It feels a little off to be flogging the new WS episode on Ishmael Reed's "Mumbo Jumbo" while the embers of an attempted coup attempt are still glowing, but there is an eerie coincidence to this episode dropping on the same day that the Confederate flag was raised 1/

at the Capitol. This coup is a work of hyperstition -- a mass of people acting on chosen beliefs and, so doing, making them come into being. Those beliefs grow out of various conspiracy theories we've all heard so much about lately. 2/

In our new episode, we talk about the difference between conspiracy fictions like "Mumbo Jumbo" (or "Naked Lunch," or "Illuminatus!") and conspiracy theories. A conspiracy theory is a symbol taken literally. 3/

Skilled magicians keep the material and imaginal planes distinct in their minds. Magical thinking, properly understood, is the very tool needed to distinguish symbols from statements of fact, synchronicities from causal agents. 4/

Trump, Qanon &c have rightly been understood as magical thinkers. They have been effective at it: in my recent conversation with Michael Garfield I compared their success to the success of invasive species. https://shows.acast.com/futurefossils/episodes/157 5/