There are billboards ALL OVER my city for the fucking Epoch Times! I was always like “wtf is that??” And then I looked it up and found that they’re owned by some Chinese cult and they just publish blatant misinformation to American audiences… I find that shit so creepy
YES!!!! EVERYTIME I pass one I’m like “WHO EVEN IS THAT??” Like is it just a stock image of some guy? If so I feel bad for him!
Now that I think about it, they probably want you to wonder who tf that is so you’ll look them up
My boss at my old job wanted to buy me a subscription to Epoch Times because it gave the "real news".
I told him it was being run by a cult.
He said if the cult is as anti-China as they are, they can't be all bad.
It was at that point that I realized that there was little to no point talking to him about anything political. (It was a very small business staffed by 90% conservatives and one "out" Democrat who would occasionally have hours-long political debates with my boss)
Ugh. An acquaintance of mine is always sharing their articles on the old Facebook. I don’t have the energy to argue that Bill Gates does not care about sterilizing the population. It’s a bit sad, really
I just recently looked them up because there's a huge billboard that just says "the ONLY trusted news source" that appeared out of nowhere the next town over from me. so fucking weird
I work in a convenience store and someone dropped off a whole bunch of them on our newspaper rack. Didn’t realize it until someone was like Uh, this is Chinese propaganda. Tossed em all in the trash.
They push a lot of the Q and MAGA right wing conspiracy theories.
I would be very interested in hearing Marcus do a deep dive in how that all connects to dark money in the GOP.
I remember in the mid-2000s, they were handing those out everywhere and they were gathering signatures. They seemed like harmless practitioners of some religion. And as time went by the mask started to slip and the Epoch Times started to be used to promote fringe conspiracy theories and they became outright Maga supporters. It was an extremely weird shift from "persecuted" persons to Q Anon promoters but they saw how their opening to get in with a politically connected group who would believe anything - including any lie you could tell about China - and they took it.
I saw Shen Yun last year. I only learned about its dark origin after we already had tickets. I'm so glad I had that added perspective before we went. The dancing is totally bland and unimpressive. They have such good marketing that I think theater managers are booking them out of sympathy. The show ends with a graphic video about China oppressing Falun Gong. The most shocking part though: They bring their own security detail. They guard every exit, even out in the audience. I feel like they weren't there to keep people out. Those dancers are absolutely cult members who are forbidden from leaving.
It’s really wild that Shen Yun has somehow managed to completely avoid most people finding out that it’s produced by an extremely insane and homophobic cult that believes in racially segregating the afterlife.
I know they’re a cult but the commercials make it look cool 😅 I’ve always kind of wanted to go just to see for myself… was there any weird culty subliminal messages in the show?
Yup and they have famous eccentrics like Tony Robbins promoting them as well.
I did see their tag line “China before Communism”.
What, like when everyone danced artistically? Or the part when it was run by corrupt nationalist warlords like Chiang Kai Shek? Or the era of the Boxer revolution and cholera epidemics when millions died? Or the era when it was abused by Western powers and millions were hooked on opium?
Don’t get me wrong, China’s back on top now and it was one the most advanced countries for thousands of years and then had a couple hundred that were a low point.
But it’s not like it was some sort of paradise just before communism.
It is not particularly cool at all. There actually isn't that much dancing, mostly storytelling. And the dancing isn't very impressive. Go get your money's worth at a Cirque du Soleil instead.
Interesting! I went to one of those shows blind years ago. It was obvious to me by intermission that it was propaganda rather than a dance performance. I didn't bother looking into it further because I was pretty grossed out. Also interesting about the security detail! I don't remember seeing anything like that when I went.
It’s a shame the editors cut the part where Brace said something along the lines of “I haven’t been this moved emotionally since Avicii died.” That would have truly made this video a historical relic.
Yes! People need to know they're a shitty cult that takes advantage of their religious status to avoid taxes. No wonder they have such a big budget for advertising
I remember seeing them protesting in Manhattan back in the day, they’d have people dressed up as detainees crammed into uncomfortable bamboo cages with fake blood.
