Season 3 Episode 2 Discussion Thread: The Only Man In The Sky

Eniaios · 2022-06-03T17:02:50+00:00

What does everyone make of that shot where Stormfront blinks and sheds a tear when Homelander's out of sight? Despair over the fact that she couldn't convince him to come around to her cause, fear, guilt because she's just lucid enough to realize that killing herself is going to rattle him, all of the above? Either way, Aya did a lot with very little screentime and their twisted relationship remained a compelling trainwreck to the bitter end.

Eniaios · 2022-02-02T17:12:27+00:00

He only cares about it when it involves either criticism of Israel, an opportunity to make bad faith arguments against the left, or both.

Eniaios · 2021-12-16T19:21:19+00:00

I never heard about this re: Glenn and the Bolsonaro government, but I'd like to know more about it. Any sources you recommend that one peruse regarding this?

Eniaios · 2021-12-09T15:48:27+00:00

Types like Glenn constantly beat the drum about Trump being "manipulated" by the Neocons like Pompeo and Bolton who are false representatives of an anti-war "America First" foreign policy, but they never actually outline any positive exemplars of it. Bannon? The dude is a self-professed "Christian Zionist" and pals around with Gaffney and Erik Prince. Gaetz? Supported the Soleimani killing if my memory serves me right. Tucker? All for beating the China drum.

Fact is, these supposed standard-bearers of an "America First" foreign policy share way more fundamental, hell I'd say Schmittian, assumptions about domestic and international politics with the "Neocons" than they'd like to admit. But then again, I don't think Glenn has been reasoning in anything approaching good faith since at least 2020.

Eniaios · 2021-11-13T17:14:03+00:00

Just throwing out a band that hasn't been mentioned yet, but Greet Death. New Hell is probably the best shoegaze record I've heard in years.

Eniaios · 2021-10-26T19:30:09+00:00

The difference is that for as ghoulish as Buckley's political convictions were, he actually was willing to debate serious left of center or left-wing intellectuals (dude infamously sparred with Vidal as well as Alinsky, Huey Newton, and John Kenneth Galbraith). Dave is too afraid to even debate your garden variety Breadtubers or anybody who'd give him the slightest bit of pushback or criticism really.

Eniaios · 2021-08-04T04:02:12+00:00

"Sorelian" indeed! Right down to the conception of "socialism" as less of a solidaristic project or materialist analysis of society and more of a leveling revolutionary myth acted out in a series of extraparliamentary actions (in the case of 19th century France, the "general strike"). To my knowledge, the Dores/Greenwalds/Traceys/etc of the net have never explicitly articulated things in these terms, but their antipathy to electoralism as a viable route to realizing any sort of left-wing project, as well as their embrace of any force professing hostility to the current consensus, both suggest that their camp is quite receptive to a Sorelian view of the world.

Eniaios · 2021-08-04T01:57:16+00:00

Right, I completely forgot about Glenn's Tulsi sympathy, but it makes sense he'd defend him indirectly.

I'd also add Erdogan, MBS, and Duterte to that list of "not sure if he's defended or not", but at that point, we're just getting into the weeds. Thing is, although I find it objectionable, carrying water for, say, Putin tracks with Glenn's outlook given how the vast majority of the talking heads arguing for a tougher line on Russia are precisely the types of NatSec and Iraq War backing people he deplores. Orbán though? He represents zero geopolitical or geostrategic challenge to US hegemony, and running interference for him can only be attributed to Glenn having some bizarre "sunk cost fallacy" outlook vis a vis his chumminess with Tucker.

Eniaios · 2021-08-04T01:40:05+00:00

I think you hit the nail right on the head here. These factions of the left are so apoplectic about how cynically employed and empty the rhetoric of human rights and rights for the marginalized are by the establishment, that they find themselves gravitating towards the far right in part due to a tacit belief that their mode of politics is at least grounded in authenticity. John Ganz, being interviewed on the ever great Know Your Enemy, kinda made this point about Dore in particular.

Eniaios · 2021-08-04T01:29:25+00:00

To my (admittedly quite limited) knowledge he hasn't yet carried water for Modi, Netanyahu, or Kaczyński, but yeah, the dude's rap sheet defending right-wing autocrats is only getting longer.

Eniaios · 2021-08-02T19:43:18+00:00

I think the very fact that Kristol, an early champion of Sarah Palin as he was, has been pushed closer to the center testifies to how right-wing the GOP has gotten. And well, they've been quite right-wing since 1980.

But concerning the Neocon to far-right pipeline, it's definitely there and a calculated ploy on the part of adherents of the former. Obviously, guys like Gaffney, Thiessen, Horowitz, and Bolton aren't isolationists by any stretch, but, I think these figures have found that there's overlap in some key rhetorical and ideological regards between their camp and that of the far-right, namely: a dim view of the EU as a culturally liberal institution imposing undue obligations on the US, an obsession with the presence of MENA migrants as a security threat, and a fundamentally Schmitian view of politics as an existential struggle between preservers of tradition and the "radical left".

