Category Archives: Matthew Pegas

Robert Stark talks about his Personal & Political Transformation

Robert Stark is joined by Matt Pegas to discuss his article, Contrasting my Political Journey with that of Richard Hanania (How I became who I am, as a Woke Chad Centrist).

Topics:
-Whether Robert should write an auto-biography or insider history of the Alt-Right
-The Background of Richard Hanania, who transformed from an Alt-Rightest to a pro-immigration libertarian neoliberal 
-How both Robert and Richard are honest about their trajectories in a way that most people aren’t
-Meeting Richard Hanania in LA
-How Robert never explicitly identified as Alt-Right, and his earlier views weren’t actually that extreme
-How anti-intellectual Chuds have ruined the online dissident right discourse
-Matt’s political trajectory, voting for Hillary Clinton, and then coming across Robert’s podcast in 2018
-Robert and Matt’s Alt-Center project, after the collapse of the Alt-Right
How Robert and Matt manifested Dime Square
-How Robert’s views were shaped by class and demographic dynamics in LA
-How Robert felt pressure to signal to more reactionary viewpoints
-Robert’s promotion of enclavism and phase where he adopted the rhetoric of the multicultural left
-Why Robert now has contempt for conspiracy theorists, anti-Semites, and rightwing populists
-The quasi-religious notion of having to repent for bigoted views rather than evolving
-How people are unaware of how their subconscious, and factors like social status, shape their political views
-How American society places negative moral value on loserdom
-How Robert subconsciously had the same views he has now from an early age
-Narratives about populism vs elitism, and whether hating the rich is a cope
-Why Matt considers Robert’s philosophical views fundamentally rightwing
-Robert’s Aristocratic Radicalism
-Do we need technocracy to manage social status?
-Matt’s upcoming publishing project, New Ritual Press, which will republish Robert’s novel, Vaporfornia
-How Robert is not emotionally invested in the election

Click Here to download!

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and subscribe to his Substack.

Robert Stark interviews Adem Luz Rienspects

Robert “Starkattack” and Matt “Las” Pegas talk to Adem Luz Rienspects. Adem is the author of Mixtape Hyperborea and you can follow him on Twitter/X.

Topics:

-Intro song: Brian is the Most Beautiful by Memo Boy
Adem’s background as a former Marxist and Sam Harris Centrist Liberal, and how he is now politically homeless
-Was Trump surviving an act of God?
-The current online scene that is more open, decentralized, and culturally oriented
-Is Dime Square a cursed brand?
-Adem’s advocacy for a new Hippie movement
-How the Hippies failed to fulfill spiritual perennialism
-Adem’s unique theological view of God
-Our recent trip to Sedona and its spiritual significance
-“Starkattack’s” heroism in Sedona with the power of friendship
-Adem’s positive and mythical experience attending a Walford Steiner School
-How science and spirituality are fundamentally interlinked
Our experience with and the spiritual attributes of magic mushrooms
-How shrooms transformed Adem into an Aryan
-The effects of using a soundtrack for Mixtape Hyperborea
-The book’s off the wall humor
-Why friends should call each other racial slurs
-The spiritual component of masculinity
-How male social hierarchies are formed
-Whether the tribal village-like environment of HS should be recreated for adults
-The esotericism of nostalgia

Click Here to download!

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and subscribe to his Substack.

Robert Stark talks to Matt Pegas about The Black Album

Robert Stark talks to Matt Pegas about his book, The Black Album. The Black Album is a collection of essays and short stories, both fiction and non-fiction. The book deals with themes, including alienation, masculinity, incels, serial killers, spirituality, alchemy, philosophy and aesthetics.

