Culture
Greymantle’s culture coverage examines the subcultures, ideological shifts, and long-term social changes reshaping the Anglosphere and other major cultural regions. From the decline of shared social rituals to the cultural politics of Hollywood, our analysis connects fringe trends to mainstream consequences.
Recent coverage: The Sinisterian Impulse – Why America Stopped Dancing – Understanding Wokism – Film & Popular Culture
The Loneliness of Modern Freedom: Why Autonomy Has Not Delivered Happiness
Elite discourse in the West tends to dwell rhapsodically on the supposed joys of autonomy and self-fulfillment. What it spends less time analyzing is the loneliness of modern freedom. It can advocate for why autonomy allows for liberation. What it can't explain is why autonomy has not delivered happiness. This week, we consider 'The Loneliness of Modern Freedom'.
All the Right Moves: Leo XIV’s First Year as Pontiff
By recentering the Catholic Church on its foundational truths and prioritizing administrative integrity, Pope Leo XIV is attempting to heal internal Church fissures that many thought were beyond repair, while serving as a rare anchor in a world that has lost its moorings. In his first year, Pope Leo seems to have made all the right moves.
The Chaos Magick President: Trump’s War on Reality
In November 2024, days before Donald Trump’s improbable return to power, I published an article on these pages titled "Lord of Illusions: Donald Trump as Master Magician". Trump's behavior, I alleged, bore a close resemblance to that of the infamous Aleister Crowley. The "Illusionist" that I described in 2024 has fully manifested himself as “the Chaos Magick President" of 2026. The stage tricks are gone; what remains is a raw, blasphemous attempt to overwrite the firmware of our shared reality.
Beating A Dead Horse: How Hollywood’s IP Obsession Got Out of Hand
Since the early 2000s, sequels and franchises have dominated the U.S. box office, squeezing out original content and stories not grounded in pre-existing intellectual property, or "IP" as it is commonly referred to in the film industry. In this week's article, producer and comedy writer Gideon Evans analyzes why and "How Hollywood's IP Obsession Got Out of Hand".
Hollywood Is Still Making Some Good Films, Or My 2026 Oscar Picks
In an era marked by the supposedly unstoppable decline of Hollywood movies, 2025's Oscar nominees stand out as a pointed rebuke to the Doomers and cynics. In this post, Gideon Evans surveys the films nominated, examines their many virtues, and forecasts the winners. His big takeaway: Movie despair is overdone - Hollywood is still making some good films.
Love and Doom in Westeros
Some readers of last weekend's post complained about its length. To answer those criticisms and better serve our readers, we here revisit the topic of love and doom in Westeros. At just over 1,200 words, it's a 7-minute read. Enjoy!
The Anti-Romantic: George R.R. Martin’s Tragic Vision of Love
Romantic love in Westeros is a dangerous thing — more likely to topple dynasties than to secure happily-ever-after endings. George R.R. Martin, unlike most contemporary authors, seems unusually committed to proving his point. Yet by universalizing the pathological dimensions of eros and marginalizing love’s potential to ennoble, Martin presents a vision that can feel sharply, and often cruelly, limited. Hence the title of this week's post: The Anti-Romantic: George R.R. Martin's Tragic Vision of Love'.
Mainstreaming Paranoia: How the Film Industry Feeds the Conspiracism Beast
Why do so many Americans believe their government is controlled by hidden cabals? One possible answer: it's what Hollywood has conditioned them to believe by producing TV shows like Blindspot, Mr. Robot, and The Blacklist. Learn how the unexpected success of The X-Files in the 1990s turbocharged three decades of 'paranoid entertainment'.
The Monster Mash: ‘Stranger Things’ and the Pleasures of Being Scared Together
There is something faintly strange—and genuinely wonderful—about the fact that in a decade as anxious, polarized, and often joyless as the 2020s, a large and culturally diverse audience could rally around a television series so unapologetically steeped in pop-culture excess. Stranger Things is cinematic realization of the 1960s pop ditty 'The Monster Mash' -- a wild ride through American genre films with monsters as fellow passengers.
Del Toro’s Frankenstein, AI and the West’s “Religious Moment”
Guillermo del Toro's film adaptation of 'Frankenstein' succeeds by sticking to the original novel's metaphysical concerns, even as it audaciously revises a number of key plot points. By simultaneously reaching back to the West's religious past and forward into a future impacted by artificial intelligence, Del Toro manages to be both faithful to - and to transcend - Mary Shelley's famed horror novel.
