personnel, physical barriers if necessary in some places. And we need to have tough employer sanctions… if they’ve committed transgressions of whatever kind, they should be obviously deported.”618

Years later when campaigning for the 2016 presidential election she said, “I voted numerous times when I was a senator to spend money to build a—uh, a barrier, to try to prevent illegal immigrants from coming in and I do think you have to control your borders.”619 The wall had become a dirty word since it was a major part of Donald Trump’s platform, so she called it a barrier instead, but early in the 2016 race Democrats weren’t yet ready to pivot to their current no border policy. In 2009 Senator Chuck Schumer, one of the most powerful senators in Washington, said, “Illegal immigration is wrong, plain and simple… People who enter the United States without our permission are illegal aliens and illegal aliens should not be treated the same as people who entered the U.S. legally. When we use phrases like ‘undocumented workers’ we convey a message to the American people that their government is not serious about combating illegal immigration, which the American people overwhelmingly oppose.”620 All that has changed though. Democrats now deem the term illegal alien to be on par with the n-word, and they’re doing everything they can do to cater to the illegal aliens, even allowing them to vote in some local elections!621 But they’re not just looking to gain the support of the 20 million of them if or when they’re granted amnesty and allowed to vote in national elections. There’s something else at play here as well.



Demographic Changes

Non-Whites and the Democrats who use them to maintain their power have long anticipated White people becoming a minority in the United States (on pace to occur around 2045), but if anyone points out this trend while expressing any opposition to this impending future, then they’re instantly and viciously denounced as a “White supremacist” who’s promoting the “dangerous great replacement conspiracy theory.”622 These sweeping demographic changes in the racial makeup of the United States are mostly due to the massive number of illegal aliens that have been flooding in across the southern border for decades and given safe harbor in America despite them just standing on our soil being a violation of our laws. But mass immigration is only part of it. Compounding the problem is the declining White birthrate. As far back as 2011 there were more Hispanic, Black, and Asian babies being born in America than White ones.623 And despite countless Democrats expressing their joy about the rapid decline of the White population in the United States, The New York Times says “‘The Great Replacement’ is a racist and misogynistic conspiracy that holds that white people face existential decline, even extinction, because of rising immigration in the West and falling birthrates among white women,” adding sarcastically “caused, of course, by feminism.”624 Non-Whites celebrate it as the “browning of America” while some White people uncomfortable about their looming minority status figuratively call it “White genocide” to evoke stronger emotions, but that term too is considered a dog whistle for “White supremacy.” Personally, I think using “White genocide” to describe White demographic displacement is too hyperbolic and causes others to respond with an eye roll. A genocide is the mass slaughter of a group of people, and that’s not what’s happening.

Although the Leftist online magazine Counter Punch says, “White genocide would not only be good, it is necessary and even unavoidable; that is, if we are interested in the survival of the planet, humanity, and all life forms—though to be clear the phrase ‘white genocide’ is a bit of a misnomer.”625 It goes on to explain that they want White people divested from any thoughts about their own racial identity so White people don’t organize as an ethnic group to defend their own interests and culture like all other races do—something I’ll cover in detail in the next chapter on Antiwhiteism. The Southern Poverty Law Center’s president Mark Potok actually has a list hanging on the wall of his home office showing the declining percentage of White people in America starting in the 1920s through today. The chart was captured on camera for a brief moment when he was being interviewed for a documentary called Alt-Right: Age of Rage (2018). Obviously he made it as a visual reminder that the browning of America is going according to plan. Some opponents of the rapidly declining White population often point to Jewish groups as being active in facilitating mass immigration to the United States and European countries for decades in order to make them more racially and ethnically diverse so that Jews aren’t singled out as a sole minority or the “outsiders” within a society as they were in Nazi Germany and other parts of Europe.626 This is why the torch-bearing marchers at the infamous Charlottesville Unite The Right event in 2017 were chanting “Jews will not replace us.” But it’s not just supposed “White Nationalists” who have been talking about the White majority in the United States being demographically replaced through sustained immigration from other regions of the world—the Democrats have been openly bragging about this happening for years. As Vice President under Barack Obama, Joe Biden had boasted about an “an unrelenting stream of immigration” that would soon make White people a minority in the United States.627 “I’m proud of the American record on culture and economic integration of not only our Muslim communities but African communities, Asian communities, Hispanic communities, and the wave still continues. It’s not going to stop. Nor should we want it to stop. As a matter of fact, it’s one of the things I think we can be most proud of.”628

He continued, “Folks like me who are Caucasian of European descent—for the first time in 2017 we’ll be an absolute minority in the United States of America. An absolutely minority. Fewer than 50 percent of the people in America, from then and on, will be White European stock. That’s not a bad thing. That’s a source of our strength.”629 When CNN’s Anderson Cooper was speaking with Jorge Ramos, a popular host on the Spanish language station Univision about the changing demographics of the United States, Cooper gloated, “The idea that, you know, Whites will not be the majority, I mean, that’s—it’s an exciting transformation of the country, it’s an exciting evolution and you know, progress of our country in many different ways.”630 For decades Democrats had been openly bragging how “demographic trends” are going to one day keep the Republicans from holding power. After Donald Trump became president many Democrats were concerned that his immigration plan may keep White people the country’s ethnic majority for longer than they had hoped. The Washington Post lamented that instead of it happening in 2044, it might be pushed back to 2049.631 MSNBC’s Chris Hayes ranted, “That’s what Donald Trump’s plan would do—keep the nation as White as possible for as long as possible.”632 After Trump was out of office however, the globalists made up for lost time and the massive floods of illegals increased to record levels and the celebrations of the rapidly declining White majority in the United States resumed. In April 2021 Tucker Carlson started openly discussing these issues which had been completely taboo in the Republican Party, saying one night on his Fox News show, “I know that the left and all the little gatekeepers on Twitter become literally hysterical if you use the term ‘replacement;’ if you suggest that the Democratic Party is trying to replace the current electorate, the voters now casting ballots, with new people, more obedient voters from the Third World. But they become hysterical because that’s what’s happening actually. Let’s just say it—that’s true.”633 After that monologue he trended on Twitter from so many people attacking him, and the next day the ADL demanded that Fox News fire him.634 Instead of backing down and apologizing, Tucker doubled down and in the following months would bring it up again and again. “Nothing about

it is an accident, obviously. It’s intentional. Joe Biden did it on purpose. But why? Why would a president do this to his own country?” he asked.635 “Our system cannot handle this many destitute newcomers, period. Imagine what hospitals are going to look like a year from now. How about schools? What Joe Biden is doing now will change this country forever. So again, why is he doing it? There’s only one plausible answer.”636 Tucker then played the clip of Joe Biden which I just quoted earlier of him looking forward to Whites becoming an “absolute minority,” and continued, “Biden just said it: to change the racial mix of the country. That’s the reason, to reduce the political power of people whose ancestors lived here and dramatically increase the proportion of Americans newly arrived from the Third World.”637 Tucker went on, “It’s horrifying. But there’s a reason Biden said it. In political terms, this policy is called the great replacement, the replacement of legacy Americans with more obedient people from far away countries. They brag about it all the time, but if you dare to say it’s happening, they will scream at you with maximum hysteria. And here you have Joe Biden confirming his motive on tape with a smile on his face. No one who talks like this should ever be the president of the United States.”638 The Left keeps calling it a conspiracy theory when it’s a historic reality numerous cultures around the world have faced. White Europeans displaced the Indians (or Native Americans, “Indigenous” people, or whatever they’re calling themselves these days) here in North America. Jews displaced Palestinians in 1948 with the creation of Israel after the United Nations adopted the Zionist resolution causing over 700,000 Palestinians to be forced out of the land, an event that’s called the Palestinian expulsion.639 (It’s considered extremely “antisemitic” to point out this fact, by the way, so be careful when talking about it.) Tucker responded to the ADL’s calls for him to be fired for talking about this issue by pointing out the organization’s own statement regarding their concerns about Jews being demographically diminished in Israel. The ADL’s official stance on Zionism is that, “It is unrealistic and unacceptable to expect the State of Israel to voluntarily subvert its own sovereign existence and nationalist identity and become a vulnerable minority within what was once its own territory.”640 After Tucker highlighted their hypocrisy,

they deleted that page from their website, but not before it was archived on the Wayback Machine.641 On Megyn Kelly’s podcast, Tucker was even more candid than on his Fox News show. When she mentioned that the ADL was calling for him to be fired, he responded “Well, fuck them.”642 Tucker let the cat out of the bag, and the Left were furious that not only did he point out their plan, but by him finally talking about what had only been whispered in Republican circles out of fear of being called “White nationalists” or “Nazis,” now others would feel safer pointing out the obvious too. The very next day after one of Tucker’s monologues on the issue, Charlie Kirk felt it was finally okay to say such an obvious fact out loud. When talking about the need for stricter border enforcement he added, “The other side has openly admitted this is about bringing in voters that they want and they like, and honestly—diminishing and decreasing White demographics in America. We’re gonna say that part out loud. So many people in the corporate media are afraid to talk about it.”643 Yeah, people in the corporate media have been afraid to talk about it. And those in Conservative Inc., including him! For years! But Tucker shattered the taboo and now others didn’t feel like they had to completely avoid even hinting at the topic. The Washington Post soon lamented that “Half of Republicans see great replacement is real.”644 Vice News called it “a conspiracy theory that’s quickly becoming gospel on the right: that Democrats want a flood of immigrants to remake America and keep them in power.”645 Every Liberal media outlet denounced Tucker for discussing it, trying to scare others away from pointing out White people’s impending minority status in the U.S. is because of mass immigration. Some, like The Los Angeles Times, recommended that Republicans talking about “replacement theory” (which is a fact) be censored from social media.646 The ADL then started calling for Tucker Carlson to be banned from Twitter and Facebook, and demanded that all clips of his show be deleted from the Fox News YouTube channel.647



Demographics Is Destiny

“Demographics is Destiny” has been a mantra for the Democrat Party for many years as they anxiously await granting amnesty to the 20 million illegal aliens living in the United States. (They deceptively underestimate the number to be “only” 11 million, but it’s double that.)648 Politico once admitted, “The immigration proposal pending in Congress would transform the nation’s political landscape for a generation or more…pumping as many as 11 million new Hispanic voters into the electorate a decade from now in ways that, if current trends hold, would produce an electoral bonanza for Democrats and cripple Republican prospects in many states they now win easily.”649 The Center for American Progress, a Democrat think tank, openly admitted, “Supporting real immigration reform that contains a pathway to citizenship for our nation’s 11 million undocumented immigrants is the only way to maintain electoral strength in the future.”650 They claim to be a “nonpartisan” organization, but it was founded by John Podesta and is filled with George Soros disciples and former Clinton and Obama staffers, so they couldn’t help but admit what “immigration reform” means to them. For years Democrats have talked with glee about the “population growth” in Texas and other border states, which is a codeword for the influx of millions of illegal aliens. Newsweek magazine even ran a headline titled “America’s Getting Less White, And That Will Save It.”651 As paleoconservative Pat Buchanan warned over twenty years ago in his 2002 book The Death of the West, “Uncontrolled immigration threatens to deconstruct the nation we grew up in and convert America into a conglomeration of peoples with almost nothing in common—not history, heroes, language, culture, faith, or ancestors.”652 Liberal European leaders have been obsessed with needing more racial “diversity” in their countries as well. But pro-immigration activists seem to only want White European countries flooded with immigrants from

South America, Africa, and the Middle East. Interestingly, nobody is demanding that Israel accept an influx of non-Jewish refugees from other Middle Eastern countries. How about more African Muslims emigrate to Israel from places like South Sudan or Somalia? If multiculturalism is so great, then why should they not want to participate in global diversification? There aren’t any cries for Japan, China, or other Asian countries to become “more diverse” by adding millions of Africans, Hispanics, or Middle Easterners either. They, like Israel, would instantly quash any such suggestions because they know that flooding their countries with millions of immigrants from other cultures would replace their own. Since BIPOCs (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) endlessly complain about European “colonizers” establishing communities and Democracies around the world, why then are they so determined to colonize North America with people from other countries? The answer of course is because they like what we built here, and instead of attempting to replicate our success in their own countries, they are coming here to live off the fruits of our labor. But shouldn’t the American people be able to maintain the dominant cultural traditions of those who founded our country and have been the foundation of our society for almost 250 years? The Founding Fathers weren’t Chinese. They weren’t Jews, Arabs, or Guatemalans. They were White Europeans. (So why should the United States continuously and incrementally change our culture and our customs to be more accommodating to immigrants from other regions of the world?) Some cultures are simply not compatible with American culture. Their values, traditions, and morals are impossible to integrate into modern society. For example, some Arab cultures believe women shouldn’t be able to drive a car, work at a job, or even go out into public without wearing a full burqa. Some Middle Eastern cultures even use bacha bazi boys, which are young boys they sexually abuse like the pederasts of Ancient Greece.653 Should we really be allowing people like that into our country—especially when so many of them clearly don’t abandon their native countries’ old traditions and customs that are incompatible with ours? Many people in Mexico and South America see drug kingpins like “El Chapo” and Pablo Escobar as folk heroes.654 The locals loved them because they provided jobs! Latino gangs in virtually all parts of the United

States (the American Southwest, the Pacific Northwest, the Midwest, the Mid-Atlantic region, the Northeast, and South Florida) work directly with Mexican drug cartels.655 The MS-13 street gang, the most violent and brutal in the United States, only exists here as a result of immigrants (from El Salvador) coming to the U.S.656 The diversity-obsessed Leftists even oppose English as the official language for the United States, despite the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution obviously being written in English. So why shouldn’t it be our nation’s official language? Why should we let foreigners dictate the dominant language in our own country? Why should we have to be told to “Press one for English and numero dos for Español” when calling every customer service number? Why should we have to deal with people we can’t even understand when they speak? Imagine if millions of Americans moved to China and then opposed Chinese as the official language. Or demanded that tests in school be given in English. Or said they need more “diversity” to make China a “better, stronger” country by bringing in more non-Chinese people. If diversity is a source of strength in a society as Liberals always say, then why not import millions of Muslims to Israel? Or millions of Indian people or Africans to Japan? Imagine White people moving to Japan en masse and then demanding that statues of the country’s founders be torn down because of how they treated other races or because the country bombed Pearl Harbor (which brought the U.S. into WWII).



Democrats’ Hypocrisy Exposed 

While Democrats love the flood of illegal aliens into the U.S., what they really love is them invading Republican border states like Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico, which have historically been Red states but are shifting purple and blue because of the huge numbers of Hispanics arriving. So in April 2022 Texas Governor Greg Abbott began bussing thousands of illegal aliens into Chicago, New York City, and Washington D.C. Since he didn’t have the authority to deport them, he just relocated them to Democrat strongholds which had previously declared themselves sanctuary cities to virtue signal that they’re not “racist.”657 New York City mayor Eric Adams immediately denounced the action saying the city was “nearing its breaking point” and later said the illegals “will destroy New York City.”658 Lori Lightfoot, the then-mayor of Chicago, said the city is “completely tapped out” and they have “no more space” after just a few busloads of migrants arrived from Texas.659 The mayor of Washington D.C. (another Democrat), declared a public emergency.660 Then Florida Governor Ron DeSantis one-upped Governor Abbott and flew two planeloads of illegal aliens to Martha’s Vineyard, a wealthy island community in Cape Cod off the coast of Massachusetts where the Obamas bought a $12 million dollar estate to retire. All hell broke loose. The residents called in the National Guard and the illegal aliens were removed from the island within 48 hours and shipped off to a military base on the mainland.661 They “couldn’t handle” the fifty migrants, local officials said, even though it was the end of summer and there were plenty of empty Airbnb rentals available for them to stay in. The point was clear. They didn’t want any illegal aliens in their community—not even a few dozen of them. Meanwhile there were 5,000 a day (every day on average) pouring across the southern border into Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California at the time, overwhelming countless

communities in the Southwest—an ongoing problem that has been allowed to continue for years. As Ron DeSantis said, “The minute even a small fraction of what those border towns deal with every day is brought to their front door, they go berserk, and they’re so upset that this is happening. And it just shows you that their virtue-signaling is a fraud.”662    

Author’s Note: Please take a moment to rate and review this book on Amazon.com or wherever you purchased it from to let others know what you think. This also helps to offset the trolls who keep giving my books fake onestar reviews when they haven’t even read them. Almost all of the one-star reviews on my books are from NON-verified purchases which is a clear indication they are fraudulent, hence me adding this note.   These fraudulent ratings and reviews could also be part of a larger campaign trying to stop my message from spreading by attempting to tarnish my research through fake and defamatory reviews, so I really need your help to combat this as soon as possible.   Thank you!    



Antiwhiteism

White people are regularly blamed for every problem in the personal lives, communities, and countries of non-White people. And despite Martin Luther King’s wish that we could become a society where people are judged on the content of their character and not the color of their skin, it’s common and widely accepted for Black people to express racism against White people and continue to blame White people living today for things that other White people did hundreds of years ago. But it’s not just a few disgruntled and envious Black people who have embraced such beliefs. With the mainstreaming of the Black Lives Matter movement, antiwhiteism has become disturbingly widespread and normalized, and White people are constantly said to be keeping down “minorities” because of “White privilege” and “systemic racism,” despite White people actually being a minority in the world—and even in numerous states within America.663 Whites have been a minority in California since the year 2000, and they’re also a minority in Hawaii, New Mexico, and Texas.664 Other states including Georgia, Nevada, and Maryland are trending to be next, and projections are that Whites will be a minority in the whole of the United States around the year 2045, according to the U.S. Census bureau.665 But you’re not supposed to talk about that unless you frame it in glowing terms and an “exciting transformation of the country,” as CNN’s Anderson Cooper calls it.666 Jimmy Fallon’s audience cheered when he said that the 2020 census showed for the first time in our nation’s history the number of White people went down. He was setting up a joke, but the audience burst into applause at the setup, confusing Fallon, who looked bewildered. “Wait, what?” he

said, going off script. “That’s an interesting reaction to that. I didn’t want cheers or boos—I just wanted a ‘interesting,’ that’s all I wanted.” He then continued with the punchline that “Fox News declared it a national emergency.”667 New York Times columnist Jennifer Rubin celebrated the 2020 census figures calling it “fabulous news,” adding “now we need to prevent minority White rule.”668 Many Latinos, Blacks, Jews, Native Americans, and guilt-ridden White Liberals cheer the news of White people being on the verge of becoming a minority in the United States, and anyone who dares to say they don’t want it to happen are branded a “White nationalist” and a “Nazi.” But demographic displacement and becoming a racial minority in a country that was founded and built by White Europeans is just one of the complicated racial issues facing White Americans. White people are openly hated by a disturbingly large segment of the non-White American population. A viral meme illustrates the situation by showing a nice White husband and wife alongside their two kids with the caption “White People: The Only Race You Can Legally Discriminate Against.” But it’s more than that. It’s spite, envy, and hatred. White people in America are blamed for everything from the crime problems in Black communities, to even global warming!669 There are endless stories in mainstream outlets today that complain about how there are too many White people playing golf,670 too many White people going skiing,671 too many White people are hiking in public parks;672 there are too many White teachers,673 too many White doctors,674 and too many White airline pilots,675 and basically just too many White people everywhere in America! So we need more “diversity” they say, which is a codeword for less White people. The Jewish ADL, the Ant-Defamation League (an organization originally founded to protect and defend Jews from supposed “antisemitism” but later morphed into an anti-Conservative hate group) is trying to change the very definition of racism. On their website they literally defined it as, “The marginalization and/or oppression of people of color based on a socially constructed racial hierarchy that privileges white people.”676

This Orwellian word game is just one more reason why the term antiwhiteism needs to be part of the lexicon. When people hear the word “racism”—they’ve been conditioned to (wrongly) think that it’s something White people do to Black people. And the ADL is perpetuating that disinformation with their false definition of the word. So when talking about anti-White racism, it’s best to be specific and use the term antiwhiteism so people don’t get the wrong impression and automatically think that the “racism” you’re talking about is White people discriminating against Black people or other non-Whites. A similar deceptive term is Critical Race Theory or CRT, which masks what’s going on. It makes people think that anti-White racism is just a theory and it’s too generic of a term, so call it what it is: antiwhiteism. Or at least always make it clear by calling it anti-White racism, instead of just “racism” to avoid the preconceptions people have been conditioned to think when they hear the word “racism.” When speaking of supposed antisemitism, the ADL’s Jonathan Greenblatt told CNN, “If you demonize the Jewish people or the Jewish State, if you make these wild accusations, if you traffic in conspiracy theories, you create the conditions for violence.”677 So wouldn’t that mean endlessly blaming White people for all the problems in America and coining new terms like “White Privilege” and perpetuating hoaxes about “systemic White supremacy” and other lies (like police officers across the country are always beating up and shooting Black suspects) mean that those who traffic in such nonsense are actually creating an environment that puts White people at risk for violence? It certainly does, but the Establishment always covers up hate crimes committed by Black people and perpetuates the myth that “hate crimes” are something that only White people commit. In this chapter I’ll detail just a small fraction of the systemic antiwhiteism occurring in America, which is a risky thing to do because daring to stand up for White people is the quickest way to be smeared as a “White supremacist.” Every time Black people complain about White people, no matter how unfounded and ridiculous the criticism is, it’s framed as an important issue that White people need to be “confronted” about and “address,” but when a White person simply mentions certain pervasive problems in the Black community (no matter how tactfully) regarding crime, fatherlessness,

poor grades, or the high STD rates, those concerns are immediately dismissed and vigorously opposed as more “evidence” of “racism.”



The Antiwhiteism Grifters  

Democrats’ favorite tactic is calling White people “racist,” and the Race Hustle is an entire industry with high-paid “experts” who get paid to just complain about White people all day, every day. People like Robin DiAngelo, who is credited with popularizing the term White Fragility which is used as a weapon against White people and was constructed to depict White people who are tired of hearing Black people complain about them as being a character flaw and more “evidence” that they’re racist because they don’t want to “acknowledge” or “address” their own “white privilege.” Ibram X. Kendi (which is a fake name to make him sound cool like Malcolm X) is another popular race grifter. His real name is Ibram Henry Rogers, and he works as an “anti-racist activist,” meaning an anti-White activist. In his mind, White people are the cause of all racism in the world, and like all other Race Hustlers he ignores the racial conflicts between Black people and Latinos which are common in places like Los Angeles, especially between rival gangs. The only thing “Ibram X. Kendi” thinks about is how terrible White people are. The 1619 Project founder Nikole Hannah-Jones is another one. This “project” started as a feature in The New York Times and refers to the year 1619 when she claims Black slaves started “building America” for White people. While there are many professional Race Hustlers, perhaps the most infamous (aside from Shaun King who looks White despite being half Black and is often mocked as “Talcum X”) is Black Lives Matter cofounder Patrisse Khan-Cullors, who bought four different homes with the millions of dollars her scheme brought in.678 Black Lives Matter (the organization) also transferred millions of dollars to a “charity” run by her “wife” who then used six million dollars to buy a mansion that was the former headquarters for the Communist Party.679 Over $90 million dollars was given to Patrisse Khan-Cullors’ Black Lives Matter organization (not to be confused with the generic

“movement”—the organization is technically a legal entity in and of itself) which claims to be a “nonprofit” organization.680 They also paid nearly a million dollars to a company run by Cullors’ baby daddy for “creative services”681 and also paid her brother over $840,000 for “security.”682



Corporate Antiwhiteism  

Under the guise of various fancy sounding terms like “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI), “racial bias training,” or “sensitivity and inclusivity” seminars—major American corporations are forcing their employees (and especially new hires) to undergo various classes derived from Critical Race Theory to indoctrinate them about how terrible White people are and how amazing non-Whites are (and queers). The “anti-racism” grifters have been around for a long time, but now it’s commonplace for major corporations to hire them to “teach” employees about how White people perpetuate “racism” simply by existing if they don’t constantly prioritize Black people’s thoughts and feelings. Walmart employees have been put through “training” where they’re told that the United States is a “White-supremacy system” and if they’re White and don’t think they’re racist and part of the problem, that’s just more evidence of their “internalized racial superiority.”683 Companies now include entire sections on their websites explaining their plans on how they’re going to hire more people of color in the name of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion despite favoring any particular race in the hiring process being illegal. Coca-Cola’s website says, “Our plan will focus on internal and external recruitment, hiring, development and advancement of people of color.”684 They go on to openly admit that they’re dedicated to only promoting Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians instead of White people. Leaked documents show that AT&T’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training course labels White employees “the problem” and says that “American racism is a uniquely white trait” and Black people can’t be racist.685 They’re also encouraged to take the “21-Day Racial Equity Habit Challenge” to reflect on their “white privilege,” and be on the lookout for “white supremacy.”686 Many major corporations now have an entire department dedicated to “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” and people have titles like “head of

diversity,” and it’s their job to make sure that fewer White people (and heterosexuals) are hired to work there. LinkedIn, the employment and business-focused social media platform, now enables job recruiters to filter their searches for candidates according to race in order to help them find a more “diverse group of candidates.”687 It used to be an unwritten rule that job applicants not include their race on their resumes to help avoid racial bias during the hiring process, but now it’s encouraged for non-White people to list theirs so they can be picked as a diversity hire. When the hiring manager of Dropbox, the Google-owned cloud storage service, posted about a new position open for product design in the U.S., she said applicants from the BIPOC (Black, indigenous, people of color) and URM communities (underrepresented minority), meaning queer people, were given priority over all others.688 Of course that’s a violation of federal law because a business can’t pass up job applicants simply because of their race, but as usual, systemic antiwhiteism is ignored. If a hiring manager of any business, whether a Fortune 500 company or a small family owned pizza place posted that they were prioritizing White applicants, then the Department of Labor would launch an investigation into them and sue them into bankruptcy, but no action is taken when White people or Christians are blatantly discriminated against. A producer for Fox News reached out to Dropbox for a comment when this story went viral, but they ignored the request proving that they’re complicit in the discriminatory practices.689 YouTube got sued in 2018 because of their anti-White hiring 690 policy. A recruiter who worked for YouTube for nine years claims the company set quotas for hiring non-White people and recruiters were told not to even interview applicants who weren’t Black, Hispanic, or women.691 On Valentine’s Day that same year, the official YouTube Twitter account tweeted, “Roses are red violets are blue, subscribe to Black creators.”692 As noted previously, YouTube has also been hostile towards Thanksgiving, and hosts an annual event exclusively for Black YouTubers to give them extra help to build up their subscribers.693 Comedian Tyler Fischer was turned down by an agent because he’s White, so he sued for discrimination and the talent agency quickly offered him a settlement—which he refused, saying he wanted the case to go to

court, probably because a settlement would mean he would have to sign a non-disclosure agreement, preventing him from ever talking about what happened to him again.694 Responding to a headline in the New York Post that said he “claimed” the agent turned him down because he’s White, Fischer said, “The entire claim is on tape and in plain English. I’m simply not allowing myself to be discriminated against for my skin color anymore. There’s no such thing as ‘reverse’ discrimination. There’s one kind and everyone is protected under the law against it.”695 He also said that “endless people” in the industry have reached out to him privately telling him the same thing has happened to them as well, but they were afraid to speak about it publicly. It’s not just corporations, but many cities are also indoctrinating their employees with antiwhiteism. Such “training” programs now mandated across the country for elected officials and their staff.696 Many police and fire departments are requiring such programs as well.697 These “Race and Social Justice Initiatives” teach that White staffers are “responsible” for racism and are “oppressors” of non-Whites.698 A teachers union in Minneapolis announced that they plan to layoff White teachers first if they have to make budget cuts, regardless of seniority —explaining in Orwellian language, “if excessing [laying off] a teacher who is a member of a population underrepresented among licensed teachers in the site [the school], the district shall excess the next least senior teacher, who is not a member of an underrepresented population.”699 They always try to mask their agenda by using codewords. “Excess” means to layoff, and “under represented” means if they’re not White they’ll be passed over, and the White teachers will be laid off instead. Again, all of this is illegal and violates long-standing antidiscrimination laws, and the fact that such blatant racial discrimination would be adopted by so many organizations is shocking but perhaps even more disturbing are the lack of legal consequences for their actions. The Department of Labor and the Justice Department do nothing to enforce antidiscrimination laws when the discrimination is against White people. Uber’s “head of diversity” (an Asian woman) was suspended after she held an event where she tried to encourage employees to stop calling their White coworkers “Karens” (which has become an anti-White slur that Black people like to use against White women who they view as being

entitled or bossy because of their “White privilege”), but Black employees felt like they were being “lectured” and “scolded” so they accused the executive of being racist against them!700 Black people feel so entitled these days in America that when a company executive tries nicely to get them to stop being racist against White people, they view that as racist!



Black Crimes Matter 

Black people in America commit more crimes than White people, Latinos, Asians and every other race.701 It’s an irrefutable fact, but because they commit more crimes (approximately ten times more violent crimes than White people) Blacks also get arrested and incarcerated at a much higher rate per capita than White people.702 But like obese people who get defensive when they’re told that they should lose weight because they’re at risk of having a heart attack or getting diabetes, most Black people don’t want to talk about the crime problem in their communities because it involves taking a good hard look in the mirror. Black people are arrested and incarcerated far more often than White people (and Hispanics, Asians, and every other race) because they commit more crimes, and it’s not because of some conspiracy being carried about by police, prosecutors, and juries. It’s the same reason there are dramatically more men arrested and incarcerated than women—because men commit more crimes. A lot more. It’s not that police are unfairly “targeting” men for arrest and “systemically” ignoring women who commit crime. It’s obvious to everyone that men commit more crime than women, so it makes perfect sense that they would be arrested and incarcerated more. The reasons why Black men commit more crimes (particularly more violent crimes) than White people (as well as Hispanics and Asians) is a whole other topic and beyond the scope of this book.703 And while it’s politically incorrect (or “racist,” as Liberals call it) to talk about Black Crime, it’s extremely taboo to talk about hate crimes committed by Black people. When most people think of a hate crime, they think of a group of “White supremacists” attacking a random Black person for the same reason when people hear the word racism, they’ve been conditioned to automatically think of White people being prejudiced against non-White people. But Black people not only commit hate crimes against White

people, Jews, Asians, and Latinos—but the media does their best to keep such attacks contained to small local news outlets in hopes of preventing people from seeing the pattern. When they do report on such incidents, they try to hide what actually happened by insinuating that the perpetrators are White by reporting that a hate crime did occur, and that the “perpetrator” or “man” called the victim a racial or antisemitic slur, but they purposefully omit the race of the attackers when they’re Black. When a Black man shot up a White church in Antioch, Tennessee to get “revenge” on White people for psycho Dylann Roof’s despicable attack on a Black church years earlier, his motive was covered up until the trial, and then only mentioned in local news. A note was found in the shooter’s vehicle that same day which admitted he did it for “vengeance” and that “10 of your kind” (meaning White people) “would die.”704 At the time when people were posting online that the attack was suspiciously not getting any national attention, Newsweek claimed that it was an “alt-right conspiracy theory” that it was a “reverse Dylann Roof story,” meaning the Black shooter targeted White people.705 The New York Times initially reported on the shooting in a story buried on page 14 of their paper and didn’t even mention the shooter’s motive.706 While most Americans never heard of this attack, everyone remembers the endless coverage of Dylann Roof’s heinous attack on churchgoers in South Carolina in 2015, which resulted in the Confederate flag being banned across the entire United States and social media companies deeming it a hate symbol; Amazon banning all sales of it, and even reruns of the 1980s classic Dukes of Hazzard series were pulled from TV because the famous General Lee car has the flag painted on it.707 Similarly, the media was obsessed with the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in August 2017 which would mark the end of the Alt-Right after a man who was literally a schizophrenic drove his car into a group of protesters, killing one of them and injuring others, but they always ignore Black Lives Matter violence like when Micah Xavier Johnson, a Black supremacist and supporter of the Nation of Islam, opened fire on a group of police during a Black Lives Matter rally in Dallas, Texas in 2016 killing five and wounding nine others.708 That story disappeared the next day, and the media never brought it up again, but the “White supremacists in Charlottesville” with their tiki

torches is a central part of the mythos about why Joe Biden ran for president in 2020, and the car crash will be talked about in the Liberal media for an eternity. A Black man in California was convicted of going on an anti-White murder spree, killing three random White people in Fresno in 2017 simply because they were White, and planned “to kill as many white males as possible” and advocated for the creation of a Black-only ethnostate, but that too was swept under the rug.709 I could list more that have been covered by local news outlets (since anti-White hate crimes are always ignored by the national ones), but I’m trying to keep this book to a moderate length. Antisemitism is always framed as coming from White supremacists, but the dirty little secret of antisemitic hate crimes is that many, if not most, are committed by Black people—particularly Black supremacists who follow the Black Hebrew Israelites’ philosophy believing they are the “real” Jews. Black supremacists consider White people the Edomites, which is a reference to the Biblical story of Esau (also known as Edom) who is the twin brother of Jacob and the son of Isaac and Rebekah, who Black Hebrew Israelites consider to be the patriarch of the White race.710 They often speak in code so most people have no idea what they’re talking about when they rail against “the Edomites,” the “White Edomite Devils,” or Esau-Edom.711 A Black couple in New Jersey walked into a Kosher deli and started shooting, killing two people in what was a targeted attack against Jews by Black Hebrew Israelites.712 A Black man walked into a Hanukkah party in an Orthodox Hasidic Jewish community in New York and started stabbing people, leaving five people injured.713 As usual, all reports about the stabbing omitted the man’s race and just described him as a “man” or “the suspect” to hide the fact that another Black man committed another hate crime against Jews.714 A Black woman in Brooklyn was arrested for slapping three Orthodox Jews while yelling “fuck you Jews” and because of the “bail reform laws” she was released from custody without having to pay any bail and three days later arrested again for assaulting more people.715 A lot of the hatred Black people have towards Jews isn’t from those who subscribe to the Black Hebrew Israelite philosophy, but from Black people in general who often harbor anti-Jewish sentiments from perceiving that Jewish business owners have exploited Black communities.

Malcolm X, who was a Black separatist and wanted Black people to have their own region of the United States so they could live without any White people around, said, “It is Jews right here in Harlem who run these whiskey-stores that get you drunk. It is Jews that run these old run-down stores that sell you bad food. It is Jews who control the economy of Harlem and use it for themselves and the benefit of Israel…That’s not antisemitic, that’s just plain intelligence.”716 But only White people are framed as having anti-Jewish views and Blacks are always portrayed as a fellow minority group being oppressed by the White man even though antisemitism is a central part of the Nation of Islam—the Black power Muslim movement, and many Black people who aren’t followers of the movement still harbor similar views. White people are always blamed for anti-Asian hate crimes too, when surveillance footage shows they’re almost all committed by Black men. After a Black man in Dallas, Texas was arrested for going on shooting sprees at various Asian businesses, specifically targeting Asians, that story vanished down the memory hole by the next day and was completely forgotten.717 If he was White the story would have received endless coverage on cable news and CNN would have said Donald Trump incited him because he kept calling COVID-19 the “China virus,” but as usual, once the perpetrator was found to be Black, they all dropped the story. A Black man brutally beat a 67-year-old Asian woman in Yonkers, New York, punching and stomping her more than 100 times while calling her an “Asian bitch,” which was all captured on video by a security camera.718 But he was just identified as a “man” in the news stories, not a Black man, even though it was a clear hate crime not just a random mugging or assault. Only those who saw the security camera footage, which was released by police and omitted in most news stories about the attack, saw that he was clearly a Black man. “Asian man pushed onto subway tracks in Queens” read the headlines after another hate crime in the New York area, and the perpetrator was descried as only wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, while the fact that it was known he himself is a Black man was ignored, as usual, despite footage of the attacker being captured by security cameras.719 In 2020, the Southern Poverty Law Center removed Black hate groups from their online list of “hate groups” because it was making the Black Lives Matter movement look bad by not just admitting Black

supremacist and separatist groups exist, but showing how prevalent they are. The SPLC admitted that they didn’t want to “aid law enforcement in its definition of Black Identity Extremists,” since the Department of Justice (under the Trump administration) finally admitted that Black hate groups pose a danger to society.720 They recategorized some of the groups giving them the cover of “antisemitic” groups or “general hate” groups, instead of being Black separatists or Black nationalists. There used to be three dozen Black hate groups on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s list, including the Nation of Islam, the New Black Panther Party, the Black Hebrew Israelites, and many others, but not anymore. Admitting the reality that Black supremacist organizations exist is considered to be racist. When discussing hate crimes, you can’t ignore hate crime hoaxes, which are the vast majority of alleged “hate crimes” reported today.721 To list the specific instances that have been confirmed hoaxes would fill up an entire book—and they do.722 There are also numerous websites which keep a pretty good tally of the latest hate crime hoaxes, including FakeHateCrimes.org. From a Black college Lacrosse player spray painting the n-word and a swastika on his dorm in Maryland targeting himself,723 to a Black girl tweeting death threats to a school in New Jersey hoping to gain more sympathy for Black Lives Matter,724 to a Black woman writing racist notes to herself and filing a fake police report at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.725 As The Wall Street Journal surprisingly admitted, “Hate crime hoaxes are more common than you think.”726 There are countless ones which have been foiled on college campuses where mostly Blacks and gays, but sometimes Muslims and Jews, are caught faking hate crimes by spray painting graffiti, or even harming themselves and claiming they were attacked.727 It’s a common tactic that is often exposed because the hoaxers are too stupid to realize security cameras are everywhere on college campuses, but there are exponentially more hate crime hoaxes that are said to have occurred other places which go undiscovered and are reported as real in the media. Jussie Smollett’s hoax is the most famous to be exposed, but they date back decades. Al Sharpton’s claim to fame was rallying behind the

Tawana Brawley hoax in 1987 where a Black teenager in New York falsely accused four White men of kidnapping and raping her.728 The Bubba Wallace “noose” incident isn’t technically a hoax because it wasn’t a deliberate scheme, but instead a case of Imaginary Racism which is also a common occurrence, where Black people falsely interpret something as being “racist” because they’ve become paranoid from all the fear-mongering and fake news in the media (and spread through social media) about how there are supposedly “White supremacists” around every corner and that “systemic racism” is the bedrock of every American institution.



White Identity

For most of America’s history White people haven’t thought about themselves as a racial group because their race had been largely invisible to them, like a fish in water, since whiteness has been the dominant culture going all the way back to America’s founding. But as White people are quickly becoming a minority group (and have already become minorities in several states) they are becoming racially conscious and starting to think about themselves as an ethnic group —like Blacks, Asians, Latinos and every other race—and caring about their own interests within the multicultural communities (and states, and country) they inhabit, instead of always allowing themselves to be pushed aside in the name of diversity. And as White people came under increasing attacks from the mainstream media, online activists, woke corporations, and others as a result of the insurgency of Black Lives Matter—White Identity (again, White people seeing themselves as a unique ethnic group with their own interests they want to protect or advance) has accelerated their racial consciousness and is changing how they perceive themselves in our multiracial society. In response to this, the other ethnic groups (and self-hating Whites) along with the usual suspects in the media and Democrat Party, are frantically trying to stop this inevitable paradigm shift, equating White Identity or White collectivism with “White nationalism” and “White supremacy,” deceptively conflating them as if they’re the same. These increased attacks are causing a feedback loop which is only accelerating White people’s awakening and involvement in ethnic collectivism. This then increases concern among non-Whites and incites more attacks against whiteness, and so on. An assistant Professor of Political Science at Duke University named Ashley Jardina has actually been a pioneer in scholarly research into the awaking of White Identity politics and found that contrary to most

people’s expectations and beliefs, there is a low correlation between White Identity and racial resentment towards other races.729 In other words, Whites who are racially consciousness and are thinking of themselves and other White people as part of an ethic group are not racist against non-Whites. They simply want what every other racial group in America has, which is the right to not only be proud of their race, but to be able to voice support for their own in-group interests (such as preserving their culture) and to not have their civil rights be violated by being discriminated against. The Left has stigmatized the idea of White people being concerned about their own ethnic interests to the point that it’s almost always falsely equated with White supremacy. It’s the biggest taboo, but if White people keep getting systematically demonized by radical Black and Latino groups (and Jewish groups like the ADL), Whites will naturally respond by awakening to their own White Identity as a natural instinct, and will begin to collectivize and organize as an ethnic group in order to stop other races from treating them as if they are second class citizens. Europe has seen the rise of a White Identity movement in what’s called Identitarianism (or the Identitarian Movement) which is opposed to multiculturalism and promotes localism or ethnopluralism which is the idea of maintaining unique and separate ethnocultural regions. This is a reaction to the Islamization of European countries caused by the massive influx of Muslims from the Middle East as well as millions emigrating to Europe from Africa.730 Many of the migrants cannot assimilate into such a different culture and have no desire to. And the flood of migrants has caused massive crime waves in Sweden, Germany, France, England, and other countries who took them in.731 Sweden is now over 8% Muslim.732 In 2016 Mohamed became the most common new baby name for boys in the UK, and remained the most popular through at least 2022.733 (It still may be, but the latest data for 2023 wasn’t released by the time this book went to print and the trend is likely continuing).734 London is also now 15% Muslim.735 In 2016 the first Muslim mayor of London was elected, and many of the indigenous Europeans are extremely unhappy with such dramatic demographic changes which are resulting in a rise of White Identity throughout Europe.

Beginning in 2017 as a reaction to the rising antiwhiteism on American college campuses and social media, some members of the online forum 4Chan decided to print fliers that simply read “It’s Okay To Be White” and posted them on various campuses. Instead of people ignoring such an innocuous statement, the fliers made national news and were denounced as “racist” and “neo-Nazi propaganda” by school authorities, the media, the ADL, and Southern Poverty Law Center.736 The fact that anyone was even upset about the fliers is strange, but catching the attention of the professional hate groups like the SPLC and ADL, and making the national news just proved the point the kids were trying to make. If they had spray painted the slogan on the side of some buildings, that would be vandalism and maybe justified making the local news, but these were ordinary 8 1/2” by 11” sheets of paper that were just taped on some light poles and stapled onto community bulletin boards. Similar fliers reading “All Lives Matter” have occasionally been posted on college campuses and around town as well, and as you can expect, were also firmly denounced as “overtly racist” and “White supremacist propaganda.”737 In October 2022, Kanye West (who had legally changed his name to Ye) wore a White Lives Matter shirt to a fashion show in Paris alongside Candace Owens, causing everyone in the Liberal media in America to freak out. CBS News insinuated it was “racist.”738 Rolling Stone said it was “uncalled for.”739 And The New York Times ran the headline, “There Is No Excuse for Ye’s ‘White Lives Matter’ Shirt.”740 The ADL deems “White Lives Matter” to be a “White supremacist phrase,”741 along with the Southern Poverty Law Center.742 Both organizations function to smear Conservatives and Christians as racist, bigots, and homophobes; and often label organizations they hate as “hate groups,” and are tirelessly trying to stop White people from embracing White Identity by equating it with White supremacy and neo-Nazis. Even Christopher Rufo, who’s held up as the world’s foremost expert on Critical Race Theory by Conservatives, is firmly opposed to White people collectivizing as an ethnic group like other races, saying “I do not believe that ‘white identity politics’ or ‘white identitarianism’ is a solution; in fact, I think it would be a major step backwards and, potentially, disastrous. We should emphasize the individual and de-emphasize racial categories, to the extent possible.”743

He also performs mental gymnastics in order to avoid framing Critical Race Theory as “anti-White racism” out of concerns it may fuel White Identity. He argues this because “it’s not exclusively anti-White,” and points to the college admissions scandal over affirmative action where Asians were also passed over while Blacks were given preferential treatment, but CRT is specifically anti-White—it just so happens that Asians are sometimes collateral damage. The main target is obviously White people. Rufo is married to an Asian woman, and his children look Asian, so he has a personal interest in trying to depict CRT as not being exclusively anti-White, and it would be highly unlikely that he and his wife aren’t fostering in their children a strong sense of Asian identity and pride, but he cautiously advises White people not to embrace their whiteness or White Identity, saying, “White identitarianism is pathetic and disgusting.”744 Instead, it appears Christopher Rufo wants White people to avoid any ethnic identity at all, and proposes they just view themselves as generic “Americans” and minimize their racial identity as much as possible. Of course he would never recommend Jews shed their ethnicity as the core of their identity. They’re “special,” and that would be antisemitic. Meanwhile he looks forward to a world in which Whites, Blacks, and Latinos are all mixed together into one homogeneous “human race,” saying “I think interracial marriage is a sign of progress, I think it’s beautiful, I think it’s amazing…America is going to look different in 100 years. You’re not going to be able to tell ‘you’re Black, you’re White, you’re Hispanic, you’re Puerto Rican, whatever.’ I think ultimately that’s going to be good.”745 Ask anyone who is of mixed race about some of the complications regarding their identity and acceptance among certain peer groups and they may not sing such praises of it.746 And ask any mixed race couple about the intercultural conflicts that arise (or persist), and they too would admit it’s not always as rosy as such “diversity” is often portrayed from the outside.747 So many people wish to retain their unique ethnicity within their families and aren’t interested in their children and grandchildren becoming part of a multicultural mishmash. But unlike every other race on the planet, White people aren’t allowed to be proud of being White—or proud of the list of things White people have contributed to the world, from creating the automobile and airplanes to air-conditioning and computers. “White Pride” is considered

synonymous with “White Supremacy.” Wikipedia defines it as “an expression primarily used by white separatist, white nationalist, fascist, neo-Nazi and white supremacist organizations in order to signal racist or racialist viewpoints.”748 Of course Black Pride is defined favorably as “a movement which encourages Black people to celebrate Black culture and embrace their African heritage.”749 Similarly, the entry for Asian Pride notes that it’s “a term utilized by people all over the world to celebrate their Asian ethnicity.”750 White people just wanting to date only other White people is considered racist, and any app that would facilitate White-only dating would not only cause a national outcry by Democrats in Congress who would launch a congressional committee to investigate whoever created it, but it would be banned by the Apple and Android app stores for being “racist.”751 Meanwhile there are countless dating apps for Black people and Latinos to meet each other, not to mention Black-only beauty pageants, Black-only dorms, graduation ceremonies, and other “Black safe spaces” where they can enjoy themselves without the presence of White people.752 But again, if a White person just wants to date or marry another White person, that sets off alarm bells—while Blacks, Asians, Latinos, and Jews who want to do so are celebrated for maintaining their cultural heritage. And if any White people prefer to live in a predominantly White neighborhood (like Scott Adams, the creator of the Dilbert comic strip recommended) or want their children to go to a predominantly White school, that’s even worse, and they’re denounced as White nationalists and Nazis. Just for recommending that White people should live in predominantly White neighborhoods to avoid the ongoing racial strife between Whites and Blacks, Scott Adams’ Dilbert comic strip was canceled by his syndicator after more than 30 years in publication, and overnight vanished from every newspaper around the world.753 Aside from the Liberal media manufacturing outrage over his comments, he was also denounced by some brand name Conservative commentators as well, including Ben Shapiro, who said that “there’s a strong case” that anyone saying such “racist stuff” should have their career ended.754



Use Their Own Terms Against Them

One tool you can use to combat the Marxists and their incessant antiwhiteism is turning their own terminology against them by linguistically hijacking their buzzwords. When they talk about “White Fragility,” point out Black Fragility—which I would define as: Discomfort and defensiveness on the part of some Black people who live in a predominantly White culture due to fixating on long since past injustices which they never experienced (and weren’t experienced by anyone in their family alive today) causing them to imagine racism where none exists, and pine away for living in a culture that is predominately black instead. When they whine about whiteness or “White normativity” then bring up their White-Envy which is when Black or other non-White people who live in a predominantly White culture feel envious of the society because their ancestors lacked the skills, knowledge, or possessions of others in the dominant culture, often resulting in resentment and demands for reparations instead of accepting personal responsibility for their own situations and working to improve their lives through hard work, discipline, and other ethical means of achieving success and happiness.755 When they talk about the “need” for more “diversity,” call them anti-White. Don’t play into their semantical games by acknowledging their made up words and ridiculous false concepts. Every time they use their cultural marxist terminology, do linguistic judo, and turn it back against them. Doing this saves you from wasting time engaging them in an argument about why they’re wrong, (and insane). And just chuckle or laugh at them, mock them, and don’t even take their concerns seriously unless it’s your boss and you run the risk of being fired. We should all start highlighting the systemic antiwhiteism to make it clear that anti-White racism isn’t just occurring in isolated instances from a few individual Black people or organizations, but instead antiwhiteism is so pervasive it has

become woven into American culture through Black Lives Matter activism and the Liberal media constantly demonizing White people and whiteness. And again, the term antiwhiteism needs to become the common word used in place of racism when talking about anti-White racism because of the deeply rooted associations and preconceptions people have with the word racism. Just invoking the word racism always conjures up a frame that it’s something White people do to non-Whites, and the very word is basically an anti-White slur, so a completely different word should be used when talking about anti-White racism, or at the very least—the clear distinction should be made by describing it as anti-White racism, not just racism. That is as long as the ADL, SPLC, and Wikipedia don’t hijack the term and get a false definition to stick by claiming it’s a “White supremacist” code word, which they will likely attempt to do just like they’ve done with It’s Okay to Be White, Cultural Marxism, and White Pride. Even mentioning the percentage of Black people in relation to the percentage of violent crimes they commit in the United States (i.e. 13/50) is deemed a “numeric hate symbol.”756 When the Left mentions “White privilege” then turn it around on them and point out that Black Privilege is actually the centerpiece in our culture now since Black people are put on a pedestal and treated as if they deserve special benefits and treatment because they’ve been exploiting grievances about injustices in the distant past and laying guilt trips on White people in order to subvert equal rights and blind justice. This Black Privilege often stems from false perceptions of racism where none exists, or fabricating incidents of racism in order to leverage power over White people.757 They try to wield this power to silence criticism or judgment about any aspect of their culture (like glorifying thugs and crime) or others pointing out the high percentage of single mothers in the Black community. Black Privilege goes far beyond giving them jobs they’re not qualified for in the name of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (the fancy new term for affirmative action). It also grants them the benefit of often not being charged with anything when they commit crimes, or being given light sentences out of concerns that putting them in jail instead of releasing them on probation would reflect poorly on Black people as a group, so in the 21st century many are often allowed to escape justice.

Black Privilege also entails having TV shows and entire networks like BET and Fox Soul dedicated to Black-only entertainment—and having Black-only dating apps, Black-only beauty pageants, Black-only dorms at colleges, and being able to openly proclaim that Black people are the “best” and “Black is beautiful” while flying into a violent rage if a White person were to say the same thing about their race. We all know what would happen if a White person said they wanted to live in a White-only community, or if White students said they wanted to live in White-only dorms or if a network wanted to produce a TV show that expressly doesn’t include any Blacks or Latinos and instead would focus on a White family or community without any forced “diversity.” All hell would break loose, but every other race can make such demands and are given those accommodations without any resistance. But beware, because cancel culture has gotten so strong that your career could be destroyed in an instant by saying many of the obvious truths mentioned in this this book—especially if you explicitly show support for White Identity (or even bring it up in any context other than denouncing it). Not everyone is in a position to loudly or firmly push back against antiwhiteism (or LGBTQism), but we do need people who are confident they can weather the storm that may come their way if they do, or else our country and our culture will be irreparably damaged, if not destroyed.

Censorship

The World Wide Web opened up a new frontier for publishing in the 1990s where anyone could create a website from their home computer that could be seen by anyone else in the world with just a few clicks on a keyboard through their Netscape or Internet Explorer browsers. But at the time, it was difficult to build a website—and extensive computer skills (including knowing the HTML computer language) were needed, so while every major corporation eventually set one up, only a few eccentric people, computer nerds, or entrepreneurs had one. About a decade later in the early 2000s, the advent of social media made having an online presence turn-key, and anyone with practically no computer skills or technical experience could start using the Internet to publish blogs with photos and videos, and share links to news articles with others who could then share them with their friends and followers who could do the same, and the concept of “going viral” was born. It was the next phase of the Internet revolution, or Web 2.0 as it’s called. While Web 1.0 consisted of static webpages, the new era of online activity involved easy two-way communication and an interactive experience with comments, follower counts, and “likes.” While MySpace led the way, Facebook soon overtook them and quickly grew to dominate social media. At the end of 2006 Facebook opened to everyone, not just people with a college email address ending in .edu, and then MySpace quickly died.758 By the 2008 presidential election Facebook was already part of everyone’s lives, and now on their phones thanks to the launch of the Apple App Store. When the iPhone was first released in June 2007 it had only a few apps (like email, maps, and music), but the following year the App Store was opened to 3rd party developers

and enabled access to services that had previously been contained to desktop computers but were now available anywhere in the palm of your hand.759 Social media soon morphed from a fun novelty to a way of life. During this new social media revolution if you were a young adult and didn’t have a Facebook page (or later if you were a high schooler and didn’t have a Snapchat or Instagram account), then you were seen as an outcast. Social media became just as common as cellphones. Even though Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube had become extremely popular by the 2008 presidential election, their real power still wasn’t realized until a few years later. Barack Obama was the first president to have a Facebook and Twitter account, and throughout the 2008 and 2012 election cycles people used social media to argue and debate ideas and share news articles as the platforms slowly became more and more intertwined with politics and our daily lives. But even throughout the Obama administration social media was still mostly considered to be a “neat” way to communicate with other people, and while it was certainly changing our culture, it hadn’t become the center-point of it—yet. But by the 2016 presidential election cycle (which began in 2015), social media had become an integral part of our culture. Every celebrity, every TV show, every brand name business had Facebook and Twitter accounts. It’s how major companies fielded complaints from their customers instead of the “old fashioned” way of people calling them on the phone. A new kind of celebrity was created in the form of YouTubers or “social media stars” who used the technology to go viral and gain massive audiences, often dwarfing traditional talk radio shows and television networks. Stories that weren’t chosen by editors of the major newspapers and television networks to dominate their coverage (or even get mentioned at all) could now become widely publicized from people organically sharing them, and the corporate news giants lost their ability to control the topics of conversation that the general public was having. The New York Times complained that “YouTube, Reddit and Facebook have allowed fringe thinkers to bypass traditional gatekeepers and reach millions of people directly.”760 CNN’s “senior media reporter” Oliver Darcy complained that social media companies have “given

everybody the same ability to broadcast their views, unfiltered really, to millions and millions of people,” and now “they can share it and they can tell their friends about it.”761 After Trump beat Hillary Clinton, the entire Liberal Media Industrial Complex panicked and claimed that “fake news” being spread through Facebook by the Russians tricked people into not liking her, and thus not voting for her. The Establishment media aimed to take their power back and that’s when the mass censorship and algorithm manipulation started. Before the 2016 election, the only posts or content that was taken down were almost exclusively things that clearly violated what were once reasonable terms of service—forbidding death threats, porn, or people just uploading full episodes of TV shows to YouTube, infringing on studios’ copyrighted works. The mainstream media lost control of the flow of information, and so they scrambled to gain back their monopoly, partnering with the Big Tech platforms to not only get their content artificially boosted, but also systematically suppress independent voices. Immediately in the aftermath we saw an increasingly number of Conservatives having posts removed from social media and getting locked out of their accounts (or permanently banned) for posting criticism of illegal immigration, Muslim refugees, gender bending and other LGBT activities that had previously been allowed to be hotly debated and firmly denounced. Posting basic scientific facts about gender or undisputed crime statistics about Black males became a problem. During President Trump’s (first) impeachment hearings, nobody was allowed to mention the name of the “whistleblower” whose bogus allegations kicked the whole thing off after Trump asked Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky about the Biden Crime Family’s dealings in the country, which was spun into a story about seeking a foreign country’s “help” to “interfere” in our election. When Senator Rand Paul mentioned the name of the person widely believed to have helped get the impeachment hearing in motion (Eric Ciaramella) on the floor of the Senate, YouTube even removed that video, claiming it was “harassment” and an “invasion of privacy.”762 In 2017, YouTube completely changed their search results to surface videos from mainstream media channels for most topics people look up.763 Internally they tag brand name channels as “authoritative” so the algorithm artificially boosts them to the top of the search results even if other videos

from independent “ordinary” YouTubers are more relevant and should organically be the actual top results because of their views, watch time, and the amount of engagement they have. YouTube even created a special curated list of search terms after Liberals in the media complained about the top search results for things like abortion and the Federal Reserve.764 They added actress Brie Larson’s name to the list after “journalists” complained that the top search results for her name accompanied by the title of her latest film at the time (Captain Marvel) were YouTubers critical of her and the movie.765 Then they later hid the dislike ratings near the end of 2021 because so many people were thumbing down videos on mainstream channels that kept getting artificially boosted into people’s feeds and inserted onto the trending list. They claimed it was to prevent smaller YouTubers from getting “bullied” by large numbers of people thumbing down their videos, but it was just another attempt to hide negative feedback about the Liberal propaganda they kept pushing. And then another wave of censorship hit during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 when people opposing the mandatory lockdowns were suspended and banned from the brand name social media platforms, and people questioning the safety of the vaccine were censored as well. Even just saying that the virus leaked from the Wuhan lab wasn’t allowed. Senator Rand Paul was censored by YouTube another time for a speech he made denouncing mask mandates on the floor of the Senate.766 Dan Bongino’s channel was banned after his third strike for “COVID misinformation” because of a rant he did about masks not being effective.767 Then just a few days later the CDC updated their “data” about masks, admitting after two years of the pandemic that cloth masks basically don’t do anything.768 Dr. Drew, the famous Hollywood Liberal TV doctor, even got a strike from YouTube for “medical misinformation” after he discussed some of the possible side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine on his podcast.769 He’s generally pro-vaccine despite experiencing some mild side effects himself, but also said if his children were under 18, he would not have given them the COVID vaccine. The censorship was so egregious that after a medical device being used on COVID patients called the Heal Light, which consisted of a breathing tube wrapped in ultraviolet LEDs designed to kill the virus once

inserted into the lungs of patents was mentioned by President Trump, the company had their YouTube channel and Twitter account censored for spreading “dangerous medical misinformation.”770 Donald Trump mentioned that scientists were using ultraviolet light “inside the body” to kill the virus, something that the media mocked him for because anything he said they used against him. His explanation of the technology was just an off the cuff remark about some of the things that were being developed to help treat patients. So the media made it seem as if he was crazy and wanted to insert light bulbs under people’s skin.771 Then when people starting pointing out he was referring to an actual device being tested in hospitals, the Big Tech platforms did what they could to hide that fact in order to prevent the media’s mockery of him from backfiring.772 And while social media was the primary focus of the “thought police” looking to censor all content they disagree with, soon those who wanted to silence others began pointing to podcasts that were hosted on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.773 The topics being censored, along with the methods and reasons for shutting down discussions kept growing.



The Next Wave of Censorship

The first wave of censorship was after the 2016 election, the second was during the COVID pandemic, and the third began immediately after the 2020 presidential election like clockwork. After four years of the Democrats coming up with countless conspiracy theories about how Donald Trump supposedly secretly worked with Russian intelligence to “steal” the 2016 election, all of a sudden claiming that Democrats stole the 2020 election for Joe Biden was a violation of the terms of service on all Big Tech platforms.774 Such claims were suddenly deemed to “undermine our Democracy” and said to be “dangerous.” Exercising your First Amendment right to question the outcome of an election, or state an opinion that it was stolen, was now forbidden. Censoring such discussions on social media was a new level of authoritarianism never seen in America. Up until that point, the only countries where people weren’t allowed to question the election results were Communist countries and third world dictatorships. They claimed it might cause more civil unrest in the wake of the January 6th protest at the Capitol, but the systemic antiwhiteism and anti-police rhetoric coming from Black Lives Matter that had been inciting violence for years was still allowed to be posted and go viral. Shortly before the 2020 election, the Big Tech platforms all censored the October surprise sprung on Democrats when the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop was published after he abandoned it at a repair shop. Aside from bizarre videos he shot of himself smoking crack and having sex with prostitutes, there were emails showing shady business deals with Ukraine and China that involved his father.775 So to muddy the waters hoping to hide the story, Deep State intelligence officials said it was Russian disinformation, but it was obvious at the time (and would later be undeniable) that their claims about the story being disinformation was the disinformation. A year and a half later, after

the Biden Administration was an utter failure and Joe Biden had become an embarrassment, Liberal mainstream outlets finally admitted that the Hunter Biden laptop story is true—that the emails and explicit videos are his, but they still denied he or Joe Biden engaged in any influence peddling or illegal activity.776 Of course Donald Trump was banned from all brand name platforms after the January 6th protest at the Capitol got out of hand, but the Taliban (and their officials) were still able to have an official Twitter account.777 So was Vladimir Putin and all Russian government officials and agencies, even after they invaded Ukraine.778 But not Donald Trump. From that point on, anytime he gave a speech or an interview, if he mentioned that he thought the 2020 election was stolen, that video would get censored from YouTube and Facebook, including his speech at CPAC in February 2021, as well as his CPAC speech the following year in 2022.779 As the 2020 election approached, numerous high-profile Democrats voiced concerns about the security of electronic voting machines and even held congressional hearings about it, but once Joe Biden was declared the supposed winner of the 2020 election, all of those concerns vanished and couldn’t be raised by Republicans. Democrats had legitimate concerns about the security and accuracy of electronic voting machines, and HBO even aired a documentary called Kill Chain: The Cyber War on America’s Elections in March 2020 which demonstrated some of the vulnerabilities they had (anticipating a Donald Trump victory over Joe Biden, which Democrats would have blamed on Russia hacking the machines), but all those concerns went out the window —and after the election any Republican who raised them ever again was attacked as a “conspiracy theorist” and said to be spreading “dangerous misinformation.”780 Surprisingly, a little over two years later Donald Trump’s Twitter account was reinstated thanks to Elon Musk buying the platform, and a few months after that Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube allowed him access to his accounts again as well.781 This, shortly after he announced he was running for reelection a second time. They probably knew that keeping the Republican frontrunner off their platforms during a presidential run would have galvanized Republicans across the country to denounce such communist-style censorship, so they reluctantly allowed him back on.

Then three months later, in June of 2023, YouTube finally lifted their ban on Republicans doubting the 2020 election results and talk of widespread voter fraud affecting the outcome.782 YouTube claimed it was because they deemed there was no longer an “eminent” threat of people rioting again, like at the Capitol on January 6th 2021, since that tense time had long since passed and the anger dissipated. But YouTube probably also realized that Rumble had become a viable alternative, attracting big names and even non-political channels like gamers and other content creators who thought YouTube was too saturated and wanted to try building an audience on a newer platform that was gaining momentum. Rumble even got listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange in September 2022 and has reached a market cap of two and a half billion dollars.783 While other platforms had tried to take on YouTube, they either failed financially and ended up shutting down, or only gained niche users and audiences. Rumble has grown to be a serious threat to YouTube’s monopoly. While they still have policies against “hate speech,” their rules regarding discussions about transgenderism and vaccines are drastically less restrictive than YouTube. And they even allow (as of November 2023) channels that have been banned from YouTube, including Alex Jones, Red Ice TV, AmRen (American Renaissance run by Jared Taylor), and Nick Fuentes. But while Rumble promotes themselves as a “free speech” platform, they’re only freer, and will be put to a difficult test at some point when the Apple and Android App stores pressure them to remove certain videos or channels they deem “hateful,” “antisemitic,” or contain what they deem “extremist” content. Rumble is no longer a privately owned company. They have shareholders they’re accountable to, and it’s doubtful they will resist the ultimatum of either banning such content, or being banned from the App Stores themselves, if or when it’s given. In the small chance they stand their ground and refuse to ban specific creators from their platform if threatened by the App Stores, they’ll have to do what Gab.com did, and format their website so that users can visit it on their phone’s browser and then just use the Save to Home Screen feature to create an icon on their phone that launches the website.

This workaround, pioneered by Gab’s founder Andrew Torba after Gab was banned from the App Stores, allows a website to function essentially as an app on a phone, minus the push notifications. There may be some drawbacks however, such as lag-time when using certain features compared to the app itself, but it will still work—at least for now. Apple and Android may close this loophole at some point, but Gab.com has been using this method for years.784 Rumble will also increasingly face organized advertiser boycotts aimed at strangling them financially. After YouTube demonetized Russell Brand’s channel in the wake of a coordinated campaign to cancel him, Rumble stood by him, causing brands like Burger King and HelloFresh to pull ads from the entire platform.785 Rumble had already been the target of numerous organizations dedicated to stripping them of advertisers in hopes of shutting them down, and these groups will continue to seize on highly publicized events surrounding content creators who use the platform in order to further bully major brands (and advertising agencies) into not working with them.



Fake Fact Checkers

Facebook is the worst of all the social media platforms in terms of censorship and algorithm manipulation. What was once a great platform to keep in touch with family and friends, and a place to read interesting articles others shared, has turned into another tightly controlled corporate cog in the Left’s information warfare machine. At the end of 2016, about a month after the election when the “fake news” scare was first heating up and Democrats were blaming Hillary’s loss on people posting “misinformation” about her, Facebook decided to start automatically “fact checking” things people posted, outsourcing the operation to various organizations like Snopes and PoltiFact who were granted authority to police content so Facebook itself could claim they weren’t censoring posts deemed to be “false” or sticking their nose into everyone’s business—it’s “trusted third party independent fact checkers.”786 From this point on when anyone posted a link to a news story or YouTube video—if it triggered a “fact check,” the post would be completely blurred out with a notice over it claiming it’s “false” which also prevents it from going viral. But many of these “fact checks” are completely and obviously false, and the posts they censor are accurate and true. The new feature is just another way for the Establishment to further suppress information they don’t want people to know. But it’s not just links that are censored. Posts just containing text are too, since Facebook automatically scans and reads everything; and if posts are detected to say things that they don’t want people to say but aren’t a violation of the terms of service, then they’re secretly suppressed and only show up in a limited number of people’s feeds who are following the page. The Facebook “fact checks” started off to “protect civic integrity,” meaning election news or falsehoods about voting, such as if someone posts that the polls in a particular area are closed when they’re actually still open which could discourage people from going out to vote on their way home

from work, or posts citing the wrong location of where people can vote which would send them on a wild goose chase, etc. That kind of misinformation was initially the target of the fact checkers, along with actual hoaxes they didn’t want to go viral (such as someone claiming there was a terrorist attack in an American city, like a bombing that didn’t actually happen) which many would argue may have been a good feature. But the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and the system got so out of control Facebook started censoring memes making fun of Democrats and Joe Biden. For example, they “fact checked” a meme about gas prices being high because of President Biden that reads “Man I haven’t seen gas prices this high since the last Democrat was in office.” Anyone who posted it had the meme automatically grayed out and it was labeled “false” with a note claiming gas prices were high due to generic “supply issues.”787 They even “fact check” the popular meme of Martin Luther King wearing a MAGA hat, claiming that his political affiliation isn’t known.788 Like all platforms, they use a Content ID system to automatically scan every image and video that’s uploaded, and they have an entire library of memes the moderators have set to be flagged. Satirical articles from The Babylon Bee even get the same “fact check” in order to censor their mockery of Liberals.789 Another ridiculously false “fact check” that was integrated into Facebook’s automatic system by USA Today, one of their “trusted” partners, claimed it was fake news that a thug named Jacob Blake was armed at the time he got himself shot by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He’s the thug whose shooting sparked the Black Lives Matter riots there shortly after, which led to Kyle Rittenhouse having to defend himself when he was attacked by the angry mob. Anyone who posted that Jacob Blake was armed with a knife (which he was) had their posts flagged as “false” and penalties placed on their accounts. Not only did police say he had a knife on him at the time of the shooting, but it could be seen on video, and later during an interview with Good Morning America he admitted the obvious—that he was armed with a knife when police shot him.790 But Facebook tried to protect the false narrative that another “unarmed” Black man just happened to get shot by police who must have been racist.

Facebook also “fact checked” a true claim that Donald Trump made about Kyle Rittenhouse when he said that videos showed he was trying to get away from the mob when they attacked him.791 Anyone who followed that story closely saw those videos which went viral that same night, but Facebook was censoring posts that defended Rittenhouse or showed he acted in self-defense, deeming him a “mass shooter,” and supporting or praising such individuals is a violation of their terms of service.792 Rittenhouse himself was banned from Facebook after his arrest, so he couldn’t even defend himself on the platform while the media, Democrats in Congress, and countless others online kept smearing him as a White supremacist and a mass murderer.793 One of the most hilarious fake “fact checks” happened after CNN made Joe Rogan look green when they aired a video he posted on Instagram announcing that he had tested positive for coronavirus. He wasn’t vaccinated, so the media tried to rub it in that he got sick by making him look deathly ill by drastically altering the color of his video even though he only had mild symptoms because he got the monoclonal antibody treatment right away. “No evidence video color was manipulated in CNN news segment,” claimed the fact checkers,794 but if you looked at the original video he uploaded to Instagram side by side with the one CNN aired (which is still up on their YouTube channel) he looks almost as green as the Incredible Hulk.795 It’s cartoonishly altered, and there’s no reasonable explanation for it other than it was done on purpose, just like discoloring footage of political opponents in campaign ads—a common tactic used to cast them in a negative light. Candace Owens sued the “fact checkers” because after receiving several “strikes” for posting supposedly false content then pages get demonetized just like YouTube channels—harming the livelihoods of content creators.796 John Stossel also sued Facebook for over $2 million dollars claiming their fake “fact checks” were defamatory after they had declared several posts of his to be “false” (that were not), but a judge dismissed his lawsuit at the end of 2022 claiming that the “fact checks” are only a “subjective judgment about the accuracy and reliability of assertions.”797

Note the judge’s claims that the “fact checks” were “subjective,” not objective. In other words, the supposed “fact checks” were just opinions. The judge’s ruling goes on to say, “Simply because the process by which content is assessed and a label applied is called a ‘fact-check’ does not mean that the assessment itself is an actionable statement of objective fact.”798 So a judge ruled the “fact checks” are B.S. but Facebook is allowed to still use them to censor and suppress factual information, without facing any consequences. Candace Owens’ lawsuit was also thrown out by a judge for similar bogus reasons.799



Elon Musk Tries to Save Twitter

Twitter (now rebranded as X by Elon Musk, but will still be referred to as Twitter for the sake of this discussion) often drives the news cycle. What trends on Twitter, makes headlines because lazy journalists looking for a new story to write just have to scroll through Twitter for a few minutes and see what’s trending and figure that would be a good topic since so many people are talking about it. So, activists make it their mission to get topics or hashtags to trend in order to promote their cause, and of course for years Twitter manually inserted topics into the list to create a self-fulfilling prophecy. People thought the topic was popular because it was on the trending list, so they start tweeting about it, which then caused it to become popular. It appears this manipulation stopped soon after Elon Musk purchased the platform, but since its launch in 2006 this was an extremely powerful method of directing news cycles, especially since Twitter has been predominantly a news platform and is a favorite for “journalists,” news junkies, and political activists. Equally powerful was the platform preventing topics from trending when they were so widely tweeted about the algorithm would have organically included them on the list. Under Jack Dorsey’s leadership (and later Parag Agrawal) the company regularly suppressed topics from trending that they didn’t want to become bigger issues. The platform is largely considered to be the digital public square where people argue and try to dunk on each other’s stupid tweets, and its very design incentivizes dogpiling, which can instantly flood someone’s mentions with an endless stream of mockery and this is why it’s often used by activists to cancel people. A small group of people can easily whip up an online mob and flood a business’s mentions with angry demands that someone be fired or they drop a certain product or stop advertising on certain TV shows or podcasts.

While once perhaps the least strict platform in terms of censorship, it slowly fell in lock step with the same policies of the other major platforms—banning “misgendering” transgender people (which means not using their preferred pronouns) and suspending people for “homophobic,” “Islamophobic,” or “antisemitic” tweets.800 Then in April 2022, Elon Musk—the richest man in the world at the time, made an official offer to buy Twitter for a shocking $44 billion dollars. And perhaps even more shocking—the board of directors approved the offer. But as soon as the wheels were in motion to get the legalities ironed out, the entire Liberal media machine completely freaked out over the thought of Musk, who had been clear about his support for free speech (and even saying he would reinstate Donald Trump’s account), now loosening restrictions and restoring Twitter to its glory days. The Washington Post denounced Musk’s pending takeover, saying “we need regulation of social-media platforms to prevent rich people from controlling our channels of communication.”801 Of course rich people had controlled our channels of communication for nearly two decades. People like Mark Zuckerberg, and the executives at Twitter and YouTube. What the Washington Post meant was they wanted the government to prevent Elon from allowing free speech—since he obviously had a very different philosophy about content moderation, and the mainstream media was scared to death that Conservatives may be able to leverage the platform to promote their agenda just like Liberals had been doing on Twitter since its inception. Axios, a popular online outlet, said “The world’s richest man— someone who used to be compared to Marvel’s Iron Man—is increasingly behaving like a movie supervillain, commanding seemingly unlimited resources with which to finance his mischief-making.”802 Allowing discussions critical of transgenderism and not using the platform to artificially amplify Liberal agendas was unthinkable to these people. MSNBC’s Ari Melber complained that Elon might amplify rightwing content, and suppress Liberals—which is obviously the very manipulation tactics the platform had been doing under the leadership of Jack Dorsey and Parag Agrawal for years.803 CNN’s David Zurawik, who is also a professor of Media Studies at Groucher College, said Elon Musk running Twitter would be “dangerous” and pushed for government regulation of “hate speech” like in Europe.

“You need regulation. You cannot let these guys control discourse in this country or we are headed to hell. We are there. Trump opened the gates of hell and now they’re chasing us down.”804 The Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission launched a joint investigation into Elon Musk and his actions at Tesla.805 Elon even became a victim of the MeToo movement, where women accuse rich and famous men of “sexual harassment” they say occurred many years earlier to essentially blackmail the men into paying them money to go away. A settlement Elon Musk had paid out from years earlier leaked to the media once he fell under the crosshairs of the Establishment for his plans to allow free speech on Twitter. Seven women would come to sue Elon for alleged “sexual harassment.”806 Such lawsuits are common for celebrities even if they never did anything wrong because unscrupulous women figure they can get a decent settlement to make the problem go away and as counterintuitive as it may seem, it’s often cheaper (and quicker) for the celebrities to pay out settlements than defend themselves in court. Elon used to be a marvel of the world, but was now hated by half of the U.S. population who saw him as the man who would allow “Nazis” (like Donald Trump) to have Twitter accounts. And Elon would soon learn that he had dramatically underestimated the complexities of running a social media company, especially in the “woke” age of mass censorship. He never imagined the forces that would be unleashed trying to destroy him.



Elon Restores (Some) Banned Accounts

Soon after taking full ownership of the platform, Elon reinstated Donald Trump’s account, although Trump had already launched his own social media platform Truth Social, so he hesitated to return to the platform because he was under obligation to Truth Social investors to use that platform exclusively for a set period of time.807 Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the ADL, denounced Elon’s decision as “dangerous and a threat to American democracy,” and then insinuated that Twitter should be banned from the Internet, saying, “We need to ask—is it time for Twitter to go?”808 And he wasn’t just making idle threats. Efforts were underway hoping to ban Twitter from the App Stores.809 Elon also restored over 12,000 accounts which had been banned under false pretenses, including poplar Conservatives, who—while not being household names, had built up rather large followings on the platform.810 He also started releasing internal communications showing top executives who had previously run the company having discussions about banning popular accounts including Donald Trump’s, as well as discussions about censoring the Hunter Biden laptop story and other (accurate) tweets about COVID-19 related issues.811 Elon would later say, “To be totally frank, almost every conspiracy theory that people had about Twitter turned out to be true.”812 But despite restoring thousands of wrongfully banned accounts (including Donald Trump’s) and loosening the terms of service and ending the partisan manipulation of the trending list, Elon’s claims of being a “free speech absolutist” are false.813 When a user recommended he restore Alex Jones’ account, he responded “No.” And then later in the day doubled down saying “too bad” when someone else in the thread tweeted that bringing back Alex Jones should be the litmus test of him allowing free speech.814

When he was pressed even further about restoring Jones’ account, Elon tweeted that he has “no mercy” for Jones because of his conspiracy theories surrounding the mass shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School.815 Even though Jones’ comments were insane, they weren’t why he was banned from Twitter. He was banned for confronting CNN’s Oliver Darcy in the halls of Congress in 2018 outside of a hearing about social media censorship which he live-streamed on Twitter through their Periscope app.816 Twitter deemed it “harassment,” but video of the interaction shows Jones was rather calm and wasn’t even being disruptive. Many thought perhaps Elon would change his mind in the future and allow Alex Jones back on because his policy decisions have been anything but consistent or principled, and he changes his mind more often than the way the wind blows. But a full year after taking over the platform, Alex Jones’ ban remains.817 Allowing him back on would be a PR nightmare, and even Jones has said he doesn’t hold it against Elon because he’s facing enough problems as it is. But how is Twitter banning him from having an account any different than Verizon or AT&T not allowing him to have cell service because they don’t like what he says? If he’s not breaking the law by the things he posts (which he’s clearly not) then why is he denied access to the basic communication tools available to everyone else? He also never restored the accounts of Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnis and other high-profile controversial figures, including pro-White advocates like Jared Taylor, professor Kevin MacDonald,818 and David Duke who all had Twitter accounts for years before eventually getting banned.819 Nick Fuentes, a young controversial figure who built up a sizable dedicated fanbase of Conservative Zoomers (generation Z kids) had his Twitter account initially restored after Elon took over, but was permanently banned again within 24 hours after he said he loved Hitler during a Twitter Space, the group audio chat feature.820 While I’m certainly not defending his incendiary rhetoric nor his support for Hitler, it is interesting to note that Leftists are allowed to praise murderous communist dictators like Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Pol Pot. Many of them are quite open about their admiration of such figures and that never seems to be a violation of the terms of service. Nor is open support for communism (which killed more people than Nazism), and while posting swastikas is strictly forbidden (unless done so with condemnation

or for editorial purposes), communist and Marxist groups like Antifa are allowed to post hammer and sickle flags and openly promote their ideology.



The Future of X 

The future of Twitter (famously renamed X in July 2023) remains to be seen. Elon has made some great changes (restoring thousands of accounts and loosening many of the restrictions on what people are allowed to post), but he has also made some rash and dumb decisions—like selling verification checkmarks to any account that paid $8 a month without actually verifying the identity of the accounts, leading to a wave of impersonations (and hilarious parody accounts), causing him to pause the scheme less than 24 hours later and revert back to the standard procedure of actually confirming account holders’ identities before issuing the blue check signifying they’re “verified.”821 He once announced a new policy banning all links to content on other social media platforms because he didn’t want anyone driving traffic to a competitor, only to reverse his decision (again within 24 hours) upon realizing the backlash and mockery over the idea, since it would be absurd and contrary to the core principles of social media to prevent people from linking to a Facebook post or Instagram photo.822 Elon often doesn’t take into account feedback of others, even concerns of executives in the company who have extensive knowledge and experience before making dramatic changes that anyone else could have foreseen would cause massive problems (like selling verification checkmarks to accounts without actually verifying them) because he relies so heavily on his own instincts and intuition. This management style is often a double-edged sword extremely successful people wield because while this strategy can often work, it also leads them to further discount the doubts and concerns of others, which can result in them stumbling into obvious pitfalls that they themselves are blind to. He wants X to be the “everything app” or a super app, which enables voice and video calls and the ability to send payments to others just like Venmo and CashApp; and perhaps even incorporate brokerage accounts

for people to trade stocks, and possibly even online marketplaces like Amazon and eBay. But because of the immense opposition to Elon allowing so many once-banned users and topics (like “misgendering” trans people, which means using pronouns other than the ones they demand people refer to them as—something that was strictly forbidden under the previous ownership and is a violation of the terms of service on all the other Big Tech platforms), it may be difficult for him to sustain enough revenue sources to keep the app financially viable in the face of ongoing boycotts and attempts to sabotage him. The platform experienced a massive revenue loss once Elon first took it over because many major advertisers fled out of fear it would now allow “hate speech,” and “racism” would be allowed to flourish, mostly due to the Liberal media churning out a bunch of hit pieces and lying about what Elon’s ownership would entail. Then he tried to increase revenue through subscription services like Twitter Blue (now called X Premium) which gives users a verification checkmark and some other features like the ability to post longer tweets instead of the standard 280 characters, and edit them after they’re posted. And despite Elon bringing aboard a new CEO from the advertising industry, Linda Yaccarino, the company continued to struggle financially.823 Hopefully he can maintain and grow the platform without further compromising on his support of free speech (remember, he already won’t allow Alex Jones, professor Kevin MacDonald, Jared Taylor, and others to use it) and it’s going to be impossible to keep everyone happy. Social media is no longer just a neat new technology for communication online. It’s an information warfare tool used to drive news cycles and shape the culture, and Elon liberating it from the Big Tech oligarchs (despite his shortcomings) isn’t going over very well with the powers that be. The smears against him and the platform are relentless, with “journalists” and activist groups constantly searching for offensive or “hateful” posts and then framing stories as if “dangerous hate speech” is proliferating the entire ecosystem. If he isn’t able to make it profitable in the long term then X may end up back in the hands of another Silicon Valley social justice warrior like Mark Zuckerberg who will implement the same strict policies as usual, and go right back to using its power to shape public opinion and stifle debates in

hopes of imposing their own values and agendas onto the world as they do on all the other mainstream platforms.



Coming After TV Stations 

The Left weren’t happy with the widespread censorship of certain topics and deplatforming of individuals from the virtual town squares of Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, so they’re trying to do more. Their agenda of stamping out influential opposition to the New World Order was working so well they decided to take things even further and hoped to get Fox News, Newsmax, and OAN taken off cable and satellite TV. CNN’s Oliver Darcy, the weasel-looking creature who worked as Brian Stelter’s sidekick until he was fired in August 2022, helped amplify the idea. “Somehow, these companies have escaped scrutiny and entirely dodged this conversation. That should not be the case anymore,” he said.824 He then put out a call to action, saying “it is time TV carriers face questions for lending their platforms to dishonest companies that profit off of disinformation and conspiracy theories. After all, it was the very lies that Fox, Newsmax, and OAN spread that helped prime President Trump’s supporters into not believing the truth: that he lost an honest and fair election.”825 The editor-in-chief of The Verge, an online outlet owned by Vox Media, had also called for Fox News to be taken off the air several years earlier, saying, “I feel like we should be just as comfortable asking Comcast and Verizon and Charter why they continue to offer Fox News on their networks as we are about Facebook and Alex Jones.”826 At the time, few had even thought of such an idea, or weren’t so bold to try, but recently the calls to pull Fox News, Newsmax, and OAN from the air have been growing. DirecTV would later drop OAN in April 2022, which accounted for 90% of their revenue through what are called carriage fees, which are payments cable and satellite providers pay to channels on their service because being on the system is an incentive for people to subscribe.827 Their removal was celebrated by many on the Left, including NAACP President Derrick Johnson who called it “a victory for us and the future of

democracy.”828 Eliminating the free press in America is a “victory” in his mind! Compounding their problems was a lawsuit OAN faced after being sued for one billion dollars by the Dominion electronic voting machine company. Then a few months later Verizon dropped them from their TV service (called Fios) too.829 Newsmax was dropped from DirecTV in January 2023 but later picked back up again two months later after they came to a new agreement, perhaps in part due to Republicans boycotting the company once they were dropped. While only bringing in a small fraction of Fox News’s audience at the time, Newsmax has grown into a formidable competitor to Fox and has been gaining former Fox News viewers who prefer Newsmax because programming tends to be further to the right. And after Tucker Carlson was fired without any reason being given, even more people left Fox for Newsmax.830 A woman named Gigi Sohn, who President Joe Biden nominated to be one of the five FCC Commissioners, had previously called Fox News “state propaganda” and suggested the Federal Communications Commission should pull the broadcast license for Sinclair media’s television stations—a Conservative leaning company that owns and operates nearly 300 local news stations across America.831 Luckily after her hatred of Conservative media went viral, she withdrew her nomination (claiming she was the “victim of cruel attacks.”832 But the fact that such a Left-wing extremist would be nominated in the first place to sit as an FCC commissioner and oversee television and radio broadcast licenses is stunning. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called on the FCC to pull Tucker Carlson off the air, claiming he “clearly incites violence,” but she’s so dumb she doesn’t know that the Fox News channel isn’t governed by the FCC, only over the air broadcast stations are (not cable). But Tucker Carlson was fired by Fox News just a few days later, which she celebrated on an Instagram livestream where she said “Deplatforming works,” and used the event to fundraise.833 Pulling Fox News from cable systems and satellite TV providers will never happen, but it happened to OAN because they’re too far to the right and their news and commentary is seen as more threatening to the Establishment’s order. And it did happen to Newsmax, although they

returned a few months later after the backlash, and the fact that Democrats have even proposed the idea of banning television stations is a shocking indication of just how un-American they are, and how far they’re willing to go in hopes of silencing their opposition.



Banning Books

While Democrats claim Republicans are “banning books” because they don’t want pornographic and pedophilic material in school libraries, they’re actually the ones who have been working to censor books and ban them from even being sold to adults. But as you’ll see, the brand name “free speech” activists will only ring the alarm when certain books are banned from Amazon (and Barnes & Noble) and stay fearfully silent when it happens to others. In 2018 Amazon banned a children’s book called No Dress for Timmy which is about a boy who refuses to go along with supporting gender-bending at his school, but that didn’t make any major headlines and was only mentioned in a few small blogs.834 This was back when most brand name Conservatives were still afraid to speak out against transgenderism and drag queen story hour, so only a few YouTubers (myself included) covered this story at the time. As the years went on however, transgenderism became a major political and cultural issue, and once Conservatives realized the queers are coming for the children, then finally the stigma around aggressively opposing the trans agenda had ended. In 2021 Amazon banned a book titled When Harry Became Sally which did generate major headlines and got the attention from numerous Republican members of Congress who denounced the censorship, prompting Amazon to break their silence about deleting the book’s listing saying they would now ban any book that equated transgenderism or any LGBTQ “identity” with mental illness.835 In 2022 a recording of an Amazon Zoom meeting was leaked showing employees complaining about Matt Walsh’s children’s book Johnny The Walrus which is about a boy who decides he wants to be a walrus, mocking the gender-bending craze.836 One of the employees on the

call broke down into tears and said the book is causing “trauma” to transgender employees and pushed for it to be banned.837 Then during the company’s LGBTQ Pride celebration that year several employees staged a “die-in” where they laid on the ground pretending to be dead to protest the sale of “transphobic” books like Johnny the Walrus and Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters by Abigail Shrier, which discusses rapid-onset gender dysphoria.838 Surprisingly those titles have not been banned, at least at the time this book was published at the end of 2023. And while the brand name activists on Twitter, hosts on Fox News and Newsmax, popular YouTubers “fighting the culture war,” and members of Congress denounced Amazon banning When Harry Became Sally and the company’s new policy forbidding certain anti-LGBTQ books, they all remain silent about other material Amazon (and Barnes & Noble) have banned. Professor emeritus Kevin MacDonald, a sociologist from California State University Long Beach, had his magnum opus Culture of Critique: An Evolutionary Analysis of Jewish Involvement in TwentiethCentury Intellectual and Political Movements banned in March 2019.839 Another one of his books titled Cultural Insurrections: Essays on Western Civilization, Jewish Influence, and Anti-Semitism was banned at the same time.840 The books, as you can probably tell from their titles, cover a taboo topic, and despite being written by a California State University professor, they have been deemed “antisemitic” by the ADL, so both Amazon and Barnes & Noble quietly banned them. They don’t just refuse to stock them —they are completely banned, and used copies aren’t allowed to be listed by third parties either.841 They had been in stock and sold for years, but as cancel culture kept gaining momentum, the censorship of content shifted from social media platforms to podcasts, and then ultimately books. But zero mainstream Conservatives noticed or spoke out against professor MacDonald’s books being banned out of fear that they would have been accused of supporting “antisemitism.” Jared Taylor’s book White Identity: Racial Consciousness in the 21st Century was also banned from Amazon and Barnes & Noble in 2019.842 Since 1994 he has held his American Renaissance conference ever other year (falsely labeled a “White supremacist” gathering by the media, the

SPLC, and the ADL) where he and other speakers discuss some of the problems multicultural societies face and advocate that White people should demand the same rights and opportunities as other ethnic groups in the United States.843 Around this same time Amazon also quietly banned David Duke’s autobiography My Awakening and his other book Jewish Supremacy, which details what he believes is a Jewish supremacist belief system at the core of Jewish culture.844 It’s extremely politically incorrect to accuse members of any ethnic group other than White people of believing they are superior to others. Admitting that Black supremacy exists is called “racist,” but pointing out that many Jewish people believe in their own ethnic superiority is even worse—that’s “antisemitism.” Theologian Martin Luther, who is responsible for the Protestant Reformation (he famously nailed his Ninety-five Theses to the door of the Catholic Church in 1517 challenging them on their authority), later wrote a book very critical of Jews as well, called On The Jews and Their Lies which has been in print ever since it was first published in 1543, and in stock on Amazon for years until around this same time when it too was banned after pressure from Jewish groups.845 Amazon also banned Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousands Years (1994) written by Israel Shahak who is not only a Jew (or was, since he died in 2001), but he was also a Holocaust survivor who was kept at a concentration camp in Poland, and after World War II moved to Israel where he later became an organic chemistry professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.846 Despite being Jewish (and a citizen of Israel) he was very critical of the human rights violations against the Palestinians, Zionism, ethnocentrism in Judaism, and Jewish supremacists.847 The foreword to the first edition was written by Gore Vidal and the book was endorsed by Noam Chomsky, Edward Said, and other popular human rights activists.848 So nobody can lump him in with David Duke and other supposed “White nationalists.” But Israel Shahak’s book has also been deemed “antisemitic” so it was quietly deleted from Amazon after being listed for over two decades.849 Anyone can order books critical of Christianity, Catholicism, Mormonism, the Jehovah Witness cult (not to mention White people and

whiteness) but certain books a little too critical of Jews, Judaism, or Jewish involvement in political movements and ones that focus on “Jewish bankers” have quietly vanished.850 But again, none of the “free speech culture warriors” like Ben Shapiro, Charlie Kirk, Glenn Greenwald, or even Tucker Carlson denounced the censorship of these books. The brand name Conservative Twitter personalities and YouTubers who host shows funded or produced by Turning Point USA, The Blaze, The Daily Wire, and PragerU were all silent as well. All books promoting White nationalism and the Alt-Right have also been banned, including The White Nationalist Manifesto, New Right vs. Old Right, and The Alternative Right by Greg Johnson which documents the rise and fall of the movement.851 (All purged in February 2019.)852 Another popular one in the genre called A Fair Hearing: The Alt-Right in the Words of Its Members and Leaders was also banned from both Amazon and Barnes & Noble.853 None of these books call for any violence or even suggest it, but because they’re essentially pro-White, they’ve been deemed “White supremacist” material, and the publishers are now forbidden from listing them for sale on the two biggest bookseller websites in the world. Black nationalist books however, are allowed, with several exceptions published by the Nation of Islam which were removed—not for antiwhiteism, but for “antisemitism.”854 Amazon certainly wouldn’t ban Malcom X’s autobiography, even though he was a Black nationalist and called for racial separatism and wanted to create a Black-only region of the United States.855 Countless books by Black Lives Matter activists and other “Black Power” advocates argue for Black-only spaces and support racial segregation so they don’t have to deal with any White people anymore— and that’s just fine. Activist groups are even targeting other, lesser known online book retailers like ThriftBooks.com, BooksAMillion.com and BetterWorldBooks.com, as well as eBay, pressuring them to ban the sale of used copies of such books.856 To be clear, I’m not endorsing these books, the Alt-Right, or the idea of creating a White ethnostate, which is just a nostalgic pipe dream—an impossible endeavor and a fantasy held on to by those who wish to return to an era that has long since past. Anyone who

believes such a thing is even remotely possible at this point in civilization is either just dreaming or delusional. But why shouldn’t people be able to read what such authors have to say? Especially since they’re not calling for any kind of violence at all, and in fact specifically condemn it, arguing it would only reflect negatively on those who hold their views and ostracize others from listening to them. Most are just expressing their view as White people who are increasingly becoming marginalized and demonized simply for existing, and don’t want any kind of violent conflicts at all. And you have to admit it’s odd that Amazon sells literal bomb-making manuals like the Anarchist Cookbook (and Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf) but won’t allow the sale of David Duke’s autobiography or Jared Taylor’s book because they talk about White Identity. In 2015, I posted a video on my YouTube channel showing me approaching random people on a southern California boardwalk and asking them if they would sign a petition demanding Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble both stop selling the Bible because it promotes “homophobia” and is too “offensive.” Many gladly did.857 I repeated the same experiment again over five years later with the same results.858 You may have seen the videos, but the analytics show that only about 15% of subscribers to a YouTube channel watch any given video that’s uploaded, so I mention them here because I think it’s critically important to understand just how normalized the idea of banning books has become among the Left, to the point that many of them are willing to go along with banning the Bible!



First Amendment Doesn’t Apply

A detailed discussion of censorship on social media would fill hundreds of pages, and I documented the history of it in my previous books The Liberal Media Industrial Complex and The True Story of Fake News which you should read if you haven’t already because it’s important to be familiar with the different phases the platforms have gone through—and how much they have changed, and why. When the censorship first started it was “only” social media personalities who weren’t household names but who had amassed followings of hundreds of thousands of people that were getting suspended and banned. Little to no news articles were written about them when it happened. No Republican members of Congress tweeted about them. They weren’t invited on Fox News for a segment to talk about it. Only others in their online community seemed to notice or care. Those of us who saw the writing on the wall did our best to ring the alarm bell about the growing problem, but it really wasn’t until the Hunter Biden laptop story was blocked on social media (and The New York Post suspended from Twitter) that censorship became a major concern for the Republican Party. Because the First Amendment only protects free speech from being censored by the government and not corporations which control telecommunication technologies and social media platforms, people have little recourse and are held over a barrel by the selectively enforced “terms of service” and the whims of faceless moderators who can ban anyone they want for any reason. Seeing the problem early on, however, were numerous entrepreneurs who staunchly support free speech so they worked to create platforms by basically cloning the features of Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube but applying the type of content moderation policies that the Big Tech platforms used to have before they started massively restricting what people are allowed to post.

And while Rumble, Odysee, BitChute, Gab, Gettr, Truth Social, MeWe, Telegram, and others haven’t gained the widespread user bases of the Big Tech platforms, millions of people use them, and they are invaluable tools for free speech despite how “niche” they may be. The Washington Post wrote an entire article complaining about Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s reach on the alt-tech platforms after her personal account was banned from Twitter in early 2022 for “repeated violations” of their COVID “misinformation” policy. The Post was stunned that she continued to reach hundreds of thousands of people.859 Her Twitter account was among those later restored by Elon Musk, but that’s beside the point. Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram continue to severely restrict what users can say, and who can even use their platforms. And Rumble will likely cave to the demands of the app stores regarding banning certain individuals and content, but as we’ve seen with Amazon banning various controversial books, the brand name Conservatives will likely say nothing about it and go on pretending it’s a “free speech” platform because they can make fun of transgender people.860 Those who touch certain third rail issues about things like White Identitarianism or Jewish power will never have their free speech rights defended by any Conservative Inc. pundits. It’s possible that we can shift the culture enough to cause the pendulum to start swinging back the other direction and get the Big Tech platforms to ease up on their censorship (at least regarding some issues). But it’s likely they’ll get even more strict and more manipulative, especially as our society becomes more polarized with each side digging in to their positions and difficult issues regarding race and transgenderism dominating the political landscape. If they continue with the current trend, the so-called alt-tech platforms are only going to gain more users which may cause Leftists to look for their vulnerabilities, trying to get them banned from the app stores (like they already did with Gab and BitChute). Activist organizations have even gone after hosting services trying to get the websites banned too, as well as payment processors, and even banks (issues that Gab has been facing for years).861 They may never stop scheming, and for many years now the Left has wanted to criminalize “hate speech” in America, just like other supposed “free” countries around the world have—including Canada,862

Germany,863 England,864 Scotland,865 and others. These countries arrest people for posting “hate speech” on social media. Not death threats or harassment (which any reasonable person can agree should be illegal, and is), but things like insulting gay people, or being too critical of the Islamization of Europe from all the Muslim refugees that have flooded the West, or for posts deemed “antisemitic” (anti-Christian hate speech is always allowed though).866 To list the cases of people arrested for such “violations” (which include jokes) would be too long, but America should be aware that such things are happening in other western countries, and it should serve as a warning of what could happen here. There’s a reason the freedom of speech is protected by the First Amendment—because it’s the most important right we have, and it must be protected at all costs.  



Cowardly Conservatives Starting shortly after the turn of the 21st century most Republican members of Congress and mainstream Conservative pundits became cowards when dealing with social issues. They suddenly became afraid of being called “homophobic” for denouncing the widespread sexual perversions which are now commonplace in society, and almost as afraid to be called a “racist” for pointing out the Black Crime problem in America or denouncing antiwhiteism. As our culture continued to rapidly decay with brazen degeneracy being thrust into the mainstream by Leftists in Hollywood and boosted by the Big Tech social media platforms, most Conservative “leaders” stayed silent, continuously self-censoring themselves hoping to avoid any backlash from the Liberal Media Industrial Complex. Instead, all they talked about were “tax cuts for the middle class” and how they were trying to prevent jobs from being outsourced to foreign countries; and while those are great policies, their focus came at a tremendous cost to the culture which is just as important, if not more so than economics and the job market. People can usually find a new job and get by with less if they have to cut their budget, but once the culture becomes polluted, it’s like a poisoned well, and anyone who drinks from it is in danger of getting sick or dying. But after two decades of quietly watching from the sidelines as the poison was poured in, the sleeping giant of “reactionaries” finally awakened. The Left had pushed too many people too far. Although time will tell whether or not the awakening was too late. Despite Republican “firebrands” like Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Lauren Boebert getting involved in the culture war (to some extent, at least), most politicians and political commentators are still only doing so half-heartedly and walking on eggshells hoping to avoid being labeled “far right,” “homophobic,” “White nationalist,” and the other list of labels the Left usually tries to stick on their enemies. One of the problems that led the Republican Establishment to become so cowardly is they morphed into a Big Tent Party, meaning one

that attempts to attract as wide range of groups and voters as possible under one banner, but that means not taking a firm stance on certain issues because being “too Conservative” may scare some new people away who the party is trying to attract. “Too Conservative,” meaning still supporting various issues that were core values in the Republican Party in previous generations but ones they’ve slowly backed away from as society has gotten more tolerant of liberalism. So they water down their message, hoping to gain the support of first-time voters and that of moderates, independents, and some disaffected Democrats while taking for granted those who have usually supported them in the past. The brand name Republicans, “Conservative Inc.,” or the “Corporate Conservatives”—whatever name you want to attach to the Republican Establishment and their mouth pieces, have increased the size of the tent for “conservatism” so big that it became a circus. And because the Republican Party has become dramatically more socially Liberal over the last twenty years, there’s a saying among real Conservatives (Paleoconservatives) that the only difference between Liberals and mainstream Conservatives is ten years. The Republican Establishment functions as a political ratchet, meaning they allow the Democrats to keep moving society slowly to the left while putting up some resistance trying to stop it, but they rarely (if ever) turn things back to the right. Similarly, the political commentators who work for the brand name outlets (or are trying to build up their followers on social media in hopes of one day joining them) usually function as a false opposition and pretend to be antiestablishment by criticizing a few common points of contention people often have about Congress or the media in general trying to create the impression that they’re not part of the club, while either toeing the party line on every other issue or carefully avoiding going against others that are clearly core Establishment positions.867



Pandering To Blacks

There’s an old joke about Republicans that goes: What do you call the one Black guy at a Republican conference?—The keynote speaker! Just like Republicans now pander to the gay community and go out of their way trying to show that they’re not “homophobic” hoping to gain the support of what is just a tiny fraction of the electorate, they also pander to Black people and shamelessly try to prove that they’re not “racist,” playing the same game Democrats have been engaged in for decades. Our party has great Black people like Larry Elder, David Webb, Ben Carson, Tim Scott, Byron Donalds, Candace Owens, and others, so there’s no need to pander to them in hopes of showing how “diverse” the Republican Party is. If they like our ideas and our values, they’ll vote Republican. There shouldn’t be a focus on what the Republican Party can do “for Black people.” Older Black people tend to be socially Conservative because of their history with the church, but have historically voted Democrat for economic reasons because Democrats appeal to lower income voters through promises of social welfare programs. But seeing the Democrat Party embracing all kinds of LGBTQ nonsense should be enough to bring many of them over to the Republican side because Black people overwhelmingly do not support gay “marriage” or transgenderism. They also don’t want their jobs taken by illegal aliens. Pandering to Blacks by offering them more social welfare programs in their communities is only going to keep moving the Republican platform further to the left while marginalizing more White voters. And sadly even Donald Trump pandered to Blacks with his “criminal justice reform” (the First Step Act) hoping to gain another few percentage of Black voters by virtue signaling that he was letting Black criminals out of prison early.868 During his rallies the organizers strategically put people with “Blacks for Trump” shirts prominently in the background

right behind him to signal to other Black people watching at home hoping to gain their support. Republicans even chose a token Black man named Michael Steele to be the chairman of the Republican National Committee, who later betrayed the party, joining the anti-Trump Lincoln Project and became an MSNBC contributor where he criticizes everything Republicans do. Of course he didn’t vote for Donald Trump in 2016 and endorsed Joe Biden in 2020, and wants Donald Trump to go to prison. You get what you pay for, as the saying goes. If you buy something cheap, it’s usually going to break after a short period of time and need to be replaced, costing more in the long run. And if you hire a token Black person trying to show how “inclusive” you are instead of hiring whoever is best qualified for the job, regardless of their race, it’s always going to backfire. The Republican Party’s first major affirmative action hire, Michael Steele, went from a top leadership position to a Democrat operative in the span of just a few years. Such disastrous outcomes could easily be avoided by not even playing the diversity game. CPAC, the biggest Conservative event in the political world, sucked up to a rapper named Young Pharaoh one year because they thought it would be cool to have a rapper on the stage in hopes of attracting more Black people to the Republican Party, but right before the event, CPAC canceled his appearance because some of his past “antisemitic” comments resurfaced.869 And the one thing the Republican Party won’t tolerate is criticism of Israel or Jews, so he was canceled. Like I said, affirmative action hires always end up being a disaster.



“Conservatives” Catering to Gays 

The Republican Party is now more pro-gay than the Democrat Party was just over 10 years ago.870 Even Barack Obama and Joe Biden opposed gay “marriage” until mid 2012.871 Although when Obama was first running for president in 2008, he and his running mate Joe Biden opposed it, but once elected they both “evolved” their position and fully endorsed it, as did the entire Democrat Party. But back then nearly every Republican was firmly against it.872 Today however, there are probably less than a half dozen Republican members of Congress who oppose it. And instead, the Republican Party has climbed aboard the gay Pride bandwagon. Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the RNC, tweeted out a “Happy Pride Month” message in June 2021, adding that the GOP is proud to have “doubled our LGBTQ support over the last four years, and we will continue to grow our big tent.”873 Fox News even started celebrating LGBTQ Pride Month in 2022 with at least nine segments that June featuring the “achievements” of queer people and highlighting how great “gay culture” is.874 “Meet important voices of the LGBTQ+ community. And go inside their incredible contributions,” one of the promos announced.875 One of the stories was presented by Dana Perino who began the segment saying, “Pride Month continues as we highlight the story of Ryland Whittington whose journey of transitioning at age five has been seen by seven million people in a family YouTube video.”876 She went on to say the family hopes their experience can help convince others to support the idea of sex changes for children.877 Fox News also highlighted a lesbian priest in the Episcopal church878 and commemorated the first gay major league baseball player, Glenn Burke, who came out as gay back in the 1970s (and later died of AIDS).879 What a surprise.

Fox News also hired Caitlyn Jenner in March 2022 as a contributor who appears on Sean Hannity’s show and others to comment on issues that usually have nothing to do with transgender people at all.880 At the time neither CNN or MSNBC had any transgender contributors on salary, so Fox News was the pioneer. Richard Grenell was the first openly gay man to serve in a cabinet position after Donald Trump appointed him to the Director of National Intelligence. And practically every time his name was mentioned by Establishment Republicans as a “great” choice for the position, it was followed by them happily highlighting “he’s gay” as a virtue signal about how “diverse” and “inclusive” the Republican Party was becoming. What did his sexual orientation have to do with his ability to be an intelligence analyst and brief the President of the United States about national security matters? His personal life should have been no more of concern than someone who’s divorced, or a bachelor—or a guy who prefers to date blondes. But Republican pundits on TV couldn’t be happier talking about how great it was that he’s the first gay person appointed to a cabinet position by either political party (Pete Buttigieg would later be the second). And what did Richard Grenell do for conservatism in America? He led the effort to encourage President Trump to call for the “decriminalization of homosexuality” throughout the world because various countries in Africa, the Middle East, and the Caribbean (68 total in the world) still criminalize LGBT conduct and propaganda.881 Of all the issues facing our country and the world, that was Richard Grenell’s top priority. Charlie Kirk, founder of the Republican college club Turning Point USA and one of the most prominent voices in the Conservative movement, has been a pied piper leading the next generation of Conservatives to accept gay “marriage” and even gay men adopting children as normal. During an interview in 2018 with YouTuber Dave Rubin, Conservative Inc.’s token gay friend, he said “I think it’s cool you’re married. It’s great. And you should have all the same tax benefits [as heterosexual couples], adopt children, it’s great.”882 Many so-called Conservatives hold this position now, but what they fail to acknowledge is when children become involved it’s not about what two consenting adults are doing in the privacy of their own bedroom anymore, it’s about what they’re subjecting innocent children to, and what kind of an environment they’re forcing them to live in.

Charlie Kirk has also welcomed drag queens into the Republican Party, posing with one in a photo at PolitiCon in 2019 who goes by the name “Lady MAGA,” a Trump-supporting drag queen, who in a normal society would have been kicked out of the event immediately, not having Charlie Kirk pose for a picture with him while smiling and giving a thumbs up.883 We don’t need any “drag queens for Trump” trying to show how queer-friendly the Republican Party is. They’re the kind of people who are ruining our party. During an event in 2019 called Culture War that Turning Point USA sponsored, an attendee asked Charlie Kirk how anal sex helps the culture war, referring to Turning Point hiring a token Black gay guy—Rob Smith (who was on stage with him at the time) and denounced Charlie’s palling around with queers in attempts to paint the Republican Party as not being anti-gay. Kirk then said the question was “weird” and insinuated the guy who asked it is a closeted gay himself and struggling with his sexuality.884 Rob Smith echoed this attack saying, “You seem to be really interested in gay sex…I’m pretty sure if you’re into that, you can go find somebody to do that with.”885 This is the same tactic gays have always used whenever someone expresses disgust with them, which if you follow their logic would mean anyone who is opposed to pedophiles is secretly a pedophile, or anyone who doesn’t want to hear about their parents’ sex lives is actually turned on by it. Charlie Kirk also claims to be a Christian, yet has done more to normalize homosexuality in the Conservative movement than perhaps anyone else. The unofficial Republican Party stance is now that gays—and gay “marriage,” and gay adoption, and gays buying children through surrogacy, and them serving in the military is just fine, and they only draw the line at transgenderism for children and transgenders competing in women’s sports. The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) chairman Matt Schlapp was asked during an interview with a Catholic news organization called Church Militant if gay men should be allowed to adopt children, and he was so caught off guard he could barely speak. “Yes or no. Should gay men be allowed to adopt young boys?” asked the host Michael Voris. Matt Schlapp responded, “Oh boy, ya know…I don’t…I don’t even know what… what…does our Church fight those positions? And does the, I don’t know, the, what the policy position is of the Church and…”886

The host cuts him off, “Well, the teaching of the Church is that two men shouldn’t be together to begin with.” Matt Schlapp responds “Yeah, I know what the Church teaches in terms of sexual ethics. But I don’t know what it teaches, in terms, I don’t know what it lobbies for in these legislative chambers. I would say this: Obviously, um, it is, ah, we’ve gotten to this position where we’ve gotten away from this idea that having a father and a mother is awfully important.”887 A weak and pathetic answer from one of the most prominent “Conservatives” in America today. Less than a decade earlier such a response would end a Conservative’s career, but the Republican Party has moved so far left that they now tacitly support such abominations and are scared to death to oppose them in the extremely rare case someone even asks them about these issues anymore. When Dave Rubin announced he and his “husband” bought two babies from surrogates after obtaining eggs from a fertility clinic and having them artificially inseminated (one with each of their sperm), they were congratulated by many of the top brand names in the “Conservative” movement including PragerU, the prestigious Conservative institution,888 along with The Blaze, Glenn Beck’s media company,889 Breitbart’s senior editor-at-large Joel Pollak,890 critical race theory “expert” Christopher Rufo,891 Megyn Kelly,892 Megan McCain,893 Kat Timpf (who works on Greg Gutfeld’s Fox News show),894 and many others. Imagine growing up as a child being raised by two gay men, and when you’re old enough to start learning about where babies come from and ask them where your mom is, they tell you they don’t know—and you’ll never know because egg donors are completely private so those who purchase the eggs will never know, and not even the children themselves will know. That’s what brand name Conservatives are now celebrating.895 Newsmax host Greg Kelly makes it clear in no uncertain terms that the U.S. military should go back to the old “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy basically forbidding gays from being allowed in the military at all because normal people don’t want to get stuck in a unit with one (a Democrat policy, by the way, put in place by Bill Clinton in 1993).896 But have any Fox News hosts made such a seemingly bold statement? Have any Republican members of Congress said anything in opposition to Obama allowing gays into the military in the last ten years (or

mentioned the disturbing number of rapes they’re committing)? Have any of them dared to oppose gay men adopting children? Or buying eggs from fertility clinics and renting surrogates who they have artificially inseminated, condemning the children to a life of never knowing who their mother is, and then further condemning the children to be raised by two men as their own narcissistic science project? Of course not. They’re all lukewarm cowards. They all accept it as normal. Which begs the question, how much of the Republican base has abandoned the party and doesn’t even vote anymore because they’re sick of it basically just trailing the Democrat agenda by ten years? How many people got so fed up with the Republican Party steadily moving to the left that they’ve thrown up their hands and no longer support them out of frustration because they don’t feel they represent their interests and values anymore?



Neocons vs. Paleoconservatives

Few Conservatives today know that there are actually two basic kinds of conservatives, and the movement (along with the Republican Party) split into two different factions beginning back in the 1960s, resulting in the Neocons (Neo-conservatives or new Conservatives) taking control. Neocons are similar to RINOs (Republican in name only) but are particularly interested in foreign policy and are known for being war hawks who use the military industrial complex to intervene in the affairs of foreign countries to further the New World Order. They are globalists as opposed to nationalists, although they portray themselves as patriotic by flexing America’s military power. Paleoconservatives, on the other hand, are true Conservatives. They’re the traditionalist Americans who tend to be Christian, oppose open borders and the LGBTQ agenda, and have a strong sense of national pride. Instead of being concerned with nation building in foreign countries, they prefer a more isolationist foreign policy and focus on localism. In other words, they don’t support wars in the Middle East (like the War in Iraq), not just because they’re almost always started by lies, but because they don’t want the United States sticking its nose in other countries’ business. There are some other nuanced differences as well, such as Paleoconservatives tend to oppose free trade which they see as harming America’s manufacturing sector by allowing cheap goods to be imported from foreign countries without making them pay tariffs, and instead support what’s called trade protectionism. The term paleo means older or ancient, just like the paleo diet refers to a diet humans are believed to have eaten during the Paleolithic Era (a long time ago), and is used to differentiate traditionalist or classical Conservatives from the new (or neo) Conservatives—the Neocons.897 Ben Shapiro, for example, is a staunch Neocon who supported legalizing gay “marriage.” He tries downplaying that position to Conservative audiences

by saying he wouldn’t personally attend a gay “wedding,” but he does support it as an institution. In response to someone who claimed he didn’t, he answered “I’ve been libertarian on same-sex marriage for years, before Obergefell. But you couldn’t be bothered to Google,” referring to the 2015 Supreme Court case which ultimately legalized it.898 Shapiro, like all Neocons, would also support any Middle Eastern war or military action that would either directly or indirectly protect Israel. The Neocons were the ones who concocted the weapons of mass destruction hoax and the lie that Saddam Hussein had a relationship with alQaeda to dupe the American people (and the rest of the world) into going along with the invasion of Iraq in 2003 to carry out their Project for the New American Century. Three years earlier, the PNAC Neocon think tank had lamented their plan would be difficult “absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event—like a new Pearl Harbor.”899 The 9/11 attacks were their “New Pearl Harbor,” and two years into the War on Terror the aim shifted from Afghanistan, where Osama Bin Laden was supposedly hiding out, to Iraq. And contrary to popular belief, this wasn’t just to “steal” their oil or preserve the petrodollar.900 One of the main reasons was to protect Israel, “America’s greatest ally,”901 but you’re not supposed to say this out loud though or post it on social media.902 That’s another “antisemitic trope” they say, so be careful. In 1981 Israel bombed a nuclear reactor in Iraq out of concerns that the country would become a nuclear power and pose a danger to them since Iraq was allied with other Arab countries in the region during the Six-Day War (or the Third Arab-Israeli War) in 1967 which broke out as a result of ongoing hostilities between Israel and their Arab neighbors ever since the U.N. mandate in 1948 officially creating the State of Israel (which resulted in kicking 700,000 Palestinians out of their homes, an event known as the Palestinian expulsion).903 The Israeli-Palestine conflict is far beyond the scope of this book, but basically Israel remains concerned about its Arab neighbors, and Iraq was still considered a prime threat to them because of the possibility that they may acquire nuclear weapons in the future. So when George W. Bush

was beating the war drums and saying Iraq posed a threat to the United States (which it didn’t) and “our allies,” he was talking about Israel.904 This is why Republicans like Mark Levin and others consider any talk about Neocons to be “antisemitic” and deem the word itself to be essentially an “antisemitic slur” because they want to protect Israel from the perception of having any influence over American foreign policy, despite AIPAC [the American Israel Public Affairs Committee]—a Jewish lobbying group that advocates for pro-Israeli policies, spending over $50 million dollars a year to do just that.905 And while publicly the standard political line from both Democrats and Republicans is that Israel is “America’s greatest ally,” privately—as the classified NSA documents leaked by Edward Snowden show, the country is considered a top espionage threat because of their “intelligence collection operations and manipulation/influence operations against the U.S. government, military, science & technology and Intelligence Community.”906 Also, Al-Qaeda attacked the United States on 9/11, not because they “hate our freedom” as the Operation Mockingbird assets all sung in concert, but because of our financial and military backing of Israel which angers many Muslims around the world who side with the Palestinians in the ongoing territorial disputes in the region.907 Inside job / false flag theories aside, this was still the case. One of the most prominent “conspiracy theories” of what happened is the LIHOP hypothesis, the “let it happen on purpose” theory, which doesn’t negate Al-Qaeda’s hatred for America or their involvement in planning and carrying out the attacks on 9/11 (even if they were aided and directed by the CIA or other intelligence agencies). Years later when Congressman Ron Paul said that the attacks were “blowback for decades of US intervention in the Middle East” he was attacked for “blaming America,” but the intelligence agencies and foreign policy experts all know the truth.908 This is why the Iranian government (and Muslim terrorist organizations like Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Hamas, etc.) call America the “Great Satan,” and sometimes chant “Death to America.”909 No matter what side of the argument you’re on (if any) regarding U.S. support for Israel, Zionism is explicitly a central part of Neoconservatism.910 Few people make the distinction anymore between Neocons and Paleoconservatives because the Neocons want to portray conservatism as if

their kind of conservatism is the only kind, and try to frame Paleoconservatism (without using that term so people don’t start looking into the Paleo/Neocon split) as an ancient relic like the idea of women being virgins on their wedding night—a political belief system that’s no longer practical in our modern age. William F. Buckley and his publication The National Review made it their goal to purge the Paleoconservatives from the Republican Party in the 1960s.911 One of their prime targets was the John Birch Society which was formed in the late 1950s to oppose communism, but their hard stance against globalists, and globalist organizations like the United Nations, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Bilderberg Group was seen as a hindrance to the New World Order, so the Neocons strategically worked to exile them. The remaining Paloeconservatives who survived William F. Buckley’s purge in the 1960s were mostly pushed out of mainstream Republican politics in the early 1980s as the rift continued to grow. These were people such as Pat Buchanan, Paul Gottfried, Joseph Sobran, Samuel Francis, Russell Kirk, as well as organizations like the Rockford Institute and the Philadelphia Society.912 The John Birch Society is still in existence today, though just a shell of its former self, and hasn’t had any significant power since the 1970s. So for decades the Neocons have been the ones steering much of the Republican Party until Donald Trump came on the scene igniting a populist movement and shaking the political establishment to its core, resulting in the all-out war to impeach and imprison him. Although the term is rarely used to describe the MAGA movement, much of it is paleoconservative. And while there are now countless “Conservative” media outlets, few make any distinctions about just what type of conservatism they promote. There are some exceptions however, including Taki’s magazine, The New American (published by the John Birch Society), The American Conservative, Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture, the Intercollegiate Review, and a few others. There are also some organizations dedicated to the philosophy, such as the Charlemagne Institute (the publisher of Chronicles magazine), VDARE, the Family Research Council, the American Family Association, the Conservative Caucus, as well as the Constitution Party, the American

Independent Party, and Gun Owners of America (a pro-2nd Amendment group that positions themselves further to the right than the NRA). As mainstream conservatism in America continues to drift to the left we’ll likely see a resurgence of paleoconservatism (even if it doesn’t overtly use the term) as millions of Christians and Conservatives become activated and work to turn things back to the right, rejecting not just liberalism, but neoconservatism as well.



Politics as a Grift

There’s a saying that every social cause starts off as a movement— then becomes a business, and then later turns into a grift (or swindle).913 Not that long ago—in the 1990s, the Republican Party would have shunned many of the stars in “Conservative” media today. And any Republican that was afraid to take a Conservative stand on various issues (or adopted the same stance as the Democrats) would have been voted out of office. If they started sucking up to resentful Black people who will forever hold a chip on their shoulder against Whites because of slavery 150 years ago, they would have been mocked for their pathetic pandering like Democrats. If Jews started complaining about Christmas celebrations at schools or the office, they would have been completely ignored, ridiculed, or told maybe they should move to Israel then. But today even most Christians are weak. And our weakness has only allowed our opponents to get stronger. The moral, intellectual, and economic decay in the United States may be impossible to stop, let alone reverse, so sadly we may continue to see mainstream Republicans desperately clinging to power by adopting more positions held by Democrats. More social welfare programs for minorities, further embracing gays and transgenders; maybe even a universal basic income for those who are too lazy to hold down a job or maintain a career. At this point what has the mainstream Conservative movement even conserved? I guess in their defense, the general population may have been slowly pushed so far left through cultural marxist Hollywood propaganda, social media molding their minds, and being raised in broken homes by single parents who were raised in a broken homes, and so on—the only way to hold onto any semblance of power on a national level may be to move left to the point where the Democrat Party used to stand as recent as the Obama administration, since Democrats have moved so far left they are literally marxists in comparison.

This problem brings us back to the Breitbart Doctrine, the idea popularized by Andrew Breitbart that politics is downstream from culture, meaning in order for political change (such as new bills to be passed into law) first the culture has to change, and people’s sensibilities and tolerance for certain ideas or behaviors have to be primed to accept (or demand) them. If there is any hope in saving America it starts in the home. It starts with building strong loving families which can then form into quality communities, which can extend into strong states, which can hopefully then come together into a strong country. But even if this is a pipe dream or a fool’s errand, despite what happens to our own city, state, or country as whole, we can and must maintain our social circle of family and friends and still find joy and comfort from the simple things in life, no matter what we see on the news, social media, or coming out of Washington D.C.    

Author’s Note: Please take a moment to rate and review this book on Amazon.com or wherever you purchased it from to let others know what you think. This also helps to offset the trolls who keep giving my books fake onestar reviews when they haven’t even read them. Almost all of the one-star reviews on my books are from NON-verified purchases which is a clear indication they are fraudulent, hence me adding this note.   These fraudulent ratings and reviews could also be part of a larger campaign trying to stop my message from spreading by attempting to tarnish my research through fake and defamatory reviews, so I really need your help to combat this as soon as possible.   Thank you!        



Conclusion Conservatives are traditionalists who realize that just because something is new, doesn’t mean it’s better. And when people rush into something new or try to reinvent the wheel, they often fall victim to the law of unintended consequences. Like when incandescent light bulbs were replaced by more energy efficient LED bulbs to help save electricity and reduce carbon emissions. But in areas with a cold climate like Minnesota and New York, the snow can easily collect on the traffic lights, and since LED lights don’t give off a lot of heat like the old incandescent ones, the snow doesn’t melt— sometimes completely obscuring the lights at intersections and causing massive traffic problems.914 You’ve likely experienced updating your phone or computer’s operating system to the “newest” and “best” software only to soon find major glitches that the developers overlooked which need to be fixed with another update they have to frantically release.915 The same kinds of chaos occurs when Liberals try to overturn the natural social order and norms that the human race has been following since the beginning of time. Marxists despise these practices because they despise everything normal. They’re bitter and spiteful people who want to ruin others’ fun because they themselves aren’t having any. Like the fat girl at school who hates the lead cheerleader just because she’s pretty and popular. Or someone who keys the paint of a nice car they see parked on the street because they’re envious of the owner. They’re like the three-pack a day smoker coughing and wheezing from walking up a flight of stairs who then throw a fit when they’re told that if they quit smoking it would really help. Liberals are in denial about their dysfunctional beliefs and behavior, and no matter how polite or wellintended criticism or advice is, they just get angry when people resist going along with them. But their problems aren’t just affecting themselves. They’re making society dysfunctional from their insistence that everyone else accept and celebrate their mental illnesses, perversions, laziness, and spitefulness.

And people who aren’t afflicted with such disorders often cater to those who are in order to win over their political support to feed their appetites for power. They’re gullible and easy to manipulate, so Democrats cater to dumb and lazy people since the party has shifted from once supporting the working class to supporting those who don’t want to work and are just looking for handouts. The sheer number of people who don’t have the dedication to go to work every day is scary. And through social media they can easily connect with each other and organize online mobs—and form them in the real world as well. It’s how communism took over China and other countries. The violent mobs organized and eventually became too powerful to resist. So we have to stop them here before it’s too late. But because of their viciousness they’ve already scared many people into silence. Widespread cowardice on our side earlier when they were weaker is what got us here, and allowed the Left to transform much of the United States into an almost unrecognizable dystopia. Many old Conservatives championed small government and were afraid to use its power for our own purposes because they wanted to stay “principled” by not using the levers of government at all, and instead took a laissez faire approach. And it’s been a losing strategy when facing an opponent who uses every possible means to win while Conservatives sit on the sidelines and say “they’re being hypocrites” or “hey, that’s not fair.” Conservatives’ mantra about supporting “limited government” has been nothing but an embarrassing failure as a political strategy. It’s time to use the existing power structure to achieve our goals for a change and to punish our enemies. Shrinking the size of government is a pipe dream. So we might as well use it to our advantage. Conservatives and Christians have been far too timid for far too long. It’s time to start giving the Left a taste of their own medicine and playing by some of their rules. Barraging businesses that go woke by flooding their social media feeds with negative comments and memes mocking them isn’t enough. Boycotting woke companies isn’t enough either. While that may cost them some loss of revenue, many won’t even notice or care. You have to tell the store clerks that what the company is doing is pathetic (or perverted). You have to make the employees feel uncomfortable—even miserable.

If they can’t even get through a shift without being told off by a dozen customers every single day, they’re going to complain to their managers, and the managers are going to report to the corporate office that selling woke products or promoting anti-White “diversity” initiatives or the LGBTQ agenda is causing a hostile environment in the stores by customers. Many employees may agree with us, but out of fear of losing their jobs won’t say anything themselves. So it’s our job as the customers, because the customer is always right—to pressure them. And while it’s not some random clerk’s fault what the corporation itself is doing, they are a vessel that can relay customers’ dissatisfaction to those higher up the food chain, and they are the public face of the business and what it represents. Fill their Yelp and Google listings with negative reviews. Better yet, pick up the phone and start calling local branches and sound off. And do it every time any company crosses the line. Post their phone numbers and email addresses on social media to encourage others.916 They need to be sent a loud and sustained message. Same with the schools, and our local and state governments. Look up your Congressman and Senators’ phone numbers (and those of the mayor and city council members) and save them in your contacts like you would anyone else you frequently call. They can (and do) ignore tweets and emails, but if their office phone is ringing off the hook all week and every time their aides or interns pick it up they get an earful from upset constituents, they’re not going to be able to just go about their day as usual. The Congressman, the mayor, the school (or whoever) will get the message, and as the cliché goes—the squeaky wheel gets the grease. It’s usually a small but vocal and active group that causes large societal changes because most people sit on the sidelines and say or do nothing. Run for city council, mayor, and get on your local school board. Trying to fix the government by using a top down approach will have a limited effect because of how gigantic the bureaucracy is and the number of obstacles that need to be overcome to achieve major changes. As president, Donald Trump tried, and while he had some major victories (like gaining a Conservative majority in the Supreme Court), he could only shift our nation’s course a few degrees. A bottom up approach is better in many regards because it can be done by ordinary people with limited resources, and being involved in local

politics usually isn’t as competitive as national offices because the field is less crowded. Taking control of our local communities is not as difficult as most people think. Just a small handful of active people can take over city councils and school boards, and most people only think about voting on election years for major positions like the president, but local positions (and midterms) are just as important. During COVID lockdowns, for example, in 2020 and 2021 many local Sheriffs (who are elected by the voters) refused to enforce state laws dictated by governors though executive orders which mandated restaurants not allow in-person dining—even Sheriffs in some major California cities refused to enforce the rule, and allowed businesses to stay open.917 Look up the recommended voter guide for your city which are put together by many local Republican parties and use it as a guide to choose candidates you’re not familiar with for various positions that don’t have their party affiliation listed next to their name on the ballot. Many positions, like school board members, judges, and sheriffs do not list whether a candidate is a Republican or a Democrat, so take advantage of the research and voter guide your local Republican Party puts together. A quick Google search should bring it up. One of the goals of this book is to move the Overton Window, which is the spectrum of ideas about social issues and public policy that are seen as acceptable by the general public. There are a lot of issues and facts that the Republican Party, Conservatives, and Christians are afraid to talk about out loud, so I’m working to normalize those issues and introduce the terminology, concepts, and arguments to the masses so those seeds can be planted into the minds of millions and one day these truths will be so widely spoken about they’ll be impossible to ignore. We have to push (or pull) Republican lawmakers and political pundits into these discussions by bombarding them with questions, evidence, and arguments; and make addressing these issues unavoidable. I also want people to be as well rounded as possible when it comes to media literacy. (I am a media analyst after all). Everyone should know about the Social Impact Agencies in Hollywood—the lobbying groups which work to have their clients’ messages inserted into the storylines of popular shows and movies, disguising political propaganda as mere

entertainment. (Something I detailed in my previous book Hollywood Propaganda: How TV, Movies, and Music Shape Our Culture). Everyone should know the basic facts about Operation Mockingbird and how the “war on fake news” was launched immediately after Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election as a smokescreen to begin rolling out massive censorship on social media. (See my book The True Story of Fake News). We should make sure it’s common knowledge that as a result of this bogus “war on fake news” the Big Tech platforms completely changed the way they function, and how they’ve come to manipulate their algorithms to artificially boost certain content that reinforces their agenda, while systematically suppressing and censoring those who oppose it. People should know the history of how the mainstream media merged with the very platforms that were once created so users could bypass and replace them. (See my book The Liberal Media Industrial Complex). A word of caution about becoming politically active though. Some people may want to start an organization or a group to fight for the cause, but there are enormous dangers to such an approach you should be aware of before even considering it. First of all, if a member of the group does something stupid, then the entire organization gets blamed. Not just blamed online or in the media, but it can be legally held liable. If you or your organization holds an event or promotes a protest and someone gets hurt if violence breaks out, no matter which side started it or caused it, you may be held personally liable, either civilly or even criminally. Democrats have very well-funded law firms they use to financially cripple their opponents. And even if you win a case brought against you, the legal bills are enough to bankrupt most people just defending against them. It may be better to become part of already well-established groups and then influence their members, and ultimately their leadership, to move them further right. Being part of a movement is often better than being part of an actual organization. One can be a supporter, leader, or an influencer in a movement while remaining completely independent, but this still puts you at risk for civil and criminal penalties if you’re blamed for “inciting” violence by using political rhetoric that’s too heated, or even standard political analogies talking about “fighting” or “war.”

They’ll get your private text messages, DMs, and emails, and use them as evidence against you just like they did to the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.918 And figures of speech and jokes will be framed as if you were being literal. Be cautious about posting political messages on social media. Create anonymous accounts where possible, not using your name or your photo. And use a burner email address, not your usual one, in case the platform gets hacked and login information is published for our opponents to sift through (which does happen), allowing them to find other accounts on other platforms that use the same email address, leading them to find people’s real identities. Resist the urge to become a “famous” online personality. Many online accounts have gained hundreds of thousands of followers while keeping the identity of those who run them unknown. Teach your kids how they can ruin their life with one TikTok or Snapchat post that’s deemed “racist,” “antisemitic,” “transphobic,” etc. unless or until we end cancel culture. Be careful not to cut off your nose to spite your face. Going on a rant and using the n-word to prove you don’t care what the Thought Police say isn’t worth getting fired from your job over or banned from social media. Future potential employers will Google your name during the hiring process and even if your rant doesn’t make headlines—if you’re named in tweets or Facebook posts, those are going to come up during their vetting process. Even if you use a pseudonym for your social media presence, if you show your face there is an extremely high probability your actual identity will be found. There’s facial recognition software that can find other photos of you online that were posted by your family or friends. Online sleuths can be ruthless and crafty in their quest to dox people. And someone who personally knows you may take it upon themselves to alert others who you are (like a former classmate, coworker, or ex-wife). But it doesn’t even have to be something you post online. These days if someone goes off on a “racist” rant in public that’s caught on video, that video often goes viral and ultimately the person is identified, doxxed, and fired in hopes of appeasing the angry online mob who call and harass people’s employers when they’re the subject of a viral controversy.919 So

even if you’re not posting on social media at all, social media can ruin your career from something you say in real life. It’s a brave new world. So pick your battles wisely. Some are in better positions to fight on certain fronts than others. If you’re a retired veteran with a guaranteed pension and you have nothing to lose, that’s different than an aspiring young college kid who could face a lifetime of limited career options if they happen to get the attention of the wrong people by pushing the envelope on certain controversial issues. With formidable foes dedicated to shutting down anyone speaking out too loudly about certain topics, people need to be careful before they end up with a target on their back. Each individual must carefully decide their own level of involvement. And this shouldn’t need to be said, but no matter how frustrated you get, no matter how angry and disgusted you feel because of the onslaught of attacks against Conservatives or our cultural or religious traditions, don’t do anything violent unless it’s in self-defense of an imminent and direct threat to your life or that of another.920 We’ve all seen how occasionally disgruntled and mentally disturbed people on the Left and the Right lash out in violence against their perceived enemies, and it always hurts whatever cause they thought they were fighting for. It gains widespread sympathy for the victims and casts whatever cause the perpetrator thought they were fighting for in an extremely negative and toxic light. So when I talk about The War on Conservatives—as far as our side is concerned, it’s a political and metaphoric war. It’s an information war. It’s a battle of ideas, so don’t be stupid like some misguided self-proclaimed “patriots” in the past who have lashed out in violence, or those who think that wearing camo and “training” with a dozen others in the woods to overthrow the government is going to have anything but disastrous consequences. Even in situations that could be deemed self-defense, one wrong decision in a split second could cost you your freedom. Some people shoot armed robbers after they turn around and head for the door and are charged with 2nd degree manslaughter because technically the threat to their life was over because the perpetrator was leaving. Violence is always ugly and should be avoided at all costs. And don’t try arguing or reasoning with Marxists in the street. Like Mr. Miyagi from The Karate Kid said, the best way to avoid a punch is to not be there.

If you haven’t read my previous books, then you should know that the rabbit hole goes much deeper, and even though some of the topics are similar, each book provides a wealth of information and can help readers gain a much better understanding of how the interconnecting relationships between media, culture, and power function. Books are one of the best forms of spreading knowledge, even in the so-called digital age (or the information age), or rather especially in the information age—because there is too much information and too many different sources trying to constantly bombard us with messages. People are drowning in information and have a difficult time sifting through it to find quality and meaningful content while avoiding all the useless drama, and pop culture gossip, propaganda, and spam. We need to free ourselves from the digital sewage pipe that directs most people’s attention. We don’t need to be slaves to whatever hit show on HBO is trending or whatever new series Netflix or Hulu just launched. We need to manage our media diets in the same way we watch what foods we eat. It’s important to continue old traditions, and always put family first. Study intimate relationships and date with the purpose of finding a life partner and getting married, not just for having fun. Too many people get stuck with someone they’re incompatible with in the areas of interpersonal relationships that matter most. They don’t look at whether their interests, values, and goals are actually aligned until it’s too late. Then it’s not just their own happiness and wellbeing that suffers, it’s that of their children and grandchildren down the road who have to grow up in broken or dysfunctional homes. We may be living in a collapsing empire. Politically, financially, intellectually, and morally. Only Republican states or red districts, local communities, small towns, neighborhoods, and families can probably be preserved at this point. The United States as a whole however, is in huge trouble. Perhaps when things get so bad, the pendulum will start to swing back the other direction and society at large may begin healing. But it may not. The America we all knew and loved may be gone. We appear to be following the Tytler Cycle of Civilizations and in the end-stage of Democracy.921 But we can carry on the same principles in our own lives that the founding fathers established starting in 1776, in hopes of one day restoring

the Republic, no matter how many generations it may take. And more importantly follow the examples set forth by Christ so that we may have the hope of glory.    

 

Copyright Info The War on Conservatives © 2023 by Mark Dice All Rights Reserved Published by Mark Dice San Diego, CA

No part of the text within this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form and by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the written permission of the author.

Visit www.MarkDice.com

E-book ISBN: 978-1-943591-13-8  

Cover design by Ben Garrison

1

WPDE ABC 15 “Miami surgeon performs 'top surgery' for 15-year-old transgender kids” by Alec

Schemmel (September 26th 2022)

2

Military Times “Pentagon officials defend diversity and inclusion at Pride Month event” by Zamone

Perez (June 7th 2023)

3

Washington Examiner “Blue's Clues song shows drag queen teaching children about gay,

transgender, and nonbinary characters” by Lawrence Richard (May 29th 2021)

4

New York Times “Drag Queen Story Hour Continues Its Reign at Libraries, Despite Backlash by

Lisa Stack (June 6th 2019)

5

Washington Examiner “Millennials in San Diego sign petition to remove American flag” by Emilie

Padgett (June 30th 2015)

6

CNBC “More Americans now support a universal basic income” by Annie Nova (February 26th

2018)

7

Fox Business “The US is paying a record amount of interest on its national debt” by Megan Henny

(August 17th 2023)

8

Christianity Today “Christian Baker Sued Again for Refusing to Bake a Cake” by Colleen Slevin

via Associated Press (March 24th 2021)

9

Forbes “ChatGPT Has Liberal Bias, Say Researchers” by Emma Woollacott (August 17th 2023)

10

The Washington Post “The campaign to impeach President Trump has begun” by Matea Gold

(January 20th 2017)

11

CNN “Kamala Harris calls on Twitter CEO to suspend Donald Trump” by Donie O’Sullivan

(October 2nd 2019)

12

Politico “Judge to revoke bail for Proud Boy leaders involved in Capitol riot” by Kyle Cheney and

Josh Gerstein (April 19th 2021)



13

The “QAnon Shama” was sentenced to 41 months (nearly 3 and a half years), and Proud Boys

leader Enrique Tarrio (who wasn’t even in Washington D.C. on January 6th) was sentenced to 22 years, and Proud Boys member Joe Biggs who only entered the Capitol and walked around with the other protesters was sentenced to 17 years.

14

The Hill “DOJ: Social media influencer charged with interference in 2016 election” by John

Bowden (January 27th 2021)

15

Washington Examiner “Pro-Trump Twitter influencer found guilty of conspiracy against rights over

2016 memes” by Brandy Knox (March 31st 2023)

16

Washington Post “Trump supporter sentenced to 7 months after tweeting false voting ads” by

Praveena Somasundaram (October 20th 2023)

17

Journal of The American Judicature Society [vol. 24] “The Federal Prosecutor” by Robert H.

Jackson (June 1940)

18

Ibid.

19

Understanding Lawyer’s Ethics (Third Edition) by Monroe H. Freedman and Abbe Smith page 309

20

PBS “White House calls Mueller hearing embarrassment for Democrats” via Associated Press

(July 24th 2019)

21

Media Entertainment Arts World Wide “Who is Jadzia Watsey? Philly teacher trolled for coming

out as lesbian to her students” by Sayantani Nath (December 13th 2021)

22

CBS Los Angeles “Pride event sparks tense protest outside North Hollywood Elementary School”

by KCAL News Staff (June 2nd 2023)

23

NBC New York “Elementary Kids Get ‘Special Surprise' Drag Performance at School Talent

Show” by Roseanne Colletti (June 2nd 2017)

24

New York Post “NYC public school asks parents to ‘reflect’ on their ‘whiteness’” by Selim Algar

and Kate Sheehy (February 16th 2021)



25

Fox News “Pro-Antifa teacher brags about turning students into 'revolutionaries,' undercover video

shows” by Jessica Chasmar (August 31st 2021)

26

Sacramento Bee “See heated Natomas Unified School District meeting regarding Inderkum High

School teacher” (September 1st 2021)

27

Fox News “Colorado teacher calls for 'FORCEFUL cultural revolution' targeted at 'whiteness':

'This is sacred’" by Hannah Grossman (May 18th 2023)

28

Fox News “Whistleblowers: FBI targeted parents via terrorism tools despite Garland's testimony

that it didn't happen” by Bradford Betz (May 11th 2022)

29

Fox News “Whistleblowers: FBI targeted parents via terrorism tools despite Garland's testimony

that it didn't happen” by Bradford Betz (May 11th 2022)

30

House Judiciary Committee “Whistleblowers: The FBI has labeled dozens of investigations into

parents with a threat tag created by the FBI's Counterterrorism Division” via Press Release (May 11th 2022)

31

Fox News “Whistleblowers: FBI targeted parents via terrorism tools despite Garland's testimony

that it didn't happen” by Bradford Betz (May 11th 2022)

32

New York Times “Proud Boys Regroup, Focusing on School Boards and Town Councils” by

Sheera Frenkel (December 14th 2021)

33

Newsbusters “MSNBC Warns Parents Pushing Back Are Mentally Ill, White Nationalists” by

Kristine Marsh (October 6th 2021)

34

Mother Jones “School Boards Have Long Been a Tool of White Supremacy” by Anthony

Conwrighte (March+April 2022 Issue)

35

The Columbus Dispatch “Beware! 'Very fine' racists may be coming to a school board near you” by

Ricky L. Jones (October 29th 2021)

36

CBS Atlanta “CNN Of The Ghetto’: WorldStarHipHop Becoming YouTube For Urban Violence”

by Peter V. Milo (March 29th 2012)



37

KTTH 770 “WA schools adopt race-based discipline, white students to get harsher punishment” by

Jason Rantz (March 21st 2022)

38

This is what they mean by demanding equity now, not equality.

39

West Cook News “OPRF to implement race-based grading system in 2022-23 school year” by

LGIS News Service (May 30th 2022)

40

Per capita means the average per person, and is calculated by dividing a measurement by the

population of a specific group.

41

U.S. Department of Justice “Homicide Trends in the United States, 1980-2008” by Alexia Cooper

and Erica L. Smith (November 2011)

42

It used to be half of the violent crime, but recent statistics show that it’s now almost 60% according

to victim surveys.

43

Associated Press “New York public schools to end gifted and talented program” by Michelle L.

Price and Bobby Caina Calvan (October 8th 2021)

44

Fox News “Rhode Island parents enraged at school board for removing honors classes in 'equity

obsession’ by Hannah Grossman (May 9th 2022)

45

CBS 8 San Diego “San Diego Unified revamps grading system after minority students

disproportionately impacted” by Shannon Handy (October 21st 2020)

46

NBC San Diego “San Diego Unified School District Changes Grading System to ‘Combat

Racism’” by Alexis Rivas (October 15th 2020)

47

Fox News “Minnesota middle school will eliminate 'F's to combat 'systemic racism’” by Pilar Arias

(October 1st 2021)

48

NEA.org “The Racist Beginnings of Standardized Testing” by John Rosalas and Tim Walker

(March 20th 2021)



49

NEA Today “The Racist Beginnings of Standardized Testing” by John Rosales and Tim Walker

(March 20th 2021)

50

Ibid.

51

The Daily Caller “Joe Biden Says He’ll End Standardized Testing In Public Schools After

Questioner Calls Them ‘Rooted In A History Of Racism” by Peter Hasson (December 14th 2019)

52

Media Entertainment Arts World Wide “Who is Jadzia Watsey? Philly teacher trolled for coming

out as lesbian to her students” by Sayantani Nath (December 13th 2021)

53

NBC News “Teacher faces backlash for suggesting student pledge allegiance to Pride flag” by Jo

Yurcaba (August 30th 2021)

54

His TikTok username was @JustAQueerTeacher -but he later deleted his account after going viral.

55

https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1480723017713864705.

56

The Blaze “Preschool teacher — and 'polyamorous, gender-fluid witch' — goes viral for admitting

how she teaches her young students about sexuality and identity” by Sarah Taylor (April 12th 2022)

57

https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1521183077967417344

58

Twitchy “Teacher says she has her preschoolers pick a pronoun pin every day to wear” by Brett T.

(April 12th 2022)

59

These are most likely in California and New York, but with almost all other degenerate social

contagions, it may not be much longer until such teachers start popping up in other parts of the country.

60

New York Magazine “The Long, Sordid History of the Gay Conspiracy TheoryToday’s right-wing

campaign against ‘groomers’ is America’s latest moral panic.” by James Kirkchick (May 31st 2022)

61

United States Government Accountability Office “Child Welfare. Federal Agencies Can Better

Support State Efforts to Prevent and Respond to Sexual Abuse by SchoolPersonnel” page 5 (January 2014) Available online here https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-14-42.pdf



62

Washington Post “More teachers are having sex with their students. Here’s how schools can stop

them.” by Terry Abbot (January 20th 2015)

63

Twitchy.com “People are mad at Christopher Rufo for exposing child sex predators in public

schools” by Brett T. (April 20th 2022)

64

US News & World Report “At School Pride Event Students Destroyed Decorations, Chanted ‘USA

Are My Pronouns,' Officials Say” via Associated Press (June 13th 2023)

65

Fox News “Oklahoma State University hosts 'Drag Queen Story Hour' for kids as young as 2-

years-old” by Adam Sabes (April 15th 2022)

66

CNN “Middle school invites drag queens to encourage students to be themselves “ by Lauren M.

Johnson (May 18th 2019)

67

Post Millennial “NYC public school teaches middle schoolers how to do 'drag makeup’” by Ashley

St. Clair (May 31st 2022)

68

The Wall Street Journal “More States Weigh How to Add LGBT History to Classroom Lessons” by

Ben Chapman (June 2nd 2023)

69

Fox News “New Jersey to require 2nd graders learn about gender identity in fall, alarming parents”

by Houston Keene (April 7th 2022)

70

City Journal “Radical Gender Lessons for Young Children”by Christopher Rufo (April 21st 2022)

71

New York Post “Florida school board member under fire for field trip to known gay bar” by Mark

Lungariello (October 28th 2021)

72

WWMT Channel 3 News “A drag queen for every school': Michigan AG reportedly dismisses

concerns over kids, drag” by Zachary Rogers (June 16th 2022)

73

The Daily Universe “RaYnbow Collective hosts first BYU Back-to-School Pride Night” by Ally

O’Rullian (September 4th 2021)



74

Washington Times “Biden official Rachel Levine wants to prolong Pride Month to Summer of

Pride” by Valerie Richardson (June 26th 2023)

75

New York Post “Elite Chicago prep school dean brags about kids handling sex toys in class” by

Lee Brown (December 9th 2022)

76

Fox News “California high school teacher allegedly threatens punishment after students protest

Pride video in math class” (June 13th 2023)

77

Curriculum Inquiry “Drag pedagogy: The playful practice of queer imagination in early childhood”

by Harper Keenan and Lil Miss Hot Mess (Volume 50, 2020 - Issue 5)

78

Ibid.

79

Ibid.

80

Associated Press YouTube Channel “NY Library Brings Drag Queens to Kids Story Hour” (May

16th 2017)

81

The Post Millennial “Oakland school launches 'Transition Closet' to help students hide gender

dysphoria from parents” by Libby Emmons (February 16th 2022)

82

Spectrum News 1 “Gender Affirming Closet gives free clothes to transgender, queer students” by

Ariel Wesler (August 25th 2021)

83

https://www.instagram.com/p/CefYzntrAsy/

84

https://www.validusa.org/

85

CBN “CA Public School Bypasses Parents with 'Transition Closet' for Teens Who Want to Cross-

Dress in Class” by Steve Warren (February 25th 2022)

86

The Federalist “Wisconsin School District: Parents Are Not ‘Entitled To Know’ If Their Kids Are

Trans” by M.D. Kittle (March 8th 2022)

87

https://www.nj.gov/education/safety/sandp/climate/docs/Guidance.pdf



88

Ibid.

89

Ibid.

90

Fox News “Massachusetts parents sue school, say officials encouraged children to use new names,

pronouns without consent” by Timothy Nerozzi (April 16th 2022)

91

https://www.amazon.com/Jacobs-New-Dress-Sarah-Hoffman/dp/0807563757

92

https://www.amazon.com/Sparkle-Boy-Leslea-Newman/dp/1620142856

93

Fox News “Pizza Hut facing boycott calls after promoting 'drag kids' book for kindergartners” by

Emma Colton (June 5th 2022)

94

Fairfax County Times “Mother exposes sexually graphic books available in FCPS libraries” by

Heather Zwicker (October 1st 2021)

95

Ibid.

96

Fox News “Alaska board members brawl over silencing dad exposing book on kinks and sexting:

'I'm going to interrupt you’” by Hannah Grossman (February 16th 2023)

97

https://www.amazon.com/Lets-Talk-About-Teens-Relationships/dp/1984893149

98

Washington Stand “Loudoun Co. School Library Book Promotes Prostitution, Authorities

Investigate” by Marjorie Jackson (May 31st 2022)

99

The Daily Wire “Cops Probe After Middle School Librarian Allegedly Says Students Are ‘Sex

Workers’ To Justify Pro-Prostitution Book” by Luke Rosiak (May 28th 2022)

100

Post Millennial “Florida passes anti-groomer law banning gender identity indoctrination in

schools” by Mia Cathell (March 8th 2022)

101

The Washington Post “Florida bans teaching about gender identity in all public schools” by

Hannah Natanson (April 19th 2023).



102

The Hill “Red states consider Florida-style ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bills” by Reid Wilson (April 5th

2022)

103

Associated Press “Other states are copying Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” efforts” by Andrew Demillo

(March 23rd 2023)

104

The Washington Post “Meet the woman behind Libs of TikTok, secretly fueling the right’s outrage

machine” by Taylor Lorenz (April 19th 2022)

105

Ibid.

106

NBC News “Iowa bill would require cameras in public school classrooms” by Adam Edelman

(February 2022)

107

Foundation for Economic Education “MSNBC Claims Homeschooling Is Driven By “Insidious

Racism,” But the Facts Show Otherwise” by Kerry McDonald (May 16th 2022)

108

Fox News “Police in Alabama stop noisy protesters from disrupting Kirk Cameron library event”

by Christine Rousselle (August 5th 2023)

109

The National Interest “The American Way of Victory” by James Kurth page 5 (Summer 2000)

110

The New York Post “BLM site removes page on ‘nuclear family structure’ amid NFL vet’s

criticism” by Joshua Rhett Miller (September 24th 2020)

111

Tedx Talks “Cancel Marriage: Merav Michaeli at TEDxJaffa” (November 10th 2012)

112

The Blaze “Lesbian Activist's Surprisingly Candid Speech: Gay Marriage Fight Is a 'Lie' to

Destroy Marriage” by Mike Opelka (April 29th 2013)

113

https://web.archive.org/web/20200122031509/https://twitter.com/beccalew/status/121982074664340 6850

114

New York Times “The Housewives of White Supremacy” by Annie Kelly (June 1st 2018)



115

Ibid.

116

Salon.com “Alt-right women and the "white baby challenge”” by Alexandra Minna Stern (July

14th 2019)

117

CNN “‘Tradwives’ promote a lifestyle that evokes the 1950s. But their nostalgia is not without

controversy” by Harmeet Kaur (December 27th 2022)

118

Ibid.

119

The New Statesman “Red love, for all” by Eric Maglaque (September 23rd 2022)

120

Ibid.

121

Women’s Health “People Still Believe Women Belong in the Kitchen and Men Belong at the

Office” by Kristina Marusic (March 10th 2016)

122

https://twitter.com/TheTodayShow/status/1225146029537931264

123

QZ.com “The specifications of American kitchens are actually sexist” by Rachel Z. Arndt

(October 13th 2015)

124

The New York Post “Cook’s kitchen goes up in flames during livestream: ‘I don’t know what to

do!’” by Eric Keller (May 12th 2022)

125

Salon “The history of ‘home economics’ is both surprisingly radical and conspicuously

regressive” by Gail Cornwall (May 9th 2021)

126

The New York Post “Gen Z women are ditching pads, tampons and embracing ‘free bleeding’ in

latest trend” by Mary Madigan (September 5th 2023)

127

USA Today “Ashley Judd slams critics of Women's March speech: I got the P word from Trump”

by Cara Kelly (January 22nd 2017)



128

The Daily Mail “Sex and the City writer Candace Bushnell, 60, admits she regrets choosing a

career over having children as she is now 'truly alone’” (July 28th 2019)

129

New York Post “Inside the ‘disposable’ young American dating curse: ‘On to the next one’” by

Adriana Diaz (March 3rd 2022)

130

The Daily Mail “The Facebook divorces: Social network site is cited in 'a THIRD of splits’” by

John Stevens (December 30th 2011)

131

NBC News “Many on dating apps are already in relationships or aren't seeking actual dates, new

study finds” by Angela Yang (July 13th 2023)

132

Elite Daily “Most People Use Dating Apps For Validation — Is That Bad?” by Sarah Ellis

(November 6th 2019)

133

Numerous states have recently introduced laws to enforce ID verification in order to view porn

sites, and there is an ongoing legal battle between those states and popular porn sites which are working to get courts to strike them down on “first amendment grounds.”

134

Business Insider “OnlyFans now has more than 3 million content creators and is a 'global

business', says the CEO” by Jyoti Mann (May 13th 2023)

135

The New York Post “Boston nurse Allie Rae left job for OnlyFans, now makes $200K a month”

by Alex Mitchell (August 18th 2021)

136

Vice “The Congresswoman Behind FOSTA Is Coming for OnlyFans” by Samantha Cole (August

12th 2021)

137

The New York Times “OnlyFans Reverses Its Decision to Ban Explicit Content” by Jacob

Bernstein (August 25th 2021)

138

“Breitbart “Pornhub Under Fire for Allegedly Hosting Rape, Child Porn Videos” by John Nolte

(February 10th 2020

139



Vice “Porn Is Still Allowed On Twitter” by Samantha Cole (November 3rd 2017)

140

The Telegraph “How porn is rewiring our brains” by Nisha Lilia Diu (November 15th 2013)

141

Time “Porn and the Threat to Virility” by Belinda Luscomb (March 30th 2016)

142

The Age “Sex work is real, legitimate work and should be decriminalised” by Fiona Patten (July

1st 2021)

143

ACLU.org “It’s Time to Decriminalize Sex Work” (July 23rd 2023)

144

Fox News “AOC responds ‘Sex work is work,’ to report of NYC paramedic posting racy photos

for cash” by Dom Calicchio (December 15th 2020)

145

The Young Turks YouTube channel “BOMBSHELL Lauren Boebert Report Exposes Serious Dirt

Hidden In Her Past” (June 14th 2022) original URL here: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=9OmfFqEqi6M

146

Teen Vogue “Why Sex Work Is Real Work” by Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng (April 26th 2019)

147

OpenSocietyFoundations.org “Understanding Sex Work in an Open Society” (April 2019)

148

Ibid.

149

Tedx Talks YouTube channel “Sex work is real work, and it’s here to stay | Samantha Sun |

TEDxLSE” (August 19th 2022)

150

ACLU.org “Sex Work is Real Work, and it’s Time to Treat it That Way” (LaLa B Holston-Zannell

(June 10th 2020)

151

ABC 7 News “Resolution pushing to legalize sex work in CA introduced by SF supervisor” by

Stephanie Sierra (February 14th 2023)

152

The Blaze “Hollywood actress Michelle Williams credits abortion for her success in Golden

Globes speech” by Aaron Colen (January 6th 2020)

153

The Washington Times “The Satanic Temple challenges Idaho, Indiana abortion bans” via

Associated Press by Rebecca Boon (October 5th 2022)



154

https://web.archive.org/web/20230122023959/https://twitter.com/ADL/status/1616514095892598812

155

National Catholic Register “Planned Parenthood ‘Secret Weapon’ Script Doctor Feeds Abortion

Line to Hollywood” by Lauretta Brown (September 23rd 2019)

156

PlannedParenthood.org “Planned Parenthood Hosts 8th Annual Sex, Politics, Film, & TV

Reception at Sundance Film Festival” Press Release (January 27th 2020)

157

The New York Times “OkCupid Introduces Feature in Support of Abortion Rights” by Valeriya

Safronova (September 20th 2021)

158

https://twitter.com/RepSwalwell/status/1521340822989402113

159

https://web.archive.org/web/20230906205340/https://twitter.com/xychelsea/status/152156731437366 4768

160

https://twitter.com/LoriLightfoot/status/1523844510735908864

161

https://twitter.com/motherboard/status/1521511916912488448

162

Under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act of 1940 (16 U.S.C. 668-668d)

163

Office of Legislative Research “Penalties for Disturbing Inland Wetlands” by Janet L. Kaminski

Leduc, Senior Legislative Attorney (December 10th 2010)

164

Mirror “Andrew Tate's webcam business employed 75 women and made him first million” by

Harry Davies (December 30th 2022)

165

Vice “The Dangerous Rise of Andrew Tate” documentary (January 13th 2023)

166



Ibid.

167

Mirror “Brothers make millions using webcam girls to sell 'sob' stories to desperate men” by Emer

Scully (March 19th 2022)

168

JackMurphyLive.com “Cultivating Erotic Energy from a Surprising Source” by Jack Murphy

(October 9th 2015) archived here: https://archive.ph/2016.01.18005825/http://jackmurphylive.com/cultivating-erotic-energy/

169

New York Post “Jordan Peterson says he was suicidal, addicted to benzos” by Jesse O’Neill

(January 31st 2021)

170

The Guardian “The Cultural Revolution: all you need to know about China's political convulsion”

by Tom Phillips (May 10th 2016)

171

Pennsylvania Capital-Star “Ten reasons why Black people shouldn’t celebrate Independence Day”

by Michael Coard (July 4th 2023)

172

Associated Press “San Francisco board open to reparations with $5M payouts” by Jaine Har

(March 15th 2023)

173

Newsweek “Progressive Lawmakers Call Fourth of July Freedom for Whites: Blacks 'Still Aren't

Free’” by Christina Zhao (July 4th 2021)

174

Vox “3 Reasons the American Revolution Was a Mistake” by Dylan Matthews (July 3rd 2019)

175

Ibid.

176

Washington Post “It is time to reconsider the global legacy of July 4, 1776” by Elizabeth Kolsky

(July 3rd 2020)

177

Ibid.

178

Associated Press “In a polarized US, how to define a patriot increasingly depends on who’s being

asked” by Gary Fields, Margery Beck and Rebecca Boon (July 3rd 2023)

179

Newsweek “Ben & Jerry’s Suggests Returning 'Stolen Indigenous Land' in July 4 Message” by

Maura Zurick (July 5th 2023)



180

Newsweek “Abenaki Tribe Demand Ben & Jerry's Pay Reparations for 'Stolen' Land” by Aleks

PLhillips (July 14th 2023)

181

Pennsylvania Capital-Star “A reminder for your holiday table: Thanksgiving celebrates a racist

genocide” by Michael Coard (November 22nd 2022)

182

The Washington Times “'Big Bang Theory' star: Thanksgiving 'one of the grossest examples of

genocide’” by Douglas Ernst (November 21st 2017)

183

Daily Caller “YouTube Wants To Make You Feel Bad for Celebrating Thanksgiving” by Scott

Greer (November 23rd 2017) Original tweet located here: https://twitter.com/YouTube/status/933757068661665793

184

https://twitter.com/YouTube/status/933787264131436551

185

https://twitter.com/YouTube/status/6103267103

186

Newsweek “Washington Redskins Use Thanksgiving Game To Promote Racial Slur, Native

American Leaders Say” by Beatrice Dupuy (November 21st 2017”

187

Vice “How Much Environmental Damage Did Your Thanksgiving Dinner Do?” by Ashley P.

Taylor (November 8th 2017)

188

Ibid.

189

Huffington Post “The Environmental Impact Of Your Thanksgiving Dinner” by Alexandra

Emanuelli (November 5th 2019)

190

The Hill “The Oscars acknowledged the indigenous land Hollywood sits on” by Anagha Srikanth

(February 10th 2020)

191

ABC 4 News “Annual Microsoft Ignite conference entices criticism over 'woke' introductions” by

Ann Dailey Moreno (November 5th 2021)



192

SCV News “Supervisors Make History with Their First Native American Land

Acknowledgement” (December 7th 2022)

193

NBC 15 WMTV “Madison School District holds land acknowledgement ceremony for Ho-Chunk

tribe” by Kylie Jacobs (April 25th 2022)

194

Smithsonian Magazine “How Native American Slaveholders Complicate the Trail of Tears

Narrative” by Ryan P. Smith (March 6th 2018)

195

CNN “Megyn Kelly apologizes for defending blackface Halloween costumes” by Tom Kludt

(October 25th 2018)

196

USA Today “Megyn Kelly will not return to NBC's 'Today' show following blackface

controversy” by Jayme Deerwester (October 26th 2018)

197

USA Today “Disney pulls offensive 'Moana' Halloween costume” via Associated Press

(September 21st 2016)

198

Time “Disney Stops Selling Controversial Moana Halloween Costume” by Melissa Chan

(September 22nd 2016)

199

All of the pictures featuring White kids wearing the costume on Target’s website were then

removed, and replaced by black boys for Halloween 2018

200

Fortune “Making Mother’s Day More Inclusive” by Ellen McGirt (May 10th 2018)

201

KATV ABC 7 “Calvin Klein slammed for 'pregnant man' in Mother's Day commercial” by

Zachary Rodgers (May 13th 2022)

202

The Daily Mail “Gender-critical campaigners slam trans woman activist for using a child as an

'identity prop' after she posted image of her breastfeeding on a bus” (July 7th 2023)

203

Toronto Star “How these transgender moms are celebrating Mother’s Day” by Tessa Vikander

(May 10th 2018)



204

Welcoming Schools: a Project of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation “Diverse Families on

Mother’s & Father’s Day” document posted on their website here: https://hrc-prod-requests.s3-uswest-2.amazonaws.com/welcomingschools/documents/WS_Lesson_Diverse_Families_on_Mothers_and_Fathers_Days.pdf

205

KREM CBS 2 "School cancels Mother's Day in effort to celebrate diversity” by Joshua Staab

(May 8th 2017)

206

Washington Post “For some gay parents, Mother’s Day (or Father’s Day) is awkward” by Gail

Cornwall (May 8th 2017)

207

Glaad.org “Mother's Day Resource Kid” posted here https://glaad.org/publications/mothersdaykit

208

Fortune “Making Mother's Day More Inclusive” by Ellen McGirt (May 10th 2018)

209

Daily Mail “Mother's Day is for all women” by Elizabeth Wilson (March 16th 2007)

210

The Telegraph “Don't call pregnant women 'expectant mothers' as it might offend transgender

people, BMA says” by Laura Donnelly (January 29th 2017)

211

Media Research Center “Gender Scrub: CDC Changes Flu Guidance Terms From ‘Pregnant

Women’ To ‘Pregnant People’” by Tierin-Rose Mandelburg (November 1st 2022)

212

CNN “The language we use to talk about pregnancy and abortion is changing. But not everyone

welcomes the shift” by Harmeet Kaur (September 4th 2022)

213

Newsweek “Biden Admin Replaces 'Mothers' With 'Birthing People' in Maternal Health

Guidance” by Benjamin Fearnow (June 7th 2021)

214

The New York Times “A demand to define ‘woman’ injects gender politics into Jackson’s

confirmation hearings.” by Jonathan Weisman (March 23rd 2022)

215

Reuters “Father absence "decimates" black community in U.S” by Joyce Kelly (June 14th 2007)

216



Forbes “Multiple Baby Daddies Can Make You Poor” by Kiri Blakeley (April 1st 2011)

217

Huffington Post “Three Reasons Why Father's Day Should Be Abolished” by Jeremy Davies (June

14th 2017)

218

The Independant “‘Special Person’s Day’: Campaign to change Father’s Day sparks outrage” by

Sarah Young (August 29th 2017)

219

Good Housekeeping “School Cancels Mother's and Father's Day Activities and Some Parents Are

Furious” by Sarah Schreiber (May 9th 2017)

220

Glaad.org “Father’s Day Resource Kit” posted on their website here:

https://glaad.org/publications/fathersdaykit/

221

Ibid.

222

ADL.org “Considerations for Inclusive Holidays and Observance” (May 21st 2014) posted here

https://www.adl.org/resources/tools-and-strategies/considerations-inclusive-holidays-andobservances

223

The Daily Utah Chronicle “Heteronormative Valentine’s Day and its Effects on Students at the U”

by Emily Anderson (February 13th 2017)

224

Ibid.

225

The Cougar Chronicle “Heteronormative Valentine’s depictions marginalize LGBTQIA+

community” by Samantha Carrillo (February 7th 2018)

226

CTV News “Kitchener school cancels Valentine’s Day in the classroom” by Carmen Wong

(January 31st 2023)

227

Star Tribune “St. Paul school kisses Valentine’s Day, other ‘dominant holidays,’ goodbye” by Paul

Walsh (January 29th 2016)

228

Lansing State Journal “East Lansing schools call off Halloween, Valentine's Day celebrations over

equity concerns” by Mark Johnson (October 14th 2021)



229

SheKnows.com “Is It Time for Elementary Schools to Stop Celebrating Valentine’s Day?” by

Randi Mazzella (February 6th 2018)

230

The Daily Californian “Berkeley celebrates 25 years of Indigenous Peoples' Day” (October 8th

2017)

231

CBC Los Angeles “Los Angeles Marks Third Official Celebration Of Indigenous Peoples Day”

(October 12th 2020)

232

CNN “DC Council votes to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day “ by Alaa

Elassar (October 9th 2019)

233

Associated Press “Biden is first president to mark Indigenous Peoples’ Day” by Zeke Miller and

Ellen Knickmeyer (October 8th 2021)

234

Media Research Center “Latest Apple Update Deletes Easter From iPhone Calendar, But Leaves

'Indigenous Peoples Day’” by Brittany M Hughes (February 19th 2018)

235

Los Angeles Times “Army Stage-Managed Fall of Hussein Statue” by David Zucchino (July 3rd

2004)

236

CNN “Protesters tear down statues from Confederate monuments in DC and North Carolina” by

Jennifer Henderson (June 20th 2020)

237

RealClear Politics “CNN’s Angela Rye: Washington, Jefferson Statues ‘Need To Come Down’” by

Ian Schwartz (August 18th 2017)

238

National Review “Al Sharpton Puts Jefferson Memorial on Notice” by Kyle Smith (August 16th

2017)

239

CNN “A statue of Thomas Jefferson is removed from New York City Hall after 187 year” by Sara

Smart (November 24th 2021)

240

New York Post “NYC Council advances bid that could yank monuments honoring Washington,

Jefferson, Columbus” by Carl Campanile (September 18th 2023)



241

Breitbart “Protesters in Atlanta Vandalize ‘Peace Monument’ After Mistaking It for Confederate

Symbol” by Penny Starr (August 16th 2017)

242

Chicago Tribune “Lincoln statue in Chicago’s Edgewater park defaced” by Robert McCoppin

(November 25th 2022)

243

WKYC “'Not on my watch.' South Dakota Governor vows to protect Mount Rushmore as statues,

monuments across US are torn down” by Erin McHugh (June 24th 2020)

244

Newsbusters “Vice: Let's Blow Up Mount Rushmore” by Corinne Weaver (August 17th 2017)

245

Newsweek “Pelosi Draws Republican Fire Over Dismissive Columbus Statue Comments” by

Jacob Jarvis (July 10th 2020)

246

Ibid.

247

Goodreads.com “George Orwell Quotes

248

The Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute listed on their website home page here:

http://www.genocide-museum.am/eng/cultural_genocide.php

249

Treaty on the Protection of Artistic and Scientific Institutions and Historic Monuments (Roerich

Pact), 167 L.N.T.S. 289, entered into force August 26, 1935

250

NFL.com “Colin Kaepernick explains why he sat during national anthem” by Steve Wyche

(August 27th 2016).

251

The Daily Caller “Jon Stewart Says Playing The National Anthem At Sporting Events Is A ‘Weird

Ritual’” by Katie Jerkovich (January 14th 2022)

252

NPR “Dallas Mavericks To Resume Playing National Anthem Following Pushback From The

NBA” by Bill Chappell (February 10th 2021)

253



NFL.com “Drew Brees apologizes for comments on flag disrespect” (June 4th 2020)

254

USA Today “Drew Brees apologizes for his comments on protesting during national anthem after

backlash” by Scott Gleeson (June 4th 2020)

255

New York Times “The N.F.L. will keep playing the Black national anthem before games.” by

Alanis Thames (September 12th 2021)

256

The Root “Star-Spangled Bigotry: The Hidden Racist History of the National Anthem” by Jason

Johnson (July 4th 2016)

257

ABC 7 Chicago “'Star-Spangled Banner' is racist, must be replaced, California NAACP says” by

Jory Rand (November 8th 2017)

258

Local 12 KUTV “Petition to remove 'Star-Spangled Banner' as anthem calls it 'racist, elitist,

sexist’” by Adam Forgie (July 4th 2021)

259

CNS News “Survey Shows 1 in 5 Millennials Sees U.S. Flag as ‘Sign of Intolerance and Hatred’”

by Emily Ward (December 3rd 2018)

260

Mark Dice YouTube Channel “Liberals Sign Petition to Ban the American Flag” (June 29th 2015)

261

New York Times “Nike Drops ‘Betsy Ross Flag’ Sneaker After Kaepernick Criticizes It” by

Tiffany Hsu, Kevin Draper, Sandra E. Garcia, and Niraj Chokshi (July 2nd 2019)

262

CNN “Here’s How Much Colin Kaepernick Will Make in His Controversial New Ad Deal With

Nike, According to Sports Experts” by Jennifer Calfas (September 4th 2018)

263

Harvard Business Review “We’re Entering the Age of Corporate Social Justice” by Lily Zheng

(June 15th 2020)

264

NBC Bay Area “Students Kicked Off Campus for Wearing American Flag Tees” by George

Kiriyama (May 6th 2010)

265

The Washington Post “Not safe to display American flag in American high school” by Eugene

Volokh (February 24th 2014)



266

Reuters “Supreme Court rejects free speech appeal over Cinco de Mayo school dispute” by

Lawrence Hurley (March 30th 2015)

267

The Stanford Review “Does the American Flag Offend You? Stanford Thinks It Might” by

Antigone Xenopoulos (November 27th 2018)

268

The Daily Caller “Stanford Frat Told Their American Flag Was ‘Offensive’ By Admin, Hangs

Much Bigger Flag” by Benny Johnson (December 4th 2018)

269

The Daily Caller “Sarah Silverman ‘Scared’ And ‘Shaken’ At Sight of American Flag” by Amber

Athey (December 8th 2017)

270

Fox News “NYT, MSNBC's Mara Gay: 'Disturbing' to see 'dozens of American flags' on trucks in

Long Island” by Brandon Gillespie (June 8th 2021)

271

https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1676385840866422790

272

KGW8 “Bill to adjust Oregon and Idaho border introduced in Oregon Senate” by KGW Staff

(January 11th 2023)

273

The Cato Institute “Christianity Is the World’s Most Persecuted Religion, Confirms New Report”

by Doug Bandow (March 7th 2022)

274

Catholic News Agency “Nearly 1,000 hate crimes against Europe’s Christians recorded in 2020”

by Courtney Mares (November 16th 2021)

275

CNN “Evangelist preacher Franklin Graham planned a seven-city UK tour. All seven venues have

dropped him” by Rob Picheta (February 6th 2020)

276

WPTV “Chick-Fil-A banned at San Antonio airport due to alleged "legacy of anti-LGBTQ

behavior’” (March 23rd 2019)

277

USA Today “Chick-Fil-A won't be landing at Buffalo airport” by Jefferson Graham (April 2nd

2019)



278

New York Magazine via Grub Street, their food and restaurant blog “The Great New York Chicken

Sandwiches That Aren’t From Chick-fil-A” by Chris Crowley (March 21st 2019)

279

The New Yorker “Chick-fil-A’s Creepy Infiltration of New York City” by Dan Piepenbring (April

13th 2018)

280

The Atlantic “How Hobby Lobby Split the Left and Set Back Gay Rights” by Molly Ball (July

20th 2014)

281

The Daily Caller “Prominent Christian Legal Group Barred From Amazon Program While Openly

Anti-Semitic Groups Remain” by Peter Hasson (May 5th 2018)

282

New York Post “Holy war at Jersey Shore: Critics, supporters argue over cross-shaped Ocean

Grove pier” by Dean Balsamini (August 27th 2022)

283

WTNH “Tong opens civil rights investigation into Greenwich schools’ hiring practices” by Olivia

Lank and Jenn Brink (August 31st 2022)

284

He was placed on leave and later resigned due to pressure from the local community. But a search

on Google News shows zero articles from national news outlets, and only local ones like the Greenwich Free Press, the CT Examiner and Fox 61 WTIC-TV.

285

The Daily Caller “Angry Gay Owner Unleashes on Christians Drinking Coffee in His Shop” by

Amber Randall (October 6th 2017)

286

Ibid.

287

The New York Post “Man ordered to remove ‘Jesus is the only way’ T-shirt at Mall of America”

by Allie Griffin (January 16th 2023)

288

CBS News “Restaurant denies Christian group service over its anti-abortion and LGBTQ stances”

by Megan Cerullo (December 9th 2022)

289

BuzzFeed “Chip And Joanna Gaines' Church Is Firmly Against Same-Sex Marriage” by Kate

Aurthur (November 29th 2016)



290

CNN “Benham brothers lose HGTV show after ‘anti-gay’ remarks” by Lisa Respers (May 9th

2014)

291

Newsbusters “Esquire’s Pierce Asks: Why Doesn’t NBA Punish Owners Who Oppose Gay

Marriage?” by Paul Bremmer (April 30th 2014)

292

The Washington Times “Washington state AG targets Christian university in LGBTQ employment

probe” by Mark A. Kellner (August 3rd 2022)

293

The Christian Institute “Gay couple to sue church over gay marriage opt-out” (August 1st 2013)

294

Fox News “CNN’s John King criticized for question about Karen Pence's Secret Service

protection” by Brian Flood (January 18th 2019)

295

The Daily Caller “CONSERVATIVE PUNDITS HIT BACK AGAINST TRENDING

‘#EXPOSECHRISTIANSCHOOLS’” by Jon Brown (January 20th 2019)

296

Fox News “Lady Gaga calls Mike Pence the 'worst Christian' during concert over wife's job at

anti-LGBTQ school” by Tyler McCarthy (January 21st 2019)

297

CNN “Christianity's future looks more like Lady Gaga than Mike Pence” by Guthrie Graves-

Fitzsimmons (January 24th 2019)

298

Newsweek “School Refuses to Play Sports at Karen Pence's School Due to Its Anti-LGBTQ

Policy” by Marie Perez (January 31st 2019)

299

Fox News “Georgetown student group targeted as 'hate group' for Catholic beliefs, could be

sanctioned” by Caleb Parke (October 24th 2017)

300

The Washington Times “Texas Christian University slammed for course on ‘queer art of drag’” by

Valerie Richardson (June 24th 2023)

301

The Daily Caller “St. Louis Cardinals Resist LGBTQ Outcry Over ‘Christian Day’” by Joshua

Gill (June 16th 2017)



302

PJ Media “Militant Antifa Group Targets Christian Mega-Church in Austin; Doxes Pastor's Son”

by Debra Heine (August 29th 2018)

303

NBC News “Laura Loomer banned from Twitter after criticizing Ilhan Omar” by Linda Givetash

(November 22nd 2018)

304

Gizmodo “Elon Has Restored Nearly 12,000 Banned Twitter Accounts, Data Shows” by Kyle Barr

(December 3rd 2022)

305

Fox News “Dems to strike ‘so help you God’ from oath taken in front of key House committee,

draft shows” by Gregg Re (January 29th 2019)

306

NPR “Satanic Sculpture Installed At Illinois Statehouse, Just In Time For The Holidays” by Laurel

Wamsley (December 4th 2018)

307

Washington Post “Please don’t wish me a Merry Christmas” by Julia Loffe (December 21st 2018)

308

Ibid.

309

Ibid.

310

NBC News “A 'War on Christmas'? Jews who leave the house in December would beg to differ”

by Lux Alptraum (December 2nd 2018)

311

Ibid.

312

Ibid.

313

Yahoo News “Tucker Carlson accused of promoting a hostile work environment” by Dylan

Stableford (April 25th 2023)

314

Huffington Post “I'm Dreaming Of A Less White Christmas For My Child of Color” by Heather

Tirado Gilligan (December 14th 2020)

315

Los Angeles Times “Santa’s existential dilemma: To be white, black or a penguin?” by Robin

Abcarian (December 12th 2013)



316

ADL.org webinar “Creating More Inclusive School Communities: The December Dilemma &

Inclusive Calendar Practices” (November 18th 2021)

317

Esquire “Santa's Husband' Is War-on-Christmas Trolling at Its Finest” by Jack Holmes (November

1st 2017)

318

Newsbusters “CNN Hypes Children's Book Portraying Santa Claus As a Gay Man” by Brad

Wilmouth (December 17th 2017)

319

Newsweek “Jacob Wohl Says Jews Must Have Christmas Decorations to Assimilate in U.S.” by

Ewan Palmer (November 5th 2021)

320

Washington Examiner “SEE IT: Twitter rages against Tim Allen line in The Santa Clause reboot”

by Jenny Goldsberry (November 17th 2022)

321

https://twitter.com/scottEmovienerd/status/1593165239235022849

322

New York Daily News “Is 'Merry Christmas' a microaggression? And more importantly, even if it

is, whose business is it?” by Jonathan Zimmerman (December 19th 2016)

323

Washington Examiner “DC Metro bans religion from Christmas ads, Catholics sue” by Paul

Bedard (November 28th 2017)

324

https://web.archive.org/web/20170410065003/https://brockport.edu/about/diversity/holiday.html

325

Ibid.

326

Campus Reform “Universities strive for 'Christmas'-free campuses” by Anthony Gockowski

(December 6th 2017)

327

Orthodox Jews make up about 10% of Jews in the United States.

328

In the United States, most Orthodox Jews are tolerant and respectful of Christians. In Israel,

however, they tolerate tours of the Holy Land by Christians, but over there factions of Orthodox Jews firmly oppose Christians evangelizing (preaching) to them in their “Jewish country,” and numerous

viral videos have captured groups of Orthodox Jews harassing Christians in Israel. Lehava is one such group which is considered ultra-Orthodox.

329

While Orthodox Jews don’t subscribe to the New Testament, both Christians and Orthodox Jews

believe in the Old Testament and the values it teaches, while JINOs are typically liberal atheists who are even at odds with Orthodox Jews because JINOs prefer secularism and liberalism to traditional (religious) Judaism.

330

Pew Research Center “Who is a Jew?” (October 1st 2013)

331

Young America’s Foundation YouTube Channel “Fighting the transgressives | Ben Shapiro LIVE

at Texas A&M University.” (November 1st 2022)

332

The New Yorker “How Muslims View Easter” by Rollo Romig (April 6th 2012)

333

AboutIslam.net “Jesus in the Bible and the Quaran” by Aisha Stacey (November 2nd 2022)

334

Haaretz “Spike in Incidents of Jews Spitting on Christian Worshippers in Jerusalem” by Nir

Hasson (October 2nd 2023)

335

The Jerusalem Post “Ears to you, hamentashen” by Gil HOffman (March 9th 2017)

336

Brandeis University “Kapparot: The Yom Kippur Tradition of Chicken Twirling” by Lawrence

Goodman (August 31st 2021)

337

America Magazine: The Jesuit Review “The Gospel of John has been used to justify anti-Semitism

—so we should stop reading it on Good Friday” by Jim McDermott (April 14th 2022)

338

Ibid.

339

JewsForJudiasm.org “How does the Book of Revelation promote hatred of Jews?”

340

The Daily Mail “Jewish leaders call for new editions of the Bible and the Koran to carry trigger

warnings highlighting anti-Semitic passages” by James Wood (November 23rd 2018)



341

National Archives “White House Tapes of the Nixon Administration, 1971-1973” Conversation

No. 662-004 uploaded to the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum here: https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/white-house-tapes/662/conversation-662-004

342

New York Times “Billy Graham Responds to Lingering Anger Over 1972 Remarks on Jews” by

David Firestone (March 17th 2002)

343

U.S. News & World Report “Billy Graham’s Troubling, Nasty Nixon Moment by James Warren

(February 28th 2018)

344

The Guardian “Christians must understand that for Jews the cross is a symbol of oppression” by

Giles Fraser (April 25th 2014)

345

Newsmax “Bill Would Outlaw Talk About Jesus in Israel” by Daniel Cohen (March 20th 2023)

346

It’s usually 3 to 5 billion per year, and as of 2023 has totaled $158 billion dollars as reported by

the Congressional Research Service (March 1st 2023)

347

Haaretz “Evangelical Christians Urge Netanyahu to Scuttle ultra-Orthodox Bill Banning Christian

Proselytizing” by Ben Samuels (March 21st 2023)

348

CNN “Proposed Israeli law would ban Christian missionaries” (July 8th 1997)

349

Associated Press Israeli leader halts bill against Christian proselytizing” (March 22nd 2023)

350

https://mobile.twitter.com/LahavHarkov/status/1638532945953669120

351

The Guardian “Israel threatens to pull evangelical Christian TV station aimed at Jews” by Oliver

Holmes (May 10th 2020)

352

The New York Daily News “The Passion of the Christ” by Jami Bernard (February 24th 2004)

353

ADL.org “ADL and Mel Gibson’s ‘The Passion of the Christ’” (January 2nd 2013)

354



Luke 23:19

355

Real Time with Bill Maher “Bari Weiss: How to Fight Anti-Semitism” segment posted on the

show’s official YouTube channel (September 13th 2019)

356

Sarah Silverman in her 2005 show “Jesus is Magic.” Clips of the segment are currently available

on YouTube and elsewhere online if you search for “Sarah Silverman Says I Would Kill Christ Again”

357

The Guardian “History Channel’s The Bible series is worse than reality TV” by Alan Nyuhas

(March 25th 2013)

358

Acts 22:4 “I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women

and throwing them into prison”

359

More titles that were also removed during this purge are mentioned in the chapter on Censorship,

and include David Duke’s autobiography My Awakening and his other book Jewish Supremacism, along with Kevin MacDonald’s Culture of Critique: Analysis of Jewish Involvement in TwentiethCentury Intellectual and Political Movement and others.

360

The topic of Amazon banning books is examined in detail in the chapter on Censorship.

361

Jesus in the Talmud by Peter Schafer pages 9 and 74 (Princeton Press 2007). Peter Shafer is a

professor Judaic Studies and director of the Program of Judaic Studies at Princeton University.

362

Jesus in the Talmud by Peter Schafer pages 17, 19, 20, 98-99, 110, 112, 141, 143 (Princeton Press

2007)

363

Invitation to the Talmud: Revised and Expanded Edition by Jacob Neusner page 1 (1973, 1984

Harper & Row Publishers)

364

Haaretz “New Poll Shows Atheism on Rise, With Jews Found to Be Least Religious” (August

20th 2012)

365

Galatians 3:29, Romans 9:6-8, 1 John 2:23

366

There are numerous interpretations of Christianity and the Bible, and what being a Christian

means. Some believe the Bible is 100% historical and literal, while others view the scriptures as

allegorical or mythological but still conveying a divine message from God by symbolically representing of various psychological processes involving the Self and the Ego.

367

Ephesians 2:8-9

368

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/goys

369

Chabad.org “Why Is Jewishness Matrilineal? Maternal Descent in Judaism” by Tzvil Freeman and

Yehudda Shurpin

370

For example, I once had a manager at a retail job who is a JINO tell me to my face that he

wouldn’t take out the trash at the store because he’s “a tribesman.”

371

Times of Israel “5 of Ovadia Yosef’s most controversial quotation” by Lazar Berman (October 9th

2013)

372

Times of Israel “Rabbi Ovadia Yosef buried in largest funeral in Israeli history” by Gavriel Fiske

(October 7th 2013)

373

Buddha’s real name was Siddhartha Gautama—The Buddha is just a title meaning “the awakened

one” or “the enlightened one.”

374

Matthew 21:43 says “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you

and given to a people who will produce its fruit.”

375

Zionism is the belief (and political movement) which promotes the idea that Israel should be a

country exclusively for Jews, while all western democracies (such as the United States and all countries throughout Europe) are under strict demands to surrender their ethnic majorities by embracing multiculturalism through mass immigration and importation of other (non-White) ethnic groups.

376

The Bible calls Christians a Holy nation in 1 Peter 1:9 and in Matthew 23:37-39 it says Israel kills

their prophets and their house will be left desolate until they believe in Jesus. Also the Holy Temple is now the body of believers in Christ, not some physical building in Jerusalem as noted in 1 Corinthians 6:19



377

City Journal “Why Don’t Jews Like the Christians Who Like Them?” by James Q. Wilson from

The Social Order, Politics and Law magazine (Winter 2008). Article cites a Pew survey that found 42 percent of Jewish respondents expressed hostility to evangelical and fundamentalist Christians.

378

IRS.gov “Charities, Churches and Politics” https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/charities-churches-and-

politics

379

Ibid.

380

WCNC “Yes, the IRS can revoke tax-exempt status for churches that endorse candidates” by

Brandon Lewis and Kelly Jones (November 1st 2022)

381

Life Hope & Truth ““Render Unto Caesar”: What Does God Say About Taxes?” by Bruce Gore

382

National Review “Obama’s Lawyer: Religious Institutions May Lose Tax-Exempt Status If Court

Rules for Gay Marriage” by Joel Gehrke (April 28th 2015)

383

The Texas Tribune “Beto O'Rourke says religious institutions should lose tax-exempt status if they

oppose gay marriage” by Patrick Svitek (October 11th 2019)

384

Fox News “City of Houston demands pastors turn over sermons” by Todd Starnes October 14th

2014)

385

The New York Times “Group Loses Tax Break Over Gay Union Issue” by Jill Capuzzo

(September 18, 2007)

386

Ibid.

387

CBS News “Editorial: Mormon Church Should Lose Tax Exempt Status Over Prop 8 Support” by

Editorial Board, The Daily Athenaeum (November 18th 2008)

388

The Independent “If the Catholic Church can’t stay out of politics, it should start paying taxes” by

Jennifer Stavros (May 24th 2022) .

389

MSNBC “Pastor sparks controversy with rhetoric about Dems, Christianity” by Steve Benen (May

18th 2022)



390

Newsweek “Pastor Who Called Democrats 'Demons' Claims He Gave Up Tax-Exempt Status” by

Anders Anglesey (May 24th 2022)

391

New York Times “Lutherans Offer Warm Welcome to Gay Pastors” by Laurie Goodstein (July

25th 2010)

392

AL.com “Birmingham church hires gay pastor; he's ready to do same-sex weddings” (June 25th

2015)

393

Fox 47 “Church's first openly gay pastor hopes to help others find healing in faith communities”

by Bradly Mallory (September 29th 2021)

394

Baptist News “Historic Kentucky church calls gay man as co-pastor” by Mark Wingfield (August

15th 2022)

395

Dallas Morning News “Oak Lawn United Methodist Church to self-appoint LGBTQ pastors after

bishop denies request” by Nataly Keomoungkoun (June 3rd 2022)

396

Matthew 12:14, Mark 11:18, Luke 23:23-24

397

ABC 7 Chicago “Oak Park church 'fasting from whiteness' for Lent despite vocal backlash” by

Cate Cauguiran (April 7th 2022)

398

The New Yorker “How Black Lives Matter Is Changing the Church” by Eliza Griswold (August

30th 2020)

399

LA Times “Drag queen lends sparkle to story time at Costa Mesa church” by Hillary Davis (July

10th 2019)

400

San Diego Union Tribune “Drag Queen Story Hour: glittery entertainment or gender-bending

provocation?” by Peter Rowe (September 15th 2019)

401

Trinity Church, Swarmouth’s official website “Drag Queen Story Time at Trinity! November 3rd

2019 original post here: https://www.trinity-swarthmore.org/drag-queen-story-time.html



402

Exposing The ELCA “ELCA Congregation Hosts Drag Queen Story Hour for Children

(November 4th 2019)

403

The New York Post “Students at ritzy NYC high school forced to attend drag show in church:

report” by Patrick Reilly (August 3rd 2022)

404

Daily Mail “Newly-ordained Lutheran pastor hosts DRAG Bible study class for children at woke

Chicago church” by James Gordon (December 19th 2021)

405

Christianity Daily “'Disturbing': Church Hosts 'Drag Queen Prayer Time' For Kids During Sunday

Service” by Olivia Cavallaro (December 22nd 2021)

406

Florida’s Voice “Naples Church Hosting LGBT Drag Show for 12 Year-Old Children, District Not

Informed of Plans to Use Schools as Transit Points” by Eric Daugherty )May 12th 2022)

407

San Diego Reader “Pink God and Gay Jesus come to the defense of local pastor” by Walter

Mencken (March 31st 2023)

408

The Guardian “Persecution of Christians 'coming close to genocide' in Middle East” by Patrick

Wintour (May 2nd 2019)

409

BBC “Christian persecution 'at near genocide levels’” (May 3rd 2019)

410

Fox News “Christian nonprofit Family Research Council remains on SPLC's 'hate map' 10 years

after terrorist attack” by Emma Colton (August 15th 2022)

411

NBC News “Man gets 25 years for attack on Family Research Council headquarters” by M. Alex

Johnson (September 19th 2013)

412

The Daily Signal “An Atmosphere of Lawlessness’: Attacks on Churches Nearly Triple in 4 Years,

New Report Finds” by Ben Johnson (December 16th 2022)

413

KUSI News “Chula Vista church vandalized with Satanic imagery” (September 8th 2019)

414

America Magazine “Catholic churches vandalized by abortion-rights advocates following

Supreme Court ruling” by Michael J. O’Loughlin (June 28th 2022)



415

Wisconsin State Journal “Catholic churches vandalized by abortion-rights advocates following

Supreme Court ruling” by Alexander Shur (May 9th 2022)

416

New York Times “Anti-Abortion Group in Wisconsin Is Hit by Arson, Authorities Say” by Luke

Vander Ploeg and Addison Lathers (May 8th 2022)

417

WCBU.org “Authorities: Fire At Peoria Anti-Abortion Pregnancy Center Was Intentionally Set”

by Tim Shelley (May 3rd 2021)

418

The Palm Beach Post “Discovery of anti-Semitic flyers outside homes across Florida leads to call

for federal probe” by Julius Whigham II (July 1st 2022)

419

LGBTQ Nation “Boxer Manny Pacquiao attacked outside restaurant for antigay comments” (April

4th 2016)

420

Los Angeles Times “Manny Pacquiao is banned from L.A.’s Grove for anti-gay comments” by

Chuck Schilken (March 18th 2016)

421

CBS News “Nashville school shooter's writings reignite debate over releasing material written by

mass killers” July 25th 2023)

422

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Nashville_school_shooting

423

Helena Blavatsky - The Secret Doctrine v. II page 237

424

Aleister Crowley - Magick: In Theory and Practice page 193

425

Eliphas Levi - Transcendental Magic p. 307

426

Fox News “Target customers shocked after company features pride items by Satanist partner:

Devil is 'hope' and ‘love’" by Kristine Parks (May 24th 2023)

427

Insider “6 Billionaires who want to live forever” by Cadie Thompson (September 2nd 2015)

428

TechnoCalyps - Part II - Preparing for the Singularity documentary by Frank Theys (2006)



429

Wired “Ray Kurzweil's Plan: Never Die” by Kristen Philpkoski (November 18th 2002)

430

Axios “Elon Musk: Humans must merge with machines” by Mike allen and Jim VanderHei

(November 26th 2018)

431

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1603902562071040000

432

TechCrunch “Elon Musk wants to build AI to ‘understand the true nature of the universe’” by

Kyle Wiggers (July 12th 2023)

433

The Daily Wire “11-Year-Old Boy Dressed In Drag Dances At Gay Bar, Gets Dollar Bills Thrown

At Him” by Amanda Prestigiacomo (December 17th 2018)

434

Los Angeles Times “Fight erupts at anti-Pride Day protest outside L.A. school where trans

teacher’s flag was burned” by Summer Lin, Andrew J. Campa, and Howard Blume (June 2nd 2023)

435

Good Morning America YouTube channel “The 11-year-old trailblazing drag kid 'Desmond is

Amazing' (November 2nd 2018) original URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxdvOLdG_34

436

NewsBusters “Sick: RuPaul's New Drag Queen Dramedy Sexualizes 10-Year-Old Child as a

‘Top’" by Elise Ehrhard (January 13th 2020)

437

The Blaze “Shocking new teenage drag queen doc from Tyra Banks, Discovery+ eviscerated

online as 'child abuse,' ‘grooming” by Phil Shiver (May 2nd 2022)

438

Fox News “San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus faces backlash for 'we're coming for your children'

video” by Sam Dorman (July 9th 2021)

439

Newsweek “Nearly 40 Percent of U.S. Gen Zs, 30 Percent of Young Christians Identify as

LGBTQ, Poll Shows” by Paul Bond (October 20th 2021)

440

NBC News “More Harvard, Yale freshmen identify as LGBTQ than as conservative, surveys find”

by Eric Duran and Brooke Sopelsa (September 14th 2018)



441

Fox News “38% of Brown University students identify as LGBTQ+” by Patrick Hauf (July 11th

2023)

442

The Hill “1 in 4 high school students identifies as LGBTQ” by Lexi Lonas (April 27th 2023)

443

NBC News “'Boy or girl?' Parents raising 'theybies' let kids decide” by Julie Compton (July 19th

2018)

444

Christian Post “Is Munchausen syndrome by proxy driving kids to identify as trans? Psychiatrists

answer” by Brandon Showalter (February 23rd 2023)

445

Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescence Psychiatry. “Mothers of boys with

gender identity disorder: a comparison of matched controls” by S Marantz and S Coates (March 30th 1991)

446

The Daily Beast “Ezra Miller Shows How Gender-Fluid Lipstick Can Be—Beautifully” by Alaina

Demopoulos (March 12th 2019)

447

ABC 7 New York “Boys can be princesses, too! Photo project embraces dress-up princess play for

boys” by Jina Mackin (January 14th 2021)

448

NBC News “Bretman Rock becomes Playboy’s first gay male cover star” by Matt Lavietes

(October 4th 2021)

449

New York Post “Incarcerated transgender woman Demi Minor impregnates two inmates at NJ

prison by Patrick Reilly (July 16th 2022)

450

New York Post “Transgender Rikers inmate sentenced to 7 years for raping female prisoner” by

Patrick Reilly (April 25th 2022)

451

Washington Examiner “Female high school athletes fear for their future with inclusion of

transgender women in sports” by Joseph Simonson (February 9th 2021)

452

New York Post “Some Rays players choose not to wear LGBTQ Pride Night patches” via

Associated Press (June 5th 2022)



453

Fox Business “Walmart’s Pride merchandising unchanged as Target sees backlash over new items”

by Daniella Genovise (June 2nd 2023)

454

Newsweek “PetSmart Faces Boycott Calls Over Pride Collection: ‘Unacceptable’" by Aleks

Phillips (May 29th 2023)

455

CNET “Pride 2022: Food and Drink Brands Giving Back to LGBTQ Causes” by Dan Avery June

24th 2022)

456

The Food Network “Chipotle Is Hosting Its Own Drag Competition in Honor of Pride Month” by

Samantha Leffler (June 1st 2021)

457

Restaurant Business Magazine “Taco Bell will host a series of drag shows this spring” by Jonathan

Maze (April 25th 2022)

458

Huffington Post “13 Rainbow Craft Ideas To Help Kids Celebrate Pride” by Caitlin McCormack

(June 14th 2018)

459

New York Times “Toronto Blue Jays Cut Player Who Defended Anti-Queer Post” by Jesus

Jimenez (June 9th 2023)

460

News Busters “Kaiser Permanente Ad Says 'Too Bad' to Those Who Say Drag Queen Story Hour

Is 'Too Much’” by Elise Ehrhard (October 9th 2019)

461

Metro Weekly “Pantene champions LGBTQ families in ad featuring trans child with lesbian

parents” by Riley Gillis (March 26th 2021)



462

Newsweek “Why Twix's Halloween Commercial Has Divided the Internet” by Soo Kim (October

29th 2021)

463

The Media Research Center “Kraft Peanut Butter Sells Kids Book On Trans Pronouns to Make

Kids ‘Better” by Gabriel Hays (December 2nd 2021)

464

CBS News “RuPaul gets a new signature Build-A-Bear (gold heels sold separately)” by Caitlin

O’Kane (April 6th 2023)

465

Washington Examiner “Blue's Clues song shows drag queen teaching children about gay,

transgender, and nonbinary characters” by Lawrence Richard (May 29th 2021)

466

LGBTQ Nation “It’s a straight line from Q Anon’s pedophilia hysteria to the GOP’s groomer

rhetoric” by John Gallagher (January 20th 2023)

467

https://web.archive.org/web/20230113014449/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_grooming_conspi racy_theory

468

Washington Post “Proud Boys disrupt drag-queen reading event, prompting hate-crime probe” by

Kim Bellware (June 13th 2022)

469

Newsweek “Video of 'Anti-Groomer' Protest Outside Gay Bar Sparks Outrage” by Shira Li Bartov

(June 7th 2022)

470

ABC 13 “Drag queen storytime reader once charged with child sex assault” by KTRK (March

15th 2019)

471

Life Site News “Second ‘Drag Queen Story Hour’ library reader exposed as convicted child sex

offender” by Mass Resistance (April 29th 2019)

472

Fox News “Judge who headed 'Drag Queen Story Hour' sponsor arrested on child porn charges”

by Houston Keene (March 18th 2021)

473



check caps on all mentions.

474

Penn Live “Central Pa. drag queen, activist charged with 25 counts of child pornography: police”

by Jenna Wise (June 24th 2022)

475

The Daily Signal “‘You Should Be in Prison’: Critics Slam Washington Post Article Encouraging

‘Kink Culture’ for Children” by Mary Margaret Olohan (July 1st 2021)

476

Washington Post “Yes, kink belongs at Pride. And I want my kids to see it.” by Lauren Rowello

(June 29th 2021)

477

Etsy has an entire section called “Tucking Underwear for Kids” on their website at

https://www.etsy.com/market/tucking_underwear_for_kids and Transkids.Biz is another website that sells them. https://transkids.biz/products/tuck-buddies-underwear

478

The Daily Mail “Transgender designer is accused of 'child abuse' for selling pants that seek to

'flatten' the genitals of boys as young as four - as doctors warn the underwear could cause infertility” by Georgia Edkins and Stephan Adams (April 23rd 2022)

479

Reduxx “Etsy Shop Selling “Tucking” Underwear For Toddlers” (March 13th 2022)

480

CBS Austin “Target unveils pro-trans merch for kids, 'chest binders' and 'packing underwear' for

18+” by Alec Schemmel (May 12th 2022)

481

The Daily Mail “Target is slammed for selling women's bathing suits with a section to 'tuck'

private parts in its new Pride collection - that includes clothes for babies and children with transfriendly slogan” by Lewis Pennock (May 19th 2023)

482

Fox News “Biden HHS Sec. Becerra suggests support for taxpayer-funded gender-altering

procedures on children” by Andrew Mark Miller (April 7th 2022)

483

CBN “Biden's Press Secretary Pushes Gender Change Procedures for Kids” by Steve Warren

(April 11th 2022)

484

ABC 7 KATV “Rachel Levine says Biden admin backs gender change therapies for kids” by

Zachary Rogers (March 17th 2023)



485

E! News “Disney Channel Introduces Its First Lesbian Couple on Good Luck Charlie” by Alyssa

Toomey (January 28th 2014)

486

Breitbart “ABC Family’s ‘The Fosters’ Airs Youngest-Ever Gay Kiss Between Two 13-Year-Old

Boys” by Kipp Jones (March 4th 2015)

487

NBC News “New short film ‘Out’ features Pixar’s first gay main character” by Gwen Aviles (May

22nd 2020)

488

CNN “Disney confirms its first bisexual lead character, who is also multi-cultural” by Adrianne

Morales (August 15th 2020)

489

New York Post “‘The Owl House’ becomes Disney’s first show with bisexual lead character “ by

Lee Brown (August 16th 2020)

490

Entertainment Weekly “Disney Channel features its first gay couple on 'Good Luck Charlie’” by

Hillary Busis (January 28th 2014)

491

Asbury Park Press “'Drag Race' star and Disney+ queen Nina West shares why Pride is for all

ages” by Alex Biese (June 25th 2021)

492

Fox Business “Disney announces new 2022 LGBTQ+ clothing collection for kids” by Landon

Mion (May 18th 2022)

493

ABC 10 San Diego “Disneyland announces first ever Pride Night” by Claudia Amezcua (April

16th 2023)

494

Fox News “Disney's 'Elemental,' which features 'non-binary' character, flops in opening weekend”

by Jeffrey Clark (June 20th 2023)

495

Army.mil “Serving with pride: LGBTQ Soldiers celebrate diversity, speak their truth” by Thmas

Branding, Army News Service (June 29th 2021)

496

Washington Post “Pentagon to Observe Gay Pride Month for First Time (by Lisa Rein (June 14th

2012)



497

https://www.instagram.com/p/CBgjXUWDx2M

498

U.S. Army’s official Army ROTC YouTube channel. “LGBT Pride Month” - Message from the

Commander (posted June 16th 2020) and posted on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/ArmyROTC/videos/june-is-lgbtpride-month-and-armyrotc-celebrates-thediversity-of-our-total-force/572626036979834

499

NBC News “Trump's controversial transgender military policy goes into effect” by Hallie Jackson

and Courtney Kube (April 12th 2019)

500

NBC News “Half of transgender male teens have attempted suicide, study finds” via Reuters

(September 13th 2018)

501

Washington Free Beacon “As Russia Wages War, US Army Trains Officers on Gender Identity” by

Adam Kredo (March 1st 2022)

502

https://twitter.com/usairforce/status/1509580161376731144

503

Fox News “Army recruitment video features lesbian wedding” by Fox News Staff (March 13th

2021)

504

Newsweek “Critics Slam 'Woke' CIA Recruitment Video: 'I Am Intersectional’” by Darragh Roche

(May 3rd 2021)

505

https://twitter.com/NASA/status/1532081420520284160

506

Reuters “Anal sex linked to increased risk of incontinence” by Lisa Rapaport (February 4th 2016)

507

Washington Times “‘Gay’ rape in military underreported by Pentagon” by Rowan Scarborough

(November 3rd 2015)

508

New York Times “Men Struggle for Rape Awareness” by Roni Caryn Rabin (January 23rd 2012)

509

Washington Times “‘Gay’ rape in military underreported by Pentagon” by Rowan Scarborough

(November 3rd 2015)



510

The Intercept “Culture of Silence: In U.S. Military, Sexual Assault Against Men is Vastly

Underreported” by Nick Turse (November 29th 2022)

511

ABC News “Reports of sexual assault in US military up 13%” by Luis Martinez (September 1st

2022)

512

Rand Health Quarterly “Needs of Male Sexual Assault Victims in the U.S. Armed Forces” by

Miriam Matthews, Coreen Farris, Margaret Tankard, Michael Stephen Dunbar (2018 Volume 8. No. 2)

513

The Daily Mail “Male-on-male rape in the military is 15 times more prevalent than the Pentagon

are reporting, according to a new study” by Khaleda Rahman (November 4th 2015)

514

The New York Times “In Debate Over Military Sexual Assault, Men Are Overlooked Victims” by

James Dao (June 23rd 2013)

515

Yahoo News “#MenToo: The hidden tragedy of male sexual abuse in the military” by Yahoo News

Photo Staff (December 31st 2019)

516

The Trouble with Harry Hay: Founder of the Modern Gay Movement by Stuart Timmons pages

92-93 Alyson Publications (1990) ISBN: 978-1555831752

517

San Diego Union-Tribune “FBI targets pedophilia advocates. Little-known group promotes

‘benevolent’ sex’” by Ornell R. Soto (February 14th 2005)

518

The Phoenix “The Real Harry Hay” by Michael Bronski (July 7th 2002)

519

The American Spectator “When Nancy met Harry” by Jeffry Lord (October 5th 2006)

520

The Trouble with Harry Hay: Founder of the Modern Gay Movement by Stuart Timmons pages

35-36 Alyson Publications (1990) ISBN: 978-1555831752

521

https://web.archive.org/web/20220314030036/https://www.nambla.org/hayonmanboylove.html

522

[Box 2/folder 21] Lesbian and Gay Academic Union Records, Coll2011-041, ONE National Gay

& Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries, University of Southern California



523

The Mayor of Castro Street: A Biography of Harvey Milk by Randy Shilts (pages 30–33)

524

Reuters “Sean Penn wins best actor Oscar for ‘Milk’” by Mary Milliken (February 22nd 2009)

525

Pederasts claim they’re not pedophiles, but instead are men attracted to adolescent boys, while

pedophiles are attracted to small children, so the pederasts insist they’re not molesting children, but they’re “helping” young boys “discover” that they’re gay.

526

ABC 7 “Temecula Valley school board adopts textbooks that include Harvey Milk after warnings

from Newsom” (July 22nd 2023)

527

CBS Los Angeles “Gov. Newsom fines Temecula Valley school board $1.5 for rejecting new

curriculum” by KCAL-News Staff (July 20th 2023)

528

While John Money didn’t originally coin the terms, he did widely popularize them. It appears that

UCLA psychiatrists Robert Stoller and Ralph Greenson jointly coined “gender identity” in 1963.

529

Paidika: The Journal of Paedophilia “Interview: John Money” (Spring 1991, vol. 2, no. 3, p. 5)

530

Sexual Offender Treatment.org “John Money's ‘Chronophilia’: Untimely Sex between Philias and

Phylisms” by Diederik Janssen (January 2017)

531

The Daily Mail “The spiritual father of trans movement Dr John Money, his twisted experiment in

the 1960s” by Tom Leonard (June 25th 2023

532

Psychology Today “A Boy Raised as a Girl Killed Himself 19 Years Ago Today: Upbringing has

limited power to impose gender identity.” by Ari Berkowitz (May 5th 2023)

533

New York Times “How to Raise a Child Without Imposing Gender” by Michael Tortorello (March

7th 2019)

534

Newsweek “Transformers' First Non-Binary Character Sparks Backlash” by Chloe Mayer (May

13th 2023)



535

USA Today “Stars like Demi Lovato, Elliot Page, Sam Smith identify as nonbinary. What does

that mean?” by David Oliver (May 19th 2021)

536

The Washington Post “Meet the first person in the country to officially receive a gender-neutral

driver’s license” by Perry Stein (June 30th 2017)

537

The Hill “Here are the states where you can (and cannot) change your gender designation on

official documents” by Brooke Migdon (May 31st 2022)

538

WCAX CBS 3 Vermont parents can now use gender X marker on child’s birth certificate” by

Calvin Cutler (February 9th 2023)

539

https://www.usbirthcertificates.com/articles/gender-neutral-birth-certificates-states

540

Fox News “AMA faces backlash after opposing putting sex on birth certificates” by Sam Dorman

(August 2nd 2021)

541

The Hill “Here are the states where you can (and cannot) change your gender designation on

official documents” by Brooke Migdon (May 31st 2022)

542

BBC “Transgender man wants to be named father” (June 7th 2018)

543

Chicago Tribune “In a first for Illinois, transgender man who gave birth will be listed as the father

on his baby’s birth certificate” by Nara Schoenberg (January 14th 2020)

544

Newsbusters “Dove Ad Features Transgender Mom: ‘No One Right Way” by Sarah Stites (April

12th 2017)

545

The Wrap “GLAAD Slams ‘Shameful’ ’60 Minutes’ Story on Transgender Youth” by Lindsey

Ellefson (May 24th 2021)

546

Metro Weekly “60 Minutes criticized for ‘dangerous’ and ‘dehumanizing’ segment on transgender

healthcare” by Rhuaridh Marr (May 26th 2021)

547

The Daily Caller “Growing Body of Evidence Shows ‘Social Influence’ Is Causing Teens To

Undergo Sex Changes” by Laurel Duggan (November 25th 2022)



548

Los Angeles Times “A transgender psychologist reckons with how to support a new generation of

trans teens” by Jenny Jarvie (April 12th 2022)

549

New York Post “‘I literally lost organs:’ Why detransitioned teens regret changing genders” by

Rikki Schlott (June 18th 2022)

550

The Daily Signal “Detransition Advocate Chloe Cole Sues Doctors for ‘Breaching Standard of

Care’” by Dan Hart (November 16th 2022)

551

The Daily Mail “Pink-haired Portland surgeon who performs sex-change surgery on trans

CHILDREN admits they face lifetime of infertility, incontinence and sexual dissatisfaction, in nowdeleted video” by James Reinl (July 14th 2023)

552

The Christian Post “Female detransitioner says gender dysphoria must be treated like mental

health issue” by Leah MarieAnn Klett (April 27th 2021)

553

Ibid

554

New York Post “Retired Navy SEAL Chris Beck, who came out as trans, announces detransition:

‘destroyed my life’” by Emma Colton (December 11th 2022)

555

Those who no longer experience gender dysphoria are called “desisters” because they desist as

opposed to “persisters” whose dysphoria persists. Many of those who do desist later identity as gay, lesbian, or bisexual, but not as transgender.

556

Basic Freud: Psychoanalytic Thought for the 21st Century by Michael Kahn, Ph.D page 77 - on

the negative resolution of the Oedipus complex (2002 Basic Books)

557

Psychoanalytic Psychology “A special oedipal mechanism in the development of male

homosexuality” pages 341-359 by Lewes, K. (1998)

558

Scientific American “Oedipus Complex 2.0: Like it or not, parents shape their children's sexual

preferences” by Jesse Bering (August 17th 2010



559

The British Journal of Psychiatry “Cycle of child sexual abuse: Links between being a victim and

becoming a perpetrator” by M. Glasser , I. Kolvin , D. Campbell , A. Glasser , I. Leitch and S. Farrelly(January 2nd 2018)

560

Archives of Sexual Behavior “Comparative data of childhood and adolescence molestation in

heterosexual and homosexual persons” by Marie E. Tomeo, Donald I. Templer, Susan Anderson and Debra Kotler (Vol. 30, November 5, 2001)

561

Most Christians (as well as non-Christians) think that only the Old Testament denounces

homosexuality (which it does in Leviticus 20:13), but the New Testament does as well in Romans 1:26-27 and 1st Corinthians 6:9-10, so the arrival of Jesus didn’t change God’s stance on the behavior.

562

Pediatric Neuroendocrinology “Sexual Hormones and the Brain: An Essential Alliance for Sexual

Identity and Sexual Orientation” Volume 17 chapter 22-35 (2009) by Alicia Garcia-Falgueras and Dick F. Swaab   Trends in Cognitive Sciences “Sex-related variation in human behavior and the brain” pages 448–456 by Melissa Hines (October 2010)

563

New Scientist “‘Gender-bending’ chemicals found to ‘feminise’ boys” by Andy Coghlan (May

27th 2005)

564

BBC “Plastic Chemicals ‘Feminise Boys’” (November 16th 2009)

565

Los Angeles Times “Softeners in plastics may affect masculinity in young boys, study says” by

Thomas H. Maugh II (November 15th 2009)

566

Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology “Prenatal endocrine influences on sexual orientation and on

sexually differentiated childhood behavior” by Melissa Hines Volume 32, issue 2 pages 170-182 (April 2011)

567

Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology “Hormones of choice: The neuroendocrinology of partner

preference in animals” by Henley, C.L., Nunez, A.A., & Clemens, L.G. volume 32, issue 2 pages 146-154 (April 2011)



568

Science Journal “A Difference in Hypothalamic Structure Between Heterosexual and Homosexual

Men” by Simon LeVay (August 30th 1991)

569

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America “Male

homosexuality and maternal immune responsivity to the Y-linked protein NLGN4Y” by Anthony F. Bogaert, Malvina N. Skorska, Chao Wang, and Ray Blanchard (January 2018)

570

The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths About Sex and Identity in Our Society by Dr. Debra

Soh page 104

571

Smithsonian Magazine “Human Sperm Counts Declining Worldwide, Study Finds” by Will

Sullivan (November 22nd 2022)

572

CBS News “Your athletic wear could contain high levels of BPA” by CKAL-News Staff (May

18th 2023)

573

Forbes “Worrisome BPA Levels Found In Sportswear By Nike, Adidas, Patagonia And More,

Group Alleges” by Arianna Johnson (May 18th 2023)

574

Men’s Health “Is This the Most Dangerous Food For Men?” by Jim Thornton (May 19th 2009)

575

Jordan Peterson Podcast with guest Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Ep 363 (June 8th 2023) Note: YouTube

censored the episode claiming it violated their terms of service because of a discussion on vaccine dangers, but the podcast is available on other platforms.

576

Jordan B. Peterson Rekindling the Spirit of the Classic Democrat | Robert F. Kennedy Jr. | EP 363

577

The Texas Tribune “Toxic herbicide found in many Texans' drinking water” by Carlos Anchondo

(November 15th 2018)

578

The Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology “Demasculinization and feminization

of male gonads by atrazine: Consistent effects across vertebrate classes” Volume 127, Issue 1-2 October 2011 Pages 64-73

579

“Alex Jones Declares War on Juice Boxes” uploaded to YouTube here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_q8F_qazbI



580

The Daily Mail “Can birth control make you a LESBIAN? As a number of women say their

homosexuality was 'woken up' after starting or coming off the Pill, studies suggest there might be some truth about the unlikely side effect” by Cassidy Morrison (November 25th 2022)

581

Pandia Health “What Happens When You Stop Taking Birth Control? Everything You Need to

Know”

582

Healthline “Everything You Need to Know About Post-Birth Control Syndrome” by Lauren

Sharkey (March 31st 2020)

583

TMZ “Bruce Jenner Sexual Preference Uncertain After Cross-Sex Hormone Therapy” (February

6th 2015)

584

NCBI National Center for Biotechnology Information “Transgender Transitioning and Change of

Self-Reported Sexual Orientation” by Matthias K. Auer, Johannes Fuss, Nina Hohne, Gunter K. Stalla, and Caroline Stevens via PLOA Online (October 9th 2014)

585

Fox News “Migrant says he came to US border because Biden was elected, would not have tried

to cross under Trump” by Stephen Sorace (March 21st 2021)

586

New York Post “Honduran migrant traveling to US says Biden is ‘going to help all of us’” by

Emily Jacobs (January 19th 2021)

587

The Hill “Yale, MIT study: 22 million, not 11 million, undocumented immigrants in US” by

Rafael Bernal (September 21st 2018)

588

NPR “Migrant Families Arrive In Busloads As Border Crossings Hit 10-Year High” by Joel Rose

and John Burnett (March 5th 2019)

589

The Wall Street Journal “Record Immigration Surge at the Border” by Alicia A. Caldwell and

Louise Radnofsky (March 5th 2019)

590

Washington Examiner “234,088 migrants encountered at southern border in April, most in a

century” by Anna Giaritelli (May 17th 2022)



591

Washington Times “DHS encountered a record 2 million illegal immigrants on southern border in

2021” by Stephen Dinan (January 24th 2022)

592

CNN “More than 100,000 migrants encountered at US-Mexico border in past 3 weeks, data shows

(Geneva Sands (March 9th 2021)

593

CNN “US border encounters top 2 million in fiscal year 2022” by Priscilla Alvarez (October 22nd

2022)

594

New York Post “Kamala Harris insists border ‘secure’ as illegal migrants set to pass 2M” by

Emily Crane (September 12th 2022)

595

The Daily Wire “Biden’s 2019 ‘Surge To The Border’ Comments Resurface Amid

Growing Crisis” (March 18th 2021)

596

At the Council on Foreign Relations event “The Rise of Global Anti-Semitism” (February 27th

2017) on their YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/Q7YKE9A3I_Y?si=WjBoVBEJ84OgwE37 (at 31:52)

597

New York Post “Migrants allowed into US as asylum seekers given immigration court dates into

year 203” by Valentina Jaramillo and Stephanie Pagones (May 11th 2023)

598

Breitbart “Analysis: Nearly 400K Anchor Babies Born Across U.S. Last Year, Exceeding

Population of Cleveland” by John Binder (January 5th 2023)

599

Ibid.

600

CNBC “Report: More than half of immigrants on welfare” by Alan Gomez (September 2015)

601

Center for Immigration Studies “63% of Non-Citizen Households Access Welfare Programs” by

Steven A. Camarota and Karen Zeigler (December 2nd 2018)

602

Wall Street Journal “U.S. in Talks to Pay Hundreds of Millions to Families Separated at Border”

by Michelle Hackman (October 8th 2021)



603

The Hill “16 states allow undocumented migrants to obtain driver’s licenses” by Brooke Migdon

(February 16th 2022)

604

NPR “Bank Defends Credit Cards for Illegal Immigrants” by Scott Horsley (February 13th 2007)

605

Associated Press “California first to cover health care for all immigrants” by Adam Beam and Don

Thompson (June 30th 2022)

606

The Hill “All candidates raise hands on giving health care to undocumented immigrants” by

Alexander Bolton (June 27th 2019)

607

The Washington Times “Mexican aliens seek to retake 'stolen' land” (April 16th 2006)

608

Breitbart “Fact Check: Yes, Thousands of Americans Have Been Killed by Illegal Aliens” by John

Binder (January 8th 2019)

609

USA Today “'Citi Bike Karen' viral video shows why we shouldn't rush to judgment” by Dustin

Siggins (May 23rd 2023)

610

Newsweek “MS-13: How an FBI Informant Risked Death to Bring America’s Most Brutal Gang

to Justice” by Michele McPhee (June 14th 2018)

611

Washington Times “Illegals commit crimes at double the rate of native-born: Study” by Stephen

Dinan (January 26th 2018)

612

Huffington Post “Cities Nationwide Refuse To Cooperate With ICE’s Mass Deportation Raids” by

Carla Herreria Russo (June 21st 2019)

613

NPR “Democrats Reject Trump Border Wall Proposal, Calling It A ‘Non-Starter” by Ayesha

Rascoe (January 19th 2019)

614

Breitbart “Warren on Border Wall: We Will Not Build Trump’s ‘Monument to Hate and Division’”

by Pam Key (February 20th 2019)

615

CNN “Beto O’Rourke says he would ‘take the wall down’ separating El Paso and Mexico” by Eric

Bradner (February 14th 2019)



616

NPR “Biden Would End Border Wall Construction, But Wouldn't Tear Down Trump's Additions”

by Barbara Sprunt (August 5th 2020)

617

Associated Press “Obama’s 2005 remarks reflect strong stance on controlling immigration”

(November 2nd 2018)

618

The New American “Hillary Clinton: She Was for a Border Wall Before She Was Against It” by

Joe Wolverton, II, JD (September 10th 2016)

619

The Washington Times “Hillary Clinton: ‘We need to secure our borders’” by Jessica Chasmar

(November 10th 2015)

620

The Blaze “Dems won’t be pleased with recently resurfaced videos of Sen. Chuck Schumer

talking tough on illegal immigration” by Sarah Taylor (December 28th 2018)

621

CNN “New York City gives noncitizens right to vote in local elections” by Kelly Mena (December

9th 2021)

622

NPR “The 'great replacement' conspiracy theory isn't fringe anymore, it's mainstream” by Odette

Yousef (May 17th 2022)

623

Washington Post “Census: Minority babies are now majority in United States” by Carol Morello

and Ted Mellnik (May 17th 2012)

624

New York Times “The White-Extinction Conspiracy Theory Is Bonkers” by Farhad Manjoo

(March 20th 2019)

625

CounterPunch “Why ‘White Genocide’ is Key to the Earth’s Survival: White Genocide from

Baldwin to Ciccariello-Maher” by Roberto D. Hernandez (December 30th 2016)

626

The American Jewish Committee (or AJC) is the most active Jewish pro-immigration group.

Others include the National Immigration Forum, and HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.

627

Fox News “Flashback: Biden praised ‘constant,' 'unrelenting’ stream of immigration into US” by

Adam Shaw (December 12th 2020)



628

The Daily Caller “Biden On ‘Wave’ Of Immigration: ‘It’s Not Going To Stop” (February 18th

2015).

629

Ibid.

630

Fox News “CNN's Anderson Cooper: It's 'exciting' that whites will no longer represent nation's

‘majority’" by Sam Dorman (August 13th 2019)

631

Washington Post “Trump immigration plan could keep whites in U.S. majority for up to five more

years” by Jeff Stein and Andrew Van Dam (February 6th 2018)

632

MSNBC “All In with Chris Hayes” (February 6th 2018)

633

Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News (April 8th 2021)

634

CNN “ADL calls on Fox News to fire Tucker Carlson over racist comments about ‘replacement’

theory” by Brian Stelter (April 9th 2021)

635

Mediaite “Tucker Carlson Goes All In On ‘The Great Replacement’ Theory, Says Biden Wants To

‘Change the Racial Mix Of the Country’” by Michael Luciano (September 22nd 2021)

636

Ibid.

637

Ibid.

638

Ibid.

639

United Nationals (UN.org) “UN marks 75 years since displacement of 700,000 Palestinians” (May

15th 2023)

640

https://web.archive.org/web/20210403000313/https://www.adl.org/education/resources/fact-

sheets/response-to-common-inaccuracy-bi-national-one-state-solution

641



Ibid.

642

The Megyn Kelly Show “Tucker Carlson on the Media's Deception, the ADL's Attacks, and

Armor Against Criticism” (September 24th 2021)

643

The Charlie Kirk Show - Streamed on YouTube (September 23rd 2021)

644

Washington Post “Nearly half of Republicans agree with ‘great replacement theory’” by Philip

Bump (May 9th 2022)

645

Vice News “Racist ‘Replacement Theory’ Is Bleeding Into GOP Senate Campaigns” by Cameron

Joseph (May 10th 2022)

646

Los Angeles Times “After Buffalo, will social media companies finally ban great replacement

theory?” by Brian Contreras (May 17th 2022)

647

ADL.org “Deplatform Tucker Carlson and the ‘Great Replacement’ Theory” (May 24th 2022)

648

The Hill “Yale, MIT study: 22 million, not 11 million, undocumented immigrants in US” by

Rafael Bernal (September 21st 2018)

649

Politico “Immigration reform could be bonanza for Dems” by Emily Schultheis (April 22nd 2013)

650

Center for American Progress “Immigration Is Changing the Political Landscape in Key States”

(April 8th 2013)

651

Newsweek “America’s Getting Less White, And That Will Save It” by William H. Frey

(December 6th 2014)

652

The Death of the West: How Dying Populations and Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our Country

and Civilization by Patrick J. Buchanan page 3 (2002 Thomas Dunne Books)

653

BBC “The sexually abused dancing boys of Afghanistan” by Rustam Qobil (September 8th 2010)

654

Los Angeles Times “In his hometown, fugitive Mexican drug lord ‘El Chapo’ is a hero to many”

by Deborah Bonello (August 10th 2015)



655

Business Insider “Here's where Mexican drug cartels operate in the US, according to the DEA” by

Christopher Woodly (October 25th 2017)

656

New York Times “14 Gang Leaders Directed MS-13 ‘Wave of Death,’ U.S. Say” by Benjamin

Weiser (January 14th 2021)

657

CNN “Texas has bused nearly 9,000 migrants to NYC and DC as an affront to Biden’s

immigration policies” by Zenebou Sylla (August 27th 2022)

658

ABC 7 New York WABC “Mayor Eric Adams says asylum seeker crisis 'will destroy New York

City’” September 8th 2023)

659

ABC 7 Chicago “Mayor Lightfoot says Chicago 'tapped out' of resources as marchers call for help

for migrants” by Sarah Schulte and Stephanie Wade (May 1st 2023)

660

New York Post “DC Mayor Bowser declares public emergency over thousands of bussed

migrants” by Katherine Donlevy (Setember 8th 2022)

661

Boston Herald “Migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard moved to Cape Cod military base” by Gayla

Cawley (September 16th 2022)

662

Fox News “DeSantis criticizes Democrats after sending migrants to Martha's Vineyard: 'Their

virtue signaling is a fraud” by Timothy Nerozzi (September 15th 2022)

663

Pew Research Center “Reflecting a demographic shift, 109 U.S. counties have become majority

nonwhite since 2000” by Jens Manuel Krogstad (August 21st 2019)

664

CBS News “Census: Whites no longer a majority in U.S. by 2043” (December 12th 2012)

665

Brookings Institute “The US will become ‘minority white’ in 2045, Census projects” by William

H. Frey (March 14th 2018)

666

Fox News “CNN's Anderson Cooper: It's 'exciting' that whites will no longer represent nation's

‘majority’" by Sam Dorman (August 13th 2019)



667

The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon S8 E180 | 08/12/21 Clip posted on the show’s official

Twitter account here: https://twitter.com/FallonTonight/status/1426025966971854849

668

https://twitter.com/JRubinBlogger/status/1425899248269266947

669

CNN “European colonizers killed so many Native Americans that it changed the global climate,

researchers say” by Lauren Kent (February 2nd 2019)

670

Reuters “Diversity remains golf's biggest challenge, says PGA of America CEO” by Steve Keating

(August 8th 2018)

671

Travel Weekly “Ski industry examines its lack of diversity” by Robert Silk (July 24th 2020)

672

Washington Post “National parks are travel’s next frontier in the movement for racial equality” by

Kerry-Ann Hamilton (September 17th 2020)

673

New York Post “McAuliffe laments number of white teachers ahead of Va. governor vote” by

Samuel Chamberlain (November 1st 2021)

674

Newsweek “United Airlines Sparks Debate With Pledge to Diversify Pilot Staff” by Emily

Czachor (April 7th 2021)

675

Yahoo News “86% of Air Force pilots are white men. Here’s why this needs to change” by Major

General Ed Thomas (October 20th 2020)

676

https://web.archive.org/web/20220128192617/https://www.adl.org/racism

677

https://twitter.com/ADL/status/1483600090639986688

678

New York Post “Inside BLM co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors’ million-dollar real estate buying

binge” by Isabel Vincent (April 10th 2021)

679

Fox News “BLM transferred millions to Canadian charity to buy mansion formerly owned by

Communist Party: report” by Jon Brown (January 29th 2022)



680

Fox News “Black Lives Matter has nearly $42 million in assets: IRS documents” by Lawrence

Richard (May 17th 2022)

681

New York Post “BLM paid co-founder’s baby daddy nearly 5 times more than Trayvon Martin

foundation” by Isabel Vincent and Dana Kennedy (March 17th 2022)

682

Business Insider “A Black Lives Matter cofounder used $840,000 of the group's funds to pay her

brother for 'security services” by Matthew Loh (May 19th 2022)

683

National Review “Walmart CRT Training Encourages Employees to Accept That ‘White Is Not

Right’” by Brittany Bernstein (October 14th 2021)

684

https://web.archive.org/web/20230609015548/https://www.coca-

colacompany.com/social/diversity-and-inclusion/internal-action

685

New York Post “AT&T critical race theory training says white employees ‘the problem’” by Lee

Brown (October 29th 2021)

686

City Journal ““White People, You Are the Problem”” by Cristopher F. Rufo (October 28th 2021)

687

The Daily Wire “LinkedIn Allows Recruiters To Filter Job Candidates By Race” by Ben Zeisloft

(April 20th 2023)

688

ABC 15 WPDE “Tech exec prioritizes job opening to people of color, critics argue civil rights

violation” by Alec Schemmel (May 10th 2022)

689

https://twitter.com/gregg_re/status/1524230391825063937

690

Wall Street Journal “YouTube Hiring for Some Positions Excluded White and Asian Men, Lawsuit

Says” by Kirsten Grind and Douglas MacMillan (March 1st 2018)

691

Ibid.

692



https://twitter.com/YouTube/status/963900837570469888

693

The Verge “YouTube announces 135 creators in its 2022 Black Voices Fund” by Mia Sato (January

27th 2022)

694

New York Post “Comedian Tyler Fischer claims he was rejected by agent for being white” by

Angela Barbuti (May 21st 2022)

695

https://web.archive.org/web/20220522003711/https://twitter.com/tythefisch/status/152815641627142 5538

696

City of Sacramento Mayor’s Office of Community Engagement “Sacramento city council

unanimously adopt a mandatory diversity and equity training” (May 9th 2023)

697

WFTS “Community calls for diversity training after racism allegations at Tampa fire station” by

Rochelle Alleyne (June 27th 2023)

698

Washington Examiner “Seattle holds training session for white employees aimed at affirming

'complicity in racism' and 'undoing whiteness” by Andrew Mark Miller (July 7th 2020)

699

Fox News “Minneapolis teachers union agreement stipulates White teachers be laid off first,

regardless of seniority” by Kelsey Koberg (August 15th 2022)

700

CBS News “Uber diversity head put on leave over workplace event on ‘Karen persona’” by

Megan Cerullo (May 22nd 2023)

701

U.S. Department of Justice “Race and Ethnicity of Violent Crime Offenders and Arrestees, 2018”

by Allen J. Beck, Bureau of Justice Statistics (January 2021)

702

Ibid

703

Some argue there are racial differences in aggression and impulse control, while others point to

generational fatherlessness and thug culture being embraced and celebrated by Black communities.

704

Fox News “Tennessee church gunman hoped to kill 10 white congregants to avenge Charleston

massacre, prosecutors say” by Samuel Chamberlain (May 20th 2019)



705

Newsweek “Tennessee Church Shooting Is a ‘Reverse Dylann Roof’ Story, ‘Alt-Right’ Claims”

by Michael Edison Hayden (September 28th 2017)

706

New York Times “Shooting at a Church Near Nashville Leaves One Dead and Seven Wounded”

by Christina Caron (September 24th 2017)

707

ABC News “TV Land Pulls 'Dukes of Hazzard' Reruns” by Luchina Fisher (July 1st 2015)

708

CBS News “Dallas suspect said he wanted to kill whites” (July 8th 2016)

709

NBC News “California man convicted of murder in racist shooting spree that killed 3 in Fresno”

by Phil Helsel (April 23rd 2020)

710

The Christian Post “Was Esau-Edom white? Demolishing Hebrew Israelite lies (part 1)” by

Michael Brown (March 29th 2023)

711

Christian Research Institute “Why Do 1West “Hebrew Israelites” Call Whites “Edomites” And

Chinese “Moabites” ?” by Vocab Malone (October 1st 2019)

712

CNN “Jersey City shooters fueled by hatred of Jewish people and law enforcement, state attorney

general says” by Jason Hanna and Madeline Holcombe (December 12th 2019)

713

ABC News “5 stabbed at rabbi's Hanukkah celebration by intruder with machete-type knife” by

Bill Hutchinson, Stephanie Ramos, Joshn Margolin, and Marc Nathanson (December 29th 2019)

714

CNN “Suspect in Hanukkah celebration stabbings arrested in New York City with ‘blood all over

him,’ source says” by Christina Maxouris, Elliot C. McLaughlin and Sarah Jorgensen (December 29th 2019)

715

New York Post “Tiffany Harris let loose again after second alleged assault” by Tina Moore,

Andrew Denney, and Aaron Feis (December 30th 2019)

716

Modern Judaism: A Journal of Jewish Ideas and Experience “White Devils, Satanic Jews: The

Nation of Islam From Fard to Farrakhan” Volume 40, Issue 2 May 2020. Audio clips of this speech can be found online if you search for Malcolm X and Jews.



717

Fox News “Dallas police chief: Koreatown hair salon shooting suspect ‘motivated by hate’” by

Louis Casiano (May 17th 2022)

718

New York Post “Yonkers man hit with hate crime in ‘appalling’ attack on Asian woman” by Jorge

Fitz-Gibbon (March 14th 2022)

719

ABC 7 New York “Asian man pushed onto subway tracks in Queens” (May 24th 2021)

720

https://www.splcenter.org/presscenter/splc-collapse-black-separatist-groups-listings-hate-map-

reassigns-groups-according

721

Wall Street Journal “Hate Crime Hoaxes Are More Common Than You Think” by Jason L. Riley

(June 25th 2019)

722

One such book is titled Hate Crime Hoax: How the Left is Selling a Fake Race War by Wilfred

Reilly (2019)

723

The Daily Mail “Black college lacrosse player, 21, is arrested for spraying N-word and swastika

graffiti targeting HIMSELF and other minority students in two incidents that terrorized the campus” by Megan Sheets (December 1st 2018)

724

NJ.com “Twitter threats to black Kean students made by black alum, police say” by Jessica Re3mo

(December 1st 2015)

725

The College Fix “Hoax alert: Black Illinois student criminally charged for racist notes” by

Jonathan Draeger (February 7th 2022)

726

Wall Street Journal “Hate crime hoaxes are more common than you think” by Jason L. Riley (June

25th 2019)

727

Washington Post “An alleged hate crime at a Jewish cafe was ‘the most brazen’ a community had

seen. It was all fake, police now say” by Meagan Flynn (April 26th 2019)

728

Fox News “Al Sharpton doubles down on Tawana Brawley rape accusation hoax: ‘Should I

apologize?’” by Jeffrey Clark (January 23rd 2023)



729

Ashley Jardina, author of White Identity Politics, during an interview with Heterodox Academy

YouTube channel #52 (May 1st 2019)

730

The Economist “How “identitarian” politics is changing Europe” (March 28th 2018)

731

Newsweek “Migrants in Europe Linked To Soaring Violence and Crime in Germany, Study Finds”

by Grace Guarnieri (January 3rd 2018)

732

Pew Research “5 facts about the Muslim population in Europe” by Conrad Hackett (November

29th 2017)

733

GB News “Muhammad revealed as the most popular UK baby boy name for 2022” by Aden-Jay

Wood (May 7th 2022)

734

Some reports claim it became the most popular baby name for boys in 2014.

735

Office for National Statistics “Religion, England and Wales: Census 2021” (Census 2021, release

date November 29th 2022)

736

Huffington Post “‘It’s Okay To Be White’ Signs Appear In Schools, Cities Across The U.S.” by

Taryn Finley (November 9th 2017)

737

Washington Post “Law school professors say posting ‘All Lives Matter’ flier was an ‘incident of

intolerance’” by Susan Svrluga (April 4th 2016)

738

CBS News “Kanye West faces backlash for wearing shirt with "White Lives Matter" slogan” by

Caitlin O’Kane (October 4th 2022)

739

Rolling Stone “From the Trump Supporter Who Called Slavery a Choice: Kanye West Wears

‘White Lives Matter’ T-Shirt” by Tomas Mier (October 3rd 2022)

740

The New York Times “There Is No Excuse for Ye’s ‘White Lives Matter’ Shirt” by Vanessa

Friedman (October 4th 2022)

741



https://www.adl.org/resources/hate-symbol/white-lives-matter

742

https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/white-lives-matter

743

https://twitter.com/realchrisrufo/status/1409524324638203910

744

https://twitter.com/realchrisrufo/status/1407206483830349856

745

Timcast IRL “Kyle Rittenhouse EXTRADITED To Kenosha, DEBUNKING Critical Race Theory

With Chris Rufo” (October 30th 2020) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2890lBKZX0

746

KTNV “Mental health impacts on children who struggle growing up multiracial” by Bree Guy

(March 8th 2021)

747

Marriage.com “Unique Challenges Faced by Inter-Ethnic Marriages” by Stewart Lawrence (March

9th 2021)

748

Wikipedia entry for ‘White Pride’ (archived May 21st 2022)

https://web.archive.org/web/20220522003016/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_pride

749

Wikipedia entry for ‘Black Pride’ (archived May 21st 2022)

https://web.archive.org/web/20220522002847/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_pride

750

Wikipedia entry for ‘Asian Pride’ (archived May 21st 2022)

https://web.archive.org/web/20220522003322/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_pride

751

The Guardian “That dating site for white people? It's racist, no matter how it's justified” by Zach

Stafford (January 8th 2016)

752

Post Millennial “UC Berkeley holds segregated graduation ceremony for black students only”

(May 22nd 2023)

753

NPR “Distributor, newspapers drop 'Dilbert' comic strip after creator's racist rant” by Mandalit del

Barco (February 27th 2023)

754

The Ben Shapiro Show Ep. 1677 “Musk Calls The Media Racist – And He’s Right” (February

28th 2023)



755

A definition I came up with and posted on Gab in March 2023.

https://web.archive.org/web/20230326084204/https://gab.com/MarkDice/posts/11008783844329444 8

756

The ADL has 13/50 listed as a “numeric hate symbol” because it notes that Black people are 13

percent of the U.S. population but commit 50% of the violent crime.

757

A definition I came up with and posted on Facebook in June 2023

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=807399877410120

758

Huffington Post “Myspace Collapse: How The Social Network Fell Apart” by Amy Lee (June

30th 2011)

759

Tech Crunch “iPhone App Store Has Launched” by Michael Arrington (July 10th 2008)

760

The New York Times “‘False Flag’ Theory on Pipe Bombs Zooms From Right-Wing Fringe to

Mainstream” by Kevin Roose (October 25th 2018)

761

Live From America Podcast 067 ; Bringing Down Alex Jones With Oliver Darcy and Galen Druke

via YouTube (August 13th 2018) (16:26 timecode)

762

Axios “YouTube removes clip of Rand Paul reading alleged name of Ukraine whistleblower on

Senate floor” by Rashaan Ayesh (February 13th 2020)

763

USA Today “YouTube alters algorithm after searches for Las Vegas shooting turn up conspiracy

theories” by Jessica Guynn (October 5th 2017)

764

Breitbart “New Whistleblower Allegation: YouTube Manipulated ‘Federal Reserve’ Search

Results in Response to MSNBC Host’s Complaint” by Allum Bokhari (July 30th 2019)

765

The Verge “YouTube fought Brie Larson trolls by changing its search algorithm” by Julia

Alexander (March 8th 2019)

766

New York Times “YouTube suspends Rand Paul for a week over a video disputing the

effectiveness of masks” by Daniel Victor (August 11th 2021)



767

Engaget “Fox News host Dan Bongino suspended on YouTube over COVID-19 misinformation”

by Mariella Moon (January 15th 2022)

768

New York Times “The C.D.C. concedes that cloth masks do not protect against the virus as

effectively as other masks” by Apoorva Mandavilli (January 14th 2022)

769

Washington Examiner “Dr. Drew switches to Rumble after YouTube blocks him over vaccine

video” by Jenny Goldsberry (April 29th 2022)

770

The Gateway Pundit “TECH TYRANNY: Twitter Suspends Account and YouTube Removes

Video of Biotech Company that Created COVID-19 Treatment Using UV Light in Lungs” by Jim Hoft (April 25th 2020)

771

Forbes “Trump Suggests Injecting Coronavirus Patients With Light Or Disinfectants, Alarming

Experts” by Matt Perez (April 23rd 2020)

772

The Wall Street Journal “An Experimental Ultraviolet Light Treatment for Covid-19 Takes

Political Heat” by Josh Disbrow (April 27th 2020)

773

Associated Press “Extremists exploit a loophole in social moderation: Podcasts” by Tali Arbel

(January 19th 2021)

774

BBC “US election: YouTube to ban videos alleging widespread voter fraud” by James Clayton

(December 10th 2020)

775

House Oversight Committee “Evidence of Joe Biden’s Involvement in His Family’s Influence

Peddling Schemes” (September 13th 2023)

776

New York Post “Washington Post joins New York Times in finally admitting emails from Hunter

Biden laptop are real” by Bruce Golding (March 30th 2022)

777

The Wrap “Twitter Refuses to Ban Taliban Accounts, Vows to Remain ‘Vigilant’ Moderating

Content” by Samson Amore (August 17th 2021)

778

Washington Post “Why the Kremlin is still active on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube” by

Christiano Lim and Will Oremus (March 17th 2022)



779

The Hill “YouTube removes CPAC content for violating ‘election integrity policy’” by Chloe

Folmar (March 24th 2022)

780

NBC News “Baseless GOP claims about election fraud remain dangerous for a democracy” by

Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Ben Kamisar (September 14th 2021)

781

Reuters “Trump returns to YouTube and Facebook after two-year ban” (March 17th 2023)

782

NPR “YouTube will no longer take down false claims about U.S. elections” by Shannon Bond

(June 2nd 2023)

783

CNBC “Video platform Rumble to go public after successful SPAC vote” by Jack Stebbins

(September 15th 2022)

784

https://help.gab.com/faq/how-to-install-gab-app

785

The Guardian “Firms pull ads from Rumble platform over Russell Brand videos” by Sammy

Gecsoyler (September 23rd 2023)

786

Business Insider “Facebook is going to use Snopes and other fact-checkers to combat and bury

'fake news’” by Alex Heath (December 15th 2016)

787

USA Today “Fact check: Rising gas prices due to high demand and low supply, not Biden's

policies” by Miriam Fauzia (June 10th 2021)

788

Reclaim The Net “Facebook fact-checks and censors Martin Luther King Jr. memes on MLK Day”

by Tom Parker (January 20th 2020)

789

Snopes “Did CNN Purchase an Industrial-Sized Washing Machine to Spin News?” by David

Mikkelson (March 1st 2018)

790

Fox News “Jacob Blake admits he had a knife when he was shot by police” by Brittany De Lea

(January 14th 2021)



791

Fox News “Kyle Rittenhouse acquittal: PolitiFact blasted for fact-check saying Trump's comments

on incident were ‘false’" by Joseph A. Wulfsohn (November 19th 2021)

792

Fox News “Facebook accused of pulling post about Kenosha gunman after declaring shooting

'mass murder” by Sam Dorman (September 4th 2020)

793

The Daily Caller “Democratic Rep Ayanna Pressley Calls Alleged Kenosha Shooter A ‘White

Supremacist Domestic Terrorist’” by Peter Hasson (August 27, 2020)

794

Associated Press “No evidence video color was manipulated in CNN news segment” (September

10th 2021).

795

Post Millennial “Joe Rogan accuses CNN of 'yellow journalism,' altering his COVID-19

announcement video” by Hannah Nightingale (January 10th 2022)

796

Fox News “Candace Owens targets Facebook 3rd-party fact-checkers with lawsuit” by Louis

Casiano (November 5th 2020)

797

The Hollywood Reporter “Judge Dismisses John Stossel’s Defamation Suit Against Facebook

Over Fact-Checking” by Winston Cho (October 12th 2022)

798

Ibid.

799

Associated Press “Judge tosses suit by Candace Owens over Facebook fact checks” by Randall

Chase (July 22nd 2021)

800

BBC “Twitter's hate speech rules are expanded” by Dave Lee (December 18th 2017)

801

The Washington Post “Elon Musk’s vision of ‘free speech’ will be bad for Twitter” by Ellen K.

Pao (April 8th 2022)

802

Axios “Elon Musk goes into full goblin mode” by Felix Salmon (April 14th 2022)

803

Fox News “MSNBC host trashed for warning Elon Musk could use Twitter to ban political

candidates: ‘You absolute clown’” by Gabriel Hayes (April 26th 2022)



804

CNN “CNN media analyst says 'we are headed to hell' without Twitter regulation” - video clip

posted on their website of David Zurawik on “Reliable Sources” (May 1st 2022)

805

Reuters “Exclusive: Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims” by Mike Spector and

Dan Levine (October 26th 2022)

806

Rolling Stone “‘How Many Women Were Abused to Make That Tesla?’” by Stephen Rodrick

(September 19th 2022)

807

As of the time of this writing in November 2023, he did tweet once, after his fourth indictment,

posting a link to his website to help fundraise. As the 2024 election approaches he will likely use it again, at least occasionally, to gain attention.

808

https://twitter.com/JGreenblattADL/status/1594161768905015298

809

CNBC “Elon Musk claims Apple has threatened to remove the Twitter app” by Kif Leswing

(November 28th 2022)

810

Gizmodo “Elon Has Restored Nearly 12,000 Banned Twitter Accounts, Data Shows” by Kyle Barr

(December 3rd 2022)

811

CNN “Elon Musk speaks out on ‘Twitter Files’ release detailing platform’s inner workings” by

Ramishah Maruf (December 4th 2022)

812

Newsmax “Musk: All 'Conspiracy' Theories About Twitter Turning 'Out to Be True’” by Nick

Koutsobinas (December 25th 2022)

813

Reuters “Twitter suspends Kanye West's account again” by Maria Ponnezhath and Eva Matthews

(December 2nd 2022)

814

CNN “Twitter won’t restore Alex Jones’ account, Elon Musk says” by Brian Fung (November

21st 2022)

815

CBS News “Elon Musk says he'll never reinstate Alex Jones on Twitter” by Irina Ivanova

(November 21st 2022)



816

NPR “Twitter Bans Alex Jones And InfoWars; Cites Abusive Behavior” by Avie Schneider

(September 6th 2018)

817

As of November 2023 when this book was originally published.

818

Kevin MacDonald was actually banned under Elon Musk’s ownership, in April 2023, and

surprisingly was allowed to operate his account for years when the company was run by Jack Dorsey and Parag Agrawal.

819

CNN “David Duke has been banned from Twitter” by Oliver Effron (July 31st 2020)

820

The Hill “Nick Fuentes Twitter account suspended less than 24 hours after reinstatement” by Julia

Shapero (January 25th 2023)

821

Washington Post “Elon Musk’s first big Twitter product paused after fake accounts spread” by

Rachel Lerman and Cat Zakrzewski (November 11th 2022)

822

Gizmodo “Twitter Suddenly Reverses Course on 'Policy' That Banned Links to Competing Social

Media Sites” by Mark DeGeurin (December 17th 2022)

823

BBC “Twitter loses nearly half advertising revenue since Elon Musk takeover” by Jemma

Dempsey (July 17th 2023)

824

CNN “Analysis: TV providers should not escape scrutiny for distributing disinformation” by

Oliver Darcy (January 8th 2021)

825

Ibid.

826

In a tweet archived here: http://archive.fo/xb693

827

The Washington Post “DirecTV says it will sever ties with far-right network One America News”

by Timothy Bella (January 15th 2022)

828

NAACP.org “NAACP President & CEO Derrick Johnson Releases Statement on Directv's

announcement to drop One America News (OAN)” (January 15th 2020)



829

The Verge “One America News gets dumped by Verizon, the only major carrier it had left” by

Emma Roth (July 24th 2022)

830

Washington Post “Fox’s Tucker Carlson firing is boosting Newsmax’s ratings. Will it last? by

Jeremy Barr (May 25th 2023)

831

The Federalist “Biden’s FCC Commissioner Nominee Gigi Sohn Wants To Nuke Right-Leaning

Broadcasters From Air” by Jordan Boyd (January 18th 2022)

832

CNBC “Biden FCC nominee Gigi Sohn withdraws, citing ‘cruel attacks’ in battle with cable and

media industries” by Lauren Feiner and Ashely Capoot (March 7th 2023)

833

National Review “‘Deplatforming Works’: AOC Fundraises Off of Tucker Carlson’s Ouster from

Fox News” by Caroline Downey (April 25th 2023)

834

Metro Voice “Amazon changes course again, will ban ‘No Dress for Timmy’” (January 29th 2019)

835

The Wall Street Journal “Amazon Won’t Sell Books Framing LGBTQ+ Identities as Mental

Illnesses” by Jeffrey A Trachtenberg (March 11th 2021)

836

The Daily Mail “Woke Amazon staffer cries in meeting to discuss the 'trauma' caused by best

seller children's book 'Johnny the Walrus' that compares being transgender to pretending to be a walrus” by Natasha Anderson (April 26th 2022)

837

Ibid.

838

The Daily Wire “Amazon Employees Disrupt Pride Ceremony With ‘Die In’ Protest Over Matt

Walsh’s ‘Johnny The Walrus’, Other ‘Anti-Trans’ Books” by Amanda Harding (June 2nd 2022)

839

TruthOut.org “After Activist Pressure, Amazon Purges Dozens of Far-Right Books” by Shane

Burley (March 22nd 2019)

840

The Occidental Observer Amazon Bans Culture of Critique and Separation and Its Discontents” by

Kevin MacDonald (March 12th 2019)

841

As of November 2023 when this book, The War on Conservatives was first published.



842

American Renaissance “PRESS RELEASE: Amazon Now Banning Books Based on Political

Content” (February 27th 2019)

843

See chapter on Antiwhiteism.

844

The New York Times “In Amazon’s Bookstore, No Second Chances for the Third Reich” by

David Streitfeld (February 9th 2020)

845

It’s unclear exactly when the book, along with its listing and reviews were removed, but

presumably it was in early 2019 when the big purge of supposed “antisemitic” and “White supremacist” titles were removed.

846

Foreword to the First Edition, as well as the Foreword to the Second and Third Edition.

847

Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousands Years by Israel Shahak pages

30, 36, 107, 124 (Pluto Press 1994) ISBN: 978-0-7453-2840-9

848

https://twitter.com/alisonweir/status/1612868601056460806

849

The main listing, along with all of the reviews from readers has been deleted. Someone listed a

used copy for sale on Amazon that slipped through the cracks but when a book goes out of print, the listing and all of the reviews stay, no matter how long the book has been out of print, which is not the case with Israel Shahak’s book and the others listed in this chapter.

850

A History of Central Banking and the Enslavement of Mankind (2014) by Stephen Mitford

Goodson is among the titles banned. Goodson was a South African banker and politician.

851

TruthOut.org “After Activist Pressure, Amazon Purges Dozens of Far-Right Books” by Shane

Burley (March 22nd 2019)

852

Counter-Currents.com “Amazon.com Continues to Purge Counter-Currents Titles” by Greg

Johnson (February 27th 2019)

853

The exact date of its removal is uncertain, but most likely was in February 2019 when Counter-

Currents books were banned, along with Jared Taylor’s White Identity, and his other essays compiled

in If We Do Nothing, and two books he edited: A Race Against Time, and Face to Face with Race.

854

Noirg.org “Amazon Bans The Secret Relationship Between Blacks & Jews” by Nation of Islam

Research Group (March 16th 2019)

855

The National Endowment for the Humanities “Malcolm X: A Radical Vision for Civil Rights” by

Joe Phelan (May 5th 2017)

856

The Jerusalem Post “'Elders Of Zion' book being sold by top booksellers” by Michael Starr

(January 26th 2022)

857

Mark Dice YouTube Channel “Liberals Trying to Ban the Bible from Amazon.com and Barnes &

Noble” (September 7th 2015) Original link: https://youtu.be/Y9WUeHHzf7s

858

Mark Dice YouTube Channel “Woke Californians Want to BAN the BIBLE for ‘Hate Speech’”

(April 13th 2022) Original link: https://youtu.be/XckcMeSueMA

859

The Washington Post “Twitter banned Marjorie Taylor Greene. That may not hurt her much.” by

Maggie Macdonald and Meghan A. Brown (January 14th 2022)

860

BitChute and Gab are the only true free speech platforms that allow anything that’s protected by

the first amendment to be posted, which is why they’ve both been banned from the app stores, PayPal, payment processors, and even banks.

861

The Verge “Gab.com goes down after GoDaddy threatens to pull domain” by Sam Byford

(October 28th 2018)

862

Huffington Post “Think Canada Allows Freedom of Speech? Think Again” by Tom Kott

(December 19, 2012)

863

BBC “Facebook, Google and Twitter agree German hate speech deal” (December 15th 2015)

864

Associated Press “In UK, Twitter, Facebook rants land some in jail” by Jill Lawless (November

12, 2012)



865

Breitbart “UK Police Arrest Man For ‘Offensive’ Facebook Post About Migrants” by Liam

Deacon (February 16th 2016)

866

Daily Caller “Mother Arrested, Spends Seven Hours In Jail For Calling Transgender A Man” by

David Krayden (February 10th 2019)

867

Republican Establishment positions like the fact that 35 states that have anti-BDS laws which

punish American businesses if they criticize Israel; laws that are completely contrary to the principles of free speech.

868

The Root “91 Percent of Inmates Freed by First Step Act Were Black. Should We Give

Republicans Credit?” by Michael Harriot (June 10th 2019)

869

CNN “CPAC cancels speaker over anti-Semitic social media comments” by Eric Bradner

(February 23rd 2021)

870

As of the end of 2023 when this book was first published.

871

CNN “Obama announces he supports same-sex marriage” by Phil Gast (May 9th 2012)

872

The Washington Post “Meet the four Republicans in Congress who support gay marriage” by Sean

Sullivan (April 2nd 2013)

873

https://twitter.com/GOPChairwoman/status/1400212885595426824

874

Newsweek “Republicans Blast Fox News for Promoting LGBTQ Pride Month” by Andrew

Stanton (June 14th 2022)

875

Ibid.

876

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6307598106112

877

Ibid.

878



https://www.foxnews.com/video/6260651671001

879

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6308785798112

880

Fox News “Caitlyn Jenner joins Fox News as contributor: ‘I am humbled by this unique

opportunity’” by Brian Flood (March 31st 2022)

881

NBC News “Acting intelligence head Richard Grenell's push to decriminalize homosexuality has

yielded little” by Tim Fitzimons (February 20th 2020)

882

The Rubin Report “On Trump, The Drug War, & Gay Rights (Pt. 1) | Charlie Kirk | POLITICS |

Rubin Report” (January 17th 2018) at 40:37 timestamp

883

Big League Politics “PHOTO: TPUSA Founder Charlie Kirk Yucks It Up With Drag Queen As

They Flash Kids In Libraries Across America” by Shane Trejo (October 30th 2019)

884

The Culture War Feat. Charlie Kirk at Ohio State University (October 29th 2019)

885

Ibid.

886

Church Militant “CPAC CHAIRMAN GETS SCHLAPPED” (March 21st 2022)

887

Ibid.

888

https://web.archive.org/web/20220523032505/https://twitter.com/prageru/status/15041560674286387 21

889

https://web.archive.org/web/20220523032532/https://twitter.com/BlazeTV/status/150413577193816 4736

890

https://twitter.com/joelpollak/status/1504163326380568577

891

https://twitter.com/realchrisrufo/status/1504158072192655360

892



https://twitter.com/megynkelly/status/1504171771984973824

893

https://twitter.com/MeghanMcCain/status/1504135090779172864

894

https://twitter.com/KatTimpf/status/1504283362458054662

895

LifeSite News “Conservatives should not applaud Dave Rubin and his gay partner’s surrogate

baby news” (March 16th 2022)

896

Newsmax “Greg Kelly Reports” (May4th 2023) “Colin Powell had it right” he said, about the

Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy, and aired video of Powell in 1993 testifying before Congress about why the policy was necessary for a successful military. Segment uploaded to Newsmax’s YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/QpncwquA52s?si=Ya6Uoztpx2ebhKhB

897

The term paleoconservative was coined in 1986 by Paul Gottfried and Thomas Fleming.

898

https://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/1272904470721179648

899

“Rebuilding America’s Defenses: Strategy: Forces, and Resources for a New Century” A Report

of The Project for the New American Century (September 2000) page 51

900

Iraq had switched to selling oil in euros, which threatened the U.S dollar’s dominance as the

world’s reserve currency.

901

Inter Press Service “Iraq War Launched to Protect Israel” by Emad Mekay (March 29th 2004)

902

The Guardian “Israel puts pressure on US to strike Iraq” by Jonathan Steele (August 16th 2002)

903

The Atlantic “A 'Catastrophe' That Defines Palestinian Identity” by Hussein Ibish (May 14th

2018)

904

Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity “The Neoconservatives, the War on Iraq, and the

National Interest of Israel “by Stephen J. Sniegoski (August 23rd 2016)

905

The Wall Street Journal “Pro-Israel Group Lobbies for U.S. Aid, Funds Congressional Trips” by

Julie Bykowicz and Natalie Andrews (February 14th 2019)



906

Newsweek “Israel Flagged as Top Spy Threat to U.S. in New Snowden/NSA Document” by Jeff

Stein (August 4th 2014)

907

Osama Bin Laden himself wrote in his “Letter to America” fatwa saying, “The expansion of Israel

is one of the greatest crimes, and you are the leaders of its criminals. And of course there is no need to explain and prove the degree of American support for Israel. Each and every person whose hands have become polluted in the contribution towards this crime must pay its price, and pay for it heavily.”

908

Politico “Ron Paul: U.S. triggered Sept. 11” by James Arkin (September 11th 2013)

909

Aljazeera “Who is the ‘Great Satan’? In a recent speech, Ayatollah Khamenei used metaphors to

describe US influence” by Hamid Dabashi (September 20th 2015)

910

The Neoconservative Revolution: Jewish Intellectuals and the Shaping of Public Policy by Murray

Friedman (2005) Cambridge University Press

911

The National Review “The Inside Story of William F. Buckley Jr.’s Crusade against the John Birch

Society” by Alvin S. Felzenberg (June 20th 2017)

912

A Paleoconservative Anthology: New Voices for an Old Tradition (Political Theory for Today) by

Paul Gottfried (editor) 2023

913

Attributed to Eric Hoffer, but this is said to be a frequently misquoted statement found in his 1967

book, The Temper of Our Time, where he wrote, “What starts out here as a mass movement ends up as a racket, a cult, or a corporation.”

914

CBS News “LED Traffic Lights Getting Bogged Down By Snow” (December 5th 2017)

915

ZDNet “iPhone owners plagued by 'no service' bug after iOS 14.7.1 upgrade” by Adrian Kingsley-

Hughes (August 19th 2021)

916

Posting the publicly listed phone numbers of business, schools, or government offices is not

doxxing, although with the way things are going some Big Tech platforms may remove the posts under the false guise that it’s an “invasion of privacy” or “harassment.”



917

Times of San Diego “Much of State Shuts Down, Though Some SoCal Sheriffs Won’t Enforce

Order” by Editor (December 7th 2020)

918

Gizmodo “Encrypted Chats, Parler Posts Indict Proud Boys Leaders for Capitol Rioting” by Dell

Cameron (March 19th 2021)

919

CNN “White woman who called police on a black man bird-watching in Central Park has been

fired” by Amir Vera and Laura Ly (May 26th 2020)

920

Even when countering a physical attack in self-defense, you could still be charged with a crime if

you go beyond proportional or reasonable force. Other factors are also involved, such as if it was an unprovoked attack, or if your assessment of the threat itself was reasonable, or if you made a reasonable attempt to avoid the confrontation to begin with.

921

The Tytler Cycle of Civilizations lists the phases as: From bondage to spiritual faith; to great

courage; to liberty to abundance to complacency to apathy to dependence back into bondage



Table of Contents Introduction Public Schools The Family American Symbols and Holidays Christianity and Churches The LGBTQ+ Agenda Immigration Antiwhiteism Censorship Cowardly Conservatives Conclusion Copyright Info Footnotes

Introduction The Politics of Entertainment War on Trump War on America Immigration War on White People Film and Television Liaison Offices Climate Change Sports “News” Late-Night Comedy Shows Award Shows Feminism The LGBT Agenda Sexual Deviants Crimes Inspired by Hollywood Conclusion Copyright Info

Introduction A lot of people say, “I don’t follow politics,” but the reality is that pop culture is politics. It’s woven into the fabric of movies, television shows, music—and now even professional sports. Just as art imitates life, life imitates art, and what is often seen as mere “entertainment” actually functions as a container to deliver carefully crafted pieces of propaganda intended to influence the audience as much as it is to entertain them. Millions of people practically worship celebrities and blindly follow their lead, imitating characters’ hair styles, the way they dress, and even their attitudes and behaviors. People subconsciously absorb ideas and actions they see in the media and regurgitate them as part of their own personalities. While many celebrities engage in political activism as a hobby during their off time, the more subtle power of Hollywood is using entertainment itself to influence. The ability to influence is a tool, and tools can do great things for humanity, but in the wrong hands easily turn into weapons. In the 1980s, The Cosby Show brought a nice upper middle class Black family into the homes of millions of Americans, depicting the husband as a doctor and the wife as a lawyer, changing the way many looked at the possibility of Black people achieving higher education and making a better life for themselves. 1 For Generation X kids who grew up during this time period we watched He-Man and GI Joe cartoons which always taught a valuable lesson, either through the plotline, or a brief PSA at the end. “So now you know, and knowing is half the battle!” Shows like Family Ties and Growing Pains often tackled serious issues kids and families sometimes faced, and as cheesy as those shows may seem today, by the end of the episode there was an obvious moral to the story that undoubtedly, however subtle, affected millions of people in a positive way. And while there are still plenty of nice family shows on television today, they are surrounded by landmines consisting of the most degenerate characters and perverted plots one could imagine—shows so vile just a

generation ago it would have been unthinkable that major networks would air such content. A strategic and relentless campaign by LGBT activists has saturated television shows, movies, and even commercials with gay, lesbian, and transgender characters which is the sole reason they have become normalized in the minds of the masses. Despite denying there was a “gay agenda,” you’ll see that well-funded and highly organized groups have been lobbying Hollywood studios to promote and celebrate such characters. 2 America went from having one television per household in the 1950s —prominently placed in the family room—to children as young as seven or eight years old carrying their own TV around in their pocket and being able to watch practically anything they want with virtually no adult supervision. 3

So not only has there been a stunning drop in the moral quality of content in recent years, the safeguards to prevent children from consuming it have all but vanished as well. Joshua Meyrowitz, professor of Media Studies at the University of New Hampshire, points out, “Television dilutes the innocence of childhood and the authority of adults by undermining the system of information control that supported them. Television bypasses the year-by-year slices of knowledge given to children. It presents the same general experiences to adults and to children of all ages. Children may not understand everything that they see on television, but they are exposed to many aspects of adult life from which their parents (and traditional children’s books) would have once shielded them.” 4 He continues, “Television and its visitors take children across the globe before parents even give them permission to cross the street.” 5 How true is that?! And he said this in a book I’ve had since college—a book published back in 1995 when the Internet was just in its infancy, and a decade before social media would begin to wrap its tentacles around an entire generation of children. Today, kids have access to unlimited adult content in the palm of their hand thanks to YouTube, Netflix, Snapchat and the rest. Parents don’t know what to do, and trying to shield children from inappropriate content in today’s online age would require living like the Amish. Pandora’s Box has been opened. Meanwhile, celebrities continue to speak out of both sides of their mouths—saying entertainment inspires, encourages, and teaches viewers

about life, while at the same time denying that it can influence anyone in a negative way. About 100 years ago a British film industry paper called Bioscope once wrote that movies were the Christian church’s “legitimate competitor in moulding the character of the nation.” 6 Since then, the Church has lost out, and it’s no longer a question of which institution has more influence. The majority of people don’t even realize what has happened. Professional hypnotherapist Dr. Rachel Copelan warned, “Most people drift into a common, everyday trance when they gaze into the light of the TV tube. Indirect hypnosis manipulates the minds of millions of unsuspecting viewers every day. Surreptitiously, subliminal persuasion leaves its mark upon the collective subconscious. Ideas implanted by commercials affect the health and behavior of all of us. We eat, drink, dress, and make love based on what we see and hear. Television has the power to lull the mind into a state of exaggerated suggestibility, opening it up to behavior control from the outside.” 7 Singer Miley Cyrus popularized “twerking” in 2013, a form of “dance” (if you can call it that) where girls rapidly shake their butt—an act that was instantly mimicked by millions of teens who now regularly post twerking videos on TikTok and Snapchat, etc. In the early 2000s we saw the “Jackass Effect”—where kids got hurt imitating the stunts they saw Johnny Knoxville and his friends doing on the popular MTV series. 8 A college football-themed film in 1993 called The Program had a scene edited out when it was later released on DVD because at one point several of the players decided to lay down in the middle of a busy highway at night to show how “brave” they were. Of course, several groups of teenagers imitated the scene which resulted in at least one death and numerous others getting seriously injured when they were struck by a car. 9 Edward Bernays, the man who is credited with being the father of public relations, was a 20th century genius who knew how to manipulate the media in order to shape public opinion around virtually any issue. He was hired by advertising agencies and even the U.S. government to deploy his methods for a variety of aims. 10 He’s the man responsible for diamond engagement rings being the cultural standard and even convinced women that smoking cigarettes was an act of defiance against the patriarchy. 11 The De Beers diamond monopoly and the tobacco industry paid him well for his ingenuity, and because of his knowledge of psychology and

mass media he was able to play the public like a fiddle through a series of cleverly crafted press releases and ad campaigns. In his 1928 book Propaganda , he admitted, “our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of...in almost every act of our lives whether in the sphere of politics or business in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires that control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world.” 12 He even went so far as to say that those in control of the media “constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.” 13 Entertainment rules America. Charlie Sheen made it into the Guinness Book of World Records as the person to reach 1 million Twitter followers the fastest once joining. 14 Ellen DeGeneres set a world record for the most retweeted tweet after she posted a selfie taken with a group of other celebrities at the 2014 Oscars. 15 Music videos get more views than political speeches, and celebrities make more money while they sleep than police officers or fire fighters do risking their lives to keep their communities safe. The majority of media today functions as a modern-day equivalent of the “bread and circuses” of ancient Rome, where people were pacified by games and food at the Colosseum, so they weren’t paying attention to the collapsing empire around them. Karl Marx famously said that religion was the “opiate of the masses,” but really its entertainment. It’s television sitcoms, sports, and anything that streams. It’s the trending list on Twitter and the viral hashtags on Instagram. Entertainment is such a powerful medium for influencing people’s behavior that for several years the CIA actually secretly recruited and directed popular rappers in Cuba to write and perform “protest songs” denouncing their Communist leader Raul Castro in order to foment civil unrest and erode support for his regime. 16 It may seem like the plot out of a movie, but declassified documents obtained by the Associated Press years later show that’s exactly what they did. 17 The CIA had a budget of millions of dollars for this program and used a front company (which is commonplace) named Creative Associates International in order to conceal their activities. 18 They literally created a

talent agency to mold the music and careers of artists they thought could be used to influence Cubans to rise up against Raul Castro. 19 Similar operations have been run in America. Shortly after President Trump’s inauguration, the DJ Moby, who was fairly popular in the early 2000s, revealed that he had been in contact with “active and former CIA agents” who “confirmed” to him that Russia was “blackmailing” Trump and said they needed his help to get the word out. “So they passed on some information to me and they said, like, ‘Look, you have more of a social media following than any of us do, can you please post some of these things just in a way that…sort of put it out there.’” 20 Deep State operatives reaching out to celebrities hoping to use them to smear Donald Trump—and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. In this book you’ll learn in detail how the Hollywood elite are using their media conglomerates to wage a war on President Trump and his supporters, and not just by celebrities “speaking out,” but by incorporating countless anti-Trump themes into their projects. You’ll see who is behind the coordinated effort to promote climate change hysteria, how the entertainment industry was instrumental in getting the public to accept gay “marriage,” and how they are waging a war against traditional family values, American culture, and even against God Himself. The late Andrew Breitbart famously said that politics is downstream from culture, meaning if you want to change the laws in a country, you have to first change the culture. This saying became known as the Breitbart Doctrine because it captures the essence of power, propaganda, and politics and explains how many once fringe ideas and behaviors are now legally protected and any business, school, or landlord that dares to disagree can now be punished with the full force of the courts. Within these pages you’ll also learn that liberal Hollywood has some interesting bedfellows when it comes to promoting war, and you’ll be shocked to find that the U.S. government often works hand in hand with major studios to produce what essentially amounts to propaganda films; and why there has been an explosion in plots promoting mass immigration, abortion, and socialism. Not even sports coverage is immune from being turned into another mouthpiece for their agenda as the Left is now pulling out all of the stops hoping to succeed in their “cultural revolution.” Let’s now pull back the

curtain and take a look around behind the scenes of Hollywood Propaganda .

The Politics of Entertainment Television commercials try to sell you a product or a service despite the fact that most of the time the content of the commercials has nothing to do at all with what they’re actually selling. Celebrities drink a soda and react as if it gives them an orgasm. “Ahhh! Pepsi, the choice of a new generation” they say with a huge fake smile. Samuel L. Jackson shouts “What’s in your wallet!” as if it’s a punchline from a sitcom while he’s simply promoting a credit card. Ads for insurance featuring a caveman and a gecko are passed off as if they’re

characters from a recurring comedy series, and the list goes on. But it’s not just products or services that companies try to sell us through entertainment. It’s ideas. Hollywood propaganda is carefully woven into movies and TV shows with the intent of influencing the audience rather than merely entertain them. Sometimes the central plot serves as the propaganda which is coated in a thin layer of entertainment, but the writers and producers know, and often openly admit, what their true intentions are. Film critic James Combs wrote, “The term propaganda comes from the Latin propagare , denoting the ability to produce and spread fertile messages that, once sown, will germinate in large human cultures,” adding, “Removed from its pejorative connotation, propaganda may be viewed objectively as a form of communication that has practical and influential consequences,” and can “sway relevant groups of people in order to achieve their purposes.” 21 In the late 1980s a man named Jay Winsten, who worked as an associate dean at Harvard’s School of Public Health, launched a campaign to convince Hollywood producers to include messages about the dangers of drunk driving in TV shows along with the importance of using designated drivers. 22 It was called the Harvard Alcohol Project and soon the term “designated driver” was being used in shows like Cheers , L.A. Law , The Cosby Show , and countless others, catapulting it into the public lexicon. 23 Before the 1980s there wasn’t much of a social stigma against driving drunk, but with a persistent propaganda campaign from groups like the Harvard Alcohol Project and MADD [Mothers Against Drunk Driving], the country as a whole began thinking differently about the issue. More recently, special interest groups use their power to promote abortion, the gay agenda, Obamacare, climate change hysteria, and literally every one of their social justice crusades in the same way. But in these cases, instead of raising awareness for a public good, like stigmatizing drunk driving, they’re using their influence to push fringe political ideas into the mainstream and convince the masses to accept the most flagrant violations of morality and decency.

Social Impact Entertainment Today there are over 100 organizations dedicated to using entertainment to further political and social causes, and there’s even an Orwellian term for the propaganda they create—“Social Impact Entertainment.” In 2014 UCLA opened the Skoll Center for Social Impact Entertainment (SIE) which boasts to be “the first of its kind dedicated solely to advancing the power of entertainment and performing arts to inspire social change.” 24 The department is committed to “exploring innovative approaches to curricular development for the emerging field of social impact entertainment, but also provide students and faculty with workshops, lectures, distinguished visiting artists programs and unique opportunities to focus their scholarly and creative work in this arena.” 25 “It will launch research initiatives that explore the development of a new field in social impact entertainment research and practice; inspire students and faculty to use the power of story to make a difference and inspire social change; galvanize the public to action to foster positive social change; develop meaningful partnerships between the public and private sectors to create new models to drive social change; and engage local, national and global communities about how the industry impacts global society through film, television, animation, digital media and theater.” 26 In 2019 they released a report titled “The State of SIE” [Social Impact Entertainment] where they said, “Given the magnitude of today’s challenges—climate change, economic inequality, forced migrations and any number of other problems—it’s easy for people to get discouraged about their capacity to make a difference in the world. But as the case studies in this report reveal, SIE can play a critical role in catalyzing significant change.” 27 The report cited Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth , which it said, “helped shift global opinions on climate change, one of the most contentious issues of our time, and mobilized a new generation of pioneering environmental activists.” 28

It appears that the Skoll Center for Social Impact grew out of another UCLA program which had the same goals called the Global Media Center for Social Impact (GMI) which was founded a year earlier in 2013. Sandra de Castro Buffington, who was the director of the program, said, “Topics that have been traditionally taboo are showing up on series television and they’re being discussed, especially via social media, and because of this they don’t seem so controversial anymore. When something goes from being taboo to being openly discussed, it’s a predictor of mass behavior change.” 29 An industry publication called Cinema of Change noted, “[The Global Media Center for Social Impact] provides the entertainment industry with free, on-demand access to leading experts and cutting-edge resources on topics such as health, immigration, racial justice, America’s prison crisis, the environment, LGBT/gender equality, learning and attention issues, youth sexuality, reproductive health and rights and more. From script reviews and writers’ room consultations to off-site visits and special events, GMI facilitates experiences for industry professionals that inspire them to create stories that entertain, engage, and empower viewers to make change on issues that matter to them.” 30 Their website, GMImpact.org is now defunct, and it appears they morphed into UCLA’s Skoll Center for Social Impact in 2014, which was created with a $10 million dollar donation by billionaire Jeffrey Skoll, who made his money as the first president of e-Bay.

