I discuss the importance of being informed, aware and engaged socially and politically.
This episode was published on February 22, 2024 at 2:54pm EST.
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I discuss the astrology of the transit of the planet Saturn through the sign of Pisces, which occurs between March of 2023 and early 2026.
This is a transcript of an episode of Aquarian Diary I published on February 10, 2023.
Episode transcript:
Greetings all, it is February 10, 2023.
Saturn has been transiting Aquarius roughly from 2020 through 2023. On March 7 of 2023, Saturn will commence transiting Pisces through early 2026.
If you’re watching this on YouTube, you can find dates on the screen.
This is a significant shift of energies for a variety of reasons, and this shift will occur roughly around the timeframe of Pluto beginning its transit of Aquarius, which I have talked a lot about in other episodes.
Let’s concentrate here on how Saturn transiting Pisces might affect us and the world.
Saturn deals with reality, responsibility, and karma. It is the opposite of rose-colored glasses. Often under hard or challenging Saturn transits we are forced to confront reality as it is versus how we would prefer or like it to be.
So, for example, if we have overextended ourselves financially, we may find ourselves in situations where we have to deal with that reality very pragmatically.
Saturn does not let us off the hook easily. It does not let us escape our responsibilities or duties or obligations based on wishful thinking or avoidance, and it holds us and others accountable for their actions, and that is why Saturn is considered to be very karmic.
Someone engaged in dishonorable or unethical activities may not find this influence pleasant. Think of Saturn like a judge. But it can reward those who have accepted their duties and responsibilities and acted admirably and with integrity. It can give them more power, influence or authority.
Pisces, where Saturn will be commencing its transit, is a very non-material energy. The negative expression of that energy can be illusion, delusion, fantasy, escapism, using things like drugs and alcohol to escape reality, avoiding responsibility.
Traditionally the 12th house, which Pisces rules, was considered the house of self-undoing. In Pisces there can be issues with boundaries, because Pisces doesn’t really have boundaries. And that lack of boundaries can create conditions where webs of lies and deceit can occur, even on a grand scale. Mass deception, mass delusion, mass fantasy.
I don’t mean to suggest that Pisces is inherently dark, it is not, quite the opposite. It is just very ethereal, and if not grounded, can result in the kind of things I’ve been talking about. So being grounded is a challenge for Pisces. And there are many people who have no qualms about taking advantage of that kind of influence to manipulate other people for their own benefit.
The positive expression of it can be tapping into the non-material dimensions of realities, spirituality, and those kinds of experiences. And it can also be a very creative energy because we can channel higher dimensional energy into the material realm. Many notable performers and entertainers, for example, have Piscean influences because they are able to tap into the collective unconscious and express and reflect that back to humanity. Thus their work can resonate with many people simultaneously, on a mass level. Whether what they reflect is real or not is a different question.
Pisces also has kind of a dissolving quality, where arbitrary and outmoded structures can simply collapse due to the influx of all this non-material energy. People think that reality is very hard and fixed, when in fact viewed from higher dimensions, it is rather a physical manifestation of non-material consciousness.
Pisces can also be very compassionate and empathic, and it is very frequently associated with things like psychic, intuitive and spiritual phenomenon.
Pisces is also the last sign of the Zodiac, so it’s the sign of endings. Aries, the following sign, is the sign of new beginnings. So everything ends in Pisces, inevitably.
So Saturn, the task master, is going to be entering Pisces. So how will this manifest? What will we experience and what will we witness?
I think this is something we should very much welcome in many ways because it can ground our idealism and our spirituality, make them very tangible and help us sort the wheat from the chaff, what’s real from what isn’t. And I would say the world desperately needs a dose of that. Pisces because it covers things like delusion and insanity, where people are extremely ungrounded and not dealing with reality, in the case of the lower expression of these energies. Saturn should bring a reality check to a lot of things like mass delusion, propaganda, unhinged conspiracy theories, lies and deception, which we have been plagued with, especially for the past decade or so.
I would argue that misinformation, disinformation, and mass delusion are probably one of the most significant features of recent history, and one of the most dangerous, because humanity has to make a lot of very important decisions that will significantly influence us and future generations as well as the planet. we can’t do that on the basis of BS.
If you’ve listened to me before, you will know that I detest lies. And Saturn will help us deal with that.
So I would expect to see commencing in March, which, like I said, also happens to be when Pluto begins its epic transit of Aquarius, that we will see the beginning of a period of reality check.
And that will include, by the way, institutions like the Church or religious organizations because these pursuits fall under the umbrella of Pisces in many ways, as we seek to connect to and understand the divine aspects of our experience.
