Come on you apes! Do you want to live forever? Also has thoughts on Twin Peaks, Robocop (1987), Total Recall (1990), The Proposition (2005), Napoleon (2024), and Far Cry 3 (which really wasn’t very good, 4 is the best game in the franchise by a significant margin, followed by 2 with Dylan’s Realism Mod).
Here are all the podcast episodes available now (most are paywalled):
Ep1: Redditors of the Reddit Moon (Paid)
Ep2: Robocop: Rogue City review (Free)
Ep3: "War to the Knife" takes a shit on your stupid Civil War 2 fantasy (Free)
Ep4: "The Glorious Cause" is the best book on the American Revolution (that I've found) (Free)
Ep5: Your opinion on The Killer (2023) determines whether or not you have bad taste (Paid)
Ep6: Bitter master director Ridley Scott takes his time shitting out historical epic no one wanted (Free)
Ep7: This is the one (1) movie that you absolutely need to watch literally right now (Paid)
Ep8: Revenge thriller episode (Paid)
Ep9: Ride with the Devil (1999) is the best Civil War movie that I know you haven't seen yet (Free)
Ep10: 🚨ALERT🚨 Japanese launch devastating surprise attack on moviegoers' heartstrings (Paid)
Ep11: Total Recall (1990) was the sci-fi slaughterhouse America needed and deserved (Paid)
Ep12: I watched a bunch of the new DailyWire+ original movies last week... (Paid)
Ep13: If you don't force your family to watch this movie for Christmas, they will despise you (Paid)
Ep14: Emergency surprise free Christmas review of the Prometheus Engineer chronicles (2012) (Free)
Ep16: Someone finally made a good Afghanistan War movie and nobody noticed (Paid)
Ep17: If you don't watch this new movie in theaters, you are betraying me and yourself (Paid)
Ep18: Michael Mann’s Ferrari is the death-song of Esoteric Boomerism (Heat is overrated btw) (Paid)
Ep19: This forgotten Russian Civil War memoir shows why "Ruralite retreat" localism is dumb (Free)
Ep20: "In ‘First Man,’ Triumph for White Male Dreams" -The Harvard Crimson (Paid)
Ep21: Hunt: Showdown is a late 1800s horror-shooter that simulates normal life in Maryland (Paid)
Here are the paid-exclusive history articles:
Communists opened fire on a Veteran's Day parade in Washington, 1919. 4 dead, 4 wounded (Paid) - Details the Centralia Massacre, a mass shooting committed by members of the far left labor union the International Workers of the World, and the subsequent cover-up which saw all of the shooters legally exonerated on dubious grounds and then released from prison
Forgotten Counterrevolution: The Boston Police Strike of 1919 (Paid) - Recounts the infamous 1919 Boston Police Strike, three days of terror inflicted on Boston by an alliance of immigrants, labor unions, and street criminals that were only ended by State Guardsmen and rightwing vigilantes flooding the city
America’s “Fighting Mayor” vs the 1919 Seattle General Strike (Paid) - Provides an introduction to the 1919 Seattle General Strike, which in my mind represents a good “opening shot” to the failed (and largely forgotten) leftist revolution attempted in 1919. The crisis was successfully resolved due to the heroic efforts of Mayor Ole Hanson, a very interesting figure in his own right who is also profiled in the article
In March 1914, socialist mobs invaded and shook-down churches all over New York City (Paid) - Provides an introduction to the socialist/anarchist International Workers of the World union by detailing a series of violent “protests” they staged in New York City during an economic downturn, targeting local churches. It turns out that people didn’t like the “Wobblies” for pretty understandable reasons
Anarchists almost blew up St. Patrick's Cathedral in 1915 (Paid) - Gives an introduction to anarchist terrorism of the period by recounting the fall of the “Bresci Circle” after a conspiracy to blow up a cathedral in New York City was discovered and infiltrated by the (then brand-new) NYPD bomb squad. The investigation itself is interesting but the trial afterwards, in which liberal lawyers created a bogus civil rights controversy to distract from the bombings, is perhaps more revealing
Sacco and Vanzetti were always guilty (Paid) - Provides an overview of the Sacco and Vanzetti case, placing it within the context of the surrounding leftwing terror wave and other unrest. Although a “wrongfully accused” narrative has been built around the pair over the last century, it turns out that the evidence against them was pretty overwhelming and they were both members of a terrorist network
The 1932 Bonus Army scandal was always communist propaganda (Paid) - Gives a rundown of the infamous gathering of 20,000 veterans with 20,000 other followers in Washington, DC that ended with the US military running everyone out at bayonet point. Surprise: it was a communist psyop
How Marshal Mannerheim saved his country by quitting and telling everyone to fuck off (Paid) - An introduction to the 1918 Finnish Civil War (more on this to come) and the actions that led to Marshal Mannerheim, the national hero of Finland, rising to his role of supreme commander of anti-communist forces
I’m happy because I love you
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The 'discourse' surrounding this movie was so stupid. Verhoeven is too smart a guy and too talented an artist to make an unambiguous movie on a topic like this. There *is* a tension between the plebeian dictates of a democracy, tending always towards universal mediocrity, and the brutality but beauty of a warrior aristocracy. He's not the first person to have noticed that!
That tension was obscured for a while in the mass affluence of the 20th century but it's an unalterable truth about human nature. American pop culture (i.e. propaganda of a subtle kind) has made many people instinctually leap to the defense of "democracy" and "rights", but if libs really want to embrace "this is just the price of freedom" style rhetoric for a rapidly decaying society, eventually a lot of people are going to start wondering if the price is too high.
