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Morning Star's Tale - A Book Review
29 Plays6 years ago
This week Josh and M review "Morning Star's tale," a book by Lee Austin which may or may not reveal the truth of the Flat Earth. They also take a quick look at Australian Nazis, Surefire Intelligence, and update you on the Jami-Lee Ross/Simon Bridges scandal back in Aotearoa.
Watch M’s series “Conspiracism” here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJEp7xTcFU3hc2W0kfdSvAQ
and learn more about their academic work at:
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Transcript
Introduction and Listener Growth
00:00:00
Speaker
Recently, the podcaster's guide to the conspiracy has had a rather radical increase in viewership. Or more properly, listenership. Which may well be due to the kind words of one Karl Echler, who recommended us in an interview back in July that we've only just found out about now.
Promoting 'Conspiracism' Series
00:00:15
Speaker
So this is perhaps the perfect time to engage in a little light advertising.
00:00:19
Speaker
The first is that if you enjoy this content, you will enjoy my other content, Conspiracism, a new YouTube series where I discuss conspiracy theories and conspiracy theory. Check out the links in the episode description, or just look up Conspiracism on the good old YouTubes.
Patreon Campaign & Humor
00:00:37
Speaker
The second bit of advertising is of course our Patreon crowdfunding campaign where you give us money and we buy things. At the moment we're buying podcast essential items like mics and lights. But give us more and you'll help pay for our hosting and potentially golden robes for the two of us. Plus scepters. Scepters are cool. They are. Details in the episode description or just search Patreon for once again the podcaster's guide to the conspiracy.
00:01:03
Speaker
Now you can multitask. You can search for them.
Episode Preview
00:01:06
Speaker
Now was also enjoying this fine episode where we review a book about the flat earth, update you on the news and likely talk about pop culture. I mean, we haven't actually made a reference to Split Second in months, at least. So it's really time to change that. It was a film about climate change before climate change was fashionable. And it was all due to Satan. Typical. Bloody typical.
00:01:35
Speaker
the Podcaster's Guide to the Conspiracy.
Hosts' Introduction and Banter
00:01:40
Speaker
Hello! In what seems to have become a bit of a habit, you're listening to the Podcaster's Guide to the Conspiracy. Here in Auckland, New Zealand, I, of course, am Josh Addison, and again, in what seems to be becoming some sort of a habit, sitting directly next to me, is Dr. M.R.X.Dentiff. Indeed, I am sitting, and I am indeed next to you, and I am also becoming a bit of a habit with you, as is my whiskey drinking, which is becoming
00:02:05
Speaker
A bit of an endeavour. Actually, I meant to say indulgence. Indulgence. Back to? Yes. All three. An endeavour, an indulgment, and an indulgence. Now, I don't know what an indulgment is. I'm assuming it's some kind of really decadent mint. Oh, I really want a decadent mint, Joshua. Don't you want a decadent mint? Yeah, sometimes, yeah. I don't know. It's, what, 8.30 or something at night? I don't think it's particularly shameful to be drinking whiskey at this hour.
00:02:31
Speaker
Ah, but you don't know when I started. Well, yes. I mean, we recorded the last episode in the in the mid to late afternoon. And I think you were restrained back then, weren't you? I was. Although that was also because that particular weekend had been a weekend of quite heavy drinking. And so I didn't really want to have another drink on Sunday afternoon. Well, here we go.
00:02:51
Speaker
So this week, as promised last week, we have a book review.
Book Review Introduction
00:02:55
Speaker
And what a book it is. It's quite the book. Last week. It was sent to me, well actually sent to us, to our really used email address. And as soon as I saw it, I thought we have got to review this book on the podcast. And not because we sometimes are desperate for content. This is genuinely quite an interesting book. Although we are desperate for content.
00:03:18
Speaker
We're always desperate for content. Although that being said, we do manage to produce a web episode a week. An episode a week without fail. Pretty much, yes, I don't know. Maybe we're getting good at this. Maybe we're just lucky. Maybe it's Maybelline. Yeah, probably. Does that count as our first pop culture reference for the other side?
00:03:38
Speaker
It's a bit weak. I think we can do better. Yeah, I mean, I suppose it is a kind of pop culture reference because that maybe it's Maybelline meme slash joke kind of goes back to our childhood. But I do feel... It's a bit of a staple. Yeah. Oh, well, let's get into the episode proper and we'll see what we can work into it organically as we go. As we kind of massage the scalp to get the essential oils out into the hair. Precisely. That's what we're going to do right now.
00:04:05
Speaker
So I mean, last week we did sort of establish that I'm not the biggest fan of what you might call reading. And I imagine after you read this, you're still not the biggest fan of what you might call reading. Consider myself vindicated by the experience, because I read...
00:04:24
Speaker
Most of this some of this book definitely certainly bits of the book. I did tune out only what 41 something like that. Yes So the book we should probably stop beating around the bush and tell you what the book actually is it's called Morningstar's Tale It's by Lee Austin How who is Lee Austin? Why did we come how what why why is this happening? Why did you do this to me? I?
00:04:49
Speaker
Right, let me give you Lee Austin's bio from Smashwords, which is a website which is about publications and authors.
00:04:57
Speaker
Lee Austin is an American broadcaster known for his alternative talk show Outcast Radio, which doesn't appear to be available online anymore. Pushing the existential envelope with topics including theology, metaphysics and conspiracy theories, Lee's show Flourish is a late night favourite for those in search of the truth. Born in Boston, Lee moved to Los Angeles in his early twenties to pursue a career as a stand-up comedian.
00:05:27
Speaker
With the entertainment bug firmly planted, Lee found his calling in radio. For over 30 years, he's crisscrossed the country as a talk show host, disc jockey, copywriter and program director for numerous radio stations.
00:05:42
Speaker
In 2017, that's last year, he wrote Morningstar's Tale, a sci-fi novella covering many of the topics discussed on Outcast Radio. Well, there you go. And then, yes, what, a couple of weeks ago? About a week and a half ago, I received the following email. Good evening.