As Saturn transits Pisces, it will form a challenging square to Sagittarius and Gemini, Sagittarius specifically ruling things like religion and philosophy, and Gemini ruling communication. So it will be challenging in many regards to those kinds of institutions.
The symbol for Pisces is the two fishes. And Pisces has long been associated with Christianity, which has played a very prominent role during the age of Pisces, which is at its final stages now. But Pisces in many ways rules all large religious organizations. And historically when Saturn has transited Pisces, it has represented a challenging period for those institutions. There can be a crisis of faith. As I myself have talked about here before, recent history has raised many questions about what types of movements and people religious groups have aligned themselves with that are often hypocritical based on spiritual values.
Also during this period, Saturn will be opposing Virgo. One of the areas that Virgo covers, or the sixth house which it rules, includes nurses, doctors, and healthcare workers. And we have had many challenges in those areas due to burnout, lack of staffing, chronic underfunding, and so forth. and I would expect that to be a significant issue in the next two or three years.
I think also in the spiritual community and with things like psychics and readers and prominent spiritual leaders or figures, people should be holding themselves to a very high standard to ensure that the quality of the information they’re conveying is accurate and based on truth as much as possible, because Saturn is ruthlessly honest and will hold anyone or anything to account that is not reflecting truth or reality accurately. So I would expect to see a lot of scandals emerge and truth begin to emerge about how institutions and organizations or prominent figures in our cultures have been misleading people, probably deliberately, a lot of secrets will be brought into the open, and we will go through this period of reality check cleansing and karmic reckoning for those who have abused spiritual laws or who have engaged in mass deception, propaganda, disinformation and misinformation. That, to me, is going to be a very good thing. In fact, traditionally, the 12th house, which Pisces rules, was associated with imprisonment and prisons.
You know, Saturn is a very discipline-oriented planet. Personally, I do not have a problem with spiritual discipline. I have engaged in many spiritual activities that require discipline, and I actually enjoy that and find it very rewarding. So this does not concern me at all.
There’s going to be a big reality check, scrutinizing and cross-examination of a lot of our beliefs and whether they are based on truth and reality or not. So Saturn is there to keep us in check and from going off the deep end, which we seem to have done in an epic way in recent years, with the proliferation of BS which I despise, and it will help us deal with that, thankfully. Especially, like I said, coupled with the extremely important transit of Pluto through Aquarius, commencing in just over a month. Very exciting times.
Now let’s take a quick look at how this transit will affect other signs. You’ll need to know where your planets and points are positioned in order to do this, meaning you’ll have to have access to your astrology chart. You may also want to look at the ruler of the 12th house as well as where Neptune and Saturn occur in your chart.
In terms of challenging aspects, Saturn will be squaring the Sagittarius-Gemini axis, and squares can be quite frustrating, and it will be opposing Virgo, and the opposition can also be very challenging. Obviously, Saturn will conjunct any points in Pisces during this time. For more positive effects, Saturn will be trining Scorpio and Cancer, that is a strengthening aspect, and it will sextile Capricorn and Taurus. That is also a strengthening aspect, although it may require a little bit more effort to materialize than the trine, which comes with more ease.
These are just the major or Ptolemaic aspects I am discussing here. Generally, if you have abided by Saturn’s terms, which are integrity and duty, and not cutting corners, it should be easier for you than if you you haven’t, regardless of the transit.
There are far too many factors and variables in a personal astrology chart than I could possibly ever cover here, so it depends entirely on your personal natal chart configuration and what other transits happen to be occurring at the same time. Most of what you will read about or hear online deals with sun sign astrology alone, which is only a small fraction of the actual circumstances that need to be considered. There’s generally some truth to it, of course, but it’s only one piece of the puzzle.
We can say fairly confidently that those people affected by the conjunction, opposition, or squares may face some challenges. Again, that would be Pisces, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Gemini. Between March of this year and February 2026.
Finally, Neptune, the modern ruler of Pisces, governs the collective, unseen forces, and the immune system. It also governs international and foreign affairs, including things like travel. With Saturn transiting and challenging this area, I would not be surprised if the challenges related to global health on a mass scale persist and linger. Saturn demands strict discipline, and many people have been resistant to disciplining themselves out of frustration, ignorance, laziness, gullibility to misinformation, or narcissism.
I want to add here that I find this sort of exercise very challenging and frustrating. And that is because I really dislike things that are superficial, and our world seems to be exceedingly superficial these days. To do this topic justice would require days of work, and I simply do not have that amount of time that I can afford to devote to this at my disposal, unfortunately. There is a lot more that I could have included here and would have liked to.
Be that as it may, I do want to, at the same time, draw people’s attention to this because I think some of the implications are definitely worth being aware of.
Take care, I look forward to your amazing comments as usual, and will talk to you again soon.
