American Thought Leaders - The Epoch Times

“You can't abandon the concept of normality, or societies will just completely fall apart,” says developmental psychologist and social science scholar J.D. Haltigan. There has been a tremendous push in mental health to destigmatize mental illness, he says, and people are encouraged to regard themselves as “some sort of heroic person for having [mental] disorders.” This is true especially for mood disorders like depression and anxiety. People nowadays increasingly define themselves through mood disorders—especially women, who often are more prone than men to depression and internalization of anxiety, he says. Haltigan’s departure from the University of Toronto in 2023 coincided with his growing concerns about what he described as increasing ideological pressures in academic research and restrictions on what researchers could say about mental health and early child development. 🔴 PREMIERE 9PM ET on @EpochTV: https://ept.ms/3NhhidQ

“You can't abandon the concept of normality, or societies will just completely fall apart,” says developmental psychologist and social science scholar J.D. Haltigan. There has been a tremendous push in mental health to destigmatize mental illness, he says, and people are encouraged to regard themselves as “some sort of heroic person for having [mental] disorders.” This is true especially for mood disorders like depression and anxiety. People nowadays increasingly define themselves through mood disorders—especially women, who often are more prone than men to depression and internalization of anxiety, he says. Haltigan’s departure from the University of Toronto in 2023 coincided with his growing concerns about what he described as increasing ideological pressures in academic research and restrictions on what researchers could say about mental health and early child development. 🔴 PREMIERE 9PM ET on @EpochTV: https://ept.ms/3NhhidQ

Robert L. Suettinger says China has long been willing to arm Iran to keep the United States distracted in the Middle East. “I started working in the White House when there were great concerns about the shipment of weapons of mass destruction and various kinds of steel… that was going to Iran at very sensitive times.” “They’ve been happy to rearm Iran.” “There was… a very strong concern in the United States government about what kinds of missiles are going to be provided to Iran that they could use in local conflicts.” “They are perfectly happy to take advantage of forces in the world that are adamantly opposed to the United States.” “And use them to their advantage and to keep the eyes off of the problems in East Asia.” I sat down with Robert L. Suettinger to discuss his book, “The Conscience of the Party,” and how Hu Yaobang’s story may reflect the recent internal struggles inside the CCP. https://youtu.be/q7Vwa-kJhTs

Robert L. Suettinger says U.S. actions in Venezuela and Iran may be forcing leaders in China to reconsider how they view President Trump. “I think that there has been a level of shock that the United States has not only been able to, but willing to, engage in these kinds of operational military on-the-ground matters.” “I think it’s probably a matter of considerable concern and discussion… that they maybe have been wrong about Trump all along and that there is more to his policies than they had given him credit for.” “That has probably provided them with a lot of cause for concern.” “It is going to be a major topic of conversation in the hallways at the National People’s Congress, in the back rooms of Zhongnanhai, and certainly in the discussions that go on within China.” Internal debates and leadership struggles have long shaped China’s political system. Those dynamics are explored in Robert L. Suettinger’s book “The Conscience of the Party.” Watch our full conversation: youtu.be/q7Vwa-kJhTs

“There's no question of the fact that Xi Jinping is now less of a dominant leader than he was six eight months ago,” China expert Robert Suettinger told Jan during their recent interview. Earlier this year, Xi purged two top generals from the CCP’s military brass, following on the heels of earlier purges last year. Now only two of the originally seven members of the Central Military Commission remain. One of them is Xi himself; the other one, General Zhang Shengmin, is a political commander and has, like Xi, no combat experience. After the January purges, Xi issued an order to the military demanding that everyone acknowledge him as the head of the military commission. “The silence from all those military commands has been deafening and has been noticed by everybody,” Suettinger says. “The military is just sort of sitting back and saying, ‘Well, what are you going to do next?’… There's a level of distrust on both sides,” Suettinger told me. 🔴 PREMIERE 5PM ET on @EpochTV: https://youtu.be/q7Vwa-kJhTs

Avi Loeb just told me that humanity may have been visited by extraterrestrials in our distant past. “We don’t know the history of Earth.” “Documented human history is only 8,000 years old.” “The question is: what introduced life here on Earth?” “Maybe it was an interstellar gardener.” “We’ve been searching for 65 years for radio signals, but that’s just like waiting for a phone call.” “In fact, we do not use radio communication as much as we did a century ago.” https://rumble.com/v7725js-has-humanity-been-visited-by-extraterrestrials-in-the-past-avi-loeb.html

President Trump seems to be on the brink of disclosing government secrets about extraterrestrial life. And President Obama just admitted that he believes it exists. So I sat down with physicist Avi Loeb to ask why the government has been so cagey about UFOs for decades. Here’s his response: “There are two ways of getting to this evidence.” “It’s either in the hands of government, because the U.S. government was monitoring the sky and the oceans for many decades.” “The defense budget is huge. It’s close to $1 trillion for 2026.” “In the process of collecting a lot of data, they may have noticed unusual phenomena.” Watch our full interview below: https://ept.ms/4us4Bxc

