Gladio Free Europe – Détails, épisodes et analyse

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Unique among the barbarians of ancient Europe, the Celtic tribes of Britain and Gaul were led by a sophisticated priesthood. The druids, who left us no writing of their own, fascinated and frightened their literate neighbors in Greece and Rome. Described as both brilliant philosophers and murderous bloodletters, these ancient sages were fundamental to the classical understanding of the pagan world, and widely discussed even after being suppressed and outlawed as a dangerous cult. But the druids could not be defeated so easily, as scattered references persist until the middle ages, and they continue to captivate the minds of historians and occultists to this day. Pick up your sickle and venture into the sacred grove, and join Gladio Free Europe as we glean the secrets of the druids.

Liam and Russian Sam go on a deep dive of virtually all available information on just who the druids were, from the classical texts of Julius Caesar and Pliny the Elder to medieval Irish poetry and startling discoveries in modern archaeological. Listen to this episode to learn all about Celtic human sacrifice, Indo-European horse worship, and St. Patrick's epic rap battle of history against his druid slave-masters. Because this is Gladio Free Europe, our episode could not be complete with a quick return to one of our favorite topics, the bog bodies.

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Ready your crossbow as we venture up high into the Swiss Alps, a tyrannous bailiff might be nearby! This week we explore the William Tell, a national symbol of Switzerland, and the very real history which inspired his story. Join us as we venture back into a time before the Swiss were neutral, before they were known for their chocolate, and before they were even a state. How did this plucky assortment of cantons cohere in the first place, and how does the truth of Swiss history compare with the idyllic land imagined by Orson Welles when he quipped that in 500 years of democracy and peace they produced little more than the cuckoo clock.

Through all of this, the legend of William Tell was born and reborn regularly with a new message, a new intended audience, and a new platform, but always with the same goal: the pursuit of liberty and the battle against injustice. From the Swiss Rebellion of 1654, led by the Three Tells themselves risen from hibernation, to the Napoleonic Wars when William Tell became a symbol of the Helvetic Republic, to the pan-Germanic William Tell imagined by Friedrich Schiller in the eponymous play, William Tell has lived more lives than most.

Hop on our ski lift for one last look at William Tell’s winding journey, through medieval revolts, Napoleonic upheavals, and Schiller’s literary magic. Is he a flesh-and-blood freedom fighter or a cunning invention of Swiss lore? Grab your gear, the slopes are calling.

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Liam, Russian Sam, and Turan Explorer continue their journey across the vast steppe of Hungarian Turanism in this episode on Ármin Vámbéry, the all-time Orientalist white boy whose remarkable wanderings were fundamental to the development of the Hungarian obsession with the East, and the rise of a political movement that would convince millions of Central Europeans that they were in fact Central Asians deep down.

Coming from the humblest of beginnings in Slovakia, Vámbéry overcame abject poverty, brutal antisemitism, and Hungarian Slovakia entirely due to his remarkable language learning abilities and unyielding perseverance. After being hired as a language tutor at the age of 10, he found friends in the local elite of Hungary, eventually pursuing his dream of visiting the Ottoman Empire as a young man. Quickly becoming a favorite of the Turkish aristocracy, one of the only non-Muslims to be called "Effendi," Vámbéry then traveled even further east while posing as an Islamic Dervish, first to Persia and then to the much more remote lands of Central Asia, to cities like Bukhara and Khiva that had not been visited by any European for centuries.

After his return, Vámbéry was celebrated across Europe as one of the 19th century's most prominent orientalists. His research and memoirs were of great interest to the British and Russian governments, who each had their own imperial designs on the regions he visited. But in his homeland of Austria-Hungary, Vámbéry's research inaugurated a national obsession with Central Asia, believed to be the homeland of the Hungarian people. By the end of his life in 1913, this Turanist movement had become the most powerful force in Hungarian nationalism, and Vámbéry its prophet. Just as theories of white supremacy were taking hold everywhere else in Europe, Hungarian nationalists proclaimed brotherhood with the peoples of Turkey, Uzbekistan, Japan, and many other nations abroad.

After his death, the dismemberment of Hungary following World War One caused a rise of ultra-nationalism throughout the nation, and a subsequent failed revolution led by communist Bela Kun shifted Turanism in a violent anticommunist direction. Turan Explorer covers the ways Turanism adapted to the increasingly antisemitic climate of the 1920s and 1930s, even though many earlier Turanists, including Vámbéry, had been Jewish themselves. Last, Russian Sam explores the ways that Hungarian Jews adopted a form of Turanism as a nationalist mythology specific to their own community. Though now-debunked, the popular Khazar theory envisioned Jewish Hungarians as the blood relatives of their Christian neighbors, and shows how this strange obsession with the East could unite disparate groups as much as divide.

