Category Archives: Cities

Robert Stark and Matthew Pegas talk about the Film Joker

1980's, aesthetics, alienation, Alternative Right, American Culture, Anarchism, Architecture, Art, Cinema, Cities, Class, comedy, Crime, Culture, Despair, Donald Trump, Economics, Film, Hollywood, humor, Incels, income inequality, Joker, Leftism, Loserdom, Matthew Pegas, Media, Memes, Mental illness, Millennials, Morality, Neoliberalism, Neon, New York, Nihilism, Oligarchy, Philosophy, Political Correctness, Psychology, Race Relations, Sexuality, Social Isolation, Social Rejection, social status, Spree Shootings, Taxi Driver

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and Matthew Pegas talk about the film Joker (2019 ) and it’s sociological significance to our current zeitgeist of despair.

Topics:

The social crisis of despair in America
The alienated loner in our society
Theme of humiliation
Oppositions to the film from the Woke Neoliberal Establishment, while Michael Moore Calls ‘Joker’ a Masterpiece
Woke media’s allegations that ‘Joker’ validates White Male rage
Marc Maron on ‘Joker’: Don’t Blame Movies for Criminal Actions of the Mentally Ill
Dark comedic nihilism with no moralistic narrative of good vs. evil
Cult following online among memers and dissident rightests
Director Todd Phillips, his background in lighthearted sex comedies, and how he stopped making comedies due to “Woke Culture”
How the film is as controversial as it can afford to be within Hollywood
Plutocratic mayoral candidate Thomas Wayne who could symbolize a caricature of Trump, but also echoes Hillary Clinton’s Basket of deplorables phrase
Class warfare theme
The Anarchist theme of creating chaos and tearing down society
Symbolism of the clown
Mental health
Comparison’s to Taxi Driver
Aesthetics of the film set in Gotham City, based on gritty New York City in the early 80s

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Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, Stark Truth TV, and novel Journey to Vapor Island




Robert Stark and Matthew Pegas talk about Urbanist observations from trip to San Diego

1980's, 80's music, aesthetics, American Culture, Andrew Yang, Architecture, Basic Income, Calexit, California, Cities, Class, Culture, demographics, Economics, Environment, Erasure, Historic Preservation, History, Immigration, John C. Portman Jr, Los Angeles, Malibu, Malls, Matthew Pegas, Mexico, Middle Class, Music, Politics, Postmodernism, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Silicon Valley, Skyscrapers, Suburbia, SWPL, Travel, Urbanism, Wealth, Wilderness

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and Matthew Pegas talk about their recent trip to San Diego and their observations on cultural and urbanist trends.

Topics:

San Diego’s reputation as a smaller, cleaner, nicer version of LA and its unique attributes
The layout of the city with a centralized downtown near the waterfront surrounded by suburban sprawl
San Diego and Orange County among the largest areas of upper middle class sprawl in the nation
Politics of San Diego as a historically Republican stronghold that has trended Democratic in recent years
Demographics of San Diego and how they relate to overall CA trends
The most stereotypical American City located in CA while the State is culturally drifting apart from the rest of the Country
After decades of suburban sprawl, San Diego eyes big shift to dense development
The historic Gaslamp Quarter which is the one section that feels truly urban
Horton Plaza: Will this PoMo wonderland in San Diego be saved?
Architect Jon Jerde’s inspiration for Horton Plaza from Ray Bradbury’s “The Aesthetic of Lostness” extolling the virtues of getting “safely lost”
Wealthy beach community La Jolla and it’s village layout
The importance of investing in communal places that the public can enjoy, particularly in wealthy areas
Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve
The Victorian Hotel del Coronado
Friendship Park at the US/Mexico Border and political symbolism of the border wall
The Inland Empire
Heavenly Action by Erasure, the soundtrack of the trip with a message that friendship, love, and positivity can conquer anything

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Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, Stark Truth TV, and novel Journey to Vapor Island




Robert Stark interviews Will Durham about the Nevada Neon Project

aesthetics, Architecture, Art, Cities, Culture, Gambling, Historic Preservation, History, Las Vegas, Mid-Century Modern, Neon, Reno, Will Durham

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Will Durham has been collecting and preserving neon signs for over 25 years, and has one of the largest collections in the world. Check out the Nevada Neon Project on Instagram and Facebook.

