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Dead Kennedys, In God We Trust, Inc., 1981

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the actual reason I consume mediocre media is because I have bad taste. the deeper secret pretentious reason is because I think there’s something very revealing about bad media that you don’t get with good media. when you watch a poorly executed plot point unfold, you see the machinery behind it. you see the gap between what’s actually on screen and the true goal the author is striving for. if it’s particularly awful, you can even measure just how poorly mismatched the author’s skills are with the story they’re trying to tell you. watching a poorly executed narrative play out feels like you’re discovering something, because you see all the wiring and guts underneath that better authors hide from you, in the same way that movies hide boom mics and books make you forget you’re turning the pages. if a story is good and executed well you just see the story. but I want to see the guts and wires!

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Hackers (1995)

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By Oliver Kornetzke

"I came across a comment on a share of my post about Moscow ’91, the Soviet collapse, and the rise of Putin—and I thought I’d offer a deeper analysis, as someone who reads Russian history and politics not just with interest, but with a growing sense of dread at how relevant it’s all become.

After the failed 1991 coup, the Soviet Union quickly disintegrated. What followed wasn’t democracy—it was chaos. Under Yeltsin, a rushed, Western-advised economic “shock therapy” program led to the mass privatization of state assets. Overnight, a handful of connected insiders—many with deep ties to both organized crime and the former KGB—became oligarchs, while the rest of the population plunged into poverty. Inflation soared, life expectancy dropped, pensions evaporated, and trust in anything resembling democratic governance collapsed. By 1996, Yeltsin’s approval ratings hovered around 6%. Russians weren’t just disillusioned—they were betrayed.

It was into this power vacuum that Putin emerged. Not through popular uprising, but through appointment and manipulation—first as head of the FSB, then as acting president following Yeltsin’s resignation. He rose with the full backing of the oligarchs and security state, cloaking himself in nationalist rhetoric, promising order, strength, and a return to greatness. He sold the idea that if Russians gave up civil liberties, he’d restore dignity and economic stability. For a brief time, he did—on the backs of high oil prices and ruthless suppression of dissent. The “social contract” was set: stay silent, and your life might get better. But in the long run, the cost was totalitarianism, censorship, political assassinations, and a state that now operates as a mafia with nukes.

And he played it brilliantly. Wrap autocracy in nationalism. Offer economic stability in exchange for political silence. Identify enemies, internal and external. Normalize surveillance, repression, and the erasure of dissent. By the time anyone realized what had happened, Russia was no longer a fragile democracy—it was a managed state, run by a security apparatus fused with organized crime, and cloaked in the language of patriotism and greatness.

Now look at the United States. Since the 2008 financial crash, wealth inequality has skyrocketed. Wages stagnated. Whole towns were gutted by globalization and automation while Wall Street and Silicon Valley raked in billions. The institutions—Congress, the courts, the media—failed to deliver anything resembling justice or accountability. The populist rage that gave Trump his power didn’t come out of nowhere. Like Putin, he positioned himself as the “strongman outsider” who would break the system and punish the elites. And like Putin, he’s surrounded himself with sycophants, oligarchs, criminals, and loyal enforcers willing to dismantle democracy piece by piece in exchange for power.

January 6 was our warning shot—just as the Second Chechen War was Putin’s. Just as Putin used terror to consolidate power, Trump used a manufactured crisis of a ‘rigged election’ to rally a violent cult. Just like Putin, he’s purging dissent, co-opting the courts, and building a political machine immune to consequences.

And now we see the result—judicial capture, voter suppression, cult-like loyalty, attacks on the free press, the slow death of accountability, and a base conditioned to see democracy itself as the enemy. It’s Putinism draped in red, white, and blue.

The warning here isn’t theoretical—it’s already happened. And if we don’t address the root causes—corrupt elites, collapsing public trust, obscene inequality—people will continue to turn to authoritarians who promise vengeance and order. Nationalist populism is a symptom of a failed system, and once embraced, it’s nearly impossible to uproot without massive social and political cost.

The deeper warning isn’t that this might happen—it’s that it already is. Authoritarianism doesn’t arrive all at once with tanks in the streets. It comes incrementally, cloaked in slogans, normalized by fatigue, and justified by fear. The U.S. is not immune. If anything, we’re proving how fragile our institutions truly are.

We are now entering the post-collapse stage of our own republic. The only question now is whether we allow our own version of Putin to finish the job.

Pic related — Putin’s Russia by the late journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

She documented the rise of authoritarianism, corruption, and state violence in chilling detail. In 2006, she was shot dead in her Moscow apartment building. Assassinated for telling the truth."

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Anthony Roberts - The Simultaneous Man, 1973.

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Track IDs // Goths Against Fascism Raid // 4.11.25 - twitch.tv/IXmartyrXI

din_fiv - Control Group Haujobb - Eye Over You Front 242 - Circling Overland Fatal Morgana - Lifeblood Noise Unit - Liberation Controlled Fusion - Stories Of America Skinny Puppy - Assimilate Leæther Strip - antiUS Destroid - Revolution Crystal Geometry - Agent Orange Body Beat Ritual - Body Politics (Single Version) Randolph & Mortimer - Citizens (Schwefelgelb Remix)

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SP. 113 - Ghost in the Shell (1995)

Coding.

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Visit NewRetro.Net for A journey to the Past  -

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When ppl see my shelf

LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL (2023) dir. Colin Cairnes & Cameron Cairnes

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the demon (1963) dir. brunello rondi