Topics:
-the inspiration for the title from Joan Didion’s The White Album and the music trope of color-coded albums
-Mass shootings as a metaphysical attack against reality
-The context of Matt writing himself into fictional stories
-Adapting to writing with time limitations
-Matt’s struggles with serial killer OCD and POCD in adolescence
-the gnostic component to psychology and mental illness
-Jefferey Dahmer and the trope that the weird loner is the most dangerous
-the archetype of the Emo
-coping with malaise and dissatisfaction with life
-transcript of a disturbing correspondence involving an online follower
-Matt’s essay, Renaissance of The Ritual
-Foundational thinking over Traditionalism
-A painting of a failed alchemist and why alchemy is legit
-Matt’s experiences with Tarot, transcendental meditation, and esotericism
-Matt’s Essay, David Lynch, Bronze Age Pervert, and the possibility of inner freedom
-Matt’s thought experiment of a based Marianne Williamson or BAPist version of Steiner schools
-Matt’s essay, The Politics of Aesthetics Revisited
-The esoteric significance of Las Vegas
Revisiting Alt-Centrism
-How Robert and Matt manifested Dime Square in 2018

Click Here to download!

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and subscribe to his Substack.

Robert Stark is interviewed about Esotericism

Robert Stark is interviewed by Matt Pegas and his co-host Evan, as a simulcast for their Strange Flows podcast.

Topics:
Colin Wilson’s study of consciousness
-Robert’s art, Substack writings, and novels
-Mark Fisher’s Capitalist Realism
Robert’s case for Theosophy
-Robert’s mystical experience at June Lake
-contrasting Neoplatonism and Gnosticism, in their approach to theurgy, aesthetics and the natural world
-can ugly things be beautiful or divine?
-channeling the fire of youth
-revisiting Robert’s first podcast with Matt from 2018
-rediscovering the song, 9pm (Till I Come)
-occultist, genetic, political, and social dynamics to oral acts
-A critique of the moral authoritarianism and lack of pluralism of Abrahamic faiths
-how we should approach occultism
-prediction that America will have another religious revival
California’s pan-enclavism
-thoughts on neo-reactionary critiques of democracy, the case for proportional inequality, and how to select elites
-the Art Fascist vs the Warrior Fascist

Click Here to download!

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and subscribe to his Substack.

Robert Stark talks to Constantin von Hoffmeister about Esoteric Trumpism

Robert Stark and Matt Pegas speak with Constantin von Hoffmeister about his book Esoteric Trumpism. This is a simulcast with Matt’s New Write podcast. Originally from Germany, Constantin von Hoffmeister studied English Literature and Political Science in New Orleans. Constantin has worked as an author, journalist, translator, editor, and business trainer in the United States, India, Uzbekistan, and Russia, and is the editor in chief of Arktos publishing. Follow Constantin on Twitter and subscribe to his Substack.

Topics:

Literary references, including William S. Burroughs, HP Lovecraft, and Edgar Alan Poe
Misconceptions about the Beatniks as leftwing (eg Jack Kerouac’s admiration of Oswald Spengler)
How the Beats’ disillusionment shows problems with fetishizing 1950s America
Philistinism on the Right and the rise of a new creative culture-focused Right
How America has an underappreciated rich cultural heritage
America as an extension of European civilization
Rightwing Postmodernism
Trump as the great revealer of hidden Lovecraftian horrors
Why Trump’s political significance is primarily symbolic
Addressing criticisms and disappointments with Trump
Meme magic
Why Constantin rejects accelerationism
Why Rightwing multiculturalism or ethnopluralism is the future 
Constantin’s recent meet up with Robert and Matt in LA, and observation that LA is a model for ethnopluralism
Why Constantin is more optimistic about America’s future than Europe’s
Upcoming Arktos projects, including a new translation of Dominque  Venner on Ernst Junger, a rightwing critique of Nietzsche, and an art history book

Click Here to download!

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and subscribe to his Substack.