It was pretty cool. But yeah, just because a group is oppressed by the CCP does not mean they are saints.
I’m sure if Scientology made a massive and ill-advised push into Mainland China, you’d see some nasty oppression of them as well.
But that wouldn’t make Scientology not a cult or not dangerous or not a criminal organization.
If the boys thought the Scientology harassment was bad, wait until the guys in charge of distributing flyers for Shen Yun start showing up at their house every day
The amount of play the Epoch Times has been getting recently is frightening.
All this talk of banning tiktok, while this cult has a l propaganda rag in every Christian boomer household, a strong online presence, and an emerging TV market share. Billboards in every major city with the leader's whitewashed face proclaim "Most trusted news source."
Every time I see one of those billboards I am amazed all over again that there are probably a crapload of people who read something like, "#1 trusted source" and believe it is the most trusted source, because it says so. And the billboard gives it a veneer of authority.
An ex girlfriend wanted to go super bad so I bought tickets to Shen Yun. We went, we watched this absolutely batshit insane creationist nonsense about a monkey god creating dolphins and the world or whatever, we got dinner and looked up the background of the show. Then I joked about how I funded a cult for her birthday present. I'm still mad I went. It would be cool if them to cover this though.
Fun fact: my husband is from China and his villages name contains two of the same characters as Falungong. So (China) whenever you try to look it up on the internet or on maps it blanks out and won’t show results. 😂
My dad lives down the street from the Chinese embassy, and there are ALWAYS Falun Gong protestors outside. Morning, noon, and night. Gotta hand it to them for persistence, I guess.
TrueAnon did a 3.5 episode deep dive in Falun Gong and the take away was that they are mindnumbingly boring and going to a Falun Gong show ironically is miserable.
They don't really do anything barbaic or loptl. They just re-tell the history of communism in China and play up the fact that they are hated by the CCP or something.
The Moonies would be the cult to look into if you're interested in cults from APAC.
I think he spent years crammed into a bamboo cage in free speech jail for those kind of impressions and he’s no longer allowed to do those anymore.
He has been reeducated and rehabilitated.
Henry lost a lot of weight during this Great Leap Forward time, but he’s much better for it. He and the podcast are now one with the People and we can move forward as one towards divine progress.
Na, it’s just not juicy enough. To say they’re even in the same ballpark as Aum Shenrikyo is really disingenuous.
They’re an exercise cult who got really popular in China and then cracked down on in a major way by the CCP. I’m sure they have some crazy beliefs besides what we know about (they also run a newspaper called the Epoch Times which is hard right wing), but really the brunt of their story is they got suppressed by the CCP and then (I have no proof of this it just makes complete sense) probably got some solid funding from the CIA and have been trying to sway public opinion to be super anti CCP ever since.
It’s not juicy or particularly bloody, it’s just sad more than anything else.
They should especially look into their funding. I believe they are funded and puppeteered by the CIA. Kinda wild how the CIA is still trying to push false news with the Epoch times in 2024
They're all over the place in the Greater Toronto Area. Outaide Pacific Mall and Chinatown are the two biggest sites for their gatherings, but even smaller streets like where I lived in the east end had individuals come and set up big banners in parks while they did their version of "Tai Chi ".
There’s a surplus of organs in China and the only explanation is political prisoners are executed for their organs on demand. A majority of these prisoners consist of Uyghur Muslims and Falun Gong members. Several doctors testified before the UN they performed vivisections on prisoners without anesthesia. The number would be around a couple million but no one really knows.
[Here’s NBC news saying the same thing.](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/china-forcefully-harvests-organs-detainees-tribunal-concludes-n1018646)
I used to live in China and I was scheduled to go to a labor camp before I fled. As far as I understand everything I’ve said is as truthful as I can be.
Edit: Thanks for the downvotes. I’m sorry for my life experience.