The Center for Media & Social Impact A similar SIE organization is located in Washington D.C. at American University called the Center for Media & Social Impact (CMSI). They describe themselves as “an innovation lab and research center that creates, studies and showcases media for social impact. Focusing on independent, documentary, entertainment, and public media, the Center bridges boundaries between scholars, producers and communication practitioners across media production, media impact and effects, public policy and audience engagement. The Center

produces resources for the field and academic research; convenes conferences and events; and works collaboratively to understand and design media that matter.” 31 They receive funding through various grants and list some of those contributors on their website, including Bill Gates, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Univision. In 2019 the Center for Media & Social Impact launched “Comedy Think Tanks” which aims to use comedy to promote social justice issues. The following year they released a report titled Comedy and Racial Justice in the Climate Crisis that “analyzes the value and importance of comedy for local public mobilization in climate change.” 32 The report highlights “the unique potential of social justice comedy” and suggests it be used as a “mobilization strategy, and as disruptive creative expression inserted into a broader cultural conversation about climate change, centering communities of color and low-income people who are ‘hit first and worst’ by climate disasters.” 33 It concludes, “Through the open-minded experience of co-creating with comedy professionals, social justice organizations can embrace the innovation and creativity that comedy can provide. Comedy can cut through cultural clutter, and it also entertains and invites feelings of play. This kind of light is needed in the climate movement, which can feel too complicated and difficult to engage disparate groups and communities beyond a stream of fatiguing outrage or clinical statistics.” 34

Propper Daley Propper Daley is another “social impact agency” which was founded by Greg Propper and Mark Daley, who are close associates to Hillary Clinton. Before helping start the agency, Greg Propper actually worked for the Clinton Foundation, and when Hillary was running for president in 2016, Propper Daley helped organized fundraisers for her,

bringing together stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and others under the same roof. 35 Previously they had organized meetings with writers from TV shows like Parks and Recreation , How I Met Your Mother , and Glee , to sit down with Chelsea Clinton to discuss how they could help promote some of the Clinton Foundation’s initiatives. 36 Patti Miller, who worked for the foundation, admitted the meeting aimed to “bring together a cross section of the industry, with leading television comedy writers, hoping they can help us reach our audience with creative, funny content.” 37 In March 2019 Propper Daley held a private invite-only conference with 400 writers, producers and executives to discuss how they could use their positions to “think differently or with more nuance about certain characters or storylines and hopefully create a more empathetic public.” 38 In other words, to lobby them to include more pro-gay and transgender storylines, and promote mass immigration, abortion, and other Leftist causes through their work.

GLAAD GLAAD [the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation] has been aggressively lobbying Hollywood for years to include gay and transgender characters in television series and films. One of their current aims is to pressure studios to include gay characters in 20% of films by the year 2021 and 50% of all films by the year 2024. 39 Each year they release their Studio Responsibility Index , a report where they track their progress and complain that mainstream entertainment isn’t gay enough. They even have what they call the “GLAAD Media Institute” that has drawn up a “roadmap for Hollywood to grow LGBTQ inclusion in film.” 40 Their 2018 Studio Responsibility Index says, “With wildly successful films like Wonder Woman and Black Panther proving that audiences want to see diverse stories that haven’t been told before, there is simply no reason for major studios to have such low scores…At a time when the entertainment industry is holding much needed discussions about inclusion,

now is the time to ensure the industry takes meaningful action and incorporates LGBTQ stories and creators as among priorities areas for growing diversity.” 41 It goes on, “Studios must do better to include more LGBTQ characters, and construct those stories in a way that is directly tied to the film’s plot…Far too often LGBTQ characters and stories are relegated to subtext, and it is left up to the audience to interpret or read into a character as being LGBTQ. Audiences may not realize they are seeing an LGBTQ character unless they have outside knowledge of a real figure, have consumed source material for an adaptation, or have read external press confirmations. This is not enough…Our stories deserve to be seen on screen just as much as everyone else’s, not hidden away or left to guess work, but boldly and fully shown.” 42 It’s really an open secret in Hollywood, but few people outside the industry are familiar with the intense (and very successful) lobbying efforts the organization engages in. Entertainment Weekly recently admitted that “GLAAD is changing Hollywood’s LGBTQ narrative—one script at a time,” and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis confirmed that as far back at the mid1980s, “we realized we needed Hollywood to be telling our stories to humanize LGBTQ people. So we opened a chapter very quickly in Los Angeles, in Hollywood, and really the main focus was lobbying Hollywood to tell our stories.” 43 I’ll cover this topic in more detail in “The LGBT Agenda” chapter because it’s one of the Left’s most aggressive efforts, and in the last few years they have successfully caused an influx of LGBT characters in major television series, and even convinced Disney and Sesame Street to get on board with their plans. 44

United Nations The United Nations has a special program called the Creative Community Outreach Initiative to lobby producers and celebrities to help them promote various agendas as well. In 2009 they convinced producers of NBC’s Law and Order: Special Victims Unit to make an episode about child soldiers who were brainwashed by the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda. 45 The U.N. also convinced ABC’s Ugly Betty

to incorporate the use of mosquito nets over beds to prevent the spread of malaria in Africa by having the lead character promote the (real) Nothing But Nets program which works to donate bed nets to people there. 46 The United Nations has even launched a campaign called “The Unstereotype Alliance” which has been backed by consumer product giants Procter & Gamble and Unilever, along with the Big Tech companies like Google, Facebook and others to promote “social justice” through advertising campaigns for unrelated products. 47 “Advertising is a reflection of culture and sometimes can be ahead of the curve and help effect change. We are proud to be a founding member of this UN sponsored initiative to ‘unstereotype’ through the power and breadth of our messaging. We are all in,” said a Microsoft executive. 48 It used to be that commercials promoted the benefits of their products and did their best to avoid getting political because Republicans and Democrats both drink beer, eat hamburgers, and buy cars; and companies didn’t want to ostracize half of their potential customers by supporting any polarizing causes. But since the liberal pathogen has caused a zombie-like apocalypse in America recently, many large corporations have decided to take up the banner of “social justice,” and when lobbyists from the “Unstereotype” campaign make demands, companies often oblige. This goes far beyond companies trying to be environmentally friendly, introducing recyclable packaging, or highlighting how they’re using renewable energy to power their factories. Nobody could really disagree with those practices. I’m talking about companies that actually now insult half of their potential customers in the hopes of gaining the unwavering support of a smaller segment of society because of their “woke” campaigns. They don’t even see it as insulting people, they’re just so arrogant that they feel they need to “educate” people about social justice causes, or think they need to virtue signal about how much “they care” by jumping on the bandwagon. The Unstereotype Alliance has boasted of “smashing” gender roles in commercials so now they don’t depict cleaning as “women’s work,” and regularly feature interracial and homosexual couples to give them more “visibility.” 49

Promoting Obamacare When President Obama was trying to get Obamacare passed into law, his administration was aided by a chorus of enthusiastic celebrities who used their voice to support the bill, but behind the scenes strings were being pulled to encourage them to speak up, and Hollywood studios were actually lobbied to include pro Obamacare messages in the plots of popular TV shows. 50 One such lobbyist group called Hollywood, Health & Society works with studios to promote health based initiatives and were paid $500,000 to convince them to incorporate “the need for Obamacare” into storylines of network TV shows 51 An executive with the organization said, “Our experience has shown that the public gets just as much, if not more, information about current events and important issues from their favorite television shows and characters as they do from the news media…This grant will allow us to ensure that industry practitioners have up-to-date, relevant facts on health care reform to integrate into their storylines and projects.” 52 Hollywood, Health & Society has become the one-stop-shop for organizations that want to have their messages covertly inserted into entertainment. Executive Kate Folb, admitted, “There was a time when there were so many organizations lobbying the entertainment industry on just their one issue, that it was just too much. They were all calling the same writers and trying to get meetings with the same shows. What happened was the industry stopped taking all of those calls because they became so overwhelmed. That’s part of the reason HH&S came into being: to help writers get what they need and keep them from getting overwhelmed with requests to include certain messages in their shows.” 53 Another PR firm called Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide was paid $900,000 to pitch Obamacare plots to major networks. They even tried to get major networks to shoot a reality show about “the trials and tribulations of families living without medical coverage.” 54 “I’d like to see 10 of the major TV shows, or telenovelas, have people talking about ‘that health insurance thing,’” said Peter V. Lee, the California

Health Benefit Exchange’s executive director, which hired the PR firm. “There are good story lines here.” 55 President Obama brought a bunch of actors and producers to the White House to ask them for their help promoting Obamacare, and soon they started happily doing so. 56 In October 2013, Jennifer Hudson starred in a Funny or Die skit designed to promote Obamacare where she played a Washington D.C. “fixer” or a “scandal manager” in a parody of ABC’s series Scandal. The “funny part” was that everyone who tried to hire her to fix their problems (like a college student without any health insurance, and a guy who was changing insurance companies but was worried they were going to drop him because of preexisting conditions), learned that there was no problem at all because of Obamacare. 57 It was a pathetic attempt at humor and to do such a lame skit under the Funny or Die banner made it even more sad, but they wanted to do their part to help the cause. President Obama also appeared on Zach Galifianakis’ Funny or Die skit “Between Two Ferns” for a scripted interview meant to be funny but was just another stunt to promote Obamacare. It worked, however, and when the segment was posted online it became the number one source of traffic to the new HealthCare.gov website. 58 The White House Entertainment Advisory Council admitted, “This is a perfect example of a great partnership with Funny or Die stepping up in a big way. The site has a very robust traffic base of young men and women who are on the edge of the cultural zeitgeist. It has an organic reach, and now the traditional media will be talking about it for days.” 59 Under the Obama administration all of Hollywood was more than willing to support anything the White House wanted, but once Donald Trump took over the Oval Office everything changed as I will detail in the next chapter, the “War on Trump.”

Abortion Planned Parenthood is America’s largest abortion factory and most people have no idea they also have a special Arts & Entertainment Engagement department that reaches out to television studios and “feeds” them plot points they would like included in shows. 60 Few people outside of the

industry know such a department exists and most would probably have a hard time believing it, but it does. And for eight years now they’ve been hosting an annual “Sex, Politics, Film, & TV Reception” at the Sundance Film Festival to “celebrate” films and television shows that promote abortion. 61 Little press coverage has been given to Planned Parenthood’s Arts & Entertainment Engagement department, but The Washington Post did mention their work once, saying, “For nearly 50 years, it has been legal to have an abortion in America yet stubbornly taboo to show one on television or film. But both those things are now changing.” 62 The article went on to admit the existence of the abortion A&E department and list some of their “successes.” I’ll cover their activities in more detail in the “War on America” chapter, but for now you should at least know that such an apparatus exists and has been working behind the scenes for years. Easy abortions cause many women to ignore the use of simple precautions to reduce the risk of pregnancy, and by softening the social stigma that has historically been associated with abortions, many young girls now see them as a regular part of life.

War on Trump It’s obvious that the “news” media has been waging a disinformation war against President Trump since the day he won the 2016 election—something I chronicled in my previous book The True Story of Fake News . But the entertainment industry has also dedicated much of their creative efforts to continuously casting him and everything he does in a negative light by weaving antiTrump narratives into the plot lines of countless television dramas and sitcoms to ensure as many people as possible are inundated with the message. Stephen Colbert went so far as to produce an entire

animated series for HBO called Our Cartoon President which is dedicated to mocking him. Before becoming President, the media used to love Donald Trump. For decades he was a symbol of wealth and success, and throughout the 1980s and 90s made cameos in dozens of TV shows and movies like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air , Spin City , WrestleMania , Home Alone 2 , Zoolander , and more. But all that changed after winning the 2016 election, when the Liberal Media Industrial Complex launched a war against him hoping to derail his administration and prevent him from cleaning up the corruption in Washington D.C. and bringing the government gravy train to a halt. ABC’s sitcom Black-ish revolves around an African American family and the issues they face as a Black middle-class family in America today, and shortly after the 2016 election there was an episode about how “terrified” everyone was about Trump’s victory and what it would mean for Black people. 63 For his entire professional life Donald Trump has been a friend of the Black community and had been given awards for all he did. 64 Every leader in the Black community from Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton to Muhammad Ali had sung praises of him for decades, but now the media started gaslighting that he was a racist, hoping to get Black people to turn against him. 65 In an episode of The Simpsons , Lisa is seen reading To Kill a Mockingbird while seated on the couch next to Homer, when he tells her, “Now just remember, it’s set in the South a long time ago. The terrible racism you’re reading about is now everywhere .” 66 Homer and Lisa then head off to the local mall and pass a TV news crew which is interviewing a group of men, one wearing a red hat. “Kent Brockman here interviewing three blue-collar men who voted for Trump. How do you feel now?” the reporter asks them. One of the men replies, “Please stop interviewing us,” as if he’s ashamed he voted for President Trump and realized he made a big mistake.

In an episode of the revived Murphy Brown series, a character (who is a reporter) was depicted as being attacked by rabid Trump supporters because of their hatred for the media. 67 While promoting the show Candice Bergen (who plays Murphy Brown) said Donald Trump winning the 2016 election was the motivation to revive it. 68 The original series which aired from 1988-1998 depicted Murphy Brown as an investigative journalist and news anchor, so producers thought with Trump’s war on the media raging they could bring the show back and have Murphy Brown working to “expose” him. Rolling Stone noted, “The season premiere climaxes with Murphy swapping insults with President Trump during a live broadcast (him via Twitter, her glaring at the camera). The second episode has her lecturing Sarah Huckabee Sanders about the fundamental dishonesty of her press briefings, while the third sees her verbally dismantling a barely-disguised version of Steve Bannon.” 69 Literally the entire reason for bringing the show back was to use the angle of Trump vs the media, with Murphy Brown and other reporters being the underdogs and the “victims” of President Trump’s attacks. When NBC brought back Will & Grace in 2017 after initially ending the series in 2006, one new episode depicted a character walking into a cake shop because she’s hosting a birthday party for the president and wants a cake that says Make America Great Again on it. While ordering the cake she makes a comment about how she’ll be serving White Russians, a reference to the Democrats’ obsession that the Trump campaign “conspired” with Russians to “steal” the 2016 election, adding, “But you don’t need to know the guest list.” 70 The baker then refused to bake the cake saying that the phrase “Make America Great Again” is racist. 71 Vice News had a whole series called The Hunt for the Trump Tapes starring comedian Tom Arnold where he traveled around the world looking for the rumored “Trump pee tape” or a supposed recording of him saying the n-word. And just like the shows about people searching for Bigfoot that are somehow able to be drawn out for an hour each week despite never finding a shred of evidence, The Hunt for the Trump Tapes finally ended without uncovering a thing. 72 Even the X-Files has included anti-Trump messages. The series, which originally ran from 1993-2002 was revived in 2016 for a few more seasons and in January 2018 the season premiere kicked off with the “Cigarette

Smoking Man” narrating footage of President Trump’s inauguration which then cuts to a montage of clips including Vladimir Putin, people at voting booths, a KKK rally, and police confronting Black Lives Matter protesters while he continues to talk about the state of the country. 73 Robert Mueller is also depicted as the head of the FBI in the series, but “the bureau’s not in good standing with the White House.” In one episode Scully tells Mulder “Sometimes I think the world is going to hell and we’re the only two people who can save it,” to which he responds, “The world is going to hell, Scully. And the president is working to bring down the FBI along with it.” 74 After an assassination attempt on Mulder he later discovers the perpetrator is a Russian contractor with a special security clearance given to him by “the Executive branch” of our government, insinuating the President was trying to have him killed. 75 But the anti-Trump snides in sitcoms and dramas get much darker than just obsessing about how “terrible” President Trump is, or promoting the conspiracy theory that he’s a Russian agent. They’re openly calling for violence against his supporters, and want him to be assassinated.

Endorsing Violence The CBS legal drama The Good Fight posted a trailer on their official Twitter account which showed one of the main characters ranting about how “some speech” deserves “enforcement” and that it’s time to physically attack American citizens “unprovoked” who are engaging in speech that social justice warriors perceive as “racist.” 76 To the Left, supporting the border wall is considered “racist” and all Trump voters are Nazis and they want us all to be silenced, jailed, or dead. The Good Fight clip also referred to Alt-Right leader Richard Spencer getting sucker punched while giving an interview in Washington D.C. and insinuated that anyone wearing a MAGA hat in public should face the same fate. The show’s Twitter account also posted a picture showing a list of words stacked on top of each other reading, “Assassinate,” “President,” and “Trump.” 77 In one episode a character was arrested for participating in a

riot, and during his court appearance when he was talking with his lawyer he told her that the judge was a Trump appointee and so he is “fucked.” She advises him not to say anything radical, and he responds in a quiet voice, “Oh, like ‘we need to assassinate the president?” Later, when they’re back at his house she says to him, “Tell me what you said today in court was a joke” to which he responds, “Why? You don’t believe in regime change?” “You’re discussing a crime with your lawyer,” she responds and then takes his pistol and unloads it. He looks at her, disappointed, and says, “This won’t slow us down.” 78 In another episode one of the lead characters (Diane) goes on a rant about needing to get rid of President Trump and when she proposes spreading fake news about him, some of her colleagues push back thinking she’s gone too far. She then responds, “I have a Smith & Wesson 64 [handgun] in my desk, and I’m this close to taking to the streets.” 79 The series even depicted the lawyers obtaining the fabled “Trump golden showers video” after getting a flash drive sent to them by a Russian woman who claimed to have been one of the prostitutes in the video. The Daily Beast , a garbage online outlet and waste of cyberspace, was happy that such a grotesque plot line was aired on network television, saying, “It allows the show to channel our collective anxieties and outrage better than most other series that grapple with our new political reality.” 80 Amazon produced a show for their Prime streaming service titled Hunters which is about a “diverse” group of vigilantes led by Al Pacino who go around assassinating people they think are closet “Nazis” working in the United States to revive the Third Reich. In one of the trailers posted online a “Nazi” could be seen wearing a red baseball cap with some white writing on it, looking almost identical to a Make America Great Again hat. 81

“The best revenge, is revenge,” says Al Pacino’s character, who tells the vigilantes they “have to find them before they find us.” The series could easily incite (and perhaps has incited) vigilantes to go out and attack supposed “Nazis” (meaning ordinary Trump supporters). The Left thinks free speech is “hate speech” and “hate speech” is “violence,” so they justify physically attacking Trump supporters unprovoked because Antifa believes they’re fighting actual Nazis.

The executive producer of Hunters is Jordan Peele, the Black director behind Get Out who has an axe to grind with White people, so it’s not surprising he would be involved with a series that fetishizes torturing and killing them. The Left always accuse others of exactly what they’re guilty of themselves. It’s a form psychological projection, as well as a gaslighting technique. They are so detached from reality that they lack the ability of introspection and can’t see that they are the violent ones, while claiming that it’s President Trump and his supporters. They’re acting like fascists, while accusing President Trump of being one. They are the racists, spewing hatred of White people every day while claiming White people are conspiring to uphold the “systemic White supremacist system” in the United States simply because they exist. Alec Baldwin says, “the near moral collapse of this country falls squarely in the lap of Trump’s supporters,” when in reality they are the immoral degenerates destroying the foundations of our Republic. 82 Law and Order: SVU aired an episode about a character based on an amalgamation of Ann Coulter and Millie Weaver who was sexually assaulted by a suspected Antifa member, but because of her political views some of the police investigating the attack wrestled with sympathizing with her. The episode was titled “Info Wars.” At the end, the final twist was the attacker might not have been Antifa after all, but one of her own supporters (depicted as a vile White supremacist) because he got upset with her after she had turned down his advances the night before when they met at a bar. The “moral” of the story was Antifa are just peaceful protesters fighting against right-wing extremists, and while the victim was worried about them, thinking they were responsible for her assault, it was her own supporters who are the violent ones. The series usually depicts White men as the criminals, often rapists, and avoids storylines about illegal aliens being the perpetrators or Latino gangs involved in sex trafficking even though the show is supposedly often inspired by actual events. And it is extra careful not to include very many Black people as perpetrators out of the usual concerns of supposedly perpetuating “stereotypes” about Black men and crime. Actress Jessica Chastain once posted a link on Twitter to a Time magazine article denouncing Antifa, the Left’s terrorist foot soldiers, adding

“If we resort to violence as a way to combat hate, we become what we are fighting,” but then later posted a video tearfully apologizing after being barraged by social justice warriors saying that she was helping “Nazis” (meaning Trump supporters) by denouncing the increasing violence being waged against them. “I’m making a video because my heart is very heavy,” the apology began. “I’ve learned so much the past few days about the trauma many people are experiencing in our country. I’ve had the opportunity to listen, more than to speak. And [dramatic pause] it’s really hard for me to express my feelings, my thoughts, in 140 characters on Twitter so here’s my first video. I wanted you guys to know that I hear you. I want you to know that I’m committed to creating transformative social change. That I’m committed to dismantling systems of oppression. I share in the sadness of what is happening in the country. I hear you and you may never have met me, but I love you.” 83 She literally cried and apologized for denouncing violence against Trump supporters! Teen Vogue magazine declared “Antifa grows out of a larger revolutionary politics that aspires toward creating a better world, but the primary motivation is to stop racists from organizing.” 84 A better world? If Donald Trump wins reelection, Antifa may feel they have no other option to stop him than to become overt terrorists like the Weather Underground or the Symbionese Liberation Army since every attempt from the last four years to demonize him and remove him through impeachment and the ballot box have failed. Daily Show host Trevor Noah, who is from South Africa, says that Trump’s demeanor and style is like “many African dictators” or those from the Middle East. 85 And virtually every celebrity with a talk show from the old bags on The View to Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel regularly paint the president as such. 86 While everyone is familiar with Trump Derangement Syndrome—the irrational hatred and fear of President Trump, for the first time in modern history the chorus of Hollywood celebrities crossed the line far beyond their usual criticisms and hatred of a Republican president into openly calling for him to be assassinated. Madonna famously said she “thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House.” 87 Comedian Kathy Griffin did a photo shoot showing her holding Trump’s bloody decapitated head which looked like an ISIS

beheading. Griffin also said she wanted to beat down Donald Trump’s then 11-year-old son Barron. 88 At one of their shows in Mexico, Guns N’ Roses brought a Donald Trump piñata on stage and invited their fans to beat on it. 89 At a Green Day concert in Oakland, California singer Billie Joe Armstrong shouted “Kill Donald Trump!” in the middle of a song. 90 Rapper Snoop Dogg “shot” Trump in the head in one of his music videos. 91 Marylin Manson “beheaded” him with a large knife in one of his. 92 Rapper Big Sean did a freestyle about murdering Donald Trump with an ice pick on a popular hip hop radio show. 93 All with no consequences whatsoever. Actor Adam Pally, who starred in a time traveling comedy series called Making History , told TMZ that if time travel were possible he would go back and kill Donald Trump. 94 Johnny Depp went even further saying someone should assassinate him right now. “When was the last time an actor assassinated a president?” he asked a crowd. “It’s been awhile, and maybe it’s time,” he concluded, referring to John Wilkes Booth (who was an actor) killing Abraham Lincoln. 95 He faced no consequences whatsoever. He wasn’t dropped by his management company, none of his movies were pulled from the streaming services; nothing! Before she dropped out of the 2020 Presidential race, Kamala Harris joked with Ellen DeGeneres about killing Trump if she was stuck in an elevator with him. 96 Robert De Niro has said numerous times that he wants to punch President Trump in the face. Jim Carrey said he had a dream of murdering him with a golf club, and now draws pictures almost daily and posts them on his Twitter account depicting Trump and those in his administration as madmen hell-bent on destroying the earth. Mickey Rourke said that he wants to beat him with a baseball bat. 97 After the Iranian government put an $80 million bounty on President Trump’s head, comedian George Lopez responded on Instagram saying, “We’ll do it for half.” 98 While hosting Saturday Night Live , comedian John Mulaney urged people to assassinate President Trump like Julius Caesar. “It is a Leap Year, as I said. Leap Year began in 45 B.C. under Julius Caesar. This is true, he started the Leap Year in order to correct the calendar and we still do it to this day,” he began. 99 “Another thing that happened under Julius Caesar, he

was such a powerful maniac that all the senators grabbed knives and they stabbed him to death. That would be an interesting thing if we brought that back now.” 100 The atmosphere the media has created in the Trump era, where publicly wishing for his death has become commonplace, has incited numerous unhinged lunatics to attempt to storm the White House and Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida where he often goes on holidays. 101 Yet with the exception of Kathy Griffin getting dropped by CNN as cohost of their New Year’s Eve coverage, none of the celebrities calling for his assassination have faced any consequences. Not legally or professionally. Imagine the outrage if anyone even remotely suggested that Barack Obama should be assassinated, or hung for treason. Their career would have been over by the end of the day and their “terrorist threats” would have dominated the news cycle for an entire week.

The 25th Amendment Fantasies As you likely know, every few months throughout the Trump Administration the mainstream media repeats the same news cycle about the “possibility” that President Trump may be removed from office by enacting the 25th Amendment, which allows the expulsion of a president if the majority of his cabinet agree he is mentally unfit for office, which would result in the Vice President taking over. Such pipe dreams have been fueled by gossip columnists like Michael Wolff in his tabloid trash books that are hailed by the media for his supposed “anonymous sources” inside the White House who say this possibility is “being discussed” every day. 102 The Left’s desperate hope that the 25th Amendment could end their Trump nightmare has caused the issue to get written into the plots of various political dramas on television, allowing those with Trump Derangement Syndrome to have the emotional satisfaction for a fleeting moment that it has actually happened. These plot lines also serve to plant seeds in people’s minds hoping they’ll grow and increase discussions and pressure about actually doing a such thing to President Trump.

The Showtime series Homeland , a spy thriller about the Department of Homeland Security investigating terrorist threats against the United States, is just one of numerous shows to include this plot point. “I am here to relieve you of your command,” says the character playing the Vice President to a flabbergasted now former President standing in the Oval office as he is informed of the decision. 103 Before President Trump, such a topic was never addressed in any political drama or thriller. The 25th Amendment was an obscure provision few people ever heard of, but it’s included in the Constitution just in case the President becomes mentally incapacitated. Democrats, however, hoped to use it as a weapon. CBS’s political drama Madam Secretary did the same thing. “I’ve talked to White House Counsel and the attorney general, and though there is a ‘fog of law’ surrounding Section 4 of the 25th Amendment, because it’s never been invoked, they assured me that if the heads of the executive departments plus the vice president vote by simple majority, the president will be removed from office, and Vice President Hurst will become the acting president.…If ever there were a time to set aside politics and do what’s best for the country, this is it,” says the White House Chief of Staff. 104

After the Cabinet voted in favor of removing the President by enacting the 25th Amendment, he addressed the nation to announce that he would be stepping down and thanked them for putting their country first! “I thank the brave cabinet secretaries who voted to invoke the 25th Amendment. They are all true American heroes and patriots. They put their country ahead of their personal relationship with me. That’s what separates us from dictatorships and oligarchies. Without people of such courage, our democracy would be lost, and they will forever have my gratitude. And because of them, I have never felt more proud to be an American.” 105 Kiefer Sutherland’s Designated Survivor series on ABC also aired a 25th Amendment fantasy, where his vice president plotted to invoke the power hoping to have him removed as President after notes about his therapy sessions were leaked to the public, causing concerns about his mental stability as he tried to cope with the death of his wife. 106 Michael J. Fox guest-starred as the prosecutor for the Cabinet, which ultimately failed in removing Sutherland, but succeeded in making an entire

episode about the 25th Amendment, which was the whole point in the first place. Even The CW’s superhero series Supergirl , a derivative of the Superman franchise that focuses on Superman’s cousin, also aired an episode where Kara (aka Supergirl, who, like Clark Kent works as a reporter) published an exposé on the President conspiring with arch villain Lex Luther, resulting in the cabinet invoking the 25th Amendment to have him removed. As the characters are watching a news broadcast about the situation, one turns to Kara, congratulating her, saying, “Talk about the power of the press.” 107 She replies, “These have been some dark days. And I’ll admit, there were some times where I thought we would never get out of it, but we didn’t give up, and we kept chipping away, until we brought the truth to light. Can you believe the Fourth Estate saved the day?” 108 The “Fourth Estate” refers to the news media, which functions as an unofficial fourth branch of government that is supposed to help keep political power in check.

Are There Any Conservative Celebrities? Sometimes people may wonder “why are there so few conservative celebrities?” The answer is that there may not be as few as it appears because they keep quiet about their politics knowing that if they were vocal about their beliefs it would virtually end their career. Being a conservative in Hollywood has always been difficult but in the Age of Trump, it has never been more dangerous. There are a few rare exceptions like conservative comedians Dennis Miller, Larry the Cable Guy, and Jeff Foxworthy, but they are allowed to exist because they have a niche market, and only as long as they don’t come out too hard against the Left. They won’t do jokes about gays, transgenders, Black crime, or other topics they know will cause them to be canceled. They have to stay in their lane. There are some Republican actors like Jon Voight, and Dean Cain who are public about their beliefs but open conservatives in Hollywood are mostly lower-level actors who make a good living, but aren’t A-listers.

Those who want to be megastars know what needs to be done, and what must not be done—or said publicly. James Woods says that after he was asked at a Hollywood Foreign Press Association junket (the organization that runs the Golden Globe awards) if he would support Hillary Clinton for president, he was blacklisted from Hollywood for saying no. 109 After President Trump became elected Woods began tweeting support for him, and his tweets became increasingly political. He was later dropped by his talent agent who gave him no other reason than, “I don’t want to represent you anymore.” 110 Woods is now basically retired but still enjoys tweeting his disgust for liberals on a regular basis. Kanye West says it took him a year to “have the confidence” to publicly support Trump and wear a MAGA hat. He would later say that wearing the hat “represented overcoming fear and doing what you felt no matter what anyone said.” 111 When Kanye was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live for the season premiere in 2018 he wore his MAGA hat on stage for his performance, and afterwards he started ranting about how the staff and producers were not happy about it. “They said, ‘don’t go out there with that hat on.’ They bullied me backstage. They bullied me! And then they say I’m in a sunken place.” He then went on to say that ninety percent of news is liberal, “So it’s easy to make it seem like it’s so one-sided.” 112 He got a lot of backlash and was even called a White supremacist, but he is a big enough star to weather the storm and eccentric enough for many to dismiss his political views as him just “being Kanye.” But there is no tolerance for ordinary actors or actresses just starting their career. Mean Girls was a movie and is now a play on Broadway, and one of the stars (Laura Leigh Turner) made headlines because someone snooping around her Twitter account noticed that she was following various popular conservatives, including President Trump and Sean Hannity. 113 She then un-followed Trump hoping to avoid any more negative attention. Something similar happened to a contestant on The Bachelorette in the 2018 season when it was discovered that the frontrunner had “liked” various Instagram posts that made fun of feminists and illegal aliens. After making headlines for his “egregious behavior” he deleted his account so more wouldn’t be uncovered and issued a lengthy and pathetic apology. 114

Because of the increasing persecution of conservative celebrities, actor Gary Sinise founded a “secret society” of sorts called the Friends of Abe in 2004 to function as a support group and networking organization for conservatives in the entertainment industry. “Abe” refers to Abraham Lincoln, and at one time the group supposedly had around 2000 members, including Kevin Sorbo, Jon Voight, Scott Baio, and Kelsey Grammer. They used to meet once a month and would host guest speakers like conservative pundits as well as Republican politicians. When the organization filed for a 501(c)(3) tax exempt status in 2011, the Obama-controlled IRS demanded a list of their members in order to process their application which is not a requirement for a group to be granted a non-profit status. 115 It was during this same time that the IRS was later found to have discriminated against over 400 different conservative groups, especially if they had “Tea Party” in their name. 116 After getting some negative press for trying to find out the names of everyone associated with Friends of Abe, the IRS reluctantly approved them as a 501(c)(3). It is said that they disbanded in 2017 over divisions about President Trump, but there are rumors that a new “Friends of Abe” may have formed, possibly under a different name. 117 Being a conservative in Hollywood has always been difficult, but in our modern age with political correctness run amok and Thought Police ready to destroy anyone’s career for having the “wrong” opinion, it has caused most conservatives in the entertainment industry to stay hiding in the closet. It’s not just Donald Trump that Hollywood is waging war on—it’s what he represents. He’s a nationalist, not a globalist. He puts America First, and unlike most other recent presidents won’t surrender our sovereignty to the United Nations. But Hollywood isn’t just trying to destroy him and his supporters. They’re waging war on the entire country, our culture, our history, and our families.

Author’s Note: Please take a moment to rate and review this book on Amazon.com, or wherever you purchased it from if you’re reading the ebook, to let others know what you think. This also helps to offset the trolls who keep giving my books fake one-star reviews when they haven’t even read them. Almost all of the one-star reviews on Amazon for my last three books, “The Liberal Media Industrial Complex,” “The True Story of Fake News,” and “Liberalism: Find a Cure” are from NON-verified purchases which is a clear indication they are fraudulent, hence me adding this note. It’s just more proof that liberals are losers and can’t play fair, so if you could help me combat them as soon as possible since you actually bought this book, that would be great! Thank you!

War on America Since the Leftists are trying to overthrow the United States of America and replace our Republic with a socialist dictatorship they are heavily promoting illegal immigration, demonizing the police, and are relentlessly attacking American culture, customs, symbols, and holidays. This is all obvious today, but back in the late 1940s and early 50s there were widespread concerns about communists and communist sympathizers working in Hollywood who may use their positions to do just that. Numerous individuals were blacklisted and basically banned from working in the industry to prevent them from spreading anti-American

sentiments. In 1947, ten writers and directors refused to testify about their suspected communist ties or sympathies before the House Un-American Activities Committee, likely because they didn’t want to incriminate themselves. The communist purge back then was widely criticized as an overreaction and a witch hunt (often referred to as McCarthyism), but it’s obvious—the seeds of Marxism have taken root in Hollywood and now, as Tim Allen said, being a conservative in that town today is like being a Jew in 1930s Germany. 118 Orson Bean, who was a popular gameshow host in the 1960s, later noted, “Sitcoms and movies today hate old-fashioned values. There’s more anti-American propaganda today than the Soviets could have ever worked into our culture through their covert party members who were writing screenplays.” 119 A former KGB Agent named Yuri Bezmenov who defected to Canada in the 1970s would later give a series of interviews and lectures in the United States detailing how the Soviet Union was working to undermine the United States as part of their long term goal to end our reign as the world’s premier superpower. He described the process as “ideological subversion” which was comprised of four different parts: Demoralization, Destabilization, Crisis, and Normalization. 120 He said the Marxists knew it would take an entire generation to accomplish, but were patiently and persistently working towards the goal. “What [ideological subversion] basically means is: to change the perception of reality of every American to such an extent that despite [an] abundance of information, no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interest of defending themselves, their families, their community, and their country,” he explained. 121 Basically, the communists planned to cause cultural chaos by encouraging Americans to embrace socially toxic ideas they knew would ultimately lead to self-destruction down the road. It’s obvious that each phase of the Ideological Subversion plan has been successful. Hollywood has warped the minds of tens of millions of people causing irreversible damage, brainwashing them into believing that America is an evil country built entirely on the backs of slaves while the greedy 1% control all the wealth, so why bother trying to earn an honest living.

They’ve destabilized the nuclear family causing a sociological crisis like the world has never seen, with the majority of children now being raised by single parents; they’ve normalized the most unhealthy sexual behaviors and lifestyles anyone could imagine; and recently we’ve been faced with numerous crises from the coronavirus pandemic to the ongoing racial conflicts from Black Lives Matter. All of which have thrown America into a tailspin. The ongoing attacks on American culture are stunningly similar to the “Cultural Revolution” in China which was launched by communist dictator (and mass murderer) Mao Zedong in the 1960s to purge any remaining elements of capitalism from the country along with anything else that may be an obstacle to his power. The Communist Party claimed that although the capitalists had been overthrown they were “still trying to use the old ideas, culture, customs, and habits of the exploiting classes to corrupt the masses, capture their minds, and stage a comeback.” 122 To solidify his power Mao Zedong had his Red Guards (a network of student groups) violently target what were called the “Four Olds”— meaning old customs, old culture, old habits, and old ideas; in order to “transform education, literature and art, and all other parts of the superstructure that do not correspond to the socialist economic base, so as to facilitate the consolidation and development of the socialist system.” 123 This is exactly what the social justice warriors of today are doing in the United States by targeting gender norms, the nuclear family, American holidays, our history, capitalism, and free speech.

Socialism’s Emergence in America Bernie Sanders popularized socialism perhaps more than anyone else in a generation, and now an increasing number of wealthy celebrities have taken up the cause. Mark Ruffalo was one of the first to endorse Sanders’ presidential campaign. The Avengers star is worth over $30 million dollars and earned $6 million playing the Hulk in just one of the many Avengers films but he thinks “It’s time for an economic revolution,” and claims, “Capitalism today is

failing us, killing us, and robbing from our children’s future.” 124

John Cusack also endorsed Bernie Sanders and at one of his rallies said we need to end “predatory capitalism,” which basically means forgive all debt and offer everyone free stuff paid for by those of us who work hard and save our money. 125 It’s our fault that others frivolously spend their money on things they don’t need instead of saving it or investing it, and now they feel they deserve ours. Jim Carrey, Britney Spears, and others are also encouraging Americans to “say yes to socialism.” 126 The Democratic candidates for president in 2020 were in a competition to see who could offer voters more free stuff: Free health care, free college, forgiving all student loans, reparations for Black people and gays, and more. Recently we’ve started seeing blatant anti-capitalism and pro-socialism themes in major movies and television shows which is exactly what Joseph McCarthy was worried communist sympathizers would do. Such messages seem to have been glossed over in 2019’s Joker by most viewers who were captivated by Joaquin Phoenix’s disturbing performance, but they were actually at the core of the movement the Joker would come to lead. “Kill The Rich—A New Movement?” is the headline on a tabloid the Joker had in his apartment as civil unrest erupted in Gotham. “Fuck the rich! Fuck Thomas Wayne! That’s what this whole fucking thing is about! Fuck the whole system!” screams one protester. A reporter asks Mr. Wayne (Batman’s father) about the “groundswell of anti-rich sentiments,” adding, “It’s almost as if our city’s less fortunate residents are taking the side of the killer.” “What kind of coward would do something that cold-blooded?” he responds, speaking of Arthur Fleck killing three men who assaulted him on the subway, sparking his transformation into Joker. “Someone who hides behind a mask. Someone who’s envious of those more fortunate than themselves.” At the very end when the Joker is a guest on a popular late-night talk show, he begins the interview saying, “It’s been a rough few weeks Murray…ever since I killed those three Wall Street guys.”

“Okay, I’m waiting for the punchline,” Murray (Robert De Niro) responds. “There is no punchline. It’s not a joke.” He goes on to rant about how awful society is and how nobody is civil anymore. “Do you think men like (billionaire) Thomas Wayne ever think what it’s like to be someone like me? To be somebody but themselves? They don’t!” He continues ranting and gloats about the riots on the streets and the police officers who have been harmed and then shoots Murray in the face live on the air. The Joker is hailed as a hero by the mobs gathering in the streets for fighting back against the system. Throughout the riots some people are seen holding signs that say “Resist”—the same signs anti-Trump “Resistance” activists often use at their protests. The hacking thriller Mr. Robot has been praised for its anti-capitalism themes. The main character “Elliot” wants to cause “the single biggest incident of wealth redistribution in history,” by deleting all financial records of credit card debt and mortgages. 127 The Atlantic said, “for the most part the show plays like an Occupy Wall Street fever dream.” 128 Another critic called it, “the anti-capitalist TV show we’ve been waiting for,” and praised it because it, “makes socialism a vibrant force again in popular culture.” 129 Justin Timberlake stars in the 2011 film In Time about a future world where people are genetically programmed to stop aging at 25, and then die a year later if they can’t afford to buy any more “time.” Their remaining lifespan counts down on a timer implanted in their arm which shows how much longer they have to live. The rich people are able to afford more “time” and can live for hundreds of years, but the poor people can’t, and have to borrow “time” at high rates of interest. So Justin Timberlake decides to steal a whole bunch of “time” and distribute it to the poor people in order to “crash the system.” 130 The Netflix series The Society is about a small town where all the adults mysteriously disappear, leaving a group of high schoolers stuck in what appears to be a parallel universe to fend for themselves while they struggle to build a new “society” in order to survive on their own. After some of the kids decide to raid the local hardware store for supplies, fighting with each other as they scramble to take what they can, it results in a town meeting where the natural leader (the new “mayor,” who was student body president in their previous world) tells everyone they’re

going to take inventory on all the food and other resources in the town and begin eating meals communally in the school cafeteria to ration it. A group of the jocks are later shown laying around reflecting on what they had done to the hardware store and discussing the emerging government. One of them begins, “I’ve been thinking—what if we didn’t, like, take stuff? Like food or whatever. Wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, right? Sharing. It could be like socialism. There’s no “I” in team, right?” Another says it “kind of worked” in China because “everything’s made in China.” “Well. Socialism it is,” they conclude. 131 But sharing food and work responsibilities angers some of the rich kids from the town (the “haves”) who don’t want to give up their property to others (the “have nots”) or work at what they see as jobs that are beneath them, so a power struggle ensues and the “haves” organize a coup, seizing political power of the town proving how “ruthless” rich people are and the lengths they’ll go to maintain their lifestyle at the “expense” of others. In season two of Amazon Prime’s Jack Ryan series, the cause for Venezuela’s economic and humanitarian crisis isn’t said to be from socialism failing the country, but because the president is a “nationalist.” The president’s opponent however, is “running against him on a social justice platform and on the strength of, in my humble opinion, just not being an asshole,” explains Jack Ryan. 132 The Foundation for Economic Freedom denounced the series, pointing out that, “By making the villain of Jack Ryan a nationalist, the writers take a not-so-subtle jab at US President Donald Trump, whose ‘America First’ slogan has been described as nationalism ‘that betrays America’s values.’” 133

The growing pro-socialist messages woven into the plots of TV series and movies caused the Orange County Register to ask, “Why does Hollywood smear capitalism, promote socialism?” 134 The answer is clear— the Marxists embedded in Hollywood are using their positions in the industry just as the Red Scare of the 1940s and 50s had feared. In February 2020 a “Netflix for the Left” was launched called Means TV by a group of socialist film makers who helped produce campaign ads for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s 2018 election to Congress. 135 It’s an “anticapitalist” subscription service that streams documentaries, news shows,

and even cartoons and comedies in order to “create the cultural foundation and need to build socialism in the U.S.” 136 It is an admittedly Marxist service that aims to incite people to rise up and “seize the means of production.” 137

Black Lives Matter Riots of 2020 After a man named George Floyd, who was high on fentanyl and methamphetamine, 138 died while in police custody in Minneapolis, it kicked off nationwide riots and looting that went on for over a week. 139 They started locally in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where the Black community looted and burned businesses and even took over the local police station and burnt that down too. 140 The riots and looting quickly spread to other cities across the country largely due to the mainstream media fanning the flames of racial tensions by reporting half-truths and gaslighting, giving gullible people the impression that African Americans are being systematically hunted by police and around every corner Black people minding their own business are confronted by “White supremacists.” Celebrities were more than happy to pour gasoline on the fire, and many of them announced that they were donating money to bail out the rioters. Justin Timberlake, Chrissy Teigen, Steve Carell, Seth Rogan and many more declared that they were on the side of the mob and were helping to fund them. Others, including John Legend, Lizzo, Natalie Portman, Common, and more all signed a petition supporting the new anti-police agenda calling for police departments to be defunded and shut down. 141 Just days later the Los Angeles mayor announced that he was cutting $100 to $150 million dollars from the LAPD budget and diverting the money to communities of color. 142 New York City mayor Bill de Blasio followed suit saying he too was cutting the NYPD budget by one billion dollars to defund the police. 143 This just days after iconic stores like Macy’s on Fifth Avenue had been looted because police were too busy dealing with rioters in other parts of the city. “We don’t want no more police,” one protest leader told

Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey before the mob ran him out of an event for not supporting the cause. 144 Defunding and disbanding police departments as part the Black Lives Matter “revolution” certainly wasn’t enough to satisfy the angry mob, so soon they began calling for all TV shows and movies about cops to be canceled. The Washington Post led the charge with the headline “Shut down all police movies and TV shows—Now,” and just a few days later the popular “Cops” reality show was pulled from TV because it “glorified police.” 145 It had been on air for 33 seasons, beginning in 1989. Another popular cop reality show, Live PD, was also canceled. 146 These unscripted series show the dangers police officers face firsthand, but since they humanize them, the Marxists wanted the shows banned. And all this happened within two weeks of Black Lives Matter resurging. They even targeted Paw Patrol , a cartoon for kids about dogs who work a variety of jobs like a dalmatian firefighter, a bulldog construction worker, and a German shepherd police officer. 147 The Left doesn’t want children to have any positive depiction of police so they can more easily indoctrinate them into their nihilist cult and the “ACAB” (All Cops Are Bastards) ideology. It’s a miracle Will Smith and Martin Lawrence didn’t apologize for starring in the action comedy Bad Boys since it makes cops seem funny and cool. Apple Music even disabled the search feature for a day, called Blackout Tuesday, to help raise “awareness” for Black Lives Matter—as if we all hadn’t been hearing enough about them on the news and social media. Instead of letting people find the music they wanted to listen to, Apple replaced the Browse feature with a special curated playlist containing Black power music, including NWA’s infamous “Fuck the Police.” 148 They continued marching in the streets for months claiming the United States is inherently racist against Black people and that they are being oppressed by “systemic racism” that keeps them from succeeding in life. This, while every major social media platform coddles them and even gives Black people special privileges and perks. 149 The terms of service forbidding “hate speech,” harassment, and inciting violence are rarely enforced when such violations are made by non-White users. During the 2020 Riots countless major corporations including Facebook, Twitter, Google, Amazon, Disney, McDonalds, Starbucks, Bank

of America and many others released statements declaring their support for the Black Lives Matter movement and donated hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars each to Black communities and causes. 150 Cable networks, including the Discovery Channel and the Disney Channel were airing Black Lives Matter PSAs, 151 and several video games including Call of Duty and FIFA 20 (soccer) added a “Black Lives Matter” message every-time the games were booted. 152 Black Lives Matter is not about “ending racism” or “helping” Black people—it’s a front for a neo-Marxist movement attempting to overthrow the United States government and uproot our Constitutional Republic. 153 One of their original online manifestos (which has since been toned down a bit) read, “Black people will never achieve liberation under the current racialized capitalist system…The White supremacist, imperialistic, patriarchal systems needs not reform but radical transformation…We must remake the current U.S. political system in order to create a real democracy where Black people and all marginalized people can effectively exercise full political power.” 154 One of the original “founders” of the movement, Patrisse Cullors, openly admits she’s a Marxist and her “intellectual influences” are Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, and Mao Zedong. 155 Other Black Lives Matter leaders like Yusra Khogali have written that White people are “subhuman” and are “genetic defects.” 156 They are also calling for a universal basic income [UBI], universal healthcare, reparations for slavery, the release of “all political prisoners” meaning Black people incarcerated for committing any crime, and want “a radical and sustainable redistribution of wealth.” 157 Such extremist ideas had been festering on the fringes of the Black power movement since the 1960s but now they have the unwavering support of virtually every celebrity and the entire Hollywood machine has been recalibrated to promote their cause.

Christianity Under Attack In order to destroy America, the conspirators are determined to eradicate faith in God and dismantle organized Christianity. Attacking Jesus and Christianity is a sacrament in Hollywood because the far-Left

hates Jesus and everything He stands for. It’s not an overstatement to say that many in key positions of power in the entertainment industry (and politics) are Satanists who will someday openly embrace Lucifer as the rebel angel kicked out of Heaven for defying God. “I’m glad the Jews killed Christ,” ranted comedian Sarah Silverman in one of her comedy specials. “Good. I’d fucking do it again!” she declares, as her audience agrees in laughter. 158 While accepting an Emmy Award one year Kathy Griffin said, “A lot of people come up here and they thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus. He didn’t help me a bit…so all I can say is suck it Jesus! This award is my god now!” 159 I’m not saying people shouldn’t be able to make fun of Christians, but no mainstream celebrity would dare make such insults or jokes about Muhammad because Muslims (and Jews) are vigorously protected against any criticism or mockery and only wonderful things can be said about them. Even a slightly edgy joke ignites a barrage of attacks with cries of “Islamophobia” or “anti-Semitism” and gears start moving in the wellfunded and massive smear machines like the ADL and the SPLC which quickly move to destroy the person’s career before they can utter another word. Hating Christians is almost as necessary as believing in climate change if you’re going to be a mainstream Hollywood celebrity. There are very few open Christians in Hollywood, most of them are has-beens like Kevin Sorbo and Kirk Cameron who have been basically blacklisted since being open about their faith. Kevin Sorbo was banned from Comicon because he’s a conservative and “pals with Sean Hannity.” 160 He and other Christian actors are stuck doing low budget films that get little attention. They’re allowed to exist (for now) as long as they never point out the Bible’s teachings on homosexuality. Only watered down and generic Christian messages are allowed to be said. After Guardians of the Galaxy star Chris Pratt appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and happened to discuss his “spirituality,” many

online began attacking him for being a Christian and attending a church. Actress Ellen Page (a lesbian) from the X-Men and Inception tweeted, “If you are a famous actor and you belong to an organization that hates a certain group of people, don’t be surprised if someone simply wonders why it’s not addressed. Being anti LGBTQ is wrong, there aren’t two sides. The damage it causes is severe. Full stop.” 161 Singer Ellie Goulding threatened to back out of her scheduled performance at the 2019 Thanksgiving NFL halftime show if the Salvation Army didn’t pledge to donate money to LGBT causes. She got the idea after her Instagram comments were flooded with complaints from her fans because the Salvation Army was sponsoring the game to announce their annual Red Kettle Campaign (bell ringers) fundraiser for the homeless. 162 Since the Salvation Army is a Christian charity, Goulding’s fans freaked out, accusing them of being “homophobic” and “transphobic.” They quickly bowed to the pressure and “disavowed” any anti-LGBT beliefs, which basically means they’re disavowing the Bible because even the New Testament denounces homosexuality in Romans 1:26-27 and 1st Corinthians 6:9-10. Many critics claim that only the Old Testament does, but the Book of Romans makes it clear that just because Jesus came to offer salvation doesn’t mean God’s law regarding homosexuality changed. The Salvation Army also removed a “position statement” from their website that had made it clear “Scripture forbids sexual intimacy between members of the same sex,” and replaced it with one saying “We embrace people regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or gender identity.” 163 One of the world’s largest Christian charities whose very name “The Salvation Army” refers to the salvation of Christ, cowardly bowed down to the Leftist activists out of fear they would be branded “homophobic.” Christians are easy targets since they’re much more passive than Jews and Muslims when attacked, and Hollywood loves to stereotype them as a bunch of superstitious bigots who don’t know how to have fun. In the rare case that there is a movie favorable to Christianity that gets widespread distribution, that too is attacked. Passion of the Christ was deemed “anti-Semitic” because it depicts the story of Jesus’ arrest, sham trial, and crucifixion. 164 It was the most popular film about the events to be made and wasn’t a straight to DVD release like

most others. With Mel Gibson behind it, the film became a huge success, which caused a tremendous backlash. The ADL [Anti-Defamation League] denounced the film, saying it “continues its unambiguous portrayal of Jews as being responsible for the death of Jesus. There is no question in this film about who is responsible. At every single opportunity, Mr. Gibson’s film reinforces the notion that the Jewish authorities and the Jewish mob are the ones ultimately responsible for the Crucifixion.” 165 That’s because that’s what happened! Technically, the Romans did it, but at the behest of the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem at the time. The Bible makes it very clear what led to Jesus being crucified. Pontius Pilate is quoted in Matthew 27:24 saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” and “It is your responsibility!” meaning the Jewish Pharisees. They were the ones who conspired to have Jesus arrested and killed for “blasphemy” and being a “false” messiah. Pontius Pilate even offered to release Jesus, but the crowd demanded he release Barabbas instead, another man who was being detained for insurrection against Rome, and for murder. 166 A critic for the New York Daily News called The Passion of the Christ , “the most virulently anti-Semitic movie made since the German propaganda films of the Second World War.” 167 Many others angrily denounced the film when it came out in 2004. Some in the media even blamed it for a supposed “upsurge” in anti-Semitic hate crimes. 168 When the History Channel miniseries The Bible was released in 2013, the same cries of “anti-Semitism” rang out. 169 The New York Times opinion editor Bari Weiss went so far as to say that it’s a “conspiracy theory” that Jews killed Jesus. 170 Even though most Christmas movies aren’t overtly Christian and instead focus of the importance of families reuniting and spending time together, that doesn’t mean they’re not going to come under attack. As the war on western culture continues, the Marxists have set their sights on Christmas too. Online liberal cesspool Salon.com ran a headline reading “Hallmark movies are fascist propaganda,” and complained they promote “heteronormative whiteness” because there aren’t enough LGBT characters or people of color in them. 171 “Hallmark movies, with their emphasis on returning home and the pleasures of the small, domestic life, also send a not-at-all subtle signal of

disdain for cosmopolitanism and curiosity about the larger world,” Salon said, “which is exactly the sort of attitude that helps breed the kind of defensive White nationalism that we see growing in strength in the Donald Trump era.” 172 The article went on to say that because the Hallmark Channel airs so many Christmas movies, it is promoting, “a set of patriarchal and authoritarian values that are more about White evangelicals defining themselves as an ethnic group, and not about a genuine feeling of spirituality…The very fact that they’re presented as harmless fluff makes it all the more insidious, the way they work to enforce very narrow, White, heteronormative, sexist, provincial ideas of what constitutes ‘normal.’” 173 The article wasn’t satire. Salon.com has a deep-seated hatred of Christianity, conservatives and families, and is another cog in the Cultural Marxist machine working to destroy the United States. Comedian Whitney Cummings was reported to the Human Resources department of a major Hollywood studio after she wished the crew of a TV show she was working on “Merry Christmas” when they wrapped up for the year. She made the revelation while speaking with Conan O’Brian the following December. “Last year, I was working on a TV show, [and] got in trouble with Human Resources for saying ‘Merry Christmas’ to an intern,” she began. 174 Conan asked her if she was being serious and she said it was a true story, elaborating, “I was leaving, like on the 18th or whatever…and I was like, ‘Bye guys, Merry Christmas.’” When she returned from vacation after New Year’s she was called to HR and scolded. She joked, “I don’t even care how your Christmas was. It was just a formality. It’s what you say when you leave.” 175 Conan O’Brien then replied, “In these times we’re in, that could trigger someone or offend them if it’s not their holiday.” 176 She didn’t say which network it was, but she’s been involved with some major shows like NBC’s Whitney (where she played the main character), as well as the CBS sitcom 2 Broke Girls, which she created and was a writer for. While today it may seem impossible that Christmas movies may become a thing of the past, nobody could have ever guessed that reruns of the classic Dukes of Hazzard would get banned after the Confederate flag was deemed a “hate symbol” in 2015, or that Aunt Jemima pancake syrup,

Eskimo Pie ice cream bars, and Uncle Ben’s Rice would be deemed “racially insensitive” and pulled from production a few years later. 177 Once someone reminds liberals that the word Christmas is derived from Christ’s Mass and that it is actually a commemoration of the birth of Jesus, they may finally go over the edge and deem Christmas just as offensive as Columbus Day or the Fourth of July. And with the Muslim and Sikh populations increasing in the United States, the American standard of Christmas music playing in shopping malls and retail stores all month long every December may one day come to an end because it’s not “inclusive” and leaves non-Christians feeling “ostracized.”

Glorifying Satanism Since the Hollywood elite hate God and everything that is normal and good, it would only make sense that they have embraced Satan as their symbolic (or literal) master. The Church of Satan is an organization started by Anton LaVey in the 1960s which gained popularity among a few celebrities at the time like Sammy Davis Jr. and Jayne Mansfield. The “church” was really just Anton LaVey’s house, but he was a showman, so in the late 1960s and early 70s he was able to get some media attention for openly embracing satanism and engaging in various theatrical rituals and stunts (like serving an amputated leg for dinner that one of the members stole from a hospital he worked at). 178 While the group’s 15 minutes of fame soon faded away, satanism in Hollywood didn’t. Rock stars and heavy metal bands in the 1980s and 90s continued to promote satanism through their music. Marilyn Manson, the self-described “anti-Christ superstar,” would often tear out pages from the Bible on stage as part of his shows. Of course he would never do that to a Quran because radical Muslims would put out a fatwa calling for him to be executed, not to mention he would be denounced as “Islamophobic,” but attacking Christians gets one hailed as a hero in Hollywood.

In the early 2010s we began to see an explosion of pop stars promoting a new brand of satanism, in the form of the Illuminati. The original Illuminati was a secret society founded in Bavaria, Germany in the late 1700s by a law professor at the University of Ingolstadt named Adam Weishaupt. While the Founding Fathers in America openly declared their views and goals to gain independence from the King of England, the Illuminati sought secrecy and subversion to escape the grasp of the Monarch in Germany. After many of the members were discovered, rounded up and arrested, it was said the secret society was no more, but rumors have persisted for over two hundred years that they survived and continued on. The group’s original plans—many of which had been discovered by seizing their letters of correspondence—detailed how the organization was structured to avoid collapsing if any of its cells were discovered. Some trace their symbols, slogans, and activities to the Skull & Bones secret society founded in 1832, and later to the Bohemian Grove, and the Bilderberg Group. 179 Aside from being a mafia of sorts, consisting of powerful politicians, bankers, and businessmen—many people believe that these “Illuminati” members are privy to ancient philosophical secrets about the history of mankind and the “true” nature of divine forces. Concerns and conspiracy theories about the Illuminati were mostly contained on the fringes of the Internet until the early 2010s when allegations of celebrity Illuminati involvement went viral through YouTube videos and social media postings. 180 Many rappers and pop stars began incorporating Illuminati symbols into their music videos and hinting that they were somehow a part of it. None of these musicians were members of Skull & Bones or attending the Bohemian Grove, but by promoting the Illuminati and satanism as cool, they laid the foundation for the widespread acceptance of satanism—or Luciferianism as it is also called. Those who follow this secret doctrine believe that the God who created the world (and all living things) was actually a lower level god called the Demiurge (Jehovah), who essentially enslaved mankind through our very creation, either through malevolence or ignorance of its own lack of abilities; and so Satan/Lucifer, the “supreme” being of the Universe from this point of view, decided to enter the Demiurge’s creation to “save” mankind by convincing Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, giving them consciousness. 181 This strange

belief that Satan is the savior, and God (the creator) is evil, is found at the core of most occult fraternities and secret societies. 182 Such esoteric ideas had remained mostly hidden from public view for thousands of years, but now a large number of Hollywood celebrities seemed to be embracing the idea that Satan/Lucifer is good, and giving a wink and a nod that they too know the Illuminati secret. 183 While the Illuminati fad in pop culture has passed, the open embrace of this idea—that Satan/Lucifer is actually the “savior”—will no doubt return someday and catch on like wildfire among the high priests of pop culture. A-list celebrities will declare that Satan is “king” and countless people will blindly follow their lead as they always do. Bible prophecy predicts that one day a counterfeit Christ (the Antichrist) will declare that he is “God” and the ruler of the earth, and such proclamation will be welcomed by billions of people. And thanks to the massive cultural shifts that are taking place, the path is being paved for the widespread acceptance of the “secret doctrine” that Satan/Lucifer is really the “good” God and here to “save” mankind from the inept or malevolent creator who made a flawed world.

Abortion Because liberals celebrate hedonism, debauchery, and tend to live in the moment without any concern for the consequences, unwanted pregnancies are a common occurrence. And instead of accepting responsibility for their actions, they usually decide to kill the baby and have its remains vacuumed out of the womb, seeing such barbarism as no different than getting a wart removed. But they’re upset that such a procedure has a negative stigma for so many people, so the Hollywood propaganda machine has been working behind the scenes to change that. It’s not enough for abortion activists to hope that writers will decide on their own to include pro-abortion messages in their scripts, so Planned Parenthood took it upon themselves to create their own entertainment liaison who lobbies studios to insert such themes on their behalf.

A woman named Caren Spruch is the current director of the Arts & Entertainment Engagement department at Planned Parenthood, and the Washington Post calls her their “secret weapon,” admitting, “She encourages screenwriters to tell stories about abortion and works as a script doctor for those who do.” 184 Spruch said that Planned Parenthood has advised studios on over 150 different movies and television shows since 2014. Their first project was a “comedy” called Obvious Child which is about a girl who has a one-night stand with some random guy after breaking up with her boyfriend and later finds out she’s pregnant and gets an abortion on Valentine’s Day. 185 One of the many shows Planned Parenthood’s entertainment liaison office helped “advise” is the Hulu series Shrill , which shows the lead character (Aidy Bryant) getting pregnant and deciding to have an abortion “before it becomes illegal.” After killing the baby she tells her roommate she’s glad she “got out of a huge fucking mess” and, “I feel very fucking powerful right now. And I just feel like I need to go out [and party].” 186 A sociologist at the University of California, San Francisco wants more comedies about abortion to help destigmatize it. “The purpose of including an abortion plot line is simply to make jokes about abortion, recognizing that such satire is valuable for some people as both a means and an end,” said Gretchen Sisson, PhD. 187 She continued, “This should not be surprising: comedy has often been used as a subversive way of challenging predominant social structures,” and she thinks abortion is “intuitive new ground for comedy to address.” 188 NBC’s Parenthood included an episode where a character (played by Skyler Day) visited a Planned Parenthood clinic to get an abortion despite her boyfriend’s wishes she keep the baby and the two “start a life” together. “If I have this baby, my life is over” she told him, and proceeded to kill the child. Depicting characters getting an abortion was rare back in 2013 for network television, and the episode was celebrated for “bravely” tackling the topic. 189 The Huffington Post praised the episode as well, noting “Amy’s mind was made up and there was nothing Drew could do to stop her.” 190 Melanie Roussell Newman, who works as Planned Parenthood’s senior vice president of communications and culture, admitted, “We’ve seen pop culture change views around LGBTQ issues, for example, and pop culture

has the power to challenge abortion stigma, too.” 191 Yes, that’s a real job position—they have a “communications and culture department” (as well as their Arts & Entertainment Engagement office). One Planned Parenthood affiliate even said that there should be a cartoon where a Disney princess gets an abortion. 192 Many people believed the statement to be an Internet hoax, but it is real, and they later explained, “Planned Parenthood believes that pop culture—television shows, music, movies—has a critical role to play in educating the public and sparking meaningful conversations around sexual and reproductive health issues and policies, including abortion.” 193 Another organization called the Center for Reproductive Rights was recently formed to promote abortion through entertainment. 194 Chairwoman Elizabeth Banks said her goal is to make abortion stigma-free and wants girls getting one to be seen as symbolic of “liberty itself.” 195 Comedian Michelle Wolf had a short-lived show on Netflix where she once did a segment titled “Salute to Abortions” which consisted of her being joined on stage by a marching band as she shouted to the audience, “It doesn’t have to be a big deal, it’s actually a great deal! It’s about $300 dollars. That’s like six movie tickets.” The segment ended with her declaring, “God bless abortions, and God bless America!” 196 She later revealed that she herself had gotten one and it made her feel “very powerful” and “like God.” 197 Actress Lena Dunham once admitted she wished she had gotten an abortion so should could “better understand” other women who have had them. 198 When actress “Busy Philipps” was at a pro-abortion rally in March 2020 she stood at the podium and screamed (literally screamed ) about how glad she was to have gotten one when she was a teenager since it allowed her to become a star. “Soon I would be driving my hybrid [car] to my beautiful fucking home…and I have all of this! All of it! Because I was allowed bodily autonomy at fifteen!” 199 “I will not be shamed into being quiet. We will not be shamed into being quiet. Never again! I will never stop talking about my abortion or my periods or my experiences in childbirth, my episiotomies, my yeast infections, or my ovulation that lines up with the moon!” 200 After seeing her unhinged rant, one might think it was someone playing a character and

doing a parody sketch of a pro-abortion activist, but she really meant it and screamed it at the top of her lungs. She was happy to sacrifice her baby for fame and fortune.

Bowing to China It’s interesting to note that Hollywood is increasingly bowing to China’s cultural standards in order to maintain distribution channels there. The Communist government has strict rules about which films are allowed to be seen in China, and in hopes of pleasing them, various plots are changed and scenes altered before they are put into production. When the trailer for the Top Gun sequel was released, some eagle-eyed fans noticed that a Taiwanese flag patch which had been sown onto Tom Cruise’s jacket along with a few other country’s flags where his father had flown missions, was now missing. 201 Taiwan has been in an ongoing dispute with China trying to become an independent country, but China still claims the island as their territory and in another apparent attempt to appease the Chinese government, Top Gun producers removed the Taiwanese flag from Cruise’s jacket because it simply being there symbolized Taiwan was not part of China, but their own country. DC Comics also censored a promotional image for a Batman comic that was posted on their Instagram and Twitter accounts after some people in China interpreted it as supporting Hong Kong in their struggle for independence. The picture showed Batman throwing a Molotov cocktail with the caption “the future is young.” 202 Protests by separatists had been growing in Hong Kong, and mostly involved college age people using social media to organize, and some read too much into the Batman picture thinking it supported them, so DC Comics deleted it so it wouldn’t cause any issues with their distribution there. The 2015 film Pixels starring Adam Sandler and Kevin James about aliens in the form of popular video game characters invading planet earth was altered so China wouldn’t get offended. While waging war against our planet—in one scene an Arkanoid paddle, similar to Breakout, was supposed to destroy part of the Great Wall of China since in the game

players bounce a ball against bricks to break them apart, but the censors changed that scene to depict the object destroying the Taj Mahal in India instead. 203 The zombie action movie World War Z was based on a book that described the virus outbreak turning people into zombies starting in China, which is ultimately nuked, leaving Lhasa, Tibet the largest remaining city in the world. But for the film, producers changed the location of the outbreak to Korea and of course China wasn’t nuked because they had nothing to do with it. Apparently the Chinese government has banned the distribution of any films featuring zombies, and the Hollywood Reporter noted that a sequel was in the works for World War Z but later canceled because Paramount wouldn’t be able to distribute the film internationally there. 204 The Chinese market is huge, and if studios are pitched a film they know won’t be allowed in China, they’re often inclined to pass on making it altogether. “You’re not going to see something that’s like Seven Years in Tibet anymore,” said Larry Shinagawa, a college professor at Hawaii’s Tokai International College. 205 The 1997 film which stars Brad Pitt takes place in the 1940s and 1950s when Tibet was struggling for independence from China, but that’s too offensive to the Chinese these days and similar films may hurt distribution deals for other, unrelated projects. Richard Gere’s Red Corner (1997) was perhaps the last major film critical of Communist China to be made. In it, Gere plays a businessman who is framed for the murder of a Chinese general’s daughter while on a trip there, and soon realizes how corrupt their legal system is. In First Man (2018), a biopic about Neal Armstrong and the Apollo 11 landing on the moon, the film didn’t show one of the most iconic scenes in history—Neal Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin planting the American flag on the moon once they arrived. When viewers noticed this strange omission Ryan Gosling, who played Armstrong, defended its absence saying landing on the moon was a “human achievement” not an American one. 206 Others had their suspicions the scene wasn’t depicted to avoid making the film too American in hopes it could be distributed in China. It doesn’t make any sense that a movie about one of America’s greatest achievements wouldn’t proudly show the historic scene of the American flag being victoriously planted in the ground on the moon after we won the Space Race.

Ryan Gosling and the producers couldn’t admit to the public the real reason for omitting the scene, because it would shock filmgoers across the country and perhaps cause people to boycott the movie for downplaying our own greatness in attempts to make more money through distribution in China. Hollywood stays very quiet about the lengths they go to in hopes of achieving that. Even the NBA has sold out to China. When the general manager of the Houston Rockets basketball team tweeted support for Hong Kong in the midst of growing protests there hoping to gain their independence, it sparked an enormous problem for the NBA because their games are broadcast in China since they are surprisingly very popular there. Adding to the problem was Chinese native Yao Ming (the 7-foot 6-inch star) had played for the Houston Rockets before retiring. Stars like James Harden praised China saying “We apologize. You know, we love China.” 207 LeBron James said the coach “wasn’t educated” about the situation and that his tweet “harmed” people financially and could have “physically” harmed them as well. 208 Despite celebrity athletes always supporting “good causes” and denouncing racism, police shootings, and human rights abuses around the world, none of them were saying a word about how China treated their citizens or that one million Muslims have been locked up in re-education camps there. 209

Immigration To say that the United States is being invaded by illegal immigrants is an understatement, but we’re now living in a period of time where certain facts are considered to be “hate speech” and the liberal media gaslights their audience trying to get them to deny their own lying eyes. Over 20 million illegal aliens have breached our border and are currently living 210 in the United States,

most of which drain financial and social resources which they don’t even pay into—but to admit the extent of the illegal alien problem is strictly forbidden. In fact, the term

“illegal alien” is now considered 211 “hate speech.” In 2019 almost 400,000 anchor babies were born in the United States from illegal alien mothers. In 48 of the 50 states there were more babies born by illegal alien mothers than ones who were born by women who are U.S. citizens. 212 Flooding the United States with immigrants from third world countries is a primary objective of the globalists because it erodes patriotism, our cultural heritage, and hastens their planned economic collapse which they look to seize upon in order to launch their socialist revolution. During the early Democratic presidential debates for the 2020 election, every single Democrat candidate on stage raised their hand when asked if they support giving free healthcare to illegal aliens. 213 There are even reports of Mexicans waiting (and hoping) for Donald Trump to lose his re-election bid in November 2020, who plan to then illegally enter the U.S. because they feel their chances of getting in and being able to stay will be almost assured. 214 The more illegals the better for Democrats, who hope to one day grant them all amnesty and make them U.S. citizens (and their new voter base), destroying any chances of Republicans winning a national election again for generations. So aside from the Democrat Party and the mainstream “news” media calling for a nonstop influx of immigrants to bring this about, Hollywood is helping as much as they can as well. Often brief pro-illegal immigration messages will be inserted into the dialogue of a show or a character will comment how “terrible” President Trump’s immigration policies are, but now we’re even seeing entire television series dedicated to promoting illegal immigration and demonizing anyone who wants to secure the border. We all know Hollywood loves to reboot old shows from decades ago, from Hawaii Five-0 and Murphy Brown to MacGyver , hoping to cash-in on the nostalgia original fans had for the series. One of those reboots was Party of Five , which originally aired in the 1990s and was about a family

of five kids (ages one to twenty-four) who had to fend for themselves after both of their parents were killed in a car accident by a drunk driver. But in 2020, it was rebooted to depict a Mexican family whose parents got deported because of President Trump’s crackdown on illegal aliens! The five kids (who are anchor babies because they were born in the U.S.) are then left here to fend for themselves. 215 The show was canceled after just one season. 216 In 2017, the New York Times expressed their frustration that there weren’t enough illegal aliens in starring roles or television shows that focus on them and their struggles, so they called on studios to green-light more series about “Dreamers”—the millions of illegal aliens smuggled into the United States by their parents that President Obama gave amnesty to. 217 Producers listened, and soon plots about “innocent” illegal aliens being persecuted would become a common occurrence.

ICE Are the New Bogymen After Roseanne Barr’s character was killed off and the series renamed The Connors due to her infamous “offensive tweet” about Obama administration official Valerie Jarrett, her daughter “Becky” in the show got knocked up by an illegal alien who worked as a busboy at the same Mexican restaurant she waitressed at. He later called her one day to let her know that he got caught up in an ICE (Immigration and Custom Enforcement) raid and she breaks down in tears out of fear that now the baby is going to have to grow up without a father because he’s being deported. 218 NBC’s sitcom Superstore featured ICE agents coming to the fictional retail giant “Cloud 9” (the “superstore” at the center of the show) to arrest an illegal immigrant who works there in the season finale. Her fellow employees tried to help her escape the agents. 219 Netflix’s female prison drama Orange is the New Black also featured ICE agents as the bad guys who arrested a major character just when she was about to be released from prison for an unrelated crime, leaving her

boyfriend waiting outside with a bouquet of flowers devastated that he wasn’t getting reunited with her. 220 In an episode of the CW’s Two Sentences Horror Story, a Latino nanny fends off would-be robbers trying to break into the family’s home that she works for, but when the heroic nanny makes the news, ICE agents discovered she was undocumented and soon paid her a visit, thus the horrifying twist at the end. 221 Charisse L’Pree Corsbie-Massay, a professor at the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, says, “ICE has emerged as a villain in popular discourse, and now we’re seeing that on screen. But these ICE agents are one-off characters with no lines and no names. They’re just representations of ICE, the faceless government entity. Their only role is to play the villain to our characters.” 222 Pamela Rutledge, the director of the Media Psychology Research Center, said, “Making ICE agents as bad guys exacerbates the political fission surrounding the immigration issues…Whether you agree or disagree with current policies, it is important to understand how fiction can inform beliefs on current issues where most people have little actual experience.” 223

During the Trump administration we’ve seen more open border messages being sprinkled into shows than ever before. In Showtime’s Shameless one character (Frank Gallagher) played by William H. Macy, announces he’s having a keg party at his house and is charging people 10 bucks at the door to get in, and adds that unlike this “piece of shit country,” his “border” turns away no one. 224 Pop singer Kesha released a song and music video dedicated to DACA illegal aliens (Dreamers) called “Hymn” where she sings, “Even the stars and the moon don’t shine quite like we do. Dreamers searchin’ for the truth. After all we’ve been through, no, we won’t stand and salute [the flag].” 225 The medical drama Grey’s Anatomy had an episode about an illegal immigrant who reluctantly takes her daughter to the hospital to finally get healthcare she’s been neglecting out of fear that she would get deported. Lobbying agency Hollywood, Health & Society convinced the writers to include that plot point to highlight the concerns illegal aliens have about getting deported if they go to a hospital. 226 Even the rebooted Twilight Zone on CBS featured an episode where “welcoming illegal immigrants” was the “moral of the story” at the end. An

upper middle class woman’s housekeeper is detained by ICE and scheduled to be deported, and despite working for the family for over a decade, the family’s friends seem fairly callous about her situation. “These people know the risks when they come here,” a neighbor says. 227 The homeowner herself, Eve, is later revealed to be an illegal immigrant as well—from another dimension, who came to ours thirty years ago to live among humans on earth after fleeing terrible living conditions on her own planet. In the end, she is also detained and hauled off screaming, now facing deportation herself, back to where she came from. The episode concludes with narrator Jordan Peele giving the “moral” of the story, saying, “We are all immigrants from somewhere, be it another city, another country, or another dimension. As a child, Eve Martin escaped to what should have been a better world. A world where the skies are blue. But now those skies have darkened, and the land below them is a place she is no longer welcome. For Eve Martin, there’s no passport to be stamped for passage out of the Twilight Zone.” 228

Other Attempts There were reports that Jane the Virgin star Gina Rodriguez was hoping to produce a TV series about a college student who found out they were an undocumented immigrant, and reportedly had a pilot episode made for the CW network, but so far it hasn’t been picked up. 229 Then CBS reportedly bought the rights and hoped they could get the show to air under the working title of Rafa the Great . 230 Gina Rodriquez is also trying to get another show called Have Mercy produced, which is about a Latina doctor who immigrates to Miami but is unable to practice medicine in the United States for whatever reason (probably because the medical school she went to is considered substandard), and so she decides to open an illegal clinic run out of her apartment to help her Latino neighbors. 231 CBS shot a pilot episode for In the Country We Love , based on Diane Guerreros’s memoir of having her parents deported back to Columbia when

she was a teenager, but it doesn’t appear to have been picked up. 232 Probably because it’s too similar to the Party of Five reboot. Another planned series called Casa (Spanish for Home) was shopped around which is about a family of immigrants who have to fend for themselves after their parents are deported. 233 It’s unknown if the idea was dropped because it’s identical to the Party of Five reboot, or if the series was just rebranded as that. It’s likely numerous different scripts about the same premise floated around Hollywood before one of them finally got picked up since it’s such a predictable plot, and several different writers probably thought it was the next big idea. DACA dramas are becoming “TV’s new obsession” in the United States. 234 Even Apple TV, which has recently joined the television production business, produced an immigration series called Little America about a 12-year-old boy from India whose parents were deported, and he is left to run his father’s hotel. Each episode tries to “go beyond the headlines to look at the funny, romantic, heartfelt, inspiring and unexpected lives of immigrants in America, at a time when their stories are more relevant than ever.” 235 In 2019 Netflix released a documentary titled After the Raid which follows the lives of several people in a small town in Tennessee after ICE officers conducted a roundup of illegal aliens there in order to guilt trip White people into feeling bad for the “Latino families” that were “broken up.” 236 Netflix is also producing a documentary series about illegal aliens with singer/actress Selena Gomez called Living Undocumented , which follows around eight families that are at risk of being deported. Gomez told the Hollywood Reporter that, “I chose to produce this series, Living Undocumented , because over the past few years, the word ‘immigrant’ has seemingly become a negative word. My hope is that the series can shed light on what it’s like to live in this country as an undocumented immigrant firsthand, from the courageous people who have chosen to share their stories.” 237 Executive producer Aaron Saidman said, “Living Undocumented is designed to illuminate one of the most important issues of our time. But rather than discussing this issue with only statistics and policy debates, we wanted viewers to hear directly from the immigrants themselves, in their own words, with all the power and emotion that these stories reflect.” 238

It’s not just TV shows. For years feature length films have been subtly promoting immigration. District 9 put a unique spin on an alien invasion story by depicting the aliens arriving to earth, not to kill us and conquer our planet, but apparently in a desperate search of a new home. The friendly aliens were malnourished and weak from their long journey and presumably came here looking for help, only to be mistreated by humans and forced to live in a slum called “District 9” that serves as a giant internment camp surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards. In the end, the lead “immigration” official who had previously harassed and abused the aliens is turned into one himself after being exposed to a DNA-mutating agent, and is forced to live in District 9 as one of them. The entire film was a cheesy allegory about racial segregation and xenophobia. 239 In Machete (2010), Danny Trejo plays an illegal immigrant and vigilante living in Texas who is seen as a folk hero for killing a bunch of evil White people trying to stop illegal immigration. The film’s catchphrase is “We didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us.” The White people are depicted as stupid or evil and at one point Robert DeNiro’s character, who is part of a volunteer border patrol group, even murders a Mexican kid after they catch him trying to cross the border. “Welcome to America,” he says, just before pulling the trigger. Danny Trejo then kills all the White “devils.” When some people denounced the film for seemingly encouraging anti-White violence, the Southern Poverty Law Center stepped in to defend it, calling it, “an argument for comprehensive immigration reform,” 240 meaning an argument for open borders since the bad guys in the film (aside from the Mexican drug cartel) were White people who didn’t want illegal aliens crossing the border into the United States. Elysium is a 2013 science fiction action film starring Matt Damon about a futuristic society where most of the inhabitants of earth live in extreme poverty and lack basic healthcare, while a small elite group live in luxury on a space station (called Elysium) that orbits the planet. Those not authorized to land on Elysium are deemed illegal immigrants and are “deported” or even have their aircraft shot down before reaching it. 241 Matt Damon’s best friends’ daughter has leukemia and is in need a medical treatment, so he helps smuggle her to the space station to save her, despite the elite’s best efforts to stop him.

A film critic from Variety wrote that Elysium was, “one of the more openly socialist political agendas of any Hollywood movie in memory, beating the drum loudly not just for universal healthcare, but for open borders, unconditional amnesty, and the abolition of class distinctions as well.” 242 Entertainment Weekly critic Sean Smith said, “If you are a member of the 1 percent (referring to the Occupy Wall Street movement which was occurring at the time the film was released), Elysium is a horror movie. For everyone else, it’s one step shy of a call to arms.” 243

Mexican Drug Cartels Are Good Action films need “bad guys,” and for generations those bad guys have often been Mexican or Colombian drug cartels, but now those kinds of plots have been deemed xenophobic and racist out of concerns that they cast Latinos in a negative light. When the trailer dropped for Sylvester Stallone’s latest Rambo film (Last Blood ) it showed the iconic character fighting against a Mexican drug cartel and liberals immediately called it “xenophobic” and “antiMexican” propaganda. 244 Rambo’s adopted niece, who is of Mexican descent, runs away to Mexico hoping to find her birth mother, but is kidnapped by the cartel and forced into prostitution, but leave it to liberals to defend sex trafficking and get upset because an iconic American film hero hunts down and kills the traffickers! The Daily Beast said the film was “designed to prove the president’s claim that we need to Build That Wall,” and that “Rambo has gone full MAGA.” 245 One reviewer called it “deeply xenophobic” and said that the film “should be end of line for the character.” 246 Another critic called it a “hyper-violent xenophobic revenge fantasy” and said “It’s all a setup for Last Blood to live out every assault rifle owner’s worst fears and most insane fantasies about Mexico. The only way it could be more transparent is if Stallone had growled ‘I. Am. The Wall!’ in his best Judge Dredd voice.”

Some idiot even called it a “radicalizing recruitment video,” for right wing extremists. 248 On Rotten Tomatoes it got only a 27% positive rating from critics, while 85% of viewers gave it a thumbs up—a disparity often seen on Rotten Tomatoes where critics now trash politically incorrect comedy specials and movies that are well-received by viewers. In 2018, Sicario: Day of the Soldado was released starring Josh Brolin and Benicio del Toro who battle drug cartels in the stereotypical fashion, and it too set off a wave of crying critics, one saying “it doubles down on violent fantasies about another Mexican-American War,” and “feels like a piece of state-sanctioned propaganda, a MAGA-sploitation thriller that does not see humanity in our neighbors.” 249 Jennifer Garner starred in a film called Peppermint (2018) in which her husband and daughter are murdered by a drug cartel, so she becomes a vigilante hunting and killing them. The New Yorker called the movie “racist” and “ignorant.” 250 Another critic said it was “irresponsible” to make movies where the bad guys are Mexican drug cartels anymore because they “portray Latinos as animals.” 251 NBC News said the film “is a poorly written blockbuster filled with racist stereotypes. Hollywood should know better.” 252 Until the Trump era, nobody thought that films about fighting Mexican drug cartels were problematic, but because of the hyper-vigilant Twitter outrage mobs that organize harassment campaigns hoping to stomp out any opposing ideas, the entire plot point may be all but abandoned by studios out of fear that their movies will be poorly reviewed by critics who deem them “racist.” 247

The Immigration Endgame Pat Buchanon warned in his 2002 book The Death of the West that, “Uncontrolled immigration threatens to deconstruct the nation we grew up in and convert America into a conglomeration of peoples with almost nothing in common—not history, heroes, language, culture, faith, or ancestors.” 253

He goes on, “Millions have no desire to learn English or become citizens. America is not their home; Mexico is; and they wish to remain proud Mexicans. They have come here to work. Rather than assimilate, they create Little Tijuanas in U.S. cities, just as Cubans have created a Little Havana in Miami…With their own radio and TV stations, newspapers, films, and magazines, the Mexican Americans are creating an Hispanic culture separate and apart from America’s larger culture. They are becoming a nation within a nation.” 254 Many Latinos actually want to create a new country in the Southwest called Aztlan that would include California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and other states in the region. 255 The name refers to a mythical homeland of the Aztecs which Chicanos (Mexicans) want to restore. Mario Obledo, the president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said, “California is going to be a Mexican State. We are going to control all the institutions. If people don’t like it, they should leave.” 256 Never mind that if California was still part of Mexico the water wouldn’t be safe to drink. On college campuses in the Southwest various Chicano student groups exist to further the cause, including MEChA (the Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan) and La Raza (recently renamed to UnidosUS). These groups (and others) are really acting as agents of a foreign government, which means they should have to register with the Department of Justice as such, but it’s doubtful any members of La Raza, MEChA, or any other proillegal alien activist groups have. For the globalists plan for the New World Order to be complete, first large regions of the various continents must be merged into unions that act as the governing bodies for those countries, and then their different currencies merged into a single unit as well. The European Union (EU) and their common currency (the Euro) is the model for the rest of the world. Plans to merge the United States, Canada, and Mexico into the “North American Union” (NAU) which would use a new common currency (called the Amero), have been drafted, and the schemers are waiting for the day they can force their agenda through. 257 Similar regional mergers, such as the Asian Union, the Middle Eastern Union, and the African Union, are also in the plan, which would each have their own common currency as well. And once they are all formed, the final step would be to merge all of those regional unions into a single global

governing system along with each of their respective currencies, ultimately forming a one world government and a single digital global currency.

War on White People Despite Hollywood’s insistence on wanting to end all bigotry and promote “tolerance” for everything; there is a growing anti-White sentiment where White people are regularly demonized, ostracized, and blamed for all the problems in the world. At the same time, Hollywood does everything they can to portray Blacks and Latinos as perpetual victims of “whiteness” whose lives have been ruined for generations because of “White privilege.” According to Hollywood, Black people never do anything wrong, or if they do it’s a result of the circumstances in their life which

put them in that position because of “systematic” and “institutional racism” at the hands of White people. John Langley, the creator of the reality show COPS, admitted he purposefully didn’t allow many segments which involved police confrontations with Black suspects, and instead aired more where White people were being detained and arrested because he didn’t want to promote the “stereotype” that Black people tend to be criminals. 258 Never mind Department of Justice statistics which show that Black people make up approximately 13% of the population in the United States, but are responsible for close to 50% of the total murders. 259 Just pointing out statistics like that is considered to be racist, and the ADL considers 13/50 a “numeric hate symbol.” 260 “Diversity” is a code word meaning less White people, and in recent years Hollywood has been obsessed with what liberals believe are too many White people starring in films and TV shows. In 2015 after the Academy Award nominees were announced, the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite went viral from people complaining that there weren’t any Black people nominated for Best Actor or Best Actress that year. 261 In their minds Black people are the best , and it must have been because of “racism” that none happened to be nominated for those spots that year. From that point on their foot was in the door, and each year after that there would be more scrutiny over how many “people of color” were nominated and which actors won, and how many White people starred in TV shows and films. Every time nominees were mentioned, media reports would flood the Internet about the “lack of diversity” and how “problematic” it was. 262 “Why do snubs for women and people of color keep happening?” they would ask every time half of the nominees weren’t Black or Latino. 263 Fans of Jenifer Lopez were so upset that she wasn’t nominated for Best Actress

for her role as a stripper in Hustlers they took to Twitter (as usual) to complain about it, demanding “Justice for J. Lo.” 264 In the film she plays one of a group of strippers who drug and then defraud rich men who come into their club, running up their credit cards. Not exactly Oscar material, but she must have gotten “snubbed” because she’s Latino! Others were equally upset that Jamie Foxx (Just Mercy ), Lupita Nyong’o (Us ), Awkwafina (The Farewell ), and Eddie Murphy (Dolemite Is My Name ) weren’t nominated for anything either one year. All because of “racism,” not that they had mediocre performances or others who happened to be White made more of an impact. When Toy Story 4 was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Golden Globes, some lunatics voiced their concerns that none of the toys in the franchise were Black! 265 Keep in mind that Woody, Bow Peep, and Buzz Light Year are the only “human” toys. The rest are ones like Mr. Potato Head, a dog, a pig, a dinosaur, etc. The Hollywood Reporter complained about the “near-absence of people of color,” despite two toys being voiced by the Black comedy duo Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key, but that’s not good enough. Their review went on to complain that not only are each of the lead toys Caucasian, but a new character (Forky) is a “very white fork.” 266 The toy is homemade, created out of a plastic spork, some stick-on googly eyes, and has pipe cleaners for arms. It’s a spork, it doesn’t have a race, but the lunatic film reviewer saw it as another “Caucasian” toy because it’s white, which most plastic utensils are. The reviewer was also upset because, “in many ways [Toy Story 4’s] worldview seems like an Eisenhower-era fantasy, a vision of America that might have come from the most die-hard reactionary: lovely if you’re wealthy and White, but alarming if you’re Black or brown or gay or a member of any other minority—in other words, more than half the U.S. population.” 267 There weren’t enough Black people in Joker to please some critics either, even though Joaquin Phoenix’s character starts dating a neighbor of his who is a single Black mother. Time magazine complained that her character had too small of a role, saying, “In Joker, Black women are visible but they are not seen,” whatever the hell that means. 268 The review went on to complain about the roles other Black people had in the film such as the Joker’s social worker. She doesn’t really listen to

his problems and is just going through the motions, thus missing another opportunity to possibly steer him away from ultimately becoming a psychotic killer. That’s casting a Black person in a negative light, and “racist.” Another Black character, a random woman on a bus, scolds him to stop “bothering” her son when all he was doing was being nice to the kid, and that’s perpetuating “racism” too by furthering the “angry Black woman” stereotype. The 2019 film Little Women, which is based on a novel written in 1868 about four young girls living during the Civil War and coming of age, is also “too White.” A writer for Teen Vogue , a Marxist publication dedicated to perverting the minds of teen girls, wrote that when old literary classics are made into films, they need to “better incorporate diversity.” 269 Another critic said that it “romanticizes White privilege” and that “casual racism is merely the start of its problems.” They concluded that “Little Women is, indeed, rooted in the advantages of bourgeois White womanhood.” 270 We can’t have films anymore where the story just so happens to be about people who are White, because that’s not “diverse” enough. The Hollywood Reporter complained that Christmas movies on the Hallmark Channel don’t have enough Black people in them and “struggles to give diversity a home for the holidays.” 271 Their complaint begins with a snarky, “While other networks are viewing the holidays with an eye toward inclusion, Hallmark is delivering the dream of a white Christmas, just like the one’s audiences used to know,” and then notes, “Of the network’s record 24 original holiday movies this season, four of them have Black leads,” but “that’s down from last year, when five of its 21 original holiday movies had Black leads.” 272 Others have complained about Hallmark movies being “too White” as well. 273 In my previous book Liberalism: Find a Cure I detailed how many on the Left are upset that Santa Claus is White, and are now calling him a symbol of “White supremacy.” 274 Some are so determined to destroy Santa’s image that publishing giant Harper Collins released a book called Santa’s Husband which depicts him as a homosexual “married” to a Black man. CNN gleefully gave the author airtime to promote the book when it came out. 275 Director Tim Burton, the man behind Edward Scissorhands (1990), Beetlejuice (1988), and The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) angered

the Diversity Police because he didn’t cast a “diverse group of characters” in his movie Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2016) since Samuel L. Jackson was the only Black person in it. He began trending on Twitter from so many “woke” people calling him a racist. 276 Actor Jonah Hill said that “real change” in the industry will come only when White men no longer run the studios and streaming companies. 277 While celebrities obsessively complain about too many White people being in positions of power in Hollywood and starring in too many shows (and winning too many awards); none of them would ever commit the cardinal sin of the entertainment industry by asking about Jewish influence in Hollywood. 278 Everyone knows that would kill their career overnight no matter how earnestly or tactfully it was brought up, but complaining about too many White men having positions of power in the industry has become a rallying cry for social justice warriors. There are numerous specials on Comedy Central and Netflix which feature Black and Latino comedians whose entire act is basically making fun of White people, which is fine—and sometimes funny, but we all know the double standard. Few White comedians will dare make jokes about Blacks or Latinos. Jokes about Asians used to be acceptable, but those too would be career suicide today. Blacks and Latinos can “joke” about how they “hate White people” or complain about “the problem with White people” and often their distain is obvious, and their “jokes” are just thinly veiled racism—but that’s just fine. Black sitcoms often include subplots about how the families are living in a hostile country and White people around every corner hate them. 279 An entire episode of ABC’s sitcom Black-ish was about how “America hates Black people” with a lead character telling members of her family that repeatedly throughout the show. 280

90’s Sitcoms Now “Too White” Since “diversity” dominates these days, many classic shows from the past are now seen in hindsight as “racist” because there are “too many” White people in them. Beverly Hills 90210 , Seinfeld , Home Improvement ,

Everybody Loves Raymond , Growing Pains , Family Ties , Cheers , Frasier , Full House , Dawson’s Creek , Friends , and more all “lack diversity.” 281 Even with the rash of revivals and reboots, critics are upset that many of the shows’ racial makeup remained the same. The Hollywood Reporter complained about the “blinding whiteness of nostalgia TV.” 282 In the return of Roseanne , however, producers ensured there was some “diversity” by depicting her son D.J. as having married a Black woman and has a Black daughter with her. 283 Friends star David Schwimmer would later suggest that his show be rebooted with an all-Black or Asian group of friends. He went on to virtue signal that, “I campaigned for years to have Ross [his character] date women of color. One of the first girlfriends I had on the show was an Asian American woman, and later I dated African American women. That was a very conscious push on my part.” 284 These days White people are considered racist if they prefer dating only White people. 285 No other race faces the same pressures for personal relationships and families to become more “racially diverse”—only White people. And despite David Schwimmer’s hopes for a “Black Friends” reboot, that show has already been made—and before Friends. It was called Living Single , and Friends was basically an all-White reboot of that show, but there will never be enough “diversity” in sitcoms and feature films. No matter how many shows feature an all-Black cast, or star Black characters, the Left will never be satisfied. There were plenty of Black sitcoms in the 1990s, like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air , Family Matters , A Different World , Martin , Roc , Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper , The Hughleys , The Wayans Bros , The Cosby Show , and many more. All with Black stars and few, if any, White actors involved, but God forbid sitcoms exist with a White-only cast! Of course Black-only shows were made long before the 90s, and continue to be made today—like Empire , Power , Black-ish , Grown-ish , and many others, and nobody complains that there aren’t any White lead actors or threaten to boycott those shows for not being “diverse” enough.

Not Enough Mexicans The mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, wants to double the number of Latinos in TV shows

and movies within the next ten years, and launched a project called “LA Collab” in order to “connect Latinx talent, executives, and creators to opportunities in the entertainment industry.” 286 Latinx , if you’re wondering, is the new politically correct gender neutral term for Latino , since even that is problematic these days, but that’s a topic for a whole other book. 287 Los Angeles County contains 4.9 million Hispanics and now there are at least 60 million of them living in the United States (20 million of which are illegal aliens), so Hollywood is doing everything they can to cater to them. For example, Jimmy Kimmel’s little sidekick Guillermo—who speaks broken English—is paid $500,000 dollars a year to stand off to the side of the stage and laugh at his jokes and chime in once in a while with his catch phrase, “That’s right Jimmy!” Before becoming a fixture on air for the show he worked as a security guard in the parking lot of ABC Studios making $8.00 an hour. 288 There have also been a flood of TV shows starring Latinos in recent years, including the Magnum PI reboot, but there will never be enough to satisfy the social justice warriors. Every show and movie must have a “diverse” cast (meaning fewer White people). Every popular series must have a Black, Asian, and Latino equivalent. Soon there will probably be growing calls for Arab versions of hit shows, since those of Middle Eastern descent will clamor about being “under-represented” in American entertainment. And after that it will be the Indians (or Native Americans, or Indigenous people, or whatever politically correct term they’re calling themselves these days), and then probably the Eskimos. We’re sliding down a slippery slope of stupidity with no end.

Obsessed with White Sins of the Past The one kind of movie Hollywood loves to make more than crime thrillers or actionadventures are ones that highlight how “racist” White people are. “Historical dramas” about how awful White people are

and how the films “reflect what’s still happening today” come out every year. Some of them are Black revenge fantasies like Django Unchained. Actor Jamie Foxx even bragged about killing a bunch of White people in the film when he was a featured guest on Saturday Night Live , saying, “I get to kill all the White people, how great is that?” 289 The film incited some Black people to vent their fantasies of killing White people themselves, flooding Twitter with their hatred in tweets like, “Django got me wanting to kill White people!” and “After watching Django, all I wanna do is shoot White people.” 290 Of course, you can’t tell disgruntled Blacks who hate America to “go back to Africa,” because that would be “racist.” Everything is “racist” to liberals. Black people’s obsession with racism of the past can be seen in the obvious double standard of demanding White people not be “allowed” to say “the n-word” even while singing along to popular rap songs. Kendrick Lamar brought a fan on stage to perform one of his songs with him in 2018, but stopped the show mid-performance because the girl (who was White) rapped along to the original lyrics which included the word “nigga” in the hook. After about 30 seconds he told the DJ to stop the music and started staring at the girl. “Am I not cool enough for you, bro?” she asks, thinking that her rapping wasn’t good enough. He went on to tell her the “rules” and said she had to bleep that word. She apologized, and then they started again. 291 When Latino actress Gina Rodriguez sang a few lines from a rap song that included “nigga” in the lyrics (as most rap songs do) and posted it on her Instagram, Blacks (and SJW Whites) freaked out so bad she became the top trend on Twitter. 292 She then apologized. The same thing happened when a star of the Bachelorette was singing along to a rap song on Instagram Live. 293 Most Black people get more upset when a White person says the word than they do when gang bangers end up killing an innocent kid in their neighborhood with a stray bullet. As Black radio host Jessie Lee Peterson points out, “They’re not [actually] offended! They pretend to be in order to scare White folks and shake ‘em down for stuff.” 294 Imagine if White people demanded that

Black people weren’t allowed to use certain words! Democrats in Congress would hold hearings and pass a resolution denouncing such outrageous word policing and it would be a national scandal, but the word “nigga” mustn’t be uttered out loud by White people, because it’s their word.

On the Lookout for Racism Many Black people (and White SJWs) are so hyper-sensitive and obsessed with racism that they hallucinate and often see it where none exists. For example, Roseanne Barr was fired from her hit TV show within just a few hours after making a joke about Valerie Jarrett, a former advisor to Barack Obama, when she tweeted that Valerie looked like a character from the Planet of the Apes movies; and if you saw a side by side photo of her and that character, you would know why Rosanne said that. But it turns out that Valerie Jarett is half Black, although you would never guess from looking at her. Rosanne later explained, “I thought the bitch was White!” which most people did. 295 Her show was number one on ABC, but the network immediately fired her and then continued the show, calling it The Conners after killing off her character with an opioid overdose from pain pills she was taking for knee pain. 296 Of course Rosanne is not a racist, and in the 1990s the original series promoted a lot of liberal propaganda, but once someone starts trending on Twitter after getting the attention of the perpetually offended online activists, most companies feel they need to appease the mob by firing the person even if they didn’t do anything wrong. Hollywood’s dogma is so rigid that if anyone dares doubt that all Trump supporters are racist they will be denounced for “supporting White supremacy,” as a star of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy realized when he simply said that “not all Republicans are racist.” 297 Jonathan Van Ness trended on Twitter from so many people attacking him for simply stating what should be obvious, but defending conservatives in any way is seen as a major transgression.

Sometimes when popular novels are made into movies, the studios feel the need to add some racism to “remind” the audience how terrible White people are. When Tom Clancy’s bestselling book The Sum of All Fears was turned into a film starring Morgan Freeman and Ben Affleck, the plot was changed from Palestinian terrorists trying to dupe the United States and Russia into a nuclear war because of the United States’ support for Israel, to a story about White supremacists trying to trick the two super powers into a nuclear war so they could build a Whites only Europe. 298 The movie was so different from the book that when Tom Clancy introduced himself on the DVD commentary he said he was the person who “wrote the book they ignored.” 299

Actors Denounce “White Privilege” If White celebrities don’t regularly denounce their own “White privilege” and falsely claim that their success is due to the color of their skin, then they may become a suspected White supremacist themselves, and aren’t seen as an ally of the Black community. Chelsea Handler even hosted a Netflix show called “Hello, Privilege, It’s Me, Chelsea” which examined “White privilege” and followed her around as she traveled across the country endlessly apologizing for being White and talking with other people about how terrible White people have made America. 300 Jon Stewart even issued an apology for having too many White people on the staff of The Daily Show when he was the host. 301 He hadn’t even been the host for five years and nobody was concerned about it, but he too was “sorry” and began doing various interviews to give his two cents about how America needs more “diversity.” He also called for Black people to be paid reparations. 302 When Netflix released a trailer for a forthcoming series about the crimes of serial killer Ted Bundy (played by Zac Efron), people were shocked how it glamorized him and made Bundy seem like a rock star instead of a monster. 303 Pushing back against the criticism, Zac Efron said the film highlights Ted Bundy’s “White privilege” and he believed the only reason Bundy got away with his crimes for so long was because he was a “clean-cut White dude.” 304

After the Black Lives Matter riots in the summer of 2020 the media became even more obsessed with demonizing White people, and there was an endless flood of celebrities apologizing for their “White privilege” and even producing PSAs about how sorry they are and how they “take responsibility.” 305 Poor Jimmy Fallon looked like he was being held at gunpoint when he interviewed the author of “White Fragility,” a book about how White people have ruined America for Black people. He had her on The Tonight Show to lecture the audience about White people’s “inevitable and often unaware racist assumptions and behaviors,” and called White people “aholes” because we make life “miserable” for Black people. 306 He went along with the agenda so well that he sat there agreeing with everything she said, even when she said that he was a racist but didn’t even know it. “When I’m talking about the racism that I have, the racism that you have, it’s the result of living in a society in which racism is the foundation. We all absorb it,” she said. “There’s no way we could exempt ourselves from it.” 307 There’s no way White people can’t be racist she says! The title of the segment posted on the Tonight Show YouTube channel is “Dr. Robin DiAngelo Wants White People to Stop Saying They’re Not Racist,” because she thinks we all are! 308

Watchmen When the Watchmen comic book was turned into a television series on HBO, of all the villains that the superheroes could have been fighting, the producers decided to have them tackle the “problems brought about by White supremacist forces.” 309 The series creator said, “In a traditional superhero movie, the bad guys are fighting the aliens and when they beat the aliens, the aliens go back to their planet and everybody wins. There’s no defeating White supremacy. It’s not going anywhere, but it felt like it was a pretty formidable foe.” 310

The HBO series kicked off depicting the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, where mobs of Blacks and Whites fought and killed each other after a Black man was arrested for assaulting a White woman and a group of armed Black men came to the jail out of concern that the man had been lynched, which wasn’t true. The series started with this to set the stage that “not much” has changed in the United Sates, and Black people are still supposedly being lynched on a regular basis. The show revolves around a modern day fictional White supremacist group in Tulsa, Oklahoma called the Seventh Kavalry, who “wage war” against the local police because the city has decided to pay reparations to Black people. In order to protect themselves from the White supremacists, police hide their identities by wearing masks and costumes. The original Watchmen comic book series and the 2009 movie depicted the superheroes fighting crime at the height of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Obviously many fans were disappointed in the HBO series turning the vigilantes into social justice warriors and force-feeding more identity politics to the audience, but critics were eager to defend the show. Vox said, “Some Watchmen fans are mad that HBO’s version is political. But Watchmen has always been political.” 311

Others blamed “right-wing trolls” who gave it negative reviews online. 312

CBS’s Supernatural Drama “Evil” CBS has a drama which is a cheap knockoff of the X-Files called Evil where a “skeptical” forensic psychologist (who’s Black) works with a Catholic priest to investigate supposed supernatural events. And in one episode the skeptic investigates a case of a girl who was pronounced legally dead, but later “came back to life” once her body was moved to the morgue. After concluding his investigation he figured out that the “resurrected” girl did not experience a miracle, but was the victim of racism because she’s Black! Once he cracked the case, he heads to the office of a senior official at the hospital with two stacks of medical records, saying, “Turned out to be

hyperinflation [of the lungs], and undiagnosed COPD…But it wasn’t the paramedics fault.” That’s when he drops the files on the man’s desk. “What are those?” he asks. “The emergency life-saving efforts of this hospital over the last year. A hundred and seventy-six in all,” he replies, looking smug. “Okay.” “These are your Caucasian patients” he says, placing his hand on one of the stacks. “Did you know that on average during a code your doctors perform fifty-eight minutes of chest compressions and rescue breathing on Caucasian patients? “No. I didn’t.” “And these are your African American patients. Your doctors on average perform chest compressions and rescue breathing twenty-three minutes on them. Patients like Naomi Clark” (the Black girl who supposedly died and came back to life). “It is the stated position of this hospital that it does not distinguish on the basis of race,” the hospital executive responds. “Naomi Clark came back to life in the morgue because your E.R. staff called her time of death thirty minutes earlier than if she were White. That’s why this wasn’t a miracle. It was implicit racism,” he concludes. “I think you should get out of here,” the executive responds. Talk about running out of ideas! Who could come up with such a ridiculous plot? And that was the big climax of the episode!

BlacKkKlansman BlacKkKlansman (2018) directed by Spike Lee was based on a true story about a Black detective in Colorado who investigates the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s. His partner, who is White, goes undercover and infiltrates the KKK while the Black detective is the brains behind the operation. There’s a scene where David Duke (played by Topher Grace from That ‘70s Show ) is making a toast to a group of people and talks about how great it is to be a White man in America and part of the “real America” and then says “I want to thank you so much for never putting your country

second. America first!” he declares as he holds up a glass of champagne. “America first!” he repeats, to cheers from the crowd. 313 That phrase, as you know, was popularized by President Trump, and that scene was included in the film as another attempt to tie David Duke to Donald Trump, even though Trump has denounced David Duke numerous times over the last few decades. 314 During an interview about the film, Topher Grace said, “This is the first script when I read it that’s really of the Trump Administration.” 315 Of course, it’s not. It’s about a Black detective and his partner investigating a local chapter of the KKK for allegedly conspiring to bomb a civil rights rally, but Spike Lee decided to use the 50-year-old story to try and tie the events to President Trump.

“Cracka” In a series called CRACKA, a neo-Nazi is sent to a parallel universe that takes place in the 1800s where Whites are the slaves and Black people are in control of America. “Cracka,” being an insult that angry Blacks love to call White people, a ghettoized derivative of “cracker.” In the trailer, before the Nazi is transported back in time to the alternate reality, he and his friends attack a random Black man and his car is shown to have a “Trump 2020” bumper sticker on it. The series slogan is “You stole our freedom, now we steal yours.” It isn’t meant to put Whites in the shoes of Blacks to make them reflect on the injustices of the past, instead CRACKA is a Black revenge fantasy. Posts on the series official Facebook page are filled with anti-White rhetoric like “You’re in our world now!” 316 The trailer was released on Juneteenth (June 19th) the date that commemorates the freeing of the slaves, and before the comments were turned off many viewers were expressing their excitement about watching White people “get what they deserve.” Trayvon Martin’s mom endorsed the series saying, “I applaud the bravery and vision for the creation of CRACKA .” 317

Magical Negroes and White Saviors Since most liberals see racism everywhere, they’re not even happy when films depict a Black person possessing a unique quality that is used to help others who happen to be White. That is what they call employing the “magical negro” trope. Spike Lee went off on The Legend of Bagger Vance because Will Smith’s character comes to help Matt Damon win a golf tournament that takes place in Georgia in the 1930s. “Blacks are getting lynched left and right, and [Bagger Vance is] more concerned about improving Matt Damon’s golf swing!... I gotta sit down; I get mad just thinking about it. They’re still doing the same old thing ... recycling the noble savage and the happy slave,” he said. 318 Whoopi Goldberg’s character in Ghost has been criticized as a “magical negro” (by Black people) because she helps the spirt of Patrick Swayze communicate with his widow after he dies. 319 Michael Clarke Duncan’s character in The Green Mile also upset some Black people because he has the power to heal sickness and disease and ends up using his ability on several White people who worked at a prison he was being held in, despite being on death row for a crime he didn’t commit. 320 It seems some Black people hate Whites so bad that they can’t stand to see a Black person do anything nice to them. No good deed goes unpunished, as the saying goes, and when well-meaning Hollywood studios produce films of White people helping minorities, that too is criticized as being a racist trope called the “White savior narrative.” In Finding Forester , Sean Connery’s character is a reclusive but wellknown writer who crosses paths with a Black teen who plays basketball in the courts across the street from his apartment. Connery learns the kid has a gift for writing that he helps encourage, and later the boy is accused of plagiarism because his teacher doesn’t think he has the ability to write as good as he does, but Connery vouches for him in a surprise appearance at the school preventing him from failing the class.

In The Blind Side (2009) Sandra Bullock is considered a White savior for taking in a Black homeless kid named Big Mike who becomes a football star thanks to her help. One critic said the Blind Side , “peddles the most insidious kind of racism, one in which whiteys are virtuous saviors, coming to the rescue of Blacks who become superfluous in narratives that are supposed to be about them.” 321 Others attacked the film because they felt it depicted Sandra Bullock saving Big Mike from inner-city Black people who were all “poor and violent.” 322 Apparently they would have been happier if she just left him to waste away in the ghetto. White people are often damned if they do, and damned if they don’t. Other popular films liberals got upset about because they feature “White saviors” are Dangerous Minds (because a White teacher helps educate Black and Latino students in a poverty stricken part of the city), and even Gran Torino because Clint Eastwood helps his Asian neighbors fight against a Black gang in Detroit. 323 Cool Runnings , a film about a Jamaican bobsled team, was attacked because the Jamaicans wouldn’t have made it to the Olympics without the “White savior” (John Candy) their trainer. 324 Even Avatar has been accused of this since a White character using a remote control avatar of an alien body helps the alien race save their planet from human invaders looking to take their natural resources. 325 In the 1980s Diff’rent Strokes was a popular sitcom about a rich White man living in Manhattan who adopts two Black orphans from Harlem. At the time the series covered a lot of serious issues like racism, drug use, and even child molestation. But today some see it as another example of a “White savior” plot. One online magazine even included Diff’rent Strokes on its “50 Most Racist TV Shows” list, writing sarcastically, “Save us, Mr. White Man! Come rescue us from Harlem and let us come live with you in yo’ giant Park Avenue mansion where our po’ deceased mama onced worked her fingers to the bone cleaning up after yo’ wrinkled White ass! We’s cute, Mista Drummond, we ain’t gwine start no trouble.” 326

MTV’s Anti-White Agenda In 2015, MTV aired a documentary titled “White People” that was hosted by a homosexual illegal

alien named Jose Antonio Vargas who traveled around America shaming White people about their “privilege” and lecturing them for not being concerned enough about minorities. 327 The following year MTV News released a video with “New Year’s resolutions for White guys” because we’re all such terrible people we need to be educated by Blacks and Latinos on how we can be better. “Try to recognize that America was never ‘great’ for anyone who wasn’t a White guy,” begins one presenter. 328 “Nobody who has Black friends says that they have Black friends, and just because you have Black friends doesn’t mean you’re not racist. You can be racist with Black friends,” says another. “Look, guys, we know nobody’s perfect, but honestly, you can do a little better in 2017.” They surprisingly deleted the video due to the backlash but their obsession with “White privilege” continues. MTV produced a YouTube show called “Decoded” where the host uncovered White people’s hidden “racism” that she sees around every corner, including decoding “microaggressions” and “the problem with White beauty standards.” The usual complaints about Halloween costumes being “cultural appropriation” (and thus offensive) have also been covered. Each week for several years beginning in 2015 the show would release a new episode where the host found more problems to blame on White people or ways White people are supposedly being racist.

White Replacement in Media Recently another obsession we’ve seen in Hollywood is remaking popular movies or sequels and replacing the main character (if they happen to be White) with a Black actor in the name of “diversity.” It’s actually considered to be a “White supremacist conspiracy theory” to talk about White populations being “replaced” through mass immigration, but that is exactly what Hollywood has been

doing to various characters in order to stamp out “whiteness.” 329

Generation Xers remember the musical Annie being about the curly redhead orphan, but when it was remade in 2014, Annie was Black with an afro. When the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid was announced, it was also revealed that the red-headed mermaid Ariel would be played by a Black actress instead. 330 When a reboot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was announced the show cast an African-American actress as Buffy, who was originally played by Sarah Michelle Gueller in the 1990s series. 331 Two years later the show still hadn’t made it to air, which likely means the pilot was so horrible it didn’t get picked up. But due to the low standards of what is considered “entertainment” today, that may change if they rework the script or decide to just dump it on Netflix or Hulu. Activists also began pushing for James Bond to be played by a Black man, and it was later announced that a Black woman would play Agent 007, taking over Bond’s famous codename. 332 In 2010 when The Karate Kid reboot was released it starred Jaden Smith, Will Smith’s son, who is of course Black. In 2018, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse depicted the kid who becomes Spider Man as biracial— being half Black, half Latino. 333 There are growing calls to depict Superman as Black in future films as well. 334 In the 2015 remake of Fantastic Four, Johnny Storm (the human torch character) who is White in the first two films (as well as in the comics) was played by Michael B. Jordan, a Black man. 335 This, despite being depicted as the brother of a fellow “Fantastic Four” member, Sue Storm, who is White. Samuel L. Jackson plays Nick Fury in The Avengers series even though the character is White in the comics. In the late 1990s a made for TV movie titled Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D . aired on FOX where the character was true to the comic depiction (played by David Hasselhoff), but when Marvel launched their Avengers film series they chose Samuel L. Jackson for more “diversity.” Another comic book superhero called Domino was turned Black when she made an appearance in Deadpool 2 .

After the original actress who played Batwoman in The CW television series didn’t renew her contract, she was replaced by a Black girl. 336 ABC announced plans to reboot The Wonder Years , a hit coming-of-age comedydrama about a typical kid growing up in suburban America in the late 1960s, only this time…you guessed it—the family is Black. 337 For Black History Month (February) in 2020, Barnes & Noble planned to release special editions of various literary classics like The Wizard of Oz , Romeo and Juliet , and Alice in Wonderland with new covers depicting the lead characters as African Americans. They called it the Diverse Editions program, but canceled their plan after critics complained that it was “literary blackface” and said they should have just promoted actual books written by people of color instead of doing something so dumb. 338 When Harry Potter was turned into a play, a Black actress was chosen to play the character Hermione Granger, who is described as White in the books, and was played by Emma Watson in the films. Writer J.K. Rowling later denied that she wrote the character as White, but in the books she is specifically described as such. 339 Other films are being remade with modern day “Black” versions, like Steel Magnolias , originally released in 1989 about a group of women and how they cope with the death of one of their friends, and then remade in 2012 starring all Black women. The romantic comedy About Last Night (1986), about couples entering into committed relationships for the first time in their lives, was remade in 2014 starring an all-Black cast. And there have been others, including Cinderella , Death at a Funeral , and more. 340 Remaking a “Black” version of a film is quite different than changing a well-established character like Orphan Annie or the Little Mermaid, but when race-swapping happens to Black characters, it’s denounced as “whitewashing.”

How About Entertainment For Whites? Once Whites are a minority in the United States (estimated to occur in 2045), will it then be okay to have a White Entertainment Channel like Black people have BET [Black Entertainment Television]? Will White people be able to have a Miss White USA pageant since Blacks, Latinos,

and Asians have their own beauty pageants for their race? Once Whites become a minority in America can we have White students clubs on college campuses just like the Black, Asian and Latino student organizations? Will it be okay for a White person to say that they are proud to be White? No, it won’t. The special interest groups for Blacks and Latinos will get unhinged and scream that “White supremacy” is trying to resurrect itself and loads of “White allies” will join in on the chorus denouncing their fellow White people to show solidarity with people of color. “White people had their turn,” they’ll say, and don’t deserve to be proud of their race or culture because they enslaved Black people 400 years ago. “We ended White supremacy and must ensure it never returns,” they’ll say. White people must forever bow down to the new Latino/Black/Asian majority and live the rest of their lives in servitude to the new ruling class to atone for the sins of our White ancestors, they will demand. Of course Black people ignore the fact that virtually all countries in the ancient world had slaves. Maybe we should point out that the Egyptians (Africans) enslaved the Jews. And that Black Muslim tribes in Africa actually sold other Africans to the European slave traders who brought them to North America. 341 Africa is also the world’s leader in modern-day slavery, where millions of people remain trapped in forced labor. 342 When the question is raised about a White counterpart to BET or White-only shows and movies, the knee jerk reaction is to always claim that the majority of mainstream entertainment is produced for White people. But with forced diversity being injected into almost every single television show, movie, and even commercials which all do their best to have an equal number of White, Black, Asian, and Latino characters, the claim that White people have entertainment that is a reflection of our own family, community, and culture is rapidly becoming null and void. Since most “White” homogeneous entertainment has been “diversified” and turned into a heterogenous multicultural mishmash, this just adds to the justification that such shows should be created and maintained. But just pointing out these issues is enough to get one tarred and feathered as a “neo-Nazi,” then deplatformed from social media, and “White nationalist” added to the first sentence of their Wikipedia page. 343

Film and Television Liaison Offices Most people think that propaganda films were just something produced by Nazi Germany or perhaps are still made by communist regimes in North Korea or China, but the truth is the United States is the world’s biggest producer of such material. For example, during World War II our government commissioned a series of documentary films called Why We Fight which were designed to encourage Americans to support the war. Animated segments of the films were produced by Walt 344 Disney Studios.

Disney actually produced various cartoons throughout World War II featuring Donald Duck for this same purpose. One such film titled The Spirit of ’43 encouraged Americans to file and pay their income taxes in order to help fund the war effort. “Taxes...To Defeat the Axis” was the film’s tagline which was commissioned by the U.S. Treasury Secretary at the time. 345 The title, “Spirt of ’43 ” was a play off the old patriotic sentiment from the American Revolutionary war which was captured by the slogan “The Spirit of ’76.” Another Disney war propaganda film from the era was Der Fuehrer’s Face (originally titled Donald Duck in Nutzi Land ), which encouraged Americans to buy war bonds to help fund World War II. In the film Donald Duck has a nightmare where he is forced to work at a munitions factory in Nazi Germany, but then wakes up in “home sweet home” and has a renewed love for America. 346 Donald Duck also starred in a short anti-Japanese propaganda film during World War II, where he parachuted into a Pacific island jungle to “wipe out” a Japanese airfield. 347 While it’s simple to make the case that these films were for a good cause, the point is that propaganda is more pervasive than people realize, and the avenues used to reach the masses aiming to persuade them are so vast that even popular cartoon characters are employed. Most people think war propaganda films disguised as innocent entertainment is just something from the World War II era, but the practice continued—and so did the sophistication. During the height of the Cold War in the 1980s the film Red Dawn (starring Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen) depicted the Soviet Union invading the United States only to be confronted by a group of high school kids who form a militia called “the Wolverines” (named after their school’s mascot) and help fight off the communists, saving their town. It was remade in 2012 with North Korea being the invaders this time, who just so happened to be in the crosshairs of the Department of Defense which considered them part of the “axis of evil.” Hollywood didn’t just think this would be a neat plotline, the film (and many others) was actually produced with the help of the Department of Defense. An open secret in Hollywood, but something rarely ever mentioned because it would spoil the “fun,” is that the U.S. government works hand in hand with writers and directors to craft blockbuster propaganda films that reinforce American foreign policy objectives. 348

During the War on Terror in the early to mid 2000s, millions of Americans were subjected to pro-torture propaganda through Kiefer Sutherland’s popular series 24 which began airing just two months after the September 11th attacks in 2001. Torturing suspected terrorists or people detained who were believed to have information about Al Qaeda was a hot topic of debate at the time, and Kiefer Sutherland was on national television with a new episode each week to show Americans that torturing the “bad guys” was “necessary” to save the world. 349 Over a decade later the popular entertainment industry publication Variety would admit that “Liberal Hollywood carried water for torture.” 350 The article pointed out, “Not only has torture become more frequent since the Sept. 11 terror attacks, but the acceptance of those depictions in entertainment has been cited as a point of reference—and even an endorsement of the tactics.” 351 Zero Dark Thirty , the 2013 dramatization depicting the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, falsely depicted torture as the reason information was obtained that led to the location of his compound after years of the terror leader eluding U.S. forces. Torturing detainees had nothing to do with discovering his hideout, but the film essentially rewrote history in the minds of millions who saw it and believe it tells the real story of how it unfolded. 352

When he was Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta gave classified details about the raid to the producers to help them make the film. 353 Zero Dark Thirty later received several Oscar nominations. Most movie lovers have no idea that many big budget blockbuster films are produced with the direct help and oversight of the United States government. How else do you think the Hollywood studios get access to aircraft carriers, F-16 jets, tanks, and other sophisticated military equipment? They can’t just rent those kinds of things from a prop house. They get them from the government. The stars will never talk about this when doing the talk show circuit promoting their films. It’s kind of a trade secret really, but in the industry it’s widely known that various departments of the government have what are called entertainment liaison offices which work with producers and screenwriters to get them the equipment they want. Of course there is a price for this. It’s not monetary though—it comes in the form of script approval.

The U.S. Army isn’t going to lend a bunch of tanks to a producer for a film showing the dark side of war, or one that questions the WMD hoax that was used to justify invading Iraq in 2003, for example. Movies must always celebrate war and glorify it, and never doubt the reasons for starting one. Such deals have been made for films like Zero Dark Thirty, Red Dawn, Top Gun , American Sniper , and hundreds of others. Some have called this form of entertainment “government-subsidized propaganda.” 354 Freedom of Information requests revealed that the Department of Defense has been involved in over 800 films and television shows between 1911 and 2017, many of them since 2001 because of the War on Terror that started shortly after the 9/11 attacks. 355 It’s not just the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force, however. The CIA has their own Entertainment Liaison Office and has also been involved in the production of dozens of different films and television shows since at least 1947. 356 These entertainment liaison offices also include agreements that get active duty military personnel to be extras in movies when a scene calls for a large number of uniformed troops. That way the director gets their shot of hundreds of soldiers on the battlefield, but also saves the money they would have had to pay all the extras to be there. Mark Wahlberg plays a Navy SEAL deployed in Afghanistan in Lone Survivor , which is based on a true story derived from Marcus Luttrell’s biography about his experiences there in 2005, and thanks to the Department of Defense Entertainment Liaison Office the film was shot in New Mexico on Kirtland Air Force Base. 357 That way the studio didn’t have to recreate an entire military base, they were able to use a real one. Fortune magazine calls this “Hollywood’s Military Complex” and explained, “Even in an age of special effects, it’s exponentially cheaper to film on actual military ships with real military advisers. Despite action sequences and an A-list lead, Captain Phillips cost about $55 million to make (compared with a visual effects fest like Gravity , which cost about $100 million). The fulcrum of Hollywood’s unlikely partnership is Phil Strub, a former film school student and Navy videographer, now the entertainment liaison at the Department of Defense.” 358 Fortune goes on to say, “Scripts of movies helmed by Michael Bay, Ridley Scott, and Steven Spielberg are regularly sent to an ascetic office at the Pentagon in hopes of procuring military cooperation. If he [Phil Strub] signs off, the filmmakers stand to access the most awesome arsenal in the

world, and in turn, the image and message of the American armed forces get projected before a global audience.” 359 An official who works in the Department of Defense’s Entertainment Liaison Office confirmed they maintain control over the scripts, saying, “We make sure the Department and facilities and people are portrayed in the most accurate and positive light possible.” 360 That’s a nice way of saying, if anything in the film paints the government or war in a bad light, you’re not getting your equipment. Before an agreement is made to allow the use of government equipment (and locations), the Entertainment Liaison Office carefully reviews a script and then raises any possible concerns with the producer; and if they’re willing to change certain dialog or plot points then the government will give them basically anything they need as long as the movie will serve as an infomercial for the military. They can be quite picky even about the smallest detail. For example, in the original script of Hulk , the laboratory which caused Dr. Banner’s condition was a government lab, but documents obtained by a Freedom of Information Request show that the Department of Defense requested it be just a “lab” and not associated with the government at all. 361 The Army Times admitted that “filmmakers can ask the Pentagon for assistance on their projects, from consultation on uniforms and military procedures to use of real military aircraft and equipment.” 362 Or as Phil Strub, who was the head of Department of Defense’s Entertainment Liaison Office for almost thirty years put it, “The relationship between Hollywood and the Pentagon has been described as a mutual exploitation. We’re after military portrayal, and they’re after our equipment.” 363 Sure these films are entertaining and dramatic, but they’ll only tell half the story about why a conflict actually started, and what the costs will be. They also serve a secondary purpose by encouraging people to join the military because war is painted as exciting and glorious and always for a just cause, never because of misinformation or lies (as in the case of the War in Iraq). “We want these movies to help us in terms of recruitment and retention,” admitted the Department of Defense. 364 The original Top Gun starring Tom Cruise was said to have spiked enrollment in the Air Force to record levels. They even called it the “Top Gun Effect” and in some cities Air Force recruiters literally set up tables outside movie theaters. 365

Katy Perry’s music video “Part of Me” was actually shot at Camp Pendleton, a massive Marine base in San Diego, California, thanks to help from the Entertainment Liaison Office. 366 In the video she finds out her boyfriend is cheating on her and doesn’t know what to do with her life, so she ends up joining the Marines. The entire rest of the music video is literally a recruitment commercial, showing her dressed in uniform completing basic training, shooting an M-16, and riding in an Amphibious Assault Vehicle. The video also includes actual Marines as extras, marching alongside her and storming a beach with helicopters flying overhead—all provided by Camp Pendleton. Even the creators of the popular “Call of Duty” video game series consult with the Department of Defense’s Entertainment Liaison Office in order to get access to advisors in hopes of creating more realistic video games. 367 While the government enthusiastically helps produce movies, TV shows, and music videos that will reinforce their preferred narratives, big budget anti-war films or those which depict some of the horrors of war like Platoon (1986), Apocalypse Now (1979), and Full Metal Jacket (1987) have to go without any of this assistance. Sometimes the studios have to actually rent military vehicles and equipment from foreign governments and film outside of the United States to get their projects made. When Platoon came out, Oliver Stone, who wrote and directed the film, said, “I hope people go to see what the war was really like. That’s the statement. And once you see it, you have to think about it for yourself. Think about what you think about war. Think about what it really is, as opposed to the fantasy comic book stuff of Top Gun.” 368 He also said that the main character (played by Charlie Sheen) was actually based on his own experience of being in Vietnam, and how at first he wanted to do his “patriotic duty” for his country, but after seeing the horrors of the war first hand and later learning about the lies that got us there, he began to resent the U.S. government for what they had done. During the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in the early 2000s, George. W. Bush issued a ban on any photos and video of the coffins being unloaded from airplanes after soldiers’ remains were brought back to the United States. 369 It was widely known that support for the Vietnam War dramatically dropped when people began seeing footage of the tens of thousands of coffins returning, not to mention pictures of wounded soldiers,

and so the Bush Administration did everything they could trying to prevent a similar situation by censoring the details of the casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. It wasn’t just George W. Bush and the neocons’ policies that caused needless death and destruction because of our involvement in the Middle East, however. Barack Obama became known as the “Drone King” for using the newly popular remote-control aircraft which ended up killing a stunning number of innocent civilians while the American mainstream media provided him cover by barely, if ever, mentioning it. 370 First Lady Michelle Obama played her part to help promote the Military Industrial Complex during the Obama administration. She actually appeared at the Oscars in 2013 via satellite to announce the winner of Best Picture which was given to Argo , a movie about the CIA covertly working with Hollywood movie producers so their agents could pose as film makers working on a science fiction movie in order to infiltrate Iran so they could rescue American hostages being held there. 371 That same year Homeland won Golden Globe awards for the Best Actress (Claire Danes), Best Actor (Damian Lewis), and Best TV Drama for their Showtime series depicting a returning veteran secretly siding with Al Qaeda. 372 This narrative parroted a report released by the Department of Homeland Security a few years earlier that warned returning veterans should be considered possible domestic terrorists out of concerns they may join right-wing extremist organizations after supposedly having a difficult time re-integrating into their communities. 373 The real reason for the report, which angered veterans groups when it was made public, may have been concerns that many soldiers were disgruntled with the U.S. government after learning that the reason for starting the War in Iraq (the “weapons of mass destruction” Saddam Hussein supposedly had), turned out to be a lie. In March 2012 a 30-minute documentary titled Kony 2012 was posted to YouTube and immediately went viral. The film promoted a campaign to capture or kill the African warlord Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army. Kony 2012 was the first YouTube video ever to get one million “likes” and was called the most viral video ever at the time. 374 Celebrities from Justin Bieber to Kim Kardashian helped spread it through their social media accounts and a few weeks later the U.S. Senate

passed a resolution condemning Joseph Kony and agreed to send troops from the African Union to help find him. 375 The film’s surprising popularity was no accident. It was produced by a charity called “Invisible Children” which used a high-power public relations firm called Sunshine Sachs Associates to promote it. That PR firm was co-founded by a man named Ken Sunshine who has close ties with Barack Obama. Many people became suspicious of Kony 2012 immediately since the video seemed to come out of nowhere and went viral so quickly. In hindsight it appears it was a carefully crafted propaganda campaign to promote the United States getting involved in another conflict halfway around the world. 376 The Military Industrial Complex had been eager to become more invested in the fight against Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army, but since they weren’t a threat to the United States and had no direct connections to us, drumming up support to go after him would have been impossible. But thanks to the viral Kony 2012 video, everyone was talking about him, and despite living in a country few Americans could even find on a map (Uganda), he became public enemy number one.

The CIA In Hollywood In the 1990s the CIA appointed a man named Chase Brandon as a their liaison to Hollywood, and he began helping the agency produce dozens of films and television shows for major studios and television networks, including documentaries on the History Channel. 377 Chase Brandon retired in 2007 and was replaced by a man named Paul Barry who continues with the task. 378 Former CIA officer Bob Baer said, “All these people that run studios—they go to Washington, they hang around with senators, they hang around with CIA directors, and everybody’s on board.” 379 Just a few weeks after the 9/11 attacks CBS launched a new series about the CIA called The Agency , which was shot on location at the actual

CIA headquarters, and largely focused on the hunt for Osama Bin Laden and how the CIA was tirelessly working to keep America safe. The director of The Recruit (2003) a spy thriller starring Al Pacino and Colin Farrell, was invited to visit the CIA’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia so he could “understand how the space worked and looked.” 380 He wasn’t just brought there for a tour, the CIA’s Entertainment Liaison Office was involved in the production of the film to make sure it didn’t cast the CIA as a whole in a negative light, only Al Pacino’s character who is a corrupt agent and is eventually discovered. Over a decade later, The Atlantic would publish a story titled, “How the CIA Hoodwinked Hollywood” which explained, “The agency has established a very active spin machine in the heart of the entertainment capital, which works strenuously to make sure the cloak-and-dagger world is presented in heroic terms. Since the mid-1990s, but especially after 9/11, American screenwriters, directors, and producers have traded positive portrayal of the spy profession in film or television projects for special access and favors at CIA headquarters.” 381 Robert DeNiro played a retired CIA officer in Meet the Parents who famously hooks Ben Stiller up to a lie detector as part of his over-protective antics to determine if Stiller can be trusted to marry his daughter. Apparently the original script included a brief scene showing “torture manuals” on DeNiro’s book shelf once Stiller stumbled across his secret office in the basement and learned of his future father in law’s true identity, but the CIA told the studio not to include them on the shelf since they would cast the Agency in a negative light. 382 Not all films about the CIA show them in a positive light, however. Those movies have to be made without the help of any government agency. Matt Damon stars in The Bourne Identity (2002) which is loosely based on the CIA’s very real mind control experiments called MK-ULTRA. 383 Needless to say the CIA would rather sweep that under the rug and didn’t provide any assistance in its production. Syriana (2005) starring George Clooney focuses on the CIA’s involvement in the Middle East where they engage in numerous shady activities behind the scenes in order to maintain control of major fields in the region—another film they prefer would have never been made. Spy Game (2001), starring Robert Redford and Brad Pitt shows the CIA turning their back on one of their operatives in order to avoid

jeopardizing a trade deal that is about to be signed between the United States and China. The Agency wouldn’t have anything to do with that film because it showed senior management in an “insensitive light” 384 when in reality it showed the complexities of international relations and the difficult and sometimes coldblooded decisions that are made behind the scenes to maintain American superiority in the world. In his book Operation Hollywood: How the Pentagon Shapes and Censors Movies , David Robb concludes, “No society is free that allows its military to control the arts. In America, it is not only unconscionable, it is also unconstitutional.” 385 He’s certainly not alone in thinking that. Many legal experts believe that entertainment liaison offices actually violate the First Amendment because they only help producers whose films portray the U.S. government, the military, and various other agencies, in a favorable light. This kind of selective help is equivalent to the government refusing to allow certain groups from reserving local town hall venues because of what those groups or their leaders believe. Constitutional Law professor Irwin Chemerinsky, who teaches at the University of Southern California argues, “The government cannot favor some speech due to its viewpoint and disfavor others because of its viewpoint. The court has said that when the government is giving financial benefits, it can’t decide who to give to, or not give to, based on the viewpoint expressed.” 386 He and others say this one-sided favoritism is no different that if the government gave one particular religious group material support or financial favors while denying those same benefits to others. 387

Some Actors Are Real CIA Assets Aside from the CIA aiding in the production of various films and television shows, their involvement in the entertainment industry goes much further and sounds like something right out of a movie. A former CIA officer named John Rizzo wrote a memoir called Company Man: Thirty Years of Crisis and Controversy in the CIA , where he admitted the agency regularly works with production companies that allow CIA operatives to work undercover as

members of film crews when a film is being shot on location in a foreign country. 388 “Among businesses in general, the CIA has long had a special relationship with the entertainment industry, devoting considerable attention to fostering relationships with Hollywood movers and shakers—studio executives, producers, directors, and big-name actors,” Rizzo explains. 389 He also said that some celebrities have been enlisted as CIA assets through the agency’s National Resources Division, which recruits foreign students studying in America, business people here on work visas, and even foreign diplomats the Agency wants to become spies for the United States when they return to their home countries. Once initiated, the celebrities are used to relay information to the CIA about foreign leaders they meet since they’ll often speak more candidly with a celebrity than with diplomats or reporters due to being star struck and letting their guard down. 390 “These are people who have made a lot of money basically making stuff up. A lot of them, at least the smarter and more self-aware ones, realize that what they do makes them ridiculously rich but is also ephemeral and meaningless in the larger scheme of things,” Rizzo says. “So they’re receptive to helping the CIA in any way they can, probably in equal parts because they are sincerely patriotic and because it gives them a taste of reallife intrigue and excitement.” 391 In his book he also says that a major film star once approached the CIA himself, wanting to work with them, “just out of his patriotic duty,” after the actor learned that another major studio had a relationship with the agency. Rizzo says the actor asked his handler for $50,000 of cocaine for his services, which the agency allegedly refused. 392 When Ben Affleck was promoting his film Argo (2012), which is based on the true story of the CIA working undercover with a film studio to infiltrate Iran to rescue American hostages under the guise of shooting a movie there, he was asked by a reporter if he thought there were any actors working as CIA operatives in Hollywood today. “I think there are probably quite a few. Yes, I think probably Hollywood is full of CIA agents and we

just don’t know it, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all to discover that this was extremely common,” he responded. 393 Knowing what happened with the Iranian hostage rescue and working on other films that are overseen by the CIA’s Entertainment Liaison Office, Ben Affleck would certainly be in a position to know. He also starred in The Sum of All Fears (2002) where he played a CIA analyst, another film that was produced with the help of Chase Brandon, the agency’s entertainment liaison at the time. 394 Affleck’s (now ex) wife Jennifer Garner also played a CIA agent in ABC’s action thriller Alias, which the Central Intelligence Agency consulted on, so he is obviously very familiar with how close the agency works with Hollywood.

The FBI and Hollywood The FBI has their hand in Hollywood too. On their website they admit, “If you are a writer, author, or producer who wants to feature the FBI, we may be able to work with you to create an accurate portrayal of the Bureau. We’ve been doing it since the 1930s.” 395 They call this office the Investigative Publicity and Public Affairs Unit (IPPAU), and they work with “domestic and international screenwriters, producers, authors, and other industry personnel associated with TV programs, documentaries, made-for-TV movies, books, and motion pictures.” 396 J. Edgar Hoover, the infamously corrupt founding father of the FBI (and its director for almost 50 years), used his position to bully Hollywood studios into dropping certain actors from projects and got scripts changed that would have shown the agency in a negative light. John Wayne was chosen to be the narrator for a television series called “The FBI” for the ABC network in the 1960s, but because of his connections to the right-wing John Birch Society, Hoover “vetoed” John Wayne’s involvement and had ABC remove him from the project “in order

to prevent any possible criticism of the Bureau by using someone with known John Birch Society connections.” 397 J. Edgar Hoover also used his position to target anti-Vietnam war musicians like Jimmy Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and especially John Lennon, who he was concerned threatened President Nixon’s chances of getting reelected, so Hoover tried to have him deported back to England because he was once arrested for possession of marijuana. 398

Operation Mockingbird In the news industry, intelligence agencies enjoy similar influence and have deeply embedded operatives and developed covert relationships for decades. In the 1970s a Congressional hearing uncovered a secret program called Operation Mockingbird which involved the CIA infiltrating television news networks, newspapers, and magazines, and paying off reporters and editors to do the agency’s bidding. 399 At the time there were widespread concerns that the CIA was involved in numerous corrupt and illegal activities, including spying on American citizens and assassinating foreign leaders, so Congress investigated the agency and happened to learn of their secret dealings with the media. At one point during the hearing William Colby, the head of the CIA then, was asked if the agency had operatives working for any television networks. He refused to answer the question and said that it’s something he would rather “get into” in an “executive session,” meaning behind closed doors with just a small number of senators authorized to have access to classified information. 400 The former president of CBS, Sig Mickelson, was later asked if he thought despite Operation Mockingbird being uncovered, was the CIA still engaged in the same type of operations. “Yeah, I would think probably, for a reporter it would probably continue today, but because of all the revelations of the period of the 1970s, it seems to me a reporter has to be a lot more circumspect when doing it now or he runs the risk of at least being

looked at with considerable disfavor by the public. I think you’ve got to be much more careful about it.” 401 Anyone who followed the “Russiagate” scandal and the conspiracy to bring down the Trump administration by claiming he’s a secret Russian agent, knows in their gut that various intelligence agencies (the “Deep State”) continue to work closely with the mainstream media in order to push their agenda. I cover Operation Mockingbird in detail in my previous book, The True Story of Fake News , which I encourage you to order from Amazon or download the e-book from any of the major e-book stores if you’re interested in learning more about the subject. Decades have gone by since the name “Operation Mockingbird” has been mentioned on national television, and when you learn just how deep the CIA burrowed their way into the various news networks, it’s chilling, especially in light of their ruthless and relentless war on President Trump.

Climate Change Many of Hollywood’s concerns about the environment, specifically global warming (or “climate change” as they have rebranded it) aren’t really about keeping our air clean, preserving delicate ecosystems, or developing green energy, but instead is just a smokescreen to hide their true intentions. Obviously we should take care of the environment, not litter, recycle, and be good stewards of the earth, but the fanatical doomsday warnings about global warming are designed to mobilize people to accept exorbitant carbon taxes and embrace the implementation of enormous new socialist programs. 402 Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s senior aide and puppet master admitted, “The interesting thing about the Green New Deal is it wasn’t originally a climate thing at all…Do you guys think of it as a climate thing? Because we really think of it as a how-do-you-change-the-entire-economy thing.” 403 Ocasio-Cortez said the plan was aiming for “a new national social, industrial and economic mobilization on a scale not seen since World War II and the New Deal,” in order to “provide unprecedented levels of prosperity and economic security for all people of the United States.” 404

Celebrities have always been “tree huggers” and concerned about the environment—which is a good cause, but their hysterical rhetoric about what humans are doing to the planet is getting increasingly radical to the point that they are literally claiming the human race will soon go extinct if we don’t listen to them, and any day now when we peer outside the windows of our homes it will be as if we’re looking at a scene from a disaster movie. Because of all the “end of the world” fear mongering about climate change, some children are getting what is called “eco-anxiety” which child psychologists describe as “a form of anxiety about where the world is heading when it comes to climate change.” 405 This is what caused Greta Thunberg, the teenage climate change activist from Sweden, to begin skipping school thinking she was helping save the world. Once she caught the eye of the climate change lobby, they adopted her as their spokesperson and threw the weight of their massive propaganda machine behind her to propel her to international stardom as a child prodigy who is trying to save the planet. Time magazine even put her on the cover for their 2019 Person of the Year issue. 406 Recently there have been increasing calls for geoengineering, something that was said to be conspiracy theory just a few years ago. 407 Some scientists want to spray little particles of glitter into the atmosphere to block out some of the sun’s rays hoping that will keep the earth slightly cooler to offset the supposed “global warming” that’s happening. Meanwhile geoengineering advocates ignore the law of unintended consequences, and nobody knows what kind of environmental disasters doing such a thing would cause. Like everything liberals do, their claims of “living green” are rife with hypocrisy. Just one trip on their private jet spews more pollution into the air than several months’ worth of daily commutes on the freeway in a car. 408 Just one of Al Gore’s homes uses more than 20 times the amount of energy as an average home, costing an estimated $30,000 a year in utilities for the gas and electricity. 409 Arnold Schwarzenegger said fossil fuel executives should be sued for “first degree murder” because their industry is “killing” the planet. 410 Arnold apparently forgot that he was the first civilian to buy a Hummer in 1992 when the extra-large gas guzzling military vehicle became commercially available. It famously got about 10 miles a gallon. 411

Recently Hollywood has been inserting messages about global warming hysteria into almost everything. During the Miss Universe 2019 pageant one of the contestants was asked, “Are leaders of today doing enough to protect future generations from climate change?” Steve Harvey, the host, then rolled his eyes as soon as he was done reading the question off the card. 412 Hollywood, Health & Society (the organization that helped inject storylines about Obamacare into TV shows) also lobbies Hollywood studios about climate change. They specifically have been focusing on comedy shows because as Lizz Winstead, a writer for The Daily Show points out, “Comedians have become trusted as people who observe the world and talk about it truthfully. Because they’re not beholden to anyone, they can call bullshit when they see it.” 413 That may have been true before “Cancel Culture,” but that’s a whole other topic. The organization’s website openly states, “Hollywood, Health & Society assists with research, providing a range of information from experts for storylines on topics, from rising seas to melting glaciers, the increase of extreme weather to the spread of infectious diseases, from the Arctic to L.A.” 414 But they’re certainly not the only ones lobbying Hollywood to warn viewers about the issue. In 2011 the Secretary General of the United Nations traveled to Hollywood during Oscar week in order to encourage industry insiders to make more films about climate change. 415 The U.N. famously recruits celebrities like Angelina Jolie and George Clooney as “ambassadors” to further their agendas since so many people view celebrities as experts in everything. Knowing that few people watch documentary films, the U.N. focused on getting the issues incorporated into television series and movies. Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary General of the U.N. at the time, told attendees, “Animate these stories. Set them to music! Give them life! Together we can have a blockbuster impact on the world.” 416 Another speaker at the event said, “There’s a huge gap between what governments can do, given political constraints, and what they should do. That’s where you come in…We need you to make it sexy and cool to bring about the energy revolution that has to happen.” 417 Executives working for the FOX television network (not to be confused with Fox News) once openly admitted the network uses their shows to promote concerns about global warming. Chairman Gary Newman

admitted in a promotional video the company put out years ago to brag about their efforts that, “We want to set an example in our industry and other industries that no matter what the size of your carbon footprint is, you can make a difference...The biggest thing we have done is inserting messages about the environment into some of our content.” 418 The Simpsons , King of the Hill , Family Guy , 24 , and many other FOX shows have all included warnings about climate change, sometimes very brief, but they are there. For example, in a scene from Family Guy when a character is looking around at a car dealership he asks “what kind of jerk would drive one of those?” when he comes across a Hummer. Another FOX television executive, Dana Walden, said, “the most powerful way that we could communicate the commitment on behalf of our company was to change the practices within the production as well as work in a message about global warming, about environmental changes, and about empowering people to take responsibility.” 419 The most infamous global warming propaganda is Al Gore’s “documentary” An Inconvenient Truth which helped jump start global warming hysteria. Devastated by losing the 2000 election to George W. Bush, Al Gore found meaning in his life traveling around the world giving his doomsday predictions to anyone who would listen. But documentary films don’t have the same impact that big budget action movies do. Jesse Bryant, who organizes an environmental film festival at Yale University, said, “It’s great to publish academic journals on the issues but the real breakthrough is when pop culture stories are hinted towards this cliff that we are all heading off.” 420

The Film that Started it All? Kevin Costner’s Waterworld was perhaps the first major film used to promote fears of global warming. Released in 1995 the story takes place around the year 2500 when the polar ice caps have melted and the entire earth is covered with water, forcing citizens to live on boats. At the time, it was the most expensive film ever made, costing around 175 million dollars, and turned out to be an epic flop. 421

An interesting spin on the climate change hysteria was The Day After Tomorrow (2004) which, unlike Waterworld , depicted the earth freezing from climate change. It’s based on a crazy “non-fiction” book titled The Coming Global Superstorm written in 1999 by UFO buff Art Bell and another guy named Whitley Strieber. Dennis Quaid plays a climatologist who realizes that the melting of the polar ice caps has disrupted the ocean currents and caused an enormous polar vortex which drops the earth’s temperature below freezing. Soon dozens of feet of snow fall everywhere from the disruptive weather patterns, trapping everyone inside. There’s even a scene where the vice president, who looks like Dick Cheney, was chastised for not listening to scientists earlier about the looming disaster global warming would cause. 422 The film was widely mocked as ridiculous and had the opposite effect that was intended. Instead of raising awareness for the “dangers” of climate change, The Day After Tomorrow became a prime example of how absurd those fears were. Vanity Fair is upset that there aren’t more films about climate change, saying, “Fifteen years after The Day After Tomorrow, movies about climate change remain rare, and never as serious as the problem itself.” 423 The article recommended that the next Fast & Furious film depict the gang driving electric vehicles instead of ones with “gas-guzzling” combustion engines to “set an example.” At the bottom of the article it has a note that reads, “This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 220 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story.” 424

Perhaps the writer got the idea of Fast & Furious using electric vehicles from Pixar’s animated film Cars 2 , which casts Big Oil as the bad guy, conspiring to prevent an alternative (more environmentally friendly) fuel from catching on. 425 A 2012 film called Beasts of the Southern Wild depicts planet earth on the verge of a climate catastrophe that ends up ultimately flooding a bayou village and causing dangerous prehistoric beasts which were frozen in the polar ice caps to become free and roam the earth again when they melt. Snowpiercer (2013) starring Chris Evans is about a future where climate change made the earth freeze over due to a failed attempt by scientists trying to use geoengineering to stop it, so the humans who remain have to live on a train that constantly travels around the world non-stop.

Why do they have to live on a train, and not in a building with a furnace to keep them warm, you ask? Because that would defeat the point of the movie about the train being an allegory for “classism” and the hierarchy of society separating the rich from the poor. The upper class members live in the cars closest to the engine, in luxury, while the poor masses are stuck living in the cars at the end of the train, in poverty. 426 One science blog said the “Frozen earth in ‘Snowpiercer’ is a grim (and possible) future for our warming planet.” 427 Others liked that it wasn’t just another “climate change dystopia film” but was what they called the first geoengineering dystopia film. 428 It seems some who are concerned about climate change also doubt that geoengineering could solve the problem and think hopes of geoengineering (like spraying glitter in the atmosphere to block some of the sun’s rays) are only addressing the symptoms, and not the cause of global warming. In May 2020 the TNT television network aired a reboot of the film as a television series which is said to take place in the year 2021. The 2014 science fiction film Interstellar revolved around the human race having to find another planet to live on because of dust storms and crop failures, and while not mentioning the words “climate change,” many saw the subtle message it was trying to make. Green Peace noted, “Interstellar has the potential to play a positive role in the climate movement. It can urge those who already see the impact of climate change to take activist action. And for others who have up to now have ignored the science, they may think again.” 429 But the message was too subtle for some critics. The Atlantic complained that “climate change” is never explicitly mentioned in the film, and instead of trying to solve the “mistakes” humans have made on earth that “caused” the planet’s destruction, the characters instead decided to abandon earth and try to start over somewhere else. 430 They were upset that the space opera aspects of the film and the issues of time travel overshadowed concerns about why Matthew McConaughey and his crew had to leave the earth in the first place. It’s interesting to point out that both Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have aerospace companies and want to colonize other planets out of fear that, because of climate change and “limited resources,” earth may become uninhabitable in the future. 431

In Downsizing (2017) Matt Damon and Kristen Wiig play a couple who plan to undergo a new scientific shrinking procedure similar to Honey I Shrunk the Kids , but this time on purpose, along with thousands of other people in order to all live in miniature communities so they will use a much smaller amount of earth’s natural resources. By “downsizing” they also reduce the amount of pollution they create, and help slow climate change. Another “benefit” is that by living in the miniaturized communities everything costs less since building materials and food go much further, making ordinary middle class people wealthy in their new life. But only 3% of the population opts for “downsizing,” meaning it has little effect on saving the earth from overpopulation. In the end the people who didn’t succumb to the procedure are said to be on the verge of all dying from global warming, but the miniature “downsized” people were all safe in an underground bunker, and they will be the ones to repopulate the earth once the climate calamity finally ends. In Geostorm (2017) special weather-controlling satellites are put in space to save the planet from all the climate change we’ve caused, only to get sabotaged and turned into weapons of mass destruction. 432 Despite the film’s over the top special effects showing major cities around the world being completely destroyed, climate change alarmists felt it was a good try regardless since it helped raise awareness for the “ecological tipping point” they fear we are approaching and were glad that climate change had been a common theme in several movies that year. 433 Ethan Hawke stars in First Reformed (2017) where he plays a minister struggling with his faith after his son died in the War in Iraq because he encouraged him to enlist in the military as part of the “family tradition.” The earth is on the verge of being uninhabitable because of climate change, and at one point a woman calls him to ask if he will counsel her boyfriend out of concern for his environmental extremist views. The woman later finds a suicide vest her boyfriend made that he planned to use to fight back against the industrialists who ruined the planet. Hawke takes it but agrees not to call the police, hoping he can talk some sense into the man and avoid getting him in trouble. The minister then researches climate change for himself, starts to agree with the man’s extremist views, and begins planning to use the suicide vest himself to kill a wealthy factory owner and others who aren’t good stewards of the earth.

Writer and director Paul Schrader said the film reflects his own “despair” over the “climate crisis.” 434 Equally corny was the 2018 version of The Predator where a key part of the plot was when the humans figured out why the creatures had returned to the earth after the incident depicted in the original film. The aliens, it turns out, were worried that climate change was going to make humans extinct soon, so the creatures came to earth to collect our DNA for their own genetic experiments before it was no longer available! “How long before climate change renders this planet unlivable? Two generations? One?” asks a federal agent trying to kill the creatures. Then it suddenly dawns on the lead scientist, played by Olivia Munn. “That’s why their visits are increasing. They’re trying to snap up all of our best DNA before we’re gone.” 435 That’s literally the reason given in the film as to why they returned to earth! Climate change was going to kill us! HBO’s Years and Years aired an entire episode focusing on the issue. The series follows a political family over the course of 15 years, with each episode taking place in a different time period, and one in the year 2025 depicts the north pole as having melted because of global warming. A lead character (Edith Lyons) says, “We keep saying, ‘you’ve got ten more years to sort out climate change, you’ve got ten more years to sort out flooding, you’ve got ten more years to sort out the rain forest.’ We’ve been saying that for 30 years. It’s too late. We’ve run out of time. Everyone knows it.” 436 The show goes on to warn that most people will soon starve from floods destroying crops and those who survive will have to live in small huts and only have their memories of what life was like before the climate catastrophe. Aquaman (2018) starring Jason Momoa depicted the King of Atlantis “Orm” starting a war with humans because of the decades of pollution we have been dumping into the ocean. Despite its pro-environmental message, some critics were upset that the words “global warming” were never actually explicitly mentioned in the film. “Aquaman shows, with unfortunate clarity, that the superhero film genre is ill-equipped to take on serious subjects,” said one critic. “Superhero stories love to imagine the end of the world, but don’t have much to offer in the face of actual global catastrophes.” 437

“Aquaman” Jason Momoa took the role very seriously however. When actor Chris Pratt posted a picture on his Instagram showing himself after a workout, he got “called out” by Momoa for drinking from a “single-use” plastic water bottle. Pratt then apologized. 438 Even if you recycle your plastic water bottle, that’s not environmentally friendly enough, so now the extremists are shaming people who don’t drink out of re-usable water bottles instead. In the Marvel superhero film Venom , the villain who is using his personal space exploration company to search for other inhabitable planets because “overpopulation and climate change” are going to make earth “uninhabitable” in just “literally” one more generation. 439 It’s by accident that one of their probes discovers an alien symbiotic lifeform that is brought back to earth, creating the “Venom” superhero by merging with a man’s DNA.

“Thanos Did Nothing Wrong” Fighting climate change often involves reducing the earth’s population, since the more people there are living on the planet, the larger our supposed accumulative carbon footprint is, and it’s under this rationale that some environmentalists sided with Avengers villain Thanos in his quest to kill half of all life in the Universe. In the movies, that’s his goal once he obtains all of the “Infinity Stones” which would grant him supernatural power, and some critics began arguing that instead of being a psychotic villain, Thanos “did nothing wrong.” The saying “Thanos did nothing wrong” had become a popular Internet meme from nihilist fans who sided with him, but some on the Left took it seriously thinking that it would help save the earth. Forbes magazine asked “Is Thanos right about overpopulation? His rationale seems to make sense if we consider our own planet. Since the Industrial Revolution, the world population has grown rapidly. The figure is currently over 7.6 billion and is projected to reach 10 billion in 2050… Fewer people ought to mean more food and less hunger, and might lower the risk of an epidemic when overcrowding enables the spread of disease. Human activity is driving a loss of biodiversity, with about 25% of animals

and plants now threatened with extinction, so halving the population would help other species. As a consequence, you could conclude that by eliminating 50% of all humans, Thanos did the Earth a huge favor.” 440 Their review concluded, “you could indeed argue that Thanos did nothing wrong—and in the long run, the villain might have actually saved the world.” 441

Population Control The idea of dramatically reducing the earth’s population in order to “save” it is actually something that environmental extremists have been promoting for decades. Back in the late 1960s, Stanford University professor Paul R. Ehrlich published a book titled The Population Bomb, which warned that within the next ten years society would collapse from massive famines because there were too many people on the planet using too many resources. 442 Despite the book being wildly inaccurate and over 50 years later the predictions laughable, many activists are still warning that we need to immediately reduce the population to save the planet. 443 Some celebrities like Miley Cyrus have even said they’re not going to have children because of climate change. 444 Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has also said she too isn’t sure whether or not she wants to have kids for the same reason. 445 Many others are blaming couples who have children for contributing to the “problem.” 446 With Transhumanism appearing to be on the horizon which promises to extend our lifespan by hundreds of years (or indefinitely), 447 proponents are becoming increasingly concerned that this will cause the earth’s natural resources to become even more rapidly depleted because if people are able to quadruple their lifespan, that also means they’ll end up using four times as much energy, food, and other natural resources as well. 448 The mysterious Georgia Guidestones monument located in the small town of Elberton, Georgia, was erected in 1980 to declare the “need” for such actions. The 19-foot-tall monument consists of four slabs of granite

planted into the ground with 10 “commandments” engraved on each side, written in eight different languages. 449 The first of the ten “commandments” is to reduce the planet’s population down to 500 million, an over 90% reduction from its current 7.5 billion. The “Guidestones” were commissioned and paid for by an unknown man using the pseudonym R.C. Christian who said he represented a group that wanted the monument built to send the world a message. 450

Sports “News” Unlike politics and religion, sports is supposed to be the one universal activity that people can enjoy or discuss without the usual controversies associated with the human condition. One would expect that sports news shows and networks would be the last place you’d hear about politics, let alone be subjected to political propaganda, but unfortunately that’s not true these days. In the past, sports and politics would occasionally intersect but usually only when a star athlete joined a political cause and their involvement was part of a human-interest story. It was usually void of much controversy because often their activities weren’t divisive or controversial, but instead humanitarian in nature. But recently many sports writers, websites, and television networks have become liberal propaganda outlets, promoting left wing causes and putting athletes on pedestals who become token symbols of the liberal agenda. The entire NBA and NFL endorse the Black Lives Matter movement and have turned Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers player who refused to stand during the National Anthem before games, into a hero for starting the trend. When the 2020 NBA season began after a long delay from the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the players wore special jerseys with “social justice” messages printed on them in place of their last names on the back. 451

The league had worked with Nike to make the “Black Lives Matter” jerseys. This was in response to the protests (and riots) that spread across the country that summer when it became mandatory for sports leagues to condemn White people for “systemically” ruining Black people’s lives. Several basketball stadiums even painted “Black Lives Matter” on the courts. 452 The NFL also kicked off the 2020 season with the “Black National Anthem” being performed at the start of each game during week one in order to help “raise awareness” of “systemic racism” in America. 453 The

“Black National Anthem” is a song titled “Lift Ev’ry Voice And Sing” that many Black people consider to be “their” national anthem, instead of the Star Spangled Banner. Even NASCAR became political in 2020 when they banned drivers and fans from displaying any Confederate flags at the races just two days after the league’s only (half) Black driver Bubba Wallace made the demand. 454

Then a week and a half later someone allegedly hung a “noose” in his garage at the Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama right before a big race. Bubba became a hero overnight from the media endlessly reporting that a “racist” NASCAR fan upset at him for getting the Confederate flag banned must have snuck into his garage and hung the “noose” for revenge. At the race the next day Bubba was given a parade as he rolled out onto the track to show how the entire league supported him for being so “brave” for what he had gone through. 455 Only, as I’m sure you know, the “noose” turned out to be the handle on the end of the rope which is used to pull open the garage doors at the track. 456 But Bubba had become a star overnight and was a NASCAR hero for standing up against the imaginary “hate crime” that 15 FBI agents wasted their time investigating. 457 After Amazon obtained the naming rights to Seattle’s NHL arena, formerly called Key Arena, they changed the name to Climate Pledge Arena to “raise awareness” for climate change, so now fans can’t watch a hockey game in Seattle without the constant reminder to be on the lookout for global warming. 458 Not even the Super Bowl Halftime shows are safe from becoming avenues to deliver political messages with musical guests sometimes incorporating “social justice” propaganda into their performances. 459 Sportswriter Bryan Curtis noted, “There was a time when filling your column with liberal ideas on race, class, gender, and labor policy got you dubbed a ‘sociologist.’ These days, such views are more likely to get you a job.” 460 Sports broadcaster Jason Whitlock said, “ESPN and most of the mainstream media have lurched farther left. That’s a complaint from middle America and, in my opinion, objective America. ESPN’s own ombudsman acknowledged ESPN’s hardcore progressive slant.” 461 Speaking about Fox Sports 1, a competitor to ESPN, he said, “I think we’re the alternative for sports fans who respect and like traditional sports values. I think we’re the alternative for mainstream sports fans, Little

League coaches, athletes, sports moms and dads. I think we’re the alternative for people who want to hear authentic conversation and debate rather than words crafted for Twitter applause. I think we’re the alternative for middle America, blue-collar sports fans. I think we’re the alternative for people who don’t think every misspoken word is a fireable offense. ESPN caters to the elite, safe-space crowd. We cater to the people who love to tailgate and knock down a six-pack.” 462 Michael Brendan Dougherty, editor of The Slurve baseball newsletter, wrote, “It’s also true that conservative ideas tend to be slower off the block. Because they are defenders of tradition, conservatives’ arguments often strike liberals as either an unreflective devotion to the way things are (or were), or as being too subtle to be credible.” 463 For the 2015 season the NBA teamed up with Sheryl Sandberg, a radical feminist and top executive at Facebook, to promote her “Lean In” campaign which nagged men to, “take more responsibility for housework and child care,” and said they need to “do their fair share of daily chores.” 464

The campaign aired commercials on TV during basketball games which used NBA players like LeBron James and Stephen Curry to lecture men to help out more around the house with laundry and other chores. 465 In 2015 ESPN gave Caitlyn Jenner the Arthur Ashe Courage Award, choosing “her” over others—including double amputee Noah Galloway, who is an Iraq War veteran—and despite missing one arm and one leg became a competitive distance runner, CrossFit athlete, and won third place on Dancing With the Stars . 466 Caitlyn Jenner was also chosen over fellow nominee Lauren Hill, a college basketball player who lost her fight with a brain tumor. 467 Surprisingly, veteran sports broadcaster Bob Costas admitted choosing Caitlyn Jenner was a “crass exploitation play,” saying, “In the broad world of sports, I’m pretty sure they could’ve found someone—and this is not anything against Caitlyn Jenner—who was much closer actively involved in sports, who would’ve been deserving of what that award represents.” 468 Caitlyn Jenner hadn’t played competitive sports since the 1980s (when “she” was Bruce). Sports Illustrated also put “her” on the cover at the age of 66 wearing the gold metal “she” won at the 1976 Olympics as Bruce, forty years earlier. 469 Not long after this, ESPN fired baseball analyst Curt Schilling because he posted a meme on his personal Facebook page criticizing new

transgender bathroom laws which allow biological males to use women’s bathrooms, locker rooms, and showers. 470 The meme simply consisted of a man dressed as a woman with the caption, “Let him in to the restroom with your daughter or else you’re a narrow minded, judgmental, unloving, racist bigot, who needs to die!” ESPN’s President John Skipper was asked if the “perceived political shift” in sports becoming political was a “conscious decision” by the network. He responded, “It is accurate that the Walt Disney Company and ESPN are committed to diversity and inclusion. These are long-standing values that drive fundamental fairness while providing us with the widest possible pool of talent to create the smartest and most creative staff. We do not view this as a political stance but as a human stance. We do not think tolerance is the domain of a particular political philosophy.” 471 One conservative employee at ESPN revealed, “If you’re a Republican or conservative, you feel the need to talk in whispers. There’s even a fear of putting Fox News on a TV [in the office].” 472 Speaking shortly after the 2016 Presidential election, ESPN’s public editor Jim Brady said, “As it turns out, ESPN is far from immune from the political fever that has afflicted so much of the country over the past year. Internally, there’s a feeling among many staffers—both liberal and conservative—that the company’s perceived move leftward has had a stifling effect on discourse inside the company and has affected its publicfacing products. Consumers have sensed that same leftward movement, alienating some.” 473 Sportscaster Joe Buck is uncomfortable with sports recently becoming political, saying, “Unless I’m completely wrong, and I know in this case I’m not, nobody’s tuning into the 49ers-Cowboys game to hear my political opinions, whether it’s about Trump, or Kaepernick or Flint, Michigan. That’s not why they’re watching a football game. It’s misplaced. I hear guys doing it at times. It seems self-serving. Like they want to inject themselves into the conversation. Wait for a talk show. Go on Bill Maher’s show. Bill O’Reilly. Whoever. I think people watch these games to get away from that stuff. I think you risk alienating and upsetting a lot of people when you start going down that rabbit hole.” 474

NFL Promotes “Social Justice”

Shortly into the 2017 season, NFL players and owners issued a joint statement saying they held an important meeting to, “discuss plans to utilize our platform to promote equality and effectuate positive change. We agreed that these are common issues and pledged to meet again to continue this work together.” 475 Then Roger Goodell, NFL Commissioner, sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee encouraging them to pass the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2017, which would reduce the prison sentences for drug offenders. A few months later the NFL announced the creation of their new “Inspire Change” initiative which involves giving millions of dollars in grants to “social justice” causes, including “helping schools implement more comprehensive African-American history education programs.” 476 The NFL also started becoming concerned that the tradition of using beautiful women as cheerleaders was “sexist,” so for the 2018 season they introduced male “cheerleaders” for the first time. The Los Angeles Rams and the New Orleans Saints were the first two teams to add them, and they’re not there to help the girls perform stunts by tossing them into the air and catching them. They dance with the girls and do all the same routines on the sidelines, even holding pom-poms. 477 Instead of being denounced as stupid or weird, they were hailed by the liberal media for “making history.” 478

Nike also decided to get into politics recently. In September 2018 the sportswear giant put out a new ad featuring Colin Kaepernick to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the company’s “Just Do It” campaign. While it was a polarizing choice, pushing half of their potential customers away who despise Kaepernick for his anti-American and anti-police activism, Nike’s revenue increased over the previous year’s quarter. 479 Under their new business model they don’t care how many of their previous customers will never buy a Nike product again because with Kaepernick as their new poster boy the company’s focus is now on the fanatics who will buy Nike gear even more because it reflects their social justice warrior identity. 480 As everyone knows, Black people dominate the NBA and NFL—and other sports like long distance running; but NBC Sports president Pete Bevacqua is worried that too many White people play golf. “Golf hasn’t had the best history,” he says. “Golf needs more diversity. How do you get more minorities playing the game, how do you get more women playing the

game? I think all of golf understands that, whether it’s the LPGA, the PGA Tour, the USGA, the PGA of America, Augusta National.” 481 Imagine a sports broadcaster saying there’s too many Black people in the NBA, or that it needs more “racial diversity!” They would be fired within the hour, but as I detailed in the “War on White People” chapter, the liberal media has no problem with anti-White racism, and in fact encourages it. Jemele Hill (a proud Black woman) who was co-host of SportsCenter, called President Trump a “White supremacist” in 2017 without any repercussions from the network. 482 Such an outrageous comment from the host of ESPN’s flagship show drew criticism from White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and even President Trump himself. Many had become accustomed to hearing such slander from CNN and MSNBC panelists, but coming from an ESPN host took things to a new level of depravity.

“Pride Night” All major sports leagues now host an annual “Pride Night” where they celebrate LGBT people, decorate their stadiums with rainbows, and bring special guests to the games from the gay (and transgender) community. To make sure everything is gay enough they even have gay men’s choirs sing the national anthem. 483 Today, most—if not all—NBA teams now host one each year, but it’s not just the NBA. The NFL launched their own annual “Pride Night” as well, to “heighten sensitivity to the LGBTQ community” and show their “commitment to an inclusive environment in which all employees are welcome.” 484 As of 2018, every major league baseball team except one hosted an annual Pride Night. 485 The following year the one hold out (the Yankees) gave in and held their first “Legacy of Pride” night and even awarded scholarships to various LGBT students. 486 Even the NHL has an annual Pride Night, where they too decorate the stadiums in rainbow colors and players even use hockey sticks wrapped in rainbow colored tape to show support for the LGBT community. 487 You

can’t even go to a hockey game these days without LGBT propaganda being shoved in your face.

The Super Bowl Since the Super Bowl is the most-watched event on television every year, the NFL and their sponsors can’t pass up the opportunity to spread liberal propaganda to as many people as possible. Lately we’ve been seeing an increasing amount of Super Bowl commercials pushing a political agenda, from Audi using a car commercial to complain about the (non-existent) “gender pay gap” to a lumber company denouncing President Trump’s plan to build a wall on the U.S. / Mexico border. 488 The NFL has also reportedly refused to air pro Second Amendment commercials. 489 Even the Halftime show, which might be the last place one would expect to push a political agenda, isn’t immune. In 2016, Beyonce was the featured artist and turned her performance into a dedication to the Black Panthers and Black Lives Matter. 490 The following year, with tensions still high from the recent Presidential election, Lady Gaga also used the spotlight to promote a political agenda, although a lot more subtle than Beyonce the year before. Many people missed it, but it was there, and it was undeniable if you knew what to look for. 491 Gaga gave a shoutout to the anti-Trump protesters who were (at the time) out protesting the new president’s temporary travel ban from seven countries which had been identified as hotbeds of terrorism. 492

When Jennifer Lopez and Shakira performed in a sex-charged halftime show that included stripper poles, booty shaking, and crotch-grabbing; they also depicted “kids in cages” as a way to denounce President Trump’s immigration policy of detaining people who cross illegally into our country. 493

Both Jennifer Lopez and Shakira are of Latin descent, and at one point during their performance they started singing in Spanish to cater to the tens

of millions of non-assimilating immigrants who are occupying areas in American cities. After the New England Patriots visited the White House following their 2017 Super Bowl win, the New York Times tweeted out two side by side photos, one showing when the Patriots visited the White House in 2015 when Barack Obama was president, and the other from the current visit, giving the impression that far fewer players showed up because they didn’t want to have anything to do with President Trump. 494 The official Patriots Twitter account then issued a statement saying, “These photos lack context. Facts: In 2015, over 40 football staff were on the stairs. In 2017, they were seated on the South Lawn.” 495 Countless other people called out the New York Times for their fake news, and of course President Trump took to Twitter to denounce them as well. 496 The next day the New York Times sports editor Jason Stallman apologized, saying, “Bad tweet by me. Terrible tweet. I wish I could say it’s complicated, but no, this one is pretty straightforward: I’m an idiot. It was my idea, it was my execution, it was my blunder. I made a decision in about four minutes that clearly warranted much more time. Once we learned more, we tried to fix everything as much as possible as swiftly as possible and as transparently as possible. Of course, at that point the damage was done. I just needed to own it.” 497 But that wasn’t the only politicizing of the Patriot’s White House visit. Rob Gronkowski, who played tight end, interrupted Sean Spicer’s press briefing that day asking if he needed any help [arguing with the fake news] in a hilarious stunt that had Spicer and the press corps laughing, but ESPN’s Max Kellerman didn’t think it was funny at all. “When the press corps is cracking up at a press secretary because of an athlete’s presence there, so he’s lending something to the proceedings, the athlete is, and the press corps is, you know, they’re having a rollicking good time…that’s a very bad thing. That’s an unhealthy thing to have happened,” he complained on air. 498 Kellerman went on to say that Gronkowski’s prank “normalized” Sean Spicer, who he insists worked for an “authoritarian” administration. 499

Layoffs Many people were growing tired of politics being intertwined with sports coverage, especially when the issues

weren’t even remotely related, and polls began showing it was causing some viewers to tune out. 500 In April 2017 ESPN laid off about 100 people, including several on-air personalities, and six months later laid off another 150 people. 501 This was after ESPN had reportedly lost an average of 15,000 subscribers a day in October alone, totaling an estimated decline of 465,000 for the month. 502 In the fiscal year of 2018 they lost two million subscribers. 503 While some of the loss can be ascribed to cord-cutters ditching cable in favor of streaming services, a significant portion was due to fans becoming sick of the players protesting during the national anthem. 504

In October 2019 the sports news website Deadspin sent out a memo to their editors and staff telling them to stick to sports and stop covering politics since the website had steadily drifted into regularly complaining about President Trump. The memo said in part, “Deadspin will write only about sports and that which is relevant to sports in some way.” 505 The editor-in-chief then decided to plaster the entire website with political and pop culture news in protest, and was immediately fired. He unironically tweeted, “I’ve just been fired from Deadspin for not sticking to sports.” 506 Members of the staff then quit en masse to show solidarity with the editor, and to also protest the new “stick to sports” policy. 507 Yes, people who worked for a sports website quit when management told them to write about sports! Sports are supposed to be an outlet for people to get away from the stress and responsibilities we face during the work week. And the last thing most sports fans want is to have politics brought up when they’re trying to enjoy their favorite game, but unfortunately “stick to sports” is no longer the motto for most sports entertainment outlets. While playing sports is a great way for kids and adults to stay physically fit and learn about working together with others, the artificial importance placed on professional sports entertainment largely serves as a type of bread and circus distraction, diverting people’s attention and energy away from important problems in society.

Instead, the focus is put on concerns about whose team is going to win, and which players are injured or may get traded, and other trivial and meaningless controversies which, when you boil them down, do nothing other than serve to keep people pacified with things that lack any real importance whatsoever. George Orwell summed this phenomenon up in his prophetic novel Nineteen Eighty-Four when he wrote, “films, football, beer, and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of [people’s] minds. To keep them in control was not difficult.” 508

Author’s Note: If you haven’t already, please take a moment to rate and review this book on Amazon.com, Kindle, Google Play, iBooks, or wherever you bought it from, to let other potential readers know how valuable this information is. Almost all of the one-star reviews on Amazon for my last three books “The Liberal Media Industrial Complex,” “The True Story of Fake News,” and “Liberalism: Find a Cure” are from NON-verified purchases which shows the “reviewers” probably didn’t even read them, and just hate me. So if you could help me offset their fake one-star reviews by leaving a real one yourself since you actually read the book, that would help a lot! Thank you!

Late-Night Comedy Shows For decades the late-night talk shows were something Americans could watch at the end of the day to get a few laughs about current events, celebrity stupidity, or from other theatrics. Viewers couldn’t tell Johnny Carson’s politics because he was an equal opportunity offender. The same was true for Jay Leno and David Letterman who were staples of late-night TV for a generation. Starting the evening following Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016, late night TV stopped being funny. In fact, the hosts were visibly distraught when they took to the air, speaking in a somber tone as if we had just experienced a national tragedy. They tried to pull themselves together over the following days and weeks, but late-night television was never the same.

Today Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, and Jimmy Fallon aren’t merely “entertainers.” They are stealth propagandists; whose political messages go down easier than those from “news” outlets because it’s covered in comedy. Their agenda is no longer to make people laugh, it’s to get them to cheer on the liberal agenda and mock conservatives. New York Magazine embraced comedy’s new mission and asked, “How Funny Does Comedy Need to Be?” noticing that it wasn’t very funny anymore. “Like post-rock, post-comedy uses the elements of comedy (be it stand-up, sitcom, or film) but without the goal of creating the traditional comedic result—laughter—instead focusing on tone, emotional impact, storytelling, and formal experimentation. The goal of being ‘funny’ is optional for some or for the entirety of the piece.” 509 Comedy without comedy? At least they’re honest enough to admit the shows aren’t funny anymore. When Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced he was retiring, opening the door for President Trump to nominate a second judge to the court, the official Comedy Central Twitter account tweeted sarcastically “Thanks, Justice Kennedy,” along with a graphic that read “Supremely Fucked.” 510 Comedy Central’s Jim Jefferies went so far as to deceptively edit an interview with a man named Avi Yemini who is opposed to Muslims mass emigrating to European countries, but unbeknown to Comedy Central, Yemini secretly recorded the entire interview and posted it on YouTube to show how manipulated the footage was for the segment when it aired and demonstrated how many of his statements were completely taken out of context. He then sued them for defamation. 511 Some hosts like HBO’s John Oliver are steeped in guilt because they mocked the idea of Donald Trump becoming president. When guest hosting the Daily Show, John Oliver responded to a news clip reporting Trump was considering running in 2016 by saying, “Do it. Do it! I will personally write you a campaign check now!” because he thought it would make for some great material and didn’t think for a moment Trump had a chance to actually win. Now John Oliver lives in misery every day of his life. In an interview five years after he was fired from NBC as host of the Tonight Show, Jay Leno was asked how much different the late-night comedy shows are in the Trump era. “Do you miss being on the show, or is it such a different time that it would be hard to do?” Al Roker asked him.

“No, it’s different. I don’t miss it,” he replied, going on to say during his time hosting he didn’t want people to know his politics, so he tried to hit both sides equally. 512 “Because, you know, the theory when we did the show was you just watch the news, we’ll make fun of the news, and get your mind off the news. Well, now people just want to be on the news all the time. You just have one subject that’s the same topic every night, which makes it—makes it very hard. I mean, all the comics, Jimmy and Colbert and everybody else, it’s tough when that’s the only topic out there.” 513 Leno noted that the comedy on late-night TV is now “one-sided” and “all very serious” and that “I’d just like to see a bit of civility come back to it, you know?” 514 Saturday Night Live alumni Rob Schneider noted today, “Much latenight comedy is less about being funny and more about indoctrination by comedic imposition. People aren’t really laughing at it as much as cheering on the rhetoric.” 515

Jimmy Kimmel Jimmy Kimmel is largely credited with killing the Republicans’ plan to repeal Obamacare after he spent several nights ranting (and crying) about it on his show in 2017, claiming it would prevent poor people from getting healthcare. He even used his newborn son Billy as a prop since he was born with a congenital heart defect and claimed that if Obamacare was repealed then other children with similar life-threatening conditions would die. But Kimmel wasn’t coming up with his Obamacare material on his own. The Daily Beast admitted, “Kimmel and his team were in touch with health care officials, charities and advocacy groups,” as well as Senator Chuck Schumer who, “provided technical guidance and info about the bill, as well as stats from various think tanks and experts on the effects of [it].” 516

CNN asked, “Did Jimmy Kimmel kill the health care bill?” after Senator John McCain [who cast the deciding vote] said he wouldn’t support the repeal. “Kimmel’s critique [of the Republican plan] inspired intense

coverage and analyses, pundits debated Kimmel’s expertise on the subject while others told him to stay in his lane, and the comedian found himself again at the center of the health care fight.” 517 Kimmel’s propaganda efforts have extended far beyond healthcare. He has used children in skits about how “disastrous” global warming is. 518 He calls CPAC the largest gathering of “anti-vaxxers” and “very angry White people.” 519 And he even called for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh to be castrated. 520 Kimmel says, “It just so happens that almost every talk show host is a liberal and that’s because it requires a level of intelligence.” 521 He has also admitted that sharing his political views “has cost me commercially” but neither he nor ABC care, because it’s “for a good cause.” 522

Stephen Colbert Stephen Colbert took over The Late Show from David Letterman in 2015 and ever since has turned the nightly monologue into an anti-Trump editorial, but his audience enjoys it, even his pathetic Donald Trump impression which should be enough for anyone with any taste in comedy to change the channel. He plays a big role, however, in politics. Practically all the Democrat candidates running for president in 2020 appeared on his show: Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Julian Castro, Beto O’Rourke, Elizabeth Warren, Corey Booker, etc. CNN admitted that, “Aides for several of the mosttalked-about contenders confirmed that they view Colbert as a crucial stop on the presidential roadshow,” and one campaign official who spoke off the record said, “We strategize about Stephen a lot.” 523 New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand announced she was running for President in 2020 on his show. 524 She had coordinated with them and then Stephen shamelessly had her on to awkwardly ask if she had anything to announce, and then she revealed the “big” news. Congressman Eric Swalwell also officially announced he was running for president in 2020 on Colbert’s show. 525 His campaign soon embarrassingly ended with him

begging people on Twitter to donate “just one dollar” in hopes he could stay in a little bit longer.

Jimmy Fallon Poor Jimmy Fallon tried not to become a rabid anti-Trump ranter out of concerns he would ostracize half his viewers, but was reportedly pressured by NBC to stop being so soft on Trump. 526 Industry-wide Fallon was shunned and denounced after his 2016 interview with then-candidate Donald Trump because he didn’t use the opportunity to tear into him, and instead had a fun interview like he does with all of his guests. Trump even famously let Jimmy mess up his hair to prove it was real, but the liberal media was furious and claimed Fallon had “humanized” him. 527

He was shut out of the Emmys that year in what many speculated was retaliation for “helping” Trump. 528 Fallon later apologized for being too friendly and said that people “have a right to be mad.” 529 Despite trying to not have a show tainted with an obvious political agenda like Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel, Fallon soon bent to the will of his producers and started focusing more on the president and other social justice issues. He even had anti-gun activist David Hogg and his sister on the show to rail against the NRA and Florida Senator Marco Rubio for not supporting radical anti-gun laws. 530 Fallon had the kids recount their experience during the Parkland school shooting, because what could be a more appropriate topic for a late night comedy show than talking about a mass shooting at a school?

Saturday Night Live Once a staple of American comedy, Saturday Night Live has been on a slow and continuous decline, perhaps in part to an increasing number of options for viewers with the growth of cable TV and more recently streaming

services and other online entertainment; but the show’s parodies of presidential politics still bring in viewers and the sketches make headlines. More importantly than that, Saturday Night Live has been responsible for significantly altering how tens of millions of people view certain politicians. One critic noted, “The series has also shown a deft ability to define politicians’ personas—for better or worse. For some, Chevy Chase’s exaggerated version of President Gerald Ford or Dana Carvey’s over-the-top President George H.W. Bush are more familiar than the politicians’ actual legacies. And sketches spoofing the likes of Michael Dukakis and Sarah Palin have had a much longer shelf life than the real-life versions’ political careers.” 531 University of Tennessee professor and blogger Glenn Reynolds admitted, “Personally, I think that Chevy Chase cost Ford the 1976 election. Well, part of it, anyway.” 532 Decades later Chase admitted, “[M]y leanings were Democratic and I wanted [Jimmy] Carter in and I wanted [Ford] out, and I figured look, we’re reaching millions of people every weekend, why not do it.” 533 During the 2000 presidential campaign Darrell Hammond’s character of Al Gore was devastating, accentuating his dull personality to the point that the real Al Gore reminded people of Hammond’s character. SNL’s portrayal of a George W. Bush vs Al Gore debate showed him repeatedly referring to his “lock box” and haunted Gore for the remainder of the campaign. Will Ferrell’s impression of a bumbling George W. Bush is what really launched him to stardom. In 2008 Tina Fey’s portrayal of Sarah Palin stuck like glue and many political analysts credit SNL with permanently tarnishing her image in the minds of millions of voters. 534 While the show and its cast have always leaned Left, once they came down with Trump Derangement Syndrome their sickness began showing its symptoms in their skits. In 2018 they sung a special rendition of Mariah Carey’s “All I want for Christmas Is You” conveying their wishes to have Robert Mueller throw President Trump in prison. 535 And their anti-Trump obsession has caused them to sink so low that they actually endorsed assassinating him.

Cast member Michael Ché began, “Maybe I just don’t understand politics well, because when they said Trump was gettin’ impeached, I immediately thought, ‘Great! Trump’s fired! Let’s get drunk!’ But they’re like ‘no, he’s just being impeached, but he ain’t exactly impeached yet, it’s still gonna take another year or so.” 536 The punchline was, “You know, I’ll bet somebody explained how long impeachment took to John Wilkes Booth, and he was like ‘Okay, well where’s he at right now?’” 537 Jokes about assassinating a current President, or any President even after they’ve left office, have always been out of bounds, especially for any show on network television, but Saturday Night Live decided to go there. SNL alumni Norm McDonald has trashed the show’s obsessive antiTrump agenda, such as framing his 2016 election victory as if it was the end of the world. “I was like, what the fuck are we getting through? That a man was duly elected president? What are you, crazy? …I can get through anything. I got through my own father’s death. You think I can’t get through a man getting elected president of the United States?” 538 McDonald made it clear that he is certainly no fan of President Trump, but says they’re “playing into Trump’s hands.” 539 He said he doesn’t even do political jokes because he hates politics and mostly just watches sports. Pondering how comedy shows have gotten so partisan these days he said, “I wonder when it happened. Maybe with Jon Stewart. But it happened at some point that talk show hosts had to be political pundits.” 540

The Good Old Days In a 1984 interview with Barbara Walters, late night legend Johnny Carson was asked if there were things in the world that bothered him and caused him to want to use his platform (then host of The Tonight Show on NBC) to raise awareness for them. He responded, “I think one of the dangers if you are a comedian, which basically I am, is that if you start to take yourself too seriously and start to comment on social issues, your sense of humor suffers somewhere.” 541

“I’ve seen other people, whose names I won’t mention, who do humor, and then somewhere along the line they start to want to make their views known. I try to do it humorously. Some critics over the years have said that our show doesn’t have great sociological value, it’s not controversial, it’s not deep,” defending the show saying it’s just to entertain people and make them laugh. 542 He was asked a few years earlier by Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes about why he never gets political. “Do you get sensitive about that fact that people say ‘he’ll never take a serious controversy?” 543 Carson responded, “Well, I have an answer to that. Now tell me that last time that Jack Benny, Red Skelton, any comedian, used his show to do serious issues. That’s not what I’m there for. Can’t they see that? Why do they think that just because you have a Tonight Show that you should deal in serious issues? That’s a danger. That’s a real danger. Once you start that, you start to get that self-important feeling that what you say has great import, and strangely enough, you could use that show as a forum, you could sway people, and I don’t think you should as an entertainer.” 544

Hate Crime Charges for Jokes? Although mainstream shows have lost their edge and turned into social justice cesspools, some stand-up comedians are trying to save freedom of speech by carrying on the tradition of George Carlin, Lenny Bruce, and others who stood up for the right to offend people with thin skin, but comedy is under attack by the Thought Police who want people arrested for telling jokes. The London Independent published a piece titled, “As a comedy aficionado, I’m appalled at disgusting ‘jokes’ creeping back into the industry” where the columnist complained, “Comedians, crying ‘free speech’ isn’t good enough—hate crime laws should apply to all of us.” 545 She complained about what she called “Alt-Right comedy” naming YouTubers PewDiePie and Sargon of Akkod as supposedly having “persuaded some comedians that there is money to be made from belittling social justice.” 546 The writer then whined about Ricky Gervais’ Netflix special Humanity where he “deadnamed” Caitlyn Jenner (liberalspeak for calling a

transgender person by their legal name or birth name), and complained about Dave Chappelle cracking some jokes about transgender people too, saying, “I would go so far as to argue that some of the jokes I have heard on the comedy circuit of late constitute actual hate speech.” 547 Chappelle’s 2019 Netflix special Sticks & Stones upset a lot of liberals since they have no sense of humor and he kept the edge he once had for his Comedy Central sketch series in the early 2000s. Vice News told their moronic readers that “You can definitely skip Dave Chappelle’s new Netflix special Sticks & Stones ” because he “doubles down on misogyny and transphobia.” 548 The critics at Rotten Tomatoes, the popular entertainment rating website, gave it an approval rating of just 35% while the average audience rating is at 99%. 549 Matt Stone, co-creator of South Park, said that the reason so many critics trashed it was because they were afraid to say it was actually funny. “When I read TV reviews or cultural reviews, I think of someone in prison, writing. I think about somebody writing a hostage note. This is not what they think. This is what they have to do to keep their job in a social media world.” 550 Tim Allen has said that today he couldn’t do his old act from the ‘90s because it would be deemed too “sexist” since much of it was about the dynamics between men and women. 551 His hit show Last Man Standing was canceled by ABC after he appeared on the Jimmy Kimmel show and joked about how being a conservative in Hollywood these days is like being a Jew in 1930s Germany because of the persecution they face. 552 ABC claimed it was canceled because the show wasn’t performing as well as they wanted, but it was actually the network’s second most watched comedy, and the third most watched show on the entire network. 553 It was later picked up by FOX where it instantly became the highest rated show on its night. 554 Many European countries have much stricter “hate speech” laws than the United States, and it’s a model the Left wants to implement here, starting by amending or repealing the First Amendment to allow criminal charges for people who say things that hurt others feelings or are “divisive” and “not inclusive.” 555 Scottish comedian “Count Dankula” was famously arrested and convicted for hate speech after he posted a video on YouTube

showing that he trained his girlfriend’s dog to do a “Nazi salute” as a joke to upset her. 556 There is no doubt that Leftists would love to have political commentators like me arrested for jokes (or even sarcastic statements) about Black people, illegal aliens, gays, and transgenders. Comedy, which was once seen as the last bastion of free speech, is increasingly coming under attack by intolerant liberals who aim to use the mechanisms of government to silence people if the social media companies won’t.

Award Shows Award shows aren’t just for awards. They themselves are elaborate propaganda campaigns whose winners are often chosen, not because of their extraordinary talent, but because certain songs, movies, and TV shows promote agendas the social engineers want to encourage. Movies that fail miserably at the box office are still awarded if the Hollywood elite want to highlight their “powerful” message. In recent years the award shows have veered further left than most people could imagine, and it’s impossible to make it through one now without getting browbeat by nauseating messages about “diversity,” antiWhite bigotry, and gender bending. For example, the 2018 Emmys began with Kate McKinnon (a lesbian) and Kenan Thompson (a Black man) saying, “Tonight is the celebration of the hard work and the talent of everyone in this room,” begins Kate. “That’s right,” continues Kenan.

“We’re also celebrating the fact that this year’s Emmy Awards has the most diverse group of nominees in Emmy history.” It seemed like they may have been setting up a joke for a second, but they were really being serious. A few more celebrities then came out on stage and literally began to sing a song celebrating the “diversity” of the nominees. Halfway through their little musical number Ricky Martin entered the stage, saying, “You haven’t solved it. This song is way too White!” and then the music changed to salsa music and they all started dancing again. At that point Saturday Night Live’s Andy Sandberg joined the group and sings, “What about me? Is there any room in this song for a straight White guy like me?” “You can’t be a part of this,” he is told. “Sounds good, have fun you guys,” he replies, and then walks off stage. White people should be shunned was the message. Get rid of them. If you took a drink every time someone said “diversity” during the show you would have died of alcohol poisoning. When Jimmy Kimmel took to the stage to present he began, “We are delighted this year to have such a diverse collection of talented supporting actress nominees.” 557 Another presenter, Emilia Clarke (best known for starring in HBO’s Game of Thrones ), also had to make note of the wonderful “diversity,” saying, “Tonight, we are happy to announce that the comedy writing category, once dominated by White male nerds now boasts more female and diverse nerds than ever before.” 558 But there were still too many White people winning awards despite the “diverse” group of nominees that night, so in protest when James Corden was presenting he told the audience at home to get #EmmysSoWhite trending on Twitter, which they did. 559 And we can’t have an award show these days without it including a celebration of drag queens, so RuPaul was given the Emmy for his crossdressing competition, RuPaul’s Drag Race . 560 The Golden Globes are basically the Oscars and Emmys combined, meaning both movies and television shows are given awards. The event is put on by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association which is an organization consisting of foreign media outlets and reporters who cover American entertainment outside the United States.

It’s the typical superficial award show with celebrities who think they can save the world by giving a shout out to various causes, but once Donald Trump became president it was obligatory for at least one of the winners to denounce him while accepting their award. Meryl Streep was the first at the 2017 Golden Globes, held just two months after the 2016 election, where she gave an overly dramatic speech about how he’s ruining the country for immigrants. 561 The following year feminism was the theme of the night with host Seth Meyers beginning the show by saying, “People in this room worked really hard to get here, but it’s clearer now than ever before that the women had to work even harder. So thank you for all the amazing work that you’ve all done, and you continue to do. I look forward to you leading us into whatever comes next. So thank you so much for letting me say that.” 562 His cucking didn’t stop there. After his monologue he expressed concerns that the first presenters were going to be two White men. “Now to present our first awards, please don’t be two White dudes, please don’t be two White dudes. Oh, thank God! It’s Gal Gadot and Dwayne Johnson everybody.” 563 The very first award of the night went to a man named Ramy Youssef who won Best Actor in a Comedy Series. As soon as he took the stage he said, “Look, I know you guys haven’t seen my show,” and then the entire audience laughed. “Everyone’s like ‘is this an editor?’” he continued. 564 He was only half joking because nobody there, and hardly anyone watching at home, knew who he was. His show Ramy streamed on Hulu and was a comedy about a Muslim family from Egypt who had just moved to New Jersey. He was given the Golden Globe as a form of affirmative action to demonstrate how “woke” Hollywood is by celebrating a Muslim comedy, not because it was the funniest show, but simply for the sake of “diversity,” and he knew it. When Jessica Chastain announced the winner for Best Actress that year, she began sarcastically, “I’m so happy to announce that the winner of this category will also receive the 23 percent of her salary that went missing in the wage gap.” Chris Hemsworth, who stood there alongside her virtue signaling, added, “It’s true. That’s correct.” 565 When presenting the nominees for Best Actor, Geena Davis also made a sarcastic comment about the supposed wage gap, saying, “These five nominees have agreed to give half of their salary back, so that the women

could make more than them.” 566 But the White male bashing didn’t end there. When Natalie Portman announced the winner for Best Director, she went off script, saying “And here are the all-male nominees,” clearly upset that no women were nominated that year because of “sexism.” 567 At the end of the night Oprah Winfrey was given the Cecil B. de Mille Award for her “contributions” to the entertainment industry, where she gave a tearful acceptance speech causing liberals to become ecstatic and filled with hope that she would run for president in 2020 against Donald Trump. NBC’s official Twitter account even tweeted a picture of her and said, “Nothing but respect for OUR future president.” 568 The New Yorker ran the headline, “Oprah Leads a Decisive Feminist Takeover.” 569 At the 2020 Golden Globes, Ellen DeGeneres was given an “Award for Excellence” for all she has done to advance the LGBT agenda. 570 The dinner which takes place before the show was an all vegan meal that year to help “raise awareness about climate change.” 571 When Joaquin Phoenix won the Best Actor award for his performance in Joker, he began his acceptance speech thanking the Hollywood Foreign Press for “recognizing and acknowledging the link between animal agriculture and climate change.” Adding, “It’s a very bold move making tonight plant-based and it really sends a powerful message,” referencing the vegan dinner. 572 While Sacha Baron Cohen was presenting he took the opportunity to rip into Mark Zuckerberg for not cracking down on free speech enough on Facebook, sarcastically describing him as a “naive misguided child who spreads Nazi propaganda.” 573 Just two months earlier Cohen gave a speech to the Jewish ADL where he aggressively called for the major social media companies to increase censorship, claiming that they’re still allowing people to post “hate speech.” 574 Then during her acceptance speech for Best Actress in a Limited Series, Michelle Williams (who was visibly pregnant), admitted she once killed her other baby in an abortion and was glad that she did because if she had the kid it would have prevented her from becoming a successful actress. 575

The audience cheered her “bravery” for admitting what she had done.

The Biggest Night in Hollywood The “biggest night in Hollywood” is the Academy Awards where the Oscars are

handed out, and for many years celebrities have spewed political nonsense—often about saving the environment or some issue in a third world country, but in the Trump-era, everything is about Trump. At the 2017 Oscars, held just one month after President Trump’s inauguration, host Jimmy Kimmel called him a racist and insinuated that the entire world now hates America. “I want to say thank you to President Trump,” he said sarcastically. “I mean, remember last year when it seemed like the Oscars were racist?” referring to the “Oscars so White” controversy. 576

In 2018 Call Me by Your Name was nominated for “Best Picture” which is based on the true story of a 24-year-old man seducing a 17-yearold boy. Hollywood calls that a great “love story.” 577 As the Oscars kicked off that year host Jimmy Kimmel gave a shoutout to the actor who played the boy, Timothee Chalamet, saying he is “the star of a small but powerful story, Call Me By Your Name, which did not make a lot of money, in fact, of the nine best picture nominees, only two of them made more than 100 million dollars. But that’s not the point. We don’t make films like Call Me By Your Name for money. We make them to upset Mike Pence.” 578 (Vice President Mike Pence is a devoted Christian who doesn’t support same sex “marriage.”) Then came more White guilt as Black films, Black actors, and Black writers were touted as being the best. At one point Jimmy Kimmel mentioned that the new Black power film Black Panther wouldn’t be included in that year’s awards because it just came out, and then expressed his disappointment that there aren’t more Black superheroes. “It’s weird that so many superheroes are White because that’s what they were in the comics, right? People say, ‘Well Superman is White. He’s always been White. You know what else Superman has been? Not real!” 579 Apparently it’s racist now that Superman is always White in the movies, because he’s White in the comics! Then two Black women (Tiffany Haddish and Maya Rudolph) came out to present and Maya began, “We are so happy to be here, but a little

nervous too, because a few years ago people were saying that the Oscars were so White, and since then some real progress has been made.” 580 Tiffany Haddish, who has a voice scratchier than Axl Rose then chimed in, agreeing. “Mmhmm. When we came out together we know some of you were thinking, ‘are the Oscars too Black now?’” Maya Rudolph replies, “Don’t worry. There’s so many more White people to come tonight.” “Mhhhmmm. So many! We just came from backstage and there are tons of them back there! And not just movie stars. There are White people walking about with headsets. White people with clipboards. I’m personally not a fan of White people with clip boards because I’m always wondering ‘what are they writing down about me?’” 581 The message was clear. There were still too many White people around, despite the recent strides in “diversity.” Best documentary that year went to Icarus , a movie about the Russian doping scandal at the Olympics to fan the flames of the hysteria at the time about Russia supposedly helping Donald Trump win the 2016 election. Then there was more pro-immigration propaganda. Lupita Nyong’o (who is from Kenya) and Kumail Nanjiani (who is from Pakistan) presented an award, but not before saying they’re not just actors, they’re also immigrants, “and like everyone in this room and everyone watching at home, we are dreamers. We grew up dreaming of one day working in the movies. Dreams are the foundation of Hollywood, and dreams are the foundation of America…To all the Dreamers out there, we stand with you,” they said, to a resounding applause, referring to the millions of illegal immigrants Barack Obama granted amnesty to with his “Dream Act” executive order. “Now the nominees for achievement in production design.” 582 Rapper Common and singer Andra Day performed their social justice anthem “Stand Up for Something” with Common beginning, “We put up monuments for the feminists. Tell the NRA they’re in God’s way… Sentiments of love for the people from Africa, Haiti, and Puerto Rico.” 583 Later while Andra Day sung, Common continued injecting his two cents with statements like, “We stand up for the Dreamers. We stand up for immigrants.” The eight-year-old Syrian refugee, Bana al-Abed, who (supposedly) began tweeting photos of civil war-torn Syria in 2016, was brought on stage during their performance. 584 Of course eight-year-olds

don’t tweet, but the girl was used as a propaganda tool to promote U.S. intervention in the country by making her a symbol of the civil war there, but that’s a whole other story. 585 Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards was also on stage, along with a total of ten social justice activists invited up there during the performance because they all “Stand Up for Something.” 586 Mexican film maker Guillermo del Toro won the Academy Award for Best Picture that year for The Shape of Water , a movie about a woman who falls in love with a fish-man (and literally gets naked and has sex with it). Probably Hollywood’s way of taking baby steps on the path to giving an Oscar to a film about bestiality. Guillermo del Toro also won for Best Director and when he took to the stage he began, “I am an immigrant like, like my compadres, Alfonso and Alejandro, like Gael [García Bernaland] Salma [Hayek], and like many of you. And in the last 25 years, I’ve been living in a country all of our own. Part of it is here. Part of it is in Europe. Part of it is everywhere, because I think the greatest thing the industry does is erase the line in the sand,” [meaning borders]. 587 The 2019 Oscars were just more of the same. At the beginning of the show Maya Rudolph announced, “Just a quick update for everybody in case you’re confused. There is no host tonight. There won’t be a popular movie category, and Mexico is not paying for the wall.” 588 Kevin Hart had originally been scheduled to host, but he was canceled after snowflakes dug up some of his past jokes and tweets about not wanting his son to be gay, so like many others, he became a victim of the “cancel culture.” 589 Black Panther was nominated for “Best Picture” simply because it was the first Black superhero movie. Spike Lee won the Academy Award that year for Best Adapted Screenplay for BlacKkKlansman , and during his acceptance speech said that the 2020 election is “just around the corner” and told everyone to “mobilize” and “do the right thing” by voting Donald Trump out of office. 590 Within just a few minutes of the 2020 Academy Awards show starting, Chris Rock was complaining that not enough Black people were nominated, but the show certainly made up for it that year with presenters. At one point a guy came on stage to announce, “The Academy would like to acknowledge that tonight we have gathered on the ancestral lands of the

Tongva, the Tataviam and the Chumash” [Native American tribes] to apologize for White people “stealing” their land. 591 To kick off the show, singer/rapper Janelle Monae changed the lyrics in one line of her song to say “It’s time to come alive, cuz the Oscars, it’s so White,” marking the sixth year in a row the “Oscars so White” complaint was made. 592 No amount of “diversity” could make them happy. Hair Love won Best Short film for a 7-minute-long animation about a Black father learning to do his daughter’s hair. Usually the winner for this category isn’t included in the show, but because the film celebrated Black people and their “hair” the producers made a special exception this year. When accepting the award the director encouraged people to support the Crown Act, which was pending legislation that would ban employers and schools from “discriminating” against people for their hairstyles, for example, if a business didn’t want their employees to wear dreadlocks, or have an afro that sticks out two feet. 593 A Netflix show called American Factory that Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company made won the Oscar for best documentary in 2020, and when accepting the award, the director quoted straight from the Communist Manifesto, saying “workers of the world unite.” 594 When Joaquin Phoenix won the Oscar for Best Actor in Joker he rattled off as many social justice buzzwords as he could, saying, “Whether we’re talking about gender inequality or racism or queer rights or indigenous rights or animal rights, we’re talking about the fight against injustice,” and then went on to complain about cow rights and people using milk in our cereal and coffee in the morning. 595 After the Black Lives Matter riots of 2020 caused a surge of Black supremacist sentiments to spread across the country and endless virtue signaling by corporations and schools about how they were going to work much harder to “support the Black community,” the Oscars announced that they were changing the criteria for films to be considered for the awards, adding a “diversity requirement.” 596 So now it doesn’t matter how good a film is, if there isn’t a Black person, a Latino, or a queer as part of the main plot, then it may get passed over in favor of another film with more “diversity.”

The Grammys The Grammys used to be mostly just about the music, but now the event browbeats the audience about how there are too many White people in the United States and endlessly praises LGBT people for being “amazing.” The Grammys have even openly celebrated Satanism. In 2014, Katy Perry performed her song “Dark Horse” in a ceremony that depicted her as a witch and made headlines across the country from people saying the performance looked like a satanic ritual. 597 She did it as a collaboration with a group called Three Six Mafia—get it—three sixes “666”—the “Satanic Mafia.” A few years earlier in 2012 Nicki Minaj had done a similar “satanic ritual” for her performance of her song “Roman Holiday.” 598 (A “Roman holiday” means to get pleasure from someone else’s pain or misfortune.) The Grammys is supposed to be a celebration of music, but they can’t make it through a show without expressing their love for the LGBT agenda. Katy Perry performed her lesbian-themed single “I Kissed a Girl” in 2009 shortly after she burst onto the music scene thanks to that song. A few years later Lady Gaga performed her “gay rights” anthem “Born This Way” during the show. 599 And now every year there are shoutouts to the “LGBT community” and how “awesome” they are. In 2014 Macklemore & Ryan Lewis won a Grammy for Best New Artist and Best Rap Album as a reward for producing a “gay rights” anthem called “Same Love” which promoted gay “marriage.” 600 When they performed at the Grammys that year thirty-three gay couples were married on stage as part of the show. 601 At the time, gay “marriage” still wasn’t legal in all fifty states, and the issue was awaiting a ruling by the Supreme Court. That same year Irish musician Hozier’s debut single “Take Me To Church” was nominated for Song of the Year because it denounced Christianity, particularly the Catholic Church’s views on homosexuality. The music video for the song was a gay anthem depicting two homosexuals being persecuted by an angry mob. It was made for just $500 and posted to YouTube when the band was still virtually unheard of, but music executives in Hollywood discovered the video and turned Hozier into a star that year because they wanted a new “gay rights” anthem to promote.

To kick off the 2017 Grammys, Jennifer Lopez said it was a really tough time in our nation’s history since it was just a few weeks after Donald Trump was inaugurated as president. Sounding like she was about to breakdown and cry she said, “It is about the music, the words, and the voices. How they move us and inspire us and touch all of our lives. At this particular point in history our voices are needed more than ever.” 602 There was no question what “point in history” she was talking about. Hollywood and the talking heads in the news media were still in shock that Hillary had lost. James Corden even performed a rap song at the start of the show which included lyrics about his fear of what Donald Trump was going to do to the country. 603 Busta Rhymes later trashed President Trump on stage, calling him “President Agent Orange.” He was joined by another group “A Tribe Called Quest” who made their entrance to the stage by breaking through a wall constructed of foam blocks. At one point Busta said that President Trump was “perpetuating evil” throughout the United States. 604 The following year the Grammys were hosted by James Corden who began the show saying “This year, we don’t just have the most diverse group of nominees in Grammys history, we also have, for the second year in a row, the least diverse host in Grammys history,” referring to himself being a straight, White male, with blonde hair and blue eyes. 605 Then rapper Kendrick Lamar got on stage and performed an anti-cop, pro-Black Lives Matter song. Halfway through his performance the lights dimmed and the camera cut to Dave Chappelle, who said, “I just wanted to remind the audience that the only thing more frightening than watching a Black man being honest in America, is being an honest Black man in America.” 606 Later Hillary Clinton made an appearance via a video which showed her reading the anti-Trump book Fire and Fury that was all the rage at the time. 607 The following year in 2019, they brought Michelle Obama on stage during the opening segment to talk about how much music means to her and how it keeps her going in tough times. 608 Childish Gambino won the award for Song of the Year and Album of the Year for his racist, anti-White, anti-police diatribe “This is America,” marking the first time that a rapper had won both awards. 609 When the nominees were announced a month or so earlier, he and other rappers complained that there weren’t enough Black artists being nominated, so it

looks like the Recording Academy tried to make it up to him by crowning him the night’s big winner. At the 2020 Grammys, host Alicia Keys started the show playing a piano melody while doing a spoken word performance mentioning the various artists who were nominated and tossed in a line celebrating President Trump getting impeached. 610 Broadway theater performer Billy Porter then took to the stage (dressed like a woman) and introduced the Jonas Brothers who performed a song, but not without first giving a wink and a nod to the “gender fluid” and “gender non-conforming” people. “Ladies, gentlemen, and those who have yet to make up their minds…” he said, before introducing the group. 611 Singer John Legend also gave a non-verbal shout-out to the gender “nonbinary” people by wearing a “dress/suit.” Ellen DeGeneres introduced a performance by “country rapper” Lil Nas X, and after mentioning some of his accolades added, “And he’s done it all by being true to himself. Unwavering in the face of prejudice, he told the world that he was gay, and overnight he became an inspiration and a role model for millions of young people around the world.” 612 Michelle Obama was then given a Grammy for “Best Spoken Word Album” for the audio book version of her memoir Becoming . 613 There was also a performance by a Spanish singer who goes by the name of “Rosalia” who sung a few songs in Spanish to pander to the tens of millions of nonassimilating Mexicans and other Latinos who have invaded the United States. The American Music Awards and the Billboard Music Awards are just more of the same. Taylor Swift even “broke her political silence” at the 2018 AMAs to encourage her fans to vote Democrat in the upcoming midterm elections. 614 For her entire career she stayed out of politics completely, but the pressure was building for her to denounce the Trump administration, so she eventually did.

MTV Awards The most degenerate of award shows can be found on MTV. Their annual Movie Awards and VMAs (Video Music Awards) are geared for kids, which makes them even more disturbing. The only time anyone really tunes in to MTV

anymore is for these award shows once a year since music videos are all released on YouTube now, and it’s been a decades-long running joke that MTV (which stands for Music Television) doesn’t play any music anymore because the network mostly consists of teen dramas. MTV’s VMAs gave birth to Miley Cyrus with her 2013 performance where she introduced “twerking” to the world, a form of “dance” she popularized which simply consists of shaking one’s butt in a rapid motion, although that’s just the beginning of MTV’s degeneracy. They have unique awards compared to other shows, for things like the Best Villain and Best Fight, and even the Best Kiss. And in 2017, the Best Kiss award went to two men for a “gay coming-of-age” film called Moonlight . 615 The following year in 2018, it was given to two men again, one of them (Keiynan Lonsdale) identifying as a “pansexual” (meaning someone who will have sex with a person of any gender, including trans people). Their movie was another teenage gay “romantic comedy” called Love, Simon. While accepting his “Best Kiss” award the pansexual told the audience, “You can live your dreams and wear dresses.” 616 In 2017 the MTV Movie Awards announced it was going to be a “genderless” award ceremony, meaning they weren’t giving different awards for best actor or best actress because that was “sexist” and “divisive.” They boasted that it was the first “gender-neutral” awards show in history. 617 To emphasize their idiotic idea, the first presenter of the evening was a real life “gender non-binary” person named Asia Kate Dillon who nobody has ever heard of. Her “preferred pronouns” are “they” and “them,” and of course she has a shaved head. The Wikipedia entry for Asia Kate Dillon reads, “Dillon was born in Ithaca, New York. They were assigned female at birth, but identifies as nonbinary. Dillon explained around 2015, they began removing gendered pronouns from their biography, and auditioning for the part of Mason helped them understand their gender identity. Dillon identifies as pansexual, stating they are attracted to multiple genders.” 618

It’s confusing because using the pronoun “they” to refer to one person is usually grammatically incorrect, but even the Merriam Webster dictionary has caved in to the craziness and recently updated the “rules” for grammar to accommodate gender non-binary or non-conforming people and their “preferred pronouns.” 619 Emma Watson won the first award that night for the live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast and made sure to start off her acceptance speech by praising how great of an idea it was to go “genderless,” saying, “Firstly, I feel I have to say something about the award itself. The first acting award in history that doesn’t separate nominees based on their sex says something about how we perceive the human experience. MTV’s move to create a genderless award for acting will mean something different to everyone, but to me, it indicates that acting is about the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. And that doesn’t need to be separated into two different categories.” 620 This was all part of the show. She was just reciting the script that MTV’s producers had given her to emphasize the “historic” genderless theme of the night. Everything in Hollywood is fake, even the award shows. When Vin Diesel was given the Generation Award, he made sure to go along with the social justice agenda and said the only reason that the Fast & Furious series was a success is because the younger generation is accepting of multiculturalism. “Most importantly, I got to thank a generation that was willing to accept this multicultural franchise where it didn’t matter what color your skin was or what country you were from, when you’re family, you’re family.” 621 Multiculturalism had nothing to do with the franchises’ success. It’s an action movie series about cars , and a lot of people love car movies, and the chase scenes and action sequences are amazing, but the Hollywood elite never miss an opportunity to sing praises of their precious “diversity.” In 2018, rapper “Logic” wore a t-shirt that said “F*ck the Wall” and dozens of Mexican immigrants were brought out on stage during his performance who had shirts on that read “We Are All Human Beings.” 622 The previous year a “descendent” of Robert E. Lee, the Confederate Army general, was brought on stage to denounce racism. “We have made my ancestor an idol of White supremacy, racism, and hate,” he began. “As a pastor, it is my moral duty to speak out against racism, America’s original

sin.” 623 The man was the great-great-great-great (four “greats”) nephew of Robert E. Lee. He went on to tell the audience, “Today, I call on all us with privilege and power to answer God’s call to confront racism and White supremacy head on. We can find inspiration in the Black Lives Matter movement, the women who marched in the Women’s March in January, and especially Heather Heyer, who died fighting for her beliefs in Charlottesville.” 624 Then Heather Heyer’s mother was brought on stage, whose daughter was killed during the infamous 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, to announce the winner of the “Best Fight Against the System” award. All the nominees had music videos denouncing racism, anti-immigrant sentiments, and promoted “diversity.” While opening the show in 2019, Taylor Swift had the words “Equality Act” projected on the stage in giant letters under a rainbow. 625 The Equality Act is a proposed bill by Democrats that would amend the Civil Rights Act and mandate someone’s gender identity be legally recognized no matter which one of the 58 different “genders” they claim to be. 626 It would also severely restrict the religious freedom of individuals and groups who don’t accept the positions of LGBT extremists. The following year the Supreme Court ruled on similar legislation, declaring that business owners can’t fire employees for being gay or transgender, nor refuse to hire them. 627

Feminism The Left has a saying that “representation matters,” which means the more on-screen depictions of certain kinds of characters, lifestyles, and behaviors, the more the general public warms up to accepting those kinds of things in real life. And part of paving the path to what they hope will be a woman President of the United States someday involves producing a variety of shows focusing on a female character who holds that position. In the years preceding Hillary Clinton’s long-expected attempt at a presidential bid there were almost a dozen television shows that had a woman president as the central part of the plot. Geena Davis starred in Commander in Chief , a short-lived series from 2005 to 2006 where she was originally the Vice President, but then had to takeover after the president died of a brain aneurysm. In FOX’s thriller 24, the show had a female

president for two seasons in 2008-2010. Julia Louis-Dreyfus ascended to the presidency in her series Veep after the president resigned, leaving her in charge. And that was just the beginning. State of Affairs, which aired for just one season on NBC, depicted a Black woman as the president, and CBS’s political drama Madam Secretary revolved around a female Secretary of State (obviously modeled after Hillary Clinton), and at the end of the fifth season the character decided to run for President and won. The following season (which was its last) the series focused on the new female president but kept the name Madam Secretary . But Hollywood’s feminist propaganda goes far beyond hoping to normalize the idea of a woman president. Liberals are obsessed with uprooting the traditional gender roles of men as providers and protectors, and women as nurturers and caretakers. They are determined to “empower women” at any cost and embrace the disastrous effects on family dynamics and society as a whole that their radical agenda is causing. “The future is female” is their mantra, showing they have no concern for equality, but instead have a thirst for power and want to dominate instead of cooperate. They despise traditional families and gender roles, and are on a mission to undermine the very foundational relationships of human society. To feminists, being a stay at home mom is slavery. Women cooking for their family is “oppression” under the Patriarchy, and men are all scumbags; but having unprotected sex with an endless line of them while avoiding any committed long-term relationships is the ideal life. That’s what Hollywood wants women to believe. Their latest plan to promote “women empowerment” is hijacking popular franchises and then completely changing the major characters and turning good old-fashioned action films into social justice warrior propaganda. Not just swapping male characters for females, or adding strong female leads, but by also portraying men as inept and incompetent losers who always need to be rescued from their own stupidity. When the Star Wars series was revised in 2015 with The Force Awakens , it diverted from the usual storyline featuring male leads (Luke Skywalker in the original trilogy and Anakin Skywalker in the prequels) to a totally new character invented by JJ. Abrams named Rey, a female loner.

A female Yoda-type of creature named Maz first starts teaching Rey about the force once she happens to discover Luke Skywalker’s old lightsaber lying around. And throughout the film Rey keeps proving to everyone that a girl can do amazing things like pilot a ship, and even fix one with her ingenuity, saving the Millennium Falcon from exploding. After there was an electrical overload and Han Solo didn’t know what to do, Rey saved the day. For extra diversity the new Star Wars teased a possible interracial romance between Rey and Finn (the Black former stormtrooper). 628

In the next film, Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), all women are in charge of the Resistance (the good guys), giving the orders to subservient and bumbling men. The tension keeps building between Poe Dameron and Vice Admiral Holdo (his superior) with them butting heads numerous times and Poe facing repeated snarky comments from her. The Last Jedi was hailed as “the most triumphantly feminist Star Wars movie yet,” because of this odd storyline. 629 And critics hailed it for “awakening the feminist force in little girls everywhere.” 630 At one point Poe and the other men take over the ship at gunpoint, tired of the perceived inability of the women to lead the mission. They committed mutiny only to later learn that Vice Admiral Holdo had a great plan but they just didn’t know it, and now Poe had put everyone at risk. The women save everyone though, and he’s sorry for ever doubting them. Even the Star Wars spinoff Rogue One starred a woman. NBC News noted that, “Not only is Rogue One continuing The Force Awakens trend of putting a young woman in the center of the action, but it appears to provide prominent roles for African-American, Latino and Asian actors as well—a relatively new development in the Star Wars universe.” 631 They loved the “diversity.” George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars , sold the rights to Disney in 2012 and later said he felt “betrayed” after the entertainment giant decided to “go in another direction” from his original ideas. 632 He once referred to the films as his “kids” and said that he regretfully sold them into slavery. 633 In 2015, a new installment of Mad Max was released titled Mad Max: Fury Road , but instead of starring Mad Max it starred Charlize Therone’s character “Imerator Furiosa.” It was declared the “feminist picture of the year.” 634 And instead of Max being a hero like the previous films, he was depicted as an idiot who had to be repeatedly rescued by women.

In Disney-Pixar’s animated Incredibles 2 , a “superhero mom” named Elastigirl (Mrs. Incredible) is chosen for a secret mission over her husband, who led the superhero family in the first film, because he has the tendency to cause unnecessary “collateral damage” and the superhero organization felt they needed to change the image of superheroes in the public’s mind. She then leaves her husband at home to watch the kids while she takes off on her mission. When she calls to check on how things are going, the husband is depicted as being in over his head and not able to handle taking care of the kids and running the house. The London Guardian called the film a “feminist triumph.” 635 Bustle , an online women’s magazine, wrote, “In a time when conversations about representation are more prevalent than ever, showing the diversification of familial roles is definitely fitting. Though not entirely out of the ordinary, seeing a father—especially one as domineering as Mr. Incredible—taking on more of a domestic role will definitely serve as a comedic relief for some, but will also, hopefully, contribute to larger conversations surrounding familial structures and their many forms.” 636 Their glowing review continued, “The responsibilities of family life should be divvied up amongst its members, and gender shouldn’t play a determining factor in who takes on whichever task. In this way, The Incredibles 2 is adding some much-needed perspective to conversations surrounding family dynamics and female empowerment. But, though extremely relevant and important to discuss today, true progressiveness will be measured once conversations about strong female leads and diverse familial structures are no longer needed.” 637 Birds of Prey is a spin-off from Suicide Squad , a film based on DC Comics’ characters, focusing on Harley Quinn (played by Margot Robbie) who just broke up with her boyfriend the Joker and must survive as a supervillain in Gotham City with no man to protect her. Some critics called the character’s portrayal in Suicide Squad sexist and misogynistic, so for the spin-off producers decided to atone for their “sins” by making Birds of Prey a hyper-feminist film where all of the bad guys aren’t just criminal masterminds, but misogynists who treat women poorly and deserve to be punished. 638 Ewan McGregor, who plays the crime lord Black Mask, said, “What interested me with Birds of Prey is that it’s a feminist film. It is very finely written. There is in the script a real look on misogyny, and I think we need

that. We need to be more aware of how we behave with the opposite sex. We need to be taught to change. Misogynists in movies are often extreme: they rape, they beat women ... and it is legitimate to represent people like that, because they exist and they are obviously the worst. But in the Birds of Prey dialogues, there is always a hint of everyday misogyny, of those things you say as a man you do not even realize, mansplaining ... and it’s in the script in a very subtle way. I found that brilliant.” 639 Salon.com raved, “Harley Quinn is back to take down the patriarchy, and this revolution brings scrunchies.” 640 Another critic loved that it was about “women’s emancipation,” because the character proved she could be a supervillain on her own without a boyfriend. 641 Like most “woke” movies, the film bombed its opening weekend, so the producers changed the title to Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey , hoping to spark people’s interest because the character had become a breakout star from Suicide Squad. The film was still a huge loss for the studio, but Hollywood can’t take a hint. They’ll keep making feminist propaganda pieces and have their favorite critics try to sell them to viewers no matter how much they suck and how poor they perform at the box office.

Gender Swaps In 2016 a new Ghostbusters film was released, but instead of starring Bill Murray and the gang it featured four women as the Ghostbusters. At the end of the movie the girls shoot the giant evil ghost in the crotch with their proton packs to finally destroy him. Actress Leslie Jones, who was one of the Ghostbusters, quit Twitter and said she cried because she was getting “harassed” by people who hated the film. 642 It completely bombed at the box office and cost the studio an estimated $125 million dollars in losses. 643 A few years later when it was announced that a new Ghostbusters was in the works that would continue the original series and “hand the movie back to the fans,” the director Jason Reitman was called a “sexist” because that meant it wouldn’t be another feminist empowerment film. 644

In the 2019 film Terminator: Dark Fate , John Connor, the future leader of the “Resistance” against the machines, is killed in the first few minutes, making all of the previous films completely pointless since the primary mission was to ensure that he lives so he can grow up to lead the war against the machines. Then Sarah Connor, along with the help of another “good” time-traveling Terminator (who is an “enhanced” cyborg woman) help another girl evade a new advanced “bad” Terminator which is on a mission to kill her before she becomes a threat to the machines in the future. “If you’re at all enlightened, she’ll play like gangbusters,” director Tim Miller said, speaking of the “good” female cyborg. “If you’re a closet misogynist, she’ll scare the fuck out of you, because she’s tough and strong but very feminine. We did not trade certain gender traits for others; she’s just very strong, and that frightens some dudes. You can see online the responses to some of the early shit that’s out there, trolls on the internet. I don’t give a fuck.” 645 The film bombed, reportedly losing 100 million dollars, 646 and the Hollywood Reporter said the studio had no future plans for any other Terminator movies. 647 Ocean’s Eleven was a popular heist film that originally starred the Rat Pack in 1960 and was remade in 2001 featuring an ensemble cast led by George Clooney. The reboot, which did very well, was followed up with two sequels, (Ocean’s Twelve , and Ocean’s Thirteen ) but then in 2018 the gender swap mania infected the franchise and Ocean’s 8 was released, reenvisioning the professional burglars as a group of all women, led by Sandra Bullock. As I’m sure you expected, the film bombed, and the actresses blamed bad reviews on men of course, saying they were due to a “lack of diversity” among the critics. 648 In 2019, a crime drama called The Kitchen was released as an allwoman gangster film starring Melissa McCarthy because someone thought it would be a good idea to make such a ridiculous movie. It wasn’t even a comedy, which made it even more absurd. The title refers to Hell’s Kitchen, a neighborhood on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan where the women “gangsters” live. The plot revolves around them collecting protection money from local businesses and running the neighborhood as part of the Irish mafia. It was a complete bomb and lost the studio tens of millions of dollars which should come as no surprise. 649

Disney announced they were going to reboot the 1990s Doogie Howser M.D. series about a teenage genius who becomes a doctor which originally starred Neil Patrick Harris, but the remake will star a 16-year-old girl as the child doctor. 650 Disney is also producing an all-female version of Pirates of the Caribbean that will star Margot Robbie. 651 Steven Spielberg said that his iconic character Indiana Jones should take “a different form” and be played by a woman named “Indiana Joan.” 652

Vin Diesel even said that an all-female version of Fast & Furious was in the works. 653 In 2017 when the film Dunkirk was released, which depicts the historic Dunkirk evacuation during World War II when Allied soldiers pulled out of the Dunkirk harbor in France, liberals were upset that the film didn’t gender-swap some characters to make it more “diverse.” 654 Of course that wouldn’t have been historically accurate, or made any sense because women were not on the battlefield, but that didn’t stop the snowflakes from complaining about the soldiers being all men.

The Institute on Gender in Media In 2004 actress Geena Davis started a non-profit research organization to study “gender representation” in media. The “Institute” on Gender in Media is obsessed with monitoring the number of women vs men in TV shows and movies and tracking what percentage of them have speaking roles and how many of them have power. Their website says, “we’re the only organization working collaboratively within the entertainment industry to engage, educate and influence the creation of gender balanced onscreen portrayals, reducing harmful stereotypes and creating an abundance of unique and intersectional female characters in entertainment targeting children 11 and under.” 655 Another pointless project the “Institute on Gender in Media” has been working on is a computer program that checks scripts for “gender bias” language to make sure they’re “inclusive.” Not only does the software scan scripts for words and phrases like fireman , postman , and mankind ; but it also produces a report on the percentage of characters who are “people of

color” and even LGBTQ so the writers and producers can make sure their projects are “diverse” enough. 656

Television Commercials Turn Feminist For many years feminists have been upset about the way cleaning products are marketed, so recently there are an increasing number of commercials for laundry detergent, vacuums, and mops depicting men using the products. Creating “gender equality” in commercials for cleaning products has even been called “the final feminist frontier.” 657 Some companies are even promoting feminism in their commercials even when their products have nothing to do with gender at all. For example, some morons in the marketing department at Anheuser-Busch thought it would be a good idea for Bud Light to promote the supposed “wage gap” in an incredibly unfunny ad featuring Amy Schumer and Seth Rogan. It begins with Schumer saying, “Bud Light party here, to discuss equal pay.” Seth Rogen goes on to complain that “Women don’t get paid as much as men and that is wrong!” The two banter back and forth about women supposedly having to pay more for cars, dry cleaning and shampoo, but “Bud Light proudly supports equal pay. That’s why Bud Light costs the same, no matter if you’re a dude or a lady,” explains Schumer. Forbes magazine called the commercial “unusual” and the writer wondered, “So why did Bud Light choose to make what might be the first civil-rights-inflected beer ad…Are they targeting Hillary voters? Are they simultaneously making fun of ‘equal pay’ claims by subverting the meaning of the term to be about a non-problem—what men and women pay for beer? Or are they trying to thread the needle with comedy to speak to both audiences?” 658 Their beer sales soon declined, and they pulled the ad. 659 When journalists started inquiring about the company’s own business practices regarding “equal pay” they declined to reveal how many women work for

the company or how their salaries compare to those of their male counterparts. 660 Bud Light even took the video off YouTube trying to distance themselves from the mess they created. In 2018 Burger King launched an ad campaign to “raise awareness” about “gender inequality.” Using a hidden camera in one of their restaurants they served what they called “Chick Fries” (which were just thin chicken strips or “chicken fries”) to customers, but when women ordered them, they were served the chicken strips in a pink box and were told they had been charged a few dollars more than men “for the pink box.” 661 When some of them got upset and started arguing with the cashier (who was an actor) about how they shouldn’t have to pay more just because the box is pink for women, the cashier began lecturing them about how women’s razors supposedly cost more than men’s “just because they’re pink” and asked them why they didn’t complain about that too. Why not just promote their chicken fries and say they taste great and are on sale you may be wondering? That’s what a normal person would do, but we’re talking about people who have become infected with the liberal pathogen. The Audi car company aired a Super Bowl commercial showing a group of kids racing in a pine box derby, while focusing on the only girl in the group. As the race begins her dad is the narrator, musing aloud wondering how he was going to teach her about sexism. “What do I tell my daughter? Do I tell her grandpa is worth more than her grandma? That her dad is worth more than her mom? Do I tell her that despite her education, her drive, her skills, her intelligence, she will automatically be valued as less than every man she meets?” 662 She then wins the race, beating the boys, and it concludes with him saying, “Or maybe I’ll be able to tell her something different,” and then the words “Audi of America is committed to equal pay for equal work,” and “Progress is for everyone,” are shown on the screen. 663 The “Secret” women’s deodorant brand aired a Super Bowl-themed commercial showing a kicker kick the winning field goal at the end of a game and then when “he” takes off “his” helmet the crowd realizes it was a woman and goes silent, but after a moment of surprise they begin cheering even more and then the catchphrase “Let’s Kick Inequality” is shown on the screen. 664 Companies often use their big Super Bowl commercials to really promote the liberal agenda instead of their product. The “Unstereotype

Alliance” campaign launched by the United Nations notes, “Advertising is a particularly powerful driver to change perceptions and impact social norms,” and says they are “excited to partner with the foremost industry shapers in this Alliance to challenge and advance the ways women are represented in this field.” 665 It’s impossible to escape liberal propaganda, even when viewing commercials for cars and deodorant! Jared jewelers even released a commercial encouraging women to propose to their boyfriends with the tagline “Dare to ask him.” 666 One ad shows a woman drop down on one knee holding the ring, and then as she slides the ring on his finger the camera cuts to their friends seated at a nearby dinner table all celebrating his acceptance, having witnessed her pop the question.

Fat is “Beautiful” No fat jokes (or “fat shaming” as they’re called now) are allowed anymore, because they’re considered “bullying” and “hate speech” so liberals have been promoting “body positivity” which is a more politically correct term for the “fat acceptance movement” in which morbidly obese women are said to be “beautiful” by those who pity them. Despite becoming obese later in her career, Amy Schumer was reportedly in talks to play Barbie in a live-action film based on the doll—in what some people thought was a joke, but it turned out to be true. 667 She was then pulled from the project, probably due to the ridicule she was receiving or after producers realized the movie would be a complete flop because of their idiotic idea. 668 Lena Dunham is another token fat ugly girl in Hollywood who is always promoted as a feminist icon. 669 Dunham has posted pictures on her Instagram over the years celebrating her weight gain, once posting a beforeand-after photo showing her of average weight in the past next to a current photo of her 24-pounds heavier (weighing in at 162 pounds). 670 The post got almost 500,000 likes from people who were proud of her for being happy that she was obese. A year later she posted a picture of her lying in bed wearing lingerie, noting that “I weigh the most I ever have,” and saying she’s the “happiest I’ve ever been.” 671

By accepting obesity as “normal” and banning criticism of obesity as “fat shaming” people are only contributing to the problem. It would be like claiming you were “bullying” people by declaring opioid use is dangerous and something that should be shunned and avoided. Singer Lizzo, best known for being the 300 pound Black girl who likes bouncing around on stage during her performances, was hailed as “brave” and “beautiful” after she posted a semi-nude photo of herself on Instagram. 672

During the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 she posted a picture of herself wearing a face mask and matching bikini, and one tabloid reported that it was a balance of “safety with sex appeal.” 673 Hollywood’s new affinity for fat women is causing some older TV shows and movies to come under scrutiny. As part of the storyline in Friends , Monica (Courtney Cox) was depicted as severely obese when she was younger, but then ended up losing a bunch of weight and became hot. In flashbacks, Courtney would wear a fat suit and a prosthetic chin playing her old self, but now Entertainment Weekly calls “Fat Monica” the “ghost that continues to haunt Friends 25 years later,” and complains that the show used her to get “cheap laughs in the laziest ways possible.” 674 Shallow Hal and The Nutty Professor have since been deemed the most “fat-phobic” movies of all time for their use of fat suits. 675 It probably won’t be long now until the practice of actors wearing fat suits for comedic effect will be banned industry wide, and the those kinds of characters will be deemed just as offensive as someone wearing “blackface” which used to be a staple of comedy with people like Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Howard Stern, Dan Aykroyd, Robert Downey Jr. and many others once doing skits as a Black person. Most have recently apologized for what were actually hilarious characters after old clips circulated on Twitter with people denouncing them for being “racist.” Feminists even got upset when Pixar’s Wall-E came out, which depicts a dystopian future where the earth is evacuated because it has turned into a trash heap from all the garbage humans were creating. The online outlet Slate was upset that the movie “goes out of its way to equate obesity with environmental collapse.” 676 They complained, “It plays off the easy analogy between obesity and ecological catastrophe, pushing the notion that Western culture has sickened both our bodies and our planet with the same

disease of affluence. According to this lazy logic, a fat body stands in for a distended culture: We gain weight and the Earth suffers.” 677 The London Telegraph noted that fat pride groups, “believe the film propagates anti-obesity hysteria comparable with the quest for the perfect body by the eugenics movement in Nazi Germany.” 678 Yep, Wall-E is Nazi propaganda to these lunatics! Since the Left is so concerned with “global warming” and people’s “carbon footprint,” you’d think they would start calling out fat people for using triple or quadruple the natural resources as the average person, but that would hurt people’s feelings—so instead they’re trying to convince trendy social justice warriors to eat bugs because the cow farts from beefproducing cattle are supposedly destroying the planet. 679 In 2019, Victoria’s Secret hired a plus-size model named Ali TateCutler in order to be “more inclusive.” 680 And what a surprise—later that year they canceled their annual fashion show, citing declining sales and ratings! That same year they had also celebrated hiring their first transgender model in the name of “diversity” so it’s no wonder the Victoria’s Secret brand had become less appealing to so many people. 681 The move came after lunatics on Twitter kept complaining they were “discriminating” against transgender people by having only (actual) women as models. 682 Abercrombie & Fitch also decided to be “more inclusive” by distancing themselves from their well-established brand of flawless models in their catalogs and have now embraced the “body positivity” movement by using “plus-sized” (fat) models and LGBTQ people in their ads. 683 The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition has also featured a “plus size” (fat) model on the cover recently, but she doesn’t attribute her success to the fat acceptance movement. She believes it’s because of White privilege! “I know I’m on this pedestal because of White privilege,” she says. “To not see Black or Latina women as famous in my industry [meaning the plus size model industry] is crazy! I have to talk about it. I want to give those women kudos because they are the ones who paved the way for me,” she said. 684 The glass is always half empty with social justice warriors. Even when things are good, they’re not good enough, and when a fat woman has a successful modeling career she can’t be happy about that either, because she’s worried that her success is due to “White privilege.”

There are also calls for the NFL to start using plus-sized cheerleaders, and the league is under fire from feminists because the cheerleaders must abide by various strict rules, including maintaining their “ideal weight.” There are even calls to ban cheerleaders altogether because it’s “demeaning to women.” 685 In 2016 toy maker Mattel released a “curvy” Barbie to celebrate “body diversity.” An executive at the company said, “These new dolls (are) more reflective of the world girls see around them—the variety in body type, skin tones and style allows girls to find a doll that speaks to them.” 686 Sofie Hagen, a fat “comedian” who got triggered by billboards warning about the link between obesity and cancer, is also hoping Disney will soon feature a princess in one of their cartoons who is fat. She tweeted, “I cannot stress how much we need a fat Disney princess. We need it now. Shut up. We fucking do.” 687 (No, she’s not joking, and on a side note, she blocked me on Twitter for laughing at her). Feminists are often fat, ugly, angry women, as you know, so the AMC television network aired a dark comedy series called Dietland where a morbidly obese woman fed up with “society’s beauty standards” decides to start killing men who contribute to the “objectification of women,” like fashion photographers. It was basically a fat chick revenge fantasy. Only in Hollywood would someone come up with the idea of the protagonist being a fat woman who kills people who hurt her feelings!

The Four Waves Feminism is like an old tool that has outlived its usefulness, but instead of discarding it and appreciating what it accomplished during the time it was needed, feminists have continued trying to “advance” the movement in our modern era. Feminism has gone through four different phases, or waves as they’re called, since its first incarnation in the early 1900s when women banded together to demand the right to vote (women’s suffrage). In the 1960s and 70s the second wave rose up to fight against the lack of women in political positions, and they were very successful in popularizing birth control pills

and legalizing abortion, but for some power-hungry feminists there was more work to be done to dismantle “the Patriarchy.” They continued pushing forward in the 1990s (the third wave) where they worked to get more women into leadership positions in the government and corporations, often simultaneously complaining about men continuing to “objectify women” while doing everything they could to artificially boost their sex appeal and use it to their advantage in every possible situation. Then came the fourth wave of feminism which is completely unrecognizable from the first two waves which actually had a legitimate purpose and goals. Around 2012, not coincidentally coinciding with social media becoming a fixture of most peoples’ lives, the fourth wave of feminism hit the Internet like a tsunami of insanity. Through social media, crazies from across the country were able to connect with each other and affirm one another’s bizarre ideas about their abnormal lifestyles and celebrate their mental illnesses. They now come up with new “causes” to fight for online like “free-bleeding” (not wearing tampons or pads during their period) in order to “raise awareness” for periods (as if we’re not already painfully aware of them), and “smashing the scale” (celebrating obesity). The most radical feminists (the ones with blue or purple hair) eventually turn into cat ladies. Single, childless, alone, and filled with regret and hate. As their looks fade, so does their ability to attract new mates, thus leading them to the inevitable downward spiral of despair which is then used as fuel to reaffirm their beliefs that men have ruined the world and their lives.

The LGBT Agenda Gays are only approximately one or maybe one and a half percent of the 688 population.

But because of the bombardment of LGBT propaganda, many Americans falsely believe ten or even twenty percent of people are homosexual. 689

And liberals want everyone to think that there is no more of a difference between someone who is straight or gay than there is between someone who is lefthanded or right-handed. Homosexuality used to be officially classified as a mental illness by the American Psychiatric Association until 1973 when they gave in to

intense pressure by LGBT groups and had it removed from their Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). 690 Now they just call it a “sexual orientation.” Gays used to deny there was a “gay agenda” and claimed that they weren’t promoting homosexuality; all they wanted was to not be “attacked” or “discriminated against”—but those claims, like almost everything that comes out of liberals’ mouths, turned out to be a massive lie. Today it’s not even about LGBT “rights” to them, it’s about LGBT privilege . They get extra rights. They’re special . And any criticism about their behavior or lifestyle is deemed “hate speech” and “harassment” no matter how mild or reasonable. These days anyone who doesn’t celebrate them is considered an enemy. You must put them on a pedestal and marvel at their “awesome” sexuality, or you’re a Nazi! The reason gays and transgenders went from being widely viewed as strange, to being “privileged” and “special” people over the course of a single generation is the result of a massive propaganda campaign the likes of which the world had never seen. In 1987 Gay Community News , a popular LGBT publication at the time, admitted the “gay revolution” would require the use of entertainment in order to be achieved, saying, “We shall sodomize your songs, emblems of your feeble masculinity, of your shallow dreams and vulgar lies. We shall seduce them [children] in your schools…in your youth groups, in your movie theater bathrooms…wherever men are men together. Your sons will become our minions and do our bidding. They will be recast in our image. They will come to crave and adore us.” 691 In 1989 two gay activists published a book titled After the Ball: How America Will Conquer its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the 90s which detailed their goals to have Hollywood produce propaganda that portrayed gays as “victims of circumstance and oppression, not as aggressive challengers.” Their idea was that, “Gays must be portrayed as victims in need of protection so that straights will be inclined by reflex, to assume the role of protector.” 692 Their plan worked perfectly, as Joe Biden admitted when giving a speech for Jewish American Heritage Month, where he said, “It wasn’t anything we legislatively did. It was ‘Will and Grace,’ it was the social media. Literally. That’s what changed peoples’ attitudes. That’s why I was so certain that the vast majority of people would embrace and rapidly

embrace [gay marriage]. Think behind all that, I bet you 85 percent of those changes, whether it’s in Hollywood or social media are a consequence of Jewish leaders in the industry. The influence is immense, the influence is immense.” 693 All gays wanted was to be able to get “married” they said, but within just a few short years after the Supreme Court ruling made it legal nationwide (in 2015) we saw the proliferation of dozens of different “genders,” pre-teen child drag queens and “Drag Queen Story Hour” events popping up at public libraries across the country. In numerous cases the drag queens who were reading books to children at the events have been found to be convicted pedophiles. 694 What a surprise! An LGBT website called Pink News ran a headline titled, “Republican Lawmakers Want to Make Child Drag Shows Illegal,” expressing their anger that a U.S. Representative proposed a bill that would prohibit anyone under the age of eighteen from participating in drag shows. 695 And now LGBT activists harass Christian owned businesses like Chick-Fil-A for not supporting gay “marriage.” 696 I put gay “marriage” in quotes when referring to gay “marriage” because a marriage is between a man and a woman—I don’t care what the Supreme Court says, and I refuse to acknowledge it. Chick-Fil-A restaurants have been banned from opening in airports and on college campuses, and new locations often face boycotts wherever they are. How much longer until the LGBT extremists start trying to run churches out of town and harass parishioners as they come to worship on Sundays?

Ellen DeGeneres, the Trailblazer Ellen DeGeneres is considered a pioneer in the television industry for normalizing gay people after her sitcom Ellen decided to depict her character as a lesbian when she came out in real life in 1997. Will and Grace then picked up the baton in 1998 with a sitcom about a woman (Debra Messing) and her gay roommate. “Will and Grace was the first time you saw characters on television that made gay normal, you wanted to be friends with them,” said Lance Bass from the boy band NSYNC. 697

Sean Hayes, the actor who played Will’s boyfriend on Will and Grace, said, “The best feeling I get is when people come up and say thank you for all you do for the gay community and thank you for playing that part and that show and you feel so fortunate to have been part of something so great.” 698 Since then, the world has been flooded with countless shows and movies where homosexuality is at the center of the plot. Films like Brokeback Mountain (2005) about two gay cowboys; Milk (2008) about Harvey Milk, the first openly gay politician to be elected to public office; Call Me by Your Name (2017) about an adult male who falls in “love” with a teenage boy; and many others which have been made for the sole purpose of promoting “gay rights” no matter how little success they’ll have commercially. But that’s not enough. They want gays and transgenders in every TV show and movie. In 2018, a transgender “woman” was included in the Miss Universe Pageant, a move, as you expect by now, was praised as a “historic first.” 699 Two years later Sports Illustrated included a transgender “woman” in their famous swimsuit edition. 700 And throughout this chapter you’ll see they’re trying to “gay up” everything from Star Wars to Sesame Street. When producers of the HBO vampire series True Blood decided they wanted to depict a character as bisexual and have him do soft-core porn sex scenes with other men (since it’s HBO and shows regularly include nudity), the actor Luke Grimes, who played the character, quit the show. 701 He was immediately denounced by the media and his castmates as “homophobic.” 702

NBC launched a sitcom in the Spring of 2019 called Abby’ s about a bisexual woman who runs a bar—a move that was celebrated as the first sitcom on network television to feature a bisexual as the lead character. For extra diversity she is also a Cuban-American, and the show was promoted as a “multicultural comedy.” 703 It was canceled after just one season. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was recently a guest host on RuPaul’s Drag Race , a reality show where drag queens compete to see who is the “best.” When the drag queens thanked her for being so “brave” for standing up against Republicans, she responded by lavishing praise on them for being on the forefront of changing the culture and the laws. “People think Congress and government is all about leading people, but ultimately, a lot of our politics is about following the public will. And the

people who change the way people think are artists and drag queens.” 704 She went on to call the contestants “patriots” and gushed about how proud she was of them.

Gay Superheroes In 2011 Marvel released Captain America: The First Avenger which was a huge success, and when a sequel was released in 2014 (Captain America: Winter Soldier ), many liberals were upset that Captain America and his best friend Bucky weren’t in a gay relationship together. Vanity Fair gave the film great reviews, but said it had one “flaw,” writing, “So while Marvel was likely never going to make the homoerotic subtext of Cap and Bucky into text, would it really have hurt to keep their relationship more ambiguous?” 705 It went on, “As if to put the nail in the coffin of speculation, Bucky and Cap paused for a moment in the middle of snowy Siberia to reminisce about their days chasing skirts in pre-War Brooklyn. It’s a sweet, human bonding moment but one that also bristles with heterosexual virility. If Disney isn’t inclined to give audiences a gay superhero, couldn’t they have at least left us the dream of Bucky and Cap?” 706 The critic was literally upset they reminisced about chasing women in the previous film, which normal guys do, but LGBT extremists were projecting their own thoughts onto the characters and hoping that they would be just like them. When the much-anticipated Black Panther film came out in 2018, the first superhero film starring a Black man, some people were upset because it didn’t include any gay characters. 707 GLAAD, the gay lobbying organization, was upset after the first Wonder Woman film was released because there weren’t any gay or lesbian characters, saying “On screen, record-breaking films like Black Panther and Wonder Woman prove that not only does inclusion make for great stories— inclusion is good for the bottom line. It is time for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) stories to be included in this conversation and this movement.” 708

Wonder Woman was turned into a bisexual later in the comics, and the LGBT extremists clamored for her to be explicitly bisexual in Wonder Woman 1984 , the sequel to the 2017 film. When the trailer was released, Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman), teased that it may involve a potential romance between her and the villain, “The Cheetah” played by Barbara Ann Minerva. 709 The Eternals includes a gay superhero named Phastos and is Marvel’s first film to feature an on-screen gay kiss which takes place between him and his “husband.” 710 As soon as the new year rang in for 2020, the president of Marvel Studios announced that the franchise would also be introducing a transgender character. 711 Marvel’s Thor: Love and Thunder (scheduled to be released in February 2022) will feature a lesbian superhero called Valkyrie. 712 And the trend continues. The CW television network’s Batwoman series depicts the superhero as a lesbian. 713 In the first season she was played by actress Ruby Rose, who is herself a lesbian in real life, and throughout much of the series “Kate Kane” (the character whose alter ego is Batwoman) makes it abundantly clear she’s “very gay.” In one episode after a college student tearfully tells Batwoman that her parents hate her because they found out she’s gay, Batwoman “outs” herself and is then shown on the cover of CatCo (a fictional magazine in the DC Comics universe) with the headline “Batwoman Reveals Herself as a Lesbian.” 714 It was hailed as a “historic reveal” and celebrated that the character is now an “openly gay superhero.” 715 Even back in the late 1990s, director Joel Schumacher (who is gay) tried to depict Batman and Robin as gay. When asked about the seemingly gay innuendo between Batman (played by George Clooney) and Robin (played by Chris O’Donnell) in the 1997 Batman & Robin , O’Donnell admitted, “going back and looking and seeing some of the pictures, it was very unusual.” 716 George Clooney later said he played a “gay” Batman. 717 In 2012, DC Comics relaunched the Green Lantern as a gay man. 718 A few years after that they also decided to turn Catwoman into a bisexual. 719 There are growing calls to depict Spider-Man as gay now too. The character has been played by numerous actors over the years in various incarnations, and now one of them (Tom Holland) who currently portrays the character, is lobbying Marvel Studios to depict Spider-Man as gay or bisexual. 720

Sources close to the franchise say the character will be depicted as bisexual or have a boyfriend in a future film. 721 Andrew Garfield, who played the character in The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), said, “Why can’t we discover that Peter is exploring his sexuality? It’s hardly even groundbreaking!…So why can’t he be gay? Why can’t he be into boys?” 722

Star Wars Isn’t Gay Enough When the new Star Wars film The Force Awakens was about to be released in 2015, activists said they wanted Luke Skywalker to be gay. Mark Hamill who plays the character said fans kept asking him, “Could Luke be gay?” and instead of telling them they’re insane, he gave them hope, saying, “If you think Luke is gay, of course he is. You should not be ashamed of it.” 723 If you’re a fan of the franchise you may recall that before Luke learned of his true identity (and that of his twin sister) both he and Han Solo had a crush on Princess Leia. After Star Wars: The Last Jedi was released in 2017, LGBT extremists were upset that characters Finn and Poe weren’t in a gay relationship. BuzzFeed wasn’t happy either because they hoped the two men might have a “romance” as part of the plot. 724 Oscar Issac who plays Poe Dameron, “expressed regret that the ‘natural chemistry’ between Poe and Finn in The Force Awakens was not explored in an overtly romantic way in ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’—and wouldn’t be in ‘The Rise of Skywalker.’” 725 “Personally,” he said, “I kind of hoped and wished that maybe that would’ve been taken further in the other films, but I don’t have control. It seemed like a natural progression, but sadly enough it’s a time when people are too afraid, I think, of… I don’t know what.” 726 John Boyega, who plays Finn (the Black former Stormtrooper), agreed, saying, “They’ve always had a quite loving and open relationship in which it wouldn’t be too weird if it went beyond it.” 727 LGBT websites seized the news with one declaring, “Oscar Isaac wishes Star Wars’ Poe and Finn were in a gay relationship but ‘people are too afraid.’” 728

Trying to appease the criticism, director J.J. Abrams included a scene showing two lesbians kissing at the end when everyone was celebrating that the First Order had been defeated. It was hailed as “making history” for the first same-sex kiss in a Star Wars movie, but that wasn’t good enough— nothing ever is. 729 Just a few years ago all they wanted was for gay “marriage” to be legal, they said. And now they’re furious that leading male characters in Star Wars aren’t having sex with each other. They just want to be “accepted” for who they are, they said, and then once they were, they began demanding everyone embrace them and celebrate them. But it’s not just gays and lesbians. Now it’s transgenders too, and the “gender nonconforming” people, and even child drag queens.

Disney Goes Gay Even what was once the most family friendly entertainment brand in the world has gone gay, and is adding an increasing number of LGBT characters and storylines. In 2014 the Disney Channel’s most popular comedy at the time, Good Luck Charlie, included a lesbian couple in the show. 730 They tried to make it funny by depicting two parents confused about the name of the mother of their daughter’s friend. Each one of them had met the “mom,” but one thought her name was Susan, and the other swore it was Cheryl. Then there’s a knock on the door and they open it to reveal their daughter’s friend has two “moms.” The media celebrated Disney for being “brave” and said it was “about time,” and once the LGBT foot was in the door activists started pressuring the network to include a gay teenager in one of their shows. 731 The following year on the Disney-Owned ABC Family Channel [which has since been renamed “Freeform”] they included a gay kiss in a show called The Fosters between two thirteen-year-old boys. 732 The executive producer Peter Paige (who is a homosexual) was proud to have depicted the “youngest same-sex kiss in US television history.” 733 When Disney’s Beauty and the Beast was made into a live-action film in 2017, it included a brief scene of a same-sex couple dancing, which was

hailed as the “first exclusively gay moment” in a Disney movie. 734 That same year they included a “male princess” in their animated series Star vs. The Forces of Evil . 735 The Huffington Post called it a “beautiful message” for kids. 736 The show also depicted Disney’s “first same-sex cartoon kiss,” another move which thrilled the liberal media. 737 Toy Story 4 (2019) had a brief scene where a child is dropped off at school by “two moms,” something that LGBT activists were happy about. “It’s a small scene, sure, and it’s certainly not the major representation that queer people have been waiting for, but it’s still important,” wrote the Gay Times . 738 In Disney’s The Jungle Cruise (2020) starring Dwayne Johnson, one of the characters (played by Jack Whitehall) comes out as gay, which is the first-ever openly gay character to have a role in a Disney movie. 739 Disney then announced that a character in an upcoming animated movie called Onward would be a lesbian. “It’s been a long wait, but a Disney heroine finally has a girlfriend,” gloated Yahoo News when it was revealed that Officer Specter, which is voiced by a lesbian actress named Lena Waithe, would also be a lesbian in the movie. 740 The idea was praised as “making history” for being the first LGBTQ character in a Disney animation film, but as expected, critics complained that the character only appears in one scene. Then a few months later Disney released an animated film on their streaming service Disney+ called Out about a kid who was nervous about moving in with his boyfriend because he hasn’t told his parents that he’s gay. The parents then come to find that his roommate is actually his boyfriend, but instead of being horrified, to his surprise, they’re happy for him. It was hailed as Disney/Pixar’s “first gay main character.” 741 Then they introduced their first bisexual character who stars in another animated series on Disney+ called The Owl House . 742 The character, a 14-year-old girl, had previously been interested in boys, but after the show’s creator, Dana Terrace (who is bisexual herself), lobbied the network to turn the character bisexual just like her, they complied. 743 Soon they’ll probably make Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck gay.

More Gay Characters for Kids Ever since 2017, Sesame Street’s official social media accounts have been posting annual “Happy Pride Month” messages along with pictures of rainbows and various characters from the show celebrating it. 744 In 2018 a former writer for Sesame Street claimed that Bert and Ernie are gay. 745 That man himself is a homosexual (what a surprise) and really just wished they were gay. The next day the show’s producer issued a statement rebuking the former writer’s claim, saying, “As we have always said, Bert and Ernie are best friends. They were created to teach preschoolers that people can be good friends with those who are very different from themselves. Even though they are identified as male characters and possess many human traits and characteristics (as most Sesame Street Muppets do), they remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation.” 746 But PBS would soon cave in to the gay agenda completely. The following year (in 2019) their cartoon Arthur included a gay “wedding” in the season premiere where they revealed that one of the teachers in the show, Mr. Ratburn, is gay. The episode is titled “Mr. Ratburn and the Special Someone” and his students all attend the wedding expecting he’s going to marry another character in the show, Patty, but it’s revealed that she’s actually his sister, and then his new “husband” is introduced to everyone. 747 The year after that (in 2020) PBS included a lesbian couple in their animated series Clifford the Big Red Dog , based on the popular children’s book series that follows the adventures of an 8-year-old and her dog. 748 The official Twitter account for Nickelodeon and the Cartoon Network now post messages celebrating “Pride Month,” as well as “International Transgender Visibility Day,” which is another made-up “holiday” by the Left used to promote transgenderism. 749

Old Comedies “Transphobic”

Mrs. Doubtfire , a 1993 comedy starring Robin Williams, has come under attack recently for being “transphobic” after it was revealed that a musical adaptation would hit the stage at a theater in Seattle, and then later on Broadway. In the film, Robin Williams loses custody of his kids after a divorce and in order to remain in their lives poses as an elderly woman who successfully applies for a job working as the kids’ nanny. It was well-received at the time, but the culture has shifted so far Left that when word of the musical was announced, activists started a petition on Change.org calling for it to be canceled because the plot uses “tired, transphobic tropes” and “strengthens the assumptions and misjudgments that continue to harm trans women in implicit, pervasive ways.” 750 Jim Carrey’s 1994 comedy Ace Ventura: Pet Detective has now been deemed “transphobic” because the pet thief who kidnapped the Miami Dolphins’ mascot is found to be a transsexual, now living as a woman. When Jim Carrey realizes this, he runs to the bathroom and starts vomiting, burns his clothes, and jumps in the shower, because earlier in the film “she” came onto him and they made out. 751 Silence of the Lambs (1991) is also now considered “transphobic” since the serial killer Jodie Foster is trying to hunt down (Buffalo Bill) has gender dysphoria. As part of the plot he murders women so he can make a “woman suit” out of their skin to complete his “transformation.” Variety magazine recently denounced the film for “depicting the criminal’s transgender identification as part of his mental illness.” 752 GLAAD complained that the killer is “a walking, talking gay stereotype.” 753 What’s next? Older classics like Some Like it Hot or Tootsie ?, or more modern shows like Tyler Perry’s “Madea” character or Martin Lawrence’s “Shanaynay?” Jimmy Fallon also used to have a regular segment on the Tonight Show called “Ew” where he would dress up as a woman, but he hasn’t done it in quite some time, and it probably won’t be much longer until he apologizes for it. Soon it will probably be considered a slur to call a transgender person “transgender,” and making any distinction between them being born the opposite sex from which they currently identify will be considered an invasion of their privacy, much like releasing someone’s medical records. To call a transgender “woman” a “transgender woman” will be considered “dehumanizing” and “hateful,” and no distinctions will be allowed.

LGBTQ extremists claim people are “assigned” a gender at birth, much like they are given a name—and maintain that the “assignment” of one’s gender is just as arbitrary and is used to confine the “gender expression” of people to correspond with their biological sex. They won’t say that a transgender “woman” was born a male, they say “she” was “assigned” the male gender at birth, as if it was just a coin toss. The animated comedy series Family Guy announced in early 2019 that they were going to stop making jokes about gay people and transgenders. The series, which has been on air for over 20-years, is known for its no holds barred comedy about typically taboo subjects, but now offending LGBTQ people is too much even for them. The executive producers said, “Some of the things we felt comfortable saying and joking about back then [earlier in the series], we now understand is not acceptable…The climate is different, the culture is different and our views are different.” 754

Drag Queen Story Hour and “Drag Kids” One of the three strikes on Alex Jones’ YouTube channel that led to him being banned from the platform was a rant about a local drag queen festival that included children giving dollar bills to the drag queens as they engaged in simulated strip teases. He called it a “freak show” and an “abomination” in a segment for his show and YouTube considered that to be “hate speech.” 755 In my previous book The Liberal Media Industrial Complex I detail the “unpersoning” of Alex Jones and the censorship of conservatives on social media, which I encourage you to read if you haven’t already so you can grasp just how big the ramifications are for speaking out against this degeneracy. At one of the Drag Queen Story Hour events in New York, a drag queen asked the children, “Who wants to be a drag queen when they grow up?” 756 At another, one of them taught the children how to “twerk,” asking them, “Does anybody in this room know how to twerk?” Nobody spoke up, and the drag queen continues, “All you need to do is you just need to stand with your feet sort of shoulder-width apart like so…and then you crouch down in this sort of position, so you’re bum’s sticking out. And then you

just move your bum up and down like that [as he does it]. And that’s twerking.” 757 Equally disturbing is the recent phenomena of young pre-teen boys being dressed in drag by their parents and paraded around at drag queen festivals in hopes they’ll become social media stars. One such “drag kid” who goes by the name “Desmond is Amazing” was even featured on Good Morning America . 758 “Desmond is Amazing” certainly isn’t one of a kind. Other child drag queens like “E! the Dragnificent” and “Lactacia” (who started doing drag at eight-years-old) are building up their social media followings, all trying to be the next YouTube or TikTok star. 759 YouTube even hosts a documentary film called Drag Kids which follows a group of pre-teen kids as they travel around the country participating in child drag shows. 760 The documentary’s purpose isn’t to raise the alarm about this horrific practice, it’s to show how “cool” the kids are. Netflix has a reality series called AJ and the Queen where a 10-yearold child travels across the country with RuPaul as he performs drag shows in gay bars. The sexual things the drag queens say about the child are too disgusting to include here because they’ll make you physically ill as they did me when I first read about it. 761 Another Netflix original series called Dancing Queen follows the life of a drag queen who teaches dance lessons to kids. 762 In 2015, TLC premiered I Am Jazz , a reality show following the life of Jazz Jennings, a transgender teenager, who at the time was one of the youngest people in the world to identify as transgender. “Jazz Jennings” is a pseudonym, and unlike every other public figure on the planet who uses one, “her” birth name is not allowed to be mentioned on Wikipedia because of the special protections given to transgender people. Similarly, “Lavern” Cox’s birth name (Roderick) is not allowed to be mentioned either. In fact, simply mentioning a transgender person’s birth name or legal name is considered a violation of the terms of service on Facebook and Twitter. 763 TLC was originally called “The Learning Channel” and aired educational programming about science, history, and nature, but slowly morphed into another reality TV network (just like the History Channel has), and now instead of featuring anything remotely educational, TLC is

known for mind-numbing trash like Here Comes Honey Boo Boo , and Toddlers & Tiaras .

Celebrities Raising Kids Trans Celebrities love to adopt children from Africa as a novelty and to show how much they “care” about Black people, and since transgenderism has become the coolest new fad in Hollywood, many celebrities seem to be inspired to raise their kids as the opposite gender to defy cultural norms. Charlize Theron adopted two Black kids, one boy and one girl, and then later was spotted around town with the kids both wearing dresses and now insists she has “two beautiful daughters.” 764 Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (who are now divorced) adopted several children, but their first biological child was daughter Shiloh who they started dressing in boy’s clothes, causing many to speculate whether she is a tomboy or actually identifies as a boy. 765 Megan Fox (now divorced from Brian Austin Green) dresses her sixyear-old son in girls’ clothes. “He likes to wear dresses sometimes and I send him to a really liberal, hippy school, but even there—here in California—he still has little boys going, ‘Boys don’t wear dresses’ or ‘Boys don’t wear pink.’ And so, we’re going through that now, where I’m trying to teach him to be confident, no matter what anyone else says.” 766 Megan and her son were once spotted by paparazzi when he was dressed up as Elsa from Disney’s Frozen. 767 Singer Adele also dresses her son up as Disney princesses, which the liberal media has hailed as “a triumph for us believers in gender-neutral parenting.” 768 Actor Liev Schreiber brought his eight-year-old son to Comic-Con dressed as Harley Quinn, the Joker’s girlfriend from Suicide Squad . 769 When Mario Lopez appeared on Candace Owen’s podcast and the subject of parents raising their children transgender came up, he said he didn’t think it was right to be deciding that a 3-year-old kid should start

being treated as the opposite gender. 770 But he was immediately attacked for being “transphobic” and soon apologized. That wasn’t enough, however. The LGBT fascists demanded that he become an “advocate” for transgender kids.

Commercials Go Gay It’s not just movies and television shows that have been filled with LGBT people, now even many commercials feature them as well. Homosexual couples are now regularly included in commercials for major brands from IKEA and Chevrolet, to Target and Tide laundry detergent. 771 Each time another one jumps on the bandwagon, their allies in the media always write an article about it celebrating how “great” it is, encouraging more. 772 For example, Campbell’s Soup created a commercial in 2015 showing two gay “dads” feeding “their son” because the company wanted to show the “diverse mix” of American families. The Huffington Post said it, “will melt your heart.” 773 In 2017, the Dove soap company released an ad featuring “real moms” with their babies and praised the “diversity” in how each of them were raising their children, saying there was “no one right way.” Included with the “moms” was a transgender woman who is the biological father of one of the babies, along with the actual mother who gave birth to the poor child. “We are both his biological parents,” the transgender says. “You get people that are like, ‘What do you mean you’re the mom?’ We’re like, ‘Yep! We’re both gonna be moms.’” 774 Gillette razors released a commercial in 2019 featuring a transgender “boy” being taught how to shave by “his” dad for the first time as part of their campaign to “redefine masculinity.” 775 Starbucks released a commercial in support of people’s “preferred pronouns” showing a teenage girl with a butch haircut named Jemma who appears to be uncomfortable every time someone says her name as she goes about her day until she walks into a Starbucks and is asked what it is so the barista can write it on the cup, which is customary.

She proudly answers “James” and is revealed to be transitioning to a boy. The commercial was part of Starbuck’s announcement that they were partnering with a charity that supports transgender children. 776 Coca-Cola’s 2018 Super Bowl ad featured a lesbian and a “nonbinary” person. 777 In another commercial for Diet Coke released the following year a blue-haired woman drives around in an Uber picking up all kinds of different people while enjoying her Diet Coke all night. At one point her passengers are shown to be two gay men, one White and one Black for extra “diversity,” who are kissing in the back seat. The camera then cuts back to the driver who has a big smile on her face. 778 Smirnoff vodka now features transgender actress Lavern Cox in their commercials. 779 Other alcohol brands like Absolut, Effen, Bud Light, and Barefoot Wine, all release special edition “Gay Pride” bottles for the month of June every year featuring rainbows on them. 780 Most major food brands now release special “Pride” themed packages for gay pride month each year, and on social media change their avatars to pictures that include rainbows. All major retailers celebrate it too, from Walmart and Target, to Kohl’s and Old Navy. All tweeting about it and posting on Facebook and Instagram how important LGBT people are to them and issuing press releases alerting the media how they’re going to be “celebrating Pride month.” 781 Sprite even released a commercial for “Pride” month in 2019 showing a bunch of transgender people transitioning; including a man having makeup put on him by another transgender “woman,” and a girl engaging in “breast binding” with her friend as they joyfully wrap her breasts tightly to her chest so she can “pass” as a male. 782

Gay Sexual Predators Swept Under the Rug In the “Me Too” era, Harvey Weinstein has become the symbol of sexual degeneracy in Hollywood, but most of the women who accused him of sexual “assault” willingly had sex with him in order to further their own careers, and they weren’t forcibly raped. Years later they just jumped on the bandwagon to cash-in once they saw the opportunity, and in hindsight regretted they had sex with such a pig for a chance to be a star.

That’s not to say he didn’t make some of them feel extremely uncomfortable by blatantly propositioning them for sex—and he’s undoubtedly a sexual predator—but powerful men using the “casting couch” to entice women into having sex with them isn’t Hollywood’s dirtiest secret. One of the things nobody wants to talk about (aside from the industry’s pedophilia problem which is actually the biggest secret and covered in the next chapter) is the fact that gay men are basically allowed to sexually harass (and assault) other men with impunity because daring to say that a gay man has done anything sexually inappropriate amounts to blasphemy. Surprisingly, actor Terry Crews developed the courage to come forward in 2017 to admit that he was once sexually assaulted by his agent, who grabbed his genitals while making sexual advances toward him. 783 James Van Der Beek, star of the teen drama Dawson’s Creek , later came forward as well to reveal that he was sexually harassed (and groped) by “older, powerful men” in Hollywood. 784 Others including Brendan Fraser, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure star Alex Winter, and Star Trek: Discovery actor Anthony Rapp, have also come forward with allegations of being sexually harassed by gay men in Hollywood. 785 Their stories were just a blip on the radar however, and then the issue was swept under the rug. Undoubtedly the same thing has happened to many others who are afraid to come forward out of embarrassment or because they don’t want to make waves out of fear it may derail their career. In fact, after Terry Crews revealed he was assaulted, others in the entertainment industry including D.L Hughley and 50 Cent mocked him. 786 During a 2011 interview, Rapper Fat Joe admitted that he believes a “gay mafia” controls the music industry, saying, “The hip hop industry is most likely owned by gays. I happen to think there’s a gay mafia in hip hop. Not rappers—the editorial presidents of magazines, the [program directors] at radio stations, the people who give you awards at award shows. This is a fuckin’ gay mafia, my man, and they are in power.” 787 It’s not just in the entertainment industry that gay sexual predators are mostly ignored. The same thing is happening in the U.S. military, especially after Barack Obama lifted the ban on them enrolling. 788 According to the Department of Defense statistics, more men than women are victims of

sexual assault in the military. 789 You won’t hear that on the news because it’s another uncomfortable fact that shows the liberal agenda is severely flawed. When gay couples adopt small children and molest them, those stories are just reported in local outlets and never make the national news. 790 Few people want to even comment on such abuse out of concerns they’ll be branded “homophobic.” Reports of gay couples sexually abusing their adopted or foster children can be found around the world. 791 In some cases the couples force the children into sex trafficking and sell them to other pedophiles. 792 But just mentioning those cases is enough to anger LGBT activists who may then target you to be “canceled.” Same sex couples adopting children was the real issue at hand regarding legalizing gay “marriage,” but very few conservatives or even Christians dared talk about it. When gays are allowed to adopt children it’s no longer about what “two consenting adults” are doing “in the privacy of their own bedroom,” it’s about an innocent third party, and no child should be held prisoner in such an environment. Like many gay people, CNN’s Anderson Cooper became a father (at the age of 52) after he bought an egg from a fertility clinic and then hired a surrogate—and had the egg artificially inseminated with his sperm. 793 The woman carried the child to term and then turned it over to Anderson Cooper to be raised by him and his boyfriend. The kid will most likely never know his mother due to privacy shields regarding egg donors, nor even have the surrogate in his life either, and instead will be raised by two homosexual men in their fifties, only to someday have to be told the horrible truth about how he came to exist.

What Causes It? In 2019, a massive study conducted by over 30 organizations including Harvard and Cambridge Universities was released after scientists analyzed the DNA of almost 500,000 people and ruled out any supposed “gay gene” that caused people to be born homosexual. 794 They cited “the environment” for being 75% responsible for people’s sexual preference. 795

“Obviously, there are environmental causes of sexual orientation. We knew that before this study,” said Michael Bailey, a psychologist at Northwestern University who has researched the causes of sexual preferences. 796 The same may be true of transgenderism as well. In other words, if an infant boy not yet knowing the difference between men and women, sees mommy putting on makeup—and for a moment wants to be like mommy and do what she does—and if the mother doesn’t teach him the distinctions between boys and girls, he’ll obviously grow up extremely confused and have a difficult time knowing which behaviors are normal for a man and which are not. The boy might start “identifying” with the mother if he is not brought up to understand the biological and sociological differences between boys and girls, possibly leading to gender dysphoria and transgenderism later in life. Some psychologists believe that “Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria” is a form of social contagion or mass psychosis sparked by teens being bombarded with depictions of transgender people on social media portrayed in a positive light, and as a result see themselves as transgender in order to be a part of this “in” group of “cool” people as a coping mechanism for other underlying psychological disorders. 797 YouTube as a company promotes and glorifies transgender YouTubers like “Gigi Gorgeous” as well as gender-bending male makeup artists like Jeffrey Star and James Charles who identify as men but wear women’s makeup and clothes, which is fueling this phenomenon. They have created an extremely confusing environment for children, who as you know, are so impressionable they can be convinced that a fat bearded man in a red suit flies around the country every Christmas to bring them presents. Today, with so many of them being raised by social media personalities instead of their parents they have no idea what kinds of behaviors are conducive or detrimental to a happy, fulfilling life. Freud believed homosexuality is a mental disorder that develops from a disruption in the Oedipal phase of children’s psychosexual development. 798

It’s possible that it could also be a birth defect resulting in a certain region of the brain being wired backwards, so to speak, during gestation while the fetus is developing. 799 Transgender people could be born with the brain of the opposite sex due to the same reason. If, as some scientists believe, prenatal abnormalities in the womb due to a hormone imbalance or other external forces are causing these issues,

then scientists just admitting that homosexuality and transgenderism are birth defects is considered “hate speech” today. 800 To admit that they have a “defect” would be to admit that they’re not normal—and that’s “hateful.” Searching for a cure that would prevent the prenatal changes to a fetus that cause such things is tantamount to eugenics, and equally opposed by the liberal ideologues. Another theory is that homosexuality arose as a maladaptive behavior due to a mutation in the gene pool as a result of the decline of the pressures of natural selection, because in our modern age humans don’t have to complete for mates to pass on their genes as if it were a life or death situation for the species since there are already billions of us, often crammed in large cities literally living on top of one another. Today large groups of “free-riders” exist because of economic abundance, modern conveniences, and social safety nets, so the urge to become financially successful and physically fit in hopes of attracting a beautiful female mate is drastically diminished for many males. Conversely, because of our economic abundant society, many females don’t feel the need to attract a male to provide protection and resources for them like our ancestors did for tens of thousands of years, since modern society offers those luxuries instead. This would explain the explosion of florescent-haired lesbians and socially dysfunctional people who identify as dozens of different genders whose sole purpose in life seems to be ruining it for everyone else. Under this school of thought, because the evolutionary pressures for men and women to find mates have been lifted, many are no longer conforming to the social framework and norms our species has known since the beginning of time, and their behaviors are “mutating.” But instead of being content as “free-riders” whose survival is protected through modernday conveniences and social programs, these changes are causing the rise of what some scientists call “spiteful mutants” who hold hostile views towards those who are normal (i.e. people who continue heterosexual traditions, behaviors, and gender roles; and those who work hard in their careers and take care of their health). 801 The end result of these “spiteful mutants,” according to the theory, is the collapse of the social structure of the entire group of organisms (humans in this case) because the non-affected group (heterosexual and cis gender people) who do not suffer from the same mutations are still severely

impacted due to the disruption of the entire social fabric of the species by those with the mutation. 802 People who are molested as children tend to later become child molesters themselves. So it appears that pedophilia may in some cases be a psychological condition that is induced from an experience rather than something someone is born with. 803 The same may be true of homosexuality and gender-bending. Is it a birth defect, or a psychological disorder exacerbated by the celebration of sexual deviancy and other abnormal lifestyles in the media and on the Internet? Just asking this question is considered “hate speech,” and few scientists will dare risk their career by publicly doubting the new liberal orthodoxy regarding gender identity and sexuality. Once a crazy idea takes hold in a culture it becomes reinforced through social policing, and anyone who begins to doubt the practice is ostracized, reprimanded, or in some cases physically punished. Others who may quietly have the same concerns about the current practice are thus afraid to voice those concerns, which helps to maintain the hegemony, no matter how irrational, abusive, or dangerous it is. Imagine living in Central America and speaking up when your fellow villagers were getting ready to cut out someone’s beating heart to appease the Aztec “gods,” or telling the tribal elders in Africa that slicing your bottom lip and stretching it out by sticking a large plate in there is ridiculous. It’s extremely difficult to break cultural traditions once they have taken root.

