The Culture We Deserve

The Christians finally have a film they can rally around. It's Romanian. You know, the country Erika Kirk can't return to because of accusations of human trafficking. Anyway, Christians and conservatives love Fjord, the latest film by Cristian Mungiu. It tells the story of a Romanian Christian family living in Norway until the secular progressives running their children's school start to suspect the parents of abusing the kids. Is it accurate or is it persecution? You can guess which ones the Christians are going with. Then You Can See Everything is being filtered through the gender wars, the tech wars, the ethical journalism wars, etc. Did Nathan Fielder invent ambiguity in Elizabeth Holmes's case or was it already there?  Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

The images of the riots in Milan were shocking. Shop windows smashed, luxury items looted, fires set to vehicles and buildings. But of course they were AI generated, made well enough to fool even local residents that their city center was in disarray.  In the wake of the protests in Paris and the election in Serbia, there's a lot of discourse about whether, a) Europe is the future of leftist politics; b) protests like those in Paris lead to reform or fascist takeover; or c) Europe is over, fallen to a Russia-friendly rightwing or migrant crisis, depending who you ask.  Jessa and Nico "report" from Italy, by which we mean we happened to be in Milan eating pasta and drinking 11am wine while we waited for the promised riots to appear. Europe is fine, but it also might be over. Which might be a good thing. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

From the pits of "suicidal empathy" and testosterone tests for military men, we are now getting livestreamed executions. We have a generation or two who were raised on pornography and gore, in the unregulated days of the internet, and maybe there are consequences for that?  Jessa and Nico pick through the parades of unfeeling masculinities, from El Tigre in Colombia making videos with stacks of dead bodies to the return of public executions. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Critics are absolutely gleeful that Tom Cruise's new movie Digger seems to be crashing at the box office. And in an era where we demand healthy, moral, ethical actors, do we really have a place for complicated, dark, tortured Tom Cruise? Jessa and Nico discuss how his reputation got so bad in the first place (cult member, negligent father, etc), and why we'll never see another star like him.  Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

From Stranger Danger to Pedo Hunting on YouTube, we have long projected our fears onto the outsider, rather than the people within our family who are much more likely to do us harm. (Maybe not the best week to make this argument as the Philadelphia serial killer's house is still being investigated, but oh well.) Jessa and Nico discuss Primetime and our moral panic around child safety, and our eagerness to replace justice with entertainment. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

In this episode, Nico and Jessa discuss one of the weirder ideas championed during feminism's Second Wave, including by Gloria Steinem: the idea that pre-history's civilizations were matriarchal with a goddess culture at their center. The idea didn't originate with the feminist movement, they were based on a confused interpretation of 19th century archeological finds. But they sure did run with it, nearly 75 years after the idea had been discredited. Today you still see people repeating these ideas in spirituality circles, the more woooo end of feminism, and also the neo-Nazis. Jessa and Nico discuss the wish for the idyllic past, why feminism's ideas keep accidentally overlapping with those of Nazi Germany, and why we probably shouldn't let artists write books about archeology. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

It takes a certain kind of deranged mind to look at the Lindsay Clancy case and think, "Well, we're never going to get a female president now!" but that is what a lot of the rightwing ladies have been doing. Everything is a Gender War now. Jessa and Nico consider how we think about men and women who kill their children, by looking at two films: Alice Diop's Saint Omer, based on the real life case of a Senegalese-French woman who drowned her baby daughter; and, The Shining, everyone's favorite Family Annihilator film.  Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Amanda Knox has written a memoir. And another memoir. And made a documentary. And another documentary. And a fictionalized adaptation of her life story. And she has a podcast. And now she's written a one-woman-show for Fringe. All while the family of the young woman who was murdered begs her to stop. The true crime industry gives a lot of young women the opportunity to endlessly create content about the one bad thing that happened to them. Or, near them? Because some of these women, like the BTK Killer's daughter, or now the granddaughter of Charles Manson, have monetized proximity to bad people while the survivors and the families of victims beg for privacy.  Jessa and Nico look at the main character syndrome of true crime, and how certain women have built empires out of suffering and death. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Everyone is looking for love, and no one can find it. That's the message from the inside look at matchmaking services, where both men and women are locked in an endless cycle of first dates and "there has to be something better." The rich men want women with degrees and robust fertility but no hobbies or interests of their own, and women want men who are six feet tall and at least half a million a year. Finally we find gender parity somewhere: both men and women are entirely delusional about what kind of partner will make them happy. Jessa and Nico discuss the dating hellscape, where the apps have gotten so terrible those who can pay (or put down a credit card) run to matchmakers, and romantic disappointment is a major form of reality show entertainment. Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com

Katie Porter, fresh off a loss in the California governor's race, has announced she is going to be a book influencer now. Come join her book group, it recommends all the same books that the others do, too! As President Obama releases a new podcast about books, Dua Lipa interviews Booker Prize winners, and the daughter of President Bush tells you which slop books to read, we have to ask, why is everyone a book influencer now? Nico and Jessa chart the evolution from the Parisian salon to BookTok and every horrific stop along the way, to figure out why, in a time when no one can read, having a book club is the chicest thing you can do.  Shownotes and references: http://theculturewedeserve.substack.com