Topics:

Collecting signs from closing businesses
The main focus of preserving signs
The process of rescuing a sign
Displaying signs to the public at events
Neon named Nevada’s official element
Walking tours of Downtown Reno
The decline of Reno as a gambling destination, revitalization, and what it means for neon
Newer signage, incorporating new neon, and businesses adopting older signs
The lack of historic preservation regulation
Collecting signage from larger casinos including the Peppermill, Harold’s Club, and Fitzgerald in Reno, and The Riviera in Las Vegas
Saving The Virginian’s Casino letters
The Eldorado Casino’s external neon silhouette
The Carson Nugget and Cactus Jacks in Carson City
The dwindling of neon at Lake Tahoe, and The Stardust Lodge

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Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, Stark Truth TV, and novel Journey to Vapor Island




Robert Stark interviews Logo Daedalus

aesthetics, American Culture, Anarchism, Andrew Yang, Architecture, Aristocratic Individualism, Art, Art Deco, automation, Basic Income, Cities, Comic Books, Culture, Cyberpunk, Donald Trump, Economics, Futurism, Incels, Instagram, Italian Futurism, Logo Daedalus, Mid-Century Modern, New York, Philosophy, Poetry, Politics, Retro Futurism, Skyscrapers, Social Media, Steampunk, Suicide, Surrealism, technology, Urbanism, Wyndham Lewis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Logo Daedalus is the author of Selfie, Suicide: or Cairey Turnbull’s Blue Skiddoo and writes for Autistic Mercury. You can also check him out on Twitter.

Topics:

Logo’s novel Selfie, Suicide, a coming of age satire of a failed artist
Instagram inspired parody art museums
New York’s Staircase to Nowhere
How technology impacts politics
Wyndham Lewis
Andrew Yang
How the UBI could create a cultural renaissance
The Obama to Trump voters in the Rustbelt
Aesthetics as politics
Retro-futurist genres Steampunk, Dieselpunk, and Cyberpunk
Underground comics

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Checkout Robert Stark’s Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, Stark Truth TV, and novel Journey to Vapor Island




Scarcity of Positional Goods is the basis for Aesthetic Socialism

Aesthetic Socialism, aesthetics, Architecture, Cities, Culture, demographics, Economics, Post-scarcity economy, social status, Urbanism, Wealth

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aesthetic Socialism is the concept of viewing politics with aesthetics as one of the basic principles. I discussed the concept at length in my essay Aristocratic Aesthetic Socialism and show with Matthew Pegas and Giovanni Dannato. Aesthetics signifies one’s class and social status and influences and manipulates peoples decisions and economic output. Extreme inequality in aesthetics shapes the core foundations and social mechanisms of a society.

In politics the debate about the distribution wealth is primarily about the distribution of monetary assets and how to make basic needs widely available. Due to mass production and future trends in automation we are now entering a Post Scarcity Economy where many goods and services can be provided to a larger segment of the population.

We have the wealth, resources, and technology to provide basic services such as food and electronics that can be mass produced. In the future healthcare could be provided cheaply due to automation but the goods that are positional will remain increasingly scarce.

Positional Goods according to Lion of the Blogosphere “are goods and services that people value because of their limited supply and they convey a high relative standing within society.” These resources are positional because they are ranked in value to other resources.

Continue reading Scarcity of Positional Goods is the basis for Aesthetic Socialism →

Robert Stark talks about Andrew Yang and the Post-Nationalist Future

Alt Center, Alternative Right, American Culture, Andrew Yang, Architecture, Asia, Asian Culture, automation, Basic Income, capitalism, China, Cities, Class, Conservatives, Corporations, Culture, decentralization, democracy, demographics, Donald Trump, Economics, Elections, Immigration, Incels, income inequality, Leftism, Liberalism, Mass Democracy, Matthew Pegas, Mental illness, Middle Class, Morality, Nationalism, NEETs, neo-tribalism, Neoliberalism, Oligarchy, Personality Types, Political Correctness, Politics, Psychology, Race Relations, social capital, Social Isolation, Suburbia, Takimag, Urbanism, Wealth, welfare state, Zoning

