Parallax Views w/ J.G. Michael

On this edition of Parallax Views, Tupac Shakur is without a doubt one of the most beloved rappers of all-time. A voice of the hip hop generation, Tupac's death remains shrouded in controversy and conspiracy theories abound in its wake. Was it related to the gang war between the Bloods and Crips? Was it a revenge plot by Death Row Records' leader Suge Knight because the rapper sought to leave the label? Author John Potash offers another theory in his book The FBI War on Tupac Shakur and Black Leaders. Regardless your opinion on the theories surrounding Tupac's death, John offers a fascinating history of U.S. intelligence agency efforts to squash black liberations movements through the FBI's COINTELPRO as well as unveiling the radical political activism of the Shakur family dating back to the 1960's and 1970's with groups like the Black Panthers. He also unveils the often overlooked political side of Tupac Shakur in the process. In this conversation we discuss: - The history of COINTELPRO - Shakur's family, including Tupac's mother Afeni Shakur and her involvement with the Panther 21 case, the work of Mutulu Shakur and his drug addiction recovery efforts at Lincoln Detox, and the frame-up of Assata Shakur (who remains on the lam to this very day) - Tupac's own politics, his involvement with the shady Death Row Records, his attempts to end the East Vs. Left Coast gang wars, the suspicions related to his death, and much, much more! SUPPORT PARALLAX VIEWS ON PATREON! FOR BONUS CONTENT AND ARCHIVED EPISODES!

On this edition of Parallax Views, a small but growing group of provocative scholar are leading an intellectual movement of thought known as Afro-pessimism. These scholars argue that there is not an easy way out of the hatreds and bigotries, specifically anti-blackness, which afflict our society. What does that line of thought entail? Is Afro-pessimism and idea that revels in resignation or a movement with a revolutionary fervor that demands us to think beyond our Euro-centric frame of what we mean when we use the word "human" or "humanity"? One of the leaders of this new movement, Frank Wilderson III, the acclaimed author of Incognegro: A Memoir of Exile and Apartheid, joins us to discuss his latest book Afropessimism, a work that is one part memoir and one part theory, in this fascinating and challenging conversation. In this conversation we discuss: - Frank's interest in the 70s conspiracy thriller movie Parallax View - Defining blackness - Humanity as defining itself by its anti-blackness; the Master/Slave dialectic - Dedicating the book to Assata Shakur - Afro-pessimism's relationship to the ideas of Karl Marx and Marxism - Afro-pessimism as descriptive rather than prescriptive - The confrontation created by Afro-pessimism and the phenomenological "end of the world" - Frank's story of a student who was upset by Afro-pessimism - And much, much more SUPPORT PARALLAX VIEWS ON PATREON! FOR BONUS CONTENT AND ARCHIVED EPISODES!

In 2018 Parallax Views began delving into the sordid saga of billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who had connections to various elite figures in high places included President Donald Trump, President Bill Clinton, former Victoria's Secrets CEO Leslie Wexner, and many others. This startling story ended up taking a new turn when Epstein was arrested and, shortly thereafter, found dead in his jail cell of an apparent suicide (although due to Epstein's ties to the elite strata of society conspiracy theories abound).  Since then a Netflix documentary, Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich, has been released and the sordid saga of this billionaire child sex offender and the mysteries of his life have garnered widespread attention. Now, Epstein's procurer, the elite socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, has been arrested by the FBI and the case is again commanding public attention. On this edition of the Parallax Views, J.G. Michael welcomes Brace Belden, co-host of the of the popular TrueAnon podcast alongside Liz Franczak, to the program to revisit the story of Jeffrey Epstein, the arrest of Ghislaine Maxwell, and the connections of Leslie Wexler and MC2 Model Management's Jean-Luc Brunel (himself accused of multiple acts of rape) to this sordid saga. Parallax Views' occasional French correspondent, Marlon Ettinger, who was at the New York trial of Epstein, pops up for a portion of the conversation as well. Brace also gives his thoughts on TrueAnon's dark humor, thoughts on the right-wing's obsession with Pizzagate and QAnon conspiracy theories (with comments on Roger Stone, Jack Posobiec, etc., his experience interviewing Epstein victim/survivor Maria Farmer, Epstein survivor Virginia Giuffre vs Epstein pal and celebrity lawyer Alan Dershowitz, whether Brace is CIA, Brace's personal story of being sent to a troubled teen boot camp (known as a CEDU program and related to WWASP behavior modifcation schools and the cult Synanon), and more. LISTEN TO TRUEANON SUPPORT PARALLAX VIEWS ON PATREON! FOR BONUS CONTENT AND ARCHIVED EPISODES!