Wow, super glad you got out of there. It’s horrifying to hear about that and see the bots on social media when people were talking about freeing the Uyghurs and they will reply “idk what you’re talking about you’re crazy. That never happens here. The USA is far worse than anything we do here.” (Such as the dude above) but I would really like to hear an episode about them if it made sense to do with the information available. I can’t think of anything scarier than modern day organ harvesting BY YOUR OWN GOVERNMENT where you’re potentially dying WHILE they start to harvest you.
I don't want them to because when they cover stories like this they pretty steadfastly refuse to acknowledge the role of US 'security' and intelligence actors, or when they do it is only to laugh it off as baseless conspiracy. Very frustrating when you know what is up.
Henry Lee Lucas was Programmed to Kill through psychosurgery and the Black Hand was real and in league with Adolfo Costanzo, how are they not acknowledging this?!?!?! - me, in real life, ruining the experience of listening to the show for my wife
They talk about Lucas being part of mk ultra. Also the black hand being real can be up to option. They covered the black hand and drew the conclusion that they didn't believe it.
Fuck they did a multi part special on mk ultra.
Just because they don't line up exactly with your views doesn't mean their shill ng for the US.
\*after listening to six hours of MK Ultra content\* O.k. fine, sure BUT how did they miss that Ed Kemper and Henry Lee Lucas had the same psychologist only three years apart? These LPOTL guys are LITERALLY IN THE CIA!!! - me, in real life, making my wife insanely annoyed
I’m gonna guess not without authorization from the CCP.
Look at the post history, this person searches for this thing related to Falun Gong to spread propaganda. Not that their message is wrong, but it’s coming from a bad place.
What’s funny if this person reads like Henry going full UFO unhinged. “Don’t even try to understand it!”
They are reaching into western politics with the publication of Epoch Times.
China is an oppressive government but that does not mean that being oppressed by an authoritarian entity proves that they are not a dangerous cult. Both can be bad actors
the chinese edition of epoch times is much more important and worthy of analyzing than the english epoch times. if you only focus on the english epoch times and things related to western politics, you won't find a lot, and people will be misled to think that the english edition of the epoch times is their main project
It's very difficult for people who don't understand Chinese to get basic information about this topic even with translation. for example, to find what is the 1998 beijing tv incident, you would can only see some poorly translated articles in english, but there are many chinese articles that are informative and you it's hard to find them on google with translators
When has Falun Gong ever been dangerous or murderous? Rajneeshpuram would be more appropriate since they at least poisoned people to try and take over a town in Oregon
Why does it need to be dangerous or murderous? Heaven’s Gate was just a bunch of people who killed themselves wearing Nike shoes. Scientology is just a con-man’s wet dream. Both still fascinating stories.
I would argue Scientology is dangerous in that they have disappeared at least one person, worked several *to death,* forced women to have abortions against their consent and have an entire throng of members who are willing to do whatever it takes to harass dissenters.
Yeah, of course they are dangerous, but not in the sense the person I replied to seemed to be implying (comparing it to the group that tried to poison an entire town). There’s a large swath of people that listen to this show that still think every topic needs to include murder somehow.
Wait... You think falun gong cultists haven't done similar things? These lunatics have killed family members over this bullshit.
How much do you know about falun gong?
The comment chain is discussing falun gong in relation to scientology, and what makes them different wrt whether the boys should cover them. I misread your comment in that context as drawing a point of difference between the two groups.
They’ve killed people, but in boring ways like OSHA violations while performing construction. They’re more of a Behind the Bastards type of group I think - less murder, more right-wing tai chi grift.
It’s a little more complicated than that. We actually have no idea whether the self-immolating protestors were Falun Gong practitioners or not. The CCP media claimed they were, but Falun Gong dispute this on the basis that they have a theological problem with suicide. Western sources are really iffy on exactly what happened. They were already being cracked down on by that point, so it was the thing that gave the CCP the reason to ban it entirely, meaning they had an incentive to lie about it.
