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Quizzes & Manuscripts: The Neoliberal Shill Quiz & DTG Book Project Unveiled (Patreon)

Published:
2025-04-19 23:18:03
Edited:
2025-05-10 02:23:48
Imported:
2026-06
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In this bonus episode, Matt and Chris take a ruthlessly calibrated political‑science quiz to pinpoint, once and for all, their exact level of neoliberal shill‑hood. Are they the Logos channelling Thatcher’s shade, or undercover saboteurs plotting capitalism’s demise? Tune in to find out.

But wait—there’s more. You’ll also get a first‑ever glimpse of the DTG TOP‑SECRET book project, as the decoders match their favourite gurus to each chapter’s theme. Exciting stuff!

Comments

Cate Kneale

Huge lack of anti trans campaigners here. JK Rowling is the most cultish individual I can think of, she has people drawing her as an icon. And Helen Joyce and/or Abigail Shrier are both up for moral grandstanding.

Paul Ditta

Listening to you two I suddenly don’t feel so bad about the brainstorming sessions I’ve been involved in that, at the time, had me questioning the existence of a benevolent god. 🤣🤣

Jake

I enjoyed Matt's mini lecture on pronunciation. Some people simply have an abstract view of this phenonemon, but Matt has a lot of lived experience to draw on too. Will there be a sidebar on sports jackets? Jordan and Eric could be covered. Schmachtenberger was disappointingly missing from the pseudo profound bullshit section. Maybe also Jamie Wheal's right to reply in an ironically self important section. Murray is pretty hot right now, and the decoded conversation between him and Eric was off the scale sycophancy. I think the other species of interest is a good idea - also to distinguish the secular guru concept from these related categories too. Regular gurus, cult leaders, conspirituality, conspiracy theorists, tech bros/rationalists, streamers, partisan pundits with a bit of guru flair, neoliberal shills, antiwokists, ... I missed Pageau - I think he's worth considering if he isn't already on the list. Did you consider a short section on 'good gurus'? I hope to see some of the amazing guru quotes at the start of each chapter. If you need a longer book - you could do the quickfire characteristics too.

Kyle Wilson

I’m still laughing at the idea of making Gad Saad just a footnote

Lance

The concept of Matt and Chris' book so far sounds like a book written by Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont, called "Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of Science." (If you'd please just ignore the 'postmodern' bit though.) They cite long passages of what they call "postmodern intellectuals" (who might've been gurus today) and decribe how those passages are flawed. Sometimes they can't make any sense of the nonsense though. Sokal and Bricmont don't assign any grades with a proto-gurometer equivalent either 😔.

Kitchen Garage

I'll buy it on the condition that Chris is contractually obligated to perform the audiobook recording.

Molly Bretthauer

You’re making interesting observations about how some categories are easy to fill and others not as much. Use that in your text.

Linda Sears

I wish we could import Matt’s views on education here to the U.S. The Texas government just voted on school vouchers, which means less funding for public schools and tax money going to private schools, including religious ones.

Linda Sears

For those who missed the Decoding the Academia episode with the quiz, Matt is a Machiavellian, and Chris is a sadist if I’m remembering correctly.

Cole Rees

I know you've talked this to death but: Chris said Carl Sagan and Sean Carroll are good Gurus. But you also have the quick round poll where you ask if the character is a guru or not. I'm guessing you said no for Sean Carroll. Maybe the quick round should be labeled toxic Guru to avoid confusion?

Cole Rees

Is Matt going to use Claude to write your book?

Roland Weber

Will the gurus presented in the book get a right to reply? If yes, will they be required to reply in book format?

Linda Sears

If the book doesn’t contain the words bog standard, I’m not buying it.

Kit Zullasson

Maybe someone suggested that already but if you don’t have enough gurus for certain categories, that could inform who to decode next. They might call that "theoretical sampling" somewhere 😀

commutercomputer

If you plan to talk about audience capture and dynamics in profiteering chapter, Sabine Hossenfelder would be perfect for this. While she isn't shilling supplements her radicalization shows the peril if your income relies on the view count in YouTube.

Cole Rees

Maybe rhetorical Illusionist, or devil's orator, or the silver tongue

Kerena

From this episode I've learned that I'm the Chris of every group effort.

Cee

Re. the antiestablishmentarianism chapter; haven't a lot of the gurus turned pro-establishment now that Trump is in power? Or is it just the framing of 'the establishment' is so amorphous that they can still claim with a straight face to be anti-establishment while supporting Donald Trump? I'd be interested to see an analysis of this in the book

Flex Tape

Im a four which puts me into centrist, but the only I answered different to Matt and Chris was the first one, I think that (very generally yada yada) taxes on income and companies should be lowered, but only because like land tax. That makes me a georgist shill not adjacent to a neoliberal shill 😤

Nancy Hale

Excited about the book progress, and fun to listen in on the workshopping session. It sounds like covering the whole scope of the gurusphere could stretch beyond discussions of the 11 guruometer domains. It’s all fascinating stuff and will be hard to leave anything out! If you don’t mind being asked, do you have a targeted page count yet?

