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Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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Bubba Ho-Tep
14 min read
Linked in the article (8 min read)
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The Lone Gunmen
12 min read
The article specifically discusses this X-Files spinoff and its eerie pilot episode featuring a plane attack on the World Trade Center that aired before 9/11. Readers would find the full history of this short-lived series and its cultural significance fascinating.
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Harry S. Truman
21 min read
Kendzior quotes Truman's famous 'I just told the truth and they thought it was hell' line and notes he was a fellow Missourian. The full context of Truman's presidency—his decision to use atomic weapons, his plain-speaking political style, and his unexpected rise to power—provides rich historical context for her discussion of truth-telling in politics.
Thank you, subscribers, for your thoughtful questions! I answered most and addressed the main points of the rest. I also answered a few on the question page itself.
I am grateful for new paying subscribers since some folks had to stop paying due to the economy. I understand that: it’s why I refuse to paywall. But if you can afford to become a paying subscriber, please consider it. It keeps articles open to all and feeds my family of four! You also get the perk of submitting a question for the next Q & A:
Steve: I’ve read all of your books and essays. When I pass along some of your essays or when I had our book club read Hiding in Plain Sight, many people say you’re too depressing for them. How do you respond to this?
SK: Fellow Missourian Harry Truman, when accused of giving people hell, said: “I never gave anyone hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.” The same applies to me. Only I never nuked a civilian population.
Our global plight is objectively depressing. But the most depressing thing of all is dishonesty. A problem must be acknowledged in order to be solved. I write because I believe that things can change for the better. The more we know, the greater our ability to create a just world. If truth didn’t matter, elites wouldn’t try so hard to suppress it. So I’ll keep telling the truth, hard as it is to hear, and hard as it is to write.
Kas: I just started rewatching The X-Files (having not watched since it originally aired) and I’m finding the show so comforting. I think because of the 90s throwback vibe and its basic premise that the government is always lying to you. I’m wondering if you have thoughts on The X-Files, especially since you wrote beautifully about Twin Peaks ---which I assume has some similar motifs.
SK: I was and remain a big X-Files fan! It debuted when I was 15 and was a formative influence. I wrote about it in my book They Knew, along with its spinoff, The Lone Gunmen, that negated the “no one could have imagined 9/11” canard by having the World Trade Center nearly attacked by a plane in the first episode. I also wrote about it in The Last American Road ...
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