Deathcore and ‘Torture Porn’ Horror Films: Parallel Expressions of the 2000s Zeitgeist

From around 2006 to 2008, in my ‘scene kid’ phase, I was listening to a lot of deathcore – a genre combining death metal with metalcore – as a lot of scene kids were. We wanted to hear breakdowns, guttural vocals, and pig squeals (vocals that go “breeeee”). It was part of the cultural zeitgeist.…

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The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories

Why do people believe in conspiracy theories? UFOs, Area 51, the Illuminati, 9/11, New World Order, ‘chemtrails’, the moon landing – there are conspiracies about all of them and many people believe them. I’m not really interested in debunking all of these specific conspiracy theories. Since I don’t think there’s a shred of evidence for…

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