Neoreaction a Basilisk

One of my very favorite Internet fights is between kooky partisan hacks who intermingle science fiction with real life into a quasi-alchemical style of theory-fiction that is both scary and confusing if you don't know what you're stumbling into. If you're not careful, it's easy to get lost down their rabbit holes of crazy blog-style ramblings and start believing you are pulling back the curtain on some hidden reality. Whether you call it “wokeness”, “redpilled”, or “enlightenment” all depends on your political persuasion and starting assumptions. To the normie reader like myself, it's just literary MMA but with really smart trolls slap fighting. They each seem to think they are landing devastating blows that might permanently cripple all political enemies once and for all. And it's hilarious. Usually this plays out on Twitter or in the comments section somewhere, but here it's conveniently collected into monograph form for easy reading.

Philip Sandifer (now writing as a woman under a different first name I believe) puts up a valiant front against the so-called neoreactionaries such as Yarvin (the fighter in Sandifer's same weight class). Sandifer is still every bit the member of this fringe of writers, but helps make the whole project much more entertaining by offering some real competition. Just like their rivals, Sandifer is far too verbose for their own good. This book in particular is in desperate need of a copy editor as it's riddled with typos, unattributed quotes, and formatting problems. This would all be much more forgivable if played out on Reddit instead of book form. Still, it's a good match-up.

If you enjoy bonkers philosophical fights and culture war political peanut butter mixed with your science fiction realism chocolate, you might find it tasty. If not, stay far, far away from this weird confection.