Conspirituality

278: This Podcast is Illegal

October 9, 2025

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  • Trump's NSPM-7 memorandum attempts to codify political opposition, including beliefs like anti-capitalism and anti-Christianity, as terrorism indicators, echoing historical Red Scare tactics but adding a new layer of Christian nationalist fixation. 
  • The memo's reliance on 'pre-crime' indicators—deducing future violence from internal beliefs—represents a significant authoritarian move toward policing thought rather than action, reminiscent of dystopian science fiction. 
  • The hosts draw parallels between the memo's repressive framework and historical state violence, such as apartheid and COINTELPRO, noting that fascism relies on weaponizing definitions of resistance as terrorism to justify repression. 

Segments

NSPM-7 and Terrorism Indicators
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(00:03:13)
  • Key Takeaway: Trump’s NSPM-7 labels common beliefs such as anti-capitalism and anti-Christianity as indicators of domestic terrorism, potentially leading to the designation of groups like Antifa as terrorist organizations.
  • Summary: The memo instructs federal law enforcement to prioritize investigating networks whose indicators include anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and hostility toward traditional American views on family and morality. This directive could double the FBI’s domestic terrorism watch list from 5,000 to 10,000 people. Current law requires a link to foreign terror organizations for domestic terror designation, which the memo seeks to circumvent for prosecution enhancements.
Nonprofits Reject Trump Directive
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(00:08:47)
  • Key Takeaway: Over 3,000 nonprofit organizations issued an open letter rejecting NSPM-7, viewing it as a wholesale offensive against groups advocating for objectionable ideas or serving marginalized communities.
  • Summary: The open letter specifically targets the administration’s move to weaponize the executive branch against organizations like George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, which fund progressive nonprofits. The letter asserts that punishing speech or views of any organization—church, environmental group, or law firm—is illegal and wrong. This action is framed as part of a broader pattern, aligning with Stephen Miller’s paranoia about a left-wing takeover.
Portland Protests and Manufactured Crisis
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(00:11:30)
  • Key Takeaway: Local observation in Portland shows that the number of actual protesters outside the ICE facility is small, but the crisis is manufactured and amplified by right-wing media using outdated footage.
  • Summary: Despite the narrative, only 10 to 100 people are typically present outside the ICE building, often outnumbered by media crews, with local politicians noting the lack of significant unrest. Right-wing instigators, like Nick Sorter, are documented purposefully trying to provoke confrontations, leading to federal investigation of local police response rather than the instigators’ actions. The media frequently weaponizes footage from 2020 or even riots in Los Angeles from the 1990s when reporting on current Portland events.
Resilience and Pivoting Under Pressure
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(00:18:02)
  • Key Takeaway: Resilient societies are defined not by avoiding collapse but by their capacity to recover, requiring coalition building and the ability to pivot strategy under pressure.
  • Summary: Drawing from Dax Devlon Ross’s essay, ‘The Upside of Collapse,’ resilient societies prioritize recovery over avoiding collapse entirely. A key pillar for organizations under pressure is innovating and collaborating rather than doubling down on failing plans. This concept of pivoting is contrasted with the Saramago novel Seeing, where frustration leads the population to ignore the political process entirely.
Pre-Crime and Thought Policing
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(00:23:18)
  • Key Takeaway: The concept of ‘pre-crime,’ derived from Minority Report, is being applied by the memo to target citizens based on internal, anti-establishment thoughts, aiming to manipulate thinking processes rather than just suppress activity.
  • Summary: Pre-crime involves arresting individuals before they commit a crime based on predictive technology, which in the memo’s context means punishing dissent before it manifests as action. This aligns with authoritarian psychology that demands internal allegiance, similar to the surveillance state depicted in The Lives of Others. The fear is that the goal is to manipulate thinking so that anti-establishment thoughts are never allowed to germinate.
Historical Recycling of Repression Themes
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(00:34:57)
  • Key Takeaway: The specific ’thought crime’ indicators listed in NSPM-7 are largely recycled themes from historical US repression, with the notable addition of explicit white Christian nationalism.
  • Summary: Themes like anti-Americanism and anti-capitalism echo World War I loyalty campaigns, the Red Scares, and COINTELPRO’s targeting of civil rights activists. The focus on gender extremism also follows historical FBI surveillance of women’s liberation movements. The novelty lies in the strong fixation on anti-Christianity and traditional morality, reflecting the structural power attained by white Christian nationalism in this era.
Fascism, Spectacle, and Military Buy-in
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(00:53:04)
  • Key Takeaway: Trump’s reliance on trance-inducing spectacle to maintain emotional dominance over followers falters when facing tough crowds like military brass, indicating fascism’s dependence on buy-in from the established ‘brass.’
  • Summary: When Trump’s rhetoric failed to elicit expected applause from 400 generals at Quantico, it exposed a weakness in his charismatic leadership model, which relies on shared affect rituals. Unlike rallies where he can control the emotional contagion, the military room required genuine compliance, not just performance. This lack of buy-in from the brass suggests a higher hurdle for authoritarian consolidation than merely controlling media or tech sectors.