Astrophysicist Avi Loeb says AI could be viewed as a form of alien intelligence. But he believes humanity will ultimately learn far more from encountering real alien intelligence. “You might view AI systems as alien intelligence because they are made of computer chips … silicon chips, and not from flesh and blood.” “So you might say, okay, well, AI is a form of alien intelligence.” “But we can learn much more from a truly alien intelligence.” “All the AI systems that we develop were trained on experiences here on Earth.” “However, alien intelligence might have benefited from experiences well beyond Earth in interstellar space.” “And I think we will learn much more from that encounter than from our AI systems here on Earth.” https://rumble.com/v77101s-is-ai-a-form-of-alien-intelligence-avi-loeb.html

Is there intelligent life out there? Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb hopes there is. “I'm searching for a higher intelligence. I don't often find it here on Earth,” he told Jan. Loeb is not your typical astronomer. For many years, he’s been scouring the universe for the abnormal and the unknown. “Brushing anomalies under the carpet of traditional thinking,” as he put it, is anathema for him. In 2021, Loeb founded the Harvard-based Galileo Project to speed up the scientific search for evidence of extraterrestrial objects. Since then, Loeb has been supervising the building of three state-of-the-art observatories in the US: one in Massachusetts, one in Pennsylvania and one in Nevada. They make use of machine learning models to identify unexplained anomalies and use triangulation to infer the distance of objects from earth. 🔴 PREMIERE 9PM ET on @EpochTV: https://ept.ms/4us4Bxc

“They treat this really peaceful, loving people of faith like guinea pigs.” Bob Fu says the Chinese Communist Party’s treatment of Christians resembles some of the worst abuses in modern history. “They cage you in the concentration camp to the mind control transformation centers all over China.” “And I think basically they’re doing the same kind of practice and experiment like the Nazis to the Jews in the 1930s to 40s.” https://rumble.com/v76v3kg-the-ccps-war-on-christians-pastor-bob-fu.html For a look into the dark world of religious suppression under the CCP, watch my interview with Bob Fu below👇 https://youtu.be/DSiOEmqX4uU

The CCP is torturing peaceful Christians. Bob Fu shared haunting stories with me of women recounting what happened to them. “I received a stack of handwritten testimonies about torture from mostly a group of Christian ladies who were tortured in the most inhumane nature.” “From strip off their clothes, totally naked, to like 8 electric shock batons touching, torturing them from the head to toe, and including their private parts.” “One lady even described she was taken to a provincial police academy… 4 or 5 policemen… basically made her naked and started torturing her.” “She was crying out, basically asking the Lord to take her life… she said she would rather to be in the presence of the Lord than being tortured that way.” “Then all of a sudden, an electric shock baton was put into her mouth… and she passed out.” The persecution of Christians by the CCP is something the world needs to know about. Bob Fu breaks it down in this interview below 👇 https://youtu.be/DSiOEmqX4uU

“Their goal is to really eradicate Christian faith, from the map of China.” Bob Fu says the Chinese Communist Party is actively trying to eliminate Christianity in China. But he believes history shows they will fail. “But we all know they will fail and fail miserably because historically, how many Caesars in Roman Empire tried but failed miserably?” “And even in the history of People’s Republic of China, multiple political leaders have tried, but again, failed miserably.” “And even the revival of the church has happened instead of demise or destruction of the church.” The attack on Christians by the CCP is something many people do not realize is happening. Peaceful Christians are being arrested or worse simply because of their faith. Bob Fu breaks this down in the interview below 👇 https://ept.ms/3OWKiYH

“Xi Jinping wants to play God. The Communist Party treats [Christians] as a threat to the regime's existence. The goal is to eradicate Christian faith from the map of China,” says Pastor Bob Fu. And Western-built technology may be helping the CCP in this endeavor. 🔴 PREMIERE 5PM ET on @EpochTV: https://ept.ms/3OWKiYH

Zineb Riboua warns that China’s rise to global dominance runs straight through Iran. She says Operation Epic Fury is now disrupting that strategy. “I would say that China cannot rise without having the United States weakened in one of the most important regions in the world, being the Middle East.” “Iran has been that tool.” “China has built Iran’s military arsenal.” “It has collaborated extensively with its proxies, especially the Houthis who are doing this blockade in the Red Sea.” “And reversing that calculus is what Operation Epic Fury is doing.” “And I think that this is absolutely crucial when watching the next events unfolding.” https://rumble.com/v76qugk-how-operation-epic-fury-has-disrupted-the-ccps-strategy-in-the-middle-east-.html

