Americans often forget the importance of the rights they have, but immigrants little used to such rights know their value. The American Gun series produced a nice short film — The Immigrant — on how one well-traveled immigrant sees the Second Amendment.
News
Holodomor Holocaust Remembered In Four Films
Holodomor (“to kill by starvation) is what Ukrainians call the period from 1932-1933, when Stalin created a forced famine to punish the Ukraine’s resistance to socialist collectivization. Estimates vary as to how many Ukrainians died, ranging from three million to twelve million. This tragedy and crime are remembered on Holomodor Remembrance Day. Here are four films to honor the dead.
We Remember, We Are Strong
…two short one-minute films to honor those lost.
Bitter Harvest
A young Ukrainian fights for his freedom, and to survive, as occupying Soviet troops deliberately starve his country into submission during the infamous Holodomor holocaust. [ Bitter Harvest credits: Dir: George Mendeluk/ Max Irons, Samantha Barks, Terence Stamp/ 103 min/ Drama, Romance, History/ Democide, Anti-socialism/ 2017]
“This cinematic telling is both long overdue and a small drop of justice for the victims whose stories were never told.”
–MissLiberty.com
“Must-see, dramatic, powerful story.”
–MovieGuide
Mr. Jones
Mr. Jones is a new film about Gareth Jones, the journalist-hero who first tried to warn the world about communist atrocities in the Ukraine — and died for it.
“The story of Gareth Jones is such a fascinating one, built on such intrepid, one-man-against-the-system ideals, that it’s a wonder it hasn’t been filmed into oblivion over the past 80 years. A young Welsh journalist who blew the first public whistle on the Holodomor — the man-made famine of 1932-33 in Soviet Ukraine — only to be broadly discredited by his professional peers and murdered before his 30th birthday, he was the quintessential man who knew too much.”
—Variety
The Soviet Story
The untold story of Soviet mass murder. [ The Soviet Story credits: Dir: Edvins Snore/ 86 min/ Documentary/ Democide, Anti-Socialism]
“Gripping, audacious and uncompromising…”
–The Economist
“For those who think they’ve seen everything they need to know about wartime Europe, this film will provide an extraordinary jolt to the senses… ”
–Film Threat
Harvest of Despair: The Unknown Holocaust
One of the twentieth-century’s biggest and least-known genocides, in which as many as seven million Ukrainians perished at the hands of the Soviet government, is examined using interviews of survivors, photographic evidence and scholarly commentary. Based on the Robert Conquest book Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror Famine. [ Harvest of Despair: The Unknown Holocaust credits: Dir: Slavko Nowytski, Yurij Luhovy/ 55 min/ Documentary/ Democide, Anti-socialism]
Thanksgiving: a Celebration of Property Rights?!
Journalist John Stossel explains how Thanksgiving would have been (and nearly was) “Starvation Day,” but for a change in policy from communal planting to…private property. [4 min/ Anti-socialism, Econ 101]
Reason tells the the true story of how the introduction of property rights by Governor Bradford saved the Pilgrims. [3 min/ Anti-socialism, Econ 101]
The original account of Governor Bradford, 1647
“All this while no supply was heard of, neither knew they when they might expect any. So they began to think how they might raise as much corn as they cold, and obtain a better crop than they had done, that they might not still languish in misery. At length, after much debate of things, the Governor (with the advice of the chiefest among them) gave way that they should set corn every man for his own particular, and in that regard trust to themselves; in all other things to go on in the general way as before. And so assigned to every family a parcel of land, according to the proportion of their number, for that end, only for present use (but made no division for inheritance) and ranged all boys and youth under some family. This had very good success, for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been by any means the Governor or any other could use, and saved him a great deal of trouble, and gave far better content. The women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn; which before would allege weakness and inability; whom to have compelled would have thought great tyranny and oppression.”
