Next time you’re thinking about heading to the yoga studio, you’d be well advised to stop and think twice about what you could be exposing yourself to. Because, as NPR reports, things are getting pretty ugly in the yoga realm
QAnon and conspiratorial thinking have gained traction in certain yoga and wellness circles.
Here's how one yoga teacher's story — and path to radicalization — can help shed light on the "wellness to QAnon" pipeline.https://t.co/kRNMl7iy15
— NPR (@NPR) January 2, 2023
One yogi turned out to be a believer in chemtrails and lizard people, which is obviously a sign that all yoga instructors are right-wing conspiracy theorists.
Of course, many people practice yoga without believing in conspiracy theories. However, yoga philosophy and conspiratorial thinking have a lot in common, [Matthew Remski, a former yoga teacher and journalist] said, making it easy to slide from the former into the latter.
In both circles, there is an emphasis on “doing your own research” and “finding your own truth.” And many people who practice and teach yoga distrust Western medicine, preferring to find alternative solutions or try to let their body heal itself.
“The relativism around truth, which has so long been a part of wellness culture, really reared its head in the pandemic,” said Natalia Petrzela, an author and historian at The New School. “This idea that ‘truth is just in the eye of the beholder’ is something which can feel kind of empowering when you’re sitting in yoga class, but when it’s the pandemic, and that kind of language is being deployed to kind of foment, like, vaccine denial or COVID denialism, it has the same power, because we’re all steeped in this culture … it can be used for real harm.”
QAnon, in particular, may have a particular resonance for yoga practitioners, according to Ben Lorber, a researcher at Political Research Associates, a think tank that monitors right-wing movements, because both communities share the idea of a higher truth accessible to a select few.
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That there’s a pandemic of radical right-wing yogis is quite a revelation. Just the sort of revelation we’ve come to expect from NPR.
I miss the time when a headline like this would result in universal laughter… https://t.co/gRF7j9Ns1G
— Ina Garten's Love Slave 🇺🇲 (@TTwi5ted) January 3, 2023
Who says it still can’t?
Is this a parody account? https://t.co/nrsq5VYQqk
— 𝐌𝐄𝐌𝐄 𝐃𝐑𝐄Ⓐ𝐌 (@1memedream) January 2, 2023
Yoga & wellness is right-wing QAnon now apparently. https://t.co/fP8aUVC2l5
— F* Your Short Memory 🏴 Anti-Cult of Absurdity (@BucMon21) January 2, 2023
https://t.co/AHVw7UJAQy pic.twitter.com/C6SDrkp3jV
— Dr. Richard Harambe (@Richard_Harambe) January 2, 2023
I was almost radicalized by a local yogi but thankfully the studio was shut down for several months and I was able to be deprogrammed.
If anyone you know is still practicing yoga, speak up. #SilenceIsViolence #SeeSomethingSaySomething https://t.co/v3x8PdhPo9
— 🫃🏼🇺🇦💉Hollaria Briden, Esq. (@HollyBriden) January 2, 2023
Snort.
If you banned “reporting” on Qanon, Trump, and various activities like bird-watching being racist, NPR would find nothing on Earth left to say. https://t.co/yFZgnhJHGQ
— Adam Mala (@themalacast) January 2, 2023
This is the same taxpayer funded publication that said the Hunter Biden laptop story wasn’t newsworthy https://t.co/WNGXSu66Hp
— SuperPratt (@HHrvynia) January 2, 2023
Parting reminder:
Your taxes pay for this upper middle class circle jerk. https://t.co/7dNlk7NlY6
— Cousin Scalito (@ScalitosMom) January 2, 2023
Defund NPR already.
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