Weekly Round-up 3/29/2024
The world at your fingertips
Hello everyone,
Things have been very busy for the Substack and me personally since we last did one of these. Aside from my rebranding the Substack as a Dune 2 podcast, the biggest new development was probably the release of my incredible guide to media literacy for conservatives, an educational article so profoundly helpful and enlightening that in a just society it would be required reading for high school students.
After that we had three new podcasts: the first was a re-review of Dune 2 on second viewing (spoiler: it was still terrible). The second was another Dune 2 episode, this time comparing the modern Dune adaptation to the Lord of the Rings movies, which are some of my favorite films. Finally, there was a review of the original Roadhouse and the modern remake by the same name which focuses on the myth vs cartoon tone failure that you see in so many modern “reimaginings” of classic media properties.
The four most recent podcast episodes were exclusive to paid subscribers, and I have at least 3 more paid-exclusive episodes in the hopper (one on a mystery new movie in theaters now, the next on S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow on Chernobyl, and then finally one on weird health topics). Going forward pretty much all new content on this Substack is going to be paid-exclusive. There’s been a lot of growth in paid subscribers lately and the comments sections are now buzzing. Becoming a paid subscriber only takes $5 a month, there’s a lot of content available, and every single new subscription really does help me out a lot. Please, upgrade to a paid subscription right now.
Last but not least, there was a short update to my Obligatory Contrarian Take on the Texas Border Crisis after the recent judicial developments (as of today the law is on hold). I think maintaining very narrow focus on the issue of illegal immigration and avoiding direct confrontations that have any chance of escalating into other areas is key to navigating this crisis. This is going to require a lot of bureaucratic and legal maneuvering/infrastructure building. Republicans have to learn to (figuratively) shoot to kill when dealing with civilizational problems. People are way too excitable (and therefore easily frustrated) these days.
If you want to see how the Dune 2 saga began, you can listen to the initial (free) review of Dune 2 after I first saw it in theaters. This is now the most listened-to episode of the podcast, narrowly overtaking my (great) review of the book “War to the Knife,” on the Bleeding Kansas crisis before the Civil War.
So that’s all I’ve got. Links to all podcast episodes and paid-exclusive history articles below. Hope you’re all doing well. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky was good btw.
Oh, and also check out these reviews of the movies Witness (1985) and The Outpost (2020). Underrated gems of episodes.
Dune 2 content:
Ep23: Dune 2 was unironically really bad and you’re actually stupid if you enjoyed it (Free)
Ep25: Returning to the scene of the crime against cinema, the Dune 2 rewatch episode (Paid)
Ep26: I rewatched The Lord of the Rings and all I could think about was how bad Dune 2 was (Paid)
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)
Ep22: COMBAT DROP! Surprise Emergency Free Starship Troopers (1997) Sunday Show (Free)
Ep23: Dune 2 was unironically really bad and you’re actually stupid if you enjoyed it (Free)
Ep24: Witness (1985) is a masterclass in the lost art of the popular thriller (Paid)
Ep25: Returning to the scene of the crime against cinema, the Dune 2 rewatch episode (Paid)
Ep26: I rewatched The Lord of the Rings and all I could think about was how bad Dune 2 was (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
That media literacy article is great. Worth a reread too