Euchaistic Procession

Eucharistic Revival

Criticizing the hierarchy is a favorite pastime of trad Catholics. And in strict  justice, many prelates could use some filial correction. But credit where credit is due: American bishops are turning the Eucharistic crisis around. A new study shows that almost two-thirds of adult Catholics in the United States believe…
October 4, 202321 Comments
Western RPG

West vs West

Here at this blog, we're inclined to frame the crisis facing the West as a spiritual battle between Christendom and the totalizing Death Cult seeking to destroy it. But just yesterday, a reader pointed me to a post that examines our civilizational decline through the lens of video RPGs, which…
September 26, 202315 Comments
surrogate hamster

Surrogate Activities

A video posted last month by a mid-sized video game review channel issued a scathing indictment of current AAA gaming. It's worth a watch, despite some crude language. Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8jC2KT481c The immediate reaction from anyone with the least bit of awareness is "He's right! Video games suck now!"…
September 20, 202319 Comments
Woke Soyjak

Woke Is the New Racist

Come one, come all to the ongoing tug-of-war between two Boomer memes! The prize? 2/3 of US consumer dollars. Politicians and businesses cower in fear of being accused of racism. As we saw during the George Floyd riots, a racism charge is perceived to be so serious that many businesses…
August 25, 20239 Comments
Iron Age

Dawn of the Iron Age

Yesterday's post on the Death Cult's conquest of pop culture occasioned much comment about where indie creators - in particular newpub authors - go next. A common refrain among the commentariat invoked a burgeoning new counterculture movement, the Iron Age. The rise of another online campaign to counter corporate skinsuit…
August 8, 20232 Comments
Pop Cult Hipster

Shades of the Pop Cult

The "I f***ing love science!" crowd gets short shrift around here, but one of their favorite boutique mantras may have some truth behind it. Time does indeed seem like it must be subjective sometimes. Case in point: It's now been ten years since the consumer revolts of the 2010s promised…
August 7, 202311 Comments
strong female character

Decoding the Amazon

Author J. Ishiro Finney decodes the Strong Female Character™ trope in his new book Boobs of Steel: Decoding the Amazon. Lara Croft... Power Girl... Tifa Lockhart... They're three of the most loved and loathed characters in all pop-culture. Since the late 1990s all three have also been favorite targets for…
July 31, 20233 Comments
participant

No Participation Trophies

If you spent any length of time on social media this weekend, you couldn't escape seeing culture warrior Conservatives backsliding into the Pop Cult slop funnel en masse. Many of the same people who lamented the outrage marketing that turned Captain Marvel from a near-flop to a billion-dollar hit fell…
July 25, 20237 Comments
Scott Pilgrim Subculture

Subcultural Experiences

Commenter Hermetic Seal writes: As someone who started college in the mid-2000s, a big part of my experience was how all of my communal activities, and the entertainment I was into, moved from shared cultural experiences, to subcultural ones. I think a lot of that emerged naturally, or subconsciously, in…
July 20, 20233 Comments
Tower Records

Gen Y Tales: Welcome to Adulthood

A reader writes in to share a Gen Y tale of his own: It was 2005 and I had just turned 18. I was at a Tower Records with a bunch of high school friends. It was a neat, two story place and that particular night it was lively and…
July 19, 202316 Comments