Debating 'Morningstar's Tale' Satire
00:06:01
Speaker
The podcasters guide to the conspiracy.
00:06:04
Speaker
There isn't a topic today more controversial, divisive and ridiculed than the flat earth theory. Well that's true. According to an April 2018 Forbes magazine article, only two thirds of American millennials believe the earth is round.
00:06:19
Speaker
I've written a newly published book, Morningstar's Tale, the other third might find of interest. Any book copy is attached for your review. So it was sent unsolicited to the podcast for reviewing purposes. Was it sent by Mr. Austin? It was indeed.
00:06:37
Speaker
One thing which will become clear is that we haven't made contact with Mr Austen, because many of the things we're going to discuss in this book review actually could be resolved by asking him a simple question. Do you believe anything that you've written? And yet, I have a feeling... That kind of spoils it, I think.
00:06:53
Speaker
Yeah, I remember feeling given the way the book is written, the answer is not going to be decisive one way or the other, because this book is what I would call a combination of the Dan Brown conditional and the Boethius gambit. Now, by these two things, I mean the Dan Brown conditional is at the beginning of almost every Robert Langdon book, there is a little pre-say or preface that says,
00:07:20
Speaker
Events and people and objects in this book described are accurate blah blah blah blah. So famously the Da Vinci Code makes the claim that every description of artwork within the book is in fact reflective of the actual artwork in the world. And then the very first page of the very first chapter contains numerous
00:07:40
Speaker
inaccuracies which either shows that Brown doesn't do research or Brown is quite clever because everything's accurate. I'm going to disprove that in the first page to show you this is part of the fiction. Now the Boethius option here is probably even more
Lucifer's Narrative Style
00:07:54
Speaker
interesting. So Boethius was a
00:07:57
Speaker
late Roman Republic, early Roman Empire, or early Roman Empire philosopher, who wrote a book called the Consolations of Philosophy. In the introduction to the Consolations of Philosophy, Boethius writes that there are errors in the text he has deliberately introduced
00:08:16
Speaker
for the discerning reader to find. So Boethius has basically covered his bases. If you find something wrong in the constellations of philosophy, then you're able to say, oh, Boethius, you got this wrong. And he can go, yeah, you're quite clever. You sponsored that mistake I put into the book deliberately. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more.
00:08:38
Speaker
Morningstar's tale is a tale of Lucifer telling us the images of God about what's really out there, while said missing that he is the father of lies, but sometimes he tells the truth. Or does he? Yes. Or does he? Sometimes. Or does he? Never. Or does he? On all occasions.
00:09:03
Speaker
So I have trouble wrapping my head around the entire thing, to be honest. But it's basically, Lucifer is saying, I've spent the last few centuries spreading these nonsense propositions that have been picked up and reinforced by all of humanity's institutions. And now I'm telling you what the truth really is. But of course, because you're so conditioned, you're going to think that what I'm saying is complete nonsense. And I find that very amusing.
00:09:31
Speaker
And so the whole thing appears to be Lucifer's manifesto of the way the world really is, what his plans are for the world. But maybe it's all a joke, and I'm not sure. So I'm not quite certain, for one thing,
00:09:47
Speaker
whether this is meant to be taken seriously, and it's one of these things where someone is using a work of fiction as a vehicle for real beliefs and ideas that they want to put forward. There's a fair bit of Flat Eartherism, as we'll see, so I'm not sure if this is a vehicle for Flat Eartherism wrapped up in a work of fiction, or whether the whole thing's meant to be satire. Basically, I don't know whether I should be laughing at this book or laughing with it.
00:10:17
Speaker
Well, let's go through all of its 10 chapters and render a verdict. I sound like we're about to. There should be a bit of themes in playing now. And then Sandy Totsving should be talking over the top. Josh and Matthew now are going to sit down and read the book, and we're going to find out what happens next. Over to you, Julian.
00:10:37
Speaker
Jolyon Barrett from the mighty bird. I mean, I know she's an old field in there, but this time she's working at Jolyon Barrett because he's more of a book person, I feel. I would have thought so, yeah. Now that's some British gay show and also avant-garde comedy pop culture references. Right there, we are bringing you the pop culture references. Let's get into the book. Chapter one.
00:10:59
Speaker
uh chapter one well chapter one's really just an introduction yeah it's basically lucifer saying hey i'm lucifer this is my history i was cast down from heaven because i competed against god i am a god i have control over everything in your life you are mere images of the god-like entity and you're also incredibly stupid and conditioned but it's all right i'm going to tell you the truth
00:11:23
Speaker
Or am I? So it's rare, it's just sort of a page or two of introduction. Most of the chapters start with a quote of some kind. This one doesn't start by quoting the opening lines of sympathy for the devil by the Rolling Stones, but I can kind of tell it wanted to. It's that sort of a book.
00:11:38
Speaker
But chapter two is called planet earth isn't And so right right off the bat it gets into your into your flat earth arisen. So it's basically it's sort of Lucifer Laughing at the fact that we stupid humans actually believe the world is round when there's all this obvious evidence that the world is actually flat and
00:12:01
Speaker
So it goes through a lot of the stuff we've seen in the Flat Earth stuff before, claims that any photograph that appears to show curvature of the horizon, or even high-atmosphere photographs that appear to show curvature of the Earth is just due to some sort of fisheye lens. Is the curvature effect due to the fact that lenses occurred?