Copyright © 2023 • AquarianDiary.com • All Rights Reserved
I discuss the dire current threat against democracy, how it works, why it’s happening, and what it implies.
This is a transcript of an episode of Aquarian Diary I published on April 2, 2023.
Episode transcript:
Greetings All,
Welcome to Aquarian Diary.
I’m your host, John Irving.
It is April 2nd, 2023.
Anyone following the news, even remotely, is aware that we are now confronted by a barrage of outrageous and ridiculous drama on a daily basis. From patently absurd conspiracy theories, to rhetoric that flies in the face of core democratic principles, the onslaught is relentless. In recent years this has reached such alarming proportions that we can’t help but sometimes wonder if the world has gone utterly mad.
Events that would have been completely shocking years ago now occur with such regularity that they are virtually pedestrian. So much so that many of us have become numbed or inured to them. The “new normal’ is batshit crazy. In other words not normal at all.
This phenomenon is dramatic and stark and thus is easily and readily identifiable. It is obvious and self-evident. It immediately and naturally captivates us. However, I believe there is another more insidious and sinister force at play amidst the melee that, in fact, may be substantially more consequential.
I ask you to consider the possibility that the chaos we observe is being deliberately engineered to mask or obfuscate a much more significant and systemic threat which lurks in the shadows. To my knowledge – and I am an avid reader – this hypothesis is rarely, if ever, articulated in the context I will present here.
The far-right extremist and professional provocateur Steve Bannon infamously stated that he aimed to “Flood the zone with shit.” From this very telling statement we can infer that his strategy is to promote disinformation such that it would confuse and distract the public.
Deliberately promulgating misinformation, or lies, is clearly unethical as it can cause great harm. For example, countless people died unnecessarily during the recent pandemic due to rampant disinformation. This conclusion is supported by a substantial body of statistical evidence.
What is the point of flooding the zone with shit? Why bother doing this in the first place? Dark money groups would not be funnelling untold millions of dollars into such campaigns simply for their own perverse pleasure. They may be dark but they are almost certainly not stupid.
The only logical conclusion is that the aim is to distract people from an even more nefarious agenda. To keep the population in a frenzied state so they do not notice developments that they would otherwise disapprove of. To capitalize on the distraction to implement policies that would be highly unpopular.
Not everyone is easily manipulated, however, it is not necessary to deceive everyone. They only need to mislead some critical mass to achieve their objectives.
Contrary to conventional thinking I posit that their strategy is just as effective on both the left and the right sides of the political spectrum, but for different reasons.
Many on the right are true believers – they actually believe the absurd lies.
On the left, on the other hand, people are perpetually in a state of reaction. They respond with outrage, disbelief and protest to every provocation and insult to their intelligence and ethics. Noted affronts to reality and common sense go viral, consuming a great deal of time and attention. The media predictably devotes innumerable hours to analysis. The cycle repeats every day.
One side is consumed and distracted by believing the ridiculous lies and the other is fixated on combatting their existence. It’s as if the left is trapped in a never-ending game of Whac-A-Mole. Both sides, right and left, are being deliberately manipulated.
As I previously alluded to, there is a deeper and more nefarious agenda behind all of this. Assume, for a moment, that what I have already articulated here is true.
These artificial circumstances create an intensely polarized social environment. Under such conditions politics takes on qualities akin to trench warfare and hand-to-hand combat.
Constant bickering over absurd culture war issues dominates. Political candidates who are highly unqualified and of shockingly poor moral and intellectual character are elected based on their ability to engage in the dirtiest forms of political theatre. Representatives must only have big mouths and a propensity for enraging the opposing team. It is no longer about policy or good governance, it’s about winning the culture wars. It’s a zero sum game.
Consequently legislative agendas grind to a halt. Gridlock ensues. Any policies that do get implemented are gravely insufficient, watered down and wholly inadequate. After years or decades of this the population becomes increasingly disenfranchised. Government itself is perceived as being ineffectual at best and diabolical at worst. Apathy, despair, and cynicism – if not nihilism – metastasizes like a cancer.
The constant matestrom and distractions enable dark money groups to push through nakedly partisan legislation – such as tax policies – that favour only their particular interests. Their ever expanding war chests justify and finance further interference and the attacks escalate.
It is also worth bearing in mind that people who are financially stressed are far less likely to be politically or socially engaged or to exercise their agency. They are much more easily controlled or manipulated, in other words. For instance, I have often thought that this is why young people and many parents are currently so burdened by student debt. This was not the case in the 1960’s when there occurred a significant countercultural movement which threatened the establishment. See my episode on the Powell Memo, which I published in September of 2021.
