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Having gone to various types of conferences in my life — corporate, libertarian, etc. — I can say that the lasting benefits of these things tend to be less in the actual talks or panels themselves than in the social opportunities for hobnobbing, networking, and just plain socializing. Meeting like-minded individuals, discussing with each other how we arrived at our positions, exchanging book recommendations, and hitting the hotel bar is what you remember most about a conference.
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Brawl in Cell Block 99 (2017), a new film by writer/director S. Craig Zahler and which stars Vince Vaughn in the lead, enters the canon of recent films and TV shows dealing symbolically with the plight of white men in contemporary America. This theme is explored through the protagonist’s surface-level patriotism, antagonisms between Mexicans and Anglos, and through the allegory of a beaten-down Christianity, as embodied in the character of Bradley Thomas (Vince Vaughn). (more…)
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I follow Rod Dreher’s posts at The American Conservative not quite as a sideshow curiosity, but as a barometer of neo-liberal collapse. He’s an important polemical figure in Public Discourse and acolyte of the great moral philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre, (more…)