00:12:21
Speaker
If that were true, we would expect to actually see at high altitudes quite obvious lensing effects as cameras pan up or down, which we don't, which somewhat suggests the phenomena is actually due to the shape of the planet and not the lens itself. But, you know, once again, he's got an escape clause here. Lucifer is lying to us at least in some part of the text. Or is he? Yes, so there's a bit of the sort of maths Flat Earthers like to throw around about
00:12:50
Speaker
based on the supposed circumference of the round earth. Although that gets confusing later on in the book, as you noted in the notes. At certain distances, because of the way the earth curves away from you, that means the surface has dropped slightly from certain distances and so on and so on. Basically, after a bunch of miles out,
00:13:18
Speaker
like something like 60 miles lower or something and but basically yes Josh is doing I am waving my hands around which works really well in video but not so well on audio essentially the point is it's the the maths I believe is is assuming a perfect circle with a tangential line starting at the surface of the circle which first of all
00:13:41
Speaker
The calculations don't take into effect the height, the elevation off the ground, including the height of the person and what they're standing on and so on. So the numbers don't quite work out anyway. There are lots of interesting online calculators I found that can show you that sort of stuff. And then there's a discussion about how
00:13:57
Speaker
If the Earth is curved, then surely planes would be able to display that because they're altometer? Artificial horizon. The artificial horizon, which is basically in old-style planes, a ball suspended in fluids with a line.
00:14:14
Speaker
should be moving all the time. It doesn't, therefore the earth can't be curved because pilots aren't adjusting for curvature, which kind of ignores the fact that that meter is related to the center of gravity, which of course is always perpendicularly down on the planet. Yes, it's confusing, rotational and linear motion. And also pilots have to keep those things level all the time anyway, because
00:14:38
Speaker
Due to the way that thrust works and keeping a plane contrary gravity in the air requires you to be constantly adjusting things. So it actually is moving all the time and parts are adjusting things accordingly. But the point is if the plane is following the curvature of the earth then it's always going to be at a 90 degree angle.
00:14:57
Speaker
angle to the surface of the earth anyway, so it shouldn't be. There's the claim that the horizon doesn't exist, that's just the end of our field of vision, and that when a boat appears to disappear over the horizon, that just means you can't see it anymore. And if you had binoculars or a high-powered telescope, then you would still be able to see it, which is just manifestly, completely untrue. Indeed, if you have high-powered telescopes, you can watch a boat slowly disappear
00:15:24
Speaker
under the horizon as it goes away from you. And indeed, that would also suggest that with a high-powered enough telescope, we should be able to sit on the west coast of New Zealand and see Australia. We cannot.
00:15:37
Speaker
Which is probably a good thing, really. Yes, no, it's probably for the best. It's actually quite hard going in this first sort of proper chapter, chapter number two. I was sort of taken off guard a little bit. I expected the whole book to carry on like that, but it gets a little bit...
00:15:56
Speaker
It changes a bit as it goes, as we'll see. There's more talks about evolution. Does does the usual sort of creationist thing a little bit of mixing up evolutionism and abiogenesis and heliocentric
00:16:12
Speaker
it's cosmology, it sort of munches them all together. At one point, now this one, there's a sentence in chapter two which says, the foundational belief of the Big Bang Theory is as follows, two of dots collided. If that's a typo, I don't know what it's meant to be. There are a few typos in this book. Archangels being described as ARC, not ARCH. Well, I think, I think, I think, uh,
00:16:37
Speaker
Going for typos, that was probably the low-hanging fruit. But I imagine this is just an example of there's something missing here. Yeah. Gravity doesn't exist. It's just density, so basically Aristotelian-style physics. Yeah, so more dense things sink to the bottom, which I've heard the sort of density buoyancy arguments before, but surely density and buoyancy only exist because of gravity. And also, if density is in fact
00:17:05
Speaker
What, the mistake of the gravity? Why hasn't Donald Trump sunk to the middle of the earth? Oh, that's, yeah, just cool down there. We'll get to the political stuff in the news section, I think.
00:17:18
Speaker
And as seems to happen in most chapters, it rounds out with a whole lot of biblical quotes. Now actually, I make a note of this later on, because in one of the chapters, Lucifer, or at least the author acting as Lucifer, says much of what they're presenting is going to challenge the theology of people who are reading the text.
00:17:40
Speaker
A lot of the quotes come from the book of Enoch, which is a Jewish scripture apocryphal book, so it's not part of the canon of Jewish scripture, or the canon of pre-Christian Christian scripture, which makes up the Bible, and thus really actually can't be considered to be a challenge to anyone's theology, because essentially it's kind of treated by mainstream Christians as a weird bit of fan fiction.
00:18:07
Speaker
And it would be a bit like taking a Harry Potter slash story from some, say, smoking fetish site where Hermione and Harry decide to engage in a smoking fetish somewhere in Hogwarts. Go, this is a challenge to Potterites everywhere as to the nature and purity of Hermione and Harry.
00:18:30
Speaker
No, no, that's fan fiction. You can't treat fan fiction seriously. The book of Enoch is certainly an interesting historical book. It does come from the period of time where the books in the Old Testament and the Jewish scriptures were written, but it's not considered to be part of the canon of either system's theological views.
00:18:47
Speaker
yes so um there's just a lot of quotes from yeah i'll be honest basically once once each chapter got to the and here a bunch of quotes from the bible section i just tuned out and moved on to the next one so i think you might it sounds like you've were a little more uh scrupulous than i was but i kind of know my book of enoch therein lies the issue shall we move on yes chapter three where things get a little ikean chapter three is called hollow moon
00:19:12
Speaker
Which says that first of all starts by saying man has never landed on the moon It does acknowledge the existence of the International Space Station and refers to it being in low orbit Which is orbiting what I'm not quite sure now all right so this whole thing about no one's been to the moon
00:19:30
Speaker
Lucifer isn't denying the existence of the Moon. The Moon does exist as a small object in the ocean filament of the sky. It's just that it's up in the ocean above her, and no human being has been able to penetrate that ocean with rocket. They make a really big thing about how the fact that rockets curve as soon as they take off,
00:19:55
Speaker
indicates they can never actually get there anyway, which rockets curve when they take off because as soon as they go off, the earth is rotating whilst the rocket is going up and you see curvature. That's another matter entirely. So yeah, the moon is up there, but no one's got there. But the ISS exists in a low orbit, which is between the ocean of the sky and the filament that we live on.