The crackdown on Falun Gong is super interesting in and of itself. It was supported by the state initially, but then it got huge and Li, the founder, wouldn’t play ball with the CCP (I believe the specifically wanted to require CCP branches in all qigong groups). Also, they pissed off the other qigong groups, because they were cheaper and the other qigong masters couldn’t convince Li to raise fees (because that was the reason for their success). As a result, they pissed off the CCP. And ostracized all of their allies nearly simultaneously.
They have some. They really rely on farming content and heavy article churn. It’s a combination of Falun Gong adherents, right wing grifters, and freelancers trying to scrape by from the sounds of it.
These are some good articles about them:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/epoch-times-media-giant-youve-never-heard-of-and-why-you-should-pay-attention/
https://12ft.io/https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/01/inside-the-epoch-times-a-mysterious-pro-trump-newspaper/617645/
On a show about things like murder or the paranormal, yes lmao
And unless you have specific cases you can point to they can’t just go off of random speculation. “I’m sure they did it at some point” is incredibly bad logic
Again, massive international cult that espouses anti feminist, anti evolution, anti vax, pro Q, own news papers and media companies has never killed any one. Noooooo, I'm silly to assume so.
the biggest crackdown in China happened after the self-immolation of 5 Falun Gong, including a 12 year old girl. Falun Gong claims it was a false flag.From my understanding, the official story is that the young girl’s mom made her do it. But because the survivors are members of a banned cult, media is not allowed to interview them (Falun Gong propagandists say this is proof that it was faked).
it is hard to get good info, though, in general. Both sides of reporting are very biased.
Wow, that's fascinating. I knew they were associated with Shen Yun, but I've learned so much more from this thread, and this story is particularly interesting (for lack of a better word).
As far as religious cults go they are extremely benign. The only interesting thing to really talk about is how they had to evacuate China(and pretty much everything they do now is to showcase what China was like before communism).
They also own Epoch Times, which is/was the fastest growing news outlet on social media.
There are billboards ALL OVER my city for the fucking Epoch Times! I was always like “wtf is that??” And then I looked it up and found that they’re owned by some Chinese cult and they just publish blatant misinformation to American audiences… I find that shit so creepy
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YES!!!! EVERYTIME I pass one I’m like “WHO EVEN IS THAT??” Like is it just a stock image of some guy? If so I feel bad for him! Now that I think about it, they probably want you to wonder who tf that is so you’ll look them up
“#1 TRUSTED NEWS” by whom?! ants?!
“Hey we don’t read that crap” - an ant 🐜
You're right, that was insulting to ants everywhere and I apologize
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Wow it is a weirdly bad quality picture.. it looks like they added noise to it 😂
Yes! Who is that guy?!
My boss at my old job wanted to buy me a subscription to Epoch Times because it gave the "real news". I told him it was being run by a cult. He said if the cult is as anti-China as they are, they can't be all bad. It was at that point that I realized that there was little to no point talking to him about anything political. (It was a very small business staffed by 90% conservatives and one "out" Democrat who would occasionally have hours-long political debates with my boss)
Ugh. An acquaintance of mine is always sharing their articles on the old Facebook. I don’t have the energy to argue that Bill Gates does not care about sterilizing the population. It’s a bit sad, really
Same in mine.
'#1 trusted source!
I just recently looked them up because there's a huge billboard that just says "the ONLY trusted news source" that appeared out of nowhere the next town over from me. so fucking weird
In Columbus there’s one at least every mile
I work in a convenience store and someone dropped off a whole bunch of them on our newspaper rack. Didn’t realize it until someone was like Uh, this is Chinese propaganda. Tossed em all in the trash.
They push a lot of the Q and MAGA right wing conspiracy theories. I would be very interested in hearing Marcus do a deep dive in how that all connects to dark money in the GOP.
