Peter Berard

MAR 2025.6.17 - A Fabulous Failure and other nicknames for the author

I review a solid historical review of the Clinton administration. Not pretty! open.substack.com/pub/peterber...

One of my lawyer friends said Padilla should swear out a complaint for assault and battery on the goons- locally, where Trump couldn’t pardon them. I’d like to see that happen, if nothing else to see the response.

MAR 2025.06.12 - Eileen Come on!

I read Moshfegh’s “Eileen” a while after reading and disliking “My Year of Rest and Relaxation.” Why? open.substack.com/pub/peterber...

MAR 2025.06.04 - Hard to Be a God …is it?

I wrote a review of the Strugatskys “Hard to Be a God” - what prime directive dilemmas looked like from the eastern bloc? open.substack.com/pub/peterber...

If you SQUINT… a lot… this is a tiny bit like what happened with the Cathars

I keep forgetting to post on this site!

Here's one- those polls saying 80 percent of Gen Z'rs would marry a chatbot? Whatever else is wrong with the studies... who the fuck, in their twenties, wouldn't say "yes" to some survey dork asking them that, because it's funny?

And here's an unpaywalled version archive.is/cL0ps

The New Literalism Plaguing Today’s Biggest Movies Buzzy films from “Anora” to “The Substance” are undone by a relentless signposting of meaning and intent.

www.newyorker.com/culture/crit...

I thought this article was pretty good. I look forward to "The New Literalism" first becoming a useful discussion starter, then a meaningless shibboleth/term of abuse, then a reappropriated positive self-descriptor by/for people who shouldn't use language.

UPDATE: A ticket-holder tells me that the Curtis Yarvin/Passage Press event is being held at the Harvard Faculty Club's Dining Hall on 20 Quincy Street, at 7PM tonight! See you there?

Oh hell yeah- I saw this on a plane back in like 2015, and then spent the return flight reading a copy of the novel I bought at the airport. Good times!

A horrible story but god bless this woman so accurately reading the ICE goons for filth here

How Elite Group Chats Became Our Problem Or, the map of our woes

I have a newsletter! In this issue, I wrote about how that article about elite group chats illustrates a central dynamic of the most mysterious historical period of all: the recent past. open.substack.com/pub/peterber...

Give it a read! Share it around?

Runaway Tren How a Colorado slumlord’s psyop turned into a brand-new ‘forever war’ on Venezuela

An outstanding article about a huge fucking mess prospect.org/justice/2025...

I knew this wealthy girl who told everyone she worked “in tech” and was “part of a rapidly growing startup” but actually she had no job and spent 10 hours a day moderating a Buffy the vampire message board and everyone treated her like a computer wiz. That’s basically Marc Andreessen if he was cool

What is it's about how supportive and fun the DADS nerd shit chat is???

We talk a lot about social media radicalizing the population but it's been far more efficient at radicalizing public figures.

The people arguing against this implicitly think according to the rules of a well-managed elementary classroom. They think the Grown Ups will come, admonish the miscreants, and make everything better if only they (the libs, more or less), are Good Children

If “the grownups” had one job (beyond self-perpetuation), it was to prevent what we are seeing from happening. They couldn’t/wouldn’t do it.

I think there was always this implicit assumption that the grown-ups would keep things going and give us the chance to “grow our movements” and improve things (/overthrow said grown-ups).

If you ask me, 2025 proves we on the left should have been playing maximalist since 2001 at least. We thought we had the implicit cooperation of moderates against the worst. We either never did, or we did and it just didn’t matter, because here we are.

Is there a genre (or sub genre) you really want to work in that haven’t yet?

Foolishness! I meant Thomas Chatterton was sympathetic -to- slaves and their oppression, not a position a man of letters of his day would take automatically, alas.

Thanks!

Whoever posted this initially blocked me (which is weird- I don’t use this app much!). Who wrote it?

So I know this is a minor point, and I will stand by my Canadian neighbors against my government if it tries to take the country over… but does anyone else think it’s weird they talk about it as one state? That’d be an absurdly huge state! You’d figure they’d at least make it states 51-60

"pro-natalists" should consider the baby boom that will happen 9 months after Donald Trump dies

Movie you’ve watched more than six times using gifs.

(“Hard mode” no Star Wars, Star Trek, or LOTR)

I actually tricked a child into watching this scene by telling them it was a rare chicken jockey clip yesterday

It's hard to describe a lot of what happens in this one w/out making it sound like a better book than it is: "sourpuss Atari Democrats try to livestream Grenadan green/Garveyite/communist/voodoo hackers into being nice"