Turan Explorer is on ⁠Twitter⁠, ⁠Tiktok⁠, and ⁠Youtube⁠. He also has a podcast, available on ⁠Spotify⁠ and other platforms.

Hernán is a Mexican series that revolves around the story of Hernán Cortés, the Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of what is now mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century.

To discuss this story, and this series, we’re joined by Paul Guinan, the writer working on Aztec Empire, a graphic novel recounting the dramatic fall of the mightiest empire in the Americas, only three years after the arrival of strangers from another world.

You can read the comic online for free at bigredhair.com

Hosted by Liam, Russian Sam, Halal Sam, and Paul Guinan.

True Detective season 2 is pretty good. We don’t really talk about it. Instead we delve into the real life stories that inspired the show, and some events that remind us of what we watched.

Topics covered in this episode: Vernon, California, Political corruption, Voter suppression, Child abuse, Suspicious deaths, Satanic panic, Prostitution, Jeffrey Epstein, “Suicide,” and Bryan Singer.

Would you like to know more? ☛ https://gladiofreeeurope.github.io/episodes/2021-06-16-true-detective/

Hosted by Liam and Abram.

The Parallax View starts with a spectacular public assassination of a popular senator atop the Seattle Space Needle. In the years after, many of the witnesses to the crime have died under mysterious circumstances. An ambitious reporter (Warren Beatty) investigating the senator's death discovers the Parallax Corporation, which he thinks is the key to understanding who or what is behind all of this.

We’re joined by our friend James to discuss the movie, and the real life political assassinations this movie reminds us of.

Hosted by Liam, Russian Sam, Halal Sam, and James.

Barbarians is a German historical drama that tells the story of Arminus, a Germanic Barbarian, who as a child is raised in Rome and becomes a Roman soldier. As an adult he is sent back to his home in Germania to aid in ensuring Rome’s control over the various Barbarian tribes.

We discuss the show, and what we know of the real history that serves as inspiration for this Netflix dramatization.

Hosted by Liam, Russian Sam, and Abram.

Wag the Dog is a movie about a White House that fakes going to war in Albania to bury the news of a President’s sex scandal. Exactly one month after the movie was released, the Monica Lewinsky affair was first made public. We go into the movie and the real world events it magically foretold.

Correction: at 19:40 Liam says Green Room, but he meant Green Zone. At 1:08:00 Liam says Good Old Shoe, but he meant Courage Mom. Good Old Shoe is the folk blues song in the movie. Courage Mom is the country song.

Would you like to know more? ☛ https://gladiofreeeurope.github.io/episodes/2021-05-26-wag-the-dog/

Hosted by Liam, Russian Sam, Halal Sam, and Abram.

The Wind That Shakes the Barley tells the story of Damien O’Donovan (Cillian Murphy), an Irish doctor turned guerrilla fighter after witnessing the brutality of British occupying forces in his home of County Cork. He joins his brother, Teddy O’Donovan (Pádraic Delaney), in fighting for the Irish Republican Army for Irish independence from the United Kingdom.

We’re joined by our friend James to discuss this movie, the brutality Ireland endured during occupation, the Irish War of Independence, the Irish Civil War, and what effects from this period of history linger to this day.

Hosted by Liam, Russian Sam, Halal Sam, and James.

In 1984 Siberian singer and songwriter Yegor Letov founded Grazhdanskaya Oborona (Civil Defense), which went on to be the Soviet Unions most famous underground punk band, and made Letov one of its most famous musicians. Then in 1993 he co-founded the National Bolshevik Party, the now banned extremist political party that hoped to unite far right and far left forces. We discuss him, his music, and his journey from punk rock to punk politics.

Hosted by Liam, Russian Sam, Halal Sam, and Abram.

Songs featured in this episode

• Grazhdanskaya Oborona – Harakiri
• Grazhdanskaya Oborona – Song about Lenin
• Grazhdanskaya Oborona – About a fool
• Grazhdanskaya Oborona – Government
• Grazhdanskaya Oborona – Everything is like what people have
• Adolf Gitler – Mein Kampf
• Yanka – Overabundance of wit
• Kommunizm – I see nothing
• Grazhdanskaya Oborona – Everything's going according to plan
• Grazhdanskaya Oborona – My defense
• Grazhdanskaya Oborona – Motherland
• Yegor and the fucked up – Gospel
• Grazhdanskaya Oborona – The unbearable lightness of being

Would you like to learn more? ☞ https://gladiofreeeurope.github.io/episodes/2021-05-12-yegor-letov-and-the-national-bolsheviks/