On this edition of Parallax Views, a roundtable discussion on Holocaust denial w/ Dr. Andrew E. Mathis (aka Thames Darwin) and our semi-regular correspondent Marlon Ettinger. Believe it or not, there are those who deny the Holocaust perpetrated against the Jewish people by Nazi Germany in the 20th century. Dr. Mathis, as an academic, has spent much time fighting against Holocaust denial. In fact, he has even gotten into the weeds and spoken to/debated the deniers themselves. In this roundtable conversation we discuss: - What Holocaust Denial is and the elements of it. - The early history of Holocaust denial from revisionist historians like Harry Elmer Barnes to the various operations of white supremacist move-and-shaker Willis Carto of the Liberty Lobby, Institute for Historical Review, the Barnes Review, and the American Free Press (we also touch upon Carto's connection to the mysterious post-war American Nazi Francis Parker Yockey aka Ulrike Varange) - The relationship between figures like Willis Carto and neo-nazis like William Luther Pierce and the way in which Holocaust denier target young men for recruitment. - The connection between the extremely conservative Regnery Publishing family and Holocaust; thoughts on historian like Ernest Nolte and whether they can be considered adjacent to Holocaust denier - British historian David Irving's infamous involvement in the world of Holocaust denial and his lawsuit against Deborah Lipstadt, who took issue with Irving's revisionism. - The Jewish holocaust denier Dr. Fred A. Leuchter, the strange Nazi UFO conspiracy theorist Ernst Zundel, and holocaust denier's claims about "Prussian Blue". - Why combating Holocaust denial matters, what the passage of Holocaust deniers in historical memory means for the future, and much, much more. SUPPORT PARALLAX VIEWS ON PATREON! FOR BONUS CONTENT AND ARCHIVED EPISODES!

On this special 4th of July edition of Parallax Views, William Hogeland, author of the Wild Early Republic trilogy (The Whiskey Rebellion, Declaration, and Autumn of the Black Snake) and Founding Finance: How Debt, Speculation, Foreclosures, Protests, and Crackdowns Made Us a Nation, joins us to give a different perspective on the U.S. founding fathers and the early days of the Republic. But, perhaps even moreso, William also helps us examine this history from a "meta" by forcing us to ask: How do we interpret history? And is our popular understanding of the U.S. founding distorted by hagiography? In this conversation William touches upon: - How he became involved in writing popular history and how his approach differs from many others in the same milieu - His book The Whiskey Rebellion, how his work has appealed to both the left and the right over the years, and his response to being called a "left-wing critic" of the Founding Fathers - The liberal establishment's consensus view of history, the works of Charles Beard, how the Beardian Progressive School of history was systemically attacked by the reigning consensus, and the OSS (U.S. intelligence service prior to the founding of the CIA) - The Founding Fathers and slavery, the Founding Fathers and their complex relationship to democratic and liberal values, thoughts on Alexander Hamilton in light of the success of Lin Manuel Miranda's hip hop musical Hamilton (now experiencing even more success due to it's streaming release on Disney+), William's criticism of Brett Stephen's "unbrokeness" theory of the American political tradition, and the debate around pulling down Confederate statues. All that and much more on this special 4th of July edition of Parallax Views! SUPPORT PARALLAX VIEWS ON PATREON! FOR BONUS CONTENT AND ARCHIVED EPISODES!

On this very special edition of Parallax Views, Ilyasah Shabazz, the third daughter of Malcolm X, joins us to discuss the legacy of her father, the work she has done to keep her father's memory alive (including her children's book Malcolm Little: The Boy Who Grew Up to Be Malcolm X), and her thoughts on the wave of protests that have followed the police killing of George Floyd. Ilyasah Shabazz on July 22nd, 1963 in Queens, New York. As the third daughter of Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz, Ilyasah has dedicated her life to leveraging the legacy of her family to empower the future. Although she was just a young girl when Malcolm X died, she, under the loving guidance of her mother Betty, grew up with the same strong sense of compassion and hunger for justice that drove her father's own life of human rights activism. In 2002, Ilyasah, with the help of Kim McLaren, wrote the critically praised Growing Up X: A Memoir by the Daughter of Malcolm X. She followed that book up with the children's book Malcolm Little: The Boy Who Grew Up to Become Malcolm X, X: A Novel, and Betty Before X. She has continued to keep the legacy of her father alive as well as correcting the record on who he was as a man beyond the media-manufactured of him as well as celebrating the life of her mother Betty Shabazz and seeking to uplift people, especially children, from all walks of life. SUPPORT PARALLAX VIEWS ON PATREON! FOR BONUS CONTENT AND ARCHIVED EPISODES!