00:20:21
Speaker
But there is also the question, orbiting what? Because orbiting means circling around something. So I don't know, maybe it's maybe considered, given that this does the usual Flat Earth thing of considering that the world is a disk with Antarctica around its outer edge, maybe it means moving in a circle around the disk like the needle on a record player or something.
00:20:43
Speaker
Anyway, and there's a whole bunch of claims about the moon, so if the moon affects the tides, why aren't lakes affected by the moon? To which the answer is, they are. It's just that the water mass of a lake is so small compared to the water mass of an ocean,
00:21:00
Speaker
that we just don't see any of those tides. They're so minuscule compared to the mass of water that make up the oceans around the world. So in actual fact, actually the moon does affect the tides and things like the Great Lakes in North America. It's just not to a point where human beings can notice them, but they are measurable by scientists.
Moon Conspiracy Theory
00:21:19
Speaker
So the moon itself, apparently, is a hollow, flat, translucent, crystalline, self-illuminating disk. Filled with angels? Filled with angels, yes, angelic beings who provide most of the light that we see in the sky. Although the ISS does exist, satellites do not.
00:21:40
Speaker
There's talk of how the supposedly great number of satellites in orbit around the Earth shouldn't be possible, that this guy would be too cluttered and it would be possible to go out into space due to the number of satellites that are supposedly out there. But I think that's, as we see a lot in Flat Earth, things kind of underestimating just the size of the Earth and how big
00:22:01
Speaker
spaces. To quote Douglas Adams, space is vast. You might think it's a long way to walk down to your local dairy, but that's peanuts compared to space. It wasn't a direct quote that was paraphrasing. It was. Then there's talk of supposed, you know, it ends up talking about cell phone networks and how all telephone networks are actually connected by underground cables because the idea of using satellites is nonsense because
00:22:28
Speaker
Surely the number of satellites there are should mean we have 100% coverage everywhere and yet there are cell phone dead zones. Anyway, that doesn't really seem to be much, didn't really seem to be here nor there. It just seemed to be a bit of a segue from talk of satellites. Do you understand that actually cell phones use, by and large, repeaters on the ground?
00:22:49
Speaker
which then sends some signals up to satellite space for international calls. But for local calls, you're basically bouncing off towers in your local vicinity. And that's why we have dead zones, because you put towers where people are, and if there aren't many people there, you don't put a tower. So chapter four goes on, it's called Flat and Sunny, and goes back to a bit more flat eartheness in talking about the sun and its relation to the world.
Flat Earth Theory Discussion
00:23:17
Speaker
According to this, according to Lucifer, the sun is like a big torch, essentially, that moves across the earth as it moves zigzags between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, which is the cause for seasons. So sometimes it's further to what we call the northern hemisphere, and sometimes it's closer to the southern and so on and so forth.
00:23:39
Speaker
And again, he says the sun does not rise or set. Again, he appeals to the idea that it just moves beyond our field of vision, beyond our perspective, which again suggests that with a strong enough telescope, you can see the sun. You'd be able to see the sun at nighttime and indeed discounts the experience of anyone, anywhere ever who has actually watched the sun set.
00:24:01
Speaker
Now there's a lot of... Because it's not like it gets smaller and smaller and goes away. You actually see bits of it disappear at the end. If it's not, it's not a diminishing dot going into the distance. It's a disk that slides down and then slides back up again. Now a lot of this resembles the work of Parallax, who in the late Victorian age, his real name was Samuel Robotham, wrote the book Zatitix, which is basically the flat earth
00:24:29
Speaker
Bible, and Parallax, depending on which historian you talk to, was either a hoaxer supreme, or a true believer in the Flat Earth Hypothesis, but Parallax's goal was to basically persuade the public that no matter what scientist said, he could prove through experiments the Flat Earth Hypothesis.
00:24:50
Speaker
and often did this by challenging scientists to perform experiments with him, and then just denying the results. So, i.e. getting someone at the very edge of the horizon to run away with a lamp. So in theory you should see the lamp just disappear. The scientists report, yep, the lamp has disappeared over the horizon. Parallax was like, no, I can still see him, despite the fact.
00:25:13
Speaker
No, you can't. We're looking through the same instrument. No, no, I can still see him. And as a correspondence to the leads time observed at the time, one thing Parallax demonstrated was that scientific doublers unused to platform advocacy, i.e. not used to science communication, are unable to cope with a man, a charlatan, if you will, but clever and thoroughly up in his theory, thoroughly alive to the weakness of his opponents.
00:25:42
Speaker
And I have to say, I've been looking into Flat Earth stuff recently just because I've read claims, including ones made in this book. And you sort of hear the claim, and it's like, well, no, that's not true. And then I sort of asked myself, but if a person were to say to me, how do you know it's not true, I'd go,
00:25:59
Speaker
Because it's not. Because science. Because science says it's not, but I wouldn't be able to tell myself why, which I think is what a lot of people, the situation a lot of people are in, which is why views like this, can you end up gathering, making ground because people sort of, the lay person, or indeed anyone who's not exactly a specialist in this particular area, may not know enough to contradict them, even though we certainly believe them. Especially when they engage in what's called the Gish Gallop.
00:26:28
Speaker
Ah, yes, another one we've talked about before, which is Gish was a well-known creationist, wasn't he? Yes, yes. He pioneered the technique when debating evolutionists of just machine gun rattling off a whole bunch of claims against evolution, all of which were false, but none of which could be refuted in time. So, you know, in his allotted five minutes or 10 minutes or however he got into debate,
00:26:53
Speaker
he could make, you know, maybe 20 claims and to disprove even one of them would take, you know, maybe five minutes. So there was no possible way his opponent could disprove everything he'd said, other than to stand there and go, no, it isn't, no, it isn't, no, it doesn't, no, no, wrong, no, wrong, which of course isn't particularly convincing.