“Homophobia” is a Hoax Anyone who doesn’t celebrate this onslaught of homosexuality, bisexuality, and gender-bending is branded “homophobic,” “transphobic,” or a basic “hateful bigot,” but those are just more lies from the Left. A phobia is an irrational fear of something. 804 People who are sick of seeing drag queens and homosexuals celebrated in the media aren’t afraid of them, they’re repulsed by them. The same way normal people are when they hear their parents or grandparents talking about having sex with each other. What

they do behind closed doors in the privacy of their own home is their business, but the rest of us don’t want to hear about it, much less see depictions of it. Unfortunately, today you can’t avoid having gender benders and other LGBT people shoved in your face every time your turn on the TV or scroll through a news feed on social media. And you must not criticize them. You must celebrate them, or you are a “Nazi!” A few years before this cultural Marxism infected the country, comedian Adam Carolla joked that he believed in the future, kids would get bullied for not being gay. 805 It’s sad how right he was.

Sexual Deviants In the 1950s sitcom I Love Lucy, the couple Ricky and Lucy had to each sleep in their own twin bed for a few seasons because the network was concerned about the show being “too sexual” if they were seen lying in the same bed together. Back then it was considered too suggestive to depict a couple in bed on network television even if they were 806 married.

The Brady Bunch (1969-1974) didn’t even have a toilet in the bathroom of their house because executives thought it would be too disgusting to show one on TV during scenes when the

cast was brushing their teeth or 807 doing their hair. Fast forward a few decades and Charlie Sheen would become Hollywood’s darling and the highest paid sitcom actor in history. 808 An HIV-infected scumbag who smoked crack and regularly used hookers became the industry’s favorite star! Hollywood once celebrated wholesome characters and families but now embraces the biggest degenerates as creative “geniuses” who can’t help being a little “eccentric.” The media raved over Fifty Shades of Grey , the sadomasochistic film series based on the bestselling novel, and “The Weeknd” performed a song from the soundtrack at the 2016 Grammys as they attempted to mainstream this once-fringe lifestyle. Target even sold 50 Shades of Grey sex toys. 809 Skip Chasey, the vice president of Endeavor (formerly known as the William Morris Endeavor) one of the largest management firms in Hollywood, accidentally killed a man in his sex dungeon in 2017, but no charges were filed, not even for negligent homicide. 810 He also kept his job at the agency. 811 Lady Gaga tried to revive R. Kelly’s career at the 2014 American Music Awards by doing a live performance with him, despite the allegations of him being a child predator making headlines for well over a decade at the time. 812 She also put him in her video “Do What You Want” which was directed by the infamous Terry Richardson, who has been accused of sexually exploiting models for years. 813 Then a couple years later at the 2016 Grammys, she performed her song “Till It Happens To You” and was hailed as a hero for “raising awareness” about sexual assault and everyone forgot that just a few years earlier she single-handedly put R. Kelly back in the spotlight. 814 Ellen DeGeneres once introduced two little girls aged six and eight to rapper Nicki Minaj because she was their favorite pop star. 815 Ellen had Nicki surprise them on stage live on her show and the audience couldn’t have been any happier. No adult should be letting their children listen to

Nicki Minaj’s music because it’s filled with sexually explicit and vulgar lyrics, but that didn’t stop Ellen DeGeneres from introducing the adult entertainer to the little girls. Perversion apparently runs in Nicki Minaj’s family because her 25year-old brother was convicted of raping an 11-year-old and sentenced to 25 years in prison. 816 Hulk Hogan’s infamous sex tape was the result of him sleeping with his best friend’s wife (with his permission) as he hung out in another room of the house after inviting Hulk over to have his way with her. At one point during the escapade the husband even came into the bedroom to see how they were doing. 817 Celebrities often have dysfunctional lifestyles, becoming jaded and numb from overindulgence due to an endless supply of money and an inner circle of yes men who will never doubt their desires out of fear that they may be cut off from the cash cow they have attached themselves to. Their carnal appetite can never be satisfied, causing them to obsessively try to fill the emptiness in their souls with worldly pleasures. Instead of the media acknowledging these kinds of decisions lead to a disastrous downward spiral, they are celebrated and encouraged. HGTV’s popular series House Hunters follows a couple around town as they search for a new home, and they make sure to regularly include LGBT couples in the show for “diversity,” but that wasn’t enough so they recently included a “throuple,” a group of three people in a polyamorous relationship. “The past four years, I have been living in Lori and Brian’s house, so buying a house together as a ‘throuple’ will signify our next big step as a family of five rather than all four of them plus me,” said one of the three. 818 The “throuple” is also raising two children because for some reason child protective services doesn’t think the kids are in a toxic and abusive household. Imagine trying to explain to the children who the third person is that’s living with them. Democrat Congresswoman Katie Hill was also in such a relationship before she resigned when it was revealed the third wheel was one of her staffers. 819 In ABC’s sitcom Single Parents they introduced a “throuple” that consists of two men and a woman, one of whom is a public school teacher. 820

When they explain their “relationship” to their friends, instead of being

taken aback by the weirdness, one of them gets excited and pulls out her phone to download the same app the “throuple” used to find each other. We’re even seeing incest promoted on network television and in films. 821

Nick Cassavetes, the director of The Notebook, endorsed incest while promoting his film Yellow (2012) which features the main character having an incestious relationship with her brother, saying, “If you’re not having kids—who gives a damn? Love who you want. Isn’t that what we say? Gay marriage—love who you want?…you’re not hurting anybody, except every single person who freaks out because you’re in love with one another.” 822 Other films like Close My Eyes (1991), The Cement Garden (1993), Lovers of the Arctic Circle (1998), Delta (2008), Beautiful Kate (2009), and Illegitimate (2016) all have incest as the central plot. Some websites have even compiled lists of what they call the “20 Best Incest Movies of All Time,” 823 and the “13 Steamiest Incestuous Relationships In Film.” 824 Actress Mackenzie Phillips, best known for her role in American Graffiti and more recently working on the Disney Channel’s So Weird, wrote in her memoir that when she was 19-years-old she began having sex with her biological father and continued the incestuous relationship for ten years until she was almost thirty! She described the relationship as “consensual” and once had an abortion after becoming pregnant because she figured he was the father. 825 In recent years we have been seeing more stories approving of people engaging in incest. 826 Cosmopolitan magazine published a story about how “great” it was with the headline, “Girl describes what it was like to have sex with her dad.” In the article the woman is quoted as saying, “The sexual intensity was nothing like I’d ever felt before. It was like being loved by a parent you never had, and the partner you always wanted, at once.” 827 They did a similar article about a brother and sister who were separated at birth but entered into a sexual relationship with each other when they were reunited as adults. 828 Scientists believe that when parents are reunited with their adult children after giving them up for adoption when they were born, they sometimes develop a strong sexual attraction for each other, called GSA (Genetic Sexual Attraction). 829 The same phenomena can happen to adult siblings when they meet for the first time. 830

Soon liberals will likely welcome incest into the LGBT community and declare it no more abnormal than homosexuality. In fact, there are already a growing number of blogs, Tumblr accounts, and YouTube videos dedicated to legalizing “consensual incest.” 831 As everyone knows, it’s common for Hollywood-types to date people a decade or two younger than them, but some in the industry like partners so young it’s utterly disgusting, and in some cases illegal. Billionaire music mogul David Geffen has a well-known reputation of dating men who are over 40 years younger than him. 832 When he was in his seventies he was “dating” a 20-year-old former college football player. 833 The famous pianist Liberace had a 16-year-old boyfriend when he was fifty-seven years old. 834 75-year-old actress Holland Taylor, who played Charlie Sheen’s mother on Two and a Half Men, has a 35-year old girlfriend. 835 David Bowie is alleged to have had sex with a 14-year-old groupie at the height of his career. 836 Jerry Seinfeld dated a 17-year-old when he was thirty-nine years old. 837 And these are just a few of the most well-known instances. Writer, director, and actor Woody Allen is considered a “treasure of the cinema” (having won four Academy Awards and nominated 24 times), but nobody in the industry seems to care that he began a sexual relationship with his girlfriend Mia Farrow’s adopted 21-year-old daughter when he was fifty-six. 838 Such people would be shunned in most professions, but for decades Hollywood has welcomed those who engage in the most bizarre behaviors and nothing is too taboo. The “MeToo” movement really originated in Hollywood from actresses who finally grew tired of the predatory environment that was pervasive in the industry. A long list of big-named actors have been accused of sexual harassment and other predatory behavior as the “MeToo” movement gained momentum in 2017. But it seems everyone in the industry was very well aware of what was happening and who the perpetrators were. It took the fall of Harvey Weinstein to finally open the floodgates and admit the entertainment industry had a massive sexual predator problem. But sleazebags in Hollywood who prey on young actresses are just the tip of the deviance iceberg that runs rampant in the industry. And even worse, what they’re doing is being exported to the rest of society.

Celebrity Selfies Selfies are a symptom of our narcissistic culture, with people obsessing over posting pretty pictures of themselves on social media in order to feel validated. It’s a sickness that has infected large portions of our society and celebrities like Rihanna, Miley Cyrus, and Kim Kardashian have normalized posting nude pictures online, something that just a few years ago would have been unthinkable for most girls. 839 Some experts have even said that celebrities like Kim Kardashian are making children vulnerable to predators online because so many of them mimic their scantily clad selfies in hopes of attracting the attention of complete strangers who “like” and comment on their posts. 840 Kim even had her 4-year-old daughter (at the time) take a topless photo of her and posted it on Instagram. 841 You could see little North (her daughter) in a mirror holding the phone, taking the picture. Kim Kardashian even captioned it “By North.” Teaching 4-year-old girls to take topless photos and post them online—that’s Hollywood today. Kim Kardashian, perhaps more than any other celebrity has normalized sex tapes. Without hers being “leaked” in 2007 showing her with her then-boyfriend pop singer Ray J, she would be just another spoiled rich girl in Los Angeles, but her sex tape made her a star. The same thing with Paris Hilton’s. When her sex tape was leaked in 2003 she became a star overnight only to be later overshadowed by Kim Kardashian as the “queen” of pop culture. Some wannabe reality stars have even leaked their own sex tapes hoping to follow in these footsteps thinking they too will become famous.

Mainstreaming of Porn People who regularly watch porn have their brains physically altered through the creation of new neural pathways, causing them to become less aroused by actual women during real sexual encounters over time. 842

These neurological changes are similar to the tolerance level of drug addicts which cause them to need more of the drug to achieve the same high they once got the longer they use it. People who develop porn habits often find themselves in need of more hardcore porn to get aroused, even leading them to watch bizarre fetish videos hoping to get off since they don’t experience enough gratification from “regular” porn, let alone actual sexual partners. 843 The Internet has mainstreamed porn since people had to once drive to seedy adult video stores to get VHS tapes of it, but now millions of videos are just a few clicks away. Twitter even allows porn stars (and aspiring porn “actresses”) to have accounts where they can post sexually explicit content in their feed which can easily be accessed by children. 844 A site called PornHub is basically YouTube for porn, where anyone can upload hardcore pornographic videos and they are then instantly published for the world to see. Due to the lack of oversight that traditional pornography producers follow, like verifying the identity, age, and consent of the parties involved, PornHub has hosted numerous videos of underage girls and even rape videos, including one of a 14-year-old girl from Ohio who was kidnapped and gang raped while being recorded by the assailants. 845

The video was uploaded to PornHub several times with titles like “Teen Crying and Getting Slapped Around,” “Teen Getting Destroyed,” and “Passed out Teen.” One upload had over 400,000 views. 846 The victim later emailed the website, explaining she was raped (which was clear by the video and the titles) but the video remained online. A 30-year-old man in Florida uploaded over 50 different videos of him sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl after she went missing before he was finally arrested. 847 Breitbart pointed out, “Pornhub apparently has no idea whatsoever who is uploading content. Pornhub also has no idea and apparently doesn’t bother to verify the age of the performers in the videos, or if they consented to have sex, to be filmed, or to have the video commercialized and made public.” 848 There’s now a social media company called OnlyFans that caters to girls who want to start selling their own amateur nude photos and porn

videos. OnlyFans is basically like Instagram, but people have to pay a monthly fee to see what others are posting, and the website has no rules about nudity other than the users have to supposedly be 18 years old. When unemployment levels skyrocketed because of the stay-at-home orders during the Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020, many young girls flocked to OnlyFans hoping to make some easy money. Once they’re signed up they use Instagram and Twitter to promote their accounts by leaving the link to their OnlyFans page in their bio and then post content using trending hashtags hoping to get guys’ attention and drive traffic there. Previously if a girl wanted to get into porn she would have to go to work for a company that had the infrastructure to host the videos and charge customers’ credit cards, but now OnlyFans has given the ability to anyone to become a “porn star” within just a few minutes. It’s well known that many aspiring actresses who move to Los Angeles hoping to become stars end up working in porn out of desperation to pay their bills (or to afford their drug habits). Some even resort to prostitution. Teen Vogue magazine even published an article in 2019 titled “Sex Work is Real Work,” encouraging girls to become prostitutes and demanding that it become legalized around the world. 849 Many psychologists are warning that porn and video game addiction is actually causing a masculinity crisis among young men. A study by researchers at Stanford University looked into how excessive gaming and use of pornography is causing many young men to be extremely isolated and preventing them from developing the social skills needed to form relationships with girls, which only fuels more isolation. 850

Pedophiles in Hollywood Sexual harassment and pornography aren’t Hollywood’s worst problems however, as child actor Corey Feldman said, “the number one problem in Hollywood was, is, and always will be, pedophilia. That’s the biggest problem for children in this industry…It’s the big secret.” 851 He made the claim in 2011 on ABC’s Nightlight, but his concerns largely fell on deaf ears.

A few years later in 2013 when he was a guest on The View the topic came up again. “I’m saying there are people that were the people that did this to both me and Corey [Haim] that are still working, they’re still out there, and that are some of the richest most powerful people in this business. And they do not want me saying what I am saying right now,” he told the hosts. 852 Barbara Walters responded, “Are you saying that they are pedophiles and that they are still in this business?” “Yes,” Corey replied, going on to warn parents who are thinking about getting their children involved in acting. “You’re damaging an entire industry,” Barbara responds, looking disappointed in him. Feldman said that his best friend Corey Haim, who he costarred with in numerous movies, told him that Charlie Sheen raped Haim in 1986 on the set of a movie (Lucas ) they were filming together. 853 Sheen allegedly told Haim, “it was perfectly normal for older men and younger boys in the business” and “it was what all the guys do.” 854 Sheen denies the allegation. “It’s all connected to a bigger, darker power,” Feldman later said. “I don’t know how high up the chain that power goes, but I know that it probably is outside of the film industry too. It’s probably in government; it’s probably throughout the world in different dark aspects.” 855 Elijah Wood, who was a child actor in various films before hitting it big by playing Frodo in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, once made some comments during an interview about the issue, saying, “Clearly something major was going on in Hollywood. It was all organized. There are a lot of vipers in this industry, people who only have their own interests in mind. There is darkness in the underbelly. What bums me about these situations is that the victims can’t speak as loudly as the people in power. That’s the tragedy of attempting to reveal what is happening to innocent people: they can be squashed, but their lives have been irreparably damaged.” 856 He later “clarified” his statements, claiming that his interview was supposed to be about his latest film but “became about something else entirely” and said he had “no first-hand experience or observation of the topic” and that he just heard about such things from a documentary he had seen (most likely An Open Secret , which had come out a year earlier). 857

An Open Secret In 2014, a film maker named Amy Berg investigated Corey Feldman’s claims of pedophiles in Hollywood in a documentary titled An Open Secret . Previously she had been nominated for an Oscar for another documentary she made called Deliver Us From Evil about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, so it was a subject she was quite familiar with. An Open Secret alleges that pedophile producers have held parties where they enticed young child actors with drugs and alcohol in order to take advantage of them. 858 It details the alleged activities surrounding an Internet media company called Digital Entertainment Network that was founded in the late-1990s by Marc Collins-Rector [a convicted sex offender], and his boyfriend Chad Shackley. 859 The company is alleged to have held pool parties at their 12,000-square foot mansion that were used to entice underage teenage boys into having sex with adult men. 860 Leonardo DiCaprio’s former talent agent was convicted of molesting a 13-year-old boy in 2005 and sentenced to eight years in prison. 861 The Los Angeles county deputy district attorney said, “People like this are predators who prey on little kids who want to be the next Justin Bieber—and they’re told, ‘That’s what’s done, this is all normal in the industry.’” 862 The Los Angeles Times noted that, “At least a dozen child molestation and child pornography prosecutions since [the year] 2000 have involved actors, managers, production assistants and others in the entertainment industry.” 863

One of those was a talent agent named Martin Weiss who managed kids that had roles on Nickelodeon, the Disney Channel, and in numerous films like Parenthood and The Muppets Movie. He was charged with several counts of child molestation and faced up to 80-years in prison, but was given just one. 864 Director Bryan Singer, whose credits include X-Men, Superman Returns, Valkyrie , and many others, has been accused by numerous men who say he made sexual advances towards them when they were boys. 865 Singer, who denies the allegations, has also claimed journalists who were investigating him were just “homophobic.” 866

Singer is also alleged to have been in attendance at some of the parties held by the Digital Entertainment Network, and is well known in Hollywood for hosting his own pool parties filled with what many have described as “kids.” 867 He has been followed by sexual predator accusations for decades. As far back as 1997 several child actors accused him of asking them to film a nude scene when they were working on one of his movies, yet his career has continued almost unscathed. 868 Infamous pedophile Jeffrey Epstein also had numerous ties with Hollywood A-listers, some of which had flown on his private jet to his island in the Caribbean, dubbed “Pedo Island.” 869 Epstein operated with impunity for years and is believed by many to have worked as an intelligence operative for Mossad (Israel’s CIA) to get dirt on powerful people, including many politicians, so they could be blackmailed. 870 For decades Hollywood hasn’t seemed to care about child abuse, and in fact many defend it and give awards to the abusers. Director Roman Polanski fled the United States in the 1970s after he was convicted of drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl, but continued to make films in Europe where he could avoid being extradited by U.S. authorities. 871 Not only did he continue to make films, but Hollywood continued to give him awards. In 2002 he was given the Oscar for Best Director for his film The Pianist. When he was announced as the winner, the audience gave him a roaring applause and a standing ovation by many, including Martin Scorsese and Meryl Streep. 872 Harrison Ford, who was presenting the winner that year, looked out at the crowd astonished, knowing very well why Polanski wasn’t there to accept his award. After the applause died down he said, “The Academy congratulates Roman Polanski, and accepts this award on his behalf.” 873 Not only did his peers give him a standing ovation at the Oscars, but many in Hollywood defend Polanski, still to this day. Whoopi Goldberg said that things were “different” in the 1970s, and it wasn’t “rape-rape” and thinks Polanski should be left alone and not extradited to the United States to serve the prison time he has been avoiding for over 40 years. 874 In an interview on the Howard Stern Show director Quentin Tarantino defended Polanski. Howard interrupted him, saying, “Wait a minute. If you

have sex with a 13-year-old girl and you’re a grown man, you know that that’s wrong.” 875 Howard’s cohost Robin Quivers was stunned and pointed out that Polanski had also given her alcohol and Quaaludes to which Tarantino responded, “She wanted to have it…And by the way, we’re talking about America’s morals, not talking about the morals in Europe and everything… Look, she was down with this.” 876 In 2009, Harvey Weinstein wrote an op-ed in The Independent titled “Polanski has served his time and must be freed.” 877 Over one hundred Hollywood celebrities and directors including Natalie Portman, Penelope Cruz, David Lynch, and Martin Scorsese, signed a petition that year to show their support for Polanski, demanding his release after he was taken into custody in Switzerland since he was facing extradition back to the U.S. 878 Switzerland later decided against extraditing him and let him go free. Virtually an entire industry rallied behind a man who drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl and then fled the country to avoid going to prison. That’s Hollywood! After a documentary called Leaving Neverland investigated some of the allegations surrounding Michael Jackson, singer Barbra Streisand said she believed boys were molested by Jackson, but, “they were thrilled to be there” and “his sexual needs were his sexual needs,” adding, “They [the alleged victims] both married and they both have children, so it didn’t kill them.” 879 In 2017, Stephen King’s It was remade into a feature film due to the wildly popular TV miniseries in 1990, but what people who hadn’t read the 1987 novel don’t know is that Stephen King depicted the kids all having an orgy after they finally defeated the “It” creature in the sewer. Out of the blue Beverly Marsh, the only girl in the group, tells the boys “I have an idea,” and then they all got naked and she has sex with all six of them. 880 In the book she’s depicted as eleven-years-old (and twelve in the 1990 TV miniseries). Once the boys are all done having sex with her, they magically remember which way to go in order to get out of the sewer and finally escape. Stephen King literally wrote an entire scene about an elevenyear-old girl getting gang banged and nobody seems to care. 881 Actress Annette O’Toole, who played Beverly Marsh in the 1990 television version, was upset that the orgy scene wasn’t allowed in the film. “This was their greatest attachment to one another—she thought they were

all going to die, and this was a gift she was giving to each one of them, and I thought it was the most beautiful, generous love-filled gift, and it tied them all together in such an amazing way.” 882 In 2017 after Kevin Spacey was accused of trying to engage in a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old child actor back in 1986, he announced for the first time that he was gay. That deflected much of the media criticism away from the allegations and he was celebrated for his “emotional” admission. ABC News ran a story with the headline, “‘I choose now to live as a gay man,’ Kevin Spacey comes out in emotional tweet,” but later changed it due to the backlash from people who on social media were shocked ABC sanitized the story with such a pleasant headline. 883 The CEO of entertainment giant Allied Artists, Kim Richards, said of Spacey, “If true, acting on impulse while inebriated speaks to overindulgence, not predatory behavior. You’re good & decent, deserving forgiveness.” 884 Years earlier Seth McFarlane’s Family Guy animated comedy series included a brief scene of a character (Stewie) running naked through a shopping mall screaming “Help! I’ve escaped from Kevin Spacey’s basement!” 885 McFarlane had previously called out Harvey Weinstein in 2013, years before the MeToo movement and the widespread reports about Weinstein. When he read off the names of the nominees for Best Supporting Actress for the Oscars, he followed up by saying, “Congratulations, you five ladies no longer have to pretend to be attracted to Harvey Weinstein.” 886

McFarlane knew of the rumors about Weinstein but at the time outsiders just though it was a joke. Many wondered if he also heard rumors about Kevin Spacey’s secrets as well, resulting in him adding the bizarre scene in Family Guy . Others came forward with similar allegations as well. Spacey was soon fired from his Netflix series House of Cards , and went into hiding. But on Christmas Eve of 2019 he posted a bizarre video on YouTube speaking in the tone of his evil House of Cards character Frank Underwood while sitting in front of a fireplace. “You didn’t really think I was going to miss the opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas, did you?” he began. “I know what you’re thinking, ‘Can he be serious?’ I’m dead serious. The next time someone does something you don’t like, you can go on the attack. But

you can also hold your fire and do the unexpected. You can…kill them with kindness.” 887 He smiled menacingly at the camera and the video ends. Even more disturbing is that one of his accusers had died just a few months earlier. 888 He seemed to be alluding that he had killed him. The very next day, on Christmas, another one of his accusers died from a purported suicide. 889 That person’s estate then dropped the lawsuit against Spacey which had been pending.

Crimes Inspired by Hollywood While it’s not entirely accurate to say that violence depicted in movies causes real world violence, it can be said that sometimes it’s a catalyst, and in numerous cases mass murderers, bombings, bank robberies, and other crimes have been inspired by popular movies. Extensive news coverage of mass shootings is actually correlated with more mass shootings because it seems to plant the seeds in other 890 lunatics’ minds.

The same is true of news reports about suicide,

a phenomenon called suicide 891 contagion. The FBI and Department of Homeland Security were concerned that Joker (2019) may inspire mass shootings at theaters, so police presence was increased during the film’s opening weekend and some even inserted undercover agents inside as a precaution. 892 The fears arose from a lunatic dressed as the Joker opening fire inside a theater during a showing of The Dark Knight Rises in 2012, killing a dozen people and injuring many more. The New York Post reported that, “It’s reasonable to ask if ‘Joker’ will inspire would-be killers.” 893 Some of the victims’ families of The Dark Knight Rises shooting wrote a letter to Warner Brothers, the studio that produced Joker , expressing their concern that the movie gave the character a “sympathetic origin story.” 894 It’s not a typical superhero film, nor is it cartoonish in any way like many of the previous Batman movies. Instead, Joker is a depressing “character study” showing a man descend into madness and morph into a mass murderer, but because a portion of the population are severely mentally ill, many saw the Joker as a hero. The 1976 film Taxi Driver starring Robert De Niro (which was largely the inspiration for Joker ) is said to have triggered John Hinckley Jr.’s murderous fantasy that resulted in him attempting to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981. In Taxi Driver, Robert De Niro’s character plots the assassination of a presidential candidate he becomes fixated on, which gave John Hinkley Jr. the idea to do the same thing to Ronald Reagan. He later shot Reagan outside the Washington Hilton Hotel. 895 In the 1995 film Basketball Diaries starring Leonardo DiCaprio, his character has a dream sequence where he walks into his high school wearing a black trench coat and starts blowing away his fellow classmates with a shotgun. Three years later in 1998, two students in Colorado carried out the infamous Columbine High School shooting, causing the very name “Columbine” to become synonymous with a school shooting.

The killers wore black trench coats on the day of the massacre just like Leonardo DiCaprio. Some parents of the victims filed lawsuits against the producers of The Basketball Diaries for inspiring the attack. The Columbine massacre itself has inspired dozens of copycats from more unhinged high school students who see the killers as heroes. 896 Oliver Stone’s 1994 black comedy Natural Born Killers is believed to have inspired over a dozen copycat murders and mass shootings by teenagers in the 1990s and early 2000s. 897 In the film, a murderous couple (Mickey and Mallory) go on a drug-fueled killing spree and become television news sensations. Oliver Stone says he meant the film to be a critique of how the media sensationalizes violence and murders, but some unhinged viewers actually saw Mickey and Mallory as true heroes and wanted to become famous mass murderers just like them. After actor Robin Williams committed suicide in 2014, researchers believed it caused suicide rates to spike almost 10% from copycats. “Although we cannot determine with certainty that these deaths are attributable to the death of Robin Williams, we found both a rapid increase in suicides in August 2014, and specifically suffocation suicides, that paralleled the time and method of Williams’ death,” said a report compiled by researchers at Columbia University. 898 NBC News admitted, “It has been known for decades that media reports about suicides, especially celebrity suicides, lead to an increase of suicide deaths.” 899 The Netflix teen drama 13 Reasons Why is about a girl who commits suicide after being bullied and gossiped about at her high school. She left behind a box of cassette tapes where she recorded the “13 reasons why” she killed herself, which forms the basis of the show, and many researchers believe that the series actually increased the rate of teenage suicide. 900 Studies show that suicide is “contagious” and the more widely it is portrayed in the media, the more people get inspired to follow the same path in hopes of putting an end to their own personal struggles. 901 At the University of Illinois, a student was arrested for sexually assaulting a woman he tied up in his dorm room in order to re-create a scene from Fifty Shades of Grey , the popular sadomasochism film based on the bestselling novel. 902 The lead actor in the film, Jamie Dornan, later admitted that he feared a crazy obsessed fan would actually murder him like John Lennon. 903

Ben Affleck’s 2010 film The Town was the admitted inspiration behind a pair of Brooklyn crooks who, like the characters in the film, dressed up as cops to rob a local check-cashing business. 904 Another robbery at a bank in Chicago is also believed to have been inspired by The Town , where the perpetrators copied a different scene from the film in which the characters dressed as nuns for their disguise when they robbed one of the banks. 905 A teenager in New York City was inspired by Fight Club to bomb a Starbucks which thankfully didn’t cause any injuries because it was closed. 906

In the 1999 film, the underground fight club started by Brad Pitt and Edward Norton escalates into a terrorist organization with the launch of “Project Mayhem,” beginning with a series of attacks on symbols of corporate America. One of those attacks was on a “corporate piece of art” consisting of a gigantic metal ball which is knocked off its foundation and rolls into a nearby coffee shop, clearly designed to look like a Starbucks, destroying it. There is also speculation that a serial bomber in Austin, Texas who ultimately blew himself up after being pulled over by police may have been inspired by a recent television series about Ted Kaczynski, the “Unabomber.” 907 The perpetrator had sent five package bombs in the Austin area, killing two people and injuring five others during a three week period in March 2018. On Halloween night in 2018 police in France arrested over 100 masked people for rioting and threatening locals after word spread through social media calling for a “Purge,” referring to the 2013 horror film of the same name which depicts the American government allowing all crimes, including murder, to be perfectly legal for one night a year. 908 Similar “Purge” threats have gone viral through social media in the United States claiming such uprisings would occur in various communities on specific dates, thankfully turning out to be hoaxes posted by troublesome teenagers. 909 But the inspiration for the threats of indiscriminate killing for “fun” were obviously inspired by the film. Following the 1996 release of Scream there were also numerous murders and attempted murders by people inspired by the teen slasher film, several of which actually involved the famous Ghostface mask that the killer used in the movie. 910 Two days after watching Interview with the Vampire when it first came out in 1994, a man told his girlfriend “I’m going to kill you and drink your blood,” and proceeded to stab her seven times

and did indeed drink her blood. She miraculously survived, and when he was arrested the “vampire” admitted to police he was inspired by the film starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. 911

Rap Videos Nothing promotes violence and crime more than rap music. Listeners internalize the lyrics which are presented from a first-person perspective, putting them in the proverbial driver’s seat of countless drive-by shootings and other mayhem which is portrayed as exciting and fun. It would be impossible to know how many seeds have been planted in the minds of thugs who become accustomed to crime and whose music choices reflect back to them a distorted world where they are a hero for the lifestyle they chose. Many former gang members have admitted that the music helped to “brainwash” them. 912 And numerous studies have connected rap music to real world violence. 913 It’s common for rappers to include a line in their songs about doing a “187 on a cop,” which is a police code for murder. Countless rappers from Snoop Dogg and NWA, to Eminem and Tekashi 6ix9ine have entire songs about murdering people. Just two weeks after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, where twenty children and six adults were gunned down by 20-year-old lunatic Adam Lanza, stunning the entire country, a popular rapper who goes by “The Game” released a song titled “Dead People” which is about him stalking and murdering people for fun. 914 A 17-year-old acting out the music video “Bustin’ At ‘Em” from rapper Waka Flocka Flame accidentally shot and killed his friend while he was waving a gun around. 915 The lyrics go “Shoot first ask questions last. That’s how these so called gangstas last. Bitch I’m bustin’ at ‘em (shooting). Ain’t no talkin’ homie I’m just bustin’ at ‘em. Bitch I’m bustin’ at ‘em.” In the music video Waka Flocka Flame and his thug friends are waving guns around shooting them in all directions the entire time. After a man in Hawaii shot and killed his landlord, he claimed he was possessed by rapper Jay Z and said that he should be the one who goes to prison. 916 In a certain sense the man was possessed by Jay Z, since the

rapper’s murderous lyrics filled his head. In his mind he just did what he thought Jay Z would have done. Jay Z has called for George Zimmerman, the man who shot Trayvon Martin in self-defense, to be killed, and has numerous songs about murdering people. 917 Thousands of years ago philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates understood the influence that music has on its listeners. Aristotle recognized that music can even shape people’s character, saying, “Music directly represents the passions of the soul. If one listens to the wrong kind of music, he will become the wrong kind of person.” 918

Bobo Doll Experiment A famous study conducted in the early 1960s known as the Bobo Doll Experiment demonstrated how children often mimic violent behaviors they see others engaging in. Researchers monitored the children in a playroom filled with a variety of toys including a bobo doll, a sort of inflatable punching bag with a weighted bottom that stands on the ground—and when punched, returns to its upright position. Even though the bobo doll was in the room and available for the children to play with, they mostly ignored it at first, but after witnessing an adult punching the toy, they began doing the same thing, imitating their actions shortly after they had left the room. 919 The experiment clearly demonstrates the fundamentals of social learning theory and observational learning because the children’s behavior immediately changed from simply witnessing the adults interact with the doll in a “violent” manner, or as the saying goes—monkey see, monkey do. And just like children mimicked the actions they saw against the bobo doll, they also mimic behaviors they see in the media. A Senate Committee was formed in 1999 to investigate the influence of media violence on children and concluded that one of the primary catalysts of youth violence is media violence. 920 The word cause may be too strong of a word, and to more accurately describe the relationship between viewing violence and engaging in violent

acts, media effects researchers often use the word prime , instead—meaning viewing violence primes people to potentially act out similar behaviors. 921 One popular textbook, The Fundamentals of Media Effects , explains, “Media message content triggers concepts, thoughts, learning, or knowledge acquired in the past that are related to the message content. In this way, message content is connected, associated, or reinforced by related thoughts and concepts that it brings to mind.” 922 There are numerous variables that function as catalysts for priming aggressive or violent behaviors in viewers, such as the extent they identify with a character engaging in violence, the consequences the character faces for such behavior, and the perceived justification for it, or meaning of the violence. 923 Media mogul Ted Turner knew this, as do most people with common sense. Best known for founding CNN in 1980, he once noted, “You know that everything we’re exposed to, influences us…those violent films influence us, and the TV programs we see influence us. The weaker your family is, the more they influence you. The problems with families in our societies are catastrophic, but when you put violent programs before people who haven’t had a lot of love in their lives, who are angry anyway, it is like pouring gasoline on the fire.” 924

Author’s Note: Once you finish this book, please take a moment to rate and review it on Amazon.com, or wherever you purchased it from if you’re reading the e-book, to let others know what you think. This also helps to offset the trolls who keep giving my books fake one-star reviews when they haven’t even read them. Trolls often target books on Amazon written by people they don’t like and flood them with fake one-star reviews in order to tank the ratings and hope to dissuade people from reading them. It’s a dirty tactic they’ve used on my other books. If you look close, you can see that practically none of the one-star reviews are from actual verified purchases which is a clear indication they are fraudulent. Also, please spread the word about this book by posting a link to the Amazon listing on your social media accounts, or order a few extra copies for family and friends. I don’t have a large publisher behind me to promote the book since I self published it; all I have is word of mouth, social media, and you. Thank you!

Conclusion There’s a famous quote attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt that says, “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” The moronic masses are concerned about who their favorite celebrities are dating, which rappers are having a new beef, or the latest actor found to have said something “racist” years (or decades) ago, while life is passing them by. It’s a circus, and as media analyst Neil Postman noted, people are amusing themselves to death. 925

Everything is backwards and upside down in Los Angeles, even the city’s name. “Los Angeles” is Spanish for the City of Angels, when it’s really a city of demons. Hollywood is the “city of dreams” they say, but it’s really the city of broken dreams. Cute girls from across the country move to LA thinking they’re going to be the next Kim Kardashian or Jennifer Lawrence only to realize that they’re just one of tens of thousands of other girls equally as beautiful who are all competing for the same prize. After a string of dead end auditions or maybe landing a few bit parts in b-movies that are never released in theaters, most girls eventually give up or turn to drugs hoping to numb the increasing depression they feel from not seeing their dreams materialize as they are faced with the harsh reality of the entertainment industry. The supposed sunny blue skies of Los Angeles are filled with toxic smog from the overcrowded freeways. Many of the people driving fancy cars and renting nice houses are often living paycheck to paycheck and have no money saved for retirement and spend most of what they earn trying to portray an image of a person they’re not, living further beyond their means every day. Almost everything is fake in Los Angeles. The LA River is made of concrete. The city’s basketball team is called the Lakers, but most of the lakes are man-made. Most people think the Hollywood Walk of Fame is a beautiful place symbolic of the glitz and glam they see on the award shows, but in reality it’s a dirty street filled with homeless people and beggars. Los Angeles is widely considered to be one of the loneliest cities in America because so many people living there have few (or no) close friends they can confide in or trust. Many residents don’t even make eye contact with their neighbors when out to check the mail, they just ignore them and pretend they don’t exist. It’s a strange and sad city. Unfortunately, much of our country is now afflicted with the same kinds of sentiments. The American empire will most likely collapse someday just as ancient Rome did. The United States has too much debt, there is no sense of community throughout much of the country anymore, national pride has been undermined by floods of immigrants who won’t assimilate and are openly hostile to our culture, customs, and history—and now even many millions of native-born Americans hate our country as a result of the Marxist indoctrination they’ve been inundated with.

Open hatred of America by enemies within has never been more widespread, and they are determined to overthrow our Republic and put an end to our Constitutionally protected freedoms. Child drag queens are being celebrated by major media outlets, celebrities are bragging about their abortions, work ethic is dwindling, calls for socialism are spreading, and people can’t decide which one of the fiftyeight different “genders” they are. The angry and ignorant masses want to seize financial assets through force from those who have worked hard and saved their money for decades instead of steadily pissing it away on things they don’t need. But we do need entertainment (in moderation). It’s important to relax your mind at the end of the day or get a little distracted after a long week, so what should we do? What can you show your kids without having them indoctrinated with the idiocy and enemy propaganda that surrounds us? Fortunately, there are limitless choices of quality entertainment if you just take the time to look. There are science shows, cooking shows, how-to videos, and plenty of family friendly entertainment available—not to mention good old-fashioned books like the one in your hands. Aside from quality non-fiction books that can educate while they entertain, there are also countless literarily classics that will take your mind on a journey to faraway lands, all from the comfort of your own home. But it’s critical to do a regular digital detox, especially on the weekends, and tune out the endless distractions competing for your attention on television and smartphones. Spend time with family and friends, having face to face interactions, not artificial ones by “liking” their Facebook posts or communicating through social media. It’s important to limit social media consumption because by design it’s addictive due to the endless feedback and dopamine boosts people get from “likes” retweets, comments, and follows. Stories on social media are hard to resist because they personalize incidents that happen across the country in cities and states you’ll never step foot in, but the viral videos and photos open a window to an artificial world you have no business being in. It’s also dangerous because lies spread through social media at the speed of light, racking up tens of thousands of retweets and “shares” within minutes. By censoring opposing voices, manipulating trending topics, and major celebrities constantly jumping on the bandwagon for liberal causes,

the Big Tech companies create the false appearance of a consensus around issues. Many are afraid to stand up against it out of concern they may catch the attention of the angry online mobs who will harass them, dox them, and do everything in their power to destroy them. All of this leads many to wonder—what is wrong with liberals? Why do they always seem like they have no sense of right and wrong, almost like they have no soul? Researchers at Virginia Tech discovered that people can be identified as either liberal or conservative by a simple fMRI (Functional MRI) scan of their brain. They found that when they show people images of disgusting things like a dead animal or food covered with maggots, they could predict with a 95% accuracy rate whether the person was a liberal or a conservative based solely on brain scans which showed how people’s brain activity reacted to seeing such things. 926 How is this possible? What they found was that the brains of liberals don’t show the same signals of being disgusted when shown the disgusting images. It was a discovery made by accident, but it has an enormous significance. What it means is, the further Left someone is on the political spectrum, the higher their tolerance is for abnormal (and horrifying) things. It makes perfect sense when put into perspective. They’re the ones who accept and embrace the most bizarre, unhealthy, and disgusting behaviors and lifestyles. So when shown images of disgusting things, their brain scans show little reaction, when a normal person should be repulsed. The researchers who conducted the experiments appear to be afraid to explain why liberals aren’t disgusted by disgusting things, but the answer is clear. The Bible calls this the reprobate mind. 927 The Bible also predicted, “There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.” 928 The fact that you read this book shows where your heart and mind is, and while we may be a minority, there are many millions of us who see the principalities and powers that oppose us and refuse to go along with their

agenda or submit to their demands. We know the truth, and the truth has set us free!

Copyright Info

Hollywood Propaganda © 2020 by Mark Dice

All Rights Reserved

Published by Mark Dice San Diego, CA No part of the text within this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form and by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the written permission of the author. Visit www.MarkDice.com E-book ISBN: 978-1-943591-10-7

Cover images licensed from iStockPhoto

Cover design by Mark Dice

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The Los Angeles Times “‘The Cosby Show’ Was Profound, Influential--and Indispensable” by Bobby Crawford (May 11th 1992) 2 Bloomberg

“Why Stop at 10%? Advocates Push for Even More LGBT Characters on TV” by Jeff Green (November 8th 2019) 3

The Guardian “Most children own mobile phone by age of seven, study finds” (January 29th 2020)

4 Questioning

the Media - Chapter 3, the Mediating Communication - What Happens? page 43 by Joshua Meyrowitz 5

Questioning the Media - Chapter 3, the Mediating Communication - What Happens? page 44 by Joshua Meyrowitz 6

History of British Film (Volume 4): The History of the British Film 1918 - 1929 - edited by Rachael Low 7

Dr. Rachel Copelan - How to Hypnotize Yourself And Others page 3

8

New York Times “Boy, 13, Is Critically Burned After Imitating Stunt on MTV” by Sherri Day (January 29th 2001) 9

The New York Times “Disney Plans to Omit Film Scene After Teen-Ager Dies Imitating It” by The Associated Press (October 20th 1993) 10

Encyclopedia Britannica online edition entry “Edward Bernays: American publicist” (July 20th 1998) 11

New York Times “Edward Bernays, 'Father of Public Relations' And Leader in Opinion Making, Dies at 103” (March 10th 1995) Bernays, Edward – Propaganda page 37-38 (Ig Publishing 2005)

12

Ibid.

13

14

CBS News “Charlie Sheen Sets Guinness World Record: Fastest to a million Twitter followers” by Crimesider Staff (March 4th 2011) 15

USA Today “Ellen DeGeneres nabs most retweeted tweet of the year” by Alison Maxwell (December 10th 2014) 16

Billboard “How the U.S. Government Infiltrated Cuba’s Hip-Hop Scene to Spark Change” via Associated Press (December 11th 2014) 17

Reuters “U.S. defends program to fund anti-government hip-hop music in Cuba” by David Adams (December 11th 2014)

18

CBS News “U.S. infiltrated Cuba’s hip-hop scene to spark change” (December 11th 2014)

19 The

Guardia n “US agency infiltrated Cuban hip-hop scene to spark youth unrest” by Matthew Weaver (December 10th 2014) 20

Pitchfork “Moby Says CIA Agents Asked Him to Spread the Word About Trump and Russia” by Noah Yoo (January 12th 2018) 21 Film

Propaganda and American Politics: An Analysis and Filmography by James Combs and Sara T. Combs page 6 (Routledge 2013) 22

New York Observer “Hooray for Hollywood: How Charities Influence Your Favorite TV Shows” by Anne Easton (October 28th 2015) 23

The Washington Post “This Harvard professor used TV sitcoms to fight drunk driving. Can he do the same for distracted driving?” by Fredrick Kunkie (April 26th 2017) 24

UCLA’s official Theater, Film & Television department website. http://www.tft.ucla.edu/skollcenter-for-social-impact-entertainment/ 25

Ibid.

26

Ibid.

27

https://thestateofsie.com/the-state-of-social-impact-entertainment-sie-report-introduction-peterbisanz/ 28

Ibid.

29

New York Observer “Hooray for Hollywood: How Charities Influence Your Favorite TV Shows” by Anne Easton (October 28th 2015) 30

https://www.cinemaofchange.com/directory/listing/the-global-media-center-for-social-impact.

31

https://cmsimpact.org/about-us/ (August 2020)

32

Comedy for Racial Justice in the Climate Crisis by Caty Borum Chattoo page 5 (August 2020)

33

Ibid.

34

Comedy for Racial Justice in the Climate Crisis by Caty Borum Chattoo page 19 (August 2020).

35

Hollywood Reporter “Hillary Clinton Woos Young Hollywood Democrats at Fundraisers in L.A.” by Tina Daunt (June 19th 2015) 36

Hollywood Reporter “Chelsea Clinton to Meet With Network TV Writers on Saturday” by Tina Daunt (June 13th 2014)

37

Ibid.

38 Forbes

“The Power Of Purpose: How Propper Daley Is Driving ‘Unreasonable Conversations’” by Afdhel Aziz (March 12th 2019) 39

GLAAD.org “2018 Studio Responsibility Index” by Megan Townsend (May 22nd 2018)

40 Ibid. 41

Ibid.

42

Ibid.

43

Entertainment Weekly “How GLAAD is changing Hollywood’s LGBTQ narrative — one script at a time” by Gerrad Hall (May 23rd 2020) 44

The Advocate “Sesame Street Celebrates LGBTQ+ Pride With Rainbow Muppet Message” by Daniel Reynolds (June 12th 2020) 45

CNN “U.N. hosts filming of ‘Law & Order: SVU’ episode” by Richard Roth and Even Buxbaum (March 30th 2009) 46

TV Guide “Ugly Betty Teams with United Nations to Fight Malaria” by Adam Bryant (October 9th 2009) 47

AdAge “The UN Believes Ads Can Turn the Tide in Long-Losing War for Gender Equality” by Jack Neff (June 23rd 2017) 48

Unilever Press Release “Launch of Unstereotype Alliance set to eradicate outdated stereotypes in advertising” (June 20th 2017) 49

Unilever.com “12 Unilever Ads That Smash Stereotypes” (January 8th 2019)

50

New York Post “Is there ObamaCare ‘propaganda’ on our favorite shows?” by Kyle Smith (October 19th 2013) 51

The Washington Times “TV propaganda? $500K grant to sneak pro-Obamacare messages in shows” by Cheryl Chumley (October 11th 2013) 52

The New York Post “Is there ObamaCare ‘propaganda’ on our favorite shows?” by Kyle Smith (October 19th 2013) 53

New York Observer “Hooray for Hollywood: How Charities Influence Your Favorite TV Shows” by Anne Easton (October 28th 2015) 54

The New York Times “California Tries to Guide the Way on Health Law” by Abby Goodnough (September 14th 2012)

55

Ibid.

56 The

Los Angeles Times “Obama looks to Hollywood to help promote his healthcare law” by Maeve Reston (September 20th 2013) 57

The Hollywood Reporter “Jennifer Hudson Pitches Obamacare in Will Ferrell's Funny or Die Clip” by Paul Bond (September 30th 2013) 58 USA

Today “Healthcare.gov gets traffic boost after Obama’s ‘Funny or Die’ video” by Jolie Lee (March 12th 2014) 59

Hollywood Reporter “ObamaCare Website Traffic Spikes After President’s ‘Funny or Die’ Interview” by Tina Daunt (March 11th 2014) 60

National Catholic Register “Planned Parenthood ‘Secret Weapon’ Script Doctor Feeds Abortion Line to Hollywood” by Lauretta Brown (September 23rd 2019) 61

PlannedParenthood.org “Planned Parenthood Hosts 8th Annual Sex, Politics, Film, & TV Reception at Sundance Film Festival” Press Release (January 27th 2020) 62

The Washington Post “Planned Parenthood’s Secret Weapon” by Nora Caplain-Bricker (September 23rd 2019) 63

Black-ish (Season 3, episode titled “Lemons”) first aired January 11th 2017

64

Snopes “Did Donald Trump Receive an Ellis Island Award in 1986?” Rating: True by Dan Evon (September 5th 2016) 65

Patheos “FLASHBACK: Jesse Jackson Praises Donald Trump for ‘Lifetime of Service’ to Blacks” by Martin English (January 16th 2018) 66

The Simpsons (Season 30, episode 9, title “Daddicus Finch”)

67

Newsbusters “Reporter Beaten at Trump Rally on ‘Murphy Brown,’ Attacked by ‘Sea of Red Hats’” by Karen Townsend (November 29th 2018) 68

CBS This Morning “Trump’s election motivated ‘Murphy Brown’ reboot, Candice Bergen says” by Jessica Kegu (September 26th 2018) 69

Rolling Stone ‘Murphy Brown’ Review: A Crusty Comeback” by Alan Sepinwall (September 25th 2018) 70

News Busters “Will & Grace Won’t Bake MAGA Cake: Conservatives are ‘Terrible People’ with ‘Horrible Beliefs’” by Dawn Slusher (March 16th 2018) 71

Ibid.

72

Vulture “The Hunt for the Trump Tapes Doesn’t Seem Likely to Uncover Much” by Jen Chaney (September 14th 2018) 73 The

Verge “In a post-truth environment, The X-Files has gotten political” by Samantha Nelson (February 9th 2018) 74

Ibid.

75 Newsbusters

“‘The X-Files’ Wants to Believe in Trump-Russia Conspiracy” by Lindsay Kornick (January 10th 2018) 76

RedState “Is CBS Inciting Violence In The Latest Episode Of ‘The Good Fight’” by Jennifer Van Laar (April 13th 2019) 77

The Wrap “CBS All Access’ ‘The Good Fight’ Deletes Tweet with List of Words That Included ‘Assassinate’ and ‘Trump’” by Sean Burch (April 16th 2019) 78

Newsbusters “‘The Good Fight’ Character: ‘We Need to Assassinate the President’ by Callista Ring (April 22nd 2018) 79

Ibid.

80

The Daily Beast “‘The Good Fight’ Imagines a Trump ‘Pee Tape’ as Impeachment Heads to Network TV” by Kevin Fallon (April 30th 2018) 81

Summit News “New Amazon Show Features White People Wearing Red MAGA-Style Hats Being Hunted As ‘Nazis’” by Paul Joseph Watson (November 25th 2019) 82

Washington Times “Alec Baldwin sees ‘near moral collapse’ in America, blames it on Trump ‘supporters’” by Jessica Chasmar (January 14th 2020) 83

Hollywood Reporter “Jessica Chastain Clarifies Comments About Non-Violent Protests” by THR Staff (September 1st 2017) 84

https://twitter.com/TeenVogue/status/1250159551111929862

85

Breitbart “Trevor Noah: Trump’s ‘Demeanor,’ ‘Style’ Is Like ‘Many African Dictators’” by Pam Key (July 10th 2018) 86

Newsbusters “‘View’ Attacks ‘Menace’ ‘Dictator’ Trump for Acosta Heckling” by Kristine Marsh (August 1st 2018) 87

Washington Post “Madonna says she’s thought about ‘blowing up the White House’” by Coby Itkowitz (January 21st 2017) 88

Washington Examiner “Kathy Griffin said in 2016 she wanted to ‘beat down’ Donald and Barron Trump” by Leah DePiero (June 2nd 2017)

89

Time “Watch Guns N’ Roses Invite Mexican Fans Onstage to Smash a Donald Trump Piñata” by Tessa Berenson (December 2nd 2016) 90 Multiple

people recorded video of the incident and posted it on YouTube the next day, although it went unnoticed by major media outlets unlike most of the other incidents of celebrities making similar threatening statements. 91

The Hill “Snoop Dogg shoots clown dressed as Trump in latest music video” by Judy Kurtz (March 13th 2017) 92 Metro

UK “Donald Trump brutally beheaded in new Marilyn Manson video” by Ann Lee (November 8th 2016) 93

Rolling Stone “Hear Big Sean Threaten Donald Trump in New Freestyle” by Daniel Kreps (February 3rd 2017) 94

TMZ “‘Making History’ Star Adam Pally ‘I’d Have to Kill Trump or Hitler’.. If Time Travel Existed” (March 16th 2017) 95

NBC News “Johnny Depp: ‘When Was the Last Time an Actor Assassinated a President?’” (June 23rd 2017) 96

San Francisco Chronicle “Sen. Kamala Harris ruffles feathers with ‘Trump death joke’ on ‘Ellen’ show” by Michelle Robertson (April 5th 2018) 97

Toronto Sun “Mickey Rourke goes on vicious anti-Trump rant” (April 7th 2016)

98

Newsweek “Comedian George Lopez Under Fire for Instagram Joke About $80-Million Bounty for Trump's Head” by Tufayel Ahmed (January 6th 2020) 99

Mediaite “SNL: John Mulaney Jokes That Senators Should Stab Trump Like Julius Caesar” by Sarah Rumpf (March 1st 2020) 100

Ibid.

101

CNBC “Trump’s Mar-a-Lago security breach: Officials shoot Connecticut woman’s SUV after she crashes through checkpoints” by Dan Mangan, Mike Calia, and Yelena Dzhanova (January 31st 2020) 102

Newsweek “Michael Wolff Says Trump's White House Is 'That Bad' The 25th Amendment Mentioned Every Day” by Harriet Sinclair (January 7th 2018) 103

Newsbusters “‘Homeland’ Invokes 25th Amendment on ‘Unconstitutional’ President” by Lindsay Kornick (April 16th 2018) 104

Newsbusters “‘American Heroes’ Invoke 25th Amendment, Remove ‘Unfit’ President in Liberal Fantasy Show” by Lindsay Kornick (January 15th 2018)

105

Ibid.

106 RealClear

Politics “ABC’s ‘Designated Survivor’ Uses 25th Amendment To Remove President” by Ian Schwartz (April 16th 2018) 107

IMDB “Super Girl” (Episode: The Quest for Peace) 2019

108 Ibid. 109

USA Today “James Woods: I was ‘blacklisted’ like Brendan Fraser but for my conservative politics” by Maria Puente (February 23rd 2018) 110

CBS News “James Woods dropped by ‘liberal’ agent on Fourth of July” by Andrea Park (July 5th 2018) 111

NME “Kanye West says speaking out about Trump support ‘represented overcoming fear’” by Rhian Daly (August 10th 2018) 112

New York Times “Kanye West Ends ‘S.N.L.’ With Speech About Trump and Bullying” by Joe Coscarelli (September 30th 2018) 113

The Daily Dot “‘Mean Girls’ Broadway actress called out for following right-wing Twitter accounts” by Esther Bell (February 11th 2020) 114

Variety “‘Bachelorette’ Frontrunner Apologizes for Controversial Instagram Likes” by Ellis Clopton (May 31st 2018) 115

Variety “Hollywood Conservative Group Grapples With IRS Scrutiny As It Seeks Tax-Exempt Status” by Ted Johnson (January 22nd 2014) 116

Reuters “Justice Department settles with conservative groups over IRS scrutiny” by Brendan O’Brien (October 26th 2017) 117

The Guardian “Club for Hollywood Republicans locked in dispute – caused in part by Trump” by Rory Carroll (June 13th 2017) 118

The Hollywood Reporter “Tim Allen Compares Being Conservative in Hollywood to 1930s Germany” by Arlene Washington (March 19th 2017) 119

Newsweek “The Hollywood Blacklist Then And Now: The Late Actor Orson Bean On AntiAmerican ‘Propaganda’" by Paul Bond (February 29th 2020) 120

Epoch Times “How Soviet Russia Conducted ‘Ideological Subversion’ in Western Nations” by Michael Wing (January 29th 2020) 121

BigThink “34 years ago, a KGB defector chillingly predicted modern America” by Paul Ratner (July 18th 2018)

122

The Communist Party’s “Decision Concerning the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution” also known as the Sixteen Points (August 8th 1966) 123 Ibid. 124

Fox News “Actor Mark Ruffalo attacks capitalism for ‘failing us’ in tweet, but boasts 7-figure net worth” by Melissa Robert (December 3rd 2019) 125 Fox

News “John Cusack at Bernie Sanders rally: World has 10-12-year window to stop climate change, ‘predatory capitalism’” by Bradford Betz (January 19th 2020) 126

Washington Post “Jim Carrey tells Democrats: ‘We have to say yes to socialism’” by Amy B. Wang (September 10th 2018) 127

Los Angeles Times “TV Preview: Wealth disparity, hackers and cyber threats in ‘Mr. Robot’” by Alan Everly (May 29th 2015) 128

The Atlantic “Whose Side Is Mr. Robot On, Anyway?” by Spencer Kornhaber (August 6th 2015)

129

InTheseTimes “Mr. Robot Is the Anti-Capitalist TV Show We’ve Been Waiting For” by Brian Cook (August 4th 2015) 130

Reuters “Dopey socialist parable ‘In Time’ a slick, fun ride” by Alonso Duralde (October 27th 2011) 131

The New Yorker “‘The Society,’ Reviewed: A Teen Dystopia, but with, Like, Socialism” by Doreen St. Felix (May 22nd 2019) 132

Jack Ryan Season 2 Episode One on Amazon Prime

133

Foundation for Economic Freedom “‘Jack Ryan’ Gets 4 Pinocchios on Venezuela” by Jon Miltmore (January 15th 2020) 134

Orange County Register “Why does Hollywood smear capitalism, promote socialism?” by John Stossel (December 4th 2019) 135

USA Today “‘Radicalized’ couple behind viral AOC ad launches pro-socialism, Netflix-like service” by JC Reindl via Detroit Free Press (April 13th 2019) 136

Deadline Detroit “‘Netflix For The Left’: Socialist Streaming Service Launches In Detroit” (February 25th 2020) 137

HuffPost “The Couple Behind The Viral AOC Ad Plans A Streaming Channel For Socialists” by Christopher Wilson (May 17th 2019) 138

Newsweek “George Floyd Was on Fentanyl, Medical Examiner Says, As Experts Dispute Cause of Death” by Daniel Villarreal (June 2nd 2020)

139

Fox News “Rioting, looting linked to George Floyd protests leaves trail of destruction across American cities” by Greg Norman (June 1st 2020) 140 Fox

News “Minneapolis Third Precinct police station set on fire after rioters break in” by Dom Calicchio (May 28th 2020) 141

Rolling Stone “John Legend, Common, the Weeknd, Lizzo Sign Open Letter to Defund the Police” by Jon Blistein (June 2nd 2020) 142 NPR

“Amid Protests Against Police Violence LA Mayor Eric Garcetti Announces Cuts To LAPD” by Vanessa Romo (June 3rd 2020) 143

CBS News “De Blasio seeks to cut $1 billion from NYPD budget” (June 29th 2020)

144

New York Times “For Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis, a Stinging Rebuke” by Michael Levenson (June 7th 2020) 145

New York Times “‘Cops,’ Long-Running Reality Show That Glorified Police, Is Canceled” by Nicole Sperling (June 9th 2020) 146

Entertainment Weekly “Live PD host slams cancellation: ‘There’s an overreaction going on’” by James Hibberd (June 11th 2020) 147

New York Times “The Protests Come for ‘Paw Patrol’” by Amanda Hess (June 10th 2020)

148

Rolling Stone “What Music’s Tech Companies Are Doing on Blackout Tuesday” by Ethan Millman (June 2nd 2020) 149

TubeFilter “YouTube Hosts Inaugural #YouTubeBlack Event To Support Creators Of Color” by Geoff Weiss (April 11th 2016) 150

CNET “These are the major brands donating to the Black Lives Matter movement” by Mercey Livingston (June 16th 2020) 151

Fox 23 “Disney releases video showing support for Black Lives Matter movement” by Katlyn Brieskorn (June 14th 2020) 152

CNN “‘Call of Duty’ games now display a Black Lives Matter message” by Steve Dent (June 5th 2020) 153

The Telegraph “Make no mistake – BLM is a radical neo-Marxist political movement” by Alexandra Phillips (June 12th 2020) 154

Breitbart “Black Lives Matter Anti-Cop Protests Part of Agenda Seeking Socialist Revolution” by Joshua Klein (June 12th 2020)

155

Time “Black Lives Matter Co-Founder Patrisse Cullors on Her Memoir, Her Life and What’s Next for the Movement” by Aric Jenkins (February 26th 2018) 156 The

Blaze “Toronto Black Lives Matter co-founder says white people are ‘genetic defects’” by Tre Goins-Phillips (February 13th 2017) 157

Breitbart “Black Lives Matter Anti-Cop Protests Part of Agenda Seeking Socialist Revolution” by Joshua Klein (June 12th 2020) 158 Sarah

Silverman in her 2005 show “Jesus is Magic.” Clips of the segment are currently available on YouTube and elsewhere online if you search for “Sarah Silverman Says I Would Kill Christ Again” 159

Reuters “Kathy Griffin’s Jesus remark cut from Emmy show” (September 11th 2007)

160

Daily Caller “Daily Caller: Comic Convention Bans Christian Conservative Actor Kevin Sorbo For Friendship With Hannity” by Ian Miles Cheong January 14th 2018) 161

NBC News “Ellen Page doubles down on criticism of celebs who attend anti-gay churches” via Variety (February 11th 2019) 162

Dallas News “Ellie Goulding threatens to cancel her Cowboys Thanksgiving halftime show over Salvation Army concerns” by Dan Dinger (November 12th 2019) 163

USA Today “Ellie Goulding threatens to quit Thanksgiving NFL game; Salvation Army says she’s a go” by Charles Trepany (November 13th 2019) 164

The Telegraph “Mel Gibson’s film on Christ condemned as anti-Semitic” June 29th 2003)

165

ADL.org “ADL and Mel Gibson’s ‘The Passion of the Christ’” (January 2nd 2013)

166

Luke 23:19

167

The New York Daily News “The Passion of the Christ” by Jami Bernard (February 24th 2004)

168

The Guardian “Mel’s Passion blamed for rise in anti-semitic attacks” (March 16th 2005)

169

The Guardian “History Channel’s The Bible series is worse than reality TV” by Alan Nyuhas (March 25th 2013) 170

Real Time with Bill Maher “Bari Weiss: How to Fight Anti-Semitism” Segment posted on the show’s official YouTube channel (September 13th 2019) 171

Salon.com “Hallmark movies are fascist propaganda” by Amanda Marcotte (December 25th 2019) 172

Ibid.

173

Ibid.

174 Breitbart

“Whitney Cummings Says She Was Reported to HR for Saying ‘Merry Christmas’” by David NG (December 20th 2019) 175

Ibid.

176 Ibid. 177

Wall Street Journal “Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben’s, Rooted in Racist Imagery, to Change” by Annie Gasparro and Micah Maidenberg (June 17th 2020) 178

The Secret Life of a Satanist: The Authorized Biography of Anton LaVey by Blanche Barton page 78 (Feral House 1992) 179

See my previous book, Inside the Illuminati (2014)

180

The Daily Beast “How the Illuminati Stole the Mind, Soul, and Body of Hip-Hop” by Rob Brotherton (January 2nd 2016) 181

Manly P. Hall wrote, “The serpent is true to the principle of wisdom, for it tempts man to the knowledge of himself. Therefore the knowledge of self resulted from man’s disobedience to the Demiurgus, Jehovah.” — The Secret Teachings of All Ages page 272 (Tarcher/Penguin 2003) 182

Aleister Crowley wrote “This serpent, Satan, is not the enemy of Man, be He who made Gods of our race, knowing Good and Evil; He bade ‘Know Thyself!’ and taught Initiation. He is ‘the Devil’ of the book of Thoth, and His emblem is Baphomet, and Androgyne who is the hieroglyph of arcane perfection.” — Magick: In Theory and Practice page 193 183

Rolling Stone “Katy Perry: I Want to Join the Illuminati!” (August 1st 2014)

184

Washington Post “Planned Parenthood’s Secret Weapon” by Nora Caplan-Bricker (September 23rd 2019). 185

Ibid.

186

Newsbusters “Hulu Character Feels ‘Really, Really Good,’ ‘Very F**king Powerful’ After Abortion” by Rebecca Downs (March 18th 2019) 187

Campus Reform “Sociologist calls for more abortion-based comedy” by Toni Airaksinen (January 2nd 2018) 188

Ibid.

189

Salon “‘Parenthood’ bravely tackles abortion” by Willa Paskin (January 9th 2013)

190

HuffPost “‘Parenthood’: Dramatic Episode Tackles Teen Pregnancy And Abortion” (January 9th 2013) 191 PlannedParenthood.org

“Planned Parenthood Announces New Senior Hires” Press Release

(January 11th 2019) 192

USA Today “Planned Parenthood called for Disney princess ‘who’s had an abortion’ in nowdeleted tweet” by Josh Hafner (March 27th 2018) 193 WNEP

16 ABC “Planned Parenthood Keystone: ‘We need a Disney princess who’s had an abortion’” by WNEP Staff (March 27th 2018) 194

Hollywood Reporter “Elizabeth Banks to Lead Center for Reproductive Rights Creative Council” by Lindsay Weinberg (October 29th 2019) 195

Washington Times “Elizabeth Banks: Abortion can be stigma-free, seen as ‘liberty itself’ with the right storytellers” by Douglas Ernst (March 5th 2020) 196

Netflix “The Break with Michelle Wolf” (June 2018)

197

Washington Examiner “‘I am God’: Comedian says abortion empowered her and encourages others to get one” by Spencer Neale (December 18th 2019) 198

New York Magazine “Lena Dunham: ‘I Still Haven’t Had an Abortion, But I Wish I Had’” by Gabriella Paiella (December 20th 2016) 199

Townhall “Actress Busy Philipps Screams She's Proud of Her Abortion at 15-Years-Old Because It Helped Her Career” by Julio Rosas (March 5th 2020) 200

Ibid.

201

Hollywood Reporter “‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Trailer Sparks Controversy as Fans Notice Taiwanese Flag Missing From Tom Cruise’s Jacket” by Patrick Brzeski (July 22nd 2019) 202

Hollywood Reporter “DC Comics Faces Backlash for Deleting ‘Batman’ Artwork That Caused Controversy in China” by Abid Rahman (November 28th 2019) 203

The Big Think “The silent Chinese propaganda in Hollywood films” by Scotty Hendricks (December 10th 2018) 204

Hollywood Reporter “Zombie Films at Cannes: What’s Up With All the Undead?” by Tatiana Siegel (May 18th 2019) 205

The New York Times “How China is Writing Its Own Script” by Amy Qin and Audrey Carlsen (November 18th 2018)

206

CNN “Ryan Gosling defends ‘First Man’ amid American flag controversy” by Sandra Gonzalez (August 31st 2018) 207 ESPN

“James Harden apologizes as controversy grows: ‘We love China’” (October 6th 2019)

208

ABC News “LeBron James says general manager who tweeted in support of Hong Kong protesters ‘wasn’t educated’ on the issue” by Meghan Keneally (October 15th 2019) 209 New

York Times “In China’s Crackdown on Muslims, Children Have Not Been Spared” by Amy Quin (December 28th 2019) 210

The Hill “Yale, MIT study: 22 million, not 11 million, undocumented immigrants in US” by Rafael Bernal (September 21st 2018) 211

CBS News “New York City’s anti-discrimination policy warns against terms like ‘illegal alien’” by Christopher Brito (October 1st 2019) 212

Breitbart “Nearly 400K Anchor Babies Born in 2019, Exceeding U.S. Births in 48 States” by John Binder (January 5th 2020) 213

CNN “Democrats want to offer health care to undocumented immigrants. Here’s what that means” by Tami Luhby (September 11th 2019) 214

Washington Times “Illegal immigrants lying in wait for Trump to lose election” by Stephen Dinan (January 17th 2020) 215

NPR “In ‘Party Of Five’ Reboot, Deportation Separates The Family” by Michael Martin (January 11th 2020) 216

Hollywood Reporter “‘Party of Five’ Reboot Canceled at Freeform” by Lesley Goldberg (April 17th 2020) 217

The New York Times “Hollywood’s Diversity Problem and Undocumented Immigrants” by Monica Castillo (October 20th 2017) 218

NewsBusters “‘Roseanne’ Spinoff: Illegal Immigrants ‘Just Trying to Have a Better Life’” by Dawn Slusher (January 23rd 2019) 219

Vulture “America Ferrera Says Superstore Season Four ICE Raid Could Shape the Show for Years” by Jordan Crucchiola (July 19th 2019) 220

The Hollywood Reporter “‘OITNB’ Star Opens Up About Tackling ‘Dangerous’ Immigration Storyline” by Jackie Strause (August 1st 2018) 221

Newsbusters “New CW Anthology Advises Illegal Immigrants To ‘Hide’” by Lindsay Kornick (August 15th 2019)

222

Daily Beast “ICE Agents Are Television’s Newest Bogeymen, From Netflix’s ‘Orange is the New Black’ to NBC’s ‘Superstore’” 223 Ibid. 224

Breitbart “Showtime’s ‘Shameless’: America Is a ‘Piece of Shit Country’” by Alana Mastrangelo (November 25th 2019) 225 Rolling

Stone “Watch Kesha Celebrate DACA Dreamers in Moving ‘Hymn’ Video” by Jon Blistein (May 31st 2018) 226

New York Observer “Hooray for Hollywood: How Charities Influence Your Favorite TV Shows” by Anne Easton (October 28th 2015) 227

Newsbusters “‘The Twilight Zone’ Defends Illegal Immigration: ‘We Are All Immigrants From Somewhere’” by Lindsay Kornick (May 16th 2019) 228

Ibid.

229

Vulture “Why You Could Be Seeing a Lot of Immigrant Stories on TV This Fall” by Maria Elena Fernandez (January 23rd 2018) 230

Hollywood Reporter “‘Jane the Virgin,’ ‘Vida’ Writers Talk Onscreen Representation” by Jenna Marotta (October 3rd 2018) 231

Variety “Gina Rodriguez Developing Pair of Latino Series at CBS, CW” by Joe Otterson (September 6th 2017) 232

Variety “Immigration Projects Take Center Stage at Broadcast Networks” by Joe Otterson (September 8th 2017) 233

Washington Post “TV dramas and sitcoms are suddenly all about immigration” by Travis M. Andrews (October 13th 2017) 234

The Guardian “‘Daca dramas’: How immigration become US TV’s new obsession” by Lanre Bakare (September 13th 2017) 235

Deadline.com “‘Little America’ Immigrant Anthology Series In Works At Apple From ‘The Big Sick’ Writers, Lee Eisenberg & Alan Yang” by Nellie Andreeva (February 8th 2018) 236

The Daily Beast “How an ICE Immigration Raid Tore Apart a Small Midwest Town” by Nick Schager (December 20th 2019) 237

Hollywood Reporter “Selena Gomez-Produced ‘Living Undocumented’ Docuseries a Go at Netflix” by Rick Porter (September 17th 2019) 238

Ibid.

239

The Guardian “District 9: South Africa and apartheid come to the movies” by David Smith (August 20th 2009) 240 SPLCenter.org

“Does Robert Rodriquez’s ‘Machete’ Advocate ‘Race War?’” by Alexander Zaitchik (September 10th 2010) 241

Philadelphia Inquirer “‘Elysium’ - the rich above, the slums below” by Steven Rae (August 8th 2013) 242 Variety

“Film Review: ‘Elysium’” by Scott Foundas (August 1st 2013)

243

Entertainment Weekly “‘Elysium’: Future Shock” by Sean Smith (July 26th 2013)

244

Worcester Telegram & Gazette “Movie review: Xenophobic ‘Rambo: Last Blood’ should be end of the line for character” by Katie Walsh (September 19th 2019) 245

Daily Beast “‘Rambo: Last Blood’ is a Trumpian, Anti-Mexican Nightmare” by Nick Schager (September 20th 2019) 246

The Spokesman-Review “Deeply Xenophomic, lazy ‘Rambo: Last Blood’ should be end of line for character.” by Katie Walsh via Tribune News Service (September 19th 2019) 247

Uproxx “‘Rambo: Last Blood’ Is A Rollicking Good Time Of Hyper-Violent Xenophobic Revenge Fantasies” by Vince Mancini (September 18th 2019) 248

The Playlist.net “‘Rambo: Last Blood’: Sylvester Stallone Leads A Manic MAGA Fever Dream & Radicalizing Recruitment Video [Review]” by Charles Barfield (September 21st 2019) 249

Indiwire “‘Sicario: Day of Soldado’ Doubles Down on Mexican Stereotypes and Violent MAGA Fantasies — Opinion” by Monica Castillo (June 29th 2018) 250

The New Yorker “‘PEPPERMINT,’ REVIEWED: JENNIFER GARNER STARS IN AN IGNORANT, RACIST DRUG-TRADE REVENGE FILM” by Richard Brody (September 7th 2018) 251

Latino Rebels “‘Liberal’ Hollywood Is Reinforcing Trump’s Hate” by Alejandro Diaz (July 25th 2018) 252

NBC News “‘Sicario: Day of Soldado’ is a poorly written blockbuster filled with racist stereotypes. Hollywood should know better.” by Ani Bundel (July 1st 2018) 253

The Death of the West: How Dying Populations and Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our Country and Civilization by Patrick J. Buchanon page 3 (2002 Thomas Dunne Books) 254

The Death of the West: How Dying Populations and Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our Country and Civilization by Patrick J. Buchanon pages 125-126 (2002 Thomas Dunne Books)

255

Los Angeles Times “Vision That Inspires Some and Scares Others: Aztlan” by David Kelly (July 7th 2006) 256 FrontPageMag.com

“Expressions of Ethnic Animosity” by James Lubinskas (November 24,

1999) 257

“Building a North American Community” report by the Council on Foreign Relations (2005)

258 The

Hollywood Reporter “TV Executives Admit in Taped Interviews That Hollywood Pushes a Liberal Agenda” by Paul Bond (June 1st 2001) 259

U.S. Department of Justice “Homicide Trends in the United States, 1980-2008” by Alexia Cooper and Erica L. Smith (November 2011) 260

ADL.org “Hate on Display™ Hate Symbols Database”

261

CBS News “#OscarsSoWhite: Academy Awards slammed for lack of diversity” by John Blackstone (January 14th 2016) 262

Fortune “These Oscar Best Picture nominees are ‘problematic’—but will that matter?” by Paula Bernstein (January 16th 2020) 263

USA Today “Oscar nominations 2020: Why do snubs for women and people of color keep happening?” by Andrea Mandell (January 13th 2020) 264

NBC Los Angeles “Fans Link J.Lo ‘Hustlers’ Snub to Oscars Diversity Problem” (January 13th 2020) 265

The Hollywood Reporter “The Whiteness of ‘Toy Story 4’” by Stephen Galloway (January 3rd 2020) 266

Ibid.

267

Ibid.

268

Time “In Joker , Black Women Are Visible But They Are Not Seen” by Beandrea July (October 11th 2019) 269

Teen Vogue “‘Little Women,’ Laurie, and the Argument for Racebent Casting” by Natalie De Vera Obedos (December 23rd 2019) 270

National Review “Greta Gerwig’s Little Women Romanticizes White Privilege” by Armond White (December 27th 2019) 271

Hollywood Reporter “Hallmark Channel Struggles to Give Diversity a Home for the Holidays” by Lesley Goldberg (November 27th 2019)

272

Ibid.

273 IBTimes

“Why Are Hallmark Movie Casts So White? We Asked The CEO” by Rachael Ellenbogen (December 21st 2017) 274

Mediaite “Touré Says There’s Already a Benevolent Black Man Who Gives Gifts to Kids: Obama” by Noah Rothman (December 16th 2013) 275 CNS

News “Harper, CNN Promote Gay ‘Married’ Santa Claus” by Michael W. Chapman (December 20th 2017) 276

USA Today “Tim Burton’s diversity comments blew up Twitter” by Carley Mallenbaum (September 29th 2016) 277

Breitbart “Jonah Hill: ‘Real Change’ in Film Will Come When Women, Minorities Run Studios and Streaming Companies” by Warner Todd Huston (January 31st 2020) 278

Newsweek “CNN’s Rick Sanchez Fired After Implying Jews Run the Media” by David A. Graham (October 1st 2010) 279

Newsbusters “‘Blackish’ Does Episode on Teaching Black Kids ‘America Hates You’” by Amelia Hamilton (January 16th 2018) 280

Ibid.

281

Complex.com “The 50 Most Racist TV Shows of All Time” (June 3rd 2013)

282

The Hollywood Reporter “Critic’s Notebook: The Blinding Whiteness of Nostalgia TV” by Inkoo Kang (March 28th 2018) 283

Inquisitr “Roseanne Barr Explains Why She Wanted The Conners To Have A Black Grandchild On The ‘Roseanne’ Revival” by Victoria Miller (February 21st 2018) 284

The Guardian “David Schwimmer: ‘I’m very aware of my privilege as a heterosexual white male’” by David Smith (January 27th 2020) 285

Slate “Is It Racist to Date Only People of Your Own Race? Yes.” by Reihan Salam (April 22nd 2014) 286

CNN “Los Angeles mayor wants to double Latino representation in Hollywood in the next 10 years” by Christina Maxouris (January 20th 2020) 287

See my previous book, Liberalism: Find a Cure (2018)

288

Parade “Guillermo’s Job Before Becoming Jimmy Kimmel’s Sidekick” by Walter Scott (April 12th 2014)

289

Washington Examiner “Jamie Foxx: It’s ‘great’ to ‘kill all the white people’” by Kelsey Osterman (December 9th 2012) 290 VLADTV

“‘Django Unchained’ Viewers Tweet Desire To ‘Kill White People’” by John S (January 9th 2013) 291

BBC “Kendrick Lamar stops white fan using N-word on stage at concert” (May 22nd 2018)

292 CNN

“Actress Gina Rodriguez comes under fire over her use of the n-word” by Faith Karimi (October 19th 2019) 293

NBC News “‘Bachelorette’ star Hannah Brown apologizes for using the N-word” by Janelle Griffith (May 19th 2020) 294

https://twitter.com/jlptalk/status/1262490953094295552

295

Vanity Fair “Roseanne Barr Screams About Valerie Jarrett: ‘I Thought the Bitch Was White!’” by Laura Bradley (July 20th 2018) 296

The Washington Post “Roseanne’s character overdosed on opioids and left ‘The Conners’ behind. It’s better this way.” by Hank Stuever (October 16th 2018) 297

The Wrap “‘Queer Eye’ Star Jonathan Van Ness Under Fire After Saying ‘Not All Republicans Are Racist’” by Jon Levine (August 16th 2018) 298

Carolina Journal “‘The Sum of All Fears’ Falls Victim to Political Correctness” by Hans Marc Hurd (August 6th 2002) 299

IGN “The Sum of All Fears: The Jack Ryan prequel hits DVD. Our full review” by Jeremy Conrad (December 13th 2018) 300

Mashable “Chelsea Handler talks about facing up to her own white privilege” by Rachel Thompson (September 10th 2019) 301

Rolling Stone “Jon Stewart Talks Lack of Staff Diversity During his ‘Daily Show’ Tenure” by Jon Blistein (June 24th 2020) 302

Esquire “Jon Stewart: America Can Only Have Equality When Black People Are Given What’s Been Taken From Them” by Justin Kirkland (June 25th 2020) 303

Insider “Zac Efron’s portrayal of serial killer Ted Bundy is being accused of romanticizing the brutal murderer” by Jacob Shamsian (January 28th 2019) 304

Fox News “Zac Efron says white privilege allowed Ted Bundy to kill people for so long before being captured” by Jessica Napoli and Tyler McCarthy (May 3rd 2019)

305

Los Angeles Times “White celebrities partner with NAACP to ‘take responsibility’ for racism” by Christi Carras (June 11th 2020) 306 The

Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon “Dr. Robin DiAngelo Wants White People to Stop Saying They’re Not Racist” segment posted on the show’s official YouTube channel (June 17th 2020) 307

Ibid.

308 Mashable

“‘White Fragility’ author Robin DiAngelo explains why white people shouldn’t say they’re ‘not racist’” by Sam Haysom (June 18th 2020) 309

IndieWire “‘Watchmen’: Damon Lindelof Shares How The New HBO Adaptation Deals with White Supremacy” by Steve Greene (July 24th 2019) 310

Ibid.

311

Vox “Some Watchmen fans are mad that HBO’s version is political. But Watchmen has always been political” by Alex Abad-Santos (October 24th 2019) 312

Esquire “The Right-Wing Troll Backlash Against HBO’s Watchmen Is Hilariously Stupid” by Matt Miller (October 24th 2019) 313

The Hollywood Reporter “Watch Topher Grace Embody KKK Leader David Duke in ‘BlacKkKlansman’” by Evan Real (August 1st 2018) 314

The American Spectator “Trump Denounced a ‘White Supremacist Loser’ — 19 Years Ago” by Jeffrey Lord (March 19th 2019) 315

Interview with BlackTreeTV’s YouTube Channel “Topher Grace says finding the human side of David Duke was a challenge in BlacKkKlansman” (August 16th 2018) 316

https://www.facebook.com/crackatv/photos/a.119499679798117/119499656464786

317

CrackaWorld.com - the film’s official website (July 2020)

318

Yale Bulletin & Calendar “Director Spike Lee slams ‘same old’ black stereotypes in today’s films” Volume 29, Number 21 (March 2nd 2001) 319

Salon.com “The offensive movie cliche that won’t die” by Matt Zoller Zeitz (September 14th 2010) 320

NPR “‘Magical Negro’ Carries The Weight Of History” by Mary Louise Kelly (February 11th 2019) 321

Dallas Observer “The Blind Side: What Would Black People Do Without Nice White Folks?” by Melissa Anderson (November 19th 2009)

322

Ranker “Quietly Racist Things You Probably Missed In ‘The Blind Side’” by Evan Lambert (July 13th 2020) 323 RacismReview.com

“‘Gran Torino,’ White Masculinity & Racism” (January 17th 2009)

324

Slate.com “Cool Runnings Was Not Good, and It Is Definitely Not a ‘Cult Classic’” by Justin Peters (February 16th 2014) 325 Gizmodo

“When Will White People Stop Making Movies Like ‘Avatar’?” by Annalee Newitz (December 18th 2009) 326

Complex “The 50 Most Racist TV Shows of All Time” (June 3rd 2013)

327

Vulture “MTV’s New Documentary Wants to Make White People Very Uncomfortable” by Dee Lockett (July 8th 2015) 328

RealClearPolitics “‘MTV News’ Deletes YouTube Video Telling ‘White Guys’ What They Could Do Better In 2017 After Backlash” by Tim Hains (December 20th 2016) 329

The College Fix “Stanford University course to study ‘abolishing whiteness’” by Matthew Stein (August 11th 2017) 330

The Hill “Disney network defends casting black actress in ‘Little Mermaid’ after backlash” by Rachel Frazin (July 9th 2019) 331

CNN “‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ reboot to feature African-American lead” by Chloe Melas (July 23rd 2018) 332

The Guardian “Bond’s number is up: black female actor ‘is the new 007’” by Steph Harmon (July 15th 2019) 333

NBC News “In Marvel’s ‘Spider-Verse,’ Spider-Man’s mom is alive and Puerto Rican” by Arturo Conde (December 13th 2018) 334

Forbes “Science Says Superman Should Be Black” by JV Chamary (March 31st 2016)

335

The Guardian “Fantastic Four film-makers respond to criticism of decision to cast black actor” by Ben Child (June 4th 2015) 336

NBC News “‘Batwoman’ casts Black, bisexual actress Javicia Leslie to play superhero” by Tim Fitzsimons (July 9th 2020) 337

Variety “‘Wonder Years’ Reboot With Black Family in the Works at ABC, Lee Daniels to Produce” by Joe Otterson (July 8th 2020) 338

NPR “Author L.L. McKinney: Barnes & Noble ‘Diverse Editions’ Are ‘Literary Blackface’” by Audie Cornish (February 6th 2020)

339

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K Rowling

340 BuzzFeed

“10 Classic Remakes That Gave Minority Actors The Spotlight” by Doriean Stevenson (March 28th 2014) 341 Wall Street Journal “When the Slave Traders Were African: Those whose ancestors sold slaves to Europeans now struggle to come to terms with a painful legacy” by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani (September 20, 2019) 342

Reuters “West African slavery lives on, 400 years after transatlantic trade began” by Angela Ukomadu (August 7th 2019) 343

See my previous book The Liberal Media Industrial Complex (2019)

344

PBS “The War” series directed and produced by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick in the “At Home” episode 345

Time “The U.S. Government Used Disney Cartoons to Convince Americans That Paying Taxes Is a Privilege” by Oliva B. Waxman (April 16th 2018) 346

Der Fuehrer’s Face (1942) produced by Walt Disney

347

Commando Duck (1944) produced by Walt Disney

348

Operation Hollywood: How the Pentagon Shapes and Censors the Movies by David Robb (2004 Prometheus Books) 349

Variety “The ‘24’ Effect: How ‘Liberal Hollywood’ Carried Water For Torture” by Brian Lowry (December 14th 2014) 350

Ibid.

351

Ibid.

352

Washington Post “‘Zero Dark Thirty’ waterboarding depictions not accurate, senators say” by Ed O’Keefe and Ann Hornaday (December 19th 2012) 353

The Atlantic “Secret Report: Panetta Gave bin Laden Raid Details to ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ Makers” by Philip Bump (June 5th 2013) 354

Washington Post “25 years later, how ‘Top Gun’ made America love war” by David Sirota (August 26th 2011) 355

The Independent “Washington DC’s role behind the scenes in Hollywood goes deeper than you think” by Matthew Alford (September 3rd 2017) 356

Ibid.

357

Universal Studios “Lone Survivor Production Notes”

358 Fortune

Magazine “Hollywood’s military complex” by Soo Youn (December 19, 2013)

359

Ibid.

360 Wired

Magazine “CIA Pitches Scripts to Hollywood” by Mark Riffee (September 9th 2011)

361

The Independent “Washington DC’s role behind the scenes in Hollywood goes deeper than you think” by Matthew Alford (September 3rd 2017). 362

Army Times “The Pentagon’s Hollywood Liaison” by Hope Hodge (July 1 2013)

363

Business Insider “One Man In The Department Of Defense Controls All Of Hollywood’s Access To The Military” by Aly Weisman (March 5th 2014) 364

Wired Magazine “CIA Pitches Scripts to Hollywood” by Mark Riffee (September 9th 2011)

365

Los Angeles Times “‘Top Gun’ Boosting Service Sign-ups” by Mark Evje (July 5, 1986)

366

San Diego Union Tribune “Marines say Katy Perry video is good publicity” by Jeanette Steele (March 22nd 2012) 367

Newsweek “‘Call of Duty’ Creators Collaborated with Pentagon Adviser in Upcoming Videogame” by Madeline Grant (August 28th 2014) 368

Oliver Stone in CNN’s “The Movies” documentary series - Episode 1: The Eighties

369

CBS News “Pentagon Defends Photo Ban” (April 23rd 2004)

370

Bureau of Investigative Journalism “Obama’s covert drone war in numbers: ten times more strikes than Bush” by Jessica Purkiss and Jack Serle (January 7th 2017) 371

USA Today “Michelle Obama presents Oscar to ‘Argo’” (February 25th 2013)

372

Hollywood Reporter “Golden Globes 2013: Complete List of Winners” (January 13th 2013)

373

CBS News “DHS’ Domestic Terror Warning Angers GOP” (April 16th 2009)

374

Time “Top 10 Everything of 2012” - Top 10 Viral Videos

375

ABC News “Senate Resolution Condemns Uganda’s Joseph Kony” by Sunien Miller (March 21st 2012) 376

Reason “Kony 2012’s Old-Fashioned War Propaganda” by Tate Watkins (March 14th 2012)

377

The Guardian “The caring, sharing CIA: Central Intelligence gets a makeover” by John Patterson (October 4, 2001) 378 PR

Week “Barry named CIA Entertainment Liaison” (June 5, 2007)

379

The Guardian “An Offer They Couldn’t Refuse” by Matthew Alford and Robbie Graham (November 13th 2008) 380 Cinema

Review Magazine “The Recruit: About the Production”

381

The Atlantic “How the CIA Hoodwinked Hollywood” by Nicholas Schou (July 14th 2016)

382

The Independent “Washington DC’s role behind the scenes in Hollywood goes deeper than you think” by Matthew Alford (September 3rd 2017) 383

Time Magazine “CIA Mind-Control Experiments” by Nate Rawlings (August 6th 2010)

384

The Guardian “The caring, sharing CIA: Central Intelligence gets a makeover” by John Patterson (October 4, 2001) 385

Robb, David - Operation Hollywood: How the Pentagon Shapes and Censors Movies page 365 (2004 Prometheus Books) 386

Robb, David - Operation Hollywood: How the Pentagon Shapes and Censors the Movies page 47-48 (2004 Prometheus Books) 387

Chemerinsky also points to the 1995 U.S. Supreme Court case Rosenberger v. the University of Virginia. 388

Los Angeles Times “Hollywood figures spied for CIA, book asserts” by Ken Dilanian (January 10th 2014) 389

John Rizzo - Company Man: Thirty Years of Crisis and Controversy in the CIA page 63 (2014 Scribner) 390

Ibid.

391

John Rizzo - Company Man: Thirty Years of Crisis and Controversy in the CIA page 64 (2014 Scribner) 392

Ibid.

393

YouTube - Interview with The Guardian “Ben Affleck on Argo: Probably Hollywood is full of CIA Agents” (November 8the 2012) 394

Los Angeles Times “The CIA Spins Itself” by Patrick Goldstein (September 29th 2001)

395

https://www.fbi.gov/about/faqs/how-can-screenwriters-authors-and-producers-seekingauthenticity-work-with-the-fbi396 Ibid. 397

John Wayne: American by Randy Roberts page 569 (1995 Free Press)

398 CBS

News “The U.S. vs. John Lennon” by Jon Wiener (September 15th 2006)

399

Final Report of the Select Committee to Study Government Operations With Respect to Intelligence Activities. April 1976. 400

Church Committee Hearings (1975) testimony by William Colby

401

Sig Mickleson in a clip widely available on YouTube about the CIA and the news

402

CNBC “A carbon tax is ‘single most powerful’ way to combat climate change, IMF says” by Emma Newburger (October 10th 2019) 403

Washington Post “AOC’s Chief of Change” by David Montgomery (July 10th 2019)

404

Politico “‘Green New Deal’ lands in the Capitol” by Zack Colman and Anthony Adragna (February 7, 2019) 405

Daily Mail “The devastating rise of ‘eco-anxiety’: Psychologist says school kids are being damaged by the climate change debate” by Zoe Zaczek (September 25th 2019) 406

Time magazine “Greta Thunberg: TIME’s Person of the Year 2019” by Edward Felsenthal (December 11th 2019) 407

CNBC “This Bill Gates-funded chemical cloud could help stop global warming” by Katie Schoolov (September 7th 2019) 408

The Independent “How Bad are Private Jets for the Environment?” by Helen Coffey (August 20th 2019) 409

ABC News “This Bill Gates-funded chemical cloud could help stop global warming” by Jake Taper (February 27th 2007) 410

Politico “Schwarzenegger to Sue Big Oil for ‘First Degree Murder’” by Edward-Isaac Dovere (March 12th 2018) 411

History.com “The Origins of the Hummer”

412

Fox News “Steve Harvey brings drama to ‘Miss Universe’ with eye roll before contestant claims ‘the planet is dying’” by Melissa Roberto (December 9th 2019)

413

New York Observer “Hooray for Hollywood: How Charities Influence Your Favorite TV Shows” by Anne Easton (October 28th 2015) 414 HollywoodHealthAndSociety.org

“Climate Change Resources”

415

The Los Angeles Times “U.N. leader asks Hollywood for help in fight against global climate change” by Margot Roosevelt (February 27th 2011) 416 Ibid. 417

Ibid.

418

Promotional video for News Corp (2006)

419

Ibid.

420

Ibid.

421

Time “Top 10 Disappointing Blockbusters” (August 24th 2009)

422

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette “‘The Day After Tomorrow’ falls far short of its goal” by Tony Norman (May 27th 2004) 423

Vanity Fair “When Will Hollywood Actually Tackle Climate Change?” By Richard Lawson (September 19th 2019) 424

Ibid.

425

The Wall Street Journal “In ‘Cars 2,’ John Lasseter Says Big Oil is the ‘Uber Bad Guy’” by Ethan Smith (June 20th 2011) 426

USA Today “Stylish ‘Snowpiercer’ takes a cold look at class divisions” by Claudia Puig (June 26th 2014) 427

LiveScience.com “Frozen earth in ‘Snowpiercer’ is a grim (and possible) future for our warming planet” by Mindy Weisberger (October 11th 2019) 428

Earth Island Journal “In Review: Snowpiercer” by Jason Mark (July 19th 2019)

429

GreenPeace.org “No, Interstellar doesn’t mention climate change but it could still do the problem a lot of good” by Brian Johnson (November 12th 2014) 430

The Atlantic “Interstellar: Good Space Film, Bad Climate-Change Parable” by Noah Gittell (November 15th 2014) 431

CNBC “Jeff Bezos: Forget Mars, humans will live in these free-floating space pod colonies” by Catherine Clifford (March 8th 2019)

432

Variety “New ‘Geostorm’ Trailer: Gerard Butler Attempts to Save the World From Climate Change Disaster” by Dave McNary (July 6th 2017) 433 The

Guardian “Is climate change Hollywood's new supervillain?” by Greme Virtue (October 19th

2017) 434

Variety “Paul Schrader on How ‘First Reformed’ Reflects His Own Despair Over Climate Crisis” by Ted Johnson (May 19th 2018) 435 Screen

Rant “The Predator: Ultimate Predator Origins, Hybrid DNA & Abilities Explained” by Hannah Shaw-Williams (September 14th 2018) 436

NewsBusters “Futuristic HBO Drama Lambasts Trump, Pence, ‘Old Men In Power Forever’” by Rebecca Downs (July 1st 2019) 437

NBC News “DC Comics ‘Aquaman’ raises questions about environmentalism” by Noah Berlatsky (December 21st 2018) 438

The Hill “Chris Pratt apologizes for posing with single use plastic bottle” by Justine Coleman (December 4th 2019) 439

Yale Climate Connections “Superheroes and aliens: Climate change in the movies in 2018 - with a preview of 2019” by Michael Svoboda (March 21st 2019) 440

Forbes “The Science Of ‘Avengers: Endgame’ Proves Thanos Did Nothing Wrong” by JV Chamary (May 7th 2019) 441

Ibid.

442

Smithsonian Magazine “The Book That Incited a Worldwide Fear of Overpopulation” by Charles C. Mann (January 2018) 443

The Guardian “Climate crisis: 11,000 scientists warn of ‘untold suffering’” by Damian Carrington (November 5th 2019) 444

Washington Times “Miley Cyrus: ‘I refuse’ to have kids until climate change resolved” by Jessica Chasmar (July 12th 2019) 445

Newsweek “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Asks: Is It Still OK to Have Kids in Face of Climate Change?” by Nicole Goodkind (February 25th 2019) 446

BBC “The couples rethinking kids because of climate change” by Ted Scheinman (October 1st 2019) 447

Newsweek “Silicon Valley Is Trying to Make Humans Immortal—and Finding Some Success” by Betsy Isaacson (March 5th 2015)

448

The New Bioethics: A Multidisciplinary Journal of Biotechnology and the Body “Transhumanism: How Far Is Too Far?” by Joel Thompson pages 165-182 (July 6th 2017) 449 The

Elberton Star “The Georgia Guidestones: tourist attraction or cult message?” by Gary Jones (April 21st 2012) 450

The man published a little-known book in 1986 titled Common Sense Renewed where he admits that he represented a group. In it, he also says that leather-bound copies were sent to all members of Congress. At the time of this writing in July 2020, one is for sale on E-bay, and listed for $3,500. I own a paperback version which was later published in a small quantity. 451 ESPN

“‘Equality’ tops list of NBA players’ most popular social justice jersey messages (July 8th

2020) 452

CBS News “NBA reportedly plans to paint ‘Black Lives Matter’ on courts when season resumes” by Christopher Brito (June 30th 2020) 453

USA Today “NFL will play Black national anthem ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’ before each Week 1 game” by Mike Jones (July 2nd 2020) 454

New York Times “Bubba Wallace Wants NASCAR to Ban the Confederate Flag” by Maria Cramer (June 9th 2020) 455

NBC Sports “NASCAR drivers push Bubba Wallace’s car in act of solidarity after noose found in his garage” via Associated Press (June 22nd 2020) 456

Boston Globe “FBI says noose in Bubba Wallace’s stall was garage door-pull rope, not a hate crime” by Jenna Fryer via Associated Press (June 23rd 2020) 457

USA Today “FBI announces noose found in Bubba Wallace's garage had been there since 2019; no federal crime committed” by Michelle R. Martinelli (June 23rd 2020) 458

Seattle Times “Amazon buys naming rights to KeyArena, will call it Climate Pledge Arena” by Geoff Baker (June 25th 2020) 459

CNN “Beyonce gets political at Super Bowl, pays tribute to ‘Black Lives Matter’” by Deena Zeru (February 9th 2016) 460

The Ringer “Sportswriting Has Become a Liberal Profession — Here’s How It Happened” by Bryan Curtis (February 16th 2017) 461

SportingNews.com “Jason Whitlock sounds off on ‘liberal’ sports media, whether Bill Simmons should return to ESPN” by Michael McCarthy (April 12th 2017) 462

Ibid.

463

The Week “The arrogant thinking of liberal sports writers” by Michael Brendan Dougherty (February 21st 2017) 464 Associated

Press “Facebook exec, NBA team up to get men to ‘lean in’ for women” by Michael Liedtke (March 5th 2015) 465

NBA.com “NBA and WNBA Partner with LeanIn.Org to encourage men to support equality at home and at work” (March 5th 2015) 466 National

Review “Yes, ESPN Did Pick Caitlyn Jenner Ahead of Iraq War Vet and Amputee Noah Galloway for the ESPY Courage Award” by David French (June 3rd 2015) 467

New York Daily News “Twitter users call for ESPN to give Arthur Ashe Courage Award to Lauren Hill, not Caitlyn Jenner, at ESPYs” by Bernie Augustine (June 2nd 2015) 468

The Washington Post “Bob Costas: Caitlyn Jenner’s ESPYs courage award is ‘crass exploitation play’” by Cindy Boren (June 10th 2015) 469

ABC News “Caitlyn Jenner Appears on Sports Illustrated Cover 40 Years After Victory” by Ricki Harris (June 28th 2016) 470

New York Times “Curt Schilling, ESPN Analyst, Is Fired Over Offensive Social Media Post” by Richard Sandomir (April 20th 2016) 471

ESPN.com “Inside and out, ESPN dealing with changing political dynamics” by Jim Brady (December 1st 2016) 472

Ibid.

473

Ibid.

474

Sporting News “Fox’s Joe Buck says announcers should stick to sports” by Michael McCarthy (April 18th 2017) 475

NFL.com “Players, owners meet to discuss social issues in N.Y.” (October 17th 2017)

476

Sports Illustrated “NFL Announces ‘Inspire Change’ Initiative, Will Boost African-American History Education in Schools” by Jenny Vrentas (January 11th 2019) 477

USA Today “Los Angeles Rams’ male cheerleaders make NFL history” by Steve Gardner (March 28th 2018) 478

Los Angeles Times “Rams’ male cheerleaders make NFL history at Super Bowl” by Bill Plaschke (January 30th 2019) 479

Time “Despite Outrage, Nike Sales Increased 31% After Kaepernick Ad” by Gina Martinez (September 10th 2018)

480

ABC News “Why the sneaker game is becoming more political: 'It’s not just good business but a net positive for the world’” by Deena Zaru (December 22nd 2018) 481 Hollywood

Reporter “NBC Sports President: 2020 Will Be ‘Uniquely Combustible’ as Olympics, Conventions Collide” by Marisa Guthrie (December 16th 2019) 482

USA Today “ESPN’s Jemele Hill stands by comments calling President Trump white supremacist” by Steve Gardner (February 21st 2018) 483 NBA.com

“Los Angeles Lakers to Hold Second Annual Pride Night” (September 24th 2019)

484

USA Today “NFL launches LGBT initiative, NFL Pride” by Scott Gleeson (August 18th 2017)

485

NBC News “Yankees set to be only MLB team not to host LGBTQ Pride Night” by Kit Ramgopal (July 5th 2018) 486

USA Today “New York Yankees, the only team without a Pride Night, announce LGBT initiative for 2019” by Scott Gleeson (September 21st 2018) 487

NHL “Washington Capitals To Host Pride Night Jan. 7” (January 7th 2020)

488

Fortune “This Will Probably Be the Super Bowl’s Most Controversial Commercial” by Tom Huddleston Jr. (February 3rd 2017) 489

Breitbart “NFL Bans Super Bowl Gun Commercial” (December 2nd 2013)

490

CNN “Beyonce gets political at Super Bowl, pays tribute to ‘Black Lives Matter’” by Deena Zaru (February 9th 2016) 491

Vanity Fair “Lady Gaga Made an Edgy Political Statement You Might Have Missed at the Super Bowl” by Joanna Robinson (February 5th 2017) 492

CNN “How the Trump administration chose the 7 countries in the immigration executive order” by Kyle Blaine and Julia Horowitz (January 30th 2017) 493

CBS News “‘Kids in cages’ help J-Lo make powerful statement at Super Bowl halftime show” by Christopher Brito (February 3rd 2020) 494

USA Today “The truth behind the New York Times’ Patriots photo that went viral on social media” by Luke Kerr-Dineen (April 20th 2017) 495

CBS Boston “Patriots Hit Back At New York Times Over White House Tweet” (April 20th 2017)

496

Fox News “Trump Blasts NY Times for ‘Big Lie’ About Patriots’ Visit to White House” (April 20th 2017)

497

The Washington Times “New York Times sports editor takes sole blame for Patriots tweet that elicited Trump response” by Cindy Boren (April 20th 2017) 498 Breitbart

“ESPN’s Kellerman: Gronkowski Popping Into WH Press Briefing Normalizes Sean Spicer — Patriots Should’ve Boycotted Trip” by Trend Baker (April 20th 2017) . 499

Ibid.

500 Washington

Times “Hollywood stars, athletes driving away viewers with political activists poll finds” by Valerie Richardson (March 21st 2018) 501

Los Angeles Times “ESPN laying off 150 employees in another round of cuts” by Daniel Miller (November 29th 2017) 502

Media Research Center “ESPN Lost 15,000 Subscribers a Day In October” by Nick Kangadis (October 31st 2017) 503

Variety “ESPN Loses 2 Million Subscribers in Fiscal 2018” by Cynthia Littleton (November 21st 2018) 504

New York Post “Anthem protests biggest reason for NFL’s falling ratings: study” by Richard Morgan (February 2018) 505

USA Today “Order from management to ‘stick to sports’ has Deadspin site in open revolt” via Associated Press (October 30th 2019) 506

Fox News “Top Deadspin editor says he was fired after refusing to ‘stick to sports’” by Joseph A. Wulfsohn (October 29th 2019) 507

NPR “After Days Of Resignations, The Last Of The Deadspin Staff Has Quit” by Brakkton Booker (November 1st 2019) 508

Orwell, George - Nineteen Eighty-Four page 63 (1983 Plume)

509

New York Magazine “How Funny Does Comedy Need to Be?” by Jesse David Fox (September 4th 2018) 510

https://twitter.com/comedycentral/status/1012049409503358982

511

ReclaimTheNet.org “Avi Yemini files lawsuit against Jim Jeffries and Viacom after deceptively edited Comedy Central video” by Didi Rankovic (February 19th 2020) 512

Today Show “Jay Leno Talks Cholesterol, Comedy And Life After Late-Night” (March 12th 2019) 513

Ibid.

514

Ibid.

515 Fox

News “Alec Baldwin says Rob Schneider ‘has a point’ in criticism of ‘SNL’ Trump impersonation” by Jennifer Earl (April 30th 2018) 516

The Daily Beast “Jimmy Kimmel Got a Hand From Chuck Schumer in His Fight Against Obamacare Repeal” by Asawin Suebsaeng, Lachian Markay, and Sam Stein (September 23rd 2017) 517 CNN

“Did Jimmy Kimmel kill the health care bill?” by Frank Pallotta (September 22nd 2017)

518

Mediaite “Jimmy Kimmel Enlists Little Children to Explain ‘Global Warming’ and Climate Change to Trump” by Tommy christopher (January 30th 2019 519

Newsbusters “Kimmel: CPAC Is ‘Largest Gathering’ of Anti-Vaxxers Led by a ‘Dementia’Stricken Trump” (March 5th 2019) 520

Newsweek “Jimmy Kimmel Suggests Cutting Off Brett Kavanaugh’s ‘Pesky Penis’ if He’s Confirmed to Supreme Court” by Janice Williams (September 25th 2018) 521

Town Hall “Jimmy Kimmel: ‘Almost Every Talk Show Host Is Liberal’ Because ‘It Requires a Certain Level of Intelligence’” by Timothy Meads (February 4th 2018) 522

Daily Caller “Jimmy Kimmel: Sharing political views ‘has cost me commercially’” by Justin Caruso (March 13th 2018) 523

CNN “Welcome to the Stephen Colbert primary” by Brian Stelter (January 14th 2019)

524

Vanity Fair “Kirsten Gillibrand Just Announced Her Presidential Bid on The Late Show” by Laura Bradley (January 16th 2019) 525

Rolling Stone “California Democrat Eric Swalwell Announces 2020 Presidential Run on ‘Colbert’” by Ryan Reed (April 8th 2019) 526

New York Post “Fallon forced to change ‘Tonight Show’ amid Colbert ratings wins” by Carlos Greer (March 7th 2017) 527

Washington Post “Jimmy Fallon says people ‘have a right to be mad’ at his friendly hair-tousling of Trump” by Travis M. Andrews (May 18th 2017) 528

Decider.com “Did Donald Trump Cost Jimmy Fallon His Emmy Nomination?” by Joe Reid (July 13th 2017) 529

Washington Post “Jimmy Fallon says people ‘have a right to be mad’ at his friendly hair-tousling of Trump” by Travis M. Andrews (May 18th 2017) 530

The Hollywood Reporter “Parkland Survivors David Hogg and Lauren Hogg Recall Mass Shooting and Call for Change” by Katherine Schaffstall (June 20th 2018)

531

NBC “How ‘Saturday Night Live’ Has Shaped American Politics” by Adam Howard (September 30th 2016) 532 PJ

Media “‘The President’s Watching. Let’s Make Him Cringe And Squirm.’” by Ed Driscoll (December 26th 2006) 533

CNN “Chevy Chase: I wanted Carter to win” (November 3rd 2008)

534 Boston

Globe “How Tina Fey destroyed Sarah Palin” by Kevin Lewis (March 3rd 2012)

535

Newsbusters “All ‘SNL’ Wants for Christmas Is for Mueller to Lock Up Trump, ‘Only Other Option Is a Coup’” by Nicholas Fondacaro (December 2nd 2018) 536

Breitbart “SNL ‘Weekend Update’: Impeachment Process Was Too Slow for John Wilkes Booth” by David Ng (September 30th 2019) 537

Ibid.

538

The Daily Beast “Norm Macdonald Sounds Off on SNL: ‘I Think They’re Playing Into Trump’s Hands’” by Matt Wilstein (July 27th 2017) 539

Ibid.

540

Ibid

541

Barbara Walters interviews Johnny Carson (1984)

542

Ibid.

543

Rolling Stone “Flashback: ‘60 Minutes’ Profiles Johnny Carson in 1979” by Patrick Toyle (June 23rd 2015) 544

Ibid.

545

The Independent “As a comedy aficionado, I’m appalled at disgusting ‘jokes’ creeping back into the industry” by Liam Evans (February 26th 2019) 546

Ibid.

547

Ibid.

548

Vice “You Can Definitely Skip Dave Chappelle’s New Netflix Special ‘Sticks & Stones’” by Taylor Horsking (August 26th 2019) 549

Rotten Tomatoes “Dave Chappelle: Sticks & Stones” Critics Consensus (as of February 2020)

550

RedState “‘South Park’ Co-Creator Matt Stone Knows Why Critics Trashed Dave Chappelle’s New Special: to ‘Keep Their Jobs’” by Alex Parker (September 13th 2019) 551 Fox

News “Tim Allen decries ‘thought police,’ political correctness in comedy” by Sam Dorman (November 26th 2019) 552

The Wrap “Did Tim Allen’s Nazi Germany Joke Help Kill ‘Last Man Standing’?” by Tony Maglio and Ryan Gajewski (May 10th 2017) 553 Deadline

“Tim Allen Comedy ‘Last Man Standing’ Canceled By ABC After 6 Seasons” by Nellie Andreeva (May 10th 2017) 554

Deadline “Friday Ratings: Fox’s ‘Last Man Standing’ Returns To The Top” by Bruce Haring (March 16th 2019) 555

The Washington Post “America Needs Hate a Speech Law” by Richard Stengel (October 29th 2019) 556

BBC “Man guilty of hate crime for filming pug’s ‘Nazi salutes’” (March 20th 2018)

557

Jimmy Kimmel and Tracy Morgan present Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series at 2018 Emmys 558

Orange Country Register “Emmys 2018: Here’s how diversity in Hollywood was handled on the awards show” by Angela Ratzlaff (September 17th 2018) 559

Boston Herald “Focus on Hollywood’s diversity at Emmy Awards” by Mark Perigard (September 18th 2018) 560

Hollywood Reporter “Emmys: ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Wins Best Reality Competition Program” by Allison Crist (September 17th 2018) 561

Washington Post “Meryl Streep called out Donald Trump at the Golden Globes. He responded by calling her ‘over-rated.’” by Elahe Izadi and Amy B Wang (January 9th 2017) 562

Yahoo “Golden Globes 2018: The 5 most memorable lines from Seth Meyers’s monologue” by Ethan Alter (January 7th 2018) 563

New York Times “Seth Meyers’s Golden Globes Opening Monologue: Transcript” by Giovanni Russonello (January 7th 2018) 564

Entertainment Tonight “Ramy Youssef Jokes ‘I Know You Guys Haven’t Seen My Show’ After First Golden Globe Win” by Myeisha Essex (January 5th 2020) 565

Esquire “The Best, Worst, and Most Empowering Moments of the 2018 Golden Globes” by Jake Kring-Schreifels (January 8th 2018)

566

Hollywood Reporter “Golden Globes: ‘Thelma & Louise’ Stars Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis Reunite Onstage” by Meena Jang (January 7th 2018) 567 USA

Today “Natalie Portman savages the Golden Globes’ ‘all-male nominees’ for best director” by Maeve McDermott (January 7th 2018) 568

Entertainment Weekly “NBC apologizes for tweet calling Oprah ‘our future president’” by David Canfield (January 8th 2018) 569 The

New Yorker “The 2018 Golden Globes: Oprah Leads a Decisive Feminist Takeover” by Michael Schulman (January 8th 2018) 570

Los Angeles Times “Ellen DeGeneres accepts Carol Burnett Award at Golden Globes” by Greg Braxton (January 5th 2020) 571

NBC News “Golden Globes will serve plant-based meal at awards ceremony to raise environmental awareness” via Associated Press (January 3rd 2020) 572

Variety “Joaquin Phoenix Made the Golden Globes Go Vegan” by Meg Zukin and Ramin Setoodeh (January 5th 2020) 573

Business Insider “Sacha Baron Cohen satirically described Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg as a ‘naive, misguided child who spreads Nazi propaganda’” by Isobel Asher Hamilton (January 6th 2020) 574

Washington Post “‘Your product is defective’: Sacha Baron Cohen slams Facebook for allowing hate speech” by Katie Shepherd (November 22nd 2019) 575

Hollywood Reporter “Michelle Williams Delivers Empowering Acceptance Speech on Women’s Rights at Golden Globes” by Katherine Schaffstall (January 5th 2020) 576

New York Times “Jimmy Kimmel’s Oscars Opening Monologue” by Giovanni Russonello (February 26th 2017) 577

Tampa Bay Times “Coming-of-age love story ‘Call Me By Your Name’ is a rare treasure” by Steve Persall (January 11th 2018) 578

The Hill “Kimmel: We make films like ‘Call Me By Your Name’ to upset Mike Pence” by Morgan Gstalter (March 4th 2018) 579

Jimmy Kimmel at 2018 Oscars

580

Slate “Tiffany Haddish and Maya Rudolph Reassure America That The Oscars Are Still Pretty White” by Rachel Withers (March 4th 2018) 581

Ibid.

582

ABC News “Lupita Nyong’o, Kumail Nanjiani at the Oscars: ‘To all the Dreamers ... we stand with you’” by Emily Shapiro (March 4th 2018) 583 Vibe

“Oscars 2018: Andra Day and Common Celebrate Unsung Heroes During ‘Stand Up For Something’ Performance” by Christine Imarenzor (March 4th 2018) 584

Washington Post “Syrian refugee girl gets star treatment at the Oscars” by Christina Barron (March 5th 2018) 585 NBC

News “Aleppo Twitter Star Bana al-Abed Asks Trump to ‘Save’ Syria’s Children” by Mark Hanrahan and Ammar Cheikh Omar (January 25th 2017) 586

Variety “Here Are the 10 Activists Who Shared the Oscars Stage With Common and Andra Day” by Shirley Halperin (March 4th 2018) 587

USA Today “Mexico had great night at the Oscars. President Trump still tweeted smear” by Maria Puente (March 5th 2018) 588

The Hill “Maya Rudolph hits Trump at Oscars: ‘Mexico is not paying for the wall’” by Judy Kurtz (February 24th 2019) 589

Washington Post “Trending: Kevin Hart is out as Oscars host” by Briana R. Ellison (December 9th 2018) 590

Hollywood Reporter “Oscars: Read Spike Lee’s Powerful Political Acceptance Speech” by Jasmyne Bell (February 24th 2019) 591

The Hill “The Oscars acknowledged the indigenous land Hollywood sits on” by Anagha Srikanth (February 10th 2020) 592

Newsweek “Janelle Monae’s Oscars Performance Channels Mr. Rogers, Calls Out Lack of Diversity in Opening Number” by Samuel Spencer (February 10th 2020) 593

Washington Post “Oscar-winning ‘Hair Love’ director calls attention to efforts to ban race-based hair discrimination” by Jenna McGregor (February 10th 2020) 594

New York Post “Karl Marx gets shoutout during Barack Obama-produced film’s 2020 Oscars speech” by Tamar Lapin (February 9th 2020) 595

The Hill “Joaquin Phoenix makes impassioned plea for animal rights in Oscars speech” by Judy Kurtz (February 9th 2020) 596

The New York Times “The Oscars Will Add a Diversity Requirement for Eligibility” by Nicole Sperling (June 12th 2020) 597

Christianity Today “Katy Perry satanic performance of ‘Dark Horse’ at Grammys called demonic glorification by Glenn Beck” by Serena McGill (January 29th 2014)

598

Wall Street Journal “Nicki Minaj Defends ‘Roman Holiday’ Grammy Performance” by Lyneka Little (February 4th 2012) 599 MTV

“Lady Gaga Emerges from Egg to Perform ‘Born this Way’ at the Grammys (Jocelyn Vena (February 13th 2011) 600

New York Times “Stars Align for Gay Marriage Anthem” by James McKinnley Jr. (June 30th 2013) 601 The

Hollywood Reporter “Grammys: Macklemore and Madonna Perform ‘Same Love’ As 33 Couples Wed Live on Air” by Debbie Emery (January 26th 2014) 602

W Magazine “2017 Grammys: Jennifer Lopez Made a Moving Political Statement at the Award Ceremony” by Lynsey Eidell (February 12th 2017) 603

Hollywood Reporter “Grammys: Read the Lyrics of James Corden’s Opening Rap Number” by Lexy Perez (February 12th 2017) 604

The Hollywood Reporter “Grammys: Busta Rhymes Refers to Trump as ‘President Agent Orange’ During A Tribe Called Quest Performance” by Ryan Parker (February 12th 2017) 605

People Magazine “James Corden Jokes in Opening Monologue About Being the ‘Least Diverse Host in Grammys History’” by Jeff Nelson (January 28th 2018) 606

Mediaite “Dave Chappelle Interrupts Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy Performance With Joke About Race in America” by Rachel Dicker (January 28th 2018) 607

Politico “Hillary Clinton reads from ‘Fire and Fury’ at Grammys” by Brent D. Griffiths (January 28th 2018) 608

Vanity Fair “Michelle Obama Made a Surprise Visit to the 2019 Grammys” by Erin Vanderhoof (February 11th 2019) 609

Billboard “Childish Gambino’s ‘This Is America’ Becomes First Rap Song to Win Record of the Year Grammy” by Tatiana Cirisano (February 11th 2019) 610

Newsweek “Alicia Keys References Trump’s Impeachment, Tells President to ‘Get Out’ and Cardi B to Enter Politics at Grammys” by Christian Zhao (January 26th 2020) 611

MRCtv.org “Billy Porter ‘Ladies and Gentleman and Those Who Have Yet To Make Up Their Minds’” by Rachel Peterson (January 27th 2020) 612

Hollywood Reporter “An Epic Performance and 2 Wins: Lil Nas X’s Big Night at the Grammys” by Evan Real (January 26th 2020) 613

Hollywood Reporter “Grammys: Michelle Obama Wins Best Spoken Word Album for ‘Becoming’” by Katie Kilkenny (January 26th 2020)

614

ABC News “Taylor Swift breaks her political silence, endorses Democrats in passionate post on midterm elections” by Deena Zaru (October 8th 2018) 615 Time

“Moonlight Stars Dedicate MTV Best Kiss Award to ‘Those Who Feel Like the Misfits’” by Megan McCluskey (May 8th 2017) 616

MTV “Love, Simon’s Keiynan Lonsdale Accepts Best Kiss Award with a Magical Speech” by Crytal Bell (June 18th 2018) 617 Variety

“The MTV Movie & TV Awards: A New Gender Revolution?” by Owen Gleiberman (May 7th 2017) 618

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia_Kate_Dillon

619

Time “‘Social Forces Change Language.’ Merriam-Webster Adds Gender-Neutral Pronouns to Dictionary” by Suyin Haynes (September 17th 2019) 620

Washington Post “Emma Watson takes first major gender-neutral movie award” by Travis M. Andrews (May 8th 2017) 621

Entertainment Weekly “Vin Diesel pays tribute to Paul Walker as Fast & Furious wins MTV Generation Award” by Derek Lawrence (May 7th 2017) 622

Variety “VMAs 2018: Logic Wears ‘F— the Wall’ Shirt in Bold Statement on Immigration” by Rachel Yang (August 20th 2018) 623

The Daily Beast “MTV VMAs Unite Heather Heyer’s Mom and Robert E. Lee’s Descendant Against Racism” by Matt Wilstein (August 28th 2017) 624

Ibid.

625

The Hollywood Reporter “Taylor Swift Promotes Equality Act During 2019 VMAs Performance” by Katherine Schaffstall (August 26th 2019) 626

Forbes “What Is The Equality Act And What Will Happen If It Becomes A Law?” by Eric Bachman (May 30th 2019) 627

The Hill “Workers can’t be fired for being gay or transgender, Supreme Court rules” by Harper Neidig (June 15th 2020) 628

Digital Spy “How Star Wars: Episode VIII could break Hollywood’s final taboo” by Al Horner (December 23rd 2015) 629

The Guardian “A Force for good: why the Last Jedi is the most triumphantly feminist Star Wars movie yet” by Anna Smith (December 18th 2017)

630

The Guardian “Star Wars is a game-changer, awakening the feminist force in little girls everywhere” (December 29th 2015) 631 NBC

News “‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ Diversity a Selling Point” by Adam Howard (August 13th 2016) 632

NME “George Lucas ‘felt betrayed’ by Disney’s plans for ‘Star Wars’ sequel trilogy” by Sam Moore (September 24th 2019) 633 Business

Insider “George Lucas says he sold ‘Star Wars’ to ‘white slavers’” by Jason Guerrasio (December 31st 2015) 634

New York Post “Why ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ is the feminist picture of the year” by Kyle Smith (May 14th 2015) 635

The Guardian “How Incredibles 2 goes to work for the feminist superhero” by Anna Smith (June 28th 2018) 636

Bustle “‘Incredibles 2’ Has A Feminist Message That Couldn’t Be More Timely” by Ashley Rey (June 6th 2018) 637

Ibid.

638

Metro UK “Bird Of Prey’s Ewan McGregor is proud to be part of the ‘feminist film that tackled misogyny’” by Zara Woodcock (January 30th 2020) 639

CinemaBlend.com “Ewan Mcgregor Calls Birds Of Prey A ‘Feminist Film’” by Corey Chichizola (October 10th 2019) 640

Salon.com “‘Birds of Prey’ is a fantabulous, feminist grenade” by Mary Elizabeth Williams (February 8th 2020) 641

Digital Spy “Birds of Prety does feminism in a way Endgame never could” by Gabriella Geisinger (June 2nd 2020) 642

ABC News “‘Ghostbusters’ Star Leslie Jones Quits Twitter After Online Harassment” by Luchina Fisher and Brian McBride (June 20th 2016) 643

Forbes “‘Ghostbusters’ Brand Crosses The (Revenue) Streams For Halloween” by Simon Thompson (July 17th 2019) 644

Fox News “‘Ghostbusters’ reboot director faces sexism accusations for saying he’s handing the film ‘back to the fans’” by Joseph A. Wulfsohn (February 21st 2019) 645

IndieWire “Tim Miller Says ‘Terminator: Dark Fate’ Will ‘Scare the F*ck’ Out of Misogynistic Internet Trolls” by Zack Sharf (July 10th 2019)

646

Variety “Box Office Bomb: ‘Terminator: Dark Fate’ Could Lose Over $100 Million” by Rebecca Rubin (November 3rd 2019) 647 Hollywood

Reporter “‘Terminator: Dark Fate’ Puts Franchise on Ice, Faces $120M-Plus Loss” by Pamela McClintock (November 3rd 2019) 648

IndieWire “Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett Second Brie Larson in Championing More Diversity Among Film Critics” by Jenna Marotta (June 15th 2018) 649 Deadline

“‘Hobbs’ Hauls $25M; ‘Scary Stories’ Frighten ‘Dora’; ‘Kitchen’ Sinks Melissa McCarthy & Tiffany Haddish To Career B.O. Lows – Sunday Final” by Anthony D’Alessandro (August 11th 2019) 650

Hollywood Reporter “‘Doogie Howser’ Reboot in the Works at Disney+” by Rick Porter (April 8th 2020) 651

Entertainment Weekly “Margot Robbie set to star in new Pirates of the Caribbean movie” by Nick Romano (June 26th 2020) 652

The Sun “INDIANA JOANS - Ready Player One director Steven Spielberg says it’s time for a woman to play Indiana Jones” (by Grant Rollins (April 3rd 2018) 653

Entertainment Weekly “Vin Diesel says a female Fast & Furious spin-off is coming, so here are some we’d love to see” by Derek Lawrence (January 24th 2019) 654

Washington Times “‘Dunkirk’ review in USA Today warns ‘no lead actors of color’ in WWIIinspired film” by Douglas Ernst (July 19th 2017) 655

https://seejane.org/about-us/

656

Hollywood Reporter “Geena Davis Unveils Partnership With Disney to ‘Spellcheck’ Scripts for Gender Bias (by Patrick Brzeski (October 10th 2019) 657

The New Republic “Cleaning: The Final Feminist Frontier” by Jessica Grose (March 18th 2013)

658

Forbes “What Amy Schumer And Bud Light Have To Say About Marketplace Inequality” by Ian Ayres (August 15th 2016) 659

New York Post “Bud Light abruptly pulls Amy Schumer, Seth Rogen ads” via Fox News (November 1st 2016) 660

CNBC “The big problem with Bud Light’s new commercial” by Sarah Whitten (June 30th 2016)

661

ABC News “Burger King raises awareness of the pink tax with ‘Chick Fries’ that cost $1.40 more” (July 28th 2018)

662

Wall Street Journal “Audi’s Super Bowl Ad on Gender Pay Gap Faces Criticism” by Alexandra Bruell (February 2nd 2017) 663 Ibid. 664

Men’s Health “Secret Deodorant’s Super Bowl Ad Contains a Powerful Message About Gender Equality” by Philip Ellis (January 31st 2020) 665 UnstereotypeAlliance.org

“About the Unstereotype Alliance”

666

The Federalist “In Flight of Idiocy, Diamond Ad Tells Women to Propose to Men (by David Marcus (November 19th 2018) 667

US Weekly “Amy Schumer Is Reportedly in Talks to Star in Live-Action Barbie Movie” by Stephanie Webber (December 2nd 2016) 668

Variety “Amy Schumer Drops Out of ‘Barbie’ Movie” by Justin Kroll (March 23rd 2017)

669

Time Magazine’s 2013 List of Most Influential People

670

Breitbart “Lena Dunham Celebrates Gaining 24 Pounds” by Ben Kew (July 11th 2018)

671

Breitbart “Lena Dunham Posts Lingerie Photo to Celebrate Weighing ‘The Most I Ever Have’” by Justin Caruso (February 27th 2019) 672

ET Online “Lizzo Poses Fully Nude in Racy Instagram Photos and Video” by Paige Gawley (December 2nd 2019) 673

Page Six “Lizzo’s bikini and matching face mask balance safety with sex appeal” by Elana Fishman (May 25th 2020) 674

Entertainment Weekly “‘Fat Monica’ is the ghost that continues to haunt Friends 25 years later” by Clarkisha Kent (September 4th 2019) 675

The Revelist “The 8 most fat-phobic movies in Hollywood, ranked by awfulness” by Lauren Gordon (October 3rd 2016) 676

Slate “Fat-E: The new Pixar movie goes out of its way to equate obesity with environmental collapse” by Daniel Engber (July 10th 2008) 677

Ibid.

678

The Telegraph “WALL-E's ‘fattist’ satire angers fat pride groups” by Tim Shipman and Rowena Mason (July 12th 2008) 679

CNN “The food that can feed, and maybe save, the planet: Bugs” by Sandee LaMotte (October 25th 2019)

680

USA Today “Victoria’s Secret just got its first plus-sized model: ‘It felt surreal’” by Rasha Ali (October 8th 2019) 681 The

New York Times “Victoria’s Secret Casts First Openly Transgender Woman as a Model” by Christine Hauser (August 5th 2019) 682

Los Angeles Times “Valentina Sampaio makes history as first transgender Victoria’s Secret model” by Christi Carras (August 5th 2019) 683 New

York Post “Abercrombie tries to redeem its body-shaming past with inclusive ad campaign” by Melkorka Licea (February 6th 2020) 684

The Cut “Now, This Is a Supermodel. Ashley Graham isn’t a sample size. Which is exactly why she’s become the face of a movement” by Jada Yuan (August 6th 2017) 685

USA Today “NFL cheerleading is demeaning to women. It’s time to end this nonsense” by Tom Krattenmaker (August 9th 2018) 686

New York Daily News “Mattel remakes Barbie dolls to include a curvy body type” by Nicole Lyn Pesce (January 28th 2016) 687

https://twitter.com/sofiehagen/status/903706367646687232

688

The Atlantic “Americans Have No Idea How Few Gay People There Are” by Garance FrankeRuta May 31st 2012) 689

Gallup “Americans Still Greatly Overestimate U.S. Gay Population” by Justin McCarthy (June 27th 2019) 690

Psychology Today “When Homosexuality Stopped Being a Mental Disorder” by Neel Burton (September 18th 2015) 691

Gay Community News “Gay Revolutionary” by Michael Swift (February 15th 1987)

692

After the Ball: How America Will Conquer its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the 90s by Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen (1989 Doubleday) 693

Washington Post “Biden: Jewish leaders helped gay marriage succeed” by Rachel Weiner (May 22nd 2013) 694

Newsweek “Sex Offender Busted as Drag Queen Who Read Books To Children in City Library” by Scott McDonald (March 16th 2019) 695

Pink News “Republican Lawmakers Want to Make Child Drag Shows Illegal” by PinkNews Staff Writer (April 22nd 2019)

696

New York Times “Chick-fil-A Thrust Back Into Spotlight on Gay Rights” by Kim Severson (July 25th 2012) 697 In

CNN’s “The Nineties” miniseries in episode 1 “The One About TV Part 2”

698

Ibid.

699 NBC

News “In a first, transgender woman competes in Miss Universe competition” by Tim Frizsimons (December 17th 2018) 700

CNN “Valentina Sampaio becomes Sports Illustrated's first trans model” by Kiely Westhoff (July 13th 2020) 701

BuzzFeed “Luke Grimes Left ‘True Blood’ Because He Refused To Play Gay” by Louis Peitzman (June 25th 2015) 702

New York Daily News “‘True Blood’ star Nelsan Ellis on Luke Grimes quitting show because he didn't want to play gay: ‘I’m over him’” by Kirthana Ramisetti (July 24th 2014) 703

NBC News “‘Abby’s,’ 2nd network sitcom with a bisexual lead, premieres” by Gwen Aviles (March 28th 2019) 704

Washington Examiner “AOC backs drag queen ‘patriots’ to ‘push society forward’” by Spencer Neale (April 11th 2020) 705

Vanity Fair “Is this the one flaw in the otherwise great Captain America: Civil War?” by Joanna Robinson (May 9th 2016) 706

Ibid.

707

The Washington Times “‘Black Panther’ packed with action, diversity -- but no gays” by Bradford Richardson (February 20th 2018) 708

Washington Times “GLAAD report condemns Hollywood for decline in LGBT representation on big screen” by Bradford Richardson (May 23rd 2018) 709

The Daily Mail “‘The sexual tension is always there’: Gal Gadot teases potential romance between her character and Kristen Wiig’s villain Cheetah in Wonder Woman 1984” by Roxy Simons (May 30th 2020) 710

Entertainment Weekly “The Eternals will feature Marvel’s first onscreen LGBTQ kiss: ‘It’s a beautiful, very moving kiss’” by Sydney Bucksbaum (February 15th 2020) 711

NBC News “Transgender character coming to Marvel Cinematic Universe, studio president suggests” by Gwen Aviles (January 2nd 2020)

712

NBC News “Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie to become Marvel Studios’ first LGBTQ superhero” by Alexander Kacala (July 22nd 2019) 713 The

Hollywood Reporter “Ruby Rose to Play Lesbian Superhero Batwoman for The CW” by Lesley Goldberg (August 7th 2018) 714

Newsweek “‘Batwoman’ Officially Comes Out on the CW Show: Ruby Rose ‘Cried’ While Reading the Script” by Samuel Spencer 1-20-2020) 715 The

Hollywood Reporter “‘Batwoman’ Boss Goes Inside That Historic Reveal”by Shannon O’Connor (January 19th 2020) 716

Shadows of the Bat: The Cinematic Saga of the Dark Knight Part 6-Batman Unbound (2005) Warner Home Video 717

ABC - Barbara Walters Interview (2006)

718

New York Post “DC Comics Green Lantern relaunched as gay superhero” by Dareh Gregorian (June 1st 2012) 719

The Washington Times “Catwoman comes out as bisexual in new DC comic” by Jessica Chasmar (March 1st 2015) 720

The Sun “SASSY SPIDEY Tom Holland hints there will be a gay Spider Man in the next few years” by Carl Greenwood (June 30th 2019) 721

We Got This Covered “Sony Reportedly Wants To Introduce A Bisexual Spider-Man” by Christian Bone (February 11th 2020) 722

Entertainment Weekly “Andrew Garfield on Spider-Man’s sexuality: ‘Why can't he be gay?’” by Sara Vilkomerson (July 10th 2013) 723

Vanity Fair “‘Of Course’ Luke Skywalker Is Gay, Confirms Mark Hamill, Echoing Thousands of Fan-Fiction Prayers” by Charles Bramesco (March 5th 2016) 724

BuzzFeed “Why LGBT Representation Didn’t Make It Into ‘The Last Jedi’” by Adam B. Vary (December 18th 2017) 725

Ibid.

726

Ibid.

727

Ibid.

728

Pink News “Oscar Isaac wishes Star Wars’ Poe and Finn were in a gay relationship but ‘people are too afraid’” by Emma Powys Maurice (December 4th 2019)

729

New York Post “‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’ has a same-sex kiss – but not the one fans hoped for” by Eric Hegedus (December 19th 2019) 730 E!

News “Disney Channel Introduces Its First Lesbian Couple on Good Luck Charlie” by Alyssa Toomey (January 28th 2014) 731

New York Times “Waiting for Disney’s First Gay Teenager” By KJ Dell’Antonia (February 27, 2014) 732 Breitbart

“ABC Family’s ‘The Fosters’ Airs Youngest-Ever Gay Kiss Between Two 13-Year-Old Boys” by Kipp Jones (March 4th 2015) 733

BuzzFeed “This May Be The Youngest Ever Same-Sex Kiss On US TV” by Lane Sainty (March 2nd 2005) 734

The Guardian “Beauty and the Beast to feature first ‘exclusively gay moment’ in a Disney movie” by Catherine Shoard (March 1st 2017) 735

Entertainment Weekly “Disney XD gets a male princess in Star vs. the Forces of Evil” by Nick Romano (November 22nd 2017) 736

Huffington Post “Disney Sends Beautiful Message With First ‘Boy Princess,’ Complete With Chest Hair” by Noah Michelson (November 22nd 2017) 737

Teen Vogue “Disney Just Aired its First Same-Sex Cartoon Kiss” by Brittney McNamara (February 27th 2017) 738

Gay Times “Toy Story 4 has a small but important moment of LGBTQ representation” by Daniel Megarry (June 26th 2019) 739

Newsweek “Comedian Jack Whitehall to Play Disney’s First-Ever Openly Gay Character in ‘Jungle Cruise’ by Dory Jackson (August 13th 2018) 740

Yahoo! “‘Onward’ introduces the first LGBTQ character in Disney animation history” by Ethan Alter (February 21st 2020) 741

NBC News “New short film ‘Out’ features Pixar’s first gay main character” by Gwen Aviles (May 22nd 2020) 742

CNN “Disney confirms its first bisexual lead character, who is also multi-cultural” by Adrianne Morales (August 15th 2020) 743

New York Post “‘The Owl House’ becomes Disney’s first show with bisexual lead character “ by Lee Brown (August 16th 2020) 744

Hornet “‘Sesame Street’ Celebrates Pride Month, But How LGBTQ-Friendly Is the Show?” by Daniel Villarreal (June 27th 2017)

745

NBC News “Bert and Ernie are indeed a gay couple, ‘Sesame Street’ writer claims” by Kalhan Rosenblatt (September 18th 2018) 746 The

Washington Post “‘They remain puppets’: ‘Sesame Street,’ once again, shuts down speculation over Bert and Ernie’s sexual orientation” by Elahe Izadi (September 19th 2018) 747

Entertainment Weekly “Arthur season premiere reveals Mr. Ratburn is gay” by Tyler Aquilina (May 13th 2019) 748 CBN

News “‘Clifford the Big Red Dog’ Becomes Second PBS Kid Series to Feature LGBT Character” by Steve Warren (February 28th 2020) 749

The Daily Caller “Kids’ Networks Celebrate Transgender People Through #TransDayOfVisibility” by Mary Margaret Olohan (March 31st 2020) 750

Seattle Times “Does ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ at The 5th Ave transcend the original’s problematic elements?” by Seattle Times Staff (December 20th 2019) 751

BuzzFeed “25 Years Of Transphobia In Comedy” by Meredith Talusan (February 27th 2016)

752

This quote was included in the original article published by Variety titled “10 Problematic Films That Could Use Warning Labels” by Tim Gray (June 17th 2020) but was later removed because it insinuates that transgenderism is a mental illness. The Internet Archive Wayback Machine has the original article saved and can be viewed at https://web.archive.org/web/20200618004648/https://variety.com/2020/film/news/gone-with-thewind-problem-films-forrest-gump-1234640666/ 753

Slate “When Gays Decried Silence of the Lambs , Jonathan Demme Became an Early Student of Modern Backlash” by Jeffrey Bloomer (April 28th 2017) 754

CNN “‘Family Guy’ phasing out gay jokes” by Lisa Respers (January 2019)

755

Politifact “Why Infowars’ Alex Jones was banned from Apple, Facebook, Youtube and Spotify” by Manuela Tobias (August 7th 2018) 756

Associated Press “NY Library Brings Drag Queens to Kids Story Hour” Video posted on official AP Archive YouTube channel (May 21st 2017) 757

Lifesite News “WATCH: Drag queen teaches kids to ‘twerk’ at library story hour” by Calvin Freiburger (August 7th 2019) 758

Media Research Center “Good Morning America Devotes a Whole Segment to a Child Drag Queen” by Ferlon Webster Jr. (November 19th 2018) 759

The Advocate “Meet 8-Year-Old Drag Queen Lactatia” by Neal Boverman (May 6th 2017)

760

HuffPost “Meet The ‘Drag Kids’ Who Want To Slay The World And Then Some” by Curtis M. Wong (October 24th 2019) 761 Newsbusters

“Sick: RuPaul’s New Drag Queen Dramedy Sexualizes 10-Year-Old Child as a ‘Top’” by Elise Ehrhard (January 13th 2020) 762

NPR “‘Dancing Queen’: Alyssa Edwards Doesn't Let Dance Moms Drag Her Down” by Glen Weldon (October 11th 2018) 763 The

Verge “Twitter has banned misgendering or ‘deadnaming’ transgender people” by Adi Robertson (November 27th 2018) 764

E! News “Why Charlize Theron Decided to Speak Out About Raising Two Daughters” by Jess Cohen (December 17th 2019) 765

OK Magazine “Shiloh Jolie-Pitt ‘Only Wears Boys’ Clothes’ After Questioning Gender Identity To Brad & Angelina” (August 4th 2016) 766

Today “Megan Fox opens up about letting her 6-year-old son wear dresses” by Ree Hines (September 20th 2019) 767

Teen Vogue “Megan Fox’s Son Wore a Frozen Dress Again in Spite of Critics” by Alyssa Hardy (October 5th 2017) 768

The Independent “Adele letting her son dress as Disney princess Anna is a triumph for us believers in gender-neutral parenting” by Siobhan Freegard (February 19th 2016) 769

HuffPost “Liev Schreiber’s Son Dressed As Harley Quinn, And the Internet Inevitably Reacted” by Isabelle Khoo (July 25th 2017) 770

NBC News “Mario Lopez’s comments about transgender kids aren’t just dumb. They’re dangerous.” by Chase Strangio (August 1st 2019) 771

LGBTQ Nation “The new normal: Gay couple featured in Tide TV commercial” (December 14th 2014) 772

Huff Post “J.C. Penney and Gap’s Gay-Themed Ads Seek Profit With Progress” by Ron Dicker (May 17th 2012) 773

Huffington Post “This Campbell’s Soup Ad Featuring Gay Dads Will Melt Your Heart” by Curtis M. Wong (10-6-2015) 774

NewsBusters “Dove Ad Features Transgender Mom: ‘No One Right Way’” by Sarah Stites (April 12th 2017) 775

CBS News “New Gillette ad shows dad teaching transgender son how to shave” by Aimee Picchi (May 29th 2019)

776

Daily Caller “Starbucks Partners With Trans Children Charity, Releases Ad On Calling Transgender Youth By Preferred Pronouns” by Marty Margaret Olohan (February 5th 2020) 777 Daily

Beast “Why Coke’s Non-Binary Super Bowl Moment Mattered” by Samantha Allen (February 5th 2018) 778

The commercial is titled “Late-Night Driver” and can be seen on YouTube and elsewhere.

779 Forbes

“Behind The Scenes Of Smirnoff’s New ‘Hang Out From Home For America’ Campaign With Laverne Cox” by Emily Price (April 24th 2020) 780

Newsweek “These 50+ Brands Are Celebrating Pride by Giving Back to the LGBT Community” by Daniel Avery (June 3rd 2019) 781

USA Today “How retailers have turned Pride month into a marketing, sales bonanza” by Verena Dobnik via Associated Press (June 23rd 2019) 782

PJ Media “Creepy New Sprite Commercial Sells Transgenderism and Breast Binding, Not Soda” by Megan Fox (November 18th 2019) 783

The Guardian “Actor Terry Crews: I was sexually assaulted by Hollywood executive” by Gwilym Mumford (October 11th 2017) 784

Vanity Fair “James Van Der Beek Reveals His Own Experience of Sexual Harassment” by Hilary Weaver (October 12th 2017) 785

Vanity Fair “‘I Was Terrified, and I Was Humiliated’: #MeToo’s Male Accusers, One Year Later” by Laura Bradley (October 4th 2018) 786

Newsweek “Terry Crews Threatens to ‘Slap’ D.L. Hughley for Mocking His Sexual Assault Allegation” by Dory Jackson (January 28th 2019) 787

VLADTV “Fat Joe thinks the Gay Mafia Controls Hip-Hop” (November 7th 2011)

788

Washington Times “‘Gay’ rape in military underreported by Pentagon” by Rowan Scarborough (November 3rd 2015) 789

U.S Army S.H.A.R.P (Sexual Harassment / Assault Response & Prevention report “What We Know About Sexual Assault of Military Men” 790

Sky News “Adopted Boy Sexually Abused by Gay Fathers” (July 3rd 2013)

791

The Telegraph “Gay couple arrested for abusing foster children” by Paul Stokes (June 24th 2006)

792

Australian Broadcast Network “Australian paedophile Peter Truong jailed for 30 years in US after trafficking adopted son to Boy Lovers Network” (December 9th 2013)

793

USA Today “Anderson Cooper proudly announces the birth of his son Wyatt: ‘I am a dad. I have a son’” by Cydney Henderson (April 30th 2020) 794 CBS

News “Is there a ‘gay gene’? Major new study says no” by Dennis Thompson (August 29th

2019) 795

The Telegraph “‘Gay gene’ ruled out as huge study shows environment is major factor in homosexuality.” by Sarah Knapton (August 29th 2019) 796 PBS

“There is no ‘gay gene.’ There is no ‘straight gene.’ Sexuality is just complex, study confirms” (August 29th 2019) 797

Psychology Today “Why Is Transgender Identity on the Rise Among Teens?” by Samuel Paul Veissiere Ph.D. (November 28th 2018) 798

Basic Freud: Psychoanalytic Thought for the 21st Century by Michael Kahn, Ph.D page 77 - on the negative resolution of the Oedipus complex (2002 Basic Books) 799

Sci Tech Daily “Homosexuality Might Develop in the Womb Due to Epigenetic Changes” (December 12th 2012) 800

Science Magazine “Homosexuality may be caused by chemical modifications to DNA” by Michael Balter (October 8th 2015) 801

Evolutionary Psychology Science (2017) “Social Epistasis Amplifies the Fitness Costs of Deleterious Mutations, Engendering Rapid Fitness Decline Among Modernized Populations” by Michael A. Woodley, Matthew A Sarraf, Radomir Pestow, and Heitor B.F. Fernandes 802

Of Mice and Men: Empirical Support for the Population-Based Social Epistasis Amplification Model by Matthew Alexander Sarraf and Michael Anthony Woodley (National Institute of Health 2017) 803

The Journal of Offender Rehabilitation “The Genesis of Pedophilia” by J. Paul Fedoraff and Shara Pinkus pages 85-101 (Volume 23, 1996) 804

Dictionary.com definition of “phobia”: a persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that leads to a compelling desire to avoid it. (2020) 805

Adam Carolla - In 50 Years We’ll All Be Chicks page 12 (Crown Archetype 2012)

806

TVtropes.org “Sleeping Single”

807

Mental Floss “16 Things You Might Not Know About The Brady Bunch” by Kara Kovalchik (February 25th 2016) 808

Forbes “Hollywood’s Highest-Paid TV Actors” by Dorothy Pomerantz (October 11th 2011)

809

CNN “‘Fifty Shades of Grey sex toys hit stores like Target” by Katie Lobosco (February 3rd 2015) 810 Hollywood

Reporter “Death in a Hollywood Sex Dungeon: How a Top Agency Executive’s ‘Mummification’ Ritual Ended in Tragedy” by Seth Abramovitch (June 29th 2018) 811

Page Six “S&M-loving Hollywood exec keeps job after man dies in his sex dungeon” by Richard Johnson (June 29th 2018) 812 New

York Times “R. Kelly’s Two-Decade Trail of Sexual Abuse Accusations” by Jacey Fortin (May 10th 2018) 813

The Guardian “Fashion photographer Terry Richardson accused of sexually exploiting models” by Caroline Davies (March 19th 2010) 814

MTV “Lady Gaga Gives a Lesson On ‘Chemistry’ with R. Kelly in ‘Do What U Want’ Video” by Jocelyn Vena (November 11th 2013) 815

Hollywood Reporter “Nicki Minaj Performs ‘Super Bass’ With YouTube Star Sophia Grace” by Erika Ramirez (October 12th 2011) 816

USA Today “Nicki Minaj’s brother Jelani Maraj sentenced to 25 years to life for raping 11-yearold” by Cydney Henderson (January 27th 2020) 817

New York Post “Husband cheered on Hogan during sex-tape romps with wife” by Kathianne Boniello and Laura Italiano (March 20th 2016) 818

Deadline “HGTV’s House Hunters Breaks New Ground With Its First Throuple Exploration” by Bruce Haring (February 13th 2020) 819

New York Post “Rep. Katie Hill resigns amid snowballing ‘throuple’ scandal” by Marisa Schultz and Kenneth Garger (October 27th 2019) 820

Newsbusters “Now Even Network Sitcoms Have ‘Throuples:’ ABC Comedy on Polyamory: ‘It Just Works!’” by Elise Ehrhard (January 15th 2020) 821

Newsbusters “Gay Psychiatrist on ‘New Amsterdam’ Pushes Incest” by Karen Townsend (February 26th 2020) 822

Fox News “‘The Notebook’ director Nick Cassavetes says of incest: ‘Who gives a damn?’” (September 10th 2012) 823

The Cinemaholic “20 Best Incest Movies of All Time” by Vishnu Warrior (August 16th 2018)

824

Ranker “13 Steamiest Incestuous Relationships In Film” by Roger Nackerman (June 8th 2020)

825

ABC News “Mackenzie Phillips Confesses to 10-Year Consensual Sexual Relationship With Father” by Russell Goldman, Eileen Murphy, and Lindsay Goldwert (September 22nd 2009) 826 Fox

News “North Carolina father-daughter couple arrested for incest after having love child” (February 4th 2018) 827

Cosmopolitan “Girl describes what it was like to have sex with her dad” (February 19th 2015)

828 Cosmopolitan

“This is what it’s like to fall in love with your brother” by Asher Fogle (October

30th 2015) 829

The Guardian “Genetic sexual attraction” (May 16th 2003)

830

The Telegraph “Disgusted by incest? Genetic Sexual Attraction is real and on the rise” by Charlie Gill (September 9th 2016) 831

https://marriage-equality.blogspot.com/p/genetic-sexual-attraction.html

832

Daily Mail “Billionaire David Geffen, 69, splits from toyboy lover 41 years his junior after six years together” by Daniel Bates (February 21st 2012) 833

Daily Mail “David Geffen takes out restraining order against his ’20-year-old former college football player ex after ending affair’” by James Nye (December 29th 2014) 834

Daily Mail “Liberace’s ex-lover who wrote memoir ‘Behind the Candelabra’ is back behind bars after violating his probation and testing positive for meth in random drug test” by Ashley Collman (September 6th 2013) 835

Page Six “Sarah Paulson defends 32-year age gap with girlfriend Holland Taylor” by Francesca Bacardi (May 22nd 2018) 836

The Guardian “‘I wouldn’t want this for anybody’s daughter’: will #MeToo kill off the rock’n’roll groupie?” by Thea De Gallier (March 15th 2018) 837

Seinfeld FAQ: Everything Left to Know About the Show About by Nicholas Nigro Nothing (2015 Applause Theatre and Cinema Books) 838

New York Times “Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Soon-Yi Previn, Dylan Farrow: A Timeline” by Sopan Deb and Deborah Leiderman (January 31st 2018) 839

Time “Study Finds Most Teens Sext Before They’re 18” by Randye Hoder (July 3rd 2014)

840

Daily Mail “Children ‘at risk of abuse’ because they’re copying Kim’s sexy selfies: Trend for imitating explicit images posted online by celebrities leaves young girls vulnerable to predators, experts warn” by Laura Cox (November 14th 2014)

841

People “Kim Kardashian Posts Topless Photo Taken by Daughter North West” by Brittany Talarico (February 8th 2018) 842 The

Telegraph “How porn is rewiring our brains” by Nisha Lilia Diu (November 15th 2013)

843

Ibid.

844 Vice

“Porn Is Still Allowed On Twitter” by Samantha Cole (November 3rd 2017)

845

BBC “‘I was raped at 14, and the video ended up on a porn site’” by Megha Mohan (February 10th 2020). 846

Ibid.

847

Newsweek “Florida Man Arrested After 58 Porn Videos, Photos Link Him To Missing Underage Teen Girl” by Scott McDonald (October 23rd 2019) 848

Breitbart “Nolte: Pornhub Under Fire for Allegedly Hosting Rape, Child Porn Videos” by John Nolte (February 10th 2020) 849

Teen Vogue “Sex Work is Real Work” by Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng (April 26th 2019)

850

The Independent “Porn and video game addiction leading to ‘masculinity crisis’, says Stanford psychologist” by Doug Bolton (March 10th 2015) 851

ABC News Nightline “Actor Corey Feldman Says Pedophilia No. 1 Problem for Child Stars, Contributed to Demise of Corey Haim” By Steven Baker and David Wright (August 10, 2011) 852

Fox News “Corey Feldman’s tense Barbara Walters interview recirculates amid Harvey Weinstein scandal” (October 17th 2017) 853

Entertainment Weekly “Corey Feldman accuses Charlie Sheen of sexually abusing Corey Haim in (My) Truth documentary” by Rosy Cordero (March 10th 2020) 854

Ibid.

855

Vanity Fair “Corey Feldman on Abuse Allegations: ‘It’s All Connected to a Bigger, Darker Power’” by Yohana Desta (November 10th 2017) 856

Vanity Fair “Elijah Wood Says Hollywood Has a Pedophilia Problem” by Alex Stedman (May 23rd 2016) 857

CNN “Elijah Wood clarifies comments on pedophilia and Hollywood” by Lisa Respers (May 24th 2016) 858

The Hollywood Reporter “Hollywood Sex Abuse Film Revealed: Explosive Claims, New Figures Named (Exclusive)” by Gregg Kilday (November 12th 2014)

859

The Atlantic “Nobody Is Going to Believe You” by Alex French and Maximillian Potter (March 2019 Issue) 860 The

Hollywood Reporter “Bryan Singer Sex Abuse Case: The Troubling History Behind the Accusations” by Kim Masters and Jonathan Handel (April 30th 2014) 861

Los Angeles Times “Child sexual abuse cases in Hollywood attract attention” by Dawn C. Chmielewski (January 08, 2012) 862 Ibid 863

Ibid

864

Ibid

865

People “Bohemian Rhapsody Director Bryan Singer Accused of Sexually Assaulting Four Underage Boys” by Ale Russian (January 23rd 2019) 866

Variety “Bryan Singer Hit With Fresh Allegations of Sex With Underage Boys” by Gene Maddaus (January 23rd 2019) 867

The Federalist “A Timeline of the Many Sexual Assault Accusations Against Director Bryan Singer” by Paulina Enck (June 25th 2020) 868

Chicago Tribune “Bryan Singer Allegations Part of Upcoming Sex Abuse Documentary” by Ramin Setoodeh (April 18th 2014) 869

New York Magazine “Jeffrey Epstein’s Rolodex: A Guide to His Famous Friends and Acquaintances” by Adam K. Raymond and Matt Stieb (July 10th 2019) 870

Fox News “Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged ‘spy’ ties under fresh scrutiny in new book” by Hollie McKay (June 18th 2020) 871

Daily Mail “French government drops support for director Roman Polanski as he faces extradition to the U.S.” by Peter Allen (October 1st 2009) 872

Snopes “Did Meryl Streep Applaud Roman Polanski at the Academy Awards?” Rating: True (January 9th 2017) 873

CBS News “An Oscar Out Of Reach For Polanski” via the Associated Press (Marcy 24th 2003)

874

The Guardian “Polanski was not guilty of ‘rape-rape’, says Whoopi Goldberg” by MaevKennedy (September 29th 2009) 875

Time “Quentin Tarantino Defends Roman Polanski in Resurfaced Interview: 13-Year-Old Victim ‘Wanted to Have It’ by Cady Lang (February 7th 2018)

876

Ibid.

877 The

Independent “Polanski has served his time and must be freed” by Harvey Weinstein (September 28th 2009) 878

Indy Wire “Over 100 In Film Community Sign Polanski Petition” by Peter Knegt (September 29th 2009) 879 Rolling

Stone “Barbra Streisand Draws Criticism for Stance on Michael Jackson’s ‘Leaving Neverland’ Accusers” by Daniel Kreps (March 23rd 2019) 880

The Independent “It movie: How the book’s infamous orgy scene is handled and why Stephen King wrote the scene” by Jack Shepherd (September 10th 2017) 881

The Telegraph “Why the It movie left out Stephen King’s Losers’ Club sewer orgy” by Adam White (September 8th 2017) 882

SciFiNow Annual “Stephen King’s It: 25th Anniversary” (Vol. 2. 2015) pages 160–163

883

Mediaite “ABC News Changes Headline About Kevin Spacey After Spinning His ‘Emotional’ Coming Out” by Joseph A. Wulfsohn (October 30th 2017) 884

News.com.au “‘Over-indulgence, not predatory behaviour’: Hollywood CEO says Kevin Spacey deserves forgiveness” by Frank Chung (October 31st 2017) 885

Entertainment Weekly “Family Guy producers finally explain origin of 2005 Kevin Spacey joke” by Dan Snierson (January 4th 2018) 886

Hollywood Reporter “Seth MacFarlane Explains 2013 Oscars Jab at ‘Abhorrent, Indefensible’ Harvey Weinstein” by Ashley Lee (October 11th 2017) 887

USA Today “Kevin Spacey posts bizarre video suggesting you ‘kill people with kindness’” by Maria Puente (December 24th 2019) 888

Hollywood Reporter “Kevin Spacey Accuser Dies in Midst of Sexual Assault Lawsuit” by Eriq Gardner (September 18th 2019) 889

CBS News “Kevin Spacey accuser and writer Ari Behn dies by suicide” via Associated Press (December 26th 2019) 890

NBC News “Mass shootings: Experts say violence is contagious, and 24/7 news cycle doesn’t help” by Dennis Romero (August 5th 2019) 891

Time “Suicide Deaths Are Often ‘Contagious.’ This May Help Explain Why” by Jamie Ducharme (April 18th 2019)

892

Washington Post “Undercover police officers in theaters as Warner Bros.’ ‘Joker’ opens” by Steven Zetchik (October 4th 2019) 893 The

New York Post “It’s reasonable to ask if ‘Joker’ will inspire would-be killers” by Sara Stewart (September 24th 2019) 894

NBC News “‘Joker’ backlash: Aurora shooting victims’ families express concerns to Warner Bros.” by Daniel Arkin (September 24th 2019) 895 Washington

Post “Hinckley, Jury Watch ‘Taxi Driver’ Film” by Laura A. Kiernan (May 29th

1982) 896

The Hill “Investigation shows more than 100 copycat shooters inspired by Columbine since 1999” by Rachel Frazin (April 17th 2019) 897

The Guardian “Natural Born Copycats” by Xan Brooks (December 19th 2002)

898

NBC News “Robin Williams’ death followed by rise in suicides” by Maggie Fox (February 7th 2018) 899

Ibid.

900

NPR “Teen Suicide Spiked After Debut Of Netflix’s ‘13 Reasons Why,’ Study Says” by Matthew S. Schwartz (April 30th 2019) 901

New York Times “The Science Behind Suicide Contagion” by Margot Sanger-Katz (August 13th 2014) 902

Time “Fifty Shades of Grey Inspired Student’s Sexual Assault, Prosecutors Say” by Kevin McSpadden (February 24th 2015) 903

New York Daily News “Jamie Dornan says he’s scared of 'Fifty Shades of Grey’ fans: ‘I fear I'll get murdered like John Lennon’” by Kirthana Ramisetti (January 8th 2015) 904

Daily Mail “Revealed: How black robbers copied Ben Affleck film ‘The Town’ by disguising themselves as white cops with latex masks to snatch $200,000 from check-cashing store” (July 31st 2013) 905

ABC News “Thieves Dressed Like Nuns Rob Chicago Bank in Scene out of ‘The Town’” by Russell Goldman (May 31st 2011) 906

NBC New York “Teen Pleads Guilty to ‘Fight Club’-Inspired Starbucks Bombing” by Colleen Long (September 17th 2010) 907

Inside Edition “Was Suspect in Austin Explosions Inspired by Unabomber Miniseries?” (March 20th 2018)

908

Reuters “French police arrest over 100 after Halloween ‘Purge’ night riots” by Michael Roseand Catherine Lagrange (November 1st 2018) 909 USA

Today “Social media ‘Purge’ campaigns spark fear of bloody copycats” by Nindsay Deutsch, Kelsey Pape and Ryan Haarer (August 19th 2014) 910

The Irish Times “Student charged with murder amid concerns in France over violent films” (June 6th 2002) 911 Orlando

Sentinel “Inspired by Vampire Film, Man Stabs His Girlfriend” (November 30th 1994)

912

Chicago Tribune “Ex-gang member talks about rap music’s influence” by Dawn M. Turner (November 5th 2015) 913

NPR “Study: Rap Music Linked to Alcohol, Violence” (May 8th 2006)

914

“Dead People” by The Game on the album “Jesus Piece” (2012)

915

USA Today “Sheriff: Man acting out rap song fatally shoots friend” by J.D. Gallop via Florida Today (January 28th 2015) 916

Hawaii Tribune Herald “Nanawale murder suspect says Jay Z possessed his body” by John Burnett (October 10th 2015) 917

Spin “Jay-Z Asks Why XXXTentacion Died While George Zimmerman Lives on Drake’s ‘Talk Up’” by Israel Daramola (June 29th 2018) 918

A Concise Survey of Music Philosophy by Donald A Hodges page 111 (Routledge 2016)

919

Simple Psychology “Bobo Doll Experiment” by Sean McLeod (February 5th 2014)

920

CHILDREN, VIOLENCE, AND THE MEDIA: A Report for Parents and Policy Makers Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Utah, Chairman, Committee on the Judiciary, Prepared by Majority Staff Senate Committee on the Judiciary (September 14, 1999) 921

Fundamentals of Media Effects - Second Edition by Jennings Bryant, Susan Thompson, and Bruce W. Finklea page 74 (Waveland Press Inc. 2013) 922

Fundamentals of Media Effects - Second Edition by Jennings Bryant, Susan Thompson, and Bruce W. Finklea pages 78-81 (Waveland Press Inc. 2013) 923

Fundamentals of Media Effects - Second Edition by Jennings Bryant, Susan Thompson, and Bruce W. Finklea page 79 (Waveland Press Inc. 2013) 924

Los Angeles Times “We’re Listening, Ted” by Jane Hall (April 03, 1994)

925

Amusing Ourselves to Death is the title of his famous book on the media, first released in 1985. The subtitle is “Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business” 926 New

Scientist “Left or right-wing? Brain’s disgust response tells all” by Dan Jones (October 30th

2014) 927

Romans 1:28

928 2

Timothy 3:1-5

Introduction Censorship The Memory Hole The War on Trump The War on Trump Supporters The War on Families TV “News” Internet “News” Sites Wikipedia Google Rise of Social Media Facebook Twitter YouTube The Future of Fake News Conclusion Copyright Info

Introduction Today, “media” doesn’t just mean television, radio, newspapers, and magazines; since all of those industries have been swallowed up by the Internet (convergence as it’s technically called). As you know, people now get most of their news and entertainment online where there is an endless supply of things to click on, scroll through, and stream. People carry TVs in their pockets and wear them on their wrists like the old science fiction films predicted. With the push of a button anyone can watch almost any show, access any newspaper or magazine article, and even send instant feedback

about what they think. Everywhere you go people are constantly glued to their device, consuming an endless stream of “media.” It’s like a madhouse that’s almost impossible to escape. In our current mobile age, trying to keep up with the news is like running on a treadmill that’s getting faster and faster. The longer you’re on it, the more exhausting it gets, leading many to become so fatigued they decide to jump off and quit paying attention altogether. Many have become so stressed out, disgusted, and tired of the “news,” that they basically boycott it and only follow sports or other forms of entertainment, but even there they can’t escape being bombarded by political messages and cries for “social justice.” Those who wish to push political agendas know that movies, music, and TV shows are convenient vehicles to deliver their propaganda to millions under the cloak of “entertainment.” Even some sports coverage on ESPN has become political in recent years, amplifying the messages of athletes involved in fringe causes or ones based on half-truths and out-right lies. 1 Music, movies, and television shows are not just “entertainment.” They shape and influence the culture by manufacturing iconic characters whose beliefs and behaviors are mimicked by millions. While art imitates life, life also imitates art, as President Obama admitted during an appearance via video at the 2015 Grammies where he told the audience, “Tonight, we celebrate artists whose music and message helps shape our culture…Artists have a unique power to change minds and attitudes and get us thinking and talking about what matters.” 2 Celebrities have largely taken over the role that families, the Church, and national traditions used to play in molding and monitoring a society’s attitudes and actions.

As Andrew Breitbart pointed out in his book Righteous Indignation , “Hollywood is more important than Washington. It can’t be overstated how important this message is: pop culture matters. What happens in front of the cameras on a soundstage at the Warner Bros. lot often makes more difference to the fate of America than what happens in the back rooms of the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill.” 3 He continues, “As it stands, the Frankfurt School-taught Left is fighting the political battle on both the political and the cultural battlefields. Conservatives are fighting it only on the political battlefield. That means that art, humor, song, theater, television, film, dance, are all devices used every day in order to influence the hearts and minds of the American people.” 4 He’s talking about Cultural Marxism, which is the practice of waging a psychological war against America and all of Western civilization by relentlessly attacking every aspect of our culture, symbols, and institutions; hoping to gradually weaken society by subverting its foundations to the point where it becomes so dysfunctional it can be overthrown and replaced by a Marxist State. To accomplish this, the supposed “news” media regularly engages in what’s called Agenda Setting by hyping up certain stories and covering them ad nauseam to create the false impression that those stories are actually important because they’re “what people are talking about.” This provides a false justification for the extensive coverage, creating an artificial feedback loop where they hype up a story as if it’s the talk of the town, and then everyone starts talking about it because they’re inundated by reports about it, so the media keeps reporting on it, claiming that it’s a relevant story because so many people are talking about it.

They carefully choose stories, oftentimes of rare and isolated incidences, and then amplify them hoping to give the impression that there’s an epidemic and use the cherry-picked examples to promote or reinforce liberal ideologies. At the same time they act as gatekeepers, purposefully omitting other (actually important) stories and events which show a side of an issue they’re hoping people don’t hear about, or are trying to downplay the significance of. The Liberal Media Industrial Complex uses their technology to influence rather than inform; to attack instead of educate; to promote certain events while pretending others don’t exist. They always amplify salacious allegations that feed into the one-sided narratives they’re pushing, and then completely ignore the facts when they later come out if they prove the initial reports to be false. They just carry on as if nothing happened and keep repeating the same pattern like clockwork — amplifying the allegation, and then ignoring the outcome. The election of President Trump has resulted in the American mainstream media throwing all objectivity out the window and dedicating their existence to painting him as a mentally deranged dictator who needs to be impeached and imprisoned. They’ve gotten so bold in their attempts to overthrow our Republic that they now regularly engage in gaslighting and continue to repeat easily debunked falsehoods as if they are true, hoping to get people to start doubting their own memory, reasoning, and perception about what is actually going on. This is what gaslighting is. By repeatedly lying with confidence, using misdirection and discounting contrary information, the media causes some people to begin questioning their own version of reality. The term gaslighting originates from an old 1938 play (later made into a movie in 1944) where a central theme of the plot involves a woman’s husband who subjects her to all kinds

of mind games trying to drive her insane, including dimming the gas lamps in their home while convincing her that she’s just imagining it’s getting darker. The media insists that the name George Soros is a code word for antiSemitism, as are “globalists” and “Hollywood liberals.” 5 The constant assertions that anyone who supports building a wall at the US-Mexico border is racist, and anyone who supports President Trump is a white supremacist are ridiculous, but are believed by gullible people who are susceptible to propaganda. Television “news” anchors lie with such assurance and being accompanied by symbols of authority like their fancy studios and graphics, on the surface it appears as if they’re legitimate news broadcasts. The 2016 presidential election proved that the balance of power had shifted from the tight-knit group of mainstream media companies into the hands of everyday Americans who used Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to spread their messages to others, whether it was a few hundred of their Facebook friends, or an audience of millions if their posts went viral. So in order to regain control of the flow of information, the legacy media conglomerates began working closely with the Silicon Valley titans to rewrite the algorithms so these popular platforms would favor their content above that posted by ordinary people or popular social media personalities. It’s an understatement to say that what’s happening is a conspiracy between various sectors of the media industry which are working together to give traditional outlets the loudest voices online. Mix in Google and YouTube manipulating search results, Wikipedia being the number one source of “encyclopedia” articles, and social media companies systematically censoring prominent conservative accounts under the disguise of combating “hate speech,” and you have a recipe for total

information control. There is a reason that dictators throughout history have aimed to seize their country’s media as one of their top priorities so they can use it to not only further their own aims, but prevent their opposition from using it for theirs. Just two weeks after the shocking loss of Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump in the 2016 election, the war on “fake news” was launched as a smokescreen to suppress the reach of regular users’ social media posts and artificially boost messages from the mainstream media. The Democrats became frantic about supposed “fake news” being shared on Facebook that they claimed had cast Hillary in a false light, and that was the reason they said, why so many people didn’t trust her; and hence, didn’t vote for her. 6 While there were a few viral fake news stories smearing her, all the studies show they had no influence on people’s votes and just reinforced beliefs they already held about her. 7 There were also fake stories about Donald Trump that went viral during the heat of the campaign, but that fact is ignored and the “fake news” problem was framed as an issue that’s only one-sided. In reality, the fake news scare was just an elaborate ruse to drastically alter the way social media functions by pressuring Big Tech companies to emphasize mainstream media outlets in people’s feeds instead of showing organically what should be there based on who they were following and what was being posted. 8 Barack Obama was the first “social media president,” getting elected in 2008 when Facebook was first becoming a central hub in people’s lives. He was the first president to have a Facebook page and a Twitter account, and his senior advisor David Axelrod admitted, “If not for social media, Barack Obama would never have been elected president [because] it gave us the ability to connect to a new generation of voters.” 9

At the time, social media was still kind of a novelty, but a few years later it would permeate most people’s lives when everyone had to have an iPhone and the social media companies released mobile apps so people could “stay connected” wherever they were instead of having to wait until they got home from work or school to open up their laptop to see what’s happening online. But today, getting news online isn’t just a novelty, it’s the norm. A report from the Pew Research Center in 2018 showed that more Americans get their news from posts on social media than from newspapers. 10 Social media now starts revolutions, and overnight a single video clip can turn most of the world against a nation’s leader, or galvanize members of an entire political party to rally behind a cause. Since the barriers to entry are now so low today with anyone being able to start a YouTube channel or create a Facebook page, we are seeing the legacy media frantically trying to stop their industry (and their influence) from slipping through their fingers. Liberals’ favorite tactic today is silencing their opposition under the disguise of combating “hate speech” or stopping “right-wing extremists,” and the ability to censor and manipulate information online rests in the hands of just a few gigantic corporations whose values are completely opposed to middle America and traditional family values. Because of the emergence of social media, billions of people around the world communicate through Facebook, Twitter, and other online platforms which have largely taken the place of sending emails and talking on the phone. As you know, these social media apps can allow anyone’s message to be spread just as far as something broadcast on the national news, or printed on the front page of the New York Times , but because of

this massive redistribution of power, the Liberal Media Industrial Complex is scrambling to put the genie back in the bottle. One doesn’t even have to be a “social media star” to be a victim of the Left’s censorship because average users have their Facebook posts, tweets, Instagram pics, and YouTube videos removed all the time for “violating community standards.” Big Tech’s increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence systems automatically scan every post for key words they have identified as sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, Islamophobic, anti-Semitic, or just generically “hateful” or “offensive;” and has them removed once discovered. Just a handful of these “violations” and your entire account is shut down for good and everything you’ve ever posted there deleted. Nothing is out of the reach of their AI, and anything can be deleted at any moment by the nameless and faceless moderators, leaving the victims with no recourse or appeal. Total control of information is what they want, and they have hijacked the technology we all use to communicate in our modern age, but thankfully you were able to get this powerful tool into your hands before they could stop it — an old fashioned book! I commend you for picking one up and tuning out the noise relentlessly trying to make its way to your ears, and turning away from the millions of tweets, Facebook posts, and video clips all competing for your attention. In the coming pages we’ll do a deep dive into each of the major social media platforms and I’ll detail their algorithm manipulation, double standards, liberal bias, and censorship. We’ll also dissect the media’s war on President Trump, their mission to destroy our culture by undermining traditional family values, and we’ll look at the future of fake news.

While scrolling through tweets and Facebook posts is often like junk food for the brain, reading a book is a healthy and nourishing four-course meal in comparison. Sure, junk food is fine in moderation, but if it’s all you eat then you’re going to be very unhealthy. And the difference between reading through social media feeds (or watching the news) and reading a book is about the same as the difference between a good steak and eating a burger at McDonalds. One is quick, cheap, and poor quality; while the other is expensive, time consuming to make, and healthy to eat. And since we’re dealing with a very important subject, it’s best to do this right. So let’s begin by taking a look behind the curtain of the monolithic Liberal Media Industrial Complex and start dismantling it piece by piece.

Censorship There are several classic books that highlight the dangers of censorship and depict tyrannical governments that use their endless power to snuff out any opposition in hopes of maintaining their control over society. George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four , which was first published in 1949, and Fahrenheit 451 , published in 1953, are two of the most popular examples and weren’t just written for entertainment. They were meant to serve as a warning of what giant bureaucracies could do if their growing power goes unchecked. But today in America, it’s not the government censoring what newspapers print or what airs on the evening news. It’s the Silicon Valley titans — it’s Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, and Susan Wojcicki. In the marketplace of ideas they are losing, and so these industry leaders are silencing influential opponents who speak out against the Left’s attempted revolution.

They’re also trying to create a chilling effect by scaring people into not speaking out about certain issues or make us think twice before sharing certain information on social media out of fear we will be socially ostracized, or even fired from our job; so many people are self-censoring themselves in what’s been called the “Spiral of Silence.” 11 The fewer people who speak out about an issue due to fear of repercussions causes others who feel they should say something to be more apprehensive about doing so because nobody else seems to be doing it, which in turn causes even more people to stay silent, causing the false impression that no one seems to be opposed to what’s happening. Thankfully, in the United States (at least today) the First Amendment is still intact, but in places like Canada, 12 Germany, 13 England, 14 Scotland, 15 and other supposedly “free” countries, people are being arrested and charged with “hate speech” crimes for posting things on their social media accounts that are critical of the “Islamization of Europe” from the mass influx of Muslim refugees and for voicing opposition to the LGBT agenda. 16

But while Americans are still technically free to say these things without getting arrested, there are other serious consequences since we’re living in an online world where most people rely on a handful of apps to communicate with others. Back in 1997, Harvard Law professor Larry Lessig wrote an article for Wired magazine titled “Tyranny in the Infrastructure” warning that, “Laws affect the pace of technological change, but the structures of software can do even more to curtail freedom. In the long run the shackles built by programmers could well constrain us more.” 17

In his book Cyber Ethics: Morality and Law in Cyberspace , Richard A. Spinello expanded on this concern saying, “This notion that private code

can be a more potent constraining force than public law has significant implications. The use of code as a surrogate for law may mean that certain public goods or moral values once protected by law will now be ignored or compromised by those who develop or utilize this code.” 18 We’re seeing the very principle of free speech under attack like never before, with the Liberal Media Industrial Complex even claiming that freedom of speech is “dangerous” and saying that conservatives have “weaponized” the First Amendment. 19 There have always been restrictions on the First Amendment, for example you can’t yell fire in a crowded theater, and you can’t threaten to murder someone or encourage acts of terrorism; but today just insulting a person who believes there are 58 different gender identities or pointing out certain facts and statistics is considered “hateful” and “dangerous.” Democrat Congressman Ted Lieu from California says he’s frustrated by the fact that the First Amendment is preventing him from silencing conservatives for Thought Crimes, so he’s calling on the Big Tech companies to do it on the government’s behalf. 20 Meanwhile Jerry Nadler, a Democrat Congressman from New York, says it’s just a “conspiracy theory” that the Big Tech companies have a liberal bias and, “The notion that social media companies are filtering out conservative voices is a hoax, a tired narrative of imagined victimhood.” 21 Other Democrat members of Congress, like Jamie Raskin from Maryland, insist that it is an “entirely imaginary narrative that social media companies are biased against conservatives.” 22 Of course CNN repeatedly denies conservatives are being censored and claims that pushback from President Trump is, “exacerbating a longstanding paranoia from conservatives who have for years erroneously accused social media companies of bias and censorship.” 23 It’s just

paranoia that conservatives are being censored, guys! Nothing to worry about! CNN claims, “For years, the conservative media machine has pushed the flimsy narrative that conservatives are unfairly treated by social media companies, which they accuse of bias and censorship. When the claims often fall apart under a light touch of scrutiny, right-wing media outlets continue to advance the narrative, irrespective of the facts.” 24 After years of mounting evidence, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey finally admitted that even conservatives who work at Twitter, “don’t feel safe to express their opinions at the company” and that “They do feel silenced by just the general swirl of what they perceive to be the broader percentage of leanings within the company.” 25 With each new purge of conservative voices from the social media platforms, more and more people are seeing just how big of a threat these tech giants are to the principles of free speech and the massive implications of their monopoly on communication tools. Donald Trump Jr., who obviously has the president’s ear, has also been very vocal about the increasing censorship on social media, even writing an op-ed about it in The Hill , saying, “Our right to freely engage in public discourse through speech is under sustained attack, necessitating a vigorous defense against the major social media and internet platforms.” 26 In May 2019, the White House set up a new tool on WhiteHouse.gov for people to report instances of social media bias and censorship so the Trump administration could put together more thorough reports of what conservatives are facing online. 27 The page includes a form for users to submit details about which post was taken down, what it said, and which platform removed it. “Social media platforms should advance freedom of speech. Yet too many Americans have seen their accounts suspended,

banned, or fraudulently reported for unclear ‘violations’ of user policies,” the website reads. 28 In subsequent chapters I’ll detail what’s been happening on each of the major social media platforms, but rampant censorship isn’t limited to just Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Music Streaming Services While politicians and news commentators have always had to watch what they say about certain subjects so they don’t get fired, artists have always been seen as the bastions of free speech, and censoring art—no matter how provocative or offensive it is to some people—was always seen as something only a tyrannical government would do. Major music labels and movie studios always stood by their artists and vigorously resisted calls for censorship, championing the freedom of expression whether it was NWA’s “Fuck the Police” or blasphemous anti-Christian films like The Da Vinci Code or Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ. But in August 2017 Spotify, the popular music streaming service, announced they would start censoring songs from “hate bands” including songs they claim “incite violence against race, religion, [or] sexuality.” 29 How will they determine which bands and songs to censor? Whatever the Southern Poverty Law Center tells them to. 30 Not surprising, the SPLC got their tentacles wrapped around Spotify and other streaming services to “help” them keep a lookout for “hateful” content. 31 Other streaming services like Apple and Pandora followed suit, banning supposed “white power” music, while allowing rap music that blatantly calls for the murder of police officers from people like Ice-T, NWA, and Snoop Dogg, who recently depicted himself murdering President Trump in one of his music videos. 32 As you know, it’s common for rappers

to diss “crackers” and “white boys” in their music, but that’s just fine. Hating white people isn’t considered to be racist to the Left. And Jay Z’s albums are okay, despite calling women “bitches” in (literally) 50% of his songs. 33 About a year later Spotify announced another new policy, saying they were going to start banning songs from artists who have engaged in “harmful or hateful conduct” in their personal lives, like domestic violence or sexual abuse. That put songs by R. Kelly and Michael Jackson at risk of not being available anymore. But then just three weeks later they reversed their decision and apologized, saying they don’t want to be the “moral police,” but affirmed that they were still going to be censoring “hate speech.” 34 Guns ‘N Roses song “One in a Million,” which was released on their 1988 album G N’ R Lies, includes a line about “immigrants and faggots” but when the studio released the Guns ’N Roses box set in 2018 they didn’t include that song on the album because it’s been deemed “racist” and “homophobic.” 35 It’s probably only a matter of time before other songs like Aerosmith’s “Dude Looks Like a Lady” will be banned for being “transphobic” as well. Once you give liberals an inch, they demand a mile, and since they smell blood in the water they will continue their quest to eliminate everything they find offensive.

Netflix and Prime Video Even movie streaming services like Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video are showing signs of liberal bias and censoring “controversial content” that had once been available on the platforms for years. Netflix won’t allow The Red Pill , a popular documentary about the Men’s Rights Movement

produced by Cassie Jaye, to be streamed. Through the course of producing the film she found that claims about the “patriarchy” and supposed “male power” were extremely warped and that many of the burdens men typically bear in society are overlooked and often discounted by feminists. 36 Cassie Jaye herself was a feminist when she started making the film and expected to find the Men’s Rights Movement would be full of misogynists and losers who had no luck with women, but learned they have very legitimate points about gender roles and unfair treatment in child custody cases, and by the end of the film she admitted they weren’t a bunch of women-haters as she had previously thought, and decided that she could no longer call herself a feminist because “feminism is not the road to gender equality.” 37 When the trailer was released on YouTube it reached over a million views in 24 hours and was the number one purchased movie on YouTube (which streams movies on-demand for 4 or 5 dollars) beating Guardians of the Galaxy and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. 38 But Netflix wouldn’t allow the film to be streamed on their platform because when it was released in selected theaters it had generated some negative publicity from feminists protesting it, calling it “misogynistic propaganda.” 39 In March 2019 Democrat Congressman Adam Schiff sent a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos pressuring him to censor “anti-vaccination” documentaries from Amazon Prime after seeing a report on CNN claiming that “Anti-vaccination conspiracy theories thrive on Amazon.” 40 Within hours of Schiff sending his letter, the streaming service pulled at least five documentaries including the popular Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe , 41 which had been promoted by Robert De Niro when it first came out because one of his children is autistic which he suspects may have been caused by the MMR vaccines. 42

Others included: We Don’t Vaccinate!;” Shoot ‘Em Up: The Truth About Vaccines , The Greater Good ; and Man Made Epidemic , which investigated the alleged connections between the autism epidemic and the preservative Thimerosal used in vaccines. Many have long suspected a link between Thimerosal and autism, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has tried to bring awareness to the dangers of vaccines for years. 43 CNN then celebrated the censorship with a follow-up story touting, “Anti-vaccine movies disappear from Amazon after CNN Business report.” 44 During a segment on CNN in 2009 Dr. Oz was talking with host Campbell Brown about the H1N1 (swine flu) vaccines, encouraging people to get them, but was put on the spot by the host about her concerns that they may not be safe. He responded, “I’m going to get it, if that helps at all, but I’ll tell you my wife is not going to immunize our kids. Cuz I’ve got four of them and when I go home I’m not Dr. Oz, I’m Mr. Oz.” 45 So he went on television encouraging people to take the vaccine and give it to their children, but admitted that he’s not going to give it to his own children because his wife didn’t think it was safe; and despite him being a famous doctor, he couldn’t convince her otherwise and allowed his children to go unvaccinated. Netflix also censored an episode of comedian Hasan Minhaj’s show, blocking it for customers in Saudi Arabia at the request of the government there because in it he talked about Saudi Arabia’s role in the 9/11 attacks and the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of Saudis. 46 Netflix will not stream the 1980s classic Dukes of Hazzard because that’s too “racist” today. Reruns of the show were pulled from TV Land and other cable networks in 2015 after growing sentiment that the Confederate Flag is a “white supremacist” symbol, and since the Duke boys’ car (The

General Lee) has one painted on the roof, networks now deem the TV show too offensive to air. 47 Other classic TV shows and movies will likely slowly and quietly disappear from the streaming services and cable TV because they’re deemed too “insensitive” for our modern age. Owning DVDs may be the only way to ever see them again. A growing number of activists are upset about Ace Ventura: Pet Detective for what they call its “contempt” for LGBT people because the main suspect in the movie later started living as a woman and after catching him and realizing this, Jim Carrey goes into convulsions vomiting while having flashbacks to when “she” had kissed him earlier in the film. Or other comedies like Mrs. Doubtfire or Tyler Perry’s “Medea” character may be banned for being “transphobic” as well. Or films like Idiocracy , The Breakfast Club , or Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure because characters call people fags. Or maybe even The Sand Lot since one boy tells another that he plays baseball like a girl. That’s sexist! In 2018, Barack and Michelle Obama signed a deal with Netflix to produce several documentaries, scripted series, and full-length feature films through a production company they started called Higher Ground. 48 “Touching on issues of race and class, democracy and civil rights, and much more, we believe each of these productions won’t just entertain, but will educate, connect and inspire us all,” said Barack. 49 The couple’s debut documentary American Factory was hailed as their “first big anti-Trump statement of 2020” by Politico, although it didn’t mention him by name “it’s message is clear.” 50 Others called it “lefty propaganda” and an attack on Trump. 51 Netflix has also produced various liberal “comedy” shows called Netflix Originals which have included hosts like skank Chelsea Handler, Michelle Wolf, and other insufferable and non-funny Leftists. Similarly,

Hulu produced a show hosted by Sarah Silverman called “I Love You America” which got canceled after two seasons, calling into question the streaming services ability to tap into the late-night talk show genre. 52 They also produced a documentary following the Congressional campaign of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. After Georgia’s controversial “heartbeat” abortion bill was signed by the governor in May 2019 which bans abortions after six weeks into the pregnancy, Netflix announced they may quit using the state as a production location because several of their shows like “Stranger Things” and “Ozark” are shot there. They even vowed to help fight the bill in court. 53 It certainly is strange for a major corporation to take a stance on abortion, but that’s where we’re at.

Amazon Banning Books Banning books was once seen as the ultimate sin, and something only the Nazis would do, but today we’re seeing a growing number of books disappearing down the memory hole in the name of political correctness and stopping “hate speech.” 65% of all books are sold through Amazon and they have a virtual monopoly over the entire industry. 54 They are the reason Borders, Walden Books, and B. Dalton went out of business. Amazon advertises themselves as the world’s largest bookstore where you can find practically any book, new or used, since if they don’t stock it, they (supposedly) allow anyone to list used copies for sale themselves. For over twenty years since Amazon was launched in 1995 they would sell any book new or used, but recently that all changed. In July 2018 a children’s book titled No Dress for Timmy was banned for being “transphobic.” It was written by Shefflorn Ballantyne and is described as, “A story of a little boy who found himself in a perplexing situation where

he was forced to choose between speaking the truth and cheering on a friend who thinks of himself as a girl.” 55 The young protagonist basically wouldn’t support a transgender classmate. After an LGBT advocacy organization called Family Rhetoric discovered it when searching for LGBT-themed children books, they launched a campaign to pressure Amazon to ban the book, which they did. The group later celebrated on their Facebook page saying, “We did it. You did it friends! The link to No Dress for Timmy is not working. Amazon took down the book. It’s gone!” 56 And indeed it is. Amazon banned almost all of pickup artist Roosh V’s books just days after his latest one was released, titled Game: How to Meet, Attract, and Date Attractive Women. 57 They wouldn’t even give him a reason, just that they “violated” their policy and “can’t offer any additional insight or action on this matter.” 58 Roosh had come to the attention of various radical feminist groups who see him as a huge “misogynist” for his views on women and feminism, and they most likely lobbied Amazon to pull his books. Juanita Broaddrick’s book about Bill Clinton allegedly raping her was removed in June 2018, and then later restored. 59 It appears that Amazon keeps testing how far they can push the envelope by gauging the backlash, but not everyone is so lucky to have their books re-listed after media reports denounce the censorship. In August 2018 Amazon banned a book that contained plans to build a 3D printed gun called The Liberator Code Book: An Exercise in Freedom of Speech , which had been listed by the publisher just a few weeks earlier. An Amazon spokesperson said it violated their guidelines. 60 Yet they sell the Anarchist’s Cookbook and other bomb-making manuals (at least at the time this book was first published in November 2019). The Anarchist’s

Cookbook author William Powell later denounced his terrorist manual which he wrote in 1971 when he was just nineteen-years-old. 61 But he does not own the rights to the book; the publisher does (now Ozark Press), which keeps it in print, and which Amazon still sells. 62 The Columbine school shooters, who planted bombs in the school aside from shooting and killing twelve students and one teacher, owned a copy of the Anarchist’s Cookbook and used it to manufacture their bombs. 63 When members of the Black Liberation Army were arrested in the 1970s for murdering several police officers, they had a copy in their possession and are believed to have planted a bomb in a San Francisco church during the funeral of a police officer who died in the line of duty. 64 Thomas Eugene Spinks, who bombed ten abortion clinics in the 1980s, used the Anarchist Cookbook to build his bombs. 65 Many others have used it as well, including Timothy McVeigh, who carried out the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, and the radical Islamic terrorists who committed the July 2005 bombings on the London public transportation system used the book as their instruction manual too. So No Dress for Timmy is too “transphobic” to be sold, but a literal bomb-making manual used by terrorists in numerous high-profile bombings is okay. Jared Taylor, a leader in the white identitarian [pro-white] community, had several of his books censored from Amazon in February 2019, including White Identity , despite having been sold on the site since 2011. 66 The following month Tommy Robinson’s book Mohammed’s Koran was banned from Amazon just days after Facebook and Instagram banned him (in response to Tommy posting a documentary critical of the BBC on his YouTube channel). 67 His book was deemed “Islamophobic.” 68 Then in March 2019 they banned David Duke’s autobiography My Awakening and another one of his books titled Jewish Supremacism where

he details what he believes is a Jewish supremacist belief system within Judaism. 69 The books had been available on Amazon since they first came out, one in 1998, and the other in 2004, but were removed shortly after a no-name freelance writer “inquired” about why Amazon was selling books written by a “white supremacist.” 70 They’re not just shown as out of stock or unavailable; the entire listings for the books have been deleted, and it appears Amazon is also prohibiting any 3rd party sellers from listing used copies as well. They also banned several books published by the Nation of Islam which were critical of Jews, 71 as well as a few written by Christian pastor Texe Marrs, including Holy Serpent of the Jews , for being “anti-semitic.” 72 This is especially interesting because Amazon still sells Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf (for now). 73 After CNN successfully pressured Amazon to censor various popular documentary films from their Prime Video streaming service in March 2019 that question the safety of some vaccines, they went on to lament that Amazon still sold “anti-vaccine” books, saying, “while some anti-vaccine videos are gone from the Prime streaming service, a number of anti-vaccine books were still available for purchase on Amazon.com when CNN Business reviewed search results on Friday afternoon, and some were still being offered for free to Kindle Unlimited subscribers.” 74 Amazon soon banned several “anti-vax” books for promoting what they called “vaccine misinformation.” 75 In July 2019 they banned books by Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, who is best known for advocating conversion therapy for homosexuals. Two of his most popular books on the subject, Healing Homosexuality and A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality were taken down after sustained pressure from LGBT activists. 76 Perhaps Amazon will ban some of Sigmund

Freud’s books next because he believed that homosexuality was caused by a disruption in a child’s development due to a dysfunctional relationship with their parents in terms of the role those parents fill in their lives. 77 For several years now Amazon has banned sales of all Confederate flags because they’re considered to be symbols of “white supremacy” these days. 78 They have also banned the sale of various Halloween costumes liberals consider to be offensive, like the “Tranny Granny” costume that’s “transphobic,” 79 a Chinese dress for being “cultural appropriation,” and a “sexy burka” costume for being disrespectful to Islam. In January 2019 Amazon removed dozens of other products that were said to be offensive to Muslims as well. 80 Meanwhile, an album by a band called Marduk titled “Fuck Me Jesus” is allowed, which shows a naked woman using a crucifix as a dildo on the cover. 81 Amazon also sells a song titled “Fuck White People” which has a noose on the album cover. 82 They also stock various black supremacist books that promote hate groups like the Black Hebrew Israelites.

Twitch.TV Twitch.TV (which is owned by Amazon) is a website where people livestream themselves playing video games (I know this seems strange to anyone over 40) and they can have a large number of viewers who enjoy watching them play. Like YouTube livestreams, there is a chat box on Twitch where viewers can post comments and even tip the player. While it’s mostly for video games, sometimes the gamers will talk politics during their streams, and the Thought Police are watching in case they say something “racist,” “sexist,” “homophobic,” etc., etc. One gamer was recently banned from Twitch for simply saying there are only two genders. 83 The email informing her of the ban read, “Your recent behavior

has proven your lack of understanding of what hateful speech is and how it may affect your community on your channel…Several of your statements have been found offensive towards the transgender community, and we don’t tolerate this kind of behavior.” 84 In a YouTube video discussing the ban she said, “I specifically said, it’s okay if a man wants to be a woman, and a woman wants to be a man, you cannot be anything in between,” referring to the odd “gender fluid,” “pan gender,” and the dozens of other “genders” liberals have invented. A popular DJ named Deadmouse (stylized Deadmau5), who also streamed on Twitch for fun was banned for “hate speech” after he called another streamer a dreaded “homophobic slur.” He issued a statement saying, “It was intended to insult a fuckin asshat who was being a fucking asshat…it wasn’t ‘directed at an entire group of people who have a sexual orientation that differs from my own.’ Fuck off with that shit. I know who I am, and I don’t have to fucking sit here and cry and defend my fucking self with the obligatory ‘I’M NOT THAT PERSON, I AM SORRY” reflex… The sane people who knew what it was in the heat of the moment knew the purpose of the statement, and the people that think otherwise, I’m better off not even fucking knowing and they can just keep the fuck clear of me.” 85 It was great to see someone of his celebrity push back against this PC nonsense, but he soon backtracked and issued an apology, along with apologizing for his previous “non-apology” in response to the ban, saying, “I know what I said was wrong, and my hastily composed non-apology was an insult to injury.” 86 Many other Twitch streamers have had their accounts suspended and banned for just uttering what moderators thought were “slurs” out loud in a fit of anger when something went wrong on the game they’re playing when they actually said something that just sounded similar to one. 87 So even

while players are virtually “mass murdering” people in a video game, the Thought Police are carefully monitoring them to make sure their off-thecuff commentary doesn’t happen to offend someone in the LGBTQ community or other “protected group.” One streamer was even given a 30day suspension for calling another player a “mongoloid,” because Twitch considers that “hate speech” too. 88 Like YouTube and Facebook Live, Twitch uses real-time voice recognition systems to analyze what people are saying in order to lookout for any words that are flagged as being inappropriate. Monitoring livestreams using AI is one of the top priorities of the tech companies due to the bad press they get when someone livestreams something completely ridiculous (or criminal) so they are putting enormous resources into being able to detect what is being said in real-time, and even what is being shown so they can take down a stream if their algorithm deems the broadcast includes anything “inappropriate.” Twitch, however, like all the other major platforms turns a blind eye when liberals flagrantly violate their rules. A popular streamer who goes by “Destiny” (real name Steven Kenneth Bonnell II) has explicitly called for violence against conservatives on at least one occasion. When he was asked during a stream, “You genuinely do hate conservatives, don’t you?” he answered, “Very much so. I’ve moved full-on to the political violence level or the real violence level when it comes to conservative people. I feel like they need to be fucking excised from my fucking country. I think they’re demonstrably evil people.” 89 He remains on the platform and his channel is still monetized.

Alex Jones “Unpersoned” One of the scariest aspects of censorship isn’t a few songs, movies, or books disappearing from the Internet, but a person being deleted. An

“Unperson” is a term from George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four that describes someone whose very existence has been erased from society, and this basically happened to radio talk show host Alex Jones in August 2018. Within the course of just a few days he was banned from YouTube, Facebook, iTunes, the TuneIn radio app, Spotify, Stitcher, Pinterest, and even LinkedIn! Years of archived shows and interviews just disappeared. PayPal also closed his account, preventing his website Infowars.com from accepting payments through the service, 90 and numerous credit card processors also refused to allow him to have an account, making it difficult to accept debit and credit cards for the products he sells. Liberals were thrilled with the actions, including Democrat Senator Chris Murphy from Connecticut who said, “Infowars is the tip of a giant iceberg of hate and lies that uses sites like Facebook and YouTube to tear our nation apart. These companies must do more than take down one website. The survival of our democracy depends on it.” 91 Many conservatives, even those who think Alex Jones is a raving lunatic, were quite concerned about his sudden “disappearance” from the Internet. Even Senator Ted Cruz defended Alex, tweeting, “Am no fan of Jones — among other things he has a habit of repeatedly slandering my Dad by falsely and absurdly accusing him of killing JFK — but who the hell made Facebook the arbiter of political speech? Free speech includes views you disagree with.” 92 Others came to his defense as well, including Bill Maher who said despite Jones telling “lies” about him, “if you’re a liberal, you’re supposed to be for free speech. That’s free speech for the speech you hate. That’s what free speech means. We’re losing the thread of the concepts that are important to this country. You care about the real American shit or you

don’t. And if you do, it goes for every side. I don’t like Alex Jones, but Alex Jones gets to speak. Everybody gets to speak.” 93 The ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union] even warned his ban could set a dangerous precedent and expressed concerns that the pendulum could swing the other way some day, and groups like Black Lives Matter could be shut down under the same pretense. 94 President Trump appeared to reference the unpersoning of Alex Jones which had made national headlines, saying, “I won’t mention any names but when they take certain people off of Twitter or Facebook and they’re making that decision, that is really a dangerous thing because that could be you tomorrow.” 95

Alex Jones Was Just the Beginning Many people who were quite concerned about Alex Jones getting unpersoned overnight were afraid to speak out against it because they didn’t want to appear as if they supported Jones because of some of the outlandish things he has said over the years, but Big Tech coordinating with each other to ban him was just a test case and the beginning of what was to come. The editor in chief of The Verge , one of Vox Media’s online properties, started calling for Fox News to be taken off the air next, saying, “I feel like we should be just as comfortable asking Comcast and Verizon and Charter why they continue to offer Fox News on their networks as we are about Facebook and Alex Jones.” 96 Immediately after Jones was universally deplatformed PBS did a report about it and in that report complained that he had inspired countless “imitators” who “sell merchandise” and then showed a clip of me from one of my YouTube videos promoting my popular t-shirts.

Apple CEO Tim Cook then said it’s a “sin” for social media platforms not to ban people the Left deems “hateful” and “divisive.” He was given the first “Courage Against Hate Award” from the Jewish ADL, and during his acceptance speech said, “We only have one message for those who seek to push hate, division, and violence: You have no place on our platforms. You have no home here.” 97 He went on to say, “and as we showed this year, we won’t give a platform to violent conspiracy theorists on the app store,” referring to banning Alex Jones. “Why? Because it’s the right thing to do,” Cook concluded. 98 Even conservative darling Ben Shapiro is technically in violation of their terms of service for “hate speech” by saying transgenderism is a mental illness. 99 They could drop the hammer on anyone at anytime for things they’ve said years ago, and even “off platform,” meaning things said in interviews or speeches that didn’t even directly involve social media. Just voting for Donald Trump is considered “hate speech” by the Silicon Valley titans, and it won’t be long now before they include negative tone of voice, contorted facial expressions or even supposed “code words” and “dog whistles” into their terms of service as things that are not allowed. For example, if someone is reporting on a new television commercial featuring two gay men who are raising a child they adopted and react with a disgusted look on their face, or a sarcastic, “I’m sure the child will grow up to be totally normal.” That will likely be a violation of their policies. George Orwell even warned about such things in his classic novel Nineteen Eighty-Four , saying, “to wear an improper expression on your face (to look incredulous when a victory was announced, for example) was itself a punishable offense. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime, it was called.” 100

They’ll start claiming that certain words or phrases are “code words” for something else just like they’ve done with the “okay” hand sign, and soon nobody will be safe from being smeared as a “white supremacist,” “Islamophobe,” “homophobe,” “xenophobe,” etc. The Left are now engaged in a Maoist-style attempted overthrow of our culture and our country, and are systematically purging influential dissenting voices from social media. Get ready, because this is just the beginning. They don’t just want prominent vocal opponents of the liberal agenda silenced; they want our lives destroyed. Some people believe censorship amplifies extremism by forcing people to descend into the dark corners of the Internet where their ideas aren’t challenged or debunked by onlookers who disagree with them, and so they fester in an echo chamber that fuels and radicalizes them. Censoring someone who’s not calling for violence can also be seen as confirmation that they are being persecuted and cultivate a sense that they feel justified fighting back in a more extreme way. By having their voice taken away for what was perfectly legal speech, they may be compelled to act out in other ways in order to “be heard.” The liberal Establishment is working tirelessly to take down any independent social media personalities who organically gain sizable followings, and if they’re truly independent, meaning not working for a major media outlet then they are extremely vulnerable because they don’t have a legal department behind them that can push back on their behalf. They have developed a formula to take us down. First, a few unscrupulous liberal online outlets like the Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, and Vox label certain conservatives “Alt-Right” or “right-wing extremists” and then the editors at Wikipedia update those people’s pages to claim they are a white

nationalists or neo-Nazis and use those dubious reports as “sources” to solidify the smear. And since Wikipedia is the go-to place for information for most people and one of the top search results on Google, anyone looking those people up from that point on will be presented with information claiming they’re a racist or far-right extremist. Then, even more outlets repeat the false claims, thus generating even more news articles from mainstream sources parroting the smear which are then used to add even more citations to the Wikipedia articles to reinforce their false narrative. These liberal outlets know that most people don’t have the vast resources necessary to sue for defamation, and so they are forever branded a “racist.” Then the self-referencing Wikipedia page is used as the justification to demonetize their YouTube channels and suspend their PayPal accounts to cutoff their revenue streams in order to crush them into silence. In our current political climate, especially as the 2020 election is approaching, I wake up every morning wondering if today will be the day that it happens to me.

What’s Next? How far will this fascism go? Will Visa, MasterCard, or American Express deactivate certain accounts because the banks don’t like what some people say or believe? Will Bank of America and Wells Fargo start closing people’s checking accounts because they don’t like their politics? Some banks are already doing just that. Chase Bank issued a letter to Proud Boys (a pro-Trump men’s fraternity) leader Enrique Tarrio that they would be closing his account and he had until the end of the month to move all his money somewhere else. 101 Then Joe Biggs, a former reporter for Infowars who banks at Chase, got the same notification. Others did as well, including

Martina Markota who works for the conservative news site Rebel Media. 102

After word spread of the shocking move, outraging many veterans groups because Joe Biggs is an Iraq vet, Chase re-activated his account, but wouldn’t give him a reason as to why they had initially banned him. 103 PayPal has already banned Alex Jones, Laura Loomer, Milo Yiannopoulous, Lauren Southern, Tommy Robinson, Gavin McInnes, Roosh V, Faith Goldy, as well as Twitter alternative Gab, and YouTube alternative BitChute because they support free speech and won’t ban users for posting things that hurt others feelings. 104 A senior software engineer at Google recommended the company delete Donald Trump’s G-mail account, and that of everyone working in his administration. He even suggested they “brick” Donald Trump’s cell phone. 105 A “bricked” phone, if you’re not familiar with the term, means one that is completely deactivated and won’t even turn on. So the engineer was literally recommending Google remotely disable Donald Trump’s phone, since they are the owners of the Android operating system which it uses. We only know about this because the proposal was included in a series of documents obtained as part of a lawsuit filed by former Google employee James Damore who was fired after circulating a memo explaining how the company’s obsession with “diversity” is misguided. While the company didn’t authorize those radical actions, who’s to say in the future they (or Apple) won’t ban certain people from using their phones? When you activate a smartphone you “agree” to the terms and conditions, even though hardly anyone actually reads them. Those terms also say the manufacturer can change the terms at any time, so what’s to stop them from adding a clause that says they reserve the right to brick your phone (or computer) if they feel you’re engaging in certain kinds of

behavior or speech that they find objectionable? Perhaps Google didn’t want the publicity and the backlash of sabotaging the President of the United States’ cellphone, but what’s to stop them from doing it to people who aren’t as powerful or well known? How far will the Silicon Valley titans go to stamp out vocal critics of the radical Leftists’ agenda? Will video editing software companies deactivate their software on people’s computers if they don’t like the content people are creating? Will Photoshop not sell their software to artists who are making the “wrong” kind of memes? Or will Microsoft and Apple refuse to license their operating systems on the computers (or smartphones) of political activists, social media personalities, or authors they consider racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, Islamophobic, etc.? Or maybe their local ISP [Internet Service Provider] won’t even allow them to have an Internet connection or will start blocking certain websites. 106 What if Priceline or Orbitz decides not to sell you a plane ticket because they refuse to do business with “hateful” people? Or if Enterprise decides they won’t rent you a car. Or a popular gas station chain won’t sell you gas? What if a major grocery store chain decides they won’t sell you any food? If Visa or Mastercard blacklist you, then you won’t even be able to have a debit card. If no banks will allow you to have an account, how can you cash your paycheck? In the Bible, a prophecy in the Book of Revelation says that one day “no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name,” warning that people who don’t worship the counterfeit Christ will be completely cut off economically from the modern world. It appears we are beginning to see the justifications for such widespread bans by those who control the backbone of the financial system.

Section 230 of the CDA Technically, private companies can ban people from their platforms as long as it’s not because of their race, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, country of origin, or other legally “protected” class. But political affiliation is not a protected class, and companies could legally ban all Republicans if they wanted to. Laws and regulations are always many years behind innovation, and the framers of the legislation governing our communication infrastructure could have never imagined the emergence of social media, let alone how instrumental of a role it would come to play in our lives. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Clinton in order to overhaul the rules and regulations governing communication systems in response to the development of the Internet. Within the Act was a subsection called the Communications Decency Act, and Section 230 of the law granted immunity to Internet Service Providers, Domain Registrars, and website hosting services so if customers use these services in ways that violate copyright laws (or criminal statutes), the companies themselves are not liable for the legal consequences because they are not deemed publishers, but platforms, and are not responsible what their customers are posting. In other words, if someone posts an episode of The Big Bang Theory television show on their YouTube channel, YouTube is not responsible for that person violating CBS’s copyright (as long as YouTube would promptly remove the infringing video if notified by CBS.) Because YouTube provides a service (i.e. the “platform”) to the public, they can’t necessarily prevent people from using that service to post copyrighted material, so they are given “safe harbor” and are immune from any civil or criminal penalties when their users break the law.

Section 230 of the CDA also granted immunity to Internet Service Providers and interactive websites if third party users post defamatory information about someone, 107 death threats, 108 or even if they sell fake merchandise on eBay, meaning eBay is not responsible, only the person posting the fake listing is. Today, many Big Tech companies are abusing their immunity granted to them by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act by censoring certain users and posts and deciding themselves what to delete from their platforms, when that content is not violating any laws. They are now acting as publishers, not platforms, because they are making editorial decisions about what will and will not be allowed. If a person posts something that doesn’t violate any laws, then why should the social media companies have the right to take it down if they are in the business of offering a platform for (supposedly) anyone to use? Currently there is a loophole in section 230 that allows for what it calls “Good Samaritan” blocking and screening of “obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable content.” 109 So they interpret “objectionable” content as being facts or opinions that hurt people’s feelings or undermine the liberal agenda. Further evidence that section 230 of the CDA is outdated and unfair can be seen by the fact that a court ruled that President Trump can’t block people on Twitter after several trolls who he had blocked found a law firm that sued the President on their behalf. 110 The court ruled that Trump can’t block people on social media because it “deprives them of access to official Presidential statements,” and his feeds are considered a “public square.” This begs the question, why is Facebook, Twitter and YouTube allowed to deprive citizens access to that same public square?

If the President of the United States can’t “deprive” someone of access to his statements on social media, why should the tech companies be allowed to do that to ordinary citizens? Facebook and Twitter are basically the modern day equivalent of a telephone, or post office. They’ve become an intimate and crucial part of billions of people’s lives. It’s how friends and families communicate with each other, and share photos and videos. It’s where they send out party invitations and look up old childhood friends or family members they’ve lost touch with. It’s how they get their news and see what the President is saying. Imagine the phone company canceling your service because they didn’t like what you and your friends talked about. That’s essentially what Facebook and other social media platforms are doing today when they suspend people, delete their posts, or ban them completely because of what they say when their statements are not crimes, but just a “controversial,” “divisive,” or “hateful” point of view. The power these mega corporations have over how billions of people on the planet communicate with each other is staggering. And the fact that they are working in concert together to enforce their arbitrary and bias “terms of service” to silence certain people and points of view is beyond horrifying. As George Washington said, “If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.” 111 Author’s Note: Please take a moment to rate and review this book on Amazon.com, or wherever you purchased it from if you’re reading the ebook, to let others know what you think. This also helps to offset the trolls who keep giving my books fake one-star reviews when they haven’t even read them.

Almost all of the one-star reviews on Amazon for my last two books “The True Story of Fake News” and “Liberalism: Find a Cure” are from NON-verified purchases which is a clear indication they are fraudulent hence me adding this note. It’s just more proof that liberals are losers and can’t play fair, so if you could help me combat them as soon as possible since you actually bought this book, that would be great! Thank you!

The Memory Hole Censorship encompasses much more than people getting their posts and accounts deleted from social media platforms. It involves the mainstream media self-censoring stories and certain issues as well. They lie by omission and purposefully ignore events and individuals they don’t want to give publicity to, even when what’s happening fully warrants extensive coverage. They spent years chasing after “Russian agents” who are supposedly around every corner trying to infiltrate every aspect of America, while ignoring that the National Security Agency actually considers Israel to be the top espionage threat against the United States. 112 While regularly portraying Muslims and Jews as poor minorities who are constantly persecuted by Islamophobes and anti-Semites, the American media never reports that Christians are actually the most persecuted religion in the world, and are being murdered at such a rate in the Middle East that it is considered to be “near genocide levels” according to human rights groups. 113

When a reporter for Reuters learned that Beto O’Rourke was a member of the infamous Cult of the Dead Cow hacking group when he was a teenager, he promised Beto he wouldn’t reveal that information until after the 2018 midterm election when Beto was running against Ted Cruz for his Senate seat. 114 During the campaign Beto was already being haunted by his past for leaving the scene of an accident he caused while driving drunk, and if word got out that he was also committing computer crimes as well, it certainly wouldn’t have looked good. PBS edited out a part of Finding Your Roots , a documentary series that traces celebrities’ ancestry, after Ben Affleck discovered that his ancestors owned slaves and then pressured the network to cut that part out of the episode, which they did, so it wouldn’t hurt his image. 115 We only know about the censorship because hacked emails from Sony were posted on Wikileaks, including one between Finding Your Roots host Henry Louis Gates Jr. and the CEO of Sony Entertainment discussing Affleck’s request. 116

In our digital world, news outlets can alter an article or a headline after something is published without most people even noticing, covering up falsehoods and mistakes, or even changing the overall message of the story. This often results in an inflammatory article going viral and whipping people into a frenzy, only to later have key points quietly changed in response to the backlash. Sometimes outlets have other reasons for dumping things down the memory hole. For example, the popular New Zealand news website Stuff.co.nz quietly deleted an article about how a local resident had allegedly been “introduced to radical Islam at the Al-Noor mosque in Christchurch,” immediately after a white supremacist walked into the same mosque and livestreamed his mass-murder of 50 Muslims inside. 117 It appears the

website was trying to prevent word from getting out that the attacker appeared to have targeted that particular mosque because it had allegedly been linked to Muslim extremists.

Project Censored Have you heard of Project Censored? Most people have not, which is the ultimate irony because it’s an organization that highlights important under-reported or censored stories that mainstream media buries. Each year they publish a list of the top 25 censored or under-reported stories in America hoping to give them the attention they deserve. “Under-reported” meaning that they may have been mentioned in some mainstream outlets, but weren’t front page stories or didn’t dominate the news cycle for a week as they should have due to their importance. In our fast paced world, if a story isn’t one that happens to get circulated in the news cycle non-stop for a week, it is almost immediately forgotten by most people who are swept up in the next wave of reporting about mass shootings, fires, floods, celebrity gossip, health scares, and political scandals. Project Censored was founded in 1976 at Sonoma State University by a professor who wanted to expose censorship and propaganda in mainstream media. It has been praised by many media analysts around the world. Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers which showed that the Johnson administration lied to the American people and Congress about the reasons for getting involved in the Vietnam War, said Project Censored, “shines light in the dark places of our government that most need exposure.” 118 Even Walter Cronkite, who anchored the CBS Evening News for almost twenty years and who was considered to be “the most trusted man in

America” said, “Project Censored is one of the organizations that we should listen to, to be assured that our newspapers and our broadcasting outlets are practicing thorough and ethical journalism.” 119 The Los Angeles Times once admitted that Project Censored, “offers devastating evidence of the dumbing-down of mainstream news in America” and said their annual book of the top 25 most censored and under-reported stories was, “Required reading for broadcasters, journalists, and well-informed citizens.” 120

New York Times Best Seller List When the New York Times learned the NSA was illegally spying on tens of millions of Americans they sat on the story for over a year and only published it after the reporter who got his story killed by the editors decided to write a book about the spying since the paper couldn’t stop him from publishing that. 121 But that’s not the only censorship the New York Times has engaged in. They even censor books from their prestigious “best seller” list. Ted Cruz’s book A Time for Truth was excluded from their list in 2015 when it qualified to be number three on the list. 122 They claimed it was because most of the sales were from bulk orders, which they say was evidence that an author is ordering their own book to artificially inflate the numbers, but the publisher HarperCollins issued a statement saying they investigated the sales patterns and found no evidence of any such bulk orders. 123 Cruz’s campaign tweeted “The New York Times is lying — they should release their evidence or issue a formal apology.” 124 A few days later, the book was then finally included on the best seller list. 125

Bill O’Reilly’s book Legends & Lies: The Patriots was included on The New York Times best sellers list when it came out in 2016, but was only ranked number six despite being number one on the Wall Street Journal’s best seller list, as well as number one on the Publisher’s Weekly list. At the time the Nielsen organization reported Bill O’Reilly’s book sold 24,348 copies that week, while the number one book on The New York Times best seller list, The Gene , sold only 9,781 copies. 126 The New York Times also omitted a bestselling book about the Philadelphia abortionist Dr. Kermit Gosnell who killed babies that were born alive during his attempted abortions and was found to have kept baby body parts in jars around his office. He was later convicted of three counts of murder and one count of involuntary manslaughter but the liberal media paid little attention to the trial because it cast abortion in such a horrific light. 127 The book’s co-author Ann McElhinney said it is “shocking that the cover-up of the Gosnell story is continuing…It’s clear that this is a blatant fake list in a fake news newspaper…It’s not only an insult to the people who have bought this book, but an insult to the readers of The New York Times who buy the newspaper and think they are getting the truth about book sales across America but instead get false facts disguised as a neutral list.” 128 In October 2018 when Stormy Daniels’ book came out detailing her alleged affair with Donald Trump, the New York Times included it on their top 10 best seller list but not Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro’s book Liars, Leakers, and Liberals , or David Limbaugh’s Jesus is Risen , both of which had actually sold more copies than Stormy’s. 129 In June 2019, CNN’s Jim Acosta released a book about President Trump titled The Enemy of the People: A Dangerous Time to Tell the Truth

In America that didn’t even make it into the top 50 on Amazon’s best seller list and completely dropped off the top 100 list after just two days. But the New York Times placed Acosta’s book at number ten on their “best seller” list, proving once again it’s not an accurate ranking of the week’s bestselling books, but really just a favorites list of the editors. Books are so powerful that today liberals even protest companies which decide to publish certain authors. Simon & Schuster came under tremendous fire when it was revealed they had signed a deal with rightwing provocateur Milo Yiannopolous, causing the publisher to become one of the top trends on Twitter from triggered liberals calling for people to boycott not just Milo’s book (which they weren’t going to read anyway), but every book Simon and Schuster publishes! 130 Hollywood producer Judd Apatow tweeted support of the boycott, saying, “I am in! In these times we can not let hatemongers get rich off of their cruelty. Shame on Simon (and) Schuster.” 131 Former Governor of Vermont Howard Dean tweeted, “This is an embarrassment for [Simon & Schuster] and their owner CBS which is already on record putting their company ahead of the USA.” 132 The publisher eventually canceled their contract with Milo and he later had to self-publish it.

Illegal Immigration The facts about illegal immigration are rarely allowed into the news cycle because the American people would learn just how big of a crisis it is, and the damage illegal aliens are doing to our country. In 2015 over 50% of legal immigrant households received some form of government welfare— including food stamps, housing assistance, school lunch programs, or Medicaid. 133 A 2018 report by the Center for Immigration Studies found that 63% of non-citizens use at least one form of welfare. 134 While the

liberal media loves to report that they’re just coming here to work, the fact is millions of them are sucking off our tax dollars. Many illegal immigrants come infected with diseases as well, including ones that had been previously eradicated from the United States, like measles—resulting in new “mysterious” outbreaks (at places like Disneyland) because the diseases are imported by illegal aliens and those claiming to seek asylum. 135 Just in the last few years there have been thousands of murders committed by illegal aliens. 136 Lives stolen and families shattered by people who should have never been in our country in the first place. Every day there are headlines in local papers about violent illegal aliens (“undocumented workers,” as liberals call them) being arrested, and the stories may get a 15-second sound bite on the local news, but that’s it. The number of drunk driving arrests, thefts, burglaries, rapes, and other crimes they commit on a daily basis is staggering. One study shows that illegal aliens commit crimes at double the rate of native-born citizens. 137 In June 2018 when President Trump met with Angel Families at the White House (people whose family members have been killed by illegal aliens), both MSNBC and CNN abruptly cut their live feed and began talking about how the Trump administration isn’t treating illegal immigrant families who sneak into our country good enough. Ironically, during the meeting a woman who lost her son to an illegal alien drunk driver began telling the president, “The mainstream media does not let you know what is really happening.” 138 Democrats say the flood of illegals entering our country isn’t a national emergency, as President Trump declared, meanwhile in a recent four-month period Border Patrol agents apprehended 136,000 people crossing from Mexico into the U.S. illegally. 139 In February 2019 alone over 66,400

people were arrested trying to cross the border, the most detained in a single month in over ten years. 140 During one live feed on MSNBC when their reporter was down at the border talking about the prototypes for Trump’s proposed new wall, in the background a group of illegal aliens climbed over the current short and inadequate fence that’s only a few feet high, right in the middle of his report. 141 The Left go so far when denying and defending the crimes of illegal aliens that when Donald Trump called MS-13 gang members “animals” the Democrats and their mouthpieces in the media began claiming that he was referring to immigrants in general! “Trump calls immigrants animals” was their new talking point which was repeated for years as a deceptively edited video of his statement continues to circulate as the “proof.” 142 MS-13 is widely considered to be the most sadistic and vicious street gang in the world by law enforcement agencies. 143 Their motto is “rape, control, kill” and they are known for torturing and dismembering people. 144 Democrats all used to support expanding the border wall and were tough on illegal immigration, until Donald Trump became president. 145 You’ve probably seen the video compilations of Chuck Schumer, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and other top Democrats all previously supporting the wall and saying we need to stop the influx of illegals crossing the border —but that has changed. It appears the Democrats don’t support the blue collar working class any more. President Trump has won most of them over to his side, so now the Democrats are hoping to build a new base of future voters consisting of Americans who are too lazy to work and want free handouts from a Socialist government, and 20 million illegal aliens who they are hoping to grant citizenship to.

Transgender Crimes Transgender people have an extremely high rate of mental illness, 146 so it should be expected that they also have a high rate of crime. But because they’re part of a legally “protected class” and liberals see them as having achieved the next phase in human evolution, the media always ignores the dangers they pose to society. While their crimes may be reported briefly in local outlets where they occurred, the national conversation regarding transgender people is always framed as if they are amazing and special people who are being treated unfairly by society because they are different. A 30-year-old transgender “woman” in Wyoming was convicted of raping a ten-year-old girl in a bathroom in 2017 but nobody really heard about this story except for maybe some locals. 147 Another transgender “woman” sexually assaulted a ten-year-old girl in a grocery store bathroom in Scotland but avoided jail and was just given community service. 148 A 52-year-old transgender “woman” was arrested for raping (an actual) woman in 2016 and then once placed in a female jail “she” sexually assaulted four female prisoners within the first few days. 149 This story spread through social media because people found it so disturbing, but some were in denial and thought it was a hoax, causing Snopes to post an article asking “Did a Male Rapist Who Identifies as Female Transfer to a Women’s Jail and Assault Female Inmates?” and rated the claim “True.” 150 In March 2019 a black transgender “woman” in New York was arrested for hate crimes after targeting random white women walking along the sidewalk near subway stations in Harlem and the Upper West Side and spraying them in the face with pepper spray. Police believe 37-year-old

Thomas Herd, a black man who identifies as a woman, was behind almost a dozen other similar attacks in the area. 151 A transgender “woman” in Sydney, Australia was captured on surveillance cameras inside a 7-Eleven walking into the convenience store in January 2019 with an ax, and then randomly smashing two customers in the face after getting upset about a bad Tinder date. 152 In 2015, a 30-year-old man dressed as a woman was arrested for secretly videotaping women in a mall’s bathroom in Virginia. 153 A 37-yearold man in Toronto was arrested after he claimed to be a transgender “woman” and was allowed inside a women’s shelter, where he then assaulted four women. 154 These are just a few of many examples. Aside from ignoring the transgender Peeping Toms, rapes, and hate crimes that transgender “women” commit, the liberal media also ignores the rapes that gay men commit, and try to portray rape as something that only a man does to a woman, but the reality is that gay men raping other men occurs far more frequently than people know, particularly in the U.S. military since Barack Obama lifted the ban on gays being allowed in. 155

Black Crime The liberal media always portrays black people as being “racially profiled” by police and cite figures about black people being arrested at exponentially higher rates than whites as some kind of “proof” that the police are racist, but the reality is that black people per capita commit significantly more violent crimes than whites, so it only makes sense that they would get arrested more! Since liberals don’t know anything about math, when you mention that black men commit murder at approximately ten times the average of whites, they may lookup the statistics and claim that’s not true, but they are only

comparing the total number of murders committed by whites to the total number committed by blacks, and don’t factor in that blacks are only about 14% of the U.S. population. 156 The figures are per capita , meaning the average per person, and since less than 20% of murders in Chicago are actually solved, 157 the number of murders committed by black people is likely much higher than the FBI and Department of Justice records show, which again, reveal that black people commit murder at close to ten times the average of whites. Not twice as many per capita, or three times as many—ten times , or 1000% more murders per capita! Unfortunately many black Americans have embraced the identity of a thug, and see gangster rappers as role models, and view going to jail as a badge of honor. Local TV news in Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Baltimore cover the day’s murders, stabbings, and robberies for a few minutes each night, and it’s almost the same story the next night, and the night after that, but the black crime problem in America is never addressed as part of our national discussion. Memorial Day weekend of 2016 in Chicago ended with 69 people shot, every one of them from black on black crime. 158 And while the story may have gotten a fifteen second segment on some of the national broadcast news networks, the horrifying weekend was forgotten by the next day. There was no CNN Town Hall special to discuss the violence problem there. No endless panelists brought on air to discuss it with Anderson Cooper or Don Lemon. It’s like it never even happened. The following year 52 people were shot in Chicago over the same holiday weekend. 159 36 people were shot the year after that over Memorial Day weekend. 160 All black victims and black perpetrators. Over the Fourth

of July holiday and Labor Day weekends the same thing happens every year. It’s total carnage in the black communities in Chicago. It’s especially sad that the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement was built upon a foundation of lies. The list of armed and dangerous perpetrators justly shot and killed by police and then labeled “victims” of “police brutality” is long. In fact, convicted cop killer Assata Shakur, who fled to Cuba which granted her “political asylum,” is considered to be an inspiration for starting the Black Lives Matter movement. 161 She was a member of the domestic terrorist organization the Black Liberation Army which stated their goal was to wage war against the United States government, and they carried out a series of bombings and assassinations of police officers in the 1970s. 162 Many Black Lives Matter supporters carried on the philosophy of the Black Liberation Army and see themselves in a war against police. During their marches they would sometimes chant “What do we want? Dead cops! When do we want them? Now!” 163 In June 2015 two black men were arrested for plotting to blow up a police station in Ferguson, Missouri to get revenge for an officer shooting Michael Brown (after Brown attacked him and tried to take his gun). 164 In July 2016 a black man ambushed a group of police officers during a Black Lives Matter march in Dallas, Texas, killing five of them and injuring nine others. 165 In 2017 when groups of black youth were robbing people of their cellphones at a train station in San Francisco, police refused to release security footage of the crimes “to avoid racial stereotypes.” 166 Debora Allen, who works for the Department of Transportation, gave an interview with the local news and explained the police told her that, “To release these videos would create a high level of racially insensitive commentary toward the district. And in addition it would create a racial bias in the riders against

minorities on the trains.” 167 Police wouldn’t release video footage of the perpetrators because they were concerned it would make black people look bad! The media regularly tries to ignore or downplay most instances of antiwhite hate crimes committed by black people. For example, after a black man walked into a predominately white church in Nashville, Tennessee in 2017 and opened fired, killing one woman and wounding seven others, a judge sealed most of the evidence for almost two years, and then during the trial it was revealed, as many had suspected, that he specifically went there to kill white people. 168 Meanwhile, if you’re concerned about white farmers being murdered in South Africa by the racist mobs of blacks who believe it’s their rightful land, you are called a racist conspiracy theorist for promoting what the Liberal Media Industrial Complex calls the “white genocide conspiracy theory.” 169 In recent years, white farmers in South Africa (called the Boers) have been facing persecution by vicious black gangs who raid their homes and slaughter them to get “revenge” against the “imperialists” who benefited from the Apartheid. 170 And God forbid you point out the anti-white hate crimes that occur in the United States at the hands of disgruntled blacks who blame white people for all of their personal and cultural failures. That’s a guaranteed way to get labeled a “white supremacist.”

Fake Hate Crimes Since a large part of our culture has come to celebrate victimhood instead of personal achievement, we have seen a staggering increase in the number of hate crime hoaxes where mostly black people, gays, Muslims, and Jews report fake hate crimes to the police after vandalizing their own

property with racial slurs, or claim they were physically attacked by some evil white people. The initial reports air on local and national news and go viral on social media, sparking outrage at the “racist” white people and “Trump supporters” who allegedly keep carrying out these attacks. But oftentimes when police get involved and interview the “victim” and gather evidence, the supposed “hate crime” turns out to be a hoax and it’s quietly forgotten about. Just after the 2016 election an 18-year-old Muslim woman in New York claimed that Trump supporters harassed her on the subway, chanting “Trump!” while trying to steal her hijab, but after police launched their investigation she was arrested for making the whole story up in an attempt to distract her father from the fact that she had been out getting drunk with her friends that night. 171 A Muslim student at the University of Texas-Arlington said she was threatened at gunpoint by a group of white men in a pickup truck only to later admit she fabricated the whole story too. 172 Hate crime hoaxes are a specialty in LGBT communities and have been used to further their cause and gain sympathy for years, and in some cases defame a neighbor they’re feuding with. 173 Since LGBT people are treated like an endangered species by the liberal media, every time a claim is made that one of them has been harassed, assaulted, or had their property vandalized with anti-gay “slurs,” the activist media is more than happy to amplify their claims. But when the police discover, as they often do, that the “victim” made the whole thing up, the story is dropped like a hot potato and the media just moves on to cover something else. For example, after a transgender “man” who was a prominent LGBT “rights” activist in Michigan had “his” home burned down, killing five pets, the FBI investigated it as a hate crime and the incident was used as leverage by the “man” to help pass a local ordinance that prohibited the

discrimination of gays, but authorities later arrested “him” for the crime and said the motive was to create publicity to help pass more gay “rights” legislation. 174 It seems every “protected” group engages in these kinds of false flags. A Jewish freshman at George Washington University reported someone had drawn swastikas on her dorm room door, but a security camera actually captured her doing it. 175 At the same school another student posted a swastika on a community bulletin board that belonged to a Jewish fraternity and it was later discovered that the perpetrator, a Jew, was a member of that same fraternity. 176 An African American community center in Seattle was vandalized with racist graffiti including “Nigger Babies” and “Vote Trump,” and as you can guess, an African American was arrested for the crime. 177 A 44-year-old black man in Colorado was arrested after it was discovered he was the one who hung racist flyers outside of a predominantly black church that caused the local community to be understandably outraged. 178 A black man reported that while his car was parked near Kansas State University it had been vandalized by someone painting “Go home nigger boy” on it. A photo of the damage went viral on social media only to later be exposed as another false flag and the man admitted that he defaced his own car and filed a false police report. 179 The FBI was even brought in to help investigate the case, which turned out to be another hoax. The following year a black student at the same school posted a photo of a note on his Twitter account that he claimed had been put on the door of his apartment, reading “Beware Niggers Live Here!!!” But when the police got involved he admitted that he made the note and put it there himself. 180

And of course the most popular hate crime hoax in decades involves actor Jussie Smollett, who claimed that two men wearing MAGA hats attacked him in the streets of Chicago in subzero weather and tied a noose around his neck, poured bleach on him, and yelled “This is MAGA country, nigger.” His story was so absurd that many were skeptical from the start, and as the investigation went on, police discovered he staged the whole thing hoping to become a social justice hero. 181 Aside from a lot of fake hate crimes being fabricated by black people, they also hallucinate that there are hate crimes committed against them. The black mayor of a small South Carolina town called police thinking she was the victim of a hate crime after she found a “yellow, sticky substance” covering her car in March 2019 which was parked in the driveway of her home. She assumed someone had spray-painted it, but police investigated and discovered it was just pollen. 182 Black college students at the University of Mississippi freaked out when someone saw a banana peel hanging over a tree branch outside a cabin at a fraternity’s weekend retreat. It caused such a concern that the retreat was canceled because some black students were afraid it was meant as a warning or to harass them, but it turns out a student who had finished eating the banana hung it on the tree because there were no garbage cans nearby and he didn’t want to just throw it on the ground where someone may end up stepping (or slipping) on it. 183 The list of recent hate crime hoaxes from “protected groups” like gays, lesbians, and black people could fill an entire book. 184 If you want to learn more about the issue there’s a whole chapter in my previous book, The True Story of Fake News which details these kinds of incidents.

Good News Ignored

Aside from burying bad news that will cause audiences to question the liberal narrative of how the world works, the Liberal Media Industrial Complex also ignores good news that undermines the agenda they’re trying to push. If it’s not completely ignored, it might be mentioned for 15 or 30 seconds on the broadcast news or published in newspapers or online articles but won’t be included in the lengthy discussions on cable news or the weekend talk shows like Meet the Press (NBC), Face the Nation (CBS), or This Week (ABC). Good news about President Trump is just a tiny blip on the radar, and then drowned out by the endless whining and moaning about minor issues and pundits’ latest paranoid delusions about what Trump “may do.” Despite reporting that if Donald Trump won the 2016 election the stock market would tank, it has skyrocketed largely in part due to him repealing countless burdensome business regulations and scrapping various awful trade deals previous administrations had gotten us into such as the Trans Pacific Partnership and NAFTA. In the first two years of his presidency the S&P 500 rose 28% 185 The Dow Jones Industrial Average later reached a record high, closing above 27,000 for the first time ever. 186 Black unemployment hit an all-time record low in May 2018 of just 5.9 percent. 187 In Trump’s first two years as president he was able to do more for African American communities than Barack Obama did in eight. Hispanic unemployment has fallen to its lowest level on record, down to 4.8%. 188 The unemployment rate for veterans also fell to an all-time low as well. 189 The average unemployment rate for the country dropped to 3.7% in October 2018, the lowest in almost 50 years. 190 The average American’s salary is also increasing at record rates. 191 President Trump signed the Veterans Affairs Choice program to dramatically speed up the amount of time that it takes U.S. veterans to get

their healthcare claims processed by enabling them to use private doctors and health care facilities instead of just the government-run VA hospitals. 192 The VA, like the DMV, the Post Office, and almost every other government-run program, was a disaster and it had taken months for veterans to see doctors and get the treatment they need. Trump’s reforms were a much-needed and long-overdue upgrade to how our veterans are taken care of. When Trump first took office ISIS controlled about 20,000 square miles of territory in Iraq and Syria, which contained a population of several million people. 193 However a year later they were driven out of their last outpost in Syria, crippling their organization and expelling them from their “Islamic State.” 194 While there are many Muslims in the Middle East who still adhere to the radical Islamic ideology of ISIS, they lost their territory and precious caliphate under President Trump. The ABC Nightly News spent literally 18 seconds on the story the day the Department of Defense announced the news that ISIS’ once planned Islamic State had fallen. 195 The CBS Evening New s spent one minute and twenty three seconds on the event. 196 Admitting that, despite his abrasive style and personality flaws, President Trump’s policies have been great for America is the last thing the Establishment will do. Instead they are trying to misdirect people’s attention and occupy their minds with issues of little significance and artificial controversies they drum up to smear him.

The War on Trump Because politicians on the Left and the Right have been screwing us over for years and using the mechanisms of government to fulfill their own selfish desires for power and wealth, the election of Donald Trump shook

the very foundation of the Washington D.C. Establishment. The lifelong bureaucrats knew the gravy train was going to come to a halt. For decades millions of Americans had felt a businessman, not a politician, would be the only one who could begin to fix the broken system—and the opportunity had finally come. Trump’s arrival to Washington was like parents who came home early from a long vacation, and now the kids (who were running around unsupervised breaking the rules) have to end the party and be held accountable for their actions. In 1988 on Oprah Winfrey’s show he was asked if he would ever run for president and he responded probably not, but added that he wouldn’t rule it out in the future because he was tired of seeing what’s happening in America. 197 And that’s why he thought about running in 2012, but felt his sons needed a few more years of experience before they were ready to take over the family business. In 2016 he felt it was the right time, and the rest is history, but the Establishment immediately struck back because they needed to destroy him before he started cleaning up the mess that decades of corruption had created. He was the ultimate roadblock to their globalist agenda, and longawaited New World Order. They were so upset about Trump’s victory they counterattacked by kicking off the “fake news” scare hoping to regain control of the flow of information. The Big Tech companies then started changing their algorithms and suppressing posts about certain topics and artificially favoring content from “authoritative” [liberal] mainstream sources. Even Tim Berners-Lee, the “founder of the World Wide Web” and the man who basically created HTML, said, “[People] are all stepping back, suddenly horrified after the Trump and Brexit elections, realizing that this web thing that they thought was that cool is actually not necessarily serving humanity very well.” 198

Nonstop Negative Coverage They began fabricating fake stories like the supermarket tabloids that invent scandals based on their own imaginations to smear President Trump and keep him constantly on the defense. “Our source says” and “if true” are littered throughout reports that endlessly speculate about Trump being engaged in a massive conspiracy to steal the election and work as a Russian “Manchurian candidate.” Nothing President Trump does is good in the eyes of the mainstream media. Everything he says is twisted and taken out of context in order to paint him as an incompetent racist who is destroying America. Journalist critic Anthony Brandt once said, “Members of the press sometimes print gossip as truth, disregard the impact they have on people’s lives, and are ready to believe the worst about people because the worst sells…We in the media have much to answer for.” 199 The week President Trump was inaugurated, Democrat operative David Brock, founder of Media Matters, a Leftist “media watchdog group,” launched a new plan to “kick Donald Trump’s ass” which included handing out a 50-page document marked “private and confidential” that outlined how they were going to use their resources to push for impeachment, bog down his administration by continuously filing lawsuits, and use their new proxy “media outlet” Shareblue to attack conservative media personalities and harass their advertisers to pull out. 200 The city of West Hollywood even voted to remove Donald Trump’s star from the Walk of Fame. “Earning a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is an honor,” the mayor said. “When one belittles and attacks minorities, immigrants, Muslims, people with disabilities or women — the honor no longer exists.” 201 The city has no problem with accused underage

sexual predator Kevin Spacey having a star, or convicted rapist Bill Cosby, or accused pedophile Michael Jackson. But they were determined to have Trump’s removed. So far, the star remains, since the Walk of Fame is considered a historic landmark and run by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce which said “as of now” they have no plans to remove it. 202 A Pew Research study found that the media’s coverage of President Trump’s first 60 days in office was three times more negative than that of President Obama. 203 Even NPR admitted, “Compared to other recent presidents, news reports about President Trump have been more focused on his personality than his policy, and are more likely to carry negative assessments of his actions.” 204 Another study from the Media Research Center showed that 89% of the broadcast news reports from President Trump’s first 100 days in office were negative. 205 Newsbusters, a website run by the Media Research Group, declared 2017 “The year the news media went to war against a president.” 206

A poll by Politico showed that 46% of Americans believe the media just makes up fake stories about President Trump. 207 And ethics scholar John Hulteng previously warned, “It may be well that if journalism loses touch with ethical values, it will then cease to be of use to society, and cease to have any real reason for being.” 208 But unfortunately that ship sailed a long time ago.

“He’ll Crash the Economy” Just a few weeks before the 2016 election, CNN reported that, “A Trump win would sink stocks.” 209 Politico said that, “Wall Street is set up for a major crash if Donald Trump shocks the world on Election Day and wins the White House.” 210 CNBC warned that, “it probably won’t be a

pretty picture for stocks if he does.” 211 New York Times economist Paul Krugman wrote a column the day after the 2016 election saying, “So we are very probably looking at a global recession, with no end in sight,” adding that, “a terrible thing has just happened.” 212 Instead, the stock market kept reaching all-time highs, 213 black unemployment soon reached the lowest in history, 214 and countless Americans were getting bonuses and taking more money home each week in their paychecks because of his new tax reforms, 215 but still the liberal media kept nitpicking every little thing he did or said, trying to spin it as if it was the end of the world. People’s tax refunds were technically “lower” under Trump’s new tax code because less money was being taken out of their paychecks; money that would have been returned to them once they filed their taxes at the end of the year. Headlines from NBC News read, “Under new Trump tax code, average refund is 8.4 percent smaller,” and they reported, “Frustrated taxpayers are using the hashtag #GOPTaxScam to vent about their smaller than expected tax refunds.” 216 All the major news outlets piled on with similar reports, but this was only half of the story. The other half would put things into perspective. An executive at the Tax Foundation, a think tank that studies U.S. tax policies, told a New Jersey PBS station, “What the Treasury Department did is they adjusted the amount of taxes that were withheld from your paycheck every time you got paid, say every two or three weeks. And so you actually saw a little bit more in every paycheck in terms of less taxes withheld, but that means your refund at the end of the year might be a bit smaller than you actually expected.” 217 Why would you want to give the government more money than is required each paycheck and then wait until the end of the year to get it

back? Taking less money from each paycheck is much more efficient, but since many people are too dumb to grasp this simple concept the media spun the news about lower refunds as if people were somehow having to pay more taxes to the government, when the complete opposite is true!

“Trump is Hitler” We’ve never seen the American media be so slanderous, vicious, and dangerous when reporting on a president. They sound worse than a raving lunatic you would find standing in the streets ranting about the end of the world. CNN and MSNBC hosts regularly say that President Trump is acting like a dictator and often compare him to Adolf Hitler. Not even in the months and years after the weapons of mass destruction hoax fell apart did the liberal media stoop so low when criticizing President George W. Bush for the disaster that the Iraq War had become. Just two days after Donald Trump was inaugurated, CNN’s Brian Stelter gave the impression that the country had just been hijacked by a dictator. “These are uncomfortable questions, especially these last ones, but it’s time to ask them,” he began. “Do citizens in dictatorships recognize what’s happening right here, right now? Are they looking at the first two days of the Trump administration and saying, ‘that’s what my leader does.’ What should we learn from them today?” 218 Don Lemon opened his broadcast one night by declaring “This is CNN Tonight. I’m Don Lemon. The President of the United States is racist,” 219 and often insinuates the President supports neo-Nazis and could become the next Hitler. 220 In response to Trump’s speech at CPAC 2019 where he highlighted his America First agenda, CNN analyst Sam Vinograd said she felt “sick” after hearing it, because Trump talking about “preserving our heritage” to her,

“sounds a lot like a certain leader that killed members of my family, and about six million other Jews in the 1940s.” 221 Another CNN panelist said that President Trump has radicalized more people than ISIS ever did. 222 The New York Daily News ran a headline reading, “Trump, Not ISIS is America’s Greatest Existential Threat,” and went on to say “This is not some bit of clickbait,” and claimed, “Trump can wreak far more havoc on America, its vaunted institutions and its people than a terror group on the other side of the world.” 223 Keith Olbermann later said that Donald Trump and his family have done more damage to America than Osama Bin Laden and ISIS combined. 224 MSNBC’s Donny Deutsch has said Trump is a dictator on several occasions and people need to hit the streets and start a “revolution” to overthrow him. 225 Fellow MSNBC host Christ Matthews even compares Ivanka Trump and her husband Jered Kushner to Saddam Hussein’s two murderous sons, Uday and Qusay. 226 In his commentary about President Trump’s inauguration speech Matthews said it sounded “Hitlerian.” 227 Just before the 2018 midterms an MSNBC legal analyst hoping the Democrats would take back control of the House and the Senate said, “We’re going to see if this reign—that [Republicans] now have control over all three branches of government—we’re going to see if this reign lasts for 30 days or two years, or a thousand-year Reich.” 228 The “thousand-yearReich” was the Nazi’s name for their planned global empire. In the past, if an unhinged guest on cable news would make such outrageous statements they would never be invited back and the host would apologize for their behavior, but it is a common occurrence in the Trump era to compare him to Hitler, and it’s not just guests who aren’t affiliated with the networks, it’s people on the payroll, from regular contributors, to the hosts themselves!

Calls to Assassinate Trump The endless streams of fake news painting President Trump as a Russian agent or the reincarnation of Hitler have incited countless unhinged whack jobs to publicly make assassination threats against him on social media. 229 There have also been numerous arrests of individuals who have made such threats (and taken specific action towards their goal), but the vast majority of them go unpunished. Just a few weeks before he was elected, a Secret Service agent said she wouldn’t protect Donald Trump if someone tried to assassinate him. 230 After word spread of her treasonous statements she was forced to retire. The New York Times even published several fictional stories by various novelists imagining how the Mueller investigation may end, and one of them depicted President Trump getting assassinated with the help of a Secret Service agent. 231 The anti-Trump mania has even resulted in numerous high-profile celebrities uttering threats of violence or wishing violence against him. Madonna famously declared she “thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House,” but that was just the beginning. Johnny Depp asked an audience, “When was the last time an actor assassinated a president?” answering, “it’s been awhile and maybe it’s time,” referring to John Wilkes Booth (who was an actor) killing Abraham Lincoln. 232 Jim Carrey said he had a dream about killing President Trump with a golf club. 233 Mickey Rourke said he wanted to beat him with a baseball bat. 234 And Robert Di Niro said he wants to “punch him in the face.” 235 Rapper Big Sean did a free style on a popular radio show about how he wanted to “murder Trump.” 236 Snoop Dogg released a rap video depicting himself shooting Donald Trump in the head. 237 Marilyn Manson made a

video titled “Say 10” (a play on words to sound like “Satan”) which depicted him decapitating Donald Trump with a large knife. 238 Green Day singer Billie Joe Armstrong shouted “Kill Donald Trump!” at one point when performing the song “American Idiot” at a concert in Oakland, California. 239 And of course Kathy Griffin posted that infamous photo of herself holding Trump’s bloody decapitated head. 240 Never before have there been so many threats to assassinate a president of the United States, and it’s utterly shocking to see that there have been little to no repercussions for the high profile celebrities who have done so. Previously such reckless and dangerous statements would completely end someone’s career and gotten their movies and music pulled from store shelves and streaming services, but today these celebrities have been mostly immune from any consequences.

The Red Scare The Democrat conspiracy theory that Donald Trump “colluded” with Russians to “steal” the 2016 election caused the greatest case of mass hysteria in America since the Salem witch trials. As you know it completely consumed the news cycle for over two years, and every night the speculation and imagination about “what really happened” got more and more out of control. “Donald Trump now sits at the threshold of impeachment,” MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell once declared with glee. 241 “The worst case scenario that the president is a foreign agent suddenly feels very palpable,” Rachel Maddow concluded one night. 242 He was certainly going to not only be impeached, but led out of the White House in handcuffs for committing “treason” and “undermining our Democracy,” they thought. Those who hadn’t succumbed to the madness were skeptical of these wild allegations from the start, and when the

“bombshell” reports kept turning out to be completely false, the mainstream media became increasingly discredited and desperate. Alan Dershowitz, a rare liberal who still maintained his sanity though all of this, summed it up pretty well when he said that “hope over reality” fueled their delusions. 243 When the Robert Mueller investigation finally cleared Trump and everyone connected to him of conspiring with the Russians in any way, the Democrats and their mouth pieces in the media still couldn’t admit they were wrong (and completely insane), and instead kept concocting new conspiracy theories about a “cover-up.” Since they took control of the House of Representatives in the 2018 midterm election, they kept “investigating” Trump’s business records trying to find “something.” As President Trump once noted, “If it was the goal of Russia to create discord, disruption and chaos within the U.S. then, with all of the Committee Hearings, investigations and party hatred, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. They are laughing their asses off in Moscow.” 244

LGBT “Rights” President Trump supports gay “marriage” unlike every previous Republican president (and all Democrat presidents too, except for Obama when he flip-flopped during his second term). But the media still portrays Trump as anti-gay. At a campaign event before he was elected, Donald Trump held up a big gay pride rainbow flag and waved it around stage after seeing someone in the audience holding it. 245 He even said Caitlyn Jenner can use whatever bathroom “she” wants to in Trump Tower. 246 But the radical LGBT activists are still convinced that he “hates” gay people because the mainstream media ignores his pro-LGBT positions.

After President Trump announced a plan to work with the United Nations to prevent countries from enforcing laws banning homosexuality, Out Magazine , a popular American gay publication, attacked him, publishing a story titled, “Trump’s Plan to Decriminalize Homosexuality Is an Old Racist Tactic,” and claimed, “The Trump administration is set to launch a global campaign to decriminalize homosexuality in dozens of nations where anti-gay laws are still on the books,” which you would think they would be happy about, but they denounced the move, saying, “Rather than actually being about helping queer people around the world, the campaign looks more like another instance of the right using queer people as a pawn to amass power and enact its own agenda.” 247 You can’t make these lunatics happy!

They Sided with North Korea The liberal media hates Trump so bad, they basically sided with North Korea out of spite when President Trump was trying to help broker peace between the North and the South. When he was trying to incentivize Kim Jong Un to dismantle his nuclear program, NBC News complained about it, reporting that, “Trump’s North Korea policy could trigger famine,” because of new sanctions he threatened to put in place if they didn’t comply with the U.S. demands. 248 How else was he supposed to apply pressure to them without launching a full-out war? Applying sanctions to cutoff imports is a basic tactic when dealing with rogue regimes! Comedian Michelle Wolf (who had recently bombed at the White House Correspondents Dinner) polled her Netflix audience, asking them, “Are you sort of hoping we don’t get peace with North Korea so you wouldn’t have to give Trump credit?” and 71% agreed that they didn’t want

peace in North Korea because it would make President Trump look good. 249

When Michael Moore was talking with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, the cable news host admitted that he was “genuinely rooting for him to handle the Korean situation well,” at which point Michael Moore cut him off and replied, “I don’t know if I agree with that.” A stunned Hayes responded, “You’re not rooting for him to deal with North Korea well?!” Michael Moore continued his explanation with a ridiculous analogy trying to justify his hope that President Trump fails at helping negotiate a peaceful resolution between North and South Korea. 250 The two countries joined together during the 2018 Winter Olympics to form a unified Korean hockey team which was an incredible sign that relations were improving. Kim Jong Un later crossed over the DMZ (demilitarized zone—the border between the North and South) to meet personally with the leader of South Korea, marking the first time leaders of the two countries had met since Korea split apart after World War II. 251 Families have been allowed to reunite with each other for the first time since the separation, and President Trump himself was invited to step over the DMZ where he was greeted by Kim Jong Un in a historic moment giving more hope for peace in the region, but Trump doesn’t get any credit for that, and the media kept claiming his tactics were going to start World War Three.

Trump Derangement Syndrome Conservatives began joking about liberals being afflicted with Trump Derangement Syndrome when it became obvious that they weren’t able to cope with the fact that he is the president, but as time went on many psychologists said they were actually treating patients for what they called

Trump Anxiety Disorder. 252 A therapist at the Washington D.C. Counseling and Psychotherapy Center admitted that they were getting a lot of patients who had anxiety, fear, and hopelessness about the Trump administration. 253 The shock on election night 2016 when Hillary Clinton lost was like nothing the country had ever seen. Reporters couldn’t hold back their horror and Democrats across the country were in tears, but after a week the shock still hadn’t worn off. And then a month went by and they were still in denial that Trump was going to be our next president and were getting increasingly distraught. But the months dragged on, and then it was a year, and then two years since he won the election, and instead of gaining their composure and getting back to business, they continued to get more unhinged with every passing week. When a New York Times reporter was asked about why Hillary Clinton wrote her What Happened book, she responded, “I think that the intention of the book was two things. One, it was to really, I think, just to vent and get it out there because there are so many people like Hillary Clinton who are still writing about this, who are still thinking about this, who are still in therapy frankly, sources that I know who are still really upset about the election.” 254 In therapy! On the one-year anniversary of the 2016 election, anti-Trump protesters gathered in Boston to “scream helplessly at the sky.” 255 Over 4000 people RSVP’d to the event on Facebook which was literally titled, “Scream helplessly at the sky on the anniversary of the election,” and hundreds of them actually showed up and did just that! 256 Rosie O’Donnell later admitted that she had been seeing a therapist and it took her a year to be able to compose herself enough to go out into public again. 257 Chelsea Handler also opened up a few years after the election and admitted she too had been seeing a psychiatrist because she had a “mid-life

identity crisis once Trump won the election.” 258 Model Chrissy Teigen, who’s married to singer John Legend, admitted that she asked her doctor to up her medication because Trump was causing her “crippling anxiety” and had to get a Botox injection in her jaw to relieve tension because she kept grinding her teeth, which she blames Trump for. 259 Since Democrats always project, meaning they imagine others doing what they themselves are doing, they started saying that President Trump was “mentally unfit” for office, and kept floating around the idea that the 25th Amendment could soon be enacted to remove him. But to actually invoke the 25th Amendment and get him removed it would take the vice president, his entire cabinet, and two-thirds of both the House and the Senate to achieve it. Democrats are so delusional that they are regularly accusing the president of being crazy, while being completely unaware of the irony of their own activities. One MSNBC guest even said that President Trump’s strong warnings to North Korea were the result of him having, “profound sexual and masculine insecurities” that “are literally threatening to annihilate the planet.” 260 Shortly before he died, Stephen Hawking warned that since President Trump is not very concerned about man-made global warming he may, “push the Earth over the brink, to become like Venus, with a temperature of 250 degrees, and raining sulfuric acid.” 261 One way liberals regularly vent their hatred of President Trump is by obsessively replying to his tweets, and it’s become a game for them to see who can reply first and whose reply can get the most “likes.” Some Twitter activists, like the odd Krassenstein brothers whose obsession with trolling President Trump’s tweets have become “Twitter famous.” (They were later banned for allegedly using fake accounts to artificially amplify their tweets). 262

As one writer in the London Guardian pointed out, it appears that liberals “worst nightmare” is actually a successful Donald Trump presidency. 263 The mainstream media would have to admit that they were wrong about everything and had been stringing along their audience for years under the false pretense that they were reporting news, when in reality they were just throwing an endless temper tantrum and lost every ounce of their integrity.

The War on Trump Supporters The oldest trick in the Democrats’ playbook is to call Republicans racist. When the Tea Party movement emerged in 2009 as a response to Barack Obama’s massive government expansion and increasing taxes, supporters were smeared as a bunch of old racist white people. The same tactic has been deployed against popular social media personalities today who have built up large followings in recent years and are often smeared as members of the alt-right in attempts to derail their careers and get their accounts shut down. Online media outlets and self-proclaimed journalists on Twitter often call conservatives Nazis and alt-right even if they’re Jewish! Laura Loomer (who is Jewish) has been smeared as a member of the white nationalist “altright” 264 As has Trump advisor Stephen Miller, who is also Jewish. 265 And even Ben Shapiro, a devout Orthodox Jew who wears a yarmulke in every one of his public appearances, is considered to be a member of the alt-right by these morons. 266 Instead of defending conservative Jews smeared by the liberal media, Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the Jewish ADL [AntiDefamation League], adds fuel to the fire by saying that the words “caravan,” and “open borders” are “literally white supremacist phrases.” 267

Alex Jones has been called an “alt-right” radio host by Forbes magazine, which you would think would be a credible publication. 268 YouTuber Steven Crowder was smeared by Newsweek as becoming popular by “touting an alt-right ideology.” 269 And immediately after Trump won the 2016 election various outlets defamed me with the same smear, even though I had never expressed any support whatsoever for white nationalism and am just an ordinary Constitutional Conservative. Several publications issued retractions or removed my name from such articles after I sent them cease and desist notices. 270 Psychology Today published an article titled, “An Analysis of Trump Supporters Has Identified 5 Key Traits,” and said we have “Authoritarian Personality Syndrome, social dominance orientation, prejudice, lack of intergroup contact (contact with minorities), and relative deprivation.” 271 Actor Rob Reiner (who played “Meathead” in the 1970s show All in the Family ) told MSNBC that “20 to 30 percent” of Trump supporters “are hardcore racists.” 272 And guests on MSNBC and CNN often declare that a huge number of Donald Trump supporters are white nationalists and only support building the wall to “keep the brown people out.” 273 Don’t forget the mainstream media’s vicious smears against Nick Sandmann, the high school student from Covington Catholic who was pestered by an old Native American man who beat a drum in the kid’s face when he and his classmates were visiting Washington D.C. on a school trip. CNN then declared that MAGA hats “have become a potent symbol of racism.” 274 Sandmann then filed lawsuits against the Washington Post, CNN, and NBC for $250 million dollars each for defamation. 275 A reporter that CNN gave their “Journalist of the Year” award to was later fired in disgrace after it was discovered he had fabricated numerous stories including claiming he saw a “Mexicans Keep Out” sign at the city

limit of a small Minnesota town when he was reporting “from Trump country.” 276 The Daily Beast published an article just before the 2019 Super Bowl titled, “Tom Brady’s New England Patriots Are Team MAGA, Whether They Like It or Not,” and declared, “Their star quarterback, coach, and owner all supported Trump,” and then called them “the preferred team of white nationalists.” 277 It went on to attack quarterback Tom Brady because he was pictured previously with a MAGA hat in his locker which the Daily Beast says is, “a symbol of white nationalism in America.” 278 The article concluded that the Patriots “are the official team of American White Nationalism” and “When you root for the Patriots, you are associating yourself with a virulent and revolting strain of politics that seeks to Make America Great Again—which is to say, white, European, Englishspeaking.” 279 It also said the Covington Catholic kids are “entitled little shits being racist.” CNN is so despicable they even sent a reporter to an elderly woman’s home to confront her about sharing something on Facebook that had allegedly been originally posted by a Russian troll farm. 280 She was ambushed while doing yard work in the front of her home and had a microphone stuck in her face and was accused of being a pawn of the Russians. The woman, who is 76-years-old, said after CNN aired the segment confronting her she was relentlessly harassed online and her phone rang off the hook from strangers calling her. 281

Denial of Basic Services An increasing number of reports keep circulating about instances where people wearing red MAGA hats have been kicked out of bars and restaurants for just wearing the hats. After attending a Trump rally in

Richmond, Virginia during the summer of 2016 a family stopped into a local Cook Out burger joint for lunch but were turned away by staff because they were wearing Trump t-shirts and hats. 282 After a man wearing his MAGA hat was kicked out of a bar in New York City, he sued the owner for discrimination, but a judge threw out the lawsuit. 283 A 9-year-old boy in California who is a big fan of the President wanted a Trump birthday cake, but his mother said she couldn’t find a bakery that would make one for him. 284 Gays want bakeries sued into bankruptcy if they refuse to bake a special cake for a gay “wedding” but think it’s okay for them to deny service to Trump supporters. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee and her family were kicked out of a restaurant in Lexington, Virginia after the owner recognized her and made them leave. When word of the incident spread, liberals celebrated it. The Washington Post even ran a headline saying, “Chasing White House officials out of restaurants is the right thing to do.” 285 Congresswoman Maxine Waters then encouraged more harassment, saying, “If you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd, and you push back on them, and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.” 286 Soon after this, activist Laura Loomer confronted Maxine Waters in the halls of the Capitol on camera, asking her, “Where can a conservative eat at a restaurant in D.C.? Do you think it’s civil to call for the harassment? Are we supposed to sit at the back of the bus?” 287 Maxine scurried away to a “members only” elevator in shock from getting a taste of her own medicine. The Boston Globe published an op-ed that began describing how one of the writer’s “biggest regrets” of his life was not pissing in political commentator Bill Kristol’s food when he ate at a restaurant the writer

worked at. He went on to urge people to tamper with Trump supporters’ food by doing what he was afraid to do, saying members of the Trump administration “have to eat,” and while the person may lose their job, (tampering with someone’s food is actually a crime) “you’d be serving America,” he said. “And you won’t have any regrets years later.” 288 The Boston Globe actually published this filth, but after a growing backlash changed parts of the op-ed and added a note saying, “A version of this column as originally published did not meet Globe standards and has been changed. The Globe regrets the previous tone of the piece.” 289 Even with the alterations, the title was, “Keep Kirstjen Nielsen unemployed and eating Grubhub over her kitchen sink,” and the overall message of the piece was still that people should run members of the Trump administration out of any restaurant they’re seen in. After growing shock and outrage that a major paper would publish such garbage, the Globe later deleted the article. 290

The Left Encouraging Violence In the Trump era political rhetoric from the Left has sunk to levels never before seen in modern American history. Not only are they insistent on smearing all Trump supporters as racists, but they are encouraging people to physically attack anyone seen wearing a MAGA hat in public. During the 2016 election season many peaceful Trump supporters were assaulted as they were leaving events by rabid protesters who had gathered outside. At a San Jose rally one woman was pelted with eggs and water balloons by an angry mob and others were punched and hit with bottles as they left. 291 After a 16-year-old Trump supporter was assaulted in a Whataburger fast food joint by having a drink thrown on him and had his MAGA stolen, CNN’s Marc Lamont Hill said, “I actually don’t advocate throwing drinks

on people. Not at all. But yes, I think MAGA hats (deliberately) reflect a movement that conjures racism, homophobia, xenophobia, etc. So yes, it’s a little harder to feel sympathy when someone gets Coca Cola thrown on him.” 292 Vox’s Carlos Maza encouraged assaulting right-wing figures as well, and hopes to make them “dread” being in public. 293 Breitbart News compiled a list of violent acts against Trump supporters and detailed mainstream media reporters and pundits who approved of them and counted 639 incidents between September 2015 and November 2018. 294

Just wearing a red MAGA hat in public can put you in danger of getting assaulted by some random lunatic who happens to see it. An MSNBC host even said wearing one is “an invitation for confrontation” and considers them “the modern day version of the Confederate battle flag.” 295 The Huffington Post reported that, “Searching for MAGA symbolism is one of the easiest ways to notice online extremists and members of hate groups.” 296 CNN’s Angela Rye said that MAGA hats are “just as maddening and frustrating and triggering for me to look at as a KKK hood.” 297

An 81-year-old man in New Jersey was attacked inside a grocery store by a 19-year-old teen because the old man was wearing a Make America Great Again Hat. 298 A couple shopping at a Sam’s Club in Kentucky had a gun pulled on them by a man who got triggered after seeing their MAGA hats. 299 A man eating at a restaurant in Massachusetts was assaulted by a woman who spotted him wearing the hat. She was arrested for assault and it turns out was an illegal alien, so a few days after her initial arrest, she was arrested again by ICE. 300 A legal immigrant from Africa living in Maryland was beat down by two other black men because he was spotted walking down the street wearing a MAGA hat. 301

A group of five Asians walking down the street in Washington D.C., all wearing MAGA hats, were harassed by two black men who videotaped themselves stealing two of the hats and posted the video on Twitter to brag about what they had done. The group happened to be North Korean defectors who had escaped the country and proudly wore their MAGA hats because President Trump was making progress facilitating peace between the North and the South. 302 A young woman wearing a red hat reading “Make Bitcoin Great Again” in the style of the MAGA hat was pepper sprayed right in the face by a member of Antifa while she was in the middle of doing a television interview on the campus of UC Berkeley during an event at the school. 303 A man in the back of a pickup truck leaving a Trump rally in Arizona was sucker punched in the head by a protester as the truck pulled away. 304 A customer eating at a Cheesecake Factory in Miami was harassed and threatened by several employees of the restaurant because he was wearing a MAGA hat. 305 When Hillary Clinton was asked about civility returning to America, she endorsed the growing angry mobs saying, “You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about. That’s why I believe, if we are fortunate enough to win back the House and or the Senate [in the 2018 midterms], that’s when civility can start again.” 306 Barack Obama’s former attorney general Eric Holder went even further saying, “Michelle [Obama] always says, you know, ‘When they go low, we go high.’ No. When they go low, we kick them! That’s what this new Democratic Party is about.” 307 Two days after the 2018 midterm election a fascist mob gathered right outside the home of Fox News host Tucker Carlson and with a bullhorn

shouted, “Tonight you are reminded that the people have a voice. Tonight, we remind you that you are not safe,” adding, “We know where you sleep at night.” 308 Facebook didn’t even suspend the Antifa page that organized the event. 309 The Huffington Post published an op-ed calling for violent resistance against Trump and denounced those on the Left who were saying violence isn’t the answer. It’s titled “Sorry Liberals, A Violent Response To Trump Is As Logical As Any,” and starts off saying “there’s an inherent value in forestalling Trump’s normalization. Violent resistance accomplishes this.” 310

It went on to say, “Assuming anti-Trump protests should be strictly focused on electoral politics and not these broader goals would be a detrimental oversight. Understanding European anti-fascists’ use of violent tactics to shut down large rallies from White Supremacists can be illustrative here. Because while Trump isn’t leading full bore White Supremacist rallies, there is value in making it clear that even his fascismlite has no place in civilized society.” 311 The liberal media has been engaging in what’s called stochastic terrorism, which is when the widespread demonization of an individual or a group incites lone wolf political extremists or members of an extremist group to attack them in what appears to be a random act of violence but was actually inspired by inflammatory rhetoric being aimed at that individual or the group they belong to. In April 2019 the CBS show The Good Fight posted a teaser video on their official Twitter account showing one of the main characters engaging in a diatribe about how “some speech” deserves “enforcement” and that “It’s time” to physically attack American citizens “unprovoked” who are engaging in speech that social justice warriors perceive as “racist.” 312

Anti-White Racism Part of the war on Trump supporters involves painting a large percentage of white people as racists in hopes of preventing more blacks and latinos from joining the Trump train. The Liberal Media Industrial Complex now regularly paints white people as the enemy, blaming “systemic racism” for the problems in black communities, and depicts anyone who wants to stop the flood of illegal aliens into America as members of the KKK. While Martin Luther King wanted everyone to judge their fellow man by the content of their character—not the color of their skin, the Liberal Establishment uses identity politics to pit the different races against each other and are trying to create a culture where white people should be ashamed of being white and atone for their “white privilege” by paying reparations to black people and giving blacks special perks in America just because of their race. Online outlets like Salon.com and BuzzFeed are notorious for their anti-white articles. Salon has posted articles titled, “White men must be stopped; The very future of mankind depends on it,” 313 “10 ways white people are more racist than they realize,” 314 and “White guys are killing us: Toxic, cowardly masculinity, our unhealable national illness,” 315 just to name a few. One of BuzzFeed’s racist articles links to various Power Point presentations with titles like “White People Are a Plague to the Planet,” and “White People are Crazy.” 316 They’ve also published articles titled “17 Foods That White People Have Ruined,” “17 Deplorable Examples of White Privilege,” and “22 Reasons Why Straight White Boys Are Actually The Worst.”

Vice News calls whiteness “toxic” 317 and black publications like The Root regularly attack white people as “useless.” 318 MTV did a whole documentary titled “White People” that depicts the entire race as a group whose very existence is based on oppressing black people and other “people of color.” 319 Hollywood constantly complains about white people with campaigns like the “Oscars are too white” and always cries about how there isn’t enough “diversity” in leading roles. When hosting Saturday Night Live to promote his new movie Django Unchained , actor Jamie Foxx bragged, “I kill all the white people in the movie! How great is that!?” 320 Rapper Jay-Z has been photographed at an NBA game wearing a medallion from the 5% Nation, a black power group that believes white people are the Devil. 321 Many rappers admire Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan who has taught that white people are “the Devil” and “deserve to die.” 322 CNN’s Don Lemon says the biggest terrorist threat in America are white men. 323 The network also claims that, “The Internet is radicalizing white men” and urges Big Tech to censor YouTube videos and change the algorithms even more to hide certain ideas on the Internet. 324 CNN contributors and other cable news pundits go so far as to say blacks can’t be racist and justify their racism against white people as “payback” for slavery in the 1800s. Just pointing out anti-white racism is enough for the Liberal Media Industrial Complex to label you a “white supremacist,” so most people are afraid to talk about it.

