Hispanic Fanatic

Just in time for Halloween, my publisher sent a box of my latest book. 

Here’s what the publishing house says:

The Amityville Horror (1979) was a box-office smash that terrified audiences with its supposedly true depiction of a real-life haunting in Amityville, New York. In the decades since its release, the film has gone on to be one of the most profitable independent films of all time, casting a shadow over the haunted house subgenre and spawning an unwieldy franchise of official and unofficial sequels. 

But in spite of the film’s success, it was lambasted by critics, and the “true story” that inspired it was already being debunked as exaggeration or even outright fiction before the film was even released. 

So what made audiences’ belief in its implausible origin story so stubborn? And why does The Amityville Horror continue to wield such an outsized influence on contemporary haunted house stories? 

In this lively analysis of the movie that traumatized him as a child, Daniel Cubias draws on wide-ranging research into the film’s themes, factual basis, and legacy to explain what continues to draw audiences to this flawed but nevertheless alluring horror classic.

Maybe I’m biased, but that sounds like a pretty cool read.

So go ahead and grab one before they sell out.

Thanks

It’s been more difficult than usual to keep track of all the outlandish conspiracy theories.

Was the shooter a groyper or a trans activist? Is antifa coming to burn your city down? Will taking Tylenol cause your head to explode?

You may have lost track of the myriad rumors that swirl into our minds every day, courtesy of our friend, the internet.

But do you remember this conspiracy theory from a couple of weeks ago?: Trump is near death, and the White House is covering it up.

Yes, it seems like the distant past when everyone was posting pictures of Trump’s hands and asserting body doubles were on the Oval Office and conjecturing like mad. It was so long ago that, back in those halcyon days, we still believed in the First Amendment.

I know — ancient history, right?

Well, the most obnoxious and unpopular person to ever lead a major nation is alive and kicking, thank you very much, and he showed off how non-dead he is by delivering the most unhinged, bizarre, and befuddling speech in the history of the United Nations.

I can assure you that this was no body double, my friends.

However, the rumors have led to the inevitable question about the inevitable end that all of us face. Someday, whether days or years from now, Trump will no longer be around.

Now, I’m not wishing harm upon our illustrious president.

Do you hear that, all you government goons and right-wing busybodies who are scouring the internet for any sign of dissent? I am not wishing harm upon the guy.

In fact, I’ve said many times that I hope old number 47 continues to thrive in great health. I want him to live to be 100, when he will be an ancient and withered symbol of the nation’s descent into insanity and a living refutation to all those people who deny they stood by or applauded while this country spiraled into fascism. Ideally, Trump will celebrate his centenarian birthday in prison, surrounded by his yes men and fellow failed authoritarians.

But I digress.

What happens when Trump exits this mortal coil?

I mean, besides dancing in the streets. That’s a given.

Well, whenever he dies, it will be a liberal plot.

He could keel over a decade from now while eating a cheeseburger, and right-wingers will claim lesbian folk singers poisoned him. The man could impale himself on a golf club in 2040, and conservatives will insist an immigrant college professor speared him.

From a media perspective, he will not go quietly.

His passing will be a landmark in US history. It may be greeted with a collective sigh of relief or a violent attack. It may usher a period of shame and reflection, or it could provoke mass executions.

We don’t really know. Nor do we know what will happen to his most zealous followers, who will have to face life without their domineering daddy figure.

Like all things Trump, I am wary of this development, as unavoidable as it is.

And like all things Trump, there is no way to prepare.

So the authorities have captured the person who allegedly shot that fascist guy last week.

And it turns out the shooter is a gay Latino Muslim immigrant who is chairman of his local antifa chapter.

Wait a second, let me check that. No, he is yet another socially isolated, angry, young white man who grew up in a household that fetishized guns and worshipped the Republican Party.

I know you didn’t see that one coming.

Even though the shooter is not the dark-skinned foreigner that conservatives were literally praying for, that hasn’t stopped them from vowing vengeance. 

Republicans are compiling lists of people who have not expressed the minimum amount of mourning for a bigot that the GOP deems adequate. This is because the Republican Party is against cancel culture and believes strongly in free speech. Yup.

