New Age Tea Party, pt. 2
Disdained by Peers:Both the Tea Party and SALPOV do not play well with others.
The Tea Party was given a place at the table in the Republican Party for short-term gains several years ago, but now Republicans are paying a big price for being tied to this extreme out-of-the-mainstream group. Moderate, intelligent Republicans are daily lamenting the fact their party is never going to win a national election as long as their nominee has to pander to the Far Right.
The Tea Party makes no secret that they don't want to compromise or negotiate, in essence acting like an American Taliban. These are zealous puritans and I will give them points for being consistent in this case. You can't say the same for SALPOV.
Here in NAFPS we have documented several instances of other New Age healers expressing negative opinions about the SALPOV operation. In spite of the Spezzano emphasis on "Oneness," you don't really see them reaching out and working with their business competition. A few sporadic and brief partnerships have existed in the Spezzano timeline, but for the most part their corporation has become increasingly isolated and insulated.
It is also interesting that a few of Spezzano's former associates and trainers have attempted to erase their online evidence of having a history with SALPOV.
Anti-Regulation:Tea Party followers believe government should be dramatically limited and I have the distinct impression many of them would like to see the USA turned back to the fiscal practices of Calvin Coolidge. Never mind that these 1920s economic policies helped lead our country into the Great Depression, Coolidge is their guy. Reagan even dusted off and hung Silent Cal's portrait in the White House in the 1980s.
Needless to say, Tea Party activists bristle at many government regulations. So do the Spezzanos.
The Spezzanos have managed to craft an organization that can pretend to be professional healers, when in fact they are not, and somehow dodge the minefield of consumer-protection regulations and license requirements. Also, from my own experience I can say they picked the right state in which to set up shop. Hawaiian government is notoriously Byzantine and lax. It is sort of a miracle that Chuck Spezzano was actually nailed and fined in 2004 by Hawaii for pretending to be a psychologist. Obviously Hawaii has done a poor job of monitoring SALPOV since 2004.
Individualism:Both the Tea Party and SALPOV have a paradoxical relationship with the concept of individualism.
In the Tea Party, the idea of individual liberty is a prime directive. Yet politically, if anyone strays from the narrow and rigid Party line they can forget about Tea Party support. Republicans who deviate from their lockstep are called RINOs (Republican in Name Only). I suspect if their God Reagan was alive today, even he might be too liberal for them. The Tea Party strikes me as a Free Speech for Me, But Not for Thee organization. Even a politician like Jeb Bush, who is incredibly conservative by mainstream standards, is booed by Tea Party types at public events.
SALPOV, on the other hand, vilifies the idea of individualism. Yet for a dogma that demands the surrender of the ego, part of their conflicting selling point is to infuse the true believer with the idea that magical thinking (i.e. "manifesting") will circumvent whatever plan God or Fate had in store for you so you can satisfy your own selfish desires-- But only as long as you do this under the strict guidelines and incredibly expensive program as outlined by God's messenger, Chuck Spezzano.
Both organizations make me think of the Guinea Pig Bridge for some reason:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq9ghmgqoycWe are all subject to having our thoughts trapped in habitrails, I admit. Personal liberation requires constant work. Both the Tea Party and SALPOV want to confine your efforts in this area in order that you'll be a servant for their own interests.
Rewriting History:Tea Party historiography consists of: If historical facts are too bothersome, just go back and change the facts. I know a home schooling Tea Party family that would not allow their child to read any history book written after the 1950s.
I was politically active before Tea Party darling Ted Cruz was born, and when I hear his interpretation of the history that I lived through I just shake my head at how he is either ignorant or an outrageous liar.
Ever since Reagan, the number of Tea Party types showing up at library boards and demanding that certain titles be removed from the shelves (such as Vonnegut's masterpiece,
Slaughterhouse-Five) has risen dramatically. See, here's the irony. They praise individual liberty, but they don't trust you to read whatever you want and come to your own conclusions. Just like they want to impose term limits on elected officials. But we already have term limits, they are called "elections." Apparently the Tea Party does not approve of or trust the democratic process. They want to decide what is best for you. Maybe they only want white male property owners to have the vote, just like the old days.
SALPOV is like the Tea Party in rewriting history, but in a passive/aggressive way. Where the Tea Party will blatantly declare a lie to be a fact, SALPOV simply tries to delete and airbrush all past references of potentially embarrassing connections. For example, Oneness University was once one of their "two greatest inspirations" and celebrated as such on their multiple websites for several years and suddenly it was gone with no explanation. That is a very significant shift. What is the story behind that?
Most of the questions we raised about SALPOV last year still hang out there:
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=4179.345 Both groups are doing their best to create an insulated reality and record of past events.
