Ali Alexander, one of the organizers of the Stop the Steal movement that culminated in the January 6th Capitol insurrection, is currently going around the country, telling MAGA followers that not only does he have the power of time travel but that they, too, can harness that power.
Jesse Dollemore of The Dollemore Daily brought the story forward just last Friday, where it was perhaps swamped by the plethora of other pressing news. Let’s now take a closer look, shall we?
The clip is not cued up, but if you wish to jump, Alexander’s remarks start at 5:47
Ali Alexander: Even if Kari [Lake] was going to lose, I would will it into existence. And I know that sounds kooky. And I know that sounds crazy. But… just don’t catch me on a wild day. Pete Davidson one time got on my bad side—and almost killed himself. So.
You’re not going to believe me. It doesn’t matter. The point is, is that no one needs to believe you the first time. The point is, you just need to tell them a first time. Do you understand this? This is going to sound kooky for y’all and cozy [?], but you guys don’t understand the esoteric.
What if I told you that all of us are capable of traveling—well, not all of us, because you’re not smart enough—but what if I told you that there are a lot of people capable of time traveling, they just don’t know it‽ What if I told you that time traveling is easier than you think. It requires a lot of discipline and no machines.
What if I told you that the reason why the New World Order wants you to focus on fiction stories about machines is they don’t want you to know that everyone has access to time travel.
Then what if I told you the way that those of us fight… is we are each pulling from time itself.
—Yes, of course the Jews time travel. That’s what makes the apostasy so great.
What if I told you, what if I told you that… I could prove that I’ve time traveled before.
Lots to unpack here. First, the appeal to mystery. This is what keeps QAnoners coming back. Cosmic catnip to these conspiratorial types. You have a grand secret of immense power being kept from the common folk because untouchable elites want to keep that information from them. (So... they feed them fiction stories? The illogic itself is a lure.)
But even before that, we have Alexander inoculating his audience by declaring first that what he was about to say was “crazy” and “kooky” (that is, beyond normal discourse) and also that they wouldn’t believe him. What does that do? It allows the audience member to listen ostensibly with no strings attached. It’s free imagination reign: pure fantasy time. This is a form of permission, to indulge in these fantastic claims.
⇒ More about inoculation: PROPAGANDA WATCH: DISSECTION: Joe Rogan and his take on Patriot Front
Then he makes the promise. It’s not presented like a promise, but the structure of the proffered fantasy is what makes it so. It’s extended, like an offer of cotton candy. Not only does everyone have access to this treasure of a power, but all it takes is “discipline”—you won’t even need machines.
Pure. Natural. These are the promises. Never mind the childlike desire to want to have such a transcendent power as time travel, or invisibility, telekinesis, etc. That’s what Alexander’s pitch is building on. These are unconscious desires that, chances are, audience members won’t even notice, let alone recognize.
I came across another video on YouTube not long after, one that really captures some parallels. For context, the speaker is Derek Prince, a self-identified Pentacostal Christian who, judging from the dated film quality, seems to be speaking in the ‘80s. He too uses a personal story in order to win the crowd over to his viewpoint on the world. Uploaded two years ago, this video has more than a million views.
Now I want to give you a little picture of what witchcraft is like. This is something that God has given me, what I think I can call a post-graduate course in. I didn’t apply for it. I just got enrolled. Ruth and I got enrolled together. As a matter of fact, I’ll tell you briefly how it happened. We were in a conference in the center of the United States in 1979, just about a year after we married, less than a year, and it was a family conference. And the theme, essentially, was dealing with family relationships and so on. But in the middle, a young man stood up. I don’t think I’ve ever met him, and I don’t know who he was, but he gave a tremendously powerful prophecy, which was fortunately recorded on tape, so that I’ve seen the written version.
Here we see the personal story, fleshed out here and there but really, when examined, rather skeletal; and we have the promise: a tremendously powerful prophecy—that is, private knowledge. Prince states that a tape exists to back up his claims, but of course he’s the speaker at the podium with no audio/visual equipment to accompany him. The audience must take him on faith.
—Which, of course, they will do, because he is speaking before them. They will suspend disbelief to give him the space to make his claims.
And in this prophecy, God said that all He had been doing against witchcraft up to that time was merely preliminary skirmishes. But from that point onwards, 1979, He was declarinig total war on witchcraft. And He said, “The reason is this, because witchcraft has millions of men bound whom I need in My end-time army.”
