A reader writes:
Hi there,
Came across a blog post you made about the degredation of nerd culture since the 90’s. I’ve kind of been waking up to the evident corporate hijacking of nerd culture vehicles more and more, and now I can’t even enjoy watching a film anymore for the most part – I went to see Marvel Avengers Endgame and I was just there in the movie theatre, and for the first time I felt so alone, alienated, isolated – it was literally not a movie. There was no real conflict or narrative. Just a mish mash of images/ characters/ impressive vistas. It was like a shitty porn or something – I can’t even explain. And it had this shitty beta humour going through it all an their new ‘heroine’ is a soulless arrogant excuse for a heroine
I felt like I was in a movie threatre in the Brave New World universe but I didn’t have my hand on the feelie mitt.
I’ve felt this scourge wash over a lot of entertainment, even other forms of culture nowadays – its crazy but once you see it, you see it everywhere. It’s pathetic. Star wars, marvel, dc, comic/nerd culture, harry potter… its not the same, its been hijacked and there seems to be something very odd about it, I feel like everything isn’t the same, and no one is awake…
My reply:
Your experiences with recent installments of Avengers, Star Wars, the DC Cinematic Universe, etc. are not isolated incidents. I am in daily contact with people who feel exactly the same way.
Over the years I’ve written numerous posts chronicling the collapse of pop culture and the reasons for its decline. In the interests of time, I can boil it down to two causes.
1) The West’s abandonment of Christianity
Whether or not Christianity is true isn’t relevant here. The Christian faith formed an indispensable pillar of Western civilization and fueled our cultural works. Look at Notre Dame Cathedral. It took over two centuries to build. The original architect began the project knowing he’d never see it completed. Nor would his grandchildren. Nobody in the West has that kind of cultural confidence anymore.
Why not? A twisted shadow of Christianity rose up in the Modern period to challenge the faith it split off from. This Christian heresy has gone by a lot of names, and it changes its name frequently to disguise itself, but its core dogmas are that human nature is malleable, people can be perfected through science, policy, and economics, and that personal license must be maximized without any reference to good or evil. This heretical cult originally rose up to shake Christians from their complacency and challenge them to fight for their beliefs. Instead of fighting, most Christians chose to accommodate the heretics and lost their culture.
After winning control of the West, adherents of this heresy devoured the Christians’ rich store of cultural capital until there was nothing left. That’s why you felt like you were watching a disjointed series of images with no unifying story. The heretics have taken over, and since they have a purely parasitic relationship with original Christian culture, they cannot create new cultural works. They can only imitate and destroy. They are incapable of devising an original vision of their own since opposition to Christ defines them. That is why the situation in Hollywood and all other areas of the established entertainment industry can only get worse.
You might be skeptical. After all, most of the people Disney and Marvel pander to would describe themselves as irreligious. I had my doubts too, until I started asking these people to say they believe in Jesus. They could even lie if they wanted, but I made continuing the conversation dependent upon them mentioning Jesus in a positive light. To this day, none of them have taken me up on it. Every single one of them has quit the conversation rather than mention Jesus Christ in a non-disparaging manner. Again, for this explanation to be true, it’s not necessary to believe in Jesus, but they clearly do–and they hate him.
2) Conservatives’ surrender of cultural institutions
Long story short, the Conservative capitalists who used to run Hollywood and the record and publishing industries sold out to the cult. They let short-term profits come before long-term cultural influence.
You don’t have to look that far back for a perfect example of Conservative betrayal in action. PayPal was started by Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. Neither of them are rabid SJWs, but the people they sold their company to regularly ban people whose politics basically align with Elon Musk and Peter Thiel.
1+2=Clown World.
Incidentally, if you want to read a sci-fi novel that doesn’t assume mankind will “grow out” of religion, but instead bases its world building on projections of actual demographic and sociological trends, check out my new martial thriller Combat Frame XSeed.
What movie was this guy watching? Cause it wasn't Endgame. Not the one I saw anyway.
I can't argue that culture and entertainment's a mess nowadays, but I'll speak in defense of Infinity War and Endgame Those ones should be rewarded with, if not your money, then at least your time in watching it.
In particular re: Endgame, I left the theater relieved and – yes – grateful that they closed it out without capitulating to SJW garbage and invalidating the characters and promoting their idiot agenda ala Last Jedi and the rest.
And it would have been so easy to destroy the franchise at the last minute by degrading the established characters (they did this a little with Thor, but it was organic to where he left off in Infinity War and he got to redeem himself) and having Captain Insufferable Bitch but in and show the losers how it's done: the (surviving) characters had just suffered a horrific loss, and they dealt with it and came back strong for a hard-earned victory that brought a smile to my face.
Perhaps the most delicious moment of all was that while the directors were apparently mandated to do some feminist pandering and include Captain Bitch, the grl pwr moment was so out of nowhere, so ham-fisted, such obvious pandering, that it was an obvious slap in the face to the SJWs, and best of all, the Charge of the Bitch Brigade utterly, utterly fails.