00:27:11
Speaker
Well, so if you do spend some time refusing some of the claims, then the Gish Gallop then allows you to go, well, my respected colleague here, Josh Anderson, has certainly shown he's not a unicorn, but he hasn't disproven to us that he's not a rhinoceros. So therefore, that he can't dispute the fact he's a rhinoceros, I think we should take it seriously that he is.
00:27:34
Speaker
So the idea being that if you spend time refusing some of the claims, then the person can declare victory on the claims you didn't spend any time on. Yes. Anyway, returning to the book, it makes mention in this chapter of Giant Interdimensional Gates in Antarctica, remembering that in the Flat Earth Theory Antarctica runs the entire circumference of the Flat Earth, and the Sun travels through these gates. So I assume he's going for a sort of Pac-Man theory, at least as it relates to the Sun.
00:28:04
Speaker
The sun doesn't circle around the world or anything. It gets to one end, travels through this into a dimensional gate and immediately teleports back to the other side. But yes, good bit of Bloodhound gang. I didn't want to stop because I was in the middle of my thing, but yes, I approve. And then it goes into a lot of symbolism, saying how the symbolism we see in the world every day is it's the old, old hiding in plain sight stuff. So for instance, the yin yang symbol supposedly shows the roots that the sun and moon take as they move across the earth.
00:28:32
Speaker
makes mention of the fact that various organisations such as the UN show a flat earth on their flags, by which they mean a projection of, I can't remember the name of the exact projection, but the one that sort of looks like a flat earth thing. Apparently the UN one is divided into 35 sections, which is significant to Freemasonry. I don't know what the number is. Every number is significant to Freemasonry, as long as you look at the number hard enough. And there's more and more and more Bible stuff, but
00:28:58
Speaker
How are we doing for time? We should probably speed things up a little bit. Chapter 5 is called The Glue of You, where things go more into sort of alternative science, in particular DNA. Black goo. Black goo. Programmable matter. Yep. It will give us a triple helix DNA and make us immortal mutations in his image. That's Lucifer. Yes. So DNA, there's the claim that 95% of DNA is invisible, hyperdimensional, shifting stuff.
00:29:27
Speaker
I don't know. So the DNA that we're aware of is only 5% of our true DNA. Also claims that Adam and Eve, the first humans had triple helix DNA and yet we flawed images only have the double helix DNA. Makes mention of the fact that therefore we have two thirds of the amount of DNA we should have. Two thirds is 66.6666. 666. Lucifer, he was telling us all along.
00:29:56
Speaker
Or what? Well, yes. And then there is this, we're not making this up, the phrase black goo programmable matter, which is the stuff of which chips will be made, which will give us triple helix DNA, make us immortal mutations, or something, also chemtrails.
00:30:12
Speaker
The purpose of chemtrails is to corrupt our DNA and ensure that we remain to double helix at the moment so far. There's a bit of talk about superstring theory, a bit of talk about nuclear fusion, a bit of talk about Nicholas Tesla. I said I wouldn't make fun of typos, but that one did stick out. Nicholas Tesla is Tesla's cousin. Yeah.
00:30:34
Speaker
and talks about how the Large Hadron Collider is going to tear the physical and spiritual veil created by God and so on and so forth. That's true, I know someone who knows it. They have huge demonic infestation problems. From then on it gets a bit more spiritual and occulty and so on. Chapter 6 is called the Nephilim and talks about the history of these angelic beings which inhabit the firmament and so on, talks about giants.
00:30:59
Speaker
talks more about DNA, talks a lot of book of Enoch there, so I kind of skipped over a lot of that chapter. As you did with chapter seven. Chapter seven I skipped over, it's entirely, it's called Kabbalah's Root and it's all about Kabbalah. Which apparently is Satanism. Which he seems to think...
00:31:16
Speaker
Again, despite the fact that Lucifer is Satan, it's very, very confusing. I just did not read that chapter at all.
00:31:31
Speaker
Apparently once once Lucifer has enacted this plan that he's been talking about the whole time and turned us all into triple helix DNA to mortal mutations with the advent of his golden age the flat earth will terraform into gold so that'll be nice yeah it's going to be really really useful when we're living on a gold plate in the middle of the universe sounds nice it talks about two sons there's an invisible black sun comprised of pure philosophical gold
00:31:59
Speaker
held within a medium of time and space. The Black Sun is the template of his opus magnum. Not magnum opus. Opus magnum. Well, a opus magnum is one of those chocolates on a stick. Ice cream core. Anyway, I'm mocking typos again. I shouldn't do that. Chapter 9 numerology. A lot of numerology in chapter 9.
00:32:22
Speaker
Yeah, there's a lot of numbers in chapter 9, lots of claims about the great pyramid of Giza, which kind of was the bon-mot for spiritualists back at the end of the Victorian age, where everyone was going around measuring the pyramid and trying to find other measures within those measures and the like.
00:32:41
Speaker
There's actually a fairly half-decent description of what the pyramids looked like back in the day. You know, Elabaster White with a shining tip, but apparently it's a third dimensional replica of his fifth dimensional Mount Zion. I'm not sure what the other two dimensions, normally the fourth dimension is time.
00:33:02
Speaker
The fifth dimension is pretentiousness? Could be. It was made by angels, of course, the great Pinogiza, constructed by the Nephilim and the Dark Angels around 3500 BC. It is the centre of the Flat Earth, apparently. The talk of black cubes. Oh yeah, so I made a note of this when I was reading the book that I should look this up.
00:33:22
Speaker
So there's a claim here that there are black cubes scattered across the globe in glory of Satan's work. In Manhattan, Santa Ana, Australia and Denmark. I think Australia is going to turn out to be a typo, but it's a really interesting typo.
