Mrs Creosote digests...2024
What a year of contrasts! And it's ending on a positive note (weird drones over NJ notwithstanding)
Year in review
The most interesting story arc of 2024 has to be the persecution, attempted assassination, and roaring comeback, of Donald J. Trump, our once and future president. Since 2016 I have gone from crying after his election, to apprehensively voting for him in 2020 in protest against the loathsome Democratic Party, to being elated at his victory in November 2024. What a journey it has been.
The strongest force that drove me into Trump’s camp has been, without a doubt, the hypocrisy, vindictiveness, and incompetence of the liberal-progressive-left establishment. The last 12 months have gone by in a blur — I had to google myself to remember what I was writing about earlier this year; but upon reflection the Biden cognitive cover-up — which I wrote about in February, long before the media acknowledged his senility — might be the most damning story of our era. Forget Watergate, this cover-up is worse by orders of magnitude. The United States has lacked a functioning president for the last four years. Please forgive me, libs, if I find the incoming administration of tech mega-brains, successful businessmen, principled and knowledgeable farmers, and iconoclasts to be a huge — HUGE — relief.
Of course, here in the United Kingdom and Ireland, the news this year was grim. Rage against the incumbent Tories who had provided over more than a decade of pathetic simp policies, brought in a truly scary neo-Commie, globohomo, corporation-loving government under Keir Starmer. In Ireland, the electorate seemingly just rolled over and submitted to their overlords, returning the establishment government that has given them little else but vax mandates, huge numbers of migrants, and totally unaffordable housing. Oh, they also tried to introduce cultural self-loathing into the curriculum, but it looks like that might have failed. Silver linings. Perhaps in 2025 Ireland can come up with a credible populist opposition movement. We shall see.
2024 was the year that I felt I could truly call myself a populist. But would I have turned populist if our managerial elites had actually been good at…anything? Probably not.
Best sources of 2024
A few people have asked me over the last few months who my sources are. I think my podcast listening history for 2024 would show these guys to be my top four:
The Rest is History podcast
Any show that had Mike Benz on as a guest
The Duran Report
Megyn Kelly
My booby prize for this year go to two public intellectuals that I found very helpful in the past, but who lost me this year: James Lindsay and his super cringe crusade to make “Woke Right” happen; and his mate Peter Boghossian for his defence of a Spanish politician in charge of family policy who eats poop for sexual thrills. Liberals have really not coped well with our current (and hopefully waning) moral-pyscho-sexual dystopian hellscape, and its very obvious implication that maybe the Christians had a point. Liberal men will do anything to avoid the party ending. (I say that with tremendous affection for liberal men, I was raised by one. I just think they lack depth of wisdom.)
Substack milestones
I had a good amount of growth this year on the Substack platform, and I have each one of you to thank for that. You guys have gotten me over several humps — both numerically but also mentally. I value your willingness to lend me your attention. I continue to be immensely grateful for it.
I am also really enjoying Substack Notes, which is like their version of X — and if you just can’t get enough of my deep thoughts 😂, I strongly encourage you to download the app (or just use the desktop version, this is my page), and communicate with me and many other great Substackers, there. Please, come and join the party.
The best thing I have found in Substack this year is new friends. Of course, that means all of you. But I have also been delighted to meet a few of you in person, and become friends in the flesh as well.
and to name two fascinating ladies.
But I’ve also really enjoyed my talk with
, had another great experience with and the Battle of Ideas in October. I have come to look forward to my weekly livestream with the brilliant ladies of . I strongly recommend their YouTube channel as well.I recommend this recent chat we did about Gen X and Gen Z with the lovely, bright, young writer Frannie Block of The Free Press — which is on course to replace the legacy media and publishing behemoths, imho. Since my essay on Gen X and Trump was by far the most read and shared thing I’ve ever written on this platform, you guys might enjoy this too.
Perhaps the most exciting thing I did this year was appear on my favourite news show — Bannon’s War Room. (Apparently there’s a Substack account for fellow Bannon fans,
.)
I was lucky to talk with another figure who I have followed for years, Benjamin Boyce, on his YouTube channel. We talked — again — about Gen X (I’m noticing a theme develop here), but I strongly recommend his thoughts on the ‘woke right’ debacle that continues to drag on.
My main takeaway for 2024
This one is mostly personal, but I’m guessing will apply to many of you, and in some sense even to a movement to restore sanity. As you may have noticed from above, much of my reflection on this year involve me meeting other people. As I wrote this I feared I sounded like I was boasting, or signalling some kind of clout. I am uncomfortable with that possibility, but I will forge ahead anyway — because what I am trying to communicate instead is this: togetherness. But putting my thoughts into essays, and my essays out into the world via Substack, I have found increasing levels of togetherness with people I would not otherwise have known.
As such, I encourage all of you to keep reading, keep commenting, start your own Substack, or just take heart in the ramblings of others.
For so many years I felt isolated in my un-approved thoughts. In a cave I was afraid to step out of.
We are not alone.
We are together.
Thank you for saving culture with me.
I believe you were the reason I started reading and commenting here, besides a dislike for other platforms. Thank you!
Your essays are islands of sanity and wisdom I look forward to visiting every week. Please keep up the good work, and have a great Christmas and New Year!