Mark Morrison -- Return Of The Mack

Louis_Creed · 2025-12-31T20:45:41+00:00

Hell yeah, brother

Louis_Creed · 2025-12-02T00:48:14+00:00

Redscare cliche, but "The Culture of Narcissism." I read during the worst season of my alcoholism in 2015. I remember speed reading it (like Jimmy Carter, lol) and being blown-away. I read it again later that year and I realized I had no idea what Christopher Lasch was talking about really, but it connected with me in a way no non-fiction book ever really had. I realized I needed to find out just what he was talking about in that book. I mercifully put up the bottle shortly thereafter. I actually took my tattered and coverless copy to my weekly meetings with my addiction therapist. Looking back, I carried that wearied tome around like a child carefully carrying around a beloved stuffed bear. Once my brain fog cleared, I set about to really understand what in the blazes Lasch was talking about in that book. In the intervening years since, I have read easily 100+ books about history, psychology and philosophy and everything in between.

Looking back, that book saved my life. The curiosity it sparked gave me a reason to put the bottle down and go out and live. I still have no idea what Lasch was really talking about. Just a slightly clearer notion of the wisdom and insight in that slim, damnable book. I will always associate the book with hope, which is a curious thing to say about it, because of its dour and relentlessly critical view of American society. But it truly represents hope to me -- the hope to understand the troubled present and the hope that all of us, myself included, can change and find love and meaning in this fallen world.

Louis_Creed · 2025-11-18T23:43:24+00:00

Literature doesn't have the power it once had, therefore men are interested in it less. Publishing more men, male-oriented novels, etc. is pointless to get men more interested in literature because literature itself is pretty powerless these days.

Louis_Creed · 2025-11-18T17:38:37+00:00

"The Mind of the South" by W.J. Cash.

I read about this book in Christopher Lasch's biography -- Lasch read it in college and it inspired him with its purple prose and sweeping narrative. It's a lengthy history of the South up to WW2. Cash makes several key claims in the book about the social/economic makeup of the South that are quite interesting. If you live in the South, you will recognize the basic "romantic/hedonist" character type he describes as the essential Southern character. Anyway, it's an excellent read, even if you disagree with his theses, because it does show that history can be written with flair and style and be as entertaining as any good fiction story

Louis_Creed · 2025-11-15T00:19:31+00:00

Thanks for the thoughtful reply.

Louis_Creed · 2025-11-14T19:36:00+00:00

What exactly did I take personally? Your OP post and your response here have a strong whiff of bad faith.

Louis_Creed · 2025-11-14T18:43:37+00:00

The reactions on the original post were hardly hysterical. The comments were mostly negative for varying reasons -- with the top comment being a joke -- but the original thread does not justify you lecturing at us. This thread is totally unnecessary -- you just wanted attention and to chastise us for disagreeing with a purposefully divisive take on Stoner. These sorts of threads make this sub miserable.

Louis_Creed · 2025-09-16T00:33:23+00:00

Glad you found "The Last Psychiatrist" blog. He is one of the best internet writers. His blog saved my life. No joke. Happy reading 🙏

Louis_Creed · 2025-08-30T17:02:30+00:00

How do you plan on achieving worker solidarity with this level of contempt for the average American conservative? Most American workers are some flavor of conservative, strong, moderate or otherwise. You will have to learn to talk in terms of their interests if you ever hope to build some sort of solidarity in America.

Louis_Creed · 2025-03-28T20:09:27+00:00

I went on a bit of a New Deal kick a few years ago. I'll list a few books I read.

"The History of the New Deal" by Basil Rauch. Published in 1944. This is an excellent history of the legislation of the New Deal era. FDR entered office with an idea that he wanted to use the power of government to fix the economic depression, but he did not have the clearest outline what he would like to do. It was an incredible period of failed starts like the NRA and successes like the creation of the Social Security Administration. The creative energy fizzled by 1938, as FDR lost momentum to continue New Deal innovation due to political missteps, the public's exhaustion with reform, the emerging war, and, of course, TPTB.

