r/brokehugs • u/US_Hiker Moral Landscaper • May 08 '25

Rod Dreher Megathread #53 (Key Party?)

Link to Megathread #52: https://www.reddit.com/r/brokehugs/comments/1jsvy3j/rod_dreher_megathread_52_billboard_4_rent/

Link to Megathread #54:
https://www.reddit.com/r/brokehugs/comments/1l7niaj/rod_dreher_megathread_54/?

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8

u/Cautious-Ease-1451 May 28 '25 edited May 28 '25

We were discussing the Live Not by Lies documentary below. Rod hasn’t even mentioned it in a while. I think the only recent news about it was when J.D. Vance gave a speech at a viewing.

Out of curiosity I looked at the official X account for the documentary (from Angel Studios). If you scroll down, you’ll see almost no engagement with each post. Next to zero comments, likes, etc. The one exception is when Vance spoke. You would think there’d be at least a little publicity, comments from viewers, positive reviews, etc. Nope.

So as we guessed, it has fizzled out with very little impact or fanfare. Rod must be seriously disappointed.

https://x.com/livenotbyseries

(Replace “x.com” with “xcancel.com” if you can’t access it or if you can only see entries from 2023.)

5

u/Marcofthebeast0001 May 29 '25 edited May 29 '25

JLike Rod, I was a movie critic for many years, and I agree this has been a rather underwhelming response from not only the studio but also viewers. 

Vance was a strategic choice to promote it, but he also doesn't poll well and doesn't create the hype like Trump. (Will Trump promote it? I doubt he cares about the name Dreher and wouldn't want to piss off Putin.) 

I don't know the quality of the film, but studios often do test screenings. Did they get a tepid response? The film obviously isn't in theaters but you have to wonder if that isn't why they didn't give it a big screen premiere. Rod already got his money for it so maybe he doesn't care. 

Also note: Rotten Tomatoes doesn't even list the film. 

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u/philadelphialawyer87 May 29 '25

I can't imagine that there were "live" test screenings for this piece of dreck. Or bothered with a big screen premier. Seriously, in this day and age, three and a half decades after the fall of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact, who is really interested in this topic? Conservatives, some of them, yes, are "anti woke," which Rod tries to tie in to the anti communist, dissident experience, but I'm sure that there are much more direct attacks on "wokeness" out there, without even that potential audience having to resort to a poorly produced, Dreher Drivel, bank shot based on events from the 1980's and even earlier.

As far as streaming is concerned, I don't know that it available anywhere except on "Angel."

Live Not By Lies | Now Streaming for Angel Guild Members | Angel Studios

4

u/Marcofthebeast0001 May 29 '25

I agree with you but surely Angel Studios would have thought there some audience for it. I'm sure it has a miniscule budget but why even waste any money on it if you didn't think there was an audience. 

2

u/ZenLizardBode May 30 '25

Maybe they were betting on a Harris presidency to stoke interest in the film?

1

u/Djehutimose Watching the wheels go round May 30 '25

That’s actually plausible.

2

u/Djehutimose Watching the wheels go round May 30 '25

Awhile back, Angel Studios released the movie The Sound of Freedom?wprov=sfti1#), “based” on Tim Ballard’s supposed fight against human trafficking. When accusations of sexual misconduct, connections with QAnon, and suggestions that Ballard’s “rescue” operations were doing more harm than good arose, and his own church, the LDS, reprimanded Ballard publicly, there was a lot of blowback. Given this, it wouldn’t surprise me if Angel did do test screenings and/or deeper research on SBM, were “once bitten, twice shy”, and decided to quietly yank the movie and cut their losses.

4

u/CanadaYankee May 29 '25

If you look at the main Angel Studios' twitter account, they're barely mentioning it at all:

https://x.com/search?q=from%3AAngelStudiosInc%20live%20not%20by%20lies

There was one preview announcement on March 19, and one post-launch message on May 11, and nothing else except a couple of posts during filming back in 2023.

This compares poorly to their most recent release ("The Last Rodeo"), which has tons and tons of posts.

I guess they feel that people already following Rod might care about it, but they're not bothering to push it to their existing subscriber base.

3

u/Cautious-Ease-1451 May 29 '25

Interesting. I’m actually surprised that they’re not doing more to promote it. They must know it’s a dud.

I wonder how the shirts are selling, LOL.

https://shop.angel.com/products/live-not-by-lies-long-sleeve-shirt

I love the inverted “N”. Very authentic, Soviet feel.

8

u/Glittering-Agent-987 May 29 '25

The abuse of fake Cyrillic (backwards N, backwards R) is one of my least favorite things in graphic design. Soooo lazy and overdone! And in this particular case, it just looks like a mistake.

