We’re back with Mark Vicente for Part 2 of this joint A Little Bit Culty and WTF is on my Mind?! episode. This one gets into the real meat of what happened at our book launch event gone sideways—and what it means beyond just us.
We play the last 12 minutes of Sarah’s recording from the event, then the bookstore owner's public social media post about the incident. We contrast it with what actually happened, including eyewitness accounts from people in the front row who tried to set the record straight, only to have their comments deleted. We talk about what it feels like to be publicly misrepresented with no ability to correct the record, how cancel culture weaponizes the cloak of altruism, and why the best fight is the one you don't fight. We also get into identity politics, why fusing your sense of self to a belief system makes civil discourse impossible, and why Mark thinks we're all being triangulated against each other on a macro scale.
This episode is a case study in culty thinking without a cult—and a reminder that dehumanizing the person in front of you while claiming to fight for humanity is not advocacy; it's the problem. If the comments on this one devolve into a debate about geopolitics rather than the patterns at play, you've already missed the point.
Trigger warning: This episode contains frank discussion of public shaming, online harassment, and geopolitical conflict.
Also…let it be known that:
The views and opinions expressed on A Little Bit Culty do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the podcast. Any content provided by our guests, bloggers, sponsors or authors are of their opinion and are not intended to malign any religion, group, club, organization, business, individual, anyone or anything. Nobody’s mad at you, just don’t be a culty fuckwad.
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CREDITS:
Executive Producers: Sarah Edmondson & Anthony Ames
Production Partner: Citizens of Sound
Co-Creator: Jess Tardy
Audio production: Will Retherford
Production Coordinator: Lesli Dinsmore
Writer and administrator: Sandra Nomoto
Social media team: Eric Skwarzynski and Brooke Keane
Theme Song: “Cultivated” by Jon Bryant co-written with Nygel Asselin
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