smophi3's review
5.0
Wow. Fabulous read on the topic in question.
In-depthly researched, took me a while to read as I had to (and still have to) do some more research on all the people from past and present mentioned.
I’ll be working my way through the appendix of sources for all of it!
So interesting.
In-depthly researched, took me a while to read as I had to (and still have to) do some more research on all the people from past and present mentioned.
I’ll be working my way through the appendix of sources for all of it!
So interesting.
skahn's review against another edition
3.0
Extremely well researched. Whether or not you think black magick works or not, its direct influence on Bannon (via his favorite "superfascist" thinker Baron Julius Evola) are enough to give considerable pause to any sober reader. The author is cautious, reasoned, and does not make wild claims. His opinions are largely kept to himself, except when it comes to Trump's (obvious lack of) character or warning against the psychological effects of indulging in black magick.
smophi3's review against another edition
5.0
Wow. Fabulous read on the topic in question.
In-depthly researched, took me a while to read as I had to (and still have to) do some more research on all the people from past and present mentioned.
I’ll be working my way through the appendix of sources for all of it!
So interesting.
In-depthly researched, took me a while to read as I had to (and still have to) do some more research on all the people from past and present mentioned.
I’ll be working my way through the appendix of sources for all of it!
So interesting.
otterno11's review
dark
slow-paced
2.0
Former Blondie drummer and current occult aficionado Gary Lachman‘s Dark Star Rising: Magick and Power in the Age of Trump was a rather facile take on understanding the dark underbellies of the far-right in comparison with some of the other works discussing similar topics I’ve read recently.
I was curious to learn more and gain further insight into the more esoteric occult beliefs behind the so called “alt right” but like most works I’ve read on such other conspiratorial or paranormal topics, Lachman relies mostly on vague coincidence to reach most of his conclusions. While there was some interesting discussion of the idea how the mind and imagination can affect reality, from New Thought, the brand of positive thinking and “prosperity gospel” that Trump has adhered to, to the idea that “meme magic” could have had an effect on the 2020 election, with none other than Richard Spencer announcing “we willed Donald Trump into office, we made this dream our reality,” it can be all too convenient to blame dark forces on the rise of authoritarian regimes. As Lachman described it, the "chaos magicians” of the alt-right are harnessing postmodernist “relativism” to create their own reality (why does postmodernism always end up the culprit of why things are bad in the modern world?).
As a skeptic, I find so much of this kind of stuff fascinating but, aside from perhaps an interesting account describing the worldviews of those who find themselves attracted to such beliefs, there are more useful works to explore these topics, I feel, including Alexandra Minna Stern’s Proud Boys and the White Ethnostate, Alexander Reid Ross’ Against the Fascist Creep, and in particular, Dale Beran’s It Came From Something Awful. The use of the frame of “magic” (or should I say “magick?”) trappings to describe phenomena from irony (when does a joke become real?) to the nature of reality kind of detracts from discussing the very real ideas that have come to dominate our contemporary society.
One of the threads running through Dark Star Rising, for instance, was the role that the internet and the weird, absurd way it kind of exploded into the “mainstream” mundane world in the 2010s as though a portal to some other world of chaos magic had been opened. But, I feel that it is much more concrete than that.
As much as people say that the internet is virtual, it is a vital part of the everyday world for many people and, as a major facet of today’s information media, is bound to have an effect on how people see the world. As has been seen, some aspects of internet culture exacerbate this drift into misinformation and feelings that the world is wrong.
I discuss other works analyzing the current rise of fascist ideology, particularly in the US, in part 3 of my series Against Fascism at Harris' Tome Corner.
I was curious to learn more and gain further insight into the more esoteric occult beliefs behind the so called “alt right” but like most works I’ve read on such other conspiratorial or paranormal topics, Lachman relies mostly on vague coincidence to reach most of his conclusions. While there was some interesting discussion of the idea how the mind and imagination can affect reality, from New Thought, the brand of positive thinking and “prosperity gospel” that Trump has adhered to, to the idea that “meme magic” could have had an effect on the 2020 election, with none other than Richard Spencer announcing “we willed Donald Trump into office, we made this dream our reality,” it can be all too convenient to blame dark forces on the rise of authoritarian regimes. As Lachman described it, the "chaos magicians” of the alt-right are harnessing postmodernist “relativism” to create their own reality (why does postmodernism always end up the culprit of why things are bad in the modern world?).
As a skeptic, I find so much of this kind of stuff fascinating but, aside from perhaps an interesting account describing the worldviews of those who find themselves attracted to such beliefs, there are more useful works to explore these topics, I feel, including Alexandra Minna Stern’s Proud Boys and the White Ethnostate, Alexander Reid Ross’ Against the Fascist Creep, and in particular, Dale Beran’s It Came From Something Awful. The use of the frame of “magic” (or should I say “magick?”) trappings to describe phenomena from irony (when does a joke become real?) to the nature of reality kind of detracts from discussing the very real ideas that have come to dominate our contemporary society.
One of the threads running through Dark Star Rising, for instance, was the role that the internet and the weird, absurd way it kind of exploded into the “mainstream” mundane world in the 2010s as though a portal to some other world of chaos magic had been opened. But, I feel that it is much more concrete than that.
As much as people say that the internet is virtual, it is a vital part of the everyday world for many people and, as a major facet of today’s information media, is bound to have an effect on how people see the world. As has been seen, some aspects of internet culture exacerbate this drift into misinformation and feelings that the world is wrong.
I discuss other works analyzing the current rise of fascist ideology, particularly in the US, in part 3 of my series Against Fascism at Harris' Tome Corner.
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