00:33:39
Speaker
Now, there is a black cube in Manhattan. It's the Alamo sculpture installed in 1967, and it's a somewhat irregular black cube in Manhattan in New York.
00:33:52
Speaker
There is a black cube in Santa Ana. It's the Discovery Museum in Orange County. It's a museum for kids doing science. Also a relatively recent build. There's a black cube in Denmark. It's called the dice. It's in Svenborg.
00:34:09
Speaker
Actually, there's not much information about it available online. It's commonly known as a meeting point in Svenborg for locals to meet because it's a giant black cube on a corner. So if you want to meet with a friend, why not meet at the black cube?
00:34:25
Speaker
Now, the one in Australia is interesting. So if you search for Black Cube Australia, you don't really find any information whatsoever, apart from the fact that for the Venice Biennale or whatever Australia was going to they kind of.
00:34:42
Speaker
black rectangle as a display space, but that would be in Italy, not in Australia. There are a bunch of images online of four black cubes around the place, mentioning Manhattan, Santa Ana, Australia and Denmark, except the one that's Australia is in fact located in Hamburg. It's an image of a black cube outside of a museum in Hamburg.
00:35:09
Speaker
and it's possible here someone is making the mistake of thinking Hamburg is in Austria but when they created their meme-able gif they could distribute across the internet they called Austria Australia because that's really the only way I can possibly make an image which is quite obviously
00:35:31
Speaker
of the black cube outside of a museum in Hanberg, something people confuse for being in Australia. What's the point of these black cubes anyway? I'm assuming they form some kind of antichrist cross which you can then use for things, but actually finding out that one of them is in Australia kind of makes that mat not work at all. But anyway.
00:35:51
Speaker
There are black cubes. One of them isn't in Australia. Righto. So we move on to the final chapter. Chapter 10, divine dualities lie. And this is where our good buddy, by this time, Lucifer, lays out his sort of full manifesto, really. He spills his master plan in the style of a Bond villain, only unlike a Bond villain, he's extra cunning because he knows that he can say all this out loud and no one's going to believe him anyway.
00:36:19
Speaker
So he says the lie of duality is the idea that there is balance between good and evil or between God and Satan and Lucifer. There is no inherent balance and he's going to tip everything into chaos because he's Lucifer and that's what he likes to do. There's a bit more detail on his triple DNA chips made out of black goo programmable matter which are all going to turn us into these mutations in his image and so on and so forth.
00:36:43
Speaker
And then it sort of sets out the point of all of this and of spreading these lies of a heliocentric solar system and the lie of around Earth and all that is to sort of condition us so that we will then accept his coming.
00:37:03
Speaker
as it were, so he says that belief in a spinning ball traveling through a black void of endless space creates a nihilistic, cynical society devoid of love, obsessed with the present and indifferent to eternity. The heliocentric theory kills purpose while reinforcing a sense of hopelessness. So that's why Lucifer has propagated this lie to make us all feel so hopeless that we'll jump at his triple DNA black goo chips.
00:37:29
Speaker
And then belief in a flat earth compels an atheist to acknowledge intelligent design created by an omnipotent being who controls the unfathomable.
00:37:41
Speaker
Which seems to be saying that atheists have no problem with around Earth because it actually makes sense. And therefore the Flat Earth shows that creationism must be true because it's otherwise impossible. Which kind of sounds, isn't a good look for the Flat Earth hypothesis. No. Well, exactly.
00:38:06
Speaker
And so that's kind of where it goes. It ends abruptly. He's like, well, here we go. I've spent the last few hundred years lying to you. This is the truth. I can say that happily because I've done such a good job of indoctrinating you that you're all going to think this is nonsense.
00:38:25
Speaker
I think it's nonsense, so I guess that proves him right.
Overall Impression of 'Morningstar's Tale'
00:38:30
Speaker
Indeed. So what did you think of Morningstar's tale, Joshua? Would you recommend it to a friend? Possibly not. Would you recommend it to Isaac? Yes, I would definitely recommend it to Isaac. Isaac is a friend of the podcast, and the kind of person who, when I go to a David Icke talk, Isaac is always there beside me. Yes, I mean...
00:38:51
Speaker
Like I said right at the start, I think I'm really not quite sure what to make of it. I mean, it makes a bunch of like, if we ignore the sort of the biblical, the more occulty stuff and actually just focus on the more concrete claims that appear to argue for a flat-earth hypothesis, most of them are just plain wrong. Most of them are disprovable by fairly
00:39:17
Speaker
fairly easy acts of observation. You don't even need to do wacky experiments or anything. So yeah, I don't know whether it takes itself seriously and therefore I just think it's a load of albollocks or whether it's poking a bit of fun, in which case good on it.
00:39:34
Speaker
That's kind of where I am, really. My opinion on this is that, at least when I was reading the first chapter, the Welcome to Lucifer chapter, reads like supernatural fanfic. And I mean supernatural, as in the TV show, starring Jensen Eccles and Eccles, not
00:39:54
Speaker
equals, and then the other actor who can't act. That's another matter entirely. My critical views on Supernatural can be found elsewhere online. In that there's a character in Supernatural who was Lucifer, played by Mark
00:40:10
Speaker
Pellegrino, in their first chapter, almost reads as if the author is channeling Mark Pellegrino's way of talking about Lucifer, because Lucifer in Supernatural is someone who really doesn't think they're doing anything wrong. Yeah, they've done a few things to mislead humanity, but essentially, under their guidance, things are going to be fine. And it just reads a lot like Supernatural fanfiction. Well, there you go.
00:40:39
Speaker
Is it a good thing or a bad thing? It's neither. It's a thing. It's just a thing. I think that should be the ultimate review of this book. It's a thing. It is. It is a work of words, spanning 40 or so pages, written by a person, available to buy online, although our recommendation is
00:41:05
Speaker
you don't need to. Yep. But we have another book review coming up. Yes, but not this week. Would I really tell you about the book review? I would. I don't know what I do. I don't actually know this. What is this book that we're going to be reviewing? This is new and exciting information, not just for you, the listener, but also for Josh the
00:41:26
Speaker
This is actually a book by Anthony Revlich. It's a suppressed text.
