Peter Wood is an anthropologist and president of the National Association of Scholars. He believes—like many Americans on the right—that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump and the January 6th riots were incited by the left in collusion with the FBI. He’s also the author of a new book called Wrath: America Enraged, which wrestles with our politics of anger and counsels conservatives on how to respond to perceived aggression.
Where does America go from here? In this episode, Peter joins Ciaran O’Connor for a frank conversation about the role of anger in our politics as well as the nature of truth, trust, and conspiracy theories.
12 thoughts on “A Conservative Perspective on January 6th & the 2020 Election | Peter Wood with Ciaran O’Connor”
I love what Braver Angels tries to do and I found Mr. Wood’s discussion of his book quite interesting and in many ways compelling. However, civil and constructive discussion is difficult when one of the discussants has no respect for the truth (or at least has not taken the time to sort out what is true in what he repeats). In the first half of the discussion Mr. Wood repeats falsehoods he should know better of. For example the lies about Ray Epps are really unforgivable: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/01/19/how-trump-supporter-ray-epps-became-entangled-trump-touted-conspiracy-theory/ Mr. O’Connor was admirably calm.
As usual, the WP stories are lame and without journalism. On one hand your trusting the FBI to admit they have interviewed him, but on the other you say the FBI makes no comments on ongoing investigations? And do you really think the FBI is going to tell a “journalist” that Epps is a FBI informant. Its been hell to get the truth on the 6+ FBI informants/agents related to the Michigan Governors kidnapping plot.
And you believe his lawyer is going to tell the WP that he’s been cooperative!. The 6th Committee has stated many times they have NOT interviewed him. I could go on.
But dont fall for the MSM crap they peddle as truth. They NEVER produce written or video EVIDENCE, they never provide FOIA’s they just spin the bits to make it come across as they want it to. CNN, MSNBC, WP, NYT, they rarely get actual evidence, just word of mouth from Sources. Hah. Pay attention. Epp’s is being protected for some reason. And yeah, Rhoades also worked with FBI, Wait and wait, but you’ll eventually see.
You may enjoy this interview I did of Peter Wood. I found this interview quite bad so was motivated to do my own: https://behavior-podcast.com/examining-beliefs-that-the-u-s-election-was-rigged-or-otherwise-illegitimate-with-peter-wood/
Peter discusses a theory that a purported FBI agent named Ray Epps provoked the Jan 6 insurrection/riot. There are a number of articles debunking that theory. Here’s an extensive one: https://www.factcheck.org/2022/01/jan-6-conspiracy-theory-centers-on-baseless-claim-about-ray-epps/
is there another place to see this discussion? Why would you not add Rumble in addition to, if not in place of youtube? Free speech is at the heart of BA’s mission, as John so clearly stated in his letter today. We need to a make a clear commitment to organizations and platforms that do not support the rampant censorship in our society.
I’m curious, given Braver Angels mission to facilitate productive conversation, why this video was removed?
I listened to the 1 hour podcast between Ciaran O’Conner and Peter Wood. About 80% of the time was listening to Wood and all of the ( data ) he used to arrive at his belief that the election was fraudulent and the Jan 6 incident was a an FBI and Antifia set up. This has been a recurring event where Braver Angels is providing the platform for giving validity to these lies. Several months ago you had the ( debate ) on fraud in the 2020 election. John Wood had on his program 2 individuals who represented peaceful protesters on Jan6 several months ago. John Wood wrote an email that blamed Biden for inciting division by his vaccine mandate. I am very disappointed with the direction this is going. You cannot give validity to lies
You may enjoy this interview I did of Peter Wood. I found the Braver Angels interview quite bad so was motivated to do my own: https://behavior-podcast.com/examining-beliefs-that-the-u-s-election-was-rigged-or-otherwise-illegitimate-with-peter-wood/
I’d like to hear from Peter Wood what things Obama said or did that make him see Obama as a “racial provocateur.”
I had the same thought Erica. I’ve heard conservatives say that Obama provoked racism. Where? How? I don’t see it… other than the color of his skin.
By getting elected president, that’s how. Many were antagonized by that fact. Can’t cite details or sources, but I believe there was a dramatic upsurge of facist-related activity.
I appreciate the attempt to bring both the right and left together but I agree that it is questionable how helpful it is to allow unchallenged truly unfounded statements about the current state of affairs. It is draining and damaging. Wood is truly not in the real world especially in his beliefs about the election being stolen.