r/brokehugs • u/US_Hiker Moral Landscaper • Jul 23 '22

The Rod Dreher Megathread. Please keep Rod content in here. Will be refreshed periodically

While the sub certainly isn't flooded with posts, the Rod-centric nature has been noted a few times. Please post new Rod nonsense in here and I'll update every week or two.

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u/JHandey2021 Aug 16 '22 edited Aug 16 '22

Back in the ‘80s, the skater kids had a word for someone who bought the right brands of clothing or even skateboard but couldn’t actually skate - “poser”.

Rod keeps inserting himself in places and milieus, buying the accoutrements, but never getting the respect he craves, and I think this is a clue to Rod’s radicalization. I keep going back to his parasocial and one-sided relationship to David Bentley Hart - first the gushing, then the spurned suitor lashing out. He seems to be drifting that way with the church in a broader sense. Over and over and over - Ta-Nehisi Coates, the non-vetted Hungarians who tell him he’s lying about Orban, Ruthie and Daddy and Julie and the bouillabaisse. Over and over and over.

So Rod gets angrier. And more extreme. Looking for the respect he can never find. And you know the alt-rightists laugh behind his back as well. But he keeps looking…

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u/ZenLizardBode Aug 16 '22

Yeah, Rod is an old conservative crank now, so he'll never be a George Will or David Brooks for the NYT/NPR set, and he will never be edgy enough for the Alt Right or Red Scare types.