#127: The False Promise of Psychedelic Utopia (ft. Neşe Devenot & Brian Pace)

Our guests discuss their fascinating paper 'Right-Wing Psychedelia' and why psychedelic substances have been mistakenly considered a substance that fosters socially progressive politics. Instead Brian & Neşe show that these substances are 'non-specific amplifiers of consciousness' and make the case that psychedelics can just as equally be used to rarefy hierarchy and authoritarian ideologies. We discuss how different substances carry different stigmas, explore Jordan Peterson's idea of competence hierarchies, how the capital backed marketing of psychedelics is - yet again - an individual solution to systemic problems and how, at worst, these substances are just an 'antibiotic to a distressed animal to keep it going'. “The world we're building is a bad place for our brain, so mental health issues will go up. But I do think we have some real shots in our portfolio to end the mental health crisis” - atai Life Sciences' Christian Angermayer References: Right-Wing Psychedelia: Case Studies in Cultural Plastici