Also, the Trump administration is threatening progressive organizations, because this murder has given them the excuse they have been dreaming about. The White House says unspecified groups face unclear consequences for undetermined crimes. I’m sure the Trumpists will be thoughtful and well-reasoned in their approach. After all, this is the team that just blows up ships in international waters for the hell of it.

And of course, right-wing militants — who need a reason to get violent as much as fire needs a reason to burn — are ready to attack. Even more than usual, these lunatics are prepping for full-on warfare. And as we know, even though conservatives deny it at every turn, right-wing violence is exponentially more common and catastrophic than left-wing violence.

In the midst of all this conservative sturm und drang, myriad conspiracy theories have popped up. Because they must. Seriously, if there has ever been more fertile ground for conspiratorial nonsense than 21-st century America, I would like to know.

The assassination is rumored to be the work of a dark cabal, or an inside job, or the work of a Satanic liberal cult, or simply enough, the Jews (who wind up as the villains in every conspiracy theory). Some internet nutjobs insist the shooting was fake, and that the fascist guy didn’t die at all. I’m surprised that nobody has insisted that it was an elaborate suicide — yet.

With all this mishmashing of fact and fiction, progressives find themselves in an odd place. For the first time in, well, maybe forever, misinformation is beneficial to liberals.

This is because the shooter does not fit the easy profile of an ethnic minority gone savage, or a crazed immigrant out for blood. Again, he’s a native-born white guy who was raised Republican. This background has led to conjecture that he fired that shot as the opening salvo in a right-wing civil war. We’re hearing about internecine conservative plots and online mutual trolling and groypers, which is a term that I resent I had to learn.

Again, those who hate liberals will not care what the facts are or the truth of what actually happened. But painting this murder as the work of unhinged liberals is already failing because of the shooter’s profile, the swirl of misinformation, and the absence of clear facts.

For the first time, liberals can say, “That’s not what I heard” and offer up their own crazy story that may or may not be accurate.

No, that is not good for society. But it may help to keep progressives alive.

By the way, we should note that the fascist guy rose to fame by demonizing immigrants and ethnic minorities. He devoted his career to spreading hatred of “the other” and convincing white people that they were under attack by swarthy foreigners speaking bizarre languages. Until his dying breath, quite literally, he insisted non-white people were violent and dangerous.

And then a white man shot him.

That’s proving your hypothesis wrong in the most tragically ironic way possible.

As of this writing, they still have not captured the person who murdered that fascist guy.

You may have noticed that I referred to the victim as a fascist because, well, that’s the truth. Getting assassinated does not convey sainthood.

This fact seems to have confused many Americans. We are being told to grieve for a man whose history of bigotry is undisputed. We are being ordered to show respect to a right-wing extremist who damaged many people’s lives and gloated about it. 

The media coverage refers to him as a conservative voice, as if he had the gravitas of a George Will rather than the calamitous impact of a smug racist whose views are straight out of the 1950s but with more animosity.

Listen, you can say he was wretched person without rejoicing in his death. You can denounce this killing, as all sane people should, without wallowing in crocodile tears.

The implication is that all Americans must refrain from badmouthing a man who despised everyone who was not a straight, white Christian male and who worked tirelessly to demean and dehumanize whole segments of American society. 

This demand for compassion is all the more jarring considering that much of it comes from conservatives, who have taken great delight in insisting that empathy is bad and kindness is for losers.

Yes, the modern conservative movement has nothing but contempt for empathy, unless they want it for themselves, in which case it must be given without delay or pause, and in huge heaping piles.

So what happens when all the eulogies from conservatives and weak-willed liberals fade away? Most  likely, there will be more political violence. It is obviously unavoidable at this point, and the fact that the Republican Party has amplified and intensified calls for political violence is something the GOP wants you to forget at the moment. But threats and bullying are the Republican brand now. The only surprise is that conservatives are shocked that their hyper-aggressive behavior and sociopathic mocking of victims has infected society. I mean, who could have called that?