Over time circumstances have deteriorated to the point where they have become so egregious and intolerable that many embrace authoritarianism and even fascism. Surely, the adherents think, a heavy hand could finally return order to our world. Superficially, there is some reasonable justification in seeking radical solutions. However, this perspective has not considered that the current state of affairs was intentionally fabricated, nor for what end.
Many have speculated that a handful of deeply entrenched dark money interests – billionaires or plutocrats – secretly aspire to return humanity to a state of feudalism. The theory goes that they believe they are superior and deserving of privilege due to the power they wield and that have amassed. They subscribe to a very Darwinian perspective of their place in society. Them at the top and the rest of us beneath them.
In this scenario they would have control over the masses who would serve their every whim. The population would be given just enough scraps to sustain themselves but not enough to threaten the ruling class. We would effectively be living in indentured servitude. Those who contributed to their prosperity and security would be valued. The rest could be casually discarded in much the same way we dispense with worn out appliances.
I personally speculate that these select few individuals are actually well informed about the state of the global environmental crisis and its grave implications. I suspect they fear the looming breakdown of society, if not civilization itself, which will quite probably ensue.
It is epically twisted irony that much of the wealth and power they have disproportionately accumulated is directly proportional to their obstinance in preventing this crisis in the first place. Even worse, for decades they have brazenly promulgated disinformation and lobbied against regulations which would have mitigated or avoided the crisis.
Metaphorically there are vastly more people than lifeboats in many future scenarios. Many know this to be true, but few will admit it publicly. Presumably the plutocrats think that a rigid social hierarchy, with them firmly planted at the top, would be the best possible scenario in a world facing anarchy and chaos. Furthermore, they likely fear retaliation for their past obstructionism and profiteering from the root causes of the forthcoming calamity.
To be clear, I am speculating here, but what I have described is rationally plausible.
In summary the intense social polarization and disenfranchisement that we are experiencing was deliberately engineered as a means of distraction.
It’s purpose is twofold.
First, it serves to keep people preoccupied so that other more nefarious plans can be executed with minimal awareness, scrutiny or backlash.
Second, it creates the impression that good governance is ineffectual, if not impossible – that democracy simply does not work.
This then leads many people to conclude that alternatives to democracy, such as authoritarianism or fascism, may be more viable or desirable.
Absent democracy those who have the greatest influence, control or power would be the ones who are very wealthy and are politically organized. This has always been the case historically.
These interests are likely keenly aware of the clear and present danger which the global environmental crisis represents to society, if not civilization itself. This may account for the timing of their agenda, the execution of which, has apparently ramped up at an alarming pace in recent years.
If this theory is accurate clearly many people would find it deeply troubling. Therefore it would never be deliberately expressed publicly.
There is a massive paradox inherent in this grand dilemma. Our very own habits of overconsumption and our materialistic orientation have financed and therefore enabled the twin threats we now confront. The breakdown of the biosphere which has sustained us for millennia; and an epic battle to preserve democracy and the many cherished and hard-won freedoms it affords us.
Thanks to everyone for all your support.
I will put any references in the episode description.
I will also include a link if you are interested in booking an astrology reading with me.
Take care. All the best. And I look forward to talking with you again soon.
Copyright © 2023 • AquarianDiary.com • All Rights Reserved
I discuss the astrological influences which are contributing to the current and disturbing levels of mass delusion and extremism which humanity has not experienced since the 1930’s.
This is a transcript of an episode of Aquarian Diary I published at 5:02am on June 21, 2023.
Episode transcript:
Greetings all, welcome to Aquarian Diary. I’m your host, John Irving. It is June 21, 2023.
Today I want to give people a general sense of when the insanity and all of the extreme and unhinged behavior we have been witnessing, socially and politically, will draw to a close, or at least begin winding down, as it often takes time for these forces to dissipate.
I’ll be displaying quite a few dates on the screen, you may want to watch this on YouTube if that matters to you.
On June 15th, I published an episode on the Uranus-Pluto square and the rise of far-right extremism, where I focused just on that one aspect and its parallels to the 1930s.
There’s another parallel which I didn’t specifically talk about in that episode, which is the transit of Uranus through Taurus.
Uranus transited Taurus from roughly 1934 until 1942, and is currently transiting Taurus again right now from 2018 through 2026.
The previous transit of Taurus occurred during the Great Depression, which ran from 1929 through 1939, it was ended by the war effort, and World War II, which commenced in 1939 through 1945.
Uranus is the modern ruler of Aquarius, or the 11th house.
Aquarius is fixed air. Taurus is ruled by Venus and is fixed earth.
