Скачать или смотреть Amanda Moore on the dark world of right-wing conferences

One of the biggest differences between the left- and right-wing political ecosystems in America is that on the right, they have many more events and conferences compared to Democrats and other left-wing political parties.

The right has always been more interested than the left in political events, but during the COVID 19 pandemic, the divergence between the two sides really began to open up significantly because a number of far-right Christian activists began holding public events in defiance of laws against gatherings. Since then, they've only kept going, expanding their efforts, primarily to support Donald Trump, but also to bring people together, and make a lot of money. Many are, by their own admission, also trying to renew the positive feelings they experienced on January 6, 2021, when armed Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol Building.

These conferences are attracting millions of [00:01:00] people in many different states and including very prominent right-wing political figures such as former General Michael Flynn, former White House aide Sebastian Gorka, and even presidential son Eric Trump. Despite their significant prominence within the Republican political ecosystem, however, reactionary conferences receive very little coverage in the mainstream media beyond specific things said by specific speakers rather than gigantic scene these events have become.

One person who has paid a lot of attention to these right-wing events is Amanda Moore, our guest on today's episode. At one point, she was undercover in MAGA for a year, and since then has continued going to conferences, including recently at the Rod of Iron Freedom Festival in Greeley, Pennsylvania, which is overseen by a religious cult run by a man named Sean Moon, who is the son of the late “Moonie” cult leader, Sun Myung Moon.

It was a very strange sight to see, including the younger Moon running around with crowns of bullets and cult members regarding guns as sacred objects.

TIMECODES
00:00 Introduction
06:30 Going undercover in MAGA earlier
12:22 Mainstream journalism hasn't figured out that activists have almost all the power in Republican politics
19:02 Covering far-right activists is much more difficult than taking notes at Republican party events
25:30 The absolutely bizarre nature of far-right religion makes it almost unbelievable to people who don't know of it
30:54 RFK Junior is getting into the MAGA rally grift
37:00 Republicans' new "post-left" grift targeting uninformed leftists
42:18 Turning Point USA rallies: A closer look
47:22 MAGA's new push to get followers to have children ASAP
49:57 How Nick Fuentes and fascist "groypers" have taken over Turning Point USA


GUEST INFO
Amanda Moore's writing:
https://www.turtlediaries.net/
On Twitter:
https://x.com/noturtlesoup17



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Theory of Change is hosted by Matthew Sheffield about larger trends and intersections of politics, religion, media, and technology. It's part of the Flux Community, a new content network of podcasters and writers. Please visit us at flux.community to learn more and to tell us about what you're doing. We're constantly growing and learning from the great people we meet.

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