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This book was one I've been hearing a lot about for around a year and I was very excited to actually read it. It might be fair to say I was more excited to read it then I actually was to read it. It's an ok book, it it's very informative although I wonder if Malice is overintellectualizing the origins of the so called "new right" which I will get into. Also I didn't actually "read" this book, I listened to it on Audiobook but as I learned when I reviewed Michael Anton's The Stakes audiobooks are hard for me to write a review on so I bought the E-reader version too on apple books and all page citations are using the E-reader format, which I think is different then the hard book.
Michael Krechmer (aka Malice) is an American comedian, author, and podcast host of an anarcho-libertarian political bent. He is the author of several books including Dear Reader: The Unauthorized Biography of Kim Jong Il which he wrote after traveling to North Korea. His podcast You're Welcome is hosted on the GaS Digital network and runs every wensday, he has been featured on The Joe Rogan Experience, Timcast IRL, and was a contributor to the Fox News Comedy program Redeye He is very active in internet subcultures. He was born in Ukraine prior to the breakup of the Soviet Union.
Malice begins the book by briefly explaining Ayn Rand and other influences on the Libertarian political ideology, This doesn't last for long as he shifts to explaining how he was invited to private members only facebook group called the "trollboard" (this shift will be my biggest criticism of the book, his chapters seem only loosely connecting, it actually reads like a guest on Joe Rogan just in text and without Rogan talking about weed in between guests points) he explains how the trollboard began as a hangout for those interested in Ron Paul but as the years went on he saw more media critics, racists, and race realists seep in (I'm condensing this a lot) then the NRX movement taking from Curtis Yarvin. Malice then
recalls being invited to online get-togethers of the trollboard, where he is exposed to many different kinds of people considered political "heretics" from avowed Monarchists to quasi-nazis bringing up the "JQ" (Jewish Question, Malice is Jewish and secular and he will continue to discuss anti-semites the rest of the book) One thing to note in the beginning chapter is Malice explaining Curtis Yarvin's use of the term "The Cathedral" to describe a sysmtem of thought and political power derived throuh the universities and pushed to society via the "evangelists" of the left who graduate from the universities and take up positions in media and culture. Yarvin believes "The Cathedral" takes the same place as the established Christian chuches of old to form the basis of a "new religion" of progressive leftist. Malice has fully appropriated this term and for the rest of the book he will call the university-media system "The Cathedral"
Chapter 3, Malice describes the formation and intellectual heritage of the "New Right." Specifically a political alliance drawn up between Pat Buchanan and Murray Rothbard, he also describes the formation of the current Republican party mainstream created by William F Buckley with the publication National Review. In a slow and meandering way he ties this to George HW Bush and how Bush famously wanted to promote a "New World Order" to ensure global stability. The rightwing fringe of Buchanan and Rothbard began attracting disenfranchised whites and began to take shape.
Chapter 4, "Meme Magic is real" Another meandering chapter, Malice begins by breifly explaining Rush Limbaugh's rise to prominence before explaining the creation of a combative right wing internet culture. 4chan, Reddit, and Taki mag. He explains the interchange between the various right wing users of these sites and how they form an effective way to organize outside of the gatekeeping of the Cathedral. He also uses this chapter to hammer some stupid media statements and how they form the basis for the idea of fake news, like when Ed Shultz called Rick Perry a racist for saying a "black cloud hangs over America" in the 2012 primaries Malice muses "Though obama is not floating mass of water vapor" (lol pp 123) he goes on to show statements like that are why the media cannot be taken seriously.
Continued....
Michael Krechmer (aka Malice) is an American comedian, author, and podcast host of an anarcho-libertarian political bent. He is the author of several books including Dear Reader: The Unauthorized Biography of Kim Jong Il which he wrote after traveling to North Korea. His podcast You're Welcome is hosted on the GaS Digital network and runs every wensday, he has been featured on The Joe Rogan Experience, Timcast IRL, and was a contributor to the Fox News Comedy program Redeye He is very active in internet subcultures. He was born in Ukraine prior to the breakup of the Soviet Union.
Malice begins the book by briefly explaining Ayn Rand and other influences on the Libertarian political ideology, This doesn't last for long as he shifts to explaining how he was invited to private members only facebook group called the "trollboard" (this shift will be my biggest criticism of the book, his chapters seem only loosely connecting, it actually reads like a guest on Joe Rogan just in text and without Rogan talking about weed in between guests points) he explains how the trollboard began as a hangout for those interested in Ron Paul but as the years went on he saw more media critics, racists, and race realists seep in (I'm condensing this a lot) then the NRX movement taking from Curtis Yarvin. Malice then
recalls being invited to online get-togethers of the trollboard, where he is exposed to many different kinds of people considered political "heretics" from avowed Monarchists to quasi-nazis bringing up the "JQ" (Jewish Question, Malice is Jewish and secular and he will continue to discuss anti-semites the rest of the book) One thing to note in the beginning chapter is Malice explaining Curtis Yarvin's use of the term "The Cathedral" to describe a sysmtem of thought and political power derived throuh the universities and pushed to society via the "evangelists" of the left who graduate from the universities and take up positions in media and culture. Yarvin believes "The Cathedral" takes the same place as the established Christian chuches of old to form the basis of a "new religion" of progressive leftist. Malice has fully appropriated this term and for the rest of the book he will call the university-media system "The Cathedral"
Chapter 3, Malice describes the formation and intellectual heritage of the "New Right." Specifically a political alliance drawn up between Pat Buchanan and Murray Rothbard, he also describes the formation of the current Republican party mainstream created by William F Buckley with the publication National Review. In a slow and meandering way he ties this to George HW Bush and how Bush famously wanted to promote a "New World Order" to ensure global stability. The rightwing fringe of Buchanan and Rothbard began attracting disenfranchised whites and began to take shape.
Chapter 4, "Meme Magic is real" Another meandering chapter, Malice begins by breifly explaining Rush Limbaugh's rise to prominence before explaining the creation of a combative right wing internet culture. 4chan, Reddit, and Taki mag. He explains the interchange between the various right wing users of these sites and how they form an effective way to organize outside of the gatekeeping of the Cathedral. He also uses this chapter to hammer some stupid media statements and how they form the basis for the idea of fake news, like when Ed Shultz called Rick Perry a racist for saying a "black cloud hangs over America" in the 2012 primaries Malice muses "Though obama is not floating mass of water vapor" (lol pp 123) he goes on to show statements like that are why the media cannot be taken seriously.
Continued....