Any chance we could get an RSS feed for the site?

Blanc states he came to believe in Judd's goodness, Judd states storytelling makes us feel better. But the actual portrayal of religion feels like it was written by someone who isn't a Christian.

On top of that, Blanc's whole arc runs into a similar problem -- he converts to "grace", but this grace is never properly distinguished from a generic high-minded sense of charity.
The case the film makes on the side of Judd actually doesn't provide much of a case for Christianity itself.

Their futures don't reflect any sort of positive influence coming from faith, mystery, or even the distinct example of Judd. If anything the main "catalyst" for their development seems to be the absence of the Bad Church.

Which doesn't actually disprove Blanc's initial position.

It's never actually made clear WHY Judd is in the wrong, apart from him having these high-minded saintly ideals he has to follow because he's Better Than Them.

The film sets up the climax to assert that Blanc giving The Truth wouldn't be enough to address the congregation, but it's unclear why.

Judd has this whole arc about not dividing the world into friends and enemies, but you can run through the bulk of the congregation and divide them into "bad guys" and "good guys/victims". ALL of their true natures are exactly as they initially appear.

Prior films in the series gave more focus to the cast as a whole whereas this one really centered itself as a dialogue between Judd (the liberal christian) and Blanc (an atheist).

The problem is, the moral center of the film *is* the congregation itself and how Judd relates to them.

Problem is, the film has no idea how to make sense of what it has just set up.

But I couldn't shake the feeling I was watching Yet Another Christian Propaganda film -- just this time liberal instead of conservative.

W/rt the rest of the series, it's a pretty interesting deconstruction of the detective archetype and also the moral relevance of "Truth" in mystery fiction.

The first act's the strongest: Blanc's conspicuously missing and so's the murder. You instead get this oddly personal church politics drama.

If you're looking for a community-run, non-commercial alternative to GoodReads, BookWyrm's always been a favorite of mine:

bookwyrm.social

What I still stand by is the following:
- American political elites have a deep-seated envy of other countries and their cultures
- Any project to "restore American culture" (if such a project is even feasible) is totally dead-in-the-water if it doesn't emerge out of civil society first

Reading Tanner Greer's piece in American Affairs kinda just put into words the hesitation I was feeling writing this.

Everyone and their mother loves spinning stories of national myth, but its all just masturbatory speculation if there's no real roadmap or agenda its tied to.

Can we get RSS?

The NYT will pay a pittance to a woman on the verge of giving birth to make videos that they'll never air but will pay Bret Stephens $200k to write two 700-word columns a week like "Let's Return to the Feudal System"

Could we get an RSS feed for the site? It'd be great for following new posts.