Demonizing Black Conservatives While it appears that black people can do no wrong in the eyes of liberals and that all their shortcomings, bad decisions, and crimes are the

fault of white people; there is one thing that black people aren’t allowed to do in America today without severe criticism and backlash—and that’s be conservative. Black conservatives like Larry Elder, David Webb, Sheriff David Clark, Pastor Daryl Scott, Ben Carson, and others are constantly smeared by the media as “traitors” to their race, or “uncle Toms” and “house niggers” who have sold out to white people. After Diamond and Silk appeared at CPAC 2019, CNN’s Oliver Darcey insinuated they were “grifters,” meaning con artists. 325 Rolling Stone magazine called Candace Owens an “Alt-Right Provocateur” once she became a star. 326 After posting a few YouTube videos about being a black conservative she was thrust into the spotlight when Kanye West tweeted about her, jumpstarting her career and turning her into one of the most popular young black conservative women in the country. When Candace spoke at a college in Utah, protesters gathered outside, which is common at her events, but this time they had a huge banner that read “End White Supremacy.” 327 When visiting Philadelphia in August 2018 a group of protesters surrounded the cafe she was eating breakfast at and shouted with a megaphone “fuck white supremacy.” 328 Georgetown University professor and regular MSNBC guest Michael Eric Dyson attacked Kanye West after he met with President Trump in the Oval Office (while wearing his MAGA hat), saying, “This is white supremacy by ventriloquism. A black mouth is moving, but white racist ideals are flowing from Kanye West’s mouth.” 329 He went on to say “Kanye West is engaging in one of the most nefarious practices yet. A black body and brain are the warehouse for the articulation and expression of anti-black sentiment.” 330

The Southern Poverty Law Center actually included the mild-mannered and meek Ben Carson on their “Extremist Watch List,” citing a line in his book America the Beautiful where he affirmed that marriage is between a man and a woman and said Leftists are pushing the United States down the same path that led to the fall of the Roman Empire. 331 They labeled Ben Carson an extremist! Hollywood actress and singer Bette Midler claimed that President Trump was paying black people to come to his rallies after she kept noticing them in attendance. She said they were just props for the background. 332 Liberals don’t want diversity of thought, they want everyone to be lockstep in line with the core tenants of the radical liberal agenda and many of their supporters are so dumb that they believe there are black white supremacists in America today, and have no clue how insane they sound. They are afraid that if 20% of black voters leave the Democrat Party and become Republicans, that would be enough to tip the scales in favor of Republicans in elections for years to come and the Democrat Party’s political power would be gravely diminished. 333

The War on Families Families instill moral values, carry on important cultural traditions, and provide a support network when someone goes through an emotionally or financially difficult time. And when someone is engaging in self-destructive or unscrupulous behaviors, those close to them can often see the warning signs and intervene to help get them back on track. But the Left doesn’t want families to raise, teach, or protect children. They want the government

to do it, along with help from the high priests of Hollywood who are held up as the moral leaders of America. Joshua Meyrowitz, Professor of Media Studies at the University of New Hampshire, points out, “Television dilutes the innocence of childhood and the authority of adults by undermining the system of information control that supported them. Television bypasses the year-by-year slices of knowledge given to children. It presents the same general experiences to adults and to children of all ages. Children may not understand everything that they see on television, but they are exposed to many aspects of adult life from which their parents (and traditional children’s books) would have once shielded them.” 334 He continues, “Television and its visitors take children across the globe before parents even give them permission to cross the street.” 335 He said that back in 1995, when the Internet was just in its infancy, and more than a decade before social media would gain a stranglehold on an entire generation of children who access an abyss of adult content, completely unsupervised, through their own smartphones while alone in their bedrooms. The Left’s war on families is targeting the most vulnerable of our society — children. They are determined to raise the next generation to be as perverted as possible—worse than ancient Rome where it was socially acceptable for adult men to engage in sexual activity with young boys. 336 In fact we’re seeing child drag queens like “Desmond is Amazing” and “Lactacia” being celebrated and featured on major television shows as if they’re heroes. NBC’s Today Show promoted “Desmond is Amazing,” the “drag kid” when he was just 10-years-old, calling him “inspiring.” 337 His parents dress him up in drag and have him perform at drag queen festivals across

the country. 338 He also does simulated strip teases on stage (including at gay bars) where grown men throw dollar bills at him. 339 ABC’s Good Morning America also promotes child drag queens, and host Michael Strahan introduced a segment saying, “Get ready for this trailblazing 11-year-old drag kid who RuPaul is calling the future, and his bravery is inspiring so many.” The kid (Desmond is Amazing) then came out on stage dancing like a stripper to hoots and hollers from the audience. 340

Good Morning America glowingly promoted Kate Hudson when reports circulated she was allegedly raising her child “genderless.” Anchor George Stephanopoulos began the segment saying, “Kate Hudson is opening up about how she’s trying to raise her new baby as ‘genderless,’ apparently that’s an approach more and more Americans are trying.” 341 Co-host Paula Faris went on to say the actress will be raising her 3-monthold daughter “without labels or restrictions” because “she doesn’t want to assume how she’ll identify herself as she’s growing up.” 342 Another co-host, Lara Spencer, chimed in, saying, “That’s a great conversation. It’s just a great conversation,” and then (lesbian) Robin Roberts concluded, “No judgment, no judgment. Whatever you feel is best for your child.” 343 Kate Hudson then released a statement on her Instagram saying, “Dear all my friends, fans and others who read this, recently someone asked me something along the lines of, if having and raising a girl is different from boys. My response was simple. Not really. This whole clickbait tactic of saying I’m raising my daughter to be ‘genderless’ is silly and frankly doesn’t even make sense.” 344 Fringe lunatics had been promoting the idea of raising children “genderless” for some time, and so the media saw an opportunity to give

the bizarre practice a boost by attaching a celebrity’s name to it by twisting around what Kate Hudson meant. But there will come a day when major celebrities embrace the “gender neutral” agenda, and they will be hailed as heroes and held up as models for what other parents should do. The media is increasingly glorifying “theybies,” meaning children whose parents are raising them as gender neutral. 345 These child abusers call their kids “theybies” instead of babies, because they use the gender neutral pronoun “they” to refer to their kids instead of “he” or “she.” NBC News recently recommended, “One way of shielding children from gender stereotypes: Keep their biological sex secret.” 346 The radical Leftists don’t want boys raised as boys, or girls as girls. They want all children to be raised as if there’s no biological difference between males and females at all. They want to completely deconstruct the traditional gender roles and deny the inherent differences between the sexes. They want to invert and pervert everything that’s normal including the most fundamental aspects of being human. Every facet of the family and interpersonal relationships is under attack. CNN has even urged people to “rethink” monogamous relationships and become swingers. “Could opening your relationship to others benefit you and your partner?” they asked. 347 According to CNN, a man’s wife banging other dudes “can be a healthy option for some couples and, executed thoughtfully, can inject relationships with some much-needed novelty and excitement.” The report quotes several “sex therapists” who recommend the practice, saying it “can bring back some of the initial novelty and excitement you felt at the beginning of your relationship.” 348 CNN is disappointed that “non-monogamy still carries a stigma in many circles, so think about how you and your partner will address that concern.” 349

Eradicating families is a Communist tactic and as soon as they seized power in Russia in 1917 the new government started shunning families and promoting “free unions” because families raising children were said to be extensions of the old system. 350 The Left wants everyone to be loyal first and foremost to the Party, not to their family. So they’re doing everything they can to rip them apart. In January 2018, CNN published a story advocating cuckolding as a way to “help” couple’s relationships. For those who aren’t familiar with “cuckolding,” it’s a term that originally referred to a man whose partner had been unfaithful, but has morphed into a kink fantasy that some strange couples carry out where the man watches another guy have sex with his wife or girlfriend. CNN cited a “study” by anti-Christian gay extremist Dan Savage and several others which claims that, “acting on cuckolding fantasies can be a largely positive experience for many couples.” 351 To be clear, this isn’t about swinging, an open relationship, or threesomes; it’s about men watching their wives have sex with another man, and CNN portrays the practice in glowing terms, and says, “Acting on adulterous fantasies may strengthen a relationship, as counterintuitive as it may sound.” 352 People are becoming so inept at how to engage in normal and healthy relationships with others that loneliness is plaguing the younger generations who rely on hook-up apps like Tinder to meet people instead of the “old fashioned way” like at school, parties, through mutual friends, or while engaging in their hobbies. 353 Their communication skills are often so poor that many don’t even have the guts to break up with someone when they feel they’re not compatible, so instead they engage in “ghosting” which means they just abruptly stop returning their calls or texts. 354 More than half of adults aged 18 to 34 don’t have a steady romantic partner. 355

And recently birthrates in the United States have fallen to a 32-year low. 356 For teenagers today it is now considered “normal” to be in a virtual “relationship” with someone online for months and even years and never even meet them face to face! 357 Many Millennials don’t even have a best friend or anyone they feel they can confide in. 358 To fill the void created from lack of intimacy in people’s lives, some are turning to unthinkably bizarre alternatives. The disturbing rise in popularity and acceptance of sex bots, which are just high tech blow up dolls that people are having sex with, seems like something out of a horror movie, but it’s actually happening. 359 While blow up dolls are a common gag gift brought along to bachelor parties, no normal person has ever considered actually having sex with one, but recently expensive “life-like” sex bots are being manufactured and sold to lonely losers who resort to having sex with them since their lives are so dysfunctional they can’t get a date with an actual woman. 360 The sex bot business is already a multi-million dollar a year industry and growing. Companies are even working to build models that incorporate artificial intelligence so they can have conversations with people. 361

Google Upset About Families In leaked documents detailing internal discussions of Google employees, one thread shows the use of the word “family” upset a bunch of them who felt it was homophobic and not inclusive enough because of its connotation as referring to a heterosexual couple with children. After one employee walked out of a company presentation over the use of the word “family,” they posted on an internal message board venting their frustration. 362

“This is a diminishing and disrespectful way to speak. If you mean ‘children,’ say ‘children’; we have a perfectly good word for it. ‘Family friendly’ used as a synonym for ‘kid friendly’ means, to me, ‘you and yours don’t count as a family unless you have children.’ And while kids may often be less aware of it, there are kids without families too, you know.” 363 The complaint went on, “The use of ‘family’ as a synonym for ‘with children’ has a long-standing association with deeply homophobic organizations. This does not mean we should not use the word ‘family’ to refer to families, but it mean we must doggedly insist that family does not imply children…Use the word ‘family’ to mean a loving assemblage of people who may or may not live together and may or may not include people of any particular age. STOP using it to mean ‘children.’ It’s offensive, inappropriate, homophobic, and wrong.” 364 It wasn’t just one lone nut who got triggered because the presentation mentioned Google is trying to make “family friendly” apps and services. The documents show that about 100 other Google employees thumbed up the post, and many responses echoed the same psychotic sentiment. “Thanks for writing this. So much yes,” replied one. “Using the word ‘family’ in this sense bothers me too,” said another. Adding, “It smacks of the ‘family values’ agenda by the right wing, which is absolutely homophobic by its very definition,” and continued, “it’s important that we fix our charged language when we become aware of how exclusionary it actually is. As a straight person in a relationship, I find the term ‘family’ offensive because it excludes me and my boyfriend, having no children of our own.” 365 The replies go on and on, all chastising Google for using the word “family.” Another says, “My family consists of me and several other trans feminine folks, some of whom I’m dating. We’re all supportive of each

other and eventually aspire to live together. Just because we aren’t a heterosexual couple with 2.5 kids, a white picket fence, and a dog doesn’t mean we’re not a family.” 366 Google’s Vice President, Pavni Diwanji, then responded saying, “Hi everyone, I realize what we said at TGIF [the name of the event] might have caused concerns in the way we talked about families. There are families without kids too, and also we needed to be more conscientious about the fact that there is a diverse makeup of parents and families.” 367 He continued, “Please help us get to a better state. Teach us how to talk about it in inclusive way, if you feel like we are not doing it well. As a team we have very inclusive culture, and want to do right in this area. I am adding my team here so we can have open conversation.” 368

Celebrating Unwed Mothers When the number of unwed mothers in America reached more than 50% in 2012, the feminist blog Jezebel celebrated the “milestone” with a headline reading, “The Increase in Single Moms Is Actually a Good Thing,” because the increase in single mothers means fewer women are “relying” on men economically, and feminists view more single moms as a sign of female empowerment. The writer was upset that experts (and ordinary people) were concerned about the growing trend since children born out of wedlock “face greater social and economic obstacles than their peers born into traditional nuclear families.” 369 Liberals never want to hear about the effects of their disastrous decisions, but there’s one thing they like more than single mothers, and that’s women who never become mothers at all. A report from CNBC declared, “Your friends may tell you having kids has made them happier. They’re probably lying.” It went on to say,

“Research shows that parenthood leads to a happiness gap. Maybe that’s because the pleasures of parenthood are outweighed by all the extra responsibilities, housework and, of course, the costs.” 370 The article then broke down the average costs per month of having a child and calculated how much it adds up to by the time the kid is eighteenyears-old in attempts to dissuade people from having children. On her short-lived Netflix show, comedian Michelle Wolf (the woman who looks like Carrot Top that performed at the White House Correspondents Dinner in 2018) did a segment titled “Salute to Abortions” which included a marching band coming out on stage where she then began to chant, “It doesn’t have to be a big deal, it’s actually a great deal! It’s about $300 dollars. That’s like six movie tickets.” She ended her speech saying “God bless abortions, and God bless America!” 371 In the Hulu series Shrill , the lead character (Aidy Bryant) got pregnant and decided to have an abortion “before it becomes illegal,” and after killing the baby she tells her roommate she’s glad she “got out of a huge fucking mess” and now, “I feel very fucking powerful right now. And I just feel like I need to go out [and party].” 372 A YouTube channel called “HiHo Kids” which features videos of young children meeting drag queens, transgender people, a gynecologist, and other individuals no child should be subjected to, even produced a video titled “Kids Meet Someone Who’s Had an Abortion” where the woman tells the children about how happy she was to do it, and that it was “part of God’s plan.” 373 Alabama State Representative John Rogers made a startling declaration during a debate about a proposed state law that would ban most abortions unless the fetus had a “lethal anomaly” or if the pregnancy would put the mother’s life at risk, saying, “Some kids are unwanted, so you kill them

now or you kill them later. You bring them in the world unwanted, unloved, [and then] you send them to the electric chair. So, you kill them now or you kill them later.” 374 He wasn’t being sarcastic, he supports abortion and was arguing against the bill. 375

“Kids Cause Global Warming” Perhaps one reason liberals are big supporters of abortion is because children are increasingly being blamed for causing global warming. The London Guardian declared, “The greatest impact individuals can have in fighting climate change is to have one fewer child, according to a new study that identifies the most effective ways people can cut their carbon emissions.” 376 One of the researchers on the project said, “I don’t have children, but it is a choice I am considering and discussing with my fiancé. Because we care so much about climate change that will certainly be one factor we consider in the decision, but it won’t be the only one.” 377 Other lunatics are so concerned that planet earth is doomed they’re afraid to have children because they don’t want to bring them into the world if it’s going to soon plunge into chaos like a science fiction movie. The New York Times interviewed a 32-year-old woman in a story about this madness who said, “I don’t want to give birth to a kid wondering if it’s going to live in some kind of ‘Mad Max’ dystopia.” 378 “Animals are disappearing. The oceans are full of plastic. The human population is so numerous, the planet may not be able to support it indefinitely. This doesn’t paint a very pretty picture for people bringing home a brand-new baby from the hospital,” said another. 379 Others see it as a “sacrifice” they have to make to save the planet. One woman who wanted to have kids but decided not to, said “it’s hard for me

to justify my wants over what matters and what’s important for everyone.” 380 Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez even said that it’s a “legitimate question” for Millennials and those in Generation Z to ask, “Is it OK to still have children?” because global warming is supposedly going to make their lives miserable. 381

The LGBT Mafia Every time a social media personality, actor, singer, or sports figure “comes out” as gay, liberal media outlets across the Internet all celebrate them as if they’ve accomplished some incredible achievement. President Obama made a habit of calling and “congratulating” professional athletes who decided to come out as gay. 382 When the Supreme Court ruled that gay “marriage” was legal in all fifty states, Obama had the White House lit up in rainbow colors that night to celebrate. 383 The media is also on a mission to ruin the careers of any celebrity who dares voice opposition to gay “marriage” or gay adoption. 384 HGTV famously canceled a television show of the Benham Brothers (not to be confused with the “Property Brothers,” who have a show on the network) after news reports started surfacing that the Benhams were Christians and didn’t support gay “marriage.” 385 Comedian Kevin Hart was scheduled to host the 2019 Oscars until LGBT activists started spreading around one of his old bits about him not wanting his son to grow up to be gay. 386 In 2014 Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich, the creator of the popular Firefox web browser, was forced to resign after LGBT activists discovered that he had donated $1000 of his own money to support Proposition 8 in California which amended the state’s constitution to define marriage as specifically between a man and a woman. 387 A gay man once filed a $70 million dollar lawsuit against a popular

Bible publisher claiming that the anti-gay verses caused him “emotional distress.” 388 Kids in California, Colorado, New Jersey, and Illinois schools are now being forced to learn about “LGBT History Month” and are being taught about the “amazing contributions” LGBT people have made to the country. 389 In the UK, school children are being taught that “all genders” can have periods, not just women, and schools started adding tampon dispensers in the boys bathrooms. 390 Since “Drag Queen Story Hour” is being held at an increasing number of public libraries across the country (where insane parents bring their small children to have drag queens read stories to them about being gay or transgender) the city council in Lafayette City-Parish, Louisiana held a meeting after many (normal) parents were outraged the event was being held in their community. During the meeting a gay man took to the podium to support the event, saying, “I’m here to let you know that this event is something that’s going to be very beautiful and for the children and the people that support it are going to realize that this is going to be the grooming of the next generation.” 391 Others in the meeting gasped since the term “grooming children” refers to a sexual predator attempting to persuade a child into a sexual relationship over time. 392 One drag queen who read to children at the Houston Public Library’s “Drag Queen Storytime” is a registered sex offender who had previously been convicted of aggravated sexual assault against an 8-year-old child. 393 The library failed to do background checks on the drag queens who were given access to the children and the sex offender had only been exposed after a conservative activist organization MassResistance took it upon themselves to investigate the drag queens who were reading to the kids at

the events. 394 Another drag queen reading to children at a library actually taught children how to twerk (jiggle their butts in a sexual way, as popularized by skank Miley Cyrus.) 395 Liberals began complaining that Victoria’s Secret “discriminates” against fat women and transgenders because only beautiful (and actual) women walk the runway in their fashion shows. Online outlet “Mic” complained that they “normalized discrimination” and that, “It doesn’t take a fashion insider to recognize that when it comes to plus-size and transgender women, as well as gender nonconforming people, Victoria’s Secret would rather maintain a closed door policy. Since the brand’s first runway show at the Plaza Hotel in New York City in August 1995, not a single plus-size or out transgender or gender nonconforming person has walked in the show’s 23-year history.” 396 Activists then called it “hateful” when the chief marketing officer dismissed criticism, but Victoria’s Secret official Twitter account soon apologized and released a statement saying, “we absolutely would love to cast a transgender model for the show.” 397 Nine months later they hired their first transgender model. 398 Just like conservative blacks are shunned and smeared by the media, so are conservative gays. Deadspin , a sports blog owned by Univision, published an article titled “Conservative Gays Need to Shut The Fuck Up.” 399 And when Caitlyn Jenner “came out” as a Republican, liberals went nuts and completely denounced “her” as a traitor to the LGBT community despite recently having been celebrated as the most famous transgender person in the world upon announcing “her” transition. “She” received infinitely more hate on social media for being a Republican than “she” did for deciding to identify as a “woman,” and

actually said it was harder to come out as Republican than it was transgender. 400

TV “News” Television news is very different from newspapers and magazines which tend to cover stories in much greater detail and context than a fifteensecond sound bite, and require a reader’s active attention and willingness to follow a story. Television, on the other hand, is a passive medium and relies on a quick pace, flashy graphics, and dramatic music in hopes of gaining an audience’s attention and holding it long enough for the commercial break so they can get paid. TV news only skims along the surface of issues, mentioning a few basic points, and is often just infotainment with no real substance. What the audience sees is a carefully crafted version of a story that the producers and editors want people to see, while leaving out the parts they don’t want. Famed media analyst Neil Postman noted, “Television always recreates the world to some extent in its own image by selecting parts of that world and editing those parts. So a television news show is a kind of symbolic creation and construction made by news directors and camera crews…and stranger still is the fact that commercials may appear anywhere in a news story, before, or after, or in the middle, so that all events are rendered essentially trivial; that is to say all events are treated as a source of public entertainment.” 401 The reason intelligent people listen to talk radio is because radio shows provide long-form interviews and in-depth discussions which explore subjects in detail during a 15 or 20 minute segment, and may even continue the discussion after the commercial break for even longer. In comparison,

the average television news segment on a national evening news broadcast is just 2 minutes and 23 seconds. 402 For local TV news it’s just 41 seconds. 403 Television news is the equivalent of reading the headline of a newspaper article and the first paragraph or two. Aside from the limitations of the television format, the days of Walter Cronkite, “the most trusted man in America” who anchored the CBS Evening News for 19 years, are long gone. After his era was over we got people like Dan Rather who used fake documents in a report about George W. Bush’s service record from when he was in the National Guard. 404 And Brian Williams who fabricated a story about his plane being shot down in Iraq when he was covering the war. 405 Most television “reporters” today aren’t reporters, but are just actors. Everyone knows Hollywood celebrities make millions of dollars a year, but most people don’t think about how much money celebrity “journalists” make. They too are performance artists not much different from a Hollywood actor reading their lines. They know when to sound somber, and when to turn up the energy and display faux outrage to the audience when the teleprompter tells them. Many of them don’t believe half the things they say, they’re just playing a part, and for that they get paid very well. For example, before he was fired from the NBC Nightly News , anchor Brian Williams was making $10 million a year. 406 Dan Rather was making $6 million a year at CBS News. 407 At CNN Anderson Cooper makes $12 million dollars a year and has a net worth of over $100 million. 408 MSNBC morning host Joe Scarborough’s divorce documents show that in 2013 he was making just under $100,000 per week! 409 Matt Lauer was making $25 million a year before he was fired from NBC’s Today Show for sexual misconduct. 410 And when Megyn Kelly was fired from NBC’s morning

lineup she left with a $69 million windfall, the remainder of her contract. 411

To put these figures in perspective, Anderson Cooper’s $12 million a year divided by 52 (weeks in a year) is over $230,000 a week, or over $46,000 per show . He makes more money in one day than many Americans make in an entire year! And for that kind of money, these television personalities will say and do almost anything. Being a cable news contributor is also very lucrative, earning pundits an easy six-figure salary to sit around a table for an hour to give their “analysis” on various issues a few nights a week. They know what the host, producers, and network want, and that’s what they deliver. They’re very careful not to bite the hand that feeds them by daring to point out facts that go against the narrative the show is trying to promote. All of the Big Three broadcast networks (NBC, ABC, and CBS) try to separate themselves from the “cable” shows, but promoting the liberal agenda remains at the core of their existence. That’s not to say they don’t have some value. The major networks are useful to learn about dangerous weather events, product recalls, health scares, etc., and they do cover some events that can’t have political spin put on them and which the general public should be aware of. And it can be important to watch what they are reporting just to be aware of the latest issues they are promoting and see what their current agenda is. They also aren’t without their own major scandals that should cause viewers to remain skeptical about their integrity as “news” networks. CBS once killed a story about the tobacco industry covering up how addictive cigarettes are out of concerns that if they were sued by the tobacco companies for their report it would interfere with the pending sale of the

network to Westinghouse. 412 The incident was later made into a movie called The Insider (1999) staring Al Pacino and Russell Crowe. 413 After allegedly burying a story about Nike using sweatshops to manufacture their clothes out of fears they would lose the company as a sponsor for the 1998 Winter Olympics, CBS reporters wore Nike jackets during their coverage as part of the sponsorship deal in what was widely criticized as a breach of journalistic ethics. 414 CBS News has even digitally inserted advertisements for their own network onto fake billboards during live shots using the same technology sports broadcasts use to display banners behind home plate at baseball games. CBS inserted them onto buildings, water fountains, and even on the back of a horse-drawn carriage during “news” reports. 415 After ABC News interrupted the network’s broadcast for some “breaking news” about the “Russia investigation,” Brian Ross falsely claimed that Michael Flynn had implicated Donald Trump in the “conspiracy,” resulting in the stock market immediately dropping 350 points out of concerns that the President would now be impeached or arrested. 416 General Flynn had made no such allegations and the story was completely false. A few years earlier during their breaking news coverage of the shooting in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater by lunatic James Holmes, anchor George Stephanopoulos said that Brian Ross found something that “might be significant.” He then went on to incorrectly report that the shooter may be a member of the Tea Party because ABC found someone on Facebook with the same name who had the Tea Party listed as one of his interests. 417 It was, of course, the wrong James Holmes. ABC News claimed that then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions delivered a speech to a “hate group” after meeting with the Christian non-profit

organization Alliance Defending Freedom, one of the most powerful Christian rights legal organizations in the country. 418 Basically all Christian groups are seen as “hate groups” to the liberal Establishment, which always cites the Southern Poverty Law Center as the ultimate authority of such things. After Oprah Winfrey accepted an award at the 2018 Golden Globes and gave an “inspiring” speech that caused many to hope she would be running for president, the official NBC Twitter account tweeted out a picture of her with the caption “OUR future president.” 419 In 2015, NBC News launched “NBC BLK” (NBC Black), a new website for “black-oriented issues.” 420 Apparently it just wasn’t enough to cover that kind of news on their main platform, they had to dedicate an entire division to “black news.” The following year they launched “NBC Out,” a website featuring LGBT news, “Out” meaning “out of the closet.” The site has it’s own Twitter account and other social media pages dedicated to using the NBC brand to promote the LGBT agenda 24/7.

Cable News As bad as the Big Three broadcast networks have become in recent years, cable news channels like CNN and MSNBC are much worse. They’ll talk endlessly about the same story on every show, every hour, all day, to ensure maximum saturation hoping their propaganda will reach as many viewers as possible since most people just tune in for an hour or two a day. Fox News, while still following the basic sound bite format of television news, actually does a very good job of presenting a variety of stories and perspectives, whereas CNN and MSNBC mostly have endless panel discussions with each pundit throwing in their two cents when their “research” consists of glancing over a few headlines before the show or

reading the producer’s notes about what the topic is for the day. Barack Obama once said that Fox viewers are living on a different planet than those who watch CNN and MSNBC. 421 Maybe he’s right. Fox viewers are the ones living on planet Earth! The Left is so fearful of Fox News that the Democratic National Committee barred them from hosting any of the twelve Democrat presidential primary debates for the 2020 election, claiming they’re “state run TV” controlled by the Trump White House. 422 God forbid any of the moderators ask the candidates some real questions! MSNBC was started in 1996 and functioned as the liberal counterpart to Fox, whereas CNN was supposedly the middle ground. CNN stands for Cable News Network and they were the first 24-hour news network in the world, started in 1980 by Ted Turner. For over 30 years they would cover news from around the globe and were once—as their trademarked slogan still (falsely) claims—one of the most trusted names in news. When something interesting was happening somewhere in the world, it was live on CNN, but in the Trump era all that changed. They rarely report on news anymore. Instead, all they do is talk about how terrible of a person Donald Trump is. It’s improv theater. The producer gives the panel a topic each night, or each segment, and like a group of actors at an improv show, the panelists pretend to be experts on the issue and put forth their opinions as if they actually know what they’re talking about when in most cases they’re just making it up as they go along. CNN doesn’t air newscasts anymore, they air talk shows filled with endless speculation and theorizing about things they have no idea about. It’s a gossip network. CNN now covers one story—Trump. It’s Trump 24/7 and virtually every minute of airtime is dedicated to complaining about him. What would

once be contained in the grocery store tabloids or frivolous websites with zero editorial ethics now regularly airs on CNN. Gossip about Stormy Daniels and the “pee tape” and endless allegations from anonymous sources about how “corrupt,” “incompetent,” “racist,” fascist,” etc., Trump is, is the only thing they talk about. The network is desperate to prevent blue collar Democrats from supporting Trump and abandoning the Democrat Party, so after a grassroots movement called #WalkAway was started by a gay liberal named Brandon Straka encouraging people to stop voting for Democrats because the party has become insane, CNN branded the movement part of a Russian plot! They reported that despite the #WalkAway campaign being “presented as a grassroots effort by former Democrats who are critical of the party’s alleged intimidation, confrontation and lack of civility and want people to walk away from the party,” they said it has, “been connected to Kremlin-linked Russian bots.” 423 The #WalkAway campaign’s YouTube channel and Facebook page are filled with video testimonials of average Americans from all different backgrounds who give their reasons for why they no longer support the Democrat Party and are encouraging others to “walk away” as well. 424 CNN’s poisonous anti-Trump obsession may have incited several terrorist attacks such as the man who shot up Republicans’ softball practice in June 2017, severely injuring Congressman Steve Scalese, or the person who mailed white powder to Donald Trump Jr.’s apartment, causing an anthrax scare and landing his then-wife in the hospital for testing. CNN’s reckless rhetoric could be the catalyst that helped push any number of mentally unstable viewers over the edge, convincing them that the Trump administration is the reincarnation of the Third Reich.

Meanwhile CNN’s senior “media analyst” Brian Stelter says that Trump’s base is a “hate movement” against the press. “I think what we are increasingly seeing from the president and his aides and his allies is a hate movement against the American press,” Stelter whined. “When you look at the behavior around Jim Acosta and some of the other reporter at these rallies, you really do see a hate movement.” 425 Shortly after the election Stelter declared that Donald Trump becoming president was “a national emergency” and painted him as a dictator who just seized power. 426 In an interview with New York Magazine CNN’s president Jeff Zucker admitted, “The perception of Donald Trump in capitals around the world is shaped, in many ways, by CNN,” warning Trump that, “Continuing to have an adversarial relationship with that network is a mistake.” 427 Even the Washington Post admitted that, “it is hard to escape the perception that Zucker issued a kind of threat.” 428 CNN was instrumental in getting Alex Jones banned from all major social media platforms after they literally lobbied the tech giants to have him removed. Before he was “unpersoned,” when his YouTube channel had just one strike they gleefully reported, “InfoWars’ Main YouTube Channel is Two Strikes Away From Being Banned” 429 A few days later his channel got a second strike, and outlets like Newsweek gloated, “InfoWars is perilously close to a permanent YouTube ban after peddling yet another debunked conspiracy theory.” 430 Dozens of other outlets picked up the story about the second strike, salivating that Infowars was one strike away from permanently being banned. 431 Even before Alex Jones’ YouTube channel was deleted, CNN was organizing an advertiser boycott against all the companies whose ads were appearing before his videos played. CNN reported, “Some of the biggest brands in the U.S. had ads running on the YouTube channels for far-right

website InfoWars and its founder, notorious conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and they say they had no idea YouTube was allowing their advertising to appear there.” 432 Well, how did they learn their ads were running on Alex’s channel? Because CNN made of list of which ads were running, and then contacted the advertisers to pressure the companies into pulling them! Their story goes on, “CNN has discovered ads on InfoWars’ channels from companies and organizations such as Nike, Acer, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Network, the Mormon Church, Moen, Expedia, Alibaba, HomeAway, the NRA, Honey, Wix and ClassPass.” At the end of their story they admitted, “Many of the brands — including Nike, Moen, Expedia, Acer, ClassPass, Honey, Alibaba and OneFamily — have suspended ads on InfoWars’ channels after being contacted by CNN for comment.” 433 MSNBC is usually not quite as insane as CNN but it’s still almost always off the rails. Donny Deutsch, who is a regular contributor on the Morning Joe show, has challenged President Trump to a fight on air, 434 and their other regular panelists say things like Trump’s name is the “modern day swastika.” 435 They also regularly compared him to a dictator and call him a white supremacist. 436 When President Trump announced that he would be meeting face to face with Kim Jong Un, MSNBC claimed it was to “distract” the media from talking about his alleged affair with Stormy Daniels. 437 The network’s darling is lesbian Rachel Maddow whose monologues are convoluted streams of consciousness rattling off all kinds of social justice warrior buzzwords without ever really making a point. Her show is so fanatical and hyper-partisan that the New York Times banned their reporters from even appearing on it out of concern it will tarnish their credibility. 438

The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald admitted, “I used to be really good friends with Rachel Maddow [but] I’ve seen her devolution from this really interesting, really smart, independent thinker into this utterly scripted, intellectually dishonest, partisan hack.” 439 MSNBC’s research department is so awful they took seriously a parody Twitter account that listed its location as a city in Russia and tweeted satire about a variety of issues (calling itself Boston Antifa). MSNBC reported that it was more “evidence” that Russian bots were active on Twitter. 440 They also fell for a tweet posted by the popular parody account for North Korea, the “DPRK News Service” which MSNBC cited in a report attacking President Trump. 441 Immediately after Robert Mueller wrapped up his two-year long investigation into the Trump campaign’s alleged “collusion” with the Russians and found none, CNN and MSNBC’s ratings dropped like a stone over night. After stringing along their viewers for two years giving the impression that any day now Mueller would announce he found “proof” Trump was a Russian agent and that his impeachment and imprisonment was imminent, hundreds of thousands of disappointed viewers finally quit tuning in. Following the Mueller nothing burger, Rachel Maddow’s viewership dropped by almost 20%. 442 Anderson Cooper’s prime time show on CNN got only 835,000 viewers, and for weeks couldn’t break a million. 443 Meanwhile Fox News continued to dominate, getting more viewers than MSNBC and CNN combined. 444 Even Newsweek magazine, which is part of the anti-Trump smear machine, reported, “MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Found Huge Ratings Success Covering Trump and Russia — So What Now?” 445 Election years are always huge ratings boosters for cable news, and the regular viewers

who suffered through two years of endless speculation and listened to countless conspiracy theories about Trump and the Russians obviously aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed. Most have already forgotten all about the massive deception they were victims of and due to their short attention spans and lack of intellectual capacity, these cable news companies will continue on as if they did nothing wrong, and hundreds of thousands of people will still tune in. Normal Americans wonder how anyone could watch them again after the massive fraud the “news” networks had engaged in, but it’s easy to underestimate how many stupid people there are out there. After all, the Jerry Springer Show aired for 27 years and was able to keep audiences coming back every day to watch another group of trailer trash fight with each other about who cheated on who and who the father is of some poor child; and despite how mindless and repetitive the show was, enough people kept tuning in every day for it to stay on air for almost three decades.

Internet “News” Sites Just like the Internet sparked the creation of countless different kinds of businesses selling everything from books to airline tickets, it also gave birth to new “news” companies as well. While the brand name newspapers and television networks eventually began migrating their content online, unknown entrepreneurs threw their hat in the news business as well, creating digital-only magazines and “news” sites like the Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, the Daily Beast, Politico, Axios, Vox, Slate, Vice News, and many others.

Since the barriers to entry are so low, and these companies didn’t need to invest in gigantic printing presses or develop supply chains to deliver their product to readers’ homes every morning, many of them saw the incredible opportunities the Internet opened up. But while most newspapers and magazines require people to buy them, the vast majority of Internet news sites are free to read. All they had to do was get people to click on their articles and the advertisements on the website would fund their operation, so instead of focusing on producing quality content that people would be willing to pay for, they began flooding the Internet with sensational clickbait, throwing all journalistic standards out the window with one goal in mind—drive traffic to the articles, no matter what. The Huffington Post was one of the first “successful” online “news” outlets. It was started in 2005 specializing in clickbait trash and other pop culture nonsense, but due to spamming the Internet with countless articles on anything and everything, they generated a lot of traffic and made a name for themselves as one of the most viewed online “news” outlets. 446 In 2011 they were purchased by AOL for $315 million. 447 When Conan O’Brien was the comedian at the 2013 White House Correspondents Dinner he mocked the Huffington Post for being invited, saying, “All the Washington news media here tonight including the stars of online journalism. I see the Huffington Post has a table, which has me wondering if you’re here, who’s covering Miley Cyrus’s latest nip slip? Who’s assembling today’s top 25 yogurt related tweets? [Or] 7 mistakes you’re making with bacon? That’s a real one, and you should be ashamed of yourselves!” 448 The Huffington Post (later rebranded as HuffPost) being welcomed as part of the Washington press corps marked the beginning of the end of

journalism.

BuzzFeed BuzzFeed is another online abomination which took advantage of the new clickbait business model. The site was created in 2006, and began churning out ridiculously dumb quizzes about pop culture and recycling the same handful of topics over and over again to litter Google’s search results with their spam, often in the form of listicles like: “37 Things White People Need to Stop Ruining in 2018;” “21 Things That Almost All White People Are Guilty Of Saying;” and “33 Things That Almost All White People Are Guilty Of Doing.” They seem to hate white people so much that after the White House announced the National Day for the Victims of Communism a BuzzFeed reporter declared that the phrase “victims of Communism” was a “white nationalist talking point.” 449 Aside from their distain for white people, BuzzFeed also can’t stand heterosexual people (known as normal people to those not infected with the liberal pathogen.) When Star Wars: The Last Jedi was released, despite Disney turning the movie into a feminist propaganda piece, BuzzFeed still wasn’t happy because there were no LGBT characters and suggested that Finn (John Boyega) and Poe Dameron (Oscar Issac) should have had a “romance” as part of the plot. 450 BuzzFeed is perhaps the worst clickbait bottom feeder online and makes the National Enquirer look like a Pulitzer Prize winning publication. Outside of the community of morons who actively visit their website, BuzzFeed is best-known for publishing the fake news story about Donald Trump allegedly being caught on tape with hookers peeing on him in a Russian hotel.

The story about the now-infamous “dossier” had been circling internally at most of the major news outlets but nobody had reported on it because it was so ridiculous and there wasn’t a shred of evidence to back it up, but BuzzFeed decided they would get the “scoop” and ran with it. Then the allegations were all over social media and “Golden Showers” was trending on Twitter which provided cover for other “news” outlets to repeat the story. BuzzFeed often does the dirty work for Democrats by publishing salacious allegations and hyping them up enough to then get amplified by mainstream outlets which hide under the cover of qualifiers like “BuzzFeed reports” and “according to BuzzFeed.” This way, they can give the impression that they’re not making the claims, it’s someone else and they’re just passing it along because “if true” it would be a big story.

Vice News Vice News is another popular online outlet which regularly celebrates the most bizarre sexual perversions and promotes degenerates as modern day heroes. Some of their headlines are literally: “We Interviewed the Zoophilia Advocate Who Had Sex with a Dolphin;” “Ever Fantasized About Ingesting an Animal Through Your Anus?” “How to Make Breakfast With Your Vagina;” “Why Can’t I Consent to Sex with My Brother?” “Dear Straight Guys, It’s Time to Start Putting Things In Your Butt;” “Was Jesus Gay?” “Getting Cocaine Blown Up Your Butt;” and “Should Every Man Be Penetrated At Least Once In His Life?” It should be no surprise that Vice News is also on the forefront of celebrating child drag queens and sexualizing children. 451 Vice’s founder Shane Smith became a billionaire from peddling this kind of cancer. 452 In the early 2010s they regularly made viral videos on interesting topics that other news outlets wouldn’t cover, like traveling to

Columbia to investigate scopolamine (also known as the Devil’s Breath) which allegedly puts people into a chemically induced hypnotic trance where they will do anything they’re told, 453 and visiting Kim Dotcom’s estate in New Zealand and letting him give his side of the story regarding the massive copyright infringement case he’s facing for running the filesharing site Megaupload. 454 But Vice quickly devolved into the most perverted of online outlets. Like all the other large Leftist web-based media outlets, Vice seems to be obsessed with criticizing white people and sees “white supremacists” around every corner. They literally reported that, “Racist and white supremacist ideas have become more visible among the Chinese Canadian right.” 455 So Chinese people living in Canada are white supremacists now? There’s no point in trying to make sense of their insanity. It’s best to just stay away from them so their poisonous propaganda doesn’t enter your view because it will only make you upset. In 2015, Disney invested over $400 million into Vice, but four years later had lost all of their money and wrote it off on their taxes. 456 George Soros came to the rescue in mid-2019 and “invested” another $250 million dollars into the failing media company so they could continue to operate. 457 The “investment” from Soros was really just a donation to help them cover their operating expenses for the next few years so they could keep pumping out their liberal propaganda regardless of how much money it cost them to produce or whether they earned any revenue from it.

Vox Vox is another well-funded online outlet that sees white supremacist boogeymen around every corner, and paints anyone to the right of Karl Marx as an alt-right Nazi. Vox largely functions as an activist organization

working to destroy the careers of conservatives by painting targets on their back and smearing them with labels that are difficult to shake. In 2015 they were given $200 million dollars by NBC to do their dirty work without tarnishing the NBC name. 458 For years Vox has been obsessed with PewDiePie, who held the title of YouTube’s most subscribed channel for six years, and thinks that he is putting out secret white supremacist messages to his viewers. 459 Of course they labeled me one of YouTube’s “most extreme” creators in a video they produced crying about how conservatives were making viral anti-feminist and anti-illegal immigration videos on YouTube. 460 Vox came to most people’s attention in June 2019 when one of their activists (who calls himself a “journalist”) named Carlos Maza tried to get Steven Crowder completely banned from YouTube for calling him a “lispy queer” and an “anchor baby.” Just as gay pride month kicked off, Carlos Maza rallied his fans to pressure YouTube to ban Crowder for “bullying” him and for using “hate speech,” despite Maza often referring to himself as a “queer” and the Q in LGBTQ stands for just that. The little sissy spent an entire weekend ranting on Twitter about how miserable his life was and kept harassing YouTube to ban Crowder for his “homophobic attacks.” YouTube then demonetized Crowder’s entire channel, along with many others the company claimed were posting “offensive” content. More on that in the chapter on YouTube. In case there is any doubt as to whether or not Vox hates the First Amendment, for the 4th of July they published an op-ed titled “3 Reasons the American Revolution Was a Mistake,” which starts off saying, “This July 4, let’s not mince words: American independence in 1776 was a monumental mistake. We should be mourning the fact that we left the United Kingdom, not cheering it.” 461

It goes on to wish we would have remained a British colony because slavery would have supposedly been abolished sooner, fewer Native Americans would have been oppressed, and we would have a parliamentary system of government instead of a separation of powers (the three-branch system, which we currently have). The writer also added his belief that we would have passed a carbon tax, since that’s what happened in Britain, whereas such a proposal has (thankfully) so far failed to get enough support in the United States. The article concluded that, “The main benefit of the revolution to colonists was that it gave more political power to America’s white male minority.” 462 Of course! It’s always the white man’s fault!

The Daily Beast The Daily Beast is another unscrupulous online outlet that often functions as a political activist organization instead of a “news” website and regularly depicts Trump supporters as a bunch of bigots. They like to publish stories that smear rising conservative social media personalities as “far-right” to brand them as “extremists” in attempts to derail their careers before a major network hires them as contributors. It’s their way of trying to kill off the next generation of conservative voices before they become household names. The “far-right” label is often associated with neo-Nazism and by muddying up the search results for peoples’ names with a bunch of salacious articles about them it can cause real damage for current and future employment. Headlines like “Meet Candace Owens, Kanye West’s Toxic Far-Right Consigliere,” 463 and “Mike Cernovich and Jack Posobiec, the Far Right’s Twin Trolls, Taste Their Own Bitter Medicine,” 464 and “ProGun Parkland Teen Kyle Kashuv Apologizes for ‘Inflammatory’ Racial

Comments” are commonly deployed to digitally tar and feather conservatives. 465 The Daily Beast calls YouTube a “radicalization factory” for the “farright” and says that it’s “pulling YouTubers down the rabbit hole of extremism.” 466 Like others of their ilk, they often push for more censorship of right-wing content under the smokescreen of fighting “racism” and “extremism.” Defame, demonetize, and deplatform is their M.O. After a joke video depicting Nancy Pelosi as drunk and slurring her words went viral on Facebook, the Daily Beast doxed the person who allegedly made it, revealing his name, the city he lives in, and what he does for a living. The “reporter” (activist) who cyber-stalked the meme maker had apparently messaged his Facebook friends, including his ex-girlfriend, fishing for information about him. 467

Don’t Fall for Their Tricks If you use social media, the best thing you can do is block these Leftist clickbait accounts, and don’t share their links no matter how outrageous their articles are because these sites often rely on hate-clicks, which means they know people will share the links on their social media accounts with the intention of showing their friends how insane the articles are. Unfortunately trying to “expose” them this way just drives more traffic to their website which is what they want. They don’t care if the people clicking the articles like them or hate them, as long as they get the traffic and thus the ad revenue from it. Oftentimes articles are purposefully inflammatory and designed to get attention because of how outlandish they are, even though the people writing them may not even believe a word of it, but are simply publishing

outrageous things in hopes that people will spread them around so they can get a bunch of hate-clicks from it. So instead of posting links to these outlets, take a screenshot of their headline and post that, along with a summary of the article and your commentary so you’re not driving any more traffic to their websites. Starve them of traffic! Or post an article from a conservative website that is covering what the Leftist sites are reporting instead of giving them any more page views directly. It may be best to just ignore them altogether sometimes and not even mention them so that you don’t inadvertently inspire anyone to visit them out of curiosity. And be sure to bookmark and follow conservative sites like Fox News, Breitbart, the Drudge Report, Daily Caller, the Washington Times, Townhall, The Federalist, Washington Examiner, Newsbusters, PJ Media, Red State, One America News, WorldNetDaily, and National Review.

The End of Print Journalism? In early 2018 the New York Times CEO predicted their print edition may only last another ten years before it becomes economically unsustainable to keep it going. 468 Newspaper circulation has been on a steady decline since the Internet revolution, and many magazines are struggling as well. PC Magazine ceased printing a physical edition in 2009 and is now just a website. Computerworld followed suit in 2014. Teen Vogue magazine and Self did the same thing in 2017. Newsweek , once considered to be one of the staples of the news magazine industry ever since its creation in 1933, even quit issuing a print edition at the end of 2012 due to financial problems. 469 About a year later after it had been bought by another media organization (IBT Media) they re-launched the print edition, but continue to struggle.

Despite having over 3 million Twitter followers, most of Newsweek’s tweets barely get a dozen interactions, leading many people to think they bought millions of fake followers in order to appear popular. 470 In 2018 Newsweek was accused of fraudulently inflating the traffic to their website in order to present advertisers with false numbers, causing numerous online ad vendors to pull their ads. 471 So buying fake Twitter followers surely seems right up their alley. CNN’s president Jeff Zucker complained at an industry conference that his network was having a difficult time monetizing their content online since so many videos are spread through social media with CNN clips being posted to YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. “In a Google and Facebook world, monetization of digital and mobile continues to be more difficult than we would have expected or liked,” he said. 472 What he means is, there is just too much competition from other websites and YouTube channels, and since there are so many different links being shared on social media, CNN’s web traffic has dramatically dropped and with fewer people actually watching them on cable they’re not getting the revenue from the long blocks of commercials. Because a lot of people use ad blocker plug-ins on their browsers which automatically hide banner ads from websites, the Washington Post recently began blocking people from being able to see their articles if their browser is using an ad blocker, requiring people to turn it off or white list (allow ads on) their site in order to even see what’s on the website at all. 473 The New York Times began limiting people’s ability to read free articles on their website to ten per month by either tracking their IP address or placing cookies on their computer, and later reduced it to just five articles a month. 474 When that number is exceeded, the articles are blacked out and a notice pops up saying you have exceeded the allowed free articles limit and

it encourages you to become a digital subscriber for $4 per month (for the first year) which then automatically changes to $15 a month from then on. The business model of displaying digital ads next to articles on their website just isn’t working anymore because there is too much competition now with countless websites all using the same ad servers.

Mainstream Asking for Donations Things are getting so dire for the major online “news” businesses that some are now asking for donations. At the bottom of every Guardian article now there is a notice that reads, “Since you’re here…we have a small favor to ask. More people are reading the Guardian than ever but advertising revenues across the media are failing fast. And unlike many news organizations, we haven’t put up a paywall — we want to keep our journalism as open as we can. So you can see why we need to ask for your help. The Guardian’s independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money, and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our perspective matters — because it might well be your perspective too. If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps fund it, our future would be much more secure. For as little as $1, you can support the Guardian – and it only takes a minute. Thank you.” 475 In August 2017, BuzzFeed “News” started asking for donations at the bottom of all their articles too. There’s a banner that reads “Play a bigger role in our journalism” encouraging people to donate $5 dollars a month to them which readers get zero benefits for other than being added to a BuzzFeed email list. People who donate $100 get an “exclusive BuzzFeed News tote bag.” 476 Soon we may see major media outlets join Patreon!

Wikipedia Encyclopedia Britannica is the world’s oldest encyclopedia, first published in the late 1700s. For many generations they were the standard in school libraries and some homes if parents decided to spend the $1000 plus dollars for the 32-volume set. But in 2012 the company announced they were no longer going to print the books (after 244 years), and instead Encyclopedia Britannica became an online only edition available for a small yearly subscription fee. 477 Unfortunately in the Internet age where everyone wants everything for free, Encyclopedia Britannica has been largely forgotten and Wikipedia has become the new standard “encyclopedia,” which is both sad and disturbing. Wikipedia is one of the top search results, if not the top search result, for almost anything you Google, and gets 33 billion page views a month. 478 And you probably know that literally anyone can edit almost any article on the site, anonymously, without even registering as an editor. In theory, other editors will watch over new updates and remove or correct them if someone posts incorrect information, but this often results in “edit wars” where people go back and forth posting something and then others change it, and then others change it back, and on and on. So depending on when you read an article on Wikipedia, information could be completely different or even missing entirely. For benign pages about things like plants and animals there may be little controversy about what is said about them, but for pages that are biographies of people, particularly political figures (and even for some products and corporations which have entries on the site) they are usually a battleground between different editors fighting to have the final word in terms of what is (and is not) said about the topic.

Wikipedia is a major part of the Liberal Media Industrial Complex smear machine because it solidifies the liberal consensus about individuals by using careless and defamatory online articles as the “sources” for labeling someone a racist, sexist, homophobe, etc. Once outlets like the HuffPost, Daily Beast, Vox, etc., publish an article making baseless claims about a person, then the Wikipedia editors update that person’s page to paint them in a false light and cite the salacious hit pieces as the source in the footnotes, cementing the allegations in the target’s Wikipedia page. Because public figures have to prove “actual malice” in a defamation case, unlike private citizens, its difficult to win a judgment against “news” outlets for libel because they can easily claim they “thought” what they were writing was accurate, or it’s their opinion that someone is “far-right,” “racist,” “Islamophobic,” etc. Often they’ll sneakily add a weak qualifier about someone they’re smearing by saying they are an individual “who some people call far-right.” Who calls them that? A few random trolls on Twitter, so technically “some people” have called them that and it’s a devious way many of these outlets try to get labels to stick. They also know that suing them can easily cost a plaintiff a million dollars in legal fees, and even if they win a judgment for the defamation, that person will still be on the hook for their own legal costs, which may be much more than the actual judgement awarded to them for the defamation in the first place. For months Wikipedia had a section on Tomi Lahren’s page saying she was considered “White Power Barbie,” because an article in the London Guardian labeled her that simply because she’s a beautiful blonde woman who has had a few viral videos criticizing Black Lives Matter. 479 Wikipedia is such a pit of disinformation and slander that Ron Paul was included on their white supremacist list for three weeks before editors

finally fixed it. 480 Wikipedia even listed the California Republican Party’s ideology as “Nazism” for a period of time. 481 There is even an entire Wikipedia page titled “Racial Views of Donald Trump” which paints him as a huge racist, detailing how he is a “birther” for questioning Barack Obama’s heritage; taking his comments about “fine people” on “both sides” of the Confederate statue controversy out of context, and including a whole long list of supposed “evidence” that he’s a racist because he referred to El Salvador, Haiti and parts of Africa as “shit hole countries” and makes fun of Elizabeth Warren, calling her Pocahontas. In September 2018 a Democrat congressional staffer doxed several Republican Senators including Lindsey Graham by posting their home addresses and phone numbers right on their Wikipedia pages. 482 The perpetrator was later arrested and sentenced to 4 years in prison for computer fraud and sharing restricted private information, showing the seriousness of his crime and that the lack of oversight and editorial control makes Wikipedia the Internet’s equivalent of a wall in a gas station bathroom. Wikipedia editors fiercely protect the Antifa page, and (at the time of this writing) have successfully prevented any references to their violent and terrorist activities. The subsections of the article are “History,” “Ideology and Activities,” and “Notable Activism;” but nothing about their violence at all. 483 These are the scum who wear black masks and look like members of ISIS that show up at events to harass, intimidate, and assault Trump supporters with sticks, bricks, and mace. This is the same group that went to Tucker Carlson’s house, banged on his door, and shouted threats through a megaphone. 484 After Antifa members assaulted Quillette journalist Andy Ngo at an event in Portland, Oregon in June 2019, punching him in the face and

throwing milkshakes on him (causing him to be hospitalized for a brain hemorrhage) word of the incident made national news. 485 President Trump even mentioned the attack but Wikipedia editors decided that it wasn’t “significant” enough to warrant being included on the Antifa page. 486 Wikipedia is also preventing any mention of the terrorist attack on an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement [ICE] facility in Tacoma, Washington, where an Antifa member approached the property armed with a rifle and firebombed the building, resulting in him being shot and killed by police. He had also posted a manifesto online before his attack using language from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, claiming the United States was keeping illegal immigrants in “concentration camps.” His manifesto began declaring “I am Antifa.” 487 Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar refused to condemn the attack when specifically asked about it. 488 Others, like Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King, appeared to celebrate it and encouraged people to “liberate” the “concentration camps” by any means necessary because illegal aliens are being “tortured” inside. 489 The FBI reported that Antifa has been engaging in terrorist activities, and members of the Senate, including Ted Cruz of Texas and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana introduced an official resolution deeming them a terrorist organization. 490 But not a word of any of this is included on the Wikipedia page about Antifa. 491 Meanwhile the Wikipedia page for disgraced former FBI agent Peter Strzok says the text messages he and his mistress Lisa Page exchanged speaking of having an “insurance policy” to derail the Trump administration is just a “conspiracy theory” saying, “The revelation of the text messages led Republican congressmen and right wing media to start pushing

conspiracy theories to the effect that Strzok was involved in a secret plot to undermine the Trump presidency.” 492 There have been controversies surrounding certain Wikipedia editors being paid to protect pages of political figures as well as big names in tech and the media. 493 Others, like myself, have no hope of ever having a fair or accurate representation on Wikipedia. Right now my page says that I’m best known for being a “conspiracy theorist” because I wrote a few books about the Illuminati when I was younger with the subtitle of “Facts & Fiction” separating the facts from the fiction, because they are a historical group that became a pop culture phenomena in the early 2010s. It’s an interesting subject I was fascinated with for a period of time, but the Wikipedia editors forever want me branded as “conspiracy theorist” for daring to look into the topic. And while I have had a sizable YouTube audience steadily growing ever since 2006, at the end of the 2016 presidential election my channel exploded. But for years after that (and currently at the time I’m writing this) the editor overlords at Wikipedia won’t allow ANY mention of my YouTube stats on my page, which is standard for professional YouTubers. Several liberal YouTubers whose channels that are much smaller than mine, like that of Kyle Kulinski who runs the Secular Talk channel, and David Pakman have their Wikipedia pages loaded with details about their subscriber counts and viewership and all the news sites which have mentioned them; but not mine. My YouTube subscriber count isn’t allowed to be mentioned at all. 494 Wikipedia gives the impression that my career ended in 2015, when in reality it took off in 2016, and I was the first conservative YouTube channel to reach 1 million subscribers. 495 Despite my 2017 book, The True Story of Fake News, reaching the #15 best seller spot (of all books) on Amazon (and #1 in its category for weeks)

the Wikipedia editors say it’s not “significant” enough to mention on my page! My book which came out the following year, Liberalism: Find a Cure , also hit #15 on Amazon best seller’s list (of all books, not just a certain category) but they still refuse to even mention it! One of the editors who fiercely guards my page wrote on the Talk Page discussion about the edits that, “The books were removed via consensus at some point because there were no reliable sources that mentioned them as being significant.” 496 Another editor writing about why my YouTube subscriber count is not allowed on the page says, “I think there is enough evidence that subscriber counts have been manipulated in the recent past that we should not be including this information in this article.” 497 They also removed (and are preventing any mention of) all the television shows I’ve appeared in, including Secret Societies of Hollywood on the E! channel, America Declassified on the Travel Channel, America’s Book of Secrets on the History Channel, Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura on TruTV, as well as shows on the Sundance Channel and interviews on Fox News. These appearances are all listed on IMDB and other media outlets, but the Wikipedia editors have decided that mentioning them would make me look too popular, so they dumped them down the memory hole and are preventing anyone from adding them back to the page. Larry Sanger, the co-founder of Wikipedia (who is no longer with the organization), chimed in on Twitter when I was complaining about this, saying, “If these idiots don’t like you, then they will ignore their own f’n rules. You’re far from being the first this has happened to. It pisses me off. Arrogant little SOBs.” 498 He now calls Wikipedia “a broken system” and says “Wikipedia has long since decided to turn the other cheek when influential editors make

articles speak with one point of view, when they dismiss unpopular views, or when they utterly fail to do justice to alternative approaches to a topic.” 499

The Washington Times did an article about my “battle” with Wikipedia after I made a YouTube video about it, but instead of fixing the page the editors scrubbed any mention of my education credentials, deleting the fact that I have a bachelor’s degree in Communication. They then added a few lines that I once made “numerous homophobic statements” about a Korean boy band after they played at the American Music Awards. I had simply tweeted a picture of them with the caption, “Meet the Korean lesbian pop group BTS featured at the American Music Awards #AMAs last night.” It was clearly a joke because the band members looked very feminine and had blue hair like a stereotypical lesbian. Teen Vogue magazine wrote an article about my tweet because the group’s teeny bopper fans got upset and started a petition on Change.org urging the band to sue me, and that is the “reliable” source Wikipedia used to add a section to my page branding me “homophobic.” They also added a line about how I had been temporarily suspended from Twitter for making “transphobic” comments (in reality saying there are only two genders.) They’re trying to paint me in the most negative light possible, citing random articles from little-known or garbage websites that happened to mention jokes I’ve made on Twitter, while at the same time preventing any real information about my career, my credentials, and my success from being mentioned at all. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales (who now lives in England) got so triggered when President Trump visited the UK in June 2019, he tweeted that he was leaving the country until Trump returned to the United States. 500 He was widely mocked in the replies, including by me, causing him to

block me. (He later unblocked me after people continued to ridicule him over the block.) Google has donated millions of dollars to Wikipedia to help cover their operating expenses, 501 and guess who else has given them millions as well —George Soros. 502 You’d think with all their money they could have just funded the Encyclopedia Britannica and made that free to the world instead of giving it to such a garbage website filled with inaccuracies and biased information, but then the Left’s army of online trolls wouldn’t be able to edit entries about people and political policies they want to control the perception of. Author’s Note: If you haven’t already, please take a moment to rate and review this book on Amazon.com, Kindle, Google Play, iBooks, or wherever you bought it from, to let other potential readers know how valuable this information is. Almost all of the one-star reviews on Amazon for my last two books “The True Story of Fake News” and “Liberalism: Find a Cure” are from NON-verified purchases which shows the “reviewers” probably didn’t even read them and just hate me. So if you could help me offset their fake one-star reviews by leaving a real one yourself since you actually read the book, that would help a lot! Thank you!

Google Google is the most-visited website in the world, and is so popular that “Google” has become a verb meaning to look something up. They dominate not just the search engine industry, but others as well, since a large number

of the most popular mobile apps are also owned by Google (like G-mail, Google Maps, Chrome, Google Play, Google Drive, Google News, etc.). Most people assume Google knows the answers to everything, and think the top search results for what they’re looking for is the correct answer. Studies have shown that over 90% of the time people click on what is served up on page one and rarely even look at page two or beyond. 503 The ranking of search results gives Google an enormous amount of power since each page shows just ten different results out of hundreds of thousands, or millions of possible webpages. They can easily prevent people from finding articles or websites by just dropping them down to page two or three in the results. Google’s ability to surface certain information they want to promote while suppressing what they don’t like by manipulating their algorithm gives them enormous power to artificially boost certain companies, products, or political candidates and causes over others. Speaking of the 2016 election, one Google engineer wrote in internal emails, “This was an election of false equivalencies, and Google, sadly, had a hand in it.” 504 They then suggested manipulating the search results to bury articles from Breitbart and the Daily Caller, saying, “How many times did you see the Election now card with items from opinion blogs (Breitbart, Daily Caller) elevated next to legitimate news organizations? That’s something that can and should be fixed.” 505 “I think we have a responsibility to expose the quality and truthfulness of sources—because not doing so hides real information under loud noises…Beyond that, let’s concentrate on teaching critical thinking. A little bit of that would go a long way. Let’s make sure that we reverse things in four years—demographics will be on our side.” 506

Google insiders also discussed manipulating the search results to counter President Trump’s proposed “Travel Ban” in January 2017 which would have prevented people living in countries with high rates of terrorist activity from entering the United States for a period of time. The Wall Street Journal reported, “Google Workers Discussed Tweaking Search Function to Counter Travel Ban,” 507 and detailed, “Days after the Trump administration instituted a controversial travel ban in January 2017, Google employees discussed ways they might be able to tweak the company’s search-related functions to show users how to contribute to pro-immigration organizations and contact lawmakers and government agencies, according to internal company emails.” 508 Those emails showed that, “employees proposed ways to ‘leverage’ search functions and take steps to counter what they considered to be ‘Islamophobia.’” 509 After they were leaked, Google issued a statement denying that they had actually done it, and said the plan was just a “brainstorm of ideas.” 510 A Google employee who has been leaking information to Breitbart told them, “I know there are efforts to demote anything non-PC, antiCommunist and anti-Islamic terror from search results. To what extent that has been successful, I don’t know.” 511 PJ Media did an examination of the search results for the word “Trump” in the Google News tab and calculated that 96% of the results were from liberal media outlets. 512 Similar informal tests have been done by searching for various other topics, such as when Fox News founder Roger Ailes died people noticed that most search results painted him as a monster, with articles from Rolling Stone declaring he was “one of the worst Americans ever” surfacing at the top, along with others like one from NBC News claiming he “built a kingdom on exploited bias,” and the London Guardian saying he helped “create this nightmare world.”

513 A

study at Northwestern University’s Computational Journalism Lab also found that the majority of search results on Google News were from left-leaning outlets. 514 If you search for the same key words on Google and Bing, or Duck Duck Go, you’ll often notice dramatically different results. On numerous occasions when doing research for this book I have Googled various topics trying to find articles that I had seen in the past so I could use them as the citations and had a difficult time finding many of them on Google, but when I looked on other search engines they were in the top results. Sometimes when I was even searching for an article’s exact title after having copied and pasted it into my notes when I first saw it posted on social media, it wouldn’t show up on the first page of search results on Google. Google even rolled out a new “fact check” widget as part of their supposed fight against “fake news” but after a report from the Daily Caller showed the feature was targeting mostly conservative news sites in attempts to paint their overall reporting as inaccurate or misleading, (while ignoring false stories published by BuzzFeed, the Huffington Post, Vox, Salon, and others) Google shut down the feature saying they “encountered challenges” and admitted they were “unable to deliver the quality” they hoped to provide their users. 515 Google deleted Dr. Patrick Moore from the list of Greenpeace founders after he made headlines for insulting Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over her ridiculous Green New Deal and praised President Trump. 516 Google often displays what are called “knowledge panels” as the top search results for certain topics, which are small boxes highlighting a few main points about the subject. And prior to his headline-making comments about the moronic Congresswoman, Dr. Patrick Moore was included in the knowledge panel

when someone searched for “Greenpeace founders,” but immediately after insulting her royal highness, Google mysteriously scrubbed him from it. 517 The knowledge panel for the popular pro-life movie Unplanned (2019) listed the genre as “propaganda” when it first came out, instead of “drama,” “action,” or “science fiction” like all other movies are labeled. As usual, after word went viral on social media of this “mistake” Google fixed it. 518 A group at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology concluded a study in April 2018 after looking into how much Google’s search results could influence undecided voters by surfacing negative or positive results about certain issues and candidates and reported that such manipulation could shift the preference of those voters between 20 and 80 percent. 519 The same research team led by search engine expert Dr. Robert Epstein concluded that during the 2018 midterm election, Google had been able to flip three key congressional seats from Republican to Democrat due to the prevalence of pro-Democrat bias in the search results. 520

A former Google employee who worked as a “design ethicist” where he studied the ethics of using technology to persuade people, later warned in a TED talk, “A handful of people, working at a handful of technology companies, through their choices will steer what a billion people are thinking today.” 521 Even Google News has recently changed to prevent people from finding exactly what they are looking for. The “News” tab is used to retrieve only search results from mainstream and brand name news sources, not just any random website like the main Google search page. You used to be able to select specific topics you’re interested in and Google News would show recent stories about those topics all on one page, but in 2017 they changed the layout making it much more difficult to customize your

Google News feed, and now you have to click on each individual topic you’re interested in, making it tedious and cumbersome, thus encouraging users to rely on the Google News home page which contains stories curated by their editors instead of creating a custom feed to see only the topics you want to read about. Then in March 2018 Google announced their “News Initiative” plan promising to give $300 million dollars to various “news” organizations over the next three years, as well as offer them various tools and services in order to help them expand their online presence. 522 They have so much money they’re just giving it away, probably to garbage websites like Vox, the Daily Beast, and HuffPost. The Internet created an even playing field allowing someone on a laptop in their kitchen to create a website (or YouTube channel) which gave them access to the same number of potential readers (or viewers) as brand name newspapers and TV networks, and completely changed the power dynamics in media, since ordinary people could bypass the traditional gatekeepers of editors and producers who decide what gets published on their platforms. But this power shift has caused a massive backlash and we’re seeing the very tech companies which created the infrastructure that empowered the individual now quietly working to tip the scale back in favor of the massive corporations their technology once disrupted.

Champions of “Diversity” Google’s corporate culture is liberal to the core, and one brave conservative employee leaked a video of an internal meeting held just after the 2016 election showing all the senior executives sitting around talking

about how disgusted they were with Donald Trump’s victory and that they’re “sure” most people in the company agree. 523 Google is such a “champion” for “diversity” and “social justice” that there are reportedly tampon dispensers in men’s bathrooms because “some men menstruate.” 524 In August 2017 Google fired engineer James Damore after he wrote and circulated a memo internally titled “Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber” which was critical of the company’s corporate culture and their diversity policies which were aiming to hire more women. Damore pointed out that because of the biological differences between men and women, most women tend to be more interested in social activities than engineering (people rather than things). Google soon fired him for “sexism” for daring to point out well-established facts about the differences between men and women. Various psychologists including Geoffrey Miller, a professor at the University of New Mexico; Jordan Peterson, professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto; Lee Jussim, social psychology professor at Rutgers University; and others publicly defended Damore’s memo as being scientifically sound. Damore then filed a class action lawsuit against Google and is suing them for discrimination against conservatives and white men since their diversity policies are inherently discriminatory because they openly favor women and people of color in the hiring process instead of choosing applicants who are best qualified for the job, regardless of their race or gender. 525

Has Google Committed Treason? Billionaire tech investor and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel says the FBI and CIA should investigate Google for possibly committing treason because of their “decision to work with the Chinese military and not with

the US military.” 526 Google had been secretly working on a special search engine for China that was compatible with their strict censorship rules and would have linked people’s phone numbers to their searches so the Communist government could monitor what everyone was looking up. 527 The project was only revealed after someone leaked documents to The Intercept in August 2018. Google had already been working with the Communist Chinese government since 2006 on their “Google.cn” (Google China) which allowed officials to blacklist certain search terms, but Dragonfly, the codename of the newer system they were working on, was going to be fully compatible with China’s “social credit score” system which tracks and rates citizens based on their personal activities. 528 Senator Josh Hawley called Google “the most dishonest company to appear before Congress” after one of their executives testified before a Senate Intelligence Committee and was evasive in many of his answers. 529

Creepy Google There are also serious privacy issues with Google for those who use it in the U.S. and other countries around the world. Most people don’t think about it too often, but they’re telling Google more than they tell their spouse or their best friend since people sometimes search for answers about relationship or health problems they are keeping to themselves. Google knows exactly who you are and keeps a log of everything you’ve searched for and what links you’ve clicked on. All of this information is then analyzed and sorted to create detailed profiles of people, their personalities, interests, income, and other data points about them. When asked about the privacy concerns surrounding Google, thenCEO Eric Schmidt responded, “There is what I call the creepy line. The Google policy on a lot of things is to get right up to the creepy line and not

cross it.” 530 They are, however, so creepy, that in the future they want to wire the Internet directly into people’s brains. 531 Google engineer Ray Kurzweil is one of the leading proponents of Transhumanism and hopes to one day upload his brain into the Internet so he can become a god-like “immortal” being. 532 Such megalomaniacal goals seem like science fiction and have been the plot of various films like The Lawnmower Man (1992) and Transcendence (2014), but Kurzweil is serious and has the backing of one of the world’s wealthiest tech companies. Google is also a lead developer of artificial intelligence which an increasing number of tech leaders and scientists worry may quickly get out of control and end up exterminating or enslaving the human race. 533 Other companies, including Elon Musk’s Neuralink, are developing braincomputer interfaces in hopes of enabling humans to merge with AI by turning us all into cyborgs. 534 But these are topics for a whole other book. Google’s former motto was “Don’t be evil,” a phrase that was also included in their official code of conduct, but in April 2018 they quietly removed all references of it, and sadly it seems more every day that is exactly what they are becoming.

Rise of Social Media From the creation of the printing press in 1439 to the telegraph in 1837, to radio in 1895 and television in 1927, each new form of media revolutionized society, but the development of the Internet far surpassed all previous communication technologies, especially since it’s now fully mobile and in our pocket wherever we go. It’s changed almost everything from how we interact with our friends to how we get our news and

entertainment, and people gauge what topics and events are the “most popular” because they’re “trending” on social media. As futurist George Gilder noted, “Computer networks give every hacker the creative potential of a factory tycoon of the industrial era and the communications power of a TV magnate of the broadcasting era.” 535 That’s the capability of what’s been dubbed Internet 2.0, or the two-way communication networks the Internet now enables, instead of just static websites. Comedian Dane Cook was one of the first comics to use social media to promote himself in the early 2000s through MySpace, and many of his early critics called him a better marketer than a comic because they didn’t see his humor as all that funny but couldn’t deny his popularity. “I remember getting ready to play Madison Square Garden,” he recalled to the Hollywood Reporter . “I posted once on MySpace and without spending a dime on any promotion or advertising, we sold out.” 536 Similarly, Tila Tequila became the most popular person on MySpace in 2006 from posting racy photos of herself, taking advantage of the new medium and getting floods of friend requests from lonely losers online who hoped to connect with her. 537 Her popularity on My Space opened the door for her (bisexual) dating show A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila on MTV in 2007, which began her 15 minutes of fame. In the early years of social media most people just saw the technology as something to use for fun, and a way to entertain themselves or reconnect with old friends, but as time went on the true power and ability to influence large numbers of people through it became apparent. One member of the Obama administration called journalists on social media “force multipliers” (a fancy term for propagandists) and admitted, “We have our compadres, I [would] reach out to a couple people, and you

know I wouldn’t want to name them.” These people were “prominent Washington reporters and columnists who [would] often tweet in sync with [Obama’s] messaging.” 538 Obama’s former campaign “mastermind” David Axelrod admitted, “over the last couple of years, there’s been an investment in alternative means of communication: using digital more effectively, going to nontraditional sources, understanding where on each issue your constituencies are going to be found. I think they’ve approached these major foreign-policy challenges as campaign challenges, and they’ve run [social media] campaigns, and those campaigns have been very sophisticated.” 539 Amateur video caught Hillary Clinton collapsing at the 9/11 memorial after her campaign and the mainstream media kept dismissing growing concerns that there was something wrong with her health in the final stretch of the 2016 presidential election. 540 The video first went viral through social media before finally getting covered in the mainstream press because so many people were talking about it. The Washington Post, which had been calling questions about her health “conspiracy theories,” then finally admitted, “Hillary Clinton’s health just became a real issue in the presidential campaign.” 541 A bartender working at a fundraiser held by Mitt Romney in 2012 captured the then-presidential candidate on video talking about how 47% of the country wouldn’t vote for him because they’ll support Obama no matter what since they want free hand outs so he wasn’t going to pay much attention to them. 542 Liberals pretended to be outraged and accused Mitt of not caring about half of the country, particularly lower income folks, and the video proved to be quit damaging to his campaign.

Bloggers were the ones who first debunked the fake documents CBS News anchor Dan Rather claimed were the service records of George W. Bush from his time in the National Guard. 543 Matt Drudge’s Drudge Report website first broke the Monica Lewinsky scandal when other outlets were sitting on the story and refused to cover it. 544 Facebook and Google now account for 25% of all advertising spending, both online and off. 545 Social media has swallowed up the news business, and the power-shift has been revolutionary.

Getting “News” on Social Media We all know kids love their devices, and virtually live their lives on them. An entire generation of children have been raised on them, and get babysat by smartphones since parents use them to keep kids occupied while seated in the shopping cart at the grocery store and even at the dinner table. It’s how they communicate with their friends, listen to music, watch movies, and so it only makes sense that’s where they get their news. A study conducted by Internet security company Anchor Free for the Jack Meyers Knowledge Exchange reported, “When asked to identify their two primary sources of news, the majority of this cohort name Instagram (29 percent), You Tube (22 percent), and Facebook (15 percent) as the media where they are most likely to read/see the news. Fewer than a quarter of young people depend on newspaper or television news, with 8 percent reading national newspapers such as the New York Times, Washington Post, and USA Today, 10 percent watching broadcast and cable network news, and 6 percent exposed regularly to local television news or newspapers…By comparison, a stunning 82 percent of Gen Z and younger millennials include among their primary news sources Reddit, Twitter,

Facebook, YouTube, BuzzFeed, Instagram, Snapchat and their desktop newsfeed.” 546 Media advisor Jack Myers warned, “Without the traditional filters of trusted news organizations and journalists, this new generation of potential voters may be highly susceptible to fake and biased news and may find it difficult to discern fact from fiction. Compounding this reality, Instagram — the #1 source of news for young people — is dependent almost exclusively on visual images, and none of the major social media channels invest meaningfully in original news reporting, nor do they provide usertools for deeper investigative analysis of their content.” 547 Of course it’s not just kids who are increasingly relying on social media for their news, it’s everyone.

Homeland Security Studying Influencers Because so many people are now getting their news from social media and there are millions of ways stories can be planted online and go viral governments around the world are very interested in tracking and studying the flow of information through these new channels of distribution. In 2018 the Department of Homeland Security revealed they were developing systems to monitor the social media feeds of various journalists, bloggers, and social media influencers in order to “identify any and all media coverage related to the Department of Homeland Security or a particular event.” 548 In other words there are very serious national security concerns, as well as issues and events local law enforcement need to monitor on social media because they can easily cause real-world consequences. A report in the Chicago Sun Times notes, they were building a database “to monitor the public activities of media members and influencers” so the

government would have the ability “to create unlimited data tracking, statistical breakdown, and graphical analyses on ad-hoc basis.” 549 They reportedly are tracking 300,000 different accounts to create a realtime information matrix of topics that are being talked about and how they spread. Shortly after the 2016 election I myself was contacted by the United States Special Operations Command which integrates various branches of the U.S. Armed Forces because they wanted to interview me and even send a team of researchers to observe me working so they could learn how my YouTube channel had become so popular in the final stretch of the 2016 election. I declined their request.

Operation Earnest Voice Around 2011 the U.S. government launched a program called Operation Earnest Voice which uses specialized software that allows military personnel to create and manage fake social media profiles of various “people” in order to use them for propaganda purposes. 550 The government claims they’re only doing this on websites outside the United States because technically (until President Obama amended it in 2012) it was a violation of the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act for the military to target our own citizens with propaganda, but it’s hard to believe that such technology isn’t being used by U.S. government agencies in black ops on the major social media platforms to influence the American people. Obviously all countries engage in cyber warfare, and in the 21st century that means flooding social media with bots and trolls to push certain agendas or to disrupt various discussions. The London Guardian surprisingly admitted in 2015 that, “Israel Defense Forces have pioneered state military engagement with social media, with dedicated teams

operating since Operation Cast Lead, its war in Gaza in 2008-9. The IDF is active on 30 platforms – including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram – in six languages.” 551 The Chinese government was caught using Twitter trolls and posting propaganda videos on YouTube designed to demonize protesters in Hong Kong in the Summer of 2019 when pro-democracy demonstrations broke out. 552 And everyone knows Russia used social media to cause disruption during the 2016 election by promoting both pro-Trump and anti-Trump content, however its effect has been greatly exaggerated by Democrats, causing a modern day moral panic. It’s rarely reported that the biggest Black Lives Matter page on Facebook, which had over 700,000 followers, was found to be run by a white guy in Australia who was using it to scam people into donating money to him. 553 Another huge Black Lives Matter Facebook page called “Blactivist” (meaning black activist) which had over 360,000 followers was found to be part of Russia’s disinformation campaign against the United States and used the page to incite division and fan the flames of racism. 554 Michael Moore even promoted and attended a protest outside of Trump Tower in New York City that had been organized by the Russians. 555 So to say that Russian meddling in American social media circles was just to support Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton is just plain false.

Social Media Causing Mental Health Problems While social media is a powerful tool, it is hard to control. And it seems with every benefit it brings comes the equivalent of an equal sized detriment. The younger generations are getting lost in a world of isolation and have few real-world friendships or interactions. Social media is being

increasingly linked to mental disorders amongst teens since it has become a fixture in their lives. 556 Feeling the need to share how “great” and “perfect” one’s life is through carefully choreographed Instagram photos or Facebook posts appears to be increasing people’s anxiety and depression. 557 Many people have become literally addicted to their phones, not to mention that social media blew the door wide open for kids to be cyberbullied 24-hours-a-day by their fellow classmates who are now able to harass them when they’re not even at school, and can reach them when they’re supposedly in the safety of their own homes. Teen suicide rates have skyrocketed due to cyber bullying because now kids can never get away from their bullies no matter where they go. 558 One study even found that close to 6% of kids aged 12 through 17 have set up fake social media accounts and cyber bullied themselves so they could get attention for being a “victim.” 559 Many people are also developing “mean world syndrome,” which is a term coined by professor George Gerbner who was the dean of the communication department at the University of Pennsylvania. He was a leading researcher in the effects of mass media and concluded that the more time someone spends consuming mass media, the more distorted their view of how the world actually gets, ultimately leading them to think society is a much more dangerous and “mean” place than it actually is since their perceptions are shaped through the warped representations of the world by the media, which amplifies atrocities, arguments, and divisions. Gerbner’s “mean world syndrome” phenomenon was coined in the age of television, and now that most people are glued to their phones and are consuming an almost nonstop diet of media, one can see how the syndrome has only gotten worse. Spending too much time on social media and being bombarded by the never-ending political conflicts and fear-mongering

about things like global warming, mass shootings, and racism is wreaking havoc on the mental health of millions. Many people are getting so depraved that when they witness a tragedy like a car accident or an assault, instead of helping the victims or calling for help, their first thought is to take pictures so they can post them on social media. 560

No Customer Service Despite the Big Tech companies being an integral part of most people’s lives; unlike almost every other company that offers products or services to the public, there are no customer service phone numbers at Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or Google. You can’t get anyone on the phone there to talk with them about problems you’ve experienced or the grievances you have with their companies. Despite names like Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey attached to them, they remain faceless corporations you can’t get in touch with. There’s no local branch you can visit where you can ask to speak with a manager, and instead users are relegated to sending tweets or submitting a “help ticket” from within the apps’ dashboard, and those attempts to get answers often only result in automated responses thanking you for contacting them and saying they’ll try to look into it. The social media giants are actually strangely anti-social. For those of you who read my previous book, The True Story of Fake News: How Mainstream Media Manipulates Millions , you know I dedicated different chapters to Facebook, Twitter, Google, and YouTube, where I detailed their Orwellian manipulation and censorship, but since their underhanded activities have only continued, it is necessary to dedicate

chapters to each of them again in this book to discuss their more recent activities. I’ll keep the overlapping information to a minimum and mostly cover what they’ve been doing since the publication of my previous book because you need to know how far they’re going to regain control of the genie they let out of the bottle.

Facebook For countless millions of people Facebook became the family photo album, their contact list, and even their diary of sorts. First started in 2004 as a social network for college kids, it quickly expanded to become the most popular one in the world used by 2.2 billion monthly active users. 561 Its dominance made founder Mark Zuckerberg the youngest billionaire in history at the age of twenty-three. 562 For those naive enough to fill in all the entry boxes when they first signed up for Facebook, the company knows not only who you’re friends with, who you’re dating or married to (as well as when you break up or get a divorce), but also which TV shows, movies, and music you like, which restaurants and businesses you visit, what cities you travel to, where you work, your birthdate, your personal interests, hobbies, and more. It’s free because you are the product and your personal data is what you are trading in exchange for using Facebook. NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden noted, “Businesses that make money by collecting and selling detailed records of private lives were once plainly described as ‘surveillance companies.’ Their rebranding as ‘social media’ is the most successful deception since the Department of War became the Department of Defense.” 563 Many millennials and Generation Z kids either quit Facebook or never signed up, and prefer Instagram (which is owned by Facebook) and SnapChat because they don’t want be on the same social network as their parents. Despite the endless scandals about abusing users’ personal information, Facebook hasn’t gone the way of MySpace (at least not yet) and remains one of the world’s top social networks.

While people use Facebook for various reasons—like keeping in touch with friends and family, many use it to share news stories and videos about political issues, but it wasn’t until after the 2016 presidential election that Facebook saw this as a problem. As you know, the Democrats largely blamed Facebook for Hillary’s loss, citing the spread of supposed “fake news” about her they claimed had caused people to see her in a negative light and not vote for her. Hillary was supposed to pound the final nails in the coffin of the United States of America, and usher in the New World Order for her globalist puppet masters, but Donald Trump canceled those plans. The war mongering neocons in the Bush administration, followed by the charismatic socialist Barack Obama had set the stage, knocking out most of the legs from under our once-great Republic. But the election of Donald Trump changed everything, and he began to right the ship. The scheming globalists were furious. The very tools that Facebook had proudly created so people could share information with others were now seen as a problem because they disrupted the traditional channels of distribution that were controlled by major media companies. If anyone posted a message, link, photo, or video, that post could be seen by as many people who read the New York Times or watch the NBC Nightly News from other Facebook users simply clicking the “share” button. But all that had to change because the “Russians” had posted “fake news” about Hillary Clinton. Rob Goldman, Vice President of Ads at Facebook, admitted, “The majority of the Russian ad spend happened AFTER the election. We shared that fact, but very few outlets have covered it because it doesn’t align with the main media narrative of Trump and the election.” 564 He was reprimanded for revealing the truth, but Facebook would go on to

completely change the way their platform functioned under the guise of stopping “fake news.” Before Facebook, people used to “bookmark” their favorite websites on their Internet browser, and would use that list to navigate to their news sources, but Facebook (and Twitter) have largely replaced browser bookmarks, and by weaseling their way in between news websites sites and their potential audience, it is Facebook, not the users, who are now in control of what articles people see.

Manipulating Users’ Feeds Most people used to assume—and many probably still do—that if they follow certain accounts on Facebook they’re going to get posts from those pages in their news feeds, but the algorithms detect keywords in posts and identify the source of links and Facebook’s proprietary technology throttles the reach of content they don’t want people to see and often limits the reach so posts only show up in a few people’s news feeds. For example, when Wikileaks first released a batch of hacked DNC emails, Facebook blocked links to them claiming they were “malicious” or “spam.” Only after Wikileaks tweeted about their links being blocked and people began clamoring about it did Facebook fix it. 565 There were even reports that when people tried to share certain links to articles exposing Jussie Smollett’s hate crime hoax they were blocked from posting and a pop-up notified them that, “This post goes against our Community Standards, so no one else can see it.” 566 Facebook even patented technology to shadow ban people so they could prevent certain posts from being seen by others without giving any indication to the person who posted it that such censorship was occurring. The Abstract on their patent explains the process, “[T]he social networking

system may receive a list of proscribed content and block comments containing the proscribed content by reducing the distribution of those comments to other viewing users. However, the social networking system may display the blocked content to the commenting user such that the commenting user is not made aware that his or her comment was blocked, thereby providing fewer incentives to the commenting user to spam the page or attempt to circumvent the social networking system filters.” 567 Facebook has admitted conducting several experiments on users to test how well they could manipulate people by making changes to what they see in their news feeds. 568 In 2010 they toyed with 60 million people’s newsfeeds to see if they could increase voter turnout in the midterm election that year and concluded they were able to get an extra 340,000 people to the polls. 569 On their own website they bragged about a case study which found that, “Facebook as a market research tool and as a platform for ad saturation can be used to change public opinion in any political campaign.” 570 They cited the study as an attempt to court advertisers and to show just how powerful their platform is, hoping to get them to run targeted ads. Hopefully it’s common knowledge now that Facebook was caught suppressing conservative news from appearing in the trending section in 2016 and artificially injecting other topics into the list to give the false impression that certain stories were organically viral from so many people talking about them. 571 After Facebook announced they were changing the algorithm to favor posts from people’s friends over the businesses, brands, and media pages they were following, Donald Trump’s engagement dropped 45%. 572 The Western Journal did a survey and analyzed the engagement of 50 different news pages ranging from the Washington Post to the Daily Caller and found

that after these algorithm changes, conservative outlets averaged a 14% drop in traffic, while liberal media accounts increased by 2%. 573 In June 2019, Tomi Lahren had the “Boosting” feature disabled on her account, which is a way for public figures and brand pages to get their posts to actually show up in the news feeds of the people who follow them by paying Facebook different dollar amounts to allow what they post to be seen by people following the page. 574 For anyone running a professional Facebook page (like mine), whatever we post is severely suppressed and only a small fraction of the people who follow the page will see it unless we “Boost” the post, which is a huge revenue generator for Facebook. Tomi Lahren became famous because her videos went viral on Facebook, but once the Boost feature was disabled she couldn’t even pay Facebook to distribute them in the news feeds of people following her page. 575 A slide from a presentation given to Facebook moderators to teach them what kind of content is inappropriate details what the company says is “destructive behavior” by “trolls” and lists doxing and harassment alongside “toxic meme creation,” and “red-pilling normies to convert them to their worldview,” and also includes an “example video” of Lauren Chen (formerly known as Roaming Millennial), a moderate conservative YouTuber who now works for The Blaze. 576 A “normie” is a slang term meaning a normal person, or in the context of certain Internet subcultures means someone who is not part of the group in question. But Facebook considers that word to be an indicator that the person posting it might be a right-wing “troll.” Things have changed so much since the early days of Facebook that it’s a completely different platform than it was when it first rose to popularity in the late 2000s. They have been getting increasingly less tolerant of different

views and their algorithms can easily hide people’s posts or automatically suspend accounts for posting what they deem to be “hate speech,” which you know is just a code word for something that hurts liberals’ feelings or facts they won’t want people to know about. In August of 2018, a senior manager at Facebook posted on their internal message board a thread titled “We Have a Problem With Political Diversity” that explained, “We are a political monoculture that’s intolerant of different views.” It went on to say, “We claim to welcome all perspectives, but are quick to attack — often in mobs — anyone who presents a view that appears to be in opposition to left-leaning ideology.” 577 That person has probably been fired by now but they were brave enough to point out what is obviously wrong with the corporate culture there. PayPal co-founder and Facebook board member Peter Thiel left Silicon Valley and moved to Los Angeles because he was sick of the Leftist culture that permeates the tech industry in Northern California. 578 Thiel reportedly considered resigning from Facebook’s board over disagreements with Mark Zuckerberg and sold three-quarters of his Facebook stock before leaving Silicon Valley. 579

Helping Mainstream News In July 2018 Facebook announced they were partnering with CNN, ABC, Univision, and other mainstream networks and began paying them to do special livestreams Monday through Friday. 580 Their goal was to, “create a curated news hub of content that would be seen as more credible than many of the random posts cycling through the News Feed.” 581 Anderson Cooper’s Facebook show, called “Full Circle” usually averaged around 1,500 live viewers and lasted a year. 582 CNN now claims they’re going to try streaming the show on their app, CNNgo, instead of Facebook.

Six months after launching the new livestreams Facebook announced they would soon be investing $300 million into various news organizations to help them “boost” their online presence. 583 People like me have to pay Facebook to “Boost” our posts so they actually show up in the news feeds of fans following our pages, while at the same time Facebook is paying hundreds of millions of dollars to mainstream media channels to help them get out their messages! The liberal bias is obvious but goes deeper than most people think. Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer, wrote to Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager on June 6th 2015, saying “I still want HRC to win badly. I am still here to help as I can.” 584 Facebook openly plays favorites, for example they have a real name policy, except for transgender people, who can open an account in any name they want. 585 The company even put up a huge Black Lives Matter banner on their campus. 586 They also give out employee bonuses based on how much they’re doing for “social justice.” 587

Facebook Censoring People In October 2018, Facebook deleted over 800 accounts for publishing what they called “political spam” and “sensational political content.” 588 One of the pages belonged to Brian Kolfage, a disabled veteran who lost both his legs and one arm in the Iraq War. After retiring from the military due to his injuries he took over management of a Facebook page called “Right Wing News” and helped it build up a following of over three million people. 589 But Facebook banned the page, destroying Brian Kolfage’s thriving online business, while leaving content farms like BuzzFeed and Vox to continue littering Facebook with their political spam. The day after British activist Tommy Robinson released a documentary on YouTube showing his undercover investigation into the BBC as they were planning to air a hit piece on him, he was banned from Facebook and Instagram (which is owned by Facebook). 590 Because he’s been a vocal opponent of the Islamization of England, he has been branded an “Islamophobe.” After Facebook banned him, activists and “journalists” smelled blood and started pressuring YouTube to ban him too. “His YouTube channel has hundreds of thousands of followers and includes films viewed by millions of people,” complained Damian Collins, a Member of Parliament. 591 He continued, “Far-right groups are exploiting social media to spread their messages of hate, and the YouTube [Up Next] feature helps them by directing viewers to even more of this content once they start to engage with it.” He concluded, “I believe YouTube should also ban Tommy Robinson from their platform.” 592 More on this in the chapter on YouTube. The official Facebook page for Britain First, an anti-immigration organization working to stop the flood of Muslims from the Middle East

into the UK was also banned for “Islamophobia.” Their page had over 2 million followers, showing it isn’t just a fringe group, but they have a large number of supporters in the UK. 593 In April 2019 Facebook (and Instagram) banned Faith Goldy, a conservative Canadian journalist who has been smeared as a white supremacist because she too is critical of the massive influx of nonassimilating Muslims into Europe. 594 The Huffington Post gleefully took credit for persuading Facebook to ban her, posting a story titled, “Facebook Bans Faith Goldy After HuffPost Report On White Nationalism Content.” 595 Facebook said, “Individuals and organizations who spread hate, attack, or call for the exclusion of others on the basis of who they are have no place on our services.” 596 After Comedy Central’s Jim Jeffries recorded an interview with a Jewish political commentator from Australia named Avi Yemini, who is critical of Muslim immigration into Western countries, he was permanently banned from Facebook for “hate speech.” 597 The ban came not necessarily because of his interview on Comedy Central, but because he had secretly recorded the interview himself, and exposed how deceptively edited it was when they aired it. 598 The truth of what Comedy Central had done to him couldn’t be seen, so they banned him. Facebook’s moderators despise any criticism of mass immigration and the effects non-assimilating newcomers have on the countries they come to occupy. After a German historian posted a short essay about Islam’s historic impact on Germany, he was banned for 30 days for “hate speech.” 599 Facebook even deletes accounts of Palestinians at the direction of the Israeli government if they deem the people to be engaging in “incitement” due to their complaints about how the Palestinian people are treated. 600

Facebook took down an event page for an anti-caravan protest that was scheduled to happen when hundreds of migrants from Central America were to make it to the U.S.-Mexico border. 601 It may not be much longer before they consider the term “illegal alien” to be a “racist slur” and a violation of their terms of service in the same way posting the n-word is (if you’re white). Like all the other major social networks, conservatives are at risk of having their pages shut down for “hate speech” for being “non-inclusive.” But it’s not just supposed “extremists” like Tommy Robinson and Faith Goldy. In December 2018, Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham, was suspended by Facebook for a post he made almost two years earlier criticizing singer Bruce Springsteen for canceling a concert in North Carolina to protest a proposed bill that would have required people to use the bathroom that corresponds to their biological sex. Graham’s post said in part, “Mr. Springsteen, a nation embracing sin and bowing at the feet of godless secularism and political correctness is not progress,” and urged the state’s legislators to “put the safety of our women and children first!” But a Facebook moderator decided that calling liberals “godless” was a violation of their policy forbidding “dehumanizing language,” so they suspended him. 602 After the incident started making headlines Facebook lifted the ban and said the moderator had made a “mistake” in their decision. Facebook even censored the Declaration of Independence after it was posted by a small newspaper’s page (The Vindicator ), claiming it was “hate speech” because it includes the phrase “merciless Indian Savages.” 603 The paper had posted it a few days before the Fourth of July to celebrate Independence Day. I was suspended in April 2017 for criticizing a Dove Soap commercial that featured “real moms” and their babies because it included a transgender

“woman” who is the biological father of “her” child but identifies as the baby’s “mom.” 604 Facebook considers it “hate speech” to denounce such insanity. Then in January 2019, I was suspended for one week after making a comment about there being a lot of crime in black communities. I appealed it, and it was denied. Residents know the local news begins every night in Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Baltimore, etc, with shootings, stabbings, and robberies which occurred in black ghettos, but those stories are just fifteensecond sound bites on the local news and are then forgotten about by everyone except those directly affected—like the victims’ family and friends. But when a black person is killed by a white man, or the suspect is a white man, then the keyboard warriors amplify the story to the national level as if there’s an epidemic of white men assassinating random black people in America. They denounce “evil” “racist” white people and make ridiculous and hateful generalizations about the entire white race, but that’s allowed on Facebook. You just can’t post certain facts and statistics about black crime in America. The truth is, black men make up only about 7% of the U.S. population, but are responsible for 50% of the total murders. 605 It’s a distressing statistic no one in the mainstream media dares to point out, and if you simply mention this on Facebook, your post may likely be removed and you’ll get issued a suspension for “hate speech.” Black conservative commentator Candace Owens was suspended because of a post saying liberalism is a greater threat to black people in America than white supremacy, and for including some statistics about fatherless homes in the black community. 606 It’s “hate speech” even when black people mention certain uncomfortable facts about their communities.

Leaked documents later revealed that Facebook had labeled her a “hate agent” and was offering employees “extra credit” if they could dig up dirt on her and find any previous statements she’s made or groups she has endorsed that they consider to be objectionable. 607 Facebook sensations Diamond and Silk, two black sisters who support Donald Trump by doing a hilarious routine where one of them rants while the other acts as a “hype girl” by adding cleverly timed one or two word comments to emphasize what the other is saying, have also been censored by Facebook. Their videos became so popular that they were invited to Trump rallies during his 2016 campaign and then later to the White House once he won. Their content is 100% family friendly but Facebook deemed them “unsafe” and suppressed the reach of their page, which at the time had 1.2 million followers. 608 As usual, after the issue started making headlines, Facebook lifted the restrictions on their page and said it was just another “enforcement error.” 609 Facebook also reportedly removed posts and memes by people who were (correctly) referring to the man who shot and killed a police officer in California as an “illegal alien” and a “murderer.” 610 Criticizing illegal aliens, even if they’re murderers, is “hate speech.” A writer for the Gateway Pundit named Lucian Wintrich, who is a gay, referred to himself as a “fag” in a post, and seven months later their AI system detected it and banned him for 30-days for “hate speech” just for using the word. 611 Facebook even blocked President Trump’s social media director Dan Scavino from replying to people in the comments, claiming his posts were “spam.” Shortly after the President tweeted about the restriction, Facebook “fixed” it and said it was just another “error.” 612

Banning “Dangerous Individuals” In May 2019, Facebook (and Instagram) permanently banned Paul Joseph Watson, Milo Yiannopoulos, Laura Loomer, and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan; labeling them all “dangerous individuals” and “extremists.” 613 What’s especially interesting is that news reports were published about their ban a full hour before they were actually banned, because Facebook had been secretly coordinating with CNN and other outlets but botched the timing of the big announcement. 614 Loomer, Milo, and Watson were banned because they are critical of the Islamization of Europe, so they have all been branded “Islamophobes,” and Facebook decided to throw Louis Farrakhan in the mix as a cover to give the appearance that they weren’t just removing vocal opponents of Islam. The Atlantic initially reported, “Any account that shares Infowars content will see it removed, unless the post is explicitly condemning Infowars [or Alex Jones]. Facebook and Instagram will remove any content containing Infowars videos, radio segments, or articles (again, unless the post is explicitly condemning the content) and Facebook will also remove any groups set up to share Infowars content and events promoting any of the banned extremist figures, according to a company spokesperson.” 615 They later “updated” their article and removed the part about people having to explicitly condemn Alex Jones if they are to post anything about him. At this rate it won’t be long before Facebook bans people who say abortion is murder, citing their policy against “hate speech.” Or if you dare say you don’t believe in gay “marriage,” or call it “marriage” in quotes (because a marriage is between a man and a woman.) That’s “hateful.” If Facebook was around in the 1960s, they would have banned Martin Luther King because what he was saying was “dangerous” to the social

order. The FBI at the time, led by J. Edgar Hoover, considered King to be an enemy of the State and the bureau engaged in all kinds of nefarious activities trying to derail his message. 616 Meanwhile the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas has an official Facebook page (and Twitter account). 617 So does the Muslim Brotherhood, which is listed as a terrorist organization in multiple countries. 618 They can have Facebook pages, but Alex Jones, Paul Joseph Watson, Tommy Robinson, Milo Yiannopoulos, and Laura Loomer can’t.

Instagram Unlike Facebook and Twitter, Instagram (which is owned by Facebook) is more about photography than news, but people do share political memes and news-related posts there, and in recent years they have enabled users to upload videos, so it too has become a place for vlogs. For years just about the only thing that would get removed by Instagram’s moderators for violations of their terms of service were pictures that included nudity or gory and gratuitous violence, but once the Orwellian era began and the Thought Police are now cracking down on free speech online, censorship on Instagram became common. They have censored a few different memes that I had posted, one of them showed a picture of actor Tobey Maguire from a scene in Spiderman looking at a picture of President Trump giving a speech to the Boy Scouts Jamboree, and then below it showed Tobey wearing “CNN glasses” which caused him to see Adolf Hitler talking with a group of Hitler Youth. The message is clear—anything President Trump does when seen through the lens of CNN is sinister, but that meme violated Instagram’s terms of service.

They also censored a meme I had posted showing a happy white couple with two young children that was captioned, “White people — the only race you can legally discriminate against.” As you know, there is a war on white people being waged by the Left in America today and whites are being blamed for everyone else’s problems, but just pointing out the Left’s open discrimination (and hatred) of white people is a violation of Instagram’s terms of service. As the Jussie Smollett hate crime hoax was unraveling, Instagram took down a Scooby-Doo meme from my account which showed the characters surrounding a “ghost” they had captured after unmasking it to reveal who it really was, and the “ghost” had Jussie’s face photoshopped onto it. Instagram said that was “harassment” and “bullying.” They also took down one of Donald Trump Jr.’s posts about Jussie Smollett’s hoax as well. 619 After conservative commentator Kayleigh McEnany posted a picture on her Instagram of Elizabeth Warren’s newly discovered Texas Bar Registration card showing she listed “American Indian” as her race, that post was removed and Kayleigh was given a notification she had violated Instagram’s terms of service by “bullying” Warren. 620 Instagram has also begun testing new technology to fact-check memes by adding pop-ups that appear next to certain posts they deem “false” and even hiding them so they don’t show up when people are searching for particular hashtags. 621 The Thought Police don’t just patrol social media for what people post, they also keep a lookout for things that people “like.” During the 2018 season of The Bachelorette , one of the frontrunners (who got the “first impression rose”) made headlines after people were combing through his social media accounts and found that he had “liked” several “inflammatory” memes that made fun of illegal aliens, transgender people, and radical

feminists. 622 He literally just clicked the “like” button on a few funny memes making fun of social justice warriors and he was smeared in the press as a xenophobic, transphobic, sexist, and forced to apologize.

What It’s Doing To Our Brains Steve Jobs wouldn’t allow his kids to even use an iPad when they were little, admitting in 2012 (two years after it was released), “Actually we don’t allow the iPad in the home,” in response to an interviewer saying his kids must love it. 623 He knew how addictive they could be and how people, especially children, were vulnerable to being completely consumed by them. Apple CEO Tim Cook doesn’t have kids but says he has placed restrictions on what his nephew can do with technology, and he doesn’t want him using social media. 624 Bill Gates also limited the amount of screen time he allowed his kids to engage in and wouldn’t let them have cellphones until they were 14-yearsold, despite them complaining that other kids in their class were able to have one. 625 But using tablets or smartphones to surf the web or watch videos is one thing. Social media apps opened up a whole new world to waste people’s time and warp their minds. The former president of Facebook, Sean Parker, later admitted the site creates an artificial social-validation feedback loop that is, “exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology” and “literally changes your relationship with society, [and] each other. It probably interferes with productivity in weird ways. God only knows what it’s doing to our children’s brains.” 626 Former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya warned, “The shortterm, dopamine-driven feedback loops we’ve created are destroying how society works,” referring to the validation people get from likes, hearts, and thumbs up on their posts. 627 He also pointed out how “social media” is

making people anti-social, saying it’s harming civil discourse and spreading misinformation and hoaxes that have real world consequences. He mentioned how a hoax about a kidnaping spread through WhatsApp (which is owned by Facebook) in India and led to the lynching of seven innocent men who were killed by a local mob. “That’s what we’re dealing with. And imagine taking that to the extreme, where bad actors can now manipulate large swathes of people to do anything you want. It’s just a really, really bad state of affairs.” He also said his children “aren’t allowed to use that shit.” 628 A Google engineer posted a lengthy thread on his Twitter account about the dangers of Facebook, starting off saying, “The problem with Facebook is not *just* the loss of your privacy and the fact that it can be used as a totalitarian panopticon. The more worrying issue, in my opinion, is its use of digital information consumption as a psychological control vector.” 629 He went on to tweet, “The world is being shaped in large part by two long-time trends: first, our lives are increasingly dematerialized, consisting of consuming and generating information online, both at work and at home. Second, AI is getting ever smarter.” 630 “These two trends overlap at the level of the algorithms that shape our digital content consumption. Opaque social media algorithms get to decide, to an ever-increasing extent, which articles we read, who we keep in touch with, whose opinions we read, whose feedback we get.” 631 “If Facebook gets to decide, over the span of many years, which news you will see (real or fake), whose political status updates you’ll see, and who will see yours, then Facebook is in effect in control of your political beliefs and your worldview.” 632

“This is not quite news, as Facebook has been known to run since at least 2013 a series of experiments in which they were able to successfully control the moods and decisions of unwitting users by tuning their newsfeeds’ contents, as well as prediction user’s future decisions.” 633 “In short, Facebook can simultaneously measure everything about us, and control the information we consume. When you have access to both perception and action, you’re looking at an AI problem. You can start establishing an optimization loop for human behavior. A RL loop.” 634 “A loop in which you observe the current state of your targets and keep tuning what information you feed them, until you start observing the opinions and behaviors you wanted to see.” 635 “The human mind is a static, vulnerable system that will come increasingly under attack from ever-smarter AI algorithms that will simultaneously have a complete view of everything we do and believe, and complete control of the information we consume.” 636 “Importantly, mass population control — in particular political control — arising from placing AI algorithms in charge of our information diet does not necessarily require very advanced AI. You don’t need self-aware, super-intelligent AI for this to be a dire threat.” 637 “We’re looking at a powerful entity that builds fine-grained psychological profiles of over two billion humans, that runs large-scale behavior manipulation experiments, and that aims at developing the best AI technology the world has ever seen. Personally, it really scares me,” he concludes. 638 Even one of Facebook’s co-founders says the company is now “unAmerican” and is calling on the government to break it up. “The most problematic aspect of Facebook’s power is Mark [Zuckerberg’s] unilateral control over speech,” he said in a New York Times op-ed. “There is no

precedent for his ability to monitor, organize and even censor the conversations of two billion people.” 639

Twitter Fake news and idiotic ideas spread faster on Twitter than perhaps any other social media platform. 640 Unlike Facebook status updates which can be rather lengthy, Twitter is designed for short and quick messages (limited to 280 characters) and with the click of the retweet button, a tweet posted from anyone can soon be in front of the eyes of millions of people. It’s a place where people share first and think later, and it’s often a sea of angry people arguing with each other and jumping to conclusions based on out of context statements, photos, or video clips; and quickly spread the falsehoods even further without a second thought. 641 By the time the facts come out, the misinformation has already gone viral and shown up on the trending list—poisoning the opinions of countless others. Few people delete their tweets which fueled fake news fires, and fewer still issue retractions when learning of their mistake. Even in those rare occasions the retractions receive little attention compared to the initial tweets, since they aren’t retweeted thousands of times, not to mention most of the damage has already been done. When there’s a tragic event like a mass shooting, the wannabe sleuths online often end up naming and doxing the wrong suspect, and take someone’s photo from a social media account with the same name as the suspect and spread it around claiming they’re the killer. 642 Who knows what will happen when deepfake videos become more popular and carefully crafted hoax clips are spread through Twitter. The

effects could be devastating beyond measure and it’s something I’ll cover in detail later in the chapter titled “The Future of Fake News.” Spreading misinformation through Twitter isn’t just something that random idiots do online. Many mainstream media journalists regularly engage in the practice, or amplify fake news through retweets. Dave Weigel of the Washington Post tweeted a photo of the audience at a Trump event in Florida that went viral, claiming the event had a ton of empty seats, disputing the President’s statement that people had to be turned away because the stadium was over capacity. People starting calling the President a liar because the “prestigious” Washington Post said otherwise, but Weigel’s photo was taken hours before the event had actually started which is why there were rows of empty seats. 643 Just hours after President Trump was inaugurated, a Time magazine reporter claimed that he removed the bust of Martin Luther King Jr. from the Oval Office, posting a photo of the table where it sat, claiming it was gone, insinuating Trump is such a racist he couldn’t stand to see the face of MLK in his new office and got rid of it on his first day as president. It turns out that someone was just standing in front of it, blocking it from view, and the bust was still there. 644 But countless liberals tweeted their disgust after being duped by an “authoritative” Time magazine reporter who made the claim. There are countless vipers who live online, glued to their phones, and derive a sense of power from the amount of likes and retweets they get. And many function as a volunteer army, ready to attack any target on demand. It’s where liberals harass companies that advertise on Fox News, and where they flood the mentions of anyone who dares speak out against garbage like corporations pandering to gays and transgenders during “Pride” month.

Twitter can suck you in, wasting hours of your time while you argue with idiots about anything and everything since your mentions can easily turn into an endless flow of responses from more and more people as those triggered by your tweets keep sharing them with their followers, rallying others to join in on the dogpile. Twitter is often a dangerous and mind-bending place. As a New York Times columnist wrote after the Covington Catholic debacle, it is, “the epicenter of a nonstop information war, an almost comically undermanaged gladiatorial arena where activists and disinformation artists and politicians and marketers gather to target and influence the wider media world.” 645 An article in The Week went even further, warning that Twitter actually poses a threat to our democracy, saying, “Extreme partisan polarization is combining with the technology of social media, and especially Twitter, to provoke a form of recurrent political madness among members of the country’s cultural and intellectual elite.” 646 It continued, “But too little attention has been paid to what may be the most potent facet of the social media platform: its ability to feed the vanity of its users. There’s always an element of egoism to intellectual and political debate. But Twitter puts every tweeter on a massive stage, with the nastiest put-downs, insults, and provocations often receiving the most applause. That’s a huge psychological incentive to escalate the denunciation of political enemies. The more one expresses outrage at the evils of others, the more one gets to enjoy the adulation of the virtual mob.” 647 The piece concluded (accurately) that, “more and more the venom has been bleeding into the real world, with boycotts, doxings, firings, death threats, and groveling apologies offered to placate mobs wielding digital pitchforks. It increasingly feels like it’s just a matter of time before realworld violence breaks out in response to an online conflagration.” 648

After a Black Lives Matter supporter ambushed a group of police officers during one of the movement’s marches in Dallas, Texas in 2016, a surviving officer sued Twitter and Facebook for allowing the social media networks to radicalize the gunman, saying they were used “as a tool for spreading extremist propaganda.” 649 The shooter’s Facebook profile pic was him making a black power salute and he followed various black supremacist pages. 650 While the tech companies are determined to ban anyone posting support for “white supremacy,” they turn a blind eye to radical black power groups and those who promote their extremist ideologies and anti-white hatred. Twitter is a known safe haven for Antifa, with countless Antifa accounts active, many of which regularly promote violence against conservatives. 651 The launch of Twitter was a carefully crafted campaign involving various celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Ashton Kutcher, and even CNN, which promoted Twitter’s “Million Followers Contest” in 2009 when the site first appeared on the public’s radar. Now practically every television show and political cause has a hashtag and everyone wants you to “follow” them on Twitter. It’s interesting to note that the CIA actually created “Cuban Twitter” so they could monitor everyone’s online activity in the country and manage the spread of information in order to undermine the government there. 652 It’s not unreasonable to think that the CIA has the same interest and control over Twitter in America (and all other major social media sites) as well. It certainly is odd that Twitter awarded the coveted blue verified checkmark to a supposed eight-year-old Syrian refugee, despite the minimum age to be allowed on Twitter is thirteen. Starting in 2016 “Bana al-Abed” began posting photos of the civil war-torn country, urging people around the world (in English) to help. Her tweets soon began making

headlines, gaining her over 322,000 followers, and she was even invited to the 2018 Academy Awards and brought on stage for a performance by Andra Day and Common for their song “Stand Up for Something.” 653 President Trump had wanted to stop intervening in foreign affairs that didn’t directly affect the United States, and what better way to undermine his efforts than showcase an eight-year-old Syrian girl using social media to beg for help? You should never believe what you see on Twitter. In 2013 the Associated Press account was hacked and tweeted that the White House had been bombed and President Obama was injured. The tweet was also said to have caused the stock market to fall until it was discovered that it was a hoax. 654 A rogue employee even took it upon himself to delete President Trump’s entire account in November 2017. If one low level employee has the administrative control to delete the President’s account, what would stop someone from hijacking the account and posting tweets as the President himself? Even if the false tweets were deleted and exposed within a few minutes, the damage they would inflict on international relations or the economy could be enormous. While Democrats cry about “Russian bots and trolls” manipulating Twitter by tweeting out certain hashtags hoping to boost them into the trending module or mass-“liking” certain tweets to give the appearance that the message is resonating with more people than it actually is; the effect they have is often minimal. One of Twitter’s executives, Nick Pickles, testified at a Congressional hearing that just 49 Russian Twitter accounts were involved in trying to artificially boost support for Brexit [the proposal for England to leave the European Union] and those collective tweets had only been liked 637 times and retweeted just 461 times. 655

While troll farms run by foreign governments or domestic political activist organizations should be a concern, Twitter and the other major tech companies have safeguards in place to detect and prevent most of this inauthentic activity from disrupting the platforms. The biggest threat in this modern information war comes from the tech companies themselves, since they hold the power over what billions of people see and hear, and with small changes to their algorithms can hide or amplify certain issues or events in order to further their own political agendas.

Massive Liberal Bias After years of avoiding the issue, Twitter’s CEO finally admitted “It’s no secret that we are largely left leaning, and we all have biases. That includes me, our board, and our company.” 656 They are so liberal in fact, that Jack Dorsey actually apologized for eating at Chick-Fil-A after he tweeted that he just used Square’s Cash App to buy lunch there, which triggered a flood of angry responses from many of his followers because Chick-Fil-A’s CEO doesn’t support gay “marriage.” 657 Jack Dorsey has been photographed hanging out with Black Lives Matter activist Deray McKesson and the two even did a joint interview together in 2016 at the popular Recode Code Conference. 658 Twitter also hired a woman named Dr. Patricia Rossini to examine “civil discourse” on the platform because everyone knows Twitter has become a nasty place, but an examination of Dr. Rossini’s past tweets reveal that she believes the basic tenets of the Republican Party are hate, racism, and homophobia. 659 The leader of Twitter’s new “task force” on “uncivil discourse,” Rebekah Tromble, thinks that President Trump is a Nazi and has “quintupled down on his commitment to white nationalists.” 660 Democrat Congressman Ted Lieu from California tweeted out a photo of himself and

the party’s new social media star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at what he described as a “training session” on Twitter, noting representatives from the company were in attendance helping Democrats learn to be more social media savvy. 661 Twitter also allows people to post pornography, and is an easy place for children to access it. 662 Most porn stars have Twitter accounts which contain a steady stream of hard core pornographic videos and pictures with no effective safeguards to prevent kids from following such accounts and seeing their explicit posts.

What’s Trending Twitter’s “Trending” list is supposed to be the top ten list of the most tweeted about topics or hashtags of the moment, but most users are unaware of the manual curation that is often involved. Topics are regularly artificially boosted to give the appearance that they are “popular” while others are suppressed to prevent people from looking into them further. Oftentimes if something trends on Twitter, it then starts making national headlines. Whether it’s a local issue in a small town that, for whatever reason, goes viral and starts trending, or something stupid that a celebrity said or did—if it trends, it then makes headlines. For over six consecutive months starting in the Spring of 2019 every single Sunday pro-LGBT hashtags like #LGBTangels, #LGBTQsquad, #unitedLGBT, #rainbowLGBT, LGBTQoftwitter, etc. would be on the top ten trending list. 663 The hashtag campaigns are organized by liberal groups likely in coordination with Twitter which then inserts them into the trending list to regularly expose people to selfies of teenagers “coming out” online, in attempt to normalize homosexuality and gender bending.

In his testimony to the Senate Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism, Twitter’s lawyer admitted the company had censored almost half of all tweets using the hashtag #DNCLeak when Wikileaks first published the hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee, despite their systems only linking 2% of the tweets to supposed Russian troll farms. 664 When you click on the Search tab (the magnifying glass icon) on a mobile device, which you need to do in order to get see the Trending list, first you are taken to a page that contains a featured story (they call a “Moment”) which is always chosen by Twitter that supposedly has something to do with what’s trending, but always attempts to frame the issue in a certain light. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Jack Dorsey admitted, “We can amplify the counter-narrative [to what Trump is saying]. We do have a curation team that looks to find balance. A lot of times when our president tweets, a “Moment” occurs, and we show completely different perspectives.” 665

Shadow Banning In July 2018 conservative Twitter users started noticing that when they looked up top Republican members of Congress in the Twitter Search bar that many of their names were mysteriously missing. Devin Nunes, Matt Gaetz, Jim Jordan, Mark Meadows, John Ratcliffe, Republican Party chair Ronna McDaniel, and many others (including myself) were all shadow banned from the Search box to make it more difficult for people looking us up to find our accounts. Surprisingly the very liberal Vice News did an investigation into the shadow banning “allegations” and admitted, “Twitter is limiting the visibility of prominent Republicans in search results — a technique known

as ‘shadow banning’ — in what it says is a side effect of its attempts to improve the quality of discourse on the platform.” 666 The article went on to detail that prominent Republican members of Congress “no longer appear in the auto-populated drop-down search box on Twitter” and that, “It’s a shift that diminishes their reach on the platform — and it’s the same one being deployed against prominent racists to limit their visibility.” 667 Vice also pointed out that the shadow banning was not implemented on any Democrats they looked up, noting “Democrats are not being ‘shadow banned’ in the same way, according to a VICE News review. [Ronna] McDaniel’s counterpart, Democratic Party chair Tom Perez, and liberal members of Congress — including Reps. Maxine Waters, Joe Kennedy III, Keith Ellison, and Mark Pocan — all continue to appear in drop-down search results. Not a single member of the 78-person Progressive Caucus faces the same situation in Twitter’s search.” 668 Many conservatives began noticing this anomaly but it wasn’t until Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz called out the shadow banning that it began making headlines. 669 Then President Trump tweeted about it and the issue couldn’t be ignored. 670 A reporter for Axios then tweeted that he, “Must admit that when some [Republican] sources have complained about this to me I mocked them to their face as conspiracy theorists. This Vice article makes me rethink that, and response from Twitter is inadequate.” 671 Twitter then released a statement, saying, “We do not shadow ban,” but then in the very next sentence admitted, “You are always able to see the tweets from accounts you follow (although you may have to do more work to find them, like go directly to their profile).” 672 They played with the definition of shadow banning too, defining it as, “deliberately making someone’s content undiscoverable to everyone except the person who

posted it.” That’s why it’s more appropriate to label it shadow suppressing or throttling than to call it a “ban.” Earlier that year an undercover journalist at Project Veritas had spoken with various former and current employees of Twitter including a Content Review Agent who admitted that there were a lot of “unwritten rules” about shadow banning and that “It was never written, it was more said.” 673 A Policy Manager for Twitter’s Trust and Safety council named Olinda Hassan said the company was working on down-ranking “shitty people” so their tweets don’t show up. 674 A former software engineer at Twitter told the undercover journalist, “One strategy is to shadow ban so you have ultimate control. The idea of a shadow ban is that you ban someone but they don’t know they’ve been banned, because they keep posting and no one sees their content. So they just think that no one is engaging with their content, when in reality, no one is seeing it.” 675 Twitter most likely uses shadow throttling (instead of a full shadow ban) to limit the reach of certain users, so some people are able to see and interact with their tweets, but far less than if no such filter was activated on the accounts. Facebook admits they limit the distribution of posts unless users pay to “Boost” the post, so it’s foolish to think Twitter isn’t shadow throttling accounts as well using a filter to limit the reach of people the company has deemed politically problematic. When Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey sat down for a rare interview with CNN in August 2018 he said that the company is considering removing the “like” button from all tweets, and hiding people’s follower counts. 676 A few months later he repeated the same thing, indicating they may get rid of the “like” button “soon.” 677

Hiding the number of “likes” and retweets people’s posts get would make shadow banning certain individuals or tweets about specific topics almost impossible to detect, because without being able to see how many people are clicking “like” on a post, users wouldn’t know if their followers were actually seeing the post at all. People who use Twitter get a feel for how many “likes” an average tweet gets, and if all of a sudden their engagement dropped 95% and went from getting twenty likes per tweet to only one or two, they would notice something was wrong and suspect that people weren’t seeing their tweets. Some have pointed out that certain tweets they have posted appear to them when they’re logged in, but when looking at their feed from a different browser (not logged in) they don’t show up, adding to the concerns that Twitter is shadow banning certain tweets. 678

Censoring Accounts by Suspending Users Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey once said his goal was to have Twitter function as a basic utility, like water. 679 And in their early years, Twitter executives used to call their company the “free speech wing of the free speech party,” but as the culture changed, and the social justice warriors clamored for more censorship, Jack Dorsey said their once unofficial motto about being the free speech wing of the free speech party was actually just “a joke.” 680 While he may have been idealistic when starting the company, he later succumbed to pressure to “reign in” the wild, wild west nature of Twitter and rolled out increasingly strict policies resulting in a number of high profile people being permanently banned for saying things that are commonplace on Twitter.

Milo Yiannopoulos got banned permanently in July 2016 for trolling “comedian” and actress Leslie Jones about how horrible the all-female Ghostbusters remake was. 681 Political operative and unofficial Trump advisor Roger Stone got banned in October 2017 after going off about several CNN hosts including Don Lemon, Jake Tapper, and Ana Navarro for “using an expletive” to describe them and saying they should be “mocked” and “punished” for constantly lying about the President. 682 Tommy Robinson was permanently banned from Twitter for posting facts about crimes committed by Muslims in the UK. 683 Twitter has suspended other people’s accounts for posting facts about black crime statistics in America as well. 684 Jayda Fransen, another vocal critic of Muslim immigration to the UK and founder of “Britain First,” was banned less than one month after President Trump retweeted a few of her videos showing violent Muslim mobs attacking people, which put her on the radar of activist groups who wanted to take her down for spreading “Islamophobia.” 685 Blogger Chuck Johnson was banned for saying he was going to “take out” Black Lives Matter troll DeRay McKesson, meaning expose him and take him out of the game, but Twitter claimed it was a threat of violence. 686 Johnson responded on his blog saying “Twitter doesn’t seem to have a problem with people using their service to coordinate riots [referring to the recent spree of Black Lives Matter riots that had been occurring]. But they do have a problem with the kind of journalism I do.” 687 Supposed “white supremacist” Jared Taylor was also banned, along with the account for his American Renaissance organization as a part of a crack down on “abusive content,” but Taylor doesn’t use slurs or heated rhetoric and seems like a mild-mannered senior citizen who is just pushing back against anti-white racism, and celebrating European culture and

achievements. Despite being called a “white supremacist” he actually says that Jews and Asians on average have higher IQs than white Europeans. 688 Gavin McInnes, founder of the Proud Boys [conservative men’s fraternity], was banned after he was falsely labeled the leader of a “hate group.” He then sued the Southern Poverty Law Center for defamation. 689 Comedian Owen Benjamin was banned after going on a rant about anti-gun activist David Hogg where he said “Don’t you think it’s weird that you are telling grown men how to live when you barely have pubes?” 690 Comedian Anthony Cumia, who was once co-host of the Opie and Anthony show, was banned in June 2017 for “harassing” a writer for The A.V. Club after he called her a “fat old trans looking twat.” 691 YouTuber Sargon of Akkad was banned in August 2017 for posting sarcastic comments that included “racial slurs.” 692 Free speech activist Lindsay Shepherd was banned in July 2019 for “misgendering” a transgender “woman” who sexually harassed her. The “woman” attacked Shepherd, who had just had a baby, saying “At least my pussy is tight and not loose after pushing out a 10 pound baby.” 693 This same “woman,” who goes by the name Jessica Yaniv, has been filing discrimination claims against waxing salons for refusing to do a Brazilian wax on “her” penis. 694 Lindsay Shepherd responded, “This is how men who don’t have functional romantic relationships speak. But…I guess that’s kinda what you are!” At least I have a uterus, you fat ugly man.” 695 Twitter then banned Lindsay Shepherd for calling “Jessica” a man, and not the transgender “woman” who clearly violated Twitter’s policy against sexual harassment. Street artist Sabo, who is like an American version of Banksy, was banned in April 2018 for the generic reason of “abusive behavior.” 696 It’s likely they considered him posting pictures of his street art, which is

technically vandalism, to be a violation of the rules. Many other lesser known conservatives have also been banned but don’t get any media attention because they aren’t public figures with an active fanbase who can alert others about what happened. CNN’s Brian Stelter once tattled to Twitter asking them if President Trump violated their terms of service by “threatening North Korea” in a tweet saying he has a “nuclear button” that is much bigger and more powerful than Jim Jong-Un’s when the two were having a heated war of words about North Korea testing missiles and threatening Japan. 697 The @MAGAphobia account, which documented acts of violence and harassment against Trump supporters, was banned in May 2019 for a reason that was never given. 698 Perhaps it was for “showing graphic violence” since the account posted pictures of victims and videos of them being assaulted. Only mainstream media accounts are allowed to post graphic content so they can carefully choose how to frame certain issues, while ignoring others. Even a parody account called the “Alexandria OcasioCortez Press” was banned, even though it was clearly a parody, and labeled a parody in the account’s bio in accordance with Twitter’s terms of service. 699

Meanwhile, Twitter refused to shut down an account that organized a harassment campaign against senator Jeff Flake after he voted in favor of confirming Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The person said, “I am starting a National @DemSocialists working group to follow Jeff Flake around to every restaurant, cafe, store, etc he goes to for the rest of his life and yell at him.” 700 Inciting harassment is supposed to be against Twitter’s terms of service, but moderators usually look the other way when liberals do it.

Comedian Kathy Griffin’s account wasn’t penalized after she called for the doxing of the Covington Catholic kids who went viral for wearing MAGA hats during their trip to the nation’s Capital. 701 When the account @HouseShoes, the verified account of a DJ and hip hop producer tweeted out to his supporters that “I want you to fire on any of these red hat bitches when you see them. On sight,” and “IF WE COULD WIPE THESE FAMILIES OUT WE WOULD BE IN A MUCH BETTER PLACE,” and his account wasn’t suspended. 702 Actor Peter Fonda tweeted rape threats to President Trump’s young son Barron and Twitter let him keep his account. 703

An investigation by Breitbart found dozens of pedophiles using Twitter to openly promote pedophilia. Some of them refer to themselves as MAPs (Minor-Attracted Persons) and others call themselves “anti-contact pedophiles” meaning they’re attracted to children but claim to not act on their desires. 704 One of them tweeted, “MAPs have every right to talk (including, yes, on public blogs) about their fantasies, sexual and romantic, as long as sexually explicit material is hidden from children. It’s not bad or disrespectful to talk about people you think are cute.” 705 Other news outlets have covered the issue of admitted pedophiles being allowed on Twitter as well, and Members of Parliament in England have denounced Twitter for allowing the accounts to remain active, some of them having been operating for years. 706 While Twitter doesn’t seem to have much of a problem with pedophiles openly fantasizing about molesting children, Laura Loomer got permanently banned for criticizing Ilhan Omar, the Muslim congresswoman from Minnesota, after Loomer said she was anti-Semitic and is a member of a religion in which “homosexuals are oppressed” and “women are abused.” 707

Not long after Laura Loomer was banned, the Congresswoman made headlines and was denounced by members of her own party, including Nancy Pelosi, for comments she made about AIPAC [The American Israel Public Affairs Committee], the largest Israeli lobbying organization, after many deemed her criticism anti-Semitic. 708 So Loomer was right about Ilhan Omar, but got banned for being “Islamophobic” and posting “hate speech” about Muslims. Later a video clip surfaced of Ilhan Omar appearing to mock Americans who were fearful of Al-Qaeda in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. 709 A writer named Meghan Murphy, who refuses to accept transgender “women” as real women, was banned for simply referring to a transgender “woman” as a “he” (a violation called “misgendering” someone). 710 A world-renowned expert in gender dysphoria, Dr. Ray Blanchard, was suspended for tweeting that transgenderism was a mental disorder. 711 He didn’t say it to be mean, he said it as part of a thread about the condition, (which up until May 2019 was classified as a mental disorder by the World Health Organization — and still is by many psychiatrists around the world, including the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-5) but some facts are considered hate speech now. 712 After I tweeted that there are only two genders and insinuated the rest of the 50+ “gender identities” liberals have come up with were mental disorders, I was suspended for that too. My account was also disabled from uploading videos longer than 2 minutes and 20 seconds because they said I had posted “Inappropriate Content,” and I have been banned from running ads on Twitter too. I have also been suspended for calling Kevin Spacey a “Satanic scumbag” and telling him to “burn in Hell” after an actor came forward and claimed Spacey made aggressive sexual advances on him when he was just

14-years-old. 713 My tweet was considered to be “hateful” because he’s a gay man who is above reproach. Actor James Woods’ account was suspended for posting a satirical meme making fun of Democrats, showing three soy boys with the caption, “We’re making a woman’s vote worth more by staying home,” and included the hashtag #LetWomenDecide and #NoMenMidterm. Twitter claimed it was in violation of their policy forbidding posting content that “has the potential to be misleading in a way that could impact an election.” 714 Twitter suspended the account of Austin Petersen who was running for Senate in Missouri in 2018 just one week before the primary. 715 Twitter even banned Republican Senate candidate Marsha Blackburn from running pro-life ads during her campaign because they were deemed “inflammatory” 716 The official account for the anti-abortion movie UnPlanned was briefly suspended by Twitter during the film’s opening weekend in March 2019. 717 As usual, the suspension caused a wave a backlash and Twitter later restored it saying it was another “mistake.” Twitter also suspended a user for calling Maxine Waters a “crazy old lying lunatic in a bad wig.” 718 A recent change to Twitter’s terms of service says they will ban anyone who is “amplifying hate groups” by posting articles about them, or even retweeting other tweets about them. (That only applies to right-wing “hate groups” though. Supporting Antifa, black power groups, and other far-left movements is fine). After a bunch of Huffington Post and BuzzFeed employees got laid off in February 2019, a lot of people mocked them by responding with “Learn to Code” after they posted Dear Diary-style tweets crying about being let go, and so Twitter began suspending accounts for using that phrase or hashtag, claiming it was “abusive behavior.” 719

The saying “Learn to Code” is a reference to news outlets publishing stories encouraging coal miners who are getting laid off as clean energy companies replace their jobs to do just that. Expecting a fifty-year-old coal miner to become a software engineer is insane and shows how out of touch the journalists were who recommended they do just that, so people threw “Learn to Code” back in their faces, but that’s “harassment.” When CEO Jack Dorsey appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast in February 2019, Joe brought up Alex Jones being banned and pointed out that Twitter was the last major platform to do so after (briefly) allowing him to keep his account in the wake of YouTube, Facebook, iTunes, etc, banning him. When Joe asked, “What did he do on your platform, that you all were in agreement that this is enough?” Jack responded, “Ah, I’m not — I’m not sure what the, what the actual like, ya know, violations were.” 720 (That’s an exact quote.) Alex was banned for telling off CNN’s Oliver Darcy outside of the Jack Dorsey congressional hearing in September 2018, where Jones denounced Oliver for pressuring all the social media companies to get him banned. The confrontation was broadcast live on Twitter via Periscope and so Twitter quickly banned Jones for “harassing” a supposed “journalist.” 721 It’s important to point out that Oliver Darcy was working in the capacity of a journalist at the time, on public property, while he was covering an event about social media; thus confirming everything Alex Jones was saying about the censorship of conservatives. Oliver Darcy later admitted that CNN had “presented Twitter with examples of [violations of Twitter’s terms of service] available on both the InfoWars and Jones account.” 722 In August 2019 a group of Leftists gathered outside Senator Mitch McConnell’s house after sunset to harass him and some of them made

threatening statements saying he should be killed, and when he posted a short video on his Twitter account showing the angry mob and what they were saying, he was suspended and the video removed for allegedly violating their terms of service prohibiting making threats, even though he had just posted evidence of what people were doing to him! 723 His staff appealed the suspension but the appeal was denied. 724 Only after growing outrage and media coverage did Twitter lift his suspension and restore the video. 725 Mitch McConnell is the Senate Majority Leader, the most powerful Senator in the country, yet was censored when he tried to show his fellow Americans that Leftists had surrounded his home to intimidate and threaten him.

Twitter Verification The “verified” checkmark on someone’s social media account is a confirmation that the account actually belongs to that person, and isn’t being run by someone else pretending to be them. Public figures like celebrities and journalists usually get them to prevent imposter accounts from impersonating them, and having a verified account is often seen as a sign that someone is “important” and so every wannabe rapper and blogger wishes to get one, but you have to apply, and Twitter won’t just verify anyone’s account. They have, however, verified numerous Black Lives Matter activists’ accounts whose credentials are basically that they’re anti-police trolls who spend their entire lives on Twitter spewing hatred of police and white people. Virulent racist troll Tariq Nasheed, who accuses almost every white person in America of being a “suspected white supremacist,” has been verified. Other Black Lives Matter trolls like Shaun King and Deray McKesson have also been rewarded with verified accounts.

Twitter also verified Sarah Jeong, a new editorial board member at the New York Times , despite a series of racist tweets about “dumbass fucking white people” and saying she gets “joy” out of being “cruel to old white men.” 726 Twitter also verified loads of fringe LGBT social media personalities, and plenty of pro-feminist and pro-abortion trolls in order to give them more clout online. Meanwhile, popular conservatives like James O’Keefe, Carpe Donktum, Gary Franchi, David Harris Jr., Brandon Tatum, David Horowitz, and others have been denied verification for years. 727 Before they were permanently banned, Tommy Robinson, Laura Loomer, and Milo Yiannopoulos had been unverified . Twitter released a statement saying “Reasons for removal [of verification checkmark] may reflect behaviors on and off Twitter that include: Promoting hate and/or violence against, or directly attacking or threatening other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or disease” and even, “Supporting organizations or individuals that promote the above.” 728 Twitter verified the “Parkland kids,” a small group of anti-gun activists who became social media stars over night after a lunatic shot up their high school on Valentine’s Day 2018 in Parkland, Florida. One of them, David Hogg, went on to sic his nearly 500,000 followers onto the advertisers of various Fox News shows, harassing them to pull their ads from the network. 729 Twitter even hosted the Parkland kids for a live Q&A to help them promote their “March For Our Lives” event where they demanded more gun control laws. 730

Never Tweet

There’s a meme that looks like the sign-up page for Twitter but reads “Get fired from your job in ten years” just above the link to open an account, and it’s not that far from the truth. What you say in a tweet can be perfectly fine if it was just said amongst a group of friends, but often our enemies are lurking quietly on Twitter, watching and waiting for one little slip up, and even complete strangers who happen to come across your tweet may feel compelled to enact “revenge” because you said something on the Internet that offended them. People often like to go digging through old tweets of their enemies, hoping to find years or decade-old tweets saying “racist,” “homophobic,” or “sexist” things so they can derail their career. Twitter’s search function allows people to search anyone’s Twitter feed for any keyword or phrase, making this tactic extremely simple. (I advise, if you use Twitter, to consider a “tweet delete” app which allows you to easily search for and delete old tweets which contain certain words or phrases. Or regularly delete your tweets that are older than six months in order to avoid past tweets posted years ago from coming back to haunt you.) Oftentimes when someone becomes famous, people will go nosing around their old tweets typing in keywords like “nigger” and “faggot” into the search to see if they’ve ever tweeted anything with those words in the past so they can retweet them, trying to get the person in trouble. This is exactly what happened right after Kyler Murray won the 2018 Heisman Trophy. A reporter for USA Today took it upon himself to search through his past tweets and found some “homophobic” ones from when he was fifteen-years-old. 731 When Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Josh Hader was chosen to pitch in the 2018 All-Star Game, people dug up some of his old tweets from when he was in high school and it made headlines because he used the “n-word”

in a few tweets. 732 He then apologized and deleted his entire account. The same thing has happened to “Mr. Beast,” a popular YouTuber, and singer Shawn Mendes. 733 The best example of what can happen when you tweet is the disaster that occurred to a woman named Justine Sacco in 2013 who had just 170 followers. When boarding a flight to South Africa she tweeted, “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!” and then got on the plane without thinking anything of it. She didn’t say it as a racist insult about the AIDS epidemic there, but meant it as a sarcastic jab at Americans who she said lived in “a bit of a bubble when it comes to what’s going on in the third world,” since she herself was born in South Africa and returning there to visit family. 734 But somebody following her got offended and retweeted it, and then their followers saw it and got triggered and retweeted it, and then she soon began trending from so many people being upset about her tweet even though she was just some random person on Twitter. She and her tweet then became a national news story and she ultimately ended up getting fired from her job. 735 Twitter is often fueled by anger with people venting their political frustrations through tweets like irate sports fans yelling at the TV. For others it’s a narcissistic circus where they derive their self-worth by getting likes and retweets since the immediate engagement can become addicting because their notifications release dopamine similar to getting a small payout from a slot machine at the casino. The instant gratification of getting feedback becomes a deeply engrained habit that’s hard for people to break. Perhaps the only good thing about Twitter is President Trump’s tweets. Previously, to hear what a President had to say, he would have to hold a press conference or give an

interview, but now with Twitter he can fire off his thoughts on anything at any time, day or night, and then the media reports on it—often overreacting to the point of having a meltdown. There have been calls to ban him, and groups have even started petitions and presented them to Twitter with the foolish hope they would shut down his account, but he’s still there. Twitter’s co-founder Evan Williams even said he was sorry for his creation helping Donald Trump get out his message during his campaign in 2016 after Trump told the Financial Times that without it, he didn’t think he would have won. 736 “If it’s true that he wouldn’t be president if it weren’t for Twitter, then yeah, I’m sorry,” Williams said. 737 Trump knows and loves the power of Twitter, but the big question is— will he still tweet after he’s left office? Barack Obama broke the unwritten rule of not criticizing his successor, and it’s been the tradition of former presidents to not inject themselves into matters involving the next administration, but both Barack Obama and George W. Bush have been openly criticizing the Trump administration, so after he leaves office he may not sit by silently, and could regularly criticize the next administration as well, and it will be hard for people to ignore what he’s saying since his Twitter feed has become such a newsmaker. There may be only one way for the Liberal Media Industrial Complex to silence Donald Trump, which is why they are constantly painting him as the reincarnation of Adolf Hitler, and incessantly calling him a fascist dictator, because they are hoping to incite some unhinged lunatic who believes what they say to assassinate him.

YouTube

Most people don’t realize this but YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, after Google of course, and it’s also part of the same conglomerate since Google bought YouTube in 2006 for 1.6 billion dollars. Later corporate restructuring put both of them under the new umbrella company Alphabet Inc. When referring to YouTube many people consider it a part of Google, but it should be considered its own separate entity, which it technically is, with its own CEO — Susan Wojcicki. For the better part of a decade after YouTube was launched, it was largely seen as just a website for user generated entertainment. It was the place for people to upload funny cat videos and show themselves doing stupid “Internet challenges,” but a small group of people (myself included) knew from YouTube’s beginning that it was a powerful tool that could be used to share news and analysis about current events and other important issues that weren’t being properly addressed by mainstream outlets. It was like having our own public access cable channel where we could do anything we wanted with the potential to reach an audience of millions, and for some of us, that started happening on a regular basis. For over a year after the 2016 election, the mainstream media’s war on “fake news” (in reality a war on independent news and ordinary people using social media to get out their message) focused almost exclusively on Facebook and Twitter since the news giants saw them as being responsible for completely losing their power to control the national narrative surrounding major issues and events. The mainstream media could no longer prevent certain information from becoming widely known and millions of people were spending their time scrolling through Facebook, and Twitter, and watching YouTube videos instead of engaging with the traditional news outlets that had dominated the industry for decades since their creation.

But Donald Trump beating Hillary Clinton was a wakeup call for the Liberal Media Industrial Complex , so they launched a bold new effort under the disguise of fighting “fake news” to completely reshape social media. While they first focused on Facebook and Twitter, eventually they stumbled upon a huge secret that was right in front of their nose for years. People like me were creating YouTube videos on a regular basis covering news and politics and we were getting enormous audiences rivaling or beating cable news. In the run-up to the 2016 election my YouTube channel was averaging around 700,000 viewers a day, about half of what CNN’s primetime shows like Anderson Cooper and Don Lemon get on their best nights. 738 But now the Establishment discovered the “fake news” problem was flourishing on YouTube, they said, and it had to be stopped by changing the algorithm to artificially favor mainstream media channels over videos posted by ordinary YouTubers. In October of 2017, sociologist and technology critic Zeynep Tufekci said, “YouTube is the most overlooked story of 2016,” after realizing there was much more to YouTube than cat videos and pranksters. 739 Traditional media outlets discovered the world of underground news and they were shocked at just how popular we were. Slate pointed out that Twitter and Facebook had been receiving the brunt of criticism about spreading “fake news” but, “Now a series of controversies is forcing YouTube to address its responsibilities more directly and candidly than it has in the past.” 740 Soon YouTube would completely change the way the website had functioned for the previous ten years, and turned it from what was meant to be a place where anyone with an important message could post videos and build an audience, to mostly just another mainstream media site filled with brand name news channels and videos of familiar celebrities.

By mid-2018, as Wired magazine points out, YouTube was “ditching vloggers” in favor of Hollywood celebrities. “YouTube used to be all about young digital influencers who managed to threaten TV with their video blogs. Not anymore. It seems that YouTube is opting for traditional celebrities instead.” 741 Another blogger noticed the changes and ran with the headline, “YouTube is turning away from its creators to become a new MTV,” and noted, “YouTube can’t promise brand safety with volatile creators on the platform — advertisers don’t want to be caught in a firestorm. The only move is to pivot, and YouTube is ready. Hollywood names like Will Smith and Demi Lovato are safe bets. Same with music videos already vetted by major record labels.” 742 YouTube, which for over a decade was a place for independent content creators to upload their videos, even began producing shows themselves. 743 For the better part of ten years since its launch in 2006, Hollywood studios and mainstream celebrities didn’t pay much attention to YouTube. They either were afraid of it because it threatened their monopoly on content distribution, or they were too blind to see how the new technology was revolutionizing media and helping to create new kinds of stars.

Right-Wing Channels Dominating In March of 2018 Vanity Fair warned that right-wing “Dark-Web Trolls” were “taking over YouTube” because so many anti-social justice warrior channels were getting popular. 744 The New York Times then said YouTube was “radicalizing” people to the right, and claimed that if people started watching videos of Donald Trump speeches then YouTube will begin recommending videos of “white supremacist rants” and “Holocaust denials.” 745

The article declared that, “Given its billion or so users, YouTube may be one of the most powerful radicalizing instruments of the 21st century,” and that, “Its algorithm seems to have concluded that people are drawn to content that is more extreme than what they started with — or to incendiary content in general.” 746 The New York Times had previously complained that, “For the New Far Right, YouTube Has Become the New Talk Radio,” saying, “They deplore ‘social justice warriors,’ whom they credit with ruining popular culture, conspiring against the populace and helping to undermine ‘the West.’ They are fixated on the subjects of immigration, Islam and political correctness. They seem at times more animated by President Trump’s opponents than by the man himself, with whom they share many priorities, if not a style.” 747 The Left became determined to paint the Right’s rising stars as radicals, Islamophobes, and far-right extremists hoping to derail the spread of our videos. One Leftist blog called “Right Wing Watch” founded by Jared Holt declared that, “White Supremacy Figured Out How To Become YouTube Famous,” and whined that, “YouTube has served as an alternative media ecosystem apart from the mainstream where any person can contribute to national conversation and reach thousands of people overnight. But the Right’s overt domination of the platform, in addition to political forums on Reddit and 4chan, has created an environment where white nationalists and right-wing extremists can easily inject hateful rhetoric and conspiracy theories into national political discourse.” 748 When BuzzFeed or CNN reported “breaking news” about the Trump administration or when something started trending on Twitter, us YouTubers could quickly publish videos giving another perspective and point out things the mainstream media was ignoring or lying about. Our subscribers

would see the videos, but perhaps more importantly, people searching for information on YouTube about those issues could find our videos, and if they were popular with favorable ratings, those videos would be discovered by people seeking out information on the subject matter. But all that has changed.

“Authoritative Channels” Boosted to the Top For over a decade the top search results on YouTube were the most popular videos associated with the search terms you entered in, regardless of whether the videos were posted by someone who had just opened a YouTube account, a full time YouTuber, or a mainstream media outlet. The algorithm that was originally in place worked very well, because instead of showing the most-viewed videos (which could have generated a large number of views by using misleading titles and thumbnails) YouTube surfaced videos with the most “watch time” up at the top. This means that if people clicked on a video and found that the title and thumbnail were misleading or it wasn’t a quality video, and then decided not to watch it by clicking away rather soon once it began playing, the algorithm would know that it wasn’t what people were searching for because the average amount of time people spent watching the video would be low. But if the video had a high watch time average, the site (accurately) figured that people had found what they were looking for because they kept watching it, and those were the videos that ranked the highest in the search results. All that mattered was that the video was uploaded to YouTube by someone—anyone. If it was good, and people watched it instead of clicking away after a few seconds, it would show up in the top of the search results.

But all that changed in October 2017 when YouTube reconfigured the algorithm to favor videos from mainstream media outlets. 749 They added internal tags on certain channels deeming them “authoritative sources,” and overnight the top search results for most things were now videos from channels like CNN, NBC, Entertainment Tonight, etc. Most of these videos have only a tiny fraction of the views (and watch time) compared to countless other videos about the subject being searched for, but those videos are now buried under pages of content from channels that YouTube has deemed “authoritative” sources. 750 They had manually intervened in the search results previously, but only for certain topics they deemed “extremist” material, like videos supporting ISIS. YouTube had been redirecting search results for these topics to curated videos and playlists they had specifically chosen in order to “confront and debunk violent extremist messages.” 751 But now “the Jigsaw Method” as they call it, was rolled out on a massive scale and incorporated news, current events, and many other topics people regularly search for. “We’re continuing to invest in new features and changes to YouTube search that provide authoritative results when people come to YouTube looking for news,” a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement. 752 “So far this year we have introduced new features that promote verified news sources when a major news event happens. These sources are presented on the YouTube homepage, under ‘Breaking News,’ and featured in search results, with the label ‘Top News.’ Additionally, we’ve been rolling out algorithmic changes to YouTube search during breaking news events. There is still more work to do, but we’re making progress.” 753 Soon it wasn’t just videos from mainstream media channels boosted to the top during “breaking news” events, but almost anything having to do with news at all.

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes rang the alarm about YouTube’s algorithm because he didn’t like the search results for videos about the Federal Reserve. 754 Mother Jones magazine joined in on the criticism, reporting, “If you search for ‘Federal Reserve’ on YouTube, one of the first videos to surface is titled ‘Century of Enslavement.’ Using archival footage and the kind of authoritative male voice heard in countless historical documentaries, the 90-minute video espouses the idea the Federal Reserve was formed in secret by powerful, often Jewish, banking families in the early 20th century, causing America to spiral into debt.” 755 It continued, “The incendiary Federal Reserve video, flagged by MSNBC host Chris Hayes earlier this month, is just one of many examples of how political extremists have mastered YouTube’s algorithms and monetization structure to spread toxic ideas ranging from conspiracy theories to white supremacy. The video ‘Why Social Justice is CANCER,’ for instance, appears after searching for ‘social justice.’ 756 That video was from Lauren Chen (formerly known as Roaming Millennial.) 757 Soon the search results for “Federal Reserve” featured only videos from mainstream media channels, and the documentary Chris Hayes called out (Century of Enslavement: The History of the Federal Reserve— which was the top search result) was nowhere to be seen. I looked all the way through page 25 of the search results and it still didn’t show up. 758 Other videos critical of the Federal Reserve, including one titled “Exposing the Federal Reserve,” which is a high-quality 30-minute cartoon, 759 and “The Federal Reserve Explained in 3 Minutes” also vanished. A whistleblower later revealed to Breitbart that “Federal Reserve” had been added to the secret “Controversial Query Blacklist” file which causes “authoritative content” (i.e. mainstream media channels) to artificially rise

to the top of the search results over other videos that actually qualify organically for those positions. 760 My most-viewed video “Donald Trump’s Funniest Insults and Comebacks,” which has over 11 million views, is now buried on page three of the search results when looking for the exact title. All the top results for “Donald Trump’s Funniest Insults and Comebacks” are videos from CNN, NBC News, ABC News, the Washington Post, HuffPost, etc, most of which are critical of President Trump and have far less views and watch time. My channel had reached one million subscribers in May of 2017, and at the time had more subscribers than MSNBC’s channel, NBC News, CBS News, and even Fox News. 761 And many of my videos far eclipsed theirs in the number of views, but since the algorithm changes my channel virtually stalled in growth while theirs all grew exponentially. In the spring of 2019, YouTube changed the algorithm so when people searched for my own name, the top search results were other people’s videos about me, with mine buried at the bottom of the page. When searching for almost any other YouTuber, however, their most recent videos were featured at the top of the page with a notification highlighting their latest uploads. I had been calling YouTube out about this since I first learned of it in May 2019, thanks to people leaving comments on my videos giving me a heads up, but YouTube wouldn’t respond to me. It was only after an uproar four months later when Steven Crowder became aware that none of his videos were coming up in the search results for his name either, and directed his lawyer to contact them about it while his fans bombarded YouTube with a flood of tweets denouncing them for what they had done. They quickly made some adjustments, partially fixing the problem near the end of September 2019, but didn’t publicly acknowledge the complaints

or that they had reverted the algorithm back to the way it was. But at least my two most recent videos started showing up again at the top of the search results along with those of the other popular conservative channels that had been censored (Steven Crowder, Paul Joseph Watson, The Next News Network, Lauren Chen, and Breitbart News). Shortly after a feminist writer for Slate.com, an online magazine, complained about many of the top search results for “abortion” being prolife videos (including one that showed what a baby looks like in the first trimester—complete with arms, legs, fingers and toes), YouTube quickly changed the algorithm to feature various pro-abortion videos at the top. “I emailed YouTube Friday afternoon asking why anti-abortion videos saturated the search results for ‘abortion,’” she wrote, adding, “By Monday morning…the search results had changed to include a number of news outlets among the top results.” 762 National Review pointed out that YouTube was happy to “airbrush away the reality of abortion,” by artificially boosting pro-abortion videos after her complaint. 763 Now a search for “abortion” brings up videos from Vice News, the BBC, and BuzzFeed. In a leaked document given to Breitbart, one engineer admitted “We have tons of white and blacklists that humans manually curate.” 764 The document also first revealed the existence of the “Controversial Query Blacklist” file that contains a list of search terms that will bring up manually curated videos in the results or ensure the top results are videos from mainstream media channels. 765 The list includes “abortion,” “Federal Reserve,” and even people like anti-gun activist David Hogg, and Congresswoman Maxine Waters. When Captain Marvel was released in March 2019 YouTube changed their algorithm in order to bury videos of people who were giving the movie

negative reviews which were appearing as the top search results. 766 The film’s star Brie Larson had been insulting white men and promoting intersectional feminism on her publicity tour, angering many Marvel fans who took to YouTube to express their thoughts. Those videos, being very popular, surfaced at the top of the search results for “Brie Larson,” but that soon changed. A writer for The Verge posted two side by side screenshots showing the before and after top search results and noted, “This is kind of a fascinating discovery: YouTube seems to have changed the immediate ‘Brie Larson’ search results to News. That pushes up authoritative sources and, in turn, pushes troll or MRA-style [Men’s Rights Activists] video rants pretty far down the page.” 767 She went on to report that, “YouTube recategorized ‘Brie Larson’ as a news-worthy search term. That does one very important job: it makes the search algorithm surface videos from authoritative sources on a subject. Instead of videos from individual creators, YouTube responds with videos from Entertainment Tonight, ABC, CBS, CNN, and other news outlets first.” 768 YouTube has even experimented with disabling some of the search filters to make it impossible to do a more focused search when looking for something specific. In March 2019 they temporarily disabled the ability to filter search results by dates, in order to prevent people from finding recent uploads of the New Zealand mosque massacre which was live-streamed by the shooter and was being uploaded to YouTube by various people who had gotten the footage from the perpetrator’s Facebook page before moderators removed it. 769 This way you couldn’t narrow the search perimeters by the date something was posted which is often the only way to find certain clips now

because they’re buried under countless other videos that are artificially pushed to the top even though they’re not necessarily relevant to the search terms. Luckily this time, disabling the search filters was only temporarily, but who knows what the future holds.

Recommended Videos Playing favorites with mainstream channels and serving their videos up as the top search results no matter how few views or little engagement they have wasn’t good enough though. The Wall Street Journal complained, “YouTube’s algorithm tweaks don’t appear to have changed how YouTube recommends videos on its home page. On the home page, the algorithm provides a personalized feed for each logged-in user largely based on what the user has watched…Repeated tests by the Journal as recently as this week showed the home page often fed far-right or far-left videos to users who watched relatively mainstream news sources, such as Fox News and MSNBC.” 770 Their report continued, “After searching for ‘9/11’ last month, then clicking on a single CNN clip about the attacks, and then returning to the home page, the fifth and sixth recommended videos were about claims the U.S. government carried out the attacks. One, titled ‘Footage Shows Military Plane hitting WTC Tower on 9/11—13 Witnesses React’—had 5.3 million views.” 771 Others had been complaining about “conspiracy videos” too. As you can imagine, CNN piled on the criticism as well, reporting, “YouTube has long faced criticism for allowing misinformation, conspiracy theories and extremist views to spread on its platform, and for recommending such content to users. People who came to the site to watch videos on innocuous

subjects, or to see mainstream news, have been pushed toward increasingly fringe and conspiracist content.” 772 NBC News also complained that, “YouTube search results for A-list celebrities [have been] hijacked by conspiracy theorists” and noted, “YouTube did not respond to a request for comment,” [but] “Some conspiracy videos’ rankings dropped after NBC News reached out for comment.” 773 In January 2019 YouTube issued a public statement saying that they will continue, “taking a closer look at how we can reduce the spread of content that comes close to—but doesn’t quite cross the line of—violating our Community Guidelines. To that end, we’ll begin reducing recommendations of borderline content and content that could misinform users in harmful ways—such as videos promoting a phony miracle cure for a serious illness, claiming the earth is flat, or making blatantly false claims about historic events like 9/11.” 774 It went on to say, “This change relies on a combination of machine learning and real people. We work with human evaluators and experts from all over the United States to help train the machine learning systems that generate recommendations.” 775 YouTube now deciding what is and is not a conspiracy theory has dramatic implications. For example, mainstream media outlets claimed that people who thought “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett faked his “racist and homophobic attack” at the hands of Trump supporters were spreading a “conspiracy theory.” 776 And since such “conspiracy theory” videos are now admittedly buried in the search results and kept out of the Recommended and Up Next sections, YouTube was actively hiding the truth about what actually happened, which later came out. 777

A recent addition to YouTube’s terms of service specifically bans, “Content claiming that specific victims of public violent incidents or their next of kin are actors, or that their experiences are false,” which means that anyone who posted a video or did a livestream saying they thought Jussie Smollett faked the “attack” was in violation of their rules and at risk of having their videos taken down and issued a Community Guidelines strike or even having their entire channel banned if they had previous infractions. 778

For many years about one-third of my total views were from “Suggested” videos, but then in April 2019 I and many other YouTubers noticed a quick and dramatic drop, which is detailed in our Channel Analytics. From that point on my total views from “Suggested” videos dropped to around five percent, a significant drop, most likely because my channel was identified as “borderline” and so my videos don’t show up on people’s homepages anymore or next to similar content.

The “Alternative Influence Network” It wasn’t enough to bury independent content creators’ videos under piles of mainstream media channels when searching for various topics, or preventing our videos from showing up in the “Recommended” section or the “Up Next” sidebar. The Liberal Media Industrial Complex got upset that a bunch of YouTubers were collaborating with each other, and doing interviews with one another. In September 2018 a report from a “research institute” called Data & Society claimed to have identified what they called a network of “far-right” YouTubers who indoctrinate people through their videos by promoting right-wing “extremist” ideologies. “Although YouTube’s recommendation algorithms are partly to blame, the problem is fundamentally linked to the social network of political

influencers on the platform and how, like other YouTube influencers, they invite one another on to their shows,” the report reads. 779 It includes an illustration looking like a collage on the wall of a detective’s office linking together all the connections of an organized crime family and notes, “The graph is a partial representation of collaborative connections within the Alternative Influence Network (AIN)–a network of controversial academics, media pundits, and internet celebrities who use YouTube to promote a range of political positions from mainstream versions of libertarianism and conservatism to overt white nationalism. While collaborations can sometimes consist of debates and disagreements, they more frequently indicate social ties, endorsements, and advertisements for other influencers.” 780 The report basically recommends that YouTube forbid people from interviewing individuals who liberals deem unsavory or who talk about things they consider “offensive” or “hateful” which as you know includes almost everything from illegal immigration to the American flag. “The platform should not only assess what channels say in their content, but also who they host and what their guests say. In a media environment consisting of networked influencers, YouTube must respond with policies that account for influence and amplification.” 781 In an interview about the report, lead researcher Rebecca Lewis explained how most of the focus on “extremism” and “fake news” has been on Facebook and Twitter, but, “We don’t have as clear a picture of what’s happening on YouTube and Google. It is important to bring to the fore some illustrations of the problems that do exist on these platforms. I’m trying to show there are fundamental issues we need to be addressing [regarding the algorithms of] YouTube in the same way we have recognized fundamental issues with Facebook and Twitter.” 782

She went on to say, “I absolutely think reassessing the algorithms is one step that needs to be taken. Assessing what government regulation options are available is absolutely worthwhile, and then thinking about how YouTube monetization structures incentivize certain behaviors is something that needs to be done. It needs to be a multi-pronged solution.” 783 Five months after the Alternative Influence Network report was published a group of “researchers” calling themselves Digital Social Contract did a test to see how YouTube’s “Recommended” videos section changed, and looked at over 80 different channels listed in the report and noted, “For the first two weeks of February [2019], YouTube was recommending videos from at least one of these major alt-right channels on more than one in every thirteen randomly selected videos (7.8%). From February 15th, this number has dropped to less than one in two hundred and fifty (0.4%).” 784 The Digital Social Contract report also highlighted that a video of actress Emma Watson promoting feminism had another video titled “How Feminism Ruined Marriage” queued in the “Up Next” autoplay section right beside it, which they claimed was “an anti-feminist video from an altright channel.” 785 That “alt-right” channel was Ben Shapiro’s, who is a Jew, not an alt-right white nationalist, but instead is often a target of altright figures who hate him because he’s Jewish. 786

Censoring Videos YouTube has always had a policy forbidding certain kinds of content from being uploaded like pornography, graphic violence, animal abuse, or blatant invasions of someone’s privacy; which are very reasonable rules, but after the 2016 election they began removing videos critical of the radical

Leftist agenda, including videos denouncing child drag queens, feminists, and for even reporting on anti-white hate crimes. Those kinds of videos can now easily violate YouTube’s “Community Standards” and result in getting channels issued a strike (and the video taken down), and if a channel gets three strikes within a three month period, the entire channel and all its videos are completely deleted. YouTube’s senior leadership (and overall corporate culture) believes there are 58 different genders, and Christians are just old-fashioned superstitious bigots; so we’re talking about godless liberal Silicon Valley standards, not Midwestern community standards. YouTube also teamed up with the Southern Poverty Law Center, who began searching for videos they recommend be taken down. Soon all kinds of them were being removed under the banner of stopping “hate speech.” 787 I got a strike on a video I uploaded about a black man who opened fire inside a Tennessee church hoping to kill as many white people as possible. 788 The video was appropriately titled “Black Man Shoots Up White Church - Media Ignores Anti-White Hate Crime” and didn’t show any graphic images, but as you probably know by now, reporting on anti-white hate crimes is deemed “racist” by the Left. The liberal media wants people to believe hate crimes are only committed by white people against blacks and don’t want anyone talking about how such attacks are actually a two way street. Black conservative Candace Owens even had a video removed from her channel that was critical of Black Lives Matter because it was deemed “hateful” against black people. 789 A channel called High Impact Vlogs had a video removed and got a Community Guidelines strike for criticizing the parents of Desmond is Amazing, the 11-year-old “drag kid,” after the boy was featured on Good Morning America . 790

YouTube pulled a funny 2018 midterm election ad by a Republican running for governor of Florida in which he showed off his “Deportation Bus,” which he used to promote his campaign, claiming his ad was “hate speech.” 791 They later restored the video after their censorship began making headlines. Tommy Robinson’s entire channel has been “quarantined” with special restrictions that prevent any of his videos from ever showing up in the search results at all. This designation also causes all comments to be disabled on every video, and the view counts censored as well, so people can’t gauge how popular they are in another attempt to suppress his message by hiding the number of people watching his videos. 792 Hunter Avallone, a conservative millennial who makes fun of feminists and other SJWs, had his entire channel deleted in April 2019 for “hate speech” despite not having any current strikes. After a growing outrage about the censorship, YouTube restored his channel and once again claimed it was just a “mistake.” 793 The Prager University channel (stylized PragerU) sued YouTube after they discovered that almost all of their videos were hidden when YouTube was in Restricted Mode, which most schools and public libraries have it set on by default in order to filter out “sensitive content.” 794 Many of my videos are also completely hidden to people who are browsing in Restricted Mode as well, even though my content is family friendly. In December of 2017 YouTube hired 10,000 new human moderators to supposedly remove “extremist” content and videos containing “hate speech,” and soon after they began taking down popular videos and entire channels that hadn’t come anywhere close to actually violating the terms of service. As a result of the new moderators a major purge occurred a few months later in February of 2018. Jerome Corsi’s entire channel was taken

down, Mike Adams’ “Natural News” channel was also removed, and many others. YouTube even began issuing community guideline strikes and removing videos that criticized CNN’s Town Hall on gun control following the Parkland school shooting in Florida. 795 Tim Pool had produced a video where he debunked the conspiracy theories about the shooting, but his video was removed as well. 796 After some channels and videos were restored due to a major outcry about this latest wave of censorship, Gizmodo reported that, “the usual whackos like far-right personality Mark Dice are going wild on Twitter claiming the admission of any mistake at all constitutes victory. Hopefully they’re wrong and YouTube isn’t walking back punishments on people like [Jerome] Corsi, whose prior best hits include a steadfast belief Barack Obama is secretly gay and also some kind of Muslim, though InfoWars claimed yesterday that it got YouTube to revoke one of the two strikes against it.” 797

“YouTube’s New Moderators Mistakenly Pull Right-Wing Channels” was the headline at Bloomberg News. 798 It was just another “mistake,” they said. YouTube deleted the entire channel of a gamer for posting a clip of him playing “Red Dead Redemption 2” which showed him “killing” a feminist NPC (non playable character) by lassoing her and then feeding her to an alligator. 799 The game is a western and takes place in the late 1890s, and the character was just one of the townspeople who was hanging out in the street and happened to be promoting women’s suffrage (right to vote) so he thought it would be funny to feed her to the alligator, which the game allows players to do to any of the “townsfolk.”

Professional gaming is a huge industry where people stream themselves playing various video games, which as you know, often include the main character “killing” a number of other characters in the game, but the YouTube moderators deemed feeding the feminist to the alligator “graphic content that appears to be posted in a shocking, sensational, or disrespectful manner.” After others in the gaming community expressed outrage over YouTube censoring a clip of someone playing a popular game, they restored his channel. 800 After the Covington Catholic incident involving the high school kid in the MAGA hat and the Native American man beating a drum in his face at the National Mall in Washington D.C., a retired Navy SEAL named Don Shipley posted a video about Nathan Phillips, the “Vietnam Veteran” Native American, calling him a fraud because Army records show he was never actually in Vietnam. YouTube soon terminated the Navy SEAL’s channel, claiming he was “harassing” the old man. 801 Infowars host Alex Jones was banned from YouTube in August 2018 in part for his criticism of a drag queen festival where adult drag queens performed simulated strip teases for an “all ages” show which included children in the audience brought there by their degenerate parents. He called it an “abomination” and a “freak show” and so his video was deemed “hate speech” and “transphobic,” resulting in YouTube removing the video and issuing him a community guidelines strike. 802 The deleted video (titled “Shocking ‘Drag Tots’ Cartoon Sparks Outrage”) can be seen on BitChute.com 803 and Infowars.com. 804 YouTube also cited another video of Jones as being “Islamophobic” because he was ranting about the increased crime in Europe due to the influx of Muslim refugees in recent years. 805

He was given his second strike for that video, titled “Learn How Islam Has Already Conquered Europe,” 806 and soon a third (and final) strike for “circumvention” of YouTube’s “enforcement measures” because he had promoted another YouTube channel that had taken the feed of his show from his website and was streaming it on their channel since Jones was under a 90-day live-streaming suspension from the previous strikes. 807 The H3H3 Podcast channel then had their livestream taken down and were issued a community guidelines strike simply for talking about Alex Jones being banned. 808 They are a popular husband and wife duo with over a million subscribers (on their podcast channel) who were actually defending YouTube’s decision to ban Alex Jones, and were repeating some of the crazy things he has said over the years which may have been flagged by the AI voice recognition systems that monitor livestreams. H3H3 co-host Ethan Klein later said, “How can I even sit here now and call Alex Jones a conspiracy theorist when our channel just got [a strike] for even fucking talking about him? I was criticizing him!” 809 After BuzzFeed stumbled across a 14-year-old girl’s channel who does comedy sketches mocking social justice warriors and deriding political correctness, they did what they always do and wrote a hit piece urging people to pressure YouTube to ban her for “hate speech.” 810 The writer of the article (Joseph Bernstein) even labeled her an “extremist.” 811 Before the article came out, “Soph” as she goes by, had over 800,000 subscribers which terrified BuzzFeed that such a young, talented, and popular girl was pushing back against the liberal agenda, but shortly after it was published she got two strikes on her channel for previous videos which had been up for weeks with no problems. 812 The following week her entire channel was completely demonetized, dealing a crushing blow to her chances of turning YouTube into a career. 813

A month and a half later she received her third and final strike for “hate speech” after she posted a video critical of homosexuals, and her entire channel was completely deleted. 814 In June 2019 Project Veritas released a 25-minute report which included an undercover investigation into Google which showed that the head of the Innovation Department said they were doing everything they could to prevent another “Trump situation in 2020” and was bragging about how Google had come up with a new definition of “fairness.” The Project Veritas report also included an interview with a current YouTube employee which was done in a silhouette to protect his identity. He explained how YouTube was actually preventing certain conservative and libertarian channels from having their videos show up in the “Recommended” section, confirming what most of us had already basically known since it was obvious. He also provided Project Veritas with leaked documents detailing their algorithm manipulation. 815 Within hours YouTube deleted the video from Project Veritas’ account, claiming it violated the head of Innovation’s privacy even though it only showed her talking at a restaurant and mentioned who she was. Most privacy violations are for publishing someone’s home address or cell phone number. On CNN’s official YouTube channel they posted the video of their reporter stalking and harassing the old woman in her front yard because she shared someone on Facebook that originated with the Russians. During part of the altercation her full street address, which is posted on the front of her house, was completely visible. 816 How is that not a violation of her privacy and YouTube’s terms of service? In October 2019, the channel Red Ice TV was completely deleted, despite having no current strikes against it. No specific reason was given, just that it had supposedly violated YouTube’s policy prohibiting “hate

speech.” It had over 330,000 subscribers, and for over ten years was run by a husband and wife duo out of Sweden who focus on preserving European culture and exposing anti-white racism, so of course they’ve been smeared by the media as “white supremacists.” They were the most popular Identitarian channel on YouTube. 817 Leftist groups like Media Matters, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the ADL had been pressuring YouTube to ban the channel for years. 818

No Conservative is Safe Kara Swisher, the co-founder of Recode Media which hosted the historic joint interview with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, said she wanted to “kill” YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki after discovering that her 13-year-old son was watching Ben Shapiro’s videos, and claims he is the “gateway drug” to “neo-nazi stuff.” 819 She made the comments while interviewing Susan Wojcicki at the “Lesbians Who Tech” conference in March 2019 (Kara Swisher is a lesbian who must have adopted her poor kid or used a sperm bank). She added that her son is “lost” (meaning he’s not infected with the liberal pathogen) and insinuated that YouTube was responsible. Susan Wojcicki responded, “I have a son too and I get some of these discussions also at the dinner table. I think what you’re describing is — and the way we think about it too — look, there’s a set of content that has to meet the community guidelines. Ben Shapiro is going to meet the community guidelines. I don’t think you’re suggesting that we remove him from the platform. Are you?” Kara Swisher responded, “I would,” and continued, whining “You know, last time I saw you, I was like, ‘Get Alex Jones off that platform,’ and you’re like, ‘Well the community guidelines,’ and then [later] you got

him off.” 820 She then changed the subject and went on to ask Susan if there was enough “diversity” in the company, particularly in management. “Diversity” is a code word for “less straight white men,” because Big Tech is concerned that there are too many of those kinds of people working in Silicon Valley. Ben Shapiro is a huge nerd, he’s not a right-wing extremist or a hateful bigot, and is about as mainstream of a political commentator as you can get, yet Kara Swisher, who holds tremendous power in Silicon Valley and has direct access to all of the major CEOs, is demanding that he be banned from YouTube because she thinks he’s a right-wing extremist, proving that no conservative, no matter how moderate, is safe.

YouTube Gives Millions to Mainstream Media Demonetizing us, censoring our videos, down-ranking them in the search results, and hiding them from the “Recommended” section while boosting mainstream media channels still wasn’t silencing us enough, so YouTube decided to just give $25 million dollars to brand name news channels and provide them with special consulting to help them create more engaging videos and grow their audience on the platform. 821 “We will provide funding across approximately 20 global markets to support news organizations in building sustainable video operations,” they announced in July 2018. “Provided on an application basis to news organizations of all types, these grants will enable our partners to build key capabilities, train staff on video best practices, enhance production facilities and develop formats optimized for online video.” 822 So people like me were able to figure out how to produce quality and engaging videos and built an audience all on our own, but since ordinary YouTubers came to dominate mainstream media, YouTube decided to just

give them everything they need to emulate what we had come to learn through years of innovation and practice. The largest “YouTube news channel” is the Young Turks, which was started by progressive Democrat Cenk Uygur in 2005, and over the years has gotten help from some very wealthy benefactors. In 2014 they got $4 million dollars from an investment firm, 823 and then later got another $20 million in 2017 from former Walt Disney Studios chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg. 824 That’s not a typo—twenty million dollars! It’s interesting that their channel bears the same name as the insurgent group of Muslims who committed genocide against the Armenian people (who were Christians), killing 1.5 million of them between 1914 and 1923 in one of the first modern day genocides. 825 For years Cenk Uygur actually denied the Armenian Genocide until growing pressure caused him to change his position, saying he will refrain from commenting on it because he doesn’t know enough about it. 826 Making things even more bizarre is that the Young Turks cohost Anna Kasperian is Armenian, and works for a “news” organization which appears to be named after the very group which committed genocide against members of her own family. 827 She’s the daughter of Armenian immigrants and actually grew up speaking Armenian as her first language. 828 While YouTube has a policy against allowing “extremist groups” on the platform, they have no problem with a channel that some interpret as paying homage to a group that murdered more than a million Christians. 829 Instead, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki enjoys hanging out with them and tweeted a photo of herself sitting down talking with Cenk Uygur at YouTube’s headquarters, thanking him for his time. 830 Young Turks host Hasan Piker even declared that “America deserved 9/11” in response to Congressman Dan Crenshaw doing an interview with

Joe Rogan where he said that Osama Bin Laden attacked the U.S. because of our western values. 831 Piker also appeared to praise Al Qaeda for blinding Crenshaw (a retired Navy SEAL) who lost an eye while serving in Afghanistan in 2012. 832 He then mocked the disabled veteran for having one eye. Hasan Piker is allowed to host a show on the platform, but Alex Jones isn’t. Piker has his own personal YouTube channel as well, that hasn’t been demonetized. In 2016 YouTube launched their “Creators for Change” program where they began funding and coaching various YouTubers to make videos denouncing “hate speech,” “xenophobia,” and “extremism.” 833 These handpicked social justice warriors produce propaganda for the platform and some of them promote the latest degeneracy the Left is trying to convince people is normal. At the end of every year YouTube produces a mashup of what they consider to be the year’s top stars and it’s always a bunch of SJWs and LGBT activists. Their 2018 “Rewind” video, as it’s called, featured drag queens and highlighted Hollywood celebrities like Will Smith and John Oliver over ordinary YouTubers. It got so many thumbs down that overnight it became the most disliked video on YouTube ever . 834 Shortly after that, YouTube announced that they were trying to figure out how to prevent what they called “dislike mobs” from “weaponizing the dislike button” and considered removing it altogether. 835

The Adpocalypse Since I’m an old school YouTuber, I was posting videos for six years before my channel was monetized (at the end of 2012) opening the door for me to become a professional YouTuber. While it has always been difficult to make a living on YouTube because monetized videos only pay a small

fraction of a penny per view, a few years after I started doing it full time, it became almost impossible, especially for smaller channels that aren’t getting five to ten million views a month. In April 2017 after the Wall Street Journal published a report about finding advertisements for major brands appearing on “racist” and “offensive” videos, all hell broke loose. Tons of companies pulled their advertisements from the platform entirely, kicking off what us YouTubers call the “Adpocalypse” (advertising apocalypse). YouTube immediately rolled out some new tools they had been testing to comb through the titles, tags, and descriptions of videos and automatically demonetize (strip advertisements from) ones that were about (or even mentioned ) certain topics. Every video uploaded is now immediately scanned by YouTube’s voice recognition software which creates a transcript of everything that’s said in the video. That transcript is then scanned for keywords that may indicate a video is about a “sensitive” or “controversial” topic and then demonetizes it if certain words or phrases are found. As a result of the Adpocalypse, almost half of all of my videos were demonetized, and from that point on making a living on YouTube became uncertain. News channels like mine were hit the hardest, because news and politics are filled with “divisiveness” and controversial issues that YouTube wanted to shield advertisers from. For people who make cooking videos, or how-to videos about fixing cars, or doing home improvement projects, those kinds of videos aren’t about anything that’s particularly “nonadvertiser friendly” like ones that talk about illegal immigration, climate change, political cover-ups, or exposing fake news. Bloomberg News later reported, “In fact, 96.5% of all of those trying to become YouTubers won’t make enough money off of advertising to crack

the U.S. poverty line.” 836 Their report continued bearing bad news, pointing out that, “Breaking into the top 3% of most-viewed channels could bring in advertising revenue of about $16,800 a year…That’s a bit more than the U.S. federal poverty line of $12,140 for a single person. (The guideline for a two-person household is $16,460.) The top 3% of video creators of all time in [the research group’s] sample attracted more than 1.4 million views per month.” 837 But even for those who never expected to be full-time YouTubers, it was still nice to make a few dollars every month for the time and effort put into creating videos about things they’re passionate about. Despite the loss of income caused by the increased scrutiny, a lot of the more popular YouTuber news channels were still able to get by, or at least kept making videos because it’s about the message not the money, but we all have to pay the bills, so YouTube decided to make people’s lives even harder by demonetizing entire channels instead of just certain videos. In January 2019 Tommy Robinson’s entire channel was demonetized. 838 A few months later in May 2019 Count Dankula was fully demonetized. What’s particularly interesting is that he learned about it from an email from BuzzFeed asking for a statement about it. It appears they had lobbied YouTube to get him demonetized and then reached out to him for a comment immediately after their YouTube source confirmed they had done it. 839 BuzzFeed learned about it before him, which speaks volumes about what’s happening. Sargon of Akkad’s channel was also completely demonetized because of a rape joke he had made three years earlier on Twitter, and—what a “coincidence”—BuzzFeed was the first to break that story as well. 840

Another round of mass demonetization and channel bans occurred in June 2019 (dubbed the Vox Adpocalypse) occurred after a gay activist named Carlos Maza, who works at Vox, ranted nonstop on Twitter for an entire week about conservative comedian Steven Crowder making fun of him. Maza’s rant, which was conveniently timed to coincide with the kickoff of gay pride month for extra leverage, was a rallying call for liberals to pressure YouTube to completely ban Crowder (the most-subscribed conservative channel on YouTube) for “hate speech” because he called Maza a “lispy queer” since he talks with a lisp, and he’s a queer. What do you think the “Q” stands for in LGBTQ? They call themselves queers, but normal people can’t use the word now apparently because the Left is trying to claim that only gay people can say queer , similarly to the double standard most black people have about the n-word. While YouTube didn’t ban Steven Crowder from YouTube, or give him any community guideline strikes to take down any of his videos; they did demonetize his entire channel, not just the “offensive” videos in question, which were probably never even monetized to begin with, thus, preventing him from ever making another dollar from the pre-roll ads you often see before videos start playing. 841 It wasn’t just Steven Crowder’s channel though. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of others were hit at the same time, some of which were very popular with hundreds of thousands of subscribers. 842 YouTube said this was just the beginning of their latest crackdown, and vowed to purge more “hateful” right-wing channels. The very next week the New York Times ran a front page story titled “The Making of a YouTube Radical” which included a collage of various (mostly) conservative YouTubers who have sizable followings, and told the story about how a lonely loser named Caleb Cain “fell down the YouTube

rabbit hole” and it turned him into a “radical.” How radical? The Times explained that, “He began referring to himself as a ‘tradcon’ — a traditional conservative,” supported “old-fashioned gender norms,” started dating a Christian girl, and “fought with his liberal friends.” 843 “Fought” meaning discussed politics and disagreed with the nonsense they were indoctrinated to believe. The man admits he never thought about doing anything violent and wasn’t even a hateful person, but he was the new poster boy denouncing right-wing YouTubers and the “algorithm.” Other outlets immediately added more fuel to the fire and he was interviewed on CNN where he once again blamed “the algorithm” for “radicalizing” him. 844 He said the conservative YouTubers he used to watch warned of Cultural Marxists who “were trying to destroy Western civilization and install some sort of socialist regime.” 845 That’s exactly what they’re doing of course, but now if you just mention that, you’re considered a right-wing extremist and at risk of having your entire channel demonetized or even deleted. When the White House announced the Social Media Summit and invited dozens of the top conservative social media personalities to meet with President Trump to discuss the issues of censorship and liberal bias, the media freaked out saying that the attendees (which included me, as you probably know) were “trolls,” “conspiracy theorists,” and “extremists.” 846 President Trump addressed us by saying, “So this is a historic day. Never before have so many online journalists and influencers, and that is exactly what you are, you are journalists and you are influencers, come together in this building to discuss the future of social media…Each of you is fulfilling a vital role in our nation. You are challenging the media gatekeepers and the corporate censors to bring the facts straight to the

American people…Together you reach more people than any television broadcast network by far.” 847 I knew once word got out that I was invited to the White House I would have a huge target on my back and just a few days later over 200 of my YouTube videos were demonetized, with about 100 of them manually reviewed by the moderators and deemed “non-advertiser friendly” despite not just being fully monetized for days, months, (and some for years) but many of them had been manually reviewed previously and approved for monetization. YouTube moved the goal post again, and may be looking for a reason to demonetize my whole channel by deeming a “significant portion” of my content “non-advertiser friendly” like they had done to dozens of other channels a month earlier. Many of the videos were of me making fun of CNN hosts, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Beto O’Rourke, and other members of Congress. Apparently it’s okay for Stephen Colbert to do political comedy, but not a conservative YouTuber. In January 2017 YouTube introduced what they call Super Chats, which is a creative way for a viewer to get their question answered by their favorite YouTuber while they’re doing a livestream by tipping them a few bucks. Basically, viewers can choose a dollar amount anywhere from $5 to $500, and their question or comment will be highlighted in color and pinned up at the top of the chat box in order to catch the streamer’s attention since comments in the chat can scroll by the screen so fast they’re impossible to read. In May 2018 BuzzFeed targeted Super Chats, claiming they were fueling racism and began pushing for them to be disabled because someone spent $100 on a Super Chat to post a message that said “WHITE PRIDE WORLD WIDE!” during someone’s livestream. 848 A few months later the

Wall Street Journal (which is responsible for setting off the first Adpocalypse in April 2017) also started complaining about people making money from Super Chats in a report titled, “Hate Speech on Live ‘Super Chats’ Tests YouTube.” 849 Just a few days later, KillStream, which was a free speech variety show that included debates about various issues, was completely banned from YouTube since the Wall Street Journal pointed out some of the viewers had been posting racist messages in their Super Chats. 850 A channel has no control over what viewers put in the comments or Super Chats, but now the media was blaming YouTubers themselves for what their fans (or trolls) were saying. The Liberal Media Industrial Complex is targeting Super Chats because even fairly small channels can earn a significant amount of revenue from them, since fans tossing in $5 and $10 can add up pretty fast, whereas in order to earn the same amount of money from video views alone as they can make in a livestream could take hundreds of thousands or millions of views. Because of the growing demonetization issues those of us on the politics and news side of YouTube have had to move to a more fan-funded business model instead of relying on monetized views. I now rely heavily on fans buying my books, shirts, and supporting me through Patreon and PayPal. By removing the financial incentives for people to make quality videos it was just another way for YouTube to discourage us from spending our time and energy producing news commentary and covering current events and has killed the dreams of one day becoming a full-time YouTuber for many. BuzzFeed reported, “The result of the YouTube crackdown is that prominent right-wing YouTubers are scrambling to find alternatives, setting

up shop on YouTube wannabes, or even building their own video apps. It’s all in preparation for what they see as the inevitable day when YouTube gives them the boot or forbids them from making money on the platform by demonetizing all of their videos.” 851

MCNs Dropping Channels Many YouTubers join what are called Multi-Channel Networks, or MCNs, which are companies that take a percentage of their revenue in exchange for offering consultations on how to improve the performance of videos, grow their audience, and even give them access to “brand deals” or sponsorships like talk radio shows have when the hosts plug various products and services. So even if YouTube’s automated system demonetizes a lot of videos, MCNs can get the channel some sponsors who are okay with their product being promoted there, and that way the YouTuber can still earn a living. But since being a member of an MCN can be a way around demonetization, YouTube decided to order MCNs to drop certain channels, and they had to, because they’re under contract with YouTube, and if they didn’t then YouTube wouldn’t do business with the MCN at all. 852 So first it was just certain videos getting demonetized, then entire channels (including the loss of Super Chats), and then YouTube went even further forcing MCNs to drop certain people so they couldn’t acquire sponsorships for their videos. One person who got kicked out of his network got an email reading, “The team here at Fullscreen is reaching out to let you know that your agreement with Fullscreen, Inc. has been terminated. Due to the nature of your uploads and because your uploads may potentially infringe on the rights of others or potentially violates applicable laws or regulations,

including without limitation YouTube’s Terms of Service and/or YouTube’s Community Guidelines, we feel it is best that we part ways. Thank you for your understanding, and good luck with your YouTube channel.” 853 A friend of mine, Luke Rudkowski, who runs the “We Are Change” YouTube channel was kicked out of his MCN, and when applying to others he was told that he would have to delete several of his videos they deemed inappropriate before they would accept him. The videos in question had been automatically demonetized, but didn’t violate YouTube’s terms of service so they were not deleted. Various MCNs thought they were problematic, however, and could get them in trouble with YouTube for including Luke’s channel in their network because he had posted certain content about various wars, military actions, and social unrest in parts of the world. When a channel reaches 100,000 subscribers YouTube sends them a framed “Silver Play Button” plaque to celebrate their success, and if they reach a million subscribers, they get a gold plated one, but YouTube got upset that so many anti-social justice warrior, pro-free speech, conservative channels were reaching 100,000 subscribers, they started refusing to send out the plaques to certain channels once they reached the milestone because YouTube didn’t want to appear as if they were endorsing their views. 854

Patreon Patreon is a service that allows artists to fund their work by having fans sponsor them with varying amounts of monthly support. While the site was created in 2013, it really took off in April 2017 after the “Adpocalypse” when YouTube rolled out their new guidelines and screening mechanisms to demonetize videos they deem “non-advertiser friendly.”

Most YouTubers joined Patreon as a way to supplement the revenue they were losing from so many videos getting demonetized, and for most of them, especially small to moderate sized ones, Patreon is pretty much a standard part of being a YouTuber since earning money from ads has never been the same in the wake of the Adpocalypse. But since many of them came to rely so heavily on Patreon for their revenue, this became a danger for conservatives who are now at risk of having their Patreon accounts shut down at any time for being “intolerant” of the liberal agenda by not supporting gay “marriage,” or pointing out facts about illegal immigration and crime. The first person to be banned from Patreon that made headlines because it was seen as a political decision was Lauren Southern (banned in July 2017), a Canadian YouTuber who became known for her criticism of multiculturalism and the mass immigration of people from the Middle East into Europe. She once even documented her visit to a doctor where she said she wanted to identify as a man and was given a doctor’s note which she then took to Canada’s “DMV” and got a driver’s license legally declaring she was a “man” just to see how easy it was to get her gender legally changed. 855 Lauren Southern’s ban caused quite a stir online and Patreon’s CEO Jack Conte appeared on Dave Rubin’s “Rubin Report” YouTube channel to respond to the criticism. He said that Lauren wasn’t banned because of what she had been saying about the “Islamization” of Europe, but that she had “put lives at risk” during a stunt she recorded involving refugee boats illegally bringing people across the Mediterranean Sea into Europe. The CEO claimed they have a policy about what he called “manifest observable behavior,” and if a creator does certain things, like commits crimes, then they will be banned, but, “The decision to remove a creator

page has absolutely nothing to do with politics and ideology.” 856 He also claimed that Patreon’s policies about speech (not actions) only focused on what people said on their Patreon page , not on Twitter or anywhere else, and emphasized that Lauren Southern was banned for actions not words, but soon this would be proven to be another lie. 857 December 2018, Sargon of Akkod (who had over 800,000 subscribers at the time) was banned for using a “racial slur” that someone at Patreon discovered he said in an interview months earlier. The context in which it was said was actually while he was denouncing the alt-right, saying they were acting like a bunch of “white niggers,” (trying to use their own insults against them) and so his entire Patreon account was disabled, causing him to lose thousands of dollars a month in income with no recourse. 858 About a year after Lauren Southern was banned from Patreon, her friend and sometimes collaborator Brittany Pettibone was also banned for her support of Generation Identity, a right-wing identitarian movement in Europe working to preserve European culture from Islamization. 859 The two girls have been smeared as “white supremacists” by the liberal media because they celebrate Western European culture and oppose mass migration of Muslim refugees into Europe. Soph’s Patreon was shut down one day after YouTube deleted her channel for the same enigmatic excuse of “hate speech” against homosexuals. 860 Patreon now has a policy against even making “negative generalizations of people based on race [and] sexual orientation,” so if you point out well-documented facts about crime in black communities or the HIV rate among gay men, that would be a violation of their terms of service because it’s seen as casting them in a negative light. Imagine a bank not letting someone cash a check that was written to them because the bank didn’t like what the person was going to do with the

money, or didn’t like the kind of language the person uses when talking with their friends. That’s exactly what Patreon has done here, and it’s beyond Orwellian and is a dangerous precedent that’s likely only going to follow with much worse actions in the near future.  Meanwhile, far-left individuals and groups are allowed on Patreon, including “Revolutionary Left Radio,” a communist podcast which is run by an admitted “militant revolutionary Communist who wants to put every fascist in the world against the wall and violently expropriate the wealth and property of the owning class.” 861 Before a Breitbart article was published highlighting violent Leftists using Patreon, the group’s banner on their Twitter account featured masked militants holding guns. 862 Another Communist account called the “Guillotine Podcast” had over 350 patrons (sponsors) donating monthly. The Patreon page itself said they are working to “inspire insurrection” and notes that they want to fire “massive .44 rounds at the heads of politicians and capitalists.” 863 Milo Yiannopoulos was banned by Patreon one day after he joined in December 2018. They released a statement saying, “Milo Yiannopoulos was removed from Patreon as we don’t allow association with or supporting hate groups on Patreon.” 864 He joined Patreon just days after widely circulated reports said he was $2 million dollars in debt from legal fees, employee salaries he hadn’t been paying, and other expenses he racked up in his ascent to Internet infamy. So in a desperate attempt to try and raise money he joined Patreon, but was immediately denied access. In some cases it’s not necessarily Patreon that wants to ban someone, but Visa or MasterCard, who demands Patreon shut down people’s accounts, or threatens to stop processing payments for Patreon all together which would completely put them out of business overnight. 865

The Future of YouTube For the first ten years of YouTube’s existence it was an even playing field where anyone could upload videos and if people watched them and shared them, their message could be seen by millions of people. The search results were fair, and if you were looking something up the videos you would find were relevant to what you had hoped to find. The only videos that would be deleted were things any reasonable person could agree on, like pornography, animal abuse, calls to violence, etc. People found themselves having great careers when their passion unexpectedly opened the door to huge audiences who shared their views. But the corporate conglomerates didn’t realize how many people would use YouTube to counteract the mainstream media and nobody expected how popular conservative channels would become. So YouTube is scrambling to put the genie back in the bottle, and don’t really care how obvious their liberal bias is, or even how much money they lose doing it. Conservative content must be reigned in or stamped out at any cost. In the early years of YouTube only a few carefully chosen channels were monetized, but in 2012 they opened up the “Partner Program” as it’s called, to anyone, allowing them to monetize their videos no matter how many (or few) subscribers or total views they had. You could start a channel, and immediately begin earning ad revenue from your videos if people watched them, but that has all changed. Now they manually review every channel before it’s allowed in the Partner Program, so their moderators look through the videos and see what kind of content someone is producing, and if they don’t like it, none of the videos on the channel will ever be monetized no matter how popular they are.

Some wonder if YouTube is harming themselves financially with all these new restrictions and the mass demonetization crusade they’ve engaged in, but the fact is there are plenty of other “brand friendly” or proliberal agenda channels that they can get revenue from. After all, being a YouTuber is the number one dream job for most kids today. It’s not being an astronaut, football player, or a movie star; it’s literally being a YouTuber. 866

They’ve also been moving away from the monetized view business model entirely. In 2017 they began offering television packages similar to a cable provider but through an Internet connection, calling it YouTubeTV. It started off in just five U.S. markets, but then in January 2019 they massively expanded to 195 markets, making their service available to 98 percent of U.S. households. 867 They have also been slowly morphing into another Netflix by producing original content like the popular Cobra Kai series which is a spinoff from the 1980s Karate Kid movies and stars Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka). They rent a large library of popular movies and TV shows on-demand too, for just a few dollars per stream. As one online media outlet put it, “The golden age of YouTube is over,” and it will never be the same. 868 “The platform was built on the backs of independent creators, but now YouTube is abandoning them for more traditional content.” 869 Countless videos once regularly discovered by curious minds are now lost in limbo. Voices opposing certain aspects of the liberal agenda have been systematically silenced. And Leftist propaganda has been artificially amplified to give the impression that their view is the correct one.

For those of us who have seen the changes made in recent years, as we look back on what YouTube once was, it’s like returning to the location of your favorite dive bar to find that it’s been bulldozed and replaced by a strip mall filled with a bunch of trendy stores you would never step foot in. Author’s Note: Once you finish this book, please take a moment to rate and review it on Amazon.com, or wherever you purchased it from if you’re reading the e-book, to let others know what you think. This also helps to offset the trolls who keep giving my books fake one-star reviews when they haven’t even read them. Almost all of the one-star reviews on Amazon for my last two books “The True Story of Fake News” and “Liberalism: Find a Cure” are from NON-verified purchases which is a clear indication they are fraudulent hence me adding this note. It’s just more proof that liberals are losers and can’t play fair, so if you could help me combat them once you’re finished with this book since you actually bought and read it, I would appreciate it very much! Thank you!

The Future of Fake News Once “fake news” consisted primarily of made-up stories posted on cheap websites nobody had ever heard of, or websites with similar URLs to brand name outlets publishing completely fake articles hoping they’ll go viral through social media and generate a bunch of ad revenue from all the clicks. I’m sure you’re familiar with people making fake screenshots on Photoshop and posting them on social media claiming they came from news articles, text messages, DMs, or someone’s “deleted” tweet, but we’re far

beyond those primitive forms of fake news and are approaching something that was once only found in science fiction films. In Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1987 film The Running Man , he was an innocent police helicopter pilot who was framed for the massacre of civilians looting a grocery store after an economic collapse, and with the help of some doctored video that aired on national television, the general public thought that he had been caught red handed murdering the people, when in fact he had refused orders to open fire on them. His face was also digitally placed onto the body of someone else at another point in the film to further sell the lie to the public. While deceptively edited video has been a problem and can cast people in a false light and twist their statements or place them out of context, the video tricks we’re now facing are far more sophisticated. They can make almost anyone appear to do or say almost anything—just like what happened to Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Running Man. These fake videos are called “deepfakes” named after the deep learning of artificial intelligence algorithms that are used to create them. This same technology had been used dating back to the 1990s in order to make it appear that Forrest Gump shook hands with President John F. Kennedy, and made John Wayne look like he was handing off a six pack of Coors Light to someone in a commercial even though he had been dead for over ten years. 870

More recently it was used to digitally impose Paul Walker’s face onto another actor’s body to finish Fast and the Furious part 7 after he died in a car accident before the film was done being shot. 871 But unfortunately this technology isn’t just being used for entertainment anymore, and people are starting to realize that in the wrong hands it can pose a tremendous danger.

In April 2018 comedian Jordan Peele released a video showing Barack Obama appearing to warn that, “We’re entering an era in which our enemies can make it look like anyone is saying anything at any point at time — even if they would never say those things.” Obama went on to say, “So, for instance, they could have me say things like…President Trump is a total and complete dip shit.” 872 The video then cut to a split screen showing Obama on one side and Jordan Peele on the other, revealing that he was doing the voice for Obama since he does a pretty good impression, and he was also using real-time face mimicking software in order to match his lips and facial expressions onto a digitally recreated version of Obama. It was a clever PSA to bring this kind of technology to people’s attention, since at the time most people hadn’t heard of deepfakes. Two years earlier, in 2016, researchers at Stanford University posted a video demonstrating their “Face2Face Real-time Face Capture” technology, showing how by using their software and an ordinary webcam they could map a person’s facial expressions onto George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump. 873 This may have been the same software Jordan Peele used for his video. The following year a different group of researchers from the University of Washington created another fake Obama video showing him saying things that he has actually said in the past, but the video was completely synthetic and showed him in a different setting while making the statements. They released a paper explaining how they were able to do it. 874 Deepfakes like this could easily change someone’s reaction to seeing or hearing something, giving a false impression as to how they feel about a certain event or issue; but this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Technology to manipulate video in such ways was once extremely expensive and required teams of people to produce, but today deepfakes can be made by amateurs on their home computers. SnapChat filters and Facebook messenger filters can now overlay different cartoon faces and other effects on someone’s face in real time. In January of 2018 someone took a video of actress Amy Adams singing “I Will Survive” and swapped her face for that of Nicholas Cage’s. 875 Then in January 2019 someone made one by taking a segment of Jennifer Lawrence speaking with reporters backstage after the Golden Globe awards and put Steve Buscemi’s face in place of hers. The video was so bizarre and realistic looking that it became the most viral deepfake video since Jordan Peele’s Obama video, and introduced the term “deepfake” to a much wider audience. 876 A few days later Stephen Colbert had Steve Buscemi on as a guest and asked him if he’d seen the video. He joked that he had “never looked better,” but underneath the laughs appeared to be a concern about what this technology was now capable of. 877 In June 2019 a deepfake of Mark Zuckerberg was posted online showing him giving what looks to be an interview with CBS News, where he says, “Imagine this for a second: One man, with total control of billions of people’s stolen data, all their secrets, their lives, their futures. I owe it all to Spectre. Spectre showed me that whoever controls the data, controls the future.” 878 It was a publicity stunt for a futuristic art and technology exhibit in the UK, but also was meant to serve as a warning for what problems technology may cause in the near future. CBS tried to get the video removed from Facebook because the deepfake was made from an interview Zuckerberg gave to CBS News and “violated their trademark.” 879 Facebook wrestled with whether or not to remove the deepfake videos, but

chose not to take any action, but their existence sparked a difficult conversation, which is what the makers intended. The “Spectre” exhibit also commissioned the creation of a deepfake of Kim Kardashian which looked and sounded extremely realistic, unlike the Zuckerberg one which was an obvious fake. This one looked and sounded just like Kim Kardashian bragging about the power social media companies have over their users’ data, and concluded, “I feel really blessed because I genuinely love the process of manipulating people online for money.” 880 Needless to say, she was not happy about it, and tried to have the video removed by filing copyright complaints against social media accounts that posted it. 881 But these kind of satire videos are the least of celebrities’ concerns.

Deepfake Porn Just like many early Internet entrepreneurs were quick to use the emerging new technology to share porn— allowing people to access it from their home computer instead of having to go out and buy magazines or VHS tapes from some seedy adult video store—one of the early uses of deepfake technology was to make fake porn videos depicting famous celebrities like Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman ), Daisy Ridley (Star Wars ), and Scarlett Johansson (The Horse Whisperer ). Celebrity deepfake porn videos were soon banned by PornHub 882 and Reddit where users were posting clips they had made of their favorite actresses. 883 While most of the videos weren’t being passed off as actual sex tapes, their creation obviously caused concern for those actresses whose likeness is now appearing in realistic-looking porn videos. 884 Another concern is that since the software to create such fakes is widely available online, people could make fake sex tapes of someone in

attempts to extort money from them, threatening to post the fakes online if they don’t pay up. Or scorned ex-lovers or those rejected by women could create deepfakes and post them online in order to “get back” at them. 885

Information Warfare When the Bush administration was planning for the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the CIA reportedly came up with the idea to create a fake video appearing to be Saddam Hussein having sex with a teenage boy. “It would look like it was taken by a hidden camera. Very grainy, like it was a secret videotaping of a sex session,” a CIA official later admitted to the Washington Post . 886 The CIA also reportedly discussed making a fake video appearing as if Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants were sitting around a campfire drinking alcohol and talking about their “conquests with boys” as well, but another former CIA official with knowledge of the plan said, “Saddam playing with boys would have no resonance in the Middle East — nobody cares. Trying to mount such a campaign would show a total misunderstanding of the target. We always mistake our own taboos as universal when, in fact, they are just our taboos.” 887 He was referring to the practice of “bacha bazi” which is an Afghani term meaning “boy play” that refers to sexual relationships between older men and young boys who are from very poor families or orphans and used as sex slaves by wealthy and powerful Afghanis. 888 U.S. soldiers were reportedly told to ignore such abuse because it is part of the culture in regions of the Middle East. 889 This abomination is a whole other issue, but the point is the CIA actually proposed making a deepfake of Saddam Hussein as a pedophile thinking it would incite people to rise up and

overthrow him, because if such a video were real, people in a civilized culture would do just that.

Fake Photos Nvidia, a video graphics card company, has created an AI so powerful that it can automatically change the weather in video footage, making a clip of a car driving down a road on a sunny day appear as if it was actually shot in the middle of winter with a few inches of snow on the ground and the leaves missing from the trees. 890 The same technology can take photos of cats or dogs and change them to make them look like a different breed, and can change people’s facial expressions from happy to sad, or anything in between. 891 Nvidia’s AI can even generate realistic pictures of people who don’t actually exist by taking features from actual photos and combining elements of them together into a composite that is almost impossible to tell that it’s fake. 892 The website ThisPersonDoesNotExist.com uses this technology to display a different fake photo every time you visit it, most of them looking like HD photos of ordinary people. AI can now create 3D models of people just from a few photographs, and while it may be fun to input a character in your favorite video game that looks just like you, the capacity for nefarious abuses of this technology are vast.

Fake Audio In November 2016, Adobe (the creator of Photoshop) demonstrated what they called Adobe Voco, or Photoshop-for-voices, which can generate realistic sounding audio, making it sound like someone is saying something

that they never actually said. The software works by inputing samples of someone’s voice, and then can create fake audio files in that same voice saying whatever is typed onto the screen. 893 Dr. Eddy Borges Rey, a professor at the University of Stirling, said, “It seems that Adobe’s programmers were swept along with the excitement of creating something as innovative as a voice manipulator, and ignored the ethical dilemmas brought up by its potential misuse.” 894 He continues, “Inadvertently, in its quest to create software to manipulate digital media, Adobe has [already] drastically changed the way we engage with evidential material such as photographs. This makes it hard for lawyers, journalists, and other professionals who use digital media as evidence.” 895 Google has created similar software called WaveNet that generates realistic sounding human speech by modeling samples of people actually talking. 896 In May 2019 a group of Machine Learning Engineers released an audio clip they created using their RealTalk technology which sounded like podcaster Joe Rogan talking about investing in a new hockey team made up of chimpanzees. 897 It wasn’t perfect, but if you didn’t know that it was fake before you heard it, you may be fooled into thinking that it’s real. The researchers admitted, “the societal implications for technologies like speech synthesis are massive. And the implications will affect everyone.” 898 “Right now, technical expertise, ingenuity, computing power and data are required to make models like RealTalk perform well. So not just anyone can go out and do it. But in the next few years (or even sooner), we’ll see the technology advance to the point where only a few seconds of audio are needed to create a life-like replica of anyone’s voice on the planet. It’s pretty f*cking scary,” the creators wrote on their blog. 899

They went on to list some of the possible abuses this technology may be used for, “if the technology got into the wrong hands.” These include, “Spam callers impersonating your mother or spouse to obtain personal information. Impersonating someone for the purposes of bullying or harassment. Gaining entrance to high security clearance areas by impersonating a government official,” and “An ‘audio deepfake’ of a politician being used to manipulate election results or cause a social uprising.” 900 They raise some great points. What’s to stop people from creating deepfakes of politicians, CEOs of major corporations, or popular YouTubers, and making them appear as if they’re saying racist, hateful, or violent things, and claiming they got it from a coworker or a “friend” who secretly recorded it, or that the clip was from an old YouTube video once uploaded to someone’s channel that they later deleted?

National Security Concerns In July 2017 researchers at Harvard, who were backed by the U.S. Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), published a report titled Artificial Intelligence and National Security where they detailed the growing risk of deepfake forgeries, saying, “The existence of widespread AI forgery capabilities will erode social trust, as previously reliable evidence becomes highly uncertain,” and details some of the horrific possibilities that are right around the corner. 901 The report then quotes part of an article one of the researchers wrote for Wired magazine about these dangers, saying, “Today, when people see a video of a politician taking a bribe, a soldier perpetrating a war crime, or a celebrity starring in a sex tape, viewers can safely assume that the depicted events have actually occurred, provided, of course, that the video is of a

certain quality and not obviously edited. But that world of truth—where seeing is believing—is about to be upended by artificial intelligence technologies.” 902 The article continues, “When tools for producing fake video perform at higher quality than today’s CGI and are simultaneously available to untrained amateurs, these forgeries might comprise a large part of the information ecosystem.” 903 The Artificial Intelligence and National Security report goes on to warn that, “A future where fakes are cheap, widely available, and indistinguishable from reality would reshape the relationship of individuals to truth and evidence. This will have profound implications for domains across journalism, government communications, testimony in criminal justice, and of course national security…In the future, people will be constantly confronted with realistic-looking fakes.” 904 It concludes that, “We will struggle to know what to trust. Using cryptography and secure communication channels, it may still be possible to, in some circumstances, prove the authenticity of evidence. But, the ‘seeing is believing’ aspect of evidence that dominates today—one where the human eye or ear is almost always good enough—will be compromised.” 905 Elon Musk is funding a non-profit organization called OpenAI which is trying to ensure that the creation of artificial intelligence will be “safe,” but they created an AI tool so powerful they won’t release it to the public out of concern that it could create such realistic forgeries and fake news articles that they would be difficult to distinguish from real ones. “Due to our concerns about malicious applications of the technology, we are not releasing the trained model,” the organization wrote on their blog. 906

Others are equally concerned. Sean Gourley, who is the founder and CEO of a company called Primer, which data mines social media posts for U.S. intelligence agencies to track issues of concern and possible threats, warns, “The automation of the generation of fake news is going to make it very effective.” 907 Nothing may be safe from the weaponization of artificial intelligence. A group of researchers at the University of Chicago developed an AI system in 2017 that could write fake Yelp reviews and even though sites like Yelp and Amazon have machine learning algorithms designed to detect fake reviews written by trolls or bots, when they unleashed their Yelp review writer on the site their safeguards had a hard time detecting the fake reviews. 908 Ben Zhoa, one of researchers who worked on the project, said, “We have validated the danger of someone using AI to create fake accounts that are good enough to fool current countermeasures,” and warned, “more powerful hardware and larger data for training means that future AI models will be able to capture all these properties and be truly indistinguishable from human-authored content.” 909 This makes the forged documents purported to be George W. Bush’s service record in the National Guard or the infamous “Steele Trump-Russia Dossier” created by Fusion GPS seem like child’s play. The New York Observer reported that there are already multiple fake “Trump sex tapes” circulating among those working in intelligence agencies and suggested that they were created in order to “muddy the waters” in the event that a “real” Trump sex tape surfaces, which some believe was made by the Kremlin when Trump visited Russia in 2013 for the Miss Universe Pageant, for what the KGB calls “kompromat” or compromising material. 910

Trump has insisted that even before his trip to Russia he was well aware of hidden cameras in hotel rooms there and the government’s attempt to gain blackmail material on high profile individuals like himself, and made sure not to get ensnared in their trap. 911 His bodyguard testified that prior to the trip he and Trump had discussed that the Russians used such tactics and knew not to take the bait. 912 So it’s highly unlikely that a real Trump sex tape exists, but it is likely that Deep State operatives within our own CIA may have manufactured such fakes for the same reason they floated the idea of doing such a thing to Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden — to discredit Trump and use it as propaganda to fan the flames of an insurgency hoping to bring him down. As Winston Churchill said, “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.” 913 Nobody is safe from being smeared by deepfakes, whether they’re an ordinary person who has been targeted by a jealous ex-lover, a disgruntled coworker or classmate, or whether they are the President of the United States whose political opponents or a foreign adversary want to bring down. The other side of the coin is that if and when actual damning footage is shot of someone doing or saying something illegal or morally reprehensible, they could easily just claim the footage is fake. Perhaps half of the people would believe them, having reasonable doubt since the technology exists to actually fake it and people may have a motive to do it. We’re clearly not in Kansas anymore and only time will tell just how pervasive and damaging deepfakes will become.

Conclusion

We’re in the middle of a war — an information war. It’s being waged by tyrannical billion dollar tech companies against those of us who use their products and services in ways they hadn’t intended or imagined. They sold us tools thinking they were toys, but we saw the potential this new technology had to enable us to defend the Republic and spread our message across the country with a few clicks of a keyboard or taps on a touchscreen. In the marketplace of ideas, we were winning; so our opponents started cheating, and despite the metaphors this is not a game, this is our life. They don’t want to just silence us online, they want to repeal the First Amendment and arrest us for “hate speech” for disagreeing with them as they aim to overthrow the United States government and replace it with a Communist technocratic super-state that’s a crossbreed between the regimes in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World . Syndicated columnist Joseph Sobran Jr. once stated, “Liberalism is really piecemeal socialism, and socialism always attacks three basic social institutions: religion, the family, and private property. Religion, because it offers a rival authority to the state; the family, because it means a rival loyalty to the state; and property, because it means material independence of the state.” 914 They want to turn Boy Scouts into child drag queens, and are encouraging people to buy sex bots instead of engagement rings. They want people to denounce God and view Christians as the enemy, while the hordes of lazy and entitled degenerates live off the labor of those who get up and go to work every morning. Most people are too distracted to see what’s actually happening and are slowly becoming part of the problem. They know more about the history of their favorite football team than they do of their own country. They’re more familiar with the names and

statistics of the players than they are of the people who are in charge of running the government. Sports entertainment and the latest talent shows on TV are mostly modern day bread and circus events that distract attention and divert energy from things that really matter. Our culture, our economy, and our country is at stake. If America falls, it will never be restored. It will be relegated to the history books like the Roman Empire and other great civilizations that have collapsed. To prevent our planned destruction it’s going to take hard work, vigorous study, and unwavering dedication. You don’t get physically fit by going to the gym once a year. Or once a month, or even once a week! You have to go on a regular basis, and keep going! Isn’t the health of our society just as important as our own physical health? Pay close attention to what you do with your time, your talent, and your money. Get involved in your local community. Get on the school board, or city council, or at least show up once in a while to give them a piece of your mind. Maintain regular face-to-face interactions with your friends and family so you don’t get trapped in the downward spiral of living your life through a screen. Do a regular digital detox on the weekends and holidays, and give yourself time for introspection by stepping away from the endless news cycle and social media feeds to get a bigger perspective of what’s going on and what’s important. Maybe we have been asleep at the wheel. Maybe we took the freedoms and prosperity of living in America for granted while the enemy quietly schemed behind our backs. Well not any more! It’s time to wake up. It’s time to get focused on the long-term goals of what we need to do in order to preserve the freedom of speech, family values, Christian traditions, and our economic security. I hope this book has helped you become more media literate so you can see how the mechanisms

of information distribution function in our modern age and what their effects are. If you found this book valuable in your journey please rate it and write a brief review on Amazon or whatever ebook store you downloaded it from, if that’s where you bought it, and tell your friends and family to checkout this book since I don’t have a major publisher backing me (I self-published this) or their marketing team to promote it. I only have my social media accounts, and you. But that’s all I need. And that’s is exactly why they are so scared of us! Also by Mark Dice: -The True Story of Fake News -Liberalism: Find a Cure -The Illuminati in Hollywood -Inside the Illuminati -The Illuminati: Facts & Fiction -The New World Order: Facts & Fiction -The Resistance Manifesto -Big Brother: The Orwellian Nightmare -The Bilderberg Group: Facts & Fiction -Bohemian Grove: Facts & Fiction Connect with Mark on: Facebook.com/MarkDice Twitter.com/MarkDice Instagram.com/MarkDice YouTube.com/MarkDice MarkDice.com

Copyright Info

The Liberal Media Industrial Complex © 2019 by Mark Dice All Rights Reserved Published by The Resistance Manifesto San Diego, CA No part of the text within this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form and by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the written permission of the author. Visit www.MarkDice.com Cover Design by Jason Bermas E-book ISBN: 978-1-943591-08-4 Cover images licensed from iStockPhoto Logos for Google, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, CNN, NBC, and the Washington Post are registered trademarks of their respective companies and are used in accordance with fair use statutes and case law. 1 Washington Post “‘Hands up, don’t shoot’ was built on a lie” by Jonathan Capehart (March 16th 2015)

2 NBC News “Obama Promotes #ItsOnUs Campaign At 2015 Grammy Awards (February 8th 2015)

3 Righteous Indignation: Excuse Me While I Save the World! by Andrew Breitbart page 97

4 Righteous Indignation: Excuse Me While I Save the World! by Andrew Breitbart page 132

5 Washington

Post “Conspiracy theories about Soros aren’t just false. They’re anti-Semitic” by Talia Lavin (October 24th 2018)

6 CNBC “Read all about it: The biggest fake news stories of 2016” by Hannah Ritchie (December 30th 2016)

7 The Washington Post “Real research suggests we should stop freaking out over fake news” by Christopher Ingraham (January 24th 2017)

8 Wired “YouTube Debuts Plan to Promote and Fund ‘Authoritative’ News” by Issie Lapowsky (July 9th 2018)

9 David Axelrod interview in CNN’s The 2000s

10 TechCrunch “Pew: Social media for the first time tops newspapers as a news source for US adults” (December 11th 2018)

11 http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/08/26/social-media-and-the-spiral-ofsilence/

12 Huffington Post “Think Canada Allows Freedom of Speech? Think Again” by Tom Kott (December 19, 2012)

13 BBC “Facebook, Google and Twitter agree German hate speech deal” (December 15th 2015)

14 Associated Press “In UK, Twitter, Facebook rants land some in jail” by Jill Lawless (November 12, 2012)



15 Breitbart

“UK Police Arrest Man For ‘Offensive’ Facebook Post About Migrants” by Liam Deacon (February 16th 2016)

16 Daily Caller “Mother Arrested, Spends Seven Hours In Jail For Calling Transgender A Man” by David Krayden (February 10th 2019)

17 Wired “Tyranny in the Infrastructure” by Larry Lessig (June 7th 1997 edition page 96)

18 Cyber Ethics: Morality and Law in Cyberspace Second Edition by Richard A. Spinello page 5

19 New York Times “How conservatives have weaponized the first Amendment” by Adam Liptak (June 30th 2018)

20 Washington Free Beacon “Lieu: ‘I Would Love to Be Able to Regulate the Content of Speech’ but First Amendment Stops Me” by David Rutz (December 12th 2018)

21 Reuters “U.S. Congress spars over social media filtering; companies skip hearing” by David Shepardson (April 26th 2018)

22 Jamie Raskin’s opening statement at House Judiciary Committee hearing on Social Media Filtering the (July 17th 2018)

23 CNN “Trump props up false claim that big tech is out to silence conservatives” by Oliver Darcy (August 24th 2018)



24 Ibid.

25 Recode

“Twitter is so liberal that its conservative employees ‘don’t feel safe to express their opinions,’ says CEO Jack Dorsey” (September 14th 2018)

26 The Hill “Conservatives face a tough fight as Big Tech's censorship expands” by Donald Trump Jr. (March 17th 2019)

27 The Hill “White House launches tool for reporting social media ‘bias’" by Emily Birnbaum (May 15th 2019)

28 https://whitehouse.typeform.com/to/Jti9QH

29 The Independent “Spotify removes white supremacist bands from streaming service” by Roisin O’Connor (August 17th 2017)

30 Reason.com “Spotify Partners with the Southern Poverty Law Center to Purge ‘Hate Content’ from Its Music” by Christian Britschgi (May 14th 2018)

31 Breitbart “Spotify Announces Partnership with Far-Left Groups Including SPLC to Police Platform” by Charlie Nash (May 22nd 2018)

32 Rolling Stone “Watch Snoop Dogg Aim Gun at Clown-Trump in ‘Lavender’ Video” by Ryan Reed (March 13th 2017)

33 Time

“How Many of Jay-Z’s Songs Contain the Word ‘Bitch’?” by Claire Suddath (January 18th 2012)

34 Rolling Stone “Spotify Admits Its R. Kelly Ban Was ‘Rolled Out Wrong’” by Amy X. Wong (May 31st 2018)

35 The Guardian “Guns N' Roses remove song with homophobic and racist language from reissued album” by Ben Beaumont-Thomas (May 8th 2018)

36 Breitbart “Netflix Declines Streaming Hit Documentary ‘The Red Pill’” by Lucas Nolan (May 8th 2017)

37 Evening Standard “Feminist filmmaker Cassie Jaye: women’s rights have gone too far are now silencing men” by Chloe Chaplain (December 1st 2016)

38 Ibid.

39 The Sydney Morning Herald “Melbourne’s Palace Cinemas cancel screenings of MRA documentary ‘The Red Pill’ after petition” by Jenny Noyes (October 25th 2016)

40 CNN “Anti-vaccination conspiracy theories thrive on Amazon” by Jon Sarlin (February 27th 2019)

41 Variety “Amazon Pulls Anti-Vaccination Documentaries From Prime Video After Congressman’s Inquiry to Jeff Bezos” by Todd Spangler (March 1st 2019)



42 Sky

News “De Niro offers $100k reward to media for ‘truth’ about controversial children's vaccine” by Duarte Garrido (February 17th 2017)

43 Rolling Stone “Deadly Immunity” by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (July 14th 2005)

44 CNN “Anti-vaccine movies disappear from Amazon after CNN Business report” by Jon Sarlin (March 1st 2019)

45 The New Yorker “The Operator: Is the most trusted doctor in America doing more harm than good?” by Michael Specter (January 27th 2013)

46 NBC News “Netflix pulls episode of ‘Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj’ after Saudi complaint” by Saphora Smith (January 2nd 2019)

47 Vanity Fair “The Dukes of Hazzard Pulled Off TV Following Confederate-Flag Controversy” by Julie Miller (July 1st 2015)

48 The New York Times “The Obamas and Netflix Just Revealed the Shows and Films They’re Working On” by John Koblin (April 30th 2019)

49 Rolling Stone “Barack, Michelle Obama Unveil Initial Slate of Netflix Projects” by Althea Legaspi (April 30th 2019)

50 Politico “The Obamas’ First Big Anti-Trump Statement of 2020” by Ted Johnson (August 20th 2019)

51 Fox

News “Obamas’ debut Netflix documentary slammed as ‘lefty propaganda,’ an attack on Trump” by Brian Flood (August 20th 2019)

52 The Hollywood Reporter “Hulu Cancels ‘I Love You, America With Sarah Silverman’” by Lacey Rose (January 9th 2019)

53 Bloomberg “Netflix Threatens to Leave Georgia If Abortion Law Stands” by Nick Turner (May 28th 2019)

54 TheAtlantic “Amazon Has Basically No Competition Among Online Booksellers” by Polly Mosendez (May 30th 2014)

55 ShefflornBallantyne.com (the author’s website) So far no major media outlets have reported on Amazon banning the book.

56 Family Rhetoric by Amer Leventry on Facebook (July 10th, 2018)

57 RooshV.com “Amazon Has Banned 9 Of My Books Without Explanation (UPDATE)” by Roosh (September 10th 2018)

58 Ibid.

59 PJ Media “Juanita Broaddrick’s Book about Alleged Clinton Rape Disappears from Amazon” by Jeff Reynolds (June 12th 2018)

60 FreeBeacon “Amazon Bans Gun Book” by Stephen Gutowski (August 23rd 2018)

61 The

Guardian “I wrote the Anarchist Cookbook in 1969. Now I see its premise as flawed” by William Powell (December 19th 2013)

62 As of November 2019 when this book was first published.

63 NBC News “After latest shooting, murder manual author calls for book to be taken ‘immediately’ out of print” by Tony Dokoupil (December 17th 2013)

64 Wired “THE ANARCHIST COOKBOOKTURNS 40” by Matthew Honan (January 31st 2011)

65 Newsweek “Sorry About All The Bombs” by Tony Dokoupil (February 20th 2011)

66 American Renaissance Press Release “Amazon Now Banning Books Based on Political Content” (February 27th 2019)

67 The Sun “Amazon stops selling Tommy Robinson’s book on Islam the day after he was booted off Facebook and Instagram – but he can still broadcast on YouTube” by Annabel Murphy (February 27th 2019)

68 Independent “Amazon bans book co-written by Tommy Robinson from their website” (March 7th 2019)

69 The Script “Amazon Removes David Duke's Books After Inquiry By The Script [UPDATED with Amazon response]” (March 18th 2019)

70 https://twitter.com/JerylBier/status/1107675822377316352

71 Nation

of Islam Research Group “Amazon Bans the Secret Relationship Between Blacks & Jews” (March 16th 2019)

72 TexeMarrs.com “Amazon Bans Texe Marr’s Book for ‘Content.’”

73 As of November 2019 when this book was first published.

74 CNN “Anti-vaccine movies disappear from Amazon after CNN Business report” by Jon Sarlin (March 1st 2019)

75 NBC News “Amazon removes books promoting autism cures and vaccine misinformation” by Brandy Zadrozny (March 12th 2019)

76 NBC News “Amazon removes controversial books by ‘father of conversion therapy’’’ by Gwen Aviles (July 3rd 2019)

77 Basic Freud: Psychoanalytic Thought for the 21st Century by Michael Kahn, Ph.D pages 78-79

78 USA Today “Amazon, eBay join other retailers to pull Confederate flag” by Gregg Zoroya and Hadley Malcolm (June 23rd 2015)

79 Fortune “Walmart and Amazon Pull ‘Tranny Granny’ Halloween Costume From Their Sites” by Michelle Toh (October 7th 2016)

80 CNN:

Complaints prompt Amazon to remove products that are offensive to Muslims” by Alaa Essar (January 8th 2019)

81 Newsbusters “Amazon Removes ‘Islamophobic’ Products But Sells ‘F**k Me Jesus’” by Corinne Weaver (January 8th 2019)

82 https://www.amazon.com/Fuck-White-PeopleExplicit/dp/B07HXDG3JL/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1543984803&sr=82&keywords=fuck+white+people

83 Newsweek “Streamer HelenaLive Speaks Out After Being Banned From Twitch For Saying ‘There Are Only Two Genders’” by Steven Asarch (February 12th 2019)

84 News.com.au “Gamer reportedly banned from Twitch for claiming there are only two genders” by Nick Whigham (February 7th 2019)

85 Business Insider “deadmau5 accuses Twitch of censorship after being suspended for using homophobic language during a live stream” by Kevin Webb (February 13th 2019)

86 Newsweek “DeadMau5 Apologizes For Homophobic Slur After Twitch Ban” by Steven Asarch (February 14th 2019)

87 The Verge “League of Legends streamer banned from Twitch for slur says he was misheard” by Julia Lee (April 24th 2019)

88 Dexerto.com

“Twitch streamer banned for 30 days for using word he didn't know was offensive” by David Purcell (March 19th 2019)

89 Newsbusters “Still on YouTube: Lefty Who Calls for Violence, Purge of Conservatives” by Alexander Hall (May 31st 2019)

90 Bloomberg “PayPal Is Latest Tech Company to Ban Alex Jones and InfoWars” by Julie Verhag (September 21st 2018)

91 https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1026580187784404994

92 https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/1023207746454384642

93 The Hill “Bill Maher criticizes social media bans: ‘Alex Jones gets to speak’” by Jacqueline Thomsen (August 18th 2018)

94 The Hill “ACLU: Alex Jones ban could set dangerous social media precedent” by Megan Keller (August 21st 2018)

95 Reuters “Exclusive: Trump says it is ‘dangerous’ for Twitter, Facebook to ban accounts” by Steve Holland and Jeff Mason (August 20th 2018)

96 http://archive.fo/xb693

97 Washington Times “Apple CEO Tim Cook: Hateful views have ‘no place on our platforms’” by Jessica Chasmar (December 4th 2018)

98 Ibid.



99 https://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/890824543522226178

100 George

Orwell in Nineteen Eighty-Four

101 BigLeaguePolitics

“Chase Bank Shuts Down Proud Boys Leader’s Personal Bank Account” by Waldo Crane (February 8th 2019)

102 Breitbart “Financial blacklisting: Chase bank withdraws service from independent and conservative figures” by Allum Bokhari (February 27th 2019)

103 One America News “Chase Bank suspends account of pro-Trump Iraq vet” (February 20th 2019)

104 Breitbart “PayPal Blacklists Free Speech YouTube Alternative ‘BitChute’” by Charlie Nash (November 14th 2018)

105 Breitbart “Google Lawsuit: Senior Engineer Alon Altman Wanted to Sabotage Trump’s Android Phone, Ban His Gmail Account” by Allum Bokhari (April 19th 2018)

106 Major Internet Service Providers in Australia and New Zealand completely blocked the video sharing site BitChute in March 2019 for supposedly not promptly removing re-uploads of the Christchurch mosque shooting which was originally livestreamed on Facebook.

107 Green v. AOL and Blumenthal v. Drudge and Zeran v. AOL



108 Delfino

v. Agilent Technologies Inc.

109 CDA

Section 230(c)(2)(A) Protection for Screening.

110 New

York Times “White House Unblocks Twitter Users Who Sued Trump, but Appeals Ruling” by Charlie Savage (June 5th 2018)

111 BrainyQuote.com “George Washington Quotes”

112 Newsweek “Israel Flagged as Top Spy Threat to U.S. in New Snowden/NSA Document” by Jeff Stein (August 4th 2014)

113 BBC “Christian persecution ‘at near genocide levels’” (May 3rd 2019)

114 Reuters “Backstory: How Reuters uncovered Beto O'Rourke's teenage hacking days” by Jame Lee (March 15th 2019)

115 New York Times “Citing Ben Affleck’s ‘Improper Influence,’ PBS Suspends ‘Finding Your Roots’” by John Koblin (June 24th 2015)

116 CBS 5 KPIX “WikiLeaked Sony Emails Reveal Ben Affleck Told Producers Not To Reveal His Slave-Owning Ancestor On PBS ‘Roots’ Show” (April 19th 2015)

117 http://archive.is/phtxU

118 ProjectCensored.org

“What Some People Been Saying About Project Censored Over The Past Decades”

119 Ibid.

120 Ibid.

121 The Washington Post “At the Times, a Scoop Deferred” by Paul Farhi (December 17th 2005)

122 The Daily Signal “The New York Times Leaves Ted Cruz’s Book Off Bestseller List” by Kate Scanlon (July 13th 2015)

123 BuzzFeed “HarperCollins Refutes New York Times Claim That Ted Cruz Tried To Game Bestseller List” by McKay Coppins (July 10th 2015)

124 https://twitter.com/TeamTedCruz/status/619585464144519168

125 Mediaite “New York Times Finally Adds Ted Cruz Book to Bestsellers List” by Alex Griswold (July 16th 2015)

126 Fox News “The O’Reilly Factor” (June 8th 2016)

127 Washington Times “Kermit Gosnell’s abortion trial draws little media coverage, much outrage on Twitter” by Douglas Ernst (April 12th 2013)

128 Washington Examiner “NYT snubs top-selling book on abortionist Gosnell” by Paul Bedard (February 2nd 2017)



129 Washington

Examiner “NYT bestseller list ignores ‘Jesus’ for porn star Stormy Daniels” by Paul Bedard (October 12th 2018)

130 Huffington

Post “Critics Threaten Boycotts Of Simon & Schuster Over Milo Yiannopoulos Book Deal” by Claire Fallon (December 30th 2016)

131 https://twitter.com/JuddApatow/status/814658578174935040

132 https://twitter.com/GovHowardDean/status/814969506615455749

133 CNBC “Report: More than half of immigrants on welfare” by Alan Gomez (September 2015)

134 Center for Immigration Studies “63% of Non-Citizen Households Access Welfare Programs” by Steven A. Camarota and Karen Zeigler (December 2nd 2018)

135 Breitbart “Six Diseases Return To US as Migration Advocates Celebrate ‘World Refugee Day’” by Michael Patrick Leahy (June 19th 2016)

136 Breitbart “Fact Check: Yes, Thousands of Americans Have Been Killed by Illegal Aliens” by John Binder (January 8th 2019)

137 Washington Times “Illegals commit crimes at double the rate of nativeborn: Study” by Stephen Dinan (January 26th 2018)

138 Washington

Times “CNN, MSNBC cut away from Trump event with ‘Angel Families’ by S.A. Miller and Stephen Dinan (June 22nd 2018)

139 The Wall Street Journal “Record Immigration Surge at the Border” by Alicia A. Caldwell and Louise Radnofsky (March 5th 2019)

140 Ibid.

141 Town Hall “Ha: Illegal Immigrants Jump Border Fence During MSNBC Report on Trump's Wall” by Leh Barkoukis (October 24th 2017)

142 Politifact “In Context: Donald Trump's comments about immigrants, ‘animals’” by Miriam Valverde (May 17th 2018)

143 Newsweek “MS-13: How an FBI Informant Risked Death to Bring America’s Most Brutal Gang to Justice” by Michele McPhee (June 14th 2018)

144 Fox News “What is MS-13, the violent gang Trump vowed to target?” by Kaitlyn Schallhorn (May 23rd 2018)

145 Washington Post “Trump says Democrats used to be for new border barriers. He’s right” by JM Rieger (January 19th 2019)

146 Medical News Today “Mental health risk higher for transgender youth” by Honor Whiteman (April 16th 2018)

147 Christian

Post “Transgender Woman Convicted of Raping 10-Y-O Girl in Bathroom, Faces Up to 70 Years in Prison” by Leonardo Blair (October 20th 2017)

148 The Sun “Transgender woman, 18, sexually assaulted girl, 10, in female toilets in Morrisons” by Gemma Mullin (March 15th 2019)

149 The Telegraph “Transgender person accused of rape is remanded into female prison and sexually assaults inmates within days” by Martin Evans, Kate McCann, and Olivia Rugard (September 6th 2018)

150 Snopes “Did a Male Rapist Who Identifies as Female Transfer to a Women’s Jail and Assault Female Inmates?”

151 CBS New York “Police Arrest Transgender Woman In Bronx Pepper Spray Attack, Links To More Hate Crimes Being Investigated” (March 9th 2019)

152 BBC “Sydney axe attacks: Woman jailed for wounding 7-Eleven customers” (January 18th 2019)

153 NBC Washington “Man Dressed as Woman Arrested for Spying Into Mall Bathroom Stall, Police Say” (November 17th 2015)

154 Toronto Sun “Predator who claimed to be transgender declared dangerous offender” by Sam Pazzano (February 26th 2014)

155 Washington

Times “Victims of sex assaults in military are mostly men” by Rowan Scarborough (May 20th 2013)

156 U.S. Department of Justice “Homicide Trends in the United States, 1980-2008” by Alexia Cooper and Erica L. Smith (November 2011)

157 USA Today “Chicago police solved fewer than one in six homicides in the first half of 2018” by Aamer Madhani (September 21st 2018)

158 Chicago Tribune “Memorial Day weekend closes with 69 shot in Chicago, many of them on West Side” by Peter Nickeas, Grace Wong, Alexandra Chachkevitch and Joe Mahr (May 31st 2016)

159 Chicago Tribune “52 shot in Chicago over Memorial Day weekend, nearly half on final day” by Peter Nicheas and Elvia Malagon (May 30th 2017)

160 USA Today “36 people shot in Chicago over Memorial Day weekend, marking a reduction in gun violence” by Aamer Madhani (May 29th 2018)

161 Town Hall “Exposing The Black Lives Matter Movement For What It Is: Promotion of Cop Killing” by Katie Pavlich (September 2nd 205)

162 Politico “The Untold Story Behind New York’s Most Brutal Cop Killings” by Bryan Burrough (April 21st 2015)

163 Real Clear Politics “Last Week: NYC Protesters Chant ‘What Do We Want? Dead Cops! When Do We Want It? Now!’” by Tim Hains

(December 22nd 2014)

164 St. Louis Post-Dispatch “Two admit plot to blow up police station, St. Louis County prosecutor and Ferguson police chief” by Robert Patrick (June 2nd 2015)

165 NBC News “Dallas Police ‘Ambush’:12 Officers Shot, 5 Killed During Protest” by F. Brinley Bruton, Alexander Smith, Elizabeth Chuck and Phil Helsel (July 7th 2016)

166 KPIX CBS SF Bay Area “BART Withholding Surveillance Videos Of Crime To Avoid ‘Stereotypes’” by Melissa Caen (June 9th 2017)

167 Ibid.

168 Associated Press “State: Man in church shooting aimed to kill 10 white people” by Jonathan Mattise (May 20th 2019)

169 Newsweek “Organization Candace Owens Represents Shares, Then Deletes, Photo Promoting White Genocide Conspiracy Days After Her Testimony” by Daniel Moritz-Rabson (Aril 12th 2019)

170 Newsweek “A White Farmer is Killed Every Five Days in South Africa and Authorities Do Nothing About it, Activists Say” by Brendan Cole (March 19th 2018)

171 USA Today “NYPD arrest Muslim woman who claimed attack by Trump supporters” by Melanie Eversley (December 14th 2016)



172 Dallas

News “UT-Arlington student admits making up claim that gunman followed her to campus, threatened her” by Matt Peterson (February 13th 2015)

173 ABC News “Lesbian Couple Charged With Staging Hate Crime” by Alyssa Newcomb via Good Morning America (May 19th 2012)

174 Detroit News “Jackson gay rights leader accused of burning down own home” by Francis X. Donnely (February 25th 2019)

175 National Review “George Washington University’s Swastika Problem” by Kevin D. Williamson (April 26th 2015)

176 Daily Caller “Jewish Student Admits Swastika Hoax in Jewish Frat Dorm at George Washington U” by Eric Owens (March 19th 2015)

177 Seattle PD Crime Blotter “Burglary, Bias Crime Investigation at Africatown Center, Arrest Made” by Detective Mark Jamieson (March 26th 2016)

178 CBS Denver “Black Suspect Arrested After Racist Message Discovered Outside Predominately Black Church” (June 30th 2015)

179 The Wichita Eagle “Kansas man said he defaced his own car with racist slurs” by Kaitlyn Alanis (November 6th 2017)

180 The

Witchita Eagle “For second time in two years, racist slur at Kansas State was a hoax, police say” by Jason Tidd (November 8th 2018)

181 Variety “Jussie Smollett Indicted on 16 Counts in Attack Hoax Case” by Gene Maddaus (March 8th 2019)

182 Newsweek “S.C. Mayor Says ‘Yellow Sticky Substance’ on Her Car Was Sprayed by Vandals, Police Say It’s Just Pollen” by M.L. Nestel (March 1st 2019)

183 National Review “Frat Retreat Ends Early after Students ‘Frightened’ by a Banana Peel” by Katherine Timpf “August 31st 2017)

184 Hate Crime Hoax: How the Left is Selling a Fake Race War by Wilfred Reilly (2019)

185 Reuters “Two years in, Trump holds stock market bragging rights” by Noel Randewich (November 5th 2018)

186 NBC News “Dow notches record high, closing above 27,000 for first time” by Lucy Bayly (July 11th 2019)

187 CNBC “Black unemployment rate falls to 5.9%, ties record low hit earlier this year” by Kate Rooney (December 7th 2018)

188 Bloomberg “Black and Hispanic Unemployment in America Reach Record Lows” by Randy Woods (May 4th 2018)

189 Fox

Business “US veteran unemployment rate hits all-time low in 2018” by Brittany De Lea (January 14th 2019)

190 NPR “U.S. Unemployment Rate Drops To 3.7 Percent, Lowest In Nearly 50 Years” by Avie Schneider (October 5th 2018)

191 New York Post “Average US salaries on the rise thanks to booming economy” by John Aidan Byrne (May 18th 2019)

192 USA Today “Trump signs VA law to provide veterans more private health care choices” by Donovan Slack (June 6th 2018)

193 Washington Post “Under Trump, gains against ISIS have ‘dramatically accelerated’” by Karen DeYoung (August 4th 2017)

194 NPR “U.S.-Backed Forces Declare Defeat Of ISIS ‘Caliphate’” by Ruth Sherlock (March 23rd 2019)

195 Newsbusters “ABC Yawns as ISIS Stripped of All Territory, CBS Declares ‘ISIS Is Done’” by Nicholas Fondacaro (March 20th 2019)

196 Ibid.

197 Washington Examiner “Flashback: Trump and Oprah discuss presidential run in 1988 interview” by Melissa Quinn (January 8th 2018)

198 Newsweek: World Wide Web Inventor on 30th Anniversary: People Horrified by Trump Election Realize Web Is Not ‘Serving Humanity’” by

Jason Murdock (March 12th 2019)

199 Quoted in Media/Impact: An Introduction to Mass Media (12th Edition) by Shirley Biagi page 312

200 Washington Free Beacon “David Brock’s Shareblue to Be ‘Nucleus’ of Multi-Platform Anti-Trump Media Entity” by Joe Schoffstall (January 24th 2017)

201 PJ Media “Trump May Lose Star on Walk of Fame, But Kevin Spacey Won’t” by Tom Knighton (August 8th 2018)

202 The Wrap “Why Trump Won’t Lose His Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Anytime Soon” by Itay Hod (August 8th 2018)

203 Washington Times “As first 100 days in office approaches, media coverage of Trump is 89% negative: Study” by Jennifer Harper (April 19th 2017)

204 NPR “Study: News Coverage Of Trump More Negative Than For Other Presidents” by Danielle Kurtzleben (October 2nd 2017)

205 NewsBusters “Honeymoon from Hell: The Liberal Media vs. President Trump” by Rich Notes and Mike Ciandella (April 19th 2017)

206 Newsbusters.org “2017: The Year the News Media Went to War Against a President” by Rich Noyes and Mike Ciandella (January 16th 2018)

207 Politico

“Poll: 46 percent think media make up stories about Trump” by Steven Shepard (October 18th 2017)

208 Media/Impact: An Introduction to Mass Media (12th Edition) by Shirley Biagi page 312

209 CNN “A Trump win would sink stocks. What about Clinton?” by Heather Long (October 24th 2016)

210 Politico “Economists: A Trump win would tank the markets” by Ben White (October 21st 2016)

211 CNBC “This is what could happen to the stock market if Donald Trump wins” by Patti Domm (November 2nd 2016)

212 New York Times “Paul Krugman: The Economic Fallout” by Paul Krugman (November 11th 2016)

213 CNBC “S&P 500 and Nasdaq close at record highs after strong GDP report” by Fred Imbert (April 26th 2019)

214 Washington Post “Black unemployment falls to lowest level on record” by Heather Long (January 5th 2018)

215 Money.com “Check Your Paycheck: You Probably Just Got a Surprise Pay Bump” by Katie Reilly (February 2nd 2018)

216 NBC

News “Under new Trump tax code, average refund is 8.4 percent smaller” by Alyssa Newcomb (February 11th 2019)

217 NJTV News “Here’s why your tax refund may be disappointing this year” by Raven Santana (February 18th 2019)

218 CNN’s Brian Stelter (January 22nd 2017)

219 Washington Post “‘This is CNN Tonight. I’m Don Lemon. The president of the United States is racist.’” by Samantha Schmidt (January 12th 2018)

220 RealClear Politics “CNN’s Don Lemon Says Trump Could Become Like Hitler: ‘It Starts With Little Lies’” by Tim Hains (June 19th 2019)

221 Mediaite “CNN Analyst: Trump CPAC Speech Looked Scripted by Putin, ‘Reclaiming Our Heritage’ Talk Sounded Like Hitler” by Josh Feldman (March 2nd 2019)

222 Real Clear Politics “GQ's Julia Ioffe: ‘This President Has Radicalized So Many More People Than ISIS Ever Did’” by Ian Schwartz (October 29th 2018)

223 NY Daily News “Trump, Not ISIS is America’s Greatest Existential Threat” by Gersh Kuntzman (February 17th 2017)

224 Real Clear Politics “Olbermann: Osama Bin Laden Did Less Damage To America Than Donald Trump” by Ian Schwartz (November 4th 2017)

225 Free

Beacon “MSNBC Panel Says Trump Is a ‘Dictator’ Who’s Owned by Putin: ‘We Need a Revolution’” by Paul Crookston (February 2nd 2018)

226 Fox News “Chris Matthews Compares Ivanka, Jared Kushner to Saddam Hussein's Sons” (March 28th 2017)

227 Real Clear Politics “Chris Matthews: Trump's Inauguration Speech Had ‘Hitlerian’ Tone To It” by Ian Schwartz (January 20th 2017)

228 Washington Free Beacon “MSNBC Panelist: Kavanaugh Appointment Supports GOP’s Goal of ‘Thousand-Year Reich’” by Paul Crookston (October 8th 2018)

229 Breitbart “Twitter Explodes with Donald Trump Assassination Fantasies” by Patrick Howley (November 10th 2016)

230 Real Clear Politics “Anti-Trump Secret Service Agent Leaving With Pay, Pension” by Susan Crabtree (March 1st 2019)

231 The Washington Examiner “New York Times publishes fictional story on Trump assassination” by Caitlin Yilek (October 25th 2018)

232 NBC News “Johnny Depp: ‘When Was the Last Time an Actor Assassinated a President?’” (June 23rd 2017)

233 World Net Daily “Jim Carrey defends Griffin: I dreamed of beating Trump with golf club” by Chelsea Schilling (June 1st 2017)

234 Breitbart

“Mickey Rourke: Donald Trump ‘Can S*ck My F**king D*ck,’ Threatens to Beat GOP Candidate With Baseball Bat” by Daniel Nussbaum (April 7th 2016)

235 Associated Press “De Niro: I’d Like to Punch Trump In the Face” (October 8th 2016)

236 Rolling Stone “Hear Big Sean Threaten Donald Trump in New Freestyle” by Daniel Kreps (February 3rd 2017)

237 Rolling Stone “Watch Snoop Dogg Aim Gun at Clown-Trump in ‘Lavender’ Video” by Ryan Reed (March 13th 2017)

238 Independent “Marilyn Manson ‘beheads Donald Trump’ in new music video” by Jack Shepherd (November 8th 2016)

239 Multiple people recorded video of the incident and posted it on YouTube the next day, although it went unnoticed by major media outlets unlike most of the other incidents of celebrities making similar threatening statements.

240 USA Today “Kathy Griffin says she doesn’t regret Trump photo despite backlash, death threats” by Sara M. Moniuszko (March 24th 2019)

241 Newsbusters “MSNBC’s O’Donnell Claims Trump Will Get Impeached for ‘Ignorance’” by Kristine Marsh (May 17th 2017)

242 RealClear Politics “Rachel Maddow: “Worst-Case Scenario That The President Is A Foreign Agent Suddenly Feels Very Palpable” by Tim Hains

(July 22nd 2018)

243 Washington Times “Dershowitz: ‘Hope over reality’ delusion fuels obstruction of justice claims against Trump” by Douglas Ernst (December 4th 2017)

244 https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/965212168449941505

245 The Washington Times “Donald Trump holds high the flag for gay equality” by Richard Grenell (November 2nd 2016)

246 ABC News “Donald Trump OK With Caitlyn Jenner Using Any Bathroom in His Tower” by Candace Smith and Jessica Hopper (April 21st 2016)

247 Out Magazine “Trump’s Plan to Decriminalize Homosexuality Is an Old Racist Tactic” by Matthew Rodriguez (February 19th 2019)

248 NBC News “Trump’s North Korea policy could trigger famine, experts warn” by Alexander Smith December 9th 2017)

249 Herald Sun “Leftists: Rather War with North Korea Than Peace with Trump” by Andrew Bolt (June 17th 2018)

250 Mediaite “‘I’m Not Rooting for the 6-Year-Old’: Michael Moore Not Sure He Wants Trump to Succeed on North Korea” by Justin Baragona (April 28th 2017)

251 ABC

News “North Korea’s Kim Jong Un crosses DMZ line for historic meeting with South Korea” by Joohe Cho, Hakyung Kate Lee, and Tara Fowler (April 26th 2018)

252 Newsweek “Therapists Coin New Term: Trump Anxiety Disorder” by Emily Zogbi (July 28th 2018)

253 CBC “In a divided U.S., therapists treating anxiety are hearing the same name over and over: Donald Trump” by Matt Kwong (July 28th 2018)

254 Real Clear Politics “New York Times’ Yamiche Alcindor: ‘Sources' ‘Still In Therapy’ Because Clinton Lost” September 14th 2017)

255 Newsweek “Thousands of Americans Will Scream Helplessly at the Sky on Trump’s Election Anniversary” by Chris Riotta (October 23rd 2017)

256 Fox News “Anti-Trump protesters ‘scream helplessly at the sky’ to demonstrate on election anniversary” by Caleb Parke (November 9th 2017)

257 The Daily Caller “Rosie: Trump’s Presidential Victory Made Me ‘Physically Sick,’ Took a Year to Recover” by Benny Johnson (October 19th 2018)

258 CNS News “Trump Win Sent Chelsea Handler to a Psychiatrist: ‘I Just Wanted to F***king Fight People’” (April 8th 2019)

259 The Independent “Chrissy Teigen says Donald Trump’s election victory has damaged her mental health” by Maya Oppenheim (May 4th 2017)



260 Newsbusters

“MSNBC Analyst: Trump’s ‘Profound Sexual and Masculine Insecurities’ Threaten to Kill Us All” by Tim Graham (January 3rd 2018)

261 BBC “Hawking says Trump’s climate stance could damage Earth” by Pallab Ghosh (July 2nd 2017)

262 Variety “Twitter Permanently Bans Anti-Trump Krassenstein Brothers, Who Deny They Broke Platform’s Rules” by Todd Spangler (May 24th 2019)

263 The Guardian “Your worst nightmare: a successful Donald Trump presidency” by David Smith (July 3rd 2017)

264 Vox “Far-right protester interrupts Dorsey hearing. Auctioneer-turnedcongressman drones her out.” by Emily Stewart (September 5th 2018)

265 The Jerusalem Post “Ilhan Omar Defends Calling Stephen Miller a White Nationalist” by Ron Kampeas (April 11th 2019)

266 The Hill “Shapiro rips Economist after it labels him alt-right” by Joe Concha (March 28th 2019)

267 Council on Foreign Relations event “The Rise of Global Anti-Semitism (February 26th 2019)

268 Forbes

“Alex Jones: The Preposterous Poster Boy For Bitcoin” by Billy Bambrough (February 28th 2019)

269 Newsweek “Steven Crowder Incites Homophobic Harassment of Voc Reporter, YouTube Slow to React” by Steven Asarch (May 31st 2019)

270 The Guardian “Former Ku Klux Klan leader and US alt-right hail election result” by Esther Addley (November 9th 2016)

271 Psychology Today “An Analysis of Trump Supporters Has Identified 5 Key Traits” by Bobby Azarian Ph.D (December 31st 2017)

272 Newsbusters “Rob Reiner and Wife Liken ‘Evil’ Trump to Hitler, Supporters Are ‘Hardcore Racists’” by Brad Wilmouth (June 24th 2018)

273 International Journal Review “MSNBC Guest Claims That ‘Everything’ Trump Says Is Racist, Says POTUS ‘Is a White Nationalist’” by Madison Dibble (April 28th 2019)

274 CNN “Why Trump's MAGA hats have become a potent symbol of racism” by Issac Bailey (January 21st 2019)

275 Fox News “Trump supporter, 76, blames ‘fake news’ CNN for threats following reporter ambush” by Brian Flood (February 23rd 2018)

276 Washington Post “A Reporter’s dispatch from Trump country featured a ‘Mexicans Keep Out’ sign. But he made it all up” by Antonia Noori Farzan (December 21st 2018)



277 The

Daily Beast “Tom Brady’s New England Patriots Are Team MAGA, Whether They Like It or Not” by Corbin Smith (February 1st 2019)

278 Ibid.

279 Ibid.

280 Real Clear Politics “CNN Reporter Confronts Trump Supporter: Your Pro-Trump Group Was Infiltrated By Russians” by Ian Schwartz (February 21st 2018)

281 Fox News “Trump supporter, 76, blames ‘fake news’ CNN for threats following reporter ambush” by Brian Flood (February 23rd 2018)

282 Fox News “‘Hell No!’ Cashier refuses to serve Trump backers” by Todd Starnes (June 17th 2016)

283 The Hill “Judge rules bar was allowed to kick out Trump supporter” by Luis Sanchez (April 25th 2018)

284 Washington Times “Bakers refused to make pro-Trump birthday cake for 9-year-old boy: Report” by Bradford Richardson (August 7th 2017)

285 Washington Post “Chasing White House officials out of restaurants is the right thing to do” by Tom Scocca (June 26th 2018)

286 Time

“‘They're Not Welcome Anymore, Anywhere.’ Maxine Waters Tells Supporters to Confront Trump Officials” by Jennifer Calfas (June 25th 2018)

287 Daily Wire “WATCH: Activist Confronts Waters Publicly. Here’s How Waters Responded.” by Hank Berrien (June 26th 2018)

288 RedState “Toxic Masculinity: ‘Journalist’ Writes Boston Globe Column Urging Waiters to Pee, Bleed On Kirstjen Nielsen’s Food” by Sister Toldjah (April 10th 2019)

289 Boston Globe “Keep Kirstjen Nielsen unemployed and eating Grubhub over her kitchen sink” by Luke O’Neil” (April 10th 2019)

290 The Washington Times “A column suggested waiters could ‘tamper’ with Trump officials’ food. Amid backlash, the Boston Globe pulled it” by Allyson Chiu (April 12th 2019)

291 NBC News “Protesters Assault Trump Supporters With Eggs, Bottles, Punches After Rally” by Jacob Rascon and Ali Vitali (June 3rd 2016)

292 https://twitter.com/marclamonthill/status/1014904101988167685

293 https://twitter.com/gaywonk/status/1130862813713502210

294 Breitbart “Rap Sheet: ***639*** Acts of Media-Approved Violence and Harassment Against Trump Supporters” by John Nolte (July 5th 2018)

295 Washington

Times “MSNBC host, Princeton professor discuss MAGA hats as an ‘invitation’ to confrontation” by Douglas Ernst (January 23rd 2019)

296 HuffPost “How Far-Right Extremists Abroad Have Adopted Trump’s Symbols As Their Own” by Nick Robins-Early (April 6th 2019)

297 Washington Free Beacon “CNN Commentator Angela Rye Compares MAGA Hat to KKK Hood: I’m ‘So Triggered’ by the ‘Hatred’ It Represents” by Nic Rowan (January 22nd 2019)

298 NBC New York “Teen Arrested for Attack on 81-Year-Old Man Wearing MAGA Hat: Prosecutors” (February 27th 2019)

299 WTSP “Man accused of pulling gun on couple wearing MAGA hats at Sam's Club” by 10News Staff (February 18th 2019)

300 CBS Boston “Woman Charged With Attacking Falmouth Man Wearing MAGA Hat Taken Into ICE Custody” (February 26th 2019)

301 New York Post “Men accused of beating, robbing African immigrant because of MAGA hat” by Max Jaeger (April 17th 2019)

302 Washington Times “North Korean defectors wearing MAGA hats harassed in D.C.” by Jessica Chasmar (May 6th 2019)

303 ABC7 News “VIDEO: Trump supporter pepper sprayed at Milo protest” by Wayne Freedman (February 1st 2017)



304 Mediaite

“Black Trump Supporter Punched While Fleeing Arizona Melee” by Aidan McLaughlin (August 23rd 2017)

305 USA Today “Cheesecake Factory apologizes to black man reportedly harassed for wearing Trump cap” by Eli Blumenthal (May 15th 2018)

306 USA Today “Hillary Clinton: You ‘cannot be civil’ with Republicans, Democrats need to be ‘tougher’” by William Cummings (October 9th 2018)

307 Washington Post “Eric Holder: ‘When they go low, we kick them. That’s what this new Democratic Party is about.’” by Aaron Blake (October 10th 2018)

308 The Hill “Activists converge on home of Fox’s Tucker Carlson: ‘You are not safe’” by Joe Concha (November 8th 2018)

309 Townhall “Chilling Details: Tucker Carlson's Terrified Wife Hid in the Pantry As Antifa Thugs Damaged Her Home” by Guy Benson (November 8th 2018)

310 Huffington Post “Sorry Liberals, A Violent Response To Trump Is As Logical As Any” by Jesse Benn (June 6th 2016)

311 Ibid.

312 RedState “Is CBS Inciting Violence In The Latest Episode Of ‘The Good Fight’” by Jennifer Van Laar (April 13th 2019)



313 Salon.com

“White men must be stopped: The very future of mankind depends on it” by Frank Joyce (December 22nd 2015)

314 Salon.com “10 ways white people are more racist than they realize” by Kali Holloway (March 5th 2015)

315 Salon “White guys are killing us: Toxic, cowardly masculinity, our unhealable national illness” by Chauncey Devega (December 17th 2015)

316 BuzzFeed “19 School Powerpoint Presentations That Give Zero Fucks” by Hattie Soykan and Rachael Krishna (December 5th 2016)

317 Vice “Want to Heal Yourself from ‘Toxic Whiteness’? This Class Can Help” by Shahirah Majumdar (October 15th 2016)

318 The Root “Polite White People Are Useless” by Damon Young (August 29th 2017)

319 The Independent “MTV’s White People documentary succeeds in making viewers ‘uncomfortable’” by Emily Shackleton (July 23rd 2015)

320 Ebony “Jamie Foxx Defends ‘I Kill All the White People’ Joke” by The Grio (December 14th 2012)

321 New York Post “Jay Z’s bling from ‘whites are devils’ group” by Gary Buiso (April 6th 2014)

322 The

Daily Caller “Seven Louis Farrakhan Quotes on Jews, Gays, and White People” by Peter Hasson (January 26th 2018)

323 The Washington Post “CNN’s Don Lemon doubles down after saying white men are ‘the biggest terror threat in this country’” by LIndsey Bever (November 1st 2018)

324 CNN “The internet is radicalizing white men. Big tech could be doing more” by Alex Koppelman (March 17th 2019)

325 https://twitter.com/oliverdarcy/status/1102248695989325825

326 Rolling Stone “Kanye West Distances Himself From Alt-Right Provocateur” by Brendan Klinkenberg (October 30th 2018)

327 Breitbart “Utah Valley University Students Protest Candace Owens with ‘End White Supremacy’ Sign” by Alana Mastrangelo (March 7th 2019)

328 Front Page Magazine “Antifa, The Real Fascists” by Matthew Vadum (August 10th 2018)

329 Newsbusters “Dyson Slams Kanye West Speech as 'White Supremacy by Ventriloquism’” by Brad Wilmouth (October 11th 2018)

330 Ibid.

331 Washington Times “Slippery Slope with a Disastrous Ending, as Witnessed in the Dramatic Fall of the Roman Empire” by Jessica Chasmar

(February 8th 2015)

332 Los Angeles Times “Bette Midler slammed as racist for tweet about black Trump supporters” by Christie D’Zurilla (July 25th 2019)

333 RealClearPolitics “Could Trump Win 20 Percent of the AfricanAmerican Vote in 2020?” by Victor Davis Hanson (October 18th 2018)

334 Questioning the Media -Mediating Communication - What Happens? by Joshua Meyrowitz page 43

335 Questioning the Media -Mediating Communication - What Happens? by Joshua Meyrowitz page 44

336 The Independent “A Brief Cultural History of Sex” (September 23rd 2008)

337 NBC News “Meet the 10-year-old ‘drag kid’ taking over social media with inspiring message” by June 18th 2018)

338 Newsbusters “Morning Child Abuse. ‘Today’ Features 10-Year-Old Drag Queen” by Rachel Peterson (June 18th 2018)

339 The Daily Wire “11-Year-Old Boy Dressed In Drag Dances At Gay Bar, Gets Dollar Bills Thrown At Him” by Amanda Prestigiacomo (December 17th 2018)

340 Good

Morning America’s YouTube channel “The 11-year-old trailblazing drag kid ‘Desmond is Amazing’” (November 2nd 2018)

341 Newsbusters “GMA: ‘Genderless Babies’ Is ‘Healthy,’ Part of ‘Great Conversation’” by Gabriel Hays (January 24th 2019)

342 Ibid.

343 Ibid.

344 https://www.instagram.com/p/BtL8p9FAtZF/

345 NBC News “‘Boy or girl?’ Parents raising ‘theybies’ let kids decide” by Julie Compton (July 19th 2018)

346 Ibid.

347 CNN “Rethinking Monogamy Today” by Ian Kerner (April 12th 2017)

348 Ibid.

349 Ibid.

350 The Epoch Times “The Failed Soviet Experiment With ‘Free Love’” by Petr Svab (October 5th 2018)

351 CNN “Cuckolding can be positive for some couples, study says” by Ian Kerner (January 25th 2018)



352 Ibid.

353 NBC

News “Despite social media, Generation Z, Millennials report feeling lonely” by Sharon Jayson and Kaiser Health News (March 8th 2019)

354 The Independent “Millennial Dating Trends 2019: All You Need to Know, From Ghosting to Bird Boxing” by Oliva Petter and Sarah Young (February 7th 2019)

355 SFGate “It’s not just you: New data shows more than half of young people in America don’t have a romantic partner” via The Washington Post by Lisa Bronos and Emily Guskin (March 21st 2019)

356 NPR “U.S. Births Fell To A 32-Year Low In 2018; CDC Says Birthrate Is In Record Slump” by Bill Chappell (May 15th 2019)

357 Wall Street Journal “For Teens, Romances Where the Couple Never Meets Are Now Normal” by Christopher Mims (May 18th 2019)

358 New York Daily News “More than 20% of millennials claim to have no friends, poll finds” by Tim Balk (August 3rd 2019)

359 The Telegraph “Sex robots on way for elderly and lonely...but pleasurebots have a dark side, warn experts” by Sarah Knapton (July 5th 2017)

360 Forbes

“Goodbye Loneliness, Hello Sexbots! How Can Robots Transform Human Sex?” by Reenita Das (July 17th 2017)

361 Daily Mail “March of the sexbots: They talk, they make jokes, have ‘customisable’ breasts - the sex robot is no longer a weird fantasy but a troubling reality” by Caroline Graham (October 29th 2017)

362 Daily Caller “‘Disrespectful’: Google Employees Melt Down Over the Word ‘Family’” by Peter Hasson (January 16th 2019)

363 Ibid.

364 Ibid.

365 Ibid

366 Ibid

367 Ibid

368 Ibid

369 Jezebel “The Increase in Single Moms Is Actually a Good Thing” by Hugo Schwyzer (February 22nd 2012)

370 CNBC “You can save half a million dollars if you don’t have kids” by Yoni Blumberg (August 17th 2017)

371 Netflix

“The Break with Michelle Wolf” (June 2018)

372 Newsbusters

“Hulu Character Feels ‘Really, Really Good,’ ‘Very F**king Powerful’ After Abortion” by Rebecca Downs (March 18th 2019)

373 KTSA “Video: “Kids Meet Someone Who’s Had An Abortion” by Jack Riccardi (January 4th 2019)

374 Real Clear Politics “Alabama State Dem Rep. Defends Abortion: ‘You Kill Them Now Or You Kill Them Later’” by Ian Schwartz (May 2nd 2019)

375 CNN “Alabama lawmaker sparks backlash for ‘kill them now or kill them later’ comments over state abortion bill” by Veronica Stracqualursi (May 2nd 2019)

376 The Guardian “Want to fight climate change? Have fewer children” by Damian Carrington (July 12th 2017)

377 Ibid.

378 New York Times “No Children Because of Climate Change? Some People Are Considering It” by Maggie Astor (February 5th 2018)

379 Ibid.

380 Ibid.

381 Fox

5 DC “Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: ‘Is it OK to still have children?’” by Fox News (February 26th 2019)

382 CNN “Obama congratulates Michael Sam, first openly gay player drafted by NFL” by Chelsea J. Carter and Ralph Ellis (May 11th 2014)

383 CNN “White House shines rainbow colors to hail same-sex marriage ruling” by Allie Malloy and Karl de Vries (June 30th 2015)

384 CNN “Benham brothers lose HGTV show after ‘anti-gay’ remarks” by Lisa Respers (May 9th 2014)

385 Hollywood Reporter “Benham Brothers, Dumped by HGTV Over AntiGay Remarks, Could Land at ‘Traditional Values’ Network INSP TV” by Paul Bond (May 12th 2014)

386 The New Yorker “Why Kevin Hart Had to Go as Oscars Host” by Michael Schulman (December 7th 2018)

387 Washington Examiner “Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich forced to resign for supporting traditional marriage laws” by Joel Gehrke (April 3rd 2017)

388 Christian Post “Gay Man Files $70M Suit Against Bible Publishers Over ‘Homosexual' Verses” by Elena Garcia (July 10th 2008)

389 US News and World Report “These States Require Schools to Teach LGBT History” by Casey Leins (August 14th 2019)

390 Telegraph

“Boys can have periods too, children to be taught in latest victory for transgender campaigners” by Helena Horton (December 16th 2018)

391 Breitbart “Watch: Drag Queen Admits He’s ‘Grooming Next Generation’ in ‘Story Hours’” by Dr. Susan Berry (November 29th 2018)

392 “Grooming” definition in Cambridge Online Dictionary.

393 Houston Chronicle “Houston Library apologizes after registered sex offender participated in Drag Queen Storytime” by Jasper Scherer (March 16th 2019)

394 Newsweek “Sex Offender Busted as Drag Queen Who Read Books To Children in City Library” by Scott McDonald (March 16th 2019)

395 LifeSiteNews “Drag queen teaches kids to ‘twerk’ at library story hour” by Calvin Freburger (August 7th 2019)

396 Mic “How Victoria’s Secret normalized discrimination” by Evan Ross Katz (November 12th 2018)

397 https://twitter.com/VictoriasSecret/status/1061106626583822338

398 Los Angeles Times “Valentina Sampaio makes history as first transgender Victoria’s Secret model” by Christi Carras (August 5th 2019)

399 Deadspin

“Conservative Gays Need to Shut The Fuck Up” by Lauren Theisen (December 12th 2018)

400 CNBC “Caitlyn Jenner says it was harder to come out as Republican than transgender” by Ivan Levingston (July 20th 2016)

401 Mass Communication: Living in a Media World “Can Television Take Anything Seriously” by Ralph E. Hanson (Seventh Edition 2019)

402 Pew Research Center “Video Length” by Pew Research Center: Journalism and Media Staff (July 16th 2012)

403 Ibid.

404 Washington Post “Dan Rather to Step Down at CBS” by Howard Kurtz (November 24th 2004)

405 Chicago Tribune “NBC removes Brian Williams from ‘Nightly News’” by Tribune Wire (June 18th 2015)

406 Los Angeles Times “Brian Williams’ $10-million salary should buy some honesty” (February 10th 2015)

407 CBS News “Court Tosses Dan Rather’s Lawsuit Vs. CBS” (September 29th 2009)

408 Yahoo Finance “Anderson Cooper Net Worth: His Fortune at Age 51” by Joel Anderson (June 1st 2018)



409 TMZ

“Joe Scarborough Divorce: He Earns $99,000 a Week” (October 11th 2013)

410 Business Insider “Fired ‘Today’ host Matt Lauer’s contract was reportedly worth $25 million a year — here’s how that compares to other top TV show hosts” by Jason Guerrasio (November 29th 2017)

411 Vanity Fair “Megyn Kelly Officially Out at NBC, $69 Million Richer” (January 12th 2019)

412 Los Angeles Times “Tobacco Company Sues Source in Unbroadcast ‘60 Minutes’ Report: Litigation: Brown & Williamson is also seeking to prevent its former employee from testifying” by Jane Hall (November 22nd 1995)

413 New York Times “Film Drama Shines a Harsh Light on ’60 Minutes’ and CBS” by Peter Applebom (July 13th 1999)

414 Los Angeles Times “CBS Woes Go Beyond the Ratings to a Swoosh” by Larry Stewart (February 15th 1998)

415 New York Times “On CBS News, Some of what you see isn’t there” by Alex Kuczynki (January 12th 2000)

416 Washington Post “ABC News apologizes for ‘serious error’ in Trump report and suspends Brian Ross for four weeks” by Amy B Wang (December 3rd 2017)



417 Fox

News “ABC News, Brian Ross apologize for report suggesting shooting suspect tied to Tea Party” (July 20th 2012)

418 ABC News “Jeff Sessions addresses ‘anti-LGBT hate group,’ but DOJ won’t release his remarks” by Pete Madden and Erin Galloway (July 12th 2017)

419 New York Post “NBC slammed for tweet endorsing Oprah as president” by Mark Moore (January 8th 2018)

420 The Wrap “NBCBLK Editor Defends New Black Site: ‘It Was Destined to Be Controversial’” by Alicia Banks (January 22nd 2015)

421 The Hill “Obama: Fox viewers ‘living on a different planet’ than NPR listeners” by Julia Manchester (January 13th 2018)

422 NPR “DNC Bars Fox News From Hosting 2020 Primary Debates” by Jessica Taylor (March 6th 2019)

423 CNN “Russian bots are using #WalkAway to try to wound Dems in midterms” by David A. Love (July 17th 2018)

424 https://www.YouTube.com/WalkAwayCampaign

425 CNN “Trump leading ‘hate movement’ against media” (August 5th 2018)

426 PJ

Media “CNN Anchor Calls Trump’s Election a ‘National Emergency’” by PJ Staff (December 12th 2016)

427 New York Magazine “CNN’s Jeff Zucker on Covering Donald Trump — Past, Present, and Future” by Gabriel Sherman (January 18th 2017)

428 Washington Post “CNN’s president has fired a warning shot at Donald Trump” by Callum Borchers (January 19th 2017)

429 CNN “InfoWars’ main YouTube channel is two strikes away from being banned” by Paul P. Murphy (February 24th 2018)

430 Newsweek “Florida Shooting Conspiracy Theories and Alex Jones, Infowars In Hot Water with YouTube” by Gillian Edevane (February 27th 2018)

431 The Hill “Infowars one strike away from YouTube ban” by Julia Manchester (February 27th 2018)

432 CNN “Advertisers flee InfoWars founder Alex Jones’ YouTube channel” by Paul P. Murphy and Gianluca Mezzofiore (March 3rd 2018)

433 Ibid.

434 Washington Times “Donny Deutsch issues Trump ‘serious’ fight challenge: ‘I’ll meet you in the schoolyard, brother’” by Douglas Ernst (June 30th 2017)

435 Daily

Caller “MSNBC Guest: Trump Name Is The ‘Modern Day Swastika’ [VIDEO]” by Amber Athey (August 7th 2017)

436 Newsbusters “MSNBC: ‘Everyone’ Agrees Trump’s a White Supremacist; Prove You're Not Racist by Voting Democrat” by Kritine Marsh (August 1st 2019)

437 Business Insider “Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski say Trump’s North Korea surprise is a ‘painfully obvious’ distraction from porn star sex scandal” by Eliza Relman (March 9th 2018)

438 The Hill “New York Times reinforces policy prohibiting reporters from appearing on cable shows like Maddow” by Joe Concha (May 31st 2019)

439 The Wrap “Glenn Greenwald Blasts Rachel Maddow: ‘Intellectually Dishonest, Partisan Hack’” by Jon Levine (January 22nd 2018)

440 Skeptic Review “Boston Antifa Explains Parody: Vladivostok, Russia, Geo-Tagging & More” by Gretchin Mullen (November 17th 2017)

441 Mediaite “MSNBC Falls for Parody North Korean Twitter Account Attacking Fox News” by Alex Griswold (August 10th 2015)

442 Associated Press “Maddow, other MSNBC hosts see ratings drop, Fox up” by David Bauder (March 27th 2019)

443 BigLeaguePolitics “Tucker Gets More Viewers Than All of CNN Combined, Fox Early News Beats MSNBC Prime Time” by Tom Pappert

(April 4th 2019)

444 Fox News “Fox News dominates CNN, MSNBC in Wednesday primetime ratings, topping both networks’ combined viewership” (March 28th 2019)

445 Newsweek “MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Found Huge Ratings Success Covering Trump and Russia — So What Now?” by Tim Marcin (March 25th 2019)

446 eBizMBA “Top 15 Most Popular Political Websites - January 2019”

447 Reuters “AOL to buy The Huffington Post for $315 million” by Anthony Boadle and Jennifer Saba (February 6th 2011)

448 Archive.org “CSPAN April 27th 2013 White House Correspondents Dinner”

449 The Wrap “BuzzFeed Reporter Apologizes for ‘Very Dumb’ Remarks About Communism” by Jon Levine (November 8th 2017)

450 BuzzFeed “Why LGBT Representation Didn’t Make It Into ‘The Last Jedi’” by Adam B. Vary (December 18th 2017)

451 Twitchy “What was that about exploitation? Now VICE Canada is celebrating the next generation of drag queens” by Brett T. (June 6th 2019)

452 Forbes

“Vice Media’s Shane Smith Is Now A Billionaire” by Natalie Robehmed (June 20th 2017)

453 Vice “World’s Scariest Drug (Documentary Exclusive)” on YouTube (May 11th 2012)

454 Vice “Kim Dotcom: The Man Behind Megaupload” on YouTube (January 5th 2014)

455 https://twitter.com/vicecanada/status/1042156417577365505

456 The Hollywood Reporter “Disney Discloses New $353 Million WriteDown on Vice Media Investment” by Natalie Jarvey (May 8th 2019)

457 Variety “Vice Media Gets $250 Million in Debt Funding From George Soros, Other Investors” by Todd Spangler (May 3rd 2019)

458 New York Times “NBCUniversal Invests $200 Million in Vox Media” by Emily Steel (August 12th 2015)

459 Vox “YouTube’s most popular user amplified anti-Semitic rhetoric. Again” by Aja Romano (December 13th 2018)

460 Vox “YouTube’s messy fight with its most extreme creators” (October 19th 2017)

461 Vox “3 Reasons the American Revolution Was a Mistake” by Dylan Matthews (July 3rd 2019)



462 Ibid.

463 Daily

Beast “Meet Candace Owens, Kanye West’s Toxic Far-Right Consigliere” by Amy Zimmerman (May 9th 2018)

464 Daily Beast “Mike Cernovich and Jack Posobiec, the Far Right’s Twin Trolls, Taste Their Own Bitter Medicine” by Lloyd Grove (July 23rd 2018)

465 Daily Beast “Pro-Gun Parkland Teen Kyle Kashuv Apologizes for ‘Inflammatory’ Racial Comments” by Will Sommer (May 23rd 2019)

466 Daily Beast “Inside YouTube’s Far-Right Radicalization Factory” by KellyWeill (September 18th 2018)

467 Fox News “Daily Beast accused of ‘doxxing’ alleged creator of ‘Drunk Pelosi’ video” by Frank Miles (June 2nd 2019)

468 CNBC “New York Times CEO: Print journalism has maybe another 10 years” by Kellie Ell (February 12th 2018)

469 Wall Street Journal “Newsweek Quits Print: After 79 Years, the Title Will Be Digital Only” by Keach Hagey (October 19th 2012)

470 https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/1116426290817638400

471 The Wall Street Journal “Ad-Tech Firms Blacklist Newsweek Sites, Alleging Website-Traffic Manipulation” by Lara O’Reilly and Lukas I.

Alpert (March 7th 2018)

472 New York Post “Jeff Zucker joins fight to monetize mobile journalism” by Richard Morgan (February 26th 2018)

473 Business Insider “The Washington Post is blocking people with ad blockers from reading its articles” by Max Slater-Robins (September 10th 2015)

474 The Verge “The New York Times cuts free articles limit from 10 to five per month” by Natt Garun (December 1st 2017)

475 https://contribute.theguardian.com/components/epic/inline-payment

476 The Wall Street Journal “BuzzFeed News Asks Readers to Chip In With Donations” by Benjamin Mullin (August 27th 2018)

477 The Guardian “Encyclopedia Britannica halts print publication after 244 years” by Tom McCarthy (March 13th 2012

478 Pew Research Center “Wikipedia at 15: Millions of readers in scores of languages” by Monica Anderson, Paul Hitlin, and Michelle Atkinson (January 14th 2016)

479 The Guardian “The rise of Tomi Lahren, the media star lampooned as ‘white power Barbie’” by Jason Wilson (September 23rd 2016)

480 Zero

Hedge “Wikipedia Listed Ron Paul On ‘White Supremacists’ List For 3 Weeks Before Removing Him” by Tyler Durden (July 26th 2018)

481 CBS News “Google blames Wikipedia for ‘Nazism’ tag on California GOP” (June 1st 2018)

482 Washington Post “Former Democratic aide pleads guilty to ‘doxing’ GOP senators, threatening employee” by Spencer S. Hsu (April 6th 2019)

483 As of the time of this writing in July 2019 although that could change. But since Antifa has been engaged in repeated violent acts for years, that’s something that should have been included on their Wikipedia page long ago.

484 Mediaite “Mob Gathers Outside Tucker Carlson’s Home: ‘We Know Where You Sleep at Night!’” by Joseph A. Wulfsohn (November 7th 2018)

485 The Washington Times “Journalist Andy Ngo beaten up by Antifa activists at Portland protest” by Valerie Richardson (June 29th 2019)

486 Breitbart “Wikipedia Protecting Antifa: Wikipedia Editors Protect Antifa by Censoring Andy Ngo Assault, ICE Attack” by T.D. Adler (July 18th 2019)

487 Fox News “Washington ICE detention center attacker Willem Van Spronsen wrote ‘I am Antifa’ manifesto before assault” by Travis Fedschun (July 15th 2019)

488 NewsBusters.org

“The ‘Squad’ Won’t Condemn Antifa Terrorism....WHERE Are The Media?” by Tim Graham (July 17th 2019)

489 https://twitter.com/shaunking/status/1144944444992450560

490 TownHall “Republicans Craft Resolution Condemning Antifa As A ‘Domestic Terrorist Organization’” by Timothy Meads (July 19th 2019)

491 As of July 2019. Increased pressure could change this, but the fact remains, for months (or perhaps years) Wikipedia editors have vigorously protected the page, scrubbing any references to Antifa’s violence.

492 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Strzok (Accessed May 2nd 2019)

493 Breitbart “Wikipedia Editors Paid to Protect Political, Tech, and Media Figures” by T.D. Adler (March 26th 2019)

494 As of August 2019, although this could change if I happen to get some favorable media coverage highlighting my subscriber count, but it hasn’t been allowed on my page which has been up since 2007.

495 SocialBlade.com lists the historical YouTube statistics for all channels. Under “Detailed Statistics” it shows my channel reached 1 million subscribers in May 2017, and Paul Joseph Watson followed in August 2017, then PragerU in September 2017, Stephen Crowder in November 2017, and Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire in October 2018, and Next News Network in February 2019

496 TonyBallioni

23:23, 2 February 2019 (UTC)

497 Barkeep49

17:19, 30 January 2019 (UTC)

498 https://twitter.com/lsanger/status/1096227555466596352

499 150Sec.com

“‘Wikipedia is a broken system,’ says co-founder Larry Sanger” by Sophie Foggin (May 22nd 2019)

500 https://twitter.com/jimmy_wales/status/1135456897899945984

501 Tech Crunch “Google.org donates $2 million to Wikipedia’s parent org” by Megan Rose Dickey (January 22nd 2019)

502 Wikimedia Foundation “George Soros, founder of Open Society Foundations, invests in the future of free and open knowledge” by Kaitlin Thaney (October 18th 2018)

503 Search Engine Watch “No. 1 Position in Google Gets 33% of Search Traffic [Study]” by Jessica Lee (June 20th 2013)

504 The Daily Caller “Exclusive: Google Employees Debated Burying Conservative Media In Search” by Peter Hasson (November 29th 2018)

505 Ibid.

506 Ibid.

507 The

Wall Street Journal “Google Workers Discussed Tweaking Search Function to Counter Travel Ban” by John D. McKinnon and Douglas MacMilan (September 20th 2018)

508 Ibid.

509 Ibid.

510 Fox Business “Google employee discussions on altering search function after travel ban raise bias concerns” by Thomas Barrabi (September 21st 2018)

511 Breitbart “Former Google Employee: ‘There Are Efforts to Demote Anything Non-PC from Search Results’” by Allum Bokhari (August 8th 2017)

512 PJ Media “96 Percent of Google Search Results for ‘Trump’ News Are from Liberal Media Outlets” by Paula Bolyard (August 25th 2018)

513 World Net Daily “Does Google have a liberal bias? Search Results for Roger Ailes Speak Volumes” via Heat Street (May 21st 2017)

514 Washington Times “Handful of ‘left leaning sources’ dominate Google’s ‘top stories’ study finds” by Gabriella Munoz (May 12th 2019)

515 The Daily Caller “Google Suspends Fact Check Project, Rediting The DNCF Investigation with Decision” by Eric Lieberman (January 19th 2018)

516 Daily

Caller “Tech Tyranny!’ Greenpeace Co-Founder Claims Google Scrubbed Him From List of Founders” by Virginia Kruta (March 17th 2019)

517 World Net Daily “Google makes Greenpeace co-founder ‘vanish’” by Art Moore (March 18th 2019)

518 Daily Caller “Google Backs Down After Labeling Pro-Life Movie ‘Propaganda’” by Mary Margaret Olohan (April 12th 2019)

519 Breitbart “EXCLUSIVE — Research: Google Search Manipulation Can Swing Nearly 80 Percent of Undecided Voters” by Allum Bokhari (April 24th 2018)

520 Breitbart “Research: Google Search Bias Flipped Seats for Democrats in Midterms” by Allum Bokhari (March 22nd 2019)

521 TED “How a handful of tech companies control billions of minds every day” (July 26th 2017)

522 Fortune “Google Has Announced a $300 Million Initiative to Support News Organizations” by Eli Meixler (March 21st 2018)

523 CNET “Google’s Sergey Brin calls 2016 election ‘offensive’ in leaked video” by Richard Vieva (September 12th 2018)

524 Breitbart “Rebels of Google: Tampons Kept in Men’s Restrooms Because ‘Some Men Menstruate’” by Lucas Nolan (August 17th 2017)



525 Tech

Crunch “James Damore just filed a class action lawsuit against Google, saying it discriminates against white male conservatives” by Connie Loizos (January 8th 2018)

526 CNET “Trump backs billionaire supporter Peter Thiel’s calls for Google investigation” by Dhara Singh and Sean Keane (July 17th 2019)

527 The Guardian “Google's prototype Chinese search engine links searches to phone numbers” by Noah Smith (September 18th 2018)

528 Forbes “Project Dragonfly And Google’s Threat To Anti-Democratic Processes” by Julian Vigo (October 18th 2018)

529 https://twitter.com/HawleyMO/status/1151287368382656519

530 Washington Post “Eric Schmidt: Google’s Policy Is To ‘Get Right Up To The Creepy Line And Not Cross It’” by Nick Saint (October 1st 2010)

531 CNET “Google boss predicts Google implant will put the Web in your head by 2020” by Richard Trenhold (November 10th 2010)

532 PBS News Hour “Inventor Ray Kurzweil sees immortality in our future” (March 24th 2016)

533 Time “5 Very Smart People Who Think Artificial Intelligence Could Bring the Apocalypse” by Victor Luckerson (December 2nd 2014)

534 Business

Insider “Elon Musk believes AI could turn humans into an endangered species like the mountain gorilla” by Isobel Asher Hamilton (November 26th 2018)

535 Media/Impact: An Introduction to Mass Media (12th Edition) by Shirley Biagi page 176

536 Hollywood Reporter “Bring On the Haters: Dane Cook Is Plotting a Comedy Comeback” by Ryan Parker February 13th 2019)

537 Slate “Tila Tequila for President” by Jonah Weiner (April 11th 2006)

538 New York Times “The Aspiring Novelist Who Became Obama’s Foreign-Policy Guru” by David Samuels (May 5th 2016)

539 Ibid.

540 The Washington Post “Hillary Clinton’s health just became a real issue in the presidential campaign” by Chris Cillizza (September 11th 2016)

541 Ibid.

542 ABC News “The Lesson of Mitt Romney's 47-Percent Video: Be Nice to the Wait Staff?” by Chris Good (March 14th 2013)

543 The Los Angeles Times “No Disputing It: Blogs Are Major Players” by Peter Wallsten (September 12th 2004)

544 Washington

Post “Twenty years ago, the Drudge Report broke the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal” by Annys Shin (January 11th 2018)

545 Business Insider “Google and Facebook dominate digital advertising — and they now account for 25% of all ad sales, online or off” by Caroline Cakebread (December 7th 2017)

546 The Ripon Forum “How Generation Z Gets their News” by Jack Myers (Volume 52, No1 February 2018)

547 Ibid.

548 Chicago Sun Times “Homeland Security to compile database of journalists and ‘media influencers’” by Sun-Times Staff (April 7th 2018

549 Ibid.

550 The Guardian “Revealed: US spy operation that manipulates social media” by Nick Fielding and Ian Cobain (March 17th 2011)

551 The Guardian “British army creates team of Facebook warriors” by Ewan MacAskill (January 31st 2015)

552 Engadget “YouTube pulls hundreds of channels tied to Hong Kong influence campaign” by Richard Lawler (August 23rd 2019)

553 Washington Post “Facebook’s most popular Black Lives Matter page was a scam run by a white Australian, report says” by Amy B Wang (April

10th 2018)

554 CNN “Exclusive: Fake black activist accounts linked to Russian government” by Donie O’Sullivan and Dylan Byers (September 28th 2017)

555 Fox News “Michael Moore participated in anti-Trump rally allegedly organized by Russians” by Gregg Re (February 20th 2018)

556 NBC “Social media linked to rise in mental health disorders in teens survey finds” by Shamard Charles (March 14th 2019)

557 Time “Why Instagram Is the Worst Social Media for Mental Health” by Amanda Macmillan (May 25th 2017)

558 New York Post “Rise in teen suicide connected to social media popularity: study” via Associated Press (November 14th 2017)

559 USA Today “Cyberbullying’s chilling trend: Teens anonymously target themselves online, study finds” by N’dea Yancey-Bragg (November 8th 2017)

560 New York Post “Man fatally stabbed on subway while onlookers post on social media” by Tamar Lapin (January 17th 2018)

561 NBC News “Facebook hits 2.27 billion monthly active users as earnings stabilize” by Jason Abbruzzes (October 30th 2018)

562 Business

Insider “How old 15 self-made billionaires were when they earned their first billion” by Kathleen Elkins (February 17th 2016)

563 https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/975147858096742405

564 https://twitter.com/robjective/status/964680123885613056

565 New York Post “Facebook Admits to blocking Wikileaks links in DNC email hack” by Bruce Golding (July 24th 2016)

566 PJ Media “Censored: Facebook Bans Conservative Articles on Jussie Smollett Hate Hoax” by Tyler O’Neil (February 18th 2019)

567 Gizmodo “Facebook Patents Shadow Banning” by Bryan Menegus (July 16th 2019)

568 The Guardian “Facebook sorry – almost – for secret psychological experiment on users” by Dominic Rushe (October 2nd 2014)

569 UC San Diego News Center “Facebook Boosts Voter Turnout” by Inga Kiderra (September 12th 2012)

570 Facebook.com “Case Study: Reaching Voters with Facebook Ads (Vote No on 8)” (August 16th 2011)

571 Gizmodo “Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News” by Michael Nunez (May 9th 2016)

572 Breitbart

“EXCLUSIVE: Trump’s Facebook Engagement Declined By 45 Percent Following Algorithm Change” by Allum Bokhari (February 28th 2018)

573 Western Journal “Confirmed: Facebook’s Recent Algorithm Change Is Crushing Conservative Sites, Boosting Liberals” by George Upper and Shaun Hair (March 13th 2018)

574 https://twitter.com/TomiLahren/status/1141129134359269376

575 After filing several complaints with Facebook and publicly calling attention to the feature being disabled, they later restored it and said it was just another “error.”

