Save the Date! Dr. Mia Bloom Joins Bette
Our next ‘Speakeasy’ zoom on April 23 features the brilliant author of ‘Pastels and Pedophiles: Inside the Mind of QAnon’
One of the perks of being a paid member to Bette Dangerous is our ‘Speakeasy’ zooms, which feature the greatest minds of our times helping us understand how we fight the fascist creep.
We have had riveting conversations with bestselling authors, filmmakers, a former extremist, an ex-fed, and experts in psychological warfare. And what do they all have in common: they are writers.
Writers are the salvation of our times.
Our guests - David Pepper, Dr. Ian Garner, Jason Van Tatenhove, Craig Unger, Jen Senko, Martin Sheil, Wesley Clark Jr. - each rose to the challenge of our times and fought the fascist creep with words.
I am so pleased that our next ‘Speakeasy’ guest is Dr. Mia Bloom - who co-authored the pivotal book ‘Pastels and Pedophiles: Inside the Mind of QAnon.’
To watch RadPod’s interview with Dr. Bloom, please go here:
To learn more about Mia, have a look at her bio:
Mia Bloom is the International Security Fellow at New America and a professor at Georgia State University. Bloom has conducted research in Europe, the Middle East and South Asia and speaks eight languages. She has authored several books and articles on violent extremism including Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror (Columbia 2005), Living Together After Ethnic Killing (Routledge 2007) Bombshell: Women and Terror (UPenn Press 2011) and Small Arms: Children and Terror (Cornell 2019) and Pastels and Pedophiles: Inside the Mind of QAnon with Sophia Moskalenko (Stanford 2021). She is publishing Veiled Threats: Women and Jihad (in 2023). Bloom is a former term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has held appointments at Princeton, Cornell, Harvard and McGill Universities. She serves on the Anti-Radicalization advisory board of the Anti Defamation League, and the UN Counter Terrorism Executive Directorate (UNCTED) and a member of advisory board of women without borders. She has a PhD in political science from Columbia university, a masters in Arab studies from Georgetown university and a double honors degree in Russian history and Islamic studies from McGill university in Montreal.
With Pastels and Pedophiles, Mia Bloom and Sophia Moskalenko explain why the rise of QAnon should not surprise us: believers have been manipulated to follow the baseless conspiracy. The authors track QAnon's unexpected leap from the darkest corners of the Internet to the filtered glow of yogi-mama Instagram, a frenzy fed by the COVID-19 pandemic that supercharged conspiracy theories and spurred a fresh wave of Q-inspired violence.
“Pastels and Pedophiles” connects the dots for readers, showing how a conspiracy theory with its roots in centuries-old anti-Semitic hate has adapted to encompass local grievances and has metastasized around the globe―appealing to a wide range of alienated people who feel that something is not quite right in the world around them. While QAnon claims to hate Hollywood, the book demonstrates how much of Q's mythology is ripped from movie and television plot lines.
Finally, Pastels and Pedophiles lays out what can be done about QAnon's corrosive effect on society, to bring Q followers out of the rabbit hole and back into the light.
I’m still catching my breath.
In this work I do which I consider civic duty, I meet people all around the world, who then blessedly become my friends and allies.
Mia is such a person. She is brilliant, she is kind, and she is incredibly funny.
I am looking so forward to the Bette community having a chance to meet her and learn from her.
We are not helpless in this fight - we have learned to stand up to bullies, we have learned about back-to-basics messaging, we have learned how to combat extremism, and that when we come together, we can move mountains.
Looking forward to seeing paid members on Sunday, April 23, 4 pm PT.
I have reduced the annual membership to an affordable rate with a tax break special so as many people can join us as possible.
Thanks to some very generous Bette members, we gifted a half dozen memberships over the weekend. If you would like to give a gift, here’s how:
I created this platform over the holidays, and am pleased to say our community members include a former prime minister, Oscar winners, bestselling authors, award-winning scholars, activists, musicians, filmmakers, artists, and some of the bravest and most compassionate people who walk this earth.
Memberships not only gain you access to our ‘Speakeasy’ zooms, but also all archives - my reports are paywalled after two weeks - podcasts, and private author-member chats. To everyone who has taken out a membership, thank you for keeping my lights on.
You give me hope.
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Bette Dangerous is a reader-funded magazine. Thank you to all monthly, annual, and founding members. Thank you as well to all those who support my work with your generous coffee tips and who buy my ebooks. A private link to group activist discounts available upon request by emailing bettedangerous@gmail.com.
More info about Bette Dangerous - This magazine is written by Heidi Siegmund Cuda, an Emmy-award winning investigative reporter, author, and veteran music and nightlife columnist. She is the cohost of RADICALIZED Truth Survives, an investigative show about disinformation and is part of the Byline Media team. Thank you for your support of independent investigative journalism.
Save the date! The next Bette Dangerous ‘Speakeasy’ Zoom for paid members is Sunday, April 23, 4 pm PT, featuring ‘Pastels and Pedophiles - Inside the Mind of QAnon’ author Dr. Mia Bloom. Please consider becoming a paid member. I am running a Tax Break Special of 25% off an annual membership through April 15.❤️🤍💙
