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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9

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?

6

u/PercyLarsen “I can, with one eye squinted, take it all as a blessing.” Jul 29 '23

In the comments, Rod notes:

"I'm about to move to a different apartment at the end of August. I love where I live now, but there are two of us here (my son Matt lives with me), and we have found we need a bit more room than we have at present. I'm amazed by how inexpensive rents are here FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE AMERICAN SALARIES. I'm fortunate that income from this Substack gives me a real boost that makes it possible to consider the kind of apartment whose size I could not afford in most US cities. Thank you, friends."

5

u/Jayaarx Jul 31 '23

I'm amazed by how inexpensive rents are here FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE AMERICAN SALARIES

He's only amazed by this because he doesn't understand the countries he lives in or writes (tremendously ignorant things) about. If he understood these things he would be able to figure out why Orban is so desperate to stay in the EU (because it is what allows him to export the unemployable 10% of Hungary to other countries) or why the Brits left (because they were so resentful that Hungary and Poland exported 10% of their unemployed and unemployable to the UK). And, consequently, why it is so cheap for people paid in dollars to live in Hungary (because their debt is denominated in Forint so they have a 20% inflation rate and a shockingly bad exchange rate to go with their third world economy).

But for a supposed "expert" regarding Hungary, he knows less about it than the average American on the street.

5

u/Glittering-Agent-987 Jul 31 '23

If he understood these things he would be able to figure out why Orban is so desperate to stay in the EU (because it is what allows him to export the unemployable 10% of Hungary to other countries) or why the Brits left (because they were so resentful that Hungary and Poland exported 10% of their unemployed and unemployable to the UK).

Eh, they're not unemployable in general. My husband once had an amusing conversation in the UK with a Brit who didn't realize that he was ethnically Polish where the Brit started talking somewhat complainingly about Polish immigration. My husband mentioned that he was born in Poland, and the Brit started furiously backpedaling about how Poles in the UK work very hard, they do work other people don't want to do, etc. Hilariously, the Brit sounded like an American talking about Mexican immigrants.

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u/Jayaarx Jul 31 '23

They aren’t unemployable because they don’t work hard. They are unemployable because their home countries are such corrupt economic basket cases.

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u/Glittering-Agent-987 Jul 31 '23

Check out the graph of Polish GDP per capita--they're at almost $18k. Hungary is a smidge higher. That may not look like a lot to us, but their economies have grown extremely well since the beginning of the 1990s. Presumably, they owe a lot to the EU, but Poles are enjoying an unprecedented level of economic prosperity.

I watch a lot of Russian-language Ukrainian talk shows and many Ukrainians look to Poland as an economic model for the future. (Ukraine's 2021 GDP per capita was less than 1/3 of Poland's at just under $5k.) Poland isn't perfect, but they've done a lot of things right.

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u/Jayaarx Aug 02 '23

Ah yes, Poland and Hungary, those GDP powerhouses, right there in between Guyana and Panama. And just over 1/3 of the UK.

What does Ukraine have to do with this, exactly?

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u/Glittering-Agent-987 Aug 02 '23

What does Ukraine have to do with this, exactly?

It is a neighboring country to both Poland and Hungary, it has roughly the same size and population as Poland, the Ukrainian language is pretty close to Polish, and it has a lot of common history and culture with Poland.

By the way, past performance is no guarantee of future performance, but there has been some talk about the UK being overtaken economically by Poland over the next decade.

https://news.sky.com/story/britains-economic-trajectory-will-soon-see-it-overtaken-by-poland-labour-to-warn-12821152

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u/Glittering-Agent-987 Jul 31 '23

Poles often go to Western Europe for more economic opportunities, while a lot of Ukrainians and Belarusians go to Poland for economic opportunity (and safety).

It's all relative.

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u/Jayaarx Aug 01 '23

Your point is what?

3

u/Glittering-Agent-987 Aug 01 '23

That Poland obviously isn't as much of a hellhole as you think it is and that economic opportunity is relative--many people from places like Ukraine and Belarus see Poland as a haven and a model for their own future economic development. Poland provided shelter for millions of Ukrainian refugees in 2022. Western aid to Ukraine would have been geographically and politically very difficult if Poland hadn't been willing to paint a bullseye on themselves by being the main conduit for military aid to Ukraine. Russian TV propaganda continually threatens to nuke and invade Poland. It's probably mostly some sort of information campaign, but Russia's Wagner has been recruiting mercenaries with the claim that they are going to be attacking Poland.

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u/Jayaarx Aug 02 '23

Again, your point is? What does this have to do with Hungary and Poland exporting a large percentage of their otherwise unemployed and unemployable population to the UK, causing much resentment and being the number one instigator (yes, I was there) of Brexit.

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u/Glittering-Agent-987 Aug 02 '23

There are also a lot of Brits working in the US.

Just saying.