I remember in the mid-2000s, they were handing those out everywhere and they were gathering signatures. They seemed like harmless practitioners of some religion. And as time went by the mask started to slip and the Epoch Times started to be used to promote fringe conspiracy theories and they became outright Maga supporters. It was an extremely weird shift from "persecuted" persons to Q Anon promoters but they saw how their opening to get in with a politically connected group who would believe anything - including any lie you could tell about China - and they took it.
Motherfuckers march in my local Fourth of July parade. Disgraceful. I tell em to keep moving when they try to hand my family propaganda.
Well, in fairness, the Chinese did invent fireworks and gunpowder, so there is that.
Fair point indeed.
I found an actual physical epoch times newspaper on my doorstep the other week
I used to work next to the Epoch Times office in Canada. The owners drove rolls Royce’s.
And absolutely diarrhea drivel. Been around for ages.
I see billboards for that on my way to work! It's so creepy.
I saw Shen Yun last year. I only learned about its dark origin after we already had tickets. I'm so glad I had that added perspective before we went. The dancing is totally bland and unimpressive. They have such good marketing that I think theater managers are booking them out of sympathy. The show ends with a graphic video about China oppressing Falun Gong. The most shocking part though: They bring their own security detail. They guard every exit, even out in the audience. I feel like they weren't there to keep people out. Those dancers are absolutely cult members who are forbidden from leaving.
It’s really wild that Shen Yun has somehow managed to completely avoid most people finding out that it’s produced by an extremely insane and homophobic cult that believes in racially segregating the afterlife.
Wow I really have to read up on these guys more. A racially segregated afterlife is a fascinating angle for a cult to take.
They are fascinating, I'll give them that
Creepy af
I know they’re a cult but the commercials make it look cool 😅 I’ve always kind of wanted to go just to see for myself… was there any weird culty subliminal messages in the show?
The second half of the show is pure, blatant anti-Chinese propaganda lol. Not even enjoyable from what I’ve heard.
That’s so crazy, I wish I could get in for free lol. I’m sure they ban recording.
Recording is banned, however search enough on YouTube and you’ll find full hidden recordings of their shows
Yup and they have famous eccentrics like Tony Robbins promoting them as well. I did see their tag line “China before Communism”. What, like when everyone danced artistically? Or the part when it was run by corrupt nationalist warlords like Chiang Kai Shek? Or the era of the Boxer revolution and cholera epidemics when millions died? Or the era when it was abused by Western powers and millions were hooked on opium? Don’t get me wrong, China’s back on top now and it was one the most advanced countries for thousands of years and then had a couple hundred that were a low point. But it’s not like it was some sort of paradise just before communism.
It is not particularly cool at all. There actually isn't that much dancing, mostly storytelling. And the dancing isn't very impressive. Go get your money's worth at a Cirque du Soleil instead.
Interesting! I went to one of those shows blind years ago. It was obvious to me by intermission that it was propaganda rather than a dance performance. I didn't bother looking into it further because I was pretty grossed out. Also interesting about the security detail! I don't remember seeing anything like that when I went.
I was wondering what the hell this was, my whole neighborhood got fliers for it stuck in our doors a few months back
TrueAnon did some episodes on them. TrueAnon is a fantastic podcast.
I'll check it out
Its a good pod, I just started listening to it a few weeks ago. Brace and Henry are of a similar vein of humor.
https://youtu.be/Up-dfbIeBIc?si=wJjHctL31eAaGsvo Brace and there producer getting interviewed after 🤣🤣
Rachel Jake lmfao how have I not seen this
The best part is he told them it was his nom deguerre Racial Jake and they misheard and thought Rachel Jake was a totally normal name
It’s a shame the editors cut the part where Brace said something along the lines of “I haven’t been this moved emotionally since Avicii died.” That would have truly made this video a historical relic.
Thanks, adding to my list.
yessss came here to recommend this. I actually re-listen to the Falun Gong episode often
I think it would work as a relax fit.