Robert Stark talks to Keith Preston about Rudolf Steiner

Robert Stark and Matt Pegas talk to Keith Preston about the life and philosophy of Austrian occultist and Renaissance Man, Rudolf Steiner, and what we can learn about Steiner’s ideas to address contemporary problems. Check out Keith Preston’s article, Scientific Spirituality and Ethical Individualism: The Legacy of Rudolf Steiner, and Troy Southgate’s new book, THE SPIRIT UNBOUND: RUDOLF STEINER’S PHILOSOPHY OF FREEDOM. Keith Preston is a historian, social scientist, political analyst, author, lecturer, trends researcher, and the editor of Attack the System. Follow Keith on Twitter.

Topics:

The crisis of modernity as anomie, uprootedness from place, identity, tradition, and social bonds, and its impact on the human psyche
Parallels between the modern existential crisis and that of Steiner’s era
Traditional religion being replaced by new secular religions (eg. social justice, scientism, secular heresies)
Steiner’s belief that spirituality and science are interconnected
Parapsychology, including studies of near death experiences
Comparisons to Carl Jung and Christian mystics, Emanuel Swedenborg and William James
Anti-vaxxers’ fascination with Steiner’s warnings of genetically re-engineering people’s spirituality
Steiner’s views on spiritual races and the Steiner schools becoming a target of cancel culture, though Steiner was staunchly anti-fascist
The limitations of materialism and rationalism, and Steiner’s influence from Romanticism 
Steiner’s philosophical relation to other thinkers, including Julius Evola, Nietzsche, Aleister Crowley, and Martin Buber
How the essence of Steiner’s political philosophy was reconciling the differences  between individualism and rootedness, liberal egalitarianism and tradition, and occultism and ethics
How Steiner favored an economic system like distributism, over capitalism or Marxism, and decentralized local autonomy and identities, over nationalism

Click Here to download!

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and subscribe to his Substack.

Robert Stark interviews Montgomery Markland about his movie Malibu Road

Robert Stark and Matt Pegas speak with filmmaker, Montgomery Markland, about his film Malibu Road, which he both directed and starred in. Malibu Road is available to watch for free on Tubi, and for purchase on Apple TV and Amazon. While the pandemic delayed Malibu Road’s theatrical release, Montgomery has further plans for multipicture deals.

“Fast living Los Angelenos are targeted by the Central Intelligence Agency during Operation Midnight Climax, part of MKUltra. The experience takes a turn for the deadly during New Year’s Eve 1960 and now a professor, a starlet and the workers at a hotel with a questionable reputation must rediscover reality or be trapped in an endless cycle of sex, drugs and murder in ‘paradise.'”

Malibu Road (2021) IMDb 

Montgomery Markland has an idiosyncratic resume. Originally from Dallas, Montgomery was a state and local reporter in Austin, worked in the Texas state legislature on policy, was  then a producer, president, and CCO at a number of video game companies, before working in Hollywood. Follow Montgomery on Twitter.

Topics:

Applying videogame design principles to Cinema
The Meisner acting technique
MKUltra connections to university professors and Hollywood (eg. Irvin Keshner)
Timothy Leary’s prediction that video games had the potential to recreate psychedelic trips
The History of the Albatross Hotel in Malibu and connections to Old Hollywood
Cinemaphotographic techniques used to capture the psychedelic aesthetic
Distorting reality in stories as representations of dreams (eg. traumnovelle), and influences from David Lynch
Influence from soap operas, telenovelas, and 90s Cinemax
The set design, recreating the aesthetics of the 60s and 70s
Influences from Jungian archetypes, as well as Ancient Greek, Hindu, and Buddhist mythology (eg. Timothy Leary on the Tibetan Book of the Dead)
Hunter S. Thompson
Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo
Malibu Road’s filming locations, including Malibu State Park and Will Rogers State Historic Park
The politicization of entertainment, and why overtly political conservative media fails
Reasons to be optimistic about opportunities in entertainment via niche markets
The Banking crisis, Economic Death Spiral, and narratives of collapse

Click Here to download!

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and subscribe to his Substack.