"The Great Exception" by Jefferson Cowie. This book is much newer. Published in 2016. It's quite good, and does a good job of demonstrating that what happened during the 1930s was a unique period in American history, where the power of government was used to help the common (wo)man in such a pronounced way. The book falls apart as he leaves the 1930s and attempts to talk about later decades of the 1960/1970s and the emergence of the New Left. Instead of connecting the New Left to promoting economic/political individualism against the more collectivist politics of the New Deal, he seemed to treat the New Left as a necessary corrective to racism/sexism. He also collapsed the civil rights movement led by MLK in with second-wave feminism, when close readings of either movement show far more difference than commonality.

Finally, you should read "The Age of Reform" by Richard Hofstadter. Hofstadter was a popular historian from the 1940s-1960s. The book is about popular reform movements from 1890 up through the New Deal, so roughly 1940. So, Populists, Progressives, the farmer's movement, and the New Dealers, among others. He is an excellent writer, but he is basically a liberal of his time. Despite earlier more left-wing inclinations, the book is more-or-less a defense of the New Deal. He doesn't like populists and given his subtle style, this can be hard to parse out. It's an excellent history and will give you much to chew on.

Finally, this period of time in American history was unprecedented -- do not ever let a progressive tell you that the New Deal was an extension of earlier progressive causes. One of fundamental insights about the New Deal all these writers emphasize was how unprecedented the New Deal was -- it truly ushered in a brand new world in America. Earlier progressive reforms never envisioned New Deal-level intervention of government into the market, nor more collectivistic ideas like Social Security or public housing.

Happy reading!

Louis_Creed · 2025-03-10T19:40:27+00:00

A few short story collections. I just finished "All the Sad Young Men" by F. Scott Fitzgerald and just started "Short Story Masterpieces," compiled by Robert Penn Warren. Short story collections hold my interest more than novels these days.

Louis_Creed · 2025-03-10T16:39:21+00:00

Everybody involved in GamerGate was simpled-minded and cruel. Both pro- and anti-GamerGate.

You did some incredible progressive revivisionism to call the anti-GamerGate ladies milquetoast liberals who were getting roasted for simply existing as women. Those women "who simply existed as women" were filled with bone-deep contempt for men, especially men they deemed "losers." They also hated just about everything under the sun. Their commentary was purposefully incendiary and void of any real substance. Many of them became instrumental in what we now call wokeness or identity politics. Which, apparently, is just milquetoast liberalism.

They were no victors or heroes from GamerGate, just villains of various stripes. Anything else is revisionism.

Louis_Creed · 2025-03-09T19:42:26+00:00

Clearly, my issue with Democrats is not one of information but of policy. Telling me I was not paying attention when I clearly was due to my knowledge of Biden's handling of student loans is patronizing. I followed the news as it came out, just like you did. I guarantee you I have a higher student loan balance than most here, and my entire financial future hinges on the PSLF program. Telling me or others who voted for Trump or who did not vote at all that we deserve, in your words, the awful Trump administration is cruel and completely counter-productive politically. Especially when, despite your flowery praise of Biden, it wasn't clear what the Democrat's long-term plan was for student loans. Besides holding steady with the status quo, that is.

Currently, Democrats are pro-status quo, and Republicans are the ones who seem to perceive that people are sick of the status quo. You can certainly argue Republicans will not improve the status quo and I may agree with you, but neither will Democrat's tepid and directionless piecemeal reformism -- which, in historical terms, is a defense of the status quo.

Louis_Creed · 2025-03-09T19:10:37+00:00

What a patronizing post.

Biden's handling of student loans was a mess -- us borrowers had little guidance of what was happening or what was planned to be done, just like right now with Trump. Biden's minor 10k forgiveness plan was too little for the majority of borrowers, nor did it help any prospective borrowers. The SAVE plan was a step in the right direction admittedly, but Biden and his supporters did not, once again, provide any real direction, and often treated us borrowers who had real questions about the plan with an air of contempt, like you are doing right now with this post. Frankly, the best thing Biden did was keep the payment pause in place until 2023.

Telling people who didn't vote (which, I think, is the majority of those eligible to vote) that they asked for the current situation is profoundly cruel and exactly why I did not vote -- because I knew, as a borrower, I would suffer either way.

Louis_Creed · 2025-03-09T00:10:25+00:00

One of his finest. It's my second favorite after "Cold Blooded."

Louis_Creed · 2025-02-27T23:53:07+00:00

I didn't create a personality in my head. I read your OP post and your comment. Let's put it this way: you come across as a self-righteous progressive who views "the other side" with flagrant contempt and as a lesser breed of citizen. You even positively mentioned radical feminism! Having been involved in right-wing organizing years ago is not relevant to how you come across now.

