Cormac McCarthy’s ‘Blood Meridian’ Diagnoses Everyday Fascism
If everyday fascism’s essence is the anti-humanist view of living beings as disposable instruments, then Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian is its field manual and warning.
fascism
Paul Verhoeven Made the Blueprint for Neo-Totalitarianism
Paul Verhoeven’s sci-fi films are like how-to manuals for neo-totalitarianism, which doesn’t rely on coups, martial law, violent suppression of the opposition press, or paramilitary factions roaming the streets to instill our obedience.
‘The Celebration’ Rocks the Cradle of Authoritarianism
Thomas Vinterberg’s acclaimed dark comedy The Celebration strongly evidences the root causes of humanity’s unrestrained aggression, bigotry, and fascist proclivities.
Fascism Bares Its German Shepherd Teeth in Two Post-Franco Films
The Creature and A Dog Called Vengeance use German shepherds in allegories of fascist politics, revolution, violence and love.
Death without Dignity: Jewish Loss in ‘The Lady of the Mine’
Sergei Lebedev’s The Lady of the Mine builds towards a series of translucent revelations on the epigenetic trauma of Ukraine, Russia, and the USSR.
The Living Dead’s Problems in Spanish Horror Movies
These Spanish horror movies tapped into the anxieties of the final years of General Franco’s dictatorship while pretending to be merely tales set in foreign countries.
Rachel Maddow on the Bit Players’ Big Effects on Promoting American Fascism
Rachel Maddow’s latest book on political history, Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism, weaves varying players past into a singular danger present.
The Kids Are Alt-Right: How Punk Got Co-opted by Fascism
Like political populism, punk’s traits and tenets are sufficiently vague, contradictory, and unmoored to be vulnerable to co-option by all political opportunists—including the fascist alt-right.
The Death Labyrinth in ‘Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio’
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio gives lessons in mortality from death creatures possibly more unsettling than those in Hellboy II and Pan’s Labyrinth.
Antonio Gramsci Biography ‘To Live Is to Resist’ Is Unrivaled
In Gramscian fashion, Frétigné details the material conditions of Antonio Gramsci’s insight and influence while shirking historical determinism and abstract idealism.
Balanced on the Thin Edge of Democracy, Can We See the Tipping Point?
The Trump-bolstered radical right are akin to fourth-century Christian fanatics who -- in the space of a single generation -- transformed the Roman empire from a state of broadly tolerant religious plurality to one of violence and societal destruction.
‘I Just Wanted to Save My Family’, or, How European Institutions Profit from the Refugee Crisis
It's not just gun-toting crooks who abuse refugees, we learn from memoir I Just Wanted to Save My Family, it's also politicians and legal officers filling their personal and national coffers with fines and extortion who profit from criminal human trafficking.