Verhoeven's movies are immune to the "media literacy" discourse—which is just reducing everything to leftwing talking points—because they're just so over the top. Like sure you could write your shitty college paper about fascist imagery in Starship Troopers or whatever but then the joke would just be on you. At the end of the day, it's a popcorn flick made by a fun and smart director who knows what he's doing. Taking it too seriously says zero about the actual movie and much more about what a joyless, dour, and probably physically ugly/weak schoolmarm you are
Pros:
- twin peaks
- rat man
- downton abbey
Cons:
- unwashed free subscribers
Another free episode huh...
That's it
Mr. Abbott sir send 100000 more...no 1000000 more illegals from the border to Maine...we must destroy mystery grove once and for all in shitty overpriced third worlder food restaurants with non existent food safety and cleanliness standards
>goodhearted but misguided Ruralite Retreat advocate, laying shredded on the ground, legs attached by a scrap of flesh, as the libtard horde's onslaught continues:
"Mystery Grove, YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO!"
"....."
"DO IT, MG!"
"yes sir!" *BANG*
I’m doing my part! ( not paying mystery grove 5 dollars )
I’m thinking we’re back
I would say that the Starship Troopers world is more brutal but it actually has a message with its brutality. So, it teaches the enlisted to trust authority and not to take for granted the use of his limbs. It teaches it in a way that he will never forget (also this dovetails with the lesson in the novel about how pain is the best teacher). In our society, we have similar brutality but without any message or moral. So some normie will tell some teen to turn down their music on the subway and then be knived to death or thrown onto the tracks. Starship Troopers show controlled brutality in the advancement and protection of society, hence why it’s hard to see it as a mocking satire!
From the book (Chapter 8): "Man has no moral instinct. He is not born with moral sense. You were not born with it, I was not- and a puppy has none. We acquired moral sense, when we do, through training, experience, and hard sweat of the mind...The instinct to survive...can be cultivated...while a judge should be benevolent in purpose, his awards should cause the criminal to suffer, else there is no punishment-and pain is the basic mechanism built into us by millions of years of evolution which safeguards us by warning when something threatens our survival. Why should society refuse to use such a highly perfected survival mechanism?"
I'm doing my Part, something a non Subscriber couldnt say. U guys are the non citizen, the scum who gives the commie bugs a fighting chance.
Free subscribers get 10 lashes...
I unironically want to live in the starship troopers world. Yes there should be public lashings and executions of criminals. Yes voting should be made meaningful by tying service and sacrifice to it.
Reading through the book now, Mr. Dubois' musings are hitting too close to reality especially for a book over 50 years old(?)
"Media Literacy" is classic leftist skin suit legitimacy, passed down a standard deviation or two to the hordes of sub-midwit keyboard warriors (smug soyjack) who grasp very little of it beyond the general instinct that The Good is actually BAD.
Mocking these people and pointing out their obvious dishonesty is fun of course, but the larger problem seems to be a complete lack of any serious engagement with these works that isn't deranged and retarded. Essentially all vaguely mainstream "analysis" of art/literature/media/culture is an exercise in forcing everything through a small set of Marxoid sieves until the leftist pink slime comes out the other end. Occasionally worthwhile insight can survive this process, but not much.
Conservatives gave up cultural authority and Media Literacy Production without much of a fight at all, convinced that they were focusing on the more Serious and Important issues. What remains are these stupid viral meme battles.
I love that the new front is the right enjoying movies and pulling positive messages from them. Meanwhile the left freaks out anytime you point out even a slightly right-wing message from anything. It's like they can't enjoy it anymore
I give this man money yet, he keeps saving me more. Kinda bummed, actually wanted to go watch the movie next week. Now it goes into the line of highly anticipated movies like the Scorsese (6/10) and Napoleon (not seen) one might watch at home.
The comment at the end about how filmmakers need to temper their "big idea" and focus on making enjoyable art is one reason a lot of "creator's follow-ups" are relative disappointments -- Roddenberry thinks the magic of Star Trek is about space liberalism, Peter Jackson thinks the magic of Middle Earth is in its Marvel campiness. Comedians reflect on their funny sets sprinkled with serious thoughts, decide the seriousness is what sets them apart, and stop telling jokes in favour of just boring moralising.
Dunno if it's good on net. Maybe you can have your cake and eat it -- Verhoeven's ideological moderation in favour of watchable movies didn't mean paint-by-numbers, and much truly fresh, surprising art isn't self-indulgent.
This isn’t right. I paid for my subscription so you could keep putting up good work. Other people are getting it for free. This is stealing they are stealing from me.
This is just like Russia in the civil war…
The war seems similar to the US war in the pacific in world war 2.
Humans antagonize bugs, bugs retaliate with major surprise attack on human homeworld.
Initial surprising large defeat at klandathu (wake, Philippines, Singapore)
Massive victory at planet P (Guadalcanal) launching the planet hopping campaign for which the bugs clearly do not have the resources to compete. Yes, able to inflict severe losses on the humans, but that they are winning and going to win appears never in doubt. The humans appear to have a multiplanet empire and likely near limitless resources and are still employing small units to take on entire planets.
Hell yeah
It's such a damn shame that we didn't get more movies in Verhoeven's golden age. Robocop, Total Recall, Screamers, Starship Troopers, he just doesn't miss.
So if the Federation is fascist then does that make the bugs communist?
I watched the movie last night and listened to this podcast episode again. It seems like an incredible “congratulations you’ve played yourself” moment when shitlibs advocate for the bugs over humanity. The Federation managed to bring law, order and harmony between races, sexes, and classes across the globe. Meanwhile, the bugs are actively colonizing other planets across the solar system. The irony (especially in 2024) is hard to ignore.
Someone should make a bell curve meme showing the extremes enjoying the movie at face value and the crying midwits screaming “nooo! It’s satire!”