576 Project Veritas “Facebook Insider Leaks Docs; Explains ‘Deboosting,’ ‘Troll Report,’ & Political Targeting in Video Interview” (February 27th 2019)

577 The New York Times “Dozens at Facebook Unite to Challenge Its ‘Intolerant’ Liberal Culture” by Kate Conger and Sheera Frenkel (August 28th 2018)

578 Fortune “Why Peter Thiel Is Leaving Silicon Valley for L.A.” by Chris Morris (February 15th 2018)

579 Reuters “Peter Thiel sells most of remaining Facebook stake” (November 22nd 2017)

580 Variety

“Facebook Paying for News Shows From ABC News, CNN, Fox News, Univision, Others” by Todd Spangler (June 6th 2018)

581 Advertising Age “Facebook Gets CNN to Bring Anderson Cooper To It’s New Media Venture” by Garett Soan (June 6th 2018)

582 Variety “CNN Is Pulling Anderson Cooper’s Show Off Facebook, Will Launch ‘Go There’ on Social Platform This Summer” by Todd Spangler (June 12th 2019)

583 NBC News “Facebook investing $300 million in local news initiatives” (January 15th 2019)

584 Zero Hedge “Facebook COO Sandberg To John Podesta: ‘I Want Hillary To Win Badly’” by Tyler Durden (March 20th 2018)

585 BBC “Facebook amends ‘real name’ policy after protests” by Dave Lee (December 15th 2015)

586 Fortune “Facebook’s Employee Bonuses Now Hinge on ‘Social’ Progress” by Michael Lev-Ram (February 6th 2019)

587 CNET “Facebook ties employee bonuses to progress on social issues” by Steven Musil and Queenie Wong (February 5th 2019)

588 The Hill “Facebook removes over 800 accounts, pages for political spam” by Ali Breland (October 11th 2018)

589 Breitbart

“Facebook Deletes Disabled Veteran’s Page Without Warning — After Taking $300,000 for Ads” by Lucas Nolan (October 16th 2018)

590 The Guardian “Tommy Robinson banned from Facebook and Instagram” by Alex Hern and Jim Waterson (February 26th 2019)

591 The Independent “Tommy Robinson: YouTube under pressure to join Facebook and Instagram in banning far-right activist” by Tim Wyatt (February 27th 2019)

592 Ibid.

593 BBC “Facebook bans Britain First pages” by Rory Cellan-Jones

594 CNET “Facebook, Instagram ban Faith Goldy as they purge white nationalist groups” by Queenie Wong (April 8th 2019)

595 Huffington Post “Facebook Bans Faith Goldy After HuffPost Report On White Nationalism Content” by Andy Campbell (April 9th 2019)

596 Ibid.

597 Breitbart “Facebook Bans Jewish Veteran After Exposé of Jim Jefferies’ Deceptive Editing” by Lucas Nolan (March 26th 2019)

598 RedState “YouTuber Who Outwitted Comedy Central Drops More Hidden Footage Exposing Their Lies” by Brandon Morse (April 10th 2019)

599 PJ

Media “Facebook Bans German Historian for Saying ‘Islam Is Not Part of German History’” by Tyler O’Neil (April 9th 2018)

600 The Intercept “Facebook Says It Is Deleting Accounts at the Direction of the U.S. and Israeli Government” by Glenn Greenwald (December 30th 2017)

601 Breitbart “Facebook Takes Down Event Page for Anti-Caravan Protest” by Allum Bokhari (April 28th 2018)

602 The Washington Post “Evangelist Franklin Graham claims Facebook ‘is censoring free speech’ after it blocked him” by Michael Brice-Saddle (December 30th 2018)

603 Washington Post “Facebook censored a post for ‘hate speech.’ It was the Declaration of Independence.” by Eli Rosenberg (July 5th 2018)

604 Breitbart “Facebook Suspends YouTuber for Disliking ‘Transgender Mother’ Commercial” (April 14th 2017)

605 U.S. Department of Justice “Homicide Trends in the United States, 1980-2008” by Alexia Cooper and Erica L. Smith (November 2011)

606 Fox News “Facebook temporarily suspends Candace Owens over post about ‘liberal supremacy’” by Christopher Howard (May 17th 2019)

607 Breitbart “EXCLUSIVE: Facebook Includes Candace Owens On ‘Hate Agents’ List” by Allum Bokhari (May 17th 2019)



608 The

Hill “Diamond and Silk slam Facebook after company deems their rhetoric ‘unsafe to the community’” by Joe Concha (April 9th 2018)

609 NPR “Facebook Admits ‘Enforcement Error’ In How It Handled Content From Pro-Trump Duo” by Tim Mak (April 15th 2018)

610 The Western Journal “Facebook Suspends Account for Calling Alleged Cop Killer an ‘Illegal Immigrant’” by Kara Pendleton (December 30th 2018)

611 https://twitter.com/lucianwintrich/status/937391808363016192

612 Fox News “Facebook apologizes to Trump’s social media director for temporarily restricting his account” by Chris Ciaccia (March 19th 2019)

613 CNN “Facebook bans Louis Farrakhan, Milo Yiannopoulos, InfoWars and others from its platforms as ‘dangerous’” by Oliver Darcy (May 3rd 2019)

614 Wired “Facebook Bans Alex Jones, Other Extremists—but Not as Planned” by Paris Martineau (May 2nd 2019)

615 The Atlantic “Instagram and Facebook Ban Far-Right Extremists” by Taylor Lorenz (May 2nd 2019)

616 New York Times “Ex‐Officials Say F.B.I. Harassed Dr. King to Stop His Criticism” by Nicholas M. Horrock (March 9th 1975)



617 https://twitter.com/HamasInfoEn

618 https://twitter.com/Ikhwanweb

619 Daily

Caller “Don Trump Jr. Slams Instagram After Smollett Post Deleted: ‘Why Don’t You Want The Truth Out There?’” by Amber Athey and Katie Jerkovich (February 18th 2019)

620 Washington Times “Instagram deletes Kayleigh McEnany post on Elizabeth Warren, issues ‘bullying’ warning” by Victor Morton (February 6th 2019)

621 The Verge “Facebook is turning its fact-checking partners loose on Instagram” by Jon Porter (May 7th 2019)

622 Hollywood Reporter “‘Bachelorette’ Frontrunner Under Fire for Liking Controversial Social Media Posts” by Jackie Strause (May 29th 2018)

623 Business Insider “Here’s why Steve Jobs never let his kids use an iPad” by Eames Yates (March 4th 2017)

624 Business Insider “Apple CEO Tim Cook: I don’t want my nephew on a social network” by Rob Price (January 19th 2018)

625 SF Gate “Bill Gates didn’t allow his kids to have cell phones until age 14” by Amy Graff (April 21st 2017)

626 The

Guardian “Ex-Facebook president Sean Parker: site made to exploit human ‘vulnerability’” by Olivia Solon (November 9th 2017)

627 The Verge “Former Facebook exec says social media is ripping apart society” by James Vincent (December 11th 2017)

628 Ibid.

629 https://twitter.com/fchollet/status/976563870322999296

630 https://twitter.com/fchollet/status/976564096605679616

631 https://twitter.com/fchollet/status/976564511858597888

632 https://twitter.com/fchollet/status/976565324622344192

633 https://twitter.com/fchollet/status/976565553761476608

634 https://twitter.com/fchollet/status/976565723597176832

635 https://twitter.com/fchollet/status/976567526023872513

636 https://twitter.com/fchollet/status/976568469679357952

637 https://twitter.com/fchollet/status/976568588378152960

638 https://twitter.com/fchollet/status/976569442728525824

639 New

York Times “It’s Time to Break Up Facebook” by Chris Hughes (May 9th 2019)

640 Science Magazine “Fake news spreads faster than true news on Twitter —thanks to people, not bots” by Katie Langin (March 8th 2018)

641 Engaget “Twitter’s fake news problem is getting worse” by Nicole Lee (February 17th 2018)

642 New York Magazine “All the Mistakenly Identified ‘Suspects’ in the Boston Bombing Investigation” by Joe Coscarelli (April 19th 2013)

643 The Hill “Washington Post reporter apologizes for tweet on crowd size at Trump rally” by Julia Manchester (December 9th 2017)

644 Daily Caller “Trump Calls Out Time Magazine For Fake News Story About Removing MLK Bust From Oval Office” by Saagar Enjeti (January 21st 2017)

645 New York Times “Never Tweet” by Farhad Manjoo (January 23rd 2019)

646 The Week “How Twitter could be the death of liberal democracy” by Damon Linker (January 22nd 2019)

647 Ibid.

648 Ibid.

649 CBS

DFW “DART Officer Sues Social Media Giants Over 2016 Downtown Police Ambush” by Andrea Lucia (February 14th 2019)

650 The New York Times “Suspect in Dallas Attack Had Interest in Black Power Groups” by Jonathan Mahler and Julie Turkewitz (July 8th 2016)

651 NewsBusters.org “Twitter Bans Doxxing, But Why Are Antifa Accounts Still Active?” by Corinne Weaver (October 4th 2018)

652 Guardian “US secretly created ‘Cuban Twitter’ to stir unrest and undermine government” via Associated Press (April 3rd 2014)

653 Washington Post “Syrian refugee girl gets star treatment at the Oscars” by Christina Barron (March 5th 2018)

654 Washington Post “Market quavers after fake AP tweet says Obama was hurt in White House explosions” by Dina ElBoghdady (April 13th 2013)

655 Engaget “Twitter says 49 Russian accounts tried to sway Brexit voters” by Mallory Locklear (February 8th 2018)

656 The Washington Post “Inside Facebook and Twitter’s secret meetings with Trump aides and conservative leaders who say tech is biased” by Tony Romm (June 27th 2018)

657 Business Insider “Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey forced to apologize for eating Chick-fil-A during Pride Month” by Hayley Peterson (June 11th 2018)



658 Recode

“Full video: Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and #BlackLivesMatter activist DeRay McKesson at Code 2016” by Recode Staff (June 8th 2016)

659 https://twitter.com/patyrossini/status/756329790907490304

660 https://twitter.com/RebekahKTromble/status/897792260821090304

661 https://twitter.com/tedlieu/status/1085901851927687168

662 The Sun “TWISTED TWITTER: Channel 4 doc shows kids get unlimited access to porn on social media sites” by Rod McPhee (July 2nd 2019)

663 It started as early as March 3rd 2019, and occurred every Sunday through at least September 1st 2019 when I was finalizing this manuscript to be sent off to the proofreader.

664 LawAndCrime.com “Twitter’s Lawyer Admits Hiding Tweets With ‘#DNCLeak’ And ‘#PodestaEmails’ Hashtags” by Colin Kalmbacher (November 2nd 2017)

665 Rolling Stone “Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey: The Rolling Stone Interview” by Brian Hiatt (January 23rd 2019)

666 Vice News “Twitter appears to have fixed ‘shadow ban’ of prominent Republicans like the RNC chair and Trump Jr.’s spokesman” by Alex Thompson (July 25th 2018)



667 Ibid.

668 Ibid.

669 The

Hill “Republican feels ‘victimized’ by Twitter ‘shadow banning’” by Juliegrace Brufke (July 25th 2018)

670 https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1022447980408983552

671 https://twitter.com/jonathanvswan/status/1022175120373309441

672 Twitter official blog “Setting the record straight on shadow banning” by Vijaya Gadde and Kayvon Beykpour (July 26th 2018)

673 Project Veritas “UNDERCOVER VIDEO: Twitter Engineers To ‘Ban a Way of Talking’ Through ‘Shadow Banning,’ Algorithms to Censor Opposing Political Opinions” (January 11th 2018)

674 Ibid.

675 RealClear Politics “‘Project Veritas’ Hidden Camera: Twitter And Reddit Use ‘Shadow Ban’ Algorithms to Censor Political Opinions” by Tim Haines (January 12th 2018)

676 CNN - Interview with Jack Dorsey (August 19th 2018)

677 The

Telegraph “This, he said, is to promote more ‘healthy’ conversations” by Margi Murphy (October 29th 2018)

678 Daily Caller “Twitter Censors ‘The Federalist’ Co-Founder Over Lisa Page Tweet” by Amber Athey (March 18th 2019)

679 SearchEnginLand “Twitter as utility, like running water? That’s the goal, says CEO” by Pamela Parker (February 14th 2011)

680 Breitbart “Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey: Our Free Speech Motto Was a ‘Joke’” by Charlie Nash (October 18th 2018)

681 The Guardian “Milo Yiannopoulos, rightwing writer, permanently banned from Twitter” by Elle Hunt (July 20th 2016)

682 New York Times “Roger Stone Suspended From Twitter After Expletive-Laden Tweets” by Jacey Fortin (October 29th 2017)

683 BBC “Tommy Robinson banned from Twitter” (March 28th 2018)

684 Breitbart “Twitter Is Banning Conservatives for Posting Facts” by Allum Bokhari (May 9th 2018)

685 The Wrap “Twitter Drops ‘Britain First’ Leader and Other Alt-Right Accounts” by Sean Burch (December 18th 2017)

686 Politico “Troll Charles Johnson banned from Twitter” by Dylan Byers (May 26th 2015)



687 Ibid.

688 CNN

Special “State of Hate” (2019) hosted by Fareed Zakaria which includes an interview with Jared Taylor where he says this.

689 NBC News “Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes sues Southern Poverty Law Center over hate group label” via Associated Press (February 4th 2019)

690 https://twitter.com/kenklippenstein/status/981359404875505669

691 The Laugh Button “Anthony Cumia’s Twitter account suspended, allegedly following a fight with an A.V. Club writer” (July 12th 2017)

692 JRE Clips Channel on YouTube “Twitter Exec Reviews Sargon of Akkad's Ban | JRE Twitter Special” Trust and Safety leader Vijaya Gadde talk with Joe Rogan and Tim Pool about Sargon’s ban (March 5th 2019)

693 Ibid.

694 The Daily Wire “Woman Forced To Close Business After Refusing To Wax Male Genitals Of Transgender Person” by Amanda Prestigiacomo (July 21st 2019)

695 Breitbart “Free Speech Activist Lindsay Shepherd Banned from Twitter for ‘Misgendering’” by Alana Mastrangelo (July 17th 2019)

696 The

Wrap “Right-Wing LA Street Artist Sabo Banned From Twitter” by Sean Burch (April 14 2018)

697 CNS News “CNN: ‘Dangerous’ ‘Fascist’ Trump ‘Threatening’ Our Lives With His WWE Tweet” (July 2nd 2017)

698 Washington Times “Twitter suspends Jack Posobiec’s @MAGAphobia account for tracking violence against Trump supporters” by Douglas Ernst (May 78th 2019)

699 Fox News “Twitter permanently suspends AOC parody account for being misleading” by Sam Dorman (May 7th 2019)

700 https://twitter.com/anastasiakeeley/status/1047930583777779714

701 Fox News “Kathy Griffin calls for doxing student’s identities after viral video at Native American march: ‘Shame them’” by Tyler McCarthy (January 21st 2019)

702 Newsbusters “Twitter Deletes Some Covington Threats, Ignores Others” by Alexander Hall (January 22nd 2019)

703 Politico “White House reports Peter Fonda tweet on Barron Trump to Secret Service” by Christopher Cadelago (June 20th 2018)

704 Breitbart “Twitter Allows Self-Proclaimed Pedophiles to Spread Their Message on Its Platform” by Charlie Nash (December 4th 2018)

705 http://archive.is/T9EUe

706 Daily

Mail “Twitter under fire from MPs and child safety campaigners for failing to block accounts used by paedophiles to discuss their sick cravings” by Abe Hawken (December 11th 2017)

707 NBC News “Laura Loomer banned from Twitter after criticizing Ilhan Omar” by Linda Givetash (November 22nd 2018)

708 Politico “Ilhan Omar apologizes after Pelosi denounces tweet as antiSemitic” by Melanie Zanona and Heather Caygle (February 11th 2019)

709 The Daily Caller “Ilhan Omar Blows Off Al-Qaeda, Mocks Americans For Fearing Them in Recently Surfaced Video” by Virginia Kruta (April 12th 2019)

710 National Review “Journalist Sues Twitter for Banning Her over ‘Women Aren’t Men’ Tweets” by Mairead Mcardle (February 11th 2019)

711 Breitbart “Twitter Blacklists Famed Gender Dysphoria Researcher Ray Blanchard” by Neil Munro (May 13th 2019)

712 Psychiatry.org “What Is Gender Dysphoria?” by the American Psychiatric Association

713 USA Today “Who is Anthony Rapp, the actor who accused Kevin Spacey of sexual harassment?” by Jayme Deerwester (October 30th 2017)

714 Associated

Press “Actor James Woods bashes Twitter after getting locked out” by Amy Forliti (September 2018)

715 Daily Caller “Twitter Issued GOP Candidate Temporary Ban Week Before Election” by Kyle Perisic (July 31st 2018)

716 Politico “Twitter pulls Blackburn Senate ad deemed ‘inflammatory’” by Kevin Robillard (October 9th 2018)

717 Hollywood Reporter “Anti-Abortion Movie’s Twitter Account Briefly Suspended” by Paul Bond and Katie Kilkenny (March 30th 2019)

718 The American Mirror “Twitter suspends user for calling Maxine Waters ‘crazy old lying lunatic in a bad wig’” by Kyle Olson (March 3rd 2018)

719 Daily Caller “Daily Caller editor in chief locked out of account for tweeting ‘learn to code’” by Amber Athey (February 6th 2019)

720 Joe Rogan Experience #1236 - Jack Dorsey (February 1st 2019)

721 NPR “Twitter Bans Alex Jones And InfoWars; Cites Abusive Behavior” by Avie Schneider (September 6th 2018)

722 CNN “Twitter says InfoWars hasn’t ‘violated our rules.’ It looks like that’s not the case” by Oliver Darcy (August 9th 2018)

723 CNBC “Twitter locks Mitch McConnell’s campaign account for tweet violating threats policy” by Marc Rod (August 8th 2019)



724 CBS

News “Twitter suspends Mitch McConnell’s campaign account after posting video of protesters threatening him” by Christopher Brito (August 8th 2019)

725 The Wrap “Twitter Reverses Mitch McConnell Suspension, Says Protest Video ‘Will Be Visible’” by Sean Burch and Lindsey Ellefson (August 9th 2019)

726 Breitbart “Twitter Verifies Sarah Jeong Without Making Her Delete Racist Posts” by Charlie Nash (August 16th 2018)

727 Project Veritas “Why James O’Keefe Isn’t Verified On Twitter” by Laura Loomer (September 1st 2016)

728 Twitter.com “Verified account FAQs

729 SF Gate “Here Are the 27 Advertisers David Hogg Convinced to Dump Laura Ingraham” by Brian Welk (April 13th 2018)

730 The Blaze “Twitter only invites anti-gun Parkland students to Q&A panel. Pro-gun student has perfect response” by Chris Enloe (March 18th 2018)

731 USA Today “Kyler Murray apologizes for homophobic tweets that resurfaced after he won Heisman Trophy” by Scott Gleeson (December 9th 2018)

732 USA

Today “Josh Hader apologizes for racist tweets, claims they ‘don’t reflect any of my beliefs now’” by Gabe Lacques (July 18th 2018)

733 NBC New York “Shawn Mendes Apologizes for Past ‘Racially Insensitive Comments’” by Corinne Heller (August 24th 2019)

734 New York Times Magazine “How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life” by Jon Ronson (February 12th 2015)

735 ABC News “Justine Sacco, Fired After Tweet on AIDS in Africa, Issues Apology” by Kami Dimitrova, Shahriar Rahmanzadeh and Jane Lipman (December 22nd 2013)

736 Financial Times “Donald Trump: Without Twitter, I would not be here — FT interview” by Lionel Barber, Demetri Sevastopulo and Gillian Tett (April 2nd 2017)

737 New York Times “‘The Internet is Broken’ @ev Is Trying to Salvage It” by David Streitfeld (May 20th 2017)

738 SocialBlade.com - Detailed Statistics for the Mark Dice YouTube channel October 2016

739 https://twitter.com/zeynep/status/915608049141915648

740 Slate “YouTube Is Realizing It May Be Bad for All of Us” by Will Oremus (March 14th 2018)

741 Wired

“YouTube’s ditching vloggers, old-school celebs are back again” by Chris Stokel-Walker (May 8th 2018)

742 Polygon “YouTube is turning away from its creators to become a new MTV” by Julia Alexander (May 7th 2018)

743 Bloomberg “With 40 New Original Shows, YouTube Targets TV’s Breadbasket” by Lucas Shaw and Mark Bergen (May 4th 2017)

744 Vanity Fair “Why the Right’s Dark-Web Trolls Are Taking Over YouTube” by Maya Kosoff (March 1st 2018)

745 The New York Times “YouTube, the Great Radicalizer” by Zeynep Tufekci (March 10th 2018)

746 Ibid.

747 New York Times “For the New Far Right, YouTube Has Become the new Talk Radio” by John Herrman (August 3rd 2017)

748 Right Wing Watch “White Supremacy Figured Out How To Become YouTube Famous” by Jared Holt (October 2017)

749 USA Today “YouTube alters algorithm after searches for Las Vegas shooting turn up conspiracy theories” by Jessica Guynn (October 5th 2017)

750 Wall Street Journal “YouTube Tweaks Search Results as Las Vegas Conspiracy Theories Rise to Top” by Jack Nicas (October 5th 2017)



751 YouTube

Official Blog “An update on our commitment to fight terror content online” (August 1, 2017)

752 Fortune “YouTube Responds to Criticism After Unverified Texas Shooting Reports Top Search Results” by Tom Huddleston Jr. (November 6th 2017)

753 Ibid.

754 https://twitter.com/chrislhayes/status/1037831504158646272

755 Mother Jones “Political Extremists are using YouTube to monetize their toxic ideas” by Tonya Riley (September 18th 2018)

756 Ibid.

757 “Why Social Justice is CANCER | Identity Politics, Equality & Marxism” by Lauren Chen (July 24th 2017)

758 The video, which is an hour and a half long, is titled “Century of Enslavement: The History of the Federal Reserve” posted by the CorbettReport channel on July 6th 2014 and has nearly 2 million views.

759 While the YouTube video is titled “Exposing the Federal Reserve” the video itself is actually the film “The American Dream” by Tad Lumpkin and Harold Uhl

760 Breitbart

“New Whistleblower Allegation: YouTube Manipulated ‘Federal Reserve’ Search Results In Response to MSNBC Host’s Complaint” by Allum Bokhari (July 30th 2019)

761 SocialBlade.com Detailed Statistics for MSNBC, NBC News, CBS News, and Fox News’ YouTube channels.

762 Slate “YouTube’s Search Results for “Abortion” Show Exactly What Anti-Abortion Activists Want Women to See” by April Glaser (December 21st 2018)

763 National Review “YouTube Changed ‘Abortion’ Search Results after a Slate Writer Complained” by Sanda Desanctis (December 22nd 2018)

764 Breitbart “THE SMOKING GUN: Google Manipulated YouTube Search Results for Abortion, Maxine Waters, David Hogg” by Allum Bokhari (January 16th 2019)

765 Ibid.

766 The Verge “YouTube fought Brie Larson trolls by changing its search algorithm” by Julia Alexander (March 8th 2019)

767 https://twitter.com/loudmouthjulia/status/1103730622281994240

768 The Verge “YouTube fought Brie Larson trolls by changing its search algorithm” by Julia Alexander (March 8th 2019)

769 CNBC

“Facebook, YouTube and Twitter go to extraordinary lengths to take down mosque massacre videos” by Lauren Feiner (March 18th 2019)

770 Wall Street Journal “How YouTube Drives People to the Internet’s Darkest Corners” by Jack Nicas (February 7th 2018)

771 Ibid.

772 CNN “YouTube says it will crack down on recommending conspiracy videos” by Kaya Yurieff (January 25th 2019)

773 NBC “YouTube search results for A-list celebrities hijacked by conspiracy theorists” by Ben Collins (July 30th 2018)

774 YouTube Official Blog (January 25th 2019)

775 Ibid.

776 Mercury News “Is Donald Trump Jr. promoting a Jussie Smollett conspiracy theory?” by Martha Ross (February 1st 2019)

777 NBC News “YouTube announces it will no longer recommend conspiracy videos” by Kalhan Rosenblatt (February 10th 2019)

778 YouTube Help “Harassment and cyberbullying policy”

779 The Guardian “YouTube's ‘alternative influence network’ breeds rightwing radicalisation, report finds” by Olivia Solon (September 18th

2018)

780 The Alternative Influence Network on YouTube by Rebecca Lewis page 10

781 The Alternative Influence Network on YouTube by Rebecca Lewis page 44

782 Mother Jones “Political Extremists Are Using YouTube to Monetize Their Toxic Ideas” by Tonya Riley (September 18th 2018)

783 Ibid.

784 Digital Social Contract “YouTube stops recommending alt-right channels” by Nicolas Suzor (February 27th 2019)

785 Ibid.

786 The Washingtonian “83 Percent of Anti-Semitic Tweets Against Journalists Targeted Just Ten People” by Benjamin Freed (October 19th 2016)

787 Daily Caller “EXCLUSIVE: YouTube Secretly Using Southern Poverty Law Center To Police Videos” by Peter Hasson (February 27th 2018)

788 US News & World Report “State: Man in Church Shooting Aimed to Kill 10 White People” by Associated Press (May 20th 2019)

789 https://twitter.com/RealCandaceO/status/903027170460803072

790 YouTube

“High Impact Vlogs” channel “The Two Videos YouTube Didn’t Want You To See! (December 1st 2018) The original video titled “ABC Just Promoted Something SO DISGUSTING & DISTURBING You Won’t Believe It…Or Will You?” can be seen on BitChute here: https://www.bitchute.com/video/_1uEOgN41CU/ (Published November 26th 2018 on the HighImpactFlix BitChute channel.)

791 Washington Times “Ga. gubernatorial candidate’s ‘Deportation Bus’ ad deemed ‘hate speech,’ removed from YouTube” via Associated Press (May 16th 2018)

792 The Independent “Tommy Robinson’s YouTube videos restricted after internet giant refuses to delete channel” by Lizzie Dearden (April 2nd 2019)

793 Hunter Avvalone YouTube Channel “I Got Banned!” (April 10th 2019)

794 TubeFilter.com “Conservative Organization PragerU Sues YouTube Over Alleged Censorship Of Conservative Voices” by Sam Gutelle (October 24th 2017)

795 Breitbart “YouTube is Shutting Down Conservative Criticism of CNN over Parkland Shooting” by Allum Nokhari and Charlie Nash (February 28th 2018)

796 Gateway Pundit “YouTube Deletes Popular Journalist’s Video Criticizing the Media Over Falling for 4Chan Florida Shooter Hoax” by

Cassandra Fairbanks (February 17th 2018)

797 Gizmodo “YouTube’s New Moderation Team Stumbles Out the Gate” by Tom McKay (February 28th 2018)

798 Bloomberg “YouTube’s New Moderators Mistakenly Pull Right-Wing Channels” by Mark Bergen (February 28th 2018)

799 Variety “YouTuber Temporarily Suspended For Video of Suffragette Killing in ‘Red Dead 2’” by Stefanie Fogel (November 8th 2018)

800 The Verge “YouTube reverses ban for streamer who killed Red Dead 2 feminist” by Patricia Hernandez (November 8th 2018)

801 PJ Media "YouTube Deplatforms Retired Navy SEAL Who Exposed Tribal Elder Nathan Phillips’ Stolen Valor” by Debra Heine (February 26th 2019)

802 Politifact “Why Infowars’ Alex Jones was banned from Apple, Facebook, Youtube and Spotify” by Manuela Tobias (August 7th 2018)

803 https://www.bitchute.com/video/WtAHuu0ycCY/

804 Infowars.com “Watch These Videos YouTube Doesn’t Want You To See” (July 25th 2018)

805 Tech Crunch “Here are the platforms that have banned Infowars so far” by Sarah Wells (August 8th 2018)



806 The

video is still available to watch on Infowars.com, which hosts it and the other videos that led to the YouTube ban here: https://www.infowars.com/watch-these-videos-youtube-doesnt-want-youto-see/

807 Engadget “YouTube removes Alex Jones’ official channel for violating guidelines” by Kris Hold (August 6th 2018)

808 https://twitter.com/h3h3productions/status/1028047008144080896

809 H3 Podcast #77 “Alex Jones Stream Shut Down” (August 11th 2018)

810 BuzzFeed “YouTube’s Newest Far-Right, Foul-Mouthed, Red-Pilling Star Is A 14-Year-Old Girl” by Joseph Bernstein (May 13th 2019)

811 https://twitter.com/Bernstein/status/1128308490047561728

812 ReClaimTheNet.org “YouTube censors 14-year-old creator Soph after BuzzFeed hit piece” by Tom Parker (May 14th 2019)

813 https://twitter.com/sewernugget/status/1131340929720147968

814 ReclaimTheNet.org “YouTube deletes Soph’s channel after her latest video was removed for ‘hate speech’ by Tom Parker (August 1st 2019) The video which caused the strike is titled “Pride & Prejudice” and can be seen on her BitChute channel here: https://www.bitchute.com/video/FNqiV8kL4cc/



815 Project

Veritas “Insider Blows Whistle & Exec Reveals Google Plan to Prevent ‘Trump situation’ in 2020 on Hidden Cam” by Staff (June 24th 2019)

816 CNN’s YouTube Channel “Some Americans unwittingly helped Russian trolls” (February 21st 2018)

817 Identitarianism is a right-wing political ideology whose supporters believe European people are entitled to preserve their own cultures and territories, instead of becoming “melting pots” due to massive immigration from countries of other races.

818 Media Matters “YouTube banned Alex Jones, but it’s letting white supremacist content thrive” by Madeline Peltz and Talia Lavin (November 5th 2018)

819 Recode.net “Full Q&A: YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki talks about child safety, the Google walkout, and AI on Recode Decode” by Eric Johnson (March 11th 2019)

820 Ibid.

821 AdWeek “The Google News Initiative Is Putting $25 Million Toward Fighting Fake News on YouTube” by David Cohen (July 10th 2018)

822 YouTube official blog “Building a better news experience on YouTube together” (July 9th 2018)



823 Politico

“Buddy Roemer firm invests $4 million in Young Turks Network” by Hadas Gold (April 16th 2014)

824 Business Insider “Progressive media outlet The Young Turks has raised $20 million in venture-capital funding and plans to double its staff” by Maxwell Tani (August 8th 2017)

825 Encyclopedia of Human Rights by David Forsythe page 98 Oxford University Press

826 TYT Network “Rescinding Daily Pennsylvanian Article” by Cenk Uygur (April 22nd 2016)

827 The Young Turks “Germany Acknowledges The Genocide” By Ana Kasperian on official YouTube channel (June 2, 2016) Around 3:20 timestamp in the video.

828 The Young Turks “People Don’t Trust Foreign Accents — Study” via The Young Turks YouTube channel (October 28th 2010) at the :20 mark, Ana explains she grew up speaking only Armenian.

829 Paste “Why Cenk Uygur Is Getting Confronted about the Name ‘The Young Turks,’ and Why It Matters” by Monica Hunter-Hart (January 5th 2017)

830 https://twitter.com/SusanWojcicki/status/890654400192028672

831 Washington

Times “Young Turks host Hasan Piker mocks Dan Crenshaw’s war injury, says ‘America deserved 9/11’” by Jessica Chasmar (August 22nd 2019)

832 Ibid.

833 The Verge “YouTube is investing $5 million in creators who ‘counter hate and promote tolerance’” by Lizzie Plaugic (January 24th 2018)

834 Vox “YouTube’s 2018 ‘Rewind’ is the site’s most disliked video ever. The implications are huge.” by Aja Romano (December 14th 2018)

835 The Verge “YouTube wants ‘dislike mobs’ to stop weaponizing the dislike button” by Julia Alexander (February 1st 2019)

836 Los Angeles Times “Hey, star-struck. Making it on YouTube isn’t easier than making it in on the silver screen” by Chris Stokel-Walker (February 28th 2018)

837 Bloomberg “Success on YouTube still means a life of poverty. 96% won’t crack the poverty line” by Chris Stokel-Walker (February 26th 2018)

838 BuzzFeed “YouTube Says Tommy Robinson Will No Longer Be Able To Make Money From His Videos” by Mark Di Stefano (January 17th 2019)

839 BigLeaguePolitics “Count Dankula Demonetized on YouTube After Buzzfeed Hit Piece” by Tom Pappert (January 18th 2019)



840 BuzzFeed

“YouTube Has Downgraded Carl Benjamin’s Sargon Of Akkad Account After He Talked About Raping A British MP” by Mark Di Stefano (May 10th 2019)

841 Fox News “YouTube ends monetization of conservative commentator Steven Crowder’s channel, several others after left-wing outrage” by Gregg R (June 5th 2019)

842 Just a few of them include Jesse Lee Peterson, Press For Truth, Ford Fischer, Mr. Allsop History, SinatraSays, and many others.

843 New York Times “The Making of a YouTube Radical” by Kevin Roose (June 8th 2019)

844 CNN “It’s YouTube’s time in the hot seat” by Seth Fiegerman (June 11th 2019)

845 CNN “Former alt-right follower calls radicalization a health crisis” posted on their YouTube channel (June 12th 2019)

846 CNN “Trump invites right-wing extremists to White House ‘social media summit’” by Oliver Darcy (July 11th 2019)

847 White House Official Transcript “Remarks by President Trump at the Presidential Social Media Summit” (July 11th 2019)

848 BuzzFeed

“How YouTube’s ‘Super Chat’ System Is Pushing Video Creators Toward More Extreme Content” by Ishmael N. Daro and Craig Silverman (May 17th 2018)

849 Wall Street Journal “Hate Speech on Live ‘Super Chats’ Tests YouTube” by Yoree Koh (November 2nd 2018)

850 WhatsTrending “Killstream is KICKED OFF YouTube For Hate Speech SuperChat” by Alex Firer (November 6th 2018)

851 BuzzFeed “Right-Wing YouTubers Think It’s Only A Matter Of Time Before They Get Kicked Off The Site” by Ishmael N. Daro (April 18th 2018)

852 Polygon “YouTube networks drop thousands of creators as YouTube policy shifts” by Julia Alexander (April 24th 2018)

853 https://twitter.com/ChiefCanuck/status/984921575471251456

854 TubeFilter “YouTube On ‘Play Button’ Awards: “Not All Creators Who Apply Will Receive Awards” by Geoff Weiss (February 6th 2018)

855 YouTube “Lauren Southern Becomes a Man” by Rebel Media (October 3rd 2016)

856 The Rubin Report “Patreon CEO Jack Conte: Lauren Southern, IGD, and Free Speech (Live Interview)” (July 31st 2017)

857 Ibid.

858 Business

Insider “Crowdfunding platform Patreon defends itself from protests by ‘intellectual dark web,’ publishes slur-filled posts from banned YouTuber” by Benjamin Goggin (December 18th 2018)

859 Breitbart “Stripe, PayPal, Patreon: The Right Is Being Banned from Online Fundraising” by Allum Bokhari (July 24th 2018)

860 ReclaimTheNet.org “Patreon suspends Soph’s account one day after YouTube deleted her channel” by Tom Parker (August 2nd 2019)

861 Breitbart “Patreon tolerates calls for violence from leftists while demonetizing conservatives” by Allum Bokhari (December 15th 2018)

862 Ibid.

863 Ibid

864 https://twitter.com/Patreon/status/1070446085787668480

865 Breitbart “Mastercard Forces Patreon to Kick Off Jihad Watch’s Robert Spencer” by Charlie Nash (August 15th 2018)

866 USA Today “Forget astronaut: YouTube is a more intriguing work frontier than space for today’s kids” by Dalvin Brown (July 18th 2019)

867 CNBC

“YouTube’s bet against big cable announces nationwide expansion” by Jillian D’Onfro (January 23rd 2019)

868 The Verge “The golden age of YouTube is over” by Julia Alexander (April 5th 2019)

869 Ibid.

870 Hollywood Reporter “R. Lee Ermey and John Wayne Shared Screen Time Together — Kind of” by Ryan Parker (April 15th 2018)

871 Hollywood Reporter “How ‘Furious 7’ Brought the Late Paul Walker Back to Life” by Carolyn Giardina (December 11th 2015)

872 The Hill “‘Obama’ voiced by Jordan Peele in PSA video warning about fake videos” by Morgan Gstalter (April 17th 2018)

873 Standford.edu “Face2Face: Real-time Face Capture and Reenactment of RGB Videos”

874 UW News “Lip-syncing Obama: New tools turn audio clips into realistic video” by Jennifer Langston (July 11th 2017)

875 Washington Post “Here are the tools that could be used to create the fake news of the future” by Philip Bump (February 12th 2018)

876 Fortune “What Is a Deepfake? Let This Unsettling Video of Jennifer Lawrence With Steve Buscemi’s Face Show You” by Kevin Kelleher

(February 1st 2019)

877 Time “Here’s Steve Buscemi’s Reaction to That Haunting Fake Jennifer Lawrence Mashup Video” by Melissa Locker (February 7th 2019)

878 CNET “Deepfake video of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted on Instagram” by Queenie Wong (June 11th 2019)

879 CBS News “CBS News asks Facebook to remove ‘deepfake’ video of Mark Zuckerberg with unauthorized CBSN trademark” by Lex Haris (June 12th 2019)

880 PC Magazine “Facebook Declines to Delete Fake Zuckerberg Video” by Michael Kan (June 11th 2019)

881 Tech Dirt “Kim Kardashian Deep Fake Video Removed By Copyright Claim” by Timothy Geigner (June 19th 2019)

882 The Verge “Pornhub is the latest platform to ban AI-generated ‘deepfakes’ porn” by Adi Robertson (February 6th 2018)

883 CNET “Reddit cracks down on ‘deepfake’ pornography” by Erin Carson (February 7th 2018)

884 Wired “Yes people can put your face on porn, no the law can’t help you” by Emma Grey Ellis (January 1st 26th 2018)

885 Engadget

“AI-powered face swapping has taken a dystopian turn” by Richard Lawler (January 26th 2018)

886 The Washington Post “CIA unit’s wacky idea: Depict Saddam as gay” by Jeff Stein (May 25th 2010)

887 The Telegraph “CIA considered faking Saddam Hussein sex video” by Toby Harnden (May 26th 2010)

888 BBC “The sexually abused dancing boys of Afghanistan” by Rustam Qobil (September 8th 2010)

889 The New York Times “U.S. Soldiers Told to Ignore Sexual Abuse of Boys by Afghan Allies” by Joseph Goldstein (September 20th 2015)

890 The Verge “Nvidia uses AI to make it snow on streets that are always sunny” by James Vincent (December 5th 2017)

891 Ibid.

892 CNET “This website uses AI to generate startling fake human faces” by Jackson Ryan (February 14th 2019)

893 BBC “Adobe Voco ‘Photoshop-for-voice’ causes concern” November 7th 2016)

894 Ibid.

895 Ibid.

896 Medium

“RealTalk: This Speech Synthesis Model Our Engineers Built Recreates a Human Voice Perfectly” by Dessa (May 15th 2019)

897 Ibid.

898 Ibid.

899 Ibid.

900 Ibid.

901 The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs - Artificial Intelligence and National Security by Greg Allen and Taniel Chan (July 2017) page 30

902 Wired “AI Will Make Forging Anything Entirely Too Easy” by Greg Allen (July 1st 2017)

903 Ibid.

904 The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs - Artificial Intelligence and National Security by Greg Allen and Taniel Chan (July 2017) page 31

905 Ibid.

906 USA

Today “Too scary? Elon Musk’s OpenAI company won’t release tech that can generate fake news” by Edward C. Baig (February 15th 2019)

907 MIT Technological Review “Fake News 2.0: personalized, optimized, and even harder to stop” by Will Knight (March 27th 2018)

908 Scientific America “Could AI Be the Future of Fake News and Product Reviews?” by Larry Greenemeier (October 16th 2017)

909 Ibid.

910 Observer “Spies Suspect Kremlin Is Pushing Dozens of Fake Trump Sex Tapes” by John R. Schindler (November 9th 2017)

911 New York Post “Russian offered to send prostitutes to Trump’s hotel room” by Mark Moore (November 9th 2017)

912 New York Daily News “Ex-Trump bodyguard testifies Russian operative offered to ‘send five women’ to future President’s hotel room” by Leonard Greene (November 9th 2017)

913 Brainy Quote - Winston Churchill

914 AZQuotes.com - Joseph Sobran Quotes

Insights on Mark Dice's The Bohemian Grove

Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6 Insights from Chapter 7 Insights from Chapter 8 Insights from Chapter 9 Insights from Chapter 10 Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 1



#1

The Bohemian Club is a club for artists, musicians, and writers that was established in San Francisco in 1872. It soon took a more rural turn, and by the early 1880s, the Bohemian Club was holding weekend campouts in the vast redwood forests around Sonoma County, California.

#2

The 2013 records show that the club took in $10,168,330 in revenue that year. They paid out $3,007,779 in salaries to the staff, and other expenses were listed at $2,971,656, which went to pay for the food, booze, insurance, electricity, building maintenance, etc. Their total expenses for the year were $5,997,272.

#3

The Bohemian Club, a club that hosts the Bohemian Grove, was sued for discrimination in 1978 by the Department of Fair Employment and Housing. The court ruled in favor of the club in 1981, but the feminists did not give up and continued to pursue the case.

#4

The Bohemian Grove, along with men’s country clubs, are able to turn down people of the opposite sex for membership without being sued for discrimination because these clubs are considered private, not public.

Insights from Chapter 2



#1

The Bohemian Grove’s mascot is an owl, or more specifically, the Owl of Minerva, who is the Goddess of wisdom. The Dictionary of Symbols says, In the Egyptian system of hieroglyphs, the owl symbolizes death, night, cold and passivity. It also pertains to the realm of the dead sun, that is, of the sun which has set below the horizon and which is crossing the lake or sea of darkness.

#2

A patron saint is someone who embodies a group’s philosophies or goals, and for the Bohemian Grove this is Saint John of Nepomuk. He was a priest who received the confessionals of the queen of Bohemia in the 1300s, and when pressured by the king to reveal her confessions, he refused and was then killed by the king.

#3

The Bohemian Grove’s motto is Weaving spiders come not here, which is said to mean that members and guests are not supposed to conduct business inside the Grove.

#4

The big secret of the Illuminati is that they believe that Satan is not bad, but came to earth to free mankind from enslavement by the Creator. They believe that God was a tyrant who did not want humans to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.



#5

The ruling class wants to evolve into Gods, and they believe that through the ancient secret and the emerging science of Transhumanism, they will achieve this.

Insights from Chapter 3



#1

Inside the Bohemian Grove, there are 124 different camps, each managed by a camp captain. Each camp has its own unique name and consists of anywhere from a dozen to one hundred men who work in the same field to provide networking opportunities.

#2

The Bohemian Club and the Bohemian Grove are two of the most exclusive and influential clubs in the world. They have been known to select politicians and other powerful people for their favor.

Insights from Chapter 4



#1

The Bilderberg Group, which has been meeting annually for the past sixty years, is a human sacrifice ritual where an effigy called Care is burned on an altar. The men chant No fire, no fire, no fire. Let it be kindled in the world where Care is nourished on the hates of men, and drive him from this Grove.

#2

The Bohemian Grove, a secretive San Francisco club, is where the ceremony depicted in the photos takes place. It’s one thing to read about the ceremony, or see the photos, but the video leaves you with your head shaking. It seems that some kind of bizarre secret ritual takes place there.

#3

In 2004, National Geographic magazine published a photo taken during a Cremation of Care ritual in 1915. The caption said, To purge himself of worldly concerns, a member of the elite Bohemian Club participated in a 1915 Cremation of Care ceremony.

#4

The Bible describes Molech sacrifices in detail, and explicitly condemns them as evil. It states that anyone from the Israelites or the foreigners who live in Israel who gives one of his children to Molech must be put to death.

#5

The symphonic poem The Isle of the Dead by Russian composer Sergie Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff tells the tale of a ghostly ferryman who transports the dead in his small rowboat, as it moves slowly across the calm dark water. The symphony was inspired by Swiss artist Arnold Böcklin’s famous Isle of the Dead painting.

#6

Presidential advisor David Gergen resigned from the Bohemian Club, three days after saying he would not run around naked at its annual Bohemian Grove encampment, and insisting he would not quit. He also resigned from the Bilderberg Group, the Council on Foreign Relations, and nearly all organizations dedicated to setting up a New World Order.

#7

The anchor for the CBS Evening News from 1962 to 1981, Walter Cronkite, is believed to have recorded the voice for the Owl Shrine that is played over the loudspeakers during part of the Cremation of Care.

Insights from Chapter 5



#1

The Bohemian Grove is a two-week-long annual gathering of the most powerful men in the world. The speakers mainly discuss political, economic, and business trends, and occasionally include information that is not publicly disclosed.

#2

The Bohemian Grove is a camp that members of the elite go to every summer. It is rumored that Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck were there as guests or possibly speakers in 2013 because they were both missing from their usual schedules at some point in time.

#3

The camp had four sessions: Jeffrey Toobin on the Supreme Court, David Martin on the Obama administration, Michail Armacost on China, and Arthur Laffer on economics.

#4

The summit was held on July 14-21, 2018. The topics of the talks were as follows: Friday, July 14: Global Financial Warriors by John Taylor, professor of economics at Stanford University. Monday, July 17: Untold Tales from the Cold War by Tom Reed, former Secretary of the Air Force.

#5



The Grove hosts many talks, but for the most part, they keep them secret. The only thing that is announced ahead of time is the speaker.

#6

The program was hosted by Charles Elachi, director of the Jet Propulsion Lab at the California Institute of Technology. The topics were: exploring Mars and searching for life in the universe, the landscape of American politics, the elections and their aftermath, state building, and the unrealized potential of the technological revolution.

#7

The festival had a wide variety of speakers and topics, from Yurek Martin, senior writer at the Financial Times of London, to Donald Rumsfeld, member of Nixon cabinet and future Secretary of Defense in the George W. Bush administration.

Insights from Chapter 6



#1

In 1980, a local resident named Mary Moore founded the Bohemian Grove Action Network with the purpose of infiltrating the Grove by having people obtain summer jobs there or by convincing those who already worked there to steal membership lists, program guides, and other information.

#2

In July of 2000, radio talk show host Alex Jones infiltrated the Bohemian Grove and videotaped the Cremation of Care ritual. He cut a hole in the side of a shoulder bag and mounted a camcorder inside, and sat in the bleachers with the rest of the approximately 1500 members and guests. He was accompanied by his thenproducer Mike Hanson.

#3

The Bohemian Grove, a redwood grove in Sonoma County north of San Francisco, is where the wealthy and well-placed gather every summer to socialize, lecture, and conduct rituals away from public scrutiny.

#4

In January 2002, a 37-year-old man named Richard McCaslin snuck into the Grove wearing a superhero outfit, a bulletproof vest, and armed with a fully loaded MK-1 rifle-shotgun. He was there to expose the ritualistic human sacrifices happening there.



#5

In 2005, Chris Jones, a man in his late thirties, got a job at the Bohemian Grove to gather photos and video evidence of what happens inside. He was able to get photos of some of the camps and elaborate clubhouses, as well as some close-up pictures of the site of the Cremation of Care ritual.

#6

The Bohemian Club, a secret society that’s been operating in California since the United States was founded, has been accused of cutting down some trees to prevent forest fires. However, this isn’t actually illegal.

#7

Guccifer, an anti-Illuminati hacker, accessed the emails of various Clinton, Bush, and Obama administration officials, including George W. Bush’s sister’s email where he found family photos.

Insights from Chapter 7



#1

The Bohemian Grove, which is a resort and campground located near San Francisco, is known for its homosexual activities. In 1989, reporter Philip Weiss snuck into the Grove and wrote a lengthy article about the rampant homosexuality there.

#2

It has been rumored that the Mitchell Brothers O’Farrell Theatre in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district has been a source of strippers and high-class call girls used by the Bohemians.

Insights from Chapter 8



#1

The Bohemian Grove, which is a club for the world’s richest and most powerful men, is also said to have performed a human sacrifice. These rumors involve claims of horrific sadistic acts that involve the sexual abuse of children and the production of snuff films.

#2

Around this same time, the Washington Times ran a front page story detailing a gay prostitution ring operating in Washington D. C. that provided teen call-boys to some very powerful and well-connected men. The article quietly went away, and has been forgotten by most Americans.

#3

The Guardian reported, Two newspaper executives have told the Observer that their publications were issued with D-notices – warnings not to publish intelligence that might damage national security – when they sought to report on allegations of a powerful group of men engaging in child sex abuse in 1984.

#4

The world’s lust for realistic and brutal horror movies shows that millions of people find excitement in watching people getting tortured and murdered. It's not hard to believe that some people would pay money to witness an actual murder in person.



#5

Hunter S. Thompson, a journalist known for his work with the Hells Angels, was also connected to the Bohemian Grove, where he allegedly propositioned a man to shoot a snuff film involving the murder of a child.

#6

Hunter S. Thompson’s former editorial assistant, Nickole Brown, posted an article online in 2005 recounting some of the bizarre behavior she had witnessed while working for him. She said he had thrown her out of the house for refusing to watch a snuff film.

#7

Sex magic is the belief and practice of generating sexual energy and directing it to shape the fabric of reality. It is similar to the Law of Attraction, but with sex. The Knights Templars, who learned about sex magic from the Tantrics of India, practiced it.

#8

Sex magic is not just a myth, and it is not just a fringe element of the occult. It is real, and it is disgusting. It involves taking a woman’s menstrual blood and a man’s semen, and then mixing them together and baking the fluids into cookies or a cake. Then you eat it.

#9

The author Cathy O’Brien, who wrote a book about her experiences with the Illuminati, claims that the Bohemian Grove has a Necrophilia theme room. In reality, only a small fraction of the members could possibly be so evil as to enjoy such things and no informants, guests, members or employees have ever mentioned such a thing.

#10

O’Brien claims that some of her abusers were George H. W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Dick Cheney, and Hillary Clinton, who she said performed oral sex on her on front of Bill. Yet, her CIA handlers decided to let her live to tell about it.

Insights from Chapter 9



#1

I used to try and get on the radio to question the hosts about Bohemian Grove, but every time I would get through to the call screener, they would hang up on me immediately as soon as I told them I had a question about Bohemian Grove.

#2

Bill O’Reilly, the host of the radio show, would take call after call on any topic. He would even hang up on people if their questions were off topic. I could understand if my question was irrelevant, but this was the segment where O’Reilly said, You can ask me whatever you want.

#3

Hannity: You are a kook. You are a nut. You are absolutely out of your mind insane. I’ve never been to the Bohemian Grove, sir. It’s just a great conspiracy.

#4

The Bohemian Grove is a club composed of elitist politicians and journalists who conduct secret meetings to take over the world. They run around naked, and no women are allowed.

#5

On the Savage Nation, I asked Savage about the Bohemian Grove and George W. Bush’s and Bush 41’s membership. He was skeptical at first, but did listen to me. When I told him that senator John DeCamp alleged that there were mock funerals there, he said, Well, that’s what everyone goes to the Bohemian Grove for.

#6

I once called Glenn Beck and asked him about the book The Resistance Manifesto. He replied by saying that I might have just gotten that entire show taken off the air because of me. I was promptly taken off the air.

#7

I was on the phone with Fox News host Tucker Colmes, who was asked about the Bohemian Grove and the Republican elite’s annual mock human sacrifice. He said he didn’t know anything about it, and quickly dropped the call.

#8

The Friday night free for all is where you set the agenda, you run the show, and you determine what we talk about. We cannot keep callers off the air as much as we would like to in some cases.

#9

I have continued to try to get onto the show as a guest. You are a phony and a fraud, and I am not going to put you on the air as a guest. It is not going to happen. That's that guy, anyway.

Insights from Chapter 10



#1

The Belizean Grove, a female-only retreat, was started in 2001 by Susan Stautberg, the president of PartnerCom Corporation, who gathered around 100 influential women to fly down to Belize and meet up every year for three days of balanced fun and bonding.

#2

The Belizean Grove is a all-female club that was founded in 2009 after Sonia Sotomayor was nominated for a position on the Supreme Court by President Barack Obama. It has been revealed that Republicans dug up dirt on Sotomayor and found that she was a member of this club, which supposedly discriminates against men.

Insights from Chapter 11



#1

The film Eyes Wide Shut is based on real events, and it has been suggested that the Bohemian Grove or the Illuminati sex orgies occur at the private parties of the ruling elite. The Killing Kittens club has popped up in recent years to hold Eyes Wide Shut themed parties in rented mansions.

#2

The world of politics and Hollywood is full of sex offenders and deviants, who regularly host secret orgies. It shouldn’t be much of a surprise that Eyes Wide Shut-type parties occur.

#3

South Park is a show that makes fun of pop culture figures, politicians, and religious beliefs. It is often distasteful and crude, but it is still funny. The use of the disclaimer This is what Mormons/ Scientologists believe was included in an episode about the Super Adventure Club, an organization of pedophiles who travel around the world to have sex with young boys.

#4

The man who did the voice for Mr. Burns on The Simpsons, Harry Shearer, wrote and directed a little known film that was a spoof on the Bohemian Grove. Shearer labeled the members of Bohemian Grove white Christians, and didn’t believe their activities were secret.



#5

Shearer is just one example of how many Hollywood actors are extremely wealthy. He was paid $400,000 per episode in 2008, but had to take a pay cut in 2013 to lower production costs of the show or else Fox was going to cancel it.

#6

The Turner Broadcasting Network, which owns the Cartoon Network, airs cartoons aimed at children. But after primetime, when most children are supposed to be in bed, the network changes its format to what they call Adult Swim and airs raunchy cartoons supposedly aimed at adults.

End of Insights. Thank you for reading.

Introduction

It sounds like the plot of a cheesy horror film; a group of the world’s most powerful men gather in a secluded forest once a year where they dress in black robes and perform a strange ceremony looking like a human sacrifice as they discuss their plans for world domination—but in this case it’s not the story in some movie, it’s the story of the Bohemian Grove.

Many people interested in “conspiracy theories” about the Illuminati and the New World Order have heard of the Bohemian Grove and probably know a few things about it, and if you’re one of these people, I promise this book will be packed with information and little-known details that few people have ever heard. It’s a story so bizarre, that many simply can’t believe it.

You are about to learn the hidden history, the strange rituals, and the secrets of one of the world’s most exclusive clubs. I will reveal the identity of their most powerful members and details of the over 100 different subgroups within and what world-changing ideas and events the Bohemian Grove has given birth to. I’ll cover what they call Lakeside Talks which are off the record speeches given by elite politicians and business titans to members in order to give them inside information about the speakers’ area of expertise. I will reveal the secret meaning of their motto, “weaving spiders come not here,” and the name of their patron saint and what he symbolizes. I’ll cover early investigations into the club and the leaks of their membership lists, maps, and year books; I will even reveal their tax returns and financial statements, and show you how we know what we know about this mysterious millionaires men’s retreat.

I will analyze the allegations of prostitutes servicing the members, and the gay orgies that are rumored to occur inside. I’ll also take a close look at the horrific allegations of murders and snuff films some say have occurred

inside the forest at the hands of members; and you’ll see why major talk radio hosts and the mainstream media are afraid to acknowledge the place even exists.

The Bohemian Grove is a 2700-acre redwood forest in northern California located about an hour north of San Francisco in a small town named Monte Rio. It is owned by the Bohemian Club, which is headquartered in San Francisco, and their forest—or “the Grove,” as it is called—serves as a vacation spot for around 1000 of the world’s most wealthy and powerful men who meet there every summer in the middle of July for a “men’s retreat.”

Every summer it’s common for both boys and girls to have retreats in the form of basketball camp or cheerleading camp, where the kids spend a week or so polishing their skills and going through various drills to improve their game. Of course, many Christian churches have annual men’s and women’s retreats which facilitate friendship and camaraderie among their church members, and the events also serve to further the attendees’ education on spiritual matters.

So, similarly, the Superclass, the Establishment, the Ruling Elite, the Illuminati—whatever name you want to call them—have their retreat as well, which serves as a place to rub elbows with other industry leaders and powerful politicians in a private, relaxed, and informal environment.

The annual mid-summer encampment at the Bohemian Grove has been called the “greatest men’s party on earth” by members, who include many presidents, military leaders, famous journalists, and top businessmen who enjoy getting away from their wives and the public eye for a bit to let loose and mingle with other like-minded individuals. The gathering lasts for two weeks from mid-July to the end of the month, with some men coming for a weekend, and others staying for an entire week or longer. The men call each other Bohos or Grovers, and members often bring guests with them, but they must be prescreened and approved beforehand by the club.



The term Bohemian refers to people who live non-traditional lifestyles and people who are adventurers, or vagabonds. Ever since it was started, the club’s logo has been an owl because it symbolizes wisdom since it can “see in the dark.” This is because the elite members view themselves as wise and enlightened beings. A forty-foot tall concrete “owl” shrine was constructed inside the Bohemian forest, and every year since 1929 has been the site of the annual Cremation of Care ceremony, one of the strangest aspects of this elite retreat. This is the ritual which they perform each year to kick off their two week long “encampment.”

The Cremation of Care consists of an elaborate production involving live music and fireworks—and a human sacrifice reenactment where a lifesize effigy of a person is placed on an altar at the base of the giant owl shrine and then burned or “sacrificed.” Critics claim the ritual is a toned down and theatrical version of an ancient human sacrifice to Canaanite Gods or the Devil.

It sounds so bizarre, many people chalk it up to an urban legend or an Internet conspiracy theory, but I’ll prove to you in this book that such a thing does happen, and the “rumors” are in fact true. In the 1980s, and 90s as word slowly spread about this place, occasionally a reporter tried to sneak inside the now highly guarded compound, but (at least at the time I’m writing this in mid-2015) little to nothing has been reported in the mainstream media about this fascinating (and frightening) forest.

In the past, membership lists and program guides would sometimes get stolen and made public by employees, and in the 1980s a group called the Bohemian Grove Action Network dedicated themselves to doing just that. The membership list, one of which I personally have in my possession thanks to a former employee, has included every Republican U.S. President since 1923, many cabinet officials, directors and CEO’s of large corporations and major financial institutions, and top military brass.

Some of these names include George W. Bush, George H. W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, Dwight

Eisenhower, Alan Greenspan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and many other mainly Republican members and guests. No current president attends because their schedule and whereabouts is too closely watched, but before and after they are in office they can be found in the Grove.

Some consider the Bohemian Grove to be like a Skull & Bones club for adults, and see the Cremation of Care ceremony as being similar to the satanic induction ritual that “Bonesmen” are put through in college, only with a few extra zeroes added to the budget. As you may be aware, the Skull & Bones “fraternity” located at Yale University recruits fifteen new seniors each spring to join their club and then grooms them for a possible high-level position in the Eastern Establishment once they graduate. Their initiation rituals are blatantly satanic and involve a simulated human sacrifice as well.1

Many people dismiss Skull & Bones as just a “fraternity” for rich kids, but it is far from a fraternity. In reality it is a senior society, meaning people don’t become a member until their senior year, and the organization is designed as an entryway to America’s Establishment and geared for the students’ post-graduate life. They hold meetings every Thursday and Sunday night during the school year to indoctrinate the new members with the philosophies and tactics of the ruling class—where, by the way, no alcohol is drank, or even allowed inside their clubhouse.2

What kind of a college “fraternity” doesn’t allow alcohol in their clubhouse? One that is very serious about their goals of gaining and maintaining power. If you take the time to study Skull & Bones, you will see beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they are far from a “fraternity,” and are in fact a deadly serious secret society with direct connections to the Bavarian Illuminati in Germany which was started by Adam Weishaupt.

So the “kids” in Skull & Bones conduct a satanic human sacrifice reenactment ritual in college, but then instead of outgrowing this juvenile frat boy “phase,” they become involved in even more elaborate and strange

rituals when they are well established adults and old men at the Bohemian Grove!

Is this where the secret rulers of the world meet to plot the course of planet earth? Is the mainstream media part of a cover-up to blackout any mention of the club? What is the evidence for the allegations made about the Grove? Is this annual gathering the Bilderberg Group’s summer camp? Are they really performing satanic rituals or human sacrifices? You are about to learn the answers to these questions and more, and we take a close look into The Bohemian Grove: Facts & Fiction.





History of the Grove

The Bohemian Club was started in San Francisco in 1872 by artists, musicians, and writers as an excuse for late-night drinking for those who supported Bohemianism which had become quite trendy in the late 19th and early 20th century. These Bohemians celebrated hedonism and overindulgence, and reveled in rebelling against the conservative conventions of the culture. Soon after its formation, businessmen and those with money joined the party and were called “men of use” by the original artistic founders, who called themselves “men of talent.”3 The artists enjoyed having the wealthy newcomers help foot the bill for their increasingly elaborate parties.

What originally began in their San Francisco clubhouse soon took a more rural turn. By the early 1880s, the Bohemian Club was holding weekend campouts during the summer in the vast redwood forests around Sonoma County, California. In 1893 they began renting the location now known as the Bohemian Grove from the Sonoma Lumber Company and later purchased 160-acres of the forest in 1901, later expanding their ownership to the current 2712 acres [over four square miles].

Most men’s clubs meet in Masonic lodges or fancy country clubs, but because of its unique rural atmosphere, the Bohemian Grove soon became a favorite spot where wealthy men could relive their college days of partying like there was no tomorrow. In the 1930s the Bohemian Grove became a favorite of U.S. Presidents as sort of a Camp David in the woods, and this is when word about the Grove began to quiet and the media blackout began. Members and guests enter the campground with the strict understanding that what goes on at the Bohemian Grove stays at the Bohemian Grove, and discussions—whether personal or business related—are all completely “off the record.”



The Grove is not “just a campground.” There are hundreds of structures inside ranging from elaborate clubhouses and sleeping quarters to a massive industrial kitchen and large amphitheaters—all of which is maintained by a rather large staff, not to mention guarded by an expensive security force and local police. As you may imagine maintaining such a luxurious facility is not cheap.

Back in 1887, the entrance fee for joining the club was $100 and the dues were $3.00 a month. By 1930 this had risen to $500 and $15 a month after that. In the 1990s, the initiation fee was $10,000 with $120 a month dues.4 There is a ten to fifteen year waiting list for new applicants, and in order to even be considered for membership two current non-related members must sponsor the prospect, who is then thoroughly screened by a membership committee before being placed on the wait list.

Since few men actually quit the club, most aspiring members literally have to usually wait until someone dies to then take their place. Many of the members are in their sixties and seventies, and a few of them usually pass away each year.

The Bohemian Club is registered with the IRS as a 501(c)7 Social Club, which makes them exempt from federal income tax and possibly state property tax as well. One of the requirements for 501(c) organizations is that their financial records are made available to the public for inspection— if you know where to look. I have been able to obtain these documents and they are quite interesting.

The 2013 records show that the club took in $10,168,330 dollars in revenue that calendar year.5 They paid out $3,007,779 in salaries to the staff, and “other expenses” were listed at $2,971,656, which went to pay for the food, booze, insurance, electricity, building maintenance, etc. Their total expenses for the year were $5,997,272. Total assets are listed at $20,428,708. Yes—twenty million dollars!



The general manager or the chief operating officer, Matthew Oggero was paid $556,897. The executive chef Jean-Marie Rigollet was paid $164,515. The controller Michael Boozing was paid $146,240; the HR director Jennifer Robertson was paid $145,385; the Grove Keeper James Daniel took in $146,874; and the financial director Deena Soulon was paid $222,071.

The forms note, “The compensation of all management employees are reviewed and approved annually by the compensation committee consisting of the president, vice president, and treasurer, who also set the composition benefits for the general manager.”6 Each Bohemian Grove member casts one vote for each position the governing body fills.

The first book dedicated to exposing the Bohemian Grove was published in 1974 titled The Bohemian Grove and other Retreats, written by William Domhoff, a sociologist and professor who taught at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He starts off the book explaining that upper-class retreats are of a major sociological relevance because, “they increase the social cohesiveness of America’s rulers and provide private settings in which business and political problems can be discussed informally and off the record.”7

Domhoff and a handful of other scholars who are familiar with the Grove insist it’s not just a vacation hideaway for the rich and powerful, but instead functions to facilitate the ruling class network and elitist ideologies which affects the entire world.

The book also exposed the Cremation of Care ritual, and starts off the first page saying, “You are one of fifteen hundred men gathered together from all over the country for the annual encampment of the rich and famous at the Bohemian Grove. And you are about to take part in a strange ceremony that has marked every Bohemian Grove gathering since 1880.”8 It goes on to include a full transcript and detailed description of the Cremation of Care, which was a historic revelation at the time, especially since this was back in the 1970s—decades before the Information Age.



Almost ten years after Domhoff’s book came out, ABC News surprisingly aired a segment about the Bohemian Grove in 1981. Somebody, somehow, was able to get a copy of this report from their archives and posted it on YouTube in 2006 where it can be seen today.9 The anchor at the time was Frank Reynolds, who began the segment asking, “What have Herbert Hoover, Art Linkletter, Jack London and Richard Nixon all had in common? Well, they’ve all been members of the exclusive all male, Bohemian Club in California, where every year at this time the elite from around the country get together for two and half weeks of, um, fun and games.”10

The segment then went on to reveal that more than 2000 members and guests spend two weeks camped out in the secluded redwood forest and named Gerald Ford, Henry Kissinger, George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, and Richard Nixon as members, along with executives at Standard Oil and Bank of America. “Privacy is one of the Grove’s most cherished virtues,” the report continues. “Members may not photograph, record, speak or write about activities at the retreat. While many public officials are Grove members, the press is a distinctly unwelcome guest.”

The segment even showed a photograph of the Cremation of Care and included an interview with sociologist William Domhoff who explained, “With the ceremony called the Cremation of Care that begins the two week encampment, where the body of Dull Care—symbolizing woes and concerns—is burned on an altar in front of a big owl statue, when that ceremony ends, they all start to cheer and yell, and hand each other a beer.”11

The segment also pointed out that no women were allowed, not even as employees [at the time], and admitted the atomic bomb was developed by club insiders. The senior ABC News editor must have been on vacation, or the Bohemian Grove became arrogant and didn’t think a major news network would betray the strict editorial control by Establishment insiders which usually prevents such stories from making it to the airwaves.



Since this historic segment over three decades ago, there hasn’t been a single national news organization that has made a peep about the Bohemian Grove—at least as of mid-2015 when I’m writing this book—not even a tabloid news show. Pretty much only alternative news sites, and the local Sonoma County Press Democrat newspaper have ever acknowledged it even exists.

A staff of several hundred people help run the place during the summer encampment, working to cook food and keep up the grounds, most of them local high school kids from nearby towns who have no idea about the identities of the men they are serving. For almost 100 years only men (and teenage boys) were allowed to work inside. But as powerful as the Bohemian Grove is, they were not strong enough to prevent the feminists from crashing their party. In 1978 the club was charged with discrimination by the Department of Fair Employment and Housing for not hiring female employees.12

The club fought the charge and in 1981 a judge dismissed the case, but this was only a temporary victory. The judge’s decision was based on the members’ freedom to associate with who they wanted to associate with and included a statement that since the men “urinate in the open without even the use of rudimentary toilet facilities,” the presence of women would infringe on the men’s right to privacy.

The feminists didn’t give up though and continued to pursue the case. Another judge overruled the previous decision a few months later and ordered the club to begin hiring women.13 The club filed an appeal with the Supreme Court arguing that their freedom to associate was being violated, but the Court found against the Bohemian Grove.

To be clear, the Court didn’t say they had to allow women as members, but did force them to hire women as employees. There is a world of difference between being a member (or guest) and being an employee at the Grove. The employees are mainly contained in the kitchen and dining

area, and do not mingle with the guests in their clubhouses or throughout the grounds.

Despite losing their vigorous battle hoping to prevent women from working at the Grove, the Bohos find it amusing that women now work in the kitchen, “where they belong,” so it really wasn’t much of a victory for the feminists at all, since the “civil rights” victory against their “discrimination” is really just a big joke to the Bohos.

The Unruh Civil Rights Act states, “All persons within the jurisdiction of [California] are free and equal, and no matter what their sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, or disability are entitled to the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, privileges, or services in all business establishments of every kind whatsoever,” so how is it that the Bohemian Grove is able to legally “discriminate” against women as members?

The Bohemian Grove, along with men’s country clubs—or conversely, all-female organizations like the Girl Scouts, are able to turn down people of the opposite sex for membership without being sued for discrimination because these clubs are considered private, not public. Marcy Frost, an employment attorney at Moss & Barnett, explains, “If you are truly a private club, and not open to the public, the answer is generally, yes, you’re allowed to discriminate on the theory we have a Constitutional right of freedom of association.”14

It’s called the “private club exemption” from civil rights legislation. This issue of “legal discrimination” gets into a gray area when people begin arguing over what is considered a private verses a public club. So, at least for now, membership at the Grove remains exclusively reserved for men, but they now have to include women (and teenage girls) as employees who serve the men.

Back in 2008 when Hillary Clinton was first running for president, Bill Clinton was speaking at a campaign event when a heckler began

shouting at him about the Bohemian Grove. There was a pretty big crowd and security couldn’t immediately make it to the man to throw him out and his repeated interruptions were derailing Bill’s speech, finally causing him to respond.

“The Bohemian Club? Did you say the Bohemian Club? That’s where all those rich Republicans go up and stand naked against redwood trees right? I’ve never been to the Bohemian Club, but you ought to go. It’d be good for you. You’d get some fresh air.”15

His comment about “standing naked against redwood trees” refers to the common practice of members just whipping it out and peeing almost anywhere as if they were teenagers again at summer camp. It’s a fun thing for them to do apparently, and is part of the Bohemian Grove culture. The practice is literally encouraged and visitors have reported repeatedly seeing men everywhere around the club peeing on the side of trees or in some bushes instead of making their way to a bathroom.

Bill Clinton was also right about it being primarily a Republican club. Most, but not all of the members, tend to be Republicans who have historically been more involved with big business than Democrats. With the exception of Bill Clinton’s surprising outburst about this “Republican club,” no Democrats have dared to publicly denounce the Bohemian Grove, afraid of a backlash by their Establishment colleagues in Washington. Like the Bilderberg Group, it appears even mentioning the Bohemian Grove is off limits for most politicians.16

 





Their Symbols, Saint, and Motto

The Owl

The Bohemian Grove’s mascot (and logo) is an owl, or more specifically, the Owl of Minerva (or Athena, the Greek equivalent), who is the Goddess of wisdom. Interestingly this is the same symbol that Adam Weishaupt, founder of the Illuminati, used as his personal emblem as well.17 Within the Bavarian Illuminati in Germany, Weishaupt had also created a level in the hierarchy called the Minervals.18 An owl symbolizes wisdom because it can “see in the dark” which is analogous to being enlightened.

Pictures of owls are often seen in school classrooms standing on top of a small stack of books in order to symbolize knowledge. The National Press Club’s logo contains an owl standing on a book for this reason. Owls are also seen as guardians, and you may often see an owl statue on the top of a building in order to scare away other birds in hopes of preventing them from congregating on the ledge of the roof so they won’t dirty the building’s face with their droppings—or worse, hit passersby on the sidewalk below.

The Dictionary of Symbols by J.E. Cirlot says, “In the Egyptian system of hieroglyphs, the owl symbolizes death, night, cold and passivity. It also pertains to the realm of the dead sun, that is, of the sun which has set below the horizon and which is crossing the lake or sea of darkness.”19

A tiny owl can be found hidden in the design of the American one dollar bill, perched on the upper left corner of the frame that surrounds the

“1” located in the upper right hand corner. This isn’t just a case of people seeing something that looks like an owl popping out of a random pattern; it’s clear someone purposefully included it in the design. Some people also see an owl figure designed into the street layout of Washington D.C., appearing on top of the U.S. Capitol building when looking at the location from overhead or on a map. This one is a bit more ambiguous, but still may have been included on purpose by the Freemason architects who are known for their use of occult symbols.20

There is also a giant 40-foot tall concrete statue of an owl standing inside the Bohemian Grove on the shore of their manmade lake which is the site of the Cremation of Care ritual. Many think the “owl” looks more like a demon with horns actually, and at its feet is a large altar where the life-size human effigy (called “Care”) is “sacrificed” each year to kick-off the encampment.

Many people also believe this “idol” represents Molech, an ancient god from the Middle East that the Canaanite culture used to sacrifice their children to. Before the construction of the owl, there stood a large Buddha statue from 1892 to 1928 that was made of plaster of Paris. More on the Cremation of Care in a later chapter.



The Patron Saint

A patron saint is someone who embodies a group’s philosophies or goals, and for the Bohemian Grove this is a man named Saint John of Nepomuk. He was a priest who received the confessionals of the queen of Bohemia in the 1300s, and when pressured by the king to reveal her confessions after he suspected her of cheating on him, Saint John refused and was then killed by the king.

A large statue of Saint John carved from the trunk of a tree stands inside their forest showing him holding his index finger over his mouth, signifying the nonverbal gesture to keep your mouth shut and be quiet, paralleling Robert De Niro’s motto in Goodfellas that you “never rat on your friends, and always keep your mouth shut.” Their patron saint serves to remind Bohos of their oath of secrecy and that what happens in the Bohemian Grove, stays in the Bohemian Grove.



Weaving Spiders Come Not Here

The motto of the Bohemian Grove is “Weaving spiders come not here,” which is said to mean that members and guests are not supposed to conduct business inside the Grove—“weaving” meaning working, but this explanation is just a cover story for the saying’s true meaning. “Weaving spiders come not here” actually means “don’t dare challenge the members,” (or really, the “Gods,” as they see themselves) and is an allegory that comes from an ancient story in Greek mythology.

According to the tale, a woman weaver named Arachne once disrespected Athena, the Goddess of weaving, by failing to acknowledge that her weaving talent was a gift from the Goddess and not derived from her own power. Arachne even pridefully boasted that she was a better weaver than the Goddess herself. Angered by her lack of respect, Athena then turned Arachne into a spider, subjecting her and her descendants to weave webs forever as a curse for disrespecting the Gods.

The Bohos claim that their saying “weaving spiders come not here” is taken from a Shakespeare play called A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but given the elite’s appreciation for the occult and Greek mythology, not to mention their elitist attitude that they are gods among men, this explanation appears to be simply just a cover story for non-members used as an attempt to defuse the allegations that they conduct business in the Grove, which as you will see later in this book is quite common.

Albert Pike, a favorite philosopher among elite Freemasons, wrote that “Masonry, like all the Religions, all the Mysteries, Hermeticism and Alchemy, conceals its secrets from all except the Adepts and Sages, or the Elect, and uses false explanations and misinterpretations of its symbols to mislead those who deserve only to be misled; to conceal the Truth, which it

[the Mason] calls Light, from them, and to draw them away from it.”21 So it should not come as a surprise to learn that the actual meaning of sayings and symbols by elitist organizations are not what we are told.



The Secret of Satan

When you first hear allegations about the ruling elite, or the Illuminati “worshiping Satan” it is hard for many to believe at first, but once you take a close look at the philosophies of the ruling class and the big secret of occult fraternities, it becomes undeniable that this is what’s happening. Do you think this book just took a turn into “crazy tinfoil hat-wearing conspiracy land?” Stick with me for a moment and let me explain and I’m sure you will soon agree.

Everyone, whether they believe it is literally true or just a myth, is familiar with the story of the Garden of Eden and the serpent temping Adam and Eve into eating the forbidden fruit, causing what is called the Fall of Man or the first sin. Adam and Eve were then banished from Paradise and the entire human race was cursed from that point on.

The big secret, or the “royal secret,” as it is often called, is that many men (and women) involved in secret societies believe that Satan is not bad, but instead came to earth to free Mankind from enslavement at the hands of the Creator, who in their view is seen as a tyrant who wanted to keep humans ignorant, hence forbade them from eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

The big secret taught within elite secret societies is that Satan the rebel “wanted to help” us poor humans, and risking his own eternal banishment from Heaven, he disobeyed God and encouraged Eve to eat the forbidden fruit to begin mankind’s supposed evolution to Godhood by giving them the power [knowledge] that the Creator supposedly was holding back from them out of selfishness or malevolence.



According to the Bible, Satan claimed Man could “become like God” if they listened to him and disobeyed the Creator, and this is the secret of secrets (arcanum arcanorum) of the Illuminati. In 1854 French occultist Eliphas Levi wrote, “There is indeed a formidable secret, the revelation of which has once already transformed the world, as testified in Egyptian religious tradition…This secret constitutes the fatal Science of Good and Evil, and the consequence of its revelation is death.”22

Manly P. Hall, who is considered to be Freemasonry’s “greatest philosopher,” revealed in his 1928 book The Secret Teachings of All Ages that, “The serpent is true to the principle of wisdom, for it tempts man to the knowledge of himself. Therefore the knowledge of self resulted from man’s disobedience to the Demiurgus, Jehovah [God].”23 Hall also stated that, “Both the sinking of Atlantis and the Biblical story of the ‘fall of man’ signify spiritual involution—a prerequisite to conscious evolution.”24

Helena Blavatsky, who was a major spiritual inspiration for Adolf Hitler, wrote in her 1888 book The Secret Doctrine, that, “Thus Lucifer— the spirit of Intellectual Enlightenment and Freedom of Thought—is metaphorically the guiding beacon, which helps man to find his way through the rocks and sand banks of Life, for Lucifer is the Logos in his highest.”25

Albert Pike, another highly esteemed historical figure of Freemasonry wrote, “Lucifer, the Light-bearer! Strange and mysterious name to give to the Spirit of Darkness! Lucifer, the Son of the Morning! Is it he who bears the Light, and with its splendors intolerable, blinds feeble, sensual, or selfish souls? Doubt it not!”26

Even the infamous Satanist Aleister Crowley admitted this is what he believed was the biggest secret of life, saying, “This serpent, Satan, is not the enemy of Man, be He who made Gods of our race, knowing Good and Evil; He bade ‘Know Thyself!’ and taught Initiation. He is ‘the Devil’ of the book of Thoth, and His emblem is Baphomet, and Androgyne who is the hieroglyph of arcane perfection.”27



Saul Alinsky, the leftist radical who Hillary Clinton wrote her college thesis on, acknowledged Satan in his book Rules for Radicals as the first rebel who stood up to the tyranny he said was imposed by God. According to the scriptures, Satan said, “ye shall be as gods,” if you follow his advice, and this is what the elite are striving for. They believe that through this ancient secret and the emerging science of Transhumanism, that they themselves will “evolve” into Gods as the final phase of human evolution.28

The plan to “conquer death” is being promoted as a real possibility through Transhumanism, which involves modifying our DNA or all together replacing our biological brains and bodies with interchangeable mechanical and silicon based systems.29

This is a topic for a whole other book, which I am currently working on, but this is in short the top priority of the ruling class. If my Transhumanism book is not out at the time you are reading this, there is a section on this topic in my book Inside the Illuminati: Evidence, Objectives, and Methods of Operation if you would like to learn some of the details about this disturbing agenda.

 



The Different Subcamps

Inside the Bohemian Grove there are approximately 124 different groups or camps—each having their own sleeping quarters, kitchen and bar, and each managed by a camp captain who is responsible for overseeing their group.30 Each different camp has its own unique name and consists of anywhere from a dozen to around one hundred men who tend to work in the same field to provide commonality and networking opportunities.

For example, the Hill Billies camp is made up mainly of men in big business, bankers, politicians, and media moguls from the state of Texas. The sign for the Hill Billies’ camp, which the Bush family belongs to, consists of a cloven hoofed and horned Devil figure.31 One of most elite camps is Mandalay, which is comprised of former presidents and other top political figures along with major defense contractors. No seated president ever attends the summer encampment because his schedule and location is so closely monitored that his visitation would bring too much unwanted attention to the Grove, but once they are out of office (and before they are even elected) many make it a priority to be there.

Another elite camp of former presidents and high ranking military personnel and defense contractors is Owls Nest. The Hillside camp is made up of Joint Chiefs of Staff members and other top military brass. Other camp names include the Lost Angels which is where major bankers and media executives belong. Uplifters is made up of corporate executives and international business big wigs. The Rockefeller family and other big oil men have their own camp as well called the Stowaways.

It’s quite obvious that having the Grove broken up into small subgroups which are comprised mainly of men who work in the same field facilitates discussions revolving around areas of overlapping interest. Sociologist Peter Phillips, who was a guest inside the Bohemian Grove on

two occasions and who earned his Ph. D. by writing his doctoral dissertation on it in 1994, wrote, “Sharing a camp together at the Grove gives Bohemian directors of major U.S. policy councils ample opportunity to discuss current affairs and socio-economic policy issues. Watching and listening to reactions to Lakeside Chats by various other Bohemians also gives policy directors an opportunity to evaluate policy concerns from the broad sampling of the American corporate business community encamped at the Grove. In this sense, the Grove serves as an informal evaluatory feedback process to the top socio-economic domestic and foreign policy councils in the United States.”32

Although the club claims the mid-summer encampment is just a vacation, and “weaving spiders come not here,” some major worldchanging programs have admittedly been hatched in the Grove. For example, the Manhattan Project (the plan for the atomic bomb) was admittedly conceived inside the club in 1942.33 Aside from the birth of the atomic bomb, the United Nations was hatched from the inside the club as well.34

Peter Phillips’ dissertation reveals, “One of the foremost political events in which the Bohemian political network played a significant role was the United Nations Conference of International Organization (UNCIO), April 25th to June 26, 1945 in San Francisco. This was the original formation meeting for the United Nations, with delegates from fifty nations. Receptions for UNCIO delegates and key dignitaries were held at the Bohemian Club on May 17, May 29, June 4, and June 5. Towards the end of the U.N. conference the Club invited all delegates to a program at the Grove.”35

It is rumored that Alan Greenspan was chosen to be the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank shortly after a meeting in the Grove where insiders came to a consensus that he should be their man. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s successful bid for governor of California in 2003 after a special recall election to replace then-governor Gray Davis was allegedly given the green light by the Establishment following a visit to the Grove as well.36



There is even a picture of Ronald Reagan when he was the Governor of California sitting down with Richard Nixon (who would be elected president the following year), taken in 1967 showing them inside the Bohemian Grove together where they were said to have been coordinating their future political careers.37 Nixon even admitted in his memoirs that the path to his presidency began with his visit to the Bohemian Grove.38

President Dwight Eisenhower’s road to the White House also began in the Bohemian Grove. In 1950, two years before he was elected president, he was a guest during the summer encampment and gave a Lakeside Talk that impressed the Establishment insiders. We know of this because President Richard Nixon openly admitted it in his memoirs!

He wrote, “After Eisenhower’s speech we went back to Cave Man Camp and sat around the campfire appraising it. Everyone liked Eisenhower, but the feeling was that he had a long way to go before he would have the experience, the depth, and the understanding to be President. But it struck me forcibly that Eisenhower’s personality and personal mystique had deeply impressed the skeptical and critical Cave Man audience.”39 Nixon was later chosen as his vice president.

After learning how the geopolitical system really works once inside the Oval Office, apparently Eisenhower’s conscience began bothering him. During his famous presidential farewell address in 1961 when his two terms were up he warned Americans that, “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”40

There are also rumors that in the build-up to the 2000 presidential election Bohemian Grove members George Bush Senior, Colin Powell, and other neocons had come to a consensus at the summer encampment that Dick Cheney should be George W. Bush’s running mate as VP.



 





The Cremation of Care Ritual

When you learn the details of the Cremation of Care, or see the photos or the video footage, it becomes clear why the mainstream media has maintained a near complete blackout on this issue for decades. In the age of social media, word about the Bilderberg Group—which meets every spring in a five-star hotel for three days of secret off the record talks—has spread far and wide, so the mainstream media can no longer completely ignore their annual gathering.41 While it may be somewhat simple to paint the Bilderberg Group as just another boring conference—explaining away the Cremation of Care is not so easy.

Basically, it is a human sacrifice ritual—only instead of sacrificing an actual person, they use a life-size effigy consisting of a metal skeletal framework wrapped with paper which is burned on an altar at the base of the 40-foot tall Owl Shrine. Close-up photos taken by a former employee reveal the effigy has two arms and two legs and is the size of an adult. The ritual kicks off the two-week encampment at sunset on the second Saturday of July each year, where a small number of members carry out the ceremony while the majority of others sit on a set of bleachers and watch.

It is conducted by a “High Priest” who wears a silver robe with a red cape. He is accompanied on stage by around two dozen other men who wear long black and red robes, some of whom are holding flaming torches. The High Priest also wears a wireless microphone which broadcasts over a sound system so the audience of around 1000 men can hear him. He begins by saying, “The owl is in his leafy temple; let all within the Grove be reverent before him. Lift up your heads, O ye trees, and be ye lift up, ye ever-living spires. For behold, here is Bohemia’s Shrine and holy are the pillars of this house. Weaving spiders, come not here!”



He continues, “Nay, thou mocking spirit, it is not all a dream. We know thou waitest for us when this our sylvan holiday shall end. And we shall meet and fight thee as of old, and some of us prevail against thee, and some thou shalt destroy…But this, too, we know: year after year, within this happy Grove, our fellowship has banned thee for a space, and thy malevolence that would pursue us here has lost its power beneath these friendly trees. So shall we burn thee once again this night and in the flames that eat thine effigy we’ll read the sign: Midsummer set us free!”

It is a very elaborate ceremony with a live symphony orchestra playing music at certain points for dramatic effect. The effigy is called Care, and the ritual is said to symbolically be the killing of Care, or the ritualistic “casting off their cares” so the men can have a good time at their party. As the ritual reaches its climax and the effigy is set on fire, screaming is played over the sound system, and once it is fully engulfed in flames, fireworks are set off and the crowd cheers in excitement.

The High Priest continues “Oh owl! Prince of all mortal wisdom. Owl of Bohemia, we beseech thee, grant us thy council.” A short song is then sung with lyrics that go: “No fire, no fire, no fire. Let it be kindled in the world where Care is nourished on the hates of men and drive him from this Grove. One flame alone must light this fire, one flame alone must light this fire. A pure, eternal flame, a pure, eternal flame. At last within the lamp of fellowship upon the altar of Bohemia.”

The High Priest then concludes, “Oh, great owl of Bohemia! We thank thee for thy adoration! Be gone detested Care! Be gone! Once more, we banish thee! Be gone, dull Care! Fire shall have its will of thee! Be gone, dull Care and all the winds make merry with thy dust! Hail fellowship’s eternal flame! Once again, midsummer sets us free!”

The first photo of the ceremony to be published came from a flier given to members within the Grove which was stolen by an employee and given to a group of activists called the Bohemian Grove Action Network

which was formed in the 1980s by a woman named Mary Moore who lives nearby in the neighboring town of Occidental.

Radio host and founder of Infowars.com, Alex Jones, snuck into the Bohemian Grove in July of the year 2000, and using a small video camera secretly recorded the entire ceremony and released the footage as part of a documentary film called Dark Secrets: Inside Bohemian Grove. By this time, there had been various photos available online of the ritual and many rumors of its occurrence, but Jones’ footage confirmed once and for all that such a thing did in fact take place. The footage can be viewed on YouTube and is quite shocking.42

A British TV producer named Jon Ronson documented Alex Jones’ infiltration for a segment of his own television series titled Secret Rulers of the World, which then featured some of Jones’ footage. Ronson, initially a skeptic who appeared to mock the “conspiracy theories,” was himself stunned to learn they were true. “As incredible as it sounds, it seems that some kind of bizarre secret ritual witnessed by world leaders really does take place in the forests of Northern California,” he said.43

When Ronson contacted the Grove for a comment on the newly shot footage they gave him a brief statement saying, “The Cremation of Care is a musical and verse pageant heralding a two week midsummer escape from business cares and celebrating nature and good fellowship. As grand scale stage drama it may be a bit overdrawn, but it’s about as innocent as anything could be.”44

It’s one thing to read about the ceremony, or see the photos, but the video leaves you with your head shaking. When I first saw it myself in the early 2000s, I thought it was a ceremony conducted by a small and powerless pagan cult and that Alex Jones was crazy for claiming such high profile people were in attendance, but he was right. I first came across Jones’ footage on a torrent site after searching for videos about the Illuminati. This was before video hosting sites like YouTube, Vimeo, and Dailymotion were created, and bit torrents were the primary way people

shared videos through peer-to-peer file sharing applications like BearShare and Morpheus.

After Jones’ infiltration, the club beefed up security and began using thermal imaging scanners and K-9 police tracker dogs to identify anyone lurking around the grounds who doesn’t belong there. Anyone who attempts to sneak inside will be charged with trespassing.

In 2004, National Geographic magazine published a photo taken during a Cremation of Care ritual in 1915 and included a caption saying, “To purge himself of worldly concerns, a member of the elite Bohemian Club participated in a 1915 Cremation of Care ceremony—complete with candles and a robed and hooded comrade to guide him. This private club of influential men still meets annually north of San Francisco and uses this symbolic ritual to kick off its summer retreat. But today the ceremony involves burning a mummy-like effigy named Care at the foot of the group’s mascot: a 40-foot-tall (12-meter-tall) concrete owl.”45



Molech

In the ancient Middle East, the Canaanites and the Phoenicians would regularly sacrifice their children to a horned god called Molech (sometimes spelled Moloch or Molekh). This horrifying ritual consisted of building a fire at the base of the Molech idol, which had its arms extended out over the fire pit, and then having the village high priest lift up a couple’s first-born infant son and place him into the arms of the beast, resulting in the child burning alive over the flames. Many people believe that this was the inspiration behind the Cremation of Care ritual.

David Icke, a popular British conspiracy theorist best known for his belief that the Illuminati are supposedly “reptilian shape-shifting aliens,” claims, “Today, these elite names are still doing ritual sacrifices of children at Bohemian Grove.”46 Yes, David Icke believes the ritual is a real human sacrifice!

Icke also believes the earth is hollow with ancient civilizations living deep inside it,47 and thinks the moon is a giant spacecraft just like the Death Star in Star Wars he says was built by aliens in order to watch over planet earth.48

The book of Leviticus in the Bible describes Molech sacrifices at length, and specifically denounces it as evil. “Don’t sacrifice your children on the altar fires to the god Molech,” it reads.49 It goes on to give specific instructions as to the punishment for such actions. “The Lord spoke to Moses: You are to say to the Israelites, Any man from the Israelites or from the foreigners who reside in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech must be put to death; the people of the land must pelt him with stones.”50



It continues, “I myself will set my face against that man and cut him off from the midst of his people, because he has given some of his children to Molech and thereby defiled my sanctuary and profaned my holy name.”51



Music During Ceremony

The symphonic poem The Isle of the Dead by Russian composer Sergie Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff tells the tale of a ghostly ferryman who transports the dead in his small rowboat, as it moves slowly across the calm dark water. The symphony was inspired by Swiss artist Arnold Böcklin’s famous Isle of the Dead painting which shows a coffin being transported to the symbolic grave depicted by the dark nothingness off in the distance.

Rachmaninoff’s symphony is played by an actual live orchestra during the beginning of the Cremation of Care ritual as a hooded boatman dressed as Death paddles his rowboat along with the coffin containing Care across the pond in front of the stage where “Molech” stands. Beethoven’s 7th Symphony is played later during the ritual.



David Gergen Confrontation

A top advisor to Presidents Ford, Nixon, Reagan, and Clinton— named David Gergen, who also worked as a CNN contributor, was confronted on camera by Alex Jones on the streets of New York during the 2004 Republican National Convention where Jones walked up to him and asked if he’d ever seen the Cremation of Care ritual.

Gergen, looking visibly uncomfortable, responded, “Frankly I don’t think that’s something I need to talk to you about.”52 When Jones asked him again about the ritual, Gergen snapped, “That’s none of your damn business!” and walked away. The clip can be seen on YouTube. Why was he so defensive? If it’s just an innocent “play” then why not answer such a simple question? Jones didn’t accuse him of worshiping Satan or participating in an actual human sacrifice; he just asked him if he’d been there for the Cremation of Care.

Back in 1993 The Washington Times reported, “Presidential counselor David Gergen resigned yesterday from the all-male Bohemian Club, three days after saying he would not run around naked at its annual Bohemian Grove encampment and insisting he would not quit [as the president’s advisor]. White House spokeswoman Dee Dee Myers announced the resignation along with Mr. Gergen’s departure from 17 other interest groups, charities and public boards ranging from the Trilateral Commission to the Very Special Arts Foundation.”53

He also resigned from the Bilderberg Group, the Council on Foreign Relations, and nearly all organizations dedicated to setting up a New World Order, leading many to think that perhaps he grew a conscience and decided he wasn’t going to have anything to do with such a plan any longer. Perhaps the reason he got so upset about Alex Jones’ question was that he wanted to

let sleeping dogs lie and being put on the spot about the Bohemian Grove freaked him out because he knows they cherish their oath of secrecy and didn’t want to be seen as betraying them.



Walter Cronkite

Walter Cronkite was the anchor for the CBS Evening News from 1962 to 1981, and is widely believed to have recorded the voice for the Owl Shrine that is played over the loudspeakers during part of the Cremation of Care. This is especially interesting when you learn that while accepting the Norman Cousins Global Governance Award in 1999 at a World Federalist Association meeting, Cronkite made a disturbing joke about Satan running the New World Order and seriously suggested countries need to give up their sovereignty and yield their authority to a global government.

During this event Cronkite said, “What Alexander Hamilton wrote about the need for law among the thirteen states applies today to the approximately two hundred sovereignties in our global village, all of which are going to have to be convinced to give up some of that sovereignty to the better greater union, and it’s not going to be easy.”54

He then mentioned Pat Robertson’s 1991 book, The New World Order and how Robertson (creator of The 700 Club) wrote that the construction of the global government is the work of the Devil, at which point Cronkite added, “Well, join me, I’m glad to sit here at the right hand of Satan.”55

 

Author’s Note: Please take a moment to rate and review this book on Amazon.com or wherever you purchased it from to let others know what you think. This also helps to offset the trolls who keep giving my books fake onestar reviews when they haven't even read them. Almost all of the one-star

reviews on my books are from NON-verified purchases which is a clear indication they are fraudulent, hence me adding this note. These fraudulent ratings and reviews could also be part of a larger campaign trying to stop my message from spreading by attempting to tarnish my research through fake and defamatory reviews, so I really need your help to combat this as soon as possible. Thank you!

 

The Lakeside Talks

Every afternoon throughout the two week encampment a Lakeside Chat or Lakeside Talk is given just after lunch at 12:30pm, where a political insider or industry leader gives a thirty-minute speech on his area of expertise. These daily talks are a rare and uncensored look into the minds of the most powerful men in the world. The speeches primarily revolve around political, economic, and business trends, and often include information that is typically not revealed publicly.

A reporter named Philip Weiss working for Spy Magazine successfully snuck inside the Grove in 1989 and witnessed a Lakeside Talk given by General John Chain, who was the Commander of the Strategic Air Command.56 In his speech the General lobbied the audience members to help him get the funding for the Stealth B-2 bomber program which would later end up costing almost 45 billion dollars, yes 45 billion dollars.57

Every decade or so the club produces a limited number of yearbooks called the Annals of the Bohemian Grove, which are given out to members so they can reminisce about their time there. These rare books contain dozens of photos from inside the forest and some include attendees dressed in drag, along with pictures of the Cremation of Care ritual and various Lakeside Talk speakers.

I have personally been able to obtain four different copies of these books, (Volumes V, VII, VIII, and IX) since occasionally they’ll find their way into used bookstores after older Bohemian Grove members die and their book collections are sold at estate sales or donated to thrift stores like Goodwill or the Salvation Army. In one book (volume VII 1987-1996 ) there is a clear photo of George Bush Senior and George W. Bush standing at the podium giving a Lakeside Talk in 1995 where Bush Senior reportedly told the audience that his son would make a great president one day.58



President Nixon revealed in his memoir (published in 1978) that his Lakeside Talk marked the beginning of his road to the White House, writing, “If I were to choose the speech that gave me the most pleasure and satisfaction in my political career, it would be my Lakeside Speech at the Bohemian Grove in July 1967. Because this speech traditionally was off the record it received no publicity at the time. But in many important ways it marked the first milestone on my road to the presidency.”59

While Nixon praised the Bohemian Grove in his memoir as the key to his path to the presidency, privately—as you will see in the next chapter— he denounced the widespread homosexuality he witnessed while he was there.60

Schedules of the Lakeside Talks are handed out to members inside which include who each afternoon’s speaker is and what their topic is. Often one of these schedules have been stolen by an employee and made available on the Internet. In the next few pages you’ll find a list of some of these speakers and their topics so you can get a feel for just how exclusive these talks are, and how the information presented impacts the world.

If the members’ time spent inside the Bohemian Grove is “just a vacation,” then why are there speeches by people like the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, U.S. Army Generals, mainstream media executives, political analysts and talk show hosts, leading economists, and bigwig businessmen? The stolen program guides have revealed for example, in 1981 the Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger gave a speech titled “Rearming America” where he urged his well-connected audience to pull some strings to increase military spending. In 1991 Dick Cheney, who was Secretary of Defense under George Bush Senior’s presidency, gave a speech titled “Defense Problems of the 21st Century” where he did the same thing.

The Grove may have tightened up security in recent years, because the itineraries for the most recent years are unavailable. Some leaks did indicate

who was speaking there, but the program guide of the complete speakers list and their topic is unavailable from 2012 to 2014. It is rumored that they may have stopped handing out the schedule to members since employees keep stealing them and leaking them to the public, and the club may be securing them under a sheet of glass so they may be viewed but not carried away.

In 2013 the local Press Democrat newspaper did report that four-star U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal and comedian Conan O’Brien were among the speakers, as well as MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, who also gave a Lakeside Talk back in 2003.61 There were rumors that Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck were there as guests or possibly speakers in 2013 because they were both missing from their usual schedules at some point in time while the encampment was in session.

 



Lakeside Talks 2011

Saturday, July 17

“The Supreme Court in the Age of Obama” by Jeffrey Toobin—legal analyst for CNN and The New Yorker.

 

Sunday, July 18

“The Obama Administration at War” by David Martin, national security correspondent for CBS News.

 

Wednesday, July 21

“How Should We Think about China. Partner, Competitor, Threat?” by Michail Armacost, former U.S. Ambassador to Japan and member of the National Security Council who handled East Asian and Chinese affairs.

 

Friday, July 23

“K—12 Education in America” by Joel Klein, Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education.



 

Saturday, July 24

“The Future of News” by Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corporation, the parent company of the Fox News Channel.

 

Sunday, July 25

“The Revenge of God: Religion & Violence in the Modern World” by Reza Aslan, professor at the University of California, Riverside.

 

Monday, July 26

“Venture Philanthropy—Andrew Carnegie 2.0” by John Wood, founder of Room to Read, a global non-profit organization that’s focused on literacy and gender equality in education.

 

Tuesday, July 27

“Cultural Diplomacy” by Dr. Gary Smith, executive director of the American Academy in Berlin.

 



Wednesday, July 28

“Defeating IEDs as a Weapon of Strategic Influence by” Thomas Metz, Lt. General, U.S. Army (retired).

 

Thursday, July 29

“The Four Most Important Words in Economics: People Respond to Incentives” by economist Arthur Laffer.

 

Friday, July 30

“To Be Announced” by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

 

Saturday, July 31

“Why is Mars so Important?” by Michael Malin, planetary geologist. Also “Countdown for America” by David Gergen, former presidential advisor.

 



Lakeside Talks 2006

Friday, July 14

“Global Financial Warriors” by John Taylor, professor of economics at Stanford University.

 

Monday, July 17

“Untold Tales from the Cold War” by Tom Reed, former Secretary of the Air Force.

 

Tuesday, July 18

“Energy, CO2 and Climate Change” by Lynn Orr, director of the Global Climate & Energy Project at Stanford University.

 

Wednesday, July 19

“Gulf Coast Erosion: Consequences for America” by Michail Armacosting, Chairman of Louisiana Governor’s Coastal Restoration and

Conservation Committee.

 

Friday, July 21

“America in the New World” by Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek magazine and CNN host.

 

Tuesday, July 25

“Island Conservation with Guns, Traps & Poison” by Bernie Tershy, research biologist at the Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

 

Wednesday, July 26

“The Parallelism & Ultimate Convergence of Science and Religion” by scientist Charles Townes.

 

Thursday, July 27

“Global Urbanization: a Challenge for the Future” by Richard Koshalek, President of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.



 

Friday, July 28

“Lessons Learned from War, Assassination, the White House and Hollywood” by Jack Valenti, former president of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

 

Saturday, July 29

“From Battlefields to Playing Fields: Economics, Energy, and Education” by General Colin Powell (retired), former Secretary of State.



Lakeside Talks 2005

Saturday, July 16

“Of Laughter & Leadership” by David Gergen, public policy professor and former presidential advisor.

 

Sunday, July 17

“To Be Announced” by naturalist Richard Leakey.

 

Monday, July 18

“The Case for Immigration Restriction” by Richard D. Lamb, professor at the University of Colorado and former Colorado Governor.

 

Tuesday, July 19

“Iraqi Medicine: Rip Van Winkle’s Burden” by Bernard S. Alpert, M.D.



 

Wednesday, July 20

“Wealth, Poverty & the Threat to Global Security” by William W. Lewis, director emeritus at the McKinsey Global Institute.

 

Thursday, July 21

“Dark Energy & the Runaway Universe” by Alex Filippano, professor of astronomy at the University of Berkley, California.

 

Friday, July 22

“Unlimited Government” by Chris DeMuth, executive director of the American Enterprise Institute.

 

Saturday, July 23

“To Be Announced” (Name not printed, which usually means someone “important” who doesn’t want to be connected to the Grove publicly).

 



Monday, July 25

“Nuclear Considerations: The Way Ahead” by Albert Konetzni, Vice Admiral, U.S. Navy.

 

Tuesday, July 26

“Peering Into Pandora’s Box: Avian Flu & Beyond” by W. Ian Lipkin, M.D., scientific director at the Northeast Biodefense Center.

 

Friday, July 29

“To Be Announced” by Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico.

 

Saturday, July 30

“Hoover Talk” by General Colin Powell, U.S. Army General (retired) and former Secretary of State during the George W. Bush administration.



Lakeside Talks 2004

Friday, July 16

“Exploring Mars & Searching for Life in the Universe” by Charles Elachi, director of the Jet Propulsion Lab at the California Institute of Technology.

 

Saturday, July 17

“The Landscape of American Politics” by David Brooks, New York Times columnist and political commentator.

 

Sunday, July 18

“The Elections & Their Aftermath” by Norman Ornstein, political analyst at the American Enterprise Institute.

 

Monday, July 19

“State Building: What We Do and Don’t Know about Creating Institutions in Developing Countries” by Francis Fukuyama, dean of advanced international studies at John Hopkins University.



 

Tuesday, July 20

“The Internal Life of Planets: A Comparison of Earth, Venus, Mars & the Moon” by Mark Richards, professor of geophysics and dean of physical sciences at the University of California, Berkeley.

 

Thursday July 22

“The Coming Virtual Soldier” by Roger McCarthy, chairman & principal engineer at Exponent Inc.

 

Friday, July 23

“The Long War of the 21st Century” by James Woolsey, Former Director of the CIA.

 

Saturday, July 24

“The Unrealized Potential of the Technological Revolution” by James H. Billington, librarian at the Library of Congress.

 



Monday, July 26

“Remembering Reagan, One Insiders Account” by Kenneth Adelman, author and policy analyst.

 

Wednesday, July 28

“Did the Terrorists Expect the World Trade Towers to Fall?” by Ian Mackinlay, architect.

 

Saturday, July 31

“Politics, Plagues, Prevention & Preparedness” by Vice Admiral Richard Carmona M.D., United States Surgeon General



Lakeside Talks 1997

Friday, July 11

“Rogues, Terrorists and Two Weimars Redux: National Security in the Next Century” by James Woolsey, former Director of the CIA.

 

Saturday, July 12

“Augustine’s Laws and the High Tech Grove” by Norman Augustine, chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin Inc.

 

Sunday, July 13

Individualism in Western History” by Ken Jowitt , professor of political science at the University of California, Berkley.

 

Monday, July 14

“The Triumph of the Market and the Politics of Affluence” by Christopher DeMuth.



 

Wednesday, July 16

“Heretical Thoughts” by Yurek Martin, senior writer at the Financial Times of London.

 

Thursday, July 17

“The New Economics—Ideas Hatched in the Forest are Worth More Than the Trees” Craig McCaw, Chairman & CEO Eagle River LLC.

 

Friday, July 18

“Cyberspace and Managed Care: Is the Acceleration Manageable, or Do We Throw Momma from the Train?” by Louis W. Sullivan, M.D. Former Secretary Health & Human Services.

 

Saturday, July 19

“Plutonium Today and Tomorrow” by Charles Hollister.

 



Sunday, July 20

“National Security is Going South: Where is the Vision?” by William A. Owens, Admiral USN (retired) Former Vice-Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, Vice Chairman SAIC.

 

Wednesday July 23

“Taxation with Representation” by Kurt Hauser

 

Thursday, July 24

“The Information Superhighway: A Way Upward, or a Toll Road to Nowhere?” by Ervin S. Duggan, President and CEO Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).

 

Friday, July 25

“Church, State and the Constitution” by Antonin Scalia, Justice on the Supreme Court.

 

Saturday, July 26



“Campaign Operative The Best of Times and the Worst of Times” Donald Rumsfeld, member of Nixon cabinet and future Secretary of Defense in the George W. Bush administration.



Infiltrations and Leaks

In 1980 a local resident named Mary Moore founded what she called the Bohemian Grove Action Network with the purpose of infiltrating the Grove by having people obtain summer jobs inside or by convincing those who already worked there to steal membership lists, program guides, and other information in order to expose the Grove.

Mary also organized demonstrations outside the Grove beginning in the 1980s consisting mainly of left-wing hippies who were concerned about the big business, environmentally unfriendly “Republicans” inside. She says, “When powerful people work together, they become even more powerful. The Grove membership is wealthy and becoming more so, while the middle class is steadily becoming poorer. This close-knit group determines whether prices rise or fall (by their control of the banking system, money supply, and markets), and they make money whichever way markets fluctuate.”62

Due to all the attention the Bohemian Grove Action Network was generating, in 1982 a reporter from Time magazine decided to sneak inside but his story was censored by the magazine and never published.63

As I mentioned earlier, a reporter from Spy Magazine named Philip Weiss was able to sneak inside the club in 1989 and published an article titled “Masters of the Universe Go to Camp: Inside Bohemian Grove,” detailing what he had witnessed. Aside from seeing a Lakeside Talk by General John Chain, who urged the audience to pull some strings to get the 45 billion dollars in funding for the B-2 bomber program, Weiss also said the members loved chewing on cigars, drinking beer, and peeing everywhere.



“You know you are inside the Bohemian Grove when you come down a trail in the woods and hear piano music from amid a group of tents and then round a bend to see a man with a beer in one hand and his penis in the other, urinating into the bushes. This is the most gloried-in ritual of the encampment, the freedom of powerful men to pee wherever they like,” he wrote.64

In 1991 a reporter for People magazine named Dirk Mathison was able to sneak inside and wander around for a period of time, but he was eventually spotted and removed from the property. He wrote a story about his experience that was supposed to appear in the August 5, 1991 issue of People magazine, but it never did. The managing editor at the time, Landon Jones, claimed killing the story had nothing to do with executives at Time Warner (People magazine’s parent company) being members.65



Alex Jones from Infowars.com

In July of the year 2000, radio talk show host Alex Jones, founder of Infowars.com, successfully infiltrated the Bohemian Grove and actually videotaped the Cremation of Care ritual and got out with the footage. He cut a hole in the side of a shoulder bag and mounted a camcorder inside, and sat in the bleachers with the rest of the approximately 1500 members and guests and watched the event unfold. He was accompanied by his thenproducer Mike Hanson.

A British journalist named Jon Ronson documented Jones’ and Hanson’s infiltration and included their adventure in an episode of his television series, The Secret Rulers of the World which follows Ronson as he “investigates” the claims of what he called “conspiracy theorists” surrounding the New World Order.

Ronson is a skeptic and appears to make fun of his subjects, seemingly intent to “debunk” their claims, but after Jones and Hanson emerged from the Bohemian Grove with the footage in hand, even Ronson was surprised that the “conspiracy theories” were true. After the two returned back to the hotel with the footage, Ronson questioned them about what they had seen.

[Ronson] Do you think this was unholy?

[Hanson] It’s very strange to me. These people are supposed to be running the world and they’re out there doing this.

[Ronson] You seem freaked out.



[Hanson] I am.

[Jones] These people point their fingers all day and call people extremists or cult members or whatever for their religious beliefs, this was a pagan ceremony and engaging in human sacrifice, a mock human sacrifice…

[Ronson] Aren’t they just saying that for two weeks they don’t need to worry about anything?

[Jones] But they’re burning someone in effigy and as it’s burning they “ahh ohhh nooo!”

[Ronson] But they’re not killing a person.

[Jones] We understand they’re not literally killing a person…

[Ronson] They’re killing something that is symbolic…

[Jones] Wait a minute. You saw it. You’ve got Death on this black boat bringing a pallet with the paper mache person obviously, it’s got the feet and the head and they take it over and burn it.

[Ronson] But wasn’t it just a metaphor?

[Hanson] To me it doesn’t matter. I think they’re sacrificing in the real world too.

[Ronson] Was this the New World Order?

[Hanson] Yes definitely. I looked the New World Order in the face out there.



Shortly after Alex Jones’ posted the footage online, a show called Washington Journal on C-SPAN discussed his infiltration. The show was hosted by Brian Lamb, the director of C-SPAN, who interviewed a “scholarly conspiracy researcher” named Michael Barkun who ridiculed Jones and appeared to be engaging in damage control.

The host states that he heard Alex Jones on Coast to Coast AM talking about his adventure and “he was talking about the Bohemian Grove club as if that’s where it all happens. That’s where all the decisions are made. There are thousands of people who go there, and there is some kind of ceremony and an owl and all that, have you followed this?” Lamb asked Barkun.66

Barkun replies, “Yes I have, even though the show is on past my bedtime, but, Alex Jones has been talking about this for quite a while. The Bohemian Grove, of course, is a privately owned redwood grove, up in Sonoma Country, north of San Francisco, where every summer there is a get together of the wealthy and well placed, all male, who get together for general cavorting, socializing, lecture, symposium and so on, in an atmosphere that is completely removed from public scrutiny. Alex Jones and some others have suggested for a long time that there are all sorts of nefarious rituals that go on, and a matter of fact, and I talk about this incident actually in my book, someone who had listened to the Alex Jones show about this was arrested within the Bohemian Grove, very heavily armed, because he said he was trying to bring attention to what he thought were human sacrifices that were being committed by the elite who attend these gatherings.”67

Barkun was referring to a man named Richard McCaslin who snuck onto the property in January of 2002 with the hopes of exposing the Cremation of Care ritual which he believed involved an actual human sacrifice. More on Richard McCaslin in a moment. Lamb and Barkun didn’t even mention the Cremation of Care ritual, and how it clearly depicts a theatrical human sacrifice, and gave the audience the impression that crazy conspiracy theorists have just invented the idea out of thin air that the club

is burning people alive during their party and the intruder was completely insane for thinking such a thing was happening.



The Phantom Patriot

In January 2002 a 37-year-old man named Richard McCaslin snuck into the Grove while wearing a superhero outfit, a bullet proof vest, and armed with a fully loaded MK-1 rifle-shotgun. Having heard the rumors about what allegedly goes on inside, and having seen Alex Jones’ footage of the Cremation of Care, McCaslin was convinced there were actual human sacrifices being carried out and he intended to expose it.68 Jones never said the ritual was an actual human sacrifice, but many people have, including, as I’ve mentioned earlier—David Icke, the guy who believes the Illuminati are blood-drinking shapeshifting reptilians from another galaxy.69

If you’ll recall, the summer encampment begins the second weekend of July, and since “The Phantom Patriot,” as he called himself, went there in January, not much was going on. After he didn’t find any elite insiders gathering, McCaslin decided to set a building on fire and was apprehended by Bohemian Grove security. He was sentenced to eleven years in prison, a sentence dramatically increased because he was wearing a bullet proof vest in the commission of a crime (felony arson) which is an additional charge in California.70

Richard McCaslin was (and still is) part of the real-life super hero subculture, a small and bizarre group of adult males who like to dress up as “superheroes” and fantasize about being “real” crime fighters.71 Some of these people actually walk the streets of cities in America wearing their costumes and see themselves as neighborhood watchmen.72 After McCaslin was released from prison, he continued wearing his “Phantom Patriot” costume and still believes the Bohemian Grove members are reptilian shape-shifters from another planet.73



In 2011 he was seen protesting outside a business in Davenport, Iowa where President Obama was speaking and accused Obama, the Bush family, and Bill Clinton of being reptilians. A local paper did a story on him where he is quoted saying, “Every American president has British peerage [relation], and royalty has always said they have the right to rule by their bloodline. Their ancestors weren’t human; they were aliens, probably of the reptilian type.”74

Les Claypool, the singer of the rock band Primus, wrote a song titled “Phantom Patriot” for his solo project Of Whales and Woe (2006) which is about McCaslin’s “raid” on the Bohemian Grove. Claypool lives in Occidental, California, a small town right next to the Grove and is obviously aware of the rumors and allegations surrounding the place. Here’s a sample of the lyrics:

Walking through the compound With a formulated plan

There to help his fellow man At this decisive point in time The Bohemians of the Grove Don’t see it quite the same Sensing danger in his game They dub his quest a crime - Phantom Patriot



Chris Jones

In the summer of 2005, a man in his late thirties named Chris Jones [no relation to Alex Jones] got a job at the Bohemian Grove for the sole purpose of infiltrating the club and gathering photos and video evidence of what happens inside. He was able to get photos of some of the camps and elaborate clubhouses, and even some close-up pictures of the site of the Cremation of Care ritual, including the effigy used during the ceremony.

His photos clearly show that the object burned on the altar is in fact a life-size human effigy. It consists of a metal skeleton that’s wrapped with paper. Chris said he was able to inspect the effigy shortly before the Cremation of Care in 2005 and stuck his hand inside the paper wrapping to feel around inside it to see if by any chance there was an actual person, child, or vial of blood inside, but he said it was just paper wrapped around the metal skeletal frame.75 His photos and videos were included in Alex Jones’ 2005 film The Order of Death, a sequel to Dark Secrets: Inside Bohemian Grove which first showed the footage Alex shot in July of 2000.

I have personally met Chris Jones and he showed me the photos and videos on his camera along with some other memorabilia he “kept” (stole) from the club, including a membership list, a program guide, a book of matches, and a trashcan.

When he first turned over his photos and footage to Alex Jones for publication on Infowars.com, Chris called himself “Kyle,” wanting to remain anonymous, but after he was later jailed, he went public with his real name. Chris claims he showed some teenagers in his neighborhood the footage and photos he took, trying to educate them about the Bohemian Grove, but one of them got scared and told their parents Chris showed them a “snuff film” and says this was the start of his legal troubles. He was later

arrested for lewd conduct with a minor for playing strip poker with some boys he was babysitting.76

Some people believe these charges were trumped up as payback for him working to expose the Bohemian Grove and for releasing his never before seen photos and video footage, but the court documents detail what appear to be a history of inappropriate behavior with teens in his neighborhood.77 He claimed he was innocent and said the charges were based on misunderstandings but was found guilty in court and sentenced to three years in the Theo Lacy jail in Orange, California.



More Recent Attempts

In July of 2008 a Vanity Fair reporter named Alex Shoumatoff was arrested for trespassing after sneaking onto the property. Apparently he was working on a story—not about the strange rituals or the Lakeside Talks, no —he was working on a story about the club cutting down some Douglas-fir and diseased oak trees in order to help prevent forest fires—or at least that’s what he said he was doing there.78

Shoumatoff later wrote an article in Vanity Fair titled “Bohemian Tragedy,” where he complained about them cutting down some trees and talked about his arrest. He snuck inside, in his words, “to investigate reports that the Bohemians have been desecrating their own bower. That nothing is sacred with these guys anymore. Everything is fair game. But how could the Bohemian Club, where California’s forest-preservation movement began, be logging its own land, which includes the largest stand of old-growth redwoods in Sonoma County?” he wrote.79

In January of 2011 the History Channel’s Decoded included an episode about the Bohemian Grove and two of the show’s “investigators” paddled down the Russian River in canoes and entered the forest from the riverbank which runs right along the edge of the Grove’s property. They were discovered immediately and arrested for trespassing. This wasn’t even during the summer encampment so they wouldn’t have even found anything very interesting happening inside anyway.

The show didn’t even include any of Alex Jones’ footage of the Cremation of Care because the host, Brad Meltzer, said the History Channel’s lawyers were afraid they would get sued for airing it since it was technically obtained illegally. At the end of the segment, the “investigators” talked about their experience and arrest. One of them said, “I had nine hours

of incarceration to think about this. The more I thought about it, the less I was bothered by the Grove, even though they had just arrested me. I sort of felt like they are allowed to do this, it’s their property, and if they want to continue to have presidents and Saudi princes and military leaders come here, they need to promise those guys that they’ll be safe.”80

Another of the “investigators” concluded, “There’s nothing nefarious going on here. It’s just a bunch of businessmen and a men’s club.”81 Brad Meltzer the host ended the show by saying, “To be clear, this is a great club, and breaking laws isn’t a way to get into it, but a bit more disclosure, a bit more transparency, would go a long way.” Meltzer is also friends with President George Bush Senior, who gave him the idea for the plot of his book The Inner Circle, which is about a secret society that’s been operating in Washington D.C. ever since the United States was founded. This secret society isn’t the Illuminati or any “evil” group with ill intentions—no—it turns out to be a “good” secret society that George Washington started, called the Culper Ring, which Meltzer’s book claims is still in existence today to help “protect” America.

It’s likely the Decoded “investigators” arrests were staged in order to send a warning to viewers not to attempt to sneak in. As someone who’s been involved with a variety of “reality” television shows myself, I can tell you there’s not much reality in them.82 Scenes are staged and shot out of sequence to simplify the production schedule and then edited together to make it appear as if they were shot in chronological order.

In 2013 Colin Powell’s personal email was hacked into by an antiIlluminati hacker who called himself Guccifer. Powell’s email inbox contained some photos of him and his buddies inside the Bohemian Grove, and one of the emails was from News Corp executive Andrew Knight asking Powell to “firmly point out” to British Prime Minister Tony Blair that he should attend the Grove’s summer encampment that coming July and saying, “Tony has not yet got his priorities straight.”83



Guccifer was apprehended the following year and sentenced to seven years in prison.84 This is the same hacker who illegally accessed the emails of various Clinton, Bush, and Obama administration officials, including George W. Bush’s sister’s email where Guccifer found family photos as well as a self-portrait painted by George W. Bush depicting him taking a shower.85

On my YouTube channel there is a playlist of footage that I shot at the front gates of the Bohemian Grove in July of 2012 when I attended the Occupy Bohemian Grove protest, where hundreds of people gathered outside the entrance to raise awareness about the club.86 You can see dozens of police wearing riot gear standing guard in order to prevent the crowd from marching inside. I also captured footage of a K-9 unit patrolling the perimeter of the property, a speech by anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, and the rather violent arrest of one of the protesters.



Hookers and Homosexuality

San Francisco is basically the gay capital of America, and with the Bohemian Grove located just north of the city, one might expect some of this “gayness” would spread to the Grove, especially since it was founded by artists and “Bohemians.” A Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle named Herb Caen wrote about the homosexual activities in the Grove in his gossip column in the 1980s, and informants for the Bohemian Grove Action Network have claimed there has been widespread homosexual behavior inside.

Philip Weiss, who snuck inside in 1989 and wrote a lengthy article in Spy Magazine, said, “Today AIDS has put a damper on the Grove’s River Road pickup scene, which Herb Caen used to write about in his San Francisco Chronicle gossip column. Just the same, a man on his own often gets invited back to camps by gay Bohemians.”87 Weiss went on to say that several men tried to pick him up during his visit there.

According to Mary Moore of the Bohemian Grove Action Network, a man named Don Heimforth, who worked inside the Grove, was the “Deep Throat” (referring to the famed White House informant during the Watergate scandal) of the Bohemian Grove in the 1980s, and claimed a lot of gay men were involved in the club. Heimforth himself was gay and later died of AIDS.88

In 2004 The New York Post reported that a gay porn star named “Chad Savage” was discovered working in the Bohemian Grove, supposedly as a “valet,” which many people believe was just a cover story so he could engage in other kinds of activities— like perhaps “entertaining” the members.89 The Bohemian Grove yearbooks (the Annals) have various pictures of men dressed in drag to entertain each other while inside, and one

can only imagine what kind of weirdness goes on at some of the camps under the cover of darkness.

President Richard Nixon, who in his memoir admitted that the path to his presidency began in the Bohemian Grove, had something else to say about the place as well, which was not so favorable. In 1999 the National Archives released over 400 hours of Oval Office tapes from the 1970s, and on one of them Nixon made a pretty damning statement about the Bohemian Grove.

Nixon, along with John D. Ehrlichman and H. R. Haldeman, were discussing how the media was glorifying homosexuality and how it had been spreading, especially in San Francisco. Nixon went on to say, “The Bohemian Grove—which I attend, from time to time—it is the most faggy goddamned thing you could ever imagine, with that San Francisco crowd. I can’t shake hands with anybody from San Francisco.”90



Prostitution

It’s common knowledge that many wealthy men like buying the pleasures prostitutes provide. Sex scandals and politicians go together like peanut butter and jelly and it seems a new one is uncovered every few months. The trophy wives of many wealthy businessmen and powerful politicians are often twenty or thirty years younger than their husbands, and many of these couples have an unspoken open relationship.

The wives sleep with the pool boy or men they meet at the gym, while their husbands buy prostitutes through elite escort services when they’re away on business. And so, during the “greatest men’s party on earth” at the Bohemian Grove, it would be foolish to think some of these wealthy and power-hungry men could spend a week away from their wives without buying some time with a lady of the night (or a call-boy).

The Northwood Lodge and Resort, which is just a few minutes away from the Bohemian Grove, is the spot where some men slip away to hook up with prostitutes throughout the two-week long encampment. Back in 2001 Counter Punch, an independent investigative news site, wrote, “A few years ago KGO radio, out of San Francisco, had an interesting talk show in which callers with first-hand Grove experience told their tales. A man from Monte Rio said he was only one of several towns-people renting cabins every year to prostitutes traveling from as far as Las Vegas to renew the Bohos’ spiritual fibers.”91

It has also been rumored that the Mitchell Brothers O’Farrell Theatre in the Tenderloin red-light district of San Francisco has been a source of strippers and high-class call girls used by the Bohos. Mike Hanson, who worked as Alex Jones’ cameraman and producer, and who was with Jones when he snuck into the club in July of 2000, later interviewed four dancers

from Mitchell Brothers for his book who claimed that prostitution was the “unofficial” but accepted policy at Bohemian Grove.92

These girls said that the strippers who had been brought inside to perform for the guys were always expect to “perform” in other ways, if you know what I mean. The girls Mike Hanson interviewed said they signed NDAs, non-disclosure agreements, preventing them from reveling information about their experiences inside, or even admitting publicly that they had been there, so they only spoke with him on the condition that he would not reveal their identities.

Hanson’s book, titled Bohemian Grove: Cult of Conspiracy, details his and Jones’ infiltration into the Grove, where he includes his interview with these strippers who were between the ages of twenty-one and twenty-five. They say they were hired for a three-day gig inside the Grove and on the first night they said they performed for a group of around 40 men and then later some of the guys paid the girls for their “company for the night.”93

The second night they said they put on a show for a group of around 100 men, but the girls said they started getting extremely uncomfortable with how degrading some of the men were and got creeped out so they chose to leave before their third show and claimed the men wouldn’t pay them since they had agreed to work for three nights and were breaking their contract.94

Hanson wrote that one stripper/hooker admitted she stole a laptop computer she saw laying around as compensation for not getting paid, and said that after she took it home and turned it on, she found pictures of what appeared to be women and children being violently raped.95 More about these allegations in the next chapter.

 



Allegations of Murder

In the past, when hardly anything was publicly known about the Bohemian Grove, rumors about the Cremation of Care “human sacrifice” ritual led many in the conspiracy community to believe the club was performing an actual human sacrifice every year.

After seeing the photographs and confirming that the world’s richest and most powerful men do in fact meet in a secluded forest and perform what appears on the surface to look like a human sacrifice, it’s understandable how many could come to this conclusion. But even though the details about the Cremation of Care eventually emerged showing it involves an effigy and not an actual person—accusations of murder still persist, and there are even allegations more disturbing than them supposedly “just” burning someone alive on an altar in a ritual sacrifice.

These allegations involve claims of horrific sadistic acts that are said to involve the sexual abuse of children and the production of snuff films (the videotaping of a murder for entertainment). These allegations are so grotesque and nauseating, I don’t even like to talk about them, but I feel they must be addressed and investigated. I warn you, this section will be quite disturbing and graphic, and you may wish you had never read it.

These rumors, which I will detail in a moment, don’t just lurk in the dark depths of the Internet, made by anonymous individuals on obscure websites or forums; but actually come primarily from a former U.S. Senator named John DeCamp. DeCamp was a Nebraska state senator in the 1990s who is also an attorney who represented several children who he claimed were sexually abused inside the Bohemian Grove in the 1980s at the hands of a pedophile ring allegedly operating within one of the camps.96



In 1992 he published a book titled The Franklin Cover-Up, where he claimed that a boy named Paul Bonacci was viciously sexually abused at the hands of a group of men inside the Bohemian Grove. DeCamp alleged the boy was forced to engage in necrophilia (sex with a dead body) and claimed to have witnessed these same men rape a young male child and then murder him during the summer of 1984, on or around July 26th inside the Grove.97

This was before anything about the Bohemian Grove had been posted on the Internet, and really before most people had ever heard of the Internet. Paul Bonacci claimed this abuse occurred in a luxurious Northern California campground in an area that had big trees where men wore black hooded robes and where there was a giant moss-covered owl statue.98 DeCamp says that when he asked Bonacci to guide him to the location of this alleged abuse, he said he led him to the gates of the Bohemian Grove.99

Paul Bonacci wrote in his journal about this alleged abuse right after it was said to have occurred. What he wrote is so horrifying I will not include some of it here because it will make you physically ill. He said that he and another boy he called Nicholas were forced to rape another kid who was then shot and killed immediately afterward, all while being videotaped.100

His journal reads, “After that the men grabbed Nicholas and drug him off screaming. They put me up against a tree and put a gun to my head but fired into the air. I heard another shot from somewhere and then saw the man who killed the boy drag him like a toy. Everything including when the men put the boy in the trunk was filmed. The men took me with them and we went up in a plane. I saw the bag the boy was in. We went over a very thick brush area with a clearing in it. Over the clearing they dropped the boy. One said the men with the hoods would take care of the body for them.”101

More details of Bonacci’s journal are available in DeCamp’s book The Franklin Cover-Up, and are far beyond the most gruesome and grotesque things one could imagine, and involve the alleged gang rape of a child and

necrophilia.102 In the first printing of his book in 1992 Senator DeCamp left out Bonacci’s claims of the giant owl statue and men in hoods because at the time he thought it was too far-fetched for people to believe. DeCamp had never heard of the Bohemian Grove, the Cremation of Care, or the giant owl statue at the time. Only years later did he learn about the details of Bohemian Grove and became convinced that Paul Bonacci was abused there.103

When John DeCamp first told William Colby, head of the CIA, about his investigation, Colby reportedly told him to forget everything he knew and to, “Get as far away from this thing as you can. Forget you ever saw it or know it, heard it or anything else.”104 He said DeCamp was opening a can of worms containing forces too dark for him to handle. Only after saying he couldn’t walk away from his investigation did Colby tell him he better get his story out before someone murdered him to stop it. Colby himself later died in what was called a canoeing accident, although many suspect he was murdered due to the strange circumstances surrounding his death.105

Now before you write John DeCamp off as mentally ill, or a conspiracy theorist, or perpetuating a hoax—you should know that around this same time the Washington Times ran a front page story with the headline, “Homosexual prostitution inquiry ensnares VIPs with Reagan, Bush,” and detailed a shocking story of a gay prostitution ring operating in Washington D.C. that provided teen call-boys to some very powerful and well-connected men.106 The man running the ring was a lobbyist named Craig Spence—who, through his connections—was able to bring several teenage boys who worked for him as prostitutes on a midnight tour of the White House, which was the focus of the Washington Times report.

The article begins, “A homosexual prostitution ring is under investigation by federal and District authorities and includes among its clients key officials of the Reagan and Bush administrations, military officers, congressional aides and U.S. and foreign businessmen with close social ties to Washington's political elite, documents obtained by The Washington Times reveal.”107 The story quietly went away and has long been forgotten by most Americans.



A similar elite pedophile ring was also operating in London at this time (and likely still does today). The Guardian recently reported that major news agencies in England were gagged by the government in the 1980s to prevent them from reporting on powerful members of the British government who were suspected of being involved in an elite pedophile ring there which also murdered children for fun.108

The Guardian reported, “Two newspaper executives have told the Observer that their publications were issued with D-notices—warnings not to publish intelligence that might damage national security—when they sought to report on allegations of a powerful group of men engaging in child sex abuse in 1984. One executive said he had been accosted in his office by 15 uniformed and two non-uniformed police over a dossier on Westminster pedophiles passed to him by the former Labour cabinet minister Barbara Castle.”109

The article continues, “The other said that his newspaper had received a D-notice [similar to a national security letter in America] when a reporter sought to write about a police investigation into Elm Guest House, in southwest London, where a group of high-profile pedophiles was said to have operated and may have killed a child.”110

This is the London Guardian, not the National Enquirer or some random website on the Internet, and this story sounds exactly like the accusations Senator John DeCamp was making about a group operating within the United States at the same time, doesn’t it? Two retired Scotland Yard detectives recently came forward and said that a network of powerful and well-known politicians in the United Kingdom sexually abused and murdered young boys at parties but they were prevented from arresting them because they were part of what are called The Untouchables.111 The detectives actually named names, including Cyril Smith, a popular member of the British Parliament who died in 2010, and who was a serial sex offender who preyed on young boys.112



In 2012 a paparazzi working for TMZ came across Ralph Rieckermann who played bass for the Scorpions, a popular rock band from the 1980s, and asked him if he would be going to any fetish parties while in Germany which are apparently very popular in Berlin. Rieckermann answered, “I don’t go to fetish parties,” but then went on to appear to insinuate that he had been to a “snuff party” one time where people were murdered for the partygoers entertainment. “I went to one, one time—I seen some really bad shit,” he says.113

When the TMZ cameraman asks, “Was it a donkey show?” Rieckermann responds “No, they actually, I think, it’s…they actually killed people there and stuff. They pay up to $100,000 to see people get…” the cameraman completes his sentence, asking “executed?”

Rieckermann responds, “I’m not kidding. I went to another one where literally I saw like…the grossest…I wanted to throw up.” The video, which can be seen on YouTube, then cuts back to the TMZ studio to show reactions from the staff. “He is dead serious. He’s not laughing, there’s not a smile on his face,” one man comments. Another says, “I’m disgusted right now.” Harvey Levin, the founder and managing editor of TMZ looked absolutely horrified, and said, “I’m shocked,” and just shook his head.

Three years later, just days after I myself posted a YouTube video about this story, getting almost 10 times as many views as TMZ’s original interview, Rieckermann posted a video statement on YouTube clarifying what he meant about the “snuff party.” He said that he didn’t personally witness anyone getting killed, but was at a party at someone’s estate where the host showed him some of the bondage/sadomasochism fetish rooms where the owner said he and his friends would murder people for fun at special events.114 Rieckermann emphasizes that he did not witness any murders but appeared to believe what the host told him was true.

It’s not hard to believe that a group of extreme sadomasochists would find enjoyment by having someone murdered at one of their parties. The world’s lust for realistic and brutal horror movies shows that millions of

people find excitement in watching people getting tortured and murdered, and with films like Faces of Death, and certain websites which specialize in collecting gruesome photos and videos of crime scenes and people getting murdered, it’s not that hard to believe that some people would pay money to witness an actual murder in person, or even participate in one themselves.



Hunter S. Thompson

A man closely connected with what Senator John DeCamp called the Franklin Cover-Up (named after the Franklin Community Federal Credit Union in Omaha, Nebraska that was allegedly used to fund a pedophile ring used by high-level U.S. politicians in the late 1980s and early 1990s) has made some startling allegations about Hunter S. Thompson and the Bohemian Grove.

Rusty Nelson, [Russell E. Nelson] who worked as the personal photographer for the man at the center of the scandal, Larry (Lawrence E.) King, alleges that the famous “gonzo” journalist offered him $100,000 in 1988 to produce a snuff film involving the murder of a child.115 Rusty said he turned the offer down.

Paul Bonacci also claimed, and wrote in his journal, that a man named “Hunter Thompson” was inside the Bohemian Grove at the time he was allegedly abused there, and also claimed that Thompson was the man videotaping his abuse.116

Interestingly, Hunter S. Thompson wrote in his book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas about receiving Adrenochrome from a Satanist, which is supposedly a powerful hallucinogen believed to come from the pineal gland immediately after a person is killed. Adding yet another twist to the story is the fact that Hunter S. Thompson wrote in his 2004 book titled Hey Rube about how organized pedophile rings keep children as sex slaves.

“The autumn months are never a calm time in America,” he wrote. “There is always a rash of kidnapping and abductions of schoolchildren in the football months. Preteens of both sexes are traditionally seized and

grabbed off the streets by gangs of organized perverts who traditionally give them as Christmas gifts to each other to be personal sex slaves and playthings.”117

This writing clearly shows Thompson knew of the dark pedophile ring subculture. Thompson was known for getting personally involved in his stories, as was the case when he lived with the Hells Angels for nearly two years in the 1960s while he chronicled his activities for his book Hells Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga. And so with Paul Bonacci’s allegations that a “Hunter Thompson” was present during his abuse and videotaping it, and Rusty Nelson claiming Hunter S. Thompson propositioned him to shoot a snuff film, some are led to believe he was involved in even more sinister activities than hanging out with a motorcycle gang.

Hunter S. Thompson was a celebrity during his time and is still considered to be a counterculture antihero by many today. In 1988 during an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman he appeared to have admitted to once being inside the Bohemian Grove. At the start of the bizarre interview Letterman asked him what he likes to do for fun, to which Thompson answered, “I like to kill.”118 The audience was noticeably uncomfortable, and the clip is available on YouTube—at least at the time I’m writing this.119

In his sometimes hard to understand mumbling Hunter went on to say that he liked the Jesuits because, “they’re smart and mean,” and that he himself had what he called a “neo-religious” world view. George Bush Senior came up during the interview since he was running for president at the time, and Thompson appeared to say, “I went to Hillbilly,”120 which is the name of the Bush family’s camp in the Bohemian Grove.

After his suicide in 2005, Thompson’s former editorial assistant Nickole Brown posted an article online titled In Memory of Hunter S. Thompson: Postcard from Louisville, Kentucky, recounting some of the bizarre behavior she had witnessed while working for him over the years.

“For weeks he played a tape recording of a jack rabbit screaming in a trap,” she wrote. She also said that one time, “he threw me out of the house for refusing to watch a snuff film.”121 As she left, he allegedly called her a coward.

In an interview I conducted over the phone with Nickole Brown on May 20th 2005, she told me she thought he was possibly joking about owning a snuff film, and says she didn’t think much of it after the incident, citing his “unique” character. She also said she couldn’t imagine him being involved in anything like what Paul Bonacci and Rusty Nelson claimed. She believes Hunter was possibly investigating such claims, and may have pretended to be interested in shooting a snuff film as part of his own investigation into the rumors, which she thinks might be the source of these allegations.



Sex Magick

Sex magic is the belief and practice that through various sex acts, people can supposedly generate sexual energy and direct it to metaphysically shape the very fabric of reality. It’s basically like mixing the visualization techniques found in teachings like the “Law of Attraction,” popularized in 2006 by Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret, with sex.

The Knights Templars, who reportedly learned about sex magic from the Tantrics of India, and medieval alchemist Paschal Beverly Randolph, and Satanist Aleister Crowley, all practiced secret sexual rites in what they considered to be the secret to “real” magic. Several fraternal organizations and secret societies such as the Ordo Templi Orientis, and the Chthonic Aurarian Temple also believe in—and continue to practice these kinds of rites.

On the surface, sex magic (often spelled with a “k” on the end, as stylized by Satanist Aleister Crowley) may seem like innocent sexual experimentation or a fun game, but the deeper one looks into the practice, the more bizarre it gets.

Multiple members and former members of the Ordo Templi Orientis, the secret society which uses Aleister Crowley’s Book of the Law as their Bible, have admitted that the 11th degree of their hierarchy is dedicated to homosexual sex magick.122 Former OTO member Jason Miller revealed in his book on sex magick, that, “the OTO’s 11th degree is largely dedicated to the cultivation of sperm in the anus,” and goes on to say that according to Crowley’s diaries, “In some writings the point seems to be to cultivate the sperm alone, but in others it seems to be to combine it with blood that seeps in from tearing in the anus and remnants of feces. In this theory the blood attracts the demons and the sperm brings them to life.”123



Miller goes on to say that a group of sex magic practitioners in Japan called the Tachikawa, supposedly engage in “skull fucking.” Miller wrote, “One of the most infamous rituals they practiced is the empowerment of a human skull as a Honzon, a holy relic with supernatural powers…First the practitioner chooses a particular type of skull, such as the skull of a Shogun or an elder….He then has sex with the skull as well as with a woman. Then they wipe the combined sexual fluids on the skull.”124 Miller’s book is not written to “expose” sex magic as sinister or evil, but instead to teach it, and he is an admirer and true believer of it.

The reason I’m talking about sex magic is because the group of men who allegedly abused Paul Bonacci in the Bohemian Grove were most likely doing so under the belief that they were engaging in some dark form of this kind of “magic.” As a disclaimer I must mention that the Ordo Templi Orientis, along with former member Jason Miller, who I quoted above, do not advocate child abuse, pedophilia, or human sacrifice, but it’s not hard to believe that some rogue members or a splinter group of a fraternity that practices esoteric sex magic have tried to follow in the footsteps of Aleister Crowley—dubbed “the wickedest man alive” in his day—by experimenting with, or incorporating child abuse and pedophilia into their rites.

Even consensual adult sex magic is strange, and the deeper one looks into it, the more disgusting the rituals become. One ritual involves taking a woman’s menstrual blood and a man’s semen and then mixing them together and baking the fluids into cookies or a cake and then eating it, believing that this gives people spiritual power.125 Another involves placing sperm in the womb of a horse, which I can only assume mentally deranged people like Aleister Crowley have attempted through bestiality, which he is widely rumored to have committed in his quest to contact demons and gain spiritual energy.

With passages in Crowley’s Book of the Law such as, “Worship me with fire & blood; worship me with swords and with spears, is the

command…let blood flow to my name. Trample down the Heathen; be upon them, o warrior, I will give you of their flesh to eat! Sacrifice cattle, little and big, after a child,”126 it’s obvious he was a mentally deranged sadist.127

In some parts of Africa today, men believe that raping babies is actually a ‘cure’ for AIDS.128 This belief is not as rare as you may think, and again, this is not something people just believed 500 years ago—it’s what many believe today! Many men in Africa also believe that raping an albino woman is a cure for AIDS as well.129 These beliefs and abuses are well documented by humanitarian groups and are not just an urban legend.130

With such bizarre, brutal, and disgusting “sex magic” beliefs out there, is it really that hard to believe that an inner circle of a secret society of power-hungry megalomaniacs would engage in rape, pedophilia or murder in hopes of gaining some kind of supernatural power?



Cathy O’Brien

In 1995 a woman named Cathy O’Brien published a book titled Trance Formation of America (a play on words for Transformation, using the word “Trance” to refer to a hypnotic trance) where she recounts what she claims is a true story of physical and sexual abuse at the hands of the CIA in their MK-ULTRA mind control program.

In the book, and in her lectures which she gave at conspiracy conferences throughout the 1990s, she claims to have been taken to the Bohemian Grove where she says she worked as a sex slave for the enjoyment (and entrapment) of some of the members. “I was programmed and equipped to function in all rooms at Bohemian Grove in order to compromise specific government targets according to their personal perversions…I do not purport to understand the full function of this political cesspool playground as my perception was limited to my own realm of experience,” she wrote.131

What she means is she allegedly was used to entice high level politicians into having sex with her while they were secretly videotaped for blackmail purposes, which seems pretty reasonable, but her claims soon get so strange, they are simply beyond belief. She wrote, “Slaves of advancing age or with failing programming were sacrificially murdered at random in the wooded grounds of Bohemian Grove, and I felt it was simply a matter of time before it would be me.”132 She went on to say, “Rituals were held at a giant, concrete owl monument on the banks of the Russian River.”133

It gets even stranger. She went on to claim, “The club offered a ‘Necrophilia’ theme room to its members,”134 which she says included, “a triangular glass display centered in a main throughway where I was locked in with various trained animals, including snakes. Members walking by

watched illicit sex acts of bestiality, women with women, mothers with daughters, kids with kids, and any other unlimited perverse visual display.”135

She then says, “No memory of sexual abuse is as horrifying as the conversations overheard in the Underground pertaining to implementing the New World Order. I learned that perpetrators believed that controlling the masses through propaganda mind manipulation did not guarantee there would be a world left to dominate due to environmental and overpopulation problems. The solution being debated was not pollution/population control, but mass genocide of ‘selected undesirables.’”136

So, in her mind, keeping child sex slaves isn’t as bad as talking about their plans for a global government and world domination? The closer you look into the claims of Cathy O’Brien, the more holes you’ll find. No Illuminati member or sadistic Satanist is going to be chatting with his friends about their plans for the New World Order in the middle of sex with a prostitute or sex slave! These conversations happen around a campfire, at lunch, or while sitting around having a few drinks in the casual atmosphere of the Grove.

And her claims that the Bohemian Grove has a huge glass display “centered in a main throughway” where children are abused and women are having sex with animals for the enjoyment of the members is absurd. In reality only a small fraction of the members could possibly be so evil as to enjoy such things and zero informants, guests, members or employees have ever mentioned such a thing. If such abuse does occur, it certainly wouldn’t be put on display for the whole club to see and would be limited to a handful of individuals.

O’Brien claims that some of her abusers were George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Dick Cheney, and Hillary Clinton, who she said performed oral sex on her on front of Bill.137 Yet, for some reason after witnessing all this, her “CIA handlers” decided to let her live to tell about it? Why wouldn’t they have just killed her like she said

they did to all the other supposed sex slaves kept in the Bohemian Grove? Cathy O’Brien appears to be another opportunist who tried (and successfully did) make a bunch of money off the conspiracy community by claiming to be a first-hand witness to the activities inside the Bohemian Grove, as well as a victim of the CIA’s mind control experiments.

Her book, Trance Formation of America, is written in the form a novel and includes long passages of dialog that O’Brien claims to have remembered after she was “deprogrammed” by a man named Mark Phillips who claims to be a former CIA operative who decided to rescue her.138 She claims that as a result of being subjected to the MK-ULTRA mind control program, one of her multiple personalities developed a photographic memory and could supposedly recall every conversation that had occurred in her presence.139

In case you’re not aware, the CIA did conduct (and most likely still is conducting) horrific mind control and brainwashing experiments which began in the 1950s. Declassified documents reveal that these inhumane and illegal experiments involved sleep deprivation, drugging people with LSD and other mind-altering drugs, hypnotism, torture, and murder.140 The existence of these declassified and confirmed experiments is what leads many people believe her claims since they do at least contain a grain of truth.

One of the goals of the MK-ULTRA program was to create mind controlled slaves or Manchurian Candidates, as they were called, who would willingly carry out any order given to them whether it included murdering someone, or putting themselves in harm’s way.141 Through post hypnotic suggestions these orders were designed to be forgotten after they were carried out. Several victims of these experiments have actually been awarded six-figure financial settlements for the abuse they suffered, but Cathy O’Brien is not one of these people.142

She was most likely inspired by John DeCamp’s book The Franklin Cover-Up, which first came out several years before she wrote her book,143

where DeCamp, as I mentioned earlier, claims that numerous children have come forward saying they were sexually abused inside the Bohemian Grove and forced to participate in other sadistic acts.144 John DeCamp’s account of what he says happened to his clients is pretty straight forward, and as farfetched as it may sound to some, the claims appear to be plausible and are centered around a small subgroup within the Bohemian Grove, not the entire club.





 

Author’s Note: Please take a moment to rate and review this book on Amazon.com or wherever you purchased it from to let others know what you think. This also helps to offset the trolls who keep giving my books fake onestar reviews when they haven't even read them. Almost all of the one-star reviews on my books are from NON-verified purchases which is a clear indication they are fraudulent, hence me adding this note. These fraudulent ratings and reviews could also be part of a larger campaign trying to stop my message from spreading by attempting to tarnish my research through fake and defamatory reviews, so I really need your help to combat this as soon as possible. Thank you!

 

Talk Radio Hosts Dodge the Topic

Years ago when I first began investigating this subject, I thought I would test to see if the top call-in talk radio shows in America would dare address the Bohemian Grove, so I decided to start calling the shows trying to get on the air. I soon realized that every time I would get through to the call screener, they would hang up on me immediately as soon as I told them I had a question about Bohemian Grove. “We’re not taking calls on that right now, sorry. Click.”

I soon devised a method to actually get on the air and verbally confront the talk show hosts about this and other Illuminati issues. What I did was feed the call screener a fake question that pertained to one of the top stories of the day, and then they would place my call in the queue to be taken by the host. As soon as the host took the call—instead of asking the question the screener approved—I would fire off a question or comment about the Bohemian Grove.

I got recordings of many of these calls from the shows’ podcasts and posted them on MarkDice.com and on YouTube to show people that hosts like Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck, and others wouldn’t dare inform their audience about the activities or allegations surrounding the Bohemian Grove.

Even with the seven-second delay, many times I was able to plant seeds in the minds of the audience before getting hung up on, and sometimes the hosts would argue with me for a few seconds before dropping my call and then telling the listeners I was crazy. On the next few pages are transcripts of just a few of these calls so you can see how they reacted to my questions. Sometimes I had to give the call screener a fake name like “John” because “Mark from San Diego” became a known

problem for many of these shows when I repeatedly called into them week after week during my investigation.



First Call to Bill O’Reilly

[O’Reilly]

“Let’s go to Mark in San Diego, what’s going on Mark?”

 

[Me]

“Can you address the Bohemian Grove club private presidential…” [hung up on by Bill]

 

[O’Reilly]

“You know these guys in San Diego they’re just…the weather’s just too nice there. Now here’s what happens…not everybody…but you go out to the beach and you do all that…and some kind of substance gets in your mind. And Mark just demonstrated it.” [referring to getting stoned]



Second Call to Bill O’Reilly

[O’Reilly]

“Ok, we’ve got an all-skate going on, which means you can ask me anything you want at 1-877-9 No Spin…let’s go to Mark in San Diego, what’s going on Mark?”

 

[Me]

“How do you feel about the private presidential resort the Bohemian Grove…” [Bill interrupts and drops the call]

 

[O’Reilly]

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, and I don’t care.”

 

This was on a Friday when Bill was having what he called an ‘allskate’ in which he took call after call on any topic…or so he said. I could understand getting hung up on if my question was off topic, but this was the segment where O’Reilly said, “You can ask me whatever you want.” This call and others can be heard on my YouTube channel, just look for the Bohemian Grove playlist on YouTube.com/MarkDice.145 Bill O’Reilly quit

his syndicated radio show in 2009 but continued to host the O’Reilly Factor on the Fox News Channel.





First Call to Sean Hannity [Hannity] “Hello.”  

[Me] “The Bohemian Grove, have you been there, do you know about it…”  

[Hannity] “I’m very aware of it, I’ve been invited, I’ve never gone.”  

[Me] “Do you know about the mock human sacrifice ritual, the Cremation…” [Hannity drops call]  

[Hannity] “All right, goodbye. This guy’s nuts.”



Second Call to Sean Hannity

[Hannity]

“Alright, back to our phones. San Diego, Mark on KFMB, how are you?”

 

[Me]

“Good. Let’s talk about the Bohemian Grove and the kickoff of their summer festival in July which is a mock human sacrifice, Sean.” [Hannity drops call]

 

[Hannity]

“You’re out of your mind, you’re a sicko...this guy’s a nutcase.”



Third Call into Sean Hannity’s Show

[Hannity]

“KFMB San Diego, Mark next, Sean Hannity show, Mark, how are you?”

 

[Me]

“Let’s discuss the issue instead of hurling insults and ad hominem attacks…”

 

[Hannity]

“You are a kook. You are a nut. You are absolutely out of your mind insane. I’ve never been to the Bohemian Grove, sir. It’s just a great conspiracy.”

 

[Me]

“You said you were invited, but have you looked up what happens in the Bohemian Grove?”



 

[Hannity starts playing the theme song from the film Psycho in the background]

 

[Hannity]

“I have no idea.”

 

[Me]

“The Cremation of Care?”

 

[Hannity]

“No, I don’t.”

 

[Me]

“Look it up on any search engine Sean, ask your friends.”

 



[Hannity]

(Sarcastically) “What do you think is happening in there?”

 

[Me]

“Well, they I think they’re doing a mock human sacrifice where they burn an effigy of a human, it’s like a paper-mache human body.”

 

[Hannity]

“What Republicans do this, sir?”

 

[Me]

“Well, President Bush is on the membership list…”

 

[Hannity]

“President Bush? He’s burning figures in effigies in the Bohemian Grove, sir?”



 

[Me]

“In front of Molech, the ancient Canaanite deity, while they’re dressed up in black robes and colored robes carrying torches.”

 

[Hannity]

(Sarcastically) “Yeah.”

 

[Me]

“Look at Infowars.com.”

 

[Hannity]

“Hey Mark…”

 

[Me]

“Look it up.”



 

[Hannity]

“You are a nut.”

 

[Me]

“Well, you’re a gatekeeper, trying to avoid the truth.”

 

[Hannity]

“You are a nut. Go seek help. Go get help.” [Hannity drops call]



Call to Rush Limbaugh

When I asked Rush Limbaugh about the club, at first he pretended not to know anything about it, saying he had never been there, but when I pressed him, he made a fairly long sarcastic speech about the place, showing he knew exactly what it was and what goes on there.

 

[Rush]

“Mark, you’re next on the EIB Network, hello.”

 

[Me]

“Since I have you on the line, Rush, have you seen the video of the Bohemian Grove ceremony that Alex Jones produced that’s on Google Video?” [the predecessor to YouTube]

 

[Rush]

“Uhh…No. Been invited to the Bohemian Grove, but I’ve never been there. And I’ve not seen the video.”



 

[Me]

“Do you know about the activities within the Grove, can you talk about that?” [hangs up on me]

 

[Rush]

“No! Cuz I don’t…I’ve never been there. All I know is that it’s a bunch of elitists and power brokers who conduct secret meetings to take over the world and they run around nude. It’s all men, no women are allowed. And they run around and you can find them going to the bathroom on trees and so forth. And they have men come out and make speeches to them and all that.”

 

After his little sarcastic rant, he addresses his producer referring to my call, and says, “He believes it’s the CFR in the woods,” and then moves on as if nothing happened. The CFR (Council on Foreign Relations) is an elitist think tank that masquerades as if it were an ordinary committee in Congress that is composed of prominent politicians and journalists who are given policy recommendations and talking points which are practically viewed as marching orders by the Establishment. See my book The Bilderberg Group: Facts & Fiction to learn more about the CFR which functions as a less secretive sister organization to Bilderberg.

 



Call to Michael Savage

Michael Savage seemed skeptical and pretty shocked at first but did listen to me for a bit before he hung up with disgust after I asked him on air about the ritual for the first time.

 

[Savage]

“Mark in San Diego, you’re on the Savage Nation.”

 

[Me]

“Michael, why has information about the Bohemian Grove and George W. Bush’s and Bush 41’s membership been suppressed and ignored, and why is it laughed at in the mainstream media?”

 

[Savage]

“I don’t know. What is so weird about the Bohemian Grove? It’s a powerful group of men who have a club. I don’t understand. What’s the big secret up there?”



 

[Me]

“You haven’t heard of, or seen the mock human sacrifice video?”

 

[Savage]

“Oh please. Come on. Do you have evidence of this? Is there any evidence you can post about this?”

 

[Me]

“Look it up on Google. Look at Alex Jones’ Infowars” [website muted and not allowed on air].

 

[Savage]

“So everybody who goes to the Bohemian Grove including Henry Kissinger, is what, they’re doing snuff movies up there now?”

 

[Me]



“Well, that’s what senator John DeCamp alleges and his witness back in 1984, but…”

 

[Savage]

“Senator who? Senator who?”

 

[Me]

“Listen Michael, you really need to look into this, I’m surprised that you haven’t.” [Savage drops call]

 

[Savage]

“I have a migraine headache sir, there’s only so much a man can do in one day. My God, now the Bohemian Grove, they’re doing mock funerals. There’s only so much madness a man can listen to until he goes crazy. You know, I’m serious. How much more can I take?”



Call to Glenn Beck

[Beck]

“Let’s go to San Diego, welcome to the Glenn Beck program.”

 

[Me]

“I was wondering if you’ve read the book The Resistance Manifesto. I know you’re a big fan of the Bohemian Grove [sarcasm] and I thought you could expand on the rituals and the mock human sacrifice that goes on there each year.”

 

[Beck]

“Yeah, do me a favor. Don’t ever lie to my phone screener again. I’d answer that question if you would have asked my phone screener that question. Don’t lie to my phone screener. We take you off the air immediately and won’t deal with you. You might have just gotten that whole show that we were going to do on that topic taken out of line. I might not do it now because you pissed me off!”





First Call to Alan Colmes [Colmes] “Let’s go to Mark in Oceanside, California. Hello.”   [Me] “Wondering if you checked out those photos or the video of the mock human sacrifice in the Bohemian Grove…” [Colmes drops call]   [Colmes] “No I have not.”

Second Call to Alan Colmes

[Colmes]

“Mark in San Marcos, California. Hello.”

 

[Me]

“Hey, I was wondering since you’ve heard a little bit about it, and you’ve probably seen the photos and the video clips, I was thinking we could spend a few minutes talking about the Bohemian Grove and the mock human sacrifice that’s done each year by the Republican elite.”

 

[Colmes]

“What about it?”

 

[Me]

“What are your comments on that?”



 

[Colmes]

“I don’t know much about it.”

 

[Me]

“You haven’t checked it out after hearing about this bizarre activity that the Republicans engage in?”

 

[Colmes]

“All right, thank you very much.” [Drops call]



Third Call to Alan Colmes

[Colmes]

“The Friday night free for all is where you set the agenda, you run the show, you determine what we talk about, I do not. We take the calls in the order they arrive, and we cannot keep you off the air as much as we would like to in some cases, if you get through you get on. Mark in San Diego, hello.”

 

[Me]

“Alan, if you type in Bohemian Grove into any search engine, the entire page is full of wonderful links and photos, and I’m sure that you’ve done this…” [Colmes cuts me off]

 

[Colmes]

“That’s very nice. And I’m sure that someday you’ll call me with actually a new topic rather than repeating yourself every single time you call me with the same thing. That will be nice.”



Fourth Call to Alan Colmes

[Colmes]

“Hello.”

 

[Me]

“Let’s spend more than just a few seconds talking about such an important issue like the Bohemian Grove…” [Colmes drops call]

 

[Colmes]

“Well, first of all, you are a problem. You have continued since this show has been on the air to try to get to me to put you on the show as a guest. You’re a phony and you’re a fraud and I’m not going to put you on the air as a guest. Ok? It’s not going to happen! That’s that guy by the way, he has attempted to book himself as a guest on the show, he’s left messages on my voicemail, has emailed me. We’ve talked to him off the air and tried to discern whether or not he was someone we wanted to put on as a guest. We decided not to. During the free for all, if he wants to call up and make his statements he’s welcome to do it. That’s why we do the free for all. And if we decide that someone is not someone we’re not going to put on as a guest, I trust the determination of our producers, that’s why they’re hired to make those decisions.”



 



The Belizean Grove

Apparently some wealthy and well-connected women were jealous of the all-male Bohemian Grove, so they started their own version for women —called the Belizean Grove. Not much is known about this girls’ club, but there are a few pieces of information I have been able to put together. The Belizean Grove was started Super Bowl weekend in 2001 by Susan Stautberg who is the president of PartnerCom Corporation, a company which manages advisory boards around the world for businesses and governments.

In a response to her husband and most other men being preoccupied with the “big game,” Stautberg gathered up a small group of her highpowered girlfriends and flew down to Central America for a women’s weekend. This wasn’t just a vacation; this was also a business trip where the women worked to further their careers and privately plotted their futures.

The group now consists of around 100 of the most influential women in the world who meet up every year in Belize for three days for what is said to be “a balance of fun, substantive programs, and bonding.”146 The group says they are “a constellation of influential women who are key decision makers in the profit, nonprofit and social sectors; who build longterm, mutually beneficial relationships in order to both take charge of their own destinies and help others to do the same.”147

One member, Mary Pearl, who works as the Dean of New York’s Stony Brook University, said, “It’s hard if you’re someone who’s a type ‘A’ personality, who’s achieved a lot and who may be in the public eye—it’s hard to make friends, so it’s just a mutually supportive wonderful experience. We get together just for socializing and also just for intelligent conversation.”148



It is bizarre that these women—most of whom are from the United States, would fly all the way down to Central America for a weekend getaway when they could just meet up locally at a fancy resort or one of their lavish private residences. Some speculate this is so the women can go out and have a night on the town with little chance of bumping into anyone they know or being recognized by someone. Perhaps it’s like a Cougar’s night out, when some of the women pickup younger men and bring them back to their hotel rooms, which if they did in an American city, they would run the risk of being spotted by someone who knew who they were, but when down in Central America, it is extremely unlikely anyone would recognize them.

Belizean Grove members include female executives from major banks, public relations firms, and even women in the U.S. Military. A New York Times article written in 2011 said, “Belizean Grove has connected the top women in technology to the top women in finance, to the top women in media, to the top women in law, to the top women in retail, and so on.”149 It is currently unknown if they engage in any occult rituals like their male counterpart at the Bohemian Grove.

The group was really only discovered in 2009 after Sonia Sotomayor was nominated for a position as a Supreme Court Justice by President Barack Obama. During the vetting process, Republicans digging for dirt on her discovered she was a member of this strange girls’ group. She immediately resigned from the Grove since the American Bar Association forbids a judge from being a member of any organization that “discriminates” against anyone based on sex, race, religion, or national origin; and since it’s an all-female club, this caused a potential hang-up for her getting approved to sit on the Supreme Court.

Founder Susan Stautberg was not happy about the new publicity, and said, “We like to be under the radar screen.”150 In order to join, a woman must be recommended to the Belizean Grove “advisory board” which then decides whether or not to admit her. A few known members are U.S. Army

General Ann E. Dunwoody; former Goldman Sachs executive Ann Kaplan; and General Services Administration Director Lurita Doan. Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, a major promotor of the feminist agenda, is a likely member as well.

Before taking over for David Letterman on Late Night, Stephen Colbert hosted the popular Colbert Report on Comedy Central from 2005 to 2014, where he pretended to be a radical right-wing conservative, basically satirizing Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly. In 2009 when Sonia Sotomayor was being considered for a position on the Supreme Court, and the Belizean Grove was first discovered—Colbert joked about it in his monologue. “Now it has come to light that Sotomayor is a member of something called the Belizean Grove, a private organization whose members must be a female professional from the profit, nonprofit, and social sectors,” he began.151

“This is not only more Sotomayor reverse discrimination—it also violates the code of conduct for federal judges which forbids membership in groups that practice invidious discrimination on the basis of sex,” Colbert says, pretending to be outraged.

He goes on to say that Republicans have questioned her membership in this “sexist” club, and that, “There’s only one way for Sotomayor to be a member of a single-sex club and still be confirmed for the Supreme Court, which brings us to Tonight’s Word: Bohemian Grove! As opposed to the Belizean Grove, the Bohemian Grove or Bohemian Club is an all-male, 130-year-old secret society of captains of industry, international power brokers and every Republican president since 1923. Herbert Hoover called it quote ‘the greatest men’s party on earth,’ and Richard Nixon agreed,” he says sarcastically before playing the White House Oval Office tape of Nixon calling it the most faggy God damned thing you could ever imagine.152 “That is really saying something from a guy named tricky dick,” Colbert continues.



“Every year, the Bohemian Club holds a retreat in the Bohemian Grove in northern California where they are rumored to engage in costumed pageantry, simulated human sacrifice and worshiping before a 40-foot stone owl. In 1999 after being denied membership in the Bohemian Grove, a group of women started their own same sex organization—the Belizean Grove.”

He then quotes a statement from Sotomayor denying they discriminate against men, reading “All interested individuals are duly considered by the membership committee [and] to the best of my knowledge, a man has never asked to be considered for membership.”

“Until now!” Colbert says. “Because I hereby demand to be admitted to this ladies’ shadowy cabal. Making me a member is the quickest way to put this controversy to rest…and between you and me, the Bohemian Grove is a total sausage fest. I can’t spend another summer watching Henry Kissinger belly dance around a statue of the tootsie pop owl, so madam I await your invitation.”







Depictions in Television and Film

Eyes Wide Shut

In 1999 Tom Cruise and his then-wife Nicole Kidman stared in Eyes Wide Shut, a bizarre film directed by Stanley Kubrick about a secret society of wealthy men and women in New York City who meet periodically in large mansions to engage in strange ceremonies and masked sex orgies.

Tom Cruise’s character (Dr. Bill Hartford) is told about the parties by a friend of his who is paid to play the piano during the events. Out of curiosity Cruise rents a black robe and a mask from a local costume shop, and attends one of the parties. Once inside he witnesses a group of around 100 men and women conducting some kind of occult ritual while wearing long black robes and venetian masks just before having an orgy.

Tom Cruise is eventually discovered and escorted from the property after being given an ominous threat to remain silent about what he had seen. The following day, one of his wealthy friends reveals that he was in attendance at the ceremonial orgy and warned Cruise, “Do you have any idea how much trouble you got yourself into last night just by going over there? Who do you think those people were? Those were not just some ordinary people. If I told you their names...no, I’m not going to tell you their names...but if I did, I don’t think you’d sleep so well at night.”

As strange as it sounds, the plot of Eyes Wide Shut is based on actual events, and for some, the film brought to mind images of the Bohemian Grove or the rumored Illuminati sex orgies many believe occur at the

private parties of the ruling elite. The Hellfire Club was a sex club in England where members of Europe’s class would have sex orgies back in the eighteenth century.153

The club’s name was a celebration of the Hellfire that sin is said to bring, and their motto was “Do what thou wilt,” the same credo Aleister Crowley would adopt over 100 years later. The Hellfire club was a place where European royalty and wealthy men would get drunk and have group sex with prostitutes or loose women from their social circles. But sex clubs and swinger parties aren’t just a thing of the past. In fact, today, they are more popular than ever.

In recent years a franchise of secretive elite sex clubs called Killing Kittens has popped up in Europe and the United States that hold Eyes Wide Shut themed parties in rented mansions in major cities like London, Los Angeles, and New York. Couples pay $250 per party to participate in masked orgies with other strangers.154 The Killing Kittens club vets all requests and couples must be approved before they are allowed to attend a “Kittens Party.”155 Everyone wears a venetian mask, just like the party in Eyes Wide Shut, and everyone has sex with whoever they want, wherever they want, throughout the mansion right in front of everyone else.

A Christian singer named Jeannie Ortega, who had one of her singles reach the Billboard Top 100, wrote a blog in February of 2015 talking about how a record producer she once worked with said he was invited to an Eyes Wide Shut-type of party that was allegedly thrown by rapper Jay Z. “I was working with him [the producer] on my album and we had a conversation about the abnormal things the entertainment industry is involved in. At the time the word ‘Illuminati’ was not as popular, so we called it more so Freemasonry or something like that. The producer proceeded to share with me his own experiences while on Roc-A Fella while Jay-Z was a part of the company. He said he was once invited to a party where he was given a poker chip and asked to go to the party wearing a black trench coat with nothing else underneath it.” 156



The poker chip was supposedly the entrance pass. The producer, who Ortega did not name, said he did not attend. It’s standard operation procedure to have people sign non-disclosure agreements when attending elite parties so they are legally prevented from talking about them and strict security measures are put in place which enforce a no cell phone policy so no pictures can be taken inside. Are such sex parties thrown by the Hollywood and political elite today like they were in the days of the Hellfire club?

Billionaire Andrew Epstein—a personal friend of Bill Clinton—who also rubs elbows with many political and Hollywood elite, is accused of organizing orgies with underage prostitutes and sex slaves to entertain him and his friends on his luxurious and secluded Virgin Islands estate.157 Epstein is a sex offender, having been convicted of soliciting underage prostitutes in the past as young as fourteen-years-old.158 Court documents also claim that Epstein had the bedrooms in his estate fitted with hidden cameras to videotape his high-powered guests’ encounters with prostitutes so he could allegedly then use the videos to blackmail them.159

With swinger clubs becoming more and more popular, and websites and apps like Adult Friend Finder, a place where couples go to meet other couples and fulfill their strange sexual fetishes—and the well-known sexual deviancy of many powerful politicians and Hollywood elite, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that Eyes Wide Shut parties occur. It’s likely that at some point in the future these sex magic orgy practitioners will come out of the closet and demand that the world accept their activities as “normal,” much in the same way we saw the gay rights movement grow from a ripple to a tidal wave in the early 21st century.



South Park

Known for its no holds barred lampooning of pop culture figures, politicians, and religious beliefs, South Park tries to be as offensive as possible with their crude and often distasteful “humor.” Occasionally the show ridicules various people and institutions by simply presenting bizarre facts in a humorous way, like they did in their episodes making fun of Mormonism and Scientology. Both of these episodes included a banner on the bottom of the screen that read, “This is actually what Mormons/Scientologists believe,” and it really was what they believe! This disclaimer was used to point out the fact that the show wasn’t making up these foolish beliefs, which made the episodes even more hilarious.

The use of this banner was also included in an episode about what was called the “Super Adventure Club.” This episode, titled “The Return of Chef,” was about an organization of pedophiles who travel around the world to have sex with young boys because they believe that it gives them magical powers. The current leader of the group explains, “Our club offers hope. Do you think we go around the world molesting children because it feels really good? No. Our club has a message and a secret that explains the mysteries of life.”160

The leader continues to explain the history of the “Super Adventure Club,” saying that a man named William P. Phineas, a pedophile who traveled all over the world molesting young boys, discovered a great secret. “But now the most wonderful part. You see, after having sex with all those children, Phineas realized that molesting all those kids had made him immortal. He discovered that children have things called marlocks in their bodies and when an adult has sex with a child, the marlocks implode feeding the adult’s receptor cavity with energy that causes immortality.”161



While this is not funny at all, and only in a morally bankrupt society would such dialogue be allowed to air on a major network like Comedy Central, the plot appears to have been inspired by the teachings of satanic sex magic—which—as I covered earlier in this book, is the belief that certain perverted sexual practices unlock spiritual powers latent in the mind. As I pointed out, Satanist Aleister Crowley believed that though sex magic a person could summon demons that would grant them supernatural power, and some believe that if these rituals involve children, it will enable them to harness “real” black magic forces.

South Park’s creators and writers Trey Parker and Matt Stone must have stumbled across this idea since there are probably whispers in Hollywood about people doing such things. Aleister Crowley is highly revered by many musicians and celebrities today.162 And again, just like the episodes making fun of Mormonism and Scientology, this episode included the note on the bottom of the screen saying, “This is what the Super Adventure Club actually believes.”

How could the writers have possibly come up with such a crazy idea out of the blue, and why would they put a banner at the bottom of the screen saying this is what these people actually believe in the same manner they did in the other episodes about strange religious beliefs if they weren’t in a sense trying to be serious?

The “Super Adventure Club” is possibly a reference to NAMBLA, the North American Man Boy Love Association, a “pedophile rights” group which claims there is nothing wrong with pedophilia, and want society to accept it as “normal” as many have in the case of homosexuality. It wouldn’t be surprising at all to learn that NAMBLA members had incorporated satanic sex magic into their teachings as another way to try to justify their mental illness and child abuse.



Teddy Bears’ Picnic

The man who did the voice for Mr. Burns on The Simpsons for over twenty-five years, Harry Shearer, wrote and directed a little known (and commercial failure) which was a spoof on the Bohemian Grove. Teddy Bears’ Picnic went straight to DVD and was too terrible for any distributer to put it in theaters. The movie was made in 2002; just two years after Alex Jones had infiltrated the Bohemian Grove and videotaped the Cremation of Care ritual, which served as Shearer’s inspiration for his film.

The plot of Teddy Bears’ Picnic involves an exclusive men’s club called Zambezi Glen that meets in the woods for their annual summer party where they get drunk, dress in drag, enjoy peeing on trees, and have sex with prostitutes. An employee of the campground secretly videotapes some of the members’ activities hoping to sell the footage to the media, but is spotted and chased into the woods. The well-connected men of Zambezi Glen then call in the military to track the guy down using helicopters and K9s, and in the process end up accidentally setting the forest on fire.

The Molech statue in the Grove is depicted as a large pelican in Shearer’s film, and club members dress up in Halloween-type witch costumes and conduct a ritual called the “Assassination of Time.” Shearer has admitted to being a guest at the Bohemian Grove and talked about his experience there with British television producer Jon Ronson in an episode of his Secret Rulers of the World series which basically makes fun of New World Order conspiracy theorists.

Being a left-wing Hollywood liberal, Shearer labeled the members of Bohemian Grove “white Christians.” He told Ronson, “You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to know that this is a get together of very powerful guys. Whatever it is they’re doing there, whether they’re running the world

or just reliving their adolescence, they’re a self-selected group of powerful white Christian Americans.”163

He then went on to say he likes conspiracy theories because he thinks they’re entertaining, but doesn’t believe they are true. “I love the theories, because I believe that these people are the only real good narrative writers left in the English language. They do write really good compelling narratives, but I just don’t happen to think they’re true.”

In the interview he then goes on to stereotype conspiracy theorists as gun-loving, backwoods hicks who live in the middle of nowhere. “And you can imagine, I’m in New York and they’re keeping me spellbound. Imagine being isolated on a ranch in Montana with nobody except your son, who you’re teaching to shoot a rifle, this would be some amazing stuff coming through the night to you, you know.”164 Apparently Harry Shearer thinks Montana is stuck back in the 1800s.

Ronson asked him if he thought the Bohemian Grove was a secret society, to which Shearer answered, “Yeah but I mean it’s a secret society the way the secret society that I was inducted into at UCLA in my senior year is a secret society. There is a lot of meaningless mumbo jumbo and the main conspiracy is to take it seriously.”

“If you’ve ever been through a secret society in college, you know this stuff. Just add two zeros to the budget and you’re doing what you did when you were eighteen-years-old,” he concluded.

Just to put Shearer’s twenty-five year career with The Simpsons into perspective, from around 1989 up until 1998 he was paid $30,000 per episode, then after the show became a wild success and renegotiating his contract, this jumped to $125,000. His income then jumped again to $250,000 an episode a few years later. In 2008 he was being paid $400,000 per episode, but he and other Simpsons staff had to take a pay cut in 2013 in order to lower production costs of the show or else Fox was going to cancel it, so his pay was reduced to $300,000 per episode.165



So Shearer himself is just as wealthy as some of the Bohemian Grove members, and being part of Hollywood’s elite means he probably has a lot more in common with the men inside the Bohemian Grove than he does with the average American.



Lucy, Daughter of the Devil

The Turner Broadcasting Network (TBN) owns the Cartoon Network —which, as its name suggests—consists of cartoons primarily for kids, but after primetime, when most children are supposed to be in bed, the network changes its format to what they call “Adult Swim” and airs raunchy cartoons supposedly aimed at adults. One such show called Lucy, Daughter of the Devil was a short ten minute CGI comedy about Satan trying to convince his daughter, Lucy, to fulfill her role as the Antichrist.

In 2007 an episode titled “Human Sacrifice” was about a satanic ritual at the Bohemian Grove which was being performed to honor a senator who had been chosen to be elected as the next president. “Chosen to be elected,” meaning the elite members control the elections through fraud and had chosen him to be their next puppet.166

A character named DJ Jesús, who is Jesus Christ—and Lucy’s boyfriend in the show, was chosen as the person to be sacrificed to celebrate the new president being picked. Jesus was lured to the Bohemian Grove under the pretense that he would be DJing a party that will be like the film Eyes Wide Shut and is told that Alan Greenspan (former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank) will be there.

The Bohemian Grove, as depicted in the cartoon, is clearly modeled after the actual Grove and includes the giant owl statue with the altar at its feet and men wearing hooded robes holding flaming torches—all identical to the real Bohemian Grove. “Half of Washington” is in attendance in the episode and everyone chants “Hail Satan” as the ritual begins. The Devil even boasts that ten presidents have announced their candidacy in the Bohemian Grove as the ceremony begins.



Before he can be killed, DJ Jesús escapes and the episode ends by zooming out to an aerial view showing the location of the incident being in Northern California, where the actual Grove is located.

 



Conclusion

After sixty years of mainstream media blackouts regarding the elusive and secretive Bilderberg Group, it became impossible in the age of social media and smartphones to keep them under wraps any longer. The easily swallowed claims of the Bilderberg Group being “just another business conference,” are now offered up after the decades of denials about their existence and power, but writing off the Bohemian Grove as “just another party” is not so easy.

Most of the public gullibly buy into the claims now that the Bilderberg Group is just a bunch of men in suits getting together for another boring meeting, but trying to explain the Cremation of Care—not to mention the allegations of Satanism and child abuse that hang over the Bohemian Grove—is quite a bit more difficult. The video footage and photos of the annual “human sacrifice” ceremony would be disturbing to most people once they saw it, and no amount of whitewash or spin would remove the suspicions that many have about the Bohemian Grove.

A bunch of guys meeting for a three-day conference in the case of the Bilderberg Group is pretty easy to brush off as something rather normal—a bunch of men gathering in the middle of a secluded forest, dressing up in hooded robes, and engaging in a “human sacrifice” ritual—not so much.

Even setting this aside, it’s clear that the Bohemian Grove serves as an elite consensus-building party, held about a month after the more formal Bilderberg conference which occurs in the late spring each year. If one wants to gain a comprehensive view of the world and the mechanisms of power that work to guide it, then learning about the Bohemian Grove is a critical piece of the puzzle.



As Mary Moore of the Bohemian Grove Action Network once said, “Kiwanis and Rotary clubs in every small town has that same sort of ‘goodold-boy network’ of prominent men in the community getting to know each other through a social club. But when you get to the level of the Bohemian Grove, it’s a very global network, and much more powerful.”167

When the wealthiest and most powerful men in the world, from heads of industry to high ranking government officials and those who work in the intelligence agencies, all meet together to hang out and listen to off the record lectures given by a variety of experts and insiders, it is undeniable that this has a tremendous impact on society as a whole.

At the time I’m finishing writing this in June of 2015, very few books exist on the Bohemian Grove, and most Americans have still never heard of it. The stories are so strange that even when they do, many dismiss them as an Internet urban legend or a conspiracy theory, but you now hold the evidence in your hands.

I hope this book has helped shed some light on this dark subject, and put some of the wild allegations into their proper context so you can understand where they came from and why they spread. If you would like to continue your education on related subjects, I encourage you to checkout some of my previous books, and if it’s not too much to ask, please write a brief (or lengthy) review for this one and rate it on Amazon.com or whatever e-bookstore you downloaded it from to let other potential readers know what you think.

Please pass this book on to someone else now that you have finished it to share the information with them, and thanks again for investing your time and energy into my ten-year-long investigation of The Bohemian Grove: Facts & Fiction.





Further Reading

The Illuminati: Facts & Fiction

Secret societies have both fascinated and frightened people for hundreds of years. Often the infamous Illuminati is mentioned as the core of conspiracies which span the globe. The Illuminati is actually a historical secret society which had goals of revolutions and world domination dating back to the 1770s.

Since then, rumors and conspiracy theories involving the Illuminati continue to spread, sometimes finding their way into popular novels like Dan Brown’s Angels & Demons and Hollywood movies like Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Some men have even come forward claiming to be former members, offering details of what they allege are the inner workings of the organization. When you sift through all of the information available on the subject, you may be surprised that the truth is stranger than fiction.

In The Illuminati: Facts & Fiction, conspiracy and occult expert Mark Dice separates history from Hollywood and shows why tales of the secret society won’t die.



The New World Order: Facts & Fiction

What is the New World Order? Proponents say that it’s an anticipated new era of global cooperation between diverse nations and cultures aimed at ushering in a utopia providing all the earth's citizens with everything they need.

Detractors claim it’s the systematic take-over by secret societies, quasi-government entities and corporations who are covertly organizing a global socialist all-powerful government which aims to regulate every aspect of citizens’ lives, rendering them a perpetual working-class while the elite leadership lives in luxury.

Conspiracy theory expert Mark Dice looks at the evidence, claims, and conspiracy theories as he takes you down the rabbit hole to The New World Order.

 

Calls for a New World Order World Governed Through Secret Societies Mainstream Media Controlled by the Elite Banking, Money, and Taxes One World Currency Population Reduction One World Religion A Coming Global Dictator Who Will Claim to be God



Illuminati in the Music Industry

Famous pop stars and rappers from Jay-Z and Rick Ross to Rihanna and Christina Aguilera are believed by many to be a part of the infamous Illuminati secret society. These stars allegedly use Illuminati and satanic symbolism in their music videos and on their clothes that goes unnoticed by those not “in the know.”

Since these stars appear in our livings rooms on family friendly mainstream shows like Good Morning America, Ellen, and dozens of others —and are loved by virtually all the kids—they couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the infamous Illuminati or anything “satanic,” could they? Some famous musicians have even publicly denounced the Illuminati in interviews or songs.

Illuminati in the Music Industry takes a close look at some of today’s hottest stars and decodes the secret symbols, song lyrics, and separates the facts from the fiction in this fascinating topic. You may never see your favorite musicians the same way ever again.



Big Brother: The Orwellian Nightmare Come True

In Big Brother, Mark Dice details actual high-tech spy gadgets, mindreading machines, government projects, and emerging artificial intelligence systems that seem as if they came right out of George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Orwell’s famous book was first published in 1949, and tells the story of a nightmarish future where citizens have lost all privacy and are continuously monitored by the omniscient Big Brother surveillance system which keeps them obedient to a totalitarian government.

The novel is eerily prophetic as many of the fictional systems of surveillance described have now become a reality. Mark Dice shows you the scary documentation that Big Brother is watching you, and is more powerful than you could imagine.

 

Orwellian Government Programs Facial Recognition Scanners Mind Reading Machines Neural Interfaces Psychotronic Weapons The Nanny State Artificial Intelligence Cybernetic Organisms



The Resistance Manifesto

The Resistance Manifesto by Mark Dice contains 450 pages of extensively researched and documented information drawing from declassified documents, mainstream news articles, religious texts, and personal interviews. A dark web of evil is exposed like never before, making Bible Prophecy and the New World Order crystal clear.

Learn the most powerful information about the Illuminati, plans for the rise of the Antichrist, the institutions, people, and powers involved, and how you can fight them.

 

“Powerful and compelling. A must read.”

- Alex Jones from Infowars.com

 

“Mark takes you beyond 9/11 into a world of secret societies, mystics, and madmen.”

- Jason Bermas, Producer of Loose Change

“Mark Dice is not a conspiracy theorist, he is a conspiracy realist. This book tells it like it is. I urge every American to read it and pass it on to your friends and relatives. Wake up America!”



- Ted Gunderson, Senior Special Agent in Charge (retired) FBI Los Angeles



Inside the Illuminati

When looking into the existence and alleged activities of the infamous Illuminati secret society, one finds an overwhelming amount of conspiracy theories, hidden history, half-truths and hoaxes.

But how much truth is there to some of these claims? What is the real history of the mysterious group? Do they continue to exist today? What is the evidence? And what are they doing?

After a decade of research sifting through the facts and the fiction, secret society expert Mark Dice will help you navigate through the complex maze from the original documents to rare revelations from elite politicians, bankers and businessmen, as he takes you Inside the Illuminati.

 

Insider Revelations Original Writings Spiritual Beliefs Occult Symbolism Early Evidence Zodiac Club “Ex Members” Communism Seraphic Society The Jesuits The Jasons And more!



The Bilderberg Group: Facts & Fiction

Every spring since 1954, a group of approximately one hundred of the world’s most powerful businessmen, politicians, media moguls, and international royalty meet in secret for several days to discuss the course of the world. Called the Bilderberg Group after the Bilderberg Hotel in Oosterbeck, Holland where their first meeting was held, this off the record annual gathering is said to be where the globalist puppet masters plot and scheme.

Does this group of power elite develop new political, economic, and cultural policies that are then covertly implemented by their underlings? Do they choose who our world leaders will be, including the next president of the United States? Is the Bilderberg Group a shadow government? Are they the Illuminati? Why has the mainstream media had a complete blackout regarding their meetings for decades? Who attends? And who pays for it?

Is this “just another conference?” Or, are the “conspiracy theorists” right? What is the evidence? How were they first discovered? What are they doing? And should the public be concerned? Secret society expert Mark Dice will show you the hidden history, financial records, and some of the insider leaks showing how this small group’s consensus has staggering effects on the political landscape of the world, global economies, wars, and more, as he uncovers The Bilderberg Group: Facts & Fiction.

 

Their History Bilderberg’s Goals Their Discovery Recent Meetings

Members and Guests Actions and Effects Financial Records The Oath of Silence Media Blackouts Exclusive Photos And More!

 



The True Story of Fake News

Is fake news being spread through social media as part of an information war? Are political operatives publishing disinformation to smear the opposition and help their own agendas? Who creates fake news, how does it spread, and can it be stopped?

 

What are the real world effects of fake news stories that go viral? Did it affect the outcome of the 2016 presidential election? Or is ‘fake news’ a fake problem, designed to justify tighter control over the mechanisms of sharing information online to drive audiences back to brand name media outlets because their audiences and influence are dwindling?

Media analyst Mark Dice takes a close look at the fake news phenomenon and the implications of mega-corporations like Facebook, Google, and Twitter becoming the ultimate gatekeepers and distributors of news and information.

You will see the powerful and deceptive methods of manipulation that affect us all, as numerous organizations and political activists cunningly plot to have their stories seen, heard, and believed by as many people as possible.

The depths of lies, distortions, and omissions from traditional mainstream media will shock you; and now they’re colluding with the top tech companies trying to maintain their information monopolies. This is The True Story of Fake News.



 



About the Author

Mark Dice is a media analyst and author who, in an entertaining and educational way, exposes our celebrity-obsessed culture and the role mainstream media and elite secret societies play in shaping our lives.

Mark’s YouTube channel has over 1 million subscribers and more 400 million views. His viral videos have been mentioned on the Fox News Channel, CNN, the Drudge Report, TMZ, the New York Daily News, the Washington Times, and other media outlets around the world.

He has been featured on various television shows including the History Channel’s Decoded and America’s Book of Secrets; Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura, Secret Societies of Hollywood on E! Channel, America Declassified on the Travel Channel, and is a frequent guest on Coast to Coast AM, The Alex Jones Show, and more.

Mark Dice is the author of 11 books, including The Illuminati: Facts & Fiction, Big Brother: The Orwellian Nightmare Come True, The New World Order: Facts & Fiction, Inside the Illuminati, The Bilderberg Group: Facts & Fiction, The Bohemian Grove: Facts & Fiction, and more.

While much of Mark’s work confirms the existence and continued operation of various powerful secret societies, he is also dedicated to debunking conspiracy theories and hoaxes and separating the facts from the fiction; hence the “Facts & Fiction” subtitle for several of his books.

He has a bachelor’s degree in communication from California State University.

 



Connect with Mark on: Facebook.com/MarkDice

Twitter.com/MarkDice.com

YouTube.com/MarkDice

MarkDice.com



1

New York Observer “At Skull and Bones, Bush’s Secret Club Initiates Ream Gore” by Ron Rosenbaum (April 23rd 2001)

2

Robbins, Alexandra - Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power page 130

3

Hanson, Mike - Bohemian Grove: Cult of Conspiracy page 25

4

Phillips, Peter - A Relative Advantage: Sociology of the San Francisco Bohemian Club. A Doctoral Dissertation (1994) page 27

5

Bohemian Club’s 2013 - 990 Tax Forms - Line 9

6

Bohemian Club’s 2013 Tax Forms 990 Schedule O, Supplemental Information (2013)

7

Domhoff, William - The Bohemian Grove and Other Retreats: A Study in Ruing-Class Cohesiveness Preface

8

Domhoff, William - The Bohemian Grove and Other Retreats: A Study in Ruing-Class Cohesiveness Page 1

9

YouTube: 1981 News Report about Bohemian Grove (posted by user Jaketom3 on December 15th 2006) Other channels have also reposted this video.

10

ABC News - Segment about Bohemian Grove (July 23, 1981)

11

Ibid.

12



The New York Times “Bohemian Club Is Upheld On Refusal to Hire Women” (January 23rd 1981)

13

The New York Times “Bohemian Club Ordered To Begin Hiring Women” (October 17th 1981)

14

CBS WCCO-TV “Good Question: Why Can Some Clubs Discriminate?” by Jason DeRusha (August 20th 2012)

15

YouTube “Bill Clinton gets asked about the Bohemian Grove club that he and other elites attend” (uploaded October 2011)

16

See my book The Bilderberg Group: Facts & Fiction for a complete analysis of the annual Bilderberg meeting and the effects it has had on shaping the world.

17

Barruel, Abbe- Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism page 582

18

See my previous book Inside the Illuminati: Evidence, Objectives, and Methods of Operation, available in paperback from Amazon.com or e-book from all major e-books stores.

19

Cirlot, J.E. -Dictionary of Symbols p. 236-237

20

Ovason, David - The Secret Architecture of our Nation’s Capital (2002 Harper Perennial)

21

Pike, Albert - Morals and Dogma page 104-105

22

Levi, Eliphas - Transcendental Magic pages 9-10

23

Hall, Manly P. - The Secret Teachings of All Ages page 272

24

Hall, Manly P. - The Secret Teachings of All Ages page 83

25

Blavatsky, Helena - The Secret Doctrine: Volume II page 192



26

Pike, Albert - Morals and Dogma page 321

27

Crowley, Aleister - Magick: In Theory and Practice page 193

28

TechnoCalyps - Part II - Preparing for the Singularity (2008) Documentary by Frank Theys

29

CNET “Google exec: Humans will be hybrids by 2030” by Chris Matyszczyk (June 4th 2015)

30

Phillips, Peter - A Relative Advantage: Sociology of the San Francisco Bohemian Club. A Doctoral Dissertation (1994) page 67

31

Shown in Alex Jones’ film Dark Secrets: Inside Bohemian Grove (2000)

32

Phillips, Peter - A Relative Advantage: Sociology of the San Francisco Bohemian Club. A Doctoral Dissertation (1994) page 127

33

Phillips, Peter - A Relative Advantage: Sociology of the San Francisco Bohemian Club. A Doctoral Dissertation (1994) page 92

34

Phillips, Peter - A Relative Advantage: Sociology of the San Francisco Bohemian Club. A Doctoral Dissertation (1994) page 93

35

Phillips, Peter - A Relative Advantage: Sociology of the San Francisco Bohemian Club. A Doctoral Dissertation (1994) page 111

36

SFGate “Behind the Count” (July 23rd 2003)

37

Phillips, Peter - A Relative Advantage: Sociology of the San Francisco Bohemian Club. A Doctoral Dissertation (1994) page 95



38

Nixon, Richard -RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon

39

Nixon, Richard -RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon pages 80-81

40

President Dwight Eisenhower’s Farewell Address in 1961

41

Checkout my book The Bilderberg Group: Facts & Fiction if you would like to learn more about this annual meeting of the ruling class.

42

There are many different YouTube channels that have posted clips of Alex Jones’ footage and his entire documentary, just search YouTube and you’ll find them.

43

Jon Ronson’s Secret Rulers of the World: The Satanic Shadowy Elite? episode 4 (at approximately the 32:13 mark)

44

Statement from Bohemian Grove included in“Secret Rulers of the World: The Satanic Shadowy Elite? by Jon Ronson (2001)

45

http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/bestvintage/photogallery_02.html

46

David Icke in a lecture of his, shown in Jon Ronson’s Secret Rulers of the World: The Satanic Shadowy Elite? Episode 4 (at approximately the 42:44 mark)

47

Icke, David - The Biggest Secret page 250

48

YouTube: David Icke - The TRUTH about the Moon - Interview with David Icke talking about this theory of his.

49

The Bible: Book of Leviticus 18:21



50

The Bible: Book of Leviticus 20:2

51

The Bible: Book of Leviticus 20:4

52

YouTube: Alex Jones asks David Gergen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHFoUZEjuNM

about

Bohemian

Grove

Rituals

53

Washington Times “Gergen quits Bohemian Club and 17 other organizations” by Frank J. Murray (June 11, 1993)

54

YouTube: Walter Cronkite speech at the World Federalist Association receiving the Norman Cousins Global Governance Award

55

Ibid.

56

Spy Magazine “Masters of the Universe Go to Camp: Inside the Bohemian Grove” by Philip Weiss (November 1989) pages 59-79

57

B-2 Bomber: Cost and Operational Issues (Letter Report, 08/14/97, GAO/NSIAD-97-181)

58

Rothkopf, David - Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They are Making page 284

59

Nixon, Richard - Memoirs (1978)

60

President Richard M. Nixon on the Watergate tapes in 1971 conversation with John D. Ehrlichman, and H. R. Haldeman made public in 1999 by the National Archives

61

The Press Democrat “Retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Conan O'Brien highlight secretive Bohemian Grove gathering” by Guy Kovner (July 12th 2013)



62

Sonoma Country Free Press “Bohemian Grove http://www.sonomacountyfreepress.com/bohos/bohofact.html (now defunct)

Fact

Sheet”

63

FAIR.org “Inside Bohemian Grove: The Story People Magazine Won’t Let You Read” (November 1st 1991)

64

Spy Magazine “Masters of the Universe Go to Camp: Inside the Bohemian Grove” by Philip Weiss (November 1989) pages 59-79

65

FAIR.org “Inside Bohemian Grove: The Story People Magazine Won’t Let You Read” (November 1st 1991)

66

C-SPAN - Washington Journal with guest Michael Barkun (March 12th 2004)

67

Ibid.

68

San Francisco Chronicle “Masked man enters, attacks Bohemian Grove / 'Phantom' expected armed resistance” by Peter Fimrite (January 24th 2002)

69

Jon Ronson’s Secret Rulers of the World: The Satanic Shadowy Elite? Episode 4 (at approximately the 42:44 mark)

70

San Francisco Chronicle “Bohemian Grove commando found guilty” by Kelly St. John (April 17,

2002)

71

Krulos, Tea - Heroes in the Night: Inside the Real Life Superhero Movement (October 2013) Chicago Review Press

72

Chicago Tribune “Costume-clad activists hit Chicago streets to spread altruism” by Geoff Ziezuleqicz (January 18th 2014)



73

Quad City Times “Alcoa protester believes Obama is an alien” by Rashah McChesney (June 29th 2011)

74

Ibid.

75

A personal interview I conduced with Chris Jones in 2006

76

05HF1675 The People of the State of California plaintiff vs Christopher Jones 12/21/67 Defendant c6972092 http://www.fearnotlaw.com/wsnkb/articles/p_v_jones-33569.html

77

Ibid.

78

San Francisco Sentinel “Vanity Fair Editor Arrested at Bohemian Grove” by Pat Murphy (July 2008)

79

Vanity Fair “Bohemian Tragedy” by Alex Shoumatoff (May 2009)

80

History Channel’s Decoded (Season 1 Episode 7) Aired January 13th 2011

81

Ibid.

82

I was included in a different episode of Brad Meltzer’s Decoded, as well as a variety of other shows, some of which were pilots that never got picked up. Check the “About the Author” section of this book for a more complete bio of the shows I’ve been involved with.

83

RT “Guccifer emails link Tony Blair to top-secret Bohemian Grove gathering” (March 25th 2013)

84

Herald Globe “Guccifer indicted in US for Bush family email hack” (June 14th 2014)



85

The Washington Post “Guccifer emails link Tony Blair to top-secret Bohemian Grove gathering” by Caitlin Dewey (January 22nd 2014)

86

www.YouTube.com/MarkDice

87

Spy Magazine “Masters of the Universe Go to Camp: Inside the Bohemian Grove” by Philip Weiss (November 1989) pages 59-79

88

Sonoma West Times & News “Remember When: West County Community Protests” by Frank Robertson (November 22nd 2002)

89New

York Post “Gay Porn Star Serves Moguls” by Richard Johnson with Paula Froelich and Chris

Wilson (July 22, 2004)

90

President Richard M. Nixon on the Watergate tapes in 1971 conversation with John D. Ehrlichman, and H. R. Haldeman made public in 1999 by the National Archives

91

CounterPunch.org “Meet the Secret Rulers of the World: The Truth about the Bohemian Grove” by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair (June 19th 2001)

92

Hanson, Mike – Bohemian Grove: Cult of Conspiracy page 192

93

Hanson, Mike – Bohemian Grove: Cult of Conspiracy page 194

94

Ibid.

95

Hanson, Mike – Bohemian Grove: Cult of Conspiracy page 195

96

DeCamp, John - The Franklin Cover-Up page 326



97

DeCamp, John - The Franklin Cover-Up page 103

98

DeCamp, John - The Franklin Cover-Up pages 326-327

99

DeCamp, John - The Franklin Cover-Up pages 326-327

100

DeCamp, John - The Franklin Cover-Up page 104

101

DeCamp, John - The Franklin Cover-Up pages 326-327

102

DeCamp, John - The Franklin Cover-Up pages 103-104

103

DeCamp, John - The Franklin Cover-Up pages 326-327

104

The Alex Jones Show - “Alex Jones Interviews John DeCamp, Author of “The Franklin Cover-up”

(July 21, 2004)

105

Pytha Press “Who Murdered the CIA Chief?” by Zalin Grant

106

Washington Times “Homosexual Prostitution Inquiry Ensnares VIPs with Reagan, Bush” by Paul Rodriguez and George Archibald (June 29th 1989)

107

Ibid.

108

Guardian “Media ‘gagged over bid to report MP child sex cases’” by Daniel Boffey (November 22nd 2014)

109

Ibid.



110

Ibid.

111

Mirror “Retired Scotland Yard detectives back up claims that paedo MPs murdered boys at sex orgies” By Keir Mudie, Mark Conrad (November 23rd 2014)

112

BBC “Sir Cyril Smith: Former MP sexually abused boys, police say” (November 27th 2012)

113

TMZ “Scorpions Bassist: Yeah, about those Snuff Parties I Went to…” (posed on the official TMZ YouTube channel on April 21st 2012) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JiQAzZ0tzM

114

YouTube: “Ralph Rieckermann official Statement about TMZ Snuff Party Video Clip” Posted on Ralph Riekermann’s YouTube channel on June 4th 2015

115

Interview with Rusty Nelson on A Closer Look with Michael Corbin (April 12, 2005)

116

DeCamp, John - The Franklin Cover-Up: Child Abuse, Satanism, and Murder in Nebraska page

105

117

Thompson, Hunter S. - Hey Rube: First article titled The New Dumb

118

CBS “Late Night with David Letterman” (1988) (at approximately the 7:12 mark in interview)

119

YouTube: Hunter S. Thompson on David Letterman 1988 https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=B6JnkmFMhoU

120

CBS “Late Night with David Letterman” (1988) (at approximately the 7:12 mark in the interview)

121

Brown, Nickole - In Memory of Hunter S. Thompson: Postcard from Louisville, Kentucky (posted

April 15th 2005) http://www.pw.org/mag/pc_thompson.htm



122

Kraig, Donald Michael - Modern Sex Magick: Secrets of Esoteric Spirituality page 62

123

Miller, Jason - Sex, Sorcery, and Spirt: The Secrets of Erotic Magic page121

124

Ibid.

125

Kraig, Donald Michael - Modern Sex Magick: Secrets of Esoteric Spirituality page 56

126

Crowley, Aleister – The Book of The Law page 40

127

Aleister Crowley: The Wickedest Man in the World (2002) documentary film by Neil Rawles

128

Telegraph “South African men rape babies as 'cure' for Aids” by Jane Flanagan (November 11th 2001)

129

Reuters “Albinos in Tanzania murdered or raped as AIDS ‘cure’” by Fumbuka Ng’Wanakilala (May 5th 2011)

130

Ibid.

131

O’Brien, Cathy - Trance Formation of America page 169

132

O’Brien, Cathy - Trance Formation of America page 170

133

Ibid.

134

O’Brien, Cathy - Trance Formation of America page 170



135

O’Brien, Cathy - Trance Formation of America page 171

136

Ibid.

137

O’Brien, Cathy - Trance Formation of America page 155

138

O’Brien, Cathy - Trance Formation of America page 1

139

O’Brien, Cathy - Trance Formation of America page 117

140

The Guardian “CIA sued over 1950s 'murder' of government scientist plied with LSD” by Karen McVeigh (November 28th 2012)

141

Marks, John D. - The Search for the Manchurian Candidate 1991 Norton Paperback

142

Chicago Tribune “CIA Brainwashing Suit Settled” by Howard Witt (October 5th 1988)

143

The first printing of The Franklin Cover-Up was in 1992, three years before Cathy O’Brien’s book was released.

144

DeCamp, John - The Franklin Cover-Up page 326-327

145

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLa8S4GilqogR8aZGfDIztCDZD_3ImeKHC

146

New York Times “Sotomayor Defends Ties to Association” by Savage, Charlie and Kirkpatrick, David D (June 15th 2009)



147

CNN.com “Sotomayor resigns from women's club” (June 19th 2009)

148

Politico “Sonia Sotomayor found friends in elite group” by Kenneth Vogel (June 4th 2009)

149

The New York Times “A Club for the Women Atop the Ladder” by Pamela Ryckman (April 2, 2011)

150

Politico “Sonia Sotomayor found friends in elite group” by Kenneth Vogel (June 4th 2009)

151

Comedy Central “The Colbert Report” (June http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/v8qfms/the-word---bohemian-grove

17th

2009)

152

President Richard M. Nixon on the Watergate tapes in 1971 conversation with John D. Ehrlichman, and H. R. Haldeman made public in 1999 by the National Archives

153

The Irish Times “Uncovering the origins of Dublin's Hellfire Club” by David Ryan (August 10th 2012)

154

New York Post “Kate Middleton’s pal hosts the swankiest sex party in NYC” by Dana Schuster (March 10th 2015)

155

New York Post “A night inside the sex club hosted by Kate Middleton’s pal” by Dana Schuster (March 17th 2015

156

BreathCast “Questlove Recounts Illuminati Experience with Jay-Z? Christian Artist Shares Own Experience with the Occult in Music Industry” by Jeannie Ortega (February 17th 2015)

157

Newsweek “Jeffrey Epstein: The Sex Offender Who Mixes With Princes and Premiers” by Catherine Ostler (January 29th 2015)



158

The Guardian “Jeffrey Epstein's donations to young pupils prompts US Virgin Islands review” by Jon Swaine (January 13th 2015)

159

The Mirror “Prince Andrew may have been secretly filmed with underage girl he is alleged to have abused” by Matthew Drake (January 3, 3015)

160

Comedy Central - South Park “The Return of Chef” Season 10 Episode 1 (March 22nd 2006)

161

Ibid.

162

See my previous book Illuminati in the Music Industry.

163

Jon Ronson’s Secret Rulers of the World: The Satanic Shadowy Elite? Episode 4 (at approximately the 42:12 mark)

164

Ibid.

165

The Washington Post “Harry Shearer, voice of Mr. Burns, to leave ‘The Simpsons,’ reports say” by Justin Moyer (May 14th 2015)

166

See Hacking Democracy (2006) produced by HBO

167



SonomaCountyFreePress.org (website now defunct)

Causing Trouble

© 2012 by Mark Dice and The Resistance

All Rights Reserved

Published by The Resistance

San Diego, CA No part of the text within this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form and by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher and the author. Visit www.MarkDice.com ISBN: 09673466-9-X

eBook ISBN: 978-1-62346-360-1 Table of Contents Introduction High School College Craziness Middle School Moving to California Looking Back on it All

Introduction Kids always cause trouble when they’re growing up, especially boys, but not like my friends and I. We didn’t steal cars, commit armed robberies, or burn down someone’s house. Our trouble was different. It was more creative. It was more fun. It still landed us in handcuffs, in the newspapers, and for me, ultimately getting kicked out of high school and featured on the evening news. But there was a style to our trouble. It was often misguided creative energy that we didn’t know how to handle in our youth, and would manifest itself in our outrageous schemes, our over-the-top pranks, and a life that was more exciting than something out of a movie. Years later, whenever discussing high school pranks or stupid things people did growing up, I always had the best stories. Always. And not just one epic story that became legendary at the school for years afterward. I had story after story of the craziness. My stories were so entertaining to those listening that occasionally people said I should write a book about them, so I did.

I’ll tell you about every detail: Painting obscenities consisting of 30-foottall letters in the snow on the football field using food coloring mixed with water in a giant weed sprayer; sending hundreds of magazine subscriptions to a teacher and checking the “bill me later” box; replacing the magazines in the school library with old pornos from the 1970s that a friend of mine found in her dad’s basement; sending a fake college rejection letter to a former friend informing him that the school had changed its mind about enrolling him; and that’s just the beginning. Two years after getting thrown out of high school for a prank I orchestrated that got out of hand, I moved to California with one of my best friends and the craziness continued for about a year before I really started to grow up and channel my energy into more positive things. You could say that immediately after moving to California was the lowest point in my life as you will discover in this book. Within two weeks I found myself in jail for a DUI and later helped turn my roommate’s closet into a marijuana growing operation hoping we wouldn’t have to spend money on pot anymore since we smoked it every day. Instead of getting jobs, we started selling fake IDs to people at my college in order to make money because we didn’t want to work since we came to California to become successful and “live the dream.” We were headed on a crash course with complete disaster. I don’t know what it was that caused all of this craziness to manifest itself in my brain and in my life. Maybe it was because I never had cable TV growing up, so instead of mindlessly sitting in front of the television for hours on end, I had to come up with things to do to entertain myself. In the 1990s there was no high-speed Internet yet, there were only dial-up modems that took hours to download even small files. Maybe it was because I lived in Wisconsin, and for six months out of the year the weather was too bad to go outside and I was stuck indoors for months on end, so we had to do something for fun. Maybe it’s genetic, because from what I understand one of my grandfathers was a trouble maker when he was young. Or maybe it’s because my mom wouldn’t let me take karate class. I’m not really sure. My trouble making crew mainly consisted of Fred, Diego, Ken, Rick, as well as Marty and Brent. Fred and Diego are my two best friends and we

have all known each other since the first grade and lived on the same block growing up. Ken and I became good friends in the fifth grade after he moved to the area with his mom and brother, and I met Rick, Marty, and Brent freshman year of high school. This book is 100% true. Everything that is written about here in this book happened just the way it is described and nothing is exaggerated or fabricated. Everyone who knows me and grew up with me is familiar with a lot of these stories since they witnessed them first hand. The names of some of the people involved have been changed to maintain their privacy, since you’ll find a lot of craziness occurred that I’m sure they don’t want to be connected to, even though the statute of limitations is probably passed and nobody can be prosecuted. If anyone has the same name that is used in this book, it is merely a coincidence, and is in no way referring to them. And keeping in line with the typical cliché to avoid any legal problems (both for myself and for you) from people attempting to copy anything that my friends and I did, I insist that you please do not try any of this stuff at home…or anywhere…ever. You’ll have enough fun living vicariously through me just from reading about what we did, so there’s no need for you or your friends to do it too. And before you get all judgmental and think that I’m a completely terrible human being for some of things I’ve done, please read through the entire book before coming to judgment, and remember that it’s tough being a kid.

High

School Fake Pregnancy Test Results Rumors started going around that two particular teachers at our school were having an affair. Mr. Bell and Mrs. Hartnett. One of them was divorced, but the other one we thought was apparently still married (as far as we knew). They also somehow convinced the school board to let them “team teach” a course combining art class and geography in what they called “global

studies.” It was the dumbest class ever, and we didn’t really learn anything and pretty much just drew a bunch of pictures and did childish arts and crafts. I hated Mr. Bell and his dumb class that was probably just an excuse for him to spend more time with Mrs. Hartnett. He was an obese man with a fairly normal looking upper body, and then around his stomach and waist, his body just inflated into a massive blob, making him look like an oversized bowling pin or pear. Anyway, a lot of us students believed that they were having an affair, so I sent an envelope to the school addressed to Mrs. Hartnett with large letters printed on the outside that read, “PREGNANCY TEST RESULTS ENCLOSED. PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL.” As you may know, most teachers have their own little mail slots in the school office and whoever receives the mail has to go through it all and put it in the appropriate slot. The words “PREGNANCY TEST RESULTS ENCLOSED” were so large and noticeable that whoever was separating the mail in the office couldn’t miss it, and I’m sure they couldn’t help but gossip about this strange piece of mail that came in addressed to Mrs. Hartnett, and that was exactly what I wanted. Inside the envelope I put a piece of paper that said “Fuck You” written across it. Not as creative as the outside of the envelope, but hey. Of course, neither she nor Mr. Bell ever mentioned anything about this envelope after she had received it, but it wasn’t the last I would hear about it. Probably six months later, maybe even a year later, my mom—who usually never approved of my antics—came home from grocery shopping one afternoon and told me that she bumped into Mrs. So & So, who worked in the office at the high school, and my mom started smiling excitedly like she had heard some incredibly funny news and went on to tell me that this woman told her about the pregnancy test results letter that Mrs. Hartnett had received and figured it was my doing. She also told my mom that she thought it was hilarious. My mom and I started laughing, and she went on to say that the office lady had figured that it was my handiwork (and she was right). Oh yeah, at some point, Mrs. Hartnett had divorced her husband and that summer married Mr. Bell, and became Mrs. Bell. We were right. They had

been in a relationship, and this was certainly not the end of me tormenting them.

Magazine Subscriptions to Teacher You know how when you pick up a magazine, about 20 subscription cards fall out every time you flip through the pages? You know those little postcards that you put your name and address on and send in to subscribe to the magazine? Well, I noticed that you didn’t have to send any money in with your subscription and you could just check the “bill me later” box and they would start sending you the magazines without having to pay for them right away because they would send you a bill later. It was very generous of them, so I figured Mr. Bell could use some of that generosity. I drove to the mall a few days later and went to the magazine section of the bookstore and started collecting the subscription cards for every magazine on the shelves. Since each magazine has about 5 of these little cards fall out every time you open one, sometimes I collected two or three of the subscription cards for the same magazine. My stack of subscription cards kept growing and growing. I had cards for magazines I never even knew existed. I figured Mr. Bell could use some of this interesting reading material, so I spent an hour or so filling out his name and the school’s address on the cards and marked “bill me later” and dropped them off in the mail and started laughing out loud. I didn’t even have to put stamps on them because the postage was all prepaid by the magazines! It was great! It must have been around 200 different cards. I subscribed him to Good Housekeeping magazine, Time, Newsweek, Cosmo , all the fashion magazines, arts and craft magazines, fitness magazines, celebrity gossip rags, and even Penthouse and Playboy . The stack of cards was over an inch tall by the time I was done collecting them. I could already see what was going to happen. In just a week or two, Mr. Bell’s mailbox at school would be flooded with new magazines, probably 10 or more a day, every day, every week, for who knows how long, all with his name on them. Not only this, but a few weeks later he would also be sent the bill for them all. Even though I wasn’t able to see this with my own

eyes, I knew this would happen and that was satisfaction enough. He would know it was me. Only I would come up with such a devious, yet creative, idea and actually put it in motion. I figured he would never mention that this had happened to him out of embarrassment, and he wouldn’t want to encourage more subscriptions or have it happen to other teachers, but this wasn’t the last I would hear about the magazines. Months later, my mom had to come to the school to have a conference with Mr. Bell, the school principal, the vice principal, the guidance counselor, and myself, because of some other trouble I was causing Mr. Bell which involved me drawing a picture of someone holding a gun and shooting a fat man shaped like a bowling pin that resembled him. (Oh, I popped a bunch of inflatable globes he had hanging from his ceiling, too.) The school was not happy about my drawing (or the globes). The picture didn’t have his name on it, so I didn’t see what the big deal was. During the meeting I said, “Do you think this resembles you, Mr. Bell? What makes you think that?” I was trying to get him to say he was basically a fat blob like the guy in my drawing. He looked like a moron, and instead of my mom being mad at me for her having to come to the school for our big meeting, she was mad at him and thought it was a waste of her time. He wouldn’t even admit that the picture was of him, and he insisted he was just concerned because it was “violent” and even asked if I had any issues with the local bowling alley because the guy in my drawing was a human bowling pin because that was one of our nicknames for him since that was basically the shape of his body. It was during this meeting that Mr. Bell mentioned that he had been getting countless magazines sent to him that he didn’t subscribe to, and he said he had to send a letter to every single one explaining that he had not subscribed to them and asked for his subscriptions to be canceled and the bills voided. The coalition seated across from me asked if I knew anything about it. I’m sure from the look on my face they had their answer, but of course I denied it. They couldn’t prove anything and they knew it. The meeting was a complete waste of my time, and my mom’s, so I had to pay Mr. Bell back.

A few days later I started taking up a collection to enroll Mr. Bell in the “Assholes of America Club” which was something I had found in a magazine somewhere. You could pay something like $30 and enroll someone and the company would send them a T-shirt that says “Official Member of the Assholes of America Club,” along with a membership card with that person’s name printed on it, and a nice letter explaining that someone had enrolled them in the club because they are an asshole. This time, instead of just sending his membership kit to the school where I would not see the look on his face when he opened it, I decided to send it to my parents’ house so I could then place it on his desk before class. When the package came, I brought it to class the next day, and before he arrived, I set the T-shirt, letter, and his membership card on top of his podium where he would be standing in just a few minutes. Some of my friends knew exactly what I was doing and anxiously awaited Mr. Bell’s reaction. I have to give the man a little credit, because instead of flipping out and asking who did this and making a scene, he simply removed it from the podium and put it on the shelf underneath it without saying a word. It was still funny. My plan was almost ruined because my mom usually got the mail every day, so she received the package addressed to Mr. Bell, and opened it up to see what was going on. She hid the shirt and things, and left the empty package sitting on the kitchen table and confronted me about it when I came back from school. She almost wouldn’t give me the stuff because she pretty much knew what I was going to do with it, but I somehow convinced her to turn it over to me so I could bring it to school the next day. I basically threatened to do something even worse to Mr. Bell if she didn’t turn over the goods, so she reluctantly returned them to me. Sometimes I was me who deserved to be in the Assholes of America Club, I know.

The Underwear Check Because I kept messing up the computers at school and causing them to display pictures of girls in bikinis and then freeze up, a policy was implemented where the school made all of us sign an agreement that we

would pay $25 an hour for a computer technician (really just the computer teacher) to repair any damage we caused, or else we couldn’t use the computers anymore. One day instead of doing my usual thing of installing new files on the computers to mess them up or formatting the hard drives, I simply reversed the mouse and the keyboard cables to two different computers—that’s it—and the teacher charged me twenty-five dollars to switch them back! I couldn’t believe it. This was during a computer programming class, and there’s not much I could do just sitting there, so I had to pay the money so I could use the computers again. At first I sat through class for a few days in protest doing nothing, telling the teacher I’m not going to pay, but I soon realized he didn’t care and wasn’t going to budge. At first I thought about bringing in a large box of twenty-five hundred pennies all dumped loose inside, but I came up with an even better idea. I had learned somewhere that a check didn’t need to be written on any official paper like money did, and that you could technically write a check on anything as long is it had your name and account number on it and you signed it, so I decided to write the school a check using my Fruit of the Loom tighty-whities underwear. I stretched the underwear over a square piece of cardboard and used a black magic marker to write in the checking account number and all the details, and the next day I put them in an envelope and handed it to the vice principal and told her it was payment for my “damages” to the computers. A few years later I was trying my hand at some stand-up comedy and a local paper wrote up an article about me that mentioned I would be performing at a certain comedy club one Saturday night, and who did I see in the audience, but Mr. Marvin, the computer teacher whose life I made miserable. I thought it was a coincidence but after my routine he came up to me and handed me a pair of underwear that had “To Mark, from Mr. Marvin” written on them with black magic marker! I couldn’t believe it. He had seen the article in the paper saying I would be performing there and thought he would be funny and try to get me back for the underwear check I gave the school for the trouble I caused in his computer class. I didn’t really think his check was funny, I thought it was creepy, and I left the underwear

laying on one of the tables. We always thought he was gay and this kind of reinforced that idea for me. There was a small office in the back of Mr. Marvin’s classroom that was shared with the science room right next door and we noticed occasionally Mr. Marvin and other teachers would hear the phone ringing and tell the class they would be back in a moment and go into the office to take the call. Well, we got a hold of the phone number, which was written on the side of the phone, and we would occasionally call it from a payphone in the hallway and when another teacher answered it we would say, in the gayest voice possible, something like, “Hey, is Mr. Marvin available? This is his boyfriend and I’m sorry to interrupt him, but I really needed to speak with him for a moment.” Sometimes Mr. Marvin would answer the phone himself and we would make some rude comment and hang up, usually something along the lines of him being gay. He was actually married to a woman and had a son, but we still thought he was a closet homo and he certainly acted like one.

Food Coloring in the Snow You might be familiar with the large weed sprayers that consist of a two or three gallon plastic jug that people fill with weed killer and pump up and carry around their yard to spray weeds with. Well, it was winter time, and there were no weeds, but one night I still came up with a use for the weed sprayer that ultimately led to giant obscenities being painted in the snow on the football field behind the school and on the tennis courts that everyone would see the next morning when they arrived. I bought some food coloring at the local grocery store and filled the weed sprayer up with water and made a late-night visit to the school after it had just snowed. Using my boots I dragged my feet on the ground and drew huge 30-foot-tall letters in the snow, spelling out the word “Fuck” on a large slope facing the school on the edge of the football field. I then took the bright blue water I had mixed up in the weed sprayer using the food coloring and filled in the letters by spraying all around them, turning the snow blue. I wanted to spell out “Fuck You Mr. Mueller” (the name of the

principal) but I soon realized there wasn’t enough water for this, although the effect would still be the same. A simple “Fuck” would still do. The lines making up the word were probably three feet wide and about 30 feet tall. The next morning as I walked from the parking lot to the school entrance, there in the distance, on the side of the pure white, snow-covered football field was a huge “Fuck” in bright blue letters. You couldn’t miss it. It was enormous. The slope it was on was so steep that you could see it as clear as day from the school. The janitors were out there with shovels and rakes trying to move the snow around to cover it up, but the letters were so large that it wasn’t really doing any good. Everyone saw it. There was a large staircase inside the school that almost everyone would walk down to get from the upper level to the lower level, and there in clear view through the windows was a gigantic blue “Fuck” starring you in the face. The principal’s office overlooked the tennis courts on another side of the building, where a slightly smaller “Shit” was spelled out that couldn’t be missed. I didn’t even get called to the principal’s office because Mr. Mueller knew I would just deny I had anything to do with it. A lot of people figured it was me, and when the other students asked me if I did it, my face would light up with a huge grin giving them their answer.

Sidewalk Chalk Sidewalk chalk, if you don’t know, consists of huge sticks of colored chalk that kids use to draw on sidewalks and driveways. The chalk sticks are about the size of a large carrot and come in a variety of colors. While a lot of people use cans of spray paint to put graffiti on buildings, this is vandalism and was crossing the line I had thought, but somehow the idea popped into my head that I should buy some sidewalk chalk and then write a bunch of obscenities all over the outside of the high school. I mean all over the outside. I bought a literal bucket of jumbo sidewalk chalk at Toys “R” Us that contained 20 or 30 different sticks and I rounded up some of my crew and late one night we chalked practically every square foot of the outside of the school on every wall around the entire building. It took more than an hour

to finish and we had a bunch of us out there that night. We drew large pot leaves using the green chalk, we wrote “Fuck You,” “School Sucks,” “Smoke Weed” and just about every other offensive thing we could think of. There were also ten-foot-long penises and derogatory statements about the principal and several of our least favorite teachers written in three-foottall letters. While none of us were artists, we sure did put a lot of detail into our drawings. Let me be clear that this was not on the sidewalks around the school. We did this on the outer walls and it was so noticeable that even people driving by could see our handiwork when we were done. There were no 24 hour security guards, or even any surveillance cameras. This was in the 1990s, remember, in a small town in the middle of nowhere. The next morning, the janitors were out there with sponges and buckets of water washing it all off. It must have taken them hours to clean off our masterpiece, possibly even all day. As clever as this was, the one thing I overlooked was the fact that this was a Friday night and there was no school in the morning so hardly anyone got to see our work. There was a track meet that Saturday, so the track team saw some of it, but it would have been much better if we had done it on a different night so everyone would have seen it in the morning before school. Nobody’s perfect, you know.

Shoes on the Telephone Wires I’m sure you’ve occasionally seen a pair of shoes hanging on some telephone wires above the street, a scene that looks very odd and always makes people wonder why someone would toss them up there and whose shoes they were. I always had to do things a little extreme, so instead of just throwing up an old pair of shoes over some telephone wires, I put the word out at school for people to bring me their old pairs of shoes because I was going to do something cool with them, and everyone knew that meant I was going to do something crazy. Over the next few days people brought me dozens of shoes and I gathered them up in a trash bag at the end of the day and brought them home and tied

the laces together for each pair. A few days later, on a Friday night, my friends and I drove through the town and would pull over on the side of Main Street every few blocks and throw the pairs of Shoes up on the wires right in the middle of the road so they would catch and just dangle there. We did this on almost every single wire that crossed Main Street. I’m talking about 15 pairs in the span of just a few blocks and we were just getting started. After a while we were laughing so hard, as we tried to throw the shoes up to get them to catch on the wires, we were too weak to toss them high enough. It wasn’t even that late at night when we did this, and a lot of times there were cars in the distance approaching as we stood in the middle of the street trying to toss them up. We didn’t care. If a cop saw us, we would have taken off on foot and enjoyed the chase. After we were done filling up the wires on Main Street, we drove over to the other major road that went through town and flung shoes on all those wires, too. These were the only two roads that came into town, and no matter which way people came in or out, they saw the shoes. A lot of shoes. Shoe after shoe after shoe. One pair hanging on practically every single wire that crossed the street. It looked very weird and the entire town couldn’t miss them the next morning. A few days later the shoes were all taken down, a task that must have taken a cherry picker and the entire day. I still had a bunch of shoes that we hadn’t used, so my friends and I went out that same night and put them all back up again! One pair we tossed up was a pair of boots that a girl gave me, and since they didn’t have any laces to tie together, I took a piece of rope and punched a hole in each boot and tied them together so we could still hang them. For some reason someone gave me a large doll when I was collecting the shoes and so I tied a rope around it and tied the other end to a block of wood and we even tossed that up and got it to hang from the wires. We were laughing so hard we could hardly muster the strength to throw some of the pairs high enough to get them to catch and wrap around the wires. It was the middle of winter and absolutely freezing outside and that didn’t make it any easier. This time we would park the car over on a side street and each grab a few pairs of shoes and then walk over to Main Street and spread out and do our thing. We did it again. Both major streets coming

into the town were full of shoes right in the middle of the road. When we were done we couldn’t help but think of the poor city worker who was told to take the shoes down earlier that day, and we envisioned him getting yelled at by his boss because they were still up. “Bob, I thought I told you to take down all of those damn shoes yesterday!” “I did boss.” “Then why are there still 20 pairs hanging over Main Street?” Just imagine their bewilderment. It wasn’t a few days later, or a week later that the shoes went back up. It was later that same day . They must have been pissed . The local paper covered the story and said it was a mystery as to why it was happening and claimed the hanging shoes were dangerous because they distracted drivers and could cause an accident or fall onto a vehicle and break their windshield. Of course, we never really thought about that possibility, because, well, you know, we were dumb kids. I was able to call in and get on the air of a local rock station and told the audience that we were a group called the “Instigators” and that the shoes signified our desire to legalize marijuana. They really had no meaning, but I thought we could encourage others around the area to start tossing up shoes too. We then traveled to the radio station later that night and threw a bunch of shoes on the telephone wires in front of their building. Since our small little town was covered with shoes (again), we decided to branch out and expand the operation to the neighboring cities. I specifically wanted to get shoes in the middle of every major intersection so they would be seen by the most people. This was extremely difficult since there was rarely a time when no cars were stopped at the light at the intersections, so we would just toss them up right in front of the cars stopped at the red light. We didn’t care. Who would have thought that shoes could be so fun?

Donating Pornos to the Library

One of my friends found a large collection of her dad’s pornos from the 1970s in her basement, and she just knew I could put them to good use so she asked me if I wanted them. Of course I did, so she brought them to school the next day so I could donate them to the school library. Pornos from the 1970s, as you can imagine, are very different from today’s pornos. The girls were not exactly the most attractive women, and let’s just say there was plenty of hair down there. Nevertheless, I thought the school library could benefit from having a better selection of magazines, especially some vintage 1970s porn. Most of the current magazines were placed in protective plastic covers which were labeled accordingly, so one afternoon during study hall I went to the library and switched a bunch of that month’s magazines with the pornos and placed them back on the shelves to give people a pleasant surprise (or perhaps unpleasant, because the women were not exactly what I would call attractive according to today’s standards, but you get the picture). I also tore out several pages of some nasty looking pictures and slid them into the trophy cases that adorned the hallways around the school. The trophies were in locked glass cases, but there was a small opening where the two glass panels would overlap each other when they were slid open. I stuck the pages inside the cases through these tiny slits, knowing they would stay there until some janitor was called to unlock the case and take them down. While I was usually very careful when scheming, I made a terrible mistake this time. I had accidentally left one of the pornos in my locker. Within a few hours I was summoned to the principal’s office just as I expected. When I arrived and sat down, I saw a half a dozen of the pornos sitting on Mr. Mueller’s desk. I commented that it looked like he had some good reading material there. He asked me if I knew where the magazines came from, and I told him I thought they were his. He was not amused. He then informed me that he searched my locker and found one of the pornos there. “How do you explain that?” he asked. I had already told him that I didn’t know anything about any old pornos and that I had never seen them before,

so I was caught in a lie. I was busted and he knew it. I was suspended immediately and sent home. Before I was allowed to return to school I had to have a conference with him and my mom. It was very embarrassing. When we went in for the meeting, he had the pornos sitting on his desk and he held one of them up and started flipping through the pages showing my mom exactly what was inside. She was disgusted and so was I because the people were pretty gross. I told Mr. Mueller he had to admit that it was funny, not only that, but it was harmless. He still didn’t find the humor in it and said he was really getting sick of my antics. As my mom and I left his office I told him to enjoy the magazines. I just didn’t know when to stop.

The Disappearing Furniture Most schools and office buildings have a dropped ceiling which consists of the white panels that are about 2 feet wide and 4 feet long that can be lifted up so you can access the lights and plumbing pipes and other things that these panels cover up. A lot of times the actual ceiling is 10 or 20 feet above these panels, and dropped ceilings are a staple of modern buildings. One afternoon in literature class a few of us got to go across the hallway into another room to work as a group on a class project. This room was barely ever used and was pretty much only for student council meetings and test taking. It was full of desks and some small tables and extra books from other classrooms, and somehow we got the idea to remove one of the panels from the dropped ceiling and started putting desks up on top of them. Since I’m tall, I stood on top of a table in the back of the room and Fred would hand me one desk at a time, which I then set on top of the ceiling panels and put the missing panel back in place. When we filled that area of the ceiling, we moved to another part of the room and did the same thing over and over again. Someone was standing watch at the door to make sure that the teacher didn’t pop in to check on us, and for the entire period we put as many desks up in the ceiling as we could. We also put the podium up there; we put the small tables up there; we even took all the books off the shelves and threw them up there too.

Like magic, most everything in the room seemed to disappear, including the garbage can. If you looked carefully you could see many of the ceiling panels were drooping from the weight of the desks and the other furniture pushing down on them. One table was fairly large and heavy, and we worried it would break through the panels while we were still there, but fortunately it held. I can’t imagine what the teachers must have thought the next time they used that room, because almost all of the desks were missing along with the books, the podium, and just about everything else! The stuff was up there for the rest of the year and nobody found out. In another class someone had thrown a desk out the window which landed on a section of the roof below, but in this case, dozens of desks just seemed to disappear into thin air.

A Billboard of Me on the School After the principal realized that detentions didn’t bother me, after a while, he found a punishment that did. He started banning me from attending the school sporting events on Friday nights. This sucked. This was my social life he was messing with here. He had finally found my weakness. Detentions didn’t matter. Not allowing me to use the computers during study hall didn’t deter me from scheming. Even throwing me out of the weight room after school didn’t discourage me, but not allowing me to go to the basketball games on Friday night was like a kick in the balls. I tried to think of a way to convince him that the school needed me at the games because I was the loudest person in the audience and I encouraged school spirit. Me just being there really helped our team. I scanned a picture of myself from the school yearbook and using a computer graphics program I enlarged it to about 5 feet wide and 5 feet tall, and printed it out in sections. It probably took about 50 different pieces of paper, and I taped them all together to make a huge billboard of myself. I then typed up a banner that said, “Let Mark attend the basketball game on Friday night,” and I called Fred and asked him to bring a ladder to school in the back of his truck the next morning so we could put them up. We arrived early and hung my picture over a sign that was above the student entrance that had our school name on it. It was probably fifteen feet up in

the air, and instead of showing the name of the school and our mascot, it was now a gigantic picture of me with a banner below urging people to demand I be allowed to attend the game on Friday. Everyone in the entire school saw it when they arrived that morning since it was above the main entrance in the parking lot. In a perfect moment of synchronicity, I happened to be walking behind the principal in the hallway on my way to first period when the strangest thing happened. Another teacher approached him and said, “Mr. Mueller, there is a gigantic picture of Mark Dice on the side of the school above the entrance that I think you should know about.” I sped up my walk and patted him on the shoulder when I got next to him and said, “Good morning, Mr. Mueller, such a beautiful day, isn’t it?” and gave him the biggest smile. He rolled his eyes and shook his head. I’m sure he didn’t know if I had done it, or if one of my friends did, all he knew was there was a huge picture of me on the side of the school above the entrance. Later on that morning I got called to his office. I pretended I was surprised by the picture and had just found out about it that morning when I got to school. I told him it was clear evidence that the student body wanted me at the game and it was important I go. I pleaded with him to let me attend and he actually changed his mind! I came to the game that Friday wearing a red cape and a sign taped on my chest that said “Spirit Man” (as in school spirit), and I riled up the crowd more than any other game I had been to and everybody had the best time. I even think Mr. Mueller was actually glad that he changed his mind and let me come.

Running for Class President Senior year I decided to run for class president and a few of my friends joined me in the campaign and ran for other positions like vice president, secretary, treasurer, and other offices. We decided to call our group the “Dream Team,” which was named after O.J. Simpson’s team of lawyers who got him off for murder. This struck fear in the heart of the principal and the teachers because the possibility of me being the class president was probably one of the worst things that they could think of for the image of

the school. I would be a complete disgrace to the office, which is exactly why I wanted to win. The only contender running against me who was remotely capable of beating me was the school’s beautiful tennis star who was very popular, but I was sure I could gain more support than her and win. The Dream Team put up posters around the school promoting ourselves, while our opponents did little or no campaigning at all. We were sure victory was ours, but when the election results came in, I did not win. The tennis star beat me. I was shocked. There was no way I could’ve lost. Everyone wanted me, the class clown, to also become the class president just for the fun of it. When the results were announced, the principal said it was a close race, but the tennis star had won senior class president by two votes. Two! I demanded to see evidence of this loss and wanted to witness a recount. Mr. Mueller, the principal, told me that the voting ballots were thrown out! This was ridiculous. That meant there was no real proof that she won. I demanded a new election. He said no, so I typed up a petition the next day and got probably 70% of the senior class to sign it saying that they voted for me and believed there was election fraud and wanted a new one. I presented the petition to the principal and told him that he can’t steal the election from me and deny me my rightful place as class president. He said there would be no revote and I threatened to call the local television station and alert the newspapers of this fraud. He didn’t care, and I let it go. I really should have made a bigger deal out of this. I probably really did win the election and the school screwed me. This just pissed me off and made me want to cause more trouble, and that’s exactly what I did.

The Food Locker There was a locker near mine that didn’t have a number on it, which was weird, and we noticed nobody ever used it. The mysterious unmarked locker was unlocked and when I opened it up one day I realized there was a plumbing pipe going through the middle of it from the floor to the ceiling. For some reason it must have been a design flaw in the building and the pipe wasn’t built inside a wall so they had to cut a hole through the top and

bottom of the locker so it could go through. Instead of having this poor locker sit there all lonely and not get used, I decided to turn it into a trashcan. But not just any trashcan. I put out the word to my friends that they should bring their leftover food from the lunch room and dump it in the locker for fun. After just a few days it started filling up with food scraps and garbage, and you could smell it when you got close to it. I had to put a cardboard retaining wall inside it a few days later to hold the garbage in and prevent it from falling out all over the floor when we opened it to add more because it was stacking up so high. Even though the locker smelled like a dumpster, I thought it would smell worse than it actually did. I thought the stench of rotting food would fill the entire hallway but it was only noticeable when you were close to it. I don’t remember whose lockers were right next to it but I feel really sorry for them. I thought about what I could put in there that would really smell since the rotting food scraps just weren’t stinking enough, and I figured the best thing to do was to pour some beer in there, so one morning I brought a can of beer to school and cracked it open and dumped it in. The beer poured out and filled the bottom of the locker and spilled down below through the cracks underneath and I’m sure spread out underneath the surrounding lockers. It smelled immediately. That whole area of the hallway reeked of beer. When you’re at a party and everybody’s drinking beer, you don’t really notice the smell that much, but apparently when you’re in a nice clean school, the stench of spilled beer can practically fill an entire hallway. The food locker was quickly cleaned out after that and a lock was put on it so we couldn’t put anything else inside.

Going out for Lunch We didn’t have an open campus in high school, which meant we couldn’t leave for lunch. Well, it wasn’t that we couldn’t leave, it was we weren’t supposed to leave. My friends and I had a habit of ditching lunch and smoking weed and then sneaking back into the school, but after a while they realized this was happening and thought they could stop us. They

started locking all the school’s doors from the outside, except for the one right next to the principal’s office, so they could only be opened from the inside once school had started. They thought they were really smart, but I was smarter. What they didn’t realize was that if you folded up a sheet of paper like you were passing a note, you could prop the doors open with it so they wouldn’t latch. All you had to do was set the folded up paper on the ground in such a way that the door would close on it, but it would keep it propped open just enough so it wouldn’t latch and nobody could tell. So once the school started locking the doors, every time we skipped lunch I would just jam one of the doors with a folded up piece of paper and we could easily get back into the school without anybody usually noticing. I say usually , because after a while they did notice because from a few classrooms certain teachers could see us walking back to the school from the parking lot every day through their windows and they realized what we were doing so the vice principal would keep an eye out every day during lunch period trying to bust us. I was too good to be outsmarted by some vice principal and have her ruin my fun and kill my buzz, so I started thinking of a plan. I remembered there were a set of doors in the locker room that led out to the football field which was in the back of the school, and there were no windows back there so no spying teacher or vice principal would be able to see us, so we started parking across the street from the school and then walked along the side of the football field to the locker room doors and then would sneak back inside the building that way, and the fun continued for the rest of the year and we never got caught once. Sometimes if we lost track of time and were running a little late getting back to the school we wouldn’t have the time to park the car a block away and walk across the side of the football field to sneak in through the back door, so we would just park in the teachers’ parking lot and boldly walk in the door right by the principal’s office since it was the only one unlocked from the outside. No teachers or office workers would imagine that any student would have the balls to ditch class and come back in through that door. Sometimes the best place to hide something is right under someone’s nose. We would each walk in the door at about ten second intervals so we

didn’t all walk in at the same time, and occasionally a teacher or someone in the office saw one of us walk in the door, but they never said anything because they always assumed that we must have been coming back from a dentist appointment and had some legitimate reason for coming in late. It’s an interesting phenomenon that if you act like you belong somewhere, you won’t raise any suspicion. If someone less skilled in the art of fighting the system were to attempt returning to school through this door and were spotted, a look of guilt would have flashed upon their face giving them away, but when I walked in the door I just acted like there was nothing unusual happening. One afternoon, a teacher was walking right past the door in the hallway when I came back inside the school and he looked at me and shook his head. He knew exactly who I was and what I was doing and made some comment about how I was just getting back from skipping lunch, but he didn’t get me in trouble. He probably figured it was no use.

Perfect Attendance and the Disappearing Detentions In one of my favorite movies, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off , the main character uses a modem to hack into the school’s computer system to change his attendance record in order to reduce the number of unexcused absences he had accumulated. Even though that film was from the 1980s and things still weren’t very high tech then, my school’s attendance system was even less high tech in the 1990s, which actually worked to our advantage. If a student was absent from class, the teacher would just simply use a pencil to fill in the bubble next to their name on the attendance sheet which would be taken to the office every day. There was a slot on the outside of the classroom doors where the attendance sheets would be put at the end of class or at the end of the day, and someone would come around and gather them all and take them to the office where they would be processed. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that you could just have one of your friends use a hall pass to come by and take the attendance sheet out of the slots and erase the bubble next to your name when you decided to skip class so your absence wouldn’t be recorded.

The same attendance sheet was used all week so if you did this on Tuesday, the teacher might actually notice the following day when the bubble was mysteriously not filled in anymore, so it was to our advantage to only do this on Fridays, which would be the last day they would receive that same sheet, because on Monday they would have a completely new one. This little scheme worked particularly well when there was a substitute teacher because the following day, when the regular teacher came back, they wouldn’t notice that the attendance bubble had been erased because they were not there and wouldn’t know that the student was gone the day before. Little did the high school know, but we had several Good Samaritans who worked in the office who could occasionally prevent us from having to serve detentions that teachers had written us. These Good Samaritans were students who worked part time for the school as office assistants. When a teacher wrote a detention for a student, they were set in the top tray on the vice principal’s desk at the end of the day where she would see them the next morning when she got a chance. She would then compile the detention list for that day, and put the detentions in the students’ files. Our Good Samaritan students would keep an eye on this tray and whenever a detention with my name on it or any other friends of theirs found its way into that tray, they would simply take them and crumple them up and throw them in the trash before the vice principal had seen them. The teacher who wrote them had no way of knowing that the detentions weren’t actually filed, because they confidently assumed that once the detention was on the vice principal’s desk, it would be taken care of. Well, they were wrong. Our Good Samaritans would always find us at some point throughout the day to let us know that our detention had been thrown away so we could enjoy ourselves after school with everyone else instead of sitting in detention hall. Those of us who knew about this detention tray would always keep a close eye on it whenever we were in the vice principal’s office. Occasionally myself or one of my friends would be sitting in her office after getting in trouble when she would get called out for a moment and we would take that opportunity to look through the tray and could steal the detentions or throw them in her trash can so it was like they never existed at all.

Science Class Every once in a while something will happen in a class that’s so hilarious or outrageous that word about the incident is passed down from one grade to the next year, after year, sort of like ancient folklore that was told to every new generation around campfires thousands of years ago. One of these legendary stories in our school had to do with the science teacher, Mr. Powell, who was locked in a closet by a student a few years earlier. The closet was located at the front of the classroom and had a paddle lock on the outside to prevent students from stealing the toxic chemicals and expensive science equipment kept inside. As you can imagine, one day when Mr. Powell went in the closet to retrieve something, a student ran up, closed the door, and locked it shut. Immediately after that, Mr. Powell took a leave of absence for the rest of the semester. He was said to have never been the same since. While we didn’t lock him in the closet again despite the same paddle lock and latch being used, we did make him cry once and had fun using the Bunsen Burners to melt pens and light things on fire, but nothing too crazy ever happened. Probably the funniest thing I did in Mr. Powell’s class— other than contribute to his emotional breakdown once in a while—was when I scooped a couple of goldfish out of the fish tank in the back of the room and slipped them in the jacket pockets of another student. I don’t know how long it took him to discover them, but it could have been days, and by that time I’m sure the jacket had the stench of rotting fish emanating from it. Surprise! Just for fun sometimes I would set my science book on the table standing on its end with it propped open at a 90° angle so it acted as a barrier blocking Mr. Powell’s view of me, and I would roll joints behind it while he was giving a lecture at the front of the room. A guy who sat behind me, who will remain anonymous, went through a stage when he was snorting coke for a few months and thought he would one-up my joint rolling, so he set up his book as a barricade and cut a line of coke on the table and snorted it right in the middle of class. A few students who were seated in the row behind him saw him cutting up the line and ducking behind his book to snort it, but he didn’t care. Neither did they. That’s high school.

Literature Class For a project in literature class one year, Fred and I made a video depicting the 1955 play Inherit the Wind which we had to read for an assignment. The play is about a man being put on trial for teaching Darwinism in a school in Tennessee when it was against the law to do so because only creationism could be taught. Everyone else in our class were doing serious projects and presentations, but Fred and I decided to use some of my old Legos that had been stored away in my closet to make a video depicting the play. We teamed up with a straight edge kid and before we started filming I met a pot dealer in the parking lot of a local park to score some weed and Fred slammed a six pack of Zima in a matter of minutes. Then we went back to my house to make our video. Fred was so drunk when we got started that he was slurring his lines horribly, and I was so stoned that I couldn’t recite my lines without laughing. Our other group partner thought we were insane. When the time came to show it to our class we were worried that the teacher was going to fail us for doing such a pathetic and childish project, but when we played it she absolutely loved it. Everyone in the class could tell we were wasted by the way we sounded in the video, but Mrs. Boswell didn’t have a clue and loved it. For some reason she thought it was brilliant. She also didn’t catch the F-word being used in the soundtrack playing in the background, although a few students who were fans of Pantera heard it loud and clear. At the end of the video we had set the Legos on fire with a blow torch and Fred started spitting on them with the massive saliva his chewing tobacco was generating. Even though making our video was fun, I hated literature class because of all the dumb old books we had to read, so I wrote a large “Fuck Mrs. Boswell” in one of the books, and after we turned them back in she flipped through the pages and inspected them all and found my graffiti. She literally cried in class and told everyone how upset she was and it ruined her entire week. It wasn’t really Mrs. Boswell that I didn’t like, it was having to read all those dumb books, so I felt kind of bad since she took it personally. She was obviously emotionally unstable.

Underage Drinking In Wisconsin, people like to drink. They drink a lot . The state’s baseball team, the Milwaukee Brewers, refers to beer breweries. That’s right. The baseball team is named after people who brew beer, that’s how much people there love beer. If you drive through downtown Milwaukee, you’ll notice tons of different breweries; Miller, Pabst, Schlitz, Leinenkugels, and more. They’re practically the largest buildings in the city. Milwaukee’s nickname is “Brew City” because of all the breweries. Drinking beer is as much a part of the culture in Wisconsin as sunny weather is in Southern California. This is part of the reason everyone in Wisconsin is so fat. Not just fat, but grossly obese…man are they huge. Some of the most disgustingly fat people in the world live in Wisconsin. It’s so cold there for half of the year, there’s really nothing to do but sit inside and drink, and that’s what everyone does, and that’s what we did growing up. Freshman year of high school I made my first fake ID, and it wasn’t long after that I got my first underage drinking ticket (what a coincidence), which was the first of many to come in the following years. This fake ID was not a fake driver’s license. It was not a fake passport or student ID from a local college either. No, this fake ID was a “boating instructor’s license.” Yeah, a “boating instructor’s license.” Most clerks wouldn’t accept it, but one lady at one particular liquor store apparently thought it was perfectly legitimate (or just appreciated my efforts) and so that’s where we got all our alcohol from, at least for a while. I made the ID from an actual boating license I had, since in order to legally drive a Jet Ski or other boat if you didn’t have your driver’s license, you had to take a class and pass a test to get your boating safety permit. I did this because Fred’s dad lived on a lake and had a couple of Jet Skis he let us use. Anyway, using my computer I modified my boating safety permit, and changed the birth date and added the title of “boating instructor permit.” I told the lady at the liquor store that I taught boating safety classes and I had forgotten my driver’s license at home, but somehow, I had my boating safety instructor permit in my wallet. She probably just admired my creativity so she sold me the beer.

I had only used the ID a few times before getting busted and having it taken away by the cops, but it was fun while it lasted, and it would not be my last fake ID. Basically, a car I was in got pulled over and we had a bunch of booze in the back seat because we were slamming beers and hard liquor on the way to the school football game, and we were all ticketed for underage drinking. For me, since the cops discovered my fake ID because I wasn’t smart enough to stash it under the floor mat after we were pulled over, I got a ticket for not only underage drinking, but also for having a fake ID, and a separate charge for using the fake ID to buy the alcohol (called underage procurement), and then I was given a fourth ticket for possession of alcohol by a minor. I was 15 years old and it was hundreds of dollars in fines. I was pissed! So were my parents when they had to pick me up from the police station. Since I didn’t have my fake ID anymore, I had to come up with a new way to get alcohol, so I just started trying to buy it from everywhere I could at every gas station around town, hoping to find someone who wouldn’t card me. Sometimes I would just stop people outside the gas station and ask them if they would buy us beer if I gave them the money. Surprisingly, a lot of people did (this was Wisconsin, remember). One night in a gas station parking lot some guy sitting in the passenger side of a car started talking to me as I walked past him like he knew who I was. I soon realized that he was confusing me with some friend of his named Gary. The guy was extremely drunk. I immediately noticed a bracelet on his wrist that said “Dennis” so I pretended to be surprised and said, “Dennis! How have you been man, I haven’t seen you in so long!” and continued to talk with him for a minute, all the while he was thinking I was someone else. I was able to fool him pretty well (he was wasted like I said), and a few minutes later I told him I forgot my ID at home and asked him if he could go buy me some beer, and he did. My friends and I luckily found one particular gas station where the Indian who worked there never carded anybody. Word quickly got out about this, and Fridays immediately after school got out we’d drive over there to get our beer for the night and I would often see three or four other people from our school pulling up to the gas station at the same time doing the same thing.

There is a stereotype that Indians and Arabs always own gas stations and “Kwiki Marts” in the Midwest, and it’s kind of true. This particular Arab, or Indian, or whatever he was, had an extra thumb on his right hand and was known as “the guy with the extra thumb who didn’t card anyone.” When he would give me my change, I didn’t want to get touched by his extra thumb so I always had to keep lowering my hand, hoping he would just drop my change into it instead of setting it there, where I would have to feel his extra thumb touching my hand. After a few months of taking advantage of “the guy with the extra thumb who didn’t card anyone” (also known as Habib), we got pulled over with beer in the car, and we threw him under the bus and told the cops he sold it to us without carding us. We were so stupid. We should have just said we got some random stranger to buy the beer for us, but our dumb asses told them the truth. The cops actually let us go because they were friends with one of the kid’s dads who was with us. (Hey, it’s who you know, right?) It was a close call, but they must have warned the guy about selling to underage kids because he started carding everyone from that point on. We knew it wouldn’t last. We didn’t know what to do at first now that our source was dried up and he was asking for ID. We needed beer, so one night I pulled a case out of the refrigerator, slapped the money down on the counter, and when he asked for my driver’s license I said “that’s okay don’t worry about it,” and started heading for the door with the beer tucked under my arm. I knew how much the case of beer cost, including tax, and I had left enough money on the counter to cover it, so it wasn’t like I was stealing the beer. As I continued making my way to the door, the guy ran around the counter and tried wrestling the beer away from me yelling that he was going to call the cops. I didn’t know what his problem was. The money was sitting there on the counter, but he really didn’t want me to have that beer. I broke loose from his grip and ran out of the gas station and jumped in my parents’ minivan where Fred was sitting in the driver’s seat with it still running, and we sped off with the beer. We had anticipated the guy may flip out and try to get our license plate number and call the police, so before I went in we taped a fake license plate on the back of the minivan. It was a novelty plate from the

Back to the Future movie that Fred had gotten at Universal Studios which read “OUTA TIME,” so even if the guy wrote it down, it wasn’t going to do him any good if he gave it to the police. The guy remembered me the next time I went to the station to get some gas, and he started saying something about calling the police and me stealing beer. (I actually paid for it, remember, I left the right amount of money on the counter, so I didn’t “steal” the beer.) I told him I was sorry and that I was just in a big hurry that day and I must not have been able to understand him with his thick foreign accent. I needed a new fake ID, and fast! Drinking and driving in Wisconsin when I was a teenager meant drinking while driving, not just drinking and then later getting into your car and driving home. We called it road tripping. A lot of weekends, if we didn’t have anywhere we could go to drink because no one’s parents were gone that night, we would just get some beer and drive around all night drinking and smoking pot. Looking back, this is extremely stupid, but one night our drinking and driving helped save a man’s car and all of his tools from going up in flames. Not that it justifies our stupidity, but at least something good came out of it! We were driving around out in the country—in the middle of nowhere— when we came across a car on the side of the road with its engine on fire, so we drove to the nearest house about a half mile down the road and got a fire extinguisher and some buckets and we rushed back and put the fire out with the help of water from the drainage ditch on the side of the road. The guy, who was a mechanic, was very thankful since we stopped the fire from spreading to the rest of the car and he said we saved all his tools from being destroyed which were in the trunk. We never imagined our drinking and driving could have helped save a guy’s car from going up in flames which would have ruined his career, but we did. One night we were driving around while drinking in my friend Toby’s truck when it was absolutely freezing outside, which is common in Wisconsin since the weather sucks for most of the year, when a girl got sick from drinking too much and puked inside the truck as we drove down the freeway. I was sitting in the passenger seat, and she was sitting between Toby and I, and she leaned over me and mumbled “open the door” as she

started puking in that direction. I cracked the door open a little bit and at least she was puking in that direction, but she had gotten it all over the door panel, the window, and my leg. We pulled off at the next exit and went to a gas station so we could clean her up and remove the puke splattered on the inside of the truck (and on my jeans). It was disgusting . As if this wasn’t bad enough, it was so cold outside that her puke froze almost instantly on the inside of the window, and we had to use an ice scraper to get it off! One Friday night when we couldn’t find a place to party, a big group of us all met up in an abandoned house and hung out there all night. The house was in great shape, it just happened to be on a plot of land that was going to get turned into some commercial real estate, so they were going to tear it down. The electricity still worked and everything! It was awesome! We had the whole house to ourselves and didn’t even have to clean up the mess! After Ken narrowly avoided an open intoxicant ticket by stashing his open beer in the center console between the two bucket seats in my dad’s car when we got pulled over one night, I had an idea. (The cop found my open beer when he searched me, which I hid in my inside jacket pocket, so I did get an open intoxicant ticket that night, but the cop didn’t give me an underage drinking ticket for some reason. You can’t argue with that at least!) Anyway, the summer after high school graduation I bought my first car, a hideously ugly 1981 AMC Concord, but it did the job, and it was all mine. I bought it with my own money, all $900 dollars’ worth. The car had bucket seats in the front and didn’t have a center console between them, so I went to the junkyard and bought one from an old abandoned junker and installed it in my car and added a special false bottom so I could stash beers and my bag of weed under it, so if my car got searched by the cops after getting pulled over, they wouldn’t find anything. This was a great insurance policy that paid off one night when I got pulled over for speeding and the cop happened to search my car. Just a few minutes earlier we were smoking weed from a small portable water pipe that was now stashed under the false bottom in the console along with a small bag of weed. There was also an empty beer bottle in there from several nights earlier that I forgot to throw away, so I was at risk of getting another open intoxicant ticket, and arrested for possession of marijuana and

drug paraphernalia. Fortunately, the console had served its purpose. The cop searched the car probably because he smelled marijuana, but he never found anything. I was always very proud of my false-bottom console, and knew it would work just fine if bad luck ever fell upon me. In order to reduce any suspicion my car may arouse, I went to the local police station and got a D.A.R.E. To Keep Kids Off Drugs bumper sticker and another one that read Back The Badge which showed support for local police officers and I stuck them prominently on my rear bumper. That way if a cop was behind me when I had a carload of people late on a Friday or Saturday night, they would be less likely to think that we were up to no good. It didn’t look like a teenager’s car with a Bob Marley bumper sticker on the back, it looked like a nice innocent family car that must be coming home from a late dinner at grandma’s. It was also a great inside joke among people who knew me since I was a big pothead, yet I had a D.A.R.E . sticker on my car. I’m pretty sure my stickers prevented me from getting pulled over numerous times, when most likely we were drinking beers or smoking pot. Sometimes when we went to the mall on a Saturday afternoon to mess around we would go to the Taco Bell drive through and order a couple extra-large waters that they gave us for twenty-five cents or something, and we would dump out the water and fill the cups full of beer so we could walk around the mall and still drink. One time we bumped into our friends’ mom and had to talk with her for a minute while we were holding our undercover beers and we tried to keep our distance from her so she wouldn’t smell our breath. We thought about making fake labels to wrap around beer cans to make them look like cans of Pepsi or Mountain Dew so we could drink them in public or when we were driving around so we wouldn’t have to worry about anyone noticing. Did I ever mention that our creativity was usually focused in the wrong direction? You probably figured that out by now. I narrowly escaped another underage drinking ticket when Diego and I turned the power off to a large billboard overlooking the freeway one night. I know this sounds weird, so let me try to explain. We noticed a house had been moved which is a pretty complicated task that involves literally

putting a house on the back of a semi-trailer and driving it to another location. (They really do this sometimes.) We were very curious to see where exactly this house went since we had seen it jacked up a few days earlier as they were preparing to move it. The house was so heavy that we could see the tire tracks pressed in the blacktop from the trailer carrying it. We followed these tracks for several miles down a long winding country road that led us to a new subdivision being built right next to the freeway. We were drinking, of course, and when we got to the subdivision we couldn’t help but notice a billboard off to the side of the road overlooking the freeway. I usually carried a Swiss Army Knife with me and so I pulled it out and used it to unscrew the cover of an electrical panel on the back of the billboard that revealed a simple switch inside. Well, what would you do when confronted with this situation? I would flip the switch to see what would happen, which is exactly what I did, and the lights illuminating the billboard suddenly turned off. It was the difference between night and day. The whole area was now pitch black and you couldn’t even read the sign. Diego and I laughed all the way back to the car and started to drive off when we were faced with the red and blue flashing lights of a squad car. The cop must have happened to been driving down the street and noticed the billboard mysteriously turn off and saw us running away from it back to the car. When I stopped the car and pulled over, the cop turned his spotlight on and yelled for us to put our hands on top of our heads. He walked up to my window with his hand on his gun and asked us what the hell we were doing, so we told him we were just trying to see where the house went when we saw the billboard standing there and just decided to turn it off for fun. He thought we were insane or on drugs, because we were talking about following a house, which didn’t make any sense to him at first. “You wanted to see where the house went?” he asked in a patronizing tone. We tried to explain to him that some workers had moved a house so they could expand the road a few miles back, and we were trying to figure out where they took it. It’s understandable how this would sound insane, since houses don’t usually move.

The cop made me pop the trunk and found nearly a full case of beer sitting back there that we intended to drink that night. He then told me to dump it all out, which was almost a full 24 pack since we had just started drinking. I took a beer out of the case and cracked it open and started pouring out it on the side of the road until it was empty. Glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug. I then grabbed another one and did the same thing. I cracked it open and started pouring it out. Glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug…it takes probably 10 or 15 seconds to empty a beer just from pouring it out, and the cop got mad at me and started cracking a bunch of them open himself and setting them upside down on the ground one by one so they would all empty out. “Do it like this!” he yelled, as he cracked a few more open doing the same thing. We would’ve been there all night if I had done it my way, pouring out one beer at a time. I didn’t know how he wanted me to pour them out. There were probably around 20 beers still in the case, so I poured the rest of them out like he had shown me. I told him it was alcohol abuse and he should be ashamed of himself for wasting beer and making me do this. Diego and I both got disorderly conduct tickets for turning off the billboard, but the cop surprisingly looked the other way about the beer. The worst part was that the cop didn’t even know we had turned the billboard off until we told him! He had pulled us over because we were leaving the construction site for the new subdivision and apparently there had been some problems with people stealing the workers’ tools a few nights ago so he wanted to see what we were doing there. He said, “What the hell are you doing,” so how were we supposed to know that he didn’t just notice the billboard turning off a few seconds earlier and the whole area going dark? He just wanted to make sure we didn’t steal anything from the construction site, which is why he made me pop the trunk. I’m very embarrassed to admit this, but one of my underage drinking tickets came from two police officers who were riding mountain bikes! It’s pathetic, I know. Fred and I were standing in a parking lot next to my car slamming beers before going into a local festival, when out of nowhere two police officers pulled up on mountain bikes right next to us. We were screwed. We were both holding open beers and were caught red handed.

They gave us both underage drinking tickets, and instead of going home discouraged, Fred and I went into the festival as planned and continued drinking. We figured, since we already got tickets for underage drinking, it would be double jeopardy if they ticketed us again, so we figured there was nothing they could do to us if we got caught a second time. We were stupid of course. In Milwaukee, Wisconsin the biggest party of the summer is called Summerfest, which is a beer and music festival downtown, with the emphasis on beer rather than music. People drink so much at Summerfest that halfway through the night, practically every step you take anywhere on the grounds, you crunch or kick a discarded plastic beer cup. They are littered all over the ground, everywhere. Beer at Summerfest, just like most baseball games and other outdoor festivals, is ridiculously expensive, so we would always get drunk before arriving so we could save money on beer once we got there. We were all under 21, but I had a new fake ID so I could just buy four or five beers at a time and hand them off to my friends and nobody would really notice or care. This is Wisconsin, after all. The ride to Summerfest was often just as fun as the festival itself. We would always leave our car at a Park and Ride and take a shuttle to the fairgrounds, and we would always smuggle beer onto it and slam them on our way. We were the loudest, most intoxicated people on the shuttle. Sometimes we would just throw our empty beer cans out the window right on the freeway. We didn’t care. One time we even smoked a joint when sitting near the back, assuming the smoke would blow out the windows, but the driver smelled it and pulled over on the side of the road and started yelling and screaming at everyone. Oops. As everyone knows, when someone’s parents go away for the weekend and leave the kids home by themselves, the parents are morons, because their kids will probably have dozens of people over drinking large amounts of beer, hard liquor and smoking weed, and doing who knows what else in the house while they’re gone. Any parent with teenagers who leaves them home alone for the weekend and thinks that their kid isn’t going to do anything crazy is completely naïve. This includes my parents. They never left for a vacation that my brother Stew and I weren’t forced to go with

them on, but one summer they left us the whole house all to ourselves. Since it was summer time and there was no school, I threw a party three days in a row, each day getting bigger and bigger, culminating in the sheriff and several deputies showing up on the third night, issuing underage drinking tickets, and giving the town sheriff a personal first-hand look at the inside of my bedroom. The most interesting part about this was that I had went to my neighbor’s house with her to grab some of her parents’ wine coolers, and as we were walking back to my house I couldn’t help but notice several police officers standing in my kitchen! This was not good. I could clearly see them through the kitchen windows from the backyard. They were cops. Tyra and I crouched down behind some bushes and watched. There were about three or four different police officers walking around inside my house. Everyone who didn’t get out and run was screwed, I had thought. As you probably know, when the cops come to an underage drinking party, people run, and most people get away, so I was hoping that most people were able to get out of there and not get busted. I certainly wasn’t going to go walking back in there because I had been drinking and there was a keg of beer in my garage, so Tyra and I just hung out in the backyard and watched. It was very surreal. The weirdest part was actually seeing the sheriff standing in my bedroom. My curtains were open, and I could see him standing there as the other officers searched the house. It wasn’t just an ordinary police officer in my room. It was the head of the police department, Sheriff McDonald. Hanging on my walls were various street signs that I had stolen, including the sign from High Street and Eighth Avenue, along with 69th Drive and a student crossing sign that I painted over to make it look like the student figure was crawling on all fours holding a bottle of booze like the popular poster. After a while, the cops all left and the coast was clear so we went back to the house. Practically everyone had gotten away and the only people busted were my friend Toby and the girl he was making out with in the basement. Obviously there was no place for them to run, and imagine their surprise when they were getting busy on the sofa downstairs, and in walk the cops! Everyone else had gotten away. It was a miracle.

The craziest thing about it was when it was all over, even though the party was at my house and several police officers and the sheriff were able to walk right in through the garage door, and the sheriff found his way to my bedroom , I had gotten off scot-free . It was amazing. They never came back to the house later that night, or even a few days later when my parents were back in town. They never called the house telling my parents what had happened either. They seemed to have forgotten all about it. There was, however, a little blurb in the local paper in the police report section explaining that the police were called to my address because of a report of a noise violation and an underage drinking party. It even said that several people had gotten underage drinking tickets. I hoped my parents didn’t notice this, and I don’t think they did, but the one thing they did notice was that we had vacuumed the house. My brother and I never vacuumed the house. Ever. As far as my mom knew, we didn’t even know how to work the vacuum cleaner, yet she realized that the carpeting had been freshly vacuumed and knew that something was wrong. My parents weren’t really mad. They kind of joked about it and said that we must have been so bored while they were gone that we decided to clean the house for something to do. They were probably just glad that nothing was broken and that I didn’t get thrown in jail while they were gone. They probably just thought it was me and a few friends laying low and couldn’t have imagined what actually happened. When it grew to more than a small group of people, I contained it mainly in the garage and basement because I didn’t want people running all over my parents’ house because I didn’t want any dumb drunk people to accidentally break anything or spill beer all over. I wasn’t stupid. I had been to plenty of parties where the house had been completely trashed because the host let it get out of control. The summer after graduation a friend of mine named Khloe was a passenger in a car that got into an accident on the way home from a party at (name withheld)’s and she was in a coma for several days. We learned of the accident when the police arrived and walked right in the house because the door was unlocked and they claimed they had probable cause to enter the residence because they saw us drinking alcohol through the window. They told us that someone who had left the party got into an accident and

was seriously injured and it didn’t look good. We could tell by the looks on their faces that they were serious. They didn’t tell us who it was, which added to our concern, but they made it clear that the person might not live. It wasn’t until the next day that we learned it was Khloe, who remained in a coma. To make things worse, my older brother Stew had bought the keg for us that night, and if Khloe would have died, then surely there would have been a massive investigation into who bought the beer, and that could have resulted in my brother Stew being charged in connection with manslaughter. (Name withheld)’s parents could have gotten sued too since the party was at their house, even though they were out of town and didn’t know anything about it. Luckily Khloe woke up from her coma after a few days and was okay. The night of the party a lot of people slept over at the house, sleeping on couches and wherever, because they were too freaked out to drive home drunk after learning about what happened. That next morning on my way home was the first time that I had ever worn my seatbelt in my car. I lived out in the country, remember, and there wasn’t a lot of traffic, so I didn’t think it was a big deal. I had gotten my own car that summer finally, (the 1981 AMC Concord) but I didn’t even know if it had seatbelts because they were stuffed under the seat and I was never concerned with wearing one. From that night on, I would always wear my seatbelt whenever I got into a car.

Juicy Lucy’s One of the only fast food restaurants open after midnight near our small little town was one named Juicy Lucy’s, which we made a habit of stopping at when we had the munchies on our way home from a night of partying. One of the things we really liked about Juicy Lucy’s was that there was a seating area in the back of the restaurant where no one could see us so we could screw around, throw food, and openly drink beers at our table that we would bring inside. We also made it a tradition to decorate the windows with ketchup, barbecue sauce, and our leftover chocolate shakes. Practically the entire set of

windows in the back would be splattered with something before we left. Half the time we couldn’t contain our laughter as we walked past the cash registers on our way back out to the car. Sometimes we were so stoned when we first arrived, that we could barely even order our food because we were laughing so hard in anticipation of what was about to occur. One night Rick ordered an extra-large chocolate shake, not to drink, but specifically to throw on the windows. He ordered a Coke or something else to actually drink. As we were getting ready to leave, he took the lid off his cup and flung the ice cream at the window, leaving a chocolate shake trail spanning across multiple different windowpanes that must have been tenfeet-long. One time the manager headed to the back of the restaurant as we left, probably because he recognized us from the last several months and knew we were up to no good back there, and as we were getting into the car, he came running out of the place chasing after us with a mop. We all hopped in the car as fast as we could and took off, and he continued chasing us half-way down the block with that mop still in his hand, probably hoping to beat us with it if he caught up to us. Aside from throwing chocolate shakes on the windows at Juicy Lucy’s, sometimes we liked to throw our half drank sodas at parked cars as we drove by. These were not cans of soda, so they wouldn’t do any real damage to the car like putting a dent in the side of them; we just thought it was funny to see the paper cup smash into the side of the cars and have soda splatter all over them. One summer evening when Fred threw his extra-large soda at the side of a parked car as we drove past it, the cup went right inside the car and splattered on the dashboard because the driver’s side window was rolled down. This wasn’t just an empty soda cup. This was a half full, extra-large cup that probably soaked the entire front seat of the car. We didn’t intend for this to happen, but at the time we couldn’t stop laughing. There was one instance when my friend Toby threw a Gatorade bottle at someone riding their bike on the side of the road and hit them in the back. A few days later we heard from one of our friends that someone they knew was talking about how they were riding their bike down whatever road that was, when some car threw something at them and hit them. What a small world.

You’re Never Too Old to Go Trick-or-Treating Since I could be extremely juvenile and immature, I never really thought I was ever too old to go trick-or-treating. I’m sure most kids stopped when they were in sixth or seventh grade, but senior year Fred and I decided it would be fun to be kids again and go trick-or-treating. I was 6-foot-three inches tall, and certainly didn’t look like a kid who should be trick-ortreating, but I thought it would be fun anyway. I put some black makeup all over my face, got some black leather gloves and a fake knife and went as O.J. Simpson, and since we didn’t have too much time to put costumes together, Fred painted his face black too and decided to go as Johnny Cochran, O.J.’s lawyer. After we put our costumes on we drove around in his truck waiting until trick-or-treating started and tipped back a few beers and smoked some weed, and I can’t tell you how many strange looks we got from people. When trick-or-treating began, we went all over town collecting candy doorto-door, and happened to bump into several honor students who were dressed up too. We were surprised, not only because we weren’t the only immature ones to go out trick-or-treating senior year of high school, but these were honor students, and we never would have imagined that they would be so immature too. When we stopped to talk to them, we realized that they weren’t trick-ortreating for candy, they were part of a program that was trick-or-treating for canned goods to then donate to the Salvation Army or some other charity. Wow did we feel dumb! Of course they weren’t so immature that they would go trick-or-treating like us! There we were, being complete jackasses, drunk, dressed up in blackface, collecting candy from all the houses, and there they were helping the needy. It really highlighted how messed up we were in the head. We were a little embarrassed. They didn’t even think it was funny what we were doing. They looked at us like we were insane. They smelled the beer on our breath too. They were the only people we knew that we had bumped into that night, and I’m sure that they couldn’t help but tell others that they

found us trick-or-treating when we were drunk and dressed up as O.J. Simpson and Johnnie Cochran.