Shrinking Demographics:Tea Party membership tends to be older white Protestant-raised conservative males. This is a shrinking demographic in the United States. This generation of white males were raised in their early years to think the world was at their command, but as segregation ended and the feminist movement grew, this group of males saw what they considered to be their entitled birthright evaporate before their eyes. The recent USA legalization of Gay marriage only made them even more pissed off. In their anger, they reach back to the good old days for comfort. Clowns like Donald Trump know how to tap that resentment.
No one has ever performed a scientific study on the demographics of SALPOV, so I'll write from my own observations. The cult appears to be populated by mostly affluent middle-aged women who have hit a crisis in their lives. Where are the men? SALPOV membership has been rapidly declining in the last half-decade. Why? This is a good topic for an academic thesis.
Anti-intellectual Dumbing Down:The Tea Party's appeal to simplistic and gut-reaction solutions is easily displayed and personified by two of their heroes, Sarah Palin and Donald Trump. Both of these characters appeal to the lowest common denominator in politics. Try to have a reasonable and calm discussion with Tea Party followers about subjects like gun control, abortion, Black Lives Matter, socialized medicine, Islam, Mexican immigrants, feminism, evolution, global warming, President Obama, etc. and see how far you get before the arms cross, the brow furrows, and you make their brain hurt and they reach for a safe mental pre-recorded homily as a reply, or, their firearm.
This is the legacy of Reagan's massive cuts to education. The life of the open mind is not encouraged.
Academia is also rejected in SALPOV. Perhaps this is traced back to Chuck Spezzano's Ph.D. not actually being accredited by the APA, meaning he is not recognized as a professional. So far as I can ascertain, neither of the Spezzanos or any of their followers have submitted their "research" to peer reviewed journals in the field of psychology. Spezzano denigrates critical thinking as "anal lies." I find it interesting he has not been invited to lecture in venues of higher education. If half his claims are true, he should have the Nobel Prize by now. Hmm, yet we have documented a pop culture site like
Wikipedia not deeming him worthy enough for inclusion. Go figure.
I am pretty sure sharp-minded university and college students would make mincemeat out of Spezzano's claims had he presented his views in a give and take discussion on an academic stage. His in-person presentations are always on a pay per view basis. It's all about the money.
Anti-Woman:The Tea Party and SALPOV share a low opinion of women. Oh sure, they put them up on a pedestal, yada yada yada Tiger Woman bla bla bla Sarah Palin oot greet. But in the end, men are still in charge.
I'll just pass over the Tea Party here, except to say-- They are anti-choice on religious grounds. I do not happen to agree with them, but I understand where they are coming from and don't hold them in contempt for it.
In SALPOV the head honcho and CEO is Chuck Spezzano. The head of his UK spinoff is Jeff Allen. Two men. Spezzano's famous use of lewd jokes to mostly female crowds can only be viewed as sexual bullying, or perhaps I am being too "politically correct," eh? What sort of "professional" makes this a staple in his presentations?
We have in this forum documented Spezzano's belief in blaming the victim concerning rape cases in FN.
Meanwhile, Jeff Allen has dug up the 1950s in order to express the official SALPOV of a woman's place:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1039030/Fast-track-femininity-Why-competing-men-left-women-touch-feminine-side.html I have maintained that SALPOV is actually two cults, the Chuck cult, and the Lency cult. Now that Lency has basically retired from foreign gigs, we have seen a sharp dropoff of SALPOV trainers, particularly in the UK. Perhaps there were a lot of women out there who did not want to deal with Chuck alone. And who can blame them?
Theocracy:That the Tea Party wants to set up a theocracy is hardly a secret. Unfortunately many of their candidates have been elected to public offices on several levels, including the US House and Senate.
SALPOV has, to my knowledge, only one trainer in a position of public authority-- Babs Stevens on Haida Gwaii. Her abuses of power and desire to force her SALPOV agenda on the rest of the island is well documented here. When she is challenged the cry of religious freedom comes up, just like from the Tea Party! It is a bogus argument used as a cover for her selfish agenda. The sooner she is removed the better off for the people on the Rock.
The division of Church and State is the issue here, not religious freedom.
The Deep End:Both the Tea Party and SALPOV throw unqualified people into the deep end of the pool.
Sarah Palin serves as the classic example for the Tea Party. No need for me to embellish.
In SALPOV not one single person, including the Spezzanos, is professionally qualified to supply psychological healing services for anyone. Going through all the costly SALPOV training is worth about as much as a rancid bowl of bacon fat in the real world.
The frightening part is that it encourages dozens of unqualified cult followers to set up their own little imitation SALPOV as a New Age cottage industry and spread the damage.
It's All About the Money:Let's dance!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dndenpP1Ic0
