How Wokes Stole Pod People from Conformist Religions: Mormon Case Study

Join us as we explore the 'pod person' reaction, a curious mix of unease and uncanny valley effects, and its intriguing link to specific behavioral patterns and religious communities, prominently Mormonism. Delve into the reasons behind individuals shifting towards extreme wokeism, and the ripple effects on fertility collapse, US culture wars, and political alliances. Additionally, discover the transformation of Mormon influencers redefining traditional values on social media, and the significant impact of Mormon culture on the atheist and skeptic communities online. Concluding with a heartwarming glimpse into the creator's family life, this episode is a fascinating blend of cultural analysis and personal storytelling.

Microphone (3- ATR2100x-USB Microphone) & EMEET SmartCam Nova 4K-5: [00:00:00] We are going to be exploring the pod person reaction. This is the emotional response of unease combined with an uncanny valley, feeling that some people experience when they encounter individuals who exhibit a specific set of behavioral patterns. This reaction has been used to build an entire sub genre of horror.

Speaker 26: I don't remember him being that friendly. He's obviously one of them. How

Microphone (3- ATR2100x-USB Microphone) & EMEET SmartCam Nova 4K-5: We are going to explore why people who elicit this reaction have historically been drawn to specific religious communities with a focus on Mormonism

Speaker 20: Hello, ma'am. My goodness, you have such an attractive little garden here.

Speaker 7: It is so much better. There's no fear or pain. It's beautiful We want you.

Microphone (3- ATR2100x-USB Microphone) & EMEET SmartCam Nova 4K-5: And why most of the individuals within those religious communities who elicited this reaction have left over the past decade or so and become extremely woke

Um, uh,

Speaker 47: [00:01:00] Screams Hello, Simone. I am so excited to be here with you today. I am genuinely so excited for this episode because I have had a realization that has changed my life. So many things about how I see fertility collapse, about how I see the U.

Malcolm Collins: S. culture wars, about how I see shifting political alliances in this country, and about how I see cultures can protect themselves from fertility collapse. And it came from a very unexpected place, and it is a topic we have been building up to for these past two days on this lecture. And the unexpected place is pod people.

Simone Collins: What as in that, that trope of sci-fi, scary creatures that make you conform?

Malcolm Collins: Yes. We will get into the trope more in just a second. But what actually had me realize it was this moment where I was talking with one of our Mormon [00:02:00] fans and he was asking a question about a part of history that Mormons, some Mormons are aware of.

But most Americans wouldn't be aware of because generally, if it didn't take place on the coast or within black or Native American culture, nobody recorded it happening. And he's like, why did the backwoods people, my cultural ancestors, usually end up killing Mormons whenever they tried to migrate to their territory?

It's a good question because

Simone Collins: Mormons didn't have a fun time.

Malcolm Collins: And, to me, it just seems so blindingly obvious. Just so outlandishly and loudly obvious he came back and he's like, what do you mean the, the pod person instinct?

And I was like, you know, that thing that makes you think like certain groups look culty when they approach you? And I realized he And maybe many other Mormons don't have the pod person instinct. And of course they [00:03:00] wouldn't like, why did I assume , they would like, you wouldn't give off that vibe.

If you were aware that this was a vibe that you could give off.

Simone Collins: I don't, I don't even know if I'm aware of it. Maybe this is like gay dar where some people have it and others don't. Do you, when do you get this feeling when you go to Japan? They have a very conformist culture,

Malcolm Collins: but it's too different from mine.

Simone Collins: Okay. So it has to be close to your own culture, but it has to be

Malcolm Collins: uniform in a way. . So I'll give you examples of people who trigger pod person instinct in me. Okay. Okay. Great examples would be. Mitt Romney, big pod person energy, most Scientologists I've interacted with as big pod person energy.

One who's not in any of these groups who gets big pod person energy is Chris Williamson. Very big pod person energy.

Catholic preachers is another group that triggers this instinct.

Not all Catholic preachers, but some Catholic preachers, like the good boy Catholic preachers. They trigger it really [00:04:00] hard. And I should know that this instinct isn't unique to me. There's like a whole genre of horror around this instinct.

Simone Collins: There totally is, and it's even I will

Malcolm Collins: post on screen here a scare tactics episode that I think does a very good job eliciting it. So before you see this, for people who aren't familiar with the premise of scare tactics, they take like a real person and then they built a sci fi or horror set around that person.

them out. And they ar to elicit this person's p

Speaker 3: Hi, how are you? Alright.

Speaker 4: . Hello, we're the official welcoming committee.

Speaker 3: We brought you a little bit of pie.

Cheer. I heard there's warm pie .

Speaker 6: Yeah.

Speaker 3: Oh

Speaker 6: my goodness. Good to see you. Hi. It's all good.

Speaker 4: Can we run back there and take a

Speaker 3: quick tour? Sure go right ahead. And remember, the individual must suffer for what?

Speaker 5: Community. I knew that

Speaker 6: quote.

Speaker 5: Sacrifice to the individual is good for the community. It's like a I'll tell you later.

Speaker 6: We like to say that once you've tried our [00:05:00] pie, , life becomes a piece of cake. Really?

Let's

Speaker 3: go. So what happened? Good news, someone enjoyed some pie.

That is delightful, I'm very happy.

Speaker: You have to try the pie. Oh, please, try the pie. You know, I just had

Speaker 3: a lot, um

Speaker 5: I really think you should have more pie. Have more pie. Try some

Speaker: pie.

Speaker 2: Try the pie. Try the pie.

Speaker 4: Try the pie. Try the pie.

Speaker 2: You can be on Scare Tactics. Oh my God! Holy s Oh my God!

Malcolm Collins: But you know, if you're t genre around it, it's the more perfect than human. of the body snatchers, st all of these would be very pod person shows the faculty is also a pretty good example of one of these.

Simone Collins: Well, and isn't it even parodied and Rick and Morty with unity?

Malcolm Collins: Yes, it's period with purity with unity and Rick and [00:06:00] Morty. Good example here. And the sort of thing that typically delineates a pod person. entity in horror is once you join it, most of your conflicts go away, you become much more calm, you become much more polite, you become much better to interact with but you also become muc