As for Thanos, I'm officially saying it now: he's a better archvillain than Palpatine. Thanos smacked down the Designated Feminist Icon Heroine, while Palpatine, like the rest, will probably be effortlessly stomped by Rey.
So watch Endgame. Needless to say, don't bother watching any more after that.
"So watch Endgame."
No
“So watch Engame.”
Don’t give money to people who hate you.
Don’t consume that which poisons your body, mind and/or soul.
The lack of maturity in the West is killing us. We can’t stop consuming cultural garbage, so we can’t think clearly. We can’t stop eating garbage, so we get sick and fat. We can’t stop masturbating or fornicating, so we can’t love. On and on it goes.
Quit being a slave to your appetite, to your dopamine. Live a life truly free by embracing the Cross.
I didn't say pay for it, I said watch it.
And Thanos smacking down Captain Marvel and having to be stopped by the real heroes was the final defiance of terminal wokeness. Everything afterward will be propaganda, but we finally have a franchise that's closed out with gusto.
Look, we get it. Taking a marketing job with Disney and phoning it in is a creative way to starve the beast.
To better fool your corporate overseers, I suggest a change of venue. Have you tried Reddit?
There's been over ten years of these movies. I don't feel the need to see another one.
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I wouldn't care how good of a review my most trusted friends might give this movie, I am religiously opposed to Disney. If they want me back as a paying customer they are going to have to do a lot more than kick dirt onto the shoes of the witches.
Your incantations have no power here. Be gone
This is amazing: https://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/972/607/589/
I'm seriously considering signing it just to do more damage to Marvel/Disney/et. al.
Besides, the real Captain Marvel is Billy Batson.
Wokeness is a Red Queen’s Race
Signed!
It's not a movie; it's a "lifestyle brand".
And that sums up every problem with pop culture in two words.
Did you see the branding material that leaked from production meetings on the Sonic movie?
I have. We're well past the days of creating products for customers and have shifted to creating a personality for fanatics.
It's all so tiring.
A few months ago I left a comment about an FX studio having let go their in-house art department in favor of outsourcing previz creative duties, and to garner potentially lucrative deals with larger studio projects.
Consider Sonic the direct fruit of that decision.
Let me rephrase that: Sonic is the direct result of that decision.
Fitting twist of fate is that the initial film deal they got directly after shuttering their employees, it got them the acclaim and notice they (the studio) were looking for. Unfortunately, the attention they received from Hollywood was "These schmegs can do big budget projects at almost half the cost."
Which, if they're not getting reimbursed for the last-minute demanded revisions on Sonic and every scene that he's in, means that this project will end up like their many, many others before: In the red.
Irony of ironies, big studio ditches its artists, only to yearn like a greenhorn itself for that next breakthrough gig to gain credibility with the big boys. And never fully receiving it.
Piscem vorat maior mionorum.
I haven't seen the movie yet, but I have heard from people I trust that it was a very good ending to the MCU saga. From what I gather though, it's a big swan dive into a burning dumpster from now on. The articles I've read suggest diversity (in all its flaming glory) is the only thing the next movies will really be focused on. They won't be the least bit entertaining, but the DVD and Blue Ray disks will make excellent coasters.
Discussing the quality of these movies is just more misdirection.
Who cares if the propaganda designed to destroy you is well written, acted, and photographed?
“That porno had great acting, a good plot and excellent cinematography!”
It’s still porn, you twit.
It's neither well written nor directed.
Convincing Thor to rejoin the cause with "there's bee-eerrr"; Saldana's sister shooting her in-the-past self when threatening the cause… these are deadline's-in-an-hour writing decisions.
There is no directing in Hollywood anymore; it's selecting – selecting pretty shots composed by a capable DP. A pure unadulterated turd wearing an expensive bowtie.
"There is no directing in Hollywood anymore…"
There really isn't. Just look at the other big franchise helmed by JJ "Superficial Spielbergisms & Lens Flare" Abrams.
"Every single one of them has quit the conversation rather than mention Jesus Christ in a non-disparaging manner"
I recently read "On the Incarnation" by Saint Athanasius and he makes a similar point to show that Christ is the Son of God and not a demon or magician, as some pagans then claimed.
"In the very presence of the fraud of demons and the imposture of the oracles and the wonders of magic, let him use the sign of the cross which they all mock at, and but speak the Name of
Christ, and he shall see how through Him demons are routed, oracles cease, and all magic and witchcraft is confounded."
"But since the fact is, here again, that at the mere naming of His Name, all madness of the demons is rooted out and put to flight…"
All true. It's a testimony against my weak faith that I didn't take the great Church Father's advice sooner.