Marijuana Use As you may have gathered, I was a big pothead in high school. I always looked at it as a spiritual experience, not like I was doing drugs. I wasn’t a burn out, I pretty much was considered a prep, but I hung out with everyone. I was friends with the preps, the jocks, the burnouts, the nerds, and the loners. I liked everyone, I just happen to like to smoke a lot of pot, and so did Fred and Rick. Rick had his own car, and he was often the driver for our weekend partying, and since it was his car and not his parents, we didn’t have to worry about it smelling like smoke the next day like I did with my parents’ car. By the time senior year came around the seats in Rick’s car were absolutely covered with countless little burn marks from when the cherry fell off the joints we were passing around and landed on the seat, singeing the fabric. We called them potholes as a play on words, because that’s what they were from. Get it? Duh. We were so clever. If you’ve ever smoked a joint before, you know that sometimes the burning weed can fall off the tip of the joint onto the ground. This is called the cherry, and if you’ve smoked joints in a car, you know that it’s bad news when the cherry falls off because it will most likely burn a small hole in the fabric of the seat (or through your pants). Rick’s car didn’t just have a small hole burned in the seat, it had dozens of them. Actually more than dozens. Seriously, probably more than 100 of them from our years of road tripping and pot smoking. The first day of class senior year I arrived at school a few minutes early and Rick pulled in and parked in the spot next to me and hopped into my parents’ minivan, where we then smoked a bowl before heading into class and beginning our senior year. A few hours later in study hall, the teacher, Mr. Michaels was taking attendance and when he called my name I raised my hand and said “here,” to which he answered, “better be careful what

you’re doing in the parking lot before school,” and then went on to call the next name on his list. I immediately knew what happened, because there was a window just outside his classroom in the hallway that overlooked the school parking lot. He must have been standing there watching in the morning, and saw Rick pull up next to me, hop into the passenger side of my parents’ minivan, and moments later saw plumes of smoke wafting out of the windows. Mr. Michaels was pretty cool, and most teachers would have told the principal, or perhaps even called the police to have me or my vehicle searched to find the weed, but I think Mr. Michaels just wanted me to know that he wasn’t stupid. He lived just four houses away from me too, just around the corner. I did a lot of dumb things involving weed (go figure) but I never got caught with it. While I had tremendous bad luck with underage drinking tickets and other alcohol related charges, I only had two close calls with marijuana, but never got busted. One time I was in a car with a bunch of people at a park smoking a bowl when a cop pulled up. It was late at night and the park was closed, and a car full of four teenagers on a Saturday night is obviously something that should be looked into. I had what I called a “dope bag,” which was a small black bag made of a thick fabric with a zipper on it that I carried my pipe in, rolling papers, and of course, the baggie of weed. I carried all contraband in the dope bag for a good reason. As the cop pulled up and flicked on his lights, I had whoever was holding the pipe at the time pass it back to me and I put it out by wetting my thumb and capping the top of the bowl for a moment, and then put it in the dope bag and then crotched it. If you don’t know what “crotching it” means, I slid the bag down inside of my underwear near my balls and it was held there by my tighty-whitey underwear so if the cop searched us, he would most likely not find it since my pockets would be empty. It’s a good thing I did this, because he searched all of us (he obviously smelled the marijuana smoke that was still lingering in the air), and if the contraband was in my pocket, he would have found it and I would have been arrested for possession of marijuana. The one thing in my pocket,

however, that I forgot about, was a small cap for the pipe that we were smoking. This cap screwed on the top of the bowl and had resin (pot residue) on the threads, and the cop found it when he searched my pockets and asked me what it was. I told him it was a part for my lawnmower which I was fixing earlier that day (a complete lie), and he didn’t think anything of it. It was a close call, but the dope bag worked. You know, I learned in Boy Scouts to “be prepared,” although I’m sure this was not what they had in mind. I remember one time, a friend of mine named Benjamin and I actually smoked a joint inside the school. There was a place underneath a staircase where there was a soda machine, and if you were standing in front of this machine, you couldn’t be seen from anyone in the hallway. We really wanted to get high, but we couldn’t skip class that day without getting an unexcused absence, so we each got a hall pass to go to the bathroom and met by the soda machine and quickly smoked a joint there. There was a door leading to the tennis courts right there that we cracked open and tried to blow the smoke outside so it wouldn’t stink up the hallway, but the breeze really just blew the smoke inside the school, instead of sucking it out the door. The whole hallway quickly smelled like weed, and we later heard that one of the teachers was searching the hallways trying to find out the source of this strange stench. Luckily we sucked down our joint and got out of there pretty quickly. An idea we got from the movie Dazed and Confused involved smoking a joint on the 50-yard-line on the football field, which we did late one night after we carried a five-gallon gas can on the field and poured out “Fuck You” in the grass, killing it in that area, so for the rest of the year there was a huge ten-foot-tall brown Fuck You in the football field. Hey, at least we didn’t light the “Fuck You” on fire, so you gotta cut us some slack! I mean, we thought about it, but came to our senses realizing it might burn more than just some letters in the grass. I remember one day after school I was hanging out with a stoner from the grade ahead of me because I didn’t have any weed so I went to his house with him to smoke a bowl on my way home. There were a couple other people who came with us, and as we were passing it around his mom

walked into the living room! I don’t remember who was holding the bowl at that time, but Gavin didn’t seem to care and neither did his mom. We just kept passing it around and smoking it while he introduced us all to her. As if smoking weed in front of some kid’s mom in her living room wasn’t weird enough, she somehow knew my mom and had worked with her on some community project at one point. “So how’s your mom doing?” she asked. “Oh she’s great,” I responded as I took a hit off the pipe. We continued chatting for a minute about whatever project my mom was doing at the time. This was weird. I was talking with one of my mom’s friends, or at least an acquaintance, while I was smoking weed with her son and a few other guys in her living room. I guess it could’ve been worse, like if she actually cared and busted us, because then she could tell my mom what we were doing, but she was totally cool with it. I was a sophomore or a junior in high school at the time. After I was thrown out of school senior year (a story I’ll get into later), the gym class I was in had a bike riding session where everyone would bring their bike to school and the class would go out riding around town for an hour with the teacher. Since I only lived a mile or so away from the school, they rode past my house one afternoon yelling my name and I heard them through the window, so I hopped on my bike and joined them. I also brought a joint with me, and a few of us smoked it as we were driving around the town, passing it to each other from bike to bike. The gym teacher was at the head of the pack, and all the smoke was blowing behind us, so he didn’t notice. I don’t think he would have cared even if he knew. One time at a basketball game I was talking to him at the concession stand, and he said, “You smell like alcohol, get away from me.” He didn’t tell the cops, which were always there, he didn’t tell the principal, he just wanted me to get away from him. Everybody always liked Mr. Birch. He liked to call people boneheads when they were being stupid. “You bonehead!” he would always yell, and then it would usually echo bouncing off the walls or the ceiling. Gym teachers are always the coolest.

Posting New Traffic Signs Around Town

A lot of kids steal street signs and hang them in their rooms, which of course I did with the Main Street sign, 69th Drive, Eighth Avenue, High Street, and a student crossing sign, but one night we thought it would be funny to move some signs around, instead of just stealing them, so we unbolted a stop sign and decided to put it up somewhere else where there wasn’t even an intersection. We took the stop sign from a small four-way stop in the middle of nowhere on a road that no one used so nobody would blow through the intersection and get into an accident (safety first, you know), and we took it over to Main Street right where it entered the town. We unbolted a speed limit sign, and then put up the stop sign in its place and hid in the corn field along the side of the road to see if cars would stop, and they actually did! There was absolutely no logical reason why a stop sign would be in this spot, and there wasn’t even an intersection or a cross street for another mile, but most cars still obeyed the sign and stopped right there in the middle of the road. The next day some city workers removed the sign. A few weeks later on another night when we were bored, we took down a dead end sign and put it up in the same spot we had put the stop sign. We figured it was fitting, since we hated our small town and thought it was a dead end to life, so the new sign seemed very appropriate. Another time we changed the name of Main Street at the central intersection in the town. We scaled the telephone poll that the street name was posted on, and switched it with another sign. That one was up for weeks before anyone switched it back. I also used a black magic marker to add a bottle of booze to all the student crossing signs around town so they looked like the figures crossing the road were carrying large bottles of alcohol. We also unbolted a handicapped parking sign from the school parking lot that was right by the entrance and moved it to the very back of the parking lot. Of course, it didn’t make any sense for a handicapped spot to be so far away from the door, which is why we moved it, and it stayed there for months before it was moved back. The funniest part was that nobody would ever park there because it was a “handicapped zone” and nobody wanted to get a ticket so that parking spot stayed empty every day.

Climbing the Radio Towers Probably the dumbest thing I’ve ever done (aside from drinking and driving) was when Diego and I decided to climb up a radio tower one night even though we were drinking and it was almost freezing outside. I’m sure you’ve seen these types of towers. They’re usually in clusters of five or more, and they have a series of red flashing lights on them so that airplanes won’t crash into them at night. They’re several hundred feet tall, and out by us, they were often in the middle of a clearing in a farmer’s field somewhere. These towers look pretty tall when you’re driving past them off in the distance, but when you’re standing directly underneath them, they seem to go on forever. We noticed the towers had ladders built into the scaffolding on the outside that led as far up as the eye could see, so we somehow got the idea to climb one. The built-in ladder had a special railing on the side of it that was used to attach a safety harness for workers who would climb them so if they lost their grip they would only fall about 10 feet until the harness would catch and save them. Of course, we didn’t have any safety harness, but we didn’t care. We weren’t drunk, but we had been drinking a little, as usual for a Friday or Saturday night, and it was winter time and so cold outside that we were wearing jackets, hats and gloves. Climbing a ladder while wearing gloves is probably not the smartest thing to do since you’re not as dexterous, and gloves can probably slip off the rung easier than your bare hand would, and climbing a ladder that’s located in the middle of a farmer’s field attached to the side of a radio tower extending hundreds of feet into the air after you’ve been drinking is even dumber. I went up first, and Diego began climbing just a few feet below me. These towers had about four or five different red flashing lights spaced out at equal distances, and when we got to the first light we were so high that we could see for miles. It felt like we were 20 or 30 stories up, but we wanted to get to the very top of the tower, so we kept climbing. After a while, we made it to the second light and stopped for a moment to rest. As we looked down below, the first light was so far beneath us it was just a tiny speck. It

felt like we could see half way across the state we were so high. The landscape was filled with countless tiny illuminated dots from street lights, porch lights, lighted signs on businesses, and headlights from cars on the freeway off in the distance. We couldn’t believe how high up we were, and we actually started to get a little freaked out. We were getting pretty tired from the constant climbing, and we worried that if we went much higher we might not have the strength to get back down, so we rested for a few minutes by the second light and then slowly began our descent. When we reached the ground we breathed a sigh of relief and tipped our heads up, gazing at the sky in awe of the amazing height of the structure we had just climbed. Our forearms were tight and we had a slightly hard time opening and closing our hands from the climb. After we got back in the car and started driving off down the country road that led us to the towers, we looked back at them marveling at their awesomeness and realized that we had only made it up about 2/5 of the way, because there were another three lights above the point where we had reached. We also reflected on how risky that just was, and realized how dumb we were.

Cliff Jumping There was a huge rock quarry in a neighboring city that was filled up with close to 100 feet of water after workers unexpectedly struck an underground spring, so it was turned into a local swimming spot since it obviously couldn’t be mined anymore. There was also a secluded area at “the quarry” where people would go cliff jumping at night, which was very illegal, but during the hot summer nights in Wisconsin this was always a good time. One night when we were out there cliff jumping, a bunch of cops showed up and we all scattered into the surrounding woods to escape. Instead of being satisfied that they stopped us from cliff jumping, the police searched the woods for several hours looking for us in the darkness. There weren’t just one or two cops; there were a half dozen or more who made it their mission to find us that night. They had flashlights of course which gave

away their position, so we could usually tell where they were and we snuck off in the opposite direction. There was an urban legend that if you got busted for cliff jumping you would get a ticket for attempted suicide or reckless endangerment or something, and none of us certainly wanted that. At the very least we would probably get ticketed for trespassing since the quarry was closed and we had snuck in by hopping a fence. If you’ve ever seen the first Rambo movie when Sylvester Stallone is on the run from the police in the middle of a forest somewhere, that’s how we felt. Wisconsin is a very wooded area full of trees, bushes, and weeds, which we were able to disappear into once we saw the cops. It was as if we were escaped inmates from a prison and the police had to find us. They just wouldn’t give up. The police chase was a lot of fun, and I never got caught, but a few of my friends did and were charged with trespassing. The cops left a note on my brother’s car, which was parked at a restaurant across the street, where all cliff jumpers left their cars when they snuck into the quarry late at night. The note said something about how they knew who he was and that he would be hearing from them shortly, but he never did. They were just trying to scare us in order to prevent us from coming back. It didn’t work, and the police chase only made cliff jumping more exciting knowing that at any moment we could be on the run again. That night was also the latest I had ever come home because we were stuck in the woods for several hours evading the police. I didn’t really have a set curfew, but I usually made it home by around 1:00AM, and that night I don’t think my brother and I got home until about 3:00 o’clock in the morning. Our mom was not happy, but at least we didn’t get tickets like some of the others. And since we actually did come home, and weren’t dead or in jail, my mom forgot about it after briefly scolding us the next morning about being out so late.

The Spud Gun No kid with a garage full of tools and any sort of engineering abilities should grow up without building a spud gun, I had thought, so one evening

some friends and I all went to Home Depot and bought the necessary PVC pipes and fittings, along with the lantern flints to fire them. We got enough parts to make three or four different guns and even decorated them with paint so they looked really cool. I painted “Mr. Potato Gun” on the side of mine. After our guns were assembled we went out and bought some Aqua Net hairspray, which is used as the fuel, and got a sack of potatoes and headed out to a clearing in the middle of a farmer’s field to test them out. They worked great! We would just shove a potato down the barrel with an old broom handle and spray some Aqua Net hairspray in the chamber and with one flick of the lantern flint—boom! The potato would shoot out like a cannon ball. There was nothing really to shoot at in the middle of a farmer’s field, so a few days later after school we took mine out in my parents’ minivan to test it in a more urban environment. We didn’t wear any eye protection in case the PVC pipe blew up in our face. No, we just figured it would hold, and thankfully it did. I was driving, Fred was in the passenger seat, and Ken was in the back seat with Mr. Potato Gun as we headed into the neighboring town to have some fun. Ken would load up the gun in the back seat and just like a scene out of The A-Team , he would pull open the sliding door, take aim at a road sign, and fire away. He would then slam the door shut as we drove off laughing. Potato guns are not exactly quiet, and it wouldn’t have been that difficult for someone to get my license plate number after they heard a loud boom and saw what looked like the barrel of a cannon sticking out from the side of the minivan. We didn’t think of this at the time, because, well, you know why. We were dumb kids. We did this for perhaps fifteen minutes or so, and when shooting road signs lost its novelty, we started shooting at parked cars and houses until we broke someone’s window and then figured we should quit and get the heck out of there. The window was from someone’s house that Ken shot and we all heard it shatter. I can’t imagine what the people must have thought, especially if they were home at the time, when all of a sudden one of their windows shattered and when they looked to see what had happened they would find a splattered potato lying in their living room. They probably

thought one of the neighbor kids did it. I don’t think anyone could have imagined it was drive-by shooting with a spud gun. A few nights later we took some of the extra potatoes and shoved them up tailpipes on people’s parked cars because we heard that if you did this, the car wouldn’t start. I’m not sure if this is true or not, but we thought we would give it a try. Instead of just shooting potatoes, I discovered that my spud gun could also be turned into a deadly dart gun. By taking a large 3 or 4 inch nail and wrapping a cardboard cone around the head and hot gluing it in place, the darts could be slid down the barrel of the potato gun and would shoot across the entire distance of my parents’ basement and still stick into a piece of wood or lodge themselves into the wall. I shot one dart almost straight up into the air in my backyard to see how high it would go, and when the dart came down it stuck into the neighbor’s roof. Better than landing on someone’s windshield, which it would have smashed, and certainly better than landing on someone’s head which would have probably killed them instantly. I neglected to think about these dangers at the time. We had occasionally talked about creating a semi-automatic spud gun that could shoot 8 or 10 potatoes, one right after the other, but we never got around to it. I did, however, make a blowgun out of a small PVC pipe and the mouth of a two liter soda bottle that was a lot of fun to shoot at rabbits in my mom’s garden. I also made a miniature dart gun that worked pretty well by attaching a small blowgun to a CO2 powered BB gun. I can thank The A-Team for inspiring those creations. Who says television doesn’t give kids bad ideas? It certainly gave me plenty.

Swiss Army Knife Fun I always liked to carry a Swiss Army Knife with me wherever I went, not as a weapon, but because the knife and other tools came in handy to fix things, open things, and to try all kinds of things I saw on MacGyver . When using the toilet in the bathroom stall at school, I happened to notice that the door and wall panels were connected using brackets fastened with large screws, so after I was done doing my business, I whipped out the handy screwdriver

gadget and I unscrewed the hinges from the door, and was able to prop the door back in place so when the very next person who used the stall would walk up to it and give the door a shove to swing it open, instead of opening, it would completely fall off! As I’m sure you know, bathroom stall doors are very heavy, and are often made of large steel panels and sometimes when I was only 20 or 30 feet away from the bathroom, as I walked back to class, I could hear the door come crashing down to the floor, hitting the toilet on its way down because somebody had went to use the stall. I can’t tell you how loud a bathroom stall door is as it crashes on the floor and bashes against the panels in the stall on its way down. Sometimes using my handy Swiss Army Knife I would remove almost the entire stall itself and set the panels up against the wall. After a while, the school janitor started using one-way tamperproof screws to put them together so once they were tightened, they couldn’t be removed. These screws only had an edge that would catch the screwdriver if you turned them to the right to tighten them, but if you turned the screwdriver left to loosen them, the screwdriver wouldn’t catch, so you couldn’t remove them. It was a good idea on their part. I also liked to turn the water off to all the sinks and unscrew the nozzle and take the screens out of them to use in my marijuana pipes. You have to admit that to your average teenage boy, the idea of people finishing taking a crap and then when they try to turn on the sink, nothing comes out, it is pretty funny. It is disgusting, but it is a little funny. Some of the bathrooms had small plastic trash cans, so occasionally I would cut the bottom out with my knife so when the janitor would pick it up to dump it out, all the discarded paper towels and trash would fall out on the floor. I was an asshole, I know.

Jamming Drinking Fountains A fun and extremely childish (and dangerous) thing that I would occasionally do involved tampering with the drinking fountains so they would spray on the floor, filling half the hallway with water. Most of the

drinking fountains shot out two streams of water that joined together into one, and I noticed that one of the streams was a lot larger than the other, so I would clog it with a spit-ball and then jam a folded up piece of paper into the panel that you would push to turn it on, which would leave it running. Once the large hole was clogged, all the water was forced out the small one which caused it to shoot over the edge of the fountain and onto the floor because of the increased water pressure. I would do this sometimes when I had gotten a hall pass to use the bathroom in the middle of class and on my way back I would jam the fountains and they would go on spraying for 20 minutes or so without anybody noticing, and by that time the hallway was completely full of water. There was really no way to prevent me from doing this and every time I did, I couldn’t help but laugh out loud as I walked back to class and I could hardly keep the smile off of my face when I sat back down in my desk. People sitting around me often knew that I had done something by the look on my face, but they weren’t sure what. After a while the school changed all the fountain heads to ones that only had one stream of water, so my little trick wouldn’t work anymore. Looking back on this, I realize how dangerous it really was because someone could have easily slipped on the thin layer of water on the floor and thrown their back out or broke their arm or even their head. That certainly was not my intention, and thankfully this never happened. Thinking about the negative consequences of my actions was not exactly one of my strong points back then.

A “Kidnapping” Fred, Brent, and I were out shopping one Saturday or Sunday afternoon when we got the idea to pretend to abduct Brent in the parking lot of a store right in front of a bunch of people. He left the store a minute before Fred and I did and as we walked out of the door I yelled “there he is” and we ran over to him, pretended to assault him by throwing fake punches and then threw him in the trunk of my dad’s car and sped off. There were several people about 10 or 15 feet from us when we had done this and nobody said a thing. We had hoped someone would try to stop us, but they just stood

there frozen. Nobody ever yelled at us or yelled for help as it was happening. We didn’t think about it at the time, but someone could have easily written down the license plate number and the cops could have put out an APB for the car, or the police could have shown up to my parents’ house shortly afterwards investigating a reported kidnapping. Thankfully this never happened. Years later I saw an episode of MTV’s Jackass where they staged a kidnapping of Brad Pitt, who was playing along, where a black van pulled up and snatched him in front of a crowd of people, so we weren’t the only jackasses to think of this kind of stunt.

Smashing Mailboxes I think every kid in a small town knows what smashing mailboxes is. I’m sure that kids have been smashing mailboxes for decades, but I think the film Dazed and Confused probably multiplied the instances of this practice immeasurably—at least for my generation. Basically, for fun on occasion we would drive past people’s mailboxes and throw things at them like beer bottles, large rocks, garbage cans or construction barricades, and knock the mailboxes off their stands. In some instances we would just stop the car and get out and kick the mailboxes over when we didn’t have anything to throw at them. We just didn’t do this to one or two mailboxes. We did it to dozens of them, and one night we must have smashed every mailbox on every street in a several mile radius out in the country. It made the newspaper a few days later. This is what kids did before they had the Internet and Facebook to waste all their time on. Our usual method for smashing mailboxes involved the driver pulling the car over near the edge of the road and the person in the passenger seat would sit on the window sill and grab a garbage can that was set out for collection, and then the driver would speed up and pull over close enough to a mailbox so the passenger could hit it with the garbage can (or whatever we were using as projectiles). One night, Fred almost broke his arm and Ken’s passenger door got a large hole poked through it because the construction barricade Fred threw at a

mailbox flipped around after hitting it and smashed into the side of the car and smacked Fred’s arm. Of course Ken’s mom wondered what the heck happened to his car so he made up some story I’m sure she didn’t believe. That put an end to our mailbox smashing spree and we found other things to keep us entertained.

Pouring Salt Water in Vending Machine We heard an urban legend somewhere that if you pour saltwater into the coin slot of a vending machine, it will short out and start dumping free sodas and quarters out of the coin return. The theory was, that since the saltwater is electrically conductive, as it’s flowing inside the machine, once it hit the electrical components it would cause all sorts of problems and short it out, dumping its contents. It seemed like a logical idea, and what kid doesn’t want free sodas and handfuls of free quarters to play arcade games with? We sure did, so one night we thought we would test this theory. We took a cup of water and mixed in several tablespoons of salt and brought it to a soda machine outside the local car wash and poured it into the coin slot. We were ready to run because we feared that the machine would start sparking or blow up, but nothing happened. We thought maybe there wasn’t enough salt in the water, or maybe we didn’t use enough water, so we went back to the house and got a huge pitcher and mixed in a bunch of salt and went back to the machine and tried it again. This time, we even used a paper funnel to make sure as much water as possible went into the coin slot, but still, nothing happened. It looks like we would have to continue paying for our sodas after all. We didn’t think about it at the time, but we probably ran the risk of getting electrocuted just by trying this stupid stunt. Apparently an episode of MacGyver in the early 1990s showed this trick being done, and from doing a little research on the Internet after I wrote the first draft of this story, it looks like the salt water trick actually worked in some machines in the 1980s and early 90s, but eventually the manufacturers changed their designs to prevent this from happening.

Creating an “Earthquake”

We knew one of the neighbor girls was home alone and her parents were out of town for the night, so we thought it would be fun to climb on her roof and start jumping up and down to scare the crap out of her. I knew from when my dad was walking around on our roof cleaning out the gutters, I could hear his every step and it would rattle the house, so I figured jumping up and down would create quite a disturbance—and it did. It shook the whole house and we could hear her and her sister screaming from inside. She said she thought it was an earthquake. I’m surprised the plaster on the ceiling inside the house didn’t crack. That would have been hard to explain to her parents, not to mention hard for me to pay to fix it! We tried the earthquake thing again to a different girl in the neighborhood one other night, and her neighbor saw us climb onto the roof and once we were up there he started screaming at us thinking we were Peeping Toms. “You perverts!” he kept yelling as he ran over carrying a broom. “What do you think you’re doing!” We jumped off the roof and took off running into the corn field behind her house. He ran right after us, just repeating himself over and over again. “You perverts! You perverts!” At least he didn’t think we were trying to break into the house. We lost him in the cornfield, so thankfully we didn’t get beaten by his broom.

Tapping Telephones Another idea I got from watching The A-Team involved opening up the telephone boxes located in the back yards of various neighborhoods, and using an old telephone with alligator clips attached on the wires I was able to clip them onto the telephone terminals inside the box, essentially tapping the telephone of that home. There was approximately one telephone box per 10 or 15 houses, and they were always located in people’s back yards where the property lines met. Inside these boxes were two columns of terminals with each pair connecting to the phone line of a different home. Late one night I brought my make-shift telephone tap and opened up one of the boxes and attached my device to a pair of terminals. To my surprise, I heard a dial tone, and my phone actually worked! It was just like I had seen on TV! In order for me to hear anyone’s conversation, they had to actually be on the phone at that time, but this wasn’t the only cool thing I could do. I

was also able to make long distance telephone calls that would then show up on that person’s bill. We thought it would be funny to call a few 1-900 psychic lines that charge your phone bill a few dollars a minute and mess with the psychics for a while since we didn’t have to pay for it because whoever’s phone line we were tapping into would get the charges on their next bill. We sat in the grass next to the box and laughed thinking how strange it would be when whoever’s phone line we were using got their next bill and there would be a $30 charge to a 1-900 psychic hotline. We also made various prank phone calls, not worrying if the recipients had caller ID, because it wasn’t our parents’ phone number that would appear on the display; it would be the person whose phone we were tapping into. I downloaded instructions one time on how to make a blue box and a black box, which are phone phreaking tools (phone phreaking is a slang term for basically hacking telephones). Back in the day, a black box enabled people to call you from long-distance and have nothing show up on their phone bill, and a blue box enabled you to make long-distance phone calls to anywhere you wanted for free. The blue box was too complicated for us to build at the time, but we did toy around and make the black box, but we’re not sure if it worked because we didn’t know anyone that could call from long distance to test it out. These devices probably wouldn’t have worked anyway because by the 1990s the phone companies were well aware of phone phreaking and had implemented safeguards to prevent people from messing with their system and getting free phone calls. Apple Computer founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak built blue boxes that actually worked back when they were in college in the late 1960’s, something I didn’t learn about until years later when I saw the film Pirates of Silicon Valley .

Video Game Crimes Like most kids, I enjoyed playing video games quite a bit. I had an Atari, then a Nintendo Entertainment System, and later bought the Sega Genesis. My junior year of high school the Sega Saturn came out, which was the

most advanced video game system at the time and instead of using cartridges, the games were on CDs since they could hold more information. The Sega Saturn was a videogame player’s dream come true. It was also $400, which I didn’t have, but I really needed a new video game system because the Genesis was becoming a thing of the past, so I came up with a plan. It was sort of luck at first, which I then turned into a full-blown enterprise. While looking around at a Best Buy electronics store, I just happened to notice that the UPC barcode on the box for the Sega Menacer light gun (for shooting games) was just a sticker. The Menacer was selling for $99.99 at this time, so I peeled the UPC off the box and stuck it over the UPC on the Sega Saturn and carried it up to the counter and bought it. I just saved myself $300. I was amazed. It didn’t feel like I really stole anything since I technically bought it. I just bought it at a discount. A 75% discount. Hey, $100 bucks to a teenager in the 1990s was a lot of money! The cashier didn’t notice anything. They just scanned the barcode and took my money and let me bring my brand new Sega Saturn home with no questions asked. I suddenly saw a whole new world of possibilities. A few days later I went back to the store with Fred and did the same thing and he bought a Sega Saturn for $99.99. The video games themselves were $49.99, and I thought that was too much, so I found some other products that sold for around $10, which also had barcodes that were stickers and I peeled them off and stuck them on the video games I wanted and bought them at a discount too. A few other friends of mine wanted Sega Saturns too but didn’t want to pay $400, so I went back and bought a few more over the next week or two, and then sold them for $200, which was half price from the cost at the store, so I made $100 from each one, and my friends got brand new Sega Saturns for half price. Few products had barcodes that were made of stickers that I could just peel off and put on something else. Most products have the UPC code printed on the package, but I did notice that the information tag for each product that was stuck on the shelf not only listed the price and product information for each item, but they also had the UPC code printed right on them as well. I slid some of these information sheets out of their clear plastic sleeves and

stuck them in my pocket and took them to Office Depot and photocopied them and glued the new UPC onto a mailing label sticker so all I had to do was walk into Best Buy and use my own homemade UPC code to stick on whatever product I wanted. Equally shameful was the fact that we took the scissors, glue, and mailing label stickers off the shelf from Office Depot and used them to make the fake UPCs, and then put everything back on the shelves and only paid for a few 10-cent photocopies. The first thing I bought was a brand new $2000 computer for $75. That’s about a 96% discount. It was a pretty good deal. Since my parents’ bought my first computer, they knew how expensive they were, so I couldn’t just walk into the house carrying a brand new one, so I went to my room, opened the window and pulled out the screen, and Fred came around back with it and handed it to me from outside. Just in case my dad realized the brand was different than the one he had bought me a few years earlier, I cut out the logo from the old computer’s user manual and glued it over the name of the new one. The following week I went to a different Best Buy with one of my homemade UPC stickers and purchased a $1000 scanner for another $75 bucks. I also bought a few more video games and a copy of the Windows 95 operating system, which I paid $10 for. I figured Bill Gates had enough money already. If I didn’t like a video game after getting it home and trying it out, I would shrink wrap it and return it as if it were new. I would tell the store I lost the receipt, and they would give me in-store credit and then I would just trade it for another video game to see if I liked that one. For a while I was taking the old video games to a local hobby store that had a shrink wrapping machine and they would charge me a few dollars to shrink wrap each game. Most of the guys there didn’t care and probably knew what I was doing, but after a while they implemented a new policy, and they wouldn’t shrink wrap my games anymore, so I came up with a way to do it myself by using window insulator kits and a heat gun. A window insulator is a sheet of thin plastic that you put over the windows in your house during the winter that helps to prevent cold air from coming in and saves you money on your heating bill. Once the plastic is in place and

taped around the window frame, you use a hair dryer to heat it and it shrinks tightly around the window so it doesn’t obstruct the view. Just as I figured, it also worked as shrink-wrapping material as well. What clerk is going to imagine that a 17-year-old kid played a video game for a month and then had the thing shrink wrapped in order to return it for a different game? You have to admit, it was a genius idea. The insulator kits had enough plastic to shrink wrap several games and only cost a few dollars. After a while, I started returning empty boxes to the stores and would keep the game. They never opened the box to check to see if it was in there because it looked like it was still factory sealed, so how were they going to know it was missing? They didn’t, well, that is until I returned too many empty video game boxes to one particular Toys “R” Us location and then they must have implemented a new policy to check all video games to make sure that they were actually in the box when someone brought them back. Imagine my surprise when I was returning another game and the clerk opened up the box and found there was no disk inside! There I was, in the middle of Toys “R” Us standing at the customer service counter clearly caught red handed. I could have stayed there and pretended like I was just as surprised as the lady at the counter, but they could have easily called the cops and I didn’t want to deal with that, so I said, “I’ll be right back,” and I walked away and headed for the exit. As soon as I got outside I started running to my car, jumped in and took off. I had just gotten the car a few weeks before and hadn’t received my license plates yet, so I was relieved that even if they had followed me out to the parking lot, they couldn’t have gotten my license plate number since there were no plates on the car! While I was glad that I had gotten away, I was disappointed that I still didn’t have any new video games since I was bored with the ones I had. It’s interesting that while Fred and I were driving around smoking weed and “pulling scams” as we called it, we were usually listening to Eazy-E rap about pretty much the same thing: partying, hustling, screwing the system, and in the words of Eazy-E, just not giving a fuck. It was like we were living the kind of life he was rapping about. We felt like untouchable rock star gangsters.

I continued to push the envelope with my homemade UPCs and traveled to different Best Buy stores in the area because I wanted more computer equipment. I really wanted a laser printer but they were very expensive, so I made another UPC and went to buy one at a discount. This time, the clerk actually realized it was an expensive laser printer but the cash register showed it was only $50. She knew something was wrong and called a manager for a price check. I knew this would turn into a problem so I told her I left my wallet in the car and I would be back in just a second, and I calmly walked out of the store and got in the car and took off. The car wouldn’t start right away and took a few tries before the engine started firing so I could get out of there, which wasn’t very fun. All I needed was a laser printer, and I felt my computer collection would be complete. Imagine the possibilities. The best scanner on the market, a brand new top-of-the-line computer, the newest software, and a laser printer. The possibilities were endless and I really had my heart set on that laser printer so I went to a different Best Buy and tried it again. You have to understand that in the 1990s this type of equipment was not common place in every household. In fact, back when I was a kid, only businesses and schools had laser printers and scanners because they were so expensive. This time the cashier didn’t notice the price was suspiciously low. She didn’t even really look to see what product it was. She just mindlessly scanned the barcode and asked for the amount the cash register showed. I paid $50 cash, and she thanked me for my purchase. “No, thank you,” I said, grinning as I picked up my brand-new laser printer and headed for the door. To my unpleasant surprise, the security system started beeping as soon as I passed the checkpoint on my way out. Apparently one of the security tags had not been neutralized at the cash register. The guy at the security desk asked to see the receipt and I nervously handed it to him, but when he compared the item number on the receipt to the item number on the box, they didn’t match up. The printer had two UPCs printed on the box, one on the front and one on the back, and I had only stuck my fake UPC over one of them which I strategically placed in view of the cashier when I set it on the counter so that would be the one she scanned.

The security guy was confused at first, and the cashier, who was just a few feet away, acknowledged that I had just purchased it 10 seconds earlier. I could see this was not going to go well so I said quietly to Fred, who was standing right there with me, “Go. Just go,” and I darted my eyes at the door. He wasn’t sure what I meant so I took off running, leaving the printer on the guy’s counter and my $50 in cash register and Fred ran out the door right after me. It was too close of a call. It was the second time that trying to get the printer caused a problem, and this time the guy followed us out to the parking lot so we couldn’t go to Fred’s truck because he’d get the license plate number, so we just kept running down the block and had to come back later to get it. We waited about a half hour and then Fred went back to the parking lot to retrieve his truck while I waited down the block. As he was backing out of the parking space he saw the security guy standing right behind the truck and he was writing down the license plate number on a pad of paper! Fred stepped on the gas and almost backed right into the guy, causing him to jump out of the way and then took off and came down the block to pick me up and we got out of there. I then retired from creating my own UPCs. It wasn’t long after this that Best Buy started sticking the security tags over the top of the UPC codes, and they started putting the video games in security cases that had to be unlocked at the register using a special key. So even though we had gotten a bunch of discounted computer hardware, software, and video games from them, I figured we actually helped Best Buy by showing them a major flaw in their operation and prevented other people like us from taking advantage of them on an even larger scale. Thankfully the cops never did show up at Fred’s house. It was a stressful few weeks after that close call. The security guy at Best Buy must not have been able to get the entire license plate number, or the cops didn’t have the resources to investigate a possible theft of a computer printer. Whatever reason it was, we were extremely lucky and it was too close of a call for us to continue our operation. We quit while we were ahead.

Fun at the County Fair In every small hick town around the country, the county fair is one of the highlights of the summer. It’s the place where farmers show off their livestock, kids enjoy rides assembled with duct tape that can fall apart and kill anyone at any time, and people seem to enjoy whatever kind of fried food will get them one step closer to a heart attack—like deep fried Snickers bars or chocolate covered bacon. The county fair is always fun, but when you’re a teenager working for minimum wage, the tickets can be very expensive, especially if you end up going there five different times. Today most county fairs have sophisticated ticketing systems complete with barcode scanners and individually numbered tickets to make sure no one can print up their own counterfeit ones and get in for free. But not our county fair, at least not when I was a kid. The ticket booths sold different color bracelets each day that could easily be faked. Once we found out what color was being used each day, I would simply take colored construction paper, cut it into thin strips, and using a leather punch I poked holes in it around the entire bracelet just like the originals. Then my friends and I taped them on our wrists and would walk past the ticket counter like it was no big deal, flashing them to the ticket taker. It saved us each about $30 in entrance fees over the course of the week and nobody ever noticed. I’m sure in larger cities we wouldn’t have been able to pull this off because the bracelets had barcodes on them that would have to get scanned, but in our small little town in the 1990s, nobody could have imagined that a couple of teenagers would’ve been making fake bracelets so they could get into the fair for free. One year I was able to get access to the microphone for the announcement system that covered the entire fairgrounds and told everyone to “smoke marijuana.” Over the course of that evening, several people I knew asked me if I was the one who said something about smoking marijuana over the loudspeaker. I couldn’t help it. The microphone was sitting right there on the desk at the fair office and no one was around, so how could I pass up

this amazing opportunity to say something stupid to every fairgoer that night?

Making a Fake Report Card One of my older brother’s friends went to a local technical college, but he wasn’t doing so well. He had some deal with his dad where if his grades were to fall below a C then he would have to pay rent, or his dad might even throw him out of the house or something. Since his grades sucked one semester and things weren’t looking good for him, he asked me to make him a fake report card so he could show his dad and not get thrown out of the house. I was honored that he would ask me if I could do such a thing. It was very easy, as you can imagine, but remember this was in 1996 when the only people who new how to use computers were businesses and computer geeks. I just took his original report card to Kinko’s and photocopied the school’s logo onto a blank piece of colored paper and then using a simple word processor, I typed up a fake one and gave him all A’s and B’s. He was very thankful, and I made a quick hundred bucks.

T-shirts My Mom Wouldn’t Wash I always liked to have funny T-shirts, but some of my best ones I could only wear a few times because my mom wouldn’t wash them, and if I threw them in the laundry hamper, they would just stay there laying at the bottom indefinitely. I had a great shirt that was a parody of Wheel of Fortune that showed Vanna White standing by a bunch of letters that spelled out, “G_F_ck Y__rs_lf” and the caption below it said, “Want to buy a vowel?” I thought it was great since I could wear it to school and the teachers and principal couldn’t do anything about it, because technically, it didn’t have any obscenities on it. I had another shirt that showed George Washington with bloodshot eyes, smoking a joint on the front, and on the back had a quote attributed to him that said, “Make the most of the hemp seed, sow it everywhere.” I figured if George Washington wanted people to grow cannabis, then there was really

nothing wrong with it. I had another shirt showing President Bill Clinton smoking a joint which read “Bill doesn’t inhale. He just sucks.” Another one had a mushroom cloud from an atomic bomb printed on the front and read “Made in America. Tested in Japan.” I didn’t know how to do laundry since my mom always took care of this. I would just drop my dirty clothes in the hamper and they would magically appear clean in my closet a few days later, so it took me a while to realize that my favorite shirts were disappearing every time I put them in the hamper because she refused to wash them and she would just leave them sitting in there.

Prom Night My prom date was a very cute, sweet and innocent girl, who didn’t really party, and didn’t smoke weed, but I still liked her because she seemed to be very entertained by all of my antics and trouble making. The teachers knew we would all get drunk before prom, so they spread the rumor that they were going to give us breathalyzers at the door when we arrived. We couldn’t go to prom sober, what fun would that be, we thought, so a bunch of us went out and bought flasks so we could enter the event sober, and then go in the bathroom and slam a few shots and catch a buzz since we would have already made it past the checkpoint. The school had organized a bunch of limos to pick us all up and take us to and from prom, hoping to eliminate people from drinking and driving, but the strange thing was, some of the limo drivers went out and got smashed after they dropped us off at the prom! Our driver could barely stand as he opened the door when we got back in the limo to head home at the end of the event, and he was so drunk that he got lost on the way back to the school and we had to tell him where to go. He was blowing stop signs and swerving all over the road the whole way. It would have been safer if one of us had driven. Another limo carrying some friends of mine actually drove off the road and got stuck in a ditch because the driver was so drunk, and the five or six couples in the back had to all cram into other limos. It made for an exciting ride back to the school.

After the drunk limo drivers dropped us off at our cars in the school parking lot, we all headed to someone’s house for an after party until the early morning hours of the next day. The summer after graduation I started dating an extremely attractive girl who also happened to be very intelligent as well. We were certainly the odd couple no one could have imagined would have hooked up. Me, the class clown who got thrown out of school (a story I’ll get to later), with one of the smartest, most mild mannered girls in our entire class. It was great. She must have liked the excitement of being with a “bad boy.” The best part was, that she didn’t even try to change me! I think she liked my trouble making. One night we snuck into the Sheraton Hotel to use their hot tub and I stopped at a Seven Eleven on the way to buy some dish soap which I dumped in the hot tub to turn it into a bubble bath. The whole thing started overflowing with four feet of soap suds rising from the top, so we got out of there. Not long after this she got an underage drinking ticket because of me since we were at a party when the cops came. I felt really bad at first, but she didn’t seem to care too much. I thought about offering to pay for it, but she came from a successful family, so I figured she could afford it. Besides, I had already paid way too much money in underage drinking tickets as it was.

Decorating the School with Beer Cans Every kid goes toilet papering when they’re young, and it’s a lot of fun and pretty much harmless. Sure it’s annoying for the homeowner to clean up the mess the next day, but you can pretty much spray the hose in the trees and it will fall down and the toilet paper doesn’t cause any real damage. It was because of this easy cleanup that I thought we should decorate the trees at school with something else that would last a little longer. This “something else” was beer cans. A lot of beer cans. For several weeks I saved the beer cans from our parties and late-night drinking binges, and I spent a considerable amount of time in my basement cutting sections of three foot string, and tying one beer can to each end in pairs. I would then feed this string inside one of the empty beer cans and

place the two tops of the cans against each other and I wrapped a piece of tape around them, taping them together so the strings wouldn’t get tangled up with each other. I then put each of these contraptions into two large black plastic garbage bags. The idea was to get on top of the school roof, crack the tape and pull the pairs of cans apart, and then fling them into the large tree in front of the school so they would get caught in the branches. When I say it was a large tree, I mean enormous. The upper level roof of the school was about three stories tall and was just about the same height as the tree. Sometime earlier I had noticed one area of the school that had a poll holding up an awning that I could climb up and access almost any part of the school’s roof. This opened up a whole new world of possibilities, so on the eve of April 1st, we headed up to the school with the bags of beer cans and backpacks full of toilet paper for an April Fools prank that everyone would be talking about. When we got to the school that night, Rick and I scaled the poll and hopped on the roof and another friend of ours stayed on the ground to throw toilet paper rolls into the smaller trees and to get the bushes. Once on the roof we made our way to the upper level and headed for the front of the school by the tree and started flinging the beer cans into it. My invention worked perfectly. The strings would get caught on the branches and tangle up, and the cans would hang there, blowing in the wind. We also threw rolls of toilet paper over the top of the tree and the guy on the ground would pick up the remaining roll and throw it back up into the tree finishing it off. Occasionally a car would drive by and we’d all hit the deck, ducking down on the roof so nobody would see any shadowy figures lurking around up there. The next morning I brought a camera to school so I could get a picture of our handiwork in the daylight. It looked great. Of course, the janitors had been out there since first thing in the morning trying clean it up, but the tree was so large that the hose wouldn’t reach most of the toilet paper dangling from the top and certainly wasn’t going to do anything for the dozens of beer cans tangled in the branches. It looked like the tensile from a Christmas tree and each can sparkled in the sun. You couldn’t drive by without noticing it.

The funniest thing was that there were a bunch of classrooms upstairs that had windows looking out over the front of the school and the tree was directly in front of these windows, so when you were sitting in class—there just 20 feet away outside—you could clearly see dozens of beer cans of Miller Lite, MGD, Icehouse, and others dangling in front of the windows. The school had to get a cherry picker from the city and hoist a worker up to cut down the cans one by one. It took them all day. Of course there was no evidence that I had anything to do with this, even though my proverbial signature was written boldly across it and sparkled in the sun. Well, no evidence yet .

Getting Kicked Out of High School I should have quit while I was ahead, but I always had to push the envelope. The April Fool’s Day prank of filling the school’s tree with beer cans was historic. Every car that drove by the school that day couldn’t help but practically be blinded by the sparkling cans shining in the sun. Most of the toilet paper was dangling from so high up that the hose wouldn’t spray far enough to reach it in order to knock it down. It was awesome. So awesome, in fact, that one week later we decided to toilet paper the tree again. It was Tuesday night April 9, 1996, when my friend Bobby’s parents were out of town, so he threw a huge party because we were on spring break and didn’t have school for the next few days. Ken, Rick, myself and brothers Brendon and Byron, took every roll of toilet paper from Bobby’s house and we ventured off to the school to give an encore performance. It felt like I was having déjà vu, although this time the evening would turn out very differently. As we were doing our decorating, someone from a house across the street had seen us tossing the toilet paper up into the trees and called the police. Two or three cop cars tried to sneak up on us by approaching without their lights or sirens on but we noticed them and scattered. The guys on the roof were able to make it to the ground and four out of the five of us met at the back of the school and continued running east across the football field. Byron was missing because he ran in the opposite direction of everyone else when the cops came. We didn’t know this at the time, but as he was

running away, he was tackled by the guy who lived across the street—the same guy who happened to see us and called the cops. Byron was a starathlete and we were confident that he could outrun any cop so we weren’t worried about him getting caught. More police were arriving and got out of their cars and headed on foot shining their flashlights around looking for us as they came running across the football field in our direction. Immediately behind the football field to the east were countless acres of farmers’ fields that went on for miles, so we took off running. We could see four or five cops off in the distance with the beams of their flashlights bouncing up and down as they ran after us. We had a pretty good head start, and there was no doubt in my mind that we would be able to evade them, but they still kept following us into the middle of nowhere. I was very familiar with these fields because Fred, Diego and I had a childhood fort nearby and I knew how we could get back to town through the fields, so we started heading south and crossed through a small creek by our old fort and continued on into the next farmer’s field. That field led to the edge of town and the house where the party was at was just one block from where this field ended and the neighborhood began. We couldn’t see the cops’ flashlights anymore, and we figured they gave up chasing us because there was no way they could have caught up to us. We were too fast and had way too much of a head start. We all made it back to Bobby’s party in one piece, all except one of us, that is, but we still figured Byron had gotten away and was on his way back to the house and we were home free. There is no adrenaline rush like running from the cops. We weren’t scared. We loved it. The police chase had made my night and it certainly wasn’t the first time I had police chasing after me on foot. Just as we started cracking our celebratory beers back at the party because we successfully evaded the police, several squad cars pulled up to the house. “Cops!” someone yelled. “Lock the doors!” We had dealt with this before and knew that if all the doors were locked then the cops would go away eventually. We weren’t sure if it was a coincidence that they had arrived at the house, or what was going on. We were 100% sure we had lost them in the fields, and there was no way they had followed us back to the

house. No way. I could outrun and outsmart any cop, even if I had been drinking. Perhaps one of the neighbors called them because of the party, we thought, which was a common thing we faced. Whatever they were doing there, we were pretty sure we were safe. After all, they couldn’t come in without a search warrant so we figured they would just leave after a while, and we would be okay like we always were in the past. A few minutes later there were cops storming the house. Somehow they had gotten in. My shoes were covered with mud from running through the fields, so I took them off and hid them in a cabinet under a bathroom sink because I didn’t want to draw any attention to myself and have them figure out I was one of the kids leading them on the chase a few minutes earlier through the muddy fields. I hoped there was no connection between their presence at the party and our stunt at the high school, but I was wrong. Byron had been caught and told them everything. He told them who else was there at the school, and he even told them we were at a party at Bobby’s house right before. It was despicable. He broke the cardinal rule we learned from Good Fellas: Never rat on your friends, and always keep your mouth shut. Byron wasn’t one of my crew. He was an acquaintance, not a friend. If it was one of my crew who got busted, they wouldn’t have told the cops a word, but this pretty boy sung like a canary. He probably told them it was all my idea too. The cops were able to get into the house because one of the emergency contacts listed for the alarm company was Bobby’s uncle, who also had a key to house and gave that key, and full authorization to the police to enter the house. The uncle lived just a few blocks away so it only took the police a few minutes to get the key. Once inside, the cops immediately asked which one was Mark, and I knew I was screwed. They placed me in handcuffs with my hands behind my back and sat me down in the kitchen. “How am I supposed to finish my beer with my hands behind my back?” I asked the one guarding me. He wasn’t amused.

Over a dozen people got underage drinking tickets, and everyone who went up to the high school that night ended up getting charged with felony vandalism because some of the guys on the roof kicked over a few ventilation ducts. I would not be allowed on school property ever again, including graduation. The school board made me sign a contract agreeing never to step foot on school property again, and in return, my homework for the remaining two months of school would be sent home with my friends and I would still be allowed to technically graduate, although I certainly wasn’t allowed to come for the ceremony. They just simply wanted me to go away. I pushed them too far, but this time it wasn’t really my fault. I know what you’re thinking, but it wasn’t. It was the guys who broke the ventilation ducts, which I had no part of. This went against my prankster code of conduct. I was a prankster, not a vandal. I was completely against vandalism (with the exception of smashing mailboxes, which at the time I didn’t really consider vandalism because they could be easily put back up, and who cares if their mailbox has a dent in it? Of course it is vandalism, but when you’re seventeen-years-old you don’t see things too clearly sometimes). I was pretty pissed that the guys had gotten out of control and broke the ventilation ducts. Not only were we all charged with felony vandalism, or in my case, party to felony vandalism, since I wasn’t on the roof at night, but we had to pay $3000 in restitution for the broken ventilation systems. We also had to pay for the city workers to clean up the tree again. I’m 100% convinced that the “estimate” the school had gotten for the ventilation systems was fake. Complete bull. After talking with the guys and finding out what they did on the roof, all they did was kick over three or four of the ventilation duct covers that prevent rain and leaves from getting down into the ventilation ducts. These covers must have cost about $30 each, if that. The school had screwed us. A few days later on the front page of the town paper was the headline “Students suspended for vandalizing school.” It gave all our names and told all about the whole deal. I was the only one who was not allowed back to school since I was the ringleader, and this was the last straw in a long, long list of problems that I

had been causing. I still felt this was extremely unfair, especially since I wasn’t even on the roof that night and I didn’t participate in any of the vandalism, not to mention there was no way the ventilation covers cost almost $3000! The actual “vandals” were back in school, yet I was thrown out. The school board didn’t care. They had it with me and this was their opportunity to cleanse themselves of my perpetual problem causing…or so they thought.

My Final Revenge Against the School Me getting thrown out of school was such BS that I couldn’t just sit by and accept it, so my mind started racing and I came up with an idea to piss off the school even more. One of my favorite films was Ferris Bueller’s Day Off , as I’m sure you can see why, and the movie gave me an idea. I remembered a campaign from the film which resulted in the words, “Save Ferris” being painted on a water tower because the school thought Ferris was deathly ill, when in reality he was playing hooky and having the time of his life. I printed up a bunch of “Save Mark Dice” flyers that explained my unfair punishment from the April 9 incident, and then I listed the school’s phone number and the home phone numbers of all of the school board members. “Call any time and voice your opinion,” the flyers read. I gave them to Fred to bring to school the next day so the students could pass them around and that night we went out and stuck a bunch of them in people’s mailboxes all around town. This was just the beginning of the Save Mark campaign, and the humiliation I would cause the principal and the school, even though I wasn’t even there anymore. They say that there are 5 to 7 major turning points in someone’s life. These are major events that alter the course of the rest of your life from then on. These are things like graduating college, getting married, the unexpected death of someone close to you, things like this. They are events that change your life forever, and without even realizing it, I was on the verge of one of those events. The Save Mark campaign was about to go supernova. All it took was one phone call to a local television station and me telling the news director

about what was happening to me and how I was unfairly kicked out of school. The next day a news crew came to my parents’ house and interviewed me about it. Not only did they interview me, but they tracked down one of the school board members and got her on camera too. I had given the reporter the names and addresses of all the school board members to help them with their story. Imagine this woman’s surprise when she answered the door and it was a news crew asking her about why she threw me out of school! They also interviewed several students right in front of the school to get their take on it. Some of the students had Save Mark flyers taped in the windows of their cars and were posting them around school. This made for great footage for the story, which aired later that evening. It was awesome! There I was on the evening news broadcasting to hundreds of thousands of people in the surrounding cities and towns telling everyone about how the evil school board and principal had it out for me and were denying me the memory of a high school graduation. The segment also mentioned that students were posting flyers around town, in the school, and on their cars showing their support for me. Mrs. Vandyke, the school board member who was interviewed for the segment said that instead of having a large disciplinary file, she insisted that a large box was needed to hold all of my detentions and the evidence of my past pranks and everything I was suspected of participating in over the last four years. I’m sure the pornos I put in the library were in the box, along with Mr. Bell’s Asshole of America shirt, and who knows what else. I was very proud. They didn’t just have a file on me, they had a box . The news segment still didn’t change the school board’s mind, and I still didn’t get to come back to school or attend graduation, but this skyrocketed me to a whole new level of popularity that I could have never even imagined. I must say, and very honestly and humbly, that I was already one of the most infamous students in the school, but now I was on the evening news and this took it to a whole new level. It also taught me the power of the mass media, and how easily someone could get on the news. All television stations, newspapers, and even some magazines have tip lines and ask people to phone in news items that they think are interesting, and

that’s what I did. Years later, I would polish my skill of getting into the news, as you may be familiar with, but this is how it all began. This was how I learned that simply calling the news and pitching a story idea could quite often get them to cover it. This was an amazing revelation that shaped the course of the rest of my life and if I could do it all over again, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The Aftermath My entire locker was cleaned out and everything in it was sent to my parents’ house. Fred and Diego would bring my homework assignments to and from school for me. The principal, Mr. Mueller, along with the entire school board pleaded with Fred to convince me not to do anything else to retaliate or get even with the school for what they had done to me. The school really worried that their decision to throw me out might put me over the edge and cause me to do something even more dramatic and destructive. They just couldn’t wait for the end of the year fast enough. My appearance on the evening news was somewhat favorable to me, and I’m sure it blew the principal’s mind that it happened. Under our signed agreement I was allowed to technically graduate, so that wasn’t so bad, but it did get pretty boring sitting in my room all day by myself while my friends were at school. Even though I didn’t have to actually go to school anymore, my mom would still wake me up and not let me sleep too late since she said this was supposed to be a punishment, not an excuse for sleeping in, and she wouldn’t let me play video games until after 3:00 when school got out. Most of my homework was pretty easy, but I did pay a girl to write book reports for me for English class to save me the trouble of having to read the dumb books. I would then rewrite them in my handwriting and turn them in. I had applied, and was accepted to a local technical college in the fall, but I didn’t really have any serious plans about the future. I was just looking forward to the summer. I happened to be taking a drafting class when I was thrown out of school, and while doing most of my school work at home was fairly easy,

producing drafting drawings without the help of the teacher was very difficult. This was not a computer aided drafting (CAD) class, this was old school pencil and paper drafting where you would draw three-dimensional objects using only pencils, squares, compasses, and rulers. I didn’t even have any of the proper equipment at home, so how was I supposed to produce the last few drawings required of me for the class? I did have the drafting book, which showed a thumbnail image of the items I was supposed to draw, so using my high resolution computer scanner that I scammed from Best Buy, I scanned the tiny images and enlarged them by 1000% and then taped the printouts onto my window, and then traced them onto the drafting paper. It worked fantastic. There was just enough sunlight shining through the window and I could see each and every line in the diagrams, so I would just trace them onto my paper. A drawing that normally took several hours now only took me ten minutes. Later that summer I was told by a friend of mine in the class that the teacher held up one of my drawings as an example of the kind of work the students should strive for! If you’ve ever taken a drafting class, you know that it’s fairly difficult, and you sometimes draw lines in the wrong place or at the wrong angle and set the point of your compass off-center, and most drawings have a fair amount of erasing that has to be done on them before they are complete. Well, not my drawings. They were practically perfect, and even the teacher took notice of my handiwork, never even imagining how I had done it. He thought I was very gifted. I guess I was gifted, just not in drawing. My gift involved “beating the system,” as they say.

The Dildo Present Since I wasn’t allowed at the graduation ceremony and I couldn’t pull off one last jackass move to humiliate the principal, I decided to have one of my friends do it for me. This final prank would take balls, quite literally. I got a large black dildo and put a sticker on it reading “To Mr. Mueller, from Mark Dice,” and called my friend Brent and asked him if he would give it to Mr. Mueller at the graduation ceremony. He was cool, and thought it was a great idea, so he came on over to pick it up on his way there.

He put the dildo in his back pocket, hiding it under his gown, and when his name was called to walk up and shake the principal’s hand and get his diploma, he reached out like he was going to shake hands and placed the dildo in Mr. Mueller’s right-hand and then snatched the diploma from him and walked off the stage, leaving him holding it in front of the entire audience. Mr. Mueller quickly turned around and set the dildo down on a chair and laid a clipboard on top of it trying to hide it from view. One of my friends’ parents were videotaping the ceremony, and they got this on tape so I was able to watch it later which was pretty cool. I had also given my graduation hat to Rick to throw onstage for me at the end of the ceremony since I couldn’t be there. I had written “Fuck You!” in large letters with black magic marker on the red hat and underneath it wrote, “From Mark Dice.” The school had told the students not to throw their hats in the air, which has been a graduation tradition for who knows how long, and anyone missing their hat at the end of the ceremony would get in trouble they claimed. So my hat would be the only one being thrown that night, and Rick snuck it in under his gown and threw it on stage as one final “up yours” gesture from me to the school. Even though I was not there in person, I wanted them to know I was there in spirit. They just couldn’t escape me. I had also done one other thing trying to throw a wrench in the ceremony that night. A small number of honor students were given a gold rope (called an honor chord) to wear around their neck, signifying they were the smart ones. It had something to do with an extremely high grade point average or something, so the afternoon before graduation I went to the local craft store and bought an entire roll of gold rope that looked practically identical to ones the honor students would be wearing, and cut it into small three-foot sections, the same length as the authentic honor chords, and I gave them to Rick to pass out to everyone before the ceremony, so instead of just a handful of people wearing the honor chords, there were dozens. Certainly not as cool as the dildo or my hat, but it was something.

Fake College Rejection Letter

I was very mad that Byron had gotten caught the night we decorated the school’s tree again, especially since he ratted us all out and got me kicked out of school, so I had to get him back. Instead of doing something criminal like slashing his tires or keying his car, I decided to type up a fake letter from the college that he was going to attend in the fall, informing him that due to a recent evaluation of his criminal record they had decided to revoke his acceptance. This was in 1996, and I didn’t have a color printer at the time so I couldn’t just copy the logo off the school’s website and put it in a Word document and print it out to make an official looking letterhead, so I called the school asking for a packet of information which they sent to me. Once the brochures came, I cut out the school’s logo and brought it to Kinko’s and photocopied it onto a blank piece of paper so it looked like official school letterhead. I also made an envelope with the logo in the upper left corner so it looked nice and official too. I then typed up a professional sounding letter explaining the school’s decision to change its mind about his acceptance. I explained that the school had certain standards for their students and that he had failed to live up to those standards due to the recent vandalism charge from that infamous night at the high school. I knew that when he received the letter it would absolutely crush him. It was already too late to apply to other schools, so what would he do? I included a sentence at the bottom of the letter that said if he wished to appeal the decision, he could call and schedule an appointment to plead his case. The phone number that I listed was a 1-800 number to a phone sex line that I got out of the back of a porno magazine where they advertise such numbers. This particular 1-800 phone sex number was advertised to specialize in anal sex talk and it was a 1-800 number (and not a 1-900 number) because you had to call in and give your credit card number so they could charge you per minute to talk dirty to the girls on the other end of the line. There was a very nasty recording that played before you were asked to enter your credit card number. I will never forget this recording, at least the first sentence, which said “Hey baby. You’ve reached the Back Door Entry, the

hottest anal sex line in the world.” It then went on to say some very nasty things about what you could expect for your $3.99 a minute, or however much it cost to talk to one of the girls. I made up some fake name who I said was the college administrator and then signed a signature in pen at the bottom of the letter and folded it up and put it in the official-looking envelope, put a stamp on it, and dropped it in the mail. Later that summer I bumped into Byron’s brother Brendon at a party and I asked him how his brother liked getting thrown out of college before he even started, and then I laughed. He acknowledged his brother and his parents were freaked out when they first got the letter and then were confused when they called to schedule their appeal and got a recording talking about anal sex. They probably thought they dialed the number wrong at first. Oh, to be a fly on the wall when this happened would have been awesome. One of my very best prank phone calls would also include Byron, and interestingly enough didn’t result from me calling someone, it resulted from someone calling me who had a wrong number. I received a call one afternoon from a woman who thought she had called a bank to see if her loan was approved. Seeing a fun opportunity when she asked if this was Wells Fargo (or whatever bank it was), I said, “Yes it is. This is Bill speaking, how may I help you?” She went on to tell me that she wanted to know the status of her loan application. She sounded like an AfricanAmerican woman, and I told her I was sorry, but the loan officer in charge of her account turned her down because she was black. “Excuse me?” she said. “That’s right, I’m very sorry ma’am, and I’m going to do everything I can to correct this,” I assured her. “But Mrs. Wilson who was in charge of processing your loan doesn’t like black people.” I went on to tell her that of course this was against company policy and said I was going to do everything I could to get that loan approved. I also told her that Mrs. Wilson was under investigation for racism and that we were going to be firing her soon. Mrs. Wilson was Byron’s mom of course, and none of this was true. I told the poor woman on the phone that I was going to give her Mrs. Wilson’s home phone number and I wanted her to call and tell her how

disappointed she was that she would turn down a customer’s loan just because they were black. I assured her that the bank would call her back in a few days with the new results of her loan application, but I stressed that she really should call Mrs. Wilson right now and tell her what a piece of garbage she was, and then I gave her Mrs. Wilson’s home phone number. Just imagine how confused Byron’s mom must have been because not only did this woman have her phone number, but also knew her name! I’m sure Mrs. Wilson tried to say that she didn’t work at the bank and she didn’t have anything to do with loans, but the woman on the phone probably said that she just got off the phone with the bank, and they were the ones that gave her Mrs. Wilson’s phone number! I wish I could have been there to witness this conversation, but it was fun enough just coming up with this story off the top of my head and talking with the woman.

The Weed Cutter The summer after high school graduation (I was allowed to technically graduate, remember) Fred and I got a job on a weed cutter, and I’m sure you don’t have any idea what this is, so I’ll try to explain it to you. In the Midwest, a lot of lakes have problems with weeds growing up from the bottom and tangling in the propellers of boats, so it’s fairly common to have a huge weed cutting boat drive around the lake and cut the weeds. It looks like a floating combine like the ones used for harvesting corn. Fred lived on the lake, and his dad had gotten us the job as the two weed cutters which turned out to be one of the greatest jobs ever. One of us would ride around the lake on the boat cutting the weeds, often for several hours at a stretch, while the other one would sit in a dump truck on the shore just waiting for the weed cutter to fill up and unload. When the weed cutter was full of seaweed, we would drive it ashore and using a series of conveyor belts we would unload the weeds into the back of the dump truck. It was then the truck driver’s job to take the weeds to a nearby dump site and dump them. It was very often several hours between loads, and we would switch off every other load so one of us would drive the dump truck for half the day, while the other one would operate the boat.

Our first day on the job we were out test driving the dump truck when Fred put it in the ditch when making a u-turn. This was an omen of what was going to happen for the rest of the summer. The truck was stuck and wouldn’t move but luckily some guy drove by in a pickup truck and had a tow rope and was able to pull us out and our boss didn’t find out about it. This happened on a country road in the middle of nowhere, so we flagged the guy down for help as he approached us. He was drinking a can of Old Style beer (right in his truck while he was driving) and had the rest of the twelve-pack sitting in the truck bed. This is what happens out in the country in Wisconsin. Our supervisor for the weed cutting project was a retired senile old man named Barney. He was a scatterbrained man probably suffering from the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, and every single time he would address Fred or I, he would call us by the wrong name and then correct himself. If he was addressing me, he would say “Fred, ahh, Mark.” He could never get our names right. Ever! A lot of older grandparents do this. They just keep rattling off the names of the grandkids when talking to one until the right name pops into their head. Barney was no different. Even if he called us by the right name, his brain would still have a glitch and he wasn’t sure if he had used the correct name or not, and he would say something like, “Mark, umm, Fred, ahhh, Mark,” every single time. Nobody in their right mind should have let either of us drive a dump truck. We were 18-years-old and smoked weed constantly. The dump truck was just under a certain weight limit so we didn’t need a special driver’s license to run it. It was a stick shift, and I had never driven a stick shift before, so imagine how fun it was to learn using a dump truck! I’m surprised we didn’t destroy the transmission in the first two weeks. We beat the crap out of that truck. I did get the hang of it pretty quickly though, and soon was able to fly down the road steering with my knee while holding a hamburger in my left hand and a soda in my right. I would set my drink down on top of the shifter to shift and would take bites of my hamburger and puff on joints as I drove down the road like a maniac, never once worrying about getting pulled over.

Little did I realize when I first started that job, that it would be a changing point in my life. I could only smoke so many joints sitting in the dump truck waiting for the boat to come ashore to unload, so I had to do something to keep me busy. I soon learned the amazing power of books. I went to Barnes & Noble and bought a book called the Psychology of Persuasion , and it was amazing. It opened up a whole new world for me. When it was Fred’s turn to sit in the dump truck and wait for the boat, he read the book too, and we would discuss what we had learned after work every night. The second book I bought was Unlimited Power by Anthony Robbins, which changed the course of my life forever, and remains one of my favorite books of all time. Here I was, 18-years-old, in a small little town in Wisconsin, and I had found Anthony Robbins, the biggest self-help and motivational guru in history, and his book began to open my mind up to the true power of my potential. Fred and I felt like Jedis in training. It wasn’t long after reading this book that I began dating a hot new girl who was super smart too, and I also started looking ahead in my life, and began coming up with goals and milestones along my desired path. I had never thought too much about the future. I pretty much just lived for the moment and never really looked ahead in my life more than a week. This was my first coming of age moment. Working on the weed cutter did offer other perks too, other than ample reading time in the dump truck. Since Fred lived on the lake at his dad’s house, after work we could go jet skiing whenever we wanted and his dad would let us take out his speed boat by ourselves. We would fill a cooler full of beer and go out waterskiing until sunset with some girls from the neighborhood and smoke joints on the boat, and felt like we owned the lake. There was a water patrol police officer stationed on the lake, but we never worried about getting pulled over for speeding or reckless driving since we worked on the lake and we became friendly with the officer. His name was Malcolm, and we would drive by him with beers in our hands and wave to him and he would wave back, and he was never suspicious or perhaps never cared about what we were drinking.

One time when we were drinking and waterskiing officer Malcolm approached us and waved us down and we thought he was going to bust us for reckless driving or something. We all had open beers, of course, and there was a bag of weed in the boat, and probably not the legal number of life jackets either. We thought we were screwed, but officer Malcolm just wanted to thank us for doing a good job keeping the lake clean and asked us if we would be sure to keep the area around his dock free of weeds! When we were cutting the weeds by people’s piers, sometimes the homeowner would run out and flag us down and toss us a beer or two trying to bribe us to make sure we really cleaned up the lake in front of their house. They probably never assumed that a couple of 18-year-old kids would be operating the $150,000 weed cutter, and since almost everyone in Wisconsin loves beer, they figured this was a good incentive for us. We weren’t getting drunk on weed cutter, it was just a beer or two once in a while, and usually a Miller Lite or something we’d sweat out after a few minutes working in the sun. At one point during the summer, Fred and I had a contest to see who could go longer without showering. It started one day when Fred happened to mention that he hadn’t showered for a few days since he figured waterskiing in the lake after work kept him clean enough. I remarked that it had been a few days since I had showed too, to which Fred responded, “and I’m not going to shower today either,” as he laughed out loud at his blatant violation of social norms. “I’m not showering today either,” I said chuckling. The next day when we arrived at work I proudly announced, “I didn’t take a shower this morning.” “Me either,” Fred responded. We both grinned and went to work, repeating this same smelly game of chicken, day after day to see who would finally flinch first and give up. I went a week or maybe ten days without showering, and then I gave up after I did some work on my car and got all covered in grease. I also smelled like seaweed and there were pieces of it stuck in my hair and it was getting nasty so I figured it was time.

The lake we worked on was part of a park, and the park ranger was an extremely obese woman who drove around in an electric golf cart that we joked was her heavy duty electric wheel chair because we thought she was too fat to walk. We called her “tons of fun.” She was off on Mondays and Tuesdays and on those days we would always see a county vehicle pull into the parking lot and sit for several hours and nobody would ever get out. We realized the city worker would park there and sleep. People always joke about how county and city workers slack off all the time, and this seemed to be true. One of my friends worked for the county that summer and confirmed this, but his job still wasn’t as fun as ours. Our supervisor, Barney, the senile old man who always wore a hat like Gilligan on Gillian’s Island and always had a look of confusion on his face, would always complain that we never wore our life jackets when operating the weed cutter. I didn’t wear a life jacket because it was going to ruin my tan. He complained about it all the time and would occasionally threaten to fire us if we weren’t wearing them. Barney lived on the lake and would watch us with binoculars, and taking care of the lake was his life’s mission in his retirement. We thought about “accidentally” driving the weed cutter into his boat to poke a hole in it and make it sink, or running into his dock to smash it just for fun. One of the dump sites for the weeds was on a guy’s land who lived on the edge of a farmer’s field, and he let us dump the weeds there so the farmer could use them as mulch in the field. We met this man several times and thought he was extremely bizarre. One afternoon we saw him pulling out of his driveway with a black woman in the passenger seat who we assumed was probably his wife. I don’t mean to sound racist or anything, but a white guy with a black woman is extremely rare, especially in Hickville, Wisconsin, and we were pretty surprised by this. Fred started joking that she was his slave who he kept locked up in the basement, and somehow this idea started becoming something we considered may be true. The guy looked like a complete psycho, and we wondered how in the world he was able to even attract a wife at all, and it was even more strange that he had somehow hooked up with a black woman.

We never saw his wife again, so one day we decided we should sneak into his house and investigate to see if Fred’s delusions had any basis in reality. This was out in the country where most people don’t even lock their doors, so after we dumped a load of weeds we parked the dump truck in his driveway and walked up to his front porch to see if he was home. We came up with some dumb question to ask him about where he wanted us to dump that week’s loads, just in case he was home. We rang the doorbell, and when no one answered we thought this was the perfect opportunity to sneak inside his house and look around. I slowly opened the door, and Fred stood on the porch looking out to see if his car would pull into the driveway. I made it just a few steps into the house, and I just couldn’t do it. This was too weird. We were in insane. What the heck were we doing? We were snooping around some stranger’s house because Fred was delusional and thought he kept a black woman locked up as his prisoner. I turned back and ran out the door and we got in the dump truck and left. The weed cutter was one of the best jobs I’ve ever had. We would show up late, cheat on our timecards, smoke joints and occasionally drink a beer right on the boat. I did the same job the following summer, but Fred decided to work for his dad doing construction so I got Barney to hire my friend Marty as Fred’s replacement but we screwed around so bad that Barney told us he wasn’t going to hire us back again the next year. He really meant it too, so I ended up working at a gas station instead. I blamed Marty because he was horrible at operating the weed cutter and even fell asleep one time while he was driving it and hit a buoy and almost crashed into someone’s dock. Barney our boss had a sign hanging off his mailbox that said, “Barney’s Golden Pond,” a reference to the movie On Golden Pond about some senile old man who lives on a lake or something, so it was very fitting of him. To get our “revenge” against him we later ripped the sign off his mailbox a few nights before I moved to California and brought it with me in the car, and later threw it off the edge of the Hoover Dam.

Ideas Not Carried Out

Chicago 69 Sign While I was able to pull off most of the crazy schemes I had come up with, there were still a few that I just didn’t get around to or logistically were too difficult. People had always talked about stealing the “Chicago 69” sign, which is a large sign on the freeway signifying that Chicago is 69 miles away. While I did steal a 69th Drive street sign, stealing the Chicago 69 sign would have been truly historic since people had talked about it for years, and there was only one. Since most people only talk about doing crazy things, my friends and I decided to go out and actually steal it. We brought a battery powered saw so we could just cut down the posts in a matter of seconds and throw the sign in the back of Fred’s truck. It would have taken too much time to climb the posts and actually unbolt it, since hundreds of cars would have seen us and possibly a cop, so simply cutting the sign down seemed like a much better idea. We parked on a frontage road parallel with the freeway and then walked down the embankment to retrieve our sign. As we approached it we came to realize that the sign was three times larger than we had thought. When you’re driving by on the freeway, it doesn’t look all that big, but when you’re standing directly underneath it, it was huge. It was probably 25 feet long and 8 feet tall, and there was no way it would have even fit in the back of Fred’s truck. We had to abort the mission. At least we had tried.

The 7 Day Plan I had an idea for what we called the seven-day plan, which was a series of seven pranks, one every day of the week right after the other, with some of them being spin-offs of the previous one. For example, we were going to list the principal’s house for sale in the local newspaper saying that it had an in-ground swimming pool and a new roof, and then the next day we were going to have Diggers Hotline come to his house and spray paint all over his yard showing where all the utility lines were buried, and then the following day we were going to have a pool company stop by his house to schedule an estimate for a new swimming pool to be put in his backyard.

We were then going to schedule a roofer to come to his house the next day to give him an estimate for some new shingles. For some reason we were going to put a dead squirrel in a box and leave it on his front door because in the listing for his house we were going to put in the real estate section, we planned on mentioning that there were a lot of squirrels and other wild life on the property. The plan would culminate by taking a mannequin dressed in a school letter jacket and hanging it from its neck by a noose from the school so it looked like a student had killed themselves on the upper level of the school roof. We were hoping this would cause school to be canceled before the police realized it wasn’t really a person. The dummy was also going to be holding a copy of the real estate listing for the principal’s house in its hand. I was thrown out of school before we could put the seven-day plan in motion.

Cementing the School Gate Shut If we would have had a little more money, we would have cemented the gates shut to prevent anyone from having access to the school parking lot just to cause chaos when everyone arrived in the morning for school. We were going to go in the middle of the night and chain them shut and mix a few bags of concrete on the ground around them so by morning it would have hardened enough so the gates couldn’t open and the school would have to make a decision to cancel classes that day or have everyone park in the surrounding neighborhoods. Whatever they decide we thought it would have been hilarious but we never got around to it because nobody wanted to spend the money on the concrete.

Coveting An Arcade Game There was a small outlet mall near us that had a few arcade games in the hallway for people to play and both Fred and I had always wanted an arcade game at home, so we thought about stealing one from the mall. We figured since no one would really have the balls to steal one in the middle of the day, we could probably actually do it quite easily. We discussed making

fake T-shirts with the name of the video game company printed on them and then we were going to use a dolly and just load up the arcade game and roll it out to Fred’s truck. Who would suspect we were stealing it? We would have looked like a couple of repair men. We were also going to print up fake lettering for the side of the truck that spelled out the name of the video game company. That way if anyone saw us wheeling it out of the mall and loading it onto the truck, the door would read “Video Games Unlimited” in large letters (or whatever the company’s name was) so nobody would think anything of it. We were even going to print fake license plates for the truck just in case there were security cameras that got us on tape. The reason we never did this was because of the close call we had scamming video games and computer equipment from Best Buy using our homemade UPCs. Aren’t videogames supposed to keep kids out of trouble ? Not us.

Trying to Tap into the Announcement System at School We really wanted to tap into the announcement system of the school with our own microphone so we could say offensive things like telling the principal to go screw himself and voice our opinions about our least favorite teachers, while the whole school was listening, but we just couldn’t figure out how to do this. We did realize that there was a microphone on the principal’s desk with a large button on it that we figured could accomplish this task, but there was no way that this could be done without getting caught since his secretary or someone else would definitely see us running out of there and it was such a small school that they would probably know who it was or at least be able to identify them the next time they saw that person in the hall. Unfortunately there was no way of tapping into the system without having access to the central unit, which was located in the school office. We also thought about taping into the loudspeakers on the football field, but this also proved too difficult. It seems that sometimes dreams don’t come true.

Dumping Dead Fish in the Ventilation System

We wanted to put stink bombs in the ventilation system of the high school to stink up the entire building so they would have to close it for the day. It was something the Joker in the Batman movies would do so it seemed like a pretty good idea at the time. After thinking about this for a while, instead of just throwing a stink bomb in the intake, we decided it would be much better if we would dump a bucket of dead fish in it instead, because they would provide a continuous supply of stench instead of just one burst of it. We found an unmarked door in the school that had a ladder leading up to a room where all the ventilation ducts came from, but we couldn’t find the intake so we resorted to dropping stink bombs in the hallways instead but it didn’t have the same effect. Years earlier Ken threw a lit smoke bomb into the middle school on the last day of class and dropped another one into a ventilation duct somewhere hoping it would get sucked into the school. Kids and their smoke bombs, I’ll tell ya.

Stealing Dead Cats from Biology Class After the Advanced Biology class got done dissecting a bunch of cats for a project, we thought about going in the school dumpster and taking the bodies and then throwing them all in a teacher’s front yard. We knew from our friends in Advanced Bio that the cats had just gotten thrown out after their dissection experiments were completed, and about a dozen of them with their guts cut open were lying in the dumpster behind the school. We would have actually done this, except nobody wanted to put the dead cats in the trunk of their car so we could drive them over to a teacher’s house because we thought the blood and guts would leak out of the trash bags. We realized how bad these cats must smell, and nobody was willing to risk having the trunk of their car smell like a dead body after we were done.

Hanging a Pot Flag on the Flagpole I took a large piece of white fabric and painted a green pot leaf on it and I was going to hoist it up on the school flagpole one night, but I ended up getting kicked out of school before I could do it. I was planning on going in

the middle of the night and would lower the American flag and replace it with the large pot leaf and hoist it back up to the top and then climb the flagpole and cut the rope so the flag could not be taken down. This was one of the pranks next on my list. I had the pot flag already made and ready to go, but my early departure from school caused me to abort this mission.

Building Our Own Float Senior year we came up with the idea to make our own float for the homecoming parade that would have consisted of a trailer covered in beer cans and a large pot leaf displayed on the top, but we didn’t have enough time to build it. We talked about how it could be done and we found someone with a truck who was willing to pull the float, but the parade was a day or two away when we had come up with the idea. We were going to park the float a block away from the school and then in the middle of the parade just pull up from an adjacent street and join the procession. It was a great idea but unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to build it since homecoming was only a day or two away and we were seniors, so we couldn’t do it the following year. A few people did, however, bring eggs and stink bombs to the homecoming pep rally in the gym and raised a little hell that way. We even discussed setting off a bunch of stink bombs in the gym and then chaining all the doors shut from the outside to lock everyone in there so they couldn’t get out. We were terrible kids.

The Shit Box I always wanted to be an entrepreneur. I wanted to own my own business, invent a new product, or do something on my own so I didn’t have to work for anybody, and of course I dreamed of making millions and retiring at the age of 30. One of the first ideas I came up with was to sell boxes of shit. Literally, boxes of cow manure that I called the Shit Box. Of course, you wouldn’t buy one of these for yourself. The idea was that people would call me and give me the name and address of someone they hate, and I would

send them a box of cow manure along with a nasty letter explaining why someone decided to do this to them. This wasn’t just a wild idea I had, I actually purchased the phone number 1888 Shit Box (744-2269). (I had to get the 888 number because the 1-800 number was already taken, but the 888 number was still toll free.) I then looked into having a 24-hour answering service take the orders and researched what it would take to get a merchant account setup so I could accept credit cards. I even spoke with a sales rep from the local rock station I was planning on advertising the Shit Box on. I also wrote up a thirty second commercial I planned on using. Obviously, you can’t say shit on the radio, so the sales rep said they could just bleep it out, and people would get the idea. My commercial went something like, “Do you hate your boss, a teacher, your principal, or ex-lover? Send them a box of (bleep) in the mail. Call 1888 (bleep) box, and we’ll ship them a box of cow manure anonymously along with a letter telling them that they’re receiving a box of (bleep) because they are a piece of (bleep). That’s 1-888 (bleep) box. 1-888-7442269. Call today.” We even painted up some huge cardboard signs that said, “Send your boss a box of shit. Call 1-888 Shit Box.” We had planned to put them up all over town on telephone poles and on the side of the highway to advertise our new service. I would have done it all to, except I decided to save my money and move to California at the end of the summer. The radio advertising was very expensive and I wasn’t sure if the idea was going to take off or not. You have to admit, in a weird sort of way, it seems like a good idea, and years later I found several other websites that were doing exactly the same thing, so I wasn’t the only crazy one with the idea! Of course it wasn’t the most respectable business model, and sending people boxes of cow manure in the mail certainly wouldn’t get me any awards from the Better Business Bureau, but it still could be considered a legitimate business, and there are certainly worse businesses to be involved in.

College

Craziness

Let the Higher Education Begin Freshman year of college I lived at home with my parents and commuted to school, and the year was rather uneventful because most of my friends had all moved away to different schools and lived in the dorms. Since this was a rather boring time, sophomore year I moved into a three story, fourbedroom house with a group of guys (John, Nick, Bobby and I) and we partied at least three nights a week like there was no tomorrow. Bobby would bring home a bottle of tequila every single Friday night after work for months on end, and within several hours the bottle would be empty and then placed on a narrow 4-inch wide shelf that went around our entire living room half way up the wall. I don’t remember how many bottles of tequila were stacked up there by the end of the year, but I think there were dozens. This was in Wisconsin after all, where everybody drinks like a fish. Throughout the course of that year, we probably had the police come to our house at least a half-dozen times, and every time this happened we would lock the door, turn off the stereo, and they would just leave after a while. We did have one problem, however, that wouldn’t go away…our landlord. Our landlord lived in the house literally right behind us. Our backyard was their front yard, and they were probably less than 75 feet away from us. We knew this would be a problem when we moved in, but we had waited too long to rent a house and the school year was just around the corner, and there were hardly any available houses near campus by this time, so we had to take what we found. When we signed the lease we assured them that we were a bunch of studious young men who didn’t party and got good grades. They soon realized how big of a lie that was.

The Picnic Table My house mates and I were able to scrounge up most of the furniture we needed from our parents’ basements, but there was still one thing missing. We got a couple of old couches from Nick’s parents, John had a nice stereo system and Bobby had a decent sized TV that he brought to the house, and

by the time school started we had just about everything we needed except a kitchen table. None of our parents had an old kitchen table lying around, and we certainly didn’t want to go and buy one, so I came up with a plan. The public park that Fred and I worked at operating the weed cutter was full of picnic benches so we went there in the middle of the night and loaded one in the back of his truck and brought it to my new house. It fit perfectly in our kitchen. Of course this qualified as having stolen property in our house and there was a huge stamp that looked like it was burnt into the wood on the top of it that said “Property of the County Park System,” but we figured since it was a public park paid for by our tax dollars, the table was, in a sense, ours. We didn’t think the park would miss one table since there were plenty of them around and we even thought about bringing it back at the end of the year when we were done with it. We were just borrowing it, we weren’t stealing it. The picnic table was a nice touch in our house. Not only did we use it to eat on, but it also served as entertainment during our parties, which happened practically every week. It became common for people to take pens and magic markers, and draw funny pictures on the tabletop and on the benches where people sat. Sometimes people would take knives out of the drawer and carve things into the table as well. We encouraged this. After just a few months, practically every surface on the thing was covered with graffiti, little cartoon images, and a lot of penises for some reason. People really liked to draw penises on the table. At the end of the school year when we all moved out and went our separate ways, we carried the picnic table across the street and set it in a grassy area next to the apartment complex there and within just an hour or so, we saw some people sitting down at it and enjoying it. I’m sure they were also enjoying the two semester’s worth of artwork that was on it too. I thought about returning it to the park I had taken it from, but that would have been too much work, so abandoning it across the street was good enough.

Don’t Puke in the Flowers On St. Patrick’s Day, Bobby bought a bottle of Everclear which is 90% alcohol (190 proof), and contains a warning on the label specifically stating

not to drink it straight, and insisting that it be highly diluted with a nonalcoholic beverage. We didn’t care about this warning, and poured a couple shots. We all clanged our shot glasses together above our heads, said cheers, and downed the shots. Within seconds John and Nick ran out the front door, leaned over the railing surrounding the front porch, and started puking. I felt a little queasy too, but was able to hold mine down along with Bobby, who outweighed me by 70 or 80 pounds. The only bathroom in the house was upstairs, and there was no way anyone would have been able to hold it down until they ran up there, so luckily the front door was only a few feet away. A little while later as our party began to get in full gear, some other people wanted to take shots to see if they could hold it down, so I took another one with them, my second, their first, and one of them ran out the front door and puked immediately after taking it. The stuff tasted terrible, kind of like gasoline in my mouth, but I still was able to keep my second shot down. Then a little while later, Bobby and I took another shot, my third, and his second, and this time it was my turn to run out the front door and start puking over the railing. Bobby followed right behind me. The ground was covered with several inches of snow, and I could see where the others had puked because their chunky and colored vomit was splattered on the clean white snow that covered the grass and flowers on the ground right next to the porch. It looked nasty. Like someone had spilled rotten fruit salad all over the front of the house. The next day, the four of us sat in the living room on the sofas like a bunch of zombies watching movies. We were practically brain-dead. We realized why the bottle of Everclear said not to drink it straight, after all, just one shot made almost everyone puke immediately. I was very proud that I was able to hold two of them down, and only puked after my third. Our heads were throbbing as we watched movies trying to recover from the night before, when all of a sudden we heard pounding on the front door. This was angry pounding, not pounding like one of our friends was seeing if we were home. Everyone was too dead to even want to get up, but I managed to stagger my way to the door to answer it and realized it was the landlord. This couldn’t

have been good. As soon as I opened the door she started yelling at me saying something about puke and ruining her flowers. I had no idea what she was talking about. She started pointing at the puke stains in the snow from people throwing up on the front porch over the railing and was freaking out that the acid in the puke was going to kill her hibernating flowers and they weren’t going to bloom again in the Spring. There were five or six different enormous puke stains at different points around the front porch where people had thrown up the night before, and it just so happened that her flowers were lying dormant underneath the snow right in that area. I apologized to her and came back inside the house and sat down on the couch with my roommates looking bewildered because they overheard someone all pissed off about flowers after I opened the door and didn’t know who I was talking to or what the heck was going on. I reminded them what happened the night before and where we had all puked, and we all went out to have a look at the puke splatter. There must have been gallons of puke splattered all over the front of the house. It was epic, and just one more reason for the landlord to hate us.

Attack of the Lesbians I’m the kind of guy who likes to be the center of attention, and there’s no better way to get attention than to have a microphone in front of a large crowd of people. There was a stage set up one afternoon in the quad at my college, complete with a set of drums, a keyboard, a bunch of speakers, and of course, the microphone which looked lonely sitting in its stand with nobody using it. The band hadn’t taken the stage yet, and the quad was full of people so I jumped on stage to see if the microphone worked so I could speak to the crowd. I started rapping a parody of an Eminem song that I had written, since I was trying my hand at some comedy at the time which I performed on open mic nights at the Comedy Store, but me hijacking the microphone didn’t really go over that well with the band members, who happened to be a group of butch-looking lesbians.

A couple of them ran up on stage as I was performing my song, and one grabbed me by the arm and the other grabbed the microphone and yanked it out of my hand. I walked off stage not thinking anything of it, when all of a sudden a few more lesbians came up for reinforcements and they all surrounded me, yelling and complaining. Whatever. I turned and started walking away when one of them grabbed onto my forearm with both hands and wouldn’t let go. I peeled her hands loose and continued walking away and she followed me and grabbed me again and wouldn’t let go. She was a manly lesbian, and for some reason thought she would act like a bouncer at a bar or something and detain me. It was very weird. She just wouldn’t let go of my arm. What could I do? I couldn’t give her a shove with my other hand, because even though she was a manly lesbian, she was still a girl. I couldn’t push a girl, even if she did look like a man. I kept walking away and wiggling my arm back and forth trying to break her grip as the other lesbians approached me again. I was able to break free but my watch band broke and it fell to the ground. I didn’t care. I took off speed walking in the other direction before more lesbian reinforcements came and the wannabe bouncer lesbian picked up my watch as I left. While I did lose my watch, I avoided getting further assaulted by the lesbian gang which was quite an awkward situation. A few days later I was approached by a security guard at school and asked to come with him. I wasn’t quite sure what he wanted until I saw some of the lesbians off in the distance talking with a second security guard. I couldn’t believe it. Now they were trying to get me in trouble with campus security for some reason. What was the school going to do for me jumping on stage? It wasn’t like the band was playing and I interrupted their show, they weren’t even up there yet. I went with the security guard to one of the offices, where he then introduced me to the dean. Apparently the crazed lesbian band members thought that the reason I jumped on stage and took over the microphone was because they were lesbians! I don’t know how they could have come to this mentally ill conclusion, especially since I had no idea what band was playing or that they were lesbians, and I certainly didn’t say anything about gay people on the microphone, but somehow in their dysfunctional brains they felt so

persecuted by society for being lesbians, that they saw my jackass stunt as an attack on their sexuality. The dean realized they were insane, and I explained to him how they assaulted me and broke my watch, and then he opened up a drawer and pulled it out and set it on the desk in front of me. He made it clear that he had to “investigate” the possible “hate crime” that was supposedly committed against the lesbian band members so they wouldn’t accuse him of discriminating against them for being gay or something. I picked up my broken watch and went on my way. It’s not every day that you get attacked by an angry gang of lesbians.

Crashing the Wrong Party There was some random Friday night my sophomore year of college where I didn’t really have anything to do, so two friends of mine and I decided to walk around our neighborhood and crash someone’s party. As you probably know, in college towns on practically every block on a Thursday, Friday, or Saturday night, some house is having a huge party with dozens of people, and the hosts certainly only know a fraction of them and don’t really care who’s there since it’s not a small intimate gathering of just a few friends. At a lot of large college parties almost anyone is welcome, and friends always invite friends who invite friends, and it’s not uncommon to have 50 or 80 random people partying at someone’s house. We didn’t know of any particular parties going on that night so we went to take a walk in order to find one. Just a block away from my house we saw a bunch of people standing on a balcony holding red plastic party cups in their hands, so we headed up there to join them. Nobody knew that we didn’t know anyone there, and nobody cared. We hung out for a while, drank a few beers from their keg, and since there weren’t any hot girls there, we ventured off down the block to find another party. It wasn’t long before we found a huge three-story house that we could see through the windows was full of people so we headed up the stairs to the porch, opened the front door and walked right in. I knew immediately that this wasn’t just some random party. This was a jock party. All the guys were

pretty huge, and all the girls looked very tough as well. It turns out this was a rugby party, and everyone there was a member of the guys or girls rugby team and knew everyone else. Most people just thought that we were friends with someone at the party, since they knew we weren’t on the rugby team, and whenever anyone asked who I knew there, I would just drop the name of the person that I had been talking to a few minutes earlier. “Oh, I know Sara over there,” I would say, pointing in the direction of the girl I was just chatting with who I had just met. It was a little awkward at first, but we managed, and thankfully nobody really called our bluff. After a while we thought we should get out of there in case they realized that none of us knew anyone there, so we slowly made our way to the door and took off. Directly across the street were a couple girls standing on the second story balcony and I hollered out to them and chatted them up for a minute, and one of them invited us up and we ended up hanging out there for the rest of the night. It wasn’t even really a party. It was just four or five girls all by themselves. I got one of the girl’s phone numbers, whose name was Sheila, but there was only a week left of school and I was going to be moving back home with my parents for the summer so I could save up some money for my move to California in a few months, so I never ended up calling her, but this night revealed to me that if you make yourself feel like you belong somewhere, and you actually believe that you belong there, then people will react in a way that confirms your beliefs. It’s like a selffulfilling prophecy. The night was an interesting social experiment that went much better than any of us had expected. If you put your mind to it, you can probably party anywhere.

Applause is Contagious You expect people to applaud at the end of a play or a live concert, but it’s not something that usually happens in a movie theater. That is, unless I’m in the audience. It was during the digitally re-mastered re-release of the Star Wars films in 1997 that I learned a powerful lesson about how large crowds of people can easily be manipulated. It was a Friday night and the theater was packed since it was the opening for the re-release.

Rick, Marty and I had been partying on the way to the theater and as many Star Wars fans do, we often joked about “the Force” and using “Jedi mind tricks.” I told Marty that I would show him how the Force worked, and as the curtain opened for the film to begin, I started applauding and cheering in excitement. Practically everyone in the entire theater joined me. I felt a tremendous sense of power surging through my body at that very moment. I had just caused the entire theater to start applauding for the movie. I had accidentally stumbled upon the power of applause a year earlier during the film Independence Day because when the aliens blew up the White House in the movie, I started cheering and applauding and half the theater joined me. Every time we went to see a movie we were usually stoned and drunk, and a lot of the times we would fill our jackets full of as many beers as they would hold and sneak them into the theater so we could drink during the movie. If we brought in bottles of beer, you would often hear the empty ones accidentally get kicked over and clang into the other empty ones that we had set on the ground, and you could hear them rolling down the sloped concrete floor of the theater as they banged into the chairs below. Everybody in the theater knew what was happening. The sound of clanging beer bottles is a very distinct sound. Anyway, when we were seated in the theater to see the re-release of Star Wars I recalled the incident during Independence Day when I caused the theater to erupt in applause when the White House was blown up by the aliens, and I decided to test this power again. Aside from getting people to applaud when the curtains opened, at multiple times throughout the movie I would shout out things like, “You can do it Luke!” and “You’re going down Darth Vader!” and other people in the theater would yell in agreement. It was fascinating. I felt like the entire theater was under my control. At the end of the movie, once again, I started applauding and cheering and the rest of the theater followed suit. As we walked out of the theater that night we could see the look of joy on everyone’s face. None of them had ever been to a movie so exciting and with such a great crowd. Little did they know, but I had caused it all. For

years after that night, Marty and I would reference “the Force,” and talk about how we were becoming Jedi masters.

No Final Exam Please I can’t help but say smart ass comments when they pop into my head, and I especially loved to say things out loud in class that nobody else would have the guts to say because I thrived off getting giggles from my fellow students, but I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone on the last day of class when my smart ass comment took on a literal meaning just seconds later. This was a Group Communication class, and in the beginning of the semester we were divided into small groups which we worked with on various projects for the rest of the semester since the entire class was focused on group dynamics and communication among group members. When our groups were first formed, we each had to name our group and draw a picture that represented us. My group consisted of myself, a guy named Chaz, and three girls. Chaz and I were both alpha males and would later have races to see who could finish our tests first in the classes we had together, and we became friends in a competitive sort of way. Our group name had to reflect our dominating type-A personalities, so we decided to call ourselves the Alpha Bitches. Since there were girls in the group, we couldn’t call ourselves the Alpha Males, so the Alpha Bitches worked just fine. There’s nothing like hearing a college professor say something like “it’s time for the Alpha Bitches to give their presentation.” It was hilarious. We dominated the class for the entire semester. We even gave our final presentation on leadership, and we arrogantly explained to the rest of the class that we chose to teach them about leadership because we were the class leaders. It was a great semester. Getting back to my strange smartass comment eerily becoming true…it was the last day of class and we had all arrived to take the final exam after several days of cramming. The previous week we were given a study guide of possible material that would be included on this exam, which is pretty standard for a final. After everyone got seated that morning and just before

the professor started handing out the tests and wrapping up the semester, I raised my hand and said in a condescending tone of voice, “Dr. Moffitt, instead of taking a typical final exam, I think we should draw another picture of our group to show how we’ve changed and grown over the course of the semester.” The group picture we had drawn earlier that year had been a laughing stock for us. This was a junior level college course, and we were drawing pictures like we were in a middle school art class. We couldn’t believe it. Our group picture assignment at the beginning of the year represented how easy this class was, and what a joke it was to us. My patronizing comment about not taking a final exam and drawing a new picture instead was a thinly veiled insult to the professor indicating the lack of challenge her class provided us. Instead of laughing off my comment, or even being mildly offended by it, she replied saying, “It’s very interesting that you would say that, because that’s exactly what we’re going to do.” The class gasped in surprise. “What?” everyone said in unison. Dr. Moffitt went on to tell us to get into our groups and she handed out a blank sheet of paper to each one and had us draw a new picture of our group. That was our final exam! Nobody could believe it. It felt like I pulled a Jedi mind trick on her. It’s one of the strangest things that has ever happened to me.

How to Crash a College Class Everyone who goes to college is familiar with crashing classes, and many people have tried to crash a class, some successfully, others not so successful. Crashing a class means that you are not able to register for the class because it was filled up, but you still show up there on the first day hoping that if a few people who were registered for the class didn’t show up that day, the professor will drop them and you can take their place on the roster. It’s not uncommon for ten people to try to crash the same class on the first day, but usually there is only room for a few, so the teacher will tell the remaining crashers they’re sorry but there just isn’t any room and they should go try to add another class somewhere else. The remaining would-be crashers then frantically leave the room scrambling to crash another class,

hoping to find a spot somewhere else. I have successfully crashed numerous classes, but for one particular class I was not so lucky and wasn’t one of the handful who got their names pulled out of a hat to be added that day. (That’s seriously how some teachers choose who gets to crash when there aren’t enough open spots.) The other unlucky students whose names weren’t chosen left the classroom, but I stayed sitting at my desk and pretended like I belonged there. I took notes, participated in the discussion, and kept coming the next several weeks as if nothing was wrong. I did the homework, and when the time came for the first quiz, I took that too. I was a model student. The only problem was, my name was not on the roster, and the teacher realized this when he tried to mark my grade for the quiz in his grade book but couldn’t find my name. The next day at class he asked which one was me and I raised my hand and he came over and said that I wasn’t on the roster. “That’s weird,” I said, pretending to be surprised. He then told me to go down to the office and get a late registration form and fill it out so he could sign it and add my name to the official roster. My plan worked perfectly. You know what they say, where there’s a will there’s a way, and all the other crashers from a few weeks earlier just didn’t want to be in that class bad enough, but I did. I had to have that class. My whole schedule would have been messed up if I didn’t have it, and I would have been stuck there an extra semester to get the credits that I needed to transfer to another school. A year or so later I realized that if I couldn’t get added to the roster by crashing the first day of class, then instead of leaving like all the other crashers, I would just stay in my seat anyway and log onto the school’s website every night trying to add the class while there was still open registration, which usually went on for the first two weeks of the semester, because I knew the odds were that someone would hate the class or would have a work conflict and would drop it, and so there would be a spot open in the computer, and I would get it. This worked for me several times and I always got the classes I wanted. Where all of the other crashers lost hope and left when the teacher told them there were no openings, I knew

otherwise, and knew that after the first few days of class someone was going to drop it, and I could get their spot, and that’s exactly what I did.

Most Likely To Succeed? One of my favorite college professors once told me that I was going to be the most famous and successful person to ever graduate from my college. She told me this during a conversation we had in her office my senior year when I showed her a compilation of years’ worth of notes and journals about my adventures in dating and my philosophy on meeting and dating girls. (This would later turn into THE Book on Dating which I published and is available on Amazon.com in paperback or in e-book on Kindle) She thought I was a genius. This was in 2004, before Neil Strauss’ book, The Game was published, and before Mystery (Erik von Markovik) had gotten his Pick-up Artist show on VH1 and when professional dating coaches for men were pretty much nonexistent in the mainstream. Dr. Downey saw the potential, not only in my idea to write a book and become a dating coach, but she saw that I had the personality and drive to actually do something with it. Her endorsement and her assessment of me meant a lot, but a strange turn of events that I can’t really be blamed for would later result in her asking me to please never contact her again. About six months after I graduated I began writing a book about how secret societies pulled the strings in our world and hold the true power in politics, banking and business and how many of these secret societies have occult beliefs and rituals. I’m talking about The Resistance Manifesto , my first book of several on this topic. I won’t get into it here, you can check out my other books for yourself on Amazon.com , Kindle or Nook and I hope you do because it’s a very important subject, but this is what led to Dr. Downey’s complete 180 turn on her views of me. I returned unannounced to her office to consult with her on my new project since my entire world view had changed after learning about the New World Order and the Illuminati. Instead of being excited about my new project and life’s mission, and giving me the guidance and wisdom I had expected, a look of horror immediately came to her face. She informed me

that her father was crazy and thought the government was watching everything he did and had hidden microphones in their house in order to listen to him, and that he blew his brains out when she was a little girl. What can you say to that? She then told me that I was bringing back all kinds of horrific memories for her from her childhood and her father’s suicide, and she asked me to leave and never contact her again. I was devastated. It wasn’t like I had done something wrong, it just so happened that this subject matter touched a nerve with her. I felt really bad for how I had made her feel, and how she had changed her feelings towards me from just a few months earlier. She once thought I would be the most successful student she ever had, but now I was the one that she wished she never met.

The Gas Station You may have noticed that the people who work at gas stations are usually the scum of the earth. They look like they just got out of prison, have done way too many drugs, or are homeless. If the gas station is owned by an Indian or an Arab, that’s a whole other story. I’m talking about the white trash that always seems to work at gas stations. One of the most pathetic jobs I ever had in my life was actually working at a gas station during the summer since I wasn’t allowed to work on the weed cutter anymore. The gas station was located in the heart of Main Street, and it actually turned out to be a pretty cool job because it was a party every single night. It seemed like I was living in the film Clerks . The manager was never there, and I never met the owner, and every night I would come into work about four o’clock in the afternoon and work until closing time at 11pm all by myself. All my friends could see when I was working because my car was parked out front, and everybody would stop in and say hi or hang out for a while. I had an endless supply of beer from the cooler and we would drink right there in the store and even get stoned. We didn’t even bother to go outside to smoke pot, we smoked it right there behind the counter.

I brought in my own stereo so I could listen to CDs, and I would just blast it all night and my friends and I would smoke cigars we had taken off the shelves and pretended like we owned the place. One night I forgot to lock the front door when I left because I was so buzzed, and the manager also informed me that she found empty beer cans strewn around the station and asked me if my friends and I were drinking there the night before, and asked if that was why I had forgotten to lock the door. “Of course not,” I said, “I must’ve just been tired.” I felt really dumb. Any normal person would have fired me immediately, but she soon forgot that it happened, and my partying continued. The layout of this particular gas station was very strange. There was a gigantic pole right next to the cash register that helped support the roof, and I can’t tell you how many times people would turn away from the counter after paying and then smack their head right into it. It was the weirdest place for a poll and every few nights someone would turn around full speed from the counter and smack right into it. The manager realized this was a major liability so she wrapped a foam pad around it to try and prevent anyone from getting seriously injured. Every time someone would turn around and smack their head into the poll I couldn’t help but bust out laughing. Often, I would have a friend or two hanging out with me and we would all bust out laughing at the person and they would just duck their head in shame and walk out. As a joke I printed up a sign that said, “Warning: Pole. May cause serious injury,” and I taped it up over the foam pad. I only worked at the gas station for one summer, but that sign stayed up for probably ten years. I realized this when I happened to pull in there to get some gas when I was visiting my parents and when I went up to the cash register to pay, I saw the sign still attached! Apparently the manager thought it was a good idea to keep it up. The thing I learned about life while working at the gas station was that there are a lot of losers who come to gas stations, not to buy gas, but to buy cigarettes. These same people come to buy one pack of cigarettes at a time, day after day after day. These people could buy a carton of cigarettes from a grocery store for a heck of a lot less than they did if they bought individual packs, but they chose to come to the gas station practically every day and

buy one pack at a time. They probably felt like they were saving money since they were only spending $4 or $5 dollars at a time, instead of dropping $50 bucks or however much a carton cost. The other losers that came to the gas station every day were people who buy lottery tickets. Most of the people who bought scratch-off lottery tickets look like complete bums who had run out of hope in life. Most normal people don’t buy scratch-off lottery tickets, or maybe they’ll buy one or two a year, but the people who buy them every day are some of the dumbest and ugliest people I’ve ever seen in my life. The only thing they had to look forward to in life was winning the lottery. Night after night, they would spend $5 or $20, and almost always lost. Most of them would come back a few days later to do it again, hoping to one day win the jackpot. Half of these people couldn’t even wait to get home to scratch them off, and would do it right there at the counter. Some of them would occasionally win $5 or $10 dollars and then immediately spend it all on more scratch-offs, which were all losers. One of my coworkers worked at two different gas stations. He worked part time at the one I worked at, and he worked part time at another one in the next town. His wife also worked at a gas station just down the street from ours. Rusty was pure white trash and a felon who hung out with the Hells Angels. When he laughed you could hear the air wheezing from his lungs through the tar built up in them from decades of smoking. I bought an ounce of weed from him once, which was OK, but other than that I kept my distance from him.

Middle School Sleeping in the Tent Whenever kids come up with the idea to set up a tent in the backyard and have a bunch of friends over to sleep out there, it’s really just a cover story for being able to sneak out that night and go cause trouble in some form or

another. Sure it’s kind of fun to pretend like you’re camping out in your own backyard when you’re a kid, but what’s more fun is being able to sneak out of the tent and go wreak havoc around town after your parents go to bed. After all, you just can’t sneak out of the house most of the time without your parents noticing, even after they go to bed, because it’s still likely that they will hear the front door of the house opening or closing as you sneak out or return. Some kids, if their room is on the first story of their house, can pull the screen out of their window and sneak out that way (which I did a few times as well), but it’s much less noticeable to simply unzip the tent door and disappear into the night. Every time my friends and I slept in the tent in my backyard, houses around the neighborhood would mysteriously get toilet papered, and dozens of people would have their doorbells rung ten times in a row in the middle of the night. Doorbell ditch, as it is called, is the most fun very late at night when everyone is sleeping and you can stand on their front porch and ring the doorbell repeatedly a dozen times to make sure you wake up the resident, and then run off and duck behind some bushes at the neighbor’s house to watch them answer the door and look around to see what happened. Doorbell ditch is extremely fun when you return to the same house a few minutes later and do it again after the person has gotten back in bed after having been woken up from a good night’s sleep. When we slept in the tent, most of the time I would run an extension cord from my parents’ house out to the tent and I would bring a small television from my room out there so we could play video games all night until my parents went to bed and then we would sneak out. Sometimes in the morning we continued playing video games when we woke up, and I remember one time I was playing Double Dragon II for Nintendo, and I had never been able to win the game, but that morning I systematically beat one level after the other, making it to the final fight, and I delivered the death blow to the boss with a hurricane kick and as he flew back in slow motion, the television suddenly turned off! The picture instantly shrunk down and disappeared into a white dot in the center of the screen as the old picture tube televisions did when you turned them off. I frantically grabbed the power button and clicked it on and off repeatedly, but the television was dead. Even the Nintendo had no power. I had no idea what happened.

Then at that very moment, I heard my mom yelling from the back door that lunch was ready. We had stayed in the tent all morning, and it was approaching noon. She had yelled out earlier to come in for lunch, but I was busy trying to win Double Dragon II . I unzipped the tent and started heading to the house and saw the extension cord that had been plugged in to an external outlet on the side of the house was laying there on the sidewalk unplugged. I picked it up in bewilderment and asked my mom through the screen in the kitchen window if she unplugged it. “I told you lunch was ready,” she answered. “You stupid bitch!” I responded. “Why the hell did you unplug that, I just won Double Dragon II for the first time and I didn’t even get to see the final scene!” I had never called my mom a bitch before. Ever. I was just so angry. The timing had been so horrible. At the very second I killed the final boss, she unplugged the TV. I worked so hard to win that game, and I was so mad. Video games mean the world to teenagers (and even some adults). She didn’t take too kindly to being called a bitch. I was twelve-years-old, and that’s not the kind of language anyone should use with their mother. She was in a bad mood for the rest of the day. I was a terrible kid.

Other Video Game Trouble Since I spent so much money at the arcade playing video games, I tried the old “string on a quarter trick” to see if it would fool the machines so I could play them for free. I drilled a tiny hole into a quarter and tied a thread on to it that I got from my mom’s sewing cabinet, and lowered it slowly into the coin slot waiting for a credit to register on the machine so I could then just pull the quarter back up through the slot or just dangle it at that point and bob it up and down repeatedly so it would continue to add credits to the game so I could play for hours, but this didn’t work. Maybe a few years earlier this little trick worked, but when I was a kid in the 1980s and 90s, the video game companies had apparently figured this out and designed some device that the coin would pass through before the machine would register it, and once it got past this point, there was some lever or something that sprung into place to prevent it from being able to come back up through the slot. Did this stop me from thinking of other tricks to try hoping to play free video games at the arcade? No.

I went through my dad’s shop drawers and found some washers that were the same size and thickness of quarters and brought them to the arcade to see if they would work, but they didn’t. I figured it was because they were made of steel and were magnetic and there must be a sensor that gets tripped whenever a steel coin gets dropped into the slot, so I found some aluminum washers that were the same size as quarters, but they didn’t work either. Perhaps they were not the same weight as a quarter. I’m not sure why they didn’t work, but looking back on it now, I’m sure that the video game companies are a lot smarter than a 14-year-old kid, and I certainly wasn’t the only one who tried to trick the machines like this, so of course there are safeguards built into them to prevent it. You have to give me some credit for trying though. Kids go crazy over video games. My friend Rocky’s older brother would threaten to beat him up if he lost certain video games because he wanted to see what the final levels looked like, or he would have Rocky get to those levels so he could then play them because he wasn’t good enough to get there himself. One time, Rocky’s brother locked us out of the game room while he was playing a certain game because he didn’t want us to see what the final level looked like. We tried to see what was happening through a vent in the wall, and when his brother realized this he came out of the room and went berserk. Rocky grabbed a hammer and threatened to hit him with it in self-defense. Rocky’s mom thought that the Nintendo video game system was bad for the television and wouldn’t let him or his brother play it on the large TV in the family room and made them play it on a smaller one downstairs. For a few hours after school they would play the Nintendo on the big TV upstairs until just before their mom got home from work, and they would put it back downstairs. After all, playing video games on a small TV isn’t as fun. One afternoon his brother was playing Metal Gear on the big TV upstairs and wouldn’t let Rocky or I play, so he went and got his mom’s camera and started taking pictures of his brother sitting in front of the television holding the controller so he had proof he was using the big TV. “I got pictures! I’m telling mom you were using the big TV!” I’m sure they got into a fight after

this. They were always fighting over something, but usually it was video games. Rocky was a tough kid and one time he challenged our principal to a fight saying “I can take you,” when we were in seventh grade. We were both called into Mr. Vought’s office for various reasons and I remember he thought Rocky was my “bodyguard” and believed that the two of us ruled the middle school. Apparently he could see our budding leadership qualities back then. Fred had purchased a console copier out of the back of an electronics magazine which allowed him to copy Sega Genesis games onto 3 ½ inch floppy disks and play them that way. The copier plugged into the slot where you would insert the videogame cartridge and had another slot on top of it were you would then plug the game into, and using a built-in 3 ½ inch floppy disk drive it would copy the games from any cartridge you wanted. Once you copied a game onto a disc, you didn’t need the cartridge anymore because you could play it off the disk from then on. This was a kid’s dream come true! You could borrow any video game from any one of your friends and then copy it and play at whenever you wanted! This was practically unheard of in the early 1990s, and of course this was illegal, but we didn’t care. There was a video store downtown that we could ride our bikes to and we would frequently rent a video game and ride back to Fred’s house, copy it onto a disc and then return to the store 15 minutes later telling the guy that we had accidentally rented the wrong game and he would let us exchange it for a different one. This way we could copy two games for the price of one. The console copier was a lot of fun, but as video games got more sophisticated, the Sega Genesis soon became a relic whose graphics and games didn’t compare to the newer systems, but we definitely got our use out of it, and it paid for itself many times over.

Making Crop Circles People often think it’s a big mystery about where crop circles come from, but I can answer that question with firsthand knowledge. They come from

people like me, because my friends and I made them for fun. They weren’t the most complex crop circles, but they were crop circles, nonetheless. To accomplish this mysterious task, we just brought a rope and a wooden stake out into the middle of a corn field on the edge of our block and pushed the stake in the ground with the rope tied around it and straightened it out as far as it would go and flattened all the corn in the radius of the circle it made. One crop circle just wasn’t good enough, we thought. We really wanted this to get in the news so we decided to make two other ones so the three of them would form a triangle in the middle of the cornfield. We didn’t do this during the middle of the night under the cover of darkness like one may assume. We didn’t really see a reason for this, so we just did it when it was still light out in the early evening. What we didn’t expect was that an airplane flying overhead would happen to see us right in the middle of making our masterpiece. It was a small airplane like a Cessna and it immediately started circling the corn field obviously checking out the bizarre formation in the field. We all ducked down underneath the corn to hide so the pilot hopefully wouldn’t see us. I’m not sure why we thought we should hide, because it’s not like he could really identify us from up there; it must have just been our instincts to hit the deck when someone spotted us when we were doing something wrong. I guess it was because we were worried that he could radio into the police that there were some kids making crop circles and they could be waiting for us when we made our way back to the street. The plane kept circling the field and we figured the pilot had spotted us so we all just took off running. We left our bikes on the edge of the field near the street and as soon as we got to them we hopped on and started to ride off. We never would have imagined that the airplane would start following us all across town. It’s tough to lose an airplane when you’re riding on a street since they can pretty much see everything. We didn’t know what to do. Was he in communication with the police and keeping track of where we were so they could come and surround us? I guess technically we ruined some of the farmer’s crops, so we could get in trouble for that and we were also trespassing on the land. We just kept riding and riding all over town, but the plane kept following us and circling around wherever we went, keeping his eye on us the entire time.

Luckily it was near sunset and about a half hour later it was getting dark so it finally left. What the heck had just happened, we thought. We just got chased by an airplane on our bikes for making crop circles! This corn field was right next to a fort we had built that we would spend a lot of time at in the summer afternoons, and after we made those crop circles, I can’t tell you how many airplanes would fly by that field and circle around for a few minutes taking a second look at our handiwork before going on their way. Our crop circles could have made the evening news for all we knew, or been in the local paper, but our parents must have missed it if they had, because they certainly would have mentioned to us that crop circles had appeared in our small little town if they saw something about it on the news. They probably would have realized who was behind them too. Only a handful of people would even consider doing such a thing, and of course it was us.

Fun with the Paper Towel Dispenser Since I liked to build things when I was growing up, I made a key that would open the paper towel dispenser in the school bathroom. I also made one that would unlock the toilet paper dispensers too and I would regularly steal the rolls of toilet paper so we could go toilet paper people’s houses because we didn’t want to spend money buying the toilet paper ourselves since that money could be spent on candy or video games at the arcade. The paper towel machine held other fun possibilities though. I would pull the lever and dispense ten feet of paper towel and then using a black magic marker I would write obscenities on the towel, and then open the machine up and roll it back inside so that the next few people who would come into the bathroom and pull the lever to get their paper towel to dry their hands would be surprised with a nice “Fuck You” written on it. I also liked to write mean things about the principal, Mr. Vought, like the standard middle school insult, “Mr. Vought Sucks” or “Fuck Mr. Vought.” One day after I got done writing a bunch of trash about Mr. Vought and rolling the paper towel back up into the machine, Mr. Vought himself came walking into the bathroom as I left! I can only imagine the look on his face when he went to dry his hands and as he pulled the lever to dispense the

paper towel, out came a piece that said, “Fuck Mr. Vought.” I laughed all the way back to class just thinking about it. The next time I opened up that paper towel dispenser there was a note taped inside that said the mirror to the left was a two-way mirror and behind it was a video camera and that “you will be hearing from us shortly.” How dumb did they think I was? A two-way mirror and a hidden camera in the bathroom? Yeah right. I wrote “Fuck You” across the entire note with a magic marker and closed up the machine. I thought about taking the roll of paper towel home and feeding it in my printer and printing all sorts of crazy things on the entire roll and then putting it back in the machine so that everyone who dispensed a piece of paper towel would be pleasantly surprised by having their paper towel come out with something like “Fuck Mr. Vought” printed on it, but I soon lost interest in the paper towel machine and made a key that would shut off the lights in the hallways, and had fun with that for a while. I also took an old electrical cord with a plug on the end of it and tied the wires together and brought it to school and would plug it into the wall to short circuit the system which would flip the circuit breaker and knock the power out to the room. Yes, I was an evil genius in the making.

Free Cable TV I never had cable TV growing up, but Fred did for a period of time, and back when we were kids it was very easy to steal cable television. There was no digital cable, digital tuners, or video On Demand, or anything like that. If you ordered cable TV, then the cable guy would go out to the cable box in the back of your neighborhood and then just simply connect the coaxial cable leading to your house into the main feed. There was a special screw on these boxes to keep them locked, but Fred’s older brother made the key in shop class and after Fred’s mom stopped paying for cable TV, we simply opened up the box and re-connected the coaxial cable labeled with his address back into the main feed, and bam, he got free cable. There were also several channel blockers on the coaxial cables that ran to the different houses that subscribed to cable TV, which would filter out channels like HBO and Showtime, unless someone paid for them, so we

removed the channel blockers and Fred got those channels for free as well. Years later at his own apartment, Fred would climb a telephone pole out front and do the same thing and got free cable TV for about ten years. Yeah, ten years! A decade of free cable TV!

Our Own TV Station It was dumb luck and a complete surprise to discover that (old analog) camcorders actually broadcast a weak signal like a miniature television station that could be picked up by a television set. Let me try to explain. Old analog camcorders from the 1980s and 90s used coaxial cables to connect to the television, and not RCA or USB cables like future models, and one time when I reached behind the television to screw in the coaxial cable leading from Fred’s camcorder so we could watch what was on the tape, the picture showed up and we started hearing the audio before it was even connected to the TV. This was weird. I hadn’t even touched the coaxial cable onto the receptacle on the TV, but the tape was already playing on it. It turns out that the camcorder was actually broadcasting a signal and if you placed the male end of the coaxial cable near the female receptacle sticking out of the back of the TV, then the signal would transmit through the air and the camcorder’s tape could be seen playing on the TV. To a couple of fifteen-year-old kids who loved electronics, this was amazing. We then had an idea. There is a device (or at least there was years ago before digital television when all signals were analog) called an antenna booster that people used to increase the strength of the antenna on their television sets for picking up the analogue broadcast channels if they didn’t have cable TV or a satellite dish. These antenna boosters have two coaxial connections on them where you plug one end into the back of the television set and the other end into the antenna itself. It then magnifies whatever signal the antenna picks up, so the channels would show up more clearly on your television set. Fred and I went out and bought an antenna booster and took the coaxial cable coming from the camcorder and screwed it into the booster, and then screwed the output cable into the antenna on the top of Fred’s roof. When

we pressed play on the camcorder, to our amazement, the tape showed up on the television. The antenna booster amplified the output from the camcorder so the signal would shoot through the air so the camcorder didn’t even need to be physically wired into the television set for the tape to play on it. We were basically broadcasting the signal from the camcorder through the airwaves to the television! This worked from the antenna on the top of the house to the TV in the basement, but we wondered just how far the signal was going. Fred had a small portable television, so we set it on channel 3, the channel that televisions needed to be on in order for a camcorder or VCR to play on them, and we went outside and started walking down the block to see how far it would pick up the signal from. It slowly faded out as we got halfway down the block, but we were still amazed. We went out and bought two more antenna boosters and daisy chained them one right into the other to boost the broadcasting power even more. Using the antenna on top of Fred’s roof as a transmitter, we broadcast a signal strong enough to be picked up by all of the neighboring houses on the block. From a little experimentation we realized that our TV broadcast was showing up on numerous stations, not just channel 3 because it was so strong. Our little discovery wouldn’t only broadcast the tape from the camcorder, but if you turned the camera on, our system would broadcast whatever the camera was seeing live! We basically had our own television broadcasting station. We called it, WMAD, since we were as mad as hatters. We set the camera up in the basement with it broadcasting using the large antenna on the roof, and Fred, Diego and I started putting on our own skits and acted crazy like we were on Saturday Night Live . We knew that if any one of the neighbors were channel surfing, they would inevitably come across our station and see us. Sometimes we videotaped our “shows” and played the tape back over and over, hoping that some of the neighbors would see it. I then started calling the neighbors pretending to be someone working at “WMAD” and told them I was wondering if they were picking up our signal since we were measuring the signal strength in their area, and I would ask them to turn on

their TV to whatever channels were airing our show. Yep. They were getting it all right. WMAD was broadcasting to the entire block. One of Fred’s neighbors was a year older than us and he happened to find our show when he was channel surfing, and didn’t quite know what to think. After all, how could you possibly explain that we were on TV? He mentioned this to us the next time he saw us and was very confused about how this was happening. Even though we were having fun with our own new television station, we weren’t satisfied with a potential audience of just several surrounding homes around the block near Fred’s house. We wanted the entire town to get our station. A friend of Fred’s dad was an electrical engineer, and one Saturday afternoon Fred’s dad took us over to the cell phone store he owned so we could talk with him about our project (i.e. WMAD). When we told him what we were doing and said we were interested in building a super powerful antenna booster so the whole town would get our show, he pretty much freaked out. This was the first time I ever heard about the FCC (the Federal Communications Commission), the government agency that is in charge of overseeing all television and radio stations, as well as products that broadcast electrical waves through the air such as walkie-talkies and CB radios. The FCC sells and regulates the licenses that broadcasting stations and other companies have to get in order to ensure that their broadcasts or devices don’t interfere with each other. Fred’s dad’s friend went on to tell us that messing with the FCC was like messing with the FBI, and that broadcasting illegally, which is clearly what we were doing, could result in us getting fines of several hundred thousand dollars for each incident. We had been broadcasting WMAD several times a week for close to a month, and sometimes for hours on end. The man then went on to tell us that if people called the local television stations to complain that the signal wasn’t coming in clearly and said that they were picking up images of a bunch of kids acting stupid instead, then the FCC would surely be investigating this with sophisticated equipment, possibly in vans that would drive around the town in order to detect the source of this interference. Whoops!

This kind of spooked us. Fines of several hundred thousand dollars? Wow. The FCC sounded too much like the FBI. Did this discourage us from wanting to build our amplifier? Not at all. We thought about tapping into one of the neighbors’ antennas and broadcasting from theirs instead of the one on top of Fred’s roof to throw the FCC off so they couldn’t track it back to us. We even thought about building an amplifier and then putting it in a car and driving around town so the FCC wouldn’t know where the signal was coming from. We also talked about how funny it would be to broadcast a porno to the entire town since if we were on the move, the FCC couldn’t track the signal back to Fred’s mom’s house, but we were too young and didn’t quite have the engineering capabilities to build a strong enough antenna booster. We soon pulled the plug on WMAD.

Trying to Kill the Neighbor’s Trees One of my neighbors clearly had an advanced case of obsessive-compulsive disorder which caused him to mow his lawn every few days, whether it needed it or not, and he would sweep the floor in his garage practically every night for what seemed like an hour. We thought he was completely insane. His garage was as clean and sanitary as an operating room in a hospital. Practically every garage I’ve ever seen has tools hanging on the walls, shelves that hold a variety of automobile fluids, cleaning supplies, yard tools and other junk, but Mr. Steven’s garage walls had nothing hanging on them at all accept one weed wacker which he also used compulsively. The only things in his garage were the two family cars, and the lawnmower. It was very strange. He was a nice guy, we just didn’t like him because his constant lawn mowing disturbed our peace and quiet during our lazy summer days. One night my brother had a container full of waste oil after changing the oil in his car, and instead of taking it to the recycling site downtown to properly dispose of it, he walked across the street and dumped it around the base of a tree in Mr. Steven’s front yard. That summer, Mr. Steven’s trees became the disposal site of all waste oil, radiator fluid, transmission fluid, and even some stale gasoline. Stew likes to work on engines, so there was no shortage of toxic waste. Those trees were strong but after a while some of the leaves started to lose their color and wilt long before fall. We thought

for sure all those chemicals getting absorbed by the roots would have killed them all, but Mother Nature is surprisingly resilient and the trees still lived.

Prank Phone Calls Every kid who is normal makes prank phone calls. Some kids are better at them than others, and I was one of the best. I had polished my pranking skills from getting calls from telemarketers at my parents’ house. Instead of just hanging up on them or telling them to remove our number from their calling list like most people did, I would keep them on the phone as long as possible and come up with the craziest stories I could think of. If a telemarketer called and my mom or dad answered the phone, they knew I loved to mess with them, so they would call me over and hand the phone to me and we would all sit around and listen to whatever story I would fabricate at the time. As I’m sure you’re aware, telemarketers usually start their call by saying “How are you doing today Mr. Dice?” and instead of just saying I was fine, sometimes I would pretend to be really sad and tell them I’m not doing very well because my dog had just died. “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. The reason I’m calling tonight is because…” (I would cut them off) “I really loved that dog. I had him for 15 years. The smartest dog in the world.” “I understand sir. I love animals too. We’re having a special on long distance calling plans this week…” (I’d cut them off again) (Pretending to sniffle) “That dog just loved to steal people’s shoes and run around the house so you’d chase after him, and sometimes he’d even take the Dr. Scholl’s padding out from inside the shoe and start chewing on them. He was such a silly dog.”

“I’m sure he was. Sir, we’re offering a special long distance plan where you can call family and friends for a low price any time after 5pm Monday through Friday…” (cutting them off again) “That’s interesting, because the dog used to like to talk on the phone with grandma and grandpa and we’d hold the phone up to his ear and they’d say things, and he’d bark through the phone back at them. That dog was so smart, I bet we could have taught him how to use the phone himself, and I’ll bet he would have.” It was about at this time that they would hang up, but sometimes they’d stay on the line for five minutes because they didn’t want to be rude. It was great. If a telemarketer called trying to sell newspapers, I told them there was nothing but bad news in there anyway and it wasn’t worth reading, and then I’d start giving them story suggestions about what kinds of things I would like to see in the newspaper instead. If they were calling trying to sell long distance service, I told them that I was going to cancel my phone service soon and become Amish, so I wouldn’t need a phone anymore. Since they were always trying to sell me something, sometimes I tried selling them things and would tell them I was having a rummage sale that coming weekend and started telling them all the nice things they could find. It wasn’t just telemarketers I loved to mess with, of course I would make prank phone calls to my friends’ houses and even random phone numbers around the area. When I couldn’t think of anyone to prank call, I would resort to calling the Hooked on Phonics company which sold reading programs for children whose phone number was 1-800-ABCDEFG. I would often call them and pretend to be a parent inquiring about their reading programs for my child, and would make up crazy stories saying something about how my two-year-old was already reading at an eighth-grade level and had just finished books like Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer , and I was wondering if Hooked on Phonics had any programs to help him advance any further. They were always amazed that my child was so intelligent. Sometimes I would tell them that I was interested in getting a program for my unborn child so I could teach it to them while they were still in the womb under the assumption that they would be able to understand it and

would then have a higher IQ once they were born. The operator never seemed to think it would work, but I insisted that I had read some studies that proved unborn children in the womb could understand people if they spoke to them, and could even start learning to spell. One night I was able to get through to Larry King Live on CNN when the guest was Ron Popeil, the infomercial guy who used to sell the Chicken Rotisserie Grill, the Ronco food dehydrator, and a whole list of other infomercial products, including Hair in a Can which is that weird spraypaint for balding people that enabled them to cover up their bald spot with washable paint. I have always been fascinated by infomercials, and I thought of a great question for Ron Popeil. I gave the phone screener a bogus question asking what kind of advice Ron had for young inventors, and then as soon as my call was live on the air I said that I heard his food dehydrator was good for drying marijuana buds so you could smoke them. The screener hung up on me immediately, but my call made it on air. Instead of realizing it was a prank call and going on to the next caller, Larry King asked him, “Is that true?” to which Popeil answered, “It is true. Yes.” Larry King responded, “It is? Well marijuana may be legal someday, [and] may be able to help people.” The phone call is shown on the official transcript for the show which aired live on April 13, 2001, and if you Google “Ron Popeil Larry King Live Marijuana” you can find it. I had videotaped the broadcast on the VCR and my friends and I watched it over and over again laughing our butts off. The funniest part was this would not be the last I would hear about this phone call. About nine years later, Ron Popeil was being interviewed on CNBC about his infomercial empire and the host mentioned my phone call! My jaw dropped. The host said something about one of the most interesting questions Ron had ever been asked about his products was when he was on Larry King Live in 2001 and a caller asked if the food dehydrator could be used to dry marijuana buds from pot plants! I had never guessed that my one phone call would have been so memorable. Looking back, sales for the food dehydrator probably skyrocketed since people who grew their own marijuana would want one to dry the buds. While I was able to find the

official transcript for my call on CNN’s website, at this time I have not been able to find the video clip on YouTube and the VHS copy I made got taped over eventually.

Soda Guns Every kid in America, and perhaps the world, may know how to make a soda gun, I’m not sure. It’s interesting how kids figure these things out. Somehow we found out if you take a ballpoint pen and position it on the top of a soda can in the small round piece of metal that connects the opening tab to the can itself, you could poke a hole through it by pounding your fist on top of the pen and then if you held the soda in your hand and plugged the hole with your index finger and shook it up, when you let your finger off of the hole, soda shoots out in a stream about 15 feet like a squirt gun. A soda gun is only good for about three or four blasts and wastes half of your soda, but it sure was fun, and we must have covered the floor in study hall with sticky soda on numerous occasions, not to mention leaving people smelling like Pepsi or orange soda. And we wondered why they stopped allowing us to drink soda during study hall!

The Jelly Donut Incident Industrial Arts (shop class) has got to be every guy’s favorite class in school because we get to build things and play with power tools, but Industrial Arts at our school was extremely special because the teacher, Mr. Norton, had a short fuse and just a little screwing around would get him to absolutely flip his lid and start yelling and screaming at the top of his lungs. It was very common for students in the surrounding classrooms to be able to hear him yelling at students, but what do you expect when you take a bunch of seventh and eighth graders and give them access to power tools? Several years earlier a student ground up some Ex-Lax pills and put them in Mr. Norton’s jelly donuts that he had in his desk drawer, and after he ate them you can imagine what happened. This wasn’t just an urban legend, it was something that actually happened, and so ever since that day if you

mentioned anything about jelly donuts in Mr. Norton’s class, you were in big trouble. I happened to know this because one of my older brother’s friends was the guy who put the Ex-Lax in his jelly donuts, but not everyone was familiar with the jelly donut story. The very first day of class we all came in and sat down around the shop tables while Mr. Norton was still standing in the hallway chatting with other teachers, and I thought it would be funny to get someone to ask him if he would like some jelly donuts. The kid’s name was Nolan, and he just happened to be sitting at my table, so he was the one I convinced that if he wanted to get on Mr. Norton’s good side, he should ask him if he wants Nolan to bring in any jelly donuts tomorrow for class because he lets students bring in food once in a while for snack day and he really liked jelly donuts. (There was no such thing as snack day in shop class, of course, but it sounded good.) It wasn’t more than five seconds after the teacher walked into the classroom that Nolan turned around and said, “Hey Mr. Norton, how would you like some jelly donuts?” “Get the hell out of here right now!” Mr. Norton shouted as he grabbed Nolan by the arm and dragged him out of the room and down the hall to the principal’s office. Poor Nolan didn’t know what he did wrong, but my friends and I knew the story, and we knew the one thing you should never, ever mention in shop class, were jelly donuts. This sort of set the pace for the chaos to come the rest of the year. While we were supposed to be building things like lamps, clocks, pen holders, etc, we spent almost as much time destroying things. We especially liked to drill holes in everything, like the cabinets, tables, and people’s text books from other classes. I had to leave to get stitches in my hand once, not from a power tool accident, but because I went to punch Ken in the stomach when we were screwing around and he blocked it while holding a tape measure and it sliced my knuckle open pretty bad. We told the teacher he was just handing it to me and it accidentally cut me. I dripped a trail of blood all the way to the bathroom and my mom had to pick me up and take me to the doctor to get it stitched up. A lot of handheld power tools can be set to stay on so you don’t have to keep the trigger pulled the whole time you’re using them, and so we often

liked to lock the trigger for the belt sander so when Mr. Norton would set it on the table and plug it in, the thing would drive right off the table and crash onto the ground. He would catch on to this little trick and tried to make sure he would check the switch before he plugged it in, but every once in a while he would forget and it would go flying off the table as soon as he plugged it in. Mr. Norton had a bad case of dandruff, which we like to add to by sprinkling saw dust in his hair every chance we got. Poor Mr. Norton. We really put him through a lot. It’s really amazing that he didn’t stab one of us with a screw driver or something for all the trouble we caused him. He was a nice guy and we were all complete punks.

The Crossing Guard We would occasionally torment a poor crossing guard on our way to middle school who was probably volunteering his spare time to help make sure the kids would cross a busy highway safely on their way to and from school. He was an older gentleman, who most likely retired from his job and just wanted to help look out for the students’ safety. It’s a very noble thing to do, but at the time we were not very appreciative of him and occasionally when we were riding our bikes to school, instead of waiting for him to stop the traffic, we would just cross the highway anyway and he would start yelling and screaming at us as we drove off laughing. Yes, this is extremely childish, but when you’re 13-years-old, disobeying a crossing guard and having him yell and scream at you was the highlight of your morning. One afternoon on the way home from school Ken pretended to have an accident on his bike and tipped over in the middle of the highway and just laid there pretending to be unconscious. There was no traffic coming because this was when the crossing guard stood in the middle of the highway with his hand-held stop sign, so there was no danger of any cars driving by and hitting him (we weren’t that dumb). Instead of the crossing guard getting concerned thinking that he had been hurt, the old man grabbed Ken by the jacket with one hand and hit him in the head with his hand-held stop sign that he carried in his other hand. Ken

was able to get away from him but he had an enormous bump on his head from getting hit and he was pissed . He wanted to bring water balloons to school the next day and pelt him as he drove by, and even considered throwing a large rock at him, he was so mad. The bump on his head was the size of a large grape and looked horrible, so you can probably understand his desire for revenge. During the wintertime it was very common for us to hit the crossing guard with snowballs as we drove by. Kids are so dumb.

My Friend’s Mom was our Substitute Teacher The one day I realized that I can accomplish almost anything if I actually applied myself was the day that Diego’s mom was our substitute teacher at our school. Ordinarily I facilitated the personal hell of every substitute teacher that ever came to our school and there were a handful of other students who eagerly joined in. Having a substitute teacher was almost better than going on a field trip. We were truly out of control and there was little that they could do to keep us on task. Most of the subs would never return, probably because we made their lives miserable, but one day our sub was one of my best friends’ moms. Not only was she Diego’s mom, but she was actually pretty cool, and everyone liked her. This was a history class and we had an in-class reading assignment that day and we all had to read through a bunch of crap and then answer questions about it. This sucked. I couldn’t just sit there and do nothing, because not only was the teacher Diego’s mom, but she was also good friends with my mom, and I couldn’t have her tell my mom that I was a screwball, so I actually read through the assignment and answered the questions. Not only did I actually sit there quietly and do the assignment, but I was the first one done! It was really the first time I had ever applied myself in history class, since I really hated it at the time and didn’t see the point of it until many years later, and ironically the History Channel would become my favorite channel to watch on television, but I’ll never forget the day that Diego’s mom was our substitute teacher because that was the day I was the first one to finish the assignment in class, and I got a pretty good grade on it too. It was

amazing. If only I cared this much when our regular teacher was there, I would have got straight A’s.

Joyriding Every teenager dreams of taking their parents’ car out joyriding, especially if it’s a cool car with balls. Diego’s dad’s car was a blue Firebird that looked pretty cool, and one afternoon his parents were gone and had taken their minivan somewhere, so Diego decided to take the Firebird out for a joyride. Of course, Fred and I were there and thought it was a great idea. Not only did we take the car without his dad’s permission, but none of us even had a driver’s license at the time, making it that much more fun. We lived kind of out in the sticks, and so we took the car out onto the country roads to see how fast it could go. Diego spun the tires repeatedly, did brake torques, and would drive in reverse going 15 miles an hour and then slam the car into drive and step on the gas. We even caught air when we used a sharp incline over a particular set of railroad tracks as a ramp. Going probably 80 miles an hour we hit the ramp and our heads all smacked into the ceiling and sparks flew out from the back of the car from the muffler or something scraping on the ground. It’s amazing we didn’t cause the transmission to dropout, blow a tire, or put the car in the ditch from Diego’s insane driving. We actually made it all the way back to the house with ourselves and the car in one piece. Then, as we were pulling back into the garage, Diego’s foot slipped off the brake and onto the gas pedal. The car launched forward after squealing the tires and crashed into a table against the back wall, causing it and everything on it to fall onto the hood of the car. This was bad. Surprisingly, there was only a small dent in the hood, and some slight impressions in the wall from the back legs of the table, so we set everything back up and just hoped his parents wouldn’t notice. Aside from the small dent in the hood and the damage to the wall, we had another problem. The engine was so hot from us speeding around that the fan kept running trying to cool it down. We knew Diego’s parents would arrive back home at any moment, and not only was the fan spinning, but

there was a loud ticking noise coming from the engine too. The neighbors had also seen us pull back into the garage and heard the tires squeal and must have heard the table crashing. They were standing right in their driveway 30 feet away. Just as we had feared, Diego’s dad figured out what happened, but we weren’t sure if it was because the neighbor said that he saw us take the car out (he knew we were all too young to have a driver’s license) or if he noticed the dent in the hood, or the dents in the wall, or if his dad heard the engine’s fan when he got back, or a combination of these factors. However he did it, he figured out what Diego had done. This time it wasn’t my fault. It wasn’t even my idea! I just went along for the ride.

Family Vacations I don’t know of any kid who can sit in the back seat of a car for hour after hour on a family vacation without acting up and pissing off their parents. Maybe today kids can since they have their video games, iPads and wireless Internet, but when I was a kid we pretty much had to just sit there and stare out the window or listen to our Walkman portable cassette tape player. This got boring after a while, but one thing my brother and I found that always entertained us were whoopee cushions. We couldn’t set inflated whoopee cushions on people’s chairs since we were in the car most of the time, so we came up with what we called “drive by farting.” To be effective, drive by farting could only be done in cities or towns where there are people walking on the sidewalks next to the roads. Whenever we passed through these areas, we would roll down the windows and “fart” at people who were walking on the sidewalks. Even my mom and dad couldn’t help laughing sometimes. Some people would literally jump and look over at our car as we drove past them, and some people would start cracking up themselves laughing at what had just happened. Sometimes during long drives when there was no one to fart at with the whoopee cushion, we would raise hell from the backseat and my dad would occasionally threaten to turn the car around and go home. What were they

going to do? Ground us? Maybe when we got home, but not at that moment. Whenever we stayed at the hotels, Stew and I would hang the paintings upside down before we left and we would occasionally dump buckets of ice onto people from our second or third story balcony. When we found someone’s door that had a “do not disturb” sign put out, we would flip it over so it read “needs housekeeping” so they would get woken up first thing in the morning by a maid. We were punks. When we stopped at fast food restaurants for lunch, by the time we left, several chairs would have ketchup packets set under their legs so when someone would sit down they would burst and shoot ketchup all over the floor (and their shoes). Of course we enjoyed pulling the old salt and pepper shaker trick where you would spin a quarter on the table and slam down a salt or pepper shaker on top of it so the quarter would break through the plastic bottom so the next time someone picked it up, all the salt or pepper would fall out of the bottom onto the table. I also had a habit of scratching “Mark Was Here” in the bathroom stalls with my Swiss Army Knife before we left. Little did our parents know, but we left a trail of destruction pretty much everywhere we went.

Grandma and Grandpa’s My grandparents on my dad’s side lived an entire day’s drive away from us, and every summer we would go to visit them for a week or so and this was always the highlight of my summer. Just because I was on vacation didn’t mean I took a break from causing trouble. This was a whole new town (and state) where nobody knew who I was, so they couldn’t call my parents to rat me out for something I had done. One of my dad’s friends had a stepson my age named Noah and while our dads were hanging out and catching up, Noah, my brother and I would go out and do what we did best. Noah lived on a highway, and every summer when we hung out we would tie a bunch of empty aluminum cans onto the two ends of a long piece of fishing line and then string it up across the road so when a car would drive by, the fishing line would get caught on it and the cans would all be dragged behind it as it continued down the road. Just

like a car carrying newlyweds leaving a wedding in the movies, the cans would immediately start clanging and make a bunch of noise as they were drug down the road going forty miles an hour behind the cars. We would hide in the bushes on the side of the road and watch, and most of the time the cars would stop at some point down the road to see what all the noise was. We called it “canning.” The local college in my grandparents’ town opened up their swimming pool to the public during the summer, so we enjoyed going there a few times a week to not only go swimming, but to cause trouble around the college. My grandpa would drop us off for a few hours and leave us, so we were completely unsupervised. Sometimes Noah would come with my brother and I to the pool and we liked to bring our leftovers from lunch and throw it on the steamer in the steam room so it would stink up the place. When we were done swimming and waiting for my grandpa to pick us back up, we liked to take a bunch of metal folding chairs and stack them in the elevator leaning towards the door and press the button to send the elevator to another floor, so when the door opened, all the chairs would fall out. We would stand outside of the elevator and lean all the chairs towards the door and hold them there, and just before the elevator door would close we would quickly pull our arm away so the chairs would all lean up against the door as it closed. That way when the elevator stopped on the next floor and the door opened, there would be nothing supporting the chairs and they would all fall over onto the ground. Imagine if you were the person waiting for the elevator and when the door opened up, a pile of five or six different chairs all fell out and crashed onto the ground. OK, so it might not seem that funny to you, but to us when we were thirteen-years-old it was a great time. We usually went to visit grandma and grandpa around the Fourth of July, and grandpa always bought us bags of fireworks and we enjoyed shooting bottle rockets at passing cars and lighting smoke bombs off in the middle of the road around the neighborhood. Grandma and grandpa’s neighbor was a massively obese woman we called “fatso” and we often enjoyed harassing her with our whoopee cushions from our bedroom window when she would come home from work late at night as she walked from her car to her house.

We could hear her pull up since it was summer time and the windows were open, and from the upstairs bedroom where we slept we would hide behind the curtains and “fart” at her with the whoopee cushions practically every night. Sometimes she would sit outside on her porch with her skinny boyfriend and smoke cigarettes late at night, and we would “fart” at them repeatedly with the whoopee cushions. One night fatso yelled up to my window that she was going to tell my grandpa what I was doing, but I was leaving early the next morning to go back home, so even if she did tell on me, it wouldn’t have mattered. My grandpa would have thought it was hilarious anyway. When we weren’t causing trouble, my brother and I got to enjoy watching cable television. We never had cable TV growing up, but grandma and grandpa had it at their house, so we enjoyed watching as much MTV as we could while we were there. Whenever grandma would see some scantily clad women dancing in the videos she would ask us in a disturbed tone, “What are you’s guys watching?” and I would always answer that we were watching the Disney Channel or Nickelodeon. That’s not a type-o in the last sentence. She would always say “you’s guys” when she meant “you guys.” We always got a kick out of it, and I think she believed me that it was the Disney Channel we were watching. Grandpa Dice was quite a troublemaker himself when he was young and I believe he caused a train to be derailed by setting something on the tracks or messing with the switching station when he was a kid, so he understood our need to cause trouble. He also made sure there was an endless supply of ice cream bars in the freezer that we could eat whenever we wanted. He knew what kids wanted. He was kind of like a kid himself. He was still quite a jokester too, and when we got back from an afternoon of “bumming around” as we called it, and my grandma asked what we did all day, he would say something ridiculous like telling her that he taught me how to drive his car or that we went gambling at the local Indian casino. (I was probably thirteen years old.) Grandma’s response was always the same. “My God!” I think she actually believed him most of the time, or perhaps she just didn’t know what to believe anymore after the decades of his antics.

When my dad was a kid he wanted a BB gun for Christmas one year and my grandma wouldn’t allow it, but my grandpa thought it would be fun to mess with her a little bit so he cut a piece of wood in the shape of a rifle and covered it in wrapping paper and put it under the Christmas tree to make grandma think he had gotten my dad the gun. He sure knew how to have a good time.

Miscellaneous Middle School Madness A few other miscellaneous or minor things we did in middle school include folding ourselves up inside a hide-a-bed (three people at a time was the record with some girls from the neighborhood and it almost broke the sofa), putting a metal plate on Fred’s chest and taping a firecracker to it and putting a sandwich bag full of ketchup over it and lighting the firecracker to make our own blood bag like in the movies so it looked like he got shot. We videotaped this of course. My brother bought some new tires for his car and before he put them on, he spun the old tires right in front of our parents’ house, causing a plume of smoke stinking like burnt rubber to fill our entire block. The smoke was so thick it just lingered in the air and didn’t really disperse for several minutes. This was in the middle of summer when everyone had all of their windows open, so I’m sure a lot of people smelled it from inside their homes (and probably almost choked to death). My brother did a break torque and the car didn’t even move, but the tires kept spinning and spinning, all the while emitting the burnt rubber smoke cloud until eventually one of the tires burst and practically disintegrated. I’m sure the neighbors really loved us. My brother really likes engines and mechanical stuff, and one time he took an old lawn mower and drained the oil out of it and replaced it with water and filled the gas tank with racing fuel and let the lawnmower run until the engine seized up because he wanted to see how long it would take. Growing up, my brother was not as crazy as I was, but he certainly had his moments. One time his jacket got snagged on the mailbox and ripped a huge hole in it as he walked by, so he went up to the house and got a baseball bat and smashed the mailbox repeatedly to teach it a lesson. “The mailbox ripped my jacket” he insisted.

Diego and I spray painted some obscenities on a local bridge one summer afternoon for something to do. It seemed like a good idea, and it wasn’t like we were going to ruin it or anything since it was already covered with graffiti anyway. It was a fun thing to do until we found out that his mom or dad had somehow overheard us talking about it afterwards. They weren’t too happy about that. Usually we were pretty careful about not letting our parents overhear us plot our schemes so this was a surprise to us. Diego just denied it, and said we were talking about spray painting the bridge, but claimed that we never actually did it. Since it was already filled with graffiti, they couldn’t really tell if we had added anything to the artwork or not, but I’m sure they knew we were lying. Before we had starting drinking and partying (which was freshman year in high school), we found a stash of beer at my brother’s friends’ fort nearby that was out in the woods where they would party, and instead of drinking the beer ourselves and getting drunk, we brought the cans back to my house and shook them up and smashed them on the street so they would explode and spray beer all over. It was a lot of fun. Just a few years later if we had found a stash of beer in the woods, we certainly wouldn’t have wasted it like that; we would have gotten drunk. Fred, Diego, and I had our own fort that we frequented during the summers and it was in a fantastic location in the woods along the side of a cornfield that had a small river running beside it. The first time we discovered the location we had to wade through the river in order to get to the other side and our shoes got all wet and covered in mud. There were a bunch of large rocks making up the riverbed, so we started picking them up and throwing them in the middle of the river piling them up so we could walk on them and get to our fort without ruining our shoes. The water wasn’t very deep and before long we had a few stable piles of rocks that we could walk on to get to the other side of the river. Somehow we got the idea that it would be cool to completely dam up the river, so every time we went to the fort we would pile up more stones, slowing the water flow little by little. After a while our dam worked pretty well. It didn’t completely stop the river, but it certainly slowed it down a ton and caused it to rise considerably higher in the area on the backside of our dam.

Later that summer we realized that a local sewage plant relied on the water from the river, and when the water flow was dramatically reduced because of our dam, they must have sent someone out to see what was happening. When we returned to our fort one afternoon we realized that someone had driven a backhoe out there and dug up our entire dam and cleared the river! Fred got a water balloon launcher one summer and we had fun with it but ended up denting the aluminum siding on my neighbor’s house because the water balloons shot out so fast. They were not very happy about it. After we used the launcher to hit an annoying neighbor girl, her dad freaked out because she had a large bruise over her entire back from getting hit so hard by the water balloon. Who would have thought that a seemingly harmless water balloon could cause so much damage? We also liked to shoot golf balls out of the launcher, but we knew better than to shoot them at people so we just shot them up in the air over a corn field down the street to see how high they would go. You’d be surprised how powerful (and dangerous) a water balloon launcher is. In the lunchroom at our middle school there was always someone selling half pint cartons of milk and there was a small metal tray sitting on a table where you would set your 35 cents and then you would grab your own carton out of a crate sitting right next to it. We realized that you could pretend to set your money in the tray and by just tapping the other coins sitting in there it would sound like you dropped yours in there, and then you could just take your milk for free. The person attending the milk counter would even let us pick out our own change from the tray, so if we put in fifty cents and needed to take out a dime and a nickel for the change, we would just do it our self. After a while we would walk up to the counter, tap the tray so it looked like we put in our fifty cents, and would then take out a dime and a nickel for our change, so not only did we get a free milk, but we would make fifteen cents. (Hey, fifteen cents back then could get you a decent sized piece of candy from the store.) We stole the milk really just for the thrill of it rather than not being able to afford it. Our parents could certainly afford the extra 35 cents for a carton of milk, we just liked “beating the system.”

Occasionally we would bring four or five empty milk cartons into the bathroom immediately after lunch before the next period began, and we would stomp on them one right after the other, popping them all. Boom, boom, boom, bam! We’d then calmly walk out of the bathroom and off to class as if nothing happened. We were obviously trying to make people think there were gunshots from inside the school. This was way before the Columbine High School shootings in 1998 and the trend of school shootings had infected America. You know, the good old days. There was a massive food fight in the lunch room one afternoon when for some reason all the teachers had left for a few minutes which turned out to be one of their biggest mistakes. This was not just a food fight between a few different people, this was an epic battle among the several hundred kids in the lunch room. The interesting thing about a food fight is that the more people there are involved makes even more people want to join in and start throwing things. Monkey see, monkey do. Within just a few seconds there was so much food being thrown that no matter where you looked, there were countless pieces of something flying through the air. Probably 80% of the students had thrown something, and most of us kept scooping food up off the table that was thrown our way and tossed it somewhere else in the lunchroom. It was better than any food fight I had seen in the movies. After the teachers returned they absolutely flipped out and told us that an “ice cream social” they were planning the following week would be canceled because of our misbehavior. Whatever. We had more fun having the food fight than we would have had eating ice cream. My mom always packed a Granny Smith apple in my lunch since I really liked them, and on another occasion I convinced a kid to throw it at someone across the room, hoping to start a food fight. Granny Smith apples are extremely dense and heavy for their size, and the apple hit a girl in the head and probably caused a lump it was flying so fast. Unfortunately the incident did not start a food fight. The principal did interrupt me and others at my table, suspecting I had something to do with it, but of course we didn’t know anything about it. During study hall we were able to get a pass to go to the weight room in order to work out, and the greatest part was that we were unsupervised the

entire time because the gym teacher always had a class to teach right next door. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that since we weren’t allowed to talk in study hall we would all get passes to go to the weight room and just hang out there. It was like our own social club. We wouldn’t even change our clothes or put on workout gear, we would just go hang out there so we could get out of study hall. There was a staircase in the weight room that went upstairs to another room filled with all kinds of ventilation ducts, so we couldn’t help but go up there and explore. Some of the vents were absolutely huge and had small access panels on them, so for a period of time we had fun climbing inside of them hoping they would lead throughout the entire school, but we couldn’t get very far because there were duct covers that blocked us. Periodically Mr. Jenson, the math teacher, would come into the weight room and go upstairs for a few minutes, which we thought was strange. Why would the math teacher need to go up there every day? One afternoon, we found out why. Diego happened to be up there exploring when Mr. Jenson walked in and headed up there and when Diego saw him coming up the stairs he was able to duck down and hide behind some ventilation ducts where he witnessed Mr. Jenson light up a cigarette and have a smoke break. Smoking on school grounds was illegal, and apparently Mr. Jenson couldn’t make it through the day without his nicotine fix, so every afternoon he would go up there to have a smoke. From that day on every once in a while in math class we would make loud comments about how the weight room smelled like smoke, or as Mr. Jenson would walk by our tables we would ask the person next to us in a loud voice, “who smokes in the weight room?” Poor guy was probably just trying to relax for a few minutes from all the stress of having to deal with punks like us, and here we were making it worse.

Moving

To

California

The Ultimate Road Trip My 1981 AMC Concord was packed and ready to go. It was early in the morning in the middle of August 1998, and for the entire summer my dad helped make sure my old car was road worthy for my long trip to California. The original plan was for Fred, Diego, and I to move out west together at the end of the summer, but Diego hung back for a few months and would later join Fred and I in January. We all hated cold weather and after my Spring Break trip to Miami sophomore year of college, I put out the word to my friends that I wanted to leave the cold, miserable state of Wisconsin and head back down south to Florida. Diego’s college roommate Curt was originally from San Diego and both Fred and Diego had stayed with Curt at his parents’ house for a vacation the previous year, so they suggested we move to San Diego instead of Miami since there was no humidity or bugs, so that’s what we decided to do at the end of the summer. We were 20-years-old. We didn’t have any jobs lined up; we didn’t have an apartment rented; we just had a road atlas that I got from the gas station I worked at that summer, along with a bunch of beef jerky and cheese sticks for food along the way. We also had two ounces of weed and a cooler full of beer. That was all we needed to start our new lives as we headed out west California dreaming. Of course our parents strongly advised we not move, but we didn’t care. We had to get out of Wisconsin. Everyone always complained about how much it sucked, so we were going to do something about it and leave. Even all our friends thought we were crazy, but they didn’t have the balls that we had to break free from our small little town and see what else the world had to offer. By the end of the first day on the road we made it to Omaha, Nebraska and decided we would stay there for the night and head on to Denver the next day. We didn’t want to spend any money on a hotel room, so we were going to just sleep in the car somewhere, possibly at a campground. We located a campsite on the map in Omaha, but instead of turning in early and resting up for the long journey ahead, we decided to go drinking in the bars downtown. (We both had fake IDs.)

Fred and I went bar hopping until almost closing time and just before we headed to the campground, we decided to steal the beer mugs we had been drinking out of as souvenirs. We finished our beers and walked out the door, hiding them by our sides from the bartender. A little while later we arrived at the campground but there was no attendant in the office because it was closed, so we stopped the car in the parking lot and decided to sleep there. Fred passed out in the passenger seat, but I couldn’t get comfortable enough to sleep sitting up in the car and I couldn’t recline my seat because the entire backseat was filled with stuff, so I got out and laid on the blacktop right next to the driver’s side door and fell asleep there. The next thing I knew it was six or seven in the morning and a police officer was standing over me asking what the heck we were doing there. I told him we were moving to California and we got there too late to get a camp site because the park was closed so we decided to sleep there. He seemed very understanding and left us alone. A little while later we smoked some weed for breakfast and continued on our journey. That evening we made it to Denver and again went bar hopping downtown. Instead of looking for a campground again, we decided we would hook up with a couple girls at one of the bars and sleep at their place, and that’s exactly what we did. We met two girls at one of the bars and at the end of the night we all went back to one of their places. I slept in one of the girl’s beds with her and we messed around a little bit, but she wouldn’t have sex with me. Contrary to popular belief, not every girl who goes home with a guy from the bar has sex with him that night. I didn’t care, I was just happy to be sleeping in a bed instead of in the car or on the ground. Fred got lucky though, and my girl and I heard him having sex with her friend on the futon out in the living room. The next morning we all went to Denny’s for breakfast and later said goodbye to our new friends and headed for Las Vegas. Since we got a late start getting on the road that morning because we slept late in the comfort of the girls’ beds, we stopped at a campsite in Utah to sleep there. We didn’t even have a tent, so Fred just slept in the car and I slept on the ground again, and we headed for Vegas the next day.

It was the middle of the afternoon when we arrived in Las Vegas extremely excited (and high from all the weed we had been smoking the entire trip). We had some 40-ounce bottles of beer left over in the cooler from the night before, so we poured ourselves some beers into the mugs we had stolen from the bar in Omaha a few nights earlier. We were driving down the famous Las Vegas strip smoking a joint and drinking beer out of our mugs like we owned the place. We even took pictures of each other with the mugs up to our mouths inside the car since we figured no one would believe that we were slamming beers on the Vegas strip, out of beer mugs nonetheless. What kind of a person drinks beer from a glass mug in a car while they’re driving on the strip in downtown Las Vegas? Us, that’s who. We had no fear. Using our fake IDs we went to a club and had a few drinks and then explored the casinos and played a few slots hoping to win some gas money to help pay for our trip. Normal people would have gotten a cheap hotel somewhere at the end of the night to sleep in, but we were far from normal. I only had $3000 to my name, which was all the money I had saved that summer, so spending $50 or $100 on a hotel room was just not in the budget, so at the end of the night we went back to the car which was parked in the lot behind the Pioneer Casino, and we crashed there. The backseat was still full of stuff and my seat wouldn’t recline, and I still couldn’t sleep sitting up, so I took a blanket and a pillow and walked over to a small plot of grass where some trees were growing and slept there. Yes, I slept outside on the grass in the middle of the parking lot of the Pioneer Casino right behind the strip in Las Vegas like a homeless person. Actually, homeless people probably knew better than to sleep right out in the open like that, but I didn’t care. I was wasted and exhausted from being on the road for days. I woke up when the sun rose early in the morning and got back in the car and we took off for the final stretch to California. Just as we were leaving the city of Las Vegas, the brakes on my car failed! The pedal dropped to the floor and lost almost all pressure and to get the car to stop I had to slam on the pedal as hard as I could and hold it down. Driving in the mountainous terrain of Colorado the day before had put so much stress on the brakes that we blew a brake line. We didn’t know this at

the time, so we stopped off at a mechanic shop in the city of Baker, California which is an hour and a half outside of Las Vegas. A strange looking man, perhaps the owner, jacked up the car, pulled off the rear tire and inspected the brakes telling us it would be several days until he could get the parts that we needed to fix them. I told him we didn’t want to wait and that we would take our chances on the road, and then he reached inside the brake drum and purposefully pulled loose the brake pads, the springs and all the other parts holding the brake pads in place, flinging them to the ground. “Oops,” he said. “Don’t think you’re going to be able to drive it like that.” Fred and I looked at each other petrified. This man just sabotaged my car, stranding us literally in the middle of nowhere in the desert. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. This man knew we were a couple of kids with a piece of crap car filled with our entire belongings with out-of-state plates 2000 miles from home. With the rear passenger side of the car still jacked up in the parking lot, the man went inside his office to order the parts he claimed we needed. This was too creepy. This psycho was trying to screw us, or kill us, or who knows what. We had to get out of there. We picked up the miscellaneous parts from the ground, put the tire back on, lowered the jack, and sped off while he was still inside. While the brakes had basically failed (and one of the rear tires didn’t even have any brake pads anymore), there was still enough pressure to stop the car if I pushed the pedal really hard and gave myself enough breaking distance. There was no way we were going to stay stranded there in the desert for days leaving my car in this psycho’s garage in the middle of nowhere. We called my dad and he told us to cut the break line for that tire and crimp it to minimize the leak so the pressure would be enough to depress the other brake pads. We did this and continued our journey completely spooked from the creepy psycho at the garage who tried to strand us. We arrived in San Diego pretty late at night because the brake problem held us up, and we had planned on sleeping at our friend Curt’s parents’ house and staying there for a few days until we found an apartment, but it was too late in the evening and we didn’t want to wake them up so we drove to Pacific Beach just north of downtown San Diego and Fred slept in the car

again on the side of the road, while I took a blanket out and slept on the beach. I didn’t realize how strange this was until I was awoken in the morning by the lifeguards asking me if I was alright. “Of course I’m all right. I’m in California!” I answered. They informed me that it was illegal to sleep on the beach, but they didn’t give me a ticket. I wouldn’t have cared if they did. We had made it. We were in California and at the very edge of the continent. The dream was coming true. After five days of madness and living off beef jerky and cheese sticks, and smoking probably half an ounce of weed and drinking every night and sleeping in parking lots and some random girl’s apartment, and even with the brakes failing and almost getting stranded in the desert, we had done it. We were ecstatic.

The Unexpected Guests We spent our first morning in California driving around checking out the beach for a little while, and later ventured off to find Curt’s parents’ house. Fred insisted that Curt said we could stay there for as long as we needed until we found an apartment. He and Diego had stayed there a year earlier when visiting him, and Fred said Curt’s parents were totally cool…and rich. Their house was a beautiful multi-million-dollar pad on top of a huge bluff overlooking the ocean. Their backyard literally led to the edge of the bluff with the ocean below. This wasn’t just a house with an ocean view. This house was right on the ocean . It was the most amazing house I had ever seen. We knocked on their huge twelve-foot-tall front door and when Curt’s mom answered she immediately recognized Fred from his previous visit and was extremely surprised to see him again. Fred introduced me and she asked what we were doing in California. “We just moved here,” he said. “Oh, where are you living?” she asked. This is where things started to get uncomfortable. Curt had never told his parents that we were moving to California, so of course he never asked them if we could stay there until we found an apartment. You can imagine the look on his mom’s face when Fred answered, “Curt said we could stay with you.” She probably thought he was joking, but of course he wasn’t. She invited us in and told her husband that

we would be staying with them until we found an apartment. He looked just as puzzled as she did. Talk about imposing on someone! They were really nice about it, and even cooked us dinner that night and we ate it out on the patio overlooking the ocean in their back yard. After they went to bed we kept drinking their beer and wine and enjoyed watching their 60 inch flat screen plasma TV while sitting on their white leather furniture feeling like we owned the place . A 60 inch plasma TV in 1998 was practically unheard of and probably cost about $5,000 dollars. Curt’s parents let me sleep in the guest room upstairs which had an ocean view and its own balcony, and Fred slept downstairs in Curt’s sister’s room because she was off at college. When I got up the next morning Curt’s mom and dad were off to work and we had the whole house to ourselves. Sure we looked for an apartment for a few hours, but then came back to the house to hang out and enjoy the amenities. When Curt’s mom came home from work she found us drinking their beer and watching their big-screen TV like a couple of low lifes. “Did you find an apartment today?” she asked. “Nope, not yet. Nothing we could afford at least.” We hadn’t realized how expensive rent was in California, especially near the beach. Most of the apartments were about twice as expensive as we had thought. After freeloading off Curt’s parents for another five days, we actually did find an apartment, and I had to trade in my ocean view bedroom, the big-screen TV, and a house fully stocked with expensive wine for a completely empty apartment about seven miles away from the beach. It wasn’t what we had planned, but we were in California, so we were still pretty happy. Curt’s parents were glad to get rid of us and wished us well, but little did any of us know at the time, us entering their lives would be one of the worst things that had ever happened to them. More about this later.

Our New Apartment You don’t know how much you take for granted in life until you have nothing. We did have a roof over our head, our clothes, and my old car, but

that’s about it. That, and a computer and the scanner we had scammed from Best Buy several years earlier, and a box of dishes that Fred’s mom bought for us before we left. That’s pretty much it. That’s all we had. No furniture, no mattresses, no TV, no lamps, no decorations, no nothing. Our apartment was nice and had a lot of potential though. It was a spacious two-bedroom place with lofted ceilings and also had a community hot tub and pool. The day we moved in we went to Wal-Mart and each bought an inflatable air mattress to sleep on and two plastic patio chairs so we at least had somewhere to sit. After sunset, we grabbed a 12-pack of beer and went to hang out by the pool. We were immediately approached by a security guard who was sitting at one of the tables asking us who we were. We told him we just moved in and arrived from Wisconsin, and he informed us there was no alcohol allowed at the pool. We offered him a beer and sat down at the table with him and he immediately forgot about this rule and we all tipped back a few cold ones as we told him about our crazy adventures on our trip there. When we got to the part about the brakes failing, as luck would have it, he turned out to be a full time mechanic, only doing the security job part time at night. His name was Jax, and he offered to help me fix them the next day. Everything seemed to be falling right into place. It’s very strange living in a completely empty apartment with only two plastic chairs, and we desperately needed furniture but we hardly had any money so it would have to wait. Lucky for us, just as the universe provided us with a nice place to stay in Colorado with the girls we met at the bar and united us with Jax the security guard/mechanic at our apartment complex our first night there, the universe also began providing us with the furniture we desperately needed, and it was all free. Every few nights when we carried out our bags of empty beer cans to the recycling bins, we would notice sitting right next to the dumpster was some old discarded furniture that people had thrown away after moving out. It was incredible. We first found an old desk so we carried it upstairs and set up the computer on it, and seemingly every time we went to throw away our beer cans we would find something else. We called it the magic dumpster, and it provided almost everything that we needed. Aside from the desk, we

got a kitchen table and chairs, a laundry bin, an oscillating fan, shelves made of cardboard that were designed to hold cartons of cigarettes as a store display, and we even found some old picture frames with artwork in them that we hung on our bare walls. Just when everything seemed to be going our way and our California dreams were beginning to come true, our lives would take a quick detour leading us into a downward spiral to depths we had never imagined.

Getting a DUI About two weeks after I arrived in California to start my new life and pursue my hopes and dreams, my plans hit a large speed bump in the form of a DUI. It was Labor Day weekend and the police were out looking for drunk drivers as they often do on holiday weekends, and my piece of crap 1981 AMC Concord with out-of-state plates probably looked suspicious driving down the road at 1:30 in the morning as Fred and I were coming home from the bar. You can probably guess what happened next. After getting pulled over for “swerving” and failing a breathalyzer I was handcuffed and put in the back of the cop car and taken to the police station. A different cop took Fred to the drunk tank. When I arrived at the police station, the arresting officer emptied my pockets and found my fake ID stuck in my money clip. He was confused at first, because when he had pulled me over and checked my ID, he realized I was only 20-years-old, but the ID he found when he emptied my pockets said I was over 21. When he realized what it was, I told him I really needed it, and asked him if he would let me keep it instead of confiscating it. I told him to please stick it in the bushes next to the front door of the police station and when I got out of jail I would come back and find it. “I just moved here,” I told him. “And I don’t know anybody, and I need that to get into the bars in order to meet some girls,” I explained. I continued to tell him that drinking in Wisconsin is a way of life, and that if he confiscated my fake ID it would be devastating to my social life. “Everybody in Wisconsin drinks,” I said. “I really need that fake ID.” The

cop seemed rather sympathetic and told me he would set it on the top of the rear driver’s side tire on my car which was left abandoned on the side of the road where I had been pulled over. He then gave me a plastic cup and asked me to pee in it for a urine analysis. I had already failed a breathalyzer, but I didn’t want to give them any more evidence against me, so I told him I didn’t have to pee at the moment. He put me in an office with a water cooler and told me to drink a bunch of water so I could pee in a little while. The cop left me there all alone for a few minutes to gulp down some water, when I noticed a sink in the room. This was not a bathroom, and there was no toilet, but there was a sink for whatever reason, and since I really did have to pee (I just told him I didn’t have to go and held it so I wouldn’t have to give him a pee sample), I decided to pee in the sink so I wouldn’t have to give him the sample. Once I relieved myself, I knew it would be hours before I had to pee again, and my blood alcohol level would have dropped significantly by that time, and he probably would just give up on wanting his pee sample after a while. Luckily he didn’t walk in and see me peeing in his sink or I probably would’ve gotten charged with something else, like indecent exposure or something. Just as I thought, not long after this, he gave up on me peeing and a police officer drove me to the county jail. It was probably about 3 AM by now and I was placed in a jail cell with about 15 or 20 other guys, most of which looked like hard-core drug addicts or criminals. I certainly did not belong there, I thought. One guy was lying on the bench having withdrawals from heroin, and some of the other guys were passed out on the concrete floor. I felt like I was in hell. To make things even worse, the toilet was clogged and filled almost to the top with urine and feces, and stunk up the whole jail cell. The guards didn’t seem to care, and I’m sure they thought this was funny. It smelled like we were locked up in a sewer. The prisoners all realized that if anyone flushed the toilet, the rushing water coming in would cause it to overflow, spilling out onto the jailhouse floor, so every time someone was using the toilet people would remind them not to flush it or it would overflow. These suggestions worked for a few hours,

until someone out of habit flushed the toilet when they were done using it. The water started flowing into the toilet bowl, and then the urine and feces soup that had been stewing began overflowing onto the floor. This jail cell was fairly small, probably only 20’ x 20’, and the sewage spilled out half way across the floor. Everyone jumped out of the way and huddled up against the wall on the opposite side of the cell and we all put our shirts over our noses trying to cover up the smell. There on the floor was an enormous puddle of poop, probably five feet wide and ten 10 feet long. We started clamoring for the guards, telling them what happened and they came over and looked, but didn’t care. Hours went by with the sewage still on the floor, and we were still huddled up against one side of the jail cell, and we still had to breathe through our shirts to filter out some of the stench. There were no clocks in this holding cell, and of course my watch was confiscated when I was booked, so I had no idea what time it was. It seemed like time was standing still. Eventually, my turn came to be released late the next morning and I got a ride home from one of my cellmates’ girlfriends, who came to pick him up after he was released. He had also been arrested for drunk driving the night before. When they dropped me off at my apartment, I saw my car in the parking lot and I figured Fred was let go and drove it home using the spare key. A feeling of great disappointment then came over me because I remembered what the police officer had said the night before, when he promised he would put my fake ID on top of the tire where we had abandoned the car. It was great that Fred was not in jail, and it turns out the cops just took him to the drunk tank and released him in the morning without even giving him an underage drinking ticket, and he got a ride from someone back to my car and drove it back to our apartment using the spare key. I explained to him that the cop promised me he was going to put my fake ID on the tire, so we drove back to the road where we had gotten pulled over and parked on the shoulder in the approximate spot. We then started walking up the street with our eyes locked on the ground, hoping to find my fake ID, which would have fallen off the tire as Fred drove away if the officer stuck to his word. This was certainly a long shot. First of all, what are the odds that the same police officer who arrested me for a DUI would actually give me my fake

ID back? This was of course the very fake ID that had led to my arrest, allowing me access to alcohol, so what kind of a cop would actually give that back to a 20-year-old kid so he could drink some more? I had to hope for the best. I had to hope that the cop had actually done this insane, illogical, and illegal thing like he had promised. Without my fake ID our lives would be completely ruined. As we continued walking down the gravel shoulder on the highway with our eyes fixed on the ground, there it was! My fake ID! The police officer actually did what he said! I couldn’t believe it. I bent over and picked it up and let out a shout of joy with my prized possession back in my hand, but my problems were certainly not over. Getting a DUI sucks. Of course it’s dangerous drinking and driving, and a stupid thing to do, so the punishment fits the crime. While the cop did give me my fake ID back, he kept my real one because my license was immediately suspended. Right before moving to California I went to the DMV in Wisconsin and got a duplicate driver’s license just in case I lost my wallet. A few days before my DUI arrest I had applied for a California driver’s license, and when I did, the DMV took my (duplicate) Wisconsin ID and said they would mail me my California one a few days later. So, while the arresting officer had taken my remaining Wisconsin driver’s license, I had a brand-new California driver’s license in the mail on its way to me and I received it a few days later. I still had a driver’s license! Ha ha! I didn’t know if the computer systems from California and Wisconsin communicated with each other, but I had a suspicion that my Wisconsin driver’s license would be suspended in the Wisconsin computers, but the California computers would show that I had a valid California license, so I just kept driving. Most people who get a DUI are supposed to get an occupational permit, which allows you to drive only to and from school or work during specific hours, but I didn’t want to pay for this so I just kept driving like there was nothing wrong and luckily never got pulled over until several years later when my license was valid again. My California license probably was suspended, but I didn’t care, so I still drove as if nothing happened.

I did have another problem, though, because after a few months my Wisconsin license plates expired, and there’s nothing like driving an old beat-up car with expired out-of-state plates to raise suspicion when a cop sees it. Since I was most likely driving with a suspended license (along with my now expired registration), I used Photoshop to make a fake registration tag with the current year on it and glued it on my license plate. As if driving with a suspended license after getting a DUI wasn’t bad enough, I was now driving a car with fake registration stickers on it. I thought it was pretty creative, and luckily I never got pulled over, and the following year I was able to get valid California plates and could drive without getting nervous every time a cop was behind me. Getting the DUI really spooked me, especially being thrown in a jail cell with an overflowing bowl of feces that night. I also had to pay expensive fines, take alcohol education classes once or twice a week for several months, and attend a couple Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. I was not an alcoholic, but this was all part of my punishment by the court. This whole experience actually helped me realize the dangers of drinking and driving. Where I was from, the odds were the only thing you would really hit if you were drunk driving was a cornfield, but in California, there is so much traffic and so many lanes going in different directions and crazy intersections with curvy winding roads that it is very dangerous to drink and drive. Of course it’s dangerous to drink and drive anywhere, even surrounded by a bunch of cornfields, because you could hit an oncoming car or a tree, but we were too dumb to think about this at the time. After this experience I was fairly careful to not drink too much and then drive, and alcohol lost a little bit of its fun for me. Marijuana, on the other hand, had not. I still enjoyed smoking weed on a daily basis.

Where Can I Buy Some Weed Around Here? Our marijuana supply was rapidly dwindling after we arrived in California and we desperately needed to find a regular hookup so we could get more. We figured weed can’t be that hard to find in California, especially the dumpy area where we were living, so we walked around the streets by the beach asking random people if they knew where we could buy some pot.

You may be thinking this is a completely ridiculous thing to do, but we were desperate. It didn’t take long before we found a group of kids our age who said they could help. This was before medical marijuana was legal in California so we couldn’t just go and get a prescription for it and pick some up from the local dispensary. These were certainly not the most clean-cut group of kids, and one of them was carrying a cordless telephone that he was hoping to sell to someone so he would have money for his own weed, and even though these weren’t exactly our type of people, they know a guy who lived just a few blocks away who was the local pot dealer for the neighborhood so they introduced us to him. He seemed like a friendly guy at first and sold us a bag of some pretty decent weed and gave me his number for all of our future transactions. Over the next few months this dude was the most reliable pot dispenser I had ever found. He was always home after five o’clock in the evening and he always had some good weed available for sale. One thing I did notice about the guy was that he and his friends liked to play video games, particularly shoot ‘em up games. I would never hang out at his place for more than ten minutes, and it was always a quick and simple transaction, but it seemed that every night Fred and I stopped over there to score some weed, he and his friends were playing these games. “Shoot them in the fucking head!” he would always yell at the person playing the game. He seemed to have a real obsession with shooting people in the head. I didn’t think anything of it really until one morning before school I was watching the morning news and saw a report that showed his picture and mentioned that he was arrested the night before during a party at his apartment for shooting his girlfriend in the head and killing her. It was very surreal. I didn’t usually watch the news, it just happened to be on that morning. Not only did he just shoot his girlfriend and kill her, but he shot her in the head, just like he was always telling people to do when they were playing video games. It was quite disturbing. I shook off the weirdness and soon found another pot hookup at my community college who wasn’t a psycho.

Stalking Tony Robbins “Stalking” may not be the right word, because we didn’t mean Tony Robbins any harm, we just wanted to meet him and get his autograph in our copies of Unlimited Power . Anthony Robbins, of course, is the worldfamous motivational speaker and self-help guru, and his book, which Fred and I read in the dump truck while working for the weed cutter the summer after high school graduation, changed the course of our lives and opened us up to the world of self-improvement. In Unlimited Power , Tony said that he lived in a castle in Del Mar, California, a beautiful and wealthy beach community in San Diego County. Since we largely credited Tony with giving us the confidence to move to California to pursue our dreams, we wanted to meet him and have him autograph our books, so we set out to Del Mar to find the castle. We just asked random people walking on the street where Tony Robbins’ castle was, and to our surprise, somebody knew and pointed us in the right direction! We parked the car outside and walked up to the front door and both Fred and I had our copies of Unlimited Power in our hands as we anxiously awaited to meet our idol. A construction worker opened the door, and we asked him if Tony was home. He informed us that Tony had sold the castle and now lived in La Jolla, the next city south, so that’s where we went. While finding the “Del Mar Castle” was fairly simple, we wondered how in the world we would find Tony’s house in La Jolla. All we knew was that he lives somewhere in the city. We stopped at a local gas station and asked some people if they knew where Tony Robbins lived. It seems like a crazy thing to do, after all, what were the odds that some random stranger is going to happen to know where he lived? La Jolla is not exactly a small town. Someone told us he probably lived on La Jolla Farms Road, because that’s where all the richest of the rich live. The homes on this street are absolutely incredible. It feels like you’re in Beverly Hills. Most of them are gigantic and have beautiful and immaculate landscaping, and some of them you can’t even see because they’re hidden behind massive gates. Just driving down the street, truly is an incredible experience, especially for two

Midwestern boys who had no money and lived in a dumpy part of San Diego. This was definitely where the richest of the rich lived. We randomly pulled over and parked on the side of the road in front of one of the houses, and walked up to the front door to pretend that we had confused their house with Tony’s house, and acted like we were friends of his. When someone answered the door, I said nonchalantly, “Is Tony around?” “Tony?” the man responded. “Yeah. Tony and Becky” (his wife at the time). “Oh, you have the wrong house,” the man told us. “They live across the street.” “Across the street?” we thought to ourselves. “Thanks,” I said, as we turned in astonishment. What were the odds, we thought. Out of all the houses on this long and winding road, the one that we randomly chose to approach was the one directly across the street from his very house! Things soon got weirder. As we walked over to the house, which was hidden behind a large brown gate, a dark colored Porsche drove up and pulled into the driveway, stopping for a moment as the gate opened. We hurried over and approached the driver’s side and there he was, our hero, Anthony Robbins! I don’t know how he fit into that tiny car, but he did. “Tony!” I said, as we approached, holding our copies of his book. “Hey guys,” he said. “What’s going on?” “We just moved here to follow our dreams thanks to you and your book, and we wanted to meet you and say thanks,” I told him. He extended his hand to shake mine, and when they met, mine practically disappeared as he wrapped his gigantic fingers around it. People often joke that Tony has big teeth, but he also has a big head. The guy’s head was enormous, and so are his hands. He really is a giant.

We talked with him for a minute and then he autographed both of our books and drove off down his driveway, disappearing behind the closing gate. We walked back to my car stunned. We had done it. We just met Tony Robbins. Not only that, but we had somehow telepathically honed in on his exact location. What were the odds? Of all the houses on the street, we randomly chose the one directly across the street from him, and not only that, but as we were walking up to his driveway, he pulled up in his car! Tony’s teachings don’t get too much into the metaphysical, the mystical, or the spiritual, it’s mainly about strategies for creating habits that will ultimately lead you closer to your goals, but he does touch on some esoteric spiritual principles, and Fred and I drove back to our empty apartment with no furniture but two plastic Wal-Mart chairs astonished by what had just occurred. Different spiritual teachers, and even Jesus himself, spoke about the power of belief and said that if you simply believe enough, you can metaphorically move mountains, and that’s what we had done. We wanted to meet Tony Robbins so bad, and were so amped up on our new life in California after having just drove over 2000 miles with no apartment ready, no job lined up, no nothing, just our hopes and dreams of what lies ahead, and our focus was so sharp that we somehow metaphysically altered the course of our own reality causing our paths to cross with our inspiration, Tony Robbins. While I still look back on this in amazement, I must advise you that you should never just show up at the home of your favorite celebrity, ever . This is extremely creepy and if you feel that you “have” to meet them to thank them or to talk to them, then you have some mental problems. You might be saying, “but you did it, Mark.” Yeah, I did, and I was high as hell and out of my mind, and as you’ve figured out by now, I was completely insane.

Using Dish Soap in a Dishwasher How was I supposed to know that you’re not supposed to use dish soap in a dishwasher? This didn’t make any sense. I found this out the hard way after moving to California. My mom always did the dishes when I was growing up, and nobody ever told me the difference between dish soap and dishwasher detergent, and unfortunately I had to find this out on my own.

When I first moved out with John, Nick, and Bobby, in our house in Wisconsin this was never an issue, because we didn’t have a dishwashing machine in the house, but our apartment in California luckily had one, even though I didn’t really know how to use it. One morning I loaded up the dishwasher and turned it on right before leaving for the afternoon because it was loud and I didn’t want to be home when the thing was running. A few hours later I returned home to a flooded kitchen with a foot of soap suds everywhere. Later that afternoon, the maintenance guy came over to see what had happened because the neighbor below had reported a leak was coming through their ceiling. I told him my dishwasher must have broke and it overflowed. He rolled his eyes and immediately knew what happened. He asked if I used dish soap, and I said of course I used soap, how are the dishes going to get clean without any soap? He then informed me that you’re not supposed to use dish soap in the dishwasher, and you’re only supposed to use dishwasher detergent . Seriously, how was I supposed to know about this? Dish soap, dishwasher soap, how am I supposed to know there’s a difference? Luckily I didn’t have to pay for any of the damages. I felt like a complete idiot.

Ruining Thanksgiving Dinner Three months after we moved to California, Thanksgiving came around, the time when friends and families all sit around the dinner table and enjoy a good meal together. It’s the one night of the year when nobody likes to eat dinner at home all alone, and if a person doesn’t have any family in the area, then someone is bound to invite them over to their place. Since we didn’t have any family in the area, Curt’s parents generously invited Fred and I to join them and their friends at their house for Thanksgiving dinner. They would soon regret this. To our surprise, they apparently had forgiven us for showing up on their doorstep unannounced when we first arrived in California and shamefully imposed on them, essentially forcing them to let us stay at their house until we got an apartment. We showed up for Thanksgiving dinner high as hell

after having smoked a bunch of marijuana on the way there, and I’m sure Fred was drunk, and we were in no shape to be socializing with sophisticated adults. Early on at the dinner, Curt’s parents asked us what we thought of California. I spoke up and told them San Diego was fantastic, and I was glad that I moved here, but I really hated Los Angeles and thought it was a complete dump and everyone who lived there were fake, shallow, materialistic, scumbags—especially people in Hollywood who worked in the entertainment industry. I also said that I hoped God would wipe Los Angeles off the face of the earth in a massive earthquake. One of my favorite songs at the time was Aenima by Tool, which is basically about this kind of event and the singer’s hatred of Hollywood. An uncomfortable look crept onto their faces as Curt’s dad then informed me that their friends who were joining us that night, seated just across the table from me, lived in Los Angeles! I could feel the embarrassment rising up from the pit of my stomach. I tried to recover from this historic foot-in-mouth moment by asking them what they did for a living, assuming it was not something in the entertainment industry so I could then say that people in their industry are okay, it’s just the people in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles who I hated, but as it turned out both of them happened to work for Paramount, a major motion picture company. There was no recovering from what I just said. I basically just said they were scum and I hated them and hoped they died. I had pretty much ruined Thanksgiving dinner. There were a few moments of extreme uncomfortableness at the table, and I was so stoned I wasn’t sure if my anxiety was from the weed I was smoking earlier, or from insulting Curt’s parents’ guests, or both. I just started drinking more wine and forgot all about it until as Fred and I were leaving walking back out to the car, Fred started laughing uncontrollably. “You basically said you hoped the Langdon’s friends would die in an earthquake, at Thanksgiving dinner!” he cackled. He said it took all his strength and concentration not to bust out laughing uncontrollably at the table after I said it. We still laugh about it to this day. As bad as this was, it would pale in comparison to what we would later put the Langdon’s

through. Ruining Thanksgiving dinner one year is fairly easy to forgive and forget. What happened to them later because of us is not.

The Wrong Max Just a few weeks after my DUI, Fred was driving my car home from the bar one night and put it in the ditch, ruining the radiator. I had gotten a ride home from a girl I was trying to hook up with that night and left my car with Fred, but he was so drunk he crashed it on his way home. The car had been towed and impounded for being abandoned in the ditch, and we needed a ride to the impound lot on the other side of town to get it. Since we didn’t have any friends, this was extremely difficult. My one beginning friendship was with the kid named Max N, who was in my philosophy class at the local community college, but I didn’t have his phone number. I did know his full name, however, so we looked him up in the phone book, but realized there were pages of listings of people with his name because it was so common. What did we do? We started calling the listings in the phone book one by one. This was in 1998 and most people still had home phones (land lines) back then because cell phones were just starting to take off. Each time someone would answer I said, “Hey, it’s Mark from philosophy class.” The first dozen people I called had no idea what I was talking about, because obviously it was the wrong number, but after a while the person on the other end of the phone acknowledged that he was Max N from philosophy class, but when I said it was me, he didn’t know who I was. Not only did this Max N have the same name as my friend, but he was taking a philosophy class at the same college too! When I realized it wasn’t the same Max N that I knew, I told him why I was calling and explained that Max N was the only person we knew and that we had to go get my car from the tow yard. He was very sympathetic to our situation and offered to give us a ride! I gave him our address and twenty minutes later he came over and picked us up and drove us to the tow yard to get my car. This was amazing. This kid was a complete stranger, but he still offered to help us out. He didn’t even seem like a complete weirdo. He was a normal college kid who felt sorry for our situation and decided to help.

It was over $100 bucks to get the car out of the impound lot and Fred had left his keys in the ignition, but I had my set with me so we unlocked the car, got inside, and sped off. Hey, it was my car, so it wasn’t like I was stealing it or anything. It was still registered in Wisconsin, so how were they going to find us? As we drove home, the radiator leaked completely dry and the car almost overheated. The release valve on the bottom was ripped off, and in order to get the radiator to hold any water, we had to jam a towel inside the hole. Water still leaked out really bad, even with our make-shift plug put in the hole, and the car looked like it was going to overheat and ruin the engine, so we had to stop on the way home to add more water. We pulled into a parking lot somewhere and found an old cup on the ground and used it to scoop up water from a puddle and poured it into the radiator. It needed to be replaced anyway, so we figured how much more damage could some muddy puddle water do to it?

Going to The Late Late Show Fred, Max N, and I got tickets to be in the studio audience at The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn when he hosted it in 1998, so we drove up to Los Angeles where it was filmed and smoked a big fat blunt on the way and anxiously awaited seeing one of our idols in person. Before we got to the studio we decided that we would do two things during the show. First, when Craig was introduced and the show began, we would applaud and holler like every audience did, but we wouldn’t stop because we wanted to see how long the crowd would go along with us; and second, we decided to start laughing and applaud after the setup for one of his jokes during the monologue, before he even got to the punch line. When the announcer said “Here’s your host…Craig Kilborn,” the audience erupted with applause and whoops and hollers, but just when everyone was starting to quiet down, all three of us would get even louder and kept yelling “yeah, Craig! Whooo!” and we kept applauding, and the audience would all join back in and we were able to keep this going for an abnormally long period of time, leaving a confused look on Craig’s face as he wondered why this was the most excited audience he had ever seen.

After he did a few jokes in his monologue, we all agreed now was the time to laugh at the setup, and so as soon as he finished the setup for his next joke and paused for a second before delivering the punch line, all three of us started laughing and applauding, and others in the audience followed like lemmings. The setup wasn’t even funny because the joke wasn’t finished, but most people still applauded with us! Morons! Like most late night comedy shows, the show was taped in the late afternoon or early evening and then aired later that night, so we were able to watch the show after we got back home. When it got to the part when we applauded at the setup, we realized that because so many people started applauding with us and because of our yelling, you couldn’t even hear the punch line for the joke at all! It was the weirdest thing to watch and Craig looked baffled as he continued on to the next joke, no doubt wondering why people were applauding when his joke wasn’t even finished.

Free Food from Complaining Sometimes I’m very attuned to details, and I noticed that practically every food product you buy at the grocery store has a quality guarantee that says if you are not completely satisfied with the product, you can return it for a full refund or a replacement and they list an 800-number for you to call if you want to complain. I didn’t have much money and what little I had I was spending on weed and beer, so I didn’t really have much left over to buy food—especially good food. Fred and I pretty much ate peanut butter and jelly, romen noodles, and spaghetti with no sauce because the sauce cost too much. We needed to eat, but more importantly, we needed beer and weed, so one afternoon I called the phone number listed on a pizza box and complained to the company about it hoping they would give me a refund. I told them it didn’t look like the picture, which it didn’t, and I was very disappointed. On the box, the pizza looked fantastic with all kinds of cheese and pepperoni spread all over the top, but the actual pizza didn’t look anything like that. The robotic customer service person on the other end of the line read a scripted response off their computer screen telling me, “I’m sorry sir for your dissatisfaction. We are committed to providing a quality product to our customers and you are important to us,” and they told me that they

would like to send me some free coupons for a replacement. I gave them my address and a fake name and they sent me some coupons for free pizzas! Who doesn’t like pizza, especially when it’s free? My plan worked just as I expected. I then went through our kitchen cabinet (what little food we had) and I called all the 800 numbers on every package and complained about them all. I would just tell them I didn’t like it or that it looked better on the package and I was very disappointed. Their response was the same every time. “I’m sorry sir, we are committed to providing a quality product to our customers. We would like to send you some free coupons for reimbursement, bla bla bla.” The only thing we had to eat in the apartment was pretty much peanut butter and pizza, so I took a notepad and pen to the grocery store and started writing down the 1-800 numbers from every different kind of product I had an appetite for. The customer service person always asked for the specific lot number or item number that’s stamped on the particular product when I called to complain, so along with the 800 number I would write down the product name, the size, and the specific item number. I did this for just about everything you can imagine. Bread, meat, cookies, peanut butter, jelly, frozen dinners, milk, cereal, soda, spaghetti sauce, I even started calling and complaining about the beer that we drank, telling the company it tasted stale and they would send me free coupons for beer! That’s right, free. One beer company even sent me a check for seven or eight dollars to compensate me for the six-pack that I said I didn’t like! They certainly didn’t want me switching my brand of beer and lose me as a customer for life, so they sent me some money to keep me happy. The cashiers at the grocery store would always look at me funny when they rang up $250 worth of groceries, including beer, steaks, juice, cereal, and just about everything else in the store, and then I would hand them a large stack of coupons they would have to scan one by one, and the balance would be reduced to zero dollars. They had never seen anything like it and were always surprised. I felt a little weird sometimes, but we were eating like kings without paying a dime. I even got Levi’s to send me a few pairs of free jeans because I called them and complained that mine had worn out.

People always complain that companies have terrible customer service, but I can’t praise the food industry enough. They were more than generous and kept me from starving to death.

Custom Compilations While burning your own CDs filled with your favorite music became commonplace in the 2000’s, in the late 1990s, CD burners were very expensive and few people even knew about MP3s back then; but we did. We were on the cutting edge of technology and were downloading MP3s before anyone heard of Napster, and three years before Apple had released the iPod or iTunes. Fred and I came up with the idea to start a “company” we called Custom Compilations where we would burn people compilation CDs of their favorite songs for only $9.99 — less than the cost of a new CD itself. While the idea of Custom Compilations was genius and ahead of its time, our business practices were a bit unorthodox. We didn’t have the money or the resources to acquire the proper licensing to buy the rights to popular songs (we were only twenty-years-old) so that we could legally make copies by burning them onto CDs, so we decided to download the songs from the Internet for free and then just use them anyway. I made up some nice fliers that explained our service and had a section where people could write in the songs in the order that they wanted them to appear on their CD, and we made a large color sign and brought a table out to the quad at my college and set up a booth trying to promote our idea. We figured people could fill in their desired songs on the order form and then we would go home and download them and burn them onto a CD, and the very next day we would meet them in the quad and they could pay us when we gave them their CD. This idea really was ahead of its time because hardly anyone had CD burners or knew that you could download mp3s of practically any song you wanted, but our “business” was slow to take off and we needed money fast, so we quickly abandoned the idea of Custom Compilations and launched another operation that would become immediately profitable.

Selling Fake IDs Every college kid wants a fake ID so they can buy beer and get into clubs and bars, so we decided to tap this enormous market to help pay for rent and fund our weed habit. I went out and bought the best color printer on the market at the time and a Polaroid camera, and using Photoshop we went to work. (Digital cameras were very expensive back in 1998, so we had to use a Polaroid.) We found a template on the Internet of the driver’s license from Georgia, the only state whose license didn’t have a hologram on it, so we could easily replicate it. Fred and I already had fake IDs, but we needed a sample of our work, so we took my picture with the Polaroid camera and scanned it into the computer and shortly after printed out my new Georgia driver’s license. We bought a laminating machine and small lamination cards from Office Depot, and we assembled my new ID with the precision of a surgeon. It looked pretty good, so I brought it with me to school the next day and in between my classes I would approach random groups of students and ask them if they wanted fake IDs. I would show them the one that we had just made and take a picture of whoever wanted one with the Polaroid camera and wrote down whatever name and birth date they wanted on their ID and scheduled a time for them to meet me the next day where I would exchange their new fake ID for $100 cash. We were very proud of our fake ID business. After all, where could you possibly get a fake ID within 24 hours? The best part was that the students wouldn’t even have to pay us until after we gave them their ID so they knew it wasn’t a scam just to take their money. Business was good. Some days we made $400 or $500 dollars a day. We did this only for about a month or two before we had marijuana-fuelled paranoia that the FBI was going to bust down our door early one morning and raid our apartment. We still had absolutely no furniture at all, except for the two plastic Wal-Mart chairs and a few odds and ends we had found out by the dumpster. We looked like spies, or terrorists. We had a large map of California taped on the wall because we didn’t have the money for decorations, and we each slept on inflatable camping mattresses. Our apartment didn’t look like a

home, it looked like a temporary command center for some kind of illegal operation. Because we were so short on money, when we abandoned the ID operation, we boxed up the expensive color printer and returned it to Circuit City as if it was brand new for what I expected would be a full refund, but what I didn’t realize was that the store had a policy that if you waited more than 14 days to return certain electronics, they would only give you in-store credit. I didn’t want in-store credit, I wanted the money, so I hung out in the store parking lot approaching people who were walking in, and told them that I would buy what they were looking for with my in-store credit slip, if they would then give me the cash. It was embarrassing. We also returned the laminator machine and the Polaroid camera to Office Depot and were able to get a cash refund for them. We had opened each package very carefully and sealed them all back up as if they were brand new. It was reminiscent of the days a few years back when I would return used video games by re-shrink wrapping them. Part of the reason we abandoned the fake ID operation was because if the authorities found out about us and raided our apartment, they would discover something else we would rather keep to ourselves.

Growing Weed Since our biggest monthly expense next to rent was our weed habit, and we didn’t have jobs and our savings were rapidly depleting, we did what any economically fiscal pothead would do, and decided to start growing our own. We didn’t want to sell the weed and be drug dealers; we just didn’t want to spend any more money on it since we smoked it every day. Fred spent an afternoon researching on the Internet how to start an indoor grow room, but we were disappointed to find out that you needed special light bulbs in order to give off enough light for the plants to grow properly. These lights were fairly expensive, at least to us they were, but we thought we would try growing weed anyway, and instead of using the proper lights

we just bought a few three-foot-long florescent fixtures from Home Depot and thought we would try them instead of using the recommended lighting. While I was actually enrolled in college and gone for half the day, Fred had nothing to do and didn’t even have a car since we shared mine, so he spent his afternoons transforming his closet into the grow room. Fred is a genius when it comes to engineering, and if he actually applied himself, he could have put his skills to work in college, but Fred didn’t like college. He did like the idea of unlimited free marijuana though, so he figured out how to mix up the soil and built an adjustable lighting system and meticulously constructed his masterpiece. We saved the seeds from the pot that we were smoking and Fred nursed them like they were his babies until they started sprouting. Within just a few weeks the plants were growing up out of the soil and looked beautiful. There were probably a dozen or more, filling the entire inside of Fred’s closet. He wore the same blue T-shirt every day anyway, so he didn’t really need the closet for his clothes. We anxiously awaited our garden’s maturity so we could sample our homegrown weed and start reducing our expenses. Christmas time was just around the corner and we had gotten plane tickets to fly back to Wisconsin for a week and a half, so we wouldn’t be at our apartment to water the plants or raise the lights, so we gave our only friend Max N the key to our apartment and trusted him with the task. Max liked to smoke a lot of pot too, so we had something in common. Since I wanted to have pot to smoke when I was back in Wisconsin, I brought some with me on the airplane because I didn’t know if I was going to be able to score some once I got back there. Carrying drugs onto an airplane is pretty stupid, especially when this was the first time I had ever flown in my entire life and I didn’t know if they used drug dogs to look for people smuggling drugs or what kind of security measures were in place, so I taped the bag of weed inside my pants just in case any drug dogs smelled it and security made me empty my pockets or searched my carry-on bag. Luckily it was no problem, and I got on the plane just fine carrying about a quarter ounce of pot.

Our original plan when we moved to California was to have myself, Fred, and Diego all move out together at the end of the summer, but Diego decided he would join us a few months later at the end of the year so he could finish the fall semester at college. After Christmas, we all flew back to California for some more adventures, now involving the three of us. Diego didn’t smoke pot, and even though he knew Fred and I had been potheads for years, he was a little uncomfortable with the fact that we were growing it in our apartment. It didn’t really surprise him, he just shook his head at our stupidity. The pot plants grew for the next few months, but because we weren’t using the proper lighting, the buds (the part you smoke) were very thin and practically useless. Our operation had failed. We couldn’t really throw a dozen 5-foot-tall pot plants out in the dumpster because that would be a little difficult to explain to the neighbors, so we cut down the plants one by one and stuck them down the garbage disposal. It ground them up pretty well at first, but the stems on some of the plants were so thick that after a few minutes the garbage disposal got jammed up. We couldn’t call maintenance to come over and fix it, because once the guy took it apart he would realize that it was full of pot leaves, so luckily we were able to fix it ourselves and finished disposing of the evidence. I continued being a pothead for several years after this, and smoked so much over the years that I had a chronic smoker’s cough because of it. I didn’t smoke cigarettes at all, only weed, which is probably 10 times worse for your lungs if it’s not filtered with a water bong, especially if it’s the old, rotten, moldy “Mex” weed shipped in from Mexico in bricks, as opposed to the home grown hydroponics that has become the California standard and widely available at medical marijuana dispensaries and grown in closets by hobbyists. When I finally did quit smoking weed every day a few years later, I joined 24 Hour Fitness and started working out five days a week to get in shape. Every morning in the shower I would cough up some tar and spit on the white shower wall to see how nasty it was. Within several months the tar balls were much smaller, but I could still see black residue in my spit.

For over a year I would still cough up black tar in the morning. A year! And this was with me working out five days a week. I started worrying that I had a tumor or something in my lung that was producing the black stuff I was coughing up because it just kept coming. Finally after a year or so my lungs were clean. I’m not saying I won’t take a bong hit or eat a brownie ever again, but the wake and baking and 24/7 pot smoking had to come to an end.

Working as a Telemarketer One of the first real jobs I got in California was at a shady telemarketing company that promoted timeshares. Fred and I and my new friend Max, who I met at school in a philosophy class, all got hired at the same time. There was a group interview and the company hired a bunch of people, and their lack of standards caused them to hire us. You can probably imagine what a telemarketing company is like, it’s mainly just a huge room full of desks and phones and people making unsolicited phone calls all day to promote whatever crap it is they’re selling. The job was a weekend job only on Saturdays and Sundays for about six hours each day, and the first day on the job we smoked a huge blunt (a cigar filled with marijuana) on the way to work and arrived nice and high. We were all given phone lists of people to call to try and rope in to buy a timeshare, but nobody really seemed to be interested. 99% of the people would hang up on us or yelled at us for calling them. This just wasn’t going to work, so we started making prank phone calls to random people and enjoying ourselves. It was much better than pitching timeshares. The three of us just sat around laughing all day, and it was clear that we were not doing our job. On our break we would go out back and smoke more weed by the dumpster and would come back in reeking of marijuana and just screw around for the rest of our shift. One time the manager came in and started yelling at us, and we all just started laughing uncontrollably at him because we were so high we couldn’t contain ourselves. Right to his face! We all got fired. What a surprise.

Telling My Boss Off Over the Loudspeakers Once I recorded an audio CD of me telling a story about how messed up the furniture store was that I worked at and how incompetent most of my coworkers were. I laid my audio track on top of the creepy theme song for Unsolved Mysteries and burned it onto a CD and brought it to work the next day and put it in the company’s stereo system and set it on repeat. After turning the volume up all the way, I closed down the building and went home for the night while the CD was blasting on repeat inside throughout the entire building—my several minute rant, repeating, over and over again. I was yelling pretty loud in the recording since I was venting months of frustration. It was awesome. The next morning the manager came to work and unlocked the door only to be greeted by my voice yelling over the loudspeakers how pathetic he was and how pathetic the company was. It was a good three minute rant detailing the failures of the company in a shocking and vicious attack set to music which multiplied its effect. They didn’t fire me because they needed me since I was a great salesman, and like I said, pretty much everyone else there was incompetent. The company went bankrupt a few months later. I saw the writing on the wall as clear as day and my CD was an omen for everyone else to hear.

Turning Twenty-One A funny thing happened when I finally did turn twenty-one, after six years of hardcore drinking and partying since freshman year of high school. Fred, Diego and I went to our favorite grocery store to stock up on plenty of beer to celebrate, and the girl at the cash register made a comment about how we must be having a big party because of all the beer we were buying. “Yeah it’s my birthday,” I told her. “How old are you?” she asked. “Twenty-one,” I responded. “Twenty-one?” she said with a puzzled look. I had been buying beer from her regularly for the last four months ever since I moved to California. I was such a frequent customer that we were on a first name basis and she didn’t even bother to card me anymore because she knew who I was. She

looked at me with a strange face after I told her it was my twenty-first birthday. “I was using a fake ID all of this time,” I told her as a grinned. “But I’m twenty-one now.” She just shook her head and rang up my beer. I think she just wanted to sleep with me.

Miscellaneous California Craziness A friend of Diego’s from work named Demetrios invited us over for a party one night that he and his roommates were having and it was a good time until I offended one of his roommates by saying that Mexico was a complete dump. (I think I called it a complete shit hole to be exact.) Have you ever been to Tijuana? It is a complete dump, and when I happened to mention this fact, before I knew it, Demetrios’ roommate was holding a knife to my throat. He was a Mexican and took great offense to me saying that Mexico was a shit hole. I told him I was new to California and that I was a hick from Wisconsin and I didn’t mean anything by it and thankfully he put the knife away and told me I better not say anything bad about Mexico again. The truth hurts sometimes, you know. We didn’t know it at first but Demetrios was a complete scumbag and liked to snort crystal meth and hang out with strippers who also enjoyed doing drugs. One night when Diego was hanging out at his place a couple guys walked in and pulled guns on them and started yelling about the money Demetrios owed them. That was pretty much the end of our friendship with Demetrios. My 1981 AMC Concord was having some problems since it was getting old. The power steering pump was leaking pretty bad, and since power steering fluid was fairly expensive, I just started pouring motor oil in it and the pump would start working again for a week or so and then I would have to add more oil, but after a while even that got too expensive, so I just starting filling the power steering pump with water. It actually worked. (If you don’t know anything about cars, this is a completely asinine thing to do.) If there was no power steering fluid in the unit (or in this case, it was now water) then I could barely turn the steering wheel. I could still drive the car, but it was very difficult to turn, especially when getting into (or backing out of) a parking space. Conventional wisdom would say that doing such a

dumb thing as pouring water into a power steering pump would cause it to rust and seize, but it actually worked fine and I was able to sell the car a few months later before things really started going wrong with it. Diego came running back up to our apartment after taking out the trash one day frantically saying that the dumpster was on fire, and he grabbed a bucket and filled it up with water from the kitchen sink and ran out there and dumped it on the flames, and I grabbed a pitcher from the cabinet and filled it up with water and followed right behind him. We called 911 to tell them what was happening because the flames were getting pretty high. As we waited for a fire truck to arrive, we continued running back and forth from our apartment to the dumpster with buckets of water throwing them on the flames. Luckily we were able to put the fire out. If Diego hadn’t went out there to throw something away and saw the flames, then it would have only taken a few more minutes before they spread, lighting the car port on fire, and then who knows what else. Just as we breathed a sigh of relief we noticed that another dumpster across the parking lot was on fire too! We frantically put the flames out with more buckets of water from our kitchen sink. The fire department didn’t arrive until after we had put the second dumpster fire out. Some idiot in our complex had deliberately set them on fire! I don’t know if they ever found out who did it, but when they tried to raise our rent a few months later I sent the rental agency a nasty letter telling them how we had saved the complex from burning down and they decided to keep our rent the same. Somehow despite my constant pot smoking, my lack of money for the first few years after I moved to California, and living in a crappy apartment in a dumpy part of town seven miles from the beach, I was able to hook up with two out of the three hottest girls at my college. I made only slight progress with my number one choice who was the most beautiful girl on campus, but she had a boyfriend who she had met on vacation in Cancun or the Bahamas or somewhere, and she planned on moving to Tennessee to be with him. She was crazy, and her roommate thought she was crazy, and since she barely knew the guy, I figured I could convince her not to make the foolish move to Tennessee to be with him.

After making it clear I was perusing her, she invited me to come and work out with her at 24 Hour Fitness one afternoon, so I worked out with her and her two friends, but I didn’t get anywhere with her. She was actually the reason I joined 24 Hour Fitness so I could go and workout with her, so at least something good came out of me perusing her, and landing two out of the three hottest girls on campus still isn’t bad.

The Fun Couldn’t Last After Diego moved in with Fred and I in January, he was the voice of reason we had been missing. He had always been the most responsible of the three of us. Where Fred and I fed off each other’s insanity, Diego could see we were out of control. He had gotten a real job at a business nearby, and I was going to a community college looking to transfer to a university in a few semesters, but Fred still held onto the hope that we could come up with some business opportunity so we would not have to get real jobs. While all three of us drank frequently, Fred’s drinking was getting out of control. Since he didn’t go to school or have a car or job, he would just surf the Internet all day at our apartment and drink and smoke weed. When I would arrive home from class in the afternoon, he was already pretty wasted. Even though I was smoking weed every day and wasn’t the most responsible person in the world, I could see that Fred was spiraling out of control. He would pass out on the floor every night at about 6 or 7pm after drinking all day and was just a mess. Since we were all running out of money, we were drinking boxes of Franzia wine since it was so cheap. Franzia is that bargain box wine that everyone makes fun of. We would buy three or four boxes at a time because beer was getting too expensive. I ended up getting a job at a bookstore at the mall, and after a few more months Fred moved back to Wisconsin. His dad offered him a job with his construction company and wanted him to take over the business in a few years when he retired. It seemed like a good gig, and Fred didn’t want to turn it down. Diego and I were both relieved that we did not have Fred in our lives anymore. Even though I had been a large part of the madness and Fred was one of my best friends, even I realized that he and I were going down the wrong path. Even though I still liked to party, I was beginning to

learn how to balance it with being a responsible student and started thinking about my future career. Shortly after Fred moved out, Diego moved in with his girlfriend who he would later marry and I got my own studio apartment and transferred from the community college to a university to get my bachelor’s degree in communication. The most insane chapter of my life was finally over. I would not entirely leave the madness of the past behind me, however. In the coming years it reared its ugly head a few times like the ghost of Christmas past reminding me that I still had some work to do to straighten myself up.

New Year’s Eve 1999 By the end of 1999 Fred had been living back in Wisconsin and working for his dad but came back to San Diego for the historic New Years Eve of 1999 as we left the twentieth century behind us and entered the year 2000. Curt, Diego’s old roommate from freshman year of college, was also in San Diego for winter break and all of us decided to go to downtown San Diego for New Years. Diego had bought a small Ford Ranger truck by this time, and I was too messed up to drive by the time we left for downtown, so Diego decided to drive his truck that night because he was worried if he drove my beat up old car with the out-of-state license plates on it that it may draw suspicion causing him to get pulled over by the cops. I told you he was the smartest out of the three of us. Diego and Curt rode in the cab of the truck, and Fred and I ducked down in the back as we headed downtown since all four of us couldn’t fit up in the front. There’s nothing like laying down in the bed of a truck looking up at the night sky when you’re wasted as you’re flying down the freeway to reinforce the idea that you’re not normal. We ended up going to a bar and grill called Dick’s Last Resort to celebrate the big event. Fred got thrown out within an hour or so for saying something insulting to a bartender because she was too slow in getting him a drink, but he was able to sneak back in without notice. I brought a few pre-rolled joints which we would occasionally smoke outside in the courtyard and we did this a few times without notice, but our luck later ran out.

The four of us were standing around out there smoking a joint (except Diego who didn’t smoke weed) when the bouncer who threw Fred out spotted him and grabbed him, pushing him towards the exit. Another bouncer who came over for backup noticed Curt was holding a lit joint and so he grabbed Curt and threw him out too. Curt had a drink in his hand which spilled on Diego as the bouncer grabbed him, so Diego started swearing at him and so he signaled to another bouncer and he grabbed Diego and literally pushed him out the door too. Three out of four us had just gotten thrown out in a span of about 15 seconds. I then followed after the bouncers as they shoved everyone outside and we decided to call it a night and go home. At least it was after midnight and we had made it to the New Year.

Almost Missing College Graduation Since I didn’t have a high school graduation technically, since I was not allowed at the ceremony, my college graduation was extremely special to both me and my parents. After all, I had never worn a cap and gown before so this was a big occasion. My parents had flown to California from Wisconsin for the ceremony and before I arrived, a bunch of friends and I met at a local bar to tip back some beers and get a nice buzz on to celebrate. An hour later I led the procession to the ceremony, and just as I was pulling into the parking lot, I rear-ended the car ahead of me and both of my airbags blew out. I wasn’t going that fast, but it was still fast enough to trigger the airbags. The plastic flap covering the airbag on my steering wheel practically sliced into the side of my arm as it flew open and I immediately had what looked like road rash covering part of my forearm from it scraping me. The airbags also stunk really bad and were very loud when they deployed. The car I hit had been pulling into the parking lot too, and so I followed it in and parked alongside of them. As we got out of our vehicles and inspected the damage, which was barely noticeable, I was in my cap and gown so they knew I was graduating, but I doubt they had any idea that I had been drinking. I’m sure I was over the legal limit, and I started worrying that the cops were going to come over to investigate and realize I was drunk.

I started to have visions of my parents sitting in the audience waiting for that proud moment when their son finally walked across the stage and got his diploma, but when my name was called, I was nowhere to be seen. I had to get out of there and get into the ceremony before I got arrested. Ever since my DUI years earlier, I had been very careful not to drink and drive, but this was graduation, and the ceremony was only a mile or so away from the bar, so I didn’t think it would matter. I had a few hundred dollars on me and I offered to give it to the driver of the car if they just forgot that this happened, and I told them I had to get going for the ceremony. The guy driving the car wanted to take it in to get an estimate for the stupid little scratch I left on his bumper, so we exchanged information and I told him that I would just pay for it out right if they sent me the bill because I didn’t want my insurance company to get involved. Word spread at the ceremony that night to everyone in my department about the accident, and everyone kept asking me if I was ok. Aside from the scratch on my arm from the airbag, I was fine, but I was a little shaken up and started having flashbacks of my DUI arrest several years earlier. I really had been careful not to drink and drive since my DUI, but like I said, this was graduation, and I was only driving a mile down the road so I didn’t think it would matter. This was almost the last straw that scared me straight once and for all. What would happen two weeks later would make sure I never returned to my reckless and irresponsible ways.

The Bachelor Party We Would Never Forget Diego, who had been living with his girlfriend for some time, was getting married. His relationship with her had helped save him from wasting his life away like Fred and I had been doing when we were all roommates. By this time, Fred had moved back to Wisconsin several years earlier and had a steady girlfriend and a job, and I just graduated college two weeks before the wedding, so it felt like we were all finally growing up. Almost all of the craziness we were involved in was a thing of the past. Normal life awaited us. Family and friends of the bride and groom all flew out to California for the beautiful outdoor wedding. Two days before the big day we had Diego’s

bachelor party, and since he was the first one of us to get married, it had to be epic. Our crew was finally reunited for the first time in years. It was Diego, Fred, John (my college roommate from sophomore year who was involved in the puking in the flowers incident with me), Carl (the guy who wanted to steal the dead cats from the dumpster at school and throw them in a teacher’s yard), Ken (whose car door got a hole punched in it when Fred threw a construction barricade at someone’s mailbox as we drove by), Curt (Diego’s roommate from freshman year, whose parents let Fred and I stay with them when we first arrived in California), Diego’s younger brother (who didn’t really cause any trouble), and myself. We decided to go to downtown San Diego and hit up a club, and we got a stretched Ford Excursion limo for the ride. We would be getting extremely drunk this night, so we wanted to make sure nobody would get a DUI, and who doesn’t like to party in the back of a limo? Before we arrived downtown, we stopped off at a strip club first. On the drive downtown there was a porno playing on the television located at the front of the limo, and we were drinking and batting around a blow up doll that Ken had bought for the party. When we got out of the limo at the strip club we could see the porno playing on the TV through the tinted window. Because the TV was fairly bright and right next to the window, the picture clearly shined through since it was dark outside. We all started laughing, wondering what the cars had thought that were driving next to us on the freeway since they all could see the porno playing though the window. It was turning out to be a great night. We did the strip club thing, and almost got thrown out after Diego did a back flip on stage after the strippers pulled him up there when they learned it was his bachelor party. Fred then commented that, “This is the kind of night that could end up like some fucked up movie.” Little did we know at the time, but he was right. What would transpire later in the evening was even more fucked up than anything we could imagine. After the strip club, we had a good time at On Broadway, a club downtown, and on the way home we enjoyed sticking the blow up doll out the window and yelling at people walking along the streets. The limo dropped Diego off back at his apartment, and a few other guys at their hotels, and Curt, Ken

and I crashed at Curt’s parents’ house since they were out of town. This was the beautiful multimillion dollar place on top of a huge bluff right next to the ocean where Fred and I stayed (freeloaded) for a few days when we first arrived in California. Curt went to bed and Ken and I sat out on the patio furniture near the edge of the bluff admiring the view. It was pretty late and we were wasted from a great party. Ken had his feet sitting on top of the table and was slouched back in his chair, looking like he was about to pass out soon. After a little while I got up to go to bed and told him not to fall asleep out there because it was pretty chilly. I crashed in Curt’s sister’s room since she was out of town with the parents and the next thing I knew the door bell was ringing and it was morning. Early in the morning. Nobody was answering the door and it kept ringing so I got up to see who it was. To my surprise there stood a police officer. “Was there a party here last night?” he asked. “No,” I answered. “We had a bachelor party, but we just took a limo downtown, we didn’t party here,” I added. It was only the three of us, Ken, Curt and myself who came back to Curt’s parents’ house, and we weren’t loud at all, so I didn’t know why the cop had come over. “Somebody fell off the bluff last night,” he said, “and we think it was from a party at one of the houses up here.” I still didn’t know what he was talking about and wondered why he was telling me this. He then went on to tell me that the person who fell off the cliff had died. I was still pretty much drunk, and this was real early in the morning so I wasn’t thinking clearly. I didn’t understand what he was getting at. The cop then asked me to make sure everyone in the house was accounted for, so I opened the guest room door to see if Ken was sleeping in there, but the room was empty. I found Curt upstairs sleeping in another bedroom, and I looked around the house to see where Ken had crashed but I couldn’t find him. I thought maybe some of the other guys had picked him up and went out to breakfast, so I tried calling his cell phone but he didn’t answer. The police officer then started describing what the guy looked like who had fallen off the cliff. It sounded like Ken. “I’m really sorry,” said the police officer, “but I’m pretty sure it was your friend.”

My eyes started welling up with tears as I remembered him sitting out there at the table, which was only 10 or 15 feet from the edge of the cliff. There was no railing at all, just a huge drop-off to the ocean below. I started having flashes of images pop into my mind imagining Ken getting up out of his chair to come inside and stumbling and falling over the cliff. I then had a wave of images flood my mind of the wedding that was scheduled for the very next day. Curt was in such a stupor from the previous night, he wouldn’t wake up. I would shake him and he would just mumble incoherently and groan. I called Fred on his cell who was with his girlfriend at their hotel room and I told him to get back to Curt’s house immediately. Of course he asked why, and I told him I would tell him once he got there, but that he needed to get there ASAP. He could tell by my tone that something was very wrong. What was I going to tell Diego? Ken was one of the groomsmen, and one of our best friends. How could we explain this to Ken’s mom? How could we tell everyone who came for the wedding? Would there still be a wedding? It didn’t even make any sense to us. We were in shock and weren’t sure what happened. Fred cracked a beer and started drinking to relieve the stress. It was probably 7:30am. A bunch more police and firefighters came to the house along with forensics people, and they were able to determine that Ken decided to walk down the bluff to go to the beach and fell to his death at the point where the cliff drops off in a concave cutout from the crashing waves below. With no railing to deter anyone from walking down the back yard toward the beach, and in the fog and in the dark in of night, nobody could see where the hill suddenly drops off. The coroner said alcohol was not a factor and that visual conditions on the horizon where the water meets the sky causes an optical illusion making it difficult for a person to get their bearings straight in the dark because there are no points of reference. As he made his way down the moderately sloped back yard in the fog, he was unable to determine where the cliff dropped off until he already stepped off with one foot, losing his balance, and falling to his death on the hard sand below. The homeowners were really negligent for not having any kind of railing to discourage people from walking down towards the beach there. Pretty much every other house on that bluff had railings. This one had nothing. The

backyard just led to a slope which later dropped off. It was very deceptive and it’s hard for me to describe if you haven’t seen it for yourself. The bottom line is, if there was a fucking railing like there should have been, then this would have never happened. Those dumb fuck negligent homeowners! I decided to call Ken’s brother instead of his mom, since it would be easier to break the news to him. He was a few years older than us and was in my brother’s class. How do you call one of your best friend’s moms and tell her that her son, who just flew out to California for a wedding, died at the bachelor party? Calling Ken’s brother was the most difficult thing I had to do in my life. Shortly after I told Ken’s brother what had happened, Ken’s mom called me to try and piece things together. We weren’t even sure what had happened at this point, so it was very difficult for her to make sense of it. It was hard for all of us to wrap our minds around what had just happened. The next most difficult thing was calling Diego to tell him what happened. After I told him he asked me if I was serious, and when I said I wasn’t joking, he smashed the phone against the wall and rushed over to Curt’s house. After all the forensics investigators were done tracing Ken’s steps down the bluff, they all left and we stood in the back yard dumbfounded. Ken had already picked up his tuxedo from the rental shop, so on my way back to my apartment I brought it with me, unused, still in its plastic to return it. “Why didn’t you need it?” the guy at the store asked. “He’s dead,” I answered. What else could I say. He must have seen the dazed look on my face and knew I was serious. The wedding went on as planned, and surprisingly we had a good time. Ken was always the life of the party, and he certainly wouldn’t want us to get all depressed and have a bad time at the wedding, so we partied it up to celebrate Diego’s wedding and to remember all the good times and trouble we had gotten into with Ken when we were younger. I ended up hooking up with Diego’s cousin, who was single and extremely beautiful, so that really helped me get through the night too. She was a hot blonde who flew in from the Midwest for the wedding and didn’t have a date.

A week or so later we all gathered back in Wisconsin for Ken’s funeral. It was like a class reunion. Almost everyone from our school was there. Ken was pretty popular and everybody loved him, and our whole town was in shock at what had happened. Everyone felt bad for us too, and especially Diego and his wife. The whole thing was so surreal, and it was so messed up, I just didn’t know how to deal with it. I couldn’t get it out of my head. The bachelor party, the bluff, the police, Ken, the funeral, it all just kept swirling around in my brain. This happened around the end of May, and for that entire summer I just smoked as much pot as I could to try and get my mind off it. I didn’t even go to the beach that summer, since Ken had died on the beach; just being there made me think of his dead body lying in the sand. I had loved the beach and went there at least once a week for years, but that summer I didn’t go at all and I was as white as a ghost from not getting any sun. We had done everything we could to be safe that night. None of us drank and drove like in the past. That’s why we got the limo to make sure everyone was safe, but somehow, the night still ended in tragedy. I wondered for a long time what the message was in this tragedy. What was the lesson to be learned? Why would God allow this to happen? I realized that you never know when you’re gonna die, or when the ones you love are going to die. Despite every precaution, when you least expect it, and in the most unanticipated way, someone’s life can be lost. You know they say that shooting stars burn out bright, and Ken certainly was a shooting star. He was the life of the party, a ladies man, everyone’s friend, and an all-around great guy. I was very lucky to be friends with him. He really knew how to get the most out of life and after I was able to shake off my depression, that’s what I started doing.

Looking

Back

On It All

Of course it was extremely juvenile, immature, reckless, disrespectful, dangerous, stupid, rude, foolish, moronic, idiotic and illegal to do some of the things I did growing up, and one may even argue that writing this book is almost just as bad. Regardless of how bad some of the more questionable activities were that I was involved in, you gotta admit that a lot of them were pretty cool, and if they entertained you by just reading about them, just imagine how cool it was for my friends and I to actually do them! Writing this book was really just a trip down memory lane for myself. As I would write down the stories and review them and edit them, they were so clear in my mind it was like they just happened yesterday. And who wouldn’t like to relive their childhood, a time when you had no responsibilities and you didn’t have to worry about things like your job, bills, retirement, scumbag politicians, insurance, your health, and the dozens of other things that can bring you down when you get older. When I was working on this book some people asked me what the point of it was. The point is, it was fun for me. The point is also to entertain you; to bring you back to your own childhood for a few hours; to show how creativity that is not properly channeled can be dangerous and illegal, and also to let parents know that if their kids seem to be crazy and out of control, there is hope for them that they can find a way to use that energy to better themselves, make a decent living, or even change the world in a positive way. In movies and comic books, super heroes and villains could almost always be the same person, but one of them took the wrong path at some point in their life. If Batman took just a slightly different road in life, he could have been a very dangerous criminal mastermind. If the TV serial killer Dexter had a different moral code, he would have ended up killing innocent people instead of killing murderers who slipped through the justice system and had gotten away with their crimes. Great men throughout history like Martin Luther who initiated the Protestant Reformation, the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, founding father Benjamin Franklin, and countless other men and women we see as heroes today, were actually trouble makers who caused trouble for

the right reasons. Trouble making is a talent and a skill that can be used for either good things or bad. I’ll never forget an old guy named Laurence who was a pharmacist at a local pharmacy that I worked at when I was in high school who years later told me, “I always thought one day you’d be famous or in jail.” He said this when I had bumped into him ten years after we worked together. Laurence saw that I had a lot of potential when I was young, but he wasn’t sure how I would use it. You may think that because I worked at a pharmacy when I was in high school, that I would steal all kinds of pain killers because I liked to party, but honestly I never stole a single pill ever. I respected the owner, and I would never do anything to cheat him or steal from him. I did have a conscience and a code of conduct, believe it or not. Popping pain pills never really appealed to me either. I was also a late bloomer. I wasted a lot of time, money, and energy before finally shaping up, and could have gotten into much more trouble than I did if I hadn’t been so lucky not to get busted for the numerous stupid things I had done. In the hilarious film National Lampoon’s Van Wilder , the main character, Van, (played by Ryan Reynolds) has been in college for seven years and still hasn’t graduated yet. Seven. He’s not a loser, in fact, he’s the furthest thing from it, and everyone at his school loves him. At one point he is asked by an adult, “Surely you have a career in mind,” to which he answers, “Not really. I’m still looking for that dare-to-be-great situation.” Later on, Van Wilder loses faith in himself for not finishing college after so long and says he hasn’t accomplished anything and almost drops out before realizing his true potential and his purpose in life which was to inspire others and bring the best out of them. While Van Wilder took seven years to graduate and figure out his purpose, which he had been doing all along without realizing it, I took 8 years (and a summer school session) before the big day came for me. I didn’t finish with a master’s degree or a doctorate, but with a simple bachelors in communication. In my defense, I did attend four different colleges in five years and changed majors twice so a lot of credits didn’t transfer from one school to the next. I had attended three different schools in three years, and then two years later I transferred again

to my fourth and final school. My point is, I was like Van Wilder, and I almost lost hope for myself as he did as the years went on. In the past there was no message behind my madness, but as I grew older and wiser and through the tragedy of Ken’s death, my legal troubles from my DUI and underage drinking, my personal failures and my quest for spiritual understanding and inner peace, I was able to find a new direction in my life. As I started to finally grow up and calm down, all of the trouble in my past began to feel like it wasn’t even me. While some of the things I’m proud of, some of them I’m completely ashamed of too. My only defense is that I was young (under 21 for most of the madness) and I was stoned for probably 80% of it. Luckily I found an outlet for my creative energy in the form of writing books and making YouTube videos about politics and pop culture. I certainly never “grew up” and stopped causing trouble. I just found a worthwhile cause that I could put my creative energy into. A lot of the things I studied in college about mass media and communication were exactly what I needed to understand the world around me and provided fuel for my fire. Your “cause” doesn’t necessarily have to be exposing political corruption or pulling back the curtain of the mainstream media propaganda machine that shapes our culture like I have been doing. You could channel your energy into a skill, a career, a hobby, a relationship, art, education, or any number of other positive things that could be very beneficial for you and others. Just think about how big of trouble makers actor Jim Carey or Apple Computer founder Steve Jobs must have been before they fully developed the ability to channel their energy into something productive or were provided the proper outlet for their creativity and energy. After I grew up and finally started to get my life on the right track, I also realized how smart my dad really was. My brother and I always thought he was old fashioned and out of touch when we were kids, but the older I got, the more I realized how wise he was. He was able to provide a nice house in a good neighborhood in our small little town, my mom was a stay at home mom for our entire lives after leaving her career as a teacher to raise us, and we took a family vacation pretty much every year to somewhere different

around the United States. Don’t think we were some first class jetsetters or something. The family car was a Chrysler K car with vinyl seats and no air conditioning, so some summer vacations were not exactly pleasant at times when the temperature was in the 80s or 90s! We didn’t have that much money and were only average middle class, but the wisdom and frugal decisions allowed my dad to provide for us, and enabled him to retire in his 60s, which not everyone can do. I could only hope to accomplish what he did in life, and create and manage a family like he and my mom did. My mom is equally fantastic and loving. She’s done a lot of volunteer work around the community with various gardening projects and events, and is just a great person. My mom and dad are also fantastic moral examples of what good people are like. None of my trouble making should be blamed on them or their parenting. It was all my fault. Sometimes there’s nothing a parent can do to prevent their kids from doing crazy things no matter how loving, intelligent, or harsh disciplinarians they are. Boys will be boys. Most of the time parents don’t even have a clue what their kids are actually doing and couldn’t stop them anyway if they tried. My parents are the nicest, most loving parents anyone could ever ask for, so maybe I just couldn’t contain myself from the normalcy at home when I had so much energy and so many ideas bouncing around my brain I just wanted to scream. I feel really bad for putting them through everything that I did— from them having to pick me up at the police station, having to come in for conferences with the school principal, not to mention my countless detentions and having to worry what the heck I was up to when I didn’t come home until 2 o’clock in the morning on the weekends. I have since apologized to them and they accepted it and actually said they were glad the way I finally turned out! Looking back on it all, there’s not much that I would actually do differently, believe it or not. I had a lot of fun. I wouldn’t have been so careless with certain things like drinking and driving, and I would have kept the pot smoking under a little more moderation. I certainly spent too much money on marijuana, but perhaps like many others, I needed the self-medicating because of my over-active mind that raced with the possibilities of my future, yet I was stuck in a small town in the middle of nowhere. If I was

more focused on school I could have earned a master’s degree in less time than it took me to get my bachelors, but then again I did attend four different colleges as I tried to figure out what I wanted to study and where. Who attends four different colleges? Well, I did. I know you shouldn’t dwell on the past, and I certainly had a lot of fun, I just wish I was able to bridle my energy sooner than I did. So if you are young and on the same path I was, I warn you. It seems those older than you always try to tell you some great bits of wisdom so you don’t make the same mistakes that they did when they were young, but it seems that the ears of the young never listen to this wisdom and only realize how right their elders were when many years later, they are the elder and having missed the boat they then try to impart that same wisdom onto the youth in their life, which also tends to fall on deaf ears as it did on their ears when they were told so long ago by someone trying to help them in this mysterious cycle of life. Despite most teachers hating me, or just hoping for the day when they wouldn’t have to deal with me anymore after graduation, there was one high school teacher who saw the potential in me and did what he could to help me find an outlet for my chaotic energy. He was my homeroom teacher, Mr. Garett. For whatever reason, he treated me with respect and seemed to take special notice of me by delegating minor tasks to me during homeroom sessions. Instead of feeling like he was poking his nose in my business or trying to keep an eye on me, he was always cool. When I was in a study hall during final period, oftentimes he would write me a pass so I could get out and go use the weight room which helped keep me out of trouble, not to mention, in shape. I couldn’t sit quietly for the final hour of the school day in study hall! I would have gotten a detention every few weeks, so Mr. Garett really saved me some extra aggravation I didn’t need, and I really enjoyed working out, so it was a win/win situation. It’s teachers like Mr. Garett who go the extra mile for the “troubled” or “at risk” kids that most other teachers have written off as bad apples with no future who help kids like me realize that we are not worthless trouble makers destined for jail or a lifetime plagued with problems, we’re often

just kids who need an outlet for the abundant energy surging through our minds and bodies. Well, I hope that you were entertained by my stories, and I hope that you learned something from them too. They say you learn more from others’ mistakes than you do from your own, and if that’s true, then you just got an incredible education! There’s almost 250 pages of mistakes right in your hand, one right after the other! Anyway, may your own trouble making be balanced with a conscience, respectable boundaries, and style! And make sure your trouble is designed to be creative, funny, and thought provoking; never dumb, dangerous, or destructive. Now put this book down and get out there and start Causing Trouble!

Also by Mark Dice: -The Illuminati: Facts & Fiction -The New World Order: Facts & Fiction -The Resistance Manifesto -Big Brother: The Orwellian Nightmare Come True

Connect with Mark on: Facebook.com/MarkDice Twitter.com / MarkDice.com YouTube.com/MarkDice MarkDice.com

Connect with Mark on:

Facebook.com/MarkDice Twitter.com / MarkDice.com YouTube.com/MarkDice MarkDice.com

Introduction

The Illuminati is either called a “conspiracy theory” or a “conspiracy fact,” depending on who you talk to. Those familiar with the Illuminati secret society may tell you that it is a criminal and diabolical network of some of the world’s most wealthy, educated, and elite bankers, businessmen, and politicians, who work behind the scenes to gain and maintain high levels of power, enormous wealth, and wield control over the world. The list of claims that come along with this monstrous conspiracy are vast, and range from the Illuminati being an elite good-old-boy network looking out for their own interests (often at the expense of others and in unscrupulous ways), to claims that they are actually alien beings from another galaxy who masquerade as humans, drink people’s blood to survive, and are working to prepare planet earth for the arrival of the Antichrist who will rule the New World Order as a god, offering those who worship him “eternal life” through transhumanist technology merging man with machine.

In this book I will help you get to the core of the conspiracy by providing you with some of the original evidence proving the existence and activities of this infamous group, dating back to the late 1700s in the state of Bavaria, Germany, and as more and more evidence is piled up, we will slowly move into the present day, proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the Illuminati is still fully operational, and many of the “conspiracy theories” are actually true.

This analysis is a supplement for my previous book, The Illuminati: Facts & Fiction and will continue to investigate and examine the many allegations and conspiracy theories associated with the Illuminati. Since the subject matter is so vast, this second volume was required to continue my analysis of the wide-ranging claims and evidence connected to the “Illuminati conspiracy.” I am dedicated to separating the facts from the fiction, since buried within the mountain of “conspiracy theories” circulated

on this subject, there is a considerable amount of irrefutable evidence that there is indeed a powerful “Illuminati” secret society that is operating today in America and around the world.

There is also a large amount of wild speculation, half-truths, and outright lies about what the Illuminati is doing, who is involved with them, and what evidence is available. Some people dismiss the idea that there is a “conspiracy” at all, and do not even believe such a thing exists, because when an educated and rational person comes across some of the more outrageous (and clearly false) allegations stemming from the Illuminati conspiracy, they just shake their head in disbelief and get the impression that all the allegations and “conspiracy theories” must be false as well; thinking such claims must have come from equally mentally deranged people who purport some of the more far-fetched and fabricated information as “evidence” and “proof.”

In this book I will present to you a rational approach to the idea of an “Illuminati conspiracy” and I will discuss the historical evidence of the original, admittedly real, Bavarian Illuminati and the roots of this secret society that has spawned countless tales of its power and reach. I will also cover many of the affiliated secret societies that were not examined in my previous book and will continue to investigate various people who claim to be actual former members. We will also look at some political elite insiders and see what they have to say about the Illuminati and the idea that a secret society of powerful men is posing a danger to the world and to our freedoms. Skeptics of an Illuminati conspiracy will be very surprised to learn the names of some prominent people throughout history who have made startling statements clearly revealing their conviction that the Illuminati is real and poses a danger to us all.

I don’t like to use the word “conspiracy” because it has a negative connotation that this material is just a “conspiracy theory,” when in fact, I do very little theorizing at all. The terms “conspiracy theory” and “conspiracy theorist” have become a pejorative, which means they have a negative connotation and are used to insult people and shut down the discussion, similar to someone screaming “racist” at someone in attempts to

bypass critical thinking and cause a knee jerk reaction to paint them as such, when in reality they simply have an opposing political ideology on a particular issue. Much to some people’s surprise, many “conspiracies” are actually real, and the dictionary definition of a conspiracy is simply, “an agreement by two or more persons to commit a crime, fraud, or other wrongful act.” People are actually charged with “conspiracy” in criminal courts every day for simply “conspiring” or planning to commit a crime.

Conspiracies happen on a small scale such as when two people conspire to rob a bank, and on a large scale when the leadership of a powerful country fabricates a reason to go to war. Conspiracies are a fact of life. When researchers such as myself point out real, solid, irrefutable evidence that reveals a conspiracy, we are often attacked as “crazy tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorists,” because the term causes people to immediately dismiss the claims as a paranoid delusion imagined by someone on the Internet who lives in their mother’s basement. The reality is that actual conspiracy theorists can be found in high positions of power and conspiracy theories are put forth by well-educated people. Let’s not forget that Hillary Clinton publicly claimed that a “vast right wing conspiracy” was fabricating allegations that President Bill Clinton had sexual relations with intern Monica Lewinski.1 Hillary Clinton was being a conspiracy theorist, when in reality her husband Bill was having sexual relations with the intern, and there was no conspiracy trying to bring him down—it was only people reporting on the facts.

The Bush administration put forth a conspiracy theory that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and were planning to use them on America and our allies, strong-arming the public into invading the country based on this conspiracy theory which was later proven to be 100% false.2 Not only was it false, but to be more accurate, it was actually a lie concocted to justify the invasion and war. As everyone now knows, there were no weapons of mass destruction at all, and Americans had been duped into going to war based on a conspiracy theory constructed by the US government.



Until the twenty-first century, most Americans had never heard of the Illuminati. Dan Brown’s novel Angels & Demons introduced millions of people to the group in 2003 (although his version was far from the truth and more like a purposeful disinformation campaign). And with the rise of the information age and social media, YouTube videos a click away, and countless websites popping up dedicated to the subject, more and more people became interested in this mysterious subject.

The 2004 presidential election in America brought John Kerry and George W. Bush together to face off for the presidency, both of whom are members of the Skull & Bones secret society headquartered at Yale University, which added fuel to this growing fire. I say that they are members, not were members, because Skull & Bones is not just a fraternity like they would have you believe, but is instead a post-graduate organization that gives its members access to one of the most powerful social networks in the world. This is how two Skull & Bones members were able to secure the nominations for both the Republican and Democrat party in the same election, so no matter which one of them won (George W. Bush or John Kerry), it would be a victory for Skull & Bones.

It was around this same time that “9/11 conspiracy theories” were growing, and the cover story for the War in Iraq continued to fall apart. The official story of the September 11th attacks and the expanding “war on terror” just wasn’t adding up. For the first several years after the World Trade Center was destroyed, so-called “9/11 conspiracy theories” were contained to the Internet, but around 2005 and 2006 they boiled over into the mainstream and found many high-profile supporters whose comments about 9/11 being an “inside job” couldn’t be ignored by the mainstream media.3

When people interested in investigating the massive inconsistencies in the official story tried piecing together what really happened that day, it inevitably took many “down the rabbit hole” to discover the various secret societies that all led back to the Illuminati. 9/11 would lead to Skull & Bones, which would lead to the Bilderberg Group, which would lead to the Bohemian Grove, which would lead to the Illuminati and a whole can of

worms that raised many more questions about what the shadowy elite of our world are doing behind the scenes was opened.

When one quiets their mind from the buzz of pop culture and mainstream media and steps back from their self-absorbed lifestyle and looks deeper into world events and the power structure directing society, they begin to see the world very differently. Once someone begins to understand that there is more than meets the eye in our world, and they discover the different branches of elite ruling class networks that all converge under one umbrella, their life is often never the same. People describe it as their awakening to what’s really happening in the world or “going down the rabbit hole,” or having their eyes finally opened.

If one truly wishes to learn about the history of the world, and about the driving force behind major world events, the economy, and even our very culture, then one must look into the Illuminati. At one point in history, in the late 1700s, when the Illuminati was first exposed, most people knew about them and the dangers they posed but as time went on and generations have passed, most people had forgotten about them. Sports entertainment and celebrity news had come to dominate most people’s minds and many had fallen asleep at the wheel thinking everything was just fine.

Just as many people used to doubt and deny that the Italian Mafia even existed, the same is true of the modern Illuminati. Ancient secret societies are admitted by mainstream historians to have existed and were not just social clubs for men looking to keep themselves entertained after work. They had a powerful function, even back then. Manly P. Hall, a very well respected secret society insider, explains, “The esoteric organizations of ancient times were for the most part religious and philosophical. In the medieval world they were philosophical and political. In the modern world, political and social.”4

He goes on to say plainly, “It is beyond question that the secret societies of all ages have exercised a considerable degree of political influence,” and that “a second purpose for secret societies was to create a

mechanism for the perpetuation from generation to generation of policies, principles, or systems of learning, confined to a limited group of selected and initiated persons.”5

For years, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover denied that the La Cosa Nostra or Italian Mafia even existed. Some believe the mob was actually blackmailing Hoover with compromising photos of him and his boyfriend Clyde Tolson, but for whatever reason, even the head of the FBI publicly denied there was any such thing as an organized criminal business network that had police, judges, lawyers, and other public officials on their payroll. All the denials changed in 1957 after a major mafia meeting on a farm in Apalachin, New York (about 200 miles northwest of New York City) was discovered, now known as the Apalachin Meeting.

The property was owned by gangster Joseph Barbara and the suspicious gathering of fancy cars and men in suits got the attention of a state trooper. Police surrounded the property and ended up detaining fiftyeight men, and for the first time there was indisputable evidence that the Italian Mafia did, in fact, exist. Many of the men were suspected or wanted criminals who claimed they were just meeting for a weekend barbecue. Of course police had a decent idea of what was really going on and the Mafia began to be unmasked. Some of the men tried to flee into the nearby woods, but most were apprehended. “Don Vito” Genovese, the leader of the Genovese crime family, had organized the meeting to delegate various gambling, loansharking, and drug trafficking operations.

More shocking revelations were to come a few years later in 1963 when a mobster named Joe Valachi, who worked for Lucky Luciano and the Genovese Crime Family for 30 years, testified before the McClellan Congressional Committee on Organized Crime and revealed in detail many of the Mafia’s operations. Valachi had hoped his testimony would help him avoid a death sentence for murder. His testimony shocked most people who could have never imagined how far-reaching the Mafia was, and how they regularly paid police and judges to look the other way. Joe Valachi’s congressional testimony also introduced the world to the term La Cosa Nostra.



Many people wonder if the Illuminati Mafia actually call themselves “the Illuminati.” I highly doubt it, although perhaps occasionally in jest. The Italian Mafia referred to themselves as La Cosa Nostra, which means “this thing of ours,” or “our thing,” so the Italian Mafia literally had no name. They didn’t call each other up and say “hey we’re having a Mafia meeting tonight, why don’t you stop by?” No. They just said, “we have to do our thing” and they knew what each other meant. While you will learn, the Illuminati did at one time call themselves “the Illuminati,” they have most likely abandoned this term long ago, and have expanded into various front groups to further their aims, and—like the Italian Mafia—speak in a language that is understood by each other, but doesn’t betray its true meaning to outsiders.

Many scholars, reporters, and government officials say that conspiracies “never work” because “it’s too difficult to keep a secret” and point to events like Watergate to justify their claims, but it’s foolish to believe that every major conspiracy which is attempted is botched, or that word of it would leak out somehow. It’s preposterous to assume that every group of conspirators are so foolish that they haven’t planned plausible deniability for their actions to convolute any investigation to the point of confusion if any suspicion is aroused or if any outsiders were to take a closer look into their activities.

The Manhattan Project (the atomic bomb program) began in 1939 and was kept secret for six years until the world witnessed the mushroom cloud rising up from what was the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945. The project cost $2 billion dollars (adjusted for inflation, that’s $26 billion in 2014 dollars) and 130,000 people worked on it in several different states,6 making it the largest project in American history, but it was still completed in secret. Lieutenant Leslie Groves of the Army Corps of Engineers who directed the project would later reveal in his book Now It Can Be Told: The True Story of the Manhattan Project, that, “compartmentalization of knowledge, to me, was the very heart of security. My rule was simple and not capable of misinterpretation—each man should know everything he needed to know and do his job and nothing else.”7



By giving different groups of scientists and engineers separate tasks and fabricating cover stories for what they were actually working on, those in the know were able to pull off their plan without any outsiders seeing the big picture. President Harry Truman, who was the Vice President under FDR, only became aware of the program after President Roosevelt’s death in April of 1945, when Truman was then sworn in as his replacement— that’s how well kept the secret was! Not even the vice president knew of this enormous and expensive life-altering plan! Four months after Truman was sworn in as president and let in on the secret, the bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and then three days later, the second one destroyed Nagasaki.

While enormous secrets can be kept by the political elite, they also sometimes leak out. The political elite often become arrogant because of their power and think they can get away with anything. How else could you explain John Edwards running for president in 2008, when he knew he had a newborn illegitimate child from an affair with his campaign’s photographer while his wife Elizabeth was dying of cancer? The Illuminati see themselves as the Gods of Mount Olympus, as literally having evolved into gods thanks to their occult knowledge, which often leads to arrogance and carelessness, causing some of their secrets to be revealed.

How did this “Illuminati” start, and how did they operate in the past, and more importantly, what are they doing right now? In short, the “priest class”—or what is considered to be the ancient Illuminati—dates back thousands of years to ancient Egypt and Greece, where Man’s unfolding intellect was kept hidden from the general public and reserved for “the elect” or the “sages” in what were called Mystery Schools. These fraternities taught the various sciences and philosophies to the intellectual elite who benefitted tremendously from this knowledge. Many believe that at one time in the ancient past, the Mystery Schools had the best of intentions but were hijacked and taken over by selfish and wicked men who used their superior intellect, not to help mankind, but to take advantage of people, morphing the once noble fraternities into a Gnostic mafia of sorts, keeping the majority of humans in the dark about the true nature of reality.



33rd degree Freemason Manly P. Hall claims, “With the decline of virtue, which has preceded the destruction of every nation of history, the Mysteries became perverted. Sorcery took the place of the divine magic.”8 There is a belief in esoteric circles that God or Gods, or extra-terrestrials, or even Satan, gave an ancient human (or small group of humans) some kind of secret knowledge, allowing him (or them) the ability to activate incredible powers latent in the mind, enabling them to become the first priests and kings. Many occultists believe this power can be traced back to the Atlanteans, the supposed demigods, who—according to the theory—are believed to have literally inhabited the Lost City of Atlantis.

These ideas, fraternities, and philosophies will be examined throughout this book. We’ll look into dozens of interconnecting esoteric circles from the ancient Mystery Schools of the Eleusians and Dionysians to the Gnostics, the Knights Templar, Jesuits, Freemasons, Skull & Bones, Bilderberg Group, Bohemian Grove, the Federal Reserve, and many lesserknown, but critically important, pieces of the puzzle as well.

What are the facts and what is fiction? How did it all start? What is the evidence for the Illuminati’s existence? What are their goals? Are they in communication with alien beings from another galaxy that secretly work with them and guide them in their evil ways? Are they themselves alien beings disguised as humans? You are about to find out as you dive head first Inside the Illuminati.







Early Evidence

When we talk about the Bavarian Illuminati, we’re talking about the group that a man named Adam Weishaupt founded in Bavaria, a southern state in Germany, back in 1776. Specifically he founded it on May 1st 1776, which is called May Day or Walpurgis Night, a date celebrating an old meeting of witches and sorcerers. May Day is also a major Communist holiday that celebrates the “workers of the world.” Almost 200 years after Adam Weishaupt ceremoniously founded the Illuminati on this day, Anton LaVey ritualistically shaved his head and founded the Church of Satan on May 1st 1966 as his way of celebrating this occult holiday.9

The Bavarian Illuminati was basically a reorganization and modernization of the corrupted ancient Mystery Schools. Weishaupt was a lawyer like so many corrupt politicians today, and in 1772 when he was twenty-four-years-old, he became a law professor at Ingolstadt University in Bavaria, Germany. A few years later he became the dean of the law department and began formulating his plan to launch the Illuminati.

He received his inspiration for forming his secret society from both the Rosicrucian manifestos and from the Jesuits (the zealous elite Catholic Society of Jesus founded in 1540). The Rosicrucian manifestos were books that first appeared in 1614 in Germany, and described an “invisible brotherhood” dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge and Hermetic and alchemical magic. No such secret society actually existed, but the Rosicrucian manifestos planted the seeds for such a thing in men’s minds, which was the author’s purpose (although not the tyrannical kind of organization that Adam Weishaupt conceived).

Weishaupt used his position at the university to begin recruiting students and others to join him in his quest to overthrow the ruling monarchs of his day and install a global communist system with him and his inner circle of associates as the new rulers. Originally he called his

group the Perfectabilists, meaning they aimed to “perfect” man by facilitating his “evolution,” but the name Perfectabilists was quickly changed to the Illuminati to fit in with the “enlightenment” theme of the era, since Illuminati is Latin for “the enlightened ones.” While he was growing increasingly successful at expanding his network and influence, it was only a matter of time before his secrets began to slowly leak out.



Original Writings Found

It’s indisputable that original copies of Adam Weishaupt’s writings were discovered and published for all to read. This is fully admitted in mainstream history books and encyclopedias, although few people care to take the time and actually look. Today, well over one hundred original documents are kept at the State Museum in Ingolstadt, Germany, where they are on public display.

Founder, Adam Weishaupt, wrote under the pseudonym “Spartacus” and all other members used pseudonyms as well, although many were identified after their letters were found and some defectors came forward. In 1784, eight years after the Illuminati were formed, a defector named Joseph Utzchneider gave a bunch of documents to Duchess Dowager Maria Anna, warning her of the organization and their goals of overthrowing the government and destroying religion. The Duchess, who was the sister-inlaw of the Duke, handed them over to her brother-in-law Duke Karl Theodore, the leader of Bavaria.

A seemingly farfetched tale regarding the discovery of more original writings involves a story about how an Illuminati member was struck by lightning and killed, and when his body was examined the coroner discovered some documents that had been stuffed in a hidden pocket sewn into his clothes. Adam Weishaupt fled Bavaria in 1785 and headed to a neighboring province when he saw the writing on the wall that authorities were closing in on him. He and his friend Jakob Lanz were riding on horseback on their way to Regensburg when Lanz was struck by lightning and killed.10

While this story is so bizarre, it’s understandable for people to dismiss it as a myth, but multiple historical sources report that this is exactly what

happened.11 But regardless, a treasure trove of documents were also discovered by other means as well.

On October 11th 1786 police searched the home of Xavier von Zwack, located in the city of Landshut (45 miles from Ingolstadt), where they found over two hundred letters including membership lists, symbols, carvings used to fake various wax seals used by princes, nobles, clergymen, and merchants; instructions on counterfeiting, committing suicide, recipes for poison, an abortion tea, invisible ink, and instructions for building an explosive strongbox that would blow up and destroy everything inside if it was opened by someone who didn’t know how to disarm it. One paper listed a method for filling a room full of a deadly gas in case they wanted to kill someone without getting their hands dirty.12 These documents were soon published by the government in a report titled Some Original Works of the Order of the Illuminati [Einige Originalschriften Des Illuminaten Ordens in German].

The following year in 1787 police searched the castle of Baron de Bassus and discovered more papers which were then published as a Supplement of Further Original Works.13 The next year in 1788 Johann Faber published The Genuine Illuminati [Der ächte Illuminati] which revealed the rituals for the Preparation, Novitiate Degree, Minerval Degree, the Minor and Major Illuminati Degrees.

In 1789 a French journalist named Jean-Pierre-Louis de Luchet published a book titled Essay on the Sect of the Illuminists [Essai sur la Secte des Illuminés] which denounced the Illuminati and said they controlled Masonic lodges throughout Europe.

In 1794 Illuminati whistleblower Ludwig Adolf Christian von Grolmann published The Latest Work Of Spartacus and Philo (Weishaupt’s and Baron von Knigge’s code names) [Die Neuesten Arbeiten Des Spartacus Und Philo], exposing the secrets of the Illuminati Dirigens degree (Scottish Knight degree) which appointed men to run Masonic lodges so they could recruit new members from within Freemasonry.



In 1797 a French Jesuit priest named Abbe Barruel published a series of books on the French Revolution because he believed it was the result of the Illuminati, saying, “The third conspiracy, which I am now about to investigate, is that of the atheistical Illuminati, which at my outfit I denominated the conspiracy of the Sophisters of Impiety and anarchy against every religion natural or revealed, not only against kings, but against every government, against all civil society, even against all property whatsoever.”14

Barruel pondered, as others still do today, as to whether Weishaupt was the mastermind behind the conspiracy, or whether he was working with or for someone else. “It is not known, and it would be difficult to discover, whether Weishaupt ever had a master, or whether he is himself the great original of those monstrous doctrines on which he founded his school,” he wrote.15

A man named John Robison, a science professor (called natural philosophy back then), living in Scotland published a lengthy book about the Illuminati in 1798 titled Proofs of a Conspiracy, which was one of the first books written in English about the organization. Before writing his book, he was actually asked to join them, but after looking into the group he realized he didn’t want to have anything to do with them and then decided to write his book hoping to expose them. In Proofs of a Conspiracy, he also included English translations of many of the confiscated Illuminati papers.

Robison wrote that, “A collection of original papers and correspondence was found by searching the house of one Zwack (a member) in 1786. The following year a much larger collection was found at the house of Baron Bassus; and since that time Baron Knigge, the most active member next to Weishaupt, published an account of some of the higher degrees, which had been formed by himself.”16

He warned, “An association has been formed for the express purpose of rooting out all the religious establishments and overturning all the

existing governments of Europe. I have seen this association exerting itself zealously and systematically, till it has become almost irresistible.” He continued, “I have seen that this association still exists, still works in secret, and that not only several appearances among ourselves show that its emissaries are endeavoring to propagate their detestable doctrines among us, but that the association has Lodges in Britain corresponding with the mother Lodge at Munich ever since 1784.”17



Original 5 Members

Adam Weishaupt (codename: Spartacus)

Andreas Sutor

(Erasmus Rotero-damus)

Bauhof or Baubof (Agathon)

Franz Anton von Massenhause (Ajax)

Max Elder von Merz (Tiberius)



Primary Goals

The original top five goals of the Illuminati were: 1) Abolish the Monarchy and replace all governments. 2) Abolish private property and inheritance. 3) Abolish patriotism along with people’s national identity and national pride. 4) Abolish the family, marriage, morality, and then have the government raise and indoctrinate the children. 5) Abolish all religion. These are basically the same goals that would be outlined around seventy years later in the Communist Manifesto (1848) and make up the foundation of communism since Weishaupt no doubt inspired Karl Marx. More on this later.

More modern goals include a universal one world digital currency; a Big Brother Orwellian surveillance state; the elimination of the second Amendment and ending citizens’ gun ownership (leaving only police and military to be armed); implementing an all-powerful nanny state socialist government; all leading up to the unveiling of a “messiah” who will claim to be God and offer people eternal life here on earth, saying he has “restored mankind” to our “pre-fallen” state so we can live forever through the use of cybernetic Transhuman technology on the new “Heaven on earth” he has created.18



Deposition for the Court

In 1785 three former members, Joseph Utzschneider, George Grunberger, and Johann Cosandey wrote out a joint deposition for the court where they provided information about some of the Illuminati’s goals and philosophies that men in the first few degrees were taught. First of all, “The Illuminee who wishes to rise to the highest degree must be free from all religion; for a religionist (as they call every man who has any religion) will never be admitted to the highest degrees.”19

The second principle revealed to the initiates was that the ends justify the means. “The welfare of the Order will be a justification for calumnies [defamatory statements], poisonings, assassinations, perjuries, treasons, rebellions—in short, for all that the prejudices of men lead them to call crimes. One must be more submissive to the Superiors of the Illuminati, than to the sovereigns or magistrates who govern the people; and he that gives the preference to sovereigns or governors of the people is useless to us. Honor, life, and fortune, all are to be sacrificed to the Superiors. The governors of nations are despots when they are not directed by us. They can have no authority over us, who are free men.”20

What they called the Patet Exitus, or the “doctrine of suicide,” was also taught as an honorable way anyone who was caught could escape prosecution and prevent themselves from revealing the Order’s secrets.

Thirdly, the deposition revealed, “The Superiors of the Illuminati are to be looked upon as the most perfect and the most enlightened of men; no doubts are to be entertained even of their infallibility.”21

“It is in these moral and political principles that the Illuminati are educated in the lower degrees; and it is according to the manner in which

they imbibe [assimilate] them and show their devotion to the Order, or are able to second its views, that they are earlier or later admitted to the higher degrees.”22

“In consequence of our acquaintance with this doctrine of the Illuminati, with their conduct, their manners, and their incitements to treason, and being fully convinced of the dangers of the Sect, we the Aulic Counsellor Utzschneider and the Priest Dillis left the Order. The Professor Grünberger, the Priest Cosandey, Renner, and Zaupfer, did the same a week after.”

Their testimony continues, “It [the Illuminati] spread through almost every province under the cloak of Freemasonry; because it sows division and discord between parents and their children, between Princes and their subjects, and among the most sincere friends; because on all important occasions it would install partiality on the seats of justice and in the councils, as it always prefers the welfare of the Order to that of the state, and the interests of its adepts to those of the profane.”23

“Experience had convinced us, that they would soon succeed in perverting all the Bavarian youth. The leading feature in the generality of their adepts were irreligion, depravity of morals, disobedience to their Prince and to their parents, and the neglect of all useful studies. We saw that the fatal consequence of Illuminism would be, to create a general distrust between the prince and his subjects, the father and his children, the minister and his secretaries, and between the different tribunals and councils.”24

“We abandoned, one after the other, this Sect [the Illuminati], which under different names, as we have been informed by several of our former Brethren, has already spread itself in Italy, and particularly at Venice, in Austria, in Holland, in Saxony, on the Rhine, particularly at Frankfort, and even as far as America. The Illuminati meddle as much as possible in state affairs, and excite troubles wherever their Order can be benefited by them.”25



“After we had retired from the Order, the Illuminati calumniated us on all sides in the most infamous manner. Their cabal made us fail in every request we presented; succeeding in rendering us hateful and odious to our superiors, they even carried their calumnies [defamatory statements] so far as to pretend that one of us had committed murder.”26

 





Original Illuminati Structure

The Nursery (Entry Level)

 

Preparatory Literary Essay

Novitiate (Novice)

Minerval (Brethren of Minerva, Academy of Illuminism)

Illuminatus Minor

 

Symbolic Freemasonry

Apprentice

Fellow Craft

Master

Scots Major Illuminatus



Scots Illuminatus Dirigens (Directory)

 

The Mysteries (Higher Level)

Lesser

Presbyter, Priest

Prince or Regent

 

Greater

Magus

Rex or King





The 1st Edict Against the Illuminati

An edict is an act of law issued by a monarchy, (much like an executive order issued by a president today) and on June 22, 1784, Duke Karl Theodore, the Elector of Bavaria [the ruler of the state], issued the first edict against the Illuminati after his sister-in-law Duchess Dowagar Maria Anna was given some documents by an early defector named Joseph Utzschneider, and then passed them onto the Duke.27

The edict reads, in part, “Whereas all communities, societies and associations without approval from a public authority and the confirmation of the Monarch are illegal, prohibited by law, suspect and dangerous things in [and] of themselves. His Electoral Highness [the Duke] has decided not to tolerate them in his State, whatever their designation and interior constitutions, ordering categorically…one and all subjects to withdraw from any association or secret assembly of this kind…those societies [have] drawn the attention of the public and awakened its fears…”28



The 2nd Edict Against the Illuminati

The following year in 1785, Duke Karl Theodore issued a second edict, which was much more threatening and specifically named the Illuminati and Freemasonry as the perpetrators of a conspiracy against the government. In this edict the Duke also announced that if anyone were to come forward and reveal who was involved or specifically which masonic lodges had been infiltrated and were being used in this conspiracy—that informant could remain anonymous and even keep half the money that was confiscated as a result of their confession. The other half [of the money], the edict said, would be given to the poor.

It reads in part, “We [the government]…have been deeply affected and displeased to learn that the various Lodges of so-called Freemasons and Illuminati, who are still in our States, have taken so little heed of our General Prohibition issued on June 22nd of last year against all fraternal societies clandestine and unapproved, as to not only continue to hold meetings in secret, but to raise funds, and to recruit new members, seeking to further increase the already large numbers of adepts.”29

It continues, “We had deemed this society, very much degenerated and of primitive institution, too suspect, both as regards to religious concerns and from a social and political point of view, so that we could no longer tolerate it in our States…we command that all authorities must execute our orders exactly and secretly inform us of any disobedience. We declare that all money and any funds collected illegally [by the lodges] shall be confiscated [and] half will be given to the poor, while the other half will go to the denunciator [informant], even if he is a member of one of those societies, with a promise to keep his name confidential.”30

The edict concludes, “We hope that each of our subjects value enough of our favor and his own honor and happiness so that everywhere we can

count on due obedience to our orders and be excused from having to take more severe measures.”31



The 3rd Edict Against the Illuminati

On August 16, 1787, not long after the castle of Baron de Bassus was searched, where more papers were discovered, the third edict against the Illuminati was issued by the Duke of Bavaria saying the penalty would be death for any Illuminati members discovered meeting or recruiting anyone to join them. “Any so charged and found guilty are to be deprived of their lives by the sword; while those thus recruited are to have their goods confiscated and themselves to be condemned to perpetual banishment from the territories of the Duke. Under the same penalties of confiscation and banishment, the members of the order, no matter under what name or circumstances, regular or irregular, they should gather, are forbidden to assemble as lodges.”32

“As more time passes it is further realized how harmful and dangerous the Order of the Illuminati will be for the State and religion if allowed to flourish here and beyond. It is impossible to predict the deplorable effects that would result for posterity if we stand back, if not handled very seriously while there is still time to forcefully eradicate a disease which is far more daunting than the plague itself.”33

“…for the recruiter he is to be deprived of life by the sword, and for the recruited he will be sentenced to have his property confiscated and banished for life from all States of His Electoral Highness, with a promise of never being allowed to return. Under the same penalties of forfeiture and expulsion, the prohibited Lodges of the Illuminati, under whatever name they may hide and carefully present themselves, in all places, must be subject to rigorous surveillance. Those in lodge attire will be held and treated as if they had attended meetings in secret, in suspect places such as hotels or particular houses, and we will not allow the futile excuse usually given—an honest society of good friends—especially when those present have already been suspected of impiety and Illuminism.”34



The 4th Edict Against the Illuminati

Most mainstream sources (including the often inaccurate and completely unreliable Wikipedia) claim that shortly after the third edict was issued in 1787, the Illuminati were completely irradiated and weren’t much of a concern after that. The problem is—the Duke of Bavaria actually issued a fourth edict a few years later in 1790 saying that the Illuminati was not only still active but were continuing to recruit new members!

On November 15, 1790, the following announcement against the Illuminati was issued by the Duke, saying, “The Elector has learned, partly by the spontaneous confession of some members, party by sound intelligence, that despite the Edicts of July 14, 1784 and August 16th 1785 (and in the same month in 1787), the Illuminati still hold, albeit in smaller numbers, secret meetings through the Electorate, but especially in Munich and the surrounding area; they continue to attract young men to the cause and have maintained a correspondence with [secret] societies and with members in other countries.”35

It goes on, “They continue to attack the State and especially religion, either verbally or through pamphlets…Every speech, every printed book or manuscript against religion and the state must be reported to the authorities or the Elector [Duke] himself, as well as any secret meetings. Those who have remained silent on these issues, having indeed been proven to have possessed information, will be severely punished. The denunciator, even if he was an accessory to the crime, will receive a cash reward along with the other, and his identity will be kept confidential.”36

The fourth edict clearly warns, “Any member who has assisted in a secret meeting, has recruited new members or corresponded with [secret] societies or brothers in other countries, will be mercilessly punished by death. Any civil servant or [those in the] military, any holder of a beneficial

office, a parish priest, etc., must swear that he has not and will never form a part of the sect or they’ll be convicted of perjury and shall be punished accordingly.”37



Taking Over the Government

One of the original Illuminati defectors named Joseph von Utzschneider, who gave a deposition to the court about the Illuminati plans, warned that they planned to “introduce a worldwide moral regime which would be under their control in every country. This council would decide on all matters concerning pardons, appointments and promotions, as well as rejections…This would give it the unlimited right to pronounce final judgment over the honesty and usefulness of an individual.”38

The confiscated correspondence between members confirms this allegation. One of the letters reads, “The Order must possess the power of life and death in consequence of our oath; and with propriety, for the same reason, and by the same right, that any government in the world possesses it —for the Order comes in their place, making them unnecessary. When things cannot be otherwise, and ruin would ensue if the association did not employ this mean, the Order must, as well as public rulers, employ it for the good of mankind; therefore for its own preservation.”39

Many letters clearly revealed their intent to deceive people in order to “insure their happiness.”40 Weishaupt’s megalomaniacal goals of world domination become clear with such statements as, “the Order will, for its own sake, and therefore certainly, place every man in that situation in which he can be most effective. The pupils are convinced that the Order will rule the world. Every member therefore becomes a ruler.”41

“The great strength of our Order lies in its concealment; let it never appear in any place in its own name, but always covered by another name, and another occupation.”42 This has effectively happened with private organizations like the Council on Foreign Relations, the Bilderberg Group, and the Federal Reserve—basically taking over the key power centers in society. It must be pointed out that the Founding Fathers of America wrote

down their grievances with the Monarch in the Declaration of Independence and 56 men signed their names to it and sent it off to the king of England. They didn’t hide their intentions or deceive people hoping to further their aims. They were open and honest about their beliefs, tactics, and goals— unlike Weishaupt and the Illuminati—who used deception and fraud as a standard practice.

Similarly, when theologian Martin Luther opposed the tyrannical control of the Catholic Church over 250 years before Weishaupt, he wrote down his grievances and nailed them on the front door of his local church in 1517. He didn’t lie or deceive anyone about his hopes of breaking the Catholic Church’s stranglehold on society, but fellow German, Adam Weishaupt, was power-hungry himself, and instead of wanting to free society from the tyranny of the Jesuits and the Catholic Church, he wanted to be the tyrant himself.



Inducting New Members

Various venues were used for recruiting new members. Once someone expressed interest to a current member about his desire to overthrow the monarch, that person was “carefully observed in silence,” and if, after consideration by the council, “the Novice” as they were called, were thought to be a possible asset, he would be appointed a mentor and invited to a conference.43

One correspondence between members reads, “I shall therefore press the cultivation of science, especially such sciences as may have an influence on our reception in the world; and may serve to remove obstacles out of the way…Only those who are assuredly proper subjects shall be picked out from among the inferior classes for the higher mysteries…And in particular, every person shall be made a spy on another and on all around him.”44

Once given initial approval by the council, the Novice would be shown “certain portions” of the goals and rules of the Order and was instructed to give a weekly account in writing of his progress in carrying out his directives. At this point he was not allowed to take physical possession of any material and had to read it in the Mentor’s house just to make sure they wouldn’t turn it over to authorities, giving them concrete evidence of the conspiracy.45

High level member Baron Von Knigge would later admit, “As a rule, under the veil of secrecy, dangerous plans and harmful teachings can be accepted just as well as noble intentions and profound knowledge; because not all members themselves are informed of such depraved intentions, which sometimes tend to lie hidden beneath the beautiful facade…because for the most part, unknown superiors lie in ambush and it is unworthy of an intelligence man to work according to a plan, which he does not fully see.”46



Another original correspondence brags, “Nothing can escape our sight; by these means we shall readily discover who are contented, and receive with relish the peculiar state-doctrines and religious opinions that are laid before them; and, at last, the trustworthy alone will be admitted to a participation of the whole maxims and political constitution of the Order… In a council composed of such members we shall labor at the creation of means to drive by degrees the enemies of reason and of humanity out of the world, and to establish a peculiar morality and religion fitted for the great society of mankind.”47

In perhaps the most sinister initiation to the higher levels, a prospect was told they had to show their loyalty to the Illuminati by killing someone who betrayed the Order. The candidate was taken before a man bound and gagged who was said to have betrayed their oaths and then handed a knife and blindfolded before being positioned in front of the supposed traitor who they were then ordered to stab. Once the prospect stabbed the “person” in front of them, the blindfold was removed to reveal that the “traitor” had been swapped with a sheep, and the entire charade was a test of their loyalty.48

If the candidate refused to carry out the “murder” of the supposed “traitor,” then they were told they passed the test anyway but were then never allowed to proceed to a higher level and never trusted with any deeper secrets because they had shown they wouldn’t kill for the Order.



Contingency Plans if Discovered

A lot of people claim that because some Illuminati members were discovered and many of their writings published, that they simply gave up and ceased to exist from that point on, but common sense, the Duke of Bavaria’s 4th Edict, and the Illuminati’s own writings suggests otherwise. Weishaupt wrote, “By this plan we shall direct all mankind. In this manner, and by the simplest means, we shall set all in motion and in flames. The occupations must be so allotted and contrived, that we may, in secret, influence all political transactions…I have considered everything, and so prepared it, that if the Order should this day go to ruin, I shall in a year reestablish it more brilliant than ever.”49

“There must not be a single purpose that ever comes in sight that is ambiguous, and that may betray our aims against religion and the State. One must speak sometimes one way and sometimes another, but so as never to contradict ourselves, and so that, with respect to our true way of thinking, we may be impenetrable.”50

“This can be done in no other way but by secret associations, which will by degrees, and in silence, possess themselves of the government of the States, and make use of those means for this purpose.”51

Shortly after the Illuminati were discovered, and believed by many to have been destroyed, Joseph Willard, President of Harvard University, warned, “There is sufficient evidence that a number of societies of the Illuminati have been established in this land of Gospel light and civil liberty, which were first organized from the grand society, in France. They are doubtless secretly striving to undermine all our ancient institutions, civil and sacred. These societies are closely leagued with those of the same Order in Europe; they have all the same object in view. The enemies of all order are seeking our ruin. Should infidelity generally prevail, our

independence would fall of course. Our republican government would be annihilated.”52

Willard was just one of many Americans, including George Washington, who believed the Illuminati survived the intended purge and continued to work under the cover of Freemasonry and other organizations.



The Eradication of Christianity

Unlike theologian Martin Luther who famously nailed his ninety-five grievances on the door of the Castle Church of Wittenberg, Germany in 1517, thus starting the Protestant Reformation with the hopes of ending the Catholic Church’s hold on power and their corrupt un-Christian practices and perversion of Jesus’ message—Adam Weishaupt didn’t appreciate Christianity at all, and instead wanted it completely destroyed. Despite his strong differences with the Church, Martin Luther still respected Jesus and his teachings and simply wanted to reform the Church, but Weishaupt wanted the Church and Christianity entirely eradicated.

John Robison wrote, “It surely needs little argument now to prove that the Order of Illuminati had for its immediate object the abolishing of Christianity (at least this was the intention of the Founder) with the sole view of overturning the civil government, by introducing universal dissoluteness and profligacy [reckless] manners, and then getting the assistance of the corrupted subjects to oversee the throne. The whole conduct in the preparation and instruction of the Presbyter and Regens [degrees] is directed to this point.”53

Another letter written by Baron von Knigge said, “I have been at unwearied pains to remove the fears of some who imagine that our Superiors want to abolish Christianity; but by and by their prejudices will wear off, and they will be more at their ease.” He goes on to write that he made sure not to let them know that “our General [Weishaupt] holds all Religion to be a lie, and uses even Deism, only to lead men by the nose.”54

Weishaupt explains, “But I assure you this is no small affair; a new religion, and a new state-government, which so happily explain one and all of these symbols, and combines them in one degree, you may think that this

is my chief work; but I have three other degrees, all different, for my class of higher mysteries; in comparison with which this is but child’s play.”55

Weishaupt even boasts, “Who would imagine that I was to be the founder of a new religion,”56 and continues, “We must, first gradually explain away all our preparatory pious frauds. And when persons of discernment find fault, we must desire them to consider the end of all our labor…Second, we must unfold, from history and other writings, the origin and fabrication of all religious lies; and then, third; we give a critical history of the Order.”57

The plan to destroy Christianity can clearly be seen today with the liberal media and the gay mafia pushing homosexuality in everyone’s face and then accusing Christians of “hate speech” and “bigotry” if they simply disagree with gay marriage or homosexual couples adopting children. There is clearly a double standard in the mainstream media in terms of what is considered “hate speech” because when popular musicians or liberal political commentators spew hateful anti-Christian rhetoric on a continuous basis, such vicious attacks are touted as “justifiable payback” for the Inquisition hundreds of years ago. Imagine if major media figures were to make the same vicious statements about Jews as they do Christians. Their careers would be over before the end of the day and they would be forever branded an “anti-Semite” and never work again.

A popular reverend named Jedediah Morse preached a series of sermons between 1798 and 1799 in New England where he warned about the Illuminati’s assault on Christianity in Boston and the surrounding area, saying, “Practically all of the civil and ecclesiastical establishments of Europe have already been shaken to their foundations by this terrible organization; the French Revolution itself is doubtless to be traced to its machinations; the successes of the French armies are to be explained on the same ground. The Jacobins are nothing more nor less than the open manifestation of the hidden system of the Illuminati. The Order has its branches established and its emissaries at work in America. The affiliated Jacobin Societies in America have doubtless had as the object of their establishment the propagation of the principles of the illuminated mother

club in France...I hold it a duty, my brethren, which I owe to God, to the cause of religion, to my country and to you, at this time, to declare to you, thus honestly and faithfully, these truths. My only aim is to awaken you and myself a due attention, at this alarming period, to our dearest interests. As a faithful watchman I would give you warning of your present danger.”58

Regardless of your personal religious beliefs, you must admit that Christians have been (and continue to be) the primary opposition to the Illuminati and the New World Order, (not to mention the coming Mark of the Beast), and are the final obstacle standing between the Illuminati and their remaining goals. Christians have long warned about the “satanic conspiracy” being perpetuated by the Illuminati and have been on the front lines of the culture war being waged by Hollywood, which aims to destroy what little morality remains in society.



Using Feminism to Breakdown Families

Since one of the Illuminati’s original goals was to break up the traditional family unit so children would be raised and indoctrinated by the government, they planned on manipulating women through what would later be known as feminism, encouraging them to rebel against their duties of domestic management and motherhood.

“There is no way of influencing men so powerfully as by means of the women,” the original writings read. “These should therefore be our chief study; we should insinuate ourselves into their good opinion, give them hints of emancipation from the tyranny of public opinion, and of standing up for themselves; it will be an immense relief to their enslaved minds to be freed from any one bond of restraint, and it will fire them the more, and cause them to work for us with zeal, without knowing that they do so; for they will only be indulging their own desire of personal admiration.”59

What this means is they planned on transforming women into selfcentered, narcissistic, pleasure seeking sluts, and promote this behavior under the banner of “freedom,” so instead of raising their children and keeping their families in balance, they would have the government raise their kids while turning against their husbands and disrupt the family unit in hopes of redirecting people’s loyalty and love to the State instead of each other.

