British people and Swedes have one thing in common. The ability to get packad, aprak, dyngfull, sloshed, pissed, smashed, or as you might call it, hammered.
There I was, visiting my English mates that I met the year before in Sydney. Cambridge was quaint and lovely, and the pubs were packed. We were well on our way into inebriation-land when we entered our club for the night. I merged with the other sweaty bodies on the dance floor…
Promiscuous girl, wherever you are
I'm all alone, and it's you that I want
That’s when I see him on the other side of the floor. We’re taller than most people there, and our eyes meet. The chemistry is instant, electric. I feel an inescapable pull toward him.
Promiscuous boy, you already know
That I'm all yours, what you waiting for?
I don’t remember how the banter flowed, but it was easy and flirtatious. He’s smart. I can tell instantly, and his green eyes are mesmerizing.
Promiscuous girl, you're teasin' me
You know what I want, and I got what you need
Promiscuous boy, let's get to the point
'Cause we're on a roll, you ready?
Before I know it, we’re making out hard. It’s divine to have to tilt my face up to get to his full lips. He’s a great kisser. Thank Goddess.
We exchange numbers. I later find out he’s told his best mate that he’s going to marry me. We start taking, and a month later, I anxiously await his arrival with budget airline Ryan Air which happens to fly from London to my smallish hometown.
He’s as cute as I remember. Even his big nose looks good on him. But, his fashion sense is not great – that can be fixed! (Fast forward ten years, and he’s wearing designer suits in London, but I take full credit for setting him on the fashion path!) I’m nervous as hell but manage to get him home, and we stay up all night talking, laughing, and making out.
When he leaves a few days later, we’re officially an item and thus began a passionate (and frustrating) long-distance relationship.
The end is nigh…
I get accepted as a volunteer at the Option Institute in Western Massachusetts. Before I go, he visits, and we sneak into a jewelry shop in Uppsala, where I go to University. We get a pair of plain silver bands as a promise of more to come. I think I’m going to marry him too.
But things quickly go downhill once I arrive in the States. The calls and emails get more infrequent until they stop altogether. I find out on a crackling landline that he’s moved to Colombia.
I try to forget him as best I can, but it’s hard. For years we stay in touch, and eventually, I end up seeing him while I’m back in London. When is see him again, he is wearing the silver ring…Some spark is still there, but there’s too much bad blood in between us to try to recreate a relationship.
We still stay in touch because beneath the trauma bond we share, there’s genuine care and love.
Anyone who’s met him knows this bloke can rant like nobody’s business. His social media selfie videos while walking and reflecting on the world, childhood trauma, and how to become a better human are loved by the many people he’s befriended on his travels. Intelligent, funny, and charming – troubled, confused, and somewhat self-absorbed. Who could escape such charm and the intoxicating blend of trauma and giftedness?
Pretty quickly into the pandemic, his videos go from talking about healing childhood trauma to covid denialism content, complete with claims of a Global takeover by democrat pedophiles. We speak on the phone and share our genuine concerns about what is happening in the world, and he urges me to get out of traditional finance and into crypto and gold. We end the call wishing each other well and going our separate ways.
A sample post (of hundreds) from his Facebook feed…
His “You’re all Sheeple and Lemmings!” videos keep coming, and he moves to Tanzania to escape the overbearing governmental actions in the UK. I start listening to the Conspirituality podcast and learn about how to talk to “red-pilled” people and how to help them leave a cult or conspirituality movements (which have a lot in common). I feel genuine concern for his mental health and want him to know that I am there if he ever wanted to come out of the Qanon-tainted world.
Our last interaction on Messenger ends with the following… (me in blue)
I feared what would become of the love of my young adulthood. Luckily, this tale ends (hopefully) happily. As the pandemic started “easing up” in early 2022, new content started showing up on social media…a smiling Brit with exciting new Real Estate opportunities far away from his oppressive native country. Luxury villas. Beachfront properties. A new life with sunshine, love, and smiling faces.
But, not everyone’s story end this way.
As the former US president T-Rump continues to openly spew old Qanon lies on “Truth Social” and try to rally extremists to violence, thousands of families are suffering from members being sucked into various conspiratorial movements. And the conspirituality universe doesn’t seem to be slowing down. But instead, as one conspiracy theory becomes disproven or irrelevant, the conspiracies mutate and take new forms like the coronavirus they so vehemently reject or minimize.
So while we yearn to “go back to normal,” the current political (and actual) climate is asking us to stand up for decency, democracy, facts, the planet, and what’s good, true, and centered in Love.