The Power Of Pod: The Rise and Rise Of The Podcasting Industry
Podcasting's emergence as a game-changing new media sector in the mid-2010s has influenced everything from the vast popularity of the 'true crime' genre to the winner of the 2024 U.S. presidential election. While some analysts believe the podcasting craze has peaked, we think the Age of the Podcast is just getting started.
Why America Stopped Dancing: The Four Critical Forces that Killed Social Ritual
Dancing, particularly among young people, has been a dying social form since at least the 1970s. But the slow death of dance in America is not the result of changing musical tastes – though those have also played a role -- but a more profound indicator of cultural disintegration. In this week's post we explore why America stopped dancing: The Four Critical Forces that Killed Social Ritual.
Chaos is the Goal: The Minneapolis Church Shooter and the Aims of ‘Esoterrorism’
What we witnessed last week in Minneapolis was not an isolated tragedy, nor the random work of a single unhinged individual. The ideology of nihilism, the lure of online fantasy, and the predatory nature of occult-inspired networks like 764 and their predecessors form a toxic ecosystem that breeds violence. We examine this ecosystem in today's post: "Chaos is the Goal: The Minneapolis Church Shooter and the Aims of Esoterrorism".
Breaking the Wheel of Flesh: Reproductive Technology Takes Aim at the Fertility Crisis
Birth rates have been falling across the industrialized world for five generations, but the fertility decline has lately become a true fertility crisis. From France, to Russia, to South Korea to the U.S., cultural fixes and government incentives won’t be enough to turn the tide. In 'Breaking the Wheel of Flesh' Greymantle argues that reproductive technologies are the tools to which high income societies will turn —yet these tools remain far from ready to address the crisis on the broad, society-wide scale needed.
The AI Revolution versus the Chip Revolution: Six Reasons We’re Not Having Fun This Time
The AI revolution that began in 2022 is reminiscent of the microchip / personal computer revolution of the late 1970s. A new technology created by Silicon Valley is quickly transforming our lives. But the AI breakthroughs of the 2020s feel fundamentally different from the last tech revolution. The spirit of optimism and democratization of the economy is gone. In their place, the pessimism and mistrust of our own era have infected AI's swift conquest of corporate and personal life. This week, we focus on "The AI Revolution versus the Chip Revolution".
Gambling Without Shame: How Legalized Gambling Captured America
American society has become more tolerant of individuals' personal foibles and failures, in stark contrast to the private and public shaming that was common in the last century. The softening of societal attitudes toward shame has led to some positive developments, but there are areas in life where shame can serve to deter risky behavior. Gambling is one such area. This week's post highlights the impact of gambling without shame, and how legalized gambling captured America.
They Thought They Owned the Future: Wokism in Eclipse
For a stretch of time in the late 2010s and early 2020s, it seemed as though a particular ideological current was not merely ascendant, but had achieved something akin to cultural inevitability. Its proponents, buoyed by institutional capture and a vocal online presence, carried themselves with the conviction of history's ultimate victors. Yet even the most seemingly unstoppable force can find its momentum checked. Such is the subject of this week's post: "They Thought They Owned the Future: Wokism in Eclipse."
He Saw It Coming: Remembering Philip Rieff, the Prophet of Anti-Culture
The West's cultural landscape has become fragmented - far beyond mere polarization - with the right, left, and center engaged in a profound ongoing conflict. This week's post delves into the prescient insights of an obscure American sociologist who, almost 60 years ago, accurately predicted many features of our time. Discover his remarkable foresight in "He Saw It Coming: Remembering Philip Rieff, Prophet of Anti-Culture"—a subject far more relevant than you might expect.
America’s Two Multiculturalisms: One Lived, One Imagined
America has always been a pluralistic society. From its earliest beginnings as a distinct nation, the country has been shaped by waves of migration, religious dissent, linguistic variety and an uneasy, albeit fruitful, coexistence. And yet, one could be forgiven for thinking that multiculturalism is a recent ideological invention. This is no accident. The word and the concept have become subject to the distortions of America's political polarization. It's time to liberate the word from the culture war. Our subject today is America's two multiculturalisms.
The Sinisterian Impulse: The Infiltration of Occult Aesthetics into Popular Culture
Over the past four decades, Satanic aesthetics and occult-infused posturing have crept steadily from the margins of Western subcultures into the mainstream of fashion, music, film, and avant-garde performance.Today, one can see an ornate Baphomet choker in the front row at Paris Fashion Week, or a Luciferian ode embedded in a high-budget pop video.This isn't just shock for commerce's sake. Beneath the spectacle lies a sensibility with deeper cultural roots and emerging ideological heft.We have dubbed this phenomenon 'The Sinisterian Impulse'.