“The experience that was had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years and that amongst godly and sober men, may well evince the vanity of that conceit of Plato’s and other ancients applauded by some of later times; that the taking away or property and bringing into community into a commonwealth would make them happy and flourishing; as if they were wiser than God. For this community (so far as it was) was found to breed much confusion and discontent and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For the young men, that were most able and fit for labour and service, did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any recompense. The strong, or man of parts, had no more division of victuals and clothes than he that was weak and not able to do a quarter the other could; this was thought injustice. The aged and graver men to be ranked and equalized in labors and victuals, clothes, etc. with the meaner and younger sort, thought it was some indignity and disrespect unto them. And for mens’s wives to be commanded to do service for other men, as dressing their meat, washing their clothes, etc., they deemed it a kind of slavery, neither could many husbands well brook it.”
Of Plymouth Plantation, 1620-1647, William Bradford
Links about Thanksgiving and property rights
This Thanksgiving, Be Grateful for Property Rights. The Pilgrims Nearly Starved Without Them, John Stossel, Reason
Giving Thanks for Property Rights, Caroline Baum, Economics21
How A Failed Commune Gave Us What Is Now Thanksgiving, Jerry Bowyer, Forbes
Thanksgiving: Pilgrims, property rights and prosperity, Hugh Whelchel, The Washington Post
How Private Property Saved the Pilgrims, Ilya Somin, The Volokh Conspiracy
The First Thanksgiving: How property rights transformed Plymouth Colony, Frank Miniter, National Review
JOHN STOSSEL: The Lost Lesson of Thanksgiving, John Stossel, Fox News
The Great Thanksgiving Hoax, Richard J. Maybury, Mises Institute
Our First Thanksgiving, Sartell Prentice Jr., The Foundation for Economic Education
Media Narratives, Lies, And Slander: Three Films
PJMedia had a good article on the left’s pattern of trying to destroy young men by creating false media narratives about them. They mention Kyle Rittenhouse, Nick Sandmann, George Zimmerman, The Duke LaCrosse Team, Richard Jewell, victims of the Tawana Brawley hoax, and Bernhardt Goetz. In a couple of cases, these have been memorialized in films.
The documentary Rush to Judgment offers a detailed examination of the encounter at the Lincoln Memorial between students from the Covington Catholic High School and left-wing protestors — and how a vacuous press got it completely backwards.
And the film Richard Jewell tells the story of security guard Richard Jewell who saved hundreds of lives from an exploding pipe bomb at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, only to be railroaded as the prime suspect by an incompetent FBI and cynical press.
I would add to this list of press victims the Branch Davidians, who were vilified by the press as pedophiles and right-wing religious nuts, until the rather inconvenient Academy-Award nominated documentary Waco: Rules of Engagement came out and unwound the media narratives.
In each case, the media began with a narrative it liked, selected facts to fit the narrative, and then broadcast what they perhaps too candidly call their “story.” This isn’t a process of truth-telling but one of narrative marketing. How is it possible that seemingly reasonable journalists could do this? Because they believe they already know the Truth — that is what is true, and the world is seen through that prism. Orwell, as always, understood:
Why You Should Hate Big Pharma EXCEPT For Pfizer
Comedian Ryan Long, like many modern leftists, has found he likes Big Pharma after all, well at least one Big Pharma company: Pfizer. And he plans to get as many booster jabs as the crony company recommends. Trust the Science. Do not question Authority after all.
Relief: New ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ Film Isn’t Crap
The Washington Examiner called the original Ghostbusters “the most libertarian Hollywood blockbuster of all time,” and with good reason. So when the 2016 remake came out, a bland retread notable only for doing a gender switch on the main characters, it felt like a betrayal of the franchise. (About that sequel, National Review said “In retrospect, it feels like the one and only film of the Hillary Clinton era in American history: I am Woman, hear me . . . blame sexism for my collapse.”) But a casual reading of advance reviews for Ghostbusters: Afterlife suggests it’s a satisfying and nostalgic bridge back to the original, a sequel that works. It’s not the same story — nor should it be — so, it’s not another paean to entrepreneurial capitalism, but it just might be a fun ride. Current scores on Rotten Tomatoes have the audience rating (96%) well ahead of critics rating (61%), which is always a good sign.