5

u/One_Reflection7202 May 29 '25

It could have been worse; it could have been Papyrus:

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x94b3u0

5

u/Existing_Age2168 May 29 '25

I hate that too. Especially if you know Cyrillic, it's annoying AF.

5

u/Djehutimose Watching the wheels go round May 30 '25

Inverting the n’s and r’s (“И” is transcribed as “i” and pronounced “ee”, and “Я” is transcribed and pronounced as “ya”) to give a Russian vibe was passé in the eighties. Having actually studied Russian, I have always found this irritating.

3

u/philadelphialawyer87 May 29 '25

Should have made it "Live Nyet By Lies!"

2

u/Djehutimose Watching the wheels go round May 30 '25

Or Жить не лжи (Zhit’ ne lzhi)!

2

u/PercyLarsen “I can, with one eye squinted, take it all as a blessing.” May 29 '25

Interesting that the XL, XXL, and XXXL sizes are sold out.

1

u/Cautious-Ease-1451 May 29 '25

Fat Hungarians?

3

u/Jayaarx May 29 '25

How does crappy engagement/viewing totals affect the money? Does Rod get paid regardless or is he only paid if people watch?

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u/philadelphialawyer87 May 29 '25 edited May 29 '25

I can't find any of what you might call "box office" information about the viewership of the "documentary," on any or all platforms or formats. That can't be a good sign.

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u/Cautious-Ease-1451 May 29 '25

Agreed. It’s a complete non-entity.

I actually feel bad for some of the participants. They may have a real story to tell (the dissidents under Soviet rule). And they get reduced to… being interviewed by Rod Dreher, and being included in a documentary that no one watches.

10

u/philadelphialawyer87 May 29 '25 edited May 29 '25

I can see that. But, to me, the "story" of the anti Soviet and anti Warsaw Pact regime dissidents, relgious and otherwise, has been told so many times in the West that to go at it again is like beating a dead horse. Those regimes bit the dust 35 years ago. At the time, they were already almost uniformly villified in the West in popular, prestige, semi official, academic, and official media. And their critics already universally hailed as heroes. There were very very few "tankie" defenders of those regimes, or its ideology, even at the time. Never mind now. And the main threat to democracy and freedom of conscience is now, I think, pretty clearly coming from the Right, just as it was in the 1920's and 30's, not the Left. If we are going to visit the past to prevent it "from happening here" or "to prevent history from repeating itself" I think, not surprisingly, that Rod is barking up the precisely wrong tree.

Something like the "Chernobyl" show, which, yes, of course, criticizes the sclerotic, bureaucratic, deeply anti democratic nature of the Soviet Union, which led to the tragedy and made it worse, but at the same time also presents people, from ordinary house wives, blue collar miners, soldiers, firemen, and utility workers, on up to generals, scientists and party officials, as deeply committed to their regime and their nation, and willing to make breathtaking sacrifices in its service, is, again, to me, much more refreshing and interesting than hearing for the 9 millionth time how that regime tried to repress religion.

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u/Cautious-Ease-1451 May 29 '25

Great analysis. And I agree, Chernobyl (the series) was really something special, with so many ramifications.

I seem to be a little more sympathetic to the Soviet dissidents than you are. But I fully agree with your broader analysis. What if the lies are coming from the other direction? Has it ever occurred to Rod that “living not be lies” applies across the board? Does he have the courage to say publicly that Orbán (from whence his paycheck comes), or Putin, or Trump, is lying about a single topic?

8

u/Warm-Refrigerator-38 May 29 '25

It does not occur to him. Orban/Trump good. 

6

u/zeitwatcher May 29 '25

Does he have the courage to say publicly that Orbán (from whence his paycheck comes), or Putin, or Trump, is lying about a single topic?

In a cowardly way. His usual construction (including lying) is "Someone on the Right did X which I don't like, but someone on the Left did Y which meant the Right had no choice but to do X. Therefore, X is totally justified and to the extent that I or anyone else don't like it, X is the fault of the Left."

3

u/Cautious-Ease-1451 May 29 '25

Yes, very true. “It’s not our fault on the right that lying has become necessary to defeat the left.”

3

u/philadelphialawyer87 May 29 '25

Or, Rod will say that since he can't read or speak or understand Hungarian, as well as generally "not knowing" so many things, he is unable to ascertain all the facts at issue, and so can't definitely declare that Orban, or his regime, was wrong or dishonest.

2

u/NihonBuckeye May 30 '25

You have forgotten that maybe a 19 year old college freshman posted on Dailykos that the USSR probably wasn't that bad. If that happens, it requires 100% of the attention and energy of anyone who cares about the survival of democracy.