00:41:38
Speaker
Let me read you the description of the book. There is no escape for fake liberals from my truth because it is based on fact not opinion and is verifiable and I believe in universal human rights truth i.e. ethical human rights so they cannot call me alt-right a fascist or a white supremacist.
00:41:59
Speaker
This book describes how the fake liberals following a UN agenda, neoliberalism and globalization, aim to destroy global freedom and Western civilization. In the NZ section it shows how following the UN agenda, potential has been crushed, especially the best and brightest, and how many ended up in the mental health and criminal justice systems.
00:42:20
Speaker
in my personal view. God did defend NZ, as in the national anthem. I believe in universal human rights, so the fake liberals cannot call me alt-right, fascist or white supremacist. There is no escape from my truth, because it is based on fact, not opinion, and is verifiable, and I appear to have repeated myself twice in the description of this book. Yes.
00:42:44
Speaker
The book is called Ethical Human Rights, Freedom's Great Hope, American Academic Press 2017. Is it actually being suppressed anyway?
00:42:55
Speaker
not that I'm aware of. I think it's more that the author, Anthony Revlich, has simply not had much success with the book being talked about. But we're going to talk about it. Yes, we are. Maybe not the entire book. It's unlike Morningstar's Tale, which is a 40-page novella. This is more of an actual book.
00:43:23
Speaker
But, at the same time, there is a chapter on the fun and excitement of New Zealand. Well, there we go. I look forward to reading small sections of this book. Well, you will. You will. So that draws the book-reviewing portion of this episode to a close. I guess we should just get on with the news. Indeed. Let's do that.
00:43:49
Speaker
Breaking, breaking, conspiracy theories in the news. It's news time, so that means checking in on Reddit for the latest headlines. Just a reminder, voting changed nothing, corporate lobbyists and elite bankers still run the country. Why does the Pope speak through the mouth of the serpent in his audience hall? Probably, um, probably should have covered that last week.
00:44:13
Speaker
Is Michael Avenatti backed by Trump and all the Republicans? But now politics. We'll get to the US in just a minute, but first an update on that Jamie Lee Ross scandal. Earlier this week, another audio recording involving Ross and National Party leader Simon Bridges was leaked, which was a little disturbing.
00:44:30
Speaker
As a catch-up for listeners who didn't listen to our previous episodes or who simply don't care to remember the politics of Aotearoa New Zealand, part and parcel of the Ross scandal was the claim that the leader and co-leader of the national party had encouraged Ross to take mental health leave. This was after claims had predated on at least four women had been received by the leadership team.
00:44:51
Speaker
This new audio recording affirms that account, but adds in an undeniably creepy and conspiratorial factor. According to the recording, Bridges and his co-leader, Paula Bennett, both promise Ross that A, if Ross took medical leave from Parliament, then they would never publicly discuss the sexual assault allegations, and B, if Ross didn't cause waves, he would likely be promoted. The cover-up here is seedy enough.
00:45:16
Speaker
When the Ross scandal first surfaced Bridges and Bennett claimed the sexual assault claims were credible, but here they are saying they'll keep them quiet in order to protect Ross. Ross being a former chief whip for the party, which is political parlance for he knows where the bodies are buried and uses that information to keep people in line. Having a chief whip with such claims against him, credible claims remember, at least according to Bridges and Bennett,
00:45:42
Speaker
is both not a good look, but also the kind of thing which makes you think politicians are as self-serving as many of the public think they are. But it's the fact that if Ross kept his nose down that he would likely be promoted that rankles the most. It's one thing to keep a predator in their activity secret. It's another to promote them. That is, maybe we can understand covering up such allegations, but covering up and rewarding the perpetrator
00:46:09
Speaker
Not a good look. Which brings us to the other issue. What we have here is a conspiracy pure and simple, but the conspiracy theories the question of who is orchestrating these leaks, which looks to be targeted specifically at Simon Bridges. The social media commentariat is fairly convinced it's one Judith Collins, a national MP who was passed over as a potential leader for the national party and represents the hard right of that party.
00:46:34
Speaker
She and a few select allies outside of the parliament, blogger Cameron Slater and self-proclaimed political mastermind Simon Lusk, have long been thought to be behind quite a bit of dirty politicking, and Collins is apparently unimpressed by Bridges' performance as a leader so far.
00:46:50
Speaker
Something the public seem to agree with her on if polling is any measure. And thus people are asking, quebo no. Although asking where the front man of U2 isn't all of this seems a bit irrelevant. Ah, U2 jokes. We're really targeting that core demographic of 45 year olds who don't own iOS devices.
00:47:09
Speaker
Still, the question of who benefits here is interesting. Because these leaks are certainly damaging both to Ross and Bridges, but one assumes Ross is just a sacrificial lamb. But enough conspiracy theories about local politics. Now the US. Election results are in and Democrats have taken the House while Republicans have kept the Senate.
00:47:29
Speaker
So expect congressional investigations to Trump, and Trump judicial appointments to just keep on coming. The big question is, what's going to happen next? Given there have been rumours for weeks now that Trump will purge his cabinet in the wake of whatever the election results happen to be. That means Attorney General Jeff Sessions is already out, fired earlier today in New Zealand time.
00:47:50
Speaker
This allows for the appointment of a new AG who wouldn't recuse themselves from the Mueller collusion investigation. That's the investigation Robert Mueller is running into potential collusion, not the investigation in Robert Mueller's collusion itself. Although, you see, as we discussed briefly last week, some GOP operatives tried to flip the script and make Mueller or Mueller. Mueller, Mueller. Okay. The target of an investigation, namely one around sexual harassment.