If someone you love is struggling with conspirituality, or if you want to learn more, I’ve added some resources for you below.
What can we do to keep building bridges with one another instead of getting sucked into extremist views that separate us? Let me know in the comments.
Much love,
Karna 💜
P.S. “Promiscous” that I reference at the beginning of this article was a hit by Nelly Furtado in 2006 when I went to England for the first time.
Resources:
👉 Article on Psychology Today
The Definitive Guide to Helping People Trapped in a Cult by Stephen Hassan, Ph.D.
👉 Report
The BITE Model of Authoritarian Control: Undue Influence, Thought Reform, Brainwashing, Mind Control, Trafficking and the Law by Steven Hassan, Ph.D. Hassan is a mental health professional, cult, and undue influence expert who has been working in the field of relationship, group, and political cults for over 40 years.
👉 Podcast
Conspirituality Podcast is a weekly study of converging right-wing conspiracy theories and faux-progressive wellness utopianism. Conspirituality Podcast attempts to bring understanding to this landscape. A journalist, a cult researcher, and a philosophical skeptic discuss the stories, cognitive dissonances, and cultic dynamics tearing through the yoga, wellness, and new spirituality worlds. Mainstream outlets have noticed the problem. We crowd-source, research, analyze, and dream answers to it.
👉 Washington Post
(You need to subscribe for free to read)
👉 Reddit Community
👉 NPR Excerpt and Transcript
👉 Polaris - Fight Against Human Trafficking
Articles that reference T-Rump’s latest antics:
“Online threats are escalating against public servants. Bruce E. Reinhart, the federal magistrate judge who approved the warrant to search Mar-a-Lago, has been targeted with messages threatening him and his family.
How to respond to this lawlessness? With bold and unwavering law enforcement.
If Trump has broken the law – by attempting a coup, by instigating an assault on the U.S. Capitol, by making off with troves of top-secret documents — he must be prosecuted, and if found guilty he must be imprisoned.
Yes, such prosecutions might increase tensions and divisions in the short term. They might provoke additional violence.
But a failure to uphold the laws of the United States would be far more damaging in the longer term. It would undermine our system of government and the credibility of that system — more directly and irreparably than Trump has done.
Not holding a former president accountable for gross acts of criminality will invite ever more criminality from future presidents and lawmakers.
It is also important for all those in public life who believe in democracy to call out what the Republican Party is doing and what it has become: not just its embrace of Trump’s Big Lie but its moves toward voter suppression, takeovers of the machinery of elections, ending of reproductive rights, book bans, restrictions on what can be taught in classrooms, racism, and assaults on LGBTQ people.”
“Former President Donald Trump spent Tuesday morning feverishly sharing content from supporters on his social media platform Truth Social, posting or re-posting more than 60 times since early Tuesday morning, including content from QAnon accounts and the far-right message board 4chan.”
“Former President Donald Trump spent Tuesday morning posting inflammatory messages on social media, including many explicitly promoting the QAnon conspiracy theory. While Trump has in the past promoted QAnon-inspired accounts and theories, the posts on his Truth Social account were his most explicit, unobscured, QAnon-promoting and QAnon-baiting posts to date.
In one, he reposted the QAnon slogan — “Where We Go One We Go All.” In another, he re-posted a 2017 message from “Q” that’s critical of the intelligence community. The QAnon conspiracy theory was built around Q, an anonymous account that posts periodically on 8kun, often with vague or symbolic language that is then interpreted by followers. The account claims to document a secret battle being waged by Trump against the Democratic Party, which followers of the theory contend is run by satanic, child-eating cannibals who run a pedophile ring filled with celebrities and political elites who have been covertly running the United States government for decades. None of the posts’ concrete predictions have come to fruition.
Users of QAnon forums rejoiced at Trump’s apparent endorsement of the conspiracy theory and its mythology. The top response on the most visited QAnon forum to one of Trump’s posts about the conspiracy theory read simply, “Wipe them out sir.” Others pleaded with Trump to “nuke them from orbit” and to “sir, please finish them off,” referring to QAnon enemies such as Hillary Clinton and President Joe Biden.”
Wake up sheeple
WOW so well put Karna. I appreciate your writings and insightfulness! I am hopeful we can get back to being a country united. Not Divided. THAT would make America Great again. Not the vapid hate slinging from either side. Part of this issue may truly be we only have 2 sides or options. In the last coupe of decades I more than once have heard myself saying "well it is the lesser of two evils" as I place my vote... And I have begun to wonder How can a Human still be solid in heart and soul and get to the place in life they have access to hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars to have a chance to win an election? Our system needs a major do over.