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Stark and Matthew Pegas talk about Robert’s Takimag article Andrew Yang and the Post-Nationalist Future

Topics:

Yang’s objective is not to dismantle neo-liberalism but rather create a more humane version of it
Potential for cross pollination between right and left Yang supporters towards a dissident center
Trump’s failed last chance for American nationalism
Future political paradigm of neo-tribalism vs. enforced loyalty to mass society
How a UBI will lead to the formation of neo-tribes
Political campaigns as neuro-tribes
Pursuing one’s group interest as a minority in a Post-American future
How a UBI treats everyone equally, bypasses the middleman, and a step towards smart socialism
Unlike both capitalism and socialism, UBI is the only solution that is viable in an atomized society
How a social safety net combined with freedom of association is the only thing that can hold this nation together
Whether a UBI will solve issues such as declining birthrates and the sex recession
Yang Claims Universal Income Can Curb the Racism of His White Nationalist Fans
The personality of the technocratic engineer vs the lawyer in politics
Yang’s view of politics based on an understanding of psychology and human nature
Yang’s comment predicting anti-Asian violence which was taken out of context by conservatives
Materialist vs. idealist views on the roots of group-group violence
The UBI’s impact on class dynamics and danger of a neo-feudalist technocracy
Rethinking the American dream in terms of alternatives to the suburban home such as an arcology or self contained city
Whether smart socialism and urban renewal need a strong centralized state

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This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s Paintings, Stark Truth TV, and his novel Journey to Vapor Island




The Alt-Center, Starkianism and the Demystification of Social Capital

(((Supply))), Aesthetic Socialism, aesthetics, Alicia Silverstone, Alt Center, Alternative Left, Alternative Right, Architecture, Aristocratic Individualism, Art, Asian Aryanism, Basic Income, capitalism, Cities, Class, counterculture, Culture, demographics, Economics, gentrification, Giovanni Dannato, Hipsters, Homosexuality, James O'Meara, Journey to Vapor Island, Liberalism, Literature, Luke Ford, Matthew Pegas, NEETs, neo-tribalism, Neon, Philosophy, Pilleater, Politics, Psychology, Radical Center, Retro Futurism, Sexuality, Shane Eide, social capital, Social Darwinism, social status, SWPL, Third Position, Urbanism, Utopia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Originally Published by Shane Eide on Emerging Hermit

There’s something to be said for those in whom the sign of the times less offers an omen and more flashes across their periphery like a neon sign at an amusement park.

In 2019, the assumed excesses of prefixing an ‘Alt’ to any political fringe is virtually guaranteed to incite misunderstanding, scrutiny and suspicion. In that sense, the Alt-Center is a shameless affair. However, it isn’t shameless merely because of its ideas – which are eclectic – but rather, because of its ultimately strategic knowledge of where it sits within the dissident sphere.

The impending antiquation of older ways of thinking about politics is not for them an indication that some inevitable new path will soon announce itself, for which they will conveniently be the vanguard. Rather, this antiquation is for them an occasion to consider the possibility of creating something wholly new whose expression may unfold in ways as varied as one could imagine.

Journalist, artist, novelist and host of Stark Truth Radio, Robert Stark, has built something of a salon for Alt-Center ideas on his show, where, as of late, one may hear talk of Starkianism – existing in its own corner of Alt-Centrism. Roughly put, Alt-Centrism is where ideas of the dissident right and dissident left meet, and is itself comprised of concepts such as Aesthetic Socialism, Aristocratic Radicalism and Alt-Urbanism.

Continue reading The Alt-Center, Starkianism and the Demystification of Social Capital →

Robert Stark talks to Giovanni Dannato about Neuro-Tribalism

aesthetics, Alt Center, American Culture, Architecture, Basic Income, capitalism, Cities, Class, Culture, demographics, Economics, Giovanni Dannato, Globalization, Human Bio Diversity, Internet, Introversion, IQ, Morality, Nationalism, neo-tribalism, Personality Types, Psychology, social capital, Social Media, social status, Socialism

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Giovanni Dannato blogs at Colony of Commodus and is the author of APOSTASY and A Kingdom For the Introvert. Follow Giovanni on Twitter.

