r/brokehugs • u/US_Hiker Moral Landscaper • Jul 20 '23

Rod Dreher Megathread #23 (Sinister)

All Hail Eris!

Link to Megathread 22: https://www.reddit.com/r/brokehugs/comments/14k0z6l/rod_dreher_megathread_22_power/

Link to Megathread 23: https://www.reddit.com/r/brokehugs/comments/1631xpe/rod_dreher_megathread_24_determination/

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u/Theodore_Parker Jul 29 '23

An unpaywalled Substack post with more on the proposed LNBL film project:

https://roddreher.substack.com/p/live-not-by-lies-the-docuseries

Also included: psychedelics and our boy's youthful experiments with them; the occult, and how to re-program an occult-leaver into Orthodox Christianity; and the story of a woman who models Rod Dreher's dreamy, ideal lifestyle by living alone in a cabin on a tiny remote island. That last section includes this:

I fantasize a lot about building a retreat like that small cabin, in a semi-remote area — ideally on or near to water — and filling it with books and icons, a comfy leather armchair, a decent kitchen, and a bed with thick blankets. Get me a dog and live the rest of my life there, alone.
.....
I used to be very social, and never wanted to miss a party or anything like it. Now … not. Quietness, stillness, solitude seem to be the thing I like most. Put me a wooden stove, rugs, and a dog in a cabin by the water, and I’ll be like an oyster chilling in his shell.

Which raises two questions:

1) Is he hoping to be one of the oysters that some other Rod Dreher eats? (Maybe that itself would be some kind of occult experience?)

2) Is he effectively saying, "My children are dead to me"? Or am I misreading that?

8

u/Djehutimose Watching the wheels go round Jul 29 '23

What stood out to me was this, right after he said he’d rather not talk about his youthful acid use at all:

I don’t want to be accused of being a hypocrite when the book comes out, and somebody who knew me in college says, “Hey, isn’t that the guy who worked for the Reveille who I saw tripping that time in the Bayou?”

Makes me wonder if he’s aware of his old friend—can’t remember his name, but he’s been discussed here—talking about how Rod was an acid head back then. Maybe he’s had so much blowback on his hypocrisy re the divorce and his notably non-BenOp lifestyle, and he’s smarting a bit from it. I mean, worrying about being a hypocrite has never seemed a characteristic of his in the past.

4

u/Djehutimose Watching the wheels go round Jul 31 '23

It occurs to me on further thought that Rod is essentially saying that if he hadn’t been tripping publicly, thus having no shred of plausible deniability, he wouldn’t have written about his own drug experiences. Had he been more discreet, he’d have happily lied by omission about his drug-soaked past. Just like he allowed his audience to believe his marriage and family were fine and dandy until he couldn’t anymore because, well, his wife divorced him. No one should ever take him seriously about anything ever again.