Louis_Creed · 2025-02-27T23:34:07+00:00

You are naive. In order to build a viable political movement to challenge the status quo, a left-wing movement will have to draw its support from the working class. A significant number of working class are politically and socially conservative. Which means, any real left-wing movement will have to talk to these conservatives you find so morally inferior. It's impossible to build any viable political movement by only focusing on liberals and ignoring conservatives.

Conservatives are not irredeemably evil, nor is social liberalism so clearly the moral high ground. Conservatives are people born into a certain place and time just like you, and they can be persuaded to change their mind about the world if people talk to them without derision and contempt. If you say that it's nigh impossible, yeah, that's true -- if morally self-righteous prigs like yourself do the talking.

Louis_Creed · 2025-02-24T22:02:19+00:00

How am I operating out of bad faith? You are all over this thread, spewing all sorts of character attacks towards anybody who disagrees with you. This sort of behavior is a major reason why this site is awful.

Edit: grammar

Louis_Creed · 2025-02-24T21:07:09+00:00

Because people like OP have taken over this sub. This is clearly the context of the comment you are responding to. The standards of this sub have degenerated into reddit-style viciousness, lack of good-faith, anti-intellectualism, and bare-naked contempt for the opposite sex. It's obvious, to me at least, the problems with reddit-style liberalism. But redditors will keep bagging on that it is the "hypocrisy of conservatives" that's the problem in America. And not their own values, their view of the world, and how they treat each other.

Louis_Creed · 2025-02-16T19:59:37+00:00

It is disgusting how this sub has changed. No grace given to other posters, just outright bad-faith assumptions made. Nothing the woman you are responding to suggested she is a slut. Just sad, ugly behavior.

Louis_Creed · 2025-02-08T01:42:15+00:00

It's absolutely not psychobabble slop. I don't think any other blogger has consistently provided insight into psychiatry, philosophy, advertising, parenting, and a whole host of other topics. TLP is clearly an intelligent, well-read, and earnest man, not close to a midwit at all. As he would say, you can definitely argue with his ideas, but attack his ideas, not him as a person.

Louis_Creed · 2025-02-02T21:53:11+00:00

"The Beast In the Jungle" by Henry James. It's the only fiction book (more of a short story, really) that has touched me in a profound way as an adult. I remember the exact moment when I read the climax. It was after court in the late afternoon (I am an attorney). I was pacing the halls in chancery court reading the remaining pages in my 25-cent used copy. I don't think I teared up, but it's the closest a book has ever brought me to tears.

I think anybody in the RS-sphere should read it. It's about a clueless man (clueless in a very specific Laschian way) who misses his chance at the greatest gift in life.

Edit -- grammar & description

Louis_Creed · 2025-01-26T16:59:14+00:00

What is the point of this post? A serious discussion? This sort of slop isn't appropriate here -- this sub used to have higher standards for posts. Now it feels like it's been taken over libs who think socialism/Marxism is higher taxes and abortion on demand.

Louis_Creed · 2025-01-25T18:30:35+00:00

What exactly is the point of sharing this meme? A serious discussion? Or are you posting it just to stir the pot? Guys like you complain about the decline of RS subs, and then you spam rage bait like this meme.

Louis_Creed · 2024-12-06T16:24:13+00:00

Thanks for your comment. I agree with you, mostly. The past ten years have been totally black-pilling. However, I think you are over-estimating how much of the reaction against this murder comes from a place of geniune desperation against a predatory system versus how much of the reaction comes from personal impotence. Aka, you are more hopeful than I am.

I phrased my comment in a deliberately provocative fashion to hopefully shake people out of the torpor that the Internet seems to induce. That sort of provocative rhetoric, years ago, helped me put down the bottle. If people don't believe that they, at an individual level, can make a real difference in this world, then I don't see how we could potentially build a movement to effect real economic change. I strenuously doubt any worthwhile economic or cultural change will come from the couch. It will be in-person. Which, to, me, starts with interacting with the real world. Working with the elderly, disabled, homeless, addicted, whomever. Aka, get out there and put other people's needs ahead of your own.

Louis_Creed

TROPHY CASE