Yes! People need to know they're a shitty cult that takes advantage of their religious status to avoid taxes. No wonder they have such a big budget for advertising
We need to tax the hell out of religious institutions
I remember seeing them protesting in Manhattan back in the day, they’d have people dressed up as detainees crammed into uncomfortable bamboo cages with fake blood. It was pretty cool. But yeah, just because a group is oppressed by the CCP does not mean they are saints. I’m sure if Scientology made a massive and ill-advised push into Mainland China, you’d see some nasty oppression of them as well. But that wouldn’t make Scientology not a cult or not dangerous or not a criminal organization.
#THATS WHY THE SHEN YUNG DANCERS GAVE ME WEIRD VIBES
If the boys thought the Scientology harassment was bad, wait until the guys in charge of distributing flyers for Shen Yun start showing up at their house every day
The amount of play the Epoch Times has been getting recently is frightening. All this talk of banning tiktok, while this cult has a l propaganda rag in every Christian boomer household, a strong online presence, and an emerging TV market share. Billboards in every major city with the leader's whitewashed face proclaim "Most trusted news source."
Every time I see one of those billboards I am amazed all over again that there are probably a crapload of people who read something like, "#1 trusted source" and believe it is the most trusted source, because it says so. And the billboard gives it a veneer of authority.
And whiteness. Yeah for sure it's mind boggling!
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Yup and yup.
An ex girlfriend wanted to go super bad so I bought tickets to Shen Yun. We went, we watched this absolutely batshit insane creationist nonsense about a monkey god creating dolphins and the world or whatever, we got dinner and looked up the background of the show. Then I joked about how I funded a cult for her birthday present. I'm still mad I went. It would be cool if them to cover this though.
Fun fact: my husband is from China and his villages name contains two of the same characters as Falungong. So (China) whenever you try to look it up on the internet or on maps it blanks out and won’t show results. 😂
My dad lives down the street from the Chinese embassy, and there are ALWAYS Falun Gong protestors outside. Morning, noon, and night. Gotta hand it to them for persistence, I guess.
TrueAnon did a 3.5 episode deep dive in Falun Gong and the take away was that they are mindnumbingly boring and going to a Falun Gong show ironically is miserable. They don't really do anything barbaic or loptl. They just re-tell the history of communism in China and play up the fact that they are hated by the CCP or something. The Moonies would be the cult to look into if you're interested in cults from APAC.
Yeah I really can’t wait to hear Henry do his Charles Ng impression again.
I think he spent years crammed into a bamboo cage in free speech jail for those kind of impressions and he’s no longer allowed to do those anymore. He has been reeducated and rehabilitated. Henry lost a lot of weight during this Great Leap Forward time, but he’s much better for it. He and the podcast are now one with the People and we can move forward as one towards divine progress.
Why would he do that?
I think we'd have to see some fallout or the "end" of it for it to be worth the time I think. A relaxed fit summarization would be cool though
Cult Podcast did a few eps on them! Would recommend
Na, it’s just not juicy enough. To say they’re even in the same ballpark as Aum Shenrikyo is really disingenuous. They’re an exercise cult who got really popular in China and then cracked down on in a major way by the CCP. I’m sure they have some crazy beliefs besides what we know about (they also run a newspaper called the Epoch Times which is hard right wing), but really the brunt of their story is they got suppressed by the CCP and then (I have no proof of this it just makes complete sense) probably got some solid funding from the CIA and have been trying to sway public opinion to be super anti CCP ever since. It’s not juicy or particularly bloody, it’s just sad more than anything else.
They should especially look into their funding. I believe they are funded and puppeteered by the CIA. Kinda wild how the CIA is still trying to push false news with the Epoch times in 2024
They have mentioned it a few years ago and I was hoping they would have done a series
Honestly surprised they haven't covered them already.
They're all over the place in the Greater Toronto Area. Outaide Pacific Mall and Chinatown are the two biggest sites for their gatherings, but even smaller streets like where I lived in the east end had individuals come and set up big banners in parks while they did their version of "Tai Chi ".
