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“Black Sails” part 1: Our Flag Means Freedom
MAJOR SPOILER WARNINGS FOR “Black Sails” seasons 1-4. “They paint the world full of shadows, then tell their children to stay close to the light. Their light. Their…
The Joan Birch Society
Consent-As-A-Service, Part 3 Part 1: “Manufacturing Consent Is So Last Century. Now, We Offer Consent-As-A-Service.” Part 2: “‘War’ Means Never Having To Say You’…
In The End, Everything Was Rent, part 1: The Riot Continues And The Christmas Tree Burns
When I was in high school and college, the Broadway musical Rent was sacrosanct; well, it was with theater kids, anyway. It’s not hard to see why —…
We Like Eich
We Win By Losing, Part 2 “There’s a reason Liberal institutions always insist on portraying the populations of enemy countries as being brainwashed, deceived by the powers that…
Democrats Always Planned To Lose The Battle For Abortion Rights
“We Win By Losing”, Part 1 Well, come on everybody, get into the spin Now that he’s been in for however long it’s been — from “Do The…
When the fire came
When the fire cameover the hilldid it pausethe flames hard as amber — still so hot silent as ash –It stood thereJust for a momentas it crested the…
Songs You Can Never Escape — “From A Distance” by Bette Midler
There’s a certain type of pop song. Everyone knows them but most people don’t know they know them, and the people who do know usually forget they know…
What’s The Point Of “Attack On Titan”, pt. 2: Flags Of Our Führers
The biggest shifts in perspective and tone came with the unveiling of the world outside Titan’s original setting. The world within the walls where Titan’s earliest acts took…
Consent-as-a-Service, part 2: “War” Means Never Having To Say You’re Sorry
On December 17, 2020, The New York Times published an Opinion piece called, “The Afghan War Is Over. Did Anyone Notice?” The editorial is credited to Elliot Ackerman,…
Trigger Warnings Are Not Apologies, part 1: Trigger Warnings Are A Good Thing
“There is something about making things beautiful, and we sometimes call that art, that has something to do with creating a commonality between human beings so that they…
Songs You Can Never Escape: “Drift Away” by Uncle Kracker
There’s a certain type of pop song. Everyone knows them, but most people don’t know they know them. Sometimes, even the people who remember one of these songs…
About “Psycho-Pass”, part 2: Data Control
The Sibyl System makes the paranoid, Patriot Act-inspired world of Spielberg’s Minority Report feel like a pretty chill and forgiving place; at least the cops arresting people for…
Little Witch Academia: Taking Up Childish Things
The 2017 anime Little Witch Academia does something I didn’t think any piece of fiction could do anymore: it made holding on to the memory of childhood toys…
About “Psycho-Pass”, part 1: Sibyl Society
Three detectives stand in a vacant apartment, barely furnished. The setting is stark: no decorations and little color, no real sign of life at all, except for the…
How To Fight Fascism By Giving It Everything It Wants And Then Complaining About It, Part 7
Despite its claims to be the only genuine voice for the “identities” of the marginalized, the more liberal identity politics attempts to engage with an issue or articulate…
Nick Lowe and the Charm of the Clever Pop Lyric
I wrote this about 10 years ago for another blog. I don’t listen to as much Nick Lowe now that me he mostly makes old man music (a…
How To Fight Fascism By Giving It Everything It Wants And Then Complaining About It, part 6
In 2012, Democrats blamed their critics for not understanding how the political system works and for failing to appreciate the principled brilliance behind Obama’s strategy of doing nothing,…
The Womanly Tragedy Of Johnny Sack
CONTENT WARNING: DISCUSSIONS OF MISOGYNY, VIOLENCE, RACISM It’s hard to sum up any character from The Sopranos with a short description. That’s the best thing about the show…
Jennifer Rubin Is Not A Victim, She’s Just Full Of Shit
Jennifer Rubin, a professional political commentator, feels like she’s a victim. The victim of a terrible crime; against women, against journalism, against democracy, and (most of all) agains…
Songs You Can Never Escape: “The Boys Of Summer” by Don Henley, Pt. 1: Take It To The Limit, Then Dump The Body
Intro There’s a certain type of pop song. Everyone knows them, but most people don’t know they know them, and the people who do usually forget they know…
How To Fight Fascism By Giving It Everything It Wants And Then Complaining About It, Part 5
Read part 1 hereRead part 2 here Read part 3 hereRead part 4 here “[The tenants of fascism are] the ideal of life as art, the dissolution of…
How To Fight Fascism By Giving It Everything It Wants And Then Complaining About It, part 4
When Talking Points editor Josh Marshall took his swing at Spencer, Spencer had already gotten into a back-and-forth with foreign policy journalist Eli Lake. Lake kicked off what…
How To Fight Fascism By Giving It Everything It Wants And Then Complaining About It, pt. 3
There’s another reason the Biergarten scene from Cabaret makes a great example of the political and cultural dynamics of fascism in action, and another example of Liberalism’s impotence…
Review – “Monster”
I wrote this a long time ago, for a blog that no longer exists (it’s for the best, trust me). I can’t remember if I ever published it…
How To Fight Fascism By Giving It Everything It Wants And Then Complaining About It, Part 2
Read part 1 here There’s a scene in Cabaret (1972, dir. Bob Fosse), the film adaptation of the stage musical of the same name, that perfectly captures how…