These signs are in a square or antagonistic relationship to each other. Uranus is in its fall in Taurus. It’s a challenging sign for Uranus to be in. So these energies do not mix well. Uranus is all about change and revolution, and Taurus is all about security and predictability. So Uranus transiting Taurus is challenging.
All signs and planets have positive and negative expressions, and Taurus can be very conservative because it desires security, stability and predictability, and Uranus is anything but predictable.
Like I said, more recently, Uranus has been transiting Taurus since 2018 and will continue to do so through the end of April of 2026.
So we have seen a tremendous amount of change, revolution and instability around Taurian themes like real estate, property, money, investments, where people live, we went through lockdowns, where people were confined to their homes. Many people relocated, they moved from the city to the country or suburbs or even to other countries. People en masse began working from home… Taurus.
There were unprecedented supply chain disruptions, we’ve now been dealing with rapid inflation and greedflation, income disparity and the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few is even more extreme, and so on.
Taurus also rules what we value, so we have seen a tremendous amount of changes occurring around people’s values and a lot of conflicts around values like the culture wars.
Uranus can be quite radical, so we have seen the rise of reactionary conservatism to alarming degrees, such as far-right extremism, authoritarian and fascistic movements who want to impose radically conservative, patriarchal, and hierarchical structures on other people in many of the same ways we saw through 1934 and 1942. In that case, we had an actual World War. Extremely radical behavior and very polarizing social movements.
There are currently ultra-right and openly fascistic movements occurring in countries around the world. These forces are often anti-intellectual, they reject evidence and science, try and rewrite history, they attack and undermine the media, education systems and all manner of institutions, they are frequently misogynistic, racist, bigoted and xenophobic.
They define themselves based on their enemies and create them if they don’t exist. Fascists always need scapegoats, usually the most vulnerable members of society, such as trans children. What could possibly be more cowardly and despicable than picking on vulnerable children?
Propaganda and disinformation are frequently deployed, as are threats, bullying and intimidation.
As we can clearly see, there are many parallels between when Uranus transited Taurus in the late 1930s and early 1940s and recent years.
We have also had Neptune transiting Pisces from April 2011 which will continue through 2025 and 2026. Neptune is extra potent while transiting its own sign.
The lower expression of Neptune can be delusion/illusion/fantasy being detached from reality, escapism, alternative realities.
We have seen cult-like behavior where people have fallen under the spell of demagogues, con men, grifters, while being completely unable to perceive all of their flaws and there’s a lot of projection and illusion going on.
But that also will be wrapping up around 2025/2026, roughly around the same time that Uranus leaves Taurus.
So those are two really important things right there.
Again, check the screen for dates.
So Neptune, transiting Pisces, all of the mass delusion, rampant and observed conspiracy theories, the inability to distinguish truth from lies, willful, if not belligerent, ignorance, denial of facts, evidence, and reality, falling for lies and propaganda and shameless con man grifter criminals. Extreme expressions of victimhood, think Donald Trump or the incel movement, or people constantly whining about the crisis of privileged white male masculinity, being completely detached from objectifiable truth or reality, the post-truth era, all of that.
Uranus transiting Taurus, radical conservatism, radical traditional cultural values – so distorted that it’s almost grotesque, extreme resistance to progress or evolution, the rejection of historical facts pertaining to the oppression of minorities, various racial and ethnic groups, deference to authoritarian and strongman leaders, despite their highly flawed moral character and complete lack of credentials.
Neptune in Pisces and Uranus in Taurus at the same time?
The United States has been the focal point of a lot of the absolute batshit crazy stuff because it has been going through its Pluto return – which I have also done episodes on – from February 2021 and will continue through January of 2024, which is when it was within a tight two degree orb.
Pluto transits are actually in effect for a wider orb than that. That is just the most intense phase. But the most intense phase will be winding down by early next year.
There has been a lot of crazy stuff going on, but there’s no question that the United States has been the focal point globally for the insanity. Just look at how radical and extreme and crazy the Republican Party and the former president and his hapless sycophants have been acting, many of whom may end up incarcerated.
In 2025-2026, Saturn will move into Aries, beginning a whole new 28-29 year cycle. This all points to 2025-2026 as being the end of the post-truth, batshit crazy era.
As much as the reactionary conservative forces are trying to put the genie back in the bottle, you cannot resist these major transits of, like, Pluto shifting into Aquarius, Neptune moving out Pisces, Uranus moving out of Taurus.
If you are in resistance to these outer planetary energies, the transits manifest as being extremely challenging and disruptive. You cannot be in resistance to these energies, they are much more powerful than you are as an individual. So the more liberal or more progressive forces are in a much better position to deal with these changing and shifting energies because they are more comfortable with change and evolution, they are more adaptable and open-minded.