Speaking of violence, it is indeed ironic that the victim in this case regarded gun deaths as no big deal because of, you know, freedom and stuff. Most likely, when he was rationalizing the deaths of thousands as necessary for the Second Amendment’s functioning, he was assuming that all that death would happen to someone else — probably some pagan immigrant who had it coming. Nobody who loves guns ever assumes that they will be the one who gets shot, the person who has to pay the price for this God-given right that is so essential that school kids have to wear bulletproof backpacks. Nope, it won’t them — until it is.

I also find it interesting that so many people assume that the killer had military training to make such a complicated shot. That’s certainly possible.

But it’s also possible that with millions of guns in the hands of millions of people, and with thousands of those gun owners spending lots of time at shooting ranges, at least one highly motivated lunatic would devote the effort to becoming an ace sniper.

Hell, there are probably hundreds of Americans who have never served in the military who could have fired that rifle. 

Does that make you feel safer?

It was a short week. And between fewer days to write and the ceaseless cavalcade of psychotic behavior flowing from the White House, I simply didn’t have the time or endurance to create a new post that catalogues the latest monstrosity plaguing our nation.

So instead, I have fallen back on an old favorite. Here again is a found poem constructed of real-life headers of IMDB critiques of the last ten movies I have watched. Enjoy.

Rotting flesh and worms replace the pumpkin carriage

Teeth claws and a moral message

The mothballs of memory

Loneliness in the void

Beautiful deep painful rage

A tantalizing theological tangle with a hollow core

Pure demonstration of a hardcore sociopath

That damn smiling monkey

It exists, then it doesn’t

Like my unfinished dream

Here are the movies (in poem order)

The Ugly Stepsister 

Jurassic Park

Blue Jay

Companion

Blink Twice

Heretic

Unknown caller

The Monkey

Bad Guys 2

Flow

Like many of you, I use generative AI for work and, occasionally, for abstract musings that serve to distract from the creeping, shuddering collapse of America that is happening right before our horrified eyes.

Hey, if you have a sudden urge to write a haiku about existential angst or want to draw, say, a distinctly split composition that portrays the last man on Earth surveying the aftermath of civilization in bold, contrasting areas that highlight the devastation and the figure’s isolation — but you don’t have the time, energy, or talent to create those things yourself, well, AI is the tool for you.

I recently asked AI to tackle a task that has been gnawing away at me for a while. I will now share my results with you. Here is the conversation between AI and me:

Prompt: Create a name for a new emotion that addresses our culture’s current climate of fear, ignorance, hatred, and paranoia. This new emotion is a negative one but applicable to millions of Americans.

ChatGPT response:

Emotion name: Dreadrage

Definition: Dreadrage (noun) — a corrosive emotional state blending chronic fear, ignorant certainty, hatred of the “other,” and simmering paranoia. It’s the feeling of being constantly under threat—real or imagined—combined with the belief that someone or something must be to blame. It manifests as a reactive, defensive mindset that feeds on misinformation, tribalism, and cultural division.

Why dreadrage fits:

“Dread” captures the looming, existential anxiety many people feel—about the future, society, or perceived enemies.

“Rage” reflects how that anxiety often twists into anger or hatred, especially when fueled by divisive narratives or echo chambers.

The word feels heavy and raw—matching the emotion itself.

Contextual use:

“You can feel the dreadrage in the room—everyone’s on edge, suspicious, and just waiting for something to go wrong.”

“He’s not even angry about something specific anymore. It’s just dreadrage—constant, directionless hostility.”

OK, I have to admit that dreadrage is a pretty cool word. Yes, it sounds metal as hell, but beyond the aesthetics, it encapsulates the emotions that have consumed and pummeled many of us for all of 2025.

So will “dreadrage” become the new catchphrase for this time of unfathomable chaos? Here’s hoping. If you catch me dropping this term oh so casually into conversation, know that it is intentional.

This is the word of the year and for our age, and we have AI to thank for it.

Of course, the rapid, sometimes disconcerting rise of AI is one of the root stresses that plagues our every waking moment, so it’s only fitting that ChatGPT helps us out here.

