The Ungaslightables - And You Will Know the Traitors By Their Trail of Lies
This is not going to get easier until the fascists are defeated
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I just read a tweet by a Rolling Stone reporter who referred to my podcast partner as a ‘grifter’. That’s the first sign the reporter is not to be trusted. Jim, who is being sued by Mike Flynn, is a brave and brilliant researcher and writer. Don’t tell him I said that because he hates compliments.
If you have not yet watched his film about QAnon, I urge you to stop what you’re doing and watch it now:
Any guests who appear on our podcast receive a torrent of emails and DMs attempting to defame and discredit us - the paid opposition of digital hate terrorists that follows us everywhere we go wreak of vodka and despair. It must be exhausting devising ways to harm people who are simply doing the labor of democracy - a three-person army doing the job at which corporate media is repeatedly failing.
None of us demons.
As Jason Stanley wrote in the conclusion to How Fascism Works:
“By refusing to be bewitched by fascist myths, we remain free to engage one another, all of us flawed, all of us partial in our thinking..understanding, but none of us demons.”
Most of our guests are wise to the wedging. We warn them all in advance that the gatekeepers who do nothing to contribute to the salvation of democracy will show up in their DMs or email with their ‘concerns’ about us.
It’s funny that Steve Bannon’s podcast of lies gets hundreds of thousands of views a week, our little podcast gets a few hundred, and yet, we are the ones who are deemed a threat. That’s because we box above our weight, and truth has a way of punching through the authoritarian right’s think-tank farmed lies.
From the moment we launched, I knew how important our show was, and how vital it would be to those seeking to understand their radicalized family members. That it’s punk and funny, as well as serious and informative, is simply a reflection of who we are.
I used to call RadPod the most dangerous show in America, because truth is dangerous to the perpetrators of lies, to propaganda, which is never just words. I stopped using the ‘dangerous’ line because anything that sounds like bragging makes Jim uncomfortable. I dialed down my on-cam cheerleading, but I still think it’s true.
Truth is dangerous in a time of mass deception. Any so-called reporter who is defaming Jim is on the wrong side of this - and you will know the traitors by their trail of lies.
We are the ungaslightables.
We stay close to our allies who are also truth tellers and truth seekers. I rely on historians and scholars like oxygen, and I bring their words to life on these pages. We stay close to each other.
The online hate terrorists have tried every way to split us apart, and we just grow stronger.
Before the show launched, we made a commitment - friends til the end. We knew how hard the traitors would come for us, and I recall telling one of the hate terrorists, who at the time I thought was a genuine ‘concerned’ person, that one of my character defects is being extremely loyal to imperfect people.
I, too, am imperfect, and am grateful to those who judge gently or preferably not at all.
None of us demons.
We are nothing if we are not loyal to those on the frontlines of this terrible terrible war. Jim has called it the Invisible War, because most still can’t or refuse to see it.
I wake up to it daily, ready to suit up and show up. It’s the least I can do.
We have friends on the frontlines in Ukraine. They often appear on our podcast.
Collectively, our work is to stem the flow of fascism that has crept onto our shores. There’s a real war going on, there are multiple fronts. Some visible, some invisible, all of it claiming casualties.
In this the fight of our lifetime, join us in being ungaslightable.
Stay loyal to your friends, stay loyal to those with the guts to fight the fascist creep. Don’t waiver in your truth.
And don’t let them steal your humanity.
Stay kind, stay focused, stay loud.
We need you.
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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 an annual membership discount for activists and members of the media is available upon request at 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, May 7, 4 pm PT, featuring ‘Canaries in the Net’ podcast team Alex Alvarova and Josef Holy, who can offer insights into disinformation campaigns targeting the Czech Republic and Eastern Europe, the overlap in America and the West, and how we inoculate ourselves against disinformation. Paid members will also receive invites to our new weekly Bette’s Happy Hour, a wellness checkin.
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“I say a silent prayer of thanksgiving as I walk upon the earth.”-Audrey Peterman.
“May the viral hope for truth and humanity wash away the chaos of these years.”-S.C., Bette community member
“Something Sacred never dies in almost all of us, that can hear the invitation of Truth…”-words from a Bette Dangerous community member
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