When Uranus moves into Gemini in 2025-2026, it will be in a trine aspect to the sign of Aquarius, where Pluto is beginning its major 20-year long transit. This is power, Pluto, in very harmonious, easy-flowing aspect to Uranus in Gemini.
Again, Aquarius, which Uranus rules, is fixed air, Gemini is mutable air. So that relationship, when Uranus enters Gemini, commencing in 2025 and 2026, speaks of very rapid change and evolution in an air sign. Air signs are intellectual and rational. They are very fast moving energies. These are not slow energies. And like I said, that is a trine aspect that will occur for about seven years.
Again, it all points to 2025, 2026 being the end of the post-truth, bat-shit-crazy, reactionary conservative period with this insane polarization. All of the complete detachment from reality on the political right drawing to a close. So that’s the time frame. We have another two to three years of craziness to go through.
Although, as I’ve said in other episodes, Saturn transiting Pisces is a reality check and Pluto transiting Aquarius is also a reality check in many ways.
So the tide has started to turn, but we should be completely out of all of this craziness in 2025 and 2026. At least the kind of craziness we’re dealing with now.
I have been focusing here on all of the negative expressions of these energies. It goes without saying that the opposite is true as well. In fact, the majority of the people have not been expressing the negative aspects of these things. There are still many people who are very grounded in reality and who are able to differentiate between BS and reality.
So without question, it is clear that these energies are experienced differently depending on the person. Now why some people are predisposed to the negative expressions and others are not probably relates a lot to their own particular astrological natal chart.
And there are many people in the middle who aren’t quite sure where they stand. But for the purposes of this episode, I am just trying to explain why so many people are going crazy and how long it will last, and when it will mercifully end.
Finally, let’s be clear about one important thing. The dark side lies, manipulates, deceives, and engages in criminal activity. The light does not lie, cheat, or steal, just to be clear.
And yes, I am proudly biased in favor of truth and reality.
I understand that much of what’s happening is fueled by grievance, but the answer is not to burn the place down.
It’s funny, when I’m editing this audio, I often stop and think “Oh, I’m being hyperbolic.” and I’ll reflect for a moment, and only a moment, before I realize that I can provide credible examples of what I’m describing, things that have actually happened or are happening right now. I’m not being hyperbolic, this is all actually happening just as I’m describing it. In other words, it really is this bad, currently.
For a fuller and more detailed analysis, I will link multiple other episodes that are related in the episode description, which I encourage you to review.
I’m going to share a few podcasts simply as a public service.
The first is my favorite, and I’ve mentioned it here before. It is Background Briefing with Ian Masters.
I listen to this podcast every day. As far as I’m concerned, this is the best podcast. One of the most amazing things about it is that there’s nothing else like it, and I find that hard to believe. God knows what we’ll do when Ian Masters retires.
The second is a new podcast by the BBC. It is called Mariana in Conspiracyland.
One of the most disturbing things about this podcast is she documents how many people who would have been traditionally progressive are falling into the right wing rabbit hole as a result of conspiracy theories. Anyway, it’s new, check it out.
I personally find it very interesting. It makes me think about the phenomenon of the RFK campaign in the United States. He is being promoted by many libertarian right-wing nut jobs and has the potential to siphon off absolutely critical votes that could help prevent the Republicans from winning the next election. The Republicans winning would be one of the worst possible things that could happen.
Even people in the progressive community are falling under the spell of propaganda, lies and disinformation, and even overtly and transparently racist ones.
It has eerie parallels with the whole MAGA movement and QAnon and things like that. Which to me seems to be a psyop campaign, like something the Russians would do.
I find that quite disturbing. It’s like some kind of weird mind virus, like a mental illness that is being spread around. It’s very creepy and dark.
Many of us have lost people or even loved ones to conspiracy theories. It can be heartbreaking.
The dark side can be very subtle and devious. We need to be constantly vigilant to inoculate us against its poison.
Conspirituality is another podcast in the same vein. It’s intellectually rigorous and does not pull any punches. So set your ego aside.
Another podcast I have been listening to now for quite some time is The Bulwark with Charlie Sykes.
This is coming from a never Trump perspective. So it’s quite unusual for me to listen to something like this, but the quality of the analysis around what’s going on with Republicans and the former guy is very good and very intelligent. So it gives a different perspective than what I normally would listen to.
I subscribe to many, many podcasts, but those are a few that I thought would be relevant to this episode.
I’ll put links in the episode description to any related content and if you’re interested in a reading with me, I’ll put a link to that as well.
Many sincere thanks to everyone who supports me, especially my YouTube members. Thank you very much.
Take care, all the best, and I’ll talk to you again soon.
Bye for now.
