Not that long ago, around 2015 or so, the Right was drowning in blogs and podcasts, but had no books and no art. Now it seems that every Rightist from the most erudite Reactionary to the simplest shitposter has a book they’d like to sell, whether it be political analysis, a novel, or book of essays. A number of broadly Right-wing publishers have also appeared over the last few years. All of this is, of course, a welcome development, as social media and short-form writing, despite certain strengths, are also limited by being short-lived and lacking space to develop any serious ideas. Today, let’s take a brief look at Cultured Grugs: Dispatches From America in Collapse, a collection of essays by John Chapman (a.k.a. “Borzoi” on social media) and published by one of those independent outfits, Antelope Hill.
Most of these essays have been published previously, six in The American Sun, eight on Chapman’s own blog Race Borz, leaving nine original essays. Like most essay collections, subject matter and interest vary from entry to the next, but a few of these are excellent and all are at least worth reading. There’s also some thematic uniformity across the book so that all the essays do feel like they belong together. That theme is summed up in the subtitle, so if you’re looking for some pleasant reading you should look elsewhere. If you want to stare a collapsing culture in the face, though, Chapman has you covered. See, for instance, “PissEarth, 2025,” where he explains, “You must understand, I do not tell you these things to hurt you, but to warn you that this new world wants to hurt you. It will.”…