Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Something is horribly, horribly wrong

Something is horribly, horribly wrong
Getty Images

Molineaux is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and president/CEO of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.

The woman who sat next to me on a recent flight spent our five hours together sharing details of all the breakdowns in society and how it’s all gone horribly, horribly wrong. I listened carefully. This was an opportunity “in the wild'' to practice what I encourage others to do - listen and ask questions. Even with someone who believes in conspiracies. I willingly choose to engage with people who have a different worldview. Especially when we appear demographically similar. I’ll call her Jane, to protect her privacy.


A few background notes about Jane – she is married to a man who prioritizes watching sports over spending time talking with his wife. As she noted, “the stork flew past our house” as a way to explain why she doesn’t have children. She does have 56 nieces and nephews; she is part of a large family. Her career path was in outside sales; she spent years as a road warrior. When Jane was laid off in 2020 from a major media company, she assumed it was because of her worldview, not the pandemic and travel restrictions. For most of the past 15 years, she has spent her spare time researching on the internet. Jane doesn’t have any social media accounts and takes pride in finding “primary sources.” She feels has the answers, if only people would listen.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Jane’s worldview includes believing there is a cabal of financial interests who want to decrease the population, derived from generations of eugenicist research. This “cabal” has infiltrated our institutions to enact their evil plan to kill people. Adding to her hypothesis are these beliefs:

  • Public education is making us more compliant
  • The healthcare system will kill us, rather than heal us
  • The media is brainwashing us to believe lies are truth
  • Entertainment is “shoving wokism down our throats” (specifically around gender identity and trans issues)

I focused on asking questions – deepening my understanding and hoping to learn how her beliefs were built. How did she arrive at the understanding that something is horribly, horribly wrong? In short, podcasters and YouTubers have revealed to her the truth; and strengthened her ability to discern the patterns of our destruction, carefully hidden from the mainstream and only available to dedicated internet researchers. When she mentioned a couple of names, I probed a bit and asked why she trusted them? After a short pause, she responded it was because their message resonated with her.

She laughed at this point, noting that her liberal family members assume she watches Fox News all the time when in fact she told me except for an occasional interview she watches online, she doesn’t. She considers Fox News to be part of the global cabal.

As I continued listening, I began to hear her pain. The pain of discord within her marriage, and with her family of sisters, aunts, nieces and nephews. Her family is evenly divided with differing worldviews. One worldview sees great harm inflicted upon themselves by the “industry complexes.” The other worldview sees great harm inflicted by the conspiracy theories that could lead to societal collapse. I asked more questions. Specifically:

  • What do you want your relationship with your family to be like?
  • How do you decide who to trust, especially on the internet?
  • What do you want for your future?

As we talked Jane would often start to respond to one of my questions, then distract herself because she didn’t have a ready answer. Unfortunately, I have found this to be the case for most people when new or tough questions are asked. Unfortunately, we spend too little time thinking about what we want and how important our friends and family are to our lives. When we are lonely, too many of us reach out to the internet, where conflict profiteers are ready to help us feel better with their stories.

By the end of our flight, I was exhausted but also gratified because I felt Jane needed someone to hear her. She needed to express herself fully, without judgment. And while it was a chore, it didn’t hurt me. And if you're curious: Did I change my mind? No.

I left the flight feeling compassion toward Jane; for decades she has been lonely. In the last several months, she has found a way to increase her joy with a new business that includes her family members. My hope is that being around people who love her will break the doom-cycle of internet research that led her to believe that everything is horribly, horribly wrong, and through more constant connection and love she will develop a deep sense of belonging.

In truth, we all belong to each other.

Read More

The Psychology of Politics

An illustration of people and their unique minds.

Getty Images, Carol Yepes

The Psychology of Politics

Have you ever wondered why so many otherwise reasonable people are completely bananas about politics? We all know plenty of normal and decent folks who spout wacky political views. But it’s not just our neighbors who’ve gone mad. All over the country, Americans pick and choose the facts they want to believe, champion policies they don’t understand, hold contradictory views at the same time, admire immoral politicians, loathe decent ones, and so on.

What’s going on here? And why does it seem to be getting worse?

Keep ReadingShow less
Addressing Economic Inequity Among Domestic Violence Survivors

A person holding a stack of dollar bills that are flying away.

Getty Images, PM Images

Addressing Economic Inequity Among Domestic Violence Survivors

The 2024 film, “Anora,” about a young woman victimized by sex trafficking, recently won five Oscars at the Academy Awards. Perhaps, it is a signal of more awareness and less stigma surrounding the pervasiveness of domestic violence at all levels of society.

The ongoing lawsuits between actors Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni claiming sexual harassment and violence threat allegations around their film, “It Ends With Us,” about a relationship scarred with domestic violence, demonstrates the thin line between real life and on-screen adaptations.

Keep ReadingShow less
Layoffs at the EPA May Impact Federal Funding for Communities

Environmental Protection Agency EPA | Where James works | mccready ...

Layoffs at the EPA May Impact Federal Funding for Communities

WASHINGTON—The federal government laid off more than 60,000 workers in the first two months of 2025, while another 75,000 employees accepted a buyout and voluntarily resigned.

Among those laid off was James Clark, an Environmental Protection Agency employee who lost his job while on his honeymoon. “It’s just very sad to see someone like Elon Musk take a chainsaw on live TV and say what we do doesn’t matter,” said Clark.

Keep ReadingShow less
Congress Avoids a Shutdown But at What Cost?

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) speaks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol on March 14, 2025 in Washington, DC.

Getty Images, Tasos Katopodis

Congress Avoids a Shutdown But at What Cost?

On March 14, the GOP-led Senate passed a stopgap spending bill to keep the federal government running until September 30. The bill’s passage was made possible by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s last-minute reversal—shifting from opposing the measure and advocating for a shorter extension to allowing the bill to advance. His decision was purely tactical: he feared Democrats would be blamed for a shutdown.

Schumer’s move provided the necessary votes to overcome procedural hurdles, effectively thwarting a Democratic filibuster. While Republican support for Trump’s budget was unsurprising, the Democratic leadership’s decision to go along was a stunning concession. It handed the Trump administration a significant victory while further eroding Congress’s budgetary authority, shifting more spending power to the executive branch.

Keep ReadingShow less