I discuss how the left got played (again!) by nihilistic right wing culture warriors. This is a pattern that keeps repeating over and over. The media needs to start accurately reporting what is happening and stop falling for self-evident ploys which enable events such as what recently happened to ex Harvard President Claudine Gay. The media should be more than capable of handling such situation responsibly by now.
This episode was published on January 7, 2024 at 9:20pm EST.
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Episode transcript:
Greetings all! Welcome to Aquarian Diary.
I’m your host, John Irving.
It is January 7th, 2024.
I will be displaying some graphics on the screen. If that matters to you, you may prefer to watch this on YouTube if you’re not.
I just want to comment on a topic that has really struck a nerve with me recently that I think is not receiving the kind of attention it deserves.
And this has to do with the right-wing attack on the leadership of Ivy League universities in America.
Why does this bother me so much? Because to me what’s happening is extremely transparent.
The right-wing is using this as a means to undermine a lot of social progress that has occurred over the past few generations.
Anybody who’s been following right-wing extremists or politics or culture wars in recent years knows exactly what motivates these people. They’re not motivated by academic standards or rigor. At all.
It’s about racism, misogyny, and xenophobia, and trying to normalize that, or make it socially acceptable.
And what infuriates me so much about this is that it underscores again how incredibly naive many people on the left can be, and this includes the pundit class.
They look at this as a technical exercise. Did Claudine Gay commit plagiarism or not? Yes or no? Without considering what is motivating this and what their agenda is.
And in effect, what happens is that a portion of the commentariat effectively is enabling this to occur, which to me represents the thin edge of a very dangerous wedge and slippery slope. Because now what they will do, based on what they perceive as a success, is they will start going after all kinds of academics, professors, teachers, curriculum, etc., on a much larger scale, which has terrifying implications for academia, our culture, and our society.
It brings to mind what happened to Al Franken, and I’m not condoning what he did, but the standards that were applied to him are in no way fairly applied to those on the other side of the political spectrum. Everybody should be aware of that. If you’re not aware of the history of this, I encourage you to read up on it.
Again, there’s this infuriating naivete on the part of the left Not only is this a danger, as I have already described, to all of these institutions and our whole education system, but it also creates a wedge on the left side of the political spectrum where now you have people arguing or debating or being polarized over this issue.
So now we have all of these wedges being hammered into the left, and the left is not only just letting it happen, but in my view, being complicit in that. That’s the infuriating part, it’s the complicity and the naivete, which is a level of ignorance and denial about what’s actually happening and what this threat represents to us on a broader scale.
We’ve seen these kinds of situations play out for years in all kinds of fields, whether it’s the environment, the judiciary, gerrymandering, or voting rights, or abortion, or all of these topics. There’s this confounding, like I said, naivete and stupidity, really, is what it is.
Now, a lot of people have been commenting on this. I’ve posted quite a few articles on my community tab on this topic.
There was one in particular that I thought articulated this the best out of the bunch, and that was by Maura Donegan in The Guardian on January 4th, titled “Claudine Gay’s Resignation Had Nothing to Do with Plagiarism”.
I will include links to some of these articles in the description.
This whole scenario clearly illustrates one of the greatest vulnerabilities of the left, and that is, like I said, the naivete that effectively often leads to enabling.
Our social standards and norms and institutions have been being chipped away at for decades, with increasing intensity recently, and people are standing by and allowing this to happen, and it is extremely dangerous. People need to shake their heads and wake up.
Joe Biden gave a very impassioned speech on January 6th, which I applaud, because basically he took the gloves off and started speaking the truth about the threat to democracy that the United States faces, and I’m thrilled about that.
I don’t agree with all of Joe Biden’s policies. But finally, the Democrats seem to have taken off the gloves, and are fighting back. The Democrats have long sort of taken a knife to a gunfight, and that has always boggled my mind. Democracy is slipping away, and we need to very forcefully confront that.
Astonishingly, even after many, many years, the left falls into the same traps over and over and over, and it has to stop.
As I have commented, it took years before the mainstream media started calling Trump’s lies, lies, even though it was blatantly evident to everyone that he was lying incessantly and deliberately and dangerously. But they would not point that out explicitly for a very long time, even though it was true and plainly self-evident. Like, it’s just jaw-dropping. It’s starting to happen now, thank God, but why didn’t it happen 8 years ago?
This is not to mention all the false equivalencies, false balance, both-sidesing, whataboutism, double standards, and all those other nauseating and cowardly habits that were familiar with from the mainstream media, who’ve been doing that for decades. All in the name of honoring neutrality, like for example giving the same credence or airtime to a highly credentialed expert as they do to some completely unqualified random right-wing blogger, or social media influencer, or clinically insane conspiracy theorist.
