Greymantle's Politics and Culture

Insights into the Long Game

Greymantle's Politics And Culture

“Hellscape” Update: Taiwan’s Legislature Frustrates President’s Innovative Drone-Defense Plan

Richard Jupa

Richard Jupa
August 31, 2026

There were plenty of smiles in Beijing on August 20, 2026, when Taiwan's opposition parties, the KMT and TPP, passed a supplemental defense budget that stripped out billions in additional funding requested by Taiwan's president to construct a formidable new arsenal of autonomous aerial and underwater drones. This is not the "Hellscape" update that Taiwan's staunchest defenders were hoping for over the summer.

Why Do Political Scandals Seem To Be Getting So Much Uglier?

Gideon Evans

Gideon Evans
August 29, 2026

Adultery. Blackmail. Murder. These elements have been part of political scandals since the nation’s founding. The question is, even if the main elements have stayed consistent, why do political scandals seem to be getting so much uglier?

The Hellscape Option: Assessing Taiwan’s Drone Warfare Survival Plan

Richard Jupa

Richard Jupa
August 15, 2026

Rather than attempting to defeat a Chinese invasion through conventional force-on-force combat, Taipei is increasingly looking to asymmetric weapons—including thousands of drones—to make an amphibious assault prohibitively costly for Beijing. There is a new name for this strategy: the "Hellscape" Option.

Good Guys Wear Black, Part 1: How America’s Moral Imagination Was Inverted

Ivor Greymantle

Ivor Greymantle
August 2, 2026

In the span of 60 years, America’s movie heroes have undergone a transformation. Characters who would once have served as villains now occupy the moral center. Something fundamental has changed—not simply in Hollywood, but in the relationship between American audiences and the characters they choose to embrace. In 21st century U.S. films, good guys were black.

Understanding the Drone Warfare Revolution, Part 1: From ISIS to Ukraine

Alexander Stavropoulos

Alexander Stavropoulos
July 25, 2026

Unmanned aerial vehicles have evolved from guerrilla spy platforms and grenade-dropping toys into advanced weapons that are rapidly changing how wars are fought. The drone revolution is only beginning. Understanding the drone warfare revolution - how it began and where it is headed - is becoming essential for anyone seeking a grasp of the novel tactics and countermeasures linked to the rise of drones.

Same Hollywood, Different America: Summer Movies 1996 versus 2026

Dave Oates

Dave Oates
July 11, 2026

The surge in positive sentiments in the early 1990s when the Cold War ended and the internet was launched find few parallels today. Americans' edgy, less optimistic mood is driving them toward darker cinematic genres and themes in the 2020s, many of them reflected most prominently in the horror genre.