Yesterday, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hatewatch ran an article by journalist Alexander Zaitchik exploring the close connections between fringe history and hate, notably the way that white nationalists, Neo-Nazis, and anti-Semites have incorporated claims as wide-ranging as ancient aliens, lost civilizations, and Bible giants into a narrative designed to promote a racist agenda. Zaitchik quotes me as an expert in fringe history’s darker themes, and I am pleased that he made good use of much of the information that I provided about some of the many ways hate groups have employed fringe history to craft narratives of racial supremacy.
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Each month Graham Hancock gives space on his website for a fellow author to present a fringe claim that is of interest to Hancock’s readers. This month the honor fell to P. D. Newman, a Freemason whose book Alchemically Stoned argues that one of Freemasonry’s eighteenth-century rituals is actually a plan for synthesizing DMT, the active ingredient in ayahuasca, from the acacia plant and that Masonry’s dirty secret is that the Masons used to go tripping on hallucinogens. DMT was not synthesized until the 1950s, according to conventional history. I will confess that this is one area where the fringe claim just doesn’t matter very much to me, since the 1700s are far from ancient times, but the subject amused me enough that I thought it was worth calling to the attention of my readers.
UFO disclosure advocate Dr. Steven Greer’s recent documentary Unacknowledged is now on Netflix. In the documentary, Greer adopts the claims put forward by Donald Zygutis in 2016 that Carl Sagan was on the receiving end of a government effort to force him to become a debunker: “After he was threatened by the intelligence community, and blackmailed, he then began to debunk the issue.” It seems fairly clear that the claim was lifted from Zygutis, but it’s interesting to see the way a bad idea with zero evidence in its favor.
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AuthorI am an author and researcher focusing on pop culture, science, and history. Bylines: New Republic, Esquire, Slate, etc. There's more about me in the About Jason tab. Newsletters
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