One of the most fun zines of the 1990s was The Angry Thoreauan by Rev. Randall Tin-Ear. I am happy to report that the former reverend is back and now writes books. He was kind enough to send me his latest for review, and, as I expected, it's a very good read. He takes as his subject the interesting subculture of right wing flags, primarily found in rural America, but something that can be found across the country if you look for it (the love rural America has for this urbanite is quite astounding). Since it looks like Trump will be returning to the presidency (it's election night as I write this, so it's not official yet), it will be interesting to see if a left wing subculture of flags will develop as a resistance and that might be the subject of a sequel (I did see some Harris signs in Sandusky, Ohio this election season). We'll see. In any case, back to the current book. It has many photographs of flags taken by Randall along with some excellent journalism. I probably don't subscribe to the same cultural analysis results that Randall does (I find Trumpism more amusing than threatening), but he deserves an award for his journalism. Anyone who reads this blog regularly or my novels probably knows that I occasionally grumble about the quality of journalism today (with some notable exceptions such as Glenn Greenwald, Greg Palast, and Matt Taibbi). For example, the last time I bought a New York Times (earlier this year), one of the articles was one journalist interviewing another journalist in the newsroom. I don't remember the topic since it was a few months ago, but it struck me as pretty bad journalism. Instead of going out in the world and investigating something, the journalist was just going to interview his colleague on the topic. There might be some occasions where that might be appropriate, but the topic of the article was not one of them. It read instead as if the journalist was just too lazy to do any actual reporting.
Not Randall. Apparently, the dude got shot at more than once taking his photographs. And I can believe it. I ran into those types when I worked for the Census, and I'm sure the folks who fly those flags have gotten more paranoid over the last few years since then. Randall also digs into things, investigating for example the companies that manufacture the flags, which seem to be mainly made in China. No one seems to want to answer any of his questions, but kudos to him for asking them and sniffing out when something seems rotten. Randall's bullshit detector is working. That is in stark contrast to most of today's "journalists" who seem content to parrot uncritically government authorities and corporate press releases.
I found all of the book compelling reading, but the chapters I found most interesting were the ones on how the comic book character The Punisher's symbol has been adopted by militant second amendment types with Disney's acquiescence, the anti-Joe Biden flags (whatever happens tonight will at least result in us being free of that disaster soon), and the flags manufacturers possibly being linked to a subtle Chinese attack on America. As Randall concludes, "These flags are cheaply made, easy to buy, and seemingly everywhere. If any Chinese import should have a heavy tariff (a burden that ultimately rests on the buyer), it should be this shit. There’s nothing patriotic about buying desecrated U.S. flags from a hostile nation that uses buyer data to further inflame American politics."
It will be interesting to see if this subculture continues to flourish. I did see a firefighter version of the thin blue line (police state flag) Randall writes about. This one had a red stripe instead of a blue one, so it appears the subculture continues to grow for the time being, something that Randall clearly thinks is not a good sign for the health of the country.
The book is available from https://metrohopbooks.com.
If you want to read something else after you read Randall's book, then my latest novel is available at https://www.wredfright.com/p/fast-guy-slows-down.html. The new one, The Front Yard War, is almost done being proofread, so look for it soon as well.
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