What are you currently reading?

Bizet said:
Confessions of an Economic Hitman

This book exposes how the U.S. has historically exploited developing nations through strategic loans.

It's a interesting and easy read, just watch out for the 2023 revised edition of this book - it’s got an anti-Russia/Putin bias that sours the taste a bit.
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Seven months later...have you read Perkins' sequel The Secret History of the American Empire?
 
El Dorado said:
Nice! That's something I've always wanted to research: Portugal's overseas empire...particularly the East Indies and Africa.

I'd also like to find any good English-language history books on the Russian Far East...especially the Cossack exploration and conquest of Siberia and the Russian fur trade. Anybody have any recommendations?
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Yuri Slezkine's Arctic Mirrors. It's less a general narrative history and more a study on how the people of the region were perceived by Russians over the centuries.
 
I tried to see if I could get into The Wheel of Time series because the general culture seems to hold it in high regard. I honestly have no idea why people like it. I read the first two books and knew something was wrong from the very beginning with Jordan's quality of writing. Even taking direction from Tolkien (who is so much more superior as a writer and worldbuilder you'd think the two were different species) the books began and ended as a complete yawn for me. Jordan is about as interesting to me as your typical boomer who spent their life working one job and watching TV in their free time. I cannot, for the life of me, begin to describe how painfully boring the first two books were, and I tried to read them slowly to absorb this so-called excellent series, to buy into the whole world he was crafting. My primary curiosity was to see how a fantasy series could be 14 books long, and now I know, it's because nothing happens and everything is over described.

Last night I was wrestling with the decision to not finish WoT. I have a tendency to get stubborn about things I've started or invested time into. This time I'm putting my foot down. I will not waste another minute on this series, even if Brandon Sanderson's entries are apparently good (I might read the wikipedia plotlines of the next 10 books and then pick up where Sanderson is).
 
I decided to read Brandon Sanderson's entries to see if the WoT got better. Now I have finished it. I don't think it was particularly good, even with Brandon's work he put into it. I found his own writing to be poor much of the time. I think the series suffered far too much from too many characters and factions. Too many people talking, not a lot happening, even when things did happen, it was described in a sentence or short paragraph, hardly absorbing material, so the next thing you know, you're like, 'wait, did so-and-so die? when did that happen?' I did not have the patience for this series. I read the wikipedia stuff on it, asked the AI to explain the ending (which I understood, but I thought I had missed something). I suspect the series is considered great by people who read it as teenagers and young adults who weren't familiar with a lot of concepts educated adults tend to understand much better. Things like God and anti-God (Satan), the parallels and blatant thefts from LotR and Dune, as well as stealing the ending and final solution from the bible itself (sealing Satan away for all time). None of it struck me as profound, and not a single character in the series meant a thing to me. Overall, I'm glad to be done with it. I do not recommend, the payoff of 14 books was not at all worth it.
 
https://religionunplugged.com/news/...-the-surprising-revival-of-superman-and-faith

I've taken a small break from reading theology books and have been reading comic books instead. I've always been a Batman fan so I went back where it all started, Detective Comics #27 and Batman #1. I then read Action Comics #1 and Superman #1. You can get them on kindle and they look fantastic on my iPad's screen.

I always liked Batman more than Superman due to it's grittiness and Gothic-horror artstyle. What I did not appreciate, at least consciously, when I was younger were the religious, even Christian, themes that hold the stories together.

For example, Superman represents humility. He is a symbol for God becoming man. Lex Luthor represents pride. He symbolizes men trying to become God. Batman represents God's order (Law). The Joker represents the devil's chaos (licentiousness). The characters work as well as they do because they more or less stay consistent with these metaphysical realities.
 
I've seen some of this dissident right types that like to breakdown pop-culture media (the Devon Stacks/Blackpilled of the world) types in order to show how the American public has been programmed by movies/music/etc to adapt certain progressive positions. I've seen Superman being brought up as an example of this since the creators of this were two Jews and these media analysts thought the Superman character was being used as a way to get the American public accept foreigners/aliens by having this all-American character who was literally an alien.

Also there's claims that he's supposed to be a American version of the "ubermensch" in contrast to the German type and the Superman creators were using him to somehow wage a propaganda war against the German type of superman. Do you think there's any truth to this now that you've been re-reading these comics?
 
The sense that I get is that the characters will emphasize different things more strongly as they pass hands between writers. In one writer's hands, Batman is a fascist seeking to impose a police state. In another's, he is a freedom fighter reforming a corrupt society. In the case of Superman, I didn't get the sense that it was explicitly pro-immigration (although I am hearing that the new film is) but that his immigration to earth reflects the Jewish experience, especially at that time. I would also point out that Superman assimilated into being an American which is what immigrants at that time did and not at all what illegal aliens do when they hop the border, so it would be naive to use him as a mascot for carte blanche immigration. I think the blackpillers are too quick to designate something they don't fully understand as the "other."

The Nietzschean ubermensch is a law unto himself. It is an idol. I don't believe the original creators had this in mind but Superman does comment on this as the character passes on to the next generation of writers. Neither Batman or Superman are the classical ubermensch because they are not laws unto themselves. Superman lives to uphold classical American, Christian morality. He does not impose a new law by his own power according to his own will.

There are moments in he comics where the strip will speak directly to the reader (assumed to be a kid) and will encourage certain behaviors. One of these moments in Batman #1 explicitly encouraged Nationalism to it's young readers as a good value to have.
 
I just finished Dan Severn's book, not really a big MMA fan but he was doing MMA when it was different, no rules. He was also a decorated amateur wrestler, he's from Michigan and was an instructor at a wrestling camp I attended way back when. He's a super billy badass but also a God fearing good man, he walked a straight line and expected the same from other men, he didn't tolerate otherwise and I liked that. Didn't know he had written a book, I liked it and he told things straight which I expected.

Going to read Audie Murphys book next. Been a while since I cracked open a book, either I can't put it down or I can't get it started.
 
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He's also one of two guys that managed to get to 100 wins in MMA. He started the sport late too (in his 30s) so it's impressive that he managed to rack up so many fights when he didn't have as much time to work with.
 
I feel like getting my teeth stuck into a really good Christian based novel, any suggestions guys? Something along the lines of a pilgrims progress (which I’ve already read twice).
 
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