Skip to main content

Robert Evans: The Joe Rogan Of The American Left

 Behind The Bastards is a podcast series about the worst people in history.  Hosted by Cracked alum Robert Evans (the Joe Rogan of the American Left), he goes into depth exploring the backgrounds and stories of dictators, cult leaders, grifters, and other terrible people.  As a Michigander though, especially one who writes articles about local events, I'm forced to wonder why the hell so many Michiganders are featured on BTB.

Starting from a broad perspective, while Josh Duggar doesn't directly have connections to Michigan, I've definitely known people who subscribed to his ATI "cult" teachings.  I had peers in high school who fit the descriptions in Evans' podcasts to a T.  As Evans described the abuses within that particular branch of conservative Christianity, I shuddered to think that I probably hung out with kids subject to those same abuses.

Battle Creek, MI, is known as Cereal City, USA.  That's just a hop, skip, and jump down the road from my very own Tulip City.  The Kellogg family, of breakfast cereal fame, put Battle Creek on the map.  Robert Evans put his own spin on the Kellogg Family while describing their weird fascination with the sexuality of adolescent boys.

I learned of James Dobson's connections to Muskegon, MI through Behind The Bastards.  Dobson is the noted Christian family counselor who preached things like "beat your kids if they don't get good grades," and "the man of the house should be the only one who knows the finances," which had some weird tie-ins with the ATI teachings a few paragraphs up.  There are some more tie-ins with megachurch evangalism, as detailed in The Rise And Fall Of Mars Hill (not an iHeart property, nor affiliated in any way with Behind The Bastards, but has a similar story arc).

Another Muskegon connection is Televangelist Jim Bakker.  Bakker is the grifter who sells Apocalypse Kits to unsuspecting viewers.

The one series that really got to me though, was the BTB series on Erik Prince.  Brother-in-law to Amway heir, Dick DeVos, the Prince surname is right there alongside DeVos and Van Andel on buildings scattered around West Michigan.  Hell, I've met Dick and Betsy before.  I can't confirm that I've ever actually met Erik, but it's not outside the realm of possibility.  Though, I will say that I'm surprised that there hasn't been a BTB episode about Amway/Alticore.

So, what is it about West Michigan that makes it such a beacon for "the worst people in history," although there are a lot of commonalities between the subjects:  Conservative Christian grifters and scam artists - the Mars Hill podcast had a comment about how people are drawn to narcissists, and I think that explains how so many people are drawn to grifters and the like.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Merry Christmas from Tulip City!

I don't have a full article this week, but here's a little bit of trivia for you: While Holland is a predominantly Christian Reformed city, it was the early Methodists that sprung the Christmas spirit. While an 1867 Sunday School Christmas Program drew nearly 150 youngsters to Hope Church, it was several generations before the Reformed church allowed even Christmas trees into their sanctuaries, as Christmas trees were seen as Pagan symbols. Early Methodists adopted the 19th Century American spirit, and welcomed things like Christmas trees and even Santa Claus into their sanctuaries. I tried to determine exactly how long "several generations" were using Dr. Swierenga's book (and the sources he cites), but could not ascertain the exact time. It's almost certainly somewhere in the vicinity of 50 years (before the Christian Reformed Churches allowed 'pagan' Christmas symbols), which would put their allowing of such things into the early 20th century, but ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Cedar Swamp Village

Holland has only been a settled city for a little over 170 years. But, it's got a dense, unique history. I took an interest in local history during my college years at Northern Michigan University, and was able to take that interest back home after graduation. Recently, I began researching for this blog, and hanging out at the library, poring through the Local History section. I found an old, forboding looking book, entitled Memorials Of The Grand River Valley, flipped open to a seemingly random page, and read the passage "The Indian village, near the southeastern limits of the city,w as also a prominent landing-place. The log-houses, built by the Indians, were of great service to the newly arrived immigrants; and, as it appears, there never has been any trouble between the Red man and the Dutchman." This piqued my interest, as I live near the southeastern limits of Holland. Was there an Indian village in my own neighborhood that history forgot? Memorials ad...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Ghost Town in Hudsonville

When the term "ghost town" is brought up, one doesn't usually think of modern subdivisions and upper-middle class suburbs. The classic "ghost town" is usually applied to a town that was abandoned when a major industry dries up, leaving crumbling shells of buildings, maybe some artifacts, and nothing but memories.  You know the drill, overgrown storefronts, smashed windows, tumbleweeds, maybe a hobo or two. Briefly, there was an interurban rail system all around Western Michigan in the late 19 th and early 20 th century. I won't go into details, as the whole system is well-documented elsewhere, but the electric train systems allowed for the transportation of people all around the major metropolitan areas in West Michigan...Grand Rapids was a major hub, and they had lines going to Grandville, Jenison, and Hudsonville along Chicago Drive; south to Kalamazoo; and as it pertains to this story, to Holland and Saugatuck. The branch between Grand Rapids an...
Post a Comment
Read more