Dissent.06—Rock n' Roll in the Free(ish) World with Alexander Hellene

For Dissent.06, I sat down for an excellent conversation with Alexander Hellene—Christian, Family Man, Author, Former Professional Rocker, & Rush Superfan.

Alex is a great writer, and I really enjoyed our conversation. This was recorded a little over a month ago, so I’m excited to finally get to share it.

I’m releasing the full cut of this to everyone, so if you enjoy, please consider supporting my work with a paid subscription to receive access to future members-only extended cuts of the podcast and essays.

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Dissent.06 featuring Alexander Hellene:

• My Introduction, Alex’s great piece, “Don’t Blame Us”

• Alex’s Intro

• Alex’s experiences online back on 2015 Twitter

• Seems like current Substack as similar spirit of creation as then

• Alex mentions

  Alexandru Constantin
  ’s podcast and his likewise belief that some special discourse is happening on Substack

• Alex shouts out my “The Right Should Embrace the 1619 Project” piece (Thanks, Alex!)

• I explain my “Circle of Irony” inspired writing style (RIP idubbz)

• God bless Karens (This is a Karen fan account. Karen hate will not be tolerated. Thank you for your cooperation)

• Vivek platforming Great Replacement Theory is a major Overton Window shift

• The transition of dudes in dresses from the butt of the joke in M.A.S.H. to the White House, is a sign of major spiritual illness in our nation (understatement of the century)

• People without the discernment of the Holy Spirit are at a loss to understand the spiritual evil at work

• Alex makes the point that things have progressed drastically since relatively harmless drag queen homies were bro-ing around at bars for the

• AI is being used to corral the public consciousness towards evil in an exponential way—literally defending pedophilia in many instances

• Chat GPT wouldn’t make me a zombie Hitler image

• Alex has had similar issues trying to make a Bad Dudes vs. DragonNinja meme with Biden (but it worked with Trump)

• Nuclear annihilation is preferable to the N word being uttered by a robot. Lol we’re cooked huh

• Trump is hilarious

• We talk a bit about the people like Donnie Darkened who push the idea that Trump is the antichrist

• So many psyops on the stove so little time

• Christ has already won the victory, though

• Which gives us as Christian a true freedom

• Spiritual revival is happening worldwide, both in the Church and outside of it with paganism

• Power and despair are two sides of the same coin

• The narrative that Christianity led to the dark ages is overblown revisionism

• Christians brought back much of the Greek philosophers

• My dad as a boomer was already being taught that the crusades and the inquisition were irredeemably evil in early 1950s American public education

• They never mention the Ottoman enslavement of white Europeans

• We have to get over the self-loathing to save ourselves

• We talk about Alex’s inspirations

• Grew up with a healthy combo of athleticism and artistry

• Dad shared all the great boomer music with Alex which led to him picking up the bass guitar

• Him and his bro started rocking

• His love for music is a big inspiration

• As his his Christian faith which informed his Swordbringer trilogy in some key ways

• Jack Vance, Edgar Rice Burroughs, & Dan Simmons are big influences

• Since Alex is a bass slapper I mention Berry Oakley of the Allman Bros. Band to him. Turns out the Allman Bros. were one of his dad’s favorites.

• The Allman Brothers as more than just another “Southern Rock” band

• Alex talks about his and

  Alexandru Constantin
  ’s Music Review project,
  Telios Music
  here on Substack

• I mention that Alex might dig this new band All Under Heaven:

• I also shout out Cole Davis, an up and coming classic rock inspired singer-songwriter with serious chops:

• I ask if Alex submitted anything for

  Raw Egg Nationalist
  ’s Pulp Fiction contest

• Alex emphasize that we need to build up a genuine patronage network—mentions a writer friend of his,

  Brian Niemeier
  uses the term neo-patronage

• I mention that we need neo-patronage in every facet of our lives to get back to what’s real and true and good living

• I discuss how I call this “Backyard Nationalism” “We should have everything we need in our backyard” both our own literal backyard, but also our community’s and wider society’s backyard as well.

• “Good fences make good neighbors”

• We discuss some of the larger implications of my Backyard Nationalist philosophy

• Alex discusses how key it is to win over everyday, regular people, the “soccer moms” and makes the point that thinking of things in terms of one’s backyard can be a good heuristic for that

• What is the average Soccer Mom worried about?

• Alex questions what planet these people who proclaim the economy’s never been better are on.

• Alex’s experiences living in Northern Virginia prior to the Glenn Youngkin gubernatorial race

• “Warmed over 90s” policies are actually very powerful

• There are large swaths of everyday Americans who are getting pissed of and going to their school board and town hall meetings and shaking the status quo up

• I mention the provocateur comedian Alex Stein:

• Alex says the jury’s still out but that it’s promising that the kids may just be alright

• I recount a reddit post by scared lesbian about her newly converted Christian son. This one isn’t the same, but it’s similar lol

• I’m skeptical of the TikTok bans because it seems like there’s some good counter-radicalization happening on there

• We switch gears to talking about Alex’s book about Rush, “Dreamers & Misfits: The Definitive Book About Rush Fans”

• Alex gives his journey as a Rush fan and his experience writing the book (It really is awesome, I encourage anyone who loves music to check it out—thanks for the copy, Alex!)

• We talk some about Neil Peart’s libertarian inspired lyrics

• I relate that how I feel about Tom Petty seems like how Alex feels about Peart

• I suggest Petty’s Pack up the Plantation Tour as a great Petty primer:

• We wrap things up for the time being

• fin