Category: Opinions

Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition!

I wrote a little piece on the viral clip from a Kentucky Vacation Bible School where children chant “Blow Him Up!” while men dressed in full military fatigues lead a mock execution. The Pastor’s response is this is a skit expressing the real world vision of Spiritual Warfare, but it seems to be indicative of the gun culture in America.

Two News Max and Fox News commentators appeared on a podcast to discuss the movement to make Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) a diagnosable disorder. Claims that Robert Kennedy too wanted this to move forward were announced, no one else announced this until this podcast episode. The entire discussion was an example of coded language to spread conspiracy theories, hate, and disinformation.

Religious studies departments are closing across North America. Yet, in these unprecedented times the scholarship and expertise they have is called upon by analysts, media, and podcasters. Religious studies scholars face precarious employment, contingent course loads, and often working in isolation. Using recent Christian response to Bill C-9 in Canada, I look at the influence of religion on these movements, and the importance of understanding religion in the context of society, current events, and political response.

Conservative MP, Jamil Jivani is copying some moves from the Trumpian playbook. Yesterday he was busy attacking DEI policies in Canada, and this is not his first time. Seems JD’s Vance’s close friend, shares the same tactics to prop up hate, and divide society.

You may have seen the poster floating around on social media, of a group of white men presenting a panel on muscular Christianity in Tennessee. If you have not, you may have seen the memes made of it. I cannot attend the event, and there is no online attendance, so I decided to dig into who the speakers are. The ensuing rabbit hole had very little muscular Christianity, but it did have conspiracies, Christian nationalism, and hate. This is a free post on my Substack, so please pop over and dive in. Also please consider subscribing to join the community chat, get access to subscriber only material, and get analysis on current events as they happen.

As a regular Bluesky poster, and let’s be honest social media addict, I have been considering writing a blog for quite some time. My social media posts tend to become threads, as I analyze or add additional information to media pieces, current events, and evidence of extremism.

My area of research is in the darkest areas of political humanity, meaning conspiracy theories, Christian nationalism, populism, extremism, and hate. The convergence of these topics is evident in the world we live in today. Far-right militia movements, moral panics, attacks on human rights seem to be flourishing globally, yet many writing on these topic are reactionary. The analysis is of the moment, making it appear as though this “just happened.” The truth is many of these current events, movements, and violent mobilizations are the result of a steady buildup of propaganda, fearmongering, and a hierarchical nesting of conspiracy theories, religion, the occult, and a sense of constructed victimhood.

Please consider subscribing to my Substack, and learn about the weird, the hateful, politics, and conspiracy theories.

I am proud to announce that I have accepted an invitation to join The Vaccine Uptake Network, a project of the Metropolis Institute and the Association for Canadian Studies. I will be addressing the impact and role of disinformation/conspiracy theories in vaccine hesitancy in Canada. The Metropolis Institute has created a network dedicated to improving COVID-19 vaccine uptake and building confidence among newcomer and racialized communities across Canada through two key pillars: research and outreach.

I am excited to announce that I will be working with Dr. Megan Boler at the University of Toronto and Dr. Barbara Perry at the Centre on Hate, Bias, and Extremism, as a Research Consultant on their project “Promoting Social Cohesion and Resilience to Far-Right Disinformation through Adult Disinformation Literacy: A Systematic Review and Pilot Assessment of Gaps and Needs.” This is an amazing preliminary project to assess where we need to develop adult literacy on disinformation. I am super excited to work with both these academics, and to continue my connection with Dr. Perry.

I am excited to announce that I am now a Post-Doctoral Fellow with the Disinformation Project, in the School of Communications at SFU. Working with Dr. Ahmed Al-Rawi on the Understanding hate groups narratives and conspiracy theories in traditional and alternative social media project. This project empirically examines Canadian right-wing extremism (RWE) narratives, conspiracies, and discourses on traditional and alternative social media. The project not only examines the textual content but also the multimodal discourses such as the use of memes, hashtags, emojis, and videos which, we argue, provide important clues on the way certain hate messages are communicated. Finally, the use of a unique mixed method that involves a networked thematic examination of social media posts as well as a keyword-based and other digital approaches provide richer and more meaningful insight into the nature of Canadian RWE discourses than if only one textual analysis approach is followed.

More information on The Disinformation Project.

At the heart of the Great Reset Conspiracy, a theory that global elites are using the pandemic to establish a New World Order (NWO), is a confluence of fears brought forward by the pandemic, including economic, health, and the long-standing notion of elites enslaving humanity. The words of Prince Charles on June 3rd, 2020 to encourage the “resetting” of the global economy and humanity’s response to potentially cataclysmic climate change, did not evoke a movement, but instead served as the “proof” of the beginning of a New World Order (NWO). The words “the Great Reset” have now been uttered by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and conspiracists have re-interpreted President Joe Biden’s campaign slogan “Build Back Better,” as proof that the global elites are using the pandemic as their opportunity to establish the NWO.

Read the full article on H-Nationalism.