#167 - Ideological Religion vs. Intellectual Autonomy

In this episode, Todd continues dismantling the transformation of modern political movements into ideological religions—complete with dogma, heresy, excommunication, and a mob-ready priesthood of online enforcers. Drawing on figures like H.L. Mencken, Joan Didion, Noam Chomsky, and Ralph Waldo Emerson, he explores how belief systems—left and right—have become substitute faiths, powered by dopamine, hashtags, and performative outrage.

Todd weaves in cognitive science (via Nicholas Carr and neuroplasticity), propaganda theory (via Jacques Ellul and Edward Bernays), and personal experience to reveal how the digital age has eroded attention spans, critical thought, and individual conscience. Social media becomes the new pulpit. Echo chambers replace dialogue. Heresy now means thinking for yourself.

At the core is a warning: intellectual autonomy now requires personal and moral courage. The courage to be disliked. To reject tribalism. To say, “That’s bullshit”—especially when it comes from your own side. From Mencken's skewering of revivalist mobs to the modern cancellation of NPR apostate Uli Berliner, Todd paints a bleak but brutally honest picture of conformity culture, urging listeners to reclaim their minds—even if it means exile.

This is not a feel-good sermon. It's a call to arms for the heretical unicorn.

 

*Recorded in Southwest Michigan and blasting worldwide on WBCQ 7490 starting next week! Details inside.

 

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