Reviews

Threads and the Failure of Satire

by
Threads and the Failure of Satire. 1984 BBC Film Threads

I just watched the 1984 BBC docudrama Threads. In many ways, it is typical of a Cold War film at the height of the Red Scare. However, Threads created a new pinnacle of propaganda. The film’s creators deliberately terrorized an entire generation of children and skillfully blurred the lines between truth and fiction. Threads mimics real news reports, presenting a chain of events that are difficult to distinguish from real-life media, especially for a child. Despite all the praise it received in the years since then, Threads is a horrible film that teaches all the wrong lessons, and didn’t even make a nuclear war less likely. If anything, this wave of propaganda has made self-inflicted armageddon more inevitable than ever before.

Conflict: a Pure and Sincere Message About War

by
Conflict: a Pure and Sincere Message About War. 1983 Soviet cartoon. конфлист

The 1983 Soviet stop-motion animation, Conflict ( Конфликт), presents a simple and pure message. A modern war between two world powers is insanity that would inevitably end in nuclear armageddon. No matter how restrained or polite the conflict, sooner or later one side would be defeated and use their nuclear arsenal in a last-ditch attempt at self-preservation.

The Girl With All the Gifts is the Most Nihilistic Movie Ever Made

by
The Girl With All the Gifts is the Most Nihilistic Movie Ever Made

The Girl With All the Gifts literally compares black people to flesh-eating zombies who destroy Western civilization, and praises this as a good thing. It might be the most mind-bogglingly evil and racist movie ever made. Triumph of the Will and Birth of a Nation look tame in comparison. But that’s not the most horrifying aspect of the story. Thousands, maybe even millions, of white liberal elites in Europe and the USA actually believe this and have the political power to make it happen.

Here’s to the stories…

by
Here's to the stories...

As a kid growing up in the desert of Northern Arizona, I used to go outside and stare into the night sky. Being so far from the lights of the cities, we could see the stars like few others can in the United States. They stretched from horizon to horizon, so close it felt like you could fall off the face of the earth to touch them.

Medieval Feudalism: An Amazing Book, and Some Unsettling Similarities to Today

by

Carl Stephenson paints a beautiful and easy to digest picture of life in a traditional feudal society during the Early and High Middle Ages. That’s what makes this book so important. To understand the hierarchy and power structure of the modern capitalist world, it is important to understand feudalism. This actually isn’t as difficult as … Read more