Robert Stark talks to Dan Baltic about his debut novel Nutcrankr

Robert Stark and Matt Pegas talk to Dan Baltic about his debut novel Nutcrankr. Dan Baltic is the co-hosts of the literary podcast, New Write, with Matt Pegas. Nutcrankr is available in print and ebook at Terror House publishing.

Topics:
Intro to the protagonist Spencer Grunhauer and the plot
Spencer’s philosophy and his manifest
The psychological process of how one becomes more alienated, unstable, and unhinged
Psycho-sexual motives behind politics and moral panics
Social status, elite overproduction, and out of whack life expectations
Making your own way “pill”
Narratives about online grifters
Bullishness on the future of dissident arts
Terror House’s book reading in Brooklyn, NYC
Creating effecting satire
The literary genre of alienated loners
A homage or modern day reboot of Confederacy of Dunces
Comparisons to Robert’s novel Vaporfornia and Matt’s Dragon Day

Click Here to download!

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and subscribe to his Substack.

Robert Stark talks to Andy Nowicki about his Novella Muze

Robert Stark talks to Andy Nowicki about his new novella, Muze, and Robert’s new surreal dark comedy novel, Vaporfornia. Andy Nowicki is a former English professor and the author of numerous books including The Columbine PilgrimLost Violent SoulsHeart Killer, Beauty and the Least, Under the Nihil, and The Insurrectionist. Check out Muze on Terror House Publishing and Andy’s YouTube channel and writings at his Substack.

Topics:

Revisiting Andy’s earlier work and the genre of the alienated loner
References to incel culture in Muze
Other themes in Muze, including pharmaceuticals, transhumanism, blackmail, and mind control
Writing about depravity from a socially conservative/Catholic perspective
The revival in 00’s conspiracy theories
David Lynch and open ended narratives
Robert’s novel Vaporfornia and its similar themes to Muze
Allegories for degradation
Revisiting Robert’s mocumentary Supply
Matt Pegas’ Dragon Day
The growing dissident literary scene
Andy’s trip to South Africa in 2011
The politics of crisis: acceleration vs. gradual decay

Click Here to download!

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and subscribe to his Substack.

Robert Stark and Matt Pegas try to start a New Religion

Robert Stark and Matt Pegas  tease the notion of a speculative new spiritual movement. This is a simulcast with Matt’s literary podcast, New Write, and a field-recording, conversation on cults, the new age movement, Matt’s Substack article “The Renaissance of the Ritual“, Robert’s novel “Vaporfornia“, California as fertile soil for new religions, occultism, and much more. Recorded on May 1st, 2022, on a trip through the backcountry of San Diego County, near Palomar Mountain, where Crowlian occultist, Wilfred Talbot Smith, erected an Ordo Templi Orientis temple.

Topics:

Background on the “new religion,” started as a half joke in Yosemite
A self-initiatory religion, comparable to Discordianism
Social reasons for the rise in cults
California ‘s spiritual movements: Mike Marinacci’s book California Jesus, Order of Atwa, and the Partridge Family Temple
Syncretic occultism and the esotericism/New Age to fascist pipeline
The right hand vs. left hand path and Jungian shadow work
The occultist ritual, finding structure in chaos, and a metaphysical/esoteric take on self-improvement
Knowing when to surrender and embrace the photosynthesis of the Universe/Light of God
The relationship between spirituality and biology (speculating where atheism and various theologies fit on the Bell Curve meme)
An anti-liberal and anti-blank slatist case for Theosophy
Robert’s article on a psychological inspired approach to solving political and social problems
Aesthetic alchemy (Sigils), and the spiritual, ethereal component to  aesthetics
Bronze Age Pervert as a foundationalist (not a traditionalist), and Mike Ma as an instinctive Christian
Jason Jorjani’s Prometheism 
Why spirituality and reclaiming vitality needs to come before politics

Click Here to download!

Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook pageTwitterInstagramStark Truth TV, novel Vaporfornia, and subscribe to his Substack.