Ray Bradbury’s ‘Trumpian’ Armageddon

Ray Bradbury’s ‘Trumpian’ Armageddon

by | Apr 8, 2026 | ,

Yesterday morning, when Donald Trump declared "[a]n entire civilization will die tonight[,]" Ray Bradbury was first to my mind. In sophomore year of high school, our English teacher had us read Fahrenheit 451. So began my adoration of Bradbury's poignant storytelling and exquisite prose. In 451, Bradbury crafts an iconic world where books are illegal and "firemen" are tasked not to fight fires, but to burn books and execute or imprison their readers. Provocatively, this policy is not enforced through top-down diktat. It is the people themselves that demand it. In the backset of 451, there...

read more
Slay Propaganda Like a Lawyer

Slay Propaganda Like a Lawyer

by | Apr 5, 2026 |

Announcing my First eBook: Slay Propaganda Like a Lawyer In this eBook I teach you the skills I use every day in both the courtroom and in the information war. The eBook is free for my free email list. You can sign up for it here: what-theyre-not-tellin-you.ghost.io/#/portal/signup Here's the table of contents:

read more
‘The Iron Giant’ and Generational Militarism

‘The Iron Giant’ and Generational Militarism

by | Mar 31, 2026 |

Among the films that formed my childhood, the Iron Giant is a black sheep. From its loving treatment of classic sci-fi horror to its somber handling of nuclear holocaust, the film is deeper than any of us realized as kids. Of course now, as adults, and especially as we share our favorite films with our own children, we're picking up on more of these themes. For example, in context, the film's tagline: "we are who we choose to be" is a surprisingly mature take on generational militarism and institutionalized violence. Waking from the haze of his forgotten past, the Iron Giant crash lands on...

read more
Time Marches On… a Patrick MacFarlane Update

Time Marches On… a Patrick MacFarlane Update

by | Mar 28, 2026 |

This post first appeared on Pat MacFarlane's email list, "What They're Not Tellin' You" Sign up for that here.  The last few months I've been especially conscious of how time is passing us by. This being my original Liberty Weekly mailing list, some of you have been with me since I got my original Tom Woods shoutout in July 2016. That was almost ten years ago now. At thirty-two I am by no measure an old man, but I feel like it. Those ten years were at once an eye blink and an eternity. During that time, the arc of my liberty career has risen as Liberty Weekly, peaked as the Justin Raimondo...

read more
‘Gang Weed Conservatism’ ft. Marcel Dumas Ep. 287

‘Gang Weed Conservatism’ ft. Marcel Dumas Ep. 287

by | Aug 11, 2025 |

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Pqec7qC6sg Talking with Marcel Dumas about his ‘Gang Weed Conservatism’ series concerning the intertwining of modern conservatism with psychedelics. Vital Dissent website Join my email list and become a premium member: http://www.vitaldissent.club Vital Dissent Merch 10% off with code VD10 Show notes:  Marcel Dumas, PhD, IWSB (@anarchyinblack) / X Another Notch in the Spine - Vital Dissent Gang Weed Conservatism series https://x.com/NerdeenKiswani/status/1950980649487044843 Marcel on Kyle Matovcik's show The Anti-Woke to Zionist Pipeline Ep. 271 Pat's...

read more
The Savagery of Man: ‘Tender is the Flesh’ and ‘The Unworthy’ Ep. 286

The Savagery of Man: ‘Tender is the Flesh’ and ‘The Unworthy’ Ep. 286

by | Jul 31, 2025 |

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORCP4tMogdo Sharing my thoughts on Agustina Bazterrica’s ‘Tender is the Flesh,’ and ‘The Unworthy’ Vital Dissent website Join my email list and become a premium member: http://www.vitaldissent.club Vital Dissent Merch 10% off with code VD10 Show notes:  Tender is the Flesh The Unworthy Pat's StoryGraph account Patrick MacFarlane (@patmacfarlane_) / X

read more
Another Notch in the Spine

Another Notch in the Spine

by | Jul 30, 2025 |

The following is the first draft of a short story for a collection I am working on. I hope you enjoy it. Cheers! --Patrick On the morning of my first kill, I woke up before Mom had come to get me. I gazed up at the concrete ceiling, where the night before, Dad helped me array a night’s sky of glow-in-the-dark stickers. A cool breeze wafted through the cracked-open window, carrying with it the hum of the slumbering city. In that predawn darkness, I pondered what Roddy had told the other boys on the bus the week before. “...and its chest just exploded,” he yelled, arms hooked over the back of...

read more

Listen to Vital Dissent with Patrick MacFarlane

RSS FeediHeartRadioPodcast Addict

Podcasts

scotthortonshow logosq

coi banner sq2@0.5x

liberty weekly thumbnail

Don't Tread on Anyone Logo

313x0w (1)

313x0w (1)

313x0w (1)

Pin It on Pinterest