Welcome the era of dreadrage.

Quick quiz: Who is the most dangerous man in America?

You thought I would say Trump, right?

While I wouldn’t argue with anyone who sees our mad emperor as the biggest threat to our country, our planet, and possibly life on Earth, my nominee for the man most likely to kill us all is that rapscallion of the Kennedy clan, Mr. RFK Jr.

You see, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services is trying to end vaccines, weakening public health infrastructure, firing health experts who actually know what they’re talking about, cancelling scientific research that could save millions, and spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories that will eventually lead to Americans chugging vitamins and gurgling bleach instead of getting vaccinated. I wouldn’t be surprised if he outlawed chemotherapy for cancer patients in favor of dousing them in essential oils. 

Kennedy’s idiotic whims and hostility to science will straight-up kill people. But he is symptomatic of two of the Trump administration’s chief characteristics. 

The first is aggression toward expertise, logic, facts, or data. The monumental hubris of conservatives comes out as attacks on those fancy-pants eggheads who study things and learn things and base their conclusions on anything other than the Bible, Trump, or own made-up theories that a 10-year-old could disprove with two minutes of Google searching.

In particular, the Republican hatred of science is well-established. This is part of the larger trend of anti-science mysticismenabling autocracy around the world. Millions of supposedly rational conservatives would rather believe a babbling conman with a messiah complex over decades of scientific research. This ignorance and anger will soon cause the American scientific and technological empire to collapse.

The second “theme that unites Trump’s inept handling of deportations, his trampling on human and civil rights, his rejection of the rule of law, his dictatorial centralization of power, and his utterly inept handling of the economy is the ineptness itself.”

The problem is that Trump “has the attention span of a fruit fly,” which is “causing chaos across the federal government, as rival sycophants compete for his limited attention.”

The result is that no one is in charge, and the Trump administration is “coming apart, [and] incompetence is everywhere.” The administration can’t keep military secrets, maintain financial stability, or protect children from measles. In essence, Trump “cannot protect America.”

But hey, at least red dye is banned. So as our economy nosedives and masked fascists rampage through the streets and we die of preventable diseases, we can take great comfort in that.

Here’s a little factoid that Americans never remember: the highest murder rate in U.S. history was in 1980. And for most of Ronald Reagan’s first term, the homicide rate was astronomical. That’s right — more Americans were murdered during the sainted Republican’s reign than at any other time in recorded history.

Many of those deaths were among inner-city blacks and Latinos. As such, the Reagan administration didn’t give half a fuck, which is why so many people at the time (and to this day) thought that the 1980s were a carefree and innocent era.

In actuality, that decade sucked.

Back in the 1980s, no president was going to deploy the military to prevent the homicide of ethnic minorities. But in our current state of perpetual hysteria and autocratic desire, one white guy getting mugged is justification to call in the National Guard.

This histrionic and dictatorial maneuver is part fever dream of the right wing, part attack on Democratic-led cities, and part distraction from the Epstein files.

In no way does it actually help any Americans.

By now, we were all supposed to be living in the Golden Age of Trumpian prosperity. Instead, recession warning signs are flashing, and Americans are losing their health care. The grim forecasts on the economy can only be forestalled by killing the messenger, and swing voters who based their decision on the price of eggs are wondering if maybe, just maybe, they fucked up. 

Even conservatives are acknowledging that blue-collar people are getting screwed over more than ever, and red-state Trump fans are losing their jobs at a furious rate.

But don’t worry, billionaires are making more money than seemed possible, jackbooted thugs are terrorizing ethnic minorities, and neofascist whites-only communities are springing up with increasing frequency.

So for oligarchs, bigots, and lovers of chaos, this truly is the Golden Age.

Politicians have long employed vivid metaphors to explain how they envision America’s future. Maybe it’s a New Deal or a Great Society or a shining city on a hill.

But according to our friends in the Republican Party, our country’s future can be summed up in the phrase “serf city.”

