podcast14 in the collection
Defense Against the Dark Arts
A Field Course for the Zero-Trust Reality — narrated by Space Pirate Zero
Thirteen modules on how manipulation actually works, from someone who has run the plays.
A field manual for staying un-owned, read aloud. The security book that assumes the call is already coming from inside the house.
ITEMS 14RUNTIME 7HFEED LIVECHANNEL CYAN
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What this is
Cold reading, gaslighting and DARVO, the liar's dividend, radicalisation funnels. Not a lecture on being careful online — a field course in the specific techniques, so you can name one while it's happening to you.
A training class for the general public in the dark arts of influence. Thirteen modules teach how manipulation actually works — cold reading, gaslighting and DARVO, the liar's dividend, radicalization funnels, astroturf, deepfakes — how to see each move coming, how to defuse it, and how to catch yourself running it. Your brain is easier to hack than a large language model; the only defense is 'never trust, always verify,' moved from the network to your own attention. Transmitted to you by Space Pirate Zero from Spaceship Alpha 9. Contains strong language.
14 episodes14 episodes
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Every one of them
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Defense Against the Dark Arts — trailer
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Prologue — Meatware Is Hackable
A training class for the general public in the dark arts of influence. Thirteen modules teach how manipulation actually works — cold reading, gaslighting and DARVO, the liar's dividend, radicalization funnels, astroturf, deepfakes — how to see each move coming, how to defuse it,
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Module 1 — Sixty-Four Sources, One Afternoon
Funny thing about safety — it's the exact feeling a good con hands you for free. This is your field course in the dark arts of influence, broadcast from Alpha 9, where I teach you to guard the softest machine you own: the one between your ears. We open on a message. Not a threat,
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Module 2 — The Machine Majority
Ever counted the crowd before you joined it? Course you haven't — nobody does. This is your field course in the dark arts, and last time out we watched a woman named Priya wire away fourteen million on the strength of two faces that were never in the room, certainty failing loud
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Module 3 — The Spinozan Brain
...and that's two cons run and one crowd turned to acid, and you still trust that quick little voice in your skull, don't you? This is your field course in the dark arts, friend, run from a beat-up radio on Alpha 9. So far we've watched a wire go out on a face that was never ther
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Module 4 — The Feeling of Being Known
Static crackles, then my voice finds you through the noise from Alpha 9. This is the field course for a world where nobody's who they claim — your meatware's the softest target on the network, and I'm here to teach you the moves before they land. Last we transmitted: a fabricated
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Module 5 — The Con at Home
Somebody, somewhere, is being loved and worked at the same time. That's not a threat. That's a Tuesday. This here's your field course in the dark arts — how the con lands and how you catch it, running on your own soft meatware. We've walked the fake faces, the mob at the café, th
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Module 6 — The Pipeline
Still turned face-down, that phone. That's where we left the frame bent — evidence flipped, the guilty man walking, and you learning to keep your eyes on what's true. This whole class? Me teaching you to catch the hands before they reach your pockets. Now we go somewhere gentler
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Module 7 — Biderman's Chart
A single sheet of paper. Eight words on it, and they explain a cult, a bad marriage, and the app you opened on the toilet this morning — all the same. That's where this field course in the dark arts is taking you tonight, friend. So far you've watched the small cons up close — th
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Module 8 — Manufactured Consensus
They say a lie travels halfway round the world while the truth's still lacing its boots. Cute. This is your field course in the dark arts of influence, friend, and I'm the one with the black eye teaching it. You've watched a café buried under a boycott, a town that wasn't a town
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Module 9 — The Liar's Dividend
Ever notice how "that's fake" ends every argument now? This is the field course in the dark arts of influence, and I'm the one running the dojo with a black eye of my own. You've watched a wire go out on a faked face, a good man buried by ghost accounts, one desk running both sid
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Module 10 — What Didn't Happen
...and that's the ugly little secret of this dojo, friend — I've taught you nine ways to smell a rat, and now I owe you the tenth. This is your field course in the dark arts, meatware and all. So far we've watched the crowds turn fake, the tapes turn "fake," the liars turn the gu
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Module 11 — Proving the Real
That crackle you hear? That's me, patching through from Alpha 9, teaching you the dark arts so nobody works them on you. So far we've watched liars flip guilt onto the honest, crowds swarm a good man, whole tapes waved off as fakes while the truth got shrugged into "both sides."
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Module 12 — The Boomerang
Come close, friend. Somebody says a thing on a screen, and it wrecks a life — and the folks who built the screen just shrug and say, we only carried it. That's the tender lie we've lived under for twenty-five years. This is your field course in the dark arts, and you've watched t
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Module 13 — Cognitive Zero Trust
Last we left Priya, she'd wired away fourteen million on a stranger's face and a whispered nickname. This here's the field course in the dark arts — how the con lands, how you see it coming. Now spin the clock forward. One year on, same woman, and I'm about to hand back everythin
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