RTE Roundtable Talk #9: Propaganda and Mass Formation

Featuring Jessica Rose, PhD and Mattias Desmet in Absentia

"The best books, he perceived, are those that tell you what you know already." -George Orwell

I could have led with a Mattias Desmet quote, but I don't think he'll mind. Desmet's The Psychology of Totalitarianism was one of those books for me.

While we planned on speaking with Desmet about his book and theory of mass formation, a scheduling conflict got in the way, and we are working to reschedule the discussion.

Thankfully, Jessica Rose was with us, and as always, she makes for a great conversation partner with respect to complex human topics. We covered the basics of Desmet's book, plus several angles and threads with respect to totalitarianism. I saved questions that I have specific for Desmet in case we get the chance to do this again, soon.

You can also watch the conversation on the YouBoob Tube where we just hit 1,000 subscribers and can soon apply for membership to their perverse contraption (and then see how long that lasts).

Later in the afternoon, I posted a couple of transcripts of past Roundtable conversations.

Please subscribe and help our channels grow. And share your favorite videos gratuitously. You can watch us live on most Tuesdays at 1 PM Eastern. The RTE podcast is on numerous platforms including Rumble, YouTube, Bitchute, Odysee, Stitcher, Spotify, Apple, RokFin, and some other places that Liam knows better about than I do. You can also visit our sponsors. Written transcripts will be available for paid subscribers. We thank all of our supporters and hope that you get something excellent out of each discussion.

Remember to even subscribe to us on YouTube in order to (1) irritate the best by forcing it to evaluate (and reject) our account as an affiliate, and (2) update the content algorithm so that fewer people are served Lex Fridman 24 hours a day. Lex seems like a fine and decent human being, and some of his interviews are quite good, but nobody needs that running 24 hours a day. All day. And night. Over and over and over.

You can also find us here on Telegram.