Topics:

Formation of neuro-tribes based on personality types
The role of the internet in the formation of neuro-tribes
Tribes that you can self select
Neuro-tribes eventually forming new ethnic groups through assortative mating
Neuro-types impact on political ideology(ex. contrarian vs. conscientious)
Role of social status and how different societies favor certain neuro types
Economic benefit of neo-tribalism in a post scarcity economy with competition over
Over representation of particular neuro types within economic niches
An Alt-Centrist Look At UBI
Multi neuro-tribal society that transcends beyond geographic location
Geographic locations that attract certain neuro types and Maps of the American Nations
How one’s neuro type influences their cultural and aesthetic preferences

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This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s Paintings, Stark Truth TV, and his novel Journey to Vapor Island




Robert Stark interviews Marcus Ruiz Evans of Yes California

American Culture, Calexit, California, Cities, Conservatives, Conspiracy Theories, Culture, Donald Trump, Economics, Elections, Immigration, Imperialism, income inequality, Kamala Harris, Liberalism, Marcus Ruiz Evans, Mass Transit, Middle Class, Oligarchy, overdevelopment, Police State, Politics, Russia, Secessionism, Silicon Valley, Tulsi Gabbard, Urbanism, War, Wealth, Zoning

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marcus Ruiz Evans is President and Founder of Yes California, an initiative for California Secession. Check out Yes California on Twitter and Facebook.

Topics:

Robert and Marcus’ radio background on AM1680 and conspiracy theories about conservatives being behind Calexit
Marcus as one of the first to popularize California secession in his book California’s Next Century
The financial burden of the United States on California
California values
The impact of the election of Trump on Calexit and why he will win re-election
The Russian conspiracy theory about Calexit and anti-establishment candidate Tulsi Gabbard
Examples of California acting as an independent nation
The concern of California becoming a one party nation and the need for an alternative party such as the California National Party
Who moves to California? The wealthier and better educated, mostly
The housing crisis, need for infill growth rather than sprawl, and importance of investing in infrastructure
Immigration policy
The tech oligarchy and need for regulation
The legal precedent of secession and likelihood of America allowing it

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This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s Paintings, Stark Truth TV, and his novel Journey to Vapor Island




Urbanist Lessons from Trip to the Southwest

aesthetics, American Culture, Architecture, arcology, Art Deco, California, capitalism, Cities, Class, Consumerism, Corporations, Culture, demographics, Disneyland, Donald Trump, Economics, Futurism, Grand Canyon, Hipsters, Historic Preservation, History, Las Vegas, Matthew Pegas, Mid-Century Modern, Middle Class, Mormonism, Neoliberalism, Neon, Photography, Politics, Postmodernism, Retro Futurism, Skyscrapers, social capital, social trust, Suburbia, Travel, Urbanism, Utah, Utopia, Wilderness, Zion National Park, Zoning

Robert Stark and Matthew Pegas discuss their trip last fall to Las Vegas(Vegas Strip and Downtown), The Grand Canyon, and Zion.

Topics:

Las Vegas as the quintessential Post Modernist City
Creating an other wordy aura that does not exist in mundane consumerism
Creating something noble or grandiose out of consumerism
Las Vegas as an economic rather than geographic concept
Nothing permanent because architecture only survives if profitable
Vintage Vegas and Neon Signage
Irony of historic preservationist dismissing architecture of value because it is a product of capitalism
The pros and cons of private zoning
Casino Resorts functioning as an arcology or self contained city
Theme parks as models for urbanism
The potential for an urban alternative to over priced West Coast Cities
St. George Utah, sprawl layout, and high trust homogeneous middle class demographic
Alt-Urbanist solutions that seek to recreate those attributes in an urban setting
Southern Utah and Northern Arizona as one of the most scenic and geologically diverse regions in the world

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This show is brought to you by Robert Stark’s Paintings, Stark Truth TV, and his novel Journey to Vapor Island