Month: April 2022

What Exactly Is The MAGA New Right’s Endgame?


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It’s with growing alarm that I see the MAGA New Right grow not only more and more radical, but more and more detached from reality. But, here we are — the conservative Traditionalists in my family grow more and more radical every time I see them.

It makes you wonder — what’s the endgame of all of this.

The only unknown at the moment is if we have a civil war or if we slip peacefully into autocracy. I think it’s the latter. And then the issue is how bad, exactly, is the autocracy going to get? At the moment, I think it’s probably going to settle somewhere around modern day Russia. But there is a chance that because of race we go full blown Nazi Germany. So, somewhere between Putin’s Russia and Hitler’s Germany is where America will find itself once the autocratic dust settles.

But one thing is for sure — the America that we all have known our entire lives is in its twilight. Either we have a civil war with WMD and maybe, just maybe, renew the American Covenant, or we become an autocracy and millions upon millions of people die in the camps.

Regardless, the MAGA New Right will get its way one way or another. Either they get their civil war and radicalize that way or they don’t bungle the tradition into autocracy. The very thing that has, to date, stopped our tradition into an autocracy the so called “Deep State” will be the first to go and then there will be no breaks to slow our decent into tyranny.

And all of this is happening in broad daylight and we’re doing nothing to stop it. That’s the sad thing about it all. But we’re dealing with historical macro trends. We’re passed the even horizon for a “Fourth Turning” or “Great Reset” sometime around 2024 -2025.

We are, in short, doomed. There’s no going back. All we can do is figure out what we believe in and what we’re willing to suffer for in the real world. That, at least, is all I got at the moment as to a “solution.”

(Spoiler Free) The Good, The Bad & The Ugly Of ‘Everything, Everywhere, All At Once’



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It’s times like these that I find myself questioning my sanity. For me to dislike so much of Everything, Everywhere, All At Once (EEAAO) and so many other people love it with a white hot intensity really makes me wonder what could be going on. So, let’s review what I liked, disliked and hated about this movie.

The Good
There’s a lot to like about this movie. I found the acting by Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan outstanding. They really stood out in this otherwise mess of a movie. And I also liked the Michel Gondry magical realism elements of the movie a great deal. I went in thinking this would be a lot like The Science of Sleep and, in its own way, it was.

The Bad
There was just way, way, way too much going on with this movie. It just did not know what it wanted to be. When you have all this dialogue that requires an extended zany kung fu scene to pause and have everyone just stare as it’s said — you have a problem. And I’m fully willing to admit that maybe some of this is I just don’t really have any interest in kung fu. I found that part of this movie a distraction to the part that I wanted to see — character and plot.

The Ugly
I really hated who the villain was. All of that was just horrible. It seemed way too much on the nose for my liking. You mean you couldn’t think of any one else to be the villain but that person? What the what?

Anyway, here’s the movie I would have enjoyed: a middle aged Asian woman saves up the money to gain access to Lacuna-like technology that, rather than erasing your memory, gives you easy access to different realities and different fates you might have gone down. The story would focus on strictly on her relationship to her husband and daughter and there wouldn’t be a the dumb multiverse villain angle and far less need for kung fu. It would be seen as a direct spiritual successor to The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and it would be, in my opinion a good to great movie.

As it is, Everything, Everywhere, All At Once was a severe missed opportunity.

What The Fuck, Ariana Grande?



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Let me get some things out of the way. First, I’m a pretty big Ariana Grande fan. Second, I think she’s gorgeous. But I also have two eyes and know she’s gotten significant work done on her face recently.

What bothers me is, we’re all going to ignore this as if it hasn’t happened. But here’s the proof. Here is the Ari I remember:

Ari 1.0

And here is the new version of her face that kind of blows my mind:

Wow. Just wow. She looks totally different. She’s still hot as hell, but it’s unnerving because she no longer looks like the person you think of when you think of “Ariana Grande.”

And, best I can tell, there’s been pretty much zero mention of this transformation in the press.

Oh well.

No One Has Done A Good Pandemic Scifi Novel Yet


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The long-feared deluge of pandemic inspired fiction has yet to come about. There have been a few pandemic themed novels written before the COVID19 pandemic that have gained traction, but nothing written during or after. Though, I guess, “Our Country Friends” is one — but that’s not scifi.

Anyway.

I have two pretty good pandemic related concepts that I keep toying with. One would be more just the part of a broader story while the other would be a full blown novel. And, really, the only reason why I have done anything with either one of these idea is 1) I’m busy working on something else 2) I have a universe but thinking up a plot is a huge amount of work.

But the concepts are really unique and interesting and it’s too bad I probably won’t ever get around to them.

A Heinlein-esque Short Story Concept About Guns


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now, I know enough about the late scifi author Robert Heinlein to know he was probably a huge gun nut, to the point that he probably thought individuals had the right to, I don’t know, carry a nuke around if they felt like it. But there is a plot point from his book, “Job: A Comedy of Justice” that I think could be use for something about gun control.

In the book, there’s a universe where America is a tyrannical theological state run by The Church of Your Choice. Everyone has to go to The Church of Your Choice.

Well, I think it would be amusing to explore the following: what if the state mandated that everyone be packing heat at all times? Everyone over the age of 18 (16?) had to be carrying a gun or whatever — or else. Now, the irony of this is even though everyone has a gun on them, no one does anything about the tyrannical government they live under.