In more modern times this same method has been applied to promote the feminist movement in the 1970s through the creation of Ms. Magazine and the push to demonize stay-at-home moms. Kim Kardashian and other skilless skanks are promoted as role models even though they have no real value, and are worthless and talentless false idols advertised by the mainstream media as modern day royalty. The hypocrisy of feminism is astounding. For example, feminists who cry about sexism and the

“culturally programed gender roles” only want to give up the roles society expects of them, while still demanding men to continue following theirs.

Women who whine about “equal rights” still expect men to always pay for dates and buy them expensive gifts. Women who don’t feel it’s their duty to know how to cook still feel men should fix things around the house and diagnose their car problems. And of course, feminist women who proclaim they want to end the gender roles still expect their man to cough up thousands of dollars on a diamond engagement ring when the courtship is on the road to marriage. Feminism is a one-way hypocritical double standard street that not only targets men, but also other women who resist giving in to this cultural Marxism.

Mothers who choose to be stay-at-home moms and raise their own children or who enjoy cooking for their family are labeled “victims” of a “male-dominated ideology.” Feminism pressures women to turn their children over to daycare centers and trade in working around the home for being stuck in a cubicle sitting in front of a computer all day. Feminism has led to an entire generation being raised in single parent homes with many mothers turning to government assistance, costing the taxpayers countless dollars—not to mention tens of millions of children growing up without the guidance and supervision of two parents.

Adam Weishaupt himself was an unfaithful husband who actually impregnated his wife’s sister, which he revealed in one of his correspondences. In hopes of killing the baby to hide his adulterous behavior he gave his sister-in-law an “abortion tea,” and it appears from his letter about the issue that he also repeatedly punched his mistress in the stomach hoping to abort the child.

“I am now in the most embarrassing situation; it robs me of all rest, and makes me unfit for everything. I am in danger of losing at once my honor and my reputation, by which I have long had such influence. What think you—my sister-in-law is with child,” he wrote.



He continues, “We have tried every method in our power to destroy the child; and I hope she is determined on everything—even d –– [believed to mean death]. But alas! Euriphon is, I fear, too timid. Alas! poor woman, thou art now under the disciplina arcani [the Discipline of the Secret] and I see no other expedient [convenient yet immoral way].”60



Using Schools to Indoctrinate the Youth

Tyrants throughout history have known that if they are to effectively maintain their power they must indoctrinate the youth with their brand of propaganda to ensure as the children come of age, they will blindly support the leader and his ideologies. Adolf Hitler used the Nazi Youth program to brainwash children beginning at a young age; the Taliban in Afghanistan banned girls from going to school at all to keep them ignorant; and North Korea’s strict control of their education system are just a few examples of this in our modern era.

“We must win the common people in every corner,” the original Illuminati writings read. “This will be obtained chiefly by means of the schools, and by open, hearty behavior, show, condescension, popularity, and toleration of their prejudices, which we shall at leisure root out and dispel.”61

The indoctrination of students by the public school system is clear today with programs like Common Core and the promotion of the Big Government nanny state and the gay lifestyle while demonizing the second Amendment right to bear arms and belief in God. Being a Christian in public schools is not only frowned upon, but out right ridiculed, and favorably mentioning the word “God” or “Jesus” has basically been banned.62

Charlotte Iserbyt who was the head of policy at the Department of Education during the Reagan administration discovered how tax-exempt foundations were shaping the American education system to eliminate critical thinking and innovation by turning students into zombies who only regurgitate what they’re told. She published her findings in her book The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America. Iserbyt and others assert that Skull & Bones runs the Department of Education, which dictates what is taught to

the kids. Skull & Bones also controls the American Historical Association which dictates the “official” version of American history by carefully crafting an often one-sided and biased view of what really happened.

While the vast majority of students who attend public schools are primarily concerned with the latest teen idol, their favorite professional sports teams, or simply getting drunk and high, children of the elite are taught team building, networking skills, and other tools to prepare them to rapidly advance up the social hierarchy once they enter the “real world.”

Philips Exeter Academy is just one example of a private boarding school which was set up for the children of the elite to prepare them for life in the upper class. The Illuminati has largely funded this school and used it to educate their children and prepare them for their duties later in life. In 1930 Edward Harkness (a member of Skull & Bones’ sister organization Wolf’s Head) donated $5.8 million dollars to the school under the condition that their method of teaching students would change to what he called the Aristotelian method of antiquity.63 Harkness was the second largest shareholder in Rockefeller’s Standard Oil in the early 1900s and was in John D. Rockefeller’s inner circle.

The Rockefeller family has been one of the most powerful Illuminati families for generations and the “Aristotelean method of antiquity” that Edward Harkness paid to implement at Philips Exeter Academy was based on the ideology of the Greek philosopher Aristotle (a student of Plato) who believed that most people were too stupid to govern themselves, and that society should be structured in a way that “philosopher kings” should rule and decide what was best for the people.



Controlling the Media

Weishaupt knew the power of information, and back in his time there was obviously no television, radios or Internet, but there were books, libraries, and reading clubs, and he knew how important it was to control them if he wanted to manage what information reached the minds of the public. In one correspondence he wrote, “By establishing reading societies, and subscription libraries, and taking these under our direction, and supplying them through our labors, we may turn the public mind which way we will.”64 [Which way we will, meaning the direction they desired.]

He goes on to write, “In like manner we must try to obtain an influence in the military academies (this may be of mighty consequence); the printing-houses, booksellers shops, chapters, and in short in all offices which have any effect, either in forming, or in managing, or even in directing the mind of man.”65

Another letter written by a different member identified as Cato [real name Xaver von Zwack] points out, “We get all the literary journals. We take care, by well-timed pieces [articles], to make the citizens and the Princes a little more noticed for certain little slips.”66 What this means is they planned to use the newspapers to attack their enemies. “A little more noticed for certain little slips” means to highlight and reinforce anything officials have said or done that can be used against them.

Author Terry Melanson explains in his excellent book, Pefectibilists, that, “Without having to ascend a series of initiations and meaningless rituals—such as those of Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism—like-minded individuals could gather in reading societies, form an intellectual social circle, and discuss the literature of the Enlightenment and the politics of the day. Those who directed these societies had control of the material being

read and discussed. It became a perfect vehicle to instill radical or subversive views.”67

Today, much of the American mainstream media and other outlets in countries around the world are under the control of the government. In some countries the State-controlled television is clearly evident, but in places like America such control is done more covertly, leading many to believe that it is a “free and independent” press. In 1975 a congressional investigation discovered the CIA had virtually every editor from the major news outlets in their pocket.68 The Church Hearings, as they were called, uncovered the government was spending a billion dollars a year (in 2014 dollars) to secretly pay editors and reporters to work as gatekeepers and propagandists for the establishment.69 The program was dubbed Operation Mockingbird.

Of course, after it was exposed, the CIA claimed to have ended their media manipulation, which is a laughable lie. Even the former President of CBS, Sig Mickeson, admitted that CIA continued to maintain relationships with top media figures, “…but because of all the revelations of the period of the 1970s, it seems to me a reporter has to be a lot more circumspect when doing it now or he runs the risk of at least being looked at with considerable disfavor by the public. I think you’ve got to be much more careful about it.”70 In more recent times, the Operation Mockingbird program has been adapted to social media as well.

President Obama appointed a Harvard Law professor named Cass Sunstein to a cabinet level position in order to set up countless fake social media accounts and “troll” the comments section of news articles, YouTube videos, and Facebook pages in attempts to discredit news stories the White House thought were damaging to the establishment.71 One of Edward Snowden’s leaks revealed that the NSA took things even further by having paid trolls harass and defame people online who the establishment thought were causing too much trouble for the government’s well-controlled narrative in attempts to erode their credibility and fan base.72



The NSA also developed technology to spoof e-mails, SMS messages, inflate or deflate the view count on YouTube videos, adjust the ranking of websites, manipulate the outcome of online polls, or simply shut down someone’s social media presence all together for phony “terms of service” violations.73

For decades both the Pentagon and the CIA have had entire divisions dedicated to working with Hollywood in order to literally help produce major television shows and movies. When studios want access to expensive military equipment like aircraft and tanks or actual Army bases, they approach these government television and film liaisons and if the storyline is seen as portraying a current war or a particular military branch or government agency in a favorable light, then the projects are approved and producers are given access to consultants, equipment, uniforms, military bases, and even given active duty servicemen and women to work as extras.

As Fortune magazine once pointed out in article titled Hollywood’s Military Complex, “Even in an age of special effects, it’s exponentially cheaper to film on actual military ships with real military advisers…The fulcrum of Hollywood’s unlikely partnership is Phil Strub, a former film school student and Navy videographer, now the entertainment liaison at the Department of Defense.”74 Strub is just one of several such men who work full-time with the television and film studios on behalf of the government.

In the 1990s the CIA assigned Chase Brandon to be their liaison to Hollywood in order to establish a mutually beneficial relationship between the entertainment industry and the CIA.75 These government entertainment liaisons maintain script approval and have been known to make dramatic changes to screenplays before they are approved in order to achieve the government’s propaganda goals. The Recruit (2003), The Sum of All Fears (2002), Argo (2012), Lone Survivor (2013), and many, many other popular films and television shows have all been produced with the consent, oversight, and input of the CIA or the Pentagon.76



Infiltration of Freemasonry

Illuminati frontman Adam Weishaupt loved the idea of using existing secret societies to help grow his organization, saying, “Nothing can bring this about but hidden societies. Hidden schools of wisdom are the means which will one day free men from their bonds. These have in all ages been the archives of nature, and of the rights of men; and by them shall human nature be raised from her fallen state.”77

One of the primary vehicles used to conceal and further their agenda was (and still is) Freemasonry. Already an established occult organization in his time, Weishaupt had goals of using the fraternity for his own means, and in July 1782 he infiltrated Freemasonry and introduced what he called Illuminated Freemasonry.78 Using the existing structure of Freemasonry he created factions which were dedicated to his cause and with their ruthlessness and obsession, his supporters quickly took control of the highest levels within lodges across Europe.

In his own words Weishaupt explains the importance of using this preexisting fraternity as the ideal cover, saying, “None is fitter than the three lower degrees of Freemasonry; the public is accustomed to it, expect little from it, and therefore takes little notice of it.”79 “I declare and I challenge all mankind to contradict my declaration, that no man can give any account of the order of Freemasonry, of its origin, of its history, of its object, nor any explanation of its mysteries and symbols, which does not leave the mind in total uncertainty on all these points. Every man is entitled therefore, to give any explanation of the symbols and a system of the doctrine that he can render palatable.”80

Knowing the power of claiming to have possession of a great secret, he knew how men could be manipulated into doing his bidding, hoping to have the great secret someday revealed to them. “Of all the means I know to lead

men, the most effectual is a concealed mystery. The hankering of the mind is irresistible; and if once a man has taken it into his head that there is a mystery in a thing, it is impossible to get it out, either by argument or experience. And then, we can so change notions by merely changing a word.”81

A certificate from an Illuminati infiltrated Freemason lodge in Munich contains a pyramid with the sun over the capstone and the seal on the certificate shows the Owl of Minerva, a symbol of wisdom to the Illuminati, and the mascot of the Bohemian Grove.82

One of the most popular books on the definitions of Freemasonry’s symbols also confirms that Weishaupt successfully infiltrated the fraternity and introduced his plot to the inner circle. The Lexicon of Freemasonry was first published in 1845 by Albert G. Mackey, a 33rd degree Freemason, who was one of the most prominent scholars on the subject of Freemasonry in his day. The book contains an alphabetized list of most Masonic symbols accompanied by a detailed explanation of their esoteric meaning.

In the entry on the Illuminati, Mackey admits, “Weishaupt was a radical in politics, and an infidel in religion; and he organized this association, not more for purposes of aggrandizing himself, than overturning Christianity and the institutions of society. With the view of carrying his objects more completely into effect, he united himself with a lodge of Freemasons in Munich, and attempted to graft his system of Illuminism upon the stock of Freemasonry…Many Freemasons, misled by the construction of his first degrees, were enticed into the order.”83

Popular 20th century occult writer Alice Bailey, who claimed her books were dictated to her by a supernatural entity, wrote that, “There is no dissociation between the One Universal Church, the sacred inner Lodge of all true Masons, and the innermost circles of the esoteric societies…It must not be forgotten that only those souls who are on the Probationary Path or the Path of Discipleship will form the nucleus of the coming new world religion.”84



The role of Freemasonry in the Illuminati will be expanded on later in this book, along with a history of this fascinating fraternity and their transformation from a stonemason trade union to the spiritual secret society it is today.



Connections to Yale’s Skull & Bones

Skull & Bones, the secret society at Yale University, is often said to be simply a fraternity, but it’s far from it. It is actually not only a secret society, but its what’s called a senior society, meaning students aren’t full-fledged members until their senior year. It was the first senior society at the university and the first secret society as well. Students don’t just pledge to join hoping to get chosen like they do at fraternities—instead they are recruited if they are seen as possible valuable servants.

Skull & Bones members are responsible for creating the CIA, the Federal Reserve, the Department of Education, the American Historical Society, and various media monopolies. Skull & Bones doesn’t just have identical symbols, ideologies and goals in common with the Illuminati, there are some other very specific pieces of evidence that show a direct link between the two groups.

William Huntington Russell, one of the two founders of Skull & Bones, was studying abroad in Germany just before he returned to America and founded the organization in 1832 using the same symbols, riddles, initiation practices, and having essentially the same goals as the Bavarian Illuminati.

Of course the very emblem of Skull & Bones or the “Brotherhood of Death,” as they are often called, is a sinister skull and cross bones, identical to the Death’s Dead (totenkopf) pin that Nazis operating the death camps wore during World War II. The skull and cross bones (Jolly Rodger) emblem was also used by the Knights Templar, and was the symbol of pirates due to its intimidating look and was meant to convey that they hold the power over life and death. Many Freemasons have a human skull (real or a replica) on their desk in their office or in the “chamber of reflection” in the Lodge.



In 1876 a group of Yale students broke into the Skull & Bones headquarters to investigate this shady organization and then published a detailed newsletter titled The Fall of Skull and Bones about what they discovered inside. The burglars called themselves “File & Claw,” partly to mock Skull & Bones, but also because they used a file and crow bar to remove several security bars that covered the boarded up windows in the group’s headquarters, a building that looks like, and is called, “the Tomb.” One of the more interesting things they found once inside was a framed card on the wall that read, “From the German Chapter, Presented by Patriarch D.C. Gilman of D. 50.”

I’ll point out again that founder William Huntington Russell was in Germany, the hotbed of Illuminati revolutionaries, and the File & Claw intruders reported an open burial vault inside that contained four human skulls and a plaque written in German reading, “Wer war der Thor, wer Weiser, Bettler oder Kaiser? Ob Arm, ob Reich, im Tode gleich,” which in English says, “Who was the fool, who was the wise man, beggar or king? Whether poor or rich, all is the same in death.” This is extremely interesting when you learn this same cryptic riddle is virtually identical to the one given at the initiation ritual of the Bavarian Illuminati.

In his 1798 book Proofs of a Conspiracy, one of the first books to contain English translation of the confiscated Illuminati writings, John Robison describes the initiation ceremony into the “Regent Degree” of Illuminism, in which the initiate would be placed in front of a skeleton that had a crown and a sword at its feet, and the men were asked whether it was the skeleton of a king, nobleman, or a beggar. No matter their answer, the lodge president would explain, “The character of being a man is the only one that is of importance.”85

This means they don’t believe in an afterlife or a divine judgment by God and is used to instill a Social Darwinistic might is right world view. More on this philosophy and the history of Skull & Bones later.



What Ever Happened to Adam Weishaupt?

Adam Weishaupt’s fate is often forgotten in the wake of the Illuminati since the man himself was overshadowed by the monstrous conspiracy he gave birth to. In 1785 he was fired from his job at Ingolstadt University where he was the head of the law department.86 At this time authorities didn’t know he was involved with the Illuminati (let alone the leader and founder) but soon the Bavarian government began to learn about the Illuminati and tighten the noose in their quest to eliminate them, so Weishaupt later fled Bavaria dressed as a craftsman to avoid detection since authorities were now on the lookout for him. He was given exile in Gotha (a city in the German state of Thuringia, located just north of Bavaria) which was under control of Illuminati sympathizer Duke Ernest II. There he worked as a legal advisor for the Duke’s court until he died in 1830 at the age of 82.

After Weishaupt fled Bavaria to avoid capture, a book printer named J.J.C. Bode would take the lead as the head of the Illuminati, and used his printing shop to continue to spread Enlightenment philosophies throughout Europe. Bode traveled from Germany to France and imported the Illuminati into French masonic lodges which later became instrumental in the French Revolution. After J.J.C. Bode, the leader was Karl Leonard Reinhold, a Freemason who believed Moses incorporated secrets from the Egyptian priesthood into the fraternity.

After Weishaupt’s first wife died, he married her sister (the one who he impregnated while his wife was still alive and tried to kill the baby). He and his new wife had their first son Wilhelm the following year in 1784, who died at the age of eighteen in 1802.

Adam himself died when he was eighty-two and was survived by his second wife, Anna Maria, and six children, two daughters (Nanette and

Charlotte), and his four sons Ernst, Karl, Eduard, and Alfred, who all went on to serve as officers in the military.



French Revolution Connections

There are still whispers that the French Revolution was the work of the Illuminati, specifically the work of “Illuminated Masonic lodges” that were infected with Adam Weishaupt’s revolutionary goals. While many historians argue that the French Revolution was the result of a random and organic uprising of the French people against the oppressive Monarchy, others saw the strings being pulled from behind the scenes by the Illuminati.

While head of the Illuminati, J.J.C. Bode took two trips to Paris not long before the French Revolution, where he introduced the Illuminati to French Freemason lodges under the new name of the Philadelphes. Revolutionary and radical Enlightenment ideologies grew under the cover of various French Masonic lodges, reading societies, and Jacobin clubs, all of which were influential in organizing the French Revolution.

Bode wrote in his journal on June 30, 1787 that he met with French Freemason Charles-Pierre-Paul, marquis de Langes Savalette who would soon be involved with the revolution, and on July 3rd he made an entry about meeting with French Revolution National Assembly member Francois-Antoine Lemoyne Daubermesnil to specifically discuss the Illuminati!87

Historian Charles Porset of the National Scientific Research Center in France confirmed that Bode’s journal was authentic, saying, “the Journal has now been published by a German scholar, Hermann Schuttler, and it confirms in all respects the idea put forward by Rossberg of collusion between the Illuminati and the Philadelphes. Moreover, a ‘secret lodge is then created’—the Lodge of the Philadelphes…The unedited correspondences found in the Kloss archives housed in the Library of Grand Orient of the Netherlands, between Bode, von Busch and the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, which I’ve published, prove it. ‘We agreed,’ wrote Bode,

‘that for France, we would adopt the name Philadelphes instead of Illuminati.’”88

Another clear piece of evidence linking masonic lodges to the French Revolution is a letter from Duke Philip of Orleans that was sent out to all French Masonic lodges which reads, “all the Lodges are summoned to confederate together, to unite their efforts to maintain the revolution; to gain over it, in all parts, friends, partisans, and protectors; to propagate the flame, to vivify the spirit, to excite zeal and ardor for it, in every state, and by every means in their power.”89

In 1791 a book titled The Veil Withdrawn was published which was one of the first books to connect Freemasonry to the French Revolution. In 1792 a booklet titled The Tomb of Jacues Molay was released by Cadet de Gassicourt that linked the revolution to the Knights Templar. A few years later in 1803 a German man named Johann Starck published Triumph of Philosophy where he too claimed the Illuminati used Masonic lodges as a cover for organizing the French Revolution.





The Thirteen Bloodlines Theory

People sometimes refer to the “Illuminati bloodlines” or the “top thirteen bloodlines of the Illuminati” as the ruling elite within the pyramid of power that controls our world. A dozen or two names are thrown around and said to be Illuminati families who interbreed with each other to retain their wealth and power among the small group of ruling elite. The most common alleged thirteen bloodlines are: Astor, Bundy, Collins, DuPont, Freeman, Kennedy, Li, Onassis, Rockefeller, Rothschild, Russell, Van Duyn, and the Merovingian bloodline.

One of the more popular promoters of this theory is Fritz Springmeier, who in 1999 published Bloodlines of the Illuminati, where he wrote, “The goal of this book is to lay out the historical facts about these elite bloodlines…once one understands these bloodlines, wars between kings no longer appear as wars between elite factions, but often can be recognized as contrived wars created to control the masses of both sides by their greedy Machiavellian masters.”90

Springmeier continues, “The Illuminati themselves decided to elevate 13 bloodlines. The number 13 is extremely important magically, and these 13 occult tribes mock the 13 tribes of Israel (remember the 13th tribe, the Tribe of Joseph was split into Ephraim & Manasseh). This does not mean that only 13 Illuminati bloodlines are powerful. There are other families that have risen to prominence. Further, worldwide there are other families of great oligarchical power who have allied themselves to the Illuminati in the political and economic realms without having to intermarry into the Illuminati.”91

While Fritz’s book appears on the surface to be an impressive analysis of the supposed thirteen bloodlines, it is clear that he bought into several known hoaxes and reprinted them as fact, such as the widely debunked claims of John Todd, a man who in the 1970s claimed to be an Illuminati

“defector” belonging to one of the “Illuminati bloodlines.”92 Springmeier also claims that the Illuminati have been operating a space station on Mars, which he says they began colonizing in the late 1990s.93

A much more credible researcher, Antony Sutton, who was given a Skull & Bones membership list in the early 1980s by the daughter of a member, has a much more accurate and rational approach. In his excellent analysis, America’s Secret Establishment, Sutton has stated that twenty to thirty families have dominated the Skull & Bones society since its creation in 1832 and his book provides a scholarly overview of their activities.

The thirteen bloodlines theory is essentially a more modern version of the ancient “divine right of kings” theory, which was perpetuated for thousands of years, claiming that God ordained families of monarchs and kings to rule. In many cases, as with Egyptian Pharaohs, the Caesars of Rome, and the Chinese Dynasties, kings believed (or at least claimed to believe) that they themselves were Gods or literal descendants of the Gods, which in turn, they thought, gave them the divine right to rule. This is not just an ancient idea. The Nazi’s actually believed that white people were the descendants from the (supposed) God-like inhabitants of the Lost City of Atlantis.

Adolf Hitler and his inner circle of Nazi officers, including Heinrich Himmler, Rudolph Hess, and Joseph Georbels, literally believed that white people (the Aryan race, as they liked to call them) were descendants of Gods that once inhabited the Earth, who supposedly lived in the City of Atlantis. The Nazis thought the myth of the “Lost City” was literal history and when the city allegedly sunk into the sea, according to their beliefs, several of the demigods fled to the Himalayas of Tibet where they were said to have started the Nordic and Aryan races.

According to Nazi philosophy, the Jews, claiming to be “God’s chosen people,” were preventing the Aryans from their “divine right” to rule the earth, and race-mixing was weakening the magical power of the Aryan race. Hitler was largely inspired by Helena Blavatsky’s 1888 book, The Secret

Doctrine, which claims that Satan helped free Man in the Garden of Eden, thus allowing humans to “evolve” into gods ourselves. “Satan will now be shown, in the teaching of the Secret Doctrine, allegorized as Good, and Sacrifice, a God of Wisdom,” the book reads.94 “Blessed and sanctified is the name of the Angel of Havas—Satan,” Blavatsky wrote.95

Mainstream historians focus on the racial aspects of the Nazis quest for power, but often ignore the root of their ideology which was a twisted occult doctrine and literally based on Satanism and the belief that they had divine blood in their veins and were descendants of gods. A German secret society called the Thule Society gave birth to the Nazi party and operated much like the Skull & Bones society does in America, working to groom the country’s future leaders. The Thule Society’s logo was a swastika with a dagger in front of it.

The “most royal candidate” theory is the belief that every presidential election in the United States has been won by the candidate with the most royal blood, thus having the closest ties to the kingship bloodline of Europe.96 Proponents of the theory claim that every U.S. president since George Washington can have their bloodline traced back to European royals, and say at least thirty-three presidents are descendants of Alfred the Great and Charlemagne.97

But this begs the question of why a small group of families would consider themselves to have “royal blood.” What exactly does “royal blood” mean? Well, it means that they believe they are direct descendants of the Gods. People who subscribe to this theory often point to a passage in the Book of Genesis in the Bible as evidence. Genesis 6:1-2 reads, “And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.” Genesis 6:4 continues, “There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.”



Some Christians and Biblical scholars believe that the “Sons of God” which came and took the daughters of men and had children with them, were an alien race called the Annunaki. Some versions of the Bible clearly say that the Sons of God were “supernatural beings” and clearly refers to some kind of alien creatures who came to earth and mated with human females, creating some kind of alien/human hybrid called the Nephilim.

Some believe that God caused the great flood hoping to destroy these Nephilim creatures and then have Noah, his sons and their wives, later repopulate the earth after they emerged safely from the Ark. According to some beliefs, those supposed hybrid creatures survived and went on to become the first kings and queens, and later evolved into what we refer to as the Illuminati today.

The myth that Jesus Christ secretly had a child with Mary Magdalene was brought into the mainstream through Dan Brown’s 2003 book The Da Vinci Code, which was inspired by the widely debunked Holy Blood, Holy Grail (1982). Dan Brown’s novel was made into a film in 2006 starring Tom Hanks, which carried the idea to a much larger audience who wholeheartedly believed the hoax of the “Jesus bloodline.”

According to the myth, the Knights Templar and Freemasons are the guardians of the Holy Grail, which according to this theory, the Grail refers to the descendants of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, thus the “Holy Grail” is the divine bloodline whose supposed members have to live in secret to protect themselves from being killed by the Catholic Church, which allegedly will do anything to prevent this “secret truth” from being known, because it would undermine their power.

This Jesus bloodline myth may very well be unveiled at some point in time as “evidence” of the Illuminati’s supposed “divine right to rule” by claiming they are the literal descendants of Jesus. It may very well culminate with the appearance of the antichrist who will claim to be the

long awaited messiah of the world and cite his alleged genetic connection to Jesus as evidence that he is the return of Christ.

When looking into the supposed “bloodlines of the Illuminati” you will often come across people talking about “the Reptilians” who believe the Illuminati are literally a group of “shape shifting extraterrestrials” or demonic inter-dimensional entities masquerading as humans in order to work towards enslaving the human race. The “Reptilian” theory is widely ridiculed, although a sizable portion of the population has no doubt that famous politicians and celebrities are “impostors,” only pretending to be human.98 Many of the Reptilian claims are something straight out of the XFiles, the popular paranormal thriller from the 1990s, and are virtually identical to the plot of a 1980s mini series titled V (for visitors).

A British conspiracy theorist named David Icke is largely responsible for spreading this theory, and claims these “Reptillian Illuminati” have to drink human blood, “because they are drinking the person’s life-force and because they need it to exist in this dimension in a human form.”99 More recently Icke seems to have distanced himself from “Reptlillians” and began focusing on the Archons, which refer to supernatural agents of the evil Gnostic creator God, the Demiurge. Icke is also a big proponent that these “Reptillian Illuminati” families have interbred with each other throughout history to maintain their unique bloodline and hide their secret from outsiders.

In ancient times it was fairly easy to control who would marry whom, and keep royal families breeding with other royal families. Most people marry others in the same socioeconomic level because they run in the same circles, attend the same prestigious universities, and grow up in the same wealthy neighborhoods. While the ancient alien/nephilim bloodline theory is interesting on its surface, there is little to no evidence that people from these supposed royal or divine/alien/reptillian families have any significant difference in their DNA from “regular” people, or “commoners” as we are called. In more modern times the regulation of who marries whom through arranged marriages has become nearly impossible to control, so if this

theory were true, then the “alien” DNA would be so widely spread that we would be seeing it pop up in medical reports around the world.

One likely reason for a small number of families rising to power in the ancient past is that they just so happened to be living on fertile land, allowing them to have healthy and strong offspring due to an abundance of food and easily accessible water. As they say in real estate—location, location, location. These issues are explored in detail in the Pulitzer Prize winning book Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (1997), written by Jared Diamond. His research presents the case that a variety of environmental factors, not any genetic or intellectual superiority, has been the reason certain cultures have dominated most others around the world.

I certainly wouldn’t rule out the possibility that some kind of extraterrestrial (or demonic) race is secretly working with the Illuminati leadership and directing them in their affairs, but the subject of aliens is beyond the scope of this book and in most cases the “evidence” of such beings is impossible to verify (at least at this point) or limited to interpretations of ancient art or “video evidence” of unidentified flying objects—most of which are top secret experimental aircraft or hoaxes. Aliens (or demons) working with the Illuminati is one thing—a handful of families interbreeding with each other to keep their “alien family tree” a secret amongst themselves is something totally different.







Affiliated Secret Societies

Secret societies entered popular culture in the 21st century, thanks in part to Dan Brown’s novels and Hollywood films like The Skulls (2000) and National Treasure (2004). As the 2004 United States presidential election approached, it was reported in mainstream news that both George W. Bush and his opponent John Kerry were members of Skull & Bones, the now somewhat well-known secret society based at Yale University. The correct terminology is actually that they “are” members, not that they “were” members, since it’s a lifetime membership starting their senior year of college.

While many people have now heard of Skull & Bones, most falsely believe it’s just an elite fraternity for rich kids, but Skull & Bones differs from a fraternity in several key ways. First of all, nobody “pledges to join” the club hoping to get accepted. Instead they recruit people who are seen as worthy to be members. The club doesn’t do any charity work, which is common with most fraternities, and their entire focus is geared for members’ postgraduate life which is why someone doesn’t become an official member until their senior year, as opposed to rushing a fraternity freshman year like most other college clubs.

While there are countless secret societies on college campuses around the world, Skull & Bones is in a league of their own in terms of their power and influence. While they are perhaps one of the more well-known secret societies (thanks to the Internet), there are certainly other powerful (and dangerous) ones that are lesser known.

There are secret societies of businessmen, politicians, and media moguls, (like the Bilderberg Group and the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference); there is a secret society of scientists (the Jasons); there’s even a secret society of secretaries (the Seraphic Society), who cater to men in other secret societies. Few people know that there is a secret society of

women modeled after the Bohemian Grove who call themselves the Belizean Grove. Many of these mysterious groups have overlapping members, and at the higher levels work in concert with each other in one giant compartmentalized pyramid-shaped power structure. In this chapter I’ll take you back to the beginning, thousands of years ago, and we’ll slowly move forward in time tracking the evolution of this invisible empire.



Mystery Schools

The first secret societies were called the Mystery Schools, which meant they taught the Ancient Mysteries of life and death. The word “mystic” means one who studied the mysteries, and ancient inquisitive men formed groups or “schools” to study and ponder life’s biggest questions. Certain supposed answers were discovered or myths developed which aimed to help man make sense of his existence here on this planet.

Some see the secret occult knowledge stemming from these Mystery Schools not as evil, but as a tool that can be used for either good or evil, similar to “the Force” in Star Wars. Just as men gather into associations based on common interests like car meets, model airplane clubs and countless other kinds of clubs, men in ancient times who found they had a common interesting pondering the mysteries of life found themselves coming together in these Mystery Schools.

Various Mystery Schools popped up in the ancient world, claiming to, or seeking to, discover the powerful secrets of life, and looking to get in harmony with the divine in order to fully receive the blessings the Universe offers or explain the human condition. While these groups appear to have at one time had the best intensions, many believe they were eventually corrupted and taken over by sinister men who turned the once noble schools into a mafia of madmen who used their superior intellect and social networks to enslave society. Illuminati insider Manly P. Hall explains, "The masses, deprived of their birthright of understanding and groveling in ignorance, eventually became the abject slaves of the spiritual impostors. Superstition universally prevailed and the black magicians completely dominated national affairs, with the result that humanity still suffers from the sophistries [fallacious arguments, especially with the intention of deceiving] of the priestcrafts of Atlantis and Egypt.”100



The esoteric tradition, as it is sometimes called, appears to have begun in Mesopotamia, the oldest human civilization and the first to develop a written language. From there it can be traced to ancient Egypt and the Isis cults (3100 B.C.) and then over to Greece in the Eleusinian Mysteries (1500 BC) involving the Demeter and Persephone cults. During this time the Dionysian Mysteries were practiced in ancient Greece and Rome and included the use of intoxicants and other trance-inducing techniques in attempts to come into a greater understanding of the Mysteries. The Dionysian mysteries were based on Dionysus, one of the Twelve Olympians in Greek mythology, who was the God of wine and ecstasy.

If you keep following the chain, you progress to the Pythagoreans (5 B.C.) and onto other Greek mystery cults like Mithrasim (100 A.D.), then to the Gnostics (1-300 A.D.), to the Knights Templar (1118) and on to the Cathars in the 13th Century, and then to the Jesuits (founded in 1540), continuing to the Rosicrucians (1614), then to Freemasonry (1717) and continuing to the Illuminati (1776); and if you keep moving ahead—when you get to more modern times you’ll see organizations like Skull & Bones (1832), Bohemian Grove (1872), the Federal Reserve Bank (1913), the Council on Foreign Relations (1921), the Bilderberg Group (1954), and so on.

While you may be familiar with some of these major Illuminati organizations, each piece of the puzzle contains countless details and when meticulously assembled, creates a mosaic that reveals a clear and common theme. They are all hierarchical fraternities who use various rituals and pageants to instill in their members that they are a special elite group of masters who know “the truth” that will enable them to become gods among men. In order to preserve their secrets to a select few, initiates often swear blood oaths to never reveal their knowledge to outsiders or those in the lower levels of the hierarchy.



The Knights Templar

At this point in time, many people have heard about the Knights Templar and may be familiar with a little bit of the story surrounding them and the accusations levied against them by the Catholic Church, but few people have taken an extended look into the organization and their activities. While most people believe the accusations of devil worshiping and blasphemous rituals were fabricated by the Catholic Church as an excuse to seize the Templar’s wealth and put them out of commission, you may be very surprised to discover who admits the accusations were actually true.

The Knights Templar name basically means they were the knights of Solomon’s Temple, and were a group of (supposed) Christian knights who volunteered to protect Jerusalem from the Muslims who were trying to seize the land. The Templars were founded in 1118 in France by a man named Hugues de Payens who recruited around nine others, mostly members of his own family, who then offered to protect pilgrims traveling from the coast of the Mediterranean to the Holy Land.

While they were supposedly dedicated “warrior monks” who wanted to supposedly protect the Holy Land, it appears the founders had an ulterior motive, and while the majority of the growing Templar organization may have been wholly dedicated to protecting the Holy Land, the inner circle were busy secretly excavating the site of Solomon’s Temple for treasure and rare artifacts.

Among the most damning allegations made against the Templars was that their inner circle performed satanic homosexual rituals involving a demonic idol called Baphomet. While most people believe these allegations were fabricated by the Catholic Church to demonize the Templars, others have a different view. Eliphas Levi, a popular occultist in the 19th century,

explains, “Did the Templars really adore Baphomet? Did they offer a shameful salutation to the buttocks of the goat of Mendes? What was actually this secret and potent association which imperiled Church and State, and was thus destroyed unheard? Judge nothing lightly; they are guilty of a great crime; they have exposed to profane eyes the sanctuary of antique initiation. They have gathered again and have shared the fruits of the tree of knowledge, so they might become masters of the world.”101

He continues to say, “Yes, in our profane conviction, the Grand Masters of the Order of the Templars worshipped the Baphomet, and caused it to be worshipped by their initiates.”102 In the infamous Satanic Bible, published in 1966 by Anton LaVey (real name Howard Levy), Baphomet is listed as the demon the Knights Templar worshiped.103 So even the Church of Satan’s founder accepts the allegations made against the Templars as true.

Manly P. Hall, a 33rd degree mason best known for his revealing book The Secret Teachings of All Ages, wrote, “The famous hermaphroditic Goat of Mendes was a composite creature formulated to symbolize this astral light. It is identical with Baphomet, the mystic pantheos of those disciples of ceremonial magic, the Templars, who probably obtained it from the Arabians.”104

So, according to Hall and others, it is believed the Templars not only found physical treasure like gold and silver in their executions, but also informational treasure as well, in the form of ancient scrolls where they learned their strange secret doctrine.

Researchers Knight and Lomus, who are certainly not considered “conspiracy theorists,” explained that according to their findings, “Hence it follows that the mysteries of the craft are in reality the mysteries of religion. The Knights were, however, careful not to entrust this important secret to any whose fidelity and discretion had not been fully proved. They therefore invented different degrees to test their candidates, and gave them only symbolical secrets without explanation, to prevent treachery and solely to

enable them to make themselves known to each other. For this purpose it was resolved to use different signs, words and tokens in each degree, by which they would be secured against the Saracens, cowans or intruders.”105

In The History of Magic (published in 1860), Eliphas Levi reveals, “The Templars had two doctrines; one was concealed and reserved to the leaders, being that of Johannism [Gnosticism]; the other was public, being Roman Catholic doctrine. They deceived in this manner the enemies that they hoped to supplant. The Johannism of the adepts was the Kabalah of the Gnostics, but it degenerated speedily into a mystic pantheism carried even to idolatry of Nature and hatred of all revealed dogma…They went even so far as to recognize the pantheistic symbolism of the grand masters of Black Magic, and the better to isolate themselves from obedience to a religion by which they were condemned before, they rendered divine honors to the monstrous idol Baphomet.”106

Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince also confirm the secret doctrine accusations in their book The Templar Revelation, writing, “It is likely that the majority of the Knights Templar were no more than simple Christian solders they appeared to be, but the inner circle was different. The inner circle of the Templars appears to have existed in order to further active research into esoteric and religious matters. Perhaps one of the reasons for their secrecy was the fact that they dealt with the arcane aspects of the Jewish and Islamic worlds. They sought, literally, the secrets of the universe wherever they suspected they might be found, and in the course of their geographic and intellectual wanderings came to tolerate—perhaps even to embrace—some very unorthodox beliefs.”107

These “unorthodox beliefs” appear to have involved what’s called sex magic (often spelled sex magick with a “k” on the end), which is the practice of incorporating various sex acts into secret rituals in the belief that the sexual energy produced is transformed into spiritual power, allegedly enabling participants to activate dormant supernatural abilities. Theodore Reuss [co-founder of the Ordo Templi Orientis] revealed that sex magic was the greatest secret of occult fraternities, saying, “Our order possesses the key which opens up all Masonic and Hermetic secrets, namely, the

teachings of sexual magic, and this teaching explains, without exception, all the secrets of Freemasonry and all systems of religion.”108 He also said that sex magic was the big secret of the Knights Templar.109

In his companion book to The Secret Teachings of All Ages, titled Lectures on Ancient Philosophy, Manly P. Hall again reveals some amazing occult secrets that few people have discovered about the Templars. He wrote, “It was not the physical power of the Templars, but the knowledge which they had brought with them from the East, that the church feared. The Templars had discovered part of the great Arcanum; they had become wise in those mysteries which had been celebrated in Mecca thousands of years before the advent of Mohammed; they had read a few pages from the dread book of the Anthropos, and for this knowledge they were doomed to die.”110

Eliphas Levi writes in agreement, “It was the memory of this scientific and religious absolute, of this doctrine summarized in a word, of this word alternately lost and recovered, which was transmitted to the elect of all antique initiations…it was this same memory handed on to secret associations of Rosicrucians, Illuminati and Freemasons which gave a meaning to their strange rites, to their less or more conventional signs, and a justification above all to their devotion in common, as well as a clue to their power.”111

This “occult power” wasn’t the only thing that led to their downfall. The Templars, with the help of other secrets they likely learned from the rare scrolls they acquired, ultimately became wealthy bankers who issued loans, not only to people, but to governments and monarchs. The Catholic Church wouldn’t allow people to charge interest on money they lent to someone else because it was considered a sin (called usury), but the church looked the other way when the Templars did it, likely because they needed their protective services in the Holy Land.

Through lending money with interest, the Templars had exploited one of the most powerful and mysterious concepts in the world today. The same

tactic is used by the Illuminati banking cartel through their front groups like the Federal Reserve, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. More on the magic of making money and collecting interest on loans later.



The Jesuits

Fast forward a few hundred years and we can see the Catholic Church following the same pattern of the Templars hoarding knowledge, power, and wealth, so insiders can live like kings by taking advantage of the ignorant masses. Ignatius of Loyola founded the Society of Jesus (aka the Jesuits) in 1540, whose members are also known as the “Pope’s Marines” because of their militant support of the Catholic Church. The Jesuits were founded to fight against the Protestant Reformation with hopes of keeping the Catholic Church in power by any means necessary. While supposedly being a Christian group, the Jesuits’ activities have been anything but.

Some believe that Illuminati founder Adam Weishaupt was covertly working for the Jesuits, but his correspondences reveal he deeply despised the Jesuits, although he did adopt their “ends justifies the means” tactics in hopes of replacing them with his own similar kind of tyranny.

A document titled The Secret Instructions of the Jesuits, was published in the early 1600s, allegedly written by a general in the society, and revealed the supposed tactics and “ends justifies the means” code of the Jesuits. The Church claims the documents are a forgery designed to defame the Jesuits, of course, but when one becomes aware of the ruthless and criminal activities Church insiders have engaged in to gain and maintain their power, it doesn’t really matter if they’re a forgery or not, because the tactics of the Jesuits and the Vatican have become widely known.

The Catholic Church’s crimes are legendary, from imprisoning Galileo for (correctly) declaring the earth revolved around the sun, to the Spanish Inquisition where officials tortured and killed anyone who dared disagree with them. And everyone is familiar with their institutional pedophile problem and the generations of cover-ups they have engaged in to protect the perpetrators.



These actions continue to give Christians a bad name with most antiChristian bigots apparently unaware (or willfully ignoring) the millions of non-Catholic Christians (like Protestants, Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, non-denominational groups, etc.) which were (and still are) appalled by the actions of the Catholic Church who, for centuries, held a monopoly on Christianity, albeit their twisted and un-Biblical brand of it.

Jesuits were responsible for the 1605 Gunpowder Plot in England, which was an assassination attempt where the perpetrators, including Guy Fawkes, tried to blow up the House of Parliament to kill King James and the Protestant aristocracy. Every November 5th, bonfires and fireworks are used to commemorate the failure of the plot, an event that has come to be known as Guy Fawkes Night.

Vatican City in Rome is not just a city, but a completely sovereign country owned and operated by the Catholic Church that was established in 1929 by the Lateran treaty. It is only 110 acres and has a population under a thousand people and has over $8 billion dollars in assets.112 The Pope, of course, is the head, and is protected by his own personal army, the Swiss Guard.

The Popes, Bishops and Priests of the Catholic Church are basically the same as the Pharisees who Jesus denounced over 2000 years ago for their hypocrisy and pride due to their spiritual knowledge. One needs to look no further than the Inquisition or the massive institutional cover-up of countless pedophile priests to see the Catholic Church is corrupt to the core. The Catholic Church also diverts and perverts the teachings of Jesus in numerous ways, such as having people confess their sins to a priest instead of to God himself, as well as having sold indulgences, which, if you don’t know, means that people used to pay money to the church and in return a priest would forgive that person’s sins and tell them they could then get into Heaven. Some indulgences were even sold for sins people would commit in the future. Such a practice was clearly a shameful abuse of power and completely contradictory to the teachings of Jesus.



The Catholic Church basically took the freeing messages of Jesus and packaged them up and then sold them to the public, when Jesus had intended them to be accessible to all for free. This is the same thing the Jewish Pharisees did with Judaism causing Jesus to publicly denounce them. It is for these reasons and more that the Vatican, and specifically the Pope is looked at with suspicion regarding the New World Order and is believed by some to one day be the false prophet spoken about in the Bible.

According to Biblical prophecy, the counterfeit Christ (the Antichrist) will be a political figure and the leader of the world, who will be accompanied by the false prophet, a global religious leader that will (wrongfully) confirm to the world that the messiah has arrived when the Antichrist announces he is God. Since the Catholic Church is trying to reinstate itself as the only Christian authority in the world, many see the Pope as a prime candidate for this false prophet.

In 2007 Pope Benedict proclaimed that the Catholic Church was the only place that can offer salvation and held the only key to Heaven.113 He didn’t mean Christianity is the only path to salvation, which is a primary tenant of the faith. He meant specifically that the Catholic Church was the only way to God and that all other Christian denominations were basically leading people astray and were not “true” churches.114

This is the same Pope who, when he was still a Cardinal (then named Cardinal Ratzinger), was in charge of covering up the extensive pedophile priest network which has been operating within (or perhaps in charge of) the Catholic Church for generations.115 A 69-page document typed in Latin and taken from the Vatican’s Secret Archives bearing the seal of Pope John XXIII, was sent to every Bishop in the world in 1962 and contained detailed instructions and policies regarding keeping allegations of sexual abuse a secret.

The title of the documents in Latin, Crimine solicitationies, translates to “Instruction on proceeding in cases of solicitation” and was basically

identical to an earlier set of instructions issued in 1922.116 The documents were confirmed authentic by the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales.117

Bishops were instructed to deal with child abuse allegations “in the most secretive way” and were reminded of their commitment to “perpetual silence” for what the documents called the “secret of the Holy Office.”118 They go on to say, “The oath of keeping the secret must be given in these cases also by the accusers or those denouncing the priest and the witnesses.”119 Anyone who speaks of the “secret of the Holy Office” or who admits publicly that any victims have come forward were threatened with excommunication.

All complaints about sexual abuse were stored in the Secret Archives of the Vatican. Daniel Shea, a lawyer for abused children said, “It proves there was an international conspiracy by the Church to hush up sexual abuse issues. It is a devious attempt to conceal criminal conduct and is a blueprint for deception and concealment.”120

Another attorney for abused children, Richard Scorer, said, “We always suspected that the Catholic Church systematically covered up abuse and tried to silence victims. This document appears to prove it. Threatening excommunication to anybody who speaks out shows the lengths the most senior figures in the Vatican were prepared to go to prevent the information getting out to the public domain.”121

This leads to the dark road of what is called sex magic, which is the most sinister secret of Satanism and is covered in the chapter titled Spiritual Beliefs. The leader of the Jesuits is officially called the “Superior General,” often nicknamed the “Black Pope,” and is believed by many to be the actual leader of the Catholic Church who wields his power from behind the scenes.



The Rosicrucians

The Rosicrucians are an interesting secret society-type of group, because the “group” started off as a hoax, really, which then inspired people to actually form such a group (or factions) based on the teachings of the mysterious Rosicrucian Manifestos, the first of which was published in Germany in 1614. Two other manifestos later appeared, one the following year in 1615, and another the year after that, said to have come from a secret brotherhood that made up an Invisible College which was preparing to reveal themselves to the world.

There are various theories as to who the author or authors of these mysterious books were. Many believe they were written by Johann Valentin Andrea, a German Lutheran theologian who was allegedly hoping they would help break the Catholic Church’s stranglehold on power.

Whoever wrote the manifestos chose to release them under the pseudonym Christian Rosencreutz as a symbol for the work because the name translates to Rosy Cross—a rose having been an alchemical symbol of heavenly perfection and paradise. The first manifesto tells a story of how “Christian Rosencreutz” went on a journey to the Middle East to study the occult and the ancient mysteries. The books are said to contain hidden meanings and esoteric knowledge which could only be revealed to a select few.

In the texts, “Christian Rosencreutz” wrote about a future utopia where people of different religions would all worship the same God in their own style while having tolerance for all other views. Of course, the Catholic Church condemned the manifestos and anyone who supported them.



The books also forecasted a coming age of enlightenment resulting from the revelation of ancient Hermetic secrets. Some believe surviving Knights Templars were behind the mysterious manifestos, and some also credit Rosicrucianism for changing stone mason guilds into the philosophical Freemasonry we are familiar with today.

Rosicrucian researcher Christopher McIntosh wrote, “It has often been suggested that the Hiramic legend in Masonry might be linked with the legend of Christian Rosenkreuz and his tomb…It is not impossible, therefore, that an impulse of a Rosicrucian nature (using the word “Rosicrucian” in its widest sense) was responsible for the transformation of operative into speculative Masonry.”122 The transformation from “operative” masonry to “speculative masonry” means changing from a mere stone mason trade union to the philosophical and spiritual form of Freemasonry that exists today. The 18th degree of Scottish Rite Freemasonry is called the Knight of the Rose-Croix (Rose Cross), clearly showing a connection between the two groups.

The Mormon Church, or the Church of Latter Day Saints, as they prefer to be called, contains several parallels with Rosicrucianism. First, both stem from books said to have been “discovered” or mysteriously appeared, which cleverly mix occult myths and rituals with Christian philosophy. Mormonism founder Joseph Smith Jr. most likely knew of the Christian Rosencreutz legend (which was two hundred years old in his time) when he concocted his tale of “finding” a supposed ancient text himself. Since Joseph Smith was a Freemason, he certainly would have been familiar with the Legend of Enoch, which claims that the true name of God was carved into a golden delta (triangle), and hidden before the great flood so that it would be preserved (and discovered) by a future generation.

These myths of ancient “lost and found” divine texts speaking of past cultures and mystical secrets were the inspiration for The Book of Mormon which Joseph Smith claimed to have “found” written on a stack of Golden Plates in the 1820s, which of course aren’t in a museum somewhere because he said an angel took them back to heaven for safe keeping! Smith was a Freemason who mixed Masonic mythology with Christianity to create

Mormonism which he claimed “restored” the lost secrets from the ancient past with his “discovery” (fabrication) of the Book of Mormon, again, which he magically “translated” from “Golden Plates” that are nowhere to be found.

The name “R. C. Christian” appeared in 1980 surrounding the creation of an enormous and mysterious occult monument in the small town of Elberton, Georgia—a structure known as the Georgia Guidestones. The name was chosen as a pseudonym by the individual who designed and paid for this bizarre monument. “R.C. Christian,” obviously standing for Rose Cross Christian, and the Brotherhood of the Rose Cross, which was a popular calling card of early Rosicrucians. The Georgia Guidestones monument stands nineteen feet tall and displays ten different commandments in eight different languages as the New World Order’s ten commandments. The first of which is to maintain the human population under 500 million people. The monument is said to be the “Guidestones to an age of reason” and has several astrological markings in the design, including a hole in line with the North Star.

It wasn’t just Mormonism founder Joseph Smith and the man behind the Georgia Guidestones who received inspiration from the Rosicrucians, but also the early founders of Freemasonry and even the father of the Illuminati, Adam Weishaupt. Many Rosicrucians in his time actually denounced Weishaupt and the Illuminati for taking what they considered to be a noble concept of an enlightened brotherhood, and turned it into a mechanism to exercise his own tyrannical goals.



Freemasonry

Often said to be just a men’s club of old guys who want to get away from their wives much like the Moose Lodge or Knights of Columbus— Freemasonry is quite a bit different from most men’s clubs and is actually often included when talking about the grand “Illuminati conspiracy.” What most people don’t know, and what high level masons have openly admitted, is that there is a secret society within this secret society.

Manly P. Hall, considered one of Freemasonry’s greatest philosophers, openly admitted that, “Freemasonry is a fraternity within a fraternity—an outer organization concealing an inner brotherhood of the elect…the visible society is a splendid camaraderie of ‘free and accepted’ men enjoined to devote themselves to ethical, educational, fraternal, patriotic, and humanitarian concerns. The invisible society is a secret most august [respected and impressive] fraternity whose members are dedicated to the service of a mysterious arcanum arcanorum [secret of secrets.]”123

You’ll sometimes hear people say that their grandfather was a “master mason” and dismiss any talk of a “conspiracy” because all grandpa did was engage in cheesy rituals and attend boring meetings. A “master mason” sounds quite impressive if you don’t know much about masonry. George Washington was a master mason and a considerable number of the Founding Fathers of America were masons, so they can’t be that bad, right? Out of the fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence, eight of them were confirmed to be Freemasons and at least sixteen U.S. presidents have also been masons, including James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, James Polk, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Gerald Ford.

While sounding like an impressive title, a master mason is only the 3rd level (or degree) of a 33 level hierarchy. The first degree is called entered

apprentice, the second is fellow craft, and the third is a master mason; but there are thirty-three degrees in the Scottish Rite. A rite is “a formal or ceremonial act or procedure prescribed or customary in religious or other solemn use.”124

The Scottish Rite is the most popular brand of Masonry and within the higher levels each degree is given a mysterious sounding name like Secret Master (4th Degree), Knight of the Rose-Croix (18th degree) and Grand Pontiff (19th degree). In the 32nd degree (the second highest level), the initiate is called a Sublime Knight Commander of the Royal Secret or Master of the Royal Secret.

The “Scottish Rite” actually started in France and was based on legends that originated from Scotland that were told by Scotts who fled to France in the late 1700s when the British Isles were having problems. Regardless of where the name originated, Scottish Rite Freemasonry is the most popular esoteric hierarchy of the fraternity.

The 33rd degree of the Scottish Rite is the highest level and is awarded by invitation only. Each of the degrees represents the different vertebrate in the human spine and symbolize the member’s ascent in their quest for Enlightenment within the fraternity. On top of the 33rd vertebrate of the spine sits the skull, which holds the brain, so the 33rd degree signifies that the initiate has become fully enlightened with the secret gnosis (knowledge) of the ancient mysteries.

Freemasonry evolved out of stone masonry, whose ancient tradesmen used a series of secret handshakes and code words to identify each other and their level of skill. Over time, various philosophies started arising out of those trade unions and used popular stone mason tools as symbols to represented various aspects of their philosophy. As their theology grew, the stonemasons morphed from what was called operative masonry (meaning men who worked with stones) to speculative masonry, which refers to the philosophical and spiritual Freemasons today.



While the operative (or stone masons) built cathedrals out of stone, the speculative (or Freemasons) built their intellect. The term “Freemason” likely comes from freestone masonry. Freestone is a softer stone used for cathedral faces that is intricately carved by higher skilled masons and is used as a metaphor to describe the development of a man’s character and abilities. Some say that “free” means they are free from ignorance or free from the chains of darkness that once enslaved them.

Evidence indicates that the Knights Templar either assimilated with Freemasonry or directly created it. Most American’s came to hear about Freemasonry as a result of Dan Brown’s 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code, and then in the following few years the History Channel, Discovery, National Geographic and other networks produced shows looking into this fascinating group. The 2004 film National Treasure starring Nicholas Cage capitalized on the hype, and portrayed them as the secret guardians of America.

It officially came into its modern form in 1717 with the creation of the Grand Lodge of England and has been shrouded in mystery ever since. Much of the controversy surrounding Masonry stems from allegations that the higher-level members worship satan and that they deceive lower level members about its purpose. “Anti-Masons” don’t just come up with these allegations out of thin air though; they often point to Masonic texts written by highly revered Masons as their evidence.

The “Bible of Freemasonry,” a book titled Morals and Dogma, written by Albert Pike in 1871 explains Masonic philosophy and is read primarily only by dedicated Freemasons. Part of this philosophy, Pike explains, is, “Masonry, like all the Religions, all the Mysteries, Hermeticism and Alchemy, conceals [emphasis in original] its secrets from all except the Adepts and Sages, or the Elect, and uses false explanations and misinterpretations of its symbols to mislead those who deserve only to be misled; to conceal the Truth, which it [the Mason] calls Light, from them, and to draw them away from it.”125



He reaffirms this deception later in the book, saying, ”The Blue Degrees are but the court or portico (porch) of the Temple. Part of the symbols are displayed there to the initiate, but he is intentionally misled by false interpretations. It is not intended that he shall understand them; but it is intended that he shall imagine that he understands them…their true explication [explanation and understanding] is reserved for the Adepts, the Princes of Masonry [those of the 32nd and 33rd Degrees].”126

Pike even makes several statements appearing to support the Devil, saying, “Satan is not a black god, but negation of God ... this is not a Person, but a Force, created for good, but which may represent evil. It is the instrument of Liberty or Free Will. They [Freemasons] represent this Force...under the mythological and horned form of the God Pan; thence came the he-goat of the Sabbat, brother of the Ancient Serpent, and the Light-bearer.”127

Later in the book he wrote, “Lucifer, the Light-bearer! Strange and mysterious name to give to the Spirit of Darkness! Lucifer, the Son of the Morning! Is it he who bears the Light, and with its splendors intolerable, blinds feeble, sensual, or selfish souls? Doubt it not!”128

I have personally spoken with a 32nd degree Mason who is a friend of a friend, and at first he dodged my insinuations that he worshiped Lucifer, but I pressed him and he started praising Lucifer and criticizing Christians saying they were morbid for worshiping a dead man hanging on a cross, and that they were judgmental and intolerant of other religions.

Satanist Aleister Crowley seems to agree that there is some great mystical secret held by the inner circle when he said, “Although I was admitted to the thirty-third and last degree of Freemasonry so long ago as 1900, it was not until the summer of 1912 that my suspicion was confirmed. I speak of my belief that behind the frivolities and convivialities of our greatest institution [Freemasonry] lay in truth a secret.”129



In his book autobiography The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, he wrote, “…for Freemasonry asserts that every man is himself the living, slain and re-arisen Christ in his own person. It is true that not one mason in ten thousand in England is aware of this fact; but he has only to remember his ‘raising’ to realize the fundamental truth of the statement.”130

Albert Pike was a lawyer who became a Confederate General in the Army, fighting against the northern colonies during the Civil War trying to ensure slavery was kept in place. He is believed to have been the leader of the Knights of the Golden Circle, a secret society of Confederates that included notorious outlaw Jesse James and John Wilkes Booth, the man who assassinated President Lincoln. The Lincoln assassination was not the action of a lone gunman, but was part of a larger plot hatched by the Knights of the Golden Circle with hopes of securing a victory for the south. John Wilkes Booth and other Knights of the Golden Circle planned to assassinate the vice president and the secretary of state that same night, thus eliminating three of the top officials in the United States government, hoping that would ensure the Confederates could take over.

Aside from being a key member of the KGC, it is rumored that Albert Pike founded the KKK as well, which isn’t far-fetched at all, considering it’s obvious he was a racist who saw black people as slaves. When African Americans first wanted to become part of the Masonic fraternity, Pike wrote, “I took my obligations to white men, not to Negroes. When I have to accept Negroes as brothers or leave Masonry, I shall leave it.”131

Pike owned the Daily Appeal, a newspaper in Tennessee, where on April 16, 1868 he published an editorial saying, “The disenfranchised people of the South...can find no protection for property, liberty or life, except in secret association...We would unite every white man in the South, who is opposed to negro suffrage [the right to vote], into one great Order of Southern Brotherhood, with an organization complete, active, vigorous, in which a few should execute the concentrated will of all, and whose very existence should be concealed from all but its members.”132



A larger than life statue of Albert Pike stands in Judiciary Square in Washington D.C. alongside Abraham Lincoln, and Pike’s body is kept in a tomb inside the Masonic headquarters in Washington D.C., a building called the House of the Temple, which is the home of the “Supreme Council” of Freemasonry.

Theosophist teacher and occult writer Alice Bailey, who claimed her books were dictated to her telepathically by an entity she called the Master of Wisdom, wrote that, “The Masonic Movement when it can be divorced from politics and social ends and from its present paralyzing condition of inertia, will meet the need of those who can, and should wield power. It is the custodian of the law; it is the home of the Mysteries and the seat of initiation. It holds its symbolism the ritual of Deity, and the way of salvation is pictorially preserved in its work. The methods of Deity are demonstrated in its temples, and under the All-seeing Eye the work can go forward. It is a far more occult organization than can be realized, and is intended to be the training school for the coming advanced occultists. In its ceremonials lies hid the wielding of the forces connected with the growth and life of the kingdoms of nature and the unfoldment of the divine aspects in man.”133

Many Muslims are against Freemasonry partly because one of Freemasonry’s ultimate goals is to rebuild the Temple of Solomon on its original site in Jerusalem, where the Al-Aqsa Mosque currently stands. This spot is claimed by both Muslims and Jews as their religion’s holy place, and a primary aim of both Palestinians and Jews is to once and for all claim this spot as their own.

Muslims are also critical of Freemasonry’s secretive nature. Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a prominent Muslim scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, explains, “As far as I know, Freemasonry is a secret organization whose beliefs and practices are totally kept confidential except from those who are initiated into it. They have levels of secrets which are not divulged to those who are at lower levels. A Muslim should never fall prey or give allegiance to something which cannot be scrutinized by the firm criteria of the Quran and the Sunnah. Whoever joins Freemasonry is like a person who

writes a blank check; by doing so he agrees to give allegiance blindly to an authority to comply with their wishes no matter what they are.”134

In 1998 a law was enacted in Britain ordering police, judges, and other government employees in the UK to reveal whether they were Freemasons after it was believed a Masonic Mafia was operating within the government.135 Ten years later the law was reversed but the controversy continued. A secret Metropolitan Police report written in 2002 and leaked to the press in 2014 reveals that an internal investigation by Scotland Yard, the police agency of London, discovered that an organized criminal network of Freemasons largely controlled the police department.136 The investigation, called Operation Tiberius, found that the Metropolitan Police were infested with corrupt Freemasons who used their position within the department to engage in organized crime, destroy evidence, and recruit other corrupt officers.137

While Freemasonry is primarily a men’s organization, there is a woman’s branch called the Eastern Star, whose logo is literally an upside down pentagram. There is even a branch for young girls called Job’s Daughters (or Rainbow Girls) and one for boys called the DeMolays— named after Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar. President Bill Clinton was a DeMolay as a child, which many believe served as a prep school to groom him to later take his place as an Illuminati insider.

As noted earlier, it’s important to highlight that in 1782 Adam Weishaupt successfully infiltrated Freemasonry at the Congress of Wilhelmsbad, Germany, which was the largest, most important Masonic gathering of the eighteenth century.138 There he assigned men to oversee the implementation of “Illuminated Masonry” and recruit new supporters from Masonic lodges throughout Europe who would work on behalf of the Illuminati.



Skull & Bones Society

Even if you’re familiar with Skull & Bones and some of the allegations about them (many of which are true, by the way), the deeper you look into this group, the more apparent it becomes that they are anything but an ordinary college fraternity. Since it has already been touched upon earlier in this book, I won’t repeat most of what has already been covered, but I will add a few more pieces to the puzzle that most people are not familiar with so you can get a more complete picture of them.

Skull & Bones was the FIRST secret society at Yale and the first senior society—meaning someone doesn’t become a member until their senior year at Yale. There were fraternities at Yale, but Skull & Bones started a new chapter in the school’s history in 1832 when they created the first secret society, soon to be followed by Scroll & Key and then later Wolf’s Head, which are the top three senior (and secret) societies. The three clubs even hold regular “inter-council meetings” several times a year to coordinate their activities.

Each year fifteen new members are recruited (or “tapped,” as they say) to join. They are chosen during the last few weeks of the semester their Junior year in order to prepare them to replace the outgoing seniors who lead them through the elaborate and satanic initiation ceremony where they are given a new name (Long Devil, Machiavelli, Baal, Beelzebub are just a few examples).139 During part of the initiation, they lay in a coffin and give a detailed history of their sexual experiences up to that point in a ritual called Connubial Bliss.

Members consider the world “their realm” and call outsiders “Barbarians.” Once initiated the men (and now some women) are considered “bonesmen” or Knights of Eulogia, which is Greek for “Knights of the Blessing.” They even hold a special Skull & Bones wedding

ceremony when one of their members gets married to initiate the new wife into the “Bones Family.” Behind every corrupt man, there’s usually a woman willing to look the other way. They also own a 40-acre island located on the St. Lawrence River in Alexandria Bay, called Dear Island, which is used as a private vacation spot for “bonesmen” and their families.

After the summer, when the new school year begins, and the new initiates are then seniors, they meet every Thursday and Sunday night for a fancy dinner (often steak and lobster) that is followed up with what are called “sessions” which include various lectures and debates. It is believed that they eat using Adolf Hitler’s silverware that a “bonesmen” somehow obtained. Skull & Bones has its own collection of books in its library located in the Tomb [headquarters] to help new members learn the ways of the world. There is even a “Bones Bible” and other black books kept in the clubhouse library. They operate as a 5013c organization under the Russell Trust Association (or RTA Incorporated) and their 2012 filings with the IRS (which must be available for “public review” if you know just where to look and how to get them) shows they spent $469,000 dollars that year on “personal development” for their members.140

No alcohol is allowed inside the Skull & Bones Tomb clubhouse, that’s how serious they are. This is not a party. Taking over the world is serious business. Another difference between Skull & Bones and ordinary fraternities is that frats usually do community service and help with local fundraisers, but this strange group only looks out for themselves. In fact, the men (and now women) who are recruited into Skull & Bones are never engineers or mathematicians, because these careers hold little power compared to those in business, banking, media, politics, and law, which are the dominant careers of the members.

By now I’m sure you’re familiar that the most famous member is President George W. Bush, but what most people don’t know is that his family has a long history with the group. Aside from his father George Herbert Walker Bush being a member, Prescott Bush, George W.’s grandfather was a member, as well as his uncles Jonathan Bush, John

Walker, and his other uncle George Herbert Walker III. So was his greatuncle George Herbert Walker Junior, and his cousin Ray Walker.141

After George W. Bush became president in January 2001, he appointed several of his fellow bonesmen to various high level positions within the government. For example, he nominated William H. Donaldson (Bones 1953) as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission; Edward McNally (Bones 1979) was given a position in the Department of Homeland Security.142 Robert D. McCallum was appointed to Assistant Attorney General; Roy Austin was made the ambassadorship to Trinidad and Tobago; Victor Ashe was given a spot on the board of directors of Fannie Mae (the Federal National Mortgage Association), America’s biggest home mortgage financier, and so on.143

The list of Skull & Bones members who have risen to the pinnacles of power is long. Co-founder Alfonzo Taft became the head of the Department of War, which was the name of the Department of Defense until the government changed the name in true Orwellian double-speak fashion. Alfonzo Taft’s son, William Taft became President of the United States. Pierre Jay was the first chairman of the New York Federal Reserve Bank; Winston Lord became chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations. Percy Rockefeller was on the board of Brown Brothers Harriman & Company, which was had its assets seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act after it was discovered the firm was helping fund Adolf Hitler.144 John Kerry, who ran for president against George W. Bush in the 2004 election, later became Secretary of State under President Obama.

The list of key power players in government just goes on and on. Raymond Price (1951) was a speechwriter for Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Bush. Christopher Taylor Buckley (1975) was the chief speechwriter for George H. W. Bush when he was the Vice President. Austan Goolsbee (1991) became President Barack Obama’s chief economic advisor, etc., etc. It’s interesting to also point out that the father of American football, Walter Camp, was a boneseman. Football, as you may know, serves as a modern day bread and circus distraction for the majority of Americans, channeling their energy and aggression into watching a bunch of men chasing after a

ball instead of paying attention to important social issues. This is all part of the plan because it keeps most people out of the way so the elite can carry out their agenda.

Skull & Bones members created the American Historical Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Chemical Society; and the American Economic Association. The atomic bomb was basically a Skull & Bones project involving William Averell Harriman, Governor of New York (class of 1913), Henry Stimson, Secretary of War (class of 1888), Robert Lovett, Secretary of Defense (class of 1918), McGeorge Bundy, U.S. Intelligence Officer (class of 1940) and George L. Harrison, advisor to the Secretary of War and President of the New York Federal Reserve Bank (class of 1909).

I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that an organization whose symbols and themes revolve around death would ultimately be responsible for creating the most deadly weapon in the history of mankind. The group’s obsession with death is extremely disturbing and all the death symbolism is meant to serve as a continuous reminder of their own mortality, and since they don’t believe in an afterlife, they are urged to become gods on earth during their short time here by any means necessary.

We often think of the society “ruling the world” in terms of politicians and business, but they have also dominated the faculty of Yale University as well. Some reports claim that four out of five faculty members between 1865 and 1916 were bonesmen.145 In 1873, a student newspaper called The Iconoclast, published an article denouncing Skull & Bones control of Yale. “Out of every class Skull and Bones takes its men...They have obtained control of Yale. It’s business is performed by them. Money paid to the college must pass into their hands, and be subject to their will....It is Yale College against Skull and Bones!”146

Aside from being accused of dominating the faculty at Yale and power positions in politics and business, they are often accused of worshiping Satan and conducting extraordinary disturbing rituals. The group’s favorite

number, 322, possibly holds a secret satanic meaning. Many people believe the number 322 is a reference to the Book of Genesis chapter 3 verse 22 which talks about Adam and Eve eating the Forbidden Fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and employing this number is seen as a reference to the Luciferian doctrine or the satanic secret.

In 2001, a reporter named Ron Rosenbaum from the New York Observer used a night vision camera to videotape the initiation ritual from the ledge of an adjacent building that overlooked the courtyard of the Skull & Bones clubhouse. The footage shows initiates kneeling down and kissing a skull, and then appearing to take a knife and slit the throat of a naked woman who was being held down by other members.147

People were also heard chanting a strange mantra, “The hangman equals death, the Devil equals death, death equals death!” The hangman likely refers to Jesus hanging on the cross and the mantra appears to convey the same meaning as the riddle of the four human skulls when they are asked which one is the wise man, the beggar, the king, and the fool. The answer given is that it doesn’t matter to them because “all is the same in death.”

Rosenbaum was not sure what to make of this behavior and asked, “Is that the secret they’ve been covering up ever since the society was founded in 1832, the offshoot of a German secret society: devil worship? A fulfillment of the paranoid fantasies of the fundamentalist right, who believe the Eastern establishment is a front for satanic conspiracy.”148



Scroll and Key Society

The Scroll & Key society is a another secret society at Yale University, created in 1842, ten years after Skull & Bones, and was the second secret society at the school composed of seniors. Just like Skull & Bones, Scroll & Key recruits fifteen new students at the end of their junior year who they see as having the potential and willingness to further the organization’s goals. Scroll & Key is considered one of the “Big Three” senior societies at Yale—the other two being, of course, Skull & Bones, along with Wolf’s Head.

Fareed Zakaria, a CNN commentator on foreign affairs, was initiated as a member of Scroll & Key when he attended the university in 1986. Fareed went onto to attend Bilderberg meetings (in 1993 and 2009), and became a member of the Council on Foreign Relations as well. He didn’t just join the CFR, he actually was the managing editor of their publication Foreign Affairs which serves up their political propaganda on a platter for the members.

Fareed once argued that the Constitution is outdated and should be “fixed” to remove the Second Amendment in order to “modernize the Constitution for the 21st Century.”149

Other notable members include Ari Shapiro (class of 2000) who became the White House Correspondent for National Public Radio (NPR); James Stillman Rockefeller (class of 1924) who was the President and Chairman of the First National City Bank of New York; Cornelius Vanderbilt III of the wealthy Vanderbilt dynasty (class of 1895); and Huntington D. Sheldon (class of 1925) worked for the CIA as the Director of the Office of Current Intelligence.



The Scroll & Key society operate under the legal entity called the Kingsley Trust Association which creates a shield of privacy to protect them from people searching for information using the name “Scroll & Key” and according to their 2012 IRS filings, which must be made available for public inspection, they have over $9 million dollars in assets and spent $650,000 dollars that year.150



Wolfs Head

Wolf’s Head is the third of the “Big Three” senior secret societies at Yale and was founded in 1884, partly to counter the dominance of Skull & Bones over student affairs. They too recruit fifteen new upcoming seniors for membership and are now part of the larger network consisting of Skull & Bones and Scroll & Key.

The club’s logo is a wolf’s head on an inverted Egyptian hieroglyph called an ankh, which is often called the Egyptian Cross and said to symbolize “the key of life.” Wolf’s Head built its own Egyptian themed “tomb” headquarters in 1924 thanks to a donation from one of their members, Edward Harkness, who went on to become John D. Rockefeller’s right hand man. Harkness himself was listed by Forbes magazine as the 6th richest man in the world during his life.

The club holds meetings every Thursday and Sunday night where the men (and since 1992 some women) prepare themselves for life after college, when their real work begins.

One of their most well-known members was Erastus Corning, who went on to become the Mayor of Albany, New York for more than 40 years! Another prominent members was Paul Moore Jr. who later became a bishop of the New York Episcopal Church and one of the best known clergy. After his death his daughter revealed that Moore was bisexual and had a history of homosexual affairs.151 She detailed her father’s double life in her book The Bishop’s Daughter: A Memoir. While the Bush crime family has been active in Skull & Bones for generations, they also have a hand in Wolf’s Head. President George H. W. Bush’s younger brother William Henry Trotter “Bucky” Bush (born July 14, 1938) was inducted in 1960.



The business name of Wolf’s Head is the Phelps Association, and according to their 2013 IRS filings, which must be made public since they are registered as a 501c3 tax exempt foundation, the organization holds over $6 million dollars in assets and spent over $373,000 dollars on their members that year alone.152 Wolf’s Head members were responsible for the formation of the Yale Political Union which is the center for politically minded students at the University.



Communism

Communism is most often promoted as a political philosophy to allegedly help the average worker (proletariat) fight against the “oppressive” business owners (bourgeoisie), but it’s actually a conspiracy controlled by the elite who have used Communism as a mechanism to encourage the creation of an all-powerful super state that they themselves are in control of.

As Gary Allen puts it, author of None Dare Call it Conspiracy, “Communism is not a movement of the downtrodden masses but is a movement created, manipulated and used by power-seeking billionaires in order to gain control over the world…first by establishing socialist governments in the various nations and then consolidating them all through a ‘Great Merger,’ into an all-powerful world, socialist super-state probably under the auspices of the United Nations.”153

The Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx and his often overlooked coauthor Frederich Engles, was first published in 1848, and is widely believed to have sparked the Communist Revolution in Russia in 1917 and spreading to other countries such as North Korea in 1948, China in 1949, and a few years later moving to Cuba in 1953—but what most people overlook is that Karl Marx was really just a secretary who wrote the book outlining the Communist philosophy for a secret society called the Communist League.

The manifesto itself reads, “The Communist League (formerly called the League of Just Men)…which could of course only be a secret one… commissioned the undersigned [Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels], at the Congress held in London in November 1847, to draw up for publication a detailed theoretical and practical program of the Party. Such was the origin

of the following Manifesto, the manuscript of which traveled to London to be printed, a few weeks before the February Revolution.”154

The California Senate Investigating Committee on Education in 1953 stated, “So-called modern Communism is apparently the same hypocritical and deadly world conspiracy to destroy civilization that was founded by the secret order of the Illuminati in Bavaria on May 1, 1776, and that raised its hoary head in our colonies here at critical periods before the adoption of our Federal Constitution.”155

The report goes on to say, “The recognition of May 1, 1776, as the founding date of this world revolution conspiracy is not difficult to understand, when it is realized that May Day is frequently celebrated, even in recent times, by rioting and bloodshed on a world-wide scale.”156

“It was not until 1847 or 1848, that the Communist conspirators, who had theretofore operated in secret, came out in the open with the Manifesto of the Communist Party, by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, boldly proclaiming against practically everything upon which civilization is based —God, religion, the family, individual liberty, and so forth—the concluding paragraph of the manifesto reading: ‘Communists scorn to hide their views and aims. They openly declare that their purpose can only be achieved by the forcible overthrow of the whole extant social order. Let the ruling classes tremble at the prospect of a Communist revolution. Proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.’”157

“In issuing this manifesto the Communist conspirators evidently believe the time had arrived when, with the aid of ignorant victims, a worldwide take-over could be accomplished; but there were not enough ignorant victims then, and the expected coup failed.”158

“The Communist conspirators thereupon conceived the plan, for the future, of supplementing the long-established secret conspiracy, in existence since May 1, 1776, with an unremitting publish campaign for victims among the ignorant of all nations. And, in an attempt to hide from view the

underlying hypocritical conspiracy existing since May 1, 1776, it was decided that, in such public campaign, the manifesto of 1848 should be heralded as the founding date of communism, and Karl Marx falsely proclaimed as its author.”159

New Age guru Benjamin Crème, who is looking forward to the arrival of the Antichrist, thinking he will turn earth into a heavenly paradise, admitted, “Marx was indeed a member of the Hierarchy, of a certain degree. Looking at the effect of his work over the years—that could only have been the work of a disciple of some degree, an initiate of some level—first to have the vision, and secondly to have the capacity to embody that vision so that the work could spread.”160

While Christians are often said to have killed the most number of people in the name of God, the reality is that Communists have been responsible for the greatest genocides in the world, killing in the name of the State (their government), in countries like China and North Korea. Over 30 million were killed in the Chinese Communist Revolution lead by Mao Zedong, and Joseph Stalin killed over 3 million in Russia in the name of Communism.161 Massive numbers have also been killed in Vietnam and North Korea by Communist revolutionaries. Belief in any God other than the government is forbidden, because it reduces people’s allegiance to the State. The government is God in Communist countries.

At the heart of Communism is an enormous all-powerful government that controls every aspect of people’s lives—from the schools, to their jobs, to healthcare and banking; with a small group of elite bureaucrats living lives of luxury at the express of the working class. This is, of course, one of the primary goals of the Illuminati, who are promoting the idea as a utopian paradise.



Bohemian Grove

Because the Bohemian Grove has become fairly well-known in terms of the Illuminati conspiracy, many people may think they know all about it, but in most cases their knowledge is limited to only a few basic facts. Because of its extraordinarily bizarre rituals and elite membership list causing widespread rumors, most people who have done a brief investigation into the Illuminati are probably familiar with the basics of the Bohemian Grove, but for those who wish to scratch beyond the surface of this subject, there is certainly a lot to be learned.

As you may have heard, it’s a 2700 acre privately owned redwood forest in Northern California located about an hour north of San Francisco in a small town named Monte Rio and serves as a vacation spot for elite men every summer in mid-July, where around 1000 of the world’s most powerful men gather for a “men’s retreat” inside the Grove which is kicked off by the infamous Cremation of Care ritual, the human sacrifice-depicting ceremony, where a life-size effigy of a person is burned on an altar at the base of a 40-foot tall demon-looking statue. It’s sort of the Camp David of California (with some Satanism mixed in) and was created back in 1872.

The term Bohemian refers to people who live non-traditional lifestyles and people who are adventurers, or vagabonds. The club’s annual midsummer encampment is called the “greatest men’s party on earth” by members, who include many former presidents, military leaders, famous journalists, and top businessmen.

The Bohemian Grove’s mascot (and logo) is the Owl of Minerva, the same symbol that Adam Weishaupt used as his emblem.162 Within the original Illuminati there was a level in the hierarchy called the Minerals and the owl symbolizes wisdom because it can “see in the dark” which is analogous to being enlightened.



Out of curiosity, in the past, occasionally a reporter would try to sneak inside the now highly guarded compound, and some have been successful, yet little has been reported in major publications. Membership lists and program guides have sometimes been stolen and published by employees, and in the 1980s a group called the Bohemian Grove Action Network dedicated themselves to doing just that.

The “patron saint” of the Bohemian Grove is Saint John of Nepomuk and a large statue of him stands inside the grounds with him holding his index finger over his mouth, signifying secrecy and reminding members to keep their mouths shut. A patron saint is someone who embodies a group’s philosophies or goals. John of Nepomuk received the confessionals of the queen of Bohemia in the 1300s and when pressured by the king to reveal her confessions after he suspected her of cheating on him, Saint John refused and was killed by the king. Paralleling Robert De Niro’s gangster gospel in Goodfellas that you “never rat on your friends, and always keep your mouth shut,” the Illuminati cherish the power of secrecy and remind all Bohos (the name members are often referred to) of this with the statue of John of Nepomuk standing prominently in their forest.

A presidential advisor to Presidents Ford, Nixon, Regan, and Clinton, named David Gergen, who also worked as a CNN contributor, was confronted on camera by Alex Jones from Infowars.com on the streets of New York during the 2004 Republican National Convention when Jones stuck a microphone in his face and asked if he’d ever seen the Cremation of Care ritual.

Gergen, looking visibly uncomfortable, responded, “Frankly I don’t think that’s something I need to talk to you about.”163 When Jones asked him again about the ritual, Gergen snapped, “That’s none of your damn business!” and walked away.164 The clip can be seen on YouTube.

One of their popular sayings is that “weaving spiders come not here,” which is said to mean that the Grove is not a place for conducting business

or working, hence “weaving,” but this explanation is just a cover story for the saying’s true meaning. It actually means “don’t dare challenge the members,” (or really, the “Gods,” as they see themselves) and comes from the ancient story in Greek mythology of Arachne, a woman weaver who disrespected Athena, the Goddess of weaving, by failing to acknowledge that the woman’s skills came from the Goddess and not from her own power. Athena then turned her into a spider as punishment, dooming her and her descendants to weave webs forever, since out of her own ignorance she thought she was better than the “Gods.”

The club is divided into about 124 different camps inside the grounds, each one having anywhere from a dozen to 125 men. Each individual camp has its own sleeping quarters, kitchen and bar, and each one has a captain who is responsible for managing their territory.165 Each camp has a different name and tends to contain members who work in the same field. For example, the Hill Billies camp is comprised of mainly men in big business, bankers, politicians, and media moguls from Texas. The sign for Hill Billies’ camp, which the Bush family belongs to, consists of a cloven hoofed horned Devil figure.

The Mandalay camp is made of mainly political figures such as former presidents and defense contractors. Owls Nest is another elite camp of former presidents, high ranking military personnel and defense contractors. Other camp names include the Lost Angels (banking and media), Stowaway (Rockefeller family members and other big oil men), and Hillside (military men including Joint Chiefs of Staff members), just to name a few. No seated president ever attends because his schedule and location is so closely monitored that his visitation would bring too much unwanted attention to the club, but once they are out of office (and before they are even elected) many are fixtures at the encampment.

Sociologist Peter Phillips, who earned his Ph. D. by writing his doctoral dissertation on the Grove in 1994, wrote, “Sharing a camp together at the Grove gives Bohemian directors of major U.S. policy councils ample opportunity to discuss current affairs and socio-economic policy issues. Watching and listening to reactions to Lakeside Chats by various other

Bohemians also gives policy directors an opportunity to evaluate policy concerns from the broad sampling of the American corporate business community encamped at the Grove. In this sense, the Grove serves as an informal evaluatory feedback process to the top socio-economic domestic and foreign policy councils in the United States.”166

The midsummer encampment, as their annual gathering is called, lasts for two weeks from mid-July to the end of the month, with some members and guests coming for a weekend, and others staying for several days or even an entire week or longer. Every afternoon during the two weeks a “Lakeside Chat” is given at 12:30pm, just after lunch, where a political insider or industry leader gives a 30-minute talk on his area of expertise.

It has been rumored that Alan Greenspan was chosen to be nominated as Chairman of the Federal Reserve after a meeting in the Grove, and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s successful bid for governor of California was allegedly given the green light by insiders at the Grove as well. There’s even a famous picture taken in 1967 showing Ronald Reagan (then Governor of California) and Richard Nixon, who would be elected president the following year, sitting next to each other, where they are said to have been coordinating their political careers.167

Despite claiming the Grove is just a vacation spot and no work is conducted during the encampment, the Manhattan Project (the plan for the atomic bomb) was actually hatched inside the club.168 Aside from the atomic bomb being born in the Bohemian Grove, the United Nations was hatched from the club as well.169 Peter Phillips reveals, “One of the foremost political events in which the Bohemian political network played a significant role was the United Nations Conference of International Organization (UNCIO), April 25th to June 26, 1945, in San Francisco. This was the original formation meeting for the United Nations, with delegates from fifty nations. Receptions for UNCIO delegates and key dignitaries were held at the Bohemian Club on May 17, May 29, June 4, and June 5. Towards the end of the U.N. conference the Club invited all delegates to a program at the Grove.”170



The club has limited number of rare yearbooks that are occasionally printed for members, called the Annals of the Bohemian Grove, that contain photos of attendees dressed in drag, along with pictures of the Cremation of Care ritual so men can reminisce about their time there. I have been able to obtain several copies of these books since every once in a while they’ll find their way into the public after older members die and their book collections are sold at estate sales or donated to charity. In one Annal there is a photo of George Bush Senior and George W. Bush standing at the podium giving a Lakeside talk in 1995 where Bush Senior reportedly told the audience that his son would make a great president one day.171

The first book dedicated to exposing the Bohemian Grove was published in 1974 titled The Bohemian Grove and other Retreats, written by William Domhoff, a sociologist and professor who taught at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

The preface to his book explains that upper-class retreats are of a major sociological relevance, because “they increase the social cohesiveness of America’s rulers and provide private settings in which business and political problems can be discussed informally and off the record.”172

The book continues on page one saying, “You are one of fifteen hundred men gathered together from all over the country for the annual encampment of the rich and famous at the Bohemian Grove. And you are about to take part in a strange ceremony that has marked every Bohemian Grove gathering since 1880.”173 He goes on to include a transcript and detailed description of the Cremation of Care, which was a historic revelation, especially considering this was back in the 1970s before the Information Age.

Twenty-five years later, in the year 2000, Alex Jones from Infowars would sneak inside and capture the first ever video footage of the ritual. While it’s one thing to read about the ceremony, actually seeing it leaves you with your head shaking and confirms many of the supposed “rumors”

are true. Jones’ footage is authentic, and after his infiltration they beefed up security and began using thermal imaging scanners and K-9 police tracker dogs to identify anyone lurking around the grounds who doesn’t belong there.

The most disturbing allegations about the Bohemian Grove don’t just lurk in the dark depths of the Internet, but actually come largely from a former U.S. Senator named John DeCamp. The allegations are so horrific and graphic, I don’t even like to talk about them because they involve claims of sadistic child abuse, human sacrifice, and snuff films, said to have occurred there in the 1980s. If you are interested in learning about John DeCamp’s allegations, you can check out his book The Franklin Cover-up, but I warn you, it is extremely disturbing and you may wish you had never heard of them.



Belizean Grove

When talking about secret societies or the Illuminati, most people often think of a group of men, since they have been the dominant sex throughout history, but powerful female secret societies, although rare, do exist. The Belizean Grove is a group of around 100 influential women from politics, media, and high ranking women in the military, that was created as a female version of the Bohemian Grove! It was founded on Super Bowl Weekend in 2001 by Susan Stautberg while her husband and most men were preoccupied with football, since she obviously had something else in mind.

The Belizean Grove, while inspired by the Bohemian Grove, is named after the country of Belize in Central America where the women meet every year for three days of private off-the-record talks, which is said to be “a balance of fun, substantive programs and bonding.”174 It certainly is strange that some of the world’s most powerful women would fly down to Central America for a weekend when they could simply meet locally at one of their lavish private residences. Perhaps this is so they can go out to the bars without the risk of being recognized by the locals so they can engage in extramarital affairs with younger men willing to bed a cougar. Since such behavior would run them the risk of getting caught or recognized if they did it in a major American city, perhaps the long distance ladies night was designed to facilitate such activities.

While high level female executives from major banks, public relations firms, and even the U.S. Military, all belong to the Belezian Grove, perhaps the group’s most famous member is Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who was nominated by Barack Obama to sit as a justice on the court. During the vetting process it was uncovered that she was a member of this strange girls group, causing her to resign since the American Bar Association forbids a judge to be a member of any organization that

“discriminates” against anyone based on sex, race, religion or national origin.

If it had not been for Republicans digging for dirt on Sonia Sotomayer hoping to derail her appointment to the Supreme Court, we likely would still be unaware of the Belizean Grove’s existence. Founder Susan Stautberg was not happy about the new publicity, and said, “we like to be under the radar screen.”

The group says they are “a constellation of influential women who are key decision makers in the profit, nonprofit and social sectors; who build long-term, mutually beneficial relationships in order to both take charge of their own destinies and help others to do the same.”

One member, Mary Pearl, dean of New York’s Stony Brook University, said, “It’s hard if you’re someone who’s a type ‘A’ personality, who’s achieved a lot and who may be in the public eye—it’s hard to make friends, so it’s just a mutually supportive wonderful experience. We get together just for socializing and also just for intelligent conversation.”175

In order to join, a member must recommend a woman to the Belizean Grove “advisory board” that then decide whether or not to admit them to the club. A few known members are Army General Ann E. Dunwoody, former Goldman Sachs executive Ann Kaplan, and General Services Administration Director Lurita Doan. Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg is a likely member as well.

A New York Times article written in 2011 said, “Belizean Grove has connected the top women in technology to the top women in finance, to the top women in media, to the top women in law, to the top women in retail, and so on.”176 It is currently unknown if the group conducts any bizarre rituals like their male counterpart at the Bohemian Grove, and at the time of this writing little else is known about the Belizean Grove.



Seraphic Society

Would you believe there’s a secret society of elite secretaries? I’m not kidding. Known as the Seraphic Society, this strange group was founded in 1940 in New York to supply, “leaders in industry, and social, civic, philanthropic, professional and other important enterprises” with trustworthy secretaries.”177 The most powerful CEOs in America get their secretaries from the Seraphic Society, which is named after the Seraphim, the highest order of angels in Heaven, because the society considers their secretaries angels who protect Gods.

David Rockefeller, Steve Forbes, CEOs from Meryl Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Chase Manhattan Bank, Sony, and many other Fortune 500 companies all use the Seraphic Society to provide them with “trustworthy” secretaries. A Fortune magazine article in 2009 even admitted that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Council on Foreign Relations use this “secretarial Skull and Bones” society.178

When journalist John Glassie of the New York Times was working on an article about the group in 1998, he was told by the Saraphic president at the time, who asked not to be identified, that “We’re very quiet, very lowkey,” and “It’s very touchy.”179

One “Angel” who was willing to speak with the reporter on the condition of anonymity told him, “Some people would love to be members but they just don’t fit the qualifications, and that’s what keeps this organization so special…You can’t just say you want to join.”180

With many high-powered CEOs of international banks being essentially organized crime bosses, they can’t just hire any secretary to deal with their shady affairs. The Seraphic Society can provide them with

women they know will not have any second thoughts or misgivings about the kind of work their boss is involved in, and who will be compensated very well for their cooperation. The saying goes that behind every great man is a great woman, and the same is true that behind every corrupt man, is a woman who’s willing to look the other way.

Secretaries for rich and powerful, or “administrative assistants,” as they are often called, don’t just deal with their boss’s work schedule, but are also closely intertwined with their personal lives as well. Personal assistants often get to know the intimate details of their boss’s lives and are trusted to manage what are called P & C’s or personal and confidentials, which may range from doing their personal shopping, to even arranging the delivery of drugs or hookers.



The Ordo Templi Orientis

Ordo Templi Orientis (Latin for Order of the Temple of the East or Order of Oriental Templars, often abbreviated to O.T.O.) is a secret society (or “fraternal order” as they say) founded between 1895 and 1906 in Germany or Austria (their exact original is unverified) whose spiritual teachings are based on the philosophy of Aleister Crowley and uses his Book of the Law as it’s Bible. The O.T.O. was inspired by Freemasonry and its founders concocted nine different levels (or degrees) for initiates that each supposedly reveal new spiritual teachings. These degrees were later expanded to thirteen.

Aleister Crowley claimed a demon who possessed his wife while they were in Egypt dictated his Book of the Law to him in 1904, commanding him to obey the entity’s ruthless social darwinistic rules such as, “Compassion is the vice of kings: stamp down the wretched and the weak: this is the law of the strong, this is our law and the joy of the world.”181 The demon, whose words Crowley wrote down in what would later be published as The Book of the Law, also commands readers to “Worship me with fire & blood; worship me with swords and with spears, is the command…let blood flow to my name. Trample down the Heathen; be upon them, o warrior, I will give you of their flesh to eat! Sacrifice cattle, little and big, after a child.”182

It continues, “Damn them who pity! Kill and torture; spare not; be upon them! The best blood is of the moon, monthly, then the fresh blood of a child.”183 The demonic entity voicing its instructions finally said, “I am in a secret fourfold word, the blasphemy against all gods of men. Curse them! Curse them! Curse them! With my Hawk’s head I peck at the eyes of Jesus as he hangs upon the cross.”184



While anyone can pick up a copy of Crowley’s book and read his teachings which make up the core of the O.T.O., many believe the organization’s best kept secrets are only communicated orally, and involve what is called sex magic (often spelled sex magick, with a “k” on the end), which is the belief that through certain sexual practices, one can reach a level of enlightenment that is unattainable by any other means.

“Dr. Israel Regardie [Crowley’s personal secretary] believed that certain sex magick techniques could be used by advanced students to incarnate ‘spiritual’ energies on the physical place, as well as making important shifts in the orientation of the Psyche and the Universe. In other words, if these methods were used properly, couples could bring into the world ‘divine’ forces in the children they generated, who could influence the future of the race.”185

“The realization that man’s emotional, physical and sexual energies are food for the ‘gods’ can create great personal turmoil at first, however when one begins to joyously participate in the spiritual feeding frenzy, one is ‘elevated perpendicularly to infinity.’”186

Crowley revealed in his autobiography that, “the O.T.O. is in possession of one supreme secret. The whole of its system at the time when I became an initiate of the Sanctuary of the Gnosis was directed towards communicating to its members, by progressively plain hints, this allimportant instruction. I personally believe that if this secret, which is a scientific secret, were perfectly understood, as it is not even by me after more than twelve years’ [of] almost constant study and experiment, there would be nothing which the human imagination can conceive that could not be realized in practice…I make these remarks with absolute confidence, for even the insignificant approaches that I have been able to make towards the sanctuaries of this secret have shown me that the relations between phenomena are infinitely more complex than the wildest philosophers have ever imagined, and that the old proverb ‘where there’s a will there’s a way’ needs no caveat.”187



What he’s talking about is his belief that through various sexual practices, heterosexual and homosexual, he believed one could “super charge” in a sense, his ability to “manifest” things into his life that he wanted. Crowley was a bisexual, heroin addict, who ate human feces and reportedly had sex with animals in his quest for enlightenment, yet he is still seen as an idol by rebellious teenagers and many mainstream musicians have paid homage to him.

The fact that the Ordo Templi Orientis bases its teachings on such a perverted and wicked man casts a dark cloud of suspicion over the entire organization. Little is known about the membership and current activities of the OTO but many suspect their secret sex magic rituals have attracted some very powerful men from Hollywood’s elite. Others believe that high level Illuminati members engage in homosexual Enochian sex magic rituals inside the Bohemian Grove every summer in attempts to activate latent metaphysical power allegedly hidden deep inside the brain.



Jekyll Island Meeting

The infamous Federal Reserve, the privately owned banking cartel that is in control of America’s currency and financial system, was born out of a secret meeting held by a handful of banking elite on a secluded island off the coast of Georgia in 1910. Under the cover story of going on a hunting trip, a small group of men met on Jekyll Island for a week and a half to draft what would later be passed into law through a clever and sneaky tactic of voting on their plan on December 23rd 1913, the eve of Christmas Eve, while almost every congressman was at home with their families for Christmas, thus slipping the Federal Reserve Act into law.

While the Federal Reserve sounds like a department of the United States government, it is actually a conglomerate of privately owned banks who dictate America’s monetary policy, and as the saying goes, “those with the gold make the rules.” Just as the elite Illuminati have secretly maneuvered themselves to control both major political parties in the American government, along with the world’s resources, infrastructure, and media though their business monopolies; of course they planned (and successfully accomplished) to take over the financial system as well, and are now in charge of printing the money.

The Jekyll Island meeting included executives from the major banks, such as Rockefeller family associate Frank A. Vanderlip, who was president of the National City Bank of New York; Henry Davison of J.P. Morgan Company; Charles D. Norton, president of the First National Bank of New York; Paul Warburg of Kuhn, Loeb, & Co; and Colonel Edward House, one of the founding members of the Council on Foreign Relations. The plan they put together would then be presented to Senator Nelson Aldrich, whose daughter was married to John D. Rockefeller Jr., who then presented it to Congress where it became known as the Aldrich Plan.



Paul Warburg later admitted, “The matter of a uniform discount rate [interest rate] was discussed and settled at Jekyll Island.”188 Frank Vanderlip, who worked for the Rockefellers and attended the Jekyll Island meeting, would later admit in his autobiography that, “Discovery, we knew, simply must not happen, or else all our time and effort would be wasted. If it were to be exposed publicly that our particular group had gotten together and written a banking bill, that bill would have no chance whatever of passage by Congress.”189

Congressman Ron Paul wrote in his book End the Fed, “A secret meeting was convened at the coastal Georgia resort called the Jekyll Island Club, co-owned by J. P. Morgan himself. The press said it was a duckhunting expedition. Those who attended took elaborate steps to preserve their secrecy, but history recorded precisely who was there: John D. Rockefeller’s man in the senate, Nelson Aldrich, Morgan senior partner Henry Davison, German émigré and central banking advocate Paul Warburg, National City Bank vice president Frank Vanderlip, and NMC staffer A. Piatt Andrew, who was also Assistant Secretary of the Treasury to President Taft.”190

William Greider, author of the New York Times bestseller Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country, mostly dismisses what he calls “conspiracy-minded” accusations, but does admit that, “their suspicions were poetically accurate—the bankers met secretly because they knew that any proposal identified as Wall Street’s bill would be doomed in the Democratic House of Representatives.”191

Those who own the banking system have a tremendous amount of power in their hands because those who control the issuance of currency have the ability to create money out of nothing, declare it’s legal tender, and then loan it out to people (or the government) and then collect interest on the money they lend out. It’s the perfect scam because instead of earning their money by building something, delivering packages, raising livestock, or any number of other ways people earn a living, the banksters have cleverly positioned themselves into the place where they take in a massive amount of money for basically doing nothing other than acting as the self-

proclaimed sole authority on money itself. Once you can wrap your mind around what it means to “create money out of nothing and loan it out at interest,” you can realize just how monumental their scam is.

The President of the Bank of England and the second richest man in Britain in the 1920s, Sir Josiah Stamp, is reported to have revealed that, “The modern banking system manufactures money out of nothing. The process is perhaps the most astounding piece of sleight of hand that was every invented. Banking was conceived in inequity and born in sin… Bankers own the Earth. Take it away from them but leave them the power to create money, and with a flick of a pen, they will create enough money to buy it back again…Take this great power away from them and all great fortunes like mine will disappear, for then this would be a better and happier world to live in….But if you want to continue to be the slaves of bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, then let bankers continue to create money and control credit.”192

In 1816 Thomas Jefferson wrote to his longtime friend John Taylor thanking him for sending copy of his book An Inquiry into the Principles and Policy of the Government of the United States (1814). Jefferson concluded his letter saying, “And I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity [future generations], under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity [the future] on a large scale.”193

Abraham Lincoln reported believed that instead of private banks having this power, “The government should create, issue and circulate all the currency and credit needed to satisfy the spending power of the government and the buying power of consumers.....The privilege of creating and issuing money is not only the supreme prerogative of Government, but it is the Government’s greatest creative opportunity.”194

He goes on to say, “By the adoption of these principles, the long-felt want for a uniform medium will be satisfied. The taxpayers will be saved

immense sums of interest, discounts and exchanges. The financing of all public enterprises, the maintenance of stable government and ordered progress, and the conduct of the Treasury will become matters of practical administration. The people can and will be furnished with a currency as safe as their own government. Money will cease to be the master and become the servant of humanity.”

The Federal Reserve Bank is working with other central banks around the world to incrementally introduce regional currencies in different areas of the world by merging several currencies into one. Taking America off the gold standard in 1972, and continuing to run up the national debt is the bankers plan to inflate the United States Dollar to the point of worthlessness, forcing it to be replaced with a new regional currency or even bypassing that step and moving right to a global currency. The saying goes that the love of money is the root of all evil, and that root leads directly to the Federal Reserve banksters and the global financial mafia.

World-renowned economist John Maynard Keynes (whose philosophies are known as Keynesian economics) wrote in his book The Economic Consequences of the Peace, that, “Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the capitalist system was to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of wealth of their citizens. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.”195

In the Bible it is written in John 2:15 that Jesus not only denounced the money changers at the Temple, but he actually tipped over their tables and used a whip to chase them away. “So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.”



In the 2000 years since then, the corrupt money changers and tax collectors have only grown more powerful through their sneaky tactics, and have continued to systematically turn most people into peasants or debt slaves. “The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender,” reads Proverbs 22:7.



The Zodiac Club

J.P. Morgan Jr., the infamous Illuminati money master (and one of the men instrumental in the creation of the Federal Reserve Bank which was conceived during the secret meeting on Jekyll Island), was also a major figure in another financial secret society called the Zodiac Club.196 Not much is known about this intimate secret society, but a few details were uncovered in the archives of the Morgan library in New York.197

What is known about the Zodiac Club is that it was created in 1868 and is made up of twelve men, no more and no less, who each represent one of the twelve signs of the Zodiac and meet about a half dozen times every year for dinner to discuss their financial interests and cultural issues.

Their dinners are black tie events that are held in New York City on the last Saturday of every month between November and May at homes of the members. Dinner is provided by a fancy catering service and unlike the enormous undertaking to organize the Bilderberg Group meeting or the annual Bohemian Grove retreat; the Zodiac Club’s small gathering has largely stayed under the radar and has received little press attention.

One interesting factoid reported is that during prohibition, when alcohol was illegal to produce or consume, the Zodiac Club continued to enjoy drinking by either brewing their own alcohol or using their connections to obtain it. Of course, when do the elite ever follow the law anyway?

A member usually only leaves the club when they die or resign due to old age or health problems. Once someone steps down then a replacement is chosen only after they are unanimously approved by rest of the current group.



What little information that’s known about the Zodiac Club was only discovered in 2013 after a reporter for The Gathamist, a blog focusing on events and culture in New York City, took a tour of the Morgan Library where she noticed a strange arrangement of astrological signs painted on the ceiling. After asking about them, the curator admitted that he thought it was some kind of “Morgan Code” and then searched the library for any books or documents containing the word “Zodiac.”198 It was only then that the Zodiac Club’s minutes and several menus from some of their past dinners were discovered.

“I made an appointment to see the material myself. Expecting to find handwritten notes, I was instead handed a striking seafoam green book with an intricate monogram embossed in gold,” wrote art historian Danielle Oteri on The Gathamist blog.199

Oteri’s article explains, “The volumes were richly illustrated with photographs of the members and the special menus from their dinners. Only a hundred copies were printed (by Charles Scribner & Sons, the letters designed by Tiffany & Co.) and they were distributed among Zodiac Club members and their heirs for a sum of $4,800 (the equivalent of around $100,000 today). The two volumes cover the club from its genesis in 1868 up until 1928.”200

Of the few who have heard of the Zodiac Club, some believe that J.P. Morgan founded it, but apparently it was created by Edward Elmer Potter, a Major General for the Union Army during the Civil War. A book titled America’s Secret Aristocracy was published in 1987 by historian Stephen Birmingham that discussed the group and even mentioned the names of several men who he reported as being members, including real estate mogul Robert G. Goelet, who’s related to Astors and Vanderbilts; Robert S. Pirie, who was president of Rothschild Inc.; and Pittsburgh steel magnet Howard Phipps Jr. were among those identified.



Other than this little known book, and Danielle Oteri’s article in The Gathamist, virtually nothing has been printed about this intimate group of the Eastern Establishment.



Council on Foreign Relations

While not exactly a secret society, the Council on Foreign Relations is a society with secrets, and while sounding like an ordinary committee in Congress, the CFR is actually a private organization whose foreign policy recommendations are practically marching orders for the many elite politicians who belong to it. The “council” was founded in 1921 in Manhattan by Colonel Edward Mandell House, who was Woodrow Wilson’s chief advisor, along with Paul Warburg, who was at the Jekyll Island meeting held to create the Federal Reserve Bank, Elihu Root, who was the Secretary of War under both President McKinley and Roosevelt, and a handful of other insiders who then received funding for their venture from the Rockefeller family.

The Council on Foreign Relations was a major force behind the push to launch the War in Iraq which was based on the fraud (a conspiracy theory really) that Saddam Hussein was close to building nuclear weapons so he could supposedly attack the United States and our allies—claims that the world would come to learn were completely false.

At a press conference celebrating their newly opened Washington D.C. office, Hillary Clinton said, “I am delighted to be here in these new headquarters. I have been often to, I guess, the ‘mother ship’ in New York City, but it’s good to have an outpost of the Council right here down the street from the State Department. We get a lot of advice from the Council, so this will mean I won’t have as far to go to be told what we should be doing."201

Aside from most high-powered politicians being members of the council, many mainstream journalists are members as well, and use their positions to promote the agenda of the CFR. Antony Sutton, author of America’s Secret Establishment points out, “Most CFR members are not

involved in a conspiracy and have no knowledge of any conspiracy… however, there is a group within the Council of Foreign Relations which belongs to a secret society, sworn to secrecy, and which more or less controls the CFR. CFR meetings are used for their own purposes, ie., to push out their own ideas, to weigh up people who might be useful, to use meetings as a forum for discussion.”202

The CFR has been the driving force and inspiration behind much of America’s foreign policy and operates as a consensus building and lobbying firm to persuade politicians to carry out their directives. The prominent politicians and journalists then pass the propaganda they are fed into the mainstream.

Richard Haas, who has been the president of the CFR for over ten years, appeared on Bill Maher’s HBO show Real Time in 2010 to promote his book, War of Necessity, War of Choice, and as soon as the interview began Maher started off by joking, “OK, as we discussed last time, you are the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, which secretly controls the world I believe.”203 Haas sat there grinning ear to ear and nodded his head in agreement as the audience laughed.

Robert Pastor, who was once the Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote a book in 2001 titled Toward a North American Community, where he said, “In the long term, the amero is in the best interests of all three countries,”204 referring to the United States, Canada, and Mexico, which the Illuminati want to merge into a regional union modeled after the European Union that they plan to call the American Union. The “amero” he mentioned is the proposed new regional currency the Illuminati would like the North American Union to Implement.

The Illuminati’s ultimate plan regarding currency is to first establish regional unions and currencies around the world and then merge all of them into one unified global currency (potentially called the Phoenix) which will be a digital electronic currency. Once physical currency like cash and coins have been eliminated or made nearly impossible to use, the unified

electronic currency will be the global standard controlled by the World Bank and its affiliates.

This is the fulfillment of the mysterious “Mark of the Beast” prophecy written about over 2000 years ago in the Bible’s Book of Revelation, which warned “And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name...and his number is Six hundred & sixtysix.” (Revelation 13:15-18)

As I’m sure you are aware, cash is slowly being phased out and even using it is now seen as suspicious because it can’t be easily traced, and keeps one’s purchasing history private. The “convenience” of a cashless society is one of the top goals of the Illuminati, and the Council on Foreign Relations is one of the front groups working to make that happen.



The Jasons

We think of most secret societies as political or spiritual associations, but one founded in 1960 is comprised of elite scientists. They are called The Jasons, a name that refers to Jason and the Argonauts from Greek mythology who ventured out to obtain the “golden fleece” (a piece of fabric woven from golden hair) which is symbolic of authority and kingship.

The Jasons, or sometimes referred to as JASON, is a small group of 30 to 60 of the world’s top physicists, biologists, mathematicians, and computer scientists who advise the U.S. Government in their area of expertise. These men are from academia and private business who do not work directly for the government, but instead serve as advisors who are reportedly paid $850 a day from a budget of $3.5 million a year.205 Many members are university professors who work a full time job during the school year, but in the summer months spend their time working on classified projects for the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, and other government agencies.

The Jasons were responsible for a 1982 report that served as the foundation for the growing barrage of global warming propaganda titled The Long Term Impact of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide on Climate. They are believed to have been involved with various missile defense programs (Star Wars or HAARP), and gave their analysis contemplating America’s possible use of tactical nuclear weapons against the Vietcong during the Vietnam war.206

The JASONS are technically a 501C3 tax exempt nonprofit organization run through the MITRE Corporation in McLean, Virginia, and were only discovered when the Pentagon Papers were published by Daniel Elsberg in 1971 after Elsberg, a military analyst working for the RAND Corporation, photocopied seven thousand pages of government documents

and leaked them to the press after discovering the extent that the Johnson administration lied to Congress and the public about the Vietnam War. Very little has been reported on them, and at the time I’m writing this there is currently only one book published dedicated to the group—The Jasons: The Secret History of Science’s Postwar Elite (2006) by Ann Finkbeiner.

When researching her book, Finkbeiner reached out to members asking for interviews, including the director, who responded with an e-mail saying, “Frankly, we could not identify an up-side for our organization, but could identify potential downsides to such a book.”207

The reason they are paid as part time contractors and kept outside the bureaucracy of the Department of Defense is because the government feels if they were actual full time employees, their advice would be biased because they would have a vested interest in pushing for certain programs or for advising against others. After all, what government employee is going to actually report to their boss that their own job is unnecessary?

Ann Finkbeiner explains in her book, “A government wanting scientists’ advice on, say the feasibility of a particular system of missile defense could ask scientists who are nearest—that is, who are in the defense industry or on the Defense Department’s various advisory committees. But those scientists like the national lab scientists, would have something political or financial to gain or lose and might hedge their advice accordingly. Disinterested advice comes best from independent scientists, like those on PSAC, outside the government and outside industry—that is from scientists employed in academia whose livelihoods will not depend on the advice they give.”208

The original JASONS were former Manhattan Project physicists who just so happened to hold a major meeting in the Bohemian Grove! Peter Philips, who earned his Ph.D. in sociology after writing his dissertation on the Bohemian Grove, had this to say about the subject: “The atom bomb made this particular meeting at the Grove world famous, but it was not an isolated case of business and government planning through Bohemian club

facilities. This was but one in a long series of historical business-related activities done in the context of a Bohemian corporate family network. The Club takes pride in this event, and members often tell new guests this story while at the Grove.”209

“[Ernest] Lawrence’s use of the Grove’s river clubhouse for a Manhattan Project planning meeting in September of 1942 is well documented.”210 Lawrence would later join the board of directors of Monsanto and worked as a consultant to General Electric.211 The JASONS continue to receive funding from the Department of Defense through DARPA [the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency] as well as money from other agencies who sometimes attempt to hide the paper trail through various means.

DARPA is responsible for building neural interface systems they plan to wire directly into people’s brains, and they’re behind a whole list of some of the creepiest high tech Orwellian cybernetic devices you could imagine.



The Bilderberg Group

Every Spring since 1954 a group of around one hundred of the world’s most powerful politicians, businessmen, bankers, media executives, and international royalty have been holding a secret three-day long meeting in an evacuated hotel that’s surrounded by armed guards. Once inside the members and invited guests engage in intense off-the-record talks about the top issues facing the world. It’s called the Bilderberg Group, or the Bilderberg meeting, named after the Bilderberg Hotel in Oosterbeck, Holland, the site of their first gathering organized by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands. Attendees agree not to discuss publicly who was in attendance or what specifically was discussed, and most of them have denied any knowledge of the Bilderberg Group at all.

For over sixty years there has been an almost complete blackout in the mainstream media about the meetings, yielding to the Bilderberg Group’s wishes that they keep them out of the press. For decades, news of the infamous Bilderberg Group spread in Patriot circles, in underground newsletters and websites, until the advent of YouTube and social media finally forced some major mainstream media outlets to admit that Bilderberg is real and some very powerful people attend. Here’s a brief history of how the meetings were first discovered and how news of the group began to spread.

In 1957 a Pulitzer Prize winning columnist named Westbrook Pegler who wrote for Scripps Howard News Service, the Chicago Tribune, and other papers, published the first article on the Bilderberg Group—although he did not know their name at the time—his report marked the beginning of the unraveling of one of the most interesting conspiracies of all time.

In his 1957 article, Westbrook Pegler wrote, “Something very mysterious is going on when a strange assortment of 67 self-qualified,

polyglot designers and arbiters of the economic and political fate of our western world go into a secret huddle on an island of Brunswick, GA and not a word gets into the popular press beyond a little routine AP story. These gumshoe super state architects and monetary schemers were drawn from all NATO countries. The fact of this weird conclave as spooky as any midnight meeting of the Klux in a piney wood, was bound to get known to the world eventually.”212

He continues to explain how he first learned of this meeting, saying, “I got my first word of it from a reader who happened onto St. Simon Island, Brunswick, [Georgia] on her way to West Palm Beach. She wrote that the hotel on St. Simon was almost deserted, but that when she commented on this, the clerk said the place had been alive with mysterious characters a few days earlier and with Secret Service and FBI too.”

While not yet having the group’s name, Westbrook did connect them with the same gang who met on Jekyll Island to formulate the plans for the Federal Reserve. He said, “Senator Aldrich of Rhode Island, called this one into being. He was the father of Winthrop Aldrich. There have been many excited versions of that ancient hoe-down on Jekyll Island, but relatively few have ever heard of it at all.”

After Westbrook Pegler began criticizing executives of the powerful Hearst Corporation that owned and controlled almost 30 different newspapers in America, he was fired. Hearst newspapers literally created “yellow journalism” which refers to sensationalistic headlines and careless reporting with a disregard for the facts in order to sell more newspapers.

A man named Willis Carto read Westbrook Pegler’s article and it motivated him to begin investigating and tracking the Bilderberg Group himself. In June of 1958 Willis Carto founded Liberty Lobby that published a newsletter titled Liberty Lowdown that included articles exposing the Bilderberg Group. He would later begin publishing a newspaper called The Spotlight.



Over two decades later, Jim Tucker learned of this elusive group from Carto and would become the world’s foremost expert on them. Tucker explained, “Had it not been for Willis A. Carto, who hired me as editor of The Spotlight and then put me on the tack of Bilderberg, I would probablyalmost assuredly-never heard of the word ‘Bilderberg.’ Having had the opportunity, through Carto’s good offices as founder of Liberty Lobby, publisher of The Spotlight, to begin what ultimately proved to be a generation of world-wide Bilderberg-hunting, I was able to bring news about Bilderberg to literally millions of folks who would like myself have otherwise remained in the dark about these globalist schemers.”213

Tucker tracked the Bilderberg Group from 1975 until his death in 2013 at the age of 78. His book, titled Jim Tucker’s Bilderberg Diary contains decades of information about where the Bilderbergers met, who was in attendance and what was discussed. Tucker had somehow gained the support of an insider who would leak information to him every year about the location and date of the meeting, as well as attendee lists and other information.

It’s foolish to claim there hasn’t been a secret arrangement between the Bilderberg Group and the American mainstream media to keep them out of the press. When over 100 of the world’s most influential politicians, media owners, banking executives, and business elite fly half way around the world to meet for three days in a closed down five star hotel that’s surrounded by armed guards, you can’t say it’s not newsworthy. And you certainly can’t say it’s not interesting. For years, if anyone called into any of the major talk shows like Rush Limbauh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and others, and told the call screener they wanted to ask about the Bilderberg Group, the call would never be put through. “We’re not taking calls on that right now, sorry. Click.” If the person calling gave the call screener a bogus question and happened to be put on air and then asked about the Bilderbergers, they would be ridiculed and the call would be dropped immediately (something that’s happened to me many times).

After decades of news blackouts, more recently because social media has helped expose Bilderberg, some outlets have reluctantly (and briefly)

mentioned the event in attempts to avoid looking like they were covering it up.

In 1991 an Arkansas newspaper published an article reporting that Bill Clinton was attending the Bilderberg meeting. This of course was before people were using the Internet to spread news and at a time when one local newspaper’s report would rarely be seen by anyone outside its limited circulation area. The article stated, “Private sponsors picked up the tab for Gov. Bill Clinton’s recent trips to Germany and the Soviet Union—a journey he made without staff aids, spokesman said Thursday. Mike Gauldin, the governor’s spokesman, said the Bilderberg Conference paid for Clinton’s trip to Germany and a Washington DC philanthropist paid for the Soviet Union visit.”214

In the 1970s a Democratic U.S. representative from Louisiana named John R. Rarick caught wind of the meetings and became suspicious and wanted to know if taxpayers were paying for American officials to attend the secret meeting. Rarick typed up a ten-page statement and actually entered it into the official Congressional Record. “Mr. Speaker, on several occasions during recent months, I called the attention of our colleagues to activities of the Bilderbergers—an elite international group comprised of high government officials, international financiers, businessmen, and opinion-makers…” the statement begins.

“This exclusive international aristocracy holds highly secret meetings annually or more often in various countries. The limited information available about what transpires at these meetings reveals that they discuss matters of vital importance which affect the lives of all citizens. Presidential Advisor Henry Kissinger, who made a secret visit to Peking from July 9 to July 11, 1971, and arranged for a presidential visit to Red China, was reported to be in attendance at the most recent Bilderberg meeting held in Woodstock, Vermont, April 23 to April 25, 1971. The two points reportedly discussed at the Woodstock meeting were, ‘the contribution of business in dealing with current problems of social instability’ and ‘the possibility of a change of the American role in the world and its consequences.’”



“Following these secret discussions, which are certainly not in keeping with the Western political tradition of ‘open covenants openly arrived at,’ the participants returned to their respective countries with the general public left uninformed, notwithstanding the attendance of some news media representatives, of any of the recommendations and plans agreed upon as a result of the discussions—or for that matter even the occurrence of the meeting itself.”215

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, best known for warning the world about the Military Industrial Complex in his 1961 farewell address, wrote a memo to his assistant in 1955 about that year’s Bilderberg meeting which took place in Barbizon, France. While Eisenhower didn’t mention them by name, it’s pretty obvious who he’s talking about in the memo when he says, “I understand next week Prince Bernhard is having a meeting at Barbizon, continuing his exploration looking toward improving European and American relations. If personally you can fit such a trip into your schedule, I suggest you find the money and go to France.”216

I have been able to obtain several recent years of Bilderberg’s IRS filings since they are registered as a 501c3 “charitable foundation,” certain financial information must be made available for public inspection, if you know where to look.217 I discovered they operate under the business entity “American Friends of Bilderberg” and the documents show that in 2008 they received $645,000 in contributions to fund their annual meeting, with money coming from Goldman Sachs ($25,000), Microsoft ($75,000), Henry Kissinger ($20,000), David Rockefeller ($50,000) and others. The 2009 returns show the Washington Post newspaper donated $25,000.218

Under the “Summary of Direct Charitable Activities,” the forms list the organization’s goals as “Organizing & sponsoring conferences which study & discuss significant problems of the western alliance [and] collaborating on the Bilderberg meetings held in Europe & North America.”



The expenses on the 2008 and 2012 documents are listed as approximately $900,000 per year, which covers renting out the entire hotel for three days, paying the private security forces and compensating local police for the extra man-hours, and for paying the travel expenses of members and attendees.

The documents list James Johnson as the treasurer, who is also the chairman of Perseus LLC, a merchant bank and private equity fund management company based in Washington D.C. with offices in New York and an associated advisory firm in Munich, Germany. Perseus is a leading figure in Greek Mythology and is the one who beheaded Medusa.

Johnson was once the Chairman of the Executive Committee at Fannie Mae; and before that he was a managing director at Lehman Brothers. He’s also on the Board of Directors for Goldman Sachs and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

I have personally been to the offices of Perseus in Washington D.C. seeking a comment on the documents, and as soon as I mentioned “Bilderberg,” James Johnson’s secretary said they have no comment and slammed the door. The person listed on the forms as the accountant is Robert T. Foldes of Leon D. Alpern & Company and when I called them, the secretary confirmed they handle the taxes for American Friends of Bilderberg but declined to give me any further information.

Documents leaked from the 1955 Bilderberg meeting show they were planning the European Union and a central currency back in the 1950s, decades before the EU was formed and their new Euro currency introduced. The documents are marked “Personal and strictly confidential,” and “Not for publication either in whole or in part.” Two years later, in 1957, the European Union started to take shape with the creation of the European Economic Community (EEC), which merged the markets of six European countries: France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. This later grew into the European Union in 1993 containing 28 nation states: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech

Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

Most of their plan has been accomplished, and while they will continue to play themselves off as just an ordinary business conference, the decades of denials and media blackouts prove the Bilderberg Group has been deceptive from their inception and the inside sources who have leaked their plans over the years prove the power they wield. Most often, what’s talked about or agreed upon inside Bilderberg soon mysteriously finds its way into becoming law. It clearly appears that wars, economic booms and busts, and controversial new legislation are often traced back to this small group of around 100 men.

While politicians love to point the finger at their rivals and place all the country’s ills on the opposing party, most politicians (at least at the time I’m writing this) haven’t even uttered the word Bilderberg. Congressman Ron Paul, one of the rare honest politicians, was once asked about the Bilderberg Group by a fan at a book signing who videotaped the interaction and posted it on YouTube. “Did you hear about that recent Bilderberg Group meeting in Chantilly, Virginia?” the person asked. Ron Paul responded, “Yeah, recently there was one and there were some reports on it—I didn’t read a whole lot about it but they certainly were there.”219

The cameraman then asked what he thought they were doing there, and Paul responded, “Well, they probably get together and talk about how they’re going to control the banking systems of the world and natural resources—and we get together and talk about how we’re going to get our freedom back. So we have our own things to talk about too.”

Ron Paul didn’t play dumb and didn’t ridicule the man’s question— instead he answered it quite frankly, which is surprising for a politician, particularly when it comes to talking about the Bilderberg Group. Ron Paul was (and still may be, depending on what happens after this book is

published) the only politician (at the time) to have ever even uttered the word “Bilderberg.”

When Hillary Clinton was campaigning for president hoping to secure the election in 2008, someone asked her about the Bilderberg Group at an event in New Hampshire and posted the video on YouTube. “What’s going on at the Bilderberg meeting and what are you guys talking about up there?” She cackled, “Ha ha ha, I have no idea what you’re talking about.” The man responded, “Why are they such top secret meetings?” To which she answered (looking like a kid with their hand caught in the cookie jar), “Sir, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”220

She has no idea what he’s talking about? How could one of the most powerful and politically connected women in the world possibly not know about them? It’s ridiculous to claim that she isn’t intimately aware of the Bilderberg Group and obviously she was playing dumb to uphold their secrecy policy. Hilary wrote her college thesis on Saul Alinsky, the leftist extremist who dedicated his book Rules for Radicals to Lucifer, and adored his subversive tactics to further the Big Government agenda.

Because of social media and independent blogs and YouTube channels gaining so much popularity in the early 2000’s, Bilderberg’s secrecy has been blown, and they, (along with their accessories to the cover-up in the mainstream media) have been forced to break their silence on the group and finally, beginning in around the year 2012, some mainstream outlets began to briefly touch on the meeting to try to give the impression they weren’t obviously blacking them out in a desperate attempt to maintain their fading facade of credibility.

Almost every article or brief TV news segment mentions how “conspiracy theorists” think the group is up to no good, while glossing over the fact that for over a half century they conveniently ignored the meetings or how the top radio hosts like Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and others actually ridiculed any caller who even brought it up.



When hosting his popular show on the Fox News Channel, Glenn Beck once claimed that talking about the Bilderberg Group was going down a “tin foil hat road,” and said he didn’t care about the Bilderberg Group, and then compared them to a toy company. “The Bilderbergers had their meeting, I don’t really know much about these people, and I don’t really care. I know probably more about the Build a Bear people in the malls, and I know those people are brainwashing our kids with teddy bears. I don’t know what kind of secret meetings they have to get our kids into the bear industry, but I don’t like it. If the Bilderberg’s are half as evil as the teddy bear people, look out.”221

Beck then went on to say that those inside the Bilderberg meeting were probably talking about how to help the world.







Spiritual Beliefs

It is often said that the Illuminati are “satanic” or Luciferian, which seems unbelievable to someone new to this material because it’s so far outside of most people’s realm of understanding that such claims are often met with skepticism, disbelief, or outright ridicule. But when one takes a closer look and understands just what Satanism and Luciferianism is, such claims not only seem reasonable, but they are undeniable. First we must look at the story of Adam and Eve to begin to understand this.

While Christians, Jews, and many others believe that the first humans disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden by following the advice of Satan, the Illuminati (and every occult association, fraternity, or secret society) believes that Satan actually saved Adam and Eve from enslavement to God, who they say was holding back Mankind’s true potential and keeping Adam and Eve imprisoned in ignorance.

Many religions have an esoteric and an exoteric doctrine, one interpretation for the masses, and another doctrine with deeper or different interpretations for the scholars or religious insiders, often called “adepts” or “the elect.” In Judaism this “second” doctrine is called the Midrash, which goes “beyond” the “simple” and “legal” interpretations of the Torah (the Old Testament) and gives an “expanded view” of the Bible’s stories.

Remember that Albert Pike said, “Masonry, like all the Religions, all the Mysteries, Hermeticism and Alchemy, conceals [emphasis in original] its secrets from all except the Adepts and Sages, or the Elect, and uses false explanations and misinterpretations of its symbols to mislead those who deserve only to be misled; to conceal the Truth, which it [the Mason] calls Light, from them, and to draw them away from it.”222



In his book, The Wisdom of the Knowing Ones, Manly P. Hall explains, “all of these religions had been divided into two sections, one of which was for the public and the other essentially an esoteric or mystical tradition for a few who were willing to consecrate their lives through a process of internal enlightenment. For the many there was obedience to the forms and letters of religious law. For the few there was an insight into the deeper meanings of these things by means of which orthodoxies were transformed into great spiritual systems.”223



Lucifer and Satan

The biggest secret of the Illuminati is that they believe Satan is good, because in their view he is the “superior God,” and this secret has endowed them with tremendous power. Helena Blavatsky in her 1888 book The Secret Doctrine, explains, “Thus Lucifer—the spirit of Intellectual Enlightenment and Freedom of Thought—is metaphorically the guiding beacon, which helps man to find his way through the rocks and sand banks of Life, for Lucifer is the Logos in his highest.”224

She continues, “Lucifer is divine and terrestrial light, the ‘Holy Ghost’ and ‘Satan,’ at one and the same time, visible space being truly filled with differentiated breath invisibly; and the Astral Light, the manifested efforts of two who are one, guided and attracted by ourselves, is the karma of humanity, both a personal and impersonal entity…The Fall was the result of man’s knowledge, for his ‘eyes were opened.’ Indeed, he was taught wisdom and the hidden knowledge by the ‘Fallen Angel’…And now it stand proven that Satan, or the Red Fiery Dragon, the “lord of Phosphorus” (brimstone was a theological improvement), and Lucifer, or ‘Light-Bearer,’ is in us: it is our Mind—our tempter and Redeemer, our intelligent liberator and Savior from pure animalism…Without this quickening spirit, or human Mind or soul, there would be no difference between man and beast.”225

Satanist Aleister Crowley said, “This serpent, Satan, is not the enemy of Man, be He who made Gods of our race, knowing Good and Evil; He bade ‘Know Thyself’ and taught initiation. He is ‘the Devil’ of the book of Thoth, and His emblem is Baphomet, and Androgyne who is the hieroglyph of arcane perfection.”226

The Secret Doctrine states, “For no one, not even the greatest living adept, would be permitted to, or could—even if he would—give out

promiscuously, to a mocking, unbelieving world, that which has been so effectually concealed from it for long aeons and ages.”227

Such views can also be considered Gnosticism, which is a philosophical belief that a lower level evil god called the Demiurge created humans as slaves and in order to be free from the enslavement they must be given the secret knowledge (gnosis) from a higher level God (Satan). Manly P. Hall explains, “Gnostics never looked to salvation from sin (original or other), but rather they desired release from unconsciousness and incomprehension, whereby they meant primarily ignorance of spiritual realities. Salvation, (or liberation) is a potential present in every man and woman, and it is not vicarious but individual. The great Messengers of the Light come to stimulate this potential and they do not by their death but by their lives.”228

Those who believe they have discovered this “secret to life” often keep it contained within occult fraternities, hoping to keep the vast majority of people ignorant of their supposed “truth” so they can keep others from becoming “enlightened” so they can more easily take advantage of them. This sort of spiritual supremacism often leads to Social Darwinism, which is the philosophy of the survival of the fittest. These people have no concern for their fellow man, but are narcissistic, megalomaniacs who view themselves as Gods as a result of Satan’s secret. This superiority complex is conveyed by the “do what thou wilt” philosophy that Aleister Crowley and Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey preached, which means “do whatever you want” because you are your own God.

In his authorized biography The Secret Life of a Satanist, it was revealed that Anton LaVey wasn’t concerned if Satanism inspired people to commit mass murder. It reads, “Anton LaVey maintains that he isn’t really concerned about accusations of people killing other people in the name of Satan. He swears that each time he reads of a new killing spree, his only reaction is, ‘What, 22 people? Is that all?...There will undoubtedly be more Satanically-motivated murders and crimes in the sense that The Satanic Bible tells you ‘You don’t have to take any more shit.’”229



LaVey also admired a homosexual serial killer from the early 1900s named Carl Panzram, who killed at least twenty-two people, and who claimed to have raped one thousand men. “The only way I would like to ‘help’ the great majority of people is the same way Carl Panzram ‘reformed’ people who tried to reform him. It would be most merciful to help them by relieving them of the life they seem to hate so much. People should be happy I’m not a humanitarian—or I’d probably be the most diabolical mass murderer the world has ever known,” LaVey said.230

Richard Ramirez, the “Night Stalker” serial killer from Los Angeles, and Charles Manson were both interested in Satanism. Ramirez famously drew a satanic pentagram on the palm of his hand during his trial and would shout “Hail Satan!” to television cameras and reporters.

Because Satanists do not believe in an afterlife or an all-knowing, allpowerful God, they are not concerned with any kind of divine retribution for their actions, and are thus motivated even more to ruthlessly take advantage of others since they believe in the “survival of the fittest” and that “might is right” and that they themselves are Gods.

This “royal secret” of Satanism will likely one day soon be revealed to the world after having been practiced in secret for thousands of years. The Illuminati and the counterfeit (anti)Christ will likely openly reveal Satanism as the new World Religion and claim it had to be kept a secret all these years until the New World Order was complete. Anyone who denounces this antichrist or the new World Religion will be targeted for termination and will be blamed for trying to stop the completion of “heaven on earth.”



Double Speak

The Illuminati often use “double speak” to conceal their real agenda and present powerful propaganda to the masses who often blindly accept it as the truth without a second thought. The general public have been so dumbed down, they will believe anything their favorite political party tells them and are easily mislead by language and rhetoric that is meant to disguise the speaker’s true intentions. For example, the Department of Defense is really the Department of War, and that’s what it used to be called until the government changed its name in 1949.

The Patriot Act, the bill signed into law shortly after the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, was actually an assault on the Bill of Rights and anything but patriotic, but the term Patriot Act was designed to make the new laws sound as American as the Fourth of July. President Bush declared a “War on Terror” when really it was a “War of Terror.” President Obama said that raising the debt ceiling wouldn’t increase our country’s debt, when that’s clearly exactly what it does, but because the masses have become zombies who react to keywords or neuro linguistic programming language patterns, most people accept statements from presidents as truth without thinking twice.

In some of my viral YouTube videos I’ve asked people to sign petitions supporting legislation that nobody in their right mind would even consider agreeing to, but because I prefaced the question with “would you support Obama…” countless people signed the fake petitions because their blind support for the president caused them to shut off their brain and not even listen to what I was actually asking them to support.



The Hegelian Dialectic

Because the elite Illuminati are social Darwinist Satanists, they often employ what’s called the Hegelian Dialectic, which allows them to roll out their diabolical plans with little opposition. What this entails is creating a problem on purpose through covert means so the government can then present their solution, which is a plan they had waiting in the wings but were unable to implement without the proper crisis which was needed to justify their desired actions.

The Hegelian Dialectic consists of a thesis, an antithesis, and a synthesis, or a problem, a reaction, and a solution. This is the basic structure of a false flag operation which is a military strategy where a government commits a terrorist act while making it appear as if it came from their political enemy—or they allow a terrorist attack to occur when they could have easily stopped it—because the success of the event serves as a pretext (a reason) to carry out actions that previously would have been widely unacceptable by the public, but after the attack occurs, much of the public actually demands that a reaction occur, all the while unaware that behind the scenes the entire operation was planned to get that exact support which was lacking before the attack occurred.

Just three days after the 9/11 attacks, the co-chair of the Council on Foreign Relations stated, “There is a chance for the President of the United States to use the disaster to carry out what his father—a phrase his father used I think only once, and it hasn’t been used since— and that is a New World Order.”231

This attack was precisely the “New Pearl Harbor” event discussed in the Project for the New American Century think tank’s own Rebuilding America’s Defenses report published in September of 2000. From this Illuminati front group came the very plan explaining their need for a

“catalyzing event—a new Pearl Harbor”232 which would be used to set the stage for America to carry out the Illuminati’s agenda by invading the Middle East to complete the New World Order.

In 1962, a false flag attack plan was drawn up by top U.S. military officials who wanted to commit various acts of terror in Washington D.C. and in Miami that would be made to appear as if Cuba had done them, in order to generate public support for an invasion of Cuba. Operation Northwoods, as it was called, plainly stated, “We could develop a Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities, and even in Washington…The terror campaign could be pointed at Cuban refugees seeking haven in the United States…Hijacking attempts against civil aircraft surface craft should appear to continue as harassing measures condoned by the government of Cuba.”

When confronted with such damning evidence, most people immediately dismiss it as a “conspiracy theory” but the Operation Northwoods documents have been declassified and are 100% authentic. The plan was even reported on ABC News in 2001 on their website where the article reads, “In the early 1960s, America’s top military leaders reportedly drafted plans to kill innocent people and commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities to create public support for a war against Cuba.”233

For people still skeptical about the September 11th inside job, all they need to do is read the Northwoods documents and understand that plans like this have actually been put on paper, and approved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff (the heads of all U.S. military branches). Similar attacks have been carried out in the past by governments throughout history such as Operation Gladio throughout Europe, the Gleiwitz incident and the Reichstag fire in Germany, the Gulf of Tonkin incident in Vietnam, and others.

Henry Kissinger has been intimately involved with nearly every major organization or front group that is behind the push for a New World Order and was originally named the Chairman of the 9/11 Commission by President Bush, which was set up to (pretend to) investigate the terrorist

attacks on September 11th 2001. Kissinger resigned from the commission after family members of 9/11 victims discovered his business ties with the Bin Ladens.234 In an interview on CNBC in February 2009, Kissinger was asked about the problems the Obama administration was facing regarding the ongoing “War on Terror” and the economic meltdown, where he responded that Obama, “can give new impetus to American foreign policy partly because the reception of him is so extraordinary around the world. His task will be to develop an overall strategy for America in this period when, really, a New World Order can be created. It’s a great opportunity, it isn’t just a crisis.”

President Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanual made a startling statement after the economic crash of 2008, when he said, “You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”235

Since we’re talking about power-mad megalomaniac Satanists here, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that these men would orchestrate terror attacks in order to gain more power and further their political agendas. And it’s certainly not a surprise that most of these men have ties to occult cabals like Skull & Bones, Freemasonry, or the Bohemian Grove—all of which are incubators for corruption and keepers of the great “secret of secrets.”



Sex Magic

As I mentioned in a previous section of this book, sex magic (sometimes stylized sex magick with a “k” on the end) is the belief that through secret sexual intercourse rituals one can achieve altered states of consciousness which activate dormant metaphysical powers locked inside the mind, supposedly enabling the practitioners to harness God-like manifestation abilities in what has been described as a conscious, living lucid dream. As strange as this idea may be, it isn’t necessarily a crime for two consenting adults to engage in bizarre sex acts, but unfortunately there are some very disgusting and horrific types of sex magic that are beyond evil, and I caution you—what you are about to read is extremely disturbing.

In parts of Africa many men believe if they rape an albino woman it will give them magical power.236 “There is a belief that if you have [sexual] relations with a girl with albinism, you will cure AIDS. So there are many girls with albinism who are being raped in [Africa] because of this belief,” warned Peter Ash, founder of human rights group Under The Same Sun.237

The London Telegraph reported in 2001 that some South African men rape babies believing it is a ‘cure’ for AIDS.238 More than 67,000 cases of rape and sexual assault against children were reported in the year 2000 in South Africa alone.239

In 2013 the singer of a popular heavy metal band in the United Kingdom called Lost Prophets was sentenced to thirty-five years in prison for thirteen child sex offenses including sexually abusing babies in black magic rituals.240 Several women were also sent to prison for willingly giving him their small children so he could use them for this exact purpose.



The singer, Ian Watkins, was apparently a fan of Aleister Crowley, as many musicians are—who wrote in his book Magick: In Theory and Practice that people can obtain satanic power by murdering children. In the chapter on blood sacrifices Crowley wrote, “For the highest spiritual working one must accordingly choose that victim which contains the greatest and purest force. A male child of perfect innocence and high intelligence is the most satisfactory and suitable victim.”241

In 2014 it was revealed that a group of Aleister Crowley fans were abusing children in an England suburb by doing Satanic sex rituals.242 A woman named Jacqueline Marling even turned her daughter over to the cult and forced her to participate in sex magic rituals beginning when she was just seven years old.243

Such insane and evil sex magic practices aren’t just contained to primitive tribes in Africa or twisted rock stars or Aleister Crowley fans. It appears to be one of the deepest and darkest secrets of the Illuminati as well. Apparently in some sects within the Illuminati, initiates believe this kind of child abuse can “super charge” their “metaphysical powers” enabling them to conjure into their life whatever they wish, in a perverted version of the “Law of Attraction,” the philosophy popularized by the DVD The Secret in 2006.

In the 1990s a Republican Nebraska State Senator named John DeCamp published a book titled The Franklin Cover-Up where he alleged children were taken into the Bohemian Grove and ritualistically raped and murdered in black magic rituals at the hands of some of the members in the 1980s.244 DeCamp, who was an attorney, said he personally interviewed several children from orphanages who allegedly identified the Bohemian Grove as the location of this supposed abuse.245

Former CIA director Bill Colby is said to have warned DeCamp that he was looking into something so dark he should walk away and “Get as far away from this thing as you can. Forget you ever saw it or know it, heard it or anything else.”246 Colby later died in what was called a canoeing

accident, but many suspect he was murdered because of the strange circumstances surrounding his death and his conversations with DeCamp about sex magic. There were no witnesses to his death and he drown after mysteriously going canoeing by himself.

In 1989 the Washington Times printed a front-page headline reading, “Homosexual Prostitution Inquiry Ensnares VIPs with Reagan and Bush,” after it was discovered that a high-powered lobbyist named Craig Spence was operating a pedophile prostitution ring in the Washington D.C. area that catered to elite clients.247 Spence turned up dead a few months after the article was published from an alleged suicide. Whispers of elite pedophile rings have alleged for decades that high-powered politicians and businessmen engage in child abuse for fun or part of secret society rituals. This same dark cloud has hung over the heads of Catholic priests for many decades.

A major star at the BBC in England [the British Broadcasting Corporation] named Jimmy Savile reportedly abused hundreds of children, some as young as two-years-old, and even had sex with dead bodies, according the Washington Post and other mainstream media outlets.248 Such news leads many to believe this kind of activity is part of an organized network of powerful perpetrators, not just separate incidences.

It’s unknown how common these kinds of sex magic rituals are within the Illuminati or other Aleister Crowley-inspired groups, and when one tries to understand why anyone would even consider doing such a thing it challenges the mind to come up with an answer. These perpetrators obviously aren’t just sick psychopaths living in an abandoned cabin in the woods. These are successful men (and possibly women) who are addicted to power and wealth and fuel their ego with all of the finest pleasures of this world, often becoming so jaded and desensitized they are eventually unable to find excitement or pleasure in anything normal.

Since these acts of sexual abuse are the worst thing anyone could possibly do to another human being, these acts of ultimate evil are believed

to cause some kind of hormones to be released into the blood which give the perpetrators a kind of satanic adrenaline rush that magnifies their supposed ability to alter reality metaphysically by their thoughts, thus being the most potent “supernatural steroid” in the world. There is no doubt why sex magic is considered the deepest and darkest secret of the Illuminati, and any human being with a soul can agree that sex offenders of all kinds must be eradicated from the earth.



Transhumanism

One of the ultimate goals of the Illuminati is to become Gods themselves in what they believe is the final stage of their evolution or “transcendence.” This branch of science is called Transhumanism— meaning supporters hope to transition from a human into a totally new species or transcend into a “God.”249 This isn’t just a lofty science fiction pipe dream of a few megalomaniacs with God complexes, this is a very real plan being pursued by some very wealthy and powerful people. Billionaire Peter Thiel, the cofounder of PayPal and early investor in Facebook, believes scientists will soon “cure death” enabling him and other billionaires to live forever. “You can accept [death], you can deny it or you can fight it. I think our society is dominated by people who are into denial or acceptance, and I prefer to fight it.”250

The most popular “guru” of Transhumanism (sometimes symbolized as H+) is Google engineer Ray Kurzweil who believes by the year 2045 he and other elite will achieve immortality through cybernetic enhancements that transform them into literal supercomputing cyborgs who are physically wired into the Internet at all times—or even replacing their biological brains and bodies entirely with “more efficient” silicone computers and mechanical bodies in order to “transcend.” Kurzweil predicts, “As you go out to the 2040s, now the bulk of our thinking is out in the cloud. The biological portion of our brain didn’t go away but the nonbiological portion will be much more powerful. And it will be uploaded automatically the way we back up everything now that’s digital.”251

In 2013 Google created Calico, a life extension and anti-aging biotech company to help them pursue Kurzweil’s dream of beating death, and many other companies are pouring billions of dollars into transhumanist technology and working non-stop hoping to soon unlock immortality.



Transhumanist philosopher Zoltan Istvan, who believes that teaching children about the Bible should be banned and that the government should regulate who is allowed to have children, writes, “The transhumanist age— where radical science and technology will revolutionize the human being and experience—will eventually bring us indefinite lifespans, cyborgization, cloning, and even ectogenesis, where people use artificial wombs outside of their bodies to raise fetuses…Breeding controls and measures make more sense when you consider that some leading life extensionist scientists believe we will conquer human mortality in the next 20 years.”252

These “breeding controls” also seem to align with the Georgia Guidestones, the 19-foot-tall granite monument calling for a world population reduction down to 500 million people in order to preserve the earth’s natural resources. The idea is, if the life extension technology will extend people’s lives by hundreds of years or more, the elite feel they need to save the planet’s resources for themselves, because as CNN founder Ted Turner says, “There’s too many people…too many people are using too much stuff, if there were less people, they’d be using less stuff.”253

The mysterious man behind the strange structure made a reference to transhumanism in a little known book he published shortly after the stones were erected in 1980. “We suggest that scholars throughout the world begin now to establish new bases upon which later generations can develop a totally new universal language for men and machines. It will be adapted to our speech mechanism and to the language faculties and patterns impressed in our nervous systems. Its spoken and printed forms will be capable of accurate interchange by electromechanical means,” wrote R.C. Christian, an admitted pseudonym.254

On the inside cover of the book, titled Common Sense Renewed, it says the first two printings were sent to several thousand political leaders and “shapers of public opinion” around the world. Aside from admitting he represented the unnamed group responsible for the creation of the Georgia Guidestones, the author says part of their purpose is that, “The hearts of our

human family must be touched and warmed to welcome a global rule by reason.”255

May I remind you that several of the “guides,” or commandments as many people call them, aside from reducing to human population down to 500 million (which is more than a 90% reduction from 2014 levels) suggest creating a global government, a global universal language, and the last of the ten “guides,” engraved in eight different languages on the faces of the stones, warns people to not be a “cancer on the earth.”

The elite’s insane dreams of becoming God get even more horrifying the closer you look into them. Richard Seed, a leading geneticist and Transhumanist promoter, said, “God made man in his own image. God intended for man to become one with God. We are going to become one with God. We are going to have almost as much knowledge and almost as much power as God. Cloning and the reprogramming of DNA is the first serious step in becoming one with God.”256

Regarding the resistance to such plans, he ominously responded, “We are going to become Gods, period. If you don’t like it, get off. You don’t have to contribute, you don’t have to participate, but if you are going to interfere with me becoming a God, you’re going to have trouble. There’ll be warfare.”257

Illuminati Transhumanists believe what Satan told Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden will soon come to pass—that they will become allknowing, all-powerful, immortal Gods who will rule planet earth forever and ever. This New Age philosophy falls in line with their Social Darwinist “survival of the fittest” mentally, and while history is filled with a long list of men who have believed they themselves were Gods—from the ancient pharaohs in Ancient Egypt to Adolf Hitler—today the elite, and much of the general public, anxiously await the Singularity and believe they will soon achieve their Luciferian transition into a God, just as Satan promised mankind so long ago.





Symbolism

A picture is worth a thousand words, as the cliché goes, because pictures contain so much information someone could speak for hours trying to describe every detail but still couldn’t convey everything one encapsulated. Symbols reach deep into the psyche and the soul, and consciously and unconsciously convey meanings and evoke emotional responses. We live in a world full of symbols. A red light at an intersection means stop; a wedding ring symbolizes a man and woman’s commitment to each other. The American flag represents the values, principles, and hard work that built America. The true power of symbols comes from their ability to evoke certain thoughts and feelings.

A souvenir you bought on a trip reminds you of all the fun you had there and just the sight of the object stimulates memories and feelings about the trip. A framed photo of your favorite car hanging on the wall in your office subconsciously reminds you of the freedom you feel on the weekends driving down a country road, briefly leaving your worries behind. Family photos invoke feelings of joy and fond memories just from glancing at them for a moment as they sit on our desk or hang on our refrigerator.

While we can all agree and articulate what many symbols mean, what makes them so mysterious is that the same symbol may have completely different meanings to different people. Let us now decode some popular Illuminati symbols and uncover their occult “hidden” meanings and see why they are used and what they mean to insiders. Most of these symbols themselves aren’t “evil” in and of themselves, they’ve just been adopted by groups or people who are evil, so various symbols have taken on a negative connotation. The swastika was a popular Hindu symbol of health and wellbeing before the Nazis incorporated it as the logo of the Nazi party, and so now we have a negative association to what was originally a positive symbol. The symbol itself is certainly not evil, but we have come to associate it with evil, when in reality it was hijacked and perverted, so for

most people its meaning has been tainted from what it originally meant to convey.



The Sun

To the ancient Mystery Schools in the past, as well as numerous modern mystical or enlightenment groups, (including the Illuminati), the sun is their primary symbol and is often incorporated into their logos and artwork. The sun represents power and light. The word Illuminati means enlightened ones, and the word enlighten contains the word light, which comes from the sun. Someone is said to be bright if they are intelligent and are also called brilliant, which, if you look that word up in the dictionary, you will also find that it means “shining brightly.”

The sun rises and brings life to the world by chasing away the cold and scary darkness of the night. It is an awesome, enormous, and mysterious power that affects all life on planet earth. We tell time based on the sun, it affects the seasons, and it even has an immense effect on our psyche and our health. The 28th degree in Freemasonry is called the Knight of the Sun, and is just one example of how Masons pay homage to this massive star at the center of our solar system.



The Pyramid

The pyramid represents the social hierarchy of society, symbolically depicting a small enlightened few at the top, and the masses of ignorant “worker bees” on the bottom. A sun on top of a pyramid symbolically represents the small number of Illuminati “enlightened leaders” at the top of the social hierarchy ruling over the masses of ignorant slaves below who make up the base of the pyramid.

The Dictionary of Symbols explains, “The base is square and represents the earth. The apex is the starting-point and the finishing-point of all things —the mystic ‘center.’ Joining the apex to the base are the triangular-shaped faces of the pyramid, symbolizing fire, divine revelation and the threefold principle of creation. In consequence the pyramid is seen as a symbol expressing the whole of the work of creation in its three essential aspects.”258

The ancient Egyptian pyramids, built over four thousand years ago, are still one of the seven wonders of the world and have been an endless source of mystery still to this day. While mainstream historians believe the pyramids were built as tombs for the Pharaohs, the belief in the Illuminati is that they were actually temples where the Mystery Schools taught their secrets.

33rd degree Freemason Manly P. Hall explains, “The Great Pyramid was not a lighthouse, an observatory, or a tomb, but the first temple of the Mysteries, the first structure erected as a repository for those secret truths which are the certain foundation of all the arts and sciences…Through the mystic passageways and chambers of the Great Pyramid passed the illumined of antiquity. They entered its portals as men; they came forth as gods. It was the place of the ‘second birth,’ the womb of the Mysteries, and wisdom dwelt in it as God dwells in the hearts of men.”259



As I’m sure you are aware, a pyramid with an all-seeing eye can be found on the back of the one-dollar bill, which many people believe is basically a stamp of ownership by the Illuminati. The man who designed this Great Seal was a Freemason named Charles Thomson, confirming many peoples’ suspicions that a hidden hand strategically placed the symbol on the currency as a secret sign of their power.

The phrase Novus Ordo Seclorum (Latin for New Order for the Ages) has appeared on the bottom of the pyramid on the back of the one dollar bill since 1935. At the opening of the 110th Congress on January 4th 2007, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi made a cryptic reference to the Great Seal, announcing, “Our Founders envisioned a new America driven by optimism, opportunity, and courage. So confident were they in the new America they were advancing, they put on the Great Seal of the United States, ‘Novus ordo seclorum’—a new order for the ages…This vision has sustained us for more than 200 years, and it accounts for what is best in our great nation: liberty, opportunity, and justice. Now it is our responsibility to carry forth that vision of a new America.”



The All-Seeing Eye

The symbol of one eye, often with rays of light emanating from it, represents God’s omniscient power and dates back to ancient Egypt where it represented the sun God Horus who could see all. It’s sometimes called the Eye of Providence, and as you know, sits on top of the pyramid on the back of the one dollar bill. This all-seeing eye symbol also represents Big Brother and the Orwellian power of the intelligence agencies watching what everyone does, what they buy, and cataloging their online activities.

Not only are there all-seeing eyes watching people in shopping malls and walking down the streets of major cities, but most people have willingly installed an all-seeing eye in their living rooms—and even their bedrooms—and with the click of a few keys these eyes can be activated by crafty hackers or government agencies. Of course I’m talking about webcams that are built into tablets, laptops, and televisions, not to mention, perhaps even more disturbing, listening to people as well through the microphones that accompany them.

Check out my previous book, Big Brother: The Orwellian Nightmare Come True to learn about actual high-tech spy gadgets, mind-reading machines, government projects, and emerging artificial intelligence systems that seem as if they came right out of George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four and how our own world is unfortunately eerily paralleling the dystopia in his classic book.

While much of this has become fairly well known by now, one interesting point few people ponder is that the all-seeing eye—aside from representing the Illuminati—may actually become a symbol of the Antichrist himself. One Bible prophecy about the Antichrist is that an attempt will be made on his life that will take out or damage one of his eyes.260 Since the symbol often represents a “God,” it’s possible that the

coming counterfeit Christ may literally embody this symbol as a tactic to convince the masses that he himself is God. In Islam, Muslims have a prophecy almost identical saying that the Antichrist, who they call the Dejjal, will be symbolized by one eye.



Snakes and Serpents

The symbol of the serpent is perhaps best known as the creature in the Garden of Eden who tempted Adam and Eve into disobeying God by eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The very word snake has negative connotations, meaning someone is a liar or deceptive. While the typical connotation of a snake is negative, and the Biblical story of Adam and Eve depicts Satan as the enemy of God and mankind, the occult interpretation is quite different. Occultists and Satanists praise the serpent and believe it brought wisdom to Mankind, enabling humans to become gods.

Again we look to the revelations of 33rd degree Freemason Manly P. Hall who explains, “The serpent is true to the principle of wisdom, for it tempts man to the knowledge of himself. Therefore the knowledge of self resulted from man’s disobedience to the Demiurges, Jehovah [God].”261 Hall continues, saying “The serpent is the symbol and prototype of the Universal savior, who redeems the worlds by giving creation the knowledge of itself and the realization of good and evil.”262

The Secret Doctrine says, “The Serpent of Eternity and all Knowledge, that Manasic spirit [the rational faculty of the mind], which made him learn the secret of creation on the Kriyasaktic, and of procreation on the earthly planes—led him as naturally to discover his way to immortality, notwithstanding the jealously of the Gods.”263

The evil scumbag Aleister Crowley had this to say: “This serpent, Satan, is not the enemy of Man, [because it is he] who made Gods of our race, knowing Good and Evil.”264



Like Satanists and occultists, Freemasons adore the serpent as a savior and worship its wisdom. Here is a quote from Albert Pike’s Morals and Dogma about the serpent, reading, “It is the body of the Holy Spirit, the Universal Agent, the Serpent devouring its own tail.”265

Complicating the meaning of the serpent symbol are several cryptic statements in the Bible, the first of which is when Jesus advised people to be as wise as serpents yet as gentle as doves in Mathew 10:16. This statement seems to acknowledge that serpents contain wisdom or represent a power that may be used for either good or evil. Another interesting and hard to reconcile story about serpents is when Moses made a brazen (brass) serpent and attached it to the top of his staff in order to heal the Israelites who had been bitten by snakes in the desert. The American Medical Association’s logo is a snake coiled around on a staff and the same symbol is often found on ambulances as a symbol of health and healing. When someone reaches the 25th degree of Freemasonry, they are called a Knight of the Brazen Serpent.

One of the reasons serpents have come to symbolize wisdom and enlightenment is because their eyes are always open since they don’t have any eyelids. Snakes are very unique creatures because they have no legs yet move around shooting across the ground like a bolt of lightning. To early Man, they may have seemed magical because they can appear out of nowhere and then disappear into the grass or into the earth itself. The shedding of their skin has come to symbolize a rebirth or immortality, possibly because primitive man thought that snakes were immortal and would give birth to a new self, when a snake “died” it would rise again leaving behind its old “carcass” in the form of its shed skin and continue to live on.

It’s possible that the serpent does not necessarily represent evil in and of itself, but may represent a force that may be used for either good or evil.



The Phoenix

A phoenix is a large mythical bird that symbolizes cyclical renewal, immortality, or resurrection. The creature is depicted similar to an eagle and is often associated with the sun, and many myths talk about the phoenix dying, decomposing, and then rising again out of its own ashes. Some believe that many of the eagle symbols we see today are actually secretly symbols of a phoenix, including the double-headed “eagle” that is a symbol of the 33rd degree of Freemasonry.

The eagle that has come to be a popular symbol of America, and found on the back of the one dollar bill, is also believed by some to occultly signify a phoenix. The Secret Teachings of All Ages states that “The hand of the mysteries controlled in the establishment of the new government for the signature of the mysteries may still be seen on the Great Seal of the United states of America. Careful analysis of the seal discloses a mass of occult and masonic symbols chief among them, the so-called American Eagle...only the student of symbolism can see through the subterfuge and realize that the American eagle upon the Great Seal is but a conventionalized phoenix.”266

The book, published in 1928, also states that, “Not only were many of the founders of the United States government Masons, but they received aid from a secret and august body existing in Europe which helped them to establish this country for a peculiar and particular purpose known only to the initiated few. The Great Seal is the signature of this exalted body— unseen and for the most part unknown—and the unfinished pyramid upon its reverse side is a teeterboard setting forth symbolically the task to the accomplishment of which the United States Government was dedicated from the day of its in conception.”267



The phoenix has been proposed to be the name of the new unified global currency that international banksters have long awaited. The cover of the January 1988 edition of The Economist magazine read “Are you ready for a world currency” and contained an article that explained, “Thirty years from now, Americans, Japanese, Europeans, and people in many other rich countries, and some relatively poor ones will probably be paying for their shopping with the same currency. Prices will be quoted not in dollars, yen or D-marks but in, let’s say, the phoenix. The phoenix will be favored by companies and shoppers because it will be more convenient than today’s national currencies.”268

The metaphor of “rising from the ashes like a phoenix” refers to a rebirth, or something being killed or destroyed in order to give birth to something new, and so by killing off the U.S. Dollar and other currencies around the world through inflation, the banksters are symbolically giving birth to their new currency, which many plan to call the “phoenix.”



The Owl

When discussing Illuminati symbolism, the owl is most known for its connections to the Bohemian Grove, the Illuminati’s summer retreat in northern California. Esoterically, the owl represents wisdom because it sees in the dark, and the Owl of Athena was chosen by Adam Weishaupt as one of the symbols of the Bavarian Illuminati. Early civilizations saw the owl as mysterious because it is only seen at night since they are nocturnal animals.

The Dictionary of Symbols explains, “In the Egyptian system of hieroglyphs, the owl symbolizes death, night, cold and passivity. It also pertains to the realm of the dead sun, that is, it is of the sun which has set below the horizon and which is crossing the lake or sea of darkness.”269

A tiny owl can also be found hidden on the one dollar bill, perched on the upper left corner of the frame that surrounds the “1” located in the upper right hand corner of the bill. Many people see an owl designed into the street layout of Washington D.C., right on top of the U.S. Capitol building when viewing the location from overheard or looking at it on a map.

Pictures of owls are often seen in classrooms standing on a small stack of books in order to symbolize knowledge. The National Press Club’s logo also contains an owl standing on a book. Owls are also seen as guardians and often owl statues are put on the top of buildings to scare away other birds.



The Skull and Crossbones

The skull and crossbones symbol has a sinister look to it, which is why it has been used by nefarious groups for centuries—from pirates and biker gangs, to the Nazis. It represents death, or the power over life and death, which is why it appeals to megalomaniacs and psychopaths. The Nazi SS officers in charge of concentration camps where over six million people were exterminated wore a skull and crossbones symbol on their uniforms, the same emblem used by the Skull & Bones secret society as their logo. The Nazis called it the Totenkopf (German for skull or dead man’s head) and it was a blatant statement of their intention and purpose. Hitler personally handed out a Death’s Head ring to elite SS soldiers.

The Knights Templar incorporated the symbol into their lives because they were dedicated to fight to the death and vowed never to be taken alive as a prisoner. Many Freemasons have a human skull (or a replica) sitting on their desk to remind them of their own mortality and that their life is quickly ticking away. It is meant to urge them to work towards the achievement of their goals before it’s too late.

As you may recall from earlier, both the Bavarian Illuminati and Skull & Bones society at Yale use the object in their induction ceremony with their four different skulls and the question about which one is the fool, the wise man, the beggar or the king. The answer to this induction riddle, “Whether poor or rich, all’s the same in death,” is meant to reinforce their mortality to them and remind them that the clock of life is ticking so they had better do all they can to become kings here in this life because when you’re dead—to them—nothing matters. The riddle is obviously meant to convey that they don’t believe in an afterlife or a final judgment from God.



Baphomet

Baphomet is an occult idol that is depicted as an androgynous man with female breasts that has the head of a goat. The torch of Prometheus is often sticking out of its head and intertwining serpents are rising from its crotch. It’s a mysterious and hideous looking figure that dates back to the 1300s when the inner circle of Knights Templar allegedly incorporated it into their rituals and secret doctrine.

An early depiction of the figure comes from an 1854 book titled Transcendental Magic that was written by a French occultist Eliphas Levi.270 Accompanying his illustration, Eliphas Levi wrote, “According to some, the Baphomet was a monstrous head, but according to others, a demon in the form of a goat. A sculptured coffer [chest] was disinterred [dug up] recently in the ruins of an old Commandery of the Temple, and antiquaries observed upon it a Baphometic figure, corresponding by its attributes to the goat of Mendes and the androgyne of Khunrath.”271

Many Satanists have proudly incorporated the Baphomet figure into their symbols and rituals. Aleister Crowley wrote that the serpent or the “devil’s emblem” was Baphomet, who he also called the “hieroglyph of arcane perfection.”272

One version of the figure is the Church of Satan’s logo, which is printed on the cover of The Satanic Bible. While many people claim that the Catholic Church fabricated the claims that the Knights Templar were using it in secret rituals as an excuse to arrest them and confiscate their wealth during the Inquisition, most Satanists and occults hold the belief that the Catholic Church’s claims were actually true.273



Again, Eliphas Levi boldly proclaimed in his book Transcendental Magic, “Yes, in our profane conviction, the Grand Masters of the Order of the Templars worshipped the Baphomet, and caused it to be worshipped by their initiates.”274



The Pentagram

An upside down pentagram drawn inside of a circle is one of the most obvious and familiar satanic symbols that is used by occult organizations, rebellious teenagers, and rock stars today. It is a lower level occult symbol often used to represent dark powers or sinister forces. Because it’s so widely known, it’s never really used by high-level occultist or the Illuminati, who instead use much less familiar symbols like pyramids, allseeing eyes, owls, black and white checkerboards, and other, less polarizing images.

A pentagram differs from an ordinary five-pointed star in a few ways. First, a pentagram is drawn using five straight lines making up the points and also forming a pentagon in the center. The Satanic pentagram is drawn upside down, and often encompassed by a circle. The reason Satanists use it is because Christians originally used the five points of a (right-side up) pentagram (called the pentalpha) to symbolize the five wounds of Jesus (the two spikes through his hands, two through his feet, and the spear that pierced his side). Satanists like to pervert things and flip Christian symbols upside down or backwards to signify their opposing views and beliefs, and this is how their use of upside down pentagrams came into being.

The Dictionary of Symbols entry on the star reads, “As far back as in the days of Egyptian hieroglyphics a star pointing upwards signified ‘rising upwards towards the point of origin’ and formed part of such words as ‘to bring up,’ ‘to educate,’ and ‘the teacher.’ The inverted five-pointed star is a symbol of the infernal and used in black magic.”275

In Freemasonry, the pentagram is called the Blazing Star and represents the sun, Lucifer, carnal knowledge and power. To Wiccans and Pagans, the five points of the star represent air, fire, water, Earth, and spirit.

The female branch of Freemasonry, called Eastern Star, actually uses an upside down pentagram as their emblem.



Square and Compass

A square (the tool used by carpenters to lay out a right angle or a “square” angle) overlaid on top of a compass (the tool used for drawing circles and arches—not the navigation tool for identifying direction) is a popular symbol in Freemasonry and is often seen with the letter G in the center. The square and compass signify the alchemical doctrine of “as above, so below” or the joining of heaven and earth by forming two opposite facing pyramids with one pointing up and the other one pointing downward. The letter G in the center stands for God or Gnosis [the Greek word for knowledge.] It is also often said to stand for the “Great Architect of the Universe,” a term many masons use to refer to God.



The Statue of Liberty

If you asked the average American what the Statue of Liberty represented, they’ll probably tell you it has to do with “America,” “freedom,” or “democracy.” Some may know that it was given to America by the French, but few know its very design and creation was orchestrated by Freemasons, the secret society, not the government of France, who then gave it to America as a “gift” and placed it in New York Harbor.

Frederic Bartholdi, the designer of the Statue of Liberty, was, of course, a Freemason, and very familiar with occult and Illuminati symbolism and philosophies. In fact, the three major figures involved with the Statue—Frederic Bartholdi, who designed the statue itself; Gustave Eiffel, who designed the inner support structure; and Richard Hunt, who designed the pedestal—were all Freemasons.

Bartholdi’s original plan for a giant statue of this type was actually that it be placed in a harbor in Egypt. After his proposal was turned down by the Egyptian government, he changed his design a little bit and approached America to see if he could erect his newly designed statue in the United States. The point is, he originally wanted to build a bizarre “God-like” statue and have it stand somewhere other than America. Bartholdi’s first choice for his mystical statue was Egypt, not the United States.

The original name of the statue was “Liberty Enlightening the World,” not the “Statue of Liberty.” Again, the word Enlightening fits in with the Illuminati theme—Enlightening, enlightenment, light, the sun, intelligence, bright, brilliance, Lucifer. You get the picture by now.

A near mirror image of the Statue of Liberty stands in France, also on an island, in the Seine River in Paris, that was set up in 1889, just three

years after the one in America was completed. If it’s an “American” symbol then why is there an almost identical one in France? There are actually hundreds of nearly identical “Statue of Liberty” figures all around the world, including Leicester, England; Lviv, Ukraine; Carinthia, Austria; Cenicero, Spain; Arraba in Israel, and many, many other places.

The Statue of Liberty is essentially a modern version of the Colossus of Rhodes, which was a 100-foot-tall statue depicting the Greek sun god Helios (Helios being Greek for sun) that once stood in ancient Greece. The Colossus was created in the 3rd century B.C. and depicted Helios (the Sun God) holding a torch high in one hand and stood on the island of Rhodes facing the water. “This gigantic gilded figure, with its crown of solar rays and its upraised torch, signified occultly the glorious Sun Man of the Mysteries, the Universal Savior,” says The Secret Teachings of All Ages.276

There is a poem printed on a plaque that sits prominently near the base of the Statue of Liberty titled The New Colossus, clearly signaling that it was modeled after the Greek sun god. There was a Masonic cornerstone ceremony conducted when construction began, and a Masonic plaque was placed on the site as well. The statue also symbolizes a composite of a variety of ancient goddesses who represent the feminine principle.

The torch that the Statue of Liberty is holding represents the torch of Prometheus, who occultly signifies Lucifer. The Greek mythological story of Prometheus is the same allegory of stealing fire (i.e. knowledge) from God or the Gods, and giving it to humans, thus angering God.

Here is Manly P. Hall again, one of Freemasonry’s greatest philosophers, explaining in Lectures on Ancient Philosophy, that, “Man wandered hopelessly in the gloom of mortality, living and dying without light or understanding in his servitude to the Demiurgus [the creator God] and his host of spirits. At last the spirit of rebellion entered the creation in the form of Lucifer, who in the guise of a serpent tempted man to revolt against the mandates of Jehovah (the Demiurgus). In Greece this character was known as Prometheus, who brought from the gods the impregnating

flame that would release the life latent in this multitude of germlike potentialities.”277

The seven horn-looking spikes coming out of the Statue of Liberty’s head represent rays of the sun, and symbolically represents the spirit radiating from the mind as knowledge or “enlightenment.” There are seven of them because the rays represent the seven liberal arts and sciences, thus comprising an essential knowledge base. The statue is also holding a book, obviously, symbolic of knowledge and information—again fitting in with the theme of knowledge and enlightenment, because knowledge is power, and that is what the Illuminati has.



Rockefeller Center’s Prometheus

Rockefeller Center in New York City is a huge 22-acre complex made up of nineteen different buildings and the home of Bank of America, NBC, General Electric and other major international Illuminati-controlled corporations. Standing prominently within the property is a huge gold colored statue of Prometheus holding a ball of fire in one hand as he flies through the air. The mythological Greek story of Prometheus stealing fire from the Gods and giving it to mankind despite the punishment he will face is seen by occultists as identical to the story of Lucifer giving mankind the knowledge of good and evil that God had forbid us to have.

So essentially this statue that stands outside of Rockefeller Center is a tribute to Lucifer, which goes unnoticed by the average person not familiar with Illuminati symbolism. Most people are probably not even familiar with the Prometheus myth, or have long since forgotten about it since studying Greek mythology in high school and simply think the statue is just another random piece of art with little to no significance.

Helena Blavatsky explains in her classic occult work, The Secret Doctrine, that, “The allegory of Prometheus, who steals the divine fire as to allow men to proceed consciously on the path of spiritual evolution, thus transforming the most perfect of animals on Earth into a potential god, and making him free to take the kingdom of heaven by violence. Hence also, the curse pronounced by Zeus against Prometheus, and by Jehovah [God] against his ‘rebellious son,’ Satan.”278

So as you can see, it’s not just me making the connection between Prometheus and Lucifer—It’s occultist insiders themselves, and of course it’s no coincidence this stands on a Rockefeller property, a family with generational ties to the Illuminati establishment.



The Washington Monument

The Washington Monument, which is located directly west of the United States Capitol building in Washington DC, standing approximately 555 feet high, dominates the sky throughout the city and can be seen from miles around, especially at night with the red light shining from the top looking like the evil Eye of Sauron in the Lord of the Rings movies. The monument is an Egyptian obelisk with a pyramid capstone on the top and was completed in 1884.

The structure is one of the most important symbols in America to the Illuminati, although most people are clearly unaware of it having any hidden meaning. Occultists see the monument as an enormous phallic symbol—a big penis—representing masculine energy and dominance. One would expect the “Washington” Monument to be a statue of George Washington himself, much like the Lincoln Memorial houses a huge statue of Abraham Lincoln, but instead it’s a giant erect penis of the Egyptian god Baal. Of course, it too was designed and built by Freemasons, who even had a ceremony to lay the cornerstone when construction began.

Fritz Springmeier, author of Bloodlines of the Illuminati, wrote, “Every morning when the United States President wakes up he can look out the window, see the Masonic obelisk and be reminded of who controls America. If the president has any training in the Mystery Religion of Egypt, he will also know what body part is symbolically erected in the Washington Memorial.”279 Springmeier goes so far as to say, “If the U.S. were ever to return to serving God, that monument would be a good one to destroy. God asked the Israelites not just simply to avoid worshiping such abominations, He asked His people to destroy them, for their very creation was an abomination.”280



Cleopatra’s Needle

While the Washington Monument may be the most well-known Egyptian obelisk in America, it isn’t the only one. Another one stands in Central Park in New York City—called Cleopatra’s Needle, and this one is actually an authentic Egyptian obelisk that dates back to around 1500 B.C. and was transported to New York in 1881.

Similar “Cleopatra’s Needles” actually stand in London and Paris, signifying the Illuminati’s rule in those countries as well. Not surprising, there is also one in Vatican City as well. The one in New York’s Central Park stands 70-feet tall and weighs 220 tons. Why and how it was brought to America all the way from Egypt is an interesting story.

For some reason Henry G. Stebbins, who was the Commissioner of the Department of Public Parks in New York in the 1880s, announced he was looking for help financing a plan to bring the statue to America. William H. Vanderbilt, who was one of the wealthiest men in the world, was asked to help make it happen and donated over $100,000 (over $2 million in 2014 dollars) to help. Interestingly, the shipping costs for the one sent to London were paid for by Dr. Erasmus Wilson, a Freemason.

Once the obelisk arrived in America, thousands of Freemasons took part in a parade as it was rolled up Fifth Avenue from 14th Street to 82nd Street. When it was erected at its final destination in the park, the Grand Master of Masons in New York performed a cornerstone laying ritual as a celebration. When it first arrived in New York in 1881, Cleopatra’s Needle was covered with clearly visible hieroglyphics about the sun god Horus, but most of the carvings have since been warn away from acid rain. While they survived 3000 years in Egypt, it seems the ancient relic was no match for the pollution of New York City.



Movies and Music

For hundreds of years, knowledge of the Illuminati and their symbols was largely contained within the Mystery Schools that taught the esoteric tradition. Outsiders didn’t even think twice about most occult symbols because they were seen as ordinary art and few people paid much attention to them. But with the birth of the information age, things started to change. In the 1990s and early 2000s, a growing number of websites and forums were dedicated to investigating secret societies, and began to expose these once little known issues to a larger number of people.

For decades, those interested in such material were considered a fringe minority of patriots and “conspiracy theorists,” but with the emergence of social media becoming a standard feature in most people’s lives, and with video sharing websites like YouTube changing the nature of media and information exchange, an interesting phenomenon began to occur early in the twenty-first century. Illuminati and occult symbolism spilled over from what was once primarily the topic of fringe websites, and “computer geeks” on Internet forums, to became part of pop culture finding its way into various mainstream music videos and blockbuster movies.

While a sizable portion of the population has become familiar with the use of Illuminati symbolism in rap videos and supposed “Illuminati hand signs” being flashed by celebrities, most people who pay attention to this aspect of the symbolism barely have a basic understanding of the history of the symbols or their meanings. Many people who have heard the oftentimes farfetched claims about “Illuminati celebrities” have dismissed the existence of the Illuminati all together as a conspiracy theory or believe it’s simply a secret society in Hollywood that top celebrities are part of.

Checkout my previous book Illuminati in the Music Industry to read about this fascinating history since it is a very lengthy analysis in and of

itself. While there certainly have been countless allegations made against a variety of celebrities like Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Kanye West and others, when you take a critical analysis of celebrity as a whole and the power their music and personas have over the culture, it becomes very clear that music is not always “just entertainment.”

As the Illuminati prepare to announce the “royal secret,” as they call it, by declaring that Satan is the King of the Earth and the “savior of mankind,” hoping to finally overthrow the “inferior” and “evil” Creator God to complete the New World Order “utopia,” celebrities have recently played a major part in paving the path to the apocalypse.

The vast majority of the public literally worship celebrities who function as modern day Gods that shape our cultural attitudes and beliefs since their every action is mimicked, and every opinion they voice is seen as profound.

The general public is growing to see the Illuminati—not as a threat to their freedoms or a corrupt mafia of politicians, bankers and businessmen— but as a “cool” group of powerful men they wish they could be a part of. The moral decay and erosion of the work ethic have resulted in the average person willing to do almost anything for just a taste of the Illuminati’s “success.” Pop culture has begun portraying the Illuminati as holding the secret to success or a secret society of the rich and famous.

Occasionally films have portrayed the Illuminati or an affiliated group as the antagonist in a plot to convey a warning to the audience, and some celebrities have publicly denounced them as the shadowy puppet masters pulling the strings in global affairs, but the overwhelming majority of mainstream media content and celebrity idols paint the Illuminati as holding the master key to success and as a result countless people would practically kill their own mother to join them in order to have a bigger piece of the pie.







Insiders’ Hints

If you want to truly understand what the Illuminati is, what they are doing, what they are planning, and what they believe, there’s no better place to go than to elite insiders themselves who can’t always keep their mouths shut, and occasionally can’t help but brag about their “great work.” While there’s a long list of people who claim to be Illuminati defectors that speak about their alleged activities while supposedly being a “member of the Illuminati,” most of these people are hoaxers and fraudsters with no credibility who are just trying to make a few bucks from selling books, or just looking for attention, and many of them have been easily debunked.

Of course if you do an Internet search for “the Illuminati,” you’ll find countless websites making claims about what they are, what they do, who’s supposedly involved, etc. There’s even a Wikipedia page giving a few details about them, although it’s largely incomplete and inaccurate. While it’s not difficult at all to find Illuminati conspiracy theories online, what is difficult; however, is finding accurate and reliable information that is properly sourced and verified, and this is my primary goal with this book.

While everyone seems to have an opinion about the Illuminati these days, most people think “research” consists of watching a few YouTube videos or glancing over a Wikipedia article. There are, however, some very well connected and powerful men who have either dropped hints about the Illuminati and their secret agenda, or those who have gotten close enough to the power structure to see for themselves that a powerful secret society does exist and has tremendous influence over the world.



David Rockefeller

The Rockefeller family is often mentioned as one of the families that has been involved with the Illuminati for generations and have accumulated a vast amount of wealth and influence because of this. The Rockefeller family made most of their money in oil and banking, and using their wealth they have wrapped their tentacles around some of the most infamous groups and conspiracies connected to the Illuminati.

For example, Rockefeller money was instrumental in the early growth of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, and the Bilderberg Group. They were a major funder of Eugenics and the CIA’s MK-ULTRA mind control experiments at over 30 American Universities, hospitals, and government facilities. The Rockefellers bought seventeen acres of land for the United Nations headquarters to be built in Manhattan; and even financed the development of facial recognition systems through their Rockefeller University that recruited and funded a man named Joseph Atick in the early 1990s who was given use of the Computational Neuroscience Laboratory where he developed his facial recognition systems.

In his 2002 book, Memoirs, Illuminati kingpin David Rockefeller arrogantly admitted, “For more than a century ideological extremists at either end of the political spectrum have seized upon well-publicized incidents such as my encounter with Castro to attack the Rockefeller family for the inordinate influence they claim we wield over American political and economic institutions. Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as “internationalists” and conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure—one world, if you will. If that’s the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.”281



In a 1980 PBS documentary titled The World of David Rockefeller, host Bill Moyer said that “David Rockefeller is the most conspicuous representative today of the ruling class, a multinational fraternity of men who shape the global economy and manage the flow of its capital. Rockefeller was born to it, and he has made the most of it. But what some critics see as a vast international conspiracy, he considers a circumstance of life and just another day’s work... In the world of David Rockefeller it’s hard to tell where business ends and politics begins.”282



Carroll Quigley

In 1966 an Establishment insider and mentor of President Bill Clinton published a book for fellow Establishment insiders titled Tragedy & Hope to help them understand how the Illuminati empire works. Carroll Quigley, a professor at Georgetown University, knew that most of the public doesn’t read books or newspapers and are more interested in sports entertainment and celebrity news than business or politics.

Quigley openly revealed, “There does exist, and has existed for a generation, an international Anglophile network which operates, to some extent, in the way the radical Right believes the Communists act. In fact, this network, which we may identify as the Round Table Groups, has no aversion to cooperating with the Communists, or any other groups, and frequently does so. I know of the operations of this network because I have studied it for twenty years and was permitted for two years, in the early 1960’s, to examine its papers and secret records. I have no aversion to it or to most of its aims and have, for much of my life, been close to it and to many of its instruments. I have objected, both in the past and recently, to a few of its policies (notably to its belief that England was an Atlantic rather than a European Power and must be allied, or even federated, with the United States and must remain isolated from Europe), but in general my chief difference of opinion is that it wishes to remain unknown, and I believe its role in history is significant enough to be known.”283

He described how the financial elite created front groups to influence governments around the world, writing, “…in New York it was known as the Council on Foreign Relations, and was a front for J. P. Morgan and Company in association with the very small American Round Table Group. The American organizers were dominated by the large number of Morgan ‘experts’… The Round Table for years (until 1961) was edited from the

back door of Chatham House grounds in Ormond Yard, and its telephone came through the Chatham House switchboard.”284

Quigley also explained how it was to the elite’s advantage to have only two political parties for people to choose from. The reason being, “The two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can ‘throw the rascals out’ at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy.”285

Regarding the Federal Reserve and the financial takeover of governments by private banks he said, “The powers of financial capitalism had a far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent meetings and conferences. The apex of the systems was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world’s central banks which were themselves private corporations. Each central bank...sought to dominate its government by its ability to control Treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence cooperative politicians by subsequent economic rewards in the business world.”286

Basically in his lengthy and dry book, Tragedy & Hope, he quietly confirmed what many “conspiracy theorists” had been saying for decades, but unlike most outsiders, he was in a position learn directly from the perpetrators.



Cecil Rhodes

The most notorious diamond monopoly man in history, and the person behind the elite Rhodes Scholarships, which awards young men and women who the Establishment feel will be willing and useful servants with a free ride to Oxford University and basically an invitation to the Illuminati, was a man named Cecil Rhodes, who didn’t just talk about his plans to further the Invisible Empire, he actually wrote in his will that after he died his fortune would go to finance this.

Rhodes is the man behind the DeBeers diamond cartel who became extremely wealthy by monopolizing diamond mines in Africa and then launching a brilliant propaganda campaign with the help of Edward Bernays designed to brainwash women around the world into thinking that when a man proposes marriage he must do so with a diamond ring.

Rhodes, who died in 1902, wrote in his will that his fortune was to be used, “To and for the establishment, promotion and development of a Secret Society, the true aim and object whereof shall be for the extension of British rule throughout the world, the perfecting of a system of emigration from the United Kingdom, and of colonization by British subjects of all lands where the means of livelihood are attainable by energy, labor and enterprise, and especially the occupation by British settlers of the entire Continent of Africa, the Holy Land, the Valley of the Euphrates, the Islands of Cyprus and Candia, the whole of South America, the Islands of the Pacific not heretofore possessed by Great Britain, the whole of the Malay Archipelago, the seaboard of China and Japan, the ultimate recovery of the United States of America as an integral part of the British Empire, the inauguration of a system of Colonial representation in the Imperial Parliament which may tend to weld together the disjointed members of the Empire and, finally, the foundation of so great a Power as to render wars impossible, and promote the best interests of humanity.”287



To help carry out his plan, certain money from his estate is designated to what’s called the Rhodes Scholarship, which is a student fund that awards carefully chosen individuals who don’t necessarily come from wealthy families but who are seen as likely assets of the Illuminati with a free ride post graduate education at England’s Oxford University, where they are groomed to later become pawns of the global elite. President Bill Clinton was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to bring him into the fold, as was the liberal lesbian Rachel Maddow of MSNBC who uses her national mainstream media platform to promote bigger government and the radical liberal agenda on a continual basis.



Edward Bernays

In 1928 Edward Bernays, the man considered to be the father of public relations, revealed in his book Propaganda that, “Those who manipulate the unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of...in almost every act of our lives whether in the sphere of politics or business in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires that control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world.”288

He went on to admit, “Whatever of social importance is done today, whether in politics, finance, manufacture, agriculture, charity, education, or other fields, must be done with the help of propaganda. Propaganda is the executive arm of the invisible government.”289

Bernays also stated plainly that, “The invisible government tends to be concentrated in the hands of the few because of the expense of manipulating the social machinery which controls the opinions and habits of the masses.”290

The Department of Defense (previously called the Department of War) actually hired Bernays to help influence public opinion to support America’s involvement in World War I. The tobacco industry also paid him to use his methods to encourage women to smoke cigarettes since at the time it was seen as unattractive.291 Bernays is also the person all men can thank for having to cough up thousands of dollars for a diamond ring when we propose marriage since that tradition was started as a clever marketing ploy he crafted for the DeBeers diamond monopoly.



Woodrow Wilson

The 28th President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, was the man responsible for signing the Federal Reserve Act into law and handing America’s banking system over to the money manipulating mafia in 1913. Wilson later admitted, “Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men’s views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacturing, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.”292

After he was out of office, Woodrow Wilson allegedly voiced regret for cooperating with the banking cartel’s plan for the Federal Reserve Banking system, reportedly saying, “I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is now controlled by its system of credit. We are no longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.”293



John F. Kennedy

When speaking to the American Newspaper Publishers Association in 1961, President Kennedy actually condemned secret societies, saying, “The very word ‘secrecy’ is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings.”294

He continued, “We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it…For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covered means for expanding its sphere of influence, on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations, its preparations concealed, not published, its mistakes are buried not headlined, it’s dissenters are silenced not praised, no expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed.”

Kennedy issued an interesting Executive Order (number 11110) in 1963 that many interpret as directing the Secretary of the Treasury to start once again issuing silver certificates (which looked similar to dollar bills) that would be redeemable for their face value in silver coins or bullion, in what many saw as an attempt to remove power from the Federal Reserve Bank and give it back to the Treasury department.

Silver certificates [called United States Notes] were originally put in circulation in 1878 by the Treasury department and used as money, but

Federal Reserve Notes (commonly known as U.S. dollars) replaced them after the creation of the Federal Reserve banking system in 1913.

Kennedy’s Executive Order 11110 was soon reversed by President Lyndon B. Johnson after he was sworn in as JFK’s replacement after his assassination. Many people cite Kennedy’s supposed opposition to the Federal Reserve cartel as a major factor in the reason he was assassinated, believing the CIA orchestrated the event and blamed “patsy” Lee Harvey Oswald. Others believe Kennedy planned to pull out of the Vietnam War, in opposition to secret Establishment, which was another motive for wanting him dead.

A Gallup poll was published in 2013 as the 50th anniversary of his death approached showed that 61% of Americans believed someone other than Lee Harvey Oswald was involved in the assassination.295 The poll notes that at one time 81% of Americans thought there was more than one person involved in the shooting, despite the official story of Oswald acting alone, and the “JFK conspiracy” is one of the most popular conspiracy theories in history.



President Dwight Eisenhower

President Dwight Eisenhower, who was a five-star general during World War II, gave his Farewell Address to the Nation on January 17, 1961 where he popularized the term “Military Industrial Complex” after he warned about the dangers of weapon manufacturers influencing the government to go to war primarily for profit.

“This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence— economic, political, even spiritual—is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.”296

One part of the speech that still resonates today is when he said, “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military– industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together.”

This Military Industrial Complex can be seen functioning today when major defense companies receive no-bid contracts handed to them by their politician friends to hire ex-soldiers as private security guards in war torn countries, or when the Bilderberg Group meeting includes CEOs from

private defense companies who meet with current U.S. military heads to come to a consensus about a current or future military action.



President George Bush Senior

Two hours after bombing in Iraq and Kuwait began in 1991 (Operation Desert Storm) kicking off the first Gulf War, President Bush addressed the nation from the Oval Office explaining his goal, saying, “We have before us the opportunity to forge for ourselves and for future generations a New World Order, a world where the rule of law, not the law of the jungle, governs the conduct of nations. When we are successful, and we will be, we have a real chance at this new world order, an order in which a credible United Nations can use its peacekeeping role to fulfill the promise and vision of the U.N.’s founders.”297

A few weeks later at his State of the Union Address in 1991, President Bush was talking about America’s military action in the Gulf when he doubled down, saying, “What is at stake is more than one small country, it is a big idea—a New World Order.”298

Before becoming Ronald Reagan’s vice president, and then president himself after that, George Bush Senior was the head of the Central Intelligence Agency in the late 1970s, not to mention a member of Skull & Bones and the Bohemian Grove, where he and his son George W. Bush were photographed giving a Lakeside talk in 1995 where Bush Senior reportedly told the audience his son would make a fine president one day.299



President George W. Bush

Shortly after the September 11th terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001, sparking the never-ending “War on Terror,” President George W. Bush addressed the growing “conspiracy theories” from people thinking the U.S. government was behind the attacks —or at the bare minimum—allowed them to happen on purpose as a pretext to launch the pre-planned wars in the Middle East. While speaking at a United Nations conference Bush announced, “Let us never tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories concerning the attacks of September the 11th; malicious lies that attempt to shift the blame away from the terrorists themselves, away from the guilty.”300

The fact that the president even addressed the “conspiracy theories” shows just how far they were spreading, and what would come to be known as the 9/11 Truth Movement started making headlines in the years to come and gained a sizable number of supporters who were suspicious of the “official story” of 9/11.301

A leaked memo from a 2003 meeting between President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair later revealed that Bush once proposed luring Saddam Hussein into the War on Terror by flying an unmanned drone disguised as a United Nations airplane into Iraqi airspace hoping it would get shot down so the United States could then use the event as a justification for expanding the War on Terror into Iraq.302 As we all know, he later did invade Iraq after fabricating “evidence” claiming Saddam Hussein was working with Al Qaeda to soon nuke the United States. Many people still weren’t convinced there was any proof of this, but the administration’s mantra was, “We don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.”

In 2004 when Bush was campaigning for reelection he appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press where host Tim Russert surprisingly asked him about

being a Bonesman. “You were both in Skull & Bones, the secret society,” Russert stated, referring to both Bush and his Democrat opponent John Kerry.

“It’s so secret we can’t talk about it,” Bush responded.

“What does that mean for America? The conspiracy theorists are going to go wild,” Russert pressed.

“I’m sure they are. I don’t know. I haven’t seen the web pages yet.” (Laughs)303

Of course, George W. Bush was not the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks or the War on Terror, but rather a willing servant and asset of the Illuminati whose strings were being pulled by the powers that be from behind the scenes. Having sworn allegiance to Skull & Bones and being part of a Bones family, he undoubtedly felt obligated to carry out the Order’s directives.



Vice President Dick Cheney

When giving a speech at a Council on Foreign Relations meeting in 2002, Vice President Dick Cheney cracked an inside joke about his affiliation with the organization, saying, “I want to thank you all for the warm welcome today. I see a lot of old friends in the room. And it’s good to be back at the Council on Foreign Relations. As Pete mentioned, I’ve been a member for a long time, and was actually a director for some period of time. I never mentioned that when I was campaigning for reelection back home in Wyoming (laughter) but it stood me in good stead. I value very much my experience, exposure to the tremendous people involved and the involvement and the ideas and the debates on the great policy issues of the day.”304

The reason everyone laughed when he said he never mentioned he was a member when he was campaigning is because they all know the sinister reputation their group has. Anyone unfamiliar with the history and activities of the CFR would have no idea why everyone laughed, but those “in the know” surely “got” what he said.

A Pulitzer Prize winning journalist for The New Yorker named Seymour Hersh reported that his sources revealed to him that Cheney once proposed creating a false flag “Gulf of Tonkin” type of scenario in the Middle East to expand the War on Terror into Iran by having some U.S. Navy SEALS attack American ships in the Straits of Hormuz in order to make it appear as if Iranian PT boats had done it.305 Cheney is seen by many as one of the evil Neocon architects behind the 9/11 attacks and the ensuing War on Terror. Of course, he publicly advocated torture and refused to testify under oath at the 9/11 Commission hearings.306



Smedley Butler

A United States Marine Corps Major General, the highest rank at that time, came forward in 1934 revealing a conspiracy that was organized by Wall Street bankers who wanted to overthrow President Roosevelt and replace him with a fascist dictator to serve the will of the financial elite. A congressional committee named the McCormick Dickstein Committee was formed to investigate General Butler’s allegations.

Butler testified that a Wall Street insider named Gerald P. MacGuire approached him on behalf of a secret organization hoping he would lead a coup against the United States government that was to be backed by three million dollars (over 35 million in 2014 dollars) coming from the Wall Street elite. The conspiracy was dubbed the Business Plot.

While no one was indicted, the congressional committee concluded that some of Butler’s claims were true, and that such a plan was discussed and contemplated, but the committee questioned whether an actual coup by the group was actually an immediate threat or just some wild scheme the bankers had fanaticized about.

The Congressional committee’s final report stated, “In the last few weeks of the committee’s official life it received evidence showing that certain persons had made an attempt to establish a fascist organization in this country...There is no question that these attempts were discussed, were planned, and might have been placed in execution when and if the financial backers deemed it expedient.”307

Butler would later go on to write his famous book War is a Racket that denounced most major wars and military actions as money-making schemes hatched by corrupt politicians intertwined with the weapons industry.



Zbigniew Brzezinski

The national security adviser for President Jimmy Carter, founding member of the Trilateral Commission, and protégé of David Rockefeller, Zbigniew Brzezinski has made some startling admissions about the secret establishment. Brzezinski was in charge of covertly funding Osama Bin Laden and the Mujahedeen army in Afghanistan in the 1980s so they could fight off the Soviet Union who were trying to move into that area. This radical group of Muslims who America funded with several billion dollars, coordinated by Brzezinski, would later morph into Al Qaeda.

Back in 1970 he published a book called Between Two Ages: America’s Role in the Technetronic Era, where he wrote, “The technocratic era involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled society. Such a society would be dominated by an elite, unrestrained by traditional values...The capacity to assert social and political control over the individual will vastly increase. It will soon be possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and to maintain up-to-date, complete files, containing even most personal information about the health or personal behavior of the citizen in addition to more customary data. These files will be subject to instantaneous retrieval by the authorities.”308

In his 1997 book, The Grand Chessboard, he lamented, “…as America becomes an increasingly multicultural society, it may find it more difficult to fashion a consensus on foreign policy issues, except in the circumstances of a truly massive and widely perceived direct external threat.”309

He seems to suggest a false flag attack as a pretext to carry out his plans, saying, “The public supported America’s engagement in World War II largely because of the shock effect of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.”310



In a speech which can be seen on You Tube, he openly admitted, “I am deeply troubled that a very vague emotionally stated semi-theologically defined diagnosis of the central global menace is obscuring our national ability to comprehend the historically unprecedented challenge which is being posed in our time by a massive global political awakening and thus is obstructing our ability to deal effectively with the global political turmoil that this awakening is generating.”311

At a Council on Foreign Relations meeting in Montreal, Canada, Brzezinski again lamented to his fellow elitists that a “global political awakening,” was occurring and that the world had become more difficult to manage because it was “lacking internal unity with many of its members in bilateral antagonisms” and that “For the first time in all of human history mankind is politically awakened—that’s a total new reality—it has not been so for most of human history…[and the] “politically awakened masses makes it a much more difficult context for any major power, including, currently, the leading world power, the United States.”312



John Hylan

A former mayor of New York City made a detailed denouncement against “the interests” in 1922, in a speech that is often incorrectly attributed to President Theodore Roosevelt. John Hylan, who was major from 1918 to 1925, revealed, “The real menace of our Republic is the invisible government, which like a giant octopus sprawls its slimy legs over our cities, states and nation. To depart from mere generalizations, let me say that at the head of this octopus are the Rockefeller–Standard Oil interests and a small group of powerful banking houses generally referred to as the international bankers. The little coterie of powerful international bankers virtually run the United States government for their own selfish purposes.”313

He continued, “They practically control both parties, write political platforms, make cats paws of party leaders, use the leading men of private organizations, and resort to every device to place in nomination for high public office only such candidates as will be amenable to the dictates of corrupt big business.”314

“These international bankers and Rockefeller–Standard Oil interests control the majority of the newspapers and magazines in this country. They use the columns of these papers to club into submission or drive out of office public officials who refuse to do the bidding of the powerful corrupt cliques which compose the invisible government. It operates under cover of a self-created screen [and] seizes our executive officers, legislative bodies, schools, courts, newspapers and every agency created for the public protection.”315



Winston Churchill

One of the most well-known prime ministers of England, Winston Churchill, once made a statement warning about what he called a “world conspiracy” and even named Illuminati founder Adam Weishaupt as the perpetrator.

“From the days of ‘Sparticus’ Adam Weishaupt, Karl Marx, Trotski, Belacoon, Rosa Luxenberg and Ema Goldman, this world conspiracy has been steadily growing. This conspiracy played a definite recognizable role in the French Revolution. It has been the mainspring of every subversive movement during the 19th century. And now at last, this band of extraordinary personalities from the under-world of the great cities of Europe and America have gripped the Russian people by the hair of their head and have become the undisputed masters of that enormous empire.”316



The Rothschilds

The patriarch of the Rothschild international banking dynasty was Mayer Amschel Rothschild, whose family fortune would become the largest fortune in the history of the world in the 1760s. He is seen as the “founding father of international finance,” and Forbes magazine listed him as one of the “Twenty Most Influential Businessmen of All Time.”317 Mayer arranged marriages for his five sons so they married their first or second cousins in order to keep his massive wealth within the family. He also assigned each of his sons to different countries to each run those regions’ economy.

A quote often attributed to Mayer Rothschild, although unverified, alleges that he once stated, “Let me issue and control a nation’s money and I care not who writes the laws.” Whether he actually said this or not is uncertain, but what is certain, however, is that one of his sons, Nathan, made an almost identical statement that has been confirmed by the wellrespected historian Niall Ferguson, whose book The House of Rothschild reports that in 1815 Nathan stated, “I care not what puppet is placed upon the throne of England to rule the Empire on which the sun never sets. The man who controls the British money supply controls the British Empire, and I control the British money supply.”318

Nathan multiplied the family fortune many fold partly due to his advanced knowledge of the British victory at the Battle of Waterloo over the French in 1815, which enabled him to rake in a fortune on the London Stock Exchange. A Rothschild courier was able to get word of Duke Wellington’s victory over Napoleon’s French Army to Nathan hours before anyone else in London learned of the outcome which gave him an enormous advantage over other investors whose financial future largely hinged on the outcome of this event. Rothschild also allegedly put out the false rumor that Duke Wellington and the British had lost, thus enabling him to further capitalize on the market since he knew the opposite was true.



The Rothschild family downplays the significance of this event and the amount of money they made from it, but historians do agree that a courier did in fact reach Rothschild informing him about the outcome of the battle before anyone else.319 Sometimes people are accused of “anti-Semitism” for pointing out the Rothschild influence in the world of international banking, a claim that is often thrown at people who are critical of someone who happens to be Jewish.

Heir Nathaniel Rothschild lost a libel lawsuit he filed against London’s Daily Mail after the paper claimed he was the billionaire “puppet master” behind convincing the European Union Trade Commissioner Lord Mandelson to lift some trade barriers involving importing aluminum from Russia.320 So in a sense, by losing the libel suite, the court confirmed that he was indeed a “puppet master” pulling the strings of back-room big business and political dealings.

Many people point the finger at the Rothschild family as being one of the primary sources of the Illuminati’s finances, and the family helped fund the initial Jewish occupation of Israel and have been a major financial supporter of Zionism.



James Paul Warburg

James Paul Warburg (August 18, 1896 – June 3, 1969) was the son of Paul Warburg, the “father” of the Federal Reserve Bank, and the man who organized the secret Jekyll Island meeting to formulate their plan. The apple didn’t fall too far from the tree in this case, because his son James went on to become the financial adviser for President Roosevelt, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations—of which he was a founding member. At an appearance before the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations he once flatly stated, “We shall have world government, whether or not we like it. The question is only whether world government will be achieved by consent or by conquest.”321



Henry Kissinger

One of the most infamous political figures in American history is Henry Kissinger, a man who is seen by many as a treacherous war criminal for helping the CIA organize various covert operations designed to overthrow democratically elected leaders in several countries (Chili, and Argentina, for example) in order to install a leader who was more in tune with American foreign policy.322 Award winning journalist Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the guys who blew open the Watergate scandal, revealed that Kissinger once referred to our military men and women as “dumb, stupid animals” to be used as pawns for America’s foreign policy.323

Kissinger once remarked that power was the greatest aphrodisiac. Back in 2001 President George W. Bush chose him to be the Chairman of the 9/11 Commission to investigate the September 11th attacks, but shortly after it was revealed he was Bush’s choice outraged victims’ family members who had learned of his financial ties to the Bin Laden family forced the commission to drop him. His sole purpose as head commissioner would have been, of course, to prevent the truth about what really happened from seeing the light of day. The 9/11 attacks are seen by many as another false flag attack, or an incident that was purposefully allowed to happen in order to spark the endless War on Terror and justify the reduction of American liberties.

David Rothkopf, the managing director of Kissinger and Associates, an international advising firm founded by the infamous Henry Kissinger, wrote a very interesting book in 2009 titled Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They are Making, where he openly discussed the ruling elite and the various organizations that largely influence the political and economic landscape of the world. While not revealing any earth-shattering insider secrets, his book serves to confirm many of the allegations made against the ruling elite by so called “conspiracy theorists.”



Rothkopf wrote that, “A global elite has emerged over the past several decades that has vastly more power than any other group on the planet. Each of the members of the superclass has the ability to regularly influence the lives of millions of people in multiple countries worldwide. Each actively exercises this power, and they often amplify it through the development of relationships with others in this class.”324

He goes on to say, “That such a group exists is indisputable. Heads of state, CEOs of the world’s largest companies, media barons, billionaires who are actively involved in their investments, technology, entrepreneur, oil potentates, hedge fund managers, private equity investors, top military commanders, a select few religious leaders, a handful of renowned writers, scientists, and artists, even terrorist leaders and master criminals, meet the above criteria for membership.”325

He proposes that this ruling elite, or “superclass” as he calls them, consists of roughly 6,000 people.326 The Occupy Wall Street protesters often spoke out against what they called the “1%” who they saw as being the ruling elite, but this equates to approximately 70 million people. (1% of the earth’s 7 billion people is 70 million.) Of course Occupy’s assessment of who is the problem is wildly inaccurate. Using Rothkopf’s figure, it wouldn’t be the 1%, but more like the .0001%. In reality, it’s probably more like the .00001% which is around 700 people who are the Illuminati or their associates.

Another interesting admission is when Rothkopf says, “From behind the scenes, it was clear that these individuals influenced everything from the way currencies were priced worldwide to which political candidates would have sufficient funding for their presidential campaigns.”327

Perhaps Rothkopf started to grow a conscience after being so close to the superclass and seeing exactly what they’re doing to the planet. He even admitted that in the post-9/11 era and with the War on Terror being waged to fight al Qaeda, that much of the information coming from the

government was basically fear mongering to achieve a political goal. “While the United states was in a real struggle with Communist Russia, the assertion that Communists were everywhere and intent on undermining the United States was vastly exaggerated in much the same way that the terror threat is exaggerated today.”328

He even said the Bilderberger Group meetings reveal the “informal mechanisms of power” that shape the world329 and was well aware of the allegations made about the Bohemian Grove, writing, “Critics on the left worry about political conspiracy and global policies plotted at the Grove, while critics on the right cite stories of homosexual rituals, devil worship, and child sacrifice.”330



President Richard Nixon

In his memoirs, published in 1978, President Richard Nixon wrote, “If I were to choose the speech that gave me the most pleasure and satisfaction in my political career, it would be my Lakeside Speech at the Bohemian Grove in July 1967. Because this speech traditionally was off the record it received no publicity at the time. But in many important ways it marked the first milestone on my road to the presidency.”331

The University of California, Berkeley, located on the San Francisco Bay, has a photograph in their archives of Nixon sitting at a table with Ronald Reagan inside the Bohemian Grove during this same visit. The two were said to have sat down to “work a political deal wherein Reagan was to run only if Nixon faltered.”332

While Nixon publicly praised the Bohemian Grove to the small group of politically minded people who would read his memoirs, privately he had something quite different to say. In one of the now publicly available Watergate tapes released by the National Archives, Nixon can clearly be heard expressing disgust for the Grove when speaking in the Oval Office with his Chief of Statt H. R. Haldeman and aid John D. Ehrlichman. “The Bohemian Grove—which I attend, from time to time—it is the most faggy goddamned thing you could ever imagine, with that San Francisco crowd. I can’t shake hands with anybody from San Francisco.”333

The Bohemian Grove yearbooks show members dressed in drag and rumors of homosexual activities by members have persisted for decades.



George Washington

President George Washington acknowledged the Illuminati’s presence in America in his personal correspondence in one particular letter dated October 24th 1798, that’s been preserved at the Library of Congress. This was thirteen years after the Illuminati was discovered and eleven years after they were banned and allegedly stamped out according to “sources” like Wikipedia.

Washington acknowledged, “It was not my intention to doubt that the Doctrines of the Illuminati and principles of Jacobinism had not spread in the United States. On the contrary, no one is more truly satisfied of this fact than I am.”334

In the letter George Washington clarifies that he did not believe that Freemasonry as a whole was involved in the conspiracy, but that certain individuals within certain lodges did in fact have these aims. If you look up the letter on the Library of Congress website, it can be difficult to read his handwriting, but it is accompanied by an official transcript.

Part of the letter reads, “The idea that I meant to convey, was, that I did not believe that the Lodges of Freemasons in this country had, as Societies, endeavored to propagate the diabolical tenets of the first, or pernicious principles of the latter (if they are susceptible of separation). That individuals of them may have done it, or that the founder, or instrument employed to found, the Democratic Societies in the United States, may have had these objects; and actually had a separation of the people from their government in view, is too evident to be questioned.”

So there you have it—George Washington was concerned that the “doctrines of the Illuminati” had spread to the United States and were using

certain Masonic lodges to “separate people from their government.” In fact, it was “too evident to be questioned,” he said.



Dick Morris

One of President Bill Clinton’s former advisors, Dick Morris, made a startling admission on the Fox News Channel in 2009 when talking to Sean Hannity about the New World Order and a global currency.

Morris began: “There is a big thing that’s going to happen in London at this G-20, and they’re hiding it, they’re camouflaging it, they’re not talking about it. The coordination of international regulation. What they are going to do is to put our Fed and our SEC under the control, in effect, of the IMF.”335

Hannity: “Oh, come on. You believe they’ll do this?”

Morris: “That’s what was in the draft agenda. They call it ‘coordination of regulation.’ What it really is, is putting the American economy under international regulation. And those people who have been yelling, ‘oh the U.N. is going to take over—global government…”

Hannity: “Conspiracy theorists.”

Morris: “Conspiracy theorists…they’ve been crazy, but now…they’re right! It’s happening!”

Hannity: When Geithner said he would be open to the idea of a Global Currency last year, those conspiracy people had said and suggested that for years. You're not wrong.”

Morris: “What they always do at these conferences is they have the center show here, and the side show they don’t want you to pay attention to.

The center show is the size of the stimulus package, but the real show is international regulation of the financial institutions which is going to happen under the IMF control.

A few years earlier Morris had revealed why, despite being a personal friend of the Clintons and working as Bill’s advisor, he cut all ties with them, saying, “I finally parted company with Hillary Clinton when I saw how she was using private detectives to investigate the women who were linked to her husband to cow [intimidate] the women into silence so that he could get elected president.”336



Cass Sunstien

President Obama appointed a Harvard law professor named Cass Sunstein to head up the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs which is an executive office of the president responsible for issuing policies regarding information technology, privacy, and information regulation. Sunstien’s Orwellian philosophy of how the government should handle information technology was detailed in a white paper published in 2008 titled Conspiracy Theories, where he argued that the government should ban “conspiracy theories” or “impose some kind of tax, financial or otherwise, on those who disseminate such theories.”337

He took things further than the typical political rhetoric by actually proposing that government trolls inundate the comment sections on “conspiracy” websites, videos, and social media accounts with outlandish comments in order to derail the discussion and introduce issues into the conversation in hopes of tarnishing the image of such websites, videos, or social media pages.338 He even suggested government operatives should attend meetings and events organized by “conspiracy theorists” saying, “We suggest a distinctive tactic for breaking up the hard core of extremists who supply conspiracy theories…whereby government agents or their allies (acting either virtually or in real space, and either openly or anonymously) will undermine the crippled epistemology of believers by planting doubts about the theories and stylized facts that circulate within such groups, thereby introducing beneficial cognitive diversity.”339

Aside from going after “conspiracy theorists” (translation: prominent independent media outlets who have successfully bypassed the editorial control of the mainstream media), Sunstein also set his sights on the Second Amendment and with a straight face lied to a group of students at the University of Chicago Law School saying that “The Supreme Court has

never suggested that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to have guns.”340

Of course his claim about the Second Amendment couldn’t be further from the truth, because its sole purpose is to authorize individual citizens to have guns. In his lecture he went on to predict that in the future the Second Amendment would be repealed and the right of citizens to own guns would be eliminated.

In 2014 Sunstein published a book titled Conspiracy Theories and Other Dangerous Ideas, where he warned that conspiracy theorists were dangerous anti-government terrorists. Of course what he means by “conspiracy theorists” are people who report on the real reasons for the War in Iraq, or who think the September 11th attacks were a false flag, and anyone who sees the Bilderberg Group as suspicious.



Edward Snowden

In June of 2013, word spread like wild fire around the world that a former NSA contractor with a high level security clearance had stolen thousands of classified documents detailing the technical capabilities of the National Security Agency. 30-year-old Edward Snowden fled the country to avoid imprisonment and was giving asylum in Russia, and the cache of classified documents he obtained revealed the shocking details of how powerful Big Brother had become.

As the Illuminati have been setting up an all-powerful global government, they have also been focused on building an Orwellian society where all citizens are tracked, traced, and databased. While many people reasonably assumed such a system was being built, Snowden’s leaks provided irrefutable proof that Big Brother had been born and was more powerful than most people had ever imagined.

The Snowden leaks also proved that the NSA was not just illegally conducting mass surveillance of Americans (and virtually everyone around the world) without warrants, and clearly violating the Fourth Amendment— but they also proved the government’s protocols extended far beyond ordinary eavesdropping.

Laptop computers were routinely intercepted from UPS during shipment after being purchased from online retailers like Amazon and then fitted with special hardware, including micro cellular modems so their hard drives could be accessed even if the computers weren’t connected to WiFi or an Ethernet cable. (This operation is called INTERDICTION.)341 We also learned that the government has the ability to manipulate online polls on websites (UNDERPASS); they restrict YouTube videos from going viral or have them removed for phony “terms of service violations”

(SILVERLORD); or, if they want, make certain videos receive massive views to make it appear as if they’ve gone viral (SLIPSTREAM).342

They’ve intercepted millions of webcam feeds and scanned the people chatting over them with facial recognition systems to identify them (OPTIC NERVE);343 they collect naked and compromising photos of people so they can be blackmailed or publicly humiliated by releasing them (LOVEINT);344 and they even have the ability to record and store every single phone call in the entire world. Not just the record of who called who and when, but the actual audio of all calls (MYSTIC).345 They can also spoof anyone’s email address and send emails under any identity (CHANGELING), not to mention spoof any phone number. This is just a sample of their capabilities, and of course this is all done under the umbrella of “National Security.”

This technology allows the government to have “turn key tyranny” power and with the flip of a switch they can target anyone, anywhere in the world. Not only can they physically locate you and bug you through cell phones or webcams in the area, but the NSA operatives can find out everything about a target, from your most intimate communications sent though text messages or emails, to obtaining personal photos, to uncovering health problems, shopping habits, eating habits, political views, friends, family, acquaintances, personal finances, gun ownership, etc., etc.

This power is so incredible that no man can resist abusing it, and in the final phase of the New World Order, the Illuminati and their inner circle of government agents will come down on dissenters with a digital iron fist and make them disappear down the memory hole like something right out of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Orwell ominously wrote, “The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plate commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you

were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. but at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You have to live —did live, from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.”346

Checkout my previous book Big Brother: The Orwellian Nightmare Come True if you’d like to read my analysis of Orwell’s novel and how it eerily parallels our world today. Orwell didn’t just accurately forecast the invasive Big Brother surveillance system, but also ominously warned about our current dumbed down and heartless society; endless wars perpetuated to justify reducing civil liberties; and the erosion of the language and the breakdown of families and relationships in order to shift people’s obedience and reliance to the State.







“Ex-Illuminati Members”

Similar to government whistleblowers or career criminals turned into informants who reveal the closely kept secrets of their organization, a handful of people have come forward over the years claiming to have been involved with the Illuminati in one way or another, and offer up what they claim to be insider information about the activities and goals of the network. Most of these people are complete frauds and are simply con artists trying to sell books and lectures, or just enjoying the attention from the conspiracy community since many people believe their stories—hook, line, and sinker.

In my previous book, The Illuminati: Facts & Fiction, there is a detailed analysis of John Todd and William Schnoebelen, who are two of the most popular men who have made such claims, but there are also others whose stories have spread far and wide on the Internet like urban legends, so in this book we’ll take a close look and determine whether or not there is any legitimacy to them.

So far none of the alleged “defectors” have offered up any kind of evidence to back up their claims, but instead have only told tales based on the publicly known information about the history, beliefs, and activities of the Illuminati. None of the “former members” have ever revealed any new information that wasn’t already published in literature widely available in the conspiracy culture. But if you read through some of the comments on any of the YouTube videos featuring their claims, you will see that a very sizable percentage of the audience wholeheartedly believes these individuals and see them as heroic whistle blowers who “escaped” their dark past and are now on a mission to “expose” the Illuminati.

For an astute student dedicated to the truth and who doesn’t approach these people’s stories with confirmation bias—and if one has diligently done their own research—the inaccuracies and fabrications stick out like

sore thumbs. For those who are new to investigating the Illuminati, or to those who are quite gullible, these “former Illuminati members” only serve to confirm their greatest fears. Most of these “defectors” are simply gifted storytellers presenting publicly known information from a first-person perspective as if they themselves actually witnessed it or participated in it. Some of these people are perhaps mentally ill and may actually believe what they are saying, but the evidence proves one after the other to be fake.

Let’s take a close look at some of these individuals’ stories so we can prevent them and future hoaxers from deceiving people who are trying to find answers and accurate information regarding the Illuminati and the New World Order.



Doc Marquis

Joseph “Doc” Marquis (born on October 26th 1956) is allegedly a former U.S. Army medic which is how he says he got his nickname “Doc,” and is one of several self-proclaimed “former Illuminati members” who says he was born into an Illuminati family but now is dedicated to “exposing” them.

“Doc,” who claims to have been raised as a seventh generation witch, says when he was three-years-old his family brought him to a special ceremony and dedicated him to Lucifer in a satanic baptism.347 For the next ten years, he says, he was in the “outer court” of the Illuminati which he described as a satanic seminary school where he supposedly learned about the philosophies and secret symbols, and what he claims are the “eight nights of human sacrifice” that Illuminati members allegedly celebrate.

According to his story, when he was thirteen-years-old he was “fully initiated as a member of the Illuminati”348 after signing his name in his own blood in a book made of lamb skin which he called the Book of the Dead, which just so happens to be the name of an ancient Egyptian scroll containing information on how to navigate through the afterlife in order to enter into Heaven.

Four years later, when he was seventeen, “Doc” says he underwent another initiation ceremony and became what he called a Master Witch, or a High Druid Priest, which granted him “automatic authority over a region of the United States” where he was in charge of over 1000 other Illuminati members.349 This, all before he even graduated high school! His superiors, he says, then ordered him to join the United States Army in order to help the Illuminati infiltrate the armed forces. Within two weeks of being stationed at Fort Lewis in Washington he says he had twenty people recruited for the Illuminati, and just a couple months later says he had more

than a hundred more!350 In reality, the actual Illuminati most likely consists of no more than a few hundred men, but when “Doc” Marquis was just seventeen-years-old, he says he was “in charge” of over 1000 of them!

During an online lecture produced by Prophecy Club, he says he practiced human sacrifices eight times a year and had “constant communication with Demons.”351 Marquis claims to have personally witnessed dozens of human sacrifices before he “got out,” but no law enforcement agency has ever expressed any interest in him and have never considered him to be a suspect or a witness to any murders whatsoever. Trash television, on the other hand, gave him a platform to spread his nonsense in the late 1980s. He was once a guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show where he was talking about all these supposed murders and said, “The thing is, we didn’t body bag these people afterwards. We’d just take them [and], throw them in the woods, on the side of the road on a highway. Somebody’s going to find them.”352 Of course, no one ever has because these “victims” don’t exist.

The “eight nights of human sacrifice” that Marquis claims to have celebrated was concocted from the eight festivals that Pagans celebrate (or Sabbats as Wiccans call them) which are commemorated throughout the year on solstices, equinoxes, and the four mid-points in between—none of which involve human sacrifices. I’m certainly not saying that Satanists don’t commit human sacrifices still to this day, because such occurrences have been well documented,353 but the closest Marquis has come to one was watching a horror movie.

Local authorities would have taken him into custody for questioning if there was even a shred of evidence to back up his claims and no one involved with such crimes would dare speak about them out of fear of being arrested. Obviously in the 1980s, before the Internet, the average person could not easily confirm or disprove most claims made about the Illuminati and the occult, and very few people knew much about the subject at all. This is what led to the “satanic panic” in the 1980s when stories like Marquis’ were spread through tabloids and trash TV talk shows causing

people who didn’t know any better to think Satanists were abusing children and sacrificing people in communities across the country.

“Doc” says that in between committing his evil deeds, he was repeatedly asked by Christians if he wanted to go to church or if he knew Jesus, and for whatever reason—despite being a “high level Illuminati master,” he decided to go to church on Easter Sunday in 1979, where he realized he was a “sold out slave of Satan,” became a Christian, and “left the Illuminati.”354

In one of his video lectures titled Arrival of the Antichrist he can be seen giving the usual history lesson about Adam Weishaupt and the formation of the Bavarian Illuminati, their structure and goals, and shows the all-seeing eye on the back of the one dollar bill while telling the audience to pull out their wallets to look at the dollar themselves as if this was some major revelation.355 The eye on the back of the one dollar bill has become so elementary and Illuminati 101 that most middle school students are now aware of it, but back in the 1980s and 90s when Marquis began giving his lectures, things were quite different.

After his discussion on the one dollar bill symbology, he goes on to cover the well-known quotes from Pike’s book, Morals and Dogma, and then shows the interesting designs in the street layout of Washington D.C. and then complains about the government, the dumbing down of America, the Constitution, the demonization of Christians, etc., etc… Of course he concludes that the Illuminati is going to declare martial law and is setting up a New World Order for the reception of the antichrist.

When conducting my research into the Illuminati and coming across Doc Marquis’ claims of being a former Illuminati member, I painfully listened to his lectures online, which, like nearly every other selfproclaimed “former Illuminati member” didn’t reveal a single shred of information that wasn’t already widely known. Not only that, but many of his claims are clearly ridiculous to anyone who has basic knowledge about the Illuminati conspiracy.



For example, he says that they place a $10,000 bounty on anyone’s head who tries to leave.356 After he “left the Illuminati” he says they tried and failed to kill him at least six times!357 The Illuminati can assassinate world leaders and other heads of state, but they’ve failed over twenty times to kill this guy? Absurd.

Of course there are no police reports or news stories about any of these alleged murder attempts against him and since the Illuminati is the most powerful secret society in the world, they would have no problem killing anyone, especially no-name loser like “Doc” Marquis.

He sells a DVD called Frontmen of the Illuminati which consists of nothing more than a poorly produced home video of him sitting at a table showing different photos of symbols and people while talking about the Illuminati. The information on a website selling his DVDs reads, “Doc Marquis is a former Satanist who was trained in the Illuminati Plan before he came out of the coven to become a Christian. In 1992, Doc was hired by the Boston Police Department to train their homicide detectives how to spot evidence in a crime scene that the perpetrator was a practicing occultist. Doc also has appeared on the following TV shows: Oprah Winfrey; Geraldo Rivera; Hard Copy; and Inside Edition. He is the author of numerous books, video tapes and audio cassette series and has appeared as an expert witness in a number of documentaries.”

His claim of having worked with the Boston Police department has not been verified and to think that this man would be hired to “train” homicide detectives is laughable, particularly after having claimed to have murdered a bunch of people in satanic rituals! I guess the police just decided to forgive him of all those supposed murders!

Marquis has also claimed to have degrees in sociology, and history, and once claimed he would soon be getting his doctorate in psychiatry from Baptist Christian University in Shreveport, Louisiana, but it was later revealed he wasn’t even attending the school. He then said the school would

be accepting a book he was writing on the occult as his doctoral dissertation!

Marquis wrote several books (as does every supposed “Illuminati defector”) hoping to make a few bucks off the conspiracy community. Marquis and other “Christians” who claim to be “former Illuminati” members like Bill Schnoebelen and John Todd—while being complete phonies—may, in their own mind, actually believe that they are helping people learn about the Illuminati conspiracy. There is, after all, a massive conspiracy, and these individuals do actually expose some of it, but their fabricated pasts and long lists of lies about being personally involved with the Illuminati—when they clearly don’t even have some of their basic facts straight—shows that men like Doc Marquis are not only frauds, but quite pathetic and shameful as well.



Leo Zagami

Another man claiming to be an Illuminati defector who went on to give interviews and lectures about the nefarious plans he learned while supposedly “inside” the secret society is Leo Zagami (born in Rome on March 5th 1970). While other alleged defectors claim to have become born again Christians after “leaving the Illuminati” and say that Jesus helped them realize they were on the wrong path and found support from Christian audiences, Leo Zagami instead has taken the New Age angle. He insists the Illuminati hold “the truth” but are a corrupt group of enlightened ones who have hijacked the Mystery School teachings so he decided to leave the Illuminati in order to preach their secret philosophy to the masses.

To help spread the “enlightening truth” kept suppressed by the Illuminati, Leo Zagami claims to have started a new “religion” called Matrixism that’s based on the popular Matrix movies! He says he started this new “religion” in 2004 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the “deliverance” of Aleister Crowley’s Book of the Law, the short blood thirsty book Crowley claimed was dictated to him by a demon while he was visiting Egypt in 1904. Yes, Zagami is a fan of dirt bag Aleister Crowley, whose philosophies he considers “the truth.”

His website described his new “religion” as, literally having been inspired by the Matrix movies, but insists it was “conceived by an anonymous group in the summer of 2004 [and] has attracted over 16,000 adherents.”358

The explanation goes on to say, “The Matrix trilogy, along with related mass media products such as video games, is generally considered to be the ‘sacred text’ of the movement.”359 He literally says The Matrix movies and video games are “sacred texts” of his “religion.” He also says the “faith” can be traced back to a book called The Promulgation of Universal Peace,

published in 1922 that consist of a series of speeches given by Abdu’lBaha, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith. All of this information, he says, comes from his knowledge of being an “Illuminati Grand Master” himself.

Zagami’s website claims that he is, “a high-ranking Illuminati Grand Master, who gained considerable attention in the conspiracy research community between 2006 and 2008 as a defector and whistle-blower.”360 He once went by the name Khaled Saifullah Khan after having supposedly converted to Islam, but later changed his name back to Leo. He claims that his goal is to now organize “the Knights Templars of the Apocalypse” to fight the Illuminati, and says this “group” has recruited 12,000 troops from the U.S. Military, CIA, FBI, etc., who are going to stop the “Dark Illuminati plans.”361

In Leo’s mind, the main enemies of humanity are: The Jesuits, which he calls “the head of the serpent”; Zionists, who he says are “the economic arms of the Vatican New World Order”; the United Nations which is “a corrupt organization in the hands of the Jesuits and their Zionist allies dedicated to enslave mankind”; and “all religious fundamentalist because organized religion in all shapes and forms is a legal mafia manipulated by the Vatican and Jerusalem in the hands of corrupt individuals who work for the elite families and their intelligence services to keep our race in ignorance and superstition in the end of times.”

Despite Leo’s strange and rambling history and his new “religion” that he created based on The Matrix movies, and his claiming to still be involved with the “good” Illuminati and the “Knights Templars of the Apocalypse” and other undercover “Illuminati Resistance” members in the CIA, FBI, military, and police; and despite revealing no new information about the workings of the Illuminati—some completely gullible fools actually believe that he actually was, or still is involved with the secret society.

Leo Zigami’s claims never gained anywhere close to the traction of other supposed “defectors” before him such as John Todd or Bill Schnoebelen, because he’s not a gifted storyteller like some other hoaxers.

And we were well into the information age by the time Leo decided to step on the scene (in 2006), whereas John Todd started his talks in the 1970s, and Bill Schnoebelen in the early 1990s before the Internet was fully utilized by most people who can now quickly fact check claims online. Even with this resource at people’s fingertips, however, a shocking number of people still believe the stories from “ex-members” like “Doc” Marquis, Leo Zagami, John Todd, and others.

Many people enjoy conspiracy entertainment or conspiratainment as I call it, and have little to no concern about actual facts or the truth. They simply love the sometimes cleverly concocted tales by people who are inspired by actual events or conspiracies and then manufacture a sometimes entertaining conspiracy mythology based on grains of truth. It’s sort of like a good science fiction story that’s based in part on actual technology and then extrapolates into a fantasy designed to entertain the audience.



Supriem Rockefeller

A man calling himself “Supriem Rockefeller” and claiming to be a member of the famous Rockefeller family created a bit of a stir on the Internet in 2010 after announcing that the Rockefellers were launching a plan to fund the building of the Third Temple in Jerusalem, in what was called the “Temple Now Project.” The Third Temple refers to the rebuilding (again) of Solomon’s Temple in Israel, which was originally destroyed in 586 BC by the Babylonians, and later rebuilt only to be destroyed again by the Romans in 70 AD. Christians believe that when the temple is rebuilt for the third time, it will signify the fulfillment of one of the final prophecies concerning the rise of the Antichrist and the return of Jesus.

Currently, a Muslim mosque called the Dome of the Rock stands on the ruins of the temple, and the only way Solomon’s Temple can be rebuilt on that spot is if Israel destroys the mosque and occupies that part of the land. This is why the “Rockefeller” announcement of supposed plans to build the Third Temple caught so many people’s attention.

A few official sounding websites published a press release about the “Supriem Rockefeller” plan without attempting to verify his identity or the supposed plan’s legitimacy. With sites like CNNMoney.com and MarketWatch having the press released posted, that was all the evidence many conspiracy blogs needed to run with the story that one of the final Biblical prophecies was about to be fulfilled thanks to the Rockefellers.362

None of this was true, however, and “Supriem Rockefeller” didn’t exist. The man behind the hoax was identified as a high school dropout named Kris from Louisiana, who was born in 1975. While living with his mother he worked as a cashier at a fast food restaurant and tried to make money by gambling and selling ringtones on various websites.



After he was fired from his job for allegedly stealing, the thirty-fouryear-old then started going by “Supriem Rockefeller” online and saying he was the secret son of David Rockefeller Jr. “Supriem” posted online about how he was authorized to finalize the New World Order and “revealed” that the Rockefeller family had descended from the Annunaki, the supposed ancient race of aliens, who are believed by some to be responsible for the creation of humans.

It appears his “Temple Now Project” hoax was an attempt to receive donations from people who wanted to support the plan, hoping to fulfill Bible prophecy. One press release claimed he would be “raising funds to go towards building the Third Temple in Jerusalem in strict coordinance with The Temple Institute, Rabbi Hiam Richman and The Palestinian National Interest Committee (PNIC),” and his mission was to “build the Temple and to create a One Israel-Palestine state.”

What made this hoax believable for some, aside from the Christian prophecy of the Third Temple, was the very real Jewish plan to one day accomplish this very task. Ever since 1987 a non-profit Jewish group called the Temple Institute has been working to do just this. In fact, in 2008 they announced they had the High Priest’s garments already made along with dozens of other items they plan on using in “sacred rituals” once it is rebuilt. Of course the Temple Institute had nothing to do with “Supreium Rockefeller,” but he cleverly included their name in his press release to add an aura of credibility to his claims, since they are a real group working to accomplish this very goal.

This hoax didn’t last too long and his Facebook page was soon deleted, but many Jews and Christians continue to await the actual rebuilding of the Temple, an event that will be seen by Christians as one of the Bible’s final prophecies being fulfilled because in this Temple it is believed the Antichrist will announce himself to be “God” and order the people of earth to worship him as such.



In the 1970s, 80s and 90s, Illuminati phonies were able to pull off their scams with a remarkable amount of success, and while the Internet can put an end to most of these scams rather quickly today, countless people are simply lost in the sea of information available on the web and continue to spread Illuminati hoaxes far and wide, believing every word. These are the same kinds of people who believe that every time a famous celebrity dies from a drug overdose, car accident, or health problem—they think they were actually “murdered” by the Illuminati or faked their own death. If you search YouTube for keywords like “Paul Walker Illuminati Sacrifice,” “Michael Jackson Murdered by Illuminati,” or “Tupac killed by Illuminati,” you will find literally hundreds of videos with millions of views and countless comments from people who are 100% convinced the Illuminati is behind every celebrity death.

The “Supriem Rockefeller” Third Temple hoax is not the first time that someone has posed as a member of the famous Rockefeller family. A man who called himself Clark Rockefeller (real name Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter) was sentenced to 27 years in prison for murdering his landlord’s son which put an immediate end to his elaborate scam.363 Gerhartsreiter even fooled his own wife into thinking he was a Rockefeller for years by taking extreme measures to hide his real identity. To accomplish this he had his wife file her income taxes as an individual instead of jointly as most married couples do, so his real name wouldn’t have to be on the couple’s tax returns, which she most likely would have noticed.364 He even forged their marriage license to avoid having her see his actual name.365

Another man calling himself Christian Rockefeller (real name Christopher Rocancourt) actually swindled tens of millions of dollars from rich people in New York in the 1990s through fake investment scams after they thought he could increase their wealth because they believed he was a Rockefeller.366



Svali

The list of people who have come forward claiming to be former members of the Illuminati are mainly men, but in 2006 a woman calling herself “Svali” popped up on the Internet claiming to come from an Illuminati family in Germany who then relocated to America when she was very young. “Svali” said when she was a kid she was told that she was “special” and that the Illuminati had big plans for her. At 12-years-old she underwent her “initiation” at the Vatican, as she claimed all the leadership in the Illuminati do, and by the time she was twenty-two, she was the youngest person in the “Illuminati leadership council” in Southern California.

“Svali” said that secret Illuminati meetings were held three times a week in Escondido, California, which is a lower income area inland where no wealthy or powerful members of the Illuminati would ever go, let alone choose to live. I have personally lived near this area for over 15 years and have friends who have lived in Escondido and I’ve seen the city with my own eyes many times. It’s primarily a Mexican ghetto and would be the last place in the world the Illuminati would ever think about going.

The security for these “Illuminati” meetings, she said, was a “spy” who had climbed up into a tree with a walkie talkie to spot unwanted visitors and would then radio ahead to the group so they could “leave within five minutes.” I guess the group would just run off into the woods if the person in the tree saw anyone unexpected rolling up to the house! You’d think the Illuminati’s security detail would be a bit more sophisticated than someone climbing into a tree with a walkie talkie! Her claims get dumber by the second the more she tells her story.

The source of the information coming from Svali appears to lead back to a man named Greg Szymanski who wrote (or may continue to write) for

a little known website called ArcticBacon.com, one of countless amateur websites that contains posts about the Illuminati, the Jesuits, and other conspiracy issues. “Svali” allegedly reached out and contacted him with her claims, so he then interviewed her in January of 2006 on his virtually unknown Internet radio show. Audio of the interview can found on YouTube if you can force yourself to listen to more than 30 seconds of her incoherent rambling.

In the interview she said her adult co-conspirators would, “get up in the middle of the night to attend meetings,” and while the adults were doing their thing, the kids were “learning how to march and shoot guns and were being trained in martial arts.” She claims her initiation at the Vatican included a child sacrifice and throughout the interview she was very scatterbrained and had a hard time explaining her story, which isn’t even remotely convincing. Greg the interviewer ate it up though, and seemed to believe every word she was saying, as did a measurable number of people on the Internet who happened to come across her story.

When she was allegedly hanging out with the Illuminati, she claimed to be a “head programmer” involved in mind control programs but never offered up any details about what her supposed responsibilities were and couldn’t even articulate the basic concepts or history of mind control.

Svali isn’t even a clever hoaxer like some others before her, and appears to be a mentally deranged person just looking for someone to pay attention to her. It’s also possible that Greg Szymanski, the man who first interviewed her, actually crafted the Svali hoax himself by working with a female friend to concoct the entire story so he could be the person to have the “exclusive” interview and forever be linked to her as the person who first “broke her story.”

His website is just one of countless virtually unknown sites in the sea of conspiracy theories online so it makes no sense why a “former Illuminati member” would reach out to him since there are a large number of fairly prominent conspiracy websites that cover such topics. She did try selling an

e-book titled Breaking the Chain: Breaking Free of Cult Programming, but it’s not even listed in any of the major e-book stores and seems like a failed attempt to try to make a few bucks by selling a PDF file from a website.

I can attest to the fact that I have received multiple e-mails from different people making extremely bizarre claims such as being stalked or harassed by cults and the rambling and incoherent nature of their emails clearly show that they are from mentally disturbed and insane people sounding very much like this woman.

Actual Illuminati members are educated, intelligent, and well-spoken people. They are very persuasive and convincing—none of which can be attributed to Svali, whose stories are so convoluted they’re hard to follow as she jumps from thought to thought. How did she eventually “escape” the clutches of the Illuminati? Well, she said she left the organization because she started to realize, “what I was doing was wrong.” Now that she is a “former member” she is a born again Christian and has repented of the activities she claims to have participated in. Today, the woman says she’s a “diabetic educator” living in Texas with her husband and two children.

The bio on the website of the man responsible for conducting the interview reads, “Greg is first and foremost a satirist, a writer and a reporter,” so he was likely just playing a role and trying to have fun with conspiracy theories by producing a new Internet urban legend of conspiracy theory fiction about the “woman who left the Illuminati.”



Brice Taylor

A woman calling herself Brice Taylor (a pseudonym) published a book in 1999 titled Thanks For The Memories: The Truth Has Set Me Free! The Memoirs of Bob Hope’s and Henry Kissinger’s Mind-Controlled Slave where she details what she says is her account of being a CIA mind control victim who was used as a sex slave by the Illuminati.

David Icke, a popular conspiracy writer best known for his theories that the Illuminati are an alien race of shape-shifting reptilians, is listed as an endorsement on Amazon.com’s listing of the book, as well as Ted Gunderson, a former FBI Agent from Los Angeles who said, the book “confirms facts furnished by many other witnesses.”

With endorsements by such heavy hitters in the conspiracy world as David Icke and Ted Gunderson, many people are inclined to believe her claims, but upon even a brief analysis of the book, the woman’s story quickly goes from being hard to believe, to being completely ludicrous and impossible by any stretch of the imagination.

The first wobbly leg of this story comes when we learn Brice Taylor is just a pseudonym and the authors’ real name is Susan Lynne Eckhart Ford who admits that from a young age she suffered from multiple personality disorder. “But as I began to heal and remember more of my hidden past, I realized that ritual abuse was merely the mind control trauma base my ritually abused, programmed pedophile father, Calvin Charles Eckhart, and others used to condition me for participation in the still active top secret Project Monarch, the Central Intelligence Agency’s white slavery operation that is related to MKULTRA and its numerous sub-projects,” she writes.367



“The result of many years of trauma, intentionally inflicted on me by my father and others to create within me multiple personalities, was that I was transformed into a programmed, totally robotical slave that could not remember to think or tell what happened to me, due to the mind control and sophisticated programming I was under. I was used frequently in child and adolescent prostitution and pornography. By my pre-teen years, I had many personalities specifically programmed to be the perfect sex slave—a ‘presidential mode’ with government mind files and a photographic memory equipped to deliver (most often through sexual encounters) messages, some cryptic, to top government officials, entertainers, and other world figures.”368

She writes that when her memories started coming back to her at the age of thirty-five she, “began having vivid, detailed memories of being used both as a sex slave and human mind file computer to some of our nation’s highest level government officials in and out of the White House.”369 She then goes on to list Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Jimmy Carter, as well as Henry Kissinger, Nelson Rockefeller, Bob Hope (the popular entertainer), and many others as men she says all abused her.

Taylor says that while meditating she began to remember things all the way back to when she was four months old! (Not four years old, four months old.) She says her father worked as a welder who owned a welding shop in Los Angeles, but was somehow also secretly working for the CIA as a mind control programmer. “My father began the rigorous training and intentional torture required to shatter my base personality with the goal of creating many separate individual personalities for training and use by others as I grew older.”370

Her mom too, she says, was under mind control and “was listening to music she was told to listen to in order to keep her memory of our actual life locked deeply within her subconscious mind, while the programmed reality of herself and our ‘perfect happy family’ was kept alive through programmed phrases in the music.”371



Most of the book consists of lengthy and rambling tales of alleged abuse by such a long list of people, both famous, and ordinary people in her community, that it reads like a parody of a poorly written horror story. The people involved in the conspiracy include her ballet teacher, her doctor, her dentist, her choir teacher, her next door neighbor, the people at her local church (who she says all had tunnels under their homes connecting them to each other and also leading to the church); the owners of the local bowling alley were also in on it, and of course the Freemason Shriners, and even the owners of a local gas station! They were all sacrificing children and shooting snuff films or involved with the “CIA’s mind control program” she says.372

The list of her alleged abusers and human-sacrificing CIA Satanists she was involved with just goes on and on. Prince Philip, Prince Charles, and even Sylvester Stallone are on her seemingly endless list of abusers. Sylvester Stallone, she claims, directed several bestiality films where she says she had sex with dolphins and other sea creatures! Other celebrities such as Jane Fonda and Barbara Streisand were also under mind control she says, and Elton John was aware of such things and tried to help the victims with the lyrics in his music.

Aside from listing half the people in her community as being “in on it,” and a dozen presidents and celebrities, she also names some very odd places where she says everyone sexually abused her or “programmed” her with mind control. One of these supposed places was Disneyland where she says her father introduced her to Walt Disney himself when she was fiveyears-old, who then made her look into a View-Master box containing dead cats and dead people.

“Brice Taylor” said she would also meet Henry Kissinger there at Disneyland where he would “program” her using CIA mind control techniques. One of these “programming sessions,” she said, needed to be done in front of a carrousel for some unknown reason. “I also continued to be taken to Disneyland for base programming for my new government mind

file system,” she wrote.373 Who would have thought the CIA was using Disneyland as a secret mind control center? Like I said, her book reads like a bad parody of a horror story written by a teenager.

She goes on to claim she was also taken to various McDonald’s around the country and “programmed there too.” And of course she says she was also taken inside the National Archives, the State Department, NASA, the Pentagon, the Federal Reserve, the World Health Organization, and other military bases around the country—and insists she was “programmed” at every one. Why her handlers would need to take her to the Federal Reserve Bank to “program” her using mind control techniques isn’t said, and these claims are clearly ridiculous and the result of another over-active imagination of a clearly insane person, or by a horrible storyteller fabricating such tales hoping to sell a ton of books to the conspiracy community.

She wrote that she was even told that in a few years she would be killed and her services wouldn’t be needed any longer. Why would her handlers inform her that they would kill her at some point in the future? Wouldn’t they keep this to themselves and lead her on? After all, if she knew she was going to be killed soon, wouldn’t this give her even more reason to betray them and escape before this happened? The more of Brice Taylor’s story you read, the more absurd it gets, well beyond the point of nonsense.

The book is self-published because I’m sure that not even a small fringe conspiracy publisher would invest their money in such a worthless piece of garbage filled with fictional delusions. Near the end of the book , as expected, she starts talking about the elite’s plan for a New World Order. Then there is a “suggested reading” list which includes the staple books of New World Order and Illuminati literature such as None Dare Call it Conspiracy by Gary Allen (published in 1972), Tragedy and Hope by Carroll Quigley (published in 1966), as well as books by conspiracy authors like David Icke, Texe Marrs, Fritz Springmeier, and other titles about mind control, the CIA, and brainwashing.



The question remains…why would this woman make up all these horrific things that she says happened to her? What would compel a woman to write such a book? I speculate that the only truthful part of the book is that perhaps she was sexually abused as a child, but not by any of the political figures or celebrities she mentioned, but at the hands of a relative or perhaps even her own father. She may feel justified and achieve some degree of healing by venting her anger and betrayal in a fictionalized book where she has projected that the perpetrators of her abuse are men in high positions of power within society. It’s also likely that she wrote the book purely as “conspiracy fiction” hoping to pass it off as factual to the often gullible conspiracy community.

The reason some people believe her claims is because there are grains of truth (albeit tiny miniscule grains) since the CIA did do horrific mind control experiments in their MK Ultra program, and they did drug, hypnotize, and torture people in those experiments trying to create mind controlled slaves. In 1994 the US government awarded 77 people $100,000 each in financial compensation for experimenting on them,374 but Brice Taylor (whose real name is possibly Sue Ford) never even went to court over her allegations and was not one of the recipients.

A few years before Brice Taylor’s book was published, another woman named Cathy O’Brien released a book titled The Transformation of America where she had claimed to be a test subject for the CIA’s MK Ultra program, and a “sex slave” of the Illuminati’s top politicians. O’Brien even claims to have been taken inside Bohemian Grove. It’s most likely Brice Taylor was inspired by Cathy O’Brien’s book and hoped she could cash in by making similar claims. While Brice Taylor is clearly a fraud, Cathy O’Brien’s claims are a bit more believable (but also possibly fabricated), and are analyzed in detail in my previous book The Illuminati: Facts & Fiction if you are interested in reading about them.



“Jess LaVey”

A man calling himself “Jess LaVey” saying he was the son of Anton LaVey, the infamous founder of the Church of Satan and the author of The Satanic Bible, threw his hat into the conspiracy entertainment ring around the year 2000 and got himself a small amount of attention on a few Internet radio shows who eagerly took the bait and gave him a platform to spread his nonsense.

“Jess LaVey” not only claimed to have been the son of Anton LaVey (whose real name was Howard Levey by the way), but also said he climbed the ranks of Satanism all the way up to the Illuminati. In one interview “Jess” claims, “I never could forget the counsel of thirteen, they were very wicked looking men. When I reached the age of twelve, my father told me I had to go before them…They warned me of what could happen to me if I did not do as they suggested. George H.W. Bush Senior was one of these men. I stood before them and told them I was not going to follow their ways and I was not going to take my dad’s place, and that there was nothing they could do to me….I told them I believe in a higher power and that higher power said in His Word that no harm can come to me.”375

After he refused this “invitation” to the Illuminati, he says they castrated him as his punishment. He also talked about the KimballCherokee Castle in Sedalia, Colorado, a 1450s style castle built in the 1950s on a 3,100-acre ranch in Colorado where, he claimed the Illuminati meet every year to do human sacrifices. “Satanists come together and do unspeakable things…To think that Bush and his whole family is a part of this kind of thing is hard for some people to believe. The whole Bush family is Satanists…I have met Bush Jr. once when he came to a ritual at the castle once with his father….He is a very cold man for Satan. Like a lethal weapon.”376



Other “insider” satanic “leaders” have come forward over the years, mainly in the 1980s and 90s such as Mike Warnke and Stephen Dollins, trying to use their supposed “satanic credentials” to boost their new career as Christian evangelists, but most were never involved in any organized cults or groups and wildly exaggerated the supposed activities they claimed to have participated in.377

In 2002 John W. Morehead of the Watchman Fellowship, a group that monitors the activities of cults, was given a copy of what “Jess LaVey” claimed to be his social security card which was clearly fake and when the number was run for a background check it was proven to be invalid.

“Sadly, many have claimed to be LaVey’s child in order to gain financial support from churches and to give credibility to their ministries allegedly addressing Satanism and the occult,” Morehead told Charisma Magazine in 2002.378

Anton LeVay, Aleister Crowley, Helena Blavatsky, Manly P. Hall, and other real occult insiders have revealed plenty of details to see exactly what is going on in various Satanic groups and secret societies, but conspiracy con men seem to keep coming up with the idea that they can make some money by claiming to have been an “insider” who is offering a “first-hand account” of what they have allegedly seen and done.

The interviews “Jess LaVey” did can be found on YouTube and after listening to one for about five seconds, any sane adult should obviously be able to tell he is making up his story pretty much as he goes along and doesn’t even have the faintest hint of legitimacy. Anton LaVey (again whose real name was Howard Levey) had two daughters and only one son; a boy named Satan Xerxes who was born in 1993.



George Green

A supposed former investment banker named George Green claims to have once sat in on secret Illuminati meetings where men were making “god-like decisions as to who lives and who dies” and contemplated “dropping neutron bombs” on major American cities to reduce the population in accordance with the Georgia Guidestones. “I actually sat in on the meetings. I was in the game big time. In fact, I was making such a mess, they decided rather than kill me, which they could, they invited me in to the inner group and asked me to be the finance chairman, and at that point, I probably would have been secretary of the treasury or whatever they wanted to do with me.”379 The financial chairman of the Illuminati, huh? This I gotta hear about!

In his interview, which can be seen on YouTube, Green talks about the World War Three looming in the Middle East, a coming one world currency, FEMA concentration camps, the coming economic collapse of America, the planned extermination of the majority of the world’s population to save the earth’s natural resources for the elite, and rattles off a list of well-known plans of the Illuminati. Green doesn’t reveal an ounce of new information whatsoever and like many others, just talks about the same old widely available claims while presenting them from the perspective of a supposed insider who says he literally sat in on the meetings. Of course he too is trying to sell a book titled Chaos in America, which never gained much traction.

If George Green actually did attend any of the Illuminati meetings, he would be able to at least reveal some previously unknown details about their plans, but instead he just recycles the same old material that has been floating around the Internet and patriot circles for many years. An interesting phenomenon in the information age is that if you claim to have

some kind of Illuminati “scoop” and throw the video online, people are going to find it and people will believe it.

Aside from the typical Illuminati talking points about the Georgia Guidestones, FEMA camps and the collapse of America, George Green goes straight into crazy town and says the Illuminati have been making “synthetic people.” He’s not talking about secret cloning programs, which most likely exist—he claims that most presidents have been “replaced” by these synthetic clones! That’s right. He says our major world leaders are all grown in an Illuminati lab and are just pretending to be real people.

To “prove” this is happening he points to the movie Boys from Brazil, a 1978 film about Nazi scientists creating clones of Hitler to rebuild the Third Reich. This cloning technology, he says, was given to us by the “greys” (aliens), and he says he knows this because while working in the Air Force he claimed to have “top secret” clearance which gave him access to some dead Nordic-type aliens called the Pleiadians who came to earth from the Pleiades star cluster.

While aliens may actually be directing the Illuminati, and top secret human cloning programs most likely do exist, George Green’s presentation is so poorly executed and unconvincing, it reeks of a hoax from the very moment he opens his mouth. And again, he hasn’t provided a single piece of new “evidence” that wasn’t already widely known by most conspiracy researchers.

Not to mention nobody has been able to verify any part of his supposed background as an “investment banker” or having any kind of “top secret” security clearance in the military. But then again, we’re living in a world where countless people believe Tupac faked his death which just goes to show that some people will believe just about anything, no matter how crazy it is, despite zero evidence, and defying all logic and common sense.



Kevin Trudeau

Kevin Trudeau is a man that almost everyone in America has seen on TV (whether they know his name or not) over the course of twenty years pitching various products on infomercials such as health supplements, antiaging cream, and methods to get “free money.” He is an extraordinary salesman who could sell ice to Eskimos, as the cliché goes, and has been labeled the “infomercial king” due to the massive hours of airtime and the large number of different products he has pitched over the years.380

As a follow up to his bestselling book Natural Cures ‘They’ Don’t Want You to Know About (2005), he published More Natural ‘Cures’ Revealed (2006) where he claimed to have been a member of a powerful secret society, hinting it was the Illuminati—and through his supposed membership in this society, he learned how the world really worked, including how drug companies were suppressing natural cures for diseases in order to allow them to sell more drugs instead of helping people to be cured.

Trudeau alleges that because of his drive for wealth and his knowledge of the human mind, he was approached by members of “the Brotherhood” secret society and recruited by them to join. Trudeau wrote, “As a member of this secret society I have sat in private meetings with heads of state from countries around the world. I have attended secret international business meetings where business leaders, politicians, and media moguls coerce together to create the new world order with global control over individual people everywhere.”381

Sounds a lot like the Bilderberg Group, doesn’t it? During an interview on the Alex Jones Show in 2009, a very convincing Trudeau discussed his knowledge of the Bohemian Grove and other secret societies, and stated that he had friends who attended the Bilderberg meeting that year in Greece

and that he had personally “sat in on meetings” where the elite talked about reducing the world’s population by killing off “the dumb people.”382 Later in the interview he mentioned “what we talked about at Bilderberg” prompting Jones to interrupt him for clarification asking, “Did I hear you correctly, were you at Bilderberg?” to which Trudeau answered, “Yeah, I was in Greece, because I have friends who were there…All I can say is that I was in the area, and many of the people that were there and who are members are in fact people I converse with on a regular basis.”383 Of course Trudeau’s name has never appeared on a Bilderberg attendee list and all this was building up to his latest money making scheme, the Global Information Network, which I’ll get into in a few moments.

A member of this “elite Brotherhood,” Trudeau says he worked covertly for the wealthiest families on earth and during his alleged involvement, he says he made hundreds of millions of dollars and lived a life many could only dream of. “Members of this society includes politicians, captains of industry, news journalists, celebrities, musicians, writers, scientists, law enforcement officials, movie stars, and more,” he says.384

In his book More Natural ‘Cures’ Revealed, he goes on to write that after he became a member of this “elite secret society,” he discovered they had two groups, and that one was evil, and the other good, and both were using the organization’s advanced knowledge and power to influence the world. “I was on the dark side doing evil; now I have repented, changed my ways, and turned my life around…Now I am going against the masters that I once served. I am telling people the truth about Big Pharma, the food industry, the oil industry, governments, and the media.”385

Trudeau has an extremely checkered past, including a conviction for fraud and larceny which resulted in him serving two years in prison in the 1990s.386 He was also banned by the Federal Trade Commission from selling products like health supplements and beauty creams on TV and fined $37 million dollars for making false claims in infomercials about his book The Weight-Loss Cure ‘They’ Don’t Want You To Know About.387 He found a major loophole however, and continued selling books and audio

recordings because these items weren’t seen as “products,” but were considered information, thus protected by the First Amendment right to free speech.

In More Natural ‘Cures’ Revealed, he claimed that his prison sentence in the 1990s wasn’t really because he was a criminal, but instead, “The society needed me to go to prison for a very specific mission.”388 So what he means apparently, is that this all-powerful “Brotherhood” wanted him to commit credit card fraud and larceny because they “needed” him to go to prison for a “mission.” He goes on to write that during his sentence he spend most of his time not in a prison cell, but hanging out at the Officer’s Club at Edwards Air Force base eating “the finest food in the club,” all because he was a member of this Illuminati-type secret society!389

As if Trudeau’s claims weren’t already hard enough to believe, they get much, much stranger. He also wrote, “I have been to Area 51 in Nevada. This is where much of our technology has been developed. Area 51 houses most extraterrestrial artifacts, including a working spacecraft and dead alien bodies. I have seen these things with my own eyes.”390 He actually says he has been inside Area 51 and saw the aliens with his own eyes! I guess they have a family and friends night and even give tours to infomercial pitchmen!

Trudeau keeps his discussion on his alleged involvement with the Brotherhood and aliens brief in his More Natural ‘Cures’ Revealed book, but states that unless he is the victim of an “unforeseen accident,” he will discuss this “secret society” in detail in a future book he planned to write.

At the end of 2009, Trudeau launched a new infomercial for an audio series titled Your Wish is Your Command where he claimed to teach magical methods of the “law of attraction” found in The Secret, the popular DVD produced by Rhonda Byrne, released a few years earlier which discusses mystical ideas about how your own thoughts and beliefs can metaphysically alter your physical reality.



The new infomercial was designed to look like an ordinary talk show with Trudeau as the guest and can be viewed in its entirety on YouTube. He starts of by saying that when he was 15-years-old, he was exposed to “the Brotherhood” secret society which he says took him in and taught him how to use The Secret and enabled him to make millions of dollars before his eighteenth birthday. In high school, he was actually voted most likely to succeed when he graduated in the class of 1981 from Saint Mary’s High School in Lynn, Massachusetts.

Instead of simply regurgitating The Secret’s “law of attraction” philosophy, Trudeau cleverly mixed secret societies in with his sales pitch, since he likely knew a growing segment of the population were highly interested in researching them.

In the infomercial he says, “Quite frankly, these are the same techniques that members of Skull & Bones have learned from Yale University; the Bilderberg Group—some people may be familiar with some of these organizations—the power elite. When you get to the highest level in Freemasonry, the 33rd degree level of Freemasonry—these are secrets of these various associations and societies on how to—we call it manipulating energy—it’s really just how to beam the frequency in your brain of what you want so it will come into your life.”391

He went on to say that all the popular self-help books, such as Napoleon Hill’s classic, Think and Grow Rich, and Norman Vincent Peale’s Power of Positive Thinking, were missing the “key ingredient” which makes these mystical ideas work, and only his audio program would reveal them. During part of his sales pitch he even says, “If a guy is watching this right now and doesn’t get the Your Wish is Your Command program, they’ll always be a loser.”

The host asks him why the wealthy people in the past didn’t want others to know this information (a scripted and preplanned question, of course) to which he answered, “When you’re in Skull & Bones, the secret society, or the highest levels of Freemasonry, or the Bilderberg Group or the

Trilateral Commission or the Council on Foreign Relations, or the Brotherhood—like I was a member of—you’re basically a part of a group that believes ‘we want to keep this information to ourselves, we don’t want competition.’”

He later claims he left “the Brotherhood” in 1999 because he didn’t believe that the information should be kept from everyone else and tells the audience that if they “call today” they’ll get his 14 CD program at 70% off the “regular price” of $1,000. “I would just really encourage people to take advantage of this secret knowledge on how to have, be, or do whatever they want.” He also says he has received death threats from “the Brotherhood” for revealing these “secrets,” but apparently they have enough power to rule the world but couldn’t successfully assassinate a TV pitchman!

Trudeau then started offering people a membership to “a very elite society” which he called the Global Information Network, a supposed network of former Illuminati members, Skull & Bones members, Bilderberg Group insiders, 33rd degree Freemasons, Bohemian Grove members, etc., who all left those organizations to start GIN with him to help reveal their insider secrets to the world! Trudeau’s Global Information Network is not to be confused with Global Information Network, Ltd., a non-profit news agency started in 1986 in New York City which specializes in news from Africa.

While Trudeau is an extraordinary salesman, he is a terrible teacher and a pathetic motivational speaker. As part of my research on Trudeau I have actually listened to all 14 CDs, approximately one hour each, as I sat painfully waiting for something of any value to be said, but there was nothing. For most of the 14 hours I was extremely bored and had to force myself to keep listening, and occasionally I sat in awe at Trudeau’s marvelous ability to sound like he was about to reveal something of incredible importance but never actually getting to the point. Through the entire program he just kept regurgitating a wide variety of popular analogies that have been used by self-help gurus for decades.



The website, GlobalInformationNetwork.com described his organization as being, “conceived by a group of individuals from around the world who are the highest ranking members of several private societies, associations, clubs, and groups whose membership has been exclusive to the privileged elite class of the world,”392 including supposed members from just about every Illuminati connected secret society and organization you can think of. The website originally actually listed the Illuminati, Bohemian Grove, the Bilderberg Group, Skull & Bones, Freemasons, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission and more, saying that members from all these groups had defected and were now part of the Global Information Network’s secret council.

The website went on to claim that, “For the first time in human history, the highest ranking members of these secret societies have encouraged the formation of a new, private, member only group that allows people who do not qualify to become members of the above listed societies to join together and be exposed to the same secrets revealed and taught to members of those societies and clubs.”393

The site went on to say that a New World Order is forming that “is designed to increase the gap between the wealthy and the average working man” and that “GIN does not agree with this movement” and they believe “EVERY person has the right to know the secrets of creating the life they want and enjoying freedom, pursuing happiness, and achieving all their dreams and desires.”

“Members” of GIN apparently got several CDs and books shipped to them each month to further their education on the “law of attraction” and other Illuminati secrets. What did you have to do to “join” this secret society of Illuminati defectors who were ready to reveal their insider secrets to the world? All you had to do was pay $1000.00 down and $150 a month, each and every month after that! Once you were a “member” you could get a $200 commission for every one of your friends you suckered into signing up as well. Each new member was given an affiliate code that was used as a “secret invitation” to the Global Information Network, which they gave out to others who they hoped would then sign up, earning them $200 bucks.



When I first began investigating GIN, there was a section on their website to “join” their “society” that asked for the “invitation affiliate code,” so I simply typed in Kevin as the code which was accepted because I was then taken to the payment page asking for my credit card number to pay the $1,000 initiation fee, which of course I didn’t pay. I also tried Trudeau as the affiliate code, and it worked as well. GIN was so “exclusive” that I guessed two of their secret passwords in two seconds!

Buying “Illuminati secrets” didn’t end there though. After paying a $1000.00 down payment and a $150 each month, new “members” were only given access to the first of twelve different levels within the “society.” To rise to the next level and learn more “Illuminati secrets” to success, each person had to pay more and more money with payments exceeding $10,000.00 dollars!

When I first began looking into the website, there was a section for a description and “member benefits” for each level but all the details, including the costs, were marked “classified information,” except for the $1,000 initiation fee to join the first level.

The site claimed, “Members must qualify for each membership level by meeting specific requirements and being approved by the Global Information Network membership acceptance committee. Each higher membership level in GIN gives the member additional classified benefits, substantial cash bonuses, and other financial and monetary rewards.”394 I had a sneaking suspicion that in order to “qualify” for the next level, all you needed to do was pay a large amount of money without your credit card being declined.

The site said that the “requirements” for the next level would be revealed in the previous level, but insisted that although the “benefits” were “classified and confidential,” they, “may include cash bonuses of over 1 million dollars, all-expense paid exotic vacations, one-on-one mentoring

with high level GIN members, monthly residual payments of over $100,000, luxury automobiles, private jets, and more.”395

A YouTube video advertising the Global Information Network had the following description, “For the first time in the history of mankind, the Illuminati is opening their doors to qualified people.” This video was created by someone who signed up as an affiliate and was trying to lure people to join so they could get their $200 commission through the website’s affiliate program designed to pull in new “members.” As absurd as this all sounds, as P.T. Barnum said, there’s a sucker born every minute.

The GIN website boasted, “Affiliates could potentially earn hundreds of thousands of dollars in commissions,” but included a disclaimer saying, “Individual results will vary. There are no guarantees that you will make any sales or make any money as an affiliate.”

If this didn’t sound like a good enough reason to pay the $1,000 initiation fee, they claimed that, “members could be given hundreds of thousands of dollars in surprise bonuses” as they qualify for various levels within the GIN membership organization and could get, “All expense paid trips to exotic locations around the world, luxury automobiles, private jet trips, and more,” a claim which was immediately followed by another disclaimer saying, “Legally we are required to say that there are no guarantees that you will earn money as an affiliate or a member of the Global Information Network.”

And if this still didn’t sound good enough to get someone to join, they insisted, “This is just the tip of the iceberg. Surprising as it seems, the majority of member benefits are not discussed here. The most significant members benefits are confidential and only revealed to members.”

The site claimed that members would have access to, “experts, the powerful and affluent, celebrities, professional athletes, authors, scientists, politicians, successful business people, doctors and medical experts, leaders in various fields, plus many others.”



Basically, Trudeau was trying to sell a ridiculously expensive membership [$1,000 down—later reduced to $500—and $150 a month] to join his own “secret society” that he made to appear was comprised of former Illuminati members. Trudeau carefully crafted an image of being an insider affiliated with groups like the Illuminati who was “leaking” the secrets to the average Joe who also dreams of being rich and powerful or who wanted to be a part of the Illuminati themselves.

He even advertised a special pay-per-view video “seminar” mid-2012 where he claimed he would reveal the secrets of December 21st 2012, which, you may recall, was supposedly the date that the Mayan Calendar indicated would be the end of the world. In a video posted on his YouTube channel promoting his pay-per-view “special,” Trudeau said, “There is something coming, significant, December 21st 2012...We now have the data. I now have the data authenticated. I now have the data verified through multiple sources. Something significant that you need to know is going to happen on December 21st 2012.”396

He went on to say, “I’m going to be revealing in a two hour webinar, exactly what is going to happen December 21st 2012. This is information you and your family need to know. It is information that you categorically 100% need to know. You need to know this. It is vital.” Gullible fools thought he got this “data” from his Freemasonry, Bilderberg, Bohemian Grove buddies who supposedly made up the “GIN Council.”

Trudeau is, in my opinion, an extraordinary liar and con artist and has fabricated his alleged connections with the Illuminati and the Bilderberg Group just like so many others, but added his own ingenious twist by creating his own “secret society” and selling “memberships” to suckers who thought they were going to get rich quick. If only Trudeau would have moved to Hollywood decades ago, he could have perhaps earned hundreds of millions of dollars as an Oscar winning actor and may have avoided his many legal troubles.



I’m sure that some of the information in Trudeau’s Natural ‘Cures’ books, and “getting out of debt books,” is legitimate and useful, and perhaps has helped a fair number of people get healthier and manage their finances better. But the extraordinary claims of seeing alien bodies in the Area 51 hanger, and being recruited for an elite secret society when he was 15-years-old and having to go to prison for a mission to help them are truly ridiculous.

And anyone who was dumb enough to buy into his $1,000 (or later reduced to $500) “initiation” fee to join his “elite society” which he claimed had members of the Illuminati and Bohemian Grove as a part of it, then those people are truly gullible fools who were blinded by their own desperate hopes of becoming rich without having to work hard.

Trudeau’s claims of being affiliated with an elite secret society and his carefully crafted Global Information Network scheme clearly, in my opinion, shows him to be concerned more with fooling gullible people out of large amounts of money than helping anyone get cured from any disease.

While he may discuss various useful home remedies in his “Natural Cures” books, and tout them as ‘cures’ for diseases, many health professionals have expressed concerned that people with real illnesses may have taken his advice while abandoning traditional medical treatment for what may be very serious diseases. The fact that Trudeau has been a pitchman for a wide variety of products, almost all of which play off people’s basic desires to be healthy, look beautiful, or to get out of debt, shows that he has a knack for presenting supposed easy solutions to difficult problems.

Finally, I should point out that in his More Natural ‘Cures’ Revealed book where he first claims he was a member of an elite secret society and offers cures for all kinds of diseases, on the page immediately following the Table of Contents, is a disclaimer with a paragraph reading in part, “This book is considered by some a work of fiction, yet inspired by a true story. The truth is sprinkled in to spice things up. On occasion, names, dates, and

events have been changed or made up for fun.” It goes on to say the book is, “for entertainment purposes only.”397 How clever of Trudeau for including this legal disclaimer which hardly anyone even noticed, which attempts to protect him from the legal ramifications of the claims he is making. Since when is a book containing “cures” for diseases “entertainment?” It’s shameful.

So basically if you believe Trudeau’s wild tales of attending Bilderberg meetings and being connected to the Illuminati, may I remind you that in his own words he admits that it is all for “entertainment purposes only.”

After I posted several videos on YouTube exposing Kevin Trudeau beginning in 2009, some of his supporters posted angry comments on the video and on my Facebook page saying things like, “Maybe you're the one working with the Illuminati to try and discredit him for leaving them in the first place and exposing the truth.”

Another of the countless crazy comments by the gullible GIN members said, “Kevin Trudeau and his friends have dossiers of the crimes of the Illuminati all over the world and if anything happens to the GIN council it will be released to every news agency.”

In March of 2014, Trudeau was sentenced to ten years in prison for violating his court order not to make deceptive claims on infomercials.398 Court documents revealed that his Global Information Network took in over $100 million dollars in just a few years,399 all the while Trudeau claimed to be broke and didn’t pay a single penny towards his $37 million dollar fine the Federal Trade Commission levied against him.400 One court document states, “Trudeau denies having any personal property other than $2000 worth of clothing, but spent more than $15,000 in one trip to a high-end men’s clothier in Zurich [Switzerland] only months before he filed the ‘sworn’ statement.401

In court it was revealed that GIN technically listed in his wife’s name, a Ukrainian girl, twenty-three years younger than him (who some speculate

was possibly a “mail order bride”) as the named officer and director.402 During court proceedings she “took the fifth” when asked how she met Trudeau.403 Court documents reveal Trudeau was accused of hiding assets in a variety of ways including a convoluted ownership structure of various companies, off-shore trusts, and even using casino chips.404

A major key to Trudeau’s book sales were his infomercials which appealed to a sizable segment of society who weren’t very tech savvy, like many baby boomers and senior citizens—many of whom were facing declining health and desperate to try something hoping for a cure for their ailments. If, instead of ordering his books using the 1-800 number from the infomercial, they would have looked up the books on Amazon.com, then they would have seen many of the reviews were one star, and many of them ripping Trudeau for his outlandish claims and criminal past.

It is for these many reasons that, in my opinion, Kevin Trudeau is the biggest Illuminati hoaxer in history and is virtually unmatched by anyone in his ability to deceive people and put a fresh new spin on the ancient art of selling snake oil. At his sentencing, Trudeau told the judge—who called him deceitful to the core, “If I ever write a book again, if I ever do another infomercial again, I promise no embellishment, no puffery and absolutely no lies.”405 And if you believe that, I’ve got a bridge to sell you!



Mark Cleminson

Mark Cleminson is a Seventh-day Adventist Christian who says he was born into an Illuminati family and at the age of twelve was able to bend spoons, move objects, and even levitate himself through telekinesis! Cleminson claims to be a descendent of Pope Clement, and says he once worked for IBM allegedly making “hundreds of thousands of dollars a year” but left that job in 2001 for whatever reason to apparently “expose” the Illuminati. His parents attended a Roman Catholic Church as a cover for their occult “Illuminism” he says, and his father and grandfather were supposedly raised by Jesuits in the “Himalayan Mystery Schools.”

A few of his interviews can be found on YouTube where he duped a couple small Christian groups into talking with him. In the videos he looks presentable, wearing a suit and tie, appearing to be in his mid-forties, although his delivery is extremely dry and boring and consists of the typical “my life was threatened when I left” claims. First of all, the Illuminati doesn’t “attempt” to kill someone. If they want you dead, there’s any number of ways to do it, from the CIA’s frozen poison dart guns, to swabbing poison on the door handle of your car that will be absorbed into the skin and cause an undetectable heart attack, to walking next to a target and spraying them with hydrogen cyanide (HCN) or cyanogen chloride (ClCN) gas or other poison that will induce a timely death and be attributed to a heart attack, stroke, or other natural causes.

Cleminson says that shortly after “leaving the Illuminati” he was at a secluded property his family owned in upstate New York when “twenty or so” men in “full regalia masonic gear” gathered at the property next door in order to “intimidate him” and “threaten him for leaving.” He says as he walked over to confront the men, who he said he recognized as his former associates, all of a sudden the Egyptian god of the underworld Anubis appeared to him standing twenty feet tall in the woods. “You can have my

body, but you can’t have my soul,” he says he told the demon, which caused it to vanish.

His story lacks details and is so vague and unconvincing it appears at times that he’s making it up off the top of his head as he’s telling it. But, like agent Fox Mulder in the popular 1990s TV series The X-Files, so many people “want to believe” that they turn off their critical thinking and absorb every word he and other “former Illuminati members” say because it reinforces their current world view and makes them feel as if they are special for discovering these “little known truths.”

Regarding his supposed ability to “bend spoons,” with his “telekinesis” Illuminati power, this is one of the oldest parlor tricks in the book which is accomplished by using one pre-bent spoon and a second spoon handle that’s been cut off from a different spoon by removing the head, and then by holding both pieces in one’s hand and making it look like they’re only holding one spoon, magicians make it appear as if the spoon is bending.

Cleminson may have dabbled in New Age philosophy and witchcraft on a personal level, unaffiliated with any organization, and then later found interest in Christianity, but his claims of coming out of an “Illuminati family” trained by the Jesuits and “Himalayan Mystery Schools” is preposterous and purely an attempt to tap into the anti-Illuminati sentiment by portraying himself as another supposed insider who is revealing their plot. Of course in the hand full of interviews gullible suckers conducted with him, he never once revealed a single detail that wasn’t already widely known in conspiracy circles, and what little information he did offer up consisted of little more than claiming “the Rothschild’s control the banking industry.”

Maybe he did work at IBM, and was possibly fired for any number of reasons—in my opinion, probably for incompetence—but as far as having any affiliation whatsoever with the Illuminati, or having anything more than a basic understanding of them, Mark Cleminson completely misses the mark.



In August of 2014 I received an e-mail from someone who said they graduated high school with Cleminson twenty-five years earlier and was in the same circle of “jock friends” growing up. This person, whose name I won’t mention, happened to see my YouTube video about Cleminson and reached out to me to let me know what a “liar and a fraud” he was, but that’s pretty obvious to anyone with any common sense.





Conclusion

Even skeptics and debunkers have to admit that oftentimes no matter how “crazy” many so-called “conspiracy theories” sound, there are often undeniable truths at their foundation. It’s a full time job to separate the facts from the fiction when talking about conspiracy theories or the Illuminati since there is so much disinformation, misinformation, half-truths and hoaxes out there. I hope this book has helped you in your quest for the truth and shown you solid, verifiable information and helped you see through much of the B.S. that’s floating around out there.

For over ten years I’ve been tirelessly researching this material and carefully assembling the pieces of the puzzle to create an accurate picture of this monumental mystery. Even the most adamant “debunkers” have to admit that at the core of this massive conspiracy are many disturbing truths that cannot be ignored.

A writer for the New York Times who aimed to “debunk” Illuminati conspiracies in his 1983 book Architects of Fear, had to admit, “Elitism has always been the dark side of illuminism; the revolutionary vanguard that seizes control because it knows what’s good for the people, the philosopherking who knows the truth, the technocrat who knows how to run societies and wars—all try to hoard the light at the top of the pyramid. Reason, which can be used to rescue man from churches and kings, can also be used to enslave him with dogmas of its own. Knowledge is power that can be abused.”406

Elitists and Big Government New World Order promoters want people to believe that rights come from the government, instead of from God. The United States Declaration of Independence says “All men are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights,” which means our rights can’t be taken away, and are permanent from the moment we are born. No society can vote to eliminate them—no government can charge you money in

exchange for granting them—they are inherent, irrevocable, and unchangeable. The State (the government) is God in the New World Order, and that’s why most bureaucrats and the mainstream media portray presidents as modern day Pharaohs who they want you to believe are the only God you need. The Illuminati want the government to be the ultimate authority, not God. They want your loyalty to be to them, not to your family, community, or religious dogma. The law is considered the Gospel. The government is your protector, provider, and teacher. It knows what’s best for you.

Because of the 24-hour cable news and satellite networks, the Internet, and social media—many people are inclined to think that we are able to quickly resolve all the world’s problems since we are instantly informed about them, but this information age seems to be a double edged sword. On one level, this technology informs us about major events or problems, but at the same time, it usually prevents people from taking action to actually resolve them. The term narcotizing dysfunction refers to the theory that because of modern media, when people are informed about a particular issue they substitute taking action to resolve it, for simply knowing about it.407

Most people feel that by posting information about a particular issue on social media that they have “done something” to help by “getting the word out” but this “slactivism” as it has been called, often has little to no actual effect. People can post all day long about earthquake victims needing help, but if nobody gets off their computer or puts away their mobile device to actually do anything to help them, then all of their talk is futile.

This is similar to the bystander effect which explains the phenomena where almost everybody assumes that someone else is taking action to resolve a problem, resulting in nobody taking action because everyone thinks someone else will do it or is already working on it.408

Terrible tragedies like airline disasters, terrorist attacks, or other high profile crimes get constant news coverage for a short news cycle often

lasting no more than a few days and then the next big scandal or tragedy is put on the front pages and runs its brief cycle, and then that too disappears from people’s minds as they are occupied by the next “top story” and the cycle endlessly repeats itself, with people’s focus quickly jumping from one tragedy to the next with the vast majority of people never actually doing anything about it. This endless barrage of sensationalist stories keeps most people in a virtual hypnotic trance, preventing them from ever looking beyond the tip of the iceberg in terms of what’s really going on in the world.

Cultural Marxism creates an invisible pressure that prevents most people from breaking away from the crowd and keeps almost everyone following the herd and subscribing to the norms of society and afraid to question the deeply engrained patterns of their peers.

Since esoteric information is hard to contain these days, and bits and pieces of it occasionally leak out, sometimes the mainstream media has to do some damage control to prevent the masses from waking up to the magnitude of the reality we are experiencing. Sometimes scholars and college professors are rolled out by mainstream media in an attempt to discredit “conspiracy theories” and hoping to keep people from peeking behind the curtain.