Many Americans are concerned that war with Iran could spiral into another forever war that distracts from adversaries like China. Zineb Riboua says the U.S. is taking steps to make sure that doesn’t happen. “The United States is destroying everything that would make that possible.” “Every single launcher, every single missile facility, their whole navy has been absolutely crushed.” “I was doing a brief assessment this morning… you can see that it’s about 2,000 targets so far, and they’re hitting even more.” “They’re absolutely in the business of making sure that even if the next Iran wants to, it just cannot.” “The military aspect… is that they are structurally going to be incapable of launching things in the future.” Many Americans are uneasy with what’s occurring in Iran currently. Zineb Riboua sat down with me for a short interview breaking down why she doesn’t hold this view: https://ept.ms/4bqDsTX

The recent conflict in the Middle East is widely seen as the United States and Israel versus Iran. But according to Zineb Riboua, the picture may be much bigger. Given the CCP’s deep role in building Iran’s military and surveillance infrastructure, it can also be viewed as a proxy confrontation between the United States and China. “China’s fingerprints are all over Iran’s military arsenal.” “When it comes to the missiles… The Chinese have been helping Iran get a lot of the chemical components that are very crucial for that arsenal.” “Iran does not really have the domestic capacity to produce those chemicals… so the Chinese really just stepped in and helped.” “I’ve been looking at the Chinese eagerness to export its surveillance model, its technology model.” “China has helped Iran’s whole telecommunications architecture.” “They reshaped it exactly as they would do in Beijing.” “Iran was able to use Chinese technology… so they could track very easily who wears a hijab or not… because they perfected it in Uyghur camps.” https://rumble.com/v76oxjq-why-the-iran-war-is-all-about-china-zineb-riboua.html

“The US went to war in Iran because Iran made itself a Chinese weapon,” policy analyst Zineb Riboua told us during our interview. According to her, the current war against Iran is “all about China.” In fact, she believes the U.S. is waging an indirect war with China right now. Riboua is the founder of the China in MENA Project which tracks Chinese influence and expansion across the Middle East and Africa. Is there a bigger dimension to this war that many are missing? “We have this tendency to just look at the countries involved… but there's a big player, and the big player here is China… China has been investing immensely in the region in the last two decades, ” And why has China been so keen on gaining strategic influence over the Middle East? It’s because the CCP understands, she said, that “China cannot rise without having the United States weakened in one of the most important regions in the world... Iran has been that tool.” 🔴https://ept.ms/4bqDsTX

U.S. regime change wars in Afghanistan and Iraq failed miserably. So I asked Gordon Chang: “What makes Iran different?” This was his response: “We’ve had [successful] regime change operations like Germany and Japan.” “I think the reason why Afghanistan and Iraq didn’t go well is because you didn’t have the secure environment in which business could come in and transform society.” “Iran is not Iraq.” “Iran has a tradition.” “That tradition was interrupted for 47 years by the theocratic regime, but the Iranian people will get this right.” “And we saw how many people in Iran wanted to be free.” https://rumble.com/v76imcm-gordon-chang-heres-why-iran-will-be-different-from-afghanistan-and-iraq.html Gordon Chang just broke down why President Trump’s decision to conduct massive strikes on Iran has much broader geopolitical implications than you think. Watch our full interview below to find out why: https://youtu.be/e-3cRrquknc

80% of Iranians oppose the theocratic regime. At the same time, U.S. support for regime-change wars is at an all-time low. I asked Gordon Chang to break down what this means for President Trump’s strikes in Iran: “That’s of course true.” “It’s true not only among Democrats, but also among Republicans.” “President Trump ran on … no more foreign wars.” “But there are times when presidents have to do what is absolutely necessary to protect the American public.” “President Trump decided, no, we were not going to allow these threats to gather.” “He’s ensuring peace in the long term because among other things, he has started a chain of events that probably will lead to the end of the Iranian regime.” “We, Americans, don’t understand that we are in an existential struggle with the Communist Party.” Iran is one of the CCP’s biggest allies. https://rumble.com/v76icju-regime-change-in-iran-gordon-chang-weighs-in..html Gordon Chang declared that America is in an “existential struggle” with the Chinese Communist Party. And he told me that the U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran are crushing China’s ambitions of power. Watch our full interview to find out why: https://youtu.be/e-3cRrquknc

“We haven’t allowed ourselves to understand the lengths to which the Chinese Communist Party will go to maintain and project power … ” The CCP’s forced organ harvesting industry reveals that its leaders are not just power-hungry. The CCP’s ideology is defined by true evil. Gordon Chang told me that Americans have “shied away from the accusations of organ harvesting because they were just too grotesque.” “American society has, for a number of reasons … shied away from this notion that there is evil.” “But organ harvesting, which you document in your book, is evil.” “One of the [reasons] why Ronald Reagan prevailed was because he was willing to say in public that the Soviet Union was the evil empire.” Now, Chang says, American leaders must face reality and make the same kind of declaration about the Chinese Communist Party. Watch our full interview below: https://youtu.be/e-3cRrquknc