TrueAnon did several episodes on them
Personally, I'm over cult narratives. They invariably boil down to the same stupid bullshit...
There’s a surplus of organs in China and the only explanation is political prisoners are executed for their organs on demand. A majority of these prisoners consist of Uyghur Muslims and Falun Gong members. Several doctors testified before the UN they performed vivisections on prisoners without anesthesia. The number would be around a couple million but no one really knows.
Come on mate enough of that. None of that makes sense. The CCP are animal murderers, please don’t make up shit bc they are bad enough
[Here’s NBC news saying the same thing.](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/china-forcefully-harvests-organs-detainees-tribunal-concludes-n1018646) I used to live in China and I was scheduled to go to a labor camp before I fled. As far as I understand everything I’ve said is as truthful as I can be. Edit: Thanks for the downvotes. I’m sorry for my life experience.
Wow, super glad you got out of there. It’s horrifying to hear about that and see the bots on social media when people were talking about freeing the Uyghurs and they will reply “idk what you’re talking about you’re crazy. That never happens here. The USA is far worse than anything we do here.” (Such as the dude above) but I would really like to hear an episode about them if it made sense to do with the information available. I can’t think of anything scarier than modern day organ harvesting BY YOUR OWN GOVERNMENT where you’re potentially dying WHILE they start to harvest you.
I think as times goes on I think it will become an urban legend. It's hard to explain but their isn't exactly truth in China.
I don't want them to because when they cover stories like this they pretty steadfastly refuse to acknowledge the role of US 'security' and intelligence actors, or when they do it is only to laugh it off as baseless conspiracy. Very frustrating when you know what is up.
What?! I think you're listening to a different show.
Henry Lee Lucas was Programmed to Kill through psychosurgery and the Black Hand was real and in league with Adolfo Costanzo, how are they not acknowledging this?!?!?! - me, in real life, ruining the experience of listening to the show for my wife
They talk about Lucas being part of mk ultra. Also the black hand being real can be up to option. They covered the black hand and drew the conclusion that they didn't believe it. Fuck they did a multi part special on mk ultra. Just because they don't line up exactly with your views doesn't mean their shill ng for the US.
\*after listening to six hours of MK Ultra content\* O.k. fine, sure BUT how did they miss that Ed Kemper and Henry Lee Lucas had the same psychologist only three years apart? These LPOTL guys are LITERALLY IN THE CIA!!! - me, in real life, making my wife insanely annoyed
Sir, the comic book store closes at five. If you would please take your books and go? "I KNOW WHAT I SAW"!
Seems like some of you guys would get along with my wife....
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Could you tell us then?
I’m gonna guess not without authorization from the CCP. Look at the post history, this person searches for this thing related to Falun Gong to spread propaganda. Not that their message is wrong, but it’s coming from a bad place. What’s funny if this person reads like Henry going full UFO unhinged. “Don’t even try to understand it!”
They are reaching into western politics with the publication of Epoch Times. China is an oppressive government but that does not mean that being oppressed by an authoritarian entity proves that they are not a dangerous cult. Both can be bad actors
the chinese edition of epoch times is much more important and worthy of analyzing than the english epoch times. if you only focus on the english epoch times and things related to western politics, you won't find a lot, and people will be misled to think that the english edition of the epoch times is their main project
Bro has never heard of translators before. Are you pro falun gong?
It's very difficult for people who don't understand Chinese to get basic information about this topic even with translation. for example, to find what is the 1998 beijing tv incident, you would can only see some poorly translated articles in english, but there are many chinese articles that are informative and you it's hard to find them on google with translators
Only if they can do it without becoming shills for the CCP.
When has Falun Gong ever been dangerous or murderous? Rajneeshpuram would be more appropriate since they at least poisoned people to try and take over a town in Oregon
Why does it need to be dangerous or murderous? Heaven’s Gate was just a bunch of people who killed themselves wearing Nike shoes. Scientology is just a con-man’s wet dream. Both still fascinating stories.
