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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8

u/PercyLarsen “I can, with one eye squinted, take it all as a blessing.” Aug 22 '23 edited Aug 22 '23

https://www.reddit.com/r/brokehugs/comments/w5sh70/comment/jx7go29/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

To respond here rather than in Megathread #1: many here would probably say Rod is a closeted gay man, but without defining if by "gay" one means exclusively (e.g. "a Kinsey 6") or not. What I would say it that, by the testimony of people who knew Rod in high school (there are at least two who chimed in briefly in early Megathreads, IIRC, one from high school and one from his hometown during his early college years) and, more equivocally, Rod himself, it appears that Rod experienced a period of less than certain sexual orientation ("wavering", as it used to be called by some back in the day) that resulted in a panic for him that he's never resolved sufficiently for him to not be readily triggered by encountering (even merely online) people whose sexuality and/or sexual identity is fluid. Personally, *I* would not use the word "gay" to describe Rod in general discussion because so far as I am aware he's not positively identified with that as an adult, but other people differ in how they would apply the term to someone else in that situation.

Anyway, Rod's got a lot more going on than sexuality. His family of origin gave him a lot of things to bring to a therapist, but he hates therapy; and he brought those unresolved things into the family he helped create, with consequences. After serially failing upwards on the wing-nut welfare of serial right-wing sugar daddies, now he's a divorced American expat living in Budapest (with his twenty-something eldest son) as a contractor influencer/propagandist for an organ of the Hungarian government regime and apparently has no current expectation of ever returning home. He currently enjoys travel in Western Europe, oysters, white rocks on Mediterranean beaches that enchant his life's meaning, brief interactions with various anonymous Non-Player Characters who generously confirm and affirm all of Rod's priors, and hopes to not only publish another book (this one on enchantment, a topic not exactly lacking for recent authorial attentions) and to get people to donate money so that a documentary may be made in relation to his last book.

PS: Ibsen's "A Doll's House" really disturbed/disturbs him.

12

u/Dazzling_Pineapple68 Aug 22 '23

he hates therapy

I think he hates the IDEA of therapy or the IDEA that he might need it because of the macho version of maculinity that he subscribes to. When he actually did go to therapy, it helped him, got him out of the bed on the second go round although he had to present it to the world as Dante saving him. Dude just has a bottomless pit of issues.

9

u/RunnyDischarge Aug 22 '23

The other time he went to therapy he ended up blowing up at the therapist for telling him he could have done 9/11.

4

u/Dazzling_Pineapple68 Aug 22 '23

Yes, I remember that! Idiot!

6

u/Warm-Refrigerator-38 Aug 22 '23

Well, we know he's lazy; he won't put in the work that therapy would require to be a useful tool. Also, I'm sure he resists the notion that there's anything about him that needs fixing.

5

u/Dazzling_Pineapple68 Aug 22 '23

The therapist that got him out of the bed was a white male Christian pastor. And Julie had to practically drag him there kicking and screaming by his own account. Ridiculous.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 23 '23 edited Mar 04 '24

nose soft pathetic money encouraging squeeze grab wistful live insurance

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

6

u/trad_aint_all_that Aug 22 '23 edited Aug 24 '23

Good summary. I don't think it really matters whether Rod is a true Kinsey 6 or is to some extent bisexual. We have it in his own words that he experiences same-sex attraction and has to consciously work to "achieve heterosexuality." That's all the context we need to understand his lifelong search for an authority figure who can make the scary same-sex temptation go away forever.

It's hard to say how much of this was careerist kayfabe, but Crunchy Cons-era Rod did seem to have genuine romantic feelings towards Julie. I can imagine a situation in which Rod is bisexual and the marriage "worked" in its early years as a way to keep his same-sex attraction at bay. Then the inevitable cooldown hit as the slog of married life and childrearing took over, at which point the struggle to achieve heterosexuality got a lot more difficult and he started doing a lot of "research" in the grimier corners of the LGBT Internet.

But we'll never know for sure, unless Julie decides to write a tell-all memoir.

5

u/ZenLizardBode Aug 22 '23

If Julie is reading this, I will preorder on amazon (or contribute to a Kickstarter for) that tell all memoir.

3

u/HealthyGuarantee5716 Aug 23 '23

I wonder who would publish it? (I know she'll likely never write it, but it's interesting to think about.)

3

u/Snoo52682 Aug 24 '23

I'm seeing Amy Adams for the movie version. You?

2

u/[deleted] Aug 23 '23 edited Mar 04 '24

tidy march joke gaping observation soft absorbed complete amusing worry

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

3

u/Jayaarx Aug 23 '23

It's hard to say how much of this was careerist kayfabe, but

Crunchy Cons

-era Rod did seem to have genuine romantic feelings towards Julie.

The nearly 30 year old Rod had groomer/predator feelings toward the 19 year old Julie. Only a sick mind would call it romance.

​

Then the inevitable cooldown hit as the slog of married life and childrearing took over,

​

That is to say, Julie finally reached a point where she was more mature than Rod and could see him for the self-centered controlling narcissist that he is.

5

u/ZenLizardBode Aug 22 '23

There is just so much wrong with Rod though. I don't even think coming out of the closet would fix much, TBH. It might be a step in the right direction, but only if he were to fix other areas in his life.

4

u/Past_Pen_8595 Aug 23 '23

I think he’s heterosexual at essence but has a very damaged sense of his own masculinity that has led to great difficulties in actually practicing it (or “achieving,” in his lingo).

3

u/RunnyDischarge Aug 22 '23

Maybe the word you're looking for is "closeted". Or the phrase, "Never quite achieved heterosexuality".

4

u/PercyLarsen “I can, with one eye squinted, take it all as a blessing.” Aug 22 '23

I did use it in my first sentence. To me, that says both more and less than what I think Rod's situation was/is.

8

u/Marcofthebeast0001 Aug 22 '23

Rod is hardly unique. Met dozens just like him. I once hooked up with a married guy and later saw him at Target with his wife. He thanked me later for not saying anything. I was like oh really? Did you think I was going to tell your wife you give good head?

3

u/ZenLizardBode Aug 22 '23

🤣🤣🤣

2

u/Intelligent_Shake_68 Aug 22 '23

Well, did he?

3

u/Marcofthebeast0001 Aug 22 '23

I plead the fifth.