On this edition of Parallax Views, Slovenian philosopher and academic Slavoj Žižek is one of the world's foremost public intellectuals known for his wide breadth of work on a variety of topics including pop culture, Lacanian psychoanalysis, capitalism, the thinking of George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Karl Marx, capitalism, left-wing politics, violence and Occupy Wall Street. Recently, however, he has come under fire for quickly writing a book tackling the current crisis of coroanvirus entitled Pandemic!: COVID-19 Shakes the World (OR Books; 2020). Some argued that Žižek's writing a book on the pandemic so quickly (the book was published in April) showed a lack of academic rigor while other's accused him of profiting off a crisis that he, as a philosopher rather than a scientist, had no business commenting on so soon. Our guest on this edition of the program, sociologist Eliran Bar-El, however, takes a different tact in approaching Žižek's attempt to tackle the coronavirus pandemic as it unfolds in real time. Although he does not seek a full-throated defense of the Slovenian philosopher, Bar-El does offer a different perspective on Žižek's intervention in his essay "Anti-Anti-Zizek: Public Intellectuals and Global Pan(dem)ic" for the Žižekian Analysis. In this piece, as well his research thesis "Positioning the Intellectual: Zizek as a Sociological Phenomenon", Bar-El attempts to understand Žižek and his often controversial philosophical interventions within a sociological context. In this regard Bar-El examines the role of the public intellectual in culture and how that role has changed with time. In fact, Bar-El argues that role of the public intellectual has been diminished over the years Žižek, he says, represents what calls "The Sacrificial Intellectual" who, through his uncompromising engagement with crises as they happen, seeks to reposition the role of the public intellectual while countering both hoaxers and charlatans as well as the narrow-focused expert promoted by an increasingly out-of-touch technocratic elite. In sacrificing his reputation with academia by way of philosophical interventions into currently unfolding events, Bar-El argues, Žižek reaffirms the role of the public intellectual in a way that is appealing to the masses outside of the Ivory Tower. In this way Žižek is able to combat figures of the post-truth era like Dr. Jordan Peterson to a broad audience rather than an academic milieu. We also discuss the philosopher as someone who seeks to ask the right questions rather than provide the answers, the infamous Jordan Peterson vs. Žižek, and related matters. All that and more on this very Žižekian edition of Parallax Views! SUPPORT PARALLAX VIEWS ON PATREON! FOR BONUS CONTENT AND ARCHIVED EPISODES!  

On this edition of Parallax Views, just a few short years ago the controversial psychologist and academic Dr. Jordan Peterson became internationally known for his strident crusade against the campus politics, political correctness, and "Social Justice Warrior". After his fame fully blossomed the professor turned his sights towards a quasi-messianic mission to save alienated young men from the throes of nihilism. Many criticized Peterson as a conservative reactionary while defenders of the doctor claimed that he was helping lost male youths "clean their rooms" and get their acts together. The Canadian-born psychologist's stardom peaked with the release of his 2018 book 12 Rules for Life, a self-help book that quickly became a bestseller. Peterson's sudden, meteoric rise to prominence, however, came crashing down about just as quickly and unexpectedly as his initial skyrocketing success when it was discovered that the outspoken doctor was suffering from a benzo addiction. Given the nature of his self-help credo, it appeared that Peterson's own failure to "clean his room" would lead to his recession into the footnotes of history. Such a prediction, however, has proven immature as the outspoken academic has returned to stirring-the-pot of the societal discourse in his typically outspoken manner this with a recent piece published by The National Post admonishing activist culture as well as making appearing on his daughter's online show The Mikhaila Peterson Podcast. As such, it seems as good a time as any for Parallax Views to release a previously unpublished conversation with Conrad Hamilton, one of the co-authors of Myth and Mayhem: A Leftist Critique of Jordan Peterson (Zero Books; 2020), revisiting and critiquing the good doctor. In this conversation we get some hilarious Peterson impersonations from Conrad, an analysis of how Peterson's rise to fame was abetted by external forces like the media, the Slavoj Zizek Vs. Peterson debate, Peterson's "non-reading" of deconstructionist philosopher Jacques Derrida, Peterson's charisma, and much, much more. SUPPORT PARALLAX VIEWS ON PATREON! FOR BONUS CONTENT AND ARCHIVED EPISODES!