There’s no question that the right-wing is completely delusional. A quarter of the American population believes that the January 6th insurrection was instigated by the FBI. A quarter of the American population is completely out of touch with reality, on just that one topic. Like, how can that be? It’s just absurd.
But the left is also delusional in the sense that they seem to be in denial about the nature of the threat that we are confronted with, and the tactics that they overtly employ, repeatedly.
Anybody who has done any amount of reading on the extreme right playbook, coupled with their actual actions and behavior, should know exactly what their agenda is. In fact, now we know very explicitly what the agenda is, because the plan for what’s going to happen if Trump gets re-elected is out on the table. Anybody can go read it. It’s right there in black and white. It’s not debatable. It’s irrefutable.
It amounts to a plan to install a fascistic, authoritarian, and theocratic dictatorship, which clearly and plainly contradicts core democratic principles and values. We don’t need to speculate about this. It’s black and white. It’s like we’re in a war, but people won’t admit it. And that has to end.
We need to stop being naive, stop playing into their hands, stop being complicit in allowing them to undermine and chip away at our institutions and our democratic principles and values and norms, rules and laws. And, as I argued in a recent episode, the adults need to step up and take control, to avoid an absolute calamity.
One of the things we can do is that when pundits, journalists, or commentators openly play into their hands and basically further their agenda, we can call them out for it and say you need to stop doing this. You are part of the problem.
On January 6th, there was new video released, which shows the Capitol Hill insurrectionists trying to breach the House of Representatives. It’s about 8 minutes long. It’s really disturbing.
When I was watching this, what I thought about, which I didn’t see many people comment on, was the fact that these people are not the sharpest tacks in the box. They’re not the brightest bulbs, if you know what I mean. Clearly, you can tell that.
And what I thought was that these people are the victims of disinformation, which caused them to act in such a bizarre and dangerous fashion. And that the real perpetrators here are those that were promoting the misinformation that caused this to occur, but that they’re not being held accountable. It would be the news networks, the politicians, the social media platforms, the blogs, and right-wing press. They are responsible for what happened here.
Many of these people are just not that bright. It’s really disturbing when you look at it from that perspective. Many of these people’s lives have been completely ruined, and they should be suing the politicians and organizations that promoted propaganda and lies that instigated this.
When something really sticks with me like this topic has, I know, I just know, it’s really important.
The right wants to unwind all of the accomplishments that the left has made going back to the 1960s. And we are allowing them to do it.
Despite their blatant hypocrisy, despite the fact that we know what their true motives are, and despite the fact that we know what their agenda is, which is clearly illiberal and anti-democratic, we need to stop enabling them. We need to put our foot down. We just need to stop it. Or we are in big trouble.
Even those who don’t consider themselves to be on the left but favor reason or are pro-democracy should consider this.
Again, for more detail, check the episode description for other episodes or articles that are related or that I mentioned.
And if you’re interested in a reading with me, I’ll put a link to that as well. I have a 20% off special on currently.
Many sincere thanks to everyone who supports me, especially my YouTube members. Thank you very much.
Take care, all the best, and I’ll talk to you again soon.
Bye for now.
End transcript.
Other related episodes or referenced herein:
The Great Infant Rebellion
Articles referenced herein:
Why Some Academics Are Reluctant to Call Claudine Gay a Plagiarist
Conservatives see Harvard, Penn takedowns as just the beginning
I Was Wrong About Al Franken
The Case of Al Franken
‘A bully’: the billionaire who led calls for Claudine Gay’s Harvard exit
Bill Ackman’s Campaign Against Harvard Followed Years of Resentment
Claudine Gay’s resignation had nothing to do with plagiarism
We Sat Down With the Conservative Mastermind Behind Claudine Gay’s Ouster
Christopher Rufo Claims a Degree from “Harvard.” Umm … Not Quite
Bill Ackman’s celebrity academic wife Neri Oxman’s dissertation is marred by plagiarism
Resignation at Harvard latest but not last salvo in GOP war on colleges
Harvard governing board, activists say former president was a victim of racism
GOP voter-fraud crackdown overwhelmingly targets minorities, Democrats
More than half of voters think Trump will act like a dictator if elected: poll
This conservative ‘mandate’ is a terrifying preview of Christianized government
How Right-Wing Groups Are Plotting To Implement Trump’s Authoritarianism
Conservative groups draw up plan to dismantle the US government and replace it with Trump’s vision
A tense new Jan. 6 video shows Republican congressmen admonishing rioters trying to enter House chamber
A quarter of Americans believe FBI instigated Jan. 6, Post-UMD poll finds
Biden marks Jan. 6 anniversary with campaign speech on democracy
A Warning About Donald Trump and 2024
#Media #Harvard #CultureWars
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