Anyway, I have an idea for a story that would use this plot point. But I’m so wrapped up in working on these five novels that I don’t know when I’ll get around to use it.

Of Crooked Media & When To Worry About Autocracy In The United States



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One of the big changes we’re going to have to get used to once the United States is a Russian-style autocracy is how many notable liberals will no longer live in the United States.

It could be that huge swaths of Hollywood will no longer live in the now-autocratic America to the point that even The Oscars will be held outside of the United States. I know this sounds bonkers — “hysterical doom shit” — if you will, but that is the direction the United States is heading an alarming clip.

I would suggest you keep an eye on Crooked Media. If Crooked Media leaves the United States and starts to produce all its content elsewhere, then, lulz, us Poors who are stuck in the United States are fucked.

And, remember, there will come a point when the only way to learn what’s really going on is to access, say, the British media using a VPN. I just don’t see how that’s not our destiny at this point.

That, or we have a civil war.

The United States is doomed for a bumpy few years and there’s not anything that any one person can do about it. There are macro issues at work and, lulz, nothing matters.

What We Have Here Is, A Dead Shark


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

We have to stop thinking of the United States as a democracy. At best, we’re an anocracy and probably now something closer to a pre-fascist state. Occasionally, I will toy with the idea that maybe we’re going down the high risk, I rereward path of civil war…then I dismiss this idea out of hand.

Blue Check liberals are fucking cowards and when the time comes in late 2024 – early 2025, they’re going to head for the doors. The bent-up rage of the MAGA New Right is so potent — and anti-MAGA forces so weak-willed — that, lulz, the fight will be over before it begins.

And you have to look no further than what’s going on with abortion rights at the moment. That particular debate is over — and the “pro-Life” forces have won. The only thing that’s undecided at the moment is if there is a simple overturn of Roe V. Wade, or if SCOTUS completely flips things so it’s impossible to get a legal abortion in the United States.

That particular datapoint has yet to be determined.

While the center-Left is fighting amongst itself over who is the most woke, or which pronouns to use, or how extreme they can be about transgender rights, the MAGA New Right is slowly but surely collecting real power that it’s using as a bludgeon against what’s left of our democracy.

We’re already a white, autocratic Christian ethnostate, but for one thing — Republicans don’t control the White House or Capitol Hill. Once they changes, which it surely will eventually, that’s it. We’ll go from being an autocracy without an autocrat to just an autocracy.

And I still think by no later than 2040 the United States and Russia will be politically identical. And loudmouth cranks like me will be long dead at the hands of ICE.

So, if you have the means to get out of the country, do so. God speed.

A New Phase In This Novel Project


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Things are going really well with this first novel, to the point that I’m beginning to encounter resistance from people who are resentful about this very thing. I knew this was inevitable, but I didn’t expect it to start even before I finished the novel.

But, here we are.

I was talking to someone I knew at a bar about where development was and the moment it was clear that I was well on my way to finishing the first draft, they rather abruptly changed the subject. It was very jarring and conspicuous.

Anyway, I still don’t know what I’m going to do once I finish the first draft. The logical thing to do would be start a second creative track that was shorter so I could see about using what I’ve learned since I started developing these five thriller novels to write a shorter “calling card” of sorts that might be easier to sell.

But, alas, I’m so wrapped up in these five novels that I don’t know if I have it in me to divert attention from the main project to do such a thing. Only time will tell, I guess.

What The War In Ukraine Can Tell Us About A Possible Future Second American Civil War


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I still believe we’re going to slip peacefully into autocracy. Gradually at first with accelerating speed. But it hasn’t happened yet, so I suppose it’s possible that we might have a civil war.

The chief thing we have to factor in is how mobile everyone will be during the whole process. It’s very possible that Canada will be overwhelmed with American refugees. And that doesn’t even begin to address the few million wealthy Twitter liberals who will flee the country because they’re fucking cowards.

But there are differences from what’s going on in Ukraine — the primary one being it seems to me obvious that WMD will be used by both sides from early on in the conflict. So, we won’t have any idea what the fuck is going on.

The whole thing will be a clusterfuck. And it’s possible once the country collapses there won’t be any clear endgame. We’ll just collapse and that will be that. Some form of Trumplandia will be formed and millions of center-Left people will flee its creation, which will even jiggle the demographics of what was once the United States even more.

Any Second American Civil War is going to be a quantum leap worse than what’s going on in Ukraine at the moment.

At The Midpoint (Now What)


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m now at the midpoint of the first draft of the first book in a projected five thriller project. I now find myself struggling with that I’m going to do next. Here are my options.

  1. Keep going and pray.
    With this option, I just keep moving forward, regardless of how long the novel ultimately becomes. Right now, this thing is careening towards being well past the sweetspot of about 100,000 words. In this scenario, I just write the story and let the chips fall where they may.
  2. Start a second creative track.
    The next option is to finish the first draft, but while I’m in the process of doing this I start working on a second creative track. There are a number of different stories I could use as part of this second track. Whatever this second track is, it would be a way to have a calling card of sorts for the thriller. If I could pull it off, it would be way to at least prep the way for a novel that might otherwise be too long to sell for a first time, untested novelist. But the problem would be it would be a struggle to divert my attention away from the main project.
  3. Finish the first draft then edit things down.
    In this scenario, I finish the first draft, give myself about a month to reflect on things and then I write the second draft. The hope in this instance would be that the second draft will be short enough to fit in the sweetspot.

    Which of these three options I ultimately do, I don’t know.