Note the extension of battle imagery in his semantics: skirmishes, total war, army.
And then He also told us something else which we really didn’t understand at the time. He said, “If you will join Me in this war”—and we understood that He was calling us to join Him, and we did—He said, “You will encounter people who are under curses that have been passed down through families from generation to generation. But you do not need to be afraid—you will be able to release them.” Now at that time, that was just a statement to Ruth and me. But in the subsequent period of nearly ten years, we have encountered thousands of people under curses passed down through families, and God has given us, by His grace, the ability to release them.
(My emphasis.)
So, if you’re an audience member, you have few choices here. You can choose to continue to suspend your disbelief—which means to believe him—or you can close your ears, either figuratively or literally (plug them with fingers; or even take to feet and walk out of the venue).
Most folks, raised to be polite (as I’m sure these church-going audience members are) will stay to hear the man out. Ultimately, what’s impressed upon them is the power of the testimonial. This is one of the oldest forms of persuasion. (Of course, there’s also the appeal to ultimate authority.)
This is the same tactic that Ali Alexander uses in his broadcast. He’s using a personal story as a lure, a promise as a way to tap into hidden desires, and inoculation against fantastic claims by stating up front that his audience members can just hear him out without any initial investment.
But he’s obviously selling something. That’s the main thing that comes across. Why does he tell us about how the only thing needed is fortitude? We don’t even need to buy a machine! As Faith No More sang, with organ highlights reminiscent of a carnival,
Does life seem worthwhile to you?
Here's how to order!
… So what are we going to buy? We’re going to buy this idea that people can time travel. Of course, by accepting that “argument”, you’re also accepting Alexander’s tacit claim of an elite cabal of the New World Order, which, through the ligaments of semantics, he has surreptitiously linked to “the Jews.” (That his statement goes on about a great apostasy is just icing on the bigoted cake.)
What is he selling? The continuation of the QAnon story. It now features mystical powers, something that Eric Trump may or may not have referenced when he mentioned a “cognizant war”—a war of concepts. A culture war, if you will: a war of the mind.
This is from TellTale Fireside Chat, cued to 8:51, about Eric Trump’s recent appearance at the ReAwaken America Tour.
Owen Morgan (host): Again, early November 2022. Listen to what else Eric had to say.
Clip of Eric Trump: It’s unthinkable. It’s unthinkable what these people are doing to this nation.
Owen: What people? Who? Who are we talking about? This is called “weasel words.” This is referring to some ambiguous group, some secret authority out there who’s doing something, that you can’t really specify who it is or what it is they’re doing, or whatever. You find this sometimes when people are trying to turn themselves into victims. And that’s exactly what this guy is doing right now. Let’s hear those weasel words again.
Eric Trump: It’s unthinkable. It’s unthinkable what these people are doing to this nation. The way they want to destroy Christianity, the way they want to destroy our families, the way they’re destroying our children, the way they’re destroying our history, the way they’re rewriting our textbooks. Guys, this is a cognizant war in this country.
Owen: A what war?
Owen goes on to look up the definition of cognizant so as to be clear: “Having knowledge or being aware.” This goes right back to Ali Alexander’s promise of esoteric knowledge, of extending one’s newfound power through the mind.
Eric Trump: I don’t say that lightly. I’m not the tinfoil-hat-wearing guy.
—Inoculation!
This is a war, he reveals, one that surely will require people to join in and sign up. Sounds like our friend Derek Prince, eh?
Here’s how to order!
This is apocalyptic Christianity meets esoterica/cosmic awareness meets conspiratorial paranoia. That’s the essence of the movement. At least, that’s what I’ve been able to divine.
In On Disobedience and Other Essays, Erich Fromm said something that applies to our current condition:
[M]any arguments are based on the question of what is possible, rather than on what is probable. The difference between these two modes of thinking is precisely the difference between paranoid and sane thinking. The paranoiac’s unshakable conviction in the validity of his delusion rests upon the fact that it is logically possible, and, so, unassailable. It is logically possible that his wife, children, and colleagues hate him and are conspiring to kill him. The patient cannot be convinced that his delusion is impossible; he can only be told that it is exceedingly unlikely. While the latter position requires an examination and evaluation of the facts and also a certain amount of faith in life, the paranoid position can satisfy itself with the possibility alone.