You see, conservatives see Hungary as the model for America. This is because they love its leader, Viktor Orbán, “a small-time autocrat who has impoverished his country… while enriching his family and friends.” In turn, Orbán and other autocrats love “Americans who have broken the law, gone to jail, stolen from their own charities, or harassed women.” 

Hungary is now the poorest nation in the European Union, and the government oppresses the shit out of anyone who isn’t a straight Christian (so you see the appeal to Republicans).

It’s a bizarre role model for the world’s most powerful country to emulate. But that’s the direction in which we are headed, because the current occupant of the White House “has grown more impulsive, more vindictive, and more anarchic” while pursuing his “witless, incoherent, and incompetently executed policies.” The truth is that “if the behavior that this administration has exhibited in just its first six months continues and is amplified for its full four years, the America you know will be gone.”

We will be Hungary, just larger and with fatter people.

What can we do about this slide into oligarchal incompetence? Apparently, not much.

As our befuddled, furious, demented president “takes a sledgehammer to the rule of law, intimidates and bullies those who stand in his way, hacks away at press freedoms, guts government agencies, and continues to demonize those whom he sees as ‘woke,’ who will dare to stand in his way?”

His hardcore supporters will love him no matter what. This is because devoted right-wingers are often “abused people who identify with power so they’ll never be hurt again.” Their approach to a wannabe strongman is “Big Daddy will protect me so that I’ll never be hurt again, like I was hurt by my real daddy.” Such zealous Trumpers “attack vulnerable people because they hate their own vulnerability.”

So don’t count on angry people who have voted for Trump three times to reign in a guy who is “going to war against America” itself.

We are suffering through a rapidly escalating series of “moments where malignant normality… somehow keeps getting worse as the country collapses into autocracy and authoritarianism.”

America is in a horrific situation where if Trump fails, “then we all do.” But if he’s successful, “our republic fails. That’s the historic situation we find ourselves in.”

Damn. 

I hope you like Hungarian goulash.

On more than one occasion, I have had the following thought: “Is this whole damn country on drugs?”

It turns out that the answer may be yes.

About 17 % of Americans aged 12 or older — or roughly 49 million people — are addicted to illegal drugs or alcohol. In addition, about 16% of Americans are on some form of psychiatric medication for depression, anxiety, or the like.

That’s a whole lotta pill popping, snorting, smoking, injecting, or licking.

We all know about the personal, societal, and cultural consequences of drug addiction. As if those weren’t bad enough, we also have the political ramifications to consider.

Because oh yes, there is a political side to America’s drug problem.

You see, research suggests that “the Democrats’ struggles in communities battling fentanyl addiction had little to do with economic theory or messaging.” It was more likely that in these ravaged slices of the country, the opioid epidemic was “easily exploited by politicians interested in racial demonization” and that rural Americans, in particular, were quick to “blame the Democrats.”

One could argue that “the opioid crisis is underrated as an explanation for Americans’ dwindling faith in institutions.” The epidemic shattered the country’s belief in “the greatest health care system in the world” (it’s not, by the way) and exposed the government’s flailing inability to safeguard its citizens. It also revealed that doctors, big business, and obscenely wealthy families conspired to benefit from “greed-driven failures,” which in turn “led to a national tragedy that has only been compounded by the failure to properly address the scourge.”

Lots of well-educated, supposedly respectable people raked in grotesque amounts of cash from the suffering and death of hundreds of thousands of their countryman.

Does that make you proud to be an American?

By the way, if it is not drug addiction that is making America more right-wing, it is the sharp decline in literacy. It seems that American adults are reading fewer books on average than in any year on record, and that “the digital age’s modes of thought and discourse increasingly resemble those of pre-literate oral cultures.” 

This means that as “reading declines, the electorate’s commitment to pluralism, objectivity, universalism, individual rights, and the rule of law is swiftly receding.” People who don’t read are more likely to be vulnerable to “demagoguery, where falsely raised hopes and falsely raised fears trump reason and the capacity for reflective thinking recedes, along with its influence on rational, empathic decision making.”

If these theories are correct, it means that the opinions of drug-addled illiterates are more prevalent and powerful than yours. 

And America will continue to decline until more of us put down the pipe and pick up a book.