Roscoe 112

What if you were to represent each Guru’s score on an 11 factor radar plot and feed the shapes through AI pattern recognition to develop The Conformal Theory of Cyclic Archetypal Gurology?

Ben Godek

I propose a section called “Charisma and anti-charisma” where you address how Yarvin, Thiel, Musk and Lex perform in interviews. Also, JBP really should be introduced in the pseudo profound bulshit section. Playing word games is just his bread and butter at such an elemental level. Isn’t the whole sense-maker ecosystem explicitly downstream from him?

Jenny

In the vein of drive-by mentions of Gad Saad or relegating him to the footnote, it seems on point in the polymath chapter, where you mentioned in your back and forth that he doesn't fit there because he's in fact not a polymath, a footnote seems obviously in-theme here to explain why and how Saad is not one, despite he himself believing he is

Chomagerider

I can't shake the feeling that Bret WS must be part of the conspiracy theory section. I know there are others and i know he only paddles conspiracy hypotheses.... But he often is the most outrageous one...

alice

Congrats! That books going to be great

Edison

Will Chris narrate the audiobook version?

Paul Bowman

Rhetorical jitsu. Dr K's a 5th Dan, ovs.

Kevin Nyberg

You have to include Tim Ferriss, he blazed the trail that many of these guys followed. And is directly responsible for some of them getting into podcasting.

Russell

I'm a three on the quiz scale. My answers essentially mirror the two of you. Look forward to the book project. I think you two would have a field day with Rick Doblin as a representation of Galaxy Brain, Cultishness, Self-aggrandisement and Narcissism, Cassandra Complex, Revolutionary Theories, Pseudo-profound Bullshit, and Profiteering. But he would fit the absolute picture of Revolutionary Theorizing in a book chapter on the topic. He's been the main force behind the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) and their efforts to legalize MDMA in medical settings. He has such lines as "Net-Zero Trauma by 2070" (or 2030 or 2050, depending on his mood); believes that MDMA will end the tensions between Russia and Ukraine and Israel and Palestine; MDMA will single-handedly end the veteran mental health crisis; and generally that the key to getting MDMA into the medical system is to do "political science" as opposed to medical science. Here's a taste: https://www.instagram.com/shawnryanshow/reel/C3i0NWGLwdL/

Waffle Truck

Bro-icity subsection - Tech Bro-icity.

Alex

No Hasan Piker under profiteering? You can even add your favourite meme of the “man in the well” 😂

Kyle Dun

I was a 3 but in different areas than the lads.

Waffle Truck

Guru Adjacent Sycophants - subsection GASlighters

Linda Sears

Oprah seems to have allowed some of the health and wellness type influencers a platform from which to launch themselves. She could briefly show up in that section.

COLOR MENTOR

Show the leader board for each characteristic at the top of each chapter.

Roland Weber

Maybe you should grant Gad Saad two footnotes. One under Polymaths, saying "not really, but see Grievance Mongering". The other under Grievance Mongering, saying "see Polymaths". In the Index, list only one of these. 😈

Ryan Bruno

The label for polymaths should be excessive boundary spanning

DJ Wearing

Scott Adams's cultishness is worth going into, because he ticks nearly all the boxes (apart from maybe charisma): daily content, cosy & dark personal setting, the simultaneous sip, blocking people live on the chat if they say something he doesn't like, praising the audience, discussing how deluded the msm is etc. Sam Harris would be good to discuss grievances because they are much sublter than for someone like Chris Langen. It would be good to see the different forms a grievance can take.

Sue Fricke

A sub section on “yes anding” seems in order, a spot for the honorable mentions and hangers on….

Salex

wait, wait, wait, wait… I have been pronouncing Likert wrong, for years. It’s “lick-ert”, not “lie-kert”?! You mean Matt’s pronunciation was correct?! Galaxy-brain x 1000

Matt Dear

I concur, ban public schools. If the rich want better education, they can invest and help everyone, not themselves at everyone else's expense.

Charles Coatsworth

I know he hasn't been covered yet but good god there is nobody on God's green earth that grandstands like Gary's economics

Chandra Collins

Great episode, interesting questions. However, #1 should be broken into 2 separate questions. Lowering income tax on middle Americans would help, while not decreasing the monopoly companies and billionaires income taxes is what most Americans support. They barely pay taxes thanks to the current POTUS looking out for his friends.

Alex

Sorry if someone's said this already but shouldn't you be using the Gurometer to work out who fits best in each category?

Frances goulart

You need a “ runner’s up corner in each chapter for the 3 or 4 gurus who didn’t take top prize!

Frances goulart

How about an all stars chapter covering the gurus who come up in the most categories?

Jakob b

I don’t know why, but I imagined you more bald, Chris… anyway this is the first time I’ve seen your face. Love your pod, especially when you bash the kind of people that are considered smart among young guys in my country, Norway.. anyway keep truckin’!!!

Jesse Hodges

The most important question: bouldering where?

Mike

Once this book is a bestseller, maybe the sequel should be a kid-friendly version in the format of the Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual. Then minor gurus and guru-adjacent figures could be included as well as exciting pen-and-ink drawings of the gurus. Kids will love learning how to detect and avoid being unduly swayed by the magic of the gurus!