160: Empire of Lies (w/Sofia Cherici & Jan Zabka)

Chaos in Russia! Wagner’s pagan neo-Nazis. Is conspirituality unique to a failing American empire in the internet age? Does it require Californian New Age spirituality, with conspiracy theories that weave around alternative medicine, for-profit pharma with no social safety net, and the reactionary politics of White Christian Nationalism?

This week, Julian explores a different version of Conspirituality. This form translates QAnon for a European audience and calls for a return to the golden age of the Russian empire, but also to an ancient pre-Christian Slavic identity united across borders in pagan faith.

Show Notes

The Everyday Religious Life in Wagner PMC, via Observatoire

Candance Rondeaux on Wagner, Pan-Slavism, al-Qaeda

Jan Zabka’s piece on QAnon in Czech/Slovakia, Prophets of Freedom and Doom

Sofia Cherici’s piece on QAnon’s cross-cultural evolution, Translating QAnon

Marlene Laurelle on the Rodnoverie Movement

Fake News sites centered in Veles, Macedonia had Russian and American ties

A Photographer and an Artist Walk into a Fake News Factory from Coda Story

Original Book of Veles forgery

Main interstitial music: Bus Ride to Gulu — Pete Kuzma