One such “debunker” named Michael Burkun wrote a book titled, A Culture of Conspiracy, where he ridicules “conspiracy theories” that he says almost always include “ridiculous” claims such as the [supposed] “systematic subversion of republican institutions by a federal government utilizing emergency powers; the gradual subordination of the United States to a world government operating through the United Nations; the creation of sinister new military and paramilitary forces, including governmental mobilization of urban youth gangs; the permanent stationing of foreign troops on U.S. soil; the widespread use of black helicopters to transport the tyranny’s operatives; the confiscation of privately owned guns; the incarceration of so-called patriots in concentration camps run by FEMA; the implantation of microchips and other advanced technology for surveillance and mind control; the replacement of Christianity with a New Age world

religion; and, finally, the manipulation of the entire apparatus by a hidden hierarchy of conspirators operating through secret societies.”409

He actually lists these events as “ridiculous conspiracy theories” when a brief examination of current events reveals that they’re basically all obviously true. Burkun also tries to associate “conspiracy theorists” with “anti-government right-wing extremists” like Timothy McVeigh.410

Another popular “debunker” is Daniel Pipes, who just so happens to be a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the founder of Campus Watch, an organization that some say was set up to harass scholars who are critical of Israel.411 Pipes, who is the author of Conspiracy: How the Paranoid Style Flourishes and Where It Comes From, says “I have yet to see a clandestine effort by these so-called secret societies to gain power and to harm other people, or to fulfill their own ambitions to gain power.”412 In his book, there isn’t a single mention of the Bilderberg Group or Bohemian Grove, not a single word, not even once.

Pipes even ridicules people for being concerned about implantable microchips saying that some people fear one day, “tiny microchips will be inserted into American’s buttocks to keep track of each person’s whereabouts and activities.”413 He actually said conspiracy theorists are worried about the government implanting tracking devices in their butts! I guess he never heard of the Verichip or other implantable RFIDs or bioelectric tattoos, or wearable WiFi enabled devices or NFCs that are growing in popularity. Implantable and wearable tracking devices are very real, but Pipes attempt to trivialize the legitimate concerns about such technology is clearly ridiculous.

Furthermore, Pipes states that only conservatives and Republicans are conspiracy theorists and says Democrats and liberals are all simply too smart for such nonsense. Pipes writes, “With uncommon exceptions, the conspiracy theorists on the Right consist of skinheads, neo-Nazis, and other yahoos who express vicious ideas about Jews and batty ones about secret societies. Most of them suffer from a lack of qualifications; many have little

education and work at menial occupations…In all earnestness, right-wing authors cite as sources the National Enquirer, a grocery store tabloid, and other publications with no pretentions to accuracy.”414

Regarding liberals and Democrats, however, Pipes claims, “The Left offers densely reasoned economic analysis and presents an idealistic vision. The one presents a face contorted with malice; the second offers a smile and a hope.”415

Pipes also tries to paint “rightwing” conspiracy theorists as mostly anti-Semites. He quotes a supposed “study” on the American Militia movement, saying “leaders are careful to talk about ‘international bankers’ or the ‘Federal Reserve’ or the ‘Trilateral Commission’ or ‘eastern elites.’ But these are code phrases, carefully picked by the leadership to pull people into their movement without greeting them with overt anti-Semitism and that militias even if they call it something else and never mention Jews, they are referring to Jews.”416

He even says that the Illuminati is good! “The Order of the Illuminati represented his [Adam Weishaupt’s] effort to build a just community within a corrupt society and to modernize Germany through the discipline of a secret society.”417

In a History Channel special titled Secret Societies, Pipes concludes, “Basically all the conspiracy theories about secret societies wanting to take over the world are wrong.”418

Many people who criticize “conspiracy theorists” claim that we all have a “confirmation bias” which is the tendency for people to favor information that supports their current worldview or hypothesis—which in many cases is an accurate assessment of conspiracy theorists, but this certainly isn’t the case for me. For several years after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, I fully believed the official account of what happened and I believed the conspiracy theory about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction that they were prepared to use against us at any moment. It was

only when faced with growing evidence to the contrary that the American government’s lies started to slowly unravel, allowing me to see things differently.

Since searching for the truth is difficult and painful, not to mention time consuming, most people never even start out on the journey. Instead they turn their mind, body, and soul over to the mesmerizing mainstream media, or to celebrity news or sports entertainment, so I congratulate you on your determination to be different and for taking the road less traveled. I hope I’ve been able to provide you some of the answers that you’ve been seeking, because I too have a burning desire to know the truth and we are on the same path.

In this book we’ve covered a variety of evidence, ranging from the original writings of the Illuminati, to how they were discovered, what their plans are, and tracking them to their Skull & Bones, Bohemian Grove and the Bilderberg Group offspring. We’ve seen some little-known insider revelations, looked into their philosophies, symbols, and more—which when carefully assembled form an undeniable picture proving the Illuminati is still alive.

I wish you well on your journey wherever it may take you from this point forward. If you found this book valuable in your quest please review it on Amazon.com or whatever e-book store you got it from to help support my work, and I encourage you to check out some of my other books which I’m sure you will find interesting as well. I doubt you’ll ever look at the world the same way now that you’ve peeked behind the curtain and seen Inside the Illuminati.





Further Reading

The Illuminati: Facts & Fiction

Secret societies have both fascinated and frightened people for hundreds of years. Often the infamous Illuminati is mentioned as the core of conspiracies which span the globe. The Illuminati is actually a historical secret society which had goals of revolutions and world domination dating back to the 1770s.

Since then, rumors and conspiracy theories involving the Illuminati continue to spread, sometimes finding their way into popular novels like Dan Brown’s Angels & Demons and Hollywood movies like Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Some men have even come forward claiming to be former members, offering details of what they allege are the inner workings of the organization. When you sift through all of the information available on the subject, you may be surprised that the truth is stranger than fiction.

In The Illuminati: Facts & Fiction, conspiracy and occult expert Mark Dice separates history from Hollywood and shows why tales of the secret society won't die.



The New World Order: Facts & Fiction

What is the New World Order? Proponents say that it’s an anticipated new era of global cooperation between diverse nations and cultures aimed at ushering in a utopia providing all the earth's citizens with everything they need.

Detractors claim it’s the systematic take-over by secret societies, quasigovernment entities and corporations who are covertly organizing a global socialist all-powerful government which aims to regulate every aspect of citizens lives, rendering them a perpetual working-class while the elite leadership lives in luxury.

Conspiracy theory expert Mark Dice looks at the evidence, claims, and conspiracy theories as he takes you down the rabbit hole to The New World Order.



Illuminati in the Music Industry

Famous pop stars and rappers from Jay-Z and Rick Ross to Rihanna and Christina Aguilera are believed by many to be a part of the infamous Illuminati secret society. These stars allegedly use Illuminati and satanic symbolism in their music videos and on their clothes that goes unnoticed by those not “in the know.”

Since these stars appear in our livings rooms on family friendly mainstream shows like Good Morning America, Ellen, and dozens of others —and are loved by virtually all the kids—they couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the infamous Illuminati or anything “satanic,” could they? Some famous musicians have even publicly denounced the Illuminati in interviews or songs.

Illuminati in the Music Industry takes a close look at some of today’s hottest stars and decodes the secret symbols, song lyrics, and separates the facts from the fiction in this fascinating topic. You may never see your favorite musicians the same way ever again.



Big Brother: The Orwellian Nightmare Come True

In Big Brother, Mark Dice details actual high-tech spy gadgets, mindreading machines, government projects, and emerging artificial intelligence systems that seem as if they came right out of George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Orwell’s famous book was first published in 1949, and tells the story of a nightmarish future where citizens have lost all privacy and are continuously monitored by the omniscient Big Brother surveillance system which keeps them obedient to a totalitarian government.

The novel is eerily prophetic as many of the fictional systems of surveillance described have now become a reality. Mark Dice shows you the scary documentation that Big Brother is watching you, and is more powerful than you could imagine.



The Resistance Manifesto

The Resistance Manifesto by Mark Dice contains 450 pages of extensively researched and documented information drawing from declassified documents, mainstream news articles, religious texts, and personal interviews. A dark web of evil is exposed like never before, making Bible Prophecy and the New World Order crystal clear.

Learn the most powerful information about the Illuminati, plans for the rise of the Antichrist, the institutions, people, and powers involved, and how you can fight them.





About the Author

Mark Dice is a media analyst, author, and political activist who, in an entertaining and educational way, gets people to question our celebrity obsessed culture and the role the mainstream media and elite secret societies play in shaping our lives.

Mark’s YouTube channel has received over 85 million views and his viral videos have been mentioned on ABC’s The View, the Fox News Channel, CNN, the Drudge Report, TMZ, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, and other media outlets around the world.

He has been featured on various television shows including the History Channel’s Decoded and America’s Book of Secrets, Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura, Secret Societies of Hollywood on E! Channel, America Declassified on the Travel Channel, and is a frequent guest on Coast to Coast AM, The Alex Jones Show, and more.

Mark Dice is the author of several popular books on secret societies and conspiracies, including The Illuminati: Facts & Fiction, Big Brother: The Orwellian Nightmare Come True, The New World Order, Facts & Fiction, The Resistance Manifesto, Illuminati in the Music Industry, and Inside the Illuminati, which are all available in paperback on Amazon.com or e-book on Kindle, iBooks, Nook or Google Play.

While much of Mark’s work confirms the existence and continued operation of the Illuminati today, he is also dedicated to debunking conspiracy theories and hoaxes and separating the facts from the fiction; hence the “Facts & Fiction” subtitle for several of his books.



While having respect for all authentic religions and belief systems, Mark Dice is a Christian and holds a bachelors degree in communication from California State University. He lives in San Diego, California.

He enjoys causing trouble for the New World Order, exposing corrupt scumbag politicians, and pointing out Big Brother’s prying eyes. The term “fighting the New World Order” is used by Mark to describe some of his activities, and refers to his and others’ resistance and opposition (The Resistance) to the overall system of political corruption, illegal wars, elite secret societies, mainstream media, Big Brother and privacy issues; as well as various economic and social issues. This Resistance involves selfimprovement, self-sufficiency, personal responsibility and spiritual growth.

 



Connect with Mark on:

Facebook.com/MarkDice

Twitter.com/MarkDice.com

YouTube.com/MarkDice

MarkDice.com





Copyright Info

 

Inside The Illuminati © 2014 by Mark Dice All Rights Reserved Published by The Resistance Manifesto San Diego, CA

 

No part of the text within this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form and by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the written permission of the author.

 

Visit www.MarkDice.com

E-book ISBN: 978-0-9887268-5-7



1

Washington Post “First Lady Launches Counterattack” by David Maraniss (January 28, 1998)

2

CBS News “White House Admits WMD Error” by Lauren Johnston (July 9th 2003)

3

New York Times “500 Conspiracy Buffs Meet to Seek the Truth of 9/11” by Feuer, Alan (June 5, 2006)

4

Hall, Manly P. - The Secret Destiny of America page 53-54

5

Hall, Manly P. - The Secret Destiny of America page 54

6

http://energy.gov/management/office-management/operational-management/history/manhattanproject

7

Groves, Lesley - Now it Can Be Told: The Story of the Manhattan Project (1962) page 140

8

Hall, Manly P. – The Secret Teachings of All Ages page 40

9

Baddeley, Gavin - Lucifer Rising page 71

10

July 20th, 1785

11

http://www.bavarian-illuminati.info/2008/11/lang-or-lanz-myths-about-the-myths/

12

Robison, John – Proofs of a Conspiracy p. 79

13

Full name: Thomas Maria Baron de Bassus

14

Barruel, Abbe – Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism Volume III page v

15

Barruel, Abbe – Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism Volume III page 5



16

Robison, John – Proofs of a Conspiracy p. 76

17

Robison, John - Proofs of a Conspiracy page 7.

18

See my previous book, The New World Order: Facts & Fiction

19

Barruel, Abbe -Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism page 685

20

Ibid

21

Barruel, Abbe - Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism page 687

22

Ibid.

23

Ibid

24

Ibid.

25

Barruel, Abbe - Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism page 687-688

26

Barruel, Abbe - Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism page 688

27

Stauffer, Vernon - New England and the Bavarian Illuminati page 176

28

Rene, Le Forestier - Les Illuminés de Bavière et la franc-maçonnerie allemande page 453 [Paris: 1914], Arche reprint, 2001. (Quote translated in English in Perfectabilists: The 18th Century Bavarian Order of the Illuminati by Terry Melanson page 27)

29

Rene, Le Forestier - Les Illuminés de Bavière et la franc-maçonnerie allemande page 468-469 [Paris: 1914], Arche reprint, 2001. (Translated in English in Perfectabilists: The 18th Century Bavarian Order of the Illuminati by Terry Melanson page 29)



30

Rene, Le Forestier - Les Illuminés de Bavière et la franc-maçonnerie allemande page 468-469 [Paris: 1914], Arche reprint, 2001. (Translated to English in Perfectabilists: The 18th Century Bavarian Order of the Illuminati by Terry Melanson page 29)

31

Rene, Le Forestier - Les Illuminés de Bavière et la franc-maçonnerie allemande page 468-469 [Paris: 1914], Arche reprint, 2001. (Translated to English in Perfectabilists: The 18th Century Bavarian Order of the Illuminati by Terry Melanson page 29)

32

Rene, Le Forestier - Les Illuminés de Bavière et la franc-maçonnerie allemande page 507-508 [Paris: 1914], Arche reprint, 2001. (Translated to English in Perfectabilists: The 18th Century Bavarian Order of the Illuminati by Terry Melanson page 40)

33

Rene, Le Forestier - Les Illuminés de Bavière et la franc-maçonnerie allemande page 507-508 [Paris: 1914], Arche reprint, 2001,pp 507-508. (Translated to English in Perfectabilists: The 18th Century Bavarian Order of the Illuminati by Terry Melanson page 40)

34

Rene, Le Forestier - Les Illuminés de Bavière et la franc-maçonnerie allemande page 507-508 [Paris: 1914], Arche reprint, 2001 pp 507-508. (Translated to English in Perfectabilists: The 18th Century Bavarian Order of the Illuminati by Terry Melanson page 40)

35

Rene, Le Forestier - Les Illuminés de Bavière et la franc-maçonnerie allemande page 614-615 [Paris: 1914], Arche reprint, 2001. (Translated to English in Perfectabilists: The 18th Century Bavarian Order of the Illuminati by Terry Melanson page 56)

36

Rene, Le Forestier - Les Illuminés de Bavière et la franc-maçonnerie allemande page 614-615 [Paris: 1914], Arche reprint, 2001. (Translated to English in Perfectabilists: The 18th Century Bavarian Order of the Illuminati by Terry Melanson page 56)

37

Rene, Le Forestier - Les Illuminés de Bavière et la franc-maçonnerie allemande page 614-615 [Paris: 1914], Arche reprint, 2001. (Translated to English in Perfectabilists: The 18th Century Bavarian Order of the Illuminati by Terry Melanson page 56)

38

Koselleck, Reinhart - Critique and Crisis: Enlightenment and the Pathogenesis of Modern Society Cambridge, Mass MIT Press (1988) page 92-32

39

Robison, John – Proofs of a Conspiracy p. 124-125



40

Robison, John – Proofs of a Conspiracy p. 134

41

Robison, John – Proofs of a Conspiracy p. 123

42

Robison, John – Proofs of a Conspiracy p. 112

43

Robison, John – Proofs of a Conspiracy p. 66

44

Robison, John – Proofs of a Conspiracy p. 77

45

Robison, John – Proofs of a Conspiracy p. 67

46

Quoted in Steven Luckert, Jesuits, Freemasons, Illuminati and Jacobins: Conspiracy theories, secret societies and politics in late eighteenth-century Germany, Ph.D dissertation, State University of New York at Binghamton, pages 285-286.

47

Robison, John – Proofs of a Conspiracy p. 77

48

Robison, John – Proofs of a Conspiracy page 224

49

Robison, John - Proofs of a Conspiracy p. 84

50

Robison, John – Proofs of a Conspiracy p. 85

51

Robison, John – Proofs of a Conspiracy p. 106

52

A Sermon Preached in Lancaster … on the Anniversary of Our National Independence … Before the Washington Benevolent Societies of Lancaster and Guildhall (Windsor, Vermont: Thomas M. Pomroy, 1812), pp. 14–15 (July 4, 1812)

53

Robison, John – Proofs of a Conspiracy p. 124



54

Robison, John – Proofs of a Conspiracy p. 124

55

Robison, John – Proofs of a Conspiracy p. 85

56

Robison, John – Proofs of a Conspiracy p. 86

57

Robison, John – Proofs of a Conspiracy p. 89

58

Morse, Jedediah, A Sermon Exhibiting the Present Dangers, and Consequent Duties of the Citizens of the United States of America Delivered in Charlestown, 1799

59

Robison, John – Proofs of a Conspiracy p. 111

60

Robison, John – Proofs of a Conspiracy p. 94

61

Robison, John – Proofs of a Conspiracy p. 111

62

Fox News “School: We Have a Right To Ban God” by Todd Starnes (July 11th 2014)

63

http://www.exeter.edu/admissions/109_1220_11688.aspx

64

Robison, John – Proofs of a Conspiracy p. 112

65

Ibid.

66

Robison, John – Proofs of a Conspiracy p. 113

67



Melanson, Terry - Perfectibilists: The 18th Century Bavarian Illuminati page 60

68

Final Report of the Select Committee to Study Government Operations With Respect to Intelligence Activities. April 1976. pp. 191–201

69

Final Report of the Select Committee to Study Government Operations With Respect to Intelligence Activities. April 1976. pp. 191–201

70

YouTube “CIA Admits Using News To Manipulate the USA” (1975)

71

Sunstein, Cass R & Vermeule, Adrian “Conspiracy Theories: Causes and Cures” 17 Journal of Political Philshophy 202 (2008) page 22

72

TechDirt.com “New Snowden Doc Reveals How GCHQ/NSA Use The Internet To 'Manipulate, Deceive And Destroy Reputations’ by Mike Masnick (February 25th 2014)

73

The Guardian “GCHQ has tools to manipulate online information, leaked documents show” by James Ball (July 14th 2014)

74

Fortune Magazine “Hollywood’s Military Complex” by Soo Youn (December 19, 2013)

75

The Guardian "Hollywood reporter: The caring, sharing CIA: Central Intelligence gets a makeover” by John Patterson (October 5th 2001)

76

Cinema Review Magazine "The Recruit: About the Production” (2003)

77

Robison, John – Proofs of a Conspiracy p. 91

78

Ridley, Jasper – The Freemasons p. 181

79

Robison, John – Proofs of a Conspiracy p.112

80

Robison, John – Proofs of a Conspiracy p. 63

81

Robison, John – Proofs of a Conspiracy p. 129



82

Lodge of Saint Theodore vom guten Rat in Munich from 1780

83

Macky, Albert – The Lexicon of Freemasonry page 201

84

Bailey, Alice - Externalization of the Hierarchy page 513

85

Robison, John - Proofs of a Conspiracy page 110

86

http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/texts/illuminati.html

87

Schüttler, Hermann - Die Mitglieder des Illuminatenordens [Members of the Illuminati 1776– 1787/93. Ars Una, München 1991

88

Melanson, Terry - The Perfectabilists: The 18th Century Bavarian Order of Illuminati page 72

89

Barruel, Abbe - Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism page 780

90

Springmeier, Fritz – Bloodlines of the Illuminati page 1

91

Springmeier, Fritz – Bloodlines of the Illuminati page 1

92

See my previous book, The Illuminati: Facts & Fiction to read my complete analysis of John Todd.

93

Lecture The Top 13 Illuminati Bloodlines produced by Prophecy Club, available on YouTube

94

Blavatsky, H.P. - The Secret Doctrine v. II p. 237)

95



Blavatsky, H.P. - The Secret Doctrine v. II p. 235)

96

New York Times “Chronicle” by Nadine Brozan (October 28th 1996)

97

The Daily Mail “Is ruling in the genes? All presidents bar one are directly descended from a medieval English king” (August 4th 2012)

98

The Wire “12 Million Americans Believe Lizard People Run Our Country” by Philip Bump (April 2nd 2013)

99

Icke, David - The Biggest Secret page 295

100

Hall, Manly P. - The Secret Teachings of All Ages page 316

101

Levi, Eliphas – Transcendental Magic p. 7-8

102

Levi, Eliphas – Transcendental Magic p. 307

103

LaVey, Anton - The Satanic Bible page 136

104

Hall, Manly P. – The Secret Teachings of All Ages p. 316

105

Night & Lomas – The Book of Hiram p. 434

106

Levi, Eliphas – History of Magic p. 211

107

Picknett & Prince - The Templar Revelation page 106

108

King, Francis - The Magical World of Aleister Crowley page 78

109

Picknett & Prince - Templar Revelation page 176

110

Hall, Manly P. - Lectures on Ancient Philosophy page 439



111

Levi, Eliphas - History of Magic page 31-32

112

NBC News “Inside the Vatican: The $8 billion global institution where nuns answer the phones” (Feb 14, 2013)

113

Associated Press “Pope affirms Catholicism as only way to salvation” By Nicole Winfield (July 11, 2007)

114

NBC News “Pope: Other denominations not true churches” (July 10, 2007) .

115

BBC Documentary“Sex Crimes and the Vatican” (October 2006)

116

Thomas Doyle, The 1922 instruction and the 1962 instruction “Crimen sollicitationis” promulgated by the Vatican

117

The Guardian “Vatican told bishops to cover up sex abuse: expulsion threat in secret documents” by Antony Barnett (August 17, 2003)

118

Crimine solicitations documents “Instruction on proceeding in cases of solicitation” page 3 paragraph 11.

119

Crimine solicitations documents “Instruction on proceeding in cases of solicitation” page 4paragraph 13

120

The Guardian “Vatican told bishops to cover up sex abuse: expulsion threat in secret documents” by Antony Barnett (August 17, 2003)

121

Ibid.

122

McIntosh, Christopher – The Rosicrucians p. 43

123



Hall, Manly P. - Lectures on Ancient Philosophy page 433

124

dictionary.com

125

Pike, Albert - Morals and Dogma p. 104-105

126

Pike, Albert - Morals and Dogma page 819

127

Pike, Albert - Morals and Dogma page 102

128

Pike, Albert - Morals and Dogma p. 321

129

Grant, Kenneth – Aleister Crowley and the Hidden God page 174

130

Crowley, Aleister - Confessions of Aleister Crowley page 669

131

William H. Upton - Negro Masonry, New York: AMS Press, 1975

132

Brown, Walter Lee - A Life of Albert Pike page 439-440

133

Bailey, Alice - Externalization of the Hierarchy page 511

134

http://askthescholar.com/AskTheScholar2.aspx?q=1098

135

The Independent “Anger at 'cloak of secrecy' for Freemason judges” (November 10th 2009)

136

The Independent “Revealed: How gangs used the Freemasons to corrupt police” (January 13th 2014)

137

Ibid.

138



Macky, Albert - The Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, Entry on Illuminati of Bavaria

139

Robbins, Alexandria - Secrets of the Tomb page 127

140

IRS Form 990 RTA Incorporated OMB no 1545-0047 line 18

141

Robbins, Alexandria - Secrets of the Tomb page 164

142

Yale Daily News “Yalie joins Homeland Security” By Michelle Rosenthal (January 29, 2002)

143

Robbins, Alexandria - Secrets of the Tomb pages 181-182

144

The Guardian “How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power” by Ben Aris and Duncan Campbell (September 25, 2004)

145

Robbins, Alexandria - Secrets of the Tomb pp. 48, 50, 127

146

The Iconoclast (1873)

147

New York Observer “At Skull and Bones, Bush’s Secret Club Initiates Ream Gore” by Ron Rosenbaum (April 23rd 2001)

148

Ibid.

149

CNN “Fareed Zakaria GPS: Is it Time To Correct the Constitution?” (June 20th 2011)

150

IRS Form 990 2012 EIN: 06-0706508 Kingsley Trust Association, Line 18: Total Expenses and Line 22: Net Assets

151

The New Yorker “The Bishop’s Daughter” by Honor Moore (March 3, 2008 Issue)

152

IRS Form 990 2012 EIN: 06-6069051 Phelps Association, Line 18: Total Expenses and Line 20: Net Assets



153

Allan, Gary – None Dare Call It Conspiracy page 35

154

The Communist Manifesto - Preface to the German Edition of 1872

155

Eleventh Report Senate Investigating Committee On Education published by the Senate of California page 169

156

Eleventh Report Senate Investigating Committee On Education published by the Senate of California page 170

157

Eleventh Report Senate Investigating Committee On Education published by the Senate of California page 170

158

Eleventh Report Senate Investigating Committee On Education published by the Senate of California page 170

159

Ibid.

160

Crème, Benjamin – The Reappearance of the Christ and the Masters of Wisdom p. 190-191

161Stephen

G. Wheatcroft, "Victims of Stalinism and the Soviet Secret Police: The Comparability and Reliability of the Archival Data. Not the Last Word", Source: Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 51, No. 2 (Mar. 1999), pp. 315–345

162

Barruel, Abbe- Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism page 582

163

Jones, Alex - The Order of Death (2005)

164

Ibid.

165

Phillips, Peter - A Relative Advantage: Sociology of the San Francisco Bohemian Club. A Doctoral Dissertation (1994) Page 67



166

Phillips, Peter - A Relative Advantage: Sociology of the San Francisco Bohemian Club. A Doctoral Dissertation (1994) page 127

167

Phillips, Peter - A Relative Advantage: Sociology of the San Francisco Bohemian Club. A Doctoral Dissertation (1994) page 95

168

Phillips, Peter - A Relative Advantage: Sociology of the San Francisco Bohemian Club. A Doctoral Dissertation (1994) page 92

169

Phillips, Peter - A Relative Advantage: Sociology of the San Francisco Bohemian Club. A Doctoral Dissertation (1994) page 93

170

Phillips, Peter - A Relative Advantage: Sociology of the San Francisco Bohemian Club. A Doctoral Dissertation (1994) page 111

171

Rothkopf, David - Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They are Making page 284

172

Domhoff, William - The Bohemian Grove and Other Retreats: A Study in Ruing-Class Cohesiveness Preface

173

Domhoff, William - The Bohemian Grove and Other Retreats: A Study in Ruing-Class Cohesiveness Page 1

174

New York Times “Sotomayor Defends Ties to Association” by Savage, Charlie and Kirkpatrick, David D (June 15th 2009)

175

Politico “Sonia Sotomayor found friends in elite group” by Keneth Vogel (June 4th 2009)

176

The New York Times “A Club for the Women Atop the Ladder” by Pamela Rychman (April 2, 2011)

177

New York Times “Status is ... for C.E.O.'s; Having a Networked Secretary” by John Glassie (November 15th 1998)



178

Fortune Magazine “Corner Office Confidential” by Jennifer Reingold (August 31st 2009)

179

New York Times “Status is ... for C.E.O.'s; Having a Networked Secretary” by John Glassie (November 15th 1998)

180

New York Times “Status is ... for C.E.O.'s; Having a Networked Secretary” By John Glassie (November 15, 1998)

181

Crowley, Aleister – The Book of The Law page 31

182

Crowley, Aleister – The Book of The Law page 40

183

Crowley, Aleister – The Book of The Law page 41

184

Crowley, Aleister – The Book of The Law page 47

185

Crowley, Duquette, & Hyatt - Enochian Sex Magick page 116

186

Crowley, Duquette, & Hyatt - Enockian Sex Magick page 117

187

Crowley, Aleister - Confessions of Aleister Crowley page 702

188

Stephenson, Nathaniel Wright - Nelson W. Aldrich: A Leader in American Politics (1930) page 485

189

Vanderlip, James - From Farmboy to Financier, autobiography (1935)

190

Paul, Ron – End the Fed page 22

191



Greider, William - Secrets of the Temple page 276

192

Reportedly from a speech at the University of Texas in the 1920s but the source of this quote is unverified.

193

Memoirs, Correspondence, and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 4, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, ed., 1829, pp. 285-288.

194

McGeer, Gerald Grattan - The Conquest of Poverty Chapter 5 - Lincoln, Practical Economist page 186 (Gardenvale, Quebec: Garden City Press 1935)

195

Keynes, John Maynard - The Economic Consequence of the Peace page 235-236

196

No relation to the Zodiac Club music venue in Oxford, England

197J.

P. Morgan Jr Papers “Archives of The Pierpont Morgan Library” New York 401 The Zodiac Club Dinners 1913–41

198

The Gathamist “Inside The Zodiac Club: NYC's 145 Year Old Secret Dinner Society” by Danielle Oteri (May 16, 2013)

199

Ibid.

200

Ibid.

201

YouTube “Hillary Clinton addresses the Council on Foreign Relations, admits CFR runs the government”

202

Sutton, Antony – America’s Secret Establishment p. 3-4

203

HBO “Realtime with Bill Maher” - Richard Hass Interview (April 29th 2010)

204

Pastor, Robert - Toward a North American Community: Lessons from the Old World for the New page 115

205

Finkbeiner, Ann - The Jasons: The Secret History of Science's Postwar Elite (2006) page (xxiv)



206

The Nautilus Institute “Tactical Nuclear Weapons in 1966”

207

Finkbeiner, Ann - The Jasons: The Secret History of Science's Postwar Elite (2006) page xxvi.

208

Finkbeiner, Ann - The Jasons: The Secret History of Science's Postwar Elite (2006) page 33

209

Phillips, Peter - A Relative Advantage: Sociology of the San Francisco Bohemian Club. A Doctoral Dissertation (1994) page 93

210

Phillips, Peter - A Relative Advantage: Sociology of the San Francisco Bohemian Club. A Doctoral Dissertation (1994) page 92

211

Phillips, Peter - A Relative Advantage: Sociology of the San Francisco Bohemian Club. A Doctoral Dissertation (1994) page 91

212

Tucker, Jim – Jim Tucker’s Bilderberg Diary page 231

213

Tucker, Jim – Jim Tucker’s Bilderberg Diary page 218

214

“Governor’s Visits abroad Paid with Private Money” by Rachel O’neal and Larry Rhodes

215

John R. Rarick, Congressional Record, 92nd Congress, 1st Session, Wednesday, Volume 117, No. 133, 15 September 1971, pp. E9615-E9624

216

Eisenhower memo from March 11th 1955

217

2008 IRS Form 990-PF OMD No 1545-0052

218



2009 IRS Form 990-PF OMD No 1545-0052

219

YouTube: “Ron Paul talks about the Bilderberg Group” (posted August 16th 2008)

220

YouTube: “Did Hillary Clinton Attend the 2006 Bilderberg Conference?”

221

Fox News Channel “Glenn Beck Program” (June 2010)

222

Pike, Albert - Morals and Dogma p. 104-105

223

Hall, Manly P. - The Wisdom of the Knowing Ones page 127-128

224

Blavatsky, H.P. - The Secret Doctrine v. II p. 162

225

Blavatsky, H.P. - The Secret Doctrine v. II page 513

226

Crowley, Aleister - Magick: In Theory and Practice p. 193

227

Blavatsky, Helena - The Secret Doctrine v. I page xvii

228

Hall, Manly P. - The Wisdom of the Knowing Ones page 19

229

Barton, Blanche - The Authorized Biography of Anton LaVey page 218-219

230

Barton, Blanche – The Authorized Biography of Anton LaVey page 133

231

C-Span - September 14th 2001

232

The Project for the New American Century “Rebuilding America’s Defenses” page 51

233

ABC News “US Military wanted to provoke war with Cuba” by David Ruppe (5-01-2001)

234

CNN “Kissinger Resigns as Head of 9/11 Commission” (December 13, 2002)



235

Wall Street Journal “In Crisis, Opportunity for Obama” by Gerald Seib (November 21 2008)

236

Reuters “Albinos in Tanzania murdered or raped as AIDS ‘cure’ by Fumbuka Ng’Wanakilala (May 5th 2011)

237

Ibid.

238

Telegraph “South African men rape babies as 'cure' for Aids” by Jane Flanagan (November 11th 2001)

239

Ibid.

240

BBC “Lostprophets' Ian Watkins sentenced to 35 years over child sex offences”

241

Crowley, Aleister - Magick: In Theory and Practice page 95

242

Daily Mail “House of horrors: Daughter tells how she was forced to sleep with 1,800 men by the time she was 18 as part of Satanic sex cult” by Jennifer Smith (September 21, 2014)

243

Ibid

244

DeCamp, John - The Franklin Cover-Up page 326-327

245

DeCamp, John - The Franklin Cover-Up page 326-327

246

The Alex Jones Show - Alex Jones Interviews John DeCamp, Author of The Franklin Cover-up (July 21, 2004)

247

Washington Times “Homosexual Prostitution Inquiry Ensnares VIPs with Reagan, Bush” by Paul Rodriguez and George Archibald (June 29th 1989)

248

Washington Post “How BBC star Jimmy Savile got away with allegedly abusing 500 children and sex with dead bodies” by Terrence McCoy (June 27th 2014)



249

Daily Mail “Are we evolving into a NEW type of human? 'Different' species will have evolved by 2050, scientist claims” by Ellie Zolfagharifard (September 11th 2014)

250

Telegraph “Peter Thiel: the billionaire tech entrepreneur on a mission to cheat death” by Mick Brown (September 19th 2014)

251

The Wall Street Journal “Will Google's Ray Kurzweil Live Forever?” by Holman W. Jenkins Jr. (April 12th 2013)

252

Wired “It’s Time To Consider Restricting Human Breeding” by Zoltan Istvan (August 14th 2014)

253

PBS “Charlie Rose” - Guest Ted Turner (April 1st 2008)

254

Christian, Robert – Common Sense Renewed p. 14-15

255

Christian, Robert – Common Sense Renewed page 6

256

National Public Radio NPR (July 1st 1998)

257

TechnoCalyps - Part II - Preparing for the Singularity (2008) Documentary by Frank Theys

258

Cirlot, J.E - Dictionary of symbols page 255.

259

Hall, Manly P. - Secret Teachings of All Ages page 118

260

Zechariah 11:17

261

Hall, Manly P. - The Secret Teachings of All Ages p. 272

262

Hall, Manly P – The Secret Teachings of All Ages p. Ixxxviii

263



Blavatsky, H.P. – The Secret Doctrine v. II p. 283

264

Crowley, Aleister - Magick: In Theory and Practice p. 193

265

Pike, Albert – Morals and Dogma p. 734

266

Hall, Manly P. - The Secret Teachings of All Ages p. 282

267

Hall, Manly P. - The Secret Teachings of All Ages p. 283

268

The Economist “Get Ready for the Phoenix” (01/9/88) Vol. 306, pp 9-10

269

Cirlot, J.E.– Dictionary of Symbol 235-236

270

Levi, Eliphas - Transcendental Magic

271

Levi, Eliphas - Transcendental Magic page 316

272

Crowley, Aleister – Magick: In Theory and Practice page 193

273

Levi, Eliphas - Transcendental Magic p. 7-8

274

Levi, Eliphas – Transcendental Magic p. 307

275

Cerlot, J. E - The Dictionary of Symbols page 295

276

Hall, Manly P. – The Secret Teachings of All Ages p. 189

277

Hall, Manly P. - Lectures on Ancient Philosophy page 163

278

Blavatsky, H.P. – The Secret Doctrine v. II p. 244

279

Springmeier, Fritz – Bloodlines of the Illuminati page 191



280

Ibid

281

Rockefeller, David - Memoirs page 405.

282

PBS The World of David Rockefeller (1980) hosted by Bill Moyers

283

Quigley, Carroll – Tragedy and Hope page 950

284

Quigley, Carroll – Tragedy and Hope pages 951-952

285

Quigley, Carroll – Tragedy and Hope pages 1247-1248

286

Quigley, Carroll – Tragedy and Hope page 324

287

Rotberg, Robert - The Founder: Cecil Rhodes and the Pursuit of Power (1988) page 101-102

288

Bernays, Edward – Propaganda page 37-38

289

Bernays, Edward – Propaganda page 47-48

290

Bernays, Edward – Propaganda page 63

291

New York Times - “Group of Girls Puff at Cigarettes as a Gesture of Freedom” (April 1st 1929)

292

Wilson, Woodrow -The New Freedom, Chapter I: The Old Order Changeth

293

This quote is disputed and various sources purporting to be its origin are debated.

294

President Kennedy’s address before the American Newspaper Publishers Association (April 27th 1961)



295

Gallup “Majority in U.S. Still Believe JFK Killed in a Conspiracy” by Art Swift (November 15, 2013)

296

President Dwight Eisenhower’s Farewell Address to the Nation (January 17, 1961)

297The

New York Times “NYT transcript of Bush speech from the Oval office January 16, 1991” (January 17, 1991)

298

George H. W. Bush State of the Union Speech (January 29th 1991)

299

Rothkopf, David - Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They are Making page 284

300

White House Press Release “President Bush Speaks to United Nations” (11/10/2001)

301

The Washington Post “The Disbelievers” by Michael Powell (September 8th 2006)

302

The Independent “Bush plotted to lure Saddam into war with fake UN plane” By Andy McSmith (February 3rd 2006)

303

NBC “Meet the Press” (2/08/2004)

304

CFR.org “Launch of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies with Vice President Dick Cheney” (February 15th 2002)

305

Think Progress “To Provoke War, Cheney Considered Proposal To Dress Up Navy Seals As Iranians And Shoot At Them” by Faiz Shakir (July 31, 2008)

306

New York Times “Bush-Cheney 9/11 Interview Won't Be Formally Recorded” by Elizabeth Bumiller and Philip Shenon (April 28 2004)

307

74th Congress House of Representatives Report, pursuant to House Resolution No. 198, 73d Congress, February 15, 1935. Quoted in: George Seldes, 1000 Americans (1947), pp. 290–292. See also Schmidt, p. 245



308

Brzenzinski, Zbigniew - Between Two Ages: America's Role in the Technetronic Era (1970 Viking Press)

309

Brzenzinski, Zbigniew The Grand Chessboard page 211

310

Brzenzinski, Zbigniew - The Grand Chessboard page 25

311

YouTube: Zbigniew Brzenzinzki Deeply Troubled

312

YouTube: CFR Meeting - Zbigniew Brzenzski Fears Global Awakening

313

New York Times “Hylan Adds Pinchot to Presidency List; Foresees a Revolt” (December 10, 1922)

314

Ibid

315

Ibid

316

The London Press (1922)

317

Forbes “The Twenty Most Influential Business Men of All Time” by Michael Noel (7-29-2005)

318

Ferguson, Niall - The House of Rothschild (vol. 2) : The World's Banker: 1849-1999 Diane Publishing Co. (1999)

319

Ferguson, Niall - The House of Rothschild (vol.1): Money’s Prophets, 1798-1848 Penguin Publishing (1999)

320

The Independent “Rothschild loses libel case, and reveals secret world of money and politics” (April 29th 2014)



321

Senate Report (Senate Foreign Relations Committee) (February 17th 1950). Revision of the United Nations Charter: Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Foreign Relations, Eighty-First Congress. United States Government Printing Office. p. 494.

322

SMH.com.au “Why the law wants a word with Kissinger” by Christopher Hitchens (April 30th 2002)

323

Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein The Final Days second Touchstone paperback edition (1994) Chapter 14, pp. 194-195

324

Rothkopf, David - Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They are Making Preface page xiv

325

Rothkopf, David - Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They are Making Preface page xiv

326

Rothkopf, David - Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They are Making Preface page xiv

327

Rothkopf, David- Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They are Making Preface page xviii

328

Rothkopf, David - Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They are Making page 257

329

Rothkopf, David- Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They are Making Page 265

330

Rothkopf, David- Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They are Making Page 283

331

Nixon, Richard - Memoirs (1978)

332

Phillips, Peter - A Relative Advantage: Sociology of the San Francisco Bohemian Club. A Doctoral Dissertation (1994) page 95 citing Domhoff 1974 p.42



333

President Richard M. Nixon on the Watergate tapes in 1971 conversation with John D. Ehrlichman, and H. R. Haldeman made public in 1999 by the National Archives

334

The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799. John C. Fitzpatrick, Editor. Mount Vernon, October 24, 1798.

335

Fox News Channel “Hannity” (March 30th 2009)

336

Hillary: The Movie (2008) produced by Citizens United

337

Sunstein, Cass R. “Conspiracy Theories” Harvard University - Harvard Law School (January 15, 2008) page 14

338

Sunstein, Cass R. & Vermeule, Adrian “Conspiracy Theories: Causes and Cures,” 17 Journal of Political Philosophy 202 (2008)

339

Sunstein, Cass R. & Vermeule, Adrian “Conspiracy Theories: Causes and Cures,” 17 Journal of Political Philosophy 202 (2008) page 15

340

YouTube “Cass Sunstein Predicts Repealing Right To Bear Arms”

341

USA Today “NSA Intercepts Computer Deliveries” by Raphael Satter, Associated Press (December 29, 2013)

342

TechDirt “Latest Snowden Revelations Suggest GCHQ Is Just Like 4Chan Trolls, But With More Firepower” by Mike Masnick (July 14th 2014)

343

TIME Magazine “U.K. Spy Agency Stored Millions of Webcam Images” by Denver Nicks (February 27th 2014)

344

ABC News “LoveINT: Given Immense Powers, NSA Employees Super Cyber-Stalked Their Crushes” by Lee Ferran (September 27th 2013)



345

Washington Times “NSA program MYSTIC culls 100 percent of phone records from foreign country” by Douglas Ernst (March 18th 2014)

346

Orwell, George — Nineteen Eighty-Four page 2

347

Prophecy Club: The Arrival of the Antichrist presentation by Doc Marquis (YouTube video at 1:52 mark)

348

Prophecy Club: The Arrival of the Antichrist presentation by Doc Marquis (YouTube video at 2:46 mark)

349

Prophecy Club: The Arrival of the Antichrist presentation by Doc Marquis (YouTube 4:13 mark in video)

350

Prophecy Club: The Arrival of the Antichrist presentation by Doc Marquis (YouTube 5:33 mark in video)

351

Prophecy Club: The Arrival of the Antichrist presentation by Doc Marquis (YouTube 6:21 mark in video)

352

The Oprah Winfrey Show (June 24th 1987) WLS-TV Transcript #W203

353

Daily Mail “Sickening smile of teen accused of kidnapping, raping and murdering 15-year-old girl in 'satanic ritual’” by Michael Zennie (February 11th 2014)

354

Prophecy Club: America’s Occult Holidays, presentation by Doc Marquis

355

Prophecy Club: The Arrival of the Antichrist presentation by Doc Marquis (YouTube)

356

The Oprah Winfrey Show (June 24th 1987) WLS-TV Transcript #W203

357

The Oprah Winfrey Show (June 24th 1987) WLS-TV Transcript #W203

358

LeoZagami.com



359

http://www.leozagami.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=44&Itemid=55

360

Ibid.

361Ibid.

362

World Net Daily “Will Rockefeller build 3rd Temple? Internet abuzz with report of biblical proportions” (02/03/2010)

363

ABC News “Fresh Details on Mystery Man Clark Rockefeller as Trial Opens” by Michele McPhee (May 26th 2009)

364

Boston Globe “‘Rockefeller’ Seeks Dismissal of False Name Charge” (March 13th 2009)

365

Vanity Fair “The Man in the Rockefeller Suit” (January 2009)

366

CBS 60 Minutes “The Counterfeit Rockefeller” (April 18th 2003)

367

Taylor, Brice - Thanks for the Memories page 1

368

Taylor, Brice - Thanks for the Memories page 1

369

Taylor, Brice - Thanks for the Memories page 2

370

Taylor, Brice - Thanks for the Memories page 4

371

Taylor, Brice - Thanks for the Memories page 6

372



Taylor, Brice - Thanks for the Memories page 9

373

Taylor, Brice - Thanks for the Memories page 30

374

Canada.com “Woman sues Ottawa over CIA brainwashing at Montreal hospital” (January 11, 2007)

375

YouTube: Interview with “Jess LaVey”

376

Ibid.

377

Cornerstone Magazine Issue 98 “Selling Satan” (1992)

378

Charisma Magazine “Alleged son of Anton LaVey fails to prove identity” (7/31/2002)

379

YouTube “This is how they plan to KILL us - Elite Insider George Green”

380

ABC News “Infomercial King Kevin Trudeau Loses On $38 Million Appeal” by Alan Farnham (December 20th 2011)

381

Trudeau, Kevin - More Natural ‘Cures’ Revealed (2006) page 11

382

The Alex Jones Show (May 26, 2009) Guest Kevin Trudeau

383

Ibid.

384

Trudeau, Kevin - More Natural ‘Cures’ Revealed (2006) page 13

385

Trudeau, Kevin - More Natural ‘Cures’ Revealed (2006) page 13

386

ABC News “Infomercial King Kevin Trudeau Ordered to Jail” by James Hill (September 18th 2013)



387

FTC.gov “Judge Orders Kevin Trudeau to Pay More Than $37 Million for False Claims About Weight-Loss Book” (January 15, 2009)

388

Trudeau, Kevin - More Natural ‘Cures’ Revealed (2006) page 12

389

Trudeau, Kevin - More Natural ‘Cures’ Revealed (2006) page 12

390

Trudeau, Kevin - More Natural ‘Cures’ Revealed (2006) page 11

391

Your Wish is Your Command Infomercial with “host” Skip Linderman on “A Closer Look” (11:52 mark of interview)

392

Original explanation from www.GlobalInformationNetwork.com

393

Ibid.

394

Ibid

395

Ibid.

396

YouTube.com “Kevin Trudeau reveals 2012 Mayan Calendar TEOTWAWKI, Planet X” (posted April 2nd 2012 on Official Kevin Trudeau YouTube Channel)

397

Trudeau, Kevin - More Natural ‘Cures’ Revealed (2006) page vii

398

USA Today “TV Pitchman Kevin Trudeau Gets 10-Year Sentence” (March 18th 2014)

399

KSHB Kansas City “As infomercial king Kevin Trudeau heads to jail, his secret global club faces uncertain future” by Ryan Kath (October 17, 2013)

400

Chicago Tribune “TV pitchman Kevin Trudeau Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison” by Jason Meisner (March 17th 2014)



401

Trudeau Civil Case Document 713 07-15-13 (DX25 at 6; FTCX 90 at 103)

402Case:

1:03-cv-03904 Document #: 481-1 Filed: 07/13/12 Page 8 of 22 PageID #:6777

403

Case: 1:03-cv-03904 Document #: 713 Filed: 07/15/13 Page 3 of 35 PageID #:11594 (FTCX 14, Babenko Dep. 96:16-97:3, 100:3-24.)

404Case:

1:03-cv-03904 Document #: 481-1 Filed: 07/13/12 Page 14 of 22 PageID #:6783

405

Chicago Tribune “TV pitchman Kevin Trudeau sentenced to 10 years in prison” by Jason Meisner (March 17th 2014)

406

Johnson, George – Architects of Fear Page 222

407

The term was first identified in the article Mass Communication, Popular Taste and Organized Social Action, by Paul F. Lazarsfeld, and Robert K. Merton.

408

Psychology Today “What Is the Bystander Effect?”

409

Barkun, Michael - A Culture of Conspiracy page 39-40

410

Barkun, Michael - A Culture of Conspiracy Preface page ix

411

San Francisco Chronicle “Professors Want Own Names Put on Middle East Blacklist by Tanya Schevitz (September 8th 2002)

412

History Channel “History’s Mysteries: Secret Societies” (2001)

413



Pipes, Daniel - Conspiracy: How the Paranoid Style Flourishes and Where it Comes From page 8

414

Pipes, Daniel - Conspiracy: How the Paranoid Style Flourishes and Where it Comes From page 159.

415

Pipes, Daniel - Conspiracy: How the Paranoid Style Flourishes and Where it Comes From page 161-162

416

Pipes, Daniel - Conspiracy: How the Paranoid Style Flourishes and Where it Comes From page 142

417

Pipes, Daniel - Conspiracy: How the Paranoid Style Flourishes and Where it Comes From page

62

418



History Channel “History’s Mysteries: Secret Societies” (2001)

The

New World Order Facts & Fiction

Mark Dice The Resistance San Diego, CA

The New World Order: Facts & Fiction © 2010 by Mark Dice and The Resistance All Rights Reserved Published by The Resistance San Diego, CA No part of the text within this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form and by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher and the author. Printed in the United States of America First edition printed in February 2010 Visit www.MarkDice.com

Table of Contents About the Author

Introduction

Calls for a New World Order

World Governed by the Elite Through Occult Secret Societies

Mainstream Media Controlled

High Level Officials and Institutions within the NWO are Above the Law

Immorality and Destructive Behavior is Encouraged

Banking, Money, and Taxes

One World Currency

Population Reduction

One World Religion

A Global Dictator Claiming to be God

Global Police and Military Force

A Nation of Spies

Elimination of the Right to Bear Arms

Elimination of National Sovereignty

Monitoring the Population with Big Brother.

A Medicated and Sedated Population

Science and Technology

Global Warming / Climate Change

Fringe Topics

Conclusion

Footnotes

About the Author Mark Dice has loved to read nonfiction books since just after he graduated High School in 1996 as he tried to figure out the world and find his place in it. Some things didn’t quite make sense to him until he learned about the powerful elite private organizations and secret societies that hold the true power in politics, banking, and the media.

After countless hours of research Mark has written several books on the subjects of secret societies, Big Brother, and the New World Order. His passion and dedication of educating others has been covered by numerous mainstream media outlets, many of which have simply attacked Mark for his beliefs that a global criminal mafia called the Illuminati operates under the cover of various organizations and manipulate political and financial arenas, slowly eroding the Constitution and America’s sovereignty and leading us into a New World Order. Mark Dice believes that the Illuminati are fulfilling Bible Prophecy by creating a global government called the New World Order, that will one day be the infrastructure that the Antichrist will use to become a global dictator. He also believes that the New World Order promotes immorality, selfishness, materialism, and purposefully aims to keep the population entertained with television and issues of little significance in order to separate them from the political process, thus allowing the Illuminati to operate without much opposition. Whatever religion you are, or if you consider yourself agnostic or atheist, you will find the information Mark brings forth in his writings to be extremely thought provoking and enlightening. Through his books, radio interviews, and YouTube videos, Mark hopes people will become enlightened to the hidden realities of the New World Order, and can more effectively manage their lives after becoming aware of the agendas and mechanisms used to keep people mentally enslaved. Mark is a nondenominational Christians and has respect for a wide variety of faiths and belief systems. He has a bachelor’s degree in communication and lives in San Diego, California.

Introduction The world is changing at a faster pace every day. New technologies, new social trends, new threats and fears, new governmental regulations and laws, and new media content and entertainment to keep us amused for hours

on end. While it is easy to notice the fun and new benefits that this rapidly advancing world has to offer us, we are often too caught up in the moment to notice the things that are falling by the wayside and getting lost to history. “The good old days,” as some call it. With every step that civilization seems to take forward, it also seems to leave behind qualities that are universally accepted as better, but were unable to remain because “times are changing.” One thing that hasn’t changed is basic human nature. If we look back at history, thousands of years ago people were having the same basic struggles that they are having today. Struggles with health, money, and relationships; the three major categories to which nearly every human problem can be traced. Humanity’s needs have not changed, despite the dramatically different landscape and culture we find ourselves living in today. People have always struggled against oppressive and tyrannical leaders who use their power to take advantage of others. People have worked to provide themselves and their family with enough food and shelter so that they can avoid the harsh conditions that life without such things entails. And people have tried to remain healthy and hoped to avoid or cure sickness and disease. History has noted several major life-changing revolutions in mechanics and technology that altered the landscape of societies forever. The agricultural revolution allowed people to grow and store food on a massive scale and sell it to others who, as a result, did not have to grow their own food, leading to labor diversification and specialization. The industrial revolution introduced mechanical devices allowing people to build and use machines that could do the work of hundreds of people and have strength and power beyond what a human workforce could produce, forever altering agriculture, mining, manufacturing, and transportation. The digital revolution, or the information age of computers and mass communication allowed instant access to information of nearly any kind from around the world with the push of a button. We have also seen humanity grow from tribes to villages, and to cities, states, and countries. Proponents of what is called the New World Order believe that a global government is the next evolutionary step in civilization. While international agreements and cooperation between

countries around the world is needed to ensure peace and facilitate economic activities, what is disturbing is that the proponents of the New World Order have been planning and implementing their agreements in secret—often denying such plans were in the works—until agreements were finalized and no public scrutiny was given. The elite groups and individuals involved in this planning see themselves as the rightful masters of the universe and are shaping the world to fulfill their own selfish and twisted desires. Leadership circles throughout history have known how to control large populations of people through various means, many of which are underhanded and ruthless. Fear, threats, propaganda, appeals for blind patriotism and allegiance to the leadership or the country, are all strategies that continue to be used to keep the population as a whole in line and allow the current power structure to continue to operate unopposed. In today’s society, particularly in America, most people simply don’t care about politics or what is happening in Washington DC. There are, however, measurable numbers of those dedicating themselves to watchdog and activist groups who work as a check and balance system to the power structure and sometimes have measurable effects in regards to preventing certain legislation from being passed or fighting to repeal certain laws or practices that have been enacted which are unconstitutional or unfair. While many of these groups and their members mean well, they are often only aware of the tip of the iceberg of what shapes the political landscape. For those who truly seek to understand the power structure of the political world, if they look hard enough, or are lucky enough, they inevitably find the proverbial rabbit hole that leads them to discover the reality that secret societies and elite private organizations largely pull the strings and contain networks of power whose members and policies are directly responsible for corrupt and unfair legislation, nearly every major war, economic collapses, and other world altering events. Some of these organizations, such as the Council on Foreign Relations, appear on the surface to be some sort of government entity, but in reality are private organizations which yield tremendous influence over the White House and Congress. Other organizations, such as the Bilderberg group and

the Skull and Bones society are more secretive, yet when we look at the membership of such organizations and the activities these members have been involved in, it becomes clear that these groups provide the financial, personal, and logistical support to get their agendas to become realities. These agendas are frequently anti-American, unconstitutional, unfair, and completely counter to the interests of the vast majority of the population. The members of these groups put on a face of public servants and fighting for the little people, yet their allegiance is to their wealthy friends and business associates. These organizations are not merely social clubs, but are highly organized, well-funded and motivated policy makers, essentially, who operate without any oversight or checks and balance systems. The activities of such groups should take place in the halls of Congress and be open to public scrutiny, yet they have lurked behind the scenes for decades with little awareness or opposition. After even a minimal amount of investigating and research into the secret societies and private organizations such as Skull and Bones, the Bilderberg group, and the Bohemian Grove, it becomes obvious that the mainstream media is working in collaboration with such organizations in order to do everything in their power to prevent even the mere mentioning of such groups from making it on the airwaves or in print. Surely after over fifty years of Bilderberg group meetings, major television stations and newspapers would at least attempt to cover such an event, but year after year, there is usually not a single mention of it by the establishment press. Speculation and conspiracy theories aside, surely it is at least interesting that such an event occurs with such powerful politicians, business leaders, media moguls, and royalty, and should warrant some kind of coverage. Every time the G-20 meets or a similar economic forum consisting of the leaders of the world’s most powerful countries, it’s the top story around the world, yet practically the only coverage of the Bilderberg meetings comes from smaller freelance journalists and websites, or perhaps an occasional European newspaper article. Only a fool could claim that such repeated blackouts are because the event is not news worthy. And only a fool can say that there is not a secret agreement between the American mainstream media owners and the Bilderberg group itself, where the two entities have

agreed that editors will act as gate-keepers and kill any story by any reporter who even attempts to cover the event. This is largely how the New World Order was able to be created without much opposition. It is only now after the foundation has been built and its construction is near completion that word of such a thing is mentioned publicly, as its secret creators promise it will bring a new era of world peace and prosperity. The New World Order is basically the plan to create a socialist global government headed up by one world leader and a wealthy ruling class of elite politicians and businessmen, and render the rest of the world’s population powerless peasants who are endlessly stuck in the daily grind. Everyone living in the New World Order will use a single global electronic currency, have little to no political power, and have an advanced high-tech surveillance system watching over everyone to keep them in line. Historian Webster Griffin Tarpley explains, “The New World Order is a more palatable name for the Anglo-American world empire. It’s the planetary domination of London, New York, and Washington over the rest of the world. It’s hard to get people to join that or think they have a part in it if you call it the Anglo-American world empire. If you call it the New World Order, then people in India or someplace like that, or the European [i] Union, might think, well, there’s something in there for us too.”

There are other reasons most people haven’t heard of the New World Order until recently, as well. The culture implants ideas of inferiority in us, leading many to believe that they need a new car every five years, and that they need the newest cell phone with the latest features or else they themselves are old fashioned and out of touch with the times. But what shapes the culture and creates these kinds of invisible social pressures on us? It’s largely the mainstream media: The television, films, music and magazines that continuously bombard us with their materialistic and antisocial self-destructive content. Their carefully crafted messages are absorbed subconsciously by the audience which has no idea that they are essentially Pavlovian dogs being trained how to feel and how to act. The lyrics to a popular song by the 1970s rock band Rush , eloquently illustrates this by saying:

We’ve taken care of everything The words you hear, the songs you sing The pictures that give pleasure to your eyes It’s one for all, all for one We work together, common sons Never need to wonder how or why This song, titled The Temple of Syrinx , is sung from the perspective of the rulers of a fictional world where the elite leadership enjoy all the pleasures of life, while the masses of people live in servitude. This book is by no means a complete analysis of the New World Order and the people, institutions, secret societies, and ideologies involved in its creation and control. My book The Resistance Manifesto (2005, 2008) provides a thorough analysis of these issues, and lays a solid foundation of understanding that this book builds upon. This book contains additional material and focuses on more modern issues and activities involving the New World Order. If one has not read The Resistance Manifesto , I strongly advise you to do so as soon as possible, because that book will take you further down the rabbit hole than you can imagine. The Illuminati, the Bohemian Grove, Satanism, the spiritual beliefs, histories, and goals of the secret societies and elite organizations involved in creating and maintaining the New World Order are covered in detail. If you have not yet read the manifesto, do not worry, because your desire to learn the truth about this world will find nourishment with the book that is in your hands. Some of your suspicions will be confirmed with the information you find within these pages, and some things you will discover will be hard to believe. Once you have fallen down the proverbial “rabbit hole” nothing is as it seems, and it can be difficult at first to determine what is real and what is not. My book The Illuminati: Facts & Fiction has over four hundred pages of information separating some of the wild speculation

and fraudulent information from the facts regarding the Illuminati secret society, if you wish to continue on the path of discovery you are now on. In The New World Order , we will look at modern political policies that are being pushed or implemented in regards to the New World Order, as well as various social and cultural issues such as the population reduction agendas of the elite and the destruction of family values and morality that the mainstream media is helping to perpetuate. Other issues involving science and technology such as weather weapons, vaccines, and pharmaceuticals will be addressed as well. Let’s face it, there is plenty to be worried about concerning the New World Order. With the countless examples of declassified government operations and experiments involving chemical and biological agents, advanced technology, false flag terror attacks, COINTELPRO, sabotage, elite politicians involved in occult secret societies and participating in bizarre rituals at the Skull and Bones headquarters in Connecticut or in the forest at the Bohemian Grove, people can get very distraught over this information, and even paranoid. Some of the paranoia is completely understandable. With all of the proven cases of evil and corruption, when someone first hears of yet another instance that is along the same lines, it doesn’t surprise them that such a thing would be happening, and so sometimes they just simply believe it and start passing the information on to their friends and families thinking that it is true. Some of this false information is posted on the Internet by people who really do mean well, and just jump to conclusions about certain news events or rumors they hear, and get all worked up over them, when if they took a calmer approach and spent a little bit of time fact checking they could realize that their initial assumption was incorrect. A small number of people who are interested in learning about the New World Order are mentally ill people, or are prone to mental illness, and the information they discover in books, videos, and on the Internet, is so overwhelming that they can’t adequately deal with it and it serves as a catalyst sparking their illness. The establishment loves to highlight these rare individuals or others with wildly bizarre views concerning the New World Order, so that they may serve as a straw man as they are presented to

a mainstream audience to show that “all” people who talk about the New World Order or secret societies pulling the strings in major world events are “crazy” and should be ignored or ridiculed. To illustrate how people involved in researching this kind of material may jump to conclusions, I will explain two instances involving emails to me or posts on my Facebook page (Facebook.com/MarkDice). One email I received read, “The ATM machine that I use, at the local Quik-Chek convenience store here in northern New Jersey, has read: ‘Temporarily Out of Service’ for the past six days. Is anyone else seeing similar outages?” Clearly this individual is paranoid, thinking that because one ATM is out of service that there must be a national outage as some plot to prevent people from getting cash. Now, in his defense, it certainly is likely that someday large numbers of ATMs in multiple cities, or perhaps the entire country will be out of commission due to a cyber attack, so his fear is not completely unwarranted. The fact that he posted such a question for other Facebook users to give their feedback on to either confirm or deny that such a thing was happening in other cities shows the level of fear and suspicion this person has in his mind. An ordinary person or someone who isn’t so paranoid would have just assumed the machine hadn’t been fixed yet because the high school dropout working at the store making minimum wage couldn’t care less about calling the company to tell them their machine was broken. Another example also comes from my personal Facebook page where a woman posted a comment and also emailed me asking me about a friend request she had gotten from “Nathan Rothschild.” The Rothschild family, for those who don’t know, have long been involved with the elite Illuminati secret society, so when this woman got a friend request from someone with that name, she got a little worried. As it turns out, just as I immediately suspected as soon as I read her email, someone had created a page as a satire pretending to be Mr. Rothschild and listed references to wanting to take over the world and enslave humanity on the “interests and activities” section. Such a practice is actually fairly common. When this woman was told this by another Facebook friend, she emailed me back telling me not to worry about it and that, “The Rothschild page was just a parody...Jason

Bermas told me. Sorry I was freaking out. I didn’t sleep well last night. Maybe tonight will be better. My mind can rest again.” Many people often fear that one day soon they are going to get rounded up by police or military and taken to a FEMA concentration camp because they know too much, or they listen to Alex Jones’ radio show and they’ve been tracked by the government using Carnivore or Echelon, and they’re on a government watch list, or they’ve ordered several books from Amazon.com about the Illuminati or the New World Order, and so now the establishment sees them as a threat. Again, some of their suspicions and fears are justified, yet fears like this tend to be overblown and fanciful. A measurable amount of suspicion and even perhaps worry is healthy, but so is balancing it with skepticism and fact checking. People who find the proverbial rabbit hole often say that they can never look at the world in the same way, or live the same way ever again, but I strongly urge you not to turn your back on other important aspects of your life such as your family, friends, career, and fun hobbies. It is good to be aware of issues that are found within this book, but you must not let them cripple you with fear. By being aware and making others aware in a calm and rational manor, collectively we can help minimize or prevent major injustices from occurring simply due to massive grass roots resistance to such things, but you must guard your mind against becoming paranoid over such things or jumping to conclusions. My goal with this book is to give you the reader tangible evidence of a corrupt and out of control government and what the secret establishment has done, and what they are hoping and planning on doing in the future and how it will affect you. It is also my hope that with the information I bring forth in my books that you the reader can have a better understanding of the who, what, and why in our world, so that you and your family and friends can live more happy, healthy, and productive lives. It is not my intention to scare you, although some of the information is horrifying. “All I’m offering you is the truth,” as Morpheus told Neo in The Matrix . And what you see will be what was right in front of you the whole time, you just weren’t aware of it until now.

What most people think are examples of an out of control bureaucracy, are of little significance compared to the abuses of power and the freedomdestroying policies being implemented by politicians who are bought by the secret establishment. Paying too high of taxes or getting a ticket from a red light camera pale in comparison to the gross injustices that are occurring on a massive scale. Without large numbers of citizens resisting and voicing their disgust over proposed policies, we would be in a much worse situation with far fewer freedoms, but as we are coming to realize, often it doesn’t matter how loud the outcry is against a particular issue, the mainstream media is able to limit the exposure to the masses or attack those voicing the opposition to minimize their effectiveness. We have also found that large numbers of politicians will vote whatever way their owners tell them to, no matter how much they betray the people in their state or districts. The secret establishment offers them more benefits than they could imagine in the form of cash, power, and privileges. Many are compromised and blackmailed into doing what the secret establishment wants. Their extramarital affairs, illegal activities, and personal perversions are often known and documented by the establishment, and when the time arises such things are held over their head and used to coerce them to act in ways that seem contrary to logic. As the pieces of the puzzle are assembled one by one, a clear picture begins to emerge. The corrupt leadership that has weaseled their way to the pinnacles of power are doing their very best to create a New World Order where an untouchable elite is able to live lavish lifestyles and fulfill their every perverted desire, while the majority of the public is being kept occupied and out of the way by issues of celebrity drama or professional sports. The wealthy business titans have worked hand in hand with politicians to ensure that their wealth remains concentrated in the hands of their families for endless generations as they own and control the banks, vast real estate, and the infrastructure society depends on to function. These men will stop at nothing to maintain their power and wealth, and certainly wouldn’t blink an eye when stealing the retirement savings of good hard working people, encouraging immoral and reckless behavior in

society, particularly the youth, or even killing billions of people in a global genocide. This is the New World Order.

Calls for a New World Order It’s interesting that the term, “New World Order,” is not just some idea coined by conspiracy theorists to describe changes in the organization and distribution of wealth and power in the world, but is instead a term used by elitist politicians to describe their own philosophy and plans. We don’t really need a “New World Order” to ease or eliminate world hunger, mass genocide, human trafficking, or political oppression. The elitists who are in power and whose organizations support their power are the ones responsible for such horrific conditions existing on the earth. No all-powerful global government is needed to stop these things. When the term is used by politicians, what they really mean is that they want a larger bureaucracy, bigger government, more regulation, higher taxes, and they want the government to direct and control more aspects of people’s lives. They often include beautiful catchphrases of hope, peace, and change, in with their New World Order dreams, sounding like Miss America contestants wishing to end world hunger or bring about world peace. They are simply good sounding ideas with no real strategies or desire to strive for such changes and are used as a cover story to conceal their true motives. But people like things that are new. New cars, new clothes, new technologies, traveling to new places, and having new experiences. Often something new is appealing simply for the novelty of it, and the experience of change. After all, there is always room for improvement in most people’s lives. Very few people are satisfied with the fact that they have to work until the age of 65, and only enjoy perhaps two weeks of vacation a year and by the time they reach their mid-sixties, may not even have accumulated enough assets or resources to quit working, so claims of prosperous changes and a new era of abundance and economic prosperity always sound good to the average Joe, who is simply a lifetime slave to the system.

For decades, a small minority of Americans and people around the world knew of the elite’s plans for a New World Order, and had frequently tried to warn others that such a plan was in the works. And, for decades, they were frequently ignored or faced with doubts and ridicule, but as time went on, in the late twentieth century and escalating into the twenty-first century, major global political figures had begun publicly mentioning their hopes and plans for a New World Order. Even political pundit and former campaign manager for Bill Clinton, Dick Morris, admitted during an interview on the Fox News Channel that, “Those people who have been yelling the UN [United Nations] is going to take over…global government, they’ve been crazy…but now…they’re [ii] right.”

Barack Obama 44th President of the United States Barack Obama traveled to Berlin, Germany when he was running for President in 2008, where he said, “Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President, but as a citizen — a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world.” On an appearance on David Letterman’s show, Obama was talking about the problems with the War in Iraq, and said, “the way we’re going to win in the long term is not just militarily…we’ve got to give them a stake in creating the kind of world order that I think all of us would like to see.”

Nancy Pelosi Speaker of the House at the opening of the 110th Congress on January 4th 2007. “Our Founders envisioned a new America driven by optimism, opportunity, and courage. So confident were they in the new America they were advancing, they put on the great seal of the United States, ‘Novus ordo seclorum’—a new order for the ages…This vision has sustained us for more

than 200 years, and it accounts for what is best in our great nation: liberty, opportunity, and justice. Now it is our responsibility to carry forth that vision of a new America.”

George H.W. Bush 41st President of the United States “Out of these troubled times, our fifth objective – a New World Order – can emerge: a new era – freer from the threat of terror, stronger in the pursuit of justice, and more secure in the quest for peace. An era in which the nations of the world, East and West, North and South, can prosper and live in harmony. A hundred generations have searched for this elusive path to peace, while a thousand wars raged across the span of human endeavor. Today that new world is struggling to be born, a world quite different from the one we’ve known.”

Gary Hart Former Senator (D) Colorado and Co-Chair of the CFR Just three days after the 9/11 attacks, the co-chair of the Council on Foreign Relations stated, “There is a chance for the President of the United States to use the disaster…to carry out what his father – a phrase his father used I think only once, and it hasn’t been used since – and that is a New World Order.”

Henry Kissinger Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has been intimately involved with nearly every major organization or front group that is behind the push for a New World Order and was originally named the Chairman of the 9/11 Commission by President Bush which was set up to (pretend to) investigate the terrorist attacks on September 11th 2001. Kissinger resigned after widows of 9/11 [iii] victims discovered his business ties with the Bin Laden family.

In an interview on CNBC in February 2009, Kissinger was asked about the problems the new Obama administration was facing regarding the ongoing “War on Terror” and the economic meltdown, where he responded that Obama, “can give new impetus to American foreign policy partly because the reception of him is so extraordinary around the world. His task will be to develop an overall strategy for America in this period when, really, a New World Order can be created. It’s a great opportunity, it isn’t just a crisis.”

Bill Clinton President of the United States from 1993-2001 At the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., President Bill Clinton was giving a speech which was broadcast on C-Span where he said, “From 1945 and the end of the war through 1989 and the end of the cold war, we had a world view, Republican and Democratic presidents alike, from Harry Truman to George Bush…and after 1989 President Bush said, and it’s a phrase that I often use myself, and that is we need a New World Order.”

Richard Nixon President of the United States from 1969-1974 In the October 1967 edition of Foreign Affairs; (which is the Council on Foreign Relations publication) then president Richard Nixon said that, “The developing coherence of Asian regional thinking is reflected in a disposition to consider problems and loyalties in regional terms, and to evolve regional approaches to development needs and to the evolution of a New World Order.”

Angela Merkel Chancellor of Germany When giving a speech to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, “The most important thing, when attempting to overcome barriers, is: Are the nation states ready

and willing to give competencies over to multilateral organizations, no matter what it costs?…This world will not be a peaceful one if we do not [iv] work for more global order and more multilateral cooperation.”

Tony Blair British Prime Minister from 1997-2007 Tony Blair has publicly stated his desire for a New World Order on multiple occasions, once even saying, “There is a New World Order like it or not.” [v]

[vi]

[vii]

He used the term on November 12, 2001

and in 2002

and again [viii]

on January 7, 2003,

just to name a few.

Gordon Brown Prime Minister of England Gordon Brown at the 2009 G-20 meeting in London, England called for a New World Order to save the global economy from the recession sparked in 2008 by the housing collapse. He said, “I think the New World Order is emerging, and with it the foundations of a new and progressive era of international cooperation.”

Pope John Paul II Head of the Catholic Church On January 1, 2001 the pope declared at a service to mark the Roman Catholic Church’s World Day of Peace, that, “More than ever, we need a new international order that draws on the experience and results achieved in these years by the United Nations.” The headline in the London Guardian [ix] read, “Pope Calls for a New World Order.”

World Governed by the Elite Through Occult Secret Societies For anyone who takes an in-depth and unbiased look at the political process and geopolitics, the role of secret societies and elite secretive private organizations masquerading as government entities or committees, truly hold the keys to power and function as a good old boy network consisting of a small number of elite politicians and businessmen who shape the political landscape and who either are the movers and shakers seen in the mainstream media, or are the brains and puppet masters behind those who we view publicly as the popular ones. For a more complete list and analysis of these secret societies and elite organizations, you will find it in this author’s previous book titled, The Resistance Manifesto . You may already be familiar with many of these organizations, but even if this information is completely new to you, you will begin to develop a clear picture of just how the power structure of politics truly looks. Benjamin Disraeli, a British Prime Minister in the 19th century famously stated, “The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes.” These powerful groups are numerous, such as the Bilderberg group, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Skull and Bones society, the Freemasons, the Bohemian Grove, and more. The Bilderberg group meets once a year under tight security where powerful politicians, bankers, businessmen, media moguls and royalty meet to secretly discuss and disseminate their agenda for the coming months and years. The Council on Foreign Relations, which sounds like a committee in Congress, is actually a private organization used to spread New World Order propaganda and push the Bilderberg’s wishes into law. The Skull and Bones society is a recruiting center at Yale University that operates as a fraternity which invites college juniors who the organization feels will later

rise to positions of power and prestige in their career, and then grooms them and gives them access to the organization’s incredible post-graduate social network. The Bohemian Grove acts as a vacation spot where hundreds of these elite men meet in private in the rural setting of a resort built in a redwood forest grove, where they talk informally without the fear of being quoted in the press. This is also a place where they engage in bizarre rituals and sexual debauchery. The inner circles of many of these organizations often overlap each other with people involved in multiple organizations at the same time. This inner circle of elite leaders is often referred to as the Illuminati, which is a term used to identify this group of organized criminals and means “enlightened ones.” President John F. Kennedy once made a profound and chilling statement about secret societies when speaking to the American Newspaper Publishers Association. Kennedy clearly had intimate knowledge of the workings of the Illuminati and didn’t want to go along with them. Audio of this statement is widely available on the Internet. He said, “The very word ‘secrecy’ is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings.” He continued, “We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it…For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covered means for expanding its sphere of influence, on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerillas by night instead of armies by day.” “It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations, its preparations concealed, not published, its mistakes are buried not headlined, its dissenters are silenced not praised, no expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed.”

Several months prior to his assassination, John F. Kennedy had signed Executive Order No. 11110, which attempted to strip the Federal Reserve of their power to loan money to the United States government at interest. Many see this act as the major motive for the Illuminati orchestrating his assassination. More recently, former Presidential candidate congressman Ron Paul stated, “I think there are 25,000 individuals that have used offices of powers, and they are in our Universities and they are in our Congress, and they believe in one world government. And if you believe in one world government, then you are talking about undermining national sovereignty and you are talking about setting up something that you could very well call a [x] dictatorship – and those plans are there.”

The idea of secretive organizations of powerful, wealthy, and intelligent men goes back thousands of years, and should come as no surprise to anyone. What is often surprising is the occult and spiritual nature of some of these modern groups, and the beliefs and rituals that members are involved in. In the ancient past when the human race was largely unaware of science and medicine, advances in these areas were extremely important and held the power of life and death. People were also largely ignorant to the spiritual principles in the world and formulated ideas about God or gods who they believed ruled over them and controlled the weather, seasons, the crops, disease, and other aspects of life. Those intelligent thinkers who pondered the workings of the spiritual world banded together and formed what were called the Mystery Schools, which were essentially secret societies that taught these principles to its members in the form of philosophies, symbols, allegories, and rituals. The preface for The Secret Teaching of All Ages , which is one of the most popular and comprehensive books on the Mystery Schools and their teachings, reads, “It was inevitable that the initiates of the Mysteries should unite themselves against the forces seeking their extinction. Thus, while the secret doctrine with its body of disciples functioned more or less openly in ancient society, it later passed almost completely from public view. This circumstance should not be interpreted as a decline of plan or purpose. The esoteric schools remained as a powerful force for the regeneration of human

institutions…The use of indirect communication was based entirely upon practical considerations. To remain unknown was the best way to prevent a [xi] repetition of the disaster which occurred to the Knights Templar.”

Manly P. Hall, the author of The Secret Teachings of All Ages was under the impression that Mystery Schools in ancient days taught men morals, fairness, and philosophies to make them better people, and were not evil, dangerous, or devious in any way. Hall and some other New Age authors are under the impression that the Mystery Schools had been hijacked and taken over by greedy and immoral men. Certainly it is understandable that the members of such schools who were on the cutting edge of advancing knowledge in science, mathematics, and medicine could develop a superiority complex and use their knowledge and social networks to take advantage of others who were uninformed. Hall believes, “[T]he black magicians of Atlantis continued to exercise their superhuman powers until they had completely undermined and corrupted the morals of the primitive Mysteries. By establishing a sacerdotal [meaning priesthood] caste they usurped the position formerly occupied by the initiates, and seized the reins of spiritual government. Thus black magic dictated the state religion and paralyzed the intellectual and spiritual activities of the individual by demanding his complete and unhesitating acquiescence in the dogma formulated by the priest craft…These sorcerers then began the systematic destruction of all keys to the ancient wisdom, so that none might have access to the knowledge necessary to reach adeptship [xii] without first becoming one of their order.”

Alice Bailey, a famous New Age author in the twentieth century, wrote material openly explaining how occult secret societies held the true power in the world, not to expose their activities with hopes of informing the population, but rather her books were written for elite businessmen, politicians, and spiritual leaders. In her book The Externalization of the Hierarchy , she explains, “The Masonic Movement when it can be divorced from politics and social ends and from its present paralyzing condition of inertia, will meet the need of those who can, and should wield power. It is the custodian of the law; it is the home of the Mysteries and the seat of

initiation. It holds its symbolism the ritual of Deity, and the way of salvation is pictorially preserved in its work. The methods of Deity are demonstrated in its temples, and under the All-seeing Eye the work can go forward. It is a far more occult organization than can be realized, and is intended to be the training school for the coming advanced occultists. In its ceremonials lies hid the wielding of the forces connected with the growth and life of the kingdoms of nature and the unfoldment of the divine aspects [xiii] in man.”

Bailey’s writings and other occultists such as Helena Blavatsky, who wrote The Secret Doctrine (1888) are held in the highest regard by the establishment, and explain the philosophies and plans of elite secret societies quite openly. The information is considered hidden in plain sight and is mostly only found by those who have a desire to join the establishment. Most people, if they even read books at all, are only concerned with the latest pop culture novels anyway, and don’t have the desire, nor the mental capacity to understand the esoteric philosophies and plans that are written openly in occult books, such as Alice Bailey’s or Helena Blavatsky’s. Bailey openly admits, “The Hierarchy directs world events, as far as mankind will permit…the unfolding consciousness may express itself through developing and adequate social, political, religious and economic world forms. They give direction; They throw a light; They impress those who are in contact with Them, and through the inflow of ideas and through [xiv] revelation They definitely influence the tide of human affairs.”

She goes on to write, “The Hierarchy directs and controls, more than is realized, the unfolding cyclic cultures and their resultant civilizations. These can then provide adequate forms, temporarily useful for the emerging soul humanity. The format of cultures and civilizations receives special [xv] attention.”

This Hierarchy that she is talking about is the continuation of the ancient Mystery Schools, such as Freemasonry and the Illuminati.

In the most popular Masonic book ever written, Morals and Dogma , author Albert Pike brags, “The World will soon come to us for its Sovereigns [meaning government leaders] and Pontiffs [meaning religious leaders]. We shall constitute the equilibrium of the Universe, and be rulers over the [xvi]

Masters of the World.”

This book was published in 1872 and is considered the bible of Freemasonry. Freemasonry is often included in discussions about the New World Order, a charge many Masons dispute. Many Freemasons deny any claims that their organization is involved in anything other than charity work, a social club, and a method to teach enlightenment philosophies, but these Masons are either trying to keep the inner circle of Freemasonry from being discussed openly, or are themselves ignorant that the secret society they are a member of has another secret society functioning within. Manly P. Hall, who is considered one of Freemasonry’s greatest philosophers and a 33rd degree mason admits, “Freemasonry is a fraternity within a fraternity—an outer organization concealing an inner brotherhood of the elect…It is necessary to establish the existence of these two separate yet interdependent orders, the one visible and the other invisible. The visible society is a splendid camaraderie of ‘free and accepted’ men enjoined to devote themselves to ethical, educational, fraternal, patriotic, and humanitarian concerns. The invisible society is a secret and most august fraternity whose members are dedicated to the service of a [xvii] mysterious arcanum arcandrum [meaning a secret or a mystery].

In Morals and Dogma Albert Pike reveals that Masons who are “in the know” about the true beliefs and activities of Freemasonry, would never reveal them to anyone. “Masonry, like all the Religions, all the Mysteries, Hermeticism and Alchemy, conceals [emphasis in original] its secrets from all except the Adepts and Sages, or the Elect, and uses false explanations and misinterpretations of its symbols to mislead those who deserve only to be misled; to conceal the Truth, which it [the Mason] calls Light, from [xviii] them, and to draw them away from it.”

Again, those in the lower levels of Freemasonry will deny that the organization is anything more than a fraternity, but Pike and others openly admit that it is a religion. “Every Masonic Lodge is a temple of religion; [xix] and its teachings are instruction in religion.”

The original writings of Adam Weishaupt, the man credited with starting the original Illuminati in Germany in 1776 had his and others secret letters discovered and seized by authorities in 1786 and when they are read, it becomes clear that he formulated specific goals and strategies for his network to occupy positions of power and privilege and operate without the public’s knowledge. His attitude is the same as that reflected in the writings of Albert Pike, although more diabolical because Weishaupt never intended them to be seen by anyone other than Illuminati members. Weishaupt wrote, “I shall therefore press the cultivation of science, especially such sciences as may have an influence on our reception in the world; and may serve to remove obstacles out of the way…Only those who are assuredly proper subjects shall be picked out from among the inferior classes for the higher mysteries…And in particular, every person shall be made a spy on another and on all around him.” “Nothing can escape our sight; by these means we shall readily discover who are contented, and receive with relish the peculiar state-doctrines and religious opinions that are laid before them; and, at last, the trustworthy alone will be admitted to a participation of the whole maxims and political constitution of the Order.” “In a council composed of such members we shall labor at the contrivance of means to drive by degrees the enemies of reason and of humanity out of the world, and to establish a peculiar morality and religion fitted for the great Society of mankind.” Weishaupt never intended his correspondence or network to become public, but in the years that passed, the Illuminati’s philosophies and goals have obviously been carried on by men who share the same vision outlined and developed by Weishaupt in 1776.

In 1966 a professor and elite insider at Princeton University named Carroll Quigley published a book titled Tragedy and Hope , which openly admits that a network of secret societies hold the true power in politics and banking. The book was meant for other elitists as a way to teach them how the world really works. Quigley wrote, “The chief problem of American political life for a long time has been how to make the two Congressional parties more national and international…(therefore the) argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers…Instead the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can ‘throw the rascals out’ at any election without leading [xx] to any profound or extensive shifts in policy.”

One might wonder why he would openly admit that it didn’t matter which political party, Republican or Democrat, was in power since the leadership of both will work in concert with the secret agenda to create the New World Order, but Quigley and other elite insiders know that the majority of the public would never even think of reading his book, and instead read novels about vampires (the Twilight Series) or young sorcerers (Harry Potter). In October 2009 a YouTube video was posted of Obama’s White House communications director Anita Dunn speaking to a group of students where she told them that her favorite political philosopher is Mao Tse Tung, the Chinese Communist revolutionary responsible for the murders of millions of Chinese during his reign. Most of the students probably didn’t even know who Mao Tse Tung was, or the atrocities he committed, but Dunn’s admiration for the dictator shows the mindset of the New World Order’s leadership circle. Another interesting video clip giving a glimpse into the minds of modern elite politicians comes from Ron Bloom, Obama’s manufacturing czar. At a forum for the Union League Club in New York City which took place on February 27th and 28th in 2008, Bloom told attendees, “Generally speaking, we get the joke. We know that the free market is nonsense. We know that the whole point is to game the system to beat the market, or at least find

someone who will pay you a lot of money because they’re convinced that there is a free lunch. We know that this is largely about power. That this is an adults only, no limit game. We kind of agree with Mao that political power comes largely from the barrel of a gun. And we get it, that if you want a friend you should get a dog.” Some say he was saying such comments in jest, while others insist the comments reveal the actual beliefs of the secret establishment. The modern organizations that are shaping the New World Order have carried on the tradition of the ancient Mystery Schools by elevating themselves and their members above the rest of society through their good old boy networks, control of the mainstream media, and their influence over politicians through bribes, coercion, and in some cases blackmail. They have done a great job of keeping the general public distracted with sports, pop culture, and issues of little significance, while they make and implement decisions that negatively affect us all. Establishment insiders become arrogant, selfish, and corrupt and while politicians masquerade as “public servants,” they really only serve themselves and their partners in crime. They are very often Luciferians or Satanists which means that they identify Satan or Lucifer as being a hero for breaking the rules and doing what he wants. Whether their “worship” of Satan is literal or metaphorical is debatable, but what is not debatable is that they privately philosophically see Satan as a source of good, knowledge, and wisdom and systematically break the golden rule of life while thinking only of themselves and having no regard for the thoughts, feelings, or rights of others. Helena Blavatsky wrote openly in The Secret Doctrine that, “Satan will now be shown, in the teaching of the Secret Doctrine, allegorized as Good, [xxi]

and Sacrifice, a God of Wisdom,”

and this is what these people believe. If this concept is new to you, it is quite shocking, and perhaps unbelievable, but when you come to understand more of this philosophy, it becomes undeniable that most of the inner circle of the Illuminati establishment and their subsidiary networks are Luciferians or Satanists. They believe, as most

occultists do, that Lucifer and Satan are symbolic of knowledge and intelligence, and that humans were nothing but ignorant animals until Satan came to the Garden of Eden and “set Man free” by convincing Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This may just be an allegorical belief which the elite use to convince themselves and their collaborators that there is no afterlife, no Heaven or Hell, and thus they have decided to live the high life here and now and will take all they can get no matter how unfair or how many people get shortchanged, hurt, or killed as a result. Since in their mind there is no judgment by God for their sins after their death because they believe we are just advanced animals, they see nothing holding them back from doing whatever they want. The fact that most elite politicians, businessmen, and bankers are members of organizations like the Skull and Bones society, and enjoy visiting the Bohemian Grove and participating in, or viewing what can only be described as human sacrifice reenactment rituals using effigies, shows that these individuals revel in the fact that they are considered the “evil rulers of the world.” Their satanic world view and philosophy is really no different than the Jewish Pharisees who held a monopoly on spiritual knowledge and used it for their own personal benefit at the expense of those less informed. One of the main themes taught by the story of Jesus in the New Testament is that He represents God in human form, who came to earth to allow everyone a direct line to, and knowledge of God and the Kingdom of Heaven. Barrack Obama has quoted lines from Communist Saul Alinsky’s book Rules for Radicals during his speeches when he was running for president in 2008 and Hilary Clinton wrote her college thesis on Alinsky when she [xxii]

was at Wellesley College.

It’s interesting to note that in the Dedication page of his book, Alinsky pays tribute to the people he saw as past “radicals,” and lists them off, and then writes, “Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history...the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom — Lucifer.”

Hollywood producer Aaron Russo became politically active later in his career and in 2006 did a sit down interview with Alex Jones from Infowars.com where he described his friendship with Nick Rockefeller and the insider information he revealed to him. The Rockefeller family, for those who don’t know, have been at the core of the New World Order for generations and have used their family’s enormous wealth and influence to move the agenda for the New World Order from the secret meetings of the Bilderberg group and other informal gatherings, into the minds of globalist politicians and businessmen. The Rockefeller family and their “non-profit” foundations have their fingerprints on nearly every aspect of the New World Order. In this amazing interview that Aaron Russo gives, he explains that Nick Rockefeller had befriended him after seeing his film Mad as Hell and learning that Russo was running for governor of Nevada in 1998. Apparently Rockefeller thought that Russo may be of service to their agenda, even suggesting that he join the Council on Foreign Relations. Throughout the course of their meetings as their relationship progressed, Rockefeller revealed some startling insider information to him. “He was the one who told me 11 months before 9/11 that there was going to be an event, never told me what the event was going to be, but there was going to be an event, and out of that event, we would invade Afghanistan to run pipelines from the Caspian Sea; We were going to invade Iraq to take over the oil fields and establish a base in the Middle East and make it all part of the New World Order; and we’d go after Chavez in Venezuela…and there’s going to be this War on Terror, of which there is no real enemy and the whole thing is a giant hoax, but it’s a way for the government to take over the American people,” Russo explained. “9/11 was done by people in our own government and our own banking system to perpetuate the fear of the American people into subordinating themselves to anything the government wants them to do. That’s what it’s about; and to create this endless War on Terror. Look, this whole War on Terror is a fraud. It’s a farce. It’s very difficult to say it out loud because people are intimidated against saying it, cuz if you say it they want to make you out to be a nutcase.”

Russo goes on to say that Rockefeller conveyed to him that the endgame was to get the entire population chipped with RFID tags and that the global economy would be controlled by elite banksters and politicians. Russo recalls that Nick asked him what he thought woman’s liberation was about, and after he answered the conventional answer about women’s rights and equal pay, he says Nick laughed at him and called him an idiot and went on to inform him that the Rockefellers funded the women’s liberation movement for two major reasons. One was because only half of the population was being taxed, since primarily only the men worked, and the second reason was to break up the family so the state can have more time with children to indoctrinate them. He also says that Rockefeller thought the world’s population should be reduced by half. Russo didn’t have the same world view as his friend, and did not become involved in the globalist organizations that have covertly established the New World Order system. In 2006 he produced America: Freedom to Fascism which discusses the Federal Reserve Banking system, the IRS income tax, VeriChip RFIDs, and other political issues. Russo died on August 24, 2007 from cancer at the age of 64. Another, more powerful member of the Rockefeller family, David Rockefeller, wrote in his 2002 book, Memoirs on page 405, “For more than a century ideological extremists at either end of the political spectrum have seized upon well-publicized incidents such as my encounter with Castro to attack the Rockefeller family for the inordinate influence they claim we wield over American political and economic institutions. Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as “internationalists” and conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure—one world, if you will. If that’s the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.” “The anti-Rockefeller focus of these otherwise incompatible political positions owes much to Populism. “Populists” believe in conspiracies, and one of the most enduring is that a secret group of international bankers and capitalists and their minions control the world’s economy.”

David Rockefeller is one of the grandchildren of John D. Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil, and at the time when he lived, John D was the richest man in the world. David Rockefeller has had his hands in nearly every major New World Order organization in existence in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In fact, he is the founder of the Trilateral Commission and was once the Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations. He also attends nearly every Bilderberg meeting. At the time of [xxiii]

this writing, David Rockefeller (senior) is 94 years old.

He has a son, David Rockefeller Jr., who sits on the boards of numerous Rockefeller foundations. When looking into the wealthy secretive organizations behind the New World Order, besides the usual culprits of the Bilderberg group, the Council on Foreign Relations, Skull and Bones, and the Rockefellers, often Cecil Rhodes is mentioned. Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902) was a British born businessman who moved to Africa and became a politician and founder of the state of Rhodesia in Africa, which is named after him. There are two interesting aspects to Cecil Rhodes concerning the New World Order, most importantly his will which called for creating a secret society to function with the purpose of extending and maintaining British rule around the world. Also interesting is the fact that Cecil Rhodes was the founder of the DeBeers diamond monopoly which at one time controlled 90% of the world’s diamonds. Through a slick marketing campaign designed by Edward Bernays, the DeBeers diamond company has brainwashed most of the world’s women into feeling that they need a large diamond ring, earrings, and necklaces, or else their husband/boyfriend doesn’t love them. Men pay thousands of dollars to accommodate their woman’s desires for the stones, when in reality the value of diamonds are dramatically over-inflated simply because DeBeers won’t release most of their inventory to the public. Concerning Rhode’s will, it reads, “To and for the establishment, promotion and development of a Secret Society, the true aim and object whereof shall be for the extension of British rule throughout the world, the perfecting of a system of emigration from the United Kingdom, and of colonization by

British subjects of all lands where the means of livelihood are attainable by energy, labour and enterprise, and especially the occupation by British settlers of the entire Continent of Africa, the Holy Land, the Valley of the Euphrates, the Islands of Cyprus and Candia, the whole of South America, the Islands of the Pacific not heretofore possessed by Great Britain, the whole of the Malay Archipelago, the seaboard of China and Japan, the ultimate recovery of the United States of America as an integral part of the British Empire, the inauguration of a system of Colonial representation in the Imperial Parliament which may tend to weld together the disjointed members of the Empire and, finally, the foundation of so great a Power as to render wars impossible, and promote the best interests of humanity.” Rhodes will also created Rhodes Scholarships which are given to students who the establishment view as likely participants in their New World Order plan. President Bill Clinton is perhaps the most well-known Rhodes Scholar.

Mainstream Media Controlled by the Elite Any educated person knows, to some extent, the power of the mainstream media and its ability to shape public opinions. Some are also aware of the often pointless information it presents to the masses as if it were something if importance, as well as the complete blackout and non-coverage of issues that should often be the top story. Adding to the confusion are prominent members of the mainstream media who claim daily to actually be fighting the mainstream media. These are the Sean Hannity’s and Rush Limbaugh’s, whose very shtick involves pretending to be an alternative to the mainstream media, when they themselves are the most powerful propagandists and gate-keepers for this very establishment. Even though most radio and TV hosts will be seen as a left-wing person attacking the right-wing or vice a versa, mainstream hosts on either side of the political spectrum are very careful not to scratch beyond the surface of partisan politics and will never address the true power structure operating

behind the scenes which controls both right and left-wing politicians. Instead, these hosts will only focus on partisan issues many of which are of little significance, while they will never address key issues such as the Bilderberg group, the Skull and Bones society, the Bohemian Grove, or the Illuminati. Most national hosts are simply paid promoters of a political party who blame all of the country’s problems and misfortunes on the opposing political party, while never admitting the wrong doing or corruption of their own.

Adam Weishaupt on Media Adam Weishaupt, the man credited with founding the Illuminati secret society back in 1776, knew the power in controlling information, and in one of his original letters, he wrote, “By establishing reading societies, and subscription libraries, and taking these under our direction, and supplying them through our labours, we may turn the public mind which way we will.” “In like manner we must try to obtain an influence in the military academies (this may be of mighty consequence), the printing-houses, booksellers shops, chapters, and in short in all offices which have any effect, either in forming, or in managing, or even in directing the mind of man: painting and engraving are highly worth our care.” He and his fellow Illuminists also understood how powerful controlling newspapers could be to smear their enemies. One correspondence reads, “We get all the literary journals. We take care, by well-timed pieces [articles], to make the citizens and the Princes a little more noticed for certain little slips.” Their “certain little slips” refers to anything they say or do that will not be looked at favorably by the public, and the Illuminati’s “well timed pieces” will be sure to inform people of this if they didn’t like that person.

Professional Sports

Karl Marx, the secretary who was commissioned to type and publish the Communist Manifesto , is well known for a quote pertaining to religion where he called it the “opiate of the masses,” when in reality such a phrase accurately describes professional sports. Each weekend, as well as Monday nights during football season, millions upon millions of Americans eat, sleep, and dream about the NFL football games that are played. It’s fascinating when one is enlightened and “unplugged from the Matrix” to see these millions of zombies focusing all of their time, energy, and emotions on something so meaningless. People yell and scream at the TV, and often their entire mood in the following days is dependent upon whether their favorite team won or lost. Somehow, a bunch of over-paid muscle heads chasing a ball on a field of grass has become one of the most important events in their lives. They can discuss at length the poor strategies that lead to their team losing the game, and they can rattle of statistic after statistic of the performance of their favorite players, yet most of these people have no clue about the New World Order, or even current events. Super Bowl Sunday is basically a national holiday, and the stores and shopping malls look about as empty as they do on Christmas day. You can hear shouts and celebrations coming from neighbors homes from multiple directions as people jump up and down yelling and cursing at their television over the performance of their team. The next morning, the “Super Bowl Champions” are plastered on the entire front page of every major newspaper in the country, as if winning the game makes them heroes like they just saved a group of children from a burning building. Who is the mayor of the city they live in, many couldn’t tell you, but they can tell you the score of the Super Bowl and who won and what their favorite commercial was. The character Tyler Durden from the film Fight Club mocks such priorities by sarcastically saying, “Murder, crime, poverty, these things don’t concern me. What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500 channels, some guy’s name on my underwear.”

Jay Leno’s “Jay Walking”

A hilarious and popular segment created by comedian Jay Leno, titled “Jay Walking” shows just how out of touch many Americans are with issues that really matter, and are instead able to recall details about the personal lives of celebrities or how a certain football team is doing. A popular question Jay asks people is simply, “Who is the Vice President of the United States?” It’s shocking how many people don’t know. Sometimes he even brings photos of prominent political figures or business leaders and asks people who they are. Many don’t know. He then pulls out photos of pop singers and actors, and everyone is able to instantly identify them. The segment shows in a sad yet hilarious way that pop culture and celebrities are what is important to most Americans, not reality, politics or personal finance. This author has shot several YouTube videos with similar themes including one where I got people to sign a petition to increase inflation and cause hyper-inflation, and one where I tried to sell a one ounce solid gold coin worth over $1,150 at the time for only $50, but nobody had a clue how much gold was worth and nobody wanted it. With some people I dropped the price to just $5 but the people didn’t see the point in buying the gold [xxiv] coin.

The Fairness Doctrine One of many Orwellian plans in the New World Order is the “Fairness Doctrine,” which is the idea that the government needs to control the mainstream media in order to (as they claim) attempt to present both sides of issues so that one opinion or belief does not dominate the media. There is surely nothing fair about it, and the name and the concept clearly promote unfairness and only attempts to eliminate the free market and the voices of opposition against government policies. The original Fairness Doctrine was a policy of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) which regulates broadcast licenses, and was introduced in 1949 and required broadcasters to present controversial issues in a way the FCC viewed as balanced and honest. The doctrine was challenged in

court and in 1969 the United States Supreme court upheld the FCC’s right to enforce it, although later, in 1987 the Fairness Doctrine was abolished. Since then, a sizeable number of prominent (mostly Democrat) politicians have publicly stated their desire to have the Fairness Doctrine reinstated. The reason left-wing politicians favor such an idea is because liberals want larger government and want the government to be involved in people’s lives in every aspect. Another reason left-wingers tend to support the Fairness Doctrine is because talk radio has been dominated by conservatives, and so the liberals see the Fairness Doctrine as a way to silence or minimize the effect of right-wing radio. In June 2007, Senator Richard Durbin (D-Illinois) said, “It’s time to [xxv]

reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine,”

and around this same time, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco told reporters that her fellow Democratic Representatives did not want to forbid reintroduction of the Fairness Doctrine and later when asked point blank if she personally [xxvi] supported its revival, she answered, “Yes.”

Illuminati kingpin Bill Clinton threw his support behind reinstatement during a February 13, 2009 interview on the Mario Solis Marich radio show, where he said, “Well, you either ought to have the Fairness Doctrine or we ought to have more balance on the other side, because essentially there’s always been a lot of big money to support the right wing talk shows.” [xxvii]

U.S. [xxviii]

Representative Anna Eshoo (Democrat of California),

Senator [xxix]

Debbie Stabenow (D-Michigan),

Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), [xxx]

and others have all publicly expressed their desire to have the program reinstated. Democratic Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico,

Operation Mockingbird

Intelligent people have varying degrees of suspicion that the US government is in bed with the American mainstream media, and anyone who monitors the news media with discerning eyes can quite easily identify specific stories and strategies that are being used to persuade and intimidate the population. For those who want “evidence” of such manipulation, one needs to look no further than the findings of a Senate Select Committee in 1975, which confirms and details this, has occurred for decades on a scale larger than most people could imagine. Operation Mockingbird, as it was called, was exposed in 1975 during the Church Committee investigation, which then published its findings the following year. The full name of the committee which investigated and uncovered such activities was called, “The United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities” which was chaired by Senator Frank Church (D-ID). Through this investigation it became clear that such a program was developed in the 1950s for the purpose of persuading American and foreign media, as well as to use the media as gate-keepers to prevent certain information from being published and reaching the masses. In 1948 an espionage and counter-intelligence branch within the CIA was created for the purpose of “propaganda, economic warfare; preventive direct action, including sabotage, anti-sabotage, demolition and evacuation measures; subversion against hostile states, including assistance to underground resistance groups, and support of indigenous anti-Communist elements in threatened countries of the free world.” Later that year Operation Mockingbird was established to influence the domestic and foreign media. Philip Graham, the owner of The Washington Post, was first recruited to run the project within the industry and develop a network of assets. After 1953, the network had influence over twenty-five newspapers and wire agencies and was overseen by Allen Dulles, who was director of the CIA. The Mockingbird program also involved major television broadcasters, including William Paley, the CEO of CBS broadcasting.

Thomas Braden, who was the head of the International Organizations Division (IOD), which was a division of the CIA dealing with human intelligence services, played a substantial role in Operation Mockingbird and would later reveal, “If the director of CIA wanted to extend a present, say, to someone in Europe—a Labour leader—suppose he just thought, this man can use fifty thousand dollars, he’s working well and doing a good job —he could hand it to him and never have to account to anybody... There was simply no limit to the money it could spend and no limit to the people it could hire and no limit to the activities it could decide were necessary to conduct the war—the secret war....It was multinational.” According to the Congressional report published in 1976, “The CIA currently maintains a network of several hundred individuals around the world who provide intelligence for the CIA and at times attempt to influence opinion through the use of covert propaganda. These individuals provide the CIA with direct access to a large number of newspapers and periodicals, scores of press services and news agencies, radio and television stations, commercial book publishers, and other foreign media outlets.” The committee also concluded that the cost of the program was approximately $265 million a year, which when adjusted for inflation as of 2010 means that in today’s dollars the program costs an astounding one billion dollars a year. A year after the Church Committee released its findings on Operation Mockingbird, Rolling Stone magazine published an article on the program and named various prominent journalists who they alleged to be involved with it. Some of these included Ben Bradlee, who wrote for Newsweek , Stewart Alsop, who wrote for the New York Herald Tribune , James Reston (New York Times ), Charles Douglas Jackson (Time Magazine ), Walter Pincus (Washington Post ), William C. Baggs (The Miami News ), and others. In 2007 a large amount of documents known as the “Family Jewels” were declassified and released by the National Security Archive, which also revealed that the CIA had routinely wiretapped Washington-based news reporters. These individuals were most likely seen as a threat to the

establishment and were not playing along with the propaganda and gatekeeping efforts within the media establishment. As with nearly every other case of rampant institutional corruption in government agencies, the CIA claims to have ended the program—another claim that is laughable.

The Military Wanted to Hire Bloggers for Propaganda Since the Internet has been a haven for independent journalists and countless “alternative” news sites, along with bloggers who have gained a large following of people who don’t rely only on mainstream corporate news to get their information, this posed a major problem for the establishment. The major broadcast TV and radio networks, as well as the cable channels, consist of tens of millions of dollars in equipment and expensive services such as satellite feeds and camera crews, but the Internet had opened the door for one individual with a website costing only a few dollars a month to have the potential to reach millions of people simply by posting their own articles or videos. With people able to copy and paste a link from a blog and sent it out to their email list or post it on their Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter pages, a simple blog written by an ordinary person can spread like a virus around the web. Of course, the establishment saw the dangers that blogs and nonmainstream websites held for their monopoly of information, so they decided to use prominent bloggers as paid propagandists just like the talking heads in the mainstream media. In 2006 a report from the Joint Special Operations University titled Blogs and Military Information Strategy , outlined this plan. “Hiring a block of bloggers to verbally attack a specific person or promote a specific message may be worth considering,” read the report. It was written by James Kinniburgh and Dororthy Denning. The report also suggested the government hack the blogs of those seen as detrimental to the propaganda they want to spread. It reads, “[T]he enemy blog might be used covertly as a vehicle for friendly information operations. Hacking the site and subtly changing the messages and data—

merely a few words or phrases—may be sufficient to begin destroying the blogger’s credibility with the audience. Better yet, if the blogger happens to be passing enemy communications and logistics data, the information content could be corrupted.”

High Level Officials and Institutions within the NWO are Above the Law As many people are aware, certain politicians and businessmen seem to be untouchable regarding the corruption and criminal activities they are involved in. This occurs because of the power of the invisible empire and their use of coercion, threats, and blackmail. The Illuminati keep files on practically every congressman and woman, as well as media figures, business leaders, judges, military officials, and anyone of influence in the public sphere. If a politician cheats on his wife, the invisible empire most likely know about it and have documentation proving it. If a person cheats on his taxes, uses cocaine, has any bizarre hobbies or interests, they know. Frequently they will entrap people simply to gather such evidence. Imagine that you’re a prominent politician who genuinely cares for America and wants to do the right thing in a particular segment of society such as lowering taxes. Also imagine that at one time, perhaps years or even decades ago, you made the terrible mistake of cheating on your wife, or even sleeping with a high class prostitute, perhaps provided and paid for by a colleague after a cocktail party. The odds are that the Illuminati has documentation of this. Echelon, the secret electronic snooping system, probably has a recording of a telephone conversation of you bragging about it with a friend. Perhaps the person you thought was your friend who provided the prostitute for you was doing so for the express purpose of entrapping you, and the guest bedroom in the mansion of the party, or the hotel you had sex with her at, was rigged with cameras and caught the whole thing on tape.

Now fast forward to the present time where you are a politician trying to save the American people from rising taxes, and imagine you get a phone call from someone not identifying themselves but telling you that they have evidence of what you did, and perhaps play the audio of your phone call when you spoke about it. The voice on the phone now tells you to stop pressing so hard for the tax reform, or even tells you to drop your support of it all together or they will show your wife photos of what you did. What do you do? This is just one of the methods used to get people in the pocket of the secret establishment. The History Channel produced a show called, Presidential Secrets which included a segment about J. Edgar Hoover, the infamous former Director of the FBI, which quite clearly and openly explained that Hoover keep dirt on everyone he could, and used that dirt to influence people in whatever way he wanted. For 48 years Hoover was the director of the FBI under eight different presidents. He died on May 2, 1972 at the age of 77 from a heart attack. It was only after his death that the depths of corruption Hoover sunk to were revealed. Despite 35 file cabinets of his personal files being destroyed after his death by his loyal aids, volumes of information are now public which show just how dark the soul was of Hoover, as well as how powerful people can be when they have the resources of the FBI behind them. Hoover was able to use the FBI to influence both politicians, as well as Hollywood pictures. In 1971 he was told Jane Fonda would star in a film titled Klute about a prostitute helping a detective solve a mystery, and he created a file and determined to have the part removed. He hand wrote in the margin of one of the documents which was declassified, saying “Certainly, I don’t want any reference to the FBI in any picture which this tramp, Jane Fonda appears.” He was able to have various films killed or the scripts changed to prevent the portrayal of the FBI in a negative light, including preventing John Wayne from starring in a TV show titled The FBI, which ran from 1965 to 1974, because Wayne was a member of the John Birch Society, which Hoover despised. The John Birch Society is known for its political activism particularly against globalism and in support of traditional conservatism.

Anti-war rock and roll musicians were also a target of J. Edgar Hoover. Janis Joplin, Jimmy Hendrix, and particularly John Lennon of the Beatles. In 1969 Lennon released an album containing protest songs which were enraging to Hoover and the establishment, so he tried to get him deported over a marijuana charge from England. Hoover also thought that John Lennon’s outspokenness threatened Richard Nixon’s reelection. J. Edgar Hoovers files also reveal how ruthless and powerful President Roosevelt was. It was believed that his wife Eleanor was having an affair, and after this was investigated by the FBI and pretty much confirmed, FDR wanted all of the agents who worked on the case killed so they would not spread rumors about his wife’s infidelities. The files reveal that he personally ordered all men who worked on the case to be “immediately relieved of his duties and sent to the south pacific for action against the Japs until they were killed.” Hoover himself was a homosexual and hired his long-time lover Clyde Tolson, who rapidly climbed the ranks of the FBI, ultimately becoming the Associate Director of the FBI, the second highest position in the organization. The FBI and historians openly admit the rampant corruption led by J. Edgar Hoover, and of course claim to have made changes to prevent such abuses from continuing, which we know is a lie, but looking back at how much influence Hoover was able to have decades ago can send chills up one’s spine when thinking of what is possible with today’s technology.

Barney Frank One of the most perverted cases of a politician who is above the law involves Barney Frank, who has been a House Representative from Massachusetts 4th congressional district since 1982. Barney Frank is considered by many to be one of the most powerful men in Congress and became the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee in 2007 and was a major force in Obama’s economic “stimulus” package in 2009. Frank is also openly gay and back in the 1980s met a gay prostitute from a personal ad in the newspaper who later became his roommate and ran a gay

prostitution ring out of their apartment. There are also allegations that Frank has had sexual relations with underage boys as well. The Washington Times reported in 1989 that, “Frank, one of two openly gay members of Congress, confirmed Friday that he paid [Stephen L.] Gobie for sex, hired him with personal funds as an aide and wrote letters on congressional stationery on his behalf to Virginia probation officials.” [xxxi] The article continues, “Although Frank and Gobie differ in some details of their relationship, they agree on the story line. They met on April Fool’s Day 1985. The representative answered a classified ad in the Washington Blade , the local gay weekly. ‘Exceptionally good-looking, personable, muscular athlete is available. Hot bottom plus large endowment equals a [xxxii] good time.’”

The article goes on to explain that Barney Frank paid Gobie $80 for sex which marked the beginning of their relationship. Frank was in his third term then, and despite later admitting this activity, went on to become an extremely powerful man in Washington DC. Barney Frank’s current live-in boyfriend, James Ready, was arrested in [xxxiii]

2009 for growing marijuana in their backyard.

Frank claimed he had no knowledge of the plants just as he claimed to have no knowledge of Stephen L. Gobie’s gay prostitution ring he was running out of their apartment when they lived together in the 1980s. It is very interesting that Eliot Spitzer, the former governor of New York, was busted for using high class female prostitutes ending his political career and forcing him to resign, yet Barney Frank has had a sordid past with admissions of using prostitutes himself and a roommate who was a gay pimp, while Frank is hailed as a hero. Eliot Spitzer was causing trouble for AIG and other big Wall Street firms who would eventually go bankrupt and then be given billions of dollars for free by government bailouts. Some suspect that Spitzer getting busted was simply a way to get him out of the way and stop him from poking his nose around where the Illuminati didn’t want it.

Barney Frank’s admissions of paying gay prostitutes for sex, while being reprehensible by itself, pales in comparison to the allegations that he also had sexual relations with young boys who were underage and connected to the infamous Franklin Cover-up scandal in the late 1980s. Below is a transcript from a court appearance in 1999 of a man named Paul Bonacci, who claims that he engaged in sexual relations with Frank when he was underage. IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEBRASKA PAUL A. BONACCI, ( 4:91CV3037) Plaintiff, vs. TRANSCRIPT LAWRENCE E. KING, Defendants. Hearing held before the Honorable Warren K. Urbom, Senior United States District Judge, on February 5, 1999 in Lincoln, Nebraska. APPEARANCES: Mr. John DeCamp Attorney at Law 414 South llth Street Lincoln, Nebraska for Plaintiff I -N-D-E-X WITNESS Direct Cross Redirect Recross Noreen Gosch 5 Russell Nelson 36

Paul Bonacci 101 Denise Bonacci 155 (At 9:01, the following proceedings were held.) THE COURT: This is the case of Paul A. Bonacci versus Lawrence E. King, 4:91CV3037. I see the plaintiff, Mr. Paul Bonacci, here with his counsel Mr. DeCamp. I do not see anyone representing Lawrence E. King. Is there anyone here representing Mr. King? I take it not. A default judgment has been entered against him. And the purpose of this proceeding is to determine the amount of damages that are to be awarded. Mr. DeCamp, you may proceed. Want to make an opening statement or not is entirely up to you. You may do that or call your witnesses as you choose. MR. DECAMP: May it please the Court, a very, very brief opening statement. What I want to establish here today, Your Honor, if at all possible, is the entire picture or scene in which Mr. Bonacci lived and prove to this Court’s satisfaction the stories he tells in his petition are in fact true and the trauma that results from those stories is in fact very real. And even, Your Honor, we would hope that the Court, after hearing some of the evidence and information today for the first time ever, would maybe even on its own initiative take some appropriate action to correct some other wrongs or launch some other investigations that may be needed, Your Honor. THE COURT: That’s not within my authority. So I can’t do that. But I can award damages. And that’s why we’re here today. The witness, Paul Bonacci, was then asked about instances involving him being sexually abused at adult parties when he was a young boy. ANSWER: A lot of the parties when we went to, that we went to and stuff, the ones in the Twin Towers were basically for one reason. And that was for sex. QUESTION: Sex between who?

ANSWER: There was sex between adult men and some other adult men but most of it had to do with young boys and young girls. QUESTION: Young boys and young girls with each other or with older folks? ANSWER: With the older folks. Also some of the parties, there was some parties above The French Cafe that they would bring people in and stuff that were from out of town. Those were specifically for sex with minors. Also in Washington, D. C. there were, there was also parties like Rusty had already talked about where there was parties after a party. Where they would have a party where they would have a legitimate party with like some politicians, businessmen. And a lot of them never knew about what happened at the after, you know, the party afterwards and stuff. Like in Washington, D. C. there was a lot of parties where they would be senators and congressmen who had nothing to do with the sexual stuff. But there was some senators and congressmen who stayed for the parties afterwards. And one person that I’m not afraid to talk about because his, because Larry King always said him and this guy were on the opposite ends of the field because this guy was a Democrat and Larry King was a Republican. That’s a known fact and stuff. And this guy, every time I see him on TV and stuff, my wife knows my hatred for him. Because every time I see him and stuff it disgusts me because it’s—his name is Barney Frank. QUESTION: Did you have relationships with him? ANSWER: Yes. QUESTION: Where? ANSWER: In Washington, D. C. And also I was sent to a house, I believe it was in Massachusetts in Boston where I believe it was his house because there’s pictures on the wall that, with him and with different people and stuff. And that he had met I guess. But it was in his basement. End of Transcript

White House Enemies List Anyone with any sense knows that the President of the United States can order the CIA, FBI, or any agency or combination of, to illegally investigate anyone he sees as a threat to his administration’s goals, such as other politicians, reporters, or political activists. While it would be political suicide for any politician to mention this fact, one Republican Senator made a startling comment on the Senate floor about the Obama administration compiling an enemies list. Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), who served in the Nixon White House, said, “Based upon that experience and my 40 years since then in and out of public life, I want to make what I hope will be taken as a friendly suggestion to President [xxxiv] Obama and his White House: Don’t create an enemies list.”

Alexander went on to describe the corruption that occurred during the Nixon administration and said he sees “symptoms of this same kind of animus developing in the Obama administration.” He also read off a list of examples he said support his views, such as a reported attempt by the Health and Human Services Department to put a gag order on the insurer Humana, and demonizing insurance companies during the government run health care debate. He also cited the administration’s hatred of the Fox News Channel, along with Obama’s alleged taking names of bondholders who resisted the General Motors and Chrysler bailouts. Alexander also pointed out how he and Senator Bob Bennett (R-Utah) were “called out” on the White House’s blog after questioning the power of White House czars saying, “This behavior is typical of street brawls and political campaign consultants…If the president and his top aides treat people with different views as enemies instead of listening to what they have to say, they’re likely to end up with a narrow view and a feeling that the whole world is out to get them. And as those of us who served in the Nixon White House know, that can get you into a lot of trouble.” While not exactly the most reputable tabloid, The Globe published an article in September 2009 headlined 25 Enemies Obama Wants to Silence

and listed among them, Alex Jones from Infowars.com.

The Clinton Body Count While mainly a thing of the past because Bill Clinton hasn’t been president since the year 2000, the Clinton Body Count still warrants mention in our discussion of the unlimited (and illegal) power and activities that a president has. The Clinton Body Count is the name given to the long list of people who have either been murdered, or died under suspicious circumstances who had personal or professional ties to Bill Clinton. The 1994 film The Clinton Chronicles documents some of the deaths found on the Clinton Body Count and is available to watch for free on the Internet.

2008 Economic Bailout The words “stimulus” and “stimulus package” entered the public lexicon at the end of 2008 after the housing market collapsed in the United States, and caused a wave of economic destruction to sweep around the world. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was falling sometimes five and seven hundred points a day and people were getting understandably worried about the state of the economy. This is when the Bush administration proposed their staggering 700 billion dollar bailout which they said was needed to avert an economic disaster. Many were understandably against the bailout and wanted the free market to take its course and correct itself naturally when things stabilized, but the Bush administration (along with their Illuminati banking connections) wanted the stimulus package to be passed as soon as possible. Some members of Congress were privately told that if the bailout didn’t pass a vote, the country would completely collapse into a depression and massive civil unrest and martial law would be imposed to prevent massive crime and violence. Congressman Brad Sherman blew the whistle on such [xxxv] threats and called them unjustified fear mongering.

California Senator Diane Feinstein publicly admitted that her office received 91,000 phone calls and emails about the bailout, and that 85,000 of them were opposed to it, but she voted for the bailout anyway because she

said people were “confused” and “didn’t understand it” and she needed to do what was in the best interest of the country. The economic bailouts and stimulus packages of 2008 and 2009 are lengthy subjects in and of themselves, so for the sake of keeping this book to a manageable length, they are only mentioned here briefly. There are several important points to be learned regarding these issues, one of which being that Diane Feinstein’s admission that 93% of the phone calls to her office opposed the bailout, yet she voted for it anyway, shows where the allegiance lies of elite politicians and how they couldn’t care less about actually representing their constituency, but rather bow to the private interests who supply them with power and wealth. The fear-mongering and threats of a total collapse and martial law also show the low levels those in power will sink to get their way. It’s also critical to remember that only several days after the first bailout was passed by Congress in 2008, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department completely changed their mind about where the $700 billion dollars would go and who would get the money. Many of the firms that did get the money paid out huge year-end bonuses to their CEOs and top executives. Most people who have the potential to earn a bonus at their job will only qualify for it if they achieve certain goals such as a hitting certain sales figures, but numerous bankers on Wall Street got tens of millions of dollars each in bonuses as their companies collapsed in bankruptcy. Only if one is a member of the invisible empire can one get rewarded for a historic failure.

Electronic Voting Machines Voter fraud has been something that has occurred in American elections for hundreds of years. Stuffing the ballot, vote buying, misrecording of votes, and other methods of fraud have been problems in elections around the world. Joseph Stalin is quoted as once saying, "He who votes decides nothing; he who counts the votes decides everything.” While safeguards have been put in place to minimize voter fraud in elections, the increased use of electronic voting machines have complicated this process. The designs of electronic voting machines and their software

are closely guarded secrets by industry insiders but some whistle blowers have been able to show that the machines can be programmed to report whatever vote counts their creators want them to show. A documentary produced by HBO titled Hacking Democracy shows how one hacker was able to alter the vote totals to whatever numbers he wanted just by hacking the memory card for such machines. He didn’t even need access to the machine itself, the software code, or anything. All he did is place a program on a standard removable memory card for a machine, which are widely available, and he was able to alter the tallies. Many people suspect that operatives fixed the 2000 election in favor of George W. Bush using electronic voting machines. The 2004 presidential election is also suspected to have been fixed, particularly in the state of Ohio where exit polls showed John Kerry would win, but miraculously the vote counts showed different. Walden O’Dell, the CEO of Diebold Election Systems, had written a Republican fundraising letter in 2003 where he said his company was “committed to helping Ohio deliver their electoral votes to the President next year.” He was obviously referring to President Bush who was facing John Kerry in the 2004 election. When asked about this, Mark Radke, Diebold’s marketing director answered, “that quotation that appeared in a letter is something that, uh…he regrets. It’s a situation where his personal preference has come over into his business practice and he has committed to keeping a much lower profile when it comes to those kinds of activities.” So it is sad but probably true that your vote doesn’t matter in a presidential election. Whichever candidate will better serve the interests of the New World Order will be the one who secret operatives will make sure gets the most votes and becomes the next president. Such tampering actually takes place before the presidential election and is used in the primaries to ensure a particular candidate gets the nomination of his party. The final two candidates of the Republican and the Democratic parties are both most likely aware of the shady vote tampering and can only hope that the secret establishment chooses them to throw their weight behind to select as the next president of the United States.

The Original Blueprint of Domination Knowing about the rampant corruption and the methods of blackmail and coercion that go on in politics, it is interesting to look back several hundred years at the original writings of Adam Weishaupt, the founder of the Illuminati. These writings were discovered by Bavarian officials in 1786 and published shortly after. English translations and excerpts were made available in books like John Robison’s Proofs of a Conspiracy (1798), Abbe Barruel’s Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism (1797), and Proof of the Illuminati by Seth Payson (1802). The writings give a clear view into the mind and mission of founder Adam Weishaupt. He wrote, “There must (a la Jésuite ) not a single purpose ever come in sight that is ambiguous, and that may betray our aims against religion and the state. One must speak sometimes one way and sometimes another, but so as never to contradict ourselves, and so that, with respect to our true way of thinking, we may be impenetrable.” “This can be done in no other way but by secret associations, which will by degrees, and in silence, possess themselves of the government of the States, and make use of those means for this purpose…” “…the Order will, for its own sake , and therefore certainly , place every man in that situation in which he can be most effective. The pupils are convinced that the Order will rule the world. Every member therefore becomes a ruler.” Some people believe the mainstream history that says the Illuminati were dissolved after their discovery, but reading Weishaupt’s own words reveal that he had taken this possibility into consideration and made the appropriate steps to ensure the group would continue if this were to happen. He wrote, “By this plan we shall direct all mankind. In this manner, and by the simplest means, we shall set all in motion and in flames. The occupations must be so allotted and contrived, that we may, in secret, influence all political transactions…I have considered everything, and so prepared it, that if the Order should this day go to ruin, I shall in a year reestablish it more brilliant than ever.”

Wars and False Flag Terrorism No book on the New World Order would be complete without a discussion about the role wars and false flag terrorism play in the construction and expansion of the global government. This is an extremely detailed and unsettling subject and will only be briefly mentioned here. Entire books are available on specific aspects of this subject if you are interested in learning more. But it must be stated that major wars and terrorist attacks often cover sinister activities and goals the public is largely unaware of. The reasons for going to war are almost always greatly exaggerated and in numerous instances completely fabricated so the public on a large scale, and the military soldiers who will be risking their lives for that war, will believe that they are fighting for a just cause, such as protecting the United States. In reality, members of the armed forces are often used as imperialistic pawns who unknowingly help construct and expand the New World Order. For example, the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, as it is called, was the straw that broke the camel’s back and resulted in America getting fully involved in the Vietnam War. This incident refers to an event where North Vietnamese gunboats were reported to have attacked an American ship in international waters, prompting President Johnson to retaliate by entering the war. Years later private presidential tapes were released that show President Johnson and Robert McNamara, his secretary of defense, conspiring to lie and say the American ship was attacked, when in fact it was not. As any informed American now knows, the War in Iraq was based on lies that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and attempts to link him to the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001 in New York City and Washington DC. The 9/11 attacks, as many know, were a false flag terrorist attack, meaning they were aided by elements of US and foreign intelligence agencies so this traumatic event could be used to justify invading the Middle East, as well as passing legislation domestically such as the Patriot Act which eliminated various rights outlined in the Constitution. Such strategies are insidiously genius because they are so hard to oppose. After all, if there is an alleged threat, or an actual terrorist attack said to

have been perpetrated by a specific country or group, it seems only appropriate to retaliate. False flag terrorism is essentially a terrorist act carried out by a government or intelligence agency, often against one’s own people or country, which is made to look like it was done by another country or group. It is basically framing others for the act which can then be used to justify military action in response. Since most ordinary citizens, as well as those in the military and government would never imagine that leaders in their own government could be behind such an attack against their own country, the idea of incidences being false flag attacks are rarely thought of. These subjects are massive, and there is no room in this book to detail the piles of evidence for these statements, so if you are interested in learning more about the 9/11 attacks and false flag operations, you are advised to read The New Pearl Harbor by David Ray Griffin, 9/11 Synthetic Terror by Webster Tarpley, or The Terror Timeline by Paul Thompson. There are also various films that are often available to view for free on the Internet which detail the purposeful frauds that have been created by the U.S. government in order to start wars. Several of the best are: War Made Easy , Why We Fight , Terrorstorm , 9/11 Press for Truth , and Loose Change: Final Cut . Also, an interesting historical note regarding wars involves Major General Smedley Butler, who at the time of his death in 1940 was the most decorated U.S. Marine in history. Butler published a small book titled War is a Racket which exposed the corrupt profit motives for going to war. Butler also testified before a congressional committee in 1934 where he explained how he was asked to participate in a plot to overthrow president Roosevelt and install a fascist dictatorship. Since Butler was a high ranking and influential man in the Marines, the conspirators hoped he could secretly gather 500,000 men to aid in this takeover. The men behind the attempted plot were wealthy businessmen with strong ties to the Illuminati. The term “Military-industrial complex” was coined by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in his Farewell Address to the Nation on January 17, 1961. The phrase refers to the relationship between the government, particularly the armed forces, and the industries in the commercial sector that provide the weapons, development, and research for such programs and materials.

Eisenhower realized the tremendous money-making capacities of such industries and relationships, and firmly warned of the dangers such relationships could cause if abused. His speech reads in part, “A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction…” “This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together.”

Immorality and Destructive Behavior is Encouraged In the 1950s Elvis Presley’s swinging hips and sexually suggestive dancing caused a tremendous stir around the world. Some TV stations were ordered only to shoot him from the chest up in an attempt to censor his on-stage antics from the home audience. Now contrast this with today’s pop culture icons who dress like sluts like Britney Spears and others such as Christina Aguilera, Beyonce Knowles, and Lady Gaga, just to name a few.

Self-destructive, sexually immoral, and materialistic idols are built up by the media and presented to the youth as role models, while Christianity and traditional healthy values are ridiculed as old fashioned and uncool. The family is under attack, and family values and the family unit itself have slowly but dramatically deteriorated over the last few decades, and is reflected in the divorce rates and high numbers of sexually transmitted diseases, abortions, and unwed mothers. A wildly popular show amongst teenagers and young adults was MTV’s Jackass which aired from 2000 to 2002, and consisted of nothing more than amateur video footage of people performing various dangerous and childish stunts and pranks. Soon after the show began airing, a slew of reports detailed the injuries of various people imitating or attempting to recreate the idiocy they had seen on the show. The types of “stunts” performed on the show often involved people getting kicked or hit in the testicles by various objects, as well as smashing shopping carts, and even one individual (Steve-O) having things stapled to his bare butt using a staple gun. It’s also interesting to note that this individual, Steve-O, has a tattoo on his arm of the “Jesus fish” with the word “Satan” written inside, and had gotten a tattoo of a man raping a baby on his arm, but after even his close friends found it appalling, he had an ostrich tattooed over the baby to cover it up. The tattoo now shows a man [xxxvi]

having sex with the ostrich.

In the MTV Cribs episode featuring cast members of Jackass , Steve-O picks up the kitten at his apartment and introduces it to the camera as ‘Lucifer.’ On March 9, 2008, Steve-O’s friends forced him to check into Thalians [xxxvii]

Mental Health Center due to ongoing drug abuse problems.

He was placed on a 72 hour psychiatric hold which was later lengthened to 14 days [xxxviii] due to an alleged suicide attempt.

In June 2008, Steve-O pleaded guilty to felony possession of cocaine and [xxxix] avoided jail by the successful completion of his treatment program.

In a later MTV documentary covering his road to sobriety titled Steve-O:

Demise and Rise , he admitted that he would hear voices and thought that, “I was possessed by demons, and I think that’s pretty evident in some of this footage.” A spin-off from Jackass aired from 2003 to 2005, titled Viva La Bam , which consisted of a series of destructive and even cruel pranks done by Bam Margera and his friends on each other—especially on Bam’s family and was an MTV favorite for many viewers. Several views from within Bam’s home reveal a large symbol resembling an upside down satanic pentagram within a circle, called a ‘heart o gram,’ which is supposed to represent both good and evil. This heart o gram is also used as a hood ornament on Bam’s Mercedes and is the symbol for Bam’s favorite band HIM which has songs such as “Your Sweet Six Six Six.” The logo for the show Viva La Bam features the satanic hand sign ‘el Diablo’ of raising the index and pinky fingers, which has been drawn in as the letter “I” in the word “Viva,” complete with illuminating rays coming from behind it. When Jackass first aired, every teenager in the country knew who Johnny Knoxville and the other Jackasses were and the show inspired countless kids to videotape themselves and their friends trying to be “Jackasses” themselves.

Popular Music Nearly everyone in the world is familiar with the meteoric rise and fall of pop star Britney Spears as we watched her go from a sweet and seemingly innocent teen idol, to a whacked-out, shaved-head, train wreck of a mother. Her first album was release in 1999 and with each new album she sunk to new moral lows with her legions of preteen and teenage fans mimicking her every move. In 2009 Spears released an album titled Circus which contained a song named, “If You Seek Amy,” which on the surface seemed innocent enough until you heard the lyrics sung. The chorus goes, “Love me, hate me, but can’t you see what I see, all of the boys and all of the girls are begging to if you seek Amy.” It may not seem like anything unless you give it a second read, or hear the song for yourself.

The words “if you seek Amy,” blend together to sound like the letters F, U, C, K, and the word “me.” So what she is really saying is all of the boys and all of the girls want to fuck her. It’s important to note that this is not simply a coincidence or that this author is reading too much into the lyrics. The song was specifically designed to sound like this. The official video for the song begins with a news broadcast with a banner on the bottom of the screen reading, “New Britney Spears lyrics spell out obscenity in disguise.” Her album The Singles Collection , also released in 2009, includes a song titled “3” which contains lyrics about having a three-some and having sex with two guys at the same time. “Living in sin is the new thing,” she sings. Some other lyrics read: 1, 2, 3 not only you and me Got one eighty degrees And I'm caught in between In the early morning hours of November 12, 2009, someone hacked Britney’s Twitter account and changed the background graphic from one promoting her new album to one featuring pyramids inscribed with the word “Illuminati” with an all-seeing eye at the top. They also “Tweeted” (Twitter terminology for posting a message), “I hope the New World Order will arrive as soon as possible” and that “I give myself to Lucifer every day [xl]

for it to arrive as soon as possible. Glory to Satan!”

Her Twitter account had 3.7 million followers at the time, and her staff scrambled to regain control of the account as soon as the hack was discovered. Obviously the hacker is fully aware that Spears is an Illuminati icon and is promoted to poison the minds of young girls. A pop singer who goes by the name Katy Perry (Real name Katherine Hudson) was placed in the limelight in 2008 following the release of her single, “I Kissed a Girl,” which was a song about her sexually

experimenting by making out with a girl. “I kissed a girl, and I liked it / the taste of her cherry ChapStick / I kissed a girl just to try it / hope my boyfriend don’t mind it,” she sings. What’s more disturbing is that Perry’s parents are Christian pastors and she released a self-titled gospel album in 2001 before turning to the dark side. Another look at the 230 year old writings of Adam Weishaupt reveals that icons like Britney Spears and Katy Perry are playing right into the hands of the Illuminati without even knowing it. Weishaupt wrote, “There is no way of influencing men so powerfully as by means of the women. These should therefore be our chief study; we should insinuate ourselves into their good opinion, give them hints of emancipation from the tyranny of public opinion, and of standing up for themselves; it will be an immense relief to their enslaved minds to be freed from any one bond of restraint, and it will fire them the more, and cause them to work for us with zeal, without knowing that they do so; for they will only be indulging their own desire of personal admiration.” Almost everyone in the world is familiar with rapper Eminem (Marshall Mathers) but many may not be aware of just how violent and disgusting his lyrics are. Many of his songs are about killing people, raping women, doing drugs, and other violent acts. It would be foolish to say that people who listen to such music aren’t encouraged and inspired to commit violent acts as a result. In 2005 a man in London was arrested for killing a woman for [xli]

no reason after performing Eminem songs at a karaoke bar.

The man was said to idolize Eminem and even had several tattoos similar to the rap star. Eminem is also a member of a rap group called D-12, which produces music that is exclusively violent and vile, with some lyrics saying, “I will shit on you I don’t care who you are / I’ll shit on you / I don’t give a fuck about you or your car / Fuck your house / Fuck your jewelry / And fuck your watch / Fuck your wife / Fuck your kids / Fuck your family / I’ll shit on you.” Most of the group’s songs are about killing people and doing drugs. D-12 has sold over 10 million albums worldwide. On April 11th 2006 one of the

group’s members named DeShaun Dupree Holton (stage name Proof) was shot in the head and killed at a Detroit bar by a bouncer after the rapper had shot and killed another man after an altercation. He was Eminem’s best friend. Eminem also launched the career of 50 Cent who in 2008 was estimated to be worth $450 million dollars and one of the richest rappers. An example of 50 Cent’s lyrics which appear in the song I’ll Be the Shooter , are, “I-I’ll be the shooter / I-I’ll use the Colt, the Taurus, or the Ruger / I’ll pop some through ya / Dirty is what I’ll do ya / I-I’ll use the Sig, the pump, or the German Luger.” The examples of pop music containing overtly violent and sexually explicit material could go on and on. What is important to note here is not that such music exists, but that the singers and rap stars who perform such songs are built up in the mainstream media as gods and role models that children often imitate. Songs about three-somes and violence create a culture where such behavior is seen as normal. At one point in time, not that distant in the past, such songs would have been completely shunned or created a national outrage, but today many young boys and girls continuously fill their minds with such garbage from their iPods and television sets and their parents don’t have a clue, or don’t even care.

Television Commercials Everyone knows that sex sells, and using attractive women in commercials is an expected part of TV ads, but some commercials center around messages that have nothing to do with the product while still encouraging or finding humor in immoral behavior while the product may be completely innocent. One such commercial that was popular in 2009 was one for Minute Maid juice where a man is approached by a woman who is his child’s teacher saying, “I think you’re the father of one of my kids” and he mistakes her for some girl he had a drunken one night stand with on Spring Break years earlier. Teachers often refer to their students as “my kids” and apparently someone at the Minute Maid company thought it would be funny to make a commercial centered around a scumbag who slept with some slut on Spring Break when he was drunk and thought he knocked her up.

The online dating site, AshelyMadison.com advertises on TV showing a couple making out with each other and getting undressed in bed and then displays text on the screen reading, “This couple is married…but not to each other.” The company’s trademarked slogan is, “Life is short. Have an affair.” There was a time in the past when such a commercial would never be played, because no TV network would air such garbage, but in the New World Order nearly every last hint of morality has been tossed away, and hedonism, selfishness and immorality are the norm. AshleyMadison.com boasts of having 3.86 million users and is designed exclusively for married people who want to find someone else to have sex with, without their spouse knowing about it. For years now, television commercials advertising Las Vegas end with the slogan, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,” which means that you and your friends are encouraged to go there and sleep with hookers, do illegal drugs, and gamble all you can, and that nobody must mention these activities to other friends, girlfriends, wives, or family members, because most decent people would be completely appalled by such behavior. This phrase is actually trademarked by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Bureau. Las Vegas has been known as the “Sin City” for decades, but in 1999 this new “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” slogan was coined and was implemented in multiple television commercials encouraging people to visit the city and take part in all forms of debauchery it has to offer, but to keep it to themselves to avoid any social repercussions once they return home.

Video Games Today, both kids and adults enjoy playing video games and the graphics and action are beyond what anyone could have imagined who grew up playing the Atari or Nintendo game systems in the 1980s. Game types range from role playing adventures, to sports games and shoot ’em ups. With the increased processing power and graphics capabilities of these systems, there is an increased realness to the games, and when an abnormal amount of time is spent playing violent shoot ’em up games, many psychologists fear that it desensitizes people to such violence. Such games place the user in

the position where they “kill” dozens, perhaps hundreds of people, and in some games the targets aren’t “bad guys,” but instead are ordinary innocent people or police, and the point of some games is to just create havoc and kill as many people as you can, and enjoy doing it. Where passively watching countless hours of television or films depicting such violence desensitizes people to it, the active involvement of these realistic videogames dramatically increase this desensitization and teach the users to find pleasure and rewards for the more people they kill. One of the most notoriously violent videogames is the Grand Theft Auto series where players attempt to rise up the ranks of the criminal underworld through various objectives and are encouraged to commit mindless violent criminal acts. For example, in one mission the player gains points by killing people and causing destruction throughout the city and if they steal a police car and run people over with it, they receive double the number of points since they are killing with a police car, instead of if they had stolen an ordinary vehicle. The game has generated a decent amount of controversy from parents who are outraged that a game exists with such sinister goals, and the game’s creators have had multiple lawsuits filed against them claiming the game has encouraged or inspired several people to steal cars and commit multiple murders. William Buckner, who was 15 at the time, and his younger brother Josh (13) ended up killing two people after shooting them while they were driving on the freeway. They told police they went out to shoot at the side [xlii] of trucks after playing Grand Theft Auto III .

The victims’ families filed a $246 million dollar lawsuit against Rockstar Games, Take-Two Interactive Software, Wal-Mart, and Sony Computer Entertainment America who manufactures the Playstation 2 game counsel. Rockstar and its parent company, Take-Two, filed for dismissal of the lawsuit in 2003, stating in U.S. District Court that the “ideas and concepts as well as the ‘purported psychological effects’ on the Buckners are protected by the First Amendment’s free-speech clause.”

An attempt to move the lawsuit into a state court was unsuccessful under Tennessee’s consumer protection act and the plaintiffs dismissed the case. Another lawsuit involving the game was started in 2005 after a 17 year old named Devin Moore shot and killed three police officers in Alabama after he was questioned regarding a stolen vehicle. When being questioned, Moore took a gun from one of the police officers and shot and killed him and two others and then fled in a police car. One of Moore’s attorneys, Jack Thompson, claimed it was Grand Theft Auto’s graphic nature—with his constant playing time—that caused Moore to commit the murders, and Moore’s family agrees. At the time of this writing, the case has not been resolved and is ongoing. Lawyer Jack Thompson has said, “There’s no doubt in my mind that but for Devin Moore’s training on this cop killing simulator, he would not have been able to kill three cops in Fayette, Alabama who are now dead and in the ground. We are suing Take-Two, Sony, Wal-Mart, and GameStop for having trained Devin Moore to kill. He had no history of violence. No criminal record.” Another teenager named Cody Posey who was said to obsessively play the game murdered his father, stepmother, and stepsister in New Mexico. In 2009, a six-year-old boy took his mom’s car attempting to drive himself to school because he missed the bus, only to crash the car and luckily avoid serious injury. The child was able to drive the car over ten miles before crashing, and told the sheriff that he had trained how to drive on video [xliii] games, specifically mentioning Grand Theft Auto .

The Guinness World Records lists the game as the most controversial videogame series in history for glamorizing violence and its connections to [xliv] actual crimes.

Another videogame that wastes countless hours of people’s lives is the online role-playing game World of Warcraft . It’s sort of an advanced Dungeons and Dragons type of game, which has become synonymous with an antisocial outcast living in his parent’s basement. The game type is a

massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) which requires players to subscribe to a monthly service in order to play with other online gamers. The game made the Guinness Book of World Records for the most subscribed MMORPG, with more than 11.5 million monthly subscriptions. Such a game takes the players into a completely fictional fantasy land where they often find themselves spending dozens of hours a week. Such a large chunk of time obviously takes away from social activities such as hanging out with friends or going to parties, as well as physical activities like playing sports. Instead, many World of Warcraft players find themselves sitting in front of their computer screen alone hour after hour, with their social skills and physical fitness deteriorating with every passing minute.

Gay Children’s Books Everyone knows how impressionable children are. They believe in Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy, after all. While parents cannot have complete control over the values and behaviors of their children, it is undeniable that the environment children are exposed to and the values and behaviors of the adults in their life largely influence them. For example, the children of Anton LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan, all grew up and continued to carry on the legacy of their father and are avowed Satanists themselves. While homosexuality is a complex and sensitive issue, it cannot be denied that heterosexual desires, behaviors, and couples are normal, and the small percentage of homosexuals represent an abnormal minority whose strange desires and behaviors are the result of some kind of neurological or hormonal disorder. This is not to say that they should be hated for what could be something they cannot fully control. But to teach young children that homosexuality is a normal and natural thing is an absolute abomination, yet in the 21st century the homosexual indoctrination of children took a disturbing turn when various children’s books began to find their way into schools which involved plots of gay characters and were being forced on the young students.

In 2006 at Estabrook Elementary School in Lexington, Massachusetts, a teacher had chosen the theme of “weddings” for reading time, and the book she chose to read to the children was a picture book titled King and King which tells the story of two men who fall in love and get married. The book begins with a Queen nagging her unmarried son, the prince, because he is not married, saying, “When I was your age, I’d been married twice already.” The Queen brings in a bunch of princesses from neighboring kingdoms for him to choose from to be his wife, but he ended up being attracted to one of the princess’s brothers. “At last, the prince felt a stir in his heart. It was love at first sight,” the book reads. The two princes get married after a whirlwind courtship and are then crowned “king and king,” instead of king and queen. The last page shows a drawing of the two “kings” kissing each other on the lips. A similar book titled And Tango Makes Three, describes two male penguins who adopt a baby penguin and raise it together. The two penguins are clearly identified as being two men, and at one point in the story the zoo keeper says they must be in love. One school superintendent, Jennifer Filyaw, said she considered the book [xlv]

“adorable” and appropriate for children ages 4 to 8.

Parents pressured the school to have the book removed from the school library, and were opposed by gay activists who claimed that would amount to “censorship.” At the Alameda Unified School District in California in 2009 the school board voted to uphold a special LBGT (Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Transgender) curriculum, and forced 2nd graders to read And Tango Makes [xlvi] Three .

The interesting thing about those who push the homosexual agenda is that they claim everyone should not be judgmental and that all views and lifestyles should be accepted, yet at the same time, they attack conservatives or Christians who are opposed to such agendas. So while claiming people shouldn’t judge, many gays themselves judge others who have differing

opinions and values regarding homosexual agendas, even when those opposed to such things are respectful in their differences. The original writings of the Illuminati read, “We must win the common people in every corner. This will be obtained chiefly by means of the schools, and by open, hearty behavior, show, condescension, popularity, and toleration of their prejudices, which we shall at leisure root out and dispel.”

Obama’s Perverted “Safe Schools Czar” Kevin Jennings, the person president Obama appointed to be his “safe schools czar” is a homosexual who acknowledged that when he was a schoolteacher he advised a 15 year old boy to use condoms when having sex with an older man he met at a bus station bathroom. Not only did Jennings fail to report this incident of statutory rape to authorities, but in the months following he befriended this young boy who would come by his office and tell him of his gay “adventures.” Jennings writes about this in his 2007 autobiography, Mama’s Boy, Preacher’s Son: A Memoir . On page 162, Jennings writes: “Robertson soon told me the tale, about someone he’d met in Boston, how he thought he loved him, how heartbroken he was when his calls never got returned…” On page 169, he continues: “As the fall wore on, Robertson continued to drop by my office to chat, often updating me on his latest ‘adventures.’ Sometimes these startled me, and I began to underline the importance of safe sex to him.” It wouldn’t be surprising if Jennings secretly had a crush on this young boy and found sexual gratification from hearing about all of his homosexual encounters. Jennings is also the author/editor of a book titled One Teacher in 10 , which is, “A collection of more than 30 accounts by gay and lesbian teachers from schools and universities across the country. Each narrative recounts its author’s experiences either as an openly gay or lesbian teacher or during the period of coming out.” Jennings has also written about his past drug use and his contempt for religion, and promotes homosexuality in schools. Department of Education spokesman Justin Hamilton declined to comment on Jennings’ statements

about encouraging the young boy to have sex with the older man, but Arne Duncan who is Obama’s Secretary of Education, said he was “honored” to work with Jennings and described him as “uniquely qualified for his job.” [xlvii] Some defenders say the Obama administration wasn’t aware of Jennings past, but it was written clearly in his autobiography and as Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council said, “This controversy about the possible statutory rape was raised in 2004 when he received an award from the NEA. So it’s not like it’s been a secret. So I think it shows yet another failure of the Obama administration’s vetting process.” As if these issues weren’t bad enough, the perversions of Kevin Jennings actually get much worse. In March 2000 the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) of Massachusetts held a conference where workshop leaders taught children as young as 14 how to “fist” each other, which is the dangerous sexual practice of sticking an entire hand up the rectum of another individual. Kevin Jennings is the founder of GLSEN and was the keynote speaker at this conference. In 2007 he was paid over $250,000 as its executive director. At the 2001 GLSEN conference, activists handed out over 400 “fisting kits” which included rubber gloves and lubrication to the children who attended. In 2005 this same organization handed out hundreds of copies of a booklet to kids titled The Little Black Book: Queer in the 21st Century which contained sections titled: Fucking; Licking Butt; Piss Play, and Fisting , each of which describes in very graphic language the practices of these different types of gay sex activities.

Slutty Halloween Costumes It’s a well-known aspect of Halloween that young adults, particularly female college students, like to dress up in the skimpiest and sluttiest outfits possible that night, but a disturbing trend can be seen in the costumes for young children. Very skimpy and slutty costumes are now found on the shelves for very young children and some parents who are lost in the culture of the New World Order don’t think anything of it.

Fortunately there are still parents with morals and decent values. “If girls get used to dressing like this, they might want to become a whore after Halloween,” said Harlem mom Malinda Martinez, 33, who has a 6-year-old [xlviii] girl. “They’re far too grown up for kids.”

The marketing message for many children’s costumes are more blatantly sexual than ever before. “The Navy ships won’t want to leave the dock unless this cute sailor girl is on board,” reads one catalog entry for a teenyweeny sailor costume in sizes that can fit a 4-year-old that was sold by a Party City store on West 14th Street in New York City. “It is so wrong,” said Sharon Lamb, author of the book Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing Our Daughters From Marketers’ Schemes . “The message being put out there is that it’s right to be slutty on Halloween. That’s what Halloween is all about now. The one night when it’s OK to live your fantasies, marketers are telling children their fantasies should involve [xlix] sex. It is very damaging.”

An article in the New York Post explains that a reporter found an array of slutty Halloween costumes for children at a Party City on East Fourth Street in New York City, including: A Goldilocks costume suitable for a Penthouse party with clingy gingham lace-up peasant dress with a white petticoat “that’s all grown up, and you can have your porridge and more.” A pirate costume called the “High Seas Hottie” made in sizes to fit an 8year-old. A women-in-chains fantasy costume called “Convict Cutie” that features a spandex dress and lace-up bodice. A “Devil Grrrl” costume for 10 to 14-year-olds that includes a flaming-red dress and tail, skanky fishnet hose and gloves and a tiny pitchfork. “This grrrl devil likes to get things heating up!” the packaging boasts.

One blogger wrote, “Every year, it gets harder and harder to find a costume for my oldest daughter that won’t get her picked up by the cops as a street walker…I’m still on my search to find a costume that doesn’t have a miniskirt, lace-up corset or have the word ‘cutie’ in it for my 5-year-old. I may [l] have to resort to making her a ghost by throwing a sheet over her.”

Jack Black’s Prayer to Satan on MTV At the 2009 Video Music Awards on MTV, a popular award show, actor Jack Black decided to offer up a prayer of thanks to Satan. “Since we’re giving a rock award tonight, who wants to pray to the Devil with me? Let me see those horns! (referring to the El Diablo hand sign of extending the index and pinky fingers.) Now take the hand of the person next to you. Dear dark lord Satan…just wanted to ask you to grant tonight’s winners continued success in the music industry.” Much of the crowd cheered with encouragement and many held up their “Devil horns” in unison with Black. MTV continues to be a major sewer pipe pouring garbage of all kinds into the living rooms of millions.

Anti-God Advertisements in New York Sub-way Stations A coalition of eight different atheist organizations purchased a month’s worth of advertising space in a dozen subway stations in Manhattan in order to promote atheism and attack belief in God. One poster reads “A million New Yorkers are good without God. Are you?” The groups behind the ads, which calls themselves the Big Apple Coalition of Reason, say they are, “part of a coordinated multi-organizational advertising campaign designed [li] to raise awareness about people who don’t believe in a god.”

The New York City subway system is used by more than 5 million people per day. The organizers bragged that the 2009 American Religious Identification Survey indicated that approximately 15% of those surveyed check “none” for religion, up from 8% in 1990 and said that this was just the beginning of a nationwide effort to post their materials in transit systems across the country.

Atheism is promoted by the Illuminati and the establishment because they know that most religions instill moral values in people and promote a code of conduct that enriches peoples’ lives and helps them to be happier, healthier, and create systems of accountability through friends to discourage and minimize destructive, immoral, and unhealthy behaviors. A population of hedonists whose lives are in shambles because of credit card debt, alcohol and drug abuse, and destructive broken relationships are going to be too wrapped up in their own lives and problems to care about looking into what their lawmakers and politicians are doing. Such people are not going to become organized or even speak up about any issues directly affecting them and will not get in the way of the New World Order.

Alcohol and Drug Abuse Encouraged Since a population trapped in a downward spiral of drug and alcohol abuse will not care to learn about political issues or get involved, this behavior is also encouraged. Celebrities are worshiped by the mentally enslaved who mimic their behavior and habits, finding them cool and exciting. It’s interesting to learn that many musicians are complete phonies who portray a lifestyle in their music that is completely different from their personal lives. Others become nearly destroyed by the very attitudes and behaviors that shot them to stardom. Rap celebrity Dr. Dre released an album called The Chronic in 1992 which featured a large pot leaf printed on the CD face (chronic is a slang term for marijuana) and contained numerous references to smoking weed, doing drugs, and committing crimes. In August of 2008 Dr. Dre’s first son Andre Young Jr. died at the age of 20 from an overdose [lii] of heroin and morphine.

Rapper 50 Cent burst on the music scene in 2003 with his single In Da Club with lyrics saying, “You can find me in the club, bottle full of bub [alcohol] / Look mommy I got the X [Ecstasy] if you’re into taking drugs,” portraying the image of a club hopping party animal, but in interviews 50 Cent has repeatedly stated that he is a home body and doesn’t like to go out to clubs. One particular radio station in San Diego, and I’m sure in multiple other cities as well, plays the sound of a water bong (a device used for smoking

marijuana) every day at 4:20pm celebrating “420” which is a number used by pot smokers to signify smoking marijuana. This author observed a scene once in the TV show Nip/Tuck where a character pulled out a water bong and smoked weed with his grandmother. The show airs on the cable station FX. Showing a water bong being smoked on TV is something that never happened until the 21st century when society sunk to a new level as it continued to deteriorate. This author is personally fairly libertarian when it comes to marijuana laws and sees the criminalization of possession and use largely a money making ploy for private prisons, but it’s not just marijuana that is being portrayed as cool and fun. Films like Blow (2001) starring Johnny Depp sensationalize cocaine use, and Trainspotting (1996) did the same thing for heroine.

Banking, Money, and Taxes Perhaps you have noticed that frequently the largest and most extravagant buildings in most cities (and even small towns) are banks. It’s fascinating how banks make money off interest, which is one of the most lucrative businesses known to man. While most businesses build a product or provide some kind of service involving manual labor or specialized knowledge, banks make enormous profits through the seemingly magical practice of lending people money and collecting interest on the loans. When one really looks into how money is created and used, and how interest is generated from loans, it becomes clear that the banking industry is one of the pillars of the New World Order and is at the core of the elite’s ability to control people, politicians, and even governments of large countries. You’ll often hear people familiar with this issue say that the banks “create money out of nothing, and then loan it out at interest.” Such a statement is hard to grasp at first, but conveys just how big of a con the banking industry is involved in. Such a con game goes back thousands of years and is often blamed on the Jews due to their money lending practices in Biblical times.

In the 10th century the Knights Templar figured out this amazing strategy and became the first international bankers in Europe and the practice contributed greatly to their wealth. On October 13, 1307 (Friday the 13th ) the leadership of the Knights Templar was arrested in France for allegedly practicing strange and satanic rituals, a charge most prominent occultists admit was true. Surviving Knights Templar went underground and are believed to have started Freemasonry which they used as a cover for their occult beliefs and practices. Freemasons then continued to operate (and still continue) as a Mystery School which the Illuminati was able to graft onto. Besides functioning as a place to learn occult theology and mysticism, other areas of life are also taught and nurtured in these Mystery Schools such as science, business, and banking. Because the business of banking is extremely profitable, and the banks owners don’t have to build any products or really provide any services involving extensive manual labor, cunning businessmen saw the potential for virtually unlimited easy money and became involved in the industry. People like Paul Warburg, J.P. Morgan, and others monopolized the industry, thus securing their wealth for countless generations and giving them the ability to buy politicians and fund their personal plans for a global government.

The Federal Reserve In understanding the role of money and banking in the New World Order, it is important to know about the true nature of the Federal Reserve (often simply called “the Fed”). Most people think the Federal Reserve is a government owned bank in the United States or a branch of the Department of the Treasury, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. “The Federal Reserve is no more federal than Federal Express” is the joke that people familiar with this issue often tell. And they’re right. The Federal Reserve is a private group of banks that lends money to the United States government in the same way your local bank lends you money. This ingenious scheme was put in place in 1913 with the passing of the Federal Reserve Act which was drawn up in secret by a group of wealthy banksters when they met on Jekyll Island off the coast of Georgia

three years earlier. Ever since the Federal Reserve Act was put into law, the United States has become a servant to the elite international bankers and the national debt has skyrocketed out of control. Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd president of the United States once said, “I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.” Alan Greenspan, who worked as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve for over eighteen years, made an extremely candid statement once about how powerful the Federal Reserve is when being interviewed on PBS while he was promoting his book The Age of Turbulence (2007). The interviewer, Jim Lahr, asked him what the proper relationship should be between the chairman of the Federal Reserve and a president of the United States, to which Greenspan answered, “Well, first of all, the Federal Reserve is an independent agency, and that means basically that there is no other agency of government which can overrule actions that we take…what the relationships are don’t frankly matter.” To learn more about this fascinating and important issue, you are urged to watch the films, Money As Debt , The Money Masters , or Monopoly Men .

Gold and Silver People against the New World Order will often be interested in investing in gold and silver—particularly physical gold and silver—meaning they purchase coins or bars that they themselves take physical possession of, rather than just buying gold or silver stocks or certificates. The reason for this is because gold and silver are seen as real money, as opposed to a fiat currency like the US dollar. A fiat currency is a currency that isn’t backed by gold or silver. Before 1971 the US dollar was backed by gold which meant that for every dollar in circulation, there was one dollar worth of gold

in possession by the federal government or the Federal Reserve Bank. This was a way to keep inflation low since the gold supply only slowly increased, so then would inflation. But in 1971 President Nixon took the US dollar off the gold standard, meaning the Federal Reserve could print money and put it in circulation that was not backed by gold, so the rate of inflation was no longer connected to the amount of gold in existence, but rather to the number of dollars the Federal Reserve wanted to print. For decades, patriots and those in The Resistance had worried that the Federal Reserve Banking System, which is controlled by a group of private banks operating as if they were a government entity, would one day make the US dollar practically worthless because it would print so many of them it would create what is called hyper-inflation, thus destroying the value of the currency as was seen in the Weimar Republic in Germany in the 1930s, and recently in Zimbabwe, Africa where the inflation rate was so high that a bunch of bananas cost literally billions of Zimbabwe dollars. Since the year 2000 gold has went from $300 an ounce to over $1100 an ounce in the beginning of 2010. Silver went from $5.25 an ounce to $18 an ounce in the same timeframe. Some market analysts predict that gold will hit $2000 an ounce sometime into the 2010 decade, and others are even predicting $5000 an ounce. Much of the increase in the price of gold and silver isn’t because the metals are getting rarer, but rather the price is a reflection of the weakening US dollar. Gold and silver have been seen as a hedge against inflation for decades and most financial advisers recommend that 10% of a person’s investments should be held in gold. In a video that got several hundred thousand views on YouTube, this author offered to sell random strangers walking along a boardwalk on a beach a one ounce gold coin for $50, and in some cases, $20, and once tried to trade it for a cup of coffee, but nobody expressed any interest. Some didn’t want the coin because it was Canadian and didn’t think it had much value in America, not realizing that a one ounce gold coin stamped with a picture of Mickey Mouse is still an ounce of gold and can be sold at any coin shop for whatever the spot price of gold is going for that day.

Some of the comments on the video by the viewer’s said they thought the people I approached thought it was a fake coin and that was why they didn’t want to buy it for fifty bucks. These people missed the point of the video which was to show that very few people have any clue whatsoever about what the value of gold is, so I shot another video to clearly illustrate this. In the follow up video I offered random passers-by the coin for free if they knew or could guess how much gold was trading for that day within 25%. You have to see the video to really grasp the impact of it, and if you watch it you will see that adults over the age of 30 guessed as low as thirty-eight cents and as high as $245. At the time the video was shot, gold was trading for $1150 per ounce. After the “contestants,” as I called them, gave me their answer, I told them how much the coin was actually worth and captured their reactions on the video. People concerned with the New World Order are especially interested in owning physical gold and silver because they are aware of the elite’s ultimate goal of establishing one currency for the whole world, and in order to accomplish this it is likely that the United States dollar will have to be made practically worthless through hyper-inflation at which point the solution for this currency crisis will be the introduction of a new regional currency or an adoption of a global currency. (See One World Currency ) Another reason for physically holding a collection of silver coins (usually one ounce coins which is the standard weight) is the possibility that a community barter system or an underground economy may have to be used for a period of time during a hyper-inflation scenario. In the event of a hyper-inflationary depression and the US dollar becomes practically worthless, or loses 90% of its value in a short time frame, small mom and pop stores, as well as neighborhoods and perhaps entire communities may start using one ounce silver coins as money to exchange goods and services. A small local bakery may only sell loaves of bread for a one ounce silver coin, or someone with a large farm or garden may sell their produce to others in their community, but only for silver. If this sounds far-fetched you should be aware that during the hyper-inflation in Zimbabwe, street vendors stopped taking the country’s currency because of the massive daily [liii] inflation, and would only accept grams of gold for payment.

Since a one ounce gold coin has a fairly high value, it is advised that you purchase and hold onto at least a small amount of one ounce silver coins because their value can be matched with various products or services. In the event of this kind of a black market economy arising, very few transactions would need to be made in gold because one ounce of gold is worth approximately 50 times what an ounce of silver is worth. If a loaf of bread is selling for one ounce of silver, and all you have is one ounce gold coins (or even half ounce or quarter ounces) then you’re going to have to buy way more bread than you could possibly need at the moment. This would be like shopping at a Dollar Store with only $100 dollar bills and the store wouldn’t be able to give you any change.

Income Tax and the IRS A faction of The Resistance is adamant about the federal income tax being illegal, and don’t believe the 16th Amendment was properly ratified, therefore they don’t believe the income tax should be paid. Some people who believe this actually stop paying their income taxes, and a handful of people who have done so and been taken to court over it and won, are used as examples by these people as evidence that they are correct. This is a dangerous fight to pick and is extremely difficult to win. Most people who believe the income tax is illegal, still pay their taxes because they know that when it comes to the government wanting its money, they will stop at nothing to get it. Thomas Jefferson said, “the power to tax is the power to destroy,” and he was correct. Aaron Russo’s 2006 film America: Freedom to Fascism is perhaps one of the most popular films on the subject of the income tax being illegal. In the film he interviews former IRS agents, tax protesters, and others who all subscribe to the belief that the tax is illegal. Ed and Elaine Brown are a married couple from New Hampshire who got national media attention in 2007 after they had a five month standoff with federal authorities after refusing to turn themselves in after having been convicted of tax crimes. Their home was designed to function “off the grid” and they had stockpiled food and supplies, but also had help from various visitors who were allowed on the property during the standoff. The Browns

were known to be armed and police had feared another Ruby Ridge type of incident if they tried to forcefully arrest them. After the five month standoff they were eventually arrested by undercover officers posing as supporters who were invited into the house by the Browns on October 4, 2007 and were immediately arrested without incident. Four individuals who assisted the Browns during the standoff were later convicted in connection with the matter. Their sentences ranged from two and a half years to thirty six years in prison for bringing the Browns food and supplies during the standoff. Regarding tax protesters, it’s significant to note that Irwin Schiff, the father of economic guru and Senate candidate Peter Schiff, was sentenced to thirteen years in prison after being found guilty of tax evasion. The courts claimed Irwin owed over $2 million dollars in back taxes. Irwin was a prominent tax protester and conducted seminars teaching people why he thought paying income tax was illegal.

2009 Tea Party Protests April 15,th as you probably know, is “Tax Day” in America, and is the deadline for filing your yearly income tax statement. While nobody likes paying taxes, and they continuously go up with little opposition from citizens, Tax Day in 2009 was different in the United States. The Tea Party protests, as they have become known as, were (and continue to be) a nationwide coordinated protest against big government, economic stimulus packages, government spending, and high taxes in general. Millions of Americans gathered in rallies across the country to show their displeasure with the out of control government. The name “Tea Party” is a reference to the Boston Tea Party from the American Revolution where colonists boarded British ships in 1773 and destroyed large quantities of tea by throwing it in the water as a symbolic protest against taxation without representation. The liberal media collectively labeled the Tea Party protesters as “tea baggers” which is a slang term for sucking on testicles. Liberal

commentators all knew this which was evident by their inability to contain their smirks and giggles every time they said it. CNN’s Anderson Cooper (a homosexual) was interviewing David Gergen about opposition to the 2009 stimulus packages, when Gergen commented that the Republicans “still haven’t found their voice” referring to a consensus on how to deal with the ensuing recession, when Cooper jumped in and said, “it’s hard to talk when you’re tea bagging.” Cooper’s disgusting comment with clear sexual overtones caused his guests to all giggle like children. Despite a backlash by people upset with his vulgar joke, no [liv] disciplinary action was taken.

Rachel Maddow on MSNBC (another homosexual) covered the Tea Party protests with a perverted slant, emphasizing the words “tea bagging” throughout the segment, causing her off camera staff (a camera man or production assistant) to laugh out loud which was clearly audible. “They [lv]

don’t want to tea bag alone, if that’s even possible,”

she joked, again referring to the sexual connotations that such a term holds. Another left wing MSNBC host, Keith Olbermann, made a joke about cleaning up after the tea bagging and then admitted, “and that will be my last intentional double entendre on this one, at least until the end of the segment.” A double entendre is a figure of speech which is meant to be understood in either of two ways, one being straightforward, and the other less so, often risqué or inappropriate. A report posted on the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) website, titled Rage Grows in America: Anti-Government Conspiracies , lists the Tea Party protests as evidence that since the election of Barack Obama as president, “a climate of fervor and activism with manifestations ranging from incivility in public forums to acts of intimidation and violence” has occurred in America. The report contains a section titled The Tea Parties which reads, “The rapid growth of anti-government anger in the wake of Obama’s election first became apparent in the spring of 2009, when conservative groups and grass-roots activists organized a nationwide series of anti-government

rallies dubbed ‘Tea Parties.’ At these events, and later sequels, antigovernment sentiments and conspiracy theories proliferated, with a common theme being that somehow Obama had ‘stolen’ the country from [lvi] Americans.”

This report also lists Alex Jones from Infowars.com as the “Conspiracy King” and says, “Further out into the extremist fringe, one person in particular has been responsible for stirring up anti-government and antiObama conspiracy theories in the United States.”

Establishment Attempts to Demonize Critics of Obama’s Economic Policies MSNBC host Carlos Watson, who is an African American, was addressing the increased use of people labeling President Obama as a socialist because of his policies, when Watson stated, “you start to wonder, in fact, if the word socialist is becoming a code word, whether or not socialist is [lvii] becoming the new N-word.”

After a story broke about Barrack Obama’s wife Michelle having 26 aids, and conservatives were questioning why she would need so many and were concerned about the cost, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews tried to quell such criticism by stating, “When I heard people going after the first lady and the number of staff that they have, it sounds racist to me. It sounds like people [lviii] are mad we have a black first lady.”

Comedian Janeane Garofalo stated on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann that the Tea Party protests in 2009 were not about protesting out of control government spending or increasing taxes, but that, “Let’s be very honest about what this is about. It’s not about bashing democrats, it’s not about taxes, they have no idea what the Boston Tea Party was about. They don’t know their history at all. This is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up…and there is no way around that.” She was not joking.

Former Democratic President Jimmy Carter told Brian Williams during an interview on NBC that, “I think an overwhelming portion of the intentionally demonstrated animosity towards President Barrack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he’s African American….and I think it’s bubbled up to the surface because of a belief among many white people, not just in the south, but around the country, that African Americans [lix] are not qualified to lead this great country.”

The Servant Class So a private bank (the Federal Reserve) has a stranglehold over the United States government, in much of the same way that many consumers are in debt to credit cards or other unsecured loans. (An unsecured loan is a loan that is not backed by collateral.) Much of consumer debt is due to people “buying things they don’t need with money they don’t have” as the cliché goes. Dining out, bar tabs, new clothes, and vacations often rack up enormous credit card debt which then continues to rise with compounding interest, with people often only making the minimum payment that doesn’t even cover the previous month’s interest. The larger the national debt of the United States government goes, the higher taxes are raised, and the lower the standard of living gets. You often hear that “the middle class is shrinking,” which means that more and more people will never own a home or be able to retire, and will never really accumulate any valuable assets. Another cliché, “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer” is sadly coming true. A major financial goal for the New World Order is to completely erode the middle class and leave only two social classes remaining: the wealthy, and the poor working class who will forever be slaves to the system, laboring away to pay their taxes and fuel the lifestyles of the elite Illuminati. While many people fear this coming and are trying to fight against it, the vast majority of Americans are happy as long as they can get drunk and watch football on the weekends, and have come to embrace their slavery. The elite are pleased with this servant class since they are uninformed and out of the way, and while living only for the moment, they don’t even

consider the possibility that there is more to life or that they have been reduced to mere peasants.

One World Currency People who are aware of the emerging New World Order often warn of a coming one world currency, and the “mark of the beast.” In fact, many Christians are aware of Revelation 13:16-18 which states, “And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred threescore and six.” The infamous mark of the beast is fairly well known in Christian circles, and secular circles as well. The term refers to a passage in the Book of Revelation, which is the last book in the Bible, and indicates some kind of mark that the Antichrist world dictator will force everyone to take on their right hand or on their forehead, and if they don’t, then they will not be able to buy or sell anything or partake in any kind of financial transactions using money. This book of the Bible is believed by most scholars to have been written sometime between the year 68 A.D. and 90 A.D. by John of Patmos and describes his apocalyptic visions of the last days of the earth. While most Christians have heard of the mark of the beast and have some idea of what it is, unfortunately most of them do not see the underlying forces and institutions that are continuously striving to bring such a thing into reality. For decades resistance groups and those who were concerned about a New World Order saw the signs that one day the elite bankers around the world hoped to implement a single global currency and eliminate all other forms of money. This unified global currency will be transferred into an electronic currency then, and the use of cash and coins will practically be eliminated and a thing of the past.

Once this electronic currency is the universally accepted method of payment for all goods and services, every person in the world will be subjected to having each and every one of their financial transactions recorded in a database. Exactly what you buy, when you buy it, how much you paid, and what store location you bought it from will be cataloged and stored indefinitely. The days of making cash transactions for things like selling an old car, or even mowing a neighbor’s lawn will be a thing of the past. Once this system is implemented the government can ensure that they will be aware of each and every financial transaction, no matter how large or small, and be sure to tax you as they see fit. The financial transaction database on each person can also be used in ways that most people could never imagine. The financial institutions connected to your mark of the beast can sell your entire purchasing history to advertisers or even insurance companies. Are you purchasing large quantities of chocolate cake on a weekly basis? Cigarettes? Beer? Your insurance company would love to know these things, and could use such information to either increase your rates, or to place you lower on the priority list when you need medical treatment since your purchasing profile shows that you buy a lot of chocolate cake and beer and aren’t paying any monthly dues to a gym or health club. President Bill Clinton’s mentor at Georgetown University, the establishment insider named Carroll Quigley wrote in his 1966 book Tragedy and Hope that “The powers of financial capitalism had (a) far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent meetings and conferences. The apex of the systems was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world’s central banks which were themselves private corporations. Each central bank...sought to dominate its government by its ability to control Treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence cooperative politicians by subsequent economic rewards in the [lx] business world.”

The Amero The Amero is the new currency that elite globalist organizations are pushing to replace the American dollar, the Canadian dollar, and the Mexican peso. This will likely happen after the North American Union becomes official, which they are also pushing. Once regional currencies are established around the world, all those currencies will then be merged into the one world currency, and then transformed into an electronic currency. The Amero was first proposed in 1999 by a Canadian economist named Herbert G. Grubel who published a book titled The Case for the Amero . [lxi]

This was the same year that the Euro became the official currency in Europe for the European Union. Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, Robert Pastor, later had a book published in 2001 titled Toward a North American Community , where he wrote, “In the long term, the amero is in the best interests of all three [lxii]

countries,”

referring to the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Anyone who has spent any time looking at the elite organizations at the heart of the New World Order knows that the Council on Foreign Relations usually gets what it wants, and it is very telling when the chairman writes a book about wanting a North American Union and a new regional currency. An economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Eric van Wincoop, co-authored a journal article in 2001 which discussed what he said were the benefits of a regional currency, saying, “The use of different moneys across borders can form a barrier as there are costs in exchanging currencies in spot and forward markets and traders face uncertainty about currency movements that cannot always be hedged. A common currency also leads [lxiii] to greater transparency of price differentials.”

It is very interesting that elite members of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York have been promoting the idea of creating a new regional currency involving the United States, Canada,

and Mexico, while at the same time such an idea is called a conspiracy theory by most so-called financial or political experts. The reason for this is so that such a plan may be formulated and finalized without the public’s awareness so the plan for such a currency will be just a few steps from completion before it or its supporters are faced with any opposition. Since the insider’s discussions of such a plan are mainly in literature only read by other insiders and not in the mainstream press, it is basically an open secret which goes unnoticed by the masses who are distracted by the pop culture circus that is presented to them by the mainstream media.

Hal Turner’s Amero Hoax A man named Hal Turner posted a video on his YouTube channel on October 4th 2008 titled “Hal Turner Shows New AMERO Currency,” where he claimed to have in his possession an actual Amero coin he obtained from a contact at the Denver Mint. The video quickly received over 400,000 views and reached the number one spot on Google Video’s top 100 list and was spread around the Internet like wildfire. A lot of people gullibly accepted his claims, and believed that the Amero would soon be released to the public. What most people didn’t realize is that Hal Turner is a white supremacist who worked for the FBI as an informant and an agent provocateur. More on this later. The “Amero” that Turner held in his hand for his video was simply a novelty replica that could be purchased from www.AmeroCurrency.com or www.DC-Coin.com. As he is displaying his coin in his video, at one point the camera zooms in on the front and back of the coin to show the designs as he attempts to “prove” its authenticity, and if you compare the coin he is holding to the replicas sold on the Internet, they are EXACTLY the same. After someone does two minutes of research, Hal Turner’s claims become absurd and can be seen as completely fraudulent, but some of his supporters still defended him online saying that he himself was “duped” into believing that he had been sent a “real” Amero by an informant who worked at the Denver Mint. After all, the Council on Foreign Relations and other New World Order organizations have been planning such a thing for years. The previous year Turner had posted photos of “real” Amero coins on his

website, which also spread around the web, and interestingly enough he would later buy or obtain the replica and show it off to be real. A quick Google search shows anyone that the pictures of the coins were taken from the various websites that create novelty coins and replicas. Countless people must have emailed him to point this out to him, as did the comments on his blog post, so he had to know that the coins were simply replicas, but that didn’t stop him from trying to continue the hoax a year later by claiming to have an actual coin. Posting comments on the video on his YouTube channel of his alleged discovery had been disabled by him, obviously because people would post comments and links showing his coin was nothing but an easily obtained replica. Numerous counter videos were posted to YouTube exposing this hoax, and various bloggers had posted articles pointing it out as well. Two months later, on December 3rd 2008 Turner posted photos of “Amero paper currency” and wrote, “To the chagrin of the government, I have obtained new “AMERO” paper currency notes! You know, the “AMERO” . . . . the new currency that is going to replace the US Dollar, The Canadian Dollar and the Mexican Peso? Yea, the new currency that all three [lxiv] governments claim doesn’t exist. . . I have it.”

His article goes on to say how over a year ago he “first broke” the story about Amero coins being secretly created at the Denver Mint, referring to the photos he posted on his website. His article also claims that YouTube notified him that the video he had posted showing his alleged Amero coin had been deleted and his account “permanently closed at the request of the United States Treasury Department.” Turner wrote, “The Treasury department told YouTube/Google that my video was destabilizing the U.S. [lxv] Dollar and was thus a threat to national security.”

While his articles allow readers to post comments, the user is notified that the administrator (Turner) must approve all comments first, and if and when this happens, it will show up on the website. So obviously, all comments posted informing him and the readers that the photos and his claims are

fraudulent, were simply not approved, and never found their way on the website. It is incredible the number of gullible people that continue to believe Turner. By reading the comments that he had approved, it becomes clear the inability of Turner’s readers to distinguish fact from fiction. What’s worse is that Turner’s articles are often copied and pasted into emails and sent around to others by people who believe his writings and aren’t aware of his continuous lies and his admitted role as a government agent. One can see how a large percentage of the viewers of his video claiming to show an Amero will believe him at first—that the Ameros are already being coined, only to later dismiss the idea of the U.S. Dollar collapsing and being replaced by a new currency—because it turns out the video was a hoax. It’s a classic case of disinformation by mixing facts with fiction, in an attempt to prevent the public from focusing on the impact of such issues that we will ultimately face in the near future. Turner has a history of urging and hoping for violence against others, including judges, and has posted their home addresses on his website and written blogs celebrating their murders. In July 2009 Turner was arrested for allegedly posting threats to federal judges. During a court appearance his lawyer Michael Orozco pleaded with the judge saying Turner worked for the FBI beginning in 2002 as an “agent provocateur” and was taught by the agency “what he could say that [lxvi] wouldn’t be crossing the line.”

“His job was basically to publish information which would cause other parties to act in a manner which would lead to their arrest,” Orozco said. [lxvii] So it is clear that not only was Turner wrong about having an actual Amero coin, but he was purposefully lying about it in an attempt to create the idea that a regional currency, likely to be called the Amero, is a hoax and something American’s don’t need to worry about or look into. This way when people hear about such a plan, they quickly dismiss it as a conspiracy theory or a hoax thanks to actions like Turner’s.

Turner’s admission that he worked for the FBI and his somewhat creative hoaxes about the Amero led many to believe that he worked as a disinformation agent, whose job it was to put out false and fraudulent information about the Amero, in order to make anyone who talked about such a thing seem like they were falling for Turner’s scam and that there was no such thing in the works.

China Calls for Global Currency In May of 2009 just before the G-20 economic summit in London, an official from China’s central bank made news around the world when they began calling for a new global currency to replace the U.S. dollar. The proposal came from Beijing’s central bank governor, Zhou Xiaochuan, who said that “the world economic crisis shows the inherent vulnerabilities and systemic risks in the existing international monetary system.” He recommended creating a currency that would be controlled by the International Monetary Fund in order “to achieve the objective of safeguarding global economic and financial stability.” China has been getting concerned about the value of the U.S. dollar because of Beijing’s estimated 1 trillion dollars in U.S. Treasuries and other government debt.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner Immediately after news surfaced of China’s desire for a one world currency, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was asked what his thoughts were on the proposals while he was speaking at a Council on Foreign Relations conference. A reporter asked, “[unintelligible]…about the Chinese proposal for a global currency…” Geithner answered, “I haven’t read the governor’s proposal…we’re actually quite open to that suggestion.” The previous day Geithner was asked by United States Representative Michelle Bachman, “I’m wondering, would you categorically renounce the United States moving away from the dollar and going to a global currency

as suggested this morning by China and also by Russia?,” to which Geithner replied, “I would. Yes.” She then asked Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who was sitting right next to him, and he answered, “I [lxviii] would also.”

So in a 24 hour period Geithner completely changed his mind, from being against a global currency, to supporting it, and while speaking at a Council on Foreign Relations press conference none the less.

Russia Calls for Global Currency The Kremlin (Russia’s Parliament) published its priorities just prior to the G-20 meeting in March 2009, where they openly called for the creation of a supranational reserve currency that they said should be part of the strategy to reform the global financial system which began collapsing in the fourth quarter of 2008. (The G-20 meeting is a yearly forum consisting of the finance ministers and central bank governors of the world’s largest 20 economies who meet to discuss international financial issues.) Russia urged the International Monetary Fund to create a new “super reserve currency accepted by the whole of the international community.” [lxix]

Russian President Shows Off Sample Coin of New ‘World Currency’ at G-8 Just a few months later at the 2009 G-8 meeting held in L’Aquila, Italy, the President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev pulled a coin out of his pocket and displayed it for the press saying it was a sample of the coin of a “united future world currency.” The sample coin was minted in Belgium and was presented to the heads of the G-8 delegations. It bears the words, “unity in diversity.” He said the coin, “means they’re getting ready. I think it’s a good sign that we [lxx] understand how interdependent we are.”

Remember that just a few months earlier during the April 2009 G-20 meeting, Russia proposed creating a new supranational currency and questioned the U.S. dollar’s future as the global reserve currency.

Euro Contributor Endorses Global Currency Kazakstan was part of the Soviet Union until it became an independent nation in 1991, and is the ninth largest country in the world. It borders Russia, China, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. While not thought of as a key player in global events, it is still noteworthy that the President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, also proposed a new global currency which he called the “acmetal.” What is also interesting, is that Robert Mundell, a man who played a key role in creating the Euro currency for the European Union voiced support for Nazarbayev’s idea saying, “I must say that I agree with President Nazarbayev on his statement and many of the things he said in his plan, the project he made for the world currency, and I believe I’m right on track [lxxi] with what he’s saying,” adding the idea held “great promise.”

Robert Mundell is an economics professor at Columbia University in New York City and was given the Nobel Prize in economics in 1999 for his role in creating the Euro currency for the European Union which unified currencies in many European countries—including Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Finland, Austria, and others.

Population Reduction At the time that this first edition of The New World Order: Facts & Fiction was first published in 2010, the earth’s population was around 6.795 billion [lxxii]

people.

One of the main goals of the New World Order is to massively reduce this number by billions of people. You read that correctly. A reduction of billions of people. Depending on the elitist, the goals of population reduction efforts range from reducing population by 50% to 95%. The elite politicians and businessmen say that the current population

levels are dangerously high and will soon result in the depletion of the earth’s natural resources. To accomplish this reduction, various strategies have been implemented such as promoting contraception, abortions, and one child policies. Mass genocide has also been discussed, including using biological weapons to kill off large numbers of people in developing countries. Many fear that such a tactic will one day be attempted in developed countries as well. The rationale behind such massive and horrific population reduction plans is quite chilling. The elite feel that since most tasks involving a large amount of physical labor have been accomplished, such as clearing countless acres of land for interstate highway systems, building infrastructure, such as dams and power plants, mining national resources, etc., and so now only a maintenance force is needed. Just think for a moment about the immense number of man hours it took to build the roads, bridges, and buildings that you take for granted every day. While at one point in time, people had to mine for minerals with simple hand tools, we now have enormous pieces of machinery that can do a job that used to take hundreds of men to do. The human species has been able to streamline nearly every process through the use of mechanical and technological means. During the incredible construction process of much of the world’s infrastructure, the workers needed food, clothes, shelter, medicine, and a variety of other things which are part of modern life. But now that most of the work is done, the elite see these people as using up valuable resources and simply being in the way and detrimental to the way of life that the elite hope to maintain. While people may find these claims hard to believe, as you keep reading you will find solid evidence and sources for them. The Illuminati want you dead.

Ted Turner Billionaire founder of CNN, Ted Turner, was interviewed Tuesday April 1st 2008 on Charlie Rose’s PBS show, where he revealed his beliefs about reducing the global population, but this was no April Fool’s joke. Turner

began by parroting the sensationalized fears of climate change, saying it needed to be stopped. “Not doing it will be catastrophic. We’ll be 8 degrees hotter in 10, not 10 but 30 or 40 years and basically none of the crops will grow. Most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals. Civilization will have broken down. The few people that are left will be living in a failed state like Somalia or Sudan. And living conditions will be intolerable. The droughts will be so bad there will be no more corn growing. Not doing it will be like suicide.” Then he went on to say, “After that, we’ve got to stabilize the population. There’s too many people. That’s why we have global warming. We have global warming because too many people are using too much stuff, if there were less people, they’d be using less stuff.” Ted Turner himself has five children. In 1996, Turner stated in an interview with an environmental magazine Audubon that, “A total population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal.” In 1997 he donated one billion dollars to the United Nations to support their goals, which include population reduction.

Dr. Eric Pianka Dr. Eric Pianka (born January 23, 1939) is a biology professor at the University of Texas at Austin, who made national news in March of 2006 after his acceptance speech for the Distinguished Texas Scientist Award given by the Texas Academy of Science. A science writer named Forrest Mims was in attendance during this speech and was shocked at what he had heard, and soon after wrote an article about it for The Citizen Scientist , claiming that Pianka had advocated genocide to reduce the world’s population. In this article Mims recounts that an official of the Academy approached the video camera operator at the front of the auditorium and, “engaged him in animated conversation. The camera operator did not look pleased as he pointed the lens of the big camera to the ceiling and slowly walked away.”

So, by Forrest Mims account, Pianka’s speech was not allowed to be videotaped, and he writes that he noticed this curious incident because of his many years of experience as a writer and editor, and that it raised a red flag in his mind. Dr. Pianka began his speech by “explaining that the general public is not yet ready to hear what he was about to tell us,” Mims wrote. After Dr. Pianka told the audience that there were too many people on the earth and listing all the evils of humanity, Mims wrote that Pianka stated, “the only feasible solution to saving the Earth is to reduce the population to 10 percent of the present number…He then showed solutions for reducing the world’s population in the form of a slide depicting the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. War and famine would not do, he explained. Instead, disease offered the most efficient and fastest way to kill the billions that must soon die if the population crisis is to be solved.” He then explains that Pianka displayed a slide showing rows of human skulls and says he was deeply disturbed, not only by Pianka’s speech, but because he “watched in amazement as a few hundred members of the Texas Academy of Science rose to their feet and gave a standing ovation to a speech that enthusiastically advocated the elimination of 90 percent of [lxxiii] Earth’s population by airborne Ebola.”

After learning of the sinister nature of Pianka’s speech, an affiliate of Mims named William Dembski informed the Department of Homeland Security [lxxiv] which resulted in the FBI interviewing Pianka.

While Pianka’s speech was not allowed to be videotaped, one can read his own words on his official University of Texas website where he wrote, “Humans have overpopulated the Earth and in the process have created an ideal nutritional substrate on which bacteria and viruses (microbes) will grow and prosper. We are behaving like bacteria growing on an agar plate, flourishing until natural limits are reached or until another microbe [lxxv] colonizes and takes over, using them as their resource.”

“First, and foremost, we must get out of denial and recognize that Earth simply cannot support many billions of people, at least not in the lifestyles we would all like to live.” “I am convinced that the world, including all humanity , WOULD clearly be much better off without so many of us.” [The bold face and capital print is in the original text on his website, and was not added in this book.] One of the links on his website is to an obituary that he posted of himself, although at the time of this writing he is still alive. One more disturbing detail regarding Dr. Pianka is that on this website he shows pictures of a [lxxvi] bison he raised on his land whose name is identified as Lucifer.

World-Famous Microbiologist Planned Genocide In 2001 shocking information was released showing that decades in the past a world-famous microbiologist and winner of the Nobel prize named Sir Fram Macfarlane had secretly urged the Australian government to develop and use biological weapons against Indonesia and other “overpopulated” countries in South-East Asia to target food crops and spread infectious diseases in order to kill large numbers of the population. Such plans, which were developed in 1947, were revealed to the public in 2001 after the top-secret files were declassified by the National Archives of Australia. The release of the reports were faced with resistance from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which fought to prevent them from becoming public after historian Philip Dorling uncovered information on biological warfare in the National Archives in 1998. It wasn’t until 2001 that the damning files were released to Dorling, which included a detailed memo Sir Macfarlane wrote for the Defense Department in 1947, where he said that Australia should develop biological weapons that would work in tropical Asia without spreading to Australia’s more temperate population centers. “Specifically to the Australian situation, the most effective counteroffensive to threatened invasion by overpopulated Asiatic countries would

be directed towards the destruction by biological or chemical means of tropical food crops and the dissemination of infectious disease capable of spreading in tropical but not under Australian conditions,” the [lxxvii] microbiologist said.

It’s important to note that his plans to unleash such weapons were not because Australia was at war, but because he wanted to reduce the large populations that were using the national resources. His reference to an “invasion by overpopulated countries” doesn’t refer to a military invasion but refers rather to the overpopulation itself. Another unclassified document reads that he noted, “Its use has the tremendous advantage of not destroying the enemy’s industrial potential which can then be taken over intact.” Sir Macfarlane was the head of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, and won the Nobel prize in 1960 for medicine. In September, 1947, he joined a chemical and biological warfare subcommittee of the New Weapons and Equipment Development Committee in Australia, where he would develop his genocidal ideas where he recommended, “the possibilities of an attack on the food supplies of S-E Asia and Indonesia using B.W. agents should be considered by a small study group.” In 1951, he recommended that “a panel reporting to the chemical and biological warfare subcommittee should be authorized to report on the offensive potentiality of biological agents likely to be effective against the local food supplies of South-East Asia and Indonesia.”

Prince Philip Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburg, is the husband of the Queen of England, and at the time of this writing in 2010, he is 57 years old (born in 1921). The British royal family has long been involved with the Illuminati, and some say they themselves believe that they are descended from the lost tribe of Dan from Israel.

The Prince made a disturbing statement years ago regarding the world’s population, where he said, “In the event that I am reincarnated, I would like to return as a deadly virus, in order to contribute something to solve [lxxviii] overpopulation.”

Prince Philip is the father of Prince Charles, and the grandfather of Prince William and Prince Henry of Whales. Some people believe that the Antichrist will come from this family and that they are crypto-Jews, meaning they are hiding their Jewish ancestry. Regardless of whether this is true or not, the British Royal Family has been a major part of the secret establishment for many generations.

President Obama’s Science Advisor President Obama appointed a man named John Holdren to be his chief science czar, which means he is basically the top advisor to Obama regarding science and technology and their effects domestically and internationally. Immediately after his appointment bloggers began looking into his past and discovered that he was the co-author of a science text book in 1977 titled Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment, which contains several startling proposals to deal with what the authors perceived to be issues society would soon face regarding overpopulation and resource shortages. Adding Sterilants to Water Supply Holdren’s book openly discusses the idea of adding chemicals to the water supply to sterilize entire populations, saying, “Adding a sterilant to drinking water or staple foods is a suggestion that seems to horrify people more than most proposals for involuntary fertility control. Indeed, this would pose some very difficult political, legal, and social questions, to say nothing of the technical problems. No such sterilant exists today [in 1977], nor does one appear to be under development. To be acceptable, such a substance would have to meet some rather stiff requirements: it must be uniformly effective, despite widely varying doses received by individuals, and despite varying degrees of fertility and sensitivity among individuals; it must be free of dangerous or unpleasant side effects; and it must have no effect on

members of the opposite sex, children, old people, pets, or livestock.” [lxxix] Involuntary Fertility Control Another disturbing idea the book outlines is forcing women to become sterilized after having two or three children. “A program of sterilizing women after their second or third child, despite the relatively greater difficulty of the operation than vasectomy, might be easier to implement [lxxx] than trying to sterilize men,” the text reads.

Aside from forcing women to become sterilized after having several children, the authors also postulated that young girls could be forced on birth control to prevent them from having children, and that the birth control method would only be removed if the government allowed it. “The development of a long-term sterilizing capsule that could be implanted under the skin and removed when pregnancy is desired opens additional possibilities for coercive fertility control. The capsule could be implanted at puberty and might be removable, with official permission, for a limited [lxxxi] number of births.”

Mandatory Abortions As if adding a sterilant to the water supply or forcing young girls to submit to birth control until the government approves of them having a child weren’t horrific enough ideas, the textbook goes on to discuss and endorse forcing women to have abortions if they get pregnant without government permission. The book uses the term “compulsory” which is a fancy word meaning mandatory or forced against one’s will. The book reads, “Indeed, it has been concluded that compulsory population-control laws, even including laws requiring compulsory abortion, could be sustained under the existing Constitution if the population crisis became sufficiently severe to [lxxxii] endanger the society.”

Notice how these population ideas are not something only for 3rd world countries, but also for America as the authors point out that forced abortions, they believe, would be legal under the Constitution! Two Child Limit John Holdren and his co-authors try to equate their tyrannical reproduction policies with other laws concerning public safety. “In today’s world, however, the number of children in a family is a matter of profound public concern. The law regulates other highly personal matters. For example, no one may lawfully have more than one spouse at a time. Why should the law not be able to prevent a person from having more than two children?” [lxxxiii] Toward a Planetary Regime After reading the Nazi-style reproduction regulations in Holdren’s book and seeing that decades after its publication he would find himself in President Obama’s inner circle, it should come as no surprise that he would also suggest an all-powerful global government structure to enforce his nightmarish ideas, and to regulate other aspects of our lives. He wrote that current government agencies around the world, “might eventually be developed into a Planetary Regime—sort of an international super-agency for population, resources, and environment. Such a comprehensive Planetary Regime could control the development, administration, conservation, and distribution of all natural resources, renewable or nonrenewable, at least insofar as international implications exist. Thus the Regime could have the power to control pollution not only in the atmosphere and oceans, but also in such freshwater bodies as rivers and lakes that cross international boundaries or that discharge into the oceans. The Regime might also be a logical central agency for regulating all international trade, perhaps including assistance from DCs to LDCs, and including all food on the international market.” “The Planetary Regime might be given responsibility for determining the optimum population for the world and for each region and for arbitrating

various countries’ shares within their regional limits. Control of population size might remain the responsibility of each government, but the Regime [lxxxiv] would have some power to enforce the agreed limits.”

Abortions are Good for the Economy Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi was interviewed on NBC’s Meet the Press where she explained why she appropriated hundreds of millions of dollars to expand Planned Parenthood and similar services as part of an economic stimulus package. A brief transcript of this encounter follows: STEPHANOPOULOS: Hundreds of millions of dollars to expand family planning services. How is that stimulus? PELOSI: Well, the family planning services reduce cost. They reduce cost. The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now and part of what we do for children’s health, education and some of those elements are to help the states meet their financial needs. One of those—one of the initiatives you mentioned, the contraception, will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government. STEPHANOPOULOS : So no apologies for that? PELOSI: No apologies. No. We have to deal with the consequences of the downturn in our economy. End of Transcript

The Limits to Growth The Club of Rome, a notorious elite globalist think tank, published a book in 1972 titled The Limits to Growth which would mark the first major propaganda piece warning of a rapidly growing population and finite natural resources. The book was written by Dennis L. Meadows, Donella H. Meadows, Jorgen Randers, and William W. Behrens III. World population, industrialization, pollution, food production, and resource depletion were the main focus of the report which argued that

while population grows exponentially, technology and the availability of natural resources only grow linearly. This would be the beginning of the growing campaign and propaganda aimed at justifying a massive population reduction around the world.

Global 2000 Report The Council on Environmental Quality and the State Department released a report in 1980 that was commissioned by President Jimmy Carter which continued to lay the foundation for propaganda concerning population reduction, diminishing resources, and global warming. The Global 2000 Report supposedly used computer models to make projections concerning these issues for the coming decades, and aimed to show what life would be like in the year 2000 (twenty years after its publication). “Computer projection models” were seen as extremely high-tech in 1980 when this report was published—an aspect to this report that was highlighted in an attempt to add to its credibility. It concluded by saying, “If present trends continue, the world in 2000 will be more crowded, and more vulnerable to disruption than the world we live in now. Serious stresses involving population, resources, and environment are clearly visible ahead. Despite greater material output, the world’s people will be poorer in many ways than they are today.”

Agenda 21 Agenda 21 is a program launched by the United Nations (UN) pertaining to what they call “sustainable development” around the world, which is a fancy term for reducing the population and preserving natural resources. The name Agenda 21 refers to the UN’s agenda for the 21st century. The full text of Agenda 21 was revealed at the United Nations Earth Summit in 1992 (officially called the Conference on Environment and Development) that was held in Rio de Janeiro. At this Earth Summit, 178 governments voted to adopt the Agenda 21 program, which is a blueprint for members of the UN and other governments and groups to take action to increase regulations in every area where humans have an impact on the environment.

There are 40 chapters in the Agenda 21 report which cover topics such as: changing consumption patterns of natural resources, controlling pollution, educating children about such issues, and implementing new financial mechanisms to achieve these goals.

United Nations Population Fund The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), originally called the United Nations Fund for Population Activities, was started in 1969 to supposedly provide supplies and services involving reproductive health, but a dark cloud has lingered over the fund for decades because of coerced sterilizations and forced abortions. When word of these practices surfaced, groups pressured the Regan administration as well as both Bush administrations (George H.W. and George W.) to withhold funding from UNFPA. As a result of the United States cutting off funding for the program, a nonprofit organization called Americans for UNFPA was started and compensated for the loss by raising donations. After Barack Obama was sworn in as president in January 2009, he restored U.S. funding to UNFPA which resulted in taxpayers’ money once again funding forced abortions and sterilizations in foreign countries. According to its Annual Report, the UNFPA received a total of $845.3 million dollars in funding in 2008, with $118 million coming from the Netherlands, $53 million from the United Kingdom, 52 million from Spain, and the European Commission and Japan each donated 36 million. In 2009 UNFPA released a report titled State of World Population which is 104 pages long and blames global warming on too many people living on the earth. “Slower population growth...would help build social resilience to climate change’s impacts and would contribute to a reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions in the future,” it says. “Population growth is among the factors influencing total emissions in industrialized as well as developing countries.” “Each person in a population will consume food and require housing, and ideally most will take advantage of transportation, which consumes energy,

and may use fuel to heat homes and have access to electricity.” “The growth of population can contribute to freshwater scarcity or degradation of cropland, which may in turn exacerbate the impacts of climate change…So too can climate change make it more difficult for governments to alleviate poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals.” “Fear of appearing supportive of population control has until recently held back any mention of ‘population’ in the climate debate…Nonetheless, some participants in the debate are tentatively suggesting the need at least to consider the impacts of population growth.”

The Georgia Guidestones The topic of the Georgia Guidestones monument is fascinating, yet disturbing, and a complete analysis of the subject can be found in this author’s previous book, The Resistance Manifesto , so for the sake of keeping this book to a manageable length, I will only briefly discuss them and their mysterious origins here. Basically, a large 19 foot tall granite monument stands in the small town of Elberton, Georgia, in the United States, consisting of four major stone slabs standing upright and assembled in a paddle wheel formation. Each of the eight stone faces are inscribed with ten commandments, with each set consisting of a different language: English, Russian, Hebrew, Arabic, Hindi, Chinese, Spanish, and Swahili. While some of the “guides” as they are called, are somewhat benign, there are several of them which are quite chilling. The first one reads, “Maintain the earth’s population at 500,0000,000” (500 million). Others speak of creating a world court and allude to a global religion, and finally the tenth one reads, “Be not a cancer on the earth. Leave room for nature.” As if this isn’t strange enough, the story of the Georgia Guidestones gets stranger the closer one looks into it. The monument was created in 1980 and was the result of a mysterious man calling himself “R.C. Christian” who said he represented a group of concerned citizens and wanted to erect a monument for mankind. He worked with a local granite company to design

the stones, and he paid for the entire project, an estimated cost of tens of thousands of dollars. The stones currently sit on public property on the highest point in Elberton County. To anyone familiar with the Rosicrucians, the pseudonym that this man chose, “R.C. Christian,” is clearly a reference to this enlightenment group which dates back to the early 1600s. Several years after the monument’s completion this same man published a book titled Common Sense Renewed , under the admitted pseudonym Robert Christian, and proclaimed, “The hearts of our human family must be touched and warmed to welcome a [lxxxv] global rule by reason.”

The book basically outlines his political philosophy and says that the first two printings were sent to several thousand political officials and shapers of public opinion throughout the world, and all members of the United States Congress. The Georgia Guidestones were not a simple task to complete and certainly cost several tens of thousands of dollars to construct, and after reading their depopulation commandments, it comes as no surprise that the mysterious individual who commissioned them used a pseudonym with Illuminati overtones. In December of 2008 some vandals spray painted several messages across the stones, such as, “Death to the Globalists,” “No North American Union,” and “Skull and Bones Suck Dick,” referring to the Skull and Bones secret society at Yale University, which serves as a recruiting ground for the elite Illuminati. Photos of the vandalism were posted on the Internet. This author was later contacted by a freelance journalist named Randall Sullivan who was working on a story about the monument, and when his article was published in April 2009, he wrote, “While Dice denies any [lxxxvi]

involvement in the assault, he seems to have inspired it,”

because I had publicly expressed my disgust for the stones and my desire to have them removed.

Life Extension Technology Aside from wanting to reduce the world’s population by 90 to 95%, the elite New World Order kingpins are also hoping that very soon scientists will be able to prevent them from aging and possibly live forever by using some form of molecular repair, organ replacements, or transhumanist development (merging computers and machines with the human body). While anti-aging creams and remedies have been around for decades and often associated with quackery, scientists are working very hard to figure out how they can prevent the oxidization of cells, or to get cells to reproduce themselves indefinitely, thus ensuring a healthy body as long as this process continues. Ray Kurzweil and others have proposed that nanorobots could one day be injected in the body and perform cellular repair from within. These ideas are not fanciful thinking of science fiction writers, but are instead very serious branches of science that are making tremendous advances in their quest. Even if the elite are not able to live indefinitely by using some of this coming technology, they will certainly be able to extend the human lifespan several decades or perhaps longer. Such an extension obviously means that people will use more natural resources during the course of their prolonged life, and this is another reason the elite are concerned with the global population and desire to dramatically reduce it. As miraculous life extending technologies become possible, the enormous cost for such procedures will be unaffordable by most people and will not be covered by insurance. This puts the technology exclusively in the hands of the wealthy, who are the same people shaping the New World Order. As this technology becomes closer to a reality, the elite will be even more compelled to unleash their genocidal plans.

One World Religion When discussing the goals of the New World Order, often three objectives are found at the top of the list: A one world government, a single global currency, and a unified world religion. The reason for this unified single religion is said to be a prerequisite to the Messiah arriving, who religious prophecies predict will be the savior of all mankind and will unveil the mysteries of existence and lead the world into an era of everlasting peace. Many religions speak of this Messiah figure, and while Christians believe that he arrived as Jesus Christ and will later return at the end of time, other religions are still looking for the Messiah’s arrival. In order to set the groundwork for this individual (who Christians believe will be a counterfeit claiming to be God and later defeated by the return of Jesus) the New World Order must set the philosophical foundation for this “Christ” to be seen as the appearance of God on earth, and be worshiped as such. The main problem for this philosophy and the coming counterfeit to be universally accepted as the Messiah, is the traditional belief in Christianity and the Bible’s description of the Antichrist, as well as Christians desire to live by a set of traditional values that are taught in the Bible. These are the reasons that traditional Christianity and family values are the largest obstacle to the New World Order’s coming unified religion, and thus traditional Christianity has been targeted for a revision or total destruction. Manly P. Hall explains, “Christianity is not the sole revelation of God to man. It is but a fractional part of the body religious. It is simply a crutch upon which the genus homo leans until he learns to stand and walk alone. It is something he believes in before he is capable of believing in himself with understanding. Like all external things it will finally pass away and be remembered only for that which it contributed to the inner realization of its [lxxxvii] devotees.”

Christians who do not convert to a more liberal and universal form of Christianity will be seen as problematic for the New World Order since

their conservative and traditional beliefs will be seen as holding back the global utopia and ruining the fun and “anything goes” attitude of the majority of society.

“Hate Speech” Laws It’s well known that some Christians can make judgments of other people for their sexuality, stance on abortion, and ideas of what is socially acceptable behavior. Some Christians speak out against such things using harsh criticism, while others simply express their disagreement. Most Christians tend to be socially conservative and lean towards more traditional views of family dynamics and sexual activity. People who are not religious can be very liberal in these areas, and the two different ideologies occasionally clash in disputes over what is being taught to children, or what is being distributed in the popular culture. In the United States of America, people are luckily able to exercise the freedom of speech which is outlined and guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution. This freedom is only supposed to be restricted in the case of defamation and incitement to riot, but many fear that living in the New World Order will create criminals of Christians for simply voicing their opinions on certain social issues or behaviors, or even quoting the Bible. In recent years various legislation has been introduced regarding what is called hate speech, which aims to criminalize certain statements or opinions when expressed publicly. In 2001, a man was arrested in Canada for “inciting hatred” after submitting a newspaper ad containing Bible quotes [lxxxviii]

about homosexuality.

He was forced to pay out $1500 to each of four different homosexuals who filed a complaint against him. Canadian officials signed a bill into law in 2004 that reinforced such rules. In Britain a woman was visited at her home by two police officers after she wrote a letter to her city council expressing her displeasure that a gay pride parade was scheduled for her neighborhood. In the letter, she referred to homosexuals as sodomites and perverts and the police threatened to charge her with a criminal offense because “a hate incident is any incident that is

perceived by the victim or another person as being motivated by prejudice [lxxxix] or hatred.”

In 2004 a group of eleven Christians were arrested and charged with multiple crimes, including felonies in Pennsylvania for peacefully [xc]

demonstrating against a gay pride parade.

The demonstrators were said to have committed “hate speech” for preaching to the homosexuals and holding signs with Bible verses printed on them.

501(c)(3) Tax Exempt Churches It’s pretty much common knowledge that most churches don’t have to pay taxes since they are considered “not for profit” organizations, but most people have no idea what kind of restrictions this license places on these churches. A 501c organization is a provision in the United States Tax code which lists 26 different types of organizations that are exempt from federal income tax. Churches fall under section 3 of the 501c code, meaning they are a religious organization. Organizations that fall under section 501(c)(3) are prohibited from certain political activities and even comments. The Internal Revenue Service website explains, “Under the Internal Revenue Code, all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Contributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign activity. Violating this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain excise taxes.” [xci] The tax code goes on to say, “voter education or registration activities with evidence of bias that (a) would favor one candidate over another; (b) oppose a candidate in some manner; or (c) have the effect of favoring a

candidate or group of candidates, will constitute prohibited participation or [xcii] intervention.”

Language saying activities may not “have the effect of favoring a candidate or group of candidates,” or that they are “absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office,” mean that if a pastor gives a sermon about certain social issues such as homosexuality, gay marriage, or abortion, the church will be in violation of the law and could have their tax exempt status revoked because the pastor is “indirectly participating in” a political activity. In 2005, the 3500 member All Saints Episcopal Church in Los Angeles, California was threatened by the IRS that they could lose their tax exempt [xciii]

status after the Reverend gave an anti-war message.

The church’s tax attorney Marcus Owens said the IRS offered to drop the proceedings if the church admitted wrongdoing. A United Methodist Church in New Jersey lost its tax exempt status in 2007 after officials refused to allow two lesbian couples to have their “weddings” [xciv]

on church property.

After it was discovered that members of the Mormon Church organized to support Proposition 8 passing in California in 2008, which banned gay marriage, many homosexual groups attempted to have their tax exempt status revoked as well. Most church goers have no idea that there are federal restrictions placed on what the pastor or priests can say to their congregation. Not only has the federal government locked churches into a contract preventing them from even indirectly influencing political affairs, but they also have been secretly working with major churches to get their leaders to teach their flocks what the government wants them to.

Government Secretly Working With Churches In May of 2006 a pastor came forward saying that FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) had implemented a secret program to

train pastors of large churches and have them work secretly with FEMA in order to encourage their congregations to obey the government’s demands in the case of martial law, firearm seizures, forced vaccinations, or forced relocations. [xcv]

The pastor, who contacted Infowars.com

to make such events public, wanted to remain anonymous but said that he and other religious representatives were invited to a secret meeting which encouraged and trained pastors to help implement FEMA and Homeland Security directives. The first directive was for pastors to preach to their congregations a message based on Romans 13 in the Bible, which when taken out of context urges people to obey their government and says the government was established by God. The informant also reported that it was made clear they were to start preaching subservience to authorities now, in order to condition their congregations to accept such ideas. He also reported that those in attendance were told that quarantines, martial law, and forced relocations were a problem for authorities when enforcing federal mandates because of what they called a “cowboy mentality” of people standing up for their rights and not going along with such demands. Some people may be skeptical of such claims, especially since the pastor chose to remain anonymous, but one year later in August of 2007, a TV station in Shreveport, Louisiana reported on this, confirming what this pastor had claimed. KSLA news reported that FEMA was secretly working with what they called Clergy Response Teams that were being trained by the federal government to “quell dissent” and pacify people in order to obey any orders given by the government in the event of martial law.

Adam Weishaupt on Christianity John Robison, one of the first authors to publish English translations of the writings of Illuminati founder Adam Weishaupt, wrote, “It surely needs little argument now to prove, that the Order of Illuminati had for its

immediate object the abolishing of Christianity (at least this was the intention of the Founder), with the sole view of overturning the civil government, by introducing universal dissoluteness and profligacy of manners, and then getting the assistance of the corrupted subjects to overset the throne. The whole conduct in the preparation and instruction of the Presbyter and Regens is directed to this point.” Robison quotes an original correspondence between Illuminati members from the 1700s where one member wrote, “I have been at unwearied pains to remove the fears of some who imagine that our Superiors want to abolish Christianity; but by and by their prejudices will wear off, and they will be more at their ease. Were I to let them know that our General holds all Religion to be a lie, and uses even Deism, only to lead men by the nose.”

Albert Pike’s Alleged 3 World Wars Letter A letter allegedly written by Albert Pike and sent to an Italian politician named Giuseppe Mazzini, dated August 15, 1871 outlined sinister plans for three different world wars that would purposefully be orchestrated to bring about the New World Order and set the stage for Luciferianism to become the world’s religion. Albert Pike is of course the author of Morals and Dogma and remains one of Freemasonry’s most influential members. In this letter, Pike allegedly wrote, “The First World War must be brought about in order to permit the Illuminati to overthrow the power of the Czars in Russia and of making that country a fortress of atheistic Communism. The divergences caused by the ‘agentur’ (agents) of the Illuminati between the British and Germanic Empires will be used to foment this war. At the end of the war, Communism will be built and used in order to destroy the other governments and in order to weaken the religions.” “The Second World War must be fomented by taking advantage of the differences between the Fascists and the political Zionists. This war must be brought about so that Nazism is destroyed and that the political Zionism be strong enough to institute a sovereign state of Israel in Palestine. During the Second World War, International Communism must become strong enough in order to balance Christendom, which would be then restrained and held

in check until the time when we would need it for the final social cataclysm.” “The Third World War must be fomented by taking advantage of the differences caused by the ‘agentur’ of the "Illuminati" between the political Zionists and the leaders of Islamic World. The war must be conducted in such a way that Islam (the Moslem Arabic World) and political Zionism (the State of Israel) mutually destroy each other. Meanwhile the other nations, once more divided on this issue will be constrained to fight to the point of complete physical, moral, spiritual and economical exhaustion… We shall unleash the Nihilists and the atheists, and we shall provoke a formidable social cataclysm which in all its horror will show clearly to the nations the effect of absolute atheism, origin of savagery and of the most bloody turmoil. Then everywhere, the citizens, obliged to defend themselves against the world minority of revolutionaries, will exterminate those destroyers of civilization, and the multitude, disillusioned with Christianity, whose deistic spirits will from that moment be without compass or direction, anxious for an ideal, but without knowing where to render its adoration, will receive the true light through the universal manifestation of the pure doctrine of Lucifer, brought finally out in the public view. This manifestation will result from the general reactionary movement which will follow the destruction of Christianity and atheism, both conquered and exterminated at the same time.”

Alice Bailey’s Open Admissions The respected New Age author Alice Bailey writes in her book The Externalization of the Hierarchy , “It has therefore become possible to synchronize the Approach of the divine to the human and to instruct the masses of men in the technique of thus invoking the Approach. This attitude of humanity will lead to a new revelation, to the new world religion and to new attitudes in the relation of man to God (religion) and of man to man [xcvi] (government or social relationships).”

“The Members of the Hierarchy are seen to be the Custodians of the divine Plan….The spiritual Hierarchy of the planet, the ability of mankind to contact its Members and to work in cooperation with Them, and the

existence of the greater Hierarchy of spiritual energies of which our tiny planetary sphere is a part—these are the three truths upon which the coming [xcvii] world religion may be based.”

Bailey also discusses the role of Freemasonry in the creation of this one world religion. Since Freemasonry is a continuation of the ancient Mystery Schools, it should come as no surprise that the Universalist teachings of the fraternity are laying the philosophical foundation for the New World Order religion. She writes, “There is no dissociation between the One Universal Church, the sacred inner Lodge of all true Masons, and the innermost circles of the esoteric societies…It must not be forgotten that only those souls who are on the Probationary Path or the Path of Discipleship will [xcviii] form the nucleus of the coming new world religion.”

“The new religion will manifest, for instance, through organizations like Masonry. In Freemasonry is embedded the core or secret heart of the occult [xcix] Mysteries—wrapped in number, metaphor and symbol.”

Unification Church Most people are shocked to find, or simply don’t believe, that the founder and owner of the Washington Times claims to be the Second Coming of Christ and is the leader of what is called the Unification Church. Sun Myung Moon is a Korean billionaire who has millions of people who follow him and see him as the return of Jesus. Moon’s Unification Church and his enormous following show just how easily people are duped into believing false religious doctrines and how wealthy and powerful these fake prophets can be. Aside from being a billionaire and owning the Washington Times , Sun Myung Moon has maintained close relationships with powerful politicians around the world who have no problem with the fact that he thinks he’s the return of Christ.

The Vatican

Vatican City in Rome is an entire sovereign country which is basically a small city owned and run by the Catholic Church. It has enormous wealth and its own police force, along with the Pope’s personal army, the Swiss Guard. The Catholic Church has long been intertwined with the Illuminati, and its society of Jesus (the Jesuits) are the Vatican’s foot soldiers attempting to make the Catholic Church the world’s leading religious authority. In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI announced that the Catholic Church was the only way to salvation, and that all other denominations are not true [c]

churches. He wasn’t talking about non-Christian religious organizations such as Islam or Buddhism, the Pope was talking about all Christian churches other than the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church, the popes, and bishops are basically the same as the Pharisees that Jesus denounced over 2000 years ago for their hypocrisy and their pride and arrogance due to their spiritual knowledge. One needs to look no further than the Inquisition or the massive institutional cover-up of countless pedophile priests to see the core of the Catholic Church is corrupt. The Catholic Church also diverts and perverts the teachings of Jesus in numerous ways, such as having people confess their sins to a priest (who is called Father, which the Bible says nobody but God should be called that) as well as selling indulgences and worshipping the virgin Mary and other saints. The selling of indulgences, if you don’t know, means that people used to pay money to a church and in return the priest would forgive that person’s sins and tell them they could then get into Heaven. Some indulgences were even sold for sins people would commit in the future. Such a practice was clearly a shameful abuse of power and completely contradictory to the teachings of Jesus. The Catholic Church basically took the freeing messages of Jesus and packaged them up and then sold them to the public, when Jesus had intended it to be accessible to all for free. This is the same thing the Jewish Pharisees did with Judaism. It is for these reasons and more that the Vatican, and specifically the Pope is looked at with suspicion regarding the New World Order and is believed by some to one day be the false prophet spoken about in the Bible. The counterfeit Christ (the Antichrist) will be a

political figure and the leader of the world, and the false prophet is believed to be a global religious leader who will (wrongfully) confirm to the world that the Christ has returned when the Antichrist announces he is God. Since the Catholic Church is trying to reinstate itself as the only Christian authority, many see the Pope as a prime candidate for this false prophet. A strange revelation was made by the Vatican at the end of 2009 concerning space aliens when the Vatican’s chief astronomer said that there could be other “extraterrestrial brothers” of ours out in space who “remained in full [ci]

friendship with their creator.”

Reverend José Gabriel Funes, head of the Vatican Observatory and a scientific adviser to Pope Benedict XVI, said “Why can’t we speak of a ‘brother extraterrestrial?’” And suggested our “brothers” could be more evolved than humans. While the subject of space aliens is filled with speculation, misidentification, and craziness, the idea of other intelligent life existing in other solar systems is a fascinating one, and certainly is likely. But what is interesting about the statements from Reverend Funes is that he said these beings could still be “in full friendship with their creator,” meaning they are in an unfallen state, unlike mankind. This means they would be without sin. It’s a very interesting statement that some see as setting the stage for an alien being to arrive on earth that will claim to be the return of Jesus, when in fact, it could be the Antichrist. This is, of course, only speculation, but the role of the corrupt Catholic Church in the New World Order’s coming new religion should be monitored very closely, and the Pope, whoever it is, and the leadership of the Vatican should be seen for the imposters and criminals they are.

Israel The State of Israel in the Middle East remains the focus of world events due to the continuous fighting between Arabs and Jews as they argue and kill each other over who has the right to the land, the Palestinians or the Jews. The State of Israel was created in 1948 following World War II so the Jews could return to the land their ancient ancestors once inhabited. This plan was organized by Britain as a sort of reparation for the persecution of the

Jews during the war and the Holocaust. The current population of Israel is around 7.5 million with 5.62 million being Jewish. The creation and existence of the Jewish country remains controversial for several reasons. First of which is that the Jews are seen by many as having stolen the land they are now occupying, having run off the Arabs who were inhabiting the area prior to the creation of Israel. Most Jews believe that God had promised them that land and have a Jewish supremacist view that they are entitled to the land because they believe God said they were. Controversy also surrounds the fact that Israel was created as a country for a specific race of people—the Jews. It is difficult to criticize Israel because the Jews and their blind supporters quickly label any criticism as antiSemitic—no matter how valid it is. Israel also remains a focal point for Christians and those who study Bible prophecy and the New World Order. Mainline Christians believe that Israel will be the capitol of the New World Order and will be the geographic location where the Antichrist will rule from, and where Jesus Christ will return to at the end of time. Many Jews have a similar view of the role of Israel in the New World Order, but they believe that Jesus was not the Messiah, and are still waiting for this individual to arrive and lead the Jews and the rest of the world into a utopia of peace and prosperity. The Illuminati and New Age secret societies and cults also look forward to this world leader, who they say will arrive and be identified as the long awaited Christ and Messiah.

A Global Dictator Claiming to be God It is basically common knowledge that Christians believe that at some point in time, a global leader will rise to power and will wreak havoc on the earth as a dictator known as the Antichrist. Other religions such as Islam, have similar prophecies which foresee such a scenario as well. In Christian theology this dictator will rise to power at a point in time when the planet is engulfed in chaos and war, and he will promise world peace if given the

power to lead the world. According to the prophecies, this individual will not only be a tyrannical dictator once in power, but he will also claim to be God incarnate and demand to be worshiped as such. This isn’t exactly a novel idea. If one looks at the history of past civilizations, similar events have occurred over and over again. The pharaohs of Egypt claimed to be gods and demanded their people treat them as such. Nero, the emperor of Rome, expected such treatment as well. A more modern example is that of Adolf Hitler, who saw himself as the savior of Germany and the white race, and who was essentially worshiped as the messiah. A “God complex” seems to fall upon the most power-hungry men throughout history as their thirst for power and recognition leads them to the conclusion that they themselves are a god, and can do whatever they like with their power, no matter how unjust. There are a few fascinating points that I would like to address regarding this Antichrist scenario, and how it ties directly into the secret societies that are shaping the New World Order. As you should have gathered by now from my writings, a main theme within the secret societies is that the teachings elevate the initiate to a level of enlightenment where they themselves become a god, or god of their own perceived universe. Manly P. Hall explains in his classic book, The Secret Teachings of All Ages that, “The Mysteries were therefore established for the purpose of unfolding the nature of man according to certain fixed rules which, when faithfully followed, elevated the human consciousness to a point where it was capable of cognizing its own constitution and the true purpose of existence. This knowledge of how man’s manifold constitution could be most quickly and most completely regenerated to the point of spiritual illumination [cii] constituted the secret, or esoteric, doctrine of antiquity.”

Such enlightenment philosophies are not that dangerous by themselves, although considered heretical by Christianity and other religions, but instead it is the potential that one can develop this God complex and then place himself above all others and think that the rules of basic human conduct don’t apply to them.

While people defend occult organizations such as the Freemasons and other fraternities that teach the ancient Mysteries because they see the teachings as a way to build moral character and make sense of the world and their place in it through the spiritual and symbolic teachings found within such schools, it is undeniable that within such organizations there exists a corrupt core, who many say have hijacked and perverted the ancient Mysteries. The Illuminati is the key culprit who admittedly infiltrated Freemasonry in 1782 and created an inner circle to function covertly under the cover of the fraternity. Others say that the corruption had occurred centuries earlier. We do find clear evidence of the corrupt core today, and they continue to give a bad name to secret societies and are the source of countless conspiracy theories surrounding them. It is an interesting debate to discuss whether or not the Mysteries themselves are inherently evil, or whether they have been hijacked and abused by organized criminal networks that pervert them for their own gain. Now, let’s analyze the striking parallels between Christian Bible prophecy and the published plans and hopes of the elite secret societies. The Book of Revelation, the final book in the Bible, describes a man who is said to be the Antichrist, or a worker of Satan, who claims to be God and the savior of the world, but in reality is a ruthless dictator. The teachings of the Mystery Schools are believed to enlighten a man so he may become god-like and as we know men are inclined to get a God complex and become over taken by megalomania and selfishness. What is also interesting is that the Bible describes the counterfeit Christ as a world leader who will claim to be God and demand to be worshiped as such, and will do so in the new Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem. This temple, as of early 2010 when this book was first published, has not been rebuilt. The original location of the historical Solomon’s temple is currently occupied by a Muslim mosque called the Dome of the Rock. Solomon’s temple was destroyed twice in the past, once in 586 BC by the Babylonians, and again in 70 AD by the Romans. Jews have long hoped and planned for the third temple to be rebuilt on the original location, but since the Dome of the Rock stands there, they have a problem. This mosque will surely be destroyed

during a conflict sometime in the future and the land will be taken over by Jews, who will then rebuild their long awaited temple. It’s pivotal to note that Freemasonry is a modern Mystery School teaching the same philosophies that had been carried on in secret fraternal orders for thousands of years. Freemasons also consider their lodge where they meet, a temple, but not just any temple. It represents the Temple of Solomon. The head Mason of a lodge is called the Worshipful Master—an interesting choice for a leader. He is so enlightened, Masons believe, that he is a master of the universe and has achieved godhood, so he is “worshipful.” It is not hard to see then that the leader of the New World Order, or the “president of the world” will be a 33rd degree Freemason and believed by himself and his inner circle of associates to have achieved godhood, and will be a “worshipful master” and will take up the rebuilt Temple of Solomon as his own personal temple or office. In 2 Thessalonians 2:4-8, the Bible explains that the Antichrist will sit in the Temple of Jerusalem where he will exalt himself above God, claiming that he is God, saying, “Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” Matthew 24: 15-16 quotes Jesus speaking to His disciple, saying, “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place [meaning the temple], (whoso readeth, let him understand), then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains.” New Age guru Benjamin Crème writes about the appearance of what he calls the Maitreya or the Christ, saying, “This will lead to the Day of Declaration, when He will appear on the radio and television networks of the world linked by satellite. On that day Maitreya will mentally overshadow the whole of humanity simultaneously. All will hear His words inwardly in their own language. This telepathic communication will reach everyone, not only those watching or listening, and hundreds of thousands of miraculous healings will take place throughout the world. On that day, there will be no doubt that Maitreya is the Christ, the Imam Mahdi,

Maitreya Buddha, Kalki Avatart: the World Teacher. His open worldwide [ciii] mission will have begun.”

While Benjamin Crème may think that such an event will be the result of this individual’s “super natural power,” there is actually a perfectly logical explanation for how this kind of “telepathic” phenomena can occur.

Project Bluebeam In February of 1999, the Washington Post reported that operations were drawn up during the first Gulf War to project a huge holographic image of [civ]

Allah [the Islamic god] in the sky over Baghdad.

Then, using a 515KHz acoustic beam, the appearance of Allah talking would also have been manufactured, telling the Iraqi people to turn on Saddam. A similar plan was considered in Project Mongoose to overthrow Fidel Castro, where a Jesus-like figure would have been projected, telling the Cubans to overthrow “Godless Communism.” This technology has been labeled Project Blue Beam, and is likely ready to be used at any time. Of course, such technology is classified under national security, but this explains perfectly how Benjamin Crème’s prediction could come true of the “Christ” telepathically communicating with people, fooling them into believing he has supernatural powers and is God.

The Holy Bloodline Theory Ideas that Jesus Christ had a child with Mary Magdalene have been introduced to the mainstream though various books and novels, most popular of which is Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code ,which was released in 2003 and made into a film starring Tom Hanks in 2006. Such an idea has no real evidence, yet it has taken hold in millions of people’s minds as being the truth. This idea has several large implications on the New World Order’s goal of eroding faith in Christianity, as well as providing a possible justification for the supposed divine right of the Antichrist to rule earth, as he claims to be the long awaited Messiah.

Since secret societies like the Knights Templar and the Freemasons are said to be guardians of the Holy Grail, which in this theory means the bloodline of Jesus and not some cup or book of knowledge, this theory could very well be used as “evidence” that the Antichrist is the physical reincarnation of Jesus, or a direct descendent of him in an attempt to dupe Christians and Agnostics into believing he is divinely ordained to rule the New World Order.

The Rapture According to many Christians, when the end times come and the world has decayed into a disastrous wasteland and the Antichrist is about to take power, Christians will miraculously disappear from the face of the earth and be spared the harsh existence the rest of the world will face at the hands of this global tyrant. While many faithful Christians point to various Bible verses they believe verify this idea, it is highly doubtful such an event will occur, and it is this author’s opinion that the Rapture is a misinterpretation of the Bible, and a hoax. Some people who see the idea of all faithful Christians magically disappearing off the face of the earth and leaving everyone else behind to live in the New World Order as foolish, adhere to what is called a post tribulation rapture, which they say is a rapture of the Christians after the rule of the Antichrist. This idea is at least more realistic than a pre-trib (pretribulation) rapture. A major downfall to believing in the pre-trib rapture (the idea that Christians will be taken to Heaven as soon as the Antichrist comes on the scene, therefore being spared from the chaos and persecution) is that by believing they will supernaturally be taken off the earth and avoid the troubling times when the global dictator Antichrist is in power, they do not see a need to resist the New World Order or any major political or social policies being implemented, because they think that before things get too bad they’re going to go to Heaven and they won’t have to deal with it. When told about the encroaching Big Brother surveillance system and the VeriChip or similar device replacing paper currency and fulfilling the prophecy of the mark of the beast, instead of speaking out against it or

pushing for some kind of accountability or alternative for such a system, Rapture believing Christians are actually pleased such things are right around the corner because they think it means the Rapture is one step closer. Such a pathetic and cowardly attitude only allows their freedoms, privacy, and liberties to be taken away much more easily.

Other Implications of the Dictator This counterfeit Christ who claims to be God will espouse a very liberal and immoral philosophy on the world. Any sort of moral judgment on behaviors traditionally seen as immoral or reprehensible will be faced with extreme consequences. A very hedonistic lifestyle will be embraced and conservatives and Christians who oppose such behaviors will be labeled as the evil ones who are out of touch with the times. Many Christians will not believe that this man is God and will be aware of the massive fraud that is being perpetuated, and these individuals will be targeted as the trouble makers and the ones who are preventing the New World Order utopia from being realized. Some prophecies predict that the Antichrist will be nearly killed in an assassination attempt (or an accident) and will seemingly come back to life but with a massive wound to one of his eyes. His miraculous recovery will be touted as a miracle by his inner circle and will be more justification in the minds of his supporters that he has supernatural powers and has the divine right to rule. It’s interesting to note that the symbol for the Illuminati is one eye, often drawn inside a triangle or placed at the top of a pyramid. If this dictator is missing one eye after he is “resurrected” after his attack (or accident), the Illuminati would surely link their symbol of their God (the all-seeing eye) with their leader, who will also have one eye. This too may be seen as another “sign” that he is the Messiah.

Global Police and Military Force There have been suspicions that UN (United Nations) troops could be deployed on American soil for any number of reasons, such as supposedly to aid Americans in the event of a major terrorist attack from biological or

nuclear weapons, or to take over American infrastructure in the event of the U.S. dollar collapsing and becoming worthless as foreign countries try to recoup their losses. Such fears are stoked by videos that surface of the American military training foreign troops on US soil, sometimes practicing urban exercises where they simulate taking over a town’s main buildings, locking down the area, and even rounding up civilians who are willing participants in the exercises who pretend to be upset that they are being detained. Some videos even show make-shift prison camps where detainees are checked in and [cv] given ID badges and held inside tents surrounded by barbed wire.

One main reason for people’s uneasiness about such situations is that if UN forces are used on American soil for any reason, they do not have any loyalty to this country or the Constitution. We are nothing but foreigners to them. They would not be protecting their own neighborhoods or cities, but instead would simply be doing a job. Such troops will likely have no problems confiscating guns from house to house or rounding up large numbers of Americans for relocation to prison camps. President Obama’s chief science czar John Holdren wrote in his 1977 book Ecoscience about what he felt were the advantages of a global police force, saying, “If this could be accomplished, security might be provided by an armed international organization, a global analogue of a police force. Many people have recognized this as a goal, but the way to reach it remains obscure in a world where factionalism seems, if anything, to be increasing. The first step necessarily involves partial surrender of sovereignty to an [cvi] international organization.”

This is the same man who wrote in this same book about adding sterilizing agents to the water supply and forcing all women onto birth control or else forcing them to have an abortion if they get pregnant after having two children. Another unsettling aspect concerning military troops in the New World Order is the existence of private contractors being employed. Such a strategy became fairly well known during the Iraq War when the infamous

Blackwater private security company became the focus of controversy after the public learned that these “contractors” were being paid a large amount of money and were given luxurious living conditions and great food compared to regular US soldiers. These Blackwater troops are basically paid mercenaries who do not have the same chain of command and codes of conduct that members of the US military have. Such mercenaries don’t have any loyalty to any particular country either, and will accept a paycheck and orders from practically anyone.

Blackwater Now called simply Xe (pronounced Zi), is the new name for the private military contracting company formerly called Blackwater that became known for various controversies surrounding its employees activities during the War in Iraq. The company is the largest tactical training facility which trains more than 40,000 people per year in military offensive and defensive operations. In early 2009, the company changed its name from Blackwater to Xe and the new name, “reflects the change in company focus away from the business of providing private security.” The company denied the new strange name has any significance or special meaning. They did, however, admit that the name Blackwater became too closely associated with the [cvii]

company’s work in the occupation of Iraq.

The company’s license to operate in Iraq was not renewed and the new Iraqi government made several attempts to have them kicked out of the country during the course of [cviii] the war.

Xe (Blackwater) is still the largest private security contractor used by the United States government. 90% of the company’s money comes from [cix]

government contracts; two-thirds of which are no-bid contracts

— meaning they are the only company providing a quote to the government for the job—so multiple companies won’t have to compete with each other for the job by offering a lower price than the others.

The scandals and controversies surrounding corruption and murder involving Blackwater (Xe) mercenaries are numerous. In one instance executives at Blackwater authorized secret payments of nearly $1 million dollars to Iraqi officials in order to buy their silence regarding a 2007 incident where Blackwater security guards killed 17 Iraqi civilians in [cx]

Bagdad.

Blackwater’s president Gary Jackson was fingered by four former executives as having personally approved the bribes. The CIA also contracted Blackwater to create a hit squad and assassinate leaders of resistance groups in Iraq.

American Police Force A mysterious private security company came to the attention of concerned citizens in September 2009 which went by the name American Police Force, and used a Serbian coat of arms as its logo. The company had been contracted to run an empty prison facility in the city of Hardin, Montana, which drew suspicion of local residents. Local officials had hoped the facility would be used to detain prisoners that were held at the prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, which President Obama claimed he would close. The contract between the city of Hardin and American Police force was [cxi] reported to be a 10-year, multimillion dollar deal.

American Police Force is owned by a man named Michael Hilton, whose criminal record shows he “pleaded guilty in March 1993 to 14 felonies, including 10 counts of grand theft, one count of attempted grand theft and three counts of diversion of construction funds, according to Orange County court records. He was sentenced to two years in prison, but it is unclear how [cxii] much time he served.”

Hilton is said to speak English with a heavy accent and told reporters he is a naturalized US citizen who is originally from Montenegro, which borders Serbia. Orange County, California court records show Hilton has used sixteen different aliases, one of which, Michael Miodrag, is listed as being

connected to a multimillion dollar fraud case in Australia from 2007. Shortly after all the controversy surrounding the American Police Force and people looking into Michael Hilton’s shady past, the city of Harding announced that American Police Force would not be taking over the abandoned prison facility. The Serbian government also forced American Police Force to change its logo, since it was a coat of arms used by the Serbian government. Mystery still surrounds this strange “American Police Force” company and how they were able to get a ten million dollar deal to operate an abandoned prison. When news reports first started surfacing about this issue, some people began fearing that this prison would be operated as a concentration camp for US citizens who some feared would be rounded up for not taking the H1N1 swine flu vaccine that the government was pushing at the time. It’s also strange that a private security company was allowed to operate using a name that impersonates the police, when such an action is a felony.

Other Private Military Companies While Blackwater and Private Police Force may be two of the most wellknown contracted military or mercenary companies, the list is fairly long of other lesser known companies. MVM Inc. provides contracting services for the CIA and the NSA (National Security Agency) and is located in Vienna, Virginia, which is just 6 miles from the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. DynCorp is another infamous contracting company used by the military, which has been implicated in kidnapping children from Russia and Romania and selling them as sex slaves. KBR Inc. (Formerly Kellogg Brown and Root) is another private military contractor whose employees have also been implicated in human [cxiii]

trafficking.

Numerous women have also reported being gang raped by their fellow employees while working for KBR. One woman, Jamie Leigh Jones, testified before a Congressional hearing that she had been gang-raped by approximately seven of her coworkers when she worked for

[cxiv]

KBR in Iraq back in 2005.

Jones’ lawyers said that 38 other women reported similar experiences. KBR was a subsidiary of Halliburton at the time. Dick Cheney, if you recall, was the CEO of Halliburton from 1995 to the year 2000, before becoming vice president under George W. Bush and then pulling strings so his former company would make millions in no-bid contracts.

Posse Comitatus Act The Posse Comitatus Act was a law passed in 1878 which specifically prohibited the U.S. military from being used on American soil for law enforcement purposes. The term is Latin for “power of the county.” The reason for such a law was to prevent a dictatorship from arising in America by prohibiting a corrupt president from ordering the Army or other military branch to enforce laws that may be unconstitutional. After 9/11, numerous instances of uniformed military personnel helping police conduct security checks began to be reported as violations of Posse Comitatus, but all instances were described by officials as merely “training exercises,” thus claiming there was no collaboration between police and military, when clearly there was. One concerned citizen videotaped a brief conversation with a uniformed officer in Kingsman, Arizona where the citizen was subjected to a vehicle checkpoint. The military officer admitted, “We’re just helping with security and traffic and stuff for the races.” The solider was then asked if he was under the control of the police and working for the city, to which he responded, “I have no idea, I just do what I’m [cxv] told.”

In 2008, the California Highway Patrol announced its officers would work [cxvi] with US Marines to staff sobriety and driver’s license checkpoints.

An ABC affiliate KESQ reported on this after locals expressed concern that this violated the Posse Comitatus Act. The Marines, of course, denied this and Lieutenant Thomas Beck claimed, “We were not actively participating [cxvii] in enforcing any laws. We were there to observe and observe only.”

Another instance of our military working with police was captured on video by a member of the political activist group We Are Change, where they traveled to Newport, Kentucky during River Fest. The person was questioning a uniformed Army soldier who was staking out public streets. The soldiers were in full uniform and armed with handguns and had [cxviii] military Hummers parked on the side of the road.

Another soldier who was part of this same operation was asked if he would follow orders to confiscate guns from American citizens door-to-door, like what occurred after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He answered, “I’m just a [cxix] soldier. I do what I’m told.”

This author (Mark Dice) has lived in the San Diego, California area for over ten years and has numerous friends who have been stationed at Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, California, which is in the North County of San Diego. One friend informed me that it is against policy for Marines to wear their uniforms anywhere out in public other than from their home directly to the base or vice a versa. They are not allowed to stop off at the grocery store and go shopping, or take a stroll through the mall, because seeing a Marine in camouflage out in public can be unsettling for people and gives the feeling of a police state with public areas being patrolled by the military. The Department of Defense’s slick legal team always insists that such collaborations of military and police are just “training” exercising and claim they do not violate the Posse Comitatus Act. Such claims are of course lies.

John Warner Defense Act A bill passed by Congress in 2006 under the Bush administration known as the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 5122), greatly expanded the president’s power to declare martial law and deploy the National Guard into US cities without state governor authorizations when public order has been lost or is seen as being potentially lost. Before this, there were strict limitations on the president’s ability to do so and the authority was delegated to state governors, but now the president can make the decision himself.

At some point, this authority will ultimately be superseded by the United Nations or the president of the world who will then have the authority to deploy troops and declare martial law anytime and anywhere they see fit.

Military Commissions Act of 2006 The United States Military Commissions Act of 2006 (HR-6166), was an Act of Congress signed into law by President George W. Bush in order to “authorize trial by military commission for violations of the law of war, and for other purposes.” What this really did was allow the President of the United States (Bush and future presidents) to declare someone (including a U.S. citizen) to be considered an “enemy combatant,” which then eliminates their right to habeas corpus, meaning they no longer would have the right to challenge their imprisonment, and could be detained without having any charges even filed against them. Such a practice is in clear violation of the Constitution which says a person can’t be held without being charged with a crime. The language in the law is so broad that it can be used to label anyone an “enemy combatant” who is engaged in hostilities or who has supported hostilities against the United States. This “support” could be financial, [direct or indirect] or simply counseling. The Act also suggests that the label “unlawful enemy combatant” refers to any person, “who, before, on, or after the date of the enactment of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, has been determined to be an unlawful enemy combatant by a Combatant Status Review Tribunal or another competent tribunal established under the authority of the President or the Secretary of Defense.” This basically means that if the President says you [cxx] are an enemy combatant, then you are one.

The language in the Act also made this power retroactive, which means that since it was passed, people can be detained and not charged for something they allegedly did before the Act was passed in 2006, when such detainment was not authorized.

Concentration Camps When one hears of concentration camps, images of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust immediately come to mind, but many American’s would never think that innocent citizens in their country would ever be rounded up and placed in prison camps. Many Americans distracted by professional sports and pop culture are unaware that during World War II, President Roosevelt had 120,000 Japanese Americans rounded up and placed in prison camps. The conditions of living were certainly not what Jews and other prisoners faced in Nazi Germany, but nonetheless, innocent American citizens were taken from their homes and placed in large prison camps called War Relocation Camps for several years. Even if some people are aware of the Japanese internment, they dismiss such events as being a thing of the past, and never suspect that large scale detention facilities exist today. During the Republican National Convention of 2004 in New York City, hundreds of protesters were rounded up and taken to an old dilapidated bus garage by the Hudson River, which was converted into a secret detention [cxxi] camp by the NYPD in preparation for the convention.

The facility was dirty with motor oil on the ground and the building was contaminated with asbestos. People were held in crowded conditions for long hours, and the facility was dubbed “Guantanamo on the Hudson” in reference to Camp X-ray in Cuba, where suspects in the “War on Terror” are held without having any charges filed against them. Another secret prison camp that was discovered and made public was in Austin, Texas in an abandoned airplane hangar at an airport. The hanger was equipped with barbed wire fences, shackles on the ground, and mattresses for detainees to sleep on. This secret prison was created in the build-up to the year 2000 because officials worried that there would be massive civil unrest and possibly the breakdown of civilization if the rumored Y2K bug shut down computers.

Such facilities are now plentiful in America as the New World Order continues to be constructed and such prisons are not new. In the 1980s during the Iran-Contra hearings, Jack Brooks (D-TX) tried to learn about Oliver North’s role in FEMA’s plans to suspend the Constitution and detain political dissidents during a declared state of national emergency. During the hearings, Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-HA) prevented Brooks from further questioning as indicated in a transcript of the hearing. Brooks: Colonel North, in your work at the N.S.C. [National Security Council] were you not assigned, at one time, to work on plans for the continuity of government in the event of a major disaster? Brendan Sullivan: [North’s counsel]: Mr. Chairman? Inouye: I believe that question touches upon a highly sensitive and classified area so may I request that you not touch upon that? Brooks: I was particularly concerned, Mr. Chairman, because I read in Miami papers, and several others, that there had been a plan developed, by that same agency, a contingency plan in the event of emergency, that would suspend the American constitution. And I was deeply concerned about it and wondered if that was an area in which he had worked. I believe that it was and I wanted to get his confirmation. Inouye: May I most respectfully request that that matter not be touched upon at this stage. If we wish to get into this, I’m certain arrangements can be made for an executive session. End of Transcript The goofy admitted alcoholic Mormon Glenn Beck became practically a house hold name after he left CNN and moved over to the Fox News Channel in January 2009. Beck’s attempt to imitate Robert Beale of the popular 1970s film Network has gotten him a large fan base who see him as an honest average American, even though he signed a $50 million dollar [cxxii] contract for his radio show alone.

A concerned looking Beck appeared on Fox and Friends , a morning show on the Fox News Channel to promote his new show on their network, and told the hosts, “I have to tell you, I’m doing a story tonight. I wanted to debunk these FEMA camps, you know about them? I’m tired of hearing about them. I wanted to debunk them, well, now for several days we’ve done research on them…I can’t debunk them. And we’re going to carry this [cxxiii]

story tonight.”

He goes on to explain to the other hosts, “FEMA prisons, FEMA camps. These are actually prisons that were built under the Bush administration…they’re sitting there empty…you’ll see that tonight. Something just doesn’t sit right with me.” Later that night during The Glenn Beck Program when viewers were expecting to learn more about these prison camps, Beck took a complete 180 degree turn and denied that such camps even exist. He actually decided not to air the segment, and instead told his audience, “I told you that I was going to tell you about the FEMA camps or the FEMA prisons today…I don’t believe in the FEMA prisons, if you don’t know I’ll tell you about it in a couple of days.” He then said he was going to talk about it today but that his research was “incomplete” and he needed to wait a few more days. He then admitted, “this is going to drive the conspiracy theorists crazy. I’ll add this. They’re making me say this. Help,” and went on to imply that nobody from management killed the story, and that he only answers to himself. The following week Beck had James Meigs on as a guest, who is the editor of Popular Mechanics magazine and the two had a field day attacking the “conspiracy theories” about the FEMA camps, and denied that there are such things. James Meigs is the same man who presents himself as having “debunked” the “9/11 conspiracy theories” by choosing straw men arguments and fringe theories about the 9/11 attacks and then claiming the entire body of research supporting 9/11 was an inside job must be false. For anyone of any intelligence, Glenn Beck’s complete reversal is obvious, and proves that the higher ups at the Fox News Channel killed his original story and then produced a new one with the help of “debunker” James Meigs. In other instances Beck has made numerous slanderous remarks about 9/11 Truthers (those who see the 9/11 attacks were an inside job) and in one

instance Beck has fabricated statements saying that the nutcase who shot a security guard at the Washington DC holocaust museum was a “hero” to the [cxxiv]

9/11 Truthers.

These instances and others prove Glenn Beck to be a slick disinformationist and a gate-keeper who works to prevent important information from reaching the public, while pretending to bring his audience cutting edge commentary and news. The film Camp FEMA (2009) produced by Gary Franchi and directed by Richard Lewis documents the existence of modern concentration camps, a topic that is beyond the scope of this book.

MTV Warns about Martial Law and Concentration Camps A series of several brief commercials, or perhaps more accurately PSAs (Public Service Announcements), aired on MTV, of all places, in 2008 depicting situations where an out of control police force rounded up citizens in the back of trucks and put them on trains at gunpoint. At the end of the segment, the scene froze and faded into a historical photograph of Jews being rounded up for the Holocaust in a similar manor. The segments were only thirty seconds long, but were extremely disturbing. They concluded with a printed message on the screen reading, “The Holocaust happened to people like us.”

Abusing, Torturing, and Raping Prisoners As the Iraq War drug on for years and the lies continued to unravel about the reasons America started the war, word began to spread about American soldiers abusing prisoners. Hundreds of photos were made public that soldiers themselves had taken of each other abusing detainees for their own amusement, and the abuse was blamed on a handful of soldiers who were said to have acted on their own and not in accordance with their superiors. Other photos were never made public which show soldiers raping and sodomizing detainees, although such activities are officially denied to have occurred. While some photos of abuse were made public, President Obama prevented the release of over 2000 others shortly after he was sworn in as president,

despite his earlier promises to have them released. Major General Antonio Taguba was the Army officer in charge of conducting an inquiry into the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq and gave an interview with the London Telegraph admitting that, “These pictures show torture, abuse, rape and every [cxxv] indecency.”

Just one month after Obama flip flopped and changed his mind about releasing photos, he stated, “The most direct consequence of releasing them, I believe, would be to inflame anti-American public opinion and to put our troops in greater danger,” but those on the inside like Major General Taguba know the real reason for not releasing them. “The mere description of these pictures is horrendous enough, take my word for it,” Taguba said. One such description was released under the US Freedom of Information Act where an Egyptian translator named Kasim Mehaddi Hilas said, “I saw [name of a translator] fucking a kid, his age would be about 15 to 18 years. The kid was hurting very bad and they covered all the doors with sheets. Then when I heard screaming I climbed the door because on top it wasn’t covered and I saw [name] who was wearing the military uniform, putting his dick in the little kid’s ass…and the female soldier was taking pictures.” [cxxvi] Despite all the now sealed photos and descriptions by eyewitnesses, this level of abuse is officially denied by the US government. What was admitted, after being denied of course, is the use of waterboarding, which is pouring water down the mouth and nose of someone who is strapped to a table, thus making them feel like they are drowning due to inhaling water into their lungs. Waterboarding has been illegal under international law and is considered torture by countless legal experts, war veterans, medical experts, and human rights organizations. This didn’t stop the Bush administration from using it though, and after numerous denials that the CIA and military officials were waterboarding suspects and prisoners, they finally admitted it, but called it an “enhanced interrogation technique” and denied that it was torture.

Fox News’ Operation Mockingbird asset Sean Hannity, an avid war propagandist and George W. Bush defender, continuously stated that waterboarding was no big deal and when asked live on television by one of his guests if he would volunteer to be waterboarded, Hannity agreed to do it for charity. He never followed through with his promise, and completely ignored the fact that he made such a statement. MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann publicly offered to pay $1000 to charity for every second Hannity was subjected the practice, but of course it never happened. Mancow Muller, a popular Chicago radio host, had also spoken publicly in support of waterboarding and denied that it was torture, that is, until he himself voluntarily underwent the procedure. Mancow thought that he could be waterboarded and then say it was no big deal and that liberals who were against it and those who called it torture would be proven wrong, but immediately after the procedure began Mancow ended it and admitted he thought it constituted torture. An EMT was present in case anything went wrong. Immediately after ending the experiment, Mancow said, “It is way worse than I thought it would be…Look…all that’s been done to this country, and I heard about water being dropped on someone’s face, I never considered it torture, even when I was laying there, I thought this is gonna be no big deal, I go swimming, it’s gonna be like being in the tub…it was instantaneous. I thought I could hold out 30 seconds, 60 seconds, it was instantaneous, and I don’t want to say this…absolutely torture. Absolutely, I mean that’s [cxxvii] drowning.”

COINTELPRO A sinister covert and highly illegal program admittedly conducted by the FBI between 1956 and 1971 was called COINTELPRO (an acronym for Counter Intelligence Program) which investigated and disrupted political organizations deemed problematic by the establishment. Since its discovery and the nature of its crimes and activities, of course the FBI says the program was dissolved and no such thing exists anymore. Such claims are laughable, and COINTELPRO’s discovery only served as a learning

experience for the FBI and measures were put in place to prevent such activities from being discovered and exposed in the future. The original program targeted groups seen as “subversive” or groups suspected of being subversive. Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders in the Civil Rights Movement and those associated with the NAACP (the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), and the Southern Poverty Law Center were also targeted, as well as groups protesting the Vietnam War, including many college students. The directives of COINTELPRO were given by J. Edgar Hoover, who was the head of the FBI at the time, and ordered agents to “expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize” the leaders and activities of such groups. Agents involved in the program used a lot of dirty tricks, such as mailing letters to leaders of organizations claiming to be from someone else and making accusations that they had been sleeping with that person’s wife, for example. In one instance a recording of Martin Luther King Jr. that was taken illegally from a hotel room and proved he was cheating on his wife. FBI agents then anonymously mailed the recording to his wife because they wanted to discourage King from pushing for civil rights. Illegal wire taps, spreading false and slanderous rumors about people, frame-ups and worse were all common in COINTELPRO and are still methods used today by elite law enforcement and intelligence agents.

The MIAC Report A joint venture between the Department of Homeland Security and local law enforcement in Jefferson City, Missouri called The Missouri Information Analysis Center (or MIAC), is said to analyze terrorist threats and criminal activity in order to help prevent them. This MIAC was fairly unknown until March of 2009, when an eight page report the organization had wrote up was leaked to the public titled The Modern Militia Movement , which contained some disturbing information regarding the kinds of individuals the report labeled as potentially dangerous or domestic terrorists.

When the MIAC report first surfaced, a lot of people thought it was a hoax since the criteria it used to identify potential militia members and terrorists was completely absurd, but the report was confirmed authentic by Lieutenant John Hotz, the Assistant Director of the Public Information and [cxxviii]

Education Division of the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

The report contains what it called common symbols and media associated with terrorists in order for officials to more easily identify them. These items include bumper stickers showing support for Congressman Ron Paul, owning gold coins, and Aaron Russo’s film America: Freedom to Fascism. The report begins by trying to explain why the militia movement gained numbers in the 1980s and 90s, saying, “It was during this timeframe that many individuals and organizations began to concoct conspiracy theories to explain their misfortunes. These theories varied but almost always involved a globalist dictatorship, the ‘New World Order (NWO),’ which conspired to exploit the working class citizens…Much of this rhetoric would become anti-Semitic, claiming that the Jews controlled the monetary system and media, and in turn the ‘Zionist Occupied government (ZOG).’” In a section titled The Militia Post September 11th 2001 it reads, “Newer versions of the NWO conspiracy have been concocted in order to empower the movement. The NWO is seen as using law enforcement, military, national guard, and federal agencies in order to carry out its elitist one world government.” It goes on to say, “Many militia organizations feel that the U.S. government will fall due to economic or racial issues. They believe that during the chaotic fall of the government, moves will be made to install Martial Law, confiscate firearms, and imprison many citizens.” The report mentions the North American Union and says, “conspiracy theorists claim that this union would link Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The NAU would unify its monetary system and trade the dollar for [cxxix] the AMERO.”

Radio Frequency Identification Devices (RFIDs) are also mentioned, saying “there is a fear that the government will enforce mass RFID human implantations. This process would make it possible for the government to [cxxx] continually know the locations of all citizens.”

The report is a tremendous piece of propaganda aimed at convincing police that anyone who discusses these particular issues should be viewed as a potential threat. It says, “The militia subscribes to an anti-government and NWO mindset, which creates a threat to law enforcement officers. They view the military, National Guard, and law enforcement as a force that will confiscate their firearms and place them in FEMA concentration camps.” Since most people familiar with the New World Order learn about the private Federal Reserve Bank and its role in the economy, the MIAC report also included this topic in their report painting these people as extremists. “Members of the militia movement are strongly against the FRS (Federal Reserve System) and see it as a mechanism of the elitist New World Order. In November, End the FED protests were held nationwide at Federal Reserve Banks in opposition to the FRS. Many right-wing extremists oppose the FRS and propose a system that would be backed by gold,” it reads. Also, since many who see the left vs. right paradigm one of controlled opposition, and the leadership of both the Republicans and the Democrats as being globalists with ties to the secret establishment, many people begin favoring third party candidates who don’t have to bow down to any special interests. While this is a conclusion any thinking American would come to after learning about how the political structure actually functions, the MIAC report chose to demonize such people. “Militia members most commonly associate with 3rd party political groups. It’s not uncommon for militia members to display Constitution Party, Campaign for Liberty, or Libertarian material. These members are usually supporters of former Presidential Candidates Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin, and [cxxxi] Bob Barr.”

The report even warns that people who display political messages on their vehicles in the form of bumper stickers should be suspects. “Militia members commonly display pictures, cartoons, [and] bumper stickers that contain anti-government rhetoric. Most of this material will depict the FRS, IRS, FBI, ATF, CIA, UN, Law Enforcement, and ‘The New World Order’ [cxxxii] in a derogatory manor.”

Shortly after word spread of this report and the demonizing language in it, even mainstream media outlets covered it in shock saying it amounted to political profiling. Soon afterward, by the end of March 2009, the report was said to be scrapped and the director of the MIAC was reassigned. “For that reason, I have ordered the MIAC to permanently cease distribution of the militia report,” said Chief James Keathley of the Missouri State Patrol. “Further, I am creating a new process for oversight of reports drafted by the MIAC that will require leaders of the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Department of Public Safety to review the content of these reports before they are shared with law enforcement. My office will [cxxxiii] also undertake a review of the origin of the report by MIAC.”

Department of Homeland Security Labels Veterans as Possible Terrorists and Extremists While some skeptics say the MIAC report was just one insignificant report drafted and circulated in the state of Missouri, not soon afterwards a similar report was made public that was drafted by the Department of Homeland Security which labeled veterans and pro-life organizations as possible extremists or terrorists. The report, titled Right-wing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment , also says that due to the collapse of the economy which began near the end of 2008 and the election of Barack Obama as the first black president of the United States, that “rightwing extremists” are having an easier time recruiting supporters who are concerned about illegal immigration, restrictions of firearms, abortion, and the loss of US sovereignty.

The report even admits, “threats from white supremacist and violent antigovernment groups during 2009 have been largely rhetorical and have not indicated plans to carry out violent acts,” but suggests that, worsening economic conditions, potential new restrictions on firearms and “the return of military veterans facing significant challenges reintegrating into their communities could lead to the potential emergence of terrorist groups or lone wolf extremists capable of carrying out violent attacks.” The report says that rightwing extremism, “can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly anti-government, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.” “[T]he consequences of a prolonged economic downturn—including real estate foreclosures, unemployment and an inability to obtain credit – could create a fertile recruiting environment for right-wing extremists and even result in confrontations between such groups and government authorities similar to those in the past,” the report reads. It also warns that, “Proposed imposition of firearms restrictions and weapons bans likely would attract new members into the ranks of rightwing extremist groups as well as potentially spur some of them to begin planning and training for violence against the government…The high volume of purchases and stockpiling of weapons and ammunition by rightwing extremists in anticipation of restrictions and bans in some parts of the country continue to be a primary concern to law enforcement.” The report also mentions what it calls people who believe in antigovernment conspiracy theories about gun confiscations, citizen detention camps, and a Jewish-controlled ‘one-world government’ and says that, “end times prophecies could motivate extremist individuals and groups to stockpile food, ammunition and weapons. These teachings also have been linked with the radicalization of domestic extremist individuals and groups in the past, such as the violent Christian Identity organizations and extremist members of the militia movement.”

It also attempts to cast suspicion on veterans, saying, “Returning veterans possess combat skills and experience that are attractive to right-wing extremists…DHS/I&A (Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis) is concerned that right-wing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize veterans in order to boost their violent capacities.” People who support enforcing immigration laws and who oppose illegal immigration or speak out against it are also demonized in the report. “DHS/I&A assesses that right-wing extremist groups’ frustration over a perceived lack of government action on illegal immigration has the potential to incite individuals or small groups toward violence.” The report concludes that the Department of Homeland Security will work with state and local officials in the near future to determine the levels of right-wing extremist activity in their areas.

Project Megiddo In the months preceding the turn of the twenty-first century, the FBI released a report warning of violence they thought would likely be carried out to mark the new millennium at the hands of people who believed in the “New World Order conspiracy theory.” The report specifically listed white supremacists, Black Hebrew Israelites, the militia movement, and apocalyptic cults as groups who the FBI should be on the lookout for. While it is true that a very small number of white supremacists and apocalyptic cults have carried out violence driven by their ideologies, the Project Megiddo report casts suspicion on anyone who talks about the New World Order. This 32 page report was titled Project Megiddo because, as it explains, “The Hebrew word ‘Armageddon’ means ‘hill of Megiddo.’ In English, the word has come to represent battle itself. The last book in the New Testament of the Bible designates Armageddon as the assembly point in the apocalyptic setting of God’s final and conclusive battle against evil. The name ‘Megiddo’ is an apt title for a project that analyzes those who believe the year 2000 will usher in the end of the world and who are willing to perpetrate acts of violence to bring that end about.”

In the section focusing on the militia, the report tries to paint those who talk about the New World Order or the United Nations as potential violent extremists, saying, “Meanwhile, for members of the militia movement the new millennium has a political overtone rather than a religious one. It is their belief that the United Nations has created a secret plan, known as the New World Order (NWO), to conquer the world beginning in 2000.” [cxxxiv] The report goes on to demonize gun owners and supporters of the Second Amendment who oppose gun control measures, reading “The passage of the Brady Bill and assault weapons ban in 1994 were interpreted by those in the militia movement and among the right-wing as the first steps towards [cxxxv] disarming citizens in preparation for the UN-led NWO takeover.”

“In light of the enormous importance and prominent role that extremist groups place on the Second Amendment, it is probable that recent government actions aimed at controlling guns are perceived to be [cxxxvi] compelling signs of the UN-led NWO takeover.”

It is well known to those who are aware of the New World Order that FEMA has constructed various prison camps, detention centers, and socalled emergency relocation centers which are usually kept secret from the [cxxxvii] public, and in some cases have been covered by mainstream news.

Most people who are familiar with these “FEMA camps” are not very comfortable with their existence and the secrecy which surrounds them. The Megiddo report addresses these worries, saying, “One can find numerous references in militia literature to military bases to be used as concentration camps in the NWO and visiting foreign military personnel conspiring to [cxxxviii] attack Americans.”

One of the most unsettling ideas conveyed in the report is that Christians who are uneasy about the New World Order for its prophetic implications regarding the end times are viewed as cult members who may act out violently in order to bring about the end of the world. “Cults with an apocalyptic agenda, particularly those that appear ready to initiate rather

than anticipate violent confrontations to bring about Armageddon or fulfill ‘prophesy’ present unique challenges to law enforcement officials.” [cxxxix] “Religiously motivated extremists may initiate violent conflicts with law enforcement officials in an attempt to facilitate the onset of Armageddon, or to help fulfill a ‘prophesy.’ … Likewise, extremists who are convinced that the millennium will lead to a One World Government may choose to engage [cxl] in violence to prevent such a situation from occurring.”

It certainly is interesting that since this report was released in October 1999, talk of the New World Order by major political figures around the world has become common place, and the vast majority of people around the world who speak out against it are viewed as dangerous extremists who the government and law enforcement agencies claim are prone to violence.

A Nation of Spies In the New World Order, the mainstream media and the government purposefully create a climate of fear, putting the population on edge with the threat of terrorism they claim can come from any number of individuals or groups. The ethereal “al Qaeda” became the focal point of such fears after the September 11th 2001 terror attacks in New York City and Washington DC and the fear mongering went on practically daily throughout the Bush administration. While it is understandable that law enforcement would put out information urging people to be on the lookout for specific suspicious behavior in hopes of preventing any crimes from taking place, the rhetoric accompanying such alerts has created a climate where people are urged to spy on their neighbors and are made to feel powerful by doing so, as if they themselves are working in cooperation with law enforcement. During the 2008 presidential campaign in America, Barrack Obama made a startling statement referring to his desire to create a program which sounds

like it was coming right out of George Orwell’s dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four . Obama proclaimed, “We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.” The man chosen by President Obama to be his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, made equally unsettling statements in the past. On August 21, 2009 Rahm Emanuel, who was a Democratic member of the House of Representatives, was interviewed on C-Span about his book The Plan: Big Ideas for America , and when asked specifically what he meant by the idea of a “universal citizen service” Emanuel answered, “Citizenship is not an entitlement program. It comes with responsibilities. Everybody between the ages of 18 and 25 will serve three months of basic training and understanding in a kind of civil defense.” In George Orwell’s classic novel Nineteen Eighty-Four , the children spy on their parents and neighbors and accuse the lead character Winston Smith of being a “thought criminal,” meaning he has negative thoughts about the government. These same children report their father as a thought criminal as well, and he is arrested based on these accusations. The idea of civilians spying on other civilians by simply keeping their eyes and ears open for anything they might say or do that seems to criticize the ruling party was something that people thought occurred only in Nazi Germany or the Communist Soviet Union, but there have been multiple attempts by leadership in both Republican and Democratic parties to create a culture in America where people feel empowered because they are on the lookout for anyone that is not in step with current leadership and their ideologies. Often such programs are defended citing “things have changed since 9/11,” referring to the September 11th terrorist attacks and claims that a secret society of Muslim extremists are living among us plotting their next attack and waiting for the right moment or the green light from Osama Bin Laden, the mythical leader of this society of radicals.

Operation TIPS A snitch program implemented under the fear-mongering years of President George W. Bush was called Operation TIPS, which was an acronym for the Terrorism Information and Prevention System . This program was aimed at workers who had access to people’s homes, such as cable installers and telephone repairmen, who were encouraged to look for and report “suspicious” activity to authorities. The program was intended to begin in August 2002 and hoped to include over one million workers in ten US cities. John Ashcroft who was the Attorney General under President Bush admitted that information generated by Operation TIPS would then be stored in databases for various law enforcement agencies. Senator Patrick Leahy from Vermont criticized the program and likened it to J. Edgar Hoover’s misuse of the FBI when he hired citizens to spy on their neighbors if they were political protesters during the 1960s. Legislation was introduced in the House version of the Homeland Security Bill that prohibited the creation of Operation TIPS, but senator Joe Lieberman blocked its removal from the Senate’s version. The Senate later passed the House version which called for the program’s termination in November 2002. However, in 2008 it was reported that ordinary people such as utility workers and others had been trained as what are called Terrorism Liaison Officers who report “suspicious” activity that could be signs of terrorist. [cxli]

InfraGuard InfraGard is a program developed by the FBI which basically functions as a secret society of businessmen, academics, utility workers, and law enforcement agents who secretly look for suspicious activity and share information and intelligence in order to supposedly prevent terrorist attacks against critical infrastructure in the United States. InfraGuard stands for Infrastructure Guardians and began in 1996. As of December 2009, the organization reported their membership to be more than 34,000 people. Most people have never heard of InfraGuard.

In 2008, Matthew Rothschild reported in the journal The Progressive that several InfraGard members told him if martial law was declared that InfraGuard members would be given orders to “shoot to kill” in order to [cxlii]

protect critical infrastructure and would not be prosecuted.

The FBI has denied this. The article in The Progressive also reported that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said there “is evidence that InfraGard may be closer to a corporate TIPS program, turning private-sector corporations— some of which may be in a position to observe the activities of millions of [cxliii] individual customers—into surrogate eyes and ears for the FBI.”

iWatch A citizen spy program launched in Los Angeles, California called iWatch is promoted as being the “21st century version of Neighborhood Watch.” [cxliv]

Through brochures, meetings with community groups, and even television commercials, the iWatch program lists what they call suspicious behavior that should compel people to call the police. Several of these “indicators” are: If you smell chemicals or other fumes; If you see someone wearing clothes that are too big and too heavy for the season; And, if you see someone purchasing supplies or equipment that could be used to make bombs. So, I guess you’re supposed to call the police if your neighbor is spray painting something in their backyard or using paint thinner to clean some tools in his garage and you smell the fumes, or if someone is buying a steel pipe at the hardware store to fix some plumbing. The program also created a toll-free telephone number for people to report such activities to, as well as a website. Mike German, who is a former FBI agent now working with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) admits that many of the iWatch indicators are all relatively common behaviors and worries that people will use the program to report people who are thought to look like a terrorist based on personal biases and stereotypes.

Supporters of the program hope iWatch will become as successful and as well-known as the Smokey Bear campaign used to prevent wildfires. “There he is with his Smokey the Bear hat, similarly here, we hope that this program, even though it’s in its birthing stages right now, in a few years will become that well known to the American public,” said Los Angeles police Chief William Bratton. One of the television commercials for the program consists of a dozen or so people each saying a sentence or two and then cutting to the next in a montage, saying, “What is iWatch? It’s a way to report suspicious behavior, or activities that relates to terrorism. Terrorism is a crime. It is our shared responsibility to keep America safe. That’s why I, iWatch. It’s like a neighborhood watch for the whole city. If you see, hear, or smell something suspicious, report it. Reporting is easy. Use the web, or the phone. Let law enforcement determine if it’s a threat. And let the experts decide. A single report can lead to actions that can stop a terrorist attack. Think about the power of that. Think about the power of iWatch. I watch. I report. I keep us safe.”

Cash Payments Given to Snitches Chicago implemented a “tax whistle-blower” program offering people a cash reward for informants who turn in businesses that are cheating on their taxes. The amount of the reward is a percentage of the tax money the city recovers as a result of the informant’s tip. “It’s just another way of bringing people into compliance,” Revenue Department spokesman Ed Walsh told [cxlv] the Sun-Times.

“It would probably be a business knowing that a competitor is not remitting a tax. An employee [of the tax-dodging business] could know that, too. [cxlvi] Typically, you need to provide some type of incentive.”

Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts In a move that could lead to a scenario similar to Hitler Youth in Nazi Germany, the Department of Homeland Security created a program where

they decided to “partner” with the Boy Scouts of America to allegedly help Americans to prepare for and respond to emergencies. “We are delighted to partner with the Department of Homeland Security on this very important initiative for America,” said Roy Williams, Chief Scout Executive. The New York Times ran an article discussing the Boy Scouts activities with Homeland Security and showed a photo of some kids dressed up in SWAT [cxlvii] gear and holding fake rifles.

The article tells how the practice drill the children were involved in included the goal of rounding up a terrorist, who in this case was a “disgruntled Iraq war veteran,” and admits that thousands of young people were being trained to “confront terrorism” and the program aimed to “prepare youths for more traditional jobs as police officers and firefighters.” [cxlviii] “Scouting embodies the very essence of being prepared and has specific training and merit badges designed to encourage proper awareness and planning in our Scouts. To partner on a program such as this allows us to reinforce the importance of preparation to families throughout the nation,” said Roy Williams, Chief Scout Executive. In an equally strange move, the Department of Homeland Security also decided to team up with the Girl Scouts as well, in order to “combat hurricanes, pandemics, terror attacks and other disasters.” The head of the Department of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, said “As a former Girl Scout, I know the ‘Be Prepared’ motto well, and I look forward to working with the Girl Scouts to spread the preparedness message to all of our nation’s citizens.” It was reported that Homeland Security designed a new “preparedness badge” that the girls can earn while defending America.

Climate Cops

A British website called ClimateCops.com geared for children ages 7 to 11 features cartoon images and downloadable materials for children to become “climate cops” so they can keep a watchful eye over their parents and then build a “Climate Crime Case File” to report back to their parents and make sure they, “don’t commit those crimes again (or else)!” The site also warns children that they “may need to keep a watchful eye” to prevent future violations. When one logs onto the website they are first shown a brief cartoon introducing them to four characters, the “climate cops,” who are going to fight against global warming because it is “threatening our world” and the viewer is told “it’s time to fight back” and that they “need new recruits and your training starts here.” The user then can play various games or “missions” as they are called, and can download tickets to report “climate crime” which are used to write up violations for their parents for instances like leaving the room and not turning the light off, or leaving a cell phone charger plugged in when it’s not being used. One ticket even lists “using a tumble dryer on a sunny day” and carries the assumption that people should line dry their clothes and not use a dryer. Another one says, “Putting hot food in a fridge or freezer is in fact, a crime. Climate Cops know that waiting for it to cool is the right time.” Not only does this kind of propaganda push the global warming theory onto children, but gives them the feeling of authority over their parents and teaches them that they are the ones in power and can give the orders. Global warming poster boy Al Gore once told a group of school kids that, “There are some things about our world that you know that older people don’t know…Why would that be? Well, in a period of rapid change, the old assumptions sometimes just don’t work anymore because they’re out of date. New knowledge, new understandings are much more widely available, sometimes to young people who are in school who aren’t weighed down with the old flawed assumptions of the past.” The hoax of deadly man-made climate change and the Armageddon said to occur unless people pay carbon taxes and give in to a global government is covered in its own section of this book. (See Global Warming/Climate Change)

Elimination of the Right to Bear Arms The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States outlines the right for citizens to bear arms—meaning to own guns. It can’t be at random that this Amendment immediately follows the right to free speech (the First Amendment), which is one of the most cherished freedoms Americans enjoy. So placing an amendment guaranteeing the right to own guns as the second one shows just how important the founding fathers felt this right was. They knew that if masses of citizens were armed, that an out of control government would have a much more difficult time imposing its will on the people because they would be able to organize and fight against such an event. In Asia, people made nunchucks and other weapons out of commonly available materials in the ancient past when all weapons were banned and only members of the military were allowed to possess such things. Nunchucks, for example, were first made from a flail used to thresh rice or soybeans. Corrupt tyrants and governments throughout history have disarmed their own citizens so they couldn’t organize and resist. A disarmed public also causes people to rely more on the government for their safety, instead of being able to protect themselves. Even modern anti-gun activists fail to see how citizens owning guns actually prevents crime. Often their anti-gun attitudes are installed in them by the mainstream media that tries to impress on people that only police and military personnel are qualified to own and carry guns. Thomas Jefferson, quoting Cesare Beccaria in On Crimes and Punishment (1764) famously said, “Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes…Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.”

If a burglar breaks into someone’s home armed only with a knife or baseball bat, they are the one who will be in control of the situation, and could bash the brains in of the homeowner and then rape his children and wife with little to stop him. The reason people call the police in the event of a burglary is because the police have guns and can hopefully stop the burglar and protect the victims, but it makes no sense to rely on such a strategy when the homeowner himself could own a firearm and neutralize the burglar immediately upon his discovery. Despite reliable statistics that show for every crime committed with a gun, even more are prevented, people are still often convinced that guns should only be used by police and military. The November 2009 shooting at Fort Hood in Texas, where thirteen people were killed by gunman Nidal Hason, shows that even supposed trained professionals can be mass murderers. Hason was a U.S. Army Major and was stationed at the base. Some believe Hason was a victim of MK-ULTRA mind control and programmed to kill. Others see him as a Muslim terrorist who became unstable and murderous as he grew more upset with the United States involvement in the Middle East. Whatever the truth surrounding this tragedy, there are numerous other instances each year of police and military committing murder and/or suicide despite being trained professionals who are trusted with firearms. Anti-gun activists also fail to see that an extremely small percentage of humans will commit murder by any means necessary to them, even if a gun is not available. If these unstable individuals cannot get their hands on a gun, they will simply stab, bludgeon, poison, or run over their victims. Groups like the National Rifle Association and Gun Owners of America help to organize Second Amendment advocates and try to minimize the effects of anti-gun tactics, although many see the NRA as having given in to anti-gun legislation and not taking a strong enough stand against it. Despite the numbers and money behind such groups, unconstitutional and unfair gun policies have been written into law in America and the ultimate goal of banning all guns from citizens, is a very real possibility.

Gun Bans in American Cities

Despite the Second Amendment clearly outlining that people have the right to own guns, Anti-American politicians and judges have been able to successfully ban guns in certain cities. Hand guns, for example, were illegal in Washington DC until a landmark case in June 2008 (District of Columbia v. Heller), which overturned the ban, once again making the district compliant with the Second Amendment for the first time since 1976. Washington DC was not the only city to have such a ban in place. Other cities such as Chicago and New York had also banned handguns and placed such ridiculous restrictions on rifles and shotguns that the laws practically render the guns useless. Alan Gura of Alexandria, Virginia, who successfully argued the Heller case at the high court, is also scheduled to argue the McDonald case in Chicago hoping to lift the ban on handguns there as well. Before the 2008 overturning of the DC gun ban, an appeals court ruled in the Chicago case that their handgun ban did not violate the Constitution because the Supreme Court had not yet declared whether its decision in the Heller case established a fundamental right for citizens to own guns. Many antigun activists say the Second Amendment doesn’t apply to average citizens, but instead applies only to the police and military. While we can look at the 2008 lifting of the DC gun ban as a victory for the Second Amendment, this is likely only a temporary lifting. After just a handful of highly publicized murders involving guns by lone nuts, the antigun propaganda will go into full force and the establishment will do everything they can to get as many guns out of the hands of honest, law abiding citizens as they can.

Gun Confiscation After Hurricane Katrina Immediately after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in September 2005, police were confiscating guns from people in their homes in New Orleans as they went door to door in what looked like affluent middle class neighborhoods. One video aired on a local news channel shows police tackle an elderly woman and steal a small revolver from her that she had for personal protection. This woman was inside her own home on dry land.

The National Rifle Association (NRA) produced a short video titled The Untold Story of Gun Confiscation After Katrina , which shows interviews of several other law abiding citizens who also had their guns taken away unlawfully by the police in the aftermath of the hurricane. One man interviewed explains how he complied with the officers and turned over his rifle and asked for some kind of receipt documenting that they had taken possession of the gun, and the officer informed him that no such policy was in place. The man then asked how he could get his gun back after things had settled down and the officer told him to get a lawyer.

Oath Keepers In March of 2009, an organization was founded with the intent of educating police and military about the possibility of unlawful and unconstitutional orders being given, and aimed to prevent such illegal orders from being carried out by those who were on the receiving end of them. Oath Keepers was founded by a man named