That Athanasius had to address those same attacks on Jesus shows that there's nothing new about new atheism. They just add the historically illiterate assertion, ridiculous on its face to anyone who grew up before the 1960s, that Christ never existed. It's far more credible to say that Socrates didn't exist.
To lend unnecessary support to the saint's argument, the martyrs put paid to the, "Jesus was really a demon," slander.
If Jesus were a magician, His teachings would revolve around seeking material goods, like the prosperity gospel or the Satanic Temple. Magic is the attempt to use preternatural means to achieve natural ends. The Church Christ founded instead uses natural means to attain supernatural ends.
Atheism gains through ignorance. There are no new challenges to the faith being presented, it has all been answered before.
I would not be surprised if the ignorance has been helped along by the enemies of Christ. How many apologias are locked out to us because it has yet to be translated or said book is out of publication? Or said book is so old and the failure to transmit that said book exists has memories holed it even though a pdf of the book is on the internet archive?
And then there is the attention span. Most would rather swallow the shallow atheist positions rather than read a book that blows the falsities out of the water. “If you can’t explain how dumb Dawkins is in 150 characters, well TLDR, I hate your skydaddy!”
This is an issue I myself have to deal with, but in the category of spiritual reading. I still would rather listen to a Dr Taylor Marshall and Timothy Gordon Youtube/podcast than finally get past the third chapter of St Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises.
Not only are there no new arguments against God's existence, there are no arguments against God's existence.
Roosh mentioned Romans 1:25-27 on Twitter a few weeks ago and the feeling of "Yes! They knew it!"
"On the Incarnation" is like that…but for the whole book.
Athanasius also dunks on the Greek philosopher-pagans, who were the fedora-tippers of his day. I laughed as I read this — truly there is nothing new under the sun!
"Let the Greeks tell us, whose only serious pursuit is mockery!"
"As to Greek wisdom, however, and the philosophers' noisy talk, I really think no one requires argument from us; for the amazing fact is patent to all that, for all that they had written so much, the Greeks failed to convince even a few from their own neighborhood in regard to immortality and the virtuous ordering of life. Christ alone, using common speech and through the agency of men not clever with their tongues, has convinced whole assemblies of people all the world over…"
Athanasius, of course, was Greek-educated and brilliant in his own right, which ties into Vox Day's remarks about Western Christendom requiring the Nations, Greco-Roman philosophical traditions, *and* Truth. You can't have just one or two. Otherwise you get "noisy talk" with no there there.
I mentally checked out of the first Avengers movie 20 minutes in as soon as it was clear that every single character was The Snarky One.
What's next for Hollywierd to ruin? They made Star Wars and superheroes terrible and boring.
"I mentally checked out of the first Avengers movie 20 minutes in as soon as it was clear that every single character was The Snarky One."
To save you some time in future, you can check out as soon as you see, "Written by Joss Whedon."
But muh brilliant lines! Muh male feminist!
The less Joss has to do with a project, the better it is. At best he's an idea guy, not a "talented writer."
I should have learned my lesson after watching that terrible "Serenity" movie.
Apparently they walkes into the wrong theater and didn't see Endgame. Oh well.
That's a relief. For a minute there, I was worried that someone *had* seen Endgame.
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Actually, I apologize and will delete my comment praisong the film. I have no wish to start a quarrel with someone I mostly agree with and obviously by doing that I'm picking a fight. Carry on.
No apology necessary. We all good.
It's a shame to see that this has turned into a twitter squabble.
It really shouldn't have, but some people really have the investment from over ten years of these movies.
Personally, I'm just letting it all blow over and avoiding the mess in the meantime.
We have better things to do than get mad at each other over mean memes and Marvel movies.
It was a good lesson for me. Having severed all emotional attachment to Current Year Hollywood, I failed to appreciate how deeply invested many people are in these movies.
Star Wars, Avengers, etc. are part of people's identities, now. Therefore, casting aspersions on those movies is taken by some as an existential threat.
Working out the proper rhetoric to help free these folks from their bondage without soft pedaling it will take some thought.
I hadn't appreciated how invested people were when I got into a discussion with co-workers and friends regarding Game of Thrones and Avengers.
Its easy to lose sight of it. There's a reason Bread and Circuses worked for the Romans for so long. There are some people who only want spectacle. That is not a judgment of their intelligence.
As for me, I realized that these people hated me after Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings. Its hollow spectacle disgusted me and that was the first crack in the dam.
Like Durandel said, 'Don't give money to people who hate you."
Whether you are Christian or not, if you're not specifically of their tribe/clique or whatever and you do not partake of their twisted versions on Communion and do not hold their Sacraments sacred, they hate you.
A buddy and I were talking yesterday about how pop culture consumption has taken on ritual and even liturgical qualities.
You can't simply be neutral on the merits of, or opt out of, SW/MCU/GoT. Like butt marriage, they must be universally celebrated on pain of derision and ostracism.