00:48:17
Speaker
Now let us be clear, neither of us are claiming that Robert Mueller has an unimpeachable character. He may or may not have been guilty of all sorts of impropriety in the past, but this story is definitely one of someone trying to set Mueller up.
00:48:32
Speaker
A story concerns an organisation known as Sure Fire Intelligence, which is possibly the worst name ever for a political organisation, because it sounds much better as a sarcastic title than it does as an actual name. Members of the media had been contacted over the past few weeks by a woman who said she had been offered money to say she was sexually assaulted by Mueller.
00:48:53
Speaker
After some investigation, it was determined the assault allegation was likely a hoax. This information was then passed on to the Special Counsel's Office. Mueller's office then reported the claims to the FBI. It was quickly discovered that Jack Berkman was behind the scheme. He has previous form, having peddled Seth Rich conspiracy theories, which we've covered before.
00:49:13
Speaker
Berkman claimed that whilst he was not behind the scheme, he did have bombshell news about Mueller's drunkenness and sexual activity which he would release to the public.
00:49:25
Speaker
When the day came, Berkman held a press conference in the motel room. His fly-open, which he revealed in unnamed source, had made claims about Mueller, but would not present any details or affidavits to verify his claim. This isn't, as we said, Berkman's first attempt at creating a scandal. He previously came to have evidence of the Clintons' involvement in the death of Seth Rich, which also ended up in a motel room press conference, in which no evidence was actually forthcoming.
00:49:52
Speaker
Now, days before these allegations made the news, QAnon Twitter accounts were echoing the work of Juan Jacob Wohl, who claimed to have heard from unnamed media sources that a scandalous story about Mueller was about to break.
00:50:07
Speaker
But Wells' source was not the media, but the aforementioned Shore Fire Intelligence, an organisation he's linked to by virtue of being behind the Shore Fire Intelligence DNS registration, and also because the phone number for Shore Fire Intelligence goes straight to his mother's answer phone. True story. Shore Fire Intelligence has turned out to be a goldmine of information, almost all of it false. Its 12-member team is made up of stock photographs, one of which is that of Christoph Waltz, Academy and BAFTA award-winning actor,
00:50:37
Speaker
Surefire appears to just be a front designed to make it look as if there was a team of people investigating claims about Robert Mueller, rather than just perhaps a couple of people making up claims, or perhaps even worse, trying to pay people to make those claims for them.
00:50:52
Speaker
It's one thing to make false accusations against someone. It's another to try and get people to make those claims for you with the promise of financial remedy. Conservatives seem to be of the mind that women often make claims of sexual impropriety against men for financial gain.
00:51:07
Speaker
Which means you would think twice about paying women to make such claims if you were a conservative, surely. After all, you don't want to support that gravy train. Yet, when political operatives do try to entice people to make such claims with the promise of a little money, the story almost always gets out. Which somewhat suggests that women aren't making these claims on purely financial motives.
00:51:28
Speaker
And we're leaving to one side the continued opprobrium these women suffer when they make such claims. The conspiracy here is obvious. Berkman and Wall tried to generate a sexual assault allegation for money and their plot was found out. Last week we thought the story would get bigger if not necessarily better, but it turns out it's kind of just died.
00:51:47
Speaker
We'd like to say, just like the credibility of Berkman and Wohl, but given Berkman's past form, I'm sure he'll be back with more scandal after the break. Finally, some more words about Nazis. Yes, last week we really poured on the whole Nazis and Nazi-like sympathies are a problem, taking quite a hard look at the US. But never fear, because we have Nazis down under too.
00:52:09
Speaker
Yes, across the Didditch and the land of exploding gum trees, the Australian Nationals Party is having a bit of an issue with, well, Nazi infiltrators. At least 15 members of the Young Nationals have resigned, accusing the media and the government of engaging in a witch hunt, when it was discovered that members of the New South Wales, Hugh A. Mitchell and Webjunk, Young Nationals had been attending a secret men's-only Fight Club, which had been set up by some of the country's most prominent alt-right nationalists.
00:52:35
Speaker
Members of this group were also members of the New Guard Facebook group, which shared alt-right jokes and generally supported fascism. When the members of this group were outed, their response was to deny being Nazis, while also claiming that the white culture in Australia was under attack by immigration and a succession of socialist governments.
00:52:51
Speaker
It looks as if alt-right operatives in Australia have been engaging in bench-stacking the process of swamping regional come rural seat selection committees and meetings in order to advance candidates of their liking. Members of the nationals and rural areas have reported meetings being swamped with townies who have pushed for and elected candidates locals have never heard of or would not have won otherwise. So, Nazism, it's not just for America.
00:53:20
Speaker
Talking about stuff which is not just for America, this week's bonus episode available to patrons for a mere few dollars a month features us trying to say the name of a suspected alien solar sail which passed by the sun recently. We also wonder why Steve Bannon is giving a keynote at a computing conference.
00:53:36
Speaker
And we ponder the story of an Iranian plot to kill a Norwegian in Denmark. Positively Shakespearean. But for now, we bid you farewell and good night. We'll see you in our dreams. And you'll see us in your nightmares. You've been listening to the podcaster's guide to the conspiracy.
00:53:57
Speaker
It is written, researched and performed by Josh Addison, a.k.a. Monkey Fluids, and MRXtenteth, a.k.a. Conspiracism on Twitter. This podcast is available where all good podcasts can be found, as well as iTunes, Podbean and Stitcher.
00:54:17
Speaker
It can also be watched on YouTube. Just search for the podcaster's guide to the conspiracy, or, if you happen to be technophobic, consult the auguries. You can support the podcaster's guide to the conspiracy via our Patreon page, as listed
Contact and Social Media Details
00:54:35
Speaker
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00:54:40
Speaker
You can also support us via the Podbean Patronage system, if that is more your style. You do you. If you want to get in contact with us, why not email us at podcastconspiracy at gmail.com, or find us on Facebook. And remember, Soylent Green is meeples.