'RED SPARROW': CINEMATIC RUSSOPHOBO-PHILIA

by Andy Nowicki

We are often drawn by precisely that of which we are most afraid. Fear induces the production of adrenaline, which in turn operates as a powerful stimulant and pleasure-administer. In this sense it may be said that Red Sparrow, a thoroughly draining, yet quite perversely stimulating spy thriller, operates as a piece of  simultaneous cinematic Russophobia and Russophilia, all in one paradoxical fell swoop.

MYOPIC PARTISANSHIP

Recalling his KGB days with a knowing smirk...

by Andy Nowicki

I have, in various contexts, remarked upon the tendency for alt-rightists of various stripes to fall for the propensity to needlessly align themselves with a “side” in some geopolitical struggle. Obama’s America sure ain’t groovy, so Putin’s Russia must therefore be the bee’s knees. Ukraine’s struggle for political independence is backed by George Soros and the CIA, so the legitimacy of the Kremlin-ordered invasion of the Crimea (and  apparent push, via proxy forces, to expand his dominion further inland) ought not be questioned in any way, and if you insist upon questioning it, you’re probably just an Obamabot shill who really needs to down a piping-hot cup of STFU. Bolshevism was a monstrous blight threatening the future of the Aryan race, so National Socialism had the proper duty to chop the heads off a bunch of morally sensitive college students who had the unforgivable temerity to hand out anti-government pamphlets urging passive resistance to tyranny. Dresden certainly wasn’t da bomb, so Belsen must therefore have been a gas… Et cetera and so forth.