Depart, Satan! What the Surge in Exorcism Movies Says About America
In a period marked by rapid technological transformation, social atomization, and the weakening of institutional religion, the exorcism film functions like a dark mirror held up to the viewer’s own unease. Even those who profess no religious belief are susceptible to the primal fear these films awaken—the idea that one's mind, body, or loved ones could be seized by something invisible, incomprehensible and malevolent. In this post, we shed some light on what the surge in exorcism movies says about America.
Understanding Wokism: A Guide for the Perplexed
In a society awash with slogans, the term "Wokism" has emerged as one of the slipperier entries in the contemporary political lexicon. For some, it represents an overdue moral awakening to the injustices baked into American life. For others, it signals the rise of a new orthodoxy—cloaked in compassion, fluent in the language of rights and inclusion, but with the instincts of a revolutionary vanguard. The subject of this week's post is understanding Wokism.
You’re Quitting! Nine All-American Ways of Getting Your Workers to Quit
Donald Trump rose to national prominence with the reality TV show 'The Apprentice' in which he famously repeated the catchphrase: 'You're Fired!' in each episode. A more apt catchphrase for his second term might be 'You're Quitting!'. There are nine all-American ways of getting your workers to quit their jobs 'voluntarily', and President Trump and his consigliere, Elon Musk, are clearly using many of them.
Columbia’s Student Radicals, 1968 vs. 2024: Will the Protests Matter This Time?
Student radicalism at Columbia University has a storied history going back to 1968, when a massive student uprising shut down the college. Despite the media frenzy connected with today's student radicals, the 2024 protests were smaller and far less disruptive than those of 1968. But given a broader and more committed core of student activists this time, could the longer-term effects potentially be greater?
The Climber: J.D. Vance and the Slippery Pole of Social Ascendancy
J.D. Vance's rise from Appalachian poverty to the heights of U.S. politics is a testament to the complexity of his personal journey and the ambition that has characterized his adult life. The calculated moves Vance has made since he left Yale Law School behind reveal a more defining characteristic: a relentless drive to climb the social ladder, at all costs. Hence our title - The Climber: J.D. Vance and the Slippery Pole of Social Ascendancy.
The Last Hurrah: Why Joe Biden Should be Romping to Victory In the 2024 Election, But Isn’t
In a more normal time and a more normal country, Joe Biden would be coasting to reelection despite the fact of his advanced age. But America is no longer a normal country, and Donald Trump possesses critical advantages and Biden key weaknesses that are shifting the momentum of the election inexorably toward a Trump victory.
The Diet of Illusion and the Rule of Fantasy
An innate human hunger for fancy and diversion is generating vast quantities of digital and real-world entertainment focused on the the trivial, the strange and the fantastic. From online avatars to cosplay, a diet of illusion marked by consumption of opinion over facts, fantasy over reality and images over words provides emotional sustenance for millions of Americans.
Conservative Dissenters and the New Social Majority
The ground has shifted under American social conservatives since 2000, with support for gay marriage and drug legalization rising. Who are they now? And where do they go from here?
11 Million Marriage Treaties
The rise of mixed-race marriages in the United States since 1980 is epochal in its social implications. Biracial marriages are accelerating the pace of social tolerance and cementing a series of new social alliances.
All Failures Are Failures of the Imagination, Part 2
The looming collapse of American conservatism reflects both a failure to adapt and a failure of imagination.
All Failures Are Failures of the Imagination, Part 1
Recent events such as the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the Russian military's continued failure to take the Ukrainian town of Bakhmut have been leading me to think more broadly about the nature of failure. The strange thing about failure is that it happens to people and organizations who have long track records of success before they fail spectacularly. Greymantle believes these failures have a common cause: a failure of the imagination.
Fumbling the ‘Race and Rings’ Controversy: The Strange Case of Ross Douthat
J.R.R. Tolkien would be most pleased with the new Amazon Prime TV series based on his books. Conservative commentators such as Ross Douthat have completely missed the mark in their criticism of the series.
The Greatest (and Most Expensive) Fan Film Ever Made
Amazon Prime's 'Rings of Power" series has re-written the rulebook for prestige television
The Pleasures of ‘Evil’
'Evil' succeeds by walking the narrow line that separates the cultural sensibilities of 'blue' and 'red' America.
Paranoid Entertainment: How Hollywood Set the Stage for QAnon
Hollywood shouldn't be let off the hook for treating government conspiracies as fodder for entertainment. A set of paranoid blockbuster hits in the 1990s laid the groundwork for today's conspiratorial society.
‘Fight Club’s’ Malign Influence on Gens Y and Z
David Fincher's classic movie of male ennui has been an undercurrent and touchstone to recent political and social events.