On this edition of Parallax Views, Mike Africa, Jr. was born in prison. His parents, Debbie and Mike Africa, were one of 9 members of the Philadelphia-based radical liberation organization MOVE after a year long stand-off with police that ended in the death of an officer. MOVE stands by their claim that the police attacked them and that, in fact, they did not shoot the officer in question. Instead the officer was shot by his own colleagues in the chaos. Eyewitness accounts at the time as well as other evidence have since led credence to MOVE's claims in regards to this infamous 1978 stand-off. Nonetheless, the MOVE 9 were sent to prison and in 1985 the non-incarcerated members of MOVE had a bomb dropped on their home at the direction of Philadelphia Mayor Wilson Osgood. In prison Debbie and Mike gave birth to their son Mike Africa, Jr. who has continued to spread the liberationist message of MOVE while living by his inspirational motto "Never Give Up". For years, Mike Africa, Jr. campaigned for the release of the MOVE 9 and since that time all the members have been released. Unfortunately, one of the MOVE 9, Delbert Africa, recently passed away. As such Parallax Views thought it would be worthwhile to remember MOVE w/ Mike Africa, Jr. Mike Africa, Jr. joins us to discuss the story of MOVE as well as to elucidate for us what the MOVE organization believes. Life, Mike says, is at the center of MOVE founder John Africa's philosophy, or, as some have argued, religion. Mike also discusses how he was able to get through the difficult years in his youth separated from his imprisoned parents thanks to the support of his community. Additionally, Mike tells us a bit about the experience of being reunited with his parents Debbie and Mike Africa after they were released from prison. Moreover, we discuss the current protests in response to the police killing of George Floyd and the possibility that they are an "awakening point", the prison without bars that many gladly accept being trapped in, the need to take justice rather than expecting it to be given, what it takes for change to occur, "The System" as a mentality that has created global oppression, the caged animal (such as a tiger in the zoo or circus) as a metaphor for the oppression of humans, MOVE founder John Africa's adage that "the people are as sick as their government", the plight of children whose parents are incarcerated, and more. Mike Africa, Jr. reunited with his parents Debbie Africa and Mike Africa, Sr. More on Mike Africa, Jr.'s Work At His Official Website And His Non-Profit Organization The Seed of Wisdom Foundation Please Consider Making a Donation to Mike Africa, Jr. So He May Continue His Important Work and Activism Also: Please Visit On a Move The Official Website of the MOVE Organization And Mobilization 4 Mumia A MOVE Affiliated Effort to Free Mumia Abu Jamal from Prison This Episode is Dedicated to Delbert Africa April 2nd, 1946 - June 15th, 2020 SUPPORT PARALLAX VIEWS ON PATREON! FOR BONUS CONTENT AND ARCHIVED EPISODES!

On this edition of Parallax Views, as the Saudi bombs fall on Yemen with the full support of the United States, protests over the police killing of George Floyd rage across the America and new cases of government misconduct arise as the National Guard is called in to quell dissent. Dave DeCamp of Antiwar.Com joins us to discuss both topics and how they relate to what the late public intellectual Gore Vidal referred to as "The American Empire". First, Dave fills us in on the National Guard killing of the beloved Kentucky-based small-business owner David McAtee as outlined in his piece "The Danger of Sending in the Troops: The Killing of David McAtee". McAtee, a black man who owned YaYa's BBQ Shack restaraunt, was well-respected member of his community who went out of his way to have friendly relations with police officers. He even was known for feeding the boys in blue and refusing to charge them for it. Despite playing-by-all-the-rules, McAtee was killed in the confusion of National Guard being called in to institute curfews and quell protests arising from the George Floyd and Breonna Taylor protests. McAtee's death is made all the more shocking given that he was not involved in the protests. Dave tells us the story of McAtee's death and what it tells us about the dangers of sending in U.S. troops to institute curfews and control protests. Then Dave tells us about his piece "As Coronavirus Rips Through Yemen, Saudi Bombs Continue to Fall". Dave explains how Saudi Arabia has been dropping bombs on Yemen with the full support of the U.S. and how this has made Yemen struggle through the coronavirus pandemic, a cholera outbreak, and food shortages all the more desperate. In this regard we discuss how Yemen has become a shocking humanitarian crisis that had led to death and suffering due to the U.S.'s antagonistic attitudes towards the Houthi government. Additionally, Dave and I talk a little bit about the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the U.S. in contrast to the relationship to Iran and the U.S. SUPPORT PARALLAX VIEWS ON PATREON! FOR BONUS CONTENT AND ARCHIVED EPISODES!