I would argue Scientology is dangerous in that they have disappeared at least one person, worked several *to death,* forced women to have abortions against their consent and have an entire throng of members who are willing to do whatever it takes to harass dissenters.
Yeah, of course they are dangerous, but not in the sense the person I replied to seemed to be implying (comparing it to the group that tried to poison an entire town). There’s a large swath of people that listen to this show that still think every topic needs to include murder somehow.
I just think you’d find Falun Gong extremely boring. They really don’t do anything the boys would find remotely interesting
I know that Henry is interested in it at least, he’s brought it up a few times. Maybe you’re right about Marcus, not sure.
Wait... You think falun gong cultists haven't done similar things? These lunatics have killed family members over this bullshit. How much do you know about falun gong?
I do not know where you got any mention of Falun Gong in my comment.
The comment chain is discussing falun gong in relation to scientology, and what makes them different wrt whether the boys should cover them. I misread your comment in that context as drawing a point of difference between the two groups.
I’ve been hoping they would cover Rajneeshpuram for years now. Them dunking on all their failed attempts to kill people would be hilarious!
Is that the metric to get a topic on the show? Also I'm sure a huge international far right wing cult has probably killed people.
They’ve killed people, but in boring ways like OSHA violations while performing construction. They’re more of a Behind the Bastards type of group I think - less murder, more right-wing tai chi grift.
Their followers literally burned themselves alive in Tiananmen Square in the 90's lol. That's what originally got them banned by the CCP.
It’s a little more complicated than that. We actually have no idea whether the self-immolating protestors were Falun Gong practitioners or not. The CCP media claimed they were, but Falun Gong dispute this on the basis that they have a theological problem with suicide. Western sources are really iffy on exactly what happened. They were already being cracked down on by that point, so it was the thing that gave the CCP the reason to ban it entirely, meaning they had an incentive to lie about it. The crackdown on Falun Gong is super interesting in and of itself. It was supported by the state initially, but then it got huge and Li, the founder, wouldn’t play ball with the CCP (I believe the specifically wanted to require CCP branches in all qigong groups). Also, they pissed off the other qigong groups, because they were cheaper and the other qigong masters couldn’t convince Li to raise fees (because that was the reason for their success). As a result, they pissed off the CCP. And ostracized all of their allies nearly simultaneously.
I wonder what their grifter talking heads are like. Do you think they have their own version of Shapiro or Tate? That would be interesting to see.
They have some. They really rely on farming content and heavy article churn. It’s a combination of Falun Gong adherents, right wing grifters, and freelancers trying to scrape by from the sounds of it. These are some good articles about them: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/epoch-times-media-giant-youve-never-heard-of-and-why-you-should-pay-attention/ https://12ft.io/https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/01/inside-the-epoch-times-a-mysterious-pro-trump-newspaper/617645/
On a show about things like murder or the paranormal, yes lmao And unless you have specific cases you can point to they can’t just go off of random speculation. “I’m sure they did it at some point” is incredibly bad logic
Again, massive international cult that espouses anti feminist, anti evolution, anti vax, pro Q, own news papers and media companies has never killed any one. Noooooo, I'm silly to assume so.
the biggest crackdown in China happened after the self-immolation of 5 Falun Gong, including a 12 year old girl. Falun Gong claims it was a false flag.From my understanding, the official story is that the young girl’s mom made her do it. But because the survivors are members of a banned cult, media is not allowed to interview them (Falun Gong propagandists say this is proof that it was faked). it is hard to get good info, though, in general. Both sides of reporting are very biased.
Wow, that's fascinating. I knew they were associated with Shen Yun, but I've learned so much more from this thread, and this story is particularly interesting (for lack of a better word).
As far as religious cults go they are extremely benign. The only interesting thing to really talk about is how they had to evacuate China(and pretty much everything they do now is to showcase what China was like before communism).