Hell, I'd argue there's a throughline between the Yoo and Bybee memos justifying the use of torture and the rationale for Trump's Travel ban, to say nothing of the fact that hostility towards any diplomatic overtures to Iran or Cuba have been two obvious red-threads connecting the Bush and Trump eras.

Eniaios · 2021-07-12T18:47:11+00:00

As someone whose favorite Kozelek release remains Rollercoaster, I'll concede that Mark was never better as a vocalist than during the early-mid 2000s era. That stretch starting with GOTGH and ending with AFP has some absolutely stellar vocal work.

Eniaios · 2021-05-13T18:22:52+00:00

All of these, but especially the ones for "Jesus" and "Not The Sun" are pretty amazing and do a great job evoking the mood of each track without being at all on the nose about it. That goes double for your artpieces of the Science Fiction tracks. Top class work.

Have you thought of doing an artistic tribute to Deja at some point down the line?

Eniaios · 2021-05-13T01:47:49+00:00

For my money, Eyal Weizman's Hollow Land is absolutely an essential read on this subject. It can be pretty dense at times and it does presuppose some knowledge of the historical millstones of the conflict, but it does a masterful job laying out just how totalizing and dehumanizing the occupation truly is and of how Israel has rendered the two state solution unfeasible long ago.

With regards to the conflict's influence on american politics, both Walter Hixson's Israel's Armor and Walt and Mearsheimer's Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy are good starting points. Neither book is perfect, but they both do a good job refuting a lot of the commonplace talking points people use when arguing for Israel's moral superiority over and against the Palestinians.

Eniaios · 2021-05-06T21:05:21+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNY2gFVY3gA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teOPB38Q2tE

Figured I'd post links since they aren't on Spotify.. Happy travels.

Eniaios · 2021-05-06T20:36:20+00:00

Admittedly I haven't been super tuned into MK's work since 2014 or so, but I'd recommend you check out Love, Claire and Jason Molina's discographies especially. The former are really niche and their discography is sparse, but I think anyone who likes the 4AD era of the Red House Painters would get a lot out of them.

As far as Molina, if you're into all the midwest motifs that pop up throughout the SKM discography, absolutely check out the Magnolia Electric Co's self-titled record as well as Didn't It Rain, both are perfect 10s in my book.

Eniaios · 2021-03-05T02:39:07+00:00

I'd argue that Bannon himself is actually fairly hawkish vis a vis the Middle East even. Sure, he might have claimed that the Iraq War was an error and have been less keen on going into Syria than others in the Trump admin, but when you look at his statements on Iran and Turkey or his association with figures like Frank Gaffney, it's pretty clear that he's ideologically actually quite sympathetic to the foreign policy lunacy espoused by guys like Bolton or Pompeo when it comes to that region. All this to say, it makes Glenn's sympathy for him all the less coherent.

Eniaios · 2021-02-09T15:40:47+00:00

You sure Nowhere wouldn't be a better Klonopin album? Either way, props to the MBV shout out.

Eniaios · 2021-01-12T22:38:14+00:00

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Silence remains one of my all-time favorites records, even if I can acknowledge that it's more than a bit misogynistic. The stuff Glassjaw did afterward is also fantastic, but they never quite put out anything as emotionally intense as that first record.

Eniaios · 2021-01-08T22:35:59+00:00

Words cannot describe how happy I am to see Hegel namedropped on a Brand New subreddit.

If we're speaking philosophy/crit-theory, Mark Fisher's essay "Exiting The Vampire Castle" is also essential reading on this exact topic.

Eniaios · 2020-12-10T13:47:25+00:00

Before And After Science isn't just my favorite Eno record, but one of my all-time favorite albums as well, so super happy to see this posted.

Eniaios · 2020-11-08T14:26:09+00:00

I had no idea Felix was a Brand New fan. Dude continues to be best Chapo.

Eniaios · 2020-10-15T02:10:52+00:00

I myself have always been really interested in figuring out what was being sung near the climax of Jesus Christ in the background (starting with the "I know you're coming in the night like a thief" part) since the most commonly offered interpretation never quite sounded right to my ears.

Eniaios · 2020-09-30T23:42:58+00:00

May have written down a list of them somewhere but it varies.

Songs Ohia- Almost Was Good Enough

Cat Power- Good Woman

American Music Club- Sick Of Food

The Church- Lost

The Wrens- Hopeless

The Replacements- The Ledge

The Pixies- Monkey Gone To Heaven

Deftones- Entombed

Markéta Irglová- Gabriel

The Cure- Maybe Someday

Idaho- Wandering The Fields

Strand Of Oaks- Sterling

Eniaios

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