How To Fight Fascism By Giving It Everything It Wants And Then Complaining About It, Part 1
On the radio the other day, I heard two reporters discussing the campaign strategy of California gubernatorial hopeful John Cox. Cox, a businessman and the Republican Party’s candidate…
“The Atlantic” Is Where Aspiring Centrist Toadies Audition For Their Masters
Conor Friedersdorf is an even bigger intellectual coward and moral cretin than most editorialists for The Atlantic. And that’s really saying something. Pictured: The Atlantic. That’s it…
“The Atlantic” Is Where Aspiring Centrist Toadies Audition For Their Masters
Conor Friedersdorf is an even bigger intellectual coward and moral cretin than most editorialists for The Atlantic. And that’s really saying something. Pictured: The Atlantic. That’s it…
“The Atlantic” Is New Atheist YouTube For Centrists, And Connor Friedersdorf Is Its Thunderf00t
Conor Friedersdorf is an even bigger intellectual coward and moral cretin than most editorialists for The Atlantic. And that’s really saying something. Pictured: The Atlantic. That’s it…
“The Atlantic” Is Where Aspiring Toadies Audition For Their Masters
Conor Friedersdorf is an even bigger intellectual coward and moral cretin than most editorialists for The Atlantic. And that’s really saying something. Pictured: The Atlantic. That’s it…
“Hamilton” Is “The Passion of the Christ” For Liberals
“Hamilton is the only thing Dick Cheney and I agree on.”– Barack Obama, 44th President Of The United States (2009-2016) “Well, my name’s A-Ham and I’m here to…
Reactionary Fandom And The Myth Of The Snyder Cut, Chapter 5: Zack Snyder, Destroyer Of Myth
“For me, for the filmmakers I came to love and respect, for my friends who started making movies around the same time that I did, cinema was about…
Reactionary Fandom And The Myth Of The Snyder Cut, Chapter 4: Unlike The Snyder Cut, Superheroes Are Not Myths
CONTENT WARNING: DESCRIPTIONS OF VIOLENCE, MISOGYNY, ABUSE Previously: how the myth of The Snyder Cut became a reality. Like “art,” “review,” “representation,” &…
Reactionary Fandom And The Myth Of The Snyder Cut, Chapter 3: The Joss Whedon’s Career Memorial Fund
Previously: Avengers assemble to defeat the critic menace. Since the fandomization of pop culture began, critics have protested the growing and widespread anti-intellectual hostility towards them a…
Reactionary Fandom And The Myth Of The Snyder Cut, Chapter 2: The Superhero Revolution Will Not Be Criticized
Click here for Chapter 1: “The Nerd Cultural Revolution.” It’s no coincidence that the release of The Avengers in 2012, two years before GamerGate, marked both the beginning…
Reactionary Fandom And The Myth Of The Snyder Cut, Chapter 1: The Nerd Cultural Revolution
It’s not easy being a movie critic these days. Critics who truly understand the purpose of art criticism, or even what criticism is, are a dying species. More…
It’s A GamerGate World, And The Rest Of Us Have To Live In It
In 2014, the “consumer rebellion” called GamerGate began. Using social media to organize and spread their message, a group of self-identified “Gamers” decided to let the who…
Manufacturing Consent Is So Last Century. Now, We Offer Consent-As-A-Service.
Don’t wait! Call 1-888-MAR-TLAW now to make sure YOUR voice is heard. Has it ever been government policy to make decisions about where troops are stationed in American…
“Do You Remember Love?” In 3-Part Multimedia Harmony, pt. 3
Click here for PART 1: “DO YOU REMEMBER LOVE?” AND “SDF MACROSS” AS A SYNTHESIS OF TWO GENERATIONS OF ARTISTS. Click here for PART 2: A LOOK AT…
“Do You Remember Love?” In 3-Part Multimedia Harmony, pt. 2
“Macross” series* creator Shoji Kawamori Click here for PART 1: “DO YOU REMEMBER LOVE?” AND “SDF MACROSS” AS A SYNTHESIS OF TWO GENERATIONS OF ARTISTS. Click her…
“Do You Remember Love?” In 3-Part Multimedia Harmony, pt. 1
Read Part 2 here. Read Part 3 here. CONTENT WARNING: DESCRIPTIONS OF WAR, ABUSE, MISOGYNY, QUEERPHOBIA SPOILERS FOR THE MACROSS SERIES, THE AQUARION SERIES, ESCAFLOWNE The 1984 anime…
About That Time “South Park” Called Mel Gibson A Jew-Hating, Fascist Lunatic Before It Was Cool
CONTENT WARNING: depictions/mentions of antisemitism, homophobia, racism, sexism, and all the other things that give people good reason to not like South Park and/or Mel Gibson. I don’t…
Afterward: There is Nothing Brave About J.K. Rowling’s Bigotry
This article wasn’t supposed to be that long. Originally, it was just going to be about The Russell Prize and Amol Rajan’s terrible, terrible writing, which would then…
There is Nothing Brave About J.K. Rowling’s Bigotry
J.K. Rowling has a lot of defenders. A decade and a half after the Harry Potter novels finished publication, Rowling has kept herself in the public consciousness by,…
Godzilla at the End of History
In a recent article in Forbes, titled The Critics Are Wrong About Godzilla: King Of The Monsters, Senior Contributor Paul Tassi repackages the faux-populism of YouTube gutter pundits…
The Campy Masculinity of Steve Martin
I thrill when I drill a bicuspid.It’s swell, though they tell me I’m maladjusted…But somewhere, somewhere above me,I know,I know that my Momma’s proud of me.Excerpted from &…
This Is What It Sounds Like When Pigs Cry
In late May and early June 2020, police departments across the country found themselves in a humiliating position. After decades of getting drunk on unchecked power and total…
Let’s Talk About “Us”: The Myth of a Unified Front and the Sliding Scale of Solidarity
The greatest moment of Left unity in decades happened on April 8